Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 29:13
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
13. draw near (i.e. worship) me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me ] A.V. is here unquestionably right against R.V., which slavishly follows the Hebrew accentuation, rendering, “draw nigh, and with their mouth and with their lips do honour me.” with their mouth their lips ] uttering the prescribed liturgical formul.
have removed their heart far from me ] The heart is the organ of intelligence and moral obedience and inclination (cf. Pro 23:26).
their fear towards me ] R.V. their fear of me, i.e. their piety, religion.
is taught by the precept of men ] Better as R.V.: is (or, has become) a commandment of men which hath been taught; a human ordinance learned by rote (cf. Mat 15:1-9). This pregnant criticism expresses with epigrammatic force the fundamental difference between the pagan and the biblical conceptions of religion. Religion, being personal fellowship with God, cannot be “learned” from men, but only by revelation (Mat 16:17).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
13, 14. This spiritual insensibility of the people is the outcome of its whole religious attitude, which is insincere, formal, and traditional. The contrast implied is that between a religion of mere ritual and one of moral fellowship with God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wherefore the Lord said – This verse, with the following, is designed to denounce the divine judgment on their formality of worship. They kept up the forms of religion, but they witcheld the affections of their hearts from God; and he, therefore, says that he will proceed to inflict on them exemplary and deserved punishment.
This people draw near me – That is, in the temple, and in the forms of external devotion.
And with their lips do honor me – They professedly celebrate my praise, and acknowledge me in the forms of devotion.
But have removed their heart – Have witcheld the affections of their hearts.
And their fear toward me – The worship of God is often represented as fear Job 28:28; Psa 19:9; Psa 34:11; Pro 1:7.
Is taught by the precept of men – That is, their views, instead of having been derived from the Scriptures, were drawn from the doctrines of mankind. Our Saviour referred to this passage, and applied it to the hypocrites of his own time Mat 15:8-9. The latter part of it is, however, not quoted literally from the Hebrew, nor from the Septuagint, but retains the sense: But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. He quoted it as strikingly descriptive of the people when he lived, not as saying that Isaiah referred directly to his times.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 29:13-14
This people draw near Me with their mouth
Ritualism
When any form so obtrudes itself as to be a hindrance instead of a help to the worshipper, that is ritualism.
(Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone.)
Formalism
All vice is said to be an abuse of virtue; all evil, good run mad. Generosity may become extravagance. So formalism really consists in the abuse of that which, up to a certain point, is absolutely necessary, which, up to a further point, may be helpful, but which, carried to an extreme, becomes a snare and a sin. (D. Jones Hamar.)
Formalism in doctrine and life
That we may see clearly who the formalist is, think of this truth: that there are formalism of doctrine, and formalism of life and practice, distinguishable and yet connected.
1. Formalism of doctrine–what is that? In one of its lowest phases we frequently meet with it. Have you not come across men who say Yes to every assertion of truth that you make; men who make you almost angry by their persistency in declaration of agreement? There are very few of all the thousands who are not, and know they are not, servants of Christ, who take the pains to deny what they nevertheless do not really accept. What can you say to such men? You cannot argue, for they agree with you already. You cannot appeal to them, for their creed seems to compass all that you hold as true.
2. There is such a thing as formality of worship and life. Just as truth must be put into words, but the word is not the truth, so worship has to be put into some expression, but the expression is not the worship. Isaiahs great charge against the people was that they had reversed the thing entirely. (D. JonesHamar.)
Formalism unsatisfying
What must be the creed of the formalist in worship and in life! This: that what is said to be the means of grace is grace itself; that the mechanical reading of the Bible, without any reverent, hungering spirit, communicates in some mysterious fashion heavenly truth; that the prostration of the body, while another offers prayer, brings blessing; that to sing a hymn, be its meaning felt or not, is an expression of praise; that these things, with the enduring of the infliction of half an hours sermon, constitute Christianity. There is too much of formalism in the best of us. What is the creed of the formal worshipper This: God doth not know, neither is there knowledge in the Meet High; that He who receives the humble adorations of archangels will accept from men not only the imperfect praises they can render, not only the scarce articulate waiting of the troubled spirit, panting forth its prayer for help, but the sound of song without the spirit, the utterance of petition without desire; that He who searches all hearts is deceived, as men prostrate their bodies, and accepts that as homage; or that He cares for nothing, and to mock His presence is no insult. Does that creed shape itself in accordance with your ideas of God? Yet it is just an interpretation of the practice of the man whose worship is nothing more than a form. And as it affects yourself is it satisfactory? Does it do you any good? The sin in the heart is not to be cured by any sort of outward observance. The truth of God is not to be reached by any sort of mechanical contrivance. This Book has no mysterious sanctity in its paper and print, or in the sound of its words. It is the meaning and the spirit that alone are valuable. Our faith passes on the wings of the things that are seen and temporal, up to the things that are unseen and eternal, through the word to catch the revelation, through prayer and praise to hold communion with God. Why trifle with your natures deepest wants? Why mock the everlasting love? There is a reality in prayer. There is an expression of gratitude which Inspires praise. There is a Saviour of sinners. Come to Him. He only, appearing and speaking through the means He has appointed, can take away the burden and the sting of sin, and give to the weary rest. (D. Jones Hamar.)
The danger of formal worship
The best commentary on our text is just the history of the reigns during which Isaiah prophesied.
I. IT WAS NO SLIGHT CRIME WITH WHICH THE PEOPLE OF JUDAH WERE ACTUALLY CHARGEABLE–it Was, indeed, a denial of Gods sovereignty, although by that very sovereignty it was that they and their fathers had for seven hundred years been in possession of the land of Canaan. Though they might make an outward profession of respect for the ordinances of God, yet the spirit by which they were actuated was essentially an atheistical spirit, inasmuch as with all the outward observance of Divine ordinances they looked for continued prosperity or deliverance from adversity, not to the wisdom of God, but to their own counsels, and the help promised to them by their idolatrous allies.
II. THE JUDGMENT THREATENED. Was in accordance with the nature and manifestation of their sin. They were not to be overwhelmed with irresistible calamity, in order to punish their flagrant idolatry; but they were to be left to the effect of their own devices. They were to work by their own skill, and in so doing to be working their own ruin: and when all their plans were brought to their completion, the effect was to be to bring utter desolation on the land (verse 14).
III. MANKIND, WITH ALL THEIR VARIETIES OF CHARACTER, ARE ESSENTIALLY SO MUCH THE SAME IN ALL AGES, and the Scriptures do, on the one hand, so graphically portray the leading features of human nature, and, on the other, set forth so clearly the great unchangeable principles of the Divine administration, that none who read that book with soberness and attention, and look around them on the world with ordinary observation, can fail to see that the sins of individuals or of nations there reproved are, with some modifications it may be, the same sins which are still prevalent, and that, if unrepented of and unforgiven, their consequences must in the end be the same. No nation, it is true, is precisely in the same circumstances with the kingdom of Judah, but still the great principles of the Divine government are unchangeable and eternal. It is one of these, that sin is the reproach of any people. If there be among us, possessing as we do a full revelation of the will of God, a disposition to deny or overlook His supremacy as Sovereign Disposer of all events, and to trust to the wisdom of human counsels for national deliverance or prosperity, without any devout recognition of absolute dependence upon Him, are we not chargeable with the very sin with which Judah of old was charged, and which was the source of all their multiplied offences? And if, along with this, there be a profession of faith–an external compliance with the ordinances of the Gospel, are we not in the condition of drawing near to God with our months, and honouring Him with our lips, while our heart is far removed from Him? (R. Gordon, D. D.)
A wrong religious attitude
This spiritual insensibility of the people is the outcome of its whole religious attitude, which is insincere, formal, and traditional. (J. Skinner, D. D.)
Plain speaking
Let us use these words (Isa 29:13) as Jesus Christ used them in Matthew (Mat 15:7). There are three points–
1. The importance of plain speaking on all questions affecting the interests of truth. Jesus Christ was preeminently a plain speaker.
2. The far-seeing spirit of prophecy. Jesus Christ said to the men of His day, Esaias prophesied of you. Observe the unity of the moral world; observe the unchangeableness of Gods laws; see how right is ever right and wrong is ever wrong; how the centuries make no difference in the quality of righteousness, and fail to work any improvement in the deformity of evil. If any man would see himself as he really is, let him look into the mirror of Holy Scripture. Gods book never gets out of date, because it deals with eternal principles and covers the necessities of all mankind let us then study the Word of God more closely. No man can truly know human nature who does not read two Bibles,–namely, the Bible of God as written in the Holy Scriptures, and the Bible of God as written in his own heart and conscience. Human nature was never so expounded as it is expounded in holy writ.
3. The high authority of the righteous censor. When Jesus Christ spoke in this case He did not speak altogether in His own name. He used the name of Esaias. All time is on the side of the righteous man; all history puts weapons into the hands of the man who would be valiant for truth. The righteous man does not draw his authority from yesterday. The credentials of the righteous man are not written with ink that is hardly dry yet. It draws from all the past. (J. Parlor, D. D.)
True prayer
The power of a petition is not in the roof of the mouth, but in the root of the heart. (J. Trapp.)
Lip service
Panchcowrie, a Hindu convert, thus spoke one day in the market: Some think they will avert Gods displeasure by frequently taking His name on their lips, and saying, O excellent God! O Ocean of Wisdom! O Sea of Love! and so on. To be sure, God is all this; but who ever heard of a debt being paid in words instead of rupees! (Sunday at Home.)
The best treasure
A rabbi, who lived nearly twenty years before Christ was born, set his pupils thinking by asking them, What is the best thing for a man to possess? One of them replied, A kind nature; another, A good companion; another, A good neighbour. But one of them, named Eleazer, said, A good heart. I like your answer best, Eleazer, said the master, for it includes all the rest. (Christian Age.)
Heartless prayers
I met in India an intelligent Sikh from the Punjab, and asked him about his religion. He replied, I believe in one God, and I repeat my prayers, called Japji every morning and evening. These prayers occupy six pages of print, but I can get through them in little more than ten minutes. He seemed to pride himself on this rapid recitation as a work of increased merit.
