Isaiah 28:9-14 sits inside this longer paragraph.
9Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts? 10For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.
11But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and in another language, 12to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to weary,” and “This is the refreshing;” yet they would not hear. 13Therefore Yahweh’s word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.
14Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: 15“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.’ ” 16Therefore 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. 17I 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. 18Your 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. 19As 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.” 20For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. 21For 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. 22Now 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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9–13 For there was none that was able to understand…
For there was none that was able to understand any good doctrine: but were foolish and as unmeet as young babes.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–14 Isa 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom…
Isa 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? [them that are] weaned from the milk, [and] drawn from the breasts.
Ver. 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge?] Quem docebit scientiam? Doceo governeth two accusative cases. Ministers must have (1.) Quem, Whom to teach; and (2.) Quid, What to teach - sc., knowledge. Isaiah had no want of knowledge, as being apt and able to teach; but he wanted a fit audience, as having to do with a sort of drunken sots that were unteachable, incapable. So, Eze 47:11, when the waters of the sanctuary flowed, the miry places could not be healed. Think the same also of those that are drunk with pride {as Isa 28:1} and self-conceitedness; who make divinity only a matter of discourse, or that come to sit as judges or critics on their ministers’ gifts, &c. It will be long enough ere such will be taught anything. One may as good undertake to teach a young weanling void of understanding, and in some respects better, for these to their natural corruption and impotence have added habitual hardness and obstinace, to their sinews of iron, brows of brass, {Isa 48:4} and what hope can there be of working upon such?
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 vv9–14 Whom shall he, to wit, the teacher, which is…
Whom shall he, to wit, the teacher, which is easily understood out of the following verb; either God, or his prophets, or ministers;
teach knowledge? who is there among this people that are capable and willing to be taught the good knowledge of God? A minister may as soon teach a young child as these men.
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 vv9, 14 The prophet here complains of the wretched stupidity of…
The prophet here complains of the wretched stupidity of this people, that they were unteachable and made no improvement of the means of grace which they possessed; they still continued as they were, their mistakes not rectified, their hearts not renewed, nor their lives reformed. Observe,
I. What it was that their prophets and ministers designed and aimed at. It was to teach them knowledge, the knowledge of God and his will, and to make them understand doctrine, Isa 28:9. This is God's way of dealing with men, to enlighten men's minds first with the knowledge of his truth, and thus to gain their affections, and bring their wills into a compliance with his laws; thus he enters in by the door, whereas the thief and the robber climb up another way.
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II. What method they took, in pursuance of this design. They left no means untried to do them good, but taught them as children are taught, little children that are beginning to learn, that are taken from the breast to the book (Isa 28:9), for among the Jews it was common for mothers to nurse their children till they were three years old, and almost ready to go to school. And it is good to begin betimes with children, to teach them, as they are capable, the good knowledge of the Lord, and to instruct them even when they are but newly weaned from the milk. The prophets taught them as children are taught; for, 1. They were constant and industrious in teaching them. They took great pains with them, and with great prudence, teaching them as they needed it and were able to bear it (Isa 28:10): Precept upon precept. It must be so, or (as some read) it has been so. They have been taught, as children are taught to read, by precept upon precept, and taught to write by line upon line, a little here and a little there, a little of one thing and a little of another, that the variety of instructions might be pleasing and inviting, - a little at one time and a little at another, that they might not have their memories overcharged, - a little from one prophet and a little from another, that every one might be pleased with his friend and him whom he admired. Note, For our instruction in the things of God it is requisite that we have precept upon precept and line upon line, that one precept and line should be followed, and so enforced by another; the precept of justice must be upon the precept of piety, and the precept of charity upon that of justice. Nay, it is necessary that the same precept and the same line should be often repeated and inculcated upon us, that we may the better understand them and the more easily recollect them when we have occasion for them. Teachers should accommodate themselves to the capacity of the learners, give them what they most need and can best bear, and a little at a time, Deu 6:6, Deu 6:7. 2. They courted and persuaded them to learn, Isa 28:12. God, by his prophets, said to them, "This way that we are directing you to, and directing you in, is the rest, the only rest, wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this will be the refreshing of your own souls, and will bring rest to your country from the wars and other calamities with which it has been long harassed." Note, God by his word calls us to nothing but what is really for our advantage; for the service of God is the only true rest for those that are weary of the service of sin and there is no refreshing but under the easy yoke of the Lord Jesus.
