Verse 20
The blessed residents of the land in the distant future will enjoy the best existence, represented here in a pastoral setting. They will be in right relation to God, having responded to His invitations to return to and hear the Lord (Isaiah 31:6; Isaiah 32:9). Their blessing will consist of divine favor (cf. Psalms 32:1), personal fulfillment (cf. Psalms 112:1), and total rectitude (cf. Psalms 2:12; Psalms 37:8-9). Many amillennial interpreters take the eschatological blessings of Isaiah 32:1-8; Isaiah 32:15-18; Isaiah 32:20, as well as Isaiah 31:7, as marking the future heavenly reign of Christ throughout eternity.
In the near future, the Judahites could experience a measure of deliverance from the Assyrians by repenting. Some of them did repent. Sennacherib was not able to take Jerusalem, even though he devastated much of Judah. In the far future, the Israelites will enjoy salvation from all their enemies because they will repent at the second coming of Christ (cf. Zechariah 12:10-14; Zechariah 14:14). This did not take place after the Exile or after Pentecost on the scale that Isaiah envisioned here. God does not wait for people to repent before He acts in mercy. Rather, the goodness of God leads people to repentance (cf. Romans 2:4; Romans 11:22).
"This concludes the four [five] woes, from which the fifth [sixth], that immediately follows, is distinguished by the fact, that in the former the Assyrian troubles are still in the future, whereas the fifth [sixth] places us in the very midst of them." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:54.]
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