In that day, Yahweh’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of Israel. It will happen that he who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from within it, by the spirit of justice and by the spirit of burning. Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all the glory will be a canopy. There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.
Parallel Translations
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In that day, Yahweh’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of Israel.
It will happen that he who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem,
when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from within it, by the spirit of justice and by the spirit of burning.
Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all the glory will be a canopy.
There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.
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In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.
And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
Show all 3 translations
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In that day shall the growth of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written unto life in Jerusalem;
when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of destruction.
And the LORD will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be a canopy.
And there shall be a pavilion for a shadow in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.
Cross-references (112)
- Jeremiah 23:5 (v2) “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will…
- Exodus 13:21-22 (v5) Yahweh went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that…
- Malachi 3:2-3 (v4) “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap;…
- Nehemiah 9:12 (v5) Moreover, in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.
- Zechariah 6:12 (v2) and speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: and he shall grow up out of his place; and he…
Show all 100 cross-references
- Exodus 40:34-38 (v5) Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle. Moses wasn’t able to enter into the Tent of Meeting,…
- Isaiah 25:4 (v6) For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when…
- Zechariah 3:8 (v2) Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows who sit before you; for they are men who are a sign: for, behold, I will bring out…
- Numbers 9:15-22 (v5) On the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the Tent of the Testimony. At evening it was over the…
- Psalms 27:5 (v6) For in the day of trouble, he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the secret place of his tabernacle, he will hide me. He will lift…
- Psalms 78:14 (v5) In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.
- Luke 10:20 (v3) Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
- Ezekiel 22:18-22 (v4) “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are…
- Isaiah 27:6 (v2) In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit.
- Isaiah 32:2 (v6) A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large…
- Ezekiel 36:25 (v4) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols.
- Zechariah 13:9 (v4) I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will…
- Isaiah 60:21 (vv2–3) Then your people will all be righteous. They will inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be…
- Exodus 32:32-33 (v3) Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.” Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever…
- Psalms 69:28 (v3) Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
- Isaiah 52:1 (v3) Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for from now on the uncircumcised and…
- Joel 2:32 (v2) It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape,…
- Matthew 3:11-12 (v4) I indeed baptize you in water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will…
- Revelation 21:27 (v3) There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the…
- Proverbs 18:10 (v6) Yahweh’s name is a strong tower: the righteous run to him, and are safe.
- Isaiah 8:14 (v6) He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a stumbling stone and a rock that makes them fall. For the people of…
- Isaiah 28:6 (v4) and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
- Jeremiah 33:15 (v2) “In those days and at that time, I will cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David. He will execute justice and righteousness in…
- Ezekiel 36:24-28 (v3) “ ‘ “For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. I will…
- Ezekiel 36:29 (v4) I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you.
- Ezekiel 43:12 (v3) “This is the law of the house. On the top of the mountain the whole limit around it shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the…
- Matthew 23:37 (v4) “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children…
- Romans 11:4-5 (v2) But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then at this…
- Romans 11:5 (v3) Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
- Philippians 4:3 (v3) Yes, I beg you also, true partner, help these women, for they labored with me in the Good News with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow…
- Colossians 3:12 (v3) Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
- Hebrews 12:14 (v3) Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,
- Revelation 3:5 (v3) He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name…
- Revelation 13:8 (v3) All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life…
- Revelation 17:8 (v3) The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth…
- Revelation 20:15 (v3) If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
- Exodus 28:2 (v2) You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.
- Psalms 72:16 (v2) Abundance of grain shall be throughout the land. Its fruit sways like Lebanon. Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field.
- Psalms 85:9 (v5) Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
- Psalms 91:1 (v6) He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
- Psalms 121:5-6 (v6) Yahweh is your keeper. Yahweh is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
- Isaiah 1:15 (v4) When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of…
- Isaiah 1:27 (v3) Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness.
- Isaiah 1:31 (v4) The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”
- Isaiah 3:16-26 (v4) Moreover Yahweh said, “Because the daughters of Zion are arrogant, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking to trip as…
- Isaiah 9:5 (v4) For all the armor of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
- Isaiah 26:20-21 (v4) Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.…
- Isaiah 32:18-19 (v6) My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places, though hail flattens the forest, and the city…
- Isaiah 33:20 (v5) Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won’t be removed. Its…
- Isaiah 37:31-32 (v2) The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem a remnant will…
- Isaiah 46:13 (v5) I bring my righteousness near. It is not far off, and my salvation will not wait. I will grant salvation to Zion, my glory to Israel.
- Isaiah 53:2 (v2) For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no…
- Isaiah 60:1 (v5) “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory has risen on you.
- Jeremiah 44:14 (v2) so that none of the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there, will escape or be left to return into the land of…
- Lamentations 1:9 (v4) Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See,…
- Ezekiel 13:9 (v3) “My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who utter lying divinations. They will not be in the council of my people,…
- Ezekiel 16:6-9 (v4) “ ‘ “When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you,…
- Ezekiel 17:22-23 (v2) “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘I will also take some of the lofty top of the cedar, and will plant it. I will crop off from the topmost of its…
- Ezekiel 22:15 (v4) I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries. I will consume your filthiness out of you.
- Ezekiel 24:7-14 (v4) “ ‘ “For her blood is in the middle of her. She set it on the bare rock. She didn’t pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust. That it…
- Hosea 2:22-23 (v2) and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel. I will sow her to me in the…
- Joel 3:21 (v4) I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed: for Yahweh dwells in Zion.”
- Obadiah 1:17 (v2) But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions.
- Zechariah 3:3-4 (v4) Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. He answered and spoke to those who stood before him,…
- Zechariah 13:1 (v4) “In that day there will be a spring opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
- Zechariah 14:20-21 (v3) In that day there will be on the bells of the horses, “HOLY TO YAHWEH”; and the pots in Yahweh’s house will be like the bowls before the…
- Malachi 4:1 (v4) “For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes…
- John 16:8-11 (v4) When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment; about sin, because they don’t believe in…
- Acts 13:48 (v3) As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
- 2 Corinthians 4:6 (v2) seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory…
- Ephesians 1:4 (v3) even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love,
- Hebrews 6:18 (v6) that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to…
- Hebrews 11:7 (v6) By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which…
- 1 Peter 2:9 (v3) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
- Revelation 7:16 (v6) They will never be hungry or thirsty any more. The sun won’t beat on them, nor any heat;
- Exodus 14:24 (v5) In the morning watch, Yahweh looked out on the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and confused the Egyptian army.
- Psalms 67:6 (v2) The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us.
- Psalms 85:11-12 (v2) Truth springs out of the earth. Righteousness has looked down from heaven. Yes, Yahweh will give that which is good. Our land will yield…
- Psalms 89:7 (v5) a very awesome God in the council of the holy ones, to be feared above all those who are around him?
- Isaiah 10:20-22 (v2) It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again lean on…
- Isaiah 11:1-2 (v2) A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of…
- Isaiah 11:4 (v2) but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of…
- Isaiah 27:12-13 (v2) It will happen in that day that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered…
- Isaiah 30:23 (v2) He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and…
- Isaiah 31:4-5 (v5) For Yahweh says to me, “As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him,…
- Isaiah 45:8 (v2) Rain, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, and let it…
- Jeremiah 44:28 (v2) Those who escape the sword will return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah few in number. All the remnant of Judah, who have…
- Ezekiel 7:16 (v2) But those of those who escape, they will escape and will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, everyone in…
- Ezekiel 11:16 (v6) “Therefore say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the…
- Joel 3:18 (v2) It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow…
- Zechariah 2:5-10 (v5) For I,’ says Yahweh, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her. Come! Come! Flee from the land…
- Zechariah 9:17 (v2) For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.
- Matthew 24:22 (v2) Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.
- Matthew 28:20 (v5) teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Luke 21:36 (v2) Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (112 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2–6 He comforteth the Church in this desolation, which shall…
He comforteth the Church in this desolation, which shall spring up like a bud, signifying that God’s graces should be as plentiful toward the faithful, as though they sprang out of the earth, as Isa. 45:8. Some by the bud of the Lord mean Christ.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Isa 4:2 In that day shall the branch of…
Isa 4:2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth [shall be] excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
Ver. 2. In that day the branch of the Lord.] Here the prophet draweth to a close of this excellent sermon, and he concludeth it as he began, with a gracious promise of the coming and kingdom of Christ, and of the felicity of his subjects, which consisteth, first, In their sanctity; {Isa 4:3-4} secondly, In their security. {Isa 4:5-6} This is more amply set forth in Isa 11:1-16
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The branch of the Lord.] The Lord Christ, the consolation and expectation of Israel, called elsewhere the bud or "branch." {Isa 11:1 Zec 3:8; Zec 6:12} {See Trapp on "Isa 11:1"} {See Trapp on "Zec 3:8"} {See Trapp on "Zec 6:12"} "The dayspring from on high," {Luk 1:78} is by Beza rendered the branch from on high, and the branch of righteousness. {Jer 23:5; Jer 33:15} The Jewish doctors also understand it of the Messiah; Istud germen quod de virga Iesse virore virgineo pullulavit, saith Bernard. The branch of the Lord he is called, saith Oecolampadius, because, being true God, he hath God to his Father in heaven; and the "fruit of the earth," because, being also true man, he had the Virgin to his mother on earth. Ecce habet incarnationis mysterium. Lo, here we have, saith he, the great mystery of "God manifested in the flesh." Others by the "fruit of the earth" here do understand the body of the Church, which is as the plant that groweth out of that branch.
Shall be beautiful and glorious, excellent and comely.] Heb., "Beauty and glory," "excellence and comeliness," or gayness and goodliness, all in the abstract, and yet all too little. All this Christ is and more to his elect, who are here set forth by many titles, as "the escaped of Israel," {a} the "residue in Zion," the "remnant in Jerusalem," the "written among the living there," &c. Saepe autem ad paupertatem aut paucitatem redigitur ecclesia. Howbeit known to the Lord are all his, as well as if he had their names set down in a book.
{a} Evasores Israelis.
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 vv2–6 In that day; about and after that time; when…
In that day; about and after that time; when the Lord shall have washed away (as this time is particularly expressed, Isa 4:4)
the filth of Zion by those dreadful judgments now described. The branch of the Lord; either,
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1. The church and people of Israel, oft called God’s vine or vineyard, as we saw before, and the branch of God’s planting, Isa 60:21. Or,
2. The Messiah, who is commonly defined in Scripture by this title, the Branch, Isa 11:1; Jer 23:5; 33:15; Zec 3:8, whose name is expressly said to be the Branch, Zec 6:12, of whom not only Christians, but even the Hebrew doctors, understand it. For after the foregoing miseries were brought upon the Jews, by the remainders of the Grecian empire, of which Daniel prophesies of exactly and particularly, and afterwards by the Roman empire, the Messiah was born; and after that utter destruction brought upon the Jewish city, and temple, and nation by Titus, the kingdom of the Messiah became
beautiful and glorious, as it here follows.
The fruit of the earth shall be excellent; the land which for the sins of the people was made barren, upon their repentance and return to Christ, shall recover its former fertility. Under this one mercy he seems to understand all temporal blessings, which, together with spiritual and eternal, God shall confer upon them; and withal to intimate the fruitfulness of the people (the earth or land being oft put for its inhabitants,) in knowledge, and grace, and all good works.
That are escaped; that shall survive all the forementioned calamities.
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 v2 By the foregoing threatenings Jerusalem is brought into a…
By the foregoing threatenings Jerusalem is brought into a very deplorable condition: every thing looks melancholy. But here the sun breaks out from behind the cloud. Many exceedingly great and precious promises we have in these verses, giving assurance of comfort which may be discerned through the troubles, and of happy days which shall come after them, and these certainly point at the kingdom of the Messiah, and the great redemption to be wrought out by him, under the figure and type of the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem by the reforming reign of Hezekiah after Ahaz and the return out of their captivity in Babylon; to both these events the passage may have some reference, but chiefly to Christ. It is here promised, as the issue of all these troubles,
I. That God will raise up a righteous branch, which shall produce fruits of righteousness (Isa 4:2): In that day, that same day, at that very time, when Jerusalem shall be destroyed and the Jewish nation extirpated and dispersed, the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up; and then shall be the reviving of the church, when every one shall fear the utter ruin of it.
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1. Christ himself shall be exalted. He is the branch of the Lord, the man the branch; it is one of prophetical names, my servant the branch (Zac 3:8; Zac 6:12), the branch of righteousness (Jer 23:5; Jer 33:15), a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch out of his roots (Isa 11:1), and this, as some think, is alluded to when he is called a Nazarene, Mat 2:23. Here he is called the branch of the Lord, because planted by his power and flourishing to his praise. The ancient Chaldee paraphrase here reads it, The Christ, or Messiah, of the Lord. He shall be the beauty, and glory, and joy. (1.) He shall himself be advanced to the joy set before him and the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. He that was a reproach of men, whose visage was marred more than any man's, is now, in the upper world, beautiful and glorious, as the sun in his strength, admired and adored by angels. (2.) He shall be beautiful and glorious in the esteem of all believers, shall gain an interest in the world, and a name among men above every name. To those that believe he is precious, he is an honour (Pe1 2:7), the fairest of ten thousand (Sol 5:10), and altogether glorious. Let us rejoice that he is so, and let him be so to us.
2. His gospel shall be embraced. The success of the gospel is the fruit of the branch of the Lord; all the graces and comforts of the gospel spring from Christ. But it is called the fruit of the earth because it sprang up in this world and was calculated for the present state. And Christ compares himself to a grain of wheat, that falls into the ground and dies, and so brings forth much fruit, Joh 12:24. The success of the gospel is represented by the earth's yielding her increase (Psa 67:6), and the planting of the Christian church is God's sowing it to himself in the earth, Hos 2:23. We may understand it of both the persons and the things that are the products of the gospel: they shall be excellent and comely, shall appear very agreeable and be very acceptable to those that have escaped of Israel, to that remnant of the Jews which was saved from perishing with the rest in unbelief, Rom 11:5. Note, If Christ be precious to us, his gospel will be so and all its truths and promises - his church will be so, and all that belong to it. These are the good fruit of the earth, in comparison with which all other things are but weeds. It will be a good evidence to us that we are of the chosen remnant, distinguished from the rest that are called Israel, and marked for salvation, if we are brought to see a transcendent beauty in Christ, and in holiness, and in the saints, the excellent ones of the earth. As a type of this blessed day, Jerusalem, after Sennacherib's invasion and after the captivity in Babylon, should again flourish as a branch, and be blessed with the fruits of the earth. Compare Isa 37:31, Isa 37:32. The remnant shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. And if by the fruit of the earth here we understand the good things of this life, we may observe that these have peculiar sweetness in them to the chosen remnant, who, having a covenant - right to them, have the most comfortable use of them. If the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious in our eyes, even the fruit of the earth also will be excellent and comely, because then we may take it as the fruit of the promise, Psa 37:16; Ti1 4:8.
II. That God will reserve to himself a holy seed, Isa 4:3. When the generality of those that have a place and a name in Zion and in Jerusalem shall be cut off as withered branches, by their own unbelief, yet some shall be left. Some shall remain, some shall still cleave to the church, when its property is altered and it has become Christian; for God will not quite cast off his people, Rom 11:1. There is here and there one that is left. Now, 1. This is a remnant according to the election of grace (as the apostle speaks, Rom 11:5), such as are written among the living, marked in the counsel and fore-knowledge of God for life and salvation, written to life (so the word is), designed and determined for it unalterably; for "what I have written I have written." Those that are kept alive in killing dying times were written for life in the book of divine Providence; and shall we not suppose those who are rescued from a greater death to be such as were written in the Lamb's book of life? Rev 13:8. As many as were ordained unto eternal life believed to the salvation of the soul, Act 13:48. Note, All that were written among the living shall be found among the living, every one; for of all that were given to Christ he will lose none. 2. It is a remnant under the dominion of grace; for every one that is written among the living, and is accordingly left, shall be called holy, shall be holy, and shall be accepted of God accordingly. Those only that are holy shall be left when the Son of man shall gather out of his kingdom every thing that offends; and all that are chosen to salvation are chosen to sanctification. See Th2 2:13; Eph 1:4.
