A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 30: The Righteous Ruler

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 30: The Righteous Ruler

Only Yahweh God may justly rule over the children of Israel, and only He can truly be a righteous ruler. When Israel had demanded an earthly king, as it is described in 1 Samuel chapter 8, they had actually rejected the rule of Yahweh their God. There we read, in part: “4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” 

Of course, Samuel had not yet died, that his sinful sons might become their judges, so the elders and the people should have instead prayed to God for a righteous judge, and not for a king. They had sought an earthly solution to a problem that only God could have been expected to resolve. However a sinful people have the government that they deserve, and men shall have a tyrannical government when they deserve to be punished, as Paul of Tarsus had explained in Romans chapter 13. This is certainly a signal example of the truth of the adage, Be careful what you ask for, as the descendants of those ancient children of Israel continue to suffer on account of their demands. So today men must come to the realization, that if demanding an earthly king was a national sin, then subjecting oneself to Christ and rejecting all earthly kings, or presidents, or whatever else such a ruler may be called, must be an element of national repentance.

In recent chapters of Isaiah, we have seen warnings of the judgment which was about to come upon Judah at the hands of the Assyrians, and warnings to the people concerning their having sought help from Egypt, or refuge in Egypt and the other countries of the south. So in relation to those warnings, early in Isaiah chapter 30 the people of Judah were portrayed as Fugitives from Justice, as they had sought to flee the justice of Yahweh their God which was to be executed upon them by the Assyrians. However later in the chapter, and in chapter 31, it was made evident that they truly had No Reason to Run, where they had been told, in verse, 15, that “In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength”, confidence in God. Then they were informed that if they refused that offer, they would only suffer a more severe punishment. 

With the encouragement that they should instead return, and accept the judgment upon Judah for their sins, we have seen accompanying promises of recovery and reconciliation to Yahweh, whereby they would once again enjoy prosperity with the condition that they also dispense of their idols. So however they may have interpreted those promises when they were first heard in the pronouncements of Isaiah, they should have had hope for a fruitful future even in the face of the Assyrian invaders. However while these pronouncements had included promises of the destruction of their enemies, even the Assyrians, it should now be clear that these were far-vision prophecies, which would not be fulfilled until much later days, because as we had explained, the fall of Assyria did not “bind up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound”, as Yahweh had promised in verse 26 of Isaiah chapter 30. 

The closing verses of chapter 30 contain promises of the destruction of Assyria and the other nations mixed with rejoicing for Judah and Israel, further warnings against seeking help from Egypt, and in chapter 31, promises that Yahweh would defend Jerusalem itself, even if He did not defend the rest of Judah. In that context, the people were admonished once more to cast away their idols and turn to their God, as the Assyrian would fall and Jerusalem would be preserved. Now, as we proceed with Isaiah chapter 32, those promises continue, and there is a prophecy of a great and righteous king, however this also must be a far-vision prophecy, as we hope to explain: 

1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. 

This king could not have been Hezekiah, since by the time when this prophecy was announced, Hezekiah had already ruled over Judah for at least six years, since Samaria has already fallen and at this point Sennacherib is already king of Assyria, and possibly for as long as 13 years, as Isaiah chapter 36 informs us that it is the fourteenth year of Hezekiah in which the events which are described there had taken place. 

As a digression, this situation also elucidates the problems with the popular chronologies of Assyrian kings. According to the inscriptions, Samaria fell to the Assyrians in the first year of king Sargon II, and that is generally accounted as having occurred in 722 BC. Sargon II is said to have ruled until 705 BC, or for about seventeen years. Yet Scripture informs us that Samaria had fallen in the sixth year of Hezekiah, and that the Assyrian king Sennacherib invaded Judah in his fourteenth year, which allows only about 8 years for the rule of Sargon II. This closely reflects the 10-year difference in chronologies which we have discussed throughout this commentary of Isaiah, and in the last presentation in our commentary on Genesis. 

Neither could this king have been the successor of Hezekiah, which was his son Manasseh, who was a very wicked king and who had ruled Jerusalem for fifty-five years. On account of his wickedness, he had been taken captive to Babylon by the Assyrians. Although while he was in Babylon Manasseh had repented, and had found grace whereby he had been restored to Jerusalem, as it is explained in 2 Chronicles chapter 33, he had never ruled Jerusalem in righteousness for any significant length of time, and his son Amon who had succeeded him and ruled for only two years was even more evil than his father had been. 

