Isaiah 4:5 - Exposition

Upon every dwelling-place ("over the whole habitation," Revised Version). Mr. Cheyne translates "upon the whole site," and takes the "site" to be especially the temple. Makon seems certainly never to be used for anything but "God's dwelling-place" ( Exodus 15:17 ; 1 Kings 8:13 , 1 Kings 8:39 , etc.; 2 Chronicles 6:2 , 2 Chronicles 6:30 , etc.; Ezra 2:68 ; Psalms 33:14 ; Psalms 89:14 ; Psalms 97:2 ; Psalms 104:5 ; Isaiah 18:4 ; Daniel 8:11 ). Perhaps, however, every dwelling-place of God, i.e. every Christian Church, is intended. On these, and on all Christian assemblies, there will rest a new presence of God—one which he will have "created;" recalling that of the pillar of fire and of cloud which rested in the wilderness on the Jewish tabernacle ( Exodus 33:9 ; Exodus 40:34-38 , etc.). A cloud and smoke by day . The "pillar of the cloud" is never said in the Pentateuch to have been one of" smoke;" but Sinai "smoked" when God descended on it ( Exodus 19:18 ; Exodus 20:18 ), and the psalmist speaks of a "smoke" as issuing out of God's nostrils ( Psalms 18:8 ). In the poetry of Isaiah," smoke, no less than "cloud," symbolizes God's presence (see Isaiah 6:4 ). Upon all the glory shall be a defense ; rather, as in the margin, a covering . Over all the glory of Zion, its purged temple and its purified assemblies, the presence of God shall rest like a canopy, protecting it.