on.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

1. The meaning of this section is twofold. | of a German bushel.-TR.] of fruits (ver. 10). The First of all it contains a specification of the sour second woe pertains to high livers and gluttons, grapes, and a corresponding announcement of that begin early and leave off late (ver. 11), and punishment. In this matter the Prophet begins who, amid the noise of music and the banquet, with a certain selection. For he does not censure never come to regard Jehovah's work (ver. 12). For all sins, but only the sins of the eminent, and this the people must wander into exile, and high eminent sins. Thus six evil fruits are enume- rank and low rank shall perish of hunger and rated, and what the Prophet has to say with refer- thirst (v. 13), and be used only to be cast into the ence to each begins with a woe. But a detailed jaws of the insatiably greedy underworld (ver. 14). announcement of punishment follows on each of Then shall human pride be humbled (ver. 15), and the first two woes only, after the description of the the Lord, the righteous judge shall appear then sinful condition with which they are concerned. as alone high in His righteousness and holiness For the following woes there follows an announce- (ver. 16), the waste places of the fallen grandees ment of punishment common to all from ver. 24 shall become the pastures of the flocks of alien This difference observed by the Prophet in tribes (ver. 17). The third woe is proclaimed against regard to the order of his topics is connected with the insolent mockers that do evil with a very the second meaning of the passage: that is to say rage for it (ver. 18), and with blasphemous conit contains at the same time the twofold conclusion tempt, challenge the Lord, in whom they do not of the second portal, i. e. of the whole discourse believe, to oppose His work to their own (ver. 19). from chap. ii.—v. For the announcement of The fourth woe strikes those who perversely call punishment after the second woe, which is in pro- exactly that good which is bad, and that bad portion long extended through five verses (v. 13- which is good (ver. 20). The fifth woe concerns the 17), manifestly contains a relative ending: the conceited that think they alone are wise (ver. 21). wicked city sinks into the lower world, and the The sixth woe, finally, is proclaimed against the grass grows over its grave. These are manifest- oppressors and unjust, who in order to live high, ly, I may say, final chords. But in as much as turn aside justice for a vile reward (vers. 22, 23). the Prophet, vers. 15 and 16, reiterates verbatim the The threatening, that those who have despised fundamental thought of his first illumination of the law of Jehovah, shall be destroyed root and the present, he gives us to understand that he branch, corresponds to the last four woes in comwould have this first (relative) conclusion refer to mon (ver. 24). For this the people shall be smitten the first half of his discourse (chap. ii. and iii). and their dead bodies be cast into the streets like And as he handles the following twice-two woes sweepings. But that is not enough even (ver. 25). differently from the first two, he intimates that Foreign nations shall be brought from a distance they have another purpose. They are not inter- against Israel (26). They shall vigorously and rupted in their sequence by announcements of pun- zealously accomplish the work to which they are ishment coming between, but these follow after as called (27-29). Then like the roaring surges of common to all, Precisely by this concentration the sea the enemy shall break over Israel. Israel the Prophet gains a highly effective conclusion shall see nothing on the earth but dark night: inof the whole discourse, but which at the same time stead of a protection against rain and storm (iv. 6), undeniably refers to the second lamp (chap. iv. a dark storm-cloud shall envelop the earth that and v.), just as we have seen that the first (rela- shall turn aside the vivifying and warming light tive) conclusion refers to the first lamp. One (v. 30). recognizes this from the comparison of ver. 24, drawn from vegetation, especially from the notions "root" and "scion," in which the reference back to the branch, chap. iv., 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. ii.-v., 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 divigion 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 (ver. 8). These are threatened that their houses shall be destroyed (ver. 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

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 (iv. 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.Vers. 8-16. On 17 comp. remarks at i. 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 (Lev. xxv. 10-13; 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 (ii. 3), shall be desolated. and the great and beautiful ones shall be without dwellers. This desolation of the houses is ascribed

