Isaiah 32:5 Kommentar

This chapter seems to be such a prophecy of the reign of Hezekiah as amounts to an abridgment of the history of it, and this with an eye to the kingdom of the Messiah, whose government was typified by the thrones of the house of David, for which reason he is so often called "the Son of David." Here is, I. A prophecy of that good work of reformation with which he should begin his reign, and the happy influence it should have upon the people, who had been wretchedly corrupted and debauched in the reign of his predecessor (Isa 32:1-8). II. A prophecy of the great disturbance that would be given to the kingdom in the middle of his reign by the Assyrian invasion (Isa 32:9-14). III. A promise of better times afterwards, towards the latter end of his reign, in respect both of piety and peace (Isa 32:15-20), which promise may be supposed to look as far forward as the days of the Messiah.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 32 This chapter contains a prophecy of the Messiah; for, however applicable it may be to Hezekiah, as a type of Christ, it only has its full accomplishment in him, and in his times; who is described as a righteous King, and as having just princes ruling under him, Isa 32:1 and as a very great blessing, protection, and comfort to his subjects, Isa 32:2 when follows a prediction of great light and knowledge that should be in his days, Isa 32:3 and of the vileness, hypocrisy, and covetousness of the Jews in his times, Isa 32:5 and of the destruction of their country, because of their sins, of which they seemed greatly insensible, and were unconcerned about it, and are therefore called upon to lament it, Isa 32:9 which should continue until there would be a very great effusion of the Spirit, as should make the world, comparable to a wilderness, fruitful in grace and good works; the consequence of which is great prosperity, peace, and safety, to the saints, Isa 32:15 and destruction to their enemies, particularly the city of Rome, Isa 32:19 and the chapter is concluded with the happiness of the Gospel ministration, and the success of it, Isa 32:20.

The vile person shall be no more called liberal,.... Or "Nabal" (a fool) "shall no more be called Nadib" (e) (a prince); or have this name put upon him, or be advanced to honour and dignity, or be flattered with such a title, so unbecoming him. The sense seems to be, that, in Gospel times, such who are fools as to the knowledge of spiritual things, that have no spiritual and experimental knowledge of the truths of the Gospel, but are quite ignorant of them, shall not be made princes, or spiritual rulers, and governors in the house of God; nor the churl said to be bountiful; or called a lord, as Jarchi interprets the word; which, he says, is used of such an one, because all men look to him, and respect him (f); but now a covetous and tenacious man, that withholds more than is meet, that keeps, all he has to himself, without communicating to others, and scarcely allows himself the necessaries of life, being so sordidly avaricious, such an one shall not be a pastor, or ruler, in the church of God; such were the Scribes and Pharisees among the Jews in Christ's time, and therefore rejected, Mat 23:14 folly and covetousness are both bad things in a minister of the word, and greatly disqualify a man for that work and office: or else the sense of the whole is, that there should be such a discerning of men in Gospel times, and such faithfulness used towards them, that a wicked man should not be taken for a good man, nor in a flattering way be called one; but the precious and the vile should be distinguished, and called by their right names. The Targum is, "the wicked man shall be no more called just, and they that transgress his word shall not be called mighty.'' (e) "Nabal non vocabitur Nadib", Gataker. (f) Kimchi makes it to be the same with a "prodigal person"; and so Ben Melech; but Elias, in his Tishbi, p. 93, 95. says there is a difference between them; he says, is one that squanders his money in eating and drinking, and the like, which is a bad custom; but is an honourable person, who gives his money to good purposes, and more than is meet, which is a good custom; and he is more praiseworthy than the liberal man.