Fashionable church going
M. went to church because it was the right thing to do: God was one of the heads of society, and His drawing rooms had to be attended. (G. Macdonald, LL. D.)
Their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men
A fear of God taught by the precept of men
I. THERE IS A FEAR TOWARDS GOD WHICH IS TAUGHT BY THE PRECEPT OF MEN. It is unquestionable that, although it is nothing but the recklessness of infidelity which would speak of religion as an engine of state policy, still no state policy can be effective which looks not to religion as an auxiliary. If there could be taken off from a community those restraints which are imposed on it by the doctrine of the souls immortality, and of a future dispensation of rewards and punishments, there would be done more towards the introduction of a universal lawlessness and profligacy than if the statute books of the land were torn up and the courts of justice levelled with the ground. But if religion be thus susceptible of being employed with advantage as an auxiliary, there is a corresponding risk of its being resorted to as a human engine and not as a Divine. All inculcations of religion which are dictated by the consciousness that it is politic to stand by religion would turn into inculcations of infidelity the moment it should appear that it would be politic to stand by infidelity. It is a possible case that rulers might do on the political principle what Hezekiah did on the God-fearing principle–they might busy themselves with exacting from their subjects attention to the laws of the Almighty, and so might bring round great outward conformity to many commands of the Bible. The result in the two eases might be similar: the tokens of the absence of Gods fear might be swept from the land; and there might, on the contrary, be seen on the whole outspread of the population, appearances of the maintenance of that fear. What is to be said of that fear of God which seems to discover itself in its attention to ordinances, but which is only dictated by habit–or respect for appearances–or concern for religion as an engine of state! If we could mark each individual, as he enters the house, who is only brought hither by custom–by the feeling that it is decorous to come–by the sense that it is right that old institutions should be upheld, why, since in the whole assemblage of such motives there is no real recognition of the authority of Jehovah, we should be bound to say of all those who thus render to God a spurious and inferior homage, that their fear towards Him was taught by the precept of men. The motive or sentiment which is the prime energy in producing that fear towards God which is not according to His word is the opinion of merit, the attachment of worth to this or that action, which is ordinarily described as self-righteousness. The cases of the fear towards God, which is taught by the Precept of men, might be further multiplied. If you went the round of even the religious world you would find much of a restless endeavour to bring down godliness to something of the human standard.
II. THE FEAR TOWARDS GOD, TAUGHT BY MANS PRECEPT, IS MOST OFFENSIVE IN THE SIGHT OF THE ALMIGHTY. We conclude the fact of the offensiveness from Gods express determination of punishing the Jews with a signal punishment. Our simple business is therefore to search after the reason of this offensiveness.
1. The fear must be a defective fear. If you take your standard from aught else than the Bible, you will necessarily have a standard which is low and imperfect; and although you may act unflinchingly up to this standard, where it is the standard of other mens opinions or long practice or custom, you stand accountable for the adoption of the standard.
2. This fear involves a contempt of revelation; and on this account as well as on the former most peculiarly incurs the wrath of Jehovah. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Their fear toward Me R.V.
Their fear of Me, i.e., their piety, religion. Is taught by the precept of men. Better as R.V. is (or, has become) a commandment of men which hath been taught;–a human ordinance learned by rote (Mat 15:1-9). This pregnant criticism expresses with epigrammatic force the fundamental difference between the pagan and the biblical conceptions of religion. Religion, being personal fellowship with God, cannot be learned from men, but only by revelation Mat 16:17). (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. The Lord – “JEHOVAH”] For Adonai, sixty-three MSS. of Kennicott’s, and many of De Rossi’s, and four editions, read Yehovah, and five MSS. add .
Kimchi makes some just observations on this verse. The vision, meaning the Divine revelation of all the prophets, is a book or letter that is sealed – is not easily understood. This is delivered to one that is learned – instructed in the law. Read this; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed; a full proof that he does not wish to know the contents, else he would apply to the prophet to get it explained. See Kimchi on the place.
And their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men – “And vain is their fear of me teaching the commandments of men”] I read for vattehi, vethohu, with the Septuagint, Mt 15:9; Mr 8:7; and for melummedah, melummedim, with the Chaldee.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Draw near me, to wit, in acts of worship,
with their mouth and with their lips; with outward devotions, and the profession of religion.
But have removed their heart far from me; they do not pay me that love, and fear, and obedience which I require, and prefer before all sacrifices and external services.
Their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men; they worship me not in such way and manner as I have commanded and prescribed, but according to their own and other mens inventions, preferring the devices and traditions of their false prophets before my institutions. For this was a common error among the Jews, as we learn from Jer 7:31; Hos 5:11, and many other scriptures; and thus our blessed Saviour expounds this very place, Mat 15:7-9.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. precept of meninstead ofthe precepts of God, given by His prophets; also worship external,and by rule, not heartfelt as God requires (Joh4:24). Compare Christ’s quotation of this verse from theSeptuagint.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore the Lord said,…. Concerning the hypocritical people of the Jews in Christ’s time, as the words are applied by our Lord himself, Mt 15:7:
Forasmuch as this people draw near to [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me; Kimchi observes, there is a double reading of the word , rendered “draw near”: in one reading of it, it signifies to be “afflicted”; and then the sense is, “when this people are afflicted, with their mouth, and with their lips, they honour me”; that is, when they are in distress, they pray unto him, and profess a great regard for him, speak honourably of him, and reverently to him, hoping he will help and relieve them; see Isa 26:16 but the other reading of the word, in which it has the signification of “drawing near”, is confirmed, not only by the Masora on the text, but by the citation of it in Mt 15:7 and designs the approach of these people to God, in acts of religion and devotion, in praying to him, and praising of him, and expressing great love and affection for him, and zeal for his cause and interest; but were all outwardly, with their lips and mouths only:
but have removed their heart far from me; these were not employed in his service, which is the main thing he requires and regards, but were engaged elsewhere; while their bodies were presented before him, and their mouths and lips were moving to him, their affections were not set upon him, nor the desires of their souls unto him, nor had they any real hearty concern for his glory:
and their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men; their worship of God was not according to the prescription of God, and his revealed will; but according to the traditions of the elders, which they preferred to the word of God, and, by observing them, transgressed it, and made it of no effect; see Mt 15:3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This stupefaction was the self-inflicted punishment of the dead works with which the people mocked God and deceived themselves. “The Lord hath spoken: Because this people approaches me with its mouth, and honours me with its lips, and keeps its heart far from me, and its reverence of me has become a commandment learned from men: therefore, behold, I will proceed wondrously with this people, wondrously and marvellously strange; and the wisdom of its wise men is lost, and the understanding of its intelligent men becomes invisible.” Ever since the time of Asaph (Ps 50, cf., Psa 78:36-37), the lamentation and condemnation of hypocritical ceremonial worship, without living faith or any striving after holiness, had been a leading theme of prophecy. Even in Isaiah’s introductory address (chapter 1) this complain was uttered quite in the tone of that of Asaph. In the time of Hezekiah it was peculiarly called for, just as it was afterwards in that of Josiah (as the book of Jeremiah shows). The people had been obliged to consent to the abolition of the public worship of idols, but their worship of Jehovah was hypocrisy. Sometimes it was conscious hypocrisy, arising from the fear of man and favour of man; sometimes unconscious, inasmuch as without any inward conversion, but simply with work-righteousness, the people contented themselves with, and even prided themselves upon, an outward fulfilment of the law (Mic 6:6-8; Mic 3:11). Instead of (lxx, Vulg., Syr., Mat 15:8; Mar 7:6), we also meet with the reading , “because this people harasses itself as with tributary service;” but the antithesis to richaq (lxx ) favours the former reading niggash , accedit ; and b e phv (with its moth) must be connected with this, though in opposition to the accents. This self-alienation and self-blinding, Jehovah would punish with a wondrously paradoxical judgment, namely, the judgment of a hardening, which would so completely empty and confuse, that even the appearance of wisdom and unity, which the leaders of Israel still had, would completely disappear. (as in Isa 38:5) is not the third person fut. hiphil here (so that it could be rendered, according to Isa 28:16, “Behold, I am he who;” or more strictly still, “Behold me, who;” which, however, would give a prominence to the subject that would be out of place here), but the part. kal for . That the language really allowed of such a lengthening of the primary form qatil into qatl , and especially in the case of , is evident from Ecc 1:18 (see at Psa 16:5). In , (cf., Lam 1:9) alternates with the gerundive (see at Isa 22:17): the fifth example in this one address of the emphatic juxtaposition of words having a similar sound and the same derivation (vid., Isa 29:1, Isa 29:5, Isa 29:7, Isa 29:9).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
13. Therefore the Lord saith. The Prophet shews that the Lord, in acting with such severity towards his people, will proceed on the most righteous grounds; though it was a severe and dreadful chastisement that their minds should be stupefied by the hand of God. (270) Now, since men are so fool-hardy and obstinate, that they do not hesitate to contend with him, as if he were unjustly severe, the Prophet shews that God has acted the part of a righteous judge, and that the blame lies wholly on men, who have provoked him by their baseness and wickedness.
Because this people draweth near with their mouth. He shews that the people have deserved this punishment chiefly on account of their hypocrisy and superstitions. When he says that “they draw near with the mouth and the lips, ” he describes their hypocrisy. This is the interpretation which I give to נגש, ( nāgăsh,) and it appears to me to be the more probable reading, though some are of a different opinion. Some translate it, “to be compelled,” and others, “to magnify themselves;” but the word contrasted with it, to remove, (271) which he afterwards employs, shews plainly that the true reading is that which is most generally received.
And their fear toward me hath been taught by the precept of men. By these words he reproves their superstitious and idolatrous practices. These two things are almost always joined together; and not only so, but hypocrisy is never free from ungodliness or superstition; and, on the other hand, ungodliness or superstition is never free from hypocrisy. By the mouth and lips he means an outward profession, which belongs equally to the good and the bad; but they differ in this respect, that bad men have nothing but idle ostentation, and think that they have done all that is required, if they open their lips in honour of God; but good men, out of the deepest feeling of the heart, present themselves before God, and, while they yield their obedience, confess and acknowledge how far they are from a perfect discharge of their duty.
