11 The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the arrogance of men will be bowed down, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.
12 For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, for all the oaks of Bashan,
14 for all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up,
15 for every lofty tower, for every fortified wall,
16 for all the ships of Tarshish, and for all pleasant imagery.
17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the arrogance of men shall be brought low; and Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day.
KJVKing James Version
11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15 And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
11 The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 For the LORD of hosts hath a day upon all that is proud and lofty, and upon all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low;
13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan;
14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up;
15 And upon every lofty tower, and upon every fortified wall;
16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all delightful imagery.
17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Isaiah 5:15-16(v11)So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled; but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice, and…
Psalms 18:27(v11)For you will save the afflicted people, but the arrogant eyes you will bring down.
Isaiah 2:17(v11)The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the arrogance of men shall be brought low; and Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day.
Isaiah 13:11(vv11, 17)I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will…
Isaiah 24:21(vv11–12)It will happen in that day that Yahweh will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.
Show all 84 cross-references
Malachi 4:1(vv11–12)“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes…
1 Kings 10:22(v16)For the king had a fleet of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet. Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish came, bringing gold, silver,…
Isaiah 2:11(v17)The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the arrogance of men will be bowed down, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.
Isaiah 12:4(v11)In that day you will say, “Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name. Declare his doings among the peoples. Proclaim that his name is exalted!
Jeremiah 48:29-30(v17)“We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud in his loftiness, his pride, his arrogance, and the arrogance of his heart. I know…
Isaiah 23:9(v12)Yahweh of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
Isaiah 30:25(v14)There will be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers…
Isaiah 40:4(v14)Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.
Micah 4:6(v11)“In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have…
Proverbs 16:5(v12)Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh: they shall certainly not be unpunished.
Isaiah 14:8(v13)Yes, the cypress trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us.”
Isaiah 23:1(v16)The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim…
Jeremiah 30:7-8(v11)Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he will be saved out of it. It will come…
Jeremiah 50:31-32(v11)“Behold, I am against you, you proud one,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; “for your day has come, the time that I will visit you. The…
Ezekiel 28:2-7(v17)“Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the…
Ezekiel 38:19(v11)For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath I have spoken. Surely in that day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
Ezekiel 39:22(v11)So the house of Israel will know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day and forward.
Hosea 2:18(v11)In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of…
Zechariah 11:1-2(v13)Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. Wail, cypress tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the stately ones are…
Luke 14:11(v12)For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
2 Corinthians 10:5(vv11, 14)throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to…
Numbers 33:52(v16)then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their stone idols, destroy all their molten images,…
1 Kings 22:48-49(v16)Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they didn’t go; for the ships wrecked at Ezion Geber. Then Ahaziah the son…
Job 40:10-12(v11)“Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty. Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone…
Job 40:11-12(v12)Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low. Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the…
Psalms 47:7(v16)For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.
Psalms 68:16(v14)Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains, at the mountain where God chooses to reign? Yes, Yahweh will dwell there forever.
Psalms 110:5-6(v14)The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies.…
Isaiah 4:1(v11)Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing. Just let us be called by…
Isaiah 10:33-34(v13)Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low. He will…
Isaiah 11:10-11(v11)It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will…
Isaiah 12:1(v11)In that day you will say, “I will give thanks to you, Yahweh; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort…
Isaiah 13:6(v12)Wail, for Yahweh’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Isaiah 13:9(v12)Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.
Isaiah 24:4(v12)The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish.
Isaiah 25:9(v11)It shall be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is Yahweh! We have waited for…
Isaiah 25:12(v15)He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.
Isaiah 26:1(v11)In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks.
Isaiah 27:1-2(v11)In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent;…
Isaiah 27:12-13(v11)It will happen in that day that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered…
Isaiah 28:5(v11)In that day, Yahweh of Armies will become a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the residue of his people,
Isaiah 29:18(v11)In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
Isaiah 30:23(v11)He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and…
Isaiah 37:23(v11)Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of…
Isaiah 37:24(v13)By your servants, you have defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the…
Isaiah 52:6(v11)Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks. Behold, it is I.”
Isaiah 60:9(v16)Surely the islands will wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them,…
Jeremiah 9:24(v11)But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice,…
Jeremiah 46:10(v12)For that day is of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself of his adversaries. The sword will devour and…
Ezekiel 13:5(v12)You have not gone up into the gaps or built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in Yahweh’s day.
Ezekiel 31:3-12(v13)Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, of high stature; and its top was among…
Ezekiel 38:14(v11)“Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and tell Gog, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “In that day when my people Israel dwells securely, will you not…
Ezekiel 39:11(v11)“ ‘ “It will happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of…
Daniel 4:37(v12)Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk…
Daniel 5:20-24(v12)But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they…
Hosea 2:16(v11)It will be in that day,” says Yahweh, “that you will call me ‘my husband,’ and no longer call me ‘my master.’
Hosea 2:21(v11)It will happen in that day, I will respond,” says Yahweh, “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth;
Joel 3:18(v11)It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow…
Amos 2:5(v13)but I will send a fire on Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”
Amos 5:18(v12)“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.
Amos 9:11(v11)In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it…
Obadiah 1:8(v11)“Won’t I in that day”, says Yahweh, “destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau?
Micah 5:10(v11)“It will happen in that day”, says Yahweh, “that I will cut off your horses out from among you, and will destroy your chariots.
Micah 7:11-12(v11)A day to build your walls— In that day, he will extend your boundary. In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of…
Zephaniah 3:11(v11)In that day you will not be disappointed for all your doings, in which you have transgressed against me; for then I will take away out from…
Zephaniah 3:16(v11)In that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, “Don’t be afraid, Zion. Don’t let your hands be weak.”
Zechariah 9:16(v11)Yahweh their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people; for they are like the jewels of a crown, lifted on high over his…
Malachi 4:5(v12)Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
Matthew 23:12(v12)Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Luke 18:14(v11)I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who…
1 Corinthians 1:29-31(v11)that no flesh should boast before God. Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and…
1 Corinthians 5:5(v12)are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:2(v12)For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.
James 4:6(v12)But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5(v11)Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another;…
Revelation 18:11(v16)The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more:
Revelation 18:17-19(v16)For in an hour such great riches are made desolate.’ Every ship master, and everyone who sails anywhere, and mariners, and as many as gain…
Proverbs 6:16-17(v12)There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed…
84 distinct cross-references across this passage (88 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv11, 14, 16Meaning, as soon as God shall begin to execute…
Meaning, as soon as God shall begin to execute his judgments.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv11–17Isa 2:11 The lofty looks of man shall be…
Isa 2:11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Ver. 11. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled.] Ipsi antea tumidi et cervicosi Deum ultorem agnoscent. God shall bring down the haughty from their lofty tops where they have perched themselves, and shall take them a link lower, as they say; pride must have a fall, and no wonder; for whereas other sins flee from God, pride lets fly at him, and hence it is he is so utter an enemy to it.
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And the Lord alone shall be exalted.] This the heathens also understood; and therefore the Romans would never receive the God of Israel, saith Augustine, {a} because they understood that he would be worshipped alone. Let the gods of the heathens be good fellows; the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another.
In that day.] Nempe statis quasi comitiis {Isa 2:17} at the set time. It implieth also, saith one, that God will keep his time to a day. We have a like saying ourselves, A day breaks no square; but it is not so with God. {Exo 12:40-41} The firstborn were slain at midnight, because just then the four hundred or four hundred and thirty years of their sojourning in Egypt were expired. "In that night was Belshazzar slain," {Dan 5:30} because then exactly the seventy years of their captivity were ended.
{a} De Consen. Evang., lib. i. cap. 18.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv11–17Shall be bowed down judicially, as they bowed down…
Shall be bowed down judicially, as they bowed down voluntarily before their idols. So the punishment is very suitable to the sin.
Shall be exalted in that day; his justice and power shall be magnified, and the vanity and impotency of all other gods shall be detected.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv11–17The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,.... Particularly…
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,.... Particularly of the man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, assuming that to himself which belongs to God; looking down with contempt upon, and behaving haughtily and insolently to all below him; blaspheming the name of God, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven; he shall be humbled, consumed, and destroyed with the breath of Christ's mouth, and the brightness of his coming, Th2 2:4.
and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down; of the followers of antichrist, who have boasted of their wisdom and knowledge, of their number, power, greatness, and authority, of their wealth and riches, and of their merits and works of supererogation; their pride will now be stained, and all their glory laid in the dust:
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and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day: in his divine Person, and in all his offices, and especially in his kingly office; he shall be King over all the earth, the kingdoms of this world will become his, he shall be the one Lord, and his name one, Zac 14:9 this will be in the spiritual reign of Christ, in the latter day, or last day of the Gospel dispensation, when the church will be exalted, as in Isa 2:2 and in the personal reign of Christ it will still more appear, that he, and he alone, will be exalted by and among his people, among whom his tabernacle will be, for then he will have no rivals; not only all rule, power, and authority among men, will be put down, and the beast and false prophet will have been cast alive into the lake of fire; but Satan, the god of this world, will be taken and bound, and cast into the bottomless pit, and so remain during the time of Christ's thousand years' reign with his saints on earth: this passage is referred by the Jews (u) to the end of the six thousand years the world according to them shall stand.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv12–16The day - The time of God's taking vengeance…
The day - The time of God's taking vengeance upon sinners.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv11, 13, 14, 15, 16Verse 11. Be humbled] "שפל ושח shaphel veshach, read…
Verse 11. Be humbled] "שפל ושח shaphel veshach, read שפלו שח shaphelu shach." - Dr. Durell. Which rectifies the grammatical construction. No MS. or version confirms this reading.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv12, 17Isa 2:12-16. For the day of the Lord —…
Isa 2:12-16. For the day of the Lord — The time of God’s taking vengeance on sinners; shall be upon every one that is proud — To mortify and bring him down to the dust; and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, &c. — In these and the following words, to Isa 2:17, the prophet is considered, by most commentators, as speaking metaphorically, according to the symbolical language of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The cedars of Lebanon, and oaks of Bashan, are supposed to mean princes and nobles, who carried themselves high, and behaved themselves insolently; high mountains and hills, to signify states and cities; high towers and fenced walls, those who excelled in ingenuity, wisdom, and strength; and the ships of Tarshish, &c., (Isa 2:16,) the merchants who confided in their wealth and splendour. Thus Bishop Lowth: “These verses afford us a striking example of that peculiar way of writing, which makes a principal characteristic of the parabolical, or poetical style of the Hebrews, and in which their prophets deal so largely: namely, their manner of exhibiting things divine, spiritual, moral, and political, by a set of images taken from things natural, artificial, religious, historical, in the way of metaphor or allegory. Thus, you will find in many other places, besides this before us, that cedars of Libanus and oaks of Bashan are used, in the way of metaphor and allegory, for kings, princes, potentates, of the highest rank; high mountains and lofty hills, for kingdoms, republics, states, cities; towers and fortresses, for defenders and protectors, whether by counsel or strength, in peace or war; ships of Tarshish, and works of art and invention employed in adorning them, for merchants, men enriched by commerce, and abounding in all the luxuries and elegancies of life, such as those of Tyre and Sidon; for it appears from the course of the whole passage, and from the train of ideas, that the fortresses and ships are to be taken metaphorically, as well as the high trees and lofty mountains.” Some, however, it may be observed, incline to understand this whole passage literally, remarking, that the judgment was to be so universal and terrible, as not only to reach to men, but to things also, whether natural or artificial, in all which there would be manifest tokens of God’s displeasure against the land. “Ships of Tarshish,” adds Bishop Lowth, “are in Scripture frequently used by a metonymy for ships in general, especially such as are employed in carrying on traffic between distant countries; as Tarshish was the most celebrated mart of those times, frequented of old by the Phenicians, and the principal source of wealth to Judea and the neighbouring countries. The learned seem now to be perfectly agreed that Tarshish is Tartessus, a city of Spain, (near Cadiz, now called Tariffa,) at the mouth of the river Bœtis, (now named Guadalquiver, running through Andalusia,) whence the Phenicians, who first opened this trade, brought silver and gold, (Jer 10:9; Eze 27:12,) in which that country then abounded; and, pursuing their voyage still further to the Cassiterides, the islands of Sicily and Cornwall, they brought from thence lead and tin.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv11–17The lofty looks - Hebrew ‘The eyes of pride,’…
The lofty looks - Hebrew ‘The eyes of pride,’ that is, the proud eyes or looks. Pride commonly evinces itself in a lofty carriage and supercilious aspect; Psa 18:27.
Shall be humbled - By the calamities that shall sweep over the land. This does not mean that he shall be brought “to be” humble, or to have a humble heart, but that that on which he so much prided himself would be taken away.
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The Lord alone ... - God will so deal with them as to vindicate his honor; to turn the attention entirely on himself, and to secure the reverence of all the people. So terrible shall be his judgments, and so “manifestly” shall they come from “him,” that they shall look away from everything else to “him” alone.
