Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: “Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’ ” Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.
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Isaiah 28:14-18 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: “Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’ ” Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it. As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.” For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act. Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth.
Parallel Translations
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Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:
“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’ ”
Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.
I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.
Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.
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Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
Show all 3 translations
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Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scoffers, the ballad-mongers of this people which is in Jerusalem:
Because ye have said: 'We have made a covenant with death, and with the nether-world are we at agreement; when the scouring scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood have we hid ourselves';
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a costly corner-stone of sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste.
And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with the nether-world shall not stand; when the scouring scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it,
Cross-references (99)
- Psalms 118:22 (v16) The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
- Acts 4:11-12 (v16) He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’ There is salvation in no…
- 1 Peter 2:6-8 (v16) Because it is contained in Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen and precious: He who believes in him will not be…
- Luke 20:17-18 (v16) But he looked at them and said, “Then what is this that is written, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the chief cornerstone?’…
- Romans 9:33 (v16) even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”
Show all 95 cross-references
- Mark 12:10 (v16) Haven’t you even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner.
- Matthew 21:42 (v16) Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. This was…
- Isaiah 8:14-15 (v16) He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a stumbling stone and a rock that makes them fall. For the people of…
- Ephesians 2:20 (v16) being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;
- 1 Corinthians 3:11 (v16) For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
- Romans 10:11 (v16) For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”
- Zechariah 3:9 (v16) For, behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes: behold, I will engrave its engraving,’ says Yahweh of…
- Genesis 49:24 (v16) But his bow remained strong. The arms of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (from there is the shepherd,…
- Psalms 112:7-8 (v16) He will not be afraid of evil news. His heart is steadfast, trusting in Yahweh. His heart is established. He will not be afraid in the end…
- Isaiah 30:18 (v16) Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is…
- Habakkuk 2:3-4 (v16) For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it;…
- Isaiah 7:7 (v18) This is what the Lord Yahweh says: “It shall not stand, neither shall it happen.”
- James 5:7-8 (v16) Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient…
- Isaiah 8:10 (v18) Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand, for God is with us.”
- Genesis 49:10 (v16) The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the…
- Isaiah 28:15 (vv17–18) “Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes…
- 2 Kings 21:13 (v17) I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of Ahab’s house; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping…
- Isaiah 8:7-8 (v15) now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come…
- Isaiah 28:22 (v14) Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies,…
- Daniel 11:22 (vv15, 17) The overwhelming forces will be overwhelmed from before him, and will be broken. Yes, also the prince of the covenant.
- Ecclesiastes 8:8 (v15) There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no…
- Isaiah 1:10 (v14) Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
- Isaiah 28:18 (v15) Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through,…
- Isaiah 29:20 (v14) For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off—
- Jeremiah 5:31 (v15) The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end…
- Ezekiel 13:22 (v15) Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he…
- Hosea 2:18 (v15) 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…
- Amos 2:4 (v15) Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected Yahweh’s…
- Amos 7:7-9 (v17) Thus he showed me and behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. Yahweh said to me, “Amos,…
- Revelation 16:21 (v17) Great hailstones, about the weight of a talent, came down out of the sky on people. People blasphemed God because of the plague of the…
- Isaiah 28:2 (vv15, 17) Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he…
- Isaiah 30:28 (vv15, 17) His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that…
- Job 5:23 (v15) For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you.
- Job 15:25-27 (v15) Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty, he runs at him with a stiff neck, with…
- Isaiah 5:18-19 (v15) Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope, who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his…
- Isaiah 9:15 (v15) The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.
- Isaiah 28:3 (v18) The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot.
- Isaiah 29:15 (v15) Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”
- Isaiah 30:10 (v15) who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.
- Jeremiah 7:14 (v17) therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers,…
- Jeremiah 14:13 (v15) Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give…
- Jeremiah 16:19 (v15) Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth,…
- Jeremiah 28:15-17 (v15) Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! Yahweh has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a…
- Jeremiah 44:17 (v15) But we will certainly perform every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink…
- Ezekiel 8:12 (v15) Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery?…
- Ezekiel 13:16 (v15) to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,’ ” says the…
- Daniel 11:40 (v18) “At the time of the end the king of the south will contend with him; and the king of the north will come against him like a whirlwind, with…
- Jonah 2:8 (v15) Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- Zephaniah 1:12 (v15) It will happen at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are settled on their dregs, who say in…
- Malachi 4:1-3 (v18) “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…
- Acts 13:41 (v14) ‘Behold, you scoffers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which you will in no way believe, if one declares it…
- Romans 2:2 (v17) We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
- Romans 2:5 (v17) But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 (v15) even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness…
- Revelation 11:19 (v17) God’s temple that is in heaven was opened, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant was seen in his temple. Lightnings, sounds, thunders, an…
- Exodus 9:18-19 (v17) Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded…
- Joshua 10:11 (v17) As they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth Horon, Yahweh hurled down great stones from the sky on them to…
- Job 22:16 (v17) who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
- Psalms 94:15 (v17) For judgment will return to righteousness. All the upright in heart shall follow it.
- Proverbs 1:22 (v14) “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
- Proverbs 3:34 (v14) Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.
- Proverbs 29:8 (v14) Mockers stir up a city, but wise men turn away anger.
- Isaiah 2:15 (v18) for every lofty tower, for every fortified wall,
- Isaiah 5:9 (v14) In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
- Isaiah 5:16 (v17) but Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.
- Isaiah 8:8 (v18) It will sweep onward into Judah. It will overflow and pass through. It will reach even to the neck. The stretching out of its wings will…
- Isaiah 10:22 (v17) For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing…
- Isaiah 25:4 (v17) For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when…
- Isaiah 32:2 (v17) A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large…
- Isaiah 32:18-19 (v17) My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places, though hail flattens the forest, and the city…
- Jeremiah 7:4-8 (v17) Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, are these.’ For if you thoroughly amend your ways…
- Jeremiah 7:20 (v17) Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man, on animal, on the trees of the…
- Jeremiah 23:19 (v17) Behold, Yahweh’s storm, his wrath, has gone out. Yes, a whirling storm: It will burst on the head of the wicked.
- Jeremiah 30:23-24 (v17) Behold, Yahweh’s storm, his wrath, has gone out, a sweeping storm: it will burst on the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of Yahweh will…
- Jeremiah 44:28 (v18) Those who escape the sword will return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah few in number. All the remnant of Judah, who have…
- Jeremiah 47:2 (v18) Yahweh says: “Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream, and will overflow the land and all that is…
- Ezekiel 13:10-16 (v17) “ ‘Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, “Peace;” and there is no peace. When one builds up a wall, behold, they…
- Ezekiel 17:15 (v18) But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? Will…
- Ezekiel 38:22 (v17) I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood. I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are…
- Daniel 8:9-13 (v18) Out of one of them came out a little horn, which grew exceedingly great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the glorious…
- Daniel 9:26-27 (v18) After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off, and will have nothing. The people of the prince who come will destroy the city…
- Hosea 7:5 (v14) On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine. He joined his hand with mockers.
- Zechariah 1:6 (v18) But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said,…
- Matthew 7:27 (v17) The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
- Romans 9:28 (v17) for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.”
- 2 Peter 3:6-7 (v17) by which means the world that existed then, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens that exist now and the earth, by the…
- Revelation 8:7 (v17) The first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. One third of the earth was burned…
- Revelation 12:15 (v18) The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream.
- Revelation 17:15 (v18) He said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.
- Revelation 19:2 (v17) for his judgments are true and righteous. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and…
95 distinct cross-references across this passage (99 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (23 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv15–17 They thought they had shifts to avoid God’s judgments,…
They thought they had shifts to avoid God’s judgments, and that they could escape though all others perished.
Though the prophets condemned their idols and vain trust of falsehood and vanity, yet the wicked thought in themselves that they would trust in these things.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14–18 Isa 28:14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD,…
Isa 28:14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which [is] in Jerusalem.
Ver. 14. Wherefore hear the word of the Lord.] Stand forth and hear your doom, ye that jeer when you should fear, as if you were out of the reach of God’s rod.
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Ye scornful men.] Heb., Ye men of mockage, ye who mock at the word of God by your words, deeds, and gestures; quales sycophantas quotidie videmus, of which sort we find not a few today. Such dust heaps as these we have in every corner - men that have turned religion not only into a form, but also into a scorn, accounting the wisdom of God foolishness. These St Peter calleth scoffers - εμπαικται, - or such as make sport with the word. {2Pe 3:3} And the prophet here - uno verbo multa peccata exprimit, dum illusores nominat - in calling them mockers, calleth them all that naught is.
That rule the people.] Such as Shebnah now was, and afterwards Tobiah, {Neh 2:19} Herod, Domitian, Julian, Sir Thomas Moore, &c.
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 vv14–18 Ye scornful men; which make a mock at sin,…
Ye scornful men; which make a mock at sin, and at God’s words and threatenings; and doubt not by your witty devices, and by your wicked practices, to escape God’s judgments, of which we read in the next verse.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v14 The prophet, having reproved those that made a jest…
The prophet, having reproved those that made a jest of the word of God, here goes on to reprove those that made a jest of the judgments of God, and set them at defiance; for he is a jealous God, and will not suffer either his ordinances or his providences to be brought into contempt. He addressed himself to the scornful men who ruled in Jerusalem, who were the magistrates of the city, Isa 28:14. It is bad with a people when their thrones of judgment become the seats of the scornful, when rulers are scorners; but that the rulers of Jerusalem should be men of such a character, that they should make light of God's judgments and scorn to take notice of the tokens of his displeasure, is very sad. Who will be mourners in Zion if they are scorners? Observe,
I. How these scornful men lulled themselves asleep in carnal security, and even challenged God Almighty to do his worst (Isa 28:15) You have said, We have made a covenant with death and the grave. They thought themselves as sure of their lives, even when the most destroying judgments were abroad, as if they had made a bargain with death, upon a valuable consideration, not to come till they sent for him or not to take them away by any violence, but by old age. If we be at peace with God, and have made a covenant with him, we have in effect made a covenant with death that it shall come in the fittest time, that whenever it comes, it shall be no terror to us, nor do us any real damage; death is ours if we be Christ's (Co1 3:22, Co1 3:23): but to think of making death our friend, or being in league with it, while by sin we are making God our enemy and are at war with him, is the greatest absurdity that can be. It was fond conceit which these scorners had, "When the overflowing scourge shall pass through our country, and others shall fall under it, yet it shall not come to us, not reach us, though it extend far, not bear us down, though it is an overflowing scourge." It is the greatest folly imaginable for impenitent sinners to think that either in this world or the other they shall fare better than their neighbours. But what is the ground of their confidence? Why, truly, We have made lies our refuge. Either, 1. Those things which the prophets told them would be lies and falsehood to them and would deceive, but which they themselves looked upon as substantial fences. The protection of their idols, the promises with which their false prophets soothed them, their policy, their wealth, their interest in the people; these they confided in, and not in God; nay, these they confided in against God. Or, 2. Those things which should be lies and falsehood to the enemy, who was flagellum Dei - the scourge of God, the overflowing scourge; they would secure themselves by imposing upon the enemy with their stratagems of war, or their feigned submissions in treaties of peace. The rest of the cities of Judah were taken because they made an obstinate defence; but the rulers of Jerusalem hope to succeed better. They think themselves greater politicians than those of the country towns; they will compliment the king of Assyria with a promise to surrender their city, or to become tributaries to him, with a purpose at the same time to shake off his yoke as soon as the danger is over, not caring though they be found liars to him, as the expression is, Deu 33:29. Note, Those put a cheat upon themselves that think to gain their point by putting cheats upon those they deal with. Those that pursue their designs by trick and fraud, by mean and paltry shifts, may perhaps compasss them, but cannot expect comfort in them. Honesty is the best policy. But such refuges as these are those driven to that depart from God, and throw themselves out of his protection.
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II. How God, by the prophet, awakens them out of this sleep, and shows them the folly of their security.
