Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 11:15
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make [men] go over dry-shod.
15. Cf. Zec 10:10 f. shall utterly destroy ] lit. “lay under the ban.” But the reading of several ancient versions ( he rb for he rm) gives a better sense: dry up; cf. ch. Isa 50:2. the tongue of the Egyptian sea is the Gulf of Suez (cf. Jos 15:2; Jos 15:5; Jos 18:19).
with his mighty wind ] Perhaps with the fierce heat of his breath. The word rendered “fierce heat” does not occur again in Hebrew, but a similar Arabic word is used of internal heat (either physical or mental). The phrase seems misplaced; it belongs to the figure of the drying up of the sea, not to that of shaking the hand. over the river ] the Euphrates, as in ch. Isa 7:20, Isa 8:7. smile it in the seven streams ] R.V. into seven streams. dryshod ] lit. “in sandals.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
15, 16. A miraculous passage prepared for the return of the exiles. The allusions to the Exodus are palpable and extend to the next chapter.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the Lord – The prophet goes on with the description of the effect which shall follow the return of the scattered Jews to God. The language is figurative, and is here drawn from that which was the great storehouse of all the imagery of the Jews – the deliverance of their fathers from the bondage of Egypt. The general sense is, that all the embarrassments which would tend to impede them would be removed; and that God would make their return as easy and as safe, as would have been the journey of their fathers to the land of Canaan, if the Egyptian Sea had been removed entirely, and if the river, with its seven streams, by nature so formidable a barrier, had been dried up, and a path had been made to occupy its former place. Figuratively, the passage means, that all the obstructions to the peace and safety of the people of God would be removed, and that their way would be easy and safe.
The tongue – The Hebrews applied the word tongue to anything that resembled a tongue – to a bar of gold Jos 7:21, Jos 7:24; to a flame of fire (note, Isa 5:24; compare Act 2:3); to a bay of the sea, or a gulf, from its shape Jos 15:5; Jos 18:19. So we speak of a tongue of land. When it is said that the Lord would utterly destroy it, it is equivalent to saying that it would be entirely dried up; that is, so as to present no obstruction.
Of the Egyptian Sea – Some interpreters, among whom is Vitringa, have supposed that by the tongue of the Egyptian Sea mentioned here, is meant the river Nile, which flows into the Mediterranean, here called, as they suppose, the Egyptian Sea. Vitringa observes that the Nile, before it flows into the Mediterranean, is divided into two streams or rivers, which form the Delta or the triangular territory lying between these two rivers, and bounded on the north by the Mediterranean. The eastern branch of the Nile being the largest, he supposes is called the tongue or bay of the Egyptian Sea. But to this interpretation there are obvious objections:
(1) It is not known that the Mediterranean is elsewhere called the Egyptian Sea.
(2) This whole description pertains to the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt The imagery is all drawn from that. But, in their departure, the Nile constituted no obstruction. Their place of residence, in Goshen, was east of the Nile. All the obstruction that they met with, from any sea or river, was from the Red Sea.
(3) The Red Sea is divided, at its northern extremity, into two bays, or forks, which may be called the tongues of the sea, and across one of which the Israelites passed in going from Egypt. Of these branches, the western one was called the Heroopolite branch, and the eastern, the Elanitic branch. It was across the western branch that they passed. When it is said that Yahweh would destroy this, it means that he would dry it up so that it would be no obstruction; in other words, he would take the most formidable obstructions to the progress of his people out of the way.
And with his mighty wind – With a strong and powerful wind. Michaelis supposes that by this is meant a tempest. But there is, more probably, a reference to a strong and steady hot wind, such as blows over burning deserts, and such as would have a tendency to dry up even mighty waters. The illustration is, probably, derived from the fact that a strong east wind was employed to make a way through the Red Sea Exo 14:21. If the allusion here be rather to a mighty wind or a tempest, than to one that is hot, and that tends to evaporate the waters even of the rivers, then it means that the wind would be so mighty as to part the waters, and make a path through the river, as was done in the Red Sea and at the Jordan. The idea is, that God would remove the obstructions to the rapid and complete deliverance and conversion of people.
Shall he shake his hand – This is to indicate that the mighty wind will be sent from God, and that it is designed to effect this passage through the rivers. The shaking of the band, in the Scripture, is usually an indication of anger, or of strong and settled purpose (see Isa 10:32; Isa 13:2; Zec 2:9).
