The Exalted Mountain of the Lord and the Humbling of Human Pride

Isa 2:6 “For Thou hast rejected Thy people, the house of Jacob; for they are filled with things from the east, and are conjurors like the Philistines; and with the children of foreigners they go hand in hand. ” Here again we have “for” ( Chi ) twice in succession; the first giving the reason for the warning cry, the second vindicating the reason assigned. The words are addressed to Jehovah, not to the people.

Saad. , Gecatilia, and Rashi adopt the rendering, “Thou has given up thy nationality;” and this rendering is supported by J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, and Luzzatto. But the word means “people,” not “nationality;” and the rendering is inadmissible, and would never have been thought of were it not that there was apparently something strange in so sudden an introduction of an address to God.

But in Isa 2:9; Isa 9:2, and other passages, the prophecy takes the form of a prayer. And nâtash (cast off) with âm (people) for its object recals such passages as Psa 94:14 and 1Sa 12:22. Jehovah had put away His people, i. e. , rejected them, and left them to themselves, for the following reasons: (1.) Because they were “full from the east” ( mikkedem : min denotes the source from which a person draws and fills himself, Jer 51:34; Eze 32:6), i.

e. , full of eastern manners and customs, more especially of idolatrous practices. By “the east” ( kedem ) we are to understand Arabia as far as the peninsula of Sinai, and also the Aramaean lands of the Euphrates. Under Uzziah and Jotham, whose sway extended to Elath, the seaport town of the Elanitic Gulf, the influence of the south-east predominated; but under Ahaz and Hezekiah, on account of their relations to Asshur, Aram, and Babylon, that of the north-east.

The conjecture of Gesenius, that we should read mikkesem , i. e. , of soothsaying, it a very natural one; but it obliterates without any necessity the name of the region from which Judah’s imitative propensities received their impulse and materials. (2.) They were onenim (= meonenim , Mic 5:11, from the poel onen : 2Ki 21:6), probably “cloud-gatherers” or “storm-raisers,” like the Philistines (the people conquered by Uzziah, and then again by Hezekiah), among whom witchcraft was carried on in guilds, whilst a celebrated oracle of Baal-Zebub existed at Ekron.

(3.) And they make common cause with children of foreigners. This is the explanation adopted by Gesenius, Knobel, and others. Sâphak with Cappaim signifies to clap hands (Job 27:23). The hiphil followed by Beth is only used here in the sense of striking hands with a person . Luzzatto explains it as meaning, “They find satisfaction in the children of foreigners; it is only through them that they are contented;” but this is contrary to the usage of the language, according to which hispik in post-biblical Hebrew signifies either suppeditare or (like saphak in 1Ki 20:10) sufficere .

Jerome renders it pueris alienis adhaeserunt ; but yalde nâc'rim does not mean pueri alieni , boys hired for licentious purposes, but the “sons of strangers” generally (Isa 60:10; Isa 61:5), with a strong emphasis upon their unsanctified birth, the heathenism inherited from their mother’s womb. With heathen by birth, the prophet would say, the people of Jehovah made common cause.

In Isa 2:7, Isa 2:8 he describes still further how the land of the people of Jehovah, in consequence of all this (on the future consec. see Ges. §129, 2, a ), was crammed full of objects of luxury, of self-confidence, of estrangement from God: “And their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end of their treasures; and their land is filled with horses, and there is no end of their chariots.

And their land is filled with - idols; the work of their own hands they worship, that which their own fingers have made. ” The glory of Solomon, which revived under Uzziah’s fifty-two years’ reign, and was sustained through Jotham’s reign of sixteen years, carried with it the curse of the law; for the law of the king, in Deu 17:14. , prohibited the multiplying of horses, and also the accumulation of gold and silver.

Standing armies, and stores of national treasures, like everything else which ministers to carnal self-reliance, were opposed to the spirit of the theocracy. Nevertheless Judaea was immeasurably full of such seductions to apostasy; and not of those alone, but also of things which plainly revealed it, viz. , of elilim , idols (the same word is used in Lev 19:4; Lev 26:1, from elil , vain or worthless; it is therefore equivalent to “not-gods”).

They worshipped the work of “their own” hands, what “their own” fingers had made: two distributive singulars, as in Isa 5:23, the hands and fingers of every individual (vid. , Mic 5:12-13, where the idols are classified). The condition of the land, therefore, was not only opposed to the law of the king, but at variance with the decalogue also. The existing glory was the most offensive caricature of the glory promised to the nation; for the people, whose God was one day to become the desire and salvation of all nations, had exchanged Him for the idols of the nations, and was vying with them in the appropriation of heathen religion and customs.

Isa 2:9-11 It was a state ripe for judgment, from which, therefore, the prophet could at once proceed, without any further preparation, to the proclamation of judgment itself. "Thus, then, men are bowed down, and lords are brought low; and forgive them - no, that Thou wilt not. ” The consecutive futures depict the judgment, as one which would follow by inward necessity from the worldly and ungodly glory of the existing state of things.

The future is frequently used in this way (for example, in Isa 9:7.) It was a judgment by which small and great, i. e. , the people in all its classes, were brought down from their false eminence. “Men” and “lords” ( âdâm and ish , as in Isa 5:15; Psa 49:3, and Pro 8:4, and like άνθρωπος and ανήρ in the Attic dialect), i. e. , men who were lost in the crowd, and men who rose above it - all of them the judgment would throw down to the ground, and that without mercy (Rev 6:15).

The prophet expresses the conviction ( al as in 2Ki 6:27), that on this occasion God neither could nor would take away the sin by forgiving it. There was nothing left for them, therefore, but to carry out the command of the prophet in Isa 2:10 : “Creep into the rock, and bury thyself in the dust, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty.

” The glorious nation would hide itself most ignominiously, when the only true glory of Jehovah, which had been rejected by it, was manifested in judgment. They would conceal themselves in holes of the rocks, as if before a hostile army (Jdg 6:2; 1Sa 13:6; 1Sa 14:11), and bury themselves with their faces in the sand, as if before the fatal simōm of the desert, that they might not have to bear this intolerable sight.

