Commentary on the Old Testament Volume 2-4, Biblical commentary 7 · Isaiah · Chapter 7
CHAP. VII.
ANd it came to passe in the daies of Ahaz, that Rezin King of Syria, and Pekah Vers. 1.son of Remaliah King of Israel came up to fight against Jerusalem, &c. Ahaz the son of Jotham (who reigned when Isaiah had the vision of chap. 6.) was a most wicked idolater, 2 Chron. 28. 2 King. 16. although his father Jotham did right; and therefore God vouchsafed in his time to shew himself in royall Majesty, Ʋzziah who was smitten with leposie for his pride being dead. But Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Ʋzziah reigning was for his abominable wickedness diversly judged: First, By the Syrians and their King Rezin, then by Pekah King of Israel, and by the Edomites and Philistines, 2 Chron. 28. Hieronym.whereof no mention is made here, although the blow given him by Pekah and his Ephraimites were exceeding great, a hundred and twenty thousand being slain in one day, and two hundred thousand women and children carried away captive. And upon the next coming of those two Kings against him only, Isaiah toucheth, because of the Prophecie upon occasion of deliverance from them, touching our deliverance by Jesus the son of a Virgin here following, v. 14. And of this their coming up only it is spoken, 2 King. 16. and that they could not prevail, the reason being left to be shewed here, viz. Gods mercy to Judah and to David moving him yet to preserve that Kingdom to his seed, to promise which in his name Isaiah is here sent. The circumstances of this expedition, saith Calvin, are to be considered, that the miraculous deliverance of Calvin.Judah may be the more magnified. The King of Syria had before prevailed against Judah, and the King of Israel more; thus weakning the state of Judah so much, that they made account now joyning together without doubt to take Jerusalem, and to dispose of the whole Kingdom at their pleasure, making such a King over it as they pleased, v. 6. the seed of David, of which Christ was to come, being extinct, and the hearts of the house of David also fainted, being moved, as leaves shaken with the winde, v. 2. that is, the heart of Ahaz and all of the bloud royall, counting their case now desperate, as of men for whom there was no help; and not without cause, for so much as sin makes timerousness, and righteousness boldness and courage: Levit. 26. 36. They shall flee at the shaking of a leaf, and contrariwise, Prov. 28. 1. The righteous is bold as a lion. And all this is thus set forth, that the deliverance following might be ascribed wholly to God, and in no part to man, which the hard-hearted unbeleeving Jews were unwilling to do, being rather ready to impute it to themselves or to fortune, and thus to rob God of his glory.
But they could not prevail. This is spoken by a Prolepsis, this thing remaining to be declared in the verses next following. They prevailed before, Judah being in the full strength, but now the strength thereof being so much broken by the slaughter of so many men, they could not prevail; see the marvellous Note. works of God, that we may seek to him, and having his word, trust to it, in how desperate a condition soever we may seem to be, for all things are possible to him.
Then said the Lord to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, &c. He must go out to him Vers. 3.into the field, for when the wicked King should have gone to the Temple to seek to the Lord, he went into the field to study with himself what to do in this extremity, or as men that are troubled, go sometime into one place, sometime into another, or he was fleeing away to some other City for fear, thinking to be safer there. The Prophet is bidden to go out to meet him; to shew the goodness of God even towards the wicked, who seek not to him, to their more just condemnation, because their hearts are hardened against all his goodness. He is bidden to go and take with him his son Shear-jashub: Vulgar Lat. and Septuagint, him that was left Jashub, respecting rather the signification of Shear, Left, as Jashub signifies, shall return. But we take altogether, as his sons name, which doubtless had been given him by a propheticall spirit, as Mahar-shalal-hashabaz, ch. 8. By this very name Shear-jashub, the remnant shall return, God would set forth the return of some of the captivity to Jerusalem again, although but a remnant in comparison. The Rabbins following the Septuagint, say that one son of Isaiah called Rabshakeh, was fled now to the Assyrians, and came again in Hezekiahs time, to perswade them to turn to the Assyrians: Therefore this son Jashub is said to be left: But to passe this over as an invention; his son must go with him, who carried a prophecie in his name, that though the two Kings, that now came against Jerusalem had slain very many before, yet the people now remaining should be converted and saved, so that by taking this son with him, he made a demonstration in the name of that in part, which he promised by the spirit of Prophecie. Some doubt, whether the Prophets natural son, or a disciple of his so called, be here meant; because young men trained up by Prophets, were called then, Sons of the Prophets: But surely, as most hold, he was his natural son, and therefore Isaiah was a married man, contrary to the tenet of some Popish Expositours, who seek every where to press out what they can for the magnifying of a vowed single life: But neither was Elishah called the son of Elijah, although his son most notably in that sense, nor Gehezi his son, but his servant. To the end of the Conduit of the upper pool, &c. Of this and the neather pool, see before, upon 2 King. 18. 17.