1. He tells them upon what grounds they might be secure. He does not disturb their false confidences, till he has first shown them a firm bottom on which they may repose themselves (Isa 28:16): Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone. This foundation is, (1.) The promises of God in general - his word, upon which he has caused his people to hope - his covenant with Abraham, that he would be a God to him and his; this is a foundation, a foundation of stone, firm and lasting, for faith to build upon; it is a tried stone, for all the saints have stayed themselves upon it and it never failed them. (2.) The promise of Christ in particular; for to him this is expressly applied in the New Testament, Pe1 2:6-8. He is that stone which has become the head of the corner. The great promise of the Messiah and his kingdom, which was to begin at Jerusalem, was sufficient to make God's people easy in the worst of times; for they knew well that till he came the sceptre should not depart from Judah. Zion shall continue while this foundation is yet to be laid there. "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, for the comfort of those that dare not make lies their refuge, Behold, and look upon me as one that has undertaken to lay in Zion a Stone," Jesus Christ is a foundation of God's laying. This is the Lord's doing. He is laid in Zion, in the church, in the holy hill. He is a tried stone, a trying stone (so some), a touch-stone, that shall distinguish between true and counterfeit. He is a precious stone, for such are the foundations of the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:19), a corner-stone, in whom the sides of the building are united, the head-stone of the corner. And he that believes these promises, and rests upon them, shall not make haste, shall not run to and fro in a hurry, as men at their wits' end, shall not be shifting hither and thither for his own safety, nor be driven to his feet by any terrors, as the wicked man is said to be (Job 18:11), but with a fixed heart shall quietly wait the event, saying, Welcome the will of God. He shall not make haste in his expectations, so as to anticipate the time set in the divine counsels, but, though it tarry, will wait the appointed hour, knowing that he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. He that believes will not make more haste than good speed, but be satisfied that God's time is the best time, and wait with patience for it. The apostle from the Septuagint explains this, Pe1 2:6. He that believes on him shall not be confounded; his expectations shall not be frustrated, but far out-done.
2. He tells them that upon the grounds which they now built on they could not be safe, but their confidences would certainly fail them (Isa 28:17): Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. This denotes,
(1.) The building up of his church; having laid the foundation (Isa 28:16), he will raise the structure, as builders do, by line and plummet, Zac 4:10. Righteousness shall be the line and judgment the plummet. The church, being grounded on Christ, shall be formed and reformed by the scripture, the standing rule of judgment and righteousness. Judgment shall return unto righteousness, Psa 94:15. Or,
(2.) The punishing of the church's enemies, against whom he will proceed in strict justice, according to the threatenings of the law. He will give them their deserts, and bring upon them the judgments they have challenged, but in wisdom too, and by an exact rule, that the tares may not be plucked up with the wheat. And when God comes thus to execute judgment,
[1.] These scornful men will be made ashamed of the vain hopes with which they had deluded themselves. First, They designed to make lies their refuge; but it will indeed prove a refuge of lies, which the hail shall sweep away, that tempest of hail spoken of Isa 28:2. Those that make lies their refuge build upon the sand, and the building will fall when the storm comes, and bury the builder in the ruins of it. Those that make any thing their hiding place but Christ shall find that the waters will overflow it, as every shelter but the ark was over-topped and overthrown by the waters of the deluge. Such is the hope of the hypocrite; this will come of all his confidences. Secondly, They boasted of a covenant with death, and an agreement with the grave; but it shall be disannulled, as made without his consent who has the keys and sovereign command of hell and death. Those do but delude themselves that think by any wiles to evade the judgments of God. Thirdly, They fancied that when the overflowing scourge should pass through the land it should not come near them; but the prophet tells them that then, when others were falling by the common calamity, they should not only share in it, but should be trodden down by it: "You shall be to it for a treading down; it shall triumph over you as much as over any other, and you shall become its easy prey." They are further told (Isa 28:19), 1. That it shall begin with them; they shall be so far from escaping it that they shall be the first that shall fall by it: "From the time it goes forth it shall take you, as if it came on purpose to seize you." 2. That it shall pursue them closely: "Morning by morning shall it pass over; as duly as the day returns you shall hear of some desolation or other made by it; for divine justice will follow its blow; you shall never be safe nor easy by day nor by night; there shall be a pestilence walking in darkness and a destruction wasting at noonday." 3. That there shall be no avoiding it: "The understanding of the report of its approach shall not give you any opportunity to make your escape, for there shall be no way of escape open; but it shall be only a vexation, you shall see it coming, and not see how to help yourselves." Or, "The very report of it at a distance will be a terror to you; what then will the thing itself be?" Evil tidings are a terror and vexation to scorners, but he whose heart is fixed, trusting in God, is not afraid of them; whereas, when the overflowing scourge comes, then all the comforts and confidences of scorners fail them, Isa 28:20. (1.) That in which they thought to repose themselves reaches not to the length of their expectations: The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself upon it, so that he is forced to cramp and contract himself. (2.) That in which they thought to shelter themselves proves insufficient to answer the intention: The covering is narrower than that a man can wrap himself in it. Those that do not build upon Christ as their foundation, but rest in a righteousness of their own, will prove in the end thus to have deceived themselves; they can never be easy, safe, nor warm; the bed is too short, the covering is too narrow; like our first parents' fig-leaves, the shame of their nakedness will still appear.
[2.] God will be glorified in the accomplishment of his counsels, Isa 28:21. When God comes to contend with these scorners, First, He will do his work, and bring to pass his act, he will work for his own honour and glory, according to his own purpose; the work shall appear to all that see it to be the work of God as the righteous Judge of the earth. Secondly, He will do it now against his people, as formerly he did it against their enemies, by which his justice will appear to be impartial; he will now rise up against Jerusalem as, in David's time, against the Philistines in Mount Perazim (Sa2 5:20), and as, in Joshua's time, against the Canaanites in the valley of Gibeon. If those that profess themselves members of God's church by their pride and scornfulness make themselves like Philistines and Canaanites, they must expect to be dealt with as such. Thirdly, This will be his strange work, his strange act, his foreign deed. It is work that he is backward to: he rather delights in showing mercy, and does not afflict willingly. It is work that he is not used to as to his own people; he protects and favours them. It is a strange work indeed if he turn to be their enemy and fight against them, ch. 63:10. It is a work that all the neighbours will stand amazed at (Deu 29:24), and therefore the ruins of Jerusalem are said to be an astonishment, Jer 25:18.
Lastly, We have the use and application of all this (Isa 28:22): "Therefore be you not mockers; dare not to ridicule either the reproofs of God's word or the approaches of his judgments." Mocking the messengers of the Lord was Jerusalem's measure-filling sin. The consideration of the judgments of God that are coming upon hypocritical professors should effectually silence mockers, and make them serious: "Be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong, both the bands by which you are bound under the dominion of sin" (for there is little hope of the conversion of mockers) "and the bands by which you are bound over to the judgments of God." God has bands of justice strong enough to hold those that break all the bonds of his law asunder and cast away all his cord from them. Let not these mockers make light of divine threatenings, for the prophet (who is one of those with whom the secret of the Lord is) assures them that the Lord God of hosts has, in his hearing, determined a consumption upon the whole earth; and can they think to escape? or shall their unbelief invalidate the threatening?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–18 Because ye have said,.... Within themselves; they thought so,…
Because ye have said,.... Within themselves; they thought so, if they did not say it in express words; and their conduct and behaviour showed that these were the sentiments and presumptions of their minds:
We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement: as safe from death, and secure from hell, or the grave, as if a covenant and compact had been formally entered into between them. The phrases are expressive of their being fearless of them, and of their confidence and assurance that they should not be hurt by them. Some interpret this of their deadly enemies, as Sennacherib king of Assyria particularly, with whom they had made peace, and had entered into a covenant of friendship and alliance, and so had nothing to fear from the threatenings of the Lord by the prophet; but Vitringa, better, of the covenant and agreement with the Romans, which the Jewish rulers were careful to observe, and thought themselves safe on account of it; see Rev 6:8,
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when the overflowing scourge shall pass through; when the judgments of God shall come upon the earth, and pass through the whole world, as a chastisement and correction of men for their sins, and as a punishment for them, like a mighty torrent spreading itself, and carrying all before it; or particularly when the Assyrian monarch with his army shall pass through the land of Judea, signified, in Isa 28:2, by a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, a flood of mighty waters overflowing; or rather the Roman army invading Judea:
it shall not come unto us; who were in the city of Jerusalem:
for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves; not what they themselves reckoned so, but what the prophet Isaiah, or the Lord by him, called so, whose words they used, and in whose language they spoke; meaning either their lying prophets, as Kimchi, and the false doctrines they delivered to them, promising them peace when destruction was at hand; or their idols, as Jarchi, which are falsehood, lying vanities, and work of errors; or their carnal policy, arts of dissimulation, sinful compliances, and crafty methods of acting with their enemies, by which they hoped to deceive them, and secure themselves from destruction, as others; or else their wealth and riches, got by lying and fraud, which is the sense of some interpreters; and perhaps all may be intended in which they might put their trust and confidence, and on account of them expect security from threatened evils, though no other than lies and falsehood; and the same may be observed of all outward acts of religion, rites and ceremonies, and works of righteousness done by men, in which they place their trust, and hope to be saved by them from wrath to come.
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 vv15–17 Said - In your hearts. We - We are…
Said - In your hearts. We - We are as safe from death, and hell, or the grave, as if they had entered into covenant with us. The scourge - The judgment of God. Through - The land. For - We shall secure ourselves by lying and dissimulation.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 18 Verse 15. A covenant with death] To be in…
Verse 15. A covenant with death] To be in covenant with, is a kind of proverbial expression to denote perfect security from evil and mischief of any sort: -
"For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field;
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And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee."
Job 5:23.
"And I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of
the field.
And with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things
of the ground."
Ho 2:18.
That is, none of these shall hurt them. But Lucan, speaking of the Psylli, whose peculiar property it was to be unhurt by the bite of serpents, with which their country abounded, comes still nearer to the expression of Isaiah in this place: -
Gens unica terras
Incolit a saevo serpentum innoxia morsu
Marmaridae Psylli.__
Pax illis cum morte data est.
Pharsal. ix. 891.
"Of all who scorching Afric's sun endure,
None like the swarthy Psyllians are secure:
With healing gifts and privileges graced,
Well in the land of serpents were they placed:
Truce with the dreadful tyrant death they have,
And border safely on his realm the grave."
ROWE.
We have made a covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement] עשינו חזה asinu chozeh, we have made a vision, we have had an interview, struck a bargain, and settled all preliminaries. So they had made a covenant with hell by diabolic sacrifice, כרתנו ברית carathnu berith. "We have cut the covenant sacrifice;" they divided it for the contracting parties to pass between the separated victim; for the victim was split exactly down the middle, so that even the spinal marrow was exactly divided through its whole length; and being set opposite to each other, the contracting parties entered, one at the head part, the other at the feet; and, meeting in the centre, took the covenant oath. Thus, it is intimated, these bad people made an agreement with שאול sheol, with demons, with whom they had an interview; i.e., meeting them in the covenant sacrifice! To such a pitch had the Israelitish idolatry reached at that time!
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 vv14, 16, 17, 18 Isa 28:14-15. Wherefore hear, ye scornful men — Who…
Isa 28:14-15. Wherefore hear, ye scornful men — Who make a mock at sin, and at God’s word and threatenings, and who doubt not that by your crafty counsels, and human efforts, you shall escape God’s judgments; who have said — In your hearts; we have made a covenant with death, &c. — We are as safe from death and hell, or the grave, (as the word שׁאולhere means,) as if they had entered into covenant with us, that they would not invade us. “To be in covenant with any thing, is a kind of proverbial expression to denote perfect security from evil, and mischief from it:” see Job 5:23; Hos 2:18. When the overflowing scourge — The calamity which the prophets speak of as coming; shall pass through — Namely, the land: if it should pass through, which, however, we do not believe it will; it shall not come unto us — We shall escape. For we have made lies our refuge, &c. — These words the prophet puts into their mouths, as declarative of the real nature of their false confidence and vain hopes of safety: as if he had said, You are confident the calamity shall not come to you, because you have taken sanctuary in a refuge of lies! You depend on your vain idols, or on your riches, or strength, or crafty devices, which will all fail you. Or, you hope to secure yourselves by your arts of cunning and falsehood, but you will find yourselves disappointed.
