Commentary on Isaiah Volume 1 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
as is usually done in funerals, but you will mourn in earnest." But I prefer to take( אךach) as meaning only; that is, "All who shall be left will be wounded; not one shall be safe." By this mode of expression he describes the utter destruction of that city, and intimates that those who are left will lament not only the distresses of others, but also their own. They, too, will be wounded. And if such severe punishments are inflicted on the proud, let us learn to submit ourselves with humility and modesty, and willingly to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. (1 Peter 5:6.)
8. For the vines of Heshbon have been cut down. 265 Here the Prophet describes allegorically the desolation of the whole country. There is reason to believe that it abounded in the choicest vines, 266 as may readily be inferred from this and the parallel passage. (Jeremiah 48:32.) When Prophets threaten destruction to countries, they usually delineate their more remarkable features. For instance, were we to speak of Picardy, we certainly would say nothing about vines, as if we had been speaking about Orleans or Burgundy. Now, the cities mentioned by the Prophet were the chief cities of Moab.
The lords of the nations have trodden down his choicest shoots or branches. 267 The Prophet says that the most valuable branches of their vineyards were torn out by the lords of the nations, that is, by the conquerors, who, having subdued the nations in war, held extensive dominion.
Which reached even to Jazer. 268 This serves to point out the extent of the devastation; for this city was situated on the confines of the land of the Moabites; as if he had said, "Not only shall a part of the vineyards be cut down, but the whole country shall be wasted far and wide." Some refer this to the enemies themselves; but I would rather supply the relative,אשר (asher,) which, and refer it to the vines, which were so extensive that they reached even to Jazer. Thus the meaning will be, "Though these vineyards reached even to Jazer, and covered a very large tract of country, yet thence to the wilderness they will all be trodden down by the lords of the nations." This agrees best with the scope of the passage; for it is immediately added that the vineyards reached to the wilderness, and even to the sea; by which he means that the country was exceedingly fertile, and especially that it abounded in vines. He says that they crossed the sea, 269 because, when the soil is productive, it is customary to protect by mounds what is contiguous to the sea, in order to extend the cultivation, and to oppose the violence of
265"It ought to be known that Heshbon was a place of fields, and Sibmah was a place of vineyards. If you object, that all these cities were on the other side of Jordan, and at what time therefore did they fall under the hand (or power) of the Moabites? we reply. When Sennacherib carried the Reubenites and Gadites into captivity, the Moabites, who were their neighbors, came and dwelt in those cities." — Jarchi
266The lords of the heathen have trodden down the principal plants thereof. — Eng. Ver. 267They are come even unto Jazer. — Eng. Ver. 268"The lake of Jazer, as Jeremiah explains it, Jeremiah 48:32. The plantations of this vine spread onward to the banks, and seemed to overhang the whole breadth of the lake." — Rosenmuller
269For the shouting for thy summer-fruits and for thy harvest is fallen. (Or, the alarm is fallen upon thy summer-fruits and upon thy harvest. — Eng. Ver.