Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 32:5
The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said [to be] bountiful.
5. True and false nobility shall no longer be confounded because of artificial caste-distinctions.
The vile person ] or, the fool; see the typical specimen, Nabal by name and by nature, in 1 Samuel 25.
liberal ] Better: noble (in rank). The word denotes, first, one of generous, self-sacrificing disposition; and then one of noble degree; Num 21:18 and often.
The word rendered churl occurs only here (and Isa 32:7), and its meaning is uncertain. The view adopted by most commentators derives it from a root signifying guile or craftiness (hence Cheyne well renders knave). bountiful represents another rare word (only Job 34:19 [E.V. “rich”]), perhaps man of substance.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The vile person – Hebrew, Fool. But the connection requires us to understand this as the opposite of liberal; and it means a person who is close, miserly, narrow-minded, covetous. This person is designated, very appropriately, as a fool.
Shall be no more called liberal – It is probable that under the reign of former princes, when all views of right and wrong had been perverted, people of unprincipled character had been the subjects of flattery, and names of virtue had been attributed to them by their friends and admirers. But it would not be so under the virtuous reign of the prince here celebrated. Things would be called by their right names, and flattery would not be allowed to attribute to people, qualities which they did not possess.
Nor the churl – The word churl means properly a rude, surly, ill-bred man; then a miser, a niggard. The Hebrew word means properly a deceiver, a fraudulent man (Gesenius). The word avaricious, however, seems to suit the connection. Lowth renders it, Niggard. Noyes, Crafty.
Bountiful – Flattery shall no more ascribe to a miserly man a character which does not belong to him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 32:5
The vile person shall be no more called liberal
Vile person
(Hebrews, nabal):–Compare 1Sa 25:1-44.
(A. B.Davidson, LL. D.)
The conventional abuse of moral terms
Liberal and bountiful were conventional names. The Hebrew word for liberal originally meant exactly that–open-hearted, generous, magnanimous. In the East it is the character which, above all, they call princely. So, like our words noble and nobility, it became a term of rank–lord or prince–and was often applied to men who were not at all great-hearted, but the very opposite: even to the vile person. Vile person is literally the faded, or the exhausted, whether mentally or morally–the last kind of character that would be princely. The other conventional term used by Isaiah refers to wealth, rather than rank. The Hebrew for bountiful literally means abundant–a man blessed with plenty–and is used in the Old Testament both for the rich and the fortunate. Its nearest English equivalent is, perhaps, the successful man. To this, Isaiah fitly opposes a name, wrongly rendered in our version churl, but corrected in the margin to crafty–the fraudulent, the knave. When moral discrimination comes, says Isaiah, men will not apply the term princely to worn-out characters, nor grant them the social respect implied by the term. They will not call the fraudulent the fortunate, nor canonise him as successful who has gotten his wealth by underhand means. The worthless character shall no more be called princely, nor the knave hailed as the successful. But mens characters shall stand out true in their actions, and by their fruits ye shall know them. In those magic days the heart shall come to the lips, and its effects be unmistakable. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. The vile person shall no more be called liberal] The different epithets here employed require minute explanation.
The vile person – nabal, the pampered, fattened, brainless fellow, who eats to live, and lives to eat; who will scarcely part with any thing, and that which he does give he gives with an evil eye and a grudging heart.
Liberal – nadib; the generous, openhearted, princely man, who writes on all his possessions, For myself and mankind, and lives only to get and to do good.
The churl – kilai, the avaricious man; he who starves himself amidst his plenty, and will not take the necessaries of life for fear of lessening his stock.
Thus he differs from nabal, who feeds himself to the full, and regards no one else; like the rich man in the Gospel. The avaricious man is called kilai, from ki, for, li, myself; or contracted from col, all, and li, to myself: all is mine; all I have is my own; and all I can get is for myself: and yet this man enjoys nothing; he withholds
From back and belly too their proper fare:-
O cursed lust of gold, when for thy sake
The wretch throws up his interest in both worlds,
First starved in this, then damned in that to come!
Bountiful – shoa, he who is abundantly rich; who rejoices in his plenty, and deals out to the distressed with a liberal hand.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The vile person; base and worthless men. Heb. the fool; which in Scripture use commonly signifies a wicked man.
