---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 825 of 914
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/825/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 825. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/825/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2.

## 825. Isaiah · 45 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/825/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/825/#p-N

[¶0] The flesh of the mighty shall ye eat,

[¶1] And the blood of the lofty of the earth shall ye drink;

[¶2] Of rams, of lambs, and of goats,

[¶3] Of bullocks, all of them the fat ones of Bashan;

[¶4] And ye shall eat fat, till ye are cloyed,

[¶5] And drink blood, till ye are drunken;

[¶6] Of my slaughter, which I have slain for you."

[¶7] The sublime author of the [Rev 19:17], [Rev 19:18], has taken this image from Ezekiel, rather than from Isaiah.

### Verse 7

[¶9] The unicorns shall come down - ראמים reemim, translated wild goats by Bishop Lowth. The ראם reem Bochart thinks to be a species of wild goat in the deserts of Arabia. It seems generally to mean the rhinoceros.

[¶10] With blood "With their blood" - מדמם middamam; so two ancient MSS. of Kennicott's the Syriac, and Chaldee.

### Verse 8

[¶12] The year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion "The year of recompense to the defender of the cause of Zion" - As from דון dun, דין din, a judge; so from רוב rub, ריב rib, an advocate, or defender; Judici Sionis: Syriac.

### Verse 11

[¶14] The cormorant - קאת kaath, the pelican, from the root קיא ki, to vomit, because it is said she swallows shell-fish, and when the heat of her stomach has killed the fish, she vomits the shells, takes out the dead fish, and eats them.

[¶15] The bittern - קפד kippod, the hedge-hog, or porcupine.

[¶16] The owl - ינשוף yanshoph, the bittern, from נשף nashaph, to blow, because of the blowing noise it makes, almost like the lowing of an ox. My old MS. Bible renders the words thus: - The foule in face like an asse, and the yrchoun, and the snyte (snipe.)

[¶17] The line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness "The plummet of emptiness over her scorched plains" - The word חריה choreyha, joined to the 12th verse, embarrasses it, and makes it inexplicable. At least I do not know that any one has yet made out the construction, or given any tolerable explication of it. I join it to the 11th verse, and supply a letter or two, which seem to have been lost. Fifteen MSS. five ancient, and two editions, read חוריה choreyha; the first printed edition of 1486, I think nearer to the truth, חור חריה chor choreyha. I read בחרריה becharereyha, or על חרריה al chorereyha; see [Jer 17:6]. A MS. has חדיה chodiah, and the Syriac reads חדוה chaduah, gaudium, joining it to the two preceding words; which he likewise reads differently, but without improving the sense. However, his authority is clear for dividing the verses as they are here divided. I read שם shem, as a noun. They shall boast, יקראו yikreu; see [Pro 20:6].

### Verse 13

[¶19] And thorns shall come up in her palaces - ועלו בארמנותיה vealu bearmenotheyha; so read all the ancient versions.

[¶20] A court for owls - יענה yaanah, the ostrich, from ענה anah, to cry, because of the noise it makes. "They roar, "says Dr. Shaw, "sometimes like a lion - sometimes like a bull. I have often heard them groan as if in the utmost distress."

### Verse 14

[¶22] The weld beasts of the desert - ציים tsiyim, the mountain cats. - Bochart.

[¶23] Wild beasts of the island - איים aiyim, the jackals.

[¶24] The satyr - שעיר seir, the hairy one, probably the he-goat.

[¶25] The screech owl - לילית lilith, the night-bird, the night-raven, nyctycorax, from ליל layil, or לילה lailah, the night.

### Verse 15

[¶27] The great owl - קפוז kippoz, the ακοντιας, or darter, a serpent so called because of its suddenly leaping up or darting on its prey. Probably the mongoose or ichneumon may be intended.

[¶28] The vultures - דיות daiyoth, the black vultures. My old MS. Bible renders these names curiously: And ageyn cumen schul devylis: the beste, party of an asse, and party of a mam: and the wodwose, the tother schal crien to the tother. There schal byn lamya, that is, thrisse, or a beste, havynge the body liic a woman, and hors feet. Ther hadde dichis, the yrchoun, and nurshide out littil chittis. There ben gadred kiitis, the top to the top. What language!

[¶29] Every one with her mate - A MS. adds אל el after אשה ishshah, which seems necessary to the construction; and so the Syriac and Vulgate. Another MS. adds in the same place את eth, which is equivalent.

### Verse 16

[¶31] My mouth "For the mouth of Jehovah" - For הוא hu, five MSS., (three ancient), read יהוה Jehovah, and another is so corrected; so likewise the Septuagint. Two editions have צום tsivam; and so the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Arabic, with the edition of 1486, and a MS. has קבצם kebatsam, with the masculine pronoun instead of the feminine: and so in the next verses it is להם lahem, instead of להן lahen, in fourteen MSS., six of them ancient. - L. To see the importance of these various readings, the Hebrew Bible must be consulted.

### Introduction

[¶33] Flourishing state of the Church of God consequent to the awful judgments predicted in the preceding chapter. The images employed in the description are so very consolatory and sublime as to oblige us to extend their fulfillment to that period of the Gospel dispensation when Messiah shall take unto himself his great power and reign. The fifth and sixth verses were literally accomplished by our Savior and his apostles: but that the miracles wrought in the first century were not the only import of the language used by the prophet, is sufficiently plain from the context. They, therefore, have a farther application; and are contemporary with, or rather a consequence of, the judgments of God upon the enemies of the Church in the latter days; and so relate to the greater influence and extension of the Christian faith, the conversion of the Jews, their restoration to their own land, and the second advent of Christ. Much of the imagery of this chapter seems to have been borrowed from the exodus from Egypt: but it is greatly enlivened by the life, sentiments, and passions ascribed to inanimate objects; all nature being represented as rejoicing with the people of God in consequence of their deliverance; and administering in such an unusual manner to their relief and comfort, as to induce some commentators to extend the meaning of the prophecy to the blessedness of the saints in heaven, [Isa 35:1-10].

[¶34] The various miracles our Lord wrought are the best comment on this chapter, which predicts those wondrous works and the glorious state of the Christian Church. See the parallel texts in the margin.

[¶35] On this chapter Bishop Lowth has offered some important emendations. I shall introduce his translation, as the best yet given of this singular prophecy: -

[¶36] 1. The desert and the waste shall be glad;And the wilderness shall rejoice, and flourish:

[¶37] 2. Like the rose shall it beautifully flourish;And the well-watered plain of Jordan shall also rejoice:The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it,The beauty of Carmel and of Sharon;These shall behold the glory of Jehovah,The majesty of our God.

[¶38] 3. Strengthen ye the feeble hands,And confirm ye the tottering knees.

[¶39] 4. Say ye to the faint-hearted, Be ye strong;Fear ye not; behold your God!Vengeance will come; the retribution of God:He himself will come, and will deliver you.

[¶40] 5. Then shall be unclosed the eyes of the blind;And the ears of the deaf shall be opened:

[¶41] 6. Then shall the lame bound like the hart,And the tongue of the dumb shall sing;For in the wilderness shall burst forth waters,And torrents in the desert:

[¶42] 7. And the glowing sand shall become a pool,And the thirsty soil bubbling springs:And in the haunt of dragons shall spring forthThe grass with the reed and the bulrush.

[¶43] 8. And a highway shall be there;And it shall be called The way of holiness:No unclean person shall pass through it:But he himself shall be with them, walking in the way,And the foolish shall not err therein:

[¶44] 9. No lion shall be there;Nor shall the tyrant of the beasts come up thither:Neither shall he be found thereBut the redeemed shall walk in it.