Jamieson, Fausset & Brown :: Commentary on Isaiah 28

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET

CHAPTER 28

      The twenty-eighth through thirty-third chapters form almost one continuous prophecy concerning the destruction of Ephraim, the impiety and folly of Judah, the danger of their league with Egypt, the straits they would be reduced to by Assyria, from which Jehovah would deliver them on their turning to Him; the twenty-eighth chapter refers to the time just before the sixth year of Hezekiak's reign, the rest not very long before his fourteenth year.

      1. crown of pride--Hebrew for "proud crown of the drunkards," &c. [HORSLEY], namely, Samaria, the capital of Ephraim, or Israel. "Drunkards," literally ( Isa 28:7, 8 Isa 5:11, 22 Amo 4:1 6:1-6 ) and metaphorically, like drunkards, rushing on to their own destruction.
      beauty. . . flower--"whose glorious beauty or ornament is a fading flower." Carrying on the image of "drunkards"; it was the custom at feasts to wreathe the brow with flowers; so Samaria, "which is (not as English Version, 'which are') upon the head of the fertile valley," that is, situated on a hill surrounded with the rich valleys as a garland ( 1Ki 16:24 ); but the garland is "fading," as garlands often do, because Ephraim is now close to ruin (compare Isa 16:8 ); fulfilled 721 B.C. ( 2Ki 17:6, 24 ).

      2. strong one--the Assyrian ( Isa 10:5 ).
      cast down--namely, Ephraim ( Isa 28:1 ) and Samaria, its crown.
      with. . . hand--with violence ( Isa 8:11 ).

      3. crown. . . the drunkards--rather, "the crown of the drunkards."

      4. Rather, "the fading flower, their glorious beauty ( Isa 28:1 ), which is on the head of the fat (fertile) valley, shall be as the early fig" [G. V. SMITH]. Figs usually ripened in August; but earlier ones (Hebrew bikkurah, Spanish bokkore) in June, and were regarded as a delicacy ( Jer 24:2 Hsa 9:10 Mic 7:1 ).
      while it is yet--that is, immediately, without delay; describing the eagerness of the Assyrian Shalmaneser, not merely to conquer, but to destroy utterly Samaria; whereas other conquered cities were often spared.

      5-13. The prophet now turns to Judah; a gracious promise to the remnant ("residue"); a warning lest through like sins Judah should share the fate of Samaria.
      crown--in antithesis to the "fading crown" of Ephraim ( Isa 28:1, 3 ).
      the residue--primarily, Judah, in the prosperous reign of Hezekiah ( 2Ki 18:7 ), antitypically, the elect of God; as He here is called their "crown and diadem," so are they called His ( Isa 62:3 ); a beautiful reciprocity.

      6. Jehovah will inspire their magistrates with justice, and their soldiers with strength of spirit.
      turn. . . battle to. . . gate--the defenders of their country who not only repel the foe from themselves, but drive him to the gates of his own cities ( 2Sa 11:23 2Ki 18:8 ).

      7. Though Judah is to survive the fall of Ephraim, yet "they also" (the men of Judah) have perpetrated like sins to those of Samaria ( Isa 5:3, 11 ), which must be chastised by God.
      erred. . . are out of the way--"stagger. . . reel." Repeated, to express the frequency of the vice.
      priest. . . prophet--If the ministers of religion sin so grievously, how much more the other rulers ( Isa 56:10, 12 )!
      vision--even in that most sacred function of the prophet to declare God's will revealed to them.
      judgment--The priests had the administration of the law committed to them ( Deu 17:9 19:17 ). It was against the law for the priests to take wine before entering the tabernacle ( Lev 10:9 Eze 44:21 ).

      9, 10. Here the drunkards are introduced as scoffingly commenting on Isaiah's warnings: "Whom will he (does Isaiah presume to) teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand instruction? Is it those (that is, does he take us to be) just weaned, &c.? For (he is constantly repeating, as if to little children) precept upon precept," &c.
      line--a rule or law. [MAURER]. The repetition of sounds in Hebrew. tzav latzav, tzav latzav, gav laqav, gav laquav, expresses the scorn of the imitators of Isaiah's speaking; he spoke stammering ( Isa 28:11 ). God's mode of teaching offends by its simplicity the pride of sinners ( 2Ki 5:11, 12 1Cr 1:23 ). Stammerers as they were by drunkenness, and children in knowledge of God, they needed to be spoken to in the language of children, and "with stammering lips" (compare Mat 13:13 ). A just and merciful retribution.

      11. For--rather, "Truly." This is Isaiah's reply to the scoffers: Your drunken questions shall be answered by the severe lessons from God conveyed through the Assyrians and Babylonians; the dialect of these, though Semitic, like the Hebrew, was so far different as to sound to the Jews like the speech of stammerers (compare Isa 33:19 36:11 ). To them who will not understand God will speak still more unintelligibly.

