Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 33:21
But there the glorious LORD [will be] unto us a place of broad rivers [and] streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
21. Here Jerusalem is represented like the great cities of the Nile and Euphrates (cf. Nah 3:8), as surrounded by an expanse of waters, protecting it from the approach of an enemy. The idea of course is purely poetical.
the glorious Lord ] Strictly, a glorious One, Jehovah. For a place of read instead of, as Hos 1:10 (where see R.V.).
galley with oars ] probably should be flotilla of boats. The meaning appears to be that the city shall not be approached by any description of vessels of war. “Pass thereby” may be rendered “pass over it.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But there – In Jersalem; or in his church, of which Jerusalem was the emblem.
The glorious Lord – Lowth renders it, The glorious name of Yahweh, sham to be a noun, as if it were pointed shem. So the Syriac and the Septuagint read it. The word glorious ( ‘adiyr) means magnificent; denoting that Yahweh would manifest himself there as magnificent or great in the destruction of his enemies, and in the protection of his people.
Will be unto us a place – It seems to be harsh to say that Yahweh would be a place; but the meaning is, that he would be to them as such a place; that is, his presence and blessing would be such as would be represented by broad rivers and streams flowing through a land, or encompassing a city. Rivers and streams are sources of fertility, the channels of commerce, and objects of great beauty. Such seems to be the idea here. The presence of Yahweh would be to them a source of great prosperity and happiness; and a beauty would be thrown around the city and nation like majestic and useful rivers. It is possible that there may have been some allusion here to cities that were encompassed or penetrated by rivers and canals, like Babylon, or Thebes in Egypt. Such cities derived important advantages from rivers. But Jerusalem had nothing of this nature to contribute to its prosperity or beauty. The prophet says, that the presence of Yahweh would be to them what these rivers were to other cities.
Of broad rivers and streams – Hebrew, Rivers, streams broad of hands. The sense seems to be, broad rivers that are made up of confluent streams; or rivers to which many streams are tributary – like the Nile – and which are therefore made broad, and capable of navigation. The phrase used here in the Hebrew, broad of hands – properly denotes broad on both hands, or as we would say, on both sides; that is, the shores would be separated far from each other. The word hand is often used in Hebrew to denote the side, the shore, or the bank of a river. The following extract will show the importance of such rivers: In such a highly cultivated country as England, and where great drought is almost unknown, we have not an opportunity to observe the fertilizing influence of a broad river; but in South Africa, where almost no human means are employed for improving the land, the benign influence of rivers is most evident. The Great, or Orange River, is a remarkable instance of this. I traveled on its banks, at one time, for five or six weeks, when, for several hundred miles, I found both sides of it delightfully covered with trees of various kinds, all in health and vigor, and abundance of the richest verdure; but all the country beyond the reach of its influence was complete desert. Everything appeared to be struggling for mere existence; so that we might be said to have had the wilderness on one side, and a kind of paradise on the other. (Campbell)
Wherein shall go – The mention of broad rivers here seems to have suggested to the prophet the idea that navigable rivers, while they were the channels of commerce, also gave to an enemy the opportunity of approaching easily with vessels of war, and attacking a city. He therefore says that no such consequence would follow, from the fact that Yahweh would be to them in the place of broad rivers. No advantage could be taken from what was to them a source of prosperity and happiness. While other cities were exposed to an enemy from the very sources from which they derived their wealth and prosperity, it would not be so with them. From what constituted their glory – the protection of Yahweh – no danger ever could be apprehended. It had all the advantages of broad rivers and streams, but with none of their attendant exposures and perils.
No galley with oars – That is, no small vessel – for larger vessels were propelled by sails. Still the reference is doubtless to a vessel of war; since vessels of commerce would be an advantage, and it would not be an object of congratulation that none of them should be there. Neither shall gallant ship. No great ( ‘adiyr) or magnificent ship; no ship fitted out for purposes of war. The sense is, therefore, that though Jerusalem should be thus favored, yet it would be unapproachable by an enemy.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 33:21-22
The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams
The glorious Lord, the only security and consolation to His people
I.
THE LORD HIMSELF IS THE FOUNDATION OR CAUSE OF THE SAINTS SAFETY AND BLESSEDNESS. For there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams. This is a consideration which may well allay our fears, excite our hopes, and confirm our faith.
1. The Lord is here called glorious. He is glorious in His personal excellence, glorious in His essential attributes, glorious in His works of creation and providence. Above all, He is glorious to the believers view, in the marvellous work of redemption, where He displays the glorious perfections of His nature, His power, faithfulness, truth, holiness, mercy, love, and grace. His glory is manifested in the Church where His glorious Gospel is preached, where He grants His gracious and glorious presence, and where saints meet together to see and speak of His glory. In His temple doth every one, saith the Psalmist, speak of His glory. Yea, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.
2. This glorious Lord will be unto His Church and people a place of broad rivers and streams. God promises to be that to His Jerusalem, which will be instead of, and vastly superior to a river, however broad its streams. This is expressive of the abundance of His grace, and the freeness of it for the supply of His Church, and for the purification, consolation, refreshment, and confirmation in the faith of all its members. The streams of this river are the everlasting love of God, Father, Son, and Spirit; the covenant of grace, its blessings and promises; the provision and mission of Christ as a Saviour, and the blessings which flow from these, called streams because they flow from the fountain of divine love, and because of the rapidity, force, and power of the grace of God in the application of these blessings in conversion, which carries all before it; and because of the abundance, continuance, and freeness of them, and the gratefulness and acceptableness of them to those who see the worth of them, and feel their interest in them.
