Isaiah 57 commentary

The righteous are delivered from the sting of death, not from the stroke of it. The careless world disregards this. Few lament it as a public loss, and very few notice it as a public warning. They are taken away in compassion, that they may not see the evil, nor share in it, nor be tempted by it. The righteous man, when he dies, enters into peace and rest.

The Lord here calls apostates and hypocrites to appear before him. When reproved for their sins, and threatened with judgments, they ridiculed the word of God. The Jews were guilty of idolatry before the captivity; but not after that affliction. Their zeal in the worship of false gods, may shame our indifference in the worship of the true God. The service of sin is disgraceful slavery; those who thus debase themselves to hell, will justly have their portion there. Men incline to a religion that inflames their unholy passions. They are led to do any evil, however great or vile, if they think it will atone for crimes, or purchase indulgence for some favourite lust. This explains idolatry, whether pagan, Jewish, or antichristian. But those who set up anything instead of God, for their hope and confidence, never will come to a right end. Those who forsake the only right way, wander in a thousand by-paths. The pleasures of sin soon tire, but never satisfy. Those who care not for the word of God and his providences, show they have no fear of God. Sin profits not; it ruins and destroys.

The idols and their worshippers shall come to nothing; but those who trust in God's grace, shall be brought to the joys of heaven. With the Lord there is neither beginning of days, nor end of life, nor change of time. His name is holy, and all must know him as a holy God. He will have tender regard to those who bring their mind to their condition, and dread his wrath. He will make his abode with those whose hearts he has thus humbled, in order to revive and comfort them. When troubles last long, even good men are tempted to entertain hard thoughts of God. Therefore He will not contend for ever, for he will not forsake the work of his own hands, nor defeat the purchase of his Son's blood. Covetousness is a sin that particularly lays men under the Divine displeasure. See the sinfulness of sin. See also that troubles cannot reform men unless God's grace work in them. Peace shall be published, perfect peace. It is the fruit of preaching lips, and praying lips. Christ came and preached peace to Gentiles, as well as to the Jews; to after-ages, who were afar off in time, as well as to those of that age. But the wicked would not be healed by God's grace, therefore would not be healed by his comforts. Their ungoverned lusts and passions made them like the troubled sea. Also the terrors of conscience disturbed their enjoyments. God hath said it, and all the world cannot unsay it, That there is no peace to those who allow themselves in any sin. If we are recovered from such an awful state, it is only by the grace of God. And the influences of the Holy Spirit, and that new heart, from whence comes grateful praise, the fruit of our lips, are his gift. Salvation, with all its fruits, hopes, and comforts, is his work, and to him belongs all the glory. There is no peace for the wicked man; but let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon.

CHAPTER 57

Is 57:1-21. The Peaceful Death of the Righteous Few: the Ungodliness of the Many: a Believing Remnant Shall Survive the General Judgments of the Nation, and Be Restored by Him Who Creates Peace.

In the midst of the excesses of the unfaithful watchmen (Is 56:10, 11, 12), most of the few that are godly perish: partly by vexation at the prevailing ungodliness; partly by violent death in persecution: prophetical of the persecuting times of Manasseh, before God's judgments in causing the captivity in Babylon; and again those in the last age of the Church, before the final judgments on the apostasy (2Ki 21:16; Mt 23:29-35, 37; Re 11:17). The Hebrew for "perisheth," and "is taken away," expresses a violent death (Mi 7:2).

1. no man layeth it to heart--as a public calamity.

merciful men--rather, godly men; the subjects of mercy.

none considering--namely, what was the design of Providence in removing the godly.

from the evil--Hebrew, from the face of the evil, that is, both from the moral evil on every side (Is 56:10-12), and from the evils about to come in punishment of the national sins, foreign invasions, &c. (Is 56:9; 57:13). So Ahijah's death is represented as a blessing conferred on him by God for his piety (1Ki 14:10-13; see also 2Ki 22:20).

2. Or, "he entereth into peace"; in contrast to the persecutions which he suffered in this world (Job 3:13, 17). The Margin not so well translates, "he shall go in peace" (Psa 37:37; Lu 2:29).

rest--the calm rest of their bodies in their graves (called "beds," 2Ch 16:14; compare Is 14:18; because they "sleep" in them, with the certainty of awakening at the resurrection, 1Th 4:14) is the emblem of the eternal "rest" (He 4:9; Re 14:13).

each one walking in ... uprightness--This clause defines the character of those who at death "rest in their beds," namely, all who walk uprightly.

3. But ... ye--In contrast to "the righteous" and their end, he announces to the unbelieving Jews their doom.

sons of the sorceress--that is, ye that are addicted to sorcery: this was connected with the worship of false gods (2Ki 21:6). No insult is greater to an Oriental than any slur cast on his mother (1Sa 20:30; Job 30:8).

seed of the adulterer--Spiritual adultery is meant: idolatry and apostasy (Mt 16:4).

4. sport yourselves--make a mock (Is 66:5). Are ye aware of the glory of Him whom you mock, by mocking His servants ("the righteous," Is 57:1)? (2Ch 36:16).

make ... wide mouth--(Psa 22:7, 13; 35:21; La 2:16).

children of transgression, &c.--not merely children of transgressors, and a seed of false parents, but of transgression and falsehood itself, utterly unfaithful to God.

5. Enflaming yourselves--burning with lust towards idols [Gesenius]; or else (compare Margin), in the terebinth groves, which the Hebrew and the parallelism favor (see on Is 1:29) [Maurer].

under ... tree--(2Ki 17:10). The tree, as in the Assyrian sculptures, was probably made an idolatrous symbol of the heavenly hosts.

slaying ... children--as a sacrifice to Molech, &c. (2Ki 17:31; 2Ch 28:3; 33:6).

in ... valleys--the valley of the son of Hinnom. Fire was put within a hollow brazen statue, and the child was put in his heated arms; kettle drums (Hebrew, toph) were beaten to drown the child's cries; whence the valley was called Tophet (2Ch 33:6; Jr 7:3).

under ... clifts--the gloom of caverns suiting their dark superstitions.

6. The smooth stones, shaped as idols, are the gods chosen by thee as thy portion (Psa 16:5).

meat offering--not a bloody sacrifice, but one of meal and flour mingled with oil. "Meat" in Old English meant food, not flesh, as it means now (Le 14:10).

Should I receive comfort--rather, "Shall I bear these things with patience?" [Horsley].

7. Upon ... high mountain ... bed--image from adultery, open and shameless (Eze 23:7); the "bed" answers to the idolatrous altar, the scene of their spiritual unfaithfulness to their divine husband (Eze 16:16, 25; 23:41).

8. "Remembrance," that is, memorials of thy idolatry: the objects which thou holdest in remembrance. They hung up household tutelary gods "behind the doors"; the very place where God has directed them to write His laws "on the posts and gates" (De 6:9; 11:20); a curse, too, was pronounced on putting up an image "in a secret place" (De 27:15).

discovered thyself--image from an adulteress.

enlarged ... bed--so as to receive the more paramours.

made ... covenant--with idols: in open violation of thy "covenant" with God (Ex 19:5; 23:32). Or, "hast made assignations with them for thyself" [Horsley].

thy bed ... their bed--The Jews' sin was twofold; they resorted to places of idolatry ("their bed"), and they received idols into the temple of God ("thy bed").

where--rather, "ever since that" [Horsley]. The Hebrew for "where" means "room" (Margin), a place; therefore, translate, "thou hast provided a place for it" (for "their bed"), namely, by admitting idolatrous altars in thy land [Barnes]; or "thou choosest a (convenient) place for thyself" in their bed [Maurer] (Is 56:5).

9. the king--the idol which they came to worship, perfumed with oil, like harlots (Jr 4:30; Eze 23:16, 40). So "king" means idol (Am 5:26; Zep 1:5); (malcham meaning "king") [Rosenmuller]. Rather, the king of Assyria or Egypt, and other foreign princes, on whom Israel relied, instead of on God; the "ointment" will thus refer to the presents (Ho 12:1), and perhaps the compliances with foreigners' idolatries, whereby Israel sought to gain their favor [Lowth] (Is 30:6; Eze 16:33; 23:16; Ho 7:11).

send ... messengers far off--not merely to neighboring nations, but to those "far off," in search of new idols, or else alliances.

even unto hell--the lowest possible degradation.

10. greatness of ... way--the length of thy journey in seeking strange gods, or else foreign aid (Jr 2:23, 24). Notwithstanding thy deriving no good from these long journeys (so, "send ... far off," Is 57:9), thou dost not still give up hope (Jr 2:25; 18:12).

hast found ... life of ... hand--for "thou still findest life (that is, vigor) enough in thy hand" to make new idols [Maurer], or to seek new alliance ("hand" being then taken for strength in general).

grieved--rather, "therefore thou art not weak" [Maurer]; inasmuch as having "life in thy hand," thou art still strong in hope.

11. Israel wished not to seem altogether to have denied God. Therefore they "lied" to Him. God asks, Why dost thou do so? "Whom dost thou fear? Certainly not Me; for thou hast not remembered Me." Translate, "seeing that thou hast not remembered Me."

laid it to ... heart--rather, "nor hast Me at heart"; hast no regard for Me; and that, because I have been long silent and have not punished thee. Literally, "Have I not held My peace, and that for long? and so thou fearest Me not" (Psa 50:21; Ec 8:11). It would be better openly to renounce God, than to "flatter Him" with lies of false professions (Psa 78:36) [Ludovicus De Dieu]. However, Is 51:12, 13 favors English Version of the whole verse; God's "silent" long-suffering, which was intended to lead them to repentance, caused them "not to fear Him" (Ro 2:4, 5).

12. declare--I will expose publicly thy (hypocritical) righteousness. I will show openly how vain thy works, in having recourse to idols, or foreign alliances, shall prove (Is 57:3).

13. When thou criest--In the time of thy trouble.

companies--namely, of idols, collected by thee from every quarter; or else, of foreigners, summoned to thy aid.

wind ... carry ... away--(Job 21:18; Mt 7:27).

vanity--rather, "a breath" [Lowth].

possess ... land ... inherit--that is, the literal land of Judea and Mount Zion; the believing remnant of Israel shall return and inherit the land. Secondarily, the heavenly inheritance, and the spiritual Zion (Is 49:8; Psa 37:9, 11; 69:35, 36; Mt 5:5; He 12:22). "He that putteth his trust in Me," of whatever extraction, shall succeed to the spiritual patrimony of the apostate Jew [Horsley].

14. shall say--The nominative is, "He that trusteth in Me" (Is 57:13). The believing remnant shall have every obstacle to their return cleared out of the way, at the coming restoration of Israel, the antitype to the return from Babylon (Is 35:8; 40:3, 4; 62:10, 11).

Cast ... up--a high road before the returning Jews.

stumbling-block--Jesus had been so to the Jews, but will not be so then any longer (1Co 1:23); their prejudices shall then be taken out of the way.

15. The pride and self-righteousness of the Jews were the stumbling block in the way of their acknowledging Christ. The contrition of Israel in the last days shall be attended with God's interposition in their behalf. So their self-humiliation, in Is 66:2, 5, 10, &c., precedes their final prosperity (Zec 12:6, 10-14); there will, probably, be a previous period of unbelief even after their return (Zec 12:8, 9).

16. For--referring to the promise in Is 57:14, 15, of restoring Israel when "contrite" (Ge 6:3; 8:21; Psa 78:38, 39; 85:5; 103:9, 13, 14; Mi 7:18). God "will not contend for ever" with His people, for their human spirit would thereby be utterly crushed, whereas God's object is to chasten, not to destroy them (La 3:33, 34; Mi 7:8, 9). With the ungodly He is "angry every day" (Psa 7:11; Re 14:11).

spirit ... before me--that is, the human spirit which went forth from Me (Nu 16:22), answering to "which I have made" in the parallel clause.

17. covetousness--akin to idolatry; and, like it, having drawn off Israel's heart from God (Is 2:7; 56:11; 58:3; Jr 6:13; Col 3:5).

hid me--(Is 8:17; 45:15).

went on frowardly--the result of God's hiding His face (Psa 81:12; Ro 1:24, 26).

18. Rather, "I have seen his ways (in sin), yet will I heal him," that is, restore Israel spiritually and temporally (Jr 33:6; 3:22; Ho 14:4, 5) [Horsley].

I will ... restore comforts unto him and to his mourners--However, the phrase, "his mourners," favors English Version; "his ways" will thus be his ways of repentance; and God's pardon on "seeing" them answers to the like promise (Is 61:2, 3; Jr 31:18, 20).

19. fruit of ... lips--that is, thanksgivings which flow from the lips. I make men to return thanks to Me (Ho 14:2; He 13:15).

Peace, peace--"perfect peace" (see Is 26:3, Margin; Joh 14:27). Primarily, the cessation of the troubles now afflicting the Jews, as formerly, under the Babylonian exile. More generally, the peace which the Gospel proclaims both to Israel "that is near," and to the Gentiles who are "far off" (Ac 2:39; Ep 2:17).

20. when it cannot rest--rather, "for it can have no rest" (Job 15:20, &c.; Pr 4:16, 17). English Version represents the sea as occasionally agitated; but the Hebrew expresses that it can never be at rest.

21. (Is 48:22; 2Ki 9:22).

my God--The prophet, having God as his God, speaks in the person of Israel, prophetically regarded as having now appropriated God and His "peace" (Is 11:1-3), warning the impenitent that, while they continue so, they can have no peace.

The righteous perisheth - הצדק אבד hatstsadik abad. There is an emphasis here which seems intended to point out a particular person. See below. Perisheth - As the root אבד abad signifies the straying of cattle, their passing away from one pasture to another, I feel inclined to follow the grammatical meaning of the word "perish," pereo. So the Vulgate, justus periit, from per, By or Through, and eo, to Go. In his death the righteous man may be said to have passed through life, and to have passed by men, i.e., gone or passed before them into the eternal world. A similar mode of speech is used by our Saxon ancestors to express death: he went out of sight; and he went away; and to fare forth, to die.

There are very few places in Isaiah where Jesus Christ is not intended; and I am inclined to think that He is intended here, That Just One; and perhaps Stephen had this place in view, when he thus charged the Jews, "Ye denied τον ἁγιον και δικαιον, that Holy and Just One," Act 3:14. That his death was not laid to heart by the wicked Jewish people, needs no proof.

Merciful men - If the first refers to Christ, this may well refer to the apostles. and to others of the primitive Christians, who were taken away, some by death and martyrdom, and others by a providential escape from the city that they knew was devoted to destruction.

The evil to come - That destruction which was to come upon this disobedient people by the Romans.

He shalt enter into peace "He shall go in peace" - יבוא שלום yabo shalom; the expression is elliptical, such as the prophet frequently uses. The same sense is expressed at large and in full terms, Gen 15:15 : ואתה תבא אל אבותיך בשלום veattah libbo al abotheycha beshalom, "and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace."

They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness "He shall rest in his bed; even the perfect man" - This obscure sentence is reduced to a perfectly good sense, and easy construction by an ingenious remark of Dr. Durell. He reads ינוח על משכבו תם yanuach al mishcabo tam, "the perfect man shall rest in his bed." Two MSS. (one of them ancient) have ינוח yanuach, singular; and so the Vulgate renders it, requiescat, "he shall rest." The verb was probably altered to make it plural, and so consistent with what follows after the mistake had been made in the following words, by uniting משכבו mishcabo and תם tam into one word. See Merrick's Annotations on the Psalms, Addenda; where the reader will find that J. S. Moerlius, by the same sort of correction, and by rescuing the adjective תם tam, which had been swallowed up in another word in the same manner, has restored to a clear sense a passage before absolutely unintelligible: - למו חרצבות אין כי lemo chartsubboth ein ki :אולם ובריא תם ulam ubari tham "For no distresses happen to them;

Perfect and firm is their strength." Psa 73:4.

To follow on my application of this to our Lord: - He, the Just One, shall enter into peace - the peaceable, prosperous possession of the glorious mediatorial kingdom. They shall rest upon their beds - the hand of wrong and oppression can reach these persecuted followers of Christ no more. (But see below.) The perfect man walking in his uprightness. This may be considered as a general declaration. The separated spirit, though disunited from its body walking in conscious existence in the paradise of God, reaping the fruit of righteousness. The word which we render their beds, משכבותם mishkebotham, the learned bishop supposes to be two words; and to be compounded of משכבו mishkabo, his bed, and תם tam, the upright or perfect man. This is the reading both of the Syriac and Vulgate, and it is favored by the Chaldee: and one of De Rossi's MS. has משכבו mishkabo, his bed, without the word תם tam, which has been added by a later hand. Bishop Lowth, as we have seen, adopts this separation of the word and for ינוחו yanuchu, they shall rest, reads ינוה yanuach, he shall rest, which is supported by two of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., and by the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic. The word תם tam, taken from משכבותם mishkebotham, should begin the latter clause of the verse; and then the interpolated words, each one, which our translators supplied, may be very well spared. The verse may be then read and paraphrased thus; -

He shall enter into peace: he shall rest upon his bed;

The perfect man walking in his uprightness.

