Bible Commentaries

b. THE BAD FRUITS AND THEIR EFFECTS MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED IN A SIXFOLD WOE–AT THE SAME TIME A TWOFOLD CONCLUSIONS OF THE WHOLE DISCOURSE

Isaiah 5:8-30

8 Woe unto them that join house to house,

That lay field to field,

Till there be no place,

That¹¹ they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

9 ¹² In mine ears said the Lord of hosts,

¹³ Of a truth many houses shall be desolate,

Even great and fair, without inhabitant.

10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,

And the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink;

That continue until night, till wine¹⁴ inflame them!

12 ¹⁵ And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe,

¹⁶ And wine, are in their feasts:

But they regard not the work of the Lord,

Neither consider the operation of his hands.

13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity,¹⁷ because they have no knowledge:

And¹⁸ their honorable men are¹⁹ famished,

And their multitude dried up with thirst.

14 Therefore hell hath enlarged ²⁰herself,

And opened her mouth without measure:

And their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp,

And he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

15 And ²¹the mean man shall be brought down,

Andf the mighty man shall be humbled,

And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,

And^{22 23}God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

17 Then shall the lambs feed ²⁴after their manner,

And the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity,

And sin as it were with a cart rope:

19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work,

That we may see it:

And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come,

That we may know it.

20 Woe unto them ²⁵that call evil good, and good evil;

That put darkness for light, and light for darkness:

21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,

And prudent ²⁶in their own sight!

22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine,

And men of strength to mingle strong drink:

23 Which justify the wicked for reward,

And take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

24 Therefore as ²⁷the fire devoureth the stubble,

And the flame consumeth the ²⁸chaff,

So their root shall be as rottenness,

Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts,

And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people,

And he hath stretched forth his hand against them,

And hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble,

And their carcasses were^{29 30}torn in the midst of the streets.

But his hand is stretched out still,

26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far,

And will hiss unto them from the end of the earth:

And, behold, ³¹they shall come with speed swiftly:

27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them;

None shall slumber nor sleep;

Neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed,

Nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

28 Whose arrows are sharp,

Their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint,

And their wheels like a whirlwind:

29 Their roaring shall be like a³² lion,

They shall ³³roar like young lions:

Yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey,

And shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

30 And in that day ³⁴they shall roar against m them like the roaring of the sea:

And if one look unto the land, behold darkness and ³⁵sorrow,

³⁶ And the light is darkened³⁷ in the heavens thereof.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 5:8. נָגַע is often construed with בְּ: Genesis 26:11; 32:33; Leviticus 11:36; 1 Kings 19:5; 1 Kings 19:7, etc. Comp. especially Hosea 4:2. Hiphil הִגִּיעַ occurs beside only Isaiah 6:7; Isaiah 8:8; Isaiah 25:12; Isaiah 26:5; Isaiah 30:4. קָרַב is generally not construed with בְּ. But when Drechsler says that this construction never occurs, it is asserting too much. For Psalm 91:10 it is said “No plague יִקְרַב בְּאָ‍ֽהֳלֶךָ.” Comp. Judges 19:13. In our passage the construction of the first clause has doubtless influenced that of the second. Hiph. הִקְרִיב only again Isaiah 26:17.——אֶפֶם (defectus, non-existent) occurs oftener in the second part than in the first: Isaiah 40:17; Isaiah 41:12; Isaiah 41:29; Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 44:14; Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 46:9, Isaiah 52:4; Isaiah 52:10; Isaiah 54:15. In the first part it occurs again only Isaiah 34:12.——The Hophal הוּשַׁבְתֶּם ( Isaiah 44:26) indicates that their dwelling alone in the land was not a natural thing, but something contrived. Compare complaints of like import Isaiah 3:14 sq.; Micah 2:2; Micah 3:2, sq.

Isaiah 5:9. In mine ears, etc. In Isaiah 22:14 an address of Jehovah begins with the words “and it was revealed in mine ears.” etc. In our passage וְנִגְלָה “and, it was revealed” is omitted. It does not follow from this that this or some similar word has fallen out of the text. For the Prophet may very well have had in thought the bare notion of existence as predicate of his sentence; “In mine ears is Jehovah Sabaoth.” It must not however be construed in a pregnant sense: Jehovah keeps ever saying to me (liegt mir in den Ohren). For there is not a thought of any resistance on the part of the Prophet that had provoked a persistence on the Lord’s side. Neither may the expression mean: Jehovah whispers in my ear; as if the secrecy of the address were meant by it; for there exists no reason for such secrecy. But the Prophet will only say, that what follows he has clearly heard by the inward ear as the word of Jehovah. There lies thus in the expression a distinguishing of actual from merely imaginary hearing. Comp. Psalm 44:2; Job 28:22; Job 33:8.

The pointing of the word באזני as a pausel from appears to have for its object to separate it from what follows and to signify thereby that in this word alone is contained the predicate of the sentence.—לשׁמה again Isaiah 13:9, comp. Deuteronomy 28:37; Micah 6:16.—מאין יושׁב comp. Isaiah 6:11; Jeremiah 2:15; Jeremiah 4:7, etc.; Zephaniah 2:5; Zephaniah 3:6.

Isaiah 5:11. A likeness of structure is to be noticed in the two halves of the verse. The verb. fin. in the phrase שֵׁכָר יִרְדּפוּ relates to the foregoing participle, not simply like יַקְרִיבוּ Isaiah 5:8, as the dominant form, but at the same time as assigning thepurpose; and so is it too with יַדְלִיקֵם—The Pi. of אָחֵר again in Isaiah 46:13. נֶשֶׁף from נָשַׁף to breathe, to blow, the time of day when cooler air stirs, the morning and evening twilight: comp. Isaiah 21:4; Isaiah 59:10. The verb דָּלַק (comp. Ezekiel 24:10) is found only here in Isaiah.

Isaiah 5:12. If משׁתיהם (sing. comp. Gesenius, § 93, 9) were subject, it must follow וְהָיָה, for this position is constantly maintained, after a verb with Vav consec. But if it were predicate, it would say nothing; for what else would music and wine be but a feast. For that והיה would be superfluous. We construe הָיָה therefore, not as mere copula, but in the sense of being on hand; and there is on hand.——The combination of מעשׂה with יד in a manfold sense is quite current with Isaiah 2:8; Isaiah 17:8; Isaiah 19:25; Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 37:19; Isaiah 60:21; Isaiah 64:7; Isaiah 65:22.

Isaiah 5:13. גָלָה in the sense of “making bare, i.e., clearing out the land” occurs in Isaiah only again Isaiah 24:11, which passage generally resembles this one.—מְתֵי רָעָב has without reason been discredited, and instead some would read מְזֵי רעב according to Deuteronomy 32:24, for מְתִים is wont to be used in a contemptuous sense, comp. Isaiah 3:25.—צִחֶה (comp. Green’s Gram. § 187,1 b.) is adjectivum ad f. אִלֵּם,נִבֵּן,עִוֵּרִ etc., and only occurs here.

