A king Hezekiah, a type of Christ, and Christ typified by him.

Shall reign therefore Hezekiah was not king when this prophecy was delivered. And whereas some say that he speaks of the good government of Hezekiah after the destruction of Sennacherib, it is easy to observe that his government was as good before that time as afterward; and that in the very beginning of his reign he ruled with righteousness and the fear of God, as the history plainly declareth.

Princes the ministers of state, and justice, and war under the king. For a wise and good king will take care to have like ministers.

A man ; either,

1. The man or king spoken of. Or,

2. Each or every one, to wit, of his princes. That king shall not patch up an old garment with new cloth, nor mingle good and bad together; but shall take care to purge out all the corrupt magistrates, and, as far as he can, to settle good ones in all places. A man is oft put for every or any man , as Isa 2:20 3:5,6 , and elsewhere.

Shall be as an hiding place unto the people under their government, especially to such as are oppressed or injured by those Who are more potent than they.

From the wind from the rage and violence of evil men.

As rivers of water in a dry place no less refreshing and acceptable shall this king and his princes be to their subjects.

In a weary land in a dry and scorched country, which is called weary here, as also Psa 63:1 , metonymically, because it makes travellers weary; as death is called pale in other authors, because it makes men’ s faces pale.

This is meant either,

1. Of the princes or magistrates, who are instead of eyes and ears, both to the king and to the people, who, by their office, are to see and observe all things, and to hear all causes. These, saith he, shall not shut their eyes, nor suffer them to be blinded with gifts, to favour a rich man in an unjust cause; they shall not shut their ears against the complaints of the poor oppressed ones, as wicked princes commonly do. Or,

2. Of the people; they shall not shut their eyes and ears against the good counsels and examples of their religious king and rulers, as they have done formerly: both princes and people shall be reformed. This was done in some poor measure in Hezekiah’ s time; but far more fully and eminently in the days of the Messiah, who, by his grace, changeth men’ s hearts, and cureth them of that wilful and obstinate blindness whereof they had been guilty before; which clearly showeth that this prophecy looks through Hezekiah unto Christ. And the like may be said of the following verse.

The rash who were hasty and heady in judging of things; which is an argument of ignorance and folly.

Shall understand knowledge shall become more knowing and considerate in their judgments and actions.

The stammerers that used to speak of the things of God darkly, and doubtfully, and unwillingly. As men’ s understandings shall then be enlightened, so their speech shall be reformed; which though it was in part fulfilled in Hezekiah; this reformation being effected in some measure by his counsel and example, and by the powerful preaching of the Levites, whom he excited and encouraged to teach the good knowledge of the Lord , as is said, 2Ch 30:22 ; yet was truly and fully accomplished only by Christ, who wrought this wonderful change in an innumerable company both of Jews and Gentiles.

The vile person base and worthless men. Heb. the fool ; which in Scripture use commonly signifies a wicked man.

Shall be no more called liberal or noble , or a prince , or lord , as this word is used, Psa 118:9 146:3 , and elsewhere. The sense of the place is, either,

1. Unworthy men shall not be advanced to places of honour and power, as the LXX. and some others understand it; for to be called is oft put in Scripture for to be, as hath been frequently observed. Or,

2. Vicious and worthless persons shall no longer be reputed honourable and virtuous because of their high and honourable places, as commonly they are under wicked princes by means of flatterers; but wickedness shall be discovered and punished wheresoever it is, and virtue shall be manifested and rewarded, and all things shall be managed with sincerity and simplicity; which was eminently fulfilled under the gospel; by the preaching whereof, and by Christ’ s Spirit, hypocrites are detected, and men are enabled to discern between good and evil, both persons and things. The churl ; the sordid and covetous man; which is a great vice in any man, but especially in magistrates; who therefore must be men hating covetousness, Exo 18:21 . But under this one vice all vices are understood by a synecdoche, very frequent in Scripture and in other authors; as under the apposite virtue of bountifulness all virtues are comprehended.

For the vile person will speak villany: so this is a reason of the assertion, Isa 32:5 ; either thus, Such shall not be advanced to places of trust and dignity; for if they were, they would abuse them by unjust sentences and practices. Or thus, Men shall no longer be miscalled; for every one will discover what he is by his Words and actions; which also shall be narrowly observed. But these and the following words are and may be otherwise rendered: But (as this particle oft signifies) he shall be called or said to be (which words are easily understood out of the former verse, as is very frequent in Scripture) a fool , who (which relative particle is understood in very many places) shall speak villany, and whose heart shall work iniquity , &c.

His heart will work iniquity he will, from time to time, be devising wickedness, that he may execute it when he hath opportunity.

To practise hypocrisy: to, do bad things, but with a pretence of religion and justice, which he shall use to keep himself from the disfavour of his prince, and from the lash of the law. Or, to practise profaneness or wickedness , as this word, at least sometimes, seems to signify.

To utter error against the Lord to pass unjust sentences, which is directly contrary to the will and command of God.

To make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail whereby they take away the bread and drink of the poor, and give it to their rich oppressors.

The instruments also of the churl are evil Heb. The vessels , &c., which is a word of a very general signification among the Hebrews, and signifies any person or thing which is employed in a man’ s use and service. I say person, for the name of vessel is given to such persons as are instrumental to another, as to the Babylonians, who were God’ s instruments in executing his vengeance, Isa 13:5 to God’ s ministers, Act 9:15 2Co 4:5 ; and to useful Christians, 2Ti 2:20 ; and to wives, 1Pe 3:7 . And so it may be here noted, that such covetous or wicked princes most willingly choose and employ wicked men in their affairs, because such men will, without any regard to conscience or justice, serve all their exorbitant desires or lusts. But withal, it seems to include his counsels, and practices, and arts, which are here declared to be generally evil. But this verse is and may be otherwise rendered, as the former was; And (repeat, he shall be called ) a churl (as indeed he is one) whose instruments are evil, and who deviseth , &c.; which agrees with the order of the words in the Hebrew text, and with the order of the foregoing verses: for as he speaks of the vile person , and of the churl , Isa 32:6 ; so he gives a description of the vile person, Isa 32:6 , and then of the churl , in this verse.

He deviseth wicked devices he useth all his wit and art to do injury to others, without any inconvenience to himself.

With lying words with false and unrighteous decrees.

When the needy speaketh right when their cause is just and good.

He who is truly liberal and virtuous will show it by designing and practising liberal or virtuous actions; and he who doth so will not destroy himself thereby, as wicked men falsely suppose, but establish and advance himself. But this verse also, as Well as the former, is and may be otherwise rendered; And (repeat, he shall be called , as before)

liberal who deviseth liberal things, and persisteth or continueth in liberal things. If it be thought strange that so many verses should be spent in affirming that which in effect was said Isa 32:5 , it must be considered that these verses do not only contain an affirmation, that they should be called vile persons , or churls , or liberal that were so; but also a description of their qualities and practices, which was useful for their conviction, and for the instruction of others.

Rise up bestir and prepare yourselves to hear, as it follows, and shake off sloth and carelessness.

That are at ease that indulge yourselves in idleness and luxury.

Careless Heb. confident or secure , who are insensible of your sin and danger.

Daughters the same before called women ; whom he here reproveth and threateneth for their sins, as he did the men before for seeking to Egypt for help, and divers other sins, whereof the men were most guilty.

Many days and years Heb. Days above a year , i.e. a year and some days; which notes either,

1. The time from this prophecy to the beginning of this judgment; or rather,

2. The time of the continuance of it, that it should last for above one year; as indeed this did, and no longer; for Hezekiah reigned in all but twenty-nine years, 2Ki 18:2 , and Sennacherib came in his fourteenth year, and after his defeat and departure God promised and added to him fifteen years more, 2Ki 20:6 .

The vintage shall fail during the time of the Assyrian invasion. And this commination is here added to qualify the foregoing promise, and to warn them, that although God would give them so good a king, and there should be some reformation of their former abuses under the government of Ahaz; yet as there were many sins among them not yet repented of, so they should be severely chastised for them.

The gathering to wit, of the other fruits of the earth; as that feast which was observed after the gathering of all the fruits was called the feast of ingathering, Exo 23:16 .

Strip you, and make you bare put off your ornaments, as God commanded upon a like occasion, Exo 33:5 , that you may put on sackcloth instead of them, as mourners and penitents used to do.

They shall lament for the teats either,

1. Properly, because through famine your teats are destitute of milk for the nourishment of your poor children. Or rather,

2. Metaphorically, as the following words explain it,

for the pleasant and fruitful fields which like teats yielded you plentiful and excellent nourishment, for which the land was said to flow with milk , Eze 20:6 . And the earth being compared to the womb that bare us, Job 1:21 , it is not strange if its fruitful fields be compared to the breasts which nourish us.

Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers If any of you think there is no great cause for such trembling and lamentation, which shall last but for a year and some days, know that this calamity by the Assyrians is but an earnest of further and sorer judgments; for the time is coming when this land shall be laid desolate, and instead of vines and other fruits, it shall yield nothing but briers and thorns; of which see on Isa 7:23,24 .

Upon all the houses of joy upon that ground where now your houses stand, in which you delight, and take your fill of mirth and pleasure.

The palaces Heb. the palace ; the king’ s house, and other magnificent buildings in the city.

Shall be left or rather, shall be forsaken , to wit, of God, and given up into their enemies’ hands. And the verb in the foregoing clause may be rendered, shall be left .

A joy of wild asses desolate places, in which wild asses delight to be, Job 39:5,6 Jer 2:24 .

Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high: and this calamity and desolation shall, in a manner, continue until the time come, in which God will pour , or, as the Hebrew word properly signifies, reveal, i.e. evidently and plentifully pour out, his Spirit from heaven upon his people; which was done in some sort upon the return of the people from Babylon, when God, by his Spirit, stirred up the spirit, both of Cyrus to give them liberty of returning to Jerusalem, and of the people to return and build the city and temple; but was far more clearly and fully accomplished in the days of the Messiah. And indeed the promises contained in these and the following words and verses were not fulfilled upon their coming out of Babylon, after which time they had but a little reviving in their bond . age, as is said, Ezr 9:8 , and continued in servitude and distress under the Persian emperors, Neh 9:36,37 , and afterward suffered many and grievous calamities from the kings of Syria and Egypt, and from the Romans; which suits very ill with that glorious promise here following, Isa 32:18 . And therefore these promises concern the times of the gospel, when God’ s Spirit was in a most evident and glorious manner poured forth upon the apostles, and other believing Jews, to the astonishment of their very adversaries; and when the following promises were in a good measure fulfilled, and are more fully to be accomplished in God’ s due time.

The wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest which is allegorically understood. The meaning may be this; God’ s people, who were desolate and destroyed, shall be revived and flourish, and their flourishing enemies shall be brought to desolation and destruction. It may also signify the conversion of the barren and despised Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews, in the time of the Messiah.

Judgment just judgment, as the next clause explains it. Justice shall be executed in all the parts of the land, both in the barren and fruitful places, and shall be practised by all my people; which agrees with that promise, Isa 60:21 , Thy people shall be all righteous , &c.

The work of righteousness shall be peace the effect of this prevailing practice of righteousness shall be prosperity and outward felicity.

Quietness tranquillity, both of mind and outward estate.

Assurance or, confidence . The observation of God’ s precepts will beget in them a confidence and assurance of God’ s mercy, and the fulfilling of his promises.

My people either the Gentiles, who then shall be my people; or the Jews, to whom this promise shall be made good upon their conversion to Christ in the latter times of the gospel.

When it shall hail, coming down on the forest Heb. And it shall hail , &c. As my blessings shall be poured down upon my people, who from a wilderness are turned into a fruitful field, as it is said, Isa 32:15 ; so my wrath and judgments (which are signified by hail, Isa 28:2,17 , and elsewhere) shall fall upon them, who were a fruitful field, but are turned into a forest, as was said, Isa 32:15 , i.e. upon the unbelieving and rebellious Jews, who seem there to be designed under that notion.

The city either,

1. Babylon, the great enemy and oppressor of God’ s people. Or,

2. Jerusalem, which, though now it was the seat of God’ s worship and people, yet he foresaw by the Spirit of prophecy that it would be the great enemy of the Messiah, and of God’ s people.

Shall be low in a low place Heb. shall be humbled with humiliation ; which by an ordinary Hebraism signifies, shall be greatly humbled, or brought very low .

Blessed are ye that sow: as the barren forest shall be destroyed with hail, Isa 32:19 , so the fruitful field shall be improved, and bring forth much fruit; which is signified by a declaration of the blessedness of them that sow in it.

Beside all waters in all moist and fat grounds, which are like to yield good fruit. But this passage, as well as others in the foregoing verses, is to be understood mystically, and seems to respect the times of the gospel. The prophet reflecting upon his own unsuccessful labours, of which he complains, Isa 49:4 , and elsewhere, and foreseeing by, the Spirit the great and happy success of his successors, the ministers of the gospel, tacitly bewails his own unhappiness, who sowed his seed upon dry and barren ground, by congratulating the happiness of the apostles, who sowed their seed more generally, upon all fit grounds, without any distinction between Jews and Gentiles; and who found the ground, to wit, the hearts of the people, more moistened and softened, and better prepared to receive the good seed of God’ s word.

The ox and the ass which creatures they employed in ploughing and sowing the ground, Deu 22:10 Psa 144:14 Isa 30:24 .

See Philpot: THE WAY-WORN PILGRIM’S HIDING PLACE

Women. Great cities. He announces the impending dangers.

King. Ezechias or Josias, as figures of Jesus Christ, who is meant. (Calmet) ---

They and their counsellors only foreshewed the advantages derived from Christ and his apostles in a more abundant manner. (St. Jerome) ---

Judgment and justice. These words have a higher meaning than what is assigned to them by philosophers. In God, the former implies the preparation of the means for man's redemption, as the latter does the execution; and in man, judgment denotes the selection of what is right, and justice implies the putting it willingly in practice. Thus Christ will fulfill all the he has graciously purposed, with the two other divine persons; and the princes, his pastors, shall discern what is good for their own and people's eternal welfare. (Worthington)

Land. Ezechias and Josias were both a defence to their subjects.

Dim. True prophets shall speak, while false ones shall be silent. (Calmet)

Plain. Some parts of the prediction relate literally to the Old Testament. But this alludes to the New, when the mysteries of religion are clearly confessed in the Catholic Church. (Worthington) ---

Even the most illiterate are guided with security, if they will but hear the Church. (Haydock)

Deceitful. Hebrew, "miser be called liberal," Luke xxii. 25. These good princes are contrasted with Achaz, who had oppressed his subjects.

Vessels. Arms, (Calmet) or all the words and actions of the miser are bent on evil. (Haydock) ---

The ministers of wicked princes resemble them. (Menochius)

Year. After a long time; or the prophet speaks two years before the arrival of Sennacherib, after the vintage was ended, chap. xxx. 20., and 4 Kings xix. 29. (Calmet)

Mourn. Septuagint, "beat." (Haydock) ---

Breasts, suckling infants. In mourning, women beat and uncovered their breasts, which, on any other occasion, would have been deemed very indecent. (Calmet) (Ezechiel xxiii. 34.) (Herodotus ii. 84.)

Up. Being uncultivated for two years. This was still more the case during the captivity. (Calmet) ---

How. Septuagint, "from every house joy shall be taken away, thou rich city." (Haydock)

Ever. Some palaces had been demolished by Sennacherib, though this seems to refer to the Babylonian captivity.

