11 O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your stones will be framed in fair colours, and your bases will be sapphires.
Now as far as I am able, I have made ready what is needed for the house of my God; the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the silver things, and the brass for the brass things, iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; beryls and jewels to be framed, and stones of different colours for ornament; all sorts of stones of great price, and polished building-stone, as much as is needed and more.
For I will make you healthy again and I will make you well from your wounds, says the Lord; because they have given you the name of an outlaw, saying, It is Zion cared for by no man.
See her seated by herself, the town which was full of people! She who was great among the nations has become like a widow! She who was a princess among the countries has come under the yoke of forced work! She is sorrowing bitterly in the night, and her face is wet with weeping; among all her lovers she has no comforter: all her friends have been false to her, they have become her haters.
For these things I am weeping; my eye is streaming with water; because the comforter who might give me new life is far from me: my children are made waste, because the hater is strong. Zion's hands are outstretched; she has no comforter; the Lord has given orders to the attackers of Jacob round about him: Jerusalem has become like an unclean thing among them.
And on the top of the arch which was over their heads was the form of a king's seat, like a sapphire stone; and on the form of the seat was the form of a man seated on it on high.
Then looking, I saw that on the arch which was over the head of the winged ones there was seen over them what seemed like a sapphire stone, having the form of a king's seat.
In the twenty-fifth year after we had been taken away prisoners, in the first month of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the town was taken, on the very same day, the hand of the Lord was on me, and he took me there. In the visions of God he took me into the land of Israel, and put me down on a very high mountain, on which there was, as it seemed, a building like a town opposite me. He took me there, and I saw a man, looking like brass, with a linen cord in his hand and a measuring rod: and he was stationed in the doorway. And the man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes and give hearing with your ears, and take to heart everything I am going to let you see; for in order that I might let you see them, you have come here: and give an account of all you see to the children of Israel. And there was a wall on the outside of the house all round, and in the man's hand there was a measuring rod six cubits long by a cubit and a hand's measure: so he took the measure of the building from side to side, one rod; and from base to top, one rod. Then he came to the doorway looking to the east, and went up by its steps; and he took the measure of the doorstep, one rod wide. And the watchmen's rooms were one rod long and one rod wide; and the space between the rooms was five cubits; the doorstep of the doorway, by the covered way of the doorway inside, was one rod. And he took the measure of the covered way of the doorway inside, Eight cubits; and its uprights, two cubits; the covered way of the doorway was inside. And the rooms of the doorway on the east were three on this side and three on that; all three were of the same size; and the uprights on this side and on that were of the same size. And he took the measure of the opening of the doorway, ten cubits wide; and the way down the doorway was thirteen cubits; And the space in front of the rooms, a cubit on this side and a cubit on that side; and the rooms six cubits on this side and six cubits on that. And he took the measure of the doorway from the back of one room to the back of the other, twenty-five cubits across, from door to door. And he took the measure of the covered way, twenty cubits; and opening from the covered way of the doorway was the open square round about. And from before the opening of the doorway to before the inner covered way of the doorway was fifty cubits. And the rooms and their uprights had sloping windows inside the doorway all round, and in the same way the covered way had windows all round on the inside: and on every upright there were palm-trees. Then he took me into the outer square, and there were rooms and a stone floor made for the open square all round: there were thirty rooms on the stone floor. And the stone floor was by the side of the doorways, and was as wide as the doorways were long, even the lower floor. Then he took the measure of the square across, from before the lower doorway inside to before the inner doorway outside, one hundred cubits. And he took me in the direction of the north, And there was a doorway to the outer square, looking to the north; and he took the measure of it to see how wide and how long it was. And it had three rooms on this side of it and three on that; its uprights and its covered ways were the same size as those of the first doorway: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. And its windows, and the windows of its covered ways, and its palm-trees, were the same as those of the doorway looking to the east; and there were seven steps up to it; and the covered way went inside. And there was a doorway to the inner square opposite the doorway on the north, like the doorway on the east; and he took the measure from doorway to doorway, a hundred cubits. And he took me to the south, and I saw a doorway looking to the south: and he took the measure of its rooms and its uprights and its covered ways by these measures. And there were windows in it and in the covered way all round, like the other windows: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. And there were seven steps up to it, and its covered way went inside: and it had palm-trees, one on this side and one on that, on its uprights. And there was a doorway to the inner square looking to the south: he took the measure from doorway to doorway to the south, a hundred cubits. Then he took me to