Isaiah 5:14. פָּעַר aperire, that always stands with פֶּה ( Job 16:10; Job 29:23; Psalm 119:131) occurs in Isaiah only here. The same with לִבְלִי (comp. Job 38:41; Job 41:25). חֹק again only Isaiah 24:5 .——The suffixes of the nouns are to be referred to the notion “Jerusalem,” although immediately before Isaiah 5:13, the masculine עַם is used. But it is plain that the Prophet in Isaiah 5:14 b., aims at a mimicry of sound. For this purpose he employs the clear a sound as often as possible. Delitzsch calls attention to the omission to draw the tone back on the penult of the word ועלז, “so that one may hear the object that is falling down as it rolls and at last strikes bottom.” הָדָר comp. Isaiah 2:10; Isaiah 2:19; Isaiah 2:21; Isaiah 35:2; Isaiah 53:2.

Isaiah 5:15. The aorists ויגבה,וישׁפל,וישׁח are to be construed as Prœterita prophetica. Also תשׁפלנה, with the Vav preceding and separate, is, as Drechsler has remarked = וַתִּשְׁפַלְנָה.

Isaiah 5:17. רָעוּ is to be taken absolutely, without object. What is understood suggests itself from what precedes. The pronoun of the third person is, as object of the phrase, very often omitted; Genesis 2:19; Genesis 3:21; Genesis 6:19-21, etc. It is not necessary, with Gesenius to take כדברם for כִּבְדָבְרָם: for רָעָה very often stands with the accusative of the place that is pastured: Isaiah 30:23; Micah 7:14; Jeremiah 6:3; Jeremiah 1:19, etc. As their pasture shall the sheep graze over the ruins of Jerusalem, in so far as the inhabited city becomes a sheep walk. When Delitzsch thinks that no accusative object is to be supplied to רעו, but that the determination of the locality results from the context, it is seen that still there is a supplying of the object. One may as well supply the definite locality as object according to frequent usus loquendi, as imagine it from the context. The sense, in any case remains the same.—כֶּבֶשׂ found again only Isaiah 1:11; Isaiah 11:6, מִדְבָּר = דּבֶר the place whither flocks are driven, found again only Micah 2:12. מֵחִים found beside only Psalm 65:6, 15. גָּרִים are not גֵּרִים the strangers that are constant dwellers in the land, but as participle from גוּר, those en passant. The LXX translate ἄρνες. They may have read perhaps גדים(גְּדָיִם). This word, moreover, Schleussner, Hitzig, Ewald and others would restore. But we have shown above that an emphasis rests on the idea of a transitory stopping. גָּר in Isaiah again Isaiah 11:6; Isaiah 54:15. The plural חרבות occurs only here in the first part of Isaiah; but six times in the second part: Isaiah 44:26; Isaiah 49:19; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 52:9; Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:4. The singular is found only Isaiah 64:10.

Isaiah 5:18. I take משׁך in its usual meaning in which it often occurs with the accusative (in Isaiah again only Isaiah 66:19, coll. Isaiah 13:22; Isaiah 18:2). חבלי חשׁוא are ropes of lies, for what binds them to sin, is the illusion that sin makes one happy. Hence every sin is a fraud ( Hebrews 3:13). The expression further calls to mind Jonah 2:9; Psalm 31:7; and also חַבְלֵי חַטָּאָה Proverbs 5:22, and חַבְלֵי אָדָם Hosea 11:4. Regarding the use of שָׁוְא in is, comp. Isaiah 1:13 (מנחת־שׁ׳). Isaiah 30:28 (נָפַת שׁ׳), Isaiah 59:4, (דַּבֶּר־שׁ׳). The word occurs only in these places in Isaiah. In כעבות the prefix בְּ is wanting according to the familiar rule; comp. Gesenius. § 118, Rem. עֲבוֹת (from עָבַת to twist, the twisting, twisted work, rope) Isaiah uses only here. Comp. Hosea 11:4. עֲגָלָה, “a freight wagon.” found too Isaiah 28:27-28.

Isaiah 5:19. מהר and יחישׁ may be taken transitively and intransitively. I decide for the latter construction, 1) because מהר is used by Isaiah only intransitively ( Isaiah 32:4; Isaiah 49:17; Isaiah 51:14; Isaiah 59:7), יחישׁ, that occurs twice beside here ( Isaiah 28:16; Isaiah 60:22), is one of these times ( Isaiah 28:16) used intransitively; 2) because in the parallel phrase ותקרב וגו׳ not Jehovah but עצת ק׳ is subject. The sense is any way in both instances the same. The forms יָחִישָׁה and תָּבֹאָה belong to the few instances of the voluntative ה appended to the third person, (comp. Psalm 20:4, and the more doubtful cases Leviticus 21:5; Deuteronomy 33:16; Job 11:17; Job 22:21; Ezekiel 23:20; Olshausen, § 228 b. Anm. [Green, § 97, 7). Let it be noticed moreover that this He so stands in two pairs of verbs, that each time it is only appended to the last word. It seems that each time it should avail as well for the first word. Comp. Isaiah 1:24 b.—עֵצָה is a current word with Isaiah that occurs thirteen times in the first part and five times in the second. On “the Holy One of Israel” see Isaiah 1:4.

Isaiah 5:20. שׂוּם with לְ following in the sense “to make into something;” Isaiah 13:9; Isaiah 23:13; Isaiah 25:2; Isaiah 41:15; Isaiah 42:15; Isaiah 49:11, etc.

Isaiah 5:21. On נגד פניהם comp. Hosea 7:2; Lamentations 3:35; the expression does not again occur in Isaiah. נבון part. Isaiah 3:3; Isaiah 29:14.

Isaiah 5:22. מסך in Isaiah again Isaiah 19:14. מֶסֶךְ – מִמְסָךְ Isaiah 65:11. Hiph. הִצְדִּיק found again Isaiah 50:8; Isaiah 53:11. עֵקְב. only here. שֹׁחַד again Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 33:15; Isaiah 45:13. Hiph. הֵסִיר frequent in the first part ( Isaiah 1:16; Isaiah 1:25; Isaiah 3:1; Isaiah 3:18; Isaiah 5:5; Isaiah 5:23; Isaiah 10:13, etc), in the second part only in Isaiah 58:9. The singular suffix in ממנו must be construed distributively. The righteousness of the righteous they let disappear from him, i.e., from the righteous man in question. Comp, at Isaiah 2:8 and Isaiah 1:23.

Isaiah 5:24. As regards the construction; כאכל is a predicate infinitive dependent on a preposition, which is followed immediately, not as usually by the subject, but by the object, because the order כאכל לשון אֵשׁ קַשׁ offends against euphony; also in Isaiah 20:1, the object precedes, because it is a pronoun (אֹתוֹ). Commentators call attention to the multiplication of sibilants in the sentence. “One hears the crackling sparks, the sputtering flames” says Delitzsch. חֲשַׁשׁ occurs only once again in the Old Testament, Isaiah 33:11.—רָפָה is “to become lax, withered, weary, fall away” (especially of the hands Isaiah 13:7). לֶהָבָה is accus. loci.——The suffixes in שׁרשׁם and פרחם refer back to those whom the preceding four woes concern. To these then their punishment is announced. מַק only occurs again Isaiah 3:24. פֶּרַח (only Isaiah 18:5 again) is the blossom. אָבָק dust, only occurs again Isaiah 29:5.—The second clause of the verse calls to mind Isaiah 1:4. They were therefore the opposite of “the branch of Jehovah” Isaiah 4:2, and much rather comparable to the bad grape-vine, Isaiah 5:1 sqq. אִמְרָה occurs again Isaiah 28:23; Isaiah 29:4; Isaiah 32:9.

