Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 27:11
When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, [and] set them on fire: for it [is] a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.
11. women come, and set them on fire ] i.e. come thither to gather fuel.
a people of no understanding ] (lit. “not a people of discernment”) because it does not perceive that deliverance is delayed solely by its continued impenitence (ch. Isa 44:18).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When the boughs thereof are withered – This is a further description of the desolation which would come upon Babylon. The idea is, that Babylon would be forsaken until the trees should grow and decay, and the branches should fall to be collected for burning. That is, the desolation should be entire, undisturbed, and long continued The idea of the desolation is, therefore, in this verse carried forward, and a new circumstance is introduced to make it more graphic and striking. Lowth, however, supposes that this refers to the vineyard, and to the fact that the vine-twigs are collected in the East from the scarcity of fuel for burning. But it seems to me that the obvious reference is to Babylon, and that it is an image of the great and prolonged desolation that was coming upon that city.
They shall be broken off – That is, by their own weight as they decay, or by the hands of those who come to collect them for fuel.
The women come – Probably it was the office mainly of the women to collect the fuel which might be necessary for culinary purposes. In eastern climates but little is needed; and that is collected of the twigs of vineyards, of withered stubble, straw, hay, dried roots, etc., wherever they can be found.
And set them on fire – That is, to burn them for fuel.
Of no understanding – Of no right views of God and his government – wicked, sinful Pro 6:32; Pro 18:2; Jer 5:21.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 27:11
It is a people of no understanding
A dreadful denunciation of judgment
I.
THE JUDGMENT DENOUNCER.
1. Great desolation as to their outward state (Isa 27:10, and former part of Isa 27:11).
2. Utter destruction, final ruin. He that made them will not have mercy on them. It is the highest severity, where no Saviour is to be found, where judgment is executed without mercy. And this is amplified by the consideration–
(1) Partly of the inflicter of the judgment. He that made them, They were not to fall into the hands merely of men like themselves, their fellow creatures; but into the hands of the living God.
(2) Partly of kindness formerly received from Him. He that made them; He that formed them; that is, He that created them, gave them their being, or He that not only made them as His creatures, but formed them to be His servants, formed them into a State and into a Church, and so had given them their being, not only a natural one, but a civil and ecclesiastical one:
He that had formerly done so much for them, vouchsafed them such choice mercies, yet now would renounce all kindness to them.
II. THE CAUSE OF THE JUDGMENT TO BE INFLICTED. It is a people of no understanding, a sottish, ignorant people, such as take no notice of anything, know not God, observe not His works, understand not their duty. Other sins, no doubt, they were chargeable with; but the Lord takes notice especially of their ignorance, and it is for that they are here threatened. Hence we take notice, that,–
1. Ignorance of God, His truths or ways, is no security against His judgments (Jer 10:25).
2. The knowledge of the will and ways of God is necessary for them that expect to find favour with God. They that desire God would save them, must labour to know Him. (E. Veal, B. D.)
Spiritual knowledge
I. WHAT IS THAT KNOWLEDGE WE ARE TO SEEK AFTER.
II. DIRECTIONS FOR ATTAINING IT. (E. Veal, B. D.)
Spiritual knowledge necessary
1. Supposing it were certainly defined, how much knowledge, and the knowledge of what truths, were sufficient to salvation; yet no man, that is in a capacity of getting more knowledge, ought to acquiesce in just so much.
2. Men should in their seeking knowledge first study those truths which are most confessedly necessary to salvation before those which are apparently less necessary.
3. Men should labour after such a knowledge of the truth, as that they may be able to give a reason of the hope that is in them.
4. Men should especially give themselves to the study, and labour after the knowledge of the present truths (2Pe 1:12), i.e., those which are the special truths of the times, and ages, and places in which men live.
5. Men should labour for such knowledge as may defend them from the errors of the times and places in which they live.
6. Men should seek especially for such knowledge, and study such truths, as have the greatest influence upon practice.
7. Every man should labour to get as much spiritual knowledge as he can, by the means of the knowledge he hath gotten, and as he can get without the neglect of other necessary duties. (E. Veal, B. D.)
Mans forfeiture of the love of his Creator
I. THE RELATION OF A CREATOR STRONGLY ENGAGES GOD TO PUT FORTH ACTS OF LOVE AND FAVOUR TOWARDS HIS CREATURE. This is clear from the strength of the antithesis in these words, He that made them will not save them: where, for the advantage of the expression, it is redoubled, He that formed them will show them no favour. As if He should have, it may seem strange to you that your Creator, which very name speaks nothing but bowels of love and tenderness, should utterly confound and destroy you. Yet thus it must be; though the relation make it strange, yet your sins will make it true. The strength of this obligement appears in these two considerations.