Following Amon was the rule of the good king Josiah, who ruled for thirty-one years and who had instituted reforms in Jerusalem. However he became king when he was only eight years old, and those reforms did not come until his eighteenth year as king, as it is described in 2 Kings chapter 22, and they were relatively short-lived, so neither had Josiah fulfilled the prophecy of a righteous king here in Isaiah. But further clues to the identity of this king are found as the chapter progresses:

2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 

The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible and the New American Standard Bible have variant translations of this passage, with which we cannot agree upon an examination of the Hebrew text. So we prefer the reading as it is found in the King James Version, which is also supported in other translations to some degree, such as the Vulgate and the Septuagint. For example, the variant translations render a phrase which clearly and literally means “and a man shall” with the words “and each will be”, and at the least, that reflects a serious misunderstanding of the passage on the part of the translators. 

This man here is the king of verse 1, as this is a Hebrew parallelism, in which both statements describe the same individual. A righteous ruler is a protector of his people. So this king would serve as a shelter for the people in the face of adversity, since, among other things, their land is described as weary. This could not describe Josiah, who lived in relative peace and had evidently never seen battle until the day when he died in battle. Josiah died when he had moved against the Egyptian army of Pharaoh Necho, who had passed through Judah some time around 608 BC, traveling north in an endeavor to subjugate Carchemish to the Egyptians in the wake of the fall of the Assyrian empire. So after the death of Josiah, who probably had no business trying to stop the Egyptians, Judah would have a short list of wicked kings until it was finally destroyed by the Babylonians in 585 BC. Therefore, with no king having fulfilled this prophecy in all of the remaining years of Judah from the time of Hezekiah, we must look for a different fulfillment of this prophecy, which becomes more evident where we continue in verse 3: 

3 And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. 4 The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. 

In Isaiah chapter 35 there is a similar promise, which must be parallel to this one, and which helps serve to explain its meaning: “4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” This is also a exhibition of the truth that Yahshua Christ is Yahweh God come to save His people.

While in the near vision Jerusalem was saved from the Assyrians “as birds flying”, as we read in Isaiah chapter 31, that salvation was short-lived, having lasted about a hundred and fifteen years, and it did not open the eyes of the blind or the ears of the deaf because after the danger had passed, the people remained in their state of sin. As we had read in Isaiah chapter 6, where the prophet had exclaimed: “8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. 9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11 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, 12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” 

So the healing of the people could not happen until some time after the land was made utterly desolate, and that condition was not met until after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. From then, as Isaiah chapter 6 had also prophesied, only a remnant would return, and serve as a monument or memorial, and that is the temporary seventy-weeks kingdom of Daniel chapter 9 which would be destroyed after the coming of the Messiah, in retribution for having cut off the Messiah. 

However, after the desolation left by the Babylonians, the kings of Judah would no longer sit on the throne, as we read in Jeremiah chapter 22 in reference to Jehoiachin: “28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? 29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. 30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.” He was the penultimate king of Judah, replaced by his brother, Zedekiah. While the sons of Jehoiachin lived on in Babylon, among whom was born Zerubbabel who had later rebuilt the temple, Zedekiah and all of his sons were slain by the Babylonians. Neither Zerubbabel nor any of his kin or descendants had ever again ruled as kings in Judah. 

However from the time of Yahshua Christ, He alone is King of Judah, and therefore we read in Matthew chapter 11, in fulfillment of the words of this prophecy in Isaiah, where it is speaking of John the baptist: “2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, 3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? 4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: 5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” 

So this prophecy of a king here in Isaiah is fulfilled in Christ. His having healed the blind and deaf in Judaea was symbolic of His healing of His people, since through His Word the people of Israel have an opportunity to see and to hear the truths of Yahweh their God. Therefore once again in Isaiah, we have a Messianic prophecy, and as we have often stated, the very purpose of his ministry was to announce the punishment of Israel, and the hope of salvation which they had been granted and which would be delivered to them by Yahweh Himself as their Redeemer and Savior.

