10His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark— dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
11Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.
12“Come,” say they, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be as today, great beyond measure.”
10 His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark— dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.
12 “Come,” say they, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be as today, great beyond measure.”
KJVKing James Version
10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
12 Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
10 His watchmen are all blind, without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; raving, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yea, the dogs are greedy, they know not when they have enough; and these are shepherds that cannot understand; they all turn to their own way, each one to his gain, one and all.
12 'Come ye, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.'
Isaiah 29:10(v10)For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.
Ezekiel 33:6(v10)But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn’t blow the trumpet, and the people aren’t warned, and the sword comes, and takes any…
Philippians 3:2(vv10–11)Beware of the dogs; beware of the evil workers; beware of the false circumcision.
Isaiah 58:1(v10)“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
Ezekiel 34:2-3(v11)“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and tell them, even the shepherds, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Woe to the…
Show all 66 cross-references
Hosea 9:7-8(v10)The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is…
Nahum 3:18(v10)Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather…
Matthew 15:14(v10)Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
Mark 13:34-37(v10)“It is like a man, traveling to another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and…
Psalms 10:6(v12)He says in his heart, “I shall not be shaken. For generations I shall have no trouble.”
Proverbs 6:4-10(v10)Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the…
Proverbs 24:30-34(v10)I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding: Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its…
Ezekiel 3:15-18(v10)Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed…
Ezekiel 13:16(v10)to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,’ ” says the…
Ezekiel 13:19(v11)You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the souls who should not die, and to save the…
Hosea 4:6(v10)My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to…
Luke 6:39-40(v10)He spoke a parable to them. “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but…
Proverbs 27:1(v12)Don’t boast about tomorrow; for you don’t know what a day may bring.
Isaiah 52:8(v10)Your watchmen lift up their voice. Together they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when Yahweh returns to Zion.
Jeremiah 14:13-14(v10)Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give…
Jeremiah 23:13-14(v10)“I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. In the prophets of Jerusalem I…
Jonah 1:2-6(v10)“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah rose up to flee to…
Micah 3:11(v11)Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh,…
Matthew 23:16-26(v10)“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is…
Luke 12:19-20(v12)I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him,…
John 8:43(v11)Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word.
Titus 1:7(vv11–12)For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for…
Isaiah 1:3(v11)The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know. My people don’t consider.”
Isaiah 5:22(v12)Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;
Isaiah 57:17(v11)I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness and struck him. I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way…
Ezekiel 3:26-27(v10)I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you will be mute, and will not be able to correct them; for they are a…
Micah 3:5-6(v11)Yahweh says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t…
Zechariah 11:15-17(v11)Yahweh said to me, “Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land,…
Revelation 22:15(v11)Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
1 Samuel 2:12-17(v11)Now the sons of Eli were wicked men. They didn’t know Yahweh. The custom of the priests with the people was that when anyone offered a…
Proverbs 23:35(v12)“They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another.”
Hosea 4:11(v12)Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
1 Corinthians 15:32(v12)If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let’s eat and drink, for…
1 Timothy 3:8(v11)Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money,
Titus 1:11(v11)whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake.
1 Peter 5:2(v11)Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but…
2 Peter 2:3(v11)In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not…
2 Peter 2:14-16(v11)having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;…
Jude 1:11(v11)Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah’s rebellion.
Jude 1:16(v11)These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain…
Exodus 23:3(v11)You shall not favor a poor man in his cause.
1 Samuel 2:29(v11)Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make…
Ecclesiastes 5:10(v11)He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.
Jeremiah 6:13-14(v10)“For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals…
Jeremiah 18:18(v12)Then they said, “Come! Let’s devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law won’t perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the…
Jeremiah 22:17(v11)But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
Amos 6:3-6(v12)Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their…
Malachi 1:10(v11)“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,”…
Matthew 13:14-15(v11)In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and…
Luke 12:45-46(v12)But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and…
Luke 21:34(v12)“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you…
Acts 20:29(v11)For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Acts 20:33(v11)I coveted no one’s silver, gold, or clothing.
2 Corinthians 4:4(v11)in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the…
Philippians 3:19(v11)whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
1 Timothy 3:3(v11)not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;
Isaiah 5:11(v12)Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
Isaiah 22:13-14(v12)and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will…
Isaiah 28:7-8(v12)They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine.…
Proverbs 31:4-5(v12)It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes to say, ‘Where is strong drink?’ lest they drink, and…
Matthew 24:49-51(v12)and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t…
66 distinct cross-references across this passage (68 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv10, 12He showeth that this affliction shall come through the…
He showeth that this affliction shall come through the fault of the governors, prophets, and pastors, whose ignorance, negligence, avarice and obstinacy provoked God’s wrath against them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv10–12Isa 56:10 His watchmen [are] blind: they are all…
Isa 56:10 His watchmen [are] blind: they are all ignorant, they [are] all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Ver. 10. His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant.] Invehit in Pseudepiscopos, such as were, and are still in part, the popish clergy; those of the ninth age especially, and not much better a little before Luther stickled: blind leaders of the blind, lamentably ignorant, as the Bishop of Dunkeld, in Scotland, for instance, who professed that he knew neither the New Testament nor the Old. So Bishop Albert, reading the Bible, and being asked by a nobleman what book it was he read; I know not, said he, what book it is, but all that I read in it is contrary to our religion. {a} As for the other ill qualities of the watchmen here inveighed against, Hugo the cardinal said, that the devil had two daughters, Covetousness and Luxury; the former he had heretofore married out to the Jews, the latter to the Gentiles; but now the monks and priests had gotten them both from their old husbands and taken them for their own use. The Hebrew critics have observed, that the word here rendered watchmen, hath a tzaddi larger than ordinary, to show what odious creatures such are as are here described. {Hebrew Text Note}
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They are all dumb dogs that cannot bark,] i.e., Will not deal plainly and faithfully with men’s souls; but either preach not at all, or placentia only, toothless truths. Pliny {b} tells of the dogs in Rome that were set to keep the capitol; because, when the Gauls scaled it, the dogs being fed too full, lay sleeping, and did not give warning, they not only hanged them up, but every year on that day of the year, hanged up certain dogs in the city for exemplary justice; yea, crucified them alive upon an older tree. Let dumb dogs and parasitical preachers, treacherous to men’s souls, take heed they be not one day hanged in hell.
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.] Non dormiunt solum, sed dedita opera dormiunt; { c} so full they have farced themselves, and so deeply drunk they are, that they sleep soundly, though lions roar, and wolves worry the poor flock, and that many times far enough from the fold, wherein they show themselves to be worse than Ulysses’ swine herd, of whom Homer saith -
“ουδε συβωτη
‘Hνοανεν αυτοθι κοιτος ιων απο κοιμηθηναι, ”
That he would not be drawn to sleep from his swine sty.
{a} Acts and Mon.
{b} Lib xxix. cap. 4.
{c} Somnolentia pastorum luporum est gaudium.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv10–12His; Israel’s, as is evident from the following verses;…
His; Israel’s, as is evident from the following verses; the pronoun relative being put without and instead of the antecedent; of which I have given divers instances before.
Watchmen; priests and prophets, or other teachers, who are commonly called watchmen, as Eze 3:17; 33:2; Hos 9:8. He mentions only the teachers, because ignorance was most shameful in them; but hereby he supposeth the gross ignorance of the people, who neither pretended nor desired to be wiser than their teachers.
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They are all ignorant of God’s will and word, and of their own and the people’s duty, and of the true Messiah.
They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; they are also slothful and negligent in instructing the people, and do not faithfully reprove them for their sins, nor warn them of their dangers, nor keep them from errors and corruptions in doctrine, and worship, and conversation, as they ought to do.
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber; minding their own ease and safety more than the people’s benefit.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv10–12His watchmen are blind,.... A sad character of watchmen;…
His watchmen are blind,.... A sad character of watchmen; who, of all men, ought to have good sight, to see who is coming, to discover an enemy, to discern approaching danger, and so be capable of giving notice thereof. This some apply to the Scribes and Pharisees, who are often called blind guides, and blind leaders of the blind, Mat 15:14 and well suits the character of the Popish clergy, bishops, and priests, those ecclesiastical watchmen, whose business should be to look after the souls of men, and feed them with knowledge and understanding; but very ill qualified for it, being blind and ignorant as to the knowledge of things divine and spiritual. The first letter in this clause is larger than usual, perhaps designed to strike the eye, and raise the attention to what follows, as being something remarkable and extraordinary, as indeed the character given of these men is, and directing to beware of them. The first word, which is the word for "watchmen", has the letter "jod" wanting; which, being a note of multitude, shows, it is observed (u), that all the watchmen were universally deficient in the light of their minds, and not one of them did their duty, as it follows:
they are all ignorant; or "know not" (w), or "nothing", not the Scriptures, and the meaning of them; the Gospel, and the doctrines of it; Christ, and the way of salvation by him; the Spirit of God, and his operations on the souls of men; and so very unfit to be spiritual watchmen, or to have the care of immortal souls. A Popish bishop in Scotland declared he did not know neither the Old nor the New Testament; and Bishop Albert, reading the Bible, could not tell what book it was, only he found it was contrary to their religion.
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They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; and so useless; as a house dog, or one that is set to keep the sheep, if it barks not at the noise of a thief, or the approach of a wolf, to give notice to the family, or the shepherd, it is of no service. It may design such who call themselves ministers of the word, and yet either cannot or will not preach, such as are non-preaching bishops; or in their ministry do not reprove the errors and vices of men, and warn them of their danger:
sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber; as dogs do; slothful, indolent, do not care to be concerned in business, but take their ease and pleasure, and are very improper persons for watchmen. The first word (x) used is observed to signify speaking vain things in dreams, things delirious; and agrees well with the dreaming doctrines and delirious notions of the Romish clergy.
(u) Buxtorf. Tiberias, c. 14. p. 39. Vid. Hiller. De Arcano Cethib & Keri, I. 1. c 7. p. 55. (w) "nesciverunt", Pagninus, Montanus; "nil sciunt", Piscator. (x) "deliria loquentes", Montanus; "videntes vans", V. L. So Ben Melech interprets it of such that speak vain things in their sleep.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv10–12His - Israel's. Watchmen - Priests and teachers; he…
His - Israel's. Watchmen - Priests and teachers; he mentions only the teachers, because ignorance was most shameful in them, but hereby he supposes the gross ignorance of the people. Bark - They are also slothful and negligent in instructing the people, and do not faithfully reprove them for their sins.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv10–12Verse 10. His watchmen are blind] Kimchi observes, "The…
Verse 10. His watchmen are blind] Kimchi observes, "The flock is intrusted to the care of these watchmen. The wild beasts come; these dogs bark not; and the wild beasts devour the flock. Thus they do not profit the flock. Yea, they injure it; for the owner trusts in them, that they will watch and be faithful; but they are not. These are the false teachers and careless shepherds."
Dumb dogs, they cannot bark] See Clarke on Isa 62:6.
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Sleeping - "Dreamers"] הזים hozim, ενυπνιαζομενοι, Septuagint. This seems to be the best authority for the meaning of this word, which occurs only in this place: but it is to be observed, that eleven MSS. of Kennicott's and De Rossi's, and four editions, have חזים chazim, seers, or those who see; and so the Vulgate seems to have read, videntes vana, "seeing vain things."
Loving to slumber.] לנום lanum: but six of Kennicott's and seven of De Rossi's MSS. read לנוס lanus, to fly, "to change their residence:" but what connexion such reading can have with the sense of the passage, I cannot discern. What is taken for ס samech here is, I have no doubt, a narrow formed final ם mem, which has been mistaken for the above. Many instances occur in my own MSS., where the final ם mem is similar to the samech; and yet no such change was intended by the scribe.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv10–12Isa 56:10. His — Israel’s, watchmen are blind —…
Isa 56:10. His — Israel’s, watchmen are blind — The priests, prophets, and other teachers; he mentions only the teachers, because ignorance was most shameful in them; but hereby he supposes the gross ignorance of the people. They are all ignorant — Of God’s word and will, and of their own and the people’s duty, and of the true Messiah, and the nature of his kingdom. They cannot bark — They are also slothful and negligent in instructing the people, and do not faithfully reprove them for their sins, nor warn them of their dangers, nor endeavour to keep them from errors and corruptions in doctrine, worship, and conversation, as they ought to do: sleeping, lying down, &c. — Minding their own ease and safety more than the people’s benefit.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv10–12His watchmen - The prophet proceeds to specify the…
His watchmen - The prophet proceeds to specify the sins which had thus induced God to send the desolating armies of foreign nations. The first is specified in this verse, the apathy, indifference, and unfaithfulness, which prevailed among those who were appointed to guard their interests and defend the cause of truth. The word rendered ‘his watchmen’ (צפוּ tsophâv) is derived from צפה tsâphâh, “to look about; to view from a distance; to see afar.” It is applied appropriately to those who were stationed on the walls of a city, or on a tower, in order that they might see the approach of an enemy 1Sa 14:16; 2Sa 13:34; 2Sa 18:24. It is then applied to prophets, who are as it were placed on an elevated post of observation, and who are able to cast the eye far into future scenes, and to predict future events (Jer 6:17; Eze 3:17; the note at Isa 21:6-11; Isa 52:8; compare Isa 62:6). Here it refers undoubtedly to the public teachers of the Jews who had failed to perceive the crimes and dangers of the people; or who, if they had seen them, had neglected to warn them of the prevalence of sin, and of the dangers to which they were exposed.
Are blind - They have become willfully blind to the existence of idolatry and vice, or they are so corrupt in sentiment and practice, that they fail to notice the existence of the prevailing sins.
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They are all ignorant - Hebrew, ‘They do not know.’ This may either mean that they were not possessed of the proper qualifications for the office of prophets, or that they were so immersed in sin themselves, and so indolent, that they did not observe the existence of the national sins. In either case, they were unfit for the station.
They are all dumb dogs - Dogs are appointed to guard a house or flock, and to give notice of the approach of a robber by night Job 30:1. They are thus an emblem of a prophet - appointed to announce danger. Generally in the Scriptures the dog is mentioned as the symbol of uncleanness, of vileness, of apostasy, of that which deserved the utmost contempt (Deu 23:18; 1Sa 24:14; 2Sa 9:8; Pro 26:11; Phi 3:2; 2Pe 2:22; Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15; compare Virg. Georg. i. 470). But here the dog is an emblem of vigilance. The phrase ‘dumb dogs,’ is applicable to prophets who from any cause failed to warn the nation of their guilt and danger.
They cannot bark - They cannot give warning of the danger which threatens. The reason why they could not do this the prophet immediately states. They loved to slumber - they delighted in indolence and repose.
Sleeping - Margin, ‘Dreaming,’ or ‘Talking in their sleep.’ The word הזים hoziym, is from הזה hâzâh, “to dream, to talk in one’s dreams.” It is kindred to חזה châzâh, “to see,” and the primary idea seems to be that of nocturnal visions. The Septuagint renders it, Ενυπνιαξόμενοι κοίτην Enupniachomenoi koitēn - ‘Sleeping in bed.’ Aquila, φανταζόμενοι phantazomenoi - ‘Having visions,’ or phantasms. The idea is that probably of dreaming, or drowsing; a state of indolence and unfaithfulness to their high trust. Perhaps also there is included the idea of their being deluded by vain imaginations, and by false opinions, instead of being under the influence of truth. For it is commonly the case that false and unfaithful teachers of religion are not merely inactive; they act under the influence of deluding and delusive views - like people who are dreaming and who see nothing real. Such was probably the case with the false prophets in the time of Isaiah.
Lying down - As dogs do who are indolent. They are inactive, unfaithful, and delighting in ease.
Loving to slumber - Perhaps there was never a more graphic and striking description of an indolent and unfaithful ministry than this. Alas, that it should be too true of multitudes who bear the sacred office, and who are appointed to warn their fellow-men of danger! How many come still under the description of dumb dogs who cannot bark, and who love to slumber!’ Some are afraid of giving offence; some have no deep sense of the importance of religious truth, and the actual danger of the ungodly; some embrace false opinions - led on by day-dreams and fictions of the imagination, as unreal, as vain, and as inconsistent, as are the incoherent expressions which are uttered in sleep; some engage in worldly projects, and fill up their time with the cares and plans of this life; and some are invincibly indolent. Nothing will rouse them; nothing induce them to forego the pleasures of sleep, and ease, and of an inactive life. The friends of God are unrebuked when they err; and an inactive and unfaithful ministry suffers the great enemy to come and bear away the soul to death, as an unfaithful mastiff would suffer the thief to approach the dwelling without warning the inmates. But the mastiff is usually more faithful than an indolent ministry. To the deep shame of man be it spoken, there are more ministers of religion who are indolent, inactive, and unfaithful, than there are of the canine race. Instinct prompts them to act the part which God intends; but alas, there are men - men in the ministry - whom neither instinct, nor conscience, nor reason, nor hope, nor fear, nor love, nor the command of God, nor the apprehension of eternal judgment, will rouse to put forth unwearied efforts to save souls from an eternal hell!
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv10–11Watchmen. Priests and prophets. (Calmet) --- We know (Haydock)…
Watchmen. Priests and prophets. (Calmet) --- We know (Haydock) only Jeremias who continued firm, Lamentations ii. 14. In the days of Christ, the corruption was not diminished. (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 Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v10Concluding Word: The Mournful Present, which will not be…
IX.—THE NINTH DISCOURSE
Concluding Word: The Mournful Present, which will not be Prevented by the Approach of the Glorious Future.
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Isa_56:10 to Isa_57:21.
Isaiah is wont to set the present in the light of the future, in order to make an impression on it by the contrast. I appeal to chapters 2–5, and to my interpretation of Isa_2:5. Jeremiah also imitates Isaiah in this (Jer_3:11 to Jer_4:4). The sudden spring from the remotest, the glorious future into the mournful, immediate present that the Prophet makes between Isa_56:9-10, need not therefore seem strange to us. It is to be admitted that the description of the bad shepherds, Isa_56:10-12, can suit also the period of the Exile. That it at least fits Isaiah’s contemporaries very well is undeniably plain from Isaiah 28. That in the exile, prophets of Jehovah were murdered (Isa_57:1) simply for being such, is possible, but not probable, and not proved. That remnants of idolatry continued through the whole exile, is not only possible but also probable. However the time before and after the destruction of Jerusalem must be distinguished. But that all kinds of idolatry even Moloch worship, with its sacrifices of children (Isa_57:5), still occurred in the Exile, is not probable and not proved. It is utterly inconceivable, or, as Hengstenberg says (Christol. II. p. 201, 2 edit.), “it has no meaning,” that Israel even in exile sent to foreign kings for help (Isa_57:9). The threat: because thou hast not laid to heart my silence מֵעוֹלם, thy works shall be made manifest and thy idols be swept away (Isa_57:11-13), certainly suits better the time before than the time after the Exile. For this reason even the opponents of the genuineness have been obliged to admit that the authorship of our section dates before the Exile (comp. Kleinert, Echth. D. jes. Weiss. p. 305 sqq.; Stier in his Comm.; Hengstenberg, l.c.). They do so partly by forced interpretations; partly by assuming that the whole passage Isa_56:10 to Isa_57:21 (Eichhorn), or at least Isa_56:9 to Isa_57:11 (Ewald) is repeated “from older prophets.” I am for this reason of the opinion (with Kleinert, Stier, Hengstenberg) that the grounds already given are opposed to the idea that in writing our passage, too, Isaiah’s view-point was that of the Exile (Del.).
