Isaiah 28:1-13

THIRD SUBDIVISIONTHE RELATION OF ISRAEL TO ASSYRIA IN THE TIME OF KING HEZEKIAH

Isaiah 28-33

As Isaiah 7-12, resting on the facts related Isaiah 7:1 sqq., contain the first great cycle of Isaiah’s prophecies, so Isaiah 28-33, which have for their basis the facts narrated in the historical appendix (36–37) contain the second great cycle. Chapters 7–12 depict the relation of Israel to Assyria in the time of Ahaz. Our chapters set forth this relation as it stood in the time of Hezekiah. As the sin of Ahaz consisted in his seeking protection against Aram-Ephraim not in the Lord, but in Assyria, so Hezekiah erred in seeking protection against Assyria, that had become a scourge through Ahab’s guilt, not in the Lord, but in Egypt. Hezekiah, the otherwise pious king, must have been weak enough to yield so far to the influence of those around him, as to sanction a policy which aimed at concluding a league with Egypt, as the infallible means of deliverance. Isaiah now in Isaiah 28-33 assails with all his might this Egyptian alliance, which the government of Hezekiah, knowing it to be contrary to the will of God, was seeking behind the back of the Prophet to bring about with all diplomatic skill, and at great sacrifices of money and property. He follows it from its rise through all stages of its development. He leads us, chap. 28, to its source. The Prophet assigns as its source a swamp, if we may employ a figure; the swamp of low carnal passion for drink. From this swamp the policy had already issued which Ephraim was pursuing to its destruction. From this swamp too the disposition was produced which led Judah to contemn the admonitions of the Lord, and to place wicked confidence in its own carnal prudence (Isaiah 28:14 sq.). in chap. 29 the Prophet lets it be clearly perceived that the secret plotting behind his back did not remain concealed from him (Isaiah 29:15 sqq.). But it is not till chap. 30 that he plainly declares (Isaiah 28:2 sqq.) that those secret machinations were with a view to an alliance with Egypt. But he certifies at once by a written declaration (Isaiah 28:8), that this Egyptian alliance will be of no benefit. The Lord only will deliver Israel. He will certainly do it. In chaps. 31 and 32, which belong together, the Lord proclaims the vanity of Egyptian succor. Assyria will not fall by the sword of a man (Isaiah 31:8), but the Lord will overturn it; and to this promise of the impending deliverance of Israel from Assyrian oppression the Prophet immediately attaches a glorious picture of the future, which, while it praises the truly noble disposition of those high in rank in the Messianic time, is very severe on the existing aristocracy, composed of the nobility and of public functionaries; and at the same time (as in chap. 3) addresses with an impressive warning the women who have great influence, and occupy high positions. Finally (33), the Prophet speaks directly to Assyria in order to announce its speedy and sudden destruction. This last chapter contains matter which is for the most part of a joyful character for Israel. It has a dark side for the people of the Lord only so far as it sets forth that the predicted glorious deliverance will make a disagreeable impression on the sinners in Israel, who desire to know nothing of Jehovah. Although therefore chaps. 28–33 are arranged according to a certain plan, they do not, form one connected speech. There are rather five, speeches delivered at different times, each of which in itself forms a whole, while each presents a complete picture of what the Prophet beheld, embracing threatening and promise. We have hers to remark that the Prophet always draws the most remote Messianic future into the sphere of his vision, though he does so every time from a different point of view. The first speech must have been composed before the destruction of Samaria (722 B.C.), for it addresses Samaria as yet standing. Nay, more, as Samaria is seen flourishing in all her pride, and her inhabitants indulge their evil passions without fear or restraint, the speech must have been written before the commencement of the three years’ siege of Samaria by the Assyrians, say in the year 725, and therefore in the commencement of the reign of Hezekiah. Chap. 29 belongs to a later time. In Isaiah 28:1 the Prophet declares that the city of Jerusalem should be shut in. He can only mean that isolation of the city in regard to which Sennacherib states in his inscriptions (comp. Schrader, pp. 176 and 187), that he had enclosed Hezekiah “as a bird in a cage.” This event, according to the usual chronology, happened in the year 714, while according to the Assyrian monuments (comp. Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions, p. 299, and our Introduction to chaps, 36–39), it took place in the year 700. As this difference, as we will attempt to show in the introduction to chaps, 36–39, was occasioned by a misunderstanding of later writers, there being originally no disagreement between the biblical and Assyrian chronology, but both originally agreeing in referring the expedition of Sennacherib against Phenicia, Egypt and Judah to the 28th year of Hezekiah, i. e., the year 700 B.C., the speech contained in chapter 29 would consequently have been delivered about the year 702. We have an aid to fixing the date in the words Isaiah 28:1 : “Add year to year, let the festivals complete their round.” According to our exposition the Prophet intimates by these words that after the expiration of the current year another year should complete its revolution, and then the hour of decision should arrive. That at this time the Egyptian alliance had been already, as is hinted in Isaiah 28:15, arranged to a considerable extent in secret consultations, is extremely probable. And when we find, Isaiah 30:2 sqq., the Jewish Ambassadors already on the way to Egypt, and hear, Isaiah 31:1 sqq., the futility of Egyptian help again emphatically asserted, and then read Isaiah 32:10 that, after an indefinite number of days above a year had expired, Jerusalem should be cut off from its fields and vineyards by the enemy, we may draw from all this the conclusion, that chaps, 30–32 were produced not long after chap. 29. But when we read, Isaiah 33:7 sqq., that the ambassadors of peace sent by Hezekiah return in sorrow, because the Assyrian king in addition to the great ransom (2 Kings 18:14 sqq.) demands the surrender of the city itself; when that passage describes the occupation of the surrounding country by the enemy, in consequence of which Judah (Isaiah 33:23) is compared with a ship whose ropes no longer keep the mast firm, when at last the Lord, Isaiah 33:10, exclaims “Now will I rise; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself,” we shall not err in assuming that this prophecy belongs to the time immediately after the return of those ambassadors of peace, and was therefore uttered shortly before the summons given to Hezekiah by Rabshakeh. Each of the five speeches of our prophetic cycle begins with הוי. From the absence of הוֹי at the beginning of chap. 32, as well as from the tenor of this chapter, we see that it forms with chap. 31 one whole. הוי is found once, Isaiah 29:15, even in the middle of the discourse.

