Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 5:25
Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses [were] torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.
25. Therefore ] The Hebr. word differs from that in Isa 5:13-14 ; Isa 5:24, and agrees with that in Isa 9:17. The following tenses are perfects (or consec. impf.) usually taken as prophetic pert.; but this is scarcely natural. Past judgments are probably referred to (see on Isa 9:8 ff.). Some think of a pestilence (Amo 4:10), pestilence being preeminently the stroke of God ( he hath smitten them); others (from the next clause) of an earthquake. Both may be meant.
their carcases were torn ] rather, were as offal, a very common figure (2Ki 9:37; Jer 16:4; Jer 25:33; Zep 1:17; Psa 83:10).
For all this ] See on ch. Isa 9:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
25 30. A warlike Nation, summoned from the Ends of the Earth, is the destined Instrument of Israel’s final Chastisement
That the Assyrians are here alluded to is certain both from the explicit statements of later prophecies, and from the terms of the description itself. It speaks of the foe as characterised by the rapidity of his movements, the perfection of his discipline and military equipment, his love of conquest, and his irresistible might. These features are no doubt highly idealised (as was natural in a first sketch), but it is clear that some particular nation is meant, and we can have no hesitation in saying that the reference is to the most perfect military machine that then existed, the Assyrian army.
Although the passage might be explained fairly enough as the continuation of Isa 5:24, it gains immensely in significance when read as the final strophe of the prophecy in ch. Isa 9:8 to Isa 10:4, a position to which several considerations lead us to assign it. (1) The latter part of Isa 5:25 occurs as a refrain in Isa 9:12; Isa 9:17; Isa 9:21 and Isa 10:4. It is found nowhere else and its isolated occurrence in Isa 5:25 distinctly weakens the force of Isa 5:24. (2) The four equal strophes of Isa 9:8 to Isa 10:4 correspond very nearly in length with Isa 5:26-30. (3) After reading Isa 10:4, we feel that the last word has not been spoken: the hand is still outstretched, we wait to hear of the final blow. The verses before us supply the appropriate climax. On the other hand, they are not necessary where they stand, Isa 5:24 affording a satisfactory conclusion. The hypothesis, to be sure, does not remove every difficulty. It is vain to speculate as to the reasons which may have led to the transference; although it might have been suggested by the appositeness of the passage as a reply to the challenge of Isa 5:19. Further, Isa 5:25 is far too short for a complete strophe, and therefore can hardly have followed immediately on Isa 10:4. We must suppose that some verses have been omitted in the process of transference, as irrelevant in their new context.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled – The Lord is enraged, or is angry. Similar expressions often occur; Num 11:33; 2Ki 23:26; Deu 11:17; Psa 56:1-13 :40; Job 19:11; Psa 2:12. The cause of his anger was the crimes which are specified in this chapter.
And he hath stretched forth his hand – To stretch forth the hand may be an action expressive of protection, invitation, or punishment. Here it is the latter; compare Isa 14:27.
And hath smitten them – Punished them. To what this refers particularly is not clear. Gesenius supposes that the expressions which follow are descriptive of pestilence. Lowth and Rosenmuller suppose that they refer to the earthquakes which occurred in the days of Uzziah, and in the time of the prophets; Amo 1:1; Zec 14:5. The words, perhaps, will bear either construction.
And the hills did tremble – This expression is one that is often used in the Scriptures to denote the presence and anger of God. It is well adapted to describe an earthquake; but it is also often used poetically, to describe the presence and the majesty of the Most High; compare Psa 144:5; Job 9:6; Job 26:11; Psa 114:7; Jer 4:24; Hab 3:10; Psa 18:7; Psa 97:5; Psa 104:32. The image is one that is very sublime. The earth, as if conscious of the presence of God, is represented as alarmed, and trembling. Whether it refers here to the earthquake, or to some other mode of punishment, cannot be determined. The fact, however, that such an earthquake had occurred in the time of Isaiah, would seem to fix the expression to that. Isaiah, from that, took occasion also to denounce future judgments. This was but the beginning of woes.