III. What little effect all this had upon the people. They were as unapt to learn as young children newly weaned from the milk, and it was as impossible to fasten any thing upon them (Isa 28:9): nay, one would choose rather to teach a child of two years old than undertake to teach them; for they have not only (like such a child) no capacity to receive what is taught them, but they are prejudiced against it. As children, they have need of milk, and cannot bear strong meat, Heb 5:12. 1. They would not hear (Isa 28:12), no, not that which would be rest and refreshing to them. They had no mind to hear it. The word of God commanded their serious attention, but could not gain it; they were where it was preached, but they turned a deaf ear to it, or as it came in at one ear it went out at the other. 2. They would not heed. It was unto them precept upon precept, and line upon line (Isa 28:13); they went on in a road of external performances; they kept up the old custom of attending upon the prophet's preaching and it was continually sounding in their ears, but that was all; it made no impression upon them; they had the letter of the precept, but no experience of the power and spirit of it; it was continually beating upon them, but it beat nothing into them. Nay, 3. It should seem, they ridiculed the prophet's preaching, and bantered it. The word of the Lord was unto them Tsau latsau, kau lakau; in the original it is in rhyme; they made a song of the prophet's words, and sang it when they were merry over their wine. David was the song of the drunkards. It is great impiety, and a high affront to God, thus to make a jest of sacred things, to speak of that vainly which should make us serious.
IV. How severely God would reckon with them for this. 1. He would deprive them of the privilege of plain preaching, and speak to them with stammering lips and another tongue, Isa 28:11. Those that will not understand what is plain and level to their capacity, but despise it as mean and trifling, are justly amused with that which is above them. Or God will send foreign armies among them, whose language they understand not, to lay their country waste. Those that will not hear the comfortable voice of God's word shall be made to hear the dreadful voice of his rod. Or these words may be taken as denoting God's gracious condescension to their capacity in his dealing with them; he lisped to them in their own language, as nurses do to their children, with stammering lips, to humor them; he changed his voice, tried first one way and then another; the apostle quotes it as a favour (Co1 14:21), applying it to the gift of tongues, and complaining that yet for all this they would not hear. 2. He would bring utter ruin upon them. By their profane contempt of God and his word they are but hastening on their own ruin, and ripening themselves for it; it is that they may go and fall backward, may grow worse and worse, may depart further and further from God, and proceed from one sin to another, till they be quite broken, and snared, and taken, and ruined, Isa 28:13. They have here a little and there a little of the word of God; they think it too much, and say to the seers, See not; but it proves too little to convert them, and will prove enough to condemn them. If it be not a savour of life unto life, it will be a savour of death unto death.
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 vv9–14 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,....…
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,.... Signifying, that they must be dealt with as children were, when first instructed in the rudiments of a language, first had one rule given them, and then another, and so one after another till they had gone through the whole:
line upon line, line upon line; who are taught first to write one line, and then another; or to draw one line, and write after that, and then another; or where to begin one line, and, when finished, where to begin another; for the allusion is to writing by line, and not to a line used in building, as Kimchi and Ben Melech think:
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here a little, and there a little; a small lesson out of one book, and a small lesson out of another; a little one day, and a little on the next, and so on, that their memories may not be overburdened.
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 vv9–13 He - God. Them - Who is there among…
He - God. Them - Who is there among this people that are willing to be taught the knowledge of God? A minister may as soon teach an infant as these men.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 12 Verse 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? - "Whom,…
Verse 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? - "Whom, say they, would he teach knowledge?"] The scoffers mentioned below, Isa 28:14, are here introduced as uttering their sententious speeches; they treat God's method of dealing with them, and warning them by his prophets, with contempt and derision. What, say they, doth he treat us as mere infants just weaned? doth he teach us like little children, perpetually inculcating the same elementary lessons, the mere rudiments of knowledge; precept after precept, line after line, here and there, by little and little? imitating at the same time, and ridiculing, in Isa 28:10, the concise prophetical manner. God, by his prophet, retorts upon them with great severity their own contemptuous mockery, turning it to a sense quite different from what they intended. Yes, saith he, it shall be in fact as you say; ye shall be taught by a strange tongue and a stammering lip; in a strange country; ye shall be carried into captivity by a people whose language shall be unintelligible to you, and which ye shall be forced to learn like children. And my dealing with you shall be according to your own words: it shall be command upon command for your punishment; it shall be line upon line, stretched over you to mark your destruction, (compare 2Kg 21:13;) it shall come upon you at different times, and by different degrees, till the judgments, with which from time to time I have threatened you, shall have their full accomplishment.
