--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 331 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/331/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 331. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/331/" --- # Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible *Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown* The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation. ## 331. Isaiah · 34 of 79 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/331/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/331/#p-N [¶0] 24. all day--emphatic; he is not always ploughing: he also "sows," and that, too, in accordance with sure rules ([Is 28:25]). [¶1] doth he open--supply "always." Is he always harrowing? [¶2] 25. face--the "surface" of the ground: "made plain," or level, by harrowing. [¶3] fitches--rather, "dill," or "fennel"; Nigella romana, with black seed, easily beaten out, used as a condiment and medicine in the East. So the Septuagint, "cummin" was used in the same way. [¶4] cast in ... principal wheat--rather, plant the wheat in rows (for wheat was thought to yield the largest crop, by being planted sparingly [Pliny, Natural History, 18.21]); [Maurer]; "sow the wheat regularly" [Horsley]. But Gesenius, like English Version, "fat," or "principal," that is, excellent wheat. [¶5] appointed barley--rather, "barley in its appointed place" [Maurer]. [¶6] in their place--rather, "in its (the field's) border" [Maurer]. [¶7] 26. to discretion--in the due rules of husbandry; God first taught it to man ([Ge 3:23]). [¶8] 27. The husbandman uses the same discretion in threshing. The dill ("fitches") and cummin, leguminous and tender grains, are beaten out, not as wheat, &c., with the heavy corn-drag ("threshing instrument"), but with "a staff"; heavy instruments would crush and injure the seed. [¶9] cart wheel--two iron wheels armed with iron teeth, like a saw, joined together by a wooden axle. The "corn-drag" was made of three or four wooden cylinders, armed with iron teeth or flint stones fixed underneath, and joined like a sledge. Both instruments cut the straw for fodder as well as separated the corn. [¶10] staff--used also where they had but a small quantity of corn; the flail ([Ru 2:17]). [¶11] 28. Bread corn--corn of which bread is made. [¶12] bruised--threshed with the corn-drag (as contrasted with dill and cummin, "beaten with the staff"), or, "trodden out" by the hoofs of cattle driven over it on the threshing-floor [G. V. Smith], ([De 25:4]; [Mi 4:13]). [¶13] because--rather, "but" [Horsley]; though the corn is threshed with the heavy instrument, yet he will not always be thus threshing it. [¶14] break it--"drive over it (continually) the wheel" [Maurer]. [¶15] cart--threshing-drag. [¶16] horsemen--rather, "horses"; used to tread out corn. [¶17] 29. This also--The skill wherewith the husbandman duly adjusts his modes of threshing is given by God, as well as the skill ([Is 28:26]) wherewith he tills and sows ([Is 28:24], ). Therefore He must also be able to adapt His modes of treatment to the several moral needs of His creatures. His object in sending tribulation (derived from the Latin tribulum, a "threshing instrument," [Lu 22:31]; [Ro 5:3]) is to sever the moral chaff from the wheat, not to crush utterly; "His judgments are usually in the line of our offenses; by the nature of the judgments we may usually ascertain the nature of the sin" [Barnes]. ### Chapter 29 ### Is 29:1-24. Coming Invasion of Jerusalem: Its Failure: Unbelief of the Jews [¶20] This chapter opens the series of prophecies as to the invasion of Judea under Sennacherib, and its deliverance. [¶21] 1. Ariel--Jerusalem; Ariel means "Lion of God," that is, city rendered by God invincible: the lion is emblem of a mighty hero ([2Sa 23:20]). Otherwise "Hearth of God," that is, place where the altar-fire continually burns to God ([Is 31:9]; [Eze 43:15], ). [¶22] add ... year to year--ironically; suffer one year after another to glide on in the round of formal, heartless "sacrifices." Rather, "add yet another year" to the one just closed [Maurer]. Let a year elapse and a little more ([Is 32:10], Margin). [¶23] let ... kill sacrifices--rather, "let the beasts (of another year) go round" [Maurer]; that is, after the completion of a year "I will distress Ariel." [¶24] 2. Yet--rather, "Then." [¶25] heaviness ... sorrow--rather, preserving the Hebrew paronomasia, "groaning" and "moaning." [¶26] as Ariel--either, "the city shall be as a lion of God," that is, it shall emerge from its dangers unvanquished; or "it shall be as the altar of burnt offering," consuming with fire the besiegers ([Is 29:6]; [Is 30:30]; ; [Le 10:2]); or best, as [Is 29:3] continues the threat, and the promise of deliverance does not come till [Is 29:4], "it shall be like a hearth of burning," that is, a scene of devastation by fire [G. V. Smith]. The prophecy, probably, contemplates ultimately, besides the affliction and deliverance in Sennacherib's time, the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome, the dispersion of the Jews, their restoration, the destruction of the enemies that besiege the city ([Zec 14:2]), and the final glory of Israel ([Is 29:17-24]). [¶27] 3. I--Jehovah, acting through the Assyrian, &c., His instruments ([Is 10:5]). [¶28] mount--an artificial mound formed to out-top high walls ([Is 37:33]); else a station, namely, of warriors, for the siege. [¶29] round about--not fully realized under Sennacherib, but in the Roman siege ([Lu 19:43]; ). [¶30] forts--siege-towers ([De 20:20]). [¶31] 4. Jerusalem shall be as a captive, humbled to the dust. Her voice shall come from the earth as that of the spirit-charmers or necromancers ([Is 8:19]), faint and shrill, as the voice of the dead was supposed to be. Ventriloquism was doubtless the trick caused to make the voice appear to come from the earth ([Is 19:3]). An appropriate retribution that Jerusalem, which consulted necromancers, should be made like them! [¶32] 5. Moreover--rather, "Yet"; yet in this extremity help shall come, and the enemy be scattered. [¶33] strangers--foreign enemies, invaders ([Is 25:2]). [¶34] it shall be--namely, the destruction of the enemy. [¶35] at an instant--in a moment ([Is 30:23]). [¶36] 6. Thou--the Assyrian army. [¶37] thunder, &c.--not literally, in the case of the Assyrians ([Is 37:36]); but figuratively for an awful judgment ([Is 30:30]; ). The ulterior fulfilment, in the case of the Jews' foes in the last days, may be more literal (see as to "earthquake," [Zec 14:4]). [¶38] 7. munition--fortress. [¶39] 8. Their disappointment in the very height of their confident expectation of taking Jerusalem shall be as great as that of the hungry man who in a dream fancies he eats, but awakes to hunger still ([Psa 73:20]); their dream shall be dissipated on the fatal morning ([Is 37:36]). [¶40] soul--simply his appetite: he is still thirsty. [¶41] 9. Stay--rather, "Be astounded"; expressing the stupid and amazed incredulity with which the Jews received Isaiah's announcement. [¶42] wonder--The second imperative, as often ([Is 8:9]), is a threat; the first is a simple declaration of a fact, "Be astounded, since you choose to be so, at the prophecy, soon you will be amazed at the sight of the actual event" [Maurer]. [¶43] cry ... out ... cry--rather, "Be ye blinded (since you choose to be so, though the light shines all round you), and soon ye shall be blinded" in good earnest to your sorrow [Maurer], ([Is 6:9], ). [¶44] not with wine--but with spiritual paralysis ([Is 51:17], ).