Isaiah 24
DOYLYIsaiah 24:5
- The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants &c.] The contagion of sin infects the very ground, and brings a curse on it, (ver. 6;) see Gen. iii. 17; Numb. xxxv. 33; Ps. cvii. 34. “The everlasting covenant.” See Gen. xvii. 7, where God so calls the covenant between Him and Abraham; because it was to endure for a long succession of years, to last till the New Age, that of the Messiah, should come. W. Lowth. See note on chap. ii. 2.
Isaiah 24:6
6.—the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.] In the figurative language of the Prophets, burning any thing with fire is put for the consuming thereof by war. Sir J. Newton.
Isaiah 24:9
9.—strong drink shall be bitter] The word rendered by us by this general term, as Theodoret and St. Chrysostom, both Syrians, inform us, meant properly palm or date wine, which was and is still much in use in the Eastern countries. It is said here that all enjoyment shall cease; the sweetest wine become bitter to their taste. Bp. Lowth.
S 2 God in his judgments shall advance his kingdom. Before CHRIST about 712.
Isaiah 24:13
- — as the shaking of an olive tree.] See note on chap. xvii. 6.
Isaiah 24:14
- They shall lift up their voice, &c.] The great distresses brought upon Israel and Judah drove the people away, and dispersed them over the neighbouring countries; they fled to Egypt, Asia Minor, the islands and coasts of Greece. They had synagogues for their worship in many places, and were greatly instrumental in propagating the knowledge of the true God in these heathen nations, and preparing them for the reception of Christianity. This is what the Prophet seems to mean by the celebration of the name of Jehovah in the waters, and in the uttermost parts; the term “the sea” is used by the Hebrews for the distant nations, the islands, the dwellers on the sea-coasts all over the world: for “fires,” ver. 15, (for which the margin gives “valleys,”) by the slight alteration of one letter in the original, we should probably read “isles:” this is in a great degree justified by the repetition of the same word in the next member of the sentence, with the addition “of the sea;” which is exactly in the manner of the Prophet. Bp. Lowth. See note on chap. xi. 11.
The prophecy appears to point also to the times of the Messiah, and to describe the language of the converted Jews uttered in exultation and thanksgiving for the blessings of Christ and the Gospel. Poole.
Isaiah 24:16
- — But I said, My leanness, &c.] The Prophet speaks in the person of the inhabitants of the land still remaining; who should be pursued by Divine vengeance, and suffer repeated distress from the inroads and depredations of their powerful enemies. Bp. Lowth.
Isaiah 24:17
- Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee.] If
they escape one calamity, another shall overtake them; compare Amos v. 19: the images are taken from the different methods of hunting and taking wild beasts anciently in use. The “fear,” (or rather “terrour,”) was a line strung with feathers of all colours, which, fluttering in the air, scared and frightened the wild beasts into the toils or pit prepared for them. The “pit,” or pit-fall, was digged deep in the ground, and covered with green boughs, turf, &c., to deceive them. The “snare,” or toils, a series of nets, enclosing at first a great space of ground in which the wild beasts were known to be, and then drawn in by degrees into a narrower compass, till they were at last closely shut up and entangled by them. In the place of Jeremiah corresponding to ver. 18, it is simply “fleeth from the fear,” and indeed it does not appear that the terrour was intended to scare by its noise. Bp. Lowth.
Isaiah 24:18
- — the windows from on high are open.] A plain allusion to the description of the deluge, Gen. vii. 11. W. Lowth.
Isaiah 24:21
-
- — the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones &c.] That is, the ecclesiastical and civil polity of the Jews, which shall be destroyed: the nation shall continue in a state of depression and dereliction for a long time, (ver. 22,) the image seems to be taken from the practice of monarchs, to let their captives be a long time disregarded in their dungeons. God shall at length revisit and restore his people in the last age; and the kingdom of God be then established in such perfection, as wholly to eclipse (ver. 23,) the glory of the temporary, typical, preparative kingdom, formerly subsisting. Bp. Lowth.
Isaiah 24:23
- — before his ancients gloriously.] An allusion to