Jerome seems to have rightly understood the general design of this passage as expressing the manner in which the scoffers, by their sententious speeches, turned into ridicule the warnings of God by his prophets, though he has not so well explained the meaning of the repetition of their speech in Isa 28:13. His words are on Isa 28:9 - "Solebant hoc ex persona prophetarum ludentes dicere:" and on Isa 28:14 - "Quod supra diximus, cum irrisione solitos principes Judaeorum prophetis dicere, manda, remanda, et caetera his similia, per quae ostenditur, nequaquam eos prophetarum credidisse sermonibus, sed prophetiam habuisse despectui, praesens ostendit capitulum, per quod appellantur viri illusores." Hieron. in loc.
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And so Jarchi interprets the word משלים mishelim in the next verse: Qui dicunt verba irrisionis parabolice." And the Chaldee paraphrases Isa 28:11 to the same purpose, understanding it as spoken, not of God, but of the people deriding his prophets: "Quoniam in mutatione loquelae et in lingua subsannationis irridebant contra prophetas, qui prophetabant populo huic." - L.
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 vv9, 11, 13, 14 Isa 28:9-10. Whom shall he — Namely, God, or…
Isa 28:9-10. Whom shall he — Namely, God, or his prophet, or minister; teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? — Who is there among this people, that are capable and willing to be taught the good knowledge of God? them that are wearied from the milk, &c. — A minister may as soon teach a young child as these men. For precept must be upon precept, &c. — They must be taught like little children, slowly, and with leisure, the same things being often repeated, because of their great dulness. Line upon line — One line of the book after another, as children are taught to read.
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 vv9–14 whom shall he teach knowledge? - This verse commences…
whom shall he teach knowledge? - This verse commences a statement respecting another form of sin that prevailed among the people of Judah. That sin was contempt for the manner in which God instructed them by the prophets, and a disregard for his communications as if they were suited to children and not to adults. That “scoffing” was the principal sin aimed at in these verses, is apparent from Isa 28:14. Vitringa supposes that these words Isa 28:9-10 are designed to describe the manner of teaching by the priests and the prophets as being puerile and silly, and adapted to children. Michaelis supposes that the prophet means to signify that it would be a vain and fruitless labor to attempt to instruct these persons who were given to wine, because they were unaccustomed to sound and true doctrine. Others have supposed that he means that these persons who were thus given to wine and strong drink were disqualified to instruct others, since their teachings were senseless and incoherent, and resembled the talk of children. But the true sense of the passage has undoubtedly been suggested by Lowth. According to this interpretation, the prophet speaks of them as deriders of the manner in which God had spoken to them by his messengers. ‘What!’ say they, ‘does God treat us as children? Does he deal with us as we deal with infants just weaned, perpetually repeating and inculcating the same elementary lessons, and teaching the mere rudiments of knowledge?’ The expression, therefore, ‘whom shall he teach knowledge?’ or, ‘whom does he teach?’ is an expression of contempt supposed to be spoken by the intemperate priests and prophets - the leaders of the people. ‘whom does God take us to be? Does he regard us as mere children? Why are we treated as children with an endless repetition of the same elementary instruction?’
To understand doctrine - Hebrew as Margin, ‘Hearing,’ or ‘report’ Isa 53:1. The sense is, For whom is that instruction intended? whom does he wish to be taught by it?
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Them that are weaned from the milk ... - Does he regard and treat us as mere babes?
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 vv9, 10, 12, 13, 14 Breasts? St. Paul seems to allude to this text,…
Breasts? St. Paul seems to allude to this text, 1 Corinthians iii. 2. (Calmet) --- The abandoned Jews ask contemptuously, if they be to be taught like children? (Haydock)
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 vv9, 11, 12, 13, 14 Here the drunkards are introduced as scoffingly commenting on…
Here the drunkards are introduced as scoffingly commenting on Isaiah's warnings: "Whom will he (does Isaiah presume to) teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand instruction? Is it those (that is, does he take us to be) just weaned, &c.? For (he is constantly repeating, as if to little children) precept upon precept," &c.
line--a rule or law. [MAURER]. The repetition of sounds in Hebrew tzav latzav, tzav latzav, qav laqav, qav laquav, expresses the scorn of the imitators of Isaiah's speaking; he spoke stammering (Isa 28:11). God's mode of teaching offends by its simplicity the pride of sinners (Kg2 5:11-12; Co1 1:23). Stammerers as they were by drunkenness, and children in knowledge of God, they needed to be spoken to in the language of children, and "with stammering lips" (compare Mat 13:13). A just and merciful retribution.