Thus he makes use of a figure of speech, very frequent in Scripture, by which one part or class denotes the whole. He has selected a class exceedingly appropriate and suitable to the present subject, for it is chiefly by the tongue and the mouth that the appearance of piety is assumed. Isaiah therefore includes, also, the other parts by which hypocrites counterfeit and deceive, for in every way they are inclined to lies and falsehood. We ought not to seek a better expositor than Christ himself, who, in speaking of the washing of the hands, which the Pharisees regarded as a manifestation of holiness, and which they blamed the disciples for neglecting, in order to convict them of hypocrisy, says,
“
Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you, This people honoureth me with the lips, but their heart is far from me.” (Mat 15:7.)
With the “lips” and “mouth,” therefore, the Prophet contrasts the “heart,” the sincerity of which God enjoins and demands from us. If this be wanting, all our works, whatever brilliancy they possess, are rejected by him; for “he is a Spirit,” and therefore chooses to be “worshipped” and adored by us “with the spirit” and the heart. (Joh 4:24.) If we do not begin with this, all that men profess by outward gestures and attitudes will be empty display. We may easily conclude from this what value ought to be set on that worship which Papists think that they render to God, when they worship God by useless ringing of bells, mumbling, wax candles, incense, splendid dresses, and a thousand trifles of the same sort; for we see that God not only rejects them, but even holds them in abhorrence.
On the second point, when God is worshipped by inventions of men, he condemns this “fear” as superstitious, though men endeavour to cloak it under a plausible pretence of religion, or devotion, or reverence. He assigns the reason, that it “hath been taught by men.” I consider מלמדה ( mĕlŭmmādāh) (272) to have a passive signification; for he means, that to make “the commandments of men,” and not the word of God, the rule of worshipping him, is a subversion of all order. (273) But it is the will of the Lord, that our “fear,” and the reverence with which we worship him, shall be regulated by the rule of his word; and he demands nothing so much as simple obedience, by which we shall conform ourselves and all our actions to the rule of the word, and not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
Hence it is sufficiently evident, that those who learn from “the inventions of men” how they should worship God, not only are manifestly foolish, but wear themselves out by destructive toil, because they do nothing else than provoke God’s anger; for he could not testify more plainly than by the tremendous severity of this chastisement, how great is the abhorrence with which he regards false worship. The flesh reckons it to be improper that God should not only reckon as worthless, but even punish severely, the efforts of those who, through ignorance and error, weary themselves in attempts to appease God; but we ought not to wonder if he thus maintains his authority. Christ himself explains this passage, saying, “In vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines, the commandments of men.” (Mat 15:9.) Some have chosen to add a conjunction, “teaching doctrines and commandments of men,” as if the meaning had not been sufficiently clear. But he evidently means something different, namely, that we act absurdly when we follow “the commandments of men” for our doctrine and rule of life.
(270) Bogus footnote
(271) Bogus footnote
(272) Bogus footnote
(273) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
LIP-SERVICE INSTEAD OF HEART-WORSHIP
Isa. 29:13-14. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near to Me with their mouth, &c.
The charge against the people is clear; it is that of a heartless religion, formal and full of hypocrisy. Their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. That is, their religion is a mechanical following of human directions, instead of the spontaneous uprising of a heart inspired with the fear and love of God.
I. The charge against the Jews in Isaiahs day. It is twofoldthe removal of the heart and the substitution of a lip-service.
1. The removal of the heart. God demands the service of the heart (Pro. 23:26; Jer. 29:13). The Psalmist felt how reasonable was this demand when he said, I will praise Thee, O Lord, with the whole heart (Psa. 9:1). A man may do some things with a slack hand and yet be blameless, but to steer an Atlantic steamer in a storm, he needs the whole force of both hands. Unless our whole soul be in Gods service, our worship will be thrown back upon us with the withering words, Who hath demanded this at your hands? This worthless thing! Bring no more vain oblations. How strikingly our Lord put this principle of supremacy (Luk. 14:26): In every mans heart I must be supreme, or therein I cannot dwell. Infidels most ignorantly misread this passage. One of their counts against Christianity is that it frowns on family joys; while every days facts prove that the truest Christian is the best husband, father, &c. God being first in a mans heart, that heart is humanised, its generosity enlarged, so as to take in, not only the family, but all mankind. But some, after having given their hearts to the Lord, withdraw them from His service (Mat. 13:22; 2Ti. 4:10).
II. This charge has been true in every generation. The hearts weakness and the worlds force are ever the same. This evil existed in our Lords day (Mat. 15:8-9). For long years before the Reformation whole nations of Christendom presented to God a mere formal worship. And to-day, of how many congregations may the words of Ezekiel be said! (Eze. 33:31).
III. The worthless substitution presented to God. And with their lips do honour Me. The instinct of worship is so strong within the soul that men everywhere worship something. It may be the hideous fetish of the African or the artistic statue of the refined Greek, but something the Greek and the barbarian must have. When that young mother, in the days of Solomon, arose in the morning and found a dead child by her side instead of her own living one, how severe must have been the shock! Had there been no child by her side, no dead substitute, she might have thought that her own child lived somewhere and might sometime be found. But that dead substitute at first nearly killed her by despair. It is bad to withdraw a living heart from the Lord, but to substitute a dead one is first to rob God and then wickedly insult Him (H. E. I., 50665070).
IV. The threat (Isa. 29:14). The threat is that of cherished expectations bitterly disappointed. In times of extremity, full of confidence in the wisdom of their leaders, they shall seek light and leading, and behold nothing but darkness and folly. How often have the leaders of a nation been stricken with folly, and, like a blinded steersman, have driven the ship to destruction! The wisdom of their wise men shall perish. Disappointment! It is only another expression about the foolish man disappointed in his false security, his house resting on the sand, and of those who make lies their refuge, and under falsehood hide themselves. The threat is that the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place. Though men may not admit that their worship is mere lip-service, and their neighbours not see their hypocrisy, yet to the eye of God
The painted hypocrites are known
Through the disguise they wear.
William Parkes, F.R.G.S.
Two conditions under which religion is in a declining state.
1. When the ordinances of divine worship are generally neglected.
2. When the attendance on worship, however large, does not represent a religious state of mind, but is simply an outward performance. The latter was the state into which religion had fallen in Judea. The religious observances of the people were not inspired by knowledge of Gods Word, but by human authority. The text
I. Describes a great privilege. This people draw near me. God speaks after the manner of men. When we desire to speak closely to a friend we get near him. This is coming close to God (Psa. 73:28; Heb. 10:22; Heb. 7:19; Jas. 4:8). Is it not a wonder that the Almighty permits us to draw nigh to Him? Men make it difficult for their inferiors to obtain access; but the Infinite and Eternal One makes Himself accessible to His creatures. Not only so; He has made a way for creatures stained by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ stands between God and man by virtue of His atoning death and interceding life. The guilty, condemned, utterly impure, have only to renounce their sinfulness and avail themselves of this new and living way. If there is truthfulness and sincerity, they will be welcome. In the sanctuary, in meeting for prayer, in the family, in the closet, in the round of daily duty, we may draw near to God. Do you know anything of the blessedness of this privilege? Enjoyment, comfort, purity, fitness for intercourse with men, for the battle of life, for the work of the world, do they not all come through this privilege?
II. Points out a serious abuse (Isa. 29:13). Their sin was not the abandonment of worship. That is a measure of ungodliness not reached without a long process. Unsettled faith, indifference to spiritual blessings, habits of sinful indulgence, conduct to it. What multitudes have reduced themselves to this predicament? But it was not their case. They had not relinquished the ordinances of worship; they observed them. But there was a twofold defect: the heart was absent and the motive was wrong.
1. Something was present that ought to have been absent. Their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men. Their piety was only out of respect for some human authority. Our Lord quoted this part of the text in His exposure of externalism as exemplified by the Pharisees of His time (Mat. 15:9). Human authority in religion is here distinctly denounced. One man may hand the Word of God to another, but no man must impose his notions of religion on another by his mere authority. A mans religious service must be the result of his personal conviction. If he is religious because some one else is, or because it is respectable, or because it may promote his worldly interest, or because it is recognised and imposed by the authority of the state, it is not really the honour and worship of God at all, but of man.
2. Something was absent that ought to have been present. But have removed their heart far from Me. God must be worshipped with the heart. Apart from the outward expression of inward reality, the movement of the lips and the utterance of the mouth are nothing. Real worship is the consent of the understanding, will, affections, to the homage which is paid by the lips. Without this they are mockery, as when one who stands in the kings presence is alienated from his allegiance.
III. Utters a solemn warning (Isa. 29:14). Their religion was only the counsel of man. It was unavailing for its purpose, and would come to nothing (1Co. 1:19). Such worship is:
1. Unacceptable. God is not deceived. Realise the terribleness of being rejected. He says, It is not the kind of worship I require. After all your wisdom (Isa. 1:11-15).
2. Unsuccessful. The prayers offered only by the lips are not heard. No answer comes, no blessing descends. This comes of the policy which followed the precepts of men.
3. Unstable. After such religion reaction may be expected. There is no inward life to sustain the outward exercises. Does not the test point to that deeper spiritual blindness which follows the attempt to put the wisdom of man in the place of the wisdom of God?
In religion and at its worship take care:
1. That there is sincerity. See that the heart is right with God. Ye must be born again.
2. That there is simplicity. Let there be no superfluous externalism in worship; only what is necessary to the suitable expression of the hearts worship.
3. That there is earnestness.
And if a merely formal worship is rejected, what is the predicament of those who do not even offer that, but who live without any acknowledgment of God?John Rawlinson.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(13) Wherefore the Lord said . . .We pass from the effect to the cause. The blind stupor was the outcome of a long hypocrisy. Lip-homage and an estranged heart had been the notes of the religious life of Israel, and they could bear no other fruit.