III. That God will reform his church and will rectify and amend whatever is amiss in it, Isa 4:4. Then the remnant shall be called holy, when the Lord shall have washed away their filth, washed it from among them by cutting off the wicked persons, washed it from within them by purging out the wicked thing. They shall not be called so till they are in some measure made so. Gospel times are times of reformation (Heb 9:10), typified by the reformation in the days of Hezekiah and that after captivity, to which this promise refers. Observe, 1. The places and persons to be reformed. Jerusalem, though the holy city, needed reformation; and, being the holy city, the reformation of that would have a good influence upon the whole kingdom. The daughters of Zion also must be reformed, the women in a particular manner, whom he had reproved, Isa 3:16. When they were decked in their ornaments they thought themselves wondrously clean; but, being proud of them, the prophet call them their filth, for no sin is more abominable to God than pride. Or by the daughters of Zion may be meant the country towns and villages, which were related to Jerusalem as the mother-city, and which needed reformation. 2. The reformation itself. The filth shall be washed away; for wickedness is filthiness, particularly blood-shed, for which Jerusalem was infamous (Kg2 21:16), and which defiles the land more than any other sin. Note, The reforming of a city is the cleansing of it. When vicious customs and fashions are suppressed, and the open practice of wickedness is restrained, the place is made clean and sweet which before was a dunghill; and this is not only for its credit and reputation among strangers, but for the comfort and health of the inhabitants themselves. 3. The author of the reformation: The Lord shall do it. Reformation-work is God's work; if any thing be done to purpose in it, it is his doing. But how? By the judgment of his providence the sinners were destroyed and consumed; but it is by the Spirit of his grace that they are reformed and converted. This is the work that is done, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts (Zac 4:6), working both upon the sinners themselves that are to be reformed and upon magistrates, ministers, and others that are to be employed as instruments of reformation. The Spirit herein acts, (1.) As a spirit of judgment, enlightening the mind, convincing the conscience, - as a spirit of wisdom, guiding us to deal prudently, (Isa 52:13), - as a discerning, distinguishing, Spirit, separating between the precious and the vile. (2.) As a Spirit of burning, quickening and invigorating the afflictions, and making men zealously affected in a good work. The Spirit works as fire, Mat 3:11. An ardent love to Christ and souls, and a flaming zeal against sin, will carry men on with resolution in their endeavours to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. See Isa 32:15, Isa 32:16.
IV. That God will protect his church, and all that belong to it (Isa 4:5, Isa 4:6); when they are purified and reformed they shall no longer lie exposed, but God will take a particular care of them. Those that are sanctified are well fortified; for God will be to them a guide and a guard.
1. Their tabernacles shall be defended, Isa 4:5.
(1.) This writ of protection refers to, [1.] Their dwelling places, the tabernacles of their rest, their own houses, where they worship God alone, and with their families. That blessing which is upon the habitation of the just shall be a protection to it, Pro 3:33. In the tabernacles of the righteous shall the voice of rejoicing and salvation be, Psa 118:15. Note, God takes particular cognizance and care of the dwelling-places of his people, of every one of them, the poorest cottage as well as the statliest palace. When iniquity is put far from the tabernacle the Almighty shall be its defence, Job 23:23, 26. [2.] Their assemblies or tabernacles of meeting for religious worship. No mention is made of the temple, for the promise points at a time when not one stone of that shall be left upon another; but all the congregations of Christians, though but two or three met together in Christ's name, shall be taken under the special protection of heaven; they shall be no more scattered, no more disturbed, nor shall any weapon formed against them prosper. Note, we ought to reckon it a great mercy if we have liberty to worship God in public, free from the alarms of the sword of war or persecution.
(2.) This writ of protection is drawn up, [1.] In a similitude taken from the safety of the camp of Israel when they marched through the wilderness. God will give to the Christian church as real proofs, though not so sensible, of his care of them, as he then gave to Israel. The Lord will again create a cloud and smoke by day, to screen them from the scorching heat of the sun, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, to enlighten and warm the air, which in the night is cold and dark. See Exo 13:21; Neh 9:19. This pillar of cloud and fire interposed between the Israelites and the Egyptians, Exo 14:20. Note, Though miracles have ceased, yet God is the same to the New Testament church that he was to Israel of old; the very same yesterday, today, and for ever. [2.] In a similitude taken from the outside cover of rams' skins and badgers' skins that was upon the curtains of the tabernacle, as if every dwelling place of Mount Zion and every assembly were as dear to God as that tabernacle was: Upon all the glory shall be a defense, to save it from wind and weather. Note, The church on earth has its glory. Gospel truths and ordinances, the scriptures and the ministry, are the church's glory; and upon all this glory there is a defence, and ever shall be, for the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. If God himself be the glory in the midst of it, he will himself be a wall of fire around about it, impenetrable and impregnable. Grace in the soul is the glory of it, and those that have it are kept by the power of God as in a strong-hold, Pe1 1:5.
2. Their tabernacle shall be a defence to them, Isa 4:6. God's tabernacle was a pavilion to the saints (Psa 27:5); but, when that is taken down, they shall not want a covert: the divine power and goodness shall be a tabernacle to all the saints. God himself will be their hiding-place (Psa 32:7); they shall be at home in him, Psa 91:9. He will himself be to them as the shadow of a great rock (Isa 32:2) and his name a strong tower, Pro 18:10. He will be not only a shadow from the heat in the daytime, but a covert from storm and rain. Note, In this world we must expect change of weather and all the inconveniences that attend it; we shall meet with storm and rain in this lower region, and at other times the heat of the day no less burdensome; but God is a refuge to his people in all weathers.
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 vv2–6 In that day shall the branch of the Lord…
In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious,.... When the beauty of the Jewish women shall be taken away, and their men shall he slain; by whom is meant, not the righteous and wise men left among the Jews, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; nor Hezekiah; which is the sense of some, as the latter observes: but the Messiah, as Kimchi, and so the Targum, which paraphrases the words thus,
"at that time shall the Messiah of the Lord be for joy and glory;''
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and the Septuagint understand it of a divine Person appearing on earth, rendering the words, "for in that day God shall shine in counsel with glory upon the earth"; and so the Arabic version. Christ is called "the branch", not as God, but as man, not as a son, but as a servant, as Mediator; and it chiefly regards his descent from David, and when his family was very mean and low; and a branch being but a tender thing, it denotes Christ's state of humiliation on earth, when he grew up as a tender plant before the Lord, and was contemptible in the eyes of men: and he is called the branch "of the Lord", because of his raising up, and bringing forth; see Zac 3:8 and yet this branch became "beautiful", being laden with the fruits of divine grace, such as righteousness, reconciliation, peace, pardon, adoption, sanctification, and eternal life; as well as having all his people as branches growing on him, and receiving their life and fruitfulness from him: and "glorious", being the branch made strong to do the work of the Lord, by his obedience and death; and especially he became glorious when raised from the dead, when he ascended up to heaven, and was exalted there at the right hand of God; and when his Gospel was spread and his kingdom increased in the Gentile world, as it did, both before and after the destruction of Jerusalem, the time here referred to; and which will he in a more glorious condition in the last days; and now he is glorious in the eyes of all that believe in him, and is glorified by them; and when he comes a second time, he will appear in his own and his father's glory, and in the glory of the holy angels.
And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely; not the children of the righteous, as Jarchi; nor , "the doers of the law", as the Targum; see Rom 2:13 but the Messiah, as before, as Kimchi well observes; called "the fruit of the earth", to show that he is not a dry and withered, but a fruitful branch, and which should fill the earth with fruit; and because he sprung from the earth as man, and was the fruit of a woman, that was of the earth, earthly; and so this, as the former, denotes the meanness of Christ in human nature, while here on earth; and yet he became, as these words foretold be should, "excellent": he appeared to be excellent in his person as the Son of God, and to have a more excellent name and nature than the angels, and fairer than the sons of men; to be excellent as the cedars, and more excellent than the mountains of prey; to have obtained a more excellent ministry than Aaron and his sons; to be excellent in all his offices of Prophet, Priest, and King; and particularly in the fruits and blessings of grace, which grew upon him, and came from him; see Deu 33:13 "and comely", in his person, as God and man, in the perfections of his divine nature, and in the fulness of his grace; and so are his people, as considered in him, who are made perfectly comely, through the comeliness he puts upon them: and so he is
for them that are escaped of Israel; not beautiful and glorious; excellent and comely, in the view of all men, only them that believe, who have seen his glory, and have tasted that he is gracious; these are the remnant according to the election of grace, the preserved of Israel, the chosen of God, and precious, who were saved from that untoward generation, the Jews, and escaped the destruction of Jerusalem, and were saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.
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 vv2–6 In that day - About that time: when the…
In that day - About that time: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of Zion, by those dreadful judgments now described. The branch - The Messiah. The earth - The land which for the sins of the people was made barren, upon their return to Christ shall recover its fertility. Under this one mercy he includes all temporal blessings, together with spiritual and eternal. For them - That shall survive all the forementioned calamities.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Verse 2. The branch of the Lord - "the…
Verse 2. The branch of the Lord - "the branch of JEHOVAH"] The Messiah of JEHOVAH, says the Chaldee. And Kimchi says, The Messiah, the Son of David. The branch is an appropriate title of the Messiah; and the fruit of the land means the great Person to spring from the house of Judah, and is only a parallel expression signifying the same; or perhaps the blessings consequent upon the redemption procured by him. Compare Isa 45:8, where the same great event is set forth under similar images, and see the note there.
Them that are escaped of Israel - "the escaped of the house of Israel."] A MS. has בית ישראל beith yisrael, the house of Israel.
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 vv2–6 Isa 4:2. In that day — About and after…
Isa 4:2. In that day — About and after that time, when the Lord shall have washed away (as this time is particularly expressed, Isa 4:4,) the filth of Zion, by those dreadful judgments now described. The third part of this discourse, the reader will observe, begins here, in which is set forth the flourishing state of the remnant of the Jews after the times of the former calamity. Shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious — The church and people of Israel may be here intended by the branch of the Lord, being often called God’s vine, or vineyard, as we have seen before, and the branch of his planting, Isa 60:21. It is a metaphorical expression, taken from a tree cut down, which, notwithstanding, sprouts forth anew from the root, by young suckers, and brings forth many trees. And thus the prophet foretels, that, notwithstanding the grievous calamities and great destructions which he had predicted, and which would certainly come to pass, yet, nevertheless, the small remainder of them which should return out of captivity, with those that should be left in the land, when it was laid desolate by the Chaldeans, should increase into a great people. And to them the fruit of the earth should be excellent and comely — That is, through the abundant produce of the land they should be made rich, and should be rendered respectable to the neighbouring nations. This seems to be the primary and most obvious meaning of the passage, considered in connection with what precedes and follows. The Chaldee Paraphrast, however, says, the branch here means the Messiah of Jehovah, and of him many Jewish doctors, as well as Christian commentators, understand the expression. Certainly he is frequently signified, in Scripture, by this title, the branch: see Isa 11:1; Jer 23:5; Jer 33:15; Zec 3:1; and, in one place, namely, Zec 6:12, his name is expressly said to be the branch. Understood of him, the meaning of the passage must be, that after the foregoing miseries had been brought upon the Jews, and they had been restored to their own land; and after they had been chastised and purified still more, by the calamities brought upon them by Antiochus Epiphanes and other princes of the Grecian empire, and by the Romans under Pompey, the Messiah should be born; and that, after the utter destruction which should be brought upon the Jewish city, temple, and nation, by Titus, the Roman general, the kingdom of the Messiah should become beautiful and glorious, as is here expressed. According to this interpretation, the expression, in that day, in the beginning of the verse, must be considered as used with great latitude, as it often is by this prophet, signifying, as Lowth observes, “not the same time with that which was last mentioned, but an extraordinary season, remarkable for some signal events of providence, called elsewhere, by way of excellence, the day of the Lord, just as that day denotes the day of judgment in the New Testament, as being a time of all others the most remarkable; see 2Th 1:10; 2Ti 1:12; 2Ti 1:18; 2Ti 4:8. “It is usual,” says Grotius, “for the prophets to pass from the threatenings that relate to their own times, to the promises which belong to the times of the gospel.” It may be further observed here, that the Scriptures often speak of great tribulations, as preceding, and preparing the way for, the enlargement and prosperity of Christ’s kingdom. In consistency with this application of the passage, by the fruit of the earth, here said to be excellent and comely, must be meant the spiritual blessings of the gospel, frequently described under the emblems of the fruitfulness of the earth and plenty. And by them that are escaped of Israel, we must understand those Jews who, the prophet foresaw, would be converted by the preaching of Christ and his apostles, and should thereby escape that vengeance which would involve the rest of their nation. This accords well with the following verses of the chapter.
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 vv2–6 The branch of the Lord - צמח יהוה yehovâh…
The branch of the Lord - צמח יהוה yehovâh tsemach. “The sprout” of Yahweh. This expression, and this verse, have had a great variety of interpretations. The Septuagint reads it, ‘In that day God shall shine in counsel with glory upon the earth, to exalt, and to glorify the remnant of Israel.’ The Chaldee renders it, ‘In that day, the Messiah of the Lord shall be for joy and glory, and the doers of the law for praise and honor to those of Israel who are delivered.’ It is clear that the passage is designed to denote some signal blessing that was to succeed the calamity predicted in the previous verses. The only question is, to what has the prophet reference? The word ‘branch’ (צמח tsemach) is derived from the verb (צמח tsâmach) signifying “to sprout, to spring up,” spoken of plants. Hence, the word “branch” means properly that which “shoots up,” or “sprouts” from the root of a tree, or from a decayed tree; compare Job 14:7-9.
The Messiah is thus said to be ‘a root of Jesse,’ Rom 11:12; compare Isa 11:1, note; Isa 11:10, note; and ‘the root and offspring of David,’ Rev 22:16, as being a “descendant” of Jesse; that is, as if Jesse should fall like an aged tree, yet the “root” would sprout up and live. The word ‘branch’ occurs several times in the Old Testament, and in most, if not all, with express reference to the Messiah; Jer 23:5 : ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign;’ Jer 33:15 : ‘In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David;’ Zec 3:8; Zec 6:12. In all these places, there can be no doubt that there is reference to him who was “to spring up” from David, as a sprout does from a decayed and fallen tree, and who is, therefore, called a “root,” a “branch” of the royal stock. There is, besides, a special beauty in the figure.
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The family of David, when the Messiah was to come, would be fallen into decay and almost extinct. Joseph, the husband of Mary, though of the royal family of David Mat 1:20; Luk 2:4, was poor, and the family had lost all claims to the throne. In this state, as from the decayed root of a fallen tree, a “sprout” or “branch” was to come forth with more than the magnificence of David, and succeed him on the throne. The name ‘branch,’ therefore, came to be significant of the Messiah, and to be synonymous with ‘the son of David.’ It is so used, doubtless, in this place, as denoting that the coming of the Messiah would be a joy and honor in the days of calamity to the Jews. Interpreters have not been agreed, however, in the meaning of this passage. Grotius supposed that it referred to Ezra or Nehemiah, but ‘mystically to Christ and Christians.’ Vogellius understood it of the “remnant” that should return from the Babylonian captivity. Michaelis supposed that it refers to the Jews, who should be a “reformed” people after their captivity, and who should spring up with a new spirit. Others have regarded it as a poetic description of the extraordinary fertility of the earth in future times. The reasons for referring it to the Messiah are plain:
(1) The word has this reference in other places, and the representation of the Messiah under the image of a branch or shoot, is, as we have seen, common in the Scriptures. Thus, also, in Isa 53:2, he is called also שׁרשׁ shoresh, root, and יונק yônēq, a tender plant, a sucker, sprout, shoot, as of a decayed tree; compare Job 8:16; Job 14:7; Job 15:30; Eze 17:22. And in reference to the same idea, perhaps, it is said, Isa 53:8, that he was נגזר nı̂gezar, “cut off,” as a branch, sucker, or shoot is cut off by the vine-dresser or farmer from the root of a decayed tree. And thus, in Rev 5:5, he is called ῥίζα Δαβὶδ riza Dabid - the root of David.
(2) This interpretation accords best with the “magnificence” of the description, Isa 4:5-6; and,
(3) It was so understood by the Chaldee interpreter, and, doubtless, by the ancient Jews.
Shall be beautiful and glorious - Hebrew, ‘Shall be beauty and glory;’ that is, shall be the chief ornament or honor of the land; shall be that which gives to the nation its chief distinction and glory. In such times of calamity, his coming shal be an object of desire, and his approach shall shed a rich splendor on that period of the world.
And the fruit of the earth - הארץ פרי perı̂y hâ'ârets correctly rendered “fruit of the earth, or of the land.” The word ‘earth’ is often in the Scriptures used to denote the land of Judea, and perhaps the article here is intended to denote that that land is particularly intended. This is the parallel expression to the former part of the verse, in accordance with the laws of Hebrew poetry, by which one member of a sentence expresses substantially the same meaning as the former; see the Introduction, Section 8. If the former expression referred to the “Messiah,” this does also. The ‘fruit of the earth’ is that which the earth produces, and is here not different in signification from the “branch” which springs out of the ground. Vitringa supposes that by this phrase the Messiah, according to his human nature, is meant. So Hengstenberg (“Christology, in loc.”) understands it; and supposes that as the phrase “branch of Yahweh” refers to his divine origin, as proceeding from Yahweh; so this refers to his human origin, as proceeding from the earth. But the objections to this are obvious:
(1) The second phrase, according to the laws of Hebrew parallelism, is most naturally an echo or repetition of the sentiment in the first member, and means substantially the same thing.
(2) The phrase ‘branch of Yahweh’ does not refer of necessity to his divine nature. The idea is that of a decayed tree that has fallen down, and has left a living root which sends up a shoot, or sucker; and can be applied with great elegance to the decayed family of David. But how, or in what sense, can this be applied to Yahweh? Is Yahweh thus fallen and decayed? The idea properly is, that this shoot of a decayed family should be nurtured up by Yahweh; should be appointed by him, and should thus be “his” branch. The parallel member denotes substantially the same thing; ‘the fruit of the earth’ - the shoot which the earth produces - or which springs up from a decayed family, as the sprout does from a fallen tree.
