Isaiah 5 commentary

Christ is God's beloved Son, and our beloved Saviour. The care of the Lord over the church of Israel, is described by the management of a vineyard. The advantages of our situation will be brought into the account another day. He planted it with the choicest vines; gave them a most excellent law, instituted proper ordinances. The temple was a tower, where God gave tokens of his presence. He set up his altar, to which the sacrifices should be brought; all the means of grace are denoted thereby. God expects fruit from those that enjoy privileges. Good purposes and good beginnings are good things, but not enough; there must be vineyard fruit; thoughts and affections, words and actions, agreeable to the Spirit. It brought forth bad fruit. Wild grapes are the fruits of the corrupt nature. Where grace does not work, corruption will. But the wickedness of those that profess religion, and enjoy the means of grace, must be upon the sinners themselves. They shall no longer be a peculiar people. When errors and vice go without check or control, the vineyard is unpruned; then it will soon be grown over with thorns. This is often shown in the departure of God's Spirit from those who have long striven against him, and the removal of his gospel from places which have long been a reproach to it. The explanation is given. It is sad with a soul, when, instead of the grapes of humility, meekness, love, patience, and contempt of the world, for which God looks, there are the wild grapes of pride, passion, discontent, and malice, and contempt of God; instead of the grapes of praying and praising, the wild grapes of cursing and swearing. Let us bring forth fruit with patience, that in the end we may obtain everlasting life.

Here is a woe to those who set their hearts on the wealth of the world. Not that it is sinful for those who have a house and a field to purchase another; but the fault is, that they never know when they have enough. Covetousness is idolatry; and while many envy the prosperous, wretched man, the Lord denounces awful woes upon him. How applicable to many among us! God has many ways to empty the most populous cities. Those who set their hearts upon the world, will justly be disappointed. Here is woe to those who dote upon the pleasures and the delights of sense. The use of music is lawful; but when it draws away the heart from God, then it becomes a sin to us. God's judgments have seized them, but they will not disturb themselves in their pleasures. The judgments are declared. Let a man be ever so high, death will bring him low; ever so mean, death will bring him lower. The fruit of these judgments shall be, that God will be glorified as a God of power. Also, as a God that is holy; he shall be owned and declared to be so, in the righteous punishment of proud men. Those are in a woful condition who set up sin, and who exert themselves to gratify their base lusts. They are daring in sin, and walk after their own lusts; it is in scorn that they call God the Holy One of Israel. They confound and overthrow distinctions between good and evil. They prefer their own reasonings to Divine revelations; their own devices to the counsels and commands of God. They deem it prudent and politic to continue profitable sins, and to neglect self-denying duties. Also, how light soever men make of drunkenness, it is a sin which lays open to the wrath and curse of God. Their judges perverted justice. Every sin needs some other to conceal it.

Let not any expect to live easily who live wickedly. Sin weakens the strength, the root of a people; it defaces the beauty, the blossoms of a people. When God's word is despised, and his law cast away, what can men expect but that God should utterly abandon them? When God comes forth in wrath, the hills tremble, fear seizes even great men. When God designs the ruin of a provoking people, he can find instruments to be employed in it, as he sent for the Chaldeans, and afterwards the Romans, to destroy the Jews. Those who would not hear the voice of God speaking by his prophets, shall hear the voice of their enemies roaring against them. Let the distressed look which way they will, all appears dismal. If God frowns upon us, how can any creature smile? Let us diligently seek the well-grounded assurance, that when all earthly helps and comforts shall fail, God himself will be the strength of our hearts, and our portion for ever.

1. Now will I sing to my beloved. The subject of this chapter is different from that of the former. It was the design of the Prophet to describe the condition of the people of Israel, as it then was, in order that all might perceive their faults, and might thus be led by shame and self-loathing to sincere repentance. Here, as in a mirror, the people might behold the misery of their condition. But for this, they would have flattered themselves too much in their crimes, and would not have patiently listened to any instructions. It was therefore necessary to present a striking and lively picture of their wickedness; and in order that it might have the greater weight, he made use of this preface; for great and memorable events were usually described in verse, that they might be repeated by every one, and that a lasting record of them might be preserved. In like manner, we see that Moses wrote a song, and many other compositions, (Exodus 15:1; Deuteronomy 32:1,) in order that all the events might be proclaimed in this manner, both in public and in private. The instruction becomes more widely diffused than if it had been delivered in plainer language. For the same reason Isaiah composed this song, that he might present to the people a clearer view of their wickedness; and, undoubtedly, he handled this subject with magnificent and harmonious language, for the highest skill is commonly exercised in the composition of poems.

To my beloved. There can be no doubt that he means God; as if he had said that he would compose a poem in behalf of God, that he might expostulate with the people about their ingratitude; for it gave additional weight to his language to represent God as speaking. But a question arises, Why does Isaiah call God his friend? Some reply that he was a kinsman of Christ, and I acknowledge that he was a descendant of David; but this appears to be a forced interpretation. A more natural and appropriate one would be, to adopt the statement of John, that the Church is committed to the friends of the bridegroom, (John 3:29,) and to reckon prophets as belonging to that class. To them, unquestionably, this designation applies; for the ancient people were placed under their charge, that they might be kept under their leader. We need not wonder, therefore, that they were jealous and were greatly offended when the people bestowed their attachment on any other. Isaiah therefore assumes the character of the bridegroom, and, being deeply anxious about the bride entrusted to him, complains that she has broken conjugal fidelity, and deplores her treachery and ingratitude.

Hence we learn that not only Paul, but all those prophets and teachers who faithfully served God, were jealous of God’s spouse. (2 Corinthians 11:2.) And all the servants of God ought to be greatly moved and aroused by this appellation; for what does a man reckon more valuable than his wife? A well-disposed husband will value her more highly than all his treasures, and will more readily commit to any person the charge of his wealth than of his wife. He to whom one will entrust his dearly-beloved wife must be reckoned very faithful. Now to pastors and ministers the Lord commits his Church as his beloved wife. How great will be our wickedness if we betray her by sloth and negligence! Whosoever does not labor earnestly to preserve her can on no pretense be excused.

A song of my beloved. By using the word דודי, dodi, he changes the first syllable, but the meaning is the same as in the former clause. Though some render it uncle, and others cousin, I rather agree with those who consider it to contain an allusion; for greater liberties are allowed to poets than to other writers. By his arrangement of those words, and by his allusions to them, he intended that the sound and rhythm should aid the memory, and impress the minds, of his readers.

My beloved had a vineyard. The metaphor of a vineyard is frequently employed by the prophets, and it would be impossible to find a more appropriate comparison. (Psalm 80:8; Jeremiah 2:21.) There are two ways in which it points out how highly the Lord values his Church; for no possession is dearer to a man than a vineyard, and there is none that demands more constant and persevering toil. Not only, therefore, does the Lord declare that we are his beloved inheritance, but at the same time points out his care and anxiety about us.

In this song the Prophet mentions, first, the benefits which the Lord had bestowed on the Jewish people; secondly, he explains how great was the ingratitude of the people; thirdly, the punishment which must follow; fourthly, he enumerates the vices of the people; for men never acknowledge their vices till they are compelled to do so.

On a hill. He begins by saying that God had placed his people in a favorable situation, as when a person plants a vine on a pleasant and fertile hill. By the word horn or hill I understand a lofty place rising above a plain, or what we commonly call a rising-ground, (un coustau.) It is supposed by some to refer to the situation of Jerusalem, but I consider this to be unnatural and forced. It rather belongs to the construction of the Prophet’s allegory; and as God was pleased to take this people under his care and protection, he compares this favor to the planting of a vineyard; for it is better to plant vines on hills and lofty places than on a plain. In like manner the poet says, The vine loves the open hills; the yews prefer the north wind and the cold Denique apertos Bacchus amat colles: Aquilonem et frigora taxi. Virg, Georg. II. 112. The Prophet, therefore, having alluded to the ordinary method of planting the vine, next follows out the comparison, that this place occupied no ordinary situation. When he calls it the son of oil or of fatness, In a very fruitful hill. — Eng. Ver. he means a rich and exceedingly fertile spot. This is limited by some commentators to the fertility of Judea, but that does not accord with my views, for the Prophet intended to describe metaphorically the prosperous condition of the people.

2. And he fenced it. The incessant care and watchfulness of God in dressing his vine are asserted by the Prophet, as if he had said, that God has neglected nothing that could be expected from the best and most careful householder. And yet we do not choose to attempt, as some commentators have done, an ingenious exposition of every clause, such as, that the Church is fenced by the protection of the Holy Spirit, so that it is safe against the attacks of the devil; that the wine-press is doctrine; and that by the stones are meant the annoyances of errors. The design of the Prophet, as I have mentioned, was more obvious, namely, that by incessant care and large expenditure God has performed the part of an excellent husbandman. Yet it was the duty of the Jews to consider how numerous and diversified were the blessings which God had conferred on them; and at the present day, when the Church is represented under the metaphor of a vineyard, we ought to view those figures as denoting God’s blessings, by which he makes known not only his love toward us, but likewise his solicitude about our salvation.

In the verb planted the order appears to be reversed, for one ought to begin with planting rather than with the fence; but my explanation is, that after having planted, he did everything else that was necessary. Justly, therefore, does he charge them with ingratitude and treachery, when the fruits that ought to have followed such laborious cultivation were not brought forth. There is reason to fear that the Lord will bring the same accusation against us; for the greater the benefits which we have received from God, the more disgraceful will be our ingratitude if we abuse them. It is not without a good reason, or to enable them to make any idle display, that the Lord blesses his people; it is, that they may yield grapes, that is, the best fruit. If he be disappointed of his expectation, the punishment which the Prophet here describes will follow. The mention of his benefits ought, therefore, to produce a powerful impression on our minds, and to excite us to gratitude.

Besides, the word vineyard, and a vineyard so carefully cultivated, suggests an implied contrast; for so much the more highly ought we to value the acts of God’s kindness, when they are not of an ordinary description, but tokens of his peculiar regard. Other blessings are indiscriminately bestowed, such as, that he

maketh the sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good, (Matthew 5:45,)

and supplies them with what is necessary for food and clothing. But how much more highly ought we to esteem that covenant of grace into which he has entered with us, by which he makes the light of the Gospel to shine on us; for his own people are its peculiar objects! That care and diligence, therefore, which the Lord continually manifests in cultivating our minds deserves our most earnest consideration.

Therefore he hoped that it would bring forth grapes And he looked that it should bring forth grapes. — Eng. Ver. He now complains that the nation which had enjoyed such high advantages had basely and shamefully degenerated; and he accuses them of undervaluing the kindness of God, for he says that, instead of pleasant grapes, they yielded only wild and bitter fruits. It is undoubtedly true that God, to whose eyes all things are naked and opened, (Hebrew 4:13,) is not deceived by his expectation like a mortal man. In the Song of Moses he plainly declares that he well knew from the beginning what would be the wickedness of his people.

My beloved, says he, when she fares well and becomes fat, will kick. (Deuteronomy 32:15.)

It is therefore not more possible that God should be mistaken in his expectations, than that he should repent. Isaiah does not here enter into subtle reasonings about the expectations which God had formed, but describes the manner in which the people ought to have acted, that they might not lose the benefit of such excellent advantages. Thus God commands that the Gospel be proclaimed for the obedience of faith, (Romans 16:26,) not that he expects all to be obedient, but because, by the mere hearing of it, unbelievers are rendered inexcusable. Moreover, there is nothing that ought to excite us more powerfully to lead a devout and holy life, than to find that those duties which we perform towards God are compared by the Holy Spirit to fruits of exquisite flavour.

3. Now, therefore, O inhabitant of Jerusalem! Those persons with whom he contends are made judges in their own cause, as is usually done in cases so plain and undoubted that the opposite party has no means of evasion. It is, therefore, a proof of the strongest confidence in his cause, when he bids the guilty persons themselves declare if this be not the true state of the fact; for immediately afterwards we shall find him declaring that the accusation is decided against those persons to whom he now commits the decision.

4. What more ought to have been done to my vineyard? He first inquires what could have been expected from the best husbandman or householder, which he has not done to his vineyard? Hence he concludes that they had no excuse for having basely withheld from him the fruit of his toil.

How did I expect that it would yield grapes? In this clause he appears to expostulate with himself for having expected any good or pleasant fruit from so wicked a people; just as, when the result does not answer to our expectation, we complain of ourselves, and are angry at having ill-bestowed our labor on ungrateful persons whose wickedness ought to have restrained us from doing what we did, and acknowledge that we are justly deceived, because we were too simple and easily imposed on. But a more natural interpretation will be this: “Since I discharged every part of my duty, and did more than any one could have expected in dressing my vineyard, how comes it that it yields me so poor a return, and that, instead of the fruit which was expected, it yields what is absolutely bitter?”

If it be objected that God had the remedy in his hands, if he had turned the hearts of the people, this is an idle evasion as applied to those men; for their conscience holds them fast, so that they cannot escape by laying the blame on another. Though God do not pierce the hearts of men by the power of his Spirit, so as to render them obedient to him, yet they will have no right to complain that this was wanting; for every pretense of ignorance is fully and abundantly taken away by the outward call. Besides, God does not speak here of his power, but declares that he was not under any obligation to do more than he did.

5. And now come, I will show you what I will do to my vineyard. Having held the Jews to be condemned, as it were, by their own mouth, he next adds that he will take vengeance for their contempt of his grace, so that they will not escape from being punished. The reproof would not have been sufficiently powerful to affect their minds, if he had not also threatened punishment; and therefore he now declares that the heinous offense, of having wickedly imposed on him, will not escape vengeance. Now the punishment to be inflicted on them amounts to this, that they will be deprived of the gifts which they had abused, when God shall not only withdraw his care of them, but shall give them up to be plundered by their enemies. At the same time he shows how wretched their condition will be, when God shall have ceased to bestow on them his multiplied favors.

Hence it follows that it must have been owing entirely to the extraordinary goodness of God, that the vineyard remained safe and uninjured till that time. He goes so far as to point out the various supports by which it was upheld, and the vast resources which God possesses for destroying it both within and without; for when his protection has been removed, they must become a prey to all that pass by, whether men or beasts. “When the fence has been removed,” says he, “the cattle will tread on it and lay it bare, robbers will ransack and plunder it, and thus it will become a wilderness.”

6. I will lay it waste. God will not take pains to dig and prune it, and consequently it will become barren for want of dressing; briars and thorns will spring up to choke its branches; and, what is more, by withholding rain, God will dry up its roots. Hence it is evident how manifold are the weapons with which God is supplied for punishing our ingratitude, when he sees that we despise his kindness. Isaiah is still, no doubt, proceeding with his metaphor, and, in order to obtain more eager attention, adorns his style by figures of speech. But we ought simply to conclude, that as God continually bestows on us innumerable benefits, so we ought to be earnestly on our guard lest, by withdrawing first one and then another, he punish us for despising them.

So far as relates to the government of the Church, the more numerous the kinds of assistance which she needs, the more numerous are the punishments to which she will be liable, if she wickedly corrupt what was appointed by God for her salvation. Nor ought we to wonder, if at the present day so many distresses threaten ruin and desolation; for whatever calamity befalls us, whether it be that there is a deficiency of instruction, or that the wicked abound, or that foxes and wolves creep into the Church, all this must be ascribed to our ingratitude, because we have not yielded such fruit as we ought, and have been indolent and sluggish. Whenever, therefore, we are justly deprived of those great favors which he freely bestowed on us, let us acknowledge the anger of the Lord.

7. Truly the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel. Hitherto he spoke figuratively; now he shows what is the design of this song. Formerly he had threatened judgment against the Jews; now he shows that they are not only guilty, but are also held to be convicted persons; for they could not be ignorant of the benefits which they had received from God.

Thou broughtest a vine from Egypt, says the Psalmist, and, having driven out the nations, plantedst it. (Psalm 80:8.)

Their ingratitude was plain and manifest.

Isaiah does not illustrate every part of the metaphor; nor was it necessary; for it was enough to point out what was its object. The whole nation was the vineyard; the individual men were the plants. Thus he accuses the whole body of the nation, and then every individual; so that no man could escape the universal condemnation, as if no part of the expostulation had been addressed to himself. Why the nation is called a vineyard is plain enough; for the Lord chose it, and admitted it to the covenant of grace and of eternal salvation, and bestowed on it innumerable blessings. The planting is the commencement, and the dressing of it follows. That nation was adopted, and in various respects was the object of Divine care; for the adoption would have been of no avail, if the Lord had not continually adorned and enriched it by his blessings.

The same doctrine ought to be inculcated on us at the present day. Christ affirms that he is the vine, (John 15:1,) and that, having been ingrafted into this vine, we are placed under the care of the Father; for God is pleased to perform towards us the office of a husbandman, and continually bestows those favors which he reproachfully asserts that he had granted to his ancient people. We need not wonder, therefore, if he is greatly enraged when he bestows his labor uselessly and to no purpose. Hence that threatening,

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he will cut off, and cast into the fire. (John 15:2,6.) In our Author’s quotation the 2d and 6th verses are inaccurately blended. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he will take away. (John 15:2.) If a man abide not in me, he shall be cast out, and wither as a branch; and men shall gather it, and cast it into the fire, and it shall be burned. (John 15:6.) We follow the Author’s version. — Ed.

He looked for judgment. He begins without a metaphor to relate how wickedly the Jews had degenerated, among whom equity and justice was despised, and every kind of injustice and violence abounded. The words contain an elegant play of language, (paronomasia,) for those which have nearly the same sound have an opposite meaning. משפט (mishpat) denotes judgment; משפח (mishpach) denotes conspiracy or oppression; צדקה (tzedakah) denotes righteousness; צעקה (tzeakah) denotes the cry and complaint of those who are oppressed by violence and injustice; sounds which are not wont to be heard where every man receives what is his own. He mentions two things which the Lord chiefly demands from his people as the genuine fruits of the fear of God; for although piety comes first in order, yet there is no inconsistency in taking the description of it from the duties of the second table. They are justly charged with having despised God, on the ground of having acted cruelly towards men; for where cruelty reigns, religion is extinguished.

Let us now understand that the same things are addressed to us; for as that nation was planted, so were we. We should call to remembrance what Paul says, that we were like wild olive-plants, but that they were the true and natural olive-tree. (Romans 11:24. In the original text the reference reads: (Rom. xi. 25.) which I assume was a typographical error. — fj. ) since we who were strangers have been ingrafted into the true olive-tree, the Lord has cultivated and adorned us with unceasing care. But what kind of fruits do we bring forth? Assuredly they are not only useless, but even bitter. So much the greater is the ingratitude for which we ought to be condemned, for the blessings which he has bestowed and heaped on us are far more abundant. And justly does this expostulation apply to us, for violence and injustice abound everywhere. But since the general doctrine did not strike their minds so powerfully, the Prophet described chiefly these two kinds of wickedness; that he might point out with the finger, as it were, how far that nation was from the fruit which a good vineyard ought to have yielded.

8. Woe to them that join house to house and field to field. He now reproves their insatiable avarice and covetousness, from which the acts of cheating, injustice, and violence are wont to arise. For it cannot be condemned as a thing in itself wrong, if a man add field to field and house to house; but he looked at the disposition of mind, which cannot at all be satisfied, when it is once inflamed by the desire of gain. Accordingly, he describes the feelings of those who never have enough, and whom no wealth can satisfy. So great is the keenness of covetous men that they desire to have everything possessed by themselves alone, and reckon everything that is obtained by others to be something which they want, and which has been taken from them. Hence the beautiful observation of Chrysostom, that “covetous men, if they could, would willingly take the sun from the poor,” for they envy their brethren the common elements, and would gladly swallow them up; not that they might enjoy them, but because such is the madness to which their greed carries them. All the while they do not consider that they need the assistance of others, and that a man left alone can do nothing: all their care is to scrape together as much as they can, and thus they swallow up everything by their covetousness.

He therefore accuses covetous and ambitious men of such folly that they would wish to have other men removed from the earth, that they might possess it alone; and consequently they set no limit to their desire of gain. For what madness is it to wish to have those driven away from the earth whom God has placed in it along with us, and to whom, as well as to ourselves, he has assigned it as their abode! Certainly nothing more ruinous could happen to them than to obtain their wish. Were they alone, they could not plough, or reap, or perform other offices indispensable to their subsistence, or supply themselves with the necessaries of life. For God has linked men so closely together, that they need the assistance and labor of each other; and none but a madman would disdain other men as hurtful or useless to him. Ambitious men cannot enjoy their renown but amidst a multitude. How blind are they, therefore, when they wish to drive and chase away others, that they may reign alone!

As to the size of houses, the same remark which we formerly made about fields will apply; for he points out the ambition of those who are desirous to inhabit spacious and magnificent houses. If a man who has a large family makes use of a large house, he cannot be blamed for it; but when men, swollen with ambition, make superfluous additions to their houses, only that they may live in greater luxury, and when one person alone occupies a building which might serve for the habitation of many families, this undoubtedly is empty ambition, and ought justly to be blamed. Such persons act as if they had a right to drive out other men, and to be the only persons that enjoyed a house or a roof, and as if other men ought to live in the open air, or must go somewhere else to find an abode.

9. This is in the ears of Jehovah of hosts. Here something must be supplied; for he means that the Lord sits as judge, and as taking cognizance of those things. When covetous men seize and heap up their wealth, they are blinded by their desire of gain, and do not understand that they will one day render an account. Never, certainly, were men so utterly stupid as not to ascribe some judgment to God; but they flatter themselves so far as to imagine that God does not observe them. In general, therefore, they acknowledge the judgment of God: when they come to particular cases, they take liberties, and suppose that they are not bound to proceed to that extent.

If many houses be not laid desolate. Having warned them that none of these things escape the eyes of God, lest they should imagine that it is a knowledge which does not lead to action, he immediately adds, that vengeance is close at hand. He likewise makes use of an oath; for the expression If not is a form of swearing that frequently occurs in the Scriptures. The following is a striking instance: To whom I sware in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest; that is, they shall not enter into my rest. (Psalm 95:11.), — Ed. In order to strike them with greater terror he breaks off the sentence with studied abruptness. The classical reader may be reminded of a fine instance of ἀποσιώπησις, by which the effect of a speech is prodigiously heightened: Quos ego — sed motos praestat componere fluctus. — Virg. AEn. 1:135. He might indeed have brought out this threatening with full expression, but the incomplete form is better fitted to keep the hearer in doubt and suspense, and is therefore more alarming. Besides, by this instance of reserve the Lord intended to train us to modesty, that we may not be too free in the use of oaths.

But what does he threaten? Many houses will be laid desolate. This is a just punishment, by which the Lord chastises the covetousness and ambition of men, who did not consider their own meanness, that they might be satisfied with a moderate portion. In a similar manner the poet ridicules the mad ambition of Alexander the Great, who having learned from the philosophy of Anacharsis that there were many worlds, sighed to think, that after having worn himself out by so many toils, he had not yet made himself master of one world. “One globe does not satisfy the Macedonian youth. He writhes in misery on account of the narrow limits of the world, as if he were confined to the rocks of Gyaros, or to the puny Seriphos. But when he shall enter the city framed by potters, he will be content with a tomb. Death alone acknowledges how small are the dimensions of the bodies of men.”

Unus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit orbis: AEstuat infelix angusto limite mundi, Ut Gyari clausus scopulis parvaque Seripho: Quum tamen a figulis munitam intraverit urbem, Sarcophago contentus erit. Mors sola fatetur, Quantula sint hominum corpuscula. Juven. Sat. 10:168-173.

Instances of the same kind occur every day, yet we do not observe them; for the Lord exhibits to us, as in a mirror, the absurd vanity of men, who spend a vast amount of money in building palaces that are afterwards to become the receptacles of owls and bats and other animals. These things are plainly before our eyes, and yet we do not apply our mind to the consideration of them. So sudden and various are the changes that happen, so many houses are laid desolate, so many cities are overthrown and destroyed, and, in short, there are so many other evident proofs of the judgment of God; and yet men cannot be persuaded to lay aside this mad ambition. The Lord threatens by the Prophet Amos:

“You have built houses of hewn stones, but you shall not dwell in them.” (Amos 5:11.)

And again,

“He will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.” (Amos 6:11.)

These things happen daily, and yet the lawless passions of men are not abated.

10. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath. He foretells that the same thing will befall their fields and vineyards; that covetous men will not obtain the desired returns, because their greed is insatiable; that, like certain animals which, by their breath, scorch the branches, and wither the corn, those men destroy the fruits of the earth by their extortion. The fields will be so barren as scarcely to yield a tenth part of the seed: the vineyards will yield very little wine.

A bath, as Josephus tells us, is a measure of liquids, and contains seventy-two sextaries; a very small measure, certainly, for ten acres, especially on a fertile soil. The cor (κόρος) or homer, is a measure of dry substances, and, according to the same author, contains thirty-one medimni A medimnus, or Greek bushel, is reckoned to contain six Roman bushels, a Roman bushel (modius) being about an English peck. — Ed. An ephah is the tenth part of it, and therefore evidently contains a little more than three medimni “For the actual size of these measures,” says Dr. Kitto, “we must refer to Josephus, of whom Theodoret (in Exod. 29.) says: πιστευτέον δὲ ἐν τούτοις τῷ Ἰωσήπῳ ἀκριβῶς τοῦ ἔθνους τὰ μέτρα ἐπισταμένῳ, — ‘follow in these things Josephus, who well understood the measures of the nation.’ (Comp. Antiq. 8:3, 8.) To the homer or cor Josephus ascribes (Antic. 15:9, 2) twelve Attic medimni, where the reading should be metretae. Bath and Ephah are the same. Josephus (Antiq. 8:2, 9) determines each at seventy-two xestae, and makes them equal to an Attic metretes. The Attic metretes, which corresponded with the Hebrew bath and ephah, contains 739,800 Parisian grains of rain-water, which would fill a space of about 1985 Parisian cubic inches.” — Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, Art. Weights and Measures

Now, when the soil is productive, it yields not only tenfold, but thirtyfold, and in all cases goes beyond the quantity of seed, and gives back far more abundantly than it received. When the case is otherwise, it undoubtedly proceeds from the curse of God punishing the extortion of men. And yet men blame the niggardliness of the soil, as if the fault lay there, but all in vain; for we would not want abundant increase, if God did not curse the soil on account of men’s covetousness. When they are so eagerly employed in gathering and heaping up, what else are they doing than swallowing up the goodness of God by their greed? If this is not seen in all, because they want the power, still they do not want the disposition. Never was the world so much inflamed by this covetousness, and we need not wonder if God visit it with punishment.

11. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning to follow strong drink The Prophet does not aim at an enumeration of all the vices which then prevailed, but only points out some particular kinds of them, to which they were peculiarly addicted. After having handled the general doctrine, he found it necessary to come to particular vices; and the enumeration of those was more urgently needed, for there would have been no end of going through them all one by one. Having reproved covetousness, he now attacks drunkenness, which undoubtedly was also a prevailing vice; for the kinds of vices which he selects are not those which were found in one person or another, but those which universally prevailed; and indeed the vices are of such a kind as infect the whole body by their contagion.

To rise early means to be earnestly employed in doing anything; as when Solomon says,

Woe to the nation whose princes eat in the morning, (Ecclesiastes 10:16;)

that is, whose chief care is to fill their belly and enjoy delicacies. This is contrary to the order of nature; for man, as David says,

“riseth that he may go to his work, and may be engaged in business till the evening.” (Psalms 104:23.)

Now, if he lay aside his labors, and rise to partake of luxuries, and to follow drunkenness, this is monstrous. He adds —

And who continue till night. The meaning is, that from the dawn of the morning to the twilight of the evening they continue their drunken carousals, and are never weary of drinking. Abundance and luxury are closely joined together; for when men enjoy abundance, they become luxurious, and abuse it by intemperance.

12. And the harp. He adds the instruments of pleasures by which men addicted to intemperance provoke their appetite. These might be different from ours, but they belonged to music. Now, Isaiah does not blame music, for it is a science which ought not to be despised; but he describes a nation swimming in every kind of luxury, and too much disposed to indulge in pleasures. This is sufficiently evident from what follows.

And they regard not the work of the Lord As if he had said, “They are as constant in luxurious indulgence, and as much devoted to it, as if this had been the purpose for which they were born and reared; and they do not consider why the Lord supplies them with what is necessary.” Men were not born to eat and drink, and wallow in luxury, but to obey God, to worship him devoutly, to acknowledge his goodness, and to endeavor to do what is pleasing in his sight. But when they give themselves up to luxury, when they dance, and sing, and have no other object in view than to spend their life in the highest mirth, they are worse than beasts: for they do not consider for what end God created them, in what manner he governs this world by his providence, and to what end all the actions of our life ought to be directed.

Having stated this meaning, which appears to me to be natural, I consider nothing more to be necessary; for I cannot adopt the ingenious expositions of some authors, such as, when they explain the work of God to mean the law; nor did I intend to state every opinion which others have maintained. It is enough to know that all who are addicted to gormandizing are here subjected by the Prophet to the reproach of voluntarily becoming like brute beasts, when they do not direct their minds to God, who is the author of life.

13. Therefore my people are gone into captivity. I do not approve of the interpretation given by some commentators, that in consequence of the teachers having failed to perform their duty, the people, through ignorance and error, fell into many vices, which at length became the cause of their destruction. On the contrary, he charges them with gross and voluntary ignorance, as if he had said that, by their madness, they brought down destruction on themselves. The meaning therefore is, that the people perished because they despised instruction; whereas they might have been preserved if they had listened to good counsels: and therefore he expressly says, My people; that is, the nation which enjoyed the extraordinary privilege of being separated from the rest of the nations, that by relying on the guidance and direction of God, they might have a fixed rule of life. Thus it is said,

“What nation is so eminent and so distinguished as to have gods nigh to it, as thy God draws near to thee this day? This shall therefore be your knowledge and understanding above all nations, to hear your God.” (Deuteronomy 4:6, 7.)

This baseness heightens the criminality of the people, that they shut their eyes in the midst of so much light. It was therefore a very severe accusation, that a people which God had undertaken to govern possessed no knowledge: for the law might have given them abundant direction for the whole conduct of life; it was a light shining before them amidst the general darkness of the world; and therefore it was monstrous that the nation should refuse to follow that path which had been pointed out to them, and, on the contrary, should shut their eyes, and rush forward to destruction.

Have gone into captivity. Some consider the word captivity to be used here in a metaphorical sense; but this is a forced interpretation; for the Prophet here describes the punishments which God had in part inflicted, and in part intended to inflict, so as to make it evident that the people were wretched through their own fault, as if they wished to draw down upon themselves the curses of God. When this discourse was delivered, some tribes of Israel had already been banished, and the destruction of both kingdoms was at hand. The Prophet accordingly speaks as if all had already been led into captivity

And their glory are men famished And their honourable men are famished. — Eng. Ver. and their multitude are dried up with thirst. He now adds another punishment, namely, that they are wasted with hunger and famine, and not only common men, but some persons of the highest rank, in whom the vengeance of God is more clearly seen; for it was shocking to see wealthy men and nobles, on whom the respectability of the whole nation rested, wandering about and famished. And yet the severity of God’s vengeance did not exceed proper bounds; for we must always take into account that ignorance was the cause; that is, the Jews were rebellious, and obstinately rejected the light of heavenly doctrine; yea, shut their ears against God when he was willing to perform the part of a master in instructing them. Hence we draw a useful doctrine; namely, that the source of all our calamities is, that we do not allow ourselves to be taught by the word of God, and this is what the Prophet chiefly intended that we should observe.

