Commentary on Isaiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
which are often hasty and unseasonable. He will undoubtedly assist us when the proper time arrives, so that we shall know that he had in view our salvation.
20. When the Lord shall have given you. He continues the same subject, and strengthens believers, that they may not faint; for patience springs from the hope of a more prosperous issue. Accordingly, he prepares them for enduring future chastisement, for the wrath of God will press hard on them for a time; but he immediately promises that a joyful issue awaits them, when they shall have endured those calamities and distresses; for God will restrain his severity. Thus, I consider( וvau) to mean "When" or "After;" as if he had said, "When you shall have endured those troubles, then will the Lord bless you; for he will change your condition for the better."
Thy rain shall no longer be restrained. 568 The word( מורהmōrĕh) is viewed by some commentators as meaning "a teacher." But this does not agree with the context; for, although the chief fruit of our reconciliation to God is to have faithful "teachers," yet, as the ignorant multitude was more deeply affected by the want of food, Isaiah accommodates his language to their ignorance, and gives them a taste of God's fatherly kindness under the emblem of abundance of food.
By the words "bread" and "water," he means extreme want and scarcity of all things, and therefore he calls it "bread of anguish and water of affliction." 569 Instead of this famine, he says that he will send them plenty and abundance. This is what he means by the word rain; for he describes the cause instead of the effect, as if he had said, "The earth shall yield fruit in abundance." This had a literal and special reference to a country, the fertility of which depended entirely on heaven; for it was not watered by rivers or fountains, but by rains.
"The land whither ye go to possess it," says Moses, "is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." (Deuteronomy 11:11.)
He declares that the fruits of the earth, which the Lord took away or diminished by barrenness, will return; because, in consequence of the copious "rains," 570 there will be large and abundant produce. Thus, when the Lord shall punish us, let us comfort our hearts with these statements and promises.
21. Then shall thine ears hear. It was indeed no despicable promise
568"Yet shall not thy teachers be removed." — Eng. Ver. 569"Though ye find yourselves reduced to extremities usual in long sieges, though ye be stinted to a short allowance of 'bread and water,' and are forced to undergo a great many other inconveniences, yet use not my prophets ill, make them not to run into corners to hide themselves from the violence of an impatient multitude; but be glad to see them among you, and let their examples encourage you to bear up handsomely under the short afflictions which shall then be upon you. This is the plain meaning of the words, without running to the whimsical expositions of some who by 'Panis Angustiæ,' as the Vulgate renders( צר לחםlĕchĕm tzār,) make the prophet mean the compendious doctrine of the gospel, or Christ himself, or the eucharist, and like dreams.'' --- Samuel White
570"Kimchi's explanation of the word ,) mōrĕh, or rather ,מוריםmōrīm,) as meaning the early rain, (which sense it has in Joel 2:23, and perhaps also in Psalm 84:6,) has been retained only by Calvin and Lowth. The great majority of writers adhere not only to the sense of `teacher,' but to the plural import of the form,)מוריםwith 2 Sing. Affix.,) and understand the word as a designation or description of the prophets, with particular reference, as some suppose, to their reappearance after a period of severe persecution or oppression.'' --- Alexander