{"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":5,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["fenced--rather, \"digged and trenched\" the ground to prepare it for planting the vines [MAURER]. \n\nchoicest vine--Hebrew, sorek; called still in Morocco, serki; the grapes had scarcely perceptible seeds; the Persian kishmish or bedana, that is, \"without seed\" (Gen 49:11). \n\ntower--to watch the vineyard against the depredations of man or beast, and for the use of the owner (Mat 21:33). \n\nwine-press--including the wine-fat; both hewn, for coolness, out of the rocky undersoil of the vineyard. \n\nwild grapes--The Hebrew expresses offensive putrefaction, answering to the corrupt state of the Jews. Fetid fruit of the wild vine [MAURER], instead of \"choicest\" grapes. Of the poisonous monk's hood [GESENIUS]. The Arabs call the fruit of the nightshade \"wolf grapes\" (Deu 32:32-33; Kg2 4:39-41). JEROME tries to specify the details of the parable; the \"fence,\" angels; the \"stones gathered out,\" idols; the \"tower,\" the \"temple in the midst\" of Judea; the \"wine-press,\" the altar.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["And now, &c.--appeal of God to themselves, as in Isa 1:18; Mic 6:3. So Jesus Christ, in Mat 21:40-41, alluding in the very form of expression to this, makes them pass sentence on themselves. God condemns sinners \"out of their own mouth\" (Deu 32:6; Job 15:6; Luk 19:22; Rom 3:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["God has done all that could be done for the salvation of sinners, consistently with His justice and goodness. The God of nature is, as it were, amazed at the unnatural fruit of so well-cared a vineyard.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["go to--that is, attend to me. \n\nhedge . . . wall--It had both; a proof of the care of the owner. But now it shall be trodden down by wild beasts (enemies) (Psa 80:12-13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["I will . . . command--The parable is partly dropped and Jehovah, as in Isa 5:7, is implied to be the Owner: for He alone, not an ordinary husbandman (Mat 21:43; Luk 17:22), could give such a \"command.\" \n\nno rain--antitypically, the heaven-sent teachings of the prophets (Amo 8:11). Not accomplished in the Babylonish captivity; for Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah prophesied during or after it. But in gospel times.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Isaiah here applies the parable. It is no mere human owner, nor a literal vineyard that is meant. \n\nvineyard of the Lord--His only one (Exo 19:5; Amo 3:2). \n\npleasant--\"the plant of his delight\"; just as the husbandman was at pains to select the sorek, or \"choicest vine\" (Isa 5:2); so God's election of the Jews. \n\njudgment--justice. The play upon words is striking in the Hebrew, He looked for mishpat, but behold mispat (\"bloodshed\"); for tsedaqua, but behold tseaqua (the cry that attends anarchy, covetousness, and dissipation, Isa 5:8, Isa 5:11-12; compare the cry of the rabble by which justice was overborne in the case of Jesus Christ, Mat 27:23-24).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["SIX DISTINCT WOES AGAINST CRIMES. (Isa. 5:8-23)\n\n(Lev 25:13; Mic 2:2). The jubilee restoration of possessions was intended as a guard against avarice. \n\ntill there be no place--left for any one else. \n\nthat they may be--rather, and ye be. \n\nthe earth--the land.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["In mine ears . . . the Lord--namely, has revealed it, as in Isa 22:14. \n\ndesolate--literally, \"a desolation,\" namely, on account of the national sins. \n\ngreat and fair--houses.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["acres--literally, \"yokes\"; as much as one yoke of oxen could plow in a day. \n\none--only. \n\nbath--of wine; seven and a half gallons. \n\nhomer . . . ephah--Eight bushels of seed would yield only three pecks of produce (Eze 45:11). The ephah and bath, one-tenth of an homer.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Second Woe--against intemperance. \n\nearly--when it was regarded especially shameful to drink (Act 2:15; Th1 5:7). Banquets for revelry began earlier than usual (Ecc 10:16-17). \n\nstrong drink--Hebrew, sichar, implying intoxication. \n\ncontinue--drinking all day till evening.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Music was common at ancient feasts (Isa 24:8-9; Amo 6:5-6). \n\nviol--an instrument with twelve strings [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 8.10]. \n\ntabret--Hebrew, toph, from the use of which in drowning the cries of children sacrificed to Moloch, Tophet received its name. Arabic, duf. A kettle drum, or tambourine. \n\npipe--flute or flageolet: from a Hebrew root \"to bore through\"; or else, \"to dance\" (compare Job 21:11-15). \n\nregard not . . . Lord--a frequent effect of feasting (Job 1:5; Psa 28:5). \n\nwork . . . operation--in punishing the guilty (Isa 5:19; Isa 10:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["are gone--The prophet sees the future as if it were before his eyes. \n\nno knowledge--because of their foolish recklessness (Isa 5:12; Isa 1:3; Hos 4:6; Luk 19:44). \n\nfamished--awful contrast to their luxurious feasts (Isa 5:11-12). \n\nmultitude--plebeians in contradistinction to the \"honorable men,\" or nobles. \n\nthirst-- (Psa 107:4-5). Contrast to their drinking (Isa 5:11). In their deportation and exile, they shall hunger and thirst.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["hell--the grave; Hebrew, sheol; Greek, hades; \"the unseen world of spirits.\" Not here, \"the place of torment.\" Poetically, it is represented as enlarging itself immensely, in order to receive the countless hosts of Jews, which should perish (Num 16:30). \n\ntheir--that is, of the Jewish people. \n\nhe that rejoiceth--the drunken reveller in Jerusalem.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["(Compare Isa 2:9, Isa 2:11, Isa 2:17). All ranks, \"mean\" and \"mighty\" alike; so \"honorable\" and \"multitude\" (Isa 5:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["God shall be \"exalted\" in man's view, because of His manifestation of His \"justice\" in punishing the guilty. \n\nsanctified--regarded as holy by reason of His \"righteous\" dealings.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["after their manner--literally, \"according to their own word,\" that is, at will. Otherwise, as in their own pasture [GESENIUS]: so the Hebrew in Mic 2:12. The lands of the Scenite tent dwellers (Jer 35:7). Arab shepherds in the neighborhood shall roam at large, the whole of Judea being so desolate as to become a vast pasturage. \n\nwaste . . . fat ones--the deserted lands of the rich (\"fat,\" Psa 22:29), then gone into captivity; \"strangers,\" that is, nomad tribes shall make their flocks to feed on [MAURER]. Figuratively, \"the lambs\" are the pious, \"the fat ones\" the impious. So tender disciples of Jesus Christ (Joh 21:15) are called \"lambs\"; being meek, harmless, poor, and persecuted. Compare Eze 39:18, where the fatlings are the rich and great (Co1 1:26-27). The \"strangers\" are in this view the \"other sheep not of the\" the Jewish \"fold\" (Joh 10:16), the Gentiles whom Jesus Christ shall \"bring\" to be partakers of the rich privileges (Rom 11:17) which the Jews (\"fat ones,\" Eze 34:16) fell from. Thus \"after their (own) manner\" will express that the Christian Church should worship God in freedom, released from legal bondage (Joh 4:23; Gal 5:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Third Woe--against obstinate perseverance in sin, as if they wished to provoke divine judgments. \n\niniquity--guilt, incurring punishment [MAURER]. \n\ncords, &c.--cart-rope--Rabbins say, \"An evil inclination is at first like a fine hair-string, but the finishing like a cart-rope.\" The antithesis is between the slender cords of sophistry, like the spider's web (Isa 59:5; Job 8:14), with which one sin draws on another, until they at last bind themselves with great guilt as with a cart-rope. They strain every nerve in sin. \n\nvanity--wickedness. \n\nsin--substantive, not a verb: they draw on themselves \"sin\" and its penalty recklessly.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["work--vengeance (Isa 5:12). Language of defiance to God. So Lamech's boast of impunity (Gen 4:23-24; compare Jer 17:15; Pe2 3:3-4). \n\ncounsel--God's threatened purpose to punish.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["Fourth Woe--against those who confound the distinctions of right and wrong (compare Rom 1:28), \"reprobate,\" Greek, \"undiscriminating: the moral perception darkened.\" \n\nbitter . . . sweet--sin is bitter (Jer 2:19; Jer 4:18; Act 8:23; Heb 12:15); though it seem sweet for a time (Pro 9:17-18). Religion is sweet (Psa 119:103).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Fifth Woe--against those who were so \"wise in their own eyes\" as to think they knew better than the prophet, and therefore rejected his warnings (Isa 29:14-15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["Sixth Woe--against corrupt judges, who, \"mighty\" in drinking \"wine\" (a boast still not uncommon), if not in defending their country, obtain the means of self-indulgence by taking bribes (\"reward\"). The two verses are closely joined [MAURER]. \n\nmingle strong drink--not with water, but spices to make it intoxicating (Pro 9:2, Pro 9:5; Sol 8:2). \n\ntake away the righteousness--set aside the just claims of those having a righteous cause.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Literally, \"tongue of fire eateth\" (Act 2:3). \n\nflame consumeth the chaff--rather, withered grass falleth before the flame (Mat 3:12). \n\nroot . . . blossom--entire decay, both the hidden source and outward manifestations of prosperity, perishing (Job 18:16; Mal 4:1). \n\ncast away . . . law--in its spirit, while retaining the letter.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["anger . . . kindled-- (Kg2 22:13, Kg2 22:17). \n\nhills . . . tremble--This probably fixes the date of this chapter, as it refers to the earthquake in the days of Uzziah (Amo 1:1; Zac 14:5). The earth trembled as if conscious of the presence of God (Jer 4:24; Hab 3:6). \n\ntorn--rather, were as dung (Psa 83:10). \n\nFor all this, &c.