In that day - In the day of which the prophet speaks, when God would punish them for their sins, Reference is probably made to the captivity at Babylon. It may be remarked, that one design of punishment is to lead people to regard and honor God. He will humble the pride of people, and so pass before them in his judgments, that they shall be compelled to “acknowledge” him as their just Sovereign and Judge.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv13, 16Basan. Israel; or Syria and the Ammonites, (Calmet) whom…
Basan. Israel; or Syria and the Ammonites, (Calmet) whom Nabuchodonosor subdued, five years after he had taken Jerusalem, (Josephus, [Antiquities?] x. 11.) as the Idumeans, (ver. 14.) Philistines, and Egyptians, (ver. 15.) and Tyrians, (ver. 16.) who felt also the indignation of the Lord, Jeremias xxv. 15.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v12a. The judgment against the things falsely eminent in…
a. The judgment against the things falsely eminent in the sub-human and superhuman spheres
Isa_2:12-21
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12 13For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be
Upon every one that is proud and lofty,
And upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up,
And upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 And upon all the high mountains,
And upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15 And upon every high tower,
And upon every fenced wall,
16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish,
And upon all 1415pleasant pictures.
17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
And the haughtiness of men shall be made low:
And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
18 And the idols 16he shall utterly abolish.
19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks,
And into the caves of 17the earth,
For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,
When he arises to shake terribly the earth.
20 In that day a man shall cast 18his idols of silver, and his idols of gold,
19Which they made each one for himself to worship,
To the moles and to the bats;
21 To go into the clefts of the rocks,
And into the 20tops of the ragged rocks,
For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,
When he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_2:12. גֵאֶה in Isaiah only here. רָם is often found: Isa_2:13-14; Isa_6:1; Isa_10:33; Isa_57:15. On נִשָּׂא comp. above Isa_2:2.—ושפל is to be construed as future, since כי יום לי׳ must be regarded as a determination of time that points to the future.
Isa_2:16. שׂכיות is ἅπ. λεγ. It comes from שָׂכָה certainly, which, although unused itself, is kindred to שָׁעָה, to behold, is only now identified in the substantive מַשְׂכִּית. According to this etymology שְׂכִיָה must mean θέαμα, show piece, thus every work of art that is fitted to gratify the beholder’s eye.
Isa_2:18. I do not deny that אלילים is taken as ideal singular, and may accordingly be joined to the predicate in the singular. But then כָּלִיל must be taken as adverb. Yet wherever this word occurs (only this once in Isa.; comp. Lev_6:15 sq.; Deu_13:17; Deu_33:10; Jdg_20:40; 1Sa_7:9; Eze_16:14. etc.) it is adjective or substantive: entire or entirety. I agree therefore with Maurer, who takes והאלילים as casus absolutus put before, and כָּלִיל as subject: et idola (quod attinet, eorum) universitas peribit.—The fundamental meaning of חָלַף seems to me to be “to change.” Out of that develope the apparently opposite meanings “revirescere” (Psa_90:6; Job_14:7; Isa_9:9; Isa_40:31; Isa_41:1) and “transire, prœterire, perire” (Isa_8:8; Isa_21:1; Psa_102:27). The last is proper here.
Isa_2:19. מְעָרָה (in Isaiah again Isa_32:14) is the natural rock caves, מְחִלָּה (ἅπ. λεγ., comp. חַלּוֹן ,חָלִיל) is the cave hewn out by art Notice the paronomasia in לערץ הארץ.
Isa_2:20. The Prophet might have written here and Isa_30:22; Isa_31:7, אֱלִילָיו כֶּסֶף ו׳, his idols of silver. But he has chosen the common construction, which rests on this, that nomen rectum and nomen regens are construed as one notion, and thus in some measure as one word.—If לוֹ after עָשׂוּ is taken in a reflexive sense, the enallage numeri would certainly be very strong. Therefore most expositors justly regard the artificers as subject of עַשׂוּ.—The words לחפר פרות, as they stand, can only present an infinitive with the prefix, and object following, for there is no noun חֲפֹר. But an infinitive does not suit here, and besides there is no noun פֵּרָה. Therefore the rendering “hole of the mice,” for which expositors have gone to the Arabic, is only an arbitrary one. Evidently the Masoretes, according to the analogy of בְּקַח־קוֹחַ, Isa_61:1, and יְפֵה־פִיָה Jer_46:20 would separate what was to he united. We must then read לחפרפרות as one word. But how it is to be pointed is doubtful. According to the analogy of עֲקַלְקַלּוֹת ,יְרַקְרַקוֹת ,חֲלַקְלַקוֹת ,אְדַמְדַּמּוֹת, we might point it לַּחְפַּרְפָּרוֹת from a singular חֲפַרְפָּרָה. The meaning of this word can only be digger. But what sort of burrowing animal is meant, is doubtful. Jerome translated it talpa, mole. Gesenius and Knobel object to that, that the mole does not live in houses: Drechsler that the Hebrew has another word for mole, i.e., חֹלֶד. But regarding the former, as Delitzsch, remarks, the mole does, true enough, burrow under buildings, and in regard to the latter consideration of Drechsler, חֹלֶד also occurs only once (Lev_11:29), and two words for one thing are not unusual in any language. Yet the foundation for a positive opinion is wanting.—עֲטַלֵּף is the bat (Lev_11:19; Deu_14:18).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. With this section the Prophet begins his explication and specification of what he has previously Isa_2:9-11 said in general. That last time, Isa_2:2-4, which the Prophet described above in its glorious aspect for Israel, coincides with the time when the Lord shall sit in judgment on everything humanly high, that is hostile to Him. And even all impersonal things, thus creatures beneath man, on which, in proud arrogance, men put their trust, shall the Lord make small and reduce to nothing; the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the high mountains and hills, the towers and walls, the ships of Tarshish, and all other pomp of human desire (Isa_2:12-16). All this shall be abased that the Lord alone may be high (Isa_2:17). But the same shall happen to the beings above men, viz.; to the idols (Isa_2:18). That is the idolaters shall hide themselves in terror before the manifestation of that Jehovah whom they have despised (Isa_2:19); they shall themselves cast their idols to the unclean beasts, in order, mindful only of their own preservation, to be able to creep into the hollows and crevices of the rocks. (21).
2. For the day—brought low.
Isa_2:12. The Prophet had used for the first time Isa_2:11 the expression “in that day” that afterwards occurs often (comp. Isa_5:17; Isa_5:20; Isa_3:7; Isa_3:18; Isa_4:1-2; Isa_5:30). He points thereby to the time which he had before designated as “the last days.” Of course he does not mean that this last time shall comprehend only one day in the ordinary sense. The day that Isa., means is a prophetic day, for whose duration we must find a different measure than our human one. With the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. (2Pe_3:8; Psa_90:4). But the chief concern is whether there is really such a day of the Lord. This the Prophet asserts most distinctly. For precisely because there is such a day (כִּיfor, Isa_2:12) Isaiah could Isa_2:17 refer to it. But this day is a day for Jehovah Sabaoth (comp. Isa_1:9), or more correctly: Jehovah has such in preparation, so to speak, in sure keeping, so that, as soon as it pleases Him, He can produce it for His purpose (comp. Isa_22:5; Isa_34:8, and especially Isa_63:4; Jer_46:10; Eze_30:3). This day is a day of judgment, as already even the older prophets portray it: Joel 1:15; 2:1, 2, 11; 3:4; 4:14; Amo_5:18; Amo_5:20. Oba_1:15. Indeed the notion of judgment is so closely identified with “the day of Jehovah” that Isaiah in our text construes יוםa day directly as a word signifying “court of justice,” for he lets עַל depend on it. Once more in Isa_2:12, the notion of high and proud is generally expressed before (Isa_2:13) it is individualized.
3. And upon all—in that day.
Isa_2:13-17. The judgment of God must fall on all products of nature (Isa_2:13-14), and upon human art (Isa_2:15-16). It may be asked, how then have the products of nature, the trees and mountains become blameworthy? Knobel, to be sure, understands by the cedars houses made of cedar (comp. 2Sa_7:2; 2Sa_7:7) and by oaks of Bashan houses of oak wood (Eze_27:6) such as Uzziah and Jotham constructed partly for fortifying the land, partly for pleasure, and by mountains and hills “the fastnesses that Jotham built in the mountains of Judah (2Ch_27:4).” But, though one might understand the cedars to mean houses of cedar, (for which, however, must not be cited Isa_9:9; Nah_2:4, but Jer_22:23 comp. Isa_60:13) still the mountains and hills can never mean “fortified places.” 2Pe_3:10, seems to me to afford the best commentary on our passage. As sure as מַלְאַךְ י׳angel of theLord of the Old Testament, is identical with the ἄγγελος κυρίου of the New Testament so is also the יוֹם י׳, day of the Lord identical with the ἡμέρα κυρίου (1Co_1:8; 1Th_5:2, etc.). Now of this day of the Lord it is said, in the above passage in Peter, that in it, “the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” If now this last great day has its preliminaries, too, like, on the contrary, the revelation of glory Isa_2:2 sqq., has, then we are justified in regarding all degrees of God’s world-judging activity as parts of “the day of the Lord.” If then the prophet here names only the high mountains and the highest trees growing on them as representatives of nature, he evidently does so because it is his idea, according to the whole context, to make prominent that which is high in an earthly sense, especially what is wont to serve men as means of gratifying their lust of power and pomp. But the mountains and the trees on them could not be destroyed without the earth itself were destroyed. Therefore the high mountains and trees are only named as representatives of the entire terrestrial nature, of the γῆ as it is called by Peter, as also afterwards the towers, ships of Tarshish, etc., are only representative of the ἔργα, the human works, thus the productions of art. The oaks of Bashan, beside this place, are mentioned Eze_27:6; Zec_11:2. A parallel is drawn between Lebanon and Bashan also Isa_33:9; Jer_22:20; Nah_1:4.—High towers and strong walls were built by others as well as by Uzziah and Jotham; comp. 2Ch_14:7; 2Ch_32:5, etc.—Tarshish is mentioned by Isaiah again: Isa_23:1; Isa_23:6; Isa_23:10; Isa_60:9; Isa_66:19. It is now generally acknowledged that the locality lay in south Spain beyond the Pillars of Hercules. It is the Ταρτησσὸς Tartessus of the Greeks; not a city, likely, but the country that lay at the mouth of the Bætis (Guadalquiver): comp. Herzog,R. Encycl. XV. p. 684. Ships of Tarshish are thus large ships fitted for distant and dangerous voyages (Jon_1:3; Jon_4:2; 1Ki_10:22; 1Ki_22:49; Psa_48:8). All this must be destroyed and so must the arrogance of men be humbled, that Jehovah alone may be high in that day. So the prophet repeats, with some modification, the words of Isa_2:11, to prove that the specifications just given are only meant as the amplification of that general thought expressed in Isa_2:9. For these verses 12–16, refer as much back to Isa_2:9 as do Isa_2:18 sqq., (especially Isa_2:18; Isa_2:21,) to Isa_2:10 a.
4. And the idols—the earth.
Isa_2:17-21. The judgment against the sub-human creatures is followed by that against the superhuman, the idols. As verses 13–16 refer back to Isa_2:7, so Isa_2:18 sqq., does to Isa_2:8.
But the judgment against the idols is most notably accomplished when the worshippers of idols, now visited by the despised, true God, in all His terrible reality, see themselves the nothingness of their idols and cast them away in contempt. Jehovah appears in the awful pomp of His majesty. If the gods were anything, then they would now appear and shield their followers. But, just because they are אֱלִילִיםnothings; they cannot do it. We see from this that the “enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust” Isa_2:10, refers especially to the bringing to shame these illusory superhuman highnesses. In Rev_6:12 sqq., when at Isa_2:15 our passage is alluded to, the shaking of the earth appears as the effect of a great earthquake. Regarding the uses loquendi comp. Isa_8:12-13; Isa_29:23; Isa_47:12.
Therefore men shall cast their idols away to the gnawing beasts of the night, in their unclean holes, not that their flight may be easier, but because the idols belong there. May there not be an allusion in the words to the demon origin of the idols (1Co_10:20 sq.)? In the description of “A little excursion into the Land of Moab,” contained in the Magazine Sueddeutche Reichspost, 1872, No. 257 sqq., we read in No. 257 the following, in reference to the discovery of a large image of Astarte. “The Bedouins dig in the numerous artificial and natural caves for saltpetre for making gunpowder. In this way they find these objects that in their time were buried or just thrown there, which, in the judgment of those that understand such matters, belonged all of them once in some way to heathen worship, and on which the prophecy of Isa_2:20 has been so literally fulfilled.”—Thus they cast their idols away, they entertain themselves no more with the care and worship of them, all trust in them is also gone. They only hasten to save themselves by flight into the caverns (נְקָרָה) see Exo_33:22 from נָקַר, to bore,) and crevices of the rocks (comp. Isa_57:5). We are, moreover, reminded of the words in Luk_23:30. “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains fall on us; and to the hills, cover us.” For what wish can be left to those that have fled to the rocks, when the rocks themselves begin to shake, except to be covered as soon as possible from the tumbling mountains.
[Isa_2:20. Idols of silver and idols of gold. “Here named as the most splendid and expensive, in order to make the act of throwing them away still more significant.
“Moles and bats are put together on account of their defect of sight.”—J. A. A.]
Footnotes:
[13]For the Lord of hosts has a day on every thing proud, etc.
[14]Heb. pictures of desire.
[15]spectacles of desire.
[16]Or, shall utterly pass away.
[17]Heb. the dust.
[18]Heb. the idols of his silver, etc.
[19]Or, Which they made for him.
