Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
The Judfjinents of God on the Land, ISAIAH XXIV, XXV. which shall Advance His Kinydom.
bishopric, but the full evangelization of that whole race, as of the Etliiopians (ch. IS.), of the Egyptians and As6yrians (ciu 19.), is yet to come (ch. 60. 5). not treasured but fioely expended in His service, tliemtliat dwell before the Xiord—tlie ministers of religion. But Horsley translates "tlieni tliat sit before Jehovah" as disciples, durable clotlilng—Clianges of raiment constituted much of the wealth of former days.
rer.] Wheresoever ye be scattered, east or west, still glorify the Lord (Malachi 1. H). 16. Songs to God come in together to Palestine from distant lands, as a grand chorus, glory to the righteous—the burden of the songs (ch. 26. 2,7). Amidst exile, the loss of their temple, and all that is dear to man, their confidence in God is unshaken. These songs recall the joy of other times, and draw from Jerusalem in her present calamities, the cry, " My leanness." Horsley translates, "glory to the Just One:" then My leanness expresses his sense of man's corruption, which led the Jews, "the treacherous dealers" (Jeremiah
CHAPTEE XXIV. The Last Times of tme Wokld in Genekal, and of JUDAH and the CHUKCH IN PARTICULAR. The foUr chaps. ^.-27. form one continuous poetical prophecy: descriptive of the dispersion and successive calamities of the Jews (ch. 24. 1-12); the preaching of the gospel by the first Hebrew converts throughout the world (v. 13-16); the judgments on tlie adversaries of the Church and its final triumph {v. 16-23); thanksgiving for the overthrow of the apostate faction (ch. 25.), and establishment of the righteous in lasting peace (ch.26.); judgment on leviathan and entire purgation of the Church (ch. 27). Having treated of the several natiort in pai-iicular—Bsxbylon, Phil-
5. 11), to crucify the Just One ; and his deficiency of righteousness which made hiin need to be clothed with the righteousness of tlie Just One (Psalm 106. 15). treacherous dealers—the foreign nations that oppress Jerusalem, and overcome it by stratagem (so in ch. 21. 2). [Barnes.] 17. This verse explains the wretchedness spoken of in v.
16. Jeremiah (48. 43, 41) uses the same words. They are proverbial ; v. 18 expressing that the inliabitants were nowhere sale ; if thejescaped one danger, they fell into another, and worse,on the opposite side(Amos 5. 10). "Fear" is the term applied to the cords with featliers of all colours which, when fluttered in tlie air, scare beasts into the pitfall, or birds into tlie snare. Horsley makes the connection. Indignant at the treatment which the Just One received, tlie prophet threatens the guilty land with instant vengeance. 18. noise of . . . fenr—the shout designed to rouse the game and drive it into the pitfall, windows
Istia, Moab, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Edom, and Tyre (the miniature representative of all, as all kingdoms flocked Into it)—he passes to the last times of the world at large and of Judah the representative and future head of the churches.
Ver. 1-23. 1. tlie eaj-tli—rather, the land of Judah (so In f . 3, 5, 6 ; Joel 1. 2). The desolation under Nebuchadnezzar prefigured (hat under Titus. 3. as with . . . people, so wltlk tite priest—All alike shall share the same calamity: no favoured class shall escape (cf. Ezekiel 7. 12, 13; flosea l. 9; Revelation G. 15). 4. world—the kingdom of Israel; as in ch. 13. 11, Babylon, haughty lit., the height of the people: abstract for concrete, i. e.. Vie high people; even the nobles share the general distress. 5. earthrather, the land, defiled under . . . inhabitants— viz., witli innocent blood (Genesis 4. 11; Numbers 35. 33; Psalm. . . open—taken from the account of the deluge (Genesis