And when Jehovah manifested Himself in this way in the fiery glance of judgment, the result summed up in Isa 2:11 must follow: “The people’s eyes of haughtiness are humbled, and the pride of their lords is bowed down; and Jehovah, He only, stands exalted in that day. ” The result of the process of judgment is expressed in perfects: nisgab is the third pers. praet.

, not the participle: Jehovah “is exalted,” i. e. , shows Himself as exalted, whilst the haughty conduct of the people is brought down ( shâphel is a verb, not an adjective; it is construed in the singular by attraction, and either refers to âdâm , man or people: Ges. §148, 1; or what is more probable, to the logical unity of the compound notion which is taken as subject, the constr.

ad synesin s. sensum : Thiersch, §118), and the pride of the lords is bowed down ( shach = shâchach , Job 9:13). The first strophe of the proclamation of judgment appended to the prophetic saying in Isa 2:2-4 is here brought to a close. The second strophe reaches to Isa 2:17, where Isa 2:11 is repeated as a concluding verse.

Isa 2:9-11 It was a state ripe for judgment, from which, therefore, the prophet could at once proceed, without any further preparation, to the proclamation of judgment itself. "Thus, then, men are bowed down, and lords are brought low; and forgive them - no, that Thou wilt not. ” The consecutive futures depict the judgment, as one which would follow by inward necessity from the worldly and ungodly glory of the existing state of things.

The future is frequently used in this way (for example, in Isa 9:7.) It was a judgment by which small and great, i. e. , the people in all its classes, were brought down from their false eminence. “Men” and “lords” ( âdâm and ish , as in Isa 5:15; Psa 49:3, and Pro 8:4, and like άνθρωπος and ανήρ in the Attic dialect), i. e. , men who were lost in the crowd, and men who rose above it - all of them the judgment would throw down to the ground, and that without mercy (Rev 6:15).

The prophet expresses the conviction ( al as in 2Ki 6:27), that on this occasion God neither could nor would take away the sin by forgiving it. There was nothing left for them, therefore, but to carry out the command of the prophet in Isa 2:10 : “Creep into the rock, and bury thyself in the dust, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty.

” The glorious nation would hide itself most ignominiously, when the only true glory of Jehovah, which had been rejected by it, was manifested in judgment. They would conceal themselves in holes of the rocks, as if before a hostile army (Jdg 6:2; 1Sa 13:6; 1Sa 14:11), and bury themselves with their faces in the sand, as if before the fatal simōm of the desert, that they might not have to bear this intolerable sight.

And when Jehovah manifested Himself in this way in the fiery glance of judgment, the result summed up in Isa 2:11 must follow: “The people’s eyes of haughtiness are humbled, and the pride of their lords is bowed down; and Jehovah, He only, stands exalted in that day. ” The result of the process of judgment is expressed in perfects: nisgab is the third pers. praet.

, not the participle: Jehovah “is exalted,” i. e. , shows Himself as exalted, whilst the haughty conduct of the people is brought down ( shâphel is a verb, not an adjective; it is construed in the singular by attraction, and either refers to âdâm , man or people: Ges. §148, 1; or what is more probable, to the logical unity of the compound notion which is taken as subject, the constr.

ad synesin s. sensum : Thiersch, §118), and the pride of the lords is bowed down ( shach = shâchach , Job 9:13). The first strophe of the proclamation of judgment appended to the prophetic saying in Isa 2:2-4 is here brought to a close. The second strophe reaches to Isa 2:17, where Isa 2:11 is repeated as a concluding verse.

Isa 2:9-11 It was a state ripe for judgment, from which, therefore, the prophet could at once proceed, without any further preparation, to the proclamation of judgment itself. "Thus, then, men are bowed down, and lords are brought low; and forgive them - no, that Thou wilt not. ” The consecutive futures depict the judgment, as one which would follow by inward necessity from the worldly and ungodly glory of the existing state of things.

The future is frequently used in this way (for example, in Isa 9:7.) It was a judgment by which small and great, i. e. , the people in all its classes, were brought down from their false eminence. “Men” and “lords” ( âdâm and ish , as in Isa 5:15; Psa 49:3, and Pro 8:4, and like άνθρωπος and ανήρ in the Attic dialect), i. e. , men who were lost in the crowd, and men who rose above it - all of them the judgment would throw down to the ground, and that without mercy (Rev 6:15).

The prophet expresses the conviction ( al as in 2Ki 6:27), that on this occasion God neither could nor would take away the sin by forgiving it. There was nothing left for them, therefore, but to carry out the command of the prophet in Isa 2:10 : “Creep into the rock, and bury thyself in the dust, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty.

” The glorious nation would hide itself most ignominiously, when the only true glory of Jehovah, which had been rejected by it, was manifested in judgment. They would conceal themselves in holes of the rocks, as if before a hostile army (Jdg 6:2; 1Sa 13:6; 1Sa 14:11), and bury themselves with their faces in the sand, as if before the fatal simōm of the desert, that they might not have to bear this intolerable sight.

And when Jehovah manifested Himself in this way in the fiery glance of judgment, the result summed up in Isa 2:11 must follow: “The people’s eyes of haughtiness are humbled, and the pride of their lords is bowed down; and Jehovah, He only, stands exalted in that day. ” The result of the process of judgment is expressed in perfects: nisgab is the third pers. praet.

, not the participle: Jehovah “is exalted,” i. e. , shows Himself as exalted, whilst the haughty conduct of the people is brought down ( shâphel is a verb, not an adjective; it is construed in the singular by attraction, and either refers to âdâm , man or people: Ges. §148, 1; or what is more probable, to the logical unity of the compound notion which is taken as subject, the constr.

ad synesin s. sensum : Thiersch, §118), and the pride of the lords is bowed down ( shach = shâchach , Job 9:13). The first strophe of the proclamation of judgment appended to the prophetic saying in Isa 2:2-4 is here brought to a close. The second strophe reaches to Isa 2:17, where Isa 2:11 is repeated as a concluding verse.