Shall be no more called liberal, or noble, or a prince, or lord, as this word is used, Psa 118:9; 146:3, and elsewhere. The sense of the place is, either,
1. Unworthy men shall not be advanced to places of honour and power, as the LXX. and some others understand it; for to be called is oft put in Scripture for to be, as hath been frequently observed. Or,
2. Vicious and worthless persons shall no longer be reputed honourable and virtuous because of their high and honourable places, as commonly they are under wicked princes by means of flatterers; but wickedness shall be discovered and punished wheresoever it is, and virtue shall be manifested and rewarded, and all things shall be managed with sincerity and simplicity; which was eminently fulfilled under the gospel; by the preaching whereof, and by Christs Spirit, hypocrites are detected, and men are enabled to discern between good and evil, both persons and things. The churl; the sordid and covetous man; which is a great vice in any man, but especially in magistrates; who therefore must be men hating covetousness, Exo 18:21. But under this one vice all vices are understood by a synecdoche, very frequent in Scripture and in other authors; as under the apposite virtue of bountifulness all virtues are comprehended.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. vilerather, “fool”[LOWTH]; that is, ungodly(Psa 14:1; Psa 74:18).
liberalrather,”noble-minded.”
churlrather,”fraudulent” [GESENIUS].
bountifulreligiously.The atheistic churl, who envies the believer his hope “full ofimmortality,” shall no longer be held as a patriot strugglingfor the emancipation of mankind from superstition [HORSLEY].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The vile person shall be no more called liberal,…. Or “Nabal” (a fool) “shall no more be called Nadib” e (a prince); or have this name put upon him, or be advanced to honour and dignity, or be flattered with such a title, so unbecoming him. The sense seems to be, that, in Gospel times, such who are fools as to the knowledge of spiritual things, that have no spiritual and experimental knowledge of the truths of the Gospel, but are quite ignorant of them, shall not be made princes, or spiritual rulers, and governors in the house of God;
nor the churl said [to be] bountiful; or called a lord, as Jarchi interprets the word; which, he says, is used of such an one, because all men look to him, and respect him f; but now a covetous and tenacious man, that withholds more than is meet, that keeps, all he has to himself, without communicating to others, and scarcely allows himself the necessaries of life, being so sordidly avaricious, such an one shall not be a pastor, or ruler, in the church of God; such were the Scribes and Pharisees among the Jews in Christ’s time, and therefore rejected, Mt 23:14 folly and covetousness are both bad things in a minister of the word, and greatly disqualify a man for that work and office: or else the sense of the whole is, that there should be such a discerning of men in Gospel times, and such faithfulness used towards them, that a wicked man should not be taken for a good man, nor in a flattering way be called one; but the precious and the vile should be distinguished, and called by their right names. The Targum is,
“the wicked man shall be no more called just, and they that transgress his word shall not be called mighty.”
e “Nabal non vocabitur Nadib”, Gataker. f Kimchi makes it to be the same with , a “prodigal person”; and so Ben Melech; but Elias, in his Tishbi, p. 93, 95. says there is a difference between them; , he says, is one that squanders his money in eating and drinking, and the like, which is a bad custom; but is an honourable person, who gives his money to good purposes, and more than is meet, which is a good custom; and he is more praiseworthy than the liberal man.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
A third fruit of the blessing is the naming and treating of every one according to his true character. “The fool will no more be called a nobleman, nor the crafty a gentleman. For a fool speaks follies, and his heart does godless things, to practise tricks and to speak error against Jehovah, to leave the soul of hungry men empty, and to withhold the drink of thirsty ones. And the craft of a crafty man is evil, who devises stratagems to destroy suffering ones by lying words, even when the needy exhibits his right. But a noble man devises noble things, and to noble things he adheres.” Nobility of birth and wealth will give place to nobility of character, so that the former will not exist or not be recognised without the latter. Nadbh is properly one who is noble in character, and then, dropping the ethical meaning, one who is noble by rank. The meaning of the word generosus follows the same course in the opposite direction. Shoa is the man who is raised to eminence by the possession of property; the gentleman, as in Job 34:19. The prophet explains for himself in what sense he uses the words nabhal and klai . We see from his explanation that klai neither signifies the covetous, from kul (Saad.), nor the spendthrift, from killah (Hitzig). Jerome gives the correct rendering, viz., fraudulentus ; and Rashi and Kimchi very properly regard it as a contraction of n e khlai . It is an adjective form derived from = , like = (Job 20:6). The form in Isa 32:1 is used interchangeably with this, merely for the sake of the resemblance in sound to (machinatoris machinae pravae). In Isa 32:6, commencing with ki (for), the fact that the nabhal (fool) and klai (crafty man) will lose their titles of honour, is explained on the simple ground that such men are utterly unworthy of them. Nabhal is a scoffer at religion, who thinks himself an enlightened man, and yet at the same time has the basest heart, and is a worthless egotist. The infinitives with Lamed show in what the immorality ( ‘ aven ) consists, with which his heart is so actively employed. In Isa 32:6, ubh e dabber (“and if he speak”) is equivalent to, “even in the event of a needy man saying what is right and well founded:” Vav = et in the sense of etiam ((cf., 2Sa 1:23; Psa 31:12; Hos 8:6; Ecc 5:6); according to Knobel, it is equivalent to et quidem , as in Ecc 8:2; Amo 3:11; Amo 4:10; whereas Ewald regards it as Vav conj. (283, d), “and by going to law with the needy,” but would be the construction in this case (vid., 2Ki 25:6). According to Isa 32:8, not only does the noble man devise what is noble, but as such ( ) he adheres to it. We might also adopt this explanation, “It is not upon gold or upon chance that he rises;” but according to the Arabic equivalents, qum signifies persistere here.