Commentary on Isaiah, Commentary on Isaiah · Chapter 1 · Verse 7 – Verse 8
Verſ. 7. Your land is waſt: your cities are burnt with fire: ſtrangers deuoure your land in your preſence, and it is deſolate like the ouerthrow of*Or, forr…ine enemies. ſtrangers.
WAst] Word for word it is, deſolation. And thus Iſa…ah proſecutes that more largely, and more clearely, which he had ſaid before figuratiuely touching the wounds: To wit, that the land was afflicted with an horrible waſt. For I had rather referre the ſentences to the time paſt: becauſe the Prophet rather recountes how many calamities hauehave formerly h…ppened, before he denounceth the vengeance of God. For he caſts their dotage and benummednes of hart in their teeth, in that they continued ſo beſotted in their miſeries. As the ouerthrow of ſtrangers. This is added for amplification ſake. For their ſenſe is too narrow and conſtrained, who would hauehave the Hebrew word zarim, which ſignifieth deſtruction (which word the Prophet alſo here vſeth) to bee put in the ſtead of zerem, which ſignifies an ouerflowing of waters. True it is that the word may be applied to enemies: but it is better to take it in his proper ſignification, for ſtrangers. For the calamitie is then much more grieuous when men vnknowne, and thoſe that come from a farre countrie doe make warre in a kingdome; becauſe they are lightly farre more cruell, and doe more hurt then the nighbour enemies. For they race the cities: they burne vp houſes, buildings, and villages; deſtroying all things; and ſparing nothing. In a word, they ruſh in with barbarous inhumanitie, ſeeking nothing but to kill, ſack, and burne: yea, they ſtudy rather to do hurt, thē to get their booty. But ye neighbour enemies becauſe they are able to hold that which they hauehave won, vſe to leaue gariſons there; and as ſoone as any reuolt is intended, or any trouble moued, they forthwith ſend ſuccors: and therefore are not ſo cruell, neither doe they ſpoyle the countrie out of which they may fitly reape any commoditie. Hee therefore deſcribes no ordinarie deſtruction, but rather ſo bloodie and fierce an one, as exceeded all the reſt.
From hence then we may note, that when God hath once begun to chaſtice & correct, he makes not an end with vsus by and by. But in ſtriking vsus with many wounds, hee redoubles the blowes, and ceaſeth not to viſit vsus ſtil with one plague after another, if ſo bee wee cannot be brought to true repentance. Let vsus then eſchew and flee ſuch an obſtinacie, if we meane to eſcape the like puniſhments: or if we meane this reproach which was iuſtly caſt vponupon the Iewes, ſhould not by as good right light vponupon vsus: namely, that albeit wee hauehave been diligently admoniſhed, and hauehave felt the hand of the Lord, yet for al that we could not bee corrected nor amended. What maruaile is it then, I pray you, if wee are preſſed with ſo many and ſo diuers calamities, whereof we can ſee neither end or iſſue? Surely we euen fight hand to hand as it were with God and againſt all his roddes by our rebellion. Is it not needefull then that hee ſhould take vsus in hand; and deale with vsus, as men do with reſtie and vnruly lades, who the more they wince and kick, the more they muſt bee pummelled about the head, and ſpurred vponupon the ſides? There want not many at this day, I dare ſay, who accuſe God of crueltie as if he were too outragious, and that he ought to carrie a more ſoft and gentle hand ouer vsus: But in the meane while they conſider not how horrible our wickedneſſes be. For if they would looke well into them, truely they ſhould eaſily perceiue an admirable merciemercy of God, euen in the midſt of this his ſeueritie, which ſeemes ſo great in their eyes. And to the end wee may not thinke the Lord was too rigorous towards this people, let vsus conſider the vices which he by and by reckons vp.
But a queſtion may here be demanded; to wit, why the Prophet ſhould ſay that the people were ſo many waies afflicted, ſeeing he began to propheſie (as we ſaid before) vnderunder the reigne of Vzziah; in whoſe time the ſtate of the kingdome of Judah was verie quiet, ſo that howſoeuer the kingdome of Iſrael ſuſtained ſome loſſe towards the ende of Vzziah his daies, yet that notwithſtanding appertained nothing at all to the kingdome of Iudah. For which cauſe the Iewes indeed thinke this to appertaine to the reigne of Iotham, and not to the reigne of Ʋzz…ah. Now howſoeuer their opinion ſeemes not to agree very well at the firſt bluſh, yet is it not without ſome probabilitie of reaſon, if wee ſhall examine the opinions of others. For wee know that they hauehave not alwaies kept the order of time in gathering together of the propheſies. And it may bee that this Sermon of Iſaiah had obtained firſt place here for no other cauſe, but for that it containes a ſumme of that doctrine which ſhall be handled afterwards. Others thinke they eſcape eaſily away when they expound all theſe things of vices; and not of puniſhments: but they cannot ſo eaſily auoid that which is ſpoken of the burning of cities, and waſting of the land. If any thinke the Prophet ſpeakes not of the preſent eſtate of the kingdome, but of that which was to come; and that in the perſon of God, hee denounceth the iudgements which were at hand, howſoeuer they then ſaw them not before their eyes; I doe not greatly gaineſay it. Although it be very likely that the Prophet ſpeakes of things which were knowne vntounto him. It is rather a certaine narration then of a thing done, than a propheſie: though in the verſe following I confeſſe he ſhewes what the iſſue is, which approacheth.
Verſ. 8. And the daughter of Zion ſhall remaine like a cottage in a vineyard, like a lodge in a garden of Cucumbers, and like a beſieged citie.
HE alludes euen to that cuſtome which is now in vſe amongſt vsus in France: namely, to a little cottage which the Vinekeepers prepare when the grapes doe ripen. Alſo he vſeth another Similitude which is almoſt like vntounto the former; drawne from the manner of that nation, when the ſeruants watched to keepe the gardens of cucumbers. Afterwards in verſ. 9. he himſelfe expounds what he meanes both by the one & by the other. Now the expoſition may be double; to wit, that all the countrie ſhould be waſted, and nothing left in ſafetie, but the citie of Ieruſalem, which ſhould remaine as a cottage: or, that the citie it ſelfe ſhould bee brought to nought. The Iewes follow the firſt interpretation, and vnderſtand this place of the ſiege of Senacherib: but I thinke it reacheth further off; namely, to the deſtructions which followed afterwards. We may al…o referre it to the neerenes of neighbourhood, which being ruinated and deſtroyed amongſt them, it could not bee auoyded, but that the citie ſhould feele great loſſe thereby. But as I take it, the true meaning of the Prophet is, that the euils whereof he ſpeakes, ſhould come euen to the citie it ſelfe, ſo as it beeing conſumed, ruinated, and brought to nothing, and into deriſion, ſhould become like a cottage. Now he calles Ieruſalem, the daughter of Zion, by a phraſe of ſpeech vſuall in the Scriptures, which intitleth ſome people by the name of daughter, as the daughter of Babylon, and Tyre, for the Babylonians, and Tyrians themſelues. Alſo hee rather mentioneth Zion, then Ieruſalem; becauſe of the dignitie of the Temple: and this manner of ſpeech alſo is very frequent thorowout the whole Scriptures.