That Isaiah is the writer of these speeches is almost universally admitted. The doubts which were raised by Eichhorn in regard to separate parts, were seen by Gesenius to be unfounded (Comment. I. 2, p. 826); and Ewald’s conjecture as to the composition of chap. 33 by a disciple of Isaiah, has been sufficiently refuted by Knobel.

We have not in the section before us one organic discourse, but five speeches, which from the initial word common to all of them we shall designate as first woe, second woe, etc.

____________________I.—THE FIRST WOE

Chap. 28

1. SWAMP EPHRAIM, SWAMP JUDAH, AND WHAT ARISES OUT OF THE SWAMPS

Isaiah 28:1-13

1          Woe to the crown of pride, 1to the drunkards of Ephraim,

Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower,

Which are on the head of the fat 2valleys

Of them that are 3overcome with wine.

2     Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one;

Which, as a tempest of hail,

And a destroying storm,

As a flood of mighty waters overflowing,Shall cast down to the earth with the hand.

3     The crown of pride, 4the drunkards of Ephraim,

Shall be trodden 5under feet.

4     And the glorious beauty which is on the head of the fat valley,

Shall be a fading flower,

And as the 6hasty fruit before the summer;

Which, when he that looketh upon it seeth,

While it is yet in his hand he 7eateth it up.

5     In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory,

And for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,

6     And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment,

And for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.

7     But they also have erred through wine,

And through strong drink are out of the way;The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink;They are swallowed up of wine,They are out of the way through strong drink;They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

8     For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness,

So that there is no place clean.