II. THIS RIVER OF GOD ALSO SERVES FOR THEIR DEFENCE AND SECURITY AGAINST ALL ENEMIES. The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, &c. It was the case with literal Jerusalem, that although it had no river for its pleasure, profit, and protection, yet it had this advantage from the circumstances, that no enemy could approach it in this way. And the Lord, though He be indeed instead of a broad river to His people for their supply and safety, yet He is such an one as will not admit any enemy, great or small, signified by the galley with oars, and the gallant ship, to come near to hurt them.
III. The text adds, as a further CONFIRMATION AND PROOF OF THE SECURITY AND TRIUMPH OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD, that the Lord is our Judge. All their wrongs will be righted and their injuries avenged.
IV. The text states, as a FURTHER ENCOURAGEMENT, that the Lord is our Lawgiver. He hath not only enacted wholesome laws for the government of His Church and people, in keeping of which there is great reward; but He writes them on their heart, and puts His Spirit within them to enable them to keep His commandments, and walk in His ways.
V. THE LORD IS ALSO OUR KING. He is King of Zion and King of saints. The government shall be upon His shoulder. He manages and directs all the concerns of His people. His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and His dominion endureth throughout all ages.
VI. The text concludes with an EPITOME OF THE WHOLE in a few words, He will save us. Whom will He save? Those who receive Him as their Lawgiver and King. (J. Shore, M. A.)
The water-supply of Jerusalem
One great peculiarity of Jerusalem which distinguishes it from almost all other historical cities, is that it has no river. Babylon was on the Euphrates, Nineveh on the Tigris, Thebes on the Nile, Rome on the Tiber; but Jerusalem had nothing but a fountain or two, and a well or two, and a little trickle of an intermittent stream. The water-supply to-day is, and always has been, a great difficulty, and an insuperable barrier to the citys ever having a great population. That deficiency throws a great deal of beautiful light on more than one passage in the Old Testament. Isaiahs great vision is not, as I take it, of a future, but of what the Jerusalem of his day might be to the Israelite, if he would live by faith. The mighty Lord. the glorious Lord, shall Himself be a place of broad rivers and streams. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The rivers of God
I. This remarkable promise suggests how IN GOD THERE IS THE SUPPLY OF ALL DEFICIENCIES. The city was perched on its barren, hot rock, with scarcely a drop of water, and its inhabitants must often have been tempted to wish that there had been running down the sun-bleached stones of the Kedron a flashing stream, such as laved the rock-cut temples and tombs of Thebes. Isaiah says, in effect, You cannot see it, but if you will trust yourselves to God, there will be such a river. In like manner every defect in our circumstances, everything lacking in our lives, everything which seems to hamper us in some aspects, and to sadden us in others, may be compensated and made up, if we will hold fast by God.
II. Take another Bide of the same thought. HERE IS A REVELATION OF GOD AND HIS SWEET PRESENCE AS OUR TRUE DEFENCE. The river that lay between some strong city and the advancing enemy was its strongest fortification when the bridge of boats was taken away. One of the ancient cities is described by one of the prophets as being held as within the coils of a serpent, by which he means the various bendings and twistings of the Euphrates which encompassed Babylon, and made it so hard to be conquered. The primitive city of Paris owed its safety, in the wild old times when it was founded, to being upon an island. Venice has lived through all the centuries because it is girded about by its lagoons. England is what it is largely because of the streak of silver sea. So, Gods city has a broad moat all round it. If we will only knit ourselves with God by simple trust and continual communion, it is the plainest prose fact that nothing will harm us, and no foe will ever get near enough to shoot his arrows against us. That is a truth for faith, and not for sense. Many a man, truly compassed about by God, has to go through fiery trials of sorrow and affliction. But no real evil befalls us, because, according to the old superstition that money bewitched was cleansed if it was handed across running water, our sorrows only reach us across the river that defends.
III. Take, again, another aspect of this same thought, which suggests to us GODS PRESENCE AS OUR TRUE REFRESHMENT AND SATISFACTION. The waterless city depended on cisterns, and they were often broken, and they were always more or less foul, and sometimes the water fell very low in them. The rivers in northern Tartary all lose themselves in the sand. Not one of them has volume or force enough to get to the sea. And the rivers from which we try to drink are sand-choked long before our thirst is slaked. So if we are wise, we shall take Isaiahs hint, and go where the water flows abundantly, and flows for ever.
IV. THE MANIFOLD VARIETY IN THE RESULTS OF GODS PRESENCE. It shapes itself into many forms, according to our different needs. The glorious Lord shall be a place of broad rivers. Yes; but notice the next words–and streams. Now, the word which is there translated streams means the little channels, for irrigation and other purposes, by which the water of some great river is led off into the melon patches, and gardens, and plantations, and houses of the inhabitants. So we have not only the picture of the broad river in its unity, but also that of the thousand little rivulets in their multiplicity and in their direction to each mans plot of ground. It is of no profit that we live on the rivers bank if we let its waters go rolling and flashing past our door, or our garden, or our lips. Unless you have a sluice, by which you can take them off into your own territory, and keep the shining blessing to be the source of fertility in your garden, and of coolness and refreshment to your thirst, your garden will be parched, and your lips will crack. We may, and must, make God our very own property; it is useless to say our God, the God of Israel, the God of the Church, the great Creator, the Universal Father, and so on, unless we say my God and my Saviour; my refuge and my strength. (A. Maclaren D. D.)
The glorious Lord
I. THE SALVATION OF THE GOSPEL. Its value is shown–
1. In the riches of the blessings that it confers. There, i.e., in the church, shall the Lord be unto us a place, &c.
(1) The first idea suggested to the mind of a Jew by the neighbourhood of a great river, would be that of unfailing plenty. By this the salvation of the Gospel is especially distinguished.
