Isaiah 8 - Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical - Bible Commentaries

Verses 1-4

2. ISAIAH GIVING THE WHOLE NATION A SIGN BY THE BIRTH OF HIS SON MAHER-SHALAL-HASH -BAZ

CHAPTER Isaiah 8:1-4

1MOREOVER the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with 2a man’s pen concerning1 Maher-shalal-hash-baz. And I took unto me faithful witnesses 3to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 4For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

On Isaiah 9:1. חֶרֶט (found only here and Exodus 32:4), is an instrument for cutting in, engraving in wood, metal, wax, etc., the chisel, style. It stands here as stylus, metonymically as efficiens pro effecto, i. e., the writing instrument stands for the writing. חרט אנוש seems to me not to mean writing of the common man in distinction from that of men of higher degree, say, a popular as distinguished from priestly writing. [In an ordinary and familiar hand, J. A. ALEXANDER, BARNES.] For in the first place it is very doubtful if אֱנוֹשׁ has this meaning. The word is distinguished from אָדָם (comp. Psalms 73:5) but only by its poetic use. It occurs in Isaiah six times, here, and Isaiah 13:7; Isaiah 13:12; Isaiah 24:6; Isaiah 33:8; Isaiah 51:7; Isaiah 56:2. In the second place we have no trace of there being two sorts of writing in use among the Hebrews before the exile. The passages Habakkuk 2:2; Psalms 45:2, cited by some in support of the notion, prove nothing. I much rather believe that a contrast of human and superhuman writing is meant. For as Paul distinguishes between human and angel tongues (1 Corinthians 13:1) so we may distinguish between human and angel writing. Of the latter, Daniel 5:5 sqq. offers us an example. Comp. Exodus 32:32; Psalms 69:29; Psalms 139:16; Daniel 12:1; Revelation 19:12; Revelation 20:12; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:12; Revelation 21:27. For the prophets were not merely “hearers of the words of God,” but also “men whose eyes were open,” “who saw the vision of the Almighty” (Numbers 24:3-4). The לְ is variously explained. It is taken as constructio periphrastica (acceleratura sunt spolia or accelerationi spolia, comp. Genesis 15:12; Joshua 2:5; Isaiah 10:32; Isaiah 37:26; Isaiah 38:20, etc.), as depending on כְּתֹב in the sense of commanding (1 Chronicles 21:17), as sign of dedication, or as stating the object. The first two explanations are inadmissible, because לְ would then fit only the first member (מהר as infinitive), not the second (חָשׁ particip.). לְ can thus be taken only as a dedication or as stating the aim. Both these ways of explaining it agree in not taking מהר as infin., but as a verbal adjective like Zephaniah 1:14 (comp. מָאֵן מַקֵּל). But they differ in sense. This can be no dedication in the common sense. For there is no gift to be presented to Maher-shalal, only the attention of the nation is directed to him. The לְ can define therefore only the reference or the destiny, the aim. It is thereby said that this tablet with its inscription concerns a Maher-shalal-hash-baz, but of whom absolutely nothing is known, not even whether a person or a thing. Comp. Ezekiel 37:16. The case is different with Jeremiah 46:2; Jeremiah 48:1; Jeremiah 49:1. Comp. on Jeremiah 46:0. sqq.

On Isaiah 9:2. ואעידה וגו׳ the LXX. translates μάρτυράσ μοι ποίησον as if וְהָעִֽידָה stood in the text. So, too, the SYR., CHALD. and ARAB. in the London Polyglotte, which HITZIG follows. The VULG. translates: ”et adhibui;” it therefore read וָאָעִֽידָה; and so, too, would EICHHORN, DE WETTE, ROORDA, KNOBEL, and others read. But, after mature consideration, I find there is no ground for departing from the reading of the text. It is perfectly supported by testimony. First of all it is the more difficult reading, and both the others give evidence of being attempts to relieve the difficulty by correction. Then, too, Isaiah never uses the cohortative form with the weakened sense, as it occurs elsewhere with the Vav consec. imperf. in the first pers., especially in Dan., Ezra, and Neh. Thus the form וָאָעִֽידָה especially occurs Nehemiah 13:21 (along with וָאָעִיד ibid. Isaiah 9:15). Why did not Isaiah write וָאָעֵיד as Jeremiah did in precisely the same sense, Isaiah 32:10? Comp. 1 Kings 2:42. The form וְאָעִידָה is found Deuteronomy 31:28; Psalms 50:7; Psalms 81:9; Jeremiah 6:10, everywhere as cohortative.—העיד עדים like Jeremiah 32:10; Jeremiah 32:25; Jeremiah 32:44.

On Isaiah 9:4. יִשָּׂא = “one will bear.”—חַיִל in the sense of possession, riches, treasures is found beside here Isaiah 10:14; Isaiah 60:5; Isaiah 60:11; Isaiah 61:6.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Moreover the Lord said——the king of Assyria.