Over the river – Many have understood this as referring to the Nile; but two considerations show that the Euphrates is rather intended:
(1) The term the river ( hanahar) is usually applied to the Euphrates, called the river, by way of eminence; and when the term is used without any qualification, that river is commonly intended (see the notes at Isa 7:20; Isa 8:7; compare Gen 31:21; Gen 36:37; 1Ki 4:21; Ezr 4:10, Ezr 4:16; Ezr 5:3).
(2) the effect of this smiting of the river is said to be Isa 11:16 that there would be a highway for the people from Assyria, which could be caused only by removing the obstruction which is produced by the Euphrates lying between Judea and some parts of Assyria.
And shall smite it – That is to dry it up, or to make it pasable.
In the seven streams – The word streams here ( nechalym) denotes streams of much less dimensions than a river. It is applied to a valley with a brook running through it Gen 26:19; and then to any small brook or stream, or rivulet Gen 32:24; Psa 74:15. Here it denotes brooks or streams that would be fordable. When it is said that the river should be smitten in the seven streams, the Hebrew does not mean that it was already divided into seven streams, and that God would smite them, but it means, that God would smite it into seven streams or rivulets; that is, into many such rivulets (for the number seven is often used to denote a large indefinite number, Note, Isa 4:1); and the expression denotes, that though the river presented an obstruction, in its natural size, which they could not overcome, yet God would make new channels for it, and scatter it into innumerable rivulets or small streams, so that they could pass ever it dry-shod.
A remarkable illustration of this occurs in Herodotus (i. 189): Cyrus, in his march to Babylon, arrived at the river Gyndes, which, rising in the mountains of Matiene, and passing through the country of the Darneans, loses itself in the Tigris; and this, after flowing by Opis, is finally discharged into the Red Sea. While Cyrus was endeavoring to pass this river, which could not be perfomed without boats, one of the white consecrated horses boldly entering the stream, in his attempts to cross it, was borne away by the rapidity of the current, and totally lost. Cyrus, exasperated by the accident, made a vow that he would render this stream so very insignificant, that women should hereafter be able to cross it without so much as wetting their feet. He accordingly suspended his designs on Babylon, and divided his forces into two parts; he then marked out with a line on each side of the river, one hundred and eighty trenches; these were dug according to his orders, and so great a number of people were employed that he accomplished his purpose; but he thus wasted the whole of that summer (see also Seneca, De Ira. iii. 21).
Go over dry-shod – Hebrew, In shoes, or sandals. The waters in the innumerable rivulets to which the great river should be reduced, would be so shallow, that they could even pass them in their sandals without wetting their feet – a strong figurative expression, denoting that the obstruction would be completely removed. The prophet, under these metaphors, intends nothing else than that there would be no impediment to God when he wished to deliver his people from captivity. – (Calvin.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 11:15
The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea.
The Egyptian sea and the river
The tongue, i.e., the bay (cf. Jos 15:2)
of the Red Sea (the Gulf of Suez) will be banned, i.e., rendered harmless to those who would cross it, by being dried up; the river (the Euphrates), swift and too deep to be forded as it is, will be split into seven separate channels, which separately may be forded without danger. (Prof. Driver, D. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. The Lord – shall smite it in the seven streams – “Smite with a drought”] The Chaldee reads hecherib; and so perhaps the Septuagint, who have , the word by which they commonly render it. Vulg. desolabit; “shall desolate.” The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee read hidrichahu, “shall make it passable,” adding the pronoun, which is necessary: but this reading is not confirmed by any MS.
Here is a plain allusion to the passage of the Red Sea. And the Lord’s shaking his hand over the river with his vehement wind, refers to a particular circumstance of the same miracle: for “he caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land,” Ex 14:21. The tongue; a very apposite and descriptive expression for a bay such as that of the Red Sea. It is used in the same sense, Jos 15:2; Jos 15:5; Jos 18:19. The Latins gave the same name to a narrow strip of land running into the sea: tenuem producit in aequora linguam. LUCAN. ii. 613. He shall smite the river to its seven streams. This has been supposed to refer to the Nile, because it falls into the Mediterranean Sea by seven mouths: but R. Kimchi understands it of the Euphrates, which is the opinion of some good judges. See the Targum. See below.