The section divides into three parts. In the First the Prophet contrasts the conduct and the fate of the bad and of the good shepherds of the present (Isa_56:10; Isa_57:2). In the Second he describes the mournful signs of the present, the idolatrous doings of the nation (Isa_57:3-14). In the Third he returns to promising salvation, and announces that God’s love will still bring salvation and healing to those that let themselves be healed (Isa_57:15-21).
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1.—THE MOURNFUL PRESENT MARKED BY THE CONTRAST OF THE BAD AND GOOD SHEPHERDS
Isa_56:10 to Isa_57:2
10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant,
They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark;
9Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yea, they are 10greedy dogs which 11can never have enough,
12And they are shepherds that cannot understand:
They all look to their own way,
Every one for his gain, 13from his quarter.
12 Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine,
And we will fill ourselves with strong drink;
And to-morrow shall be as this day,
And much more abundant.
57 1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart:
And 14merciful men are taken away, none considering
15That the righteous is taken away 16from the evil to come.
2 17He shall 18enter into peace:
They shall rest in their beds,
Each one walking 19in his uprightness.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa_56:10. הזה. Verse 12. יתר מאד; Isa_57:1. אנשׁי־חסד– שׂם על לב; Isa_57:2. מִשְׁכָּב.
Isa_56:10. The suffix in צֹכּוֹ undoubtedly refers to Israel.
Isa_56:11. The suffix in מקצהו is related to the ideal totality to which the אִישׁ belongs.
Isa_57:1. I cannot approve the view that כי מפני וגו׳ is an objective clause depending on מֵבִין. For how could then the wicked know that the pious by their death only escape the impending evil? And must it not then read, as Vitringa has said, לִפְגֵי or at least מִלִּכְּנֵי? I believe that we must construe מִפְנֵי as causal, as in countless instances beside.
Isa_57:2. This verse is very difficult on grammatical and lexical grounds. For if one take הֹלֵךְ as the subject of יָבוֹא, then this insertion of a clause whose subject is identical with that of the principal clause, but expressed in the plural, is very violent, and, so far as I see, unexampled, notwithstanding the great freedom usual in Hebrew in respect to the change of person and number. It is also very questionable whether מִשְׁכָּב can mean “burying place,” and whether נוֹחַ with עַל can mean “rest in the grave.” For משׁכב is only twice beside this used of a bed prepared for a dead person. In 2Ch_16:14 it designates the bed of state on which king Asa was laid before his burial (משׁכב and קְבָרוֹת are expressly distinguished). Also in Eze_32:25 there is prepared for Elam a משׁכב in the under-world, around about which are the עְבָרוֹת of his adherents. Thus it appears that משׁכב can indeed designate the place of repose of a dead person, but that is not then the grave in which he lies, but a distinguished elevated couch, on which he lies. But here nothing else is meant to be said of the righteous than that he, as one who has walked uprightly, finds rest in his grave. For this reason I am unable also to agree with the explanation, grammatically admissible, that treats יבוא שׁלום as a clause by itself, and הלך as the subject of ינוהו. Then the participle is regarded as collective: the upright walking, i. e., the total of those walking uprightly. But here על משׁכבותם remains an oddity. For this reason I am of the opinion, that ינוחו על מ׳ is to be treated as clause thrown in, expressive of the situation (comp. Jer_13:21): “comes to peace—while they rest on their beds—who walks uprightly”. In this way is made prominent the contrast between the fleshly rest on soft pillows (comp. Isa_66:10. שׁכבים אהבי לנום) that the bad shepherds enjoy, and the rest of everlasting peace of God enjoyed by the righteous whom the world persecutes (comp. Luk_16:22). It is true one looks for וְחֵמָּה before יָנוּחוּ. Still Vav. in such clauses is not unfrequently omitted (comp. e. g., Psa_57:4; חֵרֵף שׁאֲפִי; Ewald, § 311, a), and the omission of הֵמָּה finds compensation in the striking prominence of the plural.—The plural משׁכבות is found beside here in Hos_7:14; Mic_2:1; Psa_149:5. It is also perhaps not unimportant to remark that this plural only occurs with עַל, and that both the singular and the plural with עַל never mean anything else than the bed on which the living repose. The passages with משׁכב in the singular with על: 2Sa_4:11; 2Sa_11:2; 2Sa_13:6; 1Ki_1:47; Psa_4:5; Psa_36:5; Job_33:19; Son_3:1. For the use of both sing. and plur. in Isaiah, see List.—נָכֹחַ is τὸ ἐναντίον, ex adverso positum, that which lies directly opposite, directly before a man. Hence הלך נכחו is he that goes the way lying directly before him. הלך with the accusative as in Isa_33:15; Isa_50:10.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet stands at the conclusion of the task he proposed for the second Ennead. He has pursued the word of the Servant of God through all its alternations to its glorious goal. From the light of the final glorification he turns his eye back and observes with pain the contrast between the glorious future and the mournful present. As we notice in Isa_48:6 that the Prophet by no means becomes unconscious of the present in his contemplation of the future, so we see here, too, that he cannot avoid instituting a comparison between that hereafter and the now. The difference is so great, that one does not comprehend how from the now the hereafter can ever come to be. But nothing is impossible with God. Spite of the heinousness of the present, the word of the Lord stands fast, that the people of God (those of course excepted that persistently resist the drawings of the Spirit) shall come to the peace and refreshment on the mount of God. The Prophet describes first the heinousness of the present. His eye falls chiefly on those that ought to be leaders and exemplars to the nation in the good way. But these are blind watchmen, and dumb, lazy dogs (Isa_56:10) and insatiably greedy. They are shepherds without knowledge, only keen for their own interest (Isa_56:11), and carousers that each day carry on worse than the day before (Isa_56:12). Where such men rule, of course the lot of the righteous is outwardly mournful; unregarded by the crowd they are borne away by the evil (Isa_57:1). But happily for them! For while others on their luxurious pillows surrender themselves to a fatal repose, the righteous go in to everlasting peace (Isa_57:2).
2. His watchmen——more abundant.—Isa_56:10-12. Although in general the transition here is sharp from the future to the immediate present, still the figure used in Isa_56:9 prepares the transition in a very artistic way. For, although I do not think that there the Prophet summons the wild beasts to devour Israel, because they may easily do this on account of the bad watch that is kept, still I think it likely, that the Prophet, by the mention of the future of the beasts, is led to think of the beasts of the present, and of the way in which Israel is given over to them. צֹפִים (Isa_21:5-6; Isa_52:7), which means primarily “spies, sentinels on guard,” we are to understand here as meaning those whose duty it is, on account of their office, to warn the community of evil, and with it to contend against wickedness. Such, first of all, are the prophets. But also the priests (Mal_2:7) and worldly superiors, in short all that are entrusted with the shepherd office (וְהֵמָּה רעִים56:11) are included. But what sort of watchmen are those that cannot see? In the ordinary sense there are none such. But in a spiritual sense there are. For there are, alas, those spiritually blind, whose spiritual eye is plastered up, and who consequently “do not know,” i. e., have no knowledge, no understanding of what they ought to know, יָדע in this absolute sense we had already Isa_44:9; Isa_44:18; Isa_45:20. Changing his figure, the Prophet further compares those bad shepherds to dogs that should watch the flock, and which though not blind, indeed, are yet dumb. But a protector that sees the enemy and gives no notice, is just as bad as one that does not see him at all (indeed worse subjectively). Thus the second figure intensifies the charge; for it adds a bad will to incapacity. Why they do not bark is said in the following words (added in the form of apposition): snarling in sleep, lying down, loving to slumber.הָזָה, ἅπ. λεγ. seems to designate the sounds a dog utters in sleep, and therefore the meanings “to sleep, dream, snore, to be delirious” are ascribed to the word; comp. Bochart, Hieroz. ed. Lips. I. p. 781 sqq. With the Arabs the dog passes for a sleepy beast (comp. Hitzigin loc.), while, on the contrary, in the Occident it is the type of watchfulness (see Bochart, l. c.). The Prophet would say of the bad shepherds under all circumstances, that they cannot bark because they love their comfort and advantage beyond everything. Hence they get off nothing more than a snarl or a growl, such as a dog utters in slumber. Bochartl.c. adduces several passages from the ancients that show that they regarded these sounds in sleep as a characteristic peculiarity of dogs. They are lazy, yet insatiably greedy dogs (עַזֵּי־נֶפֶשׁ strong in greed, Isa_5:14; Isa_29:8; Isa_55:2); they do not know what it is to be satisfied. And they are shepherds! adds the Prophet indignantly, with reference to “his watchmen,” etc., Isa_57:10 init. Then, as is his manner, Isaiah proceeds, in what follows, to explain the figure: answering to the ignorance of what is enough, is a worse ignorance with respect to הָבִין, “to distinguish “(comp. the reverse of this Isa_32:4). They are strangers to true wisdom. They let selfishness essentially determine the direction of their efforts (comp. Isa_58:6), and especially greediness for gain. בֶּצַע is “that cut off, the cutting, gain” (Isa_33:15; Isa_57:17), קָצֶה is the end in the sense of the periphery (comp. Gen_19:4; Jer_50:26). Thus the idea is: from the utmost periphery in to the very centre every one of this fine fellowship turns only to gain. Accordingly they all do so without exception.
And what good does their money do them? Isa_57:12 shows this by examples. Such a blind, dumb watchman, who can open eye and mouth well enough when it concerns his belly, calls out to the passer-by, or a visitor: Come ye, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink (שֵׁכָר comp. on Isa_5:11). This friendly host, however, does not invite to merely a short banquet, but, (answering to “they know not satiety” Isa_57:10), also to one that the following day will be continued in grander style. The words גדול are both a nearer definition and also intensify the meaning. The next day is to be like the first only as a drunken day in general, but distinguished as to species by being of a much higher quality. Who does not think here of what the Prophet says Isa_28:7 sqq. of the vice of drunkenness that invaded both Judah and Israel? At all events, this moral aberration agrees very well with the religious degeneracy spoken of in Isa_57:3 sqq.
3. The righteous perish——uprightness, Isa_57:1-2. If Isa_56:10-12 describes the doings of the bad shepherds, especially of false prophets, then by the righteous man here must be understood also a prophet. And אבד and נאסף cannot mean a natural death, for that would be much more an encouragement than a warning to the bad. Rather the context seems to me to demand that the mournful fate of the true and righteous servants of Jehovah be contrasted with the lazy, jovial doings of the dumb dogs. Therefore (with Umbreit and others) I understand אבד and נאספ to denote a violent death. I cannot avoid the impression that the Prophet here alludes to circumstances that he sees quite near, and as perhaps personally threatening to himself. Of course, precise proof of this cannot be offered; and I will only offer the view as a conjecture. The flood of unbelief had only swelled to greater magnitude under the idolatrous Manasseh. The apostacy was universal. It was much as in the days of Elijah (1Ki_19:10). It is also expressly said of Manasseh, that he shed very much innocent blood, and filled Jerusalem with it from one end to the other (2Ki_21:16); and tradition (handed down by Josephus,Antiq. X. 3, 1) refers that bloodshed especially to execution of numerous prophets. Even though Isaiah himself may not so have perished, and though the tradition to that effect be unfounded (see Introduction, pp. 3, 4), still Isaiah, while writing this, may have had this atrocious period in mind, and even have regarded it as threatening himself with destruction. That no man laid it to heart, if again a Jehovah-prophet was slain, is perfectly explained by the frequency of such events and by the apostacy being so universal and intense. The expression אנשׁי־חסד might in parallelism have a general meaning. Yet history justifies our construing it in a particular sense. חֶסֶד is “pietas, piety.” באין מבין is said as בְּהִמָֽצְאוֹ, Isa_55:6. On כי מפני וגו׳, see Text. and Gram. It was said before only, that the pious are taken away without any one regarding it. Now the reason of this is given. It is the רָעָה, the universally prevalent wickedness. That explains that the righteous are not only taken away, but that it is done without opposition, yea, even without causing any disturbance.
Isa_57:2. But that is only a seeming misfortune for the righteous. In fact in this way he enters into peace, while they, the wicked, are fatally reposing on their beds of luxury (see Text. and Gram.).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_56:11. (Every one looks to his own way). “Potest intelligi de externis criminibus, sed magis placet, ut accipiatur de speciosis viis, in quibus ambulant hypocritae. Sic Franciscanus Francisci regulam sequitur, decalogum et evangelii doctrinam negligit tanquam rem vulgarem, quae ad vulgus pertirneant.”—Luther.
2. On Isa_56:12. In the Alexandrian and Vatican texts of the LXX., the words from מקצהו Isa_56:11 to the end of Isa_56:12 are wanting, which even Jerome remarks on. He adds: “denique hos versiculos nullus ecclesiasticorum interpretum disseruit, sed quasi patentem in medio foveam transiliunt atque transmittunt.”—That the Fathers, unacquainted as they were with Hebrew, pass the words by, is simply explained by the LXX. omitting them. Jerome, because he knew Hebrew, as he himself says, “added them ex hebraico.” But why the Greek translator left them out is doubtful: Theodotion (see Hexapla Orig. ed. Montfaucon II., p. 179) has them.—“Ab hoc vitio (ebrietatis) abstinere debent pii ecclesiae ministri memores interdicti apostolici 1Ti_3:2-3, considerantes secum, nullam horulam ipsis esse adeo liberam ac vacuam, qua non ad officia functionis suis possint avocari.”—Foerster.—“Let one point the rough figure for himself for the more delicate spiritual form also, quite as Mat_24:49; Eph_5:18, and the like are meant. For there is a drunkenness and voluptuousness in all kinds of wine and intoxication, which only the eye of the Spirit beholds in many an honorable Bishop, General-superintendent or Superior-court-preacher. Stier. “Vita concionatoris optimus syllogismus.” Chrysostom.
3. On Isa_57:1. “Against the heedlessness of the world, that regards the life and death of men alike. For because Pharaoh and Moses, Saul and Jonathan, Judas and Peter, must temporally die, the one as the other, they suppose it is as much to one as to the other. But on the contrary, one should lay it to heart when useful and pious men fall, because, first, one must miss them afterwards, especially their prayers by which they stand in the breach and run to the walls (Eze_22:30); second, because the destruction of such people is wont to be an evil omen of a great impending misfortune and change, [“It is a sign that God intends war when He calls home His ambassadors.”—M. Henry]. Examples: When Noah turns his back on the world and shuts himself in the ark, the deluge comes (Gen_7:17). When Lot goes out of Sodom and Gomorrah, fire from heaven falls on them (Gen_19:24). When Joseph dies in Egypt, the bondage of the children of Israel begins, together with the murder of their infant boys (Exo_1:8). When Hezekiah died, then followed the tyranny of Manasseh (2 Kings 20, 21) When Christ and His disciples were made way with, then began the destruction of Jerusalem.”—Cramer.—“Sicut ad Josiam dicit: tolleris, ne videant occuli tui hoc malum, etc. (2Ki_22:18-20). Sic excidio Hierosolymitano erepti sunt apostoli et reliqui Sancti. Idem nobis accidet. Vivunt adhuc passim quidam pii homines, propter iliis Deus differt poenam. Sublatis autem iis sequetur Germaniae ruina.”—Luther.—“Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labor (Rev_14:13). And hellish enemies, as little as human, can do them any harm.”—“It is a misfortune for the whole country when distinguished and deserving people are taken out of the midst by temporal death. For them, indeed, it is well; but God have mercy on those that are left. For as in a great storm, when the heavens are overcast with clouds, the shepherd leads in the sheep, the husbandman hastily gathers his sheaves, the parents call in the children from the streets, so our dear God calls His dearest children together, that the calamity may not touch them.”—Cramer.—“The men of grace or mercy are receivers and distributers, thus also the mediators of the grace of God for their people; the men of grace, that atoningly represent the land by intercessions and conduct, postpone its judgment (Gen_18:24; Eze_22:30).” Stier.—“The mere presence of an honest man is still a, restraint on the unbridledness of blasphemers.” G. Mueller in Stier.
4. On Isa_57:2. “Against the idle fancy of the fire of purgatory. For here it is said of those who have walked uprightly, not that they get into trouble, unrest, pain and torment, by which they must be purged; but that, with respect to their souls, they come to peace. But as to their bodies, they rest in their sleeping chamber. They are not on this account driven about; they seek also no mass or soul baths, as the Papists pretend.”—Cramer.
“Nam stultum est mortem matrem timuisse quietis,
Quam fugiunt morbi, moestaque pauperies.”
(Attributed to Cornelius Gallus, the friend of Virgil).
5. On Isa_52:4. It should be a wreath of honor to all faithful teachers and preachers, that they are regarded as monsters and are lampooned by the wise of this world. For if the great Prophet Isaiah in this passage, item, Jeremiah (Jer_20:8), Elijah (2Ki_2:24), Ezekiel (Eze_33:31), Job (Job_17:6), yea, even Christ Himself had to suffer this, what wonder is it if the scoffing birds sharpen their beaks on us and chatter like the storks?” Cramer.
6. [On Isa_52:8. “When a people forget God, the memorials of their apostacy will be found in every part of their habitations. The shrines of idol gods may not be there; the beautiful images of the Greek and Roman mythology, or the clumsy devices of less refined heathens may not be there; but the furniture, the style of living will reveal from ‘behind every door and the posts” of the house that God is forgotten, and that they are influenced by other principles than a regard for His name. The sofa, the carpet, the chandelier, the centre-table, the instruments of music, the splendid mirror, may be of such workmanship as to show, as clearly as the image of a heathen god, that Jehovah is not honored in the dwelling, and that His law does not control the domestic arrangements.” Barnes].
7. [On Isa_57:10. “Thou art wearied——no hope. This is a striking illustration of the conduct of men in seeking happiness away from God. They wander from object to object; they become weary in the pursuit, yet they do not abandon it; they still cling to hope though often repulsed—and though the world gives them no permanent comfort—though wealth, ambition, gayety, and vice all fail in imparting the happiness which they sought, yet they do not give it up in despair. They still feel that it is to be found in some other way, than by the disagreeable necessity of returning to God, and they wander from object to object, and from land to land, and become exhausted in the pursuit, and still are not ready to say there is no hope, we give it up in despair, and we will now seek happiness in God.” Barnes.