It may be asked, Is ignorance the cause of all calamities? Many persons appear to sin not so much through ignorance as through obstinacy; for they see what is right, but refuse to follow it, and the consequence is that they sin willingly, and not merely through inadvertency. I answer, ignorance is sometimes the near, and sometimes the remote cause; or, to use the common expressions, the one is immediate, and the other is mediate. It is the near cause, when men deceive themselves under any pretense, and intentionally blind their understanding. Again, it is the remoter cause, when men reject the principles from which they ought to frame the rule of their life; for it was their duty to look to God, and to attend to his will. When they disregard his will, they are indeed rebellious and obstinate; but they are ignorant because they refuse to learn, and on this rock they split: and yet ignorance does not excuse them, for of their own accord they bring it on themselves when they reject such a Teacher. So then it is a true statement, that the reason why the people endure such a variety of afflictions is, that they are ignorant of God, and will not allow themselves to be taught by him.

14. Therefore hell hath enlarged his soul Therefore hell hath enlarged herself. — Eng. Ver. In this verse the Prophet intended to heighten the alarm of men who were at their ease, and not yet sufficiently affected by the threatenings which had been held out to them. Though it was shocking to behold captivity, and also famine, yet the slowness and insensibility of the people was so great that they did not give earnest heed to these tokens of God’s anger. Accordingly the Prophet threatens something still more dreadful, that hell has opened his belly to swallow them all up.

I said a little ago, that what is here stated in the past tense refers partly to the future. Nor is it without good reason that the Prophet speaks of the events as plain and manifest; for he intended to bring them immediately before the people, that they might behold with their eyes what they could not be persuaded to believe. Again, when he compares hell or the grave to an insatiable beast, by the soul he means the belly into which the food is thrown. The general meaning is, that the grave is like a wide and vast gulf, which, at the command of God, yawns to devour men who are condemned to die. This personification carries greater emphasis than if he had said that all are condemned to the grave.

And her glory hath descended, and her multitude. He joins together the nobles and men of low rank, that none may flatter themselves with the hope of escape: as if he had said, “Death will carry you away, and all that you possess, your delicacies, wealth, pleasures, and everything else in which you place your confidence.” It is therefore a confirmation of the former statement, and we ought always to attend to the particle לכן (laken,) therefore; for the people ascribed their calamities to fortune, or in some other way hardened themselves against the Lord’s chastisements. On this account Isaiah says that these things do not happen by chance. Besides, men are wont to argue with God, and are so daring and presumptuous that they do not hesitate to call him to account. In order, therefore, to restrain that pride, he shows that the punishments with which they are visited are just, and that it is owing entirely to their own folly that they are miserable in every respect.

15. And the mighty man shall be bowed down. This may be called the summing up, for it points out the end and result of those chastisements, that all may be cast down, and that the Lord alone may be exalted. We have formerly met with a similar statement, (Isaiah 2:11,17,) and on that occasion we explained what was the Prophet’s meaning; See p. 116 of this volume. which is, that he shows the design of the chastisements which God inflicts on us. Adversity is so hateful to us, that we can perceive nothing good in it. When he speaks of punishments, we detest and abhor them, because we do not perceive the justice of God. But the prophets remind us of another consideration, that so long as men go on in their sins regardlessly, the justice of God is in some degree smothered, and never shines so brightly as when he punishes our sins. This fruit is indeed very great, and ought to be preferred to the salvation of all men; for the glory of God, which shines in his righteousness, ought to be more highly esteemed than all things else.

There is, therefore, no reason why we should so greatly dread the chastisements which God inflicts upon us, but we ought to embrace with reverence what the prophets declare concerning them. In this way, however, the Prophet has severely chastised arrogant hypocrites. who become the more insolent when they are not punished; as if he had said, “Do you imagine that, when God has endured you so long, you will at last be able to tread him under your feet? Assuredly he will arise, and will be exalted in your destruction.”

As the Prophet has employed, first, the word אדם (adam) and next איש (ish), it is supposed that this denotes both the noble and the mean; as if he had said, “Not only will the common people perish, but likewise those who are eminent for riches, honor, and high rank.” I cheerfully adopt this opinion; for איש (ish) is derived from strength and אדם (adam) from earth. But if any one prefer a more simple interpretation, I leave it to his judgment. However this may be, the Prophet includes all men, both the highest and the lowest.

16. But Jehovah of hosts shall be exalted in judgment. He expresses the manner, or, as it is commonly called, the formal cause, of the excellence of which he has spoken; as if he had said, “The God of hosts, whom ungodly men insolently tread under their feet, will be raised on high, when he shall show himself to be the judge of the world.” In this manner he ridicules the foolish confidence with which the ungodly vaunted; for if judgment and righteousness must at length come forth, it follows that they shall be cast down, since the only way in which those men rise is by overturning the order of nature. And it ought to be carefully observed, that it is not more possible for wicked men to continue in prosperity than for God to permit his glory to be set aside. Though judgment is not at all different from righteousness, still the repetition is not superfluous.

And God, who is holy, shall be sanctified in righteousness. The language becomes more vehement, that wicked men may not, by a false imagination, assure themselves of uninterrupted happiness, which they cannot have, unless by setting aside the holiness of God. But since God is holy by nature, he must be sanctified. Hence it follows that destruction hangs over the wicked, that their obstinacy and rebellion may be subdued, for God cannot deny himself.

17. And the lambs shall feed after their manner. Some render it according to their measure, or, in proportion to their capacity, but it means in the usual manner. There are various ways of explaining this verse; but we ought first of all to observe that the Prophet intended to bring consolation to the godly, who trembled at hearing the dreadful judgments of God; for the more powerfully a man is under the influence of religion, the more does he feel the presence of the hand of God, and the more is he impressed by the apprehension of his judgment. In short, fear and reverence for God cause us to be deeply moved by everything that is presented to us in his name.

Accordingly, after having heard such dreadful threatenings, they must have fainted, if this consolation had not been added as a seasoning, to give them a taste of the mercy of God. It is customary with the prophets always to pay attention to the godly, and to support their minds. “Although, therefore,” says Isaiah, “it may seem as if God were about to destroy the whole nation, still he will show himself to be a faithful shepherd to his lambs, and will feed them in his usual manner.”

This is one object; but it was also the intention of the Prophet to repress the haughtiness of the nobles, who oppressed with unjust tyranny the godly and poor, and yet boasted that they were the Church of God. He reminds them, therefore, that it is an idle and false boasting, when they assume the designation of God’s flock; for they are goats, not lambs. Not only will God have it in his power to feed his flock, when the goats have been cut off, but it will never fare well with the lambs till they have been separated from the goats.

And the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. There is a still greater diversity here among commentators; but I consider the true meaning to be, that the children of God, banished and treated as foreigners for a time, will regain their lost rights, and will then obtain those places which have been laid waste, or reduced to desolation by the fat ones, that is, by the proud and cruel men who had seized their property. For he calls the children of God strangers who would be exiles for a time, and by waste places, or forsaken places, he means those possessions which they had relinquished, and which others had seized. He refers to a custom well known and exceedingly common, which is, that if any one possess fields or houses, he keeps his hand, as it were, stretched over them, so that no one will venture to touch a clod; but if he forsake them they are seized. The people, therefore, had forsaken the possessions from which they had been expelled, so far as to despair of being ever able to regain them; so that they might justly be called forsaken places, with respect to themselves, and forsaken places of the fat ones, because they had been possessed by the mighty and powerful. We may, indeed, view the expression more simply as denoting forsaken fat places, but it is more probable that by the fat ones are meant tyrants.

18. Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity! After having inserted a short consolation for the purpose of allaying the bitterness of punishments as regards the godly, he returns to threatenings, and proceeds to launch those thunderbolts of words which are fitted to awaken some degree of alarm. By cords he means nothing else than the allurements by which men suffer themselves to be deceived, and harden their heart in crimes; for either they ridicule the judgment of God, or they contrive vain excuses, and allege the plea of necessity. Any concealment, therefore, which they employ, he calls cords; for whenever men are prompted to sin by the lust of the flesh, they at first pause, and feel that something within restrains them, which would certainly keep them back, if they did not rush forward with opposing violence, and break through all opposition. When any man is tempted to do what is sinful, his conscience secretly asks him, What are you doing? And sin never advances so freely as not to feel this check; for God intended in this manner to provide for the good of mankind, lest all should break out into unbridled licentiousness.

How comes it, then, that men are so obstinate in doing what is sinful? Assuredly they permit themselves to be deceived by allurements, and stupify their minds, that they may despise the judgment of God, and may thus have some freedom to commit sin. They flatter themselves by imagining that what is sin is not sin, or by some excuse or idle pretense they lessen its enormity. These, then, are cords, wicked ropes, by which they draw iniquity. Hence it is evident that the Lord has good reason for threatening them; for they sin, not only of their own accord, but perversely and obstinately, and, in short, they bind themselves to sin, so that they are without excuse.

19. Who say, Let him make speed. He specifies one class of sins, by means of which he shows that they draw sins as by ropes. When men not only lay aside all thought of the Divine judgment, but despise and treat as fabulous all that is said about it, nothing can be worse than this. He intended to say that the utmost contempt is manifested when men, to whom the judgment of God has been declared, say that it would give them joy to see it, and treat it with ridicule as a silly alarm; which is denoted by these words full of contempt and of wicked confidence: Let him come, let him make speed.

Work, is here put, by way of eminence, (κατ ἐξοχὴν,) for judgment; for God appears to be doing nothing when he does not punish the crimes of the ungodly; but when he rises up to execute judgment, and inflicts punishment, his work is then seen, and becomes visible (as is commonly said) by action; because from the very fact we learn that the world is governed by his authority and power. Work, therefore, is taken specially for judgment; because by means of it we see that God is by no means unemployed, but performs his office. Now, ungodly men speak of him with reproach and contempt, and at this very day we have abundant instances of such wickedness and rebellion; and the same war which was formerly waged by the prophets is that which we also are called to maintain.

The ungodly think that God does nothing, and cares not about the affairs of men; as Epicurus thought that God’s highest happiness consisted in his being free from all occupation. Though they imagine that there is some God, yet they do not at all acknowledge his judgment; and in the meantime they bid themselves be of good cheer, and resolve that they will not wear themselves out by such thoughts. “Let these prophets and ministers cry, and bawl, and hold out terrors and threatenings; we will wait without any concern for what they tell us, and in the meantime we will enjoy our mirth.” In this way the Prophet relates the speeches of the ungodly, by which they expressed ridicule and contempt of the word. Not only do they say, Let his work come, but, Let him hasten, Let him make speed; for when he delays, they conclude that everything which God does not execute as soon as he has spoken it is idle talk. Thus Peter represents the ungodly as saying,

“Since the world was created, the course of nature has been uniform; and, therefore, after so many ages, it is idle to expect a day of judgment.” (2 Peter 3:4.)

In the meantime, they purposely, as it were, provoke God to exert his power immediately, if he has any.

Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come. To work is added counsel, as if they had said, “Why does God deliberate so long, or say what he intends to do? Let him rather show that what he has decreed is accomplished.” It is a great aggravation of their crime, that they wickedly dared to set aside the doctrine which was well known to them. They were more wicked than the heathen Gentiles in this respect, that they despised the doctrine by which he had adopted them to be his peculiar people.

That we may see it. These are proofs of infidelity; for ungodly men will not acknowledge God, unless they have immediate evidence of his presence, and they refuse to believe his words. Now, if the Holy Spirit, by means of this mark, holds up ungodly men to detestation, we ought to testify our faith and piety by the opposite sign, that is, by relying on the word of God, though the effect does not immediately appear; for it is the peculiar excellence of faith to hold us dependent on the mouth of God. True, we next derive confirmation from works, but we must not begin at them; for this is the distinction between the elect and the reprobate, that the elect simply rely on the word, but do not disregard works, while ungodly men scorn and disdain the word, though God speak a hundred times; and yet they continually and eagerly call upon him for works. And when the judgment of God is declared, they say, “Where is it?” They cannot endure the mention of it, unless it be immediately made known by action. When men are so immoderate, it follows that they have no faith, but rather obstinate rebelliousness, Which more and more withdraws and estranges man from God.

20. Wo to them that call evil good. Though some limit this statement to judges, yet if it be carefully examined, we shall easily learn from the whole context that it is general; for, having a little before reproved those who cannot listen to any warnings, he now proceeds with the same reproof. It is evident that men of this sort have always some excuse to plead, and some way of imposing on themselves; and, therefore, there is no end to their reproachful language, when their crimes are brought to light. But here he particularly reproves the insolence of those who endeavor to overthrow all distinction between good and evil

The preposition ל (lamed), prefixed to the words good and evil, is equivalent to Of; and therefore the meaning is, They who say of evil, It is good, and of good, It is evil; that is, they who by vain hypocrisy conceal, excuse, and disguise wicked actions, as if they would change the nature of everything by their sophistical arguments, but who, on the contrary deface good actions by their calumnies. These things are almost always joined together, for every one in whom the fear of God dwells is restrained both by conscience and by modesty from venturing to apologize for his sins, or to condemn what is good and right; but they who have not this fear do not hesitate with the same impudence to commend what is bad and to condemn what is good; which is a proof of desperate wickedness.

This statement may be applied to various cases; for if a wo is here pronounced even on private individuals, when they say of evil that it is good, and of good that it is evil, how much more on those who have been raised to any elevated rank, and discharge a public office, whose duty it is to defend what is right and honorable! But he addresses a general reproof to all who flatter themselves in what is evil, and who, through the hatred which they bear to virtue, condemn what is done aright; and not only so, but who, by the subterfuges which they employ for the sake of concealing their own enormities, harden themselves in wickedness. Such persons, the Prophet tells us, act as if they would change light into darkness, and sweet into bitter; by which he means that their folly is monstrous, for it would tend to confound and destroy all the principles of nature.

21. Wo to them that are wise in their own eyes! Here he proceeds to rebuke those on whom no instruction can produce a good effect, and who do not allow any wise counsels or godly warnings to gain admission. In short, he pronounces a curse on obstinate scorners, who set up either the lusts of the flesh or a preposterous confidence in their wisdom, in opposition to God’s instruction and warnings. And not only does he rebuke those who are puffed up with a false conviction of their wisdom, and are ashamed to learn from others, but he likewise pronounces a general condemnation on all who, through prejudices in their own favor, refuse to hear God speaking, and to listen to his holy warnings.

This fault has been too common in all ages, and we see it in very many persons at the present day, who, though they would shrink from openly rejecting the doctrine of godliness, are yet so far from being truly obedient and teachable, that they haughtily reject everything that does not please them. They acknowledge that they need some bridle, but, on the other hand, are so much blinded by their presumption, that, when God points out the way, they immediately rebel; and not only so, but break out into violent indignation at the censure passed on their proceedings. Nay, where is the man who renounces his own judgment, and is ready to learn only from the mouth of God? But nothing is more destructive than this deceitful show of wisdom; for the beginning of piety is willingness to be taught, when we have renounced our own judgment and follow wherever God calls.

Nor is this false belief condemned solely on the ground of its rendering men disobedient to God, and thus being the cause of their ruin, but also on the ground of being in itself what God cannot endure. We must become fools if we desire to be God’s disciples. But it is also certain that mad rebellion reigns wherever there is not found that modesty and humility which leads a man willingly to yield subjection, In their own eyes means what we say in French, a leur semblant, that is, in their own conceit

22. Wo to them that are mighty to drink wine! Isaiah now censures another vice, namely, drunkenness and excess in eating, of which he had spoken before; so that probably this chapter is collected from various sermons, and the leading topics only are briefly touched; for when the Prophet saw no repentance, he was forced to repeat and frequently inculcate the same instructions. He therefore returns to the same reproofs which he had previously noticed; for he again discourses about drunkenness, luxury, covetousness, and other corruptions. Hence we ought to conclude, that when warnings produce no good effect, we ought to employ greater earnestness in addressing the obstinate and disobedient, and that we must not be afraid of giving offense by our eagerness, but must frequently repeat the reproofs, until they either yield or manifest incurable malice.

By calling them strong or powerful to drink, he wittily accuses them of wasting their strength in bacchanalian warfare. It is disgraceful and beastly ambition, when a man of vigorous health makes a display of his strength by drinking largely. Employing a figure of speech (synecdoche) which is frequent in the Prophets, and indeed in the whole of Scripture, he takes a part for the whole; as if he had said, “Wo to gluttony; Wo to intemperance.” But he purposely mentioned that which was disgraceful in the highest degree, in order to render that vice generally hated and abhorred; for, as we have said, nothing is more base or disgraceful than for a man to make trial of his strength in swallowing food or in guzzling wine, and thus struggling with himself so as to cram down as much as his belly can hold. Such men keep by no rule of life, and do not know why God gives them nourishment; for we eat and drink to support the body, and not to destroy it. We live that we may yield worship and obedience to God, and that we may render assistance to our neighbors. When men act so as not to maintain their strength, but to destroy it by trying how much food and wine they can bear, most certainly they are worse than beasts.

23. Who justify the wicked for a reward. He censures a corruption which at that time abounded in judgment-seats, and points out the reason why there is no room for justice in these places, namely, that they are under the influence of gifts. For covetousness blindeth the eyes of the wise, and perverteth all regard to what is good and just, even among those who would otherwise be disposed to follow what is right. (Exodus 23:8; Deuteronomy 16:19.)

It may be objected that there are other methods, and that it is not by gifts only that judgments are perverted; for favor, hatred, friendship, and other sinful passions, often blind the understanding. This is undoubtedly true; but the Prophet had in his eye what happens for the most part, (ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ,) and at the same time did not intend to spare those vices which he did not express by name. Following this example, godly teachers ought to be wise and careful in observing and correcting the vices which most extensively abound among the people, and most of all to oppose everything which appears to be sanctioned by wicked custom.

Now this corruption which is mentioned is that which most frequently of all is to be found in judgment-seats; and, therefore, it ought to be most carefully avoided by those judges who wish to form an upright judgment. Nor ought we to listen to what is affirmed by many, that gifts are not bestowed on them for that purpose, or that, after having accepted them, they are as free as ever to give a just decision; for where gifts are allowed, the regard to what is just and right must be corrupted, and it is impossible for your mind not to be favourably disposed towards him from whom you received them. In short, we should hear the Lord, who declares that the understanding of the wisest man is corrupted, and the disposition of the most upright man is perverted, unless we choose to be thought wiser than God.

24. Therefore as the flame of fire devoureth the stubble. Lest it should be thought that he has so frequently cried out without good reason, he again shows what grievous and dreadful punishment awaits the nation, and threatens utter destruction to the stubborn, because they did not permit themselves to be brought back to the right path, but obstinately resisted instruction. He employs metaphors exceedingly well adapted to express his meaning, and better fitted to affect their hearts than if he had spoken plainly and without a figure. He begins with a comparison, but immediately slides into a metaphor, attributing a root and branch to the nation as to a tree. Under those two words he includes all the strength, either hidden or visible, that belongs to the nation, and says that the whole will be destroyed; for when the root, which alone gives strength and nourishment to the tree, becomes rotten, it is all over with the tree; and in like manner he threatens that it is all over with the nation, and that its whole strength is wasted and consumed.

Because they have rejected the law of Jehovah of hosts. He does not now enumerate, as formerly, the particular kinds of crime by which they had provoked the wrath of God, but assigns a general cause, namely, contempt of the law of God; for this, as all men know, is the source of everything bad. And it is no small aggravation of their crime that, when the will of God had been made known to them in his law, it was not through ignorance or mistake, but through inveterate malice, that they shook of the yoke of God, and abandoned themselves to every kind of licentiousness; which was nothing else than to reject so kind a Father, and to give themselves up to be the slaves of the devil. Besides, he accuses them of open revolt; as if he had said that it was not in one or a few instances that they were rebellious, but that they might be regarded as treacherous apostates, and had altogether forsaken God.

And loathed the word of the Holy One of Israel. He complains that they not only despised the word of God, but — what is far more shocking — turned away from it, or threw it away in wicked disdain. But if contempt for the law of God is the source, head, and accumulation of all that is evil, there is nothing against which we ought more carefully to guard than that Satan should take away our reverence for it; and if there are any faults to which we are liable, we ought, at least, to allow a remedy to be applied to them, if we do not choose, by wickedly rejecting it, to draw down upon ourselves everlasting destruction.

25. Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled. In this verse the Prophet relates the former punishments which the Jews had already endured, and shows that they are not near an end; but that, on the contrary, heavier judgments await them, if they do not return to the right path. I readily acknowledge that the past tense is frequently employed instead of the future, but the meaning which I have stated will best agree with the context; for there are two things quite distinct from each other, which he lays down, on account of the resolute obstinacy of the people. First, how God perceives their crimes. Secondly, since there are no signs of repentance, he has other scourges within his reach for chastising the people. Thirdly, he describes what those scourges are, and forewarns them that the Assyrians will come at the bidding of the Lord, as soon as he shall express it by merely hissing to them, (verse. 26.)

Such is the connection of what the Prophet states; and hence it ought to be observed that the great body of men, as soon as they have escaped any calamity, forget their chastisements, and no longer regard them as the judgments of God; and that, though experience be the instructor of fools, still they grow hardened by strokes. This insensibility Isaiah sharply rebukes; as if he had said, “Have you so quickly forgotten the calamities under which you lately groaned? Whence came the distressful casting out of dead bodies, but because God had raised his arm against you? And if God has discharged the office of a judge, why do not those recent chastisements induce you to fear him, and to refrain from drawing down a succession of chastisements by new crimes?”

Accordingly, he repeats the term על-כן, (gnal ken,) therefore; as if he had said that those distresses are not accidental, but are manifest tokens of God’s vengeance; and so he expressly says that God was angry with his people; for if the Jews had not fallen from their own rank, their condition would have been happier than that of any other nation. When God’s chosen people, therefore, are treated by him with so much sharpness and severity, it is beyond all doubt that he has been provoked by heinous crimes. At the same time he refutes the false boasting by which the Jews were wont to vaunt and exalt themselves, as if they ought to be exempt from chastisements on the ground of their being God’s peculiar people.

And the mountains trembled. By this comparison the dreadful nature of those punishments to which they were insensible is described in such a manner as to prove more clearly the stupidity of the people. They were more stupid than inanimate objects, if they did not perceive the wrath of God, and the dreadful vengeance which had been inflicted on the kingdom of Israel.

For all these things. He threatens heavier chastisements in future, as we have already said; for although wicked men acknowledge that the Lord has punished them, still they think that they have no right to expect anything more than one or two chastisements. As if therefore nothing worse could befall them, and as if God’s power to punish them had been exhausted, they wrap themselves up in blind indifference. This is the reason why he exclaims that the wrath of God is not yet appeased, and that, although it has inflicted on them many calamities, still it has within its stores many weapons from which they have reason to dread innumerable wounds.

The copulative ו (vau) may be taken as a disjunctive, so as to mean, but, on the contrary, his hand is stretched out still. He refers to what he had formerly said, that the hand of God is stretched out. He tells them that it is not yet drawn back, and that it may yet pursue them, and inflict plagues of the same kind, or even of greater severity. We ought diligently to meditate on these statements, in order to shake off that drowsiness to which the greater part of men are frequently liable, even after having received chastisements.

26. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations. In this and the following verses he describes the nature of the punishment which the Lord would inflict on his people; namely, that they were about to suffer from the Assyrians a similar, or even a heavier calamity, than that which their brethren the Israelites had lately endured. Many distresses had indeed been suffered by themselves from the Assyrians, though the kingdom of Judah was not yet overturned. Besides, what had befallen the kingdom of Israel might be viewed as a mirror in which they could behold God’s wrath and righteous chastisement.

And yet this prediction, though it was accompanied by clear proofs, must undoubtedly have appeared to be incredible; for at that time they enjoyed repose, and the slightest truce of any kind easily laid them asleep. He says, therefore, that this calamity will come to them from distant nations, from whom nothing of this kind was expected; and he sounds an alarm as if the enemy were already at hand. It is not for the sake of soothing their fear that he uses those words, from afar, and from the end of the earth; but, on the contrary, he speaks in this manner for the express purpose of informing them that they ought not to judge of the anger of God from what meets the eye, for we are wont to judge of dangers from the outward appearance of things. Now, if the enemies are not so near, or if other circumstances hinder them from giving us immediate annoyance, we give ourselves no concern. Thus the people were lulled into a profound sleep, as if there were no danger to be dreaded. But Isaiah says that this will not hinder the Lord from erecting a banner, and instantly commissioning the Assyrians to slaughter them. The expression is metaphorical; for when a banner is displayed it is customary for soldiers, at the bidding of their general, to advance in hostile array and rush into the battle.

He will hiss to it. Sibilabit ad eam. In the version prefixed to the Commentary on this chapter, our Author has likewise observed here the singular number, sibilabit genti, he will hiss to the nation. Bishop Stock, following Bishop Lowth, renders ושקר לו, (veshakar lo,) he will hiss to every one of them. — Ed Though a change of number frequently occurs in Scripture, yet it is on solid grounds that the Prophet, by changing the number, makes many nations to be but one nation. The meaning is, that when it shall please God to assemble various nations, and form them into one body, it will not be a confused multitude, but will resemble a body which has a visible head that rules and guides. He chose to employ the word hiss rather than a word of weightier import, such as sound a trumpet, or anything of that sort; in order to show that God does not need to sound a trumpet in order to call the enemies to battle, and that he has no difficulty in inflicting punishment when the time for taking vengeance is fully at hand, for by a mere nod he can accomplish the whole. “The metaphor is taken from the practice of those that keep bees, who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, συρίσμασι, by a hiss or a whistle;” Cyril on the place: and to the same purpose Theodoret, ibid. In Isaiah 7:18, the metaphor is more apparent by being carried further, where the hostile armies are expressed by the fly and the bee: —

“Jehovah shall hist the fly, That is in the utmost parts of Egypt; And the bee, that is in the land of Assyria.”

On which place see Deuteronomy 1:44; Psalm 118:12. — Lowth.

And lo, it will come speedy and swift. This confirms still more what I have already observed, that we ought not to judge of the anger of the Lord from the present appearance of things; for although everything appears to give assurances of peace, yet suddenly war will break out from a quarter from which we do not expect it. Even though we think that we are defended on all sides by friends, yet God will stir up enemies from the farthest corners of the earth, who will break through every obstruction, and overtake us with ease, as if the way were plain and smooth. This ought to be carefully observed, that we may not suffer ourselves to be blinded by vain presumption and foolish confidence.

We ought also to observe that wars are not kindled accidentally, or by an arrangement of men, but by the command of God, as if he assembled the soldiers by the sound of a trumpet. Whether, therefore, we are afflicted by battle, or by famine, or by pestilence, let us know that all this comes from the hand of God, for all things obey him and follow his direction. And yet it was not the intention of the Chaldeans to obey God, for they were hurried on by their eagerness to obtain wealth and power, while he has quite another object in view: but God employs their agency for executing his judgments. Hence arises a remarkable and illustrious display of the power of God, which is not limited by the will of men, or dependent on their decisions, but leads them, though contrary to their wish, or without their knowledge, to obey him. And yet it is no excuse for the ungodly that they are drawn contrary to the disposition of their mind, and do not willingly serve God, for they aim at nothing else than fraud, cruelty, and violence; and by their cruelty God punishes the transgressions and crimes of his people.

27. None shall be weary, nor stumble among them. The meaning is, that everything will be prepared and arranged in such a manner that there shall be no delay or obstruction to their march; as if a prince, having recruited the ranks of his soldiers, immediately gave orders that the roads should be cleared, provisions obtained, and everything necessary provided. He therefore shows that they will be fleet and swift, and that there will be nothing to hinder their rapid march.

None shall slumber nor sleep. He expresses their vast activity by saying that they will not be drowsy. In these words, they shall not slumber nor sleep, the natural order is inverted, He ought rather to have said, They shall not sleep nor slumber; for it is a smaller matter to slumber than to sleep. But that phrase ought to be explained in this manner: They shall not slumber nor even sleep; that is, they will be so far from sleeping, that they will not even slumber. You have an instance of this in these words:

Lo, he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:4.)

It is a Hebrew phrase, with which neither the Greek nor the Latin idiom agrees.

28. Their arrows will be sharp. He means that they will be provided with necessary weapons. The custom alluded to is that which existed among the Assyrians and other eastern nations, who frequently made use of bows and arrows in battle, as Englishmen of the present day enter into the battlefield with a loaded quiver. More than three hundred years have elapsed since Calvin wrote these words, and Englishmen of the present day do not carry bows and arrows into the field of battle. On the whole subject of war the opinions of Englishmen are underdoing an important revolution. Many of them entertain a confident hope that ere long the bullet as well as the arrow, the cannon as well as the bow, will be laid aside; that the revolting spectacle of human beings drawn up in companies, for the purpose of wholesale murder, will disappear from the earth; and that men will beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. — Ed. Under this class he includes every kind of weapons of war. But as the way was long, and the journey difficult, the Jew might think that many things would occur to interrupt the march of the enemy. He therefore says, that the hoofs of the horses will be like flint; by which he means that they will suffer no molestation, and will at length arrive in Judea without weariness. For a similar reason he compares their wheels to a whirlwind. The ancients were wont to employ chariots in going to war, and therefore he mentions not only horses, but wheels. All these circumstances must be understood to relate to the haste and rapidity with which they would proceed; or, in other words, that no length of journey would prevent the Lord from carrying forward the enemies without delay for the destruction of the Jews.

29. His roaring shall be like that of a lion. This denotes fierceness and cruelty, for he compares the Chaldeans to lions, which, we know, are frightful to behold, and savage by nature; as if he had said that they would not be men who were moved by any feeling of compassion or tenderness, but rather that they would be savage beasts. He adds, that they will likewise possess great strength, so that none will venture to approach for rescuing their prey. He means that the Jews will have no defense for warding off their attacks, because the dread of their cruelty will keep all at a distance from them. It was God who employed their agency in punishing the Jews, and therefore it was necessary that they should be armed with formidable power, that this wayward people might at length acknowledge that they had to do not with men but with

God, into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall. (Hebrews 10:31.)

30. He shall roar against him. And in that day they shall roar against them. — Eng. Ver. The Prophet adds this, that the Jews may understand that the fierce attack of the Chaldeans is not accidental, but that they have been appointed by God and are guided by his hand. By the roaring of the sea he means an attack so violent that it will look like a deluge, by which the whole of Judea will suffer shipwreck. He likewise cuts off all hope by foretelling that the punishment will have no alleviation and no end. “The Jews,” he says, “will do what is usually done in a season of perplexity, will cast their eyes up and down to discover the means of escape; but in whatever direction they look, whether to heaven or to earth, they will find no relief whatever; for on all sides distresses and calamities will overwhelm them.” This mode of expression has come to be frequently employed even by the common people, when misery and ruin appear on all sides, and no escape or relief can be found. This must unavoidably happen when the Lord pursues us, so that his uplifted arm meets our eyes on every side, and, wherever we turn, we behold his creatures armed against us to execute his judgments; for we may sometimes escape the hand of men, but how can we escape the hand of God?

CHAPTER 6.

Isaiah Chapter 6:1-13

1. In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

1. Anno mortis regis Usiae, vidi Dominum sedentem super solium excelsum et elevatum, cujus extrema replebant templum.

2. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

2. Et seraphim stabant super ipsum: erant singulis sex alae; duabus operiebant faciem suam; duabus tegebant pedes suos; et duabus volabant.

3. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

3. Et clamabant alter alteri, dicentes, Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Iehova exercituum; plena est omnis terra gloriae ejus.

4. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

4. Et commota sunt superliminaria postium a voce clamantis; et domus impleta est fumo.

5. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

5. Tunc dixi, Vae mihi, quia excisus sum (vel in silentium redactus); cum homo sim pollutis labiis, et in medio populi habitem polluta labia habentis; et tamen regem Iehovam exercituum viderunt oculi mei.

6. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the alter:

6. Volavit autem ad me unus ex seraphim; habens in manu sua carbonem ardentem, forcipe correptum ab altari.

7. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

7. Et applicans super os meum, dixit, Ecce, tetigit hoc labia tua, et expiabitur peccatum tuum.

8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

8. Postea audivi vocem Domini dicentis, Quem mittam? et quis ibit nobis? Tum dixi, Ecce ego, mitte me.

9. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

9. Tum dixit, Vade, et dic populo isti; audiendo audite, et ne intelligatis; videndo videto, et nesciatis;

10. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

10. Obstina cor populi hujus, et aures ejus aggrava, et oculos ejus obline; ne forte videat oculis suis, et auribus suis audiat, et cor ejus intelligat, et ubi conversus fuerit, sit illi sanatio.

11. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

11. Et dixi, Usque quo, Domine? et ait, Dum fuerint vastatae civitates absque habitatore, et domus vacuatae fuerint hominibus, et terra redacta fuerit in solitudinem;

12. And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

12. Donec procul amoverit Deus homines, sitque multa vastitas in medio terrae;

13. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

13. Donec in ea decima, et revertetur; et erit in excidium sicut tilia et quercus, quibus in projectione est subsistentia; ita in hac erit subsistentia, semen sanctum.

CHAPTER 5

Is 5:1-30. Parable of Jehovah's Vineyard.

A new prophecy; entire in itself. Probably delivered about the same time as the second and third chapters, in Uzziah's reign. Compare Is 5:15, 16 with Is 2:17; and Is 5:1 with Is 3:14. However, the close of the chapter alludes generally to the still distant invasion of Assyrians in a later reign (compare Is 5:26 with Is 7:18; and Is 5:25 with Is 9:12). When the time drew nigh, according to the ordinary prophetic usage, he handles the details more particularly (Is 7:1-8:22); namely, the calamities caused by the Syro-Israelitish invasion, and subsequently by the Assyrians whom Ahaz had invited to his help.

1. to--rather, "concerning" [Gesenius], that is, in the person of My beloved, as His representative [Vitringa]. Isaiah gives a hint of the distinction and yet unity of the Divine Persons (compare He with I, Is 5:2, 3).

of my beloved--inspired by Him; or else, a tender song [Castalio]. By a slight change of reading "a song of His love" [Houbigant]. "The Beloved" is Jehovah, the Second Person, the "Angel" of God the Father, not in His character as incarnate Messiah, but as God of the Jews (Ex 23:20, 21; 32:34; 33:14).

vineyard--(Is 3:14; Psa 80:8, &c.). The Jewish covenant-people, separated from the nations for His glory, as the object of His peculiar care (Mt 20:1; 21:33). Jesus Christ in the "vineyard" of the New Testament Church is the same as the Old Testament Angel of the Jewish covenant.

fruitful hill--literally, "a horn" ("peak," as the Swiss shreckhorn) of the son of oil; poetically, for very fruitful. Suggestive of isolation, security, and a sunny aspect. Isaiah alludes plainly to the Song of Solomon (So 6:3; 8:11, 12), in the words "His vineyard" and "my Beloved" (compare Is 26:20; 61:10, with So 1:4; 4:10). The transition from "branch" (Is 4:2) to "vineyard" here is not unnatural.

2. fenced--rather, "digged and trenched" the ground to prepare it for planting the vines [Maurer].

choicest vine--Hebrew, sorek; called still in Morocco, serki; the grapes had scarcely perceptible seeds; the Persian kishmish or bedana, that is, "without seed" (Ge 49:11).

tower--to watch the vineyard against the depredations of man or beast, and for the use of the owner (Mt 21:33).

wine-press--including the wine-fat; both hewn, for coolness, out of the rocky undersoil of the vineyard.

wild grapes--The Hebrew expresses offensive putrefaction, answering to the corrupt state of the Jews. Fetid fruit of the wild vine [Maurer], instead of "choicest" grapes. Of the poisonous monk's hood [Gesenius]. The Arabs call the fruit of the nightshade "wolf grapes" (De 32:32, 33; 2Ki 4:39-41). Jerome tries to specify the details of the parable; the "fence," angels; the "stones gathered out," idols; the "tower," the "temple in the midst" of Judea; the "wine-press," the altar.

3. And now, &c.--appeal of God to themselves, as in Is 1:18; Mi 6:3. So Jesus Christ, in Mt 21:40, 41, alluding in the very form of expression to this, makes them pass sentence on themselves. God condemns sinners "out of their own mouth" (De 32:6; Job 15:6; Lu 19:22; Ro 3:4).

4. God has done all that could be done for the salvation of sinners, consistently with His justice and goodness. The God of nature is, as it were, amazed at the unnatural fruit of so well-cared a vineyard.

5. go to--that is, attend to me.

hedge ... wall--It had both; a proof of the care of the owner. But now it shall be trodden down by wild beasts (enemies) (Psa 80:12, 13).

6. I will ... command--The parable is partly dropped and Jehovah, as in Is 5:7, is implied to be the Owner: for He alone, not an ordinary husbandman (Mt 21:43; Lu 17:22), could give such a "command."

no rain--antitypically, the heaven-sent teachings of the prophets (Am 8:11). Not accomplished in the Babylonish captivity; for Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah prophesied during or after it. But in gospel times.

7. Isaiah here applies the parable. It is no mere human owner, nor a literal vineyard that is meant.

vineyard of the Lord--His only one (Ex 19:5; Am 3:2).

pleasant--"the plant of his delight"; just as the husbandman was at pains to select the sorek, or "choicest vine" (Is 5:2); so God's election of the Jews.

judgment--justice. The play upon words is striking in the Hebrew, He looked for mishpat, but behold mispat ("bloodshed"); for tsedaqua, but behold tseaqua (the cry that attends anarchy, covetousness, and dissipation, Is 5:8, 11, 12; compare the cry of the rabble by which justice was overborne in the case of Jesus Christ, Mt 27:23, 24).

Is 5:8-23. Six Distinct Woes against Crimes.

8. (Le 25:13; Mi 2:2). The jubilee restoration of possessions was intended as a guard against avarice.

till there be no place--left for any one else.

that they may be--rather, and ye be.

the earth--the land.

9. In mine ears ... the Lord--namely, has revealed it, as in Is 22:14.

desolate--literally, "a desolation," namely, on account of the national sins.

great and fair--houses.

10. acres--literally, "yokes"; as much as one yoke of oxen could plow in a day.

one--only.

bath--of wine; seven and a half gallons.

homer ... ephah--Eight bushels of seed would yield only three pecks of produce (Eze 45:11). The ephah and bath, one-tenth of an homer.

11. Second Woe--against intemperance.

early--when it was regarded especially shameful to drink (Ac 2:15; 1Th 5:7). Banquets for revelry began earlier than usual (Ec 10:16, 17).

strong drink--Hebrew, sichar, implying intoxication.

continue--drinking all day till evening.

12. Music was common at ancient feasts (Is 24:8, 9; Am 6:5, 6).

viol--an instrument with twelve strings [Josephus, Antiquities, 8.10].

tabret--Hebrew, toph, from the use of which in drowning the cries of children sacrificed to Moloch, Tophet received its name. Arabic, duf. A kettle drum, or tambourine.

pipe--flute or flageolet: from a Hebrew root "to bore through"; or else, "to dance" (compare Job 21:11-15).

regard not ... Lord--a frequent effect of feasting (Job 1:5; Psa 28:5).

work ... operation--in punishing the guilty (Is 5:19; Is 10:12).

13. are gone--The prophet sees the future as if it were before his eyes.

no knowledge--because of their foolish recklessness (Is 5:12; Is 1:3; Ho 4:6; Lu 19:44).

famished--awful contrast to their luxurious feasts (Is 5:11, 12).

multitude--plebeians in contradistinction to the "honorable men," or nobles.

thirst--(Psa 107:4, 5). Contrast to their drinking (Is 5:11). In their deportation and exile, they shall hunger and thirst.

14. hell--the grave; Hebrew, sheol; Greek, hades; "the unseen world of spirits." Not here, "the place of torment." Poetically, it is represented as enlarging itself immensely, in order to receive the countless hosts of Jews, which should perish (Nu 16:30).

their--that is, of the Jewish people.

he that rejoiceth--the drunken reveller in Jerusalem.

15. (Compare Is 2:9, 11, 17). All ranks, "mean" and "mighty" alike; so "honorable" and "multitude" (Is 5:13).

16. God shall be "exalted" in man's view, because of His manifestation of His "justice" in punishing the guilty.

sanctified--regarded as holy by reason of His "righteous" dealings.

17. after their manner--literally, "according to their own word," that is, at will. Otherwise, as in their own pasture [Gesenius]: so the Hebrew in Mi 2:12. The lands of the Scenite tent dwellers (Jr 35:7). Arab shepherds in the neighborhood shall roam at large, the whole of Judea being so desolate as to become a vast pasturage.

waste ... fat ones--the deserted lands of the rich ("fat," Psa 22:29), then gone into captivity; "strangers," that is, nomad tribes shall make their flocks to feed on [Maurer]. Figuratively, "the lambs" are the pious, "the fat ones" the impious. So tender disciples of Jesus Christ (Joh 21:15) are called "lambs"; being meek, harmless, poor, and persecuted. Compare Eze 39:18, where the fatlings are the rich and great (1Co 1:26, 27). The "strangers" are in this view the "other sheep not of the" the Jewish "fold" (Joh 10:16), the Gentiles whom Jesus Christ shall "bring" to be partakers of the rich privileges (Ro 11:17) which the Jews ("fat ones," Eze 34. 16) fell from. Thus "after their (own) manner" will express that the Christian Church should worship God in freedom, released from legal bondage (Joh 4:23; Ga 5:1).

18. Third Woe--against obstinate perseverance in sin, as if they wished to provoke divine judgments.

iniquity--guilt, incurring punishment [Maurer].

cords, &c.--cart-rope--Rabbins say, "An evil inclination is at first like a fine hair-string, but the finishing like a cart-rope." The antithesis is between the slender cords of sophistry, like the spider's web (Is 59:5; Job 8:14), with which one sin draws on another, until they at last bind themselves with great guilt as with a cart-rope. They strain every nerve in sin.

vanity--wickedness.

sin--substantive, not a verb: they draw on themselves "sin" and its penalty recklessly.

19. work--vengeance (Is 5:12). Language of defiance to God. So Lamech's boast of impunity (Ge 4:23, 24; compare Jr 17:15; 2Pe 3:3, 4).

counsel--God's threatened purpose to punish.

20. Fourth Woe--against those who confound the distinctions of right and wrong (compare Ro 1:28), "reprobate," Greek, "undiscriminating: the moral perception darkened."

bitter ... sweet--sin is bitter (Jr 2:19; 4:18; Ac 8:23; He 12:15); though it seem sweet for a time (Pr 9:17, 18). Religion is sweet (Psa 119:103).

21. Fifth Woe--against those who were so "wise in their own eyes" as to think they knew better than the prophet, and therefore rejected his warnings (Is 29:14, 15).

22-23. Sixth Woe--against corrupt judges, who, "mighty" in drinking "wine" (a boast still not uncommon), if not in defending their country, obtain the means of self-indulgence by taking bribes ("reward"). The two verses are closely joined [Maurer].

mingle strong drink--not with water, but spices to make it intoxicating (Pr 9:2, 5; So 8:2).

take away the righteousness--set aside the just claims of those having a righteous cause.

24. Literally, "tongue of fire eateth" (Ac 2:3).

flame consumeth the chaff--rather, withered grass falleth before the flame (Mt 3:12).

root ... blossom--entire decay, both the hidden source and outward manifestations of prosperity, perishing (Job 18:16; Mal 4:1).

cast away ... law--in its spirit, while retaining the letter.

25. anger ... kindled--(2Ki 22:13, 17).

hills ... tremble--This probably fixes the date of this chapter, as it refers to the earthquake in the days of Uzziah (Am 1:1; Zec 14:5). The earth trembled as if conscious of the presence of God (Jr 4:24; Ha 3:6).

torn--rather, were as dung (Psa 83:10).

For all this, &c.--This burden of the prophet's strains, with dirge-like monotony, is repeated at Is 9:12, 17, 21; 10:4. With all the past calamities, still heavier judgments are impending; which he specifies in the rest of the chapter (Le 26:14, &c.).

26. lift ... ensign--to call together the hostile nations to execute His judgments on Judea (Is 10:5-7; 45:1). But for mercy to it, in Is 11:12; 18:3.

hiss--(Is 7:18). Bees were drawn out of their hives by the sound of a flute, or hissing, or whistling (Zec 10:8). God will collect the nations round Judea like bees (De 1:44; Psa 118:12).

end of the earth--the widely distant subject races of which the Assyrian army was made up (Is 22:6). The ulterior fulfilment took place in the siege under Roman Titus. Compare "end of the earth" (De 28:49, &c.). So the pronoun is singular in the Hebrew, for "them," "their," "whose" (him, his, &c.), Is 5:26-29; referring to some particular nation and person [Horsley].

27. weary--with long marches (De 25:18).

none ... slumber--requiring no rest.

girdle--with which the ancient loose robes used to be girded for action. Ever ready for march or battle.

nor the latchet ... broken--The soles were attached to the feet, not by upper leather as with us, but by straps. So securely clad that not even a strap of their sandals gives way, so as to impede their march.

28. bent--ready for battle.

hoofs ... flint--The ancients did not shoe their horses: hence the value of hard hoofs for long marches.

wheels--of their chariots. The Assyrian army abounded in cavalry and chariots (Is 22:6, 7; 36:8).

29. roaring--their battle cry.

30. sorrow, and the light is darkened--Otherwise, distress and light (that is, hope and fear) alternately succeed (as usually occurs in an unsettled state of things), and darkness arises in, &c. [Maurer].

heavens--literally, "clouds," that is, its sky is rather "clouds" than sky. Otherwise from a different Hebrew root, "in its destruction" or ruins. Horsley takes "sea ... look unto the land" as a new image taken from mariners in a coasting vessel (such as all ancient vessels were), looking for the nearest land, which the darkness of the storm conceals, so that darkness and distress alone may be said to be visible.

Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved "Let me sing now a song," etc. - A MS., respectable for its antiquity, adds the word שיר shir, a song, after נא na; which gives so elegant a turn to the sentence by the repetition of it in the next member, and by distinguishing the members so exactly in the style and manner in the Hebrew poetical composition, that I am much inclined to think it genuine.

A song of my beloved "A song of loves" - דודי dodey, for דודים dodim: status constructus pro absoluto, as the grammarians say, as Mic 6:16; Lam 3:14, Lam 3:66, so Archbishop Secker. Or rather, in all these and the like cases, a mistake of the transcribers, by not observing a small stroke, which in many MSS., is made to supply the מ mem, of the plural, thus, דודי dodi. שירת דודים shirath dodim is the same with שיר ידידת shir yedidoth, Psa 45:1. In this way of understanding it we avoid the great impropriety of making the author of the song, and the person to whom it is addressed, to be the same.

In a very fruitful hill "On a high and fruitful hill" - Hebrew בקרן בן שמן bekeren ben shamen, "on a horn the son of oil." The expression is highly descriptive and poetical. "He calls the land of Israel a horn, because it is higher than all lands; as the horn is higher than the whole body; and the son of oil, because it is said to be a land flowing with milk and honey." - Kimchi on the place. The parts of animals are, by an easy metaphor, applied to parts of the earth, both in common and poetical language. A promontory is called a cape or head; the Turks call it a nose. "Dorsum immane mari summo;" Virgil, a back, or ridge of rocks: - "Hanc latus angustum jam se cogentis in arctum

Hesperiae tenuem producit in aequora linguam,

Adriacas flexis claudit quae cornibus undas."

Lucan, 2:612, of Brundusium, i.e., Βρεντεσιον, which, in the ancient language of that country, signifies stag's head, says Strabo. A horn is a proper and obvious image for a mountain or mountainous country. Solinus, cap. viii., says, "Italiam, ubi longius processerit, in cornua duo scindi;" that is, the high ridge of the Alps, which runs through the whole length of it, divides at last into two ridges, one going through Calabria, the other through the country of the Brutii. "Cornwall is called by the inhabitants in the British tongue Kernaw, as lessening by degrees like a horn, running out into promontories like so many horns. For the Britons call a horn corn, in the plural kern." - Camden. "And Sammes is of opinion, that the country had this name originally from the Phoenicians, who traded hither for tin; keren, in their language, being a horn." - Gibson.

Here the precise idea seems to be that of a high mountain standing by itself; "vertex montis, aut pars montis ad aliis divisa;" which signification, says I. H. Michaelis, Bibl. Hallens., Not. in loc., the word has in Arabic.

Judea was in general a mountainous country, whence Moses sometimes calls it The Mountain, "Thou shalt plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance;" Exo 15:17. "I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land beyond Jordan; that goodly mountain, and Lebanon;" Deu 3:25. And in a political and religious view it was detached and separated from all the nations round it. Whoever has considered the descriptions given of Mount Tabor, (see Reland, Palaestin.; Eugene Roger, Terre Sainte, p. 64), and the views of it which are to be seen in books of travels, (Maundrell, p. 114; Egmont and Heyman, vol. ii., p. 25; Thevenot, vol. i., p. 429), its regular conic form rising singly in a plain to a great height, from a base small in proportion, and its beauty and fertility to the very top, will have a good idea of "a horn the son of oil;" and will perhaps be induced to think that the prophet took his image from that mountain.

And gathered out the stones "And he cleared it from the stones" - This was agreeable to the husbandry: "Saxa, summa parte terrae, et vites et arbores laeduct; ima parte refrigerant;" Columell. de arb. 3: "Saxosum facile est expedire lectione lapidum;" Id. 2:2. "Lapides, qui supersunt, [al. insuper sunt], hieme rigent, aestate fervescunt; idcirco satis, arbustis, et vitibus nocent;" Pallad. 1:6. A piece of ground thus cleared of the stones Persius, in his hard way of metaphor, calls "exossatus ager," an unboned field; Sat. 6:52.

The choicest vine "Sorek" - Many of the ancient interpreters, the Septuagint, Aquila, and Theod., have retained this word as a proper name; I think very rightly. Sorek was a valley lying between Ascalon and Gaza, and running far up eastward in the tribe of Judah. Both Ascalon and Gaza were anciently famous for wine; the former is mentioned as such by Alexander Trallianus; the latter by several authors, quoted by Reland, Palaest., p. 589 and 986. And it seems that the upper part of the valley of Sorek, and that of Eshcol, where the spies gathered the single cluster of grapes, which they were obliged to bear between two upon a staff, being both near to Hebron were in the same neighborhood, and that all this part of the country abounded with rich vineyards. Compare Num 13:22, Num 13:23; Jdg 16:3, Jdg 16:4. P. Nau supposes Eshcol and Sorek to be only different names for the same valley. Voyage Noveau de la Terre Sainte, lib. iv., chap. 18. See likewise De Lisle's posthumous map of the Holy Land. Paris, 1763. See Bochart, Hieroz. ii., Colossians 725. Thevenot, i, p. 406. Michaelis (note on Jdg 16:4 (note), German translation) thinks it probable, from some circumstances of the history there given, that Sorek was in the tribe of Judah, not in the country of the Philistines.

The vine of Sorek was known to the Israelites, being mentioned by Moses, Gen 49:11, before their coming out of Egypt. Egypt was not a wine country. "Throughout this country there are no wines;" Sandys, p. 101. At least in very ancient times they had none. Herodotus, 2:77, says it had no vines and therefore used an artificial wine made of barley. That is not strictly true, for the vines of Egypt are spoken of in Scripture, Psa 78:47; Psa 105:33; and see Gen 40:11, by which it should seem that they drank only the fresh juice pressed from the grape, which was called οινος αμπελινος; Herodot., 2:37. But they had no large vineyards, nor was the country proper for them, being little more than one large plain, annually overflowed by the Nile. The Mareotic in later times is, I think, the only celebrated Egyptian wine which we meet with in history. The vine was formerly, as Hasselquist tells us it is now, "cultivated in Egypt for the sake of eating the grapes, not for wine, which is brought from Candia," etc. "They were supplied with wine from Greece, and likewise from Phoenicia," Herodot., 3:6. The vine and the wine of Sorek therefore, which lay near at hand for importation into Egypt, must in all probability have been well known to the Israelites, when they sojourned there. There is something remarkable in the manner in which Moses, Gen 49:11, makes mention of it, which, for want of considering this matter, has not been attended to; it is in Jacob's prophecy of the future prosperity of the tribe of Judah: - "Binding his foal to the vine,

And his ass's colt to his own sorek;

He washeth his raiment in wine,

And his cloak in the blood of grapes."

I take the liberty of rendering שרקה sorekah, for שרקו soreko, his sorek, as the Masoretes do by pointing עירה iroh, for עירו iro, his foal. עיר ir, might naturally enough appear in the feminine form; but it is not at all probable that שרק sorek ever should. By naming particularly the vine of Sorek, and as the vine belonging to Judah, the prophecy intimates the very part of the country which was to fall to the lot of that tribe. Sir John Chardin says, "that at Casbin, a city of Persia, they turn their cattle into the vineyards after the vintage, to browse on the vines." He speaks also of vines in that country so large that he could hardly compass the trunks of them with his arms. Voyages, tom. iii., p. 12, 12mo. This shows that the ass might be securely bound to the vine, and without danger of damaging the tree by browsing on it.

And built a tower in the midst of it - Our Savior, who has taken the general idea of one of his parables, Mat 21:33; Mar 12:1, from this of Isaiah, has likewise inserted this circumstance of building a tower; which is generally explained by commentators as designed for the keeper of the vineyard to watch and defend the fruits. But for this purpose it was usual to make a little temporary hut, (Isa 1:8), which might serve for the short season while the fruit was ripening, and which was removed afterwards. The tower therefore should rather mean a building of a more permanent nature and use; the farm, as we may call it, of the vineyard, containing all the offices and implements, and the whole apparatus necessary for the culture of the vineyard, and the making of the wine. To which image in the allegory, the situation the manner of building, the use, and the whole service of the temple, exactly answered. And so the Chaldee paraphrast very rightly expounds it: Et statui eos (Israelitas) ut plantam vineae selectae et aedificavi Sanctuarium meum in medio illorum. "And I have appointed the Israelites as a plant of a chosen vine, and I have built my sanctuary in the midst of them." So also Hieron. in loc. Aedificavit quoque turrim in medio ejus; templum videlicet in media civitate. "He built also a tower in the midst of it, viz., his own temple in the midst of the city." That they have still such towers or buildings for use or pleasure, in their gardens in the East, see Harmer's Observations, 2 p. 241.

And also made a wine-press therein. "And hewed out a lake therein" - This image also our Savior has preserved in his parable. יקב yekeb; the Septuagint render it here προληνιον, and in four other places ὑποληνιον, Isa 16:10; Joe 3:13; Hag 2:17; Zac 14:10, I think more properly; and this latter word St. Mark uses. It means not the wine-press itself, or calcatorium, which is called גת gath, or פורה purah; but what the Romans called lacus, the lake; the large open place or vessel, which by a conduit or spout received the must from the wine-press. In very hot countries it was perhaps necessary, or at least very convenient, to have the lake under ground, or in a cave hewed out of the side of the rock, for coolness, that the heat might not cause too great a fermentation, and sour the must. Vini confectio instituitur in cella, vel intimae domus camera quadam a ventorum ingressu remota. Kempfer, of Shiras wine. Amaen. Exot. p. 376. For the wind, to which that country is subject, would injure the wine. "The wine-presses in Persia," says Sir John Chardin, "are formed by making hollow places in the ground, lined with masons' work." Harmer's Observations, i., p. 392. See a print of one in Kempfer, p. 377.

Nonnus describes at large Bacchus hollowing the inside of a rock, and hewing out a place for the wine-press, or rather the lake: - Και σκοπελους ελαχηνε· πεδοσκαφεος δε σιδηρου Θηγαλεῃ γλωχινι μυχον κοιληνατο πετρης· Λειηνας δε μετωπα βαθυνομενων κενεωνων Αφρον [f. ακρον] εΰστραφυλοιο τυπον ποιησατο λενου.

Dionysiac. lib. xii., 50:331. "He pierced the rock; and with the sharpen'd tool

Of steel well-temper'd scoop'd its inmost depth:

Then smooth'd the front, and form'd the dark recess

In just dimensions for the foaming lake."

And he looked "And he expected" - Jeremiah, Jer 2:21, uses the same image, and applies it to the same purpose, in an elegant paraphrase of this part of Isaiah's parable, in his flowing and plaintive manner: - "But I planted thee a sorek, a scion perfectly genuine: How then art thou changed, and become to me the degenerate shoots of the strange vine!"

Wild grapes "poisonous berries" - באשים beushim, not merely useless, unprofitable grapes, such as wild grapes; but grapes offensive to the smell, noxious, poisonous. By the force and intent of the allegory, to good grapes ought to be opposed fruit of a dangerous and pernicious quality; as, in the explication of it, to judgment is opposed tyranny, and to righteousness, oppression. גפן gephen, the vine, is a common name or genus, including several species under it; and Moses, to distinguish the true vine, or that from which wine is made, from the rest. calls it, Num 6:4, גפן היין gephen haiyayin, the wine-vine. Some of the other sorts were of a poisonous quality, as appears from the story related among the miraculous acts of Elisha, 2Kgs 4:39-41. "And one went out into the field to gather potherbs; and he found a Seld vine, and he gathered from it wild fruit, his lapful; and he went and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. And they poured it out for the men to eat: and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, There is death in the pot, O man of God; and they could not eat of it. And he said, Bring meal, (leg. קחו kechu, nine MSS., one edition), and he threw it into the pot. And he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was nothing hurtful in the pot."

From some such sorts of poisonous fruits of the grape kind Moses has taken these strong and highly poetical images, with which he has set forth the future corruption and extreme degeneracy of the Israelites, in an allegory which has a near relation, both in its subject and imagery, to this of Isaiah: Deu 32:32, Deu 32:33. "Their vine is from the vine of Sodom,

And from the fields of Gomorrah:

Their grapes are grapes of gall;

Their clusters are bitter:

Their wine is the poison of dragons,

And the cruel venom of aspics." "I am inclined to believe," says Hasselquist, "that the prophet here, Isa 5:2-4, means the hoary nightshade, solanum incanum; because it is common in Egypt, Palestine, and the East; and the Arabian name agrees well with it. The Arabs call it anab el dib, i.e., wolf grapes. The באושים beushim, says Rab. Chai., is a well known species of the vine, and the worst of all sorts. The prophet could not have found a plant more opposite to the vine than this; for it grows much in the vineyards, and is very pernicious to them; wherefore they root it out: it likewise resembles a vine by its shrubby stalk;" Travels, p. 289. See also Michaelis Questions aux Voyageurs Danois, No. 64.

Inhabitants - ישבי yoshebey, in the plural number; three MSS., (two ancient), and so likewise the Septuagint and Vulgate.

There shall come up briers and thorns "The thorn shall spring up in it" - One MS. has בשמיר beshamir. The true reading seems to be בו שמור bo shamir, which is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

And he looked for judgment - The paronomasia, or play on the words, in this place, is very remarkable; mishpat, mishpach, tsedakah, tseakah. There are many examples of it in the other prophets, but Isaiah seems peculiarly fond of it. See Isa 13:6, Isa 24:17, Isa 32:7, Isa 28:1, Isa 57:6, Isa 61:3, Isa 65:11, Isa 65:12. Rabbi David Kimchi has noticed the paronomasia here: he expected משפט mishpat, judgment, but behold משפח mishpach, oppression; he expected צדקה tsedakah, righteousness, but behold צעקה tseakah, a cry. The rabbins esteem it a great beauty; their term for it is צחות הלשון tsachoth haltashon, elegance of language.

Oppression "tyranny" - משפח mishpach, from שפח shaphach, servum fecit, Arab. Houbigant: שפחה shiphchah is serva, a handmaid or female slave. משפח mispach, eighteen MSS.

Wo unto them that - lay field to field "You who lay field unto field" - Read תקריבו takribu, in the second person; to answer to the verb following. So Vulgate.

In mine ears. "To mine ear" - The sentence in the Hebrew text seems to be imperfect in this place; as likewise in Isa 22:14 (note), where the very same sense seems to be required as here. See the note there; and compare 1Sam 9:15 (note). In this place the Septuagint supply the word ηκουσθη, and the Syriac אשתמע eshtama, auditus est Jehovah in auribus meis, i.e., נגלה niglah, as in Isa 22:14.

Many houses - This has reference to what was said in the preceding verse: "In vain are ye so intent upon joining house to house, and field to field; your houses shall be left uninhabited, and your fields shall become desolate and barren; so that a vineyard of ten acres shall produce but one bath (not eight gallons) of wine, and the husbandman shall reap but a tenth part of the seed which he has sown." Kimchi says this means such an extent of vineyard as would require ten yoke of oxen to plough in one day.

Wo unto them that rise up early - There is a likeness between this and the following passage of the prophet Amos, Amo 6:3-6, who probably wrote before Isaiah. If the latter be the copier, he seems hardly to have equalled the elegance of the original: - "Ye that put far away the evil day

And affect the seat of violence;

Who lie upon beds of ivory,

And stretch yourselves upon your couches;

And eat the lambs from the flock,

And calves from the midst of the stall;

Who chant to the sound of the viol,

And like David invent for yourselves instruments of music;

Who quaff wine in large bowls,

And are anointed with the choicest ointments:

But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph."

Kimchi says, "they consider not the heavens nor their hosts: they pray not the morning nor the evening prayer unto the Lord."

Follow strong drink - Theodoret and Chrysostom on this place, both Syrians, and unexceptionable witnesses in what belongs to their own country, inform us that שכר shechar (σικερα in the Greek of both Testaments, rendered by us by the general term strong drink) meant properly palm wine, or date wine, which was and is still much in use in the Eastern countries. Judea was famous for the abundance and excellence of its palm trees; and consequently had plenty of this wine. "Fiunt (vina) et e pomis; primumque e palmis, quo Parthi et Indi utun tur, et oriens totus: maturarum modio in aquae congiis tribus macerato expressoque." Plin. lib. 14:19. "Ab his cariotae [palmae] maxime celebrantur; et cibo quidem, sed et succo, uberrimae. Ex quibus praecipua vina orienti; iniqua capiti, unde porno nomen." Id. 13:9. Καρος signifies stupefaction: and in Hebrew likewise the wine has its name from its remarkably inebriating quality.

And their honorable men "And the nobles" - These verses have likewise a reference to the two preceding. They that indulged in feasting and drinking shall perish with hunger and thirst; and Hades shall indulge his appetite as much as they had done, and devour them all. The image is strong and expressive in the highest degree. Hab 2:5, uses the same image with great force: - the ambitious and avaricious conqueror. "Enlargeth his appetite like Hades;

And he is like Death, and will never be satisfied,"

But, in Isaiah, Hades is introduced to much greater advantage, in person; and placed before our eyes in the form of a ravenous monster, opening wide his immeasurable jaws, and swallowing them all together: "Therefore Shoel hath dilated her soul, she hath opened her mouth beyond limit." Destruction expects more than a common meal, when God visits Jerusalem for her iniquities. This seems to refer to the ruin brought on the Jews by the Romans. Our blessed Lord repeats this parable, and applies it to this very transaction, Mat 21:33.

The lambs "And the kids" - גרים gerim, "strangers." The Septuagint read, more agreeably to the design of the prophet, כרים carim, αρνες, "the lambs." גדים gedayim, "the kids," Dr. Durell; nearer to the present reading: and so Archbishop Secker. The meaning is, their luxurious habitations shall be so entirely destroyed as to become a pasture for flocks.

After their manner "Without restraint" - כדברם kedobram, secundum duetum eorum; i.e. suo ipsorum ductu; as their own will shall lead them.