(2) The next idea suggested by a place of broad rivers and streams is that of beauty. Running water is everywhere a great addition to the beauty of the landscape. The richest herbage clothes the banks of every stream, &c. The highest qualities of man are brought out only by Christianity; and all that is good thrives best under its influence.
(3) After plenty and beauty, the chief idea is perpetuity. The river rolls on with the same calm and even current from age to age, and yields to the successive generations of mankind the same unfailing supply.
2. The salvation of the Gospel is remarkable for its freedom from attendant evils. All the blessings of the present life have some considerable drawback to their full enjoyment. The possession of wealth is apt to lead either to wastefulness and dissipation, or to avarice; power tempts to arbitrary and despotic conduct; and those who are gifted with genius are exposed to the assaults of malice and envy;–most worldly good things lead their possessor into danger, and all of them are attended by care. But it is not so with the salvation of the Gospel: The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it; or, as it is expressed in the text, it resembles a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
(1) The good of the Gospel salvation is unmingled with evil, because it requires man to do nothing injurious to himself.
(2) The pleasures of the Gospel are attended and followed by no sting, while it extracts their bitterness from all ordinary griefs.
II. THE GLORY OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN HIS BESTOWING SALVATION ON HIS PEOPLE. He is glorious, because He is unto us a place of broad rivers. &c. (W. Dickson.)
Broad rivers and streams
The meaning of this promise.
1. Fertility.
2. Abundance to the inhabitants. Places near broad rivers produce a great variety of plants. The children of Israel regretted that they had left the leeks, and garlic, and onions, and cucumbers, and melons of Egypt–plants that grew by the rivers. Besides, where there are rivers there is an abundance of fish of all kinds, and in the fat pastures, such as Goshen, which was well watered by the Nile, abundance of cattle are reared, while the abundant harvests which are there produced through the admirable irrigation make the lands blessed with broad rivers and streams the sunniest of climes. Well, now, our God is all this to His Church.
3. Broad rivers and streams in like manner point to commerce. In Holland especially the broad rivers and streams make that nation what it is; the harbours are so safe, the rivers so broad, and the canals so innumerable, that in every place commerce is easy, and the ends of the earth are linked to the nation by its broad rivers and streams. In that country we find curious importations hardly known to any other people, because they have gathered up the treasures of the far-off lands and there was a time when their broad rivers and streams enabled them to engross the mercantile power of the whole universe. Well, beloved, our glorious Lord–keep the adjective as well as the noun–is to be to us a place of commerce. Through God we have commerce with the past; the riches of Calvary, the riches of the covenant, the riches of eternity, all come to us down the broad stream of our gracious Lord. We have commerce, too, with the future. What galleys, laden to the waters edge, come to us from the millennium! What visions we have of the days of heaven upon earth. Through our glorious Lord we have commerce with angels; commerce with the bright spirits washed in blood that sing before the throne; nay, better still, we have commerce with the Infinite One, with eternity, with self-existence, with immutability, with omnipotence, with omniscience; for our glorious Lord is to us a place of broad rivers and streams.
4. Broad rivers and streams are specially intended to set forth security. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The Churchs enemies
1. To the eye of faith the Church has no enemies at all. Wherein shall go no galley with oars. You ramble in your garden, perhaps, in the summer-time, and a spider has spun its stoutest web across your path; you walk along and you never think that there is anything to hinder you, and yet there are those spiders strong webs, which would have caught a thousand flies, but they do not impede you. So is it with Gods glorious Church: there are barriers across her path, but they are only spiders webs; on she walks; she has no adversaries, for she counts her adversaries to be nothing.
2. When we are compelled to see that the Church has adversaries, yet, according to the promise, those adversaries shall be put to confusion. They have launched the bark; the galley with oars is on the sea. The text does not say that no galley with oars shall ever be there, but no galley with oars shall go there. Now, in order to make it go they must fix the mast; they must gird the tacklings, or how shall they spread the sail, and how shall they proceed on their way? Ah! but they cannot (Isa 33:21).
3. And then faith not only sees the confusion of her adversaries, but she also believes they are so utterly destroyed that she may go out and spoil them.
4. What is to be the end of it all? Glory to a Triune God (Isa 33:22). (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. The glorious Lord – “The glorious name of JEHOVAH”] I take shem for a noun, with the Septuagint and Syriac. See Ps 20:1; Pr 18:10.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
There, in and about Zion,
the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams: though we have nothing but a small and contemptible brook to defend us; yet God will be as sure and strong a defence to us, as if we were surrounded with such great rivers as Nilus or Euphrates, which were a great security to Egypt and Babylon.
Wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby; but although they shall have from God the security of a great river, yet they shall be freed from the disadvantage of it; which is, that the enemies may come against them in ships; for no galleys nor ships of the enemys shall be able to come into this river to annoy them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. therenamely, inJerusalem.
will be . . . riversJehovahwill be as a broad river surrounding our city (compare Isa 19:6;Nah 3:8), and this, too, a riverof such a kind as no ship of war can pass (compare Isa26:1). Jerusalem had not the advantage of a river; Jehovah willbe as one to it, affording all the advantages, without any of thedisadvantages of one.
galley with oarswarvessels of a long shape, and propelled by oars; merchant vessels werebroader and carried sail.
