Isaiah 30:27-33

5. THE MUSIC OF THE WORLD’S JUDGMENT

Isaiah 30:27-33

27          Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far,

Burning with his anger, 23and the burden thereof Isaiah 24:0 heavy;

His lips are full of indignation,And his tongue as a devouring fire:

28     And his breath, as an overflowing stream,

Shall reach to the midst of the neck,To sift the nations with the sieve of vanity:And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people,

Causing them to err.

29     Ye shall have a song, as in the night

When a holy solemnity is kept;

And gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipeTo come into the mountain of the Lord,

To the 25mighty One of Israel.

30     And the Lord shall cause 26his glorious voice to be heard,

And shall show the lighting down of his arm,With the indignation of his anger,

And with the flame of a devouring fire,

With scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

31     For through the voice of the Lord

Shall the Assyrian be beaten down,

27Which smote with a rod.

32     And 2829in every place where the grounded staff shall pass,

Which the Lord shall 30lay upon him,

It shall be with tabrets and harps;

And in battles of shaking will he fight 31with it.

33     For 32Tophet is ordained 33of old;

Yea, for the king it is prepared;He hath made it deep, and large,

The pile thereof is fire and much wood;

The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,

Doth kindle it.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 30:28. הֲנָפָה for (הָנִיף) Isaiah 10:15 is a verbal noun used as an infinitive. Comp. Esther 2:18.

Isaiah 30:32. Instead of בָּהּ which we must refer to the land of Assyria, the K’ri has the preferable reading בָּם.

Isaiah 30:33. The reading of the K’ri היא has probably arisen through the attempt to produce a conformity with the feminine suffix in מְדֻרָתָהּ .

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The Prophet sees the Lord appear with all His attributes as Judge, and the nations brought to Him as beasts compelled by the bridle to come to be destroyed (Isaiah 30:27-28). Meanwhile Israel’s song is heard as the rejoicing at a festival (Isaiah 30:29). Then Jehovah’s majestic voice sounds forth, and His arm is seen to descend to strike (Isaiah 30:30). It is Assyria that stands trembling before Him and receives the strokes (Isaiah 30:31), and every stroke is inflicted with the music of tabrets and harps, to which the sound of the heavy blows forms as it were the accompaniment (Isaiah 30:32). This is the immolation of Assyria, as we see from the broad and deep place of burning which is prepared with a huge pyre, which the breath of the Lord, as a brook of burning brimstone, will kindle in order to consume the slaughtered victim Assyria, i. e., the worldly power (Isaiah 30:33).

2. Behold the name—to err. Isaiah 30:27-28. The name of Jehovah that comes from far to judgment is not a mere word, nor does it stand simply for God Himself, but it is a manifestation of Deity in which He reveals His holy and righteous nature and His almighty majesty for the purpose of judgment. We have here to refer to Exodus 23:21, where the Lord declares of His angel: my name is in him;—and to all those places where it is said that the name of Jehovah dwells in His holy temple; and, lastly, to places such as Psalms 75:2 where we read “Thy name is near.” The name of Jehovah that comes to judgment is a person. It is He who is the Agent in every revelation of the Godhead, and accordingly He to whom the Father has committed all judgment (John 5:22; Acts 17:31; Romans 14:10; et saepe). The name of God comes from far, because He comes from heaven (Psalms 138:6). But as far as the eye can reach He is seen. His appearance is like a tempest. בער אפִו recalls Psalms 2:12. וכבד משׂאה supply ( &הָיָה משׂאה) is lifting up, and according to Judges 20:38 of smoke. It occurs only here. זַעַם foam, foaming rage, (Isaiah 10:5; Isaiah 10:25; Isaiah 13:5; Isaiah 26:20). אשׁ אכלת occurs Exodus 24:17; Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 9:3; hence in Joel 2:5 and Isaiah 29:6; Isaiah 30:27; Isaiah 30:30; Isaiah 33:14. It has been rightly remarked that two images—that of a tempest and that of a raging man—are here blended. The Lord moves along in His wrath like an overflowing brook which divides (יחצה) the man who has fallen into it into two unequal parts, only the smaller appearing above the water (Isaiah 8:8). He sifts the people with the sieve (נָפָהἅπ. λεγ.) of emptiness,i. e., a sieve Which lets the light, useless grain fall through it. [This explanation is not natural. The sieve of vanity, or emptiness, or destruction is so-called as marking the result of the sifting, a reduction to nothingness.—D. M.]. The Lord comes as Judge. The nations are brought to Him against their will. A bridle is put into their jaws which compels them to go from the way which they intended רסן מתעה the expression only here, התעה in Isaiah 3:12; Isaiah 9:15; Isaiah 19:13 sq.: Isaiah 63:17).