(Chapter 32, Verses 1 onwards) Behold, the king shall reign with justice, and princes shall rule with judgment. And a man shall be like one who hides from the wind, and conceals himself from the storm: like streams of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a towering rock in a barren land. The eyes of those who see shall not be dim, and the ears of those who hear shall listen carefully. And the heart of fools shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of stammerers shall speak quickly and clearly. He who is foolish shall no longer be called a ruler, nor shall the deceitful be called great. For the foolish shall speak foolishness, and his heart shall work iniquity, to accomplish deceit and speak deceitfully to the Lord, to empty the soul of the hungry and take away the drink of the thirsty. The vessels of the deceitful are the worst, for he has devised plans to destroy the meek with lies when he speaks in judgment of the poor. The prince will consider those things that are worthy of a prince, and he himself will stand above the leaders. LXX: Behold, a righteous king will reign, and princes will rule with justice. And there will be a man who conceals his words, and he will be hidden like water that is carried away: and he will appear in Zion, like a flowing river, illustrious in a thirsty land, and they will not place their confidence in men: but they will open their ears to hear, and the heart of the weak will attend to their hearing: and the tongues of the stammerers will quickly learn to speak peace: and they will no longer say to the fool, 'Be a prince,' nor will your ministers say, 'Be silent.' For a fool will speak foolishly, and his heart will understand in vain to accomplish wickedness, and to speak error towards the Lord, so as to scatter the souls of the hungry and to make the souls of the thirsty empty. For the counsel of the wicked will think iniquity: to kill the humble with wicked words, and to dissipate the words of the lowly in judgment. But the pious have thought wisdom, and this counsel remains. According to the Septuagint interpreters who said: Behold, for a just king will reign, and princes will preside with judgment, what follows must be joined with the previous, namely, the chapter that has ended: Blessed is the one who has offspring in Zion, and domestics in Jerusalem. According to the completion of the prior prophecy in Hebrew, concerning those who descended into Egypt, now begins the beginning of another prophecy, namely, concerning the coming of Christ and His Apostles. For this king shall reign justly, showing no partiality in judgment, and his princes shall govern with truth, considering causes, not individuals. And whoever is under his protection shall be safe in tribulations and hardships, and in the storms of this world, just as one who, fleeing the wind and whirlwind, safely hides in a place; and one who finds the purest springs in the desert; and one who, in the scorching heat of the sun, finds rest under a projecting rock while everything flows around him. Whereas we have said: as streams of water in a dry place, they have translated: and there shall be seen in Zion as a flowing river. For the Hebrew word, about which we have previously debated, Basaion, which means in thirst, or in dryness, and in barrenness, the Septuagint and Theodotion have translated into Zion: instead of Saion, meaning thirst, they read Zion, which is written with the same letters. Therefore, when Christ reigns, and his princes preside in judgement, the eyes of the believers will not be dimmed, and the ears of the attentive will listen carefully to what was previously deaf, and the heart of the fools will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers and the mute, which could not pronounce the name of Christ, will confess the Lord in full and clear speech. He who is foolish will no longer be called a prince. For God has made the wisdom of this world foolish. Nor will a deceitful and perverse teacher be called great among the people, namely the scribes and Pharisees, to whom the Lord spoke: Fools and blind ones, what is greater, gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? For a fool will speak foolishly, as it is written in Hebrew: Nabal Nabala Idabber. This we say, in order to explain the words of Abigail speaking about Nabal in Carmel: 'According to his name, he is foolish.' (1 Samuel 25:25) For truly a fool will speak foolishly, and his heart will devise wickedness; he feared where there was no fear, and he used foolishness as wisdom, saying: 'If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath.' (John 9:16) This is what the rulers of the synagogue still do today, in order to perfect their hypocrisy, about which it is written in Hebrew: Oneph, which means 'hypocrisy.' Where it is often said to the Pharisees: Woe to you, scribes and hypocritical Pharisees (Matthew 23:14). And let him speak deceitfully to the Lord: Teacher, we know that you are from God, and it is not your concern about people, although it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, isn't it (Ibid., 22:16-17). They empty the souls of the hungry people and take away the drink of the thirsty crowds, neither allowing themselves to enter nor allowing others to enter. For the vessels and weapons of a deceitful teacher and prince are all the worst; who contrives deceit to deceive the simple in the speech of falsehood, saying to the deceived people: Search and see, because the Prophet from Galilee will not rise again (John 7:52). When he spoke to them about the poor judgment, who, though rich, became poor for us (2 Corinthians 8). Truly, Christ is their judgment, and he spoke of righteousness, saying: If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do, and if you do not want to believe me, believe in the works (John 10:37). This poor man who speaks judgment, the prince and Lord, will think about things that are worthy of a prince, saying: I have come only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matth. XV, 14). And he will be anxious to save the unbelievers, wanting to save those who do not believe; and he will stand above his leaders, the Apostles, to whom he speaks to one: But you, my unanimous man, my leader and my friend (Psal. LIV, 14). These things are according to the Hebrew, from which the Septuagint not only differ in words, but also in meanings in many things. For when a just king reigns and his leaders govern with judgment, the man who is God by nature will conceal his teachings, speaking to them in parables (Matthew 20:21, 23, 24, and 25). He will conceal them like a flowing river hides beneath the surface, away from the people of Judah who are carried back and forth by the will of their leaders. But this man who hides his teachings among the unbelievers will appear in Zion, which is the Church, like a renowned river flowing through a thirsty land. For the people of the Gentiles, who previously suffered from a thirst for truth, will appear; and the river of God will water the thirsty fields as it is written: The rushing waters of a river make the city of God glad (Psalm 46:4). And in another place: The river of God is full of water (Psalm 65:10). For He Himself speaks in the Gospel: Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me, and let them drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from within them (John 7:38). Then they will have no trust in teachers; but they will offer their ears to hear the Lord; and with both heart and tongue they will confess the peace of the Lord, forsaking foolish princes and their ministers, who commanded silence to those who believed in Jesus. The following words contain the same meaning, both in Hebrew and Latin, and can be adapted to heretics. For they speak lies against the Lord, and they pervert the souls of those who hunger and thirst, and they make them empty; so that even if they have anything good by nature, they lose it because of the fault of the teachers, whose every plan is to destroy the humble with unjust words, and to scatter the words of the humble in judgment. Similarly, it should be noted that those who can be deceived by them should be humble and grounded.

