Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 8:21
And they shall pass through it, hard pressed and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
21. they shall pass through it ] Obviously, the land; but something must have fallen out before this verse, to account for the reference of the pronoun. Throughout this and the following verse, “they,” “their,” “themselves,” should be “he,” “his,” “himself.” The subject is either the whole nation or an individual Israelite. He wanders through the land, perhaps seeking an oracle (Amo 8:12).
they shall fret themselves ] Better: he shall break out in anger (the form is used only here).
curse his king and his God ] Not “his king and God” whether Jehovah or a false god; but the king because he cannot, and God because He will not, help. Cf. 2Ki 6:26 f. (see also 1Ki 21:10). This gives a much better sense than “curse by his king and his God,” although the parallel passages are in favour of the latter translation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
21, 22. Another scene, representing the utter desolation of the land, and the miseries of the survivors.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And they shall pass – The people who have been consulting necromancers. This represents the condition of these who have sought for counsel and direction, and who have not found it. They shall be conscious of disappointment, and shall wander perplexed and alarmed through the land.
Through it – Through the land. They shall wander in it from one place to another, seeking direction and relief.
Hardly bestead – Oppressed, borne down, agitated. The meaning is, that the people would wander about, oppressed by the calamities that were coming upon the nation, and unalleviated by all that soothsayers and necromancers could do.
And hungry – Famished; as one effect of the great calamities that would afflict the nation.
They shall fret themselves – They shall be irritated at their own folly and weakness, and shall aggravate their sufferings by self-reproaches for having trusted to false gods.
Their king and their God – The Hebrew interpreters understand this of the false gods which they bad consulted, and in which they had trusted. But their looking upward, and the connection, seem to imply that they would rather curse the true God – the king and the God of the Jewish people. They would be subjected to the proofs of his displeasure, and would vent their malice by reproaches and curses.
And look upward – For relief. This denotes the condition of those in deep distress, instinctively casting their eyes to heaven for aid. Yet it is implied that they would do it with no right feeling, and that they would see there only the tokens of their Creators displeasure.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 8:21-22
And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry
Unsanctified suffering
I.
SIN LEADS TO SUFFERING.
II. THERE IS IN SUFFERING NO SANCTIFYING POWER. It may harden men in iniquity.
III. SUFFERING DOES NOTHING IN ITSELF TO ABATE GODS ANGER AGAINST SINNERS. Nothing will turn away that anger but a genuine repentance Isa 9:13). (R. A. Bertram.)
Nemesis
He reads the doom of those that seek to familiar spirits, and regard not Gods law and testimony. There shall not only be no light to them, no comfort; or prosperity, but they may expect all horror and misery.
1. The trouble they feared shall come upon them. They shall pass to and fro in the land, unfixed, unsettled, and driven from place to place by the threatening power of an invading enemy.
2. They shall be very uneasy to themselves, by their discontent and impatience under their trouble.
3. They shall be very provoking to all about them, nay, to all above them. When they find all their measures broken, and themselves at their wits end, they will forget all the rules of duty and decency, and will treasonably curse their king, and blasphemously curse their God.
4. They shall abandon themselves to despair, and, which way soever they look, shall see no probability of relief. They shall look upward, out heaven shall frown upon them; they shall look to the earth, but what comfort can that yield to those whom God is at war with? (M. Henry.)
Hardly bestead
Embarrassed with difficulties, oppressed with anxieties, distressed with bitter reflections and desponding thoughts, not knowing what to do or whither to go. (R. Macculloch.)
Hungry
Destitute not only of necessary provision |or their personal support, but of the Word of the Lord, which is the nourishment of the soul Amo 8:11-12). (R. Macculloch.)
Fretfulness
Through hunger and poverty is indeed a great calamity, yet fretfulness of spirit is a still greater one; and when both are united, it is evident that the mind is as empty of spiritual good as the body is of necessary provision. (R. Macculloch.)
No good without God
Them that go away from God, go out of the way of all good. (M. Henry.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. Hardly bestead – “Distressed”] Instead of niksheh, distressed, the Vulgate, Chaldee, and Symmachus manifestly read nichshal, stumbling, tottering through weakness, ready to fall; a sense which suits very well with the place.
And look upward – “And he shall cast his eyes upward.”] The learned professor Michaelis, treating of this place (Not. in de Sacr. Poes. Hebr. Prael. ix.) refers to a passage in the Koran which is similar to it. As it is a very celebrated passage, and on many accounts remarkable, I shall give it here at large, with the same author’s farther remarks upon it in another place of his writings. It must be noted here that the learned professor renders nibbat, hibbit, in this and the parallel place, Isa 5:30, which I translate he looketh by it thundereth, from Schultens, Orig. Ling. Hebr. Lib. i. cap. 2, of the justness of which rendering I much doubt. This brings the image of Isaiah more near in one circumstance to that of Mohammed than it appears to be in my translation: –
“Labid, contemporary with Mohammed, the last of the seven Arabian poets who had the honour of having their poems, one of each, hung up in the entrance of the temple of Mecca, struck with the sublimity of a passage in the Koran, became a convert to Mohammedism; for he concluded that no man could write in such a manner unless he were Divinely inspired.
