Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 30:12
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
12. this word ] the warnings against the Egyptian alliance.
oppression and perverseness (lit. “crookedness”)] The first word is explained of the oppressive war taxation necessitated by the policy now finally decided on; this is not altogether obvious, and some prefer, by transposing two consonants, to read “perverseness and crookedness.” The same words are conjoined in Pro 2:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
12 14. The answer of “Israel’s Holy One,” whose revelation is thus challenged.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One – Yahweh. There may be some reference here to the fact adverted to in Isa 30:11, that they were weary of the name of the Holy One of Israel, and of the perpetual reiteration of his commands. Isaiah, as if to show them how little he was disposed to comply with their prejudices, again makes an appeal to that name, and urges the authority of Yahweh. It is often proper to repeat the very doctrine to which sinners object, and which has given them offence. That they are offended, shows that their minds are awake to the truth, and gives some indication that their consciences trouble them. Ministers of God should never shrink from their duty because people oppose them; they should never cease to speak in the name and by the authority of the Holy One of Israel, because that name may excite opposition and disgust.
Ye despise this word – That is, the word or message of Yahweh Isa 28:13-14; or perhaps it means the word Holy One of Israel. The sense is, that they did not trust in the promise and protection of Yahweh, but relied on human aid.
And trust in oppression – Margin, Fraud. The word osheq properly denotes oppression, or extortion Ecc 5:7; Eze 22:7, Eze 22:12; then, that which is obtained by extortion, and also by fraud Lev 6:4; Psa 62:11; Ecc 7:7. It may refer here to the fact that they had, by unjust and oppressive exactions, obtained the treasures referred to in Isa 30:6, by which they hoped to conciliate the favor of Egypt; or it may mean that they trusted in their fraudulent purposes toward God, that is, to a false and perfidious course, by which they were unfaithful to him.
Perverseness – A crooked, perverse, rebellious course. They refused submission to Yahweh, and relied on the aid of strangers.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. In oppression – “In obliquity”] beakesh, transposing the two last letters of beoshek, in oppression, which seems not to belong to this place: a very probable conjecture of Houbigant.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In oppression; in the wealth which you have gotten by oppression, whereby you now think to procure Egyptian succours; of which See Poole “Isa 30:6“.
And perverseness; and in your perverse and rebellious course of sending to Egypt for help.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Holy OneIsaiah so littleyields to their wicked prejudices that he repeats the very name andtruth which they disliked.
this wordIsaiah’sexhortation to reliance on Jehovah.
oppressionwhereby theylevied the treasures to be sent to conciliate Egypt (Isa30:6).
perversenessin relyingon Egypt, rather than on Jehovah.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel,…. The prophet introduces his message with the phrase they objected to: ministers of the word must not seek to please men, nor should they be deterred from the use of phrases, because disliked by natural men: as, in our days, men do not love to hear the name of Christ so often mentioned, or his Gospel, or the glorious truths of it; but the use of them should not be left off on that account, but rather they should be the more inculcated, as we find this phrase was; see Isa 30:15:
Because ye despise this word; either this name of the Lord, “the Holy One of Israel”; or this prophecy that was delivered unto them, which reproved them for their confidence in Egypt, and exhorted them to sit still at home, and trust in the Lord; but instead of that they trusted in what was very bad, as follows:
but trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon; either in oppressors, and perverse persons, as the Egyptians were; or in their wealth, got by oppression, rapine, and fraud, which they carried to Egypt, and on which they depended for help and relief; and in that perverse disposition of mind, contradicting the Lord speaking by his prophets, resolving to take their own way, not doubting but that they should have success.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Thus do they fall out with Jehovah and the bearers of His word. “Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye dislike this word, and put your trust in force and shufflings, and rely upon this; therefore will this iniquity be to you like a falling breach, bent forwards in a high-towering wall, which falls to ruin suddenly, very suddenly. And He smites it to pieces, as a potter’s vessel falls to pieces, when they smash it without sparing, and of which, when it lies smashed to pieces there, you cannot find a sherd to fetch fire with from the hearth, or to take water with out of a cistern.” The “word” towards which they cherished me’os (read mo’oskhem ), was the word of Jehovah through His prophet, which was directed against their untheocratic policy of reckoning upon Egypt. Naloz , bent out or twisted, is the term used to denote this very policy, which was ever resorting to bypaths and secret ways; whilst osheq denotes the squeezing out of the money required to carry on the war of freedom, and to purchase the help of Egypt (compare 2Ki 15:20). The guilt of Judah is compared to the broken and overhanging part of a high wall ( nibheh , bent forwards; compare ( , a term applied to a diseased swelling). Just as such a broken piece brings down the whole of the injured wall along with it, so would the sinful conduct of Judah immediately ruin the whole of its existing constitution. Israel, which would not recognise itself as the image of Jehovah, even when there was yet time (Isa 29:16), would be like a vessel smashed into the smallest fragments. It is the captivity which is here figuratively threatened by the prophet; for the smashing had regard to Israel as a state. The subject to in Isa 30:14 is Jehovah, who would make use of the hostile power of man to destroy the wall, and break up the kingdom of Judah into such a diaspora of broken sherds. The reading is not (lxx, Targum), but , et franget eam . Kathoth is an infinitive statement of the mode; the participle kathuth , which is adopted by the Targum, Kimchi, Norzi, and others, is less suitable. It was necessary to proceed with (without his sparing), simply because the infinitive absolute cannot be connected with (Ewald, 350, a). (to be written thus with dagesh both here and Hag 2:16) passes from the primary meaning nudare to that of scooping up, as does to that of pouring out.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
12. Because you have disdained this word. He next declares the punishment of ungodliness, threatening that they shall not pass unpunished for refusing to hear God speaking; and he expresses their contempt more strongly by the word “disdain.” He calls it “this word,” making use of the demonstrative; for men would willingly contrive some word adapted to their manner of life, but refuse to listen to God when he speaks.