And also as to their consequent liberty, namely, from tyrants: the fool shall no more be called prince, namely, Sennacherib, to whom formerly they paid tribute, as is evident in 2 Kings 18:14. I will deliver them out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians (Ezek 24).

Jeremiah, now confined for his faithful admonitions, foretells the fate of the king and city, Jer 32:1-5. According to the direction of God, he buys of his cousin Hanameel a field in Anathoth; the contract, or deed of sale, being subscribed, sealed, and witnessed, and delivered to Baruch, together with a duplicate not sealed, who is commanded to put them into an earthen vessel that they may remain there for many days, Jer 32:6-14. This transaction of the prophet, which is entered and subscribed in the public register, God constitutes a sign or pledge of the Jews' return from the Babylonish captivity, and of their again possessing houses, fields, and vineyards, in their own land, and by their own right, according to their tribes and families, Jer 32:15. Jeremiah's prayer, in which he recounts God's marvellous acts towards the children of Israel, and deeply deplores the lamentable state of the country, and the numerous provocations which have led to it, Jer 32:16-25. After which God is introduced declaring his purpose of giving up his people into the hands of their enemies, Jer 32:26-35; promising, however, to restore them in due time to their ancient possessions, and to make with them an everlasting covenant, Jer 32:36-44.

The vile person shall no more be called liberal - The different epithets here employed require minute explanation. The vile person - נבל nabal, the pampered, fattened, brainless fellow, who eats to live, and lives to eat; who will scarcely part with any thing, and that which he does give he gives with an evil eye and a grudging heart. Liberal - נדיב nadib; the generous, openhearted, princely man, who writes on all his possessions, For myself and mankind, and lives only to get and to do good. The churl - כילי kilai, the avaricious man; he who starves himself amidst his plenty, and will not take the necessaries of life for fear of lessening his stock. Thus he differs from נבל nabal, who feeds himself to the full, and regards no one else; like the rich man in the Gospel. The avaricious man is called כילי kilai, from כי ki, for, לי li, myself; or contracted from כל col, all, and לי li, to myself: all is mine; all I have is my own; and all I can get is for myself: and yet this man enjoys nothing; he withholds From back and belly too their proper fare: - O cursed lust of gold, when for thy sake The wretch throws up his interest in both worlds, First starved in this, then damned in that to come! Bountiful - שוע shoa, he who is abundantly rich; who rejoices in his plenty, and deals out to the distressed with a liberal hand.

MESSIAH'S KINGDOM; DESOLATIONS, TO BE SUCCEEDED BY LASTING PEACE, THE SPIRIT HAVING BEEN POURED OUT. (Isa. 32:1-20) king--not Hezekiah, who was already on the throne, whereas a future time is contemplated. If he be meant at all, it can only be as a type of Messiah the King, to whom alone the language is fully applicable (Hos 3:5; Zac 9:9; see on Isa 11:3-5). The kingdom shall be transferred from the world kings, who have exercised their power against God, instead of for God, to the rightful King of kings (Eze 21:27; Dan 7:13-14). princes--subordinate; referring to all in authority under Christ in the coming kingdom on earth, for example, the apostles, &c. (Luk 22:30; Co1 6:2; Ti2 2:12; Rev 2:26-27; Rev 3:21).

vile--rather, "fool" [LOWTH]; that is, ungodly (Psa 14:1; Psa 74:18). liberal--rather, "noble-minded." churl--rather, "fraudulent" [GESENIUS]. bountiful--religiously. The atheistic churl, who envies the believer his hope "full of immortality," shall no longer be held as a patriot struggling for the emancipation of mankind from superstition [HORSLEY].

