Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 2:20
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made [each one] for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
20. An expansion of the thought of Isa 2:18. The verse is remarkable for the absence of parallelism. which they made each one for himself ] R.V. renders more faithfully, “which they made for him.” Probably, however, the verb is an archaic singular wrongly pointed ( ‘s, read ‘sav), the translation being: which he made for himself, cf. Isa 2:8.
to the moles and to the bats ] The sense is not doubtful, although an accidental division of the word for “moles” in the original ( laparprth) has misled some of the older interpreters.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In that day – That is, in the time when God would come forth to inflict punishment. Probably the day to which the prophet refers here was the time of the captivity at Babylon.
A man shall cast … – That is, all who have idols, or who have been trusting in them. Valuable as they may be – made of gold and silver; and much as he may now rely on them or worship them, yet he shall then see their vanity, and shall cast them into dark, obscure places, or holes, where are moles and bats.
To the moles – lachepor peroth. Probably this should be read as a single word, and it is usually interpreted moles. Jerome interprets it as mice or moles, from chaphar, to dig. The word is formed by doubling the radical letters to give intensity. Similar instances of words being divided in the Hebrew, which are nevertheless to be read as one, occur in 2Ch 24:6; Jer 46:20; Lam 4:3; Eze 27:6. The mole is a well-known animal, with exceedingly small eyes, that burrows under ground, lives in the dark, and subsists on roots. The bat lives in o d ruins, and behind the bark of trees, and flies only in the night. They resemble each other, and are used here in connection, because both dwell amidst ruins and in obscure places; both are regarded as animals of the lowest order; both are of the same genus, and both are almost blind. The sense is, therefore, that the idols which had before been so highly venerated, would now be despised, and cast into obscure places, and amidst ruins, as worthless; see Bocharts Hieroz., P. i., Lib. iii., p. 1032. Ed. 1663.
And to the bats – The East may be termed the country of bats; they hang by hundreds and thousands in caves, ruins, and under the roofs of large buildings. To enter such places, especially after rain, is most offensive. I have lived in rooms where it was sickening to remain, on account of the smell produced by those creatures, and whence it was almost impossible to expel them. What from the appearance of the creature, its sunken diminutive eye, its short legs (with which it cannot walk), its leather-like wings, its half-hairy, oily skin, its offensive ordure ever and anon dropping on the ground, its time for food and sport, darkness, makes it one of the most disgusting creatures to the people of the East. No wonder, then, that its name is used by the Hindoos (as by the prophet) for an epithet of contempt. When a house ceases to please the inhabitants, on account of being haunted, they say, Give it to the bats. Alas! alas! my wife and children are dead; my houses, my buildings, are all given to the bats. People ask, when passing a tenantless house, Why is this habitation given to the bats? – Roberts. The meaning is, that the man would throw his idols into such places as the bats occupy – he would so see their vanity, and so despise them, as to throw them into old ruins and dark places.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 2:20
In that day a man shall cut his idols of silver
The return to God: idols cast away
The most beautiful sight on Gods earth is a man turning home again to God.
What will happen when he comes back? They shall fling their idols to the bats and to the moles. Blind as a mole, blind as a bat, and the idols have to go to them. The man discovers that the thing by which he has been led is itself a blind thing, and he flings it to blind things, to the moles and the bats. He sees that the thing is blind: which means that he has recovered his own sight, and therefore Malachi says, They shall return and discern. When they come back they shall see–see what things are, and what things are not, and no longer shall they be seduced. Their lands shall still be full of silver and gold. I have no wish for my country to be poor. But, when we have said that, we shall be able to alter the other phrase. No longer shall we say, The land is full of silver and gold, the land is full of idols; but this shall be the refrain, The land is full of silver and gold, the glory of the Lord filleth the land as the waters cover the sea (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. See Clarke on Isa 2:19. Ver. 20. Which they made each one for himself to worship – “Which they have made to worship”] The word lo, for himself, is omitted by two ancient MSS., and is unnecessary. It does not appear that any copy of the Septuagint has it, except MS. Pachom, and MS. I. D. II., and they have , lahem, to themselves.
