Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 32:11

Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird [sackcloth] upon [your] loins.

11. The speaker calls on his female auditors at once to assume the garb of mourners; so certain is the calamity. The word for “tremble” is in the masc. gender in the original, a not uncommon irregularity (Amo 4:1; Mic 1:13, &c.). Indeed the next verse presents an example.

strip ye, and make ye bare ] as Arabian women occasionally do in a paroxysm of grief or terror.

gird (sc. sackcloth) upon your loins ] Cf. ch. Isa 3:24; 1Ki 21:27; 2Ki 6:30; Job 16:15.

The words “be troubled,” “strip,” “make bare” and “gird” represent anomalous forms in the Hebrew, which are the despair of grammarians. The imperative no doubt gives the right sense.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Strip ye, and make ye bare – That is, take off your joyful and splendid apparel, and put on the habiliments of mourning, indicative of a great calamity.

And gird sackcloth – (See the note at Isa 3:24).

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 32:11

Be troubled, ye careless ones

Besetting sins may be the defects of virtues

The besetting sins of either sex are its virtues prostituted.

A mans greatest temptations proceed from his strength; but the glory of the feminine nature is repose, and trust is the strength of the feminine character, in which very things, however, lies all the possibility of womans degradation. (Prof g. A. Smith, D. D.)

The careless sinner reproved

I. I am to EXPOSTULATE WITH THOSE WHO ARE CARELESS IN THE CONCERNS OF RELIGION AND THEIR SOULS. The following things are submitted to your consideration:–

1. The importance of religion, which is neglected by you.

2. The beneficial proofs of the Divine agency which surround you.

3. Your personal obligations to God are neither few nor small.

4. The grand display of the love of God in giving His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, &c.

5. The certainty of judgment and a future state.

II. We are now to ADDRESS THESE EXPOSTULATIONS TO THE CONSIDERATION OF YOUTH, MANHOOD, AND AGE. (A. Shanks.)

An alarm to the careless

To be careless in temporal things is generally regarded as a very serious defect or offence. How much more so when one is careless in spiritual things! Yet this is characteristic of great numbers who hear the Gospel. Is there no cause for alarm? A careless attitude and habit towards God and Christ and salvation are–

1. Unreasonable,

2. Hazardous.

3. God-provoking. (J. M. Sherwood.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 11. Gird sackcloth] sak, sackcloth, a word necessary to the sense, is here lost, but preserved by the Septuagint, MSS. Alex. and Pachom., and I. D. II., and edit. Ald. and Comp., and the Arabic and Syriac.

Tremble – be troubled – strip you] peshotah, regazah, &c. These are infinitives, with a paragogic he, according to Schultens, Institut. Ling. Hebr. p. 453, and are to be taken in an imperative sense.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Strip you, and make you bare; put off your ornaments, as God commanded upon a like occasion, Exo 33:5, that you may put on sackcloth instead of them, as mourners and penitents used to do.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. strip youof your gayclothing. (See Isa 2:19; Isa 2:21).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Tremble, ye women that are at ease,…. Which may be considered either as an exhortation to repentance for their sins, of which, if a due sense was impressed on their hearts, would cause a trembling of body and mind, under a fearful expectation of divine wrath; or as a prediction, that though they were now quite tranquil and easy, and nothing disturbed them, yet such calamities would come upon them as would make them tremble:

be troubled, ye careless ones; or, “confident ones” l; that live securely, trusting in their present wealth and riches, and confident that things will always continue as they are; be it known to you that trouble will come, and better it would be for you if you were now troubled for your sins, and truly repented of them, that the judgments threatened, and coming, might be prevented:

strip ye, and make you bare; of your fine clothes, and beautiful ornaments, in which they prided themselves, which used to be done in time of mourning, Eze 7:27 or it signifies that this should be their case, they would be stripped not only of their richest clothes and decorating jewels, but of their ordinary apparel, and left bare and naked by the enemy:

and gird [sackcloth] upon [your] loins; as a token of mourning; see

Ge 37:34 the word “sackcloth” is supplied, as it is by Kimchi, and in the Syriac and Arabic versions; though some understand it as a direction to gird their loins for servile work, signifying what would be their condition and circumstances when taken and carried captive by the enemy; they would no longer live at ease, and in pleasure, as mistresses, but would serve as handmaids.