And their carcasses were torn – The margin here is the more correct translation. The passage means that their dead bodies were strewed, unburied, like filth, through the streets. This expression would more naturally denote a pestilence. But it may be descriptive of an earthquake, or of any calamity.
For all this – Notwithstanding all this calamity, his judgments are not at an end. He will punish the nation more severely still. In what way he would do it, the prophet proceeds in the remainder of the chapter to specify; compare Isa 9:12; Isa 10:4.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 5:25-30
Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people
The prophecy explained
Jehovah is about to bring foreign armies as the instruments of His judgment; the vision of the worst of human calamities–the invasion of a rich, civilised, luxurious nation by overwhelming hordes of barbarians–rises before the prophet: he speaks of them as present, and his words have a terrible force to him who reads them now, while he thinks of their fearful import then.
Jehovah has set up a standard to which He is gathering the nations under the Assyrian rule, and the prophet sees them steadily though swiftly coming on in war-like array–bowmen, horses and chariots: they rush to battle with the roar of lions, they seize and hold down their prisoners and their booty with the growl which marks the lions refusal to give up his prey; they come on like the sea in its rage; and when the helpless in, habitant of Judah turns from this rising tide to the land–his own land–he sees only the darkness of woe; and when he turns again from the earth to look upward he sees only the thick clouds gathering over the heavens above him. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
Prophecy perpetually fulfilled
This is such a picture of the life of things that it is equally the description of the same judgment of God in whatever age or to whatever nation occurring. In successive ages it told the Jew of the Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Greek and the Roman; to the subject of the Roman Empire it spoke no less clearly of the Goth and the Vandal; the British monk must have recalled it in the days when Gildas learnt its truth from the Dane and the Norman and the Spaniard from the Mohammedan; the Byzantine from Timour the incarnate wrath of God; the continental nations from the revolutionary armies and Napoleon; and, in our own day, the people of France from the Germans. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
Gods anger and its manifestation
I. IN GODS INFINITE NATURE THERE IS THE QUALITY OF ANGER. It is not a stormy passion, like wrath in sinful man, but the settled, intense, burning antagonism to moral evil which must necessarily exist in one who is infinitely perfect. The man who most nearly resembles God will be angry and sin not?
II. GODS ANGER MAY BE KINDLED BY THE SPIRIT AND CONDUCT OF HIS PEOPLE. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people. Guilt is in proportion to the light and privilege abused.
III. GODS ANGER MAY MANIFEST ITSELF IN ACTUAL AND FEARFUL PUNISHMENT. It is an active antagonism to moral evil. He hath stretched forth His hand against them, etc. The hand of God is the symbol of His mighty power. It is a fearful thing to fall, etc. (H. M. Booth.)
Hills trembling
(Isa 5:25):–The words seem to allude to the tremor occasioned by the stroke of the workmans hammer upon some hard body. (R. Macculloch.)
Horses hoofs as flint
(Isa 5:28):–Therefore he will not shrink from riding them on the rocky soil of Palestine, which was extremely unfavourable to the use of horses (Amo 6:12). Similar allusions are frequent in ancient literature, the shoeing of horses being unknown in antiquity. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
A darkened heaven
(Isa 5:30):–It is our wisdom, by keeping a good conscience, to keep all clear between us and heaven, that we may have light from above, when clouds and darkness are round about us. (M. Henry.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 25. The hills did tremble – “And the mountains trembled”] Probably referring to the great earthquakes in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, in or not long before the time of the prophet himself, recorded as a remarkable era in the title of the prophecies of Amos., Am 1:1, and by Zechariah, Zec 14:5.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The hills did tremble; a metaphorical and hyperbolical description of a grievous calamity, familiar in the prophets, as Isa 64:1,2; Jer 4:24, and in other authors.
