A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 3: Hope and Tragedy

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 3: Hope and Tragedy

In Isaiah chapter 1 we hope to have elucidated the commonality of the opening message of the prophet with those of his contemporaries, Hosea and Amos. In verses 2 through 5 the prophet upbraids the children of Israel for rebelling against Yahweh their God, and departing from Him. Then in verses 6 through 9 the inevitable result of that rebellion is described, where strangers, people of other nations and races, have devoured their land. This prophecy also parallels other similar prophecies of Scripture, both contemporary and remote. One example is found in Joel chapter 1, who wrote in reference to the land of Israel some short time after the deportations of Israel and much of Judah by the Assyrians, and said “4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.”

But then this also parallels another example, a more distant prophecy in Revelation chapter 9, where there is a vision of the hordes of Arabia who tormented the Byzantine Empire for over a thousand years: “2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.”

That prophecy in the Revelation represented the first stages of the medieval muslim invasions of Europe, and as it proceeds it described the latter stages of the invasion in the form of the two hundred thousand horsemen from beyond the Euphrates whose horses were described as having the heads of lions and the tails of scorpions, which represents the conquests of the Turks. The locusts of the Revelation are an allegory very much like the caterpillars and worms of Joel chapter 1, as they both represent people who would invade and pillage and devour the lands of the children of Israel, in the first, ancient Israel, and in the later, Christian Europe. At the end of Revelation chapter 9, we are informed of the reasons for invasion, where it is said “20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

Fornication in the Scriptures, which is usually called whoredom in the Old Testament, is a word used to describe one of various sexual sins, including that of race-mixing. In the New Testament, Paul of Tarsus used the word for fornication to describe a race-mixing episode recorded in Numbers chapter 25, in chapter 10 of his first epistle to the Corinthians. The apostle Jude also used the term in that context in his epistle, where he had described fornication as the pursuit of strange flesh, where the word translated as strange is a Greek word which means different.

The relevant conclusion is this: that just as it was in the time of the Judges, so it was in the time of the Davidic Kingdom, and so it is today, that when the children of Yahweh depart from His Word and go off into sin, He ceases to protect them, and they become overrun with alien nations, by which they suffer all of the curses of disobedience which are found in Deuteronomy chapter 28, among which we find that: “32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand…. 41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity…. 43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. 44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. 45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee.”

This is why, throughout America and Europe today, as well as the other nations of Christendom, we are burdened with “multiculturalism”, and one result is race-mixing on an unprecedented scale in history, and even when it is not accepted, then it is often forced upon Whites through crimes which the authorities within their own governments ignore, such as the long-running muslim grooming gangs of Great Britain [1] and Europe [2, 3] which have raped tens of thousands of victims, and have often even been protected by the police. This is in fulfillment of the punishment for disobedience in Deuteronomy which warns “32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.” That explains why parents today are helpless to protect their own children, and neither does the government protect them.

A convicted child rapist was recently even featured as an athlete at this summer’s Olympics festivities in Paris, and although he is not a muslim, this year’s Olympics fully reflects the level of depravity which is worthy of the names of Sodom and Gomorrah which Isaiah had used to describe ancient Israel in chapter 1. An image of Christ displayed on a piece of equipment used by a certain participant was banned. Without doubt, and in spite of the denials made after the fact, the opening ceremony blatantly mocked Christ and His apostles. [4] Merely tolerating, let alone supporting these sins, only beckons greater collective punishment on all Christians and the populations of the formerly Christian nations. But Europeans cannot by their own choice abandon a living God, without suffering the consequences. The evidence of those consequences are all around us today.

Now in modern times, all of the aliens inhabiting the formerly White Christian nations have a multitude of advantages and privileges for which the White Christians, or former Christians, have borne the burdens, and no longer enjoy for themselves. This is in fulfillment of the warning that “43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.” So the “woke” society is the punishment of the children of Israel for their sins, and the only way out of the dilemma is repentance and a return to God. Until there is repentance, the current chastisement is only going to be magnified, and there is absolutely no other solution but a return to Christ. There is certainly no political solution, because any opposition to this “woke” agenda is crushed, at least in Europe. In America, those who oppose it are mainly ostracized by the business community, even if they have not yet been criminalized by the government.