And thou shalt say to him, Be quiet and fear not, &c. The Prophet is sent to Vers. 4.him, though a most wicked King, with words of comfort, telling him what consultations the two Kings had, viz. to take the City, and putting him down, to set up the son of Tabeal for King; concerning whom Jerom saith, either they Vers. 6. Hieron.meant a good God, viz. their own God, so called according to the signification of the word, or some man so called, who was both fit for his valour to make a King of, and for his complying with them such an one as they might have to rule there according to their own hearts desire, as acknowledging to have received his Kingdom from them. Others follow, some one of these, and some another; but most probably a man is meant, who was called by this name, and not an Heathen god or idol, because it is said, the son of Tabeal. Neither doth al, the last syllable, signifie a God, but el: It was therefore some great man of that Kingdom, unknown to us, because no more is elsewhere spoken of him, known to them to be an enemy to the house of David, and a friend to them, and therefore good for them, as the first syllable of the word may signifie: Thus also almost Musculus, who mentioneth his Tribe in particular, Muscul. Adam Sasbont.Benjamin. But Sasbont saith, some take him to be the son of the King of Syria, and some again will have him the son of Remaliah otherwise thus called. But all are conjectures, and so to be left for every one to judge of. Whereas it is said [In the midst of it] the meaning is, over the whole in full power, so that they had no purpose to destroy this Kingdom, but the seed of David; another King being set up, and the Kingdom so remaining still as a confederate of theirs, but this is all soon dashed in a word, It shall not stand, it shall not be saith the Lord; that is, this counsel shall not stand now, neither shall it be hereafter Vers. 7.thus brought about, but shall be in vain, as if nothing had ever been consulted or attempted to this purpose.
For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus Rezin; and yet Vers. 7, 8.sixty five years and Ephraim shall cease to be a people, &c. This is added to confirm the premises; Rezin reignes and shall reign over Damascus only, the Metropolitan City of Syria, and never over the Metrapolitan City of Judah, Jerusalem; Musculus.and likewise is that of Pekah, vers 9. to be understood: therefore their counsel to take Jerusalem, and as Lords thereof to set up a new King there, shall vanish. Ephraim is here put for the Kingdom of the ten Tribes under Pekah, and the utter destruction of it is here prophesied of. This destruction was Anno 9. of Hoshea King of Israel, as appears 2 King. 17. 6. but this Prophecy in the time of Ahaz King of Judah, in whose 12th year Hoshea began to reign, chap. 11. 6. and chap. 17. 1. therefore not above 21 years passed betwixt this and Israels destruction; How then saith he, Yet sixty five years? The common answer of Jerom, following the Hebrews in their Seder Olam, and of others Hieron.after him is, that this time is to be computed from Amos his first threatning of Israel that they should be carried away; and he prophesied in the daies Amos 5. 27. 7. 11. Amos 1. 1.of Ʋzziah, two years before the Earthquake,] So that unto this time we must adde 16 of Jothams reign, so we shall attain to 37 years; if then that Earthquake were in the 24th or 25th year of Ʋzziah, as the Hebrews commonly hold, his whole reign being 52 years, there will be 28 more to be added, which together will make 65. If ye will not believe, neither shall ye be established,] Hebr. foreign it is spoken by a Paranomasy, the same word in Cal signifying to believe, in Niphal to be established: The sense is, that they of the Kingdom of Judah should be destroyed and captivated also, as they of the Kingdom of Israel.
