and in principle taken place, as soon as judgment only. But it is obvious, that Ephraim is included only here. We frequently meet with : IT Or by stands in a modified signification equivalent to (?), and such places as 1 Sam. xx. 24 may be compared. is wanting before The? which stands in the corresponding is to be regarded as carrying its force over to this clause. (Comp. xxx. 1; xlviii. 17; lxi. 7). To turn back the war towards the gate is to be understood of the repulse of the enemy either to the gate through which he entered, or back even to the enemy's own gate. (2 Sam. xi. 23; 2 Kings xviii. 8; 1 Maccab. v. 22.) and Prophets were addicted to it, and that not only in their private life; but they even performed their official functions in a state of intoxication. This is strictly forbidden in the law. Lev. x. 8, 9 (comp. Ezek. xliv. 21). The expression w occurs only here. It does not mean that they in consequence of drinking wine have been swallowed up one of another. ¡B does not here mark what is mediately or remotely causal; but it denotes the immediate cause. The wine itself has swallowed up those who greedily swallowed it (comp. ver. 4). Not only has the càrouser the fit of intoxication, but the fit of intoxication has him. V stands only here for (Gen. xvi. 13; 1 Sam. xvi. 12 et saepe) חזה as vers. 15 for Min. Even in such moments T TT 5. Whom shall He teach- there a little.-Vers. 9 and 10. In these words the Prophet lets his drunken adversaries themselves come on the scene. He makes them utter scoffing words, that he may give the same back to them in another sense as a threatening of punishment. They are themselves Prophets and Priests, 4. But they also have erred- -no place and therefore full grown men, educated men, and clean.-Vers. 7, 8. The Prophet now turns from not children. They, therefore, ask indignantly: Does he―namely the Prophet of Jehovah-not Samaria to Jerusalem. With h he points to his know whom he has before him? To whom does own countrymen in particular. They, too, are he think that he has to impart right knowledge? seized by a spirit of giddiness which arises from the ( xi. 9). To whom has he to give underfearfully prevailing vice of literal drunkenness. standing by his preaching? ( ver. 19 and The Prophet ingeniously depicts the extent and besides only liii. 1, in the signification "preachintensity of this vice, through the accumulationing, announcement" the Greek akоh Rom. x. of words related in form: Shagu-ta-u,-shagu-16, 17; in another signification Isa. xxxvii. 7); ta-u, shagu-paku. We hear and see as it were Is it to little children who have just been weaned the reeling and staggering of the drunken com- from the milk (xi. 8), removed from the breasts pany., to reel, is used only here by Isaiah, nyn of a drunken person, also xix. 14 comp. xxi. 4. How fearfully the vice of drunkenness had spread is seen from the fact that even priests (Py in this sense only here in Isaiah)? And now the Prophet exhibits them as ridiculing the tenor of his preaching in monosyllabic words, which by their sound and repetition are designed T to produce merriment, while he at the same time taken from Micah ii. 10. Micah there reproaches turns his opponents into ridicule, as these mono- the false Prophets with withhold ling from the syllabic words admirably represent the stammer- people the genuine word of God, which is affecing of a person intoxicated. 1 from is tionate and kind, and with instigating the people praeceptum (besides here only Hos. v. 11); p with lies to forsake that wherein it would truly (comp. ver. 17; xviii. 2, 7; xxxiv. 11, 17; xliv. find rest. [This is hardly the sense of the passage referred to in Micah.-D. M.]. In opposi13) is cord, measuring cord, direction, rule. They tion to this Isaiah characterizes the genuine reproach the Prophet with bringing forward a mass of little sentences, precepts, rules in weari- preaching of Jehovah by the words some repetition, and without a right plan and For justly in reference to that of which the false order, here a little, there a little (besides Prophets say, the real Prophet Job xxxvi. 2, comp. x. 25; xvi. 14; xxiv. must say. This true "rest of the 6; xxix. 17). The contemptuous designation people of God," says Isaiah, Jehovah has not σεрμonóуos which the Athenian Philosophers merely shown from afar. He has also comgave the Apostle Paul, has been fitly compared manded to put the weary souls longing for salva(Acts xvii. 18). tion in possession of it, (to procure rest for 6. For with stammering—and taken.