9     Whom shall he teach knowledge?

And whom shall he make to understand 8doctrine?

Them that are weaned from the 9milk,

And drawn from the 10     breasts.

10     For precept 11must be. upon precept, precept upon precept;

Line upon line, line upon line;Here a little, and there a little:

11     For with 12stammering lips and another tongue,

13Will he speak to this people.

12     To whom he said,

This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest;

And this is the refreshing;

Yet they would not hear.

13     But the word of the Lord 14was unto them

Precept upon precept, precept upon precept;Line upon line, line upon line;Here a little, and there a little;

That they might go, and fall backward,And be broken, and snared, and taken.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 28:1.צִיץ נֹבֵל as subst. cum adj. would be here abnormal, inasmuch as nothing can come between the nomen rectum and regens. The normal construction would be צִיץ צבי תכּארתו הַנֹּבֵל. But we know from Isaiah 1:30 and Isaiah 34:4, that Isaiah uses the participle of נָבֵל substantively in the signification of that which is withered, falling off. We have then to regard נֹבֵל here not as an adjective qualifying ציץ, but as a substantive coordinate with the other members in the series of genitives. Comp. on צִיצַת נבֵל Isaiah 28:4. The absolute state שׁמנים need cause no surprise. The word does not stand in the genitival relation to what follows. But two genitives are dependent on ראשׁ, namely,גיא שמנים and הלומי יין. [We prefer to say with Delitzsch that שְׁמָנִים, although standing connected with what follows, has the absolute form, the logical relation carrying it over the syntax. Comp. Isa 32:13; 1 Chronicles 9:13.—D. M.].

Isaiah 28:3. The verb תרמסנה in the plural has no expressed subject. This is not necessary. For in the Hebrew language an ideal subject can be readily understood. The proud crown is Samaria. But this one great crown includes many smaller ones. The plural can be referred to this ideal multitude (comp. Naegelsbach’s Gr., S. 61, 1). [It appears to me simpler to say with the Jewish grammarians that the word crown is to be taken here as a collective noun.—D. M.]. In Isaiah 28:4 צִיצַת looks as a hint for the right understanding of נֹכֵל. We have already remarked on Isaiah 28:1 that נֹכֵלis to be taken as a substantive. If this could be seen from the mere grammatical construction, and from the parallel places, Isaiah 1:30; Isaiah 34:4, it is obvious from the word ציצת. For we clearly perceive from this nominal form which occurs only here, and which is certainly intentionally chosen, that נֹכֵל is to be regarded as a substantive, and as a coordinate member of the series of genitives.

Isaiah 28:7. כּוק, Kal, only here. Besides only Hiphil Isaiah 58:10. כּליליה (accus. loci) only here. Comp. Isaiah 16:3; Job 31:28.

Isaiah 28:9. On the preposition between the governing and the governed noun, see Naegelsbach’s Gr., § 63, 4 c.

Isaiah 28:12. אָבוּא for אָכוּ comp. Olshausen’s Gr., §226, b, p. 449 sq.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1 Samaria is still standing in proud pomp, but sunk in the vice of drunkenness. Therefore the Prophet proclaims a woe upon it (Isaiah 28:1), and announces that a mighty foe as a tempest will cast it to the ground (Isaiah 28:2), and tread the proud crown under foot (Isaiah 28:3). Then shall this glorious but already decaying flower quickly disappear, as an early fig which a man no sooner sees than he eats it (ver, 4). Not till then is the moment come when the Lord Himself will be to the remnant of His people for an adorning crown, and for a guiding spirit in judgment, and for strength in war (Isaiah 28:5-6). with Jerusalem it stands no better than with Samaria, There, too, the vice of drunkenness prevails fearfully, Even priests and prophets are under its sway. Even in the sacred moments of prophetic vision [?] and of judging, its effects are visible on them; the holy places are polluted by their vomiting (Isaiah 28:7-8). And, moreover, they mock the servant of Jehovah who warns them: Whom does he think that he has before him? Are they mere children ? (Isaiah 28:9). We hear from him continually trifling moral preaching, broken into little bits, which are scoffingly imitated by short, oft-repeated words, which resemble stammering sounds (Isaiah 28:10). For this they will have to hear the stammering sounds of a foreign nation of barbarous speech (Isaiah 28:11). Because they would not hear the word of Jehovah which offered rest and comfort to the weary (Isaiah 28:12), the will of God will be made known to them in words, which in sound resemble their scornful words, but in import are short, sharp words of command. That will of God has this significance, that they will be ensnared in inextricable ruin.