His hand is stretched out still, ready to give you another and a sorer blow. This is not the end, as you vainly imagine, but, if you repent not, the beginning, of your sorrows, and an earnest of further calamities.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. anger . . . kindled(2Ki 22:13; 2Ki 22:17).
hills . . . trembleThisprobably fixes the date of this chapter, as it refers to theearthquake in the days of Uzziah (Amo 1:1;Zec 14:5). The earth trembled asif conscious of the presence of God (Jer 4:24;Hab 3:6).
tornrather, were asdung (Ps 83:10).
For all this, c.Thisburden of the prophet’s strains, with dirge-like monotony, isrepeated at Isa 9:12 Isa 9:17;Isa 9:21; Isa 10:4.With all the past calamities, still heavier judgments are impending;which he specifies in the rest of the chapter (Le26:14, &c.).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people,…. His professing people; which character, as it aggravated their sin in rejecting and despising the word of the Lord, so it increased his anger and indignation against them:
and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them; which some understand of past judgments and afflictions upon them, under Joash, Amaziah, and Ahaz; and others of future ones, under Shalmaneser and Nebuchadnezzar:
and the hills did tremble; which Jarchi interprets of their kings and princes; or it may be only a figurative expression, setting forth the awfulness of the dispensation:
and their carcasses [were] torn in the midst of the streets. The Targum renders it, “were as dung”; so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions; being slain there, and lying unburied, were trampled upon, and trodden down like “clay”, as the Syriac version; or like the mire of the streets.
For all this his anger is not turned away; this being abundantly less than their sins deserved; which shows how great were their sins, and how much the Lord was provoked to anger by them:
but his hand [is] stretched out still; to inflict yet sorer judgments. The Targum is
“by all this they turn not from their sins, that his fury may turn from them; but their rebellion grows stronger, and his stroke is again to take vengeance on them;”
which expresses their impenitence and hardness of heart, under the judgments of God, which caused him to take more severe methods with them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Therefore is the wrath of Jehovah kindled against His people, and He stretches His hand over them, and smites them; then the hills tremble, and their carcases become like sweepings in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not appeased, and His hand is stretched out still.” We may see from these last words, which are repeated as a refrain in the cycle of prophecies relating to the time of Ahaz (Isa 9:11, Isa 9:16; Isa 10:4), that the prophet had before his mind a distinct and complete judgment upon Judah, belonging to the immediate future. It was certainly a coming judgment, not one already past; for the verbs after “therefore” ( al – cen ), like those after the three previous lacen , are all prophetic preterites. It is impossible, therefore, to take the words “and the hills tremble” as referring to the earthquake in the time of Uzziah (Amo 1:1; Zec 14:5). This judgment, which was closer at hand, would consist in the fact that Jehovah would stretch out His hand in His wrath over His people (or, as it is expressed elsewhere, would swing His hand: Luther, “wave His hand,” i.e., move it to and fro; vid., Isa 11:15; Isa 19:16; Isa 30:30, Isa 30:32), and bring it down upon Judah with one stroke, the violence of which would be felt not only by men, but by surrounding nature as well. What kind of stroke this would be, was to be inferred from the circumstance that the corpses would lie unburied in the streets, like common street-sweepings. The reading must be rejected. Early editors read the word much more correctly ; Buxtorf (1618) even adopts the reading , which has the Masoretic pointing in Num 22:39 in its favour. It is very natural to connect C assuchah with the Arabic kusacha (sweepings; see at Isa 33:12): but kusac is the common form for waste or rubbish of this kind (e.g., kulam , nail-cuttings), whereas Cassuach is a form which, like the forms faol (e.g., C hamots ) and faul (compare the Arabic fasus , a wind-maker, or wind-bag, i.e., a boaster), has always an intensive, active (e.g., C hannun ), or circumstantial signification (like shaccul ), but is never found in a passive sense. The Caph is consequently to be taken as a particle of comparison (followed, as is generally the case, with a definite article); and suchah is to be derived from suach (= verrere , to sweep). The reference, therefore, is not to a