Herodotus, lib. i, 189, tells a story of his Cyrus, (a very different character from that of the Cyrus of the Scriptures and Xenophon,) which may somewhat illustrate this passage, in which it is said that God would inflict a kind of punishment and judgment on the Euphrates, and render it fordable by dividing it into seven streams. “Cyrus, being impeded in his march to Babylon by the Gyndes, a deep and rapid river which falls into the Tigris, and having lost one of his sacred white horses that attempted to pass it, was so enraged against the river that he threatened to reduce it, and make it so shallow that it should be easily fordable even by women, who should not be up to their knees in passing it. Accordingly he set his whole army to work, and cutting three hundred and sixty trenches, from both sides of the river, turned the waters into them, and drained them off.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Shall utterly destroy; shall not only divide it, as of old, but will quite dry it up, that it may be a highway, as it is explained in the next verse.
The tongue of the Egyptian sea; the Red Sea, which may well be called the Egyptian sea, both because it borders upon Egypt, and because the Egyptians were drowned in it, which is called a tongue in the Hebrew text, Jos 15:2,5, as having some resemblance with a tongue; for which reason the name of hath been given by geographers to promontories of land which shoot forth into the sea, as this sea did shoot out of the main ocean into the laud.
Shake his hand; he alludes to Mosess shaking of his hand with the rod of God in it over the sea;
over the river, to wit, of Egypt, Nilus, as appears both from the foregoing and from the following words.
The seven streams; for which Nilus is famous in all authors, and by which it emptieth itself into the sea.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. There shall be a secondexodus, destined to eclipse even the former one from Egypt in itswonders. So the prophecies elsewhere (Psa 68:22;Exo 14:22; Zec 10:11).The same deliverance furnishes the imagery by which the return fromBabylon is described (Isa 48:20;Isa 48:21).
destroyliterally,”devote,” or “doom,” that is, dry up; for whatGod dooms, perishes (Ps 106:9Na 1:4).
tonguethe Bubasticbranch of the Nile [VITRINGA];but as the Nile was not the obstruction to the exodus, it israther the west tongue or Heropolite fork of the Red Sea.
with . . . mighty windsuchas the “strong east wind” (Ex14:21), by which God made a way for Israel through the Red Sea.The Hebrew for “mighty” means terrible.MAURER translates, “Withthe terror of His anger”; that is, His terrible anger.
in the seven streamsrather,”shall smite it (divide it by smiting) into seven(many) streams, so as to be easily crossed” [LOWTH].So Cyrus divided the river Gyndes, which retarded his march againstBabylon, into three hundred sixty streams, so that even a woman couldcross it [HERODOTUS,1.189]. “The river” is the Euphrates, the obstruction toIsrael’s return “from Assyria” (Isa11:16), a type of all future impediments to the restoration ofthe Jews.
dry shodHebrew,“in shoes.” Even in sandals they should be able to passover the once mighty river without being wet (Re16:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea,…. Which Kimchi and Abarbinel interpret of the Egyptian river Sichor, or the Nile; others of a bay of the Egyptian sea, so called because in the form of a tongue; the destroying of it designs the drying of it up, so that people might pass over it dry shod; the allusion is to the drying up of the Red Sea, when the Israelites came out of Egypt, and passed through it, as on dry land; and it intends the destruction of Egypt itself, not literally by the Romans, in the times of Augustus Caesar, as Jerom thinks, who interprets the “strong wind”, in the following clause, of them; but figuratively, the destruction of Rome, which is spiritually called Egypt, Re 11:8 and the utter destruction of it, by an anathema, and with a curse, from the Lord himself; as the word here used signifies; and which will take place upon the battle at Armageddon, Re 16:16 which has its name from the word in the text:
and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river; in allusion to Moses’s stretching out his hand over the Red sea, and the Lord’s causing it to go back with a strong east wind, Ex 14:21. Some understand this of the river Nile as before, and that because of what follows; but Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of the river Euphrates, which is commonly understood in Scripture when “the river”, without any explication, is made mention of; and so the Targum,
“and the Lord shall dry up the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and shall lift up the stroke of his strength upon Euphrates, by the word of his prophets;”
