Isaiah 33

Notes

Ver. 1, 3, 4. When God has punished the nations around by the Assyrians, all their ravage, oppression, and treachery shall be revenged on themselves. The destruction of their camp by the angel shall make the remainder to flee home with great precipitation; and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall, in multitudes, gather up the spoil. 5, 6. While God shall thus exalt himself in the destruction of his enemies and deliverance of his people, he will bless Jerusalem with true religion and righteousness: and by the abounding of real piety, and by the wise and prudent administration of government, shall the nation be preserved, and even rendered wealthy, during Hezekiah's reign? 7-9. The Jewish soldiers shall be quite dispirited and vexed: their ambassadors, sent to supplicate terms of peace, shall return weeping on account of their unsuccessfulness. None shall dare to travel the country. Sennacherib shall disregard his treaty with the Jews; he shall scorn their strength, and reject their entreaties for peace. The country, even the most fertile and populous places, shall be rendered utterly desolate. 10-12. But when all hopes of deliverance to the Jews seem gone, I will exert my almighty power. I will render all the Assyrians' plots fruitless; and their rage against my people shall be revenged in their own sudden and fearful destruction. 13, 14. All around them shall be alarmed; and even the hypocritical Jews terrified, lest like judgments, or damnation in hell, should seize on themselves. 15-24. The righteous, who labour to avoid every evil, however gainful or pleasant, shall be safely preserved and abundantly supplied. They shall behold Hezekiah in health, prosperity, and glory, and freely travel through the whole of Canaan. Nay, they shall, by faith, behold Jesus in his glory and the heavenly felicities. They shall, with solemn awe, wonder how suddenly the Assyrian army is destroyed or fled, and how safe Jerusalem is; and how marvellously the Lord has protected his people, answerably to his relations to them; and how, while the Assyrian army is irrecoverably shattered to pieces, and their spoil gathered by the feeble Jews, Hezekiah and his subjects are delivered from their sickness and distress, and have the tokens of the Lord's favour restored to them.—N.B. It is easy to apply the above explication to the deliverance from the Chaldeans, Syro-Grecians, Romans, or Antichristians.

Ver. 1. This is not an address to Sennacherib, Antiochus Epiphanes, the Romans, or Gog and Magog: but to every unprovoked spoiler of God's people. It is a mirror, not a picture—and in it, successively, every spoiler beholds his own image; and though he may 'go his way, and forget what manner of man he is,' the woe will fall wherever the guilt has been incurred. C.

Ver. 2. This is a prayer of the church, alarmed for her safety, but trusting in her Redeemer as 'mighty to save.'—Their arm. Whose arm? The arm, the strength and defence of those 'who sow beside all waters,' ch. 32. 20; for whom, as 'labouring in the word and doctrine,' the other members of the church thus fervently intercede. C.

Ver. 4. Your spoil. The address is to the unprovoked spoiler, ver. 1, whom the prophet compares to the caterpillar, the most ravenous and destructive of all living creatures, devouring many times its own bulk and weight of food in a day. Yet as that ravenous caterpillar devours the leaf, so shall a new spoiler, more destructive than his predecessor, spoil the spoiler of the people of God.—Shall he run. That is, the new spoiler, like locust bands, shall assail his predecessors. C.

Ver. 7. Their valiant ones. Ver. 5, 6 being taken as a parenthesis, the 'valiant ones' are the former spoilers upon whom the new spoiler, ver. 4, makes his tumultuous assault.—Ambassadors of peace. The messengers of the first spoiler attempting peace with the second. C.

Ver. 8. He hath broken the covenant. The new spoiler who had made a false peace with the messengers. C.

Ver. 17. They shall behold the land that is very far off. They shall see by faith, and seek in holiness, a country far off—'that is, an heavenly,' He. 11. 13-16. C.

Ver. 20. This address is to the Lord entreating a favourable regard; the reply is from God to his church. C.

Ver. 23. The address is to the ship, ver. 21, the emblem of an invading enemy, multitudinous as waters. C.

Ver. 24. The inhabitant of Zion, ver. 20, shall no more be sick, Re. 21. 4. The great Physician has healed all their souls, Mat. 9. 12. C.

Reflections.—Wicked men never hesitate at falsehood, fraud, or violence to accomplish their own ends. But the less men provoke them to do evil, the more they provoke God in doing it. And whenever they have filled up the measure of their iniquities, God will awake to punish them. There is no fear of a church or nation while a spirit of prayer continues in it. They who wait on God shall never be forsaken by him. Nay, he often in his kindness exceeds their expectations, and always exalts himself by the judgments which he executes. And where he reigns in the heart, real safety and wealth attend him! True knowledge of his grace is the great stability of the soul; and the fear of God is the Christian's best treasure. They who contemn God are often imperious and abusive to men. But the more hardened and prosperous they are, the nearer is their terrible destruction. The most secure sinners shall be alarmed at last, and made to see God's hand in his judgments. Eternal despair shall at last appear dreadful to the most scornful! But great is the mercy if God's judgments in Zion should awaken her hypocritical professors to flee from the wrath to come to the almighty, the all-saving Jesus Christ! Great piety and comfort, safety and peace, order, health, and forgiveness attend his gracious deliverances! And thrice happy they who have him for their all in all.