the Week of Proper 21 / Ordinary 26
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King James Version
Isaiah 54:11
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"O afflicted one, storm‑tossed, and not comforted,Behold, I will lay your stones in antimony,And your foundations I will set in sapphires.
"O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I will set your stones in antimony, And your foundations I will lay in sapphires.
O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your stones will be framed in fair colours, and your bases will be sapphires.
Beholde, thou poore, vexed, & dispised, I wyll make thy walles of precious stones, & thy foundation of Saphires,
[Thou] afflicted, tossed with tempest, not comforted! Behold, I will set thy stones in antimony, and lay thy foundations with sapphires;
"O you afflicted one, Tossed with tempest, and not comforted, Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, And lay your foundations with sapphires.
Afflicted one, storm tossed and not comforted! Behold, I am laying your stones with antimony, and have founded you with sapphires.
"You poor city! Enemies came against you like storms, and no one comforted you. But I will rebuild you. I will use a beautiful mortar to lay the stones of your walls. I will use sapphire stones when I lay the foundation.
you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
Oh thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with faire colours, and lay thy foundations with Saphires.
Beholde, thou poore, vexed & despised: I wil make thy walles of precious stones, & yi foundacio of Saphires,
"Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied: I'm about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise, Lay your foundations with sapphires, construct your towers with rubies, Your gates with jewels, and all your walls with precious stones. All your children will have God for their teacher— what a mentor for your children! You'll be built solid, grounded in righteousness, far from any trouble—nothing to fear! far from terror—it won't even come close! If anyone attacks you, don't for a moment suppose that I sent them, And if any should attack, nothing will come of it. I create the blacksmith who fires up his forge and makes a weapon designed to kill. I also create the destroyer— but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged. Any accuser who takes you to court will be dismissed as a liar. This is what God 's servants can expect. I'll see to it that everything works out for the best." God 's Decree.
"O you afflicted [city], storm-tossed, and not comforted, Listen carefully, I will set your [precious] stones in mortar, And lay your foundations with sapphires.
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will set thy stones in fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, look, I will set your stones in fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
Oh thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, [and] not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
"You poor city. Storms have hurt you, and you have not been comforted. But I will rebuild you with turquoise stones, and I will build your foundations with sapphires.
"O afflicted one, driven away, and unconsoled! Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony and I lay your foundation with lapis-lazuli.
Jerusalem, you are sad and discouraged, tossed around in a storm. But I, the Lord , will rebuild your city with precious stones; for your foundation I will use blue sapphires.
"Storm-ravaged [city], unconsoled, I will set your stones in the finest way, lay your foundations with sapphires,
O thou afflicted and tossed with tempest, that hast no comfort, beholde, I wil lay thy stones with the carbuncle, and lay thy foundation with saphirs,
O you afflicted one, tempest-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beryl, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will set thy stones in fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
"O storm-battered city, troubled and desolate! I will rebuild you with precious jewels and make your foundations from lapis lazuli.
"O suffering one, shaken by the storm and not comforted, see, I will set your stones in beautiful colors. You will stand upon blue stones of much worth.
Afflicted and outcast thou has not been comforted: behold, I will prepare carbuncle for thy stones, and sapphire for thy foundations;
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will set thy stones in fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
"O afflicted city, lashed by storms, without solace, surely I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.
O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I am about to set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
O thou humbled one storm-tossed, uncomforted, - Lo! I, am about to set in antimony, thy stones, And will found thee in sapphires;
O poor little one, tossed with tempest, without all comfort, behold I will lay thy stones in order, and will lay thy foundations with sapphires,
"O afflicted one, driven away, who is not consoled. Look! I am about to set your stones in hard mortar, and I will lay your foundation with sapphires.
"O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
"Afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I will set your stones in antimony, And I will lay your foundations with sapphires.
The Lord says, "O Jerusalem, you suffering, helpless city, with no one to comfort you, I will rebuild your foundations with precious stones.
"Poor Jerusalem, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I will set your stones in black mortar, and lay your foundations in sapphires.
