18 And my people H5971 shall dwell H3427 in a peaceable H7965 habitation, H5116 and in sure H4009 dwellings, H4908 and in quiet H7600 resting places; H4496
And in that day H3117 will I make H3772 a covenant H1285 for them with the beasts H2416 of the field, H7704 and with the fowls H5775 of heaven, H8064 and with the creeping things H7431 of the ground: H127 and I will break H7665 the bow H7198 and the sword H2719 and the battle H4421 out of the earth, H776 and will make them to lie down H7901 safely. H983 And I will betroth H781 thee unto me for ever; H5769 yea, I will betroth H781 thee unto me in righteousness, H6664 and in judgment, H4941 and in lovingkindness, H2617 and in mercies. H7356 I will even betroth H781 thee unto me in faithfulness: H530 and thou shalt know H3045 the LORD. H3068 And it shall come to pass in that day, H3117 I will hear, H6030 saith H5002 the LORD, H3068 I will hear H6030 the heavens, H8064 and they shall hear H6030 the earth; H776 And the earth H776 shall hear H6030 the corn, H1715 and the wine, H8492 and the oil; H3323 and they shall hear H6030 Jezreel. H3157 And I will sow H2232 her unto me in the earth; H776 and I will have mercy H7355 upon her that had not obtained mercy; H7355 H3818 and I will say H559 to them which were not my people, H5971 Thou art my people; H5971 and they shall say, H559 Thou art my God. H430
For brass H5178 I will bring H935 gold, H2091 and for iron H1270 I will bring H935 silver, H3701 and for wood H6086 brass, H5178 and for stones H68 iron: H1270 I will also make H7760 thy officers H6486 peace, H7965 and thine exactors H5065 righteousness. H6666 Violence H2555 shall no more be heard H8085 in thy land, H776 wasting H7701 nor destruction H7667 within thy borders; H1366 but thou shalt call H7121 thy walls H2346 Salvation, H3444 and thy gates H8179 Praise. H8416
And I will make H3772 with them a covenant H1285 of peace, H7965 and will cause the evil H7451 beasts H2416 to cease H7673 out of the land: H776 and they shall dwell H3427 safely H983 in the wilderness, H4057 and sleep H3462 in the woods. H3293 H3264 And I will make H5414 them and the places round about H5439 my hill H1389 a blessing; H1293 and I will cause the shower H1653 to come down H3381 in his season; H6256 there shall be showers H1653 of blessing. H1293
Look H2372 upon Zion, H6726 the city H7151 of our solemnities: H4150 thine eyes H5869 shall see H7200 Jerusalem H3389 a quiet H7600 habitation, H5116 a tabernacle H168 that shall not be taken down; H6813 not one of the stakes H3489 thereof shall ever H5331 be removed, H5265 neither shall any of the cords H2256 thereof be broken. H5423 But there the glorious H117 LORD H3068 will be unto us a place H4725 of broad H7342 H3027 rivers H5104 and streams; H2975 wherein shall go H3212 no H1077 galley H590 with oars, H7885 neither shall gallant H117 ship H6716 pass H5674 thereby. For the LORD H3068 is our judge, H8199 the LORD H3068 is our lawgiver, H2710 the LORD H3068 is our king; H4428 he will save H3467 us.
No lion H738 shall be there, nor any ravenous H6530 beast H2416 shall go up H5927 thereon, it shall not be found H4672 there; but the redeemed H1350 shall walk H1980 there: And the ransomed H6299 of the LORD H3068 shall return, H7725 and come H935 to Zion H6726 with songs H7440 and everlasting H5769 joy H8057 upon their heads: H7218 they shall obtain H5381 joy H8057 and gladness, H8342 and sorrow H3015 and sighing H585 shall flee away. H5127
Behold, the days H3117 come, H935 saith H5002 the LORD, H3068 that I will raise H6965 unto David H1732 a righteous H6662 Branch, H6780 and a King H4428 shall reign H4427 and prosper, H7919 and shall execute H6213 judgment H4941 and justice H6666 in the earth. H776 In his days H3117 Judah H3063 shall be saved, H3467 and Israel H3478 shall dwell H7931 safely: H983 and this is his name H8034 whereby he shall be called, H7121 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. H3072
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Isaiah 32
Commentary on Isaiah 32 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 32
Isa 32:1-20. Messiah's Kingdom; Desolations, to Be Succeeded by Lasting Peace, the Spirit Having Been Poured Out.