Isaiah 5:25. The expression חָרָה אַף does not occur again in is, and, excepting the part, Niph. Isaiah 41:11; Isaiah 45:24, no other form of the verb חרה occurs in Isaiah. Our expression, however, calls to mind, Numbers 11:33, “And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His. people, and the Loan smote the people,” as all those numerous places in the Pentateuch, especially Num. where the expression וַיִּחַרּ אַף י׳ “and the anger of the Lord kindled,” etc., occurs ( Exodus 4:14; Numbers 11:1; Numbers 11:10; Numbers 12:9, etc.)—ויט ידו is also a reminiscence of the Pentateuch from Exodus 8:2; Exodus 8:13; Exodus 10:22; Exodus 14:21; Exodus 14:27, where the expression is used of Aaron and Moses as they stretched out the hand to the performance of their miracles. In is, this expression is repeated in the same manner in Isaiah 23:11; Isaiah 31:3, coll. Isaiah 14:26-27.——רָגַז (Kal, in Isaiah 14:9; Isaiah 32:10-11; Isaiah 28:21; Isaiah 64:1), used of the trembling of the earth ( Joel 2:10) or of the foundation of the mountains ( Psalm 18:8, coll. 2 Samuel 22:8). The expression that the carcass (נְבֵלָה occurs Isaiah 26:19) shall be as the sweepings (סוּחָה from סָחָה Ezekiel 26:4, everrere, detergere = סְחִי Lamentations 3:45, “leavings, sweepings out;” α̈π.λεγ..), occurs only here. Elsewhere it is, that the נבלה shall be as dung in the field ( Jeremiah 9:21), shall be cast as a prey ( Deuteronomy 28:26; Jeremiah 7:33; Jeremiah 16:4; Jeremiah 19:7, etc.), to the wild beasts. The reading חֻצּוֹח (the London Polyglot has חוּצוֹת) is both etymologically incorrect, and also in conflict with every other place in which the word occurs in Isaiah ( Isaiah 10:6; Isaiah 15:3; Isaiah 24:11; Isaiah 51:20.

Isaiah 5:26. מֵרָחוֹק does not belong to נָשָּׂא, but it has become an adjective conception and takes the place of an adjective, as may be seen from passages like Jeremiah 23:23; Jeremiah 31:10. The same is true of מִמֶּרְחָק that has the same meaning. The former word occurs in Isaiah twelve times; five times in the first and seven times in the second part ( Isaiah 22:3; Isaiah 22:11; Isaiah 23:7; Isaiah 25:1; Isaiah 43:6; Isaiah 49:1; Isaiah 49:12; Isaiah 57:9; Isaiah 59:14; Isaiah 60:4; Isaiah 60:9). נֵס a signal set up on a high point; Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 13:2; Isaiah 18:3; Isaiah 33:23; Isaiah 62:10. Only in the last named passage does the verb הֵרִים occur. שָׁרַק “to hiss, whistle,” is taken from the practice of bee keepers, as may be seen in Isaiah 7:18, where the same figure recurs. מקצה recurs Isaiah 13:5; Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 43:6, thus equally in both parts. In each place, Isaiah 13:5 excepted, הארץ follows it. מְהֵרָה properly substantive—celeritas: recurs Isaiah 58:8; combined with קַל according to Joel 4:4. קַל recurs, in Isaiah 19:1; Isaiah 30:16; Isaiah 18:2. On the change of number in לֹו, comp, at Isaiah 5:23. The singular here apparently indicates that though the signal is given at various times and to different nations, still always, it shall be only one at a time, that they shall be summoned.

Isaiah 5:27. Drechsler justly calls attention to the perfect equilibrium in the structure of this Isaiah 5:27; in the first hemistich two clauses, each with two members of like arrangement; in the second hemistich two clauses, each with one member, the corresponding words in which rhyme together: שֹׁרוך–אזור,נתק–כּתח עָיֵף .נעליו–חלציו recurs in Isaiah 28:12; Isaiah 29:8; Isaiah 32:2; Isaiah 46:1. On כָּשַׁל see at Isaiah 3:8. The Participle ( Jeremiah 46:16; Psalm 105:37; 2 Chronicles 28:15), occurs only here in Isaiah. נוּם recurs only Isaiah 56:10, יָשֵׁן only here in Isaiah. Niph. נפתח Isaiah 24:18; Isaiah 35:5; Isaiah 51:14.

Isaiah 5:28. צַר in the sense of “stone, flint” occurs only here and Isaiah 5:30, if this interpretation is allowable in the second case; it has then the same meaning as צֹר Ezekiel 3:9; Exodus 4:25; ???? Exodus 2:10; Exodus 8:14, etc. Niph. נחשׁב like Isaiah 2:22; Isaiah 29:16-17; Isaiah 40:15.

Isaiah 5:29. לָבִיא (again in Isaiah 30:6) is by most held to mean lioness. Comp. Gesenius, Thes. p738 … On the construction of כַּלָּבִיא see at Isaiah 5:18.—ושׁאג is according to K’thibh וְשָׁאַג, according to K’ri יִשְׁאַג. The reading of K’ri is the correct one, for there is no reason for the perfect with the Vav consec., whereas the imperfect stands here, according to rule, to describe permanent qualities.—נָהַם only here in is, see Proverbs 28:15; Proverbs 19:12; Proverbs 20:2). Of פָלַט the form found here is the only one used by is, and that only here. The formula ואיז מציל occurs again Isaiah 42:22, and Isaiah 43:13, in which latter place it sounds the same as the original passage Deuteronomy 32:39.

Isaiah 5:30. The subject of ינהם, “he shall roar,” is the same that it has in the preceding verse. But we translate “it roars dull,” only to give prominence to the collective more than to the individual as indicated in כנהמת־ים “as the roaring of the sea.” The suffix, in עָלָיו can refer only to the one seized, i.e., Judah.—נהמה occurs only again Psalm 38:9.—Drechsler, has justly called attention “to the sound painting produced by accumulating the buzzing and rumbling sound of m, and n, too,” in the first hemistich of this verse. Both sounds are in יִנְהֹם; to this word כַּיּוֹם rhymes; in כְּנַֽהֲמַת־יָם we find m. and n. again, and the syllable am twice.—To this hemistich, which I may say has itself a low rumble, the second is opposed, which portrays the conquered by its many, i. e, and a sounds, thus by thinner sounds, that in a measure paint weakness.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The meaning of this section is twofold. First of all it contains a specification of the sour grapes, and a corresponding announcement of punishment. In this matter the Prophet begins with a certain selection. For he does not censure all sins, but only the sins of the eminent, and eminent sins. Thus six evil fruits are enumerated, and what the Prophet has to say with reference to each begins with a woe. But a detailed announcement of punishment follows on each of the first two woes only, after the description of the sinful condition with which they are concerned. For the following woes there follows an announcement of punishment common to all from Isaiah 5:24 on. This difference observed by the Prophet in regard to the order of his topics is connected with the second meaning of the passage: that is to say it contains at the same time the twofold conclusion of the second portal, i.e. of the whole discourse from chap2–5. For the announcement of punishment after the second woe, which is in proportion long extended through five verses ( Isaiah 5:13-17), manifestly contains a relative ending: the wicked city sinks into the lower world, and the grass grows over its grave. These are manifestly, I may say, final chords. But in as much as the Prophet, Isaiah 5:15-16, reiterates verbatim the fundamental thought of his first illumination of the present, he gives us to understand that he would have this first (relative) conclusion refer to the first half of his discourse (chap2,3). And as he handles the following twice-two woes differently from the first two, he intimates that they have another purpose. They are not interrupted in their sequence by announcements of punishment coming between, but these follow after as common to all, Precisely by this concentration the Prophet gains a highly effective conclusion of the whole discourse, but which at the same time undeniably refers to the second lamp (chap4,5), just as we have seen that the first (relative) conclusion refers to the first lamp. One recognizes this from the comparison of Isaiah 5:24, drawn from vegetation, especially from the notions “root” and “scion,” in which the reference’ back to the צֶמַחbranch, chap4, as also to the vineyard and its fruit cannot be mistaken.