Isa 2:12 The expression “that day” suggests the inquiry, What day is referred to? The prophet answers this question in the second strophe. “For Jehovah of hosts hath a day over everything towering and lofty, and over everything exalted; and it becomes low. ” “Jehovah hath a day” ( yom layehovah ), lit. , there is to Jehovah a day, which already exists as a finished divine thought in that wisdom by which the course of history is guided (Isa 37:26, cf.

, Isa 22:11), the secret of which He revealed to the prophets, who from the time of Obadiah and Joel downwards proclaimed that day with one uniform watchword. But when the time appointed for that day should arrive, it would pass out of the secret of eternity into the history of time - a day of world-wide judgment, which would pass, through the omnipotence with which Jehovah rules over the hither as well as lower spheres of the whole creation, upon all worldly glory, and it would be brought low ( shaphel ).

The current accentuation of Isa 2:12 is wrong; correct MSS have על with mercha , כל־נשׂא with tifcha . The word v'shâphel (third pers. praet. with the root-vowel ee ) acquires the force of a future, although no grammatical future precedes it, from the future character of the day itself: “and it will sink down” (Ges. §126, 4).

Isa 2:13-14 The prophet then proceeds to enumerate all the high things upon which that day would fall, arranging them two and two, and binding them in pairs by a double correlative Vav . The day of Jehovah comes, as the first two pairs affirm, upon everything lofty in nature. “As upon all the cedars of Lebanon, the lofty and exalted, so upon all the oaks of Bashan.

As upon all mountains, the lofty ones, so upon all hills the exalted ones. ” But wherefore upon all this majestic beauty of nature? Is all this merely figurative? Knobel regards it as merely a figurative description of the grand buildings of the time of Uzziah and Jotham, in the erection of which wood had been used from Lebanon as well as from Bashan, on the western slopes of which the old shady oaks ( sindiân and ballūt ) are flourishing still.

But the idea that trees can be used to signify the houses built with the good obtained from them, is one that cannot be sustained from Isa 9:9 (10.) , where the reference is not to houses built of sycamore and cedar wood, but to trunks of trees of the king mentioned; nor even from Nah 2:4 (3.) , where habberoshim refers to the fir lances which are brandished about in haughty thirst for battle.

So again mountains and hills cannot denote the castles and fortifications built upon them, more especially as these are expressly mentioned in Isa 2:15 in the most literal terms. In order to understand the prophet, we must bear in mind what the Scriptures invariably assume, from their first chapter to the very close, namely, that the totality of nature is bound up with man in one common history; that man and the totality of nature are inseparably connected together as centre and circumference; that this circumference is affected by the sin which proceeds from man, as well as by the anger or the mercy which proceeds from God to man; that the judgments of God, as the history of the nations proves, involve in fellow-suffering even that part of the creation which is not free; and that this participation in the “corruption” ( phthora ) and “glory” ( doxa ) of humanity will come out with peculiar distinctness and force at the close of the world’s history, in a manner corresponding to the commencement; and lastly, that the world in its present condition needs a palingenesia , or regeneration, quite as much as the corporeal nature of man, before it can become an object of good pleasure on the part of God.

We cannot be surprised, therefore, that, in accordance with this fundamental view of the Scriptures, when the judgment of God fell upon Israel, it should also be described as going down to the land of Israel, and as overthrowing not only the false glory of the nation itself, but everything glorious in the surrounding nature, which had been made to minister to its national pride and love of show, and to which its sin adhered in many different ways. What the prophet foretold began to be fulfilled even in the Assyrian wars.

The cedar woods of Lebanon were unsparingly destroyed; the heights and valleys of the land were trodden down and laid waste; and, in the period of the great empires which commenced with Tiglath-pileser, the Holy Land was reduced to a shadow of its former promised beauty.

Isa 2:13-14 The prophet then proceeds to enumerate all the high things upon which that day would fall, arranging them two and two, and binding them in pairs by a double correlative Vav . The day of Jehovah comes, as the first two pairs affirm, upon everything lofty in nature. “As upon all the cedars of Lebanon, the lofty and exalted, so upon all the oaks of Bashan.

As upon all mountains, the lofty ones, so upon all hills the exalted ones. ” But wherefore upon all this majestic beauty of nature? Is all this merely figurative? Knobel regards it as merely a figurative description of the grand buildings of the time of Uzziah and Jotham, in the erection of which wood had been used from Lebanon as well as from Bashan, on the western slopes of which the old shady oaks ( sindiân and ballūt ) are flourishing still.

But the idea that trees can be used to signify the houses built with the good obtained from them, is one that cannot be sustained from Isa 9:9 (10.) , where the reference is not to houses built of sycamore and cedar wood, but to trunks of trees of the king mentioned; nor even from Nah 2:4 (3.) , where habberoshim refers to the fir lances which are brandished about in haughty thirst for battle.

So again mountains and hills cannot denote the castles and fortifications built upon them, more especially as these are expressly mentioned in Isa 2:15 in the most literal terms. In order to understand the prophet, we must bear in mind what the Scriptures invariably assume, from their first chapter to the very close, namely, that the totality of nature is bound up with man in one common history; that man and the totality of nature are inseparably connected together as centre and circumference; that this circumference is affected by the sin which proceeds from man, as well as by the anger or the mercy which proceeds from God to man; that the judgments of God, as the history of the nations proves, involve in fellow-suffering even that part of the creation which is not free; and that this participation in the “corruption” ( phthora ) and “glory” ( doxa ) of humanity will come out with peculiar distinctness and force at the close of the world’s history, in a manner corresponding to the commencement; and lastly, that the world in its present condition needs a palingenesia , or regeneration, quite as much as the corporeal nature of man, before it can become an object of good pleasure on the part of God.