[20]fissures.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv11–17lofty looks--literally, "eyes of pride" (Psa 18:27).
lofty looks--literally, "eyes of pride" (Psa 18:27).
humbled--by calamities. God will so vindicate His honor "in that day" of judgments, that none else "shall be exalted" (Zac 14:9).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv11–1711. The terror which was approaching, Isa_2:10, is now…
11. The terror which was approaching, Isa_2:10, is now seen as past. In Hebrew poetry scenes suddenly shift; a spirit of restlessness and non-repose characterizes it; it darts from object to object with lightning rapidity; it is alert with antitheses, and is never to be judged by rules governing the ancient Greek and modern dramatic poetry. The preceding verse sees judgment approaching; this verse describes the effect of it when passed. The haughty airs of men shall be humbled — in the Hebrew, are “humbled” — are brought low. Past, present, and future run into each other to express permanent effect.
In that day — In that sweep of time during which the principles of divine retribution have their full manifestation. No doubt the full result is seen in the overthrow of the State and the captivity at Babylon. It is idle to seek, with laborious literalness, fulfilments of predictions so generally expressed.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv11, 12, 15, 1611. in that day] The day to be now…
11. in that day] The day to be now described in
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv11–17(11) The lofty looks of man . . .—Better,…
(11) The lofty looks of man . . .—Better, the lofty looks of the mean man . . . the haughtiness of the great man. The self-assertion which is the essential element of pride may be found at the opposite extremes of social life.
The Lord alone shall be exalted . . .—The verb, as in Psa_46:7; Psa_46:11 (see margin and text of Authorised Version), implies the image of a rock-citadel, towering in its strength, and offering the one safe asylum in a time of danger. (Comp. also Psa_61:2.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17The effect of the judgment which, in ver. 9,…
The effect of the judgment which, in ver. 9, was said to be the humiliation of high and low alike, is here declared with special reference to the high-minded and proud, whom it will humble more than others. The Lord alone shall be exalted; like a lofty and strong tower. (comp. Isa_12:4 Isa_33:5)
Vers. 12-22. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE DAY OF THE LORD. The prophet, now, having announced that God is about to visit his people in anger (vers. 10, 11), proceeds to describe in highly rhetorical language the visitation itself,
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(1) as to its object, which is to bring down all that exalts itself against God (ver. 12);
(2) as to its scope it is to be upon trees, mountains, hills, towers, walls, ships, pleasant pictures, idols (vers. 13-18);
(3) as to its practical effect, which will be to alarm and terrify, to make men fly and hide themselves, and to produce contempt of the idols in which they have so long trusted (vers. 19-21).
For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one; rather, For the Lord of hosts shall have a day upon everything. The passage is exegetical of "that day" in the preceding verse. A "day or time is certainly coming which shall be emphatically "the Lord"s a day on which he will descend to judgment. Proud... lofty... lifted up (comp. ver. 11). "The ideas of eminence, pride, and opposition to God melt into each other in the Old Testament" (Cheyne). And he shall be brought low; rather, that it may be brought low (so Gesenius and Cheyne).
Vers. 12-22. The terrors of the day of the Lord.
Every visitation of man by God is typical of his coming to judgment. "That day" is, in its deepest and truest sense, the day whereon Christ shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead. Of "that day and that hour knoweth no man"; (Mat_24:36) and the terror is increased by the mystery. The prophet sees God descend to judge Israel. The particular features are local; but through them may be discerned without much difficulty the characteristics which are recurrent, and which belong especially to the last and great day, viz.
I ABASEMENT OF THE PROUD. Earthly distinctions come to naught when the earth itself comes to an end. Rank, titles, dignities, fail. The "mean man" and the "great man" (ver. 9), the highest and the lowest in earthly rank, are upon a par, when all have to appear before their Judge. And spiritual pride is equally brought low. None but must then feel himself a miserable sinner, a suppliant for mercy at God"s feet, with hope only through the merits and intercession of the incarnate Son. "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day" (ver. 17).
II DESTRUCTION OF THE GRANDEST OF HUMAN WORKS. Towers, walls, palaces, are shattered and overturned at the great seasons of national judgments, and will fall with a crash everywhere at the final judgment-day. The great navies of the world will perish in the "fervent heat;" the works of art, the "pleasant pictures," and all the "delightful works of imagery," will shrivel like parchment scrolls. The accumulated civilization of millennia will be brought to naught. Egypt"s pyramids and temples, Persia"s palaces, Greece"s lovely fades, Rome"s amphitheatres, Christendom"s magnificent cathedrals, all will totter to their base and be overthrown. Nothing will stand that human skill, contrivance, energy, has constructed; all will disappear, and"Like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a wrack behind.
III DESTRUCTION OF GRAND OBJECTS IN NATURE. The taint of man"s sin has passed upon nature itself. Pride and vanity have employed natural products for self-glorification; the precious metals have been prostituted to sinful uses; selfishness has turned natural beauties into private property, and either made a gain of them, or jealously secluded them from the intrusion of ordinary humanity. Therefore Nature, as she now is, has become unfit for the habitation of man in his regenerate condition; and "the first earth" has to "pass away," and to be succeeded by the "new heaven and new earth" of the Apocalyptic vision. (Rev_21:1) What the exact amount of change will be, we do not know. Many features of the existing earth may remain pure snowy summits that the foot of man has never trod; blue glacier caves that have escaped his prying eyes; deep forest glades preserved from the desecration of his presence by thorny jungle or impenetrable wealth of undergrowth; but much of that with which man is most familiar will disappear perhaps all that could recall acts or thoughts of sin and the "new heaven and new earth," that God will create, will to such an extent supersede the old, that "the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind". (Isa_65:17)
IV GENERAL ALARM, ESPECIALLY OF THE SINNER AND THE WORLDLY. They of Israel fled into "the holes of the rocks, and the caves of the earth, from the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty" (ver. 19). At the last day, "men shall say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us"; (Luk_23:30) "Hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb". (Rev_6:16) The brightness of his presence will be intolerable to those who have "loved darkness rather than light; "and they will desire, at any rate, to flee from it. Alas! flight will be impossible, concealment will be impossible; no rocks will offer hiding-places to the ungodly from the presence of God. One only refuge is possible that to that men must have fled before, with the heartfelt, earnest cry"Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee!
Vers. 12-22. The day of judgment.
Here follows a grand picture, in which a few simple thoughts are set.
I THE DAY OF JEHOVAH. This stands for any and every epoch of clearer light which reveals the relative worth of things. False estimates of life and its objects have become by custom fixed. The imagination has been under a delusion. A false idea of greatness and goodness has become so fixed that nothing but a revolution will subvert it. The criticism of words may be defied; but the criticism of facts, of results, against this there is no appeal. There is no reversal of the judgment of events. A great day of judgment was, for example, the French Revolution of a century ago. The falsehood of generations was then expiated in blood. Social institutions which were bad, inhuman, yet which those who had grown up in them regarded as impossible to alter, were effaced in that terrible outpouring of the wrath of God. The sense amidst great wrong that the judgment of God cannot long be delayed, is expressed in the common saying, "Things must take a turn before long." In the life of the individual, every stopping-point or turning-point at which a false way of life terminates, may be viewed as a day of judgment and a day of Jehovah.
II THE DAY BRINGS WITH IT A SHOCK TO HUMAN IMAGINATION. The prophet piles up images to represent the reversal of all human ideals of greatness and loftiness. The gigantic trees of Lebanon and Bashan, the mountains and hills, the towers and the high ramparts, the tall ships sailing Tarshish-wards, (Psa_48:8) the turrets of villas and houses of pleasure, draw down upon them the violence of the storm. The vast and lofty in nature and in works of art are not of more value in the eyes of God than the small and lowly. They are hints of the greatness of the spirit, and if we give such objects an independent greatness, we are suffering from an illusion. The greatness and the beauty are in the seeing mind. There is not so much to be seen of the work of God in a mountain as in a moth. "Life apparent in the smallest midge is marvelous beyond dead Atlas" self." The palaces, the streets of a great city, are signs of the human soul and its greatness, but not the truest signs. It is a common error to look for the tokens of a people"s greatness in their buildings and mechanical achievements. But from what source does material creation and production come? That is the ultimate question. Our works of art are works of the flesh and of pride, or works of the spirit wrought in humility and the love of truth. A few such works in plastic stuff of stone, or on canvas, or in poetic words, endure through all change. That which is untrue must fall sooner or later beneath the criticism of God and be exposed. And in the downfall of human works the eternal God is again manifested in his supreme greatness and glory. It is our own false imaginations which hide him from us.
III THE ABANDONMENT OF THE IDOLS. For the idols cannot help their worshippers, who must run to hide themselves. Yet at first they cling to them. But soon in alarm they cast them away into any corner, any refuse-heap, any filthy haunt of bats and moles. "To cast to the bats" is as proverbial an expression in the East for throwing clean away as rejected rubbish, as "throwing to the dogs" with us. There comes a time when men will be willing to get rid of their most precious objects so that they may but save themselves. A secret terror haunts the false conscience, which in moments of clear revelation of truth rises to an acme and becomes a panic. The true heart longs for more of God"s light, the false can only exist behind an artificial veil or screen. In every time larger light is appearing, truths for the conduct of life are coming into currency; in short, the Divine Critic of our life is making his censure felt. Alas for those who rush into any cave at hand, plunge into obscurantism rather than face the worst, which thus faced will prove the best!
IV THE MORAL. "Cease ye from man." If in any such day of revelation all the proud ideals of human society may be discovered false, and cast aside as worthless; if the time of revelation shows that we have been resting upon rotten shams; if we have an uneasy consciousness that it is always so; how vain is all confidence in human wit and work! The bitter words seem to cast contempt upon every species of beast and satisfaction. A poet of our time has written a great work to show that our human speech is naught, our human testimony false, our fame and human estimation words and wind" (Browning," Ring and Book"). But how can we cease from man? We can only know the true and the eternal through some form of human experience. The answer is Man merely as man, an independent fact, is naught; he and all his pass away. In living for himself as if there were no truth, no good, beyond, he becomes a lie. If we see man only we see the false; if God working in and through man and his history, we find the true in the false. Working through the false shows of sense, we may reach the spirit of things, the mind of God. We leave our hold on the fugitive human fact, false if we try to stereotype it, that we may plant our foot on the constant. The Divine "Truth is forced To manifest itself through falsehood; whence divorced By the excepted eye, at the rare season, for The happy moment, truth instructs us to abhor The false, and prize the true, obtainable thereby. J.
Vers. 12-17. The Lord"s day for the proud.
Any time of specific judgment or mercy is in the Scriptures called a "day of the Lord." The day of the Lord has come for the antediluvian world, for Sodom, for the Canaanites, for Babylon, for Israel. It is ever coming to nations, in the corruption or the calamity that follow on national sin. It will come as long as the world endures; that is, so long as God needs, by external judgments, to mark the evil of sin. The sin of all others that calls for a "day of the Lord" is pride, self-confidence, rebellious self-assertion; and this was precisely the sin of the times in which Isaiah wrote. Man is made for God; he was ruined when he broke relations with God, and in self-will separated himself from God. And there is no hope of restoration until pride is humbled. Therefore for this humbling of self God pleads, and to secure this God sends judgments. Henderson says, "These verses contain a specification of several of the most distinguished objects of nature and art, in order, metaphorically, to represent the different persons or orders of men elevated by the dignity of orifice, or rendered notable by their riches, or the elegance and luxury of their establishments, whom the judgments of God would, in a more remarkable manner, hurl into ruin." It has been also observed that the emphatic iteration of "lifted up" is noticeable as indicating that the prophet sees in that self-assertion the root-evil of his time, that which was most destructive of the fear of the Lord, and most surely brought down judgment on the offender.
I ONE DAY GOD HUMBLES THE PROUD NATION. Illustrate from Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself, and took all the glory to himself, and Belshazzar followed him in the same willfulness; but a day of darkness and terror came for Babylon, of which the handwriting on the wall gave awful warnings. Or take Jerusalem as representing the kingdom of Judah. Puffed up with self-confidence, willfully resisting the Divine lead, a day of vindication and judgment at last came; her enemies poured in like a flood; the holy city lay in ashes, and her people were either slain or captive. And it is not without good reason that we find modern illustration of God"s day for nations in Napoleonic France. Napoleon claiming both to "propose and dispose," and overtaken by God"s avenging day at Moscow and Waterloo.
II GOD"S DAY HUMBLES THE PROUD INDIVIDUAL. That day comes in such forms as these.
1. A slip from integrity brings disgrace and ruin.
2. Masterfulness and arrogance bring hatred, which finds occasion to injure.
3. Riches take to themselves wings and flee away.
4. Mind becomes unsettled, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar.
5. Sickness and bereavement come in his family. Sooner or later a day dawns in which the haughty, self-reliant, God-despising man is touched on his sorest, tenderest place. No man can ever be permitted to exalt himself against God and permanently prosper. Give instances from modern life of the downfall of pride, such as the closing years of Squire Beckford"s life.