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 vv14–18 Wherefore ... - This verse commences a direct address…
Wherefore ... - This verse commences a direct address to the scoffing and scornful nation, which is continued to the close of Isa 28:22. It is addressed particularly to the rulers in Jerusalem, as being the leaders in crime, and as being eminently deserving of the wrath of God.
Ye scornful men - Ye who despise and reproach God and his message; who fancy yourselves to be secure, and mock at the threatened judgments of the Almighty.
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 vv14–17 Men, who make a parade of your knowledge, (Haydock)…
Men, who make a parade of your knowledge, (Haydock) to turn the most sacred things into ridicule.
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 v14 14 “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye…
2. THE FALSE AND THE TRUE REFUGE
Isa_28:14-22
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14 “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men,
That rule this people which is in Jerusalem:
15 Because ye have said,
We have made a covenant with death,
And with 15hell are we at agreement;
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,
It shall not come unto us:
For we have made lies our refuge,
And under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God,
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
A tried stone, a precious corner stone,
A sure foundation:
He that believeth shall not 16make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line,
And righteousness to the plummet:
And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
And your agreement with 17hell shall not stand;
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,
Then ye shall be 18trodden down by it.
19 19From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you:
For morning by morning shall it pass over,
By day and by night;
And it shall be a vexation only 20to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it;
And the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim,
He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon,
That he may do his work, his strange work;
And bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be ye not mockers,
Lest your bands be made strong;
For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption,
Even determined upon the whole earth.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_28:15. שׁוט שׁוטף. So we are to read with the K’ri, 1, because the Kethibh שַׁיִט has in Isa_33:21 the signification “oar,” which is not suitable here; 2, on account of the assonance with שׁוֹטֵף, which would otherwise be lost; 3, because in Isa_28:18 b there is a blending of two figures for the sake of the alliteration. For שׁוֹט is a scourge (Isa_10:26), and שׁטף is to overflow, inundate (comp. on Isa_28:2). A scourge when swung makes a flowing motion; but it does not inundate, overflow. Only the divine judgments do this, and these for another reason can be called the scourge of God. The K’ri יעבר, which is both supported and discountenanced by Isa_28:18, is anyhow unnecessary, for the perfect can be taken as a futurum exactum (comp. Isa_4:4; Isa_6:11).
Isa_28:16. The Dagesh forte in מוּסָּד is manifestly intended to distinguish the word as a participle from the substantive מוּסָד.
Isa_28:20. Hithp. השׂתרע se extendere, porrigere, only here, Kal. שׂרע only Lev_21:18; Lev_22:23.
Isa_28:21. On the absence of the preposition of place before הַר and עֵמֶק, comp. Isa_1:25; Isa_5:18; Isa_5:29; Isa_10:14; Gesenius Gr., § 118, 3, note.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Those scoffers, who are here described as the rulers of the people in Jerusalem, had naturally a foundation on which they rested, in opposition to the foundation of the Prophet which they derided. Their foundation was falsehood and deceit, by the aid of which they hoped that they would have nothing to fear from death and Hades. (Isa_28:14-15). Against this foundation the Lord now says to them: I have laid in Zion my strong corner—and foundation—stone: only he who holds fast to it will not yield (Isa_28:16) And on this foundation-stone the building shall be erected by means of judgment and righteousness; but the flood of waters will sweep away that refuge of lies (Isa_28:17). And that covenant with death and Sheol will not stand. They who made it, shall be trodden down by those who Shall come upon them as the scourge of God (Isa_28:18). That scourge, moreover, shall come not only once, but repeatedly by day and night. Then shall they hear no more a preaching by word, but! a preaching by deed; and it will be nothing but terror (19). For Israel’s might will then prove too weak (Isa_28:20). But the Lord will rise in might as formerly on Mount Perazim, and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to execute His very strange work of destruction, which appears to the secure Jews impossible (Isa_28:21). Therefore the scoffers should be quiet, that they may not remain forever in the snares mentioned Isa_28:13; for that they should not escape from them is announced by the Prophet as the decree of Jehovah, which cannot be averted (Isa_28:22). We perceive, therefore, that the section Isa_28:14-22 corresponds exactly to the preceding one Isa_28:1-13, and especially to the Isa_28:9-13. For here the right foundation is set in opposition to that false one, resting on which those scoffers think that they may deride the Prophet (Isa_28:14-17); then the vanity, yea destructiveness of that false foundation is shown (Isa_28:18-21), and the scoffers are accordingly exhorted to give up their mocking (Isa_28:22).
2. Therefore hear—hid ourselves.
Isa_28:14-15. With לָכֵן, Isa_28:14, the Prophet introduces the judgment of the Lord, which he has to publish on the ground of the accusation preferred Isa_28:9-13. This judgment is addressed to the scoffers (Pro_29:8), whose derisive speeches (Isa_28:10) are quoted, and who, after the judgment has been pronounced, are exhorted to mock no more (Isa_28:22). These scoffers are not insignificant men. They are the leaders of the people (Isa_14:1; Isa_52:5), its Priests and Prophets (Isa_28:7). כִּי in the beginning of Isa_28:15 is “because;” the illative particle לָכֵו in Isa_28:16 corresponding to it. The utterance is put in the mouths of these people, which if not actually spoken by them, yet certainly corresponds to their actual conduct: we have made a covenant with death,etc. This explains why these people scoffed at the Prophet. They stand with their whole manner of thinking and feeling upon another foundation than his. Isaiah has the Lord Himself for his foundation. But they deride this very foundation. They have another and better, as they imagine. This is the art of falsehood, of cunning policy, of fine diplomacy. By its help they hope to be safe from death and Hades. The Prophet admonishes them to obey the Lord, and to trust in Him in order to find protection against Assyria. But in their opinion these are fanatical means of defence, which good policy could not employ. An alliance with Egypt, artfully planned, carried out with all diplomatic skill, appeared to those politicians to be a much more reliable, yea an infallible remedy against the threatening evils. For they hope through that alliance to be proof against death and Hades. They imagine that they have thereby as it were concluded a friendly alliance with death and Hades (כרת ברית as Isa_55:3; Isa_61:8). חֹוֶה (comp. רֹאֶה Isa_28:7), for which below in Isa_28:18חָזוּת stands, has only here the signification “treaty, agreement.” The lie of which they speak, may well refer to the relation of dependence on Assyria into which Ahaz, the predecessor of Hezekiah, had brought Judah (2Ki_16:7 sqq.). For they may even then have considered the right policy to consist in a secret league with Egypt, while appearing to stand by the obligations entered into towards Assyria. A like course was subsequently pursued (2Ki_17:4; Eze_17:15, sqq.). The conjunction of חסה and סתר is characteristic of Isaiah, comp. Isa_28:17; Isa_4:6.
3. Therefore thus saith—the whole earth.
Isa_28:16-22. The scoffers had declared that they had made falsehood their refuge, and that they hope relying on this refuge, to get the better of death and Hades. The Prophet wishes to expose the vanity of this hope. There is only one refuge that guarantees safety. This is the foundation, and corner-stone laid by the Lord Himself in Zion. The water sweeps away the other false foundation, and they who rest upon it go to ruin. Our passage contains, therefore, primarily not a promise, but a threatening. For first of all, the confidence expressed in Isa_28:15 is to be shown to be unfounded. But naturally the (unreal, resting only on appearance) negation of the truth can be overcome only by the positive setting forth of the truth. And where this real positive foundation of truth is exhibited, it involves always eo ipso a promise. לָכֵז, as has been shown, corresponds to the כִּי in Isa_28:15. The false affirmation necessitates a protest in which the truth is testified. הנני יסר=חנְנִי הוּא אֲשֶׁר יִּסַּד comp. Isa_29:14; Isa_38:5. But what sort of a stone is that which the Lord has laid in Zion? It must be a stone which really guarantees truth and right. Consequently it cannot be Zion itself (Hitzig, Knobel), nor the royal house of David (Reinke), nor Hezekiah (Rabbis, Gesenius, Maurer and others; which explanation Theodoret characterizes as ἄνοια ἐσχάτη), nor the temple (Ewald). As Isaiah does not say that they had made Egypt their refuge, but that they had made falsehood their refuge, the antithesis to this refuge of lies can only be a refuge of truth. As such we might, with Umbreit, regard the law, or, with Schegg, the word of God in general. But the law and the word of God, so far as they are laid in Zion as objective means of Salvation, suppose a still deeper, a personal foundation: the law supposes Him through whom the revelation of the law took place; the spoken and written word supposes the living, personal word of God Himself, the Logos (So the Catholic expositors Loch and Reischl, comp. Reinke,the Messianic Prophecies I. p. 404). The Logos, the only mediator between God and men, the Messiah promised in the Old Covenant, who has appeared in the New, this is the personal and living foundation-stone laid in Zion, on whom the whole building fitly framed together grows unto a holy (erected therefore according to the line of right and justice) building (Eph_3:20 sqq.). That the personal Word of the Lord can be called a stone, is apparent from Isa_8:14, where Jehovah Himself is called אֶבֶו and צוּר. It is not impossible that Isaiah had this last passage in view, and perhaps the composer of the 118th Psalm had in Isa_28:22 regard to both these passages of Isaiah. Anyhow Peter (1Pe_2:6-8) combines these three places. The Lord Himself (Mat_21:42-44) had in view the place in the Psalms and Isa_8:14 sq.; and Paul, Rom_9:33, refers to both places of Isaiah; while in Act_4:11 reference is made to the 118th Psalm only; and in Rom_10:11, solely to the place before us. The stone laid in Zion is further called an אבו בחו, i. e., lapis probationis. The term בחו can be taken in an active or passive sense: a tried and a trying stone. The former would mark its tested firmness, the latter would express the idea, that the thoughts of the hearts must be made manifest by it. For no one can escape it, but all must be tried on it, and it must have some effect on all, and be either for their fall or rising. The passages Mat_21:44; Luk_2:34 speak strongly for the latter view. I do not dispute it, but I believe that the Prophet designedly chose an ambiguous expression. For the former interpretation is likewise recommended, being naturally suggested by the expression employed, and by the context. We expect to hear the nature of the stone extolled, and not merely to be told what service it can render. That the praise should be expressed in this particular form is in accordance with the usus loquendiobservable in this chapter, in which so many designations of a property are denoted by a substantive in the genitive (Isa_28:1-5; Isa_28:8). פִנָּה is corner.—And a stone which forms the corner is naturally a corner-stone. (Comp. Isa_19:13; Job_38:6; Jer_51:26; Psa_118:22). יְקָרָה is here, as perhaps also Psa_37:20; Pro_17:27, a substantive, preciousness, so that we must translate; a corner-stone of preciousness of a founded foundation (מוּסָד after the form מוּסָר, comp. 2Ch_8:16; מוּסָדָהIsa_30:32; Eze_41:8; מוּסָּד Part Hoph.), i. e., a corner-stone well suited (1 Kings 5:31; 7:9–11) for a firm foundation. The emphatic expression מוּסָד מוּסָּד is like חֲכָמִים, Pro_30:24. We have already observed that the Prophet shows here a predilection for the accumulation of substantives in the genitive. The firm foundation-stone manifests its saving efficacy, not in a magical way; but this efficacy is conditioned by the inward susceptibility, or faith. The firm foundation itself requires a keeping fast to it. Therefore the Prophet adds: He who believes flees not.