Isaiah 24:23

Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed,.... Either literally understood; and the meaning is, that they shall be darkened, their light being eclipsed by the superior light of Christ,

Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed. The sun and moon are here considered either, 1. As they were abused to idolatry; for these two were most eminent idols, and most generally worshipped, especially in those Eastern countries, 17:3 , &c., and so may be put for all idols, which were confounded by Christ at his coming, as was foretold in Scripture, and verified by the testimony of ancient, yea, even of heathen historians. Or, 2. As they were the most eminent and glorious lights of the world, and were oft used, both in Scripture and other authors, to signify the great kings, and potentates, and glories of the world, as hath been formerly noted, and we shall have further occasion to remember. So the sense is, that all earthly powers and glories should be obscured with the far greater splendour of Christ, the King of kings, at whose feet even the kings of the earth shall fall down and worship, as we shall see in other parts of this prophecy. The Lord of hosts; the Messiah, who, though man, yet is also God, and the Lord of hosts, and is so called, ,11. Shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; shall come in the flesh, and set up his kingdom, first in Jerusalem, and afterward in all other nations. Before his ancients; before his ministers, who are in some sort the courtiers of this King of glory, as being continually attending upon him, and enjoying his presence, and executing the powers and offices of his kingdom; and especially before his apostles, who were the witnesses of his Divine words and works, and particularly of his resurrection and ascension, by which he entered upon his kingdom; and of this exercise of his royal power, in subduing both Jews and Gentiles to himself. The word ancient or elder is not a name of age, but of office, as it is in very many texts of Scripture. And the ancients are here put synecdochically for the whole church, in whose name and for whose service they act. Gloriously, Heb. in glory, for that preposition is very frequently understood.

Isaiah 24:23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.Ver. 23. Then the moon shall be confounded.] The glory of Christ’ s kingdom shall be so great, that in comparison to it the sun and moon shall cast no light. See Isaiah 24:23; Isaiah 60:19. When the Lord of hosts.] The Lord Christ, summus caelitum Imperator. And before his ancients.] The whole Church and especially her officers, which are the glory of Christ.

(23) The moon shall be confounded . . .—The thought implied is that the most glorious forms of created light will become dim, the moon red as with the blush of shame, the sun turning pale, before the glory of Jehovah’s presence. The Lord of hosts shall reign . . .—Better, hath become king, the phrase being that used as in 2 Samuel 5:4; 1 Kings 15:1, for a king’s accession to his throne. And before his ancients gloriously.—Better, and before his elders shall he glory. The “elders” are, like the seventy of Exo 24:9, like the twenty-four of Rev 4:4, the chosen ones of the new Jerusalem, to whom it shall be given, as the counsellors of the great King, to see His glory, that glory resting on them as in old time it rested upon Moses.

Verse 23. Before his ancients gloriously] In the sigt of their olde men he schal ben glorified. Old MS. BIBLE. "The figurative language of the prophets is taken from the analogy between the world natural and an empire or kingdom considered as a world politic. Accordingly the whole world natural, consisting of heaven and earth, signifies the whole world politic, consisting of thrones and people; or so much of it as is considered in prophecy: and the things in that world signify the analogous things in this. For the heavens and the things therein signify thrones and dignities, and those who enjoy them; and the earth with the things thereon, the inferior people; and the lowest parts of the earth, called hades or hell, the lowest or most miserable part of them. Great earthquakes, and the shaking of heaven and earth, are put for the shaking of kingdoms, so as to distract and overthrow them; the creating a new heaven and earth, and the passing away of an old one, or the beginning and end of a world, for the rise and ruin of a body politic signified thereby. The sun, for the whole species and race of kings, in the kingdoms of the world politic; the moon, for the body of the common people, considered as the king's wife; the stars, for subordinate princes and great men; or for bishops and rulers of the people of God, when the sun is Christ: setting of the sun, moon, and stars, darkening the sun, turning the moon into blood, and falling of the stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom." Sir I. Newton's Observations on the Prophecies, Part I., chap. 2. These observations are of great consequence and use, in explaining the phraseology of the prophets.

23. the moon shall be confounded … ashamed] i.e. shall “pale their ineffectual fires” before the light of Jehovah’s presence (see ch. Isaiah 60:19). A punishment of the sun and moon, as representatives of the “host of heaven,” is not to be thought of. The words “moon” and “sun” are poetic, signifying respectively “the white” and “the hot.” (Cf. ch. Isaiah 30:26) the lord of hosts shall reign] Lit. “hath proclaimed Himself king.” before his ancients gloriously] Render with R.V. marg. before his ancients (elders) shall be glory. There is an allusion to the Theophany seen by the seventy elders of Israel at Mount Sinai, recorded in Exodus 24:9-10. It is significant that the representatives of the redeemed community who stand nearest to Jehovah are not a king and princes, as in ch. Isaiah 32:1, nor priests, as in Ezekiel’s Temple-vision, but a council of elders.

Then the moon shall be confounded - The heavenly bodies are often employed in the sacred writings to denote the princes and kings of the earth.

21-23. In these verses the view is also apocalyptic, but the visitation is of punishment to the host of the high ones… on high. Rather more than possibly, this means, fallen angels, acting as guardians to evil powers on earth.