Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 22:4
Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
4. Look away from me ] i.e. “leave me alone,” as Job 7:19.
labour not is strictly press not upon me, and spoiling should be destruction. The prophet’s gaze is already on the future.
daughter of my people ] The phrase, common in Jeremiah and Lamentations, occurs only here in Isaiah.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Look away from me – Do not look upon me – an indication of deep grief, for sorrow seeks to be alone, and grief avoids publicity and exposure.
I will weep bitterly – Hebrew, I will be bitter in weeping. Thus we speak of bitter sorrow, indicating excessive grief (see the note at Isa 15:5; compare Jer 13:17; Jer 14:17; Lam 1:16; Lam 2:11; Mic 1:8-9).
Labour not – The sense is, My grief is so great that I cannot be comforted. There are no topics of consolation that can be presented. I must be alone, and allowed to indulge in deep and overwhelming sorrow at the calamities that are coming upon my nation and people.
Because of the spoiling – The desolation; the ruin that is coming upon them.
The daughter of my people – Jerusalem (see the note at Isa 1:8; compare Jer 4:11; Jer 6:14; Jer 8:19, Jer 8:21-22; Lam 2:11; Lam 4:3, Lam 4:6, Lam 4:10).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Look away from me; take off your eyes and thoughts from me, and leave me alone, that I may take my fill of sorrows.
Labour not to comfort me; for all your labour will be lost, I neither can nor will receive any consolation.
Of the daughter of my people; of that city and nation whereof I am a member. The title of daughter is oft given both to cities and nations, as hath been noted before.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. Look . . . from meDeepgrief seeks to be alone; while others feast joyously, Isaiah mournsin prospect of the disaster coming on Jerusalem (Mic 1:8;Mic 1:9).
daughter, c.(see onIsa 1:8 La2:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore said I,…. Not God to the ministering angels, as Jarchi; but the prophet to those that were about him, his relations, friends, and acquaintance:
look away from me; turn away from me, look another way; cease from me, let me alone; leave me to myself, that I may weep in secret, take my fill of sorrow, and give full vent to it:
I will weep bitterly; or, “I will be bitter”, or, “bitter myself in weeping” n; it denotes the vehemence of his grief, the greatness of his sorrow, and the strength of his passion:
labour not to comfort me; make use of no arguments to persuade me to lay aside my mourning; do not be urgent and importunate with me to receive consolation, for my soul refuses to be comforted:
because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people; his countrymen, which were as dear to him as a daughter to a tender parent, now spoiled, plundered, and made desolate by the ravages of the enemy, in many cities of Judea.
n “amarificabo me in fletu”, Montanus; “amaritudine afficiam me in isto fletu”, Junius & Tremellius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Therefore I say, Look away from me, that I may weep bitterly; press me not with consolations for the destruction of the daughter of my people! For a day of noise, and of treading down, and of confusion, cometh from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision, breaking down walls; and a cry of woe echoes against the mountains.” The note struck by Isaiah here is the note of the kinah that is continued in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Jeremiah says sheber for shod (Lam 3:48), and bath – ammi (daughter of my people) is varied with bathZion (daughter of Zion) and bath – yehudah (daughter of Judah). Merer babbeci (weep bitterly) is more than bacah m ar (Isa 33:7): it signifies to give one’s self thoroughly up to bitter weeping, to exhaust one’s self with weeping. The two similar sounds which occur in Isa 22:5, in imitation of echoes, can hardly be translated. The day of divine judgment is called a day in which masses of men crowd together with great noise ( m ehumah ), in which Jerusalem and its inhabitants are trodden down by foes ( m ebusah ) and are thrown into wild confusion ( m ebucah ). This is one play upon words. The other makes the crashing of the walls audible, as they are hurled down by the siege-artillery ( m ekarkar kir ). Kirker is not a denom. of kr , as Kimchi and Ewald suppose (unwalling walls), but is to be explained in accordance with Num 24:17, “he undermines,” i.e., throws down by removing the supports, in other words, “to the very foundations” ( kur , to dig, hence karkarah , the bottom of a vessel, Kelim ii. 2; kurkoreth , the bottom of a net, ib. xxviii. 