Isaiah 18:5 Ulasan

Whatever country it is that is meant here by "the land shadowing with wings," here is a woe denounced against it, for God has, upon his people's account, a quarrel with it. I. They threaten God's people (Isa 18:1, Isa 18:2). II. All the neighbours are hereupon called to take notice what will be the issue (Isa 18:3). III. Though God seem unconcerned in the distress of his people for a time, he will at length appear against their enemies and will remarkable cut them off (Isa 18:4-6). IV. This shall redound very much to the glory of God (Isa 18:7).

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 18 This chapter is a prophecy of the desolation of a land or country, described by the wings with which it was shaded, and by the rivers by which it was situated, Isa 18:1 by its messengers and message to another nation, which is also described, Isa 18:2 all the nations of the world are called upon to observe the judgment about to be inflicted on it, Isa 18:3 and a promise is made, that at the same time God will take up his rest and dwelling among his own people, and refresh and protect them, Isa 18:4 and the time, and manner, and nature of the destruction of the people before threatened, are metaphorically expressed, Isa 18:5 and the issue of all will be the glory of God, since these people will be brought, in after times, as a present to him in Mount Zion, Isa 18:7.

For afore the harvest,.... Or vintage: the above metaphor is carried on; before the designs and schemes of the people above described are ripe for execution, who promised themselves a large harvest of their neighbours: when the bud is perfect; when the bud of the vine is become a perfect grape, though unripe; when the scheme was fully laid, and with perfect and consummate wisdom as imagined, though not brought into execution: and the sour grape is ripening in the flower; things go on and promise well, as if the issue would be according to expectation, and there would be a good vintage. The sour grape may denote the temper and disposition of the above people against their enemies, their ill nature, and enmity to them; or the sins and transgressions, for which the judgment denounced came upon them: he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches; as the vinedresser; or rather as one that has no good will to the vine, cuts it with pruning hooks, not to make it better, but worse, and cuts off, not the dead withered and useless parts of it, but the sprigs that have buds and flowers, or unripe grapes, upon them, and even whole branches that have clusters on them, and takes them and casts them away, to be trodden under foot, or cast into the fire; so the Lord, or the king of Assyria, the instrument in the hand of God, should cut off the Ethiopians, or the Egyptians, with the sword, both small and great, when their enterprise should fail, and their promised success: or this is to be understood of the destruction of Sennacherib's army by the angel, when he was full of expectation of taking Jerusalem, and plundering that rich city. Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of the destruction of the armies of Gog and Magog. The Targum is, "and he shall kill the princes of the people with the sword, and their mighty ones he shall remove and cause to pass over.''

(Vs. 4 and following) Because this is what the Lord says to me, I will rest and observe in my place: just as the bright midday light is, and like the clouds of dew in the day of harvest. Before the harvest, the whole field has blossomed, and the immature perfection will sprout, and its branches will be cut off by the sickle: and what has been left behind will be cut off, shaken off. And they will be left to the birds of the mountains, and to the animals of the earth, and in perpetual summer, birds will be above it, and all the animals of the earth will winter over it. In that time the gift of the Lord of hosts will be brought by the scattered and torn people, by the dreadful and desecrated people, by the waiting and trampled people, whose rivers they have plundered, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, Mount Zion. God rests and contemplates in His place, or near the Eagle, in the firmament, that is, in the Church, of which the Apostle Paul speaks: Pillar and foundation of truth (I Tim. III, 15). But the things that happen in the Church are contemplated; and just as the clear midday light illuminates everything, so it surveys the whole: according to what is said in the eighteenth Psalm in the mystical sense about the sun of justice: There is none that can hide himself from its heat. And just as the clouds of dew in the day of harvest, and in the scorching heat of summer are most welcome, so the Lord refreshes the inhabitants of His Church, in whose presence all things flourish. And before the time of consummation comes, because now we know in part and we prophesy in part, many perfect ones will be found, of whom the Apostle speaks: As many as are perfect, let us think this way (I Cor. XIII; Phil. III, 15). But the useless branches will be cut off by the sickles, as the Savior says in the Gospel: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he will take it away; and every branch that bears fruit, he will prune it, that it may bear more fruit (John XV, 2). And those things which have been cut off will be left for the birds of the mountains and the beasts of the earth. For the birds, which are sown along the way, will be preyed upon, and for the beasts, to whom the soul is delivered, not confessing God, so that he who has been cut off and rejected by the Lord, and separated from his body, which is the Church, may find his dwelling among birds and beasts both in summer and winter, that is, in prosperity and adversity. And just as those who are useless and unfruitful in the Church are pruned and cast out, lest a little yeast corrupt the whole mass: so, on the contrary, it can happen that those who were deceived by heretical error, and torn away from the Lord and lacerated, and terrifying for their blasphemy, and waiting in vain for lies, and trampled by demons, and scattered in various parts by rivers, when they have remembered their God, and have abandoned their many teachers, offer a gift to the Lord of hosts, nowhere else but on Mount Zion, and in the watchtower, which is interpreted as the Church. We will be brief, because we have already discussed many things in the book of historical explanation.

(Verse 5, 6.) For before the harvest it had flowered entirely, and immature perfection had sprouted, and its small branches will be cut with sickles, and whatever has been left behind will be cut off and shaken off. And they will be left with the birds of the mountains and the animals of the earth, and they will have perpetual summer over them, and all the animals of the earth will winter upon it. Because he had said of the south wind, and had sent a cloud of dew before summer and harvest, and had taken produce from the field, he will preserve it in the remains, describing the pride of Egypt and the devastation of its people, and the corpses throughout the province, which will be devoured by the birds. For just as the crops that spring up before maturity quickly perish, and the sprouts that germinate are useless before the proper time of growth comes; so, he says, the Egyptian people are cut down like useless branches with the sickle, and all their offspring will be stripped bare. And lest you think that he is speaking of the vineyard and not of men, he turns the metaphor into historical truth: And they shall be abandoned together to the birds of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. For birds and beasts do not eat the severed branches of trees, but rather devour corpses. Let us read more fully Ezekiel, where he prophesies against Pharaoh and against Egypt: and all these things we will find written very clearly (Ezek. XXIX). And he says: In perpetual summer, birds shall be above him, and all beasts shall winter upon him; either this signifies a multitude of those who will be slain, or by the same interpretation it shows that he will be laid waste by all nations.

Third, where it says, before the harvest, he describes a metaphor of the punishment, namely through the destruction of fruit in the field, and he sets out three things. First, as to the ruin of the fruit which is ruined in the flower, when it begins to flower too quickly, for before the harvest it was all flourishing; similarly, before Egypt had power, it showed the flower of its glory: concerning which it says below: all the glory thereof as the flower of the field (Isa 40:6). It is also ruined in the bud, when the humor from which the fruit ought to arise is not yet ripe: and it shall bud without perfect ripeness; similarly, Egypt presumed beyond the power which it had. It is also ruined in the fruit, when the branches on which the fruit hangs are cut off: cut off, before the maturation of the fruit: he shall be blasted as a vine when its grapes are in the first flower (Job 15:33); substance got in haste shall be diminished (Prov 13:11); the inheritance gotten hastily in the beginning, in the end shall be without a blessing (Prov 20:21). Second, he sets out removal of the remaining fruit: what is left finished by the Egyptians, by the Assyrians shall be cut away from its own strength, and shaken out from its place by the Chaldeans, below: as if a few olives, that remain, should be shaken out of the olive tree (Isa 24:13). Note on the words, it shall bud without perfect ripeness (Isa 18:5), that perfection is manifold: first, the perfection of nature: so the heavens and the earth were finished (Gen 2:1); second, of knowledge: can man be compared with God, even though he were of perfect knowledge? (Job 22:2); third, of grace: perfect charity casts out fear (1 John 4:18); fourth, of glory: but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away (1 Cor 13:10). Note on the words, its bud, that there is first, the bud of depraved authority: woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and when the princes eat in the morning (Eccl 10:16); second, of teaching of error: but these men blaspheme whatever things they know not (Jude 1:10); third, of presumptuous conjecture: God has divided to every one (Rom 12:3); fourth, of present consolation: remember that you didst receive good things in your lifetime (Luke 16:25).