1. It is natural; and natural obligements, as well as natural operations, are always the strongest.
2. God put this obligement upon Himself; therefore it must needs be a great and a strong one: and this is clear, because the relation of a Creator is, in order of nature, antecedent to the being of the creature; which not existing, could not oblige God to create it, or assume this relation. There are three engaging things that are implied in the creatures relation to God, that oblige Him to manifest Himself in a way of goodness to it.
(1) The extract or signal of the creatures being, which is from God Himself. It is the nature of every artificer to tender and esteem his own work: and if God should not love His creature, it would reflect some disparagement upon His workmanship, that He should make anything which He could not own. God is not a heathen god, a Saturn, to devour His children. Now the creatures denying its being from God, includes in it two other endearing considerations. It puts a certain likeness between God and the creature. Whatsoever comes from God, by way of creation, is good; and so, by reason of the native agreement that is, between that and the will of God, there naturally does result an act of love: for where there is nothing but goodness on the creatures part, there can be nothing but love on Gods.
(2) The dependence of its being upon God.
(3) The end of the creatures being is Gods glory. Now God, that loves His own glory must needs also respect the instrument that advances it.
II. SIN DISENGAGES AND TAKES OFF GOD FROM ALL THOSE ACTS OF FAVOUR THAT THE RELATION OF A CREATOR ENGAGED HIM TO.
1. It turns that which, in itself, is an obligation of mercy, to be an aggravation of the offence. True it is, to make a creature, to give It being upon a rational ground, is an argument of love. But for a creature to sin against Him from whom it had its whole being; and that a puny creature, the first born of nothing, a piece of creeping clay, one whom, as God created, so He might uncreate with a breath; for such a one to fly in his Creators face, this gives a deeper dye to sin.
2. Sin disengages God from showing love to the creature, by taking away that similitude that is between God and him, which was one cause of that love. The creature, indeed, still retains that resemblance of God that consists in being; but the greatest resemblance that consists in moral perfections, this is totally lost and defaced.
3. Sin discharges God from snowing love to the creature, by taking off the creature from his dependence upon God. It cannot dissolve his natural dependence (Act 17:28). But our moral dependence, which is a filial reliance upon God, this it destroys. For in sin the creature quits his hold of God, and seeks to shift for himself and to find his happiness within the circle of his own endeavours.
4. Sin disengages the love of God to the creature, because it renders the creature useless, as to the end for which it was designed. The soul, by reason of sin, is unable to act spiritually; for sin has disordered the soul, and turned the force and edge of all Its operations against God: so that now it can bring no glory to God by doing, but only by suffering, and being made miserable.
Application–
1. First use is to obviate and take off that usual and common argument that is frequently in the mouths of the ignorant, and in the hearts of the most knowing; that certainly God would never make them to destroy them; and therefore since He has made them, they roundly conclude that He will not destroy them. God formed thee: true; but since thou hast sinned agent so dear a relation, this very thing is an argument that He should destroy thee; God has imprinted His image upon thee, but sin has defaced it. Thou art Gods possession, a creature designed for His use: true; but sin has made thee totally useless. Now the reasons whence men frame these kind of objections may be these two.
(1) A self-love and a proneness to conceive some extraordinary perfection in themselves, which may compound for their misdemeanours.
(2) Our readiness to think that God is not so exceeding jealous of His honour, but He may easily put up the breach of it without the rum of His creature. Nay, we are even apt to doubt whether or no our sins make any breach upon it at all.
2. Second use: This may serve to inform us of the curse, provoking nature of sin. Certainly there is something in it more than ordinary, that should make the great and merciful God take a poor creature, and shake it almost into nothing, to rid His hands of it, to disown and let it fall out of His protection into endless unspeakable woe and misery.
3. Third use: This may inform us under what notion we are to make our addresses to God; not as Creator, for so He is noways suitable to our necessities. He is offended and provoked, and we stand as outlaws and rebels to our Maker. What shall poor sinners do? whither shall they repair? Why there is yet hope: Gods wisdom has reconciled His justice to His mercy, and consequently us to Himself. And now He represents Himself under a more desirable relation, as a reconciled God. And although, under the former relation, He drives us from Him; yet, under this, He tenderly invites us to Him. (R. South, D. D.)