Their fear toward me . . .The words point to what we may call an anticipated Pharisaism. Side by side with the great commandments of the Law and with the incisive teaching of the prophets there was growing up even then a traditional system of ethics and religion, based upon wrong principles, ending in a dishonest casuistry and a formal devotion. Commentaries even then were darkening counsel by words without knowledge, as they did in the Mishna and the Gemara of the later days of Judaism (Mat. 15:3; Mar. 7:6).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13, 14. Thus spiritual teaching is rejected, though formal adherence may be observed. In this way moral blindness is self inflicted. It follows the law which God has established, that, abusing so delicate a thing as conscience, it must be blinded. They keep up the form of sacrifice and worship in Jerusalem, not from heart-assent to it, but because Hezekiah, the truly pious king at this time, has prohibited idol worship absolutely. They see no help against Assyrian invasion but from Egypt. So spiritual a thing as help from Jehovah alone they cannot appreciate.
A marvellous work and a wonder Our Lord quotes these words as applying to the scribes and Pharisees. Mat 15:7-9. Does Isaiah forecast the times of Christ? Yes, by stating a law of the Spirit and conscience applicable on the same point at all times. Perverting truth is followed by blindness always.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God’s Response To and Verdict on Their Unbelief ( Isa 29:13-14 ).
Isa 29:13-14
‘And the Lord said,
“Forasmuch as these people draw near to me with their mouth,
And honour me with their lips,
But have removed their heart far from me,
And their fear of me is but a commandment of men which has been taught them,
Therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people,
Even a marvellous work and a wonder.
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
and the understanding of their astute men will be hid.’
When men harden their hearts against God’s revelation, given in one way or another, it often results in continuing hardening. It is as though having hardened themselves they have made it almost impossible for them to do anything else, and so they go on more and more firmly closing their eyes. This is what God saw would be the result here.
‘And the Lord said.’ This, says Isaiah, is the sovereign Lord speaking, Who now gives His verdict on their attitude. They go on and on with their religious ritual, they all continue to say what seem to be the right things, repeating it by rote, but there is no true inward response in their hearts, as is shown by the way that they are acting. And it is of their own choice. They deliberately stop their hearts being taken over by God. So their supposed piety is simply something that they do because of the pressure of those in authority over them, and not because they have responsive hearts.
So He will act in a wondrous way which will be amazing to all, and He stresses the wonder of what He will do and men’s responsive amazement. He will do a work which will result in the wise men’s wisdom perishing, and the astute men’s astuteness being hidden. He has already described it in terms of the great stupor He has brought upon them. As a result of what He will do they will appear as fools. All their clever words will be seen to have come to nothing. And later generations will wonder at it.
However, if the previous words were prior to the great deliverance then these words may well have in mind that deliverance. Then he may be saying that Yahweh will do a great work, a mighty work, a marvel, but because of their obduracy they will fail to see it and to properly appreciate it. They will close their minds against it.
Either way in the end it is simply a way of saying that man’s opposition to Him and His ways, and their refusal to trust Him, is folly, a folly which the future, as controlled by Him, will reveal. History is full of such examples. Men make great statements and are greatly admired, and then they are seen to come to nothing. So will it be with these wise teachers and astute thinkers. They and all they have taught will perish, but God’s word and God’s purposes will go on.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Counsel of God
v. 13. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people, v. 14. therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, v. 15. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, v. 16. Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay, v. 17. Is it not yet a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? v. 18. And In that day shall the deaf, v. 19. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, v. 20. For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, v. 21. that make a man an offender for a word, v. 22. Therefore, thus saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham, v. 23. But when he seeth his children, the work of Mine hands, v. 24. They also that erred in spirit,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Isa 29:13-14. Wherefore the Lord said This second article is so connected with that preceding as to explain it. It contains the fault, Isa 29:13 and the punishment, Isa 29:14. Our prophet every where excellently sets forth both in his usual manner; for no colours can more fully express the state of the Jewish nation, according to what we learn of it from the gospel-history, than these words. Our Lord himself has quoted and applied them to the Pharisees of his times, and their deluded followers. See Mat 15:8. Mar 7:6. Vitringa renders the last clause of the 13th verse, And the reverence with which they honour me consists in precepts taught by men. There needs no comment upon the 14th verse, more than what we have remarked in the former note. See St. Paul’s application of it, 1Co 1:19.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2. THE SECRET COUNSEL OF MEN, AND THE SECRET COUNSEL OF GOD
Isa 29:13-24
13Wherefore the Lord said,
Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth,
And with their lips do honor me,
But have removed their heart far from me,
And their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men;
14Therefore, behold, 16I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people,
Even a marvellous work and a wonder;
For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
15Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord,
And their works are in the dark,
And they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
1617Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potters clay;
For shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not?
Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
17Is it not yet a very little while,
And Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book,
And the eyes of the blind shall see
Out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
19The meek also 18shall increase their joy in the Lord,
And the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20For the terrible one is brought to nought,
And the scorner is consumed,
And all that watch for 19iniquity are cut off:
21That make a man an offender 20for a word,
And lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate,
And turn aside the just 21for a thing of nought.
22Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham,
Concerning the house of Jacob,
Jacob shall not now be ashamed,
Neither shall his face now wax pale.
2322But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him,
They shall sanctify my name,
And sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
And shall fear the God of Israel.
24They also that erred in spirit 23shall come to understanding,
And they that murmured shall learn doctrine.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 29:13. That we are to read not (with the Targum and many MSS. and Editions, in the sense of to urge, trouble, torment ones self,) but , is shown by the antithetic . That contrary to the accentuation is to be connected with , is apparent from this, that the people are to be reproached, not with drawing near to God in general, but with the outward, deceitful approach to Him. The great liberty which in Hebrew is indulged in with reference to person and number, is seen from and in relation to , and . We have to take as a causative, and at the same time intensive Piel (to make removal with zeal = to strive to get away).
Isa 29:14. On as the third person comp. on Isa 28:16. [ is the third person of the future. There is an ellipsis to be supplied: Behold, I (am he who) will add, etc.D. M.]. after is not the sign of the accusative, but is the preposition. Instead of a second infinitive, a noun of the same stem is attached to the infinitive absolute (comp. Isa 22:17-18; Isa 24:19).
Isa 29:15. is the proper causative Hiphil=to make a deepening, a sinking. At the same time the construction with is a pregnant one; but [syncopated Hiphil comp. Isa 23:11D. M.] is not a statement of the design, but is the ablative or gerundine infinitivus modalis, which when united with a causative conjugation, can be expressed by us by a verb with any adverb, as here: who deep from Jehovah hide, etc. Comp. Jer 49:8; Jer 49:30, and as to the usus loquendi Isa 7:11; Isa 30:33; Isa 31:6. in Isa 29:16 corresponds to the Latin an, and marks the second member of a disjunctive question, the first of which is to be supplied.
Isa 29:20. , alacrem esse, vigilare, invigilare, is elsewhere always construed with (Jer 1:12; Jer 5:6; Jer 31:28; Jer 44:27; Pro 8:34; Job 21:32). This word is found in Isaiah only here. The construction in this place is to be judged according to such forms of expression as (Isa 59:20), (Num 32:27) and similar phrases. The form might, considered by itself, be the perfect (comp. Jer 50:24), as the form with the primitive must be according to the rule that a closed syllable can be without the tone only when it has a short vowel, and an open syllable precedes (comp. Ewald, 85, a; 88, c). But if we have regard to the syntax, the imperfect (future) is more correct, because the Prophet has in his mind not merely single definite facts, but the permanent habit of those people. The form is in this case to be derived from , which occurs only here.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet urges the people to fear Jehovah, and to trust in Him alone. Even in Hezekiahs times the people were not pleased to do so. On this account the preceding announcement (Isa 29:1-8), notwithstanding the glorious promise with which it ends, was to so many an offence (Isa 29:9-12). The Prophet, therefore, directs now his discourse against those who honor the Lord with merely external, ceremonial service, and not from the heart (Isa 29:13), and announces that the Lord will deal strangely with them, and that their wisdom will be brought to shame (Isa 29:14). He further reproves those who imagine that they can carry out in the most profound secresy the plans of their untheocratic policy (Isa 29:15), by reminding them that the clay can never be equal to the potter, or the work formed from clay be able to deny the potter, or accuse him of ignorance (Isa 29:16). A great change will soon happen: Assyria, which is like Lebanon, shall be brought low; Judah, which resembles only Carmel, shall be highly exalted. Then people will understand the words of the Prophet, which they had before despised, and will perceive that they are true and salutary. But behind that deliverance, which belongs to the history of the nation, the Prophet discerns also Messianic blessing. The comparison has therefore this meaning also for him, that the wilderness shall become uncultivated land, while uncultivated land shall become a wilderness (Isa 29:17). This means that a poor condition of external nature shall be remedied by the divine favor, and, conversely, a condition of high culture shall, by the withdrawal of the divine favor, pass into a state of wildness; the deaf shall hear, the blind see (Isa 29:18); the poor and oppressed shall become strong and joyful in the Lord (Isa 29:19). The violent and false shall be exterminated (Isa 29:20-21). For the Lord, who redeemed Abraham will bring Jacob to honor (Isa 29:22). For when Jacob shall see the Lords wonderful work for his salvation, he will sanctify the Lord (Isa 29:23), and understand what makes for his peace (Isa 29:24).
2. Wherefore the Lord saidbe hid.
Isa 29:13-14. By means of the Prophet connects what he has to say with the immediately foregoing. He indicates by this verbal form that what follows is occasioned by the stupid and perverse behaviour of the people (Isa 29:9-10). That perversity had its root in the people trusting more in themselves and their wisdom than in the Lord. They, therefore, thought that they could satisfy the Lord, whose worship Hezekiah lately imposed on them, by the performance of outward ceremonial service. For the rest, in what concerned their life and conduct, and especially in their policy, they went their own ways. The Lord had already said (Deu 6:4 sqq.), that He is not satisfied with mere ceremonial service, but desires hearty love from His people. But it was this chief and greatest commandment (Mat 22:38) which Israel never learned. Hence till the time of the exile the inclination to idolatry prevailed, and if they at times served the Lord, this was only as a pause in the song. And the reformations of Hezekiah and Josiah were no expression of the mind of the people, and were consequently not of long duration. Manasseh followed Hezekiah, and Jehoiakim and Zedekiah followed Josiah. But Isaiah here takes up earlier utterances (Psalms 50; Amo 5:21 sqq.; Mic 6:6 sq.). He afterwards returns to this subject (Isa 58:2 sqq., comp. Isa 1:11 sqq.). The expression is found only here. When we compare such expressions as . Hos 10:11, 1Ch 25:7, Son 3:8, we perceive that in as here used, there lies the idea of training, of external discipline and accustoming. [The complaint is that their religion, instead of being founded on the authority of Gods word, rested on human ordinances.D. M.]. The punishment for this hypocritical conduct of the people towards Jehovah is that the Lordcontinues to deal with them in a wonderful way. Wonderful had been all the ways which the Lord had from the beginning pursued towards the people. The Prophet seems to wish by the word to prepare the transition to Isa 29:15. From the wisdom, which must hide itself, because it is brought to disgrace, he passes over to the wisdom which desires to hide itself, while it cannot do so.
