“Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.”
The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.
For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still. Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear Yahweh’s law; who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits. Get out of the way. Turn away from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” Therefore the Holy One of Israel says, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused, but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses;” therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift;” therefore those who pursue you will be swift. One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 Who contrary to their promise take not me for…
Who contrary to their promise take not me for their protector, and contrary to my commandment seek help at strangers.
They seek shifts to cloak their doings, and not godly means.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–17 Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the…
Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
Ver. 1. Woe to the rebellious children.] Vae filiis desertoribus, vel apostatis, so he boldly calleth the politicians of his time, the counsellors of state, Shebna and others, who gave good Hezekiah ill counsel to send to Egypt for help {a} when Sennacherib invaded him. Well might St Paul say, "Esaias is very bold." {Rom 10:20} Consurgens enim, proceres inquit, quid hoc rei est quod occeptatis? male omnina factum! vae vobls, vae reipublicae toti! Such another bold court preacher was Elias, Amos, John Baptist, Chrysostom, Latimer, Dearing, &c. See Latimer’s letter to King Henry VIII after the proclamation for abolishing English books, Acts and Mon., fol. 1591, where we may see and marvel at his great boldness and stoutness, saith Mr Foxe, who, as yet being no bishop, so freely and plainly, without all fear of death, adventuring his own life to discharge his conscience so boldly, to so mighty a prince, in such a dangerous case, against the king’s law and proclamation, set out in such a terrible time, dared take upon him to write and to admonish that which no counsellor dared once speak unto him in defenee of Christ’s gospel, &c.
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That take council, but not of me.] Though I am "the wonderful Counsellor," {Isa 9:6} and though they profess to be my children, but unruly, rebellious ones. I must needs say, they are such as, like petty gods within themselves, run on of their own heads, and "lean to their own understanding," {Pro 3:5} as if I were nothing to them, or as if Consilii satis est in me mihi were their motto. See the like folly, Jos 9:14.
That cover with a covering.] {b} But it will not reach. {Isa 28:20} God will make the strongest sinew in the arm of flesh to crack, and the fairest blossoms of human policies to wither.
That they may add sin to sin,] i.e., Thereby adding sin to sin. {Deu 29:19 Job 34:37} {See Trapp on "Deu 29:19"} {See Trapp on "Job 34:37"}
{a} Est species quaedam αποστασιας aliunde quam a Deo auxilium petere.
{b} Et ordiremini telam.
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 vv1–17 The rebellious children; the Jews, who call themselves God’s…
The rebellious children; the Jews, who call themselves God’s children, though they are rebellious ones, as was said, Isa 1:2.
That take counsel; that consult together, and resolve to do what follows, Isa 30:2.
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Not of me; not following nor asking my advice, which they had command and encouragement from me to do.
That cover with a covering; that seek protection.
Not of my Spirit; not such as by my Spirit, speaking in my word, I have directed and required them to do; but such as I have severely forbidden to them; for the contrary affirmative is frequently implied in the negative; of which I have formerly given many instances.
That they may add sin to sin; that unto those sins, by which they have deserved and procured my judgments upon them, they may add distrust of my power and mercy to save them, and confidence in an arm of flesh, which also is rebellion against my express command to the contrary.
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 vv1, 8 It was often the fault and folly of the…
It was often the fault and folly of the people of the Jews that, when they were insulted by their neighbours on one side, they sought for succour from their neighbours on the other side, instead of looking up to God and putting their confidence in him. Against the Israelites they sought to the Syrians, Ch2 16:2, Ch2 16:3. Against the Syrians they sought to the Assyrians, Kg2 16:7. Against the Assyrians they here sought to the Egyptians, and Rabshakeh upbraided them with so doing, Kg2 18:21. Now observe here,
I. How this sin of theirs is described, and what there was in it that was provoking to God. When they saw themselves in danger and distress, 1. They would not consult God. They would do things of their own heads, and not advise with God, though they had a ready and certain way of doing it by Urim or prophets. They were so confident of the prudence of their own measures that they thought it needless to consult the oracle; nay, they were not willing to put it to that issue: "They take counsel among themselves, and one from another; but they do not ask counsel, much less will they take counsel, of me. They cover with a covering" (they think to secure themselves with one shelter or other, which may serve to cover them from the violence of the storm), "but not of my Spirit" (not such as God by his Spirit, in the mouth of his prophets, directed them to), "and therefore it will prove too short a covering, and a refuge of lies." 2. They could not confide in God. They did not think it enough to have God on their side, nor were they at all solicitous to make him their friend, but they strengthened themselves in the strength of Pharaoh; they thought him a powerful ally, and doubted not but to be able to cope with the Assyrian while they had him for them. The shadow of Egypt (and it was but a shadow) was the covering in which they wrapped themselves.
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II. What was the evil of this sin. 1. It bespoke them rebellious children; and a woe is here denounced against them under that character, Isa 30:1. They were, in profession, God's children; but, not trusting in him, they were justly stigmatized as rebellious; for, if we distrust God's providence, we do in effect withdraw ourselves from our allegiance. 2. They added sin to sin. It was sin that brought them into distress; and then, instead of repenting, they trespassed yet more against the Lord, Ch2 28:22. And those that had abused God's mercies to them, making them the fuel of their lusts, abused their afflictions too, making them an excuse for their distrust of God; and so they make bad worse, and add sin to sin; and those that do so, as they make their own chain heavy, so it is just with God to make their plagues wonderful. Now that which aggravated their sin was, (1.) That they took so much pains to secure the Egyptians for their allies: They walk to go down to Egypt, travel up and down to find an advantageous road thither; but they have not asked at my mouth, never considered whether God would allow and approve of it or no. (2.) That they were at such a vast expense to do it, Isa 30:6. They load the beasts of the south (horses fetched from Egypt, which lay south from Judea) with their riches, fancying, as it is common with people in a fright, that they were safer any where than where they were. Or they sent their riches thither as bribes to Pharaoh's courtiers, to engage them in their interests, or as pay for their army. God would have helped them gratis; but, if they will have help from the Egyptians, they must pay dearly for it, and they seem willing to do so. The riches that are so spent will turn to a bad account. They carried their effects to Egypt through a land (so it may be read) of trouble and anguish, that vast howling wilderness which lay between Canaan and Egypt, whence come the lion and fiery serpent, Deu 8:15. They would venture through that dangerous wilderness, to bring what they had to Egypt. Or it may be meant of Egypt itself, which had been to Israel a house of bondage and therefore a land of trouble and anguish, and which abounded in ravenous and venomous creatures. See what dangers men run into that forsake God, and what dangers they will run into in pursuance of their carnal confidences and their expectations from the creature.
III. What would be the consequence of it. 1. The Egyptians would receive their ambassadors, would address them very respectfully, and be willing to treat with them (Isa 30:4): His princes were at Zoan, at Pharaoh's court there, and had their audience of the king, who encouraged them to depend upon his friendship and the succours he would send them. But, 2. They would not answer their expectation: They could not profit them, Isa 30:5. For God says, They shall not profit them (Isa 30:6), and every creature is that to us (and no more) which he makes it to be. The forces they were to furnish them with could not be raised in time; or, when they were raised, they were not fit for service, and they would not venture any of their veteran troops in the expedition; or the march was so long that they could not come up when they had occasion for them; or the Egyptians would not be cordial to Israel, but would secretly incline to the Assyrians, upon some account or other: The Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose, Isa 30:7. They shall hinder and hurt, instead of helping. And therefore, 3. These people, that were now so fond of the Egyptians, would at length be ashamed of them, and of all their expectations from them and confidence in them (Isa 30:3): "The strength of Pharaoh, which was your pride, shall be your shame; all your neighbours will upbraid you, and you will upbraid yourselves, with your folly in trusting to it. And the shadow of Egypt, that land shadowing with wings (Isa 18:1), which was your confidence, shall be your confusion; it will not only disappoint you, and be the matter of your shame, but it will weaken all your other supports, and be an occasion of mischief to you." God afterwards threatens the ruin of Egypt for this very thing, because they had dealt treacherously with Israel and been a staff of a reed to them, Eze 29:6, Eze 29:7. The princes and ambassadors of Israel, who were so forward to court an alliance with them, when they come among them shall see so much of their weakness, or rather of their baseness, that they shall all be ashamed of a people that could not be a help or profit to them, but a shame and reproach, Isa 30:5. Those that trust in God, in his power, providence, and promise, are never made ashamed of their hope; but those that put confidence in any creature will sooner or later find it a reproach to them. God is true, and may be trusted, but every man a liar, and must be suspected. The Creator is a rock of ages, the creature a broken reed. We cannot expect too little from man nor too much from God.
IV. The use and application of all this (Isa 30:7): "Therefore have I cried concerning this matter, this project of theirs. I have published it, that all might take notice of it. I have pressed it as one in earnest. Their strength is to sit still, in a humble dependence upon God and his goodness and a quiet submission to his will, and not to wander about and put themselves to great trouble to seek help from this and the other creature." If we sit still in a day of distress, hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord, and using only lawful regular methods for our own preservation, this will be the strength of our souls both for services and sufferings, and it will engage divine strength for us. We weaken ourselves, and provoke God to withdraw from us, when we make flesh our arm, for then our hearts depart from the Lord. When we have tired ourselves by seeking for help from creatures we shall find it the best way of recruiting ourselves to repose in the Creator. Here I am, let him do with me as he pleases.
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 vv1–17 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord,.... The…
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord,.... The Jews, who were, by national adoption, and by outward profession of religion, the "children" of God, but were apostates from him, had turned their backs upon him, deviated from his law, and departed from his worship and ordinances; and therefore a woe is pronounced against them, or they are called upon to consider of their evil ways, and return, that iniquity might not be their ruin:
that take counsel, but not of me; they met and consulted together about their safety, when in danger, but did not ask counsel of the Lord; they did not consult his word, nor his prophets, nor by Urim and Thummim, as in case of war they should more especially:
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and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit; they sought for a cover, a shelter, a protection from the enemy, but not from the Spirit of the Lord, in his word and prophets, who would have directed them to a more suitable and sufficient one. Kimchi understands this of their covert and secret counsels, which they laid deep, as they fancied, and sought to hide. The Targum of the former clause and this is,
"that take counsel, but not of my word; that consult a consultation, but do not ask of my prophets:''
that they may add sin to sin; the sins of consulting others, and of putting confidence in a creature, to their other sins of rebellion and apostasy: so wicked men, who are enemies in their minds, by wicked works, to God, and commit acts of hostility against him, and are in danger thereby of eternal ruin, do not consult the word and ministers of the Gospel, but flesh and blood, carnal sense and reason, and seek to cover themselves with the rags of their own righteousness, and not with the robe of Christ's righteousness, and garments of salvation, which the Spirit of God reveals and brings near; and so to their other sins they add that of trusting to their own righteousness, and not submitting to Christ's.
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 vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 The prophet threatens the people for their confidence in…
The prophet threatens the people for their confidence in Egypt, ver. 1-7. And contempt of God's word, ver. 8-11. Wherefore they shall be destroyed, ver. 12-17. God's mercies towards the church, ver. 18-26. God's wrath and the peoples joy in the destruction of Assyria, ver. 27-33.
The rebellious - The Jews. Take counsel - That consult together. Cover - That seek protection. But not - Not such as by my spirit, speaking in my word, I have required them to do. That they may add - That unto all their sins, they may add distrust of my power and mercy, and put confidence in an arm of flesh.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17 The Jews reproved for their reliance on Egypt, 1-7.
CHAPTER XXX
The Jews reproved for their reliance on Egypt, 1-7.
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Threatened for their obstinate adherence to this alliance,
8-17.