“One must have a curiosity to examine a passage which had so great an effect upon Labid. It is, I must own, the finest that I know in the whole Koran: but I do not think it will have a second time the like effect, so as to tempt any one of my readers to submit to circumcision. It is in the second chapter, where he is speaking of certain apostates from the faith. ‘They are like,’ saith he, ‘to a man who kindles a light. As soon as it begins to shine, God takes from them the light, and leaves them in darkness that they see nothing. They are deaf, dumb, and blind; and return not into the right way. Or they fare as when a cloud, full of darkness, thunder, and lightning, covers the heaven. When it bursteth, they stop their ears with their fingers, with deadly fear; and God hath the unbelievers in his power. The lightning almost robbeth them of their eyes: as often as it flasheth they go on by its light; and when it vanisheth in darkness, they stand still. If God pleased, they would retain neither hearing nor sight.’ That the thought is beautiful, no one will deny; and Labid, who had probably a mind to flatter Mohammed, was lucky in finding a passage in the Koran so little abounding in poetical beauties, to which his conversion might with any propriety be ascribed. It was well that he went no farther; otherwise his taste for poetry might have made him again an infidel.” Michaelis, Erpenii Arabische Grammatik abgekurzt, Vorrede, s. 32.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And they, the idolatrous and apostatical Israelites,
shall pass through it, or, in it, to wit, their own land, which is easily understood out of the context, and from the phrase itself; the pronoun relative being put without an antecedent, as it is in other places, which have been formerly noted. They shall either pass through it into captivity, or wander hither and thither in it, like distracted men, not knowing whither to go, nor what to do; whereas if they had not forsaken God, they might have had a quiet and settled abode in it.
Hardly bestead; sorely distressed, as this word is used, Gen 35:16; Job 30:25; and hungry; destitute of food, and of all necessaries, which are oft signified by food. Curse their king; either because he doth not relieve them, or because by his foolish counsels and courses he brought them into these miseries.
Their God; either,
1. The true God; or rather,
2. Their idols, to whom they trusted, and whom they now find too late unable to help them.
Look upward to heaven for help, as men of all nations and religions in great calamities use to do.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21, 22. More detaileddescription of the despair, which they shall fall into, who soughtnecromancy instead of God; Isa 8:20implies that too late they shall see how much better it wouldhave been for them to have sought “to the law,” c. (De32:31). But now they are given over to despair. Therefore, whileseeing the truth of God, they only “curse their King and God”foreshadowing the future, like conduct of those belonging to the”kingdom of the beast,” when they shall be visited withdivine plagues (Re 16:11;compare Jer 18:12).
through itnamely, theland.
hardly besteadoppressedwith anxiety.
hungrya more grievousfamine than the temporary one in Ahaz’ time, owing to Assyria; thenthere was some food, but none now (Isa 7:15;Isa 7:22; Lev 26:3-5;Lev 26:14-16; Lev 26:20).
their king . . . GodJehovah,King of the Jews (Psa 5:2;Psa 68:24).
look upward . . . unto theearthWhether they look up to heaven, or down towards theland of Judea, nothing but despair shall present itself.
dimness of anguishdarknessof distress (Pr 1:27).
driven to darknessrather,”thick darkness” (Jer23:12). Driven onward, as by a sweeping storm. The Jewishrejection of “their King and God,” Messiah, was followed byall these awful calamities.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they shall pass through it,…. The land, as the Targum and Kimchi supply it; that is, the land of Judea, as Aben Ezra interprets it. Here begins an account of the punishment that should be inflicted on the Jews, for their neglect of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and their rejection of the Messiah:
hardly bestead and hungry; put to the greatest difficulty to get food to eat, and famishing for want of it; which some understand of the time when Sennacherib’s army was before Jerusalem, as Aben Ezra; but it seems better, with others, to refer it to the times of Zedekiah, when there was a sore famine, Jer 52:6 though best of all to the besieging of Jerusalem, by the Romans, and the times preceding it,
Mt 24:7 and it may also be applied to the famine of hearing the word before that, when the Gospel, the kingdom of heaven, was taken from them, for their contempt of it:
and it shall come to pass, when they shall be hungry: either in a temporal sense, having no food for their bodies; or in a mystical sense, being hungry often and earnestly desirous of the coming of their vainly expected Messiah, as a temporal Saviour of them:
they shall fret themselves; for want of food for their bodies, to satisfy their hunger; or because their Messiah does not come to help them:
and curse their King, and their God; the true Messiah, who is the King of Israel, and God manifest in the flesh; whom the unbelieving Jews called accursed, and blasphemed:
and look upwards; to heaven, for the coming of another Messiah, but in vain; or for food to eat.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The night of despair to which the unbelieving nation would be brought, is described in Isa 8:21, Isa 8:22: “And it goes about therein hard pressed and hungry: and it comes to pass, when hunger befals it, it frets itself, and curses by its king and by its God, and turns its face upward, and looks to the earth, and beyond distress and darkness, benighting with anguish, and thrust out into darkness.” The singulars attach themselves to the in Isa 8:19, which embraces all the unbelievers in one mass; “therein” ( bah ) refers to the self-evident land ( ‘eretz ). The people would be brought to such a plight in the approaching Assyrian oppressions, that they would wander about in the land pressed down by their hard fate ( niksheh ) and hungry ( ra’eb ), because all provisions would be gone and the fields and vineyards would be laid waste. As often as it experienced hunger afresh, it would work itself into a rage ( v’hithkazzaqph with Vav apod. and pathach, according to Ges. 54, Anm.), and curse by its king and God, i.e., by its idol. This is the way in which we must explain the passage, in accordance with 1Sa 14:43, where killel beholim is equivalent to killel b’shem elohim , and with Zep 1:5, where a distinction is made between an oath layehovah , and an oath b’malcam ; if we would adhere to the usage of the language, in which we never find a corresponding to the Latin execrari in aliquem (Ges.), but on the contrary the object cursed is always expressed in the accusative. We must therefore give up Psa 5:3 and Psa 68:25 as parallels to b’malco and b’lohai : they curse by the idol, which passes with them for both king and God, curse their wretched fate with this as they suppose the most effectual curse of all, without discerning in it the just punishment of their own apostasy, and humbling themselves penitentially under the almighty hand of Jehovah. Consequently all this reaction of their wrath would avail them nothing: whether they turned upwards, to see if the black sky were not clearing, or looked down to the earth, everywhere there would meet them nothing but distress and darkness, nothing but a night of anguish all around ( meuph zukah is a kind of summary; m auph a complete veiling, or eclipse, written with u instead of the more usual o of this substantive form: Ewald, 160, a). The judgment of God does not convert them, but only heightens their wickedness; just as in Rev 16:11, Rev 16:21, after the pouring out of the fifth and seventh vials of wrath, men only utter blasphemies, and do not desist from their works. After stating what the people see, whether they turn their eyes upwards or downwards, the closing participial clause of Isa 8:22 describes how they see themselves “thrust out into darkness’ ( in caliginem propulsum ). There is no necessity to supply ; but out of the previous hinneh it is easy to repeat hinno or hinnennu ( en ipsum ). “ Into darkness:” aphelah ( acc. loci) is placed emphatically at the head, as in Jer 23:12.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