The bed must signify the grave; the walking in uprightness after death, the conscious existence of the happy spirit, and its eternal progression in happiness and perfection: נכחו nechocho, straight before him; proceeding into the unlimited extent of eternal glory, increasing in happiness, and increasing in perfection.

My old MS. Bible translates very nervously: -

The rigtwise man perishith,

And there is not that bethinke in his herte.

And men of mercy ben gedrid,

For there is not that understonde:

From the face of malice,

Gedreid is the rigtwise.

Cumm pese: reste it in his bed

That geede in his rigt rewlinge.

It has been often remarked that, previously to the execution of God's judgments upon a wicked place, he has removed good men from it, that they might not suffer with the wicked. When great and good men are removed by death, or otherwise, from any place, the remaining inhabitants have much cause to tremble.

Among the smooth stones of the stream "Among the smooth stones of the valley" - The Jews were extremely addicted to the practice of many superstitious and idolatrous rites, which the prophet here inveighs against with great vehemence. Of the worship of rude stones consecrated, there are many testimonials of the ancients. They were called βαιτυλοι and βαιτυλια· probably from the stone which Jacob erected at Beth-el, pouring oil upon the top of it. This practice was very common in different ages and places. Arnobius, lib. i., gives an account of his own practice in this respect before he became a Christian: Si quando conspexeram lubricatum lapidem, et ex olivi unguine sordidatum; tanquam inesset vis praesens, adulabar, affabar, et beneficia poscebam nihil sentiente de trunco. "When I have met with a smooth stone, smeared with oil, supposing a spiritual power to be connected with it, I worshipped it, paid my addresses to it, and requested blessings," etc. Clemens Alex., Strom. lib. vii., speaks of a worshipper of every smooth stone in a proverbial way, to denote one given up to superstition. And accordingly Theophrastus has marked this as one strong feature in the character of the superstitious man: Και των λιπαρων λιθων των εν ταις τριοδοις παριων, εκ της ληκυθου ελαιου καταχειν, και επι γονατα πεσων και προσκυνησας απαλλαττεσθαι. "Passing by the anointed stones in the streets, he takes out his phial of oil, and pours it on them; and having fallen on his knees, and made his adorations, he departs. "Kimchi says: "When they found a beautiful polished stone in a brook or river, they paid Divine adoration to it." This idolatry is still prevalent among the Hindoos. The stone which is the object of their adoration is called salgram. They are found about eighty miles from the source of the river Sown, in the viceroyalty of Bahar, on the coast of Bengal. Ayeen Akbery vol. 2 p. 29.

Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance "Behind the door, and the door-posts, hast thou set up thy memorial" - That is, the image of their tutelary gods, or something dedicated to them; in direct opposition to the law of God, which commanded them to write upon the door-posts of their house, and upon their gates, the words of God's law; Deu 6:9; Deu 11:20. If they chose for them such a situation as more private, it was in defiance of a particular curse denounced in the law against the man who should make a graven or a molten image, and put it in a secret place; Deu 27:15. An ancient MS., with another, has אחר achar, without the conjunction ו vau, and.

And thou wentest to the king with ointment "And thou hast visited the king with a present of oil" - That is, the king of Assyria, or Egypt. Hosea, chap, Hos 12:1, reproaches the Israelites for the same practice: - "They make a covenant with Assyria,

And oil is carried to Egypt."

It is well known, that in all parts of the east, whoever visits a great person must carry him a present. "It is counted uncivil," says Maundreg, p. 26, "to visit in this country without an offering in hand. All great men expect it as a tribute due to their character and authority; and look upon themselves as affronted, and indeed defrauded, when the compliment is omitted." Hence שור shur, to visit a person, is equivalent to making him a present; and תשורה teshurah signifies a present made on such occasions; as our translators have rightly rendered it, 1Sam 9:7; on which Jarchi says Menachem exponit תשורה teshurah, quod significat oblationem sive manus, ut aliquis aspiciat faciem regis, aut alicuius magnatis. "Menachem expounds תשורה teshurah of an offering or gift which is presented in order to be admitted into the presence of the king or some great man."

Yet saidst thou not, There is no hope "Thou hast said, There is hope" - In one of the MSS. at Koningsberg, collated by Lilienthal, the words לא אמרת lo amarta, are left in the text unpointed, as suspected; and in the margin the corrector has written ותאמרי vattomari. Now if we compare Jer 2:25 and Jer 18:12, we shall find that the subject is in both places quite the same with this of Isaiah; and the sentiment expressed, that of a desperate resolution to continue at all hazards in their idolatrous practices; the very thing that in all reason we might expect here. Probably, therefore, the latter is the true reading in this place. - L.

For laid it to thy heart "Nor revolved it in thy hand" - Eight MSS., (four ancient), and the two oldest editions, with another, add the conjunction ו vau, ולא velo: which is confirmed by all the ancient Versions.

Even of old "And winked" - For ומעולם umeolam, which makes no good sense or construction in this place, twenty-three MSS. (seven ancient) and three editions have מעלם, (to be thus pointed מעלם malim); Παρορω, Septuagint; quasi non videns, "as if not seeing," Vulgate. See Psa 10:1. The truth of this reading, so confirmed, admits of no doubt. In one of my own MSS. the ו vau has been written, but afterwards struck out. Is it not because I was silent, and winked?

Thy righteousness "My righteousness" - For צדקתך tsidkathech, Thy righteousness, the Syriac, Septuagint, MSS. Alex. and Pachom., and 1. D. II., and Marchal. and οἱ Γ, and the Arabics read צדקי tsidki, My righteousness.

Let thy companies deliver thee "Let thine associates deliver thee" - Thirty-nine MSS. (ten ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, and two of my own, and the two oldest editions have יצילכו yatstsiluchu, plural.

And shall say "Then will I say" - ואמר vaomer, to be pointed as the first person future. They are the words of God, as it is plain from the conclusion of the verse; my people, עמי ammi.

For thus saith the high and lofty One "For thus saith Jehovah, the high and the lofty" - A MS. adds יהוה Yehovah, after אמר amar, and edition Prag. 1518. So the Septuagint, Alex., and Arabic. An ancient MS. adds יה Yah.

With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit - Twelve MSS. have את eth, without the conjunction ו vau. Pro ואת veeth, forte legendum ואראה veerah: confer Psa 113:5, et Psa 138:6. - Secker. "We should perhaps read ואראה veerah, instead of ואת veeth. See Psa 113:5, and Psa 138:6."

For I will not contend for ever - The learned have taken a great deal of pains to little purpose on the latter part of this verses which they suppose to be very obscure. After all their labors upon it, I think the best and easiest explication of it is given in the two following elegant passages of the Psalms, which I presume are exactly parallel to it, and very clearly express the same sentiment. "But he in his tender mercy will forgive their sin

And will not destroy them;

Yea, oftentimes will he turn away his wrath,

And will not rouse up his indignation:

For he remembereth that they are but flesh,

A breath that passeth, and returneth not." Psa 78:38, Psa 78:39. "He will not always contend

Neither will he for ever hold his wrath:

As a father yearneth towards his children,

So is Jehovah tenderly compassionate towards them that fear him For he knoweth our frame;

He remembereth that we are but dust." Psa 103:9, Psa 103:13, Psa 103:14.

In the former of these two passages the second line seems to be defective both in measure and sense. I suppose the word אותם otham, then is lost at the end; which seems to be acknowledged by the Chaldee and Vulgate, who render as if they had read ולא ישחית אותם velo yaschith otham. - L.

For the spirit - רוח ruach, the animal life.

And the souls - נשמות neshamoth, the immortal spirits. The Targum understands this of the resurrection. I will restore the souls of the dead, i.e., to their bodies.

For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth "Because of his iniquity for a short time was I wroth" - For בצעו bitso, I read בצע betsa, a little while, from בצע batsa, he cut of, as the Septuagint read and render it, βραχυ τι, "a certain short space." Propter iniquitatem avaritiae ejus, "because of the iniquity of his avarice," the rendering of the Vulgate, which our translators and I believe all others follow, is surely quite beside the purpose.

I have seen his ways - Probably these verses refer to the restoration of the Jews from captivity.

I create the fruit of the lips - "The sacrifice of praise," saith St. Paul, Heb 13:15, "is the fruit of the lips." God creates this fruit of the lips, by giving new subject and cause of thanksgiving by his mercies conferred on those among his people, who acknowledge and bewail their transgressions, and return to him. The great subject of thanksgiving is peace, reconciliation and pardon, offered to them that are nigh, and to them that are afar off, not only to the Jew, but also to the Gentile, as St. Paul more than once applies those terms, Eph 2:13, Eph 2:17. See also Act 2:39.

Peace to him that is far off "That is, to the penitent; and to him that is near, i.e., the righteous." - Kimchi.

There is no peace, saith my God - For אלהי Elohai, twenty-two MSS. (five ancient) of Kennicott's, thirty of De Rossi's, and one ancient of my own, read יהוה Yehovah; the Vulgate, Septuagint, Alex., and Arabic, and three MSS. have both. This verse has reference to the nineteenth. The perseveringly wicked and impenitent are excluded from all share in that peace above mentioned, that reconcilement and pardon which is promised to the penitent only. The forty-eighth chapter ends with the same declaration, to express the exclusion of the unbelievers and impenitent from the benefit of the foregoing promises. - L.

The righteous - Just and holy men. No man - Few or none. Layeth it to heart - Is duly affected with this sad sign of God's displeasure.

He - This just and merciful man shall enter into a state of rest, where he shall be out of the reach of the approaching miseries. They - just men. Here is a sudden change of the number, which is very frequent in the prophets. Beds - In their graves, which are not unfitly called their beds, as their death is commonly called sleep in scripture.

Hither - To God's tribunal, to receive your sentence. Sons - Not by propagation, but by imitation. And the whore - Not the genuine children of Abraham, their dispositions were far more suitable to a bastardly brood, than to Abraham's seed.

Against whom - Consider whom it is that you mock and scoff, when you deride God's prophets. A seed - A generation of liars, whose practices contradict your professions, who deal deceitfully both with God and men.

Enflaming - Lusting after them, and mad upon them. Slaying - In way of sacrifice to their idols. Valleys - He seems to allude to the valley of Hinnom in which these cruelties were practised. Clifts - Which they chuse either for shade, or for those dark vaults, in rocks, which were convenient for idolatrous uses.

Portion - Thou hast chosen for thy portion those idols, which were worshipped by the sides of brooks or rivers where such smooth stones commonly lie. They - Thou hast forsaken me and chosen idols. Offered - For the devil is God's ape, and idolaters used the same rites and offerings in the worship of idols which God had prescribed in his own. Comfort - Should I be pleased with such a people and such actions?

Mountain - In high places, which were much used for religious worship, both by Israelites and by Heathens. Thy bed - Thine altar, in which thou didst commit spiritual whoredom with idols.

The posts - Behind the posts of the doors of thine house: where the Heathens placed their tutelar gods to whose protection they committed their houses, that so they might have their eyes and minds upon them, whensoever they went out or came in. Set up - Those monuments which thou didst set up there as remembrances of those idol - gods whom they represented. Discovered - Thou hast uncovered thy nakedness; to others beside me thine husband. Gone up - Into the adulterous bed. Enlarged - That it might receive many adulterers together. Thou hast multiplied thine idols and altars. A covenant - Thou hast covenanted to serve them.

The King - The king of Assyria, called the king by way of eminency, to whom the Israelites in the days of Isaiah were very prone to trust, and send presents. And so the prophet passes from their idolatry to another sin, even their confidence in Heathen princes. Increase - Didst send great quantities. Far off - Into Assyria, which was far from Judea. Debase - Thou wast willing to submit to the basest terms to procure their aid.

Wearied - Thou hast not eased, but tired thyself with thy tedious journey. Yet - And yet thou didst not perceive that thy labour was lost. Hast found - Thou hast sometimes found success in these ways. Not grieved - Therefore thou didst not repent of thy sin herein.

Feared - And who are they, the fear of whom drives thee to these wicked courses? Lied - That thou hast dealt thus perfidiously with me. Not remembered - Hast thou forgotten all those great things which I have done for thee. Held my peace - Have not I forbore to punish thee from time to time, that by this goodness I might oblige thee to love me. And thou - Or, therefore thou dost not fear or regard me. Thou abusest my long - suffering.

But - But they shall be carried away suddenly and violently by the blast of mine anger. Vanity - A vapour which quickly vanishes away. Inherit - Shall enjoy my favour and presence in my temple.

And he - God will raise up a man who shall say with authority and efficacy. Cast up - Make causeways, where it is needful, for their safe and easy passage, and remove all things which may hinder them in their return.

For - I will not proceed to the utmost severity with sinful men.

Covetousness - Of which sin the Jews were eminently guilty. But this comprehends all those sins for which God contended with them. He went - Yet he was not reformed, but trespassed more and more.

Mourners - To those who are humbled under God's hand, that mourn in Zion for their own and others sins.

I create - I will by my almighty power produce. Peace - That peace which is not wrought by mens hands, but only by God's lips or word. The doubling of the word signifies the certainty and abundance this peace. Far off - To the Gentiles who are far from God, as well as to the Jews, who are called a people near unto God, Psal 148:14.

Cast up - Their minds are restless, being perpetually hurried with their own lusts and passions, and with guilt, and the dread of the divine vengeance.

No peace - Though they may have a great share of prosperity, yet they have no share in this inward, and spiritual, and everlasting peace.

1 THe righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart ; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come .

Just and holy men, who are the pillars of the place and state in which they live, yea, as the Jews call them, the pillars of the World.

Few or none of the People. So he sheweth that the corruption was general in the People no less than in the Priests.

Is duly affected with this severe stroke and sad sign of Gods displeasure.

Or, godly; the same whom he now called righteous, whose duty and practice it is to exercise both Mercy or Kindness, and Justice.

From those dreadful Calamities which are coming upon the Nation.

Marginal references: Heb. men of kindness, or [illegible: 1 word].; Ps. 12. 1. Mic. 7. 2.; 2 Kin. [illegible: 1+ letters]2. 20.; Or, [illegible: 1 word] that which is evil.

2 He shall enter into peace : they shall rest in their beds , each one walking in his uprightness .

This just and merciful man shall enter in a state of peace and rest, where he shall be out of the reach of the approaching miseries. Or, he shall go (to wit, to his Fathers, as it is fully expressed, Gen. 15. 15. Or, he shall die, going being put for dying, as 1 Chr. 17. 11. compared with 2 Sam. 7. 12. Iob 10. 21. & 14. 20. Luk. 22. 22. and elsewhere:) in peace.

Just men. Here is a sudden change of the number, which is very frequent in the Prophets.

In their Graves, which are not unfitly called their Beds, or sleepping Houses, as their death is commonly called sleep in Scripture.

Or that walketh or did walk, i. e. live.

In a sincere and faithful discharge of his duties to God and Men. Or, before him, i. e. before God, according to the usual Phrase of Scripture, as Gen. 17. 1. 1 Kin. 2. 4. & 8. 25. For God is oft understood where he is not expressed, but only designed by this or the like pronoun, as Gen. 15. 13. and elsewhere.

Marginal references: Or, go in peace.; Or, before him.

3 But draw near hither , ye sons of the sorceress , the seed of the Adulteress, and the whore .

To Gods Tribunal, to answer for your selves, and to hear what I have to say against you, and to receive your sentence.

Not by propagation, but by imitation; such being frequently called a Mansor Womans Sons that learn their Art, or follow their Example: you Sorcerers, either properly or Metaphorically so called; for the Jews were guilty of it both ways.

Not the genuine Children of Abraham, as you pretend and boast, but begotten in Fornication upon a common Whore. Which is not to be understood properly but figuratively, because their dispositions and carriages were far more sutable to a bastardly brood, than to Abraham's Seed.

4 Against whom do ye sport your selves ? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue ? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falshood ?