With a cart-rope "As a long cable" - The Septuagint, Aquila, Sym., and Theod., for בחבלי bechabley, read כחבלי kechahley, ὡς σχοινιῳ, or σχοινιοις; and the Septuagint, instead of שוא shau, read some other word signifying long; ὡς σχοινιῳ μακρῳ; and so likewise the Syriac, אריכא arecha. Houbigant conjectures that the word which the Septuagint had in their copies was שרוע sarua, which is used Lev 21:18, Lev 22:23, for something in an animal body superfluous, lengthened beyond its natural measure. And he explains it of sin added to sin, and one sin drawing on another, till the whole comes to an enormous length and magnitude; compared to the work of a rope-maker still increasing and lengthening his rope, with the continued addition of new materials. "Eos propheta similes facit homini restiario, qui funem torquet, cannabe addita et contorta, eadem iterans, donec funem in longum duxerit, neque eum liceat protrahi longius." "An evil inclination," says Kimchi on this place, from the ancient rabbins, "is at the beginning like a fine hair-string, but at the finishing like a thick cart-rope." By a long progression in iniquity, and a continued accumulation of sin, men arrive at length to the highest degree of wickedness; bidding open defiance to God, and scoffing at his threatened judgments, as it is finely expressed in the next verse. The Chaldee paraphrast explains it in the same manner, of wickedness increasing from small beginnings, till it arrives to a great magnitude. - L.

I believe neither the rabbins nor Bishop Lowth have hit on the true meaning of this place, the prophet seems to refer to idol sacrifices. The victims they offered were splendidly decked out for the sacrifice. Their horns and hoofs were often gilded, and their heads dressed out with fillets and garlands. The cords of vanity may refer to the silken strings by which they were led to the altar, some of which were unusually thick. The offering for iniquity was adorned with fillets and garlands; the sin-offering with silken cords, like unto cart-ropes. Pride, in their acts of humiliation, had the upper hand.

Let the counsel of the Holy One - Tryphiodorus has an expression something like this: - - επει Διος ηλυθε βουλη.

Tryph. Il Excid. 239.

Because the counsel of Jupiter was come. "This expression, ηλυθε βουλη, is, I believe, something uncommon; but it is exactly paralleled and explained by a passage in Isaiah, Isa 5:19. The Septuagint has expressed it in the very same words with Tryphiodorus: και ελθοι ἡ βουλ η του ἁγιου Ισραηλ, ἱνα γνωμεν." - Merrick's note, ad loc.

Mighty to drink wine - "They show not," says Kimchi, "their strength in combating their enemies, but in drunkenness and debauchery."

The righteous - צדיק tsaddik, singular, Sept. Vulg., and two editions.

The flame "The tongue of fire" - "The flame, because it is in the shape of a tongue; and so it is called metaphorically." Sal. ben Melec. The metaphor is so exceedingly obvious, as well as beautiful, that one may wonder that it has not been more frequently used. Virgil very elegantly intimates, rather than expresses, the image; -

Ecce levis summo de vertice visus Iuli

Fundere lumen apex; tactuque innoxia molli

Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci.

Aen. 2:682. "Strange to relate! from young Iulus' head

A lambent flame arose, which gently spread

Around his brows, and on his temples fed."

And more boldly of Aetna darting out flames from its top: -

Interdumque atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem,

Turbine fumantem piceo, et candente favilla:

Attollitque globos flammarum, et sidera lambit.

Aen. 3:574. "By turns a pitchy cloud she rolls on high,

By turns hot embers from her entrails fly,

And flakes of mountain flames, that lick the sky."

The disparted tongues, as it were of fire, Act 2:3, which appeared at the descent of the Holy Spirit, on the apostles, give the same idea; that is, of flames shooting diversely into pyramidal forms, or points, like tongues. It may be farther observed that the prophet in this place has given the metaphor its full force, in applying it to the action of fire in eating up and devouring whatever comes in its way, like a ravenous animal whose tongue is principally employed in taking in his food or prey; which image Moses has strongly exhibited in an expressive comparison: "And Moab said to the elders of Midian Now shall this collection of people lick up all that are around about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field," Num 22:4. See also 1Kgs 18:38.

Their root shall be as rottenness - כמק cammak, like mak; whence probably our word muck, dung, was derived.

The hills did tremble "And the mountains trembled" - Probably referring to the great earthquakes in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, in or not long before the time of the prophet himself, recorded as a remarkable era in the title of the prophecies of Amos., Amo 1:1, and by Zechariah, Zac 14:5.

He will - hiss "He will hist" - "The metaphor is taken from the practice of those that keep bees, who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, συρισμασι, by a hiss or a whistle." - Cyril, on this place; and to the same purpose Theodoret, ib. In Isa 7:18, the metaphor is more apparent, by being carried farther, where the hostile armies are expressed by the fly and the bee: - "Jehovah shall hist the fly That is in the utmost parts of Egypt; And the bee, that is in the land of Assyria."

On which place see Deu 1:44; Psa 118:12; and God calls the locusts his great army, Joe 2:25; Exo 23:28. See Huet, Quest. Alnet. 2:12. שרק sharak or shrak, he shall whistle for them, call loud and shrill; he shall shriek, and they (their enemies) shall come at his call.

With speed - This refers to the Isa 5:19. As the scoffers had challenged God to make speed, and to hasten his work of vengeance, so now God assures them that with speed and swiftly it shall come.

None - among them - Kimchi has well illustrated this continued exaggeration or hyperbole, as he rightly calls it, to the following effect: "Through the greatness of their courage they shall not be fatigued with their march, nor shall they stumble though they march with the utmost speed: they shall not slumber by day, nor sleep by night; neither shall they ungird their armor, or put off their sandals to take their rest. Their arms shall be always in readiness, their arrows sharpened, and their bows bent. The hoofs of their horses are hard as a rock. They shall not fail, or need to be shod with iron: the wheels of their carriages shall move as rapidly as a whirlwind."

Neither shall the girdle - The Eastern people, wearing long and loose garments, were unfit for action or business of any kind, without girding their clothes about them. When their business was finished they took off their girdles. A girdle therefore denotes strength and activity; and to unloose the girdle is to deprive of strength, to render unfit for action. God promises to unloose the loins of kings before Cyrus, Isa 45:1. The girdle is so essential a part of a soldier's accoutrements, being the last that he puts on to make himself ready for action, that to be girded, ζωννυσθαι, with the Greeks means to be completely armed and ready for battle: - Ατρειδης δ εβοησεν, ιδε ζωννυσθαι ανωγεν Αργειους.

Iliad, 11:15. Το δε ενδυναι τα ὁπλα εκαλουν οἱ παλαιοι ζωννυσθαι.

Pausan. Boeot.

It is used in the same manner by the Hebrews: "Let not him that girdeth himself boast as he that unlooseth his girdle," 1Kgs 20:11; that is, triumph not before the war is finished.

Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint "The hoofs of their horses shall be counted as adamant" - The shoeing of horses with iron plates nailed to the hoof is quite a modern practice, and was unknown to the ancients, as appears from the silence of the Greek and Roman writers, especially those that treat of horse medicine, who could not have passed over a matter so obvious and of such importance that now the whole science takes its name from it, being called by us farriery. The horseshoes of leather and iron which are mentioned; the silver and gold shoes with which Nero and Poppaea shod their mules, used occasionally to preserve the hoofs of delicate cattle, or for vanity, were of a very different kind; they enclosed the whole hoof as in a case, or as a shoe does a man's foot, and were bound or tied on. For this reason the strength, firmness and solidity of a horse's hoof was of much greater importance with them than with us, and was esteemed one of the first praises of a fine horse. Xenophon says that a good horse's hoof is hard, hollow, and sounds upon the ground like a cymbal. Hence the χαλκοποδες ἱπποι, of Homer, and Virgil's solido graviter sonat ungula cornu. And Xenophon gives directions for hardening the horses' hoofs by making the pavement on which he stands in the stable with roundheaded stones. For want of this artificial defense to the foot which our horses have, Amos, Amo 6:12, speaks of it as a thing as much impracticable to make horses run upon a hard rock as to plough up the same rock with oxen: - "Shall horses run upon a rock?

Shall one plough it up with oxen?"

These circumstances must be taken into consideration in order to give us a full notion of the propriety and force of the image by which the prophet sets forth the strength and excellence of the Babylonish cavalry, which made a great part of the strength of the Assyrian army. Xenop. Cyrop. lib. ii.

Like a whirlwind - כסופה cassuphah, like the stormy blast. Here sense and sound are well connected.

If one look unto the land, etc. "And these shall look to the heaven upward, and down to the earth" - ונבט לארץ venibbat laarets. Και εμβλεψονται εις την γην. So the Septuagint, according to the Vatican and Alexandrian copies; but the Complutensian and Aldine editions have it more fully, thus: - Και εμβλεψονται εις τον ουρανον ανω, και κατω; and the Arabic from the Septuagint, as if it had stood thus: Και εμβλεψονται εις ουρανον, και εις την γην κατω, both of which are plainly defective; the words εις την γην, unto the earth, being wanted in the former, and the word ανω, above, in the latter. But an ancient Coptic version from the Septuagint, supposed to be of the second century, some fragments of which are preserved in the library of St. Germain des Prez at Paris, completes the sentence; for, according to this version, it stood thus in the Septuagint. - Και εμβλεψονται εις τον ουρανον ανω, και εις την γην κατω; "And they shall look unto the heavens above and unto the earth beneath," and so it stands in the Septuagint MSS., Pachom. and 1. D. II., according to which they must have read their Hebrew text in this manner: - ונבט לשמים למעלה ולארץ למטה. This is probably the true reading, with which I have made the translation agree. Compare Isa 8:22; where the same sense is expressed in regard to both particulars, which are here equally and highly proper, the looking upwards, as well as down to the earth: but the form of expression is varied. I believe the Hebrew text in that place to be right, though not so full as I suppose it was originally here; and that of the Septuagint there to be redundant, being as full as the Coptic version and MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2 represent it in this place, from which I suppose it has been interpolated.

Darkness "The gloomy vapor" - The Syriac and Vulgate seem to have read בערפלח bearphalach; but Jarchi explains the present reading as signifying darkness; and possibly the Syriac and Vulgate may have understood it in the same manner.

Now - I will record it to he a witness for God, and against you, as Moses did his song, Deut 31:19 32:1. To - To the Lord of the vineyard. Of my beloved - Not devised by me, but inspired by God. Vineyard - His church. Hill - Hills being places most commodious for vines.

He gathered - He removed all hindrances, and gave them all the means of fruitfulness. A tower - For the residence of the keepers.

Nor digged - Vine - dressers use to dig up and open the earth about the roots of the vines. The meaning is, I will remove my ministers, who used great care and diligence to make you fruitful. Thorns - I will give you up to your own lusts. No rain - I will deprive you of all my blessings.

Pleasant - In whom God formerly delighted. A cry - From the oppressed, crying to men for help, and to God for vengeance.

Alone - That they alone may be the lords and owners, and all others only their tenants and servants.

In mine ears - I heard God speak what I am about to utter.

One bath - Of wine. The bath contained about eight gallons. Thus an acre did not yield one gallon. An ephah - Which was of the same quantity with the bath, only the bath was the measure of liquid things, the ephah of dry things; and a ephah was the tenth part of an homer. So instead of the increase which that fruitful land commonly yielded, they should loose nine parts of their seed.

The harp - They give up themselves wholly to luxury. The work - What God hath lately done, and is yet doing, and about to do among them; his grievous judgments, partly inflicted, and partly threatened, which required another course of life.

No knowledge - No serious consideration of God's works, and of their own duty and danger. Honourable men - Who thought themselves quite out of the reach of famine.

And he - That spends all his days in mirth and jollity.

The mighty - All of them, both high and low, shall be brought to destruction.

Exalted - By the execution of this just judgment. Sanctified - Shall appear to be an holy God, by his righteous judgments.

Then - When God shall have finished that work of judgment. The lambs - The poor and harmless people, who shall be left in the land when the rich are carried into captivity. Manner - Or, by their fold, as this word is manifestly used, Mic 2:12, the only place of scripture, except this, in which this word is found. Waste places - The lands left by their owners. Fat ones - Of the rich and great men. Strangers - The poor Israelites, who were left to be vine - dressers and husbandmen, 2Kings 25:12, who are called strangers, because they were so, in reference to that hand, not being the proper owners of it.

That draw - That are not only drawn to sin by the allurements of the world; but are active and illustrious in drawing sin to themselves. Cords - Or, with cords of lying, as the last word frequently signifies, with vain and deceitful arguments and pretences, whereby sinners generally draw themselves to sin. A rope - With all their might, as beasts commonly do that draw carts with ropes.

Let him - God, in whose name thou and other prophets are always threatening us. This was the plain language of their actions; they lived as if they were of this opinion. The Holy One - They scornfully repeated the title usually given by the prophets to God.

To them - That take away the difference between good and evil; that justify wicked men and things, and condemn piety, or righteous persons.

To mingle - To drink: the antecedent being put for the consequent: for they mingled it in order to drinking.

Take away - Pronounce sentence against him.

Rottenness - They shall be like a tree which not only withers in its branches, but dies and rots at the roots, therefore is past recovery. Dust - Shall be resolved into dust, and yield no fruit.

An ensign - To call them together for his service. From far - To the Chaldeans; for even Babylon is called a far country, chap.39:3. And he saith nations, because the Chaldean army was made up of several nations. Will hiss - Or, will whistle unto, or for them: will gather them together by his word. as shepherds gather their sheep. He intimates how easily and speedily God can do this work. From the ends - Which is not to be understood strictly, but with a latitude, from very remote places.

Nor sleep - They shall all be watchful and diligent to take all opportunities of executing my judgments. Nor latchet - I will take all impediments out of their way.

Bent - Who are every way furnished and ready for my work, waiting only for my command. Flint - Because they shall not be broken or battered by the length or stonyness and ruggedness of the way. Whirlwind - For the swiftness of their march, and for the force and violence of their chariots in battle.

Roar - Which signifies both their cruelty, and their eagerness to devour the prey.

Sorrow - Darkness; that is, sorrow; the latter word explains the former. The heavens - When they look up to the heavens, as men in distress usually do, they see no light there.

NOw will I sing to my welbeloved , a song of my beloved touching his vineyard : My welbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill .

I will record it to be a Witness for God, and against you, as Moses did his Song, Deut. 31. 19. & 32. 1.

To the Lord of the Vineyard, as appears by the last Clause of the Verse, to God or Christ, whom I love and serve, and for whose Glory, eclipsed by you, I am greatly concerned.

Not devised by me, not the Effect of my Envy or Passion; but inspired by God, which therefore it behoveth you to lay to heart.

His Church, oft and very fitly called a vineyard, because of God's singular Respect to it, and Care of it, and his Delight in it, and expectation of good Fruit from it, &c.

Hills being Places most commodious for Vines; See Psal. 80. 10. Heb. in an horn (which may signisie either, 1. the Figure or Shape of the Land of Canaan, which resembles an Horn; or, 2. the Heighth and Hilliness of that Land, as Horns are the highest parts of Beasts; or, 3. the Goodliness and Excellency of it, as an horn, when it is ascribed to a man, signifies his Glory and Dignity, as Iob 16. 15. Psal. 89. 17, 24, &c.) the son of oil, which, by a vulgar Hebraism, notes an oily or a fat Soil.

Marginal references: Psal. 80. 8. Oant. 8. 12. Jer. 2. 21. Mat. 21. 33. Mar. 12. 1. Luk. 20. 9.; Heb. the horn of the son of oyl.

2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof , and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it; and also made a wine-press therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

That neither Men nor Beasts might spoil it.

Which otherwise would have marred the Land; of which see 2 Kings 3. 19. The sence is, He removed all Hinderances, and gave them all the Means of Fruitfulness.

For the Residence of the Keepers, that they might be obliged and encouraged to watch over it with more diligence.

Marginal references: Or, made a wall about it.; Heb. hewed.

3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard .

I dare make you Judges in your own Cause, it is so plain and reasonable.

4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it ? wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes ?

What Work is there belonging to the Office of a Master or Keeper of the Vineyard, which I have neglected?

How unworthy and inexcusable a Crime is it, that you have not onely been unfruitful in good Works, but also filled with all the Fruits of Wickedness.

Marginal references: Heb. was there to do.

5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard ; I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up: and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down .

He graciously warns them before-hand, that they may have space and invitation to repent, and so to prevent the threatned Miseries.

I will withdraw my Presence and Protection from them, and give them up into the Hands of their Enemies.

Marginal references: Psal. 80. 12.; Heb. for a treading.

6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged , but there shall come up briers and thorns : I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it .

Vine-dressers use to dig up and open the Earth about the Roots of the Vines, for divers good purposes. The meaning is, I will remove my Ministers, who used great care and diligence to make you fruitful.

I will give you up to your own wicked Lusts.

I will deprive you of all my Blessings, which are oft compared to rain, &c.

7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant : and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry .

In whom God formerly delighted to dwell and converse. Compare Prov. 8. 31. Ier. 31. [illegible: 1+ letters]0.

From the Oppressed crying to Men for Help, and to God for Vengeance.

Marginal references: Heb. plant of his pleasures.; Heb. a scab.

8 Wo unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field , till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth.

That add new Purchases of Houses and Lands to their former Possessions. Not that this was in it self unlawful, but because they did this from an inordinate and insatiable desire of Riches, and with the Injury of their Brethren, as is manifest from the foregoing and following Words.

That they alone may be the Lords and Owners, and all others onely their Tenants and Servants.

Marginal references: Mic. [illegible: 1+ letters]. [illegible: 1+ letters].

9 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate , even great and fair, without inhabitant.

I heard God speak what I am now about to utter. Heb. In the ears of the Lord. Which may relate either, 1. to the foregoing Words; The Cry of your Sins, and of the Oppressed, is come into God's Ears; he hears and sees it, and will certainly punish it: Or, 2. to the following Clause▪ which, being of great importance, he ushers in with an Oath; I speak it in God's Ears, as well as in yours; I call God to witness the Truth of what I say.

The Houses which you have so greedily coveted, shall cast you out, and become desolate.

Marginal references: Or, this is in mine ears, saith the LORD, &c.; Heb. If not, &c.

10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath , and the seed of an omer shall yield an ephah .

To wit, of Wine. The Bath contained about eight Gallons. Thus an Acre did not yield one Gallon.

Which was of the same Quantity with the Bath, onely the Bath was the Measure of Liquid things, the Ephah of Dry things; and an Ephah was the tenth part of an Homer, Ezek. 45. 11. So in stead of that great Increase which that fruitful Land commonly yielded, they should lose nine parts of their Seed. Thus a fruitful Land was made barren for their Wickedness, according to God's threatning, Psal. 107. 34. and they had as little comfort in their Lands, as in their Houses; which were the two kinds of their Purchases, v. 8.

11 Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning , that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night , till wine enflame them .

Which was unusual, and scandalous in that case, Eccles. 10. 16. Act. 2. 15. They made Drinking their daily Trade and Business.

Thereby wasting both precious Time, and God's good Creatures, and the Health of their Bodies, as well as of their Souls.

He useth this Word partly to shew their [illegible: 1+ letters]olly and Misery, because the Wine was so far from quenching and satisfying their Appetites, that it did indeed inflame and increase them; and partly to prevent the vain Excuse of them who thought themselves innocent, because they did not drink to Drunkenness, although they cast themselves into an intemperate Heat through their Excess.

Marginal references: Prov. 23. 29, 30.; Or, pursue the[illegible: 1+ letters].

12 And the harp and the viol, the tabret and the pipe, and wine are in their feasts : but they regard not the work of the LORD , neither consider the operation of his hands.

They give up themselves wholly to Luxury, and that in a very unseasonable time, as it follows.

What God hath lately done, and is yet doing, and about to do among them; his grievous Judgments, partly inflicted, and partly threatned, which required another Course of Life, even to give themselves to Fasting and Prayer and Reformation, that so they might remove the incumbent, and prevent the approching Calamities.

Marginal references: Amos 6. 5, 6.; Job. 34. 27. P[illegible: 1+ letters]al. 28. 5.

13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity , because they have no knowledge : and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

Either, 1. are actually gone, which was true of the Ten Tribes in Hezekiab's Reign, 2 Kings 18. 9. under whom this Prophecy might be uttered▪ or, 2. shall certainly and shortly go, as the Two Tribes afterward did.

No serious consideration of God's Works, and of their own Duty and Danger.

Who thought themselves quite out of reach of Famine.

Marginal references: Hos. 4. 6.; Heb. their glory are men of famine.

14 Therefore hell ▪ hath enlarged her self, and opened her mouth without measure : and their glory , and their multitude, and their pomp , and he that rejoyceth , shall descend into it.

Or, the grave, as this Word most commonly signifies.

To receive those vast Numbers which shall die by this Famine, or otherwise, as is here implied.

Their Honourable men, as they were called, v. 13. being distinguished both here and there from the multitude.

All their Glory shall die with them.

That spendeth all his days in Mirth and Jollity, and casteth away all Cares and Fears.

Marginal references: Heb. her soul.

15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled , and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.

All of them, both high and low, shall be brought to destruction.

Marginal references: Chap. 2. 9, 11, 17.

16 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment , and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness .

By the execution of this just Judgment upon his incorrigible Enemies.

Shall appear to be an holy God.

By his righteous Judgments.

Marginal references: Or, the holy God.; Heb. the God the holy.

17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner , and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

When God shall have finished that Work of Judgment upon the Ungodly, he will extend Mercy to a Remainder. This is very usual in this Prophet, in the midst of his Threat [illegible: 1+ letters] to insert something for the support of Believers.

[illegible: 1 word] poor and harmless People, who shall be left in the Land when the Rich are carried into Captivity, as it fell out 2 Kings 25. 12.

Or, by their fold, as this Word is manifestly used Mic. 2. 12. the onely place of Scripture, except this, in which this Word is found.

The Lands left by their Owners, who were either slain, or carried into Captivity.

Of the Rich and Great men, so called Psal. 22. 29. & 78. 31. Isa. 10. 16.

The poor Israelites, who were left to be vine-dressers and husbandmen, 2 Kings 25. 12. who are called strangers, because they were so in reference to that Land, not being the proper Owners of it, nor related to them; as the Israelites of other Tribes are called strangers, in opposition to the Levites, as Numb. 1. 51. and elsewhere; yea, and the Levites are so called, in opposition to the Seed of Aaron, Numb. 16. 40.

18 Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity , and sin as it were with a cartrope :

That are not onely drawn to sin by the Allurements of the World, or by the Perswasions of wicked men, being surprised and overtaken by Sin, as sometimes good men are, Gal. 6. 1. but are active and industrious in drawing Sin to themselves, or themselves to Sin; that greedily and steadily pursue Sin, and the Occasions of it, and are not at rest till they have overtaken it; that sin wilfully, and resolvedly, and industriously.

Or, with cords of lying, as the last Word frequently signifies, i. e. with vain and deceitful Arguments and Pretences, whereby Sinners generally draw themselves to Sin; among which, one follows in the next Verse, to wit, the Impunity which they promise to themselves. Or these Cords may note the Means which they use to accomplish that Iniquity which they have devised.

With all their might, as Beasts commonly do that draw Carts with Ropes.

19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it : and let the counsel of the holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it.

To wit, God, in whose Name thou and other Prophets are always reproving and threatning us.

He onely thinks to affright us with Bugbears; but he either cannot, or will not do us any harm: we do not fear him, let him do his worst, let him begin as soon as he pleaseth. Not that any of the Israelites were so impudent as to use these Expressions; but this was the plain Language of their Actions, they lived as if they were of this Opinion; their Presumption and Security shewed their desperate Contempt of God, and of all his Judgments.

Who by his [illegible: 1 word] is engaged to punish us. They scornfully repeated the Title usually given by the Prophets unto God.

Marginal references: Jer. 17. 15, Amos 5. 18. 2 Pet. 3. 3, 4.

20 Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

That take away the difference between Good and Evil, that justifie and approve wicked Men and Things, and condemn Piety, or Vertue, or righteous Persons. Compare [illegible: 1 word]. 17. 15. Thus many call Serious Godliness, Humourous Singularity; and Justice, Morofity; and Meekness, Stupidity, &c. as on the contrary▪ [illegible: 1 word] call Pride, Magnanimity; and Covetousness, Good▪ [illegible: 1+ letters]andry. And men are very apt to follow the Course of the World in their false Judgments of things; which therefore the Prophet so severely forbids.

Marginal references: Heb. that say concerning evil, It is good, &c.

21 Wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight .

That being puffed up with an Opinion of their own Wisdom, despise the Counsels and Instructions of God by his Prophets, and prefer their own vain Fancies before the Judgment of the All-wise God, as appears by the Errour beforementioned, v. 20. that they affirmed that to be Evil, which God had declared to be Good.

Marginal references: Prov. 3[illegible: 1+ letters] 7. Rom. 12. 16.; Heb. before their face.

22 Wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine , and men of strength to mingle strong drink.

That can drink much without Intoxication, in which they gloried, as too many do at this day.

i. e. To drink: the Antecedent being put for the Consequent; which is usual: for they mingled it in order to drinking.

23 Which justifie the wicked for reward , and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him .

Not by mistake or incogitancy, but wilfully for Bribes.

To wit, juridically, they pronounce Sentence against him, as if he and his Cause were unjust.

Marginal references: Prov. 17. 15▪ & 24. 24.

24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness , and their blossom shall go up as dust : because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the hole One of Israel.

They shall be like a Tree which not onely withers in its Branches, but dies and rots at the Roots, and therefore is past all hopes of recovery. The sence is, They shall be destroyed both Root and Branch.

Shall vanish (for so the Word ascend or go up is oft used, as Exod. 16. 14. Iob 5. 26. Ier. 48. 15. Ezek. 11. 23, 24.) as the Dust, which is blown away with every Wind; or, shall be resolved into Dust, and yield no Fruit.

Which implies Disobedience joyned with Contempt.

Marginal references: Heb. the tongue of fire.

25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble , and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still .

A Metaphorical and Hyperbolical Description of a grievous Calamity, familiar in the Prophets, as Isa. 64. 1, 2. Ier. 4. 24. and in other Authors.

Ready to give you another and a [illegible: 1+ letters]orer Blow. This is not the end, as you vainly imagine; but, if you repent not, the beginning of your Sorrows, and an Earnest of further Calamities.

Marginal references: Or, as dung.; Ch. 9. 12. & 17. 21. & 10. 4.

26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far , and will hiss unto them from the ends of the earth : and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly.

To call them together for this Service, as Generals use to do for the raising of Armies.

Either, 1. to the Assyrians, of whom he speaks more particularly ch. 10. and that under this same Character of a People that come from far, v. 3. and who did not long after this Prophecy invade Iudaea, and did much mischief in it. Although that part of the Prediction, v. 29. they [illegible: 1 word] lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it, do not seem to agree to them, nor that Invasion; for the Assyrians were forced to retreat with great shame and loss, and the Iews were delivered from them. Or, 2. to the Chaldaeans; for even Babylon is called a far countrey, Isa. 39. 3. And he saith nations, because the Chaldaean Army was made up of several Nations.

Or, will whistle unto, or for them: will gather them together by his Word, as Shepherds gather their Sheep. He intimates how easily and speedily God can do this Work.

Which is not to be understood strictly, but popularly, and with a latitude, from very remote Places; although part of the Chaldaean Army did come from Places not very [illegible: 1 word] distant from the end of that part of the World, so far as [illegible: 1 word] was then known.

Marginal references: Chap. 7. 18.

27 None shall be weary , nor stumble amongst them: none shall slumber nor sleep : neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken .

Though their March be long and tedious. As I have called them to this Work, so I will strengthen and assist them in it.

They shall all be watchful and diligent to take all Opportunities and Advantages of executing my Judgments upon my People.

Which otherwise would hinder, or at least slacken them in their March. I will take all Impediments out of their way.

28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent : their horses hoofs shall be counted like flint , and their wheels like a whirlwind .

Who are every way furnished and ready for my Work, waiting onely for my Command.

Because they shall not be broken or battered by the length or stoniness and ruggedness of the Way.

Partly for the swiftness of their March, and partly for the force and violence of their Chariots in Battel.

29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions ; yea, they shall roar and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

Which signifies both their Cruelty, and their greediness and eagerness to catch and devour the Prey.

Neither the Iews themselves, nor the Egyptians, to whose help they will trust, nor any of their Confederates.

30 And in that day they shall roar against them, like the roaring of the sea : and if one look unto the land, behold, darkness and sorrow , and the light is darkned in the heavens thereof .

Which is violent and frightful.

Darkness, to wit, Sorrow; the latter Word explains the former, and the Particle and is put expositively, as it is frequently.

When they look up to the Heavens, as men in distress usually do, they see no Light there; their Comforts are wholly eclipsed, and their Hopes are like the giving up of the Ghost.

Marginal references: Chap. 8. 22.; Or, distress.; Or, when it is light, it shall be dark in the destructions thereof.

Isa 5:1-2

The prophet commenced his first address in chapter 1 like another Moses; the second, which covered no less ground, he opened with the text of an earlier prophecy; and now he commences the third like a musician, addressing both himself and his hearers with enticing words. Isa 1:1. “Arise, I will sing of my beloved, a song of my dearest touching his vineyard.” The fugitive rhythm, the musical euphony, the charming assonances in this appeal, it is impossible to reproduce. They are perfectly inimitable. The Lamed in lı̄dı̄dı̄ is the Lamed objecti. The person to whom the song referred, to whom it applied, of whom it treated, was the singer’s own beloved. It was a song of his dearest one (not his cousin, patruelis, as Luther renders it in imitation of the Vulgate, for the meaning of dōd is determined by yâdid, beloved) touching his vineyard. The Lamed in l'carmo is also Lamed objecti. The song of the beloved is really a song concerning the vineyard of the beloved; and this song is a song of the beloved himself, not a song written about him, or attributed to him, but such a song as he himself had sung, and still had to sing. The prophet, by beginning in this manner, was surrounded (either in spirit or in outward reality) by a crowd of people from Jerusalem and Judah. The song is a short one, and runs thus in Isa 1:1, Isa 1:2 : “My beloved had a vineyard on a fatly nourished mountain-horn, and dug it up and cleared it of stones, and planted it with noble vines, and built a tower in it, and also hewed out a wine-press therein; and hoped that it would bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.” The vineyard was situated upon a keren, i.e., upon a prominent mountain peak projecting like a horn, and therefore open to the sun on all sides; for, as Virgil says in the Georgics, “apertos Bacchus amat colles.” This mountain horn was ben-shemen, a child of fatness: the fatness was innate, it belonged to it by nature (shemen is used, as in Isa 28:1, to denote the fertility of a nutritive loamy soil). And the owner of the vineyard spared no attention or trouble. The plough could not be used, from the steepness of the mountain slope: he therefore dug it up, that is to say, he turned up the soil which was to be made into a vineyard with a hoe (izzēk, to hoe; Arab. mi‛zak, mi‛zaka); and as he found it choked up with stones and boulders, he got rid of this rubbish by throwing it out sikkēl, a privative piel, lapidibus purgare, then operam consumere in lapides, sc. ejiciendos, to stone, or clear of stones: Ges. §52, 2). After the soil had been prepared he planted it with sorek, i.e., the finest kind of eastern vine, bearing small grapes of a bluish-red, with pips hardly perceptible to the tongue. The name is derived from its colour (compare the Arabic zerka, red wine). To protect and adorn the vineyard which had been so richly planted, he built a tower in the midst of it. The expression “and also” calls especial attention to the fact that he hewed out a wine-trough therein (yekeb, the trough into which the must or juice pressed from the grapes in the wine-press flows, lacus as distinguished from torcular); that is to say, in order that the trough might be all the more fixed and durable, he constructed it in a rocky portion of the ground (Châtsēb bo instead of Chătsab bo, with a and the accent drawn back, because a Beth was thereby easily rendered inaudible, so that Châtsēb is not a participial adjective, as Böttcher supposes). This was a difficult task, as the expression “and also” indicates; and for that very reason it was an evidence of the most confident expectation. But how bitterly was this deceived! The vineyard produced no such fruit, as might have been expected from a sorek plantation; it brought forth no ‛anâbim whatever, i.e., no such grapes as a cultivated vine should bear, but only b'ushim, or wild grapes. Luther first of all adopted the rendering wild grapes, and then altered it to harsh or sour grapes. But it comes to the same thing. The difference between a wild vine and a good vine is only qualitative. The vitis vinifera, like all cultivated plants, is assigned to the care of man, under which it improves; whereas in its wild state it remains behind its true intention (see Genesis, §622). Consequently the word b'ushim (from bâ'ash, to be bad, or smell bad) denotes not only the grapes of the wild vine, which are naturally small and harsh (Rashi, lambruches, i.e., grapes of the labrusca, which is used now, however, as the botanical name of a vine that is American in its origin), but also grapes of a good stock, which have either been spoiled or have failed to ripen.In the Jerusalem Talmud such grapes are called ūbshin, the letters being transposed; and in the Mishnah (Ma'aseroth i. 2, Zebî'ith iv 8) הבאישׁ is the standing word applied to grapes that are only half ripe (see Löwy’s Leshon Chachamim, or Wörterbuch des talmudischen Hebräisch, Prag 1845). With reference to the wild grape (τὸ ἀγριόκλημα), a writer, describing the useful plants of Greece, says, “Its fruit (τὰ ἀγριοστάφυλα) consists of very small berries, not much larger than bilberries, with a harsh flavour.”