Vers 1-4. A compound token! First, Isaiah is to take a large tablet (only found beside Isaiah 3:23; here is meant certainly a tablet coated with smooth wax), and write on it with human handwriting some words. It is therefore assumed here that there is a superhuman handwriting (see Text. and Gram.) and that the Prophet could understand and make use of it (comp. Daniel 5:5 sqq.). But Isaiah must not employ this superhuman, but common, human writing. Isaiah must write on the tablet “Maher-shalal-hash-baz.” It is clear that when he wrote these words they were not designated as the name of a son to be expected. For, first, there is nothing of this in the text. Second, there is a two-fold gradation of the prophecy wherein the first stage gives a pledge of the second. The words on the tablet are the prophecy of a Maher-shalal-hash-baz to be looked for; the appearance of the latter is therefore the fulfilment of this prophecy, and so the guaranty that the event, to which the significant name itself in turn refers, shall certainly come to pass.

The Lord commands the Prophet therefore to set up a tablet with the inscription mentioned, and at the same time makes known his will, that Uriah and Zechariah shall act as witnesses. What they are to witness is as little stated as that Isaiah shall accomplish the will of the LORD in regard to the witnesses and that he actually did this. The latter is assumed as being a matter of course. This scantiness is too common in the prophetic manner of narrating to cause us any surprise. The former is to be obtained from the context. For when we read immediately after: “And I went unto the Prophetess,” etc., it is plain that the witnesses should testify that Isaiah, at the time he set up the tablet, had communicated to them that he would approach his wife, and that she, in consequence, would become pregnant and bear a son. But why, it may be asked, did not the Prophet declare this publicly? Not out of regard for propriety certainly; for there would not have been anything the least offensive in doing so. But why must then the witnesses receive this announcement? I can think of no other reason than the enmity and vindictiveness of Ahaz. He was, we may be sure, only half rejoiced at the quieting of his fears in regard to the impending danger from Rezin and Pekah. The way in which he, according to Isaiah 7:10 sqq., received that reassuring announcement, and what was connected with it as a further finger-board for the remote future (Isaiah 7:17 sqq.), all this was calculated to embitter him and his against the Prophet. Had, therefore, the Prophet announced publicly the pregnancy of his wife, the mother and child might have incurred danger. This was easiest avoided by imparting the announcement only to witnesses, who, however, were in such esteem with the nation, that their assurance that they had at the proper time received such a communication from the Prophet was universally credited. Then we obtain the following chain of events. First, the tablet. This, makes known in general that the LORD purposes a great crisis of war, and that it is to be looked for shortly. Immediately thereupon the witnesses receive the announcement of the pregnancy of the Prophetess, The son is born, and thereby, on the authority of the witnesses, is given to all, the pledge that the event to which the inscription of the tablet and the corresponding name of the child pointed, shall really come to pass.

Whether Uriah is the priest mentioned, 2 Kings 16:10 sqq. [BARNES, J. A. ALEXANDER], who, out of regard for Ahaz, placed in the temple the altar made after the heathen pattern, is just as doubtful as whether Zechariah is identical with the one said to be the author of Zechariah 9-11, or with the son of Asaph (2 Chronicles 29:13).

Isaiah’s wife is hardly called Prophetess, because she was the wife of a Prophet, but because she herself was a prophetic woman. We do not indeed know of prophecies of which she was the authoress, but she, along with other things of the Prophet’s family, was set for a sign and wonder (Isaiah 9:18).

Our exposition of Isaiah 7:14 of itself shows that the present history is not coincident with Isaiah 7:10 sqq., and therefore that Maher-shalal is not identical with Immanuel. Yet the present narrative is nearly related to Isaiah 7:10 sqq. In both, pregnancy and the birth of a son are pledges of deliverance. In both, a stage of development in the child is made the measure that defines the period of the deliverance. But a child can say father and mother, sooner than it can distinguish between good and evil. If then, as also the place of the passage in the book, indicates, what is now narrated, took place somewhat later than the events Isaiah 7:10 sqq., it agrees very well. Both have the same objective end, viz., the rendering harmless Syria and Ephraim. Therefore the later one must use the shorter time measure. As Pekah and Rezin lived during the events prophesied here, yet the former died B. C. 739, so the transactions related here must fall between B. C. 743 and 739. The king of Assyria did not at that time destroy Samaria. He only desolated a few border regions (2 Kings 15:29). But as we showed at Isaiah 7:17, that the prophecy contemplated two events, inwardly related, but separated as to time, so it is here. That first, preliminary devastation of the region of Ephraim bears the later one (2 Kings 17:6) so really in it, that the Prophet is justified in comprehending both together.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isaiah 7:1. “Hierosolyma oppugnatur, etc. Jerusalem is assaulted but not conquered. The church is pressed but not oppressed.”—Foerster.