“Note.—Despair of happiness in the creature, and of satisfaction in the service of sin, is the first step toward a well-grounded hope of happiness in God, and a well-fixed resolution to keep to His service; and those are inexcusable who have had sensible convictions of the vanity of the creature, and yet will not be brought to say, ‘There is no hope to be happy short of the Creator.’—Note.—Prosperity in sin (Thou hast found the life of thy hand) is a great bar to conversion from sin.” M. Henry].
8. On Isa_57:11. “God keeps silence only for a while, but yet not for ever and continually, with respect to men’s sins; but the longer He has kept silence, the harder He punishes afterwards.”—Starke.
9. On Isa_57:12. “Tuam justitiam. Est emphasis in pronomine tuam. Quasi dicat: mea justitia firma et perpetua est, tua non item.… In calamitate nihil desperatius est justitiariis, cum secundis rebus nihil quoque iis sit confidentius.—Luther.”
10. On Isa_57:15 sq. “God has three sorts of dwellings: first in the highest, second in the sanctuary, third in humble hearts. The first dwelling is the universalis praesentia, the universal presence, by which He fills all (Jer_23:24); but there He is too high and incomprehensible for us. The other is gratiosa, the gracious presence, by which He lets Himself be found in the word and sacraments, and also comes finally to us and makes His dwelling in our hearts (Joh_14:23).” Cramer, comp. Renner, p. 199.—“Humilis anima est Dei sessio et delectabile cubile.” “Excelsus es Domine, sed humiles corde sunt domus tua” (Psa_113:6; Psa_138:6). Augustin.—“Fluenta gratiae deorsum non sursum fluunt.” Bernhard.—“Here is a principal passage beaming with evidence, that “holy” means not merely the tremenda majestas, but essentially comprehends the self-communicating condescension of love.” Stier.—Comp. His Reden Jesu V., p. 499, and the essays of Schoeberlein and Achelis in Stud. and Krit. 1847, I., IV.
11. On Isa_57:18. Here again we have one of those words in which Isaiah shows Himself to be the Evangelist of the Old Testament. For in the old covenant God does not yet heal men, else the new were superfluous. The law only effects knowledge of sin, but it does not give the power to overcome sin. One fancies here again that he hears the Apostle that wrote Romans 8.
12. On Isa_57:19-21. “The gospel in a sermon of peace to the heathen that were far off, and to the Jews that were near. For by it we both have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph_2:18). But the wicked quakes all his life and what he hears terrifies him (Job_15:20; Isa_48:22). And especially in conflicts, and notably in the last hour, and when they see God’s judgment near, one sees this in them, that they not only therefore often spit out blasphemies, but that for great anguish they have laid hands on themselves. Examples: Saul, Ahithophel, Judas, Franciscus Spiera. For because such peace is not to be brought about with works, they must ever stick in anger, resentment, discontent and disfavor with and before God. And it is only pure folly to wish to give the terrified hearts rest by their own expiation, merit and self-elected holiness. Much less will there be rest if one teaches such people to doubt the forgiveness of sins.” Cramer.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_56:10 to Isa_57:2. These words may be used as the text of a sermon for a fast-day, or also for a synodical sermon. One might then regard the Prophet’s words as a mirror, or as a measure whereby to measure the condition of the church (of the country, of the times). From this would then come 1) earnest warning to those that belong to the wicked here described, or who do not oppose their doings; 2) comfort for those that have “walked straight before them,” for, though hated and persecuted by men, they shall still come to peace.
2. On Isa_57:1-2. These words (also “a Jewish formula solennis for the pious dead,” Stier) have very often been used as texts for funeral discourses for celebrated men.
3. On Isa_57:2. Those that have walked in their uprightness, i. e., who during their lives have served the Lord in a living faith, need not fear death. It is to them a bringer of joy. For it brings 1) eternal peace to their soul, 2) rest to their body in the chamber of the grave, till the day of the blessed resurrection.
4. On Isa_57:3-10. A description of the coarse idolatry, to which in our day correspond only too many appearances of the modern and subtile heathenism. Only too many have sucked in with their mother’s milk superstition and unbelief, which as a rule go together. As Ishmael, who was begotten after the flesh, mocked and persecuted Isaac that was born according to the promise (Gal_4:28 sqq.), so also now. The false seed, i. e., those that are not born of the Spirit of the church, although by their fleshly birth they belong to it, mock and persecute the genuine children of the church. With insatiable greed people run daily, but especially on the Lord’s day, under all green trees, i. e., to the places of worldly pleasure-seeking, where the idols of the belly and of mammon are served! And how many children are from their earliest youth led away to the service of these idols! Are not thereby their immortal souls spiritually slain? And is not that, in the end, a worse sacrifice of children than that ancient sort? All that puts men in mind of the service of God, men get out of their sight (pious customs, Sunday, feast days, church acts, as baptism, marriage, burial), in order to be able to surrender themselves undisturbed and wholly to the modern idols. Men no longer seek their strength in the covenant with the Lord, but among men in associations of every kind. And, because that does not instantly reveal its ruinous effects, but often seems to have a good effect, men never weary of this conduct, but confirm themselves in it more and more.
5. On Isa_57:12. Many men will not by any means believe that their good works are wholly insufficient to obtain the righteousness that is of avail with God. Now God will, indeed, not suffer to go unrewarded the cup of water that we give to the thirsty in the proper spirit (Mat_10:42; Mar_9:41). But could we point to ever so many such cups, still they do not suffice to pay our ten thousand talents (Mat_18:24 sqq.). One must therefore remind his charge of the great reckoning that the Lord will one day have with us. In this 1) will be had a complete and perfectly correct investigation into our indebtedness and assets. 2) Then it will appear that our assets will be too defective to be of any use whatever against our indebtedness.
6. On Isa_57:13-14. It depends very much on the sort of spirit with which one turns to God for help. If one does it in order to make a trial also with the dear God, then one will certainly be denied. But if one does it because one knows no other helper, and wishes to know no other, then one may confidently count on being heard. How differently the answers sound that God gives to the cries for help that reach Him. 1) To the one it is said: let thy gatherings help thee. 2) But to the others is called out: a. make a road, clear the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people; b. inherit the land, possess my holy mountain.
7. On Isa_57:15-16. “I know that these sayings speak especially of penitent sinners and aroused consciences; but I do not see why they may not with good right be applied also to other alarmed and anxious people. One has here to look also at the examples of the dear children of God who are presented to us in the Holy Scriptures full of fear and alarm. Think of Job (Job_9:34; Job_13:21), David (Psa_25:17; Psa_55:5 sqq.), Daniel (Dan_8:17 sq.), Paul (1Co_2:3; 2Co_7:5), yea, of Jesus Christ Himself (Mat_26:37; Mar_14:33; Luk_22:44). From this thou seest clearly, thou lover of God, but timid and frightened soul, that thou art not the first among the children of God, that suffer His terrors and must go about with an anxious heart. It is also therewith sufficiently shown that such an event is not a reminder of anger, but rather of the grace of the kind and gracious God.”—Scriver.
8. On Isa_57:15-16. “A holy shudder goes through my soul when, in receiving Thy body and blood, I think of who they are to whom Thou so communicatest Thyself! That is Thy way, Thou wonderful Lord, that Thou utterly humblest and castest down to the ground before Thou raisest up. Thou sayest: ‘I who dwell in the high and holy place am with those that are of a contrite and humble spirit.’ Has the greatness of my sin already melted my heart, it melts still more at the greatness of Thy grace.”—Tholuck.
9 On Isa_57:15-16. Sermon for Whitsun week: “Wherein do we behold the greatest glory of the God of grace? 1) Therein, that He does not despise a poor sinner’s heart for a dwelling. 2) Therein, that He manifests Himself in it not as a judge, but as a comforter.” Taube, in Gottes Bruenl. hat Wassers die Fuelle. Hamburg, 1872.
10. On Isa_57:17-18. One is reminded here of 1Ki_19:11 sq. God is not in the tempest, nor in the earthquake, but He is in the still, gentle breeze. The gospel goes more to the hearts of men, and lays deeper hold on them than the law. The conversion of men. 1) It is prepared by being angry and smiting (Isa_57:17). 2. It is accomplished by God’s inwardly healing the heart.
11. On Isa_57:19. Missionary Sermon. The work of missions: 1) By whom is it accomplished? 2) On whom is it accomplished? 3) What end does it serve?
12. On Isa_57:20. “The whole Scripture testifies that what it says of the grace of God, of the forgiveness of sins and of the assurance of bliss belongs to the penitent. For those that are ever stirred up and driven on by their malignant desires (like the sea by the winds), and commit one sin after another (like the sea casts out all sorts of dirt), are wicked men, and have no peace to expect.”—Scriver.
Footnotes:
[9]Or, Draming, or, talking in their sleep.
[10]Heb. strong of appetite.
[11]Heb. know not to be satisfied.
[12]And they are shepherds! They know not how to distinguish.
[13]without exception.
[14]Heb. men of kindness, or, godliness.
[15]For.
[16]Or, from that which is evil.
[17]He enters into peace (while they rest on their beds) who walks straight before him.
[18]Or, go in peace.
[19]Or, before him.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv10–12His watchmen--Israel's spiritual leaders (Isa 62:6; Eze 3:17).
His watchmen--Israel's spiritual leaders (Isa 62:6; Eze 3:17).
dumb dogs--image from bad shepherds' watchdogs, which fail to give notice, by barking, of the approach of wild beasts.
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blind-- (Mat 23:16).
sleeping, lying down--rather, "dreamers, sluggards" [LOWTH]. Not merely sleeping inactive, but under visionary delusions.
loving to slumber--not merely slumbering involuntarily, but loving it.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv10, 1210, 11. His watchmen — The people’s teachers.
10, 11. His watchmen — The people’s teachers.
Are blind — Can see nothing with a spiritual eye.
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Dumb dogs — An image from shepherds’ bad watchdogs, which fail to give notice of danger.
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber — An exact description of the miserable, outcast curs to be observed, even to this day, in every Eastern town or city. They are nobody’s dogs, allowed to lounge about and greedily devour garbage thrown into the street. What a comparison! Such are the shepherds which the worldly and irreligious are willing to tolerate. Each of these “blind,” “ignorant,” “dumb” watchmen looks to worldly gain, careless as to results on the character of his flock.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv10–1210–12. The delinquencies of the rulers. The watchmen are…
10–12. The delinquencies of the rulers. The watchmen are the spiritual leaders of the community, who in the earlier post-exilic period were the priests and the prophets (see Neh_6:10-14). Elsewhere the word is used metaphorically only of the prophets (Jer_6:17; Eze_3:17; Eze_33:2 ff.) and to them the description here chiefly applies, although there may be no reason for excluding the priests, with whom the higher authority lay, and who shared in the vices here specified. These guides are blind, not discerning the evils of the time, and dumb, afraid to speak out against them.
they are all ignorant] Lit. “they all of them know not.” Several codices of the LXX. supply an infinitive (φρονῆσαι), by which the sense and parallelism are improved (cf. the similar phrase in Isa_56:11 “they know not how to observe”: E.V. “cannot understand”).
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dumb dogs, they cannot bark] in contrast to the true prophet, who “cries aloud and spares not,” shewing the people their transgressions (see ch. Isa_58:1; cf. Eze_33:1 ff.), and specially gives warning of the approach of an enemy; Eze_33:6. Sheep-dogs are mentioned in Job_30:1.
sleeping] R.V. “dreaming,” better raving. The word, which occurs only here, means in Arabic to talk deliriously in sickness. Cheyne suggests that it contains a play on the word for “seers,” from which it differs in a single letter (hòzîm and ḥôzîm).
loving to slumber] The laziness of the dog was proverbial amongst the Arabs: “he delays like a sleepy hound” (Gesenius).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv10–12(10) His watchmen are blind.—These are the guides of…
(10) His watchmen are blind.—These are the guides of the people, and specially the self-styled prophets, who are “blind” to the signs of the times, who are “dumb,” and give no warning to the people of the real dangers that threaten them, who prophesy for the rewards of divination (Num_22:7 :1Sa_9:7; Neh_6:12), who are conspicuous for their luxury and intemperance. Given the men who are described in Isa_5:22; Isa_28:7-8; Isa_30:10, and the circumstances of Manasseh’s reign, no other result could be expected.
Sleeping.—The prophet, with a scornful irony, substitutes hozîm (“dreamers”) for khozîm (“seers”). The “lying down” contrasts their indolent and easy life with the vigil and the fast of a true prophet.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv10–12His watchmen are blind. Israel"s "watchmen" are his guides…
His watchmen are blind. Israel"s "watchmen" are his guides and teachers, the prophets. (Isa_6:1-7 Eze_3:17 Hab_2:1, etc.) At the time of which Isaiah speaks, they are "blind", (Isa_29:18 Isa_35:5 Isa_42:7, Isa_42:16, Isa_42:18, 19 43:8, etc.) or without knowledge like the "blind guides" of the Gospel. (Mat_15:14 Luk_6:39, etc.) They have not the spiritual discernment which would enable them to lead the people aright. Further, they are dumb dogs. Instead of acting as faithful watch-dogs, who give warning of the approach of danger by their barking, they remain apathetic, and utter no warning at all. It is as if they passed their lives in sleep.
Vers. 10-12. Worthless shepherds.
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"Dumb dogs;" "Greedy dogs;" "Shepherds that cannot understand." The prophet"s messages are in the main addressed to the pious and believing among the exiles. But he knows well how many of them were living in self-indulgence and sin, and were not in the least likely to heed his words, and prepare themselves for the coming deliverance. The evils were especially manifest in the leading people, who ought to have been leaders in goodness to the people. Instead of this, they were neglecting their duty, and presenting a debasing example of self-indulgence, and even of covetousness. The term "watchmen" is used for chief men, princes, priests, prophets. These were utterly unable to comprehend or to meet the spiritual wants of the nation at this time, when God was so near, for carrying out his redeeming purpose. The language here employed strikingly depicts the feelings of the voluptuous in every age.
I THE HELPLESSNESS OF THE LEADERS AND TEACHERS OF THAT AGE. Observe the blending of figures suitable to the shepherd and to the shepherd"s dog. Such a blending of figures is common in poetry and in Scripture. Inefficiency and sinful neglect are suggested in the terms
(1) blind;
(2) ignorant;
(3) dumb;
(4) loving to slumber;
(5) greedy;
(6) void of understanding;
(7) drunken.
II THE REAL SECRET OF THEIR HELPLESSNESS. They thought of self. They did not live for their charge, but for themselves. "They all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter." And this is the root of evil in all who are placed in positions of responsibility, authority, and influence all who are in any sense leaders and teachers. They must serve others, not get for self. Therefore the Apostle Paul pleads, saying, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus" sake." Compare the plea of the noble Samuel, on giving up his life-ministry, "Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?". (1Sa_12:3) In this way St. Paul counsels the young teacher Timothy, "Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." And a bishop is thus described, "Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous". (1Ti_4:12 1Ti_3:3) St. Paul complains of the teachers of his time, "All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ"s". R.T. (Php_2:21)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv10, 12His watchmen are blind.
Isa_56:10-11
His watchmen are blind.
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-
The old Hebrew pulpit a beacon to modern preachers
(with Jer_8:11):--
I. THE OLD HEBREW PULPIT AT THIS TIME WAS IGNORANT. The watchmen are said to be blind and ignorant. They did not see and understand the things that ought to have been clear to their vision and intelligible to their judgment. An ignorant pulpit, though a contradiction in terms, has ever been too prevalent. There may be profound pulpit ignorance where there are the most distinguished scholastic acquirement and literary charms. On the other hand, there may be considerable pulpit intelligence where there is but a very small degree of mere scholastic attainment. Many a noble-souled, Gospel-inspired man, who knew no book but the Bible, no language but his own, and could not speak even that with grammatical propriety, has done the true work of the pulpit. That pulpit is an ignorant pulpit that does not discern the things of the Spirit--things that the Spirit of God approves, and the spirit of man requires. I call that an ignorant pulpit which ministers to the speculative in man rather than to the spiritual, to the intellect rather than the heart, and presents a dead creed rather than a living Christ. I call that an ignorant pulpit which ministers to sects rather than to souls, represents Christ as one sent to save a favourite few, rather than as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. I call that an ignorant pulpit that does not practically feel that all Divine truth to man is but infinite love for man speaking through the intellect to the heart.
II. THE OLD HEBREW PULPIT AT THIS TIME WAS MARKED BY SLOTHFULNESS. The watchmen are called dumb dogs that cannot bark. It is because these animals have ever been used by man as sentinels whose bark warns of approaching danger; and because they are only useful as they bark, that they are employed as symbols of indolent preachers. There are men who, when they speak, speak with a drowsy soul, and their words are somnific. Perhaps there are more in these times dumb from expediency than from slothfulness. They echo only the opinions that are current in their Church. They add nothing to the stock of Christian intelligence.
III. THE OLD HEBREW PULPIT AT THIS TIME WAS MARKED BY SELFISH GREED. Yea they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, etc. Such strong language expresses their ravenous selfishness. It would seem that these corrupt prophets cared for no one but themselves. How stands the modern pulpit in this respect? This selfish greed shows itself in other ways besides the striving after filthy lucre. There is the greed for popularity.
IV. THE OLD HEBREW PULPIT AT THIS TIME WAS MARKED BY SUPERFICIALITY. They have healed the daughter of My people slightly. Dr. Blaney, in his translation, substitutes the word superficially for slightly. Although these words are taken from another book they refer to the same subject, and to the same class of men. The words, however, from Isaiah describe their character, these words describe their work. They did something, but it was partial and ineffective. They did not seek to eradicate the disease, but merely administered temporary palliatives, which, whilst they deadened the pain, fostered the virus of the malady. The idea undoubtedly is, that instead of endeavouring to work into the moral heart of the people profound convictions as to the enormity of their sins, and fulminate in their ears the righteous denunciations of Heaven, they presented considerations of false comfort. This superficial healing of souls is an immense injury. It deludes the patient. It wastes the restorative season. That pulpit is superficial which fails either to generate supreme love to the great God in hearts where it is not, or to strengthen it in hearts where it is. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v10Isa_56:10-12. His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant,…
WORTHLESS SHEPHERDS
Isa_56:10-12. His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, &c.
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A very sad description is here given of the “watchmen”—the spiritual leaders of Isaiah’s time, evincing a state of lamentable degeneracy and corruption. The language has often been, and still is, descriptive of many shepherds of the flock.
