Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

leaving a Remnant therein.

No. 39. Go and tell this people, "hear ye indeed, but

A prophetic Intimation of the Reasons why the Jews should be cast off, of the Terrors attending the Destruction of Jerusalem, and of the utter Desolation of their Land.

:

Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, &c. &c., therefore forgive them not. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty: for the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low and they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Isa. ii. 6. 10. 12. 19. Behold the Lord, the Lord of Hosts doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty + man, and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the prudent and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator, and I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them, and the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour, &c. &c. for Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen down: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory. Isa. iii. 1-5. 81.

* "Replenished," &c. i. e. "God."

66 I because they trust on other means and cast off

"The mighty man," &c. including in the enumeration every species of human power.

Calovius considers this prophecy as referring, in the first instance, to the destruction of the Babylonians; and secondly, to that of the Romans. See Pole's Synopsis.

"understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

A prophetic Intimation of the low State to which the Israelites should be reduced, of the Perfection of those who should turn to Christianity, and of the extraordinary Protection and Blessings God should give them.

[ocr errors]

In that day seven * women shall take hold of one man, saying, we will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: "only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." In that day shall the † branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel: and it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. Is. iv. 1-6.

upon

A prophetic Intimation of the Efforts God would make to save Israel, and his Vengeance upon them for withstanding him. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have

"Seven women," &c. to intimate the low condition to which they should be

reduced.

+"The branch." This is the title by which in after-times Zechariah prophesies of Christ. "Behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch." Zec. iii. 8. And "Behold the man, whose name is the branch: and he shall grow up out of his place, and shall build the temple of the Lord."

"A cloud," &c. vouchsafing them as signal instances of his protection, as upon the deliverance from Egypt; when he went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire. Exod. xiii. 21, 22.

"Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears "heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes,

not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it; for the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. Is. v. 4—7.

A Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem, probably by the Romans-and the Cause of it, the Sins of the People.

As the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them. And the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets; for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth and behold, they shall come with speed quickly. None shall be weary nor stumble among them, none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken. Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. Their roaring shall be like a lion, and they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea and if one look upon the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof. Is. v. 24-30.

E

"and hear with their ears, and understand with their "heart, and convert, and be healed." Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, "Until the cities be wasted "without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and "the land be utterly desolate: and the Lord shall have ❝removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking "in the midst of the land: but yet in it shall be a tenth, " and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and "as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast "their leaves. So the holy seed shall be the substance "thereof." Isa. vi. 9-13. d.

с

"The holy seed," &c. i. e. (probably) "the body of Israel"ites that shall be converted to Christianity:" it is with a view to them that this remnant shall be left. See post Isa. lxv. 8.

d St. Matthew and St. Paul consider this prophecy as fulfilled in our Saviour's time, though they do not state expressly that it was written prophetically with a view to the times of Christ; but St. John says distinctly, that Isaiah said these things, when he saw his (i. e. Christ's) glory and spake of him. "In them (says "St. Matthew) is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, "By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing "ye shall see, and not perceive: for this people's heart is waxed 66 gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have "they closed: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, " and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and "should be converted, and I should heal them." Matt. xiii. 14, 15. St. Paul says, Acts xxviii. 25, "Well spake the Holy "Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our Fathers, Go unto this "people and say, 'Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not under"stand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive, for the heart "of this people is waxed gross,'" &c. as in St. Matthew; and again, Rom. xi. 7, 8. "Israel hath not obtained that which he "seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded, according as it is written, God hath given them the

66

spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and cars that "they should not hear." The passage in St. John is this, "Though "he (i. e. Christ) had done so many miracles before them, yet they "believed not on him: that the saying of Isaiah the prophet

No. XL.

A Prophecy of the miraculous Conception and Divinity of Christ.

e

No. 40. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear son, and shall call his name fImmanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good: for before the child shall know

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

h

"might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord who hath believed "our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been re" "vealed?' (Isa. lii. 1.) Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and "" hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, 66 6 nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should "heal them.' These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, " and spake of HIM." John xii. 37–41.

e "Shall call his name," i. e. " he shall be," he shall be entitled to this name. Dr. Lowth.

f "Immanuel." After giving an account of the miraculous conception, and of the angel's communication to Joseph, St. Matthew adds, "Now all this was done, that it might be ful"filled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, "Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a "son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.' Matt. i. 22, 23.

66 6

[ocr errors]

"That he may," rather, "till he shall." The meaning is, he shall be reared and pass through childhood as an ordinary child.

hFor before," &c. This form of expression probably suggested a similar one in Virgil's Pollio:

"At simul heroum laudes et facta parentis

Jam legere, et quæ sit poteris cognoscere virtus
Molli paulatim flavescet campus aristâ
Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva,
Et duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella."

That Eclogue indeed, which was written about thirty-five years

« AnteriorContinuar »