2 Woe——eateth it up.

Isaiah 28:1-4. It is no honor for Jerusalem, when it is said to her that she walks in the footsteps of Samaria. Jerusalem should be ashamed of this likeness, and seek to remove it. This is, doubtless, the reason why the Prophet first directs his look to Samaria in order to describe the there prevailing vice of literal (and in connection therewith of spiritual) drunkenness, and to threaten it with punishment from God. Thence his look passes over to Jerusalem. Micah had before Isaiah done just the same. In chap.Isaiah 1:6 sq. Micah first of all threatens Samaria with judgment, although “Judah and Jerusalem were the proper objects of his mission” (comp. Caspari,Micah the Morasthite, p. 105). Isaiah himself had once already (Isaiah 8:6 sqq.) announced that the storm of judgment would first come upon Ephraim, and thence spread into the territory of Judah. This way of the judgments of God is not determined simply by the geographic situation. There is also a deeper reason when Jerusalem goes in the ways of Samaria. On הוי comp. on Isaiah 1:4. עטרת besides only Isaiah 62:3. On גאות comp. on Isaiah 26:10. צִיץ stands in conjunction with נבל besides only Isaiah 40:7-8. On צבי תכּארתו comp. on Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 13:19. This proud crown of Ephraim, this flower of his glorious ornament which lay upon the head of the valley of fatnesses (comp. Isaiah 5:1; Isaiah 25:6) i. e., on a beautiful hill commanding a fertile valley, is Samaria (1 Kings 16:24; Amos 4:1; Amos 6:1). חֲלוּמֵי יַיִן (Comp. Isaiah 16:8) are vino obtusi, percussi. Compare Qui se percussit flore Liberi, Plant. Song of Solomon 3:5, 16; multo percussus tempora Baccho, Tib. 1, 2, 3; mero saucius Mart, 3, 6, 8; οἰνοπλήξ, οἰνόπληκτος, etc. Two images are here blended: namely, that Samaria is the crown of the hill, and the crown or garland on the head of the Ephraimites. The accumulation of predicates shows off the vain-glorious pride of the Ephraimites; and at the same time it is intimated by ציץ נכל and על ראש חלומי ייו that this garland, this crown will not endure long. For garland is withered, and the crown totters upon the head of the drunkards. For the avenger of this drunken pride is already prepared. The Lord has him at hand (Isaiah 2:12), He is the Assyrian. He will overturn to the ground (Amos 5:7) Ephraim’s glory with his hand (ביד stands over against the following כרגלים), as a storm of hail (Isaiah 25:4; Isaiah 30:30), as a shower of destruction (שׂער and קטב only here in Isaiah), as the rushing of mighty waterfloods (כַּבִּיר only Job 8:2; Job 15:10; Job 31:25; Job 34:17; Job 34:24; Job 36:5 bis and Isaiah 10:13; Isaiah 16:14; Isaiah 17:12, and in this place; שׁטף, Isaiah 28:15; Isaiah 28:17-18; Isaiah 8:7 sq., 10, 22; Isaiah 30:28; Isaiah 43:2; Isaiah 66:12). The meaning is that Ephraim, when standing, shall be dashed to the ground with the hand; when lying, shall be trodden with the feet. Isaiah 28:4. The flower of the fading one is like the expression הַקָּטָןכְּלֵי, Isaiah 22:24. This flower will be destroyed as quietly as an early fig, which is no sooner seen than it is eaten off-hand by him who discovers it. Such a dainty morsel (comp. Isaiah 9:10) is not laid by, as the other fruits which ripen at the usual time, which are afterwards eaten at table out of the dish or off the plate. This is the meaning of בעודה. The intentionally lengthened sentence יראה הראה אותה paints how the inquiring look passes slowly and gradually over the tree. The Prophet predicts not a hasty capture of the city (Samaria, as is known, did not fall till after a siege of three years, 2 Kings 17:5; Schrader,The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O.T., p. 157 sqq.), but a change of affairs in general, which should take place in a surprisingly brief time, considering the proud security that then prevailed. If our prophecy was delivered in one of the first years of Hezekiah, it was fulfilled in such a manner that four or five years later a kingdom of Israel was no longer in existence. Of this no one could have had a presentiment when the Prophet uttered these words.