I. Ignorant. Immersed in sin themselves, they were blind to the sins, and wants, and dangers of the people—destitute of spiritual wisdom and discernment (Isa_29:18; Isa_35:5; Isa_42:7; Isa_42:16-19; Isa_43:8, &c.; Jer_3:15). Like the blind guides of the Gospel (Mat_15:14; Luk_6:39, &c.). Ignorance of “the truth as it is in Jesus” is an effectual disqualification for the office. What irreparable evil may be wrought by such blind guides!
II. Indolent. What a graphic and striking description of an indolent ministry. True of many to-day, who act as though hearers were won by idleness (Pro_6:10). Instinct prompts the canine race to act the part which God intends; but, alas! there are men in the ministry whom neither conscience, reason, hope, fear, nor love will rouse to effort to save souls. Instead of acting as faithful watch-dogs, who givewarning of the approach of danger by their barking, they remain apathetic, and utter no warning. It is as if they passed their lives in sleep. What a terrible awakening they will one day experience!
III. Covetous. They keep up the old custom, rejected by the higher prophets as an abuse, of taking fees (Num_22:7; 1Sa_9:7; 1Ki_14:3; 2Ki_5:16; Mat_10:8; Act_8:20; Eze_13:19; Eze_22:25; Mic_3:3). They are “greedy” after gain. All their inquiry is what they shall get, not what they shall do (Php_2:21). They never have enough (Ecc_5:10). They are careful for their dues—tithes, collections, pew-rents, &c., rather than for souls. “Ambitious of preferment for its gold.” Yet they are set apart not to promote their own interests, but the welfare and salvation of others. What possible effect for good can their preaching have? They do inconceivable injury to the cause of truth, for it is evident they do not live for their charge, but for themselves.
IV. Intemperate. Given to excess in wine, and to long revels, such as even the heathen considered to be disgraceful (Isa_28:7). One is represented as inviting another to a carouse of two days. Their frailty and mortality little thought of; no dread of the judgment of God, &c. Living only for carnal gratification, they cannot think of making sacrifices for souls. Of all evils, intemperance is most unbecoming to the minister of Christ, and prevents his rebuking vice in others with any practical effect.
Conclusion.—What a humiliation that such men are allowed to remain in the Church! Such shepherds make the Church lifeless and barren. How strikingly in Saint Paul’s character are developed the marks of a good shepherd—one that careth for the sheep (Php_1:8; Php_4:1; and others). If such intense yearning characterised all the shepherds of Israel now, what a different Church we should have! We hear much about the reformation of the government; is not the reformation of the ministry more needful? Let the Church, therefore, take the greatest possible care in separating men to this work and office.—A. Tucker.
PROCRASTINATION, OR PRESUMING ON THE FUTURE
Isa_56:12. To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
There is a marked and melancholy inconsistency between the admissions which men make, and the course of conduct which they pursue. The uncertainty of life is universally granted, yet men think, and talk, and act confidently on the credit of “to-morrow,” and, not seldom, of much longer periods. Procrastination is—
I. PAINFULLY COMMON. A very old evil (Exo_8:10, and others). We are all more or less guilty of it, for all our purposes and plans reach into a future which will never be ours. Specially manifested in relation to experimental religion. All ages and classes indulge in it. The young look to middle age, the more advanced to the last stage of life, &c. “To-morrow” is the prevailing maxim;—a maxim which few pretend to justify, but on which the vast majority persist in acting; a maxim of which all grant the folly in words, and by the admission condemn their own practice. Men of business often warn the young against the evil in relation to this life, yet act on the principle they condemn respecting interests incomparably more momentous. Strange infatuation! What has been your conduct?
II. SHAMEFULLY UNGRATEFUL. A practical disregard of all the mercy and love of God. The unnumbered blessings of His gracious providence. The richer blessings of His grace in Christ Jesus. The enormity of ingratitude to God. “The ass, after having drunk, gives a kick to the bucket” (Italian). God’s greatest miracle is His patience and bounty to the ungrateful.
III. PALPABLY UNREASONABLE.
1. True religion is supremely important. The only source of true happiness; of support amid the trials of life; of peace in death; and of a blissful immortality.
2. Delay increases difficulties. You may not think so; you imagine the future will present more favourable opportunities than the present, &c. But that is manifestly unreasonable, for, owing to the known laws of habit, every day’s delay increases the difficulties, &c. Sin gets a firmer hold upon you. Your experience bears witness. If you do not decide to-day, it becomes less likely that you ever will, &c
3. You have no evidence that you will live till to-morrow. You cannot calculate on the future (Pro_27:1). The Gospel may never be preached to you again, &c.
IV. EXCEEDINGLY SINFUL.
1. It encourages others to continue in their sins. Your to-day, is a day of evil example, &c.
2. It robs God of His due—your best affections, &c. Religion is not a mere creed, &c., but an obligation, founded on absolute proprietorship and mediatorial interposition (1Co_6:19-20).
3. It practically disregards God’s commands. Repentance and faith, &c., are immediate duties. “The imperative hath no future tense.”
4. It involves the abuse of all the means which God is graciously employing for your salvation. Resisting the strivings of His Spirit, &c.
V. IMMINENTLY DANGEROUS. Danger is always associated with sin. Increases with every day’s delay. To-morrow may be for ever too late. “Hell is paved with good intentions.” To delay is to court ruin.
CONCLUSION.—Presume not on the patience of God. Do not longer calculate on to-morrow. Yield yourself to God NOW (Heb_3:7; 2Co_6:2; Pro_1:24-31). You will never regret the step. But if you continue to befool yourself, every day will add its weight of guilt and sorrow. The Holy Ghost saith TO-DAY.—A. Tucker.
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 MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v12
Isaiah
THE CALL TO THE THIRSTY
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WE SURE OF TO-MORROW? A NEW YEAR’S SERMON
Isa 56:12.
These words, as they stand, are the call of boon companions to new revelry. They are part of the prophet’s picture of a corrupt age when the men of influence and position had thrown away their sense of duty, and had given themselves over, as aristocracies and plutocracies are ever tempted to do, to mere luxury and good living. They are summoning one another to their coarse orgies. The roystering speaker says, ‘Do not be afraid to drink; the cellar will hold out. To-day’s carouse will not empty it; there will be enough for to-morrow.’ He forgets to-morrow’s headaches; he forgets that on some tomorrow the wine will be finished; he forgets that the fingers of a hand may write the doom of the rioters on the very walls of the banqueting chamber.
What have such words, the very motto of insolent presumption and short-sighted animalism, to do with New Year’s thoughts? Only this, that base and foolish as they are on such lips, it is possible to lift them from the mud, and take them as the utterance of a lofty and calm hope which will not be disappointed, and of a firm and lowly resolve which may ennoble life. Like a great many other sayings, they may fit the mouth either of a sot or of a saint. All depends on what the things are which we are thinking about when we use them. There are things about which it is absurd and worse than absurd to say this, and there are things about which it is the soberest truth to say it. So looking forward into the merciful darkness of another year, we may regard these words as either the expressions of hopes which it is folly to cherish, or of hopes that it is reasonable to entertain.
I. This expectation, if directed to any outward things, is an illusion and a dream.
These coarse revellers into whose lips our text is put only meant by it to brave the future and defy to-morrow in the riot of their drunkenness. They show us the vulgarest, lowest form which the expectation can take, a form which I need say nothing about now.
But I may just note in passing that to look forward principally as anticipating pleasure or enjoyment is a very poor and unworthy thing. We weaken and lower every day, if we use our faculty of hope mainly to paint the future as a scene of delights and satisfactions. We spoil to-day by thinking how we can turn it to the account of pleasure. We spoil to-morrow before it comes, and hurt ourselves, if we are more engaged with fancying how it will minister to our joy, than how we can make it minister to our duty. It is base and foolish to be forecasting our pleasures; the true temper is to be forecasting our work.
But, leaving that consideration, let us notice how useless such anticipation, and how mad such confidence, as that expressed in the text is, if directed to anything short of God.
We are so constituted as that we grow into a persuasion that what has been will be, and yet we can give no sufficient reason to ourselves of why we expect it. ‘The uniformity of the course of nature is the corner-stone, not only of physical science, but, in a more homely form, of the wisdom which grows with experience, We all believe that the sun will rise to-morrow because it rose to-day, and on all the yesterdays. But there was a today which had no yesterday, and there will be a to-day which will have no to-morrow. The sun will rise for the last time. The uniformity had a beginning and will have an end.
So, even as an axiom of thought, the anticipation that things will continue as they have been because they have been, seems to rest on an insufficient basis. How much more so, as to our own little lives and their surroundings! There the only thing which we may be quite sure of about to-morrow is that it will not be ‘as this day.’ Even for those of us who may have reached, for example, the level plateau of middle life, where our position and tasks are pretty well fixed, and we have little more to expect than the monotonous repetition of the same duties recurring at the same hour every day-even for such each day has its own distinctive character. Like a flock of sheep they seem all alike, but each, on closer inspection, reveals a physiognomy of its own. There will be so many small changes that even the same duties or enjoyments will not be quite the same, and even if the outward things remained absolutely unaltered, we who meet them are not the same. Little variations in mood and tone, diminished zest here, weakened power there, other thoughts breaking in, and over and above all the slow, silent change wrought on us by growing years, make the perfect reproduction of any past impossible. So, however familiar may be the road which we have to traverse, however uneventfully the same our days may sometimes for long spaces in our lives seem to be, though to ourselves often our day’s work may appear as a mill-horse round, yet in deepest truth, if we take into account the whole sum of the minute changes in it and in us, it may be said of each step of our journey, ‘Ye have not passed this way heretofore.’
But, besides all this, we know that these breathing-times when ‘we have no changes,’ are but pauses in the storm, landing-places in the ascent, the interspaces between the shocks. However hope may tempt us to dream that the future is like the present, a deeper wisdom lies in all our souls which says ‘No.’ Drunken bravery may front that darkness with such words as these of our text, but the least serious spirit, in its most joyous moods, never quite succeeds in forgetting the solemn probabilities, possibilities, and certainties which lodge in the unknown future. So to a wise man it is ever a sobering exercise to look forward, and we shall be nearest the truth if we take due account, as we do today, of the undoubted fact that the only thing certain about to-morrow is that it will not be as this day.
There are the great changes which come to some one every day, which may come to any of us any day, which will come to all of us some day. Some of us will die this year; on a day in our new diaries some of us will make no entry, for we shall be gone. Some of us will be smitten down by illness; some of us will lose our dearest; some of us will lose fortune. Which of us it is to be, and where within these twelve months the blow is to fall, are mercifully hidden. The only thing that we certainly know is that these arrows will fly. The thing we do not know is whose heart they will pierce. This makes the gaze into the darkness grave and solemn. There is ever something of dread in Hope’s blue eyes.
True, the ministry of change is blessed and helpful; true, the darkness which hides the future is merciful and needful, if the present is not to be marred. But helpful and merciful as they are, they invest the unknown to-morrow with a solemn power which it is good, though sobering, for us to feel, and they silence on every lip but that of riot and foolhardy debauchery the presumptuous words, ‘To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’
II. But yet there is a possibility of so using the words as to make them the utterance of a sober certainty which will not be put to shame.
So long as our hope and anticipations creep along the low levels of earth, and are concerned with external and creatural good, their language can never rise beyond, ‘To-morrow may be as this day.’ Oftenest they reach only to the height of the wistful wish, ‘May it be as this day!’ But there is no need for our being tortured with such slippery possibilities. We may send out our hope like Noah’s dove, not to hover restlessly over a heaving ocean of change, but to light on firm, solid certainty, and fold its wearied wings there. Forecasting is ever close by foreboding. Hope is interwoven with fear, the golden threads of the weft crossing the dark ones of the warp, and the whole texture gleaming bright or glooming black according to the angle at which it is seen. So is it always until we turn our hope away from earth to God, and fill the future with the light of His presence and the certainty of His truth. Then the mists and doubts roll away; we get above the region of ‘perhaps’ into that of ‘surely’; the future is as certain as the past, hope as assured of its facts as memory, prophecy as veracious as history.
Looking forward, then, let us not occupy ourselves with visions which we know may or may not come true. Let us not feed ourselves with illusions which may make the reality, when it comes to shatter them, yet harder to bear. But let us make God in Christ our hope, and pass from peradventures to certitudes; from ‘To-morrow may he as this day-would that it might,’ to ‘It shall be, it shall be, for God is my expectation and my hope.’ We have an unchanging and an inexhaustible God, and He is the true guarantee of the future for us. The more we accustom ourselves to think of Him as shaping all that is contingent and changeful in the nearest and in the remotest to-morrow, and as being Himself the immutable portion of our souls, the calmer will be our outlook into the darkness, and the more bright will be the clear light of certainty which burns for us in it.
To-day’s wealth may be to-morrow’s poverty, to-day’s health to-morrow’s sickness, to-day’s happy companionship of love to-morrow’s aching solitude of heart, but to-day’s God will be to-morrow’s God, to-day’s Christ will be to-morrow’s Christ. Other fountains may dry up in heat or freeze in winter, but this knows no change, ‘in summer and winter it shall be.’ Other fountains may sink low in their basins after much drawing, but this is ever full, and after a thousand generations have drawn from it, its stream is broad and deep as ever. Other springs may be left behind on the march, and the wells and palm-trees of each Elim on our road may be succeeded by a dry and thirsty land where no water is, but this spring follows us all through the wilderness, and makes music and spreads freshness ever by our path. We can forecast nothing beside; we can be sure of this, that God will be with us in all the days that lie before us. What may be round the next headland we know not; but this we know, that the same sunshine will make a broadening path across the waters right to where we rock on the unknown sea, and the same unmoving mighty star will burn for our guidance. So we may let the waves and currents roll as they list-or rather as He wills, and be little concerned about the incidents or the companions of our voyage, since He is with us. We can front the unknown to-morrow, even when we most keenly feel how solemn and sad are the things it may bring.
‘It can bring with it nothing
But He will bear us through.’
If only our hearts be fixed on God and we are feeding our minds and wills on Him, His truth and His will, then we may be quite certain that, whatever goes, our truest riches will abide, and whoever leaves our little company of loved ones, our best Friend will not go away. Therefore, lifting our hopes beyond the low levels of earth, and making our anticipations of the future the reflection of the brightness of God thrown on that else blank curtain, we may turn into the worthy utterance of sober and saintly faith, the folly of the riotous sensualist when he said, ‘To-morrow shall be as this day.’
The past is the mirror of the future for the Christian; we look back on all the great deeds of old by which God has redeemed and helped souls that cried to Him, and we find in them the eternal laws of His working. They are all true for to-day as they were at first; they remain true forever. The whole history of the past belongs to us, and avails for our present and for our future. ‘As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of our God.’
To-day’s experience runs on the same lines as the stories of the ‘years of old,’ which are ‘the years of the right hand of the Most High.’ Experience is ever the parent of hope, and the latter can only build with the bricks which the former gives. So the Christian has to lay hold on all that God’s mercy has done in the ages that are gone by, and because He is a ‘faithful Creator’ to transmute history into prophecy, and triumph in that ‘the God of Jacob is our refuge.’
Nor only does the record of what He has been to others come in to bring material for our forecast of the future, but also the remembrance of what He has been to ourselves. Has He been with us in six troubles? We may be sure He will not abandon us at the seventh. He is not in the way of beginning to build and leaving His work unfinished. Remember what He has been to you, and rejoice that there has been one thing in your lives which, you may be sure, will always be there. Feed your certain hopes for to-morrow on thankful remembrances of many a yesterday. ‘Forget not the works of God,’ that you may ‘set your hopes on God.’ Let our anticipations base themselves on memory, and utter themselves in the prayer, ‘Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.’ Then the assurance that He whom we know to be good and wise and strong will shape the future, and Himself be the Future for us, will take all the fear out of that forward gaze, will condense our light and unsubstantial hopes into solid realities, and set before us an endless line of days, in each of which we may gain more of Him whose face has brightened the past and will brighten the future, till days shall end and time open into eternity.
III. Looked at in another aspect, these words may be taken as the vow of a firm and lowly resolve.
There is a future which we can but very slightly influence, and the less we look at that the better every way. But there is also a future which we can mould as we wish-the future of our own characters, the only future which is really ours at all-and the more clearly we set it before ourselves and make up our minds as to whither we wish it to be tending, the better. In that region, it is eminently true that ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’ The law of continuity shapes our moral and spiritual characters. What I am to-day, I shall increasingly be to-morrow. The awful power of habit solidifies actions into customs, and prolongs the reverberation of every note once sounded, along the vaulted roof of the chamber where we live. To-day is the child of yesterday and the parent of to-morrow.
That solemn certainty of the continuance and increase of moral and spiritual characteristics works in both good and bad, but with a difference. To secure its full blessing in the gradual development of the germs of good, there must be constant effort and tenacious resolution. So many foes beset the springing of the good seed in our hearts-what with the flying flocks of light-winged fugitive thoughts ever ready to swoop down as soon as the sower’s back is turned and snatch it away, what with the hardness of the rock which the roots soon encounter, what with the thick-sown and quick-springing thorns-that if we trust to the natural laws of growth and neglect careful husbandry, we may sow much but we shall gather little. But to inherit the full consequences of that same law working in the growth and development of the evil in us, nothing is needed but carelessness.
Leave it alone for a year or two and the ‘fruitful field will be a forest,’ a jungle of matted weeds, with a straggling blossom where cultivation had once been.
But if humbly we resolve and earnestly toil, looking for His help, we may venture to hope that our characters will grow in goodness and in likeness to our dear Lord, that we shall not cast away our confidence nor make shipwreck of our faith, that each new day shall find in us a deeper love, a perfecter consecration, a more joyful service, and that so, in all the beauties of the Christian soul and in all the blessings of the Christian life, ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’ ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ ‘The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more until the noontide of the day.’
So we may look forward undismayed, and while we recognise the darkness that wraps to-morrow in regard to all mundane affairs, may feed our fortitude and fasten our confidence on the double certainties that we shall have God and more of God for our treasure, that we shall have likeness to Him and more of likeness in our characters. Fleeting moments may come and go. The uncertain days may exercise their various ministry of giving and taking away, but whether they plant or root up our earthly props, whether they build or destroy our earthly houses, they will increase our riches in the heavens, and give us fuller possession of deeper draughts from the inexhaustible fountain of living waters.
How dreadfully that same law of the continuity and development of character works in some men there is no need now to dwell upon. By slow, imperceptible, certain degrees the evil gains upon them. Yesterday’s sin smooths the path for to-day’s. The temptation once yielded to gains power. The crack in the embankment which lets a drop or two ooze through is soon a great hole which lets in a flood. It is easier to find a man who has never done a wrong thing than to find a man who has done it only once. Peter denied his Lord thrice, and each time more easily than the previous time. So, before we know it, the thin gossamer threads of single actions are twisted into a rope of habit, and we are ‘tied with the cords of our sins.’ Let no man say, ‘Just for once I may venture on evil; so far I will go and no farther.’ Nay, ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’
How important, then, the smallest acts become when we think of them as thus influencing character! The microscopic creatures, thousands of which will go into a square inch, make the great white cliffs that beetle over the wildest sea and front the storm. So, permanent and solid character is built up out of trivial actions, and this is the solemn aspect of our passing days, that they are making us.