21. Then they shall pass through that land. Not to permit believers to be ensnared by the common errors, he adds how dreadful is the punishment which awaits the ungodly when they have revolted from God, and have labored to induce others to join in the same revolt. The passage is somewhat obscure; but the obscurity arises from the want of proper attention in examining the words. The verb עבר ( gnabar) is emphatic; for by passing through he means that uncertainty in which men wander up and down, and are not able to find a resting-place, or any permanent abode. To the indefinite verb we must supply a noun, The Jews shall pass. By the pronoun בה, ( bahh,) in it, (136) he means Judea, which the Lord had preferred to all other countries; and therefore it is easily understood, though the Prophet does not express it. As if he had said, “I promised indeed that that country would be the perpetual inheritance of my people, (Gen 13:15😉 but they shall lead a wandering and restless life, as is the case with those who, driven from their habitations, and afflicted with hunger and pestilence and every kind of calamities, seek, but nowhere find, a better condition and abode.” These words are therefore contrasted with the extraordinary kindness of God, which is so frequently mentioned by Moses, namely, that they will have a fixed residence in Judea; for here he threatens that they will be stragglers and wanderers, not in their own, but in a foreign country; so that, wherever they come, they will be attacked and hunted down by innumerable vexations.
When they shall be hungry. The Prophet appears to point out the conversion of the Jews, as if he had said, “When they have been weighed down by afflictions they will at length repent;” and undoubtedly this is the remedy by which the Lord generally cures the disease of obstinacy. Yet if any one suppose that the word hunger describes the indignation and roaring of the wicked without repentance, it may be stated that it includes not only hunger and thirst, but, by a figure of speech in which a part is taken for the whole, ( συνεκδοχικῶς,) every other kind of calamity.
They shall fret themselves. (137) They will begin to be displeased with themselves, and to loathe all the supports on which they had formerly relied; and this is the beginning of repentance; for in prosperity we flatter ourselves, but in sore adversity we loathe everything that is around us. But if it be thought preferable to refer it to the reprobate, this word denotes the bitterness, which is so far from leading them to humility that it rather aggravates their rage.
And curse their king and their God. By King some suppose that he means God. In this sense Zephaniah used the word מלכם ( malcham), that is, their King. (Zep 1:5.) But here I draw a distinction between King and God; for wicked men are first blinded by a false confidence in idols, and afterwards they place their defense in earthly things. When the Jews had a king, they were proud of his glory and power; and when Isaiah preached, wicked men enraged the king against him, and even aroused the whole of the nation to follow the king as their standard-bearer. Since, therefore, their false boasting had been partly in the idols and partly in the king, he threatens that they will be afflicted with so many calamities, that they will be constrained to abhor both their gods and the king. And this is the beginning of repentance, to loathe and drive far from us everything that kept us back or led us away from God.
And look upward. He describes the trembling and agitation of mind by which wretched men are tormented until they have learned steadfastly to look up. There is, indeed, some proficiency, as I lately hinted, when, in consequence of having been taught by afflictions and chastisements, we throw away our indifference and endeavor to find out remedies. But we must advance farther. Fixing our eye on God alone we must not gaze on all sides, or through fickleness be tossed to and fro. (Eph 4:14.) However that may be, Isaiah threatens the utter destruction of the Jews; for so thoroughly were they hardened, that their rebellion could not be subdued by a light and moderate chastisement from the hand of God. Yet it might be taken in a good sense, that the Jews will at length raise their eyes to heaven; but in that case we must read separately what follows: —
(136) Through it. — Eng. Ver.
(137) Not satisfied with the Latin word irritentur for conveying the import of the Hebrew התקצף, ( hithkatzeph,) Calvin illustrates it by a phrase taken from his own vernacular, Ils se despiteront , which means, they will fume, or chafe, or burst into furious passion. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
UNSANCTIFIED SUFFERING
Isa. 8:21, and Isa. 9:13. And they shall pass through it, &c.
I. Sin leads to suffering.
1. This is true of individuals (H. E. I. 46034612). But because there is another life and a future retribution, the full results of sin are frequently not seen in this life. Nay, the sinner often appears prosperous even to the end (Psa. 73:3-5).
2. But in the case of nations, which as such have no immortality, it is otherwise (P. D. 2544); it is more prompt; it is often exceedingly terrible. This fact should make those who have any love for their children hostile to any national policy that is unrighteous, however politically expedient it may seem.
II. There is in suffering no sanctifying power. God may use it as a means of arresting the careless, or of making good men better, but there is in it no certain reformative energy. On the contrary, it may harden men in iniquity [887]
[887] See outline: MORAL OBDURACY, p. 16.
III. Suffering does nothing in itself to abate Gods anger against sinners. We, when we are wronged, often yield to a passion of vindictiveness, which is sated when we have succeeded in inflicting a certain amount of pain on the wrong-doer. But Gods anger is not vindictive, but righteous (H. E. I. 22882294); hence its terribleness. As it does not thirst for suffering, it is not satisfied by suffering. As long as the sinner holds to his sin, Gods anger will burn against him, irrespective altogether of the suffering he may have endured. Nothing will turn away that anger but a genuine repentance (Isa. 9:13).
1. In the hour of temptation, let us think of sin not as it then presents itself to us, but as it will certainly appear to us when its results are manifested (H. E. I. 46734676).