pestilence (which is designated, as a stroke from God, not by hiccah , but by nagaph ), but to the slaughter of battle; and if we look at the other terrible judgment threatened in Isa 5:26., which was to proceed from the imperial power, there can be no doubt that the spirit of prophecy here points to the massacre that took place in Judah in connection with the Syro-Ephraimitish war (see 2Ch 28:5-6). The mountains may then have trembled with the marching of troops, and the din of arms, and the felling of trees, and the shout of war. At any rate, nature had to participate in what men had brought upon themselves; for, according to the creative appointment of God, nature bears the same relation to man as the body to the soul. Every stroke of divine wrath which falls upon a nation equally affects the land which has grown up, as it were, with it; and in this sense the mountains of Judah trembled at the time referred to, even though the trembling was only discernible by initiated ears. But “for all this” ( Beth, = “notwithstanding,” “in spite of,” as in Job 1:22) the wrath of Jehovah, as the prophet foresaw, would not turn away, as it was accustomed to do when He was satisfied; and His hand would still remain stretched out over Judah, ready to strike again.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
25. Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled. In this verse the Prophet relates the former punishments which the Jews had already endured, and shows that they are not near an end; but that, on the contrary, heavier judgments await them, if they do not return to the right path. I readily acknowledge that the past tense is frequently employed instead of the future, but the meaning which I have stated will best agree with the context; for there are two things quite distinct from each other, which he lays down, on account of the resolute obstinacy of the people. First, how God perceives their crimes. Secondly, since there are no signs of repentance, he has other scourges within his reach for chastising the people. Thirdly, he describes what those scourges are, and forewarns them that the Assyrians will come at the bidding of the Lord, as soon as he shall express it by merely hissing to them, (verse. 26.)
Such is the connection of what the Prophet states; and hence it ought to be observed that the great body of men, as soon as they have escaped any calamity, forget their chastisements, and no longer regard them as the judgments of God; and that, though experience be the instructor of fools, still they grow hardened by strokes. This insensibility Isaiah sharply rebukes; as if he had said, “Have you so quickly forgotten the calamities under which you lately groaned? Whence came the distressful casting out of dead bodies, but because God had raised his arm against you? And if God has discharged the office of a judge, why do not those recent chastisements induce you to fear him, and to refrain from drawing down a succession of chastisements by new crimes?”
Accordingly, he repeats the term על-כן, ( gnal ken,) therefore; as if he had said that those distresses are not accidental, but are manifest tokens of God’s vengeance; and so he expressly says that God was angry with his people; for if the Jews had not fallen from their own rank, their condition would have been happier than that of any other nation. When God’s chosen people, therefore, are treated by him with so much sharpness and severity, it is beyond all doubt that he has been provoked by heinous crimes. At the same time he refutes the false boasting by which the Jews were wont to vaunt and exalt themselves, as if they ought to be exempt from chastisements on the ground of their being God’s peculiar people.
And the mountains trembled. By this comparison the dreadful nature of those punishments to which they were insensible is described in such a manner as to prove more clearly the stupidity of the people. They were more stupid than inanimate objects, if they did not perceive the wrath of God, and the dreadful vengeance which had been inflicted on the kingdom of Israel.
For all these things. He threatens heavier chastisements in future, as we have already said; for although wicked men acknowledge that the Lord has punished them, still they think that they have no right to expect anything more than one or two chastisements. As if therefore nothing worse could befall them, and as if God’s power to punish them had been exhausted, they wrap themselves up in blind indifference. This is the reason why he exclaims that the wrath of God is not yet appeased, and that, although it has inflicted on them many calamities, still it has within its stores many weapons from which they have reason to dread innumerable wounds.
