Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 25:7
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
7. the face of the covering nations ] More literally: the surface of the veil that veils all the peoples, and the covering that is woven over all the nations. The phrase “surface of the veil” is peculiar, but a similar expression is found in Job 41:13. It is probably to be explained as gen. of apposition “the veil-surface.” The veil is not, as might be supposed, a symbol of spiritual blindness (2Co 3:14 ff.), but of sorrow; the figure being taken from the practice of covering the head in token of mourning (see 2Sa 15:30; 2Sa 19:4; Jer 14:3-4; Est 6:12). The prophet has already spoken of the profound wretchedness in which the world is plunged (ch. Isa 24:7-12).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And he will destroy – Hebrew, He will swallow up, that is, he will abolish, remove, or take away.
In this mountain the face of the covering – In mount Zion, or in Jerusalem. This would be done in Jerusalem, or on the mountains of which Jerusalem was a part, where the great transactions of the plan of redemption would be accomplished. The word face here is used as it is frequently among the Hebrews, where the face of a thing denotes its aspect. or appearance, and then the thing itself. Thus the face of God is put for God himself; the face of the earth for the earth itself; and the face of the vail means the veil itself, or the appearance of the veil. To cover the head or the face was a common mode of expressing grief (see 2Sa 15:30; 2Sa 19:5; Est 6:12). It is probable that the expression here is taken from this custom, and the veil over the nations here is to be understood as expressive of the ignorance, superstition, crime, and wretchedness that covered the earth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 25:7-8
And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over an people
The removal of the covering
I.
THE GOSPEL DESTROYS THE COVERING WHICH HIDES THE TRUE NATURE OF MAN. The covering of sin has ever concealed the nature, the nobility of nature, the capabilities of nature, and the possibilities of nature in mankind. The covering is thick and coarse. Ignorance, brutality, discord, war, barbaric customs, plunder, and gross immoralities are the threads of the textile. They are so closely woven that the very features of human nature are hidden. Take off the covering. You have seen the earth when winter has possessed its vales, its forests, its gardens, and its fields. The frost has ploughed the ground. The sleet has destroyed every vestige of verdure. Even the ivy leaf is covered with the snow. Spring will destroy that covering, and life will shoot up from the roots to the highest boughs. So the advent of Christ introduced revivifying influences, and the true nature of man is discovered in kind words and deeds of goodness. Our forefathers never thought that nature had concealed such precious ores in the hearts of the mountains. A few years ago even we had no conception that down deep in the bosom of the earth wells of oil waited to be drawn to the surface. The covering has been taken away since, and these valuables have seen the light. Jesus Christ sunk shafts through the outward crust of sin, and brought forth precious ores to be smelted in the furnace of His love, moulded in His example, and circulated through the ages.
II. THE GOSPEL DESTROYS THE COVERING WHICH HIDES THE TRUE NATURE OF GOD. Communion with the source of peace was broken by the first shadow of guilt. Man in the dark is seized with fear Of the God who made him. This fear grows into dislike, and dislike into indifference, and indifference into defiance. The fool desireth in his heart that there might be no God, and the dislike grows into a positive refusal of entertaining God in his thoughts. But sin has not succeeded to remove all traces of God item the human mind. The sinner cannot altogether close his eyes and ears to those manifestations and voices which force the idea of God upon him. Under the covert of sin conceptions of Him are entertained at variance with His nature, and in opposition to His dealings. Christ came to reveal the Father. The power of reconciliation is in that word.
III. THE GOSPEL DESTROYS THE COVERING WHICH HIDES THE TRUE AFFINITY BETWEEN MAN AND MAN. Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be. The basis of the Church is union with the Father. We meet in Him befogs we meet in one another. National prejudice and society caste, family feuds and personal animosity will perish under the influence of the Cross; humanity will be raised into union with the Father, and God will be all and in all.
