Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 44:14
He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish [it].
14 17. The writer now goes back to the material of which this second kind of idol is made.
He heweth him down ] The Heb. text, which reads “to hew down,” probably contains a mistake in the first letter.
strengtheneth for himself ] must mean “allows to grow strong” in its native forest. Nay, in some cases the future deity has been actually planted by his worshipper, and nourished by the rain from heaven! The words tirzh (“cypress”) and ’ren (“ash”) occur only here in the O.T. The former, according to the Vulg. and the Greek Versions of Aquila and Theodotion, is the “holm-oak” ( ilex); the latter may be translated “pine” (Vulg.); the corresponding word in Assyrian denotes the cedar.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He heweth him down cedars – In the previous verses, the prophet had described the formation of an axe with which the work was to be done Isa 44:12, and the laying out, and carving of the idol Isa 44:13. In this verse he proceeds to describe the material of which the idol was made, and the different purposes Isa 44:15-17 to which that material was applied. The object is to show the amazing stupidity of those who should worship a god made of the same material from which they made a fire to warm themselves, or to cook their food. For a description of cedars, see the notes at Isa 9:10.
And taketh – Takes to himself; that is, makes use of.
The cypress – ( trzah). This word occurs nowhere else in the Bible. It is probably derived from a root ( taraz) signifying to be hard, or firm. Hence, it probably means some species of wood that derived its name from its hardness or firmness. Jerome translates it, Ilex (a species of oak) – the holm-oak. It was an evergreen. This species of evergreen, Gesenius says, was abundant in Palestine.
And the oak – The oak was commonly used for this purpose on account of its hardness and durability.
Which he strengtheneth for himself – Margin, Taketh courage. The word ‘mmets means properly to strenthen, to make strong, to repair, to replace, to harden. Rosenmuller and Gesenius suppose that it means here to choose, that is, to set fast, or appoint; and they appeal to Psa 80:15, Psa 80:17, thou madest strong for thyself. Kimchi supposes that it means, that he gave himself with the utmost diligence and care to select the best kinds of wood for the purpose. Vitringa, that he was intent on his work, and did not leave the place, but refreshed himself with food in the woods without returning home, in order that be might accomplish his design. Others interpret it to mean that he girded himself with strength, and made use of his most intense efforts in felling the trees of the forest. Lowth renders it, Layeth in good store of the trees of the forest. It may mean that he gave himself with great diligence to the work; or may it not mean that he planted such trees, and took great pains in watering and cultivating them for this purpose?
He planteth an ash – ( ‘oren). The Septuagint renders it, Pitun – Pine. Jerome also renders it, Pinum. Gesenius supposes the name was given from the fact that the tree had a tall and slender top, which, when it vibrated, gave forth a tremulous, creaking sound (from ranan). This derivation is, however, somewhat fanciful. Most interpreters regard it as the ash – a well-known tree. In idolatrous countries, where it is common to have idols in almost every family, the business of idol-making is a very important manufacture. Of course, large quantities of wood would be needed; and it would be an object to procure that which was most pure, or as we say, clear stuff, and which would work easily, and to advantage. It became important, therefore, to cultivate that wood, as we do for shipbuilding, or for cabinet-work, and doubtless groves were planted for this purpose.
And the rain doth nourish it – These circumstances are mentioned to show the folly of worshipping a god that was formed in this manner. Perhaps also the prophet means to intimate that though the man planted the tree, yet that be could not make it grow. He was dependent on the rains of heaven; and even in making an idol-god he was indebted to the providential care of the true God. Men, even in their schemes of wickedness, are dependent on God. Even in forming and executing plans to oppose and resist him, they can do nothing without his aid. He preserves them, feeds them, clothes them; and the instruments which they use against him are those which he has nurtured. On the rain of heaven; on the sunbeam and the dew; on the teeming earth, and on the elements which he has made, and which he controls, they are dependent; and they can do nothing in their wicked plans without abusing the bounties of his Providence, and the expressions of his tender mercy.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 44:14
He planteth an ash
The planter and the rain
The civilised and cultivated tree is the joint product of human care and the earths fertility.
Let us study the picture and see how true it is to what the world contains.