Images the most elegant and lofty, by which the intense
gloriousness of Messiah's reign at the period when all Israel
shall be added to the Church is beautifully set forth, 18-26.
Dreadful fall of Sennacherib's army, an event most manifestly
typical of the terrible and sudden overthrow of Antichrist; as,
unless this typical reference be admitted, no possible
connexion can be imagined between the stupendous events which
took place in Hezekiah's reign, and the very remote and
inconceivably more glorious displays of Divine vengeance and
mercy in the days of the Messiah, 27-33.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXX
Verse 1. And that cover with a covering - "Who ratify covenants"] Heb. "Who pour out a libation." Sacrifice and libation were ceremonies constantly used, in ancient times by most nations in the ratifying of covenants: a libation therefore is used for a covenant, as in Greek the word σπονδη, for the same reason, stands for both. This seems to be the most easy explication of the Hebrew phrase, and it has the authority of the Septuagint, εποιησατε συνθηκας.
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 vv1, 6, 8, 12, 15 Isa 30:1-5. Wo to the rebellious children — The…
Isa 30:1-5. Wo to the rebellious children — The Jews, who called themselves God’s children, though they were rebellious ones, as was said Isa 1:2. That take counsel — That consult together, and resolve what to do; but not of me — Not following nor asking my advice, which I encouraged and commanded them to do. And cover with a covering — Seek protection; but not of my Spirit — Not such as by my Spirit, speaking in my word, I have directed and required them to seek; that they may add sin to sin — That unto all their other sins, by which they have deserved and provoked my judgments, they may add distrust of my power and mercy, and put confidence in an arm of flesh. That walk to go down into Egypt — That send ambassadors to Egypt for succour, which the Jews were prone to do upon all occasions, and did now upon the invasion of the king of Assyria, chap. 20:5, 6; and have not asked at my mouth — Either by the priests or prophets, as they were commanded to do in weighty cases. The strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame — Not only unprofitable, but mischievous to you. For his princes — The princes of Judah; were at Zoan — Sent thither by the king, or by their brethren. His ambassadors came to Hanes — An eminent city of Egypt, called more largely Tahapanes. They were all ashamed — Both the messengers and they who sent them; of a people that could not profit them — For, though the Egyptians, in conjunction with the Ethiopians, did so far assist the Jews as to give a diversion to Sennacherib’s forces; yet, being entirely routed, they became rather a burden than a help to the Jews, and are therefore (Isa 36:6) compared to a broken reed, which not only fails the hand that leans upon it, but pierces and wounds it.
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 vv1–17 Wo, - (see the note at Isa 18:1).
Wo, - (see the note at Isa 18:1).
To the rebellious children - To those whom he had nourished as children, and who had rebelled against him (see the note at Isa 1:23).
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That take counsel, but not of me - They look to Egypt, and depend on a human arm.
And that cover with a covering - The idea here, according to our translation, is, that they seek protection or a covering from the impending calamity. Lowth renders this, ‘Who ratify covenants;’ supposing that the reference is to the fact that in ancient times compacts were formed by offering sacrifices, and by pouring out libations. The Hebrew, according to Lowth, means, ‘who pour out a libation.’ So the Septuagint renders it, Συνθήκας sunthēkas - ‘And thou hast made covenants.’ The Syriac renders it, ‘Who pour out libations.’ The Hebrew word נסך nâsak properly conveys the idea of pouring out, and is applied:
(1) to the act of pouring out wine as a drink offering, or as a libation to God Gen 35:14; Exo 30:9; 1Ch 11:18; Hos 9:4;
(2) to the act of pouring out oil, that is, to anointing kings and rulers Psa 2:6; Dan 11:8;
(3) to the act of pouring out melted metals, that is, to cast them Isa 40:19; Isa 44:10.
The word also may have a meaning kindred to סכך sâkak and denote “to cover,” as in Isa 25:7. Various derivatives from the word are rendered ‘to cover withal’ Num 4:7; ‘the covering’ Isa 28:20; ‘the web,’ that is, that which is woven for a covering Jdg 16:13-14. The idea, however, which best suits the connection here is probably that suggested by Lowth, in accordance with the Septuagint, and the Syriac, and adopted by Rosenmuller, Gesenius, and others, “to make a libation;” that is, to ratify a covenant, or compact.
But not of my Spirit - It was not such as was suggested by his Spirit, and not such as he would approve.
That they may add sin to sin - They add to the sin of rebellion against God that of forming an alliance. Sins do not usually stand alone. When one is committed, it is often necessary to commit others in order to carry out and complete the plan which that contemplated.
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 vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 Of me. Ezechias was guided by human prudence, in…
Of me. Ezechias was guided by human prudence, in making an alliance with Egypt, though he might have just reasons for refusing to pay tribute to the Assyrians, 4 Kings xviii. 20. (Calmet) --- And. Septuagint, "alliances not by," &c. (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 vv1, 6, 15 Isaiah 30
III.—THE THIRD WOE
Isaiah 30
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1. THE SIN OF THOSE WHO SEEK HELP FROM EGYPT, NOT FROM JEHOVAH
Isa_30:1-5
1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord,
That take counsel, but not of me;
And that 1cover with a covering, but not of my spirit,
That they may add sin to sin:
2 That walk to go down into Egypt,
And have not asked at my mouth;
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame,
And the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 For his princes 2were at Zoan,
And his ambassadors 3came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them,
Nor be an help nor profit,
But a shame, and also a reproach.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_30:1. If we take סוררים in a causative sense = making apostasy, which view is justified by the form of the word, (which is after the Pilel conjugation), and by its use elsewhere, (Lam_3:11), we can then join with it לעשׂות וגו׳ as the infinitive of nearer specification. This infinitive then expresses wherein and how far they are בנים סוררים (Isa_1:23; Isa_65:2).
Isa_30:2. The Kal. עוּז from which many derive עוֹז, does not occur. We find only Hiphil הֵעִיז, Isa_10:31; Exo_9:19; Jer_4:6; Jer_6:1. The context too appears to me not to require by any means the signification “confugere and refugium,” as this meaning is contained in the following clause, and a repetition of the same thought cannot be expected. I prefer, therefore, to take עוֹז in the signification “to be strong” and מעוז, as it is. often used = munimentum, defence, protection (Isa_17:10; Isa_25:4; Isa_27:5, et saepe). חָסָה is confugere; it is found united with עַל Jdg_9:15; Psa_36:8; Psa_57:2.
Isa_30:3. מַֽחֲסֶה = ) חָסוּת Isa_4:6; Isa_25:1; Isa_28:15; Isa_28:17), is ἅπ. λεγ.
Isa_30:5. הֹבִאישׁ is a mongrel form arising from הִבְאִישׁ הֹבִישׁ, the former of which itself proceeding from a confusion of the two roots יָבַשׁ and בּוֹשׁ, signifies pudorem produxit, to produce shame, to be ashamed, to come to disgrace, while הִבְאִישׁ denotes foetorem protulit, both together therefore signify “to produce stinking disgrace, or disgraceful stench, to make a stinking, disgraceful figure, therefore, ignominiously to come to shame.” All (Ewald, § 286, e) are disgraced on account of a people that does not profit them (the senders of the embassy), is not for help, nor for profit. This ולֹא להועיל strikes us as tautological. It is probably occasioned by the effort clearly apparent in this sentence to multiply the “L” and “O” sounds, and especially the combination of the two.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The subject treated by the Prophet in these chapters is unfolded more and more fully, so as to be perfectly clear. What he had hitherto only hinted at, he now declares in plain terms: the alliance with Egypt is the sin against which he contends with all the force of his spirit. This alliance is no longer a subject of deliberation. It has already taken shape. An embassy to conclude this league is already on the way. The Prophet therefore utters another (the third) woe against the apostate people, because they form such purposes without the Lord, only to heap sin upon sin (Isa_30:1). They have gone down to Egypt without consulting the Lord, in order to find there increase of power, and protection (Isa_30:2). But power and protection shall be changed into disgrace (Isa_30:3). It was possible to try to invalidate this threatening of the Prophet by a denial of the facts. But he leaves no room for such contradiction. For, says he, the Jewish princes are already in Zoan, and will come to Hanes (Isa_30:4). Therefore, he repeats with emphasis his threatening: Israel will be ashamed of the Egyptian nation which can bring to the people of God no advantage, but only disgrace.
2. Woe to——a reproach.
Isa_30:1-5. הוי comp. on Isa_29:1. עשׂות עצה is = to execute a counsel (2Sa_17:23). ולא מני as Hos_8:4. We had מַסֵּכָה25:7; Isa_28:20 (comp. מַסֶּכֶתJdg_16:13-14) in the signification “woven or plaited covering;” but in this chapter, Isa_30:22, (comp. Isa_42:17) the word has the signification “what is molten, cast.” That נסך מסכה signifies here (Isa_30:1) to form an alliance, is placed out of doubt by the context. But it is questionable whether tire expression originally denotes “to weave a web,” or “σπονδὴν σπἐνδεσθαι.” The latter is to me the more probable, not although, but because מסכה from נָסַךְ to pour, to cast, denotes a molten image. For it seems to me that the Prophet intends a double sense by the expression: libationem effundere and idolum fusile fundere. He hints therewith at the idolatrous character of such a league, which is a transgression of the first [second] commandment. This agrees very well with ולא רוחי, an expression which, both in sense and construction, is connected with ולא מני as we are to regard רוחי as dependent on the preposition מן. The clause that they may add sin to sin does not express the conscious, subjective design, but only affirms that the objective fact is of such a character as to warrant the conclusion as to the conscious design (comp. Amo_2:7; Jer_44:8 et saepe). ספות comp. on Isa_29:1. ההלכים Isa_30:2 (apposition to בנים סוררים Isa_30:1) marks the going away, the terminus a quo,לרדתthe terminus ad quern. In ההלכים we must not press the notion of time, but only the notion of the word, i. e., the Prophet does not set forth that they are now going away (praesens), but states the simple fact of their going away. If we so understand the word, every appearance of a contradiction with Isa_30:4 disappears. שׁאל פי י׳׳ besides only Jos_9:14 comp. Gen_24:57. Isa_30:4 contains a proof which is introduced by כִּי. It appears to me that the Prophet supposes the attempt on the part of his hearers still to deny this league with Egypt which had been laid to their charge. He therefore says: Everything stated in verses 1–3 is true, for the ambassadors have been already in Zoan, and are now on the way to Hanes. היו is therefore the proper perfect; the imperfect יגיעו (comp. Gen_28:12) stands for the designation of a fact yet incomplete, still in progress, i.e., the ambassadors are only about to reach Hanes. The accusative is accus, loci. How Isaiah could so speak is easily seen, if we do not forget that he was the Prophet of Jehovah, and that the Spirit of the Lord, whom the others excluded in their consultations (ver.1), assisted the Prophet. Men told him nothing at all of the embassy; assuredly the ambassadors themselves sent him no message, nor was a message sent by them communicated to him. But yet he knows that the ambassadors have actually arrived in Egypt. His mentioning the cities Zoan and Hanes is not to be pressed, i.e., he does not mean to mark precisely the exact points between which the ambassadors now are. He has other reasons for naming these cities. I do not comprehend how Delitzsch can say, “the Tanitic dynasty then bore rule, which preceded the Ethiopian: Tanis and Anysis were the two royal seats.” For after the middle of the 8th century B. C., the Ethiopian (the 25th) dynasty already bore rule (Duncker,Geschichte des Alterth. I p. 598). Hezekiah cannot therefore have formed an alliance with the predecessor of the Ethiopian dynasty. Delitzsch seems here to rely too much on Herodotus, II., 137 init., where a king Anysis of Anysis, i.e., Hanes, is named as predecessor of the Ethiopian Sabakos. Moreover, Ewald’s assumption resting on Herodotus, II. 141, that the Egyptian king, with whom Sennacherib had to do, was the Ethiopian Sethon, priest of Hephaestos, who was at the same time ruler of lower and middle Egypt with Tanis for his royal seat, is refuted by Assyrian monuments. For, although the first inscriptions that mention the name Tirhaka (Assyrian Tar-ku-u), belong to the time after Sennacherib, yet the monuments of Sennacherib expressly name his Egyptian opponent “king of Meroe” (Schrader,die Keilinsehriften und das A. T., p. 203), which could not possibly be said of a Tanitic king. When Isaiah here mentions Zoan (situated in the Delta of the Nile, southwest of Pelusium), he is probably led to do so, because this city, since the end of the second millennium before Christ, had been the capital of the kingdom. For till the expulsion of Hyksos, Memphis, then Thebes, had been the capital; then, from the epoch mentioned, Zoan, (comp. Dunker,Geschichte des Alterth, I. p. 598). Isaiah had already (Isa_29:11) mentioned Hanes (Egyptian Hnçs, Ehnes, afterwards Herakleopolis, situated in the neighborhood of lake Moeris), because it had been last after Tanis the royal seat of a native dynasty (comp. Herodotus, II, 137). If then Zoan and Hanes are the cities which had last been royal seats, and if they were known as such to the Prophet, there is really no reason with Hitzig, Knobel and others to adopt the reading חִנָּם יִיגָֽעוּ, which lies at the basis of the Alexandrine version, but has in it only a very uncertain support. It is likewise unnecessary, and does not correspond to the context to refer the suffix in מַלְאָכָיו to the Egyptian king as having vainly summoned the warrior caste by his messengers (Herodotus, II. 141). It is most natural to refer the suffix in מלאכיו to the same subject to which the suffix in שׂריו belongs. If the Prophet wished the suffix in מלאכיו to have a different reference from that in שׂריו, he must have made this known in a way not to be misunderstood.