Thus this most artistically composed, ending is at the same time an image of the whole discourse, whose unity, comprising chaps, 2–5, here becomes most evident. As the twofold division forms the ground-work of the whole discourse, so it does of this conclusion. And this twofold division appears in the conclusion in a double form: first the simple two for the first (relative) conclusion; then the potent, doubled two for the great principal conclusion. From this we know, at the same time, why there must be six woes, and not seven, as one inclines to expect.

The first woe concerns the rich and mighty, that swallow up the property of inferior people, so that at last they possess the land alone ( Isaiah 5:8). These are threatened that their houses shall be destroyed ( Isaiah 5:9), and their ground shall become so sterile that ten acres shall yield only a bucketful of must, and a bushel of seed a peck [i.e. 1–16 of a German bushel.—Tr.] of fruits ( Isaiah 5:10). The second woe pertains to high livers and gluttons, that begin early and leave off late ( Isaiah 5:11), and who, amid the noise of music and the banquet, never come to regard Jehovah’s work ( Isaiah 5:12). For this the people must wander into exile, and high rank and low rank shall perish of hunger and thirst ( Isaiah 5:13), and be used only to be cast into the jaws of the insatiably greedy underworld ( Isaiah 5:14). Then shall human pride be humbled ( Isaiah 5:15), and the Lord, the righteous judge shall appear then as alone high in His righteousness and holiness ( Isaiah 5:16), the waste places of the fallen grandees shall become the pastures of the flocks of alien tribes ( Isaiah 5:17). The third woe is proclaimed against the insolent mockers that do evil with a very rage for it ( Isaiah 5:18), and with blasphemous contempt, challenge the Lord, in whom they do not believe, to oppose His work to their own ( Isaiah 5:19). The fourth woe strikes those who perversely call exactly that good which is bad, and that bad which is good ( Isaiah 5:20). The fifth woe concerns the conceited that think they alone are wise ( Isaiah 5:21). The sixth woe, finally, is proclaimed against the oppressors and unjust, who in order to live high, turn aside justice for a vile reward ( Isaiah 5:22-23). The threatening, that those who have despised the law of Jehovah, shall be destroyed root and branch, corresponds to the last four woes in common ( Isaiah 5:24). For this the people shall be smitten and their dead bodies be cast into the streets like sweepings. But that is not enough even ( Isaiah 5:25). Foreign nations shall be brought from a distance against Israel (26). They shall vigorously and zealously accomplish the work to which they are called (27–29). Then like the roaring surges of the sea the enemy shall break over Israel. Israel shall see nothing on the earth but dark night: instead of a protection against rain and storm ( Isaiah 4:6), a dark storm-cloud shall envelop the earth that shall turn aside the vivifying and warming light ( Isaiah 5:30).

This is the result of the contemplation that the Prophet sets forth in regard to the (relative) present. Sad and gloomy as this result is, the realization of that glorious future which he holds in prospect ( Isaiah 4:2-6) is not thereby hindered: on the contrary it postulates and prepares the way for that future. The words “in that day” point away to that.

2. Woe unto them—yield an epha.

Isaiah 5:8-16. On הֹוי comp. remarks at Isaiah 1:4. The Prophet first proclaims a woe against the rich and mighty, who with insatiable greed annex the houses and fields of their poor neighbors, so that these are crowded out of the land, and the country becomes the exclusive domain of these oppressors.

This accumulation of property violates both the statutes concerning the inheritance of real estate, and the year of Jubilee ( Leviticus 25:10-13; Leviticus 25 sqq.). What the Prophet has heard is this; not merely some, but many houses, i.e. the houses, all that there are of them ( Isaiah 2:3), shall be desolated, and the great and beautiful ones shall be without dwellers. This desolation of the houses is ascribed to the sterility that comes on the land as a punishment from God. For the Pentateuch threatens the disobedience of Israel with this punishment, and that in not a few passages: Leviticus 26:18-20; Deuteronomy 11:17; Deuteronomy 28:17 sq, 23sq, 38 sqq. How great the barrenness shall be may be determined from the fact, that ten acres of vine land will only yield a bucket of wine, and a bushel of seed only the tenth part as much fruit.—צֶמֶד is a pair of beasts of burden bound by a yoke ( Judges 19:10; 1 Samuel 11:7; Isaiah 21:7; Isaiah 21:9), then a piece of ground as great as such a צמד could plow up in a day. If a vineyard is not plowed it might still be measured by the acre. How large a surface a צמד might be according to our measures, has never yet been made out. Comp. Unterss. über die Längen-Feld-und Wege Masse, insbesondere der Greich en und der luden von L. Fenner v. Fenneberg,Berlin, 1859, p96.

בַּתa bath (comp. at בָּתָה Isaiah 5:6) is the principal measure for fluids, like the ephah for dry measure. Both are the tenth part of a homer or כּוֹר, cor. ( Ezekiel 45:11; Ezekiel 45:14), בת occurs only here in Isa. חֹמֶרhomer, (probably the burden of a חֲֹמר, an ass., whence Judges 15:16; 1 Samuel 16:2חֲמוֹר stands directly for חֹמֶר) does not again occur in Isa. in this sense. Also אֵיפָה “an ephah” is only here in Isa. There is still great uncertainty regarding the relation of these measures to those used by us. If Thenius (The ancient Hebrew long and hollow measures, Studien und Krit, 1846, Heft. 1 and 2) is correct, who sets the contents of the homer at101439 Paris cubic inches, then this would about correspond to the burden an ass can bear.

3. Woe unto them that rise up early—shall strangers eat.

Isaiah 5:11-17. The second woe, the longest and most detailed, is directed against the high livers and gluttons. They rise early so as to go soon to drinking; they remain long sitting of evenings so as to inflame themselves with wine. “Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is a noble, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength and not for drunkenness!” Ecclesiastes 10:16-17; Comp. Isaiah 22:13; Isaiah 56:12; Amos 6:3 sqq. The Romans called feasts that began before the usual time (i. e. in the ninth hour) tempestiva convivia., seasonable feasts (Cic. de Senect. 14, &c.). Ab octava hora bibere was accounted debauchery (Juven. 1, 49, comp. Gesenius on our ver.). שֵׁכָר is the artificial wine, and יַיִן the natural. The first was prepared partly from dates, apples, pomegranates ( Song of Solomon 8:2), honey, barley, (ζῦθος, οῖ̓νος κρίθινος, Her2, 77), partly by mixture (like our punch, hence מְֹסךְ שֵׁכָר to mingle drink Isaiah 5:22); Comp. Herzog’sR. Encycl. XVII. p615. In general comp. Isaiah 24:9; Isaiah 28:7; Isaiah 29:9; Isaiah 56:12.