Now, in contrast to the Righteous Ruler who has been prophesied here, there is a criticism of those earthly kings and princes who had ruled over Israel: 

5 The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. 

The word translated as vile person is נבל or nabal (# 5036), which Strong’s defined as stupid or wicked and which the King James Version had translated elsewhere as fool or foolish. Perhaps the wicked is foolish, or vile, so that justifies the translation. Gesenius agrees with all of these definitions. [1] The word translated here as liberal is the Hebrew word נדיב or nadiyb (# 5081) which Strong’s defined as “properly voluntary, i.e. generous; hence magnaminous”. For this word Gesenius has in his primary definition “voluntary, willing, spontaneous, ready” and then secondarily “giving spontaneously, i.e. liberal”, then “generous, noble” and finally “to nobility of race, and as a substantive, a prince … used even in a bad sense, a tyrant”. [2]

The word translated as churl is כילי or kiyliy (# 3596), which Strong’s explains as having been derived from a root word כול or kowl (# 3557) which means to keep in and then to measure or maintain, and he defined it as being “in the sense of withholding; niggardly…” With this Gesenius does not agree, defining kiyliy as “fraudulent, deceitful, crafty” [3] and deriving it “by aphaeresis” from the word נכל or nakal (# 5230) which he had in turn defined as “to act fraudulently” (aphaeresis is the loss of a sound at the beginning of a word). [4] In his definition Gesenius also noted the wordplay with this word in verse 7 of this chapter, where the phrase כילי כליו or kiyliy keliy, two similarly spelled words, is translated as “instruments … of the churl” in the King James Version. Finally, the word translated as bountiful is שׁוע or shoa (# 7771) which in Strong’s is derived from a root verb meaning to be free (# 7768) and defined as “from 7768 in the original sense of freedom; a noble; i.e. liberal, opulent”. Gesenius agrees, defining this word primarily as rich or opulent, and then as liberal or noble. So it is bountiful in the King James Version, in the sense of opulent. [5]

The word liberal was co-opted in modern politics as a euphemism for a Marxist socialist, but that was not the meaning of the term in the early 17th century English of the King James Version of the Bible. This word liberal also appears in the same place in the 1560 edition of the Geneva Bible. That Bible translation has verse 5 to read, in updated spelling: “A niggard shall no more be called liberal, nor the churl rich.” This is more agreeable to Strong’s definition of kiyliy. 

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language has an archaic definition of the word liberal as “Permissible or appropriate for a person of free birth; befitting a lady or gentleman.” However the same source gives another obsolete definition of the word as “Morally unrestrained; licentious.” [6] This seems to be the manner in which the word was used by William Shakespeare in his play, Much Ado About Nothing, where he wrote in words attributed to a prince: “Why, then, are you no maiden.—Leonato, I am sorry you must hear. Upon mine honor, myself, my brother, and this grieved count did see her, hear her, at that hour last night talk with a ruffian at her chamber window, who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain, confessed the vile encounters they have had a thousand times in secret.” [7] 

William Shakespeare is said to have lived from 1564 to 1616, and the play is said to have been written in 1598 or 1599. So that negative use of the word liberal by Shakespeare was only a short time after it had appeared in the Geneva Bible, and not long before the time that the King James Version was translated. But it is not the sense in which the word was used here in Isaiah. When we read verse 8, it is clear that here, the word liberal was used in a positive sense. Here in the context of the overall passage, these words should be interpreted in a manner which contrasts them to the statement that “a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment”, and also within the context of the words which follow in verse 6 where it speaks of the hungry and the thirsty. So perhaps “the wicked [or foolish] person shall no more be called generous, nor the niggard liberal [or noble]” would be a more appropriate translation of this verse in light of the definitions of the Hebrew words. This meaning becomes more evident in the last clause of verse 6: 

6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. 

The word for vile here is nabal, the same word which had been translated in that manner in verse 5, which means stupid, wicked or foolish. The word translated as villainy is also related in the Hebrew text to the word for vile, as it is נבלה or nabalah (# 5039) and is defined by Strong’s to mean foolishness, i.e. (morally) wickedness; [and] concretely a crime”. The king and his princes who are prophesied here being described as righteous, it is fairly evident that these condemnations are aimed primarily at the rulers of Jerusalem up to and including Isaiah’s own time. Evidently they considered themselves to be liberal or generous, while the poor among their subjects had hungered and thirsted. This implies that under a Righteous Ruler, no man should hunger or thirst, and Yahshua Christ shall fulfill that aspect of the prophecy as well, where He had declared in John chapter 6 that: “35 … I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” While His meaning was allegorical, the miraculous feedings of the multitudes in the wilderness had also been signs of this fulfillment. 

As it has been discussed on several occasions in this commentary on Isaiah, the children of Israel, including Judah, had been chastised by Yahweh for not taking care of their own widows, orphans, and poor. So we read in Isaiah chapter 1: “16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” Then again in Isaiah chapter 3: “14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. 15 What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.”