And the Lord added, Ask for thee a sign, either in the depth or above on high. Vers. 10, 11. Hieronym.Jerom, when Ahaz was not moved by the speech of the Prophet, the Lord vouchsafed to speak himself unto him, if haply he would be moved, hearing the voice of his Majesty. And he biddeth him ask a sign of the Lord, not of any idol or false god, to which he was addicted, and that either from hell, to have the earth cleaved asunder to see into that place of torment, or from heaven to see a way opened for the Son of man to ascend, for so in due time he both descended and ascended, as it is said Eph. 4. 10. From the earth by Moses a sign was shewed in Egypt, when lice and frogs were brought forth out of the earth; and from heaven, when hail and lightening came from thence: But here he is permitted to ask a sign further stretching, that he might be confirmed touching the deliverance promised and the destruction of their enemies threatned. And to this of places deeper and more low then the earth, Calvin seemeth to assent; although Musculus and some others, by the depth, understand the earth: But though the earth Calvin.be beneath, yet because this word is not used to set forth the earth, but the sea or hell, it is best understood of hell; in opening a way to which, that it might be seen, God could as easily shew a sign, as in the earth. And whereas Jerom understands these words, The Lord added, of the speaking of the Lord himself, Musculus, Oecolampadius, &c. take it for the Prophets speaking in his Name; as if it had been said, The Lord hath further given me in charge to say unto thee, &c. which is rather to be held, because the next words after Ahaz his answer, are certainly the words of the Prophet in the Lords Name. And it was a wonderfull favour to a wicked man, that God should condescend so far as to give him what sign soever he would ask, seeing God is to be believed without signs; and sometimes they that ask signs, who were of Ahaz his condition, are upbraided hereby and denied, as the Pharisees.
And Ahaz said, I will not ask sign, neither will I tempt the Lord. He seemeth Vers. 12.to give such credit to the Word of God, that he would believe without a sign; the asking of a sign being in some case judged a tempting of the Lord, as appears by that saying, Matth. 4. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. But Mat. 4.this was feigned piety in Ahaz, and manifest disobedience, when he was bidden to ask a sign, to deny so to do. And so it is, saith Calvin, in a Christian Calvin.now to neglect the holy Sacraments, Baptisme or the Supper of the Lord, because he believes without these signs, and accounts them but superfluous to salvation; but this they cannot do without rejecting also the whole Gospel. And Luther speaks also to the same effect. For God knows better then our selves, what we stand in need of; and therefore, as it is a point of impiety not to believe without signs, when God will give none, as Dives and his brethren, or without new signs according to their own will, when there be signs enough shewed without asking, as the Pharisees; so it is to refuse signs offered, as is the case of non-Communicants. Yet sometime a sign in particular hath been asked without offence, as by Gideon; yet, as Calvin hath it, not without the instinct of the Spirit. Jerom and other Ancients think, that Ahaz spake thus, Hieron. Cyril. Rupert.as meaning to consult with his gods, not regarding what the Prophet said to him in the Lords Name: And some, that he would provide for his deliverance by his gifts to the King of Assyria, and needed no help or sign from the Lord in his present strait. Therefore Ambrose was mistaken, who thought, that in modesty and humility he asked a sign; for both his condition being an Idolater, and the Prophets reply declare the contrary.