l “confidentes”, Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

11. Tremble. This repetition is not unnecessary, but states more fully what he formerly said; for when men are asleep, they are not easily aroused by the voice of the prophets, and therefore it is needful to cry aloud and reprove them continually. And thus, by adding one threatening to another, or by repeating the same threatenings, he shews how great is the stupidity of men, when they have once been blinded by prosperity; for they can scarcely endure any longer to hear the warnings which God addresses to them. Men are undoubtedly more in danger from prosperity than from adversity; for when matters go smoothly with them, they flatter themselves, and are intoxicated by their success; and therefore it was necessary to deal more sharply with the Jews, in order to shake off that slothfulness. This exhortation of the Prophet ought to be explained in the future tense; as if he had said, “You shall at length tremble, for the rest which you now enjoy will not be perpetual.”

By bidding them make themselves bare, and gird sackcloth on their loins, he describes the manner and dress of mourners. Whenever they were visited by deep adversity, they put on sackcloth, made bare the other parts of their body, and by dress, and attitude, and every method, manifested their grief. He desires women to put on sackcloth and other expressions of mourning, instead of the luxuries and pleasures in which they eagerly indulged.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

A CALL TO THE CARELESS

Isa. 32:11. Be troubled, ye careless ones [1192]

[1192] See outlines on chap. Isa. 1:3, p. 712.

I. Who are the careless ones in our own day?

1. Those who neglect the Bible. Its main object is to arouse the attention of sinners. Claims and deserves attention. That man is indifferent to the welfare of his country who never examines the principles of its constitution, the character of its laws, &c. So he who neglects the Bible can never be regarded as a serious man. He is careless on the most momentous of all subjects.

2. Those who neglect prayer. All who have any proper feeling towards God must regard this as a solemn duty. Nature teaches its necessity and importance, the Scriptures enjoin it with great earnestness (Luk. 18:1; 1Th. 5:17).

3. Those who neglect the Sabbath. This made for man, appointed for his convenience and spiritual good. An institution of unspeakable importance as regards eternityin fact, no religion without it.

4. Those who neglect the institutions of the sanctuary. Those anxious to know what they must do to be saved always prize the preaching of the Gospel. On the other hand, as the interest in religion declines, so will be our indifference to the means of grace. See you one who makes his attendance on Gods house a matter of convenience, who avails himself of any trifling excuse to be absent, &c., there is a careless one. So also with those who are so absorbed in the pursuits of this life, so as to have neither leisure nor disposition to attend the place of prayer.

5. In a word, those are careless ones who live in impenitence and unbelief. Repentance and faith in Christ. The great interest of the soul cannot be secured without these, and no man can be said to take heed to the things that belong to his peace, without obeying Christs commands concerning them.

II. Why such ought to be troubled. Those who are indifferent are disposed to remain socarelessness perpetuates itself. Still there are reasons why such should be troubled.

1. The fact that you are careless is a ground of alarm. Carelessness, an evidence of our ignorance of the true condition of the soul in the sight of God. Something truly frightful in false security where the danger is real and great. With such this fancied security is the most alarming symptom. The sinner suffering from a disease which no human skill can removein danger of eternal death. How fearful then the indifference, how appalling the apathy of such!

2. This indifference indicates a state of mind in which every blessing will be abused, and every warning neglected. A habit of body that would render everything received for nourishment or for medicine useless would be dreadful; what, then, of that moral disease which perverts every gift and makes the diversified means which God employs accomplish nothing for our good?

3. You ought to be troubled when you reflect what it is you are careless about, viz., your salvation. The man who is indifferent about his health, or regardless of his temporal interest, is unwise; what, then, of one who hazards the salvation of his soul by neglect? Salvation is offered in Christindifference is unbelief. Why so eager after the acquisition of wealth, and indifferent about the true riches?

4. Another cause of alarm is the exposure of your present position. Neglect of the Gospel ensures destruction (Heb. 2:3). This apathy a crime for which no amiableness or morality can atone.