Consider whom it is that you mock and scoff when you deride Gods Prophets, as they did, Isa. 28. 14, 22. and know that it is not so much Men that you abuse, as God, whose Cause they plead, and in whose name they speak.

These are the known and common gestures of Mockers, of which see Iob 16. 10. Psal. 22. 7. & 35. 21.

Either an adulterous brood, as was said before: or, a Generation of Liars, whose practices grosly contradict your principles and professions, who deal deceitfully and perfidiously both with God and with Men.

5 Enflaming your selves with idols under every green tree slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks ?

Heb. being enflamed, &c. lusting after them, and mad upon them, as the Phrase is, Ier. 50. 38. fervent both in making and in worshipping of them, as was observed, Isa. 44. 12, &c. It is a Metaphor borrowed from Whoredom to which Idolatry is oft compared.

Wheresoever you see an Idol erected, which was commonly done in Groves, or under great and shady trees, which both defended the Worshippers from the heat of the Sun, and were supposed to strike them with a kind of sacred Horrour and Reverence. See on Deut. 12. 2. 2. Kin. 16. 4. & 17. 10.

In way of Sacrifice to their Idols, after the manner of the barbarous Heathens; of which see on Lev. 18. 21. Deut. 12. 31. 2 Kin. 21. 6. & 23. 10.

Or, besides the brooks, which run in valleys: which was most commodious for such bloody work. He seems to allude to the valley of Hinnom in which these cruelties were practised, Ier. 7. 31. through which also the Brook Kidron is supposed to have run.

Which they chose either for shade, or for those dark vaults and hollow places, which were either by Nature or Art made in rocks, and which were convenient for, and frequently appointed to idolatrous uses.

Marginal references: Heb. with gods, or among the oaks.; 2 Kin. 16. 4.; Ezek. 16. 20. & 20. 26.

6 Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion ; they are thy lot : even to them hast thou poured a drink-offering, thou hast offered a meat-offering . Should I receive comfort in these ?

Thou hast chosen for thy portion those Idols which were either made of those smooth stones which were cast up by Rivers; or which were worshipped upon Altars made of such stones; or which were worshipped by the sides of Brooks or Rivers where such smooth stones commonly lie.

Thou hast forsaken me and chosen Idols for the great object of thy Worship and Trust.

For the Devil is Gods Ape, and Idolaters used the same Rites and offerings in the Worship of Idols which God had prescribed in his own, Numb. 15. 4, &c.

Should I be pleased with such a people and such Actions? Must I not needs be highly provoked, and shew my displeasure by an exemplary punishment of such wicked and foolish Actions? This is an usual Figure, called Meiosis, or Litotes, when less is said, and more is understood.

7 Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed : even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.

In high places, which were much used for religious Worship, both by Israelites and by Heathens.

Thine Altar, as appears from the Sacrifice here following, in which thou didst commit spiritual Whoredom with Idols. Compare Ezek. 23, 17, 41.

Marginal references: Ezek 16. 16, 25.

8 Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance : for thou hast discovered thy self to another than me , and art gone up : thou hast enlarged thy bed , and made a covenant with them ; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it .

Which by a Figure called Hendiaduo may be put for the doorposts, as it is expressed, Deut. 11. 20. Behind the posts of the doors of thine House: where the Heathens are said to have placed their tutelary gods to whose protection they committed themselves and their Houses, that so they might have their Eyes and Minds upon them, whensoever they went out or came in. Here also the Israelites might put them in some close corner, that they might keep them secret, it being opprobrious, and oft times dangerous for them to worship Idols.

Those Images or Monuments and tokens which thou didst make and set up there as remembrances of those Idol-gods whom they represented, or to whom they belonged. He saith, thy remembrance, in opposition to Gods remembrances, or to that Writing of Gods Law upon their doorposts, which God prescribed to keep him and his Law in their remembrance, Deut. 6. 9. & 11. 20.

Thou hast uncovered thy nakedness, i. e. prostituted thy Body (as that Phrase commonly signifies) to others besides me thine Husband. Heb. from with me (departing from me, or, as it were rising out of my Bed) thou hast uncovered or prostituted thy self to others like an impudent and insatiable strumpet.

Into the Adulterous Bed, as this very word is used, Gen. 49. 4.

That it might receive many Adulterers together. Thou hast multiplied thine Idols and Altars.

Thou hast covenanted to serve them, and to expect help from them. But because the verb here used being thus put by itself, never signifies to make a Covenant, it seems to be better rendred in the margent of our Bible, and by others, hast hewed it (to wit, thy Bed, which is expressed both in the next foregoing, and in the next following words:) for thy self (for thine Idolatrous uses:) larger than theirs, than their bed, as it follows: or thus, didst hew down (to wit, trees, which is easily understood both from the Verb, and from the nature of the thing) to or for thy self (to make Images or other things relating to thy false Gods) more than they, more than the Heathens, of whom thou hast learned these practices, as God complains, 2 King. 21. 9. Ezek. 16. 46, 47, 52.

No sooner didst thou see their Idols but thou wast enamoured with them, and didst fall down and worship them, like an unchaste and lewd Woman, who upon all occasions, and at the very first view of any man, is inflamed with Lust towards them. Heb. thou lovedst their Bed (i. e. their filthy conversation) in the place (for so this Hebrew word frequently signifies, as Deut. 23. 12. Isa. 22. 18. and elsewhere,) where thou sawest it. Or, thus, thou lovedst their bed, thou didst provide (as this word signifies, Exod. 18. 21. and so doth a word of the very same signification, Gen. 22. 8.) a place for it, to receive their Bed, to set up their Idols in thine own house.

Marginal references: Ezek. 8. 10. & 23. 14.; Or, hewed it for thy self larger than theirs.; Ezek. 16. 26, 28. & 23. 12, &c.; Or, thou providest room.

9 And thou wentest to the king with ointment , and didst encrease thy perfumes , and didst send thy messengers far off , and didst debase thy self even unto hell .

Either by thy self, or, by thy messengers, as it follows. Or, thou didst look, to wit, earnestly, with expectation and vehement affection.

Either to Moloch, which was as it were the King or chief of their Idols, and which signifies a King. Or, to the great King of Assyria, called the King by way of eminency, to whom the Israelites in the days of Isaiah were very prone to seek, and trust, and send presents. Although the word, King, may be here taken collectively for the Kings of Assyria or Egypt, or any other King, from whom they desired or expected help in their straits. And so the Prophet passeth here from their Idolatry to another sin, even to their carnal confidence in Heathen Princes, for which they are oft severely reproved; although these two sins were commonly joined together, and they easily received Idolatry from those Kings whose help they desired.

With pretious Ointments, and particularly with balm, which was of great price, and was a commodity peculiar to those parts, and was sometimes sent as a present. See Gen▪ 43. 11. Ier. 8. 22. & 46. 11.

Didst send great quantities thereof to them to procure their aid.

Into Assyria, which was far from Iudaea.

Thou wast willing to submit to the basest terms to procure their aid.

Marginal references: Or, thou respectedst the King.; Ch. 30. 6. Ezek. 16. 33. & 23. 16.

10 Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way ; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope ; thou hast found the life of thine hand , therefore thou wast not grieved .

Thou hast not eased or relieved, but only tired thy self with all thy tedious journeys, and laborious endeavours.

And yet thou wast so stupid under all thy discouragements and disappointments, that thou didst not perceive that thy labour was lost, and that thy case was not mended but made worse and desperate by these practices.

Thou hast found (i. e. Thou falsly imaginest that thou hast found, or shalt assuredly find by these courses) the life (i. e. the strength or vigor) of thine hand, that thine hand is strengthened by these practices: or, life by thine hand, i. e. by these endeavours and applications of thy self to others for help. Or, thou hast sometimes found success in these ways.

Therefore thou didst not repent of thy sin and folly herein, but didst persist and applaud thy self in such courses.

Marginal references: Or, living[illegible: 1+ letters]

11 And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared , that thou hast lied , and hast not remembred me ▪ nor laid it to thy heart ? have not I held my peace even of old , and thou fearest me not !

And what or who are they, the fear of whom drives thee to these wicked and desperate courses? Are they not men, weak and mortal Creatures, such as wholly depend upon me, and can do nothing to thee either against me or without me?

That thou hast dealt thus disloyally and perfidiously with me, and sought for such foreign assistances, contrary to my command, and thy solemn Covenant.

Hast thou forgotten all those great things which I have done for thee, and all those Promises which I have made to thee, and constantly performed, when thou hast not grosly violated the conditions upon which they were made.

Or thus, nor set me upon thine heart, as these very words are rendred Cant. 8. 6. And so this is a repetition of what is said in the foregoing clause in other words. The sense is, Thou hast not seriously and affectionately considered what I am, how all-sufficient, and faithful, and gracious, for then thou wouldest not have distrusted or disobeyed me.

Have not I forborn to reprove and punish thee for this and for thy other sins, from time to time, ever since thou wast my People, that by this goodness I might oblige thee to love me, and to cleave unto me?

Or, therefore thou dost not fear or regard me. Thus thou abusest mine indulgence and long-suffering, taking occasion from thence to despise me.

12 I will declare thy righteousness and thy works ▪ for they shall not profit thee .

I will no longer be silent and patient towards thee.

Which may be put for the righteousness of thy works by that known figure, of which see the first note on v. 8. whereby he means their wickedness, which he calleth their righteousness either Ironically, or because it was covered with a pretence of Righteousness, and they alleadged that this was a just and lawful thing when they were distressed to seek for help from their Neighbours or Allies. The sense is, I will discover whether thy works be righteous, as thou pretendest they are: my punishments shall manifest the wickedness of thy Actions.

These Actions shall do thee no good but much hurt.

Marginal references: Heb. and.

13 When thou criest , let thy companies deliver thee : but the wind shall carry them all away ; vanity shall take them ; but he that putteth his trust in me, shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain :

To wit, unto me for deliverance

Expect it not from me whom thou hast forsaken and despised, but from those foreign troops to whom thou hast sought and trusted for succour.

But they shall be so far from saving thee that they shall not be able to deliver themselves, but shall be carried away suddenly and violently by the blast of mine anger.

A vapour or puff of Breath which quickly vanisheth away. It is the same thing in effect with the wind.

Or, take them away, as this verb signified, Hos. 11. 13. and elsewhere.

Shall enjoy my favour and presence in my Temple.

14 And shall say , Cast ye up, cast ye up , prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people .

Heb. And he shall say: or, and one shall say. God will raise up a man who shall say these words, and that with authority and efficacy, so as the thing shall be done.

Make causeways, where it is needful, for their safe and easie passage.

Remove all things which may hinder them in their return.

Marginal references: Ch. 40. 3. & 62. 10.

15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy , I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit , to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Who is omnipotent, everlasting and unchangeable, holy in all his words and ways, and therefore both can and will deliver his People, as he hath promised to do.

With such also whose Spirits are broken and humbled by Afflictions, and by a sense of their sins for which they were afflicted; which doubtless was the case of many of the Jews in the Babylonish Captivity: whom therefore he here implies that God would pity and deliver out of their Distresses.

Marginal references: Ps. 34. 18. & 51. 17. & 138. 6. Ch. 66. 2.

16 For I will not contend for ever , neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made .

I will not constantly proceed to the utmost severity with sinful men in this Life, and therefore I will put an end to the miseries of the Jews, and turn their captivity.

For then their Spirits would sink and die under my stroke, and I should do nothing else but destroy the works of mine own hands. Therefore I consider their Infirmity, and spare them. Compare Psal. 78. 38, 39 & 103. 13, 14.

Marginal references: Ps. 103. 9. Mic. 7. 18.; Num. 16. 22. Job 34. 14. Heb. 12. 9.

17 For the Iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me , and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart .

Of which sin the Jews were eminently guilty, as is expresly affirmed Ier. 6. 13. & 8. 10. But this is not mentioned exclusively as to other sins, but Synecdochically so as to comprehend all those sins for which God contended with them.

I withdrew my Favour and help from him, and left him in great calamities.

Yet he was not reformed by corrections, but in his distresses trespassed more and more, as was said of Ahaz, and obstinately persisted in those sinful courses which were chosen by and were most pleasing to the Lusts of his own corrupt Heart.

Marginal references: Heb. turning away.

18 I have seen his ways , and will heal him : I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him, and to his mourners .

I have taken notice of these evil ways in which he seems resolved to walk, and that he is neither bettered by Mercies nor Judgments.

Or, yet I will heal him. Although I might justly destroy him, and leave him to perish in his own ways, yet of my meer Mercy, and for my own Names sake, I will pity them, and turn them from their sins, and bring them out of all their troubles.

Or, to wit, the copulative Conjunction being put expositively, as it is frequently.

To those that are humbled under Gods Hand, that mourn in Sion, Isa. 61. 2, 3. for their own and others [illegible: 1+ letters]ns, Ezek. 9. 4. and for the calamities of Gods Church and People, Isa. 66. 10.

19 I create the fruit of the lips; peace , peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near , saith the LORD, and I will heal him.

I will by my Almighty Power, and in a wonderful manner produce.

Either 1. Praise or Thanksgiving, which is called the fruit of our lips, Hos. 14. 2. Heb. 13. 15. and Peace: Or rather 2. That Peace which is not wrought by Mens hands, but only by Gods Lips or Word, Peace with God, and in a mans own Conscience, which God hath promised to his People, and which he hath published and offered to all sorts of men by the preaching of the Prophets, and especially of the Apostles; as may be gathered both from the Object of this Peace in the following words, and by the exclusion of all wicked Men from this Peace, v. 20, 21.

The doubling of the word signifies the certainty and abundance of this Peace.

To the Gentiles who are far from God, and from Salvation, Act. 2. 38, 39. Eph. 2. 12, &c. as well as to the Jews, who are called a people near unto God, Psal. 148. 14.

Marginal references: Pro. 16. 1. Heb. 13. 15.

20. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt .

Their Minds are restless, being perpetually hurried and tormented with their own Lusts and Passions, and with the horrour of their guilt▪ and the dread of the Divine Vengeance due unto them, and ready to come upon them.

21 There is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked .

Though they may have as great a share of prosperity as the best of Men have, as appears from Psal. 37. 35. & 73. 3▪ &c. Eccl. 8. 14. & 9. 1. yet they have no share in this inward, and spiritual, and everlasting Peace.

Marginal references: Ch. 48. 22.

Isa 57:1-2

Whilst watchmen and shepherds, prophets and rulers, without troubling themselves about the flock which they have to watch and feed, are thus indulging their own selfish desires, and living in debauchery, the righteous man is saved by early death from the judgment, which cannot fail to come with such corruption as this. “The righteous perisheth, and no man taketh it to heart; and pious men are swept away, without any one considering that the righteous is swept away from misfortune. He entereth into peace: they rest upon their beds, whoever has walked straight before him.” With “the righteous” the prophet introduces, in glaring contrast to this luxurious living on the part of the leading men of the nation, the standing figure used to denote the fate of its best men. With this prevailing demoralization and worldliness, the righteous succumbs to the violence of both external and internal sufferings. אבד, he dies before his time (Ecc 7:15); from the midst of the men of his generation he is carried away from this world (Psa 12:2; Mic 7:2), and no one lays it to heart, viz., the divine accusation and threat involved in this early death. Men of piety (chesed, the love of God and man) are swept away, without there being any one to understand or consider that (kı̄ unfolds the object to be considered and laid to heart, viz., what is involved in this carrying away when regarded as a providential event) the righteous is swept away “from the evil,” i.e., that he may be saved from the approaching punishment (compare 2Ki 22:20). For the prevailing corruption calls for punishment from God; and what is first of all to be expected is severe judgment, through which the coming salvation will force its way. In Isa 57:2 it is intimated that the righteous man and the pious do not lose the blessings of this salvation because they lose this life: for whereas, according to the prophet’s watchword, there is no peace to the wicked, it is true, on the other hand, of the departing righteous man, that “he enters into peace” (shâlōm, acc. loci s. status; Ges. 118, 1); “they rest upon their beds,” viz., the bottom of the grave, which has become their mishkâb (Job 17:13; Job 21:26), “however has walked in that which lay straight before him,” i.e., the one straight plain path which he had set before him (נכחו acc. obj. as in Isa 33:15; Isa 50:10, Ewald, §172, b, from נכח, that which lies straight before a person; whereas נכח with נכח נכחו, signifying probably fixedness, steadiness of look, related to Arab. nkḥ, to pierce, נכה, percutere, is used as a preposition: compare Pro 4:25, לנכח, straight or exactly before him). The grave, when compared with the restlessness of this life, is therefore “peace.” He who has died in faith rests in God, to whom he has committed himself and entrusted his future. We have here the glimmering light of the New Testament consolation, that the death of the righteous is better than life in this world, because it is the entrance into peace.