And he said, Hear ye house of David, is it a smal matter for you to be troublesome Vers. 13.to men, but ye will be troublesome to my God? The word foreign rendred by troubling, signifieth wearying; and it is as if he had said (O Ahaz, and ye his kinsmen and Counsellours) Is it not enough for you to weary and vex me, by giving so little heed to my words, and other Prophets of God, but ye will so manifestly sleight God also, when he so graciously offers, to confirm by sign, deliverance unto you out of your great danger, as desperatly incredulous and not believing him to be able to do this? Certainly this obstinacy in you is intollerable, and ye shall one day suffer for it at the hands of God, whom ye thus incense and provoke. Ye house of David.] He cals them, not for honour in this place, but to their greater reproach, saith Calvin; it being more hainous for the seed of so worthy a King or man, to be desperately wicked, then for Calvin.other men. In saying, Weary men, he speaks according to their conceit, because they thought the Prophets but men like themselves, and so contemned their threatnings, as many also now adaies do: For they are indeed Gods instruments, by whom he worketh, and therefore to despise them, is to despise God. But granting that they were but men, and so in other offices they might be sleighted, yet when they come to offer so great a favour from God, and extraordinary, of giving a sign, to be sleighted, is a most intollerable wearying of God of all others, yet such weariers do the Prophets meet withall even in the family of David, in the holy Church of God. And it is to be noted, that he changeth the Pronoun here, saying [My God] whereas before he bad him, Ask a sign of the Lord thy God] Intimating, that the wicked have nothing to do with God, he is not theirs, but the God of the righteous only; they are Note. therefore said to be without God in the world; and of the god of this world Eph. 2. 12. Hieron.we reade, 2 Cor. 4. 4. Jerom supposing, that the offer of a sign came immediatly from God, understands a change of the person speaking in this verse, viz. from God to the Prophet: And for trouble or wearying, he saith, the Septuagint and Theodotion have it agonem, striving, as a Physitian is made to strive with an unruly patient, and finally to lose his labour, the disease not being cured, but continuing to his destruction. And by the house of David, he will have his Tribe, the Tribe of Judah meant. Ahaz and others of the royall Family like minded to him being reproved thus, but the rest of that Tribe spoken to so many as beleeved to their exceeding great comfort, v. 14.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, a Virgin shall conceive, &c. The word foreign rendred a Virgin, is by all Expositours, except the Septuagint, of Vers. 14.old, rendred a young woman (saith Jerom) But it signifieth a young one hidden or kept close from the view of men, by the care of her parents; neither is Hieronym.the word used in any place, to set forth a young woman, without this addition, hidden. Moreover it is absurd so to render it, sith it is no sign or wonder for a young woman to bring forth a son, but for a Virgin: And in the Punick tongue, which comes from the Hebrew, Alma doth alwaies signifie a Virgin. The blessed Virgin Maries bringing forth then, is here prophesied of, although it may seem impertinent to the present purpose, as happening many hundreds of years after, and the destruction of those two Kingdoms, Syria and Israel, was then at hand. But it is inserted per raptum Propheticum, as is usual amongst the Prophets, to bring in sometimes a spiritual rapture, to which the Spirit carries them upon a sudden, and then to return to that, of which they were speaking before. But how is it pertinent to the thing in hand, to foretell of the birth of Jesus, when a sign should be given of their deliverance from those two Kings? Sasbont answers well, that this sign is not unaptly now given, because Adam Sasbont.of the similitude betwixt the deliverance by Jesus, and that presently promised. For as they were unworthy to be saved from those two Kings, and yet God out of his meer mercy promised it; so both they and all men are most unworthy of salvation by Jesus, yet God out of his grace and mercy promiseth this also. Calvin will have this the sense, Because ye (O house of David) and Calvin.thou (O Ahaz) in particular dost reject my offer of a sign, which might, if any thing in the world, make me break my Covenant with Abraham and his posterity, viz. the greatest and most blessed-making Covenant, that in his seed all the Nations of the earth shall be blessed: yet I will not hereupon take occasion so to do, but will in due time give a sign, that I am mindfull of keeping it, for that a Virgin ever carefully kept from man, shall by the power of the most high bring forth a Son: For such a Virgin, and not an old, but a young one, and a very young one doth the word Almah alwaies signifie. And thus Matthew, guided by the Spirit, applieth this Prophecy, when Jesus was born. Either of these waies this doubt is fully cleared, and whereas it is said, Will give you a sign, It is not to be understood, as restrained to the house of David, as if Jesus were given to none but the Jewish Nation; but to those of Davids house he saith he will give it, because it should be wrought upon one of his house, that is, the Virgin Mary, the benefit redounding to the faithfull of all Countries and Nations to the worlds end. Or by the sign, which the Prophet saith, the Lord will give, understand a wonder that he would work, a new thing, as it is called, Jer. 31. 