So evidently, in the kingdom of Judah, hypocrisy and flattery prevailed among the ruling classes, where they had oppressed the poor and disadvantaged while having imagined themselves, or one another, to have been generous and noble, or liberal. Perhaps it is fitting, that in Isaiah’s time a word which could mean liberal was used to flatter wicked and niggardly men. Today’s so-called liberals are somewhat different, desiring to impart to the undeserving what is chiefly the goods and money of others, considering for themselves to be noble and magnanimous while at the same time they horde wealth for themselves. However they also act in that manner in hypocrisy and in error against Yahweh.

Now as we continue, the association of these vile or liberal men with the oppression of the poor is strengthened even further:

7 The instruments also of the churl [niggard] are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. 8 But the liberal [nadiyb] deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things [nadiyb] shall he stand. 

The word נדיב or nadiyb (# 5081) which Strong’s defined as voluntary, generous or magnanimous appears three times in verse 8, but where it reads liberal things a feminine form of the word appears. Yet in the lexicons, there is no precise definition which bears any concrete negative definition of this Hebrew word, even if it certainly seems to have been used in a negative manner here, especially in verse 5, but it was not. In verse 5 some commentators have imagined that the word liberal was used in a negative manner, certainly because they despise today’s liberals, but that is not true. The Brown, Driver Briggs lexicon defines nadiyb as “incited, inclined, [or] willing” and secondarily as “noble, [or] princely”. [8]

So with this it is evident, that the vile man in verse 5 is not truly liberal, so he “shall be no more called liberal”, as that verse states, because he was not truly inclined or willing to help others. Rather, he devises wicked devices by which he may oppress the poor while appearing to be liberal. Today we see this in the incredibly numerous tax laws and regulations for which Yahshua Christ had said of the rulers of the people in His Own time “4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” Wicked rulers burden the people with countless laws and regulations, fees, taxes and tariffs, and give them no relief from such burdens, and often, they imagine themselves to be liberal.

But here in verse 8, a truly noble man is contrasted to what is found in verse 7 and the wicked devices of the churl, or niggard. We would translate verse 8 to read “But the noble devises noble things, and by noble things he shall stand”, meaning that truly the good man would be rewarded for his good deeds, and a good ruler would stand in his good government, as opposed to that of the churl and his wicked devices. The lesson for men is that since no man lives forever, whether good or wicked, all governments of men are inevitably and inescapably wicked, so only God can truly be a Righteous Ruler.

But a righteous ruler would require His subjects to also be righteous, so now there is an appeal to careless women, and an ominous warning for them:

9 Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech. 10 Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come. 11 Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. 12 They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. 

In verse 12, the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible and the Septuagint both agree with the translation found in the New American Standard Bible where the verse reads: “Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine”. In verse 10, the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has the opening words to read “For days beyond a year you will be troubled…” The New American Standard Bible has them to read: “Within a year and a few days, You will be troubled…” Examining the Hebrew, this last translation seems to be the most agreeable, and the text seems to forebode the coming Assyrian siege of Jerusalem which is described in Isaiah chapter 36. 

It may seem odd that there is an appeal to women in this context, and not to the men. However perhaps the men are not worthy of an address, because speaking of Jerusalem, in Isaiah chapter 3 the Word of Yahweh had already described the women as the de facto rulers of the kingdom, where we read in part: “8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.… 12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.” Evidently, men are even more responsible than women are for the plague of feminism. 

So this passage addressing the women here certainly evokes the chastisement of feminist women which was announced a little further on in Isaiah chapter 3: “16 Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: 17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts.” 

Then where it attests here that they shall be stripped bare and girded with sackcloth, it is parallel to the warning in chapter 3 where we read further that “18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, 19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, 20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, 21 The rings, and nose jewels, 22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, 23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.” So all of their bimbo accouterments will be taken away, and as that passage proceeds, they are also told that they would be wearing sackcloth in place of their fine garments, just as they are also urged to do here. 

Here we must acknowledge the fact that, just as there are other promises of a righteous ruler, or king, in the earlier chapters of Isaiah, and just as there are earlier warnings to the women of Jerusalem, as we have just seen, and just as there are prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem in Isaiah chapters 5, 6, 10 and 22, the prophet has been repeating themes and prophesying repeatedly of the same events and circumstances in different ways throughout the entire body of his prophesy. So in Isaiah chapter 7, the child prophesied to be conceived by a virgin and called Immanuel was a prophetic type for Christ, and in Isaiah chapter 9 the child destined to have “the government … upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” was also a prophesy of Christ, while here in this chapter the King who shall rule in righteousness is yet another prophecy of Christ. Each of these prophecies of certain events or phenomena compound with one another, and each of them elucidates further details or represents different aspects of the particular event or phenomenon being prophesied. 

