Isaiah 2:12-21

a. The judgment against the things falsely eminent in the sub-human and superhuman spheres

Isaiah 2:12-21

12          13For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be

Upon every one that is proud and lofty,

And upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

13     And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up,

And upon all the oaks of Bashan,

14     And upon all the high mountains,

And upon all the hills that are lifted up,

15     And upon every high tower,

And upon every fenced wall,

16     And upon all the ships of Tarshish,

And upon all 1415pleasant pictures.

17     And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,

And the haughtiness of men shall be made low:And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

18     And the idols 16he shall utterly abolish.

19     And they shall go into the holes of the rocks,

And into the caves of 17the earth,

For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,

When he arises to shake terribly the earth.

20     In that day a man shall cast 18his idols of silver, and his idols of gold,

19Which they made each one for himself to worship,

To the moles and to the bats;

21     To go into the clefts of the rocks,

And into the 20tops of the ragged rocks,

For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,

When he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 2:12. גֵאֶה in Isaiah only here. רָם is often found: Isaiah 2:13-14; Isaiah 6:1; Isaiah 10:33; Isaiah 57:15. On נִשָּׂא comp. above Isaiah 2:2.—ושפל is to be construed as future, since כי יום לי׳ must be regarded as a determination of time that points to the future.

Isaiah 2:16. שׂכיות is ἅπ. λεγ. It comes from שָׂכָה certainly, which, although unused itself, is kindred to שָׁעָה, to behold, is only now identified in the substantive מַשְׂכִּית. According to this etymology שְׂכִיָה must mean θέαμα, show piece, thus every work of art that is fitted to gratify the beholder’s eye.

Isaiah 2:18. I do not deny that אלילים is taken as ideal singular, and may accordingly be joined to the predicate in the singular. But then כָּלִיל must be taken as adverb. Yet wherever this word occurs (only this once in Isa.; comp. Leviticus 6:15 sq.; Deuteronomy 13:17; Deuteronomy 33:10; Judges 20:40; 1 Samuel 7:9; Ezekiel 16:14. etc.) it is adjective or substantive: entire or entirety. I agree therefore with Maurer, who takes והאלילים as casus absolutus put before, and כָּלִיל as subject: et idola (quod attinet, eorum) universitas peribit.—The fundamental meaning of חָלַף seems to me to be “to change.” Out of that develope the apparently opposite meanings “revirescere” (Psalms 90:6; Job 14:7; Isaiah 9:9; Isaiah 40:31; Isaiah 41:1) and “transire, prœterire, perire” (Isaiah 8:8; Isaiah 21:1; Psalms 102:27). The last is proper here.

Isaiah 2:19. מְעָרָה (in Isaiah again Isaiah 32:14) is the natural rock caves, מְחִלָּה (ἅπ. λεγ., comp. &חַלּוֹן חָלִיל) is the cave hewn out by art Notice the paronomasia in לערץ הארץ.

Isaiah 2:20. The Prophet might have written here and Isaiah 30:22; Isaiah 31:7, אֱלִילָיו כֶּסֶף ו׳, his idols of silver. But he has chosen the common construction, which rests on this, that nomen rectum and nomen regens are construed as one notion, and thus in some measure as one word.—If לוֹ after עָשׂוּ is taken in a reflexive sense, the enallage numeri would certainly be very strong. Therefore most expositors justly regard the artificers as subject of עַשׂוּ.—The words לחפר פרות, as they stand, can only present an infinitive with the prefix, and object following, for there is no noun חֲפֹר. But an infinitive does not suit here, and besides there is no noun פֵּרָה. Therefore the rendering “hole of the mice,” for which expositors have gone to the Arabic, is only an arbitrary one. Evidently the Masoretes, according to the analogy of בְּקַח־קוֹחַ, Isaiah 61:1, and יְפֵה־פִיָה Jeremiah 46:20 would separate what was to he united. We must then read לחפרפרות as one word. But how it is to be pointed is doubtful. According to the analogy of עֲקַלְקַלּוֹת יְרַקְרַקוֹת חֲלַקְלַקוֹת אְדַמְדַּמּוֹת, we might point it לַּחְפַּרְפָּרוֹת from a singular חֲפַרְפָּרָה. The meaning of this word can only be digger. But what sort of burrowing animal is meant, is doubtful. Jerome translated it talpa, mole. Gesenius and Knobel object to that, that the mole does not live in houses: Drechsler that the Hebrew has another word for mole, i.e., חֹלֶד. But regarding the former, as Delitzsch, remarks, the mole does, true enough, burrow under buildings, and in regard to the latter consideration of Drechsler, חֹלֶד also occurs only once (Leviticus 11:29), and two words for one thing are not unusual in any language. Yet the foundation for a positive opinion is wanting.—עֲטַלֵּף is the bat (Leviticus 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18).