To the moles] They shall carry their idols with them into the dark caverns, old ruins, or desolate places, to which they shall flee for refuge; and so shall give them up, and relinquish them to the filthy animals that frequent such places, and have taken possession of them as their proper habitation. Bellonias, Greaves, P. Lucas, and many other travellers, speak of bats of an enormous size, as inhabiting the Great Pyramid. See Harmer, Obs., vol. ii., 455. Three MSS. express chapharperoth, the moles, as one word.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Into the meanest and darkest places, in which moles and bats have their abode; whereas before they set them up in high and honourable places, where they might be seen and worshipped. This great and sudden change proceeded either from true repentance, which filled them with shame, and grief, and indignation against themselves, and all the instruments of their wickedness; or from a conviction of the vanity of their idols, which afforded them no help in the time of their need; or from a just fear lest Gods judgment should have fallen more heavily upon them, if it had found them in the practice of idolatry; and that by this profession of repentance they might, if it were possible, either prevent or mitigate their calamity.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. molesOthers translate”mice.” The sense is, under ground, in darkness.
batsunclean birds (Le11:19), living amidst tenantless ruins (Re11:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols o[ gold,…. Being frightened at the terrible shaking of the earth, and at the glory and majesty of Christ, which will be seen in his witnesses and people, at the time of his spiritual coming, and the destruction of antichrist; insomuch that they shall cast away their idols, and relinquish their idolatrous practices, and give glory to the God of heaven, Re 11:11:
which they made [each one] for himself to worship; everyone having their peculiar idol, the work of their own hands; which shows their gross ignorance and wretched stupidity:
to the moles, and to the bats; that is, either they shall leave them to persons as blind and ignorant as moles and bats; or rather they shall cast them into the holes which moles make, and bats have recourse unto. The Targum makes these the objects of worship, rendering the words,
“that they may worship the idols and images;”
and the Jewish writers interpret them of images worshipped in the form of moles and bats; though we never read of those creatures being worshipped, Moles were sacrificed to Neptune w. Kimchi refers this text to the times of the Messiah; and some of their ancient writers x apply it to the Messiah, and to his arising and appearing in the land of Galilee.
w Phurnutus de Natura Deorum, p. 59. x Zohar in Exod. fol. 3. 3. &. in Numb. fol. 99. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Isa 2:20 forms the commencement to the fourth strophe: “In that day will a man cast away his idols of gold and his idols of silver, which they made for him to worship, to the moles and to the bats.” The traditional text separates lachpor peroth into two words,
(Note: Abulwali=d Parchon and others regard the double word as the singular of a substantive, applied to a particular bird (possibly a woodpecker), as a pecker of fruit ( peroth ). Kimchi would rather take lachpor as an infinitive (as in Jos 2:2), to dig pits; and compares with it the talmud ic word per , a pit or grave. No one adopts the rendering “into mouse-holes,” simply because perah , a mouse (from an Arabic word fa’ara , to dig, or root up), was not a Hebrew word at all, but was adopted at a later period from the Arabic (hence the Hebraeo-Arabic purah , a mousetrap).)
