Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 18:5
For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away [and] cut down the branches.
5. Assyria is here compared to a vine, ripening its grapes under the favourable influences indicated in Isa 18:4. The word for harvest does not strictly denote “vintage” (see on ch. Isa 16:9); either the more general term is employed for the particular, or the vine is conceived as cut down at that stage of its growth which coincides with the (wheat-) harvest.
Continue as in R.V., when the blossom is over and the flower becometh a ripening grape, &c.
take away and cut down ] Rather (to avoid a hysteron-proteron) new away, the first verb having merely adverbial force.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For afore the harvest – This verse is evidently figurative, and the image is drawn from that which is commenced in the previous verse. There, God is represented as calmly regarding the plans of the people here referred to – as the sun shines serenely on the herb, or the dew falls on the grass. That figure supposes that they had formed plans, and that they were advancing to maturity, like a growing harvest, while God surveyed them without interposition. This verse continues the figure, and affirms that those plans shall not be mature; that God will interpose and defeat them while they are maturing – as if a man should enter the harvest field and cut it down after it had been sown, or go into the vineyard, and cut down the vines while the green grape was beginning to ripen. It is, therefore, a most beautiful and expressive figure, intimating that all their plans would be foiled even when they had the prospect of a certain accomplishment.
When the bud is perfect – The word bud here ( perach) denotes either a blossom, or a sprout, shoot, branch. Here it denotes probably the blossom of the grain; or it may be the grain when it is set. Its meaning is, when their plans are maturing, and there is every human prospect that they will be successful.
And the sour grape is ripening – Begins to turn; or is becoming mature.
In the flower – ( netsah). The blossom. This should be read rather, and the flower is becoming a ripening grape. The common version does not make sense; but with this translation the idea is clear. The sense is the same as in the former phrase – when their plans are maturing.
He shall cut off the sprigs – The shoots; the small limbs on which the grape is hanging, as if a man should enter a vineyard, and, while the grape is ripening, should not only cut off the grape, but the small branches that bore it, thus preventing it from bearing again. The idea is, not only that God would disconcert their present plans, but that he would prevent them from forming any in future. Before their plans were matured, and they obtained the anticipated triumph, he would effectually prevent them from forming such plans again.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. The flower – “The blossom”] Heb. her blossom; nitstsah, that is, the blossom of the vine, gephen, vine, understood, which is of the common gender. See Ge 40:10. Note, that by the defective punctuation of this word, many interpreters, and our translators among the rest, have been led into a grievous mistake, (for how can the swelling grape become a blossom?) taking the word nitstsah for the predicate; whereas it is the subject of the proposition, or the nominative case to the verb.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Afore the harvest; before they receive the end of their hopes, and finish the work which they have designed and begun.
When the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower; when the bud or flower is turned into a perfect but unripe grape, which gives hopes of a good vintage. The body of this people are compared to a vine tree.
He; the Lord, who is easily understood from the foregoing verse, and who is here represented under the notion of a husbandman or vine-dresser.
Take away and cut down the branches; instead of the gathering of the grapes, he shall cut down the body and branches of the tree, and throw it into the fire.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Forrather, “But.”
perfectperfected. Whenthe enemy’s plans are on the verge of completion.
sour grape . . .flowerrather, “when the flower shall become the ripeninggrape” [MAURER].