Isa 57:3-4

The reproachful language of the prophet is now directed against the mass of the nation, who have occasioned the “evil” from which the righteous is swept away, i.e., the generation that is hostile to the servants of Jehovah, and by whom those sins of idolatry are still so shamelessly carried on, which first led to the captivity. “And ye, draw nearer hither, children of the sorceress, seed of the adulterer, and of her that committed whoredom! Over whom do ye make yourselves merry? Over whom do ye open the mouth wide, and put the tongue out long? Are ye not the brook of apostasy, seed of lying?” They are to draw nearer hither (hēnnâh as in Gen 15:16), to the place where God is speaking through His prophet, to have themselves painted, and to hear their sentence. Just as elsewhere the moral character of a man is frequently indicated by the mention of his father (2Ki 6:32), or his mother (1Sa 20:30), or both parents (Job 30:8), so here the generation of the captivity, so far as it continued to practise the idolatry by which its ancestors had brought upon themselves the Chaldean catastrophe, is called first עננה בּני (or more correctly עננה), sons of the sorceress (possibly the maker of clouds or storm, Isa 2:6, Jer. auguratricis), one who made heathen and superstitious customs her means of livelihood, viz., the community as it existed before the captivity, which really deserved no better name, on account of the crying contradiction between its calling and its conduct; and secondly, with regard to both the male and female members of the community, ותּזנה מנאף זרע, semen adulteri et fornicariae (Jer.), though Stier, Hahn, and others adopt the rendering semen adulterum et quod (qui)scortaris. A better rendering than this would be, “Seed of an adulterer, and one who committest adultery thyself,” viz., (what would be indicated with this explanation by the fut. consec.) in consequence of this descent from an adulterer. But as זרע (seed, posterity), wherever it is more minutely defined, is connected with a genitive, and not with an adjective, the presumption is that ותזנה מנאף denotes the father and mother. ותּזנה is an attributive clause regarded as a genitive (Ges. §123, 3, Anm. 1), and more closely connected with מנאף htiw than if it was written ותזנה = וזונה, Isa 1:21): Seed of an adulterer, and consequently (Ewald, §351,b), or similarly, of one who gave herself up to whoredom. Idolatry, prostitution, and magic are most closely allied. The prophet now asks, “Over whom do ye find your pleasure? For whom are your common contemptuous actions intended?” התענּג is only used here, and denotes the feeling which finds pleasure in the sufferings of another. The objects of this malicious contemptuous pleasure (Psa 22:8., Psa 35:21) are the servants of Jehovah; and the question, as in Isa 37:23, is one of amazement at their impudence, since the men over whom they make merry are really deserving of esteem, whereas they themselves are the refuse of Israel: Are ye not a brook of apostasy, seed of lying? As apostasy and lying, when regarded as parents, can only produce something resembling themselves; the character of those from whom they are descended is here imputed to the men themselves, even more clearly than before. The genitives of origin are also genitives of attribute. Instead of ילדי (e.g., Isa 2:6) we have here ילדי before makkeph, with the shortening of a into i.

Isa 57:5-6

The participles which follow in the next v. are in apposition to אתּ, and confirm the predicates already applied to them. They soon give place, however, to independent sentences. “Ye that inflame yourselves by the terebinths, under every green tree, ye slayers of children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks. By the smooth ones of the brook was thy portion; they, they were thy lot: thou also pouredst out libations to them, thou laidst meat-offerings upon them. Shall I be contented with this?” The people of the captivity are addressed, and the idolatry handed down to them from their ancestors depicted. The prophet looks back from the standpoint of the captivity, and takes his colours from the time in which he himself lived, possibly from the commencement of Manasseh’s reign, when the heathenism that had for a long time been suppressed burst forth again in all its force, and the measure of iniquity became full. The part. niphal הנּחמים is formed like נחן in Jer 22:23, if the latter signifies miserandum esse. The primary form is נחם, which is doubled like נגּר from גּרר in Job 20:28, and from which נחם is formed by the resolution of the latent reduplication. Stier derives it from; but even if formed from this, נחם would still have to be explained from נחם, after the form נצּת. 'Elı̄m signifies either gods or terebinths. But although it might certainly mean idols, according to Exo 15:11; Dan 11:36 (lxx, Targ., and Jerome), it is never used directly in this sense, and Isaiah always uses the word as the name of a tree (Isa 1:29; Isa 61:3). The terebinths are introduced here, exactly as in Isa 1:29, as an object of idolatrous lust: “who inflame themselves with the terebinths;” ב denotes the object with which the lust is excited and inf Lamed. The terebinth ('ēlâh) held the chief place in tree-worship (hence אלנם, lit., oak-trees, together with אלם, is the name of one of the Phoenician gods),See Levy, Phönizische Studien, i. 19. possibly as being the tree sacred to Astarte; just as the Samura Acacia among the heathen Arabs was the tree sacred to the goddess 'Uzza.Krehl, Religioin der vorisl. Araber, p. 74ff.

The following expression, “under every green tree,” is simply a permutative of the words “with the terebinths” in the sense of “with the terebinths, yea, under every green tree” (a standing expression from Deu 12:2 downwards) - one tree being regarded as the abode and favourite of this deity, and another of that, and all alluring you to your carnal worship.

From the tree-worship with its orgies, which was so widely spread in antiquity generally, the prophet passes to the leading Canaanitish abomination, viz., human sacrifices, which had been adopted by the Israelites (along with שׁחטי we find the false reading שׂחטי, which is interpreted as signifying self-abuse). Judging from the locality named, “under the clefts of the rocks,” the reference is not to the slaying of children sacrificed to Moloch in the valley of Hinnom, but to those offered to Baal upon his bâmōth or high places (Jer 19:5; Eze 16:20-21; Hos 13:2; Psa 106:37-38). As we learn from the chronique scandaleuse many things connected with the religious history of Israel, which cannot be found in its historical books, there is nothing to surprise us in the stone-worship condemned in Isa 57:6. The dagesh of חלּקי is in any case dagesh dirimens. The singular is wither חלק after the form חכמי (cf., עצבי, Isa 58:3), or חלק after the form ילדי. But חלק, smoothness, never occurs; and the explanation, “in the smoothnesses, i.e., the smooth places of the valley, is thy portion,” has this also against it, that it does not do justice to the connection בּ חלק, in which the preposition is not used in a local sense, and that it leaves the emphatic הם הם quite unexplained. The latter does not point to places, but to objects of worship for which they had exchanged Jehovah, of whom the true Israelite could say ה חלקי, Psa 119:57, etc., or בה לי חלק, Jos 22:25, and גּורלי תּומיך אתּה (Thou art He that maintaineth my lot), Psa 16:5. The prophet had such expressions as these in his mind, and possibly also the primary meaning of גורל = κλῆρος, which may be gathered from the rare Arabic word 'garal, gravel, stones worn smooth by rolling, when he said, “In the smooth ones of the valley is thy portion; they, they are thy lot.” In the Arabic also, achlaq (equilvaent to châlâq, smooth, which forms here a play upon the word with חלק, châlâq) is a favourite word for stones and rocks. חלּקי־נחל, however, according to 1Sa 17:40 (where the intensive form חלּוּק, like שׁכּוּל, is used), are stones which the stream in the valley has washed smooth with time, and rounded into a pleasing shape. The mode of the worship, the pouring out of libations,Compare the remarks made in the Comm. on the Pentateuch, at Gen 29:20, on the heathen worship of anointed stones, and the Baetulian worship. and the laying of meat-offerings upon them, confirm this view. In Carthage such stones were called abbadires (= אדיר, אבן); and among the ancient Arabs, the asnâm or idols consisted for the most part of rude blocks of stone of this description. Herodotus (3:8) speaks of seven stones which the Arabs anointed, calling upon the god Orotal. Suidas (s.v. Θεῦς ἄρης) states that the idol of Ares in Petra was a black square stone; and the black stone of the Ka'aba was, according to a very inconvenient tradition for the Mohammedans, an idol of Saturn (zuhal).See Krehl, p. 72. In the East Indies also we find stone-worship not only among the Vindya tribes (Lassen, A.K. i. 376), but also among the Vaishnavas, who worship Vishnu in the form of a stone, viz., the sâlagrâm, a kind of stone from the river Gandak (see Wilson’s Sanscrit Lexicon s.h.v. and Vishnu-Purân, p. 163). The fact of the great antiquity of stone and tree worship has been used in the most ridiculous manner by Dozy in his work on the Israelites at Mecca (1864). He draws the following conclusion from Deu 32:18 : “Thus the Israelites sprang from a divine block of stone; and this is, in reality, the true old version of the origin of the nation.” From Isa 51:1-2, he infers that Abraham and Sara were not historical persons at all, but that the former was a block of stone, and the latter a hollow; and that the two together were a block of stone in a hollow, to which divine worship was paid. “This fact,” he says, “viz. that Abraham and Sarah in the second Isaiah are not historical persons, but a block of stone and a hollow, is one of great worth, as enabling us to determine the time at which the stories of Abraham in Genesis were written, and to form a correct idea of the spirit of those stories.”

Stone-worship of this kind had been practised by the Israelites before the captivity, and their heathenish practices had been transmitted to the exiles in Babylon. The meaning of the question, Shall I comfort myself concerning such things? - i.e., Shall I be contented with them (אנּחם niphal, not hithpael)? - is, that it was impossible that descendants who so resembled their fathers should remain unpunished.

Isa 57:7-8

The prophet now proceeds with perfects, like שׁפכתּ and העלית (addressed to the national community generally, the congregation regarded as a woman). The description is mostly retrospective. “Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set up thy bed; thou also ascendedst thither to offer slain offerings. And behind the door and the post thou didst place thy reminder: for thou uncoveredst away from me, and ascendedst; thou madest thy bed broad, and didst stipulate for thyself what they had to do: thou lovedst their lying with thee; thou sawest their manhood.” The lovers that she sought for herself are the gods of the heathen. Upon lofty mountains, where they are generally worshipped, did she set up her bed, and did all that was needed to win their favour. The zikkârōn, i.e., the declaration that Jehovah is the only God, which the Israelites were to write upon the posts of their houses, and upon the entrances (Deu 6:9; Deu 11:20), for a constant reminder, she had put behind the door and post, that she might not be reminded, to her shame, of her unfaithfulness. That this explanation, which most of the commentators adopt, is the true one, is proved by the expression מאתּי כּי which follows, and according to which זכרון is something inconvenient, which might and was intended to remind them of Jehovah. מאתּי, away, far from me, as in Jer 3:1, and like מתּחתּי, which is still more frequently used. It is unnecessary to take gillı̄th with ערותך understood (Eze 23:18) as equivalent to “thou makest thyself naked,” or with reference to the clothes = ἀνασύρεις. משׁכּב is the common object of all three verbs, even of ותּעלי (with double metheg), after Gen 49:4. On ותּכרת for ותּכרתי (cf., Jer 3:5), see Ewald, §191, b. The explanation “thou didst bind,” or “thou didst choose (some) of them to thyself,” is contrary to the general usage, according to which ל כּרת signifies spondere (2Ch 7:18), and (עם כּרת pacisci (1Sa 22:8), in both cases with בּרית to be supplied, so that מן (בּרית) כּרת would mean stipulari ab aliquo, i.e., to obtain from a person a solemn promise, with all the force of a covenant. What she stipulated from them was, either the wages of adultery, or the satisfaction of her wanton lust. What follows agrees with this; for it is there distinctly stated, that the lovers to whom she offered herself gratified her lust abundantly: adamasti concutibum eorum (mishkâb, cubile, e.g., Pro 7:17, and concubitus, e.g., Ezra 23:17), manum conspexisit. The Targum and Jewish commentators adopt this explanation, loco quem delegisti, or (postquam) locum delegisti. This also is apparently the meaning of the accents, and most of the more modern commentators have adopted it, taking יד in the sense of place or side. But this yields only a very lame and unmeaning thought. Doederlein conjectured that יד was employed here in the sense of ἰθύφαλλος; and this is the explanation adopted by Hitzig, Ewald, and others. The Arabic furnishes several analogies to this obscene use of the word; and by the side of Eze 16:26 and Eze 23:20, where the same thing is affirmed in even plainer language, there is nothing to astonish in the passage before us. The meaning is, that after the church of Jehovah had turned away from its God to the world and its pleasures, it took more and more delight in the pleasures afforded it by idolatry, and indulged its tastes to the full.

Isa 57:9-10

In the closest reciprocal connection with this God-forgetting, adulterous craving for the favour of heathen gods, stood their coquetting with the heathen power of the world. “And thou wentest to the king with oil, and didst measure copiously thy spices, and didst send thy messengers to a great distance, and didst deeply abase thyself, even to Hades. Thou didst become weary of the greatness of thy way; yet thou saidst not, It is unattainable: thou obtainedst the revival of thy strength: therefore thou wast not pained.” The first thing to be noticed here, is one that has been overlooked by nearly all the modern commentators, viz., that we have here a historical retrospect before us. And secondly, a single glance at Isa 57:11 is sufficient to show that the words refer to a servile coquetry from the fear of man, and therefore to a wicked craving for the favour of man; so that “the king,” is not Baal, or any heathen god whatever (according to Isa 8:21 and Zep 1:5), but the Asiatic ruler of the world. Ahaz sent messengers, as we read in 2Ki 16:7., to Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria, to say to Him, “I am thy servant and thy son.” And Ahaz took the silver and gold that were in the house of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the palace, and sent a bribe to the king of Assyria. And again, at 2Ki 16:10., Ahaz went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria, and there he saw an altar, and sent a model of it to Jerusalem, and had one like it put in the place of the altar of burnt-offering. Such acts as these are here described in the figure of Israel travelling with oil to the king, and taking a quantity of choice spices with it to gain his favour, and also sending messengers, and not only bowing itself to the earth, but even stooping to Hades, that is to say, standing as it were on its head in its excessive servility, for the purpose of obtaining allies. It seems most natural to take בּשׁמן as equivalent to בשמן משׁוּחה: thou wentest in oil (dripping with pomade), and didst apply to thyself many spices; but Beth after verbs of going signifies to go with anything, to take it with one and bring it, so that the oil and spices are thought of here as presents, which she took with her as sensual stimulants, with a view to the amorous pleasures she was seeking (Eze 23:41, cf., Hos 12:2). השׁפּיל signifies to go deep down in Jer 13:18; the meaning here is, to bow very low, or to degrade one’s self. By “the greatness or breadth of the way” (a similar expression to that in Jos 9:13), all the great sacrifices are intended which it cost her to purchase the favour of the heathen ruler. Although they were a great trouble to her, yet she did not say נואש, “it is hopeless;” the niphal of יאשׁ signifies in 1Sa 27:1, to betake one’s self to a thing with despair of its success. The participle in Job 6:26 means a despairing person; it also occurs in a neuter sense in Jer 2:26; Jer 18:12, viz., given up, i.e., absolutely in vain. She did not give up hope, although the offerings nearly exhausted her strength; on the contrary, she gained יד חיּת, “life of her arm,” i.e., (according to the use of חיה in the sense of reviving, and החיה, to bring to life again) new life in her arm, in other words, “the renewing of her strength” (recentem vigorem virium suarum). Thus, without noticing the sighs and groans forced from her by the excessive toil and fatigue, but stirring herself up again and again, she pursued the plan of strengthening her alliances with the heathen. Ezekiel’s picture of Aholah and Aholibah is like a commentary on Isa 57:3-10 (see Ezek 23).

Isa 57:11

From fear of man, Israel, and still more Judah, had given up the fear of Jehovah. “And of whom hast thou been afraid, and (whom)didst thou fear, that thou becamest a liar, and didst not continue mindful of me, and didst not take it to heart?” It was of men - only mortal men, with no real power (Isa 51:12) - that Israel was so needlessly afraid, that it resorted to lies and treachery to Jehovah (kı̄, ut, an interrogative sentence, as in 2Sa 7:18; Psa 8:5): purchasing the favour of man out of the fear of man, and throwing itself into the arms of false tutelar deities, it banished Jehovah its true shelter out of its memory, and did not take it to heart, viz., the sinfulness of such infidelity, and the eventful consequences by which it was punished (compare Isa 47:7 and Isa 42:25).

