Ver. 8. It shall be even as when a hungry man dream-
eth, and, behold, he eateth, &c.] That is, he dreams
of food, and imagines it before him, and that he is
really eating it: but he awakes, and his soul is empty;
his stomach is empty when he awakes, and he finds
he has not ate any thing at all: or as when a thirsty
man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh : who fancies
that he has got a cup of liquor in' his hand, and at
his mouth,. and is drinking it with agreat deal of eager-
ness and pleasure: but he awaketh, and, behold, he is
faint, and his soul hath appetite; when he awakes, he
is not at all refreshed with his imaginary drinking, but
still desires liquor to revive his fainting spirits, and ex-
tinguish his thirst: so shall the multitude of all the na-
tions be that fight against Mount Zion; either shall
quickly perish; or, having raised their expectations,
and pleased themselves with the booty they should
obtain, of which they thought themselves sure, shall
find themselves mistaken, and all like an illusive dream.
Some interpret this of the disappointment of Sen-
nachefib's army; and others of the insatiable cru-
elty ú of the Chatdeans; but rather, if the above sense
pleases.not, it would be better to understand it
of the Jews, who, amidst their greatest danger, flat-
tered themselves with the hope of deliverance, which
was all a dream and an illusion; and to which sense the
following words seem to incline.
Ver. 9. Stay yourselves, a.nd wonder, &c.] Stop a
while, pause a little, consider within yourselves the
case and circumstances of these people, and wonder
at their stupidity. Kimchi .thinks these words were
spoken in the times of Ahaz, with .respect to the men
of Judah; and so Aben Ezra says, they are directed to
the men -of Zion; and it is generally thought that they
are spoken to the more religious and sober part of
t. hem ; though, by the following verse, it appears that
the case was general, and that the people to whom this
address is made were as stupid as others: cry ye out,
and cry;or, delight yourselves{s}, as in the margin;
take your pleasure, indulge yourselves in carnal mirth,
gratify your sensual appetite in riotingand wantonness,
and then cry and lament, as you will have reason to
do. Kimchi says, his father rendered the words,
awake yourselves, and awake~others ; that is, from that
deep sleep they were fallen into,-afterwards men-
tioned: they are drunken, but not with wine; not with
that only, for otherwise many of them were given to
drunkenness inn literal sense, oh. xxviii. 7. but they
were like drunken men, as stupid, senseless, and secure,
though in the utmost danger: they stagger, but not
with strong drink; unsteady in their counsels and reso-
lutions, in their principles and practices, and stumble
in their goings.
Ver. 10. For the Lord hath poured out upon you a
spirit of deep sleep, &c.] Gave them up to a stupid
frame of spirit; to a reprobate mind, a mind void of
judgment and sense; to judicial .blindness and hardness
of heart: this was remarkably fulfilled in the Jews, in
the times of Christ and his apostles, who choosing
darkness rather than the light of the Gospel, which
shone around them, were righteously given up to such
a temper of mind; and to nothing else can be imputed
their obstinate rejection of the Messiah, against the
most glaring light and evidence. The A pestle Paul
produces this passage, in proof of that blindness that
had happened unto them in his time, Rein. xi. 7, 8:
and hath closed your eyes; that is, the eyes of their
understandings, so that they could not see the charac-
ters of the Messiah, and the fulfilment of prophecies
in Jesus of Nazareth; nor the danger they were in,
nor the ruin that was coming upon their nation, nor
even when it was come, still flattering themselves with
safety and deliverance: the prophets and your rulers,
the seers hath he covered; the eyes of them, as be-
fore-; not only the common people were blinded,
but even-the Scribes and Pharisees, the elders of
the people, their ecclesiastical rulers, who pre-
tended to be seers, and to know more than others;
even for judgment, for the judicial blindness and hard-
ness of these Christ came, that the!! which see might be
made blind, John ix. 39. The words may be ren-
dered, your heads, the seers, hath he coveredt; and there
may be an allusion to the covering of the head with a
veil, an emblem of that veil of ignorance and infidelity
which still remains upon the Jews. The Targum ren-
ders it," the prophets, and the Scribes, and the
"teachers that teach the law."
Ver. 11. And the vision of all is become unto you as
the words era book that is sealed, &c.] The prophecies
of all the prophets contained in the Scriptures; or all
the prophecies in the book of Isaiah, concerning the
Messiah, were no more seen, known, and understood,
both by the priests and the people, than if they
had been in a book, written, rolled up, and sealed.
And this was owing, not to the obscurity of these
writings, or because they were really sealed up, but
to the blindness and stupidity of the people, whose eyes
were closed, and their heads covered; and the pro-
phecies of the Scriptures were only so to them, unto
you, not unto others; not to the apostles of Christ,
whose understandings were opened by him, to under-
stand the things written concerning him, in the law,
in the prophets, and in the psalms; but the Jewish
rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, as well as the common
people, understood them not, thongh they were the
means of fulfilling many of them; and they were as
ignorantof the prophecies concerning theirown ruin
and destruction, for their rejection of Christ; see Luke
xxiv. 0.7, 44, 45. Acts iii. 17, 18. and xiii. 27: which
men deliver to one that is learned; or, that knows the
book {u}; or letters, as the Septuagint; see John vii. 15.
such were the Scribes, called \~grammateiv\~, or letter. men,
men that could read well, and understood language:
saying, read this, I pray thee; or read this now, as the
Targum, and interpret it, and tell the meaning of it:
and he saith, I cannot, .for it is sealed; which Kimchi
says was an excuse invented, because he had no mind
to read it, or otherwise he could have said, open, and
I'll read it; or he might have broke off the seal;
but knowing there were difficult things, and things

{s} \^wevetvh\^ oblectate vos, Cocceius; delicias agunt, Junius &
Tremellius; deliciatur, Piscator.
{t} \^Mkyvarw\^ & capita vestra, videntes, operiut, Montanus. So
Cocceius.
{u} \^rpoh edwy\^ scienti librum, Montanus; , Sept.;
scienti literas, V. L. Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.