gallantsame Hebrewword as for “glorious,” previously; “mighty” willsuit both places; a ship of war is meant. No “mighty vessel”will dare to pass where the “mighty Lord” stands as ourdefense.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But there the glorious Lord [will be] unto us a place of broad rivers [and] streams,…. Egypt had its Nile, and Babylon its Euphrates, but Jerusalem had no such river for its convenience, commerce, and defence; but God promises to be that to his Jerusalem, his church and people, as will answer to, and be “instead” g of, a river that has the broadest streams; which is expressive of the abundance of his grace, and the freeness of it, for the supply of his church, as well as of the pleasant situation and safety of it; see
Ps 46:1 where the Lord appears “glorious”; where he displays the glorious perfections of his nature, his power, faithfulness, truth, holiness, love, grace, and mercy; where his glorious Gospel is preached; where he grants his gracious and glorious presence; and where saints come to see his glory, do see it, and speak of it; see 2Sa 6:20:
wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby: this advantage literal Jerusalem had, that, though it had no river for its pleasure, profit, and protection, yet no enemy could come up to it in that way; and the Lord, though he is indeed instead of a broad river to his people for their supply and safety, yet such an one as will not admit any enemy, great or small, signified by the “galley with oars”, and the “gallant ship”, to come near them; and in the New Jerusalem church state, when there will be new heavens and a new earth, there will be no sea, Re 21:1 and so no place for ships and galleys. The design of these metaphors is to show that the church of Christ at this time will be safe from all enemies whatsoever, as they must needs be, when the Lord is not only a place of broad rivers, but a wall of fire round about them, and the glory in the midst of them, Zec 2:5.
g “loco fluviorum”, Junius Tremellius pro
“non in talione, sed saltem ut significat loco ac vice, Deus ecclesiae est pro fluminibus”, Gusset. Ebr. Comment, p. 740.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
It is also a great Lord who dwells therein, a faithful and almighty defender. “No, there dwells for us a glorious One, Jehovah; a place of streams, canals of wide extent, into which no fleet of rowing vessels ventures, and which no strong man of war shall cross. For Jehovah is our Judge; Jehovah is our war-Prince; Jehovah is our King; He will bring us salvation.” Following upon the negative clauses in Isa 33:20, the next v. commences with k ‘im ( imo ). Glorious ( ‘addr ) is Jehovah, who has overthrown Lebanon, i.e., Assyria (Isa 10:34). He dwells in Jerusalem for the good of His people – a place of streams, i.e., one resembling a place of streams, from the fact that He dwells therein. Luzzatto is right in maintaining, that and point back to , and therefore that m e kom is neither equivalent to loco ( tachath , instead of), which would be quite possible indeed, as 1Ki 21:19, if not Hos 2:1, clearly proves (cf., 1Ki 22:38), nor used in the sense of substitution or compensation. The meaning is, that, by virtue of Jehovah’s dwelling there, Jerusalem had become a place, or equivalent to a place, or broad streams, like those which in other instances defended the cities they surrounded (e.g., Babylon, the “twisted snake,” Isa 27:1), and of broad canals, which kept off the enemy, like moats around a fortification. The word was an Egyptian word, that had become naturalized in Hebrew; nevertheless it is a very natural supposition, that the prophet was thinking of the No of Egypt, which was surrounded by waters, probably Nile-canals (see Winer, R.W. Nah 3:8). The adjective in which yadaim brings out with greater force the idea of breadth, as in Isa 22:18 (“on both sides”), belongs to both the nouns, which are placed side by side, (because permutative). The presence of Jehovah was to Jerusalem what the broadest streams and canals were to other cities; and into these streams and canals, which Jerusalem had around it spiritually in Jehovah Himself, no rowing vessels ventured , ingredi ). Luzzatto renders the word “ships of roving,” i.e., pirate ships; but this is improbable, as shut , when used as a nautical word, signifies to row. Even a majestic ts , i.e., trieris magna , could not cross it: a colossal vessel of this size would be wrecked in these mighty and dangerous waters. The figure is the same as that in Isa 26:1. In the consciousness of this inaccessible and impenetrable defence, the people of Jerusalem gloried in their God, who watched as a shophet over Israel’s rights and honour, who held as m e choqeq the commander’s rod, and ruled as melekh in the midst of Israel; so that for every future danger it was already provided with the most certain help.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
21. Because there the mighty Jehovah will be to us. The two particles כי ים (ki im) often serve the place of a double affirmative, but here a reason is assigned, and they might even be appropriately rendered, For if; but I willingly retain what is more clear. The Prophet assigns the reason why the Church, which appears to resemble a movable “tent,” exceeds in stability the best founded cities. It is because “the Lord is in the midst of her,” as it is also said, (Psa 46:5,) and “therefore she shall not be moved.” If we separate the Church from God;. it will immediately fall without any attack; for it will consist of men only, than whom nothing can be more weak or frail.
Will be to us a place of rivers. When God dwells with us, he confirms and supports what was naturally feeble, and supplies to us the place of a very strong fortress, a very broad ditch, and walls and “rivers” surrounding the city on every side. He alludes to the situation of the city Jerusalem, which had only a small rivulet, and not large and rapid rivers, like those of Babylon and other cities; for in another passage (Isa 8:6) he enjoined them to rest satisfied with the power of God alone, and not to covet those broad rivers. As if he had said, “Our strength shall be invincible, if God rule over us; for under his guidance and direction we shall be abundantly fortified.”
