aEach man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
And in the waste places of athe fat ones strangers shall eat.
That we may see it;
And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
That we may know it.”
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So btheir root will be as rottenness,
And their blossom will ascend like dust;
Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
He has stretched out His hand against them
And stricken them,
And bthe hills trembled.
Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.
cFor all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.
And will bwhistle to them from cthe end of the earth;
Surely dthey shall come with speed, swiftly.
No one will slumber or sleep;
Nor awill the belt on their loins be loosed,
Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;
And all their bows bent;
Their horses’ hooves will1 seem like flint,
And their wheels like a whirlwind.
They will roar like young lions;
Yes, they will roar
And lay hold of the prey;
They will carry it away safely,
And no one will deliver.
Like the roaring of the sea.
And if one alooks to the land,
Behold, darkness and1 sorrow;
And the light is darkened by the clouds.
| << Isaiah 5:16 | Isaiah 5:18 >> |
Isaiah 5:17
Then shall the lambs feed - This verse is very variously interpreted. Most of the Hebrew commentators have followed the Chaldee interpretation, and have regarded it as desired to console the pious part of the people with the assurance of protection in the general calamity. The Chaldee is, ' Then the just shall feed, as it is said, to them; and they shall be multiplied, and shall possess the property of the inpious.' By this interpretation, "lambs" are supposed, as is frequently the case in the Scriptures, to represent the people of God. But according to others, the probable design of the prophet is, to denote the state of utter desolation that was coming upon the nation. Its cities, towns, and palaces would be destroyed, so as to become a vast pasturage where the flocks would roam at pleasure.
After their manner - Hebrew, ' According to their word,' that is, under their own "command," or at pleasure. They would go where they pleased without being obstructed by fences.
And the waste places of the fat ones - Most of the ancient interpreters suppose, that the waste places of the fat ones here refer to the desolate habitations of the rich people; in the judgments that should come upon the nation, they would become vacant, and strangers would come in and possess them. This is the sense given by the Chaldee. The Syriac translates it, ' And foreigners shall devour the ruins which are yet to be restored.' If this is the sense, then it accords with the "first" interpretation suggested of the previous verse - that the pious should be fed, and that the proud should be desolate, and their property pass into the hands of strangers. By others (Gesenius, etc.), it is supposed to mean that strangers, or foreigners, would come in, and fatten their cattle in the desert places of the nation. The land would be so utterly waste, that they would come there to fatten their cattle in the rank and wild luxuriancy that would spontaneously spring up. This sense will suit the connection of the passage; but there is some difficulty in making it out from the Hebrew. The Hebrew which is rendered ' the waste places of the fat ones,' may, however, be translated ' the deserts that are rich - rank - luxuriant.' The word "stranger" denotes "foreigners;" or those who are not "permanent" dwellers in the land.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Isaiah 5:17:
Psalms 66:15
Isaiah 17:2
Isaiah 27:10
Isaiah 29:5
| << Isaiah 5:16 | Isaiah 5:18 >> |
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