-one, xiv. 3), and has offered the place of rest, i. Vers. 11-13. The Prophet replies to this mock-e., the real means of grace and salvation. ing speech, and concedes that it is to a certain means elsewhere, place of rest; but here I take extent accurate and just. For these scoffing it in the sense of rest (comp. lxvi. 1) in opposiwords will indeed be spoken. But not as those drunkards think. For (? ver. 11) the LORD will speak them to them by a foreign and hostile people, whose utterances will be to them as stammering and strange jargon. y balbutiens, balbus, barbarus is found besides only Ps. xxxv. 16. In chap. xxxiii. 19 Isaiah uses in the same sense, and likewise of the Assyrian language the participle Niphal . It is easy to conceive that the Assyrian language, as being much less cultivated than their own, and having only the three fundamental vowels a, i, u, made upon the Israelites the impression of being as the lisping of children. What a Nemesis! Because this people to whom the LORD spake words of comfort in its own mother tongue would not hear them, it must hear from the enemy's mouth harsh sounds, which fall on the ear like the scoffing words uttered against the Prophet, but have a quite different meaning; for they are words of command intending the destruction of the vanquished and captured people. The words T tion toy the place of rest (an. εy. Comp. Jer. vi. 16). Isaiah, in thus referring to a word of his colleague Micah, which he confirms and hand. The words appear too general for us to applies, reaches him here again the fraternal find any political allusions in them. When in ver. 13 the scornful words of the Prophet's adversaries are employed as a weapon turned against themselves, it seems to me that what makes it possible to put them in the enemies' mouth lies not merely in the effect upon the ear, in the resemblance to stammering sounds, but in the actual meaning also. As we found in PP xviii. 2, 7 the meaning of a short, sharp order, this meaning seems still more to lie in the present place. The Israelites will hear nothing but such short, monosyllabic words. But they will be words full of meaning, whose effect will be seen in what we read at the close of ver. 13. For to fall backward and be broken and snared and taken captive will be the doom of the presumptuous people. Ver. 13 b, from !, is an are almost literal reproduction of viii. 15. : IT 14 2. THE FALSE AND THE TRUE REFUGE. Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful 15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, And with "hell are we at agreement; When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, For we have made lies our refuge, And under falsehood have we hid ourselves: 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, A tried stone, a precious corner stone, A sure foundation: He that believeth shall not 'make haste. men, 17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, And righteousness to the plummet : And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, 19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: By day and by night; And it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. 20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it; And the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. 21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, That he may do his work, his strange work; And bring to pass his act, his strange act. 22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, 1 Heb. a treading down to it. 2 Or, when he shall make you to understand doctrine. b flee. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. Ver. 16. The Dagesh forte in D is manifestly intended to distinguish the word as a participle from the מוסד substantive Ver. 15. qui viv. So we are to read with the K'ri, | which is both supported and discountenanced by ver. 1, because the Kethibh has in xxxiii. 21 the signifi- 18, is anyhow unnecessary, for the perfect can be taken cation "oar," which is not suitable here; 2, on account as a futurum exactum (comp. iv. 4; vi. 11). of the assonance with, which would otherwise be lost; 3, because in ver. 18 b there is a blending of two figures for the sake of the alliteration. For is a scourge (x. 26), and is to overflow, inundate (comp. on ver. 2). A scourge when swung makes a flowing motion; but it does not inundate, overflow. Only the divine judgments do this, and these for another reason can be called the scourge of God. The K'ri y, here, Kaly only Lev. xxi. 18; xxii. 23. Ver. 21. On the absence of the preposition of place EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 1. Those scoffers, who are here described as the rulers of the people in Jerusalem, had naturally a foundation on which they rested, in opposition to the foundation of the Prophet which they derided. Their foundation was falsehood and