The Lord Praised as Refuge, Feast-Giver, Death-Swallower, and Humble King

Isa 25:6 Thus the first hymnic echo dies away; and the eschatological prophecy, coming back to Isa 24:23, but with deeper prayerlike penetration, proceeds thus in Isa 25:6 : “And Jehovah of hosts prepares for all nations upon this mountain a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things rich in marrow, of wines on the lees thoroughly strained. ” “ This mountain ” is Zion, the seat of God’s presence, and the place of His church’s worship.

The feast is therefore a spiritual one. The figure is taken, as in Psa 22:27. , from the sacrificial meals connected with the shelâmim (the peace-offerings). Shemârim mezukkâkim are wines which have been left to stand upon their lees after the first fermentation is over, which have thus thoroughly fermented, and have been kept a long time (from shâmar , to keep, spec .

to allow to ferment), and which are then filtered before drinking (Gr. οἶνος σακκίας, i. e. , διΰλισμένος or διηθικὸς, from διηθεῖν, percolare ), hence wine both strong and clear. Memuchâyı̄m might mean emedullatae (“with the marrow taken out;” compare, perhaps, Pro 31:3), but this could only apply to the bones, not to the fat meat itself; the meaning is therefore “mixed with marrow,” made marrowy, medullosae .

The thing symbolized in this way is the full enjoyment of blessedness in the perfected kingdom of God. The heathen are not only humbled so that they submit to Jehovah, but they also take part in the blessedness of His church, and are abundantly satisfied with the good things of His house, and made to drink of pleasure as from a river (Psa 36:9). The ring of the v.

is inimitably pictorial. It is like joyful music to the heavenly feast. The more flexible form ממחיים (from the original, ממחי = ממחה) is intentionally chosen in the place of ממּסהים. It is as if we heard stringed instruments played with the most rapid movement of the bow.

Isa 25:7-8 Although the feast is one earth, it is on an earth which has been transformed into heaven; for the party-wall between God and the world has fallen down: death is no more, and all tears are for ever wiped away. “And He casts away upon this mountain the veil that veiled over all peoples, and the covering that covered over all nations. He puts away death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah wipes the tear from every face; and He removes the shame of His people from the whole earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it.

” What Jehovah bestows is followed by what He puts away. The “veil” and “covering” ( massēcâh , from nâsac = mâsâc , Isa 22:8, from sâcac , to weave, twist, and twist over = to cover) are not symbols of mourning and affliction, but of spiritual blindness, like the “veil” upon the heart of Israel mentioned in 2Co 3:15. The penē hallōt (cf. , Job 41:5) is the upper side of the veil, the side turned towards you, by which Jehovah takes hold of the veil to lift it up.

The second hallōt stands for הלּט (Ges. §71, Anm. 1), and is written in this form, according to Isaiah’s peculiar style (vid. , Isa 4:6; Isa 7:11; Isa 8:6; Isa 22:13), merely for the sake of the sound, like the obscurer niphal forms in Isa 24:3. The only difference between the two nouns is this: in lōt the leading idea is that of the completeness of the covering, and in massēcâh that of its thickness.

The removing of the veil, as well as of death, is called בּלּע, which we find applied to God in other passages, viz. , Isa 19:3; Psa 21:10; Psa 55:10. Swallowing up is used elsewhere as equivalent to making a thing disappear, by taking it into one’s self; but here, as in many other instances, the notion of receiving into one’s self is dropped, and nothing remains but the idea of taking away, unless, indeed, abolishing of death may perhaps be regarded as taking it back into what hell shows to be the eternal principle of wrath out of which God called it forth.

God will abolish death, so that there shall be no trace left of its former sway. Paul gives a free rendering of this passage in 1Co 15:54, κατεπόθη ὁ θάνατος εἰς νῖκος (after the Aramaean netzach , vincere ). The Syriac combines both ideas, that of the Targum and that of Paul: absorpta est mors per victoriam in sempiternum . But the abolition of death is not in itself the perfection of blessedness.

There are sufferings which force out a sigh, even after death has come as a deliverance. But all these sufferings, whose ultimate ground is sin, Jehovah sweeps away. There is something very significant in the use of the expression דּמעה (a tear), which the Apocalypse renders πᾶν δάκρυον (Rev 21:4). Wherever there is a tear on any face whatever, Jehovah wipes it away; and if Jehovah wipes away, this must be done most thoroughly: He removes the cause with the outward symptom, the sin as well as the tear.