2. On Isaiah 7:2. “Quando ecclesia, etc. When the Church is assaulted and Christ crucified over again in His elect, Rezin and Pekah, Herod and Pilate are wont to form alliance and enter into friendly relations. There are, so to speak, the foxes of Samson, joined indeed by the tails, but their heads are disconnected.”—Foerster.—“He that believes flees not (Isaiah 28:16). ‘The righteous is bold as a lion’ (Proverbs 28:1). Hypocrites and those that trust in works (work-saints) have neither reason nor faith. Therefore they cannot by any means quiet their heart. In prosperity they are, indeed, overweening, but in adversity they fall away (Jeremiah 17:9).” Cramer.

3. On Isaiah 7:9. (“If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.”) “Insignis sententia, etc. A striking sentiment that may be adapted generally to all temptation, because all earnest endeavor after anything, as you know, beguiles us in temptation. But only faith in the word of promise makes us abide and makes sure whatever we would execute. He warns Ahaz, therefore, as if he said: I now promise you by the word, it shall be that those two kings shall not hurt you. Believe this word! For if you do not, whatever you afterwards devise will deceive you: because all confidence is vain which is not supported by the word of God.”—Luther.

4. On Isaiah 7:10-12. “Wicked Ahaz pretends to great sanctity in abstaining from asking a sign through fear of God. Thus hypocrites are most conscientious where there is no need for it: on the other hand, when they ought to be humble, they are the most insolent. But where God commands to be bold, one must be bold. For to be obedient to the word is not tempting God. That is rather tempting God when one proposes something without having the word for it. It is, indeed, the greatest virtue to rest only in the word, and desire nothing more. But where God would add something more than the word, then it must not be thought a virtue to reject it as superfluous. We must therefore exercise such a faith in the word of God that we will not despise the helps that are given in addition to it as aids to faith. For example the Lord offers us in the gospel all that is necessary to salvation. Why then Baptism and the Lord’s Supper? Are they to be treated as superfluous? By no means. For if one believes the word he will at the same time exhibit an entire obedience toward God. We ought therefore to learn to join the sign with the word, for no man has the power to sever the two.

But do you ask: is it permitted to ask God for a sign? We have an example of this in Gideon. Answer: Although Gideon was not told of God to ask a sign, yet he did it by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, and not according to his own fancy. We must not therefore abuse his example, and must be content with the sign that is offered by the Lord. But there are extraordinary signs or miracles, like that of the text, and ordinary ones like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Yet both have the same object and use. For as Gideon was strengthened by that miraculous event, so, too, are we strengthened by Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, although no miracle appears before our eyes.” Heim and Hoffmann after Luther. Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, also asked the Lord to show him the right wife for Isaac by means of a sign of His own choosing, (Genesis 24:14).

It ought to be said that this asking a sign (opening the Bible at a venture, or any other book) does not suit Christian perfection (Hebrews 6:1). A Christian ought to be inwardly sensible of the divine will. He ought to content himself with the guarantees that God Himself offers. Only one must have open eyes and ears for them. This thing of demanding a sign, if it is not directly an effect of superstition (Matthew 12:39; Matthew 16:4; 1 Corinthians 1:22), is certainly childish, and, because it easily leads to superstitious abuses, it is dangerous.

5. On Isaiah 7:13. “Non caret, etc. That the Prophet calls God his God is not without a peculiar emphasis. In Zechariah 2:12 it is said, that whoever touches the servants of God touches the pupil of God’s eye. Whoever opposes teacher and preacher will have to deal with God in heaven or with the Lord who has put them into office.”—Foerster.

6. On Isaiah 7:14. “The name Immanuel is one of the most beautiful and richest in contents of all the Holy Scripture. ‘God with us’ comprises God’s entire plan of salvation with sinful humanity. In a narrower sense it means ‘God-man’ (Matthew 1:23), and points to the personal union of divinity and humanity, in the double nature of the Son of God become man. Jesus Christ was a God-with-us, however, in this, that for about 33 years He dwelt among us sinners (John 1:11; John 1:14). In a deeper and wider sense still He was such by the Immanuel’s work of the atonement (2 Corinthians 5:19; 1 Timothy 2:3). He will also be such to every one that believes on Him by the work of regeneration and sanctification and the daily renewal of His holy and divine communion of the Spirit (John 17:23; John 17:26; John 14:19-21; John 14:23). He is such now by His high-priestly and royal administration and government for His whole Church (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 7:25). He will be snch in the present time of the Church in a still more glorious fashion (John 10:16). The entire and complete meaning of the name Immanuel, however, will only come to light in the new earth, and in the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21:3; Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:5).”—Wilh. Fried. Roos.