These were the grapes which the vineyard produced, such as you might indeed have expected from a wild vine, but not from carefully cultivated vines of the very choicest kind.

Isa 5:3-4

The song of the beloved who was so sorely deceived terminates here. The prophet recited it, not his beloved himself; but as they were both of one heart and one soul, the prophet proceeds thus in Isa 5:3 and Isa 5:4 : “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard! What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore did I hope that it would bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes?” The fact that the prophet speaks as if he were the beloved himself, shows at once who the beloved must be. The beloved of the prophet and the lover of the prophet (yâdid and dōd) were Jehovah, with whom he was so united by a union mystica exalted above all earthly love, that, like the angel of Jehovah in the early histories, he could speak as if he were Jehovah Himself (see especially Zec 2:12-13). To any one with spiritual intuition, therefore, the parabolical meaning and object of the song would be at once apparent; and even the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah (yoosheeb and iish are used collectively, as in Isa 8:14; Isa 9:8; Isa 22:21, cf., Isa 20:6) were not so stupefied by sin, that they could not perceive to what the prophet was leading. It was for them to decide where the guilt of this unnatural issue lay - that is to say, of this thorough contradiction between the “doing” of the vineyard and the “doing” of the Lord; that instead of the grapes he hoped for, it brought forth wild grapes. (On the expression “what could have been done,” quid faciendum est, mah-la'asoth, see at Hab 1:17, Ges. §132, Anm. 1.) Instead of למה (למּה) we have the more suitable term מדּוּע, the latter being used in relation to the actual cause (Causa efficiens), the former in relation to the object (Causa finalis). The parallel to the second part, viz., Isa 50:2, resembles the passage before us, not only in the use of this particular word, but also in the fact that there, as well as here, it relates to both clauses, and more especially to the latter of the two. We find the same paratactic construction in connection with other conjunctions (cf., Isa 12:1; Isa 65:12). They were called upon to decide and answer as to this what and wherefore; but they were silent, just because they could clearly see that they would have to condemn themselves (as David condemned himself in connection with Nathan’s parable, 2Sa 12:5). The Lord of the vineyard, therefore, begins to speak. He, its accuser, will now also be its judge.

Isa 5:5 “Now then, I will tell you what I will do at once to my vineyard: take away its hedge, and it shall be for grazing; pull down its wall, and it shall be for treading down.” Before “now then” (vattâh) we must imagine a pause, as in Isa 3:14. The Lord of the vineyard breaks the silence of the umpires, which indicates their consciousness of guilt. They shall hear from Him what He will do at once to His vineyard (Lamed in l'carmi, as, for example, in Deu 11:6). “I will do:” ani 'ōeh, fut. instans, equivalent to facturus sum (Ges. §134, 2, b). In the inf. abs. which follow He opens up what He will do. On this explanatory use of the inf. abs., see Isa 20:2; Isa 58:6-7. In such cases as these it takes the place of the object, as in other cases of the subject, but always in an abrupt manner (Ges. §131, 1). He would take away the mesucah, i.e., the green thorny hedge (Pro 15:19; Hos 2:8) with which the vineyard was enclosed, and would pull down the gârēd, i.e., the low stone wall (Num 22:24; Pro 24:31), which had been surrounded by the hedge of thorn-bushes to make a better defence, as well as for the protection of the wall itself, more especially against being undermined; so that the vineyard would be given up to grazing and treading down (lxx καταπα'τημα), i.e., would become an open way and gathering-place for man and beast.

Isa 5:6

This puts an end to the unthankful vineyard, and indeed a hopeless one.”And I will put an end to it: it shall not be pruned nor digged, and it shall break out in thorns and thistles; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain over it.” “Put an end:” bâthâh (= battâh : Ges. §67, Anm. 11) signifies, according to the primary meaning of bâthath (בּוּת, בּהת, see at Isa 1:29), viz., abscindere, either abscissum = locus abscissus or praeruptus (Isa 7:19), or abscissio = deletio. The latter is the meaning here, where shı̄th bâthâh is a refined expression for the more usual כלה עשׂה, both being construed with the accusative of the thing which is brought to an end. Further pruning and hoeing would do it no good, but only lead to further disappointment: it was the will of the Lord, therefore, that the deceitful vineyard should shoot up in thorns and thistles (âlâh is applied to the soil, as in Isa 34:13 and Pro 24:31; shâimr vâshaith, thorns and thistles, are in the accusative, according to Ges. §138, 1, Anm. 2; and both the words themselves, and also their combination, are exclusively and peculiarly Isaiah's).Cassel associates shâmir as the name of a plant (saxifraga) with σμὐρις, and shaith with sentis, ἄκανθα; but the name shâmir is not at all applicable to those small delicate plants, which are called saxifraga (stone-breakers) on account of their growing out of clefts in the rock, and so appearing to have split the rock itself. Both shâmir vâshaith and kōts v'dardar, in Gen 3:18, seem rather to point to certain kinds of rhamnus, together with different kinds of thistles. The more arid and waste the ground is, the more does it abound, where not altogether without vegetation, in thorny, prickly, stunted productions.

In order that it might remain a wilderness, the clouds would also receive commandment from the Lord not to rain upon it. There can be no longer any doubt who the Lord of the vineyard is. He is Lord of the clouds, and therefore the Lord of heaven and earth. It is He who is the prophet’s beloved and dearest one. The song which opened in so minstrel-like and harmless a tone, has now become painfully severe and terribly repulsive. The husk of the parable, which has already been broken through, now falls completely off (cf., Mat 22:13; Mat 25:30). What it sets forth in symbol is really true. This truth the prophet establishes by an open declaration.

Isa 5:7 “For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plantation of His delight: He waited for justice, and behold grasping; for righteousness, and behold a shriek.” The meaning is not that the Lord of the vineyard would not let any more rain fall upon it, because this Lord was Jehovah (which is not affirmed in fact in the words commencing with “for,” Ci), but a more general one. This was how the case stood with the vineyard; for all Israel, and especially the people of Judah, were this vineyard, which had so bitterly deceived the expectations of its Lord, and indeed “the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts,” and therefore of the omnipotent God, whom even the clouds would serve when He came forth to punish. The expression “for” (Ci) is not only intended to vindicate the truth of the last statement, but the truth of the whole simile, including this: it is an explanatory “for” (Ci explic.), which opens the epimythion. “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts” (Cerem Jehovah Zebaoth) is the predicate. “The house of Israel (Beth Yisrâel) was the whole nation, which is also represented in other passages under the same figure of a vineyard (Isa 27:2.; Ps 80, etc.). But as Isaiah was prophet in Judah, he applies the figure more particularly to Judah, which was called Jehovah’s favourite plantation, inasmuch as it was the seat of the divine sanctuary and of the Davidic kingdom. This makes it easy enough to interpret the different parts of the simile employed. The fat mountain-horn was Canaan, flowing with milk and honey (Exo 15:17); the digging of the vineyard, and clearing it of stones, was the clearing of Canaan from its former heathen inhabitants (Psa 54:3); the sorek-vines were the holy priests and prophets and kings of Israel of the earlier and better times (Jer 2:21); the defensive and ornamental tower in the midst of the vineyard was Jerusalem as the royal city, with Zion the royal fortress (Mic 4:8); the winepress-trough was the temple, where, according to Psa 36:9 (8.), the wine of heavenly pleasures flowed in streams, and from which, according to Psa 42:1-11 and many other passages, the thirst of the soul might all be quenched. The grazing and treading down are explained in Jer 5:10 and Jer 12:10. The bitter deception experienced by Jehovah is expressed in a play upon two words, indicating the surprising change of the desired result into the very opposite. The explanation which Gesenius, Caspari, Knobel, and others give of mispâch, viz., bloodshed, does not commend itself; for even if it must be admitted that sâphach occurs once or twice in the “Arabizing” book of Job (Job 30:7; Job 14:19) in the sense of pouring out, this verbal root is strange to the Hebrew (and the Aramaean). Moreover, mispâch in any case would only mean pouring or shedding, and not bloodshed; and although the latter would certainly be possible by the side of the Arabic saffâch, saffâk (shedder of blood), yet it would be such an ellipsis as cannot be shown anywhere else in Hebrew usage. On the other hand, the rendering “leprosy” does not yield any appropriate sense, as mispachath (sappachath) is never generalized anywhere else into the single idea of “dirt” (Luzzatto: sozzura), nor does it appear as an ethical notion. We therefore prefer to connect it with a meaning unquestionably belonging to the verb ספח (see kal, 1Sa 2:36; niphal, Isa 14:1; hithpael, 1Sa 26:19), which is derived in יסף, אסף, סוּף, from the primary notion “to sweep,” spec. to sweep towards, sweep in, or sweep away. Hence we regard mispach as denoting the forcible appropriation of another man’s property; certainly a suitable antithesis to mishpât. The prophet describes, in full-toned figures, how the expected noble grapes had turned into wild grapes, with nothing more than an outward resemblance. The introduction to the prophecy closes here.

The prophecy itself follows next, a seven-fold discourse composed of the six-fold woe contained in vv. 8-23, and the announcement of punishment in which it terminates. In this six-fold woe the prophet describes the bad fruits one by one. In confirmation of our rendering of mispâch, the first woe relates to covetousness and avarice as the root of all evil.

Isa 5:8 “Woe unto them that join house to house, who lay field to field, till there is no more room, and ye alone are dwelling in the midst of the land.” The participle is continued in the finite verb, as in Isa 5:23; Isa 10:1; the regular syntactic construction is cases of this kind (Ges. §134, Anm. 2). The preterites after “till” (there are to such preterites, for 'ephes is an intensified אין enclosing the verbal idea) correspond to future perfects: “They, the insatiable, would not rest till, after every smaller piece of landed property had been swallowed by them, the whole land had come into their possession, and no one beside themselves was settled in the land” (Job 22:8). Such covetousness was all the more reprehensible, because the law of Israel and provided so very stringently and carefully, that as far as possible there should be an equal distribution of the soil, and that hereditary family property should be inalienable. All landed property that had been alienated reverted to the family every fiftieth year, or year of jubilee; so that alienation simply had reference to the usufruct of the land till that time. It was only in the case of houses in towns that the right of redemption was restricted to one year, at least according to a later statute. How badly the law of the year of jubilee had been observed, may be gathered from Jer 34, where we learn that the law as to the manumission of Hebrew slaves in the sabbatical year had fallen entirely into neglect. Isaiah’s contemporary, Micah, makes just the same complaint as Isaiah himself (vid., Mic 2:2).

Isa 5:9-10

And the denunciation of punishment is made by him in very similar terms to those which we find here in Isa 5:9, Isa 5:10 : “Into mine ears Jehovah of hosts: Of a truth many houses shall become a wilderness, great and beautiful ones deserted. For ten yokes of vineyard will yield one pailful, and a quarter of seed-corn will produce a bushel.” We may see from Isa 22:14 in what sense the prophet wrote the substantive clause, “Into mine ears,” or more literally, “In mine ears is Jehovah Zebaoth,” viz., He is here revealing Himself to me. In the pointing, בּאזני is written with tiphchah as a pausal form, to indicate to the reader that the boldness of the expression is to be softened down by the assumption of an ellipsis. In Hebrew, “to say into the ears” did not mean to “speak softly and secretly,” as Gen 23:10, Gen 23:16; Job 33:8, and other passages, clearly show; but to speak in a distinct and intelligible manner, which precludes the possibility of any misunderstanding. The prophet, indeed, had not Jehovah standing locally beside him; nevertheless, he had Him objectively over against his own personality, and was well able to distinguish very clearly the thoughts and words of his own personality, from the words of Jehovah which arose audibly within him. These words informed him what would be the fate of the rich and insatiable landowners. “Of a truth:” אם־לא (if not) introduces an oath of an affirmative character (the complete formula is Chai ani 'im-lo', “as I live if not”), just as 'im (if) alone introduces a negative oath (e.g., Num 14:23). The force of the expression 'im-lo' extends not only to rabbim, as the false accentuation with gershayim (double-geresh) would make it appear, but to the whole of the following sentence, as it is correctly accentuated with rebia in the Venetian (1521) and other early editions. A universal desolation would ensue: rabbim (many) does not mean less than all; but the houses (bâttim, as the word should be pronounced, notwithstanding Ewald’s objection to Köhler’s remarks on Zec 14:2; cf., Job 2:1-13 :31) constituted altogether a very large number (compare the use of the word “many” in Isa 2:3; Mat 20:28, etc.). מאין is a double, and therefore an absolute, negation (so that there is not, no inhabitant, i.e., not any inhabitant at all). Isa 5:10, which commences, with Ci, explains how such a desolation of the houses would be brought about: failure of crops produces famine, and this is followed by depopulation. “Ten zimdē (with dagesh lene, Ewald) of vineyard” are either ten pieces of the size that a man could plough in one day with a yoke of oxen, or possibly ten portions of yoke-like espaliers of vines, i.e., of vines trained on cross laths (the vina jugata of Varro), which is the explanation adopted by Biesenthal. But if we compare 1Sa 14:14, the former is to be preferred, although the links are wanting which would enable us to prove that the early Israelites had one and the same system of land measure as the Romans;On the jugerum, see Hultsch, Griechische und römische Metrologie, 1862. The Greek plethron, which was smaller by two and a half, corresponded to some extent to this; also the Homeric tetraguon, which cannot be more precisely defined (according to Eustathius, it was a piece of land which a skilful labourer could plough in one day). According to Herod. ii. 168, in the Egyptian square-measure an a'roura was equal to 150 cubits square. The Palestinian, according to the tables of Julian the Ashkalonite, was the plethron. “The plethron,” he says, “was ten perches, or fifteen fathoms, or thirty paces, sixty cubits, ninety feet” (for the entire text, see L. F. V. Fennersberg’s Untersuchungen über alte Langen-, Feld-, und Wegemaase, 1859). Fennersberg’s conclusion is, that the tzemed was a plethron, equal in length to ten perches of nine feet each. But the meaning of the word tzemed is of more importance in helping to determine the measure referred to, than the tables of long measure of the architect of Ashkalon, which have been preserved in the imperial collection of laws of Constantine Harmenopulos, and which probably belong to a much later period. nevertheless Arab. fddân (in Hauran) is precisely similar, and this word signifies primarily a yoke of oxen, and then a yoke (jugerum) regarded as a measure of land. Ten days’ work would only yield a single bath. This liquid measure, which was first introduced in the time of the kings, corresponded to the ephah in dry measure (Eze 45:11). According to Josephus (Ant. viii. 2, 9), it was equal to seventy-two Roman sextarii, i.e., a little more than thirty-three Berlin quarts; but in the time of Isaiah it was probably smaller. The homer, a dry measure, generally called a Cor after the time of the kings, was equal to ten Attic medimnoi;Or rather 7 1/2 Attic medimnoi = 10 Attic metretoi = 45 Roman modia (see Böckh, Metrologische Untersuchungen, p. 259). a medimnos being (according to Josephus, Ant. xv 9, 2) about 15-16ths of a Berlin bushel, and therefore a little more than fifteen pecks. Even if this quantity of corn should be sown, they would not reap more than an ephah.The harvest, therefore, would only yield the tenth part of the sowing, since an ephah was the tenth part of a homer, or three seahs, the usual minimum for one baking (vid., Mat 13:33). It is, of course, impossible to give the relative measure exactly in our translation.

Isa 5:11

The second woe, for which the curse about to fall upon vinedressing (Isa 5:10) prepared the way by the simple association of ideas, is directed against the debauchees, who in their carnal security carried on their excesses even in the daylight. “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning to run after strong drink; who continue till late at night with wine inflaming them!” Boker (from bâkar, bakara, to slit, to tear up, or split) is the break of day; and nesheph (from nâshaph, to blow) the cool of the evening, including the night (Isa 21:4; Isa 59:10); 'ichër, to continue till late, as in Pro 23:30 : the construct state before words with a preposition, as in Isa 9:2; Isa 28:9, and many other passages (Ges. §116, 1). Shēcâr, in connection with yayin, is the general name for every other kind of strong drink, more especially for wines made artificially from fruit, honey, raisins, dates, etc., including barley-wine (οἶνος κρίθινος) or beer (ἐκ κριθῶν μέθυ in Aeschylus, also called βρῦτον βρυτόν ζῦθος ζύθος, and by many other names), a beverage known in Egypt, which was half a wine country and half a beer country, from as far back as the time of the Pharaohs. The form shēcâr is composed, like ענב (with the fore-tone tsere), from shâcar, to intoxicate; according to the Arabic, literally to close by stopping up, i.e., to stupefy.It is a question, therefore, whether the name of sugar is related to it or not. The Arabic sakar corresponds to the Hebrew shecâr; but sugar is called sukkar, Pers. 'sakkar, 'sakar, no doubt equivalent to σἀκχαρι (Arrian in Periplus, μἐλι τὸ καλἀμινον τὸ λεγὀμενου σἀκχαρι), saccharum, an Indian word, which is pronounced Carkarâ in Sanscrit and sakkara in Prakrit, and signifies “forming broken pieces,” i.e., sugar in grains or small lumps (brown sugar). The art of boiling sugar from the cane was an Indian invention (see Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, i. 269ff.). The early Egyptian name for beer is hek (Brugsch, Recueil, p. 118); the demotic and hieratic name henk, the Coptic henke. The word ζῦθος ζὐθος) is also old Egyptian. In the Book of the Dead (79, 8) the deceased says, “I have taken sacrificial cakes from the table, I have drunk seth - t in the evening.” Moses Stuart wrote an Essay upon the Wines and Strong Drinks of the Ancient Hebrews, which was published in London (1831), with a preface by J. Pye Smith.

The clauses after the two participles are circumstantial clauses (Ewald, §341, b), indicating the circumstances under which they ran out so early, and sat till long after dark: they hunted after mead, they heated themselves with wine, namely, to drown the consciousness of their deeds of darkness.

Isa 5:12 describes how they go on in their blindness with music and carousing: “And guitar and harp, kettle-drum, and flute, and wine, is their feast; but they regard not the work of Jehovah, and see not the purpose of His hands.” “Their feast” is so and so (משׁתּיהם is only a plural in appearance; it is really a singular, as in Dan 1:10, Dan 1:16, and many other passages, with the Yod of the primary form, משׁתּי = משׁתּה, softened: see the remarks on עלה at Isa 1:30, and עשׂיה at Isa 22:11); that is to say, their feast consisted or was composed of exciting music and wine. Knobel construes it, “and there are guitar, etc., and wine is their drink;” but a divided sentence of this kind is very tame; and the other expression, based upon the general principle, “The whole is its parts,” is thoroughly Semitic (see Fleischer’s Abhandlungen über einige Arten der Nominalapposition in den Sitzungsberichten der sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft, 1862). Cinnor (guitar) is a general name for such instruments as have their strings drawn (upon a bridge) over a sounding board; and nebel (the harp and lyre) a general name for instruments with their strings hung freely, so as to be played with both hands at the same time. Toph (Arab. duff) is a general name for the tambourin, the drum, and the kettle-drum; Chaill (lit. that which is bored through) a general name for the flute and double flute. In this tumult and riot they had no thought or eye for the work of Jehovah and the purpose of His hands. This is the phrase used to express the idea of eternal counsel of God (Isa 37:26), which leads to salvation by the circuitous paths of judgment (Isa 10:12; Isa 28:21; Isa 29:23), so far as that counsel is embodied in history, as moulded by the invisible interposition of God. In their joy and glory they had no sense for what was the most glorious of all, viz., the moving and working of God in history; so that they could not even discern the judgment which was in course of preparation at that very time.

Isa 5:13

Therefore judgment would overtake them in this blind, dull, and stupid animal condition. “Therefore my people go into banishment without knowing; and their glory will become starving men, and their tumult men dried up with thirst.” As the word “therefore” (lâcēn, as in Isa 1:24) introduces the threat of punishment, gâlâh (go into captivity) is a prophetic preterite. Israel would go into exile, and that “without knowing” (mibb'li-da'ath). The meaning of this expression cannot be “from want of knowledge,” since the min which is fused into one word with b'li is not causal, but negative, and mibb'li, as a preposition, always signifies “without” (absque). But are we to render it “without knowing it” (as in Hos 4:6, where hadda'ath has the article), or “unawares?” There is no necessity for any dispute on this point, since the two renderings are fundamentally one and the same. The knowledge, of which Isa 5:12 pronounces them destitute, was more especially a knowledge of the judgment of God that was hanging over them; so that, as the captivity would come upon them without knowledge, it would necessarily come upon them unawares. “Their glory” (Cebōdō) and “their tumult” (hamono) are therefore to be understood, as the predicates show, as collective nouns used in a personal sense, the former signifying the more select portion of the nation (cf., Mic 1:15), the latter the mass of the people, who were living in rioting and tumult. The former would become “men of famine” (mĕthē rââb: מתי, like אנשׁי in other places, viz., 2Sa 19:29, or בּני, 1Sa 26:16); the latter “men dried up with thirst” (tsichēh tsâmâh: the same number as the subject). There is no necessity to read מתי (dead men) instead of מתי, as the lxx and Vulgate do, or מזי (מזה) according to Deu 32:24, as Hitzig, Ewald, Böttcher, and others propose (compare, on the contrary, Gen 34:30 and Job 11:11). The adjective tzicheh (hapax leg) is formed like Chirēsh, Cēheh, and other adjectives which indicate defects: in such formations from verbs Lamed - He, instead of e we have an ae that has grown out of ay (Olshausen, §182, b). The rich gluttons would starve, and the tippling crowd would die with thirst.

Isa 5:14

The threat of punishment commences again with “therefore;” it has not yet satisfied itself, and therefore grasps deeper still. “Therefore the under-world opens its jaws wide, and stretches open its mouth immeasurably wide; and the glory of Jerusalem descends, and its tumult, and noise, and those who rejoice within it.” The verbs which follow lâcēn (therefore) are prophetic preterites, as in Isa 5:13. The feminine suffixes attached to what the lower world swallows up do not refer to sheol (though this is construed more frequently, no doubt, as a feminine than as a masculine, as it is in Job 26:6), but, as expressed in the translation, to Jerusalem itself, which is also necessarily required by the last clause, “those who rejoice within it.” The withdrawal of the tone from ועלז to the penultimate (cf., Châphētz in Psa 18:20; Psa 22:9) is intentionally omitted, to cause the rolling and swallowing up to be heard as it were. A mouth is ascribed to the under-world, also a nephesh, i.e., a greedy soul, in which sense nephesh is then applied metonymically sometimes to a thirst for blood (Psa 27:12), and sometimes to simple greediness (Isa 56:11), and even, as in the present passage and Hab 2:5, to the throat or swallow which the soul opens “without measure,” when its craving knows no bounds (Psychol. p. 204). It has become a common thing now to drop entirely the notion which formerly prevailed, that the noun sheol was derived from the verb shâal in the sense in which it was generally employed, viz., to ask or demand; but Caspari, who has revived it again, is certainly so far correct, that the derivation of the word which the prophet had in his mind was this and no other. The word sheol (an infinitive form, like pekōd) signifies primarily the irresistible and inexorable demand made upon every earthly thing; and then secondarily, in a local sense, the place of the abode of shades, to which everything on the surface of the earth is summoned; or essentially the divinely appointed curse which demands and swallows up everything upon the earth. We simply maintain, however, that the word sheol, as generally sued, was associated in thought with shâal, to ask or demand. Originally, no doubt, it may have been derived from the primary and more material idea of the verb שׁאל, possibly from the meaning “to be hollow,” which is also assumed to be the primary meaning of שׁעל.The meaning “to be hollow” is not very firmly established, however; as the primary meaning of שׁעל, and the analogy sometimes adduced of hell = hollow (Hölle = Höhle), is a deceptive one, as Hölle (hell), to which Luther always gives the more correct form Helle, does not mean a hollow, but a hidden place (or a place which renders invisible: from hëln, to conceal), Lat. celans (see Jütting, Bibl. Wörterbuch, 1864, pp. 85, 86). It is much more probable that the meaning of sheol is not the hollow place, but the depression or depth, from של, which corresponds precisely to the Greek χαλᾶν so far as its primary meaning is concerned (compare the talmudic shilshêl, to let down; shilshul, sinking or depression, Erubin 83b; shul, the foundation, fundus): see Hupfeld on Psa 6:6. Luzzatto on this passage also explains sheol as signifying depth, and compares the talmudic hishchil = hēshil, to let down (or, according to others, to draw up - two meanings which may easily be combined in the same word, starting from its radical idea, which indicates in a general a loosening of the previous connection). Fürst has also given up the meaning cavitas, a hollow, and endeavours to find a more correct explanation of the primary signification of shâ'al (see at Isa 40:12).

At any rate, this derivation answers to the view that generally prevailed in ancient times. According to the prevalent idea, Hades was in the interior of the earth. And there was nothing really absurd in this, since it is quite within the power and freedom of the omnipresent God to manifest Himself wherever and however He may please. As He reveals Himself above the earth, i.e., in heaven, among blessed spirits in the light of His love; so did He reveal Himself underneath the earth, viz., in Sheōl, in the darkness and fire of His wrath. And with the exception of Enoch and Elijah, with their marvellous departure from this life, the way of every mortal ended there, until the time when Jesus Christ, having first paid the λὐτρον, i.e., having shed His blood, which covers our guilt and turns the wrath of God into love, descended into Hades and ascended into heaven, and from that time forth has changed the death of all believers from a descent into Hades into an ascension to heaven. But even under the Old Testament the believer may have known, that whoever hid himself on this side the grave in Jehovah the living One, would retain his eternal germ of life even in Sheōl in the midst of the shades, and would taste the love of God even in the midst of wrath. It was this postulate of faith which lay at the foundation of the fact, that even under the Old Testament the broader and more comprehensive idea of Sheōl began to be contracted into the more limited notion of hell (see Psychol. p. 415). This is the case in the passage before us, where Isaiah predicts of everything of which Jerusalem was proud, and in which it revelled, including the persons who rejoice din these things, a descent into Hades; just as the Korahite author of Ps 49 wrote (Psa 49:14) that the beauty of the wicked would be given up to Hades to be consumed, without having hereafter any place in the upper world, when the upright should have dominion over them in the morning. Hades even here is almost equivalent to the New Testament gehenna.

Isa 5:15-16

The prophet now repeats a thought which formed one of the refrains of the second prophetic address (Isa 2:9, Isa 2:11, cf., Isa 2:17). It acquires here a still deeper sense, from the context in which it stands. “Then are mean men bowed down, and lords humbled, and the eyes of lofty men are humbled. And Jehovah of hosts shows Himself exalted in judgment, and God the Holy One sanctifies Himself in righteousness.” That which had exalted itself from earth to heaven, would be cast down earthwards into hell. The consecutive futures depict the coming events, which are here represented as historically present, as the direct sequel of what is also represented as present in Isa 5:14 : Hades opens, and then both low and lofty in Jerusalem sink down, and the soaring eyes now wander about in horrible depths. God, who is both exalted and holy in Himself, demanded that as the exalted One He should be exalted, and that as the Holy One He should be sanctified. But Jerusalem had not done that; He would therefore prove Himself the exalted One by the execution of justice, and sanctify Himself (nikdash is to be rendered as a reflective verb, according to Eze 36:23; Eze 38:23) by the manifestation of righteousness, in consequence of which the people of Jerusalem would have to give Him glory against their will, as forming part of “the things under the earth” (Phi 2:10). Jerusalem has been swallowed up twice in this manner by Hades; once in the Chaldean war, and again in the Roman. But the invisible background of these outward events was the fact, that it had already fallen under the power of hell. And now, even in a more literal sense, ancient Jerusalem, like the company of Korah (Num 16:30, Num 16:33), has gone underground. Just as Babylon and Nineveh, the ruins of which are dug out of the inexhaustible mine of their far-stretching foundation and soil, have sunk beneath the ground; so do men walk about in modern Jerusalem over the ancient Jerusalem, which lies buried beneath; and many an enigma of topography will remain an enigma until ancient Jerusalem has been dug out of the earth again.

Isa 5:17

And when we consider that the Holy Land is at the present time an extensive pasture-ground for Arab shepherds, and that the modern Jerusalem which has arisen from the dust is a Mohammedan city, we may see in this also a literal fulfilment of Isa 5:17 : “And lambs feed as upon their pasture, and nomad shepherds eat the waste places of the fat ones.” There is no necessity to supply an object to the verb ורעוּ, as Knobel and others assume, viz., the waste lands mentioned in the second clause; nor is Cedâbrâm to be taken as the object, as Caspari supposes; but the place referred to is determined by the context: in the place where Jerusalem is sunken, there lambs feed after the manner of their own pasture-ground, i.e., just as if they were in their old accustomed pasture (dober, as in Mic 2:12, from dâbar, to drive). The lambs intended are those of the gârim mentioned in the second clause. The gârim themselves are men leading an unsettled, nomad, or pilgrim life; as distinguished from gêrim, strangers visiting, or even settled at a place. The lxx have ἄρνες, so that they must have read either Cârim or gedâim, which Ewald, Knobel, and others adopt. But one feature of the prophecy, which is sustained by the historical fulfilment, is thereby obliterated. Chârboth mêchim are the lands of those that were formerly marrowy, i.e., fat and strutting about in their fulness; which lands had now become waste places. Knobel’s statement, that âcăl is out of place in connection with gârim, is overthrown by Isa 1:7, to which he himself refers, though he makes he-goats the subject instead of men. The second woe closes with Isa 5:17. It is the longest of all. This also serves to confirm the fact that luxury was the leading vice of Judah in the time of Uzziah-Jotham, as it was that of Israel under Jeroboam II (see Amo 6:1-14, where the same threat is held out).

Isa 5:18

The third woe is directed against the supposed strong-minded men, who called down the judgment of God by presumptuous sins and wicked words. “Woe unto them that draw crime with cords of lying, and sin as with the rope of the waggon.” Knobel and most other commentators take mâshak in the sense of attrahere (to draw towards one’s self): “They draw towards them sinful deeds with cords of lying palliation, and the cart-rope of the most daring presumption;” and cite, as parallel examples, Job 40:24 and Hos 11:4. But as mâshak is also used in Deu 21:3 in the sense of drawing in a yoke, that is to say, drawing a plough or chariot; and as the waggon or cart (agâlâh, the word commonly used for a transport-waggon, as distinguished from mercâbâh, the state carriage or war chariot is expressly mentioned here, the figure employed is certainly the same as that which underlies the New Testament ἑτεροζυγεῖν (“unequally yoked,” 2Co 6:14). Iniquity was the burden which they drew after them with cords of lying (shâv'h : see at Psa 26:4 and Job 15:31), i.e., “want of character or religion;” and sin was the waggon to which they were harnessed as if with a thick cart-rope (Hofmann, Drechsler, and Caspari; see Ewald, §221,a). Iniquity and sin are mentioned here as carrying with them their own punishment. The definite העון (crime or misdeed) is generic, and the indefinite הטּאה qualitative and massive. There is a bitter sarcasm involved in the bold figure employed. They were proud of their unbelief; but this unbelief was like a halter with which, like beasts of burden, they were harnessed to sin, and therefore to the punishment of sin, which they went on drawing further and further, in utter ignorance of the waggon behind them.