We cannot be surprised, therefore, that, in accordance with this fundamental view of the Scriptures, when the judgment of God fell upon Israel, it should also be described as going down to the land of Israel, and as overthrowing not only the false glory of the nation itself, but everything glorious in the surrounding nature, which had been made to minister to its national pride and love of show, and to which its sin adhered in many different ways. What the prophet foretold began to be fulfilled even in the Assyrian wars.

The cedar woods of Lebanon were unsparingly destroyed; the heights and valleys of the land were trodden down and laid waste; and, in the period of the great empires which commenced with Tiglath-pileser, the Holy Land was reduced to a shadow of its former promised beauty.

Isa 2:15-16 The glory of nature is followed by what is lofty and glorious in the world of men, such as magnificent fortifications, grand commercial buildings, and treasures which minister to the lust of the eye. “As upon every high tower, so upon every fortified wall. As upon all ships of Tarshish, so upon all works of curiosity. ” It was by erecting fortifications for offence and defence, both lofty and steep ( bâzur , praeruptus , from bâzar , abrumpere , secernere ), that Uzziah and Jotham especially endeavoured to serve Jerusalem and the land at large.

The chronicler relates, with reference to Uzziah, in 2 Chron 26, that he built strong towers above “the corner-gate, the valley-gate, and the southern point of the cheesemakers’ hollow,” and fortified these places, which had probably been till that time the weakest points in Jerusalem; also that he built towers in the desert (probably in the desert between Beersheba and Gaza, to increase the safety of the land, and the numerous flocks which were pastured in the shephelah , i. e.

, the western portion of southern Palestine). With regard to Jotham, it is related in both the book of Kings (2Ki 15:32.) and the Chronicles, that he built the upper gate of the temple; and in the Chronicles (2Ch 27:1-9) that he fortified the 'Ofel , i. e. , the southern spur of the temple hill, still more strongly, and built cities on the mountains of Judah, and erected castles and towers in the forests (to watch for hostile attacks and ward them off).

Hezekiah also distinguished himself by building enterprises of this kind (2Ch 32:27-30). But the allusion to the ships of Tarshish takes us to the times of Uzziah and Jotham, and not to those of Hezekiah (as Psa 48:7 does to the time of Jehoshaphat); for the seaport town of Elath, which was recovered by Uzziah, was lost again to the kingdom of Judah during the reign of Ahaz.

Jewish ships sailed from this Elath (Ailath) through the Red Sea and round the coast of Africa to the harbour of Tartessus, the ancient Phoenician emporium of the maritime region watered by the Baetis (Guadalquivir), which abounded in silver, and then returned through the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar: vid. , Duncker, Gesch . i. 312-315). It was to these Tartessus vessels that the expression “ships of Tarshish” primarily referred, though it was afterwards probably applied to mercantile ships in general.

The following expression, “works of curiosity” ( sechiyyoth hachemdah ), is taken in far too restricted a sense by those who limit it, as the lxx have done, to the ships already spoken of, or understand it, as Gesenius does, as referring to beautiful flags. Jerome’s rendering is correct: “ et super omne quod visu pulcrum est ” (and upon everything beautiful to look at); seciyyâh , from sâcâh , to look, is sight generally.

The reference therefore is to all kinds of works of art, whether in sculpture or paintings ( mascith is used of both), which delighted the observer by their imposing, tasteful appearance. Possibly, however, there is a more especial reference to curiosities of art and nature, which were brought by the trading vessels from foreign lands. Isa 2:17 closes the second strophe of the proclamation of judgment appended to the earlier prophetic word: “And the haughtiness of the people is bowed down, and the pride of the lords brought low; and Jehovah, He alone, stands exalted on that day.

” The closing refrain only varies a little from Isa 2:11. The subjects of the verbs are transposed. With a feminine noun denoting a thing, it is almost a rule that the predicate shall be placed before it in masculine (Ges. §147, a ).

Isa 2:15-16 The glory of nature is followed by what is lofty and glorious in the world of men, such as magnificent fortifications, grand commercial buildings, and treasures which minister to the lust of the eye. “As upon every high tower, so upon every fortified wall. As upon all ships of Tarshish, so upon all works of curiosity. ” It was by erecting fortifications for offence and defence, both lofty and steep ( bâzur , praeruptus , from bâzar , abrumpere , secernere ), that Uzziah and Jotham especially endeavoured to serve Jerusalem and the land at large.

The chronicler relates, with reference to Uzziah, in 2 Chron 26, that he built strong towers above “the corner-gate, the valley-gate, and the southern point of the cheesemakers’ hollow,” and fortified these places, which had probably been till that time the weakest points in Jerusalem; also that he built towers in the desert (probably in the desert between Beersheba and Gaza, to increase the safety of the land, and the numerous flocks which were pastured in the shephelah , i. e.

, the western portion of southern Palestine). With regard to Jotham, it is related in both the book of Kings (2Ki 15:32.) and the Chronicles, that he built the upper gate of the temple; and in the Chronicles (2Ch 27:1-9) that he fortified the 'Ofel , i. e. , the southern spur of the temple hill, still more strongly, and built cities on the mountains of Judah, and erected castles and towers in the forests (to watch for hostile attacks and ward them off).

Hezekiah also distinguished himself by building enterprises of this kind (2Ch 32:27-30). But the allusion to the ships of Tarshish takes us to the times of Uzziah and Jotham, and not to those of Hezekiah (as Psa 48:7 does to the time of Jehoshaphat); for the seaport town of Elath, which was recovered by Uzziah, was lost again to the kingdom of Judah during the reign of Ahaz.

Jewish ships sailed from this Elath (Ailath) through the Red Sea and round the coast of Africa to the harbour of Tartessus, the ancient Phoenician emporium of the maritime region watered by the Baetis (Guadalquivir), which abounded in silver, and then returned through the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar: vid. , Duncker, Gesch . i. 312-315). It was to these Tartessus vessels that the expression “ships of Tarshish” primarily referred, though it was afterwards probably applied to mercantile ships in general.