and this designs the destruction of the Turks, or the Ottoman empire, which is signified by the drying up of the river Euphrates,
Re 16:12 where it is thought by some there is an allusion to the words here:
and shall smite it in the seven streams; which have made some think the river Nile is meant, because that had its seven streams, or gates, as Juvenal calls o them, or mouths, by which the sea issued into it; which are called p the Canopic or Heracleotic, the Bolbitine or Bolbitic, the Sebennitic, the Phatnitic, the Mendesian, the Tanitic or Saitic, and the Pelusian or Bubastic, from the cities Canopus and Heracleum, Bolbitine, Sebennytus, Phatnus, Mendes, Tanis or Sais, Pelusium, and Bubastus, built on the shore of these entrances; but it may be observed, that the river Euphrates was drained by seven ditches or rivulets by Cyrus, when Babylon was taken, by which means his soldiers entered the city dry shod, to which the allusion may be here; and it may denote the entire destruction of the Turkish empire, in all its branches; for “seven”, as Kimchi observes, may signify a multitude, even the many kingdoms, people, and nations, under that jurisdiction:
and make [men] go over dryshod; or “with shoes”, with them on, there being no need to pluck them off, the river and its streams being dried up; by the “men” are, meant the “kings of the east”, of which
[See comments on Re 16:12] all these phrases denote the removal of all impediments out of the way of God’s people in those parts, in coming over to the Christian religion, and their embracing and professing that.
o Satyr. 13. p Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He dwells still longer upon the miracles in which the antitypical redemption will resemble the typical one. “And Jehovah pronounces the ban upon the sea-tongue of Egypt, and swings His hand over the Euphrates in the glow of His breath, and smites it into seven brooks, and makes it so that men go through in shoes. And there will be a road for the remnant of His people that shall be left, out of Asshur, as it was for Israel in the day of its departure out of the land of Egypt.” The two countries of the diaspora mentioned first are Asshur and Egypt. And Jehovah makes a way by His miraculous power for those who are returning out of both and across both. The sea-tongue of Egypt, which runs between Egypt and Arabia, i.e., the Red Sea ( sinus Heroopolitanus, according to another figure), He smites with the ban ( hecherim , corresponding in meaning to the pouring out of the vial of wrath in Rev 16:12 -a stronger term than gaar , e.g., Psa 106:9); and the consequence of this is, that it affords a dry passage to those who are coming back (though without there being any necessity to read hecherb , or to follow Meier and Knobel, who combine hecherm with c harum , Lev 21:18, in the precarious sense of splitting). And in order that the dividing of Jordan may have its antitype also, Jehovah swings His hand over the Euphrates, to smite, breathing upon it at the same time with burning breath, so that it is split up into seven shallow brooks, through which men can walk in sandals. stands, according to the law of sound, for ; and the (with a fixed kametz), from = , , to glow, signifies a glowing heat – a meaning which is also so thoroughly supported by the two Arabic verbs med. Ye lm and glm ( inf. aim , gaim , internal heat, burning thirst, also violent anger), that there is no need whatever for the conjecture of Luzzatto and Gesenius, . The early translators (e.g., lxx , Syr. b e uchdono , with a display of might) merely give conjectural renderings of the word, which had become obsolete before their time; Saadia, however, renders it with etymological correctness suchun , from sachana , to be hot, or set on fire. Thus, by changing the Euphrates in the (parching) heat of His breath into seven shallow wadys , Jehovah makes a free course for His people who come out of Asshur, etc. This was the idea which presented itself to the prophet in just this shape, though it by no means followed that it must necessarily embody itself in history in this particular form.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
15. And the Lord will utterly destroy. In this verse he means nothing else than that the Lord, by his amazing power, will open for his people a way, which formerly appeared to be shut up. He speaks figuratively. What he calls a tongue is “a bay of the sea;” for when the sea penetrates into the land, and occupies a part of it, there is a resemblance to a person putting out his tongue. He therefore means the Egyptian sea and Egypt itself, as he afterwards more fully explains. But he chiefly mentions the sea and the rivers, because they protect the countries and shut up every entrance.
