Commentary on Isaiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
by God to be his children, with good reason ought they to have obeyed so kind a Father; but since they had shaken off the yoke and given themselves up to wickedness, it was the just reward of their ingratitude, that the land should be possessed by better inhabitants, taken not from the human race but from brute beasts.
And shall browse on its tops. 474 What he says about the "tops" tends to shew more strongly the desolation; as if he had said that there will be such abundance of grass that the calves will crop none but the tender parts.
( סעףsāīph) signifies also branch; but as branches naturally rise high, I take it here for summit or top. It might also be thought that there is an allusion to the beauty of the city, and that as its houses formerly were lofty and magnificent, when these have been thrown down, nothing will be seen in it but herbs and leaves, the "tops" of which the calves which enjoy abundant pasture will eat in disdain.
11. When its harvest shall wither. 475 Some think that the Prophet has in his eye the metaphor of a vineyard, which he employed at the beginning of the chapter, and therefore they translate( קצירkātzīr,) branches. The word is certainly ambiguous; but as( קצירkātzīr) means also a harvest, and as the metaphor of a harvest is more appropriate, I prefer to take it in that sense. Nor do I translate it, "When the harvest shall be withered," but "When the harvest shall wither." In this passage wither means nothing else than to approach to maturity. Before the harvest of the land is ripe, it shall be cut down; as if he had said, "The Lord will take away from thee the produce which thou thoughest to be already prepared for thee and to be in thy hand."
The women coming shall burn it. When he says that "women shall come," he means that God will have no need of robust soldiers to execute his judgment, and that he will only make use of the agency of women. This exhibits in a still stronger light the disgracefulness of the punishment, for he threatens that the calamity shall also be accompanied by disgrace; because it is more shameful and humiliating to be plundered by "women," who are unused to war, than by men.
For it is a people of no understanding. At length he assigns the reason of so heavy a calamity. At first sight it might appear to be excessively harsh that the Lord should permit the people whom he had chosen to be wretchedly tormented and scattered, and not to render them any assistance; for it is inconsistent with his kindness and fatherly love which he bears towards them. But the Prophet shews that God had good reason for punishing the Jews with such severity; for they were destitute of knowledge and sound "understanding."
Nor is it without reason that he pronounces ignorance to have been the source of all evils; for since "the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom," (Proverbs 1:7; Psalm 111:10,) they who despise God and obey the wicked
474"And consume the branches thereof." — Eng. Ver. 475"When the boughs thereof are withered." — Eng. Ver.