There shall not pass a ship with oars. Large rivers are attended by this inconvenience, that they may give access to enemies, so as to enable them to approach with their ships nearer than is desirable; and thus, very frequently, what appeared to be of service is found to be injurious. But while the Lord says that he will be “a river,” he says also that there will be no reason to dread such an inconvenience, and that enemies will not be allowed to approach, he mentions two kinds of ships, long ships, and ships of burden, in order to shew that enemies will be shut out in every possible way. Hence we ought to draw a very useful doctrine, that the hope of safety should not be sought from any other than from God alone, and that it is in vain to collect various means of defense, which will be useless, and even hurtful, if He be not on our side.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
ENRICHING RIVERS
Isa. 33:21. But there the glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
The prophet here speaks for the encouragement of Gods Church; and he appears to overstep the boundaries of time, and gives a glimpse of the blessedness and safety of the Church triumphant. In our interpretation let us take a large view, and refer, as the course of thought may require, both to the Church militant and the Church triumphant. And let it be deeply impressed on the mind that the promises of God can be realised only by those who belong to the true Israel.
I. THE ATTRACTIVE TITLE PROCLAIMED. The glorious Lord. God is glorious in His own perfections, and as the source of all the glory and beauty in this and every other world. Our knowledge of God is gathered from His manifestations in nature and revelation. How resplendent in glory is the Being thus revealed to us! Especially we may say, with immediate reference to our subject, He is glorious in the vastness of His resources. In the summer the streams of the Holy Land were either entirely dried up, and converted into hot lanes of glaring sands, or reduced to narrow streamlets. But no summers heat can dry up the broad streams of Divine love and mercy. God is glorious in the abundant nature of His supplies, and in His willingness to make ample provision for His Church.
II. THE BLESSED COMPARISON INSTITUTED. The glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams. That is, all that such rivers and streams are to a country, God would be to His people.
1. Broad rivers and streams give beauty to the land scape. All beauty is from God, and is a revelation of Him; but especially is it true that He is the source of all the moral beauty of His people.
2. Broad rivers give fertility and prosperity. In such a highly cultivated country as England, where great droughts are unknown, we have no opportunity of properly observing the fertilising influence of a broad river. But remember what the Nile is to Egypt. So does God enrich and fertilise the soul, causing it to bring forth the fruits of righteousness.
3. Broad rivers afford protection. Babylon had its Euphrates, which was a source of power. Hundred-gated Thebes, celebrated by Homer, also had its river. Almost all great modern cities are built on the banks of rivers. But Jerusalem had no great river running through it. In fact, it was badly supplied with water. Large cisterns were constructed in which to catch and preserve the rain that came down plentifully in its season. The prophet makes use of this fact for the encouragement of the Church. The glorious Lord will be unto it as broad rivers and streams. He is the sure defence of His people.
III. THE DISTINCTIVE MARK OF DIVINE BLESSINGS HERE SYMBOLISED. Wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. Earthly blessings have attendant evils; heavenly blessings alone are pure and perfect. Rivers may prove a source of weakness as well as of strength to a nation [1234] But along the broad rivers of Divine blessing no foe shall advance to assail Gods people. The presence of God at once confers blessings and averts evils.W. Burrows, B.A.
[1234] Rivers are highly important as the outlets and inlets of commercial enterprise; but the merchant ship, though richly laden, may carry the seeds of physical and moral disease, and inflict untold injury. Rivers give security to the cities built on their banks, but they may also prove the means of destruction. Cyrus made use of the Euphrates when besieging Babylon, and thus captured the city. The strength of Babylon became its weakness. The same river that bears on its tidal waves the merchant ship laden with the precious products of distant lands may also bring the war-ship laden with the instruments of destruction and death. But the city of our solemnities is secure. No mischief can come to us along the broad river of Almighty grace.Burrows.
[See also outlines, Rivers of Waters, Isa. 30:25-26, and Rivers of Water in a Dry Place, Isa. 32:2.]
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(21) A place of broad rivers and streams . . .Better, rivers and canals. The bold imagery has its starting-point in what the prophet had heard of the great cities of the Tigris and Euphrates. What those rivers were to Nineveh and Babylon, that the presence of Jehovah would be to Jerusalem, that could boast only of the softly going waters of Shiloah (Isa. 8:6). Here, again, we have an echo of Psalms 46 : There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. The words help us to understand the symbolism of Ezekiels vision of the river that could not be passed over, flowing out of the Temple (Eze. 47:1-5). And the spiritual river of the Divine Presence would have this advantage over those of which the great cities boasted, that no hostile fleet, no pirate ships, could use it for their attacks. So in Psa. 48:7 the ships of Tarshish are probably to be taken figuratively rather than literally for the Assyrian forces.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
The Perfect Paradise ( Isa 33:21-24 ).
In this chapter His people are to mount level by level into the presence of the Holy One. Firstly it has happened by their response to an awareness of God’s holiness which draws them to obedient and holy living, and results in their mounting into the heavenly places with Him where they are safe and fully supplied with all they need (Isa 33:13-16). Secondly by their recognising and responding to the King in His beauty, so that they see and enter the Jerusalem which is above, the eternal Tabernacle, which is permanent and everlasting, freed from all the terrors of the world (Isa 33:17-20). And now thirdly by recognising that they are to enjoy Paradise itself. This is described as the place where Yahweh is in His majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams (compare Rev 22:1-5), but free from all earthly contamination. And there Yahweh will be their Judge, their Lawgiver, and their King. He will be their Saviour.
But none of this will be because of their deserving. They have in themselves no means of mobility. Rather it is as the lame that they will take the prey. And there the inhabitants will know nothing of sickness. Those who dwell there have been forgiven all their iniquity.
