{"commentary":{"id":"adam-clarke","name":"Adam Clarke Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Clarke","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Adam Clarke Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"92e28c9363c876d215e296f2fe04abb3ab7e34a2aacebdf06bd62ae79c6e3dba","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":57,"totalNumberOfChapters":854,"totalNumberOfVerses":13318,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ISA","commentaryId":"adam-clarke","name":"Isaiah","commonName":"Isaiah","introduction":"Introduction to the Book of the Prophet Isaiah On the term prophet, and on the nature and several kinds of prophecy, I have already discoursed in different parts of this work. See the notes on Gen 15:1 (note); Gen 20:7 (note), and the preface to the four Gospels, and Acts of the Apostles. A few things only require to be recapitulated. נבא naba signifies not only to foretell future events, but also to pray and supplicate; and נביא nabi, the prophet, was by office not only a declarer of events still future, but the general preacher of the day; and as he frequently foresaw the approach of disastrous times, such was the wickedness of the people, he employed his time in counseling sinners to turn from the error of their ways, and in making strong prayer and supplication to God to avert the threatened judgments: for such predictions, however apparently positive in their terms, were generally conditional; strange as this may appear to some who, through their general ignorance of every thing but the peculiarities of their own creed, suppose that every occurrence is impelled by an irresistible necessity. To his own conduct, in reference to such matters, God has been pleased to give us a key (see Jeremiah 18.) which opens all difficulties, and furnishes us with a general comment on his own providence. God is absolute master of his own ways; and as he has made man a free agent, whatever concerns him in reference to futurity, on which God is pleased to express his mind in the way of prophecy, there is a condition generally implied or expressed. As this is but seldom attended to by partial interpreters, who wish by their doctrine of fatalism to bind even God himself, many contradictory sentiments are put in the mouths of his prophets. In ancient times those who were afterwards called Prophets were termed Seers; Sa1 9:9. הראה haroeh, the seeing person; he who perceives mentally what the design of God is. Sometimes called also חזה chozeh, the man who has visions, or supernatural revelations; Kg1 22:17; Kg2 17:13. Both these terms are translated seer in our common Version. They were sometimes called men of God, and messengers or angels of God. In their case it was ever understood that all God's prophets had an extraordinary commission and had their message given them by immediate inspiration. In this the heathen copied after the people of God. They also had their prophets and seers; and hence their augurs and auguries, their haruspices, and priestesses, and their oracles; all pretending to be divinely inspired, and to declare nothing but the truth; for what was truth and fact among the former, was affected and pretended among the latter. Many prophets and seers are mentioned in the sacred writings; but, fragments and insulated prophecies excepted, we have the works of only Sixteen; four of whom are termed the former or larger prophets, and twelve, the latter or minor prophets. They have these epithets, not from priority of time, or from minor importance, but merely from the places they occupy in the present arrangement of the books in the Bible, and from the relative size of their productions. The Jews reckon forty-eight prophets, and seven prophetesses; and Epiphanius, in a fragment preserved by Cotelerius, reckons not fewer than seventy-three prophets, and ten prophetesses; but in both collections there are many which have no Scriptural pretensions to such a distinguished rank. The succession of prophets in the Jewish Church is well worthy of note, because it not only manifests the merciful regards of God towards that people, but also the uninterrupted succession of the prophetic influence, at least from Moses to Malachi, if not before; for this gift was not withheld under the patriarchal dispensation; indeed we might boldly ask any man to show when the time was in which God left himself without a witness of this kind. To show this succession, I shall endeavor to give the different prophets in order of time. 1. The first man, Adam, has an undoubted right to stand at the head of the prophets, as he does at the head of the human race. His declaration concerning marriage, \"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife,\" is so truly prophetic, that no doubt can be formed on the subject. There was then nothing in nature or experience to justify such an assertion; and he could have it only by Divine inspiration. The millions of instances which have since occurred, and the numerous laws which have been founded on this principle among all the nations of the earth, show with what precision the declaration was conceived, and with what truth it was published to the world. Add to this, his correct knowledge of the nature of the different animals, so that he could impose on them names expressive of their respective natures or propensities; which proves that he must have acted under a Divine inspiration; for known only to God are all his works from the beginning. 2. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, is expressly called a prophet; and St. Jude, Jde 1:14, Jde 1:15, has preserved a fragment of one of his prophecies, relative to the corruption of the ante-diluvian world, and the approaching judgments of God. 3. Noah was a prophet and preacher of righteousness, and predicted the general deluge, and the time of respite which God in his mercy had granted to the offenders of that age. 4. Abraham is expressly called a prophet also, Gen 20:7; and it appears from Psa 105:15, that he partook of the Divine anointing. 5. Isaac, Gen 27:27, predicted the future greatness of his son Jacob, and of the race that was to spring from him. 6. Jacob was so especially favored with the prophetic gift, that he distinctly foretold what should happen to each of his sons. See Genesis 49. 7. Joseph was favored with several prophetic visions, and had the gift of interpreting dreams which portended future occurrences; (see Genesis 27, 40, 41.); and foretold the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt; Gen 50:25. Thus far the prophetic influence extended through the patriarchal dispensation for about two thousand three hundred and seventy years from the creation. With the Jewish dispensation the prophetic gift revived; and, 8. Moses became one of the most eminent prophets that had ever appeared. He not only enjoyed the continual prophetic afflatus, but had such visions of and intercourse with God as no other person either before or since was favored with; and by which he was highly qualified to perform the arduous work which God had given him to do, and to frame that Code of Laws which had no equal before the promulgation of the Gospel. See Deu 24:10. He predicted expressly the coming of the Messiah. See Deu 18:18. 9. Aaron, the brother of Moses, his prime minister and God's high priest, was also a partaker of his Divine influence, and declared the will of God to Pharaoh and the Israelites, not merely from information received from Moses, but also by immediate communication from God. See Exo 4:15. 10. Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, is expressly called a prophetess, Exo 15:20; Num 12:2. 11. Joshua, who succeeded Moses, was a partaker of the same grace. He was appointed by Moses under the especial direction of God; Num 27:18-23; Deu 34:9; and has always been reckoned among the Jews as one of the prophets. See Sirach 46:1-6. Though I cannot place them in the same rank, yet it is necessary to state that, by the Jews, several of the judges are classed among the prophets; such as Othniel, Ehud, Samson, and Barak. 12. Deborah, the coadjutor of Barak, is called a prophetess, Jdg 4:4. During her time, and down to the days of Eli the high priest, prophecy had been very scarce, there having been very few on whom the Spirit of the Lord had rested; for \"the word of the Lord was scarce in those days, and there was no open vision;\" Sa1 3:1. 13. Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, is supposed to have partaken of the spirit of prophecy; and to have foretold, at least indirectly, the advent of the Messiah, and the glory that should be revealed under the Gospel. See her Song, Sa1 2:1-10. And what renders this more likely is, that it is on the model, and with many of the expressions, of this song, that the blessed Virgin composed her Magnificat, Luk 1:46-55. 14. Samuel, her son, was one of the most eminent of the Jewish prophets, and was the last, and indeed the greatest, of the judges of Israel. In his time the prophetic influence seems to have rested upon many; so that we find even whole schools or colleges of prophets which were under his direction. See Sa1 10:5, Sa1 10:10; Sa1 19:20, and elsewhere. 15. David united in himself the character of prophet and king, in the most eminent manner; and from his reign down to the captivity the succession was not only not interrupted, but these extraordinary messengers of God became very numerous. 16. Gad flourished under his reign, and was emphatically called David's Seer, Sa2 24:11; Ch1 21:9, Ch1 21:19, Ch1 21:20; and it appears that he had written a Book of Prophecies, which is now lost, Ch1 29:29. 17. Nathan lived also under the same reign, Sa2 7:2; and, in conjunction with Gad, composed a book of the acts of David, Ch1 29:29. 18. To Solomon also, son of David, the prophetic gift has been attributed. This might be implied in the extraordinary wisdom with which God had endowed him, Kg1 3:5-9; Ch2 1:7; Ch2 7:12; and in his writings several prophetic declarations may be found, even independently of the supposed reference to Christ and his Church in the Song of Solomon. 19. Iddo is termed a Seer, Ch2 12:15; Ch2 13:22; and was one of Solomon's biographers. 20. Shemaiah lived under Rehoboam; he is called a man of God, and to him the word of prophecy came relative to Judah and Benjamin, Kg1 12:22-24. Some think this was the same person who was sent to Jeroboam relative to his idolatry; see Kg1 13:1, etc. 21. Ahijah, the Shilonite, prophesied to Jeroboam, Kg1 11:29-39. 22. Hanani the Seer prophesied under Azariah and Asa, Ch2 16:7. 23. Jehu, son of Hanani, prophesied under Jehoshaphat, Kg1 16:1, Kg1 16:7; Ch2 16:7; Ch2 19:2; and Ch2 20:34. 24. Azariah, the son of Oded, prophesied under Asa, Ch2 15:1. 25. Elijah prophesied under the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. 26. Elisha succeeded Elijah under the same reigns. And these eminent men had many disciples on whom the spirit of prophecy rested. They, and their masters, Elijah and Elisha, prophesied in the kingdoms both of Israel and Judah. Their histories make a prominent part of the first and second Books of Kings; and are well known. 27. Micaiah, the son of Imlah, prophesied under the same reign, Kg1 21:9. 