Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 5:30
And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if [one] look unto the land, behold darkness [and] sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
30. Apparently an image of the land in the throes of the invasion. The verse, which presents many difficulties, may read somewhat as follows: And he shall growl over him in that day like the growling of the sea, and if one look to the earth, behold darkness of distress (and the light is dark) in its clouds. The text is probably in some disorder. The words in brackets are wanting in the LXX. The first clause is generally interpreted of the growl of the invader over the prostrate land; some, however, understand it of the voice of Jehovah (the thunder) moving overhead and directing the attack. The latter part of the verse has a general resemblance to Isa 8:22; the words “look to the earth” seem to require some such antithesis as “look up” in Isa 8:21.
in the heavens thereof ] The word is not elsewhere used and is of uncertain meaning.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They shall roar against them – The army that shall come up shall roar against the Jews. The image of the roaring of the sea indicates the great number that would come; that of the roaring of the lion denotes their fierceness and terror.
And if one look unto the land – This expression has given some perplexity, because it is supposed not to be full or complete. The whole image, it has been supposed (see Lowth), would be that of looking upward to the heaven for help, and then to the land, or earth; compare Isa 8:22, where the same expression is used. But there is no need of supposing the expression defective. The prophet speaks of the vast multitude that was coming up and roaring like the tumultuous ocean. On that side there was no safety. The waves were rolling, and everything was suited to produce alarm. It was natural to speak of the other direction, as the land, or the shore; and to say that the people would look there for safety. But, says he, there would be no safety there. All would be darkness.
Darkness and sorrow – This is an image of distress and calamity. There should be no light; no consolation; no safety; compare Isa 59:9; Amo 5:18, Amo 5:20; Lam 3:2.
And the light is darkened … – That which gave light is turned to darkness.
In the heavens thereof – In the clouds, perhaps, or by the gloomy thick clouds. Lowth renders it, the light is obscured by the gloomy vapor. The main idea is plain, that there would be distress and calamity; and that there would be no light to guide them on their way. On the one hand a roaring, ragtag multitude, like the sea; on the other distress, perplexity, and gloom. Thus shut up, they must perish, and their land be utterly desolate.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 30. If one look unto the land, c. – “And these shall look to the heaven upward, and down to the earth”] venibbat laarets. . So the Septuagint, according to the Vatican and Alexandrian copies but the Complutensian and Aldine editions have it more fully, thus: – , ; and the Arabic from the Septuagint, as if it had stood thus: – , , both of which are plainly defective; the words , unto the earth, being wanted in the former, and the word , above, in the latter. But an ancient Coptic version from the Septuagint, supposed to be of the second century, some fragments of which are preserved in the library of St. Germain des Prez at Paris, completes the sentence; for, according to this version, it stood thus in the Septuagint. – , ; “And they shall look unto the heavens above and unto the earth beneath,” and so it stands in the Septuagint MSS., Pachom. and I. D. II., according to which they must have read their Hebrew text in this manner: – . This is probably the true reading, with which I have made the translation agree. Compare Isa 8:22; where the same sense is expressed in regard to both particulars, which are here equally and highly proper, the looking upwards, as well as down to the earth: but the form of expression is varied. I believe the Hebrew text in that place to be right, though not so full as I suppose it was originally here; and that of the Septuagint there to be redundant, being as full as the Coptic version and MSS. Pachom. and I. D. II. represent it in this place, from which I suppose it has been interpolated.
Darkness – “The gloomy vapour”] The Syriac and Vulgate seem to have read bearphalach; but Jarchi explains the present reading as signifying darkness; and possibly the Syriac and Vulgate may have understood it in the same manner.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Like the roaring of the sea; which is violent and frightful.
Darkness and sorrow; darkness, to wit, sorrow: the latter word explains the former, and the particle
and is put expositively, as it is frequently.