Isaiah 8:7. On Isaiah 8:5 sqq. “Like boastful swimmers despise small and quiet waters, and on the other hand, for the better display of their skill, boast of the great sea and master it, but often are lost in it,—thus, too, did the hypocrites that despised the small kingdom of Judah, and bragged much and great things of the power and splendor of the kingdom of Israel and of the Syrians; such hypocrites are still to be found now-a-days—such that bear in their eye the admiranda Romae, the splendor, riches, power, ceremonies and pomp of the Romish church, and thereupon ‘set their bushel by the bigger-heap.’ It is but the devil’s temptation over again: ‘I will give all this to thee.’ ”—Cramer.—“Fons Siloa,” etc. “The fountain of Siloam, near the temple, daily reminded the Jews that Christ was coming.”—Calvin on John 9:7.

8. On Isaiah 8:10. “When the great Superlatives sit in their council chambers and have determined everything, how it ought to be, and especially how they will extinguish the gospel, then God sends the angel Gabriel to them, who must look through the window and say: nothing will come of it.”—Luther.—“Christ, who is our Immanuel, is with us by His becoming man, for us by His office of Mediator, in us by the work of His sanctification, by us by His personal, gracious presence.”—Cramer.

9. On Isaiah 8:14-15. Christ alone is set by God to be a stone by which we are raised up. That He is, however, an occasion of offence to many is because of their purpose, petulance and contempt (1 Peter 2:8). Therefore we ought to fear lest we take offence at Him. For whoever falls on this stone will shatter to pieces (Matthew 21:44).” Cramer.

10. On Isaiah 8:16 sqq. He warns His disciples against heathenish superstition, and exhorts them to show respect themselves always to law and testimony. “They must not think that God must answer them by visions and signs, therefore He refers them to the written word, that they may not become altogether too spiritual, like those now-a-days who cry: spirit! spirit! … Christ says, Luke 16:0 : They have Moses and the prophets, and again John 5:39 : Search the Scriptures. So Paul says, 2 Timothy 3:16 : The Scripture is profitable for doctrine. So says Peter, 2 Peter 1:9 : We have a sure word of prophecy. It is the word that changes hearts and moves them. But revelations puff people up and make them insolent.” Heim and Hoffmann after Luther.

Chap. 9–11. On Isaiah 9:1 sqq. (2). “Postrema pars, etc. The latter part of chap. 8 was νομικὴ καὶ� (legal and threatening) so, on the other hand, the first and best part of chap. 9 is εὐαγγελικὴ καὶ παραμυθητική, (evangelical and comforting). Thus must ever law and gospel, preaching wrath and grace, words of reproof and words of comfort, a voice of alarm and a voice of peace follow one another in the church.” Foerster.

12. On Isaiah 9:1 (2). Both in the Old Testament and New Testament Christ is often called light. Thus Isaiah calls Him “a light to the gentiles,” Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6. The same Prophet says: “Arise, shine (make thyself light), for thy light is come,” Isaiah 60:1. And again Isaiah 9:19 : “The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light.” In the New Testament it is principally John that makes use of this expression: “The life was the light of men,” John 1:4, “and the light shined in the darkness,” John 9:5. John was not that light, but bore testimony to the light, John 9:8. “That was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” John 9:9. And further: “And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,” John 3:19. “I am the light of the world,” (John 8:12; John 9:5; comp. John 12:35).

13. On Isaiah 9:1 (2). The people that sit in darkness may be understood to comprise three grades. First, the inhabitants of Zebulon and Naphtali are called so (Isaiah 8:23), for the Prophet’s gaze is fixed first on that region lying in the extreme end of Palestine, which was neighbor to the heathen and mixed with them, and on this account was held in low esteem by the dwellers in Judah. The night that spreads over Israel in general is darkest there. But all Israel partakes of this night, therefore all Israel, too, may be understood, as among the people sitting in darkness. Finally, no one can deny that this night extends over the borders of Israel to the whole human race. For far as men dwell extends the night which Christ, as light of the world, came to dispel, Luke 1:76 sqq.

14. On Isaiah 9:5 (6). Many lay stress on the notion “child,” inasmuch as they see in that the reason for the reign of peace spoken of afterwards. It is not said a man, a king, a giant is given to us. But this is erroneous. For the child does not remain a child. He becomes a man: and the six names that are ascribed to Him and also the things predicted of His kingdom apply to Him, not as a child, but as a man. That His birth as a child is made prominent, has its reason in this, that thereby His relation to human kind should be designated as an organic one. He does not enter into humanity as a man, i.e. as one whose origin was outside of it, but He was born from it, and especially from the race of David. He is Son of man and Son of David. He is a natural offshoot, but also the crowning bloom of both. Precisely because He was to be conceived, carried and born of a human mother, and indeed of a virgin, this prophecy belongs here as the completion and definition of the two prophetic pictures Isaiah 7:10 sqq.; Isaiah 8:1 sqq.—“He came down from heaven for the sake of us men, and for our bliss (1 Timothy 1:15; Luke 2:7). For our advantage: for He undertook not for the seed of angels, but for the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16). Not sold to us by God out of great love, but given (Romans 5:15; John 3:16). Therefore every one ought to make an application of the word ‘to us’ to himself, and to learn to say: this child was given to me, conceived for me, born to me.”—Cramer.—“Cur oportuit, etc. Why did it become the Redeemer of human kind to be not merely man nor merely God, but God and man conjoined or θεάνθρωπον? Anselm replies briefly, indeed, but pithily: Deum qui posset, hominem, qui deberet.” Foerster.

