Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_003.TXT

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which Isaiah saw in the reign of four kings, as is after
affirmed; and so is no other than in general %the pro-
phecy of Isaiah%, as the Targum renders it; called a
%vision%, because it was delivered to him, at least the
greatest part of it, in a vision; and because he had a
clear perception of the things he prophesied of, as well
as delivered them in a clear and perspicuous manner to
others: hence the Jews say {m}, that Moses and Isaiah
excelled the other prophets, seeing they understood
what they prophesied of. The name of Isaiah, the
penman of this book, signifies either %the Lord shall
save%, according to Hilleras {n}; or %the salvation of the
Lord%, as Abarbinel, Jerom, and others; and is very
suitable to the message he was sent with to the people
of God; to acquaint them that the Lord had provided
a Saviour for them, and that he would come and save
them. He is said to be %the son of Amoz%; not of Amos
the prophet; the names differ; the name of the pro-
phet that stands among the twelve lesser prophets is
\^owme\^, %Amos%; the name of Isaiah's parent is \^Uwma\^, %Amoz%.
It is a tradition with the Jews {o}, that Amoz, the father
of Isaiah, was brother to Amaziah, king of Judah, so
that Isaiah was of the royal family. Abarbinei endea-
vours to confirm it from that greatness of mind, free-
dom and boldness, he used in reproofs, and from his po-
lite and courtly way of speaking; and this is mentioned
by Aben Ezra as a reason why the Jews did not hurt
him, as they did Jeremiah: but this tradition is not
equally regarded by the Jewish writers; and though
Kimchi takes notice of it, yet he says the genealogy of
Isaiah is not known, nor of what tribe he was. If he
was of the seed-royal, this is an instance of God's call-
ing some that are noble, not only by his grace, but to
office in his church; and it is with a view to this tra-
dition, no doubt, that Jerom {p} calls him %vir nobilis%, a
%nobleman%. It is also a rule with the Jews {q}, that
where the name of a prophet's father is mentioned, it
is a sign that his father was a prophet; and so they
say this Amoz was, though the king's brother; and
that he is the same with the man of God that came to
Amaziah {r}, \\#2Ch 25:7\\ but Aben Ezra suggests,
that this rule does not always hold good. \*\\Which he
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem\\; that is, chiefly
and principally; for though Ephraim, or the ten tribes
of Israel, are mentioned, yet very rarely; and though
there are prophecies concerning other nations in it,
yet these relate to the deliverance of the Jews from
them, or to God's vengeance on them for their sake.
Judah is put for the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin,
and is particularly mentioned, because the Messiah,
so much spoken of in this book, was to spring from
thence, whose title is the Lion of the tribe of Judah;
and though Jerusalem was in it, yet that is also parti-
cularly taken notice of, because not only the temple,
the place of divine worship, was in it, and it was the
metropolis of the land; but because the Messiah, when
he came, was often to appear here, and from thence
the Gospel was to go forth into all the world; and
this was a figure of the Gospel church state to the end
of the world, which often bears this name: and many
things are said in this prophecy not only concerning
the coming of Christ, but of the Gospel dispensation,
and of various things that should come to pass in it;
concerning the glory of the church in the latter day,
the calling of the Gentiles, the conversion of the Jews,
the destruction of antichrist, and the new heavens and
new earth. \*\\In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and]
Hezekiah, kings of Judah\\: if Isaiah began to prophesy
in the first year of Uzziah's reign, as Kimchi and
Abarbinel think, relying pretty much on \\#2Ch 26:22\\
and lived out the reign of Hezekiah, as he
must, if he was put to death by Manasseh, according
to the tradition of the Jews, he must prophesy a hun-
dred and twelve or thirteen years; for Uzziah reigned
fifty two years, Jotham sixteen, Ahaz sixteen, and
Hezekiah twenty nine; but as this seems to begin his
prophecy too soon, since so small a part of it was in or
concerns Uzziah's reign; so it seems too late to fix the
date of his prophecy from the year that King Uzziah
died, widen he had the vision in \\#Isa 6:1-13\\ and desired to
be sent of the Lord; which is the opinion of Jarchi,
Aben Ezra, and others; but Dr. Lightfoot's opinion is
more probable, who places the beginning of his pro-
phecy in the twenty third year of Uzziah; though per-
haps it may be sufficient to allow him only ten years
of Uzziah's reign: and as he lived through the two
reigns of Jotham and Ahaz, so it is certain that he
lived through more than half of the reign of Hezekiah;
his whole reign was twenty nine years; and therefore
it was when he had reigned fourteen years that he was
taken sick, and then fifteen years more were added to
his days; and the year after this came the messengers
from Babylon to congratulate him on his recovery; all
which Isaiah gives an account of \\#Isa 38:1 - 39:8\\
but how long he lived and prophesied after
this cannot be said: had his days been prolonged to
the times of Manasseh, it would have been written,
as Aben Ezra observes, and who pays but little re-
gard to the tradition of the Jews concerning Isaiah's
being put to death by Manasseh; if the thing, says he,
is %cabala%, a tradition, it is truth; but he seems to
call in question its reality; however, it is not to be de-
pended on.
\*Ver. 2. \\Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth\\,
&c.] To what the Lord was about to say of his con-
troversy with his people, which was to be managed
openly and publicly before them as spectators and
witnesses; this designs either strictly and properly the
heavens and the earth, or figuratively the inhabitants
of them, angels and men. The address is solemn,
and denotes something of moment and importance to
be done and attended to: see \\#De 32:1\\. The Tar-
gum is, \*"hear, O ye heavens, that were moved when
"I gave my law to my people; and hearken, O earth,
"that trembleth before my word."\* KILL \*\\For the Lord
hath spoken\\: not only by Moses, and the, prophets
that were before Isaiah, but he had spoken to him
the words he was now about to deliver; for they were
not his own words, but the Lord's: he spoke by the
inspiration of God, and as moved by the Holy Ghost;

{m} R. Eleazar in Yalkut, pars 2. fol. 118. 2.
{n} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 319.
{o} T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 10. 2. & Sota, fol. 10. 2. & Seder Olam
    Zuta, p. 104. Juchasin, fol. 12. 1. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol.
    11. 2.
{p} Ad Paulam, fol. 8. M. tom. 3.
{q} T. Bah. Megilla, fol. 15. 1.
{r} Kimchi in 2 Chron. xxv. 7.