2. When suffering has come upon us, let us regard it as Gods summons to repentance (H. E. I. 5659); and let us obey it with thankfulness that God is willing to deal with us in the way of mercy.
THE REMEDY OF THE WORLDS MISERY
(Missionary Sermon.)
Isa. 9:2-7. The people that walked in darkness, &c.
The prophecies contained in this text are of a mixed kind; they are partly fulfilled and partly unfulfilled. We have the authority of the Evangelists to apply the passage to Gospel times, and to prevent it from being restricted to the Jews (Mat. 4:14-16; Luk. 1:79; Luk. 2:32). Let us consider
I. The view taken by the Prophet of the moral state of the world previous to the glorious change which makes the subject of his prophecy.
1. The people are represented as walking in darkness. Darkness is an emblem of ignorance and error; and an emblem the most striking [890]
2. But darkness alone appears to the mind of the Prophet only a faint emblem of the state of the heathen: he adds, therefore, the shadow of death. In Scripture this expression is used for the darkness of that subterranean mansion into which the Jews supposed the souls of men went after death. Figuratively, the expression is used for great distress; a state of danger and terror. It is an amplification, therefore, of the Prophets thought. The predominant idea is that of a sense of insecurity, accompanied by fear. Darkness increases danger and fear at the same time. Such is the state of the heathen. The religion of the heathen has ever been gloomy and horrible.
3. The Prophet adds another note of the state of the heathen: Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy [893] He beholdeth them increasing in number only to multiply their misery [896] Universal experience proves that misery is multiplied when God and truth are unknown. In this case there is no redeeming principle; the remedy is lost; despair completes the wretchedness of the people, and were it not for the prospects opened by the Gospel, that despair would be final and absolute. Here, however, the text breaks upon us with a glorious and cheering view. The Prophet beholds a light rising in obscurity; a great light dispels the heavy gloom; comfort, joy, and salvation dawn upon the earth (Isa. 8:2).
[890] As the pall of darkness is drawn over the world, the fair face of nature fades from the sight; every object becomes indistinct, or is wholly obscured, and all that can cheer the sight or direct the steps of man vanishes. So the gradual accumulation of religious errors, thickening with every age, banished the knowledge of God and His truth from the understandings of men, till all that was sublime in speculation, cheering to the heart, supporting to the hopes, or directive to the actions of men, passed away from the soul, and left the intellectual world like that of nature when deprived of light. The heaven of the soul was hung with blackness, and their foolish heart was darkened.Watson.
[893] Alexander and several other modern scholars read: Thou hast enlarged the nation, Thou hast increased its joy, understanding the Prophet to mean that the true Israel had been increased by the calling of the Gentiles, and that this increase had been a cause of great gladness.
[896] If the Prophet speaks of the Jewish people, he declares a fact remarkably striking. One of the blessings promised to their founder, Abraham, was, that his seed should be multiplied as the stars of heaven and the sands of the sea-shore. But that which was designed as a blessing, and is described as such in the promise, was made a curse by the wickedness of the Jews. For what end, in the former periods of their history, did they multiply, but to furnish food for captives, slaughter, and oppression? In later times, they have multiplied, and spread themselves over the world; but their joy has not been increased. Degraded in character, and despised by the nations where they sojourn, without a country, a temple, or a sacrifice, they bear, like Cain, the marks of Gods curse, are vagabonds in the earth, preserved to warn us of the just severity of God.
There is nothing, however, in the connection to induce us to suppose that the Prophet particularly contemplated the Jewish nation. The same thing must be affirmed of every nation that abandons itself to wickedness. When nations are multiplied, their political strength is increased; and happiness would be multiplied too, were it not for sin. But in wicked nations the joy is not increased. This negative expression signifies the misery is increased. God has not added His blessing; and there is no joy.Watson.
II. On this blessed visitation we would now fix your attention.
1. As darkness is an emblem of the religious sorrow which had overcast the world, so light is an emblem of the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel is light.
(1.) This marks its origin from heaven.
(2.) This notes its truth. It is fitting that what is truth, without mixture of error, should be compared to what is the most simple substance in nature.
(3.) It is called light because of its penetrating and subtle nature.
(4.) Because of the discoveries which it makes.
(5.) Because it is life and health to the world.
2. As in the vision light succeeds to darkness, so also joy succeeds to fear and misery (Isa. 8:3). The joy here described is no common feeling; it is the joy of harvest, the joy of victory. The effect of the diffusion of the Gospel in producing joy is a constant theme of prophecy (chap. Isa. 24:16; Psa. 98:8; Luk. 2:10). True joy, as yet, there is none upon a large scale; of sorrow and sighing the world has ever been full; and as long as it remains in this state, even sighs might fail rather than cause to sigh. Even that which is called joy is mockery and unreal, an effort to divert a pained and wounded mind; it gleams like a transient light, only to make men more sensible of the darkness. As long as the world is wicked it must be miserable. All attempts to increase happiness, except by diminishing wickedness and strengthening the moral principle, are vain. The Gospel is the grand cure of human woe. When it has spread to the extent seen by the Prophet, a sorrowing world shall dry up its tears, and complaint give place to praise (Isa. 45:8; Isa. 32:17). They shall joy as in victory, for the rod of the grand oppressor shall be broken; Satan shall fall, his reign be terminated; and one universal, transporting Hallelujah ascend from every land, to the honour of Him by whom the victory is achieved.