—This apothegmatic addition reminds us, both by its form and tenor, of chapter Isa_7:9האמיו ּתֵאָמֵנוּאִם לֹא תַאֲמִינוּ כִּי לֹא occurs further Isa_30:21; Isa_43:10; Isa_53:1. הֵחִישׁ is here not indirectly (to make something or another hasten, Isa_5:19; Isa_60:22) but directly causative; to make haste, to flee hastily, to retreat. There lies in it an antithesis to the idea of firmness, which is contained in what is said of the stone, and in מאמיו. The word has this meaning no where else. Where the firm foundation is objectively laid, and the individual subjectively in faith keeps fast on it, then the erection of a holy temple in the Lord is possible, an erection in which right serves for the line (קַו comp. on Isa_28:10), and righteousness for the plummet (מִשְׁקֶלֶת only here, comp. מִשְׁקלֶת2Ki_21:13); a figurative expression, the meaning of which can be only this, that this building will arise according to the rules of divine justice, and will consequently be a holy building. משׁפט and צדקה stand here related as in Isa_1:27; Isa_5:16; Isa_9:6; Isa_32:16; Isa_33:5; Isa_56:1; Isa_59:9; Isa_59:14. This building stands firm. But the refuge of lies and the hiding-place of deceit the hail will sweep away (יָעָח, whence יָע a shovel for the clearing away of ashes from the altar, Exo_27:3; Exo_38:3; Num_4:14 et saepe, is ἄπ. λεγ) and the waters wash away (Isa_28:2). Inconsequence, that covenant with death and Hades, of which they boasted (Isa_28:15), shall be covered,i. e., obliterated, annulled. The covenant is conceived of as a written document, whose lines are covered, i. e., overspread with the fluid used for writing. Comp. obliterare offensionem, famam, memoriam. To לא יבואנו in verse 15, והייתם לו למרמס corresponds. Comp. Isa_5:5; Isa_7:25; Isa_10:6. The Prophet here leaves the image out of sight. The expression is shaped by his realizing in thought the thing signified by the previous figure, namely, the invading host which serves as the scourge of God. This host shall stamp the scoffers under foot, shall tread them like dirt on the streets. The Prophet had expressly declared in Isa_10:6 that the army of the Assyrians should do this. But the scourge will come not once only, but often. Isa_28:19. The expression יִקַח is suggested by another image, namely, the idea of something which takes away (Jer_15:15), snatches, washes away, corresponding therefore to שׁוטף, as a mighty flood which comes along by rushes. In fact, the invasions by the Assyrians and by the Chaldaeans, who were called to complete their work, were as waterfloods that kept ever inundating the land till it was entirely desolated (Isa_24:1; Isa_24:3). The second half of Isa_28:19 is clearly related to יביו שׁמועה in Isa_28:9. There the scoffers had asked: to whom will he preach? They thought themselves much too high to need the preaching of the Prophet. In opposition to this language Isaiah now tells them: because you would not hear my well-meant preaching by word, which was designed to give you מְנוּחָה, you will be compelled to hear a preaching in act, and it will be naught but terror. זועה stands therefore opposed to מנוחה. If in Isa_28:9הביו שׁמועה signified “to make to know, or understand preaching,” it must in the connexion in which it here stands signify “to hear preaching” (comp. Isaiah 39:16; Job_28:23; Mic_4:12 et saepe). For it is not the preacher who experiences terror, but he who hears the preaching. זְוָעָה (only here in Isaiah, besides comp. Deu_28:25; Jer_15:4 et saepe; Eze_23:46) is concussio, commotio vehemens, formido. The subject of the sentence is הָבִיו and the predicate זְוָעָה. Is not that a dreadful preaching, when one finds himself in a situation which is fittingly compared to a bed that is too short, or to a covering that is too narrow?—This is a distressful condition. For resistance is encountered on all sides, and the means are insufficient for any undertaking. קצר in Isaiah besides only Isa_1:2; Isa_59:1. מַצָּעstratum, ἅπ λεγ. מַסֵּכָה besides only Isa_25:7. בָּנַס, colligere, coacervare, Hithp. se ipsum colligere, to make of one’s self a heap, only here כְּ in כְּהִתְכַּנֵּס marks coincidence = when one bends one’s-self together, coils one’s-self (Isa_18:3; Isa_23:5). That such will really be the nature of the situation is now further illustrated by two historical examples. Israel will themselves be in a condition like that in which they through God’s help twice brought their enemies. One of these events to which the Prophet here alludes, is the defeat which David inflicted on the Philistines at Baal-Perazim (2Sa_5:20; 1Ch_14:11). David there said פָרַץי אֶת־אֹיְבַי לְכָּנַי כְפֶרֶץ מַיִם, i.e., Jehovah has broken through my enemies before me, as water breaks through. Vitringa perceived that Isaiah was led to think of this passage by what he had said in Isa_28:17 and Isa_28:2 of the מים שֹׁטְפִים. The other event I take, with most of the older interpreters, to be the defeat which Joshua inflicted on the Canaanites at Gibeon (Jos_10:10). There, in Isa_28:11, it is said expressly that the Lord crushed the enemy by a great hail-storm. And this circumstance corresponds exactly to what Isaiah in verse 2 and verse 17 had said of the hail from which Israel should suffer. That victory of David over the Philistines at Gibeon (2Sa_5:22 sqq.; 1Ch_14:14 sqq.) does not supply such an analogy. ירנו comp. on Isa_14:9. זר מעשׂהו (comp. Isa_5:12) and נכריה עבדתו (Isa_2:6) are parenthetical clauses, and not in apposition to the preceding מעשׂהו and עבדתו; for the putting of the adjective first would in that case be quite abnormal. Strange, inconceivable is the work of the Lord pronounced, because He does something which could not have been expected of Him. Who could have thought that Jehovah would treat Israel as the heathen, that He would thus destroy His own work? After all these statements we see how foolish and infatuated the people were in scoffing at the warning voice of the Prophet, and in relying on their own miserable, self-chosen supports (Isa_28:15). The admonition which the Prophet adds at the close, and now be ye not mockers is well-meant, and deserving to be laid to heart. Hithp.התלוצץ=to behave mockingly, is found only here. If they do not cease to mock, the bands by which they have been bound ever since Ahaz foolishly made submission to Assyria (2Ki_16:7 sqq.), can never be broken. For that they must bear these bands, and become acquainted with the nature of them, that is the purpose of God, resolved on, and already revealed to the Prophet. On כלה ונחרצה comp. on Isa_10:23.
Footnotes:
[15]Sheol.
[16]flee.
[17]Sheol.
[18]Heb. a treading down to it.
[19]as often as.
[20]Or, when he shall make you to understand doctrine.
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 vv14–18 scornful--(See on Isa 28:9).
scornful--(See on Isa 28:9).
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 vv14, 16, 17, 18 14-16. Scornful men — The debased, drunken priests and…
14-16. Scornful men — The debased, drunken priests and false prophets in Jerusalem, (Isa_28:7-8,) scorning the message of the true prophets. (Isa_28:9-10.)
Because ye have said — Have said by your actions. If their actions were translated into words, their actual language would be as stated in this fifteenth verse.
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Covenant with death — A metaphorical representation of their having made terms with the king of terrors not to be too soon called to die.
With hell — The underworld — place of departed spirits — a poetic equivalent with death. With this the same terms are supposed to have been made, not to be too soon called to the spirit world.
Overflowing scourge — A mixed metaphor, probably referring to the Assyrian army invading and passing through Judea on its way to Egypt.
Lies — The prophet’s definition. They acted as if a sufficient refuge was to be found in falsehood and deceit — in the false notions and doctrines on which their whole conduct was transacted.
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 vv14, 16, 17, 18 14. ye scornful men] Better: scoffing men. The “scoffer”…
14. ye scornful men] Better: scoffing men. The “scoffer” (lêç, a word almost confined to Pss. and Prov.) represents the last degree of ungodliness,—open contempt of religion. The phrase here is applied to worldly politicians, who form their plans in defiance of Jehovah’s revealed will (cf. Isa_28:22; ch. Isa_29:20).
that rule this people] The prophet’s antagonists are the party which has gained the upper hand in the councils of state; the king himself is tacitly acquitted of responsibility.
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15 is the protasis to Isa_28:16 f.
Because ye have said] Isaiah no doubt clothes the thoughts of the conspirators in his own language; but the vagueness of the allusions corresponds to the air of mystery which shrouded their designs. The utmost secrecy was observed with regard to the negotiations with Egypt (ch. Isa_29:15, Isa_30:1), and it is doubtful if at this time Isaiah knew exactly what project was on foot.
with hell are we at agreement] Lit. with Sheôl we have made a vision. The simplest explanation of this and the preceding expression is that the political plot had been ratified by a compact with the dreaded powers of the underworld. That those who had renounced the guidance of Jehovah should have recourse to necromancy and other superstitions was natural (ch. Isa_8:19). At the same time the phrases may be proverbial, or they may merely express Isaiah’s abhorrence of the dark immorality which marked the proceedings. In any case the feeling attributed to the schemers is one of absolute security against the worst that fate could bring.
the overflowing scourge]—a mixture of metaphors, which is still further increased in Isa_28:18.
we have made lies our refuge] The reference might be to conscious political treachery (towards Assyria), but more probably it is to false grounds of confidence, such as false oracles (Eze_13:6-8; Mic_2:11), Isaiah putting his own language into their mouth.
14–22. There is again a literary connexion with what precedes; although the passage is probably a summary of an independent discourse. The prophet’s aim is to impress on his opponents the disastrous consequences of persisting in their scoffing attitude towards himself and his message.
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 vv14–17 (14) Ye scornful men, that rule this people .…
(14) Ye scornful men, that rule this people . . .—The last words emphasise the fact that the men who derided the prophet in their worldly wisdom were found among Hezekiah’s chief princes and counsellors, the partizans now of an Assyrian, now of an Egyptian alliance—anything rather than the policy of righteousness and repentance.
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 vv14–18 Vers. 14-22. THE REBUKE OF JUDAH"S NOBLES. The power…
Vers. 14-22. THE REBUKE OF JUDAH"S NOBLES. The power of the nobles under the later Jewish monarchy is very apparent throughout Isaiah"s prophecy. It is they, and not the king, who are always blamed for bad government (Isa_1:10-23 Isa_3:12-15, etc.) or errors of policy. (Isa_9:15, 16 22:15-19, etc.) Isaiah now turns from a denunciation of the priests and prophets, who especially opposed his teaching, to a threatening of the great men who guided the course of public affairs. He taxes them with being "men of scorn" (ver. 14), i.e. scorners of Jehovah, and with" a proud and insolent self-confidence" (Delitzsch). They have made, or are about to make, secret arrangements which will, they believe, secure Judaea against suffering injury at the hands of the Assyrians, and are quite satisfied with what they have done, and fear no evil. Isaiah is instructed that their boasted arrangements will entirely fail in the time of trial their "refuge" (Egypt) will be found a refuge of lies (ver. 17), and the "overflowing scourge" (Assyria) will pass through the land, and carry all before it (ver. 18). There will then ensue a time of "vexation" and discomfort (vers. 19, 20) God"s anger will be poured out upon the land in strange ways (ver. 21). He therefore warns the rulers to lay aside their scorn of God, and humble themselves, lest a worse thing happen to them (ver. 22).
Ye scornful men; literally, ye men of scorn. The word used is rare, but will be found in the same sense in Pro_1:22 and Pro_29:8. A cognate participle occurs in Hos_7:5. That rule this people. (On the authority of the nobles at this period, see the introductory paragraph.)
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Vers. 14-22. The judgment prepared for scorner"s.
"Scorners," in the language of Scripture, are those who set at naught God"s prophets, or his messages, or his Holy Word, or his Church, or his ministers. Men delight in such scorn because it seems to them so fine a thing, so grand a thing, so bold, so brave, so heroic. It is a poor thing, comparatively, to exalt one"s self against man; it is magnificent to measure one"s strength with God"s, and enter the lists against him. This may, no doubt, be so in one point of view, and for a time, while God chooses to endure the contradiction of sinners against himself. But nothing can be really grand or heroic which is irrational, absurd, doomed to end in failure, shame, and ruin. There is nothing admirable in a child kicking against the commands of a wise father, or in a schoolboy setting at naught the rules of grammar or of conduct given him by a good schoolmaster. It is the true wisdom of those who know themselves to be weak, and ignorant, and short-sighted, and imperfect, and liable to error, to accept loyally the rule of an authority stronger and wiser and better than themselves. The "scorners" find in a little time that their resistance of God is folly.
