Isaiah 26:6 Komentář

This chapter is a song of holy joy and praise, in which the great things God had engaged, in the foregoing chapter, to do for his people against his enemies and their enemies are celebrated: it is prepared to be sung when that prophecy should be accomplished; for we must be forward to meet God with our thanksgivings when he is coming towards us with his mercies. Now the people of God are here taught, I. To triumph in the safety and holy security both of the church in general and of every particular member of it, under the divine protection (Isa 26:1-4). II. To triumph over all opposing powers (Isa 26:5, Isa 26:6). III. To walk with God, and wait for him, in the worst and darkest times, Isa 26:7-9). IV. To lament the stupidity of those who regarded not the providence of God, either merciful or afflictive (Isa 26:10, Isa 26:11). V. To encourage themselves, and one another, with hopes that God would still continue to do them good (Isa 26:12, Isa 26:14), and engage themselves to continue in his service (Isa 26:13). VI. To recollect the kind providences of God towards them in their low and distressed condition, and their conduct under those providences (Isa 26:15-18). VII. To rejoice in hope of a glorious deliverance, which should be as a resurrection to them (Isa 26:19), and to retire in the expectation of it (Isa 26:20, Isa 26:21). And this is written for the support and assistance of the faith and hope of God's people in all ages, even those upon whom the ends of the world have come.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 26 This chapter contains a song of praise for the safety and prosperity of the church, and the destruction of its enemies. The church is represented as a strong city, whose walls and bulwarks are salvation, Isa 26:1 it is said to have gates which are to be opened to a righteous nation, Isa 26:2 its inhabitants, being such who trust in the Lord, are promised perfect peace, Isa 26:3 hence the saints are exhorted to trust in him, Isa 26:4 then follows an account of another city, described as lofty, and its inhabitants as dwelling on high, who are brought down, and trampled on, by the feet of the poor and needy, Isa 26:5 when the prophet returns to the righteous, and asserts their way to be uprightness, because their path is weighed or levelled by God the most upright, Isa 26:7 and in the name of the church declares that they had waited for the Lord in the way of his judgments; and that the desire of their souls was to his name, and the remembrance of it; and that they continued, and would continue, to desire him, and seek after him, seeing righteousness was to be learned by his judgments, Isa 26:8 and though the wicked would not be brought to repentance and reformation by the goodness of God, nor take notice of his hand, yet they should see and be ashamed, and destroyed at last, Isa 26:10 but notwithstanding these judgments of God in the earth, the church professes her faith in the Lord, that he would give her peace and prosperity, from the consideration of what he had wrought for her, and in her, Isa 26:12 and rejects all other lords but him, Isa 26:13 who were dead, and should not live again, but were visited and destroyed, and their memory made to perish, Isa 26:14 but the righteous nation should be increased, though they should meet with trouble, which would cause them to go to the throne of grace, and there pour out their complaints, express their pain and distresses, and the disappointments they had met with, Isa 26:15 to which an answer is returned, promising a glorious resurrection, Isa 26:19 and calling upon the people of God to retire to their chambers for protection in the mean while, until the punishment to be inflicted on the inhabitants of the earth for their sins was over, Isa 26:20.

The foot shall tread it down,.... Trample upon it when brought down, laid low, and level with the ground, as mire is trodden in the streets, and straw for the dunghill; as grapes in the winepress, or grass by the feet of cattle: not the foot of a prince, as Aben Ezra observes, or of mighty men; but, as follows, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy; these are not the Israelites in a literal sense, as Kimchi explains it; but the spiritual Israel of God; the righteous, as the Targum paraphrases it; the saints of the most High, to whom the kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven will now be given, and who will be just come out of great tribulation; for the words suggest, that the people of God will be a poor and afflicted people, and very feeble, and sore distressed, a little before the destruction of antichrist; but as God has been always used to do his work by the poor and weak things of this world, by mean and feeble instruments, so he will now, and raise his poor and needy ones to a very high and exalted estate; all their enemies shall be subdued and crushed under their feet; see Mal 4:3 Jarchi interprets the feet of the poor of the feet of the King Messiah, according to Zac 9:9.