The following expression, “works of curiosity” ( sechiyyoth hachemdah ), is taken in far too restricted a sense by those who limit it, as the lxx have done, to the ships already spoken of, or understand it, as Gesenius does, as referring to beautiful flags. Jerome’s rendering is correct: “ et super omne quod visu pulcrum est ” (and upon everything beautiful to look at); seciyyâh , from sâcâh , to look, is sight generally.

The reference therefore is to all kinds of works of art, whether in sculpture or paintings ( mascith is used of both), which delighted the observer by their imposing, tasteful appearance. Possibly, however, there is a more especial reference to curiosities of art and nature, which were brought by the trading vessels from foreign lands. Isa 2:17 closes the second strophe of the proclamation of judgment appended to the earlier prophetic word: “And the haughtiness of the people is bowed down, and the pride of the lords brought low; and Jehovah, He alone, stands exalted on that day.

” The closing refrain only varies a little from Isa 2:11. The subjects of the verbs are transposed. With a feminine noun denoting a thing, it is almost a rule that the predicate shall be placed before it in masculine (Ges. §147, a ).

Isa 2:18 The closing refrain of the next two strophes is based upon the concluding clause of Isa 2:10. The proclamation of judgment turns now to the elilim , which, as being at the root of all the evil, occupied the lowest place in the things of which the land was full (Isa 2:7, Isa 2:8). In a short v. of one clause consisting of only three words, their future is declared as it were with a lightning-flash.

“And the idols utterly pass away. ” The translation shows the shortness of the verse, but not the significant synallage numeri . The idols are one and all a mass of nothingness, which will be reduced to absolute annihilation: they will vanish Câlil , i. e. , either “they will utterly perish” ( funditus peribunt ), or, as Câlil is not used adverbially in any other passage, “they will all perish” ( tota peribunt , Jdg 20:40) - their images, their worship, even their names and their memory (Zec 13:2).

Isa 2:19 What the idolaters themselves will do when Jehovah has so completely deprived their idols of all their divinity, is then described in Isa 2:19 : “And they will creep into caves in the rocks, and cellars in the earth, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to put the earth in terror. ” Meârâh is a natural cave, and mechillah a subterraneous excavation: this is apparently the distinction between the two synonyms.

“To put the earth in terror:” lârotz hâ - aretz , a significant paronomasia, which can be reproduced in Latin, thus: ut terreat terram . Thus the judgment would fall upon the earth without any limitation, upon men universally (compare the word hâ - âdâm in Isa 2:20, which is scarcely ever applied to a single individual (Jos 14:15), excepting, of course, the first man, but generally to men, or to the human race) and upon the totality of nature as interwoven in the history of man - one complete whole, in which sin, and therefore wrath, had gained the upper hand.

When Jehovah rose up, i. e. , stood up from His heavenly throne, to reveal the glory manifested in heaven, and turn its judicial fiery side towards the sinful earth, the earth would receive such a shock as would throw it into a state resembling the chaos of the beginning. We may see very clearly from Rev 6:15, where this description is borrowed, that the prophet is here describing the last judgment, although from a national point of view and bounded by a national horizon.

Isa 2:20 forms the commencement to the fourth strophe: “In that day will a man cast away his idols of gold and his idols of silver, which they made for him to worship, to the moles and to the bats. ” The traditional text separates lachpor peroth into two words, though without its being possible to discover what they are supposed to mean. The reason for the separation was simply the fact that plurilitera were at one time altogether misunderstood and regarded as Composita : for other plurilitera , written as two words, compare Isa 61:1; Hos 4:18; Jer 46:20.

The prophet certainly pronounced the word lachparpâroth (Ewald, §157, c ); and Chapharpârâh is apparently a mole (lit. thrower up of the soil), talpa , as it is rendered by Jerome and interpreted by Rashi. Gesenius and Knobel, however, have raised this objection, that the mole is never found in houses. But are we necessarily to assume that they would throw their idols into lumber-rooms, and not hide them in holes and crevices out of doors?

The mole, the shrew-mouse, and the bat, whose name ( atalleph ) is regarded by Schultens as a compound word ( atal - eph , night-bird), are generically related, according to both ancient and modern naturalists. Bats are to birds what moles are to the smaller beasts of prey (vid. , Levysohn, Zoologie des Talmud , p. 102). The lxx combine with these two words l'hishtachavoth (to worship).

Malbim and Luzzatto adopt this rendering, and understand the words to mean that they would sink down to the most absurd descriptions of animal worship. But the accentuation, which does not divide the v. at עשׂוּ־לו, as we should expect if this were the meaning, is based upon the correct interpretation. The idolaters, convinced of the worthlessness of their idols through the judicial interposition of God, and enraged at the disastrous manner in which they had been deceived, would throw away with curses the images of gold and silver which artists’ hands had made according to their instructions, and hide them in the holes of bats and in mole-hills, to conceal them from the eyes of the Judge, and then take refuge there themselves after ridding themselves of this useless and damnable burden.

Isa 2:21-22 “To creep into the cavities of the stone-blocks, and into the clefts of the rocks, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty, when He arises to put the earth in terror. ” Thus ends the fourth strophe of this “ dies irae, dies illa ,” which is appended to the earlier prophetic word. But there follows, as an epiphonem , this nota bene in Isa 2:22 : Oh, then, let man go, in whose nose is a breath; for what is he estimated at?

The Septuagint leaves this v. out altogether. But was it so utterly unintelligible then? Jerome adopted a false pointing, and has therefore given this marvellous rendering: excelsus ( bâmâh !) reputatus est ipse , by which Luther was apparently misled. But if we look backwards and forwards, it is impossible to mistake the meaning of the verse, which must be regarded not only as the resultant of what precedes it, but also as the transition to what follows.

It is preceded by the prediction of the utter demolition of everything which ministers to the pride and vain confidence of men; and in Isa 3:1. the same prediction is resumed, with a more special reference to the Jewish state, from which Jehovah is about to take away every prop, so that it shall utterly collapse. Accordingly the prophet exhorts, in Isa 2:22, to a renunciation of trust in man, and everything belonging to him, just as in Psa 118:8-9; Psa 146:3, and Jer 17:5.

