Isaiah 32:11-14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Tremble, ye women— Tremble, &c.—and gird sackcloth upon your loins, Isaiah 32:12 upon your breasts; lamenting for the pleasant field, for the fruitful vine: Isaiah 32:13 for the land, &c.—yea, for all the houses of joy; [for] the joyous city, Isaiah 32:14. Because the temple is deserted; the thronged city left; the clift and watch-tower shall for a long season be for dens, &c. Vitringa. The prophet begins and proceeds in a more lofty tone than in the former passage, because the calamity here described, which is that of the desolation of the land, and of the city of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, should be much greater and more terrible than that brought upon them by the Assyrians. The meaning of the passage, and the gradations by which the prophet expresses this desolation, are rendered more clear by the version which Vitringa has given above. If we are to understand the first part of the 12th verse as it stands in our translation, the mothers must be meant, lamenting for the infants whom they suckled at their breasts, and who were destroyed at this time of common calamity. The entire devastation of the land, and its uncultivated state, are foretold in the 13th verse, as well as the depopulation of the towns and cities. The dereliction of the temple, and of the city of Jerusalem itself, is foretold in Isaiah 32:14 together with the ruin of those fortifications wherein much of their strength consisted; their ruin, not for ever, but for a long season; till the period mentioned in the next verse.