(3) It is as true that his human nature proceeded from God as his divine. It was produced by the Holy Spirit, and can no more be regarded as ‘the fruit of the earth’ than his divine nature; Luk 1:35; Heb 10:5.
(4) This mode of interpretation is suited to bring the whole subject into contempt. There are plain and positive passages enough to prove that the Messiah had a divine nature, and there are enough also to prove that he was a man; but nothing is more adapted to produce disgust in relation to the whole subject, in the minds of skeptical or of thinking men, than a resort to arguments such as this in defense of a great and glorious doctrine of revelation.
Shall be excellent - Shall be “for exaltation,” or “honor.”
Comely - Hebrew, ‘For an ornament;’ meaning that “he” would be an honor to those times.
For them that are escaped of Israel - Margin, ‘The escaping of Israel.’ For the remnant, the small number that shall escape the calamities - a description of the pious portion of Israel which now escaped from all calamities - would rejoice in the anticipated blessings of the Messiah’s reign, or would participate in the blessings of that reign. The idea is not, however, that the number who would be saved would be “small,” but that they would be characterized as those who had “escaped,” or who had been rescued.
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 vv2–5 Bud. That is, Christ, (Challoner) who was faintly prefigured…
Bud. That is, Christ, (Challoner) who was faintly prefigured by Zorobabel, Zacharias iii. 8. Our Saviour was the fruit of the earth, and sovereign Lord. (Calmet)
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 v2 C.—The second prophetic lamp, which, in the light of…
C.—The second prophetic lamp, which, in the light of the glorious divine fruit of the last time, makes known the bad fruits of the present
Isa_4:2 to Isa_5:30
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1. THE SECOND PROPHETIC LAMP ITSELF AND THE GLORIOUS DIVINE FRUIT OF THE FUTURE DISPLAYED BY IT
Isa_4:2-6
2 In that day shall 1the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious21,
And the fruit of the earth shall be 3excellent and comely
4For them that are escaped of Israel,
3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion,
And he that remaineth in Jerusalem,
Shall be called holy,
Even every one that is written 5among the living in Jerusalem;
4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion,
And shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof
By the 6 spirit of judgment, and by the cspirit of 7 burning.
5 And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion,
And upon her assemblies,
8A cloud and smoke by day,
And the shining of a naming fire by night:
For 9upon all the glory shall be 10a defence.
6 And there shall be a 11tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat,
And for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_4:2. צְבִי vid. Isa_13:19; Isa_23:9; Isa_24:16; Isa_28:1; Isa_28:4-5.—גאון and תפאדת occur again together only Isa_13:19.—פְּלֵיטָה abst., pro concr., comp. Isa_3:25; Isa_10:20; Isa_15:9; Isa_37:31 sq.
Isa_4:3. Niph. נֶאֱֽמַר is a peculiarity of Isaiah. It is found in no book of the Old Testament, relatively so often as in our prophet: Isa_19:18; Isa_32:5; Isa_61:6; Isa_62:4 (bis.).—The construction כתוב לחיים is dubious, כָּתַב in this sense is nowhere else construed with לְ, unless perhaps Isa_44:5 (wh. see) may be compared. חיים may be abstractum (vita) or concretum (vivi).
Isa_4:4. רחץ occurs again in Isaiah only Isa_1:16.—צאָה in Isaiah again only Isa_28:8, and Isa_37:12, K’ri.—The verb הֵדִיחַ is found only in the Hiphil; in Isaiah it occurs only here; it is found elsewhere only in Jer_51:34; Eze_40:38; 2Ch_4:6. As the parallel passages show, it means: “wash away, rinse away,” and thereby cleanse. It is therefore synonymous with רָחַץ.
Isa_4:5. מִקְרָא which occurs here and Isa_1:13 in Isaiah, and in Neh_8:8 (where it seems to mean “lecture”), occurs elsewhere only in the Pentateuch. There, too, with the exception of Num_10:2, where the מִקְרָאהָעֵדָה convocatio coetus is indicated as the object of the use of the trumpets, it is always joined with קֹדֶשׁ: Exo_12:16; Lev_23:2 sq.; Num_28:18; Num_28:25 sq; Isa_29:1; Isa_29:7; Isa_29:12. It is therefore a liturgical term, and means the assembling of the congregation.—עָנָן occurs again in Isaiah only Isa_44:22. But עָשָׁן he often uses: Isa_6:4; Isa_9:17; Isa_14:31; Isa_34:10; Isa_51:6; Isa_65:5. Moreover נֹגַהּ, which does not occur in the Pentateuch, is peculiar to Isa_50:10; Isa_60:3; Isa_60:19; Isa_62:1; comp. Isa_9:1; Isa_13:10. So too להבה flame never occurs in the Pentateuch, except in Num_21:28, where it is not used of the pillar of fire. But it is found in Isa_5:24; Isa_10:17; Isa_43:2; Isa_47:14. He intimates by it that one must picture to himself, not an even, steady gleam of fire, but an agitated flaming fire. כי על־ל־כבוד וגו׳. I join these words to what follows, as Hitzig also does. The Masoretic division is probably occasioned by the fact that the preceding sentence from וּבָרָא to לילה present no strongly marked point for setting an Athnach. But this, as is well known, is not at all necessary; comp. Isa_4:4; Isa_5:3. And besides, if one disjoins these words from the following, he must conceive such a verb as decet supplied, or at least a תִהְיֶה, shall be. But this is hardly admissible, which those, too, maintain who take חֻפָּה as Pual (“For all that is glorious shall be defended” Gesenius; Knobel somewhat differently.—חֻפָּה occurs beside this place only in Psa_19:6, and Joe_2:16 in the sense of “bridal chamber, bridal canopied bed.” And so it means here a protecting cover, and sheltering baldachin.
Isa_4:6. On סֻכָּה booth, see Isa_1:8, the only other place where it occurs in Isaiah.—The expressions צֵל מֵחֹרֶב and מַחְסֶה מִזֶּרֶם recur Isa_25:4—צֵל vid. Isa_16:3; Isa_25:5; Isa_30:2; Isa_49:2 etc.—הֹרֵב Isa_25:5; Isa_61:4.—מַֽחֲסֶה Isa_28:15; Isa_28:17.—מִסְתּוֹר (comp. סֵתֶר זֶרֶם Isa_32:2 and מסְתּוֹר Isa_45:3) is ἅπ. λεγ.—זֶרֶם is a word of frequent recurrence in the first part of Isaiah. Besides the passages already cited see Isa_28:2 (bis.); Isa_30:30. Beside those only Job_24:8, and Hab_3:10.—מָטָר again in Isa_5:6; Isa_30:23.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Just at that time, i.e., at the time to which the parallel passage Isa_2:2-4 refers, the rescued ones of Israel shall partake of a glory that shall appear as fruit of the life that Jehovah Himself shall produce (Isa_4:2). In consequence of that all that still remain in Jerusalem shall be called holy, all whose names shall be written in the book of life (Isa_4:3). But the ones left remaining are those that shall be present when all moral filth and all blood-guiltiness shall have been cleansed away by the tempest of the divine judgment (Isa_4:4). Then shall Jehovah hover over each house and over the assembled total of the dwellers of Jerusalem, as formerly over the tabernacle, with a cloud by day, with smoke and appearance of fire by night (Isa_4:5), for the presence of the glory of Jehovah shall be protection and shelter against every attack (Isa_4:6).
2. I regard this section as parallel member to Isa_2:2-4. Like that, it transports us into the last time: like that, it sets before our eyes the glory that Israel shall then enjoy. Only there is this difference, that, whereas Isa_2:2-4 describes the outward eminence and exaltation of Zion, as the central point of dominion over all nations, Isa_4:2-6 rather describes the inward glory of Zion as one that is now purified and sanctified. For the tempest of judgment has cleansed away all morally impure and ungodly elements. Whatever personal life remains in Zion is a divine scion, and therefore whatever the land produces must be glorious divine fruit. And as in the wilderness the cloud by day and the appearance of fire by night was over the Tabernacle, so shall every single house in Israel and the whole congregation in its entirety be marked as the holy abode of Jehovah by the glorious signs of His presence warding off every hostile storm. This is the second prophetic lamp with which the prophet, so to speak, stretches his arm far out and illuminates the distant future. But as in Isa_2:5 to Isa_4:1 he sets the present that lies between (we comprehend all that precedes that last time as present) in the light of that prophetic word Isa_2:2-4, and by this means makes manifest the immense difference between the present and the future, so he does likewise here. I am of the opinion therefore that 5. has the same subordinate relation to Isa_4:2-4 that Isa_2:5 to Isa_4:1 has to Isa_2:2-4. That 5. is not independent, but integral part of the prophecy that begins with Isa_2:1, has already been asserted by Forerius, Vogel, Doederlein, Jahn, Hitzig, Ewald (comp. Caspari, Beitr, p. 234). I maintain the same, only I have other grounds for it than they. If one were to assume with Caspari (int. al. p. 300) that the passage Isa_2:2-4, “is not in the proper sense prophecy; they are repeated, quoted, recited by Isaiah, as a prophecy given to Israel by another prophet, for the purpose of joining on to it the warning and reproof of Isa_2:5-8,”—then indeed must Isa_4:2-6 be regarded as the promise appertaining to Isa_2:5 to Isa_4:1.
But that assumption of Caspari is as unnatural as can be. The glorious words of Micah must be no prophecy! But they are so per se. This cannot be controverted. They must serve only as “points of departure and connection!” That would need to be indicated. Then Isaiah must have presented them in a form that would reveal at once that he employs the words only as introduction to his address proper. They must be separated from the discourse of Isaiah, and be expressly designated as a citation by some sort of historical reference. But such is not the case. Isaiah make the words entirely his own. He does not say that they are borrowed from another: those informed know it and draw their own conclusion; but that is another thing. The main thing is that the Lord has so said, and therefore Isaiah too may use the words and found his discourse on it.
It is clear as day and undisputed that Isaiah from Isa_2:2 to Isa_4:1 shows the false estimate of human glory in the light of the divine. But just as clear, it seems to me, is it that Isaiah, in 4 and 5, also contemplates, as it were, the condition of the fruits in the field of the hearts of Israel in the present in the light of the fruitage that, in the last time, shall be produced on the soil of the judged and purified Israel. For Isa_4:2, “the Branch,” and “Fruit of the earth” are evidently the main ideas. These both shall become glorious. This, however, is explained Isa_4:3 : all that then remain in Zion shall be called holy, because the tempest of judgment has removed from Zion all pollution and all guilt. Then shall both, each individual and the totality, be fully as secure a dwelling place of Jehovah as once the Tabernacle was.
Therefore the prophet speaks Isa_4:2-6 also of a glory indeed, but of a different one from Isa_2:2-4. In the latter place he has in view more that glory which in that time Israel shall develop externally: it shall as the solitary eminence of the earth shine far around, and all nations shall flow to this eminence. But Isa_4:2 sq. speaks of that glory that is identical with holiness, the notion “holy” taken in the sense of sanctus and sacer: this glory, however, is first of all inward. But as that outward glory takes the inward for granted, which is indicated Isa_2:3 by the terms “out of Zion shall go forth the law,” etc., so, too, the inward glory cannot last without the outward, which is expressed Isa_4:2 by the terms “beautiful and glorious, excellent and comely,” and plainly enough in Isa_4:5-6. When now we read in chap. 5 of a vineyard that produces wild grapes instead of grapes, and when Isa_5:7, this is expressly interpreted to mean that Jehovah has found in the field of the hearts of Israel bloodshed and the cry of woe instead of judgment and righteousness, and when, after that, this evil fruit is more particularly characterized in the following sixfold woe, can we then in the least doubt that the section that treats of the bad fruits of the present stands in the same relation to the section immediately preceding which describes the glorious fruits of the last time, that the section Isa_2:5 to Isa_4:1 concerning false great things does to the section that immediately precedes it, and that describes the true divine greatness.
I do not suppose that this would ever have been doubted, did not chap. 5 appear so independent, so peculiar, so distinct in itself and well rounded, and were not suddenly Isa_4:1, a totally different tone assumed; I mean the parable tone. But we must not overlook the relationship of the contents because of the difference in the form. This relationship will appear plainer as we contemplate the particulars: but we must at this point draw attention to one thing. As Isa_2:5 to Isa_4:1 the outward decay appears as symptom and consequence of the inward, so in chap. 5 the inward decay appears as the root from which the outward develops by an inevitable necessity. According to this the two dominant passages Isa_2:2-4 and Isa_4:2-6 stand in an analogous inverted relation, like the sections governed by them Isa_2:5 to Isa_4:1, and chap. 5.
Finally let it be noticed here, what we shall prove in particular further on, that in Isa_4:2-6, as a matter of course, there occur back looks or references to what has preceded. (Comp. e. g. Isa_4:4) This cannot be otherwise, in as much as Isa_4:2 to Isa_5:30 is the second organic half of the great second portal of Isaiah’s prophecies. But noticing this does not in the least hinder the assertion that section Isa_4:2-6 in the main looks forward and not backward.
3. In that day,—spirit of burning.
Isa_4:2-4. By the words “in that day” the prophet refers back to “in the last days” Isa_2:2. For according to all that we have just laid down, Isa_4:2-6 stands parallel with Isa_2:2-4, both as to time and subject matter. This last time may have begun since the birth of Christ, but it is not finished; it is fulfilled by degrees through many a rising and subsiding. In this last time, therefore, shall “the branch” and “the fruit of the earth” be for beauty and honor, splendor and glory to the saved ones of Israel. What is צֶמַח י׳ “branch?” The word means germinatio, the sprouting, and means first of all, not a single sprout, but sprouting in general, and the total of all that sprouts. Thus it means Gen_19:25 : “And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground” (וְצֶמַח הָאֲדָמָה). So again we read, Eze_16:7 : “I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field” (כְּצֶמַח הַשָּׂדֶה) i.e. I have made thee like the vegetation of the field. Again Hos_8:7 : “It hath no stalk, the bud (צֶמַח) shall yield no meal.” The word has the same meaning also Isa_61:11; Psa_65:11. In Eze_17:9-10, the abstract meaning germinatio predominates. If now we compare Jer_23:5; Jer_33:15, we find that there “righteous Branch” (צֶמַח צַדִּיק) means a single personality. “I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as King, and shall prosper, and execute judgment and justice in the land; in his days,” etc. Notice the singular after Branch. So too, Jer_33:15. In Zechariah, however, we find צֶמַחTzemach, has become altogether a proper name. “Behold I will bring forth my servant Tzemach, (Branch),” Zec_3:8. And Zec_6:12 : “Behold the man whose name is Tzemach, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. “If we agree with expositors that refer the Tzemach of Jer. and Zech. (which in them, beyond all doubt, means the Messiah), to our passage as its original source, still the conclusion must not be countenanced that the word is to be taken in the same meaning in our passage as in Jer. and Zech. For in our passage a condition, habitus, is evidently described, not a personality. “Fruit of the land” stands as correlative of “Branch of Jehovah.” This is so general and comprehensive an expression, that it is impossible to understand by it any single fruit, even though it were the noblest. The passages Isa_11:1; Isa_11:10; Isa_53:2, do not contradict this. For just in those passages the Messiah is designated, not as the fruit of the land, (or of the earth), in general, but a shoot out of the root of Jesse. “Fruit of the land” in the general and indefinite form of its expression, can only signify the products of the land in general (not of the earth, for, according to the context, only Israel is spoken of). Thus what grows of Jehovah and what grows of the land stand in antithesis; spiritual and corporal fruits, the products of the heavenly and of the earthly life.
But what are the products of the heavenly, spiritual, divine life? This, it seems to me, Isa. himself tells us Isa_61:11 : “For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before the nations.” Thus, “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise” Php_4:8 (and may not Paul have had Isa_61:11 in his mind?) that is Tzemach of Jehovah. That is the divine fruit with which the fruit of the land stands in contrast, viz.: all corporal life that the land produces in all the kingdoms of nature. Therefore Tzemach of Jehovah comprehends the entire sphere of the free, conscious, personal life, all that is product of “the breath of life” (Gen_2:7); whereas “fruit of the land” designates the entire impersonal, corporal life, all that is “the production of the earth” (Gen_1:12). If this is the meaning of Tzemach of Jehovah in our passage, then this general notion may easily condense and, so to speak, crystallize to the conception of a definite personality. Thus, for instance, the idea of the seed of the woman (Gen_3:15) proceeding originally from a conception general and indefinite, gradually, in the consciousness of believing Israel, condensed to the notion of a definite personality.