The copulative ו ( vau) may be taken as a disjunctive, so as to mean, but, on the contrary, his hand is stretched out still. He refers to what he had formerly said, that the hand of God is stretched out. He tells them that it is not yet drawn back, and that it may yet pursue them, and inflict plagues of the same kind, or even of greater severity. We ought diligently to meditate on these statements, in order to shake off that drowsiness to which the greater part of men are frequently liable, even after having received chastisements.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(25) The hills did tremble.We again trace the influence of the earthquake which was still fresh in the memories of men. (See Note on Isa. 2:10.)
Their carcases were torn.Better, were as sweepings, or, as refuse. The words may point either to pestilence, or war, or famine. The stress laid on scarcity in Isa. 5:10 makes it probable that the last was prominent in the prophets mind.
For all this his anger is not turned away.The same formula meets us in Isa. 9:12; Isa. 9:21; Isa. 10:4; Isa. 14:27, with a solemn knell-like iteration. It bids the people remember after each woe that this is not all. They do not as yet see the end of the chastisement through which God is leading them. For all this may mean (1) because of all the sins, or (2) notwithstanding all the punishment already inflicted. (Comp. Lev. 26:18; Lev. 26:23.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. The declaration just made is virtually repeated here, probably as a backing to the closing refrain. The verbs of this verse are of the prophetic preterite for future; that is, the ideal standpoint is in the future, from which the prophet sees, in the past, wave after wave of divine judgment rapidly following each other over the nation.
For all this In all this, or notwithstanding all this, God shall inflict still other judgments. Though the blows be heavy, his anger, or ethical intuition, abates not, because his judgments do not, as intended, bring the people to repentance.
Lev 26:18; Lev 26:23; Lev 26:27. (See this dirge-like strain repeated in Isa 9:12; Isa 9:17, and Isa 10:4.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Prime Source of Their Punishment ( Isa 5:25 ).
Isa 5:25
‘Therefore is the anger of Yahweh kindled against his people,
And he has stretched out his hand against them, and has smitten them,
And the hills have trembled,
And their carcasses were as refuse in the middle of the street.
For all this his anger is not turned away,
But his hand is stretched out still.’
God does not overlook sin even though He bears long with it. For sin arouses His righteous ‘wrath’ against sin, that sense of antipathy to what He knows sin to be. The reference may be to an earthquake, with the hills trembling and the people struck down and lying in the streets unburied. He may indeed be referring back to the great earthquake in the days of Uzziah (Amo 1:1; Zec 14:5), a huge earthquake long remembered, which would have shaken the people and made them think, and even for a time seek God. But the spiritual effects of that (such as they were) had passed and the people had returned to their normal way of living. So Isaiah has to warn them that that earthquake and its passing does not mean that God’s anger is now assuaged. He still intends more punishments against them because of their intransigence and continued disobedience.
The idea of natural disasters as judgments of God is found constantly in the Old Testament. The interweaving of divine action in this way with such disasters is beyond human understanding. But they are a reminder that God created a world in which such things could occur so that they might contain a lesson for man, a lesson that Israel should have learned here.
Alternately the trembling of the hills was often a way by which a conqueror described his own progress. Thus this may have been a way of describing the approach of such a conqueror, with Isaiah now describing the approach of foreign armies. Those certainly soon came, first on Israel and then on Judah. The powerful Assyrian armies swept in, Israel was devastated, Samaria their capital city was destroyed, the leaders and artisans were carried off into captivity, and later Judah itself was invaded and its cities devastated. For even though Jerusalem itself might be spared by the decisive action of God in smiting the Assyrian army, the remainder of Judah suffered terribly.
‘The hills have trembled.’ When God acts, nature trembles at His mighty power. Great conquerors often spoke of the hills trembling at their approach. How much more then at the approach of the instruments of Yahweh.
‘Their carcasses were as refuse in the middle of the street.’ The only place where refuse could be tossed in most cities was as far away from the houses as possible, in the middle of the street (which were not very wide). There it lay and stank until it was borne away. Thus would their dead bodies also be cast out as rubbish, to rot and await the collector.