Isa 5:19 shows very clearly that the prophet referred to the free-thinkers of his time, the persons who are called fools (nabal) and scorners (lētz) in the Psalms and Proverbs. “Who say, Let Him hasten, accelerate His work, that we may see; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may experience it.” They doubted whether the day of Jehovah would ever come (Eze 12:22; Jer 5:12-13), and went so far in their unbelief as to call out for what they could not and would not believe, and desired it to come that they might see it with their own eyes and experience it for themselves (Jer 17:15; it is different in Amo 5:18 and Mal 2:17-3:1, where this desire does not arise from scorn and defiance, but from impatience and weakness of faith). As the two verbs denoting haste are used both transitively and intransitively (vid., Jdg 20:37, to hasten or make haste), we might render the passage “let His work make haste,” as Hitzig, Ewald, Umbreit, and Drechsler do; but we prefer the rendering adopted by Gesenius, Caspari, and Knobel, on the basis of Isa 60:22, and take the verb as transitive, and Jehovah as the subject. The forms yâchishâh and taboâh are, with Psa 20:4 and Job 11:17, probably the only examples of the expression of a wish in the third person, strengthened by the âh, which indicates a summons or appeal; for Eze 23:20, which Gesenius cites (§48, 3), and Job 22:21, to which Knobel refers, have no connection with this, as in both passages the âh is the feminine termination, and not hortative (vid., Comm. on Job, at Job 11:17, note, and at Job 22:21). The fact that the free-thinkers called God “the Holy One of Israel,” whereas they scoffed at His intended final and practical attestation of Himself as the Holy One, may be explained from Isa 30:11 : they took this name of God from the lips of the prophet himself, so that their scorn affected both God and His prophet at the same time.

Isa 5:20

The fourth woe: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who give out darkness for light, and light for darkness; who give out bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” The previous woe had reference to those who made the facts of sacred history the butt of their naturalistic doubt and ridicule, especially so far as they were the subject of prophecy. This fourth woe relates to those who adopted a code of morals that completely overturned the first principles of ethics, and was utterly opposed to the law of God; for evil, darkness, and bitter, with their respective antitheses, represent moral principles that are essentially related (Mat 6:23; Jam 3:11), Evil, as hostile to God, is dark in its nature, and therefore loves darkness, and is exposed to the punitive power of darkness. And although it may be sweet to the material taste, it is nevertheless bitter, inasmuch as it produces abhorrence and disgust in the godlike nature of man, and, after a brief period of self-deception, is turned into the bitter woe of fatal results. Darkness and light, bitter and sweet, therefore, are not tautological metaphors for evil and good; but epithets applied to evil and good according to their essential principles, and their necessary and internal effects.

Isa 5:21

The fifth woe: “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.” The third woe had reference to the unbelieving naturalists, the opponents of prophecy (nebuâh); the fourth to the moralists, who threw all into confusion; and to this there is appended, by a very natural association of ideas, the woe denounced upon those whom want of humility rendered inaccessible to that wisdom which went hand in hand with prophecy, and the true foundation of which was the fear of Jehovah (Pro 1:7; Job 28:28; Ecc 12:13). “Be not wise in thine own eyes,” is a fundamental rule of this wisdom (Pro 3:7). It was upon this wisdom that that prophetic policy rested, whose warnings, as we read in Isa 28:9-10, they so scornfully rejected. The next woe, which has reference to the administration of justice in the state, shows very clearly that in this woe the prophet had more especially the want of theocratic wisdom in relation to the affairs of state in his mind.

Isa 5:22-23

The sixth woe: “Woe to those who are heroes to drink wine, and brave men to mix strong drink; who acquit criminals for a bribe, and take away from every one the righteousness of the righteous.” We see from Isa 5:23 that the drinkers in Isa 5:22 are unjust judges. The threat denounced against these is Isaiah’s universal ceterum censeo; and accordingly it forms, in this instance also, the substance of his sixth and last woe. They are heroes; not, however, in avenging wrong, but in drinking wine; they are men of renown, though not for deciding between guilt and innocence, but for mixing up the ingredients of strong artistic wines. For the terms applied to such mixed wines, see Psa 75:9; Pro 23:30, Sol 7:3. It must be borne in mind, however, that what is here called shecâr was not, properly speaking, wine, but an artificial mixture, like date wine and cider. For such things as these they were noteworthy and strong; whereas they judged unjustly, and took bribes that they might consume the reward of their injustice in drink and debauchery (Isa 28:7-8; Pro 31:5). “For reward:” ēkeb (Arab. ‛ukb; different from âkēb, a heel, = ‛akib) is an adverbial accusative, “in recompense,” or “for pay.” “From him” (mimmennu) is distributive, and refers back to tsaddikim (the righteous); as, for example, in Hos 4:8.

Isa 5:24

In the three exclamations in Isa 5:18-21, Jehovah rested contented with the simple undeveloped “woe” (hoi). On the other hand, the first two utterances respecting the covetous and the debauchees were expanded into an elaborate denunciation of punishment. But now that the prophet has come to the unjust judges, the denunciation of punishment bursts out with such violence, that a return to the simple exclamation of “woe” is not to be thought of. The two “therefores” in Isa 5:13, Isa 5:14, a third is now added in Isa 5:24 : “Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours stubble, and hay sinks together in the flame, their root will become like mould, and their blossom fly up like dust; for they have despised the law of Jehovah of hosts, and scornfully rejected the proclamation of the Holy One of Israel.” The persons primarily intended as those described in Isa 5:22, Isa 5:23, but with a further extension of the range of vision to Judah and Jerusalem, the vineyard of which they are the bad fruit. The sinners are compared to a plant which moulders into dust both above and below, i.e., altogether (cf., Mal 4:1, and the expression, “Let there be to him neither root below nor branch above,” in the inscription upon the sarcophagus of the Phoenician king Es'mun'azar). Their root moulders in the earth, and their blossom (perach, as in Isa 18:5) turns to fine dust, which the wind carries away. And this change in root and blossom takes place suddenly, as if through the force of fire. In the expression Ce'ecol kash leshon 'ēsh (“as the tongue of fire devours stubble”), which consists of four short words with three sibilant letters, we hear, as it were, the hissing of the flame. When the infinitive construct is connected with both subject and object, the subject generally stands first, as in Isa 64:1; but here the object is placed first, as in Isa 20:1 (Ges. §133, 3; Ewald, §307). In the second clause, the infinitive construct passes over into the finite verb, just as in the similarly constructed passage in Isa 64:1. As yirpeh has the intransitive meaning Collabi, to sink together, or collapse; either lehâbâh must be an acc. loci, or Chashash lehâbâh the construct state, signifying flame-hay, i.e., hay destined to the flame, or ascending in flame.In Arabic also, Chashı̄sh signifies hay; but in common usage (at least in Syriac) it is applied not to dried grass, but to green grass or barley: hence the expression yachush there is green fodder. Here, however, in Isaiah, Chashash is equivalent to Chashish yâbis, and this is its true etymological meaning (see the Lexicons). But kash is still used in Syro-Arabic, to signify not stubble, but wheat that has been cut and is not yet threshed; whereas the radical word itself signifies to be dry, and Châshash consequently is used for mown grass, and kash for the dry halm of wheat, whether as stubble left standing in the ground, or as straw (vid., Comm. on Job, at Job 39:13-18).

As the reason for the sudden dissolution of the plantation of Judah, instead of certain definite sins being mentioned, the sin of all sins is given at once, namely, the rejection of the word of God with the heart (mâ'as), and in word and deed (ni'ēts). The double 'ēth (with yethib immediately before pashta, as in eleven passages in all; see Heidenheim’s Imspete hate'amim, p. 20) and v'êth (with tebir) give prominence to the object; and the interchange of Jehovah of hosts with the Holy One of Israel makes the sin appear all the greater on account of the exaltation and holiness of God, who revealed Himself in this word, and indeed had manifested Himself to Israel as His own peculiar people. The prophet no sooner mentions the great sin of Judah, than the announcement of punishment receives, as it were, fresh fuel, and bursts out again.

Isa 5:25 “Therefore is the wrath of Jehovah kindled against His people, and He stretches His hand over them, and smites them; then the hills tremble, and their carcases become like sweepings in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not appeased, and His hand is stretched out still.” We may see from these last words, which are repeated as a refrain in the cycle of prophecies relating to the time of Ahaz (Isa 9:11, Isa 9:16; Isa 10:4), that the prophet had before his mind a distinct and complete judgment upon Judah, belonging to the immediate future. It was certainly a coming judgment, not one already past; for the verbs after “therefore” (‛al - cên), like those after the three previous lâcēn, are all prophetic preterites. It is impossible, therefore, to take the words “and the hills tremble” as referring to the earthquake in the time of Uzziah (Amo 1:1; Zec 14:5). This judgment, which was closer at hand, would consist in the fact that Jehovah would stretch out His hand in His wrath over His people (or, as it is expressed elsewhere, would swing His hand: Luther, “wave His hand,” i.e., move it to and fro; vid., Isa 11:15; Isa 19:16; Isa 30:30, Isa 30:32), and bring it down upon Judah with one stroke, the violence of which would be felt not only by men, but by surrounding nature as well. What kind of stroke this would be, was to be inferred from the circumstance that the corpses would lie unburied in the streets, like common street-sweepings. The reading תּצּות must be rejected. Early editors read the word much more correctly תּצּות; Buxtorf (1618) even adopts the reading תוּצות, which has the Masoretic pointing in Num 22:39 in its favour. It is very natural to connect Cassuchâh with the Arabic kusâcha (sweepings; see at Isa 33:12): but kusâc is the common form for waste or rubbish of this kind (e.g., kulâm, nail-cuttings), whereas Cassuach is a form which, like the forms fâōl (e.g., Châmōts) and fâūl (compare the Arabic fâsūs, a wind-maker, or wind-bag, i.e., a boaster), has always an intensive, active (e.g., Channun), or circumstantial signification (like shaccul), but is never found in a passive sense. The Caph is consequently to be taken as a particle of comparison (followed, as is generally the case, with a definite article); and sūchâh is to be derived from sūach (= verrere, to sweep). The reference, therefore, is not to a pestilence (which is designated, as a stroke from God, not by hiccâh, but by nâgaph ), but to the slaughter of battle; and if we look at the other terrible judgment threatened in Isa 5:26., which was to proceed from the imperial power, there can be no doubt that the spirit of prophecy here points to the massacre that took place in Judah in connection with the Syro-Ephraimitish war (see 2Ch 28:5-6). The mountains may then have trembled with the marching of troops, and the din of arms, and the felling of trees, and the shout of war. At any rate, nature had to participate in what men had brought upon themselves; for, according to the creative appointment of God, nature bears the same relation to man as the body to the soul. Every stroke of divine wrath which falls upon a nation equally affects the land which has grown up, as it were, with it; and in this sense the mountains of Judah trembled at the time referred to, even though the trembling was only discernible by initiated ears. But “for all this” (Beth, = “notwithstanding,” “in spite of,” as in Job 1:22) the wrath of Jehovah, as the prophet foresaw, would not turn away, as it was accustomed to do when He was satisfied; and His hand would still remain stretched out over Judah, ready to strike again.

Isa 5:26

Jehovah finds the human instruments of His further strokes, not in Israel and the neighbouring nations, but in the people of distant lands. “And lifts up a banner to the distant nations, and hisses to it from the end of the earth; and, behold, it comes with haste swiftly.” What the prophet here foretold began to be fulfilled in the time of Ahaz. But the prophecy, which commences with this verse, has every possible mark of the very opposite of a vaticinium post eventum. It is, strictly speaking, only what had already been threatened in Deu 28:49. (cf., Deu 32:21.), though here it assumes a more plastic form, and is here presented for the first time to the view of the prophet as though coming out of a mist. Jehovah summons the nations afar off: haggōyim mērâchok signifies, as we have rendered it, the “distant nations,” for mērâc is virtually an adjective both here and Isa 49:1, just as in Jer 23:23 it is virtually a substantive. The visible working of Jehovah presents itself to the prophet in two figures. Jehovah plants a banner or standard, which, like an optical telegraph, announces to the nations at a more remote distance than the horn of battle (shophâr) could possibly reach, that they are to gather together to war. A “banner” (nês): i.e., a lofty staff with flying colours (Isa 33:23) planted upon a bare mountain-top (Isa 13:2). נשׂא alternates with הרים in this favourite figure of Isaiah. The nations through whom this was primarily fulfilled were the nations of the Assyrian empire. According to the Old Testament view, these nations were regarded as far off, and dwelling at the end of the earth (Isa 39:3), not only inasmuch as the Euphrates formed the boundary towards the north-east between what was geographically known and unknown to the Israelites (Psa 72:8; Zec 9:10), but also inasmuch as the prophet had in his mind a complex body of nations stretching far away into further Asia. The second figure is taken from a bee-master, who entices the bees, by hissing or whistling, to come out of their hives and settle on the ground. Thus Virgil says to the bee-master who wants to make the bees settle, “Raise a ringing, and beat the cymbals of Cybele all around” (Georgics, iv 54). Thus does Jehovah entice the hosts of nations like swarms of bees (Isa 7:18), and they swarm together with haste and swiftness. The plural changes into the singular, because those who are approaching have all the appearance at first of a compact and indivisible mass; it is also possible that the ruling nation among the many is singled out. The thought and expression are both misty, and this is perfectly characteristic. With the word “behold” (hinnēh) the prophet points to them; they are approaching mehērâh kal, i.e., in the shortest time with swift feet, and the nearer they come to his view the more clearly he can describe them.

Isa 5:27 “There is none exhausted, and none stumbling among them: it gives itself no slumber, and no sleep; and to none is the girdle of his hips loosed; and to none is the lace of his shoes broken.” Notwithstanding the long march, there is no exhausted one, obliged to separate himself and remain behind (Deu 25:18; Isa 14:31); no stumbling one (Cōshēl), for they march on, pressing incessantly forwards, as if along a well-made road (Jer 31:9). They do not slumber (nūm), to say nothing of sleeping (yâshēn), so great is their eagerness for battle: i.e., they do not slumber to refresh themselves, and do not even allow themselves their ordinary night’s rest. No one has the girdle of his armour-shirt or coat of mail, in which he stuck his sword (Neh 4:18), at all loosened; nor has a single one even the shoe-string, with which his sandals were fastened, broken (nittak, disrumpitur). The statement as to their want of rest forms a climax descendens; the other, as to the tightness and durability of their equipment, a climax ascendens: the two statements follow one another after the nature of a chiasmus.

Isa 5:28

The prophet then proceeds to describe their weapons and war-chariots. “He whose arrows are sharpened, and all his bows strung; the hoofs of his horses are counted like flint, and his wheels like the whirlwind.” In the prophet’s view they are coming nearer and nearer. For he sees that they have brought the sharpened arrows in their quivers (Isa 22:6); and the fact that all their bows are already trodden (namely, as their length was equal to a man’s height, by treading upon the string with the left foot, as we may learn from Arrian’s Indica), proves that they are near to the goal. The correct reading in Jablonsky (according to Kimchi’s Lex. cf., Michlal yofi) is קשּׁתתיו with dagesh dirimens, as in Psa 37:15 (Ges. §20, 2,b). As the custom of shoeing horses was not practised in ancient times, firm hoofs (ὃπλαι καρτεραί, according to Xenophon’s Hippikos) were one of the most important points in a good horse. And the horses of the enemy that was now drawing near to Judah had hoofs that would be found like flint (tzar, only used here, equivalent to the Arabic zirr). Homer designates such horses Chalkopodes, brazen-footed. And the two wheels of the war-chariots, to which they were harnessed, turned with such velocity, and overthrew everything before them with such violence, that it seemed not merely as if a whirlwind drove them forward, but as if they were the whirlwind itself (Isa 66:15; Jer 4:13). Nahum compares them to lightning (Isa 2:5). Thus far the prophet’s description has moved on, as if by forced marches, in clauses of from two to four words each. It now changes into a heavy, stealthy pace, and then in a few clauses springs like a wild beast upon its prey.

Isa 5:29 “Roaring issues from it as from the lioness: it roars like lions, and utters a low murmur; seizes the prey, carries it off, and no one rescues.” The futures, with the preceding לו שׁאגה which is equivalent to a future, hold each feature in the description fast, as if for prolonged contemplation. The lion roars when eager for prey; and such is now the war-cry of the bloodthirsty enemy, which the prophet compares to the roaring of a lion or of young lions (Cephirim) in the fulness of their strength. (The lion is described by its poetic name, לביא; this does not exactly apply to the lioness, which would rather be designated by the term לביּה.) The roar is succeeded by a low growl (nâham, fremere), when a lion is preparing to fall upon its prey.In Arabic, en - nehem is used to signify greediness (see Ali’s Proverbs, No. 16).

And so the prophet hears a low and ominous murmur in the army, which is now ready for battle. But he also sees immediately afterwards how the enemy seizes its booty and carries it irrecoverably away: literally, “how he causes it to escape,” i.e., not “lets it slip in cruel sport,” as Luzzatto interprets it, but carries it to a place of safety (Mic 6:14). The prey referred to is Judah. It also adds to the gloomy and mysterious character of the prophecy, that the prophet never mentions Judah. In the following v. also (Isa 5:30) the object is still suppressed, as if the prophet could not let it pass his lips.

Isa 5:30 “And it utters a deep roar over it in that day like the roaring of the sea: and it looks to the earth, and behold darkness, tribulation, and light; it becomes night over it in the clouds of heaven.” The subject to “roars” is the mass of the enemy; and in the expressions “over it” and “it looks” (nibbat; the niphal, which is only met with here, in the place of the hiphil) the prophet has in his mind the nation of Judah, upon which the enemy falls with the roar of the ocean - that is to say, overwhelming it like a sea. And when the people of Judah look to the earth, i.e., to their own land, darkness alone presents itself, and darkness which has swallowed up all the smiling and joyous aspect which it had before. And what then? The following words, tzar vâ'ōr, have been variously rendered, viz., “moon (= sahar) and sun” by the Jewish expositors, “stone and flash,” i.e., hail and thunder-storm, by Drechsler; but such renderings as these, and others of a similar kind, are too far removed from the ordinary usage of the language. And the separation of the two words, so that the one closes a sentence and the other commences a fresh one (e.g., “darkness of tribulation, and the sun becomes dark”), which is adopted by Hitzig, Gesenius, Ewald, and others, is opposed to the impression made by the two monosyllables, and sustained by the pointing, that they are connected together. The simplest explanation is one which takes the word tzar in its ordinary sense of tribulation or oppression, and 'ōr in its ordinary sense of light, and which connects the two words closely together. And this is the case with the rendering given above: tzar vâ'ōr are “tribulation and brightening up,” one following the other and passing over into the other, like morning and night (Isa 21:12). This pair of words forms an interjectional clause, the meaning of which is, that when the predicted darkness had settled upon the land of Judah, this would not be the end; but there would still follow an alternation of anxiety and glimmerings of hope, until at last it had become altogether dark in the cloudy sky over all the land of Judah (‛ariphim, the cloudy sky, is only met with here; it is derived from âraph, to drop or trickle, hence also arâphel: the suffix points back to lâ'âretz, eretz denoting sometimes the earth as a whole, and at other times the land as being part of the earth). The prophet here predicts that, before utter ruin has overtaken Judah, sundry approaches will be made towards this, within which a divine deliverance will appear again and again. Grace tries and tries again and again, until at last the measure of iniquity is full, and the time of repentance past. The history of the nation of Judah proceeded according to this law until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The Assyrian troubles, and the miraculous light of divine help which arose in the destruction of the military power of Sennacherib, were only the foreground of this mournful but yet ever and anon hopeful course of history, which terminated in utter darkness, that has continued now for nearly two thousand years.

This closes the third prophetic address. It commences with a parable which contains the history of Israel in nuce, and closes with an emblem which symbolizes the gradual but yet certain accomplishment of the judicial, penal termination of the parable. This third address, therefore, is as complete in itself as the second was. The kindred allusions are to be accounted for from the sameness of the historical basis and arena. During the course of the exposition, it has become more and more evident and certain that it relates to the time of Uzziah and Jotham - a time of peace, of strength, and wealth, but also of pride and luxury. The terrible slaughter of the Syro-Ephraimitish war, which broke out at the end of Jotham’s reign, and the varied complications which king Ahaz introduced between Judah and the imperial worldly power, and which issued eventually in the destruction of the former kingdom - those five marked epochs in the history of the kingdoms of the world, or great empires, to which the Syro-Ephraimitish war was the prelude - were still hidden from the prophet in the womb of the future. The description of the great mass of people that was about to roll over Judah from afar is couched in such general terms, so undefined and misty, that all we can say is, that everything that was to happen to the people of God on the part of the imperial power during the five great and extended periods of judgment that were now so soon to commence (viz., the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman), was here unfolding itself out of the mist of futurity, and presenting itself to the prophet’s eye. Even in the time of Ahaz the character of the prophecy changed in this respect. It was then that the eventful relation, in which Israel stood to the imperial power, generally assumed its first concrete shape in the form of a distinct relation to Asshur (Assyria). And from that time forth the imperial power in the mouth of the prophet is no longer a majestic thing without a name; but although the notion of the imperial power was not yet embodied in Asshur, it was called Asshur, and Asshur stood as its representative. It also necessarily follows from this, that Chapters 2-4 and 5 belong to the times anterior to Ahaz, i.e., to those of Uzziah and Jotham. But several different questions suggest themselves here. If chapters 2-4 and 5 were uttered under Uzziah and Jotham, how could Isaiah begin with a promise (Isa 2:1-4) which is repeated word for word in Mic 4:1., where it is the direct antithesis to Isa 3:12, which was uttered by Micah, according to Jer 26:18, in the time of Hezekiah? Again, if we consider the advance apparent in the predictions of judgment from the general expressions with which they commence in Chapter 1 to the close of chapter 5, in what relation does the address in chapter 1 stand to chapters 2-4 and 5, inasmuch as Isa 5:7-9 are not ideal (as we felt obliged to maintain, in opposition to Caspari), but have a distinct historical reference, and therefore at any rate presuppose the Syro-Ephraimitish war? And lastly, if Isa 6:1-13 does really relate, as it apparently does, to the call of Isaiah to the prophetic office, how are we to explain the singular fact, that three prophetic addresses precede the history of his call, which ought properly to stand at the commencement of the book? Drechsler and Caspari have answered this question lately, by maintaining that Isa 6:1-13 does not contain an account of the call of Isaiah to the prophetic office, but simply of the call of the prophet, who was already installed in that office, to one particular mission. The proper heading to be adopted for Isa 6:1-13 would therefore be, “The ordination of the prophet as the preacher of the judgment of hardening;” and chapters 1-5 would contain warning reproofs addressed by the prophet to the people, who were fast ripening for this judgment of hardening (reprobation), for the purpose of calling them to repentance. The final decision was still trembling in the balance. But the call to repentance was fruitless, and Israel hardened itself. And now that the goodness of God had tried in vain to lead the people to repentance, and the long-suffering of God had been wantonly abused by the people, Jehovah Himself would harden them. Looked at in this light, Isa 6:1-13 stands in its true historical place. It contains the divine sequel to that portion of Isaiah’s preaching, and of the prophetic preaching generally, by which it had been preceded. But true as it is that the whole of the central portion of Israel’s history, which lay midway between the commencement and the close, was divided in half by the contents of Isa 6:1-13, and that the distinctive importance of Isaiah as a prophet arose especially from the fact that he stood upon the boundary between these two historic halves; there are serious objections which present themselves to such an explanation of Isa 6:1-13. It is possible, indeed, that this distinctive importance may have been given to Isaiah’s official position at his very first call. And what Umbreit says - namely, that Isa 6:1-13 must make the impression upon every unprejudiced mind, that it relates to the prophet’s inaugural vision - cannot really be denied. but the position in which Isa 6:1-13 stands in the book itself must necessarily produce a contrary impression, unless it can be accounted for in some other way. Nevertheless the impression still remains (just as at Isa 1:7-9), and recurs again and again. We will therefore proceed to Isa 6:1-13 without attempting to efface it. It is possible that we may discover some other satisfactory explanation of the enigmatical position of Isa 6:1-13 in relation to what precedes.

Israel Compared to a Vineyard. (b. c. 758.)

1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

See what variety of methods the great God takes to awaken sinners to repentance by convincing them of sin, and showing them their misery and danger by reason of it. To this purport he speaks sometimes in plain terms and sometimes in parables, sometimes in prose and sometimes in verse, as here. "We have tried to reason with you (ch. i. 18); now let us put your case into a poem, inscribed to the honour of my well beloved." God the Father dictates it to the honour of Christ his well beloved Son, whom he has constituted Lord of the vineyard. The prophet sings it to the honour of Christ too, for he is his well beloved. The Old-Testament prophets were friends of the bridegroom. Christ is God's beloved Son and our beloved Saviour. Whatever is said or sung of the church must be intended to his praise, even that which (like this) tends to our shame. This parable was put into a song that it might be the more moving and affecting, might be the more easily learned and exactly remembered, and the better transmitted to posterity; and it is an exposition of he song of Moses (Deut. xxxii.), showing that what he then foretold was now fulfilled. Jerome says, Christ the well-beloved did in effect sing this mournful song when he beheld Jerusalem and wept over it (Luke xix. 41), and had reference to it in the parable of the vineyard (Matt. xxi. 33, &c.), only here the fault was in the vines, there in the husbandmen. Here we have,

I. The great things which God had done for the Jewish church and nation. When all the rest of the world lay in common, not cultivated by divine revelation, that was his vineyard, they were his peculiar people. He acknowledged them as his own, set them apart for himself. The soil they were planted in was extraordinary; it was a very fruitful hill, the horn of the son of oil; so it is in the margin. There was plenty, a cornucopia; and there was dainty: they did there eat the fat and drink the sweet, and so were furnished with abundance of good things to honour God with in sacrifices and free-will offerings. The advantages of our situation will be brought into the account another day. Observe further what God did for this vineyard. 1. He fenced it, took it under his special protection, kept it night and day under his own eye, lest any should hurt it, ch. xxvii. 2, 3. If they had not themselves thrown down their fence, no inroad could have been made upon them, Ps. cxxv. 2; cxxxi. 4. 2. He gathered the stones out of it, that, as nothing from without might damage it, so nothing within might obstruct its fruitfulness. He proffered his grace to take away the stony heart. 3. He planted it with the choicest vine, set up a pure religion among them, gave them a most excellent law, instituted ordinances very proper for the keeping up of their acquaintance with God, Jer. ii. 21. 4. He built a tower in the midst of it, either for defence against violence or for the dressers of the vineyard to lodge in; or rather it was for the owner of the vineyard to sit in, to take a view of the vines (Cant. vii. 12)—a summer-house. The temple was this tower, about which the priests lodged, and where God promised to meet his people, and gave them the tokens of his presence among them and pleasure in them. 5. He made a wine-press therein, set up his altar, to which the sacrifices, as the fruits of the vineyard, should be brought.

II. The disappointment of his just expectations from them: He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and a great deal of reason he had for that expectation. Note, God expects vineyard-fruit from those that enjoy vineyard-privileges, not leaves only, as Mark xi. 12. A bare profession, though ever so green, will not serve: there must be more than buds and blossoms. Good purposes and good beginnings are good things, but not enough; there must be fruit, a good heart and a good life, vineyard fruit, thoughts and affections, words and actions, agreeable to the Spirit, which is the fatness of the vineyard (Gal. v. 22, 23), answerable to the ordinances, which are the dressings of the vineyard, acceptable to God, the Lord of the vineyard, and fruit according to the season. Such fruit as this God expects from us, grapes, the fruit of the vine, with which they honour God and man (Judg. ix. 13); and his expectations are neither high nor hard, but righteous and very reasonable. Yet see how his expectations are frustrated: It brought forth wild grapes; not only no fruit at all, but bad fruit, worse than none, grapes of Sodom, Deut. xxxii. 32. 1. Wild grapes are the fruits of the corrupt nature, fruit according to the crabstock, not according to the engrafted branch, from the root of bitterness, Heb. xii. 15. Where grace does not work corruption will. 2. Wild grapes are hypocritical performances in religion, that look like grapes, but are sour or bitter, and are so far from being pleasing to God that they are provoking, as theirs mentioned in ch. i. 11. Counterfeit graces are wild grapes.

III. An appeal to themselves whether upon the whole matter God must not be justified and they condemned, v. 3, 4. And now the case is plainly stated: O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah! judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. This implies that God was blamed about them. There was a controversy between them and him; but the equity was so plain on his side that he could venture to put the decision of the controversy to their own consciences. "Let any inhabitant of Jerusalem, any man of Judah, that has but the use of his reason and a common sense of equity and justice, speak his mind impartially in this matter." Here is a challenge to any man to show, 1. Any instance wherein God had been wanting to them: What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? He speaks of the external means of fruitfulness, and such as might be expected from the dresser of a vineyard, from whom it is not required that he should change the nature of the vine. What ought to have been done more? so it may be read. They had everything requisite for instruction and direction in their duty, for quickening them to it and putting them in mind of it. No inducements were wanting to persuade them to it, but all arguments were used that were proper to work either upon hope or fear; and they had all the opportunities they could desire for the performance of their duty, the new moons, and the sabbaths, and solemn feasts; They had the scriptures, the lively oracles, a standing ministry in the priests and Levites, besides what was extraordinary in the prophets. No nation had statutes and judgments so righteous. 2. Nor could any tolerable excuse be offered for their walking thus contrary to God. "Wherefore, what reason can be given why it should bring forth wild grapes, when I looked for grapes?" Note, The wickedness of those that profess religion, and enjoy the means of grace, is the most unreasonable unaccountable thing in the world, and the whole blame of it must lie upon the sinners themselves. "If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it, and shalt not have a word to say for thyself in the judgment of the great day." God will prove his own ways equal and the sinner's ways unequal.

IV. Their doom read, and a righteous sentence passed upon them for their bad conduct towards God (v. 5, 6): "And now go to, since nothing can be offered in excuse of the crime or arrest of the judgement, I will tell you what I am now determined to do to my vineyard. I will be vexed and troubled with it no more; since it will be good for nothing, it shall be good for nothing; in short, it shall cease to be a vineyard, and be turned into a wilderness: the church of the Jews shall be unchurched; their charter shall be taken away, and they shall become lo-ammi—not my people." 1. "They shall no longer be distinguished as a peculiar people, but be laid in common: I will take away the hedge thereof, and then it will soon be eaten up and become as bare as other ground." They mingled with the nations and therefore were justly scattered among them. 2. "They shall no longer be protected as God's people, but left exposed. God will not only suffer the wall to go to decay, but he will break it down, will remove all their defences from them, and then they will become an easy prey to their enemies, who have long waited for an opportunity to do them a mischief, and will now tread them down and trample upon them." 3. "They shall no longer have the face of a vineyard, and the form and shape of a church and commonwealth, but shall be levelled and laid waste." This was fulfilled when Jerusalem for their sakes was ploughed as a field, Mic. iii. 12. 4. "No more pains shall be taken with them by magistrates or ministers, the dressers and keepers of their vineyard; it shall not be pruned nor digged, but every thing shall run wild, and nothing shall come up but briers and thorns, the products of sin and the curse," Gen. iii. 18. When errors and corruptions, vice and immorality, go without check or control, no testimony borne against them, no rebuke given them or restraint put upon them, the vineyard is unpruned, is not dressed, or ridded; and then it will soon be like the vineyard of the man void of understanding, all grown over with thorns. 5. "That which completes its woe is that the dews of heaven shall be withheld; he that has the key of the clouds will command them that they rain no rain upon it, and that alone is sufficient to run it into a desert." Note, God in a way of righteous judgment, denies his grace to those that have long received it in vain. The sum of all is that those who would not bring forth good fruit should bring forth none. The curse of barrenness is the punishment of the sin of barrenness, as Mark xi. 14. This had its partial accomplishment in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, its full accomplishment in the final rejection of the Jews, and has its frequent accomplishment in the departure of God's Spirit from those persons who have long resisted him and striven against him, and the removal of his gospel from those places that have been long a reproach to it, while it has been an honour to them. It is no loss to God to lay his vineyard waste; for he can, when he please, turn a wilderness into a fruitful field; and when he does thus dismantle a vineyard, it is but as he did by the garden of Eden, which, when man had by sin forfeited his place in it, was soon levelled with common soil.