And will stretch out the hand over the river in the strength of his wind. He undoubtedly means the Nile, which waters the whole of Egypt, and divides it into many parts, and might thus interrupt the march of the people when returning to their native country. I have no doubt that רוח ( ruach) here denotes wind, though he adds the Lord’s; for all the winds are the Lord’s, because he regulates and guides according to his pleasure; and more especially this phrase is employed when it is miraculously agitated by a violent whirlwind. He alludes to the former deliverance of his people, by which he brought them out of Egypt; for when the Lord was pleased to open up a way for them, he dried up the sea by the force and violence of the winds. (Exo 14:21.)
True, the Lord did not need the assistance of the winds, for he might have done it by an immediate exertion of his power. But when he makes use of outward means, let us learn, first, that all creatures are ready to yield obedience to him; for though they have a natural course, yet they are in his power, so that he can direct their force and violence in whatever way he pleases. For instance, when a wind arises, its beginning proceeds from a natural cause, and each of the winds has its properties. The south wind is moist, and the north wind is cold, and completely similar are the effects which proceed from them; for the south wind moistens bodies, and the north wind dries them. By extraordinary miracles the Lord shows that he possesses an authority far above these natural causes, so that they are governed, not by nature, (that is, by that succession of events or chain of causes which irreligious men imagine to exist,) but by God alone.
Secondly, he shows that he changes the nature and order of events whenever he pleases, that he may be acknowledged to be their only Lord; because such a change exhibits more clearly his authority and dominion. On this account Isaiah called it not simply the wind, but the wind of the Lord, that we may perceive that it is not directed or moved by chance, but by the power of the Lord.
And shall smite it in the seven streams. Some render it torrents, and explain it thus: “he will divide the Nile into seven parts.” Though this exposition has been universally adopted, yet I do not approve of it; and I think that it has arisen from forgetfulness, rather than from ignorance, on the part of its authors, who are learned men notwithstanding, and deeply skilled in the perusal of the ancient writers. It is well known from history that the Nile had seven mouths. There are others which are little mentioned, because they had no names, and are therefore called false mouths. Whatever, then, is the number of the mouths or branches, it appears to form that number of streams or rivers; and these might have been so many hinderances to retard their journey. The Prophet expressly mentions them, because the river was highly celebrated.
And shall make them be shod with shoes. (191) The river being deep, he says that he will dry it up, so that it will not be necessary to pull off their shoes in crossing it, though this would have been necessary if only a small portion of water had remained.
By these metaphors, therefore, the Prophet means nothing else than that nothing will stand in God’s way, when it shall be his pleasure to rescue his people from captivity. He glances at the history of a former deliverance, that they may learn that it will be the same with that which they formerly enjoyed. On this account he wished to place it, as it were, before their eyes; for the means of this deliverance was not seen. If this promise had been stated in plain terms, it might not have produced so deep an impression on their minds as by holding out this remarkable example.
(191) And make men go over dry-shod. (Heb. in shoes.) — Eng. Ver.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) The tongue . . .Better, as in Jos. 15:2; Jos. 15:5; Jos. 18:19, the bay or gulf. The Egyptian sea is the Gulf of Suez, and the prophet pictures to himself another marvel like the passage of the Red Sea in Exo. 14:22. The river, on the other hand, is the word Commonly used for the Euphrates (Gen. 31:21; Jos. 24:2), and that meaning is assigned to it here by most commentators, who refer to Isa. 44:27 as a parallel. In Isa. 19:5, however, it is found, as here, in parallelism with the sea of Egypt, and as it there refers to the Nile, that meaning may well be accepted here. The prophet describes, in language which almost excludes the thought of a merely literal fulfilment, a renewal of wonders transcending those of the Exodus, and it was natural that his description should bear the local colouring of the region. He contemplates a return from Egypt as much as from Assyria (Isa. 11:11). On this view the words that follow, will smite it in the seven streams, refer naturally enough to the seven mouths that enclose and intersect the Delta of the Nile. On the other view, the words may be interpreted as meaning literally, I will smite it [Euphrates] into seven streams, and figuratively, I will reduce the power of Assyria [or Babylon, as an Assyrian city] to insignificance.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15, 16. The wonders which Jehovah wrought for Israel in his escape from Egypt, and will yet work in his deliverances from Assyria, are to be repeated essentially, but in the spiritual sense, in behalf of the dispersed of Israel, or at least the Israel that shall return to Jehovah in those lands. The whole description is exaltedly figurative and the poetry wonderful, considering the small physical scope from within which the terms and vocables are drawn as signs of the prophet’s overflowing conceptions.