We might well tremble before such a thought, which would be dreadful to the best of us, if it were not for pardoning mercy and renewing grace. The law of reaping what we have sown, or of continuing as we have begun, may be modified as far as our sins and failures are concerned. The entail may be cut off, and to-morrow need not inherit to-day’s guilt, nor to-day’s habits. The past may be all blotted out through the mercy of God in Christ. No debt need be carried forward to another page of the book of our lives, for Christ has given Himself for us, and He speaks to us all-’Thy sins be forgiven thee.’ No evil habit need continue its dominion over us, nor are we obliged to carry on the bad tradition of wrongdoing into a future day, for Christ lives, and ‘if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, all things are become new.’
So then, brethren, let us humbly take the confidence which these words may be used to express, and as we stand on the threshold of a new year and wait for the curtain to be drawn, let us print deep on our hearts the uncertainty of our hold of all things here, nor seek to build nor anchor on these, but lift our thoughts to Him, who will bless the future as He has blessed the past, and will even enlarge the gifts of His love and the help of His right hand. Let us hope for ourselves not the continuance or increase of outward good, but the growth of our souls in all things lovely and of good report, the daily advance in the love and likeness of our Lord.
So each day, each succeeding wave of the ocean of time shall cast up treasures for us as it breaks at our feet. As we grow in years, we shall grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, until the day comes when we shall exchange earth for heaven. That will be the sublimest application of this text, when, dying, we can calmly be sure that though to-day be on this side and to-morrow on the other bank of the black river, there will be no break in the continuity, but only an infinite growth in our life, and heaven’s to-morrow shall be as earth’s to-day, and much more abundant.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v11General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues describing the evil leaders of his people.
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The dogs have big appetites
Yahweh continues comparing Israel's bad leaders to dogs. (See: Metaphor)
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv10, 12 He showeth that this affliction shall come through the…
He showeth that this affliction shall come through the fault of the governors, prophets, and pastors, whose ignorance, negligence, avarice and obstinacy provoked God’s wrath against them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Isa 56:10 His watchmen [are] blind: they are all…
Isa 56:10 His watchmen [are] blind: they are all ignorant, they [are] all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Ver. 10. His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant.] Invehit in Pseudepiscopos, such as were, and are still in part, the popish clergy; those of the ninth age especially, and not much better a little before Luther stickled: blind leaders of the blind, lamentably ignorant, as the Bishop of Dunkeld, in Scotland, for instance, who professed that he knew neither the New Testament nor the Old. So Bishop Albert, reading the Bible, and being asked by a nobleman what book it was he read; I know not, said he, what book it is, but all that I read in it is contrary to our religion. {a} As for the other ill qualities of the watchmen here inveighed against, Hugo the cardinal said, that the devil had two daughters, Covetousness and Luxury; the former he had heretofore married out to the Jews, the latter to the Gentiles; but now the monks and priests had gotten them both from their old husbands and taken them for their own use. The Hebrew critics have observed, that the word here rendered watchmen, hath a tzaddi larger than ordinary, to show what odious creatures such are as are here described. {Hebrew Text Note}
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They are all dumb dogs that cannot bark,] i.e., Will not deal plainly and faithfully with men’s souls; but either preach not at all, or placentia only, toothless truths. Pliny {b} tells of the dogs in Rome that were set to keep the capitol; because, when the Gauls scaled it, the dogs being fed too full, lay sleeping, and did not give warning, they not only hanged them up, but every year on that day of the year, hanged up certain dogs in the city for exemplary justice; yea, crucified them alive upon an older tree. Let dumb dogs and parasitical preachers, treacherous to men’s souls, take heed they be not one day hanged in hell.
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.] Non dormiunt solum, sed dedita opera dormiunt; { c} so full they have farced themselves, and so deeply drunk they are, that they sleep soundly, though lions roar, and wolves worry the poor flock, and that many times far enough from the fold, wherein they show themselves to be worse than Ulysses’ swine herd, of whom Homer saith -
“ουδε συβωτη
‘Hνοανεν αυτοθι κοιτος ιων απο κοιμηθηναι, ”
That he would not be drawn to sleep from his swine sty.
{a} Acts and Mon.
{b} Lib xxix. cap. 4.
{c} Somnolentia pastorum luporum est gaudium.
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 vv10–12 His; Israel’s, as is evident from the following verses;…
His; Israel’s, as is evident from the following verses; the pronoun relative being put without and instead of the antecedent; of which I have given divers instances before.
Watchmen; priests and prophets, or other teachers, who are commonly called watchmen, as Eze 3:17; 33:2; Hos 9:8. He mentions only the teachers, because ignorance was most shameful in them; but hereby he supposeth the gross ignorance of the people, who neither pretended nor desired to be wiser than their teachers.
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They are all ignorant of God’s will and word, and of their own and the people’s duty, and of the true Messiah.
They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; they are also slothful and negligent in instructing the people, and do not faithfully reprove them for their sins, nor warn them of their dangers, nor keep them from errors and corruptions in doctrine, and worship, and conversation, as they ought to do.
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber; minding their own ease and safety more than the people’s benefit.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–12 His watchmen are blind,.... A sad character of watchmen;…
His watchmen are blind,.... A sad character of watchmen; who, of all men, ought to have good sight, to see who is coming, to discover an enemy, to discern approaching danger, and so be capable of giving notice thereof. This some apply to the Scribes and Pharisees, who are often called blind guides, and blind leaders of the blind, Mat 15:14 and well suits the character of the Popish clergy, bishops, and priests, those ecclesiastical watchmen, whose business should be to look after the souls of men, and feed them with knowledge and understanding; but very ill qualified for it, being blind and ignorant as to the knowledge of things divine and spiritual. The first letter in this clause is larger than usual, perhaps designed to strike the eye, and raise the attention to what follows, as being something remarkable and extraordinary, as indeed the character given of these men is, and directing to beware of them. The first word, which is the word for "watchmen", has the letter "jod" wanting; which, being a note of multitude, shows, it is observed (u), that all the watchmen were universally deficient in the light of their minds, and not one of them did their duty, as it follows:
they are all ignorant; or "know not" (w), or "nothing", not the Scriptures, and the meaning of them; the Gospel, and the doctrines of it; Christ, and the way of salvation by him; the Spirit of God, and his operations on the souls of men; and so very unfit to be spiritual watchmen, or to have the care of immortal souls. A Popish bishop in Scotland declared he did not know neither the Old nor the New Testament; and Bishop Albert, reading the Bible, could not tell what book it was, only he found it was contrary to their religion.
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They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; and so useless; as a house dog, or one that is set to keep the sheep, if it barks not at the noise of a thief, or the approach of a wolf, to give notice to the family, or the shepherd, it is of no service. It may design such who call themselves ministers of the word, and yet either cannot or will not preach, such as are non-preaching bishops; or in their ministry do not reprove the errors and vices of men, and warn them of their danger:
sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber; as dogs do; slothful, indolent, do not care to be concerned in business, but take their ease and pleasure, and are very improper persons for watchmen. The first word (x) used is observed to signify speaking vain things in dreams, things delirious; and agrees well with the dreaming doctrines and delirious notions of the Romish clergy.
(u) Buxtorf. Tiberias, c. 14. p. 39. Vid. Hiller. De Arcano Cethib & Keri, I. 1. c 7. p. 55. (w) "nesciverunt", Pagninus, Montanus; "nil sciunt", Piscator. (x) "deliria loquentes", Montanus; "videntes vans", V. L. So Ben Melech interprets it of such that speak vain things in their sleep.
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 vv10–12 His - Israel's. Watchmen - Priests and teachers; he…
His - Israel's. Watchmen - Priests and teachers; he mentions only the teachers, because ignorance was most shameful in them, but hereby he supposes the gross ignorance of the people. Bark - They are also slothful and negligent in instructing the people, and do not faithfully reprove them for their sins.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv10–12 Verse 10. His watchmen are blind] Kimchi observes, "The…
Verse 10. His watchmen are blind] Kimchi observes, "The flock is intrusted to the care of these watchmen. The wild beasts come; these dogs bark not; and the wild beasts devour the flock. Thus they do not profit the flock. Yea, they injure it; for the owner trusts in them, that they will watch and be faithful; but they are not. These are the false teachers and careless shepherds."
Dumb dogs, they cannot bark] See Clarke on Isa 62:6.
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Sleeping - "Dreamers"] הזים hozim, ενυπνιαζομενοι, Septuagint. This seems to be the best authority for the meaning of this word, which occurs only in this place: but it is to be observed, that eleven MSS. of Kennicott's and De Rossi's, and four editions, have חזים chazim, seers, or those who see; and so the Vulgate seems to have read, videntes vana, "seeing vain things."
Loving to slumber.] לנום lanum: but six of Kennicott's and seven of De Rossi's MSS. read לנוס lanus, to fly, "to change their residence:" but what connexion such reading can have with the sense of the passage, I cannot discern. What is taken for ס samech here is, I have no doubt, a narrow formed final ם mem, which has been mistaken for the above. Many instances occur in my own MSS., where the final ם mem is similar to the samech; and yet no such change was intended by the scribe.
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 vv10–12 Isa 56:10. His — Israel’s, watchmen are blind —…
Isa 56:10. His — Israel’s, watchmen are blind — The priests, prophets, and other teachers; he mentions only the teachers, because ignorance was most shameful in them; but hereby he supposes the gross ignorance of the people. They are all ignorant — Of God’s word and will, and of their own and the people’s duty, and of the true Messiah, and the nature of his kingdom. They cannot bark — They are also slothful and negligent in instructing the people, and do not faithfully reprove them for their sins, nor warn them of their dangers, nor endeavour to keep them from errors and corruptions in doctrine, worship, and conversation, as they ought to do: sleeping, lying down, &c. — Minding their own ease and safety more than the people’s benefit.
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 vv10–12 His watchmen - The prophet proceeds to specify the…
His watchmen - The prophet proceeds to specify the sins which had thus induced God to send the desolating armies of foreign nations. The first is specified in this verse, the apathy, indifference, and unfaithfulness, which prevailed among those who were appointed to guard their interests and defend the cause of truth. The word rendered ‘his watchmen’ (צפוּ tsophâv) is derived from צפה tsâphâh, “to look about; to view from a distance; to see afar.” It is applied appropriately to those who were stationed on the walls of a city, or on a tower, in order that they might see the approach of an enemy 1Sa 14:16; 2Sa 13:34; 2Sa 18:24. It is then applied to prophets, who are as it were placed on an elevated post of observation, and who are able to cast the eye far into future scenes, and to predict future events (Jer 6:17; Eze 3:17; the note at Isa 21:6-11; Isa 52:8; compare Isa 62:6). Here it refers undoubtedly to the public teachers of the Jews who had failed to perceive the crimes and dangers of the people; or who, if they had seen them, had neglected to warn them of the prevalence of sin, and of the dangers to which they were exposed.
Are blind - They have become willfully blind to the existence of idolatry and vice, or they are so corrupt in sentiment and practice, that they fail to notice the existence of the prevailing sins.
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They are all ignorant - Hebrew, ‘They do not know.’ This may either mean that they were not possessed of the proper qualifications for the office of prophets, or that they were so immersed in sin themselves, and so indolent, that they did not observe the existence of the national sins. In either case, they were unfit for the station.
They are all dumb dogs - Dogs are appointed to guard a house or flock, and to give notice of the approach of a robber by night Job 30:1. They are thus an emblem of a prophet - appointed to announce danger. Generally in the Scriptures the dog is mentioned as the symbol of uncleanness, of vileness, of apostasy, of that which deserved the utmost contempt (Deu 23:18; 1Sa 24:14; 2Sa 9:8; Pro 26:11; Phi 3:2; 2Pe 2:22; Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15; compare Virg. Georg. i. 470). But here the dog is an emblem of vigilance. The phrase ‘dumb dogs,’ is applicable to prophets who from any cause failed to warn the nation of their guilt and danger.
They cannot bark - They cannot give warning of the danger which threatens. The reason why they could not do this the prophet immediately states. They loved to slumber - they delighted in indolence and repose.
Sleeping - Margin, ‘Dreaming,’ or ‘Talking in their sleep.’ The word הזים hoziym, is from הזה hâzâh, “to dream, to talk in one’s dreams.” It is kindred to חזה châzâh, “to see,” and the primary idea seems to be that of nocturnal visions. The Septuagint renders it, Ενυπνιαξόμενοι κοίτην Enupniachomenoi koitēn - ‘Sleeping in bed.’ Aquila, φανταζόμενοι phantazomenoi - ‘Having visions,’ or phantasms. The idea is that probably of dreaming, or drowsing; a state of indolence and unfaithfulness to their high trust. Perhaps also there is included the idea of their being deluded by vain imaginations, and by false opinions, instead of being under the influence of truth. For it is commonly the case that false and unfaithful teachers of religion are not merely inactive; they act under the influence of deluding and delusive views - like people who are dreaming and who see nothing real. Such was probably the case with the false prophets in the time of Isaiah.
Lying down - As dogs do who are indolent. They are inactive, unfaithful, and delighting in ease.
Loving to slumber - Perhaps there was never a more graphic and striking description of an indolent and unfaithful ministry than this. Alas, that it should be too true of multitudes who bear the sacred office, and who are appointed to warn their fellow-men of danger! How many come still under the description of dumb dogs who cannot bark, and who love to slumber!’ Some are afraid of giving offence; some have no deep sense of the importance of religious truth, and the actual danger of the ungodly; some embrace false opinions - led on by day-dreams and fictions of the imagination, as unreal, as vain, and as inconsistent, as are the incoherent expressions which are uttered in sleep; some engage in worldly projects, and fill up their time with the cares and plans of this life; and some are invincibly indolent. Nothing will rouse them; nothing induce them to forego the pleasures of sleep, and ease, and of an inactive life. The friends of God are unrebuked when they err; and an inactive and unfaithful ministry suffers the great enemy to come and bear away the soul to death, as an unfaithful mastiff would suffer the thief to approach the dwelling without warning the inmates. But the mastiff is usually more faithful than an indolent ministry. To the deep shame of man be it spoken, there are more ministers of religion who are indolent, inactive, and unfaithful, than there are of the canine race. Instinct prompts them to act the part which God intends; but alas, there are men - men in the ministry - whom neither instinct, nor conscience, nor reason, nor hope, nor fear, nor love, nor the command of God, nor the apprehension of eternal judgment, will rouse to put forth unwearied efforts to save souls from an eternal hell!
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 vv10–11 Watchmen. Priests and prophets. (Calmet) --- We know (Haydock)…
Watchmen. Priests and prophets. (Calmet) --- We know (Haydock) only Jeremias who continued firm, Lamentations ii. 14. In the days of Christ, the corruption was not diminished. (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 v10 Concluding Word: The Mournful Present, which will not be…
IX.—THE NINTH DISCOURSE
Concluding Word: The Mournful Present, which will not be Prevented by the Approach of the Glorious Future.
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Isa_56:10 to Isa_57:21.
Isaiah is wont to set the present in the light of the future, in order to make an impression on it by the contrast. I appeal to chapters 2–5, and to my interpretation of Isa_2:5. Jeremiah also imitates Isaiah in this (Jer_3:11 to Jer_4:4). The sudden spring from the remotest, the glorious future into the mournful, immediate present that the Prophet makes between Isa_56:9-10, need not therefore seem strange to us. It is to be admitted that the description of the bad shepherds, Isa_56:10-12, can suit also the period of the Exile. That it at least fits Isaiah’s contemporaries very well is undeniably plain from Isaiah 28. That in the exile, prophets of Jehovah were murdered (Isa_57:1) simply for being such, is possible, but not probable, and not proved. That remnants of idolatry continued through the whole exile, is not only possible but also probable. However the time before and after the destruction of Jerusalem must be distinguished. But that all kinds of idolatry even Moloch worship, with its sacrifices of children (Isa_57:5), still occurred in the Exile, is not probable and not proved. It is utterly inconceivable, or, as Hengstenberg says (Christol. II. p. 201, 2 edit.), “it has no meaning,” that Israel even in exile sent to foreign kings for help (Isa_57:9). The threat: because thou hast not laid to heart my silence מֵעוֹלם, thy works shall be made manifest and thy idols be swept away (Isa_57:11-13), certainly suits better the time before than the time after the Exile. For this reason even the opponents of the genuineness have been obliged to admit that the authorship of our section dates before the Exile (comp. Kleinert, Echth. D. jes. Weiss. p. 305 sqq.; Stier in his Comm.; Hengstenberg, l.c.). They do so partly by forced interpretations; partly by assuming that the whole passage Isa_56:10 to Isa_57:21 (Eichhorn), or at least Isa_56:9 to Isa_57:11 (Ewald) is repeated “from older prophets.” I am for this reason of the opinion (with Kleinert, Stier, Hengstenberg) that the grounds already given are opposed to the idea that in writing our passage, too, Isaiah’s view-point was that of the Exile (Del.).
The section divides into three parts. In the First the Prophet contrasts the conduct and the fate of the bad and of the good shepherds of the present (Isa_56:10; Isa_57:2). In the Second he describes the mournful signs of the present, the idolatrous doings of the nation (Isa_57:3-14). In the Third he returns to promising salvation, and announces that God’s love will still bring salvation and healing to those that let themselves be healed (Isa_57:15-21).
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1.—THE MOURNFUL PRESENT MARKED BY THE CONTRAST OF THE BAD AND GOOD SHEPHERDS
Isa_56:10 to Isa_57:2
10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant,
They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark;
9Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yea, they are 10greedy dogs which 11can never have enough,
12And they are shepherds that cannot understand:
They all look to their own way,
Every one for his gain, 13from his quarter.
12 Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine,
And we will fill ourselves with strong drink;
And to-morrow shall be as this day,
And much more abundant.
57 1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart:
And 14merciful men are taken away, none considering
15That the righteous is taken away 16from the evil to come.
2 17He shall 18enter into peace:
They shall rest in their beds,
Each one walking 19in his uprightness.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa_56:10. הזה. Verse 12. יתר מאד; Isa_57:1. אנשׁי־חסד– שׂם על לב; Isa_57:2. מִשְׁכָּב.
Isa_56:10. The suffix in צֹכּוֹ undoubtedly refers to Israel.
Isa_56:11. The suffix in מקצהו is related to the ideal totality to which the אִישׁ belongs.
Isa_57:1. I cannot approve the view that כי מפני וגו׳ is an objective clause depending on מֵבִין. For how could then the wicked know that the pious by their death only escape the impending evil? And must it not then read, as Vitringa has said, לִפְגֵי or at least מִלִּכְּנֵי? I believe that we must construe מִפְנֵי as causal, as in countless instances beside.