The light is darkened in the heavens thereof; when they look up to the heavens, as men in distress usually do, they see no light there; their comforts are wholly eclipsed, and their hopes are like the giving up of the ghost.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. sorrow, and the light isdarkenedOtherwise, distress and light (that is, hopeand fear) alternately succeed (as usually occurs in an unsettledstate of things), and darkness arises in, &c. [MAURER].
heavensliterally,”clouds,” that is, its sky is rather “clouds”than sky. Otherwise from a different Hebrew root, “in itsdestruction” or ruins. HORSLEYtakes “sea . . . look unto the land” as a new image takenfrom mariners in a coasting vessel (such as all ancient vesselswere), looking for the nearest land, which the darknessof the storm conceals, so that darkness and distress alone maybe said to be visible.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea,…. That is, the Romans against the Jews; whose attacks upon them should be with so much fierceness and power, that it should be like the roaring of the sea, which is very dreadful, and threatens with utter destruction; the roaring of the sea and its waves is mentioned among the signs preceding Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans, Lu 21:25:
and if [one] look unto the land: the land of Judea, when wasted by the Romans, or while those wars continued between them and the Jews; or “into it” k
behold darkness; great affliction and tribulation being signified by darkness and dimness; see Isa 8:21
[and] sorrow or “distress”, great straits and calamities:
[and], or “even”,
the light is darkened in the heavens thereof; in their civil and church state, the kingdom being removed from the one, and the priesthood from the other; and their principal men in both, signified by the darkness of the sun, moon, and stars. Mt 24:29.
k “in terram”, Montanus, Piscator; “in hanc terram”, Junius & Tremellius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“And it utters a deep roar over it in that day like the roaring of the sea: and it looks to the earth, and behold darkness, tribulation, and light; it becomes night over it in the clouds of heaven.” The subject to “roars” is the mass of the enemy; and in the expressions “over it” and “it looks” ( nibbat ; the niphal, which is only met with here, in the place of the hiphil) the prophet has in his mind the nation of Judah, upon which the enemy falls with the roar of the ocean – that is to say, overwhelming it like a sea. And when the people of Judah look to the earth, i.e., to their own land, darkness alone presents itself, and darkness which has swallowed up all the smiling and joyous aspect which it had before. And what then? The following words, tzar va’or , have been variously rendered, viz., “moon (= sahar ) and sun” by the Jewish expositors, “stone and flash,” i.e., hail and thunder-storm, by Drechsler; but such renderings as these, and others of a similar kind, are too far removed from the ordinary usage of the language. And the separation of the two words, so that the one closes a sentence and the other commences a fresh one (e.g., “darkness of tribulation, and the sun becomes dark”), which is adopted by Hitzig, Gesenius, Ewald, and others, is opposed to the impression made by the two monosyllables, and sustained by the pointing, that they are connected together. The simplest explanation is one which takes the word tzar in its ordinary sense of tribulation or oppression, and ‘or in its ordinary sense of light, and which connects the two words closely together. And this is the case with the rendering given above: tzar va’or are “tribulation and brightening up,” one following the other and passing over into the other, like morning and night (Isa 21:12). This pair of words forms an interjectional clause, the meaning of which is, that when the predicted darkness had settled upon the land of Judah, this would not be the end; but there would still follow an alternation of anxiety and glimmerings of hope, until at last it had become altogether dark in the cloudy sky over all the land of Judah ( ariphim , the cloudy sky, is only met with here; it is derived from araph , to drop or trickle, hence also araphel : the suffix points back to la’aretz , eretz denoting sometimes the earth as a whole, and at other times the land as being part of the earth). The prophet here predicts that, before utter ruin has overtaken Judah, sundry approaches will be made towards this, within which a divine deliverance will appear again and again. Grace tries and tries again and again, until at last the measure of iniquity is full, and the time of repentance past. The history of the nation of Judah proceeded according to this law until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The Assyrian troubles, and the miraculous light of divine help which arose in the destruction of the military power of Sennacherib, were only the foreground of this mournful but yet ever and anon hopeful course of history, which terminated in utter darkness, that has continued now for nearly two thousand years.
