blb/Comm/jfb/Isa/Isa028.html

102 lines
21 KiB
HTML

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<head>
<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
<script src="../../../js/basepath.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="./js/nav.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="./js/MainHeader.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
PriorBook = 'Song of Songs';
PriorBookURL = './Comm/jfb/Sgs/Sgs000.html';
PriorChapter = 'Isaiah 27';
PriorChapterURL = './Comm/jfb/Isa/Isa027.html';
NextBook = 'Jeremiah';
NextBookURL = './Comm/jfb/Jer/Jer000.html';
NextChapter = 'Isaiah 29';
NextChapterURL = './Comm/jfb/Isa/Isa029.html';
Title = 'The Book of the Prophet Isaiah';
SubTitle1 = 'Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET';
SubTitle2 = '';
SubTitle3 = 'CHAPTER 28';
SubTitle3Cased = 'Chapter 28';
Author = ' Jamieson, Fausset & Brown';
imageMasthead = 'jfb.gif';
authorCite = 'Robert Jamieson; A.R. Fausset; and David Brown';
</script>
<script src="./js/Comms/JFB.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head><body>
<p id="Chapter28" align="center">Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET<br>CHAPTER 28
<p id="Isa28_1"><a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,'1-29');">Isa 28:1-29</a>.
<p>The twenty-eighth through thirty-third chapters form almost one continuous prophecy concerning the destruction of Ephraim, the impiety and folly of Judah, the danger of their league with Egypt, the straits they would be reduced to by Assyria, from which Jehovah would deliver them on their turning to Him; the twenty-eighth chapter refers to the time just before the sixth year of Hezekiak's reign, the rest not very long before his fourteenth year.
<p><b>1. crown of pride</b>&#8212;<i>Hebrew</i> for "<i>proud crown</i> of the drunkards," etc. [HORSLEY], namely, Samaria, the capital of Ephraim, or Israel. "Drunkards," literally (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,7,8);">Isa 28:7-8</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',5,11,22);">Isa 5:11, 22</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Amo',4,1);">Amo 4:1</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Amo',6,'1-6');">6:1-6</a>;) and metaphorically, <i>like drunkards,</i> rushing on to their own destruction.
<br><br><b>beauty...flower</b>&#8212;"whose glorious beauty or ornament is a fading flower." Carrying on the image of "drunkards"; it was the custom at feasts to wreathe the brow with <i>flowers;</i> so Samaria, "which is (not as <i>English Version,</i> 'which are') upon the head of the fertile valley," that is, situated on a hill surrounded with the rich valleys as a garland (<a onclick="return mV('1Ki',16,24);">1Ki 16:24</a>); but the garland is "fading," as garlands often do, because Ephraim is now close to ruin (compare <a onclick="return mV('Isa',16,8);">Isa 16:8</a>); fulfilled 721 B.C. (<a onclick="return mV('2Ki',17,6);">2Ki 17:6, 24</a>).
<p id="Isa28_2"><b>2. strong one</b>&#8212;the Assyrian (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',10,5);">Isa 10:5</a>).
<br><br><b>cast down</b>&#8212;namely, Ephraim (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,1);">Isa 28:1</a>) and Samaria, its crown.
<br><br><b>with...hand</b>&#8212;with violence (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',8,11);">Isa 8:11</a>).
<p id="Isa28_3"><b>3. crown...the drunkards</b>&#8212;rather, "the crown <i>of</i> the drunkards."
<p id="Isa28_4"><b>4.</b> Rather, "the fading flower, their glorious beauty (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,1);">Isa 28:1</a>), which is on the head of the fat (fertile) valley, shall be as the early fig" [G. V. SMITH]. Figs usually ripened in August; but earlier ones (<i>Hebrew bikkurah,</i> Spanish <i>bokkore</i>) in June, and were regarded as a delicacy (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',24,2);">Jer 24:2</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hsa',9,10);">Hsa 9:10</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Mic',7,1);">Mic 7:1</a>).
<br><br><b>while it is yet</b>&#8212;that is, <i>immediately,</i> without delay; describing the <i>eagerness</i> of the Assyrian Shalmaneser, not merely to conquer, but to <i>destroy utterly</i> Samaria; whereas other conquered cities were often spared.
<p id="Isa28_5"><b>5-13.</b> The prophet now turns to Judah; a gracious promise to the remnant ("residue"); a warning lest through like sins Judah should share the fate of Samaria.