28. Hosea prophesied under Jeroboam the second, king of Israel, and under the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah. 29. Isaiah was contemporary with Hosea, but probably began to prophesy a little later than he did. 30. Amos prophesied about the same time. 31. Jonah, son of Amittai, is supposed to have been contemporary with the above. 32. Eliezer, the son of Dodavah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah, Ch2 20:37. 33. Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, prophesied against Judah and Israel under the same reign, Ch2 20:14. 34. Micah prophesied against Samaria and Jerusalem, in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. 35. Oded, father of Azariah, prophesied against Asa, Ch2 15:8. 36. Nahum prophesied under Hezekiah. 37. Joel, under Josiah. 38. Jeremiah, about the same time. 39. Zephaniah, under the same reign. See their prophecies. 40. Huldah, the prophetess, was contemporary with the above. 41. Igdaliah, called a man of God, and probably a prophet, was contemporary with Jeremiah, Jer 35:4. 42. Habakkuk lived about the end of the reign of Josiah, or the beginning of that of Jehoiakim. 43. Ezekiel lived under the captivity; and prophesied in Mesopotamia, about the time that Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem. 44. Obadiah lived in Judea, after the capture of Jerusalem and before the desolation of Idumea by Nebuchadnezzar. 45. Daniel prophesied in Babylon during the captivity. 46. Haggai prophesied during and after the captivity. 47. Urijah, the son of Shemaiah, prophesied under Jehoiakim. See Jer 26:20, Jer 26:21. 48. Zechariah, son of Barachiah, flourished in the second year of Darius, after the captivity. 49. Malachi lived under Nehemiah, and some time after Haggai and Zechariah. Here is a succession of divinely inspired men, by whom God at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers, from the beginning of the world down to the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, a period of three thousand six hundred years. From the time of Malachi, who was the last of the prophets, till the advent of Christ, a period of nearly four hundred years elapsed without vision or prophecy: but during the whole of that interval the Jews had the law and the prophetical writings, to which, till the time of Christ, there was no necessity to add any thing; for God had with the writings of the last mentioned prophet completed the canon of the Old Testament, nothing being further necessary, till he should, in the fullness of time, superadd the Gospel; and this having taken place, vision and prophecy are now for ever sealed up, and the temple of God is established among all genuine believers in Christ Jesus. It is not easy to ascertain the order in which the sixteen prophets, whose writings are preserved, have succeeded to each other. There are chronological notes prefixed to several of their prophecies, which assist to settle generally the times of the whole. Several were contemporary, as the reader has already seen in the preceding list. The major and minor prophets may be thus arranged: - 1. Jonah, under the reign of Jeroboam the second. 2. Hosea, under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, etc. 3. Joel, contemporary with Hosea. 4. Amos, under Uzziah and Jeroboam the second. 5. Isaiah, under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. 6. Micah, contemporary with Isaiah. 7. Nahum, under the reign of Hezekiah. 8. Habakkuk, under the reign of Manasseh or Josiah. 9. Zephaniah, under Josiah. 10. Jeremiah, from Josiah to Zedekiah. 11. Daniel, under the captivity, after Zedekiah. 12. Ezekiel, at the same time. 13. Obadiah, during the captivity. 14. Haggai began to prophecy in the second year of Darius. 15. Zechariah, about the same time. See Zac 1:1; Zac 7:1. 16. Malachi, under Nehemiah. The last of all the prophets. The works of these prophets constitute the principal and most important part of what is called The Bible or Old Testament. On the style of the prophets much has been said by several learned men; particularly Calmet, Lowth, Bishop Newton, Vitringa, Michaelis, and Houbigant. Their chief observations, and especially those most within the reach of the common people, have been selected and abridged with great care and industry by the Revelation Dr. John Smith, of Cambleton, in his little Tract entitled \"A Summary View and Explanation of the Writings of the Prophets,\" to which it forms preliminary observations, drawn up at the desire of the Scottish Society for propagating Christian Knowledge, in a small 8vo. 1804. From this work I thankfully borrow what concerns the present subject; taking occasion at the same time to recommend the whole to all Christian ministers, to private persons, and to all families who wish to read the prophets to their edification. \"The writings of the prophets, the most sublime and beautiful in the world, lose much of that usefulness and effect which they are so well calculated to produce on the souls of men, from their not being more generally understood. Many prophecies are somewhat dark, till events explain them. They are, besides, delivered in such lofty and figurative terms, and with such frequent allusions to the customs and manners of times and places the most remote, that ordinary readers cannot, without some help, be supposed capable of understanding them. It must therefore be of use to make the language of prophecy as intelligible as may be, by explaining those images and figures of speech in which it most frequently abounds; and this may be done generally, even when the prophecies themselves are obscure. \"Some