This closes the third prophetic address. It commences with a parable which contains the history of Israel in nuce , and closes with an emblem which symbolizes the gradual but yet certain accomplishment of the judicial, penal termination of the parable. This third address, therefore, is as complete in itself as the second was. The kindred allusions are to be accounted for from the sameness of the historical basis and arena. During the course of the exposition, it has become more and more evident and certain that it relates to the time of Uzziah and Jotham – a time of peace, of strength, and wealth, but also of pride and luxury. The terrible slaughter of the Syro-Ephraimitish war, which broke out at the end of Jotham’s reign, and the varied complications which king Ahaz introduced between Judah and the imperial worldly power, and which issued eventually in the destruction of the former kingdom – those five marked epochs in the history of the kingdoms of the world, or great empires, to which the Syro-Ephraimitish war was the prelude – were still hidden from the prophet in the womb of the future. The description of the great mass of people that was about to roll over Judah from afar is couched in such general terms, so undefined and misty, that all we can say is, that everything that was to happen to the people of God on the part of the imperial power during the five great and extended periods of judgment that were now so soon to commence (viz., the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman), was here unfolding itself out of the mist of futurity, and presenting itself to the prophet’s eye. Even in the time of Ahaz the character of the prophecy changed in this respect. It was then that the eventful relation, in which Israel stood to the imperial power, generally assumed its first concrete shape in the form of a distinct relation to Asshur (Assyria). And from that time forth the imperial power in the mouth of the prophet is no longer a majestic thing without a name; but although the notion of the imperial power was not yet embodied in Asshur, it was called Asshur, and Asshur stood as its representative. It also necessarily follows from this, that Chapters 2-4 and 5 belong to the times anterior to Ahaz, i.e., to those of Uzziah and Jotham. But several different questions suggest themselves here. If chapters 2-4 and 5 were uttered under Uzziah and Jotham, how could Isaiah begin with a promise (Isa 2:1-4) which is repeated word for word in Mic 4:1., where it is the direct antithesis to Isa 3:12, which was uttered by Micah, according to Jer 26:18, in the time of Hezekiah? Again, if we consider the advance apparent in the predictions of judgment from the general expressions with which they commence in Chapter 1 to the close of chapter 5, in what relation does the address in chapter 1 stand to chapters 2-4 and 5, inasmuch as Isa 5:7-9 are not ideal (as we felt obliged to maintain, in opposition to Caspari), but have a distinct historical reference, and therefore at any rate presuppose the Syro-Ephraimitish war? And lastly, if Isa 6:1-13 does really relate, as it apparently does, to the call of Isaiah to the prophetic office, how are we to explain the singular fact, that three prophetic addresses precede the history of his call, which ought properly to stand at the commencement of the book? Drechsler and Caspari have answered this question lately, by maintaining that Isa 6:1-13 does not contain an account of the call of Isaiah to the prophetic office, but simply of the call of the prophet, who was already installed in that office, to one particular mission. The proper heading to be adopted for Isa 6:1-13 would therefore be, “The ordination of the prophet as the preacher of the judgment of hardening;” and chapters 1-5 would contain warning reproofs addressed by the prophet to the people, who were fast ripening for this judgment of hardening (reprobation), for the purpose of calling them to repentance. The final decision was still trembling in the balance. But the call to repentance was fruitless, and Israel hardened itself. And now that the goodness of God had tried in vain to lead the people to repentance, and the long-suffering of God had been wantonly abused by the people, Jehovah Himself would harden them. Looked at in this light, Isa 6:1-13 stands in its true historical place. It contains the divine sequel to that portion of Isaiah’s preaching, and of the prophetic preaching generally, by which it had been preceded. But true as it is that the whole of the central portion of Israel’s history, which lay midway between the commencement and the close, was divided in half by the contents of Isa 6:1-13, and that the distinctive importance of Isaiah as a prophet arose especially from the fact that he stood upon the boundary between these two historic halves; there are serious objections which present themselves to such an explanation of Isa 6:1-13. It is possible, indeed, that this distinctive importance may have been given to Isaiah’s official position at his very first call. And what Umbreit says – namely, that Isa 6:1-13 must make the impression upon every unprejudiced mind, that it relates to the prophet’s inaugural vision – cannot really be denied. but the position in which Isa 6:1-13 stands in the book itself must necessarily produce a contrary impression, unless it can be accounted for in some other way. Nevertheless the impression still remains (just as at Isa 1:7-9), and recurs again and again. We will therefore proceed to Isa 6:1-13 without attempting to efface it. It is possible that we may discover some other satisfactory explanation of the enigmatical position of Isa 6:1-13 in relation to what precedes.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
