Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 64:11
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
11. The reference must apparently be to the first Temple and its destruction by the Chaldans. The expression, and indeed the whole tone of the passage, suggest an event not quite recent; it is not the present generation, but their fathers who praised God in the “holy and beautiful house.” The question then comes to be whether this could have been said after the erection of Zerubbabel’s Temple. In spite of the tendency to hyperbolical language which marks the prayer, and the painful contrast between the magnificence of the first Temple and the poverty of the second, it is difficult to think that the author should absolutely ignore the existence of the sanctuary if it had been restored. See Introductory note.
is burned with fire ] Lit. “has become a burning of fire”; cf. ch. Isa 9:5.
our pleasant things ] Rather, our desirable places; cf. 2Ch 36:19; Lam 1:10; Eze 24:21; Eze 24:25.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Our holy and our beautiful house – The temple. It was called holy, because it was dedicated to the service of God; and beautiful, on account of its extraordinary magnificence. The original word more properly means glorious.
Where our fathers praised thee – Few attachments become stronger than that which is formed for a place of worship where our ancestors have long been engaged in the service of God. It was now a great aggravation of their sufferings, that that beautiful place, consecrated by the fact that their forefathers had long there offered praise to God, was lying in ruins.
Is burned up with fire – (See 2Ch 36:19).
And all our pleasant things – All that is precious to us (Hebrew); all the objects of our desire. The reference is to their temples, their homes, their city – to all that was dear to them in their native land. It would be difficult to find a passage anywhere in the Bible – or out of it – that equals this for tenderness and true pathos. They were an exiled people; long suffering in a distant land with the reflection that their homes were in ruins; their splendid temple long since fired and lying in desolation; the rank grass growing in their streets, and their whole country overrun with wild beasts, and with a rank and unsubdued vegetation. To that land they longed to return, and here with the deepest emotion they plead with God in behalf of their desolate country. The sentiment here is, that we should go to God with deep emotion when his church is prostrate, and that then is the time when we should use the most tender pleadings, and when our hearts should be melted within us.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 64:11
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee, is burned up with fire
The burnt temple
I.
HERE IS PATHETIC LAMENTATION.
1. The children of Israel regarded the temple as their own house. They spoke of it as Gods house. But because it was Gods it was their own, for they were Gods; and all that particularly belonged to Him had a special interest for them, and they had a special claim in it.
2. This temple was sacred in the peoples eyes. The prophet calls it, our holy house. It was really so.
3. The Jews, exiled abroad, thought of yonder ruined house where their fathers praised the Lord. There is no attachment stronger than that which exists between men and women, sons and daughters of Christian fathers and mothers, who are worshipping in the place where their predecessors worshipped.
4. All their pleasant things were laid waste.
II. HERE IS AFFECTIONATE EXPOSTULATION. Wilt Thou refrain Thyself? etc. The plain English of it is, Canst Thou bear to see this, Lord? Does it not affect Thee as it does us? Hast Thou no sighs, no groans, no tears? And if Thou hast, wilt Thou not pluck Thy hand from out Thy bosom and help us? Wilt Thou not open Thy lips and speak a word of peace? We cannot bear Thy silence, Lord. Wilt Thou hold Thy peace, and afflict us very sore? (T. Spurgeon.)
All our pleasant things are laid waste
Religious thing, pleasant things
The ordinances of religion are, to the Israel of God, pleasant things.
I. WHAT ARE THEY?
1. In the number of their pleasant things, they include the sanctuary. To them the temple is not a ]prison, a place of confinement and correct!on; but the house of their heavenly Father, their holy and beautiful house; beautiful because holy.
2. In the number of their pleasant things they include Sabbaths. To many, indeed, Gods holy day is uninviting, and even irksome. But the Christian calls the Sabbath a delight, and considers the holy of the Lord honourable. To him it is a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; a weekly jubilee: and, wearied with the toils, and follies, and vexations of the world, he hails a day of seclusion from it.
3. Are not the Scriptures some of their pleasant things?
4. This too will apply to the preaching of the Word.
5. They find it a pleasant thing to approach God in prayer, and to come before His presence with singing–a pleasant thing to surround His table, and to refresh their minds with the memorials of a Saviours dying love–to be in the circle of pious friends, and hear from their lips what God has done for their souls.
II. HOW THEY BECOME SO POWERFULLY ATTRACTIVE. For it is certain they are not so universally: by numbers they are not only neglected, but despised. Whence, then, do real Christians find them so pleasing?