High, as Ezechiel (xxxvii. 10.) saw the dry bones rise again. Under this idea prosperity is frequently described. The rest of the chapter may very well be explained of the propagation of the gospel. ---

Forest. Carmel was a fertile spot. Judea shall flourish, and Assyria shall be laid waste. The synagogue will be rejected, while the Gentiles, (Calmet) formerly so barren, shall embrace the faith and true piety. (Haydock)

Peace. The just shall enjoy peace, under Ezechias.

Hail. God's judgment shall overtake Babylon, or rather Ninive.

Waters. Fruitful soils, abounding with cattle. (Calmet) ---

Both Jews and Gentiles shall submit to Christ. (Clement of Alexandria, Strom. vi.) (St. Jerome)

Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness,.... Not Hezekiah, as the Jewish writers; at least only as a type, as some writers interpret it; rather Christ himself, who is "King" not only of the whole world, and of the kings of it in general, but in particular is King of saints; and who "reigns" now in and over his church and people, being set as King by his Father over his holy hill of Zion, and, being exalted at his right hand, is made and declared Lord and Christ; and where he does and will reign until all enemies are put under his feet, and ere long will reign gloriously before his ancients in Jerusalem, Isa 24:23 and his reign is "in righteousness"; in a righteous manner, according to the rules of justice and equity: all his laws are just; his ways and methods of administration are right; his sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness: righteousness is the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins:

and princes shall rule in judgment: the ministers of the Gospel, pastors of churches, who are set over them in the Lord, and have the rule over them; and who rule well, and in judgment, when they rule according to the word of God; when they preach the Gospel, and administer ordinances, and do all the business of Christ's house, according to the instructions, laws, and rules he has given.

And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,.... Or, "that man"; the King Messiah before mentioned; who had agreed to become man, was promised and prophesied of as such, had often appeared in a human form, was to be incarnate, and now is; though he is not a mere man; were he, he could not be what is here said of him, "as a hiding place, and covert from the wind and tempest", of his Father's wrath, raised by sin; and which all men are deserving of, and on whom it must fall, unless secured from it by Christ; who has bore it in the room and stead of his people, has turned it away, and delivered them from it, and all the effects of it, so that nothing of it comes upon them; he has endured the whole force of the storm himself; and his righteousness, blood, sacrifice, and intercession, screen his people from it: he also hides and covers them from Satan's temptations, the blast of the terrible ones, which is as a storm against the wall, so as they shall not be destroyed by them; by praying for them, succouring of them, supplying them with his grace, and delivering from them in his own time: likewise he protects them from the rage and fury of their persecuting enemies, when they come like a "whirlwind" to "scatter" them; they have rest in him, when troubled by men; and security by him, when these winds and waves beat upon them; and when they are tossed with the tempests of afflictions of various kinds, he bears them up under them, and carries them through them, and delivers out of them, and brings them at last safe to glory:

as rivers of water in a dry place; which are very delightful, refreshing, and fructifying. This denotes the abundance of grace in Christ, and the freeness of it, which flows from the boundless ocean of divine love, and which greatly comforts and refreshes the souls of the Lord's people in this dry and barren land, and makes them cheerful and fruitful, revives their spirits, makes glad their hearts, and causes them to go on their way rejoicing:

as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land: to travellers in it, who passing through a desert in hot countries and sultry climates, are glad when they find a rock which casts a shade, under which their can sit a while, sheltered from the scorching sun. Such a weary land is this world to the saints, who are wearied with sins, their own and others, with Satan's temptations, with afflictions and troubles of various sorts; Christ is the "Rock" that is higher than they, to whom they are directed and led when their hearts are overwhelmed within them; on whom not only their souls are built, and their feet are set, and he is a shelter to them; but he casts a shadow, which is very reviving and refreshing, and that is the shadow of his word and ordinances, under which they sit with delight and pleasure, and which makes their travelling through this wilderness comfortable.

And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim,.... Not of the seers and prophets, or ministers of the word only, but of the righteous in general, as the Targum; even all such as are illuminated by the Spirit of God, who shall have a clear discerning of Gospel truths, behold with open face, with eyes unveiled, the glory of them, and of Christ in them, and not have their eyes covered, or such a dim obscure knowledge of them as under the law; and not only the watchmen shall see, eye to eye, all truths clearly and distinctly, but even all, from the least to the greatest, shall know the Lord, and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of him, as the waters cover the sea. It is a prophecy of the great increase of spiritual light in the times of the Messiah:

and the ears of them that hear shall hearken: very diligently and attentively to the word preached, and receive and embrace the doctrines of the Gospel, and submit to, and obey, the ordinances of it.

The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge,.... Such who have been hasty and precipitant, as the word ^c signifies; who have not given themselves time to consider what they have read or heard, or has been proposed unto them, and have hastily received every thing that has been suggested to them, especially by carnal sense and reason, shall now sit down, and coolly consider things, and so gain an understanding of divine and spiritual knowledge, of the knowledge of Christ, of his person, offices, grace, righteousness, and salvation; an experimental knowledge and understanding of these things, heart and not head knowledge:

and the tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak plainly; or, "shall make haste to speak neatly" ^d; elegantly and politely; such who hesitated in their speech, and spoke in a blundering manner, and scarcely intelligibly, especially when they spoke of divine and spiritual things, yet now, without the least hesitation, in the freest and most ready manner, with all plainness and propriety shall talk of these things, to the great delight, satisfaction, and use of those that hear them: this was true of the apostles of Christ, those babes and sucklings, out of whose mouth God ordained praise, and who were most of them Galilaeans, very illiterate and unpolished, and yet these, especially when they had the gift of tongues, spake the great things of God very readily, and in good language; and also is true of other ministers of the word, raised up among the barbarous nations of the world.

The vile person shall be no more called liberal,.... Or "Nabal" (a fool) "shall no more be called Nadib" ^e (a prince); or have this name put upon him, or be advanced to honour and dignity, or be flattered with such a title, so unbecoming him. The sense seems to be, that, in Gospel times, such who are fools as to the knowledge of spiritual things, that have no spiritual and experimental knowledge of the truths of the Gospel, but are quite ignorant of them, shall not be made princes, or spiritual rulers, and governors in the house of God;

nor the churl said to be bountiful; or called a lord, as Jarchi interprets the word; which, he says, is used of such an one, because all men look to him, and respect him ^f; but now a covetous and tenacious man, that withholds more than is meet, that keeps, all he has to himself, without communicating to others, and scarcely allows himself the necessaries of life, being so sordidly avaricious, such an one shall not be a pastor, or ruler, in the church of God; such were the Scribes and Pharisees among the Jews in Christ's time, and therefore rejected, Mat 23:14 folly and covetousness are both bad things in a minister of the word, and greatly disqualify a man for that work and office: or else the sense of the whole is, that there should be such a discerning of men in Gospel times, and such faithfulness used towards them, that a wicked man should not be taken for a good man, nor in a flattering way be called one; but the precious and the vile should be distinguished, and called by their right names. The Targum is,

"the wicked man shall be no more called just, and they that transgress his word shall not be called mighty.''

For the vile person will speak villainy,.... Or, "a fool will utter folly" ^g; a man that has no understanding of Gospel truths himself can not deliver them to others; he will only speak foolish things, concerning the purity of human nature, the power of man's free will, the sufficiency of his own righteousness to justify him, and the merits of good works, and the like; and therefore such a man is a very improper one to be a guide and governor in the church of God:

and his heart will work iniquity; forge and devise it within himself; will form schemes of false doctrine, discipline, and worship, disagreeable to the word of God:

to practise hypocrisy; to make men believe he is a very devout and religious man, when he has no good thing in him, and to put others upon a profession of religion that have none; which things are commonly done by foolish and ignorant preachers:

and to utter error against the Lord; such doctrines as are contrary to the free, rich, sovereign grace of God; to the deity, personality, sonship, offices, blood, sacrifice, and righteousness of Christ, and so to the person and operations of the blessed Spirit:

to make empty the soul of the hungry; and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail; the "hungry" and "thirsty" are such as hunger and thirst after, and earnestly desire, the sincere milk of the word for their spiritual nourishment and growth; whose "souls" become "empty", and their "drink" fails, when the doctrines of grace are not dispensed unto them, but false and unedifying doctrines are delivered, so that their souls sink and faint, and are ready to die away, for want of the bread of the Gospel; agreeably to this sense, the Targum paraphrases the words thus,

"to make the soul of the righteous weary, who desire doctrine, as a hungry man bread; and the words of the law, which are as water to him that is thirsty, they think to cause to cease.''

The instruments also of the churl are evil,.... Not his vessels or measures he sells by, which are small and deficient, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it; nor his servants, his tools in doing his wickedness, which are fit for his purpose, wicked men; but rather these are much the same with "the instruments of the foolish shepherd", Zec 11:15 and may signify the evil ways and methods which covetous pastors or shepherds take to fleece the flock, and to increase their own gain:

he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right; he consults, contrives, and forms schemes with all craft and cunning, on purpose, to corrupt, as the word ^h signifies, the poor and meek, humble and afflicted souls, with false doctrines; even when these poor and needy ones, who want to have sound and comfortable doctrine delivered to them, speak and ask for that which is right and just, agreeably to the oracles of God, and the analogy of faith, but can not have it; wherefore such a man is unfit to be a ruler in the house of God.

But the liberal man deviseth liberal things,.... The man of a princely spirit consults and contrives, and delivers out things worthy of a prince and governor in the church of God; he that is one of a free spirit, that is made free by the Spirit of God, and is led into the doctrines of free grace, will study to deliver out the same to others, and, as he has freely received, he will freely give, and without any sinister, selfish, and mercenary ends and views:

and by liberal things shall he stand; or, "be established" ⁱ; both by the doctrines of free grace he dispenses to others, to be established by and with which is a good thing; and by the free communications of the gifts and grace of the Spirit to him, to supply and furnish him yet more and more for his work; by the discoveries of the free favour of God unto him; by the enjoyment of his gracious presence in private and in public; by the blessings of a free and well ordered covenant; and, at last, by being brought to eternal glory and happiness, in which he will be settled to all eternity; or, "on liberal things shall he stand"; grace here, and glory hereafter. The Targum is,

"the righteous consult truth, and they upon truth shall stand.''

Rise up, ye women that are at ease,.... On beds of down, unconcerned about the present or future state of the nation; who had their share of guilt in the nation's sins, particularly pride, luxury, superstition, rejection of the Messiah, and contempt of his Gospel, and so should have their part in its punishment. Some think that the men of the nation are so called, because of their effeminacy. The Jews interpret them of the other cities of Judea, besides Jerusalem; the Targum explains it by provinces:

hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear to my speech; the words of the prophet concerning the future desolation of their country; here it is thought the lesser towns and villages are intended by daughters, who dwelt in confidence and security, having no thought and notion of destruction coming upon them; so Ben Melech interprets the "women" of cities, and the "daughters" of villages.

Many days and years shall ye be troubled,.... Or, "days above a year" ^k; a year, and somewhat more, yet not two years; which some understand of the time from this prophecy, until their troubles began, by the invasion of Sennacherib; and others of the continuance of it, it lasting more than a year; or, "days with a year"; so Kimchi, days upon a year, year upon year, one year after another; and so denotes a long duration of their troubles; and so the troubles of the Jews, before their utter destruction by the Romans, lasted a great while, and since to this day; for the prophecy respects those times. Kimchi says it may be interpreted of the destruction of the whole land of Israel, and of the destruction of the temple in the days of Zedekiah; or of the destruction of the second temple, that is, by the Romans:

for the vintage shall fail; being spoiled by the enemy, or taken for their own use; and so there would be no wine to cheer their hearts, and make them merry:

the gathering shall not come; of the other fruits of the earth; when the time of ingathering should come, at which there was a feast that bore that name, there should be none to be gathered in; the consequence of which must be a famine, and such there was before and at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

Tremble, ye women that are at ease,.... Which may be considered either as an exhortation to repentance for their sins, of which, if a due sense was impressed on their hearts, would cause a trembling of body and mind, under a fearful expectation of divine wrath; or as a prediction, that though they were now quite tranquil and easy, and nothing disturbed them, yet such calamities would come upon them as would make them tremble:

be troubled, ye careless ones; or, "confident ones" ^l; that live securely, trusting in their present wealth and riches, and confident that things will always continue as they are; be it known to you that trouble will come, and better it would be for you if you were now troubled for your sins, and truly repented of them, that the judgments threatened, and coming, might be prevented:

strip ye, and make you bare; of your fine clothes, and beautiful ornaments, in which they prided themselves, which used to be done in time of mourning, Eze 7:27 or it signifies that this should be their case, they would be stripped not only of their richest clothes and decorating jewels, but of their ordinary apparel, and left bare and naked by the enemy:

and gird sackcloth upon your loins; as a token of mourning; see Gen 37:34 the word "sackcloth" is supplied, as it is by Kimchi, and in the Syriac and Arabic versions; though some understand it as a direction to gird their loins for servile work, signifying what would be their condition and circumstances when taken and carried captive by the enemy; they would no longer live at ease, and in pleasure, as mistresses, but would serve as handmaids.

They shall lament for the teats,.... Either of the beasts of the field, that should be dried up, and give no milk, through the great drought that should be upon the land; or through the waste of the herbage by the enemy; or else of the women, their breasts and paps, which should afford no milk for their infants, through the famine that should press them sore, which would occasion great lamentation, both in mothers and children; though some think are to be understood of the fields, and are explained by them in the next clause; the fruitful earth being compared to a woman, its fields are like breasts or paps, which yield food and nourishment, but now should not afford any, and therefore there would be cause of lamentation. Jarchi interprets it, "they shall beat upon their breasts" ^m a gesture used in lamentation to express exceeding great grief and sorrow, Luk 18:13 some, because the word rendered "lament" is of the masculine gender, and so not applicable to women, render the words in connection with the preceding verse Isa 32:11 thus,

"gird sackcloth on your loins, and on your mourning breasts'' ⁿ;

though they may be interpreted indefinitely, "there shall be lamentation for the teats", among all sorts of people, men, women, and children:

for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine; as the fields are when covered with corn and grass, and the vines with clusters of grapes, but now should not be, either through drought, or by being foraged and trampled on by the enemy.

Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers,.... The curse of the earth, the spontaneous productions of it, being uncultivated, and this through want of men, they being destroyed or carried captive by the enemy; this is to be understood of the land of Judea, and not Samaria, as Aben Ezra; where the professing and covenant people of God dwelt; which is mentioned to show the apostasy of this people, for which ruin came upon their land, and the aggravation of it, as well as the goodness of God to them, which continued to the last, still considering them as his people. This respects not the desolation of the country by the Assyrian army, nor by the Chaldeans, but rather by the Romans, even their last destruction:

yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city; not Samaria, the head of the ten tribes, as some; but Jerusalem, the joy of the whole earth, as Jarchi; and the "houses of joy" in it mean not public houses, as taverns, and the like, where persons meet to revel and carouse, but the houses of nobles, princes, and rich men, who lived voluptuously, in great sensuality and carnal mirth, drinking wine in bowls, and chanting to the sound of the viol, and using all instruments of music; but now their houses, in which they enjoyed so much pleasure, should be demolished, and briers and thorns should grow upon the spot where they stood. Some render the word כי, "burning", as in Isa 3:24 "burning shall be on all the houses" ^o, &c.; and think it refers to the burning of the city of Jerusalem, and the palaces or houses of nobles and rich men in it, which was done both by the Chaldeans and by the Romans.