Isa_57:2. This verse is very difficult on grammatical and lexical grounds. For if one take הֹלֵךְ as the subject of יָבוֹא, then this insertion of a clause whose subject is identical with that of the principal clause, but expressed in the plural, is very violent, and, so far as I see, unexampled, notwithstanding the great freedom usual in Hebrew in respect to the change of person and number. It is also very questionable whether מִשְׁכָּב can mean “burying place,” and whether נוֹחַ with עַל can mean “rest in the grave.” For משׁכב is only twice beside this used of a bed prepared for a dead person. In 2Ch_16:14 it designates the bed of state on which king Asa was laid before his burial (משׁכב and קְבָרוֹת are expressly distinguished). Also in Eze_32:25 there is prepared for Elam a משׁכב in the under-world, around about which are the עְבָרוֹת of his adherents. Thus it appears that משׁכב can indeed designate the place of repose of a dead person, but that is not then the grave in which he lies, but a distinguished elevated couch, on which he lies. But here nothing else is meant to be said of the righteous than that he, as one who has walked uprightly, finds rest in his grave. For this reason I am unable also to agree with the explanation, grammatically admissible, that treats יבוא שׁלום as a clause by itself, and הלך as the subject of ינוהו. Then the participle is regarded as collective: the upright walking, i. e., the total of those walking uprightly. But here על משׁכבותם remains an oddity. For this reason I am of the opinion, that ינוחו על מ׳ is to be treated as clause thrown in, expressive of the situation (comp. Jer_13:21): “comes to peace—while they rest on their beds—who walks uprightly”. In this way is made prominent the contrast between the fleshly rest on soft pillows (comp. Isa_66:10. שׁכבים אהבי לנום) that the bad shepherds enjoy, and the rest of everlasting peace of God enjoyed by the righteous whom the world persecutes (comp. Luk_16:22). It is true one looks for וְחֵמָּה before יָנוּחוּ. Still Vav. in such clauses is not unfrequently omitted (comp. e. g., Psa_57:4; חֵרֵף שׁאֲפִי; Ewald, § 311, a), and the omission of הֵמָּה finds compensation in the striking prominence of the plural.—The plural משׁכבות is found beside here in Hos_7:14; Mic_2:1; Psa_149:5. It is also perhaps not unimportant to remark that this plural only occurs with עַל, and that both the singular and the plural with עַל never mean anything else than the bed on which the living repose. The passages with משׁכב in the singular with על: 2Sa_4:11; 2Sa_11:2; 2Sa_13:6; 1Ki_1:47; Psa_4:5; Psa_36:5; Job_33:19; Son_3:1. For the use of both sing. and plur. in Isaiah, see List.—נָכֹחַ is τὸ ἐναντίον, ex adverso positum, that which lies directly opposite, directly before a man. Hence הלך נכחו is he that goes the way lying directly before him. הלך with the accusative as in Isa_33:15; Isa_50:10.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet stands at the conclusion of the task he proposed for the second Ennead. He has pursued the word of the Servant of God through all its alternations to its glorious goal. From the light of the final glorification he turns his eye back and observes with pain the contrast between the glorious future and the mournful present. As we notice in Isa_48:6 that the Prophet by no means becomes unconscious of the present in his contemplation of the future, so we see here, too, that he cannot avoid instituting a comparison between that hereafter and the now. The difference is so great, that one does not comprehend how from the now the hereafter can ever come to be. But nothing is impossible with God. Spite of the heinousness of the present, the word of the Lord stands fast, that the people of God (those of course excepted that persistently resist the drawings of the Spirit) shall come to the peace and refreshment on the mount of God. The Prophet describes first the heinousness of the present. His eye falls chiefly on those that ought to be leaders and exemplars to the nation in the good way. But these are blind watchmen, and dumb, lazy dogs (Isa_56:10) and insatiably greedy. They are shepherds without knowledge, only keen for their own interest (Isa_56:11), and carousers that each day carry on worse than the day before (Isa_56:12). Where such men rule, of course the lot of the righteous is outwardly mournful; unregarded by the crowd they are borne away by the evil (Isa_57:1). But happily for them! For while others on their luxurious pillows surrender themselves to a fatal repose, the righteous go in to everlasting peace (Isa_57:2).
2. His watchmen——more abundant.—Isa_56:10-12. Although in general the transition here is sharp from the future to the immediate present, still the figure used in Isa_56:9 prepares the transition in a very artistic way. For, although I do not think that there the Prophet summons the wild beasts to devour Israel, because they may easily do this on account of the bad watch that is kept, still I think it likely, that the Prophet, by the mention of the future of the beasts, is led to think of the beasts of the present, and of the way in which Israel is given over to them. צֹפִים (Isa_21:5-6; Isa_52:7), which means primarily “spies, sentinels on guard,” we are to understand here as meaning those whose duty it is, on account of their office, to warn the community of evil, and with it to contend against wickedness. Such, first of all, are the prophets. But also the priests (Mal_2:7) and worldly superiors, in short all that are entrusted with the shepherd office (וְהֵמָּה רעִים56:11) are included. But what sort of watchmen are those that cannot see? In the ordinary sense there are none such. But in a spiritual sense there are. For there are, alas, those spiritually blind, whose spiritual eye is plastered up, and who consequently “do not know,” i. e., have no knowledge, no understanding of what they ought to know, יָדע in this absolute sense we had already Isa_44:9; Isa_44:18; Isa_45:20. Changing his figure, the Prophet further compares those bad shepherds to dogs that should watch the flock, and which though not blind, indeed, are yet dumb. But a protector that sees the enemy and gives no notice, is just as bad as one that does not see him at all (indeed worse subjectively). Thus the second figure intensifies the charge; for it adds a bad will to incapacity. Why they do not bark is said in the following words (added in the form of apposition): snarling in sleep, lying down, loving to slumber.הָזָה, ἅπ. λεγ. seems to designate the sounds a dog utters in sleep, and therefore the meanings “to sleep, dream, snore, to be delirious” are ascribed to the word; comp. Bochart, Hieroz. ed. Lips. I. p. 781 sqq. With the Arabs the dog passes for a sleepy beast (comp. Hitzigin loc.), while, on the contrary, in the Occident it is the type of watchfulness (see Bochart, l. c.). The Prophet would say of the bad shepherds under all circumstances, that they cannot bark because they love their comfort and advantage beyond everything. Hence they get off nothing more than a snarl or a growl, such as a dog utters in slumber. Bochartl.c. adduces several passages from the ancients that show that they regarded these sounds in sleep as a characteristic peculiarity of dogs. They are lazy, yet insatiably greedy dogs (עַזֵּי־נֶפֶשׁ strong in greed, Isa_5:14; Isa_29:8; Isa_55:2); they do not know what it is to be satisfied. And they are shepherds! adds the Prophet indignantly, with reference to “his watchmen,” etc., Isa_57:10 init. Then, as is his manner, Isaiah proceeds, in what follows, to explain the figure: answering to the ignorance of what is enough, is a worse ignorance with respect to הָבִין, “to distinguish “(comp. the reverse of this Isa_32:4). They are strangers to true wisdom. They let selfishness essentially determine the direction of their efforts (comp. Isa_58:6), and especially greediness for gain. בֶּצַע is “that cut off, the cutting, gain” (Isa_33:15; Isa_57:17), קָצֶה is the end in the sense of the periphery (comp. Gen_19:4; Jer_50:26). Thus the idea is: from the utmost periphery in to the very centre every one of this fine fellowship turns only to gain. Accordingly they all do so without exception.
And what good does their money do them? Isa_57:12 shows this by examples. Such a blind, dumb watchman, who can open eye and mouth well enough when it concerns his belly, calls out to the passer-by, or a visitor: Come ye, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink (שֵׁכָר comp. on Isa_5:11). This friendly host, however, does not invite to merely a short banquet, but, (answering to “they know not satiety” Isa_57:10), also to one that the following day will be continued in grander style. The words גדול are both a nearer definition and also intensify the meaning. The next day is to be like the first only as a drunken day in general, but distinguished as to species by being of a much higher quality. Who does not think here of what the Prophet says Isa_28:7 sqq. of the vice of drunkenness that invaded both Judah and Israel? At all events, this moral aberration agrees very well with the religious degeneracy spoken of in Isa_57:3 sqq.
3. The righteous perish——uprightness, Isa_57:1-2. If Isa_56:10-12 describes the doings of the bad shepherds, especially of false prophets, then by the righteous man here must be understood also a prophet. And אבד and נאסף cannot mean a natural death, for that would be much more an encouragement than a warning to the bad. Rather the context seems to me to demand that the mournful fate of the true and righteous servants of Jehovah be contrasted with the lazy, jovial doings of the dumb dogs. Therefore (with Umbreit and others) I understand אבד and נאספ to denote a violent death. I cannot avoid the impression that the Prophet here alludes to circumstances that he sees quite near, and as perhaps personally threatening to himself. Of course, precise proof of this cannot be offered; and I will only offer the view as a conjecture. The flood of unbelief had only swelled to greater magnitude under the idolatrous Manasseh. The apostacy was universal. It was much as in the days of Elijah (1Ki_19:10). It is also expressly said of Manasseh, that he shed very much innocent blood, and filled Jerusalem with it from one end to the other (2Ki_21:16); and tradition (handed down by Josephus,Antiq. X. 3, 1) refers that bloodshed especially to execution of numerous prophets. Even though Isaiah himself may not so have perished, and though the tradition to that effect be unfounded (see Introduction, pp. 3, 4), still Isaiah, while writing this, may have had this atrocious period in mind, and even have regarded it as threatening himself with destruction. That no man laid it to heart, if again a Jehovah-prophet was slain, is perfectly explained by the frequency of such events and by the apostacy being so universal and intense. The expression אנשׁי־חסד might in parallelism have a general meaning. Yet history justifies our construing it in a particular sense. חֶסֶד is “pietas, piety.” באין מבין is said as בְּהִמָֽצְאוֹ, Isa_55:6. On כי מפני וגו׳, see Text. and Gram. It was said before only, that the pious are taken away without any one regarding it. Now the reason of this is given. It is the רָעָה, the universally prevalent wickedness. That explains that the righteous are not only taken away, but that it is done without opposition, yea, even without causing any disturbance.
Isa_57:2. But that is only a seeming misfortune for the righteous. In fact in this way he enters into peace, while they, the wicked, are fatally reposing on their beds of luxury (see Text. and Gram.).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_56:11. (Every one looks to his own way). “Potest intelligi de externis criminibus, sed magis placet, ut accipiatur de speciosis viis, in quibus ambulant hypocritae. Sic Franciscanus Francisci regulam sequitur, decalogum et evangelii doctrinam negligit tanquam rem vulgarem, quae ad vulgus pertirneant.”—Luther.
2. On Isa_56:12. In the Alexandrian and Vatican texts of the LXX., the words from מקצהו Isa_56:11 to the end of Isa_56:12 are wanting, which even Jerome remarks on. He adds: “denique hos versiculos nullus ecclesiasticorum interpretum disseruit, sed quasi patentem in medio foveam transiliunt atque transmittunt.”—That the Fathers, unacquainted as they were with Hebrew, pass the words by, is simply explained by the LXX. omitting them. Jerome, because he knew Hebrew, as he himself says, “added them ex hebraico.” But why the Greek translator left them out is doubtful: Theodotion (see Hexapla Orig. ed. Montfaucon II., p. 179) has them.—“Ab hoc vitio (ebrietatis) abstinere debent pii ecclesiae ministri memores interdicti apostolici 1Ti_3:2-3, considerantes secum, nullam horulam ipsis esse adeo liberam ac vacuam, qua non ad officia functionis suis possint avocari.”—Foerster.—“Let one point the rough figure for himself for the more delicate spiritual form also, quite as Mat_24:49; Eph_5:18, and the like are meant. For there is a drunkenness and voluptuousness in all kinds of wine and intoxication, which only the eye of the Spirit beholds in many an honorable Bishop, General-superintendent or Superior-court-preacher. Stier. “Vita concionatoris optimus syllogismus.” Chrysostom.
3. On Isa_57:1. “Against the heedlessness of the world, that regards the life and death of men alike. For because Pharaoh and Moses, Saul and Jonathan, Judas and Peter, must temporally die, the one as the other, they suppose it is as much to one as to the other. But on the contrary, one should lay it to heart when useful and pious men fall, because, first, one must miss them afterwards, especially their prayers by which they stand in the breach and run to the walls (Eze_22:30); second, because the destruction of such people is wont to be an evil omen of a great impending misfortune and change, [“It is a sign that God intends war when He calls home His ambassadors.”—M. Henry]. Examples: When Noah turns his back on the world and shuts himself in the ark, the deluge comes (Gen_7:17). When Lot goes out of Sodom and Gomorrah, fire from heaven falls on them (Gen_19:24). When Joseph dies in Egypt, the bondage of the children of Israel begins, together with the murder of their infant boys (Exo_1:8). When Hezekiah died, then followed the tyranny of Manasseh (2 Kings 20, 21) When Christ and His disciples were made way with, then began the destruction of Jerusalem.”—Cramer.—“Sicut ad Josiam dicit: tolleris, ne videant occuli tui hoc malum, etc. (2Ki_22:18-20). Sic excidio Hierosolymitano erepti sunt apostoli et reliqui Sancti. Idem nobis accidet. Vivunt adhuc passim quidam pii homines, propter iliis Deus differt poenam. Sublatis autem iis sequetur Germaniae ruina.”—Luther.—“Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labor (Rev_14:13). And hellish enemies, as little as human, can do them any harm.”—“It is a misfortune for the whole country when distinguished and deserving people are taken out of the midst by temporal death. For them, indeed, it is well; but God have mercy on those that are left. For as in a great storm, when the heavens are overcast with clouds, the shepherd leads in the sheep, the husbandman hastily gathers his sheaves, the parents call in the children from the streets, so our dear God calls His dearest children together, that the calamity may not touch them.”—Cramer.—“The men of grace or mercy are receivers and distributers, thus also the mediators of the grace of God for their people; the men of grace, that atoningly represent the land by intercessions and conduct, postpone its judgment (Gen_18:24; Eze_22:30).” Stier.—“The mere presence of an honest man is still a, restraint on the unbridledness of blasphemers.” G. Mueller in Stier.
4. On Isa_57:2. “Against the idle fancy of the fire of purgatory. For here it is said of those who have walked uprightly, not that they get into trouble, unrest, pain and torment, by which they must be purged; but that, with respect to their souls, they come to peace. But as to their bodies, they rest in their sleeping chamber. They are not on this account driven about; they seek also no mass or soul baths, as the Papists pretend.”—Cramer.
“Nam stultum est mortem matrem timuisse quietis,
Quam fugiunt morbi, moestaque pauperies.”
(Attributed to Cornelius Gallus, the friend of Virgil).
5. On Isa_52:4. It should be a wreath of honor to all faithful teachers and preachers, that they are regarded as monsters and are lampooned by the wise of this world. For if the great Prophet Isaiah in this passage, item, Jeremiah (Jer_20:8), Elijah (2Ki_2:24), Ezekiel (Eze_33:31), Job (Job_17:6), yea, even Christ Himself had to suffer this, what wonder is it if the scoffing birds sharpen their beaks on us and chatter like the storks?” Cramer.
6. [On Isa_52:8. “When a people forget God, the memorials of their apostacy will be found in every part of their habitations. The shrines of idol gods may not be there; the beautiful images of the Greek and Roman mythology, or the clumsy devices of less refined heathens may not be there; but the furniture, the style of living will reveal from ‘behind every door and the posts” of the house that God is forgotten, and that they are influenced by other principles than a regard for His name. The sofa, the carpet, the chandelier, the centre-table, the instruments of music, the splendid mirror, may be of such workmanship as to show, as clearly as the image of a heathen god, that Jehovah is not honored in the dwelling, and that His law does not control the domestic arrangements.” Barnes].
7. [On Isa_57:10. “Thou art wearied——no hope. This is a striking illustration of the conduct of men in seeking happiness away from God. They wander from object to object; they become weary in the pursuit, yet they do not abandon it; they still cling to hope though often repulsed—and though the world gives them no permanent comfort—though wealth, ambition, gayety, and vice all fail in imparting the happiness which they sought, yet they do not give it up in despair. They still feel that it is to be found in some other way, than by the disagreeable necessity of returning to God, and they wander from object to object, and from land to land, and become exhausted in the pursuit, and still are not ready to say there is no hope, we give it up in despair, and we will now seek happiness in God.” Barnes.
“Note.—Despair of happiness in the creature, and of satisfaction in the service of sin, is the first step toward a well-grounded hope of happiness in God, and a well-fixed resolution to keep to His service; and those are inexcusable who have had sensible convictions of the vanity of the creature, and yet will not be brought to say, ‘There is no hope to be happy short of the Creator.’—Note.—Prosperity in sin (Thou hast found the life of thy hand) is a great bar to conversion from sin.” M. Henry].
8. On Isa_57:11. “God keeps silence only for a while, but yet not for ever and continually, with respect to men’s sins; but the longer He has kept silence, the harder He punishes afterwards.”—Starke.
9. On Isa_57:12. “Tuam justitiam. Est emphasis in pronomine tuam. Quasi dicat: mea justitia firma et perpetua est, tua non item.… In calamitate nihil desperatius est justitiariis, cum secundis rebus nihil quoque iis sit confidentius.—Luther.”
10. On Isa_57:15 sq. “God has three sorts of dwellings: first in the highest, second in the sanctuary, third in humble hearts. The first dwelling is the universalis praesentia, the universal presence, by which He fills all (Jer_23:24); but there He is too high and incomprehensible for us. The other is gratiosa, the gracious presence, by which He lets Himself be found in the word and sacraments, and also comes finally to us and makes His dwelling in our hearts (Joh_14:23).” Cramer, comp. Renner, p. 199.—“Humilis anima est Dei sessio et delectabile cubile.” “Excelsus es Domine, sed humiles corde sunt domus tua” (Psa_113:6; Psa_138:6). Augustin.—“Fluenta gratiae deorsum non sursum fluunt.” Bernhard.—“Here is a principal passage beaming with evidence, that “holy” means not merely the tremenda majestas, but essentially comprehends the self-communicating condescension of love.” Stier.—Comp. His Reden Jesu V., p. 499, and the essays of Schoeberlein and Achelis in Stud. and Krit. 1847, I., IV.
11. On Isa_57:18. Here again we have one of those words in which Isaiah shows Himself to be the Evangelist of the Old Testament. For in the old covenant God does not yet heal men, else the new were superfluous. The law only effects knowledge of sin, but it does not give the power to overcome sin. One fancies here again that he hears the Apostle that wrote Romans 8.