IV. THE GOSPEL WILL DESTROY THAT WHICH HIDES THE FUTURE. He will swallow up death in victory. It was a new declaration when One said, I am the resurrection and the life. (T. Davies, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. The face of the covering cast over all people – “The covering that covered the face of all the peoples”] MS. Bodl. reads al peney chol. The word peney, face, has been removed from its right place into the line above, where it makes no sense; as Houbigant conjectured. “The face of the covering,” &c. He will unveil all the Mosaic ritual, and show by his apostles that it referred to, and was accomplished in, the sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The face of the covering; which is put either,
1. For the covering of the face, by an hypallage, as silver of shekels is put for shekels of silver, Lev 5:15; or,
2. For the covering or
veil, as the next clause expounds it; the word face being oft superfluously used in the Hebrew language, as Gen 1:2,29, and elsewhere. The veil; the veil of ignorance of God, and of the true religion, which then was upon the Gentiles, and now is upon the Jews, 2Co 3:14-16, which, like a veil, covers mens eyes, and keeps them from discerning between things that differ. It may be also an allusion either to the veil which was put upon Mosess face, Exo 34:33,34, or to the veil of the sanctuary, by which the persons without it were kept from the sight of the ark. This is a manifest prophecy concerning the illumination and conversion of the Gentiles.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. face of . . . coveringimagefrom mourning, in which it was usual to cover the face with aveil (2Sa 15:30). “Faceof covering,” that is, the covering itself; as in Job41:13, “the face of his garment,” the garment itself.The covering or veil is the mist of ignorance as to a future state,and the way to eternal life, which enveloped the nations (Eph4:18) and the unbelieving Jew (2Co3:15). The Jew, however, is first to be convertedbefore the conversion of “all nations“; for it is”in this mountain,” namely, Zion, that the latterare to have the veil taken off (Psa 102:13;Psa 102:15; Psa 102:16;Psa 102:21; Psa 102:22;Rom 11:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people,…. Or, “the covering of the face” f; that which has covered the face of all people; that darkness which has been spread over them, partly by Mahomet, and his Alcoran, and partly by the pope of Rome, and his party; the covering of human doctrines and traditions seems chiefly intended, which now will be removed, as well as all Pagan and Mahometan darkness, through the clear ministration of the everlasting Gospel, which will be spread with power, and in its purity, throughout the whole world; see
Isa 60:1 more especially this may respect the light and glory of the New Jerusalem state, in which Christ will be the light thereof, and the nations of them that are saved shall walk in it, and Satan will be bound a thousand years, that he may not deceive the nations any more,
Re 21:23
and the veil that is spread over all nations; meaning the same as before; the veil or covering of darkness and ignorance, with which the nations are covered, either Papal, Pagan, and Mahometan; particularly, respect may be had to the veil that is upon the Jewish nation, which remains to this day, and will be taken off when it shall turn to the Lord, 2Co 3:13 this may be said in allusion to the veil on Moses’s face, when he spake to the people, Ex 34:33 as the former expression may be to the covering or wrapper about the face of dead men, Joh 11:44 for they that sit in spiritual darkness, are in the region of the shadow of death.
f “velum faciei”, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Although the feast is one earth, it is on an earth which has been transformed into heaven; for the party-wall between God and the world has fallen down: death is no more, and all tears are for ever wiped away. “And He casts away upon this mountain the veil that veiled over all peoples, and the covering that covered over all nations. He puts away death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah wipes the tear from every face; and He removes the shame of His people from the whole earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it.” What Jehovah bestows is followed by what He puts away. The “veil” and “covering” ( m assecah , from nasac = m asac , Isa 22:8, from sacac , to weave, twist, and twist over = to cover) are not symbols of mourning and affliction, but of spiritual blindness, like the “veil” upon the heart of Israel mentioned in 2Co 3:15. The p e ne hallot (cf., Job 41:5) is the upper side of the veil, the side turned towards you, by which Jehovah takes hold of the veil to lift it up. The second hallot stands for (Ges. 71, Anm. 1), and is written in this form, according to Isaiah’s peculiar style (vid., Isa 4:6; Isa 7:11; Isa 8:6; Isa 22:13), merely for the sake of the sound, like the obscurer niphal forms in Isa 24:3. The only difference between the two nouns is this: in lot the leading idea is that of the completeness of the covering, and in m assecah that of its thickness. The removing of the veil, as well as of death, is called , which we find applied to God in other passages, viz., Isa 19:3; Psa 21:10; Psa 55:10. Swallowing up is used elsewhere as equivalent to making a thing disappear, by taking it into one’s self; but here, as in many other instances, the notion of receiving into one’s self is dropped, and nothing remains but the idea of taking away, unless, indeed, abolishing of death may perhaps be regarded as taking it back into what hell shows to be the eternal principle of wrath out of which God called it forth. God will abolish death, so that there shall be no trace left of its former sway. Paul gives a free rendering of this passage in 1Co 15:54, (after the Aramaean n e tzach , vincere ). The Syriac combines both ideas, that of the Targum and that of Paul: absorpta est mors per victoriam in sempiternum . But the abolition of death is not in itself the perfection of blessedness. There are sufferings which force out a sigh, even after death has come as a deliverance. But all these sufferings, whose ultimate ground is sin, Jehovah sweeps away. There is something very significant in the use of the expression (a tear), which the Apocalypse renders (Rev 21:4). Wherever there is a tear on any face whatever, Jehovah wipes it away; and if Jehovah wipes away, this must be done most thoroughly: He removes the cause with the outward symptom, the sin as well as the tear. It is self-evident that this applies to the church triumphant. The world has been judged, and what was salvable has been saved. There is therefore no more shame for the people of God. Over the whole earth there is no further place to be found for this; Jehovah has taken it away. The earth is therefore a holy dwelling-place for blessed men. The new Jerusalem is Jehovah’s throne, but the whole earth is Jehovah’s glorious kingdom. The prophet is here looking from just the same point of view as Paul in 1Co 15:28, and John in the last page of the Apocalypse.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
7. And he will destroy the face of the covering. (143) Here also commentators differ, for by the word covering is meant the disgrace with which believers are covered in this world, so that the glory of God is not seen in them; as if he had said, “Though many reproaches oppress the godly, yet God will take away those reproaches, and will make their condition glorious. I pass by other interpretations; but, in my opinion, the true meaning is, that the Lord promises that he will take away the veil by which they were kept in blindness and ignorance; and therefore it was by the light of the gospel that this darkness was dispelled.