the inner square by the south doorway: and he took the measure of the south doorway by these measures; And the rooms in it and the uprights and the covered ways, by these measures: And there were windows in it and in the covered way all round: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. The covered way was on the side nearest the outer square; and there were palm-trees on the uprights: and there were eight steps going up to it. And he took me into the inner square facing the east: and he took the measure of the doorway by these measures; And of the rooms in it and its uprights and its covered ways, by these measures: and there were windows in it and in the covered way round about: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. And the covered way was on the side nearest the outer square; there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side and on that: and there were eight steps going up to it. And he took me to the north doorway: and he took the measure of it by these measures; Its rooms, its uprights, and its covered way had the same measures, and its covered way had windows all round: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Its uprights were on the side nearest to the outer square; there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side and on that: and there were eight steps going up to it. And there was a room with a door in the covered way of the doorway, where the burned offering was washed. And in the covered way of the doorway there were two tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which the burned offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error were put to death: On the outer side, to the north, as one goes up to the opening of the doorway, were two tables. There were four tables on one side and four tables on the other, by the side of the doorway; eight tables, on which they put to death the beasts for the offerings. And there were four tables for the burned offering, made of cut stone, one and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide and a cubit high, where the instruments were placed which were used for putting to death the burned offering and the beasts for the offerings.
And there came up a great storm in the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves: but he was sleeping.
Truly I say to you, You will be weeping and sorrowing, but the world will be glad: you will be sad, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. When a woman is about to give birth she has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has given birth to the child, the pain is put out of her mind by the joy that a man has come into the world. So you have sorrow now: but I will see you again, and your hearts will be glad, and no one will take away your joy.
Making strong the souls of the disciples, saying to them that they were to keep the faith, and that we have to go through troubles of all sorts to come into the kingdom of God.
And, still fighting the storm with all our strength, the day after they made a start at getting the goods out of the ship; And on the third day, they let all the sailing apparatus go over the side. And as we had not seen the sun or stars for a long time, and a great storm was on us, all hope of salvation was gone.
To whom you come, as to a living stone, not honoured by men, but of great and special value to God; You, as living stones, are being made into a house of the spirit, a holy order of priests, making those offerings of the spirit which are pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is said in the Writings, See, I am placing a keystone in Zion, of great and special value; and the man who has faith in him will not be put to shame.
And I will give orders to my two witnesses, and they will be prophets for a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, clothed with haircloth. These are the two olive-trees and the two lights, which are before the Lord of the earth. And if any man would do them damage, fire comes out of their mouth and puts an end to those who are working against them: and if any man has a desire to do them damage, in this way will he be put to death. These have the power to keep the heaven shut, so that there may be no rain in the days when they are prophets: and they have power over the waters to make them into blood, and to send every sort of disease on the earth as their pleasure is. And when they have come to the end of their witness, the beast which comes up out of the great deep will make war on them and overcome them and put them to death. And their dead bodies will be in the open street of the great town, which in the spirit is named Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was put to death on the cross. And the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will be looking on their dead bodies three days and a half, and will not let their dead bodies be put in the earth. And those who are on the earth will have pleasure and delight over them; and they will send offerings one to another because these two prophets gave great trouble to all on the earth.
And when the dragon saw that he was forced down to the earth, he made cruel attacks on the woman who gave birth to the male child. And there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, so that she might go in flight into the waste land, to her place, where she is given food for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the snake. And the snake sent out of his mouth after the woman a river of water, so that she might be taken away by the stream. And the earth gave help to the woman, and with open mouth took up the river which the dragon sent out of his mouth. And the dragon was angry with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her seed, who keep the orders of God, and the witness of Jesus:
And the building of its wall was of jasper, and the town was clear gold, clear as glass. The bases of the wall of the town had ornaments of all sorts of beautiful stones. The first base was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve doors were twelve pearls; every door was made of one pearl; and the street of the town was clear gold, as clear as glass.