3. Ye shall have a song—Israel. Isaiah 30:29. The Prophet marks by the article before שִׁיר the customary solemn festal song. לָכֶם is the dat. commodi. The night when the festival is kept or consecrated is the night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of the month Nisan, the night in which the paschal lamb was eaten amid solemn songs; for this was the only festival which was celebrated at night. On the fifteenth the feast of unleavened bread began, to which the passover served as an introductory dedication. Israel’s preservation in the night when the destroying angel smote the host of Sennacherib (Isaiah 37:36 sqq.) can be regarded as one, but not the only one, of the events which Isaiah had here in his eye. The Prophet comprehends in the section Isaiah 30:27-33, all that is future, as he had done in the parallel section Isaiah 30:19-26. הִתֲקַדֵּשׁ is vox solemnis for the consecration preparatory to the festival (Exodus 19:22; Numbers 11:18; Joshua 3:5; Joshua 7:13 et saepe). But in those places the people or the priests are the subject. Here it is the festival. The expression is a metonymy, the festival being put for those who celebrate it. חָגκατ̓ ἐζοχήν is elsewhere the feast of tabernacles. Here the festival is definitely marked as that of the passover by לֵיל. Beside the solemnity celebrated at night with song, the Prophet makes mention in the second part of the verse of another such solemnity happening by day. He also employs the manifold festal processions which with accompaniment of song and music moved to the temple, as types of the joy granted to Israel in distinction from the heathen. כְּשִׂמְהַֹת הַֹלֵךְ כַּהֹלֵךְ comp. Isaiah 5:29; Isaiah 10:10; Isaiah 13:4, et saepe.חָלִיל5:12; בְּ marks accompaniment, Isaiah 12:6; Isaiah 14:9. בְּהַר צ׳. n order to avoid using the same preposition twice בְּ is here used instead of אֵל or עַל. The expression צור־ישׂראל occurs besides here only 2 Samuel 23:3. The expression suits admirably the context in which it is said that Israel stands while all else falls. How could what has this rock as a refuge fall?