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
5. No longer shall the base person be called. The Prophet means that everything will be restored to good order, so that vices will not, as formerly, be reckoned virtues; for, when the public government is wicked, covetous persons are in power, and are honored and esteemed, because men judge of virtue by wealth and power; a poor man is everywhere despised, though he be truly upright and bountiful to the full extent of his ability; and, in a word, in such a state of things there is nothing but disorder and confusion. But good government quickly detects such pretences and masks; for, where virtue is esteemed, vices are immediately exposed. Good men also have greater freedom allowed them in restraining the wantonness of those who formerly trod under their feet all that is just and lawful.
When the Prophet speaks here about the condition and reformation of the Church, which is a spiritual government, we ought to raise our minds somewhat higher, so as to view all this as relating to Christ, to whom it specially and peculiarly belongs to expose hidden vices, and to remove those vails and coverings by which the appearance of vices is changed, so that they are praised as if they were virtues. He does this by means of the gospel, by which he drags into light the disgraceful actions which were formerly concealed, and openly shews what they really are, so that no man, unless he choose it, can be deceived by their outward appearance. And this is the reason why the gospel is so much hated by the world; for no man can patiently endure to have his “hidden thoughts” and concealed baseness “revealed.” (Luk 2:35.) Philosophers indeed reason admirably about covetousness and liberality, and in some degree explain what is the difference between them; but they never penetrate into the hearts, so as to search them and actually distinguish between the covetous man and the bountiful. This can only be done by Christ’s light, when he shines by means of the gospel, and, by exploring the deepest corners of the human heart, brings us to spiritual and inward obedience. In this passage, therefore, we are brought to the judgment-seat of Christ, who alone, by exposing hypocrisy, reveals whether we are covetous or bountiful.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) The vile person shall be no more called liberal.Better, noble, the of the Greeks, the ingenuus of the Latin. So for bountiful, read gentle. Here, again, we have a picture, the exact contrast of that which met us at the beginning of Isaiahs work, when men called good evil, and evil good (chap 5:20).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5-8. Vile person A fool in the scriptural sense, one who knows well enough, but knows unwisely, viciously.
Liberal Noble.
Churl One acting niggardly. Messianic times are of gradual growth. Radical moral changes are not wrought in an hour. Steadily the changes go on, until they end in universal righteousness and peace. The prophet here gives persons, qualities, and things their right names. The fool, or “vile person,” cannot, in that day, as now, pass for a noble man. The niggard or “churl” shall have no name for being generous, for making small gifts go for much giving.
The instruments also of the churl are devices for making himself richer at the cost of the poor. On the other hand, the noble man is the liberal man; kind to all, he supplies wants with generosity, and by such a name shall he stand.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 32:5-8. The vile person, &c. The meaning of this passage is, clearly, that, after the time of this great deliverance under the reign of a pious and just king, those things and persons which had appeared under false colours, should be called by their true names, and should be brought to light and appear in their true and proper colours. The 8th verse might be rendered, But the liberal, or ingenuous deviseth, or consulteth for ingenuous things, and for ingenuous things will he stand; that is, as an advocate and patron. The meaning is, that an ingenuous man, of a good mind, and a lover of the truth, will ingenuously explain his opinion concerning the works and ways of God, and the whole order of his providence, which the hypocrites so much maligned and misrepresented; and will strenuously defend those ways and works, as ever just and right, against all such unjust censurers. The Christian reader need not be told how exactly these particulars belong to his kingdom, who is a king reigning in righteousness; a hiding-place from the storm of sin and the world; Joh 16:33 whose kingdom is a kingdom of light, of faith, of love; all whose subjects are enlightened with the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; who gave eyes to the blind, ears to the deaf, tongues to the dumb, and, by his divine grace, changed the most churlish and illiberal dispositions into generosity and love. See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.” Isa 32:5 .