<A Song of the going up.> Great have been my troubles from the time when I was young (let Israel now say); Great have been my troubles from the time when I was young, but my troubles have not overcome me. The ploughmen were ploughing on my back; long were the wounds they made.
And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows;
And they saw the God of Israel; and under his feet there was, as it seemed, a jewelled floor, clear as the heavens.
And on it you are to put four lines of jewels; the first line is to be a cornelian, a chrysolite, and an emerald; The second, a ruby, a sapphire, and an onyx; The third, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; The fourth, a topaz, a beryl, and a jasper; they are to be fixed in twisted frames of gold.
And on it they put four lines of stones: in the first line was a carnelian, a chrysolite, and an emerald; In the second, a ruby, a sapphire, and an onyx; In the third, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; In the fourth, a topaz, a beryl, and a jasper; they were fixed in twisted frames of gold. There were twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel; on every one the name of one of the tribes of Israel was cut, like the cutting of a stamp.
In that day my wrath will be moved against them, and I will be turned away from them, veiling my face from them, and destruction will overtake them, and unnumbered evils and troubles will come on them; so that in that day they will say, Have not these evils come on us because our God is not with us?
Great are the troubles of the upright: but the Lord takes him safely out of them all.
Now after a long time the king of Egypt came to his end: and the children of Israel were crying in their grief under the weight of their work, and their cry for help came to the ears of God.
What answer, then, will my people give to the representatives of the nation? That the Lord is the builder of Zion, and she will be a safe place for the poor of his people.
For this cause says the Lord God, See, I am placing in Zion as a base, a stone, a tested stone, an angle-stone which is certain and of great value: and he who has faith will not give way.
Awake! awake! up! O Jerusalem, you who have taken from the Lord's hand the cup of his wrath; tasting in full measure the wine which overcomes. She has no one among all her children to be her guide; not one of the sons she has taken care of takes her by the hand. These two things have come on you; who will be weeping for you? wasting and destruction; death from need of food, and from the sword; how may you be comforted?
So now give ear to this, you who are troubled and overcome, but not with wine:
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 54
Commentary on Isaiah 54 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
After the “Servant of God” has expiated the sin of His people by the sacrifice of Himself, and Israel has acknowledged its fault in connection with the rejected One, and entered into the possession and enjoyment of the salvation procured by Him, the glory of the church, which has thus become a partaker of salvation through repentance and faith, is quite ready to burst forth. Hence the prophet can now exclaim, Isaiah 54:1 : “Exult, O barren one, thou that didst not bear; break forth into exulting, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for there are more children of the solitary one than children of the married wife, saith Jehovah.” The words are addressed to Jerusalem, which was a counterpart of Sarah in her barrenness at first, and her fruitfulness afterwards (Isaiah 41:1-3). She is not תלד לא עקרה (Job 24:21), but ילדה לא עקרה (Judges 13:2); not indeed that she had never had any children, but during her captivity and exile she had been robbed of her children, and as a holy city had given birth to no more (Isaiah 49:21). She was shōmēmâh , rendered solitary (2 Samuel 13:20; the allusion is to her depopulation as a city), whereas formerly she was בּעוּלה , i.e., enjoyed the fellowship of Jehovah her husband ( ba‛al ). But this condition would not last (for Jehovah had not given her a divorce): she was therefore to exult and shout, since the number of children which she would now have, as one desolate and solitary, would be greater than the number of those which she had as a married wife.
With this prospect before her, even her dwelling-place would need enlarging. “Enlarge the space of thy tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of thy habitations; forbid not! lengthen thy cords, and fasten thy plugs.” She is to widen out the space inside her tent, and they ( יטּוּ has no definite subject, which is often the case where some subordinate servant is to be thought of) are to spread out far and wide the coverings of the framework of her dwelling, which is called m ishk e nōth (in the plural) on account of its roominess and magnificence: she is not to forbid it, thinking in her weakness of faith, “It is good enough as it is; it would be too large.” The cords which hold up the walls, she is to lengthen; and the plugs, to which the cords are fastened, she is to ram fast into the earth: the former because the tent (i.e., the holy city, Jeremiah 31:38-40, and the dwelling-place of the church generally, Isaiah 26:15) has to receive a large number of inhabitants; the latter because it will not be broken up so soon again (Isaiah 33:20).