A class of sinners excluded from mercy
I. THE CHARACTERS HERE MENTIONED are described as persons of no understanding. But what is here meant by understanding! No one can suppose that the persons here censured and threatened were idiots or madmen. Had this been their character, they would have been incapable of sin, and consequently undeserving of punishment. The word understanding is obviously used in this passage, as in very many others, to signify spiritual understanding, or a knowledge of religious truth. But some may ask, if all men are naturally without spiritual understanding, and if, as the text asserts, God will not have mercy on such as sustain this character, will it not follow that He can have mercy on none? Though all men are naturally without spiritual under standing, this declaration does not refer to all. It refers to those only who, like the Jews, have long enjoyed, but have abused or neglected means of grace and opportunities of acquiring religious knowledge.
II. THE TERRIBLENESS OF THIS THREATENING. There is something terrible in its very sound. But its meaning is much more terrible. It includes everything, dreadful, everything which man has reason to deprecate. This threatening implies–
1. That God will either deny them the common blessings of His providence, or grant them those blessings in anger, and send a curse with them.
2. That God will either deprive sinners of their religious privileges, means, and opportunities, or withhold His blessing and thus render them useless. Thus He dealt with the Jews. He still sent them messengers and instructions and warnings, but did not send a blessing with them.
3. That God will withhold from such characters the awakening, enlightening, and sanctifying influences of His Spirit.
4. That at the judgment day God will condemn such characters to depart accursed into everlasting fire. There is no medium between mercy and condemnation.
III. IT IS PERFECTLY JUST.
1. Because the persons against whom this threatening is denounced never ask for mercy, never seek the favour of God.
2. These persons have long rejected and abused the offered mercy and grace of God.
3. This threatening is just because the characters to whom it refers must be guilty of many other aggravated offences. They must have been destitute of the fear of God; for to fear Him is the beginning of wisdom. They must have refused to renounce their sins; for to depart from evil is understanding. They must have loved darkness rather than light; for they rejected the latter and chose the former; and the reason was, their deeds were evil. They must have followed and imitated sinners; for this all do who are void of understanding. They must have disobeyed Gods commands; for all who obey them have a good understanding. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. The boughs thereof – “Her boughs”] ketsireyha, MS. and Vulg.; that is, the boughs of the vineyard, referring still to the subject of the dialogue above.
The scarcity of fuel, especially wood, in most parts of the east is so great, that they supply it with every thing capable of burning; cow-dung dried, roots, parings of fruit, withered stalks of herbs and flowers; see Mt 6:21-30. Vine-twigs are particularly mentioned as used for fuel in dressing their food, by D’Arvieux; La Roque, Palestine, p. 198. Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine, used figuratively for the people of God, as the vineyard is here: “Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel;” Eze 15:3-4. “If a man abide not in one,” saith our Lord, “he is cast forth as a branch of the vine and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned;” Joh 15:6. They employed women and children to gather these things, and they laid them up in store for use. The dressing and pruning their vines afforded a good supply of the last sort of fuel; but the prophet says that the vines themselves of the beloved vineyard shall be blasted, withered, and broken, and the women shall come and gather them up, and carry away the whole of them to make their fires for domestic uses. See Harmer’s Observations, vol. i., p. 254, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When the boughs thereof are withered; when they shall begin to wither, as they will when they are thus gnawed and cropped by cattle.
They shall be broken off, that there may be no hopes nor possibility of their recovery.
The women; he mentions women, either because it is their usual work in the country to make fires, and to gather fuel for them, or to signify that the men should be generally destroyed.
It is a people of no understanding; they do not understand either me or themselves, either my word or works; they know not the things which concern their own peace and happiness, but, like brute beasts made to be destroyed, they blindly and wilfully go on in those courses which will bring them to certain ruin. He that made them; both as they are creatures, and as they are his people; for this also is expressed by making or forming, as Psa 100:3; 102:18; 149:2. Thus he overthroweth their false and presumptuous conceits, that God would never destroy the work of his own hands, nor the seed of Abraham his friend for ever; and plainly declareth the contrary.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. boughs . . . broken offsothe Jews are called (Rom 11:17;Rom 11:19; Rom 11:20).
set . . . on fireburnthem as fuel; “women” are specified, as probably it wastheir office to collect fuel and kindle the fire for cooking.