According to this I cannot agree with those that understand צמה י׳ Tzemach of Jehovah of the Messiah only (as many Jewish and Christian expositors), or of the Church alone (so Jerome: nomen Christianum), or of the people of Israel alone (thus Knobel, who confounds צמח י׳ with מַטַּע י׳), or of Christ and the church (thus Zwingli: “both expressions suit to the Branch Christ and to His body the church.” Hofmann’s explanation (Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 503 sq.): “What Jehovah causes to grow and the land brings forth, the Prophet opposes to the thousands of human productions with which the previously rebuked luxury decked itself, especially in the case of women,” seems to me to construe the idea of Tzemach of Jehovah too narrowly, and too little in its distinction from “Fruit of the land,” as well as too much with reference to Isa_3:16 sqq.
Therefore, the entire products, both of the spiritual and the corporal life shall be such that the rescued ones of Israel shall be highly honored and glorified thereby. That which has its immediate source of life in Jehovah Himself, which is the fruit of His Spirit (Gal_5:22) must redound to the honor of those in whom it makes its appearance (comp. Rom_2:7 sqq.). We read elsewhere (Isa_28:5) that Jehovah Himself “shall be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people.” Both amount to the same thing. For where Jehovah is, there He is with His life and with His power; and where He lives and works, there He makes glory. Moreover the fruits of the earth, where the Lord alone becomes the principle of spiritual life, must themselves become glorious and, as it were, the cause of a glory like Paradise. All, in fact, will become new: body and soul, nature and history, heaven and earth.
פדי הארץ (or הָאֲדָמָה) never means anything else than the products of the ground. The expression is found often in the Pentateuch (Gen_4:3; Lev_25:19; Num_13:20; Num_13:26), most frequently in Deut. (Isa_1:25; Isa_7:13; Isa_26:2; Isa_26:10; Isa_28:4; Isa_28:11; Isa_28:18, &c). Beside these only in Jer_7:20, and Psa_105:35. But all this splendor and glory shall exist only for “the escaped of Israel.” This is the conception so frequent in Isa., which he elsewhere designates as “remnant,” “him that remaineth,” “residue,” (,נוֹתָר ,שְּׁאֵרִית ,שׁאָר נִשְׁאָר comp. Isa_4:3; Isa_6:13; Isa_10:20-22; Isa_11:11; Isa_11:16; Isa_28:5; Isa_37:31 sq.; Isa_46:3), and which expresses that, not all Israel, but only the remnant left after the judging and sifting shall partake of the salvation.
Isa_4:3 says expressly, that the glory of which Isa_5:2 speaks shall depend on inward purity and spotlessness, on that light that is said to be the garment of God (Psa_104:2). This verse, therefore, contains the more particular definition of Isa_5:2. “The left over” (נִשְׁאָר comp. Isa_37:31) and “the remaining over” (נוֹתָר comp. Isa_7:22, and Delitzsch, in loc.) in Zion and Jerusalem (vid.Isa_2:3) shall be called holy, i.e., not only be so, but be recognized and called such.
This holiness, which becomes God’s house, Psa_93:5, is, any way, to be construed objectively as well as subjectively. It includes the sacer and the sanctus. But these holy men of God are His elect in reference to whom He has made the counsel of His love documentary by entering their names in the book of life.
“To be written to the living” or “to the life” calls to mind Psa_69:29, עִם צַדִּיקִים לֹא יִכָּתֵבוּ, “let them not be written with the righteous,” or Jer_22:30, where it is said: “write this man עֲרִירִי childless.” This book of life is not that in which are written those destined to earthly life (1Sa_25:29, Psa_139:16), but that wherein stand written those appointed to everlasting life. What sort of a book that may be, and how the entry in it comports with free self determination in men we cannot here investigate. This book is first named Exo_32:32-33. Later Isa. in this place, and Psa_69:29; Psa_87:4-6; Dan_12:1 mention it. In the N. Test, we read of it Luk_10:20; Php_4:3; Rev_3:5; Rev_13:8; Rev_17:8; Rev_20:12; Rev_20:15; Rev_21:27. Some, not without propriety, have reminded, in connection with Isa_10:19; Eze_13:9; Exo_30:12, etc., of the genealogical registers or roll of citizens, in so far as those inscribed for life are at once citizens of the kingdom of God and of the city of God (Gal_5:26; Heb_12:22; Rev_21:2).
When the Lord shall have washed.
Isa_4:4. It seems to me that the contents of Isa_4:4 show decidedly that it is no premis to Isa_4:5, but is to be regarded as specification of the time and conditions in reference to Isa_4:2-3. For only the purifying and sifting judgments of God, that cleanse away all filth, bring it about that any holy, divine life still remains in Jerusalem. The filth of the daughter of Zion is not only her moral degradation, but all that appears as fruit of it and means for furthering it; thus the entire apparatus of luxury discoursed of in Isa_3:16 sqq. Though outwardly showy and splendid, regarded from the Prophet’s point of view it was only vile filth. The blood-guiltiness of Jerusalem (comp. Isa_1:15; Isa_9:4; Isa_26:21; Isa_33:15) proceeds from the innocent blood shed by the injustice and tyranny of the powerful (Isa_1:15 sqq.). Concerning Zion and Jerusalem, see Isa_2:3. This cleansing shall be brought about by a spiritual force that is analogous to that force of nature that purifies, viz., the wind. Like that rushes over the earth and bears away all impure vapors, so shall God let loose His judgments over Israel, destroy the wicked and drive to repentance those in whom the Spirit of God finds still a point of contact, thus spiritually purify the nation. I do not think, therefore, that רוּחַ here is to be translated “spirit.” The context evidently demands the meaning “wind.” In Isa_30:28, also רוּחַ is the breath of God, as one sees from the connection with the lips and tongue (4:27). Comp. Isa_41:16, רוּחַ תִּשָׂאֵם “the wind shall carry them away.” Meier translates our passage “breath of wrath.” In the kindred passage Isa_28:6, however, the meaning “spirit” seems to predominate. Whether בָּעֵר is kindred to that בָּעֵר that means “to burn, to kindle” (see Isa_4:5; Isa_40:16; Isa_44:15; 2Ch_4:20; 2Ch_13:11) is doubtful. Our בער is, like Isa_6:13, used in the sense of “to cast off, cut away, brush off,” in which sense the word often occurs in Deut. in reference to exterminating the scabby sheep out of the holy theocratic congregation (Deu_13:6; Deu_17:7; Deu_19:19; Deu_26:13 sq., comp. Num_24:22, &c.) The word therefore involves the notion of a sifting. After the purification is accomplished by judgment and sifting, measures shall be taken against further corruption in that the Lord shall hover with the pillar of smoke and fire over the individual dwellings of Mount Zion and over the whole assembly of the holy nation for their protection.
Isa_4:5וּבָרָא therefore introduces a complementary idea of what precedes. מָכזֹן (again in Isaiah only Isa_18:4) is sedes, habitatio parata, stabilita. It is used almost exclusively of the divine indwelling. For with the exception of Psa_104:5, where the מְבוֹנִים (foundations) of the earth are named (which any way are a divine work too), מכון stands only for the earthly, (Exo_15:17, &c) or the heavenly (1Ki_8:39; 1Ki_8:43; 1Ki_8:49, etc.) dwelling-place of God. One is tempted, therefore, to understand מכון here of the temple as God’s dwelling place. But then the כֹּל would be incomprehensible. Or if this be translated “whole,” then there must be an article. We must, therefore, understand by it all the dwellings that were found on Mount Zion (comp. Isa_2:2-3, naming of the city Jerusalem a potiori). The whole of these have become holy dwellings of God, too, inasmuch as their inhabitants are themselves scions of God (Isa_4:2).
“Assemblies,” is evidently in contrast with “every dwelling,” and declares that the sign of Jehovah shall hover over both the dwellings of individual families and over the assembled total of the nation. Every single house, as well as the house of Jacob as a whole, shall be God’s holy tabernacle, as formerly the typical Tabernacle was alone. Even before the passage of the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud and fire went before the Israelites (Exo_13:21 sq.). It stood as a protection between the armies of Israel and Egypt (Exo_14:19 sq). But when the Tabernacle was completed, the pillar of cloud and fire rested over it (Exo_40:34 sqq.).
In the Pentateuch the expression עָשָׁן, smoke, is never used for this wonderful phenomenon. It is put in here in such a way that one does not know whether to join it to ענָןcloud, or to גֹגַהּ ז׳shining, etc. According to the accents the former should be done. Moreover it may be urged that smoke is not seen by night. But why then is עָשָׁן placed after יוֹמָם? Some consider the construction a hendiadys: cloud and smoke = smoke cloud; for an ordinary vapor cloud it was not. This may be correct. But from the nature of things smoke belongs to fire. For there is no fire without smoke, nor smoke without fire. Like Hengstenberg, therefore, I refer וְעָשָׁן, and smoke to what follows. Precisely as smoke would the cloud at night be most plainly visible, for then the smoke was seen mounting out of the fire and illuminated by it.
For upon all glory, etc.—If the Prophet, as has been shown, regards every single house as God’s holy tabernacle, then he can call it glorious too, like in Exo_40:34 sq., that which filled the dwelling of the sanctuary is called the glory of Jehovah. Comp. on Exo_4:13. This glory of Jehovah in the pillar of cloud and fire served on the one hand for Israel’s protection—viz., standing between them and the Egyptians,—on the other for a guide in the desert. The sanctified Israel of the last time will not need a guide, for they will no more wander. They are to be firmly founded on the holy mountain. But they will still need protection. For if even the majority of the nations flow to them, shall then at once all enmity in the world against God’s sanctuary be extinguished? Is it not conceivable that both in the world of men and of devils hostile powers may exist, inclined to and capable of doing harm? (Rev_20:7 sqq.)
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_2:2. Domus Dei, etc. “The house of God is built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, who, themselves, too, are mountains, quasi imitators of Christ. (They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, Psa_125:1) Whence, also, upon one of the mountains Christ founded the Church and said: Thou art Peter, etc., Mat_16:18.” Jerome.——“We can understand Jerusalem by the mountain of God, for we see how the believing run thither, and how those that have accepted the testimony come thither and seize the blessing that proceeds thence. But we may also by the house of God understand the churches spread over land and sea, as we believe St. Paul, who says, ‘we are the house of God,’ Heb_3:6. And so we may recognize the truth of the prophecy. For the Church of God stands shining forth, and the nations, forsaking wickedness that has long had dominion over them, hasten to her and are enlightened by her.” Theodoret.——Ecclesia est, etc. “The church is a mountain exalted and established above all other mountains, but in spirit. For if you regard the external look of the church from the beginning of the world, then in New Testament times, you will see it oppressed, contemned, and in despair. Yet, notwithstanding, in that contempt it is exalted above all mountains. For all kingdoms and all dominions that have ever been in the world have perished. The church alone endures and triumphs over heresies, tyrants, Satan, sin, death and hell, and that by the word only, by this despised and feeble speech alone. Moreover it is a great comfort that the bodily place, whence first the spiritual kingdom should arise, was so expressly predicted, that consciences are assured of that being the true word, that began first to be preached in that corner of Judea, that it may be for us a mount Zion, or rule for judging of all religions and all doctrines. The Turkish Alcoran did not begin in Zion—therefore it is wicked doctrine. The various Popish rites, laws, traditions began not in Zion—therefore they are wicked, and the very doctrines of devils. So we may hold ourselves upright against all other religions, and comfort our hearts with this being the only true religion which we profess. Therefore, too, in two psalms, Psalms 2, 110, mount Zion is expressly signified: “I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion;” likewise: “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion.” Luther.
2. On Isa_2:2. Luther makes emphatic, as something pertaining to “the wonderful nature of this kingdom,” that “other kingdoms are established and administered by force and arms. But here, because the mountain is lifted up, the nation shall flow (fluent), i.e., they shall come voluntarily, attracted by the virtues of the church. For what is there sweeter or lovelier than the preaching of the gospel? Whereas Moses frightens weak souls away. Thus the prophet by the word fluent, “flow,” has inlaid a silent description of the kingdom of Christ, which Christ gives more amply when He says: Mat_11:12, “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force,” i.e. “they are not compelled, but they compel themselves.” “Morever rivers do not flow up mountains, but down them; but here is such an unheard-of thing in the kingdom of Christ.”—Starke.
3. Luther remarks on “and shall say: come,” etc. “Here thou seest the worship, works and efforts and sacrifices of Christians. For they do only the one work, that they go to hear and to learn. All the rest of the members must serve their neighbors. These two, ears and heart, must serve God only. For the kingdom rests on the word alone. Sectaries and heretics, when they have heard the gospel once, instantly become masters, and pervert the Prophet’s word, in that they say: Come let us go up that we may teach him his way and walk in our paths. They despise, therefore, the word as a familiar thing and seek new disputations by which they may display their spirit and commend themselves to the crowd. But Christians know that the words of the Holy Ghost can never be perfectly learned as long as we are in the flesh. For Christianity does not consist in knowing, but in the disposition. This disposition can never perfectly believe the word on account of the weakness of the sinful flesh. Hence they ever remain disciples and ruminate the word, in order that the heart, from time to time, may flame up anew. It is all over with us if we do not continue in the constant use of the word, in order to oppose it to Satan in temptation (Matthew 4). For immediately after sinning ensues an evil conscience, that can be raised up by nothing but the word. Others that forsake the word sink gradually from one sin into another, until they are ruined. Therefore Christianity must be held to consist in hearing the word, and those that are overcome by temptations, whether of the heart or body, may know that their hearts are empty of the word.”
4. Vitringa remarks on the words, “Out of Zion goes forth the law,” Isa_5:3. “If strife springs up among the disciples concerning doctrine or discipline, one must return to the pattern of the doctrine and discipline of the school at Jerusalem. For יָצָא “shall go forth,” stands here only as in Luk_2:1, “There went forth a decree from Cæsar Augustus.” In this sense, too, Paul says, 1Co_14:36, “What? came the word of God out from you?” The word of God did not go forth from Corinth, Athens, Rome, Ephesus, but from Jerusalem, a fact that bishops assembled in Antioch opposed to Julius I. (Sozom. hist. eccl. III. 8, “the orientals acknowledged that the Church of Rome was entitled to universal honor—although those who first propagated a knowledge of Christian doctrine in that city came from the East”). Cyril took יָצָא in the false sense of κατελἐλοιπε τὴν Σιών, “has forsaken Zion.” When the Lord opened the understandings of the disciples at Emmaus, to understand the Scriptures and see in the events they had experienced the fulfilment of what was written concerning Him in the law, Prophets and Psalms, He cannot have forgotten the present passage. Of this we may be the more assured since the words: “Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.” Luk_24:46-47, point clearly to Isa_2:2-3 of our passage. Therefore too, Justin Martyr Apol. i. (commonly ii.), § 49, says: “But where the prophetic spirit predicts the future, he says: from Zion shall go forth the law, etc. And that this finally came to pass in fact, you may credibly assure yourselves. For from Jerusalem have men gone forth into the world, twelve in number, and these were unlearned, that knew not how to speak. But by the might of God they have proclaimed to all mankind that they were sent by Christ in order to teach all the word of God.”
“Zion is contrasted here with Mount Sinai, whence the law came, which in the Old Testament was the foundation of all true doctrine: But in the New Testament Mount Zion or Jerusalem has the privilege to announce that now a more perfect law would be given and a new Covenant of God with men would be established. Thus Zion and Jerusalem are, so to speak, the nursery and the mother of all churches and congregations of the New Testament.”—Starke.
5. Förster remarks on the end of Isa_2:3, that the gospel is the sceptre of Jesus Christ, according to Psa_110:2; Psa_45:7 (the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre). “For by the word Christ rules His church (Rom_10:14 sqq.).”
6. On Isa_2:4. “Pax optima rerum.” Foerster. The same author finds this prophecy fulfilled by Christ, who is our peace, who has made of both one, and broken down the partition that was between, in that by His flesh He took away the enmity (Eph_2:14). Foerster, moreover, combats the Anabaptists, who would prove from this passage that waging war is not permitted to Christians. For our passage speaks only against the privata Christianorum discordia. But waging war belongs to the publicum magistratus officium. Waging war, therefore, is not forbidden, if only the war is a just one. To be such, however, there must appear according to Thomas, part. 2 th. quœst. 40. 1) auctoritatis principis, 2) causa justa, 3) intentio bellantium justa, or ut allii efferunt: 1) jurisdictio indicentis, 2) offensio patientis, 3) intentio finem (?) convenientis.
7. On Isa_2:4. Jerome regarded the time of Augustus, after his victory at Actium, as the fulfilling of this prophecy. Others, as Cocceius, refer the words, “they shall turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks,” to the time of Constantine the Great; and the words “nation shall not lift up sword against nation” to the period of the restoration of religious peace in Germany,—finally the words: “they shall no more learn war,” to a future time that is to be hoped for. Such interpretations are, however, just as one-sided as those that look only for a spiritual fulfilment of prophecy. For how is an inward fulfilment of this promise of peace to be thought of which would not have the outward effects as its consequence? Or how is an outward fulfilment, especially such as would deserve the name, conceivable without the basis of the inward? Or must this peaceful time be looked for only in heaven? Why then does the promise stand here? It is a matter of course that there is peace in heaven: for where there is no peace there can be no heaven. The promise has sense only if its fulfilment is to be looked for on earth. The fulfilment will take place when the first three petitions of the Lord’s prayer are fulfilled, i.e. when God’s name shall be held holy by us as it in itself is holy, when the kingdom of God is come to everything, without and within, and rules alone over all, when the will of God is done on earth as in heaven. Christendom makes this prayer quite as much with the consciousness that it cannot remain unfulfilled, as with the consciousness that it must find its fulfilment on earth. For, if referred to heaven, these petitions are without meaning. Therefore there is a time of universal inward and outward peace to be looked for on earth. “It is not every day’s evening,” i.e. one must await the event, and our earth, without the least saltus in cogitando, can yet experience a state of things that shall be related to the present, as the present to the period of trilobites and saurians. If one could only keep himself free from the tyranny of the present moment! But our entire, great public, that has made itself at home in Philistia, lives in the sweet confidence that there is no world beside that of which we take notice on the surface of the earth, nor ever was one, nor ever will be.
