Isaiah 25:5 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Thou shalt bring down the noise - The tumult; the sound which they make in entering into battle; or the note of triumph, and the sound of revelry. The phrase may refer either to their shout of exultation over their vanquished foes; or to the usual sound of revelry; or to the hum of business in a vast city.

Of strangers - Of foreigners (see the note at Isaiah 25:2).

As the heat in a dry place - The parallelism here requires that we should suppose the phrase ‘with the shadow of a cloud’ to be supplied in this hemistich, as it is obscurely expressed in our translation by the word ‘even,’ and it would then read thus:

As the beat in a dry place (by the shadow of a cloud),

The noise of the strangers shalt thou humble;

As the heat by the shadow of a cloud,

The exultation of the formidable ones shalt thou bring low.

The idea thus is plain. Heat pours down intensely on the earth, and if unabated would wither up every green thing, and dry up every stream and fountain. But a cloud intervenes, and checks the burning rays of the sun. So the wrath of the ‘terrible ones,’ the anger of the Babylonians, raged against the Jews. But the mercy of God interposed. It was like the intervening of a cloud to shut out the burning rays of the sun. It stayed the fury of their wrath, “and rendered them impotent to do injury, just as the intense burning rays of the sun are completely checked by an interposing cloud.

The branch of the terrible ones - This is a very unhappy translation. The word זמיר zâmiyr is indeed used to denote a branch, or bough, as derived from זמר zâmar, “to prune a vine;” but it also has the I sense of “a song;” a song of praise, or a song of exultation, from a second signification of זמר zâmar, “to sing; perhaps” from the song with which the work of the vineyard was usually accompanied. See the verb used in this sense in Judges 5:3; Psalms 9:12; Psalms 30:5; Psalms 47:7; and the word which occurs here (zamir) used in the sense of a song in Psalms 119:54; 2 Samuel 23:1; Job 35:10. Here it is undoubtedly used in the sense of a song, meaning either a shout of victory or of revelry; and the idea of the prophet is, that this would be brought low by the destruction of Babylon, and by the return of the captive Jews to their own land.

Isaiah 25:5

5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.