though without its being possible to discover what they are supposed to mean. The reason for the separation was simply the fact that plurilitera were at one time altogether misunderstood and regarded as Composita : for other plurilitera , written as two words, compare Isa 61:1; Hos 4:18; Jer 46:20. The prophet certainly pronounced the word lachparparoth (Ewald, 157, c); and C hapharparah is apparently a mole (lit. thrower up of the soil), talpa , as it is rendered by Jerome and interpreted by Rashi. Gesenius and Knobel, however, have raised this objection, that the mole is never found in houses. But are we necessarily to assume that they would throw their idols into lumber-rooms, and not hide them in holes and crevices out of doors? The mole, the shrew-mouse, and the bat, whose name ( atalleph ) is regarded by Schultens as a compound word ( atal – eph , night-bird), are generically related, according to both ancient and modern naturalists. Bats are to birds what moles are to the smaller beasts of prey (vid., Levysohn, Zoologie des Talmud, p. 102). The lxx combine with these two words l’hishtachavoth (to worship). Malbim and Luzzatto adopt this rendering, and understand the words to mean that they would sink down to the most absurd descriptions of animal worship. But the accentuation, which does not divide the v. at , as we should expect if this were the meaning, is based upon the correct interpretation. The idolaters, convinced of the worthlessness of their idols through the judicial interposition of God, and enraged at the disastrous manner in which they had been deceived, would throw away with curses the images of gold and silver which artists’ hands had made according to their instructions, and hide them in the holes of bats and in mole-hills, to conceal them from the eyes of the Judge, and then take refuge there themselves after ridding themselves of this useless and damnable burden.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
20. In that day a man will cast away his idols Idolaters are amazingly delighted with their own superstitions and ungodly worship; for although they abound in enormities and crimes, still they betake themselves to this refuge, that they imagine that their worship appeases God. Just as in the present day, if we should represent the crimes and lawless passions of every kind which abound among the papists, they certainly will not be able to deny our statements, but will flatter themselves on this ground, that they have a plausible form of worship, and will believe that this vail covers all their crimes. Accordingly, the Prophet deprives idolaters of this cloak, and threatens that they will no longer be able to conceal their pollution; for the Lord will compel them to throw away their idols, that they may acknowledge that they had no good reason for placing their hope and confidence in them.
In short, they will be ashamed of their foolishness; for in prosperity they think that they enjoy the favor of God, as if he showed that he takes delight in their worship; and they cannot be convinced to the contrary, until God actually make evident how greatly he abhors them. It is only when they are brought into adversity that they begin to acknowledge their wickedness, as Hosea strikingly illustrates by comparing them to whores, who do not acknowledge their wickedness so long as they make gain, and live in splendor, but who, when they are deprived of those enjoyments, and forsaken by their lovers, begin to think of their wretchedness and disgrace, and enter into the way of repentance, of which they had never thought while they enjoyed luxury. (Hos 2:5.) The same thing almost always happens with idolaters, who are not ashamed of their wickedness, so as to cast away their idols, until they have been visited by very sore distress, and made almost to think that they are ruined.
Which they made; that is, which were made for them by the agency of workmen. Nor was this all unnecessary addition; for he means that pretended gods are not entitled to adoration: and what sort of gods can they be that have been made by men, seeing that God exists from himself, and never had a beginning? It is therefore highly foolish, and contrary to reason, that men should worship the work of their own hands. So then by this expression, he aggravates their criminality, that idols, though they are composed of gold or silver, or some other perishable material, and have been manufactured by men, are yet worshipped instead of God; and at the same time he states the reason why they are displeasing to God: it is, because they are worshipped. On what pretense will the papists now excuse their ungodliness? for they cannot deny that they render adoration to images; and wherever such worship is performed, there ungodliness is clearly proved.
Into the holes of the moles and of the bats By the holes of the moles he means any filthy places in which they are disgracefully concealed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) A man shall cast his idols of silver . . .The picture of the earthquake is still continued. The men who have taken refuge in the caves fling away the idols, that they have found powerless to help them, to the moles and bats which had their dwelling there. It is perhaps significant that the animals thus named were proverbial for their blindness and love of darkness. Such, the prophet seems to say, were the fit custodians of the idols whom none could worship except those that hated the light and were spiritually blind.
Which they made each one for himself.Better, which they (the carvers of the idol) made for him (the worshipper).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. In that day The day of his specific coming herein detailed, in which his coming was a process culminating in the breaking up of the nation.
To the moles The precise animal here meant, in genus and species, is not known. Its home was in the ground, with holes to the surface.