prophecies seem as if it were not intended that they should be clearly understood before they are fulfilled. As they relate to different periods, they may have been intended for exciting the attention of mankind from time to time both to providence and to Scripture and to furnish every age with new evidence of Divine revelation; by which means they serve the same purpose to the last ages of the world that miracles did to the first. Whereas, if they had been in every respect clear and obvious from the beginning, this wise purpose had been in a great measure defeated. Curiosity, industry, and attention would at once be at an end, or, by being too easily gratified, would be little exercised. \"Besides, a great degree of obscurity is necessary to some prophecies before they can be fulfilled; and if not fulfilled, the consequence would not be so beneficial to mankind. Thus many of the ancient prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem had a manifest relation to the remoter destruction by the Romans, as well as to the nearer one by the Chaldeans. Had the Jews perceived this, which was not indeed clear enough till the event explained it, they would probably have wished to have remained for ever in their captivity at Babylon, rather than expose themselves or their offspring a second time to a destruction so dreadful as that which they had already experienced. \"With respect to our times, by far the greatest number of prophecies relate to events which are now past; and therefore a sufficient acquaintance with history, and with the language and style of prophecy, is all that is requisite to understand them. Some prophecies, however, relate to events still future; and these too may be understood in general although some particular circumstances connected with them may remain obscure till they are fulfilled. If prophecies were not capable of being understood in general, we should not find the seers so often blamed in this respect for their ignorance and want of discernment. That they did actually understand many of them when they chose to search the Scriptures we know. Daniel understood, from the prophecies of Jeremiah, the time at which the captivity in Babylon was to be at an end; and the scribes knew from Micah, and told Herod, where the Messiah was to be born. A very little attention might have enabled them in the same manner to understand others, as they probably did; such as the seventy weeks of Daniel; the destruction of the Babylonian empire, and of the other three that were to succeed; and also of the ruin of the people and places around them, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, Philistia, Egypt, and Idumea. Perhaps, indeed, a few enigmatical circumstances might have been annexed, which could not be understood till they were accomplished; but the general tenor of the prophecies they could be at no loss to understand. With regard to prophecies still future, we are in a similar situation. It is understood in general, that the Jews will be gathered from their dispersions, restored to their own land, and converted to Christianity; that the fullness of the Gentiles will likewise come in; that Antichrist, Gog and Magog, and all the enemies of the Church will be destroyed; after which the Gospel will remarkably flourish, and be more than ever glorified. But several circumstances connected with those general events must probably remain in the dark till their accomplishment shall clearly explain them. \"But this degree of obscurity which sometimes attends prophecy does not always proceed from the circumstances or subject; it frequently proceeds from the highly poetical and figurative style, in which prophecy is for the most part conveyed, and of which it will be proper to give some account. To speak of all the rhetorical figures with which the prophets adorn their style would lead us into a field too wide, and would be more the province of the rhetorician than of the commentator. It will be sufficient for our purpose at present to attend to the most common of them, consisting of allegory, parable, and metaphor, and then to consider the sources from which the prophets most frequently borrow their images in those figures, and the sense which they wish to convey by them. \"By allegory, the first of the figures mentioned, is meant that mode of speech in which the writer or speaker means to convey a different idea from what the words in their obvious and primary signification bear. Thus, 'Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns,' (Jer 4:3), is to be understood, not of tillage, but of repentance. And these words, 'Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters, the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas,' Eze 27:26, allude not to the fate of a ship, but of a city. \"To this figure the parable, in which the prophets frequently speak, is nearly allied. It consists in the application of some feigned narrative to some real truth, which might have been less striking or more disagreeable if expressed in plain terms. Such is the following one of Isaiah, Isa 5:1, Isa 5:2 : 'My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.' The seventh verse tells us that this vineyard was the house of Israel, which had so ill requited the favor which God had shown it. On this subject see the dissertation at the end of the notes on Matthew 13 (note). \"There is, besides, another kind of allegory not uncommon with the prophets, called mystical allegory or double prophecy. Thus it is said of Eliakim, Isa 22:22 : 'And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.' In the first and obvious