Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 47:3
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet [thee as] a man.
3. Thy nakedness seen ] These words, which undoubtedly spoil the rhythm of the verse, are deleted by Duhm as a gloss suggested by the latter part of Isa 47:2.
and I will not meet thee as a man ] The sense is very obscure. Either ( a) “I will spare no man” (i.e. meet him with friendly intentions); the figure of the virgin being dropped: or ( b) “I will not entreat any man (for help)”: or ( c) the vowel-points being changed, “I will let no man intercede,” all unacceptable on one ground or another. The difficulty lies in the word for “man”; this would be got rid of by simply changing ’dm into ’mar (= “saith”) read by some MSS. of the LXX. as the first word of Isa 47:4. The verb then stands absolutely, and is best pointed and translated as Niphal tolerativum: “I will not (let myself) be entreated.” (Oort and Duhm). See further on Isa 47:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thy nakedness – This denotes the abject condition to which the city would be reduced. All its pride would be taken away; and it would be brought to such a state as to fill its inhabitants with the deepest mortification and shame. Vitringa supposes that it means, that all the imbecility and weakness; the vileness; the real poverty; the cruelty and injustice of Babylon, would be exposed. But it more probably means, that it would be reduced to the deepest ignominy. No language could more forcibly express the depths of its shame and disgrace than that which the prophet here uses.
I will take vengeance – This expresses literally what had been before expressed in a figurative manner. The whole purpose of God was to inflict vengeance on her for her pride, her luxury, and oppression, and especially for her want of kindness toward his people (see Isa 47:6).
And I will not meet thee as a man – This phrase has been very variously interpreted. Jerome renders it, And man shall not resist me. The Septuagint renders it, I will take that which is just of thee, and will no more deliver thee up to men. The Syriac, I will not suffer man to meet thee. Grotius, I will not suffer any man to be an intercessor. So Lowth, Neither will I suffer man to intercede with me. Noyes, I will make peace with none. So Gesenius (Lex. by Robinson) renders it, I will take vengeance, and will not make peace with man; that is, will make peace with none before all are destroyed. The word used here ( ‘epega) is derived from paga, which means, to strike upon or to strike against; to impinge upon anyone, or anything; to fall upon in a hostile manner 1Sa 22:17; to kill, to slay Jdg 8:21; Jdg 15:12; to assail with petitions, to urge, entreat anyone Rth 1:16; Jer 7:16; to light upon, or meet with anyone Gen 28:11, and then, according to Gesenius, to strike a league with anyone, to make peace with him. Jarchi renders it, I will not solicit any man that he should take vengeance; that is, I will do it myself. Aben Ezra, I will not admit the intercession of any man. Vitringa renders it. I will take vengeance, and will not have a man to concur with me; that is, although I should not have a man to concur with me who should execute the vengeance which I meditate; on which account I have raised up Cyrus from Persia, of whom no one thought. In my view, the meaning which best accords with the usual sense of the word, is that proposed by Lowth, that no one should be allowed to interpose, or intercede for them. All the interpretations concur in the same general signification, that Babylon should be totally destroyed; and that no man, whether, as Jerome supposes, by resistance, or as Lowth, by intercession, should be allowed to oppose the execution of the divine purpose of vengeance.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 47:3
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered
Mental and moral nakedness
Every person hath somewhat which may properly be called his nakedness or shame, in a figurative sense–such as a weak judgment, imprudence, inconsideration, injustice, cruelty, avarice, poverty, or contempt of religion.
Over that he studiously endeavours to throw a veil, that it may be preserved from public observation. Now, when the covering is taken away by which any of these things were concealed, then peoples nakedness or shame is laid open to the inspection of those who possess penetration and discernment. (R. Macculloch.)
A fearful meeting
I. THY NAKEDNESS SHALL BE UNCOVERED. Man practises deceit. He imposes upon himself, and, as far as possible, upon his fellows. He cloaks his sins, his motives, his evil ways. He is not sincere in his professions, not open in his conduct, not honest in his judgments. Sin itself is a monstrous deceit and lie. The author of sin is a liar. And so with the children of the devil. There is nothing in them–in their hearts, lives, characters–that will stand the light of the throne. The truth will flash the sunlight into the chamber of the soul, and into every transaction of life, and lay bare to the eye of God and the quest of the universe the true real state and status of the moral man. Then thy nakedness shall be uncovered. The awful sight of a rational and immortal soul, steeped in guilt, lost to virtue and to God, and deceived to its eternal undoing, will shock the very heavens.