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 vv9, 11, 13, 14 9, 10. These verses appear to imply an interruption…
9, 10. These verses appear to imply an interruption on the part of those against whom the prophet is inveighing. They seem to reply scornfully.
Whom shall he teach knowledge — “He, the intolerable moralist: does he mean us, already advanced in understanding? We need it not. We are through with our tuition in the schools. We want no more of precept upon precept… line upon line… here a little and there a little. We want no more of his elementary teachings, his petty teasings; no more of the many repetitions of his excited, high toned addresses.” Perhaps they attempted to mimic him, but were only able to speak (hic) (being then well drunken) in stammering (hic) words. Among the several explanations of these verses, this, which was first hinted by Jerome, and later accepted by Lowth, Ewald, and Delitzsch, seems the best.
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 vv9–14 9. The retort of the revellers to Isaiah’s recriminations.…
9. The retort of the revellers to Isaiah’s recriminations. The meaning is: “Who are we that we should thus be lectured by this man? Are we newly-weaned infants, &c.?” (cf. R.V.). Whom will he teach knowledge? expresses the injured self-consciousness of the priests; whom will he make to understand doctrine? that of the prophets. For doctrine R.V. has the message; the word commonly means “report,” but here it denotes “that which is heard” (by prophetic audition) from the Lord, as in Isa_28:19; ch. Isa_53:1; Jer_49:14; Oba_1:1.
9–13. The occasion of this remarkable encounter was probably a feast held to celebrate the renunciation of allegiance to Assyria. Isaiah has surprised the drunkards over their cups and administered some such rebuke as we read in Isa_28:7-8. (On the excesses that often accompanied sacrificial meals, see 1Sa_1:13 f.; Amo_2:8.)
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 vv9, 11, 12, 13, 14 (9) Whom shall he teach knowledge?—The two verses that…
(9) Whom shall he teach knowledge?—The two verses that follow reproduce the language of the drunkards as they talk scornfully of the prophet. “To whom does he come with what he calls his ‘knowledge’ and his ‘doctrine?’ (better, message, as in Isa_28:19). Does he think that they are boys just weaned, who are to be taught the first elements of the religion of the infant school?” Then in their mockery they describe (Isa_28:10) his teaching, with what was to them its wearisome iteration, “Always precept upon precept, line upon line . . .”—petty rebukes and puerile harping upon the same note, semper eandem canens cantilenam. We can scarcely doubt that Isaiah was indignantly reproducing, as St. Paul does in 2Co_10:10; 2Co_11:16-17; the very words, almost the drunken accents, in which the priests and false prophets had spoken of him.
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 vv9–14 Whom shall he teach? A sudden and abrupt transition.…
Whom shall he teach? A sudden and abrupt transition. The best explanation seems to be that suggested by Jerome, and followed by Bishop Lowth and most commentators, viz. that the prophet dramatically introduces his adversaries as replying to him with taunting speeches. "Whom does he think he is teaching?" they ask. "Mere children, just weaned from their mother"s milk, and taken away from the breast? Does he forget that we are grown men nay, priests and prophets? And what poor teaching it is! What "endless petty feazing"! (Delitzsch) precept upon precept," etc. The intention is to throw ridicule upon the smallness and vexatious character of the prophet"s interminable and uninterrupted chidings (Delitzsch). Knowledge... doctrine. Technical terms in Isaiah"s teaching, which his adversaries seem to have ridiculed as "catch-words." The term translated "doctrine" means properly "tidings," and involves the idea that the prophet obtained the teaching so designated by direct revelation from God.
Vers. 9, 10. The objections of unbelievers to such as preach the truth.