deceit, by the aid of which they hoped that they would have nothing to fear from death and Hades. (Vers. 14 and 15). Against this foundation the LORD now says to them: I have laid in Zion my strong corner-and foundation-stone: only he who holds fast to it will not yield (ver. 16). And on this foundation-stone the building shall be erected by means of judgment and righteousness; but the flood of waters will sweep away that refuge of lies (ver. 17). And that covenant with death and Sheol will not stand. They who made it, shall be trodden down by those who shall come upon them as the scourge of God (ver. 18). That scourge, moreover, shall come not only once, but repeatedly by day and night. Then shall they hear no more a preaching by word, but a preaching by deed; and it will be ap nothing but terror (19). For Israel's might will then prove too weak (ver. 20). But the LORD will rise in might as formerly on Mount Perazim, and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to execute His very strange work of destruction, which pears to the secure Jews impossible (ver. 21). Therefore the scoffers should be quiet, that they may not remain forever in the snares mentioned ver. 13; for that they should not escape from them is announced by the Prophet as the decree of Jehovah, which cannot be averted (ver. 22). We perceive, therefore, that the section vers. 1422 corresponds exactly to the preceding one vers. 1-13, and especially to the vers. 9-13. For here the right foundation is set in opposition to that false one, resting on which those scoffers think that they may deride the Prophet (vers 14-17); then the vanity, yea destructiveness of that false foundation is shown (vers. 18-21), and the scoffers are accordingly exhorted to give up their mocking (ver. 22). 2. Therefore hear- -hid ourselves.-Vers. = is הנני יסד 14, 15. With 12, ver. 14, the Prophet introduces | foundation of truth is exhibited, it involves althe judgment of the LORD, which he has to publish ways eo ipso a promise. ? as has, been shown, on the ground of the accusation preferred vers. 9-13. This judgment is addressed to the scoffers corresponds to the in ver. 15. The false af(Prov. xxix. 8), whose derisive speeches (ver. 10) firmation necessitates a protest in which the truth are quoted, and who, after the judgment has been is testified. pronounced, are exhorted to mock no more (ver. 22). These scoffers are not insignificant men. They are the leaders of the people (xvi. 1; lii. 5), its Priests and Prophets (ver. 7). in the beginning of ver. 15 is "because;" the illative particle in ver. 16 corresponding to it. The utterance is put in the mouths of these people, which if not actually spoken by them, yet certainly corresponds to their actual conduct: we have made a covenant with death, etc. This explains why these people scoffed at the Prophet. They stand with their whole manner of thinking and feeling upon another foundation than his. Isaiah has the LORD Himself for his foundation. But they deride this very foundation. They have another and better, as they imagine. This is the art of falsehood, of cunning policy, of fine diplomacy. By its help they hope to be safe from death and Hades. The Prophet admonishes them to obey the LORD, and to trust in Him in order to find protection against Assyria. But in their opinion these are fanatical means of defence, which good policy could not employ. An alliance with Egypt, artfully planned, carried out with all diplomatic skill, appeared to those politicians to be a much more reliable, yea an infallible remedy against the threatening evils. For they hope through that alliance to be proof against death and Hades. They imagine that they have thereby as it were concluded a friendly alliance with death and Hades (n as lv. 3; lxi. 8). (comp. ver. 7), for which below in ver. 18 stands, has only here the signification "treaty, agreement." The lie of which they speak, may well refer to the relation of dependence on Assyria into which Ahaz, the predecessor of Hezekiah, had brought Judah (2 Kings xvi. 7819.). For they may even then have considered the right policy to consist in a secret league with Egypt, while appearing to stand by the obligations entered into towards Assyria. A like course was subsequently pursued (2 Kings xvii. 4; Ezek. xvii. 15, sqq.). The conjunction of non and 10 is characteristic of Isaiah, comp. ver. 17 and iv. 6. 3. Therefore thus saith the whole earth.