With Isa 57:11 the reproaches are addressed to the present. The treachery of Israel had been severely punished in the catastrophe of which the captivity was the result, but without effecting any improvement. The great mass of the people were as forgetful of God as ever, and would not be led to repentance by the long-suffering of God, which had hitherto spared them from other well-merited punishments. “Am I not silent, and that for a long time, whereas thou wast not afraid of me?” A comparison with Isa 42:14 will show that the prophecy returns here to its ordinary style. The lxx and Jerome render the passage as if the reading were מעלם (viz., עיני = παρορῶν, quasi non videns), and this is the reading which Lowth adopts. We may see from this, that the original text had a defective ומעלם, which was intended, however, to be read וּמעלם. The prophet applies the term ‛ōlâm (see Isa 42:14) to the captivity, which had already lasted a long time - a time of divine silence: the silence of His help so fas as the servants of Jehovah were concerned, but the silence of His wrath as to the great mass of the people.

Isa 57:12-13

But this silence would not last for ever. “I will proclaim thy righteousness; and thy works, they will not profit thee. When thou criest, let thy heaps of idols save thee: but a wind carries them all away; a breath takes them off; and whoever putteth trust in me will inherit the land, and take possession of my holy mountain.” According to the context, צדקתך cannot be a synonym of ישׁוּעה f here. It is neither salvation nor the way of salvation that is intended; nor is this even included, as Stier supposes. But the simple reference is to what Israel in its blindness regarded as righteousness; whereas, if it had known itself, it would have seen that it was the most glaring opposite. This lying-righteousness of Israel would be brought to a judicial exposure by Jehovah. ואת־מעשׂיך is not a second accusative to אגּיד, for in that case we should have ומעשׂיך את־צדקתך; but it commences a second sentence, as the accents really indicate. When Jehovah begins thus to speak and act, the impotence of the false gods which His people have made for themselves will soon be exposed; and “as for thy works (i.e., thine idols, Isa 41:29, cf., Isa 1:31), they will do thee no good” (Isa 44:9-10, compare Jer 23:33; for the question מה־משׂא), here an empatic elevation of the subject, compare Isa 53:8, ואת־דורו, Ewald, § 277, p. 683). This determines the meaning of קבּוּציך, which Knobel supposes to refer to the large army of the Babylonians, with which the apostates among the exiles had formed an offensive and defensive alliance. But the term is really applied to the heaps (qibbūts, collectio, not an adjective of the form limmūd) of different idols, with which Israel had furnished itself even in its captivity (compare qibbâtsâh in Mic 1:7). It was in vain for them to turn to these pantheons of theirs; a single rūăch would carry them all away, a hebhel would sweep them off, for they themselves were nothing but hebhel and rūăch (Isa 41:29). The proper punctuation here is יקּח־הבל; the first syllable of יקח, which is attached to a word with a disjunctive accent, has a so-called heavy Gaya, the second a euphonic Gaya, according to rules which are too little discussed in our grammars. When Knobel supports his explanation of קבוציך on the ground that the idols in Isa 57:13 and the worshippers of Jehovah in Isa 57:13 do not form a fitting antithesis, the simple reply is, that the contrast lies between the idols, which cannot save, and Jehovah, who not only saves those who trust in Him, but sends them prosperity according to His promises. With the promise, “Whoso trusts in me will inherit the land,” this prophecy reaches the thought with which the previous prophecy (Isa 51:7-8) closed; and possibly what is here affirmed of קבּוּציך forms an intentional antithesis to the promise there, לנקבּציו עליו אקבּץ עוד: when Jehovah gathers His faithful ones from the dispersion, and gathers others to them (from among the heathen), then will the plunder which the faithless have gathered together be all scattered to the winds. And whilst the latter stand forsaken by their powerless works, the former will be established in the peaceful inheritance of the promised land. The first half of the prophecy closes here. It is full of reproach, and closes with a brief word of promise, which is merely the obverse of the threat. The second half follows an opposite course. Jehovah will redeem His people, provided it has been truly humbled by the sufferings appointed, for He has seen into what errors it has fallen since He has withdrawn His mercy from it. “But the wicked,” etc. The whole closes here with words of threatening, which are the obverse of the promise. Isa 57:13 forms the transition from the first half to the second.

Isa 57:14

The promise is now followed by a appeal to make ready the way which the redeemed people have to take. “And He saith, Heap up, heap up, prepare a way, take away every obstruction from the way of my people.” This is the very same appeal which occurs once in all three books of these prophecies (Isa 40:3-4; Isa 57:14; Isa 62:10). The subject of the verb ('âmar) is not Jehovah; but the prophet intentionally leaves it obscure, as in Isa 40:3, Isa 40:6 (cf., Isa 26:2). It is a heavenly cry; and the crier is not to be more precisely named.

Isa 57:15

The primary ground for this voice being heard at all is, that the Holy One is also the Merciful One, and not only has a manifestation of glory on high, but also a manifestation of grace below. “For thus saith the high and lofty One, the eternally dwelling One, He whose name is Holy One; I dwell on high and in the holy place, and with the contrite one and him that is of a humbled spirit, to revive the spirit of humbled ones, and to revive the heart of contrite ones.” He inflicts punishment in His wrath; but to those who suffer themselves to be urged thereby to repentance and the desire for salvation, He is most inwardly and most effectually near with His grace. For the heaven of heavens is not too great for Him, and a human heart is not too small for Him to dwell in. And He who dwells upon cherubim, and among the praises of seraphim, does not scorn to dwell among the sighs of a poor human soul. He is called râm (high), as being high and exalted in Himself; נשּׂא (the lofty One), as towering above all besides; and עד שׁכן. This does not mean the dweller in eternity, which is a thought quite outside the biblical range of ideas; but, since עד stands to שׁכן not in an objective, but in an attributive or adverbial relation (Psa 45:7, cf., Pro 1:33), and שׁכן, as opposed to being violently wrested from the ordinary sphere of life and work (cf., Psa 16:9; 102:29), denotes a continuing life, a life having its root in itself, עד שׁכן must mean the eternally (= לעד) dwelling One, i.e., He whose life lasts for ever and is always the same. He is also called qâdōsh, as One who is absolutely pure and good, separated from all the uncleanness and imperfection by which creatures are characterized. This is not to be rendered sanctum nomen ejus, but sanctus; this name is the facit of His revelation of Himself in the history of salvation, which is accomplished in love and wrath, grace and judgment. This God inhabits mârōm veqâdōsh, the height and the Holy Place (accusatives of the object, like mârōm in Isa 33:5, and merōmı̄m in Isa 33:16), both together being equivalent to φῶς ἀπρόσιτον (1Ti 6:16), since qâdōsh (neuter, as in Psa 46:5; Psa 65:5) answers to φῶς, and mârōm to ἀπρόσιτον. But He also dwells with (את as in Lev 16:16) the crushed and lowly of spirit. To these He is most intimately near, and that for a salutary and gracious purpose, namely “to revive ... .” ההיהe and היּה always signify either to keep that which is living alive, or to restore to life that which is dead. The spirit is the seat of pride and humility, the heart the seat of all feeling of joy and sorrow; we have therefore spiritum humilium and cor contritorum. The selfish egotism which repentance breaks has its root in the heart; and the self-consciousness, from whose false elevation repentance brings down, has its seat in the spirit (Psychol. p. 199).

Isa 57:16

The compassion, by virtue of which God has His abode and His work of grace in the spirit and heart of the penitent, is founded in that free anticipating love which called man and his self-conscious spirit-soul into being at the first. “For I do not contend for ever, and I am not angry for ever: for the spirit would pine away before me, and the souls of men which I have created.” The early translators (lxx, Syr., Jer., possibly also the Targum) give to יעטף the meaning egredietur, which certainly cannot be established. And so also does Stier, so far as the thought is concerned, when he adopts the rendering, “A spirit from me will cover over, and breath of life will I make;” and so Hahn, “When the spirit pines away before me, I create breath in abundance.” But in both cases the writer would at any rate have used the perf. consec. ועשׂיתי, and the last clause of the v. has not the syntactic form of an apodosis. The rendering given above is the only one that is unassailable both grammatically and in fact. כּי introduces the reason for the self-limitation of the divine wrath, just as in Psa 78:38-39 (cf., Psa 103:14): if God should put no restraint upon His wrath, the consequence would be the entire destruction of human life, which was His creative work at first. The verb עטף, from its primary meaning to bend round (Comm. on Job, at Job 23:9), has sometimes the transitive meaning to cover, and sometimes the meaning to wrap one’s self round, i.e., to become faint or weak (compare עטוּף, fainted away, Lam 2:19; and התעטּף in Psa 142:4, which is applied to the spirit, like the kal here). מלּפני is equivalent to “in consequence of the wrath proceeding from me.” נשׁמות (a plural only met with here) signifies, according to the fixed usage of the Old Testament (Isa 2:22; Isa 42:5), the souls of men, the origin of which is described as a creation in the attributive clause (with an emphatic אני), just as in Jer 38:16 (cf., Zec 12:1). Whether the accents are intended to take עשׂיתי אני in this attributive sense or not, cannot be decided from the tiphchah attached to ונשׁמות. The prophet, who refers to the flood in other passages also (e.g., Isa 54:9), had probably in his mind the promise given after the flood, according to which God would not make the existing and inherited moral depravity an occasion for utterly destroying the human race.

Isa 57:17-18

This general law of His action is most especially the law of His conduct towards Israel, in which such grievous effects of its well-deserved punishment are apparent, and effects so different from those intended, that the compassion of God feels impelled to put an end to the punishment for the good of all that are susceptible of salvation. “And because of the iniquity of its selfishness, I was wroth, and smote it; hiding myself, and being angry: then it went on, turning away in the way of its own heart. I have seen its ways, and will heal it; and will lead it, and afford consolations to it, and to its mourning ones.” The fundamental and chief sin of Israel is here called בּצע, lit., a cut of slice (= gain, Isa 56:11); then, like πλεονεξία, which is “idolatry” according to Col 3:5, or like φιλαργυρία, which is “the root of all evil” according to 1Ti 6:10, greedy desire for worldly possession, self-seeking, or worldliness generally. The future ואכּהוּ, standing as it does by the side of the perfect here, indicates that which is also past; and ואקצף stands in the place of a second gerund: abscondendo (viz., pânai, my face, Isa 54:8) et stomachando. When Jehovah had thus wrathfully hidden His gracious countenance from Israel, and withdrawn His gracious presence out of the midst of Israel (Hos 5:6, מהם חל), it went away from Him (שׁובב with שׁובב, like עולל with עולל), going its own ways like the world of nations that had been left to themselves. But Jehovah had not seen these wanderings without pity. The futures which follow are promising, not by virtue of any syntactic necessity, but by virtue of an inward necessity. He will heal His wounded (Isa 1:4-6) and languishing people, and lead in the right way those that are going astray, and afford them consolation as a recompense for their long sufferings (נחוּמים is derived from the piel נחם, and not, as in Hos 11:8, from the hiphal hinnâchēm, in the sense of “feelings of sympathy”), especially (Vav epexeget.; Ges. §155, 1) its mourning ones (Isa 61:2-3; Isa 66:10), i.e., those who punishment has brought to repentance, and rendered desirous of salvation.

Isa 57:19-21

But when the redemption comes, it will divide Israel into two halves, with very different prospects. “Creating fruit of the lips; Jehovah saith, 'Peace, peace to those that are far off, and to those that are near; and I heal it.' But the wicked are like the sea that is cast up for it cannot rest, and its waters cast out slime and mud. There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked.” The words of God in Isa 57:19 are introduced with an interpolated “inquit Jehova” (cf., Isa 45:24, and the ellipsis in Isa 41:27); and what Jehovah effects by speaking thus is placed first in a determining participial clause: “Creating fruit (נוב = נוּב, נוב, keri ניב) of the lips,” καρπὸν χείλεων (lxx, Heb 13:15), i.e., not of His own lips, to which בּורא would be inapplicable, but the offering of praise and thanksgiving springing from human lips (for the figure, see Psychol. p. 214, trans.; and on the root נב, to press upon forward): “Jehovah saith shâlōm, shâlōm,” i.e., lasting and perfect peace (as in Isa 26:3), “be the portion of those of my people who are scattered far and near” (Isa 43:5-7; Isa 49:12; compare the application to heathen and Jews in Eph 2:17); “and I heal it” (viz., the nation, which, although scattered, is like one person in the sight of God). But the wicked, who persist in the alienation from God inherited from the fathers, are incapable of the peace which God brings to His people: they are like the sea in its tossed and stormy state (נגרשׁ pausal third pers. as an attributive clause). As this cannot rest, and as its waters cast out slime and mud, so has their natural state become one of perpetual disturbance, leading to the uninterrupted production of unclean and ungodly thoughts, words, and works. Thus, then, there is no peace for them, saith my God. With these words, which have even a more pathetic sound here than in Isa 48:22, the prophet seals the second book of his prophecies. The “wicked” referred to are not the heathen outside Israel, but the heathen, i.e., those estranged from God, within Israel itself.

The transition form the first to the second half of this closing prophecy is formed by ואמר in Isa 57:14. In the second half, from Isa 57:11, we find the accustomed style of our prophet; but in Isaiah 56:9-57:11 a the style is so thoroughly different, that Ewald maintains that the prophet has here inserted in his book a fragment from some earlier writer of the time of Manasseh. But we regard this as very improbable. It is not required by what is stated concerning the prophets and shepherds, for the book of Ezekiel clearly shows that the prophets and shepherds of the captivity were thus debased. Still less does what is stated concerning the early death of the righteous require it; for the fundamental idea of the suffering servant of Jehovah, which is peculiar to the second book, is shadowed forth therein. Nor by what is affirmed as to the idolatrous conduct of the people; for in the very centre (Isa 57:4) the great mass of the people are reproached for their contemptuous treatment of the servants of Jehovah. Nor does the language itself force us to any such conjecture, for Isa 53:1-12 also differs from the style met with elsewhere; and yet (although Ewald regards it as an earlier, borrowed fragment) it must be written by the author of the whole, since its grandest idea finds its fullest expression there. At the same time, we may assume that the prophet described the idolatry of the people under the influences of earlier models. If he had been a prophet of the captives after the time of Isaiah, he would have rested his prophecies on Jeremiah and Ezekiel. For just as Isa 51:18. has the ring of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, so does Isa 57:3. resemble in many respects the earlier reproaches of Jeremiah (compare Jer 5:7-9, Jer 5:29; Jer 9:8, with the expression, “Should I rest satisfied with this?”); also Jer 2:25 (נואשׁ), Jer 2:20; Jer 3:6, Jer 3:13 (“upon lofty mountains and under green trees”); also the night scene in Ezek 23.

Death of the Righteous. (b. c. 706.)

1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. 2 He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

The prophet, in the close of the foregoing chapter, had condemned the watchmen for their ignorance and sottishness; here he shows the general stupidity and senselessness of the people likewise. No wonder they were inconsiderate when their watchmen were so, who should have awakened them to consideration. We may observe here,

I. The providence of God removing good men apace out of this world. The righteous, as to this world, perish; they are gone and their place knows them no more. Piety exempts none from the arrests of death, nay, in persecuting times, the most righteous are most exposed to the violences of bloody men. The first that died died a martyr. Righteousness delivers from the sting of death, but not from the stroke of it. They are said to perish because they are utterly removed from us, and to express the great loss which this world sustains by the removal of them, not that their death is their undoing, but it often proves an undoing to the places where they lived and were useful. Nay, even merciful men are taken away, those good men that are distinguished from the righteous, for whom some would even dare to die, Rom. v. 7. Those are often removed that could be worst spared; the fruitful trees are cut down by death and the barren left still to cumber the ground. Merciful men are often taken away by the hands of men's malice. Many good works they have done, and for some of them they are stoned. Before the captivity in Babylon perhaps there was a more than ordinary mortality of good men, so that there were scarcely any left, Jer. v. 1. The godly ceased, and the faithful failed, Ps. xii. 1.

II. The careless world slighting these providences, and disregarding them: No man lays it to heart, none considers it. There are very few that lament it as a public loss, very few that take notice of it as a public warning. The death of good men is a thing to be laid to heart and considered more than common deaths. Serious enquiries ought to be made, wherefore God contends with us, what good lessons are to be learned by such providences, what we may do to help to make up the breach and to fill up the room of those that are removed. God is justly displeased when such events are not laid to heart, when the voice of the rod is not heard nor the intentions of it answered, much more when it is rejoiced in, as the slaying of the witnesses is, Rev. xi. 10. Some of God's choicest blessings to mankind, being thus easily parted with, are really undervalued; and it is an evidence of very great incogitancy. Little children, when they are little, least lament the death of their parents, because they know not what a loss it is to them.