sense, the words relate to Eliakim; but in the secondary or mystical sense, to the Messiah. Instances of the same kind are frequent in those prophecies that relate to David, Zerubbabel, Cyrus, and other types of Christ. In the first sense the words relate to the type; in the second, to the antitype. The use of this allegory, however, is not so frequent as that of the former. It is generally confined to things most nearly connected with the Jewish religion; with Israel, Sion, Jerusalem, and its kings and rulers; or such as were most opposite to these, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Idumea, and the like. In the former kind of allegory the primitive meaning is dropped, and the figurative only is retained; in this, both the one and the other are preserved, and this is what constitutes the difference. \"But of all the figures used by the prophets the most frequent is the metaphor, by which words are transferred from their primitive and plain to a secondary meaning. This figure, common in all poetry and in all languages, is of indispensable necessity in Scripture, which, having occasion to speak of Divine and spiritual matters, could do it only by terms borrowed from sensible and material objects. Hence it is that the sentiments, actions, and corporeal parts, not only of man, but also of inferior creatures, are ascribed to God himself; it being otherwise impossible for us to form any conceptions of his pure essence and incommunicable attributes. But though the prophets, partly from necessity and partly from choice, are thus profuse in the use of metaphors, they do not appear, like other writers, to have the liberty of using them as fancy directed. The same set of images, however diversified in the manner of applying them, is always used, both in allegory and metaphor, to denote the same subjects, to which they are in a manner appropriated. This peculiar characteristic of the Hebrew poetry might perhaps be owing to some rules taught in the prophetic schools, which did not allow the same latitude in this respect as other poetry. Whatever it may be owing to, the uniform manner in which the prophets apply these images tends greatly to illustrate the prophetic style; and therefore it will be proper now to consider the sources from which those images are most frequently derived, and the subjects and ideas which they severally denote. These sources may be classed under four heads; natural, artificial, religious, and historical. \"I. The first and most copious, as well as the most pleasing source of images in the prophetic writings, as in all other poetry, is nature; and the principal images drawn from nature, together with their application, are the following: - \"The sun, moon, and stars, the highest objects in the natural world, figuratively represent kings, queens, and princes or rulers; the highest in the world politic. 'The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed;' Isa 24:23. 'I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light;' Eze 32:7. \"Light and darkness are used figuratively for joy and sorrow, prosperity and adversity. 'We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness;' Isa 59:9. An uncommon degree of light denotes an uncommon degree of joy and prosperity, and vice versa. 'The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold;' Isa 30:26. The same metaphors are likewise used to denote knowledge and ignorance. 'If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them;' Isa 8:20. 'The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light;' Isa 9:2. \"Dew, moderate rains, gentle streams, and running waters denote the blessings of the Gospel. 'Thy dew is as the dew of herbs;' Isa 26:19. 'He shall come unto us as the rain;' Hos 6:3. 'I will water it every moment;' Isa 27:3. 'I will pour water on him that is thirsty;' Isa 44:3. \"Immoderate rains on the other hand, hail, floods, deep waters, torrents, and inundations, denote judgments and destruction. 'I will rain upon him an overflowing rain, and great hailstones,' Eze 38:22. 'Waters rise up out of the north, and shall overflow the land,' Jer 47:2. \"Fire also, and the east wind, parching and hurtful, frequently denote the same. 'They shall cast thy choice cedars into the fire,' Jer 22:7. 'He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind,' Isa 27:8. \"Wind in general is often taken in the same sense. 'The wind shall eat up all thy pastures,' Jer 22:22. Sometimes it is put for any thing empty or fallacious, as well as hurtful. 'The prophets shall become wind,' Jer 5:13. 'They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind,' Hos 8:7. \"Lebanon and Carmel; the one remarkable for its height and stately cedars, was the image of majesty, strength, or anything very great or noble. 'He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one,' Isa 10:34. 'The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon,' Eze 31:3. The other mountain (Carmel) being fruitful, and abounding in vines and olives, denoted beauty and fertility. 'The glory of Lebanon shall be given it, the excellency of Carmel,' Isa 35:2. The vine alone is a frequent image of the Jewish Church. 'I had planted thee a noble vine,' Jer 2:21. \"Rams and bullocks of Bashan, lions, eagles, sea-monsters, or any animals of prey, are figures frequently used for cruel and oppressive tyrants and conquerors. 'Hear this word ye kine of Bashan, which oppress the poor,' Amo 4:1. 'The lion is come up from his thicket,' Jer 4:7. 'A great eagle came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar,' Eze 17:3. 'Thou art as a whale in the seas,' Eze 32:2. 