24. Lord ... Lord--Adonai, Jehovah.
mighty One of Israel--mighty to take vengeance, as before, to save.
Ah--indignation.
ease me--My long tried patience will find relief in at last punishing the guilty ([Eze 5:13]). God's language condescends to human conceptions.
25. turn ... hand--not in wrath, but in grace ([Zec 13:7]), "upon thee," as [Is 1:26], show; contrasted with the enemies, of whom He will avenge Himself ([Is 1:24]).
purely--literally, "as alkali purifies."
thy dross--not thy sins, but the sinful persons ([Jr 6:29]); "enemies" ([Is 1:24]); degenerate princes (see on [Is 1:22]), intermingled with the elect "remnant" of grace.
tin--Hebrew, bedil, here the alloy of lead, tin, &c., separated by smelting from the silver. The pious Bishop Bedell took his motto from this.
26. As the degeneracy had shown itself most in the magistrates ([Is 1:17-23]), so, at the "restoration," these shall be such as the theocracy "at the first" had contemplated, namely, after the Babylonish restoration in part and typically, but fully and antitypically under Messiah ([Is 32:1]; ; [Jr 33:7]; [Mt 19:28]).
faithful--no longer "an harlot."
27. redeemed--temporarily, civilly, and morally; type of the spiritual redemption by the price of Jesus Christ's blood ([1Pe 1:18], ), the foundation of "judgment" and "righteousness," and so of pardon. The judgment and righteousness are God's first ([Is 42:21]; [Ro 3:26]); so they become man's when "converted" ([Ro 8:3], ); typified in the display of God's "justice," then exhibited in delivering His covenant-people, whereby justice or "righteousness" was produced in them.
converts--so Maurer. But Margin, "they that return of her," namely the remnant that return from captivity. However, as Isaiah had not yet expressly foretold the Babylonian captivity, the English Version is better.
28. destruction--literally, "breaking into shivers" ([Re 2:27]). The prophets hasten forward to the final extinction of the ungodly ([Psa 37:20]; [Re 19:20]; ); of which antecedent judgments are types.
29. ashamed--([Ro 6:21]).
oaks--Others translate the "terebinth" or "turpentine tree." Groves were dedicated to idols. Our Druids took their name from the Greek for "oaks." A sacred tree is often found in Assyrian sculpture; symbol of the starry hosts, Saba.
gardens--planted enclosures for idolatry; the counterpart of the garden of Eden.
30. oak--Ye shall be like the "oaks," the object of your "desire" ([Is 1:29]). People become like the gods they worship; they never rise above their level ([Psa 135:18]). So men's sins become their own scourges ([Jr 2:9]). The leaf of the idol oak fades by a law of necessary consequence, having no living sap or "water" from God. So "garden" answers to "gardens" ([Is 1:29]).
31. strong--powerful rulers ([Am 2:9]).
maker of it--rather, his work. He shall be at once the fuel, "tow," and the cause of the fire, by kindling the first "spark."
both--the wicked ruler, and "his work," which "is as a spark."
Chapter 2
[Is 2:1-22].
1. The inscription.
The word--the revelation.
2. Same as [Mi 4:1]. As Micah prophesied in Jotham's reign, and Isaiah in Uzziah's, Micah rests on Isaiah, whom he confirms: not vice versa. Hengstenberg on slight grounds makes [Mi 4:1] the original.
last days--that is, Messiah's: especially the days yet to come, to which all prophecy hastens, when "the house of the God of Jacob," namely, at Jerusalem, shall be the center to which the converted nations shall flock together ([Mt 13:32]; [Lu 2:31], 32; [Ac 1:6], ); where "the kingdom" of Israel is regarded as certain and the time alone uncertain ([Psa 68:15], ; , ).
mountain of the Lord's house ... in the top, &c.--the temple on Mount Moriah: type of the Gospel, beginning at Jerusalem, and, like an object set on the highest hill, made so conspicuous that all nations are attracted to it.
flow--as a broad stream ([Is 66:12]).
3. If the curse foretold against Israel has been literally fulfilled, so shall the promised blessing be literal. We Gentiles must not, while giving them the curse, deny them their peculiar blessing by spiritualizing it. The Holy Ghost shall be poured out for a general conversion then ([Jr 50:5]; [Zec 8:21], ; [Joe 2:28]).
from Jerusalem--([Lu 24:47]) an earnest of the future relations of Jerusalem to Christendom ([Ro 11:12], ).
4. judge--as a sovereign umpire, settling all controversies (compare [Is 11:4]). Lowth translates "work," "conviction."
plowshares--in the East resembling a short sword ([Is 9:6], ; [Zec 9:10]).
5. The connection is: As Israel's high destiny is to be a blessing to all nations ([Ge 12:3]), let Israel's children walk worthy of it ([Ep 5:8]).
6. Therefore--rather, "For": reasons why there is the more need of the exhortation in [Is 2:5].
thou--transition to Jehovah: such rapid transitions are natural, when the mind is full of a subject.
replenished--rather, filled, namely, with the superstitions of the East, Syria, and Chaldea.
soothsayers--forbidden ([De 18:10-14]).
Philistines--southwest of Palestine: antithesis to "the east."
please themselves--rather, join hands with, that is, enter into alliances, matrimonial and national: forbidden ([Ex 23:32]; [Ne 13:23], &c.).
7. gold--forbidden to be heaped together ([De 17:17]). Solomon disobeyed ([1Ki 10:21], ).
horses ... chariots--forbidden ([De 17:16]). But Solomon disobeyed ([1Ki 20:26]). Horses could be used effectively for war in the plains of Egypt; not so in the hilly Judea. God designed there should be as wide as possible a distinction between Israel and the Egyptians. He would have His people wholly dependent on Him, rather than on the ordinary means of warfare ([Psa 20:7]). Also horses were connected with idolatry ([2Ki 23:11]); hence His objection: so the transition to "idols" ([Is 2:8]) is natural.
8. ([Ho 8:4]). Not so much public idolatry, which was not sanctioned in Uzziah's and Jotham's reign, but (see [2Ki 15:4], ) as private.
9. mean--in rank: not morally base: opposed to "the great man." The former is in Hebrew, Adam, the latter, ish.
boweth--namely, to idols. All ranks were idolaters.
forgive ... not--a threat expressed by an imperative. Isaiah so identifies himself with God's will, that he prays for that which he knows God purposes. So [Re 18:6].