Analysis.
a But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, nor will any gallant ship pass by it.
b For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king, He will save us.
b Your tackle is loosed, it could not strengthen the foot of your mast, it could not spread the sail. Then was the prey of a great spoil divided, the lame took the prey.
a And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”. The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity
In ‘a’ they will be with Yahweh in His majesty in great rivers unsullied by man’s enterprises, and in the parallel they will be there as those who have been made whole, as forgiven sinners, which alone has fitted them for this place. In ‘b’ Yahweh is their Judge, their Lawgiver, and their King, providing all that is necessary for good governance, and in the parallel their own insufficiency is brought out. They are like loose tackle which is unable to launch the ship or drive it along. But they need not be concerned. For they will share between them a great spoil as their prey, and it is the lame who will take the prey. Thus is the goodness and grace of Yahweh made clear to His own.
Isa 33:21
But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty,
A place of broad rivers and streams,
In which no galley with oars will go,
Nor will any gallant ship pass by it.’
There in the new Zion, the heavenly Tabernacle, Yahweh will be with them in majesty. The place is pictured as a place of broad rivers and streams, the agriculturalist’s ideal, for it is self-sufficient in water whose sole purpose is to provide for their needs. No ships will pass along them, for there will be no trafficking, no laborious rowing, no trading, nothing to spoil its calm and serenity.
‘A place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, nor will any gallant ship pass by it.’ Its heavenly nature is confirmed by this description. No earthly river could lack ships and boats, but this is in a different realm of thought and existence. The streams and rivers are waters of life, symbols of overflowing life, (compare Psa 45:4-5; Isa 30:25; Isa 55:1-3; Eze 47:1-12), not vehicles for carrying people about and hubs of world trade. They provide for the sustenance and life of the people (compare Rev 22:1-5). Man’s glory, as revealed in his great ships, will have no place there. All will be of God. We should remember here that Israel did not like the sea, and would see ships as an indication of what was unwelcome. They were not into deep sea sailing.
Note the final implication behind all this. All that man glories in, both by land, his great cities, and by sea, his great ships and galleys, will have gone. The glory of man will be replaced by the glory of God. God will be all sufficient.
Isa 33:22
‘For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver,
Yahweh is our king, He will save us.’
And in that place they will be under the perfect rule of Yahweh. They will be able to declare in truth, ‘Yahweh reigns’. The threefold phrases emphasise the completeness of His rule. All the righteous are here seen as having entered under the Kingly Rule of God and therefore as confident of final salvation. Note that Yahweh is all that they need, He passes judgment, He proclaims the Instruction (Law), He rules in might. No other authority is needed when Yahweh rules. He is all in all. He is the final Deliverer, the final Saviour of His own.
Isa 33:23
‘Your tackle is loosed, it could not strengthen the foot of your mast,
It could not spread the sail.
Then was the prey of a great spoil divided,
The lame took the prey.
And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”.
The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.’
But Isaiah is aware of what God’s people are like, even those who are His true people. In contrast with Yahweh they were not glorious in holiness, rather they were like a stranded ship, and when we consider that there would be no ships there we can see that this reveals them as very much connected with earth. So Isaiah completes his description of the heavenly city and the coming salvation by reminding the earthly people of God of their own present true condition. The splendid vision has only brought home their sinful state. They are like a ship with loose tackle. The tackle neither holds the mast steady, nor manoeuvres the sail adequately. They are like a lame and limping ship striving to reach harbour, floating helplessly and seemingly with none to help. But those who are His true people need not fear, for when the prey consisting of a great spoil is divided up it is the lame, not the mighty, who will take the prey. That is the result of God’s grace. Weak and helpless they may be, but all that God has for them will be theirs. And they will not need then to say, “I am sick”. For those who dwell in the new Jerusalem will be forgiven sinners, made right in Him, never to be sick again in any way, for they have partaken of the Tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Rev 22:2).
Note. It is an interesting fact that the major Isaianic scroll (Is.a) discovered at Qumran contains at this point a short break of three lines, prior to chapter 34 (there is no break prior to Isa 40:1, even though the opening of that verse is on the last line of a column). It is of especial interest because the appeal in Isa 34:1, ‘Come near you nations to hear and hearken, let the earth hear, and its fullness, the world and all things that come forth from it’, (speaking about the nations), can easily be seen as paralleled with the appeal in Isa 1:2, ‘Hear O heavens, and give ear O earth, for Yahweh has spoken’, (speaking concerning the situation of Israel/Judah). Thus it might appear that Isaiah’s prophecy may not only have split into two at this point so as to fit onto two equal scrolls, but have been designed to do so, with each section having its own emphasis. This would then tend to confirm that Isa 1:1 was to be seen as opening the whole prophecy in its two sections.
The first section 1-33 might then be seen as very much describing Yahweh’s appeal concerning Israel and Judah, resulting in the coming of their everlasting King (Isa 33:7-11) and judgment on the nations who have failed her (Isa 33:13-23), and ending in the picture of final fulfilment in chapter 33, with the everlasting Tabernacle of Jerusalem being established in a place of broad rivers and streams (Isa 33:20-21), with the people healed and forgiven (Isa 33:24; contrast Isa 1:4-9). While the second section, commencing with chapter 34 onwards, might then be seen as Yahweh’s appeal concerning the nations, resulting in the coming of the Servant of Yahweh on behalf of the nations, and judgment on Babylon (46-47) and Edom (Isa 63:1-4), (as representing all that is worst in the nations), and ending with the picture of final fulfilment described in 65-66, with the ideal Jerusalem being established (Isa 65:17-25; Isa 66:10) in a place where peace is extended to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an ever-flowing stream (Isa 66:12), with all nations restored and worshipping Yahweh. If that is so then chapter 34 can be seen as introductory to all that follows, in the same way as chapters 1-2 were to the first section.