Because the palaces shall be forsaken,.... The palaces of the princes and nobles shall be forsaken by them, they being obliged to flee from the enemy, or being taken, and either slain, or carried captive. The word in the Hebrew is in the singular number, "the palace", meaning the royal palace; and so Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret it of the king's palace; though the Targum paraphrases it the house of the sanctuary, or the temple, so Kimchi; which was left desolate, as Christ foretold it should be, Mat 23:38,

the multitude of the city shall be left; to take care of themselves, and to the fury of their enemies, their princes and nobles being killed or fled; or, "the city shall be left of the multitude" ^p; the multitude of inhabitants that were in it shall forsake it, and flee, or be destroyed in it, so that few or none shall remain:

the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever; Ophel and Bachan, which some take to be the names of two towers of Jerusalem; of Ophel we read in 2Ch 27:3 but rather these intend in general the high towers and strong fortifications of Jerusalem, which being cut out of rocks, when demolished served for dens for thieves and robbers, and wild creatures; and this being "for ever", that is, for a very long time, shows that it cannot be applied to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the seventy years' captivity; but it is to be understood of the last destruction, which continues unto this day:

a joy of wild asses; which delight in wild and desert places; see Job 39:5.

a pasture of flocks; where flocks of sheep feed, instead of being inhabited by men. Jarchi's note is pretty remarkable,

"for the desire, or at the will, of the Ishmaelites, and for the feeding of the Grecians, and their army;''

and certain it is that Jerusalem now is in the hands of the Ishmaelites, or Turks. The Targum is,

"the place which was a house of joy and gladness for kings is now become a spoil for armies.''

Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high,.... That is, Jerusalem shall lie in ruins until this time comes; which therefore cannot be understood of the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, which, as it was before the destruction of the city by the Romans, so the desolation it was brought to by the Chaldeans did not last so long; but must be interpreted of a pouring forth of the Spirit in his gifts and graces yet to come, which will bring on the fulness of the Gentiles, and the conversion of the Jews, and till that time comes Jerusalem will continue in a ruinous condition; the sense is the same with that of Luk 21:24 "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled". The Targum of the place is,

"until refreshing comes to us from the face of him, whose Shechinah, or Majesty, is in the highest heavens;''

with which may be compared Act 3:19,

and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest; this will be the consequence, fruit, and effect of the effusion of the Spirit in the latter day; that such parts of the world as were like a wilderness, barren and unfruitful, producing nothing but the briers and thorns of impiety, infidelity, superstition, and idolatry, should now become like a fruitful field; the Gospel being now preached everywhere, multitudes of souls converted, churches raised and formed, and these filled with such as were laden with the fruits of righteousness; and such places where the Gospel had been preached and professed, and where churches had been planted, and there were some good degree of fruitfulness in word and works, now should be abundantly more fruitful, and the professors of religion more numerous, and look more like a forest, for number of trees, than a field. Kimchi says this whole paragraph shall be accomplished in the days of the Messiah.

Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness,.... In the desert part of the world, inhabited by Pagans, Papists, and Mahometans; where the Scriptures, the rule of judgment, and where the Gospel, sometimes called the judgment of the Lord, Isa 51:4 had no place, now they shall have one, and an abiding one; and men of judgment in spiritual and evangelical things, and such as do justice and judgment, shall dwell there:

and righteousness remain in the fruitful field; both the doctrine and practice of righteousness shall continue in the church of God, which will be the glory of it; the righteous men will be the settled constant inhabitants of it; these will be all righteous at this time, Isa 60:21 not only by profession, but in truth and reality; at least the far greater part; so the Targum interprets it of those that do judgment and do righteousness.

And the work of righteousness shall be peace,.... Not works of righteousness done by men, no, not by the best of men; for though peace may be had and enjoyed in doing them, yet it does not arise and flow from thence, because there is no justification by them, and salvation through them, without which there can be no true solid peace; nor the work of righteousness in men, which is their sanctification, and is indeed the work of God, and follows upon the pouring forth of his Spirit, and therefore bids fairer to be the sense than the former; yet peace is one part and branch of the work itself; see Rom 14:17 but the work of righteousness wrought out for man is rather meant, even the righteousness of Christ, a work proposed unto him, which he undertook, and has wrought out, and which was a work, and lay in working, and was a very toilsome and laborious one; the consequence of which is "peace", inward peace of soul now, and eternal peace hereafter; the righteousness of Christ applied removes the guilt of sin from the conscience, it being perfect justifies from all things, and yields a tranquillity and serenity of mind, which is had in a way of believing, in this righteousness now, and it will issue in everlasting peace and rest in the world to come; the end of the perfect and upright man, who is perfectly justified by Christ's righteousness, is peace, Psa 37:37,

and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever; or, ^q "the service of righteousness"; the same as before, with the "work of righteousness": a service which Christ performed, as a servant, in obedience to the law, in the room and stead of his people; a service perfectly and completely done, and what is well pleasing unto God; and which, when a sensible sinner sees its interest in, produces "quietness" of soul, under the mighty hand of God, amidst all the calamities in the world, and judgments upon men, under the load of calumny and reproach cast upon him, and notwithstanding all the charges and accusations of Satan: moreover, this also gives "assurance for ever", of interest in divine things, in the love of God, and relation to him as a Father, in Christ as a Saviour and Redeemer, and in the glorious inheritance which this gives a title to; or a holy confidence and boldness at the throne of grace now, having this righteousness to make mention of as a justifying one, and also hereafter, before the throne of judgment, this being what will answer for him in a time to come.

And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation,.... Jews and Gentiles, and all the saints, shall dwell in peace and love one with another, and shall be free from all the outrages and persecutions of the enemy; which, when these happy times of the pouring forth of the Spirit and of the spiritual reign of Christ come, will be no more:

and in sure dwellings; where they may dwell safely and confidently, secure from all enemies, in no fear of them, and free from all hurt and danger by them:

and in quiet resting places; where they may sleep and rest quietly, and none to disturb them, and make them afraid: and though all this may be understood of their private houses and habitations, yet may well enough be applied to the several Christian communities and churches to which they belong; where they shall enjoy much spiritual prosperity and safety, great peace and quietness, comfort and rest, under the ministry of the word, and administration of ordinances.

When it shall hail, coming down on the forest,.... The people of God will be peaceable and quiet, safe and secure, when the judgments of God, signified by a "hail" storm, shall come upon antichrist, and the antichristian states, intended by the "forest", both for their numbers, and for their barrenness and unfruitfulness; see Rev 16:21 and as so it sometimes is, by the disposition of divine Providence, that a storm of hail falls not upon fields and gardens, and the fruits of the earth, but upon forests and desert lands; and as the plague of hail fell upon the Egyptians, and not upon the Israelites in Goshen, to which some think the allusion is here; so will it be when God comes to take vengeance on the enemies of his people:

and the city shall be low in a low place: meaning not the city of Jerusalem, surrounded with mountains, built under hills, and so under the wind, and not exposed to the fury of a storm; but rather Babylon, built in a plain, in a low plain, and yet should be brought lower still; mystical Babylon is here meant, the city of Rome, that should "in humiliation be humbled", as the words may be rendered, that is, brought very low, exceeding low; see Isa 26:5 and which, at the time of the great hail, will be divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations shall fall, and Babylon be had in remembrance by the Lord to destroy it, Rev 16:19.

Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters,.... In places well watered and moistened, and so fit to receive the seed sown, which grows up, and brings forth much fruit, and amply rewards the pains of the sower, who on that account is happy. These words are directed to the ministers of the Gospel in the latter day; the word is compared to seed, and the preachers of it to sowers of seed, who have a commission to preach the Gospel to every creature; and in the latter day, in the spiritual reign of Christ, to which the whole paragraph refers, they will sow the seed of the word "by many waters"; or among great multitudes of people, signified hereby, and with great success, great numbers both of Jews and Gentiles will be converted:

that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass; which were used in ploughing and tilling the earth, and in making it fit to sow the seed in it, and to eat off the heads of grain when it is grown thick and full, which some think is here meant; and the one might also be used to gather it in when ripe, and the other to tread and thresh it, as the Targum and Jarchi interpret it; there being a law given the Jews, that these two should not work together, Deu 22:10 and from hence it may be concluded, that these words refer to a time when this law should be abolished; and the Jews themselves apply it to the times of the Messiah ^r; and it undoubtedly points to Gospel times, and even to those times when the Jews shall be converted, and great numbers among the Gentiles also, who shall join together in spreading the Gospel, and in promoting the interest of Christ.

¹ tn Heb “will reign according to fairness.”

² tn Heb “will rule according to justice.”

¹ tn Heb “a man,” but אִישׁ (’ish) probably refers here to “each” of the officials mentioned in the previous verse.

¹ tn Heb “Eyes that see.”

² tn The Hebrew text as vocalized reads literally “will not gaze,” but this is contradictory to the context. The verb form should be revocalized as תְּשֹׁעֶינָה (tÿsho’enah) from שָׁעַע (sha’a’, “be blinded”); see Isa 6:10; 29:9.

³ tn Heb “ears that hear.”

¹ tn Heb “the heart of rashness will understand knowledge”; cf. NAB “The flighty will become wise and capable.”

¹ tn Or “foolishness,” in a moral-ethical sense. See 9:17.

² tn Heb “and his heart commits sin”; KJV, ASV “his heart will work iniquity”; NASB “inclines toward wickedness.”

³ tn Heb “in order to do [or “so that he does”] what is godless [or “defiled”].”

⁴ tn Heb “so that he leaves empty the appetite [or “desire”] of the hungry.”

⁵ tn Heb “and the drink of the thirsty he causes to fail.”

¹ tn Heb “as for a deceiver, his implements [or “weapons”] are evil.”

² tn Or “he plans evil things”; NIV “he makes up evil schemes.”

³ tn Heb “to ruin the poor with words of falsehood, even when the needy speak what is just.”

¹ tn Heb “and he upon honorable things stands.”

¹ tn Or “self-assured”; NASB, NRSV “who are at ease.”

² tn Or “self-confident”; NAB “overconfident.”

¹ tn Heb “days upon a year.”

² tn Or perhaps, “olive.” See 24:13.

¹ tn The imperatival forms in v. 11 are problematic. The first (חִרְדוּ, khirdu, “tremble”) is masculine plural in form, though spoken to a feminine plural addressee (שַׁאֲנַנּוֹת, sha’anannot, “complacent ones”). The four imperatival forms that follow (רְגָזָה, rÿgazah, “shake with fear”; פְּשֹׁטָה, pÿshotah, “strip off your clothes”; עֹרָה, ’orah, “expose yourselves”; and חֲגוֹרָה, khagorah, “put on”) all appear to be lengthened (so-called “emphatic”) masculine singular forms, even though they too appear to be spoken to a feminine plural addressee. GKC 131-32 §48.i suggests emending חִרְדוּ (khirdu) to חֲרָדָה (kharadah) and understanding all five imperatives as feminine plural “aramaized” forms.

¹ tc The Hebrew text has “over mourning breasts.” The reference to “breasts” would make sense in light of v. 11, which refers to the practice of women baring their breasts as a sign of sorrow (see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:585). However, one expects the preposition עַל (’al) to introduce the source or reason for mourning (see vv. 12b-13a) and the participle סֹפְדִים (sofedim, “mourning”) seems odd modifying “breasts.” The translation above assumes a twofold emendation: (1) שָׁדַיִם (shadayim, “breasts”) is emended to [ם]שָׂדַי (saday[m], “field,” a term that also appears in Isa 56:9). The final mem (ם) would be enclitic in this case, not a plural indicator. (The Hebrew noun שָׂדֶה (sadeh, “field”) forms its plural with an וֹת- [-ot] ending). (2) The plural participle סֹפְדִים is emended to סְפֹדָה (sÿfodah), a lengthened imperatival form, meaning “mourn.” For an overview of various suggestions that have been made for this difficult line, see Oswalt, 586, n. 12).

¹ tn “Mourn” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 12-13 are one long sentence.

² tn Heb “indeed, over all the houses of joy.” It is not certain if this refers to individual homes or to places where parties and celebrations were held.

³ sn This same phrase is used in 22:2.

¹ tn Or “noisy” (NAB, NIV, NCV).

² tn Hebrew עֹפֶל (’ofel), probably refers here to a specific area within the city of Jerusalem. See HALOT 861 s.v. II עֹפֶל.

³ tn The Hebrew text has בְעַד מְעָרוֹת (vÿ’ad mÿ’arot). The force of בְעַד, which usually means “behind, through, round about,” or “for the benefit of,” is uncertain here. HALOT 616 s.v. *מְעָרָה takes מְעָרוֹת (mÿ’arot) as a homonym of “cave” and define it here as “cleared field.” Despite these lexical problems, the general point of the statement seems clear – the city will be uninhabited.

⁴ tn Heb “the joy of wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks.”

¹ tn Heb “until a spirit is emptied out on us from on high.” The words “this desolation will continue” are supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic purposes. The verb עָרָה (’arah), used here in the Niphal, normally means “lay bare, expose.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is often understood here as a reference to the divine spirit (cf. 44:3 and NASB, NIV, CEV, NLT), but it appears here without an article (cf. NRSV “a spirit”), pronominal suffix, or a genitive (such as “of the Lord”). The translation assumes that it carries an impersonal nuance “vivacity, vigor” in this context.

² sn The same statement appears in 29:17b, where, in conjunction with the preceding line, it appears to picture a reversal. Here it seems to depict supernatural growth. The desert will blossom into an orchard, and the trees of the orchard will multiply and grow tall, becoming a forest.

¹ sn This new era of divine blessing will also include a moral/ethical transformation, as justice and fairness fill the land and replace the social injustice so prevalent in Isaiah’s time.

¹ tn Heb “and the product of fairness will be peace.”

² tn Heb “and the work of fairness [will be] calmness and security forever.”

¹ tn Or “in safe resting places”; NAB, NRSV “quiet resting places.”

¹ tn Heb “and [?] when the forest descends.” The form וּבָרַד (uvarad) is often understood as an otherwise unattested denominative verb meaning “to hail” (HALOT 154 s.v. I ברד). In this case one might translate, “and it hails when the forest is destroyed” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV). Perhaps the text alludes to a powerful wind and hail storm that knocks down limbs and trees. Some prefer to emend the form to וְיָרַד (vÿyarad), “and it descends,” which provides better, though not perfect, symmetry with the parallel line (cf. NAB). Perhaps וּבָרַד should be dismissed as dittographic. In this case the statement (“when the forest descends”) lacks a finite verb and seems incomplete, but perhaps it is subordinate to v. 20.

² tn Heb “and in humiliation the city is laid low.”

¹ tn Heb “by all the waters.”

² tn Heb “who set free the foot of the ox and donkey”; NIV “letting your cattle and donkeys range free.”

sn This verse seems to anticipate a time when fertile land is available to cultivate and crops are so abundant that the farm animals can be allowed to graze freely.

Behold, ^{( a )} a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall ^{( b )} rule in judgment.

^{( a )} This prophecy is of Hezekiah, who was a figure of Christ, and therefore it should chiefly be referred to him.

^{( b )} By judgment and justice is meant an upright government, both in policy and religion.

And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as streams of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in ^{( c )} a weary land.

^{( c )} Where men are weary with travelling for lack of water.

And the eyes of ^{( d )} them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.

^{( d )} He promises to give the true light which is the pure doctrine of God's word, and understanding, and zeal of the same, are contrary to the threatenings against the wicked, (Isa 6:9, Isa 29:10).

The ^{( e )} vile person shall be no more called noble, nor the churl said [to be] bountiful.

^{( e )} Vice will no more be called virtue, nor virtue esteemed by power and riches.

Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye ^{( f )} careless daughters; give ear to my speech.

^{( f )} He prophecies of such calamity to come that they will not spare the women and children, and therefore wills them to take heed and provide.

Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ^{( g )} ye careless women: ^{( h )} for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.

^{( g )} Meaning that the affliction would continue long and when one year was past, yet they should look for new plagues.

^{( h )} God will take from you the means and opportunities, which made you contemn him: that is, abundance of worldly goods.

They shall lament for the ^{( i )} breasts, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

^{( i )} By the breasts he means the plentiful fields, by which men are nourished as children with the breast: or, the mothers for sorrow and heaviness will lack milk.

Until the ^{( k )} spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the ^{( l )} fruitful field shall be counted for a forest.

^{( k )} That is, when the Church will be restored, thus the prophets after they have denounced God's judgments against the wicked, used to comfort the godly, lest they should faint.

^{( l )} The field which is now fruitful, will be but as a barren forest in comparison to what it will be then as in (Isa 29:17) which will be fulfilled in Christ's time, for then they who were before as the barren wilderness, being regenerate will be fruitful and they who had some beginning of godliness, will bring forth fruit in such abundance, that their former life will seem but as a wilderness where no fruit was.

When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the ^{( m )} city shall be low in a low place.

^{( m )} They will not need to build it in high places for fear of the enemy: for God will defend it, and turn away the storms from hurting their conveniences.

Blessed [are] ye ^{( n )} that sow beside all waters, that ^{( o )} send forth [there] the feet of the ox and the donkey.

^{( n )} That is, upon fat ground and well watered, which brings forth in abundance, or in places which before were covered with waters, and now made dry for your uses.

^{( o )} The fields will be so rank, that they will send out their cattle to eat up the first crop, which abundance will be signs of God's love and favour toward them.

The Hiding-Place

And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a cover from tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.'--Isaiah 32:2.

WE may well say, Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Here are distinctly attributed to one of ourselves, if we take the words in their simplicity and fulness, functions and powers which universal experience has taught us not to look for in humanity. And there have been a great many attempts--as it seems to me, altogether futile and baseless ones,-to break the force of these words as a distinct prophecy of Jesus Christ. Surely the language is far too wide to have application to any real or ideal Jewish monarch, except one whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom? Surely the experience of a hundred centuries might teach men that there is one man, and one alone, who is the refuge from all dangers, the fruition of all desires, the rest and refreshment in all toils.

And I, for my part, have no hesitation in saying that the only reference of these words which gives full value to their wealth of blessing, is to regard them as a prophecy of the man--Christ Jesus; hiding in whom we are safe, coming' to whom we never thirst,' guarded and blest by whom no weariness can befall us, and dwelling in whom this weary world shall be full of refreshment and peace!

I do not need to point out the exquisite beauty of the imagery or the pathos and peace that breathe in the majestic rhythm of the words. There is something more than poetical beauty or rhetorical amplification of a single thought in those three clauses. The' hiding-place' and covert' refer to one class of wants; the rivers of water in a dry place' to yet another; and' the shadow of a great rock in a weary land' to yet a third. And, though they are tinged and dyed in Eastern imagery, the realities of life in Western lands, and in all ages, give them a deeper beauty than that of lovely imagery, and are the true keys to understanding their meaning. We shall, perhaps, best grasp the whole depth of that meaning according to the Messianic reference which we give to the text, if we consider the sad and solemn conception of man's life that underlies it; the enigmatical and obstinate hope which it holds out in the teeth of all experience--A man shall be a refuge'; and the solution of the riddle in the man Christ Jesus.

I. First, there underlies this prophecy a very sad but a very true conception of human life.

The three classes of promises have correlative with them three phases of man's condition, three diverse aspects of his need and misery. The covert' and the hiding-place' imply tempest, storm, and danger; the river of water' implies drought and thirst; the shadow of a great rock' implies lassitude and languor, fatigue and weariness. The view of life that arises from the combination of these three bears upon its front the signature of truth in the very fact that it is a sad view.

For, I suppose, notwithstanding all that we may say concerning the beauty and the blessedness scattered broadcast round about us; notwithstanding that we believe, and hold as for our lives the happy' faith that all which we behold is full of blessing,' it needs but a very short experience of this life, and but a superficial examination of our own histories and our own hearts, in order to come to the conclusion that the world is full of strange and terrible sadness, that every life has dark tracts and long stretches of sombre tint, and that no representation is true to fact which dips its pencil only in light and flings no shadows on the canvas. There is no depth in a Chinese picture, because there is no shade. It is the wrinkles and marks of tear and wear that make the expression in a man's portrait. Life's sternest painter "is" its best.' The gloomy thoughts which are charged against Scripture are the true thoughts about man and the world as man has made it. Not, indeed, that life needs to be so, but that by reason of our own evil and departure from God there have come in as a disturbing element the retributive consequences of our own godlessness, and these have made danger where else were safety, thirst where else were rivers of water, and weariness and lassitude where else were strength and bounding hope.

So then, look for a moment at these three points that come out of my text, in order to lay the foundation for subsequent considerations.

We live a life defenceless and exposed to many a storm and tempest. I need but remind you of the adverse circumstances--the wild winds that go sweeping across the fiat level, the biting blasts that come down from the snow-clad mountains of destiny that He round the low plain upon which we live. I need but remind you of the dangers that are lodged for our spiritual life in the temptations to evil that are round us. I need but remind you of that creeping and clinging consciousness of being exposed to a divinely commissioned retribution and punishment, which perverts the Name that ought to be the basis of all our blessedness into a Name unwelcome and terrible, because threatening judgment. I need but remind you how men's sins have made it needful that when the mighty God, even the Lord, appears before them, it shall be very tempestuous round about him.' Men fear and ought to fear the blast of the breath of His nostrils,' which must burn up all that is evil. And I need but remind you of that last wild wind of Death that whirls the sin-faded leaves into dark corners where they lie and rot.

My brother, you have not lived thus long without learning how defenceless you are against the storm of adverse circumstances. You have not lived thus long without learning that though, blessed be God! there do come in all our lives long periods of halcyon rest, when birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave,' and the heavens above are clear as sapphire, and the sea around is transparent as opal--yet the little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, may rise on the horizon, and may thicken and blacken and grow greater and nearer till all the sky is dark, and burst in lightning and rain and fierceness of wind, till through the torn sail the wild tempest is streaming,' and the white crests of the waves are like the mane of Death's pale horse leaping upon the broken ship. We have all learnt in how profound a sense, by reason of outward adverse circumstances and inward temptations, by reason of the fears of a Justice which we know is throned at the centre of the creation, by reason of a death which to us is a terror, and by reason of that universal fear of' after death the judgment,' storm and tempest swoop upon our paths. God made the sunshine, and we have made it a storm. God made life blessed and full of safety and peace, and we have wrenched ourselves from Him and stand defenceless amidst its dangers.

Then, there is another aspect and conception of life which underlies these words of my text. The image of the desert was before the prophet's rapt vision. He saw the sand whirled into mad dancing columns before the blast which swept across the unsheltered flat, with nothing, for a day's march, to check its force. But the wilderness is not only shelterless, it is waterless too--a place in which wild and ravening thirst finds no refreshing draughts, and the tongue cleaves to the blackening gums.

Rivers of water in a dry place'; and what is the prose fact of that? That you and I live in the midst of a world which has no correspondence with, nor power of satisfying, our truest and deepest selves--that we bear about with us a whole set of longings and needs and weaknesses and strengths and capacities, all of which, like the climbing tendrils of some creeping plant, go feeling and putting out their green fingers to lay hold of some prop and stay--that man is so made that for his rest and blessedness he must have an external object round which his spirit may cling, on which his desires may fasten and rest, by which his heart may be blessed, which shall be authority for his will, peace for his fears, sprinkling and cleansing for his conscience, light for his understanding, shall be in complete correspondence with his inward nature --be water for his thirst, and bread for his hunger.

And as thus, on the very nature which each of us carries, there is stamped the signature of dependence, and the necessity of finding an external object on which to rest; and as, further, men will not be tutored even by their own miseries or by the voice of their own wants, and ever confound their wishes with their wants and their whims with their needs, therefore it comes to pass that the appetite which was only meant to direct us to God, and to be as a wholesome hunger in order to secure our partaking with relish and delight of the divine food that is provided for it, becomes unsatisfied, a torture, and unslaked, a ravening madness; and men's needs become men's misery; and men's hunger becomes men's famine; and men's thirst becomes men's death. We do dwell in a dry land where no water is.

All about us there are these creatures of God, bright and blessed and beautiful, fit for their functions and meant to minister to our gladness. They are meant to be held in subordination. It is not meant that we should find in them the food for our souls. Wealth and honour and wisdom and love and gratified ambition and successful purpose, and whatsoever other good things a man may gather about him and achieve --he may have them all, and yet in spite of them all there will be a great aching, longing vacuity in his soul. His true and inmost being will be groping through the darkness, like a plant growing in a cellar, for the light which alone can tinge its pale petals and swell its shrivelling blossoms to ripeness and fruit.

A dry place, as well as a dangerous place--have not you found it sop I believe that every soul of man has, if he will be honest with himself, and that there is not one among us who would not, if he were to look into the deepest facts and real governing experience of his life, confess--I thirst: my soul thirsteth.' And oh, brethren, why not go on with the quotation, and make that which is else a pain, a condition of blessedness? Why not recognise the meaning of all this restless disquiet, and say My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God'?

And then there is the other idea also underlying these words, yet another phase of this sad life of ours --not only danger and drought, but also weariness and languor. The desert stretches before us again, where there is no shelter from the blast and no trickling stream amid the yellowing sand; where the fierce ball above beats down cruelly, and its hot rays are flung up cruelly into our faces, and the glare blinds us, and the stifling heat wearies us, and work is a torture and motion is misery, and we long for nothing so much as to be quiet and to hide our heads in some shade.

I was reading recently one of our last books of travel in the wilderness of the Exodus, in which the writer told how, after toiling for hours under a scorching sun, over the hot, white, marly flat, seeing nothing but a beetle or two on the way, and finding no shelter anywhere from the pitiless beating of the sunshine, the weary travellers came at last to a little Retem bush only a few feet high, and flung themselves down and tried to hide, at least, their heads, from those sunbeams like swords,' even beneath its ragged shade. And my text tells of a great rock, with blue dimness in its shadow, with haply a fern or two in the moist places of its crevices, where there is rest, and a man can lie down and be cool, while all outside is burning sun, and burning sand, and dancing mirage.

Oh! the weariness felt by us all, of plod, plod, plodding across the sand! That fatal monotony into which every man's life stiffens, as far as outward circumstances, outward joys and pleasures gel the depressing influence of custom which takes the edge off all gladness and adds a burden to every duty! the weariness of all that tugging up the hill, of all that collar-work which we have to do I Who is there that has not his mood, and that by no means the least worthy and man-like of his moods, wherein he feels, not, perhaps, that all is vanity, but--how infinitely wearisome it all is.'

And so every race of man that ever has lived has managed out of two miseries to make a kind of shadowy gladness; and, knowing the weariness of life and the blackness of death, has somewhat lightened the latter by throwing upon it the thought of the former, and has said, Well, at any rate, if the grave be narrow and dark, and if outside "the warm precincts of the cheerful day" there be that ambiguous night, at least it is the place for sleep; and, if we cannot be ,sure of anything more, we shall rest then, at any rate.' So the hope of long disquiet merged in rest' becomes almost bright, and man's weariness finds most pathetic expression in his thinking of the grave as a bed where he can stretch himself and be still. Life is hard, life is dry, life is dangerous.

II. The Mysterious Hope which shines through them.

But another thought suggested by these words is --The Mysterious Hope which shines through them.

One of ourselves shall deliver us from all this evil in life. A man shall be a refuge, rivers of water, the shadow of a great rock.' Such an expectation seems to be right in the teeth of all experience and far too high-pitched ever to be fulfilled. It appears to demand in him who should bring it to pass powers which are more than human, and which must in some inexplicable way be wide as the range of humanity and enduring as the succession of the ages.

It is worth while to realise to ourselves these two points which seem to make such words as these of our text a blank impossibility. Experience contradicts them, and common-sense demands for their fulfilment an apparently impossible human character.

All experience seems to teach--does it not?--that no human arm or heart can be to another soul what these words promise, and what we need. And yet the men who have been disappointed and disenchanted a thousand times do still look among their fellows for what their fellows, too, are looking for, and none have ever found. Have we found what we seek among men? Have we ever known amongst the dearest that we have clung to, one arm that was strong enough to keep us in all danger? Has there ever been a human love to which we can run with the security that there is a strong tower where no evil can touch us? There have been many delights in all our lives mediated and ministered to us by those that we loved. They have taught us, and helped us, and strengthened us in a thousand ways. We have received from them draughts of wisdom, of love, of joy, of guidance, of impulse, of comfort, which have been, as water in the desert is, more precious than gold. Our fellow-travellers have shared their store with us, letting down their pitchers upon their hand,' and giving us drink; but has the draught ever slaked the thirst? They carry but a pitcher, and a pitcher is not a fountain. Have there been any in all the round of those that we have loved and trusted, to whom we have trusted absolutely, without having been disappointed? They, like us, arc hemmed in by human limitations. They each bear a burdened and thirsty spirit, itself needing such supplies. And to the truest, happiest, most soul-sufficing companionship, there comes at last that dread hour which ends all sweet commerce of giving and receiving, and makes the rest of life, for some of us, one monotonous ashen-grey wilderness where no water is. These things make it impossible for us to find anywhere amongst men our refuge and our fruition.

And yet how strange, how pathetic, is the fact that after all disappointments, men still obstinately continue to look among their fellows for guidance and for light, for consolation, for defence, and for strength! After a thousand failures they still hope. Does not the search at once confess that hitherto they have not found, else why be seeking still?--and that they yet believe they will yet find, else why not cease the vain quest? And surely He who made us, made us not in vain, nor cursed us with immortal hopes which are only persistent lies. Surely there is some living' Person who will vindicate these unquenchable hopes of humanity, and receive and requite our love and trust, and satisfy our longings, and explain the riddle of our lives. If there be not, nor ever has been, nor ever can be a man who shall satisfy us with his love, and defend us with his power, and be our all-sufficient satisfaction and our rest in weariness, then much of man's noblest nature is a mistake, and many of his purest and profoundest hopes are an illusion, a mockery, and a snare. The obstinate hope that, within the limits of humanity, we shall find what we need is a mystery, except on one hypothesis, that it, too, belongs to the unconscious prophecies' that God has lodged in all men's hearts.

Nor need I remind you, I suppose, how such functions as those of which my text speaks not only seem to be contradicted by all experience, but manifestly and obviously to transcend the possibilities of human nature. A man to defend me; and he himself--does he need no defence? A man to supply my wants; and is his spirit, then, other than mine, that it can become the all-sufficient fulness for my emptiness? He that can do this for one spirit must be greater than the spirit for which he doeth it. He that can do it for the whole race of man, through all ages, in all circumstances, down to the end of time, in every latitude, under every condition of civilisation, who must he be who, for the whole world, evermore and always, is their defence, their gladness, their shelter, and their rest?

The function requires a divine power, and the application of the power requires a human hand. It is not enough that I should be pointed to a far-off heaven, where there dwells an infinite loving God--I believe that we need more than that. We need both of the truths: God is my refuge and my strength,' and A man shall be a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest.'

III. The solution of the mystery in the person of Jesus Christ.

That brings me to the last point to be noticed, namely:--The solution of the mystery in the person of Jesus Christ.