5. No more powerful means will be employed to awaken you to the concerns of your soul. God disclaims any responsibility for your loss (Isa. 5:4; Mat. 23:37). Ministers have preached, Christian friends have entreated, the Holy Spirit has been sent down, and still you are careless. The very heathen will rise up in judgment. If one rising from the dead would not make those hear who had Moses and the prophets, what shall awaken those who have Christ and the apostles?

6. This carelessness is induced, it is not natural. A long process of hardening the heart is gone through before such a state of apathy is reached. But once ours, it has all the force of habit, and is not easily broken up (Mat. 11:21). This indifference is voluntary (Act. 24:25). Felix might have taken a different course. No iron necessity binds men to the fatal course they take, but a perverse will and an unbelieving heart.

7. This carelessness is a state of mind that provokes God to withdraw His Spirit. Deeply criminal. No apathy in heaven, there ought to be none on earth. Must it not offend God, to say that He has failed to reveal Himself in a way to interest His creatures? And yet men can be interested in a novel while the Gospel is neglected. Under the old dispensation He said, My people would not hearken to My voice, so I gave them up to their hearts lust. What of those who then reject the ?Song of Solomon 8. This indifference will ultimately be broken up, and will aggravate condemnation a thousandfold. Though retribution sleep, it must come and will not tarry. The Jews were spared forty years after the Saviour had wept over their doomed city. So with the sinner; there comes a time when he can be indifferent no longer; the realities of judgment and eternity produce a conviction which will go on deepening for ever. How it will embitter the soul then to dwell upon this carelessness of the past. Recollection itself a source of misery. (Luk. 16:25). What words can express the anguish of a soul thus reminded of lost opportunities, &c.?

Throw off this lethargy. From this moment seek the Lord with your whole heart, and call upon Him while He is near. Why run the desperate hazard of having to do all this on a dying bed?Mark Tucker, D.D.: National Preacher, vol. vii. p. 138.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(11) Tremble, ye women that are at ease . . .The words find at once a parallel and a contrast in those spoken to the daughters of Jerusalem in Luke (Luk. 23:28-30). The call to repentance includes their stripping themselves of their costly finery, and putting on the sackcloth (the word is implied, though not expressed in the Hebrew), which was the outward symbol of repentance (Jon. 3:5-8). The words, it may be noted, are masculine, the call not being limited to the women.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

11. Strip you sackcloth This means to put on signs of grief. “Sackcloth” instead of daily gay apparel.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 32:11-14. Tremble, ye women Tremble, &c.and gird sackcloth upon your loins, Isa 32:12 upon your breasts; lamenting for the pleasant field, for the fruitful vine: Isa 32:13 for the land, &c.yea, for all the houses of joy; [for] the joyous city, Isa 32:14. Because the temple is deserted; the thronged city left; the clift and watch-tower shall for a long season be for dens, &c. Vitringa. The prophet begins and proceeds in a more lofty tone than in the former passage, because the calamity here described, which is that of the desolation of the land, and of the city of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, should be much greater and more terrible than that brought upon them by the Assyrians. The meaning of the passage, and the gradations by which the prophet expresses this desolation, are rendered more clear by the version which Vitringa has given above. If we are to understand the first part of the 12th verse as it stands in our translation, the mothers must be meant, lamenting for the infants whom they suckled at their breasts, and who were destroyed at this time of common calamity. The entire devastation of the land, and its uncultivated state, are foretold in the 13th verse, as well as the depopulation of the towns and cities. The dereliction of the temple, and of the city of Jerusalem itself, is foretold in Isa 32:14 together with the ruin of those fortifications wherein much of their strength consisted; their ruin, not for ever, but for a long season; till the period mentioned in the next verse.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Isa 32:11 Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird [sackcloth] upon [your] loins.

Ver. 11. Tremble, ye women. ] Adhortatio ad poenitentiam, saith Hyperius; an exhortation to repentance, a not unlike that of St James, Jam 4:9-10 “Afflict yourselves, and weep and mourn; let your laughter be turned into mourning, your joy into heaviness.”

a Trepidate, O tranquillae. – Tremel.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)