From verse 16 of Isaiah chapter 1, the prophet records an appeal from Yahweh to the people, exhorting them to execute justice in the land, to defend the disadvantaged, the orphaned and the widowed. It is generally the children of such people that the muslim rape grooming gangs and other criminals exploit today, yet British, German and Scandinavian authorities consistently fail to protect them. But on the other hand, the manner in which women in the West have lived their lives these past several decades, roaming the streets alone at night, often intoxicated and scantily dressed – with buttocks and breasts exposed to the sight of strangers – actually invites the savagery which they frequently suffer when they are found in vulnerable circumstances and are caught by the aliens. Isaiah himself will address aspects of that here in chapter 3 of his prophecy, because such feminism had also come to be a fashion in ancient Israel.

So as we hope to have elucidated, in verses 16 through 23 of his opening chapter, Isaiah had chastised the children of Israel for not judging righteously, for not defending the disadvantaged of their own people, as the contemporary prophet Amos had also frequently warned, and then in verses 21 through 31, Isaiah had also chastised them for fornication, in the form of race-mixing, as the contemporary prophet Hosea had also frequently warned. This was found by comparing the allegories which Isaiah had used in verses 29 through 31 to similar language in Jeremiah and the Wisdom of Solomon, and also to the plain words of the prophet Ezekiel, which in turn serve to explain the allegories used in reference to Jerusalem found in Jeremiah, who was his contemporary.

Throughout that last portion of Isaiah chapter 1, the condemnations for fornication were intertwined with promises of restoration and redemption. But first, a necessary purging of the transgressors was described where we read: “25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: 26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. 27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. 28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.”

Then the nature of the transgressors is revealed in the last three verses of the chapter, where we read: “29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. 30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. 31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.” So evidently, the transgressors were condemned for having chosen forbidden trees, which were evidently found in forbidden gardens. But these cannot be references to the literal trees and gardens in the land of Israel, all of which belonged to the people of Israel, and therefore it must not be referring to literal trees and gardens.

As we had asserted through those Scriptures which we had compared, the trees and gardens were references to people of family trees other than that of Adam, from gardens other than that of Eden, or at least, from gardens outside of Eden, which can only be references to the Canaanites, Kenites, Rephaim and others of the Nephilim, or fallen angels, which they had failed to drive out of the land. For this, we read a warning found in Deuteronomy chapter 31: “16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.” The subsequent historical records of Scripture show that these words were indeed fulfilled, in many ways and in diverse places throughout ancient Israel. So here at the end of Isaiah chapter 1, that truth is made manifest, and the forthcoming results of the sin are clearly announced.

Now, as we proceed with Isaiah chapter 2, there is yet another promise offering a hope of restoration and reconciliation, which is immediately followed with another explanation of the tragedy of sin and the coming punishment upon Israel, and as it is revealed in chapter 3, also upon those in Judah and Jerusalem. So Isaiah the prophet repeatedly offers promises of hope to the children of Israel, along with his warnings of tragedy, and in this chapter the hope is offered even before the warnings of catastrophe which follow. Where this chapter opens, we see that it is a new vision which Isaiah had been given by Yahweh, apart from the vision which he had recorded in chapter 1, and this vision does not conclude until the end of Isaiah chapter 5.

As this vision begins, it opens with a prophecy which foreshadows a portion of the message of another contemporary prophet, that of Micah, so as we proceed we shall compare Isaiah’s words here with a portion of Micah chapter 4. The ministry of Micah most likely had not yet begun when Isaiah wrote these words here in chapter 2. As we have already explained, it is evident that Isaiah began his ministry in the latter years of the time of Uzziah king of Judah. While Jotham his son was a co-regent during those latter years, but where the book of Micah introduces the prophet we read that his ministry was conducted “in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah”, and since Uzziah is not mentioned, it is apparent that he was already dead. Here in Isaiah, the death of Uzziah is reported in chapter 6, which begins the record of the third vision of Isaiah’s ministry. Therefore it is evident that Isaiah began his ministry at least a few years before that of Micah. But it is also evident that Micah began his ministry some time before the fall of Samaria to the Assyrians because his first prophecy includes a premonition of its fall, in the words attributed to Yahweh: “6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.” So after the death of Uzziah, from the time of Jotham to that of Hezekiah, the prophets Hosea, Isaiah and Micah were all prophesying at the same time in Israel and Judah, and for as long as twenty years, but the time of Amos seems to have passed.

