Isaiah 25

&c.] This is the triumph of Christ’s faithful servants, who have constantly maintained his honour and worship in this present life, against all the opposition of wicked men and devils: when they shall see Him coming in the clouds with power and great glory, to receive them to Himself, it will transport them, as it justly may, with an ecstasy of gladness, and they shall cry out before all the gazing spectators, This is our God, whom we have depended on for the salvation which He promised us. Reading.

Isaiah 25:2

2. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation &c.] The expression denotes the enlarging of the number of believers, and the bringing into the Church daily of “such as should be saved.” Compare chap. lx. 11; Rev. xxi. 25. W. Lowth. 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee;] Peace is then perfect, when we have it with God, with our neighbour, and with ourselves. This threefold peace of heaven, of charity, of conscience, is the grace and gift of Christ; none is “perfect” and complete but that which He bestows. Wogan.

Isaiah 25:5

5. Thou shalt bring down the noise &c.] The sense of this verse more fully expressed is as follows; As a thick cloud interposing tempers the heat of the sun on the burnt soil, so shalt Thou, by the interposition of thy power, bring low and abate the tumult of the proud, and the triumph of the formidable. Bp. Lowth.

6. — unto all people a feast. This can be no other than the celebration of the establishment of Christ’s kingdom, frequently represented in the Gospel under the image of a feast, Matt. viii. 11; Luke xiv. 16; xxii. 29, 30. This sense is fully confirmed by what follows in the next verses, the removing of the vail from the nations, and the abolition of death. The first of which is obviously and clearly explained of the preaching of the Gospel; and the second must mean the blessing of immortality procured for us by Christ, “who hath abolished death, and through death, hath destroyed him that had the power of death,” 2 Tim. i. 10; Heb. ii. 14. Bp. Lowth.

— wines on the lees. That is, kept long on the lees: the word used to express the “lees” in the original signifies the “preservers;” because they preserve the strength and flavour of the wine: see Jer. xlviii. 11. Bp. Lowth.

Isaiah 25:6

6. — the feet of the poor.] The planting of the Gospel was a remarkable triumph over the power and the wisdom of men; when “God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the things which were wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the things which were mighty:” and under every advancement of Christ’s kingdom, the poor and the humble, those that Before CHRIST about 712. truths. peace. or, imagination. rock of ages.

Isaiah 25:7

7. And he will destroy in this mountain] At Jerusalem shall the Gospel begin, by which God shall bring all nations from the ignorance of heathenism to the knowledge of the true God. Dr. Wells.

— the face of the covering] Compare Job xli. 13.

Isaiah 25:8

8. He will swallow up death in victory; &c.] The passages of the New Testament, to which the margin refers, shew how St. Paul and St. John apply this place to the general resurrection and heavenly state: nor will these promises till then be made good. W. Lowth.

The troubles and labours of the present world, and the dissolution of the body, do still take place as warnings and chastisements for sinners; but the sorrows are not comfortless, nor the dissolution final: the dominion of death consisted in this, that it rendered that dissolution final and irreparable; and the devil is said to have

God’s victorious salvation. A song inciting to confidence in God, Before CHRIST about 712. away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

Isaiah 25:10

10. — Moab shall be trodden down &c.] Rather, “Moab shall be threshed in his place, as the straw is threshed under the wheels of the car;” Bp. Lowth; or by the feet of oxen. The original verb does not signify to “be trodden down,” but to “be threshed,” as noted in the margin: and straw is too valuable in the East to be “trodden down for the dunghill.” Severe calamities inflicted on nations and people are in Scripture often compared to the Oriental manner of threshing corn and straw: see 2 Kings xiii. 7; Amos i. 3; Hab. iii. 12; compare Isa. xxi. 10; xh. 15; Dan. ii. 35. Parkhurst. In this name are intended to be included all the neighbouring states who were enemies of the Jewish nation; that is, in a spiritual sense, all people who should oppose the kingdom of the Messiah. Vitringa. For as the Gentile world, grafted into the Church and proselyted to the true religion, are comprehended in the name of “Israel,” so those that continue to reject and oppose it are reasonably couched under the title of “enemies of Israel;” and what might in some respects have a literal relation to the state and circumstances of the nations IN that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

Isaiah 25:11

11. And he shall spread forth his hands &c.] There is great obscurity in this place: some understand God as the agent, others Moab. Bp. Lowth. Some understand the words of Moab doing all he can to save himself, as swimmers do when in danger of drowning; yet that “God should bring down his pride:” others interpret the whole verse of God; that He should stretch forth his hands and reach his enemies wherever they might be. W. Lowth. Chap. XXVI. ver. 1. — We have a strong city;] In opposition to the city of the enemy which God had destroyed, chap. xxv. 2; or to “the lofty city,” ver. 5, of this chapter; under which similitude are represented those who pride themselves on worldly power and greatness, and are enemies of God’s truth. The Church is the city of God, Heb. xii. 22. Compare with this place also, chap. lx. 18; Zech. ii. 5. Bp. Lowth, W. Lowth.