I THEIR EARTHLY RELIANCE FALLS THEM. This reliance may be
(1) physical force the fact they have at their beck and call vast armies, a numerous police, a well-filled treasury, important allies, and the like; or
(2) intellectual power, a consciousness of a reserve of mental strength in themselves, an indomitable will, a keen intellect, a fertile imagination, great logical acumen, etc. But their hold on all such things is uncertain. Armies revolt, melt away by sickness and desertion, suffer defeat, become demoralized, surrender themselves; a police fails and fraternizes with revolution; a treasury becomes exhausted; allies draw back in the hour of danger, as the Egyptians did in Israel"s greatest need; and the mighty potentate who has scorned God and his laws finds himself, together with his advisers, brought to shame, defeated, ruined. So with the scorners" whose mental pride has puffed them up. God can abase them in a moment by mental disease, brain-softening, paralysis, sense of depression, disgust with life. How the bald atheist trembles, and wishes that he could retract his daring speeches, when he is struck down by sickness, crippled, bedridden, palsied perhaps. God does not always launch his bolts in this life; but he can at any time do so, and he does it with sufficient frequency to leave men without excuse if they do not note, and profit, by his warnings.
II As EXTERNAL DANGER THREATENS. No one is safe from the worst forms of human suffering. Temporal ruin may come upon the rich, disfavor and unpopularity upon the long-applauded statesman, domestic woe, severe illness, excruciating pain, upon any one. In every case there is always death threatening men. Some overflowing scourge" or other is almost sure, sooner or later, to pass through," and press upon us, and threaten to bring us down to the ground. The scorner trembles when such an hour arrives, and inwardly confesses his impotency, even if outwardly he wear a front of brass, and professes to fear neither God nor man.
III CALAMITY SWOOPS DOWN AT LAST. Even if no special judgment is sent to punish the scorner, there arrives at last of necessity the time of old age, weakness, weariness; there arrives at last death; and, some time before death, the fear of death. The scorner must go to that God whose message he has scorned, whose messengers he has treated with contempt and contumely. "A consummation is decreed." He must "fall into the hands of the living God!" Then the folly of that "brave" conduct on which he prided himself becomes apparent, and he would fain retract his old speeches, and submit himself, and make his peace. But the words addressed to scorners (Pro_1:22) sound in his ears and hold him back: Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them". (Pro_1:24-32)
Vers. 14-22. Jehovah pronounces judgment.
The rulers or politicians are addressed. They are stigmatized as men of scorn" (cf. ver. 22; Isa_29:20; Hos_7:5). The scornful or scoffing habit implies excessive self-confidence on the one hand, on the other contempt of religion and of God. But "be not deceived; God is not mocked." "It has been commonly found," says Calvin, "in almost every age, that the common people, though they are distinguished by unrestrained fierceness and violence, do not proceed to such a pitch of wretchedness as nobles and courtiers, or other crafty men, who think that they excel others in ability and wisdom." It is a dreadful and monstrous thing when the governors of the Church, not only are themselves blinded, but even blind others, and excite them to despise God and ridicule godly doctrine.
I FALSE SECURITY. It is some delusion as to their own security which leads men to mock at the judgments of God. The ruling classes thought they had secured themselves against an Assyrian invasion. "They had their fortresses, their soothsayers and prophets, their diplomatists the latter almost occupied with the preliminaries for a treaty with Egypt" (Cheyne). This fancied security is expressed under a bold figure. To be in covenant with death is like being in covenant with the beasts or the stones of the. (Job_5:23 Hos_2:18) They have made, as they think, a compact with Hades. Probably enough the allusion may be to the wizards whom they consult. If so, it is true enough to all experience that men, when they have cast off the restraints of true religion, seek to make up for it by dabbling in superstition. "The scorners or free-thinkers have retained a strong belief in the infernal powers, though little enough in those supernal" (Cheyne). Idly have they made lies their refuge, and so think to be exempt from the "flooding scourge" as it sweeps over the land. (cf. Isa_8:7, Isa_8:8) They act as if there was any security except in "walking uprightly, and in speaking truth with the heart." Their resources are spoken of by them under plausible names, and there are ways that "seem right to them." They do not think they are falsehoods; but the prophet tears away the disguise, and calls them by their proper names. "The essential substance of the thoughts and words of the rulers is manifest to the Searcher of hearts" (Delitzsch).
II THE TRUE FOUNDATION. A Foundation-stone is, or shall be, laid in Zion, nay, costly and solid. (cf. 1Ki_5:17, "Great stones, costly stones, hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house The foundation-stone of the temple typifies the unchangeable verity of God, as revealed from age to age in his holy seat and oracle. The believer shall rest securely upon God, and only here shall true security be found. (For the general idea, of. Mat_7:24, Mat_7:25. For the application to the Messiah, see 1Pe_2:6 Rom_10:11 Mat_21:42 Luk_20:17, 18 2:34 Eph_2:20) The kingdom of God on earth rests on the Messiah. He was tried by temptation and other suffering, and so proved able and sufficient for the work of salvation. His Name, his work, is the most precious element in the Church"s foundation. And amidst every tempest of judgment which shall sweep over the world, he who confides in Christ shall feel that he has built upon a Rock which cannot be shaken; and shall make no haste, shall be free from agitation and alarm. Till we possess faith, we must have continual perplexity and distress; for there is but one Object on which we can safely rely the truth of the Lord, which alone wilt give us peace and serenity of mind. Peace is the direct result of faith, (Rom_5:1) and faith is repose on that Foundation other than which none can be laid. (1Co_3:11)
III OVERTHROW OF FALSE REFUGES. There will be judgment exact and severe, figured by the carpenter"s line and plummet. The hail-symbol of Divine wrath (Psa_105:32 Eze_13:13 Eze_38:22 Rev_8:7 Rev_11:19) will sweep away the refuge of falsehood, and the hiding-place of deceit shall be carried along in the flood. That "covenant with death" shall be cancelled, and the "agreement with Sheol" shall not stand. There shall be repeated Assyrian invasions; and the "tidings" at which men laughed shall be a terror for them to hear (cf. ver. 9). Or, having neglected the soul-message, they shall be compelled to listen to the preaching of facts. The proverb (ver. 20) depicts the state of distress which will exist. History will repeat itself. As when David conquered the Philistines on Perazim and Gibeon, (2Sa_5:20 1Ch_14:16) or as in the scene of Jos_10:10, Jehovah will arise to do his work of judgment, a work more fitted for an alien people than that of his choice and love. God does not delight in judgment; it may even be called his "strange work," being foreign to the kindness of his heart. All that he drives at in his chastisements is to bring men to the knowledge of themselves. He is "slow to anger," and infinitely compassionate. (Psa_103:8 Exo_34:6) Or the strangeness may be that he will now proceed to attack and exterminate his people, as formerly he had their foes. The hand felt by their fathers for salvation shall be felt by them for destruction.
IV CLOSING APPEAL. These scornful politicians who desire to break the Assyrian bonds are exhorted to change their minds, and so avoid the destruction otherwise certain and infallibly decreed by Jehovah of hosts. They wished to escape from their fetters by a breach of faith, with the help of Egypt, without Jehovah, and so mocked at the prophet"s warning. He therefore appeals to them to stop their scoffing, lest they should fall out of their present bondage into one more severe, and lest the judgment certainly at hand should fall more weightily upon them. Timely repentance might even now open a way of escape. We may apply the appeal as general. As God gives us" to foresee the issue of unwise ways in time, so by repentance may we avert the danger. To despise the Divine justice is not courage, but madness. Let us judge ourselves, that we may not be judged of the Lord; and because "that day" shall come as a thief in the night, ever let us have oil in our lamps, i.e. faith and repentance in our hearts, wisdom in the intelligence, justice and charity in our lives; and meditate daily on the vanity and shortness of our lives, the certainty and uncertainty of our deaths, the exactness and severity of the judgment to come, and the immutability of its results (South). J.
Vers. 14, 15, 18-20. The infatuation of sin.
In strong, pictorial language the prophet points out
I THAT SINFUL MEN ACT AS IF THEY COULD AVERT IMPENDING DOOM. They act as if they said, We have made a covenant with death," etc. Every day the gully and the foolish are living as if they were possessed with a power to wrestle with and overcome approaching doom. The drunkard seems to say, "I will drink, and not be ruined in health;" and the gambler to say, "will stake money, and not be disappointed;" and the rogue to say, "I will defraud, and not be detected;" and the men who "mind earthly things" to say, We will invest all our hopes and find all our heritage in this world, and not be robbed of our portion," etc. Such men seem to buoy themselves up with that which, to all that look on, is a transparent infatuation.
II THAT SINFUL MEN CONVINCE THEMSELVES OF THAT WHICH THEY MIGHT KNOW TO BE WHOLLY FALSE. They "make lies their refuge, and hide themselves udder falsehoods.
1. They choose the wrong course, and tell themselves they are acting under compulsion, and are guiltless.
2. They soften their sin by covering it with some pleasant euphemism.
3. They place between themselves and the condemnation of God the shield of human example, the frequency and popularity of their vice; they screen themselves behind their brethren, as if God did not see them, and did not hold them guilty.
4. They allow evil practice to beget such obliquity of moral vision that they call good evil," and evil "good;" they even "glory in their shame," so have they lied unto themselves.
III THAT SINFUL MEN ACT AS IF THEY COULD RELY ON SUCCOR WHICH IS WORTHLESS. They stretch themselves on a bed which is too short for their stature; they wrap themselves with clothing which will not cover them (ver. 20). In their weariness they resort to pleasures which do not give them rest, and from which they rise as tired as before. In their sorrow, or in their shame, or in their defeat, they have recourse to comforts which give no heart-ease, and leave them sad and troubled in soul. Many weary years, whole periods of life, even an entire earthly course, will men spend, trying and pitifully failing to console themselves with false comforts, to find rest in excitements, in vanities, and sometimes in vices, which have no power to soothe and satisfy the soul which only truth and love can fill.
IV THAT GOD WILL ONE DAY AROUSE THEM FROM THEIR GUILTY ERROR. (Vers. 18, 19.) The overflowing scourge will come, and will not pass by them; they will be trodden down beneath it. The overwhelming storm will hold them in its embrace of death. The day of disillusion, of self-reproach, of shame, of Divine retribution, will arrive: "Be not deceived do not deceive yourselves; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. C.
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 vv14, 16, 17 Hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men
Isa_28:14-22
Hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men
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Isaiahs response
The prophet replies that when the storm does sweep over the land, as it assuredly will, these refuges of lies will prove no shelter to their builders; they have been tried by the plummet of honesty and righteousness and found to be so out of line that they must come down: but meanwhile, nay, from of old, Jehovah has Himself founded a really serviceable house for His people, namely, the ancient constitution and polity of which He Himself is the chief cornerstone; and the man who trusts in that foundation, believing that it really is there, will not be urged to any impatient acts of panic, whatever may be the apparent danger.
(Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
Scornful rulers
It is bad with a people when their thrones of judgment become the seats of the scornful. (M. Henry.)
Incongruous scorning
That the rulers of Jerusalem should be men of such a character is very sad. Who will be mourners in Zion if they are scorners? (M. Henry.)
Scorners
I. HOW THESE SCORNFUL MEN LULLED THEMSELVES ASLEEP in carnal security, and even challenged God Almighty to do His worst (Isa_28:15).
II. HOW GOD AWAKENS THEM OUT OF THIS SLEEP, and shows them the folly of their security.
1. He tells them upon what grounds they might be secure. He doth not disturb their false confidences till He hath first showed them a firm bottom on which they may repose themselves (Isa_28:16). This foundation is--
(1) The promises of God in general.
(2) The promise of Christ in particular (1Pe_2:6-8).
2. He tells them that upon these grounds which they now built on they could not be safe, but their confidences would certainly fail them (Isa_28:17-21).
III. HERE IS THE USE AND APPLICATION OF ALL THIS (Isa_28:22). (M. Henry.)
We have made lies our refuge
Refuges of lies
Let us assemble in classes the excuses of a score or more of people who have told me frankly why they had decided not to become Christians.
1. First of all, is a class who excuse themselves because the Church has stood for bigotry, narrowness, and cruelty. It is said that in all ages the Church has included hypocrites among its members. But can anything be more unfair than these excuses? Granted that Peter cursed and denied with vulgar oaths his Master, what has that to do with the beauty of Christs character or the claim of His kingdom upon your life? Confessedly, John Calvin was simply an organised syllogism, an animated argument, bloodless as a stone. Even if he did play the traitor like Peter, and refuse to forgive his enemy and forgot the God who makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, how does his recreancy make right yours? Here is the world of business and commerce. Tomorrow merchants will adulterate their goods, traders will tamper with the weights, clerks will steal money from the bank, assistants will rob their employers. Since you do not care to associate with hypocrites, withdraw tomorrow morning from business. Give up all physicians, because some are quacks. Draw down the shades over your windows, because there are spots on the sun; and give up the summer, because there are stormy days in July; and give up the fruits, because there are blemishes on the apples.