<br><br><b>crown</b>&#8212;in antithesis to the "<i>fading</i> crown" of Ephraim (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,1);">Isa 28:1, 3</a>).
<br><br><b>the residue</b>&#8212;primarily, <i>Judah,</i> in the prosperous reign of Hezekiah (<a onclick="return mV('2Ki',18,7);">2Ki 18:7</a>), antitypically, <i>the elect of God;</i> as He here is called <i>their</i> "crown and diadem," so are they called <i>His</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',62,3);">Isa 62:3</a>); a beautiful reciprocity.
<p id="Isa28_6"><b>6.</b> Jehovah will inspire their magistrates with justice, and their soldiers with strength of spirit.
<br><br><b>turn...battle to...gate</b>&#8212;the defenders of their country who not only repel the foe from themselves, but drive him to the gates of his own cities (<a onclick="return mV('2Sa',11,23);">2Sa 11:23</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Ki',18,8);">2Ki 18:8</a>).
<p id="Isa28_7"><b>7.</b> Though Judah is to survive the fall of Ephraim, yet "they also" (the men of Judah) have perpetrated like sins to those of Samaria (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',5,3, 11);">Isa 5:3, 11</a>), which must be chastised by God.
<br><br><b>erred...are out of the way</b>&#8212;"stagger ...reel." Repeated, to express the <i>frequency</i> of the vice.
<br><br><b>priest...prophet</b>&#8212;If the ministers of religion sin so grievously, how much more the other rulers (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',56,10, 12;">Isa 56:10, 12</a>)!
<br><br><b>vision</b>&#8212;even in that most sacred function of the prophet to declare God's will revealed to them.
<br><br><b>judgment</b>&#8212;The priests had the administration of the law committed to them (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',17,9);">Deu 17:9</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Deu',19,17);">19:17</a>). It was against the law for the priests to take wine before entering the tabernacle (<a onclick="return mV('Lev',10,9);">Lev 10:9</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eze',44,21);">Eze 44:21</a>).
<p id="Isa28_9"><b>9, 10.</b> Here the drunkards are introduced as scoffingly commenting on Isaiah's warnings: "Whom <i>will</i> he (does <i>Isaiah</i> presume to) teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand <i>instruction?</i> Is it those (that is, does he take us to be) just weaned, etc.? For (he is constantly repeating, as if to little children) precept upon precept," etc.
<br><br><b>line</b>&#8212;a rule or law. [MAURER]. The repetition of sounds in <i>Hebrew. tzav latzav, tzav latzav, gav laqav, gav laquav,</i> expresses the scorn of the imitators of Isaiah's speaking; he spoke <i>stammering</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,11);">Isa 28:11</a>). God's mode of teaching offends by its simplicity the pride of sinners (<a onclick="return mV('2Ki',5,11,12);">2Ki 5:11-12</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',1,23);">1Cr 1:23</a>). <i>Stammerers</i> as they were by drunkenness, and children in knowledge of God, they needed to be spoken to in the language of children, and "with stammering lips" (compare <a onclick="return mV('Mat',13,13);">Mat 13:13</a>). A just and merciful retribution.
<p id="Isa28_11"><b>11. For</b>&#8212;rather, "Truly." This is <i>Isaiah's reply to</i> the scoffers: Your drunken questions shall be answered by the severe lessons from God conveyed through the Assyrians and Babylonians; the dialect of these, though Semitic, like the <i>Hebrew,</i> was so far different as to sound to the Jews like the speech of <i>stammerers</i> (compare <a onclick="return mV('Isa',33,19);">Isa 33:19</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',36,11);">36:11</a>). To them who will not understand God will speak still more unintelligibly.
<p id="Isa28_12"><b>12.</b> Rather, "He (Jehovah) who hath said to them."
<br><br><b>this...the rest</b>&#8212;Reference may be primarily to "rest" from national warlike preparations, the Jews being at the time "weary" through various preceding calamities, as the Syro-Israelite invasion (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',7,8);">Isa 7:8</a>; compare <a onclick="return mV('Isa',30,15);">Isa 30:15</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',22,8);">22:8</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',39,2);">39:2</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',36,1);">36:1</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Ki',18,8);">2Ki 18:8</a>). But spiritually, the "rest" meant is that to be found in obeying those very "precepts" of God (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,10);">Isa 28:10</a>) which they jeered at (compare <a onclick="return mV('Jer',6,16);">Jer 6:16</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Mat',11,29);">Mat 11:29</a>).
<p id="Isa28_13"><b>13. But</b>&#8212;rather, "Therefore," namely, because "they would not hear" (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,12);">Isa 28:12</a>).