It is self-evident that this applies to the church triumphant. The world has been judged, and what was salvable has been saved. There is therefore no more shame for the people of God. Over the whole earth there is no further place to be found for this; Jehovah has taken it away. The earth is therefore a holy dwelling-place for blessed men. The new Jerusalem is Jehovah’s throne, but the whole earth is Jehovah’s glorious kingdom.

The prophet is here looking from just the same point of view as Paul in 1Co 15:28, and John in the last page of the Apocalypse.

Isa 25:7-8 Although the feast is one earth, it is on an earth which has been transformed into heaven; for the party-wall between God and the world has fallen down: death is no more, and all tears are for ever wiped away. “And He casts away upon this mountain the veil that veiled over all peoples, and the covering that covered over all nations. He puts away death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah wipes the tear from every face; and He removes the shame of His people from the whole earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it.

” What Jehovah bestows is followed by what He puts away. The “veil” and “covering” ( massēcâh , from nâsac = mâsâc , Isa 22:8, from sâcac , to weave, twist, and twist over = to cover) are not symbols of mourning and affliction, but of spiritual blindness, like the “veil” upon the heart of Israel mentioned in 2Co 3:15. The penē hallōt (cf. , Job 41:5) is the upper side of the veil, the side turned towards you, by which Jehovah takes hold of the veil to lift it up.

The second hallōt stands for הלּט (Ges. §71, Anm. 1), and is written in this form, according to Isaiah’s peculiar style (vid. , Isa 4:6; Isa 7:11; Isa 8:6; Isa 22:13), merely for the sake of the sound, like the obscurer niphal forms in Isa 24:3. The only difference between the two nouns is this: in lōt the leading idea is that of the completeness of the covering, and in massēcâh that of its thickness.

The removing of the veil, as well as of death, is called בּלּע, which we find applied to God in other passages, viz. , Isa 19:3; Psa 21:10; Psa 55:10. Swallowing up is used elsewhere as equivalent to making a thing disappear, by taking it into one’s self; but here, as in many other instances, the notion of receiving into one’s self is dropped, and nothing remains but the idea of taking away, unless, indeed, abolishing of death may perhaps be regarded as taking it back into what hell shows to be the eternal principle of wrath out of which God called it forth.

God will abolish death, so that there shall be no trace left of its former sway. Paul gives a free rendering of this passage in 1Co 15:54, κατεπόθη ὁ θάνατος εἰς νῖκος (after the Aramaean netzach , vincere ). The Syriac combines both ideas, that of the Targum and that of Paul: absorpta est mors per victoriam in sempiternum . But the abolition of death is not in itself the perfection of blessedness.

There are sufferings which force out a sigh, even after death has come as a deliverance. But all these sufferings, whose ultimate ground is sin, Jehovah sweeps away. There is something very significant in the use of the expression דּמעה (a tear), which the Apocalypse renders πᾶν δάκρυον (Rev 21:4). Wherever there is a tear on any face whatever, Jehovah wipes it away; and if Jehovah wipes away, this must be done most thoroughly: He removes the cause with the outward symptom, the sin as well as the tear.

It is self-evident that this applies to the church triumphant. The world has been judged, and what was salvable has been saved. There is therefore no more shame for the people of God. Over the whole earth there is no further place to be found for this; Jehovah has taken it away. The earth is therefore a holy dwelling-place for blessed men. The new Jerusalem is Jehovah’s throne, but the whole earth is Jehovah’s glorious kingdom.

The prophet is here looking from just the same point of view as Paul in 1Co 15:28, and John in the last page of the Apocalypse.

Isa 25:9 After this prophetic section, which follows the first melodious echo like an interpolated recitative, the song of praise begins again; but it is soon deflected into the tone of prophecy. The shame of the people of God, mentioned in Isa 25:8, recals to mind the special enemies of the church in its immediate neighbourhood, who could not tyrannize over it indeed, like the empire of the world, but who nevertheless scoffed at it and persecuted it.

The representative and emblem of these foes are the proud and boasting Moab (Isa 16:6; Jer 48:29). All such attempts as that of Knobel to turn this into history are but so much lost trouble. Moab is a mystic name. It is the prediction of the humiliation of Moab in this spiritual sense, for which the second echo opens the way by celebrating Jehovah’s appearing.

Jehovah is now in His manifested presence the conqueror of death, the drier of tears, the saviour of the honour of His oppressed church. “And they say in that day, Behold our God, for whom we waited to help us: this is Jehovah, for whom we waited; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation. ” The undefined but self-evident subject to v'âmar (“they say”) is the church of the last days.