The times of purity and happiness which shall follow the defeat of the enemies of Jehovah's people (Isa 32:1-8). The period of wrath before that happy state (Isa 32:9-14). The assurance of the final prosperity of the Church is repeated (Isa 32:15-20).
1. king—not Hezekiah, who was already on the throne, whereas a future time is contemplated. If he be meant at all, it can only be as a type of Messiah the King, to whom alone the language is fully applicable (Ho 3:5; Zec 9:9; see on Isa 11:3-5). The kingdom shall be transferred from the world kings, who have exercised their power against God, instead of for God, to the rightful King of kings (Eze 21:27; Da 7:13, 14).
princes—subordinate; referring to all in authority under Christ in the coming kingdom on earth, for example, the apostles, &c. (Lu 22:30; 1Co 6:2; 2Ti 2:12; Re 2:26, 27; 3:21).
2. a man—rather, the man Christ [Lowth]; it is as "the Son of man" He is to reign, as it was as Son of man He suffered (Mt 26:64; Joh 5:27; 19:5). Not as Maurer explains, "every one of the princes shall be," &c.
rivers—as refreshing as water and the cool shade are to the heated traveller (Isa 35:6, 7; 41:18).
3. them that see—the seers or prophets.
them that hear—the people under instruction (Isa 35:5, 6).
4. rash—rather, "the hasty"; contrast "shall not make haste" (Isa 28:16); the reckless who will not take time to weigh religious truth aright. Or else, the well-instructed [Horsley].
stammers—those who speak confusedly on divine things (compare Ex 4:10-12; Jer 1:6; Mt 10:19, 20). Or, rather, those drunken scorners who in stammering style imitated Isaiah's warnings to mock them [Maurer] (Isa 28:7-11, 13, 14, 22; 29:20); in this view, translate, "speak uprightly" (agreeably to the divine law); not as English Version, referring to the distinctness of articulation, "plainly."
5. vile—rather, "fool" [Lowth]; that is, ungodly (Ps 14:1; 74:18).
liberal—rather, "noble-minded."
churl—rather, "fraudulent" [Gesenius].
bountiful—religiously. The atheistic churl, who envies the believer his hope "full of immortality," shall no longer be held as a patriot struggling for the emancipation of mankind from superstition [Horsley].
6. vile … villainy—rather, "the (irreligious) fool … (his) folly."
will speak—rather, "present"; for (so far is the "fool" from deserving the epithet "noble-minded") the fool "speaketh" folly and "worketh," &c.
hypocrisy—rather, "profligacy" [Horsley].
error—impiety, perverse arguments.
hungry—spiritually (Mt 5:6).
7. churl—"the fraudulent"; this verse refers to the last clause of Isa 32:5; as Isa 32:6 referred to its first clause.
speaketh right—pleadeth a just cause (Isa 29:21); spiritually, "the poor man's cause" is the divine doctrine, his rule of faith and practice.
8. liberal—rather, "noble-minded."
stand—shall be approved under the government of the righteous King.
9-20. Address to the women of Jerusalem who troubled themselves little about the political signs of the times, but lived a life of self-indulgence (Isa 3:16-23); the failure of food through the devastations of the enemy is here foretold, being what was most likely to affect them as mothers of families, heretofore accustomed to every luxury. Vitringa understands "women—daughters" as the cities and villages of Judea (Eze 16:1-63). See Am 6:1.