<br><br><b>that they might go</b>&#8212;the <i>designed result</i> to those who, from a defect of <i>the will,</i> so far from profiting by God's mode of instructing, "precept upon precept," etc., made it into a stumbling-block (<a onclick="return mV('Hsa',6,5);">Hsa 6:5</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hsa',8,12);">8:12</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Mat',13,14);">Mat 13:14</a>).
<br><br><b>go, and fall</b>&#8212;image appropriately from "drunkards" (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,7);">Isa 28:7</a>, which they were) who in trying to "go <i>forward</i> fall <i>backward.</i>"
<p id="Isa28_14"><b>14. scornful</b>&#8212;(See on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Isa/Isa028.html#Isa28_9">Isa 28:9</a>).
<p id="Isa28_15"><b>15. said</b>&#8212;virtually, in your conduct, if not in words.
<br><br><b>covenant</b>&#8212;There may be a tacit reference to their confidence in their "covenant" with the Assyrians in the early part of Hezekiah's prosperous reign, before he ceased to pay tribute to them, as if it ensured Judah from evil, whatever might befall the neighboring Ephraim (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,1);">Isa 28:1</a>). The <i>full</i> meaning is shown by the language ("covenant with death&#8212;hell," or <i>sheol</i>) to apply to all lulled in false security spiritually (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',12,4);">Psa 12:4</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Ecc',8,8);">Ecc 8:8</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',8,11);">Jer 8:11</a>); the godly alone are in covenant with death (<a onclick="return mV('Job',5,23);">Job 5:23</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hsa',2,18);">Hsa 2:18</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Cr',3,22);">1Cr 3:22</a>).
<br><br><b>overflowing scourge</b>&#8212;two metaphors: the hostile Assyrian armies like an overwhelming flood.
<br><br><b>pass through</b>&#8212;namely, through Judea on their way to Egypt, to punish it as the protector of Samaria (<a onclick="return mV('2Ki',17,4);">2Ki 17:4</a>).
<br><br><b>lies</b>&#8212;<i>They</i> did not use these <i>words,</i> but Isaiah designates their sentiments by their true name (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',2,4);">Amo 2:4</a>).
<p id="Isa28_16"><b>16.</b> Literally, "<i>Behold Me</i> as Him who <i>has laid</i>"; namely, in My divine counsel (<a onclick="return mV('Rev',13,8);">Rev 13:8</a>); none save I could lay it (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',63,5);">Isa 63:5</a>).
<br><br><b>stone</b>&#8212;<i>Jesus Christ; Hezekiah</i> [MAURER], or <i>the temple</i> [EWALD], do not realize the full significancy of the language; but only in type point to Him, in whom the prophecy receives its exhaustive accomplishment; whether <i>Isaiah</i> understood its fulness or not (<a onclick="return mV('1Pe',1,11,12);">1Pe 1:11-12</a>), the Holy Ghost plainly contemplated its fulfilment in Christ alone; so in <a onclick="return mV('Isa',32,1);">Isa 32:1</a>; compare <a onclick="return mV('Gen',49,24);">Gen 49:24</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Psa',118,22);">Psa 118:22</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Mat',21,42);">Mat 21:42</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Rom',10,11);">Rom 10:11</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eph',2,20);">Eph 2:20</a>.
<br><br><b>tried</b>&#8212;both by the devil (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',4,'1-13');">Luk 4:1-13</a>) and by men (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',20,'1-38');">Luk 20:1-38</a>), and even by God (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',27,46);">Mat 27:46</a>); a stone of tested solidity to bear the vast superstructure of man's redemption. The <i>tested righteousness</i> of Christ gives its peculiar merit to His vicarious sacrifice. The connection with the context is; though a "scourge" shall visit Judea (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,15);">Isa 28:15</a>), yet God's gracious purpose as to the elect remnant, and His kingdom of which "Zion" shall be the center, shall not fail, because its rests on Messiah (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',7,24,25);">Mat 7:24-25</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Ti',2,19);">2Ti 2:19</a>).
<br><br><b>precious</b>&#8212;literally "of preciousness," so in the <i>Greek,</i> (<a onclick="return mV('1Pe',2,7);">1Pe 2:7</a>). <i>He is preciousness.</i>
<br><br><b>corner-stone</b>&#8212; (<a onclick="return mV('1Ki',5,17);">1Ki 5:17</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Ki',7,9);">7:9</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Job',38,6);">Job 38:6</a>); the stone laid at the corner where two walls meet and connecting them; often costly.
