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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Isaiah 30:1 - 30:14
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The Alliance with Egypt and the Rebellious People
v. 1. Woe to the rebellious children, stubborn, obstinate, refractory people, saith the Lord, that take counsel, making plans of their own, but not of Me, without consulting Him, and that cover with a covering, weave an alliance, form a league, but not of My Spirit, not suggested or commanded by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Lord's messengers, that they may add sin to sin! The alliance of Judah with Egypt was not only undertaken without the consent of the Lord, but was connected with idolatrous acts.
v. 2. That walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at My mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, making the king of Egypt their refuge, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! They sought protection from a heathen ruler, whereas, Jehovah, the true God, lived in their midst.
v. 3. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, they would be disappointed and disgraced when he and the desired refuge would fail them, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion, for the help and protection which they expected would not be forthcoming.
v. 4. For his princes, the ambassadors sent by Judah, were at Zoan, having arrived there to confer with Pharaoh, and his ambassadors came to Hanes, these two cities being the royal seats of Egypt at that time.
v. 5. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, that is, disgrace would strike the people of Judah for taking this course in seeking help from Egypt, which could be of no real benefit to them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame and also a reproach. That would be the result, the well-merited punishment which would come upon Judah for forsaking the trust in Jehovah alone. The prophet here interrupts has testimony of warning in order to insert an oracle directed against Egypt.
v. 6. The burden of the beasts of the South, of the hippopotamus, as the emblem of Egypt. Into the land of trouble and anguish, through the desert between Palestine and Egypt, with its many disagreeable and dangerous features, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, these animals representing some of the great dangers of the wilderness, they, the ambassadors of Judah, will carry their riches, the treasures with which they intend to buy Egypt's help, upon the shoulders of young asses and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, upon their humps, their strongest pack-animals being pressed into service for this purpose, to a people that shall not profit them, who would leave them in the lurch at the very time when they would need assistance most.
v. 7. For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose, their help will be vapor and emptiness, an unusually strong expression to designate the helplessness of Egypt; therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. That was the Lord's name for Egypt: Boastfulness that sits still, unable to be of service, in spite of all its arrogant promises. In connection with this divine oracle the prophet now receives his special commission,
v. 8. Now go, write it before them in a table, a writing-tablet, such as was in general use in those days, and note it in a book, entering the complete prophecy on a parchment roll for a permanent record, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever, to the most remote future,
v. 9. that this is a rebellious people, v. 1, lying children, unfaithful to Jehovah, with whom they had entered into a covenant as His children, children that will not hear the Law of the Lord, setting aside all His revealed instruction;
v. 10. which say to the seers, See not, in an attempt to hinder the servants of the Lord in their teaching of God's Word, and to the prophets, the teachers appointed by God, Prophesy not unto us right things; speak unto us smooth things, blandishments, flatteries, prophesy deceits, things that tickle the vanity of the people, since the latter have itching ears, 2Ti_4:3.
v. 11. Get you out of the way, namely, that prescribed by the command of God, turn aside out of the path, forsaking the Lord altogether, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us, for they wanted to hear no more of His holiness, that attribute being the one which sinners dread most. So the people not only rejected the Lord themselves, but demanded that His true servants join them in their apostasy.
v. 12. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, that same God against whom they were rebelling, Because ye despise this word, regarding His warning with the deepest aversion, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon, for they placed their trust in acts of violence, by means of which they exacted the money needed to purchase the aid of Egypt,
v. 13. therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, the bulging out of the wall indicating that it was about to topple over, whose breaking cometh suddenly, at an instant. Thus the ruin of Judah would overtake the nation with great suddenness because of their idolatrous alliance with Egypt.
v. 14. And He, Jehovah, in His judgment upon the apostate nation, shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces, intentionally smashed into fragments; He shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, a fragment of the broken vessel large enough to serve for this purpose, or to take water withal out of the pit, to be used for drawing water from a cistern. The Lord's threat contemplates an utter overthrow of the disobedient nation. It is ever thus: If the Lord's warnings are not heeded, He sends His punishments with great severity.