Isaiah 57:5

Inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree,.... Or, "inflamed with or among oaks" (h); with images made of oaken wood, such as the Papists worship, Revelation 9:20 expressing a burning

Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? Enflaming yourselves with idols - burning with lust toward idols (Gesenius); or else (cf.

Inflaming yourselves with idols, Heb. Being inflamed, &c.; lusting after them, and mad upon them, as the phrase is, ; fervent both in making and in worshipping of them, as was observed, , &c. It is a metaphor borrowed from whoredom, to which idolatry is oft compared. Under every green tree; wheresoever you see an idol erected, which was commonly done in groves, or under great and shady trees, which both defended the worshippers from the heat of the sun, and were supposed to strike them with a kind of sacred horror and reverence. See Poole ""; See Poole ""; See Poole "". Slaying the children, in way of sacrifice to their idols, after the manner of the barbarous heathens; of which see on 23:10. In the valleys; or, beside the brooks, which run in the valleys; which was most commodious for such bloody work. He seems to allude to the valley of Hinnom, in which these cruelties were practised, , through which also the brook Kidron is supposed to have run. Under the clifts of the rocks; which they chose either for shade, or for those dark vaults and hollow places which were either by nature or art made in rocks, and which were convenient for and frequently appointed to idolatrous uses.

Isaiah 57:5 Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?Ver. 5. Inflaming yourselves with idols.] That it might appear that there was good cause of so much sharpness, and that he did them no wrong. He painteth them out in their colours to the life: Incalescitis, id est, concumbitis; while ye commit folly and filthiness with your idols, ye are all "adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker; your baker sleepeth all the night, in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire." And as the love of harlots is oft hotter than that of husband and wife, so superstition many times outdoeth true religion. Slaying the children.] A barbarous practice, taught them by that old man slayer. Careless parents do little less, whom, therefore, Bernard calleth peremptores potius quam parentes, rather parricides than parents.

(5) Enflaming yourselves.—The best illustration of the phrase is found in the real or supposed derivation of “fanatic” as meaning one who is circa fana calefactus. No word could better describe the orgiastic excitement of heathen rites. For “with idols read among the terebinths, which were prominent, with other trees, in the groves dedicated to idol-worship (Hosea 4:13; Ezekiel 6:13). Under every green tree is almost a stereotyped formula in this connection (Deuteronomy 12:2; 1 Kings 14:23; Jeremiah 2:20), the tree itself becoming a direct object of the cultus.Slaying the children in the valleys . . .—This had been done by Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:3). It was perfectly natural that it should be done by Manasseh. There is not the slightest trace of the revival of the practice among the exiles in Babylon or after their return. The scenery described—the torrent-stream, the clefts of the rock—belongs distinctively to Palestine.

3–13. Invective against an idolatrous party.—With regard to the reference of this obscure and difficult passage the following points have to be noticed: (1) The scenery of Isa 57:5-6 is unmistakeably Palestinian (wadis, clefts of the rock, terebinths). (2) Several of the rites specified bear the complexion of Canaanitish heathenism, and could not have been performed in Babylonia. (3) The opening words (“But ye”) seem to imply that the people addressed are distinct from those whose leaders are denounced in Isaiah 56:10-12. (4) Those spoken of are animated by contempt and hatred of the cause and people of Jehovah (Isaiah 57:4), while at the same time they advance pretensions to “righteousness” or correctness of religious standing (Isaiah 57:12). (5) They have persisted in their abominations down to the time of the prophecy (Isaiah 57:10-13). On the supposition that the prophecy was written after the return from Babylon, there is much plausibility in the view that the party here addressed is the Samaritan community. This theory is at all events simpler than that advocated by the majority of critics, who have felt the force of the objections against exilic authorship, and have accordingly supposed that the passage (or its original) was written at some time previous to the Captivity and borrowed by the great prophet of the Exile as a warning against idolatrous tendencies which still manifested themselves in Babylon. (See further Introduction, pp. lvii, lix). The connexion between this section and the preceding would be explained by the fact that the Jewish aristocracy cultivated friendly relations with the Samaritans; there was a serious danger that the struggling Jewish community should by these alliances be dragged down to the level of their semi-pagan neighbours.

Inflaming yourselves - Burning, that is, with lust. The whole language here is derived from adulterous intercourse.

5, 6. More closely scrutinizing their case, the prophet puts it as it is.