and the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.
18The idols shall utterly pass away.
19Enter the caves of the rocks
and the holes of the ground,
from the terror of the LORD,
and from the glory of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
20On that day people will throw away
to the moles and to the bats
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
21to enter the caverns of the rocks
and the clefts in the crags,
from the terror of the LORD,
and from the glory of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
22Turn away from mortals,
who have only breath in their nostrils,
for of what account are they?
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a Heb lacks the ways of
b Cn: Heb lacks of diviners
c Cn Compare Gk: Heb low
d Compare Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
2.1 Second superscription. This can be for ch. 2 or chs. 2–4.
2.2–4 Elevated above all other sites as the divine abode (for this motif, cf. Pss 48.1–2; 78.68–69; Ezek 40.2; Zech 14.10), Jerusalem will one day be acknowledged by the nations as the imperial capital. Just as political suzerains in the ancient Near East arbitrated disputes among their vassals, so God as suzerain over all the nations will settle international disputes by arbitration at Jerusalem, thus bringing an end to war. This oracle also occurs in Mic 4.1–3.
2.5–22 Judgment threatened against the house of Jacob and every rival to God’s majesty.
2.5–6a These verses form a logical connection between the preceding and following oracles. House of Jacob, presumably the Northern Kingdom, Israel (9.8; 17.4; cf. 8.17; 10.20–21). Since the nations are going to come to God in Jerusalem, Israel, which has forsaken the ways of its people, is also invited to return and once more walk with God. Mic 4.4–5 ends the oracle differently.
2.6b–22 The sin of Jacob/Israel is illustrated (vv. 6–9) and God’s judgment is announced (vv. 10–22).
2.6b Diviners and soothsayers were regarded as pagan fortune-tellers and were not to be consulted in Israel (Deut 18.14). In parallel to the Philistines on the west, east must refer to the Arameans (9.12).
2.11–12 Just as God’s city is exalted above all rivals (v. 2), so God is exalted above all rivals (cf. 6.1–5). On that day and the LORD…has a day pick up the common prophetic theme of the “day of the LORD,” that day on which God will judge his enemies and manifest his glory (13.6, 9; Ezek 13.5; Joel 1.15; 2.11, 31; 3.14; Am 5.18–20; Ob 15; Zeph 1.7, 14; Mal 4.5).
2.13–14 Lebanon, the mountainous area just north of Israel ruled by the Phoenician king of Tyre. Bashan, the high plateau in northern Transjordan controlled in this period by the Aramean king of Damascus. The mention of Lebanon, Bashan, and high mountains may suggest the Aramean state and its Tyrian ally as God’s political and religious rival (cf. Ps 68.15–16).
2.16 Ships can symbolize forces hostile to God and his city (33.21–23; Ps 48.7).
2.19–20 Palestine’s innumerable limestone caves have always served as a refuge, as hiding places for abandoned goods, and as a home for bats.
For now the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts,
ISAIAH 3
1is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah
support and staff—
all support of bread,
and all support of water—
2warrior and soldier,
judge and prophet, diviner and elder,
3captain of fifty
and dignitary,
counselor and skillful magician
and expert enchanter.
4And I will make boys their princes,
and babes shall rule over them.
5The people will be oppressed,
everyone by another
and everyone by a neighbor;
the youth will be insolent to the elder,
and the base to the honorable.
6Someone will even seize a relative,
a member of the clan, saying,
“You have a cloak;
you shall be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
shall be under your rule.”
6“I will not be a healer;
in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
you shall not make me
leader of the people.”
8For Jerusalem has stumbled
and Judah has fallen,
because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD,
defying his glorious presence.
9The look on their faces bears witness against them;
they proclaim their sin like Sodom,
they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
For they have brought evil on themselves.
10Tell the innocent how fortunate they are,
for they shall eat the fruit of their labors.
11Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are,
for what their hands have done shall be done to them.
12My people—children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
O my people, your leaders mislead you,
and confuse the course of your paths.
13The LORD rises to argue his case;
he stands to judge the peoples.
14The LORD enters into judgment
with the elders and princes of his people:
It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15What do you mean by crushing my people,
by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord GOD of hosts.
16The LORD said:
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty
and walk with outstretched necks,
glancing wantonly with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,
tinkling with their feet;
17the Lord will afflict with scabs
the heads of the daughters of Zion,
and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts.
18In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; 19the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs; 20the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; 21the signet rings and nose rings; 22the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; 23the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.
24Instead of perfume there will be a stench;
and instead of a sash, a rope;
and instead of well-set hair, baldness;
and instead of a rich robe, a binding of sackcloth;
instead of beauty, shame.a
25Your men shall fall by the sword
and your warriors in battle.
26And her gates shall lament and mourn;
ravaged, she shall sit upon the ground.
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a Q Ms: MT lacks shame
3.1–15 Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah.
3.1–9 The breakdown of Judean society.
3.1 Support and staff, originally the human functionaries deemed necessary for the continuity and stability of the society (vv. 2–3); bread and water represent a secondary reinterpretation (Ezek 4.16).
3.4–5 Boys, babes, youth. God will replace the experienced officials with inexperienced and naive rulers, and the result will be social chaos, including open oppression and violence.