3 In that day——to the gate.

Isaiah 28:5-6. It is self-evident that ביום הוא is again to be taken as a prophetic date, which is not to be judged according to the ordinary human measure. It simply intimates that when Ephraim has lost the deceptive earthly crown, Jehovah will take the place of it. Judgment must make it possible for the Lord to assume the place at the head of His people which belongs to Him. This has virtually and in principle taken place, as soon as judgment has done its work. But when and how this coronation will be outwardly exhibited, is known to God only. But although it should not happen till after thousands of years, still the word of the Lord is true, and faith may console itself with it in patience. שׁאר עמו is to be referred neither to the Israelites left in the land after the carrying away of the ten tribes, nor to the tribes of the kingdom of Judah, but to the total remnant primarily of Israel, of which those carried captive, yea, all who are still of the seed of Israel, form a part. For the Prophet here speaks first of all of Ephraim. This brief word of promise, Isaiah 28:5-6, makes, moreover, the impression as if the Prophet would herewith let Israel have his definite and complete portion of threatening and promise. For in what follows he refers to Judah only. But it is obvious, that Ephraim is included in the promises which are given to the remnant of all Israel (comp. on Isaiah 4:2 sqq.; Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 7:3; Isaiah 10:20 sqq.). The expression עטרת צבי is found only here. We frequently meet with עטרת הכּארת (Proverbs 4:9; Proverbs 16:31; Isaiah 62:3; Jeremiah 13:18; Ezekiel 16:12; Ezekiel 23:42). But Isaiah has here preferred for the sake of the assonance to join תכּארה with the term צכּירה (from צכּרin orbem ivit, orbiculus, hoop, diadem, besides only Ezekiel 7:7; Ezekiel 7:10). But Jehovah will be not only the source of the highest honor for His people, but also the source of the wisdom and strength so much wanted in the present time. Jehovah Himself, who is one with His Spirit, will fill the judges as a spirit of judgment. (Comp. Isaiah 4:4; comp. Isaiah 11:1; 1 Kings 12:22). ישב על המשׁכּט can mean to sit over a forensic cause as over the object submitted to the judge, and we may compare such places as 1 Samuel 25:13יָשְֽׁבוּ עַל־הַכֵּלִים or על stands in a modified signification equivalent to &אֶל לְ), and such places as 1 Samuel 20:24וַרֵּשֶׁב עַל־הַלֶּחֶם and Psalms 29:10יּ׳ לַמַּבּוּל יָשַׁב may be compared. לְ is wanting before משׁיבי. The לְ which stands in the corresponding ליושׁב is to be regarded as carrying its force over to this clause. (Comp. Isaiah 30:1; Isaiah 48:17; Isaiah 61:7). To turn back the war towards the gate is to be understood of the repulse of the enemy either to the gate through which he entered, or back even to the enemy’s own gate. (2Sa 11:23; 2 Kings 18:8; 1Ma 5:22)