III. So vast a change must be produced by causes proportionably powerful; and to the means by which this astonishing revolution is effected, the Prophet next directs our attention (Isa. 8:4-5). These words speak of resistance and a struggle. He that expects the conversion of the world without the most zealous application and perseverance among Gods agents, and opposition from His enemies, has not counted the cost. In the conduct of this battle two things distinguish it from every other contest: The absolute weakness and insufficiency of the assailants [899] and their miraculous success. A remembrance of these things encourages us in our missionary operations. If our plans had been applauded by the wisdom of this world, there would have been too much of man in them, and we might have doubted the result (Jdg. 7:2). The victory shall be eminently of God. For the battle shall be, not with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, but with burning and fuel of fire. The demonstration of the Spirit, the power of God, is here compared to fire. The Spirit, in His saving operations, is always in Scripture compared to the most powerful principles in natureto the rain and dew, to wind, to thunder, to fire. All these images denote His efficiency and the suddenness of the success; and the extent of the benefit shall proclaim the victory to be the Lords. We have seen the effect of this vital influence at home; and we may, in some degree, conjecture what will be done abroad. Yet perhaps something very remarkable may take place, as is intimated in the text; some peculiar exertion of the Divine power upon the mind of the world.
[899] The weakness and insignificance of the instruments used in breaking the rod and yoke of the oppressor is sufficiently marked by the allusion to the destruction of the host of Midian by Gideon and his three hundred men. The family of Gideon was poor in Manasseh, and he was the least of his fathers house; the number of men assigned him was contemptible; their weapons were no better than an earthen pitcher, a torch, and a trumpet; the men who dreamed of Gideon dreamed of him under the image of a barley-cake. All this meanness was adopted that the deliverance of Israel might appear to be the work of God; and this is the manner in which He has ever wrought in the revival and spread of godliness in the world. Who were the instruments of spreading true religion in the Apostolic age, we know; they were the despised fishermen of Galilee. Feeble and unpromising instruments have also been employed in subsequent revivals; and from the conformity of the present missionary system of this model we augur well of future success.Watson.
IV. But it may be said, Is not all this a splendid vision? You speak of weak instruments effecting a miraculous success; of the display and operation of a supernatural power touching the hearts of men and changing the moral state of the world, but what is the ground of this expectation? This natural and very proper question our text answers (Isa. 8:6-7). In these verses we have the grounds of that expectation of success which we form as to missionary efforts. The plan of Christianising the world is not ours; it was laid in the mind of God before the world was. The principal arrangements of the scheme are not left to us, but are already fixed by the infinite wisdom of God. The part we fill is very subordinate; and we expect success, not for the wisdom or the fitness of the means themselves, but because they are connected with mightier motives, whose success is rapid, and whose direction is divine; because God has formed a scheme of universal redemption, to be gradually but fully developed; because He has given gifts to the world, the value of which is in every age to be more fully demonstrated; and because He has established offices in the person of Christ, which He is qualified to fill to the full height of the Divine idea (text).
Our text has set before us the moral misery of the human race; the purpose of God to remove it by the diffusion of His truth and grace; the means chosen for this purpose; and the ground of that certain success which must attend the application of the prescribed means under the Divine blessing. It now only remains for me to invite you to such a co-operation in this great work as your own ability and the importance of the enterprise demand.Richard Watson, Works, vol. iv. pp. 206224.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(21) And they shall pass through it . . .i.e., through the land over which hangs the sunless gloom. The abruptness with which the verse opens, the absence of any noun to which the pronoun it may refer, has led some critics (Cheyne) to transpose the two verses. So arranged, the thought of the people for whom there is no dawning passes naturally into the picture of their groping in that thick darkness. and then the misery of that midnight wandering is aggravated by the horrors of starvation. The words may point to the horrors of a literal famine (Isa. 2:11); but as the darkness is clearly figurative, so probably is the hungernot a famine of bread, but of hearing the word of the Lord. The Authorised version rightly translates the indefinite singular by the plural.
When they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves.The faithful who waited for the Lord might bear even that darkness and that hunger, as soldiers bear their night-march fasting before the battle. Not so with the panic-stricken and superstitious crowd. With them despair would show itself in curses. (Comp. Rev. 16:11; Rev. 16:21.) They would curse at once the king who had led them to destruction, and the God whom they had neglected. Possibly the words may mean, the king who is also their God, as in Amo. 5:26 (Heb.) and Zep. 1:5; but the analogy of 1Ki. 21:13 is in favour of the more literal meaning. The upward look is, we must remember, that of despair and defiance, not of hope. Upwards, downwards, behind, before, there is nothing for them but the darkness in which they are driven, or drifting onward. All seems utterly hopeless. Like Dante, they find themselves in a land where silent is the sun.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. They shall pass through it “They” the king, the court, and their supporters among the people, who have gone to necromancers for light.
Hardly bestead In great straits disappointed, oppressed with anxiety.
Hungry As the effect of calamity from not looking to God, “to the law and to the testimony.” A moral famine befalls them, more grievous than the temporary one in Ahaz’s time.
Look upward Seeing no light they look to heaven in vain. They despised the true God, and he is shut off from their view.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Darkness Awaits Those Who Turn From Yahweh But In The Latter Times Will Come Light in Galilee ( Isa 8:21 to Isa 9:1 ).
The offer having been made of light or darkness most of the people will choose darkness. A bleak future awaits them. But all is not despair. For there is the promise of Immanuel yet to come. And in the latter times light will come to Galilee, (and it will lead up to the triumph of the great coming King – Isa 9:6-7).
Analysis.
a And they will pass through it hardly pressed and hungry, and it will be that when they are hungry they will fret themselves and curse by their king and their God, and turn their faces upward (Isa 8:21).
b And they will look to the earth, and behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and into thick darkness they will be driven away (Isa 8:22).
b But there will be no gloom to her who was in anguish (Isa 9:1 a).
a In the former time He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations (Isa 9:1 b).
In ‘a’ they will pass through it hardly pressed and hungry, and it will be that when they are hungry they will fret themselves and curse by their king and their God, and turn their faces upward and in the parallel this turning upward in their despair will finally result in Galilee of the nations being made glorious (filled with His glory). In ‘b’ they will look to the earth, and behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and into thick darkness they will be driven away, and in the parallel there will be no gloom to her who was in anguish (those who suffered first will be blessed first).
Isa 8:21-22
‘And they will pass through it hardly pressed and hungry, and it will be that when they are hungry they will fret themselves and curse by their king and their God, and turn their faces upward, and they will look to the earth, and behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and into thick darkness they will be driven away.’
