Commentary on Isaiah Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
trate. A mother cannot be visited with any grief more bitter than to have her children slain before her eyes, and not one or two of them, but so great a number as to fill the roads with the slaughter.
As a wild bull in a net. The metaphor is taken from bears or other savage animals, by which he means that even the strongest of them have, as it were, been caught in snares.
Full of the indignation of Jehovah. By this expression he distinctly states that none of these events are accidental, lest they should suppose that any of them has happened by chance, or lest they should accuse the Lord of cruelty for having punished them severely; because his judgment is just and righteous. This is what he means, when he says that this punishment has proceeded from the rebuke of the Lord. Yet we must bear in mind his object which I have already mentioned, that believers ought not to throw away the hope of grace, though innumerable calamities prompt and urge them to despair.
21. Therefore now hear this. He now shews more plainly the reason why he spoke of the calamities of the Church. It was, that believers might be fully persuaded that they would obtain consolation from God, though they were reduced to the extremity of distress. But why does he call the Church wretched, since nothing is more happy than to be God's people, and that happiness cannot be taken away by any tribulations?; Not without cause is it said,
"Blessed is the people whose God is Jehovah." (Psalm 144:15.)
I reply, she is apparently "wretched," and not in vain does the Lord address her by that name; for, as we have already said, he helps the wretched, and succors the destitute.
And drunken, not with wine. 278 When he calls her "drunken," it ought to be observed that believers never endure so patiently the chastisements which are inflicted on them as not to be sometimes stupified; but, although stupified, they ought to remember that the Lord punishes them justly, and ought to believe that the Lord will assist them. He does not speak to robust or healthy men, but to those who are feeble, wretched, prostrate, and who resemble drunken persons, and says that he brings to them consolation. Finally, by this word he soothes the grief of the Church, and shews that he preserves a limit, by which he restrains the violence even of the greatest afflictions, and restores her when ruined, as if he were raising from the dead a rotten corpse.
22. Thus saith Jehovah. Not at random does the Prophet add to the name Jehovah three epithets, namely, that he is the Lord or Defender of his Church, that he is God, and lastly, that he is her Avenger. We ought always to consider what is the nature of our relation to God; for he addresses us in
278{{( }מיין{ }שלא{ }אהד{ }דבר{ שכרתshekurath dabar ehad shello miyain). Drunken with something which is not wine." —
Jarchi.