Geneva Bible Study Notes :: Footnotes for Isaiah 32

Isa 32:1 Behold, (a) a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall (b) rule in judgment.

(a) This prophecy is of Hezekiah, who was a figure of Christ, and therefore it should chiefly be referred to him.

(b) By judgment and justice is meant an upright government, both in policy and religion.

Isa 32:2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as streams of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in (c) a weary land.

(c) Where men are weary with travelling for lack of water.

Isa 32:3 And the eyes of (d) them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.

(d) He promises to give the true light which is the pure doctrine of God's word, and understanding, and zeal of the same, are contrary to the threatenings against the wicked, Isa 6:9; 29:10.

Isa 32:5 The (e) vile person shall be no more called noble, nor the churl said [to be] bountiful.

(e) Vice will no more be called virtue, nor virtue esteemed by power and riches.

Isa 32:9 Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye (f) careless daughters; give ear to my speech.

(f) He prophecies of such calamity to come that they will not spare the women and children, and therefore wills them to take heed and provide.

Isa 32:10 Many days and years shall ye be troubled, (g) ye careless women: (h) for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.

(g) Meaning that the affliction would continue long and when one year was past, yet they should look for new plagues.

(h) God will take from you the means and opportunities, which made you contemn him: that is, abundance of worldly goods.

Isa 32:12 They shall lament for the (i) breasts, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

(i) By the breasts he means the plentiful fields, by which men are nourished as children with the breast: or, the mothers for sorrow and heaviness will lack milk.

Isa 32:15 Until the (k) spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the (l) fruitful field shall be counted for a forest.

(k) That is, when the Church will be restored, thus the prophets after they have denounced God's judgments against the wicked, used to comfort the godly, lest they should faint.

(l) The field which is now fruitful, will be but as a barren forest in comparison to what it will be then as in Isa 29:17 which will be fulfilled in Christ's time, for then they who were before as the barren wilderness, being regenerate will be fruitful and they who had some beginning of godliness, will bring forth fruit in such abundance, that their former life will seem but as a wilderness where no fruit was.

Isa 32:19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the (m) city shall be low in a low place.

(m) They will not need to build it in high places for fear of the enemy: for God will defend it, and turn away the storms from hurting their conveniences.

Isa 32:20 Blessed [are] ye (n) that sow beside all waters, that (o) send forth [there] the feet of the ox and the donkey.

(n) That is, upon fat ground and well watered, which brings forth in abundance, or in places which before were covered with waters, and now made dry for your uses.

(o) The fields will be so rank, that they will send out their cattle to eat up the first crop, which abundance will be signs of God's love and favour toward them.