Footnotes:
[1]make an alliance.
[2]have been.
[3]come.
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 vv2–17 walk--are now setting out, namely, their ambassadors (Isa 30:4).
walk--are now setting out, namely, their ambassadors (Isa 30:4).
Egypt--See on Isa 19:1; Isa 20:1.
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Pharaoh--the generic name of the kings of Egypt, as Cæsar was at Rome. The word in Egyptian means "king" [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 8.6,2]. Phra, "the sun," was the hieroglyphic symbol and title of the king.
shadow--image from shelter against heat: protection (Psa 121:5-6).
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 vv1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 15 A few months later, when plans of stricter alliance…
THIRD WOE.
A few months later, when plans of stricter alliance with Egypt, conceived by the rulers at Jerusalem with the greatest secrecy, (see Isa_29:15,) were matured, this prophecy was uttered.
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1. Woe to the rebellious children — The woe to these rulers, so disobedient as darkly to cover — that is, to keep secret — intricate plans, and to mature them without consulting Jehovah, is equivalent to saying that such plans are an exasperating folly and failure. No help can come from sending ambassadors to Egypt, from taking refuge in her resources against Assyria. Every successive thought thereof is adding sin to sin.
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 vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 1. Woe to the rebellious children] See on Isa_1:2;…
1. Woe to the rebellious children] See on Isa_1:2; Isa_1:4 and Isa_1:23; cf. Isa_30:9. The “sons” are “rebellious” inasmuch as they have taken this step without consulting Jehovah, their Father.
that take counsel] Rather, that carry out a plan.
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that cover with a covering] R.V. gives in the margin two translations, between which it is difficult to choose: either that weave a web or that pour out a drink-offering. The latter is perhaps preferable, although the noun does not occur elsewhere with the sense of “libation” (see Isa_25:7, Isa_28:20, “covering”). The allusion would be to drink-offerings accompanying the conclusion of a treaty (comp. σπονδή = libation with (σπονδαί = covenant).
not of (with) my spirit] i.e. not in accordance with the spirit of prophecy speaking through Isaiah.
that they may add sin to sin] the sin of concealment to the original sin of dallying with secular alliances.
1–5. The futile alliance with Egypt denounced. Comp. Isa_29:15, Isa_31:1.
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 vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 (1) Woe to the rebellious children . . .—The…
XXX.
(1) Woe to the rebellious children . . .—The interjection perhaps expresses sorrow rather than indignation, Alas, for . . .! as in Isa_1:4. The prophet hears that the intrigues of the palace have at last issued in favour of an alliance with Egypt, and that an embassy has been already sent.
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That cover with a covering.—Better, that weave a web. The word was fitly chosen then, as now, to describe the subtle intricacies of a double-dealing diplomacy. Some, however, render “form a molten image,” not as referring to actual idolatry, but to the trust in human plans which the prophet condemns.
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 vv1–17 Vers. 1-7. THE ALLIANCE WITH EGYPT OPENLY REBUKED. In…
Vers. 1-7. THE ALLIANCE WITH EGYPT OPENLY REBUKED. In the preceding chapter (ver. 15) the design of the Jewish rulers to seek the alliance of Egypt was covertly glanced at and condemned; now it is openly declared and rebuked. The rulers are warned that no good can possibly come of it, even in a worldly sense. The Egyptians will give no aid, or at any rate no effectual aid. The sums expended in purchasing their friendship will be utterly thrown away.
Woe to the rebellious children. The (comp. Isa_1:23 Isa_65:2) word translated "rebellious" is used in Deu_21:18, 20 of the persistently disobedient son, who was to be brought before the elders and stoned to death. That take counsel; rather, that form plans, such as the plan now formed to call in the aid of Egypt. It must be borne in mind that, under the theocracy, there was an authorized mode of consulting God, and receiving an answer from him, in any political emergency. That cover with a covering. The exact metaphor employed is uncertain, Mr. Cheyne renders, "that weave a web;" Dr. Kay, "that pour out a molten image." The meaning, however, in any case is, "that carry out a design," the clause being a mere variant of the preceding one. That they may add sin to sin; i.e. "to add a fresh sin to all their former sins.
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Vers. 1-7. A godless policy issues in disaster, however seemingly wise.
In the sight of man there was no more prudent course for the Jews to take than to ally themselves with Egypt. Egypt was the only power in their neighborhood that could possibly make head against Assyria. Egypt had a standing army, trained warriors, an ancient military system, numerous chariots and horses, ample siege material, and abundant appliances of war. She was at the time closely connected with Ethiopia, and could bring into the field the forces of two great nations. Had she been thoroughly awake to her own interests, she would have strained every nerve to make an effective league of the small nations and tribes lying between her and Assyria Proper, in order to check the advance of that ambitious and dangerous power. Hezekiah and his advisers might naturally see in Egypt, not only their only possible protector, but one to whose protection they might look with confidence and hope. There was one thing only to be set against all this. The Egyptians were a nation of idolaters, and God had expressly warned the Jews, by the mouth of Isaiah, against relying on them. (Isa_20:2-6) Thus reliance on Egypt was a godless policy involved taking up a position of hostility to God; ceasing to ask his counsel (ver. 1), turning a deaf ear to any warnings that might be addressed to them by God"s prophets. (Isa_29:10-14) And God made it of noneeffect. God blinded Tirhakah to his true interests, and made him act in the most foolish way possible first encourage Hezekiah to revolt, and then desert him in the hour of need and peril. Some such result follows always on the adoption of a godless policy. The expectations of those who engage in it are disappointed; there is a failure somewhere: "God arises, and his enemies are scattered;" their clever schemes break down and come to naught.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-7. The embassy to Egypt.
The embassy to Egypt has been sent, and the prophet"s object is to show that the policy of it is false, as all policy must be false which does not rest upon religion.
I The POLICY CHARACTERIZED. It is that of unruly sons," and they "carry out a purpose which is not from Jehovah." So in Hosea we read, "They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not". (Hos_8:4) They "weave a net" or "plait alliances" without his Spirit, and add sin to sin. They go down into Egypt without having inquired of Jehovah"s mouth, and flee to the fortress of Pharaoh, to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt.
1. The Divine leading and inspiration make men humble, while self-will and self-reliance are stubborn, obstinate.
2. Where the first step has been wrong, every subsequent step aggravates the error.
3. The root of a mistaken policy is a false reliance, dependence on an "arm of flesh." There is a true and a false self-reliance: that which forgets God is ignorant and impious that which recognizes him as the Source of all true intelligence is genuine. To the external observer the difference between acting from the self-center and the God-center, between "going in one"s own strength" and going in the strength of the Lord of hosts," may not be perceptible. It must be known in the feeling of the actor, and in the results of his action.
II THE RESULTS OF THE POLICY. The fortress of Pharaoh will become a shame to them, and the refuge in Egypt"s shadow confusion. "Shame and confusion of face;" great Scripture words, most expressive of the results of false principles, false policy, obstinate error.
1. It is the very bitterness of ill success to feel that it is the harvest of our own faults; while misfortune is sweetened at its bitterest by the consciousness of having followed the light to the best of one"s ability. The prophet follows in imagination this mistaken embassy into the heart of Egypt. They will come to Zoan (or Tanis), and to Hanes (or Heracleopolis), but will be abashed to find that in the expected saviors and helpers no salvation is to be found.
2. That bitterness is aggravated by the sense of the great toil and suffering which has only led to failure. How different the journey from Egypt and that to Egypt! Then men were led through "that great and terrible wilderness," full of the fiery serpents and scorpions and lions, the land of drought, and there were fed with manna. (Deu_8:15 Jer_2:6) And now, after encountering all these dangers, they are to find, after all, that there is no help in Egypt, though they have carried thither rich presents on asses and on camels. Emphatic is the prophet, "Yea, the Egyptians; in vain, and empty is their help, therefore I proclaim concerning it, Rahab, they are utter indolence." There is a play on the name here, which cannot well be rendered in English. But Egypt may stand as a type of the "world," the absence of true principle, or the principle of policy as opposed to reliance on God. And then the lesson will be the inherent weakness of all worldly policy, as compared with simple trust in God and obedience to his dictates. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-7. Going down into Egypt.
The prophet of Jehovah utters another "woe," he denounces another sin; for the people of the Lord, in the day of their difficulty, have looked, not to their Divine Redeemer, but to that arm of flesh in which they should not have trusted, and by which they will be abandoned. We see
I THEIR SIN. It is threefold.
1. Desertion of God. They take counsel, but not now of God, as in better; (Jos_7:6 Jud_1:20:27 1Sa_23:2 1Sa_30:8) they made alliance, but not with the Divine consent not "of my Spirit" (ver. 1); they did not ask "at God"s mouth" (ver. 2). Once they would not have dreamed of acting without encouragement from God; now they look elsewhere for sanction. This desertion of him who was their Lord, and who had so often proved himself their Deliverer, had its root in:
2. Distrust of God. They trusted in "the shadow of Egypt" (ver. 2), because they had come to distrust the "shadow of his wings" in whom David found his refuge until his calamity was overpast. (Psa_57:1) It was the loss of their faith in God which made them cast about for another power which should befriend and deliver them. And this deplorable distrust was due to:
3. The spirit of materialism. They preferred the visible nation to the invisible God; the fleshly "power" to the Divine Spirit; the material army of Egypt, whose forces they could count and whose weapons they could handle, to the unseen One whose angels were beyond the range of vision, and whose instruments were unfashioned by human hands. This is the sin of mankind. Desertion of God, departure from his side and from his service; desertion springing from distrust, and this distrust rooted in a wretched and pitiful materialism.
II THEIR PUNISHMENT.