4. But they also have erred——no place clean.

Isaiah 28:7-8. The Prophet now turns from Samaria to Jerusalem. With אֵלֶּח he points to his own countrymen in particular. They, too, are seized by a spirit of giddiness which arises from the fearfully prevailing vice of literal drunkenness. The Prophet ingeniously depicts the extent and intensity of this vice, through the accumulation of words related in form: Shagu—ta-u,—shagu—ta-u, shagu—paku. We hear and see as it were the reeling and staggering of the drunken company, שָׁגָה to reel, is used only here by Isaiah, תעה of a drunken person, also Isaiah 19:14 comp. Isaiah 21:4. How fearfully the vice of drunkenness had spread is seen from the fact that even priests and Prophets were addicted to it, and that not only in their private life; but they even performed their official functions in a state of intoxication. This is strictly forbidden in the law. Leviticus 10:8-9 (comp. Ezekiel 44:21). The expression נבלעו מן־היין occurs only here. It does not mean that they in consequence of drinking wine have been swallowed up one of another, מִן does not here mark what is mediately or remotely causal; but it denotes the immediate cause. The wine itself has swallowed up those who greedily swallowed it (comp. Isaiah 28:4). Not only has the carouser the fit of intoxication, but the fit of intoxication has him. רֹאֶע stands only here for רֳאִי (Genesis 16:13; 1 Samuel 16:12 et saepe) as חֹזֶה Isaiah 28:15 for חָזוּת. Even in such moments when they should be under the influence of the Spirit of God alone, they are by a blasphemous perversion under the influence of the spirit of alcohol. Not less wicked is it when judges, who should speak judgment in the name and Spirit of God (Exodus 18:15 sq.; Deuteronomy 1:17; Deuteronomy 19:17; 2 Chronicles 19:6), appear governed by that infernal spirit while performing this sacred function. That pronouncing judgment in the highest instance pertained to a priestly tribunal, may be seen from Deuteronomy 17:8 sqq. Comp. Isaiah 19:17; Herzog,R.-Encycl V. p. 58. The wickedness, therefore, of these priestly judges appears so much the greater. For they sit in a commission that has not trifling matters, but the most difficult and important causes to decide. Every one may convince himself that the Prophet has not said too much of the drunkenness of those people, who will take the trouble to visit the places where they sit. He will find there palpable traces of it; all tables full of filthy vomit (קִיא19:14 vomit, צֹאָה from יָצָאexcrementa, sordes, dirt, Isaiah 4:4; Isaiah 36:12), and consequently, no place to sit on, or to lay anything (בלי especially frequent in Job 8:11; Job 24:10; Job 31:39; Job 33:9 et saepe; in Isaiah 5:13-14; Isaiah 14:6; Isaiah 32:10; מקים comp. Isaiah 5:8).

5. Whom shall He teach——there a little.

Isaiah 28:9-10. In these words the Prophet lets his drunken adversaries themselves come on the scene. He makes them utter scoffing words, that he may give the same back to them in another sense as a threatening of punishment. They are themselves Prophets and Priests, and therefore full grown men, educated men, and not children. They, therefore, ask indignantly: Does he—namely the Prophet of Jehovah—not know whom he has before him? To whom does he think that he has to impart right knowledge? (דעה11:9). To whom has he to give understanding by his preaching? (שׁמועה Isaiah 28:19 and besides only Isaiah 53:1, in the signification “preaching, announcement” = the Greek ἀκοήRom 10:16-17; in another signification Isaiah 37:7). Is it to little children who have just been weaned from the milk (Isaiah 11:8), removed from the breasts (עַתִּיק in this sense only here in Isaiah)? And now the Prophet exhibits them as ridiculing the tenor of his preaching in monosyllabic words, which by their sound and repetition are designed to produce merriment, while he at the same time turns his opponents into ridicule, as these monosyllabic words admirably represent the stammering of a person intoxicated. צַו from צִוּהָ is praeceptum (besides here only Hosea 5:11); קַו (comp. Isaiah 28:17; Isaiah 18:2; Isaiah 18:7; Isaiah 34:11; Isaiah 34:17; Isaiah 44:13) is cord, measuring cord, direction, rule. They reproach the Prophet with bringing forward a mass of little sentences, precepts, rules in wearisome repetition, and without a right plan and order, here a little, there a little (זְעֻיר besides Job 36:2, comp. מִזְעָר10:25; Isaiah 16:14; Isaiah 24:6; Isaiah 29:17). The contemptuous designation σπερμολόγος which the Athenian Philosophers gave the Apostle Paul, has been fitly compared (Acts 17:18).