30. He shall roar against him. (91) The Prophet adds this, that the Jews may understand that the fierce attack of the Chaldeans is not accidental, but that they have been appointed by God and are guided by his hand. By the roaring of the sea he means an attack so violent that it will look like a deluge, by which the whole of Judea will suffer shipwreck. He likewise cuts off all hope by foretelling that the punishment will have no alleviation and no end. “The Jews,” he says, “will do what is usually done in a season of perplexity, will cast their eyes up and down to discover the means of escape; but in whatever direction they look, whether to heaven or to earth, they will find no relief whatever; for on all sides distresses and calamities will overwhelm them.” This mode of expression has come to be frequently employed even by the common people, when misery and ruin appear on all sides, and no escape or relief can be found. This must unavoidably happen when the Lord pursues us, so that his uplifted arm meets our eyes on every side, and, wherever we turn, we behold his creatures armed against us to execute his judgments; for we may sometimes escape the hand of men, but how can we escape the hand of God?
(91) And in that day they shall roar against them. — Eng. Ver.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(30) They shall roar against them.Literally, there is a roaring over him. The verb is the same as in the previous verse, and points therefore to the shout and tramp of the armies. It suggests the thought of the roaring of the sea, and this in its turn that of the darkness and thick clouds of a tempest; or possibly, as before, of an earthquake; or possibly, again, of an eclipse. The word for heavens is not that commonly used; better, clouds.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 5:30. And if one look unto the land Isaiah here closes this prophesy with a strong and eloquent description of the consequences of this calamity; setting forth, in the most emphatical terms, the utter confusion, blackness, and desperation of the miserable Jews. See chap. Isa 8:22. Nothing can more exactly agree with the state of the Jews after their destruction by Titus, than these words. Vitringa.
REFLECTIONS.1st, To bring these sinners to a sense of their guilt and danger, they have line upon line, and precept upon precept; every winning means is tried, whether by affecting parables or plain address. The prophet here warns them in poetic measure and parabolic figure. God the Father calls it a song of his well-beloved, of Christ, the beloved Son of the Father, and the object of chief regard and affection to every true believer. Under the parable of a vineyard, the prophet shews,
1. The peculiar care God had taken of them. He had placed his vineyard in a very fruitful hill, where corn, wine, oil, and every earthly blessing abounded; fenced it in from the rest of the world, and protected them night and day by his Almighty power; gathered out the stones thereof, the Canaanites hard and obdurate as stones; planted it with the choicest vine, the seed of Abraham his chosen, and gave them the knowledge of his true religion and pure worship; and he built a tower in the midst of it, the temple where his presence rested in the midst of them, their glory and defence; and also made a wine-press therein, his altar, on which their oblations might be poured out, and their sacrifices offered. Note; In all our privileges and blessings, whether temporal or spiritual, God’s hand should be acknowledged by us.
2. The reasonable expectations that he entertained, and the disappointment he met with. He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes; instead of the fruits of righteousness, it produced poisonous principles, hypocritical professions, or openly infamous practices. Note; (1.) If God hath given us outward privileges, he justly expects suitable returns. It is not merely the leaves of profession, nor the green grape of future purposes, but the sound fruit of purity and holiness, that he demands. (2.) When God is said to be disappointed, it means not that he did not foresee or know what would be the event, but this is spoken after the manner of men, according to what we, in a like case, should have expected. (3.) They who produce the wild grapes will set an edge on their own teeth, when God’s righteous vengeance awakes to punish the transgressors.