V. The explanation of this parable, or a key to it (v. 7), where we are told, 1. What is meant by the vineyard (it is the house of Israel, the body of the people, incorporated in one church and commonwealth), and what by the vines, the pleasant plants, the plants of God's pleasure, which he had been pleased in and delighted in doing good to; they are the men of Judah; these he had dealt graciously with, and from them he expected suitable returns. 2. What is meant by the grapes that were expected and the wild grapes that were produces: He looked for judgment and righteousness, that the people should be honest in all their dealings and the magistrates should strictly administer justice. This might reasonably be expected among a people that had such excellent laws and rules of justice given them (Deut. iv. 8); but the fact was quite otherwise; instead of judgment there was the cruelty of the oppressors, and instead of righteousness the cry of the oppressed. Every thing was carried by clamour and noise, and not by equity and according to the merits of the cause. It is sad with a people when wickedness has usurped the place of judgment, Eccl. iii. 16. It is very sad with a soul when instead of the grapes of humility, meekness, patience, love, and contempt of the world, which God looks for, there are the wild grapes of pride, passion, discontent, malice, and contempt of God—instead of the grapes of praying and praising, the wild grapes of cursing and swearing, which are a great offence to God. Some of the ancients apply this to the Jews in Christ's time, among whom God looked for righteousness (that is, that they should receive and embrace Christ), but behold a cry, that cry, Crucify him, crucify him.

Worldly-Mindedness Reproved; The Punishment of the Sensual. (b. c. 758.)

8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 9 In mine ears said the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. 10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah. 11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! 12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord , neither consider the operation of his hands. 13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. 14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: 16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. 17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

The world and the flesh are the two great enemies that we are in danger of being overpowered by; yet we are in no danger if we do not ourselves yield to them. Eagerness of the world, and indulgence of the flesh, are the two sins against which the prophet, in God's name, here denounces woes. These were sins which then abounded among the men of Judah, some of the wild grapes they brought forth (v. 4), and for which God threatens to bring ruin upon them. They are sins which we have all need to stand upon our guard against and dread the consequences of.

I. Here is a woe to those who set their hearts upon the wealth of the world, and place their happiness in that, and increase it to themselves by indirect and unlawful means (v. 8), who join house to house and lay field to field, till there be no place, no room for anybody to live by them. If they could succeed, they would be placed alone in the midst of the earth, would monopolize possessions and preferments, and engross all profits and employments to themselves. Not that it is a sin for those who have a house and a field, of they have wherewithal, to purchase another; but

1. Their fault is, (1.) That they are inordinate in their desires to enrich themselves, and make it their whole care and business to raise an estate, as if they had nothing to mind, nothing to seek, nothing to do, in this world, but that. They never know when they have enough, but the more they have the more they would have; and, like the daughters of the horseleech, they cry, Give, give. They cannot enjoy what they have, nor do good with it, but are constantly contriving and studying to make it more. They must have variety of houses, a winter-house, and a summer-house, and if another man's house or field lie convenient to theirs, as Naboth's vineyard to Ahab's, they must have that too, or they cannot be easy. (2.) That they are herein careless of others, nay, and injurious to them. They would live so as to let nobody live but themselves. So that their insatiable covetings may be gratified, they care not what becomes of all about them, what encroachments they make upon their neighbours' rights, what hardships they put upon those that they have power over or advantage against, nor what base and wicked arts they use to heap up treasure to themselves. They would swell so big as to fill all space, and yet are still unsatisfied (Eccl. v. 10), as Alexander, who, when he fancied he had conquered the world, wept because he had not another world to conquer. Deficiente terrâ, non impletur avaritia—If the whole earth were monopolized, avarice would thirst for more. What! will you be placed alone in the midst of the earth? (so some read it); will you be so foolish as to desire it, when we have so much need of the service of others and so much comfort in their society? Will you be so foolish as to expect that the earth shall be forsaken for us (Job xviii. 4), when it is by multitudes that the earth is to be replenished? An propter vos solos tanta terra creata est?—Was the wide world created merely for you? Lyra.

2. That which is threatened as the punishment of this sin is that neither the houses nor the fields they were thus greedy of should turn to any account, v. 9, 10. God whispered it to the prophet in his ear, as he speaks in a like case (ch. xxii. 14): It was revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts (as God told Samuel a thing in his ear, 1 Sam. ix. 15); he thought he heard it still sounding in his ears; but he proclaimed it, as he ought, upon the house-tops, Matt. x. 27. (1.) That the houses they were so fond of should be untenanted, should stand long empty, and should yield them no rent, and go out of repair: Many houses shall be desolate, the people that should dwell in them, being cut off by sword, famine, or pestilence, or carried into captivity; or trade being dead, and poverty coming upon the country like an armed man, those that had been housekeepers were forced to become lodgers, or shift for themselves elsewhere. Even great and fair houses, that would invite tenants, and (there being a scarcity of tenants) might be taken at low rates, shall stand empty without inhabitants. God created not the earth in vain; he formed it to be inhabited, ch. xlv. 18. But men's projects are often frustrated, and what they frame answers not the intention. We have a saying, That fools build houses for wise men to live in; but sometimes, as the event proves, they are built for no man to live in. God has many ways to empty the most populous cities. (2.) That the fields they were so fond of should be unfruitful (v. 10): Ten acres of vineyard shall yield only such a quantity of grapes as will make but one bath of wine (which was about eight gallons), and the seed of a homer, a bushel's sowing of ground, shall yield but an ephah, which was the tenth part of a homer; so that through the barrenness of the ground, or the unreasonableness of the weather, they should not have more than a tenth part of their seed again. Note, Those that set their hearts upon the world will justly be disappointed in their expectations from it.

II. Here is a woe to those that dote upon the pleasures and delights of sense, v. 11, 12. Sensuality ruins men as certainly as worldliness and oppression. As Christ pronounces a woe against those that are rich, so also against those that laugh now and are full (Luke vi. 24, 25), and fare sumptuously, Luke xvi. 19. Observe,

1. Who the sinners are against whom this woe is denounced. (1.) They are such as are given to drink; they make their drinking their business, have their hearts upon it, and overcharge themselves with it. They rise early to follow strong drink, as husbandmen and tradesmen do to follow their employments; as if they were afraid of losing time from that which is the greatest misspending of time. Whereas commonly those that are drunken are drunken in the night, when they have despatched the business of the day, these neglect business, abandon it, and give up themselves to the service of the flesh; for they sit at their cups all day, and continue till night, till wine inflame them—inflame their lusts (chambering and wantonness follow upon rioting and drunkenness)—inflame their passions; for who but such have contentions and wounds without cause? Prov. xxiii. 29-35. They make a perfect trade of drinking; nor do they seek the shelter of the night for this work of darkness, as men ashamed of it, but count it a pleasure to riot in the day-time. See 2 Pet. ii. 13. (2.) They are such as are given to mirth. They have their feasts, and they are so merrily disposed that they cannot dine or sup without music, musical instruments of all sorts, like David (Amos vi. 5), like Solomon (Eccl. ii. 8); the harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe, must accompany the wine, that every sense may be gratified to a nicety; they take the timbrel and harp, Job xxi. 12. The use of music is lawful in itself; but when it is excessive, when we set our hearts upon it, misspend time in it, so that it crowds our spiritual and divine pleasures and draws away the heart from God, then it turns into sin for us. (3.) They are such as never give their mind to any thing that is serious: They regard not the work of the Lord; they observe not his power, wisdom, and goodness, in those creatures which they abuse and subject to vanity, nor the bounty of his providence in giving them those good things which they make the food and fuel of their lusts. God's judgments have already seized them, and they are under the tokens of his displeasure, but they regard not; they consider not the hand of God in all these things; his hand is lifted up, but they will not see, because they will not disturb themselves in their pleasures nor think what God is doing with them.

2. What the judgments are which are denounced against them, and in part executed. It is here foretold, (1.) that they should be dislodged; the land should spue out these drunkards (v. 13): My people (so they call themselves, and were proud of it) have therefore gone into captivity, are as sure to go as if they were gone already, because they have no knowledge; how should they have knowledge when by their excessive drinking they make sots and fools of themselves? They set up for wits; but because they regard not God's controversy with them, nor take any care to make their peace with him, they may truly be said to have no knowledge; and the reason is because they will have none; they are inconsiderate and wilful, and are therefore destroyed for lack of knowledge. (2.) That they should be impoverished, and come to want that which they had wasted and abused to excess: Even their glory are men of famine, subject to it and slain by it; and their multitude are dried up with thirst. Both the great men and the common people are ready to perish for want of bread and water. This is the effect of the failure of the corn (v. 10), for the king himself is served of the field, Eccl. v. 9. And when the vintage fails the drunkards are called upon to weep, because the new wine is cut off from their mouth (Joel i. 5), and not so much because now they want it as because when they had it they abused it. It is just with God to make men want that for necessity which they have abused to excess. (3.) What multitudes should be cut off by famine and sword (v. 14): Therefore hell has enlarged herself. Tophet, the common burying-place, proves too little; so many are there to be buried that they shall be forced to enlarge it. The grave has opened her mouth without measure, never saying, It is enough, Prov. xxx. 15, 16. It may be understood of the place of the damned; luxury and sensuality fill these regions of darkness and horror; there those are tormented who made a god of their belly, Luke xvi. 25; Phil. iii. 19. (4.) That they should be humbled and abased, and all their honours laid in the dust. This will be done effectually by death and the grave: Their glory shall descend, not only to the earth, but into it; it shall not descend after them (Ps. xlix. 17), to stand them in any stead on the other side death, but it shall die and be buried with them—poor glory, which will thus wither! Did they glory in their numbers? Their multitude shall go down to the pit, Ezek. xxxi. 18; xxxii. 32. Did they glory in the figure they made? Their pomp shall be at an end; their shouts with which they triumphed, and were attended. Did they glory in their mirth? Death will turn it into mourning; he that rejoices and revels, and never knows what it is to be serious, shall go thither where there are weeping and wailing. Thus the mean man and the mighty man meet together in the grave and under mortifying judgments. Let a man be ever so high, death will bring him low—ever so mean, death will bring him lower, in the prospect of which the eyes of the lofty should now be humbled, v. 15. It becomes those to look low that must shortly be laid low.

3. What the fruit of these judgments shall be.

(1.) God shall be glorified, v. 16. He that is the Lord of hosts, and the holy God, shall be exalted and sanctified in the judgment and righteousness of these dispensations. His justice must be owned in bringing those low what exalted themselves; and herein he is glorified, [1.] As a God is irresistible power. He will herein be exalted as the Lord of hosts, that is able to break the strongest, humble the proudest, and tame the most unruly. Power is not exalted but in judgment. It is the honour of God that, though he has a mighty arm, yet judgment and justice are always the habitation of his throne, Ps. lxxxix. 13, 14. [2.] As a God of unspotted purity. He that is holy, infinitely holy, shall be sanctified (that is, shall be owned and declared to be holy) in the righteous punishment of proud men. Note, When proud men are humbled the great God is honoured, and ought to be honoured by us.

(2.) Good people shall be relieved and succoured (v. 17): Then shall the lambs feed after their manner; the meek ones of the earth, who followed the Lamb, who were persecuted, and put into fear by those proud oppressors, shall feed quietly, feed in the green pastures, and there shall be none to make them afraid. See Ezek. xxxiv. 14. When the enemies of the church are cut off then have the churches rest. They shall feed at their pleasure; so some read it. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, and delight themselves in abundant peace. They shall feed according to their order or capacity (so others read it), as they are able to hear the word, that bread of life.

(3.) The country shall be laid waste, and become a prey to the neighbours: The waste places of the fats ones, the possessions of those rich men that lived at their ease, shall be eaten by strangers that were nothing akin to them. In the captivity the poor of the land were left for vine-dressers and husbandmen (2 Kings xxv. 12); these were the lambs that fed in the pastures of the fats ones, which were laid in common for strangers to eat. When the church of the Jews, those fat ones, was laid waste, their privileges were transferred to the Gentiles, who had been long strangers, and the lambs of Christ's flock were welcome to them.

Denunciations against Sin. (b. c. 758.)

18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: 19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! 20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: 23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! 24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: 27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: 28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: 29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. 30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

Here are, I. Sins described which will bring judgments upon a people: and this perhaps is not only a charge drawn up against the men of Judah who lived at that time, and the particular articles of that charge, though it may relate primarily to them, but is rather intended for warning to all people, in all ages, to take heed of these sins, as destructive both to particular persons and to communities, and exposing men to God's wrath and his righteous judgments. Those are here said to be in a woeful condition,

1. Who are eagerly set upon sin, and violent in their sinful pursuits (v. 18), who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, who take as much pains to sin as the cattle do that draw a team, who put themselves to the stretch for the gratifying of their inordinate appetites, and, to humour a base lust, offer violence to nature itself. They think themselves as sure of compassing their wicked project as if they were pulling it towards them with strong cart-ropes; but they will find themselves disappointed, for they will prove cords of vanity, which will break when they come to any stress. For the righteous Lord will cut in sunder the cords of the wicked, Ps. cxxix. 4; Job iv. 8; Prov. xxii. 8. They are by long custom and confirmed habits so hardened in sin that they cannot get clear of it. Those that sin through infirmity are drawn away by sin; those that sin presumptuously draw iniquity to them, in spite of the oppositions of Providence and the checks of conscience. Some by sin understand the punishment of sin: they pull God's judgments upon their own heads as it were, with cart-ropes.

2. Who set the justice of God at defiance, and challenge the Almighty to do his worst (v. 19): They say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work; this is the same language with that of the scoffers of the last days, who say, Where is the promise of his coming? and therefore it is that, like them, they draw iniquity with cords of vanity, are violent and daring in sin, and walk after their own lusts, 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4. (1.) They ridicule the prophets, and banter them. It is in scorn that they call God the Holy One of Israel, because the prophets used with great veneration to call him so. (2.) They will not believe the revelation of God's wrath from heaven against their ungodliness and unrighteousness; unless they see it executed, they will not know it, as if the curse were brutum fulmen—a mere flash, and all the threatenings of the word bugbears to frighten fools and children. (3.) If God should appear against them, as he has threatened, yet they think themselves able to make their part good with him, and provoke him to jealousy, as if they were stronger than he, 1 Cor. x. 22. "We have heard his word, but it is all talk; let him hasten his work, we shall shift for ourselves well enough." Note, Those that wilfully persist in sin consider not the power of God's anger.

3. Who confound and overthrow the distinctions between moral good and evil, who call evil good and moral evil (v. 20), who not only live in the omission of that which is good, but condemn it, argue against it, and, because they will not practise it themselves, run it down in others, and fasten invidious epithets upon it—not only do that which is evil, but justify it, and applaud it, and recommend it to others as safe and good. Note, (1.) Virtue and piety are good, for they are light and sweet, they are pleasant and right; but sin and wickedness are evil; they are darkness, all the fruit of ignorance and mistake, and will be bitterness in the latter end. (2.) Those do a great deal of wrong to God, and religion, and conscience, to their own souls, and to the souls of others, who misrepresent these, and put false colours upon them—who call drunkenness good fellowship, and covetousness good husbandry, and, when they persecute the people of God, think they do him good service—and, on the other hand, who call seriousness ill-nature, and sober singularity ill-breeding, who say all manner of evil falsely concerning the ways of godliness, and do what they can to form in men's minds prejudices against them, and this in defiance of evidence as plain and convincing as that of sense, by which we distinguish, beyond contradiction, between light and darkness, and between that which to the taste is sweet and that which is bitter.

4. Who though they are guilty of such gross mistakes as these have a great opinion of their own judgments, and value themselves mightily upon their understanding (v. 21): They are wise in their own eyes; they think themselves able to disprove and baffle the reproofs and convictions of God's word, and to evade and elude both the searches and the reaches of his judgments; they think they can outwit Infinite Wisdom and countermine Providence itself. Or it may be taken more generally: God resists the proud, those particularly who are conceited of their own wisdom and lean to their own understanding; such must become fools, that they may be truly wise, or else, at their end they shall appear to be fools before all the world.

5. Who glory in it as a great accomplishment that they are able to bear a great deal of strong liquor without being overcome by it (v. 22), who are mighty to drink wine, and use their strength and vigour, not in the service of their country, but in the service of their lusts. Let drunkards know from this scripture that, (1.) They ungratefully abuse their bodily strength, which God has given them for good purposes, and by degrees cannot but weaken it. (2.) It will not excuse them from the guilt of drunkenness that they can drink hard and yet keep their feet. (3.) Those who boast of their drinking down others glory in their shame. (4.) How light soever men make of their drunkenness, it is a sin which will certainly lay them open to the wrath and curse of God.

6. Who, as judges, pervert justice, and go counter to all rules of equity, v. 23. This follows upon the former; they drink and forget the law (Prov. xxxi. 5), and err through wine (ch. xxviii. 7), and take bribes, that they may have wherewithal to maintain their luxury. They justify the wicked for reward, and find some pretence or other to clear him from his guilt and shelter him from punishment; and they condemn the innocent, and take away their righteousness from them, that is, overrule their pleas, deprive them of the means of clearing up their innocency, and give judgment against them. In causes between man and man, might and money would at any time prevail against right and justice; and he who was ever so plainly in the wrong would with a small bribe carry the cause and recover the costs. In criminal causes, though the prisoner ever so plainly appeared to be guilty, yet for a reward they would acquit him; if he were innocent, yet if he did not fee them well, nay, if they were feed by the malicious prosecutor, or if they themselves had spleen against him, they would condemn him.

II. The judgments described, which these sins would bring upon them. Let not those expect to live easily who live thus wickedly; for the righteous God will take vengeance, v. 24-30. Here we may observe,

1. How complete this ruin will be, and how necessarily and unavoidably it will follow upon their sins. He had compared this people to a vine (v. 7), well fixed, and which, it was hoped, would be flourishing and fruitful; but the grace of God towards it was received in vain, and then the root became rottenness, being dried up from beneath, and the blossom would of course blow off as dust, as a light and worthless thing, Job xviii. 16. Sin weakens the strength, the root, of a people, so that they are easily rooted up; it defaces the beauty, the blossoms, of a people, and takes away the hopes of fruit. The sin of unfruitfulness is punished with the plague of unfruitfulness. Sinners make themselves as stubble and chaff, combustible matter, proper fuel to the fire of God's wrath, which then of course devours and consumes them, as the fire devours the stubble, and nobody can hinder it, or cares to hinder it. Chaff is consumed, unhelped and unpitied.

2. How just the ruin will be: Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and would not have him to reign over them; and, as the law of Moses was rejected and thrown off, so the word of the Holy One of Israel by his servants the prophets, putting them in mind of his law and calling them to obedience, was despised and disregarded. God does not reject men for every transgression of his law and word; but, when his word is despised and his law cast away, what can they expect but that God should utterly abandon them?

3. Whence this ruin should come (v. 25): it is destruction from the Almighty. (1.) The justice of God appoints it; for that is the anger of the Lord which is kindled against his people, his necessary vindication of the honour of his holiness and authority. (2.) The power of God effects it: He has stretched forth his hand against them. That hand which had many a time been stretched out for them against their enemies is now stretched out against them at full length and in its full vigour; and who knows the power of his anger? Whether they are sensible of it or no, it is God that has smitten them, has blasted their vine and made it wither.

4. The consequences and continuance of this ruin. When God comes forth in wrath against a people the hills tremble, fear seizes even their great men, who are strong and high, the earth shakes under men and is ready to sink; and as this feels dreadful (what does more so than an earthquake?) so what sight can be more frightful than the carcases of men torn with dogs, or thrown as dung (so the margin reads it) in the midst of the streets? This intimates that great multitudes should be slain, not only soldiers in the field of battle, but the inhabitants of their cities put to the sword in cold blood, and that the survivors should neither have hands nor hearts to bury them. This is very dreadful, and yet such is the merit of sin that, for all this, God's anger is not turned away; that fire will burn as long as there remains any of the stubble and chaff to be fuel for it; and his hand, which he stretched forth against his people to smite them, because they do not by prayer take hold of it, nor by reformation submit themselves to it, is stretched out still.

5. The instruments that should be employed in bringing this ruin upon them: it should be done by the incursions of a foreign enemy, that should lay all waste. No particular enemy is named, and therefore we are to take it as a prediction of all the several judgments of this kind which God brought upon the Jews, Sennacherib's invasion soon after, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans first and at last by the Romans; and I think it is to be looked upon also as a threatening of the like desolation of those countries which harbour and countenance those sins mentioned in the foregoing verses; it is an exposition of those woes. When God designs the ruin of a provoking people,

(1.) He can send a great way off for instruments to be employed in effecting it; he can raise forces from afar, and summon them from the end of the earth to attend his service, v. 26. Those who know him not are made use of to fulfil his counsel, when, by reason of their distance, they can scarcely be supposed to have any ends of their own to serve. If God set up his standard, he can incline men's hearts to enlist themselves under it, though perhaps they know not why or wherefore. When the Lord of hosts is pleased to make a general muster of the forces he has at his command, he has a great army in an instant, Joel ii. 2, 11. He needs not sound a trumpet, nor beat a drum, to give them notice or to animate them; no, he does but hiss to them, or rather whistle to them, and that is enough; they hear that, and that puts courage into them. Note, God has all the creatures at his beck.

(2.) He can make them come into the service with incredible expedition: Behold, they shall come with speed swiftly. Note, [1.] Those who will do God's work must not loiter, must not linger, nor shall they when his time has come. [2.] Those who defy God's judgments will be ashamed of their insolence when it is too late; they said scornfully (v. 19), Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, and they shall find, to their terror and confusion, that he will; in one hour has the judgment come.

(3.) He can carry them on in the service with amazing forwardness and fury. This is described here in very elegant and lofty expressions, v. 27-30. [1.] Though their marches be very long, yet none among them shall be weary; so desirous they be to engage that they shall forget their weariness, and make no complaints of it. [2.] Though the way be rough, and perhaps embarrassed by the usual policies of war, yet none among them shall stumble, but all the difficulties in their way shall easily be got over. [3.] Though they be forced to keep constant watch, yet none shall slumber nor sleep, so intent shall they be upon their work, in prospect of having the plunder of the city for their pains. [4.] They shall not desire any rest of relaxation; they shall not put off their clothes, nor loose the girdle of their loins, but shall always have their belts on and swords by their sides. [5.] They shall not meet with the least hindrance to retard their march or oblige them to halt; not a latchet of their shoes shall be broken which they must stay to mend, as Josh. ix. 13. [6.] Their arms and ammunition shall all be fixed, and in good posture; their arrows sharp, to wound deep, and all their bows bent, none unstrung, for they expect to be soon in action. [7.] Their horses and chariots of war shall all be fit for service; their horses so strong, so hardy, that their hoofs shall be like flint, far from being beaten, or made tender, by their long march; and the wheels of their chariots not broken, or battered, or out of repair, but swift like a whirlwind, turning round so strongly upon their axle-trees. [8.] All the soldiers shall be bold and daring (v. 29): Their roaring, or shouting, before a battle, shall be like a lion, who with his roaring animates himself, and terrifies all about him. Those who would not hear the voice of God speaking to them by his prophets, but stopped their ears against their charms, shall be made to hear the voice of their enemies roaring against them and shall not be able to turn a deaf ear to it. They shall roar like the roaring of the sea in a storm; it roars and threatens to swallow up, as the lion roars and threatens to tear in pieces. [9.] There shall not be the least prospect of relief or succour. The enemy shall come in like a flood, and there shall be none to lift up a standard against him. He shall seize the prey, and none shall deliver it, none shall be able to deliver it, nay, none shall so much as dare to attempt the deliverance of it, but shall give it up for lost. Let the distressed look which way they will, every thing appears dismal; for, if God frowns upon us, how can any creature smile? First, Look round to the earth, to the land, to that land that used to be the land of light and the joy of the whole earth, and behold darkness and sorrow, all frightful, all mournful, nothing hopeful. Secondly, Look up to heaven, and there the light is darkened, where one would expect to have found it. If the light is darkened in the heavens, how great is that darkness! If God hide his face, no marvel the heavens hide theirs and appear gloomy, Job xxxiv. 29. It is our wisdom, by keeping a good conscience, to keep all clear between us and heaven, that we may have light from above even when clouds and darkness are round about us.

CHAP. V.

Ver. 1. NOw will I ſing] Now, or Now I pray, as ſtirring up his Hearers to attention; for here beginneth his third Sermon. He had endeavoured (but with little good effect) to convince them of their deteſtable unthankfulneſs, Apoſtacy, and other enormities, in proſe: Now he reſolves to try another courſe, and to be unto them as a Poet rather then a Prophet, if haply they might be taken by the ſweetneſs of his verſe, and lovelineſs of his Voyce, as Ezek. 33.32.

Metra parant animos, comprendunt plurima paucis: Aures delectant, priſtina commemorant.

True it is that Poets for moſt part, are dulciſſimè vani, moſt ſweetly vain, as Auſtin ſaid of Homer. And ſome have noted well concerning St. Paul, that citing his country man Aratus (for he was a Cilician) he nameth him not, (but only ſaith, Certain of your own Poets, Act. 17.28.) notwithſtanding the Piety of his beginning, [non-Latin text not transcribed], or the Divineneſs of his Subject, the Heavens; more ſublime and pure matter then uſeth to be in the wanton Pages of other Poets. But our Divine Poet is of another alloy, and his holy Song is of the ſame ſtrain with that of Moſes, of Deborah and Barak, of Hannah, of David (qui noſter Orpheus eſt, ſaith Euthymius, the ſweet ſinger of Iſrael, 2 Sam. 23.1.) of Solomon with his Song of Songs; ſaving that this is lugubre carmen ſaith Oecolampadius, Et tragaediae quam comaediae ſimilius, a lamentable ditty, and more like a Tragedy then a Comedy: for though the Prophet begineth merrily, yet he endeth heavily: it is of Mercy and Judgement that he ſingeth.

To my well-beloved] i. e. to Chriſt the Churches Bridegroom, cujus amicus & adminiſter ſum, whoſe Paranymph I am and well-wiſher. See John. 3.29. 2 Cor. 11.2, 3. ſome render it for my Beloved, or in his defence.

A ſong] Or Poem, whereto this firſt verſe is the Proem or Preface. A ſpiritual ſong it is, moſt Artificially compoſed, and ſet out with the moſt exquiſite skill that might be.

Of my Beloved] Of him whom my ſoul loveth, as Cant. 1.7. Jonathan loved David, 1. with a love of Ʋnion, 1 Sam. 18.1, 2. with a love of complacency, ver. 19.3. with a love of benevolence, chap. 20.4. ſo doth a gracious heart love Jeſus Chriſt. My Love was crucified, ſaid Ignatius, Epiſt. 12. quae eſt ad Roman whoſe heart was even a Lump of Love.

Touching his Vineyard] That degenerate Plant of a ſtrange Vine unto him, Jer. 2.21. the plantation and ſupplantation whereof is here 1. parabolically propounded. Secondly, more plainly expounded. Some read it To his Vineyard: Others for his Vineyard. See Matth, 21.33.34. Mar. 1.1, 12. Luke. 20.9, 16.

My Beloved] See how oft he harps upon this ſweet ſtring, and cannot come off. What a man loveth he will be talking off, as the Huntſman of his hounds, the Drunkard of his cups, the worldling of his wealth, &c. Ten times in nine verſes together doth St. Paul mention the name of Jeſus, 1 Cor. 1. &c. ſhewing thereby that it was to him mel in ore, melos in aure, jubilum in corde, the ſweeteſt Muſick.

Hath a Vineyard] So the Church is here, ver. 7. and elſwhere frequently and fitly ſtiled: Confert autem vineae, ſaith Oecolampadius. To a Vineyard is the Church compared for ſundry reaſons:Nulla p[illegible: 1 letter]ſſeſſio majorem operam requierit. Cato. Itali dicunt Vinea eſt tinea. Soli antemeridiano, meridiano at que poſtmeridiano expoſtus. Piſc. as the great care men take about it, the great delight they take in it, the ſweet fruits they expect from it, the great worth of its fruit, the little worth of its ſtemm, Ezek. 15.3. if it prove fruitleſs, the lowly and feeble condition thereof, the continual need it hath to be dreſſed, ſupported, ſheltered, pruned, Joh. 15.2. [non-Latin text not transcribed], amputat, putat.

In a very fruitful hill] Heb. in an horn the ſon of oyl, that is an horny-hill, bowing like a half-Moon, and ſo expoſed to the Sun beams all the day long. Some ſay that Judea lyeth in the form of a horn, like as the Low-Countries do in the form of a Lion, unde Leo Belgicus. The ſon of oyl or fatneſs, that is exceeding ſat: Judas is called Sumen totius orbis, a Land flowing with Milk and Honey, Ezek. 20.6. a very Cornucopia of all comforts; Baſil telleth us that it was a Tradition of great Antiquity, that Adam when he was thruſt out of Paradiſe, ut dolorem leniret, for a mitigation of his grief, choſe Judea (that moſt fruitful Countrey) for a place to dwell in: whence it is that Sodom and her ſiſters (which were a part of that Countrey) are ſaid to be pleaſant as the garden of God, Gen 13.10.

Pro Sepivit alii vertunt Fod[illegible: 1 letter]t, paſtinavit, plantavit.Ver. 2. And he fenced it] Maceria munivit, He hedged it in, or walled it about, protecting his people from the rage of enemies wherewith that Countrey was begirt. God was a wall of fire to them. Zech. 2.5. and a wall of water to them, as Exod. 14.22. whence their land, though part of the Continent, is called an Iſland, Iſa. 26.6. not only becauſe ſeparated from other Countries, but becauſe ſecured and made—media inſuperabilis unda.

And gathered out the ſtones thereof] He not only caſt out the Cananites, but flatly forbad Idolatry, and all other wickedneſſes, [non-Latin text not transcribed] every ſcandal or rock of offence, that might hinder their growth, or turn them out of the way, Heb. 12.13.

And planted it with the choiceſt Vine] Heb. Sorek; the Vines of which place (Judg. 16.4.) may ſeem to be the beſt and choiceſt: like as now in Germany are the Vines of Herbipolis. See Jer. 2.21. The Saints of God are noble Plants and of choice ſpirits: they are the chiefeſt Perſonages, and of higheſt account in Heaven.

And built a Tower in the midſt of it] for both Beauty, Defence, and Conveniency. This may be meant of Jeruſalem, or the Temple therein, that Tower of the flock, and the ſtrong Hold of the Daughter of Gods people, Mic. 4.8. Religion ſet up in the power and purity of it, is the beauty and bulwark of any place.

And alſo made a Wine-preſs therein] for the preſſing of the Grapes, and ſaving of the Vine: but alaſs that labour might have been ſaved, for any grapes he gat, or wine he made.

Fallitur augurio ſpes bona ſaepe ſuo.

Little good is done many times, by the moſt preſſing and piercing Exhortations and Arguments uſed by Gods faithful Prophets.