“Behold:” hinnēh and zeh belong to one another, as in Isa 21:9. The waiting may be understood as implying a retrospective glance at all the remote past, even as far back as Jacob’s saying, “I wait for Thy salvation, O Jehovah” (Gen 49:18). The appeal, “Let us be glad,” etc. , has passed over into the grand hodu of Psa 118:24.

Isa 25:10-12 In the land of promise there is rejoicing, but on the other side of the Jordan there is fear of ruin. Two contrasted pictures are placed here side by side. The Jordan is the same as the “great gulf” in the parable of the rich man. Upon Zion Jehovah descends in mercy, but upon the highlands of Moab in His wrath. “For the hand of Jehovah will sink down upon this mountain, and Moab is trodden down there where it is, as straw is trodden down in the water of the dung-pit.

And he spreadeth out his hands in the pool therein, as the swimmer spreadeth them out to swim; but Jehovah forceth down the pride of Moab in spite of the artifices of his hands. Yea, thy steep, towering walls He bows down, forces under, and casts earthwards into dust. ” Jehovah brings down His hand upon Zion ( nūach , as in Isa 7:2; Isa 11:1), not only to shelter, but also to avenge.

Israel, that has been despised, He now makes glorious, and for contemptuous Moab He prepares a shameful end. In the place where it now is תּחתּיו, as in 2Sa 7:10; Hab 3:16, “in its own place,” its own land) it is threshed down, stamped or trodden down, as straw is trodden down into a dung-pit to turn it into manure: hiddūsh , the inf. constr. , with the vowel sound u , possibly to distinguish it from the inf.

absol. hiddosh (Ewald, §240, b ). Instead of בּמו (as in Isa 43:2), the chethib has בּמי (cf. , Job 9:30); and this is probably the more correct reading, since madmēnâh , by itself, means the dunghill, and not the tank of dung water. At the same time, it is quite possible that b'mo is intended as a play upon the name Moab , just as the word madmēnâh may possibly have been chosen with a play upon the Moabitish Madmēn (Jer 48:2).

In Isa 25:11 Jehovah would be the subject, if b'kirbo (in the midst of it) referred back to Moab; but although the figure of Jehovah pressing down the pride of Moab, by spreading out His hands within it like a swimmer, might produce the impression of boldness and dignity in a different connection, yet here, where Moab has just been described as forced down into the manure-pit, the comparison of Jehovah to a swimmer would be a very offensive one. The swimmer is Moab itself, as Gesenius, Hitzig, Knobel, and in fact the majority of commentators suppose.

“ In the midst of it: ” b'kirbo points back in a neuter sense to the place into which Moab had been violently plunged, and which was so little adapted for swimming. A man cannot swim in a manure pond; but Moab attempts it, though without success, for Jehovah presses down the pride of Moab in spite of its artifices עם, as in Neh 5:18; ארבּות, written with dagesh (according to the majority of MSS, from ארבּה, like the Arabic urbe , irbe , cleverness, wit, sharpness), i.

e. , the skilful and cunning movement of its hands. Saad. gives it correctly, as muchâtale , wiles and stratagems; Hitzig also renders it “machinations,” i. e. , twistings and turnings, which Moab makes with its arms, for the purpose of keeping itself up in the water. What Isa 25:11 affirms in figure, Isa 25:12 illustrates without any figure. If the reading were מבצרך חומות משׂגּב, the reference would be to Kir-Moab (Isa 15:1; Isa 16:7).

But as the text stands, we are evidently to understand by it the strong and lofty walls of the cities of Moab in general.

Isa 25:10-12 In the land of promise there is rejoicing, but on the other side of the Jordan there is fear of ruin. Two contrasted pictures are placed here side by side. The Jordan is the same as the “great gulf” in the parable of the rich man. Upon Zion Jehovah descends in mercy, but upon the highlands of Moab in His wrath. “For the hand of Jehovah will sink down upon this mountain, and Moab is trodden down there where it is, as straw is trodden down in the water of the dung-pit.

And he spreadeth out his hands in the pool therein, as the swimmer spreadeth them out to swim; but Jehovah forceth down the pride of Moab in spite of the artifices of his hands. Yea, thy steep, towering walls He bows down, forces under, and casts earthwards into dust. ” Jehovah brings down His hand upon Zion ( nūach , as in Isa 7:2; Isa 11:1), not only to shelter, but also to avenge.