22. For Ahaz being offered a sign of deliverance at this time refused it: therefore the Lord will give a sign, not of the deliverance then at hand, so much as of a deliverance farre exceeding it, viz. that by Christ from all spirituall enemies; a Virgins conception shall be the sign hereof, the like unto which was never before done in any age; so that when this shall come to passe, it shall assuredly be known, that the Messiah, our Redeemer is come. Of this Virgins bringing forth a Son, the Sybils also prophesied. The Phrygian, Virginis in corpus voluit dimittere coelo, Deus prolem, cùm nuntiat Angelus Sybilla Phrygia.almae Matri, quae miseros contracta sorde levabit. God would send an ofspring from heaven into the body of the Virgin, when the Angel tels the Virgin Mother, which shall case miserable men of their contracted filthiness. Of other Sybils see August. de Civit. l. 10. c. 27. Euseb. lib. 4. de Vita Constantini. The Jews, saith Jerom, by this Son understand Hezekiah the son of Ahaz; and by a Virgin Hieronym.a young woman, the wife of Ahaz, who bare him, being before barren: But herein they are too grosse, because Hezekiah his birth was past nine years before, although this Prophecy were uttered in the beginning of Ahaz his reign, as he must needs yield that considers the age of Hezekiah, when he began to reign, for he was twenty five, and the time of Ahaz his fathers reign, which was sixteen. One therefore, saith he, holdeth that Emanuel here spoken of, was another son of Isaiah, which his wife bare him, in a figure of Jesus, as she had before born him Shear-jashub, in a figure of the Jews returning from Captivity: But how then is it said, not a woman, but a Virgin, &c. The Son here prophesied of, without all doubt, is the seed of the woman, which should break the serpents head, prophesied of, Gen. 3. But instead of this name Emanuel, the Virgin Maries Son was called Jesus. To reconcile this, it is to be understood, that these two names are all one, because who so is Jesus, which saves from sin, is Emanuel, that is, God with us, or in one nature, God and man in one person, none other being ever able to work this great work; not God, because he cannot suffer; nor man, because his suffering cannot be of extent sufficient to reach to all men, neither can he by any power in himself rise from death to life again. 2. Chap. 9. It is said, He shall be called Councellour, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, &c. yet none of these were his proper Names, but his Elogies or Epithetes, further to set forth the virtues in him. 3. Emanuel is his Name which the Latines call agnomen, added to his proper Name to set him forth by something most remarkable and peculiar to him. As Trajan the Emperour having subdued Dacia, was called Dacius. Scipio, who overcame Aphrica, Aphricanus; for none else can be called Emanuel but our Lord Jesus. Lastly it is to be noted, that the word rendred, Shall call, foreign in the feminine gender, to intimate a woman bringing forth this son without generation by man; because, as appears in the example of Zachary, the father hath the power to name his childe; therefore hereby is shewed, that this Son should have no father, but a mother only, a pure Virgin.
Butter and honey shall he eat, till he knoweth to refuse the evil and to chuse the Vers. 15. Hieronym.good. This is spoken, saith Jerom, to shew, that however he be called Emmanuel, yet he shall have a true humane body, for he shall be fed in his infancy as other children, with butter and honey, for that land flowed with milk and honey. He shall not therefore be a man-childe in appearance only, as Marcion and the Valentinians have held, having an aerean or heavenly body, but like unto ours, only pure and free from sin. And after the manner of other children he shall be ignorant at the first, as man new-born, but grow, as in age and stature, in wisedom, as Luke saith that he did. Cornel. a lapide reasons diversly against this being Calvins and Bucers, both from Scriptures and fathers, holding that he was full of wisedom being an infant, by reason of his hypostaticall. Union with the Deity, which I spare to insert here because the word foreign until he knows, is so express against this fulnesse of knowledge in the childe Jesus as he was man at the first.