With that we shall commence with Isaiah chapter 2, where at first Israel is offered some hope, before they are condemned once again for their sins:

Isaiah 2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

Here is a promise of hope in a distant future, even as Israel and Judah are being warned that they were about to go into captivity as punishment for their sins. The phrase “last days” is from a Hebrew phrase,באחרית הימים or acharith ha yomim. The word ימים or yomim is a plural form of יום or yowm, which is a day but which was also used figuratively of some other longer period of time, such as an era or an epoch. The word אחרית or acharith (# 319) is defined by Strong’s as “the last or end, hence the future”. Its root word, אחר or achar (# 310) is defined as “properly the hind part; generally used as an adverb or conjunction, after (in various senses)”. So the phrase describes days which follow after, but which do not necessarily come last.

Therefore the substance of this promise of hope must describe some entity or reorganization of the children of Israel which shall manifest for them some time in the future, and evidently after their period of captivity. In prophecy, mountains are often used as an allegory for great nations, and hills for smaller nations. So, for example, in Nahum chapter 1, speaking about those nations which would be rebuked by Yahweh, we read: “5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.” Likewise, in Micah chapter 6, the prophet addresses the nations surrounding Israel: “1 Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. 2 Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD'S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.” In these prophecies, the mountains and hills represent the nations being addressed and judged. Nations can quake and listen. But literal mountains cannot quake in fear, or listen and consider anything being spoken.

However after the destruction of the second temple, or Herod’s temple, which was actually the third temple, there will not be another temple in Israel which shall be sanctified by Yahweh God. Rather, in the words of John in Revelation chapter 21 we read, speaking of the promised City of God: “22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” Then in the Gospel of Christ , in John chapter 2, the temple which Christ had promised to raise was His body, where the apostle said “21 But he spake of the temple of his body.” Then in Acts chapter 7 we read “48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,” which is a reference to the words of Isaiah in the opening verses of chapter 66 of his prophecy.

The prophetic “mountain of Yahweh’s house” is also a reference to the children of Israel. Of this house, Paul of Tarsus had written in Hebrews chapter 3: “5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” The distinction Paul had made is that Moses governed the house of Yahweh as a servant, but Yahshua Christ is Yahweh God incarnate, so He is governing His Own house as the Son, and His house is His people. Only in this house could this prophecy of Isaiah be fulfilled. Peter also described the temple of Yahweh in this manner, explaining that Christ is the chief corner stone, and Christians are lively stones which assemble His spiritual house. Of course, Paul meant to describe only Israel with the pronoun “we”, since he also declared, in Acts chapter 26, that “6 … now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: 7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come…” Paul spoke to the nations of those twelve tribes, and that was the entire purpose of his ministry, and they are Paul’s “we”.

So in the offer of hope here, some time after they go into captivity, at a point in the future, then the “mountain of Yahweh’s house”, which is the collective children of Israel, shall be established as great nations. This would also fulfill the promise to Abraham that “4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations”, which is found in Genesis chapter 17 but repeated by Paul of Tarsus, who had explained the fulfillment of that promise in the people of Europe in Romans chapter 4, and indirectly in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and Galatians chapters 3 and 4.

3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

As mountains are often a metaphor for great nations, Mount Zion is also often a reference to the collective children of Israel, and the location of the house of Yahweh as an allegory describing His dwelling place. While Zion was a literal hill in old Jerusalem, the temple of Solomon was built on Mount Moriah, and not on Mount Zion (2 Chronicles 3:1). So we read in Zechariah chapter 8: “3 Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.” The promise of Yahweh to return unto Zion and unto Jerusalem was a promise of reconciliation with the people, and not necessarily with the places that bore those names in ancient times. The new Jerusalem of the Revelation is a city which descends from heaven, not a city in Palestine.

In captivity, the children of Israel were often also called the “daughter of Zion”, such as where we read in Zephaniah chapter 3: “14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.” Then again, in Micah chapter 4, which we shall discuss here further on, “13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.” Mountains do not sing, but people may do so; mountains do not arise and thresh, but people may also do that.