15. On Isaiah 9:5 (6). “You must not suppose here that He is to be named and called according to His person, as one usually calls another by his name; but these are names that one must preach, praise and celebrate on account of His act, works and office.” Luther.

16. On Isaiah 9:6. “Verba pauca, etc. A few words, but to be esteemed great, not for their number but for their weight.” Augustine. “Admirabilis in, etc. Wonderful in birth, counsellor in what He preaches, God in working, strong in suffering, father of the world to come in resurrection, Prince of peace in bliss perpetual.” Bernard of Clairvaux. In reference to “a child is born,” and “a son is given,” Joh. Cocceius remarks in his Heb. Lex. s. v. יֶלֶד: “respectu, etc., in respect to His human nature He is said to be born, and in respect to His divine nature and eternal generation not indeed born, but given, as, John 3:16, it reads God gave His only begotten Son.”

“In the application of this language all depends on the words is born to us, is given to us.” The angels are, in this matter, far from being as blessed as we are. They do not say: To us a Saviour is born this day, but; to you. As long as we do not regard Christ as ours, so long we shall have little joy in Him. But when we know Him as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, as a gift that our heavenly Father designed for us, we will appropriate Him to ourselves in humble faith, and take possession of all His redeeming effects that He has acquired. For giving and taking go together. The Son is given to us; we must in faith receive Him.” J. J. Rambach, Betracht. über das Ev. Esaj., Halle, 1724.

On Isaiah 9:6 (7). “The government is on His shoulders.” “It is further shown how Christ differs in this respect from worldly kings. They remove from themselves the burden of government and lay it on the shoulders of the privy counsellors. But He does not lay His dominion as a burden on any other; He needs no prime minister and vicegerent to help Him bear the burden of administration, but He bears all by the word of His power as He to whom all things are given of the Father. Therefore He says to the house of Jacob (Isaiah 46:3 sq.): Hearken unto me ye who were laid on my shoulders from your mothers’ womb. I will carry you to old age. I will do it, I will lift, and carry and deliver,—on the contrary the heathen must bear and lift up their idols, (Isaiah 46:1; Isaiah 46:7).”—Rambach. “In the first place we must keep in mind His first name: He is called Wonderful. This name affects all the following.” “All is wonderful that belongs to this king: wonderfully does He counsel and comfort; wonderfully He helps to acquire and conquer, and all this in suffering and want of strength. (Luther, Jen. germ. Tom. III. Fol. 184 b.). ” “He uses weakness as a means of subduing all things to Himself. A wretched reed, a crown of thorns and an infamous cross, are the weapons of this almighty God, by means of which He achieves such great things. In the second place, He was a hero and conqueror in that just by death, He robbed him of his might who had the power of death, i.e., the devil (Hebrews 2:14); in that He, like Samson, buried His enemies with Himself, yea, became poison to death itself, and a plague to hell (Hosea 13:14) and more gloriously resumed His life so freely laid down, which none of the greatest heroes can emulate.”—Rambach.

17. On Isaiah 9:18 (19) sqq. True friendship can never exist among the wicked. For every one loves only himself. Therefore they are enemies one of another; and they are in any case friends to each other, only as long as it concerns making war on a third party.

Isaiah 10-18. On Isaiah 10:4. (Comp. the same expression in chap. 10). God’s quiver is well filled. If one arrow does not attain His object, He takes another, and so on, until the rights of God, and justice have conquered.

19. On Isaiah 10:5-7. “God works through men in a threefold way. First, we all live, move and have our being in Him, in that all activity is an outflow of His power. Then, He uses the services of the wicked so that they mutually destroy each other, or He chastises His people by their hand. Of this sort the Prophet speaks here. In the third place, by governing His people by the Spirit of sanctification: and this takes place only in the elect.”—Heim and Hoffmann.

20. On Isaiah 10:5 sqq. “Ad hunc, etc. Such places are to be turned to uses of comfort. Although the objects of temptation vary and enemies differ, yet the effects are the same, and the same spirit works in the pious. We are therefore to learn not to regard the power of the enemy nor our own weakness, but to look steadily and simply into the word, that will assuredly establish our minds that they despair not, but expect help of God. For God will not subdue our enemies, either spiritual or corporal, by might and power, but by weakness, as says the text: my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).—Luther.