<br><br><b>make haste</b>&#8212;flee in hasty alarm; but the <i>Septuagint</i> has "be ashamed"; so <a onclick="return mV('Rom',9,33);">Rom 9:33</a>, and <a onclick="return mV('1Pe',2,6);">1Pe 2:6</a>, "be confounded," substantially the same idea; he who rests on Him shall not have the shame of disappointment, nor flee in sudden panic (see <a onclick="return mV('Isa',30,15);">Isa 30:15</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',32,17);">32:17</a>).
<p id="Isa28_17"><b>17. line</b>&#8212;the measuring-line of the plummet. HORSLEY translates, "I will appoint judgment for the rule, and justice for the plummet." As the corner-stone stands most perpendicular and exactly proportioned, so Jehovah, while holding out grace to believers in the Foundation-stone, will judge the scoffers (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,15);">Isa 28:15</a>) according to the exact <i>justice</i> of the law (compare <a onclick="return mV('Jam',2,13);">Jam 2:13</a>).
<br><br><b>hail</b>&#8212;divine judgment (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',30,30);">Isa 30:30</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',32,19);">32:19</a>).
<p id="Isa28_18"><b>18. disannulled</b>&#8212;obliterated, as letters traced on a waxen tablet are obliterated by passing the stylus over it.
<br><br><b>trodden down</b>&#8212;passing from the metaphor in "scourge" to the thing meant, the <i>army</i> which <i>treads down</i> its enemies.
<p id="Isa28_19"><b>19. From the time,</b> etc.&#8212;rather, "As often as it comes over (that is, passes through), it shall overtake you" [HORSLEY]; like a flood returning <i>from time to time,</i> frequent hostile invasions shall assail Judah, after the deportation of the ten tribes.
<br><br><b>vexation...understand...report</b>&#8212;rather, "It shall be a terror even to hear the mere report of it" [MAURER], (<a onclick="return mV('1Sa',3,11);">1Sa 3:11</a>). But G. V. SMITH, "Hard treatment (HORSLEY, 'dispersion') only shall make you to understand instruction"; they scorned at the simple way in which the prophet offered it (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,9);">Isa 28:9</a>); therefore, they must be taught by the severe teachings of adversity.
<p id="Isa28_20"><b>20.</b> Proverbial, for they shall find all their sources of confidence fail them; all shall be hopeless perplexity in their affairs.
<p id="Isa28_21"><b>21. Perazim</b>&#8212;In the valley of Rephaim (<a onclick="return mV('2Sa',5,18,20);">2Sa 5:18, 20</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Ch',14,11);">1Ch 14:11</a>), there Jehovah, by David, <i>broke forth</i> as waters do, and made a <i>breach</i> among the <i>Philistines,</i> David's enemies, as <i>Perazim</i> means, expressing a sudden and complete overthrow.
<br><br><b>Gibeon</b>&#8212; (<a onclick="return mV('1Ch',14,16);">1Ch 14:16</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Sa',5,25);">2Sa 5:25</a>, <i>Margin</i>); not Joshua's victory (<a onclick="return mV('Jos',10,10);">Jos 10:10</a>).
<br><br><b>strange</b>&#8212;as being against His own people; judgment is not what God delights in; it is, though necessary, yet strange to Him (<a onclick="return mV('Lam',3,33);">Lam 3:33</a>).
<br><br><b>work</b>&#8212;punishing the guilty (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',10,12);">Isa 10:12</a>).
<p id="Isa28_22"><b>22. mockers</b>&#8212;a sin which they had committed (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,9,10);">Isa 28:9-10</a>).
<br><br><b>bands</b>&#8212;their Assyrian bondage (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',10,27);">Isa 10:27</a>); Judah was then tributary to Assyria; or, "lest your punishment be made still more severe" (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',24,22);">Isa 24:22</a>).
<br><br><b>consumption</b>&#8212;destruction (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',10,22,23);">Isa 10:22-23</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Dan',9,27);">Dan 9:27</a>).
