Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 42:11
Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up [their voice], the villages [that] Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
11. the wilderness and the cities thereof ] The “cities,” like the “villages” of the next line, are those in the oases, occupied by the settled Arabs; the former are probably the great centres of the caravan trade, like Tadmor and Petra. Kedar (see on ch. Isa 21:16) is sometimes referred to as a tribe of nomadic, tent-dwelling Arabs (Psa 120:5; Son 1:5; Jer 49:28 f.); here they are villagers, what the modern Arabs call aarya (connected with the word cr, used here) as opposed to the wabarya or nomads (Delitzsch). In Jer 2:10 Kedar stands, as here, in opposition to the Mediterranean countries.
the inhabitants of the rock ] (i.e. “the rock-dwellers”). R.V. has “the inhabitants of Sela,” which would probably be Petra. It is difficult to say which translation is preferable. It should be mentioned that the identification of Sela, in any O.T. passage, with Petra is resisted by many scholars (see on ch. Isa 16:1).
sing ] Rather, exult, a different word at any rate from that used in Isa 42:10.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Let the wilderness – (See the note at Isa 35:1). The word here denotes the most uncultivated countries, intimating that even the most rude and barbarous people would have occasion to rejoin, and would be interested in the mercy of God.
And the cities thereof – To us there seems to be something incongruous in speaking of the cities in a wilderness. But we are to remember that the Hebrews gave the name wilderness or desert to those regions that were mostly uncultivated, or sparsely inhabited. They were places that were chiefly devoted to pasturage, and not cultivated by the plow, or regions of vast plains of sand and far-extended barrenness, with here and there an oasis on which a city might be built. Josephus, speaking of the desert or wilderness lying between Jerusalem and Jericho enumerates several villages or towns in it, showing that though it was mainly a waste, yet that it was not wholly without towns or inhabitants. We are to remember also that large towns or cities for commercial purposes, or thorough fares, were often built in the few fertile or advantageous places which were found in the midst of desert wastes. Thus we are told of Solomon 2Ch 8:4, that he built Tadmor in the wilderness; and we know that Palmyra, and Bozrah, and Sela, were large cities that were built in the midst of regions that were generally to be regarded as deserts, or wastes.
The villages that Kedar doth inhabit – Where the inhabitants of Kedar dwell. Kedar was a son of Ishmael Gen 25:13, the father of the Kedarenians or Cedrei, mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist. v. 2), who dwell in the vicinity of the Nabathaeans in Arabia Deserta. They often changed their place, though it would seem that they usually dwelt in the neighborhood of Petra, or Sela. The name Kedar is often given to Arabia Deserta, and the word may in some instances denote Arabia in general. The inhabitants of those countries usually dwell in tents, and lead a nomadic and wandering life.
Let the inhabitants of the rock sing – It is uncertain whether the word rock here (Hebrew, sela, Greek Petran, Petra or rock) is to be regarded as a proper name, or to denote in a general sense those who dwell in the rocky part of Arabia. Sela, or Petra, was the name of the celebrated city that was the capital of Idumea (see the notes at Isa 16:1); and the connection here would rather lead us to suppose that this city was intended here, and that the inhabitants of the capital were called upon to join with the dwellers in the surrounding cities and villages in celebrating the goodness of God. But it may denote in general those who inhabited the desolate and stony region of Arabia Petrea, or whose home was among the cliffs of the rocks. If so, it is a call upon Arabia in general to rejoice in the mercy of God, and to give glory to him for providing a plan of redemption – an intimation that to the descendants of Ishmael the blessings of the gospel would be extended.