2. There is another class that emphasise the uncertainty and disagreements concerning Christianity. Since it is all so hazy, and at best only a probability, they are unwilling to commit themselves to the Christian life. It is not necessary that we should understand all doctrines and the philosophy of duty, in order to fulfil the moral obligations. Life is governed by probability. There may be a thousand disagreements as to theology, but there is no disagreement as to what it is to be a Christian. We are asked to show the fruits of love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness.
3. Others there are who urge that becoming a Christian puts restraints upon the individual, narrows the range of his enjoyments, shuts up certain highways of happiness. I want always to feel perfectly free, exclaims the youth. I am afraid that I might find myself somewhat cabined and confined by taking upon myself these obligations. But becoming a Christian is simply to obey the laws of Christ. This objection is based upon a false theory of liberty. Liberty is obedience to law. It is sin that narrows the life. It is disobedience that cabins men and confines them; it is loyalty to Gods laws that breaks down the walls, pushes back the horizons and makes the soul a citizen of the universe. (N. D. Hillis, D. D.)
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 vv16–18 Isa_28:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold! I…
THE SURE FOUNDATION
Isa_28:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold! I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone for a firm foundation; he that believeth shall not be in haste.—Birks [1105]
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[1105] “He that believeth shall not make haste.” The apostles Paul and Peter, in citing this passage, quote from the Septuagint, and accordingly they render it “he that believeth shall not be ashamed” (Rom_9:33), or “confounded” (1Pe_2:6). The Hebrew word properly signifies “to make haste,” and hence, according to one lexicographer, “to hurry hither and thither as persons in confusion.” The apparent discrepancy between the text as given by Isaiah in the Old Testament and as quoted by the apostles in the New vanishes at once when we consider the nature of the figure employed. Conceive the situation of a man who has “built his house upon the sand.” The rains descend, the floods beat upon that house, the foundations begin to give way, the house totters to its fall, and the frightened inmate, terrified and bewildered, “makes haste” to escape to a place of safety. Another has built his house upon the rock. Upon this also the rains descend and the floods beat, but its firm foundations remain unmoved because it is founded upon a rock, and its happy inmate, so far from being obliged to “make haste” to escape, in conscious security may smile at the storm. “He that believeth shall not make haste”—“shall not be confounded”—“shall not be ashamed” of his hope.—John Dowling, D.D.
I. Who this foundation is. II. Where this foundation is laid. III. The Author of this foundation. IV. The character of this foundation. V. The safety of those who build upon it.—R. Bingham, M.A.: Sermons, p. 202.
I. God’s foundation for the eternal salvation of sinners. II. Its properties and excellences. III. The blessedness of those who build on it.—W. Hancock, B.D.: Sermons, pp. 1–16.
The person and salvation of Jesus Christ are frequently spoken of under the image here presented, the most obvious and expressive image of security, that of a foundation. Our Saviour expressly appropriates to Himself (Psa_118:22). The same architectural idea appears in Eph_2:20; 1Pe_2:4-8.
I. The grand object which God proposed to Himself in all His dispensations to man, viz., the laying of a foundation on which the hope of a repenting sinner might rest, with regard to God and Eternity. We trace this object,
1. In the primal promise (Gen_3:15).
2. In the mysterious rite of sacrifice divinely appointed from the beginning to prefigure “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.”
3. In the whole system of the Mosaic law, “the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.”
4. More and more distinctly announced in the Psalms and Prophecies. The foundation proclaimed by Jehovah in the text is the chief end of all He has done and revealed to mankind; the central point in which all the lines of His providence and His word meet and terminate. Nature supplies the scene, providence the scaffolding, revelation the plan, of that mighty spiritual edifice of which this is the foundation.
II. This foundation was needed. None will dispute this point. So sensible are men that they need a foundation for hope towards God, that every one is disposed to lay his own. Every one feels that without some restitution made to a holy God sin cannot be pardoned nor the sinner saved. The question is, How shall a proper foundation be laid? where shall an adequate restitution be found? The most important question in the universe to be answered, and at the same time the most difficult! (1Sa_2:25). Only three kinds of restitution on the part of man are imaginable—penitence, good works, voluntary sufferings; but none of these, nor all put together, can be deemed satisfactory in the case before us.
1. Penitence is no foundation of the soul before God; the most sorrowful remembrance of sin cannot repair it (H. E. I., 4225–4228).
2. Neither are good works, to which the same insufficiency attaches; they are always required, and therefore can never possess a superfluity or redundancy of merit (H. E. I., 375, 1950). And this applies to the best works; but what are ours in the sight of God?
3. The only remaining kind of restitution is by voluntary sufferings: this, by its very definition, is absurd and vain, for if any sufferings are required they become part of our duty; but to invent penances of our own is no part of our duty, and must be contradictory rather than satisfactory to the Divine law. Penitence, good works, voluntary sufferings, may be methods of procuring for us the priestly absolution of a poor sinful man like ourselves; but they will not secure for us the Divine acceptance.
III. Observe, it is in the midst of the false foundations, the “baseless fabrics” of sinners, that God in our text introduces His own, the only true and solid foundation. All who build their hope on any other will be compelled at last to say, “We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hid ourselves.” See 1Co_3:10. The wonderful way in which this stone was laid; how a person of the Godhead assumed our human nature, He who was in the form of God took the form of a servant, He became “Jehovah our righteousness.” See 2Co_5:19. He who laid the foundation of the heavens and the earth alone could lay this foundation in Zion!
The excellent qualities of this foundation. It is represented—
1. As “a tried stone:” a foundation which has resisted the strongest attempts to shake it,—that has stood the trial of unnumbered enemies and friends. It has been proved in the fiery trial of Divine justice, and the sins of the whole world have tried its strength to sustain an overwhelming weight. The storms of persecution have raged against it in vain, still it stands uninjured (Heb_13:8)! In every respect “a tried stone;” tried by God, by Satan, by man; tried in life, in death, in eternity; tried by all the saints in all their trials; and never tried in vain!
2. As “a corner-stone.” The corner-stone unites both sides of an edifice; and St. Paul represents Christ as Him in whom the whole building, fitly compacted, rises a spiritual habitation of God (Eph_2:19-22).
3. As “precious;” precious in respect to the Saviour’s Person as the only begotten Son of God; in respect to His sacrifice; a foundation composed not of corruptible things (1Pe_1:18-19).
4. As “a sure foundation:” not an imaginary one like every other, but one real and substantial! In the Hebrew the word is reduplicated for the greater emphasis, “A foundation, a foundation!” Not a transitory but an eternal one. We are dying men; we sojourn in a world of vanity and death; what we want is a “sure foundation.” Behold in Christ this grand desideratum!
V. The happiness of him who rests on this foundation. “He that believeth shall not make haste;” he shall not be thrown into disquietude and agitation of spirit. Never has the strength of this foundation been so well appreciated as when it was most tried, most needed. When our flesh and our heart fail, then is the time to find in God the rock of our heart, in Christ the foundation of our soul!
CONCLUSION.—But then we must possess the character defined in the text; “he that believeth,” is he that amidst the wreck of nature shall be saved on this foundation. We must see to it that we have that faith which is known by its fruits, which keeps the commandments, purifies the heart, works by love, overcomes the world, resists the devil, rejoices in Christ.—Robert Hall: Fifty Sermons, pp. 68–86.
I. God’s foundation for the stability of His Church. 1. This foundation was planned in the eternal counsels of Jehovah (1Pe_1:20; Luk_11:50; Rev_13:8).
2. This foundation was actually laid in the incarnation and sufferings of Jesus Christ (2Co_5:21; Gal_3:13; 1Pe_2:22).
3. This foundation is proclaimed in the preaching of the Gospel (Luk_24:47; Act_13:38-39).
II. The peculiar qualities by which this foundation is distinguished.
1. It is a stone, denoting strength.
2. It is a living stone. Possessing life in Himself, He is able to communicate it (Joh_1:4; Joh_5:26; Rom_8:2).
3. A tried stone. The Father tried it, earth tried it, hell tried it.
4. A precious corner-stone. Corner-stones are generally placed for three purposes, for (a.) union; for (b.) beauty; for (c.) direction or example.
5. A sure foundation.
III. The safety and blessedness of all those who depend upon this foundation.—J. Sherman: British Pulpit, ii. 185–193.
Whatever subordinate reference there may be in these words to the Jews, the principal reference is to the Messiah. For this view we have apostolic authority. St. Paul says: “As it is written.” Where? In our text. “Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed.” And St. Peter quotes from Isaiah the same text.
I. THE EMBLEM OF THE LORD JESUS. “A stone.” Whether we consider Him “a stone” for solidity, or for strength, or for duration, He is all these; for whatever changes may take place among men, with Him “there is no variableness nor shadow of turning.” Peter calls Him—
1. A “living stone,” meaning that He has life in Himself, that He procures and dispenses it to others. So Paul (Col_3:4).
2. He is a tried stone. Everything in regard to Him was tried in the days of His flesh: His wisdom, His meekness, His love.
3. He is a precious stone. Precious to God the Father, to angels, to Christians. (1Pe_2:7.)
4. A precious corner-stone. The corner-stone stands to unite. He unites in His person deity and manhood. We see in Him united the Old and New Testament dispensations. He unites Jews and Gentiles (Eph_2:14).
II. His destination. “Behold I lay in Zion,” &c.
1. Who lays this foundation? GOD.
2. Where does He lay this foundation? “In Zion.” Jesus was a Jew, of the family of David. To the woman at the well He said, “Salvation is of the Jews.” See Psa_110:2; and Isa_2:2-3; Isa_25:6.
III. How well He answers the purpose and end. “A sure foundation.” He is a sure foundation for all. Myriads have trusted in Him, and to the whole world it may be said (Isa_26:4).
IV. The blessedness of those who make use of it. “He that believeth shall not make haste.” This declaration is not opposed to diligence; no, for “the King’s business requireth haste.” No (Psa_119:60). But—
1. To impatience (see chap. Isa_5:19), “Blessed are they that wait on Him.”
2. To confusion. Terror will overwhelm the godless (Rev_1:7). But believers (1Jn_2:28).
V. Observe the ushering in of the whole scene. “Behold.” Angels pause before the great work of redemption, and “desire to look unto these things.” “Herein is His love made manifest.” Behold He “hath commended His love, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Be not of those who “Behold and wonder and perish;” but let the command inspire you with gratitude, admiration, obedience, and zeal. “Hear, and your souls shall live.”—William Jay: Sunday Evening Discourses, pp. 18–25.
I. The prominent idea of the text. Christ a foundation-stone.
1. The Builder is Jehovah Himself. He drew the plan of the spiritual building, determined the materials of which it should be constructed, the stone on which it should rest, and then with His own hand laid that foundation.
2. The Site of the building was “Zion.” This is generally explained as referring to the Church. But is not the Church the building? Is there not an incongruity in saying, I lay in the Church a foundation-stone on which the Church is to be built? Is there any reason why the passage might not be understood literally as referring to Jerusalem? Is there not a very appropriate sense in which it was true that the foundation on which the Church rests was laid in Jerusalem? Was it not there that the Son of God offered up Himself as a sacrifice, and made atonement for man? Was it not there that the Holy Spirit descended and gave effect to the finished work of redemption? Was it not there the gospel was first preached by the apostles? And was not all this in accordance with the pre-arrangements of God’s plan? As Zechariah’s fountain was to be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and as Ezekiel’s waters were to flow forth from the temple, so Isaiah’s foundation-stone was laid in Jerusalem.
3. The building to be reared on this stone was to be composed of Christian men of all ages and all nations. They are being collected now; they will all as lively stones be gathered in, fitly framed together, and built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone.