For before the childe shall have knowledge to refuse the evill, &c. that is, before Vers. 16.he be grown up past the age of a childe, the Land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her Kings. Here Ephraim and Samaria are spoken of together as one Land, because the Kings of both Pekah and Rezin, were so nearly united together with both their peoples by a confederacy, that they were all as one Nation, and this Nation is described thus, The Land which thou abhorrest, because Ahaz his hatred was exceeding great against them, for their combining against him, and the great destructions which they had made in his countrey. And this began soon to be fullfilled in Rezin, the King of Syria, by the Assyrians coming at Ahaz his request, and slaying him, and then in Pekah slain by Hoshea, who reigned in his stead. But how this agrees with the sign here given, whenas the sign was not till five hundred years after, is a doubt not so easily resolved. Some say, that it is no unusuall thing amongst the Prophets to give that for a sign which is Isa. 37. 30.not fullfilled till after the thing, whereof it is a sign, as the eating of those things which should grow of themselves the first and second year, and sowing and reaping the third year, was given for a sign to Hezekiah, and Samuel gave Saul signs to come of his being chosen king by God, and Christ gave his being in the grave to the third day, as Jonah in the Whales belly for a sign, and Exod. 3. 12 is another like sign: But what is a delaying for a year or two to five hundred years? Some say, that it is meant, this son shall save you and destroy the two kings your enemies, which declares him to be to be God with us, that is, God and man, and consequently of all power, although like another in appearance at the first: but this is nothing to the purpose, sith this childe must be in his minority, at the time of these two kings perishing. The best reselution is, that the prophecy touching Jesus is fully ended vers. 15. and vers. 16. another childe is spoken of, as Calvin Calvin.well observes, and therefore it is not said before, this son shall have knowledge, but this childe foreign, meaning (as Junius hath it) Shearjashub, his son whom he Junius.brought with him ver. 3. for if he were then an Infant, or two or three years old, yet he attained not to years of discretion, till the destruction both of Pekah and Rezin. For Ahaz beg…n to reign anno 17. of Pekah, and if he and the king of 2 King. 15. 27, 30. chap. 16. 1.Syria had come immediatly after that he was setled in his kingdom: Pekah lived but to the third year after, at what time if this childe were but five or six years old, he had not attained to years of discretion, much lesse if he were not now a year old. But if we consider 2 Chron. 28. 5, 6, the wars made by these two kings severally against Ahaz before this, which could not be done in lesse then two years: Pekah his destruction was within one year after this Prophecy, and so it was a very short time before it was accomplished. If the particle foreign because, seems to make against this exposition, because or for before the childe shall have knowledge, seeing it connects this verse as a reason to the former, it is to be understood▪ that it hath also other significations, as &, etiam, followed by Marlorat, and also, ut, according to Pagnin, that before the childe shall have knowledge, &c. yet Calvin stands against expounding it of any particular childe, because the particle foreign would have been added, if it had meant so, that it might have gone thus, this childe: wherefore by a childe he understands collectively all children of that time: but I prefer the former, the childe which I have here brought with me, that is, within a year or two at the most: or if Chi be rendred by ut, that we may joyn this to vers. 14. the Lord himself shall give you a sign of Israels ceasing to be a Kingdom, of which he had spoken before, that before the childe shall have knowledge, both these kings shall perish, and then the intervening prophecy of the Virgins conceiving, &c. was a sudden rapture of the Spirit to another most wonderfull thing, a more universall deliverance from a far greater danger, when a like thing should happen to two kings that then should be in the same Lands, before that Virgins sons coming to years of discretion, or soon after his birth. For as one notes it out of Josephus, Herod was then king of the Jews, and was commonly called by them King of Samaria, because he was a stranger Jooseph▪ l. 16. 19.and not of the Jewish stock, and Obodas king of Damascus, the chief city of Syria, and Herod died miserably 15 moneths after the birth of Emmanuel, and Obodas a few moneths before him. And these two; especially Herod, endeavoured quite to extirp the stock of David, as these two had done touching his kingdom.
And the Lord will bring upon thee &c. the daies that have not come since the falling Vers. 17. Calvin. Musculus.of Ephraim from Judah, even the king of Ashur. The Lord who promised deliverance from the two kings, at this time knew that Ahaz would send for help against them to the king of Ashur, and that by this means he should for the present be out of their danger. Therefore he here threatneth a greater, because he trusted to an arm of flesh, and not in God, viz, that the king of Ashur should prove a greater plague to him then these two kings, or any enemies which Davids house whereof he was, had had since the division of the kingdom into two in the time of Rehoboam. How this was fullfilled in part, see 2 Chron. 28, 20, 21. in the daies of Ahaz by Tiglath pileser, and afterwards against his people, and Davids house by Nebuchadnezzar, chap. 36. See here the danger of trusting in Note. an arm of flesh, and not in God, it is turned to the destruction of those that trust therein, when they think to have help hereby, especially the help of Idolaters.