(Vers. 5, 6.) In the Lord, the mighty God forever: for He will bring down those who dwell on high; He will humble the lofty city and bring it down to the ground; He will cast it down to the dust. The feet shall trample it, the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy. LXX: O great and eternal God, who have humbled and cast down those who dwell on high, you will destroy strong cities and bring them down to the pavement, and their feet will be trampled by the meek and the humble. And this is what the Prophet speaks, who answered him in the place where he had said above: Hope in the Lord in eternal ages; and he joins to it what we have now proposed: In the Lord God Almighty forever, and so on. For the Lord God Almighty, in Hebrew has three names, Ia () and Adonai () and Sur (), which mean, respectively, invisible, ineffable, and strong, of which the first is placed in the last syllable of Alleluia (). And let the diligent reader observe this, that sometimes we divide the text in the proposition of testimonium: because one edition has one sense from the Septuagint and another has the sense expressed word for word from the Hebrew. Therefore the Prophet says: Hope in the Lord in eternal ages: in the Lord God Almighty forever, whose help is everlasting. For He will bow down those who dwell on high, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled; those who boasted of having Abraham as their father, and spoke against the Lord: We are not born of fornication (John VIII, 41). He will also humble the lofty city, as the Jews believe, Rome (or rather Jerusalem), which killed the Prophets, and stoned those who were sent to it, and finally killed the son of the master of the house, so that the heir, being killed, the inheritance would perish (Luke XIII). And the city is not called the one [which] is called in Hebrew Ir, but Caria which Aquila translated as πολίχνην, which we can call either a small city or village or town, and frequently in the Scriptures it is referred to by this name Jerusalem. And beautifully, he placed a twofold humility: He will humble, he will humble it, first under the Babylonians, when the temple was destroyed, secondly under Titus and Vespasian, whose ruin continues until the end. It tramples it under foot, and treads upon it, and joins the feet of the poor, without doubt of Christ. Of whom we have already spoken above: He became strength to the poor; the strength of the needy in their tribulation. The steps of the needy, namely the Apostles, who imitating the poverty of the Lord, also obtained the privilege of his virtue; who, not being received, shook off the dust of their feet upon it. And because it is said in the words of the Savior, Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled: and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11), we can apply this not only to men, but also to contrary virtues. According to the Septuagint, the Prophet sings praises to God, because he humiliates all the proud and tears down the fortifications of all cities to the ground, and he treads upon the heads of the holy, the meek, and the humble.

And he adds the condition of those who destroy them: the foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, the Jews, who have little; the needy, who need to have many things. Or, if taken mystically, he sets out the Jews' meriting of destruction on account of the poor Christ, of whom it says in Psalm 69:6[70:5]: but I am needy and poor, and also: but I am poor and sorrowful (Ps 68:30[69:29]); the needy, the disciples.

Jeremiah, by the commend of God, goes into the court of the Lord's house; and foretells the destruction of the temple and city, if not prevented by the speedy repentance of the people, Jer 26:1-7. By this unwelcome prophecy his life was in great danger; although saved by the influence of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, who makes a masterly defense for the prophet, Jer 26:8-18. Urijah is condemned, but escapes to Egypt; whence he is brought hack by Jehoiakim, and slain, Jer 26:20-23. Ahikam befriends Jeremiah, Jer 26:24.

CONNECTED WITH THE TWENTY-FOURTH AND TWENTY-FIFTH CHAPTERS. SONG OF PRAISE OF ISRAEL AFTER BEING RESTORED TO THEIR OWN LAND. (Isa. 26:1-21) strong city--Jerusalem, strong in Jehovah's protection: type of the new Jerusalem (Psa 48:1-3), contrasted with the overthrow of the ungodly foe (Isa 26:4-7, Isa 26:12-14; Rev 22:2, Rev 22:10-12, &c.). salvation . . . walls-- (Isa 60:18; Jer 3:23; Zac 2:5). MAURER translates, "Jehovah makes His help serve as walls" (Isa 33:20-21, &c.). bulwarks--the trench with the antemural earthworks exterior to the wall.

poor-- (Isa 25:4), the once afflicted Jewish captives. "Foot shall tread," is figurative for exulting in the fall of God's enemies (Rev 18:20).

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 Zac 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).