1. We may ask ourselves how it is that any institution or established form of human living comes to be prevalent and dominant. A strong idea, of freedom, of justice, of mercy, enters into some strong mans soul. It makes itself completely his. Then it will not be satisfied with him; it grows restless within him, and demands the world. Then he takes it out some day and plants it. With some vigorous, incisive word or deed he thrusts his live and fiery idea down deep into the fruitful soil of human life. Then human life takes up his idea and nourishes it. Wonderfully all the forces gather around it and give it their vitality. History bears witness that it has all been living by the power of that idea unknown, unguessed; philosophy says that in it lies the key of her hard problems; economy discovers that by it life may be made more thrifty and complete; poetry shows its nobleness; affection wreaths it with love; all the essential hopes and fears and needs of human nature come flocking to it; until at last you can no more conceive of human life without that idea than you can think with complacency of the landscape without the great tree which is as thoroughly a part of it as is the very ground itself. A free Church, a just court, a popular government–this is the way in which every institution comes to be. Here is the relation of the worlds few great creative men to the great mass and body of its life. Helpless Europe without Martin Luther. Helpless also Martin Luther without Europe. Here is the mutual need of great souls and the great world.
2. We have another illustration, even more striking, close at our hand, in the way in which character grows up in our personal nature. Where do our characters come from? It is easy sometimes to represent them as the result of strong influence which other men have had over us. It is easy at other times to think of them as if they made themselves, shaping themselves by mere internal fermentation into the result we see. But neither account tells the story by itself. When we question ourselves, not about character in general, but about special points and qualities of character, then we are sure that it was by some outer influence made our own, some seed of motive or example set into our lives and then taken possession of by those lives and filled with their vitality, developed into their owe type and kind of vice or virtue–it was thus that this, which is now so intimate that we call it not merely ours but ourselves, came into being. This is the reason of the perpetual identity along with the perpetual variety of goodness and badness. We are all good and bad alike; and yet every man is good and bad in a way all his own–in a way in which no other man has ever been bad or good since the world began,–just as all ash-trees are alike because they have all been planted from the same nurseries; and yet every ash-tree is different from every other because it has grown in its own soil and fed on its own rain: the society and the individuality of moral life.
3. The truth has its clearest illustration, it may be, in the way in which God has sent into the world the Gospel of His Son. Most sharp and clear and definite stands out in history the life and death of Jesus Christ. It was the entrance of a new, Divine force into the world. But what has been the story of that force once introduced? It has been subjected to the influences which have created the ordinary currents of human life. The characters and thoughts of men have told upon it. The Gospel has shared in the fortunes of the Christian world. It has followed in the track of conquering armies; it has been beaten back and hindered by the tempests of revolution and misrule; it has been tossed upon the waves of philosophical speculation; it has been made the plaything or the tool of politics; it has taken possession of countries and centuries only by taking possession of men through the natural affections of their human hearts; it has worked through institutions which it only helped to create. While it has helped to make the world, it has also at every moment been made by the world into something different from its own pure self. If you try to take either half of the truth by itself you get into the midst of puzzle and mistake. Think of the Gospel simply as an intrusion of Divine force kept apart from any mixture with the influences of the world, and it is impossible to understand the forms in which it has been allowed to present itself. Its weaknesses and its strength are alike unintelligible. Think of it as a mere development of human life, and you cannot conceive how it came to exist at all. But consider it in its completeness. Remember that it is a Divine force working through human conditions; let it be all one long incarnation, God manifest in the flesh–and then you see at once why it is so weak and why it is so strong; why it has not occupied the world with one lightning flash of power, and why it must at last, however slowly, accomplish its complete salvation.
4. Every Christian is a little Christendom; and the method of the entrance of the Gospel into the great world is repeated in the way in which the Gospel enters into every soul, which then it occupies and changes. Again, there is the special act of the implanting of the new life, and then there is the intrusting of the new-implanted life to the nature and its circumstances. The man was born again! Since then, long years have come and gone. What have they seen? The rain has nourished it–that long-sown seed! Nothing has happened since which has not touched that seed and helped or hindered its maturity. Still remember, it is His rain. The influences into whose influence the seed was given still were Gods. He took the child, and gave the friend, and sent you on the journey, and shaped the nature which bestowed on the Christian life its distinctive character.
5. May we not say that the principle itself includes the whole truth of the supernatural, and its relation to the natural? (Phillips Brooks, D. D)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. He heweth him down – “He heweth down”] For lichroth, the Septuagint and Vulgate read carath or yichroth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The cypress and the oak, which afford the best and most durable timber.
