Isaiah 28:14-22

2. THE FALSE AND THE TRUE REFUGE

Isaiah 28:14-22

14          “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men,

That rule this people which is in Jerusalem:

15     Because ye have said,

We have made a covenant with death,And with 15hell are we at agreement;

When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,It shall not come unto us:For we have made lies our refuge,And under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

16     Therefore thus saith the Lord God,

Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,A tried stone, a precious corner stone,

A sure foundation:He that believeth shall not 16make haste.

17     Judgment also will I lay to the line,

And righteousness to the plummet:And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,And the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.

18     And your covenant with death shall be disannulled,

And your agreement with 17hell shall not stand;

When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,Then ye shall be 18trodden down by it.

19     19From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you:

For morning by morning shall it pass over,By day and by night;And it shall be a vexation only 20to understand the report.

20     For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it;

And the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

21     For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim,

He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon,

That he may do his work, his strange work;And bring to pass his act, his strange act.

22     Now therefore be ye not mockers,

Lest your bands be made strong;For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption,

Even determined upon the whole earth.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 28:15. שׁוט שׁוטף. So we are to read with the K’ri, 1, because the Kethibh שַׁיִט has in Isaiah 33:21 the signification “oar,” which is not suitable here; 2, on account of the assonance with שׁוֹטֵף, which would otherwise be lost; 3, because in Isaiah 28:18 b there is a blending of two figures for the sake of the alliteration. For שׁוֹט is a scourge (Isaiah 10:26), and שׁטף is to overflow, inundate (comp. on Isaiah 28:2). A scourge when swung makes a flowing motion; but it does not inundate, overflow. Only the divine judgments do this, and these for another reason can be called the scourge of God. The K’ri יעבר, which is both supported and discountenanced by Isaiah 28:18, is anyhow unnecessary, for the perfect can be taken as a futurum exactum (comp. Isaiah 4:4; Isaiah 6:11).

Isaiah 28:16. The Dagesh forte in מוּסָּד is manifestly intended to distinguish the word as a participle from the substantive מוּסָד.

Isaiah 28:20. Hithp. השׂתרע se extendere, porrigere, only here, Kal. שׂרע only Leviticus 21:18; Leviticus 22:23.

Isaiah 28:21. On the absence of the preposition of place before הַר and עֵמֶק, comp. Isaiah 1:25; Isaiah 5:18; Isaiah 5:29; Isaiah 10:14; Gesenius Gr., § 118, 3, note.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Those scoffers, who are here described as the rulers of the people in Jerusalem, had naturally a foundation on which they rested, in opposition to the foundation of the Prophet which they derided. Their foundation was falsehood and deceit, by the aid of which they hoped that they would have nothing to fear from death and Hades. (Isaiah 28:14-15). Against this foundation the Lord now says to them: I have laid in Zion my strong corner—and foundation—stone: only he who holds fast to it will not yield (Isaiah 28:16) And on this foundation-stone the building shall be erected by means of judgment and righteousness; but the flood of waters will sweep away that refuge of lies (Isaiah 28:17). And that covenant with death and Sheol will not stand. They who made it, shall be trodden down by those who Shall come upon them as the scourge of God (Isaiah 28:18). That scourge, moreover, shall come not only once, but repeatedly by day and night. Then shall they hear no more a preaching by word, but! a preaching by deed; and it will be nothing but terror (19). For Israel’s might will then prove too weak (Isaiah 28:20). But the Lord will rise in might as formerly on Mount Perazim, and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to execute His very strange work of destruction, which appears to the secure Jews impossible (Isaiah 28:21). Therefore the scoffers should be quiet, that they may not remain forever in the snares mentioned Isaiah 28:13; for that they should not escape from them is announced by the Prophet as the decree of Jehovah, which cannot be averted (Isaiah 28:22). We perceive, therefore, that the section Isaiah 28:14-22 corresponds exactly to the preceding one Isaiah 28:1-13, and especially to the Isaiah 28:9-13. For here the right foundation is set in opposition to that false one, resting on which those scoffers think that they may deride the Prophet (Isaiah 28:14-17); then the vanity, yea destructiveness of that false foundation is shown (Isaiah 28:18-21), and the scoffers are accordingly exhorted to give up their mocking (Isaiah 28:22).

