Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 30:13
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
13. Disaster will follow their policy with the necessity of a natural law. The best translation seems to be: Therefore this guilt shall be to you as a rent descending (lit. “falling”) ( and) bulging out in a high wall, whose crash comes, &c. The slight beginnings of transgression, its inevitable tendency to gravitate more and more from the moral perpendicular, till a critical point is reached, then the suddenness of the final catastrophe, are vividly expressed by this magnificent simile. Comp. Psa 62:3.
suddenly at an instant ] Cf. ch. Isa 29:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore this iniquity – That is, this refusing to trust in Yahweh, and this intention to seek the alliance of Egypt. The general sense of the figure here is, that their depending on Egypt would involve them ultimately in complete and awful ruin – ruin that should come upon them as suddenly as when a wall that had been long swelling out gives way.
As a breach ready to fall – Like a breaking forth, or a bursting in a wall.
Swelling out in a high wall – That is, where the foundation is not firm, and where one part of the wall sinks, and it inclines to one side until it suddenly bursts forth. A similar figure is used by the Psalmist Psa 62:3 :
Ye shall be slain all of you
As a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.
Whose breaking cometh suddenly – Though it has been long leaning and swelling, yet the actual bursting forth would be in an instant. So would it be with the destruction that would come upon the Jews. Though by their sins they had been long preparing for it, yet it would come upon them by a sudden and tremendous crash. So it will be with all sinners. Destruction may seem to be long delayed – as a wall may be long inclining, and may seem to prepare imperceptibly to fall; but in due time it will come suddenly upon them, when too late to obtain relief.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 30:13
As a breach ready to fall.
–
A retributive crash
The best translation seems to be: Therefore this guilt shall be to you as a rent descending (literally, falling) (and) bulging out in a high wall, whose crash comes, etc. The slight beginnings of transgression, its inevitable tendency to gravitate more and more from the moral perpendicular, till a critical point is reached, then the suddenness of the final catastrophe,–are vividly expressed by this magnificent simile. Psa 62:3. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Nemesis
1. The people, on account of the eminence and grandeur to which they were elevated, are compared to a high wall.
2. The sin whereby they despised the Word of the Lord, the instructions of His servants, and even the name of the Holy One of Israel, and sought assistance from Egypt, was to prove ruinous to them, as the swelling out in a high wall. The breach, or bulge, which is supposed to have been in the lower part of the wall, as often happens in old buildings, might signify the insolence and pride whereby the posterity of Israel were puffed up in the confidence of being aided by the Egyptians. (R. Macculloch.)
Nemesis
I. WHO IT IS THAT GIVES JUDGMENT UPON THEM. The Holy One of Israel (Isa 30:12). See Isa 30:11. Faithful ministers will not be driven from using such expressions as are proper to awaken sinners, though they be displeasing.
II. WHAT THE GROUND OF THE JUDGEMENT IS. Because ye despise, etc., (Isa 30:12).
III. WHAT THE JUDGMENT IS THAT IS PASSED UPON THEM. The ruin they should bring upon themselves should be–
1. A surprising ruin, coming suddenly.
2. An utter ruin, universal and irreparable (Isa 30:14). (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Swelling out to a high wall – “A swelling in a high wall”] It has been observed before, that the buildings of Asia generally consist of little better than what we call mud walls. “All the houses at Ispahan,” says Thevenot, Vol. II., p. 159, “are built of bricks made of clay and straw, and dried in the sun; and covered with a plaster made of a fine white stone. In other places in Persia the houses are built with nothing else but such bricks, made with tempered clay and chopped straw, well mingled together, and dried in the sun, and then used: but the least rain dissolves them.” Sir John Chardin’s MS. remark on this place of Isaiah is very apposite: Murs en Asie etant faits de terre se fendent ainsi par milieu et de haut en bas. “The walls in Asia being made of earth often cleave from top to bottom.” This shouts clearly how obvious and expressive the image is. The psalmist has in the same manner made use of it, to express sudden and utter destruction: –
“Ye shall be slain all of you;
Ye shall be like an inclining wall, like a shattered fence.”
Ps 62:4.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This iniquity, of sending and trusting to Egypt for succour.
Whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant; like a wall which is high, and seems to be strong, but swelling forth in some parts, which upon the least accident falleth down suddenly to the ground. Such shall be the issue of your high and towering confidence in Egypt.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. Image from a curve swellingout in a wall (Ps 62:3); whenthe former gives way, it causes the downfall of the whole wall; sotheir policy as to Egypt.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall,…. Or, “as a falling breach” m; contempt of the word of God, and trusting in wickedness, rejecting the counsel of God, and placing confidence in the creature, these would be the cause of ruin; which ruin is signified by the breach of a falling wall, or by a breach in a wall, by reason of which it is in danger of falling, and is just ready to fall:
swelling out in a high wall; like a wall that bellies out and bulges, and which, when it once begins to do, suddenly falls; and the higher it is, it comes with more force, and the greater is the fall:
whose breaking cometh suddenly, at an instant; and so it is suggested, should be the ruin of this people; the high towering confidence they had in Egypt would fall with its own weight, and they with it, and be broken to pieces in a moment; and which is further illustrated by another simile.
m “sicut ruptura cadens”, Montanus, Cocceius, De Dieu. Ben Melech observes, that a breach is after the building is fallen; for the breach does not fall, but it is said on account of the end of it, or what it is at last, as in Isa. xlvii. 2. “grind meal” or “flour”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. Therefore shall your iniquity be like a breach falling. This is a threatening of punishment, and Isaiah expresses it by a very appropriate metaphor. He compares wicked men to a wall that is rent, or that bulges out. As the “swelling out” of a wall threatens the ruin of it, because it cannot stand unless all the parts of it adhere closely to each other, so the haughtiness and insolence of wicked men are a sign and very sure proof of their approaching ruin; because the more they are puffed up and swelled without any solid value, (293) the more readily do they throw themselves down headlong, and it is impossible for them not to fall speedily by their own weight. “Rise up,” says he, “and act insolently against God; he will quickly put down your presumption and insolence, for it is but an empty swelling.” Hence we learn that nothing is better for us than to submit wholly to God, and to keep charge of all our senses, so as to remain chained and bound by his authority; for they who raise themselves by shaking off all humility, destroy themselves by collecting much wind. For a time, indeed, the Lord permits wicked men to swell and utter their big words, that at length, by their “swelling” and idle boasting, they may bring upon themselves ruin and destruction.
(293) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) As a breach ready to fall.The ill-built, half-decayed houses of Jerusalem may have furnished the outward imagery of the parable. First comes the threatening bulge, then the crack, and then the crash. That was to be the outcome of the plans they were building up on the unsound foundation of corrupt intrigue. In Eze. 13:10 we have the additional feature of the untempered mortar with which such a wall is built.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 30:13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
Ver. 13. Therefore this iniquity shall be unto you, ] q.d., Your commonwealth is tumbling down apace, and ye are hastening the utter ruin of it, as if ye were ambitious of your own destruction, which will be, as sudden, so total. Isa 30:14
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
as a breach: 1Ki 20:30, Psa 62:3, Eze 13:10-15, Mat 7:27, Luk 6:49
cometh: Isa 29:5, Job 36:18, Psa 73:19, Psa 73:20, Pro 29:1, 1Th 5:1-3
Reciprocal: Deu 32:35 – the things Jdg 10:8 – that year Jdg 21:15 – a breach 2Ch 10:15 – the king Job 34:20 – a moment Psa 64:7 – suddenly Pro 6:15 – shall his Ecc 8:13 – neither Ecc 9:12 – the sons Isa 1:28 – they that Isa 9:14 – in one day Isa 31:2 – will bring Jer 6:26 – for the Jer 30:15 – thy sorrow Eze 13:15 – The wall 1Th 5:3 – then 2Pe 2:3 – whose
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Consequently their iniquity would lead to disaster, similar to the sudden internal collapse of a high wall, and the severe external smashing of an earthenware jar. It would be complete, as when no useful pieces remain after the smashing of a pot. That judgment had not yet come was hardly grounds for concluding that it would not come (cf. Mat 24:36-44; Mar 13:32-37; 2Pe 3:3-10).
"The interval from the first cracks until the actual collapse [of a wall] may be a long time, but when the collapse comes it is terribly sudden and irreversible. So it will be with this refusal to rely on God. Years may pass, but one day the Assyrians will stand at the door with all Judah in ruins behind them." [Note: Oswalt, p. 554.]
When God miraculously slew Sennacherib’s besieging forces around Jerusalem in 701 B.C., the Assyrians had already destroyed much of Judah.