3.6–7 The breakdown in authority will be so complete that no one will want the thankless task of being leader and ruling Judah.
3.8–9 The look on their faces. Judah’s rulers, by their shameless, brazen sinfulness, have brought this judgment on themselves.
3.10–11 A wisdom saying distinguishing
the fate of the innocent and the guilty.
3.12–15 An indictment of Judah’s leadership.
3.12 Children, women. Judah’s childish rulers are unduly influenced by the selfish desires of their women (vv. 16–17; 32.9–14; cf. Am 4.1–3).
3.13–14 The Lord takes the leaders of his people to court. Elders, prominent representatives of the people who had an influential voice in governmental policies and the administration of justice (Deut 21.19–21; 2 Kings 23.1). Princes, government officials not necessarily related to the royal family. Vineyard, a metaphor for God’s people (5.1–7).
3.16–4.1 The humiliation of Zion’s haughty women (32.9–14; Am 4.1–3).
3.17 Their secret parts, better “their foreheads” God threatens the women with baldness (cf. v. 24).
3.18–24 All their stylish clothes and accessories will be lost on the day of judgment.
3.26 Her gates. The prophet shifts from the image of the humiliated women of Jerusalem to a personification of the city itself as a woman. Ground, an inappropriate resting place for a noblewoman (47.1).
ISAIAH 4
1Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying,
“We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes;
just let us be called by your name;
take away our disgrace.”
The Future Glory of the Survivors in Zion
2On that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. 3Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, 4once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. 5Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed over all the glory there will be a canopy. 6It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.
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4.1 Because of the severe reduction of the male population (3.25), women will be forced to accept humiliating conditions for even a token respectability.
4.2–6 The purified Jerusalem.
4.2 Branch, either the messiah (11.1, 10; Jer 23.5; 33.15; Zech 3.8; 6.12) or the righteous remnant (60.21; 61.3). Fruit of the land, the righteous remnant (27.6; 37.31–32; 44.1–5).
4.3 Called holy, an idiom implying a real change in character, not just a forensic designation (cf. 1.26). Recorded for life, inscribed in God’s book of life (Ex 32.32; Ps 69.28; Dan 12.1; Mal 3.16; Rev 20.12, 15).
4.4 Zion purified by a burning judgment (cf. 1.25–28).
4.5 Cloud by day, fire by night, imagery from the exodus tradition (Ex 13.21–22; 40.34–38) symbolizing God’s protecting presence in Jerusalem.
4.6 Shelter…rain. See 25.4.
ISAIAH 5
The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard
1Let me sing for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
3And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
4What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
5And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice,
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness,
but heard a cry!
Social Injustice Denounced
8Ah, you who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is room for no one but you,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land!
9The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
10For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.a
11Ah, you who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
to be inflamed by wine,
12whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute and wine,
but who do not regard the deeds of the LORD,
or see the work of his hands!
13Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.
14Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalemb and her multitude go down,
her throng and all who exult in her.
15People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
16But the LORD of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
17Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture,
fatlings and kidsc shall feed among the ruins.
18Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
who drag sin along as with cart ropes,
19who say, “Let him make haste,
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment,
that we may know it!”
20Ah, you who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes,
and shrewd in your own sight!
22Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine
and valiant at mixing drink,
23who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of their rights!
Foreign Invasion Predicted
24Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become rotten,
and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of hosts,
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
26He will raise a signal for a nation far away
,
and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth;
Here they come, swiftly, speedily!
27None of them is weary, none stumbles,
none slumbers or sleeps,
not a loincloth is loose,
not a sandal-thong broken;
28their arrows are sharp,
all their bows bent,
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.
29Their roaring is like a lion,
like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey,
they carry it off, and no one can rescue.
30They will roar over it on that day,
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one look to the land—
only darkness and distress;
and the light grows dark with clouds.
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a The Heb bath, homer, and ephah are measures of quantity
b Heb her nobility
c Cn Compare Gk: Heb aliens
5.1–7 This unique poem, sung by the prophet on behalf of his friend, operates on several levels—as a love song, judicial parable, and judgment oracle.
5.1 The poem works metaphorically as a love-song, since vineyard is a standard metaphor for “lover” in Israelite love poetry (Song 1.6, 14; 2.3, 15; 4.12–16; 7.6–13; 8.12).
5.2 The friend’s love for the “vineyard” is unrequited.
5.3–4 The prophet’s friend, now quoted directly, calls upon the people of Judah to judge his “vineyard,” but in judging the vineyard the people unwittingly pass judgment on themselves. They are entrapped by Isaiah’s love song much as David was entrapped by Nathan’s parable (2 Sam 12.1–12).
5.7 Vineyard, a common metaphor for God’s people in Israelite poetry (27.2–6; Ps 80.8–16; Jer 2.21; Ezek 19.10–14; Hos 10.1). The prophet plays on the similarity in sound between the Hebrew words for justice (mishpat) and bloodshed (mispach), righteousness (tsedaqah) and cry (tse‘aqah), the cry of the oppressed.
5.8–24 Series of oracles against social injustice (vv. 8–10, 11–13, 14–17, 18–19, 20, 21, 22–24). Such oracles introduced by Ah are often arranged in a series (cf. 28.1; 29.1, 15; 30.1; 31:1; 33.1; Hab 2.6–19).
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