อิสยาห์ 44:20 วิจารณ์

God, by the prophet, goes on in this chapter, as before, I. To encourage his people with the assurance of great blessings he had in store for them at their return out of captivity, and those typical of much greater which the gospel church, his spiritual Israel, should partake of in the days of the Messiah; and hereby he proves himself to be God alone against all pretenders (Isa 44:1-8). II. To expose the sottishness and amazing folly of idol-makers and idol-worshippers (Isa 44:9-20). III. To ratify and confirm the assurances he had given to his people of those great blessings, and to raise their joyful and believing expectations of them (Isa 44:21-28).

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 44 In this chapter the Lord comforts his people with the promise of the effusion of his Spirit, and the blessings of his grace upon them; the consequence of which would be fruitfulness in them, and the conversion of others, who should profess themselves the Lord's people, Isa 44:1, he proves his deity in opposition to all false gods from his eternity, omniscience, and foretelling future events, Isa 44:6, exposes the stupidity of idol makers and the worshippers of them, Isa 44:9, makes gracious promises of the remembrance of his people, the remission of their sins, and their redemption by Christ, Isa 44:21, of which redemption from Babylon was a type; and of that assurance is given, from the Lord's creating all things by his power; from his frustrating and infatuating diviners and wise men; from his fulfilling his predictions delivered by his prophets; and from his mentioning by name the instrument of their redemption, Cyrus, Isa 44:24, which makes way for a particular prophecy concerning him in the next chapter.

He feedeth of ashes,.... That is, the idolater delights in his idol, pleases himself with seeks comfort and satisfaction from it, fills and feeds himself with hopes and expectations of being helped and delivered by it; but this is all vain hope, a mere delusion; it is as if a man fed on ashes instead of food; it is feeding on that which has no savour nor substance, can yield no nourishment, but, on the contrary, is pernicious and hurtful; and it is like Ephraim's feeding on wind, Hos 12:1 or on chaff instead of wheat, Jer 23:28 and so such who feed upon and delight themselves in sinful lusts, or false doctrines, may be said to feed on the same sort of food: and here it may be true of the idol in a literal sense; part of the wood of which it was made being reduced to ashes, to which some respect may be had, Isa 44:15, and that itself was capable of the same fate. The Targum is, "behold his god, part of it is ashes;'' so the Vulgate Latin version: "a deceived heart hath turned him aside" from the true God, and the right worship of him, unto idolatry; the heart of man is deceitful, and desperately wicked; a man needs no other to entice him, and draw him away into any sin, and from the living God, than his own evil heart; which, being deceived itself, deceives him, and leads him to the commission of such things as are contrary to reason and common sense: and he is so infatuated with them, and possessed with a strong belief of them, that he cannot deliver his soul: divest himself of his erroneous and wicked principles, and leave his idolatrous practices, or be persuaded that he is in the wrong: nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? that the idol, which his right hand has made, is a lie, a mere vanity, not to be depended upon and trusted in: or which is in, or "at his right hand" (m); and worshipped by him, and is highly esteemed and loved as his right hand; this he cannot be persuaded to believe, and say that it is a falsehood and a work of errors; such is the force and fascination of idolatry, when once persons are ensnared and entangled with it. (m) "quod est in dextera mea", Piscator; "ad dexteram meam", Junius & Tremellius.