1. Fruitless expenditure. (Vers. 4-6.) They would take the trouble to secure princely ambassadors, and these would travel through inhospitable and perilous regions, laden with costly gifts, paying servile attention to the foreigner and all for nothing; an immensity of trouble and no profit whatever.
2. Bitter disappointment. (Ver. 7.) The land from which they hoped so much would prove utterly useless; their expectations would end in nothing but chagrin; their exasperation could only find expression in an opprobrious epithet, in a bitter epigram directed against Egypt.
3. Mortification. "The strength of Pharaoh shall be their shame," etc. (vers. 3, 5). The result of this attempted alliance would be political reproach; and the court and the nation would be ashamed of having taken a step that turned out so ill. These are the common penalties of sin: the waste of that which is precious time, money, strength, reputation, energy, affection, etc.; disappointment the soul finding out that that in which it trusted cannot do what it hoped, that it leaves it still empty, still athirst, still poor; shame the position in which it is dishonored of men, and has keenly to reproach itself for folly into which it need not have fallen, for sin which it might easily have shunned.
III THEIR ALTERNATIVE. God was with them; one of his truest and most faithful prophets was at hand, accessible at any hour. Why not trust in the Almighty? Why not take counsel of the All-wise? The alternative to sin is always at hand. The gates of obedience are unfastened; the oracles of God are open; the paths of piety are such as every foot may tread. C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. Adding sin to sin.
This prophetic warning seems to have been spoken when the embassy to seek offensive and defensive alliance with Egypt had actually started on its way. The sin of neglecting to seek direction from God in the time of national anxiety was now added to by the sin of openly seeking help from man. There was a constant disposition on the part of the Jews of the later monarchy to seek their safety in national alliances. When imperiled by the Israelites, they sought help from the Syrians. When threatened by the Syrians, they made treaties with the Assyrians. When the Assyrians became their enemies, they tried to strengthen themselves with the support of hesitating, inactive Egypt. First men lose their faith in God; then they neglect to seek or obey him; and then they turn to mere human helpers. So sin follows on sin. Illustrating this from life and experience, with precise applications to each audience, it may be shown that
I SIN IS ADDED TO SIN IN THE NATURAL ORDER OF EVENTS. It is but the simple fact of life that a sin never goes alone. It always has its companions and its followers. It must, if for this one reason only every sin is a disturbance of order by man"s self-will; that self-will is sure to go on sinning in the effort to get the order right. The child who finds order disturbed by some wrong act, goes on to tell lies in its vain effort to get the order straight again.
II SIN IS ADDED TO SIN BY THE INFLUENCE OF HABIT. There is a strange tendency in us all to do a second time what we have done once. This has not been sufficiently noticed, though it is the basis on which criminals are often detected. A sin done once, we are actually disposed to do again; and there seems to be even a bodily bias towards tiffs formation of habits. Parents and teachers have to watch for it, that they may check and correct it.
III SIN IS ADDED TO SIN BY THE ENTICEMENTS OF SATAN. For an act of sin is giving Satan the advantage over us, putting ourselves into his power. And the increase of that power depends on leading us to do evil again. He will not let us stop and think. We must go on, as the gambler does, until we are enslaved and ruined.
IV SIN IS ADDED TO SIN AS A BEGINNING OF PUNISHMENT. A man is usually "heady and high-minded" at the successful result of his first wrong; so, in order that he may be smitten and humbled, God lets him go on from sin to sin, until shame whips him awake, so that he may see his iniquity. The way round to right has often to be by the mire of sin added to sin. There is a gracious sense in which God lets willful men alone awhile, as he left these Jewish leaders who advocated the Egyptian alliance, that they might convince themselves of their own wickedness and folly. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 17 Woe to the rebellious children
Isa_30:1-3
Woe to the rebellious children
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A foolish mission
In chapter 30 the negotiations with Egypt are represented as having reached a further stage: an embassy, despatched for the purpose of concluding a treaty, is already on its way to the court of the Pharaohs.
Isaiah takes the opportunity of reiterating his sense of the fruitlessness of the mission, and derides the folly of those who expect from it any substantial result. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The only Counsellor
These words contain a most important lesson for all such as have anything to do with managing the affairs of nations: and it would be well for the world if its rulers would give heed to that lesson, and keep guard against the sins on account of which the prophet here denounces woe against the rulers of Judah. They entered into an alliance with Pharaoh, with the view of gaining assistance from him which might enable them to cope with Sennacherib in the field. This is just what a statesman, who plumed himself on his wisdom in these days, would do. Yet it is for doing this very thing that the prophet Isaiah in the text denounces woe against them. Their conduct therefore must have been sinful. Let us try to discover in what their sin lay.
1. They were making use of human means to ward off the danger which threatened them. Not that thins in itself is altogether wrong in Gods eyes. On the contrary, we are so placed here on earth, in the midst of so many wants and necessities, and so helpless by ourselves, that we are compelled to be forever making use of human and earthly means. Only, we ought to make use of these means with the conviction that they are merely instruments in the hands of Him who can alone endow them with the power of being of use to us. This is what the rulers of Judah forgot and entirely lost sight of. They trusted in Pharaoh. We are all apt to take counsel of ourselves, of our own understandings, our own wishes, our own convenience, our passions, our interest, our sloth, our purses, our appetites. Or we take counsel of our friends, of our neighbours, of such men as are esteemed to be quick and far-sighted, of every person, and of every thing, except of God. His counsel is the last we seek. Therefore does the prophets woe fall upon us also. And why is it that we are so loth to take counsel of God? Our unwillingness can only proceed from an evil heart of unbelief; from that unbelief which loses sight of the Ruler and Lawgiver of the world, and which is prone to worship whatever dazzles the senses and flatters our carnal nature.
2. But there was another feature in the conduct of the princes of Judah which deepened their sin. They were not merely putting their trust in an arm of flesh,--they who had been so strongly forbidden to trust in such vanities, and who had the living God to trust in such vanities, and who had the living God to trust in: but the arm they were trusting to was the arm of Egypt. Egypt had from the first been the deadly enemy of the Israelites, and of their God. Egypt was the source from which all manner of idolatrous abominations had flowed in upon them: out of Egypt they had been called; and they were no longer to hold any intercourse with it. Therefore the prophet goes on to cry, Woe to those who walk to go down into Egypt, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt: and he declares that, because they do so, the strength of Pharaoh shall be their shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt their confusion. Nor will it be otherwise with us. If we are guilty of their sin we shall not escape their woe. And alas! how often in moments of fear, of distress,--when some danger starts up suddenly in our path, when the enemy seems to be hard at hand, and just ready to overwhelm us,--do we feel tempted to go down into Egypt, in the hope of strengtheningourselves with the strength of Pharaoh, and of sheltering ourselves with the shadow of Egypt! Satan at such moments is always close at our ear, whispering to us, that, if we will but take counsel of him, and do as he bids us, he will help us out of our difficulty. It should be borne in mind that, every time we sin we weaken our souls, we cripple our good feelings, we blunt our conscience, we drive away the Spirit of God from our hearts. Therefore, instead of our being better able to meet the next temptation, the odds against us are increased. (J. C. Hare, M. A.)
The Jews dependence on Egypt
The advantages which the Jews promised themselves from their alliance with Egypt were these--
1. The Egyptians abounded in chariots and horses, which the Jews were destitute of. For Palestine, being a country full of steep hills and narrow difficult ways, was in many places impassable by horses, and therefore their beasts of burden were camels, asses, and mules, which are not apt to start, but tread sure in dangerous ways. These served them very commodiously in times of peace. But when they were invaded by armies of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, who had troops of horse, and multitudes of chariots, they wanted the like forces to oppose them; and such the Egyptians could very well supply them with.
2. Besides, the Assyrians and Chaldeans were at that time the most formidable Powers of the East, ambitious of universal monarchy, and threatening to subdue Egypt as well as other rich kingdoms. On which account the Egyptians were jealous of them, and therefore were most easily prevailed upon, and more cheaply engaged to assist the Jews, or any other people in their wars against them. (W. Reading, M. A.)
Gods prohibition of alliance with Egypt
The reasons why God prohibited His people to confederate with the Egyptians, are these--
1. He had delivered their forefathers out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, stretched out from Heaven, and unassisted by any human means. He had manifested Himself to be far above all their gods, in that He triumphed over them in the ten plagues, and drowned their king and army in the Red Sea. Notwithstanding all which sufficient convictions, the Egyptians still persisted in their gross idolatry; which might justly provoke God to forbid His people any dealing with them.
2. Their applying to Egypt for aid against their enemies, was derogatory to the honour of God, who having anciently demonstrated His ability to save His people, and having promised still to vouchsafe them His protection in proportion to their obedience, these idolaters might be apt to conclude that His former power was now decayed, and that their gods had gained the ascendant over Him, since they were called in to the protection of His people.
3. An Egyptian had proved fatal to Israel in their happiest state; I mean the daughter of an Egyptian king, who was one of the wives of King Solomon, and helped with other strange women to entice him to idolatry. The immediate consequence of which, by the just judgment of God, was the division of the twelve tribes into two kingdoms, who often waged unnatural wars one with another.
4. God had, in general, forbidden His people to make confederacies with any of the nations round about them, lest they should defile themselves with their idolatrous principles and abominable practices; or lest they should put their trust in man and make flesh their arm, and their heart depart from the Lord. (W. Reading, M. A.)
Cover with a covering
Perhaps, weave a web, hatch a scheme. (A. B.Davidson, LL. D.)
R.V. marg gives two translations between which it is difficult to choose. The latter is perhaps preferable, although the noun does not occur elsewhere in the sense of libation. The allusion would be to drink offerings accompanying the conclusion of a treaty. (J. Skinner, D. D.)
Adding sin to sin
The sin of forsaking God, and trusting in the arm of flesh, to their sin of drunkenness (Isa_28:8), and their other sins. (W. Day, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER XIII
POLITICS AND FAITH
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ABOUT 720 B.C.
Isaiah 30
THIS prophecy of Isaiah rises out of circumstances a little more developed than those in which chapter 29 was composed. Sennacherib is still engaged with Babylon, and it seems that it will yet be long before he marches his armies upon Syria. But Isaiahs warning has at last roused the politicians of Judah from their carelessness. We need not suppose that they believed all that Isaiah predicted about the dire siege which Jerusalem should shortly undergo and her sudden deliverance at the hand of the Lord. Without the two strong religious convictions, in the strength of which, as we have seen, he made the prediction, it was impossible to believe that this siege and deliverance must certainly happen. But the politicians were at least startled into doing something. They did not betake themselves to God, to whom it had been the purpose of Isaiahs last oration to shut them up. They only flung themselves with more haste into their intrigues with Egypt. But in truth haste and business were all that was in their politics: these were devoid both of intelligence and faith. Where the sole motive of conduct is fear, whether uneasiness or panic, force may be displayed, but neither sagacity nor any moral quality. This was the case with Judahs Egyptian policy, and Isaiah now spends two chapters in denouncing it. His condemnation is twofold. The negotiations with Egypt, he says, are bad politics and bad religion; but the bad religion is the root and source of the other. Yet while he vents all his scorn on the politics, he uses pity and sweet persuasiveness when he comes to speak of the eternal significance of the religion. The two chapters are also instructive, beyond most others of the Old Testament, in the light they cast on revelation-its scope and methods.
Isaiah begins with the bad politics. In order to understand how bad they were, we must turn for a little to this Egypt, with whom Judah was now seeking an alliance.