The inflaming caused by wine is physical and psychical; (the former was by the ancients referred to the hepar and oculi, the liver and the eyes); comp. Proverbs 23:29 sq.

But to a jovial banquet belongs music. There does not fail כִּנּוֹר (the harp, i. e. a stringed instrument, with strings resting free and plumb on the sounding board, comp. Isaiah 16:11; Isaiah 23:16; Isaiah 24:8; Isaiah 30:32), נֶבֶל (i.e., every stringed instrument, whose strings are stretched over a bag-shaped sounding board by means of a bridge, for נֶבֶל is properly the bag.—comp. Isaiah 14:11; Isaiah 22:24), תֹּף (the hand drum, the tambourine, Isaiah 24:8; Isaiah 30:32), and חָלִיל (the flute, literally bored out, hollow, Isaiah 30:29). Comp. Herzog’sR. Encycl. X. p126 sqq. If now it is added, “and wine” is their drink, it is to prevent one from thinking that Isaiah 5:12 a indicates a different situation from that of Isaiah 5:11; rather the identity of both is expressly made prominent.

While nothing is wanting to the scene as regards worldly pleasure and joy, there is the most serious poverty in regard to spiritual life. In this respect they are as if blind and dead; the revelations of God that are written both in the book of nature and in history, they do not in any way regard. The greatest misery ever known to antiquity was destined to follow this luxury, and debauchery that wickedly forgot the one thing needful; the wandering into exile. One may see from Lamentations 5, how distressingly it went with such a herd of humanity, driven away as they were like cattle. Because the nation had not regarded what would promote its peace, it must go out “unawares,” מבלי דעת. In this is signified both: without insight, and unawares. The word designates the subjective state that was portrayed Isaiah 5:12 b, and at the same time the manner in which the objective divine judgment should break over them. מבלי דעה is only found here. But in Hosea 4:6, which comp. מִבְּלִי הַדַּעַת is found in a connection similar to this. Every where beside it reads בִּבְלִי ד׳ ( Deuteronomy 4:42; Deuteronomy 19:4; Joshua 20:3; Job 36:12). מִך here is not causative, but negative = without. [Lowth, Barnes and J. A. Alexander retain the meaning of the Eng. Vers.: “for want of knowledge.”—Tr.]

The honored, the nobility of the people (כָּבוֹדabstr. pro concr. comp. Isaiah 4:5; Isaiah 16:14; Isaiah 17:3; Isaiah 60:13; Isaiah 66:12;) shall become starvelings, and the great crowd (הָמוֹןnoise, then what makes noise, the great crowd Isaiah 17:12; Isaiah 29:5-8,) shall pant with thirst. Many, like Gesenius, would take הָמוֹן to mean the rich, because the word occurs in the sense of “riches, treasures” ( Isaiah 60:5; Jeremiah 3:23). But the Prophet announces the judgment to the entire people (comp. עַמִּי in the beginning of the verse): according to which it is quite suitable for him to divide the totality into nobility and common people. When death has rich harvest on the earth, then the underworld must open its gates wide to receive the sacrifice. According to that then לָכֵןtherefore, Isaiah 5:14 stands to the לכן Isaiah 5:13, not in a co-ordinate but in a subordinate relation. A soul is ascribed to Sheol (the word is with few exceptions, e. g. Job 26:6, feminine). It is therefore personified. The notion “soul” is at the same time used in the meaning of “desire, greed,” a usage that is not infrequent in the O. Test, as is well known. Thus it is used, e. g., Deuteronomy 23:25, “When thou comest into thy neighbor’s vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes כְּנַפְּשְׁךָ שָׂבְעֶ‍ֽךָ“ Comp. Proverbs 23:2בַּעַל נֶפֶשׁ a greedy person; פלָבַים עַזּיֵ־נֶפֶשׁ, Isaiah 56:11, dogs strong in greediness; comp. Psalm 27:12. The same expression as in our passage is found in Habakkuk 2:5. The insatiable nature of the underworld is declared also Proverbs 27:20; Proverbs 30:16.

Sheol (in Isa. again Isaiah 14:9; Isaiah 14:11; Isaiah 14:15; Isaiah 28:15; Isaiah 28:18; Isaiah 38:10; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 57:9), according to the O. Test. representation, is the resting-place of departed souls, corresponding to the Hades of the Greeks, which is conceived of as in the inward part of the earth (hence שְׁאִוֹל תַּחְתּיתthe lowest hell, Deuteronomy 32:22; Psalm 86:13, coll. Psalm 88:7; Lamentations 3:55; Isaiah 44:23; Ezekiel 26:20; Ezekiel 32:18; Ezekiel 32:24), because, naturally, the kingdom of death must be conceived of as in the opposite direction from the kingdom of life. When, therefore, God, the Lord of light, has His seat in light which envelops us from above, then must the kingdom of death be sought under us in the dark depths of the earth.

There are three views regarding the derivation of the word שְׁאוֹל: 1) the older, according to which the word should be derived from שָׁאַל, to demand. The underworld was called “the demanding, the summons,” in accordance with its insatiableness (comp. the passages cited above); and because it will only receive and never gives; 2) Gesenius, and at the same time with him, though quite independently, Böttcher, Ewald, Maurer (comp. Thesaur. p1348) maintain that שְׁאוֹל is softened from שְׁעוֹל. But שָׁעַל, which never occurs, must, according to שֹׁעַל the hollow hand, שׁוּעָל the excavator, inhabitant of caves, the fox, מִשְׁעוֹל ( Numbers 22:24) the hollow way, have the meaning of being hollow. Sheol would, then, be “the cavern.” 3) Hupfeld, Œhler, Delitzsch, refer the word back to the root,שׁל שׁול, which is the root of שָׁעַל itself, and has the meaning of “hanging down loose, sinking down,” so that Sheol would be “the sinking, going down deep.” The matter is still undetermined. If it is opposed to the first explanation that, according to it, a poetic epithet is made the chief name of the kingdom of the dead (comp. Œhler in Herzog’sR. Encycl. XXI. p412); Song of Solomon, too, both the other views must make it comprehensible how an א comes to take the place of the middle radical.

All the glory of Jerusalem descends into the wide gaping throat of hell, הָמוֹן means the crowd here too (as in Isaiah 5:13), but as there is here no contrast with the honored ones as there, but only the notion of superabundance, of multitude, of tumult is added to that of glory, I allow myself with Drechsler to translate “riot and revel.” שָׁאוֹןstrepitus, noise, is used of the roar of water ( Isaiah 17:12-13), and of a multitude of men ( Isaiah 13:4; Isaiah 24:8; Isaiah 25:5; Isaiah 66:6). The three substantives designate everything that is splendid and makes a noise, be it person or thing. עָלֵז (ᾶπ. λεγ.), too, before which אֲשֶׁר is to be supplied, does not seem to exclude reference to things. For why should not the music and all that pertains to a banquet ( Isaiah 5:12) be called jovial? Comp. Psalm 96:12.

