{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ISA","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Isaiah","commonName":"Isaiah","introduction":"ISAIAH, son of Amoz (not Amos); contemporary of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, in Israel, but younger than they; and of Micah, in Judah. His call to a higher degree of the prophetic office (Isa 6:1-13) is assigned to the last year of Uzziah, that is, 754 B.C. The first through fifth chapters belong to the closing years of that reign; not, as some think, to Jotham's reign: in the reign of the latter he seems to have exercised his office only orally, and not to have left any record of his prophecies because they were not intended for all ages. The first through fifth and sixth chapters are all that was designed for the Church universal of the prophecies of the first twenty years of his office. New historical epochs, such as occurred in the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, when the affairs of Israel became interwoven with those of the Asiatic empires, are marked by prophetic writings. The prophets had now to interpret the judgments of the Lord, so as to make the people conscious of His punitive justice, as also of His mercy. Isa. 7:1-10:4 belong to the reign of Ahaz. The thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters are historical, reaching to the fifteenth year of Hezekiah; probably the tenth through twelfth chapters and all from the thirteenth through twenty-sixth chapters, inclusive, belong to the same reign; the historical section being appended to facilitate the right understanding of these prophecies; thus we have Isaiah's office extending from about 760 to 713 B.C., forty-seven years. Tradition (Talmud) represents him as having been sawn asunder by Manasseh with a wooden saw, for having said that he had seen Jehovah (Exo 33:20; Kg2 21:16; Heb 11:37). Ch2 32:32 seems to imply that Isaiah survived Hezekiah; but \"first and last\" is not added, as in Ch2 26:22, which makes it possible that his history of Hezekiah was only carried up to a certain point. The second part, the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, containing complaints of gross idolatry, needs not to be restricted to Manasseh's reign, but is applicable to previous reigns. At the accession of Manasseh, Isaiah would be eighty-four; and if he prophesied for eight years afterwards, he must have endured martyrdom at ninety-two; so Hosea prophesied for sixty years. And Eastern tradition reports that he lived to one hundred and twenty. The conclusive argument against the tradition is that, according to the inscription, all Isaiah's prophecies are included in the time from Uzziah to Hezekiah; and the internal evidence accords with this.\n\nHis WIFE is called the prophetess [Isa 8:3], that is, endowed, as Miriam, with a prophetic gift.\n\nHis CHILDREN were considered by him as not belonging merely to himself; in their names, Shearjashub, \"the remnant shall return\" [Isa 7:3, Margin], and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, \"speeding to the spoil, he hasteth to the prey\" [Isa 8:1, Margin], the two chief points of his prophecies are intimated to the people, the judgments of the Lord on the people and the world, and yet His mercy to the elect.\n\nHis GARMENT of sackcloth (Isa 20:2), too, was a silent preaching by fact; he appears as the embodiment of that repentance which he taught.\n\nHis HISTORICAL WORKS.--History, as written by the prophets, is retroverted prophecy. As the past and future alike proceed from the essence of God, an inspired insight into the past implies an insight into the future, and vice versa. Hence most of the Old Testament histories are written by prophets and are classed with their writings; the Chronicles being not so classed, cannot have been written by them, but are taken from historical monographs of theirs; for example, Isaiah's life of Uzziah, Ch2 26:22; also of Hezekiah, Ch2 32:32; of these latter all that was important for all ages has been preserved to us, while the rest, which was local and temporary, has been lost.\n\nThe INSCRIPTION (Isa 1:1) applies to the whole book and implies that Isaiah is the author of the second part (the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters), as well as of the first. Nor do the words, \"concerning Judah and Jerusalem\" [Isa 1:1], oppose the idea that the inscription applies to the whole; for whatever he says against other nations, he says on account of their relation to Judah. So the inscription of Amos, \"concerning Israel\" [Amo 1:1], though several prophecies follow against foreign nations. EWALD maintains that the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, though spurious, were subjoined to the previous portion, in order to preserve the former. But it is untrue that the first portion is unconnected with those chapters. The former ends with the Babylonian exile (Isa 39:6), the latter begins with the coming redemption from it. The portion, the fortieth through forty-sixth chapters, has no heading of its own, a proof that it is closely connected with what precedes, and falls under the general heading in Isa 1:1. JOSEPHUS (The Antiquities of the Jews, 11. 