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The argumentum ad hominem, to which Isaiah"s adversaries had recourse, is one very generally employed by those who are indisposed to receive religious teaching. "Who are you," the teacher is asked, "that you should set yourself up to teach us? On what grounds do you suppose that you are so much wiser than we? We are not babes not tied to our mothers" apron-strings, not mere children without experience of life. We think that probably we know quite as much on any religious subject as you. Why should you imagine that we do not?" It is difficult to meet this objection. By setting up to be a religious teacher a man does certainly claim to be wiser than his neighbors, and a prima facie objection of undue self-assertion most decidedly lies against him. He can only meet this objection by disclaiming all personal merit, and declaring himself a mere mouthpiece of One infinitely above him, whose doctrine he is commissioned to spread. The objectors will then have to question either the fact of his commission or the authority of the Person who gave it. Another line of argument, and a very common one, is to turn the doctrine itself into ridicule. Has the teacher nothing more to say than what has been heard so often? nothing but little rules, petty precepts, minute directions for conduct, a touch here, a touch there, tiresome trivialities? Has he no new grand scheme to propound, no flesh way of salvation, no interesting "Church of the Future?" Surely it is idle to repeat, over and over again, the same stale maxims, the same well-worn rules! Who will listen to a harper who harps always on one string? Something new, something lively, something out of the common, is wanted, if the preacher is to secure attention; still more, if he is to affect conduct. Unfortunately, what is new is seldom true; and though, no doubt, novelty in treatment is to a certain extent desirable, since the "instructed scribe" should know how "to bring out of his treasure things old and new", (Mat_13:52) yet it is the old truths which alone have power, which alone can save; and these need to be perpetually impressed on men, "in season and out of season," dinned into their ears, forced on their attention, cut into their hearts by stroke after stroke, even at the risk of its wearying them.
Vers. 9-13. Indocility.
When God speaks man may well listen, whatsoever strains the Divine Teacher may employ. But man is often found to be, not only an inapt, but even an unwilling, scholar. Such were they who are here terribly rebuked.
I THE DESIGN OF GOD"S TEACHING. God had been saying, "This is the rest," etc. (ver. 12). The end of all God"s instruction is to give rest to his human scholars. Peace was the promise of the old covenant. (Num_6:26 Num_25:12) Rest was the offer of the great Teacher. (Mat_11:28, Mat_11:29) Rest of heart in the favor and love of God was the high and elevated hope held out for all who would learn and be obedient; and this is still the desire and the design of God in all his teaching and in all his correction.
II MAN"S OBJECTION TO GOD"S METHOD. "To whom," they complain, "shall he teach knowledge... to them that are weaned... must it be precept upon precept?" etc. (vers. 9, 10). Are we such little children that we are to be treated thus by Jehovah? Men have always been found who object to God"s ways of guiding them. It is too plain and palpable, or it is too mysterious; it demands no effort of the intellect, or it taxes the thought too severely; it is too commonplace, or it is too startling, or it is too hard; were he to adopt some other method, to come to them in some other way, they would listen and obey; but as he speaks they will not hear. Especially are men slow to learn the simple and repeated lessons by which God teaches them in his providence the lessons which come with every morning light and with every evening shade, with the continued lovingkindnesses of the passing hour, with the changes of the seasons, with the passage of neighbors and friends to another world; these reiterated teachings are disregarded, and the one great lesson of reverence and of devotedness is unlearned.
III GOD"S INDIGNATION AT HUMAN CONTUMACY. The strain of the prophet is one outpouring of intense indignation and keen rebuke; the anger of Jehovah is kindled against them. We may understand that persistent indocility is a very serious sin in the estimate of God. Not to hearken when he speaks to us, whether he speaks in providence, in his Word, or in Christian ordinances, is to place ourselves beneath his very high displeasure.
IV DIVINE RETRIBUTION. The penalty of their perverse indocility shall be that they will have to learn by far less agreeable methods than the one which they despised; the repeated elementary instruction of the Hebrew prophet should give place to the barbarous sounds of a foreign tongue. Guilty folly often finds that punishment awaits it which corresponds only too painfully with the sin. The Jews demand a king because they prefer the visible to the invisible, the physical to the spiritual; and they gain one who is chosen on this cherished principle of theirs, and his bodily stature and visible form prove to be a sorry substitute for the wisdom of the invisible Sovereign: the penalty is paid in the same coin as the transgression. David"s unholy interference with domestic right is punished by saddest add most serious disappointments in his own family. Retribution, not general only, but that which is particularly appropriate to our sin, awaits us a little further on. Disobedience and emphatically indocility leads to misery and shame. Hearken intelligently, however and whenever God may speak, and hasten cheerfully to obey. 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 vv9, 10, 11, 12, 14 Whom shall He teach knowledge?