In as much as the Prophet in Isaiah 5:15-16 partly repeats verbatim the fundamental thoughts of the first half of this discourse, that we have called the first prophetic lamp (comp. Isaiah 2:9; Isaiah 2:11; Isaiah 2:17), he intimates that the two parts belong to one another. Those false eminences illumined by the first lamp, and the false fruits of which the second treats, lead to the same end: to the humiliation of the wickedly insolent men, and to the proof that the holy and just God is alone high. But why the Prophet just at this point casts back this connecting look, is explained in the fact that here we stand at a point of relative conclusion. This we recognize, as was shown above, partly from the contents of this second woe, which sounds like a finale, partly from the form, for the following woes have a very different structure from this first. But notice with what art the Prophet leads over to the theme of the first lamp, and thus unites the fundamental thought of both lamps. By the description of the destruction of the wicked multitude by hunger and thirst, he comes quite naturally on the idea of their sinking down into the underworld. Therewith he has touched the deepest point of antagonism which human enmity against God can attain. For it goes no deeper down than the jaws of Sheol. This mention of the deepest deep reminds him that therewith, what he had said above on the abasement of human pride, appears in a new light. That is to say it appears, by what is threatened in Isaiah 5:14, to be absolute. Precisely thereby the highness of the Lord appears in its fullest light. For He that is able to cast down into the lowest deep must for His own part necessarily be the highest. But He is so as the holy one that judges righteously. Now if the highness of God calls to mind the first lamp, His holiness calls to mind the second (comp. the sacred and sanctifying Branch of God, Isaiah 4:2-3). And thus the fundamental thoughts of the first and second lamp combine most beautifully.

The first half of Isaiah 5:15 is repeated verbatim from Isaiah 2:9 a. The second half of Isaiah 5:15, is, with some abbreviation, taken from Isaiah 2:11 coll. Isaiah 5:17. מַשְׁפָּט is the judicial act (comp. Isaiah 1:21); in so far as it is a realization of the idea of righteousness, God at the same time proves Himself to be holy (comp. Ezekiel 20:41; Ezekiel 28:22; Ezekiel 28:25; Ezekiel 36:23; Ezekiel 38:16; Ezekiel 38:23). For holiness and righteousness belong together like lamps and burning ( Isaiah 5:17). The Prophet concludes his mournful picture of the future in a highly poetic manner, in that on the site of the once glorious and joyous city, now sunk into the ground ( Isaiah 5:11-12), he presents a pasture in which wandering nomads are feeding their flocks. Comp. the quite similar pictures of future change of fortune, Isaiah 7:21-25; Isaiah 17:2; Isaiah 32:13 sq.; Zephaniah 2:14 sq. Commentators have justly pointed out that the present condition of Jerusalem and Palestine may be regarded as a part of the fulfilment of this prophecy. For the ancient city is as if sunk into the ground. A depth of rubbish covers the old streets and open places, and above them new ones are laid out in totally different directions. Only laborious excavations can give a correct picture of the topography of ancient Jerusalem. The land, however, is almost every where become pastures for nomadic Arabian tribes. And when, moreover, one reflects that a foreign people, of another faith and inimical to the Jews, has for a long time reigned in Palestine, it must be confessed that the present time corresponds very exactly to this announcement of the Prophet. Yet it must not be overlooked that the circumstances mentioned only touch the outward side of the fulfilment. It cannot be doubted that Isaiah 5:14 has been fulfilled also in a deeper, more inward, and, I may say, transcendental way. For what has become of the land we know. But had not the Prophet also a thought of the immortal souls of men?

The חרבות מחים are the ruins that once belonged to the fat and rich, and were then the opposite of mournful, waste wrecks, that is to say, places of splendor and prosperity. Strangers shall devour the products of these wastes, i. e. the grass growing there, that is use it for their cattle. By this is implied that the places shall lie unnoticed and without owners. Only stranger, nomadic shepherds, in passing along, will stop there with their flocks.

4. Woe unto them—may know it.

Isaiah 5:18-19. The third woe is directed against audacious sinners who make unbelief in God’s punitive justice the foundation of their wicked doings. The fact that the Prophet represents these people as impiously bringing down the divine judgment on themselves, has caused many commentators to construe מָשַׁךְ in the sense of “attrahere, draw toward,” and עָוֹן in the sense of “guilt” (Ewald, Umbreit), or “punishment of sin” (Gesenius, Knobel, and others). But if the Prophet meant to say this, and to express that those had drawn on themselves by deeds what they had invoked by words, i. e. the judgments of God, he would certainly have employed expressions that would more exactly correspond to the notions מעשׁה י׳ and עצת קדושׁ י׳, thus words that mean directly “punishment, judgment, destruction, ruin.” I do not deny that under some circumstances the words עָוֹן and חטאה may be taken in a sense bordering very nearly on “guilt of sin, and punishment of sin” (comp. the passages cited by Knobel, Genesis 4:13; Genesis 19:15; Psalm 31:11; Zechariah 14:19; Proverbs 21:4; to which, also, I would add Isaiah 27:9, where these words in the parallelism correspond to one another. See at the place). But, in the present instance, precisely the choice of these words proves to me that the Prophet did not think of the identity of the fruits of those doings with the display of the divine justice, but only of a causal relation between those doings and the divine justice. They sin away so boldly, precisely because they believe there is no danger of a day of vengeance. The idea of “boldly sinning away” the Prophet expresses in his vigorous style, in that he compares those wicked men to draught horses, that drag a heavy wagon by means of stout ropes. Like these beasts lay themselves to the traces with all their might in order to start the load, so these lay themselves out to sin with all their might. They pull with might and main, they surrender themselves to sin with a diligence and expenditure of power worthy of a better cause.

That say,etc.

Isaiah 5:19. What chains them so fast to sin, and makes them so zealous in its service, is just that they do not believe in the divine announcement of a day of retribution. They express their unbelief in a contemptuous challenge to Jehovah to expedite His work, i. e. His work of judgment and punishment, to fulfil His purpose of retribution. They wish for an early coming of this manifestation of judgment. For they would like to experience it. They dare so much. They are not afraid of it, though it were true; but they do not believe it is true. With impious irony they even call Him, in whose display of justice they do not believe, by His title; the Holy One of Israel. They would have it understood thereby, that He is so called, it is true, but He is not this. Comp. Isaiah 28:15; Jeremiah 5:12 sq.; Jeremiah 17:15; Ezekiel 12:22.

5. Woe unto them—the righteous from him.

Isaiah 5:20-23. That Isaiah 5:20 does not speak merely of perversion of justice, as some would have it, appears from the generality of its expressions, and from Isaiah 5:23. This perversion of the world whereby exactly bad is good, and good bad, is Satanic. For if the devil became God, as he attempts to become ( 2 Thessalonians 2:4), it would happen thus. But evil has in the physical domain, its correlate in darkness and bitterness, as good has in light and sweetness. For what darkness and bitterness are for the body, such is evil for the spirit, and what light and sweetness are for the body, such is good for the spirit. Thus, Psalm 19:9, the commandment of the Lord is clear as light, and Isaiah 5:11, sweeter than honey and the honey comb. But bitter appears in many places as the symbol of evil: Numbers 5:18 sq.; Deuteronomy 32:32 sq.; Jeremiah 2:19; Acts 8:23; Hebrews 12:15. That to the bad it is just bad that tastes good, we read Job 20:12; Proverbs 5:3-4.