7. 11) ; t!ie flood-gates. So the final judgments of fire on the apostate world are compared to the deluge (2 Peter 3. 5-7). 19. earth—the land: image from an eartliquake. 20. removed like a. cottage-(AToe, ch. 1. 8.) Here, a hanging couch, suspended from the ti-ees by cords, such as Niebuhr describes the Arab keepers of lands as having, to enable them to keep watch, and at the same time to be secure from wild beasts. Translate, "Shall wave to and fro like a hammock" swung about by the wind, heavy ujion it like an overwhelming burden, not rise again — not meaning, tliat it never would rise (v. 23), but in tliose convulsions it would not rise, it would surely fall. ai. host of . . . high ones—the heavenly host, i. e., either the visible host of heaven (the present economy of nature, affected by the sun, moon, and stars, the objects of idolatry, being abolished, ch.65. 17; 60.19, simultaneously with the corrupt polity of men); or rather, the invisible rulers of the darkness of this world, as the antithesis to "kings of the earth" shows. Angels, moreover, preside, as it were, over kingdoms of the world (Daniel 10. 13, 20, 21). 23. In the pit —ra,t\\er,/orthepit. [Horsley.] " In dungeon." [Maurer.] Image from captives thrust together into a dungeon, prison—i. e., as in a prison. This sheds light on the disputed passage, 1 Peter 3. 19, where also the prison is
106. 38). laws . . . ordinance . . . everlasting covenant —The moral laws, positive statutes, and national covenant deuigned to t)e tor ever between God and them. 6. earth —the land, burned viz., with the consuming wrath of heaven: either internally, as Job 30. 30 [Rosenmuller] ; or externally, the prophet has before his eyes the people being consumed with the withering dryness of their doorned land (so Joel 1. 10, 12). [Maurbr.] 7. mourneth —because there are none to drink it. [Barnes.] Rather, is become vapid. [Horsley.] languisheth—because there are none to cultivate it now. 8. (Revelation 18. 22.) 9. with a song—the usual accompaniment of feasts, strong drink—fi Vode, ch. 5. 11.) " Date wine" [Horsley]. bitter —in consequence of the national calamities. 10. city of confusion— ratiier, desolation. What Jerusalem would be; by anticipation It is called so. Horsley translates, "The city is broken down; it Is a ruin." shvit up througli fear; or rather, choked up by ruins. H. crying for wine—to drown their sorrows in drink (ch. 16.9); Joel 1. 5, written aljout the same time, resembles this. 12. Avith destruction rather, crash. [Gesenius.] "With a great tumult the gate is battered down." [Horsley.] 13. the laud—Judea. Put the comma after "land," not after "people." "There shall be among the people (a remnant left), as the shaking (the after-picking) of an olive tree:" as in gathering olives, a few remain on the highest l)OUghs (ch. 17. 5, 6). H. They—Those who are flg. The "shutting up" of the Jews in Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar, and again under Titus, was to be followed by a TOi-ito^/on. of mercy "after many days"—seventy years in the case of the former—the time is not yet elapsed in the caseof the latter. Horsley takes " visited" in a bad sense, viz., in ivrath, as in ch. 26. 14; cf. ch. 29. 6; the punishment being the heavier in the factof the delay. Probably a double visitation is intended, deliverance to the elect, wrath to hardened unbelievers; as v. 23 plainly contemplates judgments on proud sinners, symbolized by the "sun" and "moon." 33. (Jeremiah 3. 17.) Still future: of wliich Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem amidst hosannas was a pledge, his ancients—the elders of His people; or in general. His ancient people, the Jews. After the overthrow of the world-kingdoms, Jehovah's shall be set up with a splendour exceeding the light of the sun and moon under the previous order of things (ch. 60. 19, 20).
left: tlie remnant, sing for the majesty of the Lord sing a thanksgiving for the goodness of tlie Lord, who has so mercifully preserved them, from the sea—from the distant lands beyond the sea, whither they have escaped, in the fires—ViTRiNGA translates, " in the eaves." Could it mean the fires of affliction (1 Peter 1.7)? They were exiles at the time. The fires on'.y loose the carnal bonds off tlie soul, without injuring a hair, as in the case of Sbadrach, Mesliach, and Abed-nego. Lowth reads, in tiie islands (E/.ckiel 26. 18). Ratlier translate for "fires," "in the regions of morning light," i. e., the east, in
CHAPTER XXV.
Ver. 1-12. Continuation or Chap. 24. Thanksoivino FOR THE Overthrow of the Apostate Faction, and the Settino Up of Jehovah's Throne on Zion. The restoration from Babylon and re-establishment of the theocracy was a type and pledge of this. 1. wonderAU 457 antithesis) to the "is Jes of the sea," i. e., tlie west. [Mau-