'The unicorns shall come down, and their land shall be soaked with blood,' Isa 34:7. \"II. The ordinary occupations and customs of life, with the few arts practiced at the time, were another source from which the prophets derived many of their figures, particularly, \"From husbandry in all its parts, and from its implements. 'Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy: break up your fallow ground,' Hos 10:12. 'Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe,' Joe 3:13. 'I am pressed under you, as a wain under a load of sheaves,' Amo 2:13. Threshing was performed in various ways, (mentioned Isa 28:24, etc.), which furnish a variety of images denoting punishment. 'Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and thy hoofs brass,' etc., Mic 4:13. The operation was performed on rising grounds, where the chaff was driven away by the wind, while the grain remained; a fit emblem of the fate of the wicked, and of the salvation of the just. 'Behold, I will make thee a new threshing-instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and thou shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them,' Isa 41:15, Isa 41:16. \"The vintage and winepress also furnish many images, obvious enough in their application. 'The press is full, the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great,' Joe 3:13. 'I have trod the winepress alone. I will tread down the people in mine anger,' Isa 63:3, etc. As the vintage was gathered with shouting and rejoicing, the ceasing of the vintage-shouting is frequently one of the figures that denote misery and desolation. 'None shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting,' Jer 48:33. \"From the occupation of tending cattle we have many images. 'Wo unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture,' Jer 23:1. The people are the flock; teachers and rulers the pastors. 'Israel is a scattered sheep, the lions have driven him away.' 'As a shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear,' etc., Amo 3:12. Some of the images derived from husbandry, tending cattle, etc., may perhaps appear mean to us; though not to the Jews, whose manner of life was simple and plain, and whose greatest men (such as Moses, David, Gideon, etc.) were often husbandmen and shepherds. Accordingly, the Messiah himself is frequently described under the character of a shepherd. [See Fleury's Manners of the Israelites]. \"It was customary in deep mournings to shave the head and beard, to retire to the housetops, which in those countries were flat, and furnished with little chambers adapted to the purposes of devotion or of sequestered grief; also to sing dirges at funerals, and to accompany them with a mournful sort of music; and from these and the like circumstances images are frequently borrowed by the prophets to denote the greatest danger, and the deepest distress. 'Mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes.' 'Every head shall be bald, and every beard clipt - there shall be lamentation on all the house - tops of Moab,' Jer 48:36-38; Isa 15:2, Isa 15:3. \"The mode of burying in the Jewish sepulchers, or 'sides of the pit,' and their Hades, or state of the dead, supplied many images of the same kind. See observations on Isaiah 14 (note), and Eze 26:20 (note). \"According to the barbarous custom of those times, conquerors drove their captives before them almost naked, and exposed to the intolerable heat of the sun, and the inclemencies of the weather. They afterwards employed them frequently in grinding at the handmill, (watermills not being then invented); hence nakedness, and grinding at the mill, and sitting on the ground (the posture in which they wrought) express captivity. 'Descend and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; take the millstones - thy nakedness shall be uncovered,' Isa 47:1-3. \"The marriage relation supplied metaphors to express the relation or covenant between God and his people. On the other hand adultery, infidelity to the marriage bed, etc., denoted any breach of covenant with God, particularly the love and worship of idols. 'Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you,' Jer 3:14. 'There were two women, the daughters of one mother, and they committed whoredoms - with their idols have they committed adultery,' etc., Ezekiel 23:2-37. \"The debility and stupefaction caused by intoxicating liquors suggested very apt images to express the terrible effects of the Divine judgments on those who are the unhappy objects of them. 'Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness, with the cup of thy sister Samaria,' Eze 23:33. \"From the method of refining metals in the furnace images are often borrowed to denote the judgments inflicted by God on his people, with a view to cleanse them from their sins, as metal from its dross. 'Israel is dross in the midst of the furnac","order":23,"numberOfChapters":66,"sha256":"a528018850c41a64a3b051dc0473b385e63be7ccaadc79712fbb8ec16cf5e182","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/ISA/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"ISA","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":66,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/ISA/66.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"ISA","chapter":66},"totalNumberOfVerses":171},"chapter":{"number":60,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":1,"content":["Arise - Call upon God through Christ, for his salvation; and,\nShine - אורי ori, be illuminated: for till thou arise and call upon God, thou wilt never receive true light.