-Vers. 16-22. The scoffers had declared that they had made falsehood their refuge, and that they hope relying on this refuge, to get the better of death and Hades. The Prophet wishes to expose the vanity of this hope. There is only one refuge that guarantees safety. This is the foundation, and corner-stone laid by the LORD Himself in Zion. The water sweeps away the other false foundation, and they who rest upon it go to ruin. Our passage contains, therefore, primarily not a promise, but a threatening. For first of all, the confidence expressed in ver. 15 is to be shown to be unfounded. But naturally the (unreal, resting only on appearance) negation of the truth can be overcome only by the positive setting forth of the truth. And where this real positive comp. xxix. 14; xxxviii. 5. But what sort of a stone is that which the LORD has laid in Zion? It must be a stone which really guarantees truth and right.__ Consequently it cannot be Zion itself (HITZIG, KNOBEL), nor the royal house of David (REINKE), nor Hezekiah (RABBIS, GESENIUS, MAURER and others; which explanation Theodoret characterizes as άνοια ἐσχάτη), nor the temple (EWALD). As Isaiah does not say that they had made Egypt their refuge, but that they had made falsehood their refuge, the antithesis to this refuge of lies can only be a refuge of truth. As such we might, with UMBREIT, regard the law, or, with SCHEGG, the word of Gol in general. But the law and the word of God, so far as they are laid in Zion as objective means of Salvation, suppose a still deeper, a personal foundation: the law supposes Him through whom the revelation of the law took place; the spoken and written word supposes the living, personal word of God Himself, the Logos (So the Catholic expositors LOCH and REISCHL, Comp. REINKE, the Messianic Prophecies I. p. 404). The Logos, the only mediator between God and men, the Messiah promised in the Old Covenant, who has appeared in the New, this is the personal and living foundation-stone laid in Zion, on whom the whole building fitly framed together grows unto a holy (erected therefore according to the line of right and justice) building (Eph. iii. 20 sqq.). That the personal Word of the LORD can be called a stone, is apparent from viii. 14, where Jehovah Himself is called and 3. It is not impossible that Isaiah had this last passage Psalm had in ver. 22 regard to both these pasin view, and perhaps the composer of the 118th sages of Isaiah. Anyhow Peter (1 Pet. ii. 6–8) combines these three places. The LORD Himself (Matt. xxi. 42-44) had in view the place in the Psalms and Isa. viii. 14 sq.; and Paul, Rom. ix. 33, refers to both places of Isaiah; while in Acts iv. 11 reference is made to the 118th Psalm only; and in Rom. x. 11, solely to the place before us. The stone laid in Žion is further called an ¡¡, i. e., lapis probationis. The term can be taken in an active or passive sense: a tried and a trying stone. The former would mark its tested firmness, the latter would express the idea, that the thoughts of the hearts must be made manifest by it. For no one can escape it, but all must be tried on it, and it must have some effect on all, and be either for their fall or rising. The passages Matt. xxi. 44; Luke ii. 34 speak strongly for the latter view. I do not dispute it, but I believe that the Prophet designedly chose an ambiguous expression. For the former interpretation is likewise recommended, being naturally suggested by the expression employed, and by the context. We expect to hear the nature of the stone extolled, and not merely to be told what service it can render. That the praise should be expressed in this particular form is in accordance with the usus io TT serves as the scourge of God. This host shall stamp the scoffers under foot, shall tread them like dirt on the streets. The Prophet had expressly declared in x. 6 that the army of the Assyrians should do this. But the scourge will come not once only, but often. Ver. 19. The expression p is suggested by another image, namely, the idea of something which takes away (Jer. xv. 15), snatches, washes away, correspond comes along by rushes. In fact, the invasions by the Assyrians and by the Chaldaeans, who were called to complete their work, were as waterfloods that kept ever inundating the land till it was entirely desolated (xxiv. 1, 3). The second half* of ver. 19 is clearly related to " j'ɔ' in ver. quendi observable in this chapter, in which so many designations of a property are denoted by a substantive in the genitive (vers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8). is corner. And a stone which forms the corner is naturally a corner-stone. (Comp. xix. 13; Job xxxviii. 6; Jer. li. 26; Ps. cxviii. 22). P is here, as perhaps also Ps. xxxvii. 