Isaiah 5:21. The Prophet pronounces the fifth woe against the proud self-deification, to which divine wisdom counts for nothing, but its own for everything. Comp. Proverbs 3:7; Jeremiah 8:8 sq.; Jeremiah 9:22 sq. The sixth woe, finally, Isaiah 5:22-23, strikes the unjust and oppressors, who sell justice in order to obtain the means for enjoying a dissolute life. מסן שׁכר, mixing of drink, comp. on Isaiah 5:11. It is debatable whether the Hebrews were acquainted with wines prepared with spices. Hitzig, Hendewerk, Delitzsch, maintain that proof that they did is wanting, and take מסן שׁ׳ = temperare aqua, to mix with water, in which sense the later Jews use מָזַנ. According to Buxtorf, this word means: “miscuit, temperavit vinum affusa aqua” whence it is used directly for “infundere, to pour into.” Comp. מֶזֶנ, Song of Solomon 7:3. On the other hand Gesenius (with whom under the word מזגHitzig had agreed) see word מסך, Winer (R. W. s. v. Wein, Drechsler, Knobel, Leyrer (in R. Encyl. xvii. p616) maintain most decidedly that the Hebrews were acquainted with spiced wines. Winer and Leyer dispute even that the use of vinum aqua temperare among the Jews can be certainly proved. These scholars named cite Proverbs 9:2; Proverbs 9:5 in proof of the existence among the ancients of spiced wine (which is to be distinguished from that prepared from fruit, honey, barley), in which passage the מסך that is simultaneous with the killing, must point to another mixing, than that with water, which latter must be coincident with the pouring out. They further cite a passage in Mischna Maaser scheni 2, 1 (non condiunt oleum … sed condiunt vinum; si inciderit in id mel et condimenta, unde melius reddatur, illa in melius confectio fit juxta computum;) and also Plin. Hist. nat. 14:13, 14, 1519 where he speaks of vinum aromatites, myrrhinum, absynthites, etc.; and further to the New Testament expressions οἴνος ἐσμυρμισμένος, Mark 15:23, κεκερασμένον ἄκρατον, Revelation 14:10; and to a passage in Dioscor5, 64sq. According to these evidences I do not see how it can be doubted that the Hebrews were acquainted with spiced wines.

6. Therefore as—stretched out still.

Isaiah 5:24-25. On the fourfold woe of Isaiah 5:18-23, now follows the announcement of the punishment to be shared in common. It is joined on by לָכֵן like Isaiah 5:13. The people are compared to stubble and hay, who, according to Isaiah 4:2, ought to be a flourishing divine branch. And quick as stubble is devoured by fire or hay disappears in the flames, shall their root decay and their bloom pass away like dust. Thus here too Israel is again represented as a plant, a figure that reminds us strongly of Isaiah 4:2 sqq, consequently of the second prophetic lamp. Hay and stubble are very inflammable stuff. But those roots and blossoms, that ought, properly to be fresh and full of sap, shall fly away, dissolved as they are in dust and decay, as easily as hay and stubble are devoured by the flames.

The threatening of Isaiah 5:24, as appears from the suffixes, concerns immediately those against whom the preceding four woes were proclaimed. But as Isaiah 5:13, the banishment of the entire nation is represented as the consequence of the sins of those greedy and riotous men, so here it is shown how the waves of destruction shall roll on to the utmost periphery, and thus seize the whole people. I refer על־כן “therefore,” not merely to the second clause, but to the whole of Isaiah 5:24. Although all the verbal forms in25a, point to the past, the things themselves that they declare fall in the future. This is evident from ( Isaiah 5:24) the relation of the announcement of punishment to the sin, which is indicated as present ( Isaiah 5:18 sqq.), and from the parallel between the threatenings of Isaiah 5:9 sq, and Isaiah 5:13 sq.—Comp. Drechsler,in loc.—But it were not impossible that Isaiah employs here the past forms, because facts of the past float before his mind, that were to be regarded, too, as proofs of the wrath portrayed in Isaiah 5:25, without, however, representing the entire fulfilment of the threatening. If, then, as to its chief import Isaiah 5:25 has respect to the future, and, in contrast with the blows to be expected from a distant people ( Isaiah 5:26 sqq.), indicates the blows to be expected out of the midst of Judah herself, or from the immediate neighborhood, then there might be a reference in “the hills did tremble” to the earthquake in Uzziah’s time ( Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5), and in “their carcases,” etc., a reference to those120,000 men of Judah, that Pekah, the king of Israel slew in one day; 2 Chronicles 28:6. The formula, “for all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still,” ( Isaiah 9:11; Isaiah 9:16; Isaiah 9:20; Isaiah 10:4), expresses the thought that something still greater is coming. Thus then this formula introduces the chief conclusion of the discourse which corresponds to that relative conclusion, Isaiah 5:13-17. For if foreign nations from a great distance are called to accomplish a judgment, it is to be expected in advance that this judgment shall be decisive, and of mighty consequence. In fact, too, it was ever nations from a distance that destroyed the respublica Israelitarum. Call to mind the Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans. And those that came the farthest, did the work of destruction the most effectually.

7. And He will lift up,—deliver it.

Isaiah 5:26-29. The whole description is general, and not special. That is, it is not a single, particular nation, but only the genus of foreign, distant nations in general that is described. The prophecy, therefore, finds its fulfilment in all the catastrophes that brought foreign powers against Israel, from the Assyrians to the Romans. Evidently Isaiah has in mind the fundamental prophecy Deuteronomy 28:49 sqq, from which the expression גוֹיִם מֵרָחוֹק, “nations from afar,” is taken verbatim, and of which also the וְנָשָׂא, “and He shall lift up,” reminds one. It is remarkable that after the arrival of those Babylonian ambassadors, 2 Kings 20:14, Hezekiah should himself apply our passage, and so give testimony to its fulfilment, in that, when asked by the Prophet, whence these people came, he replied, “They are come from a far country (מֵאֶרֶץ רְחוֹקָה), from Babylon.” The description that now follows in Isaiah 5:27-29, of the enemy that is summoned, is not of any individual enemy, in fact is not at all historical, but generic and ideal in character. For, in reality, there is no army, where no one grows tired nor stumbles, in which no one sleeps nor slumbers, etc. The Prophet would only express in poetic form, the greatest activity, unweariedness, and readiness for conflict. There is a similar description Jeremiah 5:15 sqq. Their eagerness for battle, and their zeal for the cause is so great that they neither slumber, nor sleep. The girdle ( Isaiah 11:5; Jeremiah 13:11), that binds the garment about the hips ( Isaiah 11:5; Isaiah 32:11 : coll. Isaiah 3:22) does not get loose on anyone; no one breaks ( Isaiah 33:20; Isaiah 58:6, Pi.), the strings (only here in is, comp. Genesis 14:23), by which the sandals ( Isaiah 11:15; Isaiah 20:2) are fastened to the feet.

