18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth H5127 from the noise H6963 of the fear H6343 shall fall H5307 into the pit; H6354 and he that cometh up H5927 out of the midst H8432 of the pit H6354 shall be taken H3920 in the snare: H6341 for the windows H699 from on high H4791 are open, H6605 and the foundations H4146 of the earth H776 do shake. H7493
For a fire H784 is kindled H6919 in mine anger, H639 and shall burn H3344 unto the lowest H8482 hell, H7585 and shall consume H398 the earth H776 with her increase, H2981 and set on fire H3857 the foundations H4144 of the mountains. H2022 I will heap H5595 mischiefs H7451 upon them; I will spend H3615 mine arrows H2671 upon them. They shall be burnt H4198 with hunger, H7458 and devoured H3898 with burning heat, H7565 and with bitter H4815 destruction: H6986 I will also send H7971 the teeth H8127 of beasts H929 upon them, with the poison H2534 of serpents H2119 of the dust. H6083 The sword H2719 without, H2351 and terror H367 within, H2315 shall destroy H7921 both the young man H970 and the virgin, H1330 the suckling H3243 also with the man H376 of gray hairs. H7872 I said, H559 I would scatter them into corners, H6284 I would make the remembrance H2143 of them to cease H7673 from among men: H582
And the LORD H3068 discomfited H2000 them before H6440 Israel, H3478 and slew H5221 them with a great H1419 slaughter H4347 at Gibeon, H1391 and chased H7291 them along the way H1870 that goeth up H4608 to Bethhoron, H1032 and smote H5221 them to Azekah, H5825 and unto Makkedah. H4719 And it came to pass, as they fled H5127 from before H6440 Israel, H3478 and were in the going down H4174 to Bethhoron, H1032 that the LORD H3068 cast down H7993 great H1419 stones H68 from heaven H8064 upon them unto Azekah, H5825 and they died: H4191 they were more H7227 which died H4191 with hailstones H1259 H68 than they whom H834 the children H1121 of Israel H3478 slew H2026 with the sword. H2719
And they pitched H2583 one H428 over against H5227 the other H428 seven H7651 days. H3117 And so it was, that in the seventh H7637 day H3117 the battle H4421 was joined: H7126 and the children H1121 of Israel H3478 slew H5221 of the Syrians H758 an hundred H3967 thousand H505 footmen H7273 in one H259 day. H3117 But the rest H3498 fled H5127 to Aphek, H663 into the city; H5892 and there a wall H2346 fell H5307 upon twenty H6242 and seven H7651 thousand H505 of the men H376 that were left. H3498 And Benhadad H1130 fled, H5127 and came H935 into the city, H5892 into an inner H2315 chamber. H2315
For he is cast H7971 into a net H7568 by his own feet, H7272 and he walketh H1980 upon a snare. H7639 The gin H6341 shall take H270 him by the heel, H6119 and the robber H6782 shall prevail H2388 against him. The snare H2256 is laid H2934 for him in the ground, H776 and a trap H4434 for him in the way. H5410 Terrors H1091 shall make him afraid H1204 on every side, H5439 and shall drive H6327 him to his feet. H7272 His strength H202 shall be hungerbitten, H7457 and destruction H343 shall be ready H3559 at his side. H6763 It shall devour H398 the strength H905 of his skin: H5785 even the firstborn H1060 of death H4194 shall devour H398 his strength. H905 His confidence H4009 shall be rooted out H5423 of his tabernacle, H168 and it shall bring H6805 him to the king H4428 of terrors. H1091 It shall dwell H7931 in his tabernacle, H168 because it is none H1097 of his: brimstone H1614 shall be scattered H2219 upon his habitation. H5116 His roots H8328 shall be dried up H3001 beneath, and above H4605 shall his branch H7105 be cut off. H5243
Therefore will not we fear, H3372 though the earth H776 be removed, H4171 and though the mountains H2022 be carried H4131 into the midst H3820 of the sea; H3220 Though the waters H4325 thereof roar H1993 and be troubled, H2560 though the mountains H2022 shake H7493 with the swelling H1346 thereof. Selah. H5542
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Isaiah 24
Commentary on Isaiah 24 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 24
Isa 24:1-23. The Last Times of the World in General, and of Judah and the Church in Particular.
The four chapters (the twenty-fourth through the twenty-seventh) form one continuous poetical prophecy: descriptive of the dispersion and successive calamities of the Jews (Isa 24:1-12); the preaching of the Gospel by the first Hebrew converts throughout the world (Isa 24:13-16); the judgments on the adversaries of the Church and its final triumph (Isa 24:16-23); thanksgiving for the overthrow of the apostate faction (Isa 25:1-12), and establishment of the righteous in lasting peace (Isa 26:1-21); judgment on leviathan and entire purgation of the Church (Isa 27:1-13). Having treated of the several nations in particular—Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Edom, and Tyre (the miniature representative of all, as all kingdoms flocked into it)—he passes to the last times of the world at large and of Judah the representative and future head of the churches.
1. the earth—rather, "the land" of Judah (so in Isa 24:3, 5, 6; Joe 1:2). The desolation under Nebuchadnezzar prefigured that under Titus.
2. as with the people, so with the priest—All alike shall share the same calamity: no favored class shall escape (compare Eze 7:12, 13; Ho 4:9; Re 6:15).
4. world—the kingdom of Israel; as in Isa 13:11, Babylon.
haughty—literally, "the height" of the people: abstract for concrete, that is, the high people; even the nobles share the general distress.
