Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 60:18
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.
18. wasting nor destruction ] ch. Isa 59:7, Isa 51:19.
thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, &c. ] This rendering is decidedly preferable to that of most recent commentators: “thou shalt call Salvation thy walls, &c.” Moreover the rule in such cases (although Isa 60:17 furnishes an exception) is that “the nearer obj. is usually def. and the more remote indef.” (Davidson, Syntax, 76). See also on ch. Isa 26:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land – This is a most beautiful description of the peace and prosperity which would prevail in the times of the Messiah. If the gospel, in its purity, should prevail on earth, there would be no more scenes of violence and war. The battle-shout would be heard no more; the cry of violence, the clangor of arms would resound no more. The pure gospel of the Redeemer has never originated one war; never produced one scene of bloodshed; never once prompted to violence and strife. There has been no war in any age or in any land which the principles of the gospel, if acted on by both the contending nations, would not have prevented; there have been no scenes of bloodshed which would not have been avoided if that had been suffered to control the hearts of people. And no one who believes the Bible to be a revelation from God, can doubt that the time will come when the mad passions of kings and nations shall be subdued, and when wars shall cease to be known except in the melancholy and disgraceful records of past events (compare the notes at Isa 2:4).
Wasting – The waste of life and property; the burning of cities, towns, and villages; and the desolution which spreads over farms and plantations on the march of a victorious enemy.
Nor destruction – Hebrew, sheber – Breaking. The breaking or treading down caused by the march of a triumphant army.
In thy borders – Within thy bounds or limits. Thy whole country shall be peace and prosperity; that is, wherever the gospel shall spread there shall be security and peace.
But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation – Thou shalt live securely within thy walls, and shalt speak of them as furnishing protection or salvation. The time will come when the church shall have no reason to apprehend danger from abroad, and when all shall be peace within.
And thy gates Praise – Because, says Grotius, those who are appointed to watch at their gates shall announce the approach of no enemy, but shall, with the highest security, celebrate the praises of God. Praise would be celebrated in all the places of public concourse, and perfect protection would be ascribed to all her walls; that is, in the church there would be entire security, and everywhere the praises of God would be celebrated.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 60:18
But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation
Walls, salvation; gates, praise
Consider how salvation is a wall, and how gates are praise.
1. There are three safeties which a sinner wants. He wants to be saved
(1) From the condemnation of his sins.
(2) From the, power of his sins.
(3) From the conflict and presence of His sins.
Therefore a mans salvation comes to him with three unfoldings. This threefold salvation is, to every man that receives it, as a wall. On the one side, towards the adversary, it is a wall of fire; on the other side, as it shows itself to him that is within it, it is shelter. It is beauteous, as with all bright and precious stones, inlaid with all the loveliness and the attributes of God. And whatever comes through that wall to touch a man has first touched and pierced his Saviour; for all the faithfulness of God, and all the power of God, and all the glory of God, and all the work of the great Mediator, go to make the eternity and the sufficiency of that great bulwark.
2. Thou shalt call thy gates Praise. What is praise? The joy of a happy spirit, pouring itself back into the bosom of God as its only fountain. Through the walls of salvation, the Christian enters into a perfect peace–that with a happy heart ha may go out praisingly. In every object in nature, he likes to see some reflection of an unseen world! In every providence, he traces a Fathers hand. He has thoughts high above, that make him walk this world an independent man. Heaven is gilding all the distance to him. He comes at last to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon his head. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Thy gates Praise.
Songs and hymns have ever been the most interesting and inspiring of human compositions; if we draw a line of arbitrary distinction between the two, then I would say that Song represents the music of the blood, while the Hymn represents the music of the soul. It is in song that we utter the music of Nature; it is in the hymn we utter the music of grace and Divine holiness. (E. Paxton Hood.)