20; Prov. xvii. 27, a substantive, preciousness, so that we must translate; a corner-stone of preciousness of a founded foundation (ping therefore to, as a mighty flood which after the form, comp. 2 Chron. viii. 16; Isa. xxx. 32; Ezek. xli. 8; D Part Hoph.), i. e., a corner-stone well suited (1 Kings v. 31; vii. 9-11) for a firm foundation. The emphatic expression 70D is like D' Dan Prov. xxx. 24. We have already observed that the Prophet shows here a predilection for the accumulation of substantives in the genitive. The firm foundation-stone manifests its saving efficacy, not in a magical way; but this efficacy is conditioned by the inward susceptibility, or faith. The firm foundation itself requires a keeping fast to it. Therefore the Prophet adds: He who believes flees not.-This apothegmatic addition `reminds us, both by its form and tenor, of chapter vii. 9 תאֲמִינוּ כִּי אם לא לא 9. There the scoffers had asked: to whom will he preach? They thought themselves much too high to need the preaching of the Prophet. In opposition to this language Isaiah now tells them: because you would not hear my well-meant preaching by word, which was designed to give you, you will be compelled to hear a preaching in act, and it will be naught but terror. If .מנוחה stands therefore opposed to זועה in ver. 9 y signified "to make to know, nexion in which it here stands signify "to hear or understand preaching," it must in the conpreaching" (comp. xxix. 16; Job xxviii. 23; Micah iv. 12 et saepe). For it is not the preacher who experiences terror, but he who hears the preaching. (only here in Isaiah, besides comp. Deut. xxviii. 25; Jer. xv. 4 et saepe; Ezek. xxiii. 46) is concussio, commotio vehemens, formido. The subject of the sentence is ' and the predicate . Is not that a dreadful preaching, when compared to a bed that is too short, or to a one finds himself in a situation which is fittingly occurs further xxx. 21; xliii. 10; liii. 1. is here not indirectly (to make something or another hasten, v. 19; lx. 22) but directly causative; to make haste, to flee hastily, to retreat. There lies in it an antithesis to the idea of firmness, which is contained in what is said of the stone, and in D. The word has this meaning no where else. Where the firm foundation is objectively laid, and the individual subjectively in faith keeps fast on it, then the erection of a holy temple in the LORD is possible, an erection in which right serves for the line (P comp. on ver. 10), and righteousness for the plummet (np only here, comp. pp 2 Kings xxi. 13); a figurative expression, the meaning of which can be only this, that this building will arise according to the rules of divine justice, and will consequently be a holy building. DD and 3 stand here related as in i. 27; v. 16; ix.6; xxxii. 16; xxxiii. 5; lvi. 1; lix. 9, 14. This building stands firm. But the refuge of lies and the hiding-place of deceit the hail will sweep away (, whence y a shovel for the clearing away of ashes from the altar, Ex. xxvii. 3; xxxviii. 3; Numb. iv. 14 et saepe, is än. λɛy.) and the waters wash away (ver. 2). In consequence, that covenant with death and Hades, of which they boasted (ver. 15), shall be covered, i. e., obliterated, annulled. The covenant is conceived of as a written document, whose lines are covered, i. e., overspread with thee, fluid used for writing. Comp. obliterare offensionem, famam, memoriam. To 12 in verse 15, T : covering that is too narrow?—This is a distressful condition. For resistance is encountered on all sides, and the means are insufficient for any undertaking. P in Isaiah besides only 1.2; lix. 1. yn stratum, än hɛy. П besides only xxv. 7. D, colligere, coacervare, Hithp. se ipsum colligere, to make of one's self a heap, only here. in 22 marks coincidence = when one bends one's-self together, coils one's-self (xviii. 3; xxiii. 5). That such will really be the nature of the situation is now further illustrated by two historical examples. Israel will themselves be in a condition like that in which they through God's help twice brought their enemies. One of these events to which the Prophet here alludes, is the defeat which David inflicted on the Philistines at Baal-Perazim (2 Sam. v. 20; 1 Chr. xiv. 11). David there said before Jehovah has broken through my enemies perceived that Isaiah was led to think of this me, as water breaks through. VITRINGA passage by what he had said in ver. 17 and ver. The other event I take, with .מים שֹׁטְפִים corresponds. Comp. v. 5; vii. 2 of the והייתם לו למרמס 25; x. 6. The Prophet here leaves the image out of sight. The expression is shaped by his realizing in thought the thing signified by the previous figure, namely, the invading host which most of the older interpreters, to be the defeat which Joshua inflicted on the Canaanites at Gibeon (Jos. x. 10). There, in ver. 11, it is said expressly that the LORD crushed the enemy by a |