6. For with stammering——and taken.

Isaiah 28:11-13. The Prophet replies to this mocking speech, and concedes that it is to a certain extent accurate and just. For these scoffing words will indeed be spoken. But not as those drunkards think. For (כִּי Isaiah 28:11) the Lord will speak them to them by a foreign and hostile people, whose utterances will be to them as stammering and strange jargon. לָעֵגbalbutiens, balbus, barbarus is found besides only Psalms 35:16. In Isaiah 33:19 Isaiah uses in the same sense, and likewise of the Assyrian language the participle Niphal נִלְעָג. It is easy to conceive that the Assyrian language, as being much less cultivated than their own, and having only the three fundamental vowels a, i, u, made upon the Israelites the impression of being as the lisping of children. What a Nemesis! Because this people to whom the Lord spake words of comfort in its own mother tongue would not hear them, it must hear from the enemy’s mouth harsh sounds, which fall on the ear like the scoffing words uttered against the Prophet, but have a quite different meaning; for they are words of command intending the destruction of the vanquished and captured people. The words זאת המנוחה are taken from Micah 2:10. Micah there reproaches the false Prophets with withholding from the people the genuine word of God, which is affectionate and kind, and with instigating the people with lies to forsake that wherein it would truly find rest. [This is hardly the sense of the passage referred to in Micah.—D. M.]. In opposition to this Isaiah characterizes the genuine preaching of Jehovah by the words זאת המנוחה. For justly in reference to that of which the false Prophets say לֹא־זֹאת הַמְּנוּחָה, the real Prophet must say זֹאת הַמְנוּחָה. This true “rest of the people of God,” says Isaiah, Jehovah has not merely shown from afar. He has also commanded to put the weary souls longing for salvation in possession of it, (חָנִיחַ to procure rest for one, Isaiah 14:3), and has offered the place of rest, i. e., the real means of grace and salvation. מנוחה means elsewhere, place of rest; but here I take it in the sense of rest (comp. Isaiah 66:1) in opposition to מרגעה the place of rest (ἅπ. λεγ. Comp. Jeremiah 6:16). Isaiah, in thus referring to a word of his colleague Micah, which he confirms and applies, reaches him here again the fraternal hand. The words appear too general for us to find any political allusions in them. When in Isaiah 28:13 the scornful words of the Prophet’s adversaries are employed as a weapon turned against themselves, it seems to me that what makes it possible to put them in the enemies’ mouth lies not merely in the effect upon the ear, in the resemblance to stammering sounds, but in the actual meaning also. As we found in קַו־קַו, Isaiah 18:2; Isaiah 18:7 the meaning of a short, sharp order, this meaning seems still more to lie in the present place. The Israelites will hear nothing but such short, monosyllabic words. But they will be words full of meaning, whose effect will be seen in what we read at the close of Isaiah 28:13. For to fall backward and be broken and snared and taken captive will be the doom of the presumptuous people. Isaiah 28:13 b, from וְכָ‍ֽשְׁלוּ, is an almost literal reproduction of Isaiah 8:15.

Footnotes:

[1]of the drunkards of Ephraim.

[2]valley.

[3]Heb. broken.

[4]of the drunkards of Ephraim.

[5]Heb with feet.

[6]early fig.

[7]Heb. Swalloweth.

[8]Heb. the hearing.

[9]followed by note of interrogation.

[10]followed by note of interrogation.

[11]Or, hath been.

[12]Heb. stammerings of lips.

[13]Or, he hath spoken.

[14]shall come.