II. YEA, THY SHAME SHALL BE SEEN. The shame of wanton rebellion against the great God, our Heavenly Father; the shame of sinning unto death against the Cross of the loving and dying Christ; the shame of consummating a character of incorrigible wickedness, and a doom more awful than that of sinning angels, under all the light and influences of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. To look upon such shame in the judgment day will shock and confound the sinner himself, and fill all heaven with loathing and indignation.
III. I WILL TAKE VENGEANCE, AND I WILL NOT MEET THEE AS A MAN. The vengeance of God! Who can stand before it? The partial displays of it in this life, where wrath is restrained and clemency bears rule, are fearful tokens of what is in store for those who refuse offered mercy and exhaust Gods long-suffering goodness in the world of retribution. It is awful to face an angry man whom we have grievously wronged. It is more fearful still to confront a stern judge, who, as minister of the law we have broken, makes inquisition upon us. But oh, to stand face to face before the offended Majesty of heaven, now risen up to take vengeance upon the despisers of His grace, is a thought that may well fill us with the profoundest concern. (Homiletic Review.)
I will not meet thee as a man
I will not meet thee as a man
The sense is very obscure. (Skinner.)
I will run against no man, namely, that I should need to give way to him. (Stier.)
I will not intervene as a man. (Ruetschi.)
I shall not meet a man, so depopulated will Babylon be. (Hahn.)
I shall encounter no one who can resist Me. (Cheyne.)
It means to encounter, meet, hit upon one, not only in a hostile, but also, as here and Isa 64:5, in a friendly sense; so I will befriend no one, pardon no one. (Delitzsch.)
Vengeance I take, and strike treaty with none. (G. A. Smith.)
Possibly, I will take vengeance, and will not spare, saith our Redeemer. (A. B.Davidson, D. D.)
Independently of these minuter questions, it is clear that the whole clause is a laconic explanation of the figures which precede, and which are summed up in the simple, but terrific notion of resistless and inexorable vengeance. (J. A. Alexander.)
I will not meet thee as a man
I will not meet thee as a man, whose compassion may induce him to show ill-judged forbearance and clemency, but thou shalt have judgment without mercy, who hast showed no mercy: I will not meet thee with the justice of a man, that may be perverted, but with that impartial equity which can neither be corrupted nor evaded. I will not meet thee with the anger of a man, which for certain reasons may be concealed or deferred, but with my fierce wrath that shall inevitably consume thee. I will not meet thee with the strength of a man, that may be opposed or vanquished, but clothed with omnipotence that cannot be resisted, so that it shall appear that it is not the vengeance of man, but of God. (R. Macculloch.)
God meeting sinners as a man
His threat is a threat of departure from His usual course. Thus, the expression is resolvable into a statement, that there is a human character about Gods dealings with men, and that it is an evidence of His not having given them up to vengeance, that He continues to meet them as a man. Let us consider the evidences which we have, that as a God of love, God meet us as a man.
I. Let us begin with those OPERATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST, through which God may emphatically be said to meet us, to come in contact with us. There is much of mystery around these operations; we recognise them by their effects. Not only are these operations hidden from others, but the very party himself, within whose breast they are making themselves felt, can give little or no account whence they come, or how they work. He resolves whatever he experiences into the strugglings of his own mind, and the wrestlings of his own conscience. Would it be for our advantage, that, in meeting us, God should meet us as a God, and not as a man? We could not have borne that God should have spoken with us by unearthly voices, and warned us by unearthly spectacles, and approached us through unearthly avenues. Hence, the evidence that God has dealt lovingly with us, when we observe the appointed method in which the Spirit operates it is, that Divinity may be said to identify itself with humanity.
II. The mind turns naturally to THE GREAT SCHEME OF REDEMPTION, and finds at once in that scheme full material of demonstration. Does it not commend itself to us as an arrangement beautifully indicative of the tenderness of God that the great High Priest of our profession, who was essentially Divine,-was, at the same time, a man? I the Divine nature had entered union with the angelic so that God had met us, not as a man, but as a cherub or seraph, we should have had no power, comparatively, of estimating what had been done on our behalf. We have little or no knowledge of higher orders of being, and there could consequently have been nothing which came home to the heart in the tidings of a Mediator, who, though essentially God, had assumed, for our sake, the likeness of one of those ranks. But when, in order to the meeting us in love in place of vengeance, God has become man, we can judge, we can feel the stupendousness of this humiliation.