(Verse 6 and following) This is what the Lord, the king of Israel and his redeemer, the Lord of hosts, says: I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides me. Who is like me? Let him call and declare, and lay out the order for me, since I established the ancient people: what is coming and what will happen, let them declare to them. Do not be afraid, nor be troubled: from that time I have made you hear and announced it; you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me, and a creator whom I do not know? All the idols of the nations are worthless, and the things they love do not profit them. They themselves are witnesses to their own worthlessness, for they do not see or understand, so that they may be put to shame. Who formed a god or cast an idol that is profitable for nothing? Look, all his companions shall be put to shame; the craftsmen are mere men. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together. The blacksmith takes a tool and works it with the coals; he fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He will be hungry and will become weak, he will not drink water, and he will grow weary. The carpenter extends the rule (or the form), he shapes it on the plane, he forms it with angles, and rounds it off with a compass. And he makes an image of a man, like a handsome man dwelling in a house. He cuts down cedars, he takes an oak, and a tree that stood among the woods. He plants a pine, which the rain nourishes, and it becomes fuel for men. He takes from them, and warms himself; he kindles it, and bakes bread. But the rest of it he made into a god and worshipped; he made an idol and bowed down to it. He burned half of it in the fire and cooked meat on it; he roasted a stew and ate it, and then he was satisfied. He warmed himself and said, 'Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.' The rest of the wood he made into a god, his idol. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, 'Save me, for you are my god.' They do not know, nor do they understand; for their eyes are too dim to see, and their hearts too dull to perceive. They do not recognize in their mind, nor do they know, nor do they feel to say: I burnt its middle with fire, and I baked bread on its coals. I cooked meat, and I ate, and from the rest of it I will make an idol, I will prostrate before the trunk of a tree, a part of it is ashes: the foolish heart worshipped it: and it did not save its soul, nor will it say: perhaps there is a lie in my right hand. After the preaching of the Apostles, the calling of the Gentiles, the coming of the Savior, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which he promised to give to all who believe, when another will say, I belong to the Lord: another will call himself in the name of Jacob: another will write with his own hand that he belongs to the Lord, and when he has arisen from the unbelieving crowd of the Gentiles, he will be likened to Israel, so that having abandoned idols, he may be a worshipper of one God: it begins another section, which we have presented in its entirety, so as not to divide the unity of its meaning. And because the Septuagint in this chapter, with the exception of a few words, does not differ from the Hebrew, we are satisfied with our edition, by understanding which, the others will be understood as well. And this is a discourse against the idolaters of that time, to whom the prophet Isaiah proclaimed the coming things for the people, and he reproves those who, despising the religion of Almighty God, incline to wooden idols and worship the works of their own hands. Let us therefore run through each point. Thus says the Lord, the king of Israel, who is to be believed in me, and his redeemer, who will receive the coming of my Son: The Lord of hosts and virtues, and Almighty. For in Hebrew, it means Sabaoth (). I am the first and the last, I am Α and Ω; and there is no God without me, for the child whom I have chosen is God in me. Of whom I said above: Behold my child, whom I have chosen: my chosen one, whom my soul has received: he will bring judgment to the nations: and in his name the nations will hope. He does not say that he alone exists, but that apart from his own virtue and wisdom there is no external God, and condemns the belief in many gods and images: Who, he says, is like me? Let him call those things which are not as though they were, and explain the order of my creation, which I have balanced with reason, since I made man upon the earth. And not only do I desire this, but I also seek knowledge of the future. Therefore, you, Israel, of whom I am both king and redeemer, do not fear the images that you have learned are nothing on Mount Sinai. Is there perhaps another Creator, whom I do not know? Or is there another world beyond this one, which reveals the power of an unknown God? And not only the things that are made, but also those who make them, will be considered worthless. And when the time of vengeance comes, they will not be able to free themselves from the works of their own hands, which blind and senseless artisans confuse. For who can believe that God is formed by an axe, file, drill, or hammer? And are there statues made of thorns; or do the plumb-line, plow, and corner-squares, and the compass suddenly rise up into gods? Especially since the poverty of the artist is shown by hunger and thirst. For a wooden statue is made, representing human form, and the more beautiful it is, the narrower is the God thought to be. It is placed in a shrine, and is enclosed in eternal prison, which grew for a long time in the woods, and depending on the variety of trees, was either a cedar or an oak or a pine. And in a wondrous manner, its segments and scratches are thrown into the hearth, so that they may warm the artisan of God and cook different dishes. But the other part is fashioned into a god, so that, with the work complete, the creator may adore it and seek assistance from his own creation. Yet he does not understand or consider, indeed, he does not even look upon it with the eyes of the flesh or the mind, that it cannot be God, whose part has been consumed by fire, nor can the divine majesty be made by the hand of man. Moreover, the prophetic language is more fully covered with ridicule, which is easily understood and does not require a verbose, rather superfluous commentary. This is what Horace also writes about in his Satire, mocking the idols of the nations (Satire VIII, Book I). Once I was a fig tree trunk, useless wood: When a craftsman was unsure whether to make a bench or Priapus. He preferred it to be a god: I became a god, the greatest fear of thieves and birds. . . . . . . . . . . . . Whatever is said about idols can also be applied to the leaders of heresies, who create images of their doctrines and lies with cunning hearts and worship things that they know are made by themselves. And their own error is not enough for them, unless they deceive even the simplest of their followers with their worship. Those who think that gain is godliness and devour the homes of widows (I Tim. VI), taking advantage of the ignorance of the common people, in this way, with dialectic art, as if with an axe and drill, they shape their own god, and they forge with a hammer, and they gild with the elegance of rhetorical language: of whom their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame (Philipp. III).

