Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_017.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-03 | 6KB | 121 lines

Moles were sacrificed to Neptune {w}. Kimchi refers
this text to the times of the Messiah; and some of their
ancient writers {x} apply it to the Messiah, and to his
arising and appearing in the land of Galilee.
\*Ver. 21. \\To go into the clifts of the rocks, and into
the tops of the ragged rocks\\, &c.] That is, the ido-
laters shall either go there themselves; or they shall
cause their idols to go there, thither they shall cast
them; though the former sense seems the best, because
of what follows, \*\\for fear of the Lord\\, &c.
\\See Gill on "Isa 2:1O"\\
\\See Gill on "Isa 2:19"\\.
\*Ver. 22. \\Cease ye from man, whose breath [is] in his
nostrils\\, &c.] %From that man% {y}, meaning antichrist,
the man of sin; who is but a mere man, a poor, frail,
mortal man; though he sits in the temple of God, as
if he was God, shewing himself to be God, by taking
that to himself which belongs to the Deity. This is
advice to the followers of antichrist, to cease from
going after him, and worshipping him, seeing he is
not the living God, but a dying man: \*\\for wherein is
he to be accounted of\\? The Targum is, \*"for he is
"alive today, and tomorrow he is not, and he is to
"be accounted as nothing;"\* and much less as Peter's
successor, as head of the church, and vicar of Christ,
and as having all power in heaven, earth, and hell.
It may be applied to men in general, in whom no con-
fidence is to be placed, even the greatest of men,
\\#Ps 118:8,9\\ and particularly the Egyptians, in
whom the Jews were apt to trust, who were men, and
not God; and whose horses were flesh, and not spi-
rit, \\#Isa 31:3\\ so Vitringa; but the first sense is
best.

\*Ver. 1. \\INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 3\\

\*In this chapter the Jews are threatened with various
calamities, on account of their sins, which would issue
in their entire ruin and destruction. They are threat-
ened with a famine, \\#Isa 3:1\\ with a removal of useful
men in church and state, and in common life, \\#Isa 3:2,3\\
with ignorant and effeminate governors; thd conse-
quences of which would be oppression and insolence,
\\#Isa 3:4,5\\ yea, that such would be their state and
condition, that men, though naturally ambitious of
honour, would refuse to have the government of them,
\\#Isa 3:6,7\\ the reasons of these calamities, and of this
ruin and fall of them, are their evil words and actions
against the Lord, which were highly provoking to
him; and their impudence in sinning like Sodom,
which was to their own hurt, \\#Isa 3:8,9\\ yet, in the
midst of all this, it is the will of God that the righte-
ous should be told it shall be well with them, with the
reason of it; when it shall be ill with the wicked, as
a just recompense of reward, \\#Isa 3:10,11\\ the errors
and mistakes of the people are attributed to their
childish and effeminate governors, \\#Isa 3:12\\ wherefore
the Lord determines to plead their cause, and contend
with their elders and rulers, because they had spoiled
and devoured the poor, \\#Isa 3:13,14,15\\ and particularly
the women are threatened, for their pride and luxury,
to have their ornaments taken from them, which are
particularly mentioned, \\#Isa 3:16-24\\
and the chapter is concluded with a prophecy,
that their mighty men should perish by the sword in
war, and the city should be desolate, \\#Isa 3:25,26\\.
\*Ver. 1. \\For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts\\, &c.]
These titles of Jehovah, expressive of power and au-
thority, are used to shew that he is able to execute
what he threatens to do; and the word %behold% is pre-
fixed, to excite attention to what is about to be said:
\*\\doth take away from Jerusalem, and from Judea\\; the
present tense is used for the future, because of the
certainty of what would be done to the Jews, both in
city and country; for as in the preceding chapter \\#Isa 2:1-22\\ it is
foretold what shall befall the antichristian party among
the nations of the world, this is a prophecy of the
destruction of the Jews by the Romans; at which
time there would be a dreadful famine, signified by
the taking away \*\\the stay and the staff, the whole stay
of bread, and the whole stay of water\\; bread and water
being the stay and staff of man's life, which support
and maintain it; and, in case of disobedience, a famine
was threatened this people very early, and in much
such terms as here, \\#Le 26:26\\ and as there was a
very sore famine at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebu-
chadnezzar, \\#Jer 52:6\\ so there was a very dreadful one
when the city was besieged by the Romans, as related
by Josephus, and predicted by Christ, \\#Mt 24:7\\.
\*Ver. 2. \\The mighty man ??, and man ??of war\\, &c.]
The meaning is either that these should die in war, as
thousands of them did; or that men fit to be generals
of armies should be removed by death before this time,
so that they should have none to go out with their
armies, and meet the enemy: \*\\the judge and the pro-
phet\\; there should be none to sit upon the bench, and
administer justice to the people in civil affairs, and to
determine causes relating to life and death; and none
to instruct them in religious matters, and deliver the
mind and will of God to them; and before this time
the Jews were under the Roman jurisdiction, and had
a Roman governor over them, and had not power to
judge in capital cases, in matters of life and death, as
they suggest, \\#Joh 18:31\\ and they say {z}, that forty
years before the destruction of the temple this power
was taken from them; and at the time that Jerusalem
was besieged, and taken by the Romans, and before
that, they had no prophets among them; for though
there were prophets in the Christian churches, yet
none among them; this shews that this prophecy cannot
be understood of the Babylonish captivity, because
there were prophets then, as Jeremy, Ezekiel, and
Daniel, but of Jerusalem's destruction by the Romans:
\*\\and the prudent and the ancient\\: with whom are wis-

{w} Phurnutus de Natura Deorum, p. 59.
{x} Zohar in Exod. fol. 3. 3. &. in Numb. fol. 99. 3.
{y} \^Mdah Nm\^.
{z} T. Bab. Sabbat, fol, 15. 1. Sanhedrin, fol. 41. 1. and
    Beracot, fol. 58. 1.