4. And the Lord—kindle it. Isaiah 30:30-33. The verses 27 and 28 had depicted the approach of the judge (comp. בָּא Isaiah 30:27). The description of the judgment begins with Isaiah 30:30. Jehovah makes the glory of his voice to be heard,the action of his arm he makes to be seen. The image of corporal chastisement is employed by the Prophet to make his picture of the judgment the more incisive. זַעַף snorting, anhelitus, only here in Isaiah. נֶפֶץ is ἅπ. λεγ. The root נָפַץ denotes “to scatter, to break or dash in pieces” (Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 33:3; Jeremiah 51:20 sqq.). As snorting of the nose and flame of fire point to a thunder storm, while זֶרֶם and אֶבֶן בָּרָד are kinds of rain, נֶפֶּץ must also belong to this category. We take it as signifying the breaking, the rending of a cloud, a water-spout. זרם comp. on Isaiah 28:2. אֶבֶן בָּרָד comp. Isaiah 28:17; Joshua 10:11. כִּי in Isaiah 30:31 is explicative. What is the nature of the chastisement in question is explained. First, we are told who is the party punished. It is Assyria. He stands before the Lord and trembles as a boy before his punisher’s rebuke—יֵחַת comp. Isaiah 7:8; Isaiah 31:4; Isaiah 51:6-7 et saepe. He who administers the punishment is Jehovah. It is He who strikes with the staff. Hence the repeated lighting down of his arm. The words בשׁבט יכה I do not refer to Assyria notwithstanding the agreement with Isaiah 10:24. For it was not needful to mention that Assyria formerly smote Israel with the rod. But it was necessary to say that Jehovah now strikes Assyria with the rod, in order to explain נחת זרועו Isaiah 30:30 and also כל מעבר יגו׳ Isaiah 30:32. The staff makes strokes, passes (מַעֲבָר here in the active sense, the passing over). The staff is called (מַטֵּה מוּסָדָה) because it is handled according to divine appointment and ordination (Habakkuk 1:12) comp. Isaiah 28:16 and Ezekiel 41:8. יָנִיחַ is related to נחת Ver 30. The meaning is “to make rest,” so that the ceasing, the extreme point of the motion is thus indicated (comp. Ezekiel 5:13; Ezekiel 16:42; Ezekiel 44:30; Exodus 17:11). Every stroke, which Jehovah makes to fall or rest on Assyria, is inflicted amid the noise of timbrels (Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 24:8) and harps (Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 16:11; Isaiah 23:16; Isaiah 24:8). This is doubtless that joyous noise with which Israel as it were accompanies the acts of judgment of his God (Isaiah 30:29). Thus there arises a complete concert. The timbrels and harps form the soprano; “the battles of shaking,” i. e., the battles of the Lord fought with shaken, brandished hand, beat as it were the time, and also represent the bass. The strokes spoken of in Isaiah 30:30; Isaiah 30:32 are deadly strokes. This appears from the altar being already prepared for the slaughtered victim. And a dreadful altar it will be, a Tophet, deep and broad, with a huge pile of wood, which will be set on fire by the breath of the Lord in the form of a burning stream of brimstone. The Prophet had already said (Isaiah 10:16 sqq.), that Assyria’s glory will perish by violent fire. Who does not here think of the destruction of Nineveh, in which fire played a prominent part (comp. Otto Strauss on Nahum 3:15)? תָּפְּתֶּה is ἅπ. λεγ. תֹּפֶת occurs most frequently in Jeremiah. The derivation is uncertain (comp. my remarks on Jeremiah 7:31). The form תָּפְתֶּה is after the analogy of &אִשֶּׁה לִבְנֶה. The Tophet in the valley of Hinnom was a place of sacrifice dedicated to Moloch; the Tophet here spoken of is intended to burn up the מֶלֶךְ himself, in which word there is probably an allusion to מֹלֶךְ. It is therefore a place like Tophet, and this may be the force of the form enlarged by the addition of ־ֶה. The form אֶתְמוּל occurs only here and Micah 2:8. With the preposition מִן it is commonly מִתְּמוֹל. It cannot possibly mean here the definite past (yesterday). It denotes the indefinite past which is represented by yesterday. From the fact that the place of burning has been long ago prepared, we see that those strokes (Isaiah 30:30; Isaiah 30:32) are not mere chastisements administered in love, but destructive, deadly strokes. With גַּם הוּא the second sentence begins. These words cannot be referred to מֶלֶךְ, for then they must come after it. But the Prophet intends to say that Ashur shall not only be slaughtered, but also solemnly consumed in a vast place of sacrifice specially prepared for this purpose. But why this consuming by fire ? Not simply to denote total annihilation. If the supposition should not be established that the worship of Moloch which Ahaz introduced was connected with Assyrian influences (comp. Keil on 2 Kings 16:3), still Assyria was essentially a representative of the idolatrous worldly power. And when Ashur is now told that the dreadful end of a sacrifice to Moloch awaits him, there lies therein a not indistinct allusion to the everlasting fire of that infernal lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which we find again Isaiah 34:9-10, whose name Gehenna is derived from the place Tophet גֵּי הִנֹּם, a trace of which drawn from Isaiah we meet with Daniel 7:11, and which is more fully unfolded in the eschatological discourse of our Lord (Matthew 24:25 where Matthew 25:41 τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον τὸ ἡτοιμασμένον clearly recalls “ordained of old” in our passage), and the Revelation 14:10-11; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:9-10; Revelation 20:14. When mention is made in these places of a pool of fire and brimstone, it may be maintained that the idea of the λίμνη is drawn from the expression “he hath made it deep and wide,” while the idea of fire and brimstone comes from the latter half of this verse. מְדוּרָה from דּוּר (Isaiah 22:18; Isaiah 29:3) is the round pile of wood, the pyre. The word is found besides only Ezekiel 24:9 comp. ibid. Isaiah 30:5. I do not look on אֵשׁ וְעֵצִים as a hendiadys; for we see from the last clause of the verse that the Prophet desires to give prominence to the circumstance that fire will not be wanting to kindle properly the huge pile of wood. The two ideas of wood and fire are therefore not to be blended, but to be kept distinct. The words נשׁמת וגו׳ accordingly tell us whence the mighty fire will come which is destined to kindle the pile of wood. The breath of Jehovah (Isaiah 2:22; Isaiah 42:5) is here described as a stream of brimstone (נחל גפרית comp. Isaiah 34:9). Brimstone is set forth in Scripture as a destructive means of judgment, on the ground of that rain of brimstone which fell on Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24). בָּעַר in the signification accendere or accendiHos. Isaiah 7:4; Psalms 2:12. Not slowly and gradually from a spark will the flame spread, but suddenly and in an imposing manner a whole stream of burning brimstone shall kindle the pile of wood. Thus the view of the Prophet, which embraces together the near and the most remote, is directed from the temporary occasion of the Egyptian embassy to the end of the present dispensation.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isaiah 30:1-14. “Such false trust as the Jewish people placed in Egypt is the sin of idolatry, which is so strictly forbidden; and all who herein follow the example of the Jews are fitly called rebellious, disobedient, lying children. God brings them to shame and derision in regard to what they relied on, and ordains a curse and destruction upon them. Therefore the Scripture saith: “The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” Comp. also Psalms 146:3 and Jeremiah 17:5-8. Renner. [“God is true, and may be trusted; but every man a liar, and must be suspected. The Creator is a Rock of Ages, the creature a broken reed; we cannot expect too little from man, or too much from God.” Henry.]