1. There is in them a suitableness to their dispositions. Thus we know music charms those who have an ear for it. Money is a pleasant thing to the covetous; honour to the ambitious; scandal to the slanderous. In all these instances there is something that meets the taste; and that which gratifies always delights. So it is here. The pleasure of the Christian does not depend upon persuasion–but inclination.
2. experience is another source of this pleasure.
3. Continual need also renders them pleasant things.
III. REVIEW WHAT WE HAVE SAID–and learn–
1. To justify religion from the reproaches of the world. The world pretends that the services which religion demands of us are all slavery and gloom. But if you are willing to enter in, let no mans heart fail him.
2. Let us try ourselves by this rule. A man may want assurance and still be in a state of safety: but if he be habitually a stranger to pleasure in Divine things, and can pass through all the services of religion as a mere formalist, it is an awful proof that he has no part nor lot in the matter; his heart is not right in the sight of God. A number of speculative opinions, cold ceremonies, cheap moralities, in which the affections have no share, can never be a substitute for real devotion.
3. What an affliction do Christians sustain when they are deprived of their pleasant things! This may be done in two ways.
(1) By the removal of these privileges from them. Thus persecution has sometimes forbidden them to assemble together, and has silenced their preachers, destroyed their sanctuaries, and banished all religious ordinances from a neighbourhood. God sometimes inflicts His judgments upon a place for neglect and abuse of Gospel privileges.
(2) By removing Christians from these privileges. Thus business may call them away from a favoured situation, accidents or sickness may detain them prisoners from the courts of the Lord.
4. Let us be very thankful that these pleasant things are within our reach–that we have been so long favoured with them–that we have them in so rich an abundance–that we have liberty to partake of them–and strength to go forth and enjoy them.
5. Let us raise our thoughts and desires after the pleasant things of heaven. Philip. Henry often, said, when he had finished the delightful exercises of the Sabbath, Well, if this be not the way to heaven, I know not what is. These are introductory to the glory that shall be revealed: they are foretastes to endear it, and earnests to insure it. (W. Jay.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Our holy and our beautiful house; the temple, Isa 60:7; q.d. Not only our cities, and our principal cities, but even our temple, which we thought sacred and inviolable, in which we have gloried, because it was thine, and our fathers, and ours, the place where thy holy service was performed, and thy glory and presence was manifested.
Our fathers; not presuming to mention themselves, they had been so every way abominable, but their fathers.
All our pleasant things; the kings palace, and the houses of the nobles, and other places of state and magnificence, 2Ki 25:9; Lam 1:7,10; or, their synagogues; or, those stately pieces about the temple.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. housethe temple.
beautifulincludes theidea of glorious (Mar 13:1;Act 3:2).
burned (Psa 74:7;Lam 2:7; 2Ch 36:19).Its destruction under Nebuchadnezzar prefigured that under Titus.
pleasant thingsHebrew,“objects of desire”; our homes, our city, and all its dearassociations.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Our holy and our beautiful house,…. Meaning the temple, the house of God, as Aben Ezra: called “holy”, because dedicated to holy uses; where the holy sacrifices were offered up, the holy service of God performed; and where the holy God granted his presence, and where were the symbols of it: and “beautiful”, in its building, as the first temple was that was built by Solomon; but here the second temple is meant, built by Zerubbabel, which being repaired and beautified by Herod, was a very beautiful building; and the Jews say d, that
“he who has not seen the building of Herod has never seen a beautiful building;”
or it may be rendered, “the house of our holiness, and of our glory” e; where their holy services were performed, and which was the glory of their nation, and on which they gloried and boasted:
where our fathers praised thee: with psalms and songs; the singers in the temple, as Aben Ezra; and the priests and all the people also, who, by their various services, as well as songs, gave praise and glory to God in this place; they do not mention their own services and praises, which they had been very negligent of, or not sincerely performed; but their fathers, which had been acceptable to the Lord, and therefore would bear mentioning when theirs would not: now this place, in which the glory of God and the interest of his people were concerned,
is burnt up with fire; this is true, as Kimchi observes, both of the first and second temple; the first was burnt with fire by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Jer 52:13, and the second by the Romans under Titus the man emperor, as Josephus f relates:
and all our pleasant things are laid waste; their pleasant land, and pleasant cities, and especially Jerusalem, the palaces of their princes and nobles, and all the riches and grandeur of them, the temple, and all the rich vessels and utensils in it.
d T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 4. 1. & Succa, fol. 51. 2. e “domus sanctitatis nostae, et gloriae nostrae”, Calvin, Junius & Tremellius, Forerius. f De Bello Judaeorum, l. 6. c. 4. sect. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. The house of our sanctuary and of our glory. (195) It is called “the sanctuary of the people” in a different sense from that in which it is called “the sanctuary of God;” for, being the testimony of a sacred union between God and the people, it is often called “God’s holy house;” that is, because it corresponds to his holiness. But now, in a passive sense, believers call it “their sanctuary,” because from it they must seek their sanctification.