3. Woe unto themunderstanding.
Isa 29:15-16. We clearly perceive here how significant was the position of the great Prophets. They might be said to be the eye and the mouth of Jehovah. They watched over the course of the theocracy, and the leaders of it could not but respect them. If then the policy approved by the leaders was untheocratic, they must fear the word of the Prophets. For their word was the word of Jehovah. When, therefore, there was a consciousness of an untheocratic aim, care was taken to conceal the political measures from the Prophets. Thus Ahaz sought to hide from Isaiah his Assyrian policy (7). Here likewise Hezekiah tries to keep secret his Egyptian policy. For even Hezekiah does not seem to have risen to the height of the only truly theocratic policy, which must consist in having the Lord alone as their support. . Not merely is the plan secretly concocted, but the execution of it, too, takes place with all secresy. , in Isaiah besides only Isa 42:16. , so far as the form is concerned, might be singular. But as the copula precedes, can also be the plural, and this view corresponds better to the usus loquendi elsewhere (Isa 41:29; Isa 59:6; Isa 66:18). Isa 29:16 is an exclamation: O your perverting! That is, how ye pervert things! They act, as if their wisdom were greater than the wisdom of God, as if they could therefore review, determine, and according to their pleasure influence and direct the thoughts of the Lord, while they are but clay in the hand of the potter. The word (on account of the Dagesh lene, not from the Infin Kal, but from the substantive , which occurs only here, comp. Eze 16:34) is to be taken in an active signification, so that it marks not so much perversity, as the perversion of ideas which proceeds from perversity, as is in Isa 29:15 implicitly, and in Isa 29:16 explicitly evinced. If the potter were clay, and the clay were potter, then the clay could determine and direct the potter, could for this purpose lead him astray, deceive him, etc. Either, then, the Israelites are perverse, or the potter is not clay. If indeed the clay were potter, then the former could justly say: he, the potter made me not,or he understands and observes nothing. This is what Israel says in imagining that he is able to lead astray the Prophet, that is, the omniscient Lord Himself. While the politicians forge Hezekiahs plans, they think that they knead them, as potters do their vessels, according to their pleasure, and unobserved by the Lord, while they themselves are yet but clay.
4. Is it not yeta thing of nought
Isa 29:17-21. An end will be put to this evil condition. The Lord Himself will reform His people, and that thoroughly. Then the deaf will hear, and the blind see, and to the poor the Gospel will be preached. But those proud, imperious and infatuated politicians, who forcibly suppress all opposition against their line of action, will go to ruin. When the Prophet holds out the prospect of this reformation within a brief period, he does this in the exercise of that prophetic manner of contemplation which reckons the times not according to a human but a divine measure. For in fact the Prophet here beholds along with, and in what is proximate the time of the end. The prospect of blessedness which he presents belongs also to the days of the Messiah, as we clearly perceive from Isa 29:18-19. The expression is used thus in Isa 10:25 also. Comp. Isa 26:20; Isa 54:7. In a short time, therefore, Lebanon shall become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field a forest. The expression can be variously explained. It seems to me to denote primarily that the Lord can bring down that which is high, and raise that which is low. And in this sense the word was fulfilled in the overthrow of Sennacherib. Then Assyria, the lofty Lebanon, became the low Carmel; but Judah, which was a little mount, and low plain, became a lofty wooded mountain-range. Thereby it became at the same time evident how false the untheocratic policy was in its calculation, and how truly the Lords mouth spoke by the Prophet. Lebanon and the forest represent wild nature, or the natural wilderness; the fruitful field again represents a state of culture (Isa 10:18; Isa 37:24). All depends on the essential character, the nature of a thing. What in its nature and essence is good, although it looks rough and wild as the wooded mountain-range, shall yet gradually, even in outward appearance, become a fruitful cultivated land; but what is in its nature rough and wild, even when it appears to be cultivated, will certainly sooner or later manifest its true nature as a wilderness, in a corresponding external appearance. In short, the true nature of things must at last be manifest. [The only natural interpretation of the verse, is that which regards it as prophetic of a mutual change of condition, the first becoming last and the last first.Alexander. D. M.].
This form of speech was probably proverbial, and seems to me in the form in which it here lies to bear the meaning assigned to it. That it was used in yet another form, and then naturally in a signification modified as the case required, we can see from Isa 32:15. Instead of we find in Isa 32:15. The passage before us seems to be the only one in which is undoubtedly employed in this wider signification = to turn ones self from one direction to another (it properly signifies; to turn ones self back). The definite article before and is the generic (comp. Isa 29:11). is used nine times by Isa 10:18; Isa 16:10; Isa 29:17 (bis); Isa 22:15-16; Isa 33:9 and Isa 35:2 (proper name); Isa 37:24. The expression is not meant to affirm that the fruitful field is merely esteemed as a forest, without really being such. That it really is such, is what the Prophet means to affirm. In the following verses the proverbial and figurative expression, Isa 29:17, is illustrated. The deaf shall in that day (i. e., in the time indicated by ) hear words of the writing, and the blind will see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.When the bound senses of the deaf and dumb can freely unfold themselves, when the love of life, which is kept under in the poor and wretched, can display itself without impediment, then Lebanon, the wooded mountain range, has become a fruitful field, for then nature has advanced from neglected disorder to a well-ordered, cultivated condition. When it is said that the deaf will hear, , the word seems superfluous. But the Prophet alludes evidently to Isa 29:11, from which it is at the same time clear that he is not speaking of physical deafness, etc. It was there declared of the people present that the Lord had poured out upon them a spirit of sleep (in which, as all know, one does not hear), and bound up their eyes so that the prophecy was to them as the words of a sealed book. When then Lebanon has become a fruitful field, and nature shall have given place to grace, then too the ears of the people that were previously deaf will be opened, and they will understand the , i. e., the words of the prophecy proceeding from the Lord through His Prophets, and will emerge from gloom. ( only here in Isaiah) and darkness, (in which they hitherto were with their eyes bound up by the Lord), so as to behold the light (comp. 30. 5). They will, therefore, perceive also the errors of their policy, and see that the word of the Prophet which shocked them, pointed out the true way of safety. They who were deaf and blind were also unhappy, just for this cause. When they hear and see, then are they happy men, delivered from oppression and distress, and joyful in their God. outwardly and inwardly oppressed, in Isaiah besides Isa 11:4; Isa 61:1; [ means meek, and is to be distinguished from poor.D. M.]. comp. Isa 37:31; they obtain joy not only once, but continually, i. e., they increase joy. comp. in the New Testament; it is therefore not merely = through, but = in the Lord, namely as those who are rooted and grounded in the Lord. The expression is found only here, comp. Exo 23:11. comp. on Isa 1:4. ,the rejoicing too has the Lord first for its basis, afterwards for its object (Isa 41:16). Is not the purport of these two verses, 18 and 19, reproduced in the saying of Christ, The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them (Mat 11:5; Luk 7:22)? In this passage in the Gospel allusions are commonly found only to Isa 35:5; Isa 61:1. Without wishing to deny these references, we yet remark that Isa 29:18-19 contains the ideas conjoined, which the other places present apart. And when the Lord in dealing with John, who had fallen into doubt regarding His Messiahship, describes His works by pointing to this passage, are we not justified in saying that this passage is of Messianic import? We of course admit that Mat 11:5 is not an exact quotation of our passage. The joy of the pious has as its condition the removal of the wicked, whose unchecked display of themselves is identical with the deterioration of the fruitful field into a forest. Hence Isa 29:20-21, which explain Isa 29:17 b, are connected by with what immediately precedes. besides only Isa 16:4. only here in Isaiah, but comp. Isa 28:14; Isa 28:22. Hiphil to make, to declare a sinner, (Deu 24:4; Ecc 5:5), only here in Isaiah. They make people sinners by words,i. e., they bring about their condemnation not by actual proofs, but merely by lying words. [The rendering of the E.V. is much more easy and natural: that make a man an offender for a word, and is justly preferred by Ewald, Alexander and Delitzsch.D. M.]. the reprover, reprehensor, he who maintains the truth. Comp. Job 32:12; Job 40:2; Pro 9:7; Pro 24:25, et saepe;Eze 3:26. Isaiah seems to have had specially before him Amo 5:10. with the accusative of the thing (Deu 27:19; Pro 17:23; Amo 2:7), or the person (Pro 18:5; Amo 5:12), to designate a violent deed perpetrated by wresting judgment, is of frequent occurrence. But where it is joined with , it denotes the sphere in which, or the means by which the wresting of judgment is accomplished, not the terminus in quem. As moreover denotes everywhere in Isaiah what is null, vain, empty, and is synonymous with (wind) , (comp. Isa 24:10; Isa 34:11; Isa 40:17; Isa 40:23; Isa 41:29; Isa 44:9; Isa 45:18-19; Isa 49:4; Isa 59:4), we have to regard as designating the empty lying accusations which were brought against the Prophet.