And the Lord shall utterly destroy Shall lay the ban upon the Sea of Egypt: that which lies between Egypt and Arabia, the Gulf of Suez or the Red Sea, which the children of Israel passed. Jehovah smites it with the ban; he makes it dry again for passage to converted ones out of Egypt toward Zion.
With his mighty wind With his heated, glowing breath, and wave of hand, as employing mediate agency over the Euphrates. Observe the attention, as before, first on the two great world-kingdoms.
Smite it in the seven streams Jehovah splinters the great river into seven, or an indefinite number of shallow streams to become, through God’s heated air, dry wadys for an unobstructed highway to the saints from Assyria, as well as in old time there was to God’s typical people out of Egypt. In these terms no literal history is asserted for the future Messianic people, but merely a gradual disappearing of the whole circle of heathendom comes to pass, and tropically the Holy Land is the centre of Messiah’s kingdom.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 11:15-16. And the Lord shall utterly destroy This is the last part of this illustrious prophesy, in which the prophet declares, that about that time in which God should establish the kingdom of his Son in the world, two adverse kingdoms, which seemed to threaten a delay of this great work, should be destroyed or reduced to such a state as not to be able to hinder the progress of the calling of the Jews and Gentiles; which two kingdoms are here, in the prophetic style, denoted by the names of Egyptian and Assyrian. Bishop Warburton observes, that it was usual among the Hebrews to denote any character or action by that of the kind which was become most known or celebrated. In this place a second passage through the Red Sea is promised in literal terms; but who will therefore say that this is the literal meaning? The literal meaning, though the prophesy be in figurative terms, is, simply, redemption from bondage; for Egypt in the Hebrew phrase signified a place of bondage. Vitringa reads the first clause of the 15th verse, The Lord shall devote to destruction the gulph or bay of the Egyptian sea; by which is meant the Nile, as a symbol of the kingdom of Egypt; as, in the next clause, the river means the Euphrates, or symbol of Assyria; and accordingly Vitringa renders it, Over the Euphrates, and shall smite it into seven outlets; that is to say, he shall divide or separate it into seven streams, so as to render it easy to be passed over. The fate of the Egyptian and Assyrian empire under the Seleucidae and Lagidae is thought to be here referred to, and spiritually the destruction of the kingdoms of idolatry and superstition. My belief, says Vitringa, upon the strength of this prophesy, to which we grant the most ample and extensive sense, is that it will come to pass: all the impediments of the great empire of the world being removed, which yet delay the perfect completion of the great and excellent promises made to the church, the empire of the kingdom of Christ will extend itself over the whole world, according to the remarkable prediction of Daniel, chap. Dan 2:35, &c.
REFLECTIONS.1st, As the coming of the glorious Messiah was the great hope of God’s people of old, in every time of trouble; the prophet directs them to look above their temporal deliverance from the power of Sennacherib, to that eternal salvation which their great Redeemer would accomplish for all the faithful.
1. His descent is spoken of: As a rod out of the stem of Jesse; it being promised to David, that from him Christ should spring; and a branch shall grow out of his roots; signifying the meanness of his appearance in the flesh, as a tender branch compared with the tall cedars of this world’s princes; and intimating the low estate to which the family of Jesse would be reduced, when all the former royalty that it possessed would be gone, as the tree cut down, whose stump only remains in the earth. And such was the case with the family of Joseph and Mary when Jesus was born.
2. His qualifications for the work appointed him are mentioned. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; even the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and with this text he once opened his ministry, Luk 4:18 the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the hid treasures of which are all resident in Jesus; the Spirit of counsel and knowledge; how to execute the plan of redemption, to preach the gospel, instruct his people, and order the affairs of his spiritual kingdom, to God’s glory, and the salvation of the faithful; the spirit of might, to conquer all his foes, and accompany his word of truth with effectual demonstration and power unto the consciences of men, and of the fear of the Lord; being the perfect pattern of all godliness, and setting us an example that we should follow his steps: and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; or of acute smell; intimating the thorough discernment that he shall possess of the hearts of men. See Joh 1:47. Note; (1.) When we have such a Redeemer, of wisdom and might to counsel and support us, how firm and unshaken ought our confidence in him to be? (2.) A quick understanding in the fear of God, is the gift of God; the brightest genius, without his grace, is in spiritual things dark and ignorant.