\nFor thy light is come - כי בא אורך ki ba orech, for thy light cometh. The Messiah is at the door; who, while he is a light to lighten the Gentiles, will be the glory - the effulgence, of his people Israel. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Darkness shall cover the earth - This is the state of the Gentile people. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["And the Gentiles shall come - This has been in some sort already fulfilled. The Gentiles have received the light of the Gospel from the land of Judea, and the Gentile kings have embraced that Gospel; so that many nations of the earth are full of the doctrine of Christ. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Shall be nursed at thy side \"Shall be carried at the side\" - For תאמנה teamanah, shall be nursed, the Septuagint and Chaldee read תנשאנה tinnasenah, shall be carried. A MS. has על כתף תנשאנה al catheph tinnasenah, \"shall be carried on the shoulder;\" instead of על צד תאמנה al tsad teamanah, \"shall be nursed on the side.\" Another MS. has both כתף catheph and צד tsad. Another MS. has it thus: תאמנה:תנשאנה tinnasenah: teamanah, with a line drawn over the first word. Sir John Chardin says that it is the general custom in the east to carry their children astride upon the hip with the arm round their body. His MS. note on this place is as follows: - Coutume en Orient de porter les enfans sur le coste a; califourchon sur la hanche: cette facon est generale aux Indes; les enfans se tiennent comme cela, et la personne qui les porte les embrasse et serre par le corps; parceque sont (ni) emmaillottes, ni en robes qui les embrassent. \"In the east it is the custom to carry the children on the haunch, with the legs astride. This is the general custom in India. The children support themselves in this way, and the arm of the nurse goes round the body and presses the child close to the side; and this they can easily do, as the children are not swathed, nor encumbered with clothes.\" Non brachiis occidentalium more, sed humeris, divaricatis tibiis, impositos circumferunt. \"They carry them about, not in their arms after the manner of the western nations, but on their shoulders; the children being placed astride.\" Cotovic. Iter. Syr. cap. 14. This last quotation seems to favor the reading על כתף by al catheph, on the shoulder, as the Septuagint likewise do: but upon the whole I think that על צד תנשאנה al tsad tinnasenah is the true reading, which the Chaldee favors; and I have accordingly followed it. See Isa 66:12. - L. This mode of carrying children is as common in India as carrying them in the arms is in Europe. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Then thou shalt see \"Then shalt thou fear\" - For תראי tirai, thou shalt see, as ours and much the greater number of the translators, ancient and modern, render it, forty MSS. (ten ancient) of Kennicott's, and twenty-eight of De Rossi's, with one ancient of my own, and the old edition of 1488, have תיראי tirai, thou shalt fear: the true reading, confirmed by the perfect parallelism of the sentences: the heart ruffled and dilated in the second line answering to the fear and joy expressed in the first. The Prophet Jeremiah, Jer 33:9, has the same natural and elegant sentiment: - \n\"And this city shall become to me a name of joy;\nA praise and an honor for all the nations of the earth;\nWhich shall hear all the good that I do unto them:\nAnd they shall fear, and they shall tremble, at all the goodness\nAnd at all the prosperity that I procure unto her.\"\nAnd David: - \n\"I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.\"\nPsa 139:14\nHis tibi me rebus quaedam divina voluptas\nPercipit atque horror.\nLucret. 3:28.\nRecenti mens trepidat metu,\nPlenoque Bacchi pectore turbidum\nLaetatur.\nHor. Carm. 2:19. 50:5. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["The praises of the Lord \"And the praise of Jehovah\" - Thirty-three MSS. and three editions have ותהלת uthehillath, in the singular number; and so read the ancient versions, and one of my own MSS. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["The rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee - Vitringa on the place understands their ministering, and ascending or going up on the altar, as offering themselves voluntarily: ipsi se, non expectato sacerdote alto, gloriae et sanctificationi divini nominis ultro ac libenter oblaturi. \"They, waiting for no priest, go and freely offer themselves to the glory and sanctification of the sacred name.\" This gives a very elegant and poetical turn to the image. It was a general notion that prevailed with sacrificers among the heathen, that the victim's being brought without reluctance to the altar was a good omen; and the contrary a bad one. Sabinos petit aliquanto tristior; quod sacrificanti hostia aufugerat. Sueton. Titus, cap. 10. Accessit dirum omen, profugus altaribus tauris. \"It was an omen of dreadful portent when the victim fled away from the altar.\" Tacit. Hist. 3:56. - L. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["And as the doves to their windows \"And like doves upon the wing?\" - Instead of אל el, to, forty-two MSS. of Kennicott's, and one of mine, have by על, upon. For ארבתיהם arubboteyhem, their windows, read אברתיהם ebrotheyhem, their wings, transposing a letter. - Houbigant. The Septuagint render it συν νεοσσοις, \"with their young;\" they read אפרחיהם ephrocheyhem, nearer to the latter than to the present reading. - L. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["The ships of Tarshish first \"The ships of Tarshish among the first\" - For בראשנה barishonah twenty-five MSS. and the Syriac read כבראשנה kebarishonah, \"as at the first.