Isaiah 26 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. We have a strong city - In opposition to the city of the enemy, which God hath destroyed, Isaiah 25:1-12 (note). See the note there.

Salvation - for walls and bulwarks - חומת וחל chomsoth vachel, walls and redoubts, or the walls and the ditch. חל chel properly signifies the ditch or trench without the wall; see Kimchi. The same rabbin says, This song refers to the time of salvation, i.e., the days of the Messiah.

Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. The righteous nation - The converted Gentiles shall have the gates opened - a full entrance into all the glories and privileges of the Gospel; being fellow heirs with the converted Jews. The Jewish peculiarity is destroyed, for the middle wall of partition is broken down.

The truth - The Gospel itself - as the fulfillment of all the ancient types, shadows, and ceremonies; and therefore termed the truth, in opposition to all those shadowy rites and ceremonies. "The law was given by Moses; but grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ; "Joh 1:17, and see the note there.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. In perfect peace - שלום שלום shalom, shalom, "peace, peace, "i.e., peace upon peace - all kinds of prosperity - happiness in this world and in the world to come.

Because he trusteth in thee "Because they have trusted in thee" - So the Chaldee, בטחו betacho. The Syriac and Vulgate read בטוח batachnu, "we have trusted. "Schroeder, Gram. Hebrews p. 360, explains the present reading בטוח batuach, impersonally, confisum est.

Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: In the Lord Jehovah "In Jehovah" - In Jah Jehovah, Heb.; but see Houbigant, and the note on Isaiah 12:2 (note).

Everlasting strength - צור עולמים tsur olamim, "the rock of ages; "or, according to Rab. Maimon, - the eternal Fountain, Source, or Spring. Does not this refer to the lasting streams from the rock in the desert? And that rock was Christ. ge han hoped in the Lord fro the everlastinge worldis. - Old Ms. Bible.

For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.

Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. Have we waited for thee "We have placed our confidence in thy name" - The Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee read קוינו kavinu, without the pronoun annexed.

With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Have I desired thee - Forty-one MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's and many of De Rossi's, (nine ancient), and five editions read אויתיך invithicha. It is proper to note this; because the second י yod being omitted in the text, the Vulgate and many others have rendered it in the third person.

When thy judgments, etc. - It would be better to read, When thy judgments were in the earth, the inhabitants of the world have learned (למדו lamedu) righteousness. Men seldom seek God in prosperity; they are apt to rest in an earthly portion: but God in mercy embitters this by adversity; then there is a general cry after himself as our chief, solid, and only permanent good.

Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.

LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee "O Jehovah, in affliction we have sought thee" - So the Septuagint and two MSS. have פקדנוך pekadnucha, in the first person plural. And so perhaps it should be צקנו tsaknu, in the first person; but how the Septuagint read this word is not clear; and this last member of the verse is extremely obscure.

For למו lamo, "on them," the Septuagint read לנו lanu, "on us," in the first person likewise; a frequent mistake; see note on Isaiah 10:29.

Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.

We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. We have - brought forth wind - The learned Professor Michaelis explains this image in the following manner: "Rariorem morbum describi, empneumatosin, aut ventosam molam, dictum; quo quae laborant diu et sibi et peritis medicis gravidae videntur,tandemque post omnes verae graviditatis molestias et labored ventum ex utero emittunt: quem morbum passim describunt medici. "Syntagma Comment., vol. ii., p. 165. The empneumatosis, or windy inflation of the womb, is a disorder to which females are liable. Some have had this in such wise, for a long time together, that they have appeared to themselves, and even to very skillful medical men, to be pregnant; and after having endured much pain, and even the throes of apparent childbearing, they have been eased and restored to health by the emission of a great quantity of wind from the uterus. This disorder is well known to medical men. "The Syriac translator seems to have understood it in this manner: Enixi sumus, ut illae quae ventos pariunt. "We have brought forth as they who bring forth wind."

In the earth "In the land" - בארץ bearets; so a MS., the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. My dead body "My deceased" - All the ancient Versions render it in the plural; they read נבלותי niblothai, my dead bodies. The Syriac and Chaldee read נבלותיהם niblotheyhem, their dead bodies. No MS. yet found confirms this reading.

The dew of herbs "The dew of the dawn" - Lucis, according to the Vulgate; so also the Syriac and Chaldee.

The deliverance of the people of God from a state of the lowest depression is explained by images plainly taken from the resurrection of the dead. In the same manner the Prophet Ezekiel represents the restoration of the Jewish nation from a state of utter dissolution by the restoring of the dry bones to life, exhibited to him in a vision, chap. 37, which is directly thus applied and explained, Ezekiel 37:11-13. And this deliverance is expressed with a manifest opposition to what is here said above, Ezekiel 37:14, of the great lords and tyrants, under whom they had groaned: -

"They are dead, they shall not live;

They are deceased tyrants, they shall not rise:"

that they should be destroyed utterly, and should never be restored to their former power and glory. It appears from hence, that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was at that time a popular and common doctrine; for an image which is assumed in order to express or represent any thing in the way of allegory or metaphor, whether poetical or prophetical, must be an image commonly known and understood; otherwise it will not answer the purpose for which it is assumed. - L.

Kimchi refers these words to the days of the Messiah, and says, "Then many of the saints shall rise from the dead. "And quotes Daniel 12:2. Do not these words speak of the resurrection of our blessed Lord; and of that resurrection of the bodies of men, which shall be the consequence of his body being raised from the dead?

Thy dead men shall live, - with my dead body shall they arise - This seems very express.

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. Comes my people, enter thou into thy chambers - An exhortation to patience and resignation under oppression, with a confident expectation of deliverance by the power of God manifestly to be exerted in the destruction of the oppressor. It seems to be an allusion to the command of Moses to the Israelites, when the destroying angel was to go through the land of Egypt, "not to go out at the door of their houses until the morning;" Exodus 12:22. And before the passage of the Red Sea: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah. Jehovah shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace, "Exo 14:13, Exodus 14:14.

For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. The earth also shall disclose her blood - Crimes of cruelty and oppression, which have passed away from the eyes of men, God will bring into judgment, and exact punishment for them. O what a reckoning will the kingdoms of the earth have with God, for the torrents of blood which they have shed for the gratification of the lust of power and ambition! Who shall live when he doeth this?

Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke [1831].