26 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Isaiah 29 This chapter contains a prophecy concerning the destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem by the Romans; the character and condition of the people of the Jews, previous to it; the calling of the Gentiles, by the preaching of the Gospel; the ruin of antichrist, and the conversion of the Jews, in the latter day. The...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city [where] David dwelt,.... Many Jewish writers by "Ariel" understand the altar of burnt offerings; and so the Targum, "woe, altar, altar, which was built in the city where David dwelt;'' and so it is called in Ezekiel 43:15 it signifies "the lion of God"; and the reason why it is so called, the Jews say (i), is,...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This woe to Ariel, which we have in this chapter, is the same with the "burden of the valley of vision" (ch. xxii. 1), and (it is very probable) points at the same event—the besieging of Jerusalem by the Assyrian army, which was cut off there by an angel; yet it is applicable to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and its last...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yet I will distress Ariel,.... Or "straiten" it, by causing it to be besieged; and this he would do, notwithstanding their yearly sacrifices, and their observance of their solemn feasts, and other ceremonies of the law, in which they placed their confidence, and neglected weightier matters: and there shall be heaviness and sorrow; on account of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I will camp against thee round about,.... Or as a "ball" or "globe" (o); a camp all around; the Lord is said to do that which the enemy should do, because it was by his will, and according to his order, and which he would succeed and prosper, and therefore the prophecy of it is the more terrible; and it might be concluded that it would...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And thou shalt be brought down,.... To the ground, and laid level with it, even the city of Jerusalem, as it was by the Romans; and as it was predicted by Christ it would, Lu 19:44 though some understand this of the humbling of the inhabitants of it, by the appearance of Sennacherib's army before it, and of which they interpret the following...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Moreover, the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust,.... Or "of those that fan thee" (q), as the Vulgate Latin Version; and so the Targum, "of those that scatter thee;'' or of thine enemies, as others; meaning the Romans, who were a strange people to them, who got the dominion over them, and scattered them abroad in the world: and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise,.... That is, not the multitude of strangers and terrible ones, unless they could be understood of the wicked among the Jews; but thou Ariel, or Jerusalem, shalt be punished by the Lord of hosts; for this visitation or punishment was from him, for their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,.... The Roman army, which consisted of men of all nations, that fought against Jerusalem; the city in which was the altar, as the Targum paraphrases it: even all that fight against her, and her munition, and that distress her; that besieged it, and endeavoured to demolish its walls,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
It shall be even as when a hungry [man] dreameth, and, behold, he eateth,.... That is, he dreams of food, and imagines it before him, and that he is really eating it: but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; his stomach is empty when he awakes, and he finds he has not ate anything at all: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh:...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Stay yourselves, and wonder,.... Stop a while, pause a little, consider within yourselves the case and circumstances of these people, and wonder at their stupidity. Kimchi thinks these words were spoken in the times of Ahaz, with respect to the men of Judah; and so Aben Ezra says, they are directed to the men of Zion; and it is generally thought...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the Lord hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep,.... Gave them up to a stupid frame of spirit; to a reprobate mind, a mind void of judgment and sense; to judicial blindness and hardness of heart: this was remarkably fulfilled in the Jews, in the times of Christ and his apostles, who choosing darkness rather than the light of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed,.... The prophecies of all the prophets contained in the Scriptures; or all the prophecies in the book of Isaiah, concerning the Messiah, were no more seen, known, and understood, both by the priests and the people, than if they had been in a book, written, rolled up,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the book is delivered to him that is not learned,.... Or that knows not a book or letters, as before, and so consequently cannot read, having never been put to school, or learned to read: saying, Read this, I pray thee; or "now" (w), at once, immediately: and he saith, I am not learned; he does not excuse himself on account of its being...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Wherefore the Lord said,.... Concerning the hypocritical people of the Jews in Christ's time, as the words are applied by our Lord himself, Matthew 15:7: Forasmuch as this people draw near to [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me; Kimchi observes, there is a double reading of the word נגש, rendered "draw near": in one reading of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people,.... Because of their hypocrisy and formality, their regard to men, their doctrines and commandments, and not to the will and word of God, therefore he determines "to deal marvellously with this people": [even] a marvellous work, and a wonder; that is, something...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Woe unto them,.... Or, "O ye", that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord; which they consulted against Christ, to take away his life, to persecute his apostles, and hinder the spread of his Gospel; which though they consulted in private, and formed deep schemes, imagining they were not observed by the Lord, yet he that sits in the heaven...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Surely your turning of things upside down,.... Revolving things in their minds, throwing them into different shapes, forming various schemes, and inverting the order of things by their deep counsels, and seeking to hide things from the Lord: or, "O the perverseness of you" (z); in imagining and saying that no eye saw, nor anyone knew, what they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[Is] it not yet a very little while,.... In a short space of time, in a few years, what follows would come to pass; when there would be a strange change and alteration made in the world, and by which it would appear, that the Lord not only knows, but foreknows, all things: and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field; the forest of Lebanon...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book,.... That is, in the Gospel day, or times of the Gospel dispensation, when that should be preached to the Gentiles; who before were deaf, but now should be made to hear, and be willing to hear, and hear so as to understand the doctrines contained in the Scriptures, the prophecies of them...