\" The ships of Tarshish AS at the first; that is, as they brought gold and silver in the days of Solomon. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["And I will make the place of my feet glorious \"And that I may glorify the place whereon I rest my feet\" - The temple of Jerusalem was called the house of God, and the place of his rest or residence. The visible symbolical appearance of God, called by the Jews the schechinah, was in the most holy place, between the wings of the cherubim, above the ark. This is considered as the throne of God, presiding as King over the Jewish state; and as a footstool is a necessary appendage to a throne, (see note on Isa 52:2 (note)), the ark is considered as the footstool of God, and is so called, Psa 99:6; Ch1 28:2.\nThe glory of Lebanon - That is, the cedar. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee \"Nor by night shall the brightness of the moon enlighten thee\" - This line, as it stands in the present text, seems to be defective. The Septuagint and Chaldee both express the night, which is almost necessary to answer to day in the preceding line, as well as to perfect the sense here. I therefore think that we ought, upon the authority of the Septuagint and Chaldee, to read either ולילה velailah, and by night, instead of ולנגה ulenogah, and for brightness; or ולנגה בלילה ulenogah ballailah, adding the word בלילה ballailah, by night. - L. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Of my planting - מטעי mattai; so, with the Keri, read forty-four MSS. (seven ancient) and six editions; with which agree the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["I the Lord will hasten it in his time - There is a time set for the fulfillment of this prophecy: that time must come before it begins to take place; but when it does begin, the whole will be performed in a short space. It is not, therefore, the time determined for the event that shall be hastened, but all the circumstances of the event; all the parts of the prediction shall be speedily completed. I the Lorde in hys tyme sodeynly schal boun thys. - Old MS. Bible. And because it is the Lord, therefore it will be done: for although it be difficult, he is almighty.\n\n"]}],"introduction":"The glorious prospect displayed in this chapter seems to have elevated the prophet even above his usual majesty. The subject is the very flourishing condition of the Church of Jesus Christ at that period of the Gospel dispensation when both Jews and Gentiles shall become one fold under one Shepherd. The imagery employed is of the most consolatory and magnificent description. This blessed state of the world shall follow a time of gross darkness, Isa 60:1, Isa 60:2. The universal diffusion of vital godliness beautifully set forth by a great variety of images, Isa 60:3-14. The everlasting duration and spotless purity of this kingdom of Christ, Isa 60:15-21. A time appointed in the counsels of Jehovah for the commencement of this happy period; and when this time arrives, the particulars of the prophecy shall have a speedy accomplishment, Isa 60:22.\nThe subject of this chapter is the great increase and flourishing state of the Church of God by the conversion and accession of the heathen nations to it, which is set forth in such ample and exalted terms, as plainly show that the full completion of this prophecy is reserved for future times. This subject is displayed in the most splendid colors under a great variety of images highly poetical, designed to give a general idea of the glories of that perfect state of the Church of God which we are taught to expect in the latter times; when the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, and the Jews shall be converted and gathered from their dispersions, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.\nOf the use in prophecy of general or common poetical images, in setting forth the greatness and importance of a future event universally, without descending to particulars, or too minutely explaining circumstances, I have already pretty largely treated in the twentieth prelection on the Hebrew poetry; and have more than once observed in these notes that such images are not always to he applied particularly to persons and things, and were never intended to be minutely explained. I shall add here the opinion of a very learned and judicious person upon this subject: \"It is, I think, a mark of right understanding in the language of prophecy, and in the design of prophecy too, to keep to what appears the design and meaning of the prophecy in general, and what the whole of it laid together points out to us, and not to suffer a warm imagination to mislead us from the real intention of the spirit of prophecy, by following uncertain applications of the parts of it.\" Lowman on the Revelation, note on Rev 19:21 (note). - L. To this testimony I must add my own. This is one of the most glorious chapters in the whole of the Old Testament. The splendor, glory, and excellence of the Church of Christ are here pointed out in language which the Spirit of God alone is capable of using. But when shall this state of blessedness take place? Lord, thou only knowest. \n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/ISA/60.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"ISA","chapter":60},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/ISA/61.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"ISA","chapter":61},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/ISA/59.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"ISA","chapter":59},"numberOfVerses":13}