Bible Commentaries
JFB Critical & Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Isaiah 32
Isaiah 32:1-20. Messiah‘s kingdom; Desolations, to be succeeded by lasting peace, the Spirit having been poured out.
The times of purity and happiness which shall follow the defeat of the enemies of Jehovah‘s people (Isaiah 32:1-8). The period of wrath before that happy state (Isaiah 32:9-14). The assurance of the final prosperity of the Church is repeated (Isaiah 32:15-20).
king — not Hezekiah, who was already on the throne, whereas a future time is contemplated. If he be meant at all, it can only be as a type of Messiah the King, to whom alone the language is fully applicable (Hosea 3:5; Zechariah 9:9; see on Isaiah 11:3-5). The kingdom shall be transferred from the world kings, who have exercised their power against God, instead of for God, to the rightful King of kings (Ezekiel 21:27; Daniel 7:13, Daniel 7:14).
princes — subordinate; referring to all in authority under Christ in the coming kingdom on earth, for example, the apostles, etc. (Luke 22:30; 1 Corinthians 6:2; 2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 2:26, Revelation 2:27; Revelation 3:21).
a man — rather, the man Christ [Lowth]; it is as “the Son of man” He is to reign, as it was as Son of man He suffered (Matthew 26:64; John 5:27; John 19:5). Not as Maurer explains, “every one of the princes shall be,” etc.
rivers — as refreshing as water and the cool shade are to the heated traveler (Isaiah 35:6, Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 41:18).
them that see — the seers or prophets.
them that hear — the people under instruction (Isaiah 35:5, Isaiah 35:6).
rash — rather, “the hasty”; contrast “shall not make haste” (Isaiah 28:16); the reckless who will not take time to weigh religious truth aright. Or else, the well-instructed [Horsley].
stammers — those who speak confusedly on divine things (compare Exodus 4:10-12; Jeremiah 1:6; Matthew 10:19, Matthew 10:20). Or, rather, those drunken scorners who in stammering style imitated Isaiah‘s warnings to mock them [Maurer] (Isaiah 28:7-11, Isaiah 28:13, Isaiah 28:14, Isaiah 28:22; Isaiah 29:20); in this view, translate, “speak uprightly” (agreeably to the divine law); not as English Version, referring to the distinctness of articulation, “plainly.”
vile — rather, “fool” [Lowth]; that is, ungodly (Psalm 14:1; Psalm 74:18).
liberal — rather, “noble-minded.”
churl — rather, “fraudulent” [Gesenius].
bountiful — religiously. The atheistic churl, who envies the believer his hope “full of immortality,” shall no longer be held as a patriot struggling for the emancipation of mankind from superstition [Horsley].
villainy — rather, “the (irreligious) fool … (his) folly.”
will speak — rather, “present”; for (so far is the “fool” from deserving the epithet “noble-minded”) the fool “speaketh” folly and “worketh,” etc.
hypocrisy — rather, “profligacy” [Horsley].
error — impiety, perverse arguments.
hungry — spiritually (Matthew 5:6).
churl — “the fraudulent”; this verse refers to the last clause of Isaiah 32:5; as Isaiah 32:6 referred to its first clause.
speaketh right — pleadeth a just cause (Isaiah 29:21); spiritually, “the poor man‘s cause” is the divine doctrine, his rule of faith and practice.
liberal — rather, “noble-minded.”
stand — shall be approved under the government of the righteous King.
Address to the women of Jerusalem who troubled themselves little about the political signs of the times, but lived a life of self-indulgence (Isaiah 3:16-23); the failure of food through the devastations of the enemy is here foretold, being what was most likely to affect them as mothers of families, heretofore accustomed to every luxury. Vitringa understands “women - daughters” as the cities and villages of Judea (Ezekiel 16:1-63). See Amos 6:1.
