CHAP. V. Verse 1. I am come into my garden, &c.] The bridegroom here returns an answer to the invitation of the bride in the latter part of the foregoing chapter; and testifies his acceptance by coming to taste and feast upon the fruit of his garden; and, after the manner of those countries, he calls his friends to be partakers of it with him. His receiving fruit from the garden is expressed by these words," I have gathered my myrrh," &c. Then follows the feast, (which they always made when they gathered the fruits of the earth,) in these words; "I have eaten my honeycomb, &c." Pro 11. His head is as the most fine gold,] bably a metaphorical expression to denote great excellence and beauty. 15.-his countenance is as Lebanon,] Of the two celebrated mountains in Judea, Lebanon and Carmel, the former was celebrated for its height, ruggedness, and the abundance of its vast and towering cedars; the latter for its richness and fertility, abounding with vineyards, olive grounds, and corn fields. Hence the former is here employed to express masculine dignity, as the latter is (chap. vii. 6) to convey an idea of female beauty. ་ CHAP, VI. Verse 4. Thou art beautiful,-as Tirzak,] Tirzah was a beautiful situation in the tribe of Judah, chosen by Jeroboam for the seat of his kingdom. The name implies" a delightful city." terrible as an army with banners. Or," daz. zling as bannered hosts." The word translated "terrible," properly signifies "amazing," exciting awe and consternation. 8. There are threescore queens, &c.] It is probable that Solomon here alludes generally to the custom of other princes in the East, who, besides their principal wives that were solemnly espoused and endowed, had also others who were called concubines. The terms "threescore" and fourscore" are probably used for an uncertain number. 12. Or ever I was aware, &c.] Or rather, I did not know it;" that is, the commendations thou hast been pleased to give me, are greater than I could expect, and stir up my soul to aim at the highest perfection, and to make all the haste I can to attain them. It is supposed that Ammi-nadib was some great captain, who industriously pursued his victories or advantages with very swift chariots. CHAP. VII. Verse 1. the joints &c.] Or," the whole proportion," or "" model." The expression here seems to refer to the clothing which the bride wore; which agrees with the words which follow, "the work of the hands of a cunning workman.” 4.-thine eyes like the fish pools &c.] "Thine eyes are clear and serene as the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim; thy nose is finely formed as the tower of Lebanon" &c. 5.-the King is held in the galleries.] The king, seeing thee, is detained in the galleries of his palace to contemplate thy beauty. 9. And the roof of thy mouth] The word literally signifies" thy palate," which is here figura tively put for" thy speech," which issues thence. t CHAP. VIII. Verse 6. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, &c.] That is, place me so that I may never slip out of thy memory or affection: this request I make out of fervent love, which is strong and irresistible as 'death, especially when heightened by jealousy, or a fear of losing the beloved object. 8. We have a little sister,] By this "little sister" may perhaps be figuratively denoted the then Gentile part of the Church which was but small. 11. Solomon had a vineyard &c.] The bride now promises her diligence, in this and the next verse, to do him the best service, and to make the greatest improvement she could, of the talents committed to her. For whereas Solomon, as she here says, let out his vineyard, which he bad in Baal-hamon near Jerusalem "unto keepers," each for a thousand pieces of silver, and every one of whom made two hundred pieces for his own profit, she implies that much greater would be the increase which she was likely to make by her own care and diligence. The opinion that the whole of this song is allegorical, is confirmed by the consent and authority both of the Jewish and Christian Churches, and by the analogy which it bears to other parts of Scripture, confessedly allegorical. But in tracing the allegorical sense through the several parts, great caution is required; and it is especially necessary that we should be extremely careful how we pursue the allegory too far into every particular expression. If this caution be not well observed, there is considerable risk of impairing the diguity of Holy Writ. D NOTES ON THE Book of the Prophet Isaiah. ISAIAH, who was the earliest of the four great Prophets, entered upon his prophetick office in the last year of Uzziah's reign, about 758 years before Christ. His Book contains predictions concerning the Jews and other neighbouring nations, and likewise several historical relations. It is observable, that of all the Prophets, Isaiah speaks the most clearly of Jesus Christ, of His birth, of His sufferings, of His kingdom, and of the calling of the Gentiles. Hence he has been emphatically called "The Evangelical Prophet." Indeed his prophecies concerning our Saviour and His kingdom are so minute and distinct, that they might seem to be descriptions of what had already taken place, rather than predictions of what was yet to come, were it not known that these prophecies were confessedly written many hundred years before Christ came into the world. The style of Isaiah is remarkably elevated, forcible, and magnificent; and his language, like that of most of the other Prophets, highly figurative and poetical, abounding, after the Eastern manner, in every kind of metaphorical embellishment. Perhaps no Book of the Old Testament, is more frequently referred to by our Saviour and His Apostles in the New, than the Prophecy of Isaiah. CHAP. I. Verse 1. The vision of Isaiah] That is, the prophecy, or revelation vouchsafed to him in visions by the Holy Spirit. This chapter contains a severe remonstrance against the corruptions prevailing among the Jews of that time; powerful exhortations to repentance; grievous threatenings to the impenitent; and gracious promises of better times, when the nation shall have been reformed by the just judgments of God. 2. Hear. O heavens,] God is introduced as entering upon a solemn pleading, before the whole world, against His disobedient people. 