Thou litle and pore, drawun out bi tempest, with outen ony coumfort, lo! Y schal strewe thi stoonys bi ordre, and Y schal founde thee in safiris;
"O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
O afflicted, storm-tossed, not comforted, Lo, I am laying with cement thy stones, And have founded thee with sapphires,
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
thou afflicted: Isaiah 54:6, Isaiah 49:14, Isaiah 51:17-19, Isaiah 51:23, Isaiah 52:1-5, Isaiah 60:15, Exodus 2:23, Exodus 3:2, Exodus 3:7, Deuteronomy 31:17, Psalms 34:19, Psalms 129:1-3, Jeremiah 30:17, John 16:20-22, John 16:33, Acts 14:22, Revelation 11:3-10, Revelation 12:13-17
tossed: Matthew 8:24, Acts 27:18-20
not comforted: Lamentations 1:1, Lamentations 1:2, Lamentations 1:16, Lamentations 1:17, Lamentations 1:21
I will lay: 1 Kings 5:17, 1 Chronicles 29:2, Ezekiel 40:1 - Ezekiel 42:20, Ephesians 2:20, 1 Peter 2:4-6, Revelation 21:18-21
sapphires: Exodus 24:10, Exodus 28:17-20, Exodus 39:10-14, Song of Solomon 5:14, Ezekiel 1:26, Ezekiel 10:1
Reciprocal: 1 Kings 6:30 - General 1 Kings 7:10 - the foundation 2 Chronicles 3:6 - precious Job 7:4 - tossings Job 28:6 - sapphires Psalms 61:2 - my heart Psalms 72:7 - In his days Isaiah 33:5 - he hath Isaiah 44:26 - that saith Lamentations 1:9 - she had Ezekiel 28:13 - every Matthew 14:24 - tossed Mark 6:48 - he saw Luke 8:23 - came 1 Corinthians 3:12 - precious Revelation 21:14 - foundations Revelation 21:19 - the foundations
Gill's Notes on the Bible
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted,.... Or, "O thou poor" s church; for the first Christian churches chiefly consisted of poor persons, not many mighty and noble being called; and which were greatly "afflicted" with false teachers, who broached errors and heresies, and made schisms among them; and "tossed with tempests" like a ship at sea; or "stormed" t with the rage and fury of violent persecutors, such as the Roman emperors were; and not "comforted", having none to administer any external comfort or relief to them; none of the kings or princes of the earth, or any civil magistrate to protect and defend them; what comfort they had was internal and spiritual; what they had from Christ and his Spirit, and by the word and ordinances; or rather this may describe the state of the church under Papal tyranny and persecution, which brings it nearer to the times of peace and prosperity after promised:
behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours; or, "with paint" u; such as women used to paint their faces or eyes with, 2 Kings 9:30. The Targum is,
"behold, I will lay with paint the stones of thy pavement;''
and the words seem plainly to design the stones of a pavement, and perhaps by an hypallage or transposition may be rendered,
I will lay thy pavement with glistering stones; so the word is translated 1 Chronicles 29:2 or, "with stones of paint" w; which are of the colour of the "stibium", or paint before mentioned, and which was of a black colour; and Aben Ezra says the word here signifies a precious stone of a black colour; perhaps black marble is meant, a stone fit for pavements; but, be these stones what they will, they design in the spiritual sense the materials of a Gospel church, those "lively stones" which
are built up a spiritual house, and which are beautified with the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God; and may also denote that the lowest and meanest of the Lord's people, pointed out by stones of the pavement, should be thus adorned:
and lay thy foundations with sapphires; a precious stone of a white colour, according to R. Saadiah Gaon; but, according to Aben Ezra, of a red colour; though the sapphire is usually said to be of a sky colour, shining with specks of gold. The Targum renders it, "with precious stones"; and so the foundation of the wall of the New Jerusalem is said to be garnished with all manner of precious stones, Revelation 21:19, this may respect Christ, the sure foundation God has laid in Zion, the foundation of the apostles and prophets; the one and only foundation of the church of Christ, and all true believers, who is more precious than sapphires, or all the most precious stones; he always has been the foundation of his church in all ages; but the meaning is, that he shall now appear most clearly and manifestly to be the foundation, and to be a firm, rich, and glorious one; see Exodus 24:10.
s עניה V. L. Munster, Pagninus; "O paupercula", Tigurine version; "inops", Cocceius. t סוערה "tempestate obruta"; Munster, Vatablus, Forerius. u בפוך "in fuco", Tigurine version; "in stibio", Sanctius. w "Stibinis lapidibus", Forerius.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
O thou afflicted - In the previous verses, Yahweh had merely promised protection, and had in general terms assured them of his favor. Here he shows that they should not only be defended, but that his church would rise with great beauty, and be ornamented like a most splendid palace or temple. This is to be regarded as addressed primarily to the exiles in Babylon near to the close of their seventy years’ captivity. But nothing forbids us to apply it to the church in all similar circumstances when persecuted, and when she is like a ship rolling on the heaving billows of the ocean.
