Commentary on Isaiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
any homage, we ought to shew it by embracing his word, as it is contained in the writings of the prophets and evangelists. This ought to be carefully observed in commendation of the word; for they who set it aside act as if they denied that he is God.
Cause the Holy One of Israel to depart. Here he again points out the cause of so great wickedness, which doubles their guilt; namely, that God does not spare or flatter their vices, but acts the part of a good and skillful physician. Men desire to be flattered, and cannot patiently endure that God should threaten them. Hence it comes that men hate and reject the word. Hence proceeds the furious attack on the prophets, whose reproofs and threatenings they cannot endure; for there is no reason why men should revolt from the government of God, but because they take delight in what is wrong and crooked, and abhor the right way. Appropriately, therefore, does the Prophet join these two things, dislike of heavenly doctrine and hatred of uprightness.
12. Because you have disdained this word. He next declares the punishment of ungodliness, threatening that they shall not pass unpunished for refusing to hear God speaking; and he expresses their contempt more strongly by the word "disdain." He calls it "this word," making use of the demonstrative; for men would willingly contrive some word adapted to their manner of life, but refuse to listen to God when he speaks.
And trusted in violence and wickedness. God's gentle invitation, and his exhortation to quiet rest, are here contrasted with their disorderly pursuits. The Hebrew word( עשקgnōshĕk) denotes "robbery," and "seizing property which belongs to another." Others render it "ill-gotten wealth." Those who render it "calumny," do not sufficiently express the Prophet's meaning. For my own part, I do not view it as referring to riches gained by unlawful methods, but rather to that rebelliousness in which that nation insolently indulged.
The word "wickedness," 559 which is added, ought not to be limited to decisions of courts of law; for, in my opinion, it has a more extensive signification; and by these two words he intended to express the presumption of wicked men, by which they fiercely and wantonly rose up against God, because they always dared to follow their own lawless desires, and to do what was forbidden. And as the poets feign that the giants made war with God, 560 so those men resisted God's threatenings, and thought that they would speedily overcome his power by their fierceness and presumption.
13. Therefore shall your iniquity be like a breach falling. This is a threatening of punishment, and Isaiah expresses it by a very appropriate metaphor. He compares wicked men to a wall that is rent, or that bulges out. As the "swelling out" of a wall threatens the ruin of it, because it cannot stand
559( נלוזnālōz) seems to denote perverseness or moral obliquity in general. It is rendered in a strong idiomatic form by Hitzig,
(verschmitztheit, craftiness,) and Ewald, (querwege, crossway.) --- Alexander. Luther's term, (muthwillen, wantonness,) conveys the same general idea. --- Ed
560See Commentary on John's Gospel, vol. 1 p. 223 note 1.