View Isaiah 29 in the note window.
The temple and city of Jerusalem destroyed, ver. 1 - 6.
Her enemies insatiable, ver. 7, 8
Their senselessness, ver. 9 - 12.
And deep hypocrisy, ver. 13 - 17.
These scorner and oppressor being cut off, the rest shall be converted,
ver. 18 - 24.
1: The city - The royal city, and seat of David and his posterity.
Set them - Go on in killing sacrifices from time to time, one year after
another, whereby you think to appease me, but all shall be in vain.
4: And thou - Thou who now speakest so loftily, shall be humbled, and
with a low voice, beg the favour of thine enemies. As one - Who, that they
might possess the people with a kind of reverence and horror, used to
deliver their answers with a low voice, from some cave under the ground.
5: Strangers - Whom thou hast hired to assist thee, as indeed they
did, when the Chaldeans came against them. Terrible ones - Thy great
commanders, and stout soldiers. It - This destruction of thy strangers,
and terrible ones shall come to pass.
6: Thou - Thou, O Jerusalem. Fire - With dreadful judgments,
which are frequently expressed by these metaphors.
8: His soul - His appetite or desire is unsatisfied. So - No less
unsatisfied and insatiable; they shall be always thirsting after more
of your blood.
9: Wonder - At the stupidity of this people. Cry - Cry out again
and again through astonishment. They stagger - With giddiness or
stupidity, which makes them like drunken men, insensible of their danger.
10: Dead sleep - Hardness of heart, and insensibleness of your
danger. Seers - Your magistrates and ministers. Covered - With the
veil of ignorance and stupidity.
12: Of all - Of all, your prophets. As a book - In which no man can
read, while it is sealed up, as books then sometimes were, being made
in the form of rolls. Delivered - Unsealed and opened.
13: Draw near - Namely, in acts of worship. With lips - With
outward devotions. But - They do not pay me that love, and fear, and
obedience, which I require. And - They worship me not in such a manner,
as I have prescribed, but according to mens inventions, preferring the
devices and traditions of their false prophets, before my institutions.
14: Hid - Shall disappear and vanish.
15: Seek deep - A metaphor from men, who use to dig deep into the
earth, that they may hide any thing there. To hide - Vainly imagining,
that they can deceive, not only men, but God, by their external
professions. Who - Neither God nor man can discover us.
16: Surely - All your subtle devices, by which you turn yourselves
into all shapes. As clay - It is no more to me, than the clay is to the
potter, who can alter and dispose it as he sees fit.
17: As a forest - The forest of Lebanon, which was a barren
mountain, shall by God's providence, become a fruitful and populous
place; and these places which are now fruitful and populous, shall
then become as barren and desolate, as that forest. This is a prophecy
of the rejection of the Jews, and of the calling of the Gentiles.
18: Shall see - Being, by God's grace, brought out of gross,
ignorance and wickedness, unto a clear and saving knowledge of the truth.
19: Meek - The humble and meek believers. Poor - Mean and
despicable people, such as the Gentiles were in the opinion of the
Jews, and such as the greatest part of the first Christians were.
20: That watch - That early and diligently apply themselves to the
practice of wickedness.
21: That make a man - That condemn a man, as if he was a great
criminal. For him - For God's faithful prophets and ministers.
The gate - There the people used to assemble, both upon civil and
sacred accounts, and there prophets used to deliver their prophecies.
Turn - From his right. The just - The faithful ministers of God.
Nought - Not for any great advantage, but for a trifle.
22: Redeemed - From manifold dangers, and especially from idolatry.
Jacob - The Israelites or posterity of Jacob, who had great cause
to be ashamed, for their continued infidelity, shall at last be
brought back to the God of their fathers, and to their Messiah.
Pale - Through fear of their enemies.
23: He seeth - When the believing seed of Jacob shall see those
children, whom they have begotten to God, by the gospel, even the
Gentiles. The work - The children, not of the flesh, but of the
promise, whom I, by my almighty grace, have regenerated. In the
midst - Incorporated with the Jews, into one and the same body.
Shall sanctify - They shall glorify God, with them and for them.
24: That erred - Those Gentiles who erred from God's truth.
Murmured - They that murmured at God's faithful teachers, shall now
receive God's truth in the love of it.