3. He appeals to the men of Judah and Jerusalem. In a case so very evident, he might rest it on their own consciences what more could have been done? what greater advantages, civil and religious, could they desire to have enjoyed? wherefore then have they acted so vile a part, and made such unsuitable returns? Note; (1.) The sinner acts most unreasonably, as well as most ungratefully, and will in the day of God appear without excuse. (2.) When we consider our mercies, who must not tremble for his own unprofitableness? (3.) Though God’s patience last long, it will not endure for ever: when the wicked are incorrigible, their ruin is near.
4. God pronounces judgment upon them. I will take away the hedge thereof, remove their defence, and give them for a prey to their enemies; and it shall be eaten up by wild beasts, such as were the Roman soldiers, massacring without pity; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down, when the besiegers entered at the wide breaches, utterly destroying all before them, laying both city and people in the dust. And I will lay it waste, without inhabitants; it shall not be pruned nor digged, neither magistrates, prophets, nor ministers, should any longer attempt to cultivate it; but there shall come up briers and thorns, errors and immoralities, fatal as universal: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it, no dew of heavenly influence shall descend upon them, but they shall be left to their hard and impenitent hearts. Note; The nation and people from whom God in displeasure withdraws his ordinances and his ministers, are in a miserable way indeed.
5. The prophet applies the parable to the Jewish people; the commonwealth of Israel was the vineyard, and the members of it the once pleasant plants, but now become the degenerate plants of a strange vine. The fruits that God expected were, righteousness and judgment, honesty and impartial administration of justice; but, instead thereof, the cry of oppression went up to God, and called down vengeance on the guilty land. Note; Men’s sins pass not unnoticed: God sees, and will assuredly visit for these things.
2nd, We have two heavy woes denounced against two crying sins, worldly-mindedness and sensuality; the common iniquities, not of the Jews only, but of our own days, and which will as assuredly now bring down the wrath of God as then.
1. They were insatiable, and ever coveting to enlarge their possessions, to engross every spot around; and, while they might gratify their own covetousness, careless what inconveniencies others suffered thereby, or what injuries they sustained, so that themselves might but be accommodated. Therefore God threatens them by a revelation made to his prophet: Many, or great houses shall be desolate, when their avaricious princes and chief men went into captivity, or were slain by the sword, and none left to dwell in those gorgeous palaces which they with so much solicitude had raised; and, instead of the plenty they expected from joining field to field, such a curse should be upon the land, that ten acres of vineyard should not produce half so many gallons of wine, nor their ground yield scarcely a tenth of the feed they had sown. Note; (1.) They who set their hearts on worldly things are sure to be disappointed. (2.) Though it be no sin to purchase what our neighbour is willing to part with, yet to be ever contriving how to increase our stores, to have a greedy eye on every adjoining field in order to make our own estate more complete; O si angulus ille proximus accedat, qui nunc denormat agellum;* this is to provoke God to smite our possessions with a curse.
*O that yon neighbouring angle, which now spoils the regularity of my field, could be joined to it!