III GOD"S HUMBLINGS, FOR NATIONS OR FOR MEN, MAY BE MELTINGS, OR THEY MAY HAVE TO BE CRUSHINGS. The result of them depends upon the way in which they are met and responded to. That which is designed to melt may harden; and a judgment that bruises only may be so abused, that it must be followed by a judgment that breaks. Israel would not be humbled by calamity after calamity graciously tempered, so it must be made overwhelming; and Samaria was taken, and the distinct life of Israel, as a nation, crushed out forever. It is a thought full of painful seriousness, that the quality and degree of our troubles depend on cur response to those God has sent, as chastenings, in earlier times. God"s hand may be heavy on us, because we have so long resisted his pleadings and his humblings. Judgment is his strange work, mercy is his delight; but if we resist him, further and heavier judgments are demanded by very "mercy. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv11, 12, 16The lofty looks of man shall be humbled .…
Isa_2:11
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled . . . the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day
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Man humbled and Christ exalted
The day may be very properly applied to any of those days when the Lord abases the pride of guilty man, or when He makes His presence felt by the power of His Spirit upon the heart; for it is then the lofty looks of man are humbled; it is then the haughtiness of man is bowed down, and the Lord is exalted in the heart.
What other than this is Gods object in the Gospel? It is definitely that self may be humbled, and Christ exalted.
I. Let us look at some points on which MEN ARE APT TO BE LIFTED UP and to bolster themselves up in their pride and self-sufficiency.
1. They hold that they have natural ability to understand the Word of God. What saith the Scripture upon this point? (1Co_2:11, etc.) How many take up the Word of God to read it just as they would any other book, forgetting its character--forgetting its object! They read it merely to know, not in order to be. Whereas the value of the Book is, that it is to tell upon mans character. It is to make him altogether a new creature in Christ Jesus.
2. Another point of deep importance is the opinion which men have with respect to their power to save themselves. It is not that they think that they can actually blot out their sins, or that they can perfectly keep Gods law; but they, in imagination, strike a kind of balance between their good and bad deeds. They think that there is something good in what they do, and that what they fail in Christ will make up; and the consequence is, there is no real humiliation before God while this idea lasts.
3. The foolish thoughts men have of the character of God, as if He were such an one as themselves. You will often hear men speak of what they conceive the justice of God to be, without attending in the smallest degree to the declarations which He makes of Himself in His Holy Word. They speak as though they thought the difference between themselves and God, who is holy, is one of degree merely, and not of nature. They put on one side altogether the fact that God is a Spirit, and that they themselves are carnal, and they speak as if morality would fit a man for heaven, utterly ignoring the words of the Lord, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Men, indeed, form their own opinions; but remember the way in which God speaks of it: Thou thoughtest that I was such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee.
II. Now, all these mistaken views are so many sources of pride in men; but when the Holy Spirit comes into the heart in power, they ARE BOWED DOWN AND HUMBLED BEFORE GOD. One of the effects produced by the Holy Spirit, when He comes upon a mans heart, is to make him consider his ways. He looks to himself and sees nothing but sin; that there is not one single ground of hope; and when the Holy Spirit has graciously brought him to this point, then He shows him the salvation of Christ. And then in this exaltation of the Lord Jesus comes the true abasement of the man himself. Lessons--
1. The object of all Gods dispensations is to humble us, and to bring us down to the feet of Christ.
2. The nature of true faith. It is humility; it is dependence; it is coming down from all self-confidence; it is resting upon another, and that Christ alone. (J. W. Reeve, M. A.)
God exalted
1. By entertaining elevating apprehensions of His infinite majesty, and exercising suitable affections towards Him--fearing Him who pours contempt upon princes, trusting in Him in whom is everlasting strength, and loving Him in whose favour there is life.
2. By celebrating the praises of His Divine excellencies with gratitude and joy.
3. By such conduct as may give the most sensible and lively representation of God--beginning, carrying on, and ending all their businesses in Him; making His love the principle, His law the rule, and His glory the end of all their actions. (R. Macculloch.)
Humility
Life is a long lesson in humility. (J. M. Barrie.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v17(Advent Sermon.)
GOD EXALTED IN THE GREAT DAY
(Advent Sermon.)
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Isa_2:17. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Two questions: What is “that day?” How shall the Lord then be exalted?
I. “That day.” “The first five verses of this chapter foretell the kingdom of the Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and their admission into the Church. From the sixth verse to the end is foretold the punishment of the unbelieving Jews for their idolatrous practices, their confidence in their own strength, and distrust of God’s protection; and, moreover, the destruction of idolatry in consequence of the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom.”—Lowth. But here, as in many other portions of Scripture, a larger and remoter meaning looms beyond and behind the first sense of the expressions, which would otherwise be too big and swelling for the actual interpretation of them. Compare the description in which the text twice occurs with the almost parallel passages in chap. Isa_5:14-16. How magnificent! What startling terms! What emphatic iterations! Surely a want of fitness and congruity would almost be felt if expressions such as these referred only to some temporal calamity of the Jewish nation; surely we cannot mistake in looking onward to some mightier catastrophe, to some final exaltation of God and abasement of all creatures. By “that day,” therefore, we mean what is elsewhere called “the day,” “the great day,” “the day of judgment,” “the great and terrible day of the Lord”—the consummation of all things.
When that day shall come I do not know, and I am content to remain in ignorance. It may come suddenly, without warning, unannounced. Then it is for men always to have their lamps burning and their hearts in readiness, lest they be taken by surprise. It may come with great signs preceding and accompanying it. Then it is for men, according to their capacity, to note and discern those signs. It is the very uncertainty connected with it that is to make us watchful (Mat_24:36; Mat_24:42). We are to be vigilant and observant, without pretending to determine what God has left unrevealed. Such attempts have in all ages been made, and in all ages have been falsified. The failure of those attempts has not only covered those who made them or believed in them with ridicule, it has brought into discredit the sacred Book which the aim was to expound. It is our first duty and highest interest to be at every moment prepared; but a far other and better preparation may, and must be made for it, than in the futile endeavour to discover its precise date. [1294]
[1294] During the fifth century Chrysostom expressed himself in language which sounds almost like an anticipation of much that we hear at the present day. “No long time now remains until the consummation; but the world is hastening to its end. This the wars declare, this the afflictions, this the love which hath waxed cold. For as the body, when in its last gasp and near to death, draws to itself ten thousand sufferings; and as when a house is about to fall, many portions are wont to fall beforehand from the roofs and walls; so is the end of the world nigh and at the very doors, and, therefore, ten thousand woes are everywhere scattered abroad” (Homily xxxiv.) Towards the close of the tenth century, Bernhard, a hermit of Thuringia, and other persons, spread or encouraged the belief, that after the end of the thousandth year, the fetters of Satan were to be broken; and that, after the reign of Antichrist should be terminated, the world would be consumed by sudden conflagration. This wild and extraordinary delusion pervaded and possessed every rank of society. It seized on nobles, princes, and even bishops, as well as on the common people. Many renounced their pursuits and professions; abandoned their friends and families; gave themselves up to superstitious prayer and terrifying expectations, and made over all their substance to some adjacent church or monastery. Almost all the donations which were made to the Church in this century proceeded from this avowed motive, that the end of the world was drawing near. The form ran, “Appropinquante jam mundi termino,” &c. Others permitted their lands to lie waste, and their houses to decay; or betook themselves in hasty flight to the shelter of rocks and caverns, as if the temples of nature were destined to preservation amidst the wreck of man and his works.—Boone.
Equally unwise is the disposition to specify with a minute particularity the events which are to usher in the great day of the Lord, or the convulsions of nature which shall herald and proclaim it, or the astonishing circumstances with which it shall be arrayed. God has chosen to involve them in a mysterious and solemn indistinctness. In bold and sublime figures the inspired writers have delineated a scene which must stand singular and by itself, without any precedent or parallel, and which, therefore, neither human language can directly express nor human understanding adequately comprehend. Instead of endeavouring to explain the images and symbols employed, prudence will lead us to confine ourselves to the very words of Scripture, such as Dan_12:2; Joe_3:11-15; 2Co_5:10; Mat_25:31-32; Rev_20:11-13; 1Co_15:51-53. [1297] On these declarations we should meditate with serious and chastened minds, for if Scripture be true these words cannot be without a real and solemn meaning, and that meaning can only be that there shall be a day in which the world shall be judged by God in Christ, and that from before the Divine tribunal the good and the evil, separated from each other, shall depart to destinies final and irreversible (P. D. 2109).
[1297] I forbear to expatiate on the phenomena or the tokens which shall be premonitory of the Millennium or of the day of judgment. God has not seen fit, even in Scripture, to withdraw the curtain of obscurity from between us and that supreme future. We may well be content that our apprehensions should be vague, when the language of the Bible is not definite, and when we find rather the sublime and half-luminous gloom with which poetry or painting can invest its delineations, than the sharp and precise outline which the chisel can carve.—Boone.
II. In that day the Lord alone shall be exalted.
1. How is this possible? Is not God always exalted far above all blessing and praise? He will then be exalted in the sense in which He is now said to be glorified. He will be exalted in the visible homage and submission of an assembled universe. He will be exalted by the full manifestation of His attributes, in their unclouded and effulgent lustre, by the exhibition, before men and angels, of His omnipotence and justice, His wisdom and truth, His love and mercy, of the holiness of His law, the equity of His administration, the abundance of His grace, so that all hearts shall be bowed down at His footstool, and every mouth shall be stopped.
2. In that day God shall be exalted alone.
(1) The text may lead our minds to other deities as opposed to Jehovah. They shall indeed be gone; in that day they shall be seen to be less than the least of all their worshippers.
(2) It will be the great day of the disclosure of all things; and all creatures shall see the Lord as He is, and themselves also as they are. Therefore shall all the highest orders of celestial intelligences, the cherubim and seraphim, and all the ranks of existence which may occupy the interval between man and his Maker, veil their faces before His throne; they shall be as nothing in His sight. Then shall all creatureship fall low before the one Creator; all derived, dependent being shall shrink into its true dimensions before the Absolute, the Eternal, the I AM.
(3) Even Christ Himself, His office as the Messiah having been accomplished, and His administration of the Church, in His human character, being brought to a close, shall resign His mediatorial sway (1Co_15:24-28; H. E. I. 985).
(4) But our chief concern, as we are men, is with humanity: “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.”
That day shall indeed declare the impotence of human power, the emptiness of human ambition, the nothingness of human renown. [1300] The very circumstances on account of which men have most lifted themselves up in their lifetime will be the occasions of their profoundest humiliation then.
[1300] What shall they all be, the strong rivalries and contentions, which shall have been hushed in the grave; the towering structures of vanity and earthly hope, which shall have been crushed before the moth; the schemes and plottings, the contrivances and expectations, the struggles and triumphs, which shall have been dropped into the burial-place where the worm is feeding on them! Oh, the thrones and dominions of mortality, the crowns and sceptres, the regal splendours and the imperial sway, how shall they then be reduced to their real and intrinsic insignificance! The victories of the warrior who conquered in a hundred fights, and the projects of the politician, whose statesmanship could grasp the globe; the famous men and heroes of the earth, with the poets who celebrated them, and the historians who recounted their exploits, what shall they be before the word of Omnipotence! The learning and science of the philosophers who framed their system of the universe for the admiration of posterity, what shall they be, before the blaze of illumination which shall be poured upon us in another world! The pageantries of courts and palaces; the banquets and the wine-cups, the spectacles and the entertainments, the mirrors and the lamps, the golden furniture of pomp, and the flowing robe of luxury; the great and the affluent, whose patronage was requested for busy undertakings, who were besieged with flattery and obsequiousness from morning to night; the noble and the beautiful, who gathered homage as they moved; the writers and the orators, whose popularity was unbounded, and who lived amidst the incense of human applause; they, and all that appertained to them, where and what shall they be, as we stand poor, and naked, and miserable before Him with whom we have to do! They, the heedless and the selfish, swimming in pleasure, who thought that the whole voyage of life was to be like Cleopatra’s passage along the Cydnus, one scene of mirth and gorgeousness; of prodigal dissipation and fatal revelry, with soft music and delicate odours floating in the air; what shall become of them! How black and cold shall be the cinders of their joy!
All human dynasties will then have crumbled to pieces, and all the gradations in the scale of human rank will then have been blotted out; for all must be dwarfed and prostrated before the ineffable majesty of the Most High God. All other differences must fade when the Divine summits are placed in contrast with them; as from the top of an exceeding high mountain the whole ground beneath is as a level plain, because from that vast altitude all smaller elevations are lost, all minuter inequalities of surface vanish. Human celebrity will then be as a sound, the very echoes of which will have departed. The pompous titles with which the vanity of man was pampered; the distinctions which kings could confer, or heraldry emblazon; privileges of caste, nobility of blood, the pride of ancestry, the blaze of reputation, the splendour of talents, shall then be confounded, one and all, as frivolous toys and trifling baubles. The mighty ones of the earth shall be no more than they who were of the poorest condition; the great shall stand abashed with the mean, the learned with the ignorant, monarchs with their subjects, senators and princes, commanders of fleets and armies, the loftiest and most renowned by the side of the husbandman and the labourer; for what shall they all be in contrast with Him, the Universal Creator, whose dwelling-place is eternity, and to whom belong, throughout all ages, all glory and dominion, sovereignty and praise?—Boone.
In that day our sinfulnesses shall sink us into the dust, and cover us with shame and confusion even more than our vanities. Shall any one of us hope then to be exalted, when the memories of us all shall retrace so many sterile and unproductive intentions, so many good impressions never fostered and ripened into fruits of righteousness, so many talents misused by our iniquity, or buried by our idleness? Then there shall be no more concealments, no more deceits, no more false excuses, no more of those pretences, equivocations, subterfuges, and sophisms which our reason is now so fatally ingenious in playing off upon itself (P. D. 661, 2106). Oh, think of these things, and let not your sins be dearer to you than your salvation. Think of them ere the night cometh, and the sun of your probation has quite gone down.
