Isaiah 56:9

All ye beasts of the field, come to devour,.... Which may be understood either literally of savage beasts being called to devour the slain, signifying a great slaughter that should be made, like that

All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.

This invitation or proclamation is a prediction of Israel’ s destruction by their cruel enemies, which are oft expressed in Scripture under the names of ravenous beasts. But the great question is, What connexion this part of the chapter hath with the former? Which may be thus conceived: The prophet having largely discoursed concerning the Messiah, and his church and kingdom, and particularly of the great accession and conversion of the Gentiles to it, and of the infidelity, apostacy, and manifold wickednesses of the Jewish nation, and having comforted and encouraged the Gentiles with God’ s gracious promises made to them, he now proceeds to terrify the unbelieving and ungodly Jews, and to show that as the Gentiles should believe, and be saved, so they should reject their Messiah, and be utterly destroyed; although we need not labour much about the coherence; for this may be a new sermon, and therefore many learned interpreters make this the beginning of the 57th chapter.

Isaiah 56:9 All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, [yea], all ye beasts in the forest.Ver. 9. All ye beasts of the field, come to devour.] Statim quasi vehementer ira accensus, &c. All upon the sudden, as one much enraged against the wicked priests especially, as greatest traitors to the state, the Lord thundereth and threateneth terribly. By the beasts here called for, we may understand the Babylonians, Grecians, Syrians, Egyptians, but especially the Romans, who made clean work of them, whenas they were grown extremely wicked, and even ripe for ruin, as Josephus witnesseth. See Jeremiah 50:17.

(9) All ye beasts of the field . . .—The sudden change of tone indicates that we enter on an entirely new section, which extends to the close of Isaiah 57. The contents of that section fit in with the assumption of its having been written early in the reign of Manasseh, better than With that of a date after the exile. The opening words summon the enemies of Israel to do their work of punishment, and this is followed naturally by a denunciation of the sins which had made it necessary. For the form of the summons, comp. Ezekiel 34:8; Jeremiah 12:9.

Verse 9. All ye beasts of the field] Here manifestly begins a new section. The prophet in the foregoing chapters, having comforted the faithful Jews with many great promises of God's favour to be extended to them, in the restoration of their ruined state, and in the enlargement of his Church by the admission of the Gentiles; here on a sudden makes a transition to the more disagreeable part of the prospect, and to a sharp reproof of the wicked and unbelievers; and especially of the negligent and faithless governors and teachers, of the idolaters and hypocrites, who would still draw down his judgments upon the nation. Probably having in view the destruction of their city and polity by the Chaldeans, and perhaps by the Romans. The same subject is continued in the next chapter; in which the charge of corruption and apostasy becomes more general against the whole Jewish Church. Some expositors have made great difficulties in the 9th verse of this chapter, where there seems to be none. It is perfectly well explained by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 12:7; Jeremiah 12:9, where, having introduced God declaring his purpose of punishing his people, by giving them up as a prey to their enemies the Chaldeans, a charge to these his agents is given in words very nearly the same with those of Isaiah in this place: - "I have forsaken my house; I have deserted my heritage; I have given up the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies.- Come away, be gathered together, all ye beasts of the field; Come away to devour." All ye beasts in the forest - "All ye beasts of the forest."] Instead of ביער baiyaar, three MSS. have יער yaar, without the preposition; which seems to be right, and is confirmed by ali the ancient Versions.

Ch. Isaiah 56:9 to Isaiah 57:21. A Protest against the Unworthy Shepherds of God’s Flock, and the arrogant Heathenism by which it is threatened; followed by a Message of Consolation to True IsraelitesThis sombre and impassioned discourse is composed of three parts: i. ch. Isaiah 56:9 to Isaiah 57:2.—The defenceless condition of the community, due to the incompetence of its spiritual leaders. (1) All the wild beasts of the field and the forest are invited to come and devour the unprotected flock (Isaiah 56:9). (2) For its rulers neglect their duty; they are inefficient as dumb dogs, they are slothful, greedy and sensual (Isaiah 56:10-12). (3) In consequence of their incapacity the righteous perish, none regarding their fate (Isaiah 57:1-2). ii. Isaiah 57:3-13 a. A bitter tirade against an insolent and aggressive paganising party, animated by a contemptuous hostility towards the true religion. (1) This party, which is characterised as a bastard and hybrid race, the illegitimate offspring of an adulterer and a harlot, is summoned to the bar to hear the Divine sentence on their career of flagrant idolatry (Isaiah 57:3-4). (2) The indictment follows, in the form of a recital of the varied heathen rites to which they were addicted (Isaiah 57:5-9), and in which with infatuated perversity they still persist in spite of all the teachings of experience (Isaiah 57:10-11). (3) Judgement is then pronounced; Jehovah will unmask the hypocrisy of their pretended righteousness, and leave them to the protection of the false deities whom they have so diligently served, but who shall be unable to save them (Isaiah 57:12-13). iii. Isaiah 57:14-21. The prophet now turns with a message of comfort to the depressed and contrite people of God. The obstacles in the way of their salvation shall be removed (Isaiah 57:14); Jehovah, whose condescension brings Him near to the lowly in heart, will at length avert His anger, and bring healing and peace (Isaiah 57:15-19); only the wicked who persist in their impenitence are excluded from the promised blessing (Isaiah 57:20-21). Isaiah 56:9 to Isaiah 57:2. Denunciation of the worthless rulers of the Jewish community.—The difficulty of supposing that this passage refers to the state of things in the Exile is obvious. Israel is compared to a flock in charge of its own shepherds; and these shepherds are responsible both for the internal disorders from which it suffers, and the outward dangers which threaten it. An invitation to the wild beasts (the heathen nations) to come and devour a people already “robbed and spoiled” (Isaiah 42:22) by foreign conquest, is almost inconceivable. It is of course possible, as many scholars hold, that the verses are extracted from a pre-exilic prophecy; but the description is at least as applicable to the conditions which existed after the return from Babylon. The books of Malachi and Nehemiah reveal incidentally a state of affairs which would go far to account for the dark picture here presented of the ruling classes in the restored community.

All ye beasts of the field - This evidently commences a new subject, and refers to some invasion of the land of Judea.

9. An abrupt change of the current of thought here occurs. The prophet’s bright prospect is checked, and he turns to things as they are in his own times. In the reign of Abaz, idolatry prevailed.