2. They were sunk in sensuality and pleasure. Eager to quench, or rather inflame, their raging thirst, they rose early, and began the day with strong drink, and protracted their carousals till night; flushed with wine, no evil was too much for them; rage, revelling, lust, reigned uncontrolled. Music, prostituted, served to heighten their passions; drunken, lewd, the song, with pleasing sound, stole deeper into the heart; and no place was left for serious recollectionGod, his judgments, works and ways, and his Messiah were utterly disregarded. Note; (1.) Drunkenness is not only a vice most brutal and odious in itself, but the pregnant author of every abomination. (2.) The most innocent things are liable to grievous abuse; even music may lull the soul into eternal ruin. (3.) When the mind is enslaved by lust and pleasure, God is forgotten, and every thought of him and his judgments thrust out as irksome intruders. Woe therefore unto them! a judgment near and terrible approaches; therefore my people are gone, or are going into captivity, by the Babylonians first, and afterwards by the Romans, because they have no knowledge, by their sins are become brutish, insensible of their danger, and wilfully blind to their impending ruin: their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst, a just judgment on those who wasted so much in rioting and drunkenness: and dreadful, even to read of, were their sufferings during the sieges they sustained, so far that many of them ate their own children. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, a pit, deep like Tophet, is dug to receive the corpses, perishing so numerously by famine, pestilence, and the sword; or the place of torment yawns to ingulph their polluted souls, and hath opened her mouth without measure, insatiate to devour the wicked; and their glory, the nobles, and their multitude, the populace, or the rulers, though never so many as well as mighty; and their pomp, their rich ones who lived in splendor, and he that rejoiceth in careless gaiety and carousing, shall descend into it, into the grave, or afterward into hell together; where, instead of mirth and riot, their everlasting portion will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Thus shall the mean and mighty perish together, and leave a warning to others, of the danger of their ways. Let the drunkard solemnly peruse this judgment; let the careless pleasure-loving world behold their appointed end, that before it be too late they may consider their ways, and prevent so fearful a destruction.
3. By the execution of such just judgment would God be glorified; his holiness, and hatred of sin, appear; his righteousness in executing vengeance be manifested. Then also shall the lambs feed after their manner, or according as they are led; the lambs of Christ’s flock, fed by his word, and walking in all his holy ways; and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat, the Gentiles shall both possess the country of Israel, and partake of those gospel blessings which the proud and self-righteous Jews despised and rejected. Note; (1.) God will not want a people; if some be obstinate, others will hear and obey him. (2.) If sinners will not glorify God’s mercy by their humble acceptance of his grace in a Redeemer, they must glorify his justice in the place of torment.
3rdly, Two woes are denounced, but there are others yet to come equally grievous, and all dating their origin from sin, which then was, now is, and ever will be, the cause of all our misery. Happy, did we but take warning by others’ woes, and flee their iniquities.
1. Their sins are many.
(1.) They draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope, strain every nerve, use every argument to accomplish their wicked purposes; rushing into temptation, and bent on gratifying their evil desires at all events.
(2.) They defied God, despised the warnings of his prophets, and when his Son appeared, treated his pretensions with contempt. They say, let him make speed, and hasten his work; the men of that generation said, where are the threatened judgments? deriding their prophets who brought the message: the Jews said, if he be the Son of God, let him come down from the cross; and the infidel sinner continues thus to treat God’s warnings in every age.
(3.) They sought to confound good and evil, wilfully misrepresented truth as falsehood, branding the ways of godliness as miserable, and boasting that the paths of sin are the only substantial bliss. Note; The devil and wicked men ever study to dress up religion and its professors in the most forbidding colours, while every glaring vice is palliated with some soft name, or pleaded for as commendable. Seriousness and singularity are termed pride and moroseness, while a life of dissipation is called the indulgence of a little innocent pleasure; a debauch, the enjoyment of good company; sordid parsimony, frugality; and daring infidelity, free-thinking: but names alter not things, nor change their nature; the sweetness of God’s good ways abides the same, and all the glosses of sinners will not prevent their feeling the bitterness of the flames of hell.
(4.) They were proud and self-sufficient, wise in their own eyes, though so infatuated, and prudent in their own sight, valuing themselves on their understanding and management. Thus the Pharisees said, we see, when most deeply their sin remained. Note; Conceit of our own wisdom is among the most fatal of errors.
(5.) They were mighty to drink wine, of strong heads, and gloried in the quantity of liquor they could carry off; and men of strength to mingle strong drink, delighting in being able to drink others down, as it is termed by the debauchees. Note; (1.) They who are mighty to drink wine, shall shortly drink the wine of the wrath of God, unless they repent. (2.) The strength of a man’s constitution will not exculpate him from the guilt of drunkenness. To sit long at the cups and delight in them, is as evil as to fill the table with vomit, or stagger in their walk. (3.) They who glory now in their shame, of having out-drank their companions, in hell will find small joy in these exploits.