“The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” Will He then confound the righteous with the wicked? As compared with God there shall be no distinctions between men. All men on that great day at the bar of the Omniscient and the All Holy shall have upon them a universal sense of imperfection, unworthiness, insufficiency, nothingness. But as compared with each other there will be immense differences between them. It is one purpose of the great day to make manifest to all orders of being the infinite value and superiority of moral goodness, the infinite preciousness of a holy obedience above and beyond all else; then God, who sees it in secret, will reward it openly. When the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the people that forget God, the righteous shall shine forth as the stars of heaven. Therefore estimate all things now as you will estimate them then. Lean less upon earth and man and the things present, set your affections more upon the things to come, upon heaven, and upon the Ruler of heaven. Cultivate diligently those dispositions which are pleasing in His sight. For then, when all social forms shall have vanished away, when all material substances shall have been obliterated, as the shapes in a cloud, and dissipated as the morning dew, your moral temper will abide with you, and your spiritual state, as discerned by the unerring Judge, will decide, and will attend, your immortal destiny (H. E. I. 720).—James Shergold Boone, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 359–399.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v12Day of the Lord (Day of Jehovah) vs.
Day of the Lord (Day of Jehovah) vs.
Isa 2:10-22; Isa 4:1-6; Isa 11:10-13; Isa 13:9-16; Isa 24:21-23; Isa 26:20; Isa 26:21; Isa 63:1-6; Isa 66:15-24; Jer 25:29-33; Jer 46:10; Eze 30:3; Rev 19:11-21
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv12, 14, 17General Information:
General Information:
Isaiah speaks to the people of Judah in the form of a poem. (See: Parallelism)
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who is proud and raised up
One who is "raised up" is proud and considers himself better than other people. This can be stated in active form. AT: "who is proud and who raises himself above other people" or "who is proud and thinks that he is better than other people" (See: Active or Passive and Metaphor)
who is proud ... who is arrogant
Someone who is arrogant speaks and acts as if he is better than other people. These two phrases have similar meanings and are used together to emphasize that Yahweh will punish them. (See: Doublet)
he will be brought down
"every proud person will be brought down." This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh will humble him" (See: Active or Passive)
against all the cedars of Lebanon ... against all the oaks of Bashan
The "day of Yahweh of Hosts" will be against the cedars and oaks. Possible meanings are 1) these trees are a metaphor for the proud people whom God will judge or 2) God will actually destroy these mighty trees. (See: Metaphor)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv11, 13, 16, 172:11-12 A key theme in Isaiah is that the…
2:11-12 A key theme in Isaiah is that the Lord will be exalted and humble people will be restored (57:15), while proud and mighty people are humbled (26:5). • The day of judgment and the “day of reckoning” are also called the “day of the Lord.” There are seven such references in chs 2–4 (2:11, 17, 20; 3:6, 18; 4:1, 2).
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv11, 14, 16 Meaning, as soon as God shall begin to execute…
Meaning, as soon as God shall begin to execute his judgments.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–17 Isa 2:11 The lofty looks of man shall be…
Isa 2:11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Ver. 11. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled.] Ipsi antea tumidi et cervicosi Deum ultorem agnoscent. God shall bring down the haughty from their lofty tops where they have perched themselves, and shall take them a link lower, as they say; pride must have a fall, and no wonder; for whereas other sins flee from God, pride lets fly at him, and hence it is he is so utter an enemy to it.
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And the Lord alone shall be exalted.] This the heathens also understood; and therefore the Romans would never receive the God of Israel, saith Augustine, {a} because they understood that he would be worshipped alone. Let the gods of the heathens be good fellows; the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another.
In that day.] Nempe statis quasi comitiis {Isa 2:17} at the set time. It implieth also, saith one, that God will keep his time to a day. We have a like saying ourselves, A day breaks no square; but it is not so with God. {Exo 12:40-41} The firstborn were slain at midnight, because just then the four hundred or four hundred and thirty years of their sojourning in Egypt were expired. "In that night was Belshazzar slain," {Dan 5:30} because then exactly the seventy years of their captivity were ended.
{a} De Consen. Evang., lib. i. cap. 18.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11–17 Shall be bowed down judicially, as they bowed down…
Shall be bowed down judicially, as they bowed down voluntarily before their idols. So the punishment is very suitable to the sin.
Shall be exalted in that day; his justice and power shall be magnified, and the vanity and impotency of all other gods shall be detected.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–17 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,.... Particularly…
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,.... Particularly of the man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, assuming that to himself which belongs to God; looking down with contempt upon, and behaving haughtily and insolently to all below him; blaspheming the name of God, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven; he shall be humbled, consumed, and destroyed with the breath of Christ's mouth, and the brightness of his coming, Th2 2:4.
and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down; of the followers of antichrist, who have boasted of their wisdom and knowledge, of their number, power, greatness, and authority, of their wealth and riches, and of their merits and works of supererogation; their pride will now be stained, and all their glory laid in the dust:
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and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day: in his divine Person, and in all his offices, and especially in his kingly office; he shall be King over all the earth, the kingdoms of this world will become his, he shall be the one Lord, and his name one, Zac 14:9 this will be in the spiritual reign of Christ, in the latter day, or last day of the Gospel dispensation, when the church will be exalted, as in Isa 2:2 and in the personal reign of Christ it will still more appear, that he, and he alone, will be exalted by and among his people, among whom his tabernacle will be, for then he will have no rivals; not only all rule, power, and authority among men, will be put down, and the beast and false prophet will have been cast alive into the lake of fire; but Satan, the god of this world, will be taken and bound, and cast into the bottomless pit, and so remain during the time of Christ's thousand years' reign with his saints on earth: this passage is referred by the Jews (u) to the end of the six thousand years the world according to them shall stand.
(u) T. Bab. Roshhashana, fol. 31. 1. & Sanhedrin, fol. 92. 2. & 97. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv12–16 The day - The time of God's taking vengeance…
The day - The time of God's taking vengeance upon sinners.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 15, 16 Verse 11. Be humbled] "שפל ושח shaphel veshach, read…
Verse 11. Be humbled] "שפל ושח shaphel veshach, read שפלו שח shaphelu shach." - Dr. Durell. Which rectifies the grammatical construction. No MS. or version confirms this reading.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv12, 17 Isa 2:12-16. For the day of the Lord —…
Isa 2:12-16. For the day of the Lord — The time of God’s taking vengeance on sinners; shall be upon every one that is proud — To mortify and bring him down to the dust; and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, &c. — In these and the following words, to Isa 2:17, the prophet is considered, by most commentators, as speaking metaphorically, according to the symbolical language of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The cedars of Lebanon, and oaks of Bashan, are supposed to mean princes and nobles, who carried themselves high, and behaved themselves insolently; high mountains and hills, to signify states and cities; high towers and fenced walls, those who excelled in ingenuity, wisdom, and strength; and the ships of Tarshish, &c., (Isa 2:16,) the merchants who confided in their wealth and splendour. Thus Bishop Lowth: “These verses afford us a striking example of that peculiar way of writing, which makes a principal characteristic of the parabolical, or poetical style of the Hebrews, and in which their prophets deal so largely: namely, their manner of exhibiting things divine, spiritual, moral, and political, by a set of images taken from things natural, artificial, religious, historical, in the way of metaphor or allegory. Thus, you will find in many other places, besides this before us, that cedars of Libanus and oaks of Bashan are used, in the way of metaphor and allegory, for kings, princes, potentates, of the highest rank; high mountains and lofty hills, for kingdoms, republics, states, cities; towers and fortresses, for defenders and protectors, whether by counsel or strength, in peace or war; ships of Tarshish, and works of art and invention employed in adorning them, for merchants, men enriched by commerce, and abounding in all the luxuries and elegancies of life, such as those of Tyre and Sidon; for it appears from the course of the whole passage, and from the train of ideas, that the fortresses and ships are to be taken metaphorically, as well as the high trees and lofty mountains.” Some, however, it may be observed, incline to understand this whole passage literally, remarking, that the judgment was to be so universal and terrible, as not only to reach to men, but to things also, whether natural or artificial, in all which there would be manifest tokens of God’s displeasure against the land. “Ships of Tarshish,” adds Bishop Lowth, “are in Scripture frequently used by a metonymy for ships in general, especially such as are employed in carrying on traffic between distant countries; as Tarshish was the most celebrated mart of those times, frequented of old by the Phenicians, and the principal source of wealth to Judea and the neighbouring countries. The learned seem now to be perfectly agreed that Tarshish is Tartessus, a city of Spain, (near Cadiz, now called Tariffa,) at the mouth of the river Bœtis, (now named Guadalquiver, running through Andalusia,) whence the Phenicians, who first opened this trade, brought silver and gold, (Jer 10:9; Eze 27:12,) in which that country then abounded; and, pursuing their voyage still further to the Cassiterides, the islands of Sicily and Cornwall, they brought from thence lead and tin.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11–17 The lofty looks - Hebrew ‘The eyes of pride,’…
The lofty looks - Hebrew ‘The eyes of pride,’ that is, the proud eyes or looks. Pride commonly evinces itself in a lofty carriage and supercilious aspect; Psa 18:27.
Shall be humbled - By the calamities that shall sweep over the land. This does not mean that he shall be brought “to be” humble, or to have a humble heart, but that that on which he so much prided himself would be taken away.
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The Lord alone ... - God will so deal with them as to vindicate his honor; to turn the attention entirely on himself, and to secure the reverence of all the people. So terrible shall be his judgments, and so “manifestly” shall they come from “him,” that they shall look away from everything else to “him” alone.
In that day - In the day of which the prophet speaks, when God would punish them for their sins, Reference is probably made to the captivity at Babylon. It may be remarked, that one design of punishment is to lead people to regard and honor God. He will humble the pride of people, and so pass before them in his judgments, that they shall be compelled to “acknowledge” him as their just Sovereign and Judge.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv13, 16 Basan. Israel; or Syria and the Ammonites, (Calmet) whom…
Basan. Israel; or Syria and the Ammonites, (Calmet) whom Nabuchodonosor subdued, five years after he had taken Jerusalem, (Josephus, [Antiquities?] x. 11.) as the Idumeans, (ver. 14.) Philistines, and Egyptians, (ver. 15.) and Tyrians, (ver. 16.) who felt also the indignation of the Lord, Jeremias xxv. 15.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v12 a. The judgment against the things falsely eminent in…
a. The judgment against the things falsely eminent in the sub-human and superhuman spheres
Isa_2:12-21
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12 13For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be
Upon every one that is proud and lofty,
And upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up,
And upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 And upon all the high mountains,
And upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15 And upon every high tower,
And upon every fenced wall,
16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish,
And upon all 1415pleasant pictures.
17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
And the haughtiness of men shall be made low:
And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
18 And the idols 16he shall utterly abolish.
19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks,
And into the caves of 17the earth,
For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,
When he arises to shake terribly the earth.
20 In that day a man shall cast 18his idols of silver, and his idols of gold,
19Which they made each one for himself to worship,
To the moles and to the bats;
21 To go into the clefts of the rocks,
And into the 20tops of the ragged rocks,
For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,
When he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_2:12. גֵאֶה in Isaiah only here. רָם is often found: Isa_2:13-14; Isa_6:1; Isa_10:33; Isa_57:15. On נִשָּׂא comp. above Isa_2:2.—ושפל is to be construed as future, since כי יום לי׳ must be regarded as a determination of time that points to the future.
Isa_2:16. שׂכיות is ἅπ. λεγ. It comes from שָׂכָה certainly, which, although unused itself, is kindred to שָׁעָה, to behold, is only now identified in the substantive מַשְׂכִּית. According to this etymology שְׂכִיָה must mean θέαμα, show piece, thus every work of art that is fitted to gratify the beholder’s eye.
Isa_2:18. I do not deny that אלילים is taken as ideal singular, and may accordingly be joined to the predicate in the singular. But then כָּלִיל must be taken as adverb. Yet wherever this word occurs (only this once in Isa.; comp. Lev_6:15 sq.; Deu_13:17; Deu_33:10; Jdg_20:40; 1Sa_7:9; Eze_16:14. etc.) it is adjective or substantive: entire or entirety. I agree therefore with Maurer, who takes והאלילים as casus absolutus put before, and כָּלִיל as subject: et idola (quod attinet, eorum) universitas peribit.—The fundamental meaning of חָלַף seems to me to be “to change.” Out of that develope the apparently opposite meanings “revirescere” (Psa_90:6; Job_14:7; Isa_9:9; Isa_40:31; Isa_41:1) and “transire, prœterire, perire” (Isa_8:8; Isa_21:1; Psa_102:27). The last is proper here.
Isa_2:19. מְעָרָה (in Isaiah again Isa_32:14) is the natural rock caves, מְחִלָּה (ἅπ. λεγ., comp. חַלּוֹן ,חָלִיל) is the cave hewn out by art Notice the paronomasia in לערץ הארץ.