10. Many days and years—rather, "In little more than a year" [Maurer]; literally, "days upon a year" (so Isa 29:1).
vintage shall fail—through the arrival of the Assyrian invader. As the wheat harvest is omitted, Isaiah must look for the invasion in the summer or autumn of 714 B.C., when the wheat would have been secured already, and the later fruit "gathering," and vintage would be still in danger.
11. strip you—of your gay clothing. (See Isa 2:19, 21).
12. lament for … teats—rather, shall smite on their breasts in lamentation "for thy pleasant fields" (Na 2:7) [Maurer]. "Teats" in English Version is used for fertile lands, which, like breasts, nourish life. The transition from "ye" to "they" (Isa 32:11, 12) is frequent.
13. (Isa 5:6; 7:23).
houses of joy—pleasure-houses outside of Jerusalem, not Jerusalem itself, but other cities destroyed by Sennacherib in his march (Isa 7:20-25). However, the prophecy, in its full accomplishment, refers to the utter desolation of Judea and its capital by Rome, and subsequently, previous to the second coming of the King (Ps 118:26; Lu 13:35; 19:38); "the joyous city" is in this view, Jerusalem (Isa 22:2).
14. palaces—most applicable to Jerusalem (see on Isa 32:13).
multitude … left—the noisy din of the city, that is, the city with its noisy multitude shall lie forsaken [Maurer].
forts—rather, "Ophel" (that is, the mound), the term applied specially to the declivity on the east of Zion, surrounded with its own wall (2Ch 27:3; 33:14; 2Ki 5:24), and furnished with "towers" (or watchtowers), perhaps referred to here (Ne 3:26, 27).
for ever—limited by thee, "until," &c., Isa 32:15, for a long time.
15. This can only partially apply to the spiritual revival in Hezekiah's time; its full accomplishment belongs to the Christian dispensation, first at Pentecost (Joe 2:28; Ac 2:17), perfectly in coming times (Ps 104:30; Eze 36:26; 39:29; Zec 12:10), when the Spirit shall be poured on Israel, and through it on the Gentiles (Mic 5:7).
wilderness … fruitful field … forest—when Judea, so long waste, shall be populous and fruitful, and the land of the enemies of God shall be desolate. Or, "the field, now fruitful, shall be but as a barren forest in comparison with what it shall be then" (Isa 29:17). The barren shall become fruitful by regeneration; those already regenerate shall bring forth fruits in such abundance that their former life shall seem but as a wilderness where no fruits were.
16. judgment—justice.
wilderness—then reclaimed.
fruitful field—then become more fruitful (Isa 32:15); thus "wilderness" and "fruitful field" include the whole land of Judea.
17. work—the effect (Pr 14:34; Jas 3:18).
peace—internal and external.
18. sure … quiet—free from fear of invasion.
19. Literally, "But it shall hail with coming down of the forest, and in lowness shall the city (Nineveh) be brought low; that is, humbled." The "hail" is Jehovah's wrathful visitation (Isa 30:30; 28:2, 17). The "forest" is the Assyrian host, dense as the trees of a forest (Isa 10:18, 19, 33, 34; Zec 11:2).
20. While the enemy shall be brought "low," the Jews shall cultivate their land in undisturbed prosperity.
all waters—well-watered places (Isa 30:25). The Hebrew translation, "beside," ought rather to be translated, "upon" (Ec 11:1), where the meaning is, "Cast thy seed upon the waters when the river overflows its banks; the seed will sink into the mud and will spring up when the waters subside, and you will find it after many days in a rich harvest." Before sowing, they send oxen, &c., into the water to tread the ground for sowing. Castalio thinks there is an allusion to the Mosaic precept, not to plough with an ox and ass together, mystically implying that the Jew was to have no intercourse with Gentiles; the Gospel abolishes this distinction (Col 3:11); thus the sense here is, Blessed are ye that sow the gospel seed without distinction of race in the teachers or the taught. But there is no need of supposing that the ox and ass here are yoked together; they are probably "sent forth" separately, as in Isa 30:24.