THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
26:7. The way of the just is right, the path of the just is right to walk in.
26:8. And in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for thee: thy name, and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul.
26:9. My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me in the morning early I will watch to thee. When thou shalt do thy judgments on the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn justice.
26:10. Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice: in the land of the saints he hath done wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord.
26:11. Lord, let thy hand be exalted, and let them not see: let the envious people see, and be confounded: and let fire devour thy enemies.
26:12. Lord, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought all our works for us.
26:13. O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, only in thee let us remember thy name.
26:14. Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore hast visited and destroyed them, and hast destroyed all their memory.
26:15. Thou hast been favourable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favourable to the nation: art thou glorified? thou hast removed all the ends of the earth far off.
26:16. Lord, they have sought after thee in distress, in the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them.
26:17. As a woman with child, when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs: so are we become in thy presence, O Lord.
26:18. We have conceived, and been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.
26:19. Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again: awake, and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin.
26:20. Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee, hide thyself a little for a moment, until the indignation pass away.
26:21. For behold the Lord will come out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more.
Shall cover her slain no more... This is said with relation to the martyrs, and their happy resurrection.
Isaias Chapter 27
The punishment of the oppressors of God's people. The Lord's favour to his church.
27:1. In that day the Lord with his hard, and great, and strong sword shall visit leviathan the bar serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent, and shall slay the whale that is in the sea.
Leviathan... That is, the devil, the great enemy of the people of God. He is called the bar serpent from his strength, and the crooked serpent from his wiles; and the whale of the sea, from the tyranny he exercises in the sea of this world. He was spiritually slain by the death of Christ, when his power was destroyed.
27:2. In that day there shall be singing to the vineyard of pure wine.
The vineyard, etc... The church of Christ.
27:3. I am the Lord that keep it, I will suddenly give it drink: lest any hurt come to it, I keep it night and day.
I will suddenly give it drink... Or, as the Hebrew may also be rendered, I will continually water it.
27:4. There is no indignation in me: who shall make me a thorn and a brier in battle: shall I march against it, shall, I set it on fire together?
No indignation in me, etc... Viz., against the church: nor shall I become as a thorn or brier in its regard; or march against it, or set it on fire: but it shall always take fast hold of me, and keep an everlasting peace with me.
27:5. Or rather shall it take hold of my strength, shall it make peace with me, shall it make peace with me?
27:6. When they shall rush in unto Jacob, Israel shall blossom and bud, and they shall fill the face of the world with seed.
When they shall rush in, etc... Some understand this of the enemies of the true Israel, that shall invade it in vain. Others of the spiritual invasion made by the apostles of Christ.
27:7. Hath he struck him according to the stroke of him that struck him? or is he slain, as he killed them that were slain by him?
Hath he struck him, etc... Hath God punished the carnal persecuting Jews, in proportion to their doings against Christ and his saints?
27:8. In measure against measure, when it shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it. He hath meditated with his severe spirit in the day of heat.
When it shall be cast off, etc... When the synagogue shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it in measure, and in proportion to its crimes.-Ibid. He hath meditated, etc... God hath designed severe punishments in the day of his wrath.
27:9. Therefore upon this shall the iniquity of the house of Jacob be forgiven: and this is all the fruit, that the sin thereof should be taken away, when he shall have made all the stones of the altar, as burnt stones broken in pieces, the groves and temples shall not stand.
Of the house of Jacob... Viz., of such of them as shall be converted.
27:10. For the strong city shall be desolate, the beautiful city shall be forsaken, and shall be left as a wilderness: there the calf shall feed, and there shall he lie down, and shall consume its branches.
The strong city... Jerusalem.
27:11. Its harvest shall be destroyed with drought, women shall come and teach it: for it is not a wise people, therefore he that made it, shall not have mercy on it: and he that formed it, shall not spare it.
27:12. And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord will strike from the channel of the river even to the torrent of Egypt, and you shall be gathered together one by one, O ye children of Israel.
27:13. And it shall come to pass, that in that day a noise shall be made with a great trumpet, and they that were lost, shall come from the land of the Assyrians, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall adore the Lord in the holy mount in Jerusalem.