Isa_2:20. The Prophet might have written here and Isa_30:22; Isa_31:7, אֱלִילָיו כֶּסֶף ו׳, his idols of silver. But he has chosen the common construction, which rests on this, that nomen rectum and nomen regens are construed as one notion, and thus in some measure as one word.—If לוֹ after עָשׂוּ is taken in a reflexive sense, the enallage numeri would certainly be very strong. Therefore most expositors justly regard the artificers as subject of עַשׂוּ.—The words לחפר פרות, as they stand, can only present an infinitive with the prefix, and object following, for there is no noun חֲפֹר. But an infinitive does not suit here, and besides there is no noun פֵּרָה. Therefore the rendering “hole of the mice,” for which expositors have gone to the Arabic, is only an arbitrary one. Evidently the Masoretes, according to the analogy of בְּקַח־קוֹחַ, Isa_61:1, and יְפֵה־פִיָה Jer_46:20 would separate what was to he united. We must then read לחפרפרות as one word. But how it is to be pointed is doubtful. According to the analogy of עֲקַלְקַלּוֹת ,יְרַקְרַקוֹת ,חֲלַקְלַקוֹת ,אְדַמְדַּמּוֹת, we might point it לַּחְפַּרְפָּרוֹת from a singular חֲפַרְפָּרָה. The meaning of this word can only be digger. But what sort of burrowing animal is meant, is doubtful. Jerome translated it talpa, mole. Gesenius and Knobel object to that, that the mole does not live in houses: Drechsler that the Hebrew has another word for mole, i.e., חֹלֶד. But regarding the former, as Delitzsch, remarks, the mole does, true enough, burrow under buildings, and in regard to the latter consideration of Drechsler, חֹלֶד also occurs only once (Lev_11:29), and two words for one thing are not unusual in any language. Yet the foundation for a positive opinion is wanting.—עֲטַלֵּף is the bat (Lev_11:19; Deu_14:18).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. With this section the Prophet begins his explication and specification of what he has previously Isa_2:9-11 said in general. That last time, Isa_2:2-4, which the Prophet described above in its glorious aspect for Israel, coincides with the time when the Lord shall sit in judgment on everything humanly high, that is hostile to Him. And even all impersonal things, thus creatures beneath man, on which, in proud arrogance, men put their trust, shall the Lord make small and reduce to nothing; the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the high mountains and hills, the towers and walls, the ships of Tarshish, and all other pomp of human desire (Isa_2:12-16). All this shall be abased that the Lord alone may be high (Isa_2:17). But the same shall happen to the beings above men, viz.; to the idols (Isa_2:18). That is the idolaters shall hide themselves in terror before the manifestation of that Jehovah whom they have despised (Isa_2:19); they shall themselves cast their idols to the unclean beasts, in order, mindful only of their own preservation, to be able to creep into the hollows and crevices of the rocks. (21).
2. For the day—brought low.
Isa_2:12. The Prophet had used for the first time Isa_2:11 the expression “in that day” that afterwards occurs often (comp. Isa_5:17; Isa_5:20; Isa_3:7; Isa_3:18; Isa_4:1-2; Isa_5:30). He points thereby to the time which he had before designated as “the last days.” Of course he does not mean that this last time shall comprehend only one day in the ordinary sense. The day that Isa., means is a prophetic day, for whose duration we must find a different measure than our human one. With the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. (2Pe_3:8; Psa_90:4). But the chief concern is whether there is really such a day of the Lord. This the Prophet asserts most distinctly. For precisely because there is such a day (כִּיfor, Isa_2:12) Isaiah could Isa_2:17 refer to it. But this day is a day for Jehovah Sabaoth (comp. Isa_1:9), or more correctly: Jehovah has such in preparation, so to speak, in sure keeping, so that, as soon as it pleases Him, He can produce it for His purpose (comp. Isa_22:5; Isa_34:8, and especially Isa_63:4; Jer_46:10; Eze_30:3). This day is a day of judgment, as already even the older prophets portray it: Joel 1:15; 2:1, 2, 11; 3:4; 4:14; Amo_5:18; Amo_5:20. Oba_1:15. Indeed the notion of judgment is so closely identified with “the day of Jehovah” that Isaiah in our text construes יוםa day directly as a word signifying “court of justice,” for he lets עַל depend on it. Once more in Isa_2:12, the notion of high and proud is generally expressed before (Isa_2:13) it is individualized.
3. And upon all—in that day.
Isa_2:13-17. The judgment of God must fall on all products of nature (Isa_2:13-14), and upon human art (Isa_2:15-16). It may be asked, how then have the products of nature, the trees and mountains become blameworthy? Knobel, to be sure, understands by the cedars houses made of cedar (comp. 2Sa_7:2; 2Sa_7:7) and by oaks of Bashan houses of oak wood (Eze_27:6) such as Uzziah and Jotham constructed partly for fortifying the land, partly for pleasure, and by mountains and hills “the fastnesses that Jotham built in the mountains of Judah (2Ch_27:4).” But, though one might understand the cedars to mean houses of cedar, (for which, however, must not be cited Isa_9:9; Nah_2:4, but Jer_22:23 comp. Isa_60:13) still the mountains and hills can never mean “fortified places.” 2Pe_3:10, seems to me to afford the best commentary on our passage. As sure as מַלְאַךְ י׳angel of theLord of the Old Testament, is identical with the ἄγγελος κυρίου of the New Testament so is also the יוֹם י׳, day of the Lord identical with the ἡμέρα κυρίου (1Co_1:8; 1Th_5:2, etc.). Now of this day of the Lord it is said, in the above passage in Peter, that in it, “the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” If now this last great day has its preliminaries, too, like, on the contrary, the revelation of glory Isa_2:2 sqq., has, then we are justified in regarding all degrees of God’s world-judging activity as parts of “the day of the Lord.” If then the prophet here names only the high mountains and the highest trees growing on them as representatives of nature, he evidently does so because it is his idea, according to the whole context, to make prominent that which is high in an earthly sense, especially what is wont to serve men as means of gratifying their lust of power and pomp. But the mountains and the trees on them could not be destroyed without the earth itself were destroyed. Therefore the high mountains and trees are only named as representatives of the entire terrestrial nature, of the γῆ as it is called by Peter, as also afterwards the towers, ships of Tarshish, etc., are only representative of the ἔργα, the human works, thus the productions of art. The oaks of Bashan, beside this place, are mentioned Eze_27:6; Zec_11:2. A parallel is drawn between Lebanon and Bashan also Isa_33:9; Jer_22:20; Nah_1:4.—High towers and strong walls were built by others as well as by Uzziah and Jotham; comp. 2Ch_14:7; 2Ch_32:5, etc.—Tarshish is mentioned by Isaiah again: Isa_23:1; Isa_23:6; Isa_23:10; Isa_60:9; Isa_66:19. It is now generally acknowledged that the locality lay in south Spain beyond the Pillars of Hercules. It is the Ταρτησσὸς Tartessus of the Greeks; not a city, likely, but the country that lay at the mouth of the Bætis (Guadalquiver): comp. Herzog,R. Encycl. XV. p. 684. Ships of Tarshish are thus large ships fitted for distant and dangerous voyages (Jon_1:3; Jon_4:2; 1Ki_10:22; 1Ki_22:49; Psa_48:8). All this must be destroyed and so must the arrogance of men be humbled, that Jehovah alone may be high in that day. So the prophet repeats, with some modification, the words of Isa_2:11, to prove that the specifications just given are only meant as the amplification of that general thought expressed in Isa_2:9. For these verses 12–16, refer as much back to Isa_2:9 as do Isa_2:18 sqq., (especially Isa_2:18; Isa_2:21,) to Isa_2:10 a.
4. And the idols—the earth.
Isa_2:17-21. The judgment against the sub-human creatures is followed by that against the superhuman, the idols. As verses 13–16 refer back to Isa_2:7, so Isa_2:18 sqq., does to Isa_2:8.
But the judgment against the idols is most notably accomplished when the worshippers of idols, now visited by the despised, true God, in all His terrible reality, see themselves the nothingness of their idols and cast them away in contempt. Jehovah appears in the awful pomp of His majesty. If the gods were anything, then they would now appear and shield their followers. But, just because they are אֱלִילִיםnothings; they cannot do it. We see from this that the “enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust” Isa_2:10, refers especially to the bringing to shame these illusory superhuman highnesses. In Rev_6:12 sqq., when at Isa_2:15 our passage is alluded to, the shaking of the earth appears as the effect of a great earthquake. Regarding the uses loquendi comp. Isa_8:12-13; Isa_29:23; Isa_47:12.
Therefore men shall cast their idols away to the gnawing beasts of the night, in their unclean holes, not that their flight may be easier, but because the idols belong there. May there not be an allusion in the words to the demon origin of the idols (1Co_10:20 sq.)? In the description of “A little excursion into the Land of Moab,” contained in the Magazine Sueddeutche Reichspost, 1872, No. 257 sqq., we read in No. 257 the following, in reference to the discovery of a large image of Astarte. “The Bedouins dig in the numerous artificial and natural caves for saltpetre for making gunpowder. In this way they find these objects that in their time were buried or just thrown there, which, in the judgment of those that understand such matters, belonged all of them once in some way to heathen worship, and on which the prophecy of Isa_2:20 has been so literally fulfilled.”—Thus they cast their idols away, they entertain themselves no more with the care and worship of them, all trust in them is also gone. They only hasten to save themselves by flight into the caverns (נְקָרָה) see Exo_33:22 from נָקַר, to bore,) and crevices of the rocks (comp. Isa_57:5). We are, moreover, reminded of the words in Luk_23:30. “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains fall on us; and to the hills, cover us.” For what wish can be left to those that have fled to the rocks, when the rocks themselves begin to shake, except to be covered as soon as possible from the tumbling mountains.
[Isa_2:20. Idols of silver and idols of gold. “Here named as the most splendid and expensive, in order to make the act of throwing them away still more significant.
“Moles and bats are put together on account of their defect of sight.”—J. A. A.]
Footnotes:
[13]For the Lord of hosts has a day on every thing proud, etc.
[14]Heb. pictures of desire.
[15]spectacles of desire.
[16]Or, shall utterly pass away.
[17]Heb. the dust.
[18]Heb. the idols of his silver, etc.
[19]Or, Which they made for him.
[20]fissures.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11–17 lofty looks--literally, "eyes of pride" (Psa 18:27).
lofty looks--literally, "eyes of pride" (Psa 18:27).
humbled--by calamities. God will so vindicate His honor "in that day" of judgments, that none else "shall be exalted" (Zac 14:9).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–17 11. The terror which was approaching, Isa_2:10, is now…
11. The terror which was approaching, Isa_2:10, is now seen as past. In Hebrew poetry scenes suddenly shift; a spirit of restlessness and non-repose characterizes it; it darts from object to object with lightning rapidity; it is alert with antitheses, and is never to be judged by rules governing the ancient Greek and modern dramatic poetry. The preceding verse sees judgment approaching; this verse describes the effect of it when passed. The haughty airs of men shall be humbled — in the Hebrew, are “humbled” — are brought low. Past, present, and future run into each other to express permanent effect.
In that day — In that sweep of time during which the principles of divine retribution have their full manifestation. No doubt the full result is seen in the overthrow of the State and the captivity at Babylon. It is idle to seek, with laborious literalness, fulfilments of predictions so generally expressed.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 15, 16 11. in that day] The day to be now…
11. in that day] The day to be now described in
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–17 (11) The lofty looks of man . . .—Better,…
(11) The lofty looks of man . . .—Better, the lofty looks of the mean man . . . the haughtiness of the great man. The self-assertion which is the essential element of pride may be found at the opposite extremes of social life.
The Lord alone shall be exalted . . .—The verb, as in Psa_46:7; Psa_46:11 (see margin and text of Authorised Version), implies the image of a rock-citadel, towering in its strength, and offering the one safe asylum in a time of danger. (Comp. also Psa_61:2.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 The effect of the judgment which, in ver. 9,…
The effect of the judgment which, in ver. 9, was said to be the humiliation of high and low alike, is here declared with special reference to the high-minded and proud, whom it will humble more than others. The Lord alone shall be exalted; like a lofty and strong tower. (comp. Isa_12:4 Isa_33:5)
Vers. 12-22. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE DAY OF THE LORD. The prophet, now, having announced that God is about to visit his people in anger (vers. 10, 11), proceeds to describe in highly rhetorical language the visitation itself,
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(1) as to its object, which is to bring down all that exalts itself against God (ver. 12);
(2) as to its scope it is to be upon trees, mountains, hills, towers, walls, ships, pleasant pictures, idols (vers. 13-18);
(3) as to its practical effect, which will be to alarm and terrify, to make men fly and hide themselves, and to produce contempt of the idols in which they have so long trusted (vers. 19-21).
For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one; rather, For the Lord of hosts shall have a day upon everything. The passage is exegetical of "that day" in the preceding verse. A "day or time is certainly coming which shall be emphatically "the Lord"s a day on which he will descend to judgment. Proud... lofty... lifted up (comp. ver. 11). "The ideas of eminence, pride, and opposition to God melt into each other in the Old Testament" (Cheyne). And he shall be brought low; rather, that it may be brought low (so Gesenius and Cheyne).
Vers. 12-22. The terrors of the day of the Lord.