The construction is as general as that of a gnome. The dat. Commodi לכם (Ges. §154, 3, e ) renders the exhortation both friendly and urgent: from regard to yourselves, for your own good, for your own salvation, desist from man, i. e. , from your confidence in him, in whose nose ( in cujus naso , the singular, as in Job 27:3; whereas the plural is used in Gen 2:7 in the same sense, in nares ejus , “into his nostrils”) is a breath, a breath of life, which God gave to him, and can take back as soon as He will (Job 34:14; Psa 104:29).

Upon the breath, which passes out and in through his nose, his whole earthly existence is suspended; and this, when once lost, is gone for ever (Job 7:7). It is upon this breath, therefore, that all the confidence placed in man must rest - a bad soil and foundation! Under these conditions, and with this liability to perish in a moment, the worth of man as a ground of confidence is really nothing.

This thought is expressed here in the form of a question: At (for) what is he estimated, or to be estimated? The passive participle nechshâb combines with the idea of the actual ( aestimatus ) that of the necessary ( aestimandus ), and also of the possible or suitable ( aestimabilis ); and that all the more because the Semitic languages have no special forms for the latter notions.

The Beth is Beth pretı̄ , corresponding to the Latin genitive ( quanti ) or ablative ( quanto ) - a modification of the Beth instrumenti , the price being regarded as the medium of exchange or purchase: “at what is he estimated,” not with what is he compared, which would be expressed by ‛eth (Isa 53:12; compare μετά, Luk 22:37) or ‛im (Psa 88:5). The word is בּמּה, not בּמּה, because this looser form is only found in cases where a relative clause follows ( eo quod , Ecc 3:22), and not bama=h , because this termination with ā is used exclusively where the next word begins with Aleph , or where it is a pausal word (as in 1Ki 22:21); in every other case we have bammeh .

The question introduced with this quanto ( quanti ), “at what,” cannot be answered by any positive definition of value. The worth of man, regarded in himself, and altogether apart from God, is really nothing. The proclamation of judgment pauses at this porisma , but only for the purpose of gathering fresh strength. The prophet has foretold in four strophes the judgment of God upon every exalted thing in the kosmos that has fallen away from communion with God, just as Amos commences his book with a round of judgments, which are uttered in seven strophes of uniform scope, bursting like seven thunder-claps upon the nations of the existing stage of history.

The seventh stroke falls upon Judah, over which the thunderstorm rests after finding such abundant booty. And in the same manner Isaiah, in the instance before us, reduces the universal proclamation of judgment to one more especially affecting Judah and Jerusalem. The current of the address breaks through the bounds of the strophe; and the exhortation in Isa 2:22 not to trust in man, the reason for which is assigned in what precedes, also forms a transition from the universal proclamation of judgment to the more special one in Isa 3:1, where the prophet assigns a fresh ground for the exhortation.

Isa 2:21-22 “To creep into the cavities of the stone-blocks, and into the clefts of the rocks, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty, when He arises to put the earth in terror. ” Thus ends the fourth strophe of this “ dies irae, dies illa ,” which is appended to the earlier prophetic word. But there follows, as an epiphonem , this nota bene in Isa 2:22 : Oh, then, let man go, in whose nose is a breath; for what is he estimated at?

The Septuagint leaves this v. out altogether. But was it so utterly unintelligible then? Jerome adopted a false pointing, and has therefore given this marvellous rendering: excelsus ( bâmâh !) reputatus est ipse , by which Luther was apparently misled. But if we look backwards and forwards, it is impossible to mistake the meaning of the verse, which must be regarded not only as the resultant of what precedes it, but also as the transition to what follows.

It is preceded by the prediction of the utter demolition of everything which ministers to the pride and vain confidence of men; and in Isa 3:1. the same prediction is resumed, with a more special reference to the Jewish state, from which Jehovah is about to take away every prop, so that it shall utterly collapse. Accordingly the prophet exhorts, in Isa 2:22, to a renunciation of trust in man, and everything belonging to him, just as in Psa 118:8-9; Psa 146:3, and Jer 17:5.

The construction is as general as that of a gnome. The dat. Commodi לכם (Ges. §154, 3, e ) renders the exhortation both friendly and urgent: from regard to yourselves, for your own good, for your own salvation, desist from man, i. e. , from your confidence in him, in whose nose ( in cujus naso , the singular, as in Job 27:3; whereas the plural is used in Gen 2:7 in the same sense, in nares ejus , “into his nostrils”) is a breath, a breath of life, which God gave to him, and can take back as soon as He will (Job 34:14; Psa 104:29).

Upon the breath, which passes out and in through his nose, his whole earthly existence is suspended; and this, when once lost, is gone for ever (Job 7:7). It is upon this breath, therefore, that all the confidence placed in man must rest - a bad soil and foundation! Under these conditions, and with this liability to perish in a moment, the worth of man as a ground of confidence is really nothing.

This thought is expressed here in the form of a question: At (for) what is he estimated, or to be estimated? The passive participle nechshâb combines with the idea of the actual ( aestimatus ) that of the necessary ( aestimandus ), and also of the possible or suitable ( aestimabilis ); and that all the more because the Semitic languages have no special forms for the latter notions.

The Beth is Beth pretı̄ , corresponding to the Latin genitive ( quanti ) or ablative ( quanto ) - a modification of the Beth instrumenti , the price being regarded as the medium of exchange or purchase: “at what is he estimated,” not with what is he compared, which would be expressed by ‛eth (Isa 53:12; compare μετά, Luk 22:37) or ‛im (Psa 88:5). The word is בּמּה, not בּמּה, because this looser form is only found in cases where a relative clause follows ( eo quod , Ecc 3:22), and not bama=h , because this termination with ā is used exclusively where the next word begins with Aleph , or where it is a pausal word (as in 1Ki 22:21); in every other case we have bammeh .