2. Therefore hear—hid ourselves.

Isaiah 28:14-15. With לָכֵן, Isaiah 28:14, the Prophet introduces the judgment of the Lord, which he has to publish on the ground of the accusation preferred Isaiah 28:9-13. This judgment is addressed to the scoffers (Proverbs 29:8), whose derisive speeches (Isaiah 28:10) are quoted, and who, after the judgment has been pronounced, are exhorted to mock no more (Isaiah 28:22). These scoffers are not insignificant men. They are the leaders of the people (Isaiah 14:1; Isaiah 52:5), its Priests and Prophets (Isaiah 28:7). כִּי in the beginning of Isaiah 28:15 is “because;” the illative particle לָכֵו in Isaiah 28:16 corresponding to it. The utterance is put in the mouths of these people, which if not actually spoken by them, yet certainly corresponds to their actual conduct: we have made a covenant with death,etc. This explains why these people scoffed at the Prophet. They stand with their whole manner of thinking and feeling upon another foundation than his. Isaiah has the Lord Himself for his foundation. But they deride this very foundation. They have another and better, as they imagine. This is the art of falsehood, of cunning policy, of fine diplomacy. By its help they hope to be safe from death and Hades. The Prophet admonishes them to obey the Lord, and to trust in Him in order to find protection against Assyria. But in their opinion these are fanatical means of defence, which good policy could not employ. An alliance with Egypt, artfully planned, carried out with all diplomatic skill, appeared to those politicians to be a much more reliable, yea an infallible remedy against the threatening evils. For they hope through that alliance to be proof against death and Hades. They imagine that they have thereby as it were concluded a friendly alliance with death and Hades (כרת ברית as Isaiah 55:3; Isaiah 61:8). חֹוֶה (comp. רֹאֶה Isaiah 28:7), for which below in Isaiah 28:18חָזוּת stands, has only here the signification “treaty, agreement.” The lie of which they speak, may well refer to the relation of dependence on Assyria into which Ahaz, the predecessor of Hezekiah, had brought Judah (2 Kings 16:7 sqq.). For they may even then have considered the right policy to consist in a secret league with Egypt, while appearing to stand by the obligations entered into towards Assyria. A like course was subsequently pursued (2 Kings 17:4; Ezekiel 17:15, sqq.). The conjunction of חסה and סתר is characteristic of Isaiah, comp. Isaiah 28:17; Isaiah 4:6.

