Commentary on Isaiah Volume 1 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
And Lebanon shall be turned into Carmel. 546 Under the names "Lebanon" and "Carmel" he intended to express a renovation of the world and a change of affairs. But as to the object of the allusion, commentators differ widely from each other. As Mount "Lebanon" was clothed with trees and forests, and "Carmel" had fruitful and fertile fields. Many think that the Jews are compared to "Carmel," because they will be barren, and Christians to "Lebanon," because they will yield a great abundance of fruits. That opinion is certainly plausible, as men are usually gratified by everything that is ingenious; but a parallel passage, which we shall afterwards see, (Isaiah 32:15), will shew that the Prophet here employs the comparison for the purpose of magnifying the grace of God; for, when he shall again begin to bless his people, the vast abundance of all blessings will take away from "Carmel" the celebrity which it possessed. He therefore threatens that he will turn "Lebanon" into "Carmel," that is, a forest will become a cultivated field, and will produce corn, and the cultivated fields shall yield so great an abundance of fruits that, if their present and future conditions be compared, they may now be pronounced to be unfruitful and barren. This mode of expression will be more fully explained when we come to consider Isaiah 32:15 Others view "Carmel" as an appellative, but I prefer to regard it as a proper name; for it means that those fruitful fields may now be reckoned uncultivated and barren, in comparison of the new and unwonted fertility. Others explain it allegorically, and take "Lebanon" as denoting proud men, and "Carmel" as denoting mean and ordinary persons. This may be thought to be acute and ingenious, but I choose rather to follow that more simple interpretation which I have already stated. That the godly may not be discouraged, he passes from threatenings to proclaim grace, and declares that when, by enduring for a little the cross laid on them, they shall have given evidence of the obedience of their faith, a sudden renovation is at hand to fill them with joy. And yet, by shutting out the ungodly from this hope, he intimates that, when they are at ease, and promise to themselves peace or a truce, destruction is very near at hand; for, "when they shall say, Peace and Safety," as Paul tells us, "then sudden destruction will overtake them." (1 Thessalonians 5:3.)
18. And in that day shall the deaf hear. He promises that the Church of God, as we have said, shall still be preserved amidst those calamities. Though the world be shaken by innumerable tempests, and tossed up and
546This rendering is followed by Lowth and Stock. "Ere Lebanon beams like Carmel. A mashal, or proverbial saying, expressing any great revolution of things, and, when respecting two subjects, an entire reciprocal change." — Lowth. "And Lebanon shall be turned into a Carmel. That which is now desert shall become a fruitful field, and the reverse. Or, to quit the figure, the poor and illiterate shall change conditions with the great ones and the wise of this world, with respect to happiness, when the gospel shall be promulgated." — Stock. Jarchi, on the other hand, views "Carmel" as meaning "a fruitful field," and Alexander regards this point as decided by the use of the article. "That( הכרמלhăkkărmĕl) is not the proper name of the mountain, may be inferred from the article, which is not prefixed to `Lebanon.' '' ``The mention of the latter,'' he adds, ``no doubt suggested that of the ambiguous term Carmel, which is both a proper name and an appellative.'' --- Ed