For Judah, sifted, delivered, and purified, there now begins a new ear. Righteous government, as a blessing for the people, is the first beneficent fruit. "Behold, the king will reign according to righteousness; and the princes, according to right will they command. And every one will be like a shelter from the wind, and a covert from the storm; like water-brooks in a dry place, like the shadow of a gigantic rock in a languishing land." The kingdom of Asshur is for ever destroyed; but the kingdom of Judah rises out of the state of confusion into which it has fallen through its God - forgetting policy and disregard of justice. King and princes now rule according to the standards that have been divinely appointed and revealed. The Lamed in ūlesârı̄m (and the princes) is that of reference (quod attinet ad, as in Psa 16:3 and Ecc 9:4), the exponent of the usual casus abs. (Ges. 146, 2); and the two other Lameds are equivalent to κατά, secundum (as in Jer 30:11). The figures in Isa 32:2 are the same as in Isa 25:4. The rock of Asshur (i.e., Sennacherib) has departed, and the princes of Asshur have deserted their standards, merely to save themselves. The king and princes of Judah are now the defence of their nation, and overshadow it like colossal walls of rock. This is the first fruit of the blessing.

A third fruit of the blessing is the naming and treating of every one according to his true character. "The fool will no more be called a nobleman, nor the crafty a gentleman. For a fool speaks follies, and his heart does godless things, to practise tricks and to speak error against Jehovah, to leave the soul of hungry men empty, and to withhold the drink of thirsty ones. And the craft of a crafty man is evil, who devises stratagems to destroy suffering ones by lying words, even when the needy exhibits his right. But a noble man devises noble things, and to noble things he adheres." Nobility of birth and wealth will give place to nobility of character, so that the former will not exist or not be recognised without the latter. Nâdı̄bh is properly one who is noble in character, and then, dropping the ethical meaning, one who is noble by rank. The meaning of the word generosus follows the same course in the opposite direction. Shōă‛ is the man who is raised to eminence by the possession of property; the gentleman, as in Job 34:19. The prophet explains for himself in what sense he uses the words nâbhâl and kı̄lai. We see from his explanation that kı̄lai neither signifies the covetous, from kūl (Saad.), nor the spendthrift, from killâh (Hitzig). Jerome gives the correct rendering, viz., fraudulentus; and Rashi and Kimchi very properly regard it as a contraction of nekhı̄lai. It is an adjective form derived from כּיל = נכיל, like שׂיא = נשׂיא (Job 20:6). The form כּלי in Isa 32:1 is used interchangeably with this, merely for the sake of the resemblance in sound to כּליו (machinatoris machinae pravae). In Isa 32:6, commencing with ki (for), the fact that the nâbhâl (fool) and kı̄lai (crafty man) will lose their titles of honour, is explained on the simple ground that such men are utterly unworthy of them. Nâbhâl is a scoffer at religion, who thinks himself an enlightened man, and yet at the same time has the basest heart, and is a worthless egotist. The infinitives with Lamed show in what the immorality ('âven) consists, with which his heart is so actively employed. In Isa 32:6, ūbhedabbēr ("and if he speak") is equivalent to, "even in the event of a needy man saying what is right and well founded:" Vâv = et in the sense of etiam ((cf., Sa2 1:23; Psa 31:12; Hos 8:6; Ecc 5:6); according to Knobel, it is equivalent to et quidem, as in Ecc 8:2; Amo 3:11; Amo 4:10; whereas Ewald regards it as Vav conj. (283, d), "and by going to law with the needy," but את־אביון would be the construction in this case (vid., Kg2 25:6). According to Isa 32:8, not only does the noble man devise what is noble, but as such (הוּא) he adheres to it. We might also adopt this explanation, "It is not upon gold or upon chance that he rises;" but according to the Arabic equivalents, qūm signifies persistere here.