III. WHEN CHRISTIANS COME TO DIE, how are they accompanied through the dark valley and across the dark waters? God still meets them as a man. Thy rod and Thy staff a sheperds implements, a mans implements–they comfort me.
IV. What shall we say to THE JUDGMENT SEAT, occupied by One so terrible in His splendour that the very earth and heavens flee away at His presence? This is the last great display of the mercy of that appointment through which a man has been given as a Mediator. How could an angel, with all his purity and his equity, make due allowance for human infirmity, or place himself in our circumstances, so as to decide with reference to our powers and opportunities, and thus throw into his verdict that consideration for our trials and temptations, without which, if there may be the strictness of justice, there can scarcely be the admixture of mercy? But the Man who hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows this is the Being who is to gather all nations before Him, and determine the eternal condition of each individual.
V. We may draw one more striking illustration of the text from THE APPOINTED MEANS THROUGH WHICH THE GOSPEL IS PROPAGATED. In the great work of gathering in the nations, and shrining the religion of Christ in the households and hearts of the human population, the Almighty makes not use of lofty angels, who have kept their first estate, but of persons who are themselves in peril, themselves but wrestlers for immortality. God, in the person of His ambassadors, might have met us as an angel, and not as a man. You could not, as you listened to the angel, or reflected on his preaching, put from you the feeling that he knew nothing experimentally of your trials, nothing of your difficulties–that he had no evil heart to struggle with, no mighty foes to withstand him in a course of obedience; and very easy you would think it, for one pure as this exalted creature to urge upon men the practice of righteousness, and to declaim with lofty vehemence on the vanity and worthlessness of the best earthly pleasures; very easy to recommend that to which he is prompted by his nature, and to denounce that for which he has neither inclination nor capacity. And this feeling would tell quickly and fatally on the moral hold which he might gain on an audience; making them suspicious that he spake on a matter of which he was no fair judge, and giving to the whole discourse the aspect of an airy speculation. Therefore is it in love to you that God meets you as a man. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. I will not meet thee as a man – “Neither will I suffer man to intercede with me.”] The verb should be pointed, or written, aphgia, in Hiphil.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered; either,
1. For want of raiment to cover it; or rather,
2. By thine enemies in way of scorn and contumely, by comparing this place with Eze 16:37; 23:29.
Thy shame shall be seen upon thee for thy many and great injuries done to my people.
I will take vengeance, as a man meets his enemy in the field, to contend with thee.
I will not meet thee as a man, with moderation and gentleness, as those men who have not quite put off humanity use to do; but like a lion tearing thee to pieces, to which God in such case compareth himself, as Hos 5:14; 13:7,8; compare Hos 11:4.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. not meet . . . as a manrather,”I will not meet a man,” that is, suffer man to intercedewith megive man an audience [HORSLEY].Or, “I will not make peace with any man,” before allare destroyed. Literally, “strike a league with”; a phrasearising from the custom of striking hands together in making acompact [MAURER], (see onPr 17:18; Pro 22:26;Pro 11:15, Margin). Orelse from striking the victims sacrificed in making treaties.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen,…. Not only stripped of their garments, and have nothing to cover their naked bodies, being spoiled of all by the soldiers; but should have nothing to cover those parts which women are most ashamed should be exposed to view, and which is often the case of such who fall into the hands of the conquerors. It is said of the whore of Rome, of mystical Babylon, that the kings of the earth should hate her, and make her desolate and naked, Re 17:16:
I will take vengeance; for though the Medes and Persians were the instruments, the destruction was of the Lord, who took vengeance of the Chaldeans, for their ill usage of his people; as he will on mystical Babylon, Re 18:20:
and I will not meet thee as a man; in a humane way, with lenity, tenderness, and compassion, but with inflexible wrath and fury; not with human strength, which is but weakness, but with the strength of the mighty God; as is said of mystical Babylon,
strong is the Lord God that judgeth her, Re 18:8 or it may be rendered, “I will not meet a man” d; or a man shall not meet me, to stop or hinder me, by strength or might, or by prayers and entreaties. So some give the sense, “I will not receive the “intercession of any man for thee”; which is observed by Kimchi. The Targum is, “I will change “thy judgment from the children of men”; which agrees with the first sense.
