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Ask a Question(Ho 8:4). Not so much public idolatry, which was not sanctioned in Uzziah's and Jotham's reign, but (see 2Ki 15:4, 35) as private.
tower...wall--Towers were often made on the walls of cities. fenced--strongly fortified.
man...precious--I will so cut off Babylon's defenders, that a single man shall be as rare and precious as the finest gold.
rest--(Isa 28:12; Eze 28:25, 26). The whole earth rejoices; the cedars of Lebanon taunt him.
In...year...Ahaz died--726 B.C. Probably it was in this year that the Philistines threw off the yoke put on them by Uzziah.
crying for wine--to drown their sorrows in drink (Isa 16:9); Joe1:5, written about the same time, resembles this.
poor--(Isa 25:4), the once afflicted Jewish captives. "Foot shall tread," is figurative for exulting in the fall of God's enemies (Re18:20).
Proverbial, for they shall find all their sources of confidence fail them; all shall be hopeless perplexity in their affairs.
shame--disappointment. Egypt, weakened by its internal dissensions, can give no solid help.
work--the effect (Pr 14:34; Jas 3:18). peace--internal and external.
all lands--(Isa 14:17). He does not dare to enumerate Egypt in the list.
path of judgment--His wisdom, whereby He so beautifully adjusts the places and proportions of all created things.
fan--winnowed (compare Mt 3:12). whirlwind...scatter them--(Job 27:21; 30:22).
teacheth...to profit--by affliction, such as the Babylonish captivity, and the present long-continued dispersion of Israel (Heb12:10).
So Re 12:12. God will have mercy on the afflicted, because of His compassion; on His afflicted, because of His covenant.
(See on Isa 50:9; Job 4:18-20). Not that the moth eats men up, but they shall be destroyed by as insignificant instrumentality as the moth that eats a garment.
drunken...not with wine--(Isa 29:9; compare Isa 51:17, 20, here; La 3:15).
(Ps 57:10; 89:2; 103:11). "For" is repeated from Isa 55:8. But Maurer, after the negation, translates, "but."
old wastes--Jerusalem and the cities of Judah which long lay in ruins (see on Isa 58:12).
mother--(Isa 49:15). comforteth--(Isa 40:1, 2).
(2Ki 25:21). forsaking--abandonment of dwellings by their inhabitants (Jer 4:29).
Second strophe. turneth not--the design of God's chastisements; not fulfilled in their case; a new cause for punishment (Jer 2:20; 5:3).
feed--namely, "together"; taken from the second clause. straw--no longer flesh and blood.
gladness--such as is felt in gathering a rich harvest. There shall be no harvest or vintage owing to the desolation; therefore no "gladness."
lofty city--Babylon; representative of the stronghold of the foes of God's people in all ages (Isa 25:2, 12; 13:14).
Here the drunkards are introduced as scoffingly commenting on Isaiah's warnings: "Whom will he (does Isaiah presume to) teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand instruction? Is it those...