16 Let my teaching be kept secret: and my words be given to my disciples only.
But as for you, O Daniel, let the words be kept secret and the book rolled up and kept shut till the time of the end: numbers will be going out of the way and troubles will be increased.
And without a story he said nothing to them: but privately to his disciples he made all things clear.
And I went on my face before his feet to give him worship. And he said to me, See you do it not: I am a brother-servant with you and with your brothers who keep the witness of Jesus: give worship to God: for the witness of Jesus is the spirit of the prophet's word.
And when the seven thunders had given out their voices, I was about to put their words down: and a voice from heaven came to my ears, saying, Keep secret the things which the seven thunders said, and do not put them in writing.
And one of the rulers said to me, Do not be sad: see, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome, and has power to undo the book and its seven stamps.
He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give of the secret manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name, of which no one has knowledge but he to whom it is given.
If we take the witness of men to be true, the witness of God is greater: because this is the witness which God has given about his Son. He who has faith in the Son of God has the witness in himself: he who has not faith in God makes him false, because he has not faith in the witness which God has given about his Son. And his witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who has not the Son of God has not the life.
For the natural man is not able to take in the things of the Spirit of God: for they seem foolish to him, and he is not able to have knowledge of them, because such knowledge comes only through the Spirit.
He gives witness of what he has seen and of what has come to his ears; and no man takes his witness as true. He who so takes his witness has made clear his faith that God is true.
These are the rules and the laws and the decisions which Moses gave to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt;
And when he was by himself, those who were round him with the twelve put questions to him about the purpose of the stories. And he said to them, To you is given the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are given in the form of stories;
And he said, Go on your way, Daniel: for the words are secret and shut up till the time of the end; Till a number are tested and make themselves clean; and the evil-doers will do evil; for not one of the evil-doers will have knowledge; but all will be made clear to those who are wise.
Seventy weeks have been fixed for your people and your holy town, to let wrongdoing be complete and sin come to its full limit, and for the clearing away of evil-doing and the coming in of eternal righteousness: so that the vision and the word of the prophet may be stamped as true, and to put the holy oil on a most holy place.
And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book which is shut, which men give to one who has knowledge of writing, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I am not able to, for the book is shut: And they give it to one without learning, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I have no knowledge of writing.
Then say to them, Put your faith in the teaching and the witness. ... If they do not say such things. ... For him there is no dawn. ...
All the words of my mouth are righteousness; there is nothing false or twisted in them. They are all true to him whose mind is awake, and straightforward to those who get knowledge.
The secret of the Lord is with those in whose hearts is the fear of him; he will make his agreement clear to them.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 8
Commentary on Isaiah 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
This chapter, and the four next that follow it (to chap. 13) are all one continued discourse or sermon, the scope of which is to show the great destruction that should now shortly be brought upon the kingdom of Israel, and the great disturbance that should be given to the kingdom of Judah by the king of Assyria, and that both were for their sins; but rich provision is made of comfort for those that feared God in those dark times, referring especially to the days of the Messiah. In this chapter we have,
Isa 8:1-8
In these verses we have a prophecy of the successes of the king of Assyria against Damascus, Samaria, and Judah, that the two former should be laid waste by him, and the last greatly frightened. Here we have,
Isa 8:9-15
The prophet here returns to speak of the present distress that Ahaz and his court and kingdom were in upon account of the threatening confederacy of the ten tribes and the Syrians against them. And in these verses,
Isa 8:16-22
In these verses we have,