The reason why the tent is to be so large and strong is given in Isaiah 54:3 : “For thou wilt break forth on the right and on the left; and thy seed will take possession of nations, and they will people desolate cities.” “On the right and on the left” is equivalent to “on the south and north” (Psalms 89:13, the speaker being supposed to have his face turned towards the east: compare the Sanscrit apân , situated at the back, i.e., towards the west). We must supply both west and east, since the promises contained in such passages as Genesis 15:18-21 remained unfulfilled even in the age of David and Solomon. Jerusalem will now spread out, and break through all her former bounds ( pârats is used in the same sense in Genesis 28:14); and her seed (i.e., the seed acquired by the Servant of Jehovah, the dead yet eternally living One, the σπέρμα , whose σπέρμα He Himself is) will take possession of nations ( yârash , yârēsh , capessere , occupare ; more especially κληρονομεῖν , syn. nâchal ); and they (i.e., the children born to her) will people desolate cities ( hōshı̄bh , the causative of yâshabh , to be inhabited, Isaiah 14:20). Thus will the promise be fulfilled, that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” - a promise not confined to the Preacher on the mount, but found also in Psalms 37:9-11, and uttered by our own prophet in Isaiah 60:21; Isaiah 65:9.
The encouraging promise is continued in Isaiah 54:4 : “Fear not, for thou wilt not be put to shame; and bid defiance to reproach, for thou wilt not blush: no, thou wilt forget the shame of thy youth, and wilt no more remember the reproach of thy widowhood.” Now that redemption was before the door, Israel was not to fear any more, or to be overcome (as the niphal nikhlam implies) by a felling of the shame consequent upon her state of punishment, or so to behave herself as to leave no room for hope. For a state of things was about to commence, in which she would have no need to be ashamed (on bōsh and c hâphēr or hechpı̄r ), but which, on the contrary ( כּי , imo , as in Isaiah 10:7; Isaiah 55:9), would be so glorious that she would forget the shame of her youth, i.e., of the Egyptian bondage, in which the national community of Israel was still but like a virgin ( ‛ almâh ), who entered into a betrothal when redeemed by Jehovah, and became His youthful wife through a covenant of love ( ehe = b e rı̄th ) when the law was given at Sinai (Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 16:60); so glorious indeed, that she would never again remember the shame of her widowhood, i.e., of the Babylonian captivity, in which she, the wife whom Jehovah had taken to Himself, was like a widow whose husband had died.
It was no real widowhood, however, but only an apparent one (Jeremiah 51:5), for the husband of Jerusalem was living still, “For thy husband is thy Creator; Jehovah of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; God of the whole earth is He called.” The plurals בעלי ך and עשׂי ך (see at Isaiah 22:11) are to be explained from the plural 'Elōhı̄m , which is connected with plural attributes in Joshua 24:19; 1 Samuel 17:26, Ps. 58:12 (compare מרימיו in Isaiah 10:15), and with plural predicates in Genesis 20:13; Genesis 35:7, and 2 Samuel 7:23. By such expressions as these, which represent all the plurality of the divine nature as inherent in the One, the religion of revelation, both Israelitish and Christian, exhibits itself as embodying all that is true in polytheism. He who has entered into the relation of husband to Jerusalem ( בעלי ך , not בעליך , Isaiah 1:3) is the very same through whom she first came into existence, the God whose bidding the heavenly hosts obey; and the Redeemer of Jerusalem, the Holy One of Israel, is called the God of the whole earth, and therefore has both the power and the means to help her, as prompted by the relation of love which exists between them.
And this relation He now renews. “For Jehovah calleth thee as a wife forsaken and burdened with sorrow, and as a wife of youth, when once she is despised, saith thy God.” The verb קרא , which is the one commonly used in these prophecies to denote the call of grace, on the ground of the election of grace, is used here to signify the call into that relation, which did indeed exist before, but had apparently been dissolved. קרא ך is used here out of pause (cf., Isaiah 60:9); it stands, however, quite irregularly for the form in ēkh , which is the one commonly employed (Judges 4:20; Ezekiel 27:26). “And as a wife:” ואשׁת is equivalent to וּכאשׁת . The hypothetical תמּאס כּי belongs to the figure. Jehovah calls His church back to Himself, as a husband takes back the wife he loved in his youth, even though he may once have been angry with her. It is with intention that the word נמאסה is not used. The future (imperfect) indicates what partially happens, but does not become an accomplished or completed fact: He is displeased with her, but He has not cherished aversion or hatred towards her.