5. Therefore thus saithdoctrine.
Isa 29:22-24. These verses contain the comprehensive close. According to verses 13 and 14, Israel had omitted to serve the Lord in the proper manner, and according to verse 15, they had omitted to trust in the Lord alone. That on this double sin a double crisis must follow, which will make the good elements of the people ripe for salvation, the bad elements ripe for judgment, had been declared Isa 29:16-21. Now the close follows: As the ancestor of Israel had been delivered from the danger of idolatry like a brand plucked from the fire, so shall Israel also be delivered, when it shall have seen that judgment on the wicked. It will sanctify the name of the Lord, it will learn the true wisdom, and that will be its safety. Isa 29:22 = in reference to the house of Jacob (comp. Gen 20:2; Psa 2:7 et saepe), for in what follows it is spoken of in the third person. The clause refers to . That God, who had formerly saved Abraham, the progenitor of Israel, from the snares of idolatry (Jos 24:2; Jos 24:14-15), will also redeem Israel from the internal and external dangers which now threaten him. Israel will in the end not be put to shame (Isa 19:9; Isa 20:5; Isa 37:27; Isa 45:16-17; Isa 54:4 et saepe). candidum esse, pallescere is. . Delitzschhere observes that people whose faces are of a bronze color know in their language only of a growing pale for shame, and not of a blushing for shame. Both the correction (Isa 29:20-21), and the deliverance (Isa 29:18-19), will bear fruit. The Prophet intends both when he speaks of the work of Jehovah among the people. When Israel (i.e., not the patriarch but his descendants, is added by way of explanation to to obviate any misunderstanding) shall see this, he will sanctify the Lord,i. e., regard Him as holy (comp. on Isa 8:13, and the first petition of the Lords prayer). [But the E.V., which puts the work of my hands in apposition to his children, is better, comp. Isa 49:18-21.D. M.]. The Prophet states in Isa 29:23 b, that the effect of the sanctification of the name of God will be that the people will esteem as holy the Holy One of Jacob, and will fear the God of Israel. Beside the variation of Jacob and Israel, which is so frequent in the second part of Isaiah, mark how the Prophet distinguishes between sanctifying the name of God, and sanctifying the Holy One of Jacob. This sanctification must be substantially one and the same. But when the Holy One of Jacob and the God of Israel is named as object of the second sanctification (Isa 29:23 b), a sanctifying seems to be thereby intended, which gives in a way which all men can perceive, the glory to this God above the gods of the heathen. The fruit of the inward disposition of heart which is externally perceptible and operative, seems to be thereby intended. As refers to Isa 8:13, so refers to Isa 8:12. Thus Israel will become truly wise. That wisdom which they thought they must conceal from God, was both foolishness and destruction. But when they shall have learnt to sanctify the Lord, then they who hitherto erred in spirit (comp. Psa 95:10), will attain the true wisdom, and they who heretofore murmured against Gods counsel and direction ( Kal only here), will be satisfied with the discipline of God, and let it have its effect upon them ( what one takes, Pro 1:5; Pro 4:2 et saepe, only here in Isaiah).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa 29:1-8. The Prophet designates Jerusalem as Ariel in a four-fold sense. Taking Ariel as denoting the city of God, the name suits Jerusalem as the holy, separated dwelling-place in which the church of God, and all saving ordinances have their seat and centre. Taking Ariel as the lion of God, the names applies to Jerusalem as the ecclesia militans, as the host of God fighting against the worldly power and conquering it. Taking Ariel as denoting the Altar of God, it sets forth Jerusalem as the place in which reconciliation with God, and the bestowal of all the gifts of His grace take place. And, lastly, Jerusalem appears as Ariel in the signification of Mount of God, because it is the height of God which overtops all other heights, in which He manifests His glory to all the world, and to which all nations flow in order to worship Him (Isa 2:2 sqq.). But when Jerusalem forgets these her high honors, and neglects the obligations thereby laid upon her, she is corrected and humbled as any other city. [There may be an allusion made by the Prophet to the two-fold meaning of Ariel as lion of God, and hearth of God, but sober exegesis will be slow to admit the other meanings attached to the name of Ariel, and supposed to be here significantly alluded to by Isaiah.D. M.].
2. Isa 29:3. [It was the enemys army that encamped against Jerusalem; but God says that He will do it, for they are His hand, He does it by them. God had often, and long, by a host of angels, encamped for them round about them, for their protection and deliverance; but now He was turned to be their enemy, and fought against them: The siege laid against them was of His laying, and the forts raised against them were of His raising. Note, when men fight against us, we must, in them, see God contending with us. Henry.D. M.].
3. On Isa 29:7 sq. A very consolatory comparison. The Romans and all enemies of the church are as blood-thirsty dogs. But when they have drunk up a part of the blood of the saints, and imagine, that they have swallowed up the church, it is only a dream. Since we see, that Christ and His Christians are, thank God, not yet destroyed.Cramer.
4. On Isa 29:9-12. Awful description of the sorest punishment from God, which is spiritual, confirmed blindness; which is at this day so manifest in the Jews. For although they are confuted by so many clear and plain Scriptures of the Prophets, although they must themselves confess that the time is past, the place no more in existence, the lineage of David extinct, so that they can have no certain hope of a Messiah, they yet remain so hardened and obstinate in their opinion, as if they were drunken, mad and drowned in the snares of the devil by which they are bound, and could not come to sober and rational thoughts. This we ought to take as a mirror of the wrath of God, that we, while the book is yet open to us, may freely and diligently look into it, that it may not be closed and sealed before our eyes also.Cramer.
5. On Isa 29:9-12. To all those who bring to the reading of the Holy Scripture not the Spirit, from whom it proceeded, but the opposite spirit, the spirit of the world, the Scripture must be a sealed book, into which they can stare with plastered eyes, which see and yet do not see, which watch and yet at the same time sleep (Isa 6:9-10; Luk 8:10; Act 28:26-27).
6. On Isa 29:13. Ah! how pious people would be, if only piety consisted in lip-service, and external behavior! Dvotion aise, convenient religion, that is the business of all those who would willingly give to God what is Gods, and to the devil, what is the devils; that is, who would like to have a religion because it is required by a voice within the breast, and the power of custom and example, without thereby paining the flesh. Comp. Isa 1:11 sqq.; Isa 58:2 sqq.; Amo 5:23; Mat 15:7 sqq.
7. On Isa 29:14. [They did one strange thing, they removed all sincerity from their hearts; now God will go on and do another, He will remove all sagacity from their heads: the wisdom of their wise men shall perish. They played the hypocrite, and thought to put a cheat upon God, and now they are left to themselves to play the fool; and not only to put a cheat upon themselves, but to be easily cheated by all about them . This was fulfilled in the wretched infatuation which the Jewish nation were manifestly under, after they had rejected the gospel of Christ Judgments on the mind, though least taken notice of, are to be most wondered at.Henry, D. M.].
8. [Formalism in worship is here assigned as the cause of the judicial blindness which has happened to Israel. Mark the logical connection between Isa 29:13-14. The same judgment inflicted for the same reason, has befallen a large part of the nominal Christian Church. They who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We are amazed at the ignorance in matters of religion displayed by men of great mental capacity and learning, who have appeared among the Jews, and professors of a corrupt Christianity. That which excites our astonishment is here accounted for.D. M.].
9. On Isa 29:18 sqq. Here everything is reversed. Before, he had said, the wise shall be blind. Here he says, the blind shall see. The scope of all that is said is that they who were in office and were called priests and Levites, together with the bulk of the people, should be blinded for their unbelief. On the other hand, the poor, wretched people, that had neither office nor reputation, together with the heathen, shall be called, and shall be the people of God, who truly know God, invoke His name, and have joy, comfort and help in Him. Veit. Dietrich.
10. On Isa 29:23. [The emphatic mention of the Holy One of Jacob and the God of Israel, as the object to be sanctified, implies a relation still existing between all believers and their spiritual ancestry, as well as a relation of identity between the Jewish and the Christian church. Alexander.D. M.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
On Isa 29:1-8. How the Lord regards and deals with His church. 1) She is precious in His eyes, a. as the city of God; b. as the lion of God; c. as the altar of God; d. as the mount of God. 2) He brings her very low (Isa 29:2-6). 3) He delivers her wonderfully (Isa 29:7-8).
2. On Isa 29:9-12. As the light of the sun does not illuminate, but dazzles and closes an eye which is not adapted for receiving it (e. g., that of the mole), so also the word of God is for those who are not born of God and cannot receive the Spirit of God, by no means a light which enlightens their inner sense, but rather an element which dazzles their mental eye, and confuses their senses, so that they stand before the word as one who can read stands before a sealed book, or as one who cannot read before a writing which is handed to him.
3. On Isa 29:13-14. Warning against hypocrisy. 1) Its nature (it consists in honoring God with self-invented, external, ceremonial service, while yet the heart is far from Him); 2) its punishment (the wisdom which is self-asserting and forgets God will come to shame).
4. On Isa 29:15-24. Every man has his task in this life. Some, however, are minded to transact their affairs without God. For either they do not believe that there is a God, or if they believe it, they wish to be independent of Him. They wish to execute everything according to their own mind and their own lusts. But when they imagine that they can carry out their plans as it were behind Gods back, unobserved by Him, this cannot be (Isa 29:15-16). This is great folly, too. For such a work cannot succeed. Therefore the Prophet utters a woe on such an attempt, Isa 29:15. They, on the other hand, who do everything with God, partake of the most manifold blessing; the deaf hear, the blind see, the wretched rejoice, the poor are enriched, the oppressed and despised are delivered.
Footnotes:
[16]Heb. I will add.
[17]O your perverting! Or is the clay esteemed like the potter, that the work should say to its maker, etc.
[18]Heb; shall add.
[19]mischief.
[20]by word.
[21]by deceit.
[22]For when he, when his children, see the work of my hands, etc.
