Isaiah Chapter 30
From The Open Bible Project
30:1 "Woe to the rebellious children," says Yahweh, "who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
- (a) Who contrary to their promise take not me for their protector and contrary to my commandment seek help from strangers.
- (b) They seek shifts to cloak their doings and not godly means.
30:2 who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!
30:3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
30:4 For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes.
- (c) The chief of Israel went into Egypt as an ambassador to seek help and abode at these cities.
30:5 They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach."
30:6 The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.
- (d) That is, a heavy sentence or prophecy against the beasts that carried their treasures into Egypt, by the wilderness, which was south from Judah, signifying that if the beasts would not be spared, the men would be punished much more grievously.
30:7 For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still.
- (e) That is, to Jerusalem.
- (f) And not to come to and fro to seek help.
30:8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
- (g) That is, this prophecy.
- (h) That is may be a witness against them for all posterity.
30:9 For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh;
- (i) He shows what was the cause of their destruction and brings also all misery to man: that is, because they would not hear the word of God, but delighted to be flattered and led in error.
30:10 who tell the seers, "Don't see!" and to the prophets, "Don't prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.
- (k) Threaten us not by the word of God, neither be so rigorous, nor talk to us in the Name of the Lord, as in (Jeremiah 11:21).
30:11 Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."
30:12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it;
- (l) Meaning, in their stubbornness against God and the admonitions of his prophets.
30:13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.
30:14 He will break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won't be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."
- (m) Signifying that the destruction of the wicked will be without recovery.
30:15 For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, "You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence." You refused,
- (n) Often by his prophets he put you in remembrance of this, that you should only depend on him.
30:16 but you said, "No, for we will flee on horses;" therefore you will flee; and, "We will ride on the swift;" therefore those who pursue you will be swift.
- (o) We will trust to escape by our horses.
30:17 One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.
- (p) Whereas all the trees are cut down save two or three to make masts.
30:18 Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.
- (r) judgment: blessed [are] all they that wait for him.
- (q) He commends the great mercies of God, who with patience waits to call sinners to repentance.
- (r) Not only in punishing but in using moderation in the same, as in (Jeremiah 10:24, Jeremiah 30:11).
30:19 For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.
30:20 Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden anymore, but your eyes will see your teachers;
30:21 and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."
- (s) God will direct all your ways and appoint you how to go either hither or thither.
30:22 You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, "Go away!"
- (t) You will cast away your idols which you have made of gold and silver with all that belongs to them, as a most filthy thing and polluted.
- (u) Showing that there can be no true repentance, unless both in heart and deed we show ourselves enemies to idolatry.
30:23 He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.
30:24 The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.
30:25 There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
- (x) By these various manners of speech he shows that the happiness of the Church will be so great, that no one is able sufficiently to express it.
30:26 Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.
- (y) When the Church is restored, the glory of it will pass seven times the brightness of the sun: for by the sun and moon which are two excellent creations, he shows what will be the glory of the children of God in the kingdom of Christ.
30:27 Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.
- (z) This threatening is against the Assyrians the chief enemies of the people of God.
30:28 His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.
- (a) To drive you to nothing: and thus God consumes the wicked by that means, by which he cleanses his.
30:29 You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to Yahweh's mountain, to Israel's Rock.
- (b) You will rejoice at the destruction of your enemies, as they who sang for joy at the solemn feast, which began in the evening.
30:30 Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.
30:31 For through the voice of Yahweh the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod.
- (c) God’s plague.
30:32 Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which Yahweh will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.
- (d) It will destroy.
- (e) With joy and assurance of the victory.
- (f) Against Babel, meaning the Assyrians and Babylonians.
30:33 For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
- (g) Here it is taken for hell, where the wicked are tormented, read (2 Kings 23:10).
- (h) So that their estate or degree cannot exempt the wicked.
- (i) By these figurative speeches he declares the condition of he wicked after this life.