And trusted in violence and wickedness. God’s gentle invitation, and his exhortation to quiet rest, are here contrasted with their disorderly pursuits. The Hebrew word עשק ( gnōshĕk) denotes “robbery,” and “seizing property which belongs to another.” Others render it “ill-gotten wealth.” Those who render it “calumny,” do not sufficiently express the Prophet’s meaning. For my own part, I do not view it as referring to riches gained by unlawful methods, but rather to that rebelliousness in which that nation insolently indulged.
The word “wickedness,” (291) which is added, ought not to be limited to decisions of courts of law; for, in my opinion, it has a more extensive signification; and by these two words he intended to express the presumption of wicked men, by which they fiercely and wantonly rose up against God, because they always dared to follow their own lawless desires, and to do what was forbidden. And as the poets feign that the giants made war with God, (292) so those men resisted God’s threatenings, and thought that they would speedily overcome his power by their fierceness and presumption.
(291) Bogus footnote
(292) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Because ye despise this wordi.e., the message which Isaiah had delivered against the alliance with Egypt. We note how the prophet enforces it, as coming from that very Holy One of Israel of whom they were tired of hearing.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12-14. Instead of complying with their desires see above the prophet again repeats the message from the very holy Name they so much dread to hear. Because they reject this word, “the law” of Jehovah, (Isa 30:9,) the consequence to them is utter ruin; unseen, indeed, in its oncoming, yet rapidly approaching with sudden and crushing disaster.
As a breach swelling out The similes are striking, like an unseen “breach” causing a hitherto unnoticed swell in the outward high wall, till suddenly the whole breaks and tumbles into ruin irretrievable; like the poor man’s pot broken with so complete a smash that not a serviceable piece remains for holding a coal of fire or a drop of water in domestic uses. The broken piece of a potter’s vessel is more commonly in our version called a potsherd.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 30:12-14. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel The consequence of the fault is here exhibited by the prophet in two sentences; the former in these verses, the latter in Isa 30:15-18. The prophet in this place declares, that their punishment shall be the entire destruction of their state, set forth under two chosen and apt figures; to which the prophet premises an introduction, thereby to conciliate authority to his words, in the name of that God whom the degenerate Israelites despised, and at the same time to set forth the principal crimes which had drawn down this punishment, Isa 30:12. The first metaphor (Isa 30:13.) is taken from a breach or a bulging in the lower part of a wall, which every moment threatens to burst forth, and consequently bring down the whole wall with it: the second, from the utter breaking of a potter’s vessel: and the meaning of each figure is, that the state of both nations, Ephraimites and Jews, should be totally and entirely dissolved. The event fully proves the truth of the prediction. See Isaiah 3; Isaiah 4; Isaiah 9. &c. Ezekiel 5 and Jer 44:11-12. Perhaps the 13th and 14th verses might be rendered better thus, Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a falling breach, a bulging in a high wall, whose breaking down cometh suddenly,in an instant: Isa 30:14 and its breaking down shall be as the breaking of a potter’s vessel, which is so broken that nothing is spared; that in its breaking there is not found a sherd. See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 30:12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
Ver. 12. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel. ] The prophet doth on purpose repeat this title, so much disrelished by them, to cross them. Ministers must not be men pleasers.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
trust = confide. Hebrew. batah (App-69.) Not the same word as in verses: Isa 30:2, Isa 30:3. Same as in Isa 30:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
trust
(See Scofield “Psa 2:12”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Because: Isa 30:1, Isa 30:7, Isa 30:15-17, Isa 5:24, Isa 31:1-3, 2Sa 12:9, 2Sa 12:10, Amo 2:4, Luk 10:16, 1Th 4:8
and trust: Isa 28:15, Isa 47:10, Psa 52:7, Psa 62:10, Jer 13:25
oppression: or, fraud
Reciprocal: Num 15:31 – despised Deu 32:35 – the things 2Ki 19:22 – the Holy One 2Ch 10:15 – the king Job 6:10 – the Holy One Psa 71:22 – O thou Isa 1:4 – the Holy Isa 37:23 – the Holy One Isa 59:4 – trust Isa 59:6 – webs Zep 3:1 – to the Rom 9:28 – and cut
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 30:12-14. Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression In the wealth which you have gotten by oppression, whereby you now think to procure Egyptian succours; and perverseness In your perverse and rebellious course of sending to Egypt for help. This iniquity shall be to you as a breach, &c. Like a wall, which is high, and seems to be strong, but, swelling out in some parts, upon the least accident falleth down suddenly to the ground. Such shall be the issue of your high and towering confidence in Egypt. And he shall break it Namely, God, or the enemy whom God will send against you.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
30:12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in {l} oppression and perverseness, and lean upon it:
(l) Meaning, in their stubbornness against God and the admonitions of his prophets.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
But the Holy One of Israel would not let them escape His Word. They had rejected His will and had rested their confidence on what seemed best to them.