The significance of ‘no morning’ is now explained. There is great stress on continuing darkness. They will be in despair and in great need, they will have nowhere to look, their king and God will be merely swear words, names by which to curse, whether they look upwards or to the earth they will be in desolation and thick darkness. Because for those who turn from God’s word there is only darkness.
‘They will pass through it.’ The ‘it’ is not defined. It could refer to their time of hopelessness, to the land through which they will pass into exile, or to the time of darkness which will never turn into morning. The verbs are in the singular. We could therefore translate, ‘each of them will –’, emphasising the personal effect for all.
The picture is one of total hopelessness and despair. They will be hard pressed and hungry. They will be under stress and fret themselves. The king, whom they at present see as the anointed of Yahweh, will be simply a name to curse by, or even curse at. God too will be the same. But then, in despair, some will turn their faces upwards.
But all most will see when they look to the earth (or the land) will be distress and darkness, gloom and anguish. And finally they will be driven away into thick darkness. The future without God must in the end be harsh.
Isa 9:1
(Isa 8:23 in the Hebrew text) ‘But there will be no gloom to her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations.’
For those who turn their face upwards there will be hope (Isa 8:2). Most of the verbs in this and the following verses are in the perfect tense. In Hebrew the perfect tense does not necessarily indicate the past, it indicates something which is completed. Thus the prophets used the tense to indicate that which, while future, was certain. Because God was going to do it, it was already seen as completed.
For, for one part of Israel and Judah, Galilee of the nations, there will be no such gloom. That will be because having already passed through their gloom in the earlier invasion they are under the Assyrian heel. They are not therefore in a position to make any choice with respect to present circumstances. They will not be involved in the present disobedience. Thus they need not fear, for when Immanuel comes he will bring them light in their darkness (see Isa 60:1-2). The next thing therefore that they await is for the light which will come to Galilee. But that will only be once they have passed through their ‘gloom of anguish’ (Isa 8:22). It is to them, walking as they are in darkness, that great light will come, so that their gloom will vanish.
Galilee were the first to suffer in any invasion from the north and had been seized in about 733 BC during the initial invasions (2Ki 15:29). So while their leaders were exiled in accordance with Assyrian policy (leaderless people were more easily controlled) it is probable that they escaped the worst kind of treatment, for at that stage of their capture there would still be hope in Assyria’s mind that Israel would submit and escape the final vengeance, which in fact under Hoshea they did, although being left that much smaller.
Thus when Hoshea later rebelled and Samaria was finally taken Galilee had already long since been in submission as part of Megiddo, one of the three Assyrian provinces which had been set up, and was therefore probably not settled by the foreigners brought into Israel by Esarhaddon (2Ki 17:24). Indeed being a land of mixture, with many ‘Gentiles’ settled there and surrounding it, something which brought them into contempt in Israel, they may well have been seen by Assyria as not fully Israel at all but as a subject people (there were no maps and no boundaries permanently laid down). It should be noted in this regard that they were never seen as part of the mixture who arose from the settling of foreign nations in Israel.
This prophecy may have first arisen at the time of their separation, which would explain why Galilee is selected out for mention, as an assurance to them not to despair in their plight because there was hope for their future in the latter times in the coming king. Or it may simply be pointing out that in their case they had no choice whether to obey or disobey, and did not therefore share the guilt of Israel and Judah. But God clearly had a greater purpose in this in that it was in Galilee that the King when He came would grow to mature years, and it was in Galilee where He would first widely proclaim the Kingly Rule of God as at hand (Mar 1:14-15). It was to be a chosen land. Light would arise first in Galilee. It was a clear indication that God’s light was to be shared with Gentiles.
The land of Naphtali lay on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and extended northwards, Zebulun was west and south-west of Naphtali, in the centre of the northern part of the land. As we know these areas were where Jesus particularly ministered
‘In the latter time He has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations.’ The origin of the name Galilee is unknown, although it is very ancient. It is nowhere else described as ‘of the nations’ but its position made it susceptible to Gentile influence and penetration. Presumably the name had been given because Israel saw it jestingly, and contemptuously, as ‘half-Gentile’. The sea may be the Sea of Galilee beyond the part of Jordan familiar to Judah, or the ‘way of the sea’ may define territory on the way to the Great Sea (the Mediterranean) going from Jordan. The thought of Galilee being ‘made glorious’ would bring a smile to the faces of men of Judah, but here Isaiah declares that in the latter time it will indeed be so. As a prophet he spoke on behalf of the whole of God’s people. He wanted all to know that God had not finally forsaken them, even Galilee. Little did any realise at the time that Galilee would bring forth the Light of the world to the nations.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 8:21-22. And they shall pass through it The attentive reader must observe, that the 21st verse is connected with the last clause of the preceding one; no light, no morning to them. The prophet had here denounced to those who should despise the institution of God and the Messiah, a great evil, that they should have no part in the true light and consolation which the Messiah should bring to his people, according to the ancient prophesies, nor even in the resurrection of the just to life. On the contrary, they should be in dire and thick darkness, excluded from the communion of God and the saints, and should be oppressed with evils and calamities of every kind, by which they should be driven to extreme necessity and desperation, joined with final destruction. This is the argument of the present period, the expressions in which are very emphatical; nor could the highest desperation be painted in more lively colours than in these words, which are stronger than in the parallel passage, ch. Isa 5:30 though that is equally sublime and efficacious. This prophesy was most strikingly fulfilled in the last times of the Jewish polity, before its final destruction by the Romans. The following passages will serve greatly to explain the prophet, Luk 21:23-25. Rev 11:19. Michaelis observes, that nothing can afford the human mind such a picture of horror, as that of a man blaspheming God, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, the thunder interrupting his execrations, and succeeded by the darkest night; for the passage might be rendered, “He shall pass through the land, having suffered the greatest tortures, but still apprehending greater; and as he trembles, he shall grow angry, and shall curse his God and King, [i.e. the Messiah] and look upward. Towards the earth it shall thunder, and behold, trouble, darkness, dimness of anguish, and darkness which might be felt.” The impostor Mahomet makes use of the same image in Surat. ch. Isa 2:16; Isa 2:19 which throws much light on this passage. See Michaelis’s notes, and Vitringa.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The destruction of Damascus and Samaria is here threatened, and the rod of warning shaken over Judah.