Thus does Jehovah's displeasure towards Jerusalem pass quickly away; and all the more intense is the manifestation of love which follows His merely momentary anger. “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, and with great mercy will I gather thee. In an effusion of anger I hid my face from thee for a moment, and with everlasting grace I have compassion upon thee, saith Jehovah thy Redeemer.” “For a small moment” carries us to the time of the captivity, which was a small moment in comparison with the duration of the tender and merciful love, with which Jehovah once more received the church into His fellowship in the person of its members. רגע in Isaiah 54:8 is not an adverb, meaning momentarily, as in Isaiah 47:9, but an accusative of duration, signifying a single moment long. Ketseph signifies wrath regarded as an outburst ( fragor ), like the violence of a storm or a clap of thunder; shetseph , which rhymes with it, is explained by A. Schultens, after the Arabic, as signifying durum et asperum esse : and hence the rendering adopted by Hitzig, “in hard harshness.” But this yields no antithesis to “everlasting kindness,” which requires that shetseph should be rendered in some way that expresses the idea of something transitory or of short duration. The earlier translators felt this, when like the lxx for example, they adopted the rendering ἐν θυμῷ μικρῷ , and others of a similar kind; and Ibn Labrât , in his writing against Menahem b. Zerûk , who gives c hŏrı̄ , burning heat, as a gloss to shetseph , explains it by מעט (as Kimchi and others did afterwards). But, as Jakob Tam correctly observes, “this makes the sense purely tautological.” In all probability, shâtsaph is a form allied to shâtaph , as nâshabh (Isaiah 40:7) is to nâshaph (Isaiah 40:24), and qâmat (Job 16:8) to qâmats , which stand in the same relation to one another, so far as the sense is concerned, as bubbling over to flowing over: so that the proper rendering would not be “in the overflowing of glowing heat,” as Umbreit thinks, which would require קצף בּשׁטף (Proverbs 27:4), but in the gushing up of displeasure, the overflowing of indignation (Meier). The ketseph is only a shetseph , a vanishing moment (Jer. in momento indignationis ), when compared with the true feeling of Jehovah towards Jerusalem, which is c hesed ‛ ōlâm , everlasting kindness.
The ground of this “everlasting kindness” is given in Isaiah 54:9 : “For it is now as at the waters of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah should not overflow the earth any more; so have I sworn not to be wroth with thee, and not to threaten thee.” The commencement of this v. has been a fluctuating one from the earliest times. The Sept. reading is ממּי ; that of the Targ., S., Jerome, Syriac, and Saad., כּימי ; and even the Codd. read sometimes כּי־מי , sometimes כּימי (compare Matthew 24:37, ὥσπερ αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ Νῶε οὕτως κ.τ.λ - a passage which appears to derive its shape from the one before us, with the reading כימי , and which is expounded in Luke 17:26). If we read כימי , the word זאת must refer to the present, as the turning-point between wrath and mercy; but if we read כי־מי , זאת denotes the pouring out of wrath in connection with the captivity. Both readings are admissible; and as even the Septuagint, with its ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος (from the water), gives an indirect support to the reading כּימי as one word, this may probably merit the preference, as the one best sustained. אשׁר is ubi , quum , as in Numbers 20:13; Psalms 95:9, etc., although it might also be taken as the correlate of the kēn which follows, as in Jeremiah 33:22 (cf., Isaiah 48:8); and in accordance with the accents, we prefer the former. The present turning-point resembles, in Jehovah's esteem, the days of Noah - those days in which He swore that a flood should not any more come upon the earth ( min as in Isaiah 5:6 and many other passages): for so does He now confirm with an oath His fixed purpose that no such judgment of wrath as that which has just been endured shall ever fall upon Jerusalem again ( גּער denotes threatening with a judicial word, which passes at once into effect, as in Isaiah 51:20). Hendewerk has the following quibbling remark here: “What the comparison with the flood is worth, we may gather from the alter history, which shows how soon the new Jerusalem and the renovated state succumbed to the judicial wrath of God again.” To this we reply: (1.) That the prophecy refers to the converted Israel of the last days, whose Jerusalem will never be destroyed again. These last days appear to the prophet, according to the general character of all prophecy, as though linked on to the close of the captivity. For throughout all prophecy, along with the far-sightedness imparted by the Spirit, there was also a short-sightedness which the Spirit did not remove; that is to say, the directly divine element of insight into the future was associated with a human