III. The happiness of the righteous in their removal.

1. They are taken away from the evil to come, then when it is just coming, (1.) In compassion to them, that they may not see the evil (2 Kings xxii. 20), nor share in it, nor be in temptation by it. When the deluge is coming they are called into the ark, and have a hiding-place and rest in heaven when there was none for them under heaven. (2.) In wrath to the world, to punish them for all the injuries they have done to the righteous and merciful ones; those are taken away that stood in the gap to turn away the judgments of God, and then what can be expected but a deluge of them? It is a sign that God intends war when he calls home his ambassadors.

2. They go to be easy out of the reach of that evil. The righteous man, who while he lived walked in his uprightness, when he dies enters into peace and rests in his bed. Note, (1.) Death is gain, and rest, and bliss, to those only who walked in their uprightness, and who, when they die, can appeal to God concerning it, as Hezekiah (2 Kings xx. 3). Now, Lord, remember it. (2.) Those that practised uprightness, and persevered in it to the end, shall find it well with them when they die. Their souls then enter into peace, into the world of peace, where peace is in perfection and where there is no trouble. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. Their bodies rest in their beds. Note, The grave is a bed of rest to all the Lord's people; there they rest from all their labours, Rev. xiv. 13. And the more weary they were the more welcome will that rest be to them, Job iii. 17. This bed is made in the darkness, but that makes it the more quiet; it is a bed out of which they shall rise refreshed in the morning of the resurrection.

A Charge against the People. (b. c. 706.)

3 But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. 4 Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, 5 Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? 6 Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these? 7 Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice. 8 Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it. 9 And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell. 10 Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved. 11 And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not? 12 I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.

We have here a high charge, but a just one no doubt, drawn up against that wicked generation out of which God's righteous ones were removed, because the world was not worthy of them. Observe,

I. The general character here given of them, or the name and title by which they stand indicted, v. 3. They are told to draw near and hear the charge, are set to the bar, and arraigned there as sons of the sorceress, or of a witch, the seed of an adulterer and a whore, that is, they were such themselves, they were strongly inclined to be such, and their ancestors were such before them. Sin is sorcery and adultery, for it is departing from God and dealing with the devil. They were children of disobedience. "Come," says the prophet, "draw near hither, and I will read you your doom; to the righteous death will bring peace and rest, but not to you; you are children of transgression and a seed of falsehood (v. 4), that have it by kind, and have it woven into your very nature, to backslide from God and to deal treacherously with him," ch. xlviii. 8.

II. The particular crimes laid to their charge.

1. Scoffing at God and his word. They were a generation of scorners (v. 4): "Against whom do you sport yourselves? You think it is only against the poor prophets whom you trample upon as contemptible men, but really it is against God himself, who sends them, and whose message they deliver." Mocking the messengers of the Lord was Jerusalem's measure-filling sin, for what was done to them God took as done to himself. When they were reproved for their sins, and threatened with the judgments of God, they ridiculed the word of God with the rudest and most indecent gestures and expressions of disdain. They sported themselves, and made themselves merry, with that which should have made them serious, and under which they should have humbled themselves. They made wry mouths at the prophets, and drew out the tongue, contrary to all the laws of good breeding; nor did they treat God's prophets with the common civility with which they would have treated a gentleman's servant that had been sent to them on an errand. Note, Those who mock at God, and bid defiance to his judgments, had best consider who it is towards whom they conduct themselves so insolently.

2. Idolatry. This was that sin which the people of the Jews were most notoriously guilty of before the captivity; but that affliction cured them of it. In Isaiah's time it abounded, witness the abominable idolatries of Ahaz (which some think are particularly referred to here) and of Manasseh. (1.) They were dotingly fond of their idols, were inflamed with them, as those that burn in unlawful unnatural lusts, Rom. i. 27. They were mad upon their idols, Jer. l. 38. They inflamed themselves with them by their violent passions in the worship of them, as those of Baal's prophets that leaped upon the altar, and cut themselves, 1 Kings xviii. 26, 28. Note, Vile corruptions, the more they are gratified the more they are inflamed. They worshipped their idols under every green tree, in the open air, and in the shade; yet that did not cool the heat of their impetuous lusts, but rather the charming beauty of the green trees made them the more fond of their idols which they worshipped there. Thus that in nature which is pleasing, instead of drawing them to the God of nature, drew them from him. The flame of their zeal in the worship of false gods may shame us for our coldness and indifference in the worship of the true God. They strove to inflame themselves, but we distract and deaden ourselves. (2.) They were barbarous and unnaturally cruel in the worship of their idols. They slew their children, and offered them in sacrifice to their idols, not only in the valley of the son of Hinnom, the headquarters of that monstrous idolatry, but in other valleys, in imitation of that, and under the cliffs of the rock, in dark and solitary places, the fittest for such works of darkness. (3.) They were abundant and insatiable in their idolatries. They never thought they could have idols enough, nor could spend enough upon them and do enough in their service. The Syrians had once a notion of the God of Israel that he was a God of the hills, but not a God of the valleys (1 Kings xx. 28); but these idolaters, to make sure work, had both. [1.] They had gods of the valleys, which they worshipped in the low places by the water side (v. 6): Among the smooth stones of the valley, or brook, is thy portion. If they saw a smooth carved stone, though set up but for a way-mark or a mere-stone, they were ready to worship it, as the papists do crosses. Or in stony valleys they set up their gods, which they called their portion, and took for their lot, as God's people take him for their lot and portion. But these gods of stone would really be no better a portion for them, no better a lot, than the smooth stones of the stream near which they were set up, for sometimes they worshipped their rivers. "They, they, are the lot which thou trustest to and art pleased with, but thou shalt be put off with it for thy lot, and miserable will thy case be." See the folly of sinners, who take the smooth stones of the stream for their portion, when they might have the precious stones of God's Jerusalem, and the high priest's ephod, to portion themselves with. Having taken these idols for their lot and portion, they stick at no charge in doing honour to them: "To them hast thou poured a drink-offering, and offered a meat-offering, as if they had given thee thy meat and drink." They loved their idols better than their children, for their own tables must be robbed to replenish the altars of their idols. Have we taken the true God for our portion? Is he, even he, our lot? Let us then serve him with our meat and drink, not, as they did, by depriving ourselves of the use of them, but by eating and drinking to his glory. Here, in a parenthesis, comes in an expression of God's just resentment of this wickedness of theirs: Should I receive comfort in these—in such a people as this? Can those expect that God will take any pleasure in them, or accept their devotions at his altar, who thus serve Baal with the gifts of his providence? God takes comfort in his people, while they are faithful to him; but what comfort can he take in them when those that should be his witnesses against the idolatries of the world do themselves fall in with them? Should I have compassion on these? (so some), or should I repent me concerning these? so others. "How can they expect that I should spare them, and either adjourn or abate their punishment, when they are so very provoking? Shall I not visit for these things?" Jer. v. 7, 9. [2.] They had gods of the hills too (v. 7): "Upon a lofty and high mountain (as if thou wouldst vie with the high and lofty One himself, v. 15) hast thou set thy bed, thy idol, thy idol's temple and altar, the bed of thy uncleanness, where thou committest spiritual whoredom, with all the wantonness of an idolatrous fancy, and in direct violation of the covenant of thy God. Thither wentest thou up readily enough, though it was up-hill, to offer sacrifice." Some think this bespeaks the impudence they arrived at in their idolatries; at first they had some sense of shame, when they worshipped their idols in the valleys, in obscure places; but they soon conquered that, and came to do it upon the lofty high mountains. They were not ashamed, neither could they blush. [3.] As if these were not enough, they had household-gods too, their lares and penates. Behind the doors and the posts (v. 8), where the law of God should be written for a memorandum to them of their duty, they set up the remembrance of their idols, not so much to keep up their own remembrance of them (they were so fond of them that they could not forget them), but to show to others how mindful they were of them, and to put their children in mind of them, and possess them betimes with a veneration for these dunghill deities. [4.] As they were insatiable in their idolatries, so they were inseparable from them. They were hardened in their wickedness; they worshipped their idols openly and in public view, as being neither ashamed of the sin nor afraid of the punishment; they went as publicly, and in as great crowds, to the idol-temples, as ever they had gone to God's house. This was like an impudent harlot, discovering themselves to another than God, making profession of another than the true religion. They took a pride in making proselytes to their idolatries, and not only went up themselves to their high places, but enlarged their bed, that is, their idol-temples, and (as the margin reads the following words) thou hewedst it for thyself larger than theirs, than theirs from whom thou copiedst it, and tookest the platform of it, as Ahaz of his altar from that which he saw at Damascus, 2 Kings xvi. 10. And being thus involved over head and ears, as it were, in their idolatries, there is no parting them from them. Ephraim is now joined to idols both in love and league. First, In league: "Thou hast made a covenant with them, with the idols, with the idol-worshippers, to live and die together." This was a complete renunciation of their covenant with God and an avowed resolution to persist in their apostasy from him. Secondly, In love: "Thou lovedst their bed, that is, the temple of an idol, wherever thou sawest it." Justly therefore were they given up to their own hearts' lusts.

3. Another sin charged upon them is their trusting in and seeking to foreign aids and succours, and contracting a communion with the Gentile powers (v. 9): Thou wentest to the king, which some understand of the idol they worshipped, particularly Moloch, which signifies a king. "Thou didst every thing to ingratiate thyself with those idols, didst offer incense and sweet ointments at their altars." Or it may be meant of the king of Assyria, whom Ahaz made his court to, or of the king of Babylon, whose ambassadors Hezekiah caressed, or of other kings of the nations whose idolatrous usages they admired and were desirous to learn and imitate, and for that end went and sent to cultivate an acquaintance and correspondence with them, that they might be like them and strengthen themselves by an alliance with them. See here, (1.) What an expense they were at in forming and procuring this grand alliance. They went with ointments and perfumes, either bestowed upon themselves, to beautify their own faces and so make themselves considerable and worthy the friendship of the greatest king, or to be presented to those whose favour they were ambitious of, because a man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men. "When the first present of rich perfumes was thought too little, thou didst increase them;" and thus many seek the ruler's favour, forgetting that, after all, every man's judgment proceeds from the Lord. So fond were they of those heathen princes that they not only went themselves, in all their airs, to those that were near them, but sent messengers to those that were afar off, ch. xviii. 2. (2.) How much they hereby disparaged themselves and laid the honour of their crown and nation in the dust: Thou didst debase thyself even unto hell. They did so by their idolatries. It is a dishonour to the children of men, who are endued with the powers of reason, to worship that as their god which is the creature of their own fancy and the work of their own hands, to bow down to the stock of a tree. It is much more a dishonour to the children of God, who are blessed with the privilege of divine revelation, to forsake such a God as they know theirs to be for a thing of nought, their own mercies for lying vanities. They likewise debased themselves by truckling to their heathen neighbours, and depending upon them, when they had a God to go to who is all-sufficient and in covenant with them. How did those shame themselves to the highest degree, and sink themselves to the lowest, that forsook the fountain of life for broken cisterns and the rock of ages for broken reeds! Note, Sinners disparage and debase themselves; the service of sin is an ignominious slavery; and those who thus debase themselves to hell will justly have their portion there.

III. The aggravations of their sin. 1. They had been tired with disappointments in their wicked courses, and yet they would not be convinced of the folly of them (v. 10): "Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; thou hast undertaken a mighty task, to find out true satisfaction and happiness in that which is vanity and a lie." Those that set up idols, instead of God, for the object of their worship, and princes, instead of God, for the object of their hope and confidence, and think thus to better themselves and make themselves easy, go a great way about, and will never come to their journey's end: Thou art wearied in the multitude, or multiplicity, of thy ways (so some read it): those that forsake the only right way wander endlessly in a thousand by-paths, and lose themselves in the many inventions which they have sought out. They weary themselves with fresh chases and fierce ones, but never gain their point, like the Sodomites, that wearied themselves to find the door (Gen. xix. 11) and could not find it at last. The pleasures of sin will soon surfeit, but never satisfy; a man may quickly tire himself in the pursuit of them, but can never repose himself in the enjoyment of them. They found this by experience. The idols they had often worshipped never did them any kindness; the kings they courted distressed them, and helped them not; and yet they were so wretchedly besotted that they could not say, "There is no hope; it is in vain any longer to expect that satisfaction in creature-confidences, and in the worship of idols, which we have so often looked for, and never met with." Note, Despair of happiness in the creature, and of satisfaction in the service of sin, is the first step towards a well-grounded hope of happiness in God and a well-fixed resolution to keep to his service; and those are inexcusable who have had sensible convictions of the vanity of the creature, and yet will not be brought to say, "There is no hope to be happy short of the Creator." 2. Though they were convinced that the way they were in was a sinful way, yet, because they had found some present sensual pleasure and worldly profit by it, they could not persuade themselves to be sorry for it: "Thou hast found the life of thy hand" (or the living of it); thou boastest how fortune smiles upon thee, and therefore thou art not grieved, any more than Ephraim when he said (Hos. xii. 8), "I have become rich; I have found out substance." Note, Prosperity in sin is a great bar to conversion from sin. Those that live at ease in their sinful projects, are tempted to think God favours them, and therefore they have nothing to repent of. Some read it ironically, or by way of question: "Thou hast found the life of thy hand, hast found true satisfaction and happiness, no doubt thou hast; hast thou not? And therefore thou art so far from being grieved that thou blessest thyself in thy own evil way; but review thy gains once more, and come to a balance of profit and loss, and then say, What fruit hast thou of those things whereof thou art ashamed and for which God shall bring thee into judgment?" Rom. vi. 21. 3. They had dealt very unworthily with God by their sin; for, (1.) It should seem they pretended that the reason why they left God was because he was too terrible a majesty for them to deal with; they must have gods that they could be more free and familiar with. "But," says God, "of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, that thou hast dealt falsely and treacherously with me, and dissembled in thy covenants with me and prayers to me? What did I ever do to frighten thee from me? What occasion have I given thee to think hardly of me, that thou hast gone to seek a kinder master?" (2.) However, it is certain that they had no true reverence of God nor any serious regard to him. So that question is commonly understood, "Of whom hast thou been afraid, or feared? Of none; for thou hast not feared me whom thou shouldst fear; for thou hast lied to me." Those that dissemble with God make it to appear they stand in no awe of him. "Thou hast not remembered me, neither what I have said nor what I have done, neither the promises nor the threatenings, nor the performances of either; thou hast not laid them to thy heart, as thou wouldst have done if thou hadst feared me." Note, Those who lay not the word of God and his providences to their hearts do thereby show that they have not the fear of God before their eyes. And multitudes are ruined by fearlessness, forgetfulness, and mere carelessness; they do not aright nor to good purpose fear any thing, remember any thing, nor lay any thing to heart. Nay, (3.) They were hardened in their sin by the patience and forbearance of God. "Have not I held my peace of old, and for a long time? These things thou hast done and I kept silence. And therefore, as it follows here, thou fearest me not;" as if because God had spared long he would never punish, Eccl. viii. 11. Because he kept silence the sinner thought him altogether such a one as himself, and stood in no awe of him.

IV. Here is God's resolution to call them to an account, though he had long borne with them (v. 12): "I will declare (like that, Ps. l. 21, But I will reprove thee), I will declare thy righteousness, which thou makest thy boast of, and let the world see, and thyself too, to thy confusion, that it is all a sham, all a cheat, it is not what it pretends to be. When thy righteousness comes to be examined it will be found that it was unrighteousness, and that there was no sincerity in all thy pretensions. I will declare thy works, what they have been and what the gain thou pretendest to have gotten by them, and it will appear that at long-run they shall not profit thee, nor turn to any account." Note, Sinful works, as they are works of darkness, and there is no reason nor righteousness in them, so they are unfruitful works and there is nothing got by them; and, however they look now, it will be made to appear so another day. Sin profits not, nay, it ruins and destroys.

Vanity of Idols; Divine Greatness and Condescension. (b. c. 706.)

13 When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain; 14 And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people. 15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. 16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.

Here, I. God shows how insufficient idols and creatures were to relieve and succour those that worshipped them and confided in them (v. 13): "When thou criest in thy distress and anguish, lamentest thy misery and callest for help, let thy companies deliver thee, thy idol-gods which thou hast heaped to thyself companies of, the troops of the confederate forces which thou hast relied so much upon, let them deliver thee if they can; expect no other relief than what they can give." Thus God said to Israel, when in their trouble they called upon him (Judg. x. 14), Go, and cry to the gods which you have chosen, let them deliver you. But in vain is salvation hoped for from them: The wind shall carry them all away, the wind of God's wrath, that breath of his mouth which shall slay the wicked; they have made themselves as chaff, and therefore the wind will of course hurry them away. Vanity they are, and vanity shall take them away, to vanity they shall be reduced, and vanity shall be their recompence. Both the idols and their worshippers shall come to nothing.