That which seemed impossible is real. The forebodings of humanity have not fathomed the powers of Divine Love. There is a man, our brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, who can be to single souls the adequate object of their perfect trust, the abiding home of their deepest love, the unfailing supply for their profoundest wants. There is one man to whom it is wise and blessed to look as the exclusive source of all our peace, the absolute ruler of all our lives. There is a man in whom we find all that we have vainly sought in men. There is a man, who can be to all ages and to the whole race their refuge, their satisfaction, their rest. It behoved Him to be made in all points like unto His brethren,' that His succour might be ever near, and His sympathy sure. The man Christ Jesus who, being man, is God manifest in the flesh, exercises in one and the same act the offices of divine pity and human compassion, of divine and human guardianship, of divine and human love.

And so the Word had breath, and wrought With human hands the creed of creeds In loveliness of perfect deeds,

More strong than all poetic thought.'

The dreams of weary hearts that have longed for an impossible perfection are all below the reality. The fact surpasses all expectation. It is more than all prophecies, it is more than all hopes, it is more than all praise. It is God's unspeakable gift. Well might an angel voice proclaim the mystery of love, Unto you is born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' The ancient promise of our text is history now. A man has been and is all these things for us.

A refuge and a hiding-place from every storm--adverse circumstances sweep upon us, and His mighty hand is put down there as a buckler, behind which we may hide and be safe. Temptations to evil storm upon us, but if we are enclosed within Him they never touch us. The fears of our own hearts swirl like a river in flood against the walls of our fortress home, and we can laugh at them, for it is founded upon a rock X The day of judgment rises before us solemn and certain, and we can await it without fear, and approach it with calm joy. I call upon no mountains and hills to cover me.

Rock of ages, cleft for me,Let me hide myself in Thee.'

Rivers of water in a dry place,'--hungry and thirsty, my soul fainted within me. I longed for light, and behold darkness. I longed for help, and there was none that could come close to my spirit to succour and to give me drink in the desert. My conscience cried in all its wounds for cleansing and stanching, and no comforter nor any balm was there. My heart, weary of limited loves and mortal affections, howsoever sweet and precious, yearned and bled for one to rest upon all-sufficient and eternal. I thirsted with a thirst that was more than desire, that was pain, and was coming to be death, and I heard a voice which said, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.'

The shadow of a great rock in a weary land,'--and my heart was weary by reason of the greatness of the way, and duties and tasks seemed toils and burdens, and I was ready to say, Wherefore has Thou made me and all men in vain? Surely all this is vanity and vexation of spirit,' and I heard One that laid His hand upon me and said, Come unto Me, and I will give thee rest.' I come to Thee, O Christ, faint and perishing, defenceless and needy, with many a sin and many a fear; to Thee I turn for Thou hast died for me, and for me thou dost live. Be Thou my shelter and strong tower. Give me to drink of living water. Let me rest in Thee while in this weary land, and let Thy sweet love, my Brother and my Lord, be mine all on earth and the heaven of my heaven!

Christ our righteous King, and his true disciples, are evidently here intended. The consolations and graces of his Spirit are as rivers of water in this dry land; and as the overhanging rock affords refreshing shade and shelter to the weary traveller in the desert, so his power, truth, and love, yield the believer the only real protection and refreshment in the weary land through which he journeys to heaven. Christ bore the storm himself, to keep it off from us. To him let the trembling sinner flee for refuge; for he alone can protect and refresh us in every trial. See what pains sinners take in sin; they labour at it, their hearts are intent upon it, and with art they work iniquity; but this is our comfort, that they can do no more mischief than God permits. Let us seek to have our hearts more freed from selfishness. The liberal soul devises liberal things concerning God, and desires that He will grant wisdom and prudence, the comforts of his presence, the influence of his Spirit, and in due time the enjoyment of his glory.

When there was so much provocation given to the holy God, bad times might be expected. Alas! how many careless ones there are, who support self-indulgence by shameful niggardliness! We deserve to be deprived of the supports of life, when we make them the food of lusts. Let such tremble and be troubled. Blessed times shall be brought in by the pouring out of the Spirit from on high; then, and not till then, there will be good times. The present state of the Jews shall continue until a more abundant pouring out of the Spirit from on high. Peace and quietness shall be found in the way and work of righteousness. True satisfaction is to be had only in true religion. And real holiness is real happiness now, and shall be perfect happiness, that is, perfect holiness for ever. The good seed of the word shall be sown in all places, and be watered by Divine grace; and laborious, patient labourers shall be sent forth into God's husbandry.

We have here the description of a flourishing kingdom. " Blessed art thou, O land! when it is thus with thee, when kings, princes, and people, are in their places such as they should be."It may be taken as a directory both to magistrates and subjects, what both ought to do, or as a panegyric to Hezekiah, who ruled well and saw something of the happy effects of his good government, and it was designed to make the people sensible how happy they were under his administration and how careful they should be to improve the advantages of it, and withal to direct them to look for the kingdom of Christ, and the times of reformation which that kingdom should introduce. It is here promised and prescribed, for the comfort of the church,

I. That magistrates should do their duty in their places, and the powers answer the great ends for which they were ordained of God, Isa 32:1, Isa 32:2. 1. There shall be a king and princes that shall reign and rule; for it cannot go well when there is no king in Israel. The princes must have a king, a monarch over them as supreme, in whom they may unite; and the king must have princes under him as officers, by whom he may act, 1Pe 2:13, 1Pe 2:14. They both shall know their place and fill it up. The king shall reign, and yet, without any diminution to his just prerogative, the princes shall rule in a lower sphere, and all for the public good. 2. They shall use their power according to law, and not against it. They shall reign in righteousness and in judgment, with wisdom and equity, protecting the good and punishing the bad; and those kings and princes Christ owns as reigning by him who decree justice, Pro 8:15. Such a King, such a Prince, Christ himself is; he reigns by rule, and in righteousness will he judge the world, Isa 9:7; Isa 11:4. 3. Thus they shall be great blessings to the people (Isa 32:2): A man, that man, that king that reigns in righteousness, shall be as a hiding-place. When princes are as they should be people are as they would be. (1.) They are sheltered and protected from many mischiefs. This good magistrate is a covert to the subject from the tempest of injury and violence; he defends the poor and fatherless, that they be not made a prey of by the mighty. Whither should oppressed innocency flee, when blasted by reproach or borne down by violence, but to the magistrate as its hiding-place? To him it appeals, and by him it is righted. (2.) They are refreshed and comforted with many blessings. This good magistrate gives such countenance to those that are poor and in distress, and such encouragement to every thing that is praiseworthy, that he is as rivers of water in a dry place, cooling and cherishing the earth and making it fruitful, and as the shadow of a great rock, under which a poor traveller may shelter himself from the scorching heat of the sun in a weary land. It is a great reviving to a good man, who makes conscience of doing his duty, in the midst of contempt and contradiction, at length to be backed, and favoured, and smiled upon in it by a good magistrate. All this, and much more, the man Christ Jesus is to all the willing faithful subjects of his kingdom. When the greatest evils befal us, not only the wind, but the tempest, when storms of guilt and wrath beset us and beat upon us, they drive us to Christ, and in him we are not only safe, but satisfied that we are so; in him we find rivers of water for those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, all the refreshment and comfort that a needy soul can desire, and the shadow, not of a tree, which sun or rain may beat through, but of a rock, of a great rock, which reaches a great way for the shelter of the traveller. Some observe here that as the covert, and the hiding-place, and the rock, do themselves receive the battering of the wind and storm, to save those from it that take shelter in them, so Christ bore the storm himself to keep it off from us.

II. That subjects should do their duty in their places.

1. They shall be willing to be taught, and to understand things aright. They shall lay aside their prejudices against their rulers and teachers, and submit to the light and power of truth, Isa 32:3. When this blessed work of reformation is set on foot, and men do their parts towards it, God will not be wanting to do his: Then the eyes of those that see, of the prophets, the seers, shall not be dim; but God will bless them with visions, to be by them communicated to the people; and those that read the word written shall no longer have a veil upon their hearts, but shall see things clearly. Then the ears of those that hear the word preached shall hearken diligently and readily receive what they hear, and not be so dull of hearing as they have been. This shall be done by the grace of God, especially gospel-grace; for the hearing ear, and the seeing eyes, the Lord has made, has new-made, even both of them.

2. There shall be a wonderful change wrought in them by that which is taught them, Isa 32:4. (1.) They shall have a clear head, and be able to discern things that differ, and distinguish concerning them. The heart of those that were hasty and rash, and could not take time to digest and consider things, shall now be cured of their precipitation, and shall understand knowledge; for the Spirit of God will open their understanding. This blessed work Christ wrought in his disciples after his resurrection (Luk 24:45), as a specimen of what he would do for all his people, in giving them an understanding, 1Jo 5:20. The pious designs of good princes are likely to take effect when their subjects allow themselves liberty to consider, and to think, so freely as to take things right. (2.) They shall have a ready utterance: The tongue of the stammerers, that used to blunder whenever they spoke of the things of God, shall now be ready to speak plainly, as those that understand what they speak of, that believe, and therefore speak. There shall be a great increase of such clear, distinct, and methodical knowledge in the things of God, that those from whom one would not have expected it shall speak intelligently of these things, very much to the honour of God and the edification of others. Their hearts being full of this good matter, their tongues shall be as the pen of a ready writer, Psa 45:1.

3. The differences between good and evil, virtue and vice, shall be kept up, and no more confounded by those who put darkness for light and light for darkness (Isa 32:5): The vile shall no more be called liberal.

(1.) Bad men shall no more be preferred by the prince. When a king reigns in justice he will not put those in places of honour and power that are ill-natured, and of base and sordid spirits, and care not what injury or mischief they do so they may but compass their own ends. Such as vile persons (as Antiochus is called, Dan 11:21); when they are advanced they are called liberal and bountiful; they are called benefactors (Luk 22:25): but it shall not always be thus; when the world grows wiser men shall be preferred according to their merit, and honour (which was never thought seemly for a fool, Pro 26:1) shall no longer be thrown away upon such.

(2.) Bad men shall be no more had in reputation among the people, nor vice disguised with the colours of virtue. It shall no more be said to Nabal, Thou art Nadib (so the words are); such a covetous muck-worm as Nabal was, a fool but for his money, shall not be complimented with the title of a gentleman or a prince; nor shall they call a churl, that minds none but himself, does no good with what he has, but is an unprofitable burden of the earth, My lord; or, rather, they shall not say of him, He is rich; for so the word signifies. Those only are to be reckoned rich that are rich in good works; not those that have abundance, but those that use it well. In short, it is well with a people when men are generally valued by their virtue, and usefulness, and beneficence to mankind, and not by their wealth or titles of honour. Whether this was fulfilled in the reign of Hezekiah, and how far it refers to the kingdom of Christ (in which we are sure men are judged of by what they are, not by what they have, nor is any man's character mistaken), we will not say; but it prescribes an excellent rule both to prince and people, to respect men according to their personal merit. To enforce this rule, here is a description both of the vile person and of the liberal; and by it we shall see such a vast difference between them that we must quite forget ourselves if we pay that respect to the vile person and the churl which is due only to the liberal.

[1.] A vile person and a churl will do mischief, and the more if he be preferred and have power in his hand; his honours will make him worse and not better, Isa 32:6, Isa 32:7. See the character of these base ill-conditioned men. First, They are always plotting some unjust thing or other, designing ill either to particular persons or to the public, and contriving how to bring it about; and so many silly piques they have to gratify, and mean revenges, that there appears not in them the least spark of generosity. Their hearts will be still working some iniquity or other. Observe, There is the work of the heart, as well as the work of the hands. As thoughts are words to God, so designs are works in his account. See what pains sinners take in sin. They labour at it; their hearts are intent upon it, and with a great deal of art and application they work iniquity. They devise wicked devices with all the subtlety of the old serpent and a great deal of deliberation, which makes the sin exceedingly sinful; and the more there is of plot and management in a sin the more there is of Satan in it. Secondly, They carry on their plots by trick and dissimulation. When they are meditating iniquity, they practise hypocrisy, feign themselves just men, Luk 20:20. The most abominable mischiefs shall be disguised with the most plausible pretences of devotion to God, regard to man, and concern for some common good. Those are the vilest of men that intend the worst mischiefs when they speak fair. Thirdly, They speak villainy. When they are in a passion you will see what they are by the base ill language they give to those about them, which no way becomes men of rank and honour; or, in giving verdict or judgment, they villainously put false colours upon things, to pervert justice. Fourthly, They affront God, who is a righteous God and loves righteousness: They utter error against the Lord, and therein they practise profaneness; for so the word which we translate hypocrisy signifies. They give an unjust sentence, and then profanely make use of the name of God for the ratification of it; as if, because the judgment is God's (Deu 1:17), therefore their false and unjust judgment was his. This is uttering error against the Lord, under pretence of uttering truth and justice for him; and nothing can be more impudently done against God than to use his name to patronise wickedness. Fifthly, They abuse mankind, those particularly whom they are bound to protect and relieve. 1. Instead of supplying the wants of the poor, they impoverish them, they make empty the souls of the hungry; either taking away the food they have, or, which is almost equivalent, denying the supply which they want and which they have to give. And they cause the drink of the thirsty to fail; they cut off the relief they used to have, though they need it as much as ever. Those are vile persons indeed that rob the spital. 2. Instead of righting the poor, when they appeal to their judgment, they contrive to destroy the poor, to ruin them in their courts of judicature with lying words in favour of the rich, to whom they are plainly partial; yea, though the needy speak right, though the evidence be ever so full for them to make out the equity of their cause, it is the bribe that governs them, not the right. Sixthly, These churls and vile persons have always had instruments about them, that are ready to serve their villainous purposes: All their servants are wicked. There is no design so palpably unjust but there may be found those that would be employed as tools to put it in execution. The instruments of the churl are evil, and one cannot expect otherwise; but this is our comfort, that they can do no more mischief than God permits them.

[2.] One that is truly liberal, and deserves the honour of being called so, makes it his business to do good to every body according as his sphere is, Isa 32:8. Observe, First, The care he takes, and the contrivances he has, to do good. He devises liberal things. As much as the churl or niggard projects how to save and lay up what he has for himself only, so much the good charitable man projects how to use and lay out what he has in the best manner for the good of others. Charity must be directed by wisdom, and liberal things done prudently and with device, that the good intention of them may be answered, that it may not be charity misplaced. The liberal man, when he has done all the liberal things that are in his own power, devises liberal things for others to do according to their power, and puts them upon doing them. Secondly, the comfort he takes, and the advantage he has, in doing good: By liberal things he shall stand, or be established. The providence of God will reward him for his liberality with a settled prosperity and an established reputation. The grace of God will give him abundance of satisfaction and confirmed peace in his own bosom. What disquiets others shall not disturb him; his heart is fixed. This is the recompence of charity, Psa 112:5, Psa 112:6. Some read it, The prince, or honourable man, will take honourable courses; and by such honourable or ingenuous courses he shall stand or be established. It is well with a land when the honourable of it are indeed men of honour and scorn to do a base thing, when its king is thus the son of nobles.

In these verses we have God rising up to judgment against the vile persons, to punish them for their villainy; but at length returning in mercy to the liberal, to reward them for their liberality.

I. When there was so great a corruption of manners, and so much provocation given to the holy God, bad times might well be expected, and here is a warning given of such times coming. The alarm is sounded to the women that were at ease (Isa 32:9) and the careless daughters, to feed whose pride, vanity, and luxury, their husbands and fathers were tempted to starve the poor. Let them hear what the prophet has to say to them in God's name: " Rise up, and hear with reverence and attention."