The gates of Praise
I do not wonder that the gates of the Church are called Praise. I do not wonder at it, because it is clear that praise opens–no I we cannot tell what are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge until we have passed through the gates of Praise. We do not know what God hath reserved for them that love Him, until we have passed through the gates of Praise. As we sometimes walk on from step to step, from landing-place to landing-place, and scene to scone, until at last we reach some elevation, when the whole of the grand panorama bursts upon our astonished vision, and the walk, and the steep ascent, and the hill, and even the beauties of the way, arc alike forgotten in the overwhelming splendour of the scene; so is it when we are able to pass through, or even to look through, the gates of Praise; even the consolations of prayer are all lost by reason of the glory that excelleth; we step from the finite to the infinite, when we look over the scenery, or breathe the atmosphere of praise. (E. Paxton Hood.)
The gates of Praise.,
I. PRAISE IS THE GATE BY WHICH WE PASS OUT OF OURSELVES.
II. IT IS BY THIS PATH THAT THE BELIEVER PASSES INTO NEW RELATIONS. He enters the Church through the gates of Praise. It is impossible that there can be an ungrateful Christian.
III. Gates within gates, gates to the city, and gates within the city; THE GATEWAY BY WHICH WE PASS TO HIGHER KNOWLEDGE, AND TO HIGHER LIFE, IS PRAISE. (E. Paxton Hood.)
Praise because of salvation
The Rabbins say that when God created the universe He asked the highest seraph what he thought of the work of His hands–and he replied that nothing was wanting but that it should become vocal, and be able audibly to speak its Makers praise. But in the work of salvation it is so: to Him that sitteth on the throne it rises in the grandeur of loud peals of harmony. (E. Paxton Hood.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
That this and what follows must necessarily be understood of the church triumphant (though there only it will be complete) I see no necessity, neither will obtrude my judgment, but leave it to the judicious, as being more proper in a comment: none to offer violence to this quiet state thou shalt attain to, either within thee, to oppress by injustice, rapine, or fraud, or without thee by hostile invasions; and this the prophet mentions as the effect of good officers in the former verse.
Wasting nor destruction within thy borders; no havoc made among thy people.
Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation; they shall be safe, and able to defend thee; thou shalt bc as safe as salvation itself can make thee. When a thing is said in Scripture to be called so, it often signifies as much as to be so, Isa 26:1; 47:1; 65:7, and it intimates as much as that God will be salvation to his church: when they shall be without gates and walls, he will be their safety, and the matter of their praise; see Isa 26:1; and Gods care of his church is the matter of that exhortation to praise him, Psa 147.
And thy gates Praise; a double metonymy, viz. of the effect, as salvation will cause praise; and of the adjunct, as it is worthy of praise; so that within or upon thy gates and walls thou shalt sing praises.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. (Isa2:4). Not only shall thy walls keep thee safe from foes,but “Salvation” shall serve as thy walls, converting thyfoes into friends, and so ensuring thee perfect safety (Isa 26:1;Isa 26:2).
gatesonce the scene of”destruction” when victorious foes burst through them (Ne1:3); henceforth to be not only the scene of praises, but”Praise” itself; the “gates,” as the place ofpublic concourse, were the scene of thanksgivings (2Ch 31:2;Psa 9:14; Psa 24:7;Psa 100:4). “Judah,”the favored tribe, means “praise.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land,…. It shall be no more committed; no instances of it will be heard of, or any complaints concerning it; neither public nor private oppression: antichristian persecution will now be at an end; those that destroyed the earth with violence and oppression shall be no more; “there will be none to hurt in all the holy mountain”, Isa 11:9:
wasting nor destruction within thy borders; no more wars, nor rumours of wars; no more blood shed; no more depopulation of cities, nor destruction of the lives of men; the whore of Rome will have drank up her full cup; and the vials of wrath being poured out upon the antichristian states, there will be a profound peace, and the greatest prosperity everywhere; especially in all those places where the churches of Christ will be, who will no more be exposed to the cruelty of their enemies:
but thou shall call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise; or, “call Salvation thy walls, and Praise thy gates” h; having no need of any other walls but the salvation of God, temporal and spiritual; nor of any other gates but the praise that will be in the hearts and mouths of the saints, on account of it; though temporal salvation may be included, which will be for walls and bulwarks to the church: yet spiritual and eternal salvation is chiefly meant, which flows from the invariable love of God; is founded upon his unalterable purpose; secured in the act of electing grace; established in the covenant; and completely wrought out by Christ, who has vanquished every enemy, procured every blessing; and whose almighty power, as well as his divine Father’s, is and will be concerned for the safety of his people; who will now be in great numbers in the gates of Zion; praising the Lord for electing, redeeming, calling, pardoning, and justifying grace; and for the privileges of the house of the Lord they are admitted to; and for the communion they have with him there; see Isa 26:1. The Targum is,
“and they shall proclaim salvation on thy walls, and on thy gates there shall be they that praise.”