II. He shows that there was a sufficiency, an all-sufficiency, in him for the comfort and deliverance of all those that put their confidence in him and made their application to him. Their safety and satisfaction appear the more comfortable because their hopes are crowned with fruition, when those that seek to other helpers have their hopes frustrated: "He that puts his trust in me, and in me only, he shall be happy, both for soul and body, for this world and the other."

1. Observe, in general, (1.) Those that trust in God's providence take the best course to secure their secular interests. They shall possess the land, as much of it as is good for them, and what they have they shall have it from a good hand and hold it by a good title. Ps. xxxvii. 3, They shall dwell in the land, and verily they shall be fed. (2.) Those that trust in God's grace take the best course to secure their sacred interests. They shall inherit my holy mountain. They shall enjoy the privileges of the church on earth, and be brought at length to the joys of heaven; and no wind shall carry them away.

2. More particularly,

(1.) The captives, that trust in God, shall be released (v. 14): They shall say (that is, the messengers of his providence, in that great event shall say), Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way. When God's time shall have come for their deliverance the way of bringing it about shall be made plain and easy, obstacles shall be removed, difficulties that seemed insuperable shall be speedily got over, and all things shall concur both to accelerate and facilitate their return. See ch. xl. 3, 4. This refers to the provision which the gospel, and the grace of it, have made for our ready passage through this world to a better. The way of religion is now cast up; it is a highway; ministers' business is to direct people in it, and to help them over the discouragements they meet with, that nothing may offend them.

(2.) The contrite, that trust in God, shall be revived, v. 15. Those that trusted to idols and creatures for help went with their ointments and perfumes (v. 9); but here God shows that those who may expect help from him are such as are destitute of, and set themselves at a distance from, the gaieties of the world and the delights of sense. God's glory appears here very bright, [1.] In his greatness and majesty: He is the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity. Let this inspire us with very high and honourable thoughts of the God with whom we have to do, First, That his being and perfections are exalted infinitely above every creature, not only above what they have themselves, but above what they can conceive concerning him, far above all their blessing and praise, Neh. ix. 5. He is the high and lofty One, and there is no creature like him, nor any to be compared with him. The language likewise intimates his sovereign dominion over all and the incontestable right he has to give both law and judgment to all. He is higher than the highest (Eccl. v. 8), than the highest heavens, Ps. cxiii. 4. Secondly, That with him there is neither beginning of days nor end of life, nor change of time; he is both immortal and immutable. He only has immortality, 1 Tim. vi. 16. He has it of himself, and he has it constantly; he inhabits it, and cannot be dispossessed of it. We must shortly remove into eternity, but God always inhabits it. Thirdly, That there is an infinite rectitude in his nature, and an exact conformity with himself and a steady design of his own glory in all that he does; and this appears in every thing by which he has made himself known, for his name is holy, and all that desire to be acquainted with him must know him as a holy God. Fourthly, That the peculiar residence and manifestation of his glory are in the mansions of light and bliss above: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and will have all the world to know it." Whoever have any business with God must direct to him as their Father in heaven, for there he dwells. These great things are here said of God to inspire us with a holy reverence of him, to encourage our confidence in him, and to magnify his compassion and condescension to us, that though he is thus high yet he has respect unto the lowly; he that rides on the heavens by his name JAH stoops to concern himself for poor widows and fatherless, Ps. lxviii. 4, 5. [2.] In his grace and mercy. He has a tender pity for the humble and contrite, for those that are so in respect of their state. If they be his people, he will not overlook them though they are poor and low in the world, and despised and trampled upon by men; but he here refers to the temper of their mind; he will have a tender regard to those who, being in affliction, accommodate themselves to their affliction, and bring their mind to their condition, be it ever so low and ever so sad and sorely broken—those that are truly penitent for sin, who mourn in secret for it, and have a dread of the wrath of God, which they have made themselves obnoxious to, and are submissive under all his rebukes. Now, First, With these God will dwell. He will visit them graciously, will converse familiarly with them by his word and Spirit, as a man does with those of his own family; he will be always nigh to them and present with them. He that dwells in the highest heavens dwells in the lowest hearts and inhabits sincerity as surely as he inhabits eternity. In these he delights. Secondly, He will revive their heart and spirit, will speak that to them, and work that in them by the word and Spirit of his grace, which will be reviving to them, as a cordial to one that is ready to faint. He will give them reviving joys and hopes sufficient to counterbalance all the griefs and fears that break their spirits. He dwells with them, and his presence is reviving.

(3.) Those with whom he contends, if they trust in him, shall be relieved, and received into favour, v. 16. He will revive the heart of the contrite ones, for he will not contend for ever. Nothing makes a soul contrite so much as God's contending, and therefore nothing revives it so much as his ceasing his controversy. Here is, [1.] A gracious promise. It is not promised that he will never be angry with his people, for their sins are displeasing to him, or that he will never contend with them, for they must expect the rod; but he will not contend for ever, nor be always wroth. As he is not soon angry, so he is not long angry. He will not always chide. Though he contend with them by convictions of sin, he will not contend for ever; but, instead of the spirit of bondage, they shall receive the Spirit of adoption. He has torn, but he will heal. Though he contend with them by the rebukes of providence, yet the correction shall not last always, shall not last long, shall last no longer than there is need (1 Pet. i. 6), no longer than they can bear, no longer than till it has done its work. Though their whole life be calamitous, yet their end will be peace, and so will their eternity be. [2.] A very compassionate consideration, upon which this promise is grounded: "If I should contend for ever, the spirit would fail before me, ever the souls which I have made." Note, First, God is the Father of spirits, Heb. xii. 9. Those with whom he will not always contend are the souls that he has made, that he gave being to by creation and a new being to by regeneration. Secondly, Though the Lord is for the body, yet he concerns himself chiefly for the souls of his people, that the spirit do not fail, and its graces and comforts. Thirdly, When troubles last long, the spirit even of good men is apt to fail. They are tempted to entertain hard thoughts of God, to think it in vain to serve him; they are ready to put comfort away from them, and to despair of relief, and then the spirit fails. Fourthly, It is in consideration of this that God will not contend for ever; for he will not forsake the work of his own hands nor defeat the purchase of his Son's blood. The reason is taken not from our merit, but from our weakness and infirmity; for he remembers that we are flesh (Ps. lxxviii. 39) and that flesh is weak.

The Divine Forbearance and Mercy. (b. c. 706.)

17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. 18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. 19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord ; and I will heal him. 20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

The body of the people of Israel, in this account of God's dealings with them, is spoken of as a particular person (v. 17, 18), but divided into two sorts, differently dealt with—some who were sons of peace, to whom peace is spoken (v. 19), and others who were not, who have nothing to do with peace, v. 20, 21. Observe here,

I. The just rebukes which that people were brought under for their sin: For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth, and smote him. Covetousness was a sin that abounded very much among that people. Jer. vi. 13, From the least to the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness. Those that did not worship images were yet carried away by this spiritual idolatry: for such is covetousness; it is making money the god, Col. iii. 5. No marvel that the people were covetous when their watchmen themselves were notoriously so, ch. lvi. 11, Yet, covetous as they were, in the service of their idols they were prodigal, v. 6. And it is hard to say whether their profuseness in that or their covetousness in every thing else was more provoking. But for this iniquity, among others, God was angry with them, and brought one judgment after another upon them, and their destruction at last by the Chaldeans. 1. God was wroth. He resented it, took it very ill that a people who were devoted to himself, and portioned in himself, should be so entirely given up to the world and choose that for their portion. Note, Covetousness is an iniquity that is very displeasing to the God of heaven. It is a heart-sin, but he sees it, and therefore hates it, and looks upon it with jealousy, because it sets up a rival with him in the soul. It is a sin which men bless themselves in (Ps. xlix. 18) and in which their neighbours bless them (Ps. x. 3); but God abhors it. 2. He motes him, reproved him for it by his prophets, corrected him by his providence, punished him in those very things he so doted upon and was covetous of. Note, Sinners shall be made to feel from the anger of God. Those whom he is wroth with he smites; and covetousness particularly lays men under the tokens of God's displeasure. Those that set their hearts upon the wealth of this world are disappointed of it or it is embittered to them; it is either clogged with a cross or turned into a curse. 3. God hid himself from him when he was under these rebukes, and continued wroth with him. When we are under the rod, if God manifest himself to us, we may bear it the better; but if he both smite us and hide himself from us, send us no prophets, speak to us no comfortable word, show us no token for good, if he tear and go away (Hos. v. 14), we are very miserable.

II. Their obstinacy and incorrigibleness under these rebukes: He went on frowardly in the way of his heart, in his evil way. He was not sensible of the displeasure of God that he was under. He felt the smart of the rod, but had no regard at all to the hand; the more he was crossed in his worldly pursuits the more eager he was in them. He either would not see his error or if he saw it would not amend it. Covetousness was the way of his heart; it was what he was inclined to and intent upon, and he would not be reclaimed, but in his distress he trespassed yet more, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. See the strength of the corruption of men's hearts, and the sinfulness of sin, which will take its course in despite of God himself and all the flames of his wrath. See also how insufficient afflictions of themselves are to reform men, unless God's grace work with them.

III. God's wonderful return in mercy to them, notwithstanding the obstinacy of the generality of them.

1. The greater part of them went on frowardly, but there were some among them that were mourners for the obstinacy of the rest; and with an eye to them, or rather for his own name's sake, God determines not to contend for ever with them. With the froward God may justly show himself froward (Ps. xviii. 26), and walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him, Lev. xxvi. 24. When this sinner here went on frowardly in the way of his heart, one would think it should have followed, "I have seen his ways and will destroy him, will abandon him, will never have any thing more to do with him." But such are the riches of divine mercy and grace, and so do they rejoice against judgment, that it follows, I have seen his ways and will heal him. See how God's goodness takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious; and where sin has abounded grace much more abounds. God's reasons of mercy are fetched from within himself, for in us there appears nothing but what is provoking: "I have seen his ways, and yet I will heal him for my own name's sake." God knew how bad the people were, and yet would not cast them off. But observe the method. God will first give him grace, and then, and not till then, give him peace: "I have seen his way, that he will never turn to me of himself, and therefore I will turn him." Those whom God has mercy in store for he has grace in readiness for, to prepare and qualify them for that mercy which they were running from as fast as they could. (1.) God will heal him of his corrupt and vicious disposition, will cure him of his covetousness, though it be ever so deeply rooted in him and his heart have been long exercised to covetous practices. There is no spiritual disease so inveterate, but almighty grace can conquer it. (2.) God will lead him also; not only amend what was amiss in him, that he may cease to do evil, but direct him into the way of duty, that he may learn to do well. He goes on frowardly, as Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter, but God will lead him into a better mind, a better path. And them, (3.) He will restore those comforts to him which he had forfeited and lost, and for the return of which he had thus prepared him. There was a wonderful reformation wrought upon captives in Babylon, and then a wonderful redemption wrought for them, which brought comfort to them, to their mourners, to those among them that mourned for their own sins, the sins of their people, and the desolations of the sanctuary. To those mourners the mercy would be most comfortable, and to them God had an eye in working it out. Blessed are those that mourn, for to them comfort belongs, and they shall have it.

2. Now, as when that people went into captivity some of them were good figs, very good, others of them bad figs, very bad, and accordingly their captivity was to them for their good or for their hurt (Jer. xxiv. 8, 9), so, when they came out of captivity, still some of them were good, others bad, and the deliverance was to them accordingly.

(1.) To those among them that were good their return out of captivity was peace, such peace as was a type and earnest of the peace which should be preached by Jesus Christ (v. 19): I create the fruit of the lips, peace. [1.] God designed to give them matter for praise and thanksgiving, for that is the fruit of the lips (Heb. xiii. 15), the calves of the lips, Hos. xiv. 2. I create this. Creation is out of nothing, and this is surely out of worse than nothing, when God creates matter of praise for those that went on frowardly in the way of their heart. [2.] In order to this, peace shall be published: Peace, peace (perfect peace, all kinds of peace) to him that is afar off from the general rendezvous, or from the head-quarters, as well as to him that is near. Peace with God; though he has contended with them, he will be reconciled and will let fall his controversy. Peace of conscience, a holy security and serenity of mind, after the many reproaches of conscience and agitations of spirit they had been under their captivity. Thus God creates the fruit of the lips, fresh matter for thanksgiving; for, when he speaks peace to us, we must speak praises to him. This peace is itself of God's creating. He, and he only, can work it; it is the fruit of the lips, of his lips—he commands it, of the minister's lips—he speaks it by them, ch. xl. 1. It is the fruit of preaching lips and praying lips; it is the fruit of Christ's lips, whose lips drop as a honeycomb; for to him this is applied, Eph. ii. 17: He came and preached peace to you who were afar off, you Gentiles as well as to the Jews, who were nigh-to after-ages, who were afar off in time, as well as to those of the present age.

(2.) To those among them that were wicked, though they might return with the rest, their return was no peace, v. 20. The wicked, wherever he is, in Babylon or in Jerusalem, carries about with him the principle of his own uneasiness, and is like the troubled sea. God healed those to whom he spoke peace (v. 19): I will heal them; all shall be well again and set to rights; but the wicked would not be healed by the grace of God and therefore shall not be healed by his comforts. They are always like the sea in a storm, for they carry about with them, [1.] Unmortified corruptions. They are not cured and conquered, and their ungoverned lusts and passions make them like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, vexatious to all about them and therefore uneasy to themselves, noisy and dangerous. When the intemperate heats of the spirit break out in scurrilous and abusive language, then the troubled sea casts forth mire and dirt. [2.] Unpacified consciences. They are under a frightful apprehension of guilt and wrath, that they cannot enjoy themselves; when they seem settled they are in disquietude, when they seem merry they are in heaviness; like Cain, who always dwelt in the land of shaking. The terrors of conscience disturb all their enjoyments, and cast forth such mire and dirt as make them a burden to themselves. Though this does not appear (it may be) at present, yet it is a certain truth, what this prophet had said before (ch. xlviii. 22), and here repeats (v. 21), There is no peace to the wicked, no reconciliation to God (nor can they be upon good terms with him, while they go on still in their trespasses), no quietness or satisfaction in their own mind, no real good, no peace in death, because no hope. My God hath said it, and all the world cannot unsay it, That there is no peace to those that allow themselves in any sin. What have they to do with peace?

CHAP. LVII.

Ver. 1. THe righteous periſheth] So the world deemeth, but not rightly: for the righteous hath hope in his death, when the wicked dying is driven away in his wickedneſſe, Prov. 14.32. (by him that hath the power of death, even the devil, Heb. 2.14.) having been through fear of death all their life-time ſubject to bondage. The Lacedemonians all the time of their life adored death. The righteous can defie death with Paul, and ſing, Death, where's they sting? Hell, where's thy victory? he is not killed with death, as Jezabels children were, Rev. 2.23. but dyeth in peace, though he dye in battle, as Joſiah did: of whom ſome interpret this Text.

And no man layeth it to heart] Heb. upon his heart, that it may ſink and ſoak into it; ſo as to be ſoundly ſenſible of Gods holy hand and end in ſuch a providence. See chap. 5.12. There is a woe to oſcitancy and ſtupidity of this kind.

And merciful men] Heb. men of piety or pitty, ſuch as all righteous perſons are: they have received mercy, and they can ſhew it, Coloſ. 3.12. they have ſteept their thoughts in the mercyes of God, which have dyed theirs, as the dye-fat doth the cloth.

A[illegible: 1 letter] men gather flowers, and candy them, and preſerve them by them, ſo doth God his pious ones. Are taken away] Heb. gathered, as corn is into the garner, or fruit into the ſtore-houſe; ſo they into Abrahams boſom.

No man conſidering] None of thoſe debauched ones, chap 56.12. to be ſure of; Theſe are glad to be rid of the righteous, as the Sodomites were of righteous Lot; as the Heathen perſecutors were of the Martyrs, whom they counted [non-Latin text not transcribed], 1 Cor. 4.13. the ſweepings of the world and the off-ſcourings of all things.