Isa_28:9-13
Whom shall He teach knowledge?
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The scoffing drunkards
They scoff at the prophet, that intolerable moralist. They are full-grown and free; he need not teach them knowledge Isa_11:9), and explain his preaching to them; they know of old what he is driving at. Are they mere weaned babes, who need to be tutored? (F. Delitzsch.)
The occasion
The occasion of this remarkable encounter was probably a feast held to celebrate the renunciation of allegiance to Assyria. Isaiah has surprised the drunkards over their cups, and administered some such rebuke as we read in verses 7, 8. (J. Skinner, D. D.)
The angry false priests and prophets
What really angered these burly scorners was that the prophet treated them as though they were children only lust weaned, and not as masters in Israel, giving them the most elementary instruction in the simplest words--words of one syllable, as they put it. They were weary of hearing him repeat the first rudiments of morality, and apply them to the sins and needs of the time. How dared he tutor them who were themselves teachers! How dared he treat them as babes who were grown men, distinguished men, the foremost men and statesmen of the empire! A pretty figure he made too! No one listened to him, or hardly anyone. It was their advice which was taken, not his; their policy which was followed, not his. And yet he dared come to them, day after day, with the same simple message, the same trite moralities, the same dismal warnings and rebukes! (S. Cox, D. D.)
Isaiahs righteous indignation
In effect he said to them You mock at the simple Divine words I have been moved to speak, and lisp out your base and drunken imitations of them,--you, who should be the first to welcome and enforce the word of God. Know, then, that God will punish your sin by a people of lisping lips and an alien tongue. He has taught you, by the words you deride, where you might find rest and freedom, how you might give peace to the people who are weary of war and its calamities; but you would not hearken and do. The word of the Lord has become to you a mere bid and bid, forbid and forbid, at which you jest. Know, then, that that word, which might have been a light to your path, shall blaze up into a consuming fire. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Retribution
The prediction was fulfilled. The fierce Assyrians, when they heard that the Hebrews had allied themselves with Egypt, once more swept through the land. The very men who had lisped their scornful imitations of Isaiahs words, who had affected to think that he used the broken and imperfect dialect which mothers employ to their babes, were destroyed or taken captive by the Assyrian troops, whose language, while it closely resembled that of the Hebrews, had just those differences which made it sound to them like an imperfect and barbarous dialect. So terrible and so exact was the retribution that fell on their sin. (S. Cox, D. D.)
With another tongue
They shall have change of ministry; the Assyrians do not talk piously, whiningly; they do not give precept upon precept; theirs is a terse eloquence, a bullock-like rhetoric; when they come they will make these drunkards sober by the power of terror. This is Gods way in all providence; if we will not hear the gentle voice, the interpreting, persuasive, gospel voice, we shall have to listen to thunder, and feed our souls upon lightning. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee,. . .your house is left unto you desolate. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Divine wisdom
That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good. A lamentable instance of this truth is exemplified in the preceding part of the chapter.
I. THE CHARACTER OF THE TEACHER. God, whose wisdom is infinite, is our only teacher; for whatever others we may possess, either in the works of nature, of providence, or of grace, originate entirely from His bounty.
II. THE SUBJECT OF INSTRUCTION. Two things are to be learned, namely, knowledge and doctrine; the one that we may know ourselves, the other that we may know God.
III. THE PERSONS TO BE TAUGHT. Them that are weaned, etc. We must be like little children in humility of mind and teachableness of disposition. (J. Wright, B. A.)
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 vv9, 12 (Sunday School Anniversary Sermon.)
EARLY RELIGIOUS TRAINING
(Sunday School Anniversary Sermon.)
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Isa_28:9-10. Whom shall He teach knowledge? &c.