‘For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.’ Whichever type of judgment was in mind this time it would not be enough in itself. For Israel His action in bringing the Assyrians against them was to have lasting, permanent results, and so it would for Judah in the future (by means of the Babylonians) unless they listened to his message. Let them not think that this time the judgment would come and pass. It would continue. They would be carried away into captivity, into exile, once again being in bondage as in Egypt, awaiting deliverance. God’s hatred of sin could no longer allow them to go on as they were.
For this final phrase compare Isa 9:12; Isa 9:17; Isa 9:21; Isa 10:4. This was not just a solitary warning. There it would be repeated fourfold. A good phrase deserves to be repeated.
The fact that the phrase is taken up again and that woe continues to be pronounced in chapter Isa 9:8 onwards suggests either that chapters 6 to Isa 9:7 have been deliberately inserted into a pre-existent prophecy by Isaiah, or that Isa 9:8 to Isa 10:4 is a deliberate attempt to connect back to this chapter. Either way Isa 9:8 onwards is therefore to be seen as a continuation of these prophecies. It will be noted that chapters Isa 6:1 to Isa 9:7 begin with the throne of Yahweh, God in heaven, and end with the throne of the new God-raised David, God’s representative on earth. Isaiah continually seeks to avoid too much continual emphasis on wrath. Thus in the midst of wrath he presents God’s solution.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 5:25. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled, &c. The meaning is, that God, before the time of that final vengeance concerning which the prophesy treats principally, had afflicted this rebellious people with the most grievous calamities; or rather, would afflict and chastise them: that those calamities should consume many, who, slain in the wars, should be trod upon by their enemies like the dung in the streets; most certain indications of the divine justice and severity; while they, unawakened by these chastisements, would not attempt to appease the divine wrath, but would provoke it still more by repeated crimes; so that at length it should come upon them to the utmost. See 1Th 2:16 and Dan 9:26. The expression, the hills did tremble, is metaphorically, “They were struck with grievous slaughters and calamities, the fame of which extended itself widely.” See Psa 18:7 and Jer 4:24. The phrase His hand is stretched out still, which is familiar to our prophet, (see chap. Isa 9:12; Isa 9:17; Isa 9:21; Isa 10:4.) signifies that there is no end of slaughters, miseries, calamities, punishment; but that the chastising God, with extended hand, still keeps the scourge ready to add stroke to stroke. See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 5:25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases [were] torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.
Ver. 25. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled. ] For contempt of the law, but especially of the gospel, “wrath came upon” that wretched people of the Jews “to the utmost,” 1Th 2:16 or until the end, as some read it. They are to this day a people of God’s wrath and curse, and become a woeful example of that rule, Atrocia delicta puniuntur atrocibus poenis, Heinous sins bring heavy punishments. This desolation of theirs (as Daniel prophesieth, Dan 9:27 ) shall continue to the end.
And he hath stretched forth his hand against them.
And hath smitten them.
And the hills did tremble,
And their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets.
For all this his anger is not turned away.
a Hyperbole.
b Josephus.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
stretched forth: in judgment.
torn in the midst of the streets = as the sweepings of the streets.
For all this, &c. Compare the Reference to Pent, in the fivefold consequence of Isa 5:25; Isa 9:12, Isa 9:17, Isa 9:21; Isa 10:4, with the fivefold cause in Lev 26:14, Lev 26:18, Lev 26:21, Lev 26:24, Lev 26:28.