The question introduced with this quanto ( quanti ), “at what,” cannot be answered by any positive definition of value. The worth of man, regarded in himself, and altogether apart from God, is really nothing. The proclamation of judgment pauses at this porisma , but only for the purpose of gathering fresh strength. The prophet has foretold in four strophes the judgment of God upon every exalted thing in the kosmos that has fallen away from communion with God, just as Amos commences his book with a round of judgments, which are uttered in seven strophes of uniform scope, bursting like seven thunder-claps upon the nations of the existing stage of history.

The seventh stroke falls upon Judah, over which the thunderstorm rests after finding such abundant booty. And in the same manner Isaiah, in the instance before us, reduces the universal proclamation of judgment to one more especially affecting Judah and Jerusalem. The current of the address breaks through the bounds of the strophe; and the exhortation in Isa 2:22 not to trust in man, the reason for which is assigned in what precedes, also forms a transition from the universal proclamation of judgment to the more special one in Isa 3:1, where the prophet assigns a fresh ground for the exhortation.

Isa 3:1 “For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supporter and means of support, every support of bread and every support of water. ” The divine name given here, “The Lord, Jehovah of hosts,” with which Isaiah everywhere introduces the judicial acts of God (cf. , Isa 1:24; Isa 10:16, Isa 10:33; Isa 19:4), is a proof that the proclamation of judgment commences afresh here.

Trusting in man was the crying sin, more especially of the times of Uzziah-Jotham. The glory of the kingdom at that time carried the wrath of Jehovah within it. The outbreak of that wrath commenced in the time of Ahaz; and even under Hezekiah it was merely suspended, not changed. Isaiah foretells this outbreak of wrath. He describes how Jehovah will lay the Jewish state in ruins, by taking away the main supports of its existence and growth.

“Supporter and means of support” ( mash'en and mash'enah ) express, first of all, the general idea. The two nouns, which are only the masculine and feminine forms of one and the same word (compare Mic 2:4; Nah 2:11, and the examples from the Syriac and Arabic in Ewald, §172, c ), serve to complete the generalization: fulcra omne genus (props of every kind, omnigena ).

They are both technical terms, denoting the prop which a person uses to support anything, whilst mish'an signifies that which yields support; so that the three correspond somewhat to the Latin fulcrum , fultura , fulcimen . Of the various means of support, bread and wine are mentioned first, not in a figurative sense, but as the two indispensable conditions and the lowest basis of human life.

Life is supported by bread and water: it walks, as it were, upon the crutch of bread, so that “breaking the staff of bread” (Lev 26:26; Eze 4:16; Eze 5:16; Eze 14:13; Psa 105:16) is equivalent to physical destruction. The destruction of the Jewish state would accordingly be commenced by a removal on the part of Jehovah of all the support afforded by bread and water, i.

e. , all the stores of both. And this was literally fulfilled, for both in the Chaldean and Roman times Jerusalem perished in the midst of just such terrible famines as are threatened in the curses in Lev 26, and more especially in Deut 28; ; and in both cases the inhabitants were reduced to such extremities, that women devoured their own children (Lam 2:20; Josephus, Wars of Jews , vi.

3, 3, 4). It is very unjust, therefore, on the part of modern critics, such as Hitzig, Knobel, and Meier, to pronounce Isa 3:1 a gloss, and, in fact, a false one. Gesenius and Umbreit retracted this suspicion. The construction of the v. is just the same as that of Isa 25:6; and it is Isaiah’s custom to explain his own figures, as we have already observed when comparing Isa 1:7.

and Isa 1:23 with what preceded them. “Every support of bread and every support of water” are not to be regarded in this case as an explanation of the general idea introduced before, “supporters and means of support,” but simply as the commencement of the detailed expansion of the idea. For the enumeration of the supports which Jehovah would take away is continued in the next two verses.

Isa 3:2-3 “Hero and man of war, judge and prophet, and soothsayer and elder; captains of fifty, and the highly distinguished, and counsellors, and masters in art, and those skilled in muttering. ” As the state had grown into a military state under Uzziah-Jotham, the prophet commences in both vv. with military officers, viz. , the gibbor , i. e. , commanders whose bravery had been already tried; the “man of war” ( ish imlchâmâh ), i.

e. , private soldiers who had been equipped and well trained (see Eze 39:20); and the “captain of fifty” ( sar Chamisshim ), leaders of the smallest divisions of the army, consisting of only fifty men ( pentekontarchos , 2Ki 1:9, etc.) The prominent members of the state are all mixed up together; “the judge” ( shophet ), i. e. , the officers appointed by the government to administer justice; “the elder” ( zâkēn ), i.

e. , the heads of families and the senators appointed by the town corporations; the “counsellor” ( yōetz ), those nearest to the king; the “highly distinguished” ( nesu panim ), lit. , those whose personal appearance ( panim ) was accepted, i. e. , welcome and regarded with honour (Saad. : wa'gı̄h , from wa'gh , the face of appearance), that is to say, persons of influence, not only on account of their office, but also on account of wealth, age, goodness, etc.

; “masters in art” ( Chacam Charâshim : lxx σοφὸς ἀρχιτέκτων ), or, as Jerome has very well rendered it, in artibus mechanicis exercitatus easque callide tractans (persons well versed in mechanical arts, and carrying them out with skill). In the Chaldean captivities skilled artisans are particularly mentioned as having been carried away (2Ki 24:14. ; Jer 24:1; Jer 29:2); so that there can be no doubt whatever that Charâshim (from Cheresh ) is to be understood as signifying mechanical and not magical arts, as Gesenius, Hitzig, and Meier suppose, and therefore that Chacam Charâshim does not mean “wizards,” as Ewald renders it ( Chărâshim is a different word from Chârâshim , fabri , from Chârâsh , although in 1Ch 4:14, cf.