In our late campaign on the Upper Nile we heard a great deal of the Mudir of Dongola. His province covers part of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia; and in Meirawi, the village whose name appeared in so many telegrams, we can still discover Meroe, the capital of Ethiopia. Now in Isaiahs day the king of Ethiopia was what the Mudir of Dongola was at the time of our war, an ambitious person of no small energy; and the ruler of Egypt proper was, what the Khedive was, a person of little influence or resource. Consequently there happened what might have happened a few years ago but for the presence of the British army in Egypt. The Ethiopian came down the Nile, defeated Pharaoh and burned him alive. But he died, and his son died after him; and before their successor could also come down the Nile, the legitimate heir to Pharaoh had regained part of his power. Some years ensued of uncertainty as to who was the real ruler of Egypt.
It was in this time of unsettlement that Judah sought Egypts help. The ignorance of the policy was manifest to all who were not blinded by fear of Assyria or party feeling. To Isaiah the Egyptian alliance is a folly and fatality that deserve all his scorn (Isa_30:1-8).
"Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, executing a policy, but it is not from Me; and weaving a web, but not of My spirit, that they may heap sin upon sin; who set themselves on the way to go down to Egypt, and at My mouth they have not inquired, to flee to the refuge of Pharaoh, and to hide themselves in the shadow of Egypt. But the refuge of Pharaoh shall be unto you for shame, and the hiding in the shadow of Egypt for confusion!" How can a broken Egypt help you? "When his princes are at Zoan, and his ambassadors are come to Hanes, they shall all be ashamed of a people that cannot profit them, that are not for help nor for profit, but for shame, and also for reproach."
Then Isaiah pictures the useless caravan which Judah has sent with tribute to Egypt, strings of asses and camels struggling through the desert, "land of trouble and anguish" amid lions and serpents, and all for "a people that shall not profit them" (Isa_30:6).
What tempted Judah to this profitless expenditure of time and money? Egypt had a great reputation, and was a mighty promiser. Her brilliant antiquity had given her a habit of generous promise, and dazzled other nations into trusting her. Indeed, so full were Egyptian politics of bluster and big language, that the Hebrews had a nickname for Egypt. They called her Rahab-Stormy-speech, Blusterer, Braggart. It was the term also for the crocodile, as being a monster, so that there was a picturesqueness as well as moral aptness in the name. Ay, says Isaiah, catching at the old name and putting to it another which describes Egyptian helplessness and inactivity, I call her Rahab Sit-still, Braggart-that-sitteth-still, Stormy-speech Stay-at-home. "Blustering and inactivity, blustering and sitting still," that is her character; "for Egypt helpeth in vain and to no purpose."
Knowing how sometimes the fate of a government is affected by a happy speech or epigram, we can understand the effect of this cry upon the politicians of Jerusalem. But that he might impress it on the popular imagination and memory as well, Isaiah wrote his epigram on a tablet, and put it in a book. We must remind ourselves here of chapter 20, and remember how it tells us that Isaiah had already some years before this endeavoured to impress the popular imagination with the folly of an Egyptian alliance, "walking unfrocked and barefoot three years for a sign and a portent upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia."
So that already Isaiah had appealed from politicians to people on this Egyptian question, just as he appealed thirty years ago from court to market-place on the question of Ephraim and Damascus. {Isa_8:1} It is another instance of that prophetic habit of his, on which we remarked in expounding chapter 8; and we must again emphasise the habit, for chapter 30 here swings round upon it. Whatever be the matter committed to him, Isaiah is not allowed to rest till be brings it home to the popular conscience; and however much he may be able to charge national disaster upon the folly of politicians or the obduracy of a king, it is people whom he holds ultimately responsible. To Isaiah a nations politics are not arbitrary; they are not dependent on the will of kings or the management of parties. They are the natural outcome of the nations character. What the people are, that will their politics be. If you wish to reform the politics, you must first regenerate the people; and it is no use to inveigh against a senseless policy, like this Egyptian one, unless you go farther and expose the national temper which has made it possible. A peoples own morals have greater influence on their destinies than their despots or legislators. Statesmen are what the state makes them. No Government will attempt a policy for which the nation behind it has not a conscience; and for the greater number of errors committed by their rulers, the blame must be laid on the peoples own want of character or intelligence.
This is what Isaiah now drives home. {Isa_30:9 ff.} He tracks the bad politics to their source in bad religion, the Egyptian policy to its roots in the prevailing tempers of the people. The Egyptian policy was doubly stamped. It was disobedience to the word of God; it was satisfaction with falsehood. The statesmen of Judah shut their ears to Gods spoken word; they allowed themselves to be duped by the Egyptian Pretence. But these, says Isaiah, are precisely the characteristics of the whole Jewish people. "For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the revelation of the Lord." It was these national failings-the want of virtues which are the very substance of a nation: truth and reverence or obedience-that had culminated in the senseless and suicidal alliance with Egypt. Isaiah fastens on their falsehood first: "Which say to the seers, Ye shall not see, and to the prophets, Ye shall not prophesy unto us right things; speak to us smooth things: prophesy deceits." No wonder such a character had been fascinated by "Rahab"! It was a natural nemesis, that a people who desired from their teachers fair speech rather than true vision should be betrayed by the confidence their statesmen placed in the Blusterer, "that blustered and sat still." Truth is what this people first require, and therefore the revelation of the Lord will in the first instance be the revealing of the truth. Men who will strip pretence off the reality of things; men who will call things by their right names, as Isaiah had set himself to do; honest satirists and epigrammatists-these are the bearers of Gods revelation. For it is one of the means of Divine salvation to call things by their right names, and here in Gods revelation also epigrams have their place. So much for truth.
But reverence is truths other self, for reverence is simply loyalty to the supremest truth. And it is against the truth that the Jews have chiefly sinned. They have shut their eyes to Egypts real character, but that was a small sin beside this: that they turned their backs on the greatest reality of all-God Himself. "Get you out of the way," they said to the prophets, "turn out of the oath; keep quiet in our presence about the Holy One of Israel!" Isaiahs effort rises to its culmination when he seeks to restore the sense of this reality to his people. His spirit is kindled at the words "the Holy One of Israel," and to the end of chapter 31 leaps up in a series of brilliant and sometimes scorching descriptions of the name, the majesty, and the love of God. Isaiah is not content to have used his power of revelation to unveil the political truth about Egypt. He will make God Himself visible to this people. Passionately does he proceed to enforce upon the Jews what God thinks about their own condition (Isa_30:12-14), then to persuade them to rely upon Him alone, and wait for the working of His reasonable laws (Isa_30:15-18). Rising higher, he purges with pity their eyes to see Gods very presence, their ears to hear His voice, their wounds to feel His touch (Isa_30:19-26). Then he remembers the cloud of invasion on the horizon, and bids them spell, in its uncouth masses, the articulate name of the Lord (Isa_30:27-33). And he closes with another series of figures by which Gods wisdom, and His jealousy and His tenderness are made very bright to them (chapter 31).
These brilliant prophecies may not have been given all at the same time: each is complete in itself. They do not all mention the negotiations with Egypt, but they are all dark with the shadow of Assyria. Isa_30:19-26 almost seem to have been written in a time of actual siege; but Isa_30:27-33 represent Assyria still upon the horizon. In this, however, these passages are fitly strung together: that they equally strain to impress a blind and hardened people with the will, the majesty, and the love of God their Saviour.
I. THE BULGING WALL
(Isa_30:12-14)
Starting from their unwillingness to listen to the voice of the Lord in their Egyptian policy, Isaiah tells the people that if they refused to hear His word for guidance, they must now listen to it for judgment. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because ye look down on this word, and trust in perverseness and crookedness, and lean thereon, therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, bulging out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. "This iniquity," of course, is the embassy to Egypt. But that, as we have seen, is only the peoples own evil character coming to a head; and by the breaking of the wall, we are therefore to suppose that the prophet means the collapse not only of this Egyptian policy, but of the whole estate and substance of the Jewish people. It will not be your enemy that will cause a breach in the nation, but your teeming iniquity shall cause the breach-to wit, this Egyptian folly. Judah will burst her bulwarks from the inside. You may build the strongest form of government round a people, you may buttress it with foreign alliances, but these shall simply prove occasions for the internal wickedness to break forth. Your supposed buttresses will prove real breaches; and of all your social structures there will not be left as much as will make the fragments of a single home, not "a sherd" big enough "to carry fire from the hearth, or to hold water from the cistern."
II. NOT ALLIANCES, BUT RELIANCE
(Isa_30:15-18)
At this point, either Isaiah was stung by the demands of the politicians for an alternative to their restless Egyptian policy which he condemned, or more likely he rose, unaided by external influence, on the prophets native instinct to find some purely religious ground on which to base his political advice. The result is one of the grandest of all his oracles. "For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength; and ye would not. But ye said, No, for upon horses will we flee; wherefore ye shall flee: and upon the swift will we ride; wherefore swift shall be they that pursue you! One thousand at the rebuke of one-at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a bare pole on the top of a mountain, and as a standard on a hill. And therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He hold aloof that He may have mercy upon you, for a God of judgment is the Lord; blessed are all they that wait for Him." The words of this passage are their own interpretation and enforcement, all but one; and as this one is obscure in its English guise, and the passage really swings from it, we may devote a paragraph to its meaning.
"A God of judgment is the Lord" is an unfortunately ambiguous translation. We must not take judgment here in our familiar sense of the word. It is not a sudden deed of doom, but a long process of law. It means manner, method, design, order, system, the ideas, in short, which we sum up under the word "law." Just as we say of a man, "He is a man of judgment," and mean thereby not that by office he is a doomster, but that by character he is a man of discernment and prudence, so simply does Isaiah say here that "Jehovah is a God of Judgment," and mean thereby not that He is one whose habit is sudden and awful deeds of penalty or salvation, but, on the contrary, that, having laid down His lines according to righteousness and established His laws in wisdom, He remains in His dealings with men consistent with these.
Now it is a great truth that the All-mighty and All-merciful is the All-methodical too; and no religion is complete in its creed or healthy in its influence, which does not insist equally on all these. It was just the want of this third article of faith which perverted the souls of the Jews in Isaiahs day, which (as we have seen under chapter 1) allowed them to make their worship so mechanical and material-for how could they have been satisfied with mere forms if they had but once conceived of God as having even ordinary intelligence?-and which turned their political life into such a mass of intrigue, conceit, and falsehood, for how could they have dared to suppose that they would get their own way, or have been so sure of their own cleverness, if only they had had a glimpse of the perception, that God, the Ruler of the world, had also His policy regarding them? They believed He was the Mighty, they believed He was the Merciful, but because they forgot that He was the Wise and the Worker by law, their faith in His might too often turned into superstitious terror, their faith in His mercy oscillated between the sleepy satisfaction that He was an indulgent God and the fretful impatience that He was an indifferent one. Therefore Isaiah persisted from first to last in this: that God worked by law; that He had His plan for Judah, as well as these politicians; and, as we shall shortly find him reminding them when intoxicated with their own cleverness "that He also is wise". {Isa_31:2} Here by the same thought he bids them be at peace, and upon the rushing tides of politics, drawing them to that or the other mad venture, to swing by this anchor: that God has His own law and time for everything. No man could bring the charge of fatalism against such a policy of quietness. For it thrilled with intelligent appreciation of the Divine method. When Isaiah said, "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength," he did not ask his restless countrymen to yield sullenly to an infinite force or to bow in stupidity beneath the inscrutable will of an arbitrary despot, but to bring their conduct into harmony with a reasonable and gracious plan, which might be read in the historical events of the time, and was vindicated by the loftiest religious convictions. Isaiah preached no submission to fate, but reverence for an all-wise Ruler, whose method was plain to every clear-sighted observer of the fortunes of the nations of the world, and whose purpose could only be love and peace to His own people.
