A.C. 740. crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. *Heb. of heaviness. 4 Ah sinful nation, a people * laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel + Heb. alien unto anger, they are † gone away backward. ated, or, sepa rated. crease revolt. Or, oil. cDeut. xxviii. 51, 52. 5 ¶ Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with § ointment. C 7 c Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it Heb. as the is desolate, || as overthrown by strangers. overthrow of strangers. 8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small d Rom. ix. 29. remnant, we should have been as d Sodom, and we should Gen. xix. 24. have been like unto Gomorrah. 10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the Heb. great blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of * he goats. he goats. seen. Or, grief. e Prov. i. 28. Jer. xiv. 12. 12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is ‡ iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. e 15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Micah iii. 4. mine eyes from you: yea, when ye § make many prayers, 'I will not hear your hands are full of || blood. Heb. multiply prayer. f ch. lix. 3. Heb. bloods. 16¶ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of g 1 Pet. ii. 11, your doings from before mine eyes; 5 cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, * Or, righten. relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall A. C. 740. be as wool. 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. 21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. 22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: 23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the h Zech. vii. 10. widow come unto them. 24 Therefore saith the LORD, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies : 25 ¶ And I will turn my hand upon thee, and * purely * Heb. acpurge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: 26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. cording to pureness. return of 27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and thertor, they converts with righteousness. her. Ps. i. 6. & v. 6. 28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of i Job xxxi. 3. the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. 29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the garden sthat ye have chosen. 30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. 31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. SECTION V. Alliance of Ahaz with Tiglath-pileser, King of Assyria. 2 KINGS XVI. VER. 6-10. 6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and & ixxiii. + Heb. breaking. A. C. 740. save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me. 8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. 9 And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the Heb. Dam- king of Assria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. mesek. ISAIAH XXVIII". 1 The prophet threateneth Ephraim for their pride and drunkenness. 5 The residue shall be advanced in the kingdom of Christ. 7 He rebuketh their error. 9 Their untowardness to learn, 14 and their security. 16 Christ the sure foundation is promised. 18 Their security shall be tried. 23 They are incited to the consideration of God's discreet providence. 1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which +Heb. broken. are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are † overcome with wine! ↑ Heb, with Jeet. 2 Behold the LORD hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. 3. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: 4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it Heb. swal- seeth, while it is yet in his hand he § eateth it up. loweth, 5 ¶ In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, 6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. 7¶ But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of 31 This chapter denounces the approaching destruction of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser, without any mention of Syria, or Damascus. The fifth verse turns to the two tribes of Judah, and Benjamin, who were to continue a kingdom after the final captivity of the Israelites. The exact time of its delivery is uncertain; it is conjectured that it was given after the destruction of Damascus, 740, and before the first captivity of the ten tribes, 721.-Lowth; Taylor; Lightfoot. wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they A. C. 740. err in vision, they stumble in judgment. 8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. 9¶Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned Heb. the from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. hearing. 10 For precept + must be upon precept, precept upon pre- + Or, hath cept; line upon line, line upon line: here a little, and there been. a little : k 11 For with stammering lips and another tongue § will + Heb. stam he speak to this people. merings of Or, he hath 12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may 21. cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet spoken they would not hear. 13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. 14¶Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. 15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves : 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious 1P. cxviii. 22. corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not Matt. xxi. make haste. 42. Rom. ix. 33. & x. 11. 1 Pet. ii. 17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteous- 6, 7, 8. ness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then shall ye be trodden down by it. : 19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. 20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. m || Heb. a treading down to it. Or, when he shall make you to under. stand doctrine. m2 Sam. v. 20. 1 Chron. xiv. 11. n Josh. x. 10, 12. 2 Sam, v. 21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of "Gibeon, that he may 25.1 Chron. xiv. 16. A.C. 740. do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. • Or, the wheat in the principal place, and barley in the appointed place. +Or, spelt. tHeb. border? bindeth it in 22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth. 23 ¶ Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. 24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? 25 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley, and the trie in their + place? * 26 § For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. 27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing inOr, And he strument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the such sort as his cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. God doth teach him. 739. || Heb. Darmesek. 28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. 29 This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. 2 CHRONICLES XXVIII. VER. 20-24. 20 And Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not 39. 21 For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not. 22 And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz. 23 For he sacrificed unto the gods of [] Damascus, which smote him and he said, Because the gods of the kings of 32 Tiglath-pileser, we are informed, (2 Kings xvi. 9.) hearkened unto Ahaz, and went up against Damascus, and took it; and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. It seems difficult to reconcile this account with that mentioned in this verse. They are, however, both to be reconciled by considering, that the assistance thus rendered to Ahaz by the king of Assyria was of little real service. He did not assist him in recovering the cities taken from the Philistines, nor did he lend him any forces, or enable him to recruit his strength, but rather weakened him by exhausting his treasures, v. 21. and by destroying Samaria, by which the way was opened for the more easy invasion of the country in the ensuing reign.-Bishop Patrick; Dr. A. Clarke. |