Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

A. C. 710.

Heb. it was labour in mine eyes.

+ Heb. I knew not.

Heb. with

thee.

16 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for

me;

17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.

18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.

19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

20 As a dream when one awaketh; so, O LORD, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

21 Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.

22 So foolish was I, and +ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.

23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.

24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the Heb. rock. strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

|| Heb. By the hand of.

* Heb. the

tallness, &c.

+Or, the fo

rest and his

fruitful field.

27 For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish : thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.

28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

2 KINGS XIX. VER. 20-36.

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

21 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

23 | By thy messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down * the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into + the forest of his Carmel.

24 I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the A.C. 710. sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.

* Or, fenced.

thou not heard

25+ Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, tor, Hast and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

I how I have
ago, and form-

made it long

ed it of ancient times? should I now bring it

26 Therefore their inbabitants were of small power, to be laid they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass waste, and of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house be ruinous tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. 27 But I know thy § abode, and thy going out, and thyor, sitting. coming in, and thy rage against me.

28 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

29 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.

of

30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

heaps?
+ Heb. short
of hand.

Heb. the eshouse of Ju

caping of the

dah that re-
maineth.

31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD Heb. the esof hosts shall do this.

32 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. 34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

S

:

caping.

36. Ecclus.

1 Mac. vii. 41.

35¶ And it came to pass that night, that the angel of $ Is. xxxvii. the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the As- xlviii. 21. syrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand and when 2 Mac. viii. 19. they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

A.C. 710.

*Or, Destroy

not.

+ Or, for Asaph.

PSALM LXXV.

1 The prophet praiseth God. 2 He promiseth to judge uprightly. 4 He rebuketh the proud by consideration of God's providence. 9 He praiseth God, and promiseth to execute justice.

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, A Psalm or Song † of Asaph.

1 Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.

:

2 When I shall receive the congregation I will judge shall take a set uprightly..

+ Or, when I

time.

3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved; I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.

4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:

5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.

6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from Heb. desert. the west, nor from the §south.

|| Or, for Asaph.

7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.

9 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

PSALM LXXVI.

1 A declaration of God's majesty in the church. 11 An exhortation to serve him

reverently.

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song || of Asaph.

1 In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel. 2 In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.

3 There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.

4 Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.

5 The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep and none of the men of might have found their hands.

6 At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and A. C.710. horse are cast into a dead sleep.

7 Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?

8 Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,

9 When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.

10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

11 Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents * unto him that ought to *Heb. to fear. be feared.

12 He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.

2 KINGS XIX. VER. 36, 37.

36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer

* his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into t Tob. i. 21. the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned +Heb. Ararat, in his stead.

SECTION XVII.

Promise of Comfort to the People of God-Final Restoration of the Jews foretold 54.

ISAIAH XL.

1 The promulgation of the Gospel. 3 The preaching of John Baptist. 9 The preaching of the apostles. 12 The prophet by the omnipotency of God, 18 and his incomparableness, 26 comforteth the people.

1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

54 The prophecies of Isaiah, that follow this chapter, were, in all probability, delivered in the latter years of Hezekiah's reign.

The miraculous cure of this king, and the destruction of the host of Sennacherib, must naturally have rivetted the attention of the Jews to the prophet. Those people who had witnessed the wonderful accomplishment of his prediction against the Assyrian army, as well as those against the surrounding nations, must have had (if any thing earthly could have given it to them) implicit faith in the eventual completion of that grand series of prophecies which were now delivered to them by Isaiah, and which constitute the most elegant, and perhaps the most sublime part of the Old Testament. They may be divided, according to the plan of Vitringa and Bishop Tomline, into sections. The chief subject is the

710 to 699.

A. C. 710 to 699.

* Heb. to the

heart.

2 Speak ye* comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is par

+ Or, appoint- restoration of the church. This is pursued with the greatest regularity; contain-
ed time.
ing the deliverance of the Jews from captivity-the vanity and destruction of
idols-the vindication of the divine power and truth-consolations and invita-
tions to the Jews-denunciations against them for their infidelity and impiety—
their rejection, and the calling of the Gentiles-the happiness of the righteous,
and the final destruction of the wicked. But, as the subject of this very beau-
tiful series of prophecies is chiefly of the consolatory kind, they are introduced
with a promise of the restoration of the kingdom, and the return from the Baby-
lonian captivity, through the merciful interposition of God. At the same time, this
redemption from Babylon is employed as an image to shadow out a redemption
of an infinitely higher and more important nature. The prophet connects these
two events together, scarcely ever treating of the former without throwing in
some intimations of the latter; and sometimes he is so fully possessed with the
glories of the future more remote kingdom of the Messiah, that he seems to
leave the immediate subject of his commission almost out of the question. This
series of prophecies consists of twelve prophetic poems or discourses.

DISCOURSE 1. (ch. xl. xli.) contains a promise of comfort to the people of
God, interspersed with declarations of the omnipotence and omniscience of
Jehovah, and a prediction of the restoration of the Jews from the Babylo-
nian captivity by Cyrus.

DISCOURSE 2. The advent of the Messiah, and the character and blessings of
his kingdom, are foretold (xlii. 1-17.); for rejecting which the infidelity
and blindness of the Jews are reproved (18-25.) A remnant of them,
however, it is promised, shall be preserved, and ultimately restored to their
own land (xliii. 1-13.) The taking of Babylon by Cyrus, and the re-
storation of the Jews, are also foretold, as also, perhaps, their return after
the Roman dispersion (14-20.); and they are admonished to repent of
those sins which would otherwise bring the severest judgments of God upon
them (22-28.)

DISCOURSE 3. contains promises of redemption, and of the effusion of the Holy Spirit, intermingled with a beautiful and forcible exposure of the folly of idolatry (xliv. 1-20.) Thence, the prophet announces by name their future deliverer, Cyrus (21-28. xlv. 1—5.); and, according to his usual manner, he makes a transition to the greater work of God in the conversion of the Gentiles to the Gospel, and the ultimate triumph of the latter over Antichrist (6-25).

DISCOURSE 4. foretells the carrying away of the idols of Babylon (xlvi. 1-5); the folly of worshipping them is then strikingly contrasted with the attributes and perfections of Jehovah (6—13); and the destruction of Babylon is further denounced (xlvii.)

DISCOURSE 5. contains an earnest reproof of the Jews for their obstinate attachment to idolatry, which would infallibly involve them in the severest calamities (xlviii. 1–19. 21, 22.); and foretells their deliverance from the Babylonian captivity (20.)

DISCOURSE 6. introduces the Messiah in person, declaring the full extent of his commission, foretelling the unbelief and rejection of the Jews, the tri

« PoprzedniaDalej »