Commentary on Isaiah Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
idols and false worship; as it is said, "Go, sacrifice to idols." (Ezekiel 20:39) I am disposed to favor this reading; as if he had said, "I leave to you your inventions, and willingly permit you to be entirely devoted to them, and relinquish my right; for I have nothing to do with traitors and apostates." And yet he undoubtedly alludes to that passage in the writings of Moses, by whose mouth God said that he would be the inheritance of his people, so that they ought to be satisfied with having him alone. (Numbers 18:20) This was also followed by David, who says, "The Lord is my portion, my inheritance." (Psalm 16:5) Since, therefore, the Jews had revolted from God, and had followed idols, the Lord justly commanded them to keep the idols to themselves, and intimated that he would have nothing in common with them.
Even to them hast thou poured a drink-offering. He proceeds in enumerating superstitions, and confirms the statement that he has been rejected and cast off by them; for they alienated to false gods what he wished to belong to himself alone. The Jews might have replied to every word of the Prophet, that they had no other intention than to worship God. But the Prophet pays no regard to such idle and frivolous pretenses; for the wrath of God is provoked by false worship, and is the more inflamed by it in proportion as it is more constant and longer continued. Hence we learn what sobriety we ought to observe in the worship of God, that we may depend on his word alone; for whosoever shall swerve from it in the smallest degree, will not only lose his labor, but will kindle the wrath of God, whose majesty he wickedly insults and does all that is in his power to lessen.
Shall I take pleasure in these things? It might also be translated, "Shall I repent?" This interpretation has been most generally adopted, because he wishes to assign a reason why he punishes the people. As if he had said, "When I take vengeance for these transgressions, is it possible that I shall repent?" Yet the interpretation which I have followed appears to me preferable, "Shall I take delight, or consolation, from those sacrifices which thou hast offered to me?" For idolaters commonly take delight in their own inventions, and imagine that God also is delighted with everything that they pursue with mad and furious eagerness. Nor is such a question superfluous; for men think that God is like themselves, and will approve of everything that is agreeable to them. On the contrary, he declares that nothing is approved by him, or is acceptable to him, but what agrees with his word. 353
7. Upon a lofty and high mountain. He again repeats that metaphor at which we have formerly glanced. Superstitious persons commit fornication with their idols, because, by forsaking the simplicity of the word, they violate the bond of that holy marriage into which God has entered with them, and
353"Jehovah adds a question, 'Should I take consolation in these things?' Should I shake off from my mind, and bury in oblivion, my indignation which arises from your heinous crimes, so as to allow them to pass unpunished? The meaning has been accurately expressed by the Septuagint, {ἐπὶ} {τούτοις} {οὖς} {οὐκ} {ὀργισθήσομαι}; 'Shall I not be enraged on account of these things?' which has been followed by Jerome, 'Nunquid super his non indignabor?'" — Rosenmuller