Isaiah 25:10

For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest,.... Where he will make the feast of fat things, Isaiah 25:6 even in his church, which is his resting place, and where he delights to dwell; and

For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill. The hand of the Lord rest - as its permanent protector: on "hand" in this sense, cf.

Shall the hand of the Lord rest; the powerful and gracious presence of God (which is oft signified in Scripture by God’ s hand) shall have its constant and settled abode; it shall not move from place to place, as it did with the tabernacle; nor shall it depart from it, as it did from Jerusalem; but shall continue in his church even to the end of the world, . Moab; the Moabites, which having been constant and implacable enemies to Israel, are synecdochically put for all the enemies of God’ s church, as the Edomites upon the same account are, 63:1. Under him; under his feet, as appears by the following similitude. Even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill; as easily and as effectually as the straw, which being left upon the ground, and mixed with the dung which lies there, is trampled upon by the feet of men and beasts.

Isaiah 25:10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.Ver. 10. For in this mountain.] In the Church. Shall the hand of the Lord rest,] i.e., Settle for their safeguard. And Moab shall be trodden down,] i.e., Contumax quisque et perversus hostis Dei et Ecclesiae. Piscator thinketh Papists are here meant by these Moabites, who were nearly allied to God’ s Israel, but ardeliones, bitter and brutish enemies, skilful only to destroy. As straw for the dunghill.] Or, As straw in Madmenah. God will make a hand of all his people’ s adversaries, as is here and in the following verses set forth by three several metaphors. Junius.

(10) Moab shall be trodden down . . .—There seems at first something like a descent from the great apocalypse of a triumph over death and sin and sorrow, to a name associated with the local victories or defeats of a remote period in the history of Israel. The inscription of the Moabite stone, in connection with Isaiah 15, helps to explain the nature of the allusion. Moab had been prominent among the enemies of Israel; the claims of Chemosh, the god of Moab, had been set up against those of Jehovah, the God of Israel (Records of the Past, xi. 166), and so the name had become representative of His enemies. There was a mystical Moab, as there was afterwards a mystical Babylon, and in Rabbinic writings a mystical Edom (i.e., Rome). The proud nation was to lie wallowing in the mire of shame, trampled on by its s on the threshing-floor is trampled by the oxen till it looks like a heap of dung. In the Hebrew word for “dunghill” (madmçnah) we may probably trace a reference to the Moabite city of that name (Jeremiah 48:2), in which Isaiah sees an unconscious prophecy of the future condition of the whole nation.

Verse 10. Shall the hand of the Lord rest - "The hand of JEHOVAH shall give rest"] Heb. תנוח tenuach, quiescet. Annon תניח taniach, quietem dabit, shall rest; shall give rest, ut Graeci, αναπαυσινδωσει, et Copt.? - Mr. WOIDE. That is, "shall give peace and quiet to Sion, by destroying the enemy;" as it follows. As straw is trodden down - "As the straw is threshed"] Hoc juxta ritum loquitur Palastinae et multarum Orientis provinciarum, quae ob pratorum et foeni penuriam paleas preparant esui animantium. Sunt autem carpenta ferrata rotis per medium in serrarum modum se volventibus, quae stipulam conterunt; et comminuunt in paleas. Quomodo igitur plaustris ferratis paleae conteruntur, sic conteretur Moab sub eo; sive sub Dei potentia, sive in semetipso, ut nihil in eo integri remaneat. "This is spoken in reference to the mode of threshing in Palestine, and various other Asiatic provinces. Because of the scarcity of meadow land and hay they make chopped straw for the cattle. They have large wheels studded over with iron teeth or nails, by which, on the out-of-door threshing-floors, they pound and reduce the straw into chaff. As, therefore, the straw is reduced to chaff by bringing the iron-shod wheel over it; so shall Moab be bruised by the power of God, that nothing whole shall remain." - Hieron. in loc. See Clarke on Isaiah 28:27. For the dunghill - "Under the wheels of the car."] For מדמנה madmenah, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read מרכבה mercabah, which I have followed. See Joshua 15:31, compared with Joshua 19:5, where there is a mistake very nearly the same. The keri, במי bemi, is confirmed by twenty-eight MSS., seven ancient, and three editions.

10. The fate of Moab is contrasted with that of Israel. It is as if one hand of Jehovah rested lightly and protectingly on Zion while the other crushes and extinguishes Moab. under him] means “under himself,” i.e. in the place where he (Moab) stands. for the dunghill] R.V. in the water of the dunghill rightly follows the consonantal text in opposition to the Massoretic tradition. But it should have at the same time substituted “dung-pit” for “dunghill.” This word (madmçnâh) is perhaps a play on the name Madmen (Jeremiah 48:2); it also resembles the word for “straw” (mathbçn).

For in this mountain - In mount Zion. Shall the land of the Lord rest - “The hand” in the Scriptures is often used as the symbol of protection and defense.

10. In this mountain — Zion, symbol again of God’s located presence and power, namely, his Church.