no understandingas tothe ways of God (Deu 32:28;Deu 32:29; Jer 5:21;Hos 4:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off,…. This city is compared to a tree, whose branches are not only gnawed and consumed by cattle, as in the former verse
Isa 27:10; but which, in a hot dry summer, are withered and dried up, and so are easily broken, and are fit for nothing but the fire; hence it follows:
the women come [and] set them on fire; or “gather” them f in order to burn them; as is commonly done with withered branches,
Joh 15:6 it may design the burning of the whore of Rome by the kings of the earth; for as antichrist is signified by a woman, so the ten kings that shall hate her, and burn her flesh with fire, may be signified by women; see Re 17:16. The word here used signifies to illuminate, or give light, which is done when wood is set on fire; hence the Vulgate Latin renders it, “women coming, and teaching it”; and so the Targum,
“women shall come into the house of their gods, and teach them;”
as the woman Jezebel does, Re 2:20 the former sense is best:
for it [is] a people of no understanding; or “understandings”: that is, the people that inhabit the above city, they are sottish and stupid, have no understanding of God and divine things, of the Scriptures, and the doctrines of them; among whom this maxim obtains, that ignorance is the mother of devotion; they are under a judicial blindness, are given up to strong delusions to believe a lie, 2Th 2:10:
therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them; and he that formed them will show them no favour; but his wrath shall be poured out upon them to the uttermost, which will be fulfilled in the seven vials, and in the destruction of Rome, and the everlasting ruin of the worshippers of the man of sin; see Re 16:1 no argument can be taken from men’s being God’s creatures and offspring, and from his being the former and maker of them, to their salvation; or because they are so, therefore shall be saved when they are sinful and sottish; for, being like brutes without understanding, they shall perish as they, without mercy.
f So Abendana in Miclol Yophi observes, this is the sense some give of the word, taking it to be the same as is used in Cant. v. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. When its harvest shall wither. (207) Some think that the Prophet has in his eye the metaphor of a vineyard, which he employed at the beginning of the chapter, and therefore they translate קציר ( kātzīr,) branches. The word is certainly ambiguous; but as קציר ( kātzīr) means also a harvest, and as the metaphor of a harvest is more appropriate, I prefer to take it in that sense. Nor do I translate it, “When the harvest shall be withered,” but “When the harvest shall wither.” In this passage wither means nothing else than to approach to maturity. Before the harvest of the land is ripe, it shall be cut down; as if he had said, “The Lord will take away from thee the produce which thou thoughest to be already prepared for thee and to be in thy hand.”
The women coming shall burn it. When he says that “women shall come,” he means that God will have no need of robust soldiers to execute his judgment, and that he will only make use of the agency of women. This exhibits in a still stronger light the disgracefulness of the punishment, for he threatens that the calamity shall also be accompanied by disgrace; because it is more shameful and humiliating to be plundered by “women,” who are unused to war, than by men.
For it is a people of no understanding. At length he assigns the reason of so heavy a calamity. At first sight it might appear to be excessively harsh that the Lord should permit the people whom he had chosen to be wretchedly tormented and scattered, and not to render them any assistance; for it is inconsistent with his kindness and fatherly love which he bears towards them. But the Prophet shews that God had good reason for punishing the Jews with such severity; for they were destitute of knowledge and sound “understanding.”
Nor is it without reason that he pronounces ignorance to have been the source of all evils; for since “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,” (Pro 1:7; Psa 111:10,) they who despise God and obey the wicked passions of their flesh are justly condemned by the Spirit of God as blind and mad. And yet such ignorance does not at all excuse us or lessen the guilt of our wickedness; for they who sin are conscious of their sinfulness, though they are blinded by their lust. Wickedness and ignorance are therefore closely connected, but the connection is of such a nature that ignorance proceeds from the sinful disposition of the mind. Hence it comes that “ignorance,” or “ignorances,” is the general name given by the Hebrew writers to every kind of sin, and hence also that saying of Moses,
“
O that they were wise and understood!” (Deu 32:29.)
Any man will easily perceive this, if he consider how great is the power of evil passions to trouble us; for when we have been deprived of the light of doctrine, and are void of understanding, the devil drives us as it were to madness, so that we do not dread the arm of God, and have no respect for his holy word.
Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them. For the purpose of still heightening their terror, he at length takes away all hope of pardon; for even if a remnant was preserved, the wrath of God did not on that account cease to rage against the multitude at large. The Prophet here calls God the Maker and Creator of Israel, not in the same manner that he is called the Creator of heaven and earth, (Gen 1:1,) but inasmuch as he has formed his Church by the Spirit of regeneration. In like manner Paul also declares, that in that sense we are αὐτοῦ ποίημα, his workmanship, (Eph 2:10,) as we have already stated in the exposition of another passage. (208) (Isa 19:25.) Isaiah made this statement, in order to exhibit more strongly the ingratitude of the people, and to shew how justly they deserve to be punished, since, after having been formed and preserved by God, they treated him with dishonor and contempt.