Israel, that has been despised, He now makes glorious, and for contemptuous Moab He prepares a shameful end. In the place where it now is תּחתּיו, as in 2Sa 7:10; Hab 3:16, “in its own place,” its own land) it is threshed down, stamped or trodden down, as straw is trodden down into a dung-pit to turn it into manure: hiddūsh , the inf. constr. , with the vowel sound u , possibly to distinguish it from the inf.

absol. hiddosh (Ewald, §240, b ). Instead of בּמו (as in Isa 43:2), the chethib has בּמי (cf. , Job 9:30); and this is probably the more correct reading, since madmēnâh , by itself, means the dunghill, and not the tank of dung water. At the same time, it is quite possible that b'mo is intended as a play upon the name Moab , just as the word madmēnâh may possibly have been chosen with a play upon the Moabitish Madmēn (Jer 48:2).

In Isa 25:11 Jehovah would be the subject, if b'kirbo (in the midst of it) referred back to Moab; but although the figure of Jehovah pressing down the pride of Moab, by spreading out His hands within it like a swimmer, might produce the impression of boldness and dignity in a different connection, yet here, where Moab has just been described as forced down into the manure-pit, the comparison of Jehovah to a swimmer would be a very offensive one. The swimmer is Moab itself, as Gesenius, Hitzig, Knobel, and in fact the majority of commentators suppose.

“ In the midst of it: ” b'kirbo points back in a neuter sense to the place into which Moab had been violently plunged, and which was so little adapted for swimming. A man cannot swim in a manure pond; but Moab attempts it, though without success, for Jehovah presses down the pride of Moab in spite of its artifices עם, as in Neh 5:18; ארבּות, written with dagesh (according to the majority of MSS, from ארבּה, like the Arabic urbe , irbe , cleverness, wit, sharpness), i.

e. , the skilful and cunning movement of its hands. Saad. gives it correctly, as muchâtale , wiles and stratagems; Hitzig also renders it “machinations,” i. e. , twistings and turnings, which Moab makes with its arms, for the purpose of keeping itself up in the water. What Isa 25:11 affirms in figure, Isa 25:12 illustrates without any figure. If the reading were מבצרך חומות משׂגּב, the reference would be to Kir-Moab (Isa 15:1; Isa 16:7).

But as the text stands, we are evidently to understand by it the strong and lofty walls of the cities of Moab in general.

Isa 25:10-12 In the land of promise there is rejoicing, but on the other side of the Jordan there is fear of ruin. Two contrasted pictures are placed here side by side. The Jordan is the same as the “great gulf” in the parable of the rich man. Upon Zion Jehovah descends in mercy, but upon the highlands of Moab in His wrath. “For the hand of Jehovah will sink down upon this mountain, and Moab is trodden down there where it is, as straw is trodden down in the water of the dung-pit.

And he spreadeth out his hands in the pool therein, as the swimmer spreadeth them out to swim; but Jehovah forceth down the pride of Moab in spite of the artifices of his hands. Yea, thy steep, towering walls He bows down, forces under, and casts earthwards into dust. ” Jehovah brings down His hand upon Zion ( nūach , as in Isa 7:2; Isa 11:1), not only to shelter, but also to avenge.

Israel, that has been despised, He now makes glorious, and for contemptuous Moab He prepares a shameful end. In the place where it now is תּחתּיו, as in 2Sa 7:10; Hab 3:16, “in its own place,” its own land) it is threshed down, stamped or trodden down, as straw is trodden down into a dung-pit to turn it into manure: hiddūsh , the inf. constr. , with the vowel sound u , possibly to distinguish it from the inf.

absol. hiddosh (Ewald, §240, b ). Instead of בּמו (as in Isa 43:2), the chethib has בּמי (cf. , Job 9:30); and this is probably the more correct reading, since madmēnâh , by itself, means the dunghill, and not the tank of dung water. At the same time, it is quite possible that b'mo is intended as a play upon the name Moab , just as the word madmēnâh may possibly have been chosen with a play upon the Moabitish Madmēn (Jer 48:2).

In Isa 25:11 Jehovah would be the subject, if b'kirbo (in the midst of it) referred back to Moab; but although the figure of Jehovah pressing down the pride of Moab, by spreading out His hands within it like a swimmer, might produce the impression of boldness and dignity in a different connection, yet here, where Moab has just been described as forced down into the manure-pit, the comparison of Jehovah to a swimmer would be a very offensive one. The swimmer is Moab itself, as Gesenius, Hitzig, Knobel, and in fact the majority of commentators suppose.