8. On Isa_2:4. Poets reverse the figure to portray the transition from peaceful to warlike conditions. Thus Virgil, Georg. I. 2:506 sq.:
Non ullus aratro
Dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis.
Et curvæ rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
Aeneide VII. 2:635 sq.:
Vomeris huc et falcis honos, huc omnis aratri
Cessit amor; recoquunt patrios fornacibus enses.
Ovid, Fast. I. 2:697 sqq.:
Bella diu tenuere viros. Erat aptior ensis
Vomere, cedebat taurus arator equo.
Sarcula cessabant, versique in pila ligones.
Factaque de rastri pondere cassia erat.
9. On Isa_2:5. As Isaiah puts the glorious prophecy of his fellow prophet Micah at the head, he illuminates the future with a splendid, shining, comforting light. Once this light is set up, it of itself suggests comparisons. The questions arise: how does the present stand related to that shining future? What difference obtains? What must happen for that condition of holiness and glory to be brought about? The Christian Church, too, and even each individual Christian must put himself in the light of that prophetic statement. On the one hand that will humiliate us, for we must confess with the motto of Charles V.: nondum! And long still will we need to cry: Watchman what of the night (Isa_21:11)? On the other hand the Prophet’s word will also spur us up and cheer us. For what stronger impulse can be imagined than the certainty that one does not contend in vain, but may hope for a reward more glorious than all that ever came into a man’s heart? (Isa_64:4; 1Co_2:9).
In the time of the second temple, in the evenings of the first days of the feast of Tabernacles, great candelabras were lighted in the forecourt of the temple, each having four golden branches, and their light was so strong that it was nearly as light as day in Jerusalem. That might be for Jerusalem a symbol of that “let us walk in the light of the Lord.” But Jerusalem rejoiced in this light, and carried on all sorts of pastime, yet it was not able to learn to know itself in this light, and by this self-knowledge to come to true repentance and conversion.
10. On Isa_2:8, “their land is full of idols.” “Not only images and pictures are idols, but every notion concerning God that the godless heart forms out of itself without the authority of the Scripture. The notion that the Mass is effective ex opere operato, is an idol. The notion that works are demanded for justification with God, is an idol. The notion that God takes delight in fasts, peculiar clothes, a special order of life, is an idol. God wills not that we should set up out of our own thoughts a fashion of worshipping Him; but He says: “In all places where I record My name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee,” Exo_20:24—Luther.
11. On Isa_2:9-21. When men have brought an idol into existence, that is just to their mind, whether it be an idolum manu factum, or an idolum mente excogitatum, there they are all wonder, all worship. “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Then the idol has a time of great prosperity and glory. But sooner or later there comes a time when the judgment of God overtakes the idol and its servants. God suffers sin to become ripe like men let a conspiracy, like they let fruit ripen. But when the right time comes then He steps forth in such a fashion that they creep into mouse-holes to hide themselves, if it were possible, from the lightning of His eye and His hand. Where then are the turned-up noses, the big mouths, the impudent tongues? Thus it has often happened since the world began. But this being brought to confession shall happen in the highest degree to the puffed-up world at that day when they shall see that one whom they pierced, and whom they thought they might despise as the crucified One, coming in His glory to judge the world. Then they shall have anguish and sorrow, then shall they lament and faint away with apprehension of the things that draw nigh. But those that believed on the Lord in His holiness, shall then lift up their heads for that their redemption draws nigh. At that time, indeed, shall the Lord alone be high, and before Him shall bow the knees of all in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and all tongues must confess that Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12. On Isa_2:22. Of what do men not make idols! The great industrial expositions of modern times often fill me with dismay, when I have seen how men carry on an actual idolatrous worship with these products of human science and art, as if that all were not, in the end, God’s work, too, but human genius were alone the creator of these wonders of civilization. How wickedly this so-called worship of genius demeans itself ! How loathsome is the still more common cultus of power, mammon and the belly!
13. On Isa_3:1 sqq. Causa σωστική, etc. “The saving cause of the commonwealth is the possession of men of the sort here mentioned, which Plato also knew, and Cicero from Plato, each of whom judge, commonwealths would be blessed if philosophers, i.e., wise and adept men were to administer them.”—Foerster. The same writer cites among the causes why the loss of such men is ruinous, the changes that thence ensue. All changes in the commonwealth are hurtful. Xenoph. Hellen. Isaiah 2 : “εἰσὶ μὲν πᾶσαι μεταβολαὶ πολιτειῶν θανατηΦόροι.” Aristot. Metaph. Isaiah 2 : “ᾱἱμεταβολαὶ πάντων ταραχώδεις.”
14. On Isa_3:1. “The stay of bread,” etc. Vitringa cites Horat. Satir. L. II., 3 5:153 sq.:
Deficient inopem venœ te, ni cibus atque
Ingens accedit stomacho fultura ruenti.
And on Isa_3:2 sq. he cites Cicero, who, De Nat. Deorum III., calls these “prœsidia humana,” “firmamenta reipublicœ.” On Isa_3:6 sq. the same author cites the following passage from Livy (26 chap. 6): “Cum fame ferroque (Capuani) urgerentur, nec ulla spes superesset iis, qui nati in spem honorum erant, honores detrectantibus, Lesius querendo desertam et proditam a primoribus Capuam summum magistratum ultimus omnium Campanorum cepit!” On Isa_3:9 he quotes Seneca: De vita beata, chap. xii.: “Itaque quod unum habebant in peccatis bonum perdunt peccandi verecundiam. Laudant enim ea, quibus erubescant, et vitio gloriantur.”
15. On Isa_3:4; Isa_3:12. Foerster remarks: Pueri, etc. “Boys are of two sorts. Some are so in respect to age, others in respect to moral qualifications. So, too, on the contrary there is an old age of two sorts: “For honorable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the true gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is the true old age.” Wis_4:8-9. Examples of young and therefore foolish kings of Israel are Rehoboam (“the young fool gambled away ten whole tribes at one bet” 1 Kings 12). Ahaz, who was twenty years of age when he began to reign (2Ki_16:2). Manasseh who was twelve years (2Ki_21:1,) and Amon who was twenty-two years (2Ki_21:19).
16. On Isa_3:7. Foerster remarks: Nemo se, etc. “Let no one intrude himself into office, especially when he knows he is not fit for it,” and then cites: “Seek not of the Lord pre-eminence, neither of the king the seat of honor. Justify not thyself before the Lord; and boast not of thy wisdom before the king. Seek not to be judge, being not able to take away iniquity.” Sir_7:4-6.”—“Wen aber Gott schickt, den macht er auch geschickt.”
17. On Isa_3:8. “Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord.” Duplici modo, etc. “God may be honored by us in two outward ways: by word and deed, just as in the same way others come short; “to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” Judges 15.—Vitringa.
18. On Isa_3:9. “They hide not their sin.” Secunda post, etc. “The next plank after shipwreck, and solace of miseries is to hide one’s impiety.”—Jerome.
19. On Isa_3:10. “Now He comforts the pious as in Psalms 2. His anger will soon kindle, but it shall be well with all that trust in Him. So Abraham, so Lot was delivered; so the apostles and the remnant of Judah when Jerusalem was besieged. For the Lord helps the righteous (Psa_37:17; Psa_37:39).”—Luther.
20. On Isa_3:13-14.
“Judicabit judices judex generalis,
Neque quidquam proderit dignitas papalis,
Sive sit episcopus, sive cardinalis,
Reus condemnabitur, nec dicetur qualis.”
“Rhythmi vulgo noti,” quoted byFoerster.
21. On Isa_3:16 sq. Usus vestium, etc. “Clothes have a four-fold use: 1) they are the badge of guilt, or souvenir of the fall (Gen_3:7; Gen_3:10; Gen_3:21); 2) they should be coverings against the weather; 3) they may be ornaments for the body, (Pro_31:22; Pro_31:25); 4) they may serve as a mark of rank (2Sa_13:18).—The abuse of clothes is three-fold; 1) in regard to the material, they may be costlier or more splendid than one’s wealth or rank admits of; 2) in respect of form, they may betray buffoonery and levity; 3) in respect to their object, they may be worn more for the display of luxury and pride than for protection and modest adornment.”—Foerster.
22. On Isa_4:2. “Germen Jehovae est nomen Messiœ mysticum, a nemine intellectum, quam qui tenet mysterium Patris et Christi. Idem valet quod filius propago Patris naturalis, in quo patris sui imago et gloria perfectissime splendet, Jessaiae in seqq. (Isa_9:5) בן ,ילד, filius, Joanni ὁ λόγενής τοῦ θεοῦ,ὁυἱὸς πρωὀτοκος μονογενής, processio Patris naturaλis. Est hic eruditi cujusdam viri elegans observatio, quae eodem tendit, quam non licet intactam praetermittere. Comparat ille inter se nomina Messiœ צמח דוד (Jer_23:5) et צמח יהוה in hoc loco. Cum autem prior appellatio absque dubitatione innuat, Messiam fore filium Davidis, docet posteriorem ἀναλογικῶς non posse aliud significare quam filium Jehovae, quod nomen Christi Jesu est μυστικώτερον, omni alio nomine excellentius. Addit non minus docte, personam, quae hic germen Jehovae dicitur, deinceps a propheta nostro appellari Jehovam (Isa_28:5).”—Vitringa. This exposition, which is retained by most Christian and orthodox commentators, ignores too much the fundamental meaning of the word צֶמַח, “Branch.” It is, nevertheless, not incorrect so far as the broader meaning includes the narrower concentrically. If “Branch of Jehovah” signifies all that is the personal offshoot of God, then, of course, that one must be included who is such in the highest and most perfect sense, and in so far the passage Isa_28:5 does not conflict with exposition given by us above.
[J. A. Alexander joins with Vitringa and Hengstenberg in regarding “the fruit of the earth,” as referring to the same subject as “the branch of the Lord,” viz.: the Messiah; and thus, while the latter term signifies the divine nature of the Messiah, the former signifies His human origin and nature; or if we translate “land” instead of earth, it points to his Jewish human origin. Thus appears an exact correspondence to the two parts of Paul’s description, Rom_1:3-4, and to the two titles used in the New Testament in reference to Christ’s two natures, Son of God and Son of Man.—Tr.].
23. On Isa_4:3-4. Great storms and upheavals, therefore, are needful, in order to make the fulfilment of this prophecy possible. There must first come the breath of God from above, and the flame of God from beneath over the earth, and the human race must first be tossed and sifted. The earth and mankind must first be cleansed by great judgments from all the leaven of evil. [J. A. Alexander, with Luther, Calvin, Ewald, maintains concerning the word Spirit in Isa_4:4, that “the safest and most satisfactory interpretation is that which understands by it a personal spirit, or as Luther expresses it, the Spirit who shall judge and burn.”—Tr.]. What survives these judgments is the remnant of which Isaiah speaks. This shall be holy. In it alone shall the Lord live and rule. This remnant is one with the new humanity which in every part, both as respects body and soul, will represent the image of Christ the second Adam. This remnant, at the same time, comprehends those whose names are written in the book of life. What sort of a divine book this may be, with what sort of corporal, heavenly reality, of course we know not. For Himself God needs no book. Yet if we compare the statements of the Revelation of John regarding the way in which the last judgment shall be held, with certain other New Testament passages, I think we obtain some explanation. We read Mat_19:28, that on the day of the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, the twelve apostles, too, shall sit on twelve thrones to judge the generations of Israel. And 1Co_5:2, we read that the saints shall judge the world. But, Rev_20:11, we find again the great white throne, whereon sits the great Judge of the living and the dead, after that, just before (Rev_4:4), it was said: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.” Afterwards it reads (Rev4:12): “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” And (Rev 4:15). “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” From this description there seems to me to result that the books necessarily are meant for those who are, by the Supreme Judge charged with the judgment of particular ones. To this end they need, in the first place, many books that contain the works of individuals. God has a book-keeping for the life of every man. This divine record will be produced to every single one at the day of judgment. Is he a Jew? by one of the twelve Apostles. Is he a heathen? by some other saint. No man shall be able to remonstrate against this account for it will carry the evidence of truth in itself, and in the consciences of those to be judged. Should such a protest occur, the arraigned will be referred to the book of life. This is only one. For it contains only names. After this manner will the separation be accomplished, spoken of in Mat_25:32 sq. For those whose names are found in the book of life go to the right side; the rest to the left. Then the great Judge Himself takes up the Word in the manner described in Mat_25:34 sqq., and calls the righteous to Himself, that they may inherit the kingdom that is prepared for them. But the wicked He repulses from Him into everlasting fire, that is prepared for the devil and his angels, in regard to which the account of the judgment in Matthew 25, as far as the end is concerned, harmonizes entirely with Rev_20:15.
24. On Isa_4:5-6. “The pillar of fire and cloud belongs to the miraculous graces by which the founding of the Old Testament kingdom of God was glorified just as the New Testament kingdom was by the signs that Jesus did, and by the charismata of the Apostolic time. But that appearance was quite appropriate to the state of developed revelation of that time. This had not reached the New Testament level, and not even the prophetic elevation that was possible under the Old Testament, but only the legal in which the divine stands outwardly opposed to the human. God is present among His people, but still in the most outward way; He does not walk in a human way among men; there is, too, no inward leading of the congregation by the Holy Spirit, but an outward conducting by a visible heavenly appearance. And, for these revelations to the whole people, God makes use entirely of nature, and, when it concerns His personal manifestation, of the elements. He does so, not merely in distinction from the patriarchal theophanies, …, but, particularly in contrast with heathenism, in order to accustom the Israelitish consciousness from the first not to deify the visible world, but to penetrate through it to the living, holy God, who has all the elements of nature at command as the medium of His revelation.”—Auberlen.
As at the close of John’s Revelation (chaps. 21, 22) we see the manifestation of the Godhead to humanity return to its beginning (Genesis 2, 3, 4), in as much as that end restores just that with which the beginning began, i.e. the dwelling of God with men, so, too, we see in Isa_4:5-6, a special manifestation of the (relative) beginning time recur again in the end time; the pillar of fire and cloud. But what in the beginning was an outward and therefore enigmatical and unenduring appearance, shall at last be a necessary and abiding factor of the mutual relation between God and mankind, that shall be established for ever in its full glory. There shall come a time wherein Israel shall expand to humanity and humanity receive power to become Israel, wherein, therefore, the entire humanity shall be Israel. Then is the tabernacle of God with men no more a pitiful tent, made of mats, but the holy congregation is itself the living abode of God; and the gracious presence of Almighty God, whose glory compares with the old pillar of fire and cloud, like the new, eternal house of God, with the old perishable tabernacle, is then itself the light and defence of His house.
25. On Isa_4:5-6. “But give diligence to learn this, that the Prophet calls to mind, that Christ alone is destined to be the defence and shade of those that suffer from heat and rain. Fasten your eyes upon Him, hang upon Him as ye are exhorted to do by the divine voice, ‘Him shall ye hear!’ Whoever hearkens to another, whoever looks to any other flesh than this, it is all over with him. For He alone shelters us from the heat, that comes from contemplating the majesty (i.e. from the terror that God’s holiness and righteousness inspire), He alone covers us from the rain and the power of Satan. This shade affords us a coolness, so that the dread of wrath gives way. For wrath cannot be there where thou seest the Son of God given to death for thee, that thou mightest live. Therefore I commend to you that name of Christ, wherewith the Prophet adorns Him, that He is a tabernacle for shade against the heat, a refuge and place of concealment from rain and tempest.”—Luther.—With some modification, we may apply here the comprehensive turn Foerster gives to our passage: 1) The dwelling of Mount Zion is the church; 2) the heat is the flaming wrath of God, and the heat of temptation (1Pe_4:12; Sir_2:4-5); 3) tempest and rain are the punishments of sins, or rather the inward and outward trials (Psalms 2.; Isa_57:20); 4) the defence or the pillar of cloud and fire is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 10).