<p id="Isa28_23"><b>23.</b> Calling attention to the following illustration from husbandry (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',49,1,2);">Psa 49:1-2</a>). As the husbandman does his different kinds of work, each in its <i>right time</i> and <i>due proportion,</i> so God adapts His measures to the varying exigencies of the several cases: now mercy, now judgments; now punishing sooner, now later (an answer to the scoff that His judgments, being put off so long, would never come at all, <a onclick="return mV('Isa',5,19);">Isa 5:19</a>); His object being not to <i>destroy</i> His people any more than the farmer's object in threshing is to destroy his crop; this vindicates God's "strange work" (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,21);">Isa 28:21</a>) in punishing His people. Compare the same image, <a onclick="return mV('Jer',24,6);">Jer 24:6</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hsa',2,23);">Hsa 2:23</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Mat',3,12);">Mat 3:12</a>.
<p id="Isa28_24"><b>24. all day</b>&#8212;emphatic; he is not <i>always</i> ploughing: he also "sows," and that, too, in accordance with sure rules (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,25);">Isa 28:25</a>).
<br><br><b>doth he open</b>&#8212;supply "always." Is he <i>always harrowing?</i>
<p id="Isa28_25"><b>25. face</b>&#8212;the "surface" of the ground: "made plain," or level, by harrowing.
<br><br><b>fitches</b>&#8212;rather, "dill," or "fennel"; <i>Nigella romana,</i> with black seed, easily beaten out, used as a condiment and medicine in the East. So the <i>Septuagint,</i> "cummin" was used in the same way.
<br><br><b>cast in...principal wheat</b>&#8212;rather, <i>plant the wheat in rows</i> (for wheat was thought to yield the largest crop, by being planted sparingly [PLINY, <i>Natural History,</i> 18.21]); [MAURER]; "sow the wheat regularly" [HORSLEY]. But GESENIUS, like <i>English Version,</i> "fat," or "principal," that is, excellent wheat.
<br><br><b>appointed barley</b>&#8212;rather, "barley in its appointed place" [MAURER].
<br><br><b>in their place</b>&#8212;rather, "in its (the field's) border" [MAURER].
<p id="Isa28_26"><b>26. to discretion</b>&#8212;in the due rules of husbandry; God first taught it to man (<a onclick="return mV('Gen',3,23);">Gen 3:23</a>).
<p id="Isa28_27"><b>27.</b> The husbandman uses the same discretion in threshing. The dill ("fitches") and cummin, leguminous and tender grains, are beaten out, not as wheat, etc., with the heavy corn-drag ("threshing instrument"), but with "a staff"; heavy instruments would crush and injure the seed.
<br><br><b>cart wheel</b>&#8212;two iron wheels armed with iron teeth, like a saw, joined together by a wooden axle. The "corn-drag" was made of three or four wooden cylinders, armed with iron teeth or flint stones fixed underneath, and joined like a sledge. Both instruments cut the straw for fodder as well as separated the corn.
<br><br><b>staff</b>&#8212;used also where they had but a small quantity of <i>corn;</i> the flail (<a onclick="return mV('Rth',2,17);">Rth 2:17</a>).
<p id="Isa28_28"><b>28. Bread corn</b>&#8212;corn of which bread is made.
<br><br><b>bruised</b>&#8212;<i>threshed</i> with the corn-drag (as contrasted with dill and cummin, "beaten with the staff"), or, "trodden out" by the hoofs of cattle driven over it on the threshing-floor [G. V. SMITH], (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',25,4);">Deu 25:4</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Mic',4,13);">Mic 4:13</a>).
<br><br><b>because</b>&#8212;rather, "but" [HORSLEY]; though the corn is threshed with the heavy instrument, <i>yet</i> he will not always be thus threshing it.
<br><br><b>break it</b>&#8212;"drive over it (continually) the wheel" [MAURER].
<br><br><b>cart</b>&#8212;threshing-drag.
<br><br><b>horsemen</b>&#8212;rather, "horses"; used to tread out corn.
<p id="Isa28_29"><b>29. This also</b>&#8212;The skill wherewith the husbandman duly adjusts his modes of threshing is given by God, as well as the skill (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,26);">Isa 28:26</a>) wherewith he tills and sows (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',28,24,25);">Isa 28:24-25</a>). Therefore He must also be able to adapt His modes of treatment to the several moral needs of His creatures. His object in sending <i>tribulation</i> (derived from the Latin <i>tribulum,</i> a "threshing instrument," <a onclick="return mV('Luk',22,31);">Luk 22:31</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Rom',5,3);">Rom 5:3</a>) is to sever the moral chaff from the wheat, not to crush utterly; "His judgments are usually in the line of our offenses; by the nature of the judgments we may usually ascertain the nature of the sin" [BARNES].
</div></div><div class="return"><a href="#top">Return to Top</a></div>
<script src="./js/MainFooter.js" type="text/javascript"></script>