(6.) They barely perverted justice for gain. Their magistrates justified the wicked for reward, money covered all crimes; while they take away the righteousness of the righteous from him, the poor who cannot bribe, or the upright that dare not, however just their cause, are sure to be cast: for iniquities like these God will visit, and his soul be avenged of such a people as this. Therefore,
2. He denounces their doom. Because they have cast away the law of the Lord, the doctrine sent them by his prophets, and the Gospel preached by his Son, and despised the word of the holy One of Israel, treated it with contempt and disregard; therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so sudden, terrible, resistless, and irreparable, should their destruction be; so that their root shall be as rottenness, and therefore the whole political tree must perish; and their blossom go up as the dust, all their pomp, riches, and glory be dispersed, as withered blossoms before the wind. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, once his chosen, now apostate from him, and exposed to his wrath. Present judgments were upon them, their princes slain in their streets, and none to bury them; yet these were but the beginning of sorrows: God’s anger was far from being turned away, and greater woes were approaching, his hand being stretched out still. He will lift up an ensign, as the signal for marching, to the nations from far; the Romans, composed of various people, and bringing their troops from distant provinces: he will hiss unto him, or them, the army, or the general, as a shepherd whistles to his dog to come. Instantly they will obey, marching speedily; no weariness shall retard, or difficulties stumble them: so eager would they be to hasten to the siege, that they would march day and night, and not even undress themselves, or loose their shoes, to lie down to sleep by the way; expressions denoting their indefatigable diligence. Their archers should be ready to shoot, their cavalry strong, their chariots of war swift, and come thundering along. Fierce as lions, their roar should intimidate; strong as lions, their defenceless prey would fall, and none be able to deliver the devoted people of Judaea from the ravening Roman soldiers. In that day of the siege of Jerusalem, they should roar with their shouts and battering engines, as the tempestuous sea; and the land of Judaea should be ravaged and sunk under its distress, as if the luminaries of heaven were extinguished, Mat 24:29 their whole polity, civil and ecclesiastical, be utterly dissolved; and priests, princes, and people, sink in one promiscuous ruin. Note; (1.) When sinners reject the counsel of God against their own soul, they bring upon themselves swift destruction. (2.) God never wants instruments to execute his vengeance upon a guilty nation. (3.) When the Lord gives the word, the damnation of the wicked no longer slumbers. (4.) They who have fled from the light of truth to the darkness of sin, are justly consigned to the eternal darkness.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER, let us mark from the perusal of this chapter, the two great leading points contained in it; the grace, and mercy, and loving-kindness of the Lord; and the fallen, corrupt, and wretched state of man. Both views are here presented to us: and both open to very solemn and improving subjects.
How exactly answering to the love of God to his people, is the description the prophet hath given of the church, under the similitude of a vine. Calling, his people out of Egypt, forming them into a church, and planting them in Canaan; casting out the nations before them, and watering them continually with his blessing: these things are strongly shadowed forth under the images of planting, gathering out the stones, making a fence, and causing the clouds, and the rain, and the sun, to shed their influences. – Reader, look at Jesus, that plant of renown! Behold in the wonders of redemption, what God hath wrought. And then take a view of what hath followed in all generations of the church: when the Lord looked that his vineyard should bring forth grapes, wherefore brought it forth wild grapes.