26. On Isa_5:1-7. This parable has a brother in the New Testament that looks very much like it. I might say: the head is almost the same. For the beginning of that New Testament parable (Mat_21:33; Mar_12:1), “A man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a wine-fat and built a tower,” is manifestly imitated after our passage. But here it is the vineyard that is bad, while there, in the New Testament, the husbandmen are good for nothing. Here the Lord appears as at once owner and cultivator of the vineyard; there the owner and cultivators are distinguished. This arises from the fact that the Lord Jesus apparently had in His mind the chiefs of the people, “the high-priests and elders” (Mat_21:23-24). From this it is manifest that here as there the vineyard is the nation. In Isaiah, however, the vineyard, that is to say the vine itself is accused. The whole people is represented as having equally gone to destruction. In the Synoptists, on the other hand, it is the chiefs and leaders that come between the Lord and His vineyard, and would exclude Him from His property, in order to be able to obtain it wholly for themselves, and divide it amongst them. Therefore there it is more the wicked greed of power and gain in the great that is reproved; here the common falling away of the whole nation.
27. Isa_5:8. Here the Prophet denounces the rich, the aristocracy, and capital. Thus he takes the part of the poor and lowly. That grasping of the rich and noble, which they display sometimes like beasts of prey, at other times gratify in a more crafty and legal fashion, the Prophet rebukes here in the sharpest manner. God’s work is opposed to every sin, and ever stands on the side of those that suffer oppression, no matter what may be their rank. God is no respecter of persons (Deu_10:17 sq.).
28. Isa_5:11-17. The morning hour, the hour when light triumphs over darkness, ought to be consecrated to works of light, as it is said: Aurora Musis amica, ἡώς τοι προΦέρει μἑυ, προφέρει δὲκαὶ ἕργου (Hesiod. ἑργ. κ. ήμ. 540) Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund. “It was,” says Foerster, “a laudable custom among the Persians, that the chamberlains entering in to their kings early in the morning, cried out with a loud voice: ‘Arise, O king, attend to business, as Mesoromastes commands.” On the other hand, “they that be drunken are drunken in the night,” 1Th_5:7 sq. So much the worse, then, when men do the works of night even in the early hour, and dare to abuse the light. “Plenus venter despumat in libidines,” says Augustine. In vino ἀσωτία (Eph_5:18). Corpus, opes, animam luxu Germania perdit. Melancthon. On Isa_5:15 Foerster cites the expression of Augustin: “God would not suffer any evil to be done in the world unless some good might thence be elicited.”
29. Isa_5:18. “Cords of vanity are false prejudices and erroneous conclusions. For example: no one is without sin, not even the holiest; God does not take notice of small sins; he that is among wolves must howl with them; a man cannot get along in the world with a scrupulous, tender conscience; the Lord is merciful, the flesh is weak, etc. By such like a man draws sin to him, binds his conscience fast, and resists the good motions of preventing grace. Thick cart-ropes signify a high degree of wickedness, the coarsest and most revolting prejudices. For example: God has no concern about human affairs; godliness delivers no one from misery and makes no one blessed; the threatenings of the prophets are not to be feared; there is no divine providence, no heaven, no hell (Deu_29:17-19). Out of such a man twists and knots a stout rope, with which he draws to him manifest blasphemy, entangles himself in it, so that often he cannot get loose, but is sold as a servant under sin (Rom_6:16; 1Ki_21:20; 1Ki_21:25).” Starke.
30. Isa_5:19. “The wicked mock at the patience and long-suffering of God, as if He did not see or care for their godless existence, but forgot them, and cast them out of mind (Psa_10:11), so that the threatened punishment would be omitted. They would say: there has been much threatening, but nothing will come of it; if God is in earnest, let Him, etc.; we don’t mind threats; let God come on if He will! Comp. Isa_22:12-13; Isa_28:21-22; Amo_5:18; Jer_5:12; Jer_8:11; Jer_17:15; Eze_12:21 sqq.” Starke.
31. Isa_5:20. “To make darkness of light, means to smother in oneself the fundamental truths that may be proved from the light of nature, and the correct conclusions inferred from them, but especially revealed truths that concern religion, and to pronounce them in others to be prejudices and errors. Bitter and sweet have reference to constitution, how it is known and experienced. To make sweet of bitter means, to recommend as sweet, pleasant and useful, what is bad and belongs to darkness, and is in fact bitter and distasteful, after one himself believes he possesses in the greatest evil the highest good.” Starke.
32. Isa_5:21. “Quotquot mortales” etc. As many as, taking counsel of flesh, pursue salvation with confidence of any sort of merit of their own or external privilege, a thing to which human nature is much inclined, oppose their own device to the wisdom of God, and, according to the prophet, are called wise in their own eyes (Isa_28:15; Isa_30:1-2; Jer_8:8-9; Jer_9:23 sq.; Jer_18:18). Vitringa.
33. Isa_5:26 sqq. The Prophet here expresses in a general way the thought that the Lord will call distant nations to execute judgment on Jerusalem, without having in mind any particular nation. Vitringa quotes a remarkable passage from the excerpts of John Antiochenus in Valesius (p. 816), where it is said, that immediately after Titus had taken Jerusalem, ambassadors from all the neighboring nations came to him to salute him as victor and present him crowns of honor. Titus refused these crowns, “saying that it was not he that had effected these things, but that they were done by God in the display of His wrath, and who had prospered his hands.” Comp. also the address of Titus to his soldiers after the taking of Jerusalem in Joseph. B. Jud. VII. 19.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. Isa_2:6-11. Idolatry. 1) What occasions it (alienation from God, Isa_2:6 a); 2) The different kinds: a. a coarse kind (Isa_2:6 b, Isa_2:8), b. a more refined kind (Isa_2:7); 3) Its present appearance (great honor of the idols and of their worshippers, Isa_2:9); 4) Its fate at last (deepest humiliation before the revelation of the majesty of God of all that do not give glory to Him (Isa_2:10; Isa_2:18).
2. Isa_2:12-22. The false and the true eminence. 1) False eminence is that which at first appears high, but at last turns out to be low (to this belongs impersonal as well as supersensuous creatures, which at present appear as the highest in the world, but at last, in the day of the Lord of Hosts, shall turn out to be nothing); 2) The real eminence is that which at first is inconspicuous and inferior, but which at last turns out to be the highest, in fact the only high one.
3. Isa_3:1-9. Sin is the destruction of a people. 1) What is sin? Resisting the Lord: a. with the tongue, b. with deeds, c. with the interior being (Isa_3:8-9); 2) In what does the destruction consist (or the fall according to Isa_3:8 a)? a. in the loss of every thing that constitutes the necessary and sure support of the commonwealth (Isa_3:1-3); b. in insecure and weak props rising up (Isa_3:4); c. in the condition that follows of being without a Master (Isa_3:5); d. in the impossibility of finding any person that will take the governance of such a ruinous state (Isa_3:6-7).
4. Isa_3:4. Insurrection is forbidden by God in express words, who says to Moses “that which is altogether just thou shalt follow,” Deu_16:20. Why may not God permit an intolerable and often unjust authority to rule a land for the same reason that He suffers children to have bad and unjust parents, and the wife a hard and intolerable husband, whose violence they cannot resist? Is it not expressly said by the Prophet “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them?” “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath,” Hos_13:11. Tholuck.
5. Isa_3:10-13. “Let us learn to distinguish between false and real comfort.” 1) False comfort deals in illusion: the real deals in truth; 2) The false produces a present effect; the real a lasting one; 3) The false injures the one comforted; the real is health to him.” Harms.
6. Isa_4:2-6. The holiness of God’s Church on earth that is to be looked for in the future. 1) Its preliminary: the judgment of cleansing and purifying (Isa_4:4); 2) What is requisite to becoming a partaker? a. belonging to the remnant (Isa_4:2-3); b. being written in the book of life (Isa_4:3); 3) The surety of its permanence: the gracious presence of the Lord (Isa_4:5-6).
7. Isa_5:21. The ruin of trusting in one’s own Wisdom 1) Those that have such confidence set themselves above God, which is: a. the greatest wickedness, b. the greatest folly; 2) They challenge the Divine Majesty to maintain its right (Isa_5:24).
Footnotes:
[1]that which sprouts of Jehovah.
[2]Heb. beauty and glory
[3]for splendor and glory.
[4]Heb. For the escaping of Israel.
[5]Or, to life.
[6]wind.
[7]sifting.
[8]A cloud by day, and smoke together.
[9]Or, above.
[10]Heb. a covering.
[11]a booth.
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 vv3–5 left in Zion--equivalent to the "escaped of Israel" (Isa…
left in Zion--equivalent to the "escaped of Israel" (Isa 4:2).
shall be called--shall be (Isa 9:6).
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holy-- (Isa 52:1; Isa 60:21; Rev 21:27).
written--in the book of life, antitypically (Phi 4:3; Rev 3:5; Rev 17:8). Primarily, in the register kept of Israel's families and tribes.
living--not "blotted out" from the registry, as dead; but written there as among the "escaped of Israel" (Dan 12:1; Eze 13:9). To the elect of Israel, rather than the saved in general, the special reference is here (Joe 3:17).
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 vv2, 3, 5, 6 2. And now the counterpart to this fearful prophecy,…
2. And now the counterpart to this fearful prophecy, which was begun in chap. Isa_2:1-5, is resumed, and brings this long discourse to an end. Isaiah, as with a single bound, retires from the dreary scene he has pictured, and is again rejoicing in engrossment with the future Messianic times.
In that day — The day of Messiah, the antitype of David.
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Shall the branch —צמח, (tzemach,) sprout, the outgrowth from Jehovah. Jer_23:5; Jer_33:15. In these citations the word “branch” directly, and in other passages indirectly, refers evidently to the Messiah. It is that which shoots up, or sprouts, from the root of a tree. The Messiah is, in chap. Isa_11:1; Isa_11:10, (where see notes,) said to be a root of Jesse. David is ever the type of a more glorious ruler, whose sway shall be over the whole earth.
Beautiful… glorious — It shall be for ornament and glory. Nouns, in the Hebrew, expressive of quality indeed, but of stronger meaning as nouns than as adjectives.
Fruit… excellent and comely — Literally, for majesty and honour. The Messiah’s reign shall ennoble its subjects by the moral beauty, glory, dignity, and honour conferred on them.
Them that are escaped of Israel — The remnant, the small number that escaped calamities. The emphasis is not on small number, but on the “escaped of Israel.” Figuratively this means those who continue true to Jehovah; who, against all odds, remain his firm and believing followers, of whom those who stood the test at Babylon, and were restored to Jerusalem, were types. The Messiah’s reign is to extend on to the end of the world.
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 vv2–6 2. The luxuriant vegetation of the Holy Land in…
2. The luxuriant vegetation of the Holy Land in the latter days will reflect glory on the inhabitants as a proof of Jehovah’s signal favour—a frequent thought in Messianic prophecy: Amo_9:13; Hos_2:21. f.; Isa_30:23; Jer_31:12; Eze_34:26-30; Eze_36:34 f.; Zec_9:16 f.; Mal_3:12; Joe_3:18; and cf. Lev_26:3-5; Deu_28:3-5; Deu_28:10-12. The verse has a close resemblance to ch. Isa_28:5.
the branch of the Lord] better, the growth of Jehovah, that which Jehovah causes to grow. The word occurs in the same sense in Gen_19:15 (A.V. “that which grew”) and Isa_61:11 (“bud”). It stands in parallelism with the fruit of the land (not earth) in the next clause, and both expressions are to be understood quite literally. The reference to a personal Messiah is thus excluded by the context; for few will be prepared to apply both expressions to Christ, the former to His divine sonship and the latter to His human birth (although this view is defended by Delitzsch on the analogy of Eze_17:5). It is true that afterwards the Heb. word for “growth” (çemaḥ) came to be used as a, title of the Messiah (Zec_3:8; Zec_6:12), but this usage rests on Jer_23:5; Jer_33:15, where the Messiah is described as a scion (çemaḥ) of the Davidic house. Observe that it is an entirely different word which is translated “Branch” in Isa_11:1.
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beautiful and glorious … excellent and comely] better, for beauty and glory … for a pride and a renown.
to the escaped of Israel] those who have been spared in the day of the Lord’s anger. Cf. ch. Isa_10:20, Isa_37:31.
2–6. The Final State of Zion and the Redeemed Israel
Beyond the great judgment there is revealed to the prophet a vision of the ideal religious community, blessed with an exuberant supernatural fertility imparted to the soil (Isa_4:2), purified from sin (Isa_4:3-4), and overshadowed by the protecting presence of Jehovah (Isa_4:5-6). It is a picture of the glorious Messianic age which immediately follows the day of the Lord. Those who inherit its glories are the survivors of the catastrophe (Isa_4:2-3). Although the section has no definite historical background, it is obviously written as the sequel to ch. 2. 3; the allusion to the “daughters of Zion” (Isa_4:4) would scarcely be intelligible apart from Isa_3:16 ff., and possibly the glory of nature mentioned in Isa_4:2 may form an antithesis to the artificial glories of civilisation in Isa_2:7 ff. At the same time it is reasonable to suppose that the verses have only a literary connexion with the preceding oracles, and formed no part of Isaiah’s spoken message in the time of Ahaz.
By some recent critics (Duhm, Hackmann, Cheyne) the passage is assigned to a later editor of Isaiah’s prophecies, and even so cautious a scholar as Dillmann hesitates with regard to the last two verses.” The objections are based chiefly on considerations of style, and on the alleged post-Exilic character of the ideas and the symbolism. It is true that some leading words (such as those rendered “branch,” “create,” “defence,” “covert”) do not occur elsewhere in genuine writings of Isaiah. The imagery also is of a more pronounced apocalyptic cast than we might expect from Isaiah, and the style seems somewhat laboured and cumbrous. But on the other hand the main ideas—the salvation of a remnant, purification through judgment, the regeneration of nature—can all be paralleled from Isaiah, and this fact must be allowed some weight in favour of his authorship.
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 vv2–6 (2) In that day . . .—The dark picture…
(2) In that day . . .—The dark picture of punishment is relieved by a vision of Messianic glory, like that of Isa_2:1-4. The “day” is, as in Isa_3:18, the time of Jehovah’s judgments.
The branch of the Lord . . .—The thought of the “branch,” though not the Hebrew word, is the same as in Isa_11:1. The word itself is found in the Messianic prophecies of Jer_23:5-6; Jer_33:15; Zec_3:8; Zec_6:12. The two latter probably inherited both the thought and the word from this passage. Here, then, if we thus interpret the words, we have the first distinct prophecy in Isaiah of a personal Messiah. He is the “Branch of Jehovah,” raised up by Him, accepted by Him. And the appearance of that Branch has as its accompaniment (the poetic parallelism here being that at once of a resemblance and of contrast) the restoration of outward fertility. That thought Isaiah had inherited from Psa_72:16; Hos_2:21-22; Joe_3:18; Amo_9:13. He transmitted it to Eze_34:27; Zec_9:16-17. The interpretation which takes “the branch [or growth] of the Lord” in its lower sense, as used collectively for “vegetation,” and, therefore, parallel and all but synonymous with the “fruits of the earth,” seems to miss the true meaning. Rabbinic exegesis may be of little weight, but the acceptance of the term as Messianic by Jeremiah and Zechariah is surely conclusive. It will be noted that the prophecy of the Branch (tsemach) here comes after a picture of desolation, just as that of the Branch (netzer) does in Isa_11:1. The thought seems applied by our Lord to Himself in Joh_12:24.
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For them that are escaped of Israel.—These are, of course, identical with the “remnant” of Isa_1:9; Isa_6:13, to whom the prophet had been taught to look as to the trusted depositaries of the nation’s future.
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 vv2–6 Vers. 2-6. As the present prophecy (Isaiah 2-4.), though…
Vers. 2-6. As the present prophecy (Isaiah 2-4.), though in the main one of threatening and denunciation, opened with a picture that was encouraging and comforting, (Isa_2:2-4) so new it terminates with a similar picture. The evangelical prophet, like the great apostle of the Gentiles, is unwilling that any one should be "swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." He will not separate the mercies of God from his judgments.
In that day shall the branch of the Lord, etc. Some see in this passage merely a promise that in the Messianic times the produce of the soil would become more abundant than ever before, its harvests richer, and its fruitage more luxuriant. But in the light of later prophecy it is scarcely possible to shut up the meaning within such narrow limits. The "Branch" of Isaiah can hardly be isolated altogether in a sound exegesis from the "Branch" of Jeremiah (Jer_23:5 Jer_33:15) and of Zechariah Zec_3:8 Zec_6:12). Now, the "Branch" of Zechariah is stated to be "a man", (Zec_6:12: note that the word used for "Branch" is the same as Isaiah"s, viz. tsemakh) and the "Branch "of Jeremiah is a King. (Jer_33:15) Moreover, Isaiah uses a nearly equivalent term (netser) in an admittedly Messianic sense. Although, therefore, there is some obscurity in the phrase, Branch of Jehovah," it would seem to be best to understand Isaiah as here intimating, what he elsewhere openly declares (Isa_11:1-5) viz. the coming of the Messiah in the latter days as the ornament and glory of his people. Be beautiful and glorious; rather, for beauty and glory; or, for ornament and glory; i.e. for the ornament and glorification of Israel. And the fruit of the earth. It is argued with reason that the two clauses of this verse are parallel, not antithetical, and that as we understand the one, so must we understand the other. If, then, the Branch" is the Messiah, so is "the fruit of the earth which may well be, since he was "the grain of wheat" which "fell into the ground and, lied, and so brought forth much fruit". (Joh_12:24) Excellent and comely; rather, for majesty and beauty. (comp. Exo_28:2, Exo_28:40) Unto the escaped of Israel; i.e. "to those who shall have our-rived the great calamity, and become citizens of the restored Jerusalem." Dr. Kay well remarks that "the prophecy was adequately fulfilled only in those who "saved themselves" from the generation which rejected Christ. That remnant was the germ of the Catholic Church, made such by being incorporated into the true Vine" ("Speaker"s Commentary," note at loc.).