1, sec. 1, 2) says that Cyrus was induced by the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1, Isa 45:13) to aid the Jews in returning and rebuilding the temple Ezr 1:1-11 confirms this; Cyrus in his edict there plainly refers to the prophecies in the second portion, which assign the kingdoms to him from Jehovah, and the duty of rebuilding the temple. Probably he took from them his historical name Cyrus (Coresh). Moreover, subsequent prophets imitate this second portion, which EWALD assigns to later times; for example, compare Jer. 50:1-51:64 with Isaiah's predictions against Babylon [Isa. 13:1-14:23]. \"The Holy One of Israel,\" occurring but three times elsewhere in the Old Testament [Kg2 19:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:18; Jer 50:29; Jer 51:5], is a favorite expression in the second, as in the first portion of Isaiah: it expresses God's covenant faithfulness in fulfilling the promises therein: Jeremiah borrows the expression from him. Also Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25 (\"comforted\"), quotes Isa 40:1 as Isaiah's. Luk 4:17 quotes Isa 61:1-2 as Isaiah's, and as read as such by Jesus Christ in the synagogue.\n\nThe DEFINITENESS of the prophecies is striking: As in the second portion of isaiah, so in Mic 4:8-10, the Babylonian exile, and the deliverance from it, are foretold a hundred fifty years before any hostilities had arisen between Babylon and Judah. On the other hand, all the prophets who foretell the Assyrian invasion coincide in stating, that Judah should be delivered from it, not by Egyptian aid, but directly by the Lord. Again Jeremiah, in the height of the Chaldean prosperity, foretold its conquest by the Medes, who should enter Babylon through the dry bed of the Euphrates on a night of general revelry. No human calculation could have discovered these facts. EICHORN terms these prophecies \"veiled historical descriptions,\" recognizing in spite of himself that they are more than general poetical fancies. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was certainly written ages before the Messiah, yet it minutely portrays His sufferings: these cannot be Jewish inventions, for the Jews looked for a reigning, not a suffering, Messiah.\n\nRationalists are so far right that THE PROPHECIES ARE ON A GENERAL BASIS whereby they are distinguished from soothsaying. They rest on the essential idea of God. The prophets, penetrated by this inner knowledge of His character, became conscious of the eternal laws by which the world is governed: that sin is man's ruin, and must be followed by judgment, but that God's covenant mercy to His elect is unchangeable. Without prophetism, the elect remnant would have decreased, and even God's judgments would have missed their end, by not being recognized as such: they would have been unmeaning, isolated facts. Babylon was in Isaiah's days under Assyria; it had tried a revolt unsuccessfully: but the elements of its subsequent success and greatness were then existing. The Holy Ghost enlightened his natural powers to discern this its rise; and his spiritual faculties, to foresee its fall, the sure consequence, in God's eternal law, of the pride which pagan success generates--and also Judah's restoration, as the covenant-people, with whom God, according to His essential character, would not be wroth for ever. True conversion is the prophet's grand remedy against all evils: in this alone consists his politics. Rebuke, threatening, and promise, regularly succeed one another. The idea at the basis of all is in Isa 26:7-9; Lev 10:3; Amo 3:2.\n\nThe USE OF THE PRESENT AND PRETERITE in prophecy is no proof that the author is later than Isaiah. For seers view the future as present, and indicate what is ideally past, not really past; seeing things in the light of God, who \"calls the things that are not as though they were.\" Moreover, as in looking from a height on a landscape, hills seem close together which are really wide apart, so, in events foretold, the order, succession, and grouping are presented, but the intervals of time are overlooked. The time, however, is sometimes marked (Jer 25:12; Dan 9:26). Thus the deliverance from Babylon, and that effected by Messiah, are in rapid transition grouped together by THE LAW OF PROPHETIC SUGGESTION; yet no prophet so confounds the two as to make Messiah the leader of Israel from Babylon. To the prophet there was probably no double sense; but to his spiritual eye the two events, though distinct, lay so near, and were so analogous, that he could not separate them in description without unfaithfulness to the picture presented before him. The more remote and antitypical event, however, namely, Messiah's coming, is that to which he always hastens, and which he describes with far more minuteness than he does the nearer type; for example, Cyrus (compare Isa 45:1 with Isa 53:1-12). In some cases he takes his stand in the midst of events between, for example, the humiliation of Jesus Christ, which he views as past, and His glorification, as yet to come, using the future tense as to the latter (compare Isa 53:4-9 with Isa 53:10-12). Marks of the time of events are given sparingly in the prophets: yet, as to Messiah, definitely enough to create the general expectation of Him at the time that He was in fact born.\n\nThe CHALDÆISMS alleged against the genuineness of the second portion of Isaiah, are found more in the first and undoubted portion. They occur in all the Old Testament, especially in the poetical parts, which prefer unusual expressions, and are due to the fact that the patriarchs were surrounded by Chaldee-speaking people; and in Isaiah's time a few Chaldee words had crept in from abroad.