Every visitation of man by God is typical of his coming to judgment. "That day" is, in its deepest and truest sense, the day whereon Christ shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead. Of "that day and that hour knoweth no man"; (Mat_24:36) and the terror is increased by the mystery. The prophet sees God descend to judge Israel. The particular features are local; but through them may be discerned without much difficulty the characteristics which are recurrent, and which belong especially to the last and great day, viz.
I ABASEMENT OF THE PROUD. Earthly distinctions come to naught when the earth itself comes to an end. Rank, titles, dignities, fail. The "mean man" and the "great man" (ver. 9), the highest and the lowest in earthly rank, are upon a par, when all have to appear before their Judge. And spiritual pride is equally brought low. None but must then feel himself a miserable sinner, a suppliant for mercy at God"s feet, with hope only through the merits and intercession of the incarnate Son. "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day" (ver. 17).
II DESTRUCTION OF THE GRANDEST OF HUMAN WORKS. Towers, walls, palaces, are shattered and overturned at the great seasons of national judgments, and will fall with a crash everywhere at the final judgment-day. The great navies of the world will perish in the "fervent heat;" the works of art, the "pleasant pictures," and all the "delightful works of imagery," will shrivel like parchment scrolls. The accumulated civilization of millennia will be brought to naught. Egypt"s pyramids and temples, Persia"s palaces, Greece"s lovely fades, Rome"s amphitheatres, Christendom"s magnificent cathedrals, all will totter to their base and be overthrown. Nothing will stand that human skill, contrivance, energy, has constructed; all will disappear, and"Like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a wrack behind.
III DESTRUCTION OF GRAND OBJECTS IN NATURE. The taint of man"s sin has passed upon nature itself. Pride and vanity have employed natural products for self-glorification; the precious metals have been prostituted to sinful uses; selfishness has turned natural beauties into private property, and either made a gain of them, or jealously secluded them from the intrusion of ordinary humanity. Therefore Nature, as she now is, has become unfit for the habitation of man in his regenerate condition; and "the first earth" has to "pass away," and to be succeeded by the "new heaven and new earth" of the Apocalyptic vision. (Rev_21:1) What the exact amount of change will be, we do not know. Many features of the existing earth may remain pure snowy summits that the foot of man has never trod; blue glacier caves that have escaped his prying eyes; deep forest glades preserved from the desecration of his presence by thorny jungle or impenetrable wealth of undergrowth; but much of that with which man is most familiar will disappear perhaps all that could recall acts or thoughts of sin and the "new heaven and new earth," that God will create, will to such an extent supersede the old, that "the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind". (Isa_65:17)
IV GENERAL ALARM, ESPECIALLY OF THE SINNER AND THE WORLDLY. They of Israel fled into "the holes of the rocks, and the caves of the earth, from the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty" (ver. 19). At the last day, "men shall say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us"; (Luk_23:30) "Hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb". (Rev_6:16) The brightness of his presence will be intolerable to those who have "loved darkness rather than light; "and they will desire, at any rate, to flee from it. Alas! flight will be impossible, concealment will be impossible; no rocks will offer hiding-places to the ungodly from the presence of God. One only refuge is possible that to that men must have fled before, with the heartfelt, earnest cry"Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee!
Vers. 12-22. The day of judgment.
Here follows a grand picture, in which a few simple thoughts are set.
I THE DAY OF JEHOVAH. This stands for any and every epoch of clearer light which reveals the relative worth of things. False estimates of life and its objects have become by custom fixed. The imagination has been under a delusion. A false idea of greatness and goodness has become so fixed that nothing but a revolution will subvert it. The criticism of words may be defied; but the criticism of facts, of results, against this there is no appeal. There is no reversal of the judgment of events. A great day of judgment was, for example, the French Revolution of a century ago. The falsehood of generations was then expiated in blood. Social institutions which were bad, inhuman, yet which those who had grown up in them regarded as impossible to alter, were effaced in that terrible outpouring of the wrath of God. The sense amidst great wrong that the judgment of God cannot long be delayed, is expressed in the common saying, "Things must take a turn before long." In the life of the individual, every stopping-point or turning-point at which a false way of life terminates, may be viewed as a day of judgment and a day of Jehovah.
II THE DAY BRINGS WITH IT A SHOCK TO HUMAN IMAGINATION. The prophet piles up images to represent the reversal of all human ideals of greatness and loftiness. The gigantic trees of Lebanon and Bashan, the mountains and hills, the towers and the high ramparts, the tall ships sailing Tarshish-wards, (Psa_48:8) the turrets of villas and houses of pleasure, draw down upon them the violence of the storm. The vast and lofty in nature and in works of art are not of more value in the eyes of God than the small and lowly. They are hints of the greatness of the spirit, and if we give such objects an independent greatness, we are suffering from an illusion. The greatness and the beauty are in the seeing mind. There is not so much to be seen of the work of God in a mountain as in a moth. "Life apparent in the smallest midge is marvelous beyond dead Atlas" self." The palaces, the streets of a great city, are signs of the human soul and its greatness, but not the truest signs. It is a common error to look for the tokens of a people"s greatness in their buildings and mechanical achievements. But from what source does material creation and production come? That is the ultimate question. Our works of art are works of the flesh and of pride, or works of the spirit wrought in humility and the love of truth. A few such works in plastic stuff of stone, or on canvas, or in poetic words, endure through all change. That which is untrue must fall sooner or later beneath the criticism of God and be exposed. And in the downfall of human works the eternal God is again manifested in his supreme greatness and glory. It is our own false imaginations which hide him from us.
III THE ABANDONMENT OF THE IDOLS. For the idols cannot help their worshippers, who must run to hide themselves. Yet at first they cling to them. But soon in alarm they cast them away into any corner, any refuse-heap, any filthy haunt of bats and moles. "To cast to the bats" is as proverbial an expression in the East for throwing clean away as rejected rubbish, as "throwing to the dogs" with us. There comes a time when men will be willing to get rid of their most precious objects so that they may but save themselves. A secret terror haunts the false conscience, which in moments of clear revelation of truth rises to an acme and becomes a panic. The true heart longs for more of God"s light, the false can only exist behind an artificial veil or screen. In every time larger light is appearing, truths for the conduct of life are coming into currency; in short, the Divine Critic of our life is making his censure felt. Alas for those who rush into any cave at hand, plunge into obscurantism rather than face the worst, which thus faced will prove the best!
IV THE MORAL. "Cease ye from man." If in any such day of revelation all the proud ideals of human society may be discovered false, and cast aside as worthless; if the time of revelation shows that we have been resting upon rotten shams; if we have an uneasy consciousness that it is always so; how vain is all confidence in human wit and work! The bitter words seem to cast contempt upon every species of beast and satisfaction. A poet of our time has written a great work to show that our human speech is naught, our human testimony false, our fame and human estimation words and wind" (Browning," Ring and Book"). But how can we cease from man? We can only know the true and the eternal through some form of human experience. The answer is Man merely as man, an independent fact, is naught; he and all his pass away. In living for himself as if there were no truth, no good, beyond, he becomes a lie. If we see man only we see the false; if God working in and through man and his history, we find the true in the false. Working through the false shows of sense, we may reach the spirit of things, the mind of God. We leave our hold on the fugitive human fact, false if we try to stereotype it, that we may plant our foot on the constant. The Divine "Truth is forced To manifest itself through falsehood; whence divorced By the excepted eye, at the rare season, for The happy moment, truth instructs us to abhor The false, and prize the true, obtainable thereby. J.
Vers. 12-17. The Lord"s day for the proud.
Any time of specific judgment or mercy is in the Scriptures called a "day of the Lord." The day of the Lord has come for the antediluvian world, for Sodom, for the Canaanites, for Babylon, for Israel. It is ever coming to nations, in the corruption or the calamity that follow on national sin. It will come as long as the world endures; that is, so long as God needs, by external judgments, to mark the evil of sin. The sin of all others that calls for a "day of the Lord" is pride, self-confidence, rebellious self-assertion; and this was precisely the sin of the times in which Isaiah wrote. Man is made for God; he was ruined when he broke relations with God, and in self-will separated himself from God. And there is no hope of restoration until pride is humbled. Therefore for this humbling of self God pleads, and to secure this God sends judgments. Henderson says, "These verses contain a specification of several of the most distinguished objects of nature and art, in order, metaphorically, to represent the different persons or orders of men elevated by the dignity of orifice, or rendered notable by their riches, or the elegance and luxury of their establishments, whom the judgments of God would, in a more remarkable manner, hurl into ruin." It has been also observed that the emphatic iteration of "lifted up" is noticeable as indicating that the prophet sees in that self-assertion the root-evil of his time, that which was most destructive of the fear of the Lord, and most surely brought down judgment on the offender.
I ONE DAY GOD HUMBLES THE PROUD NATION. Illustrate from Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself, and took all the glory to himself, and Belshazzar followed him in the same willfulness; but a day of darkness and terror came for Babylon, of which the handwriting on the wall gave awful warnings. Or take Jerusalem as representing the kingdom of Judah. Puffed up with self-confidence, willfully resisting the Divine lead, a day of vindication and judgment at last came; her enemies poured in like a flood; the holy city lay in ashes, and her people were either slain or captive. And it is not without good reason that we find modern illustration of God"s day for nations in Napoleonic France. Napoleon claiming both to "propose and dispose," and overtaken by God"s avenging day at Moscow and Waterloo.
II GOD"S DAY HUMBLES THE PROUD INDIVIDUAL. That day comes in such forms as these.
1. A slip from integrity brings disgrace and ruin.
2. Masterfulness and arrogance bring hatred, which finds occasion to injure.
3. Riches take to themselves wings and flee away.
4. Mind becomes unsettled, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar.
5. Sickness and bereavement come in his family. Sooner or later a day dawns in which the haughty, self-reliant, God-despising man is touched on his sorest, tenderest place. No man can ever be permitted to exalt himself against God and permanently prosper. Give instances from modern life of the downfall of pride, such as the closing years of Squire Beckford"s life.
III GOD"S HUMBLINGS, FOR NATIONS OR FOR MEN, MAY BE MELTINGS, OR THEY MAY HAVE TO BE CRUSHINGS. The result of them depends upon the way in which they are met and responded to. That which is designed to melt may harden; and a judgment that bruises only may be so abused, that it must be followed by a judgment that breaks. Israel would not be humbled by calamity after calamity graciously tempered, so it must be made overwhelming; and Samaria was taken, and the distinct life of Israel, as a nation, crushed out forever. It is a thought full of painful seriousness, that the quality and degree of our troubles depend on cur response to those God has sent, as chastenings, in earlier times. God"s hand may be heavy on us, because we have so long resisted his pleadings and his humblings. Judgment is his strange work, mercy is his delight; but if we resist him, further and heavier judgments are demanded by very "mercy. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 16 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled .…
Isa_2:11
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled . . . the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day
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Man humbled and Christ exalted
The day may be very properly applied to any of those days when the Lord abases the pride of guilty man, or when He makes His presence felt by the power of His Spirit upon the heart; for it is then the lofty looks of man are humbled; it is then the haughtiness of man is bowed down, and the Lord is exalted in the heart.
What other than this is Gods object in the Gospel? It is definitely that self may be humbled, and Christ exalted.
I. Let us look at some points on which MEN ARE APT TO BE LIFTED UP and to bolster themselves up in their pride and self-sufficiency.
1. They hold that they have natural ability to understand the Word of God. What saith the Scripture upon this point? (1Co_2:11, etc.) How many take up the Word of God to read it just as they would any other book, forgetting its character--forgetting its object! They read it merely to know, not in order to be. Whereas the value of the Book is, that it is to tell upon mans character. It is to make him altogether a new creature in Christ Jesus.
2. Another point of deep importance is the opinion which men have with respect to their power to save themselves. It is not that they think that they can actually blot out their sins, or that they can perfectly keep Gods law; but they, in imagination, strike a kind of balance between their good and bad deeds. They think that there is something good in what they do, and that what they fail in Christ will make up; and the consequence is, there is no real humiliation before God while this idea lasts.
3. The foolish thoughts men have of the character of God, as if He were such an one as themselves. You will often hear men speak of what they conceive the justice of God to be, without attending in the smallest degree to the declarations which He makes of Himself in His Holy Word. They speak as though they thought the difference between themselves and God, who is holy, is one of degree merely, and not of nature. They put on one side altogether the fact that God is a Spirit, and that they themselves are carnal, and they speak as if morality would fit a man for heaven, utterly ignoring the words of the Lord, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Men, indeed, form their own opinions; but remember the way in which God speaks of it: Thou thoughtest that I was such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee.
II. Now, all these mistaken views are so many sources of pride in men; but when the Holy Spirit comes into the heart in power, they ARE BOWED DOWN AND HUMBLED BEFORE GOD. One of the effects produced by the Holy Spirit, when He comes upon a mans heart, is to make him consider his ways. He looks to himself and sees nothing but sin; that there is not one single ground of hope; and when the Holy Spirit has graciously brought him to this point, then He shows him the salvation of Christ. And then in this exaltation of the Lord Jesus comes the true abasement of the man himself. Lessons--
1. The object of all Gods dispensations is to humble us, and to bring us down to the feet of Christ.
2. The nature of true faith. It is humility; it is dependence; it is coming down from all self-confidence; it is resting upon another, and that Christ alone. (J. W. Reeve, M. A.)