12. On Isa_57:19-21. “The gospel in a sermon of peace to the heathen that were far off, and to the Jews that were near. For by it we both have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph_2:18). But the wicked quakes all his life and what he hears terrifies him (Job_15:20; Isa_48:22). And especially in conflicts, and notably in the last hour, and when they see God’s judgment near, one sees this in them, that they not only therefore often spit out blasphemies, but that for great anguish they have laid hands on themselves. Examples: Saul, Ahithophel, Judas, Franciscus Spiera. For because such peace is not to be brought about with works, they must ever stick in anger, resentment, discontent and disfavor with and before God. And it is only pure folly to wish to give the terrified hearts rest by their own expiation, merit and self-elected holiness. Much less will there be rest if one teaches such people to doubt the forgiveness of sins.” Cramer.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_56:10 to Isa_57:2. These words may be used as the text of a sermon for a fast-day, or also for a synodical sermon. One might then regard the Prophet’s words as a mirror, or as a measure whereby to measure the condition of the church (of the country, of the times). From this would then come 1) earnest warning to those that belong to the wicked here described, or who do not oppose their doings; 2) comfort for those that have “walked straight before them,” for, though hated and persecuted by men, they shall still come to peace.
2. On Isa_57:1-2. These words (also “a Jewish formula solennis for the pious dead,” Stier) have very often been used as texts for funeral discourses for celebrated men.
3. On Isa_57:2. Those that have walked in their uprightness, i. e., who during their lives have served the Lord in a living faith, need not fear death. It is to them a bringer of joy. For it brings 1) eternal peace to their soul, 2) rest to their body in the chamber of the grave, till the day of the blessed resurrection.
4. On Isa_57:3-10. A description of the coarse idolatry, to which in our day correspond only too many appearances of the modern and subtile heathenism. Only too many have sucked in with their mother’s milk superstition and unbelief, which as a rule go together. As Ishmael, who was begotten after the flesh, mocked and persecuted Isaac that was born according to the promise (Gal_4:28 sqq.), so also now. The false seed, i. e., those that are not born of the Spirit of the church, although by their fleshly birth they belong to it, mock and persecute the genuine children of the church. With insatiable greed people run daily, but especially on the Lord’s day, under all green trees, i. e., to the places of worldly pleasure-seeking, where the idols of the belly and of mammon are served! And how many children are from their earliest youth led away to the service of these idols! Are not thereby their immortal souls spiritually slain? And is not that, in the end, a worse sacrifice of children than that ancient sort? All that puts men in mind of the service of God, men get out of their sight (pious customs, Sunday, feast days, church acts, as baptism, marriage, burial), in order to be able to surrender themselves undisturbed and wholly to the modern idols. Men no longer seek their strength in the covenant with the Lord, but among men in associations of every kind. And, because that does not instantly reveal its ruinous effects, but often seems to have a good effect, men never weary of this conduct, but confirm themselves in it more and more.
5. On Isa_57:12. Many men will not by any means believe that their good works are wholly insufficient to obtain the righteousness that is of avail with God. Now God will, indeed, not suffer to go unrewarded the cup of water that we give to the thirsty in the proper spirit (Mat_10:42; Mar_9:41). But could we point to ever so many such cups, still they do not suffice to pay our ten thousand talents (Mat_18:24 sqq.). One must therefore remind his charge of the great reckoning that the Lord will one day have with us. In this 1) will be had a complete and perfectly correct investigation into our indebtedness and assets. 2) Then it will appear that our assets will be too defective to be of any use whatever against our indebtedness.
6. On Isa_57:13-14. It depends very much on the sort of spirit with which one turns to God for help. If one does it in order to make a trial also with the dear God, then one will certainly be denied. But if one does it because one knows no other helper, and wishes to know no other, then one may confidently count on being heard. How differently the answers sound that God gives to the cries for help that reach Him. 1) To the one it is said: let thy gatherings help thee. 2) But to the others is called out: a. make a road, clear the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people; b. inherit the land, possess my holy mountain.
7. On Isa_57:15-16. “I know that these sayings speak especially of penitent sinners and aroused consciences; but I do not see why they may not with good right be applied also to other alarmed and anxious people. One has here to look also at the examples of the dear children of God who are presented to us in the Holy Scriptures full of fear and alarm. Think of Job (Job_9:34; Job_13:21), David (Psa_25:17; Psa_55:5 sqq.), Daniel (Dan_8:17 sq.), Paul (1Co_2:3; 2Co_7:5), yea, of Jesus Christ Himself (Mat_26:37; Mar_14:33; Luk_22:44). From this thou seest clearly, thou lover of God, but timid and frightened soul, that thou art not the first among the children of God, that suffer His terrors and must go about with an anxious heart. It is also therewith sufficiently shown that such an event is not a reminder of anger, but rather of the grace of the kind and gracious God.”—Scriver.
8. On Isa_57:15-16. “A holy shudder goes through my soul when, in receiving Thy body and blood, I think of who they are to whom Thou so communicatest Thyself! That is Thy way, Thou wonderful Lord, that Thou utterly humblest and castest down to the ground before Thou raisest up. Thou sayest: ‘I who dwell in the high and holy place am with those that are of a contrite and humble spirit.’ Has the greatness of my sin already melted my heart, it melts still more at the greatness of Thy grace.”—Tholuck.
9 On Isa_57:15-16. Sermon for Whitsun week: “Wherein do we behold the greatest glory of the God of grace? 1) Therein, that He does not despise a poor sinner’s heart for a dwelling. 2) Therein, that He manifests Himself in it not as a judge, but as a comforter.” Taube, in Gottes Bruenl. hat Wassers die Fuelle. Hamburg, 1872.
10. On Isa_57:17-18. One is reminded here of 1Ki_19:11 sq. God is not in the tempest, nor in the earthquake, but He is in the still, gentle breeze. The gospel goes more to the hearts of men, and lays deeper hold on them than the law. The conversion of men. 1) It is prepared by being angry and smiting (Isa_57:17). 2. It is accomplished by God’s inwardly healing the heart.
11. On Isa_57:19. Missionary Sermon. The work of missions: 1) By whom is it accomplished? 2) On whom is it accomplished? 3) What end does it serve?
12. On Isa_57:20. “The whole Scripture testifies that what it says of the grace of God, of the forgiveness of sins and of the assurance of bliss belongs to the penitent. For those that are ever stirred up and driven on by their malignant desires (like the sea by the winds), and commit one sin after another (like the sea casts out all sorts of dirt), are wicked men, and have no peace to expect.”—Scriver.
Footnotes:
[9]Or, Draming, or, talking in their sleep.
[10]Heb. strong of appetite.
[11]Heb. know not to be satisfied.
[12]And they are shepherds! They know not how to distinguish.
[13]without exception.
[14]Heb. men of kindness, or, godliness.
[15]For.
[16]Or, from that which is evil.
[17]He enters into peace (while they rest on their beds) who walks straight before him.
[18]Or, go in peace.
[19]Or, before him.
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 vv10–12 His watchmen--Israel's spiritual leaders (Isa 62:6; Eze 3:17).
His watchmen--Israel's spiritual leaders (Isa 62:6; Eze 3:17).
dumb dogs--image from bad shepherds' watchdogs, which fail to give notice, by barking, of the approach of wild beasts.
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blind-- (Mat 23:16).
sleeping, lying down--rather, "dreamers, sluggards" [LOWTH]. Not merely sleeping inactive, but under visionary delusions.
loving to slumber--not merely slumbering involuntarily, but loving it.
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 vv10, 12 10, 11. His watchmen — The people’s teachers.
10, 11. His watchmen — The people’s teachers.
Are blind — Can see nothing with a spiritual eye.
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Dumb dogs — An image from shepherds’ bad watchdogs, which fail to give notice of danger.
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber — An exact description of the miserable, outcast curs to be observed, even to this day, in every Eastern town or city. They are nobody’s dogs, allowed to lounge about and greedily devour garbage thrown into the street. What a comparison! Such are the shepherds which the worldly and irreligious are willing to tolerate. Each of these “blind,” “ignorant,” “dumb” watchmen looks to worldly gain, careless as to results on the character of his flock.
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 vv10–12 10–12. The delinquencies of the rulers. The watchmen are…
10–12. The delinquencies of the rulers. The watchmen are the spiritual leaders of the community, who in the earlier post-exilic period were the priests and the prophets (see Neh_6:10-14). Elsewhere the word is used metaphorically only of the prophets (Jer_6:17; Eze_3:17; Eze_33:2 ff.) and to them the description here chiefly applies, although there may be no reason for excluding the priests, with whom the higher authority lay, and who shared in the vices here specified. These guides are blind, not discerning the evils of the time, and dumb, afraid to speak out against them.
they are all ignorant] Lit. “they all of them know not.” Several codices of the LXX. supply an infinitive (φρονῆσαι), by which the sense and parallelism are improved (cf. the similar phrase in Isa_56:11 “they know not how to observe”: E.V. “cannot understand”).
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dumb dogs, they cannot bark] in contrast to the true prophet, who “cries aloud and spares not,” shewing the people their transgressions (see ch. Isa_58:1; cf. Eze_33:1 ff.), and specially gives warning of the approach of an enemy; Eze_33:6. Sheep-dogs are mentioned in Job_30:1.
sleeping] R.V. “dreaming,” better raving. The word, which occurs only here, means in Arabic to talk deliriously in sickness. Cheyne suggests that it contains a play on the word for “seers,” from which it differs in a single letter (hòzîm and ḥôzîm).
loving to slumber] The laziness of the dog was proverbial amongst the Arabs: “he delays like a sleepy hound” (Gesenius).
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 vv10–12 (10) His watchmen are blind.—These are the guides of…
(10) His watchmen are blind.—These are the guides of the people, and specially the self-styled prophets, who are “blind” to the signs of the times, who are “dumb,” and give no warning to the people of the real dangers that threaten them, who prophesy for the rewards of divination (Num_22:7 :1Sa_9:7; Neh_6:12), who are conspicuous for their luxury and intemperance. Given the men who are described in Isa_5:22; Isa_28:7-8; Isa_30:10, and the circumstances of Manasseh’s reign, no other result could be expected.
Sleeping.—The prophet, with a scornful irony, substitutes hozîm (“dreamers”) for khozîm (“seers”). The “lying down” contrasts their indolent and easy life with the vigil and the fast of a true prophet.
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 vv10–12 His watchmen are blind. Israel"s "watchmen" are his guides…
His watchmen are blind. Israel"s "watchmen" are his guides and teachers, the prophets. (Isa_6:1-7 Eze_3:17 Hab_2:1, etc.) At the time of which Isaiah speaks, they are "blind", (Isa_29:18 Isa_35:5 Isa_42:7, Isa_42:16, Isa_42:18, 19 43:8, etc.) or without knowledge like the "blind guides" of the Gospel. (Mat_15:14 Luk_6:39, etc.) They have not the spiritual discernment which would enable them to lead the people aright. Further, they are dumb dogs. Instead of acting as faithful watch-dogs, who give warning of the approach of danger by their barking, they remain apathetic, and utter no warning at all. It is as if they passed their lives in sleep.
Vers. 10-12. Worthless shepherds.
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"Dumb dogs;" "Greedy dogs;" "Shepherds that cannot understand." The prophet"s messages are in the main addressed to the pious and believing among the exiles. But he knows well how many of them were living in self-indulgence and sin, and were not in the least likely to heed his words, and prepare themselves for the coming deliverance. The evils were especially manifest in the leading people, who ought to have been leaders in goodness to the people. Instead of this, they were neglecting their duty, and presenting a debasing example of self-indulgence, and even of covetousness. The term "watchmen" is used for chief men, princes, priests, prophets. These were utterly unable to comprehend or to meet the spiritual wants of the nation at this time, when God was so near, for carrying out his redeeming purpose. The language here employed strikingly depicts the feelings of the voluptuous in every age.
I THE HELPLESSNESS OF THE LEADERS AND TEACHERS OF THAT AGE. Observe the blending of figures suitable to the shepherd and to the shepherd"s dog. Such a blending of figures is common in poetry and in Scripture. Inefficiency and sinful neglect are suggested in the terms
(1) blind;
(2) ignorant;
(3) dumb;
(4) loving to slumber;
(5) greedy;
(6) void of understanding;
(7) drunken.
II THE REAL SECRET OF THEIR HELPLESSNESS. They thought of self. They did not live for their charge, but for themselves. "They all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter." And this is the root of evil in all who are placed in positions of responsibility, authority, and influence all who are in any sense leaders and teachers. They must serve others, not get for self. Therefore the Apostle Paul pleads, saying, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus" sake." Compare the plea of the noble Samuel, on giving up his life-ministry, "Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?". (1Sa_12:3) In this way St. Paul counsels the young teacher Timothy, "Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." And a bishop is thus described, "Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous". (1Ti_4:12 1Ti_3:3) St. Paul complains of the teachers of his time, "All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ"s". R.T. (Php_2:21)
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 vv10, 12 His watchmen are blind.
Isa_56:10-11
His watchmen are blind.
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-
The old Hebrew pulpit a beacon to modern preachers
(with Jer_8:11):--
I. THE OLD HEBREW PULPIT AT THIS TIME WAS IGNORANT. The watchmen are said to be blind and ignorant. They did not see and understand the things that ought to have been clear to their vision and intelligible to their judgment. An ignorant pulpit, though a contradiction in terms, has ever been too prevalent. There may be profound pulpit ignorance where there are the most distinguished scholastic acquirement and literary charms. On the other hand, there may be considerable pulpit intelligence where there is but a very small degree of mere scholastic attainment. Many a noble-souled, Gospel-inspired man, who knew no book but the Bible, no language but his own, and could not speak even that with grammatical propriety, has done the true work of the pulpit. That pulpit is an ignorant pulpit that does not discern the things of the Spirit--things that the Spirit of God approves, and the spirit of man requires. I call that an ignorant pulpit which ministers to the speculative in man rather than to the spiritual, to the intellect rather than the heart, and presents a dead creed rather than a living Christ. I call that an ignorant pulpit which ministers to sects rather than to souls, represents Christ as one sent to save a favourite few, rather than as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. I call that an ignorant pulpit that does not practically feel that all Divine truth to man is but infinite love for man speaking through the intellect to the heart.
II. THE OLD HEBREW PULPIT AT THIS TIME WAS MARKED BY SLOTHFULNESS. The watchmen are called dumb dogs that cannot bark. It is because these animals have ever been used by man as sentinels whose bark warns of approaching danger; and because they are only useful as they bark, that they are employed as symbols of indolent preachers. There are men who, when they speak, speak with a drowsy soul, and their words are somnific. Perhaps there are more in these times dumb from expediency than from slothfulness. They echo only the opinions that are current in their Church. They add nothing to the stock of Christian intelligence.
III. THE OLD HEBREW PULPIT AT THIS TIME WAS MARKED BY SELFISH GREED. Yea they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, etc. Such strong language expresses their ravenous selfishness. It would seem that these corrupt prophets cared for no one but themselves. How stands the modern pulpit in this respect? This selfish greed shows itself in other ways besides the striving after filthy lucre. There is the greed for popularity.
IV. THE OLD HEBREW PULPIT AT THIS TIME WAS MARKED BY SUPERFICIALITY. They have healed the daughter of My people slightly. Dr. Blaney, in his translation, substitutes the word superficially for slightly. Although these words are taken from another book they refer to the same subject, and to the same class of men. The words, however, from Isaiah describe their character, these words describe their work. They did something, but it was partial and ineffective. They did not seek to eradicate the disease, but merely administered temporary palliatives, which, whilst they deadened the pain, fostered the virus of the malady. The idea undoubtedly is, that instead of endeavouring to work into the moral heart of the people profound convictions as to the enormity of their sins, and fulminate in their ears the righteous denunciations of Heaven, they presented considerations of false comfort. This superficial healing of souls is an immense injury. It deludes the patient. It wastes the restorative season. That pulpit is superficial which fails either to generate supreme love to the great God in hearts where it is not, or to strengthen it in hearts where it is. (Homilist.)
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 v10 Isa_56:10-12. His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant,…
WORTHLESS SHEPHERDS
Isa_56:10-12. His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, &c.
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A very sad description is here given of the “watchmen”—the spiritual leaders of Isaiah’s time, evincing a state of lamentable degeneracy and corruption. The language has often been, and still is, descriptive of many shepherds of the flock.
I. Ignorant. Immersed in sin themselves, they were blind to the sins, and wants, and dangers of the people—destitute of spiritual wisdom and discernment (Isa_29:18; Isa_35:5; Isa_42:7; Isa_42:16-19; Isa_43:8, &c.; Jer_3:15). Like the blind guides of the Gospel (Mat_15:14; Luk_6:39, &c.). Ignorance of “the truth as it is in Jesus” is an effectual disqualification for the office. What irreparable evil may be wrought by such blind guides!
II. Indolent. What a graphic and striking description of an indolent ministry. True of many to-day, who act as though hearers were won by idleness (Pro_6:10). Instinct prompts the canine race to act the part which God intends; but, alas! there are men in the ministry whom neither conscience, reason, hope, fear, nor love will rouse to effort to save souls. Instead of acting as faithful watch-dogs, who givewarning of the approach of danger by their barking, they remain apathetic, and utter no warning. It is as if they passed their lives in sleep. What a terrible awakening they will one day experience!
III. Covetous. They keep up the old custom, rejected by the higher prophets as an abuse, of taking fees (Num_22:7; 1Sa_9:7; 1Ki_14:3; 2Ki_5:16; Mat_10:8; Act_8:20; Eze_13:19; Eze_22:25; Mic_3:3). They are “greedy” after gain. All their inquiry is what they shall get, not what they shall do (Php_2:21). They never have enough (Ecc_5:10). They are careful for their dues—tithes, collections, pew-rents, &c., rather than for souls. “Ambitious of preferment for its gold.” Yet they are set apart not to promote their own interests, but the welfare and salvation of others. What possible effect for good can their preaching have? They do inconceivable injury to the cause of truth, for it is evident they do not live for their charge, but for themselves.
IV. Intemperate. Given to excess in wine, and to long revels, such as even the heathen considered to be disgraceful (Isa_28:7). One is represented as inviting another to a carouse of two days. Their frailty and mortality little thought of; no dread of the judgment of God, &c. Living only for carnal gratification, they cannot think of making sacrifices for souls. Of all evils, intemperance is most unbecoming to the minister of Christ, and prevents his rebuking vice in others with any practical effect.
Conclusion.—What a humiliation that such men are allowed to remain in the Church! Such shepherds make the Church lifeless and barren. How strikingly in Saint Paul’s character are developed the marks of a good shepherd—one that careth for the sheep (Php_1:8; Php_4:1; and others). If such intense yearning characterised all the shepherds of Israel now, what a different Church we should have! We hear much about the reformation of the government; is not the reformation of the ministry more needful? Let the Church, therefore, take the greatest possible care in separating men to this work and office.—A. Tucker.