That the righteous is taken away from the evil to come] As was Methuſelah a year before the flood; Jeroboams beſt ſon, before the downfal of his Fathers family, 1 King. 14.12, 13. Joſiah before the captivity, and firſt deſtruction of Jeruſalem, 2 King. 22.23. James before the ſecond, Act. 12. Auſtin a little before the ſack of his City Hippo by the Vandals. Felix Nepotianus qui haec non vidit, ſaith Hierom. Stilico ſaid, Calvin in hunc locum. that when Ambroſe was dead, Great changes would follow: and it fell out accordingly. Luther was taken away in peace, a little before the calamity of Germany, which he foretold for contempt of the Goſpel. Pareus dyed a little before Heydelberg was taken, futuro malo ſubſtractus. Mr. Brightman was buried a day or two before the purſevant was ſent for him. God had houſed him, as he had Lot before the ſtorm: hid him as he had done Moſes in the hole of the Rock, till the tempeſt was blown over: dealt by him, as once by Daniel (chap. 12, 13.) who was hid to go away and reſt before thoſe great claſhings and confuſions ſhould come, which had been foreſhewn to him. Howbeit this is not generally ſo: for Jeremy lived to ſee the firſt deſtruction of Jeruſalem: John the Evangeliſt, the laſt Mr. Dod, and many other holy men outlived our late unhappy wars, and deeply ſhared in them: But uſually God taketh away his moſt eminent ſervants from the evil to come: as when there is a fire in a houſe or Town, men carry out their jewels;Dion Pruſ. orat 28. [non-Latin text not transcribed], ſaith an Ancient; the beſt dye firſt, commonly: The comfort is, that though as grapes they be gathered afore they be ripe, and as lambs ſlain before they be grown, yet this benefit they have, that they are freed from the violence of the wine-preſſe that others fall into, and they eſcape many ſtormes that others live to taſte of.

Ver. 2. He ſhall enter into peace] i. e. Into heaven, where the righteous (however looked upon as loſt, ver. 1.) ſhall have life and peace, Rom. 8.6. joy and bliſs, Mat. 25.21, 23. reſt and peace, Rev. 14.13. and this [non-Latin text not transcribed] amodo, ſtrait upon't ſo ſoon as ever they are dead; from henceforth, forthwith their ſouls have happineſſe unconceivable. As for their bodies,

They ſhall reſt in their beds] So their graves are called, by an elegant Metaphor: like as the bier that carrieth to it, is called Matteh, a couch, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. 2 Sam. 3.31. the burying-place a dormitory, or place to ſleep in, and the Reſurrection an awaking, Pſal. 17. ult. To this bed Moſes went up, when his Father bad: he dyed ad [illegible: 1 letter]s Jehova, Malmould. Deut. 34.5. which the Jew-Doctors expound, as though God did take away his ſoul with a kiſſe: like as the loving mother kiſſeth the child, and then layeth it down to ſleep. Rhodingus, a Dutch Divine, when he perceived he ſhould dye,Melch. Adam. deſired to be laid in another hed which he called his bed of reſt, and upon which he had long before written this verſe, Ʋt ſomnus mortis, ſic lectus imago ſepulchri.

In this ſhort bed of the grave ſhall be laid up the infinite miſeries of many years; the bodies of the Saints ſhall by rotting, be refined, their precious duſt preſerved, till at laſt it ariſe incorruptible. O dieculam illam!

Each one walking in his uprightneſſe] Or, walking before him, or right over againſt him: that is, keeping equipage with him; as when one friend walketh with another.

Ver. 3. But draw near hither ye ſons of the ſorcereſſe] Here Eſaias is very bold, (as the Apoſtle ſaith of him in another caſe, Rom. 10.20.) and maketh it appear, that he was none of thoſe dumb dogs he had rated as, in the former Chapter. The Jews gloried much in their pedigree and deſcent from Abraham, and that they were born of the free-woman: he telleth them flat and plain, that they were witches children, whores-ſons, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. a baſtardly brood (as our Saviour afterwards called them) a race of rebels, a ſeed of ſerpents, ſhamefully degenerate from their praiſe-worthy Progenitours.

Ver. 4. Againſt whom do ye ſport your ſelves?] You that are the wits, the merry Greeks of the times, that inſtead of trembling at Gods Word, and humbling before him, hold it a goodly thing to gibe and jear at it, to mock and ſcoffe at thoſe that preach it, 2 Chron. 36.16. See chap. 5.19. and 22.13. and 28.14, 22. Theſe were their game-ſtocks, and the matter of their mad mirth; neither is it any otherwiſe to this day: for the world ever was, and will be ſtill, beſide it ſelf in point of ſalvation.Mundus anti[illegible: 1 letter] quum obtinet ridendo verbum Dei. Not the ſinful Sodomites only, but Lots ſons-in-law, who ſhould have learned better, laughed him to ſcorn for his good counſel, Gen. 19.14. Ridetur cum ſuo Jehova: Lot is counted but a Iob, and bid to keep his breath to cool his broth. Eraſmus is blamed for his dry ſcoffes at Capi[illegible: 1 letter]e and other Reformers: but Parſons the Jeſuite is able to put Rabſhaketh, Therſites and Lucian himſelf to ſchool, for railing, deriding and ſcurrilous language.

Againſt whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?] By ſuch baſe geſtures did they ſhew their contempt of the Prophets, as they thought: but indeed (and as it was conſtrued) of God himſelf. See Exod. 16.8. Num. 16.11. Luk. 10.16. 1 Theſ. 4.8. Look how unskilful hunters, ſhooting at wild beaſts, do ſometimes kill a man: ſo profane perſons, ſhooting at Gods Miniſters, hit him. If we be ſerved in like ſort as thoſe of old were, if we be for ſignes and for wonders in Iſrael, as Iſaiah and his fellows were, chap. 8.18. If in mockage they imitate our language, as they did good Jeremies, crying at him, The burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord, chap. 23. If they blow their noſes at us, as they did at our Saviour, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Luk. 16.14. taunt and reproach us, as they did Paul, Act. 17.32. ſet us upon a ſtage to be laughed and hooted at, as they did thoſe worthies of whom the world was not worthy, [non-Latin text not transcribed], In theatrum producti pro ſpectaculo. Heb. 10.33. 1 Cor. 4.9. let us not ſtrange or ſtartle at the matter, as if ſome new thing had befaln us; but rejoyce and be exceeding glad: for ſo perſecuted they the Prophets that were before us, Mat. 5.12. See 1 Pet. 4.14. with the Note.

Ver. 5. Enflaming your ſelves with idols] That it might appear that there was good cauſe of ſo much ſharpneſs, and that he did them no wrong, he painteth them out in their colours, to the life: Incaleſcitis, id eſt concumbitis, whileſt ye commit folly and filthineſs with your idols, ye are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker: your baker ſleepeth all the night, in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire, Hoſ. 7.4, 6. And as the love of Harlots is oft hotter than that of husband and wife, ſo ſuperſtition many times out-doeth true religion.

Slaying the children] A barbarous practice, taught them by that old man-ſlayer. Careleſs parents do little leſs: whom therefore Bernard calleth peremptores potius quam parentes, rather Parricides than Parents.

Ver. 6. Among the ſmooth ſtones of the ſtream is thy portion] Pars & ſors tua: a poor portion it is, but ſuch as thou art well apaid of (viz. thine altars and thine idol-ſervice) and ſetteſt up in my place: how exceeding devout in their way are ſome miſled and muzzled Papiſts (thoſe of the weaker ſex eſpecially) in the ſervice of their god Mauzzim, in the honour of their over-admired reliques, which they eſteem no leſs than the people of the Iſle Zeiilon in the Eaſt-Indies did their conſecrated Apes-tooth; which being got from them, they offered an incredible maſſe of treaſure to recover it.

Should I receive comfort in theſe] Or, ſhould I not eaſe my ſelfe of theſe? as Jer. 5.9.

Ver. 7. Ʋpon a lofty and high mountain] In all places haſt thou poured out thy whoredoms, ſetting thy ſin upon the cliffe of the rock, as it were a ſunning: ſo ſhameleſs art thou grown.

Thy bed] i. e. thy Temples and Altars; as likewiſe do the Maſſe-mongers at this day.

Ver. 8. Behind the doors alſo and the poſts] Where my Law ſhould have been written, Deut. 6.9. and 11.20.

Haſt thou ſet up thy remembrance] Thy mawmets and monuments of Idolatry: ſuch as Papiſts now call Memories, and Lay-mens books.

Thou haſt diſcovered thy ſelf] Thy nakedneſs like a meretrix meretriciſſima, divaricaſti tibias, as Ezek. 23. Omnibus modis t[illegible: 1 letter] comparans ut impudentiſſimum ſcortum, proſtituting thy ſelf as a moſt impudent Harlot, prodigiouſly laſcivious.

Ver. 9. And thou wenteſt to the King] The King of Aſſyria, who ſtiled himſelf the great King, to whom Ahaz both ſent and went, 2 King. 16.8, 10.

With ointment] Heb. with oyle, that is, with balſam, ſuch as Judea only afforded, and was therefore highly eſteemed in other countries.

And didſt debaſe thy ſelf even unto hell] By crouching and cringing to thoſe forraign ſtates, in a moſt ſubmiſſe and ſervile way, as Ahaz had done with his, I am thy ſervant and thy ſon, 2 King. 16.7. to the diſhonour of God, and to the reproach of Iſrael, who was Gods firſt-born, higher than the Kings of the earth, Pſal. 89.27.

Ver. 10. Thou art wearied in the greatneſſe of thy way] Great paines thou haſt taken to ſmall purpoſe, and yet thou thinkeſt and hopeſt (but groundleſly) that.

Thou haſt found the life of thy hand] A ſure way of ſubſiſtence; thy deſired help and ſafety.

Ver. 11. And of whom haſt thou been afraid or feared?] q. d. Not me ſurely as thou oughteſt: but thy fellow-creatures, whom thou ſhouldeſt have looked upon as ſo many mice.

That thou haſt lyed] i. e. So baſely flattered the Aſſyrian.

Have I not held my peace] i. e. Born with thee, more than any elſe would ever have done? and yet my lenity is even worſe than loſt upon thee.

Ver. 12. I will declare thy righteouſneſſe] i. e. Thine unrighteouſneſſe, by an Irony: Antiphraſis Ironica. or thy righteouſneſs ſecundum dici, non ſecundum eſſe, thine hypocriſie.

For they ſhall not profit thee] Nay they ſhall undo thee.

Ver. 13. When thou cryeſt, let thy companies (Heb. thy gathered ones or troopes) deliver thee] See Deut. 32 37, 38. Judg. 10.13, 14. with the Note.

But the wind ſhall carry them all away] The wind of Gods power ſhall ſcatter them, quiſquiliarum in morem.

Ver. 14. And he ſhall ſay] Or, and it ſhall be ſaid: This is further added, for the comfort of thoſe that truſted in God, that they ſhall have a ſmooth and clear paſſage home. This is literally meant of their return from Babylon: but myſtically of the recollection of the Church out of the captivity of the devil, and power of ſinne.

Ver. 15. For thus ſaith the high and lofty one] Higher than the higheſt: ſo high, that he is ſaid to abaſe himſelf to behold things done in heaven, Pſal. 113.6. to look out of himſelf upon the Saints and Angels there. He is a God, ſaith one, whoſe nature is Majeſty, whoſe place is immenſity, whoſe time is eternity, whoſe life is ſanctity, whoſe power is omnipotency, whoſe work is mercy, whoſe wrath is juſtice, whoſe throne is ſublimitie, whoſe ſeat is humility.

That inhabiteth Eternity] Gigas ſaeculorum, ſaith the Syriak. The Apoſtle Paul hath a like ſtately deſcription of Almighty God, 1 Tim. 6.16. who yet is above all Name or Notion, and muſt be thought of as one not to be thought of. Herein he is moſt unlike to men, who the higher they are, the leſs they look after the poor afflicted.

I dwell in the high and holy place] In the light which no man can approach unto, 1. Tim. 6.16. In the holy place (of the material Temple) which was without windows, there burned lights perpetually; to repreſent the celeſtial lights: but in the moſt holy place, there was no light at all; to ſhew, that all outward light is but darkneſs being compared with that light which God inhabiteth, and which is inacceſſible.

With him alſo that is of a contrite and humble ſpirit] In the loweſt hearts he dwelleth, as well as in the higheſt heavens. A broken heart is Gods leſſer heaven: here he dwelleth with delight. Not that the affliction of a mans ſpirit is pleaſing to God, but the ſeparation of ſin from the ſoul: when the ſoder that joyneth a ſinful action and the heart together, is diſſolved, this pleaſeth the Lord.

To revive the spirit of the humble] As this very text hath done many a one.

Ver. 16. For I will not contend for ever] It ſoon repenteth the Lord concerning his ſervants: Et pro magno peccato parum ſupplicii ſatis eſt patri. Terent. See Pſal. 103.9.

For the ſpirit would fail before me] Heb. would be overcovered, ſc. tenebris a[illegible: 1 letter] terroribus, it would even ſink and faint away. When the child ſwoones in the whipping, God lets fall the rod, and falls a kiſſing it, to fetch life into it again, Jer. 31.20. As the rule in Phyſick is ſtill to maintain nature, ſo doth he their ſpirits, by Cordials.

Ver. 17. For the iniquity of his Covetouſneſſe] Or of his Concupiſcence, the ſin of his nature. But covetouſneſſe is a wickedneſſe with a witneſſe; the root of all evil, 1 Tim. 6.10. Timon could ſay, that there were two ſources of all ſin, viz. [non-Latin text not transcribed] covetouſneſſe and vain-glory.

And he went on frowardly in the way of his own heart] i. e. Exco[illegible: 1 letter]atus ſequitur animalem ſuum spiritum, he blindling blundered on, without fear or wit, croſs-grained and irreclaimable.

Ver. 18. I have ſeen his waies] His waies of covetouſneſſe, croſſneſs, &c. I could be as croſs as he for the heart of him, Pſal. 18.26. But,

I will heal him] q. d. I ſee theſe froward children will ſay nothing to heart: frowns will not humble them, blows will not benefit them: if I do not ſave them, till they ſeek me, they'l never be ſaved. Therefore I will work for mine own name ſake. See Ezek. 20.8, 14, 22, 44.

And reſtore comforts unto him, and to his mourners] To thoſe that mourn in ſecret for his ſins and miſeries, Ezek. 9.4. Matth. 5.4. and to others for their ſakes, ratione conſortii.

Ver. 19. I create the fruit of the lips] i. e. I ſpeak peace to my people by the mouths of my faithful Miniſters, applying and ſetting home the promiſes: And this I doe moſt magnificently and mightily.

Peace, peace] See on chap. 26.3.

Ver. 20 But the wicked are like the troubled ſea] Whoſe ſurges are not more lofty, then muddy. The ſea is of it ſelf unquiet and troubleſme: much more when toſſed with winds and tempeſts: So wicked men, when tis at beſt with them, are reſtleſs; but under terrours and temptations, they caſt up the mire and dirt of deſperation and blaſphemy; as did Cain, Judas, Julian, Latomus, &c. God in afflictions marks men out: and then, conſcience will prey upon them, as Simeon and Levi did upon the Shechemites, when ſore: then, as Prov. 5.12, men ſhall cry out, How have I hated inſtruction, and my heart deſpiſed reproof! Then, as Gen. 42.21. Afflictions are to the ſoul, as ſtorms are to the ſea, or as earthquakes to the ground, which diſcover a great deal of filth. Vatablus rendreth the text thus, Imp[illegible: 1 letter]i autem Euripi inſtar fremunt. Now Euripus ebbeth and floweth ſeven times a day,His life in. Mr. Clark. and muſt needs therefore be in continual motion and agitation. Mr. Dod was wont to compare wicked men to the waves of the ſea; thoſe which were of a great eſtate were great waves, ſaid He; thoſe that were of ſmall eſtate, were ſmall waves: but all were reſtleſs as waves, Job. 20.20.

Ver. 21. There is no peace] a truce there may be for a time, and a ſeeming peace: but it is pax infida, Liv. pax incerta, a peace no peace. The ſea may ſeem ſometimes ſtill, but it is never ſo: no more are the wicked. And this is twice here affirmed for more aſſurance: like as he had twice ſaid I will heal them, ver. 18.19. and as he had promiſed peace peace to the mourners [illegible: 1 letter] ib. who, having ſoaked themſelves in godly ſorrow, are waſhed from their wickedneſſe by the blood of Jeſus Chriſt, and being juſtified by faith have peace with God: This is a peerleleſſe pearl, which no cock on the dunghil ever knew the worth of.