This is more plainly confirmed by the words, “of our glory.” They acknowledge that they have nothing in which they ought to glory, except the temple, in which God wished to be adored and worshipped. And yet we see that this glorying was often without foundation, and for that reason was reproved by Jeremiah,
“
Trust not in words of falsehood, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are we.” (Jer 7:4.)
But while the glorying of those who were proud and insolent on account of empty titles was without foundation, yet true and well-grounded was the glorying of those who embraced with the heart the Lord’s ordinance, and, relying on the testimony of his word, knew that they dwelt under the shadow of him who had reared for himself a constant dwelling-place in the midst of them; for the temple was built by the command of the Lord, so that the Jews might justly glory in having God for the protector of their salvation.
In which our fathers praised thee. Because the worship of God was at that time corrupted and adulterated, and almost all had revolted to superstition and ungodliness, for this reason he mentions not the present but the former age. As if he had said, “Though we have not rendered to thee such worship as we ought to have rendered, yet this is the temple in which our fathers worshipped thee in purity; wilt thou permit it to be profaned and destroyed? Will not this disgrace recoil on thyself, since it relates to the worship of thy name?” Here the Jews say nothing about their life, and bring forward no excuses, and rather confess their guilt, but offer their worship to God, that he may be mindful of his covenant, and not allow his promises to be made void. This example ought to be imitated by all believers. The word “praise” denotes thanksgiving; as if he had said, “In that temple, the melancholy ruins of which draw forth mourning and tears from all believers, the praises of God at one time resounded, when he treated his people with kindness and gentleness. (196)
(195) “Our holy and our beautiful house.” — (Eng. Ver.) “Our house of holiness and beauty.” — Alexander.
(196) “They press him closer still, and make use of an argument which was most likely to affect him. The temple wherein our pious fathers praised thee, the beautiful sanctuary in which thy honor used to dwell, is burnt with fire; the precious materials it was made of are nothing but rubbish and dust.” — White.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) Our holy and our beautiful house . . .The destruction of the Temple, which, on the assumption of Isaiahs authorship, the prophet sees in vision, with all its historic memories, comes as the climax of suffering, and, therefore, of the appeal to the compassion of Jehovah.
All our pleasant things . . .Probably, as in 2Ch. 36:19, the precincts, porticoes, and other goodly buildings of the Temple.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 64:11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
Ver. 11. Our holy and our beautiful house. ] The Church riseth higher and higher in her complaints to God; we must do likewise.
Where our fathers praised thee.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
praised. See note on “shall not”, &c. (Isa 13:10).
is burned up with fire. This prayer is proleptic; and is said now by anticipation of the then (and now still future) day of Israel’s repentance and return to Jehovah.
pleasant things = goodly places, or vessels. Same word as in 2Ch 36:19.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
holy: 2Ki 25:9, 2Ch 36:19, Psa 74:5-7, Jer 52:13, Lam 2:7, Eze 7:20, Eze 7:21, Eze 24:21, Eze 24:25, Mat 24:2
where: 1Ki 8:14, 1Ki 8:56, 2Ch 6:4, 2Ch 7:3, 2Ch 7:6, 2Ch 29:25-30
all our: Lam 1:7, Lam 1:10, Lam 1:11
Reciprocal: 1Ki 9:8 – at 1Ch 22:5 – exceeding Neh 1:3 – the wall Psa 5:7 – thy holy temple Psa 74:3 – the perpetual Psa 74:7 – cast fire into thy sanctuary Psa 79:7 – laid Isa 48:2 – they call Isa 63:18 – our Jer 7:14 – as Jer 32:29 – and set Jer 44:2 – a desolation Lam 2:1 – the beauty Lam 2:6 – he hath violently Lam 2:15 – Is this Eze 5:14 – I will Eze 12:20 – General Eze 16:13 – and thou wast Eze 36:4 – a prey Luk 13:35 – your Luk 21:6 – there 1Co 3:17 – destroy
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
64:11 Our holy and our beautiful house, {m} where our fathers praised thee, is burned with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
(m) In which we rejoiced and worshipped you.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The holy temple had been burned, and all the precious things associated with Yahweh worship in it were gone. Isaiah was speaking for the Israelites who lived after the Exile had begun. Thus the Israelites were ashamed as well as ruined. Would God not do something in view of a situation that reflected so negatively on Him and His promises?