Commentary on Isaiah Volume 1 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
But as to those whom the Lord permits to remain unburied, when we see nothing else than a token of his anger, we must fall back on this statement and others of the same kind. For example, Jeremiah threatened Jehoiakim with the burial of an ass, because he deserved to be ranked with beasts rather than with men, who, even after death, are distinguished from beasts by being buried. Thus it was proper that the king of Babylon, who had exalted himself above all men, should be cast down below all men, so as even to be deprived of ordinary burial. Isaiah, therefore, foretells that he will not be buried in his own house, that is, in the sepulcher of his fathers, which came to him by inheritance; for we must not suppose that sepulchres were within houses. 229 The comparisons which are added express more strongly the disgrace which was due to that tyrant. As hurtful or useless trees are rooted out, so he shows that the king of Babylon does not deserve to have any place among men.
As the garments of those who are slain. They who fall in the field of battle are not buried in the ordinary way, but their bloody and stinking bodies are trodden down, and are thrown into a ditch along with their rotten garments, that they may not infect the air with their offensive smell; and no one deigns to touch the very garments defiled by mire and blood, lest he should be polluted by them. Which of the kings of Babylon it was that suffered this we cannot tell; but undoubtedly it was fulfilled.
20. For thou hast laid thy land desolate. This is the reason why he says that the king of Babylon did not deserve burial. He who has laid the earth desolate does not deserve that the earth shall receive him into its bosom and cover him. As the earth supports the living, so it covers the dead, and keeps them till the coming of Christ. It is therefore a just punishment of cruelty, when the earth refuses to receive into her bosom those who have dishonored her. There is added a threatening still more severe, that the Lord will also inflict on posterity the remainder of the punishment.
The seed of the wicked shall not be continually remembered. There are two ways in which we may explain this clause, either that the remembrance of the seed of the wicked will not be of long duration, or that it will be altogether extinguished. The wordלעולם230 (legnolam) may be translated in various ways, for it may refer either to the past or to the future. If we refer it to the past, the meaning will be, "Although the seed of the wicked be renowned,
( ,לעולםlegnolam,) for a time, yet the remembrance of it will at length pass away." If we refer it to the future, the meaning will be, "God will extinguish the seed of the wicked, so that it shall never again be mentioned." It usually happens that the Lord curses the seed of the wicked, as, on the other hand, he blesses the seed of the godly, (Proverbs 10:7;) and as the righteous shall be held in perpetual remembrance, (Psalm 112:6,) so the remembrance of the
229( עולםgnolam) is derived from ,( עלםgnalam,) to hide, and is defined by the lexicographers to mean ``an age, a time hidden from men, either unlimited and eternal or limited.'' Our author treats it as capable of meaning either time past or time to come.
230For the bittern. — Eng. Ver. , so that hedgehogs shall dwell in it. — Sept