Isaiah 30:15-18 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For thus saith the Lord— The second sentence contains a judicial reproof and denunciation, wherein the punishment to be inflicted upon the disobedient and badly advised, is distinctly compared with the crime; for the Almighty, wonderful in all his ways, generally puts carnal men to shame by those very things wherein they place their confidence. Their crime here again is twice proposed; namely, their pertinacious struggle against the counsel suggested to them by the prophets of God, and their contempt of that counsel, Isaiah 30:15-16. Its consequence; first, the disappointment of their hope, and the destruction of their evil consultations, Isaiah 30:17. And then the slowness of God, and his desire to be gracious before he exerts his judgments, Isaiah 30:18. The meaning of the whole period is this, that if the Ephraimites and Jews, in the uncertain state of their affairs, would abstain from all care and endeavours to defend themselves by foreign aid, and would commit themselves to the care and providence of God with a settled mind, in faith and hope, they should then be safe, and avoid the calamities which threatened them: which salutary counsel the prophet shews that they obstinately despised, and would despise; that, on the contrary, they were determined to seek for deliverance from the yoke of the Assyrians or Chaldees in the help of the Egyptians, who were remarkable for their swift and fine horses, Isaiah 30:16 on which account they should meet with the calamities decreed for them; so that, seized with panic fear, when they came to the point, they should turn their backs upon their enemies, and fly with that swiftness with which they had thought to make their enemies fly; insomuch, that very few of them should escape the common destruction:—middle of Isaiah 30:16-17. And although God had determined not to deny his grace and help to them in affliction, when reduced to the last extremity, and after they had experienced the vanity of their own counsels, yet would he bestow that mercy slowly, with delay; because the enormity of their offence required a severity of punishment agreeable to the laws of justice. However, he would not fail the hope of those who believed on him; on the contrary, all they that should wait for him should be blessed. The word שׁובה shubah, rendered returning, in the 15th verse, is rendered, and, as it seems, very properly, by Vitringa, conversion, or change of council. Instead of your strength, he reads, your victory; and in the 18th verse he reads the first clause, And therefore the Lord will delay to be gracious, &c. See the first verse of the next chapter.