Which he strengtheneth for himself among the tress of the forest: the sense of the words thus rendered is, that he planteth, and with care and diligence improveth, those trees among and above all the trees of the forest, that he or his posterity may thence have materials for their images, and those things which belong to them. And this sense seems to be favoured by the following clause, wherein it is said, he planteth an ash, for this very reason. Or the sense may be this, which he suffers to grow to greater strength and largeness than other trees of the forest, that they may be better and fitter for his use. Heb. and he strengtheneth himself, &c.; and he useth all his strength among the trees of the forest, in planting such as are proper for this end, in walking hither and thither to survey which is the best of them; in hewing them down, and in other things relating to them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. Description of the materialout of which the idol is formed.
cypressrather, fromHebrew root, “to be hard,” the holm oak,” anevergreen abundant in Palestine [GESENIUS].
strengthenethliterally,”and he getteth strength to himself in the trees of the forest;”that is, he layeth in a great store of timber [LOWTH].Or, “chooseth,” as “madest strong for thyself,”that is, hast chosen (Psa 80:15;Psa 80:17) [GESENIUS].But English Version gives a good sense: “strengtheneth”;that is, rears to maturity; a meaning suitable also to the context ofPsa 80:15; Psa 80:17,where Israel is compared to a vine planted by Jehovah[MAURER].
rain doth nourish itThoughthe man planted the tree, yet he could not make it grow. In preparingto make an idol, he has to depend on the true God for rain fromheaven (Jer 14:22).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak,…. To make gods of, trees both pleasant and durable, but all unfruitful:
which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest; taking a great deal of pains in seeking out such trees as were most fit for his use, and a great deal of care in the growth of them, that they might answer his end, as well as exerting his strength in cutting of them down:
he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it; a tree that soon grows up, and which he plants for the purpose to make a god of; and this being watered and nourished with rain, which God vouchsafes, though designed for an idolatrous use, grows, and is fit for what it was intended; and being so, he cuts it down, and, makes an image of it; which shows his folly and madness, that a tree of his own planting, which he has seen the growth of, and yet be so sottish as to imagine that a god may be may be made of it. The word for “rain” signifies a body in the Syriac g language, as Kimchi observes, and for which he produces Da 4:33, and so Aben Ezra says it signifies in the Arabic language h; and the sense is, “the body” of the tree “grew up”, and being grown up, was cut down, and used as follows.
g “corpus”, Luke iii. 22. 2Cor. x. 10. Castel. Lex. Polyglott. col. 627. So in the Chaldee language. h So, according to Schindler, signifies a body, Lex. Pentaglott. col. 347, 348.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The prophet now traces the origin of the idols still further back. Their existence or non-existence ultimately depends upon whether it rains or not. “One prepares to cut down cedars, and takes holm and oak-tree, and chooses for himself among the trees of the forest. He has planted a fig, and the rain draws it up. And it serves the man for firing: he takes thereof, and warms himself; he also heats, and bakes bread; he also works it into a god, and prostrates himself; makes an idol of it, and falls down before it. The half of it he has burned in the fire: over the half of it he eats flesh, roasts a roast, and is satisfied; he also warms himself, and says, Hurrah, I am getting warm, I feel the heat. And the rest of it he makes into a god, into his idol, and says, Save me, for thou art my god.” The subject of the sentence is not the carpenter of the previous verse, but “any one.” apparently stands first, as indicating the species; and in the Talmud and Midrash the trees named are really described as . But tirzah (from taraz , to be hard or firm) does not appear to be a coniferous tree; and the connection with ‘allon , the oak, is favourable to the rendering (lxx, A. Th.), ilex (Vulg.). On ‘immets , to choose, see Isa 41:10. (with Nun minusculum ), plur. ( b. Ros-ha Sana 23 a) or (Para iii. 8), is explained by the Talmud as , sing. , i.e., according to Aruch and Rashi, laurier, the berries of which are called baies. We have rendered it “fig,” according to the lxx and Jerome, since it will not do to follow the seductive guidance of the similarity in sound to ornus (which is hardly equivalent to ).
(Note: The of Theophrastus is probably quercus ilex , which is still called ; the laurus nobilis is now called , from the branches which serve instead of palm-branches.)