How

to the sterility that comes on the land as a pun- on the sounding board, comp. xvi. 11; xxiii. 16; ishment from God. For the Pentateuch threatens the disobedience of Israel with this punishment, xxiv. 8; xxx. 32), 2 (i. e., every stringed inand that in not a few passages: Lev. xxvi. 18-20; strument, whose strings are stretched over a bagDeut. xi. 17; xxviii. 17 sq., 23 sq., 38 sqq. shaped sounding board by means of a bridge, for great the barrenness shall be may be determined is properly the bag.-comp. xiv. 11; xxii. from the fact, that ten acres of vine land will only yield a bucket of wine, and a bushel of seed 24), (the hand drum, the tambourine, xxiv. only the tenth part as much fruit.-3 is a pair of beasts of burden bound by a yoke (Judg. xix. 8; xxx. 32), and (the flute, literally bored 10; 1 Sam. xi. 7; Isn. xxi. 7, 9), then a piece of out, hollow, xxx. 29). Comp. HERZOG'S R. Enground as great as such a Toy could plow up in cycl. X. p. 126 sqq. If now it is added, "and wine" a day. If a vineyard is not plowed it might still be is their drink, it is to prevent one from thinking measured by the acre. How large a surface a Ty that ver. 12 a indicates a different situation from might be according to our measures, has never that of ver. 11; rather the identity of both is exyet been made out. Comp. Unterss. über die Län-pressly made prominent. gen-Feld-und Wege Masse, insbesondere der Greichen und der luden von L. FENNER V. FENNEBERG, Berlin, 1859, p. 96.

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

a bath (comp. at n ver. 6) is the principal measure for fluids, like the ephah for dry measure. Both are the tenth part of a homer or 113, cor. Ezek. xlv. 11, 14), 5 occurs only here in Isa. way regard. The greatest misery ever known to "pr homer, (probably the burden of a ", an ass., and debauchery that wickedly forgot the one antiquity was destined to follow this luxury, whence Judg. xv. 16; 1 Sam. xvi. 2 1 stands thing needful; the wandering into exile. One directly for 2) does not again occur in Isa. in with such a herd of humanity, driven away as may see from Lam. v., how distressingly it went this sense. Also 's an ephah" is only here they were like cattle. Because the nation had in Isa. There is still great uncertainty regarding not regarded what would promote its peace, it the relation of these measures to those used by us. If THENIUS (The ancient Hebrew long and hollow signified both: without insight, and unawares. must go out "unawares," nya. In this is measures, Studien und Krit., 1846, Heft. 1 and 2) is The word designates the subjective state that was 10143.9 Paris cubic inches, then this would correct, who sets the contents of the homer at portrayed ver. 12 6, and at the same time the manabout correspond to the burden an ass can bear. break over them. ' is only found here. ner in which the objective divine judgment should 3. Woe unto them that rise up earlyshall strangers eat.-Vers. 11-17. The second But in Hos. iv. 6, which comp. лya hap is woe, the longest and most detailed, is directed found in a connection similar to this. Every against the high livers and gluttons. They rise long sitting of evenings so as to inflame them-4; Josh. xx. 3; Job xxxvi. 12). 12 here is not farly so as to go soon to drinking; they remain where beside it reads '7'73 (Deut. iv. 42; xix. selves with wine. "Woe to thee, O land, when causative, but negative: thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the BARNES and J. A. ALEXANDER retain the meaning = without. [LOWTH, morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy of the Eng. Vers.: "for want of knowledge.”—TR.] king is a noble, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength and not for drunkenness!" Eccl. The honored, the nobility of the people (72 1. 16, 17; Comp. xxii. 13; lvi. 12; Am. vi. 3 abstr. pro concer. comp. iv. 5; xvi. 14; xvii. 3; lx. 9. The Romans called feasts that began before 13; Ixvi. 12;) shall become starvelings, and the the usual time (i. e. in the ninth hour) tempestiva great crowd (noise, then what makes noise, convivia, seasonable feasts (Cic. de Senect. 14, &c.). the great crowd xvii. 12; xxix. 5-8,) shall pant Ab octava hora bibere was accounted debauchery with thirst. Many, like GESENIUS, would take Jun. 1, 49, comp. GESENIUS on our ver.). to mean the rich, because the word occurs is the artificial wine, and the natural. in the sense of "riches, treasures (lx. 5; Jer. prepared partly from dates, apples, iii. 23). But the Prophet announces the judgment pomegranates (Song of S. viii. 2), honey, barley, to the entire people (comp.py in the beginning Sidos, olvos spitos, HER. 2,77), partly by mix- of the verse): according to which it is quite suitture (like our punch, hence to mingle able for him to divide the totality into nobility drinky. 22); Comp. HERZOG's P. Encycl. XVII. and common people. When death has rich harP. 615. In general comp. xxiv. 9; xxviii. 7; its gates wide to receive the sacrifice. According vest on the earth, then the underworld must open xxix. 9; lvi. 12. to that then? therefore, ver. 14 stands to the