1. The prophet is commanded to write this, with the four following chapters, on a large roll; and, as a title, to inscribe on it Maher-shalal-hash-baz, hasten to the spoil, hasten to the prey; an invitation to the king of Assyria, and repeated to shew the certainty of the event. Note; It is an unspeakable mercy that the holy Scriptures are committed to writing, and not handed down to us by uncertain tradition.
2. The prophet, having obeyed the divine injunction, gets it attested by two credible witnesses, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah, probably a Levite, 2Ch 29:13 that when the event should correspond with the prediction, his divine mission might incontestably appear.
3. On the conception of the prophetess his wife, so called from her relation to him, and the birth of a second son; to engage greater attention to the prophesy, he by divine command gives the child the same name as was inscribed on the roll. The design of which,
4. He explains; that before the infant could speak plainly, Damascus and Samaria should be spoiled by the Assyrian king; which was fulfilled, 2Ki 16:9; 2Ki 17:3 and more fully 2Ki 18:9-10. Note; (1.) War is God’s scourge over guilty lands. (2.)
They who have been troublers of other’s repose, are justly doomed to suffer in return.
5. Judah also shall not go unpunished, because many of the faithless Jews despised the waters of Shiloah that go softlythe gentle government of David’s race, or the weakness of their kingdom, eclipsed by the greater dominions of Rezin and Pekah, whom, though avowed enemies, these traitors of their country applauded and honoured. Therefore, to punish them, the Assyrian king, like a flood rapid and resistless, with his armies should cover the land, reaching to the neck, even to Jerusalem the metropolis, 2Ki 18:13-17 and, spreading his wings, should fill the breadth of Immanuel’s land; so called, because there he should in the fulness of time be born, live, and die. Note; (1.) To affect the fashions, admire the manners and government of our inveterate enemies, and to despise our own, betrays a heart destitute of the love of our country. (2.) Though the waters of trouble reach to the neck, yet even then can God say, Here shall thy proud waves be stayed, and save us out of the floods, when we most despair of ourselves.
2nd, In Judah’s distressed case the prophet encourages and instructs them,
1. With a promise of their enemies’ disappointment and defeat: though strongly confederate, the expedition deeply planned, and the troops well armed and ready for the battle, they shall be broken to pieces. This is repeated, to shew the certainty of the event, and the vanity of their enemies’ hopes of success; when God should infatuate their councils, and Immanuel defend his own land. Note; (1.) Though power and policy unite to crush the church of Christ, their efforts will prove the confusion of her enemies. (2.). God’s promise is sure, and they who trust it will never be disappointed. (3.) If God be with us and for us, we need neither fear nor care who are against us.
2. He directs them how to speak and act in their present situation. The Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, in the spirit of prophesy, not to walk in the way of this people, dejected with their fears, or flying with them to Assyria for help against their invaders, Pekah and Rezin, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to call them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; join not in the general cry for a foreign aid, or in any factious party at home; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid on account of the confederate armies of Syria and Israel. Sanctify the Lord God of Hosts, by your professed dependance upon, and subjection to him, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, who is the only worthy object. And he shall be for a sanctuary; a sure protection to those who trust him in every time of trial and distress. Note; (1.) In time of danger good men need divine encouragement against their fears. (2.) They who would follow Christ, must renounce the ways of a wicked world; a holy singularity is the inseparable badge of a holy conversation. (3.) In whatever difficulties we are involved, let us never use undue means for relief. (4.) The fear of God upon the heart, will preserve us from being terrified with the threatenings of men. (5.) God is sanctified, when by patient resignation we are content to wait for his salvation.
3. He threatens with ruin those who continued rebellious; if they would not trust God as their sanctuary, they should find him, a stone of stumbling, and rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, and for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; which was soon verified in the destruction which the king of Assyria, at God’s command, brought upon them; and has a farther reference to the day of Christ, when, offended at the Lord Jesus, his character, birth, disciples, &c. the Jews, unable to reconcile it to their proud expectations of a conquering Messiah, rejected him, many among them stumbled and fell, and were broken, and snared, and taken, as was here predicted, and thereby perished under their unbelief and hardness of heart. Note; The same Jesus who is a sanctuary to the poor and helpless sinner, to the proud and self-righteous is still a stone of stumbling; they will not renounce themselves to trust in him, and therefore perish in their iniquities.
3rdly, We have,
1. The command given to the prophet. Bind up the testimony; the prophetic word concerning the Messiah, more precious than bags of gold, to be preserved for futurity; seal the law among my disciples; the disciples of Christ, to whom the law of the Spirit of life was intrusted, and, though a sealed book to others, revealed to them, and transmitted faithfully to their successors. Note; (1.) We can never be thankful enough for the inestimable treasure of God’s word. (2.) Till God opens our understanding to understand the Scriptures, they are a book sealed, and a gospel hid.
2. The prophet professes his earnest expectation and hope. I will wait upon the Lord, the Redeemer of his people, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, either in frowns of displeasure, or as being yet hid from them, until his glorious manifestation in the flesh; and I will look for him, in confidence of his coming, and in joyful hope of the blessed issue of his appearing. Note; (1.) Patient waiting upon God will never be disappointed. (2.) When God hides his face, we must not think that he has forsaken us for ever, but be stirred up to pray, Lift up again upon us the light of thy countenance.