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Vers. 2-6. The glories of the restored Church.
Three principal glories are here noted by the prophet as belonging to "that day the day of judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem for their manifold sins, and of restoration and re-establishment of the mountain of God"s Church at the head of the mountains. (Isa_2:2) These are
(1) the coming of Messiah in person for ornament and glory, for majesty and beauty, to be the admiration and delight of his people;
(2) the purity and holiness of the persons who constitute the restored Church; and
(3) the continuity of the presence of God with his Church from the time of its re-establishment, and the security consequent upon his protection. At all periods of its existence, the Church will do well to bear in mind that these are its special glories, and to make each a subject of frequent thought and meditation.
I THE COMING OF MESSIAH TO FOUND HIS CHURCH LIES AT THE ROOT OF ALL. The glorious "Branch the new shoot of the house of David (Isa_11:1) which sprang from the old stock, and grew up "like a tree planted by the water-side, which bringeth forth its fruit in due season, the leaf whereof shall not wither", (Psa_1:3) had first to come and to dwell with man, and to reveal himself, in his glory and majesty and beauty, as the perfect moral Being, the pattern Man, after whom all should shape their lives, before a holy Church, a Church of" saints," could be set up on earth, or men could know in what true holiness and righteousness consisted. The "Branch" came, "beautiful and glorious, excellent and comely," "the chiefest among ten thousand", (Son_5:10) "his eyes as the eyes of doves" (ver. 12), "his lips dropping sweet-smelling myrrh" (ver.13), "his countenance as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars, his mouth most sweet," yea, he himself "altogether lovely" (vers. 15, 16); and the earth saw what it had never seen before absolutely perfect humanity. Nor was this the whole. He who set the perfect pattern made also the perfect atonement; "washed away the filth" of sin; (Isa_4:4) "purified to himself a peculiar people"; (Tit_2:14) made holiness possible to man, who was "very far gone from original righteousness," corrupt, "sold under sin". (Rom_7:14) Thus the first glory fitly introduces the second.
II THE HOLINESS OF THOSE WHO ARE TRUE MEMBERS OF HIS CHURCH, "Holiness becometh God"s house forever"; (Psa_93:5) "Without holiness shall no man see the Lord". (Heb_12:14) Christians are holy by profession, by call, by obligation; if they will, by life and act. Not, indeed, holy in the highest sense; not as they ought to be; not "as he is holy"; (1Pe_1:15) for "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us". (1Jn_1:8) But still holy" in a real sense; ever striving to be holy, ever repenting, ever seeking and obtaining forgiveness, ever washed afresh in the blood of Christ, which "cleanseth from all sin". (1Jn_1:7) The unholy, who "persist in sin" without striving against it, are no true members of the Church of Christ, but false pretenders to membership, strangers to Christ"s covenant, and aliens from his commonwealth". (Eph_2:12) The real Church is "holy," as it is called in the Apostles" Creed; deriving its holiness ever from him who is its Life, from whom it receives continually fresh supplies of grace, and fresh power to resist temptation. The holiness of the Church is thus dependent on the presence of God with it; and the second glory leads naturally to the consideration of the third.
III THE CONTINUED PRESENCE OF GOD WITH HIS CHURCH, AND HIS CONTINUED PROTECTION OF IT. "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," is the most precious promise of the New Testament. Christ is with his Church
(1) in her sacred buildings, when common prayer is made (Mat_13:19) and sacraments are administered;
(2) in her synods, when doctrine is formulated and false teaching exposed and condemned; (Mat_18:17) and
(3) in the secret chamber of each one of her members, when approach is made to the throne of grace, and confession poured forth or prayer offered to God through Christ. In this presence is the Church"s sole trust. Without it she would be powerless against the world, and against Satan. With it she may contemn all attacks. Satan can do her no harm, for "the gates of hell shall not prevail against her". (Mat_16:18) The world cannot hurt her, for he who is her Protector" has overcome the world" (Joh_16:33). Safe under his protection, nestling under the shadow of his wings, she is safe both by day and night; whether the scorching fire of persecution seeks her destruction, as in the early times, or whether, as now, the murky night of agnostic criticism closes around her and endeavors to affright her with its shadows.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 2-6. Glimpse of future prosperity.
There will come a day when the cleansing fire will have run its course through the spiritual field, consuming the tares. The impurity of licentious luxury will have been washed away, the stain of blood effaced from Judah"s rulers. (Isa_3:14; comp. Isa_1:25 Isa_6:13 Mat_3:11) Then, and then only, can the glorious day come in the vision of which the prophet exults.
I NATIONAL CONDITIONS OF PROSPERITY. "The shoot of Jehovah will be for adornment and honor." Erit germen Domini in magnificentia et gloria. The rich fertility of the land is compared to a new sprouting growth, caused by the creative energy of God. When the Spirit of God is felt to he operative in the life of a people, then, and then only, can its life be both strong and beautiful. See, again, this thought in Isa_28:5: he will be as a "crown of glory and diadem of beauty" to the residue of his people. "Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures". (Isa_30:23) "In that day the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim". (Joe_3:18) "Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt They shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God". (Amo_9:13-15) "I will sow her unto me in the earth". (Hos_2:23) Glowing pictures! Israel"s golden age ever is in the future. And for all who "hope in God," the "good old times," the "Saturnian reign," is coming again. Magnus ab integro sceclorum nascitur ordo. The hard oaks shall again sweat with the dewy honey; our sweetest dreams become a solid fact. "From me is thy fruit found". (Hos_14:8)
II PERSOSAL CONDITIONS OF PROSPERITY. The one condition is personal holiness. "Every relict in Zion, and every one remaining in Jerusalem, will be called a saint; every one who has been written among the living in Jerusalem." Profound thought! the holy man alone is the living man. Matter is death; spirit is exemption from the rule of matter. Holiness is victory over matter in its lower form, fleshly cleanliness; in its higher, the purity of self-consistent truth that will not mix with what is alien to itself.
III VISIBLE GLORIES. Upon every home on Mount Zion, and every place of prayer, there will be the cloud by day, and the fume and splendor of flaming fire by night; over all the glory a protection. "Wherever there is true spiritual exaltation and majesty, there is around it a covering and protection which keeps the world away from it." "There"s a divinity doth hedge a king." We cannot constantly bear the splendor; we need the cool calm commonplaces of life to resort to when our eyes are wearied with the glare of highest truth. And we may find the "calm retreat, the silent shade" of religious life no less welcome than the mount of glory and of vision. From the storm and rain we may find a refuge in the "secret place of the Most High. J.
Vers. 2-4. Restoration.
It is uncertain whether-there is a secondary allusion here to the coming of the Messiah; but it is certain that, in its primary sense, the passage refers to the condition of Judah after the return from exile. Treating it in this latter signification, we learn
I THAT THE END OF DIVINE JUDGMENT IS HUMAN TRANSFORMATION. (Ver. 4.) The Lord would "wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion... by the spirit or, "power of judgment." It may be that the righteous Ruler, as such, is bound to make penalty follow sin, whatever may be the consequence to the individual transgressor. But it is clear that, in the exercise of his judicial function, God seeks moral and spiritual renovation. He desires that the nation (the man) which is humbled and afflicted, shall be purified by the fires through which it (he) is passing. In the midst of the flame the offender may hear the voice from above saying, "Put away thy sin; return unto me; enter a new path; live the better life of righteousness, purity, devotion
II THAT THE NEW AND BETTER LIFE WILL BE AN ESSENTIALLY HOLY ONE. (Ver. 5.) "He that is left in Zion shall be called holy." Whether by him "that is left in Zion" we are to understand those that were never carried into captivity, or those that have returned, is of no importance; the reference is to Jews who have undergone humiliation and suffering, and who have been cleansed and purified thereby. These shall be possessors of life in its excellency and reality among the living." Before, existence was nothing but existence; enlarged and ennobled by "the spirit of judgment," it has become Ire; and it "shall be called holy," because it has become holy. After a genuine repentance (national or individual) there comes a profound and enduring sanctity of spirit and of life. Old sin is abhorred, strenuously striven against, sedulously shunned. New graces and virtues are carefully cultivated and daily illustrated. (see 2Co_7:10, 11 Psa_51:7-11)
III THAT THIS NEW LIFE WILL BE NOT ONLY ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, BUT EVEN ADMIRABLE IN HIS SIGHT. (Ver. 4.) The "branch of the Lord" i.e. the outgrowth of piety from the fallen nation, shall be "beauty and glory;" the produce of the land (fruit of the earth), the worth which springs up from the restored nation, shall be excellency and ornamentation. The Holy One of Israel will not only accept the new national life thus presented to him; he wilt regard it with distinct, Divine satisfaction. And that which is pleasing in his sight will be attractive and excellent in the esteem of men. National and individual renovation is not only a thing which God accepts and acknowledges, worthy of our sanction; it is much more than that. It is beautiful, comely, even glorious. Here is:
1. Encouragement to the fallen. Let the nation, or the Church, or the individual soul which has fallen, which has felt the blow of the Divine hand, and which is understanding the Divine summons, rise and be renewed; there is a future before it of acceptable service, of beautiful and admirable excellency.
2. Inspiration for the devout worker. Let communities or let souls be reduced by sin and brought very low; let the judgment of God be heavy upon them; it is far from hopeless that they may rise again; from the fallen trunk may spring a living branch, beautiful to the sight and fruitful in every good word and work. C.
The Divine and human Messiah.
This verse has been explained as a promise merely of the renewed fertility of the earth in God"s day of restorings. That explanation is not, however, deep enough. It does not recognize how characteristic it was of the ancient prophets to refer to local and historical circumstances while their minds soared away to those Messianic pictures, which local incidents only suggested. The constant thought of the prophets was the ideal age and ideal person of Messiah, anti we are right in detecting the expression of that thought everywhere, This verse may be regarded as introducing the person by whom the Church is to be delivered and saved; and the terms employed appear to bear an intimation of his Divine and human natures. The figure of the" Branch" suggests his divinity. (comp. Jer_23:5 Zec_3:8 Zec_6:12) The figure "fruit of the earth "suggests his humanity. That this may have been the thought of the prophet is indicated by the adjectives which are used. "Beautiful and glorious" are adjectives of admiration applied to Messiah, regarded as the "Branch." "Excellent and comely" are adjectives of appreciation and relation to us, and are applied to him regarded as the "fruit of the earth.
I THE DIVINE MESSIAH CAN BE A SUFFICIENT REVEALER OF GOD. Illustrate from the way in which our Lord constantly urged that he only spoke the words given him by the Father, and only did the works of the Father.
II THE HUMAN MESSIAH CAN BE IN SYMPATHY WITH MEN. Illustrate the "High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." In view of the troubles and distresses which Isaiah pictures, and which Messiah is to rectify, it is evident that he must he divinely strong if he is to master, heal, recover, cleanse, and bring on restored blessings; and it is equally evident that he must be human, to sympathize with and come helpfully near to those whom he would bless and save. 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 vv2, 3, 5, 6 In that day shall the branch of the Lord…
Isa_4:2-6
In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious
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The first personal reference in Isaiah to the Messiah
If this is a reference to Christ, critics are agreed that it is the first personal reference to the Messiah which Isaiah has yet given.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
A pleasing contrast
What so beautiful as that a branch should appear in this wilderness of lava! Blessed are they who can turn away from the desert and look at the garden. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A branch
Then the fountains of life and energy are not dried up. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A branch
That is to say, fruitfulness, beauty, sufficiency, energy, summer. This is what the Son of God same to be and to do--to fill the earth with fruitfulness, to drive away the ghastly, all-devouring famine, and to feed the world with the fruit of heaven. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Branch of the Lord
I. THE GENERAL MEANING OF THE PASSAGE. The time spoken of by the prophet is clearly the time of the Christian dispensation, called the last days (ch. 2). And we need not stop to prove that the Branch of the Lord is a name or title of the Messiah. We have, therefore, a prophecy of the glory of Christs kingdom.
II. THE INNER MEANING OF THE PASSAGE.
(1) Why is it said In that day, specifying a particular time, the Branch of the Lord shall be glorious? And
(2) what is the special force or meaning of the title, the Branch of the Lord?
1. The glory of Christ is surely the glory which He had with the Father from the beginning. How then can it be said of Him that at any assigned time He is glorious, rather than at another? The word glory, when spoken of God or Christ, cannot have precisely the same sense as when spoken of a man. A man may gain glory by some act above the average of human nature. But starting from infinite perfection, nothing greater or nobler can be conceived. Glory, therefore, with reference to God is not the gaining of any higher excellence, but the manifestation of excellence which existed already. The creation was the first manifestation of the glory of God. And if the glory of God was made manifest in creation, it is yet more fully revealed in those mysteries of redemption which angels desired to look into.
2. But why in this connection is the Saviour called the Branch of the Lord? If the appropriateness of the figure does not at once appear, it will at least remind us of--I am the Vine, ye are the branches. The expression thus sets Christ before us in His character as the Mediator--Himself the Branch of the Lord, and His people branches of that true Vine. Thus we are enabled further to connect the title with the glory spoken of. The glory and beauty of the vine is in its fruit (Joh_15:8). (A. K. Cherrill, M. A.)
Gods perpetual presence with His people
I. THE PREPARATION FOR THE PROMISE. In the earlier verses of the chapter you will find that two things are presented as antecedent to the gifts of blessing--that is, the coming of the Divine Saviour, and His discipline for holiness within His Church.
1. The transition from the gloomy judgment to the grandeur of deliverance is abrupt and striking, as if from a savage wilderness one were to emerge suddenly into green pastures and among gay flowers. And surely this is a true representation of the change which passes upon human destinies when Christ the Lord comes down. We are naturally heirs of judgment. There is not a family, there is not a heart, upon which the curse has not descended in disastrous entail; there is a stain upon the birth, there is a feebleness in the nature of us all. But there comes a sound of help and of deliverance, for a Saviour has been provided--a Saviour who, in the mysterious union of natures, combines perfection of sympathy and almightiness of power.
2. It would at once correct our estimate and restrain our pride if we could remember always that with God the greatest thing is holiness. And then, further, we are told that to work this holiness in His people, God subjects them to discipline, and, if necessary, to the spirit of judgment and to the spirit of burning. Mark the exquisite fitness and the exquisite kindness of the discipline. There are some stains that water can wash away. If the water will avail, there is no need of the fire. There are some stains so deep and foul and crimson that the fire must purge them.
II. THE PROMISE ITSELF (verse 5). As we read these words, we are translated to a former scene of deliverance. We go back to the older ages; and there, in the fierce wilderness, where no groves of palm trees wave with shade, a vast host marching steadily, now in their van for guidance, now in their rear for protection, there rises by day a pillar of cloud and by night a pillar of flame; and, as we gaze, we listen to the snatches of their song: Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. This was the vision prominent in the mind of the prophet when he symbolised by it Gods presence and protection to His chosen Church.
1. The central thought is the presence of God. Then, there are right-hand and left-hand thoughts or aspects in which that presence manifests itself.
2. The presence of God for counsel.
3. The presence of God for defence. (W. M. Punshom.)
Gods promise to the remnant
I. THE PERSONS INTENDED. The remnant, the escaping, the evasion of Israel, as the word signifies (Isa_4:2) they that are left, that remain (Isa_4:3), who escape the great desolation that was to come on the body of the people, the furnace they were to pass through. Only in the close of that verse, they have a further description added of them, from the purpose of God concerning their grace and glory--they are written among the living, or rather, written unto life; Everyone that is written, i.e., designed unto life in Jerusalem.
II. THE CONDITION WHEREIN THEY WERE. This is laid down in figurative expressions concerning the smallness of this remnant, or the paucity of them that should escape, and the greatness of the extremities they should be exercised withal.
III. THE PROMISES HERE MADE TO THIS PEOPLE are of two sorts: Original, or fundamental; and then consequential thereon.
1. There is the great spring, or fountain promise, from which all others, as lesser streams, do flow; and that is the promise of Christ Himself unto them, and amongst them; He is that Branch of Jehovah, and that fruit of the earth, which is there promised (Isa_4:2). He is the foundation, the fountain of all the good that is or shall be communicated unto us; all other promises are but rivulets from that unsearchable ocean of grace and love that is in the promise of Christ.
2. The promises that flow from hence--
(1) Of beauty and glory (Isa_4:2).
(2) Of holiness and purity (Isa_4:3-4).