(207) Bogus footnote
(208) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) When the boughs thereof are withered . . .The picture of the wasted city receives another touch. Shrubs cover its open spaces (perhaps the prophet thinks of the gardens and parks within the walls of a city like Babylon), and women come, without fear of trespassing, to gather them for firewood.
For it is a people of no understanding.The words are generic enough, and may be applied, like similar words in Isa. 1:3; Jer. 8:7; Deu. 32:28, to Israel as apostate, or to the world-power, which was the enemy of Israel. In this case, as we have seen, the context turns the scale in favour of the latter reference. So taken, the words are suggestive, as witnessing to the prophets belief that the God of Israel was also the Maker and the Former of the nations of the heathen world.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
I detain the Reader over this verse, just to remark, that though, in the first view, the doctrine may seem harsh, yet the proper apprehension presently clears it up, and stops such a conclusion. The sense of the passage will not be far to gather, if we consider who, and what are meant by a people of no understanding. It doth not mean persons born with weak or no intellect: this is not what is meant in scripture language, when speaking of persons of no understanding. Job explains it at once, when he saith, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding, Job 28:28 . Hence, therefore, by the people the prophet here speaks of, which have no understanding, is meant men that do not, and will not, depart from evil; who know what is good, but do what is evil; who hear of Jesus, but reject and despise him. Concerning such, this scripture saith, He that made them, and he that formed them, inasmuch as they reject Christ, which is the mercy of God, will show them no favor.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 27:11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, [and] set them on fire: for it [is] a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
Ver. 11. For it is a people of no understanding. ] Heb., Not a people of understandings – i.e., non sapiunt nisi plagis emendentur, they will not be wise without whipping; I must therefore handle them the more sharply and severely. Castigat Deus quem amat, etiamsi non amat castigare.
Therefore he that made them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the boughs, &c. = her harvest drieth up.
they. Feminine., i.e. the “stones” of Isa 27:9.
broken off = broken, or destroyed.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the boughs: Psa 80:15, Psa 80:16, Eze 15:2-8, Eze 20:47, Mat 3:10, Joh 15:6
for it is: Isa 1:3, Isa 44:18-20, Deu 4:6, Deu 32:28, Deu 32:29, Jer 4:22, Jer 5:4, Jer 5:5, Jer 5:21, Jer 5:22, Jer 8:7, Hos 4:6, Mat 13:15, Mat 13:19, Rom 1:28, Rom 1:31
therefore: Isa 43:1, Isa 43:7, Isa 44:20, Isa 44:21, Isa 44:24, Gen 6:6, Gen 6:7, Deu 32:18-25, 2Ch 36:16, 2Ch 36:17, Psa 106:40, Eze 9:10, 1Th 2:16, 2Th 1:8, 2Th 1:9, Jam 2:13
Reciprocal: Deu 29:20 – will not spare Deu 32:6 – made thee Jos 24:19 – he will not Job 15:32 – and his branch Psa 1:3 – shall not Psa 14:2 – any Psa 14:4 – Have Psa 53:4 – Have Psa 59:5 – be not Psa 77:8 – Is his Psa 94:8 – brutish Psa 109:12 – none Psa 119:144 – understanding Pro 1:29 – that Pro 19:2 – that the Isa 2:9 – therefore Isa 5:5 – I will take Isa 5:13 – because Isa 9:17 – have no joy Isa 10:22 – the consumption Isa 30:14 – he shall not Isa 30:17 – a beacon Isa 40:21 – General Jer 11:16 – with Jer 13:14 – I will not Jer 16:5 – I have Jer 21:7 – he shall Jer 21:14 – in the Jer 22:7 – cut Jer 25:37 – General Lam 2:2 – swallowed Lam 2:21 – thou hast killed Eze 15:4 – it is cast Eze 19:12 – the fire Hos 1:6 – for Hos 2:4 – I will not Oba 1:7 – there is Zec 11:6 – I will no Mat 7:19 – bringeth Mat 13:30 – burn Luk 16:24 – have Joh 15:4 – As Rom 3:11 – none that understandeth Rom 9:15 – I will have Rom 11:17 – some Heb 4:16 – obtain Heb 6:8 – whose Heb 10:28 – without
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
27:11 When its boughs are withered, they shall be broken off: the {l} women come, [and] set them on fire: for it [is] a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favour.
(l) God will not have need of mighty enemies: for the very women will do it to their great shame.