Tossed with tempest - Lowth, ‘Beaten with the storm.’ The idea is that of a ship that is driven by the tempest; or any object that is tossed about with a whirlwind (סערה so‛ărâh). See Jonah 1:11-13; Hosea 13:3; Hebrews 3:14. The figure is especially striking in an Oriental country. Tempests and whirlwinds there, are much more violent than they are with us, and nothing there can stand before them (see Harmer’s Obs. vol. i. p. 92ff Ed. Loud. 1808).
And not comforted - They were far away from all the comforts which they had enjoyed in their own land, and they were apparently forsaken by God.
Behold, I will lay thy stones - It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to compare the prosperity of the church to a splendid temple or palace. In the book of Tobit (Tobit 13:16, 17) a description of Jerusalem occurs, which has all the appearance of having been copied from this, or at least shows that the writer had this passage in his eye. ‘For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls, and battlements, and towers, of pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of Ophir.’ And in the book of Revelation Revelation 21:18-21, a similar description occurs of the New Jerusalem. Possibly John had his eye upon this passage in Isaiah, though he has greatly amplified the description. The passage here undoubtedly contains a figurative description of the future prosperity and glory of the church of God. Lowth remarks on it, justly, ‘These seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise moral and spiritual meaning.’ The phrase ‘I will lay thy stones,’ refers to the work of masonry in laying down the foundation of a building, or the stones of which a building is composed, in mortar or cement. Literally, ‘I cause to lie down.’ The word here used (רבץ râbâts) is usually appropriated to an animal that crouches or lies down.
With fair colors - This translation by no means conveys the idea of the original. The sense is not that the stones would have fair colors, but that the cement which would be used would be that which was commonly employed to make the most valued colors. The edifice which would be reared would be as costly and magnificent as if the very cement of the stones consisted of the most precious coloring matter; the purest vermilion. The word rendered here ‘fair colors’ (פוך pûk) denotes properly, seaweed, from which an alkaline paint was prepared; then paint itself, dye, fucus, and also that with which the Hebrew women tinged their eyelashes (stibium). This is composed of the powder of lead ore, and was drawn with a small wooden bodkin through the eyelids, and tinged the hair and the edges of the eyelids with a dark sooty color, and was esteemed to be a graceful ornament. This practice is of great antiquity.
It was practiced by Jezebel (see 2 Kings 9:30, where the same word is used as here); it was practiced among the Greeks and Romans (Xen. Cyr. i. 11); and it is still practiced in Africa (see Shaw’s Travels, pp. 294, 295). The word used here is rendered ‘paint,’ or ‘painted’ 2 Kings 9:30; Jeremiah 22:14; and ‘glistening stones’ 1 Chronicles 29:2. It does not occur elsewhere. In the passage in Chronicles it may mean the carbuncle, as it is rendered here by the Septuagint, (ἄνθρακα anthraka); but it here denotes, doubtless, the valued paint or dye which was used as an ornament. The description here is that the very stones should be laid in cement of this description, and is of course equivalent to saying that it would be in the most costly and magnificent manner. It may be added, however, that it would not be the mere fact that the stibium would constitute the cement that the prophet seems to refer to, but probably he also means to intimate that this would contribute greatly to the beauty of the city. The cement in which bricks or stones is laid in a building is partly visible, and the beauty of the structure would be augmented by having that which was regarded as constituting the highest ornament used for cement.
And thy foundations with sapphires - The sapphire is a well-known gem distinguished for its beauty and splendor. In hardness it is inferior to the diamond only. Its colors are blue, red, violet, green, white, or limpid.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Isaiah 54:11. Behold, I will lay thy stones - "Behold, I lay thy stones"] These seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise, moral, or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner: "For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls, and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of ophir." Tob. 13:16, 17. Compare also Revelation 21:18-21.