4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

In the opening verse of Micah chapter 1, the prophet attests that he prophesied concerning “1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” Notice that he mentioned no kings of Israel, but only those of Judah, even though much of his prophecy concerned Israel, especially throughout the first three chapters of his book. But towards the end of chapter 3, the iniquity of Jerusalem is mentioned along with the “princes of the house of Israel”, and although the destruction of Samaria was already prophesied in Micah chapter 1, in the final verse of chapter 3 we read: “12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.”

So after three chapters condemning Samaria and Jerusalem, we read a message of hope in Micah chapter 4 in which the first several verses are very similar, even nearly identical, to the words of this prophecy of Isaiah, in both English and Hebrew, and it was certainly meant to compliment these words of Isaiah, just as Isaiah in chapter 1 of his prophecy had complimented Hosea and Amos. So it may be worthwhile to read these two passages alternately, where the verses directly correspond to one another:

So some time in the future from that of the captivities of Israel, including Judah, the children of Israel would become established in great nations, and those nations would be governed by Christian law, whereby the people would flow into those nations in order to share in the resulting society. Then ultimately, through them many nations would be judged until the point one day would come that war is no longer necessary, so the implements of war are refashioned for other purposes. Then in the very next verse of the passage of Micah we read: “4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.”

As a digression, because this is beyond the scope of this chapter of Isaiah, as the corresponding passage in Micah continues it relates this prophecy even more closely to the captivity of Israel: “5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.” Here in later chapters of Isaiah we shall see many prophecies of Christ, and language with somewhat similar meanings to this, which promise that Israel , and Israel alone, would be reconciled to Yahweh their God in Christ.

Then, as Micah continues: “6 In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; 7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.” Note that all of this concerns only Israel, since only Israel was afflicted by Yahweh, and only Israel was cast off by Yahweh. So only Israel shall be reigned over by Yahweh. Continuing with Micah: “8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” So the daughter of Jerusalem is a far-off place to which the kingdom would come some time after the period of captivity, and not a place in Palestine. All of this is a reference to the migrations of Israel in captivity which are also described in the latter chapters of Isaiah. For example, in Isaiah chapter 66 we read: “19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the [nations].”

These migrations of Israel can indeed be traced in ancient inscriptions and classical histories as the migrations of the Germanic, Celtic and other tribes into Europe, which began in the late 7th century BC, not 200 years after Isaiah had written. So in Micah, there is a prophesy that the further away from Palestine that Israel would migrate, the stronger a nation Israel would become, where it says “And I will make her that halted a remnant,” meaning that those of the people who did not migrate far would become only a remnant, “and her that was cast far off a strong nation”. When the Germanic and Celtic people migrated to points beyond Europe, even further from Palestine, they became even stronger nations. This subject will be visited frequently as we make our way through Isaiah, because the prophet had prophesied aspects of this subject quite frequently.

Now to continue with Isaiah, here it seems that the prophet is addressing not only the people, but also Yahweh Himself, from verse 6, but first he addresses Israel in verse 5:

5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Isaiah makes a plea to Israel, but now he turns to address Yahweh:

6 Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.

The word translated as replenished, which is מלא or mala (# 4390), only means to fill or to be filled or full. The phrase translated as from the east is מקדם or ma qedem, the word קדם or qedem (# 6924) with a מ prefix meaning from. The word קדם or qedem may mean east, or it may be used of time or place, to mean something in front, before or, according to Strong’s Concordance, anciently. Strong’s defined the verb form (# 6923) as to project or precede. In Nehemiah chapter 12 (12:46), Psalm 74 (74:12), Psalm 77 (77:5 and 77:11), Psalm 143 (143:5) and Micah chapter 5 (5:2) the phrase מקדם or ma qedem was translated in the King James Version as “of old” and in Isaiah chapter 45 (45:21) it was translated as “from ancient time”. In Habakkuk chapter 1 (1:12) it was translated “from everlasting”. In Isaiah chapter 9 (9:12), of place it was translated as “before”. On 13 other occasions it was translated as “on the east”, or something similar, speaking of place, which seems to be correct on at least most occasions.