“ In the midst of it: ” b'kirbo points back in a neuter sense to the place into which Moab had been violently plunged, and which was so little adapted for swimming. A man cannot swim in a manure pond; but Moab attempts it, though without success, for Jehovah presses down the pride of Moab in spite of its artifices עם, as in Neh 5:18; ארבּות, written with dagesh (according to the majority of MSS, from ארבּה, like the Arabic urbe , irbe , cleverness, wit, sharpness), i.

e. , the skilful and cunning movement of its hands. Saad. gives it correctly, as muchâtale , wiles and stratagems; Hitzig also renders it “machinations,” i. e. , twistings and turnings, which Moab makes with its arms, for the purpose of keeping itself up in the water. What Isa 25:11 affirms in figure, Isa 25:12 illustrates without any figure. If the reading were מבצרך חומות משׂגּב, the reference would be to Kir-Moab (Isa 15:1; Isa 16:7).

But as the text stands, we are evidently to understand by it the strong and lofty walls of the cities of Moab in general.

Isa 26:1 Thus the second hymnic echo has its confirmation in a prophecy against Moab, on the basis of which a third hymnic echo now arises. Whilst on the other side, in the land of Moab, the people are trodden down, and its lofty castles demolished, the people in the land of Judah can boast of an impregnable city. “In that day will this song be sung in the land of Judah: A city of defence is ours; salvation He sets for walls and bulwark.

” According to the punctuation, this ought to be rendered, “A city is a shelter for us;” but עז עיר seem rather to be connected, according to Pro 17:19, “a city of strong, i. e. , of impregnable offence and defence. ” The subject of ישׁית is Jehovah. The figure indicates what He is constantly doing, and ever doing afresh; for the walls and bulwarks of Jerusalem ( chēl , as in Lam 2:8, the small outside wall which encloses all the fortifications) are not dead stone, but yeshuâh , ever living and never exhausted salvation (Isa 60:18).

In just the same sense Jehovah is called elsewhere the wall of Jerusalem, and even a wall of fire in Zec 2:9 - parallels which show that yeshuâh is intended to be taken as the accusative of the object, and not as the accusative of the predicate, according to Isa 5:6; Psa 21:7; Psa 84:7; Jer 22:6 (Luzzatto).

Isa 26:2 In Isa 26:1 this city is thought of as still empty: for, like paradise, in which man was placed, it is first of all a creation of God; and hence the exclamation in Isa 26:2 : “Open ye the gates, that a righteous people may enter, one keeping truthfulness. ” The cry is a heavenly one; and those who open, if indeed we are at liberty to inquire who they are, must be angels.

We recall to mind Psa 24:1-10, but the scene is a different one. The author of Ps 118 has given individuality to this passage in Psa 118:19, Psa 118:20. Goi tzaddik (a righteous nation) is the church of the righteous, as in Isa 24:16. Goi (nation) is used here, as in Isa 26:15 and Isa 9:2, with reference to Israel, which has now by grace become a righteous nation, and has been established in covenant truth towards God, who keepeth truth ( 'emunim , from 'ēmūn , Psa 31:24).

Isa 26:3 The relation of Israel and Jehovah to one another is now a permanent one. “Thou keepest the firmly-established mind in peace, peace; for his confidence rests on Thee. ” A gnome (borrowed in Psa 112:7-8), but in a lyrical connection, and with a distinct reference to the church of the last days. There is no necessity to take סמוּ יצר as standing for יצר סמוּך, as Knobel does.

The state of mind is mentioned here as designating the person possessing it, according to his inmost nature. יצר (the mind) is the whole attitude and habit of a man as inwardly constituted, i. e. , as a being capable of thought and will. סמוּך is the same, regarded as having a firm hold in itself, and this it has whenever it has a firm hold on God (Isa 10:20).

This is the mind of the new Israel, and Jehovah keeps it, shâlom , shâlom (peace, peace; accusative predicates, used in the place of a consequential clause), i. e. , so that deep and constant peace abides therein (Phi 4:7). Such a mind is thus kept by Jehovah, because its trust is placed in Jehovah. בּטוּח refers to יצר, according to Ewald, §149, d , and is therefore equivalent to הוּא בּטוּח (cf.

, Psa 7:10; Psa 55:20), the passive participle, like the Latin confisus , fretus . To hang on God, or to be thoroughly devoted to Him, secures both stability and peace.

Isa 26:4 A cry goes forth again, as if from heaven, exhorting Israel to continue in this mind. “Hang confidently on Jehovah for ever: for in Jah, Jehovah, is an everlasting rock. ” The combination Jah Jehovah is only met with here and in Isa 12:2. It is the proper name of God the Redeemer in the most emphatic form. The Beth essentiae frequently stands before the predicate (Ges.

§151, 3); here, however, it stands before the subject, as in Psa 78:5; Psa 55:19. In Jah Jehovah ( munach , tzakeph ) there is an everlasting rock, i. e. , He is essentially such a rock (compare Deu 32:4, like Exo 15:2 for Isa 12:2).