And he looked that it ſhould bring forth grapes] i. e. good grapes, as little thinking ut opera perdatur & ſpes eludatur, to have loſt all his care and coſt, as he did. For who planteth a Vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a Flock, and eateth not of the milk of the Flock? 1 Cor. 9.7.

And it brought forth wild-grapes] ſtinking ſtuffe, as, the word ſignifieth, that which was naught and noyſom: grapes of Sodom and cluſters of Gomorrah, Deut. 32.32, 33. He looked for the fruit of the spirit, but behold the works of the fleſh, Gal. 5. No whit anſwerable to his continual care, culture and cuſtody: they made him, as One ſaith, a contumacious and contumelious retribution. Thus the wicked anſwer Heavens kindneſs with an ungrateful wickedneſs.

Ver. 3. And now, O ye Inhabitants of Jeruſalem] Here we have Gods Plea (before his Sentence) and therein his Appeal to them, and his Inditement againſt them. Firſt he appealeth to the Jews themſelves, & maketh them Judges in their own cauſe. So Nathan dealt by David, and Jeſus by the wicked Jews of his time, Mat. 21.40. Judicate quaſo, only judge a righteous Judgement, John 7.24. and then I dare report me to the conſcience of any one amongſt you, and will therehence fetch witneſs.

Between me and my Vineyard] With which I am now at variance: Sin is that hell-bag, make-bate, trouble-town, that ſets odds betwixt God and his greateſt favourites.

Ver. 4. What could have been done to my Vineyard?] See the like angry expoſtulations, Jer. 2.5. Mic. 6.3. when God hath done all that can be done to do wretched men good, they oft do their utmoſt to defeit him, and undo themſelves. Quid debu, facere Domino meo quod fecerim? ſaid Auſtin of himſelf by way of penitent confeſſion: quis ego, qualis ego? quid non mali ego? The Cypreſs-tree, the more it is watered, the leſs fruitful: ſo it is with many people. But God can no way be charged with their barrenneſs.

At Paris ut vivat regnet que beatus,Horat. Cogi poſſe negat.—

Ver. 5. And now go to, I will tell you, &c.] God loveth to fore-ſignifie, to warn ere he woundeth, and to foretell a judgement ere he inflicteth it. This he doth that he may be prevented, Amos 4.12. Prolata eſt ſententia ut non fiat. Well might the Lord ſay, Fury is not in me, Iſa. 27.3.

I will take away the hedge thereof] Hedge and Wall ſhall be taken away at once from an ungrateful people: and all laid open to the wrath of God and rage of enemies; it ſhall be opentide indeed: See Pſalm 80.12, 13. And what may be reaſonably pleaded againſt God at ſuch a time, when he may ſay to men as Reuben did to his brethren, Did not I warn you, ſaying, Sin not?

It ſhall be eaten up—it ſhall be trodden down] All ſhall run to ruine, as it did at Jeruſalem by the Babylonians, but eſpecially by the Romans: and as it did in Chriſtendom about ſix hundred years after Chriſts Incarnation, when Religion was become a matter of form, yea of ſcorn; then the Sarazens in the Eaſt, and the barbarous Nations in the Weſt brake in, and bore down all before them.

Ver. 6. And I will lay it waſte] Heb. Waſteneſs, I will utterly root it up and ruine it. Lege & Luge; wrath is come upon Jury to the utmoſt. Lukewarm Laodicea was ſwallowed up by an Earthquake, as Eutropius teſtifieth. The reſt of thoſe ſeven famous Churches are over-run by the Turk. And our utter ruine, unleſs we repent, may be as plainly foreſeen as if Letters had been ſent us from Heaven to ſuch a purpoſe.

It ſhall not be pruned nor digged] ſc. by ſuch painful Vine-dreſſers, as were wont both to dig and beg for it, as he, Luke 13.8. Such labour ſhall now be no longer loſt, ſuch coſt caſt away no more. Cutting ſhall be uſed where there is no longer hope of curing.

But there ſhall come up Bryers and Thorns] Being bereft of the means of Grace, they ſhall run into foul and flagitious practices, which ſhall ripen them for ruine: See Heb. 6.8.

I will alſo command the clouds] The Prophets and Miniſters.

That they rain no rain upon it] No not a ſmall ſhowr or miſt. Non pluvia dignabitur nedum imbre, ſaith Oecolampadius.

Ver. 7. For the Vineyard, &c.] Exponit breviter mentem hujus Cantici. Here we have the Parable expounded and applied: the Scripture is its own beſt Interpreter, ſometimes (as here, and John 7.39.) the ſence is annexed. The Rabbins have a ſaying, Nulla eſt objectio in Lege quae non habet ſolutionem in latere.

His pleaſant plant] Delectabilis in patriarchis, infructifera in palmitibus. Heb. his plant of Delights, but now turned into the degenerate plant of a ſtrange Vine unto him, Jer. 2.21. Good Progenitors may have a bad off-ſpring: the reaſon whereof is given by Auſtin, Homo liberos gignit ex carne vetuſta & peccatrice, Con. Palag. Lib. 2. cap. 9. non ex spiritu, &c. Man begetteth children of the old and ſinful fleſh, and not of the Spirit.

And he looked for judgement, but behold oppreſſion] Or conſpiracy, or, as ſome render it a ſcab, a cleaving ſcab, ſuch as a man cannot eaſily be rid or recovered of. And here in the Original is excellent Rhetorick paſt Engliſhing: it is as if we ſhould ſay, a Preacher, a Prevaricator rather; a Diſpenſation, a Diſſipation; the ſound is almoſt the ſame, the ſence much different. There is a lawful uſe of Rhetorick in divine diſcourſes. Auſtin confeſſeth that whilſt he heard Ambroſe for his Eloquence only, together with his words which he loved, the matter which he at firſt cared not for, came into his mind: and whileſt, ſaith he, I opened my heart to liſten how trimly he ſpoke, I came to conſider alſo how truly he ſpoke; gradatim quidem.

For righteouſneſs, but behold a cry] The clamour of the oppreſſed entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth, who heareth their groans, and beholdeth their grievances, Job 34.28. Pſalm 12.5. Jam. 5.4.

Clamitat in caelum vox ſanguinis & Sodomorum, Vox oppreſſorum, merceſ que retenta laborum.

The twofold Ecce. Behold oppreſſion, Behold a cry, ſheweth it to be an evil action with an accent, a wickedneſs with a witneſs; Aliam Hebraeorum labruſiam notat.

Ver. 8. Wo unto them that joyn houſe to houſe] The Prophet goeth on in the Expoſition of his Parable, ſhewing us ſome more of thoſe wild or ſtinking grapes, with the ſad effects thereof, to the end of the Chapter. He beginneth with Covetouſneſs (that Root of all evil, as Paul calleth it, 1 Tim. 6.10. that Metropolis of all wickedneſs, as Bion) and throweth a Wo at it, as do alſo ſundry other Prophets. Covetous perſons are of the Dragons temper, who (they ſay) is ſo thirſty, that no water can quench his thirſt. Covetouſneſs is a dry drunkenneſs, ſaith One, an inſatiable Dropſie, and like Hell it ſelf, ver. 14. — inſatiabiliter cava guttura pandit: its Never-enough will be once quit with fire enough in the bottom of Hell. Here they are brought in joyning houſe to houſe, as Shallum did at Jeruſalem, Jer. 22.13, 14. as Nero did at Rome for the enlarging of his Palace to a vaſt extent: whence that of the Poet, Martial.Roma domus fiet, Veios migrate Quirites, Si non & Veios occupet iſta domus.

That lay field to field] encroaching upon others, and engroſſing all to your ſelves: as Will. the Conquerer did at New-forreſt, wherein 46. Pariſh Churches were demoliſhed, with the removing of all the Inhabitants, to make room for beaſts or dog[illegible: 1 letter]-game. But in true account, Parva ſeges ſatis eſt: laudato ingentia rura, Exiguum colito.

The holy Patriarchs were content to dwell in Tents. Abrahams only purchaſe was a burying place. David in that Letany of his (as One calleth it) bleſſeth himſelf from thoſe men of Gods hand who have their portion here, Pſalm 17.14. Chriſt biddeth us lay up Treaſures, and build Tabernacles for our ſelves in Heaven: and having food and rayment, ſaith the Apoſtle, let us therewith be content, 1 Tim. 6.

Lucan. l. har. Lib. 4.Diſcite quam parvo liceat producere vitam: Et quantum Natura petat.

If a man will ſtudy rather to ſatisfie his hunger then his humour, a little will ſerve. But it is as eaſie to quench the fire of Aetna, as the thoughts ſet on fire by covetouſneſs.Juvenal. Ʋnus Pelaeo juveni non ſufficit orbis.

Till there be no place] ſc. left unſeized upon by you: uſ que ad deſitionem loci, no place or room for any other.

That they may be placed alone] Man is a ſociable creature, and not born for himſelf. Ariſtotle calleth him Natures good-fellow: but the covetous caytiff hath put off all Humanity, and would have all to himſelf, be placed alone. And herein, as Ambroſe rightly obſerveth, he is worſe then the unreaſonable creatures. Avis avibus ſe aſſociat, ſaith he, pecus pecori adjungitur, piſcis piſcibus, Birds, Beaſts and fiſhes ſort and ſhoale together, and account it no loſs, but a comfort to be in company of their own kind. Solus tu homo, conſortem excludis, includis feras: Lib. de Naboth and Ahab. cap. 3. ſtruis habitacula beſtiarum, deſtruis hominum; Onely thou, O ſorry man, ſhutteſt out men like thy ſelf, incloſeſt for cattle, pulleſt down houſes, ſetteſt up pinfolds and ſheep-cotes, &c. And yet thou canſt not live without poor Labourers: Onely thou hateſt to have them live by thee.

Ver. 9. In mine ears ſaid the Lord of hoſts] Or, in the ears of the Lord of hoſts: q. d. God well heareth and knoweth all your cunning contrivances, your coloured and cloaked covetouſneſs as it is called, 1 Theſſ. 2.5. 2 Pet. 2.3. The cryes alſo of thoſe poor whom you have by fraud or force unrooſted, and undone, is come into Gods ears, Deut. 15.9. and 24.15. and he will reckon with you: though by your greatneſs you can bear out your wrong dealing, becauſe it is — facinus majoris abollae. Yet God will arraign you one day for an Abaddon: and in the mean while

Of a truth many houſes ſhall be deſolate] You ſhall be driven out of your great and fair houſes, aut à milite, aut à morte, either by the enemy, or by Death, who ſhall come upon you with a firmae ejectione, and then the place of your habitation ſhall know you no more: a poor fool God will make of you, Jer. 17.11. Luk. 12.20. If many houſes be not deſolate, never truſt him more: if they be not left for Cadowes and Jack-dawes to dwell in.

Ver. 10. Yea, ten acres of Vineyard ſhall yeeld one Bath] viz of wine; a poor proportion; not a gallon of wine, for an acre of ground planted with vines.

And the ſeed of an homer ſhall yeild an Ephah] and no more: the earth ſhall yeild but the tenth part of what was fown; ſo little joy ſhall you have either of your enlarged houſes, or fields laid to fields, by evil arts. Et ſignanter decem ponit jugera, ſaith Oecolampadius here: neither is it for nothing that the Prophet ſaith ten acres of Vineyard, &c. and that they ſhall have but the tyth of their ſeed again: to teach them how angry God is with ſuch, as thorough covetouſneſs refuſe to pay their tythes duely, and truly, &c.

Ver. 11. Woe unto them that riſe up early] Heb. the early riſers, Oſor. in loc. but for an ill purpoſe. O intolerandum flagitium, ſaith one, — homines inertia, ſomnique pleniſſimos, &c. O intolerable wickedneſs, that men ſo lazy, and more ſleepy then dormiſe, ſhould be up, and at it ſo very betimes (they riſe early to corrupt their actions, ſaith another Prophet; Zeph. 3.7.) and ſhould have their brains crowing before day. Neither are they ſo ſoon up alone, but they call up others (as the Hebrew word here ſignifieth) to ſerve them, and ſit with them on their Alebench; for they are good fellows they ſay, and muſt have company.

That they may follow ſtrong drink] purſue it eagerly, as the worlding doth his gain,Studium ebrietatis illis objicit. Lib. 14. cap. ult. the hunter his game; Their Motto is, Take away our liquour, ye take away our life. By ſtrong drink here underſtand any inebriating liquour, whereof beſides wine, the Italians have twenty diſtinct Species, to pleaſe the Guſto. Pliny cries out Hei mirâ vitiorum ſolertiâ inventum eſt quemadmodum aqua quoque inebriaret! Portentoſum ſanè potionis genus, &c.

That continue unto night] All the live-long-day; theſe Ale-ſtakes ſtick to it, quaffing and carouſing. Diem noctemque continuare potando nulli probrum, ſaith Tacitus of the old Germans; to drink whole dayes together is amongſt them no diſgrace: neither is it among many of their poſterity, to this day. About the midſt of Q. Elizabeths raign, that curſed ſin was firſt brought over into England, ſay ſome,Fullers Church hiſt. 61. out of the Low-Countries: before which time there was neither general practice, nor legal puniſhment of that vice in this Kingdom.

Till wine enflame them] By which expreſſion, omnem ebriorum inſaniam intelligit, ſaith Oecolampadius, he meaneth all the drunkards mad pranks, when heated with wine, and yet more with luſts and paſſions. See Prov. 23.29 — 34. Tyrone the Rebell 1567. was ſuch a drunkard,Camd. Eliz. pag. 89. that to cool his body when it was immoderately inflamed with wine and Ʋskabagh, he would many times be buried in the earth up to the chin.

Ver. 12. And the harp and the viol] To make themſelves the more mad upon pleaſure, they had their muſick of all ſorts, that thereby they might baniſh all ſeriouſneſs, and be lulled faſter aſleep in carnal ſecurity. Feſcenninis cantibus omnia perſonabant: a practice ſtill in uſe among drunkards, to drown the noiſe of their conſciences; like as the old Italians to drown the noiſe of the heavens when it thundred, were wont to ring their greateſt bels, beat up their drums and tabers, &c. So Amos 6.4, 6.

Are in their feaſts] Or, are their feaſts, or drinkings.

But they regard not the work of the Lord] that is the firſt making, whether of themſelves to glorify God in ſome honeſt employment, and not to make drunkeneſs their occupation: or, of other creatures, wherein they might find much of God, as Pliny did in the muſick of the Gnat,Saculum eſt ſpeculum rerum inviſibili[illegible: 1 letter]m. Triſmeg. and the curious paint of the Butter-fly: as Galen did in the double motion of the Lungs, called Syſtole and Diaſtole: but eſpecially as David did in the contemplation of the Univerſe, Pſal. 8. and as Mr. John Dad did in the flower he had in his hand at Holdenby; where being invited by an honourable perſon to ſee that ſtately houſe, he anſwered, In this flower I can ſee more of God, then in all the beautiful buildings in the World. Thus if theſe drunkards had done, they would not have ſo abuſed Gods good creatures. But whoredom and wine, and new wine had taken away their hearts, Hoſ. 4.11. Neither regarded they any thing, but the ſparkling of the wine in the cup, Prov. 23.31. and the beauty of the ſtrange woman, ver. 33. in the flagrancy of their beaſtly luſt.

Neither conſider the operation of his hands] the preſent diſpoſing of his creatures, either by way of mercy or judgment. They paſſe by his providences unobſerved, his late judgments upon the ten Tribes, Am. 6.6. his heavy plagues hanging over their own heads, called his work and the counſel of the holy One of Iſrael, ver. 19. Nihil omnino ſapiunt niſi luxum ſuum, they minde nothing but their luxury and looſeneſs.

Ver. 13. Therefore my people are gone into captivity] i. e. they are ſure to go: So Am. 6.7.

Becauſe they have no knowledge] Heb. Propter non-ſcientiam, i. e. ut ita dicam, non-curantiam, for their brutiſh oſcitancy and inconſiderateneſs, as having buried their wits in their guts, and being miſerably beſotted by their daily ſenſualities. Jer. 5.4. Surely they are poor, they are fooliſh: for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God.

And their honourable men are famiſhed] Heb. are men of hunger or famine. Congrua huic malo lues. They had abuſed their meat and drink to ſurfetting and drunkenneſs: now they ſhall know the worth of thoſe good creatures by the want of them.

And their multitude dryed up with thirſt] The common ſort alſo ſhall taſte of the common calamity:Ioſeph. Egeſip. as they did very deeply when beſieged by Veſpaſian, for the ſpace of five moneths. Ox dung was then a precious diſh unto them, and the ſhreddings of pot-hearbs caſt out and trodden under foot and withered, were taken up again for nouriſhment: yea ſome, to prolong their lives, would not ſtick to eat up that that others had vomited and caſt up. See Iſa. 9.19, 20.

Ver. 14. Therefore hell hath inlarged herſelf, &c.] To ſwallow up thoſe inſatiable Helluones and Lurcones. Drunkards and Epicures: Theſe Swilbowles and Senſualiſts, Cerberi inſtar, tria guttura pundebant; Diotimus of Athens was ſurnamed Tunbowl, and yong Cicero Tricongius, becauſe he could take off three pottles of wine at a draught: Therefore Death and Hell

Have opened their mouth without meaſure] hiante rictu ampliſſimo helluones iſtos abſorbere, to devour ſuch peſts and botches of mankind. Oh that the carouſers were perſwaded, as Mahomet told his followers, that in every grape there dwelt a devil! and Oh that they would foreſee and prevent a worſe puniſhment in hell then befell that poor Turk, who being found drunk, had a ladleful of boyling lead poured down his throat, by the command of a certain Baſhaw!

And their glory] their great ones, thoſe men of honour, ver. 13.

And their multitude] The meaner ſort: Nos numeri ſumus.

And their pomp] Or their noiſe, or tumult: their revel-rout, as they call it, when they have drunk all the Out's, and are now a ſinging and hallowing.

Ver. 15. And the mean man ſhall be brought down, &c.] Here the Prophet, before he comes to the third denunciation (for this part of the chapter, like Ezekiels roule, is full of lamentation and mourning, and woe, chap. 2.10.) inſerteth three good effects of the fore-threatened puniſhments; 1. that the wicked ſhall be thereby tamed,Piſcat. in this verſ. 2. that Gods glory ſhall be aſſerted ver. 16. and 3. that Gods poor people ſhall be graciouſly provided for, ver. 17. See for this ver. chap. 29.

And the eyes of the haughty] See on chap. 2.11.

Ver. 16. But the Lord of Hoſts ſhall be exalted] See chap. 2.11.

And God, that is holy ſhall be ſanctified] He ſhall be religiouſly acknowledged,Dio i. approved of and worſhipped as an enemy to ſin, and an upright judge, becauſe of his moſt righteous judgments. It ſhall be ſaid, Certainly there is a God that ruleth in the earth, Pſal. 58.12.

Ver. 17. Then ſhall the Lambs feed after their manner] i. e. freely and quietly: by Lambs here underſtand the godly poor (thoſe Lambs with golden fleeces) who ſhall be graciouſly provided for.

And the waſte places of the fat ones] Medullatorum, of thoſe fat Buls of Baſhan, who had oppreſſed the poor, and laid waſte their dwellings: but are now ſerved in like ſort by the enemy.

Shall the ſtrangers eat] Such as had been ſtrangers at home, becauſe held captive in a far countrey, but are now returned, and repoſſeſſed of all.

Ver. 18. Woe unto them that draw iniquity] that draw ſin to them, as a beaſt draweth a cart after it. Here the Prophet reproveth and threateneth ſuch,Nihil agitantes niſi malum omni ſtudio ſuo. Jun. Qui datâ operâ peccant. Scultet. ſaith an Interpreter, as ſin without any ſtrong temptation or occaſion drawing them thereunto: yea they draw ſin to themſelves as with ropes, & quodammodo velut invitum & repugnans cogunt: not remembring that ſin haleth hell at the heels of it. Let ſuch get from under ſins cart aſſoon as they can: Otherwiſe they ſhall be holden with the cords (puniſhments) of their iniquity: they ſhall dye without inſtruction, &c. Pro. 5.22. The Devils as they ſinned without a tempter, ſo they periſh without a Saviour. Cavete.

Ver. 19. That ſay Let him make ſpeed] That jear when they ſhould fear; jeſt at Gods judgments, and mock at his menaces, as if they were onely bug-bear terms, deviſed on purpoſe to affright ſilly people: but that themſelves had more wit then to regard them. This alſo was the guiſe of thoſe Atheiſts in after-ages, Jer. 17.15. Ezek. 12.23. Am. 5.18. 2 Pet. 3.3. [non-Latin text not transcribed], they made childrens play of Gods direfull threats, as the Greek word ſignifieth: and that they may not plead ignorance, the Apoſtle addeth, ver. 5. that they were willingly ignorant, they choaked their natural light, and contradicted the teſtimony of their own conſciences. Magna corum hodieque ſeges eſt: ſuch duſt-heapes are found in every corner.

And let the counſel of the Holy one of Iſrael] Verba ludificantium Deum & Prophetas. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Theſe ſcoffers are here brought in deriding the very name whereby the holy Prophets for more reverence ſake commonly called the Lord, viz. The Holy one of Iſrael. Oecolamp. Or thus: God is the Holy one of Iſrael, which Iſrael we are: and thinkeſt thou that he will do us hurt? Hereupon the Prophet addeth

Ver. 20. Woe unto them that call evil good, &c.] that can make Candida de nigris, & de candentibus atra, and go about to invert the nature of things, and to change the very names of them: whileſt they call (not out of ignorance or infirmity, but out of baſe calumny, or groſs flattery) evil good, and good evil; cleping drunkenneſs good fellowſhip, covetouſneſs good husbandry, prodigality liberality, ſwearing with a grace a gentleman like quality, fornication a trick of youth, adultery an enjoyment of the fellow-creature, as Ranters call it, &c. Thus the Athenians flattered their own vices calling [non-Latin text not transcribed],In Catll. &c. Cicero ſaid it was an ill omen of the overthrow of the Commonwealth, that the true names of things were loſt. And in Divinity it is a rule. Qui fingit nova verba, nova gignit dogmata, David. Par. vlta. He that affecteth new terms would bring in new opinions. That ſaying of Luther was oft in Pareus his mouth, Theologus gloriae dicit malum bonum, & bonum, malum. Theologus Crucis dicit id quod res eſt. Not long before our late unhappy troubles, the Martyrs of the Proteſtant religion were diſgraced, the Conſpiratours in the Powder-treaſon excuſed in a Sermon at St. Maries in Cambridge by one Kemp of Queens Colledge. The ſchools, preſs, and pulpit began to ſpeak Italian apace,Myſt. of iniq. p. 15. and to perſwade to a Moderation, to a Reconciliation with Rome, which now was ſaid to be a true Church, the Pope not Antichriſt, &c. The great Elixar called State-policy, hath, with ſome at leaſt, ſo tranſmutative a faculty, as to make copper ſeem gold, right wrong, and wrong right. But let us pray with good David, Pſal. 119.66. Teach me good judgment, and knowledge: give me ſenſes habitually exerciſed to diſcern betwixt good and evil, Heb. 5. Ʋlt. and then take heed that we neither make Cenſures whip, nor Charities cloak too long: we may offend in both.

Ver. 21. Woe unto them that are wiſe in their own eyes] wiſer then Daniel (as the proud Prince of Tyre thought himſelf, Ezek. 28.3.) or than any Prophet of them all. This ſelf conceitedneſs is [non-Latin text not transcribed], ſaid that Heathen, the hinderance of all true Proficiency, and a miſchievous marre-good: here is a Woe hanged at the heels of it. And left any ſhould hold that to be a ſmall matter, let them conſider what befell Meroz after that bitter curſe pronounced againſt it, Judg. 5.23. the very name and memorial of it is utterly extinct and blotted out: as alſo what befell the barren Fig-tree, when once curſed by Chriſt, it withered away ſuddenly, Mat. 21.19, 20. both root and branch; though naturally the Fig-tree is the moſt juyceful of any tree, and beareth the brunt of winter-blaſts.

Scuke.Ver. 22. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine] Iteratò taxat hoc vitium, eò quod invaluerat. The Prophet inveigheth againſt this vice a ſecond time, becauſe it was grown ſo common. Drunkards alſo are a ſottiſh kind of creatures, and had therefore more then need to be double dealt with; like as Phyſicians uſe to give double quantities, to ſuch as have Palſies or Epilepſies; ſo to awaken their dull drowſy ſenſes. Many of theſe ſots take it for a great glory, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Athen. Vopiſc. in Bonoſo. that they are mighty to drink wine; as did Darius King of Perſia who cauſed it to be written upon his tomb, I was a great hunter, I could alſo drink much wine, and bear it bravely. This was (as one well ſaith) to glory in his ſhame: it being rather the commendation of a tun then of a man (for a beaſt will ſcarce abide it) to be able to take in and contain much liquour. When Bonoſus the drunken Roman had hangd himſelf, it went for a byword Amphoram pendere non hominem, that a tun or tankard hung there, and not a man. And when one was commended to King Alphonſus for a great drinker and able to bear it, he anſwered that that was a good praiſe in a ſponge,Gentiles ipſi riſere tales athletas. but not in a Prince. This, if Alexander the Great, and Tiberius the Emperour (thoſe great drinkers and incouragers of others to that vice) had well remembred, they would not have been ſo infamous as they are and will be to all poſterity.

Ariſtoph. in Ranis. Civilis eſt irriſio non carens ſale. Oecolamp. And men of ſtrength] or valour: but to do what? [non-Latin text not transcribed] as the Comedian hath it, to drink and do worſe onely: a goodly prize ſurely, a fair commendation; fortes eſſe & ſtrenuos non contra hoſtes, ſed ad exhauriendos calices; gigantes eſſe non ad bellandum, ſed ad potandum, to be carpet-knights, not of Mars but of Bacchus, and fitter for a canopy then a camp.

To mingle] Or, to pour in, whether into their own wide gullets, or into the cup to make others drunk: for preventing whereof Minos King of Creet, made a Law that men ſhould not drink one to another [non-Latin text not transcribed] to drunkenneſs; So did Lycurgus at Lacedemon. And our King Edgar made an Ordinance for putting pins in cups that none ſhould quaffe whole ones, or cauſe others to do ſo.

Ver. 23. Which juſtify the wicked for reward] q. d. Woe to ſuch alſo, for even they both are abomination to the Lord, Prov. 17.15. See the Note there. See alſo chap. 1.23.

Ver. 24. Therefore as the fire devoureth the ſtubble] For all the crimes afore mentioned, and for that, to all the former they add this, that they have caſt away the Law of the Lord and deſpiſed his word.

As the fire] Heb the tongue of fire, that is, the top of the flame, which reſembleth a tongue, that is alſo thin, broad, long, and of a fiery colour; ſetting on fire the courſe of nature, and is it ſelf ſet on fire of hell, Jam. 3.6.

Devoureth the ſtubble, and the flame conſumeth the chaff] Sin doth as naturally draw and ſuck judgments to it, as the loadſtone doth iron, as dry ſtubble and light chaff doth fire: ſuddenly and with no ado ſhall ſinners be conſumed, when God once taketh them to do: exorientur & exurentur.

So their root ſhall be rottenneſs] in alluſion to the vine, ver. 1. which brought forth rotten grapes, ver. 4.

And their bloſſom ſhall go up as duſt] ſhall vaniſh and come to nothing, as it needs muſt where the root is putrified. Of wild vines Pliny ſaith, Oſtentant fructum potius quam porrigunt, Lib. 16. cap. 27. they rather make a ſhew of fruit then yeeld any. And there are ſome vines ſaith Varro, whoſe fruit ever rotteth before it hath time to ripen.Var. ap. Caſ. D on. He meaneth they ſhall vaniſh in their greateſt flouriſh of ſeeming felicity.

Ver. 25 Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled] For contempt of the Law,1 Theſ. 2.16. but eſpecially of the Goſpel, wrath came upon that wretched people of the Jews to the utmoſt, or untill the end, as ſome read it. They are to this day a people of Gods wrath and curſe, and become a wofull example of that Rule, Atrocia delicta puniuntur atrocibus poenis, Hainous ſins bring heavy puniſhments. This deſolation of theirs (as Daniel propheſieth chap. 9.) ſhall continue to the end.

And he hath ſtretcht forth his hand againſt them] His mighty hand as St. James hath it, wherewith he oft leaveth bloody wailes on the backs of the beſt, when they provoke: but cruſheth the wicked in pieces, and crumbleth them to crattle.

And hath ſmitten them] Revenge is the next effect of anger.

And the hills did tremble] i. e. The higheſt among them: or literally,Ar. Montan. Hype bole. the ſenſeleſs hills ſeemed ſenſible of ſo great diſpleaſure.

And their carcaſſes were torn in the middeſt of the ſtreets] What havock there was made of men at the laſt deſtruction of Jeruſalem, Joſephus, Egeſippus, Oroſius and Euſebius fully tell us. What with the extremity of famine, what with the fury of the ſword, and what with ſickneſs during the ſiege, there periſhed about 600000 able men: or as others ſay 1100000, beſides 97000 carried captive. Titus the Roman General, ſeeing the infinite carcaſſes of the Jews caſt out unburied without the walls of the City was much grieved,Joſeph. and took God to witneſs that he was not the authour of that calamity, but that the fault was altogether in thoſe ſtubborn Jews, that held out the City againſt him.

For all this his anger is not turned away] With thoſe froward ones God will ſhew himſelf froward, Pſal. 18.26. and not give place to their pertinacy, till they had enough of it. It muſt be an humble ſubmiſſion that pacifieth Gods wrath.

Ver. 26. And he will lift up an enſign] That is, by his ſecret providence he ſhall bring on the enemies army. The Roman forces are called Gods armies, Mat. 22.7. and Titus confeſſed that he only lent God his hand to execute his wrath on that rebellious people the Jews.

And will hiſs unto them] Bring them together with little ado; as Pilots hiſs for their ſhip-boyes, or ſhepheards whiſtle for their ſheep to come about them.

From the end of the earth] Rome was far remote from Jeruſalem: and in the Roman army were likely, many French, Spaniards, Italians, and perhaps Britons.

And behold they ſhall come with ſpeed] Sooner then thoſe mockers imagined, who ſaid ver. 19. Let him make ſpeed. Hence the enemy is compared to a ſwift Eagle, Deut. 28.

Ver. 27. None ſhall be weary nor ſtumble] Though they come ſpeedily, yet they ſhall none of them tire or turn out of the way; but come on with expedition; robuſti, alacres, felices, probe armati, ſaevi, ver. 27, 28, 29. being lively, luſty, happy, well appointed, fierce.

None ſhall ſlumber or ſleep] More then the neceſſity of nature requireth: they ſhall be no leſs vigilant then diligent.

Neither ſhall the girdle of their loins be looſed] They may put up their ſwords ſometimes, but not put them off at all, as it is ſaid of Julius Caeſar.

Nor the latchet] i. e. So as to hinder their march.

Ver. 28. Whoſe arrows are ſharp] Or ſharpened, ſc. to wound the deeper.

Their horſes hoofs] Judea was a ſtony Countrey: but hard to hard will not eaſily break.

Ver. 29. Their roaring ſhall be like a Lion] At whoſe terrible roar, the beaſts of the field are ſaid to ſtand as amazed.

They ſhall lay hold on the prey] Not of wealth only but of perſons, and ſhall hold their own when they have gotten them.

Ver. 30. Like the roaring of the ſea] The noyſe whereof is ſo hideous, that the ſhreiking of the Devil is ſet forth by it, Jam. 2.19. See the Note there.

And if one look into the land] Or, to the earth below, behold darkneſs, &c. as if to the Heavens, the light alſo there is darkned. Man cannot help them, God will not. To ſuch ſtraits of an evil, an only evil, are ſuch oft brought, as think themſelves out of the reach of Gods Rod. Vae victis.