element of hope , which was nevertheless also indirectly divine, inasmuch as it subserved the divine plan of salvation; and this hope brought, as it were, the far distant future into the closest proximity with the troubled present. If, the, we keep this in mind, we shall see that it was quite in order for the prophet to behold the final future on the very edge of the present, and not to see the long and undulating way between. (2.) The Israel which has been plunged by the Romans into the present exile of a thousand years is that part of the nation (Romans 11:25), which has thrust away the eternal mercy and the unchangeable covenant of peace; but this rejection has simply postponed, and not prevented, the full realization of the salvation promised to Israel as a people. The covenant still exists, primarily indeed as an offer on the part of Jehovah, so that it rests with Israel whether it shall continued one-sided or not; but all that is wanted on the part of Israel is faith, to enable it to exchange the shifting soil of its present exile for the rocky foundation of that covenant of peace which has encircled the ages since the captivity (see Haggai 2:9), as the covenant with Noah encircled those after the flood with the covenant sign of the rainbow in the cloud.
“For the mountains may depart, and the hills may shake; my grace will not depart from thee, and my covenant of peace will not shake, saith Jehovah who hath compassion on thee.” Jehovah's grace and covenant of peace (cf., Numbers 25:12) stand as firm as the mountains of God (Psalms 36:7), without departing from Jerusalem ( מאתּ ך instead of the usual מאתּך ) and without shaking; and they will be fulfilled. This fulfilment will not take place either by force or by enchantment; but the church which is to be glorified must pass through sufferings, until it has attained the form which answers to the glory promised to it on oath. And this will also take place; for the old Jerusalem will come forth as a new one out of the furnace of affliction.
“O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, not comforted, behold, I lay thy stones in stibium, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; and make thy minarets of ruby, and thy gates into carbuncles, and all thy boundary into jewels.” At the present time the church, of which Jerusalem is the metropolis, is sunk in misery, driven with tempest like chaff of the threshing-floor (Hosea 13:3), without comfort; because till now it has waited in vain for any act of consolation on the part of God, and has been scorned rather than comforted by man ( סערה is a part. kal , not pual ; and נחמה 3rd pers. praet . like נעזבה , Isaiah 62:12, and רחמה , Hosea 1:6; Hosea 2:3). But this will be altered; Jerusalem will rise again from the dust, like a glorious building of God. Jerome makes the following apt remark on Isaiah 54:11 : “ in stibio , i.e., in the likeness of an elegant woman, who paints her eyes with stibium ; referring to the beauty of the city.” Pūkh is eye-black ( kohl , cf., kâchal , Ezekiel 23:40), i.e., a sooty compound, the chief component of which was powdered antimony, or else manganese or lead, and with which oriental women coloured their eyebrows, and more particularly the eyelids both above and below the eyes, that the beauty of the latter might be all the more conspicuous (2 Kings 9:30). The classic φῦκος , fucus , has a meaning foreign to the Hebrew word, viz., that of rouge for the cheeks. If, then, stibium (antimony), or any blackening collyrium generally, served the purpose of mortar in the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the stones of its walls (not its foundation-stones, אדני ך , which is the reading adopted by Ewald, but, on the contrary, the visible stones of its towering walls) would look like the eyes of a woman shining forth from the black framework of their painted lids, i.e., they would stand out in splendour from their dark ground. The Beth in bassappı̄rı̄m indicates the means employed. Sapphires serve as foundation-stones, for the foundation of Jerusalem stands as immoveably firm as the covenant of God. The sapphire blue is the colour of the heaven, of revelation, and of the covenant. The sh e mâshōth , however, i.e., the minarets which stand out like rays of the sun, and also the gates, have a red appearance. Red is the colour of blood, and hence of life and of imperishableness; also the colour of fire and of lightning, and hence of wrath and victory. Jehovah makes the minarets of “ruby.” The Sept. and Jerome adopt the rendering iaspidem (a jasper); at any rate, כּדכד (which is the proper way of writing the word: Ewald, §48, c )
(Note: The first כ is dagessatum , the second raphatum : see Norzi. The word forms one of the eighteen which have a dagesh after a word ending with a vowel sound ( בלא מבטל בתר יה וא דגשין ): see Masora Magna on Daniel 5:11, and Heidenheim's הטעמים משפטי , 41 a . The object is to secure greater euphony, as in ככרכמישׁ ( הלא ), Isaiah 10:9, which is one of the eighteen words.)