h “vocabis salutem muros tuos, et portas tuas laudem”, Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
18. Oppression shall no longer be heard in thy land. Here he states more clearly what we have already said, namely, that, while the Prophet discourses concerning the prosperous condition of the Church, he indirectly contrasts the miseries and calamities by which they had been afflicted in various ways. He promises, therefore, that they shall never afterwards be subjected to such afflictions. Yet nevertheless various afflictions afterwards befell them. This is undoubtedly true; but the people were never scattered in such a manner as not to have some remaining form of the Church, and thus to enjoy peace, and to feel that they were protected and kept by the hand of God. These words did not contain a promise of exemption from every annoyance and distress; but by comparison they held out this solace for future evils, that God spares his Church, and consequently the Church shall be safe under his protection; and during the very course of the deliverance there was exhibited a striking proof of this peace, which the Prophet extols. Finally, we must always keep in remembrance what we have so often said, that; it is only in part that all these things are experienced by us; for the kingdom of Christ has not yet been completed.
And thy gates Praise. He alludes, as we have often said already, to the building of the temple or the city, and shows that the Church shall be safe, not by means of walls, or towers, or any enclosures, but that, although there are no earthly defenses, there shall be abundance of safety and peaceful joy in God alone. Now he connects the safety of the Church with “peace” or “joy;“ because she rejoices at being safe and sound, whereas formerly she lay silently in affliction and despair.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) Violence shall no more . . .Following the thought of the previous verse, we see in the words a picture of freedom from internal misgovernment rather than from external invasion.
Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation . . . The idea, almost the very phrase, has met us before in Isa. 26:1. They probably found a starting-point in the Eastern practice of giving to the walls of a city names that implied a consecration. Thus the walls of Babylon were named Imgur Bel and Nimetti Belkit (Records of the Past, v. 124, 125).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Her very walls shall suggest nothing else than salvation, or safety, or perfect security.
Her gates The places where differences are judged or adjusted, shall be utterly without cases to adjudicate, hence they are worthily named, Praise.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 60:18 Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.
Ver. 18. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land. ] The full accomplishment of this is not to be expected here.
But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation,
And thy gates Praise.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
WALLS AND GATES
Isa 60:18
The prophet reaches the height of eloquence in his magnificent picture of the restored Jerusalem, ‘the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ To him the city stands for the embodiment of the nation, and his vision of the future is moulded by his knowledge of the past. Israel and Jerusalem were to him the embodiments of the divine idea of God’s dwelling with men, and of a society founded on the presence of God in its midst. We are not forcing meanings on his words which they will not bear, when we see in the society of men redeemed by Christ the perfect embodiment of his vision. Nor is the prophet of the New Testament doing so when he casts his vision of the future which is to follow Resurrection and Judgment into a like form, and shows us the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.
The end of the world’s history is to be, not a garden but a city, a visible community, bound together because God dwells in it, and yet not having lost the blessed characteristics of the Garden from which man set out on his long and devious march.
The Christian form of the prophet’s vision is the Christian Society, and in that society, each individual member possesses his own portion of the common blessings, so that the great words of this text have a personal as well as a general application. We shall best bring out their rich contents by simply taking them as they stand, and considering what is promised by the two eloquent metaphors, which liken salvation to the walls and praise to the gates of the City of God.