II. The qualities attributed to this foundation-stone.
1. A tried stone.
2. A precious corner-stone. How shall we estimate its worth? By its intrinsic value? Precious beyond all price. By its scarceness? No other stone like it in the universe. By the importance of the service it renders in the building? Precious to the Builder, to the holy angels, to the redeemed before the throne, to believers on earth.
3. A sure foundation. Firm, solid, safe.
III. The import of the promise annexed [1108]
1. Shall not make haste, or be in haste.
2. Shall not be put to shame (Rom_9:33; Rom_10:11, &c.)
[1108] A. V. “Shall not make haste.” See translations by Alexander and Delitzsch. Kay and Birks, “Shall not be in haste.” Cheyne, “He that hath faith shall not give way.” The text reading does not suit the connection; it seems to have arisen out of a confusion of the letters mem and kheth. Sept., Tay., Pesh., feeling that something was wrong, render freely “Shall not be put to shame?” But as to the connection see preceding extract from Dowling.
CONCLUSION.—If not on the foundation, get on it. If on it, keep on it. Be not content to build on it yourself, but try to induce others to do so.—John Corbin.
I. Sinful, dying man needs a foundation on which he may securely rest his immortal hopes. Every man who studies his own nature and destiny as immortal and accountable instinctively feels that he needs something to give him support under the trials of life, and peace and hope as he is about to enter upon the invisible world. This feeling may exert no decisive influence over his conduct; it may be counteracted by other influences; but it is in him; and he cannot get rid of it.
II. Such a foundation is laid for him in Zion. This foundation is our Lord Jesus Christ (1Pe_2:4-6). It is described
(1) as a stone, indicating the solidity and durableness of that on which we are invited to rest our immortal interests. In rearing a building of any importance, we deem it essential that the foundation be laid in the most enduring materials. How much more should we look for this when we build for eternity!
2. As a tried stone. It has been tested in every possible way, and in the severest manner, and therefore justly claims our full and unhesitating confidence [1111] Other grounds of hope have been resorted to by men—philosophy, infidelity, self-righteousness—but they have always failed in the day of trial. But a countless multitude, as they have risen from earth to heaven, have testified to the perfect safety of trusting in Christ. Hence it is called
(3) a precious stone. How precious none can know but such as have made trial of it in their times of need—the sinner, burdened with a sense of guilt, and sinking in despair; the believer, rejoicing in hope, and looking forward to heaven as his eternal home; the dying Christian, as he closes his eyes on this world, in joyful hope of another and a better; the redeemed in glory, as they cast their crowns at His feet. Ask them what they think of Christ.
4. As a corner-stone. The principal weight of an edifice rests on the corners; and hence, in building, the largest and firmest blocks are selected and placed there as best adapted to unite and support the whole structure. This is the idea intended to be expressed when Christ is spoken of as a corner-stone. It is He who, by His truth, His grace, and His spirit, converts and sustains the whole living temple (Eph_2:20-22).
5. As summing up the whole—a sure foundation. Hence it is said, “He that believeth shall not make haste” [1114] The specific idea is that of a man on whose house the tempest beats, and who apprehends that the foundation is insecure, or feels it to be giving way beneath him, and therefore makes haste to flee from his dwelling to seek a more safe position. The foundation laid in Zion is so firm and secure that if a man trusts himself on it, he shall have no cause of alarm, however the storms may beat, and the waves dash and foam around him. Amid the wreck of matter and the crash of dissolving worlds, he shall not be confounded, but shall come forth at last unharmed and victorious over all, and find in his Judge a friend, and in the kingdom of his Father and God an everlasting home.
[1111] If you had a bridge to cross which had stood for centuries and over which thousands of people had passed every day with entire safety, you would feel no hesitation in making that of it yourself. So is Christ set before you—a tested foundation of hope.—Hawes.
[1114] “He that believeth shall not make haste.” The apostles Paul and Peter, in citing this passage, quote from the Septuagint, and accordingly they render it “he that believeth shall not be ashamed” (Rom_9:33), or “confounded” (1Pe_2:6). The Hebrew word properly signifies “to make haste,” and hence, according to one lexicographer, “to hurry hither and thither as persons in confusion.” The apparent discrepancy between the text as given by Isaiah in the Old Testament and as quoted by the apostles in the New vanishes at once when we consider the nature of the figure employed. Conceive the situation of a man who has “built his house upon the sand.” The rains descend, the floods beat upon that house, the foundations begin to give way, the house totters to its fall, and the frightened inmate, terrified and bewildered, “makes haste” to escape to a place of safety. Another has built his house upon the rock. Upon this also the rains descend and the floods beat, but its firm foundations remain unmoved because it is founded upon a rock, and its happy inmate, so far from being obliged to “make haste” to escape, in conscious security may smile at the storm. “He that believeth shall not make haste”—“shall not be confounded”—“shall not be ashamed” of his hope.—John Dowling, D.D.
III. It is the duty and privilege of all to build their hopes on this foundation without delay.
Joel Hawes, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 307–317.
OUR TRUST AND OUR TEST
Isa_28:16. A tried stone.
This phrase may be more literally rendered “a stone of proof,” and so rendered admits of two interpretations. The commonly received opinion, that it means a stone which has been tried and found sufficient is probably correct, and is more in harmony with the context; but Calvin understands by it a stone which was to be the test or standard of comparison for others. However this may be, we have inspired authority for saying that the stone is no other than our Lord Jesus Christ (1Pe_2:6); and we may profitably consider Him in these two aspects, as our Trust and our Test.
I. HE IS OUR TRUST, because He has been tried. “Tried in the days of His humanity by all the vehemence of temptations, and the weight of afflictions, yet, like gold from the furnace, rendered more shining and illustrious by the fiery scrutiny.”—(Hervey.)
[For further amplifications, see the other outlines on this text].
II. HE IS OUR TEST. In Him we have the true touchstone of character. All men naturally divide themselves into good or bad, saved or lost, by their acceptance or rejection of Him. By this touch-stone strange discoveries have been made in every age. The Pharisees and Scribes had a high character for piety until this trying stone was applied to them, and then it appeared what they were—the most inveterate enemies of God on earth. The reception which men gave to Jesus Christ is the grand criterion of their character, as Simeon predicted, (Luk_2:34). This is the supreme test by which God is trying you, and by which your eternal destiny will be determined.—Samuel Davies, A.M.: Sermons, ii. 29–33.
A TESTED SAVIOUR
Isa_28:16. A tried stone.
This is perhaps an allusion to the custom of builders who are about to lay the foundation for some massive structure. Before they raise the edifice they test the character of the substratum on which they think of building. Is not our blessed Lord in every way a tried, a tested, an approved Saviour! I. Did not the Father try Him and find Him faithful in every way?—in His willingness, His obedience, His love? II. Did not Satan try Him and find Him upright? Tried by temptations addressed to His natural appetite, to pride, and to ambition. III. Was He not tried by wicked and unbelieving men? By Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians in His own day, and by sceptics in ours. IV. By the afflicted, the poor, the destitute in His own day and ours? and in each case only to bring out more clearly the marvellousness of His resources. V. By the contrite and broken-hearted? VI. By believers in every generation? And what has been their unanimous testimony? Is it not that they found Him more than equal to all their wants and able to do for them all that they could ask or think? Could so many millions of witnesses, in other respects trustworthy, be mistaken on this point? VII. HAVE YOU TRIED HIM?—R. Bingham, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 208–215.
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.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v16
Isaiah
THE FOUNDATION OF GOD
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Isa 28:16.
‘Therefore thus saith the Lord.’ Then these great words are God’s answer to something. And that something is the scornful defiance by the rulers of Israel of the prophet’s threatenings. By their deeds, whether by their words or no, they said that they had made friends of their enemies, and that so they were sure that, whatsoever came, they were safe. To this contemptuous and false reliance God answers, not as we might expect, first of all, by a repetition of the threatenings, but by a majestic disclosure of the sure refuge which He has provided, set in contrast to the flimsy and false ones, on which these men built their truculent confidence; ‘I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.’ And then, after the exhibition of the great mercy which has been evoked by the very blasphemy of the rulers, and not till then, does He reiterate the threatenings of judgment, against which this foundation is laid, that men may escape; God first declares the refuge, and then warns of the tempest.
Without entering at all upon the question, which for all believing and simple souls is settled by the New Testament, of the Messianic application of the words before us, I take it for granted. There may no doubt be an allusion here to the great solid blocks which travellers tell us may still be seen at the base of the encircling walls of the Temple hill. A stone so gigantic and so firm God has laid for man to build upon.
I. Note, then, first, the foundation, which is Christ.
There are many aspects of the great thought on which I cannot touch even for a moment. For instance, let me remind you how, in a very deep sense, Jesus Christ is the foundation of the whole of the divine dealings with us; and how, in another aspect, historically, since the day on which He appeared on earth, He has more and more manifestly and completely been the foundation of the whole history of the world. But passing these aspects, let us rather fix upon those which are more immediately in the prophet’s mind.
Jesus Christ is the foundation laid for all men’s security against every tempest or assault. The context has portrayed the coming of a tremendous storm and inundation, in view of which this foundation is laid. The building reared on it then is, therefore, to be a refuge and an asylum. Have not we all of us, like these scornful men in Jerusalem, built our refuges on vain hopes, on creatural affections, on earthly possessions, on this, that, and the other false thing, all of which are to be swept away when the storm comes? And does there not come upon us all the blast of the ordinary calamities to which flesh is heir, and have we not all more or less consciousness of our own evil and sinfulness; and does there not lie before every one of us at the end of life that solemn last struggle, and beyond that, as we most of us believe, a judgment for all that we have done in the body? ‘I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.’ Build upon that, and neither the tempest of earthly calamities, changes, disappointments, sorrows, losses, nor the scourge that is wielded because of our sins, nor the last wild tempest that sweeps a man on the wings of its strong blast from out of life into the dark region, nor the solemn final retribution and judgment, shall ever touch us. And when the hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, and the waters overflow the hiding-place, this foundation stands sure-
And lo! from sin and grief and shame
I hide me, Jesus, in Thy name.
Brethren, the one foundation on which building, we can build secure, and safe as well as secure, is that foundation which is laid in the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God. The foundation of all our security is Jesus Christ.
We may look at the same thought under somewhat different aspects. He is the foundation for all our thinking and opinions, for all our belief and our knowledge. ‘In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,’ and whatsoever of solid fact men can grasp in their thinkings in regard to all the most important facts and truths with which they come into relation, is to be found in the life and death of Jesus Christ, and in the truths which these reveal. He is the foundation of all our knowledge of God, and of all our true knowledge of ourselves, of all our true knowledge of duty, and all our true knowledge of the relations between the present and the future, between man and God.
And in His life, in the history of His death and resurrection, is the only foundation for any real knowledge of the awful mysteries that lie beyond the grave. He is the Alpha from whom all truth must be deduced, the Omega to which it all leads up. Certitude is in Him. Apart from Him we are but groping amid peradventures. If we know anything about God it is due to Jesus Christ. If we know anything about ourselves it is due to Him. If we know anything about what men ought to do, it is because He has done all human duty. And if, into the mist and darkness that wraps the future, there has ever travelled one clear beam of insight, it is because He has died and risen again. If we have Him, and ponder upon the principles that are involved in, and flow from, the facts of His life and death, then we know; and ‘the truth as it is in Jesus’ is the truth indeed. To possess Him is to hold the key to all mysteries, and knowledge without Him is but knowledge of the husk, the kernel being all unreached. That Stone is the foundation on which the whole stately fabric of man’s knowledge of the highest things must ever be reared.
He is the foundation of all restful love. A Czar of Russia, in the old days, was mad enough to build a great palace upon the ice-blocks of the Neva. And when the spring came, and the foundations melted, the house, full of delights and luxury, sank beneath the river. We build upon frozen water, and when the thaw comes, what we build sinks and is lost to sight. Instead of love that twines round the creature and trails, bleeding and bruised, along the ground when the prop is taken away, let us turn our hearts to the warm, close, pure, perfect changeless love of the undying Christ, and we shall build above the fear of change. The dove’s nest in the pine-tree falls in ruin when the axe is laid to the root. Let us build our nests in the clefts of the rock and no hand will ever reach them. Christ is the foundation on which we may build an immortal love.