If the things done by Nebuchadnezzar shall seem not to agree to this prophecy, because he was king of Babylon, he was also king of Ashur now joyned by Hieronym.him to Babylon. Jerom rendring it with the king of Ashur, making this the sense, I will bring judgements upon thee, and afterwards upon the king of Ashur, whose people shall also be overcome and destroied, and then thou shalt be delivered by the help of this Emmanuel. But the first is most genuine, and therefore he next shewing the Septuagint translation, concludes with the sense before brought.
And in that day the Lord shall hisse for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the Vers. 18.river of Egypt, and for the Bee of Assyria. The metaphor of hissing was also used before chap. 5. 26. where the reason thereof hath been shewed. The forces that should come out of Egypt, saith Jerom, are set forth by flies, because of the sordes or filth of their idolatrous sacrifices, and the imbecillity of that people, those of Assyria to Bees, because they and the Persians went to war with bow and arrows represented by the bees strings, and this was fulfilled as touching the Egyptians when Iosiah being slain by Pharaoh Necho, he placed a king over Iudah as he pleased, and as touching the Assyrians when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed their city. Calvin will have the Egyptians set forth by flies, because Egypt by reason Calvin.of the great moisture of the place, abounded greatly with flies, and the Assyrians by bees, because in Ashur bees abounded. Musculus will neither have the Muscul.Egyptians meant by the flies, because it is said in the uttermost parts of the river: nor Aethiopians who are beyond Egypt, as some, but the Lybians at one end of Nilus the Egyptian river, viz, where it begins: Enemies are also compared to Bees, Psa. 118. I prefer that of Ierom, because the event so aptly answered the prophecy, the Egyptians subduing Iudah first, and then the Assyrians; and this doth better agree to the words of the Text, which are not beyond the river, as the Aethiopians and Lybians were, but from the uttermost parts, that is, one end of Egypt to the other, for it extended all along by the river Nilus, and was all watered by it, so that the inhabitants at the times of overflowing were forced to keep in higher rooms, till the ground was dry again. The reasons of the allegories brought by Jerom and Calvin may well stand both. But I cannot think with Ierom that the imbecillity of the Aegyptians is set forth by flies, but their numerosity making them formidable, though imbecill.
And they shall come all and rest in the desert valleys, &c. and upon all bushels, &c. Vers. 19.here he prosecutes the allegory, meaning that these flies and bees should continue in the land when they were come, the Jews being expelled, as we reade that they were, being carried to Babylon; and not like the flies once sent in judgement to Egypt, suddenly come and suddenly gone: but these with their multitudes filling all places should eat up and consume all the good in every corner of the Land. Desert valleys are mentioned, saith Calvin, and bushy places, to shew, that Calvin.in no lurking place any of the Jews shall be safe from these enemies, but that they shall range about and rage every where throughout the whole Land, And because this is at an hisse, that these heathens come so readily to execute Gods Note. judgements, the backwardnesse of Christians is condemned, who cannot by Musculus.most earnest preaching of long continuance be brought to doe as God requires them.