21. On Isaiah 10:15. “Efficacia agendi penes Deum est, homines ministerium tantum praebent. Quare nunc sibilo suo se illos evocaturum minabatur (cap. Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 7:18); nunc instar sagenae sibi fore ad irretiendos, nunc mallei instar ad feriendos Israelitas. Sed praecipue tum declaravit, quod non sit otiosus in illis, dum Sennacherib securim vocat, quae ad secandum manu sua et destinata fuit et impacta. Non male alicubi Augustinus ita definit, quod ipsi peccant, eorum esse; quod peccando hoc vel illud agant, ex virtute Dei esse, tenebras prout visum est dividentis (De praedest Sanctt.).”—Calvin Inst. II. 4, 4.

22. On Isaiah 10:20-27. “In time of need one ought to look back to the earlier great deliverances of the children of God, as to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, or later, from the hand of the Midianites. Israel shall again grow out of the yoke.”—Diedrich.

Isaiah 11-23. On Isaiah 11:4. “The staff of His mouth.” “Evidence that the kingdom of Christ will not be like an earthly kingdom, but consist in the power of the word and of the sacraments; not in leathern, golden or silver girdles, but in girdles of righteousness and faith.”—Cramer.

24. On Isaiah 11:10 sqq. If the Prophet honors the heathen in saying that they will come to Christ before Israel, he may be the more readily believed, when Isaiah 11:11 sqq., he gives the assurance that the return out of the first, the Egyptian exile, shall be succeeded by a return out of the second, the Assyrian exile, (taking this word in the wider sense of Isaiah). It is manifest that the return that took place under Zerubbabel and Ezra was only an imperfect beginning of that promised return. For according to our passage this second return can only take place after the Messiah has appeared. Farthermore, all Israelites that belong to “the remnant of Israel,” in whatever land they may dwell, shall take part in it. It will be, therefore, a universal, not a partial return. If now the Prophet paints this return too with the colors of the present (Isaiah 11:13 sqq.), still that is no reason for questioning the reality of the matter. Israel will certainly not disappear, but arise to view in the church of the new covenant. But if the nation is to be known among the nations as a whole, though no more as a hostile contrast, but in fraternal harmony, why then shall not the land, too, assume a like position among the lands? But the nation can neither assume its place among nations, nor the land its place among lands, if they are not both united: the people Israel in the land of their fathers.

25. On Isaiah 11:0 “We may here recall briefly the older, so-called spiritual interpretation. Isaiah 11:1-5 were understood of Christ’s prophetic office that He exercised in the days of His flesh, then of the overthrow of the Roman Empire and of Antichrist, who was taken to be the Pope. But the most thorough-going of those old expositors must acknowledge, at Isaiah 11:4, that the Antichrist is not yet enough overthrown, and must be yet more overthrown. If such is the state of the case, then this interpretation is certainly false, for Isaiah 11:4 describes not a gradual judgment, but one accomplished at once. There have been many Antichrists, and among the Popes too, but the genuine Antichrist described 2 Thessalonians 2:0, is yet to be expected, and also the fulfillment of Isaiah 11:4 of our chapter. Thereby is proved at the same time that the peaceful state of things in the brute world and the return of the Jews to their native land are still things of the future, for they must happen in that period when the Antichristian world, and its head shall be judged by Christ. But then, too, the dwelling together of tame and wild beasts is not the entrance of the heathen into the church, to which they were heretofore hostile, and the return of the Jews is not the conversion of a small part of Israel that took place at Pentecost and after. The miracles and signs too, contained in Isaiah 11:15-16 did not take place then. We see just here how one must do violence to the word if he will not take it as it stands. But if we take it as we have done, then the whole chapter belongs to the doctrine of hope (Hoffnungslehre) of the Scripture, and constitutes an important member of it. The Lord procures right and room for His church. He overthrows the world-kingdom, together with Antichrist. He makes of the remnant of Israel a congregation of believers filled with the Spirit, to whom He is near in an unusual way, and from it causes His knowledge to go out into all the world. He creates peace in the restless creatures, and shows us here in advance what more glorious things we may look for in the new earth. He presents to the world a church which, united in itself, unmolested by neighbors, stands under God’s mighty protection. All these facts are parts of a chain of hope that must be valuable and dear to our hearts. The light of this future illumines the obscurity of the present; the comfort of that day makes the heart fresh.” Weber, der Prophet Jesaja, 1875.

Chap. 12–26. On Isaiah 12:4 sq. “These will not be the works of the New Testament: sacrificing and slaying, and make pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to the Holy Sepulchre, but praising God and giving thanks, preaching and hearing, believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth. For to praise our God is good; such praise is pleasant and lovely” (Psalms 147:1). Cramer.

27. On Chap. 12 “With these words conclude the prophetic discourses on Immanuel. Through what obscurity of history have we not had to go, until we came to the bright light of the kingdom of Christ! How Israel and the nations had to pass through the fire of judgment before the sun arises in Israel and the entire gentile world is illumined! It is the, same way that every Christian has to travel. In and through the fire we become blessed. Much must be burnt up in us, before we press to the full knowledge of God and of His Son, before we become entirely one with Him, entirely glad and joyful in Him. Israel was brought up and is still brought up for glory, and we too. O that our end too were such a psalm of praise as this psalm!” Weber, Der Pr. Jes. 1875.