However here, the phrase seems to be ambiguous, at best. So the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible added a parenthetical phrase to their translation of the clause and wrote “because they are filled (with practices) from the east”. Likewise the New American Standard Bible did the same, having “Because they are filled (with influences) from the east”. Here I would rather interpret the clause to mean “because they are filled from the beginning”, and the two clauses which follow would fill out the context. This would also agree with the Septuagint, from Brenton’s translation: “6 For he has forsaken his people the house of Israel, because their land is filled as at the beginning with divinations, as the land of the Philistines, and many strange children were born to them.”

As we have already cited from Deuteronomy, Yahweh had told Moses that after his passing the children of Israel would revert to idolatry and join themselves to the people of the land. We will again read Deuteronomy 31:16 in part: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them…” They are the trees and the gardens which Israel had chosen, as it was explained in Isaiah’s opening chapter, and they began to choose them from the beginning until the nation was plunged into greater and greater sins. Once again, this is also the same situation which we find ourselves in today, as a people.

As Isaiah continues addressing Yahweh, we see that they were blessed with prosperity in spite of their sins:

7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: 8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: 9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.

That last verse, which describes the mean, or poor man who bows down, and the great man who humbles himself, the prophet had written in reference to the idols. So the children of Israel were giving obeisance to the idols, and not to God. For that, Isaiah pleads with Yahweh that they would not be forgiven, so the prophet himself wants to see the people punished for their sins. There are no words for mean or great in the Hebrew text here. However the first word for man is the common word for a man of the Adamic race, אדם or adam (# 120), while the second word for man is the word איש or aish (# 376), which is actually a title of respect. Therefore, in our opinion, the distinction which is made in the Hebrew text is reflected appropriately in the translation of the words in the King James Version. It was reflected in the Septuagint with the use of the similarly distinct terms ἄνθρωπος, which is a common word for man, and ἀνήρ, a word for man which has the signification of gentleman.

Now the prophet turns his attention back to addressing the children of Israel with a further warning:

10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.

At this point in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible there is an editor’s note which reads: “The second half of verse 9 and all of verse 10 were a late addition to the text by a scribe. It was not yet in 1QIsa^a, though it was in 4QIsa^a, 4QIsa^b, the Masoretic Text, and the Hebrew text from which the Septuagint was translated.” So here, on the basis of 1QIsa^a, the editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible reject this pericope, since that is the only source they cite to support the claim that this pericope is a late addition. But in verse 22 of this chapter, they reject that as a spurious addition, even though it is found in 1QIsa^a and the Masoretic Text. So is 1QIsa^a their best authority, or not? We may be more inclined to agree with their decision concerning verse 22, but we certainly do not agree with them here. Furthermore, the overall context surrounding verses 9 and 10 support the general reading where it appears in both the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint.

So we accept the warning in verse 10 as a legitimate part of Isaiah’s dialogue here, and he is warning those among the people who would heed his words, who would be those Israelites who still fear Yahweh their God, to hide themselves from the wrath to come. Now he continues and tells them why:

11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 12 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: 13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, 14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, 15 And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, 16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.

The descriptions of the cedars of Lebanon and the oaks of Bashan are references to the children of Israel dwelling in those diverse places. It is not oaks and cedars, but men which suffer from pride. The high mountains and the hills are references to the tribes in the land, which were nations unto themselves, as we read in the closing verse of the song of Moses, in Deuteronomy chapter 32, where Israel had first been called nations by Moses and we read “43 Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.” Once again, this warning is just as relevant today as it was in Isaiah’s time, because today the sinners are once again proud, and have once again exalted themselves as oaks and cedars, and have set themselves upon the high mountains.

The word for ships early in verse 16 is אניה or aniah (# 591), which is a ship, but the word at the end of the verse which the King James Version had translated as pictures is שכיה or sekiah (# 7914), which Strong’s defines only as “a conspicuous object” and Gesenius as an “image, form, appearance” and therefore referring to this verse, as “the flag of a ship, [a] standard” [5]. Similarly, Brown, Driver, Briggs define the word to mean “watchtowers … [or] standards (as conspicuous)” [6]. The word translated as pleasant can mean desirable or precious, or even fine, as the Septuagint has “fine ships” here, and the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has “stately vessels”, but the New American Standard Bible has “beautiful craft”. So perhaps we would translate the last clause of verse 16 to read “upon every stately [or dignified] standard”, as the phrase appears in this context to be referring to the ships of the nation.