3. His throne shall be established in righteousness. As he knows men’s hearts, he can judge of their characters, not by their outward appearance, but by their inward tempers and principles; detecting the hypocrite under all the disguises of outward formality and religious profession, Mat 22:18. The poor and humbled sinner who flies to him for pardon and grace, he will justify by his infinite merit, and rescue the meek from their oppressors, whether Satan or wicked men, whom he will rebuke in equity, and smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, in warnings against those who place their affections upon it; and with the breath of his lips slay the wicked, by present judgments, or more terrible and eternal vengeance, 2Th 2:8. In all which dispensations of mercy and judgment, the righteousness of his government shall appear as a glorious ornament; and his faithfulness, in accomplishing the promises made to his faithful people, and in completing the ruin denounced on his enemies, shall be manifested to his everlasting praise.
4. His kingdom shall enjoy the most happy union and concord: such a change will pass upon the spirits of men by the grace of Jesus, that the most persecuting, fierce, and untractable, shall become meek, lowly, and gentle as the lamb; all animosities subside, and no more venom remain in the human bosom. The knowledge of the Lord, which shall be diffused through the earth, shall produce this marvellous renovation of our fallen nature: and all united in love and peace, under the divine Redeemer, become one fold under one shepherd: the fulfilment of which appears now wherever the power of the gospel is known and felt; and we hope to see a day when not partially, but universally, this wonder-working Jesus shall make his power to appear, and all shall know him, love him, and serve him, from the least unto the greatest.
2nd, We have a farther prophesy of the glory and enlargement of the Messiah’s kingdom; which, whatever regard it may have to the times of Hezekiah, or the return of the Jews from Babylon, which was but a partial deliverance, certainly looks forward to the days of the gospel, when Jews and Gentiles were incorporated in one church; and will have, we trust, its final accomplishment, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in, and all Israel shall be saved.
1. The great author of this salvation is the root of Jesse, the Lord Jesus, before called the rod and branch; for he is both the root and offspring of David, Rev 5:5. He shall stand for an ensign of the people; lifted up in the preaching of the gospel among all nations, who shall be invited to list under his banners; and to it shall the Gentiles seek for pardon and peace through his blood and merit, desiring to become willing subjects of his government, and to live in safety under his care and protection; and his rest shall be glorious; either Christ’s, when, having in his sufferings and death finished the great work of atonement, he entered into his rest above in glory everlasting: or it refers to his believing people, who in him find a present happy rest to their souls from guilt and fear, and expect an eternal rest with him hereafter in his kingdom.
2. The completion of the salvation is described. Notwithstanding every opposition, God is said to do it the second time. The faithful are called a remnant, or those that remain, some in all ages having embraced the truth in its power; but now, more universally than ever, the gospel shall go forth into all lands, to gather from the four corners of the earth, and most distant Isles of the sea, the dispersed Jews, as well as the Gentiles, among whom they dwell. All enmity between Jew and Gentile, as subsisted of old between Judah and Ephraim, shall be at an end, all uniting in the service of their Redeemer; the inveterate enemies of Christ and his people, whether Papal or Pagan, &c. as the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, were to the Jews, shall be vanquished by the powerful word of the gospel, and be brought to the obedience of the faith. And Antichrist and his followers, compared to Egypt, for their enmity against the church, Rev 11:8 who will rise up to make war with the saints, shall be utterly destroyed, Rev 16:16-19 as when God, by the rod of Moses, opened a way for his people to pass over, but overwhelmed their enemies in the Red Sea: and, every enemy being thus removed, converts from every side shall be added to the church daily, till all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 11:15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make [men] go over dryshod.
Ver. 15. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea. ] That is, by drying up, or driving away the waters, he shall open a way through the Red Sea, which representeth the form and fashion of a tongue. He alludeth to Exo 14:22 ; for Christ being our Conduct, we do enter by baptism, as by the Red Sea, into the Church, and after this life present into the kingdom of heaven.
He shall shake his hand over the river.
With his mighty wind.
And make men go over dryshod.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
tongue = gulf.