stretched out still = remains stretched out. Same word as “stretched forth (above) in judgment”. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 6:6. Deu 4:34; Deu 5:15; Deu 7:19; Deu 9:29; Deu 11:2; Deu 26:8).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the anger: Deu 31:17, Deu 32:19-22, 2Ki 13:3, 2Ki 22:13-17, 2Ch 36:16, Psa 106:40, Lam 2:1-3, Lam 5:22, 1Th 2:16
stretched: Isa 14:26, Isa 14:27
the hills: Psa 18:7, Psa 68:8, Psa 77:18, Psa 114:7, Jer 4:24, Mic 1:4, Nah 1:5, Hab 3:10, Rev 20:11
torn: or, as dung, 1Ki 14:11, 1Ki 16:4, 1Ki 21:24, 2Ki 9:37, Psa 83:10, Jer 8:2, Jer 9:22, Jer 15:3, Jer 16:4, Zep 1:17
For all: Isa 9:12, Isa 9:13, Isa 9:17, Isa 9:21, Isa 10:4, Lev 26:14-46, Psa 78:38, Dan 9:16, Hos 14:4
Reciprocal: Num 11:10 – the anger 1Ki 14:10 – as a man taketh Job 1:11 – But put Psa 60:2 – made Psa 138:7 – thou shalt stretch Isa 25:10 – even Isa 25:11 – he shall spread Isa 29:2 – I will Jer 4:8 – the Jer 6:12 – I will Jer 17:4 – for Jer 21:5 – with an Jer 23:19 – General Jer 25:33 – they shall be Eze 6:14 – will I Eze 14:9 – and I will Eze 15:6 – General Eze 16:27 – I have Amo 2:4 – because Amo 8:8 – the land Mic 4:11 – many
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 5:25. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled This implies that, before the time of that final vengeance, concerning which the prophecy principally treats, God had afflicted, or, rather, would afflict and chastise this rebellious people, with the most grievous calamities: that those calamities should consume many, who, being slain in the wars, should be trod upon by their enemies, like the dung in the streets; most certain indications these of the divine justice and wrath, while they, unawakened by these chastisements, would not so much as attempt to appease the divine displeasure, but would provoke it still more by repeated crimes; till, at length, it should come upon them to the uttermost. Vitringa. And the hills did tremble A metaphorical and hyperbolical description of a grievous calamity, familiar to the prophets: see the margin. For all this, his anger is not turned away, &c. This is not the end, as you vainly imagine, but, if you repent not, only the beginning of your sorrows, and an earnest of further miseries.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 5:25-30. The Last Stroke.It is generally agreed that this belongs to Isa 9:8 to Isa 10:4, each strophe of which closes with the same refrain as Isa 5:25. Unhappily, except for this closing verse, the strophe of which Isa 5:25 is the conclusion has been lost, unless indeed Isa 5:25, apart from the refrain, is an addition. There is no refrain at the end of Isa 5:26 ff., so this will form the close of the poem. After each stroke of Yahwehs wrath a fresh judgment has been announced; now the final stroke is predicted in a magnificent picture of the irresistible attack of a foe from the ends of the earth. Yahwehs last blow is struck, and His arm is no longer stretched out to smite. As in Amos the foe is not named, and thus the impression is heightened, but Assyria is intended. It is Ephraims God who lifts the standard to summon the enemy and hisses (Isa 7:18) for them. They come unresting, unwearied, in perfect military array, the hoofs of the horses hard like flint, their chariots swift as the whirlwind. The foe utters, as he advances, a loud roar like that of the lioness or young lion as they seek their prey, then the low growl as he pounces on it and carries it away.
Isa 5:26. nations: read nation (LXX).
Isa 5:28. The ancients did not shoe their horses, so their hoofs needed to be hard as flint to go over the hilly and rocky country of Palestine.
Isa 5:30. The text is corrupt, the meaning uncertain, the probability that the verse is a late insertion considerable, the problem too complicated to be discussed.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
5:25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his {e} hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills trembled, and their carcases [were] torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.
(e) He shows that God had so sore punished this people, that the dumb creatures if they had been so plagued would have been more sensible, and therefore his plagues must continue, till they begin to seal them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
In fact, many judgments had already come against Judah in her history (cf. 2Ch 28:5-6). God was removing the hedge and breaking down the wall around His vineyard (cf. Isa 5:5). Nevertheless the nation had not repented, so more judgment would come.