is a red sparkling jewel (from kidkēd ; cf., kı̄dōd , scintilla ). The arches of the gates He forms of אקדּח אבני , stones of fiery splendour (from qâdach , to burn: hence qaddachath , πυρετός ), that is to say, or carbuncle stones (from c arbunculus , a small red-hot coal), like ruby, garnet, etc. Jerome has adopted the false rendering lapides sculptos , after Symm. λίθοι γλυφῆς (from קדח = קדד , findere ?). The accusative of the predicate כדכד is interchanged with עקדח לבני , and then with לאבני־חפ ץ , to denote the materia ex qua . The whole territory (precinct) of Jerusalem is turned by Jehovah into precious stones, that is to say, it appears to be paved with such stones, just as in Tobit 13:17 the streets are said to be “paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of Ophir,” i.e., to be covered with a mosaic formed of precious stones. It is upon the passage before us that Tobit 13:16, 17, and Revelation 21:18-21, are founded. The motley colours of the precious stones, with which the new Jerusalem is adorned, are something more than a mere childish fancy. Whence, then, do the precious stones derive their charm? The ultimate ground of this charm is the fact, that in universal nature everything presses to the light, and that in the mineral world the jewels represent the highest stage of this ascending process. It is the self-unfolding process of the divine glory itself, which is reflected typologically in the several gradations of the manifold play of colours and the transparency of the precious stones. For this reason, the high priest wore a breastplate with twelve precious stones, upon which were the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; and for this same reason, the author of the Apocalypse carries out into detail in chapter 21 the picture of the new Jerusalem, which is here sketched by the prophet of the Old Testament (without distinguishing time from eternity), adding crystals and pearls to the precious stones which he there mentions one by one. How can all this be explained, except on the ground that even the mineral world reflects the glory of those eternal lights from which God is called the “Father of lights,” or except on the assumption that the saints in light will one day be able to translate these stony types into the words of God, out of which they have their being?
The outward glory of the city is only the manifestation, which strikes the senses, of the spiritual glory of the church dwelling therein. “And all thy children will be the learned of Jehovah; and great the peace of thy children.” We translate both halves of the v. as substantive clauses, although they might be accusatives of both the object and predicate, dependent upon שׂמתּי . ה למּוּדי are disciples of Jehovah, but, as in Isaiah 50:4, with the subordinate idea of both docility and learning. The children of Jerusalem will need no instruction from man, but carry within them the teaching of heaven, as those who are “taught of God” ( διδακτοὶ Θεοῦ , John 6:45; θεοδίδακτοι , 1 Thessalonians 4:9). Essentially the same promise is given in Joel 3:1-2, and Jeremiah 31:34; and represented in 1 John 2:20 ( “Ye have the anointing of the Holy One, and know all things” ) as already fulfilled. In the place of the former inward and outward distress, there has no entered shâlōm , perfect inward and outward peace, complete salvation, and blessedness as its result. רב is an adjective, for this form cannot be shown to have existed as a syncopated third pers. praet ., like שׁח , חי (= חיי ). The v. closes palindromically.