The description is genealogical, and therefore moves retrogressively, from the felling to the planting. in Isa 44:15 refers to the felled and planted tree, and primarily to the ash. (of such as these) is neuter, as in Isa 30:6; at the same time, the prophet had the (the wood, both as produce and material) in his mind. The repeated lays emphasis upon the fact, that such different things are done with the very same wood. It is sued for warming, and fore the preparation of food, as well as for making a god. On the verbs of adoration, hishtachavah (root shach , to sink, to settle down) and sagad , which is only applied to idolatrous worship, and from which m es’gid , a mosque, is derived, see Holemann’s Bibelstudien, i. 3. may no doubt be take as a plural (= , as in Isa 30:5), “such things ( taila ) does he worship,” as Stier supposes; but it is probably pathetic, and equivalent to , as in Isa 53:8 (compare Psa 11:7; Ewald, 247, a). According to the double application of the wood mentioned in Isa 44:15, a distinction is drawn in Isa 44:16, Isa 44:17 between the one half of the wood and the other. The repeated chetsyo (the half of it) in Isa 44:16 refers to the first half, which furnishes not only fuel for burning, but shavings and coals for roasting and baking as well. And as a fire made for cooking warms quite as much as one made expressly for the purpose, the prophet dwells upon this benefit which the wood of the idol does confer. On the tone upon the last syllable of c hammoth , see at Job 19:17; and on the use of the word as a comprehensive term, embracing every kind of sensation and perception, see my Psychologie, p. 234. Diagoras of Melos, a pupil of Democritus, once threw a wooden standing figure of Hercules into the fire, and said jocularly, “Come now, Hercules, perform thy thirteenth labour, and help me to cook the turnips.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
14. He shall cut down for himself: The Prophet expresses not only the zeal and furious eagerness of idolaters, but also their rebellion and obstinacy; for when he says that they cut down cedars and plant pine-trees, he shews that they persevere very long in their madness, and are not prompted by any sudden impulse to manufacture gods. “Not only,” says he, “do they choose trees that are already grown, but they even plant and water and cultivate them, and wait till they have come to their full size, so as to be fit material for making an idol.”
When we read these things, and are instructed concerning this shocking madness, let us know that God lays his hand upon us, so to speak, in order to draw us back from it, and to keep us in true godliness;. It is necessary, indeed, to meet it early, lest longer delay should make the wound incurable; for as soon as we have been led away by foolish desire to the practice of false worship, there is always reason to fear that we shall be plunged into that whirlpool. We all carry some seed of this madness, which cannot in any way be rooted out, but continually buds and blossoms, if we are not cleansed anew by the Spirit of the Lord.
It ought also to be remarked that, since idolaters are impelled by so great eagerness to worship idols, we ought to be ashamed of our coldness in the true worship of God. Let us be ashamed, I say, that we are so negligent and cold and even freezing, when the worshippers of idols are so ardent; and let us consider that we must render an account. With what rage are the Turks seized, when the question relates to the defense of the reveries of their prophet Mahomet, for whom they gladly both shed their blood and part with their life! By what rage are the Papists impelled to follow their superstitions! Yet we scarcely become warm, and sometimes extinguish the sparks of that zeal which the Lord has kindled in us. To this also applies that expostulation of Jeremiah,
“
Is there any nation that hath forsaken its gods? But my people have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged for themselves cisterns which cannot hold water.” (Jer 2:10.)
This comparison, therefore, ought to be carefully observed, that we may not be less steadfast in defending truth than they are obstinate in falsehood.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) He heweth him down cedars.The manufacture is traced further back, possibly by way of protest against the belief current in all nations that some archaic image had fallen from heaven (Act. 19:35). The cypress is probably the Quercus ilex, and the ash a fig tree; but the identification of trees in the language of a remote time and language is always somewhat uncertain.
Which he strengtheneth for himself.Better, fixeth his choice among. The eye travels, it will be noted, backward from the workshop.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14-17. Heweth cedars cypress oak Back of manufacture, the prophet now goes for the origin of idols. He seeks the trees from which they are made trees which require rains long before they can be made into idols. He seeks the cedar, oak, holm oak. (Why seek trees of Palestine if this prophet is of Babylon at the time of Cyrus, and is not Isaiah one hundred and fifty years before?) The fig tree is used, too, but half of it its chips is taken for fuel to cook and warm by. Why such a material for the making of a god? Delitzsch quotes as follows, in loco: “Diagoras of Melos, a pupil of Democritus, once threw a wooden figure of Hercules into the fire, and said jocularly, “Hercules, come now, perform thy thirteenth labour, and help me cook my turnips.” With as keen a point does Isaiah virtually ask: “Is there a god in your cedar, holm, or fig tree logs or billets?”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 44:14 He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish [it].
Ver. 14. He heweth him down cedars. ] Choice wood, yet but wood. Qualis igitur inde Deus consurgat?
And the rain doth nourish it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
heweth: Isa 40:20, Jer 10:3-8, Hos 4:12, Hab 2:19
strengtheneth: or, taketh courage
Reciprocal: 2Ch 15:8 – took courage Hab 2:18 – that the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
As shepherds raised some sheep for sacrifice, so the idol craftsman, here a forester, planted a tree with a view to making a god out of it one day "for himself." He wanted wood that would not rot, but the type of wood itself really does not matter. The god is perfectly passive and dependent on its human creator throughout the whole process. How can such a creation possibly help people?