1. Let them know that God was about to bring wasting desolating judgments upon the land in which they lived in pleasure and were wanton. This seems to refer primarily to the desolations made by Sennacherib's army when he seized all the fenced cities of Judah: but then those words, many days and years, must be rendered (as the margin reads them) days above a year, that is, something above a year shall this havock be in the making: so long it was from the first entrance of that army into the land of Judah to the overthrow of it. But it is applicable to the wretched disappointment which those will certainly meet with, first or last, that set their hearts upon the world and place their happiness in it: You shall be troubled, you careless women. It will not secure us from trouble to cast away care when we are at ease; nay, to those who affect to live carelessly even little troubles will be great vexations and press hard upon them. They were careless and at ease because they had money enough and mirth enough; but the prophet here tells them, (1.) That the country whence they had their tents and dainties should shortly be laid waste: " The vintage shall fail; and then what will you do for wine to make merry with? The gathering of fruit shall not come, for there shall be none to be gathered, and you will find the want of them, Isa 32:10. You will want the teats, the good milk from the cows, the pleasant fields and their productions:"the useful fields that are serviceable to human life are the pleasant ones. "You will want the fruitful vine, and the grapes it used to yield you."The abuse of plenty is justly punished with scarcity; and those deserve to be deprived of the supports of life who make them the food and fuel of lust and prepare them for Baal. (2.) That the cities too, the cities of Judah, where they lived at ease, spent their rents, and made themselves merry with their dainties, should be laid waste (Isa 32:13, Isa 32:14): Briers and thorns, the fruits of sin and the curse, shall come up, not only upon the land of my people, which shall lie uncultivated, but upon all the houses of joy - the play-houses, the gaming-houses, the taverns - in the joyous cities. When a foreign army was ravaging the country the houses of joy, no doubt, became houses of mourning; then the palaces, or noblemen's houses, were forsaken by their owners, who perhaps fled to Egypt for refuge; the multitude of the city were left by their leaders to shift for themselves. Then the stately houses shall be for dens for ever, which had been as forts and towers for strength and magnificence. They shall be abandoned; the owners shall never return to them; every body shall look upon them to be like Jericho, an anathema; so that, even when peace returns, they shall not be rebuilt, but shall be thrown to the waste: A joy of wild asses and a pasture of flocks. Thus is many a house brought to ruin by sin. Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit - Corn grows on the site of Troy.

2. In the foresight of this let them tremble and be troubled, strip themselves, and gird sackcloth upon their loins, Isa 32:11. This intimates not only that when the calamity comes they shall thus be made to tremble and be forced to strip themselves, that then God's judgments would strip them and make them bare, but, (1.) That the best prevention of the trouble would be to repent and humble themselves for their sin, and lie in the dust before God in true remorse and godly sorrow, which would be the lengthening out of their tranquillity. This is meeting God in the way of his judgments, and saving a correction by correcting our own mistakes. Those only shall break that will not bend. (2.) That the best preparation for the trouble would be to deny themselves and live a life of mortification, and to sit loose to all the delights of sense. Those that have already by a holy contempt of this world stripped themselves can easily bear to be stripped when trouble and death come.

II. While there was still a remnant that kept their integrity they had reason to hope for good times at length and such times the prophet here gives them a pleasant prospect of. Such times they saw in the latter end of the reign of Hezekiah; but the prophecy may well be supposed to look further, to the days of the Messiah, who is King of righteousness and King of peace, and to whom all the prophets bear witness. Now observe,

1. How those blessed times shall be introduced-by the pouring out of the Spirit from on high (Isa 32:15), which speaks not only of the good-will of God towards us, but the good work of God in us; for then, and not till then, there will be good times, when God by his grace gives men good hearts; and therefore God's giving his Holy Spirit to those that ask him is in effect his giving them all good things, as appears by comparing Luk 11:13 with Mat 7:11. This is the great thing that God's people comfort themselves with the hopes of, that the Spirit shall be poured out upon them, that there shall be a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of grace than formerly, according as the necessity of the church, in its desolate estate, calls for. This comes from on high, and therefore they look up to their Father in heaven for it. When God designs favours for his church he pours out his Spirit, both to prepare his people to receive his favours and to qualify and give success to those whom he designs to employ as instruments of his favour; for their endeavours to repair the desolations of the church are all fruitless until the Spirit be poured out upon them and then the work is done suddenly. The kingdom of the Messiah was brought in, and set up, by the pouring out of the Spirit (Acts 2), and so it is still kept up, and will be to the end.

2. What a wonderfully happy change shall then be made. That which was a wilderness, dry and barren, shall become a fruitful field, and that which we now reckon a fruitful field, in comparison with what it shall be then, shall be counted for a forest. Then shall the earth yield her increase. It is promised that in the days of the Messiah the fruit of the earth shall shake like Lebanon, Psa 72:16. Some apply this to the admission of the Gentiles into the gospel church (which made the wilderness a fruitful field), and the rejection and exclusion of the Jews, which made that a forest which had been a fruitful field. On the Gentiles was poured out a spirit of life, but on the Jews a spirit of slumber. See what is the evidence and effect of the pouring out of the Spirit upon any soul; it is thereby made fruitful, and has its fruit unto holiness. Three things go to make these times happy: -

(1.) Judgment and righteousness, Isa 32:16. When the Spirit is poured out upon a land, then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness and turn it into a fruitful field, and righteousness shall remain in the fruitful field and make it yet more fruitful. Ministers shall expound the law and magistrates execute it, and both so judiciously and faithfully that by both the bad shall be made good and the good made better. Among all sorts of people, the poor and low and unlearned, that are neglected as the wilderness, and the rich and great and learned, that are valued as the fruitful field, there shall be right thoughts of things, good principles commanding, and conscience made of good and evil, sin and duty. Or in all parts of the land, both champaign and enclosed, country and city, the ruder parts and those that are more cultivated and refined, justice shall be duly administered. The law of Christ introduces a judgment or rule by which we must be governed, and the gospel of Christ a righteousness by which we must be saved; and, wherever the Spirit is poured out, both these dwell and remain as an everlasting righteousness.

(2.) Peace and quietness, Isa 32:17, Isa 32:18. The peace here promised is of two kinds: -

[1.] Inward peace, Isa 32:17. This follows upon the indwelling of righteousness, Isa 32:16. Those in whom that work is wrought shall experience this blessed product of it. It is itself peace, and the effect of it is quietness and assurance for ever, that is, a holy serenity and security of mind, by which the soul enjoys itself and enjoys its God, and it is not in the power of this world to disturb it in those enjoyments. Note, Peace, and quietness, and everlasting assurance may be expected, and shall be found, in the way and work of righteousness. True satisfaction is to be had only in true religion, and there it is to be had without fail. Those are the quiet and peaceable lives that are spent in all godliness and honesty, 1Ti 2:2. First, Even the work of righteousness shall be peace. In the doing of our duty we shall find abundance of true pleasure, a present great reward of obedience in obedience. Though the work of righteousness may be toilsome and costly, and expose us to contempt, yet it is peace, such peace as is sufficient to bear our charges. Secondly, The effect of righteousness shall be quietness and assurance, not only to the end of time, of our time, and in the end, but to the endless ages of eternity. Real holiness is real happiness now and shall be perfect happiness, that is, perfect holiness, for ever.

[2.] Outward peace, Isa 32:18. It is a great mercy when those who by the grace of God have quiet and peaceable spirits are by the providence of God made to dwell in quiet and peaceable habitations, not disturbed in their houses or solemn assemblies. When the terror of Sennacherib's invasion was over, the people, no doubt, were more sensible than ever of the mercy of a quiet habitation, not disturbed with the alarms of war. Let every family study to keep itself quiet from strifes and jars within, not two against three and three against two in the house, and then put itself under God's protection to dwell safely, and to be quiet from the fear of evil without. Jerusalem shall be a peaceable habitation; compare Isa 33:20. Even when it shall hail, and there shall be a violent battering storm coming down on the forest that lies bleak, then shall Jerusalem be a quiet resting-place, for the city shall be low in a low place, under the wind, not exposed (as those cities are that stand high) to the fury of the storm, but sheltered by the mountains that are round about Jerusalem, Psa 125:2. The high forts and towers are brought down (Isa 32:14), but the city that lies low shall be a quiet resting-place. Those are most safe, and may dwell most at ease, that are humble, and are willing to dwell low, Isa 32:19. Those that would dwell in a peaceable habitation must be willing to dwell low, and in a low place. Some think here is an allusion to the preservation of the land of Goshen from the plague of hail, which made great destruction in the land of Egypt.

(3.) Plenty and abundance. There shall be such good crops gathered in every where, and every year, that the husbandmen shall be commended, and though happy, who sow beside all water (Isa 32:20), who sow all the grounds that are fit for seedness, who cast their bread, or bread-corn, upon the water, Ecc 11:1. God will give the increase, but then the husbandman must be industrious, and mind his business, and sow beside all waters; and, if he do this, the corn shall come up so thick and rank that he shall turn in his cattle, even the ox and the ass, to eat the tops of it and keep it under. This is applicable, [1.] To the preaching of the word. Some think it points at the ministry of the apostles, who, as husbandmen, went forth to sow their seed (Mat 13:3); they sowed beside all waters; they preached the gospel wherever they came. Waters signify people, and they preached to multitudes. Wherever they found men's hearts softened, and moistened, and disposed to receive the word, they cast in the good seed. And whereas, by the law of Moses, the Jews were forbidden to plough with an ox and an ass together (Deu 22:10), which intimated that Jews and Gentiles should not intermix, now that distinction shall be taken away, and both the ox and the ass, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be employed in, and enjoy the benefit of, the gospel husbandry. [2.] To works of charity. When God sends these happy times blessed are those that improve them in doing good with what they have, that sow beside all waters, that embrace all opportunities of relieving the necessitous; for in due season they shall reap.

For Judah, sifted, delivered, and purified, there now begins a new ear. Righteous government, as a blessing for the people, is the first beneficent fruit. "Behold, the king will reign according to righteousness; and the princes, according to right will they command. And every one will be like a shelter from the wind, and a covert from the storm; like water-brooks in a dry place, like the shadow of a gigantic rock in a languishing land." The kingdom of Asshur is for ever destroyed; but the kingdom of Judah rises out of the state of confusion into which it has fallen through its God - forgetting policy and disregard of justice. King and princes now rule according to the standards that have been divinely appointed and revealed. The Lamed in ūl^e sârı̄m (and the princes) is that of reference ( quod attinet ad , as in Psa 16:3 and Ecc 9:4), the exponent of the usual casus abs. ( Ges . §146, 2); and the two other Lameds are equivalent to κατά , secundum (as in Jer 30:11). The figures in Isa 32:2 are the same as in Isa 25:4. The rock of Asshur (i.e., Sennacherib) has departed, and the princes of Asshur have deserted their standards, merely to save themselves. The king and princes of Judah are now the defence of their nation, and overshadow it like colossal walls of rock. This is the first fruit of the blessing.

The second is an opened understanding, following upon the ban of hardening. "And the eyes of the seeing no more are closed, and the ears of the hearing attend. And the heart of the hurried understands to know, and the tongue of stammerers speaks clear things with readiness." It is not physical miracles that are predicted here, but a spiritual change. The present judgment of hardening will be repealed: this is what Isa 32:3 affirms. The spiritual defects, from which many suffer who do not belong to the worst, will be healed: this is the statement in Isa 32:4. The form תּשׁעינה is not the future of שׁעה here, as in Isa 31:1; Isa 22:4; Isa 17:7-8 (in the sense of, they will no longer stare about restlessly and without aim), but of שׁעה = שׁעע , a metaplastic future of the latter, in the sense of, to be smeared over to closed (see Isa 29:9; Isa 6:10; cf., tach in Isa 44:18). On qâshabh (the kal of which is only met with here), see at Isa 21:7. The times succeeding the hardening, of which Isaiah is speaking here, are "the last times,"as Isa 6:1-13 clearly shows; though it does not therefore follow that the king mentioned in Isa 32:1 (as in Isa 11:1.) is the Messiah Himself. In Isa 32:1 the prophet merely affirms, that Israel as a national commonwealth will then be governed in a manner well pleasing to God; here he predicts that Israel as a national congregation will be delivered from the judgment of not seeing with seeing eyes, and not hearing with hearing ears, and that it will be delivered from defects of weakness also. The nimhârı̄m are those that fall headlong, the precipitate, hurrying, or rash; and the עלּגים , stammerers, are not scoffers (Isa 28:7., Isa 19:20), as Knobel and Drechsler maintain, but such as are unable to think and speak with distinctness and certainty, more especially concerning the exalted things of God. The former would now have the gifts of discernment (yâbhı̄n ), to perceive things in their true nature, and to distinguish under all circumstances that which is truly profitable (lâda‛ath ); the latter would be able to express themselves suitably, with refinement, clearness, and worthiness. Tsachōth (old ed. tsâchōth ) signifies that which is light, transparent; not merely intelligible, but refined and elegant. תּמהר gives the adverbial idea to l^e dabbēr (Ewald, §§285, a ).

A third fruit of the blessing is the naming and treating of every one according to his true character. "The fool will no more be called a nobleman, nor the crafty a gentleman. For a fool speaks follies, and his heart does godless things, to practise tricks and to speak error against Jehovah, to leave the soul of hungry men empty, and to withhold the drink of thirsty ones. And the craft of a crafty man is evil, who devises stratagems to destroy suffering ones by lying words, even when the needy exhibits his right. But a noble man devises noble things, and to noble things he adheres." Nobility of birth and wealth will give place to nobility of character, so that the former will not exist or not be recognised without the latter. Nâdı̄bh is properly one who is noble in character, and then, dropping the ethical meaning, one who is noble by rank. The meaning of the word generosus follows the same course in the opposite direction. Shōă‛ is the man who is raised to eminence by the possession of property; the gentleman, as in Job 34:19. The prophet explains for himself in what sense he uses the words nâbhâl and kı̄lai . We see from his explanation that kı̄lai neither signifies the covetous, from kūl (Saad.), nor the spendthrift, from killâh (Hitzig). Jerome gives the correct rendering, viz., fraudulentus ; and Rashi and Kimchi very properly regard it as a contraction of n^e khı̄lai . It is an adjective form derived from כּיל = נכיל , like שׂיא = נשׂיא (Job 20:6). The form כּלי in Isa 32:1 is used interchangeably with this, merely for the sake of the resemblance in sound to כּליו (machinatoris machinae pravae). In Isa 32:6, commencing with ki (for), the fact that the nâbhâl (fool) and kı̄lai (crafty man) will lose their titles of honour, is explained on the simple ground that such men are utterly unworthy of them. Nâbhâl is a scoffer at religion, who thinks himself an enlightened man, and yet at the same time has the basest heart, and is a worthless egotist. The infinitives with Lamed show in what the immorality ( ' âven ) consists, with which his heart is so actively employed. In Isa 32:6, ūbh^e dabbēr ("and if he speak") is equivalent to, "even in the event of a needy man saying what is right and well founded:"Vâv = et in the sense of etiam ((cf., 2Sa 1:23; Psa 31:12; Hos 8:6; Ecc 5:6); according to Knobel, it is equivalent to et quidem , as in Ecc 8:2; Amo 3:11; Amo 4:10; whereas Ewald regards it as Vav conj. (§283, d ), "and by going to law with the needy,"but את־אביון would be the construction in this case (vid., 2Ki 25:6). According to Isa 32:8, not only does the noble man devise what is noble, but as such ( הוּא ) he adheres to it. We might also adopt this explanation, "It is not upon gold or upon chance that he rises;"but according to the Arabic equivalents, qūm signifies persistere here.