In that day the Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired, by those that are beyond Vers. 20.the river, by the king of Ashur, the head, the hairs of the feet, and the beard. Here by another metaphor from a razor, the greatnesse of the judgement to come is set forth: for even as a razor takes all the hairs away to the very skin, no stumps being left, as in cutting with scissers, so all wherein the comelinesse of that Nation lay, he threatens should be quite taken away, the hairs of the head in the captivity of the Princes and Nobles, of the feet in the captivity of the artificers, Cyril.and the beard is all taken away when the wise and the counsellours are destroied or captived. For the beard amongst the Jews was so highly esteemed of, that it was never so much as cut, and when Davids Embassadours had theit beards half cut off, they were greatly ashamed, but now it should be all taken away by shaving Calv. Muscul.with a razor, when no counsellour or wise man should be left in the Land, so Calvin and Musculus: who also as Vatablus upon the word hired say, either a most sharp razor, because when a man hires for his money, he will have of the best; or a razor that he will not spare, but make use enough of it, as paying well for it: and to an hired razor is the king of Ashur compared, because God paid him for his hire, the Land of Syria and of Israel, and the spoils of Iudah. And hereby is implyed, that this king in his expedition against the Jews did but serve Note. God as an instrument wherewith a man worketh his own will. The godly are his instruments also, but they know for what end God useth them, and aim in their endeavours hereat, viz. Gods glory: but the wicked know not, and therefore work for their ambition and malice, and in the end it shall come to them accordingly. The Septuagint for a razor that is hired, have novacula inebriata, because Septuagint.the word foreign fignifyeth to make drunken, but it is foreign with Sin not Shin, and this signifyeth hired. According to the word hired here used, Nebuchadnezzar is said to have been paid with the land of Egypt for destroying Tyrus, Isa. 29. 18, 19. and Gods judging them by a razor hired, implies the work of judgement to be the work of another, and not his work, Isa. 28. 23. because God Ezek. 18.delights not in destroying, but in his mercy is most a verse herefrom, being desirous that the wicked should turn and not die. Lastly, By shaving with a razor, the servitude of the Jews in a strange Land is set forth, because shaving was anciently of servants and slaves, so Pomponius Laetus saith of Dioclesians triumph, that the custom was for such as had been slaves to enemies, but delivered, to follow the chariot of the triumpher with their heads shaven: so two thousands Romans brought out of servitude by F. Flamininus, when he triumphed for Macedonia subdued, followed his chariot. Icrom saith, that some think, that the Assyrian Hieronym.was he whom the Lord threatens to shave, that is, to spoil by Persians a long time after, but this he rejects and that worthily, because it is foreign by the king of Ashur, he is this sharp razor: and as absurd is that of the Rabbins applying it to Sennacherib, who, they say, was shaven by the Angel to his ignominy in the night that his men were killed. It is meant, that all the decorum and virility of the Jewish Nation, should be taken away, for the beard is a sign of a man, and none but women and other poor weak effeminate creatures should be left by those beyond the river, the Assyrians are set forth because beyond Euphrates.
In that day a man shall nourish a Cow and two sheep, and for the plenty of milk he shall eat Butter. Here is shewed in what desolation the whole Land of Iudea Vers. 21. Hieronym.should be, there should be but here and there a man left, and he that was left should not keep herds of cattel and flocks of sheep as in times past many men had done, but be so poor as that he should keep a cow and two sheep only, this being all his substance, and then by reason of the few cattel to eat the pasture, it should so abound, that a cow should give plenty of milk, so that thereof he might have therewith to make butter for his eating, for indeed he should have nothing else to eat but butter and honey. Besides some went to make a little bread, as is intimated, ver. 25. for to what end else should mountanous places be filled by digging, but to sow corn there?
And in that day where a thousand vines were at a thousand pieces of silver, it shall be to briars and thorns: That is, such a desolation shall be in all the Land, that Vers. 23.Gardens, Vineyards, and Olive-yards for want of pruning and husbanding shall be overgrown with briats and thorns, and so there shall be no vines or other delightfull things for the comfort of mans life as in times past, for the most fruitfull places formerly most frequented shall be forsaken, the few that remain, not daring to keep there for fear of the enemy, but betaking themselves to desolate places formerly incult, as thinking in them to be more out of danger, because men used to come little into them, as being hitherto void of inhabitants, and so without prey to be gotten in them, so that their life now should be most miserable, changing their habitations for incult and horrid deserts, where wilde beasts only were wont to live.Vers. 24.
With arrow and bow they shall come thither, because bryars and thorns shall be in all the Land. That is, to these places thus for fear forsaken and overgrown with briars, if any will come they shall come armed for the danger that now will be by wilde beasts, lurking and breeding there instead of living in the mountanous places and deserts, to which they were confined before. And it is said briars and thorns shall be in all the Land, meaning all the parts before inhabited, and tilled, Vers. 25.and dressed to bear fruits. For vers. 25. the mountanous places digged with the spade and mattock, shall not be so, the fear of briars and thorns shall not come thither: for men making those now the only places of their habitation, shall clear them from thorns and briars, by stubbing them up and making some of the ground fit to bear corn: and it shall be for the sending out of the Oxe, and the conculcating of the sheep or smaller cattell, that is, the other part of the ground thus cleansed, shall be to feed their beasts upon for their necessary sustenance, the cow being here set forth by foreign before by foreign a word of the same signification: and in this exposition almost all expositors agree.