As a digression, Tarshish is a reference to the nation of the sons of Japheth which had settled in the southeastern portion of the Iberian Peninsula in very early times. In the 5th century BC the Greek historian Herodotus, writing about a period which predated the Trojan War which is 750 years before his own time, had described Tarshish, or Tartessus in southern Spain, and he wrote, “This trading town was in those days a virgin port, unfrequented by the merchants.” The peninsula came to be called Iberia after the Hebrew word עבר or eber (# 5677), which refers to a region across or beyond, ostensibly because it was across the Mediterranean Sea from the ancient land of Israel. Many Israelites had been immigrating to points in Iberia and beyond from ancient times, and by later Greek writers they were called Kelts and Iberians.

Isaiah continues warning the people:

17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.

Verse 17 seems to be a repeat of verse 11, with several minor differences, which seems to have been intended by the prophet. Now Isaiah’s warning continues:

19 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. 20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; 21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Rather than moles the Septuagint has vanities in verse 20, which seems out of place in the context of bats. The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has moles, thereby agreeing with the Masoretic Text.

Evidently men will finally cast off their idols only once it is realized that they are totally useless in the face of the wrath of God, and that they are actually a burden to bear in difficult times. These people would realize the uselessness of their idols, but this stands in contrast to the men of Revelation chapter 9, who even after the torments of the locusts and scorpions, would not repent of their idols, or theit sorceries or fornication.

But furthermore, in the holes of the rocks, there will be no cellphone reception, no social media, and no vain selfies worth sharing with anyone.

If this verse is not the conclusion of Isaiah chapter 2, the next verse certainly is:

22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

The Septuagint is wanting verse 22 entirely. In the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible there is an editor’s note which reads: “Verse 22 was a late addition to the text. It was not yet in the Hebrew text from which the Septuagint was translated, though it was early enough to be in 1QIsa^a and the Masoretic Text….” Verse 22, along with the very end of verse 9 which the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible editors had also rejected, are both attested in another ancient source, which is the Hexapla of Origen. [8]

Whether this verse is spurious or not, we cannot tell. Evidently it is also wanting in the other fragments of the other Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts which are mentioned here in the comments for verses 9 and 10, known as 4QIsa^a and 4QIsa^b. It is wanting in Origen’s copy of the Septuagint, which is evident in the Hexapla, but it is present in his Hebrew text as well as some of the other translations which he noted. Either way, it seems that the content of the verse does not take away from or add much to anything which Isaiah had said. In any event, the context does not break before the beginning of chapter 3, which is a continuation of this same vision, and in which Isaiah has many further warnings for the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

So beginning with a message of hope for the future of Israel, Isaiah ended this chapter, and goes into the next, with a description of the tragedy that is about to come upon his people. But for now, we shall conclude this portion of our commentary here at the end of Isaiah chapter 2.

Footnotes

1 Grooming Gangs, Volume 797:debated on Tuesday 14 May 2019, United Kingdom Parliament, Hansard, https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2019-05-14/debates/349FA275-CB65-45C0-87C7-EE16D1FD1B0A/GroomingGangs, accessed August 8th, 2024.

2 Oulu child sexual exploitation scandal, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulu_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal, accessed August 8th, 2024.

3 Tensions rise in Germany over handling of mass sexual assaults in Cologne, the Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/06/tensions-rise-in-germany-over-handling-of-mass-sexual-assaults-in-cologne, accessed August 8th, 2024.

4 Blasphemy and Decadence at the Paris Olympics, Christogenea Forum, https://boards.christogenea.org/forum/main-category/main-forum/descent-to-sodom/140826-blasphemy-and-decadence-at-the-paris-olympics, accessed August 9th, 2024.

5 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Baker Books, 1979, p. 789.

6 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, p. 967.

7 Herodotus, The Histories, 4.152.

8 Origenis Hexaplorum, Fridericus Field, AA.M., E Typographeo Clarendoniano (The Clarendon Press), 1875, Volume 2 pp. 434-435.