Bats “Bats” are numerous in Palestine. They chiefly inhabit caves and the recesses of ruins, where they may be found hanging from the roofs of the habitations. Layard says, that on the occasion of a visit to a cavern, these noisome creatures compelled him to retreat. Their bodies are covered with a pale fur. Moles and bats are virtually blind, and dwell in dark places places just despicable enough to cast therein these miserable nothings called gods. The more costly the idols, the more significant is the hurling away of them in the fright and alarm of their former worshippers.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 2:20. To the moles and to the bats Bats and other vermin haunt old ruinated places. So Thevenot, describing the opened pyramid, tells us, there are a great many bats in it, which sometimes put out the candles that are made use of in examining that most ancient building; that a particular hole, which he describes, had a great quantity of their dung in it; and that they so swarmed there, that a Scotch gentleman who was in the company, and who seems alone to have had the courage to go down into it, was afraid that he should have been eaten up by them. Egmont and Heyman mention the same circumstance, but enrich their account with the addition of owls, snakes, and other reptiles; for which reason they thought it necessary to fire off some pistols before they ventured into the pyramid, these creatures being by that means frighted away to their lurking places. I do not know how accurate they are in mentioning snakes in the pyramid; but it is certain, that in buildings more ruinated than that, such dangerous kinds of reptiles are very common. Thus Rauwolff, in his account of Babylon, tells us, that some of its ruins are so full of vermin, which have bored holes through them, that one may not come near them within half a mile, but only two months in the winter, when they come not out of their holes. Are we not rather to understand the words of the prophet in this place (which seem to signify diggers of holes) of these sorts of animals, rather than of moles, which a single Hebrew term is supposed to express, Lev 11:30 and that have no connection, which I know of, with ruins? For the thought of the prophet seems to me to be, that the inhabitants of that country were to go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth to hide themselves from the vengeance of the Lord, to be executed by hostile armies; leaving their temples, with their idols in them, to be demolished by their hands; in which state of desolation these idols should long lie, companions of those animals which are wont to bore holes in ruins, and also of bats, the frequenters of such destroyed places; not that they were to carry their idols into caves and holes of the earth to secrete them from their enemies. See Observations, p. 423.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 2:20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made [each one] for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
Ver. 20. In that day a man shall cast his idols. ] Though never so much worth either for weight or workmanship, for value or elegance; he shall pollute what before he had perfumed. Isa 30:22
To the moles and to the bats.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
cast: Isa 30:22, Isa 31:7, Isa 46:1, Hos 14:8, Phi 3:7, Phi 3:8
his idols of silver: Heb. the idols of his silver, etc. Isa 46:6
each one for himself to: or, for him to
Reciprocal: Gen 35:4 – hid them Lev 11:19 – bat Lev 26:1 – Ye shall Deu 7:26 – but thou shalt 2Ki 7:7 – and fled for their life 2Ki 7:15 – had cast away Job 2:4 – all that Job 36:19 – Will Ecc 3:6 – and a time to cast Ecc 5:13 – riches Isa 10:3 – where Isa 26:1 – that day Isa 44:9 – and their Jer 48:13 – ashamed Eze 6:6 – your altars Eze 7:19 – shall cast Eze 14:6 – turn Eze 20:7 – Cast Dan 3:1 – made Hos 14:3 – neither Amo 4:3 – them into the palace Mic 5:12 – General Zep 1:18 – their silver Zec 13:2 – I will cut Mat 18:8 – and cast Act 19:19 – and burned Rom 13:12 – cast Jam 1:21 – lay 1Pe 2:1 – laying
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 2:20. In that day a man shall cast his idols, &c., to the moles and to the bats Shall cast them into the meanest and darkest places, in which moles and bats have their abode; whereas before they set them up in high and honourable places, where they might be seen and worshipped. Or, as Bishop Lowth thinks the meaning may be. They shall carry their idols with them into the dark caverns, old ruins, or desolate places, to which they shall flee for refuge; and so shall give them up, and relinquish them to the filthy animals that frequent such places, and have taken possession of them as their proper habitation. The wasting of Judah by the Syrians and Israelites in the time of Ahaz, might be here first in the prophets view, when, besides a great multitude that were partly slain, and partly carried captive to Damascus by the Syrians, the king of Israel slew in Judah one hundred and twenty thousand in one day, and carried away captive, of men, women, and children, two hundred thousand, taking away also much spoil, 2Ch 28:5-6; 2Ch 28:8. The prophecy may refer, secondly, to the invasion of the country by Sennacherib; but, undoubtedly, the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the Babylonish captivity, are chiefly intended, for then idolatry was entirely abolished among the Jews, and never practised by them afterward.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made [each one] for himself to worship, {x} to the moles and to the bats;
(x) They will cast them into vile and filthy places when they perceive that they are not able to help them.