This short address, although rounded off well, is something more than a fragment complete in itself, like the short parabolic piece in Isa 28:23-29, which commences in a similar manner. It is the last part of the fourth woe, just as that was the last part of the first. It is a side piece to the threatening prophecy of the time of Uzziah-Jotham (Isa 3:16.), and chastises the frivolous self-security of the women of Jerusalem, just as the former chastises their vain and luxurious love of finery. The prophet has now uttered many a woe upon Jerusalem, which is bringing itself to the verge of destruction; but notwithstanding the fact that women are by nature more delicate, and more easily affected and alarmed, than men, he has made no impression upon the women of Jerusalem, to whom he now foretells a terrible undeceiving of their carnal ease, whilst he holds out before them the ease secured by God, which can only be realized on the ruins of the former.

The first part of the address proclaims the annihilation of their false ease. "Ye contented women, rise up, hear my voice; ye confident daughters, hearken to my speech! Days to the year: then will ye tremble, confident ones! for it is all over with the vintage, the fruit harvest comes to nought. Tremble, contented ones! Quake, ye confident ones! Strip, make yourselves bare, and gird your loins with sackcloth! They smite upon their breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. On the land of my people there come up weeds, briers; yea, upon all joyous houses of the rejoicing city. For the palace is made solitary; the crowd of the city is left desolate; the ofel and watch-tower serve as caves for ever, for the delight of wild asses, for the tending of flocks." The summons is the same as in Gen 4:23 and Jer 9:19 (comp. Isa 28:23); the attributes the same as in Amo 6:1 (cf., Isa 4:1, where Isaiah apostrophizes the women of Samaria). שׁאנן , lively, of good cheer; and בּטח , trusting, namely to nothing. They are to rise up (qōmnâh ), because the word of God must be heard standing (Jdg 3:20). The definition of the time "days for a year"(yâmı̄m ‛al - shânâh ) appears to indicate the length of time that the desolation would last, as the word tirgaznâh is without any Vav apod . (cf., Isa 65:24; Job 1:16-18); but Isa 29:1 shows us differently, and the Vav is omitted, just as it is, for example, in Dan 4:28. Shânâh is the current year. In an undefined number of days, at the most a year from the present time (which is sometimes the meaning of yâmı̄m ), the trembling would begin, and there would be neither grapes nor fruit to gather. Hence the spring harvest of corn is supposed to be over when the devastation begins. ימים is an acc. temporis ; it stands here (as in Isa 27:6, for example; vid., Ewald, §293, 1) to indicate the starting point, not the period of duration. The milel -forms פּשׁטה , ערה , חגרה ,ערה , are explained by Ewald, Drechsler, and Luzzatto, as plur. fem. imper. with the Nun of the termination nâh dropped - an elision that is certainly never heard of. Others regard it as inf. with He femin. (Credner, Joel , p. 151); but קטלה for the infinitive קטלה is unexampled; and equally unexampled would be the inf. with He indicating the summons, as suggested by Böttcher, "to the shaking!""to the stripping!"They are sing. masc. imper. , such as occur elsewhere apart from the pause, e.g., מלוכה (for which the keri has מלכה ) in Jdg 9:8; and the singular in the place of the plural is the strongest form of command. The masculine instead of the feminine appears already in הרדוּ , which is used in the place of חרדנה . The prophet then proceeds in the singular number, comprehending the women as a mass, and using the most massive expression. The He introduced into the summons required that the feminine forms, רגזי , etc., should be given up. ערה , from ערר , to be naked, to strip one's self. חגרה absolute, as in Joe 1:13 (cf., Isa 3:24), signifies to gird one's self with sackcloth (saq ). We meet with the same remarkable enall. generis in Isa 32:12. Men have no breasts (shâdaim ), and yet the masculine sōphedı̄m is employed, inasmuch as the prophet had the whole nation in his mind, throughout which there would be such a plangere ubera on account of the utter destruction of the hopeful harvest of corn and wine. Shâdaim (breasts) and שׂדי (construct to sâdōth ) have the same common ring as ubera and ubertas frugum . In Isa 32:13 ta‛ăleh points back to qōts shâmı̄r , which is condensed into one neuter idea. The ki in Isa 32:13 has the sense of the Latin imo (Ewald, §330, b ). The genitive connection of עלּיזה קריה with משׂושׂ בּתּי (joy-houses of the jubilant city) is the same as in Isa 28:1. The whole is grammatically strange, just as in the Psalms the language becomes all the more complicated, disjointed, and difficult, the greater the wrath and indignation of the poet. Hence the short shrill sentences in Isa 32:14 : palace given up (cf., Isa 13:22); city bustle forsaken (i.e., the city generally so full of bustle, Isa 22:2). The use of בּעד is the same as in Pro 6:26; Job 2:4. ‛Ofel , i.e., the south-eastern fortified slope of the temple mountain, and the bachan (i.e., the watch-tower, possibly the flock-tower which is mentioned in Mic 4:8 along with ‛ofel ), would be pro speluncis , i.e., would be considered and serve as such. And in the very place where the women of Jerusalem had once led their life of gaiety, wild asses would now have their delight, and flocks their pasture (on the wild asses, p^e râ'ı̄m , that fine animal of the woodless steppe, see at Job 24:5; Job 39:5-8). Thus would Jerusalem, with its strongest, proudest places, be laid in ruins, and that in a single year, or ever less than a year.

The state would then continue long, very long, until at last the destruction of the false rest would be followed by the realization of the true. "Until the Spirit is poured out over us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as the forest. And justice makes its abode in the desert, and righteousness settles down upon the fruit-field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the reward of righteousness rest and security for ever. And my people dwells in a place of peace, and in trustworthy, safe dwellings, and in cheerful resting-places. And it hails with the overthrow of the forest, and into lowliness must the city be brought low." There is a limit, therefore, to the "for ever"of Isa 32:14. The punishment would last till the Spirit, which Israel had not then dwelling in the midst of it (see Hag 2:5), and whose fulness was like a closed vessel to Israel, should be emptied out over Israel from the height of heaven (compare the piel ערה , Gen 24:20), i.e., should be poured out in all its fulness. When that was done, a great change would take place, the spiritual nature of which is figuratively represented in the same proverbial manner as in Isa 29:17. At the same time, a different turn is given to the second half in the passage before us. The meaning is, not that what was now valued as a fruit-bearing garden would be brought down from its false eminence, and be only regarded as forest; but that the whole would be so glorious, that what was now valued as a fruit-garden, would be thrown into the shade by something far more glorious still, in comparison with which it would have the appearance of a forest, in which everything grew wild. The whole land, the uncultivated pasture-land as well as the planted fruitful fields of corn and fruit, would then become the tent and seat of justice and righteousness. "Justice and righteousness' ( m ishpât and ts^e dâqâh ) are throughout Isaiah the stamp of the last and perfect time. As these advance towards self-completion, the produce and result of these will be peace ( ma‛ăseh and abhōdâh are used to denote the fruit or self-reward of work and painstaking toil; compare פּעלּה ). But two things must take place before this calm, trustworthy, happy peace, of which the existing carnal security is only a caricature, can possibly be realized. In the first place, it must hail , and the wood must fall , being beaten down with hail. We already know, from Isa 10:34, that "the wood"was an emblem of Assyria; and in Isa 30:30-31, we find "the hail"mentioned as one of the forces of nature that would prove destructive to Assyria. And secondly , "the city"( העיר , a play upon the word, and a counterpart to היּער ) must first of all be brought low into lowliness (i.e., be deeply humiliated). Rosenmüller and others suppose the imperial city to be intended, according to parallels taken from chapters 24-27; but in this cycle of prophecies, in which the imperial city is never mentioned at all, "the city"must be Jerusalem, whose course from the false peace to the true lay through a humiliating punishment (Isa 29:2-4; Isa 30:19., Isa 31:4.).

In the face of this double judgment, the prophet congratulates those who will live to see the times after the judgment. "Blessed are ye that sow by all waters, and let the foot of the oxen and asses rove in freedom." Those who lived to see these times would be far and wide the lords of a quiet and fruitful land, cleared of its foes, and of all disturbers of peace. They would sow wherever they pleased, by all the waters that fertilized the soil, and therefore in a soil of the most productive kind, and one that required little if any trouble to cultivate. And inasmuch as everything would be in the most copious abundance, they would no longer need to watch with anxiety lest their oxen and asses should stray into the corn-fields, but would be able to let them wander wherever they pleased. There cannot be the slightest doubt that this is the correct explanation of the verse, according to Isa 30:23-25 (compare also Isa 7:21.).

This concludes the four woes, from which the fifth, that immediately follows, is distinguished by the fact, that in the former the Assyrian troubles are still in the future, whereas the fifth places us in the very midst of them. The prophet commenced (Isa 28:1-4) with the destruction of Samaria; he then threatened Judah and Jerusalem also. But it is uncommonly difficult to combine the different features of the threat into a complete picture. Sifting even to a small remnant is a leading thought, which runs through the threat. And we also read throughout the whole, that Asshur will meet with its own destruction in front of that very Jerusalem which it is seeking to destroy. But the prophet also knows, on the one hand, that Jerusalem is besieged by the Assyrians, and will not be rescued till the besieged city has been brought to the last extremity (Isa 29:1., Isa 31:4.); and, on the other hand, that this will reach even to the falling of the towers (Isa 30:25), the overthrow of the wall of the state (Isa 30:13-14), the devastation of the land, and the destruction of Jerusalem itself (Isa 32:12.); and for both of these he fixes the limit of a year (Isa 29:1; Isa 32:10). This double threat may be explained in the following manner. The judgments which Israel has still to endure, and the period of glory that will follow them, lie before the mental eye of the prophet like a long deep diorama. While threatening the existing generation, he penetrates more or less deeply into the judgments which lie in perspective before him. He threatens at one time merely a siege that will continue till it is brought to the utmost extremity; at another time utter destruction. But the imperial power intended, by which this double calamity is to be brought upon Judah, must be Assyria; since the prophet knew of no other in the earliest years of Hezekiah, when these threatening addresses were uttered. And this gives rise to another difficulty. Not only was the worst prediction - namely, that of the destruction of Jerusalem - not fulfilled; but even the milder prophecy - namely, that of a siege, which would bring them to the deepest distress - was not accomplished. There never was any actual siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians. The explanation of this is, that, according to Jer 18:7-8, and Jer 18:9, Jer 18:10, neither the threatenings of punishment nor the promises of blessing uttered by the prophets were so unconditional, that they were certain to be fulfilled and that with absolute necessity, at such and such a time, or upon such and such a generation. The threatened punishment might be repealed or modified, if repentance ensued on the part of the persons threatened (Jon 3:4; 1Ki 21:29; 2Ki 22:15-20; 2Ch 12:5-8). The words of the prophecy did not on that account fall to the ground. If they produced repentance, they answered the very purpose for which they were intended; but if the circumstances which called for punishment should return, their force returned as well in all its fulness. If the judgment was one irrevocably determined, it was merely delayed by this, to be discharged upon the generation which should be ripest for it. And we have also an express historical testimony, which shows that this is the way in which the non-fulfilment of what Isaiah threatened as about to take place within a year is to be accounted for. Not only Isaiah, but also his contemporary Micah, threatened, that along with the judgment upon Samaria, the same judgment would also burst upon Jerusalem. Zion would be ploughed as a field, Jerusalem would be laid in ruins, and the temple mountain would be turned into a wooded height (Mic 3:12). This prophecy belongs to the first year of Hezekiah's reign, for it was then that the book of Micah was composed. But we read in Jer 26:18-19, that, in their alarm at this prophecy, Hezekiah and all Judah repented, and that Jehovah withdrew His threat in consequence. Thus, in the very first year of Hezekiah, a change for the better took place in Judah; and this was necessarily followed by the withdrawal of Isaiah's threatenings, just as those threatenings had co-operated in the production of this conversion (see Caspari, Micha , p. 160ff.). Not one of the three threats (Isa 29:1-4; Isa 32:9-14; Mic 3:12), which form an ascending climax, was fulfilled. Previous threatenings so far recovered their original force, when the insincerity of the conversion became apparent, that the Assyrians did unquestionably march through Judah, devastating everything as they went along. But because of Hezekiah's self-humiliation and faith, the threat was turned from that time forward into a promise. In direct opposition to his former threatening, Isaiah now promised that Jerusalem would not be besieged by the Assyrians (Isa 37:33-35), but that, before the siege was actually established, Assyria would fall under the walls of Jerusalem.

III. Israel's crisis of faith chs. 7--39

This long section of the book deals with Israel's major decision in Isaiah's day. Would she trust in Yahweh or in other nations? The decision was a matter of faith; who is more trustworthy, God or strong people? God promised that trust in the nations would result in destruction (ch. 34) but trust in Him would bring abundance (ch. 35). Israel's decision would also determine whether she had a message for the nations or not and whether she would fulfill her mission to the nations or not. This decision is, of course, one that the people of God of all ages continually face.

B. God's sovereignty over the nations chs. 13-35

This major section of the book emphasizes the folly of trusting in the nations rather than in Yahweh. The section preceding it shows how King Ahaz trusted in Assyria and experienced destruction (chs. 7-12). The section following it shows how King Hezekiah trusted in the Lord and experienced deliverance (chs. 36-39). In this section the prophet expanded his perspective from Israel to include the world. The God of Israel is also Lord of the nations.

3. The folly of trusting the nations chs. 28-33

Chapters 28-35 are somewhat similar to chapters 13-27 in content and form. The same general pattern of argument unfolds, but the historical context is generally later. The historical context of chapters 13-27 was mainly Ahaz's reign in which Judah faced temptation to trust in Assyria for her safety rather than in the Lord.²⁶⁴ The historical context of chapters 28-35 was mainly Hezekiah's reign in which Judah faced temptation to trust in Egypt.²⁶⁵ Also different is the emphasis in chapters 13-27 on Yahweh's sovereignty over the nations compared with the emphasis in chapters 28-35 on Judah's choice to trust Him or not. This is a matter of emphasis, however, since both sections deal with both issues.

The first part of the present section, chapters 28-33, serves the same general function as chapters 13-23: they focus on the particular situation in Isaiah's day to warn Judah against trusting neighbor nations. The second part, chapters 34-35, like chapters 24-27, again project farther into the future and deal more with Israel's eschatological hope.

The presence of six "woes" also marks off chapters 28-33 as a distinct unit of Isaiah's prophecy (28:1; 29:1, 15; 30:1; 31:1; 33:1; cf. 5:8-10, 18-23; Matt. 23:13-39; Rev. 8:13; 9:12; 12:12; 11:14). This section is divisible into three parts. Chapters 28-29 paint the picture of Judah's foolish leaders concluding that something must be done at once, other than trusting God, to save the people from their enemy. Here the principles involved in Judah's situation emerge clearly. Chapters 30-31 focus on the proposed solution, trust in Egypt, and the folly of that option. Chapters 32-33 stress the proper solution, namely, acknowledgment of Israel's true King and trust in Him. In these last four chapters the application of the principles in history and in the eschaton receive more attention.

In chapters 28-29 Isaiah pointed out that the situations in the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms were quite similar. Both nations faced threats to their security from a strong foreign enemy, and unworthy leaders who urged trust in man rather than in God ruled both nations. Judah was in a more dangerous position, however, because her leaders were cynical; they believed nothing and trusted no one.