III. GODS TABLE IN THE MIDST OF THE ENEMIES
(Isa_30:19-26)
This patient purpose of God Isaiah now proceeds to describe in its details. Every line of his description has its loveliness, and is to be separately appreciated. There is perhaps no fairer prospect from our prophets many windows. It is not argument nor a programme, but a series of rapid glimpses, struck out by language which often wants logical connection, but never fails to make us see.
To begin with, one thing is sure: the continuance of the national existence. Isaiah is true to his original vision-the survival of a remnant. "For a people in Zion-there shall be abiding in Jerusalem." So the brief essential is flashed forth. "Thou shalt surely weep no more; surely He will be gracious unto thee at the voice of thy crying; with His hearing of thee He will answer thee." Thus much of general promise had been already given. Now upon the vagueness of the Lords delay Isaiah paints realistic details, only, however, that he may make more vivid the real presence of the Lord. The siege shall surely come, with its sorely concrete privations, but the Lord will be there, equally distinct. "And though the Lord give you the bread of penury and the water of tribuation" (perhaps the technical name for siege rations), "yet shall not thy Teacher hide Himself any more, but thine eyes shall ever be seeing thy Teacher; and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way: walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand or when ye turn to the left." Real, concrete sorrows, these are they that make the heavenly Teacher real! It is linguistically possible, and more in harmony with the rest of the passage, to turn "teachers," as the English version has it, into the singular, and to render it by "Revealer." The word is an active participle, "Moreh," from the same verb as the noun "Torah," which is constantly translated "Law" in our version, but is, in the Prophets at least, more nearly equivalent to "instruction," or to our modern term "revelation" (cf. Isa_30:9). Looking thus to the One Revealer, and hearkening to the One Voice, "the lying and rebellious children" shall at last be restored to that capacity for truth and obedience the loss of which has been their ruin. Devoted to the Holy One of Israel, they shall scatter their idols as loathsome (Isa_30:22). But thereupon a wonder is to happen. As the besieged people, conscious of the One Great Presence in the midst of their encompassed city, cast their idols through the gates and over the walls, a marvellous vision of space and light and fulness of fresh food bursts upon their starved and straitened souls (Isa_30:23). Promise more sympathetic was never uttered to a besieged and famished city. Mark that all down the passage there is no mention of the noise or instruments of battle. The prophet has not spoken of the besiegers, who they may be, how they may come, nor of the fashion of their war, but only of the effects of the siege on those within: confinement, scant and bitter rations. And now he is almost wholly silent about the breaking up of the investing army and the trail of their slaughter. No battle breaks this siege, but a vision of openness and plenty dawns noiselessly over its famine and closeness. It is not vengeance or blood that an exhausted and penitent people thirst after. But as they have been caged in a fortress, narrow, dark, and stony, so they thirst for the sight of the sower, and the drop of the rain on the broken, brown earth, and the juicy corn, and the meadow for their cribbed cattle, and the noise of brooks and waterfalls, and above and about it all fulness of light. "And He shall give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal, and bread, even the increase of the ground, and it shall be juicy and fat; thy cattle shall feed that day in a broad meadow. And the oxen and the young asses that till the ground shall eat savoury provender, winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be upon every lofty mountain and upon every lifted hill rivers, streams of water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the hurt of His people and healeth the stroke of their wound." It is one of Isaiahs fairest visions, and he is very much to be blamed who forces its beauty of nature into an allegory of spiritual things. Here literally God spreads His people a table in the midst of their enemies.
IV. THE NAME OF THE LORD
(Isa_30:27-33)
But Isaiah lays down "the oaten pipe" and lifts again a brazen trumpet to his lips. Between him and that sunny landscape of the future, of whose pastoral details he has so sweetly sung, roll up now the uncouth masses of the Assyrian invasion, not yet fully gathered, far less broken. We are back in the present again, and the whole horizon is clouded.
The passage does not look like one from which comfort or edification can be derived, but it is of extreme interest. The first two verses, for instance, only require a little analysis to open a most instructive glimpse into the prophets inner thoughts about the Assyrian progress, and show us how they work towards the expression of its full meaning. "Behold, the Name of Jehovah cometh from afar-burning His anger and awful the uplifting smoke; His lips are full of wrath, and His tongue as fire that devoureth; and His breath is as an overflowing torrent-even unto the neck it reacheth-to shake the nations in a sieve of destruction, and a bridle that leadeth astray on the jaws of the peoples."
"The Name of Jehovah" is the phrase the prophets use when they wish to tell us of the personal presence of God. When we hear a name cried out, we understand immediately that a person is there. So when the prophet calls, "Behold, the Name of Jehovah," in face of the prodigious advance of Assyria, we understand that he has caught some intuition of Gods presence in that uplifting of the nations of the north at the word of the great King and their resistless sweep southward upon Palestine. In that movement God is personally present. The Divine presence Isaiah then describes in curiously mingled metaphor, which proves how gradually it was that he struggled to a knowledge of its purpose there. First of all he describes the advance of Assyria as a thunderstorm, heavy clouds and darting, devouring fire. His imagination pictures a great face of wrath. The thick curtains of cloud as they roll over one another suggest the heavy lips, and the lightnings the fiery tongue. Then the figure passes from heaven to earth. The thunderstorm has burst, and becomes the "mountain torrent" which speedily "reaches the necks" of those who are caught in its bed. But then the prophets conscience suggests something more than sudden and sheer force in this invasion, and the "tossing" of the torrent naturally leads him to express this new element in the figure of "a sieve." His thought about the Assyrian flood thus passes from one of simple force and rush to one of judgment and being well kept in hand. He sees its ultimate check at Jerusalem, and so his last figure of it is the figure of "a bridle," or "lasso," such as is thrown upon the jaws of a wild animal when you wish to catch and tame him.
This gradual progress from the sense of sheer wild force, through that of personal wrath, to discipline and sparing is very interesting. Vague and chaotic that disaster rolled up the horizon upon Judah. "It cometh from afar." The politicians fled from it to their refuge behind the Egyptian Pretence. But Isaiah bids them face it. The longer they look, the more will conscience tell them that the unavoidable wrath of God is in it; no blustering Rahab will be able to hide them from the anger of the face that lowers there. But let them look longer still, and the unrelieved features of destruction will change to a hand that sifts and checks, the torrent will become a sieve, and the disaster show itself well held in by the power of their own God.
So wildly and impersonally still do the storms of sorrow and disaster roll up the horizon on mens eyes, and we fly in vague terror from them to our Egyptian refuges. So still does conscience tell us it is futile to flee from the anger of God, and we crouch hopeless beneath the rush of imaginations of unchecked wrath, blackening the heavens and turning every path of life to a tossing torrent. May it then be granted us to have some prophet at our side to bid us face our disaster once more, and see the discipline and judgment of the Lord, the tossing only of His careful sieve, in the wild and cruel waves! We may not be poets like Isaiah nor able to put the processes of our faith into such splendid metaphors as he, but faith is given us to follow the same course as his thoughts did, and to struggle till she arrives at the consciousness of God in the most uncouth judgments that darken her horizon-the consciousness of God present not only to smite, but to sift, and in the end to spare.
Of the angel who led Israel to the land of promise, God said, "My Name is in him." Our faith is not perfect till we can, like Isaiah, feel the same of the blackest angel, the heaviest disaster, God can send us, and be able to spell it out articulately: "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth."
For delivery, says Isaiah, shall come to the people of God in the crisis, as sudden and as startling into song as the delivery from Egypt was. "Ye shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord; to the Rock of Israel."
After this interval of solemn gladness, the storm and fire break out afresh, and rage again through the passage. But their direction is reversed, and whereas they had been shown rolling up the horizon as towards Judah, they are now shown rolling down the horizon in pursuit of the baffled Assyrian. The music of the verses is crashing. "And the Lord shall cause the peal of His voice to be heard, and the lighting down of His arm to be seen in the fury of anger, yea flame of devouring fire-bursting and torrent and hailstones. For from the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be scattered when He shall smite with the rod. And every passage of the rod of fate which the Lord bringeth down upon him shall be with tabrets and harps, and in battles of waving shall he be fought against." The meaning is obscure but palpable. Probably the verse describes the ritual of the sacrifice to Moloch, to which there is no doubt the next verse alludes. To sympathise with the prophets figure, we need of course an amount of information about the details of that ritual which we are very far from possessing. But Isaiahs meaning is evidently this: The destruction of the Assyrian host will be liker a holocaust than a battle, like one of those fatal sacrifices to Moloch which are directed by the solemn waving of a staff, and accompanied by the music, not of war, but of festival. "Battles of waving" is a very obscure phrase, but the word translated "waving" is the technical term for the waving of the victim before the sacrifice to signify its dedication to the deity; "and these battles of waving may perhaps have taken place in the fashion in which single victims were thrown from one spear to another till death ensued." At all events, it is evident that Isaiah means to suggest that the Assyrian dispersion is a religious act, a solemn holocaust rather than one of this earths ordinary battles, and directed by Jehovah Himself from heaven. This becomes clear enough in the next verse: "For a Topheth hath been set in order beforehand; yea, for Moloch is it arranged; He hath made it deep and broad; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, shall kindle it." So the Assyrian power was in the end to go up in flame.
We postpone remarks on Isaiahs sense of the fierceness of the Divine righteousness till we reach his even finer expression of it in chapter 33.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 9, 15 Isa_30:1-3. Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord,…
THE ORIGIN AND THE END OF SIN
Isa_30:1-3. Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me, &c.
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The policy inculcated by the Divine Ruler on the Jewish nation was a policy of isolation. Now, this would be a self-destructive policy. But the circumstances of that nation were peculiar. It was not a missionary to the world, but it was a witness. When it formed alliances with surrounding nations, its witness became indistinct. It often dropped its testimony and adopted the idolatries against which its protest should have been uniform. This prophecy is against the alliance with Egypt. Assyria was about to invade that country. It was feared she would take Judea on the way. Now, the Lord was its defence; there was therefore no need to seek assistance from any other power whatsoever. It was a rebellious and unbelieving spirit that sought this alliance. The politicians sought a covering from the impending storm; but they did not seek it by divine counsel. They were adding another sin to the number against them. It would be shame and confusion at the end. Egypt would be unwilling or unable to help.
Human nature is ever the same. Here is a representation of the way in which sinners act, and of its consequences.
I. All sin proceeds from neglect and defiance of God’s counsel.
1. It is implied that God has counselled or may be consulted respecting human conduct. By the prophet He had declared against the alliance with Egypt. In the written word we have His will. It does not deal with our modern life and circumstances in detail. Impossible. But we have what is better; principles of action which we are to apply to circumstances. No one ever long in a moral difficulty, if he honestly apply these principles. Every act which is of the nature of evil is forbidden. Many sinful acts are forbidden by name. We have the example of the Son of God. We have the most inspiring motives: gratitude, love, hope, fear. A revolution of our nature in the direction of God’s holiness is demanded. The ministry of the word expounds and enforces these great principles. Men do not sin for want of counsel from God.
2. Our text charges men with acting on other counsel than the divine. The charge is twofold.
(1.) Neglect of the counsel they ought to have sought. Sincere desire to be right would apply to the Divine Word in relation to all the conduct of life. How many adopt and act upon the principle that it shall guide everything? Is not its authority discounted? When tempted to the questionable or sinful, but advantageous, how many, with steady clearness of moral vision, look straight at God’s counsel? As to the ministry of the Word, one part of the function of which is to keep men’s moral perceptions clear, how many absent themselves from it entirely!