[23]Heb. shall know understanding.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Plain Speaking
Isa 29:13
Let us use these words as Jesus Christ used them in Matthew ( Mat 15:7 ), “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you.” There are three points, the first of which is the importance of plain speaking on all questions affecting the interests of truth. Jesus Christ was pre-eminently a plain speaker. He did not round his sentences for the purpose of smoothing his way. When he had occasion to administer rebuke or to point out the errors of those who were round about him, he spoke keenly, incisively, with powerful effect upon the mind and conscience of those who heard him. In his speech we find many hard words, many sayings which would not be accounted courteous. He called men “blind leaders,” “fools,” “vipers,” “whited sepulchres,” and other names equally descriptive of moral deformity. He never appears to have used these names with hesitation or misgiving, but pronounced them as if they were the right names and were rightly distributed to the parties who heard him speak. He calls certain persons “hypocrites.” He does not say behind their backs that they were hypocrites, but he looked straight at them and right through them, and said, “Ye hypocrites.” If we had more such plain speaking it would be a great advantage. It must, however, be understood that as between man and man, where there is plain speaking on the one side there must be liberty of equal plainness on the other. Plain speaking must not be played at as a game of mere skill or chance; it must proceed upon distinct moral convictions, and come out of a sincere piety, a deep reverence for all that is holy, beautiful, good. Plain speaking, thus arising and thus applied, would become one of the most influential agents in the purification of our social intercourse. Many men speak plainly, but they speak their plain words so that the right individual may have no opportunity of hearing them. There are some men who are very courageous when the enemy is far away. There are many persons who imagine that they have actually spoken plainly to the individuals who have been hypocritical and false when they have told their friends, in a semi-confidential tone, that they very nearly said so-and-so. It is in this way we play with our consciousness. We think that if we have very nearly said it, and told somebody else how nearly we did say it, that we have actually gone nine-tenths of the way of saying it and of defending righteousness and truth. We know very well when men speak to us hypocritically. Alas, what skill we have attained in withholding the word of condemnation under such circumstances! Were we courageous, were we equal to the occasion, we should soon put an end to a good deal of the common hypocrisy of the world.
There is probably no man who would not applaud sincerity; yet when we come to apply sincerity, we all quail before it and protest against it. It is so in the exposition of divine truth. The preacher may say in general terms to all the world, “You are sinners before God,” and he would be declared to be laying down sound doctrine. But if he were to lay his hand upon any one man and say, “You are a bad man,” he would be charged with rudeness. We can sit and hear the world condemned; but when all this generality is narrowed down to a personal application without which application the doctrine is simply sounding brass we begin to complain that we have been rudely treated. We grow more and more away from the candour which underlies and beautifies all truly sincere speech. We begin in childhood with wonderful candour, beautiful simplicity of intercourse, and we grow away from that into conventionality and artificialism; and he is the clever man who can best conceal himself. Jesus Christ spoke plainly. He spoke all that was in his heart concerning wickedness to the people themselves, and thus he was often misunderstood and ill-treated. The disciples came to him and said, “Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?” People have come to us with the selfsame reproach, and we have been cowardly enough to regret our plainness of speech. If we have spoken directly to a man, and have heard afterwards that he was “offended,” we have blamed ourselves. We have a right so to blame ourselves if the speech came out of an evil spirit, but in so far as it was spoken with the dignity of truth and the consciousness of innocence it ought not to have occasioned even a momentary pang of self-reproach.
Two things are required in the plain speaker. Personal rightness. “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” We have nothing to do with the hypocrisies which may exist between other people, except in so far as we know them personally; but when hypocrisy is practised upon ourselves, then the scathing word of truth may be spoken. More, however, than personal rightness is needed: there must also be moral fearlessness. Our courage is not always equal to our convictions. We know the right, and yet dare not pursue it The right word suggests itself to our lips, and our lips dare not pronounce it. What manner of persons ought we to be who profess Christ? We are not discussing common laws of social courtesy and common intercourse. We are now asking ourselves in Christ’s presence, and in the presence of his great Cross, what ought to be our sincerity, transparency, reality, as the bearers of his gracious name? If we dabble in immoral excuses, if we shuffle and wriggle, what can we expect of men who profess nothing higher than common courtesy and common conventional relationship as between man and man? Yet this is a most difficult point to carry into practice, because we may show a hypocritical love of the right; our very plainness of speech may come out of a subtle hypocrisy; and we may think to get ourselves reputation for honesty by speaking coarsely to other people. It is no easy matter this, and nothing can help us to do it with dignity and tenderness and self-distrust, with modesty and trembling, and yet with emphasis, but the indwelling, all-sanctifying Holy Ghost!
Notice the far-seeing spirit of prophecy. Jesus Christ said to the men of his day, “Esaias prophesied of you.” Esaias prophesied hundreds of years before they lived. Jesus Christ says to the men of his day, “Esaias had you in his eye.” Observe the unity of the moral world; observe the unchangeableness of God’s laws; see how right is ever right and wrong is ever wrong; how the centuries make no difference in the quality of righteousness, and fail to work any improvement in the deformity of evil. If any man would see himself as he really is, let him look into the mirror of Holy Scripture. God’s book never gets out of date, because it deals with eternal principles and covers the necessities of all mankind. Let us then study the word of God more closely. No man can truly know human nature, who does not read two Bibles, namely, the Bible of God as written in the Holy Scriptures, and the Bible of God as written in his own heart and conscience. Human nature was never so expounded as it is expounded in holy writ. No man ever comes to this book without feeling that his particular case in all the minuteness of its detail, in all the subtlety of its mystery has been dealt with by the holy writers. We praise other books because of the knowledge of human nature which they display, and we are right in making them one standard of our admiration and applause. We delight in a writer’s power of analysing human nature, human feeling, human conduct. We say, “He knows human nature thoroughly.” Therefore such writers get hold of us and carry us away captive, and rightly so. If that be a true standard of judgment at all, I bind men who have not lost all candour and all simplicity to look at the Bible in the light of their own standard. The Bible exposes the very innermost recesses of human nature; sets a light where no other hand ever placed a candle; lights up the pathways of our most secret life and thought; and we begin to feel that the first book we must shut up when we are going to do evil is God’s Book. This is the great hold, the sovereign mastery, which the Book of God has over the ages, that it knows us, that it gives articulation to our dumb reproaches, that it puts into the best words the things which we reap against ourselves and cannot fully explain. Esaias knew us; Jeremiah has analysed and dissected and anatomised us. If any man would know the human heart, he must read the human heart in God’s Book.
Notice the high authority of the righteous censor. When Jesus Christ spoke in this case he did not speak altogether in his own name. He used the name of Esaias. All time is on the side of the righteous man; all history puts weapons into the hands of the man who would be valiant for truth. The righteous man does not draw his authority from yesterday. The credentials of the righteous man are not written with ink that is hardly dry yet. It draws from all the Past. A good man does not stand alone in his good works. The man who comes to teach truth brings a great multitude with him. The glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs! We are little in ourselves, in our individuality; looked at in our simple personality, we are not worthy a moment’s consideration. But the man who lifts up his voice for truth and right speaks with the sound of mighty thunderings and the impressiveness of many waters. Young preachers of the gospel, believe this. It is not your little bit of paper that you are depending upon as your authority when you enter the pulpit. Teachers of the young, parents, in your family education, business men, in your commercial relations, honourable souls of all kinds, believe this: When you speak a right word, the prophets speak through you, the apostles prolong the strain, and the grand old martyrs seal it with their blood! Thus the tiniest instrument in God’s hand becomes a match for walled cities and fortressed hosts and men who set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. You are poor in number now, meagre in agency; but they that are for you are more than they that are against you. You seem to be alone, but you are not alone. Esaias is looking over your shoulder; Jeremiah is saying, “Be emphatic;” martyrs are crying, “Play the man for truth;” all history says, “Do not fail: this is a crisis; the right word now is a battle won.” Speak it! “Be thou like the heroic Paul; if thou hast a truth to utter, speak it boldly, speak it all!”
The men whom Jesus Christ condemned were outwardly very good looking men. For example, they were very technical. They said, “The disciples do not wash their hands; this is a very sad business, and must be inquired into. They were very particular in saying how often it was to be done, which hand was to be uppermost, and how the evolution was to proceed. They were also a very critical set of men; they criticised the disciples. They were not shame-faced about their technicality; they went right up to the Master and said, “How is this?” There was courage in the men. They had a complaint, and they spoke it out clearly. Then they had great reverence; strong veneration for traditional practices, traditional customs. They did not like the Past to be altogether ignored and dishonoured; they spoke in the name of the elders. So the men were not altogether bad. They were technical, they were critical, they were traditional. Jesus turned upon them this bolt of thunder, “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” They never took our Lord unawares. He never had to ask for time to find a suitable weapon. He was clothed with the whole armour of God. Touch him anywhere, and his answer was instantaneous and complete. So with us. We may be technical. We may like to see the order of divine service pursued in a certain way, first singing, then reading, then praying, then singing, then preaching. We are strong upon these points. But what if we can go home and do a sneaking action? We may be critical. We may say the preacher’s grammar was not very exact; the singing was not scientific, there was a good deal of flatness and somewhat of discrepancy in the way in which the psalmody was conducted. Up to that point we are noble men. But what if we oppress the hireling and lay a heavy hand on the weak? We are fond of traditions. We like to talk about that “dear old minister” that died about fifty years ago; and that “nice old Christian friend” that used to do so many beautiful things. We have a great reverence for these men and their way of doing things. But what if tomorrow morning we speak a savage word to a lonely creature, and drive into despair some soul that would be thankful for one ray of light? Away with our technicality and criticism and tradition, if we are not sound at the core, right and true to great principles! Let us beware lest we strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
Then what is to be our help in all this matter of reality? Jesus Christ must be the help of our souls. He who spoke plainly must teach us to speak plainly; he who set the example must give us strength. And he will do it We are not to speak as if we ourselves were infallible, and other people were guilty sinners. We are not to take upon us any air that savours of self-righteousness and self-satisfaction. When we speak plainly we are to speak tenderly. “Consider thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” We are not to treat all men alike; we are to discriminate; we are to make a difference. On some we are to have compassion; to some men we are to speak as the lightning would speak, if it could open its lips, in the name of God; to others we are to speak as the dew would speak, could it tell all that is in its pure heart. We are to argue with some men with sternness of tone, and we are to speak to others with heartbreaking pathos. Tears are to be the secret of our power; forbearance is to be our secret of influence; and moderation is to do what exaggeration could never accomplish. We thus need a wise and understanding heart to know what to say, and especially to know how to say it, because we may ruin our cause by a tone! What, then, are we to do? We are to study Jesus Christ “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart.” We are to copy his example, not only in its dignity and power and lustre, but in its condescension, humility, gentleness, tearfulness, and infinite kindness. There is a way of administering reproach which misses its very object; there is a way of speaking the right word which turns it, for all practical purposes, into the wrong word. So, then, it must be to Christ we come, and in Christ’s school we study. Lord, help us to speak from the height of thy Cross! Knowing the mystery of love in thy love, may our lips say the right word in the right way, and thus save souls from death and turn many to righteousness!
