Calvin John Calvin's Commentaries On Isaiah 17- 32

1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-3-8496-2067-7
Verlag: Jazzybee Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 546 Seiten

Calvin produced commentaries on most of the books of the Bible. His commentaries cover the larger part of the Old Testament, and all of the new excepting Second and Third John and the Apocalypse. His commentaries and lectures stand in the front rank of Biblical interpretation. All who take delight in the Holy Scriptures are familiarly acquainted with the writings of The Prophet Isaiah. Every variety of taste finds in them its appropriate gratification. Lofty conceptions, illustrated by splendid imagery, and clothed in language usually copious and flowing, some times abrupt, but always graceful, leave no room for hesitation to pronounce him, with Bishop Lowth, to be 'the most sublime and elegant of the Prophets of the Old Testament.' He is regarded with peculiar veneration as an honest, fearless, and able messenger of the Most High God, boldly reproving nobles and monarchs, denouncing the judgments of Heaven against all transgressors, and asserting the claims of the Divine law and government above all human authority. In his Prophecies he takes a wide range, surveys those nations which power or wealth or learning or commerce had raised to the highest celebrity in those remote times, and describes their rise and fall, and wonderful revolutions, so eagerly traced lay us in the page of history, as the execution of Jehovah's counsels, and the arrangements of unerring wisdom But chiefly does he pour out rich instruction concerning the Messiah, whose life and sufferings, and death and glorious reign, he delineates so faithfully, and with such thrilling interest, that he has obtained the appellation of 'The Evangelical Prophet.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Calvin, John

Weitere Mitwirkende

King, John

Leseproben

CHAPTER 18

Isaiah Chapter 18  

1. Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:                1. Heus terra inumbrans alis, quae est trans flumina Aethiopiae.           

2. That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the water, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!     2. Mittens per mare legatos, in vasis junceis super aquas. Ite nuntiiceleres ad gentem distractam et expilatam, ad populum formidabilem ab eoet deinceps, gentem undique conculcatam, cujus terram fluminadiripuerunt.           

3. All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. 3. Omnes habitatores orbis, et incolae terrae, cum signum sustulerit inmontibus, videbitis; cum tuba clanxerit, audietis.               

4. For so the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling-place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.         4. Porro sic mihi dixit Iehova, Quiescam, et videbo in tabernaculo meo,sicut calor siccans pluviam, et sicut nubes roscida in calore messis.    

5. For afore the harvest, when the bud is pergect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.  5. Quia dum adfuerit messis, perfectum erit germen, et ex flore fructuserit maturescens; tum amputabit ipsos palmites falcibus, et propagines auferendo exscindet.  

6. They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beast of the earth shall winter upon them.               6. Derelinquentur pariter volatili montium et animalibus terrae. AEstivabit super illud volatile, et omnia animalia terrae hyemabunt.            

7. In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.        7. Tempore illo adducetur Iehovae exercituum munus, populus laceratuset expilatus, et de populo terribili, ex quo esse coepit et deinceps; gente undique conculcata, cujus terram flumina diripuerunt, ad locum nominis Iehovae exercituum, ad montem Sion.               

1. Woe to the land. I cannot determine with certainty what is the nation of which Isaiah speaks, though he shews plainly that it bordered on Ethiopia. Some consider it to refer to the whole of Egypt; but this is a mistake, for in the next chapter he treats of Egypt separately, from which it is evident that the people here meant were distinct from the Egyptians. Some think that the Troglodytes are here meant, which does not appear to me to be probable, for they had no intercourse with other nations, because their language, as geographers tell us, was hissing and not speech; F269 but those who are mentioned evidently had intercourse and leagues with other nations.

Still it is uncertain whether they leagued against the Jews or joined with the Egyptians in driving out the Assyrians. If they were avowed enemies to the Jews, Isaiah threatens punishment; but if they deceived them by false promises, he shews that nothing is to be expected from them, because by idle messages they will only protract the time. However that may be, from the neighboring nations to be mentioned in the next chapter, we may in part ascertain where they were situated, that is, not far from Egypt and Ethiopia: yet some may be disposed to view it as a description of that part of Ethiopia which lay on the sea-coast; for we shall afterwards see that the Assyrians were at war with the king of the Ethiopians. (Isaiah 37:9.)

When he says that that land shadows with wings, we learn from it that its sea was well supplied with harbours, so that it had many vessels sailing to it and was wealthy; for small and poor states could not maintain intercourse or traffic with foreign countries. He therefore means that they performed many voyages.

2. Sending ambassadors by the sea. This relates strictly to the state of those times. It would appear that this nation solicited the Egyptians or Syrians to harass the Jews, or that the Assyrians employed them for the purpose of harassing the Jews, or that they had formed an alliance with the Egyptians, in order that, by their united force, they might prevent the power of the Assyrians from increasing beyond bounds; for nothing more than conjectures can be offered, because we have no histories that give any account of it, and where historical evidence is wanting, we must resort to probable conjectures. These voyages, there is reason to believe, were not made to any place near at hand, but to a distant country.

In ships of reeds. F270 We ought not to think it strange that he calls them ships of reeds, for it is evident from the ancient histories that these were commonly used by the Egyptians, because the channel of the Nile is in some places very steep and dangerous to navigators on account of the cataracts, which the Greeks call Kata>doupa, so that ships of wood cannot be used at those places without being broken and dashed to pieces on the rocks; and therefore it is necessary to employ ships of pliant materials. That the ships might not admit water and thus be sunk, historians tell us that they were daubed within with pitch.

Go, ye swift messengers. This passage is obscure, but I shall follow what I consider to be probable. The Prophet shews the design of his prediction, or the reason why he foretold the destruction of that nation. If we believe them to have been the avowed enemies of the Jews, the design was to afford some consolation to believers who were wretchedly broken up and scattered, that having received this message they might rejoice and give thanks to God. But if we rather think that the Jews were led by this nation into an unlawful league, we must then consider that this exhortation is ironical, and that the Prophet intended to reprove the folly of the chosen people, in forsaking God and relying on useless aid. Some think that these words were spoken by God, as if he commanded those nations who inhabited the sea-coast to destroy the Jews; but I am not at all of that opinion.

To a nation scattered and plundered. F271 I do not agree with those who think that these words describe the destruction of that unknown and obscure nation; for by "a plundered nation" he means the Jews who were to be grievously harassed and scattered, so that no part of them escaped injury.

To a people terrible from their beginning hitherto. He calls it terrible, because so great calamities would disfigure it in such a manner that all who beheld it would be struck with terror. I cannot approve of the exposition given by some, that this relates to the signs and miracles which the Lord performed amongst them, so as to render them an object of dread to all men; for the allusion is rather to that passage in the writings of Moses, "The Lord will make thee an astonishment and a terror." Deuteronomy 28:37 In like manner it is said elsewhere, "for the shaking of the head and mockery." (Jeremiah 18:16; 19:8; 25:9, 13, 18.) He therefore means that they are a nation so dreadful to behold as to fill all men with astonishment, and we know that this was foretold and that it also happened to the Jews.

A nation trodden down on every side. F272 wq wq, (kav-kav,) that is, on every side, as if one drew lines and joined them so closely that no space was left between them, or as if one drew furrows in a field so as...