, Neh 11:35, the word is regularly pointed חרשׁים even in this personal sense). Moreover, the rendering “wizards” produces tautology, inasmuch as masters of the black art are cited as nebon lachash , “skilled in muttering. ” Lachash is the whispering or muttering of magical formulas; it is related both radically and in meaning to nachash , enchantment (Arabic nachs , misfortune); it is derived from lachash , sibilare , to hiss (a kindred word to nâchash ; hence nâchâsh , a serpent).

Beside this, the masters of the black art are also represented as kosem , which, in accordance with the radical idea of making fast, swearing, conjuring, denoted a soothsayer following heathen superstitions, as distinguished from the nabi , of false Jehovah prophet (we find this as early as Deu 18:10, Deu 18:14). These came next to bread and water, and were in a higher grade the props of the state.

They are mixed together in this manner without regular order, because the powerful and splendid state was really a quodlibet of things Jewish and heathen; and when the wrath of Jehovah broke out, the godless glory would soon become a mass of confusion.

Isa 3:2-3 “Hero and man of war, judge and prophet, and soothsayer and elder; captains of fifty, and the highly distinguished, and counsellors, and masters in art, and those skilled in muttering. ” As the state had grown into a military state under Uzziah-Jotham, the prophet commences in both vv. with military officers, viz. , the gibbor , i. e. , commanders whose bravery had been already tried; the “man of war” ( ish imlchâmâh ), i.

e. , private soldiers who had been equipped and well trained (see Eze 39:20); and the “captain of fifty” ( sar Chamisshim ), leaders of the smallest divisions of the army, consisting of only fifty men ( pentekontarchos , 2Ki 1:9, etc.) The prominent members of the state are all mixed up together; “the judge” ( shophet ), i. e. , the officers appointed by the government to administer justice; “the elder” ( zâkēn ), i.

e. , the heads of families and the senators appointed by the town corporations; the “counsellor” ( yōetz ), those nearest to the king; the “highly distinguished” ( nesu panim ), lit. , those whose personal appearance ( panim ) was accepted, i. e. , welcome and regarded with honour (Saad. : wa'gı̄h , from wa'gh , the face of appearance), that is to say, persons of influence, not only on account of their office, but also on account of wealth, age, goodness, etc.

; “masters in art” ( Chacam Charâshim : lxx σοφὸς ἀρχιτέκτων ), or, as Jerome has very well rendered it, in artibus mechanicis exercitatus easque callide tractans (persons well versed in mechanical arts, and carrying them out with skill). In the Chaldean captivities skilled artisans are particularly mentioned as having been carried away (2Ki 24:14. ; Jer 24:1; Jer 29:2); so that there can be no doubt whatever that Charâshim (from Cheresh ) is to be understood as signifying mechanical and not magical arts, as Gesenius, Hitzig, and Meier suppose, and therefore that Chacam Charâshim does not mean “wizards,” as Ewald renders it ( Chărâshim is a different word from Chârâshim , fabri , from Chârâsh , although in 1Ch 4:14, cf.

, Neh 11:35, the word is regularly pointed חרשׁים even in this personal sense). Moreover, the rendering “wizards” produces tautology, inasmuch as masters of the black art are cited as nebon lachash , “skilled in muttering. ” Lachash is the whispering or muttering of magical formulas; it is related both radically and in meaning to nachash , enchantment (Arabic nachs , misfortune); it is derived from lachash , sibilare , to hiss (a kindred word to nâchash ; hence nâchâsh , a serpent).

Beside this, the masters of the black art are also represented as kosem , which, in accordance with the radical idea of making fast, swearing, conjuring, denoted a soothsayer following heathen superstitions, as distinguished from the nabi , of false Jehovah prophet (we find this as early as Deu 18:10, Deu 18:14). These came next to bread and water, and were in a higher grade the props of the state.

They are mixed together in this manner without regular order, because the powerful and splendid state was really a quodlibet of things Jewish and heathen; and when the wrath of Jehovah broke out, the godless glory would soon become a mass of confusion.

Isa 3:4 Thus robbed of its support, and torn out of its proper groove, the kingdom of Judah would fall a prey to the most shameless despotism: “And I give them boys for princes, and caprices shall rule over them. ” The revived “Solomonian” glory is followed, as before, by the times of Rehoboam. The king is not expressly named. This was intentional. He had sunk into the mere shadow of a king: it was not he who ruled, but the aristocratic party that surrounded him, who led him about in leading strings as unum inter pares .

Now, if it is a misfortune in most cases for a king to be a child ( na'ar , Ecc 10:16), the misfortune is twice as great when the princes or magnates who surround and advise him are youngsters ( ne'ârim , i. e. , young lords) in a bad sense. It produces a government of tâlulim . None of the nouns in this form have a personal signification. According to the primary meaning of the verbal stem, the word might signify childishnesses, equivalent to little children (the abstract for the concrete, like τἀπαιδικά amasius ), as Ewald supposes; or puppets, fantocci , poltroons, or men without heart or brain, as Luzzatto maintains.

But the latter has no support in the general usage of the language, and the verb yimshelu (shall rule) does not necessarily require a personal subject (cf. , Psa 19:14; Psa 103:19). The word tâlulim is formed from the reflective verb hithallel , which means to meddle, to gratify one’s self, to indulge one’s caprice. Accordingly tâlulim itself might be rendered vexationes (Isa 66:4).

Jerome, who translates the word effeminati , appears to have thought of התעלּל in an erotic sense. The Sept. rendering, ἐμπαῖκται is better, though ἐμπαίγματα would be more exact. When used, as the word is here, along with ne'arim , it signifies outbursts of youthful caprice, which do injury to others, whether in joke or earnest. Neither law nor justice would rule, but the very opposite of justice: a course of conduct which would make subjects, like slaves, the helpless victims at one time of their lust (Jdg 19:25), and at another of their cruelty.

They would be governed by lawless and bloodstained caprice, of the most despotic character and varied forms. And the people would resemble their rulers: their passions would be let loose, and all restraints of modesty and decorum be snapt asunder.