Let them shout from the top of the mountains – They who had taken refuge there, or who had made their permanent abode there. Vitringa supposes that the mountains of Paran are meant, which are situated on the north of Mount Sinai. The idea in the verse is, that all the dwellers in Arabia would celebrate the goodness of God, and join in praising him for his mercy in giving a deliverer. They were yet to partake of the benefits of his coming, and to have occasion of joy at his advent. It is possible that Cowper may have had this passage in his eye in the following description of the final and universal prevalence of the gospel:
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks,
Shout to each other, sad the mountain-tops,
From distant mountains catch the flying joy:
Till nation after nation taught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous hosannas round.
Task.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 42:11
Let the inhabitants of the Rock sing
Christ the Christians Rock
I.
SHOW IN WHAT RESPECT CHRIST MAY BE COMPARED TO A ROCK.
1. Christ is a Rock, in regard of His omnipotent power.
2. Christ is a Rock, in regard of that ineffable glory to which He is now exalted. Rocks may lie low and deep in the ground, but rise with artless grandeur and inimitable beauty, and their lofty heads divide the clouds.
3. Jesus Christ is a Rock in regard of His faithfulness, and the unchangeable nature of His perfections. Those storms and tempests which spread desolation, and bury whole islands and countries in ruins, remove not the rocks out of their place. But Jesus is firmer than they.
4. Christ is a Rock, in regard of His majesty and beauty.
II. SHOW HOW GOOD MEN MAY BE CALLED INHABITANTS OF THE ROCK
1. Because that is their dwelling-place.
2. They are inhabitants of the Rock, as that is the place of their nativity. All the inhabitants of this Rock are born in the image of the Son of God; a new and peculiar race.
3. They may be called inhabitants of the Rock, as they are a people who dwell on high. Their souls and all their nobler powers soar above the mean pursuits of this world.
4. They may be called inhabitants of the Rock, as they are to abide there for ever.
5. They are inhabitants of the Rock, as all their supplies come from Christ. From this doctrine we may learns
(1) The infinite wisdom of God in laying our help upon Christ.
(2) That the figurative expression of Christ, trader the notion of a rock, magnifieth the power of God on which our faith may rest.
(3) The wickedness and folly of all who oppose the Son of God.
(4) The folly and wickedness of those who build their hopes of eternal life upon any other foundation than Christ, the Rock.
(5) The great duty of all who hear the Gospels joyful sound, to fly to Christ, the Rock. (J. Johnston.)
Christ the Christians song
I. WHAT KIND OF A SONG IT IS WHICH THE SAINTS ARE CALLED TO SING. It is a song on redeeming love.
1. A new song. It proceeds from a new heart, which is animated with new mercies.
2. A spiritual song. It is unmingled with carnal joy, or that of the hypocrite, which is short and unfruitful of solid comfort. It is from above, and animates all the powers of the soul. It will never become obsolete, but afford endless pleasure to the redeemed.
3. A song of distinction. Every heart is not formed for such exalted praise. The feeble powers of nature, unassisted by Divine grace, cannot learn this new song.
4. A song of victory. The saints of God are clothed in white, an authentic emblem of their faith and victory.
5. A song upon a sacrifice.
6. An everlasting song. Not the joy of the hypocrite, soon kindled, and soon extinguished; the powers of the soul are enlarged, and rendered fit for those endless raptures of joy and praise.
II. THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF THIS SONG.
1. Jesus Christ our Lord manifested in human nature.
2. The manifestation of Divine judgments. When the Judge of all the earth came down, and delivered His ancient Israel from Egyptian bondage, He routed Pharaoh and His hosts, by such signal judgments as spread His fame far and wide: His name was great, and His praise glorious through the whole earth. Moses and Israel sang, The Lord hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. When Rome, as ancient Babylon, fell to rise no more, the heavenly Church is brought in as a chorus, to praise God for His righteous judgments and faithfulness. This excellent hymn of praise, sung by the united voices of saints and angels, strongly represents to all Christians, and every Church on earth, what grateful sense they ought to have of the Divine faithfulness in their protection, and of His righteous judgments in punishing the persecutors of truth and religion.