5. earth—rather, "the land."
defiled under … inhabitants—namely, with innocent blood (Ge 4:11; Nu 35:33; Ps 106:38).
laws … ordinance … everlasting covenant—The moral laws, positive statutes, and national covenant designed to be for ever between God and them.
6. earth—the land.
burned—namely, with the consuming wrath of heaven: either internally, as in Job 30:30 [Rosenmuller]; or externally, the prophet has before his eyes the people being consumed with the withering dryness of their doomed land (so Joe 1:10, 12), [Maurer].
7. mourneth—because there are none to drink it [Barnes]. Rather, "is become vapid" [Horsley].
languisheth—because there are none to cultivate it now.
8. (Re 18:22).
9. with a song—the usual accompaniment of feasts.
strong drink—(See on Isa 5:11). "Date wine" [Horsley].
bitter—in consequence of the national calamities.
10. city of confusion—rather, "desolation." What Jerusalem would be; by anticipation it is called so. Horsley translates, "The city is broken down; it is a ruin."
shut up—through fear; or rather, "choked up by ruins."
11. crying for wine—to drown their sorrows in drink (Isa 16:9); Joe 1:5, written about the same time, resembles this.
12. with destruction—rather "crash" [Gesenius]. "With a great tumult the gate is battered down" [Horsley].
13. the land—Judea. Put the comma after "land," not after "people." "There shall be among the people (a remnant left), as the shaking (the after-picking) of an olive tree"; as in gathering olives, a few remain on the highest boughs (Isa 17:5, 6).
14. They—those who are left: the remnant.
sing for the majesty of the Lord—sing a thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord, who has so mercifully preserved them.
from the sea—from the distant lands beyond the sea, whither they have escaped.
15. in the fires—Vitringa translates, "in the caves." Could it mean the fires of affliction (1Pe 1:7)? They were exiles at the time. The fires only loose the carnal bonds off the soul, without injuring a hair, as in the case of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Lowth reads, in the islands (Eze 26:18). Rather translate for "fires," "in the regions of morning light," that is, the east, in antithesis to the "isles of the sea," that is, the west [Maurer]. Wheresoever ye be scattered, east or west, still glorify the Lord (Mal 1:11).
16. Songs to God come in together to Palestine from distant lands, as a grand chorus.
glory to the righteous—the burden of the songs (Isa 26:2, 7). Amidst exile, the loss of their temple, and all that is dear to man, their confidence in God is unshaken. These songs recall the joy of other times and draw from Jerusalem in her present calamities, the cry, "My leanness." Horsley translates, "glory to the Just One"; then My leanness expresses his sense of man's corruption, which led the Jews, "the treacherous dealers" (Jer 5:11), to crucify the Just One; and his deficiency of righteousness which made him need to be clothed with the righteousness of the Just One (Ps 106:15).
treacherous dealers—the foreign nations that oppress Jerusalem, and overcome it by stratagem (so in Isa 21:2) [Barnes].
17. This verse explains the wretchedness spoken of in Isa 24:16. Jeremiah (Jer 48:43, 44) uses the same words. They are proverbial; Isa 24:18 expressing that the inhabitants were nowhere safe; if they escaped one danger, they fell into another, and worse, on the opposite side (Am 5:19). "Fear" is the term applied to the cords with feathers of all colors which, when fluttered in the air, scare beasts into the pitfall, or birds into the snare. Horsley makes the connection. Indignant at the treatment which the Just One received, the prophet threatens the guilty land with instant vengeance.
18. noise of … fear—the shout designed to rouse the game and drive it into the pitfall.
windows … open—taken from the account of the deluge (Ge 7:11); the flood-gates. So the final judgments of fire on the apostate world are compared to the deluge (2Pe 3:5-7).
19. earth—the land: image from an earthquake.
20. removed like a cottage—(See on Isa 1:8). Here, a hanging couch, suspended from the trees by cords, such as Niebuhr describes the Arab keepers of lands as having, to enable them to keep watch, and at the same time to be secure from wild beasts. Translate, "Shall wave to and fro like a hammock" swung about by the wind.
heavy upon it—like an overwhelming burden.
not rise again—not meaning, that it never would rise (Isa 24:23), but in those convulsions it would not rise, it would surely fall.
21. host of … high ones—the heavenly host, that is, either the visible host of heaven (the present economy of nature, affected by the sun, moon, and stars, the objects of idolatry, being abolished, Isa 65:17; 60:19, simultaneously with the corrupt polity of men); or rather, "the invisible rulers of the darkness of this world," as the antithesis to "kings of the earth" shows. Angels, moreover, preside, as it were, over kingdoms of the world (Da 10:13, 20, 21).
22. in the pit—rather, "for the pit" [Horsley]. "In the dungeon" [Maurer]. Image from captives thrust together into a dungeon.
prison—that is, as in a prison. This sheds light on the disputed passage, 1Pe 3:19, where also the prison is figurative: The "shutting up" of the Jews in Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar, and again under Titus, was to be followed by a visitation of mercy "after many days"—seventy years in the case of the former—the time is not yet elapsed in the case of the latter. Horsley takes "visited" in a bad sense, namely, in wrath, as in Isa 26:14; compare Isa 29:6; the punishment being the heavier in the fact of the delay. Probably a double visitation is intended, deliverance to the elect, wrath to hardened unbelievers; as Isa 24:23 plainly contemplates judgments on proud sinners, symbolized by the "sun" and "moon."
23. (Jer 3:17). Still future: of which Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem amidst hosannas was a pledge.
his ancients—the elders of His people; or in general, His ancient people, the Jews. After the overthrow of the world kingdoms. Jehovah's shall be set up with a splendor exceeding the light of the sun and moon under the previous order of things (Isa 60:19, 20).