End of note.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 33:21-22. But there the glorious Lord, &c. But the glorious name of JEHOVAH shall be unto us a place of confluent streams, of broad waters. Lowth. Our prophet always rises in his figures: the meaning of those in this second period is, that the church, at the time here specified, shall immediately depend upon God alone. He alone shall be acknowledged, worshipped, celebrated as the true King, Teacher, Judge, and Saviour of his church: he alone shall be esteemed excellent; and under his protection the people shall enjoy an abundance of all things, in the utmost security from any hostile incursions. To express which, the prophet compares the church to a city, built in a happy country, near rivers and streams, in which no great and mighty, that is, no warlike or commanding ship, except that of Jehovah’s, should be seen: this seems to be the genuine meaning of the figure. See ch. Isa 30:25 Isa 51:3. 1Ma 14:8.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 33:21 But there the glorious LORD [will be] unto us a place of broad rivers [and] streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
Ver. 21. But there the glorious Lord will be. ] The Church must needs be invincible, because the glorious Lord is her champion, or “will do gallantly for us,” as the words may be rendered. Her name is Jehovahshammah. Eze 48:35 The Lord is there, and how many reckon we him at? He alone is a potent army. Isa 52:12
A place of broad rivers and streams.
“ Creditur Aegyptus caruisse iuvantibus arva
Imbribus; atque annis sicca fuisse novem. ”
– Ovid, Art.,
but shall fill its banks and shores perpetually, and keep a full stock of streams and waters.
Wherein shall go no galley, nor gallant ship,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
THE RIVERS OF GOD
Isa 33:21
One great peculiarity of Jerusalem, which distinguishes it from almost all other historical cities, is that it has no river. Babylon was on the Euphrates, Nineveh on the Tigris, Thebes on the Nile, Rome on the Tiber; but Jerusalem had nothing but a fountain or two, and a well or two, and a little trickle and an intermittent stream. The water supply to-day is, and always has been, a great difficulty, and an insuperable barrier to the city’s ever having a great population.
That deficiency throws a great deal of beautiful light on more than one passage in the Old Testament. For instance, this same prophet contrasts the living stream, the waters of Siloam, as an emblem of the gentle sway of the divine King of Israel, with ‘the river, strong and mighty,’ which was the symbol of Assyria; and a psalm that we all know well, sings, ‘There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God,’-a triumphant exclamation which is robbed of half its force, unless we remember that the literal Jerusalem had no river at all. The vision of living waters flowing from the Temple which Ezekiel saw is a variation of the same theme, and suggests that in the Messianic days the deficiency shall be made good, and a mysterious stream shall spring up from behind, and flow out from beneath, the temple doors, and then with rapid increase and depth and width, but with no tributaries coming into it, shall run fertilising and life-giving everywhere, till it pours itself into the noisome waters of the sullen sea of death and heals even them.
The same general representation is contained in the words before us. Isaiah’s great vision is not, as I take it, of a future, but of what the Jerusalem of his day might he to the Israelite if he would live by faith. The mighty Lord, ‘the glorious Lord,’ shall Himself ‘be a place of broad rivers and streams.’
I. First, then, this remarkable promise suggests to me how in God there is the supply of all deficiencies.
In like manner every defect in our circumstances, everything lacking in our lives-and we all have something which does not correspond with, or which falls beneath, our wishes and apparent needs-everything which seems to hamper us in some aspects, and to sadden us in others, may be compensated and made up if we will hold fast by God; and although to outward sense we dwell ‘in a dry and barren land where no water is,’ the eye of faith will see, flashing and flowing all around, the rejoicing waters of the divine presence, and they will mirror the sky, and the reflections will teach us that there is a heaven above us.
If there is in any life a gap, that is a prophecy that God will fill it. If there is anything in your circumstances in regard to which you often feel sadly, and are sometimes tempted to feel bitterly, how much stronger and more fully equipped you would be, if it were otherwise, be sure that in God there is that which can supply the want, and that the consciousness of the want is a merciful summons to seek its supply from and in Him. If there is a breach in the encircling wall of your defences, God has made it in order that He Himself, and not an enemy, may enter your lives and hearts. ‘In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne,’ and it did not matter though that mortal king was dead, for the true King was thereby revealed as living for ever, just as when the summer foliage, fluttering and green, drops from the tree, the sturdy stem and the strong branches are made the more visible. Our felt deficiencies are doors by which God may come in. Do you sometimes feel as if you would be better if you had easier worldly circumstances? Is your health precarious and feeble? Have you to walk a solitary path through this world, and does your heart often ache for companionship? You can have all your heart’s desire fulfilled in deepest reality in God, in the same way that that riverless city had Jehovah for ‘a place of broad rivers and streams.’
II. Take another side of the same thought. Here is a revelation of God and His sweet presence as our true defence.
That is a truth for faith, and not for sense. Many a man, truly compassed about by God, has to go through fiery trial and sorrow and affliction. But I venture to appeal to every heart that has known grief most acutely, protractedly, and frequently, and has borne it in the faith of God, and with submission to Him; and I know that they who are the ‘experts,’ and who alone have the right to speak with authority on the subject, will confirm the statement that I make, that sorrows recognised as sent from God are the truest blessings of our lives. No real evil befalls us, because, according to the old superstition that money bewitched was cleansed if it was handed across running water, our sorrows only reach us across the river that defends.
Isaiah is full of symbols of various kinds for the impregnability of Zion. Sometimes, as in my text, he falls back upon the thought of the bright waters of the moat on which no enemy can venture to sail. Sometimes he draws his metaphor from the element opposed to water, and speaks of a wall of fire round about us. But the simple reality that lies below all the poetry is, that trust in God brings His presence around me, and that makes it impossible that any evil should befall me, and certain that whatever does befall me is His messenger, His loving messenger, for my good. If we believed that, and lived on the belief, the whole world would be different.