3. Christ, in answer to the prophet’s expectation, appears to cheer and comfort him; of whom the words seem rather spoken than of the prophet himself and his two sons, though they were probably types of Christ and his people, for to him the words are expressly ascribed, Heb 2:13. Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me: but the world knoweth them not, because it knew him not; they are for signs, and for wonders in Israel; signs and wonders were wrought by them, yet Israel would not believe; yea, derided and reviled them; and still they continue in the world a people every where spoken against, and bearing the reproach of the cross; from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion, who freely gave his Son for us. Note; (1.) The relation between a minister, and those who are begotten by him in the Gospel, is as near and dear as between the parent and his natural offspring. (2.) We must not be ashamed of the reproach of Christ; nor, however strange the men of the world may think us, join with them in their ways.
4. Christ cautions his disciples to beware of deceivers, and to keep close to the word of revelation: primarily it may refer to the Jews, who in their distresses were readier to recur to any help than to God, 2Ki 1:2 but it contains also a warning against the false doctrines of the scribes and Pharisees, whose principles and practices were as contrary to God as those of wizards; them, therefore, it were folly to consult: should not a people seek unto their God, who can give a satisfactory answer to the questions of the guilty, and the cries of the distressed soul? it were highly absurd for the living to apply to the dead; to images, or necromancers, or the scribes and Pharisees, and all like them, who, though pretending to teach others, are themselves dead in trespasses and sins. To the law and to the testimony; the Scriptures, which are the only tests of truth: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them; they are blind leaders of the blind. Note; (1.) The superstitious folly of many professed Christians, who trust in charms and fortune-tellers, and the like, is as scandalous as sinful. (2.) If God be our God, we may always seek, and always find help in him in every trial. (3.) The more we examine the Bible for ourselves, the less liable shall we be to be deceived. (4.) No doctrine is to be received as genuine, which has not Scripture proof to support it. (5.) A minister whose own soul has never felt the enlivening influences of God’s word and Spirit, can scarcely be expected to guide others aright in the way to glory; the living might as soon expect instruction from the dead, as the soul edification from such.
5. The doom of the wicked is read, who forsake God for familiar spirits, the truth or falsehood. And they shall pass through it (the land) hardly bestead and hungry; when in their captivity, they should scarce have bread to support their miserable lives, and with madness and vexation under their calamities blaspheme God and their king Messiah, and look upwards in vain for help from their false Christ, having rejected the true Redeemer: wherever they turned their eyes, darkness, distress, and wretchedness should appear, till a miserable life should close in a more miserable death; which was fully verified in the judgments brought on the Jews by the Roman sword. Note; (1.) The unhumbled fret and kick against the pricks; but they only thereby aggravate their own sufferings. (2.) God’s judgments upon hardened sinners, instead of bringing them to repentance, provoke their blasphemies. (3.) They who forsake the God of their mercies, find in death all their prospects terminated with darkness and despair.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 8:21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
Ver. 21. And they shall pass through it. ] To and again, as uncertain of their way, and even at their wit’s end.
When they shall be hungry.
And curse their king.
And their God.
And look upward.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
they: i.e. they who live not in the light of God’s Word.
it: i.e. Immanuel’s land. The singular number and same verb, referring back to Isa 8:8.
hardly bestead = in hard case.
fret themselves. Compare. Rev 16:11, Rev 16:21.
look upward: [in vain].
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
through: Isa 8:7, Isa 8:8
hardly bestead: Isa 9:20, Deu 28:33, Deu 28:34, Deu 28:53-57, 2Ki 25:3, Jer 14:18, Jer 52:6, Lam 4:4, Lam 4:5, Lam 4:9, Lam 4:10
they shall fret: Pro 19:3
curse: Exo 22:28, 2Ki 6:33, Job 1:11, Job 2:5, Job 2:9, Rev 9:20, Rev 9:21, Rev 16:9-11
Reciprocal: Exo 10:21 – darkness Lev 24:11 – cursed 1Sa 8:18 – cry out 2Sa 16:5 – cursed 1Ki 21:13 – the king 2Ki 3:10 – the Lord Job 15:22 – He believeth not Job 18:18 – He shall be driven Job 35:10 – none Job 38:15 – from Psa 59:15 – wander Ecc 10:20 – Curse Isa 51:20 – a wild Luk 6:25 – hunger Rev 16:10 – full Rev 16:21 – blasphemed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 8:21-22. And they The idolatrous and apostate Israelites; shall pass through it Namely, their own land, into captivity; or, as may be rendered, shall pass to and fro, or wander hither and thither, in it, like distracted men, not knowing whither to go, or what to do; whereas, if they had not forsaken God, they might have had a quiet and settled abode in it. Hardly bestead and hungry Hebrew, , distressed and famished, as Bishop Lowth translates the words: they shall fret themselves, &c. Shall be impatient under their pressures, and, in the rage of their despair, curse their king To whose ill conduct they impute a great part of their miseries; and their God Their idol, to whom they trusted, and whom now, too late, they find to be unable to help them; and look upward To heaven for help, as men of all nations and religions, in great calamities, are wont to do. And they shall look unto the earth Finding no help from heaven, they turn their eyes downward, looking hither and thither for comfort; and behold trouble and darkness, &c. Many words, expressing the same thing, are put together, to signify the variety, and extremity, and continuance of their miseries. Bishop Lowth, who connects with this verse the last clause of the twenty-first, renders the passage thus: He shall cast his eyes upward, and look down to the earth; and lo! distress and darkness! gloom, tribulation, and accumulated darkness!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:21 And they shall pass through it, distressed and hungry: and it shall come to {a} pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, {b} and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
(a) That is, in Judah, where they would have had rest, if they had not thus grievously offended God.
(b) In whom before they put their trust.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The end of such occult advisers is difficulty, hunger, frustration, distress, darkness, gloom, and anguish. They will look up to their leaders and curse both their king and their God because things did not turn out as they foretold (cf. Isa 8:17; Rev 16:11; Rev 16:21). They will look down to their fellows and find no help. Frustration meets them wherever they turn.