The type of the potter's vessel, and its signification, Jer 18:1-10. The inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem exhorted to repentance, Jer 18:11; but on their refusal, (which is represented to be as unnatural as if a man should prefer the snowy Lebanon or barren rock to a fruitful plain, or other waters to the cool stream of the fountain), their destruction is predicted, Jer 18:12-17. In consequence of these plain reproofs and warnings of Jeremiah, a conspiracy is formed against him, Jer 18:18. This leads him to appeal to God for his integrity, Jer 18:19, Jer 18:20; who puts a most dreadful curse in the mouth of his prophet, strongly indicative of the terrible fate of his enemies, Jer 18:21-23.

The flower "The blossom" - Hebrews her blossom; נצה nitstsah, that is, the blossom of the vine, גפן gephen, vine, understood, which is of the common gender. See Gen 40:10. Note, that by the defective punctuation of this word, many interpreters, and our translators among the rest, have been led into a grievous mistake, (for how can the swelling grape become a blossom?) taking the word נצה nitstsah for the predicate; whereas it is the subject of the proposition, or the nominative case to the verb.

(Isa 18:1-7) Woe--The heading in English Version, "God will destroy the Ethiopians," is a mistake arising from the wrong rendering "Woe," whereas the Hebrew does not express a threat, but is an appeal calling attention (Isa 55:1; Zac 2:6): "Ho." He is not speaking against but to the Ethiopians, calling on them to hear his prophetical announcement as to the destruction of their enemies. shadowing with wings--rather, "land of the winged bark"; that is, "barks with wing-like sails, answering to vessels of bulrushes" in Isa 18:2; the word "rivers," in the parallelism, also favors it; so the Septuagint and Chaldee [EWALD]. "Land of the clanging sound of wings," that is, armies, as in Isa 8:8; the rendering "bark," or "ship," is rather dubious [MAURER]. The armies referred to are those of Tirhakah, advancing to meet the Assyrians (Isa 37:9). In English Version, "shadowing" means protecting--stretching out its wings to defend a feeble people, namely, the Hebrews [VITRINGA]. The Hebrew for "wings" is the same as for the idol Cneph, which was represented in temple sculptures with wings (Psa 91:4). beyond--Meroe, the island between the "rivers" Nile and Astaboras is meant, famed for its commerce, and perhaps the seat of the Ethiopian government, hence addressed here as representing the whole empire: remains of temples are still found, and the name of "Tirhakah" in the inscriptions. This island region was probably the chief part of Queen Candace's kingdom (Act 8:27). For "beyond" others translate less literally "which borderest on." Ethiopia--literally, "Cush." HORSLEY is probably right that the ultimate and fullest reference of the prophecy is to the restoration of the Jews in the Holy Land through the instrumentality of some distant people skilled in navigation (Isa 18:2; Isa 60:9-10; Psa 45:15; Psa 68:31; Zep 3:10). Phœnician voyagers coasting along would speak of all Western remote lands as "beyond" the Nile's mouths. "Cush," too, has a wide sense, being applied not only to Ethiopia, but Arabia-Deserta and Felix, and along the Persian Gulf, as far as the Tigris (Gen 2:13).

For--rather, "But." perfect--perfected. When the enemy's plans are on the verge of completion. sour grape . . . flower--rather, "when the flower shall become the ripening grape" [MAURER]. sprigs--the shoots with the grapes on them. God will not only disconcert their present plans, but prevent them forming any future ones. HORSLEY takes the "harvest" and vintage here as referring to purifying judgments which cause the excision of the ungodly from the earth, and the placing of the faithful in a state of peace on the earth: not the last judgment (Joh 15:2; Rev 14:15-20).