There is a morality of names. When charity wishes to speak well of the vile person or the churl charity loses all its charm. It is no longer charity, it is no longer charity, it is falsehood. There will come a time when a name shall stand for character. It may be right for us to speak strong words concerning our fellow-men, even such words as “the vile persons” and “the churl.” Woe unto us when we do not distinguish between light and darkness. The enlightened conscience is ever critical. It does not examine cases for the purpose of finding fault with them, or discovering fault in them, but when it does detect a fault it gives it conspicuousness and pronounces upon it in unequivocal language. Never let us forget the self-application of some texts. We should sometimes call ourselves vile persons; and some of us ought now and then to look in upon our own heart and call it churlish. Social criticism is of immense advantage, but even that advantage will be increased if it be preceded by self-criticism. How many of us would be dumb in judgment if we could only speak in the degree in which we know ourselves to be worthy of moral credit. Every man must search his own heart, and speak with the degree of authority which he finds there. It is one thing to read sentences out of a magisterial code and to pronounce those sentences against public or private offenders, and another to take all our judgments out of the record of our own hearts. How temperate we should often be; how oftentimes we should see that a man who has infirmities of a very obvious kind may even have more virtues than some of his judges can rightfully claim. “Judge not that ye be not judged.” “Blessed are the merciful.” Thus we have criticism forbidden and criticism encouraged. Preachers and leaders must speak out concerning the men who are offending that law of God without violating the law of the state. We should not only expel the drunkard, we should expel the covetous man. Not only should we denounce the debauchee, we should pursue the liar into his place of hiding and hold the light of God above his deceit. Judgment should begin at he house of God.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Isa 32:5 The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said [to be] bountiful.
Ver. 5. The vile person shall be no more called liberal. ] Benefici et magnifici domini. That sapless fellow Nabal shall no more be called Nadib, that is, bountiful benefactor, or gracious lord. Of Archbishop Bancroft was made this couplet:
“Here lies his Grace in cold clay clad,
Who died for want of what he had.”
In Ahaz’s time the worst of men got honours and offices. Hezekiah would look to that. Dignity shall henceforth wait upon desert, and flattery shall be utterly out of fashion and request at court. Our old English Bibles have it thus: A niggard shall not be called a gentle or gentleman.
Nor the churl said to be bountiful. The vile person. Some codices, with two early printed editions, Septuagint, and Syriac, read “And the”, thus preserving the Figure of speech Polysyndeton (Isa 32:1).
vile person = fool. Hebrew. nabal. See note on Pro 1:7 and on 1Sa 25:3.
liberal = noble.
churl = miser, or covetous. Note the Alternation in verses: Isa 32:5-7 :
g | 5-. vile.
h |-5. churl.
g |6. vile.
h | 7. churl.
vile: Isa 5:20, Psa 15:4, Mal 3:18
nor: 1Sa 25:3-8, Pro 23:6-8
Reciprocal: 1Sa 25:10 – Who is David Pro 12:2 – a man Jer 15:19 – take Dan 11:21 – a vile person Rom 12:8 – giveth 2Co 8:2 – the riches 2Co 9:7 – not
Isa 32:5-6. The vile person Base and worthless men; shall be no more called liberal Shall no longer be reputed honourable, because of their high and honourable places, but wickedness shall be discovered wherever it is, and virtue manifested and rewarded. Nor the churl said to be bountiful The sordid and covetous man; but under this one vice all vices are understood, as under the opposite virtue of bountifulness all virtues are comprehended. For the vile person will speak villany Men shall no longer be miscalled; for every one will discover what he is by his words and actions. And will work iniquity He will, from time to time, be devising wickedness, that he may execute it when he hath opportunity. To practise hypocrisy To do bad things, though with a pretence of religion and justice. To utter error To pass unjust sentences, directly contrary to the command of God. To cause the drink, &c. Whereby they take away the bread and drink of the poor.
32:5 The {e} vile person shall be no more called noble, nor the churl said [to be] bountiful.
(e) Vice will no more be called virtue, nor virtue esteemed by power and riches.
The characters of the amoral and the unscrupulous will experience transformation as well.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)