I. Salvation is to be the city’s wall.
We may think of salvation as an actually begun work. Then the comfort and sense of security will be derived from that great work by which salvation has begun to be ours. The work of Christ keeps us from all danger, and no foes can make a breach in that wall, nor reach those who stand safe behind its strong towers.
We may think of salvation as a personal experience, and then the comfort and sense of security will be derived from that blessed consciousness of possessing in some measure at least the spirit, not of bondage, but of a son. The consciousness of having ‘salvation’ is our best defence against spiritual foes and our best shield against temporal calamities.
It is good for us to live by faith, to be thrown back on our unseen protector, to feel with the psalmist, ‘Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell in safety, though alone,’ and to see the wall great and high that is drawn round our defenceless tent pitched on the sands of the flat desert.
II. Praise is to be the city’s gate.
We are ‘secretaries of His praise.’ A gate is that by which the safe inhabitants go out into the region beyond, and the outgoings of the active life of every Christian should be such as to make manifest the blessings that he enjoys within the shelter of the city’s walls. Only if our hidden life is blessed with a begun salvation will our outward life be vocal with the music of praise. The gate will be praise if, and only if, the wall is salvation.
And praise is the gate by which we should go out into the world, even when the world into which we go is dark and the ways rough and hard. If we have the warm glow of a realised salvation in our hearts, sorrows that are but for a moment will not silence the voice of praise, though they may cast it into a minor key. The praise that rises from a sad heart is yet more melodious in God’s ear than that which carols when all things go well. The bird that sings in a darkened cage makes music to its owner. ‘Songs in the night’ have a singular pathos and thrill the listeners. When we ‘take the cup of salvation’ and call on the name of the Lord, we shall offer to Him the sacrifices of thanksgiving, though He may recall some of the precious gifts that He gave. For He never takes away the wall of salvation which He has built around us, and as long as that wall stands, its gates will be praise. Submission, recognition of His will, and even ‘silence because Thou didst it,’ are praise to His ear.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Violence shall, &c. Compare Gen 6:11, Gen 6:13. Some codices, with three early printed editions, Septuagint, and Syriac, read “So shall violence”, &c.
walls. Compare Isa 26:1.
Salvation: or, Victory.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Violence: Isa 2:4, Isa 11:9, Psa 72:3-7, Mic 4:3, Zec 9:8
but: Isa 26:1, Rev 19:1-6
Reciprocal: Gen 6:11 – filled 2Sa 7:10 – neither 2Sa 23:4 – as the light 1Ki 4:25 – safely 1Ch 17:9 – waste Psa 46:9 – maketh Psa 147:14 – He maketh peace Isa 1:26 – And I will Isa 12:1 – O Lord Isa 32:18 – General Isa 49:16 – thy walls Isa 59:7 – wasting Isa 61:11 – praise Lam 4:22 – he will no Eze 40:5 – a wall Eze 42:20 – it had Eze 45:8 – and my princes Nah 1:12 – I will Zep 3:15 – thou Zec 2:5 – a wall Zec 14:11 – there Rev 21:12 – twelve gates Rev 21:21 – pure
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 60:18. Violence shall no more be heard, &c. Neither the threats and triumphs of those that do violence, nor the outcries and complaints of those that suffer it, shall be heard again, but every man shall peaceably enjoy his own. Wasting nor destruction Of persons or possessions, anywhere within thy borders Thou shalt be secure from violence and injustice at home, and from invasion and war from abroad. But thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, &c. They shall be safe and able to defend thee; thou shalt be as safe as salvation itself can make thee. And the protection and security, which God by his providence shall afford thee, shall be to thee continual matter of praise and thanksgiving. This verse, and what follows to the end of the chapter, seems to relate chiefly to that peaceable and happy state which the church shall enjoy in the latter days.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
60:18 Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt {s} call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.
(s) Meaning not an earthly happiness, but spiritual, which is fulfilled in Christ’s kingdom.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Israel will be safe and secure in her land, in contrast to her former vulnerable and insecure condition. Zion’s defense will be the salvation that God provides. Her gates will be so full of praise (i.e., people who praise) that potential enemies cannot enter.