In perfect keeping with this grace through righteousness, Jerusalem will then stand firm and impregnable. “Through righteousness wilt thou be fortified: be far from anxiety, for thou hast nothing to fear; and from terror, for it will not come near thee. Behold, men crowd together in crowds; my will is not there. Who crowd together against thee? - he shall fall by thee.” Both the thought and action of Jerusalem will be righteousness then, and it will thereby acquire strength; תּכּונני is a pausal future hithpalel , with the ת of the reflective opening syllable assimilated (Ges. §53, 2, b ). With this reciprocal influence of its moral character and imparted glory, it can, and is to keep far away from all thought of oppression and terror; for, through divine grace and a corresponding divine nature, it has nothing to fear. הן ( Isaiah 54:15 ), when pointing to any transaction as possible (as, for example, in Job 12:14; Job 23:8), acquires almost the significance of a conditional particle (Ewald, §103, g ). The equally hypothetical parallel clause is clothed in the form of an interrogative. For the verb gūr , the meaning “to gather together” (related to אגר ), more especially to join together with hostile intention (cf., συνάγεσθαι , Revelation 19:19; Revelation 20:8), is sustained by Psalms 56:7; Psalms 59:4; and with גּרה , lacessere , it has nothing to do (Hitzig and Ewald). אתּ ך has the force of contra te , as in the case of verbs of combat. The first apodosis is this: “but it takes place entirely away from me,” i.e., without and against my will; מאותי = מאתּי (as in Isaiah 59:21), and אותם = אתּם , are no sure signs of a later usage; for this alternation of the two forms of את is met with as early as Joshua 14:12. The second apodosis is, “he will fall upon (or against) thee,” or, as we should say, “founder,” or “be wrecked.” It is far more likely that this is the meaning of the words, than that they mean “he will fall to thy lot” ( על נפל , like ל נפל elsewhere, to fall to a person); for the context here is a totally different one from Isaiah 45:14, and we look for nothing more than a declaration of the utter failure and ruin of the undertaking.
Jerusalem will be thus invincible, because Jehovah, the Almighty One, is its protector. “Behold, I have created the smith who bloweth the coal-fire, and brings to the light a weapon according to his trade; and I have created the destroyer to destroy. Every weapon formed against thee has no success, and every tongue that cometh before the judgment with thee thou wilt condemn. This the inheritance of the servants of Jehovah; and their righteousness from me, saith Jehovah.” If Jehovah has created the armourer, who forges a weapon למעסהוּ (i.e., according to his trade, or according to the thing he has to finish, whether an arrow, or a sword, or a spear; not “for his own use,” as Kimchi supposes), to be used in the hostile army against Jerusalem, He has also created a destroyer ( לחבּל ) to destroy. The very same creative might, to which the origin of the weapon is to be traced as its primary cause, has opposed to it beforehand a defender of Jerusalem. And as every hostile weapon fails, Jerusalem, in the consciousness of its divine right, will convict every accusing tongue as guilty and deserving of utter condemnation ( הרשׁיע as in Isaiah 50:9, cf., 1 Samuel 14:47, where it denotes the punishment of the guilty). The epiphonem in Isaiah 54:17 , with the retrospective זאת and the words “saith the Lord,” which confirm the certainty of the fulfilment, forms an unmistakeable close to the prophecy. This is the position in which Jehovah has placed His servants as heirs of the future salvation; and this the righteousness which they have received as His gift, and which makes them strong within and victorious without. The individual idea of the church, which we find elsewhere personified as “the servant of Jehovah,” equivalent to “the people in whose heart is my law” (Isaiah 51:7), or “my people that have sought me” (Isaiah 65:10), is here expanded into “the servants of Jehovah” (as in Isaiah 65:8-9; compare Isaiah 59:21 with Isaiah 51:16). But totally different colours are employed in Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:1-12 to depict the exaltation of the one “Servant of Jehovah,” from those used here to paint the glory of the church of the “servants of Jehovah,” a proof that the ideas do not cover one another. That which is the reward of suffering in the case of the former, is the experience of divine mercy in that of the latter: it becomes a partaker of the salvation purchased by the other. The one “Servant of Jehovah” is the heart of the church, in which the crisis which bursts forth into life is passing; the righteousness of the “servants of Jehovah” is the fruit of the sufferings of this one “Servant of Jehovah,” who is Himself צדיק and מצידק . He is the Mediator of all the salvation of the church. He is not only its “head,” but its “fulness” ( πλήρωμα ) also.