Isaia 26:5 Commento

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.

Here the prophet further encourages us to trust in the Lord for ever, and to continue waiting on him; for, I. He will make humble souls that trust in him to triumph over their proud enemies, Isa 26:5, Isa 26:6. Those that exalt themselves shall be abased: For he brings down those that dwell on high; and wherein they deal proudly he is, and will be, above them. Even the lofty city Babylon itself, or Nineveh, he lays it low, Isa 25:12. He can do it, be it ever so well fortified. He has often done it. He will do it, for he resists the proud. It is his glory to do it, for he proves himself to be God by looking on the proud and abasing them, Job 40:12. But, on the contrary, those that humble themselves shall be exalted; for the feet of the poor shall tread upon the lofty cities, Isa 26:6. He does not say, Great armies shall tread them down; but, When God will have it done, even the feet of the poor shall do it, Mal 4:3. You shall tread down the wicked. Come, set your feet on the necks of these kings. See Psa 147:6; Rom 16:20. II. He takes cognizance of the way of his people and has delight in it (Isa 26:7): The way of the just is evenness (so it may be read): it is their endeavour and constant care to walk with God in an even steady course of obedience and holy conversation. My foot stands in an even place, goes in an even path, Psa 26:12. And it is their happiness that God makes their way plain and easy before them: Thou, most upright, dost level (or make even) the path of the just, by preventing or removing those things that would be stumbling-blocks to them, so that nothing shall offend them, Psa 119:165. God weighs it (so we read it); he considers it, and will give them grace sufficient for them, to help them over all the difficulties they may meet with in their way. Thus with the upright God will show himself upright. III. It is our duty, and will be our comfort, to wait for God, and to keep up holy desires towards him in the darkest and most discouraging times, Isa 26:8, Isa 26:9. This has always been the practice of God's people, even when God has frowned upon them, 1. To keep up a constant dependence upon him: "In the way of thy judgments we have still waited for thee; when thou hast corrected us we have looked to no other hand than thine to relieve us," as the servant looks only to the hand of his master, till he have mercy upon him, Psa 123:2. We cannot appeal from God's justice but to his mercy. If God's judgments continue long, if it be a road of judgments (so the word signifies), yet we must not be weary but continue waiting. 2. To send up holy desires towards him. Our troubles, how pressing soever, must never put us out of conceit with our religion, nor turn us away from God; but still the desire of our soul must be to his name and to the remembrance of him; and in the night, the darkest longest night of affliction, with our souls must we desire him. (1.) Our great concern must be for God's name, and our earnest desire must be that his name may be glorified, whatever becomes of us and our names. This is that which we must wait for, and pray for. "Father, glorify thy name, and we are satisfied." (2.) Our great comfort must be in the remembrance of that name, of all that whereby God has made himself known. The remembrance of God must be our great support and pleasure; and, though sometimes we be unmindful of him, yet still our desire must be towards the remembrance of him and we must take pains with our own hearts to have him always in mind. (3.) Our desires towards God must be inward, fervent, and sincere. With our soul we must desire him, with our soul we must pant after him (Psa 42:1), and with our spirits within us, with the innermost thought and the closest application of mind, we must seek him. We make nothing of our religion, whatever our profession be, if we do not make heart-work of it. (4.) Even in the darkest night of affliction our desires must be towards God, as our sun and shield; for, however God is pleased to deal with us, we must never think the worse of him, nor cool in our love to him. (5.) If our desires be indeed towards God,. we must give evidence that they are so by seeking him, and seeking him early, as those that desire to find him, and dread the thoughts of missing him. Those that would seek God and find him must seek betimes, and seek him earnestly. Though we come ever so early, we shall find him ready to receive us. IV. It is God's gracious design, in sending abroad his judgments, thereby to bring men to seek him and serve him: When thy judgments are upon the earth, laying all waste, then we have reason to expect that not only God's professing people, but even the inhabitants of the world, will learn righteousness, will have their mistakes rectified and their lives reformed, will be brought to acknowledge God's righteousness in punishing them, will repent of their own unrighteousness in offending God, and so be brought to walk in right paths. They will do this; that is, judgments are designed to bring them to this, they have a natural tendency to produce this effect, and, though many continue obstinate, yet some even of the inhabitants of the world will profit by this discipline, and will learn righteousness; surely they will; they are strangely stupid if they do not. Note, The intention of afflictions is to teach us righteousness; and blessed is the man whom God chastens, and thus teaches, Psa 94:12. Discite justitiam, moniti, et non temnere divos - Let this rebuke teach you to cultivate righteousness, and cease from despising the gods. - Virgil. V. Those are wicked indeed that will not be wrought upon by the favourable methods God takes to subdue and reform them; and it is necessary that God should deal with them in a severe way by his judgments, which shall prevail to humble those that would not otherwise be humbled. Observe, 1. How sinners walk contrary to God, and refuse to comply with the means used for their reformation and to answer the intentions of them, Isa 26:10. (1.) Favour is shown to them. They receive many mercies from God; he causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon them, nay, he prospers them, and into their hands he brings plentifully; they escape many of the strokes of God's judgments, which others less wicked than they have been cut off by; in some particular instances they seem to be remarkably favoured above their neighbours, and the design of all this is that they may be won upon to love and serve that God who thus favours them; and yet it is all in vain: They will not learn righteousness, will not be led to repentance by the goodness of God, and therefore it is requisite that God should send his judgments into the earth, to reckon with men for abused mercies. (2.) They live in a land of uprightness, where religion is professed and is in reputation, where the word of God is preached, and where they have many good examples set them, - in a land of evenness, where there are not so many stumbling-blocks as in other places, - in a land of correction, where vice and profaneness are discountenanced and punished; yet there they will deal unjustly, and go on frowardly in their evil ways. Those that do wickedly deal unjustly both with God and man, as well as with their own souls; and those that will not be reclaimed by the justice of the nation may expect the judgments of God upon them. Nor can those expect a place hereafter in the land of blessedness who now conform not to the laws and usages, nor improve the privileges and advantages, of the land of uprightness; and why do they not? It is because they will not behold the majesty of the Lord, will not believe, will not consider, what a God of terrible majesty he is whose laws and justice they persist in the contempt of. God's majesty appears in all the dispensations of his providence; but they regard it not, and therefore study not to answer the ends of those dispensations. Even when we receive of the mercy of the Lord we must still behold the majesty of the Lord and his goodness. (3.) God lifts up his hand to give them warning, that they may, by repentance and prayer, make their peace with him; but they take no notice of it, are not aware that God is angry with them, or coming forth against them: They will not see, and none so blind as those who will not see, who shut their eyes against the clearest conviction of guilt and wrath, who ascribe that to chance, or common fate, which is manifestly a divine rebuke, who regard not the threatening symptoms of their own ruin, but cry Peace to themselves, when the righteous God is waging war with them. 2. How God will at length be too hard for them; for, when he judges, he will overcome: They will not see, but they shall see, shall be made to see, whether they will or no, that God is angry with them. Atheists, scorners, and the secure, will shortly feel what now they will not believe, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. They will not see the evil of sin, and particularly the sin of hating and persecuting the people of God; but they shall see, by the tokens of God's displeasure against them for it and the deliverances in which God will plead his people's cause, that what is done against them he takes as done against himself and will reckon for it accordingly. They shall see that they have done God's people a great deal of wrong, and therefore shall be ashamed of their enmity and envy towards them, and their ill usage of such as deserved better treatment. Note, Those that bear ill-will to God's people have reason to be ashamed of it, so absurd and unreasonable is it; and, sooner or later, they shall be ashamed of it, and the remembrance of it shall fill them with confusion. Some read it, They shall see and be confounded for the zeal of the people, by the zeal God will show for his people; when they shall be made to know how jealous God is for the honour and welfare of his people they shall be confounded to think that they might have been of that people and would not. Their doom therefore is that, since they slighted the happiness of God's friends, the fire of his enemies shall devour them, that is, the fire which is prepared for his enemies and with which they shall be devoured, the fire designed for the devil and his angels. Note, Those that are enemies to God's people, and envy them, God looks upon as his enemies, and will deal with them accordingly.