God exalted
1. By entertaining elevating apprehensions of His infinite majesty, and exercising suitable affections towards Him--fearing Him who pours contempt upon princes, trusting in Him in whom is everlasting strength, and loving Him in whose favour there is life.
2. By celebrating the praises of His Divine excellencies with gratitude and joy.
3. By such conduct as may give the most sensible and lively representation of God--beginning, carrying on, and ending all their businesses in Him; making His love the principle, His law the rule, and His glory the end of all their actions. (R. Macculloch.)
Humility
Life is a long lesson in humility. (J. M. Barrie.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v17 (Advent Sermon.)
GOD EXALTED IN THE GREAT DAY
(Advent Sermon.)
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Isa_2:17. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Two questions: What is “that day?” How shall the Lord then be exalted?
I. “That day.” “The first five verses of this chapter foretell the kingdom of the Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and their admission into the Church. From the sixth verse to the end is foretold the punishment of the unbelieving Jews for their idolatrous practices, their confidence in their own strength, and distrust of God’s protection; and, moreover, the destruction of idolatry in consequence of the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom.”—Lowth. But here, as in many other portions of Scripture, a larger and remoter meaning looms beyond and behind the first sense of the expressions, which would otherwise be too big and swelling for the actual interpretation of them. Compare the description in which the text twice occurs with the almost parallel passages in chap. Isa_5:14-16. How magnificent! What startling terms! What emphatic iterations! Surely a want of fitness and congruity would almost be felt if expressions such as these referred only to some temporal calamity of the Jewish nation; surely we cannot mistake in looking onward to some mightier catastrophe, to some final exaltation of God and abasement of all creatures. By “that day,” therefore, we mean what is elsewhere called “the day,” “the great day,” “the day of judgment,” “the great and terrible day of the Lord”—the consummation of all things.
When that day shall come I do not know, and I am content to remain in ignorance. It may come suddenly, without warning, unannounced. Then it is for men always to have their lamps burning and their hearts in readiness, lest they be taken by surprise. It may come with great signs preceding and accompanying it. Then it is for men, according to their capacity, to note and discern those signs. It is the very uncertainty connected with it that is to make us watchful (Mat_24:36; Mat_24:42). We are to be vigilant and observant, without pretending to determine what God has left unrevealed. Such attempts have in all ages been made, and in all ages have been falsified. The failure of those attempts has not only covered those who made them or believed in them with ridicule, it has brought into discredit the sacred Book which the aim was to expound. It is our first duty and highest interest to be at every moment prepared; but a far other and better preparation may, and must be made for it, than in the futile endeavour to discover its precise date. [1294]
[1294] During the fifth century Chrysostom expressed himself in language which sounds almost like an anticipation of much that we hear at the present day. “No long time now remains until the consummation; but the world is hastening to its end. This the wars declare, this the afflictions, this the love which hath waxed cold. For as the body, when in its last gasp and near to death, draws to itself ten thousand sufferings; and as when a house is about to fall, many portions are wont to fall beforehand from the roofs and walls; so is the end of the world nigh and at the very doors, and, therefore, ten thousand woes are everywhere scattered abroad” (Homily xxxiv.) Towards the close of the tenth century, Bernhard, a hermit of Thuringia, and other persons, spread or encouraged the belief, that after the end of the thousandth year, the fetters of Satan were to be broken; and that, after the reign of Antichrist should be terminated, the world would be consumed by sudden conflagration. This wild and extraordinary delusion pervaded and possessed every rank of society. It seized on nobles, princes, and even bishops, as well as on the common people. Many renounced their pursuits and professions; abandoned their friends and families; gave themselves up to superstitious prayer and terrifying expectations, and made over all their substance to some adjacent church or monastery. Almost all the donations which were made to the Church in this century proceeded from this avowed motive, that the end of the world was drawing near. The form ran, “Appropinquante jam mundi termino,” &c. Others permitted their lands to lie waste, and their houses to decay; or betook themselves in hasty flight to the shelter of rocks and caverns, as if the temples of nature were destined to preservation amidst the wreck of man and his works.—Boone.
Equally unwise is the disposition to specify with a minute particularity the events which are to usher in the great day of the Lord, or the convulsions of nature which shall herald and proclaim it, or the astonishing circumstances with which it shall be arrayed. God has chosen to involve them in a mysterious and solemn indistinctness. In bold and sublime figures the inspired writers have delineated a scene which must stand singular and by itself, without any precedent or parallel, and which, therefore, neither human language can directly express nor human understanding adequately comprehend. Instead of endeavouring to explain the images and symbols employed, prudence will lead us to confine ourselves to the very words of Scripture, such as Dan_12:2; Joe_3:11-15; 2Co_5:10; Mat_25:31-32; Rev_20:11-13; 1Co_15:51-53. [1297] On these declarations we should meditate with serious and chastened minds, for if Scripture be true these words cannot be without a real and solemn meaning, and that meaning can only be that there shall be a day in which the world shall be judged by God in Christ, and that from before the Divine tribunal the good and the evil, separated from each other, shall depart to destinies final and irreversible (P. D. 2109).
[1297] I forbear to expatiate on the phenomena or the tokens which shall be premonitory of the Millennium or of the day of judgment. God has not seen fit, even in Scripture, to withdraw the curtain of obscurity from between us and that supreme future. We may well be content that our apprehensions should be vague, when the language of the Bible is not definite, and when we find rather the sublime and half-luminous gloom with which poetry or painting can invest its delineations, than the sharp and precise outline which the chisel can carve.—Boone.
II. In that day the Lord alone shall be exalted.
1. How is this possible? Is not God always exalted far above all blessing and praise? He will then be exalted in the sense in which He is now said to be glorified. He will be exalted in the visible homage and submission of an assembled universe. He will be exalted by the full manifestation of His attributes, in their unclouded and effulgent lustre, by the exhibition, before men and angels, of His omnipotence and justice, His wisdom and truth, His love and mercy, of the holiness of His law, the equity of His administration, the abundance of His grace, so that all hearts shall be bowed down at His footstool, and every mouth shall be stopped.
2. In that day God shall be exalted alone.
(1) The text may lead our minds to other deities as opposed to Jehovah. They shall indeed be gone; in that day they shall be seen to be less than the least of all their worshippers.
(2) It will be the great day of the disclosure of all things; and all creatures shall see the Lord as He is, and themselves also as they are. Therefore shall all the highest orders of celestial intelligences, the cherubim and seraphim, and all the ranks of existence which may occupy the interval between man and his Maker, veil their faces before His throne; they shall be as nothing in His sight. Then shall all creatureship fall low before the one Creator; all derived, dependent being shall shrink into its true dimensions before the Absolute, the Eternal, the I AM.
(3) Even Christ Himself, His office as the Messiah having been accomplished, and His administration of the Church, in His human character, being brought to a close, shall resign His mediatorial sway (1Co_15:24-28; H. E. I. 985).
(4) But our chief concern, as we are men, is with humanity: “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.”
That day shall indeed declare the impotence of human power, the emptiness of human ambition, the nothingness of human renown. [1300] The very circumstances on account of which men have most lifted themselves up in their lifetime will be the occasions of their profoundest humiliation then.
[1300] What shall they all be, the strong rivalries and contentions, which shall have been hushed in the grave; the towering structures of vanity and earthly hope, which shall have been crushed before the moth; the schemes and plottings, the contrivances and expectations, the struggles and triumphs, which shall have been dropped into the burial-place where the worm is feeding on them! Oh, the thrones and dominions of mortality, the crowns and sceptres, the regal splendours and the imperial sway, how shall they then be reduced to their real and intrinsic insignificance! The victories of the warrior who conquered in a hundred fights, and the projects of the politician, whose statesmanship could grasp the globe; the famous men and heroes of the earth, with the poets who celebrated them, and the historians who recounted their exploits, what shall they be before the word of Omnipotence! The learning and science of the philosophers who framed their system of the universe for the admiration of posterity, what shall they be, before the blaze of illumination which shall be poured upon us in another world! The pageantries of courts and palaces; the banquets and the wine-cups, the spectacles and the entertainments, the mirrors and the lamps, the golden furniture of pomp, and the flowing robe of luxury; the great and the affluent, whose patronage was requested for busy undertakings, who were besieged with flattery and obsequiousness from morning to night; the noble and the beautiful, who gathered homage as they moved; the writers and the orators, whose popularity was unbounded, and who lived amidst the incense of human applause; they, and all that appertained to them, where and what shall they be, as we stand poor, and naked, and miserable before Him with whom we have to do! They, the heedless and the selfish, swimming in pleasure, who thought that the whole voyage of life was to be like Cleopatra’s passage along the Cydnus, one scene of mirth and gorgeousness; of prodigal dissipation and fatal revelry, with soft music and delicate odours floating in the air; what shall become of them! How black and cold shall be the cinders of their joy!
All human dynasties will then have crumbled to pieces, and all the gradations in the scale of human rank will then have been blotted out; for all must be dwarfed and prostrated before the ineffable majesty of the Most High God. All other differences must fade when the Divine summits are placed in contrast with them; as from the top of an exceeding high mountain the whole ground beneath is as a level plain, because from that vast altitude all smaller elevations are lost, all minuter inequalities of surface vanish. Human celebrity will then be as a sound, the very echoes of which will have departed. The pompous titles with which the vanity of man was pampered; the distinctions which kings could confer, or heraldry emblazon; privileges of caste, nobility of blood, the pride of ancestry, the blaze of reputation, the splendour of talents, shall then be confounded, one and all, as frivolous toys and trifling baubles. The mighty ones of the earth shall be no more than they who were of the poorest condition; the great shall stand abashed with the mean, the learned with the ignorant, monarchs with their subjects, senators and princes, commanders of fleets and armies, the loftiest and most renowned by the side of the husbandman and the labourer; for what shall they all be in contrast with Him, the Universal Creator, whose dwelling-place is eternity, and to whom belong, throughout all ages, all glory and dominion, sovereignty and praise?—Boone.
In that day our sinfulnesses shall sink us into the dust, and cover us with shame and confusion even more than our vanities. Shall any one of us hope then to be exalted, when the memories of us all shall retrace so many sterile and unproductive intentions, so many good impressions never fostered and ripened into fruits of righteousness, so many talents misused by our iniquity, or buried by our idleness? Then there shall be no more concealments, no more deceits, no more false excuses, no more of those pretences, equivocations, subterfuges, and sophisms which our reason is now so fatally ingenious in playing off upon itself (P. D. 661, 2106). Oh, think of these things, and let not your sins be dearer to you than your salvation. Think of them ere the night cometh, and the sun of your probation has quite gone down.
“The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” Will He then confound the righteous with the wicked? As compared with God there shall be no distinctions between men. All men on that great day at the bar of the Omniscient and the All Holy shall have upon them a universal sense of imperfection, unworthiness, insufficiency, nothingness. But as compared with each other there will be immense differences between them. It is one purpose of the great day to make manifest to all orders of being the infinite value and superiority of moral goodness, the infinite preciousness of a holy obedience above and beyond all else; then God, who sees it in secret, will reward it openly. When the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the people that forget God, the righteous shall shine forth as the stars of heaven. Therefore estimate all things now as you will estimate them then. Lean less upon earth and man and the things present, set your affections more upon the things to come, upon heaven, and upon the Ruler of heaven. Cultivate diligently those dispositions which are pleasing in His sight. For then, when all social forms shall have vanished away, when all material substances shall have been obliterated, as the shapes in a cloud, and dissipated as the morning dew, your moral temper will abide with you, and your spiritual state, as discerned by the unerring Judge, will decide, and will attend, your immortal destiny (H. E. I. 720).—James Shergold Boone, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 359–399.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v12 Day of the Lord (Day of Jehovah) vs.
Day of the Lord (Day of Jehovah) vs.
Isa 2:10-22; Isa 4:1-6; Isa 11:10-13; Isa 13:9-16; Isa 24:21-23; Isa 26:20; Isa 26:21; Isa 63:1-6; Isa 66:15-24; Jer 25:29-33; Jer 46:10; Eze 30:3; Rev 19:11-21
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12, 14, 17 General Information:
General Information:
Isaiah speaks to the people of Judah in the form of a poem. (See: Parallelism)
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who is proud and raised up
One who is "raised up" is proud and considers himself better than other people. This can be stated in active form. AT: "who is proud and who raises himself above other people" or "who is proud and thinks that he is better than other people" (See: Active or Passive and Metaphor)
who is proud ... who is arrogant
Someone who is arrogant speaks and acts as if he is better than other people. These two phrases have similar meanings and are used together to emphasize that Yahweh will punish them. (See: Doublet)
he will be brought down
"every proud person will be brought down." This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh will humble him" (See: Active or Passive)
against all the cedars of Lebanon ... against all the oaks of Bashan
The "day of Yahweh of Hosts" will be against the cedars and oaks. Possible meanings are 1) these trees are a metaphor for the proud people whom God will judge or 2) God will actually destroy these mighty trees. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
day of the Lord
Yahweh of hosts
proud
cedar
Lebanon
oak
Bashan
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 13, 16, 17 2:11-12 A key theme in Isaiah is that the…
2:11-12 A key theme in Isaiah is that the Lord will be exalted and humble people will be restored (57:15), while proud and mighty people are humbled (26:5). • The day of judgment and the “day of reckoning” are also called the “day of the Lord.” There are seven such references in chs 2–4 (2:11, 17, 20; 3:6, 18; 4:1, 2).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.