Isaiah 28:22 Komentář

In this chapter, I. The Ephraimites are reproved and threatened for their pride and drunkenness, their security and sensuality (Isa 28:1-8). But, in the midst of this, here is a gracious promise of God's favour to the remnant of his people (Isa 28:5, Isa 28:6). II. They are likewise reproved and threatened for their dulness and stupidity, and unaptness to profit by the instructions which the prophets gave them in God's name (Isa 28:9-13). III. The rulers of Jerusalem are reproved and threatened for their insolent contempt of God's judgments, and setting them at defiance; and, after a gracious promise of Christ and his grace, they are made to know that the vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God with which they flattered themselves would certainly deceive them (Isa 28:14-22). IV. All this is confirmed by a comparison borrowed from the method which the husbandman takes with his ground and grain, according to which they must expect God would proceed with his people, whom he had lately called his threshing and the corn of his floor (Isa 21:10) (Isa 28:23-29). This is written for our admonition, and is profitable for reproof and warning to us.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 28 In this chapter the ten tribes of Israel and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, are threatened with divine judgments, because of their sins and iniquities mentioned. The ten tribes, under the name of Ephraim, for their pride and drunkenness, Isa 28:1 the means of their destruction, the Assyrian monarch, compared to a hail storm, and a flood of mighty waters, Isa 28:2 which destruction, for their sins, is repeated, and represented as sudden and swift; when they would be like a fading flower and hasty fruit, Isa 28:3 and then, as for the two tribes, though they had a glorious prince at the head of them, who had a spirit of wisdom and judgment for government, and of valour and courage for war, Isa 28:5 yet the generality of the people, led on by the example of priest and prophet, went into the same sensual gratifications as they of the ten tribes did, Isa 28:7 and became sottish and unteachable, and were like children just taken from the breast, and to be used as such, Isa 28:9 and though the doctrine proposed to be taught them was such as, if received, would be of the greatest advantage to them, for their comfort and refreshment, yet it was refused by them with the utmost contempt; which was to be their ruin, Isa 28:12, wherefore the rulers of Jerusalem are threatened with the judgments of God, which should come upon them night and day, the report of which would be a vexation to them; and from which they should not be screened by their covenant with death and hell, or by their shelters and coverings with lies and falsehood, in which they placed their confidence, Isa 28:14 in the midst of which account, for the comfort of the Lord's people, stands a glorious prophecy, concerning the sure foundation laid in Zion, on which all that are built are safe and happy, Isa 28:16 and the certainty of these judgments is illustrated by the method which the ploughman takes in sowing his corn, and threshing it out; for which he has instruction and direction from the Lord of hosts, Isa 28:23.

Give ye ear, and hear my voice,.... So said the prophet, as the Targum introduces the words; and because what he was about to say was of importance, and delivered in a parabolical manner, and required attention, he makes use of a variety of words to the same purpose, to engage their attention: hearken, and hear my speech; now about to be made; listen to it, and get the understanding of it.

(Verse 21, 22.) For just as the Lord will stand on the mountain of divisions, and will be angry in the valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his strange work, to carry out his task, his alien task. And now do not mock: lest perhaps your chains be tightened. For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a conclusion and an abbreviation over all the earth. LXX: As the mountain of the wicked rises, the Lord will arise, and it will be in the valley of Gibeon, when he does his work with fury, the work of bitterness and his fury he will use as if it were alien: and his bitterness as if it were foreign. And do not rejoice, neither let your bonds be strengthened, for I have heard from the Lord God of Hosts that the things which he will do upon the whole earth are consummated and abbreviated. The Lord has promised to place a precious stone in the foundations of Zion, in order to overturn falsehood and the hope of the wicked; and to abolish the covenant with death and the agreement with hell by a powerful storm. Because the princes did not want to accept Him, just as in the past against the Allophyli, when David reigned on the mountain of divisions, which in Hebrew is called Pharasim, the Lord brought down his adversaries, from where the place also received its name. And as in the valley of Gibeon, under the leadership of Joshua, when the confidence of the inhabitants in themselves spoke to God: Sun, stand still in Gibeon, and moon, in the valley of Aijalon ((or Elon)) (Joshua 10:12); and the sun stood still for the space of a whole day; and many of the foreign invaders perished: so the Lord will be angry with the wicked and the mockers, in order to accomplish His work. For it is not the work of the Lord to destroy those whom He has created; but to perform a work that belongs more to cruelty than to clemency. And again the same thing is repeated in other words, so that it may accomplish its work. It is not his task to punish sinners, but the stranger, and alien from him, that he may punish who is the Savior. Therefore, since the Lord is about to rise again from his patience, and will not spare: just as he did not spare on Mount Pharasim, and in the valley of Gibeon: I warn you, O mocking men, that you should not at all laugh at my prophets, and that you should not think that the things they proclaim are not going to happen, lest if you persist in mocking, the bonds of your sins may be tightened (For by the cords of his own sins each one is bound (Prov. V, 22), or lest the time of captivity may come upon you. Indeed, what the Lord delayed in time, the bonds, captivity, and punishments, or the final day of judgment, He is now about to fulfill, accomplish, and shorten. Therefore, as a prophet, I announce to you the things that I have known from the Lord God Almighty that will happen over the whole earth, so that you may prevent the impending wrath with repentance. According to the Septuagint, the Lord Himself is said to rise like a mountain of the wicked and to be present in the valley of Gibeon, in order to perform His works, which are all one work of bitterness: which should by no means be seen as blasphemous. For the Lord does not say that the mountain of the wicked will come, but that it is like a mountain, which appears to be very heavy to the wicked and those who endure them. Just as if one careless son and another sick son, the father and the doctor could be cruel if they restore them to health with beatings and cauterization. For the Lord will rise and will be in the valley of Gibeon, on account of those who, because of their sins, remain in a humble place, and because of the swelling of their souls, are raised up in pride. For Gabaon, the hill interprets: that it may do its works, which are works of bitterness; when forced to change mercy, it becomes bitter instead of sweet. Therefore, you who are about to suffer these things, do not now rejoice in that joy in which he rejoiced and was richly clothed in purple at the feast, while neglecting Lazarus the poor (Luke 16): lest your chains become stronger. For what the Lord is going to do and how he will fulfill his judgement, these things I have both heard and announced to you. And what it means: According to history, understand it as referring to the borders of Judea extending over all the land; according to allegory, understand it as referring to the entire world.