(2.) Seeking the counsel they ought not to have sought. They sought counsel of their own inclinations. It was a foregone conclusion. They wished to go down into Egypt. If they consulted, it was, as often happens, with those inclined in the same way. Men are secretly conscious of alienation from God, which instinctively dislikes His recommendations. Man’s moral nature is unhinged; and he turns from God anywhither. The maxims of the world, the opinions of associates, considerations of worldly interest, conspire to the rejection of His counsel. Micaiah must be imprisoned if he prophesy evil, although it be true.
II. Sin is cumulative and growing.
“That they may add sin to sin.” Sin is rarely single (H.E.I., 4507–4509). A rope is twined from many threads. The Jewish people committed one sin by forsaking the counsel of God, another in trusting to the help of Egypt. Some substances have an affinity for each other. So have moral elements. Sins have a fearfully attractive and accumulative power. The youth wanders from the house of God. Conscience is stifled. Amusement is sought. Loose companions are cultivated. Restraint is gradually thrown off. Fraud is necessary. Fraud requires falsehood. One falsehood requires another. Sin is added to sin. Soon as a sin is committed it drops the seed of another, and so onward in terrible progression. Add grain of sand to grain until it becomes a mountain. Money is scraped together by care and labour, but sins rush to each other with mutual attraction. If you could have foreseen the growth of your own sins, surely you would have refrained. Count the sins of your life. They are added up in God’s book.
III. Every sin contains the germ of its own punishment.
“Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.” Sin makes promises which it fails to perform. You are disappointed. This is part of the punishment. Punishment is often appropriate, growing out of the sin. Sometimes this is palpable, as in the case of sensual lusts. Oftener subtle. Punishment accumulates, as sin does. There is a treasuring up of wrath (H. E. I., 4603–4614). Will you continue to accumulate it? or will you pause, cease? You must repent. Do not hug your chains. You must cry for mercy. You must yield. You must repair to the cross.—John Rawlinson.
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.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Isa 30:9-10
Isa 30:9-10
I. A chief part of the work of the pulpit is the plain and fervent teaching of daily-life morality. Despite the opinions of those who are ready to say that morality is not the Gospel, I say that there is no Gospel without morality, and that the morality of Christ, that is, a morality whose inspiration is the Spirit of Christ, is a very large part of the Gospel indeed. What of our Lord’s own teachings? Are they chiefly moral teachings or theological? It is needless to answer the question. What do we mean when we talk of being saved from sin? Just what the words say;—that sin shall be taken away; that is, that men shall obey God’s law instead of the devil’s; that is, that they shall live pure, virtuous, and moral lives.
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II. And do not morals occupy a very foremost place in the welfare of mankind? What is it makes the world often so miserable? It is sin, that is immorality; and if we can do away with the sin and immorality, and bring in virtue and morality, then we shall do much to diminish the miseries of our fellow-men. And if it is important that morals should be taught for the welfare and happiness of mankind, who are to teach morals, if not the ministers of religion? If there were other teachers to do the work, we might well stand excused. But if we do not teach morals, they will not be taught at all; there are no authorised teachers except the ministers of religion; and it is for us to educate the public conscience, until men feel each moral distinction as a solemn fact, until the force of public opinion fall heavily upon him who violates the moral law, until a fairer morality takes its place among us.
III. But if this be one part of our work, and a very great part, why have we succeeded so ill? why is the general morality so low? It is because the people have said, "Speak unto us smooth things," and we have yielded to their words. If you tell men the faults which are diseases in their characters, slowly but surely bringing them down to the grave, they cannot bear it, but keep the disease and dismiss the physician. Whether it hurts or not, the truth must be said, if men are to be saved from the error of their ways.
W. Page-Roberts, Reasonable Service, p. 28.
References: Isa 30:7.—Outline Sermons to Children, p. 89. Isa 30:11.—Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., p. 229. Isa 30:14.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 357.
Isa 30:10
What was the utility of the Hebrew prophet, and what were the errors to which he was more particularly exposed?
I. It was the duty and the privilege of Israel to keep alive monotheism in the world. It was no less the duty of the prophetic school to preserve in the chosen nation itself the spirituality of religion. Both agents were in the same relative position—a hopeless minority. And both had but an imperfect success. Yet the nation and the institution served each an important purpose. Monotheism languished, but did not die. And though the prophets were not very successful in imbuing the nation generally with their own spirituality, yet they kept the flame alive. They served to show to the people the true ideal of spiritual, not ritualistic, Judaism, and thus supplied a corrective to priest-taught Judaism.
II. What was the great source of error in the prophet’s utterances? What was the great pressure that pushed, or tended to push, him aside from the path of duty? The text has told us: "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things." The desire of man—king or peasant—to hear from the prophet, or the courtier, or the demagogue, not truth, but flattery,—it was that fatal longing which led them to put a pressure on the prophet which often crushed the truth within him.
III. Prophets exist no longer. But flattery exists still, and the appetite for it can be as strong in a people as ever it was in a king. If nations have not prophets to flatter them, they have those whom they trust as much. Far from attempting to correct their faults, the guides whom they trust are constantly labouring to impress on them that they are the most meritorious and the most ill-used nation in the world. Eyes blinded to present faults; eyes sharpened to past wrongs,—there is no treatment which will more completely and more rapidly demoralise the nation which is subjected to it. There will be no improvement where there is no consciousness of fault; and no forgiveness where the mind is invited, almost compelled, to a constant brooding over wrong. With the growth of such feelings no nation can thrive; and he who encourages them is not the saviour but the destroyer of his country.
J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, and Other Sermons, p. 114.
Isa 30:15
(Php 4:7)
The protecting power of peace.
I. "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." Quietness is the opposite of excitement; confidence is the opposite of mistrust. The two pairs of qualities have their place in human things; they have their place also in the things of God. In both realms the maxim is true, that strength is in the one pair of qualities and weakness is in the other. (1) Quietness is strength. It is the quiet nature that works. It is the quiet spirit that influences. It is the quiet life that impresses and that assimilates excitement, talks and bustles and pushes. But excitement, if it in any sense stir’s the world, cannot move and cannot guide it. There is only one kind of excitement which has permanence. Its proper name is not excitement, but enthusiasm; and enthusiasm, being interpreted, is the having God in us; and where God is, there is quietness and there is strength. (2) Confidence is strength. This confidence must be, first, a confidence rightly directed; and, secondly, a confidence stoutly held. The confidence which Isaiah wrote of was, of course, set upon God. And being thus rightly directed, it was a confidence which knew no wavering as to its right to trust, and as to its acceptance with its object.
II. In the New Testament "quietness and confidence" become the peace of God. If you would be happy, if you would be holy, if you would lead a good life, if you would be an influence for good in your generation, you must "seek peace and ensue it." The peace of God Himself must be your prayer, your effort, your ambition. We know where it is to be found—in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; in Jesus Christ, and Him glorified.
C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons, p. 496.
I. There are two kinds of character—the fervent and the contemplative; the enthusiastic and the peaceful—and each of them is admirable and each necessary for the progress and well-being of the world. But each of these is liable to a certain degeneracy which is very common; so that instead of fervour we find restlessness; instead of quietude, lethargy.
II. The fussy, flurried, restless character has no perspective about it, no silence, no sobriety, no self-control; it values no blessing which it has, because it is always yearning for some blessing which it has not; it enjoys no source of happiness in the present, because it is always fretting for some source of happiness in the future. It is the restlessness and discontent bred by a soul which has no sweet retirements of its own, and no rest in God, no anchor sure and steadfast on the rushing waves of life.
III. Now to both these common characters this text offers an antidote: to the self-satisfied, a confidence which is not conceit, a quietude which is that of a glassy sea, not that of a stagnant and corrupting pool; to the restless and anxious, a quietude and confidence which are nothing else than a calm faith and a happy trust in God.
F. W. Farrar, In the Days of Thy Youth, p. 72.
References: Isa 30:15.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 344. Isa 30:18.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 281; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1766; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 344; J. R. Wood, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 145; A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 126. Isa 30:19.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1419; D. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 113. Isa 30:20.—M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 245; C. Morris, Preacher’s Lantern, vol. iii., p. 229. Isa 30:21.—J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 382; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1672; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 1; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 376. Isa 30:29.—J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories, p. 138. Isa 30:32.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages from the Prophets, vol. i., p. 93. Isa 31:6.—J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 225.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v15
Isaiah
‘QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE’
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Isa 30:15.
ISRAEL always felt the difficulty of sustaining itself on the height of dependence on the unseen, spiritual power of God, and was ever oscillating between alliances with the Northern and Southern powers, linking itself with Assyria against Egypt, or with Egypt against Assyria. The effect was that whichever was victorious it suffered; it was the battleground for both, it was the prize of each in turn. The prophet’s warnings were political wisdom as truly as religious.
Here Judah is exhorted to forsake the entangling dependence on Egypt, and to trust wholly to God. They had gone away from Him in their fears. They must come back by their faith. To them the great lesson was trust in God. Through them to us the same lesson is read. The principle is far wider than this one case. It is the one rule of life for us all.
The two clauses of the text convey substantially the same idea. They are in inverted parallelism. ‘Returning and rest’ correspond to ‘quietness and confidence,’ so as that ‘rest’ answers to ‘quietness’ and ‘returning’ to ‘confidence.’ In the former clause we have the action towards God and then its consequence. In the latter we have the consequence and then the action.
I. The returning.
Men depart from God by speculative thought or by anxious care, or by sin.
To ‘return’ is just to trust.
The parallel helps us here-’returning’ is parallel with ‘confidence.’ This confidence is to be exercised especially in relation to one’s own path in life and the outward trials and difficulties which we meet, but its sphere extends far beyond these. It is a disposition of mind which covers all things. The attitude of trust, the sense of dependence, the assurance of God’s help and love are in all life the secrets of peace and power.
Am I sinful? then trust. Am I bewildered and ignorant? then trust. Am I anxious and harassed? then trust.
Note the thought, that we come back to God by simple confidence, not by preparing ourselves, not by our expiation, but only by trusting in Him.
Of course the temptations to the opposite attitude are many and great.
Note, too, that every want of confidence is a departure from God. We go away from Him not only by open sin, not only by denial of Him, but by forgetfulness, by want of faith.
The ground of this confidence is laid in our knowledge of Him, especially in our knowledge of Jesus Christ.
The exercise of this confidence is treated as voluntary. Every man is responsible for his faith.
The elements of this confidence are, as regards ourselves, our sense of want in all its various aspects; and, as regards Him, our assurance of His love, of His nearness to help.
II. Confiding nearness to God brings quiet rest.
‘Rest’ and ‘being quiet’ are treated here partly as consequences of faith, partly as duties which we are bound to strive to achieve.
1. See how confidence in God stills and quiets the soul.
The very exercise of communion with Him brings peace and rest, inasmuch as all things are then possessed which we can desire. There is a still fruition which nothing can equal and nothing destroy.
Trust in God brings rest from our own evil consciences.
It brings rest from our own plans and purposes.
Trust gives insight into the meaning of all this else unintelligible world.
It brings the calming and subduing of desires, which in their eagerness torture, in their fruition trouble, and in their disappointment madden.
It brings the gathering in of ourselves from all the disturbing diffusion of ourselves through earthly trifles.
2. Notice what this rest is not.
It does not mean the absence of causes of disturbance.
It does not mean the abnegation of forethought.
It does not mean an indolent passiveness.
3. Notice the duty of being thus quiet and resting.
How much we fail in this respect.
We have faith, but there seems some obstruction which stops it from flowing refreshingly through our lives.
We are bound to seek for its increased continuity and power in our hearts and lives.