Continuing with the warning to the women of Jerusalem: 

13 Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city: 14 Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; 

Where verse 14 has “the multitude of the city shall be left”, the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has the words to read: “the populous city will be deserted”, and the New American Standard Bible has the clause to read: “the populated city forsaken”. These translations are better while examining the Hebrew text. However the Hebrew word which is translated as populous or populated in those phrases is המון or hamown (# 1995) actually describes the noise, tumult or disquietude caused by a multitude or crowd. So the people will not be left, as if having been left behind in the city, but rather, the noise customarily made by a multitude of people would leave, or be absent, or departed, which the Hebrew verb עזב or azib (# 5800) signifies, to leave or depart, and not to be left or remain. 

This prophecy also seems to be true in the far-vision, since Jerusalem was not completely abandoned by Yahweh God until the ministry of Yahshua Christ had come to an end, where He had pronounced to those who had opposed Him that “38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate”, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 23. So forty years after His ministry had begun, Jerusalem was completely destroyed by the Romans. The modern Jerusalem of muslims and jews is the abomination of desolation of which Daniel had later prophesied, as muslims and jews can only create abominations, so it is still a joy for wild asses and flocks of diverse beasts. This condition shall indeed persist:

15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. 

While there was a second temple, and a seventy weeks kingdom in Jerusalem for the ultimate purpose of bringing forth the Messiah, as it is prophesied in Daniel chapter 9, there was no ark of the covenant, no mercy seat which had been a fixture atop of the ark, and therefore sin could not be propitiated in accordance with the law. So the remnant at Jerusalem remained in their sins just as the Israelites in captivity had remained in theirs, until the ultimate act of propitiation which is found in Yahshua Christ. So while there is a near-vision message in the prophecy of this Righteous Ruler, to a greater degree it is foreboding the coming of Christ and the implications which that would have for the future of the children of Israel, as well as Jerusalem. 

Upon the completion of the propitiation of Christ, there was a deposit of the Spirit of God upon all those who had turned to Him. Paul of Tarsus had explained that the Spirit imparted to the faithful in the apostolic age was indeed a mere deposit, which is the meaning of the Greek word ἀρραβών which is translated as earnest in the King James Version in the epistles of Paul in places such as 2 Corinthians chapter 1 where we read, speaking of Christ: “22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” This deposit of the Spirit had been revealed at the first Pentecost after the Resurrection, as it is described in Acts chapter 2, an event for which Peter had cited the pouring out of the Spirit prophesied also in Joel chapter 2. However as it is both here and in Joel, it is evident that this is an ongoing process which is not yet completed, for which reason the apostle James had written in chapter 5 of his epistle: “7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”

In Joel chapter 2, there are references to a former rain, and a latter rain, and it is that to which James must have been referring. Thus it seems that James is comparing the ministry of Christ and the deposit of the Spirit to the early, or former rain, and begging his readers to be patient and await the promised but inevitable latter rain. Of this, we read in Joel chapter 2: “27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.”

The ministry of Joel had evidently been conducted not long before that of Jeremiah, and well after the time of Isaiah, so that time of the “great and terrible day” of Yahweh has not yet come. However here Isaiah must be prophesying of the early rain, the deposit of the Spirit in the apostolic age. So where “the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest” perhaps we may read that as an allegory for the people of Israel, as they themselves had become a fruitful field and a forest once they had accepted the Gospel of Christ, but formerly they were barren and fruitless in their apostasy from God. 

In Isaiah chapter 29 we had read a similar prophecy which says: “14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? 16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?” Paul of Tarsus had made a reference to this in chapter 1 of his first epistle to the Corinthians, where he said: “19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Having written that, Paul’s Greek is practically verbatim from the Septuagint version of Isaiah 29:14. 

Then where the passage in chapter 29 of Isaiah continues, we read a prophecy quite similar to this one which we have here in chapter 32: “17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? 18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.” So with all certainty, we would assert that this prophecy is indeed fulfilled in the spread of the Gospel of Christ and the early rain of His Spirit upon the faithful of Israel. 

Now, perhaps because the world and its rulers do not accept God or His judgment: 

16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. 