(3) Of preservation and safety (Isa_4:5-6). (J. Owen, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv2, 4 Isa_4:2-6. In that day shall the Branch of the…
THE DIVINE IDEAL OF ISRAEL REALISED
Isa_4:2-6. In that day shall the Branch of the Lord, &c.
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“That day” is the glorious period described in Isa_2:1-4, and those verses and our text should be read together, as the beginning and conclusion of one prophecy. At the beginning, the prophet fixes his gaze upon the sun-illumined peaks of holiness and blessing in the far future, and his spirit rises within him in exultant gladness (Isa_2:5); and then he begins to survey the spaces of time that lie between. Immediately at his feet he sees almost the whole nation given over to utter ungodliness, the men and the women vying with each other in their pride and luxuriousness, and in their contempt and oppression of the poor; and then he beholds the clouds of Divine vengeance gathering and bursting over the stout-hearted sinners; he sees the nation spoiled of the men who had constituted its strength, and the enfeebled people utterly desolated by war. All is blackness and darkness. But he lifts his eyes again, and there still shines before him the true Zion, dwelling in inviolable peace beneath the manifestations of the presence of her God. This was the vision which was granted him, and which he recorded for the instruction of men in all after-time.
Confining our attention to the closing section of it, we are instructed—
I. That underneath all God’s purposes of judgment He has designs of mercy. In certain portions of this great prophecy God comes forth in terrible majesty, and were we to have regard to them only we should be moved to pray that He would not speak to us any more (Exo_20:19). But these judgments that cause us to tremble—what is their purpose? Not merely the infliction of righteous vengeance, but also and more that a way may be opened for manifestations of the Divine goodness. If into Zion He sends “the spirit of judgment and burning,” it is that by the purging away of her filth and blood-guiltiness she may be made meet to be the dwelling-place of God.
II. That God resolved to carry out His purposes of mercy by a suitable agent. He is here designated by a twofold description, the parts of which appear to be contradictory. He is at once “the Branch of the Lord” and “the Fruit of the earth.” The significance of the first of these titles becomes more plain as we trace it in prophecy (Jer_23:5; Jer_33:15; Zec_3:8; Zec_6:12). So that “the Branch of the Lord” is a man, the son of David, that son concerning whom he sang in the Seventy-second Psalm, the Messiah—our Lord Jesus Christ! As soon as we arrive at this great truth, we perceive what is the explanation of the mysterious contradiction in the two parts of the title of the great Deliverer whom God was about to raise up for Zion (1Ti_3:16; Rom_1:3-4).
III. That in the day when God’s designs of mercy are fulfilled, the suitability and glory of the Agent whom God resolved to employ will be universally recognised. We know how He was treated when He came forth on His great mission: He was despised and rejected of men. Yet not long after He had been put to the most ignominious of deaths, an apostle could write, “Unto you that believe He is precious.” So even on earth there was a commencement of the fulfilment of the prediction that He should be “beautiful and glorious … excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.” We have been permitted also to see how He is regarded by the ransomed ones who have entered into the rest in which they await the manifestation of the sons of God (Rev_5:6-14). By this disclosure we are enabled to form some conceptions of the manner in which this portion of the prophecy will be fulfilled “in that day” when upon the new earth “the holy city, New Jerusalem,” has come down from God out of heaven.
IV. That God’s great design both in the infliction of His judgments and the operation of His mercy is the creation of universal holiness. The work entrusted to the Messiah was to “wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and to purge the blood-guiltiness of Jerusalem from the midst thereof.” There were some “written down for life in Jerusalem” (Act_13:48),—doubtless those whom God foresaw would tremble at His threatenings and accept His gracious offers of mercy; and these the Messiah was so to purify that they should be worthy to “be called holy.” Thus one part of GOD’S IDEAL CONCERNING ISRAEL (Exo_19:6) was to be realised. It was for the accomplishment of this great purpose that Christ died (Eph_5:25-27). It was for this end that He was exalted to God’s right hand (Act_5:31). It is for the accomplishment of this great purpose that He now sometimes subjects His people to painful discipline (Heb_12:10) [574]
[574] As God makes use of all the seasons of the year for the harvest, the frost of winter as well as the heat of summer, so doth He of fair and foul, pleasing and unpleasing providences for promoting holiness. Winter providences kill the weeds of lusts, and summer providences ripen and mellow the fruits of righteousness. When He afflicts it is for our profit, to make us partakers of His holiness (Heb_12:10). Bernard compares afflictions to the teasel, which though it be sharp and scratching, is to make the cloth more pure and fine. God would not rub so hard if it were not to fetch out the dirt that is ingrained in our natures. God loves purity so well that He would rather see a hole than a spot in His child’s garments. When He deals more gently in His providences, and lets His people sit under the sunny bank of comforts and enjoyments, fencing them from the cold blasts of affliction, it is to draw forth the sap of grace, and hasten their growth in holiness.—Gurnall, 1617–1679.
V. That the day of universal holiness will be a day of universal blessing. This great truth is set forth by symbols which would appeal most powerfully to the imagination and the hopes of the godly among Isaiah’s contemporaries (Isa_4:5-6). That which had been the distinguishing glory of the Tabernacle was to become the common glory of every dwelling in the New Jerusalem. Moreover, the whole city was to be a covering—a canopy such as in a Jewish wedding was held over the bride and bridegroom; the symbol of God’s protecting love. Beneath it, as in a tabernacle, they should dwell securely. Thus the second portion of God’s ideal concerning Israel was to be realised (Deu_28:9-10; Deu_33:28). First purity, then peace; perfect purity, perfect peace. A little later Isaiah had another vision concerning this tabernacle (Isa_32:2). God’s protecting love for His people is embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ; “in Him all the promises of God are Yea and Amen.”
GOD’S PERPETUAL PRESENCE WITH HIS PEOPLE
Isa_4:2-5. In that day shall the Branch of the Lord, &c.
The contrast between the preceding chapter, in which denunciations fall upon the ear like thunder, and the sunny promises of this. The references to Zion both in the Psalms and in the Prophecies are frequent and striking. Originally crowned by the Jebusite citadel, it was besieged and taken by David, who transferred his court from Hebron thither; he afterwards erected a tabernacle upon its height, and it there became the chosen resting-place of the ark of the Lord. Hence, in Scripture language, it came sometimes to denote the entire city of Jerusalem, and sometimes the Church or commonwealth of the faithful, which the Highest has promised to establish, and out of which God, the perfection of beauty, shines. You will have no difficulty in thus understanding the reference in the words before us. Applied to the ancient Zion, or even to the entire city of Jerusalem, the words are extravagant and unmeaning; applied to the Church of God—His living, spiritual temple—they are sober, comforting truths. Consider
I. THE PREPARATION FOR THE PROMISE—(Isa_4:2-4). Two things are presented as antecedent to the gifts of blessing—the coming of the Divine Saviour, and His discipline for holiness within His Church. 1. The coming of the Divine Saviour (Isa_4:2). The transition from the gloomy judgment to the grandeur of deliverance is abrupt and striking, as if from a savage wilderness one were to emerge suddenly into green pastures and among gay flowers. So great a change passes upon human destinies when Christ the Lord comes down. We are naturally heirs of judgment. But a Saviour has been provided—a Saviour who, in the mysterious union of natures, combines perfection of sympathy and almightiness of power. Without Christ, we are hopeless and lost. Give us Christ, and we are heirs to all the fulness of God.
2. The Saviour’s discipline for holiness within His Church (Isa_4:3-4). With God the great thing is holiness. To work this holiness in His people, God subjects them to discipline, and, if necessary, to the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. There are some stains so deep that the fire must purge them. The constant superintendence over human affairs which these words imply is assured to us by the experience of our own witnessing hearts, which corroborate the declarations of the inspired Word. In this superintendence the Christian will rejoice. In his anxiety to be conformed to the whole image of God, he will not be careful or delicate about the means God may use. Here is a test by which to try yourselves. Are you willing to submit to this preparation for the promise? Do not shrink from the hissing brand; it will only burn away the core of the ulcer.
II. THE PROMISE ITSELF (Isa_4:5). As we read these words, we go back to former ages and a fierce wilderness, where a pilgrim host marches, and there, now in their van for guidance, now in their rear for protection, rises a pillar of cloud by day, and by night a pillar of flame. This was the vision prominent in the prophet’s mind, when he symbolised by it God’s presence and protection to His chosen Church. We are the heirs of the glorious things thus spoken of the city of God. There is the presence of God with His Church—that is the central thought; then there are right-hand and left-hand thoughts or aspects in which that presence manifests itself, radiating itself on the one hand for counsel, and on the other hand for defence.
1. The central thought, The presence of God. It was in cloud and in fire that God specially revealed Himself to His people in days of old (Gen_15:17; Exo_19:18; Exo_33:9; 1Ki_8:10; Hab_3:3-5). So long as the cloud and fire were in the camp, so long the wilderness lost half its terror, because the Israelites knew that God was in the midst of them for good. That God is still present in His Church is no impious fanatic’s dream. To be sure He does not come as He did in former times, bewildering the sight and overawing the mind. The dispensations are different. The Divine manifestations of terror which made even Moses fear and quake, would not suit this later and better dispensation of love. Yet our tabernacles are not merely places of human assembly; they are tabernacles of God’s presence, and our worship ascends not to a remote or absent God.
2. The right-hand thought, The presence of God for counsel. You remember that this was the primary purpose for which the pillar of cloud and fire was given. Consider how much it was needed by the Israelites in the trackless wilderness.
(1.) For guidance in their perplexities, God’s presence is promised to the churches of to-day. Nobody can look upon the history of the Church with eyes that are not blinded by infidel films without discovering traces of a presence and counsel higher than that of the mightiest and wisest men. What chance had she at the beginning but in the support and upholding that was itself Divine! Through what perils she has been safely guided since!
(2.) If I were to come nearer home, if I were to ask you to look not at the history of the Church, but at your own history, is there not something that would cause you to respond with a joy not less deep and solemn, as you think how the Lord through all your wanderings has been a guide and counsel for you?
3. The left-hand thought, The presence of God for defence. You know what the pillar of fire was—to the Israelites a lamp, brilliant, exquisite, and heartening; to the Egyptians that followed, a consuming fire. There is defence as well as counsel for the Church to-day. Expositors have differed a little about the reading of the last clause in this verse. Some tell us it ought to read, “upon all the glory shall be a defence;” that is, there shall be protection round about the glory which is created by this luminous cloud and by this kindled fire. Some tell us it should be read, “upon all the glory shall be a defence;” that is, the luminous cloud and the brilliant fire shall be itself the defence of the Church. What does it matter which way we take it? The defence is sure, the salvation of the Lord is for bulwarks equally in the one case as in the other; and so the Church is safe, whatever betide. Powerful adversaries have banded themselves for her destruction, and yet she still lives, while their names are forgotten, or remembered with accusation and shame. Let us, then, not be afraid of future assaults (Num_23:23). The defence is not merely for Zion as a whole, but for every dwelling-place therein. Every believer has a pillar of cloud and fire over his own homestead, visible not to your eyes, but to those of the angels. There cannot be a cloud upon “the assembly” unless there are first clouds upon the dwelling-places. Consecrated homes furnish consecrated congregations; consecrated houses bring the baptism of fire. Dear brethren, this promise is yours, if you like to have it. It is the simple, quiet soul that sits at the feet of Jesus and listens to His voice, that has all this done for him (Heb_1:14).
“Which of the petty kings of earth
Can boast a guard like ours,
Encirled from our second birth
With all the heavenly powers?”
—W. Morley Punshon, LL.D.,
Christian World Pulpit, ii. 372–377.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v5
Isaiah
THE PERPETUAL PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE
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Isa 4:5.
The pillar of cloud and fire in the Exodus was one: there are to be as many pillars as there are ‘assemblies’ in the new era. Is it straining the language too much to find significance in that difference? Instead of the formal unity of the Old Covenant, there is a variety which yet is a more vital unity. Is there not a hint here of the same lesson that is taught by the change of the one golden lamp-stand into the seven, which are a better unity because Jesus Christ walks among them?
The heart of this promise, thus cast into the form of ancient experiences, but with significant variations, is that of true communion with God.
That communion makes those who have it glorious.
That communion supplies unfailing guidance.
A man in close fellowship with God will have wonderful flashes of sagacity, even about small practical matters. The gleam of the pillar will illumine conscience, and shine on many difficult, dark places. The ‘simplicity’ of a saintly soul will often see deeper into puzzling contingencies than the vulpine craftiness of the ‘prudent.’ The darker the night, the brighter the guidance.
That communion gives a defence.
The pillar came between Egypt and Israel, and kept the foe off the timid crowd of slaves. Whatever forms our enemies take, fellowship with God will invest us with a defence as protean as our perils. The same cloud is represented in the context as being ‘a pavilion for a shadow in the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v2 A name of Christ, used in fourfold way:
branch
A name of Christ, used in fourfold way:
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(1) "The Branch of Jehovah" (Isa 4:2), that is, the "Immanuel" character of Christ Isa 7:14 to be fully manifested to restored and converted Israel after His return in divine glory Mat 25:31.
(2) the "Branch of David" Isa 11:1; Jer 23:5; Jer 33:15 that is, the Messiah, "of the seed of David according to the flesh" Rom 1:3 revealed in His earthly glory as King of kings, and Lord of lords;
(3) Jehovah’s "Servant, the Branch" Zec 3:8 Messiah’s humiliation and obedience unto death according to; Isa 52:13-15; Isa 53:1-12; Php 2:5-8.
(4) the "man whose name is the Branch" Zec 6:12; Zec 6:13 that is His character as Son of man, the "last Adam," the "second Man" 1Co 15:45-47 reigning, as Priest-King, over the earth in the dominion given to and lost by the first Adam. Matthew is the Gospel of the "Branch of David"; Mark of "Jehovah’s Servant, the Branch"; Luke of "the man whose name is the Branch"; John of "the Branch of Jehovah."
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 v2 Zion’s Future Cleansing and Glory
CHAPTER 4
Zion’s Future Cleansing and Glory
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1. Israel regathered and cleansed (Isa 4:2-4) 2. Jehovah’s visible glory revealed (Isa 4:5-6)The Branch of the Lord (Jehovah) is the Lord Jesus Christ. After judgment has been executed cleansing is promised and glory is established on Mount Zion.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5 the one who is left in Zion and the…
the one who is left in Zion and the one who remains in Jerusalem
Both of these statements mean the same thing. Here "the one who" does not refer to a specific person but to people in general who are still alive in Jerusalem. AT: "everyone who remains in Jerusalem" (See: Parallelism and Generic Noun Phrases)
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will be called holy
This can be stated in active form. AT: "the Lord will call them holy" or "will belong to the Lord" (See: Active or Passive)
everyone who is written down as living in Jerusalem
This can be stated in active form. AT: "everyone whose name is on the list of the people who live in Jerusalem" (See: Active or Passive)
when the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion
This expression speaks of sin as if it were physical dirt. AT: "after the Lord removes the sins of the daughters of Zion as someone washes away filth" (See: Metaphor)
the daughters of Zion
Possible meanings are 1) the women of Jerusalem or 2) the people of Jerusalem.
will have cleansed the blood stains from Jerusalem's midst
"Blood stains" here represents violence and murder. AT: "will have taken away those in Jerusalem who harm innocent people" (See: Metonymy)
by means of the spirit of judgment and the spirit of flaming fire
This is how God would remove the sin from Jerusalem. Here "spirit" probably represents the activity of judging and burning. AT: "by judgment and flaming fire" (See: Metaphor)
spirit of judgment
Possible meanings are 1) Yahweh will punish the people or 2) Yahweh will declare the people guilty.
the spirit of flaming fire
Possible meanings are 1) this is a metaphor that means Yahweh will remove sinners from Zion like a fire removes impurities or 2) "flaming fire" is a metonym that represents the destruction in general of all the sinners. (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)
translationWords
Zion
Jerusalem
holy
lord
clean
blood
spirit
judge
fire
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 vv2–6 4:2-6 In bold contrast to the desperate picture of…
4:2-6 In bold contrast to the desperate picture of 3:16–4:1, this prophecy of salvation and hope (see also 2:2-4) promised cleansing, consecration, and the renewal of God’s presence with the remnant. The imagery in 4:5-6 alludes to Israel’s exodus from Egypt, when a pillar of cloud and of fire guided and protected them. Israel’s restoration from exile would be a second exodus.
4:2 The branch in this context probably refers to the remnant that would constitute Israel’s new beginning after the Exile (see 6:13). Some also understand it as representing the ideal descendant of David, the Messiah (see 11:1; Jer 23:5; 33:15-16; Zech 3:8; 6:12). • A beautiful and glorious transformation from shame and disgrace (Isa 3:17-25) to fertility and beauty would manifest God’s presence and blessing among the remnant (4:6). • The fruit of the land, nature itself, would also be transformed from desolation to glory. Elsewhere, Isaiah described the future circumstances as resembling the Garden of Eden (see 51:3; 65:22). The message of renewal finds its ultimate fulfillment in the new creation (see Rom 8:19-27; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 2:15; 4:24; Rev 21:22-27). • Those who survive in Israel—the remnant—would be the true citizens of Zion.
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