3. Therefore thus saith—the whole earth.

Isaiah 28:16-22. The scoffers had declared that they had made falsehood their refuge, and that they hope relying on this refuge, to get the better of death and Hades. The Prophet wishes to expose the vanity of this hope. There is only one refuge that guarantees safety. This is the foundation, and corner-stone laid by the Lord Himself in Zion. The water sweeps away the other false foundation, and they who rest upon it go to ruin. Our passage contains, therefore, primarily not a promise, but a threatening. For first of all, the confidence expressed in Isaiah 28:15 is to be shown to be unfounded. But naturally the (unreal, resting only on appearance) negation of the truth can be overcome only by the positive setting forth of the truth. And where this real positive foundation of truth is exhibited, it involves always eo ipso a promise. לָכֵז, as has been shown, corresponds to the כִּי in Isaiah 28:15. The false affirmation necessitates a protest in which the truth is testified. הנני יסר חנְנִי הוּא אֲשֶׁר יִּסַּד comp. Isaiah 29:14; Isaiah 38:5. But what sort of a stone is that which the Lord has laid in Zion? It must be a stone which really guarantees truth and right. Consequently it cannot be Zion itself (Hitzig, Knobel), nor the royal house of David (Reinke), nor Hezekiah (Rabbis, Gesenius, Maurer and others; which explanation Theodoret characterizes as ἄνοια ἐσχάτη), nor the temple (Ewald). As Isaiah does not say that they had made Egypt their refuge, but that they had made falsehood their refuge, the antithesis to this refuge of lies can only be a refuge of truth. As such we might, with Umbreit, regard the law, or, with Schegg, the word of God in general. But the law and the word of God, so far as they are laid in Zion as objective means of Salvation, suppose a still deeper, a personal foundation: the law supposes Him through whom the revelation of the law took place; the spoken and written word supposes the living, personal word of God Himself, the Logos (So the Catholic expositors Loch and Reischl, comp. Reinke,the Messianic Prophecies I. p. 404). The Logos, the only mediator between God and men, the Messiah promised in the Old Covenant, who has appeared in the New, this is the personal and living foundation-stone laid in Zion, on whom the whole building fitly framed together grows unto a holy (erected therefore according to the line of right and justice) building (Ephesians 3:20 sqq.). That the personal Word of the Lord can be called a stone, is apparent from Isaiah 8:14, where Jehovah Himself is called אֶבֶו and צוּר. It is not impossible that Isaiah had this last passage in view, and perhaps the composer of the 118th Psalm had in Isaiah 28:22 regard to both these passages of Isaiah. Anyhow Peter (1 Peter 2:6-8) combines these three places. The Lord Himself (Matthew 21:42-44) had in view the place in the Psalms and Isaiah 8:14 sq.; and Paul, Romans 9:33, refers to both places of Isaiah; while in Acts 4:11 reference is made to the 118th Psalm only; and in Romans 10:11, solely to the place before us. The stone laid in Zion is further called an אבו בחו, i. e., lapis probationis. The term בחו can be taken in an active or passive sense: a tried and a trying stone. The former would mark its tested firmness, the latter would express the idea, that the thoughts of the hearts must be made manifest by it. For no one can escape it, but all must be tried on it, and it must have some effect on all, and be either for their fall or rising. The passages Matthew 21:44; Luke 2:34 speak strongly for the latter view. I do not dispute it, but I believe that the Prophet designedly chose an ambiguous expression. For the former interpretation is likewise recommended, being naturally suggested by the expression employed, and by the context. We expect to hear the nature of the stone extolled, and not merely to be told what service it can render. That the praise should be expressed in this particular form is in accordance with the usus loquendiobservable in this chapter, in which so many designations of a property are denoted by a substantive in the genitive (Isaiah 28:1-5; Isaiah 28:8). פִנָּה is corner.—And a stone which forms the corner is naturally a corner-stone. (Comp. Isaiah 19:13; Job 38:6; Jeremiah 51:26; Psalms 118:22). יְקָרָה is here, as perhaps also Psalms 37:20; Proverbs 17:27, a substantive, preciousness, so that we must translate; a corner-stone of preciousness of a founded foundation (מוּסָד after the form מוּסָר, comp. 2 Chronicles 8:16; מוּסָדָהIsa 30:32; Ezekiel 41:8; מוּסָּד Part Hoph.), i. e., a corner-stone well suited (1 Kings 5:31; 1 Kings 7:9-11) for a firm foundation. The emphatic expression מוּסָד מוּסָּד is like חֲכָמִים, Proverbs 30:24. We have already observed that the Prophet shows here a predilection for the accumulation of substantives in the genitive. The firm foundation-stone manifests its saving efficacy, not in a magical way; but this efficacy is conditioned by the inward susceptibility, or faith. The firm foundation itself requires a keeping fast to it. Therefore the Prophet adds: He who believes flees not.—This apothegmatic addition reminds us, both by its form and tenor, of chapter Isaiah 7:0:9האמיו ּתֵאָמֵנוּאִם לֹא תַאֲמִינוּ כִּי לֹא occurs further Isaiah 30:21; Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 53:1. הֵחִישׁ is here not indirectly (to make something or another hasten, Isaiah 5:19; Isaiah 60:22) but directly causative; to make haste, to flee hastily, to retreat. There lies in it an antithesis to the idea of firmness, which is contained in what is said of the stone, and in מאמיו. The word has this meaning no where else. Where the firm foundation is objectively laid, and the individual subjectively in faith keeps fast on it, then the erection of a holy temple in the Lord is possible, an erection in which right serves for the line (קַו comp. on Isaiah 28:10), and righteousness for the plummet (מִשְׁקֶלֶת only here, comp. מִשְׁקלֶת2Ki 21:13); a figurative expression, the meaning of which can