So it seems that for this very reason, most of the ministry of Christ was conducted in the wilderness, where the people had come out to hear Him repeatedly expound upon the Scriptures. In a later prophecy here in Isaiah, we read in chapter 40 of: “3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” That is a prophecy of John the Baptist, as it was recognized by the apostles of Christ in Matthew chapter 3 (3:3), Mark chapter 1 (1:3), Luke chapter 3 (3:4) and John chapter 1 (1:23). Whenever Christ had gone into the cities or the synagogues, He was despised and even persecuted, so He taught the people in the wilderness, which also served as an example to His people. 

Allegorically speaking, the children of Israel who love Christ remain in the wilderness. In Revelation chapter 12 Israel was portrayed as a woman fled into the wilderness, who for a time was nourished by angels, symbolic of the spread of the Gospel outside of the conventional authorities. Then, in a Messianic prophecy of the last days, we read in Micah chapter 4: “10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.” Once again, in spite of the conventional authorities.

So once the judgment of the Righteous Ruler is executed:

17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. 18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places; 

This seems to describe the rest of Yahweh which had been offered to the people in the time of Joshua the son of Nun, but which they refused on account of their unbelief, as Paul had described it in Hebrews chapters 2 through 4, and for which he had written in Hebrews chapter 4: “11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” 

While the rest of Yahweh is alluded to elsewhere in Isaiah, it is an explicit Messianic prophecy in Isaiah chapter 11: “1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. 10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.” So that prophecy also compounds with, and helps to explain, this prophecy here in Isaiah chapter 32. 

But now there is a seemingly more ominous warning:

19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place. 

The same verse in the New American Standard Bible reads thus: “19 And it will hail when the forest comes down, And the city will be utterly laid low.” This reading is very much like that of the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, except that there in the text, the editors have wood rather than city, which would apparently be a reference to the wood of the trees of the forest. However the footnotes inform us that their reading followed only the scroll designated as 1QIsaiah^a. There is also a footnote which reads as follows:

In Isaiah 32:19 the Masoretic Text tells us that “the city” will be completely laid low, but 1QIsaiah^a specifies “the wood” (or “the thicket”). While these may simply be two alternative and equally valid readings, the two Hebrew words are very similar: hʽyr (“city”) versus hyʽr (“wood”). [Without the article ‘h’ or ה, the difference is עיר vs. יער – WRF.] The parallel term “the forest”, found earlier in the verse, suggests that 1QIsaiah^a in fact preserves the better reading – “the wood.” “The city,” as found in the Masoretic Text, seems to be the inferior reading, which most likely arose through an early scribal misreading of the more common hʽyr for hyʽr. [In other words, there are many more occurrences of עיר for city that there are of יער for wood – WRF.] [9]

In Origen’s Hexapla the Latin copies which he had employed have city in the final clause, as do the translations of the Hebrew into Greek by Aquila of Sinope and Symmachus. The Hebrew manuscript which Origen employed also has city. The Greek of the Septuagint agrees with that of our modern copies, which has a different reading entirely, which Brenton translates thusly: “19 And if the hail should come down, it shall not come upon you; and they that dwell in the forests shall be in confidence, as those in the plain country.” [10]

If the original reading is city, it seems to refer back to Jerusalem, the city which is a subject of this prophecy, and which is mentioned again as “a quiet habitation”, as it states in verse 18 here, in another prophecy in Isaiah chapter 33. If the original reading is wood, then perhaps it describes the expectedly humble state of the children of Israel when these things are finally fulfilled. 

The final verse of the chapter:

20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass. 

Rather than “all waters” the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has “every stream”, but in any event, the clause, along with other statements in this chapter, evokes a prophecy found in Isaiah chapter 27: “4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.” This seems to also describe the fate of the briers and thorns which would occupy the land of Jerusalem, mentioned here in verse 13, since they may also be allegories for certain people. Then where Isaiah chapter 27 continues: “5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. 6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Filling the face of the world with fruit, the children of Israel shall certainly be found sowing beside all waters, and sending forth the feet of their cattle to water. 

This concludes our commentary for Isaiah chapter 32. 

Footnotes

1 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Baker Books, 1979, p. 529.

2 ibid., p. 535.

3 ibid., p. 550.

4 ibid., p. 395.

5 ibid., p. 811.

6 liberal, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, https://ahdictionary.com/word/ search.html?q=liberal, accessed May 8th, 2025. 

7 Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare, The Folger Shakespeare Library, https://www. folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/much-ado-about-nothing/read/, accessed May 8th, 2025. 

8 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, p. 622.

9 The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible: The Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time into English, Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1999, p. 319.

10 Origenis Hexaplorum, Fridericus Field, AA. M., Volume II, Clarendon Press, 1875, p. 493.