      12. Rather, "He (Jehovah) who hath said to them."
      this. . . the rest--Reference may be primarily to "rest" from national warlike preparations, the Jews being at the time "weary" through various preceding calamities, as the Syro-Israelite invasion ( Isa 7:8; compare Isa 30:15 22:8 39:2 36:1 2Ki 18:8 ). But spiritually, the "rest" meant is that to be found in obeying those very "precepts" of God ( Isa 28:10 ) which they jeered at (compare Jer 6:16 Mat 11:29 ).

      13. But--rather, "Therefore," namely, because "they would not hear" ( Isa 28:12 ).
      that they might go--the designed result to those who, from a defect of the will, so far from profiting by God's mode of instructing, "precept upon precept," &c., made it into a stumbling-block ( Hsa 6:5 8:12 Mat 13:14 ).
      go, and fall--image appropriately from "drunkards" ( Isa 28:7, which they were) who in trying to "go forward fall backward."

      14. scornful--(See on JF & B for Isa 28:9).

      15. said--virtually, in your conduct, if not in words.
      covenant--There may be a tacit reference to their confidence in their "covenant" with the Assyrians in the early part of Hezekiah's prosperous reign, before he ceased to pay tribute to them, as if it ensured Judah from evil, whatever might befall the neighboring Ephraim ( Isa 28:1 ). The full meaning is shown by the language ("covenant with death--hell," or sheol) to apply to all lulled in false security spiritually ( Psa 12:4 Ecc 8:8 Jer 8:11 ); the godly alone are in covenant with death ( Job 5:23 Hsa 2:18 1Cr 3:22 ).
      overflowing scourge--two metaphors: the hostile Assyrian armies like an overwhelming flood.
      pass through--namely, through Judea on their way to Egypt, to punish it as the protector of Samaria ( 2Ki 17:4 ).
      lies--They did not use these words, but Isaiah designates their sentiments by their true name ( Amo 2:4 ).

      16. Literally, "Behold Me as Him who has laid"; namely, in My divine counsel ( Rev 13:8 ); none save I could lay it ( Isa 63:5 ).
      stone--Jesus Christ; Hezekiah [MAURER], or the temple [EWALD], do not realize the full significancy of the language; but only in type point to Him, in whom the prophecy receives its exhaustive accomplishment; whether Isaiah understood its fulness or not ( 1Pe 1:11, 12 ), the Holy Ghost plainly contemplated its fulfilment in Christ alone; so in Isa 32:1; compare Gen 49:24 Psa 118:22 Mat 21:42 Rom 10:11 Eph 2:20.
      tried--both by the devil ( Luk 4:1-13 ) and by men ( Luk 20:1-38 ), and even by God ( Mat 27:46 ); a stone of tested solidity to bear the vast superstructure of man's redemption. The tested righteousness of Christ gives its peculiar merit to His vicarious sacrifice. The connection with the context is; though a "scourge" shall visit Judea ( Isa 28:15 ), yet God's gracious purpose as to the elect remnant, and His kingdom of which "Zion" shall be the center, shall not fail, because its rests on Messiah ( Mat 7:24, 25 2Ti 2:19 ).
      precious--literally "of preciousness," so in the Greek, ( 1Pe 2:7 ). He is preciousness.
      corner-stone-- ( 1Ki 5:17 7:9 Job 38:6 ); the stone laid at the corner where two walls meet and connecting them; often costly.
      make haste--flee in hasty alarm; but the Septuagint has "be ashamed"; so Rom 9:33, and 1Pe 2:6, "be confounded," substantially the same idea; he who rests on Him shall not have the shame of disappointment, nor flee in sudden panic (see Isa 30:15 32:17 ).

      17. line--the measuring-line of the plummet. HORSLEY translates, "I will appoint judgment for the rule, and justice for the plummet." As the corner-stone stands most perpendicular and exactly proportioned, so Jehovah, while holding out grace to believers in the Foundation-stone, will judge the scoffers ( Isa 28:15 ) according to the exact justice of the law (compare Jam 2:13 ).
      hail--divine judgment ( Isa 30:30 32:19 ).

      18. disannulled--obliterated, as letters traced on a waxen tablet are obliterated by passing the stylus over it.
      trodden down--passing from the metaphor in "scourge" to the thing meant, the army which treads down its enemies.

