Isaiah 26:20

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers,.... These words are either to be connected with the preceding verse Isaiah 26:19, and considered as a part of the song; and then the design of them is,

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers.

Having foretold the wonderful deliverance and great happiness of God’ s people, and the utter destruction of their enemies, lest they should think they were now entering into the possession of this felicity, he adds what here follows, and intimates, that for the present they were to expect storms, and to prepare for them, and patiently to wait God’ s time for the accomplishment of so great a mercy. Enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; withdraw thyself from the company and conversation of the wicked world, lest partaking with them in their sins thou dost also partake of their plagues; pour out thy prayers to God in thy closet, as this may be explained by comparing ; put thyself under the protection of my providence and grace by faith and prayer. He alludes to the common practice of men, who when there are storms or dangers abroad, betake themselves into their own houses or chambers for safety; or, as some think, to that history, ,20, or to that command of not going out of their houses, , or to the like charge given to Rahab, as the condition of her preservation, Joshua 2. For a little moment; whereby he intimates that all their afflictions, how long and tedious soever they may seem, are but short and momentary, in comparison of that happiness which is reserved for them. The indignation; the dreadful effects of God’ s anger, those sore judgments of God mentioned in the following verse.

Isaiah 26:20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.Ver. 20. Come, my people.] Thus God lovingly bespeaketh his, as leading them by the hand to a hiding place of his providing. So he shut up Noah in the ark, secured Lot in Zoar, hid Jeremiah and Baruch when sought for to the slaughter, bade Daniel to go away and rest before those great troubles foretold. Augustine and Paraeus died a little before Hippo and Heidelberg were taken, so did Luther before the bloody wars of Germany. For Mr Brightman a pursuivant was sent a day or two after he was buried. The burying place is not unfitly called κοιμητηριον, a resting room to the saints; the grave a "bed"; the bier that carrieth men to it, Matteh, i.e., a pallet. Lyra and others by "chambers" here understand the graves, those chambers of rest, and beds of down, to the bodies of the saints until the last day. There are those who by "chambers" will have meant the closets of God’ s providence and protection, such as Pella was to the primitive Christians. Hitherto the saints are exhorted to retire till the storm be over, the enemy gone, the destroying angel passed over, possessing their souls in patience. As it were for a little moment.] Heb., A little of a moment. Nubecula est, cito transibit, as Athanasius said when persecuted by Julian, This storm will soon blow over, this indignation doth not transire, but pertransire, pass, but pass apace. Life of King James, by Wilson. Sozom., lib. xv. cap. 5.

(20) Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers.—The vision of the judgments and the glory of the future leads the prophet to his work as a preacher of repentance in the present. His people also need the preparation of silent and solitary prayer (Matthew 6:6; Psalms 27:5; Psalms 31:21). As men seek the innermost recesses of their homes while the thunderstorm sweeps over the city, so should they seek God in that solitude till the great tempest of His indignation has passed by.

Verse 20. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers] An exhortation to patience and resignation under oppression, with a confident expectation of deliverance by the power of God manifestly to be exerted in the destruction of the oppressor. It seems to be an allusion to the command of Moses to the Israelites, when the destroying angel was to go through the land of Egypt, "not to go out at the door of their houses until the morning;" Exodus 12:22. And before the passage of the Red Sea: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of JEHOVAH. JEHOVAH shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace," Exodus 14:13-14.

20, 21. The storm of judgment is about to burst on the world, but it will be of short duration; let the people seclude themselves in the privacy of their chambers and wait for a glorious salvation (cf. Zephaniah 2:3; Daniel 12:13).

Come, my people - This is an epilogue (Rosenmuller), in which the choir addresses the people, and entreats them to be tranquil during that convulsion by which their oppressors would be punished, and

20. The foregoing song now ends, and Isaiah again speaks as a prophet. While judgment passes on the world hostile to Israel, Israel, restored to Zion in vision, is called to silent adoration and prayer.