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.

For he bringeth down them that dwell on high, the lofty city,.... That dwell on high in the high city, so the accents require the words to be rendered; and accordingly the Targum is, "for he will bring low the inhabitants of the high and strong city;'' such that dwell in a city built on high, and in the high towers and palaces of it; or that sit on high thrones, are spiritual wickednesses in high places, and are of proud and haughty dispositions and conduct; as the pope of Rome and his cardinals, &c.; for not the city of Jerusalem is here meant, as Jerom thinks, whose destruction he supposes is foretold, as both by the Babylonians and Romans; and therefore, he observes, the word is doubled in the next clause; nor the city of Nineveh; nor Babylon, literally taken; but mystical Babylon is here meant. Jarchi interprets them that dwell on high of Tyre and Greece; but Jerom says, the Jews understand by the lofty city the city of Rome; and this seems to be the true sense; a city built upon seven hills or mountains; a city that has ruled over the kings of the earth, and whose present inhabitants are proud and haughty: he layeth it low: he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust; all which expressions denote the utter destruction of it; see Isa 25:12.

(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.

Third, he promises the benefit of peace for the destruction of enemies: for he shall bring down them that dwell on high, the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground, he shall pull it down even to the dust. The Jews say this refers to the Romans, but it can refer to any of their enemies, or, mystically, to the Jews themselves, above: the bulwarks of your high walls shall fall (Isa 25:12).

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.

lofty city--Babylon; representative of the stronghold of the foes of God's people in all ages (Isa 25:2, Isa 25:12; Isa 13:14).

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).

He has already proved Himself to be such a rock, on which everything breaks that would attack the faithful whom He surrounds. "For He hath bent down them that dwell on high; the towering castle, He tore it down, tore it down to the earth, cast it into dust. The foot treads it to pieces, feet of the poor, steps of the lowly." Passing beyond the fall of Moab, the fall of the imperial city is celebrated, to which Moab was only an annex (Isa 25:1-2; Isa 24:10-12). The futures are determined by the preterite; and the anadiplosis, which in other instances (e.g., Isa 25:1, cf., Psa 118:11) links together derivatives or variations of form, is satisfied in this instance with changing the forms of the suffix. The second thought of Isa 26:6 is a more emphatic repetition of the first: it is trodden down; the oppression of those who have been hitherto oppressed is trodden down.