3. The ox knoweth his owner, &c.] The dullest and most stupid animals shew more sense and gratitude than God's people whom He has "nourished and brought up." See Jer. viii. 7. 5. Why should ye be stricken any more?] God complains that His judgments had no effect upon His people, and that nothing that He could do would bring them to consideration and make them better. the whole head is sick.] That is, the corruption is universal: there is not one it hath not reached. 6.-wounds, and bruises, &c.] Sins of every description; or perhaps grievous judgments and corrections in consequence of sin. 8.the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard.] That is, Jerusalem is left desolate, with scarce a house or inhabitant in it. An allusion is here made to the temporary huts erected in gardens as a shelter for the watchman who guarded the fruit. 10.-ye rulers of Sodom ;-ye people of Gomorrah.] The people of Jerusalem are here called by these names, as equaling those cities in wickedness. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices &c.] It is not a compliance with the externals only of religion that God requires; He expects inward purity, and righteous conduct. "To obey is better than sacrifice." 12.-who hath required this at your hand, &c.] Though God required all the Israelites to appear before Him at stated times, it was the appearance of those only who did justice, and obeyed the weightier matters of the law, that was acceptable to Him. 13.-I cannot away with;] I cannot endure. 21. How is the faithful city become an harlot!] That is, given up to wickedness, and especially to idolatry, which in Scripture is frequently considered as spiritual whoredom. See note at Exod. xxxiv. 16. 22. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:] These are probably proverbial expressions, to denote that their very best things and persons, were become vile and degenerate, 25.-and take away all thy tin:] Meaning their wickedness; what is complained of in ver. 23. 26.-thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness,] Shalt deserve the name of &c. The promise contained in the latter part of this verse, taken in its full extent, relates to more flourishing times of the Church than the world has yet seen. 29.--they shall be ashamed of the oaks &c.] Or rather, ye shall be ashamed of the oaks &c. that is, of the groves and gardens used as places of idolatrous worship. 30.as a garden that hath no water.] In the hotter parts of the Eastern countries, a constant supply of water is necessary for the cultivation and even to the existence of a garden, 131. And the strong shall we as tow, and the maker of it as a spark,] The reading in the margin of the Bible," and his work,"expresses the sense better, namely, that the idolaters and their devices shall perish together, however supported by worldly power and grandeur.-Or the passage may be understood thus: And that great idol, whereto ye trust, shall be as tow; and the maker and worshipper of it as a spark, and both of them shall burn together with unquenchable fire, CHAP. II. This and the two following chapters make one continued discourse, Verse 2.-in the last days,] "The last days" signify in the Prophets, the times of the Messiah, or the Gospel dispensation. The phrase by no means signifies the speedy end of the world; but only that, how long soever God shall suffer it to endure, He hath no further dispensation to offer; but hath fixed the Christian for that doctrine and service, by which mankind are to express their obedience to Him, so long as the world lasts. the mountain of the Lord's house] From the situation of the Jewish temple on mount Moriah, sa mountain is made to stand for the Christian .Church of the exaltation of which, and its wonderful prosperity and enlargement, this passage is a prophetical promise. shall be exalted above, the hills;] So as to put down every other religion. The full accomplishment of this prophecy has not yet taken place. 3.-Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,] That is, Let us join ourselves to the Christian Church. The phrase alludes to the Jews going up in companies to Jerusalem at the three solemn feasts of the year. 4.-and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, &c.] The time of the Messiah is represented as a time of universal peace and godliness, in which the natures of men should be changed, and all malice rooted out. He Himself is called "the Prince of Peace." The spiritual sense implies Christ's being the great Peace-maker; who should reconcile both Jews and Gentiles to God, and to each other. But if we look upon this and the like prophecies, as foretelling the outward peacefulness of the kingdom or Church of Christ, they seem to relate to some future flourishing state of the Church, when man shall liye in perfect harmony with man, and wars shall cease through; out the world. 6. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people &c.] For this reason," because they be replenished from the East," &c. that is, from Chaldea and Syria, which were famous for pretenders to soothsaying and divination, things forbidden to the Israelites. Deut. xviii. 10-14. They were also forbidden to have recourse to horses and chariots, or to multiply silver and gold. Deut. xvii, 16, 17, The intent of which law, probably was to induce the people to look to God only for succour, and not to trust in their own strength. 9.-therefore forgive them not.] This is only another way of saying, Thou wilt not forgive them. 10. Enter into the rock, &c.] A spirited mode of insinuating the greatness of the impending vengeance. The remainder of the chapter is a prediction of some general judgment, ending in the utter destruction of the Jewish government. Such was that of the captivity: many of the expressions, however, are such as relate to the last judgment. 13-cedars of Lebanon,] Trees, in prophetick writings, signify, byway of metaphor and allegory, great men. And cedars, oaks, mountain, hills, towers, walls, ships, and pictures, are here figurative expressions for persons of rank and opulence. 16.-ships of Tarshish,] Persons who have enriched themselves by commerce. 22. Cease ye from man, From trusting in him; but place your reliance on God. 7.I will not be an healer;] The expression seems to apply to repairing what is destroyed in a kingdom or state. in my house is neither bread nor clothing:] He alleges that he has not wherewithal to support the dignity of the station. . 10. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: &c.] Thus do the Scriptures represent to us the different condition of good and bad men, which is often true in this world; and, however that happen, will most certainly and remarkably be made good in the next. 15.-grind the faces of the poor?] A strong expression to denote grievous oppression. 16.-Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, &c.] This verse describes the vain fashions to which the Jewish women were addicted in their dress and carriage. 24.-burning instead of beauty.] That is, they shall be sun-burnt from their being forced in captivity to labour in the open air and sun, which will destroy their beauty. 26.-and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.]" She," meaning Jerusalem. Sitting on the ground was a posture that denoted the deepest mourning and lamentation, see chap. xlvii. 1. CHAP. IV. Verse 1.-seven women shall take hold of one man,] The meaning is, The numbers slain in battle shall be so great, that seven women shall be left to one man. 2. In that day] This phrase often denotes, not the same time which was last mentioned, but an extraordinary season, remarkable for some signal events of Providence, called elsewhere by way of excellence," the day of the Lord." the branch of the Lord] That is, Christ or His Church. The branch" is an appropriated title of the Messiah; and “the fruit of the earth” means the same great Personage to spring from the land of Judah; or perhaps the blessings consequent upon the redemption procured by Him. 4.-by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.] The phrase denotes the severe discrimination which God will make between the good and the bad, the pure silver and the dross (see chap. i. 22, 25;) the better being purified, the worse consumed, in the furnace. an 5.-a cloud and smoke by day, &c.] This is allusion to the pillar of a cloud, and of fire, which attended the Jews in their passage out of Egypt; and to the glory that rested on the tabernacle. Both passages mean, The visible presence of God shall protect the Church. CHAP. V. This chapter is unconnected with what preceded or follows. The subject of it is a general reproof of the Jews for their wickedness. Verse 1. Now will I sing to my wellbeloved] The prophet here speaking in the person of God the Father, directs this hyma, or parable poetically expressed to His "wellbeloved," that is, Christ. 3.-0 inhabitants of Jerusalem,-judge, 1 pray you, &c.] Here the style of the parable is altered from the third person (ver. 2.) to the first: a variation very common in Scripture; and the sense is the same, whether the words are spoken by God, or by Christ, who is "one with the Father.' 7.- -α cry.] Of those who were oppressed. 8. Woe unto them that join house to house, &c.] From hence to the twenty-fifth verse, sundry vices are enumerated, which, as they brought temporal judgments upon the Jews, so at the bar of Christ shall exclude from happiness, and consign all that are found guilty of them to the woes and punishments here denounced: namely, the covetous and unjust; the drunkard and voluptuary; all that wilfully neglect, or impiously despise, the knowledge of God, as well the slothful ignorant, as the proudly wise; all that perversely confound the distinctions of moral good and evil. 10.-the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.] "A bath" and "an ephah" are the same measure, being but the tenth of an homer, or about seven gallons and a half. The meaning therefore is that the scarcity shall be such, that the harvest shall not produce more than a tenth of what was sown. 12. And the harp, and the viol,—and wine, are in their feasts:] Wine, and musick, and delicate fare, are such things as God in His goodness hath 'given to the children of men for their comfort; and they may use them lawfully, and take comfort in them as their portion: but he that uses any of them intemperately, unseasonably, vainly, or wastefully, abuses both them and himself: therefore we often find in Scripture, both the things them'selves condemned, and those that use them blamed. 13. Therefore my people are gone into captivity,] That is, shall certainly go into captivity. The prophet speaks (as prophets often do) of things future as already come to pass. 14. hell hath enlarged herself,] A bold figurative expression: intimating a destruction so great, that hell (personified) would feel unable to hold the numbers, unless she were enlarged. 4 17. Then shall the lambs feed after their\manner, &c.] That is, gooil men, by the peculiar care of Providence, shall want nothing necessary for their support, while strangers devour the possessions LLL of them that are grown rich by oppression. Or, the first part of the verse may be taken literally, that the habitations of the proud shall become a pasture for flocks. 18. Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, &c.] Vengeance is here denounced against the insolent audacity of the wicked, who are active and industrious in running into evil, and who sin, as it were, with all their might. The expressions seem highly figurative: Iniquity and sin are represented as idols placed in a triumphal car, and the wicked drawing them along with decorated cords or traces, and defying God in the words of verse 19. 23. and take away the righteousness of the righteous] Treat him as a guilty person. 24.-so their root shall be as rottenness, &c.] So they shall be utterly destroyed; and shall be as a tree, whose root is rotten, and whose blossom flies away like dust, 26.he will lift up an ensign to the nations from fur,] That is, to the Assyrians and Babylonians, as a signal for them to come with their armies against Jerusalem. and will hiss unto them] That is, call, to collect them. 27.- neither shall the girdle of their loins he loosed,] The meaning is, they shall be always ready for action. The garments in those times were long and flowing, and when they were to move rapidly, required girding. 30.-they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea:] That is, these hostile armies shall come against the Jews with the fury of a tempes tuous sea. CHAP. VI. Verse 1.- saw-the Lord sitting upon a throne, &c.] In this vision the ideas are taken from Eastern royalty; the prophet could not represent the ineffable presence of God by any other than sensible and earthly images. The Lord, whom Isaiah saw upon His throne, St. John informs us, was Christ. John xii. 41. 3.Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts:] The Christian church hath always thought that the doctrine of the blessed Trinity is implied in this repetition of the word Holy. 5.-Woe is me! for I am undone;] I must certainly die, unless my life is preserved by God's special favour. See Exod. xxxiii. 20. 6.having a live coal in his hand, &c.] By which was signified the gift of utterance, represented by fiery tongues (Acts ii. 3.) and the efficacy of God's word in the mouth of the prophet. The use of fire likewise is to cleanse and purify : see verse 7. 9.-Hear ye indeed, but understand not; &c.] That is, ye shall indeed hear, but not understand," &c. So, in the next verse, forewarn them that I already see they will harden their hearts against thy preaching." The prophet speaks of the event as it would actually happen; not' of God's purpose and design. All the expressions here used signify no more, than that God, for the former provocations and impenitency of this people, did leave them to their own hardness and blindness, so that they did not desire to understand, and make use of the means of their recovery. Thus God often punishes great and notorious offenders, by permitting them to fall into temptations; which, meeting with a vicious disposition, are likely to be too hard for them, considering how by a long habit of wickedness, and wilful commission of sin, they have made themselves an easy prey to temptation, and have driven the Spirit of God from them, and deprived themselves of those aids and restraints of His grace, which He ordinarily affords, not only to good men, but likewise to those who are not very bad. This prophecy might relate in some measure to the state of the Jews before the Babylonish captivity; but it did not receive its full completion till the days of our Saviour. See Matt. xiii. 14, 15. 11. Until the cities be wasted &c.] All the particulars here set down have been exactly fulfilled. The Jews have laboured under a spiritual blindness and infatuation, in "hearing but not understanding," in " seeing but not perceiving" the Messiah, after the accomplishment of so many prophecies, and the perforinance of so many miracles. And in consequence of their refusing to " convert and be healed," " their cities have been wasted without inhabitant." They have been " removed far away" into the most distant parts of the earth; and they still continue deaf and blind, obstinate and unbelieving, oppressed by men, and forsaken by God. 13. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, &c.] The Hebrew may be translated thus, "But yet in it shall be" left " a tenth, after it is” (or although it is) again eaten and devoured", &c. implying, that, notwithstanding the repeated judg ,ments God should bring upon the Jews, still a remnant should be preserved; and the nation, as a tree, sprout out and flourish again from the old stock, CHAP. VII. The King being in the utmost consternation on receiving intelligence of the designs of Rezin and Pekah, Isaiah is sent to comfort him, by assuring him, that God would make good His promises to the house of David. This makes the subject of this, the following, and the beginning of the ninth chapter. |