sprigsthe shootswith the grapes on them. God will not only disconcert their presentplans, but prevent them forming any future ones. HORSLEYtakes the “harvest” and vintage here as referring topurifying judgments which cause the excision of the ungodly from theearth, and the placing of the faithful in a state of peace on theearth: not the last judgment (Joh 15:2;Rev 14:15-20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For afore the harvest,…. Or vintage: the above metaphor is carried on; before the designs and schemes of the people above described are ripe for execution, who promised themselves a large harvest of their neighbours:
when the bud is perfect; when the bud of the vine is become a perfect grape, though unripe; when the scheme was fully laid, and with perfect and consummate wisdom as imagined, though not brought into execution:
and the sour grape is ripening in the flower; things go on and promise well, as if the issue would be according to expectation, and there would be a good vintage. The sour grape may denote the temper and disposition of the above people against their enemies, their ill nature, and enmity to them; or the sins and transgressions, for which the judgment denounced came upon them:
he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away [and] cut down the branches; as the vinedresser; or rather as one that has no good will to the vine, cuts it with pruning hooks, not to make it better, but worse, and cuts off, not the dead withered and useless parts of it, but the sprigs that have buds and flowers, or unripe grapes, upon them, and even whole branches that have clusters on them, and takes them and casts them away, to be trodden under foot, or cast into the fire; so the Lord, or the king of Assyria, the instrument in the hand of God, should cut off the Ethiopians, or the Egyptians, with the sword, both small and great, when their enterprise should fail, and their promised success: or this is to be understood of the destruction of Sennacherib’s army by the angel, when he was full of expectation of taking Jerusalem, and plundering that rich city. Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of the destruction of the armies of Gog and Magog. The Targum is,
“and he shall kill the princes of the people with the sword, and their mighty ones he shall remove and cause to pass over.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5. For when the harvest shall be at hand. Literally it is, “in presence of the harvest;” but we must soften the harshness of the expressions; and it cannot be doubted that the meaning of the Prophet is, that when the harvest is close at hand, and when the grapes are nearly ripe, the whole produce, in the expectation of which wicked men had rejoiced, will suddenly be snatched from them. The Prophet continues the same subject, and confirms by these metaphors what he had formerly uttered, that the wicked are not immediately cut off, but flourish for a time, and the Lord spares them; but that when the harvest shall be at hand, when the vines shall put forth their buds and blossoms, so that the sour grapes make their appearance, the branches themselves shall be cut down. Thus when the wicked shall be nearly ripe, not only will they be deprived of their fruit, but they and their offspring shall be rooted out. Such is the end which the Lord will make to the wicked, after having permitted them for a time to enjoy prosperity; for they shall be rooted out, so that they cannot revive or spring up again in any way.
Hence we obtain this great consolation, that when God conceals himself, he tries our faith, and does not suffer everything to be carried along by the blind violence of fortune, as heathens imagine; for God is in heaven, as in his tabernacle, dwelling in his Church as in a mean habitation; but at the proper season he will come forth. Let us thus enter into our consciences, and ponder everything, that we may sustain our minds by such a promise as this, which alone will enable us to overcome and subdue temptations. Let us also consider that the Lord declares that he advances and promotes the happiness of wicked men, which tends to exhibit and to display more illustriously the mercy of God. If he instantly cut down and took them away like a sprouting blade of corn, his power would not be so manifest, nor would his goodness be so fully ascertained as when he permits them to grow to a vast height, to swell and blossom, that they may afterwards fall by their own weight, or, like large and fat ears of corn, cuts them down with pruning-knives.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
5. But God does interfere at the last and right moment.
For afore the harvest In this case the grape harvest, as the defining terms following indicate. In the interval between the two harvests God has looked calmly on. The Assyrian’s answer to the figure of the “grape harvest” the pruning and nipping off of shoots to facilitate ripening by letting in of sunheat symbolizes God’s own forwarding of the enemy and his plans unto destruction.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 18:5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away [and] cut down the branches.
Ver. 5. For afore the harvest. ] Or, Vintage.
When the bud is perfect, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 17:11, Son 2:13, Son 2:15, Eze 17:6-10
Reciprocal: Psa 80:12 – broken Son 7:12 – the tender Jer 51:33 – the time Hos 11:6 – consume
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 18:5. For afore the harvest Here the Lord informs his people how he would act toward those of their adversaries, for whom he had prepared this great slaughter. He compares them to a vine, which, after it hath sent forth its buds, then its flowers, and the flowers the sour grapes, which too were beginning to ripen, is suddenly stripped of its shoots and branches by the pruning-hook of the vine-dresser, who leaves them, burdened with grapes, a prey to the fowls of heaven, and the beasts of the earth. By which allegory, continued through this and the sixth verse, the prophet means, that, when every thing respecting the Assyrians was in the most promising situation, when Sennacheribs great designs seemed almost mature, and just ready to be crowned with success, his mighty efforts should be in a moment frustrated, his vast expectations rendered abortive, and the chief part of his immense army made a prey to the beasts and birds.