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Verses 5-8

II.—THE SUPPLEMENTS
1. THOSE THAT DESPISE SHILOAH SHALL BE PUNISHED BY THE WATERS OF THE EUPHRATES

Isaiah 8:5-8

5

THE LORD spake also unto me again, saying,

6

For as much as this people refuseth

The waters of Shiloah that go softy,
And rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;

7

Now therefore, behold, the LORD bringeth up upon them

The waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory; And he shall come up over all his channels,

And go over all his banks;

8

And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over,

He shall reach even to the neck;

And d the stretching out of his wings shall fill

The breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

On Isaiah 9:6. ויסף דבר comp. at Isaiah 7:10.—לְאַט is compounded of אַט (1 Kings 21:27) lenitas and the prefix. The prefix is used like in לָרֹב ,לָבֶטַח (EWALD, § 217 d); comp. Gen 33:14; 2 Samuel 18:5; Job 15:11.—Corrections of the reading like מְסוֹס (MEIER = “fainting away before Rezin,” Isaiah 10:18) and וּמָשׁוֹשׁ (“and blind groping seized,” BOETTCHER Aehrenl. p. 30, comp. Job 5:14 are unnecessary. Isaiah often uses the verb שׂוּשׂ (Isaiah 35:1; Isaiah 61:10; Isaiah 62:5; Isaiah 64:4; Isaiah 65:18 sq; Isaiah 66:10; Isaiah 66:14) and the substantive שָׂשׂוֹז (Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 22:13; Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 51:11; Isaiah 61:3) and מָשׂוֹשׂ (Isaiah 24:8; Isaiah 24:11; Isaiah 32:13 sq.; Isaiah 60:15; Isaiah 62:5; Isaiah 65:18; Isaiah 66:10). Here מָשׂוֹשׂ seems chosen for the sake of a paranomasia with מָאַם. The following אֵת cannot be the sign of the accusative, because the subject of joy is never so designated. It resembles the proposition like Isaiah 66:10 (שִׂישׂוּ אִתָּהּ מָשׂוֹשׂ). Joy with Rezin and Pekah is the rejoicing that is felt in communion, in connection with these rulers. Moreover the substantive משׂוֹשׂ is dependent on יַעַו, which accordingly governs two clauses, a verbal and a nominal clause. Thus, too, DRECHSLER. There is then no need for regarding מְשׂוֹשׂ as the status absol. according to EWALD, § 351, 6. According to a usage especially common with Isaiah, the status constr. stands before the preposition.

On Isaiah 9:7. עצום ורב combined like Exodus 1:9; Deuteronomy 7:1; Deuteronomy 9:14; Deuteronomy 26:5; Joel 2:2; Joel 2:5; Micah 4:3; Zechariah 8:22; עצום signifying rather the intensive, רב the extensive greatness.—כָּבוֹד here involves the secondary notion of “might,” as elsewhere that of riches (Isaiah 10:3; Isaiah 61:6; Isaiah 66:12, the last citation seeming to stand in intentional contrast with our passage. Comp. the Latin opes). KNOBEL regards את־מלד to בבודו as a gloss, because “good poets do not add explanatory notes to their metaphors.” As if Isaiah were only a poet, and had not, too, a very practical interest! Comp. Isaiah 7:17; Isaiah 7:20.—אָפִיק (not again in Isaiah) is the bed of a torrens, synonymous with נַחַל (Josh. 1:20; Joshua 4:18); גדות, plur. tantum, in Isa only here; besides Joel 3:15; 4:18; 1 Chronicles 12:15 K’ri (beside K’thib גִּדְיוֹת), is from גָּדָה, kindred to גָּדַד incidit, secuit, is “the indentation, the shore-line, the shore.”

On Isaiah 9:8. חָלַף (comp. on Isaiah 2:18) is originally “to change” thence transire (to change place, whence “to change” in hunters’ language said of wild game). Comp. Isaiah 21:1; Isaiah 24:5. שׁטף means the spreading out, עבר the pressing forward (both notions joined as in Isaiah 28:15; Isaiah 28:18), עד־צואר יגיע the height of the water.—מֻטּוֹת from נָטָה “to spread out,” are the out-spreadings, expansiones; ἅπ. λεγ.—The sing. והיה is in consequence of the verb coming first.—מְלֹא is to be construed in an active sense (comp. Isaiah 6:3; Isaiah 31:4; Isaiah 34:1; Isaiah 42:10). רחב not again in Isaiah.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. This section has the external mark of a supplement in the transition formula “the LORD spake also again,” which occurs again only Isaiah 7:10, and which here as well as there intimates that an interval occurred between these words and what goes before. But the contents, too, show that we have no immediate and necessary amplification of the foregoing words and deeds before us. Nothing more is said of the son of the Prophet. Rather the language turns suddenly against the Ephraimites who contemned the quiet fountain of Shiloah, i. e. David’s kingdom, and rejoiced in communion with Rezin and the son of Remaliah (Isaiah 9:6). Therefore the floods of the Euphrates, which the Prophet himself explains as meaning the king of Assyria, shall overflow Ephraim (Isaiah 9:7), but of course Judah also, the land of Immanuel (Isaiah 9:8). The mention of Rezin and Pekah, the calling Judah land of Immanuel, and the threatening of overflow by Assyria, prove that these words belong to the same period as the preceding chief prophecies. And as the expression “Immanuel” presupposes the transactions narrated Isaiah 7:10, the insertion of this section at this place is completely explained.

2. The Lord——Remaliah’s son.

Isaiah 9:5-6. Most authorities agree that the fountain of Shiloah or Siloam is on the south side of Jerusalem; vid.ROBINSON’SPalestine, Vol. I. p. 501–505. The name (written שִׁלֹּחַ ,שִׁלֹחַ and שִׁילֹחַ) means emissio, or emissus (comp. הִמְשַׁלֵּח מַעְיָנִים, “He sendeth the springs,” Psalms 104:10; hence ἀπεσταλμένος “sent” John 9:7; comp. EWALD § 156 a). It occurs only here, John 9:7 and Luke 13:4, in which last place is told of the tower of Siloam (so LXX and New Testament, AQU. and SYMM., THEOD. spell the name Σιλωά: VULG.:Siloe). Yet the name שֶׁלַה which the בְּרֵבַת השֶּׁלַח “pool of Siloah,” Nehemiah 3:15, bears is very probably identical with our Shiloah. The descent between the fountain of Mary above and the fountain of Siloam is very little, therefore the flow is very gentle and soft.

The weak brooklet, welling up at the foot of Moriah and Zion, represents the unobservable nature of the kingdom of God in the period of its earthly humility. It recalls the form of a servant which the Lord assumed, and the “I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). This feature is prominent in all the stages of the history of salvation. Outwardly Israel was the least of all nations (Deuteronomy 7:7); Bethlehem was the least of the cities of Judah (Micah 5:1); David was the youngest among his brothers, and his father supposed he must be of no account at the election of a king (1 Samuel 16:11 sqq.). So, too, at the time of our present history, the kingdom of David was very small and weak amid the world-powers. If now and then it arose to greater power, that makes but one resemblance more to the intermittent fountain of Shiloah.

And rejoice,etc. The passage is easily explained if one only notices that the Prophet does not till Isaiah 9:8 represent the swelling stream as overflowing also the territory of Judah. Then “upon them” Isaiah 9:7 means those whom the Assyrian stream, that comes in from the north, overflows first. That is evidently the Ephraimites. Therefore by the people Isaiah 9:6, to whom “upon them” refers back, must, at least primarily, be understood the nation of the Ten Tribes. The nation Israel, then, i. e. Ephraim looks down contemptuously on the kingdom of Judah as on a weak flowing brooklet, and meanwhile with proud self-complacency rejoices in its own king and in the alliance with the Syrian king that added to his strength. This haughtiness shall not escape the avenging Nemesis. From the Euphrates shall mighty floods of water overflow first Ephraim and then Judah. [“To understand this it is necessary to remark that the Euphrates annually overflows its banks.”—BARNES]. That by this is meant the king of Assyria with all his glorious army, Isaiah himself proceeds to explain. It is a proof that the Prophet before this had the territory of Israel in mind, that here he makes so prominent the trespassing of the waters into Judah’s territory, the spreading beyond its borders. In Isaiah 9:8 b, the Prophet by a glorious figure compares the volumes of water to a bird spreading out its wings, to which he is evidently moved by the fact that the floods of water mean army hordes. Accordingly he designates the wings of the army as the wings of the extended flood. Because the space covered by the expanded wings coincides with the breadth of the land, so it may be said that the stretching out of the wings is at the same time the filling up of the land. It is very significant that the Prophet closes his address so emphatically with the word “Immanuel.” He signifies thus that the land is Immanuel’s, and that consequently the violence is done to Immanuel. It is plain that Immanuel is written as a proper name, from the suffix in ארצך. Yet most editions separate the words, and several versions too, as LXX. and ARAM., translate accordingly. The occasion for this is the, of course, correct notion that in the word there is an intimation of comfort that is to be the stay of Israel in that great tribulation. But evidently the Prophet has immediately in mind a person, whom he addresses. He turns to Him who is predicted in the birth of that child Isaiah 7:14. Although He is a person of the future, still the Prophet knows Him as one already present. How else could he turn to Him with this lamentation? Herein, then, lies a preparation for what the Prophet says of the promised one in the predicates of Isaiah 9:5 (6).