Many days and years — rather, “In little more than a year” [Maurer]; literally, “days upon a year” (so Isaiah 29:1).
vintage shall fail — through the arrival of the Assyrian invader. As the wheat harvest is omitted, Isaiah must look for the invasion in the summer or autumn of 714 b.c., when the wheat would have been secured already, and the later fruit “gathering,” and vintage would be still in danger.
teats — rather, shall smite on their breasts in lamentation “for thy pleasant fields” (Nahum 2:7) [Maurer]. “Teats” in English Version is used for fertile lands, which, like breasts, nourish life. The transition from “ye” to “they” (Isaiah 32:11, Isaiah 32:12) is frequent.
(Isaiah 5:6; Isaiah 7:23).
houses of joy — pleasure-houses outside of Jerusalem, not Jerusalem itself, but other cities destroyed by Sennacherib in his march (Isaiah 7:20-25). However, the prophecy, in its full accomplishment, refers to the utter desolation of Judea and its capital by Rome, and subsequently, previous to the second coming of the King (Psalm 118:26; Luke 13:35; Luke 19:38); “the joyous city” is in this view, Jerusalem (Isaiah 22:2).
palaces — most applicable to Jerusalem (see on Isaiah 32:13).
multitude … left — the noisy din of the city, that is, the city with its noisy multitude shall lie forsaken [Maurer].
forts — rather, “Ophel” (that is, the mound), the term applied specially to the declivity on the east of Zion, surrounded with its own wall (2 Chronicles 27:3; 2 Chronicles 33:14; 2 Kings 5:24), and furnished with “towers” (or watchtowers), perhaps referred to here (Nehemiah 3:26, Nehemiah 3:27).
for ever — limited by thee, “until,” etc., Isaiah 32:15, for a long time.
This can only partially apply to the spiritual revival in Hezekiah‘s time; its full accomplishment belongs to the Christian dispensation, first at Pentecost (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17), perfectly in coming times (Psalm 104:30; Ezekiel 36:26; Ezekiel 39:29; Zechariah 12:10), when the Spirit shall be poured on Israel, and through it on the Gentiles (Micah 5:7).
wilderness … fruitful field … forest — when Judea, so long waste, shall be populous and fruitful, and the land of the enemies of God shall be desolate. Or, “the field, now fruitful, shall be but as a barren forest in comparison with what it shall be then” (Isaiah 29:17). The barren shall become fruitful by regeneration; those already regenerate shall bring forth fruits in such abundance that their former life shall seem but as a wilderness where no fruits were.
judgment — justice.
wilderness — then reclaimed.
fruitful field — then become more fruitful (Isaiah 32:15); thus “wilderness” and “fruitful field” include the whole land of Judea.
Literally, “But it shall hail with coming down of the forest, and in lowness shall the city (Nineveh) be brought low; that is, humbled.” The “hail” is Jehovah‘s wrathful visitation (Isaiah 30:30; Isaiah 28:2, Isaiah 28:17). The “forest” is the Assyrian host, dense as the trees of a forest (Isaiah 10:18, Isaiah 10:19, Isaiah 10:33, Isaiah 10:34; Zechariah 11:2).
While the enemy shall be brought “low,” the Jews shall cultivate their land in undisturbed prosperity.
all waters — well-watered places (Isaiah 30:25). The Hebrew translation, “beside,” ought rather to be translated, “upon” (Ecclesiastes 11:1), where the meaning is, “Cast thy seed upon the waters when the river overflows its banks; the seed will sink into the mud and will spring up when the waters subside, and you will find it after many days in a rich harvest.” Before sowing, they send oxen, etc., into the water to tread the ground for sowing. Castalio thinks there is an allusion to the Mosaic precept, not to plough with an ox and ass together, mystically implying that the Jew was to have no intercourse with Gentiles; the Gospel abolishes this distinction (Colossians 3:11); thus the sense here is, Blessed are ye that sow the gospel seed without distinction of race in the teachers or the taught. But there is no need of supposing that the ox and ass here are yoked together; they are probably “sent forth” separately, as in Isaiah 30:24.
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