His mighty = the full force, spirit, or blast, as in Isa 11:4 (“breath”).
wind = Hebrew. ruach.
the river: i.e. the Euphrates.
dryshod. Hebrew in shoes.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
utterly: Isa 50:2, Isa 51:9, Isa 51:10, Zec 10:11
with his mighty: Exo 14:21
he shake: Isa 19:16
shall smite: Isa 19:5-10, Exo 7:19-21, Psa 74:13-15, Eze 29:10, Eze 30:12, Rev 16:12
dryshod: Heb. in shoes
Reciprocal: Exo 15:10 – blow Jos 4:22 – General Jos 15:2 – bay Jos 18:19 – bay 2Ki 2:8 – were Isa 10:32 – shake Isa 13:2 – shake Isa 30:32 – shaking Isa 40:3 – make Isa 42:15 – General Isa 43:2 – passest Isa 43:16 – maketh Isa 44:27 – Be dry Hos 9:3 – but Joe 3:19 – Egypt Hab 3:10 – the overflowing Zec 2:9 – I will Heb 11:29 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 11:15-16. And the Lord shall utterly destroy Shall not only divide it, as of old, but shall quite dry it up, that it may be a highway; the tongue of the Egyptian sea The Red sea, which may well be called the Egyptian sea, both because it borders upon Egypt, and because the Egyptians were drowned in it. It is called a tongue, both here and in the Hebrew text, (Jos 15:2; Jos 15:5,) as having some resemblance to a tongue; and for a similar reason the name of tongue has been given by geographers to promontories of land which shoot forth into the sea, as this sea shoots out of the main ocean into the land. Bishop Lowth renders the clause, Jehovah shall smite with a drought the tongue, &c., following the Chaldee, which, instead of , he destroyed, reads , he dried up. And the next clause, which he understands, not of the river Nile, but of the Euphrates, the bishop very properly translates, And he shall shake his hand over the river with his vehement wind; and he shall strike it into seven streams, and make them pass over it dry-shod. Thus also Dr. Waterland, after Vitringa: He shall shake his hand over the Euphrates, and shall smite it into seven outlets; that is, he shall divide or separate it into seven small rivers, so as to render it easy to be passed over. What is thus expressed metaphorically in this clause, is declared in plain words in the next verse: And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, &c. As there shall be a highway from Egypt, the Red sea being dried up, so shall there be from Assyria, the river Euphrates being rendered fordable. In other words, and without a figure, all impediments shall be removed, and a way shall be made for the return of Gods Israel from all parts of the world. He mentions Egypt and Assyria particularly, because they were then two flourishing kingdoms which bordered upon Judea, and by turns were the great oppressors of Gods people. And the ten tribes having been carried captive to Assyria, their case especially seemed desperate. But these two kingdoms stand here, in the prophetic style, for the adverse empires in general, especially those of idolatry and superstition, which shall be either destroyed or reduced to such a state of weakness as not to be able to hinder the progress of the conversion of the Jews and Gentiles. My belief, says Vitringa, upon the strength of this prophecy is, that all the impediments of the great empires of the world being removed, which yet delay the perfect completion of the great and excellent promises made to the church, and hinder the calling and collection of the Jews and Gentiles, the empire of the kingdom of Christ will extend itself over the whole world, according to the remarkable prediction of Daniel, chap. 2:35, &c.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
11:15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the {i} tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand {k} over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make [men] go over dryshod.
(i) Meaning a corner of the sea that enters into the land and has the form of a tongue.
(k) That is, Nile, the great river of Egypt which enters into the sea with seven streams.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
God will defeat Israel’s ancient enemies, Egypt and Babylonia. His judgments on them will involve the drying up of major barriers: the Red Sea and the Euphrates River (cf. Exo 14:21; Rev 16:12). This judgment will allow the Jews to return to the Promised Land, unhindered, from those parts of the world. They will be able to leave the territory of Assyria, where God had said He would send them captive, as easily as their forefathers left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea in the Exodus. Dividing the Euphrates into seven seasonal streams (Heb. nahal) may connote a perfect and complete taming, or even re-creation, by God.
Thus, this section of the book, dealing with the hope of God’s deliverance (Isa 10:5 to Isa 11:16), culminates in the reign of Messiah on the earth. Israel will re-gather in the Promised Land-from all over the world-trusting in God. The Gentiles, too, will acknowledge His sovereignty, which both they and His own people have forever resisted.