PROCRASTINATION, OR PRESUMING ON THE FUTURE
Isa_56:12. To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
There is a marked and melancholy inconsistency between the admissions which men make, and the course of conduct which they pursue. The uncertainty of life is universally granted, yet men think, and talk, and act confidently on the credit of “to-morrow,” and, not seldom, of much longer periods. Procrastination is—
I. PAINFULLY COMMON. A very old evil (Exo_8:10, and others). We are all more or less guilty of it, for all our purposes and plans reach into a future which will never be ours. Specially manifested in relation to experimental religion. All ages and classes indulge in it. The young look to middle age, the more advanced to the last stage of life, &c. “To-morrow” is the prevailing maxim;—a maxim which few pretend to justify, but on which the vast majority persist in acting; a maxim of which all grant the folly in words, and by the admission condemn their own practice. Men of business often warn the young against the evil in relation to this life, yet act on the principle they condemn respecting interests incomparably more momentous. Strange infatuation! What has been your conduct?
II. SHAMEFULLY UNGRATEFUL. A practical disregard of all the mercy and love of God. The unnumbered blessings of His gracious providence. The richer blessings of His grace in Christ Jesus. The enormity of ingratitude to God. “The ass, after having drunk, gives a kick to the bucket” (Italian). God’s greatest miracle is His patience and bounty to the ungrateful.
III. PALPABLY UNREASONABLE.
1. True religion is supremely important. The only source of true happiness; of support amid the trials of life; of peace in death; and of a blissful immortality.
2. Delay increases difficulties. You may not think so; you imagine the future will present more favourable opportunities than the present, &c. But that is manifestly unreasonable, for, owing to the known laws of habit, every day’s delay increases the difficulties, &c. Sin gets a firmer hold upon you. Your experience bears witness. If you do not decide to-day, it becomes less likely that you ever will, &c
3. You have no evidence that you will live till to-morrow. You cannot calculate on the future (Pro_27:1). The Gospel may never be preached to you again, &c.
IV. EXCEEDINGLY SINFUL.
1. It encourages others to continue in their sins. Your to-day, is a day of evil example, &c.
2. It robs God of His due—your best affections, &c. Religion is not a mere creed, &c., but an obligation, founded on absolute proprietorship and mediatorial interposition (1Co_6:19-20).
3. It practically disregards God’s commands. Repentance and faith, &c., are immediate duties. “The imperative hath no future tense.”
4. It involves the abuse of all the means which God is graciously employing for your salvation. Resisting the strivings of His Spirit, &c.
V. IMMINENTLY DANGEROUS. Danger is always associated with sin. Increases with every day’s delay. To-morrow may be for ever too late. “Hell is paved with good intentions.” To delay is to court ruin.
CONCLUSION.—Presume not on the patience of God. Do not longer calculate on to-morrow. Yield yourself to God NOW (Heb_3:7; 2Co_6:2; Pro_1:24-31). You will never regret the step. But if you continue to befool yourself, every day will add its weight of guilt and sorrow. The Holy Ghost saith TO-DAY.—A. Tucker.
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 v12
Isaiah
THE CALL TO THE THIRSTY
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WE SURE OF TO-MORROW? A NEW YEAR’S SERMON
Isa 56:12.
These words, as they stand, are the call of boon companions to new revelry. They are part of the prophet’s picture of a corrupt age when the men of influence and position had thrown away their sense of duty, and had given themselves over, as aristocracies and plutocracies are ever tempted to do, to mere luxury and good living. They are summoning one another to their coarse orgies. The roystering speaker says, ‘Do not be afraid to drink; the cellar will hold out. To-day’s carouse will not empty it; there will be enough for to-morrow.’ He forgets to-morrow’s headaches; he forgets that on some tomorrow the wine will be finished; he forgets that the fingers of a hand may write the doom of the rioters on the very walls of the banqueting chamber.
What have such words, the very motto of insolent presumption and short-sighted animalism, to do with New Year’s thoughts? Only this, that base and foolish as they are on such lips, it is possible to lift them from the mud, and take them as the utterance of a lofty and calm hope which will not be disappointed, and of a firm and lowly resolve which may ennoble life. Like a great many other sayings, they may fit the mouth either of a sot or of a saint. All depends on what the things are which we are thinking about when we use them. There are things about which it is absurd and worse than absurd to say this, and there are things about which it is the soberest truth to say it. So looking forward into the merciful darkness of another year, we may regard these words as either the expressions of hopes which it is folly to cherish, or of hopes that it is reasonable to entertain.
I. This expectation, if directed to any outward things, is an illusion and a dream.
These coarse revellers into whose lips our text is put only meant by it to brave the future and defy to-morrow in the riot of their drunkenness. They show us the vulgarest, lowest form which the expectation can take, a form which I need say nothing about now.
But I may just note in passing that to look forward principally as anticipating pleasure or enjoyment is a very poor and unworthy thing. We weaken and lower every day, if we use our faculty of hope mainly to paint the future as a scene of delights and satisfactions. We spoil to-day by thinking how we can turn it to the account of pleasure. We spoil to-morrow before it comes, and hurt ourselves, if we are more engaged with fancying how it will minister to our joy, than how we can make it minister to our duty. It is base and foolish to be forecasting our pleasures; the true temper is to be forecasting our work.
But, leaving that consideration, let us notice how useless such anticipation, and how mad such confidence, as that expressed in the text is, if directed to anything short of God.
We are so constituted as that we grow into a persuasion that what has been will be, and yet we can give no sufficient reason to ourselves of why we expect it. ‘The uniformity of the course of nature is the corner-stone, not only of physical science, but, in a more homely form, of the wisdom which grows with experience, We all believe that the sun will rise to-morrow because it rose to-day, and on all the yesterdays. But there was a today which had no yesterday, and there will be a to-day which will have no to-morrow. The sun will rise for the last time. The uniformity had a beginning and will have an end.
So, even as an axiom of thought, the anticipation that things will continue as they have been because they have been, seems to rest on an insufficient basis. How much more so, as to our own little lives and their surroundings! There the only thing which we may be quite sure of about to-morrow is that it will not be ‘as this day.’ Even for those of us who may have reached, for example, the level plateau of middle life, where our position and tasks are pretty well fixed, and we have little more to expect than the monotonous repetition of the same duties recurring at the same hour every day-even for such each day has its own distinctive character. Like a flock of sheep they seem all alike, but each, on closer inspection, reveals a physiognomy of its own. There will be so many small changes that even the same duties or enjoyments will not be quite the same, and even if the outward things remained absolutely unaltered, we who meet them are not the same. Little variations in mood and tone, diminished zest here, weakened power there, other thoughts breaking in, and over and above all the slow, silent change wrought on us by growing years, make the perfect reproduction of any past impossible. So, however familiar may be the road which we have to traverse, however uneventfully the same our days may sometimes for long spaces in our lives seem to be, though to ourselves often our day’s work may appear as a mill-horse round, yet in deepest truth, if we take into account the whole sum of the minute changes in it and in us, it may be said of each step of our journey, ‘Ye have not passed this way heretofore.’
But, besides all this, we know that these breathing-times when ‘we have no changes,’ are but pauses in the storm, landing-places in the ascent, the interspaces between the shocks. However hope may tempt us to dream that the future is like the present, a deeper wisdom lies in all our souls which says ‘No.’ Drunken bravery may front that darkness with such words as these of our text, but the least serious spirit, in its most joyous moods, never quite succeeds in forgetting the solemn probabilities, possibilities, and certainties which lodge in the unknown future. So to a wise man it is ever a sobering exercise to look forward, and we shall be nearest the truth if we take due account, as we do today, of the undoubted fact that the only thing certain about to-morrow is that it will not be as this day.
There are the great changes which come to some one every day, which may come to any of us any day, which will come to all of us some day. Some of us will die this year; on a day in our new diaries some of us will make no entry, for we shall be gone. Some of us will be smitten down by illness; some of us will lose our dearest; some of us will lose fortune. Which of us it is to be, and where within these twelve months the blow is to fall, are mercifully hidden. The only thing that we certainly know is that these arrows will fly. The thing we do not know is whose heart they will pierce. This makes the gaze into the darkness grave and solemn. There is ever something of dread in Hope’s blue eyes.
True, the ministry of change is blessed and helpful; true, the darkness which hides the future is merciful and needful, if the present is not to be marred. But helpful and merciful as they are, they invest the unknown to-morrow with a solemn power which it is good, though sobering, for us to feel, and they silence on every lip but that of riot and foolhardy debauchery the presumptuous words, ‘To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’
II. But yet there is a possibility of so using the words as to make them the utterance of a sober certainty which will not be put to shame.
So long as our hope and anticipations creep along the low levels of earth, and are concerned with external and creatural good, their language can never rise beyond, ‘To-morrow may be as this day.’ Oftenest they reach only to the height of the wistful wish, ‘May it be as this day!’ But there is no need for our being tortured with such slippery possibilities. We may send out our hope like Noah’s dove, not to hover restlessly over a heaving ocean of change, but to light on firm, solid certainty, and fold its wearied wings there. Forecasting is ever close by foreboding. Hope is interwoven with fear, the golden threads of the weft crossing the dark ones of the warp, and the whole texture gleaming bright or glooming black according to the angle at which it is seen. So is it always until we turn our hope away from earth to God, and fill the future with the light of His presence and the certainty of His truth. Then the mists and doubts roll away; we get above the region of ‘perhaps’ into that of ‘surely’; the future is as certain as the past, hope as assured of its facts as memory, prophecy as veracious as history.
Looking forward, then, let us not occupy ourselves with visions which we know may or may not come true. Let us not feed ourselves with illusions which may make the reality, when it comes to shatter them, yet harder to bear. But let us make God in Christ our hope, and pass from peradventures to certitudes; from ‘To-morrow may he as this day-would that it might,’ to ‘It shall be, it shall be, for God is my expectation and my hope.’ We have an unchanging and an inexhaustible God, and He is the true guarantee of the future for us. The more we accustom ourselves to think of Him as shaping all that is contingent and changeful in the nearest and in the remotest to-morrow, and as being Himself the immutable portion of our souls, the calmer will be our outlook into the darkness, and the more bright will be the clear light of certainty which burns for us in it.
To-day’s wealth may be to-morrow’s poverty, to-day’s health to-morrow’s sickness, to-day’s happy companionship of love to-morrow’s aching solitude of heart, but to-day’s God will be to-morrow’s God, to-day’s Christ will be to-morrow’s Christ. Other fountains may dry up in heat or freeze in winter, but this knows no change, ‘in summer and winter it shall be.’ Other fountains may sink low in their basins after much drawing, but this is ever full, and after a thousand generations have drawn from it, its stream is broad and deep as ever. Other springs may be left behind on the march, and the wells and palm-trees of each Elim on our road may be succeeded by a dry and thirsty land where no water is, but this spring follows us all through the wilderness, and makes music and spreads freshness ever by our path. We can forecast nothing beside; we can be sure of this, that God will be with us in all the days that lie before us. What may be round the next headland we know not; but this we know, that the same sunshine will make a broadening path across the waters right to where we rock on the unknown sea, and the same unmoving mighty star will burn for our guidance. So we may let the waves and currents roll as they list-or rather as He wills, and be little concerned about the incidents or the companions of our voyage, since He is with us. We can front the unknown to-morrow, even when we most keenly feel how solemn and sad are the things it may bring.
‘It can bring with it nothing
But He will bear us through.’
If only our hearts be fixed on God and we are feeding our minds and wills on Him, His truth and His will, then we may be quite certain that, whatever goes, our truest riches will abide, and whoever leaves our little company of loved ones, our best Friend will not go away. Therefore, lifting our hopes beyond the low levels of earth, and making our anticipations of the future the reflection of the brightness of God thrown on that else blank curtain, we may turn into the worthy utterance of sober and saintly faith, the folly of the riotous sensualist when he said, ‘To-morrow shall be as this day.’
The past is the mirror of the future for the Christian; we look back on all the great deeds of old by which God has redeemed and helped souls that cried to Him, and we find in them the eternal laws of His working. They are all true for to-day as they were at first; they remain true forever. The whole history of the past belongs to us, and avails for our present and for our future. ‘As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of our God.’
To-day’s experience runs on the same lines as the stories of the ‘years of old,’ which are ‘the years of the right hand of the Most High.’ Experience is ever the parent of hope, and the latter can only build with the bricks which the former gives. So the Christian has to lay hold on all that God’s mercy has done in the ages that are gone by, and because He is a ‘faithful Creator’ to transmute history into prophecy, and triumph in that ‘the God of Jacob is our refuge.’
Nor only does the record of what He has been to others come in to bring material for our forecast of the future, but also the remembrance of what He has been to ourselves. Has He been with us in six troubles? We may be sure He will not abandon us at the seventh. He is not in the way of beginning to build and leaving His work unfinished. Remember what He has been to you, and rejoice that there has been one thing in your lives which, you may be sure, will always be there. Feed your certain hopes for to-morrow on thankful remembrances of many a yesterday. ‘Forget not the works of God,’ that you may ‘set your hopes on God.’ Let our anticipations base themselves on memory, and utter themselves in the prayer, ‘Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.’ Then the assurance that He whom we know to be good and wise and strong will shape the future, and Himself be the Future for us, will take all the fear out of that forward gaze, will condense our light and unsubstantial hopes into solid realities, and set before us an endless line of days, in each of which we may gain more of Him whose face has brightened the past and will brighten the future, till days shall end and time open into eternity.
III. Looked at in another aspect, these words may be taken as the vow of a firm and lowly resolve.
There is a future which we can but very slightly influence, and the less we look at that the better every way. But there is also a future which we can mould as we wish-the future of our own characters, the only future which is really ours at all-and the more clearly we set it before ourselves and make up our minds as to whither we wish it to be tending, the better. In that region, it is eminently true that ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’ The law of continuity shapes our moral and spiritual characters. What I am to-day, I shall increasingly be to-morrow. The awful power of habit solidifies actions into customs, and prolongs the reverberation of every note once sounded, along the vaulted roof of the chamber where we live. To-day is the child of yesterday and the parent of to-morrow.
That solemn certainty of the continuance and increase of moral and spiritual characteristics works in both good and bad, but with a difference. To secure its full blessing in the gradual development of the germs of good, there must be constant effort and tenacious resolution. So many foes beset the springing of the good seed in our hearts-what with the flying flocks of light-winged fugitive thoughts ever ready to swoop down as soon as the sower’s back is turned and snatch it away, what with the hardness of the rock which the roots soon encounter, what with the thick-sown and quick-springing thorns-that if we trust to the natural laws of growth and neglect careful husbandry, we may sow much but we shall gather little. But to inherit the full consequences of that same law working in the growth and development of the evil in us, nothing is needed but carelessness.
Leave it alone for a year or two and the ‘fruitful field will be a forest,’ a jungle of matted weeds, with a straggling blossom where cultivation had once been.
But if humbly we resolve and earnestly toil, looking for His help, we may venture to hope that our characters will grow in goodness and in likeness to our dear Lord, that we shall not cast away our confidence nor make shipwreck of our faith, that each new day shall find in us a deeper love, a perfecter consecration, a more joyful service, and that so, in all the beauties of the Christian soul and in all the blessings of the Christian life, ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’ ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ ‘The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more until the noontide of the day.’
So we may look forward undismayed, and while we recognise the darkness that wraps to-morrow in regard to all mundane affairs, may feed our fortitude and fasten our confidence on the double certainties that we shall have God and more of God for our treasure, that we shall have likeness to Him and more of likeness in our characters. Fleeting moments may come and go. The uncertain days may exercise their various ministry of giving and taking away, but whether they plant or root up our earthly props, whether they build or destroy our earthly houses, they will increase our riches in the heavens, and give us fuller possession of deeper draughts from the inexhaustible fountain of living waters.
How dreadfully that same law of the continuity and development of character works in some men there is no need now to dwell upon. By slow, imperceptible, certain degrees the evil gains upon them. Yesterday’s sin smooths the path for to-day’s. The temptation once yielded to gains power. The crack in the embankment which lets a drop or two ooze through is soon a great hole which lets in a flood. It is easier to find a man who has never done a wrong thing than to find a man who has done it only once. Peter denied his Lord thrice, and each time more easily than the previous time. So, before we know it, the thin gossamer threads of single actions are twisted into a rope of habit, and we are ‘tied with the cords of our sins.’ Let no man say, ‘Just for once I may venture on evil; so far I will go and no farther.’ Nay, ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’
How important, then, the smallest acts become when we think of them as thus influencing character! The microscopic creatures, thousands of which will go into a square inch, make the great white cliffs that beetle over the wildest sea and front the storm. So, permanent and solid character is built up out of trivial actions, and this is the solemn aspect of our passing days, that they are making us.
We might well tremble before such a thought, which would be dreadful to the best of us, if it were not for pardoning mercy and renewing grace. The law of reaping what we have sown, or of continuing as we have begun, may be modified as far as our sins and failures are concerned. The entail may be cut off, and to-morrow need not inherit to-day’s guilt, nor to-day’s habits. The past may be all blotted out through the mercy of God in Christ. No debt need be carried forward to another page of the book of our lives, for Christ has given Himself for us, and He speaks to us all-’Thy sins be forgiven thee.’ No evil habit need continue its dominion over us, nor are we obliged to carry on the bad tradition of wrongdoing into a future day, for Christ lives, and ‘if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, all things are become new.’
So then, brethren, let us humbly take the confidence which these words may be used to express, and as we stand on the threshold of a new year and wait for the curtain to be drawn, let us print deep on our hearts the uncertainty of our hold of all things here, nor seek to build nor anchor on these, but lift our thoughts to Him, who will bless the future as He has blessed the past, and will even enlarge the gifts of His love and the help of His right hand. Let us hope for ourselves not the continuance or increase of outward good, but the growth of our souls in all things lovely and of good report, the daily advance in the love and likeness of our Lord.
So each day, each succeeding wave of the ocean of time shall cast up treasures for us as it breaks at our feet. As we grow in years, we shall grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, until the day comes when we shall exchange earth for heaven. That will be the sublimest application of this text, when, dying, we can calmly be sure that though to-day be on this side and to-morrow on the other bank of the black river, there will be no break in the continuity, but only an infinite growth in our life, and heaven’s to-morrow shall be as earth’s to-day, and much more abundant.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v11 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues describing the evil leaders of his people.
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The dogs have big appetites
Yahweh continues comparing Israel's bad leaders to dogs. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
shepherd
discern
turn
wine
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 vv10–11 56:10 The leaders of Israel failed to guide and…
56:10 The leaders of Israel failed to guide and protect God’s people from the sins that led to the Exile. • sleeping and dreaming: See 29:10.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.