In that mountain. He says that this will be in mount Zion, from which also the light of the word shone on the whole world, as we have already seen. (Isa 2:3.) This passage, therefore, must unavoidably be referred to the kingdom of Christ; for the light did not shine on all men till Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, arose, (Mal 4:2,) who took away all the veils, wrappings, and coverings. And here we have another commendation of the gospel, that it dispels the darkness, and takes away from our eyes the covering of errors. Hence it follows, that we are wrapped up and blinded by the darkness of ignorance, before we are enlightened by the doctrine of the gospel, by which alone we can obtain light and life, and be fully restored. Here, too, we have a confirmation of the calling of the Gentiles, that is, of our calling; for not only the Jews, but all nations, which formerly were buried in every kind of errors and superstition, are invited to this banquet.
(143) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) The face of the covering cast over all people . . .To cover the face was, in the East, a sign of mourning for the dead (2Sa. 19:4); and to destroy that covering is to overcome death, of which it is thus the symbol. With this there probably mingled another, though kindred, thought. The man whose face is thus covered cannot see the light, and the covering represents the veil (2Co. 3:15) which hinders men from knowing God. The final victory of God includes a triumph over ignorance and sorrow, as well as over sin and death.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 25:7-8. And he will destroy, &c. Vitringa thinks, with the Chaldee, that the covering and vail here spoken of mean Death; that mighty ruler, who covers the whole race of men with his black garment, and hides them in obscure night; that by the face of this covering, which is the face of death, are meant the miseries, calamities, afflictions, and persecutions, which believers in that country should sustain on account of their religion, under various forms and appearances; as well as the ministers of those evils, the instruments of Satan, the irreligious kings and princes of the world; and that by the taking away, or swallowing up the face of this covering, are designed the abolition of this persecution and trouble, and the entire destruction of all the public persecutors of the true church, in that land more especially. The comparison is fine, and worthy of our prophet; and the next verse is exegetical of it, wherein, however, such great and excellent things are said, that it does not become us to affix any mean or limited sense to them; for though the words primarily refer to the public persecutions of those times, yet there can be no doubt that they have a much higher reference, as appears abundantly from 1Co 15:54. See also Rev 20:14 and, respecting their historical completion, a remarkable passage in 1Ma 14:6, &c. For the rest, they will not have their full and ultimate completion till that day, when there shall be no more death, and God himself shall wipe away all tears from all eyes. See Rev 21:4.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Was not this blessed promise faithfully and fully completed, when, at the hour of Christ’s death, by an invisible hand, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom? Mar 15:38 . Before this, the veil of ignorance, the veil of enmity, and the numberless veils of separation, which stood, and must forever have stood, between a holy God and unholy sinners, kept all people back from the smallest possible communion with God, and totally covered all people and all nations. But now, blessed Jesus, by thy blood, thou hast opened a new and living way for thy people, and art entered thyself within the veil, to cause thy redeemed to follow thee, that where thou art, there they shall be also; Heb 6:19-20 . Let the Reader compare such blessed views as these of our Lord Jesus, with what is said concerning Moses, and learn therefrom, the felicity to which believers are called, in the removal of all coverings in their drawing nigh to the Lord; Exo 34:33-34 ; 2Co 3:10 to the end. Heb 10:19-25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 25:7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
Ver. 7. And he will destroy in this mountain, &c. ] Absorbebit velum faciei, id est, faciem veli. Christ came “a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on him should not abide in darkness.” Joh 12:46 Faith freeth from blindness; we no sooner taste of the bread of life by faith, but the veil of ignorance, which naturally covereth all flesh, is torn; and men are suddenly brought “out of darkness into a marvellous light.” 1Pe 2:9 This is the first eulogy and noble commendation of the doctrine of the gospel, light. There follow two more, viz., life and joy spiritual, Isa 35:6 which is the life of that life. Isa 25:8
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
‘ IN THIS MOUNTAIN’
THE VEIL OVER ALL NATIONS
Isa 25:7
The previous chapter closes with a prediction of the reign of Jehovah in Mount Zion ‘before His elders’ in Glory. The allusion apparently is to the elders being summoned up to the Mount and seeing the Glory, ‘as the body of heaven in its clearness.’ The veil in this verse is probably a similar allusion to that which covered Moses’ face. It will then be an emblem of that which obscures for ‘all nations the face of God.’ And what is that but sin?