\n\nHis SYMBOLS are few and simple, and his poetical images correct; in the prophets, during and after the exile, the reverse holds good; Haggai and Malachi are not exceptions; for, though void of bold images, their style, unlike Isaiah's, rises little above prose: a clear proof that our Isaiah was long before the exile.\n\nOf VISIONS, strictly so called, he has but one, that in the sixth chapter; even it is more simple than those in later prophets. But he often gives SIGNS, that is, a present fact as pledge of the more distant future; God condescending to the feebleness of man (Isa 7:14; Isa 37:30; Isa 38:7).\n\nThe VARIETIES IN HIS STYLE do not prove spuriousness, but that he varied his style with his subject. The second portion is not so much addressed to his contemporaries, as to the future people of the Lord, the elect remnant, purified by the previous judgments. Hence its tenderness of style, and frequent repetitions (Isa 40:1): for comforting exhortation uses many words; so also the many epithets added to the name of God, intended as stays whereon faith may rest for comfort, so as not to despair. In both portions alike there are peculiarities characteristic of Isaiah; for example, \"to be called\" equivalent to to be: the repetition of the same words, instead of synonyms, in the parallel members of verses; the interspersing of his prophecies with hymns: \"the remnant of olive trees,\" &c., for the remnant of people who have escaped God's judgments. Also compare Isa 65:25 with Isa 11:6.\n\nThe CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT favors the opinion that Isaiah himself collected his prophecies into the volume; not Hezekiah's men, as the Talmud guesses from Pro 25:1. All the portions, the dates of which can be ascertained, stand in the right place, except a few instances, where prophecies of similar contents are placed together: with the termination of the Assyrian invasion (the thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters) terminated the public life of Isaiah. The second part is his prophetic legacy to the small band of the faithful, analogous to the last speeches of Moses and of Jesus Christ to His chosen disciples.\n\nThe EXPECTATION OF MESSIAH is so strong in Isaiah, that JEROME To Paulinus calls his book not a prophecy, but the gospel: \"He is not so much a prophet as an evangelist.\" Messiah was already shadowed forth in Gen 49:10, as the Shiloh, or tranquillizer; also in Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110. Isaiah brings it out more definitely; and, whereas they dwelt on His kingly office, Isaiah develops most His priestly and prophetic office; the hundred tenth Psalm also had set forth His priesthood, but His kingly rather than, as Isaiah, His suffering, priesthood. The latter is especially dwelt on in the second part, addressed to the faithful elect; whereas the first part, addressed to the whole people, dwells on Messiah's glory, the antidote to the fears which then filled the people, and the assurance that the kingdom of God, then represented by Judah, would not be overwhelmed by the surrounding nations.\n\nHis STYLE (HENGSTENBERG, Christology of the Old Testament,) is simple and sublime; in imagery, intermediate between the poverty of Jeremiah and the exuberance of Ezekiel. He shows his command of it in varying it to suit his subject.\n\nThe FORM is mostly that of Hebrew poetical parallelism, with, however, a freedom unshackled by undue restrictions.\n\nJUDAH, the less apostate people, rather than Israel, was the subject of his prophecies: his residence was mostly at Jerusalem. On his praises, see Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25. Christ and the apostles quote no prophet so frequently. \n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 1\n\n","order":23,"numberOfChapters":66,"sha256":"05afbc35163ce25bd06467062226b36d66e6285d8ca85b4815540db57d9466be","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":66,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/66.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":66},"totalNumberOfVerses":1200},"chapter":{"number":17,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["cities of Aroer--that is, the cities round Aroer, and under its jurisdiction [GESENIUS]. So \"cities with their villages\" (Jos 15:44); \"Heshbon and all her cities\" (Jos 13:17). Aroer was near Rabbahammon, at the river of Gad, an arm of the Jabbok (Sa2 24:5), founded by the Gadites (Num 32:34). \n\nfor flocks-- (Isa 5:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["fortress . . . cease--The strongholds shall be pulled down (Samaria especially: Hos 10:14; Mic 1:6; Hab 1:10). \n\nremnant of Syria--all that was left after the overthrow by Tiglath-pileser (Kg2 16:9). \n\nas the glory of . . . Israel--They shall meet with the same fate as Israel, their ally.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["glory of Jacob--the kingdom of Ephraim and all that they rely on (Hos 12:2; Mic 1:5). \n\nfatness . . . lean--(See on Isa 10:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["harvestman, &c.--The inhabitants and wealth of Israel shall be swept away, and but few left behind just as the husbandman gathers the corn and the fruit, and leaves only a few gleaning ears and grapes (Kg2 18:9-11). \n\nwith his arm--He collects the standing grain with one arm, so that he can cut it with the sickle in the other hand. \n\nRephaim--a fertile plain at the southwest of Jerusalem toward Beth-lehem and the country of the Philistines (Sa2 5:18-22).