      19. From the time, &c.--rather, "As often as it comes over (that is, passes through), it shall overtake you" [HORSLEY]; like a flood returning from time to time, frequent hostile invasions shall assail Judah, after the deportation of the ten tribes.
      vexation. . . understand. . . report--rather, "It shall be a terror even to hear the mere report of it" [MAURER], ( 1Sa 3:11 ). But G. V. SMITH, "Hard treatment (HORSLEY, 'dispersion') only shall make you to understand instruction"; they scorned at the simple way in which the prophet offered it ( Isa 28:9 ); therefore, they must be taught by the severe teachings of adversity.

      20. Proverbial, for they shall find all their sources of confidence fail them; all shall be hopeless perplexity in their affairs.

      21. Perazim--In the valley of Rephaim ( 2Sa 5:18, 20 1Ch 14:11 ), there Jehovah, by David, broke forth as waters do, and made a breach among the Philistines, David's enemies, as Perazim means, expressing a sudden and complete overthrow.
      Gibeon-- ( 1Ch 14:16 2Sa 5:25, Margin); not Joshua's victory ( Jos 10:10 ).
      strange--as being against His own people; judgment is not what God delights in; it is, though necessary, yet strange to Him ( Lam 3:33 ).
      work--punishing the guilty ( Isa 10:12 ).

      22. mockers--a sin which they had committed ( Isa 28:9, 10 ).
      bands--their Assyrian bondage ( Isa 10:27 ); Judah was then tributary to Assyria; or, "lest your punishment be made still more severe" ( Isa 24:22 ).
      consumption--destruction ( Isa 10:22, 23 Dan 9:27 ).

      23. Calling attention to the following illustration from husbandry ( Psa 49:1, 2 ). As the husbandman does his different kinds of work, each in its right time and due proportion, so God adapts His measures to the varying exigencies of the several cases: now mercy, now judgments; now punishing sooner, now later (an answer to the scoff that His judgments, being put off so long, would never come at all, Isa 5:19 ); His object being not to destroy His people any more than the farmer's object in threshing is to destroy his crop; this vindicates God's "strange work" ( Isa 28:21 ) in punishing His people. Compare the same image, Jer 24:6 Hsa 2:23 Mat 3:12.

      24. all day--emphatic; he is not always ploughing: he also "sows," and that, too, in accordance with sure rules ( Isa 28:25 ).
      doth he open--supply "always." Is he always harrowing?

      25. face--the "surface" of the ground: "made plain," or level, by harrowing.
      fitches--rather, "dill," or "fennel"; Nigella romana, with black seed, easily beaten out, used as a condiment and medicine in the East. So the Septuagint, "cummin" was used in the same way.
      cast in. . . principal wheat--rather, plant the wheat in rows (for wheat was thought to yield the largest crop, by being planted sparingly [PLINY, Natural History, 18.21]); [MAURER]; "sow the wheat regularly" [HORSLEY]. But GESENIUS, like English Version, "fat," or "principal," that is, excellent wheat.
      appointed barley--rather, "barley in its appointed place" [MAURER].
      in their place--rather, "in its (the field's) border" [MAURER].

      26. to discretion--in the due rules of husbandry; God first taught it to man ( Gen 3:23 ).

      27. The husbandman uses the same discretion in threshing. The dill ("fitches") and cummin, leguminous and tender grains, are beaten out, not as wheat, &c., with the heavy corn-drag ("threshing instrument"), but with "a staff"; heavy instruments would crush and injure the seed.
      cart wheel--two iron wheels armed with iron teeth, like a saw, joined together by a wooden axle. The "corn-drag" was made of three or four wooden cylinders, armed with iron teeth or flint stones fixed underneath, and joined like a sledge. Both instruments cut the straw for fodder as well as separated the corn.
      staff--used also where they had but a small quantity of corn; the flail ( Rth 2:17 ).

      28. Bread corn--corn of which bread is made.
      bruised--threshed with the corn-drag (as contrasted with dill and cummin, "beaten with the staff"), or, "trodden out" by the hoofs of cattle driven over it on the threshing-floor [G. V. SMITH], ( Deu 25:4 Mic 4:13 ).
      because--rather, "but" [HORSLEY]; though the corn is threshed with the heavy instrument, yet he will not always be thus threshing it.
      break it--"drive over it (continually) the wheel" [MAURER].
      cart--threshing-drag.
      horsemen--rather, "horses"; used to tread out corn.

      29. This also--The skill wherewith the husbandman duly adjusts his modes of threshing is given by God, as well as the skill ( Isa 28:26 ) wherewith he tills and sows ( Isa 28:24, 25 ). Therefore He must also be able to adapt His modes of treatment to the several moral needs of His creatures. His object in sending tribulation (derived from the Latin tribulum, a "threshing instrument," Luk 22:31 Rom 5:3 ) is to sever the moral chaff from the wheat, not to crush utterly; "His judgments are usually in the line of our offenses; by the nature of the judgments we may usually ascertain the nature of the sin" [BARNES].