Prayer
Almighty God, we thank thee that we have not come unto the mount that might not be touched and that burned with fire, and unto lightnings and thunders and tempests: we have come unto Mount Zion, the hill of Zion, the sacred place; drawn to it by the persuasion of thy love, hastening to it because of our need of rest. We thank thee that we live under the dispensation of thy Spirit. Now we hear the still small voice that our hearts can listen to in the darkness; and hear every tone of thy word. We have come unto the general assembly and church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. We rejoice that we are here. We bless thee that thou dost speak to us without the trumpet of the thunder. Thou hast a word for them that are weary and are ill at ease, and thou dost speak it silently, tenderly, graciously, so much so that thy very utterance is itself a promise and a benediction. Speak to us every one. Show us all thy will. Reveal thy commandments unto us, and show that, by thy grace, by the help of thy Holy Spirit, the yoke of Christ is easy and his burden is light. Thus shall thy commandments become our song in the house of our pilgrimage; in law we shall find rest; in the bidding of thy commandments we shall find the beginning of mercy; the deeper meaning of things will be revealed to us, yea, by the pureness of heart wrought in us by God the Holy Ghost, we shall see God. For this vision we long; it will give brightness of view to all other things, and rightness of value; it will show us that our light affliction is but for a moment, that our pilgrimage is but one short day’s walk. O show us thyself! not in the intolerable splendour of thy glory, but in the tenderness of thy providence, the goodness of thy dealing with us day by day; and with these visions before our soul we shall know no more the pain of anxiety, the torment of distress, but shall rest in the Lord, waiting patiently for him, and in walking in the way of thy commandments, be they great or small, we shall find peace unto our souls. We have no hope in our own prayer; we mingle it with the intercession of the One Priest, we commit it to the mystery of the mediation of Jesus Christ himself; and as the Cross is our altar, and our Saviour is our Advocate, we are assured of thy reply, thy great Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Isa 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
Ver. 13. Because this people draweth near to me, &c. ] For their putid hypocrisy and outsidedness in God’s service, they were given up by him to be further hardened by the devil, and to have their necks possessed by an iron sinew, Hypocritis nihil stupidius. See Trapp on “ Mat 15:8 “
Their fear towards me.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 29:13-14
13Then the Lord said,
Because this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,
14Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.
Isa 29:13 draw near with their words This term (BDB 620, KB 670, Niphal PERFECT) speaks of public acts of worship in the temple. It was originally used of priests (i.e., Exo 19:22).
their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote This is a significant theological truth which shows that ritual and liturgy, without personal relationship, accompanied by lifestyle, love, and morality, are an abomination to God (cf. Isa 1:10-15; Isa 58:1-5; Jeremiah 7; Amo 5:21-24; Mic 6:6-8; Mat 15:1-20; Mar 7:1-23; Col 2:16-23; 2Ti 3:5). The ritual was not wrong, it was the person’s attitude that attempted to manipulate God.
The above line of poetry is parallel to the next, honor Me with their lip service (cf. Jer 12:2). They say one thing, but live another (cf. Mat 15:8-9; Mar 7:6-7, where words and lip are described as neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men, illustrated in Mar 7:3; Mar 7:5; Mar 7:9; Mar 7:13).
Isa 29:14 I will once again deal marvelously. . .wondrously marvelous In English these phrases sound good, but they are the Hiphil INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT; the Hiphil INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE; and the NOUN all of the same root (BDB 810), which denotes
1. extraordinary plagues in Exo 3:20; Deu 28:59
2. extraordinary counsel in Isa 9:6; Isa 28:29
3. wonderful acts in Exo 34:10; 1Ch 16:9; 1Ch 16:12; 1Ch 16:24; Isa 25:1
Context must determine if it is positive or negative. Here it is negative of YHWH’s judgment on His own people. This judgment will be that their wise counselors and religious leaders will fail to do their job (cf. Isa 29:9-12).
Paul quotes this verse in 1Co 1:19 in his discussion of the foolishness of human wisdom, especially as it deals with understanding why the Messiah had to suffer and die (i.e., the gospel).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the LORD*. One of the 134 places where the Sopherim say they changed Jehovah of the primitive text to Adonai. See App-32.
said. Quoted in Mat 15:7-9. Mar 7:6.
but = though.
taught by the precept of men = a commandment of men in which they have been schooled: i.e. taught by rote.
men = mortals. Hebrew, plural of enosh. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 29:13-16
Isa 29:13-16
“Forasmuch as this people draw nigh unto me, and with their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which hath been taught them; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that hide deep their counsel from Jehovah, whose works are in the dark, and that say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? Ye turn things upside down! Shall the potter be esteemed as clay; and the thing made say of him that made it, He made me not: or the thing formed say of him that formed it, He hath no understanding?”
This paragraph registers still further complaints against Israel. Their religion is not sincere. Sure, they still sing the old songs and repeat the terminology of worshipping God; but their hearts are simply not in it at all. One cannot avoid the fear that today there must be some worship of God that falls into the pattern of what is condemned here. “Their religion had become a mere formality. Jesus Christ reiterated the thought here in Mat 15:8-9; Mar 7:6-7.
“Your fear of me is a commandment of men …” (Isa 29:13). This describes a situation in which religious teachers had usurped the place of God. Even morality is determined and founded upon human opinions, rather than upon the Word of God. This always results in a condition where men dispute and contradict one another, where your word is as good as my word, and there’s no word at all from God! We fear that a great deal of this very philosophy dominates the religious thinking of our very day.
Isa 29:15 is an allusion to, “Those secret intrigues with Egypt, which were conducted behind Isaiah’s back. Cheyne wrote that, “The ruling classes recognized Isaiah’s right to advise and direct God’s people; but they threw a veil of secrecy over their untheocratic pursuit of worldly alliances. Isaiah’s words here expose their hypocritical behavior. Another example of the same hypocrisy is that of Ahaz in Isaiah 7.
The turning of things “upside down” (Isa 29:16) is reinforced by the illustration of “the potter and the clay,” an analogy used again in Isa 45:9 and Isa 64:8, and by Paul in Rom 9:20. In the 1940’s this writer purchased a little booklet published by those in charge of the great telescope installation on Mount Palomar in California. The book described the great 100-inch reflecting telescope. A brief foreword noted that, “With this mighty instrument we seek to gain conscious control of man’s evolution”! That represents exactly the same kind of boastful infidelity that Isaiah rebuked here.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Forasmuch: Isa 10:6, Isa 48:1, Isa 48:2, Isa 58:2, Isa 58:3, Psa 17:1, Jer 3:10, Jer 5:2, Jer 12:2, Jer 42:2-4, Jer 42:20, Eze 33:31-33, Mat 15:7-9
their fear: 2Ch 29:1 – 2Ch 31:21, Pro 30:6, Mat 15:2-6, Mar 7:2-13, Col 2:22
Reciprocal: 1Sa 2:30 – them 1Sa 15:30 – that I may worship 2Sa 11:6 – Send me 1Ki 11:9 – his heart 1Ki 11:11 – thou hast not 1Ki 12:33 – in the month 2Ki 17:28 – taught them 2Ch 24:2 – all the days of Jehoiada 2Ch 25:2 – but not Psa 73:27 – lo Psa 78:36 – Nevertheless Isa 6:5 – I dwell Isa 6:9 – Go Isa 33:14 – sinners Jer 2:5 – are gone Jer 34:10 – then Jer 42:1 – came Eze 14:1 – and sat Eze 20:1 – that certain Eze 33:30 – Come Hos 7:14 – they have not Hos 11:12 – compasseth Zep 3:2 – she drew Mat 15:8 – draweth Mat 15:9 – teaching Mar 7:6 – Well Mar 7:9 – Full Joh 4:23 – true Gal 1:6 – so Gal 1:14 – profited 1Ti 1:7 – understanding 2Ti 3:5 – a form Tit 1:14 – commandments Tit 1:16 – profess Heb 10:22 – draw Jam 1:8 – General Jam 3:9 – bless Jam 4:8 – Draw nigh to God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 29:13-14. Forasmuch as this people draw near to me Namely, in acts of worship; with their mouth Speaking to me in prayer and praise, and promising and professing to serve me; and with their lips do honour me With mere outward devotion and bodily worship; but have removed their heart far from me Do not render me that love and gratitude, that regard and obedience, which I require; and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men By mere human wisdom, and not by my word and Spirit. They worship and serve me, not in such a manner as I have prescribed, but according to mens inventions, preferring the devices and traditions of their false prophets before my institutions. Or, their religion is merely of human, not of divine, origin: it is the fruit of corrupt nature, and not of renewing grace. I will proceed to do a marvellous work A thing that will scarce be believed; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish Shall disappear and vanish. A veil shall be cast upon the eyes of their minds, and their folly shall be made manifest to all. The most refined arts of their politicians shall not avail their authors, nor be able to preserve them from Gods judgments; and their most wise and learned men shall lose their usual discretion, and be infatuated. This threatening was remarkably fulfilled in the Jews of our Lords time, who crucified him out of fear of the Romans, and thereby brought the Romans upon them! And their learned rabbis, ever since, have minded little else but fabulous stories, and the Cabbalists have vented trifles for profound mysteries. As, in rejecting Christ and his gospel, they removed their hearts far from God, therefore God justly removed wisdom far from them, and hid from their eyes the things that belonged even to their temporal peace.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people {k} draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their {l} fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
(k) Because they are hypocrites and not sincere in heart, as in Mat 15:7-8 .
(l) That is, their religion was learned by man’s doctrine, and not by my word.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord had observed that the people of Jerusalem were going through the motions of worship without a vital, daily relationship of trust and obedience with Him. Their worship was a matter of traditional ritual observance, rather than a heartfelt desire to interact with Him (cf. Mat 15:9; Joh 4:23-24).