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["in it--that is, in the land of Israel. \n\ntwo or three . . . in the top--A few poor inhabitants shall be left in Israel, like the two or three olive berries left on the topmost boughs, which it is not worth while taking the trouble to try to reach.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["look to his Maker--instead of trusting in their fortresses-- (Isa 17:3; Mic 7:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["groves--A symbolical tree is often found in Assyrian inscriptions, representing the hosts of heaven (\"Saba\"), answering to Ashteroth or Astarte, the queen of heaven, as Baal or Bel is the king. Hence the expression, \"image of the grove,\" is explained (Kg2 21:7). \n\nimages--literally, \"images to the sun,\" that is, to Baal, who answers to the sun, as Astarte to the hosts of heaven (Kg2 23:5; Job 31:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["forsaken bough--rather \"the leavings of woods,\" what the axeman leaves when he cuts down the grove (compare Isa 17:6). \n\nwhich they left because of--rather, \"which (the enemies) shall leave for the children of Israel\"; literally, \"shall leave (in departing) from before the face of the children of Israel\" [MAURER]. But a few cities out of many shall be left to Israel, by the purpose of God, executed by the Assyrian.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["forgotten . . . God of . . . salvation . . . rock-- (Deu 32:15, Deu 32:18). \n\nplants--rather, \"nursery grounds,\" \"pleasure-grounds\" [MAURER]. \n\nset in--rather, \"set them,\" the pleasure-grounds. \n\nstrange slips--cuttings of plants from far, and therefore valuable.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["In the day . . . thy plant--rather, \"In the day of thy planting\" [HORSLEY]. \n\nshalt . . . make . . . grow--MAURER translates, \"Thou didst fence it,\" namely, the pleasure-ground. The parallel clause, \"Make . . . flourish,\" favors English Version. As soon as thou plantest, it grows. \n\nin the morning--that is, immediately after; so in Psa 90:14, the Hebrew, \"in the morning,\" is translated \"early.\" \n\nbut . . . shall be a heap--rather, \"but (promising as was the prospect) the harvest is gone\" [HORSLEY]. \n\nin . . . day of grief--rather, \"in the day of (expected) possession\" [MAURER]. \"In the day of inundation\" [HORSLEY]. \n\nof desperate sorrow--rather, \"And the sorrow shall be desperate or irremediable.\" In English Version \"heap\" and \"sorrow\" may be taken together by hendiadys. \"The heap of the harvest shall be desperate sorrow\" [ROSENMULLER].\n\nThe connection of this fragment with what precedes is: notwithstanding the calamities coming on Israel, the people of God shall not be utterly destroyed (Isa 6:12-13); the Assyrian spoilers shall perish (Isa 17:13-14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["SUDDEN DESTRUCTION OF A GREAT ARMY IN JUDEA (namely that of the Assyrian Sennacherib), AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE EVENT TO THE ETHIOPIAN AMBASSADORS. (Isa. 17:12-18:7)\n\nWoe . . . multitude--rather, \"Ho (Hark)! a noise of,\" &c. The prophet in vision perceives the vast and mixed Assyrian hosts (Hebrew, \"many peoples,\" see on Isa 5:26): on the hills of Judah (so \"mountains,\" Isa 17:13): but at the \"rebuke\" of God, they shall \"flee as chaff.\" \n\nto the rushing . . . that make--rather, \"the roaring . . . roareth\" (compare Isa 8:7; Jer 6:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["shall . . . shall--rather, \"God rebuketh (Psa 9:5) them, and they flee--are chased\"; the event is set before the eyes as actually present, not future. \n\nchaff of . . . mountains--Threshing floors in the East are in the open air on elevated places, so as to catch the wind which separates the chaff from the wheat (Psa 88:13; Hos 13:3). \n\nrolling thing--anything that rolls: stubble.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["eventide . . . before morning--fulfilled to the letter in the destruction \"before morning\" of the vast host that \"at eveningtide\" was such a terror (\"trouble\") to Judah; on the phrase see Psa 90:6; Psa 30:5. \n\nhe is not--namely, the enemy. \n\nus--the Jews. A general declaration of the doom that awaits the foes of God's people (Isa 54:17).\n\nIsaiah announces the overthrow of Sennacherib's hosts and desires the Ethiopian ambassadors, now in Jerusalem, to bring word of it to their own nation; and he calls on the whole world to witness the event (Isa 18:3). As Isa 17:12-14 announced the presence of the foe, so Isa 18:1-7 foretells his overthrow.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 18\n\n"]}],"introduction":"PROPHECY CONCERNING DAMASCUS AND ITS ALLY SAMARIA, that is, Syria and Israel, which had leagued together (seventh and eighth chapters). (Isa 17:1-11)\n\nDamascus--put before Israel (Ephraim, Isa 17:3), which is chiefly referred to in what follows, because it was the prevailing power in the league; with it Ephraim either stood or fell (Isa. 7:1-25).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/17.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":17},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/18.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":18},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/16.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":16},"numberOfVerses":13}