3. The infinite worthiness of Christ the Lamb of God.
4. The believers union to the Divine Redeemer.
5. Communion with all the persons of Deity. That sincere believers in Christ enjoy such a communion, is most obvious from the sacred Scriptures. (J. Johnston.)
Safety in the rock
The hare, that trusteth to the swiftness of her legs, is at length overtaken and torn to pieces; when the coney, that flieth to the holes in the rocks, doth easily avoid the dogs that pursue her. (J. Trapp.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. Let the wilderness] The most uncultivated countries, and the most rude and uncivilized people, shall confess and celebrate with thanksgiving the blessing of the knowledge of God graciously imparted to them. By the desert is meant Arabia Deserta; by the rocky country, Arabia Petraea; by the mountains, probably those celebrated ones, Paran, Horeb, Sinai, in the same country; to which also belonged Kedar, a clan of Arabians, dwelling for the most part in tents; but there were others of them who inhabited or frequented cities and villages, as may be collected from this place of the prophet. Pietro della Valle, speaking of the people of Arabia Deserta, says: “There is a sort of Arabs of that country called Maedi, who with their herds, of buffaloes for the most part, sometimes live in the deserts, and sometimes in cities; from whence they have their name, which signifies wandering, going from place to place. They have no professed houses; nor are they properly Bedaui, or Beduui, that is, Deserticoli, who are the most noble among them, and never abide within walls, but always go wandering through the open country with their black tents; nor are they properly called Hhadesi, as they call those who dwell in cities, and lands with fixed houses. These by the latter are esteemed ignoble and base; but both are considered as of low condition.” Viaggi, Parte III. lett. ii.
The villages that Kedar doth inhabit] The Arabs, according to the Targum.
The inhabitants of the rock] They who dwell on fortified places. The Vulgate has habitatores Petraeae, “the inhabitants of Arabia Petraea.” Those who make the rock Jesus Christ, the inhabitants of the rock, true believers in him; the singing, rejoicing for the salvation they have received; abuse and disgrace the passage and the pulpit. I have heard a clergyman, a magistrate, a justice of the quorum, spend an hour in showing from these words,
1. That they meant Jesus Christ, and none other.
2. That he might be fully compared to a rock, as the foundation on which his Church was built, and on which all true believers rested for their salvation.
3. A rock, because of his strength and might in destroying his enemies, and supporting his friends.
4. A refreshing rock, like that in the wilderness; and that rock was Christ.
5. A perspective rock, from which true believers could discover their heavenly inheritance: “When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I,” c. Now all this is true in itself but false in respect to the words on which it was professedly built, for they have no such meaning.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The wilderness; those parts of the world which are now like a wilderness; not literally, for he speaks of their cities in the next clause, but spiritually, desolate and forsaken of God, dry and destitute of the waters of Gods grace, and barren of all good fruits.
Kedar; the Arabians; which were a heathenish and barbarous people, and well known to the Jews, and are synecdochically put for all nations in the same circumstances.
Let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains: having mentioned cities and villages, he now adds those who dwell upon rocks and mountains, which are commonly more savage and ignorant than others, and therefore harder to be taught and reformed.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. citiesin a region notwholly waste, but mainly so, with an oasis here and there.
Kedarin Arabia-Deserta(Isa 21:16; Gen 25:13).The Kedarenians led a nomadic, wandering life. So Kedar is here putin general for that class of men.
rockSela, thatis, Petra, the metropolis of Idumea and the NabathoeliganIshmaelites. Or it may refer in general to those in Arabia-Petra,who had their dwellings cut out of the rock.