Reader, it will be your wisdom and mine, while contemplating in this chapter the riches of grace, in the Lord’s forbearance and long suffering to his people, to look into our own history, and behold what correspondence we can find there, with what is here said of God’s ancient people. Oh for grace to make such improvements from the whole, as to see that all our mercies are in Jesus. It is for him, and his righteousness, his atoning blood and salvation, that the world continues. But for his gracious interposition, the whole earth would have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Lord! visit thy church, thy vineyard, thy people. Oh take unto thee, Lord Jesus, thy great name, and as thou hast wrought out salvation for us, so work salvation in us. Behold the purchase of thy blood, and for thine own sake turn to thy people a pure language, that they may all call upon thee with one consent. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 5:30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if [one] look unto the land, behold darkness [and] sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
Ver. 30. Like the roaring of the sea. ] The noise whereof is so hideous, that the shrieking of the devil is set forth by it. Jam 2:19 See Trapp on “ Jam 2:19 “
And if one look into the land.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
heavens = skies.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
like: Psa 93:3, Psa 93:4, Jer 6:23, Jer 50:42, Luk 21:25
if one look: Isa 8:22, Isa 13:10, Exo 10:21-23, Jer 4:23-28, Lam 3:2, Eze 32:7, Eze 32:8, Joe 2:10, Amo 8:9, Mat 24:29, Luk 21:25, Luk 21:26, Rev 6:12, Rev 16:10, Rev 16:11
sorrow: or, distress
and the light: etc. or, when it is light, it shall be dark in the destructions thereof
Reciprocal: Isa 9:19 – is the land Isa 59:9 – we wait Jer 4:28 – the heavens Jer 13:16 – before Jer 30:5 – a voice Eze 26:3 – as the sea Eze 30:18 – the day Joe 2:2 – A day of darkness Amo 4:13 – that maketh Amo 5:18 – the day of the Lord is 1Pe 5:8 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 5:30. And in that day, &c. Here Isaiah closes this prophecy, with a strong and eloquent description of the consequences of this calamity; setting forth, in the most emphatical terms, the utter confusion, blackness, and desperation of the miserable Jews. See Isa 8:22. They shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea Which is violent and frightful; and if one look, &c., behold, darkness and sorrow Darkness, that is, sorrow: the latter word explains the former. Every thing looks black and dismal. And the light is darkened in the heavens thereof When they look up to the heavens, as men in distress usually do, they see no light there. Their comforts are wholly eclipsed, and their hopes like the giving up of the ghost. It must be observed, that the Scriptures frequently express great calamities and changes, in states and churches, by the heavens being darkened, and the sun, moon, and stars withdrawing their light, or falling from heaven.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5:30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if {k} [one] looketh to the land, behold darkness [and] sorrow, and the light is darkened in its {l} heavens.
(k) The Jews will find no comfort.
(l) In the land of Judah.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The enemy’s attack would be as irresistible as the pounding of waves on a shore. This may be one of many prophetic comparisons between the Gentile nations and the waters of the sea. Israel would find no hope by looking to the land for help because the clouds of God’s wrath would darken it and make it foreboding. Israel would find no help anywhere, not from the sea or from the land.
". . . when the predicted darkness had settled upon the land of Judah, this would not be the end; but there would still follow an alternation of anxiety and glimmerings of hope, until at last it had become altogether dark in the cloudy sky over all the land of Judah . . ." [Note: Ibid., p. 185.]
This prophecy looks at a judgment coming on Judah and Jerusalem that was not far away in time. Perhaps the Assyrian invasion of the land that took place at the end of the eighth century (in 701 B.C.) fulfilled it. Judah receded to a lower level from which she did not recover after this invasion. Perhaps it is also significant that the founding of Rome occurred about this time, since it was another power that God raised up to humble His people.
"Thus Isaiah ends his preface. The message of the first two sections (Isa 1:2-31; Isa 2:1 to Isa 4:6) is that human sin cannot ultimately frustrate God’s purposes and that, in God, mercy triumphs over wrath. But the third section (Isa 5:1-30) poses a shattering question: When the Lord has done all (Isa 5:4), must the darkness of divine wrath close in and the light flicker and fade? This was the day of crisis in which Isaiah ministered: a crisis for humankind, for the day of wrath has come and a crisis for God: can mercy be exhausted and defeated?" [Note: Motyer, p. 73.]