I. Sin veils God from men’s sight.
Every sin darkens the witness to God in ourselves, In a pure nature, conscience would perfectly reveal God; but we all know too sadly and intimately how it is gradually silenced, and fails to discriminate between what pleases and what displeases God. In a pure nature, the obedient Will would perfectly reveal God and the man’s dependence on Him. We all know how sin weakens that.
Every sin diminishes our power of seeing Him in His external Revelation. Every sin ruffles the surface of the soul, which is a mirror reflecting the light that streams from Creation, from Providence, from History. A mass of black rock flung into a still lake shatters the images of the girdling woods and the overarching sky.
Every sin bribes us to forget God. It becomes our interest, as we fancy, to shut Him out of our thoughts. Adam’s impulse is to carry his guilty secret with him into hiding among the trees of the garden. We cannot shake off His presence, but we can-and when we have sinned, we have but too good reason to exercise the power-we can dismiss the thought of Him. ‘They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.’
Individual sins may seem of small moment, but an opaque veil can be woven out of very fine thread.
II. To veil God from our sight is fatal.
But what unconscious self-murder that is, which we take such pains to achieve! To know God is life eternal; to lose Him from our sight is to condemn all that is best in our nature, all that is most conducive to blessedness, tranquillity, and strenuousness in our lives, to languish and die. Every creature separated from God is cut off from the fountain of life, and loses the life it drew from the fountain, of whatever kind that life is. And that in man which is most of kin with God languishes most when so cut off. And when we have blocked Him out from our field of vision, all that remains for us to look at suffers degradation, and becomes phantasmal, poor, unworthy to detain, and impotent to satisfy, our hungry vision.
III. The Veil is done away in Christ.
Jesus makes us able to see God.
Jesus makes us delight in seeing Him.
All dread of the ‘steady whole of the Judge’s face’ is changed to the loving heart’s joy in seeing its Beloved.
IV. The Veil is wholly removed hereafter.
The choice for each of us is whether the veil will thicken till it darkens the Face altogether, and that is death; or whether it will thin away till the last filmy remnant is gone, and ‘we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
destroy = swallow up, as in Isa 25:8.
this mountain: i.e. Zion (Isa 2:1, Isa 2:2; Isa 24:23).
cast = covered.
people = the peoples.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
he will: Isa 60:1-3, Mat 27:51, Luk 2:32, Act 17:30, 2Co 3:13-18, Eph 3:5, Eph 3:6, Eph 4:18, Eph 5:8, Heb 9:8, Heb 9:24, Heb 10:19-21
destroy: Heb. swallow up
cast: Heb. covered
Reciprocal: Num 4:5 – they shall Zec 8:22 – General Luk 14:16 – A certain 2Co 3:14 – which veil 2Co 3:16 – the veil 2Ti 1:10 – now Heb 9:3 – the second
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
25:7 And he will destroy on this mountain {i} the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
(i) Meaning, that ignorance and blindness, by which we are kept back from Christ.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord will also remove the curse of death that has hung over humankind since the Fall (cf. Isa 26:19; Gen 2:17; Job 19:26; Dan 12:2; Rom 6:23; 1Co 15:54; Heb 2:15; Rev 7:17; Rev 21:4; Rev 22:3). This will occur at the end of the Millennium, after the final rebellion and God’s creation of new heavens and a new earth. Isaiah’s vision of the future followed the course of events that later revelation clarified, but he did not present the eschatological future as consisting of consecutive watertight compartments for two reasons. First, he did not see the future as clearly as later prophets did (1Pe 1:10-12), and second, he described the future here as a poet rather than as a historian. Isaiah here telescoped the millennial and eternal reigns of God-both aspects constitute His future kingdom-as He did the first and second advents of Christ (Isa 65:17-25).
Sovereign Yahweh will wipe the tears from each face (Rev 7:17; Rev 21:4), as a loving mother, and will remove the disgrace to His people from living in slavery to sin (cf. Jos 5:9; Eze 5:13-17; Rom 11:11-27). This is a promise from the Lord. It was customary for an ancient Near Eastern king at his banquet to demonstrate his power by performing some heroic act. [Note: Watts, p. 331.]