2.Isaiah 30:8. [“The Prophet must not only preach this, but he must write it. 1. To shame the men of the present age who would not hear and heed it when it was spoken; their children may profit by it, though they will not. 2. To justify God in the judgments He was about to bring upon them; people will be tempted to think He was too hard upon them, and over severe, unless they know how very bad they were. 3. For warning to others not to do as they did, lest they fare as they fared.” Henry.]

3.Isaiah 30:10. A faithful minister must not suffer men to prescribe to him what he should preach. For some would tell him to prophesy of wine and strong drink (Micah 2:11), the covetous would ask that he should preach how they might practice extortion and oppression. Or if they dare not be so impudent, they would at least desire that he should pass over in silence what would be disagreeable to them, and speak what their ears itched for (2 Timothy 4:3). But faithful ministers preach sharply against sin that it may be avoided. Examples: Ahijah, 1 Kings 14:6; Micaiah, 1 Kings 22:18.” Cramer.

4.Isaiah 30:15. “Neque in religione solum valet hic locus sed etiam in politia. Sic enim fere accidit quod praecipitia consilia fallunt. Contra felicia sunt ea, quae timide et cum ratione suscipiuntur. Ideo laudant Romani cunctatorem Fabium qui cunctando restituit rem. Semper etiam fallit praesumtio de nostris viribus. Bene igitur dictum est illud ‘patiens terit omnia virtus’ Et Paulus: ‘Vincite in bono malum’ ….. non enim possunt durare impii, et est verissimum, quod dicitur ‘malum destruit se ipsum.’ Simus igitur quieti et commendemus omnia manibus Dei. Deinde etiam speremus futuram liberationem et experiemur, quod spes non confundet nos, sed confundentur adversarii nostri, qui impietatis causam contra Christum impie defendendam susceperunt.” Luther.

5.Isaiah 30:18. “Precious consolatory discourse for all who have to bear the cross. God waits till the right time to help comes.” Cramer.

6. Isaiah 30:19. [“He will be very gracious—and this in answer to prayer, which makes His kindness doubly kind: He will be gracious to thee at the voice of thy cry; the cry of thy necessity, when that is most urgent; the cry of thy prayer, when that is most fervent. When He shall hear it—there needs no more—at the first word He will answer thee, and say, Here I am. Herein He is very gracious indeed.” Henry.]

7. Isaiah 30:20. [It was a common saying among the old Puritans, “Brown bread and the Gospel are good fare.” Henry.]

8. Isaiah 30:22. [“Note: To all true penitents sin is very odious; they loathe it, and loathe themselves because of it; they cast it away to the dunghill.” Henry.]

9. Isaiah 30:29. [“It is with a particular satisfaction that wise and good men see the ruin of those who, like the Assyrians, have insolently bid defiance to God, and trampled upon all mankind.” Henry.]

HOMILETICAL HINTS

On Isaiah 30:1-3. What one who needs counsel has to do. 1) He is not to take counsel without the Lord; for a. thereby he apostatizes from the Lord, and heaps sin on sin; b. the counsel thus resolved on leads only to disgrace and misery. 2) He is to let himself be led by the Spirit of the Lord, while he a. invokes Him in prayer; b. seeks to know His will out of the word of God; c. according to such direction makes conscientious use of the means at his command.

2. On Isaiah 30:8. Text for a sermon at a Bible festival. The importance of the written word—litera scripta manet.

3. On Isaiah 30:9-14. A mirror which the Prophet holds before our churches also. 1) Do you make the same demands on your minister which the contemporaries of Isaîah, according to Isaiah 30:9-11, made on the prophets? If so, it will happen to you according to the word of the prophet in Isaiah 30:12 to Isaiah 14:2) Or will you hear the law of the Lord (Isaiah 30:9)? Then you will be spared the judgments of God, and the peace of God will be imparted unto you.

4. On Isaiah 30:15-17. We have many and severe conflicts against outward and inward foes to stand. For this we need strength. Wherein does the right strength consist? 1) Not in horses and runners, etc. 2) The right strength is in the Lord, which we obtain when a. we make room for it by being still; when b. by believing hope we attract it to us.

5. On Isaiah 30:18. [“He will wait to be gracious; He will wait till you return to Him, and seek His face, and then He will be ready to meet yon with mercy. He will wait, that He may do it in the best and fittest time, when it will be most for His glory, when it will come to you with the most pleasing surprise. He will continually follow you with His favors, and not let slip any opportunity of being gracious to you.” Henry.—D. M.]

6. On Isaiah 30:20-21. The importance of a faithful teacher.

7. On Isaiah 30:26-33. We can in treating of the last things cite these words, and show that the judgment has two sides, according as it has respect to the children of God, or to the ungodly.

Footnotes:

[23]Or, and the grievousness of flame.

[24]Heb. heaviness.

[25]Rock.

[26]Heb. the glory of his votes.

[27]with the rod will he smite.

[28]Heb. every passing of the rod founded.

[29]every stroke of the rod of doom.

[30]Heb. cause to rest upon him.

[31]Or, against them.

[32]a place of burning.

[33]Heb. from yesterday.