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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Isaiah 24:1 - 24:1
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It is thoroughly characteristic of Isaiah, that the commencement of this prophecy, like Isa 19:1, places us at once in the very midst of the catastrophe, and condenses the contents of the subsequent picture of judgment into a few rapid, vigorous, vivid, and comprehensive clauses (like Isa 15:1; Isa 17:1; Isa 23:1, cf., Isa 33:1). “Behold, Jehovah emptieth the earth, and layeth it waste, and marreth its form, and scattereth its inhabitants. And it happeneth, as to the people, so to the priest; as to the servant, so to his master; as to the maid, so to her mistress; as to the buyer, so to the seller; as to the lender, so to the borrower; as to the creditor, so to the debtor. Emptying the earth is emptied, and plundering is plundered: for Jehovah hat spoken this word.” The question, whether the prophet is speaking of a past of future judgment, which is one of importance to the interpretation of the whole, is answered by the fact that with Isaiah “hinnēh” (behold) always refers to something future (Isa 3:1; Isa 17:1; Isa 19:1; Isa 30:27, etc.). And it is only in his case, that we do meet with prophecies commencing so immediately with hinnēh. Those in Jeremiah which approach this the most nearly (viz., Jer 47:2; Jer 49:35, cf., Isa 51:1, and Eze 29:3) do indeed commence with hinnēh, but not without being preceded by an introductory formula. The opening “behold” corresponds to the confirmatory “for Jehovah hath spoken,” which is always employed by Isaiah at the close of statements with regard to the future and occurs chiefly,
(Note: Vid., Isa 1:20; Isa 21:17; Isa 22:25; Isa 25:8; Isa 40:5; Isa 58:14; also compare Isa 19:4; Isa 16:13, and Isa 37:22.)
though not exclusively,
(Note: Vid., Oba 1:18, Joe 3:8, Mic 4:4; 1Ki 14:11.)
in the book of Isaiah, whom we may recognise in the detailed description in Isa 24:2 (vid., Isa 2:12-16; Isa 3:2-3, Isa 3:18-23, as compared with Isa 9:13; also with the description of judgment in Isa 19:2-4, which closes in a similar manner). Thus at the very outset we meet with Isaiah's peculiarities; and Caspari is right in saying that no prophecy could possibly commence with more of the characteristics of Isaiah than the prophecy before us. The play upon words commences at the very outset. Bâkak and bâlak (compare the Arabic ballūka, a blank, naked desert) have the same ring, just as in Nah 2:11, cf., Isa 24:3, and Jer 51:2. The niphal futures are intentionally written like verbs Pe-Vâv (tibbōk and tibbōz, instead of tibbak and tibbaz), for the purpose of making them rhyme with the infinitive absolutes (cf., Isa 22:13). So, again, caggebirtâh is so written instead of cigbirtâh, to produce a greater resemblance to the opening syllable of the other words. The form נֹשֶׁה is interchanged with נֹשֶׁא) (as in 1Sa 22:2), or, according to Kimchi's way of writing it, with נֹשֵׁא) (written with tzere), just as in other passages we meet with נָשָׁא along with נָשָׁה, and, judging from Arab. ns', to postpone or credit, the former is the primary form. Nōsheh is the creditor, and בוֹ נֹשֵׁא אַשֶׁר is not the person who has borrowed of him, but, as נָשָה invariably signifies to credit (hiphil, to give credit), the person whom he credits (with ב obj., like בְּ נָגַשׂ in Isa 9:3), not “the person through whom he is נֹשֵׁא)” (Hitzig on Jer 15:10). Hence, “lender and borrower, creditor and debtor” (or taker of credit). It is a judgment which embraces all, without distinction of rank and condition; and it is a universal one, not merely throughout the whole of the land of Israel (as even Drechsler renders הָאָרֶץ), but in all the earth; for as Arndt correctly observes, האָרֶץ signifies “the earth” in this passage, including, as in Isa 11:4, the ethical New Testament idea of “the world” (kosmos).