10, or of a cask, Ahaloth ix. 16). When this takes place, then a cry of woe echoes against the mountain ( shoa , like shua , sheva ), i.e., strikes against the mountains that surround Jerusalem, and is echoed back again. Knobel understands it as signifying a cry for help addressed to the mountain where Jehovah dwells; but this feature is altogether unsuitable to the God – forgetting worldly state in which Jerusalem is found. It is also to be observed, in opposition to Knobel, that the description does not move on in the same natural and literal way as in a historical narrative. The prophet is not relating, but looking; and in Isa 22:5 he depicts the day of Jehovah according to both its ultimate intention and its ultimate result.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
4. Therefore I said. Here the Prophet, in order to affect more deeply the hearts of the Jews, assumes the character of a mourner, and not only so, but bitterly bewails the distressed condition of the Church of God. This passage must not be explained in the same manner as some former passages, in which he described the grief and sorrow of foreign nations; but he speaks of the fallen condition of the Church of which he is a member, and therefore he sincerely bewails it, and invites others by his example to join in the lamentation. What has befallen the Church ought to affect us in the same manner as if it had befallen each of us individually; for otherwise what would become of that passage? “The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.” (Psa 69:9.)
I will be bitter in my weeping. (78) He does not mourn in secret, or without witnesses; first, because he wishes, as I have already said, to excite others by his example to lamentation, and not to lamentation only, but much more to repentance, that they may ward off the dreadful judgment of God against them, which was close at hand, and henceforth may refrain from provoking his displeasure; and secondly, because it was proper that the herald of God’s wrath should actually make evident that what he utters is not mockery.
Because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. That he expresses the feelings of his own heart may be inferred from what he now declares, that he is bitterly grieved “on account of the daughter of his people.” Being one of the family of Abraham, he thought that this distress affected his own condition, and intimates that he has good grounds for lamentation. By a customary mode of expression he calls the assembly of his people a daughter. Hence it ought to be observed, that whenever the Church is afflicted, the example of the Prophet ought to move us to be touched ( συμπαθείᾳ) with compassion, if we are not harder than iron; for we are altogether unworthy of being reckoned in the number of the children of God, and added to the holy Church, if we do not dedicate ourselves, and all that we have, to the Church, in such a manner that we are not separate from it in any respect. Thus, when in the present day the Church is afflicted by so many and so various calamities, and innumerable souls are perishing, which Christ redeemed with his own blood, we must be barbarous and savage if we are not touched with any grief. And especially the ministers of the word ought to be moved by this feeling of grief, because, being appointed to keep watch and to look at a distance, they ought also to groan when they perceive the tokens of approaching ruin.
The circumstance of his weeping publicly tended, as we have said, to soften the hearts of the people; for he had to deal with obstinate men, who could not easily be induced to lament. There is a passage that closely resembles it in Jeremiah, who bewails the miserable and wasted condition of the people, and says, that through grief “his heart fainteth,” (79) (Jer 4:31😉 and in another passage, “O that my head were full of waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might bewail the slain of my people!” (Jer 9:1.) When the prophets saw that they labored in vain to subdue the obstinacy of the people, they could not avoid being altogether overwhelmed by grief and sorrow. They therefore endeavored, by their moving addresses, to soften hard hearts, that they might bend them, if it were at all possible, and bring them back to the right path.
(78) Bogus footnote
(79) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) Therefore said I, Look away from me.The tone is that of one who wishes to be alone in his sorrow. It is too deep for visits of consolation. He refuses to be comforted. Isaiah bewails the destruction of the daughter of his people in much the same strain as that of Jeremiah over a later catastrophe (Lam. 3:48).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4, 5. Therefore Look away from me Advice to let the prophet alone, to obtrude not on his sorrow. No consolation can reach him.
Daughter of my people Inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Trouble treading down perplexity Mental anguish extreme to the prophet, while the thoughtless people are insensible to coming woes. Terrible day in prospect, but Jehovah sends it as the last recourse with a view to correction.
Crying Wails which reach to and echo back from the mountains, allusive of the valley whence they come.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 22:4-5. Therefore said I, Look away Behold the prophet here anticipating those lamentations which he was afterwards to pour forth, and which Jeremiah afterwards so pathetically poured forth, an eye-witness of this calamity. See his Lamentations. The expressions here are too strong to be applied to any other calamity than that great one, when the Jews were carried to Babylon. Who does not see, says Vitringa, in Isaiah thus weeping over Jerusalem, a type of Jesus weeping over the same city in its last extremity? See Luk 19:41.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The Prophet, like a true servant of the Lord, though himself had the least hand in bringing down the judgments of God, yet he will be the first to lament them. Alas! when God’s corrections are in our land, what would become of it, if the Lord’s handful of people were not at prayer? What a gracious and earnest request was that of the king, when he sent to the prophet, to beg of him, to lift up his voice, for the remnant that was left; Isa 37:1-4 ; Joe 2:17-18 . Here is a sad representation of the devastations made by the Persian army!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 22:4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
Ver. 4. Therefore said I, Look away from me. ] Ut luctui et lamentis me totum dedam; that unseen I may soak myself in the salt tears of sorrow for Zion.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Look: Rth 1:20, Rth 1:21, Jer 4:19, Jer 9:1, Jer 13:17, Luk 1:2
Weep bitterly: Heb. be bitter in weeping, Isa 33:7, Jer 6:26, Mic 1:8, Mat 26:75
labour: Psa 77:2, Jer 8:18, Jer 31:15, Mat 2:18
Reciprocal: Est 4:1 – and cried Est 4:3 – great mourning Isa 32:11 – be troubled Isa 51:19 – by whom Jer 4:11 – daughter Jer 9:18 – our eyes Jer 47:2 – then the Jer 48:3 – voice Lam 2:11 – for Eze 21:6 – Sigh Eze 27:31 – they shall weep Zep 1:10 – the noise Zep 1:14 – even Luk 21:25 – with
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 22:4-5. Therefore said I, &c. Behold the prophet here anticipating those lamentations which he was afterward to pour forth, and which Jeremiah so pathetically poured forth, an eye-witness of this calamity. For the expressions here are too strong to be applied to any other calamity than the great and final one, when the Jews were carried captives to Babylon;
of which the prophet had a clear foresight. Look away from me Take off your eyes and thoughts from me, and leave me alone, that I may take my fill of sorrow. Labour not to comfort me For all your labour will be lost. I neither can nor will receive any consolation. Because of the spoiling, &c. Of that city and nation, whereof I am a member. The title of daughter is often given both to cities and nations, as hath been observed before. For it is a day of treadling down In which my people are trodden under foot by their insolent enemies; and of perplexity by the Lord of hosts This is added, partly to show, that this did not happen without Gods providence; and partly to aggravate their calamity, because, not only men, but God himself fought against them; breaking down the walls Of the strong cities of Judah; which was done both by Sennacherib and by Nebuchadnezzar; and of crying to the mountains With such loud and dismal outcries as should reach to the neighbouring mountains. Who does not see, says Vitringa, in Isaiah, thus weeping over Jerusalem, a type of Jesus weeping over this same city in its last extremity?
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
22:4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep {g} bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.
(g) He shows what is the duty of the godly, when God’s plagues hang over the Church, and especially of the ministers, Jer 9:1 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Therefore Isaiah rejected the attempts of his fellow citizens to get him to participate in their celebration. The terrible end of the city drew tears from him that the present rejoicing could not stop. Isaiah was a compassionate person because he identified with his countrymen in their suffering.