d “et non occurram homini”, Cocceius; so some in Vatablus; “neque feram obstare quenquam mihi”, Junius & Tremellius. So Ben Melech, “I will not receive the request of a man, his supplication for them.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3. Thy baseness shall be discovered. This is the conclusion of the former statement. So long as Babylon was in a flourishing condition, she preserved her reputation, and was highly honored; for wealth and power, like veils, often conceal a great number of sores, which, when the veils have been removed, become visible, and are beheld with the greatest disgrace. And, as Demosthenes says, when, speaking of Philip’s condition, — ὥσπερ γὰρ τοῖς σώμασιν ἡμῶν ἕως μὲν ἂν ἐρρωμένος ᾖ τις οὐδὲν ἐπαισθάνεται τῶν καθ ἕκαστα σαθρῶν ἐπ᾿ ἂν δὲ ἀρρώστημα συμβὣ πάντα κινεῖται κἂν ῥη̑γμα κἂν στρέμμα κἂν αλλό τι τῶν ὑπαρχόντων σαθρῶν ᾖ οὕτω καὶ τῶν πόλεων καὶ τῶν τυράννων. “For as, in our bodies, so long as any person is in full vigor, no malady is perceived in any of the members, but if he fall into debility, produced either by a wound or by a strain, or by any other of the diseases to which the body is subject, the whole is affected; so is it with cities and governments.” (Dem., Olynth. 2.) When commotions arise, and when their wealth and troops are taken from them, disgraceful transactions which lay concealed are exposed to view; for cruelty, and fraud, and extortions, and perjury, and unjust oppressions, and other crimes, which were honored during prosperity, being to fall into disgrace.
I will take vengeance, and will not meet (thee) a man. Some think that כ (caph) ought here to be supplied, “ As a man;” as if he had said, “Do not think that ye have to deal with man, whose attack ye may be able to resist.” And, indeed, in other passages, when he speaks of the hand of man, it denotes some abatement; but here he means that no remedy is left, because God will reduce them to nothing. Others translate it, “I will not meet a man;” that is, “I will not allow a man to meet me; whoever shall meet me, or intercede in their behalf, I will not spare them, or remit or abate their punishment.” This meaning is highly appropriate, but the construction is somewhat forced; for אפגע (ephgang) must thus be understood to have a passive sense, which could scarcely be admitted. Besides, the Prophet does not absolutely say that no petition shall be presented to God, but that he cannot be appeased. The former exposition, therefore, flows more smoothly, so far as relates to the context; but let every one choose that which he prefers; for, whatever exposition you adopt, the words amount to this, “that the Lord will destroy the Babylonians, and that there will be no room for mercy.” Only, I say, that I prefer the former, because it is more agreeable to the original text.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
A DREADFUL MEETING
Isa. 47:3. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.
Little did Babylon think with whom she now had to contend. This was no empty threat. It was carried into full and fearful execution. Thus it has fared with other nations, and will, at last, with every impenitent sinner. There is a time of vengeance, as well as of mercy. Then God will meet His enemies, but not as a man.
1. When men are about to meet their enemies, it is generally their policy to keep up the show of peace and friendship as long as they can; and to make their preparations secretly, so that when they strike, the blow may fall without warningwithout affording any time for escape. But it is not in this manner that God meets His enemies. He gives them warning upon warning.
2. God does not meet His enemies in vengeance, till He has tried every means to recover and reclaim them. The crime of rebellion is commonly visited, by earthly rulers, with immediate condign punishment.
3. God never meets His enemies in vengeance, without a just and sufficient cause. Men often do.
4. Gods anger is infinitely removed from that which burns in the breasts of His fallen creatures. He has no private resentment to gratify, no bye-ends to answer. He acts as a moral governor, as guardian of the interests of the universe.
5. When God will meet impenitent sinners, there is no hope of resisting Him.
6. When He does meet His enemies, it is with a fixed determination to crush them. He will not spare.
7. Men sometimes, when they undertake to crush an enemy, leave the work unfinished. But it is not thus that God will deal with His enemies. Wherever His vengeance strikes, the blow will be fatal.