be only this, that this building will arise according to the rules of divine justice, and will consequently be a holy building. משׁפט and צדקה stand here related as in Isaiah 1:27; Isaiah 5:16; Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 32:16; Isaiah 33:5; Isaiah 56:1; Isaiah 59:9; Isaiah 59:14. This building stands firm. But the refuge of lies and the hiding-place of deceit the hail will sweep away (יָעָח, whence יָע a shovel for the clearing away of ashes from the altar, Exodus 27:3; Exodus 38:3; Numbers 4:14 et saepe, is ἄπ. λεγ) and the waters wash away (Isaiah 28:2). Inconsequence, that covenant with death and Hades, of which they boasted (Isaiah 28:15), shall be covered,i. e., obliterated, annulled. The covenant is conceived of as a written document, whose lines are covered, i. e., overspread with the fluid used for writing. Comp. obliterare offensionem, famam, memoriam. To לא יבואנו in verse 15, והייתם לו למרמס corresponds. Comp. Isaiah 5:5; Isaiah 7:25; Isaiah 10:6. The Prophet here leaves the image out of sight. The expression is shaped by his realizing in thought the thing signified by the previous figure, namely, the invading host which serves as the scourge of God. This host shall stamp the scoffers under foot, shall tread them like dirt on the streets. The Prophet had expressly declared in Isaiah 10:6 that the army of the Assyrians should do this. But the scourge will come not once only, but often. Isaiah 28:19. The expression יִקַח is suggested by another image, namely, the idea of something which takes away (Jeremiah 15:15), snatches, washes away, corresponding therefore to שׁוטף, as a mighty flood which comes along by rushes. In fact, the invasions by the Assyrians and by the Chaldaeans, who were called to complete their work, were as waterfloods that kept ever inundating the land till it was entirely desolated (Isaiah 24:1; Isaiah 24:3). The second half of Isaiah 28:19 is clearly related to יביו שׁמועה in Isaiah 28:9. There the scoffers had asked: to whom will he preach? They thought themselves much too high to need the preaching of the Prophet. In opposition to this language Isaiah now tells them: because you would not hear my well-meant preaching by word, which was designed to give you מְנוּחָה, you will be compelled to hear a preaching in act, and it will be naught but terror. זועה stands therefore opposed to מנוחה. If in Isaiah 28:0:9הביו שׁמועה signified “to make to know, or understand preaching,” it must in the connexion in which it here stands signify “to hear preaching” (comp. Isaiah 39:16; Job 28:23; Micah 4:12 et saepe). For it is not the preacher who experiences terror, but he who hears the preaching. זְוָעָה (only here in Isaiah, besides comp. Deuteronomy 28:25; Jeremiah 15:4 et saepe; Ezekiel 23:46) is concussio, commotio vehemens, formido. The subject of the sentence is הָבִיו and the predicate זְוָעָה. Is not that a dreadful preaching, when one finds himself in a situation which is fittingly compared to a bed that is too short, or to a covering that is too narrow?—This is a distressful condition. For resistance is encountered on all sides, and the means are insufficient for any undertaking. קצר in Isaiah besides only Isaiah 1:2; Isaiah 59:1. מַצָּעstratum, ἅπ λεγ. מַסֵּכָה besides only Isaiah 25:7. בָּנַס, colligere, coacervare, Hithp. se ipsum colligere, to make of one’s self a heap, only here כְּ in כְּהִתְכַּנֵּס marks coincidence = when one bends one’s-self together, coils one’s-self (Isaiah 18:3; Isaiah 23:5). That such will really be the nature of the situation is now further illustrated by two historical examples. Israel will themselves be in a condition like that in which they through God’s help twice brought their enemies. One of these events to which the Prophet here alludes, is the defeat which David inflicted on the Philistines at Baal-Perazim (2 Samuel 5:20; 1 Chronicles 14:11). David there said פָרַץי‍ אֶת־אֹיְבַי לְכָּנַי כְפֶרֶץ מַיִם, i.e., Jehovah has broken through my enemies before me, as water breaks through. Vitringa perceived that Isaiah was led to think of this passage by what he had said in Isaiah 28:17 and Isaiah 28:2 of the מים שֹׁטְפִים. The other event I take, with most of the older interpreters, to be the defeat which Joshua inflicted on the Canaanites at Gibeon (Joshua 10:10). There, in Isaiah 28:11, it is said expressly that the Lord crushed the enemy by a great hail-storm. And this circumstance corresponds exactly to what Isaiah in verse 2 and verse 17 had said of the hail from which Israel should suffer. That victory of David over the Philistines at Gibeon (2 Samuel 5:22 sqq.; 1 Chronicles 14:14 sqq.) does not supply such an analogy. ירנו comp. on Isaiah 14:9. זר מעשׂהו (comp. Isaiah 5:12) and נכריה עבדתו (Isaiah 2:6) are parenthetical clauses, and not in apposition to the preceding מעשׂהו and עבדתו; for the putting of the adjective first would in that case be quite abnormal. Strange, inconceivable is the work of the Lord pronounced, because He does something which could not have been expected of Him. Who could have thought that Jehovah would treat Israel as the heathen, that He would thus destroy His own work? After all these statements we see how foolish and infatuated the people were in scoffing at the warning voice of the Prophet, and in relying on their own miserable, self-chosen supports (Isaiah 28:15). The admonition which the Prophet adds at the close, and now be ye not mockers is well-meant, and deserving to be laid to heart. Hithp.התלוצץ=to behave mockingly, is found only here. If they do not cease to mock, the bands by which they have been bound ever since Ahaz foolishly made submission to Assyria (2 Kings 16:7 sqq.), can never be broken. For that they must bear these bands, and become acquainted with the nature of them, that is the purpose of God, resolved on, and already revealed to the Prophet. On כלה ונחרצה comp. on Isaiah 10:23.

Footnotes:

[15]Sheol.

[16]flee.

[17]Sheol.

[18]Heb. a treading down to it.

[19]as often as.

[20]Or, when he shall make you to understand doctrine.