Isaiah 29:8 - Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

8. It shall be therefore as when a hungry man dreameth. He compares the Jews to “hungry men,” who are indeed asleep, but whose empty stomach craves for food; for it is natural for men to dream about food and entertainments when they are in want of them. Thus, while the Jews watched, they were like “hungry men.” The Lord continually warned them by his prophets, and invited them to the divine feasts of the word; but they despised those feasts, and chose rather to take refuge wholly in their vices, and to fall asleep in them, than to partake fully of those sacred feasts. Accordingly, while they quieted their consciences, they imagined that they had abundance of all things, and that they were free from every inconvenience. Isaiah declares that they greatly resemble this “dream” and airy “vision;” for, when they have been aroused by a sudden calamity, they shall feel how empty and insubstantial those “dreams and visions” were, and how false and delusive was the opinion which they had formed that they enjoyed abundance. As “hungry men,” who have had such dreams, are rendered more feeble by them, so the people, who had been falsely persuaded that everything was going on well with them, will endure much greater uneasiness than if they had never cherished in their minds such a thought, but, on the contrary, had been aware of their poverty and nakedness.