He is the foundation for all noble and pure living. He is the fixed pattern to which it may be conformed. Otherwise man’s notions of what is virtuous and good are much at the mercy of conventional variations of opinion. This class, that community, this generation, that school, all differ in their notions of what is true nobleness and goodness of life. And we are left at the mercy of fluctuating standards unless we take Christ in His recorded life as the one realised ideal of manhood, the pattern of what we ought to be. We cannot find a fixed and available model for conduct anywhere so useful, so complete, so capable of application to all varieties of human life and disposition as we find in Him, who was not this man or that man, in whom the manly and the feminine, the gentle and the strong, the public and the private graces were equally developed. In Christ there is no limitation or taint. In Christ there is nothing narrow or belonging to a school. This water has no taste of any of the rocks through which it flowed. You cannot say of Jesus Christ that He is a Jew or a Gentile, that He is man or woman, that He is of the ancient age or the modern type, that He is cut after this pattern or that. All beauty and all grace are in Him, and every man finds there the example that he needs. So, as the perfect pattern, He is the foundation for all noble character.
As the one sufficient motive for holy and beauteous living, He is the foundation. ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments.’ That is a new thing in the world’s morality, and that one motive, and that motive alone, has power, as the spring sunshine has, to draw beauty from out the little sheaths of green, and to tempt the radiance of the flowers to unfold their lustre. They that find the reason and the motive for goodness and purity in Christ’s love to them, and their answering love to Christ, will build a far fairer fabric of a life than any others, let them toil at the building as they may. So, dear brethren, on this foundation God has built His mercy to all generations, and on this foundation you and I may build our safety, our love, our thinkings, our obedience, and rest secure.
II. Note next the tried preciousness of the foundation.
The language of the text, ‘a stone of proof,’ as it reads in the original, probably means a stone which has been tested and stood the trial. And because it is thus a tested stone, it therefore is a precious stone. There are two kinds of testing-the testing from the assaults of enemies, and the testing by the building upon it of friends. And both these methods of proof have been applied, and it has stood the test.
Think of all the assaults that have been made from this side and the other against Christ and His gospel, and what has become of them all? Travellers tell us how they often see some wandering tribes of savage Arabs trying to move the great stones, for instance, of Baalbec-those wonders of unfinished architecture. But what can a crowd of such people, with all their crowbars and levers, do to the great stone bedded there, where it has been for centuries? They cannot stir it one hair’s-breadth. And so, against Jesus Christ and His gospel there has stormed for eighteen hundred years an assaulting crowd, varying in its individuals and in its methods of attack, but the same in its purpose, and the same in the fruitlessness of its effort. Century after century they have said, as they are saying to-day, ‘Now the final assault is going to be delivered; it can never stand this.’ And when the smoke has cleared away there may be a little blackening upon the edge, but there is not a chip off its bulk, and it stands in its bed where it did; and of all the grand preparations for a shattering explosion, nothing is left but a sulphurous smell, and a wreath of smoke, and both are floating away down into the distance. Generation after generation has attacked the gospel; generation after generation has been foiled; and I do not need to be a prophet, or the son of a prophet, to be quite sure of this, that all who to-day are trying to destroy men’s faith in the Incarnate Son of God, who died for them and rose again, will meet the same fate. I can see the ancient and discredited systems of unbelief, that have gone down into oblivion, rising from their seats, as the prophet in his great vision saw the kings of the earth, to greet the last comer who had fought against God and failed, with ‘Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?’ The stone will stand, whosoever tries to blow it up with his dynamite, or to pound it with his hammers.
But there is the other kind of testing. One proves the foundation by building upon it. If the stone be soft, if it be slender, if it be imperfectly bedded, it will crumble, it will shift, it will sink. But this stone has borne all the weight that the world has laid upon it, and borne it up. Did any man ever come to Jesus Christ with a sorrow that He could not comfort, with a sin that He could not forgive, with a soul that He could not save? And we may trust Him to the end. He is a ‘tried stone.’ ‘This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles,’ has been the experience of nineteen centuries.
So, being tried, it is precious,-precious to God who laid it there at a great and real cost to Himself-having given up ‘His only begotten Son’; precious, inasmuch as building upon it is the one safety from the raging tempest and flood that would else engulf and destroy us.
III. Note, next, the process of building.
The metaphor seems to be abandoned in the last words of our text, but it is only apparently so. ‘He that believeth shall not make haste.’ So, then, we build by believing. The act of building is simple faith in Jesus Christ. We come to Him, as the Apostle Peter has it in his quotation of this text-come to Him as unto a living stone, and the coming and the building are both of them metaphors for the one simple thing, trust in the Lord. The bond that unites men on earth with Christ in Heaven, is the exercise of simple faith in Him. By it they come into contact with Him, and receive from Him the security and the blessing that He can bestow. Nothing else brings a man into living fellowship with Him. When we trust in the Lord we, as it were, are bedded into Him; and resting upon Him with all our weight, then we are safe. That confidence involves the abandonment of all the ‘refuges of lies.’ There must be utter self-distrust and forsaking and turning away from every dependence upon anything else, if we are to trust ourselves to Jesus Christ. But the figure of a foundation which gives security and stability to the stones laid upon it, does not exhaust all the blessedness of this building upon Christ. For when we really rest upon Him, there comes from the foundation up through all the courses a vital power. Thus Peter puts it: ‘To whom, coming as unto a living stone, ye also as living stones are built up.’ We might illustrate this by the supposition of some fortress perched upon a rock, and in the heart of the rock a clear fountain, which is guided by some pipe or other into the innermost rooms of the citadel. Thus, builded upon Christ, ‘our defence shall be the munitions of rocks, and our waters shall be sure.’ From Him, the foundation, there will rise into all the stones, built upon Him, the power of His own endless life, and they, too, become living stones.
IV. So note, lastly, the quiet confidence of the builders.
‘He that believeth shall not make haste.’ The word is somewhat obscure, and the LXX., which is followed by the New Testament, readers it, ‘Shall not be confounded or put to shame.’ But the rendering of our text seems to be accurate enough. ‘He shall not make haste.’ Remember the picture of the context-a suddenly descending storm, a swiftly rising and turbid flood, the lashing of the rain, the howling of the wind. The men in the clay-built hovels on the flat have to take to flight to some higher ground above the reach of the innundation, on some sheltered rock out of the flashing of the rain and the force of the tempest. He who is built upon the true foundation knows that his house is above the water-level, and he does not need to be in a hurry. He can remain quietly there till the flood subsides, knowing that it will not rise high enough to drown or even disturb him. When all the other buildings are gone, his stands. And he that thus dwells on high may look out over the wild flood, washing and weltering to the horizon, and feel that he is safe. So shall he not have to make haste, but may wait calm and quiet, knowing that all is well.
Dear friends, there is only one refuge for any of us-only one from the little annoyances and from the great ones; from to-day’s petty troubles, and from the day of judgment; from the slight stings, if I may so say, of little sorrows, cares, burdens, and from the poisoned dart of the great serpent. There is only one refuge for any of us, to build upon Jesus Christ, as we can do by simple faith.
And oh! remember, He must either be the foundation on which we build, or the stone of stumbling against which we stumble, and which one day will fall upon us and grind us to powder. Do you make your choice; and when God says, as He says to each of us: ‘Behold! I lay in Zion a foundation,’ do you say, ‘And, Lord, I build upon the foundation which Thou hast laid.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv15, 18 Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
hell
Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v14 The False qnd the True Refuge
The False qnd the True Refuge
v. 14. Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, those who despised and mocked the prophet’s warning, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem, the capital being named for the entire Southern Kingdom.
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v. 15. Because ye have said, in some further mockery which is now recorded, We have made a covenant with death, confident that death itself could not harm them, and with hell, the realm of the dead, are we at agreement, hoping to be safe against its power on account of their alliance with Egypt; when the overflowing scourge, the Assyrian army, shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves, concealing their real intention and purposes by the use of cunning policy, of fine diplomacy, the same procedure being found in all unbelievers to this day:
v. 16. therefore thus saith the Lord God, in another beautiful statement concerning the true foundation of the believer’s trust, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, as the Rock upon which His Church is firmly founded, a Stone, a tried Stone, one who is Himself approved, and by whom the hearts of all men are tested, a precious Corner-stone, one laid where two walls meet, which serves to connect them firmly, a sure Foundation, literally, "a Corner-stone of preciousness and a founded Foundation," to emphasize the solidity of this foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste, he who relies on Him shall not be confounded or flee in hasty alarm, for this Cornerstone is Jesus Christ Himself, the Rock of Ages for His Church. Cf Mat 21:42; Act 4:11; Rom 9:33; Rom 10:11; Eph 2:20; 1Pe 2:6-8.
v. 17. Judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet, the acts of Jehovah being regarded as the erecting of a building against the scorners according to the strictest vengeance of His Law; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, as the shovel cleared away the ashes from the altar in the Temple, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place, thereby both exposing and sweeping away the fabric of lies built by the leaders of Judah.
v. 18. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, its writing obliterated and the covenant nullified, and your agreement with hell, with the realm of death, shall not stand, these enemies rather overcoming them; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, when the flood of the Assyrian army would come along, then ye shall be trodden down by it, literally, "ye shall be to it a treading down," signifying a complete subjection.
v. 19. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you, one Assyrian campaign after the other would be successful; for morning by morning shall it pass over, in one wave of invasion after the other, by day and by night; and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report, the scoffers would now hear a preaching in act, which would be naught but terror.
v. 20. For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it, that is, the people of Jerusalem would find that the Egyptian covenant in which they hoped to find safety and rest would prove altogether insufficient.
v. 21. For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, He shall be wrath as in the Valley of Gibeon, when, at the time of David, as an ally of Israel, He overthrew the armies of the Philistines and afforded deliverance to His people, 2Sa 5:20; 1Ch 14:11-15, that He may do His work, His strange work, for it would surely appear strange to other nations to see Jehovah punishing His own children in this manner, and bring to pass His act, His strange act, whereby He destroys His own people.
v. 22. Now, therefore, so the prophet, in conclusion, warns the scoffers, be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong, namely, the fetters of their submission to Assyria; for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, that He intended a general destruction, even determined upon the whole earth. Therefore quick repentance was in order, lest the punishment of the Lord consume them all.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 16, 17, 18 So listen to the word of Yahweh
So listen to the word of Yahweh
"So listen to Yahweh's message"
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We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have reached an agreement
Both of these statements mean basically the same thing. Possible meanings are 1) the leaders of Jerusalem have used magic or sorcery to try to make an agreement with the gods of the place of the dead so that these gods would protect them from dying or 2) this is a metaphor that speaks of the leaders having made an agreement with the leaders of Egypt. The leaders of Jerusalem were so confident that the Egyptians would protect that it was like they had made an agreement with the gods of the place of the dead. (See: Parallelism and Metaphor)
So when the overwhelming whip passes through, it will not reach us
This speaks of Yahweh's judgment and punishment as if it were a whip that would strike the people. And the whip is spoken of as if it were a flood that would pass through Jerusalem. AT: "As a result, when everyone else is suffering and dying, nothing will harm us" (See: Metaphor)
For we have made a lie our refuge, and taken shelter in falsehood
These two phrases mean basically the same thing. A "lie" and "falsehood" are spoken of as if they were places where a person could go to hide. The leaders in Jerusalem would not have said they trust in a lie. They believed they were truly safe. But Isaiah knows they are not safe, because they trust in lies. AT: "For lies and falsehoods have become like a place where we can hide from danger" (See: Parallelism and Metaphor)
a lie our refuge ... taken shelter in falsehood
Possible meanings are 1) the leaders trust in their own lies that they have said in order to protect themselves or 2) the leaders trust that the covenant they have made with the false gods of the place of the dead will keep them safe or 3) the leaders trust that the agreement they have made with the Egyptians will keep them safe.
translationWords
word of God
mock
people group
Jerusalem
covenant
die
Hades
judge
refuge
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 vv14–17 28:14-22 After having pronounced judgment on Samaria (28:1-13), Isaiah…
28:14-22 After having pronounced judgment on Samaria (28:1-13), Isaiah now pronounces judgment on Jerusalem. The leaders of Judah are accused of being as blind as those in the northern kingdom of Israel.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.