View Isaiah 24 in the note window.
Judgments on Judah for their defilements and transgression,
ver. 1 - 12.
A remnant shall praise God, ver. 13 - 15.
God, by his judgments on his people and their enemies, will advance
his kingdom, ver. 16 - 23.
1: The land - Of Canaan. Waste - He will shortly make it
waste, first by the Assyrians, and then by the Chaldeans.
Turneth - Brings it into great disorder and confusion.
2: It shall be - The approaching calamity shall be universal, without
any distinction of persons or ranks; the priests themselves having been
partakers of the peoples sins, shall also partake with them in their
plagues. The seller - The purchaser of lands shall have no more left than
he that hath sold all his patrimony; and all persons shall be made equal
in beggary and slavery.
4: The world - The land of Judea. The majesty - Not only common
people, but the high and lofty ones.
5: Defiled - By the wickedness of its people. The laws - The laws
of God. Ordinance - God's ordinances concerning his worship and service;
the singular being put for the plural. Covenant - The covenant made
between God and Abraham, and all his posterity, which was everlasting,
both on God's part, who, upon the conditions therein expressed, engaged
himself to be a God to them and to their seed forever; and on Israel's
part, who were obliged thereby to constant and perpetual obedience thro'
all generations.
6: The curse - The curse of God threatened to transgressors.
Burned - Are consumed by the wrath of God, which is commonly compared
to fire.
7: Mourneth - Because there are none to drink it.
Grief is ascribed to senseless creatures by a figure usual in all authors.
Languisheth - Because there are no people left to dress it, or gather its
grapes. The merry - hearted - That made their hearts merry with wine.
8: Tabrets - Which they used in their feasts. The noise - The word
properly signifies a confused clamour, such as drunken men make.
9: Bitter - Because of the fears and miseries wherewith it is mixed.
10: The city - Jerusalem, and other cities; for the singular word
may be here taken collectively. A city of confusion or disorder,
breaking all the laws and orders which God had established among them.
Shut up - Because the inhabitants are either dead, or gone into captivity.
11: A crying - Such was their gross sensuality and sottishness, that
instead of crying for their sins, they did only howl for their corn, and
wine, and oil, (Ho 7:14).
13: When - When this judgment shall be executed, there shall be left
a remnant; as there are some few olives or grapes left after the vintage
is over.
14: They - The remnant shall sing for the glorious power and goodness
of God, manifested in their deliverance. The sea - From the isles of the
sea; from those parts beyond the sea into which, they were carried captive.
15: In distress - When you are in the furnace of affliction. In
the isles - In remote countries, beyond the sea, which in scripture are
commonly called isles.
16: From - From all the parts of the earth in which the Jews are
or shall be. Songs - Of joy and praise. Glory - Or, glory be to
the righteous. The Lord, the righteous one. But - In the midst of
these joyful tidings, I discern something which gives me cause of
lamentation. My leanness - I faint and pine away for grief, for the
following reason. Treacherously - The Jews, who have been frequently
guilty of great perfidiousness towards God, are now acting the same part.
Even the Hebrew doctors expound this place of the perfidiousness of
some Jews in the times of the Messiah. And it is not strange that so
sad a sight made the prophet cry out, My leanness, &c. He repeats it
to shew the horridness of the crime.
17: The snare - Great and various judgments, some actually inflicted,
and others justly feared.
18: Fleeth - Upon the report of some terrible evil.
The foundations - Both heaven and earth conspire against him. He alludes
to the deluge of waters which God poured down from heaven, and to the
earthquakes which he often causes below.
19: The earth - This is repeated again, to shew the dreadfulness and,
certainty of these judgments, and to awaken the stupid Israelites.
20: A tent - Which is easily and commonly carried from place to place.
22: Gathered - By God's special providence, in order to their
punishment. And thus the unbelieving Jews were generally gathered
together at Jerusalem, to their solemn feast, when Titus came and
besieged, and destroyed them. Shut up - As malefactors, which are taken
in several places, are usually brought to one common prison. After - After
the apostate Jews shall have been shut up in unbelief, and in great
tribulations for many ages together, they shall be convinced of their
sin in crucifying the Messiah, and brought home to God and Christ by
true repentance.
23: The sun - All earthly powers and glories shall be obscured with
the far greater splendor of Christ, the king of kings, at whose feet
even the kings of the earth shall fall down and worship. The Lord - The
Messiah, who, tho' man, yet is also God, and the Lord of hosts.
Shall reign - Shall come in the flesh, and set up his kingdom, first in
Jerusalem, and afterward in all other nations. Before - Before his
ministers, who are in some sort the courtiers of the King of Glory.
But the ancients are here put for the whole church, in whose name
and for whose service they act.