The first was

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. Prov. xxiii. 29 sq.

But to a jovial banquet belongs music. There does not fail 1 (the harp, i. e. a stringed instrument, with strings resting free and plumb

relation. A soul is ascribed to Sheol (the word

ver. 13, not in a co-ordinate but in a subordinate

It is therefore personified. The notion "soul" is is with few exceptions, e. g. Job xxvi. 6, feminine). 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., | substantives designate everything that is splendid Deut. xxiii. 25, "When thou comest into thy and makes a noise, be it person or thing. neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes (â. Aeу.), too, before which is to be supplied,

does not seem to exclude reference to things. For בַּעַל נֶפֶשׁ 2 .Comp. Prov. xxiii "בְּנַפְשְׁךְ שָׁבְעֶךְ

16.

T:

a greedy person; y ' Isa. lvi. 11, dogs strong in greediness; comp. Ps. xxvii. 12. The same expression as in our passage is found in Hab. ii. 5. The insatiable nature of the underworld is declared also Prov. xxvii. 20; xxx Sheol (in Isa. again xiv. 9, 11, 15; xxviii. 15, 18; xxxviii. 10, 18; lvii. 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

the lowest hell, Deut. xxxii. 22; Ps. lxxxvi. 13, coll. Ps. lxxxviii. 7; Lam. iii. 55; Isa. xliv. 23; Ezek. xxvi. 20; xxxii. 18, 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.

: שְׁאוֹל of the word

There are three views regarding the derivation 1) the older, according to which the word should be derived from

is softened from שְׁאוֹל

1

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. p. 1348) maintain that Sip. But y, which never occurs, must, according to the hollow hand, the excavator, inhabitant of caves, the fox, (Num. xxii. 24) the hollow way, have the meaning of being hollow. Sheol would, then, be "the cavern." 3) HUPFELD, EHLER, DELITZSCHI, refer the word back to the root,

why should not the music and all that pertains to a banquet (ver. 12) be called jovial? Comp. Ps.

xcvi. 12.

In as much as the Prophet in vers. 15 and 16 partly repeats verbatim the fundamental thoughts of the first half of this discourse, that we have called the first prophetic lamp (comp. ii. 9, 11, 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 ver. 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, iv. 2, 3). And thus the fundamental thoughts of the first and second lamp combine most beautifully.

T:

, which is the root of hy itself, and has the The first half of ver. 15 is repeated verbatim meaning of "hanging down loose, sinking down," so that Sheol would be "the sinking, going down from ii. 9 a. The second half of ver. 15 is, with deep." The matter is still undetermined. If it some abbreviation, taken from ii. 11 coll. ver. 17. is opposed to the first explanation that, according is the judicial act (comp. i. 21); in so far to it, a poetic epithet is made the chief name of as it is a realization of the idea of righteousness, the kingdom of the dead (comp. ŒHLER in HER- God at the same time proves Himself to be holy ZOG's R. Encycl. XXI. p. 412); so, too, both the (comp. Ezek. xx. 41; xxviii. 22, 25; xxxvi. 23; other views must make it comprehensible how an xxxviii. 16, 23). For holiness and righteousness comes to take the place of the middle radical. belong together like lamps and burning (ver. 17). All the glory of Jerusalem descends into the The Prophet concludes his mournful picture of the future in a highly poetic manner, in that on wide gaping throat of hell. the site of the once glorious and joyous city, now crowd here too (as in ver. 13), but as there is sunk into the ground (vers. 11, 12), he presents a here no contrast with the honored ones as there, pasture in which wandering nomads are feeding but only the notion of superabundance, of multi-their flocks. Comp. the quite similar pictures of tude, of tumult is added to that of glory, I allow myself with DRECHSLER to translate "riot and revel." strepitus, noise, is used of the roar of water (xvii. 12, 13), and of a multitude of men (xiii. 4; xxiv. 8; xxv. 5; lxvi. 6). The three

means the

future change of fortune. vii. 21-25; xvii. 2; xxxii. 13 sq.; Zeph. ii. 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 ex-
cavations can give a correct picture of the topo-
graphy of ancient Jerusalem. The land, how-
ever, 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 an-
nouncement of the Prophet. Yet it must not be
overlooked that the circumstances mentioned only
touch the outward side of the fulfilment. It can-
not be doubted that ver. 14 has been fulfilled also
in a deeper, more inward, and, I may say, tran-
scendental 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 D' 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, nomadie shepherds, in passing along, will stop there with their flocks.

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. -Ver. 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. xxviii. 15; Jer. v. 12 sq.; xvii. 15; Ezek. xii. 22.

5. Woe unto them-the righteous from him.-Vers. 20-23. That ver. 20 does not speak merely of perversion of justice, as some would have it, appears from the generality of its expréssions, and from ver. 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 Thess. ii. 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, Ps. xix. 9, the commandment of the LORD is clear as light, and ver. 11, sweeter than honey and the honey comb. But bitter appears in many places as the symbol of evil: Num. v. 18 sq.; Deut. xxxii. 32 sq.; Jer. ii. 19; Acts viii. 23; Heb. xii. 15. That to the bad it is just bad that tastes good, we read Job xx. 12; Prov. v.

3, 4.

4. Woe unto them-may know it.-Vers. 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 in the sense of "attrahere, draw toward," and 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 Ver. 21. The Prophet pronounces the fifth more exactly correspond to the notions andy, thus words that mean directly divine wisdom counts for nothing, but its own woe against the proud self-deification, to which punishment, judgment, destruction, ruin." I for everything. Comp. Prov. iii. 7; Jer. viii. 8 do not deny that under some circumstances the sq.; ix. 22 sq. The sixth woe, finally, vers. 22, words and NO may be taken in a sense bor- 23, strikes the unjust and oppressors, who sell dering very nearly on "guilt of sin, and punish- justice in order to obtain the means for enjoying ment of sin" (comp. the passages cited by KNO-a dissolute life. 10, mixing of drink, BEL, Gen. iv. 13; xix. 15; Ps. xxxi. 11; Zech. comp. on ver. 11. It is debatable whether the Hexiv. 19; Prov. xxi. 4; to which, also, I would brews were acquainted with wines prepared with add Isa. xxvii. 9, where these words in the paral- spices. HITZIG, HENDEWERK, DELITZSCH, mainlelism correspond to one another. See at the tain that proof that they did is wanting, and place). But, in the present instance, precisely take temperare aqua, to mix with water, the choice of these words proves to me that the Prophet did not think of the identity of the fruits in which sense the later Jews use . According 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

to BUXTORF, this word means: "miscuit, temper arit vinum affusa aqua " whence it is used directly for "infundere, to pour into." Comp. i Song of Sol. vii. 3. On the other hand GESE NIUS (with whom under the word 27 HITZIG had agreed) see word JD, WINER (R. W. 8. v. Wein, DRECHSLER, KNOBEL, LEYRER (in R. Encyl. xvii. p. 616) maintain most decidedly that the Hebrews were acquainted with spiced wines. WINER and LEYER dispute even that