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. With this section the Prophet begins his explication and specification of what he has previously Isaiah 2:9-11 said in general. That last time, Isaiah 2:2-4, which the Prophet described above in its glorious aspect for Israel, coincides with the time when the Lord shall sit in judgment on everything humanly high, that is hostile to Him. And even all impersonal things, thus creatures beneath man, on which, in proud arrogance, men put their trust, shall the Lord make small and reduce to nothing; the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the high mountains and hills, the towers and walls, the ships of Tarshish, and all other pomp of human desire (Isaiah 2:12-16). All this shall be abased that the Lord alone may be high (Isaiah 2:17). But the same shall happen to the beings above men, viz.; to the idols (Isaiah 2:18). That is the idolaters shall hide themselves in terror before the manifestation of that Jehovah whom they have despised (Isaiah 2:19); they shall themselves cast their idols to the unclean beasts, in order, mindful only of their own preservation, to be able to creep into the hollows and crevices of the rocks. (21).

2. For the day—brought low.

Isaiah 2:12. The Prophet had used for the first time Isaiah 2:11 the expression “in that day” that afterwards occurs often (comp. Isaiah 5:17; Isaiah 5:20; Isaiah 3:7; Isaiah 3:18; Isaiah 4:1-2; Isaiah 5:30). He points thereby to the time which he had before designated as “the last days.” Of course he does not mean that this last time shall comprehend only one day in the ordinary sense. The day that Isa., means is a prophetic day, for whose duration we must find a different measure than our human one. With the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8; Psalms 90:4). But the chief concern is whether there is really such a day of the Lord. This the Prophet asserts most distinctly. For precisely because there is such a day (כִּיfor, Isaiah 2:12) Isaiah could Isaiah 2:17 refer to it. But this day is a day for Jehovah Sabaoth (comp. Isaiah 1:9), or more correctly: Jehovah has such in preparation, so to speak, in sure keeping, so that, as soon as it pleases Him, He can produce it for His purpose (comp. Isaiah 22:5; Isaiah 34:8, and especially Isaiah 63:4; Jeremiah 46:10; Ezekiel 30:3). This day is a day of judgment, as already even the older prophets portray it: Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1, Joel 2:2, Joel 2:11; Joel 3:4; 4:14; Amos 5:18; Amos 5:20. Obadiah 1:15. Indeed the notion of judgment is so closely identified with “the day of Jehovah” that Isaiah in our text construes יוםa day directly as a word signifying “court of justice,” for he lets עַל depend on it. Once more in Isaiah 2:12, the notion of high and proud is generally expressed before (Isaiah 2:13) it is individualized.