8. After an earthly prince has subdued his rebellious subjects, and laid them under his high displeasure, he may be moved by their entreaties and sufferings to release them from prison, and restore them to favour. But God will never show favour in another world to those who refuse submission to Him in this, and die with arms in their hands. Behold, now is the accepted time. When God shall have cast the impenitent into hell, the last ray of light will be extinguished for ever.Heman Humphrey, D.D.: American National Preacher, vol. iv. pp. 269274.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(3) I will not meet thee as a man.The words in italics show that the phrase is difficult. Omitting them we get I shall not meet a man, i.e., there will be none to oppose me, or I will not spare a man.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. I will take vengeance This, with the words following, has many versions. It is a divine threat against Babylonia; God himself is to execute it.
I will not meet thee as a man There shall be no appeal to man about it: or, “I will appeal to no man:” ( Nagelsbach:) “I will run on none out of whose way I must get myself:” ( Stier:) “No man shall resist me:” ( Grotius:) or, in executing vengeance “I will encounter no man:” ( Rosenmuller:) that is, I will allow no man to resist me. This agrees with Grotius, and appears to be the true sense, and Noyes’s translation does not essentially vary from it: “I will make peace with none.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 47:3-4. I will take vengeance These are the words of the God of Israel, whose province it is to take vengeance. The phrase, I will not meet thee as a man, is differently understood. Some suppose, that it signifies, “I will shew thee neither mercy nor pity.” Vitringa renders it, “Though I have not a man ready, or before me, who may execute the vengeance which I have determined; for which reason I will raise up Cyrus, whom nobody thinks of, that it may appear to all the world that this is my work, and not the work of man.” And he thinks that this interpretation is confirmed by what the church adds in the 4th verse, that their Redeemer was Jehovah; that it was He, and He alone, who could have procured this wonderful deliverance for them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 47:3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet [thee as] a man.
Ver. 3. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered. ] Thou shalt be stripped, and worse dealt with – the ordinary lot of women prisoners. At the sack of Magdeburg by Monsieur Tilly, ladies, gentlewomen, and others, like beasts and dogs, being naked and coupled together, were led into the woods, and there ravished. Such as resisted, the soldiers stripped naked, whipped them, cropped their ears, and so sent them home again.
I will not meet thee as a man.
a Absque omni humanitatis contemperatione. – Scult. Tractabo te pro divina potentia mea. – Piscat.
not meet thee as a man = not accept or regard any man.
I will take: Isa 34:1-8, Isa 59:17, Isa 59:18, Isa 63:4-6, Deu 32:35, Deu 32:41-43, Psa 94:1, Psa 94:2, Psa 137:8, Psa 137:9, Jer 13:22, Jer 13:26, Jer 50:27, Jer 50:28, Jer 51:4, Jer 51:11, Jer 51:20-24, Jer 51:34-36, Jer 51:56, Rom 12:19, Heb 10:30, Heb 10:31, Nah 3:5, Rev 6:9, Rev 6:10, Rev 16:19, Rev 18:5-8, Rev 18:20
Reciprocal: Gen 2:25 – ashamed Gen 3:10 – because Exo 32:25 – naked 2Sa 10:4 – cut off 1Ch 19:4 – and cut Isa 3:17 – discover Lam 1:8 – they Hos 2:3 – I strip Amo 4:12 – prepare Mic 1:11 – thou inhabitant of Saphir Hab 2:16 – with shame for glory Rev 3:18 – the shame Rev 16:15 – lest
Isa 47:3. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered Either for want of raiment to cover it, or rather, by thine enemies in the way of scorn and contumely. I will take vengeance Upon thee, for thy many and great injuries done to my people. I will not meet thee as a man But like an Almighty God, whose power thou canst not resist. I will not treat thee with moderation and gentleness, as those men who have not quite put off humanity use to do, but like a lion, to tear thee to pieces: see Hos 5:14; and Hos 13:7-8. Thou shalt feel the most dreadful effects of my anger, and I will show no humanity or pity toward thee. The original expression, , is peculiar, and is literally, I will not meet a man, which may be an inverted sentence put for, a man shall not meet me, that is, no man shall prevent or hinder the effects of my wrath. Bishop Lowth renders it, Neither will I suffer a man to intercede with me.
47:3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet [thee as] a {e} man.
(e) I will use no humanity nor pity toward you.
In the ancient world, people regarded nakedness as a shame because it left them open to the gaze of others, and so rendered them defenseless. People seen naked were often taken advantage of. Thus to be uncovered was to be shamefully exposed. Babylon had regarded herself as someone special and superior, but now it would become clear that she was just like every other nation. God promised to take vengeance on Babylon for exalting herself to a place that He alone deserves. He would not spare anyone deserving humiliation.
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)