{"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":8,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["I took--rather, \"The Lord said to me, that I should take,\" &c. [MAURER]. \n\nUriah--an accomplice of Ahaz in idolatry, and therefore a witness not likely to assist the prophet of God in getting up a prophecy after the event (Kg2 16:10). The witnesses were in order that when the event should come, they might testify that the tablet containing the prophecy had been inscribed with it at the time that it professed. \n\nZechariah-- (Ch2 29:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["prophetess--perhaps the same as the \"virgin\" (Isa 7:14), in the interim married as Isaiah's second wife: this is in the primary and temporary sense. Immanuel is even in this sense distinct from Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Thus nineteen months at least intervene from the prophecy (Isa 7:14), nine before the birth of Immanuel, and ten from that time to the birth of Maher-shalal-hash-baz: adding eleven or twelve months before the latter could cry, \"Father\" (Isa 8:4), we have about three years in all, agreeing with Isa 7:15-16.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["before, &c.--within a year.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["waters of Shiloah . . . softly--Their source is on the southeast of Zion and east of Jerusalem. It means \"sent,\" the water being sent through an aqueduct (Joh 9:7). Figurative for the mild, though now weak, sway of the house of David; in the highest sense Shiloah expresses the benignant sway of Jehovah in the theocracy, administered through David. Contrast to the violent Euphrates, \"the river\" that typifies Assyria (Isa 8:7; Rev 17:15). \"This people\" refers both to Israel, which preferred an alliance with Rezin of Syria to one with the kings of Judah, and to Judah, a party in which seems to have favored the pretentions of the son of Tabeal against David's line (Isa 7:6); also to Judah's desire to seek an Assyrian alliance is included in the censure (compare Isa 7:17). Isa 8:14 shows that both nations are meant; both alike rejected the divine Shiloah. Not \"My people,\" as elsewhere, when God expresses favor, but \"this people\" (Isa 6:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["therefore--for the reason given in Isa 8:6, the Assyrian flood, which is first to overflood Syria and Samaria, shall rise high enough to reach rebel Judah also (Isa 8:8). \n\nthe river--Euphrates swollen in spring by the melting of the snow of the Armenian mountains (compare Isa 8:6; Isa 7:20). \n\nall his glory--Eastern kings travel with a gorgeous retinue. \n\nchannels--natural and artificial in the level region, Mesopotamia.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["pass through--The flood shall not stop at Syria and Samaria, but shall penetrate into Judea. \n\nthe neck--When the waters reach to the neck, a man is near drowning; still the head is not said to be overflowed. Jerusalem, elevated on hills, is the head. The danger shall be so imminent as to reach near it at Sennacherib's invasion in Hezekiah's reign; but it shall be spared (Isa 30:28). \n\nwings--the extreme bands of the Assyrian armies, fulfilled (Isa 36:1; Isa 37:25). \n\nthy land, O Immanuel--Though temporarily applied to Isaiah's son, in the full sense this is applicable only to Messiah, that Judea is His, was, and still is, a pledge that, however sorely overwhelmed, it shall be saved at last; the \"head\" is safe even now, waiting for the times of restoration (Act 1:6); at the same time these words imply that, notwithstanding the temporary deliverance from Syria and Israel, implied in \"Immanuel,\" the greatest calamities are to follow to Judah.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Associate yourselves--rather, \"Raise tumults,\" or, Rage, that is, Do your worst [MAURER], referring perhaps to the attack of Rezin and Pekah on Jerusalem. \n\nand . . . be broken in pieces--rather, \"yet ye shall be thrown into consternation.\" Imperative in the Hebrew, according to the idiom whereby the second of two imperatives implies the future, namely, the consequence of the action contained in the first (so Isa 6:9). The name \"Immanuel\" in Isa 8:8 (compare Isa 8:10) suggests the thought of the ultimate safety of Immanuel's land, both from its present two invaders, and even from the Assyrians, notwithstanding the grievous flood, wherewith the previous verses foretell they shall deluge it. The succession of the house of David cannot be set aside in Judah, for Immanuel Messiah is to be born in it as heir of David, of whom Isaiah's son is but a type (Isa 9:4, Isa 9:6). \n\ngive ear . . . far countries--witness the discomfiture of Judah's enemies. The prophecy probably looks on also to the final conspiracy of Antichrist and his supporters against the Heir of David's throne in the latter days and their utter overthrow [HORSLEY]. \n\ngird yourselves . . . gird yourselves--The repetition expresses vehemently the certainty of their being thrown into consternation (not as English Version, \"broken in pieces\").\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["the word--of command, for the assault of Jerusalem. \n\nGod is with us--\"Immanuel\" implies this (Num 14:9; Psa 46:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["with a strong hand--or else, \"when He grasped me with His hand\" [HORSLEY]. MAURER, as English Version, \"with the impetus of His hand,\" that is, the felt impulse of His inspiration in my mind (Jer 15:17; Eze 1:3; Eze 3:14, Eze 3:22; Eze 37:1). \n\nway of . . . people--their distrust of Jehovah, and the panic which led them and Ahab to seek Assyrian aid.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["The words of Jehovah. \n\nconfederacy--rather, a conspiracy; an appropriate term for the unnatural combination of Israel with Syrian foreigners against Judea and the theocracy, to which the former was bound by ties of blood and hereditary religion [MAURER]. \n\nto all . . . say--rather, of all which this people calleth a conspiracy [G. V. SMITH]. \n\ntheir fear--namely, object of fear: the hostile conspiracy. \n\nbe afraid--rather [MAURER], \"nor make others to be afraid.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Sanctify--Honor His holy name by regarding Him as your only hope of safety (Isa 29:23; Num 20:12). \n\nhim . . . fear--\"fear\" lest you provoke His wrath by your fear of man and distrust of Him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["sanctuary--inviolable asylum, like the altar of the temple (Kg1 1:50; Kg1 2:28; Eze 11:16; compare Pro 18:10); namely, to those who fear and trust in Him. \n\nbut . . . offence--that is, a rock over which they should fall to their hurt; namely those who would not believe. \n\nboth . . . houses--Israel and Judah. Here again the prophecy expands beyond the temporary application in Ahaz' time. The very stone, Immanuel, which would have been a sanctuary on belief, becomes a fatal stumbling-block through unbelief. Jesus Christ refers to this in Mat 21:44. (Compare Deu 32:4, Deu 32:15, Deu 32:18, Deu 32:30-31, Deu 32:37; Dan 2:34; Rom 9:33; Pe1 2:8). \n\ngin--trap, in which birds are unexpectedly caught (Luk 21:35; Th1 5:2). So at the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["stumble . . . taken--images from the means used in taking wild animals.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["Bind up . . . seal--What Isaiah had before briefly noted by inscribing Maher-shalal-hash-baz in a tablet, fixed up in some public place, he afterwards wrote out more in detail in a parchment roll (Isa 30:8); this he is now to seal up, not merely in order that nothing may be added to, or taken from it, as being complete, but to imply that it relates to distant events, and is therefore to be a sealed and not understood testimony (Isa 6:9-10), except in part among God's \"disciples,\" that is, those who \"sanctify the Lord\" by obedient trust (Psa 25:14). Subsequent revelations would afterwards clear up what now was dark. So the Apocalypse explains what in Daniel was left unexplained (compare Dan 8:26; Dan 12:9). \"The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end\"; but Rev 22:10, \"Seal not the sayings of the prophecy . . . for the time is at hand\" (compare Rev 5:1, Rev 5:5, Rev 5:9), \n\ntestimony--attested by Uriah and Zechariah (Isa 8:2). \n\nlaw--the revelation just given, having the force of a law. \n\ndisciples--not as MAURER, Uriah and Zechariah (compare Joh 7:17; Joh 15:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["I--Whatever the rest of the nation may do, I will look to Jehovah alone. \n\nthat hideth . . . face--though He seems now to withdraw His countenance from Judah (the then representative of \"the house of Jacob\"). Let us wait and trust in, though we cannot see, Him (Isa 50:10; Isa 54:8; Hab 2:3; Luk 2:25, Luk 2:38).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["I and the children--Isaiah means \"salvation of Jehovah\"; His children's names, also (Isa 7:3, Isa 7:14; Isa 8:3), were \"signs\" suggestive of the coming and final deliverance. \n\nwonders--that is, symbols of the future (Isa 20:3; Zac 3:8). \"Behold I . . . me\" is quoted in Heb 2:13 to prove the manhood of the Messiah. This is the main and ultimate fulfilment of the prophecy; its temporary meaning is applied to Ahaz' time. Isaiah typically, in Isa 8:17-18, personates Messiah, who is at once \"Father\" and \"Son,\" Isaiah and Immanuel, \"Child\" and \"Mighty God,\" and is therefore called here a \"wonder,\" as in Isa 9:6, \"Wonderful.\" Hence in Heb 2:13, believers are called His \"children\"; but in Isa 8:11-12, His \"brethren.\" On \"the Lord hath given me,\" see Joh 6:37, Joh 6:39; Joh 10:29; Joh 17:12. \n\nwhich dwelleth in . . . Zion--and will therefore protect Jerusalem. \n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Seek unto--Consult in your national difficulties. \n\nthem . . . familiar spirits--necromancers, spirit charmers. So Saul, when he had forsaken God (Sa1 28:7, &c.), consulted the witch of En-dor in his difficulties. These follow in the wake of idolatry, which prevailed under Ahaz (Kg2 16:3-4, Kg2 16:10). He copied the soothsaying as he did the idolatrous \"altar\" of Damascus (compare Lev 20:6, which forbids it, Isa 19:3). \n\nwizards--men claiming supernatural knowledge; from the old English, \"to wit,\" that is, know. \n\npeep--rather \"chirp faintly,\" as young birds do; this sound was generally ascribed to departed spirits; by ventriloquism the soothsayers caused a low sound to proceed as from a grave, or dead person. Hence the Septuagint renders the Hebrew for \"necromancers\" here \"ventriloquists\" (compare Isa 29:4). \n\nmutter--moan. \n\nshould not, &c.--The answer which Isaiah recommends to be given to those advising to have recourse to necromancers. \n\nfor the living, &c.--\"should one, for the safety of the living, seek unto (consult) the dead?\" [GESENIUS]. LOWTH renders it, \"In place of (consulting) the living, should one consult the dead?\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["To the law, &c.--the revelation of God by His prophet (Isa 8:16), to which he directs them to refer those who would advise necromancy. \n\nif they speak not . . . it is because--English Version understands \"they\" as the necromancers. But the Hebrew rendered \"because\" is not this but \"who\"; and \"if not,\" ought rather to be \"shall they not\"; or, truly they shall speak according to this word, who have no morning light (so the Hebrew, that is, prosperity after the night of sorrows) dawning on them [MAURER and G. V. SMITH]. They who are in the dark night of trial, without a dawn of hope, shall surely say so, Do not seek, as we did, to necromancy, but to the law,\" &c. The law perhaps includes here the law of Moses, which was the \"Magna Charta\" on which prophetism commented [KITTO].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["More detailed description of the despair, which they shall fall into, who sought necromancy instead of God; Isa 8:20 implies that too late they shall see how much better it would have been for them to have sought \"to the law,\" &c. (Deu 32:31). But now they are given over to despair. Therefore, while seeing the truth of God, they only \"curse their King and God\"; foreshadowing the future, like conduct of those belonging to the \"kingdom of the beast,\" when they shall be visited with divine plagues (Rev 16:11; compare Jer 18:12). \n\nthrough it--namely, the land. \n\nhardly bestead--oppressed with anxiety. \n\nhungry--a more grievous famine than the temporary one in Ahaz' time, owing to Assyria; then there was some food, but none now (Isa 7:15, Isa 7:22; Lev 26:3-5, Lev 26:14-16, Lev 26:20). \n\ntheir king . . . God--Jehovah, King of the Jews (Psa 5:2; Psa 68:24). \n\nlook upward . . . unto the earth--Whether they look up to heaven, or down towards the land of Judea, nothing but despair shall present itself. \n\ndimness of anguish--darkness of distress (Pro 1:27). \n\ndriven to darkness--rather, \"thick darkness\" (Jer 23:12). Driven onward, as by a sweeping storm. The Jewish rejection of \"their King and God,\" Messiah, was followed by all these awful calamities.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 9\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Isa. 8:1-9:7)\n\ngreat--suitable, for letters large enough to be read by all. \n\nroll--rather, tablet of wood, metal, or stone (Isa 30:8; Hab 2:2); sometimes coated with wax, upon which characters were traced with a pointed instrument, or iron stylus; skins and papyrus were also used (Isa 19:7). \n\nman's pen--that is, in ordinary characters which the humblest can read (so Hab 2:2). Hebrew, enosh means a \"common man,\" is contrasted with the upper ranks (Rev 21:17; Rom 3:5). Not in hieroglyphics. The object was that, after the event, all might see that it had been predicted by Isaiah. \n\nconcerning--the title and subject of the prophecy. \n\nMaher-shalal-hash-baz--\"They (that is, the Assyrians) hasten to the spoil (namely, to spoil Syria and Samaria), they speed to the prey\" [GESENIUS]. Otherwise, \"The spoil (that is, spoiler) hastens, the rapine speeds forward\" [MAURER].\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/8.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":8},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/9.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":9},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/7.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":7},"numberOfVerses":19}