Foolishness has mastered them; they have lost the faculty of reasoning and are slaves to folly. This is why I will put my Spirit on your descendants, so that they will be delivered from error, for in no other way can they receive the truth. “See, you will not say, There is a lie in my right hand.” The other interpreters join this passage to the one that precedes: “[Know] that no one is able to deliver his soul and no one says, is it a lie that you have in your right hand?” [Isaiah] has, therefore, said about the people who are in error that they do not recognize as a lie that which they are holding. But according to the Septuagint, this phrase, which is put into the mouth of God, should be understood thus: “Are my works,” he says, “like those of a whetstone? Has a human made me? Am I an idol? Am I fabricated by cutting wood or stones of gold or silver?”

Second, he shows the blindness of the craftsman: they have not known. Part thereof, of the wood from which the idol was made, now is ashes, for it was burned. Perhaps there is a lie in my right hand, that is, in my working: he is not ashamed to speak to that which has no life (Wis 13:17).

Jeremiah reproves the Jews in Egypt for continuing in idolatry after the exemplary judgments indicted by God on their nation for that sin, Jer 44:1-14; and, upon their refusing to reform, denounces destruction to them, and to that kingdom wherein they sought protection, vv. 15-30.

He feedeth on ashes - He feedeth on that which affordeth no nourishment; a proverbial expression for using ineffectual means, and bestowing labor to no purpose. In the same sense Hosea says, "Ephraim feedeth on wind." Hos 12:1.

CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER. (Isa. 44:1-28) Yet--Though thou hast sinned, yet hear God's gracious promise as to thy deliverance. chosen-- (Isa 41:8).

feedeth on ashes--figuratively, for the idolater delights in what is vain (Pro 15:14; Hos 12:1). "Feedeth on wind." There is an allusion, perhaps, also, to the god being made of a tree, the half of which was reduced to ashes by fire (Isa 44:15-17); the idol, it is implied, was no better, and could, and ought, to have been reduced to ashes like the other half. deceived heart--The heart and will first go astray, then the intellect and life (Rom 1:28; Eph 4:18). lie in . . . right hand--Is not my handiwork (the idol) a self-deceit?

This exposure of the infatuation of idolatry closes with an epiphonem in the form of a gnome (cf., Isa 26:7, Isa 26:10). "He who striveth after ashes, a befooled heart has led him astray, and he does not deliver his soul, and does not think, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" We have here a complete and self-contained sentence, which must not be broken up in the manner proposed by Knobel, "He hunts after ashes; his heart is deceived," etc. He who makes ashes, i.e., things easily scattered, perishable, and worthless, the object of his effort and striving (compare rūăch in Hos 12:2), has bee led astray from the path of truth and salvation by a heart overpowered by delusion; he is so certain, that he does not think of saving his soul, and it never occurs to him to say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" All that belongs to idolatry is sheqer - a fabrication and a lie. רעה means primarily to pasture or tend, hence to be concerned about, to strive after. הותל is an attributive, from tâlal - hâtal, ludere, ludificare (see at Isa 30:10).