III. Confidence and rest in God bring safety and strength.
That is true in the lowest sense of ‘saved,’ and not less true in the highest. The condition of all our salvation from temporal as well as spiritual evils lies thus in the same thing-that we trust God.
No harm comes to us when we trust, because then God is with us, and works for us, and cares for us. So all departments of life are bound together by the one law. Trust is the condition of being ‘saved.’
And not only so, but also trust is strength. God works for us; yes, but better than that, God works in us and fits us to work.
What powers we might be in the world! Trust should make us strong. To have confidence in God should bring us power to which all other power is as nothing. He who can feel that his foot is on the rock, how firm he should stand!
Best gives strength. The rest of faith doubles our forces. To be freed from anxious care makes a man much more likely to act vigorously and to judge wisely.
Stillness of soul, born of communion with God, makes us strong.
Stillness of soul, born of deliverance from our fears, makes us strong.
Here then is a golden chain-or shall we rather say a live wire?- whereof one end is bound to the Throne and the other encircles our poor hearts. Trust, so shall we be at rest and safe. Being at rest and safe, we shall be strong. If we link ourselves with God by faith, God will flash into us His mysterious energy, and His strength will be made perfect in our weakness.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 1-7. The Egyptian alliance is profitless.
1-7. The Egyptian alliance is profitless.
8-11. The perversity of Judah,
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12-17. and its disastrous consequences.
18-26. There is a glorious prospect for the repentant people.
27-33 But first Jehovah will destroy the Assyrian.
1. Cover, etc.] seek pretence to conceal their designs (Isa_29:15).
4. Were.. came] RV 'are.. come': the ambassadors of Judah go from place to place in Egypt seeking aid.
Zoan (Gk. Tanis) and Hanes (Gk. Heracleopolis) were both cities in the Delta of the Nile.
5. Were all] RV 'shall all be.' A people] Egypt.
6. The burden.. south] a title prefixed to the short utterance, Isa_30:6, Isa_30:7. Burden] see Isa_13:1.
South] Negeb, i.e. the desert tract S. of Judah on the way to Egypt. The v. pictures the journey of the Judæan ambassadors through a district infested with dangerous beasts, their camels and asses laden with presents, wherewith they hope to purchase Egypt's aid.
7. This] i.e. Jerusalem (according to AV), who, instead of thus seeking foreign aid, ought to rest confident in Jehovah's protection (Isa_30:15). But more probably the reference is to Egypt. 'Therefore have I called her Rahab that sitteth still' (RV), i.e. is inactive in the day when help is expected from her (Isa_36:6). 'Rahab' ('pride'): a symbolic name for Egypt, as in Isa_51:9.
8. Write it] i.e. the foregoing prophecy or the name Rahab (Isa_8:1). Table] RV 'tablet.'
9. The law] i.e. oral instruction given through the prophet (Isa_8:16).
13. This iniquity] i.e. disregard of Isaiah's admonition and reliance on Egypt is a symptom of ruin, like the bulging of a wall on the point of falling.
15. In returning, etc.] i.e. in giving up your restless trust in man and calmly relying upon Jehovah.
16. It was the reputation of its cavalry especially that made Egypt so desirable an ally (Isa_36:9).
17. One thousand, etc.] the words indicate the complete rout (Lev_26:8).
Beacon.. ensign] striking symbols of solitariness.
18. Wait] The above threatenings are conditional, Jehovah will wait to give them an opportunity of repentance. Of judgment] and therefore not unduly severe.
20. Removed.. corner] RV 'hidden'; the prophets will not need to hide themselves but will be publicly recognised.
22. The altered frame of mind manifested in destraction of idols. Covering.. ornament] RV 'overlaying.. plating.'
23-26. treat of the corresponding change in nature which shall mark the ideal future (Isa_4:2).
24. Clean] 'salted.' Even the cattle shall not lack carefully prepared and seasoned provender.
25. Slaughter] i.e. of the Assyrians.
Towers] siegetowers.
26. Breach] RV 'hurt.'
27. Reverts to the more immediate future, the judgment on the Assyrians which is preparatory to the great future. The name] practically equivalent to 'the manifestation.'
And.. heavy] RV 'and in thick rising smoke,' smoke being a symbol of anger.
28. With.. vanity] i.e. the sifting will reduce them to nothingness.
29. Ye] i.e. God's own people.
Mighty One] RV 'Rock' implies that Jehovah is the strength of His people.
30. Voice] the thunder. Jehovah's wrath is figured as a storm. Scattering] RV 'a blast.'
31. Beaten down] RV 'broken in pieces.'
Which smote] see Isa_10:24.
32. And.. pass] RM 'And every stroke of doom.' With tabrets, etc.] i.e. with songs of exultation on the part of God's people. With it] RV 'with them.'
33. The destruction of the Assyrian set forth under the image of a funeral pyre. Tophet] 'a Tophet,' i.e. a place of burning. The name was given to the valley of Hinnom, where, previous to Hezekiah's accession, sacrifices were offered by fire (2Ki_16:3). The breath, etc.] It is here indicated as elsewhere (cp. Isa_31:8) that the destruction of the Assyrians shall not be brought about by human agency.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 12 trust (See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
trust (See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 The Fourth Woe Against Alliance With Egypt
CHAPTER 30
The Fourth Woe Against Alliance With Egypt
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1. The alliance and its failure (Isa 30:1-7) 2. The written table against the rebellious people (Isa 30:8-14) 3. Jehovah’s word of encouragement (Isa 30:15-17) 4. The nation blest and restored (Isa 30:18-21) 5. Idolatry ceases and the land restored (Isa 30:22-26) 6. The accomplishment by the coming of the Lord (Isa 30:27-33)While this chapter had a significance, like all these prophetic utterances, for the people in Isaiah’s day, its complete revelation can only be grasped in the light of what is yet to come. The Jewish people have never yet possessed the blessings of Isa 30:18-20. These will come as a result of the second coming of Christ. See Isa 30:30.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 15 The Alliance with Egypt and the Rebellious People
The Alliance with Egypt and the Rebellious People
v. 1. Woe to the rebellious children, stubborn, obstinate, refractory people, saith the Lord, that take counsel, making plans of their own, but not of Me, without consulting Him, and that cover with a covering, weave an alliance, form a league, but not of My Spirit, not suggested or commanded by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Lord’s messengers, that they may add sin to sin! The alliance of Judah with Egypt was not only undertaken without the consent of the Lord, but was connected with idolatrous acts.
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v. 2. That walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at My mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, making the king of Egypt their refuge, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! They sought protection from a heathen ruler, whereas, Jehovah, the true God, lived in their midst.
v. 3. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, they would be disappointed and disgraced when he and the desired refuge would fail them, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion, for the help and protection which they expected would not be forthcoming.
v. 4. For his princes, the ambassadors sent by Judah, were at Zoan, having arrived there to confer with Pharaoh, and his ambassadors came to Hanes, these two cities being the royal seats of Egypt at that time.
v. 5. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, that is, disgrace would strike the people of Judah for taking this course in seeking help from Egypt, which could be of no real benefit to them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame and also a reproach. That would be the result, the well-merited punishment which would come upon Judah for forsaking the trust in Jehovah alone. The prophet here interrupts has testimony of warning in order to insert an oracle directed against Egypt.
v. 6. The burden of the beasts of the South, of the hippopotamus, as the emblem of Egypt. Into the land of trouble and anguish, through the desert between Palestine and Egypt, with its many disagreeable and dangerous features, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, these animals representing some of the great dangers of the wilderness, they, the ambassadors of Judah, will carry their riches, the treasures with which they intend to buy Egypt’s help, upon the shoulders of young asses and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, upon their humps, their strongest pack-animals being pressed into service for this purpose, to a people that shall not profit them, who would leave them in the lurch at the very time when they would need assistance most.
v. 7. For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose, their help will be vapor and emptiness, an unusually strong expression to designate the helplessness of Egypt; therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. That was the Lord’s name for Egypt: Boastfulness that sits still, unable to be of service, in spite of all its arrogant promises. In connection with this divine oracle the prophet now receives his special commission,
v. 8. Now go, write it before them in a table, a writing-tablet, such as was in general use in those days, and note it in a book, entering the complete prophecy on a parchment roll for a permanent record, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever, to the most remote future,
v. 9. that this is a rebellious people, v. 1, lying children, unfaithful to Jehovah, with whom they had entered into a covenant as His children, children that will not hear the Law of the Lord, setting aside all His revealed instruction;
v. 10. which say to the seers, See not, in an attempt to hinder the servants of the Lord in their teaching of God’s Word, and to the prophets, the teachers appointed by God, Prophesy not unto us right things; speak unto us smooth things, blandishments, flatteries, prophesy deceits, things that tickle the vanity of the people, since the latter have itching ears, 2Ti 4:3.
v. 11. Get you out of the way, namely, that prescribed by the command of God, turn aside out of the path, forsaking the Lord altogether, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us, for they wanted to hear no more of His holiness, that attribute being the one which sinners dread most. So the people not only rejected the Lord themselves, but demanded that His true servants join them in their apostasy.
v. 12. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, that same God against whom they were rebelling, Because ye despise this word, regarding His warning with the deepest aversion, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon, for they placed their trust in acts of violence, by means of which they exacted the money needed to purchase the aid of Egypt,
v. 13. therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, the bulging out of the wall indicating that it was about to topple over, whose breaking cometh suddenly, at an instant. Thus the ruin of Judah would overtake the nation with great suddenness because of their idolatrous alliance with Egypt.
v. 14. And He, Jehovah, in His judgment upon the apostate nation, shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces, intentionally smashed into fragments; He shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, a fragment of the broken vessel large enough to serve for this purpose, or to take water withal out of the pit, to be used for drawing water from a cistern. The Lord’s threat contemplates an utter overthrow of the disobedient nation. It is ever thus: If the Lord’s warnings are not heeded, He sends His punishments with great severity.
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 vv1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17 the rebellious children
the rebellious children
Yahweh speaks about his people as if they were his children. (See: Metaphor)
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this is Yahweh's declaration
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
They make plans, but not from me
This can be reworded so that the abstract noun "plans" can be stated as the verb "plan." AT: "They plan to do things, but they do not ask me what I want them to do" (See: Abstract Nouns)
but they were not directed by my Spirit
This can be stated in active form. AT: "but my Spirit did not direct them" (See: Active or Passive)
they add sin to sin
Continuing to sin is spoken of as if sins were objects that could be stacked on one another. AT: "they continue to sin more and more" (See: Metaphor)
They seek protection from Pharaoh
This can be reworded so that the abstract noun "protection" is expressed as the verb "protect." AT: "They ask Pharaoh to protect them" (See: Abstract Nouns)
take refuge in the shadow of Egypt
Egypt's protection from enemy armies is spoken of as if it were a shadow that protects someone from the burning heat of the sun. AT: "they rely on the Egyptians to keep them safe" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
woe
rebel
children
Yahweh
Holy Spirit
Egypt
Pharaoh
refuge
shadow
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 vv1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17 30:1-33 After threatening Judah with judgment because of their…
30:1-33 After threatening Judah with judgment because of their stubbornness and their reliance on Egypt (30:1-17), God again committed himself to deal compassionately with his people and to break the power of their enemies.
30:1-5 This prophecy was against Judah’s dependence on Egypt. It is the fourth of the six woes (see study note on 28:1–33:24).
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30:1 The wisdom of the people of Judah was not directed by God’s Spirit (cp. 11:2); instead, they had formed alliances that God did not approve of. Although the Assyrian attack on Jerusalem was overwhelming, making an alliance with Egypt demonstrated that the leaders of Judah depended on human resources for their protection rather than on God. Fortunately, Hezekiah later had a change of heart (see chs 36–37).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.