--This burden of the prophet's strains, with dirge-like monotony, is repeated at Isa 9:12, Isa 9:17, Isa 9:21; Isa 10:4. With all the past calamities, still heavier judgments are impending; which he specifies in the rest of the chapter (Lev 26:14, &c.).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["lift . . . ensign--to call together the hostile nations to execute His judgments on Judea (Isa 10:5-7; Isa 45:1). But for mercy to it, in Isa 11:12; Isa 18:3. \n\nhiss-- (Isa 7:18). Bees were drawn out of their hives by the sound of a flute, or hissing, or whistling (Zac 10:8). God will collect the nations round Judea like bees (Deu 1:44; Psa 118:12). \n\nend of the earth--the widely distant subject races of which the Assyrian army was made up (Isa 22:6). The ulterior fulfilment took place in the siege under Roman Titus. Compare \"end of the earth\" (Deu 28:49, &c.). So the pronoun is singular in the Hebrew, for \"them,\" \"their,\" \"whose\" (him, his, &c.), Isa 5:26-29; referring to some particular nation and person [HORSLEY].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["weary--with long marches (Deu 25:18). \n\nnone . . . slumber--requiring no rest. \n\ngirdle--with which the ancient loose robes used to be girded for action. Ever ready for march or battle. \n\nnor the latchet . . . broken--The soles were attached to the feet, not by upper leather as with us, but by straps. So securely clad that not even a strap of their sandals gives way, so as to impede their march.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["bent--ready for battle. \n\nhoofs . . . flint--The ancients did not shoe their horses: hence the value of hard hoofs for long marches. \n\nwheels--of their chariots. The Assyrian army abounded in cavalry and chariots (Isa 22:6-7; Isa 36:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["roaring--their battle cry.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["sorrow, and the light is darkened--Otherwise, distress and light (that is, hope and fear) alternately succeed (as usually occurs in an unsettled state of things), and darkness arises in, &c. [MAURER]. \n\nheavens--literally, \"clouds,\" that is, its sky is rather \"clouds\" than sky. Otherwise from a different Hebrew root, \"in its destruction\" or ruins. HORSLEY takes \"sea . . . look unto the land\" as a new image taken from mariners in a coasting vessel (such as all ancient vessels were), looking for the nearest land, which the darkness of the storm conceals, so that darkness and distress alone may be said to be visible.\n\nIsaiah is outside, near the altar in front of the temple. The doors are supposed to open, and the veil hiding the Holy of Holies to be withdrawn, unfolding to his view a vision of God represented as an Eastern monarch, attended by seraphim as His ministers of state (Kg1 22:19), and with a robe and flowing train (a badge of dignity in the East), which filled the temple. This assertion that he had seen God was, according to tradition (not sanctioned by Isa 1:1; see Introduction), the pretext for sawing him asunder in Manasseh's reign (Heb 11:37). Visions often occur in the other prophets: in Isaiah there is only this one, and it is marked by characteristic clearness and simplicity.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 6\n\n"]}],"introduction":"PARABLE OF JEHOVAH'S VINEYARD. (Isa. 5:1-30)\n\nto--rather, \"concerning\" [GESENIUS], that is, in the person of My beloved, as His representative [VITRINGA]. Isaiah gives a hint of the distinction and yet unity of the Divine Persons (compare He with I, Isa 5:2-3). \n\nof my beloved--inspired by Him; or else, a tender song [CASTALIO]. By a slight change of reading \"a song of His love\" [HOUBIGANT]. \"The Beloved\" is Jehovah, the Second Person, the \"Angel\" of God the Father, not in His character as incarnate Messiah, but as God of the Jews (Exo 23:20-21; Exo 32:34; Exo 33:14). \n\nvineyard-- (Isa 3:14; Psa 80:8, &c.). The Jewish covenant-people, separated from the nations for His glory, as the object of His peculiar care (Mat 20:1; Mat 21:33). Jesus Christ in the \"vineyard\" of the New Testament Church is the same as the Old Testament Angel of the Jewish covenant. \n\nfruitful hill--literally, \"a horn\" (\"peak,\" as the Swiss shreckhorn) of the son of oil; poetically, for very fruitful. Suggestive of isolation, security, and a sunny aspect. Isaiah alludes plainly to the Song of Solomon (Sol 6:3; Sol 8:11-12), in the words \"His vineyard\" and \"my Beloved\" (compare Isa 26:20; Isa 61:10, with Sol 1:4; Sol 4:10). The transition from \"branch\" (Isa 4:2) to \"vineyard\" here is not unnatural.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/5.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":5},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/6.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":6},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/4.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":4},"numberOfVerses":28}