3. And upon all—in that day.

Isaiah 2:13-17. The judgment of God must fall on all products of nature (Isaiah 2:13-14), and upon human art (Isaiah 2:15-16). It may be asked, how then have the products of nature, the trees and mountains become blameworthy? Knobel, to be sure, understands by the cedars houses made of cedar (comp. 2 Samuel 7:2; 2 Samuel 7:7) and by oaks of Bashan houses of oak wood (Ezekiel 27:6) such as Uzziah and Jotham constructed partly for fortifying the land, partly for pleasure, and by mountains and hills “the fastnesses that Jotham built in the mountains of Judah (2 Chronicles 27:4).” But, though one might understand the cedars to mean houses of cedar, (for which, however, must not be cited Isaiah 9:9; Nahum 2:4, but Jeremiah 22:23 comp. Isaiah 60:13) still the mountains and hills can never mean “fortified places.” 2 Peter 3:10, seems to me to afford the best commentary on our passage. As sure as מַלְאַךְ י׳angel of theLord of the Old Testament, is identical with the ἄγγελος κυρίου of the New Testament so is also the יוֹם י׳, day of the Lord identical with the ἡμέρα κυρίου (1 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:2, etc.). Now of this day of the Lord it is said, in the above passage in Peter, that in it, “the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” If now this last great day has its preliminaries, too, like, on the contrary, the revelation of glory Isaiah 2:2 sqq., has, then we are justified in regarding all degrees of God’s world-judging activity as parts of “the day of the Lord.” If then the prophet here names only the high mountains and the highest trees growing on them as representatives of nature, he evidently does so because it is his idea, according to the whole context, to make prominent that which is high in an earthly sense, especially what is wont to serve men as means of gratifying their lust of power and pomp. But the mountains and the trees on them could not be destroyed without the earth itself were destroyed. Therefore the high mountains and trees are only named as representatives of the entire terrestrial nature, of the γῆ as it is called by Peter, as also afterwards the towers, ships of Tarshish, etc., are only representative of the ἔργα, the human works, thus the productions of art. The oaks of Bashan, beside this place, are mentioned Ezekiel 27:6; Zechariah 11:2. A parallel is drawn between Lebanon and Bashan also Isaiah 33:9; Jeremiah 22:20; Nahum 1:4.—High towers and strong walls were built by others as well as by Uzziah and Jotham; comp. 2Ch 14:7; 2 Chronicles 32:5, etc.—Tarshish is mentioned by Isaiah again: Isaiah 23:1; Isaiah 23:6; Isaiah 23:10; Isaiah 60:9; Isaiah 66:19. It is now generally acknowledged that the locality lay in south Spain beyond the Pillars of Hercules. It is the Ταρτησσὸς Tartessus of the Greeks; not a city, likely, but the country that lay at the mouth of the Bætis (Guadalquiver): comp. Herzog,R. Encycl. XV. p. 684. Ships of Tarshish are thus large ships fitted for distant and dangerous voyages (Jonah 1:3; Jonah 4:2; 1Ki 10:22; 1 Kings 22:49; Psalms 48:8). All this must be destroyed and so must the arrogance of men be humbled, that Jehovah alone may be high in that day. So the prophet repeats, with some modification, the words of Isaiah 2:11, to prove that the specifications just given are only meant as the amplification of that general thought expressed in Isaiah 2:9. For these verses 12–16, refer as much back to Isaiah 2:9 as do Isaiah 2:18 sqq., (especially Isaiah 2:18; Isaiah 2:21,) to Isaiah 2:10 a.

4. And the idols—the earth.

Isaiah 2:17-21. The judgment against the sub-human creatures is followed by that against the superhuman, the idols. As verses 13–16 refer back to Isaiah 2:7, so Isaiah 2:18 sqq., does to Isaiah 2:8.

But the judgment against the idols is most notably accomplished when the worshippers of idols, now visited by the despised, true God, in all His terrible reality, see themselves the nothingness of their idols and cast them away in contempt. Jehovah appears in the awful pomp of His majesty. If the gods were anything, then they would now appear and shield their followers. But, just because they are אֱלִילִיםnothings; they cannot do it. We see from this that the “enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust” Isaiah 2:10, refers especially to the bringing to shame these illusory superhuman highnesses. In Revelation 6:12 sqq., when at Isaiah 2:15 our passage is alluded to, the shaking of the earth appears as the effect of a great earthquake. Regarding the uses loquendi comp. Isaiah 8:12-13; Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 47:12.

Therefore men shall cast their idols away to the gnawing beasts of the night, in their unclean holes, not that their flight may be easier, but because the idols belong there. May there not be an allusion in the words to the demon origin of the idols (1 Corinthians 10:20 sq.)? In the description of “A little excursion into the Land of Moab,” contained in the Magazine Sueddeutche Reichspost, 1872, No. 257 sqq., we read in No. 257 the following, in reference to the discovery of a large image of Astarte. “The Bedouins dig in the numerous artificial and natural caves for saltpetre for making gunpowder. In this way they find these objects that in their time were buried or just thrown there, which, in the judgment of those that understand such matters, belonged all of them once in some way to heathen worship, and on which the prophecy of Isaiah 2:20 has been so literally fulfilled.”—Thus they cast their idols away, they entertain themselves no more with the care and worship of them, all trust in them is also gone. They only hasten to save themselves by flight into the caverns (נְקָרָה) see Exodus 33:22 from נָקַר, to bore,) and crevices of the rocks (comp. Isaiah 57:5). We are, moreover, reminded of the words in Luke 23:30. “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains fall on us; and to the hills, cover us.” For what wish can be left to those that have fled to the rocks, when the rocks themselves begin to shake, except to be covered as soon as possible from the tumbling mountains.

[Isaiah 2:20. Idols of silver and idols of gold. “Here named as the most splendid and expensive, in order to make the act of throwing them away still more significant.

“Moles and bats are put together on account of their defect of sight.”—J. A. A.]

Footnotes:

[13]For the Lord of hosts has a day on every thing proud, etc.

[14]Heb. pictures of desire.

[15]spectacles of desire.

[16]Or, shall utterly pass away.

[17]Heb. the dust.

[18]Heb. the idols of his silver, etc.

[19]Or, Which they made for him.

[20]fissures.