III. Take, again, another aspect of this same thought, which suggests to us God’s presence as our true refreshment and satisfaction.
‘When all created streams are dry,
Thy fulness is the same.’
If we believed that God was the broad river from which we could draw and draw, and drink and drink, for ever and ever, should we be clinging with such desperate tenacity, as most of us exhibit, to earthly goods? Should we whimper with such childish regrets, as most of us nourish, when these goods are diminished or withdrawn? Should we live as we constantly do, day in and day out, seldom applying ourselves to the one source of strength and peace and refreshment, and trying, like fools, to find what apart from Him the world can never give? The rivers in northern Tartary all lose themselves in the sand. Not one of them has volume or force enough to get to the sea. And the rivers from which we try to drink are sand-choked long before our thirst is slaked. So, if we are wise, we shall take Isaiah’s hint, and go where the water flows abundantly, and flows for ever.
IV. There is a last point that I would also suggest, namely, the manifold variety in the results of God’s presence.
It is of no profit that we live on the river’s bank if we let its waters go rolling and flashing past our door, or our gardens, or our lips. Unless you have a sluice, by which you can take them off into your own territory, and keep the shining blessing to be the source of fertility in your own garden, and of coolness and refreshment to your own thirst, your garden will be parched, and your lips will crack. There is a ‘broad river,’ and there are also ‘streams’; which, being brought down to its simplest expression, just comes to this-that we may and must make God our very own property. It is useless to say ‘ our God,’ ‘the God of Israel,’ ‘the God of the Church,’ ‘the Great Creator,’ ‘the Universal Father,’ and so on, unless we say ‘ my God and my Saviour,’ ‘ my Refuge and my Strength.’ How much of the river have you dipped up in your own vessel? How much of it have you taken with which to water your own vineyard and refresh your own souls?
The time comes when Isaiah’s prophecy shall be perfectly fulfilled, according to the great words in the closing hook of Scripture, about the river of the water of life proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb. But, till that time comes, we do not need to wander thirsty in a desert; but all round us we may hear the mighty waters rolling everywhere, and drink deep draughts of delight and supply for all our needs, from the very presence of God Himself.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
gallant = mighty, or noble.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the glorious: Psa 29:3, Act 7:2, 2Co 4:4-6
a place: Psa 46:4, Psa 46:5
broad rivers and streams: Heb. broad of spaces, or hands
Reciprocal: Psa 145:11 – the glory Isa 33:23 – Thy tacklings are loosed Joe 3:16 – hope Zec 2:5 – a wall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE RIVERS OF GOD
But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
Isa 33:21
I. To see the force and beauty of this passage it is necessary to place it in its historic setting.Jerusalem was exposed to the greatest possible peril. The king of Assyria was carrying out a plan of campaign which involved crumpling up Jerusalem and effacing it. As he had with him an army of 185,000 men, and the Jews were feeble folk, his purpose was apparently likely soon to become an accomplished fact. The military situation of the city was desperate.
The point of the text is that Jerusalem had not the advantage of the natural protection of a river. We read of the mountains that were round about Jerusalem, but there were no broad rivers to protect it from its enemies. The prophet Nahum, speaking of populous No, that was situate among the rivers, declares that her rampart was the sea. If for more than eight centuries no invader has touched our shores, it is due under God to our protecting seas. Hence Tennyson has voiced the sentiments of the nation in his familiar lines:
God bless those narrow seas;
I wish they were a whole Atlantic broad.
But Jerusalem had not this advantage, and with an invincible enemy at the gates the want of such protection was painfully felt. The city was in truth in the deepest distress. The surrounding country was all under the heel of this powerful conqueror, and an enormous army was waiting for permission to loot the city. But if there was no river or moat round the city there was a prophet within it, and the hour of peril gave the seer his opportunity. Isaiah had often scathed the Jews for their national sins, but now he came to their relief. He heartened the dejected king and rallied the people as he rang in their ears the inspiriting words of the text: But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
II. What our narrow seas which Tennyson blessed are to us, that would God be to the Jews in their time of need, and therefore they might boldly say in the presence of the enemy: We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. The event proved that this was no idle boast on the part of Isaiah. It was neither pulpit rhetoric nor political bluff. Thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast a bank against it; by the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for Mine own sake, and for My servant Davids sake.
No sooner was it said than it was done. That night the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and four score and five thousand; and when the Jews arose in the morning, behold, the Assyrians were all dead corpses.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved and for ever grew still.
It is a marvellous story, calculated to take ones breath away. When King Philip lost his Invincible Armada on our shores, he explained his defeat not unreasonably by saying that he sent his ships to fight with men, and not to combat with the winds. King Sennacherib might have said with still more reason that he sent his forces to fight with the Jews, and not to combat with angels.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
33:21 But there the glorious LORD [will be] to us a place {z} of broad rivers [and] streams; in which shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass through it.
(z) Let us be content with this small river of Shiloah and not desire the great streams and rivers, by which the enemies may bring in ships and destroy us.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The mighty king over this Zion will be Yahweh Himself, a divine ruler-even Messiah (cf. Isa 53:11).
"The meaning is, that, by virtue of Jehovah’s dwelling there, Jerusalem had become a place, or equivalent to a place, of broad streams, like those which in other instances defended the cities they surrounded (e.g. Babylon, the ’twisted snake,’ ch. xxvii. 1), and of broad canals, which kept off the enemy, like moats around a fortification." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:64-65.]