Isaiah 5:28. The equipment of the enemy, too, is admirable. The arrows are sharp; the bows are bent, (an ideal trait, for in reality bows could not be ever bent, that is, trod on with the foot, Isaiah 21:15). The hoofs (only here in Isaiah), of the steeds are hard as stone. As the ancients did not understand shoeing horses, hard hoofs were an important requisite in a war horse, comp. Micah 4:13, and χαλκόπους, κρατερῶνυξ. The impetuous, thundering roll of their wheels makes them resemble a tempest. The same figure recurs Isaiah 66:15. Comp, beside Isaiah 17:13; Isaiah 21:1; Isaiah 29:6.

The 29 th verse finally describes the attack and victory of the enemy. The discourse which, to this point, has had almost a regular beat, and progressed, one might say, with a martial step, now becomes irregular and bounding. With mighty impetuosity that reveals itself in a battle cry that is compared to the roaring of a lion, the enemy attacks. It is strange that the Prophet expresses this thought doubly. But this doubled expression has apparently only a rhetorical aim. If we take into account the comparison of deep growling, we receive the impression that the Prophet would indicate that the enemy has at command every modulation of the lion’s voice. The moment the lion seizes his prey, he ceases to roar, and one hears only deep growling. The seized prey he saves for himself: i.e., he bears it away out of the tumult. כְּפִיר (recurs only Isaiah 11:6), is the young lion no longer sucking but become independent of its dam. גּוּר is the sucking lion. The plural is used here, probably, on purpose to make prominent the numbers in contrast with לָבִיא.

8. And in that day—the heavens thereof.

Isaiah 5:30. The Prophet hastens to the conclusion. For this purpose he comprehends all that he has still to say in one figure drawn with a few, yet strong traits. It is also a proof of the great rhetorical art of the Prophet, that he does not name Judah. He rather allows to be guessed what was painful to him to say. For we need not refer the words only to what immediately precedes, as if it were declared that what is described Isaiah 5:30, happens on the same day as that of which Isaiah 5:29 speaks. For that is to be understood of course. But this “in that day” refers back to Isaiah 2:11; Isaiah 2:17; Isaiah 2:20; Isaiah 3:7; Isaiah 3:18; Isaiah 4:1 and to Isaiah 4:2, so that hereby is intimated that this prophecy too, shall be fulfilled in the “last days.” And as Isaiah 4:2 speaks of a day of great happiness, the passage previously named, however, of a day of dreadful judgment, so the Prophet refers back to both, meaning to intimate that when these final dreadful visitations of the last time shall have come upon Israel, then shall come the daybreak of salvation. I see therefore in this phrase “in that day” a fresh proof of the connection of chap5, with the preceding chapters2, 4. Like surges of the sea, therefore, raging and roaring, shall the enemy fall on Judah in that day? Delitzsch appropriately refers to Sierra-Leone because, “those that first landed there, mistook the noise of the surf breaking on the precipitous shore for the roar of lions.” The subject of ונבט (Niph. ἅπ. λεγ .), is evidently Judah. But the further meaning of these words presents great difficulties. I think two passages shed light on this one. The first is cited by all commentators, viz. 8:42. When we read there: “And He looks to the earth and behold trouble and darkness,” (צָרָה וַֽחֲשֵׁכָה) we are justified in taking חשׁז צר in our passage together; either צַר as adjective (compressed, thick darkness, חשֶׁךְ is masc.), or as apposition (Vitringa, Hendewerk), or as genitive (darkness of anguish). According to that we must separate, then, צַר from וָאוֹר, a union for which there is no other authority than the (for us not binding) Masoretic tradition, and then we must read וְאוֹר. For this reading, however, we have the support of another passage, which, so far as I know, has never hitherto been adduced by any expositor for the elucidation of our verse, viz.: Job 18:6. There we read חַשַׁךְ כְּאָֽהֳלוֹ “the light shall be dark in his tent.” That passage speaks of the wicked whose light goes out, and whose fire burns no longer, in whose tent, therefore, it is dark. Can then the coming together of these words אור חשׁן be accidental? I am the less inclined to believe this, as the thought, that the light itself becomes dark, and not the lighted room, is a very specific one. Something similar may be found Isaiah 13:10; Ezekiel 32:8; Joel 4:15.—עֲרִיפִים is ἃπ. λεγ. It is derived from ערף “to drop down,” which occurs only Deuteronomy 32:2; Deuteronomy 33:28. עֲרָפֶל appears to be kindred to it. As עֲרָפֶל originates from עָרָפ by the addition of the letter ל like כַּרְמֶל from כֶּרֶם and בַּרְזֶל from בָּרַז (Chald,fixit, transfixit) see Green § 193, 2 c, and as עֲרָפֶל very often joined to עָנָן ( Deuteronomy 4:11; Deuteronomy 5:19; Joel 2:2; Zephaniah 1:15; Ezekiel 34:12) undoubtedly means the cloudy obscurity, the thick clouds, so עריפים can be nothing else than the rain clouds out of which the rain drops down.

This rain cloud is now regarded as the tent covering of the earth, or at least as belonging to it, like e. g., Isaiah 40:22 it says: “that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in,” (comp. Job 36:29; Psalm 104:2 sqq.). The expression “in his tent” would not be suitable. For the light that illumines a tent, stands within under the tent cover. But the light that illumines the earth, is above and beyond the heavenly tent cover. If, then, it is to be dark on earth, the light must be hindered from penetrating down from above. Therefore I translate: “and the light becomes dark through its clouds.” The fem, suffix is therefore to be referred to אֶרֶץ, “earth.” It will not do to refer it to אור. as Gesenius does, referring to Job 36:32 (Thes. p1072), because then it must read חָשְׁכָה. If one would, with Hitzig, make אוֹר dependent on נִבַּט,. then the expression is surprising. For the opposite of “earth” is not “the light,” but “the heaven.” The explanations “distress and light” (Delitzsch), and “stone and gleam” (i. e., hail and lightning, Drechsler) seem to me to pay too little regard to the two parallel passages quoted. I would, moreover, call attention to the fact that in this אזר חשׁן there lies, too, a significant reference to the doings of the people who, according to Isaiah 5:20 “make darkness light and light darkness.” Because they do that, their light shall be darkened wholly and permanently. And at the same time we find here a remarkable antithesis to Isaiah 4:5. 6. There God creates upon Mount Zion a cloud by day and flaming fire by night, for a shade by day against the heat, and for shelter against rain and storm. Here darkness of anguish shall cover the earth and the rain-clouds shall not only overwhelm the unprotected earth with their showers, but beside these keep back the light, therefore, in a sense, be a shelter before the light. Thus this chapter, which had apparently begun so joyously, ends in deepest night and gloom. One feels that the discourse of the Prophet has exhausted itself. We are at the end. Nothing can follow these mighty, and at the same time vain words but—silence. But the informed know well that the two prophetic lamps that are thrust out before ( Isaiah 2:1-4 and Isaiah 4:2-6) stretch out beyond this period of misfortune. When, then, Isaiah 5:30, it reads “in that day,” we know that this is a hint that refers back out of the midnight gloom of this conclusion to the comforting beginning Isaiah 4:2. That very day, when the evil fruits of the vineyard sink away in night and horror, begins for the “Branch of Jehovah” the day of light, and of eternal glory.

Footnotes