the mountainsnamely,of Paran, south of Sinai, in Arabia-Petra [VITRINGA].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice,…. The eastern part of the world, Arabia Deserta, and the inhabitants of the cities which were in it:
the villages that Kedar doth inhabit; or the “courts” t, or tents, the Kedarenes inhabited, who were Arabians, and dwelt in tents, which they pitched here and there, for the convenience of their flocks; and so the Targum,
“the Arabians that inhabit the wilderness shall praise:”
let the inhabitants of the rock sing: or of Petra, which Jerom says was a city of Palestine. It was the metropolis of Arabia Petraea, which whole country may be here meant, and the inhabitants of it, who had reason to sing for joy, when the Gospel was preached unto them; as it was by the Apostle Paul in Arabia, Ga 1:17:
let them shout from the top of the mountains; the wild, savage, and barbarous people that dwell there, but now become civilized, as well as evangelized, by the Gospel; or the messengers and ministers of the word, whose feet on those mountains were beautiful, bringing the good tidings of peace and salvation by Christ. The Targum interprets this of the resurrection of the dead,
“the dead, when they shall go out of the house of their world, from the tops of the mountains shall lift up their voice u.”
t “atria”, Montanus; “tentoria”, Grotius. u Ben Melech interprets the rocks and mountains of towers built on rocks and mountains, where men dwelt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. Let the desert and it’s cities cry aloud. While the Prophet includes all the parts of the world, he mentions particularly those which were better known to the Jews; for on the west Judea had the sea, and on the east the desert and Arabia. When he speaks of the tents of Kedar, the desert, and the rocks, he means Arabia; but it is a figure of speech by which a part is taken for the whole, for it includes the whole of the east. It is as if he had said, that from the rising to the setting of the sun these praises shall be heard; for God shall be worshipped everywhere, though formerly he was worshipped in Judea alone; and thus the state of affairs shall be changed, and that praise shall be beard in the most distant parts of the earth. (157)
The towns where Kedar dwells. He mentions Kedar, because the Scenite (158) Arabians, as is well known, dwelt in tents. But he employs the word towns, while he is speaking of a desert; and therefore it ought to be remarked, that desert denotes not only the vast wilderness which lay between Judea and Arabia, but the more distant countries which were commonly designated from that part which was adjoining to them, as some people give the name of “mountainous” to those plains which lie beyond the mountains; for the common people have their attention so much directed to what they see close at hand, that they suppose them to resemble other places that are more distant. Yet the Prophet here exalts and magnifies the greatness of the grace of God, in reaching even rude and barbarous nations, whose savage cruelty was well known.
(157) “If these are not all parts of the same great picture, it is impossible to frame one. If they are, it is absurd to take the first and last parts in their widest sense as an extravagant hyperbole, and that which is between them in its strictest sense as a literal description. The only consistent supposition is, that sea, islands, deserts, mountains, towns, and camps, are put together as poetical ingredients of the general conception, that the earth in all its parts shall have reason to rejoice.” — Alexander.
(158) The name is derived from σκηνὴ (skene), “a tent,” because they dwelt in tents. Their modern name is Saracens. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Isa 42:11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up [their voice], the villages [that] Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Ver. 11. Let the wilderness. ] Ye that dwell eastward. It was called the wilderness, because but thinly inhabited.
The villages that Kedar doth inhabit.
Let the inhabitants of the rock.
a De Nat. Deor.
Let the wilderness: Isa 32:16, Isa 35:1, Isa 35:6, Isa 40:3, Isa 41:18, Isa 41:19, Isa 43:19, Psa 72:8-10
Kedar: Isa 60:7, Gen 25:23, Psa 120:5
let the inhabitants: Jer 21:13, Jer 48:28, Jer 49:16, Oba 1:3
Reciprocal: Gen 25:13 – Kedar Psa 96:12 – General Psa 98:4 – General Psa 148:9 – Mountains Isa 21:16 – Kedar Isa 40:4 – valley Isa 49:13 – O heavens Isa 52:9 – Break Isa 54:1 – break Isa 55:12 – the mountains Jer 49:28 – Kedar
42:11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up [their voice], the villages [that] {q} Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
(q) Meaning, the Arabians, under whom he comprehends all the people of the East.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes