Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 24:10
The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
10. The city of confusion ] (or of chaos, Gen 1:2) need not mean “the city destined to become a chaos,” still less “the city of idolatry,” which of course would be epithets inapplicable to Jerusalem. It may simply be equivalent to “the wasted city.”
every house come in ] (cf. ch. Isa 23:1) i.e. the surviving inhabitants have barred their doors, suspicious of the intrusion of unbidden guests.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
10 12. Even the “city,” usually the scene of busy and joyous life, shares in the universal sadness. It is difficult to say whether a particular city is meant, or whether the word is used collectively for cities in general. The fulness of the picture gives the impression that the writer has a particular city before his mind, although it stands as a type of many others throughout the world. If this be so, it is most natural to refer the description to Jerusalem, where the prophecy seems to have been written.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The city of confusion – That Jerusalem is here intended there can be no doubt. The name city of confusion. is probably given to it by anticipation of what it would be; that is, as it appeared in prophetic vision to Isaiah (see the note at Isa 1:1). He gave to it a name that would describe its state when these calamities should have come upon it. The word rendered confusion ( tohu) does not denote disorder or anarchy, but is a word expressive of emptiness, vanity, destitution of form, waste. It occurs Gen 1:2 : And the earth was without form. In Job 26:7, it is rendered the empty place; in 1Sa 12:21; Isa 45:18-19, in vain; and usually emptiness, vanity, confusion (see Isa 24:10; Isa 40:17; Isa 41:29). In Job 12:24; Psa 107:40, it denotes a wilderness. Here it means that the city would be desolate, empty, and depopulated.
Is broken down – Its walls and dwellings are in ruins.
Every house is shut up – That is, either because every man, fearful of danger, would fasten his doors so that enemies could not enter; or more probably, the entrance to every house would be so obstructed by ruins as to render it impossible to enter it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The city; Jerusalem, and other cities; for the singular word may be here taken collectively.
Of confusion; or, of vanity, or emptiness, or desolation; for this Hebrew word signifies all these things. And the city may be thus called, either,
1. In regard of the judgments of God coming upon it, as if he had said, a city devoted to desolation or destruction, to be emptied of its goods and people; or,
2. For its sin, a city of confusion or disorder, breaking all the laws and orders which God had established among them; or a city that walketh with or after vanity, as the Scripture speaks, Job 31:5; Jer 2:5, that loveth and speaketh vanity, as they did, Psa 4:2; 12:2. And this may seem most convenient, that the sin of the city should be noted in this word, as the punishment is expressed in the next.
Every house is shut up; either for fear of the enemy who have entered the city; or rather, because the inhabitants are either fled, or dead, or gone into captivity, and so there are none to go into it, or come out of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. city of confusionrather,”desolation.” What Jerusalem would be; byanticipation it is called so. HORSLEYtranslates, “The city is broken down; it is a ruin.”
shut upthrough fear;or rather, “choked up by ruins.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The city of confusion is broken down,…. Or “of vanity”, as the Vulgate Latin version; or of “emptiness” or “desolation”; the word is “tohu”, used in Ge 1:2 this is to be understood not of Bethel, where one of Jeroboam’s calves was, called Bethaven, or “the house of vanity”; nor Samaria, the chief city of the ten tribes; nor Jerusalem; but mystical Babylon, whose name signifies “confusion”; even the city of Rome, in which there is nothing but disorder and irregularity, no truth, justice, or religion; a city of vanity, full of superstition and idolatry, and devoted to ruin and desolation; and will be broke to pieces by the judgments of God, which will come upon it in one hour, Re 18:8:
every house is shut up, that no man may come in: or, “from coming in”; not for fear of the enemy, and to keep him out; but because there are no inhabitants in them, being all destroyed by one means or another, by fire or sword, or famine or pestilence, so that there is none to go in or out.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The world with its pleasure is judged; the world’s city is also judged, in which both the world’s power and the world’s pleasure were concentrated. “The city of tohu is broken to pieces; every house is shut up, so that no man can come in. There is lamentation for wine in the fields; all rejoicing has set; the delight of the earth is banished. What is left of the city is wilderness, and the gate was shattered to ruins. For so will it be within the earth, in the midst of the nations; as at the olive-beating, as at the gleaning, when the vintage is over.” The city of tohu ( kiryath tohu ): this cannot be taken collectively, as Rosenmller, Arndt, and Drechsler suppose, on account of the annexation of kiryath to tohu , which is turned into a kind of proper name; for can we understand it as referring to Jerusalem, as the majority of commentators have done, including even Schegg and Stier (according to Isa 32:13-14), after we have taken “the earth” ( ha’aretz ) in the sense of kosmos (the world). It is rather the central city of the world as estranged from God; and it is here designated according to its end, which end will be tohu , as its nature was tohu . Its true nature was the breaking up of the harmony of all divine order; and so its end will be the breaking up of its own standing, and a hurling back, as it were, into the chaos of its primeval beginning. With a very similar significance Rome is called turbida Roma in Persius (i. 5). The whole is thoroughly Isaiah’s, even to the finest points: tohu is the same as in Isa 29:21; and for the expression (so that you cannot enter; namely, on account of the ruins which block up the doorway) compare Isa 23:1; Isa 7:8; Isa 17:1, also Isa 5:9; Isa 6:11; Isa 32:13. The cry or lamentation for the wine out in the fields (Isa 24:11; cf., Job 5:10) is the mourning on account of the destruction of the vineyards; the vine, which is one of Isaiah’s most favourite symbols, represents in this instance also all the natural sources of joy. In the term arbah (rejoicing) the relation between joy and light is presupposed; the sun of joy is set (compare Mic 3:6). What remains of the city is partitive, just as in Isa 10:22) is shammah (desolation), to which the whole city has been brought (compare Isa 5:9; Isa 32:14). The strong gates, which once swarmed with men, are shattered to ruins ( yuccath , like Mic 1:7, for yucath , Ges. 67, Anm. 8; , , a predicating noun of sequence, as in Isa 37:26, “into desolated heaps;” compare Isa 6:11, etc., and other passages). In the whole circuit of the earth (Isa 6:12; Isa 7:22; ha’aretz is “the earth” here as in Isa 10:23; Isa 19:24), and in the midst of what was once a crowd of nations (compare Mic 5:6-7), there is only a small remnant of men left. This is the leading thought, which runs through the book of Isaiah from beginning to end, and is figuratively depicted here in a miniature of Isa 17:4-6. The state of things produced by the catastrophe is compared to the olive-beating, which fetches down what fruit was left at the general picking, and to the gleaning of the grapes after the vintage has been fully gathered in ( c alah is used here as in Isa 10:25; Isa 16:4; Isa 21:16, etc., viz., “to be over,” whereas in Isa 32:10 it means to be hopelessly lost, as in Isa 15:6). There are no more men in the whole of the wide world than there are of olives and grapes after the principal gathering has taken place. The persons saved belong chiefly, though not exclusively, to Israel (Joh 3:5). The place where they assemble is the land of promise.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
10. The city of (126) vanity is broken down. I do not object to viewing this as relating especially to the desolation of Jerusalem. Yet it may be gathered from the context that it applies also to other cities; for shortly afterwards he uses the plural number in summoning the nations to appear before the same tribunal. But as the Prophet had his own countrymen chiefly in view, we may properly consider it to denote Jerusalem, which he calls “the city of vanity,” either because there was no solid virtue in it, or because it was destroyed.
The word תהו ( tōhū) may refer either to the destruction itself, or to their crimes, by which they provoked the wrath of God against them. If it be thought better to refer it to their crimes, it will denote “the city of confusion,” in which nothing is regular or properly arranged; and I approve of this interpretation. Yet it may refer to the punishment; for it declares, in my opinion, the cause of the destruction, and gives up the city to ruin, because justice and good government are banished from it.
Every house is shut up. This is a proof of solitude, and the only reason why it is added is, to express the desolation of that city.
(126) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) The city of confusion.Better, the city of chaos, the tohu of Gen. 1:2, without form and void. The world should be cast back out of its cosmos into its primeval chaos. The word is a favourite one with Isaiah (Isa. 34:11; Isa. 59:4, and nine other passages).
Every house is shut upi.e., to complete the picture, not because its gates are barred, but because its own ruins block up the entrance.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. City of confusion “Confusion,” not in respect to social order, but external unplacement: thohu, like that in Gen 1:2, chaos; every thing in amorphous fragments and impalpable ruins. No house to enter, no shelter from sun or storm.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 24:10-12. The city of confusion, &c. We have here the sixth gradation, which requires no other comment than to be compared with the history, 1Ma 3:45, &c. See also ch. Isa 16:8-10 which will explain the phrase, There is a crying for wine in the streets. Wine here denotes the matter of joy and mirth, as appears from the next words; There is a crying for want of wine; i.e. for the want of that joy and mirth which is produced by wine. See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 24:10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Ver. 10. The city of confusion. ] Urbs desolanda, destined to desolation: whether it be Babylon, Tyre, Jerusalem, or any other. Mundum intellige in quo nihil nisi vanum, saith Oecolampadius: that is, by this city of vanity – so the Vulgate translateth it – understand the world; according to that of the preacher, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Augustine, in the beginning of that excellent work of his, De Civitate Dei, maketh two opposite cities – the one the city of God, the other the city of the devil; the one a city of verity, the other a city of vanity.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
confusion = desolation. Hebrew. tohu. Same word as “without form”. Reference to Pentateuch (Gen 1:2). Occurs in “former” portion three times (here; Isa 29:1, “thing of naught; “Isa 34:11); and in the “latter” portion eight times (Isa 40:17, Isa 40:23; Isa 41:29; Isa 44:9, “vanity; “Isa 45:18, Isa 45:19, “in vain; “Isa 49:4, “naught; “Isa 59:4, “vanity”).
no man = no one.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
city: Isa 24:12, Isa 25:2, Isa 27:10, Isa 32:14, Isa 34:13-15, 2Ki 25:4, 2Ki 25:9, 2Ki 25:10, Jer 39:4, Jer 39:8, Jer 52:7, Jer 52:13, Jer 52:14, Mic 2:13, Mic 3:12, Luk 19:43, Luk 21:24
of confusion: Gen 11:9, Jer 9:25, Jer 9:26, Mat 23:34, Mat 23:35, Rev 11:7, Rev 11:8, Rev 17:5, Rev 17:6, Rev 18:2
Reciprocal: Lev 26:31 – And I will make Isa 1:7 – country Dan 9:2 – the desolations Mic 6:9 – Lord’s
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 24:10-12. The city Jerusalem, and other cities, for the word may be here taken collectively; of confusion Hebrew, , which signifies vanity, emptiness, desolation, or confusion. And the city may be thus called, either, 1st, In regard of the judgments of God coming upon it, as if he had termed it a city devoted to desolation and destruction: or, 2d, For its sin, a city of confusion and disorder; breaking all the laws and orders which God had established among them; or a city walking in and after vanity, worshipping vain idols, and pursuing vain things. And this may seem the most proper and suitable, that the sin of the city should be pointed out in this word, as the punishment is expressed in the next; is broken down Its walls, palaces, and temple battered down and demolished; every house is shut up Either for fear of the enemy, who have entered the city, or because the inhabitants are either fled or dead, or gone into captivity. This seems to be only applicable to the destruction of the city by the Chaldeans, or by the Romans. There is a crying for wine For the want or loss of their wine; or for the spoiling of the vintage, whereby they were deprived of the means both of their profit and pleasure. In the city is desolation In Jerusalem itself, that had been so much frequented, there shall be left nothing but desolation; grass shall grow in the streets. The gate is smitten with destruction The gates of the city are totally ruined, so that the enemy may enter when and where they please. Or, all that used to pass and repass through the gates are smitten, and all the strength of the city is destroyed. How soon can God make a city of order, a city of confusion; and then it will soon be a city of desolation!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
24:10 The city of {f} confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may enter.
(f) Which as it was without order so now should it be brought to desolation and confusion: and this was not only meant of Jerusalem, but of all the other wicked cities.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Isaiah described the world as a city marked by meaninglessness (Heb. tohu, Gen 1:2), like the earth before Creation (cf. Gen 11:1-9; Jer 4:23). That the city is the entire earth is clear. The word "earth" occurs 16 times in this section of the text (Isa 24:1-20). A spirit of fear pervades this city. Modern existentialist writers have done a good job of articulating the meaninglessness of life without God that Isaiah also described here. [Note: See, for example, Albert Camus, The Plague.]