Whether we regard these verses as the language of the drunkards of Ephraim, deriding the Lord’s messengers for the plainness and urgency of their unwelcome instructions, or as the language of the prophet himself affirming interrogatively the spiritual ignorance and imbecility of the people, with their prophets and priests, they suggest the importance of earnestly instructing the young in the knowledge of our relations to God and eternity. We may turn to them more hopefully than to the old. Youth is the time for learning. In the first ten years of life are laid the foundations of the social and religious character which every man carries to the grave. Therefore we should not leave them to be laid haphazard, but should do our utmost to bring it to pass that they shall be such that on them can be built the structure of a holy life. To accomplish this we must instruct them in the revealed will of God.
1. The youth learns nothing good until he is taught. Though wise to do evil, to do good he has no knowledge.
2. The young mind is susceptible of deep and enduring impressions (H. E. I., 775, 776, 786).
3. Scriptural knowledge is not only of surpassing value, but is more easily imparted to the young than most of that human knowledge for which the opening powers are often severely taxed. If difficulties arise from immaturity and levity of mind, they are more than balanced by freedom from the prejudices of age, and the perplexing cares of life; by their docility and instinctive desire to penetrate the unknown; by the eagerness with which they seize upon the explanations of facts in nature and providence, or on similitudes and allegories; and by their unsuspecting confidence in the ability of their appointed teachers. Their natural aversion to God is but partially developed, and waits the coming of riper years to mature its strong resistance to the Divine claims.
4. The weightiest obligations rest on parents to give their children religious instruction (H. E. I., 803–806). When parents are unable to do so personally, through defect of ability, or the urgency of paramount duties, it is their privilege to do so through the kind offices of others.
5. A failure in the discharge of parental obligations to children imposes on others who fear God the duty of teaching them knowledge. They are immortal; for them Christ died. Of the fulness and glory of the results of a faithful performance of this duty no adequate conception can be formed by us on this side of heaven.—R. S. Storrs, D.D.: American National Preacher, xix. 121–141.
THE POWER OF LITTLES
Isa_28:10. Here a little and there a little.
The application of this text is first of all to the impressions produced by the Word of God and the efficacy of constant religious instruction. But it is in this same way, by little and little, that all great and lasting impressions are made and the mightiest results accomplished.
I. The processes of nature.—Mighty and sudden changes are not the rule, but gradual and prepared ones. The seasons, the months, day into night, night into day—how gradual and imperceptible the transitions. The germination of seed, &c.
II. The formation of character.—Little by little every man’s character is formed (H. E. I., 709–711, 1836–1851) or spoiled (H. E. I., 4521–4523, 4720–4725). All the steps, successively, that lead either to heaven or hell are small, one by one, except in great crimes, and even then there has been a gradual preparation for them (H. E. I., 428, 429). So conversion, that great change of the soul, is prepared for imperceptibly (H. E. I., 1462). From minute and commonplace thoughts, words, actions, results character for eternity!
III. Christian service.—Called not to acts of heroism, but to a faithful discharge of commonplace duties (H. E. I., 4149).
IV. Christian work.—It is by little and little that, in such a world as this, we must do the greater part of the good that we ever accomplish (H. E. I., 1725).
V. The training of children.—Heavenly habits are to be formed in them by the influence upon them of daily, familiar, minute, but ever-recurring examples set before them (H. E. I., 777–779, 790, 802).
VI. Preparation for heaven.—Try to gain a little for God, a little for heaven, a little more of grace every day. Do this in little things and you will accomplish great things. Here a little and there a little will carry you on from step to step, from grace to glory (H. E. I., 2512, 2537).—G. B. Cheever, D.D.: American National Preacher, xxvi. 145–152.
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.
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 vv9, 11, 13, 14 To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom…
To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message?
The drunk prophets and priests use a question to criticize Isaiah, who is trying to correct them. AT: "The drunk prophets and priests say, 'Isaiah should not be trying to teach us about Yahweh's message!'" (See: Rhetorical Question)
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To those who are weaned from milk or to those just taken from the breasts?
The drunk prophets and priests use a question to criticize Isaiah, because they feel that he is treating them like babies. AT: "He should not treat us like babies!" (See: Rhetorical Question and Active or Passive)
For it is command upon command, command upon command; rule upon rule, rule upon rule; here a little, there a little
The drunk prophets and priests criticize Isaiah because they feel that Isaiah is repeating simple commands as if he were talking to a child.
translationWords
know
command
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 vv9, 11, 12, 13, 14 28:9-10 The people had become hardened to God’s revelation…
28:9-10 The people had become hardened to God’s revelation (1 Cor 14:21).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.