The woe against rejecters of God's help chs. 31-32

Like the third "woe" (ch. 30), this fourth one deals with the folly of trusting in Egypt for security rather than the Lord. It applies particularly the principles set forth in the first part of the second "woe" (29:1-14), as is clear from the many word and thought links in these passages.

The first five verses constitute a prologue to this "woe" and deal with imminent disaster followed by later deliverance.

"Without any particular break in the thought Isaiah continues his denunciation of those who look to Egypt for aid."³¹⁰

31:1 The prophet condemned those in Judah and Jerusalem who were relying on the brute strength, the military might, and the trained personnel of Egypt to provide security for their nation (cf. Deut. 17:14-20). Going down to Egypt to secure these things revealed a lack of trust in the Holy One of Israel who had long ago proved His sovereignty over Egypt. Rather the people should have simply looked to the Lord and cultivated relationship with Him.

". . . when any people feel that special weapons can relieve them of dependence upon God, they are on the road to destruction."³¹¹

31:2 The politicians in Jerusalem who advocated alliance with Egypt undoubtedly considered their policy wise (cf. 5:21; 19:11-15; 28:14-15; 30:1-2). But Isaiah, in irony, pointed out that the Lord, who purposed disaster for those who refused to trust Him, was the truly wise one. He would be faithful to His word to oppose the party of evildoers and those wicked "helpers" in whom the Judeans trusted.

31:3 The contrast between the relative strength of humans and God is stark.

"To us flesh' seems so substantial, because visible and tangible, while spirit' may seem ethereal. . . . Nothing could be further from biblical thinking, as a glance at passages like Zechariah 4:6 and John 3:5-8 will disclose."³¹²

Yahweh would stretch out His hand in powerful judgment to defeat the helpers (Egypt) as well as the helped (Judah) because they trusted in human power rather than in God (cf. Deut. 4:34; 7:19; John 4:24).

31:4-5 The Lord had told Isaiah that He would be as a lion and as a bird to Judah. As a lion attacks its prey, He would decimate the Judahites, and the shouts of the Egyptian shepherds that the Judahites had hired to protect them would not scare Him off. As a bird that protects its young from other animals, the Lord would protect Judah from its predator, Assyria (cf. Exod. 12).

"He who protects is He who is strong as a lion to accomplish His purposes."³¹³

The prophet now called his audience to repent with the prospect of salvation that lay in the future.

31:6 Many Israelites had been seriously unfaithful to the Lord, and Isaiah appealed to those of them in Judah to return to Him with their heart, not just because he had announced coming judgment.

31:7 "In that day" points to the eschatological revival of Israel (cf. 2:20). The Judahites of Isaiah's day needed to return to the Lord because in the future Israel as a whole would do so. The time for decisive action was now.

31:8 The immediate situation also called for Judah to repent. Since the Lord promised to defeat Assyria Himself, His people needed to get into a right relationship with Him. To say that the Assyrian young men would become forced laborers was to say that Assyria would herself be overcome.

31:9 The rock of Assyria, her king (cf. 30:29), would panic, and her princes would tremble at the evidence of divine intervention. The Assyrians would face a fire in Jerusalem that they could not endure.³¹⁴

Having introduced the eschatological day of the Lord (31:7) and the interim day of the Lord (31:8-9), Isaiah proceeded to reveal more about these times. He also contrasted the king of the Assyrians (31:9) with the messianic King to come.

"The destruction of the Assyrian army points prophetically to the final world conflict, which will usher in the rule of Christ, the perfect King of Israel. Christ's kingdom will fulfill God's ideal of a holy commonwealth, administering a perfect righteousness throughout the earth. God's King will provide complete shelter to all who seek refuge in him, and he will satisfy their thirsty souls with living water."³¹⁵

32:1 The king and the princes of the future will not panic but will rule righteously (cf. 31:9). This is Messiah (chs. 9; 11) who embodies righteousness. His princes are His executives, His vice-regents.³¹⁶ They stand in contrast to the unrighteous princes of Judah who advocated alliance with Egypt (cf. 29:15-16; 30:1-2).

32:2 Each of these rulers will be a person of integrity and will be a source of provision and refreshment for the people of God, providing every beneficial care (cf. 29:20-21; Matt. 20:28; John 10:11).

32:3-4 God will transform all the shortcomings of humanity. Physical, but mainly spiritual, transformation is in view. People will perceive, receive, understand, and communicate the truth as they would not and could not before (cf. 6:9-10).

32:5 The characters of the amoral and the unscrupulous will experience transformation as well.

32:6-8 These verses expound further on the changes that will take place in fools and rogues. Their present characteristics are all too familiar, but these will change with the coming of Messiah. Fools disregard their moral and spiritual obligations. Rogues work deviously for their own advantage at the expense of others. In contrast, noble people are liberally outgoing to God and others.

Isaiah had appealed to the sons of Israel to return to the Lord (31:6), and now he appealed to the women of Israel to rise up in repentance (32:9; cf. 3:16-26). Appeal to both sexes stresses the importance of everyone repenting. As in his appeal to the men, the prophet also announced an immediate threat and a more distant disaster.

32:9 The women of Judah blandly assumed that nothing would disturb their present secure circumstances. Isaiah challenged them to listen to him. They were not secure.

32:10 In just over a year something devastating would happen that would preclude the harvest of grapes that they must have anticipated eagerly.

32:11-12 These women needed to prepare for captivity and to mourn at the prospect of an enemy invasion and its consequences.

32:13-14 Land once cultivated would become deserted, and their homes, even the palaces, would be left empty. Animals would occupy what humans formerly inhabited (cf. 5:17).

"The devastation caused by Sennacherib's wind would be completed by Nebuchadnezzar's whirlwind."³¹⁷

32:15 These reversals would not be final, however. God's Spirit would affect an even greater change later in the future (cf. Ps. 104:30; Ezek. 36:26-27; Joel 2:28; Zech. 12:10). Then the wilderness would become fertile, and what was presently considered fertile would become a veritable jungle so full of large plants would it be (cf. 30:23-26). The creation will burgeon, the divine curse will be removed, and the damage that sin has caused will be reversed (cf. 29:17).

32:16-17 Justice and righteousness will be everywhere. The effects of this righteousness will be peace, rest, and security (cf. 11:4-9). This will come about because people will be right with God (cf. 30:15).

"The person who has received the grace of God's forgiveness is at peace with God. Knowing himself to be at peace with the Sovereign of the universe, it is no longer necessary to project his own turmoil upon those around him (Phil. 3:12-17). Furthermore, the person for whom God's character has become central will be less likely to oppress others in a frantic attempt to supply his or her own needs."³¹⁸

32:18 God's people who responded to the appeals in 31:6 and 32:9 would live free from external threats, not erroneously thinking they were secure (cf. v. 9).

The last two verses of this "woe" serve as an epilogue (cf. the prologue, 31:1-5). Again there is an abrupt transition from present terror to future tranquillity. Judgment and glory both lay ahead for the Israelites, and it was time for them to choose to return to the Lord. God has revealed the distant future as well as the immediate future so people will get right with Him now.

32:19 The forest is a figure of soldiers (10:18, 33-34) and of the fallen world (2:12-13). The city refers to Jerusalem, but it also represents humankind organized in rebellion against God (24:10). Thus both the near and the far views of God's actions blend here. God will destroy, the hail representing His devastating intervention in human life, both the Assyrian soldiers soon and the fallen world later. He would devastate Jerusalem soon and rebellious humankind later.

32:20 The blessed residents of the land in the distant future will enjoy the best existence, represented here in a pastoral setting. They will be in right relation to God having responded to His invitations to return to and hear the Lord (31:6; 32:9). Their blessing will consist of divine favor (cf. Ps. 32:1), personal fulfillment (cf. Ps. 112:1), and total rectitude (cf. Ps. 2:12; 137:8-9).³¹⁹

In the near future, the Judahites could experience a measure of deliverance from the Assyrians by repenting. Some of them did repent. Sennacherib was not able to take Jerusalem even though he devastated much of Judah. In the far future, the Israelites will enjoy salvation from all their enemies because they will repent at the second coming of Christ (cf. Zech. 12:10-14; 14:4). This did not take place after the Exile nor after Pentecost on the scale that Isaiah envisioned here. God does not wait for people to repent before He acts in mercy. Rather the goodness of God leads people to repentance (cf. Rom. 2:4; 11:22).

Isaiah 32 - A King's Reign of Righteousness

A. Blessings from the coming king.

1. (1) In the aftermath of Jerusalem's deliverance, a king comes.

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.

a. In the previous chapter, God assured that the Assyrians would be judged, and Judah would be delivered. But God didn't want only to remove the threat; He also wanted to bless Judah was a righteous king, so the promise is made: Behold, a king will reign in righteousness.

i. However, it is likely that the prophecy of Isaiah 32-33 was given before the time of the prophecy of Isaiah 30-31. Both look to the time of the Assyrian invasion of Judah, but Isaiah 30-31 are set in the time of Hezekiah, as the invasion nears Jerusalem. Most commentators believe that the king who will reign in righteousness mentioned here was Hezekiah, and since it says that he will reign, this prophecy may have been given at the beginning of Isaiah's prophetic career, during the reign of King Ahaz, the predecessor to King Hezekiah.

ii. It is possible that the prophecy of Isaiah 32-33 was given during the reign of Hezekiah, and this announcement refers to the latter part of his reign. It is also possible that it was given during the time of Hezekiah, and it prophesies the coming of King Josiah, the great-grandson of the present king of Judah, Hezekiah, who reigned during the Assyrian threat. Josiah was a righteous king (2 Kings 22:2).

b. Hezekiah certainly fulfills the prophecy that a king will reign in righteousness. It is written of him, And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done . . . He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses (2 Kings 18:3, 5-6).

c. A king will reign in righteousness: Ultimately, Hezekiah is a picture of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 23:5 announces this about our Messiah: "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

i. "This seems to have been delivered in the time of Ahaz, and to speak of Hezekiah, and of his righteousness and happy government. But withal, as Hezekiah and his reign was an eminent type of Christ and of his kingdom; so this prophecy looks through Hezekiah unto Christ." (Poole)

d. And princes will rule with justice: It wasn't enough - it is never enough - to have a righteous king. The king must have helpers, princes under him, who will also rule with justice. Hezekiah had such loyal princes, such as Eliakim, Shebna the scribe, the elders of the priests, and Isaiah himself (2 Kings 19:2).

i. These weren't princes in the literal sense of being sons of King Hezekiah. The Hebrew word for princes can mean any ruler under a king.

ii. If Hezekiah, the righteous king, points to Jesus, then who are Jesus' princes? His people are His princes! But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). And have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10). Many of the seemingly unnecessary trials and pains of this life a wonderful purpose in the world beyond: training us to be princes, faithfully ruling with King Jesus!

2. (2-4) The blessings of restoration from the king.

A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen. Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

a. The spiritual renewal during the reign of Hezekiah was like rivers of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. By God's blessing, those who see could see better than ever, and those who hear will listen.

i. The more glorious reign of Jesus is all these things for us as well. He is a shelter from the storm (a cover from the tempest), as rivers of water in a dry place, and like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

ii. "If King Hezekiah were a type of Christ, then this prophecy may refer to his time; but otherwise it seems to have Hezekiah primarily in view. It is evident, however, that in the fullest sense these words cannot be applied to any man; GOD alone can do all that is promised here." (Clarke)

b. The heart of the rash will understand knowledge: The spiritual renewal during the reign of Hezekiah promoted trust in God's Word, and because of that, hearts were changed. God also would bless in miraculous ways (the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly).

3. (5-8) The blessings of righteousness and integrity from the king.

The foolish person will no longer be called generous, nor the miser said to be bountiful; for the foolish person will speak foolishness, and his heart will work iniquity: To practice ungodliness, to utter error against the LORD, to keep the hungry unsatisfied, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; he devises wicked plans to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks justice. But a generous man devises generous things, and by generosity he shall stand.

a. The foolish person will no longer be called generous . . . the foolish person will speak foolishness: The spiritual renewal during the reign of Hezekiah meant that spiritual reality would be exposed for all to see. No more would there be deception by appearances; if a man were foolish, he would be exposed as foolish.

i. Wicked plans: "Apart from Job 17:11, has a uniformly bad meaning. It occurs nineteen times of sexual misconduct (e.g. Leviticus 18:17). It is planning for one's own advantage at whatever cost to others." (Motyer)

b. But a generous man devises generous things: Not only would the foolishness of the foolish be exposed, but so would the generosity of the generous. Righteousness and wickedness would each be seen for what they were, and regarded accordingly.

i. "Wickedness shall be discovered and punished wheresoever it is, and virtue shall be manifested and rewarded, and all things shall be managed with sincerity and simplicity." (Poole)

B. A call to prepare for the coming of the Spirit.

1. (9-11) The women at ease are called to repent.

Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. In a year and some days you will be troubled, you complacent women; for the vintage will fail, the gathering will not come. Tremble, you women who are at ease; be troubled, you complacent ones; strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth on your waists.

a. Before the righteous king would come, the people had to prepare themselves. The women who are at ease and the complacent daughters had to get ready for the righteous king.

i. At ease is the same word used later in the chapter, where God promises secure dwelling places (Isaiah 32:18). Complacent is the same word used in later in the same chapter, where God promises peaceful habitation. "According to Isaiah, there is nothing wrong with feeling secure and undisturbed as long as one's trust is solidly based on the Lord." (Wolf)

b. Instead of an indulgent, self-focused life, they would be required to tremble, be troubled, and put on the clothing of mourning.

2. (12-14) The whole land mourns.

People shall mourn upon their breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city; because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks.

a. Because of the Assyrian invasion to come, God would use the tough economic times to wake Judah up. For the vintage will fail, the gathering will not come (Isaiah 32:10). People shall mourn upon their breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. The tough times touched everyone (all the happy homes in the joyous city . . . the palaces will be forsaken).

3. (15) The Spirit is poured out upon a humbled people.

Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

a. Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high: God used the invasion from Assyria, the tough times, and the humble mourning of the people to prepare them for an outpouring of His Spirit.

i. Until: It was only the Spirit of God that could make the difference; the tough times would last until the Spirit was poured out.

ii. Is poured out: God wanted to do more than scatter a few drops of His mercy and blessing; He wanted His Spirit to be poured out upon His people.

iii. From on high: This is where the true outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes. It doesn't come from among men, or because of men's efforts. It comes from heaven, from on high.

b. The wilderness becomes a fruitful field: When the Holy Spirit is poured out, what was barren and desolate before is now full of life and fruitfulness. True fruitfulness comes from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

c. And the fruitful field is counted as a forest: When the Holy Spirit is poured out, what was good before (a fruitful field) miraculously becomes even better (a forest).

4. (16-20) Blessings brought by the Spirit.

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places, though hail comes down on the forest, and the city is brought low in humiliation. Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.

a. Justice . . . righteousness . . . peace . . . quietness and assurance forever: When God's Spirit is poured out among His people, this is what it is like. This means that we shouldn't be satisfied with what claims to be of the Spirit, but isn't marked by the fruit of the Spirit. This means that if we lack these things, we can come and ask the LORD to pour out His Spirit upon us.

b. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings . . . though hail comes down on the forest, and the city is brought low in humiliation: When God's Spirit is poured out, we live on a principle higher than circumstances. If others feel the pelting hail, or are brought low in humiliation, it doesn't matter to those blessed by the poured-out Spirit of God.

© 2001 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission