Isaiah 57:8

Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance,.... The memorial of thine idols, as the Targum.

Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with

Behind the doors also and the posts; which by a figure called hendiaduo may be put for the door-posts, as it is expressed, . Behind the posts of the doors of thine house; where the heathens are said to have placed their tutelar gods, to whose protection they committed themselves and their houses, that so they might have their eyes and minds upon them, whensoever they went out or came in. Here also the Israelites might put them in some close corner, that they might keep them secret, it being opprobrious, and ofttimes dangerous, for them to worship idols. Thy remembrance; those images or monuments and tokens which thou didst make and set up there as remembrances of those idol-gods whom they represented, or to whom they belonged. He saith, thy remembrance, in opposition to God’ s remembrances, or to that writing of God’ s law upon their door-posts, which God prescribed to keep him and his law in their remembrance, 11:20. Thou hast discovered thyself to another than me; thou hast uncovered thy nakedness, i.e. prostituted thy body, (as the phrase commonly signifies,) to others besides me, thine Husband. Heb. from with me (departing from me, or as it were rising out of my bed) thou hast uncovered or prostituted thyself to others, like an impudent and insatiable strumpet. Art gone up into the adulterous bed, as this very word is used, . Thou hast enlarged thy bed, that it might receive many adulterers together. Thou hast multiplied thine idols and altars. Made a covenant with them; thou hast covenanted to serve them, and to expect help from them. But because the verb here used being thus put by itself never signifies to make a covenant, it seems to be better rendered in the margin of our Bible, and by others, hast hewed it (to wit, thy bed, which is expressed both in the next foregoing and in the next following words) for thyself (for thine idolatrous uses) larger than theirs; than their bed, as it follows: or thus, didst hew down (to wit, trees, which is easily understood, both from the verb, and from the nature of the thing) to or for thyself (to make images or other things relating to thy false gods) more than they; more than the heathens, of whom thou hast learned these practices, as God complains, ,47,52. Thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it; no sooner didst thou see their idols but thou wast enamoured with them, and didst fall down and worship them, like an unchaste and lewd woman, who upon all occasions, and at the very first view of any man, is inflamed with lust towards them. Heb. thou lovedst their bed (i.e. their filthy conversation) in the place (for so this Hebrew word frequently signifies, as , and elsewhere) where thou sawest it. Or thus, thou lovedst their bed, thou didst provide a place for it, to receive their bed, to set up their idols in thine own house.

Isaiah 57:8 Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered [thyself to another] than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee [a covenant] with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest [it].Ver. 8. Behind the doors also, and the posts.] Where my law should have been written. Hast thou set up thy remembrance?] Thy idols and monuments of idolatry, such as Papists now call memories and laymen’ s books. Thou hast discovered thyself] Thy nakedness, like a meretrix meretricissima, divaricasti tibias Omnibus modis te comparans ut impudentissimum scortum, prostituting thyself as a most impudent harlot, prodigiously lascivious.

(8) Hast thou set up thy remembrance . . .—The noun has been commonly referred to the Mesusah, or memorial text, “Jehovah is our God; Jehovah is one,” which was to be written on the door-posts of each house (Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 11:20); and the prophet is supposed to point to the fact that this had been written behind the door, as showing that Israel had been ashamed to confess her creed. The explanation seems tenable, but it is possible that “remembrance” may stand for some idolatrous symbol or inscription which had been substituted for the true confession. Thou hast discovered thyself.—The figure of the unfaithful wife is carried into its details almost with Ezekiel’s boldness. Made thee a covenant with them . . .—The noun, as the italics show, is implied in the verb. The faithless wife forsook the covenant of her youth with her husband, and made a fresh compact with the adulterers. Where thou sawest it.—And thou sawest the place, the words being used euphemistically for the obscene image of a Chemosh-liko idol.

Verse 8. Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance - "Behind the door, and the door-posts, hast thou set up thy memorial"] That is, the image of their tutelary gods, or something dedicated to them; in direct opposition to the law of God, which commanded them to write upon the door-posts of their house, and upon their gates, the words of God's law; Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 11:20. If they chose for them such a situation as more private, it was in defiance of a particular curse denounced in the law against the man who should make a graven or a molten image, and put it in a secret place; Deuteronomy 27:15. An ancient MS., with another, has אחר achar, without the conjunction ו vau, and.

8. The first part of the verse seems to allude to some form of household idolatry. Many commentators explain the expression as a violation of the command in Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 11:20. In these passages the Israelites are directed to write certain sentences of Scripture on the doorposts of their houses, and it is supposed that the practice here denounced is placing the texts at the back of the door so as to be out of sight! This is an utterly improbable interpretation. The thing called “remembrance” (zikkarôn, better memorial, as R.V.) must be some heathen emblem, whose exact nature cannot be determined; and from the fact that it stood at the entrance of the house, it may be presumed to have represented the patron deity of the family. for thou hast discovered … bed] The last word appears to be the object to each of the three verbs: for away from me thou hast uncovered and ascended and enlarged thy bed. The connexion (“for”) may lie in the thought that they sought every possible opportunity of being unfaithful to Jehovah, their household cults being an expression of their irresistible inclination to idolatry. and made thee a covenant with them &c.] The sense is uncertain: either, “and thou hast made a contract with them” &c. (?); or, substituting a verb meaning “purchase” (in Deuteronomy 2:6; Hosea 3:2), “and thou didst procure for thee (some) of those whose bed thou lovest.” For the idea, cf. Ezekiel 16:16 ff., Ezekiel 16:32 ff. where thou sawest it] Lit. “thou hast seen a hand.” The rendering of E.V. cannot be maintained, but the real meaning of the expression is altogether obscure.

Behind the doors - In every part of their habitations - behind the doors and posts and beams of their houses, they had erected the memorials of idolatrous worship.

7, 8. High mountain… thy bed — Places of idol and adulterous worship. Accounts of dells also, as such places are obscure. Groves in either place were doubtless sought. Behind the doors… posts — Namely, of houses.