They do not understand that God grants to each period of time what is appropriate. As he commanded marriage in the law, so in the gospel does he recommend virginity. In the law, an eye is to be offered for an eye, but in the gospel, the other side of the cheek is to be offered to one’s assailant. The former arrangement was for a weak people, whereas the latter is for the perfect. Nevertheless each order was adapted to its proper time. Yet it is not to be believed on the basis of this change that God is mutable. Instead, it should be proclaimed a miracle that while remaining immutable himself, God gave to each era its own distinctly appropriate order.Sins were of lesser guilt under the Old Testament because only a shadow of the truth, not truth itself, was present therein. For the higher precepts of the New Testament reveal that we are to forsake some of those things to which the people of the shadow of truth were bound. Previously, for instance, fornication and the taking of retribution for injuries were permitted without punishment. In the New Testament, however, they are condemned with severe punishments. The creed and the Lord’s Prayer replace the whole law in sufficing to obtain the kingdom of heaven for the little ones of the church. For the entire breadth of Scripture is contained briefly in the Lord’s Prayer and the creed. Thus does the prophet Isaiah say, “I heard from the Lord God of hosts about an abbreviation upon all the earth.”

649. And now do not mock. Here he draws, as a conclusion, sound and wholesome counsel, and first, he prohibits mocking: do not mock; bonds, of captivity: he shall scorn the scorners (Prov 3:34); and he assigns the reason: for I have heard of the Lord the God of hosts a consumption and a cutting short upon all the earth.

One of those pretended prophets spoken of on the preceding chapter, having contrasted and opposed Jeremiah, receives an awful declaration that, as a proof to the people of his having spoken without commission, he should die in the then current year; which accordingly came to pass its the seventh month, vv. 1-17.

The Lord God - אדני יהוה Adonai Jehovah. Adonai is omitted by four of Kennicott's MSS., and in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.

(Isa. 28:1-29) crown of pride--Hebrew for "proud crown of the drunkards," &c. [HORSLEY], namely, Samaria, the capital of Ephraim, or Israel. "Drunkards," literally (Isa 28:7-8; Isa 5:11, Isa 5:22; Amo 4:1; Amo 6:1-6) and metaphorically, like drunkards, rushing on to their own destruction. beauty . . . flower--"whose glorious beauty or ornament is a fading flower." Carrying on the image of "drunkards"; it was the custom at feasts to wreathe the brow with flowers; so Samaria, "which is (not as English Version, 'which are') upon the head of the fertile valley," that is, situated on a hill surrounded with the rich valleys as a garland (Kg1 16:24); but the garland is "fading," as garlands often do, because Ephraim is now close to ruin (compare Isa 16:8); fulfilled 721 B.C. (Kg2 17:6, Kg2 17:24).

mockers--a sin which they had committed (Isa 28:9-10). bands--their Assyrian bondage (Isa 10:27); Judah was then tributary to Assyria; or, "lest your punishment be made still more severe" (Isa 24:22). consumption--destruction (Isa 10:22-23; Dan 9:27).

But the possibility of repentance was still open to them, and at least a modification of what had been threatened was attainable. "And now drive ye not mockeries, lest your fetters be strengthened; for I have heard from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, a judgment of destruction, and an irrevocable one, upon the whole earth." It is assumed that they are already in fetters, namely, the fetters of Asshur (Nah 1:13). Out of these fetters they wanted to escape by a breach of faith, and with the help of Egypt without Jehovah, and consequently they mocked at the warnings of the prophet. He therefore appeals to them at any rate to stop their mocking, lest they should fall out of the bondage in which they now ere, into one that would bind them still more closely, and lest the judgment should become even more severe than it would otherwise be. For it was coming without fail. It might be modified, and with thorough repentance they might even escape; but that it would come, and that upon the whole earth, had been revealed to the prophet by Jehovah of hosts. This was the shemū‛âh which the prophet had heard from Jehovah, and which he gave them to hear and understand, though hitherto he had only been scoffed at by their wine-bibbing tongues.