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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 28:23-29

This parable, which (like many of our Saviour's parables) is borrowed from the husbandman's calling, is ushered in with a solemn preface demanding attention, He that has ears to hear, let him hear, hear and understand, Isa. 28:23. I. The parable here is plain enough, that the husbandman applies himself to the business of his calling with a great deal of pains and prudence, secundum artem?according to rule, and, as his judgment directs him, observes a method and order in his work. 1. In his... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 28:24

Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow ?.... Or, "every day"; he ploughs in order to sow; by ploughing he prepares the ground for sowing, that is his end in ploughing; and he may plough a whole day together when he is at it, but he does not plough every day in the year; he has other work to do besides ploughing, as is later mentioned; such as breaking of clods, sowing seed, and threshing the grain after it is ripe, and reaped, and gathered. The prophet signifies that the Lord, like a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 28:25

When he hath made plain the face thereof ,.... By harrowing it, after it is ploughed: doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin ; in sowing them in the ground, prepared for them; the former of these does not seem to be the same we so call, but something else. The Septuagint version calls it the little "melanthion" F3 So Junius & Tremellius, and Piscator. , the same with the "nigella" F4 As here with Pagninus, Montanus. of the Latins, and is sometimes... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 28:26

For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. God gives the husbandman instruction and discretion how to sow his seed, at what time, and in a proper place; for this refers to what goes before; though some think a new act is here intended, namely, threshing or beating out of corn, rendering the words, "and he" (the husbandman) "beateth it out, according to the discretion", or "judgment, his God teaches him" F8 "Excutit illud ad eam rationem, quam Deus, ipsius docet... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 28:26

For his God doth instruct him - All nations have agreed in attributing agriculture, the most useful and the most necessary of all sciences, to the invention and to the suggestions of their deities. "The Most High hath ordained husbandry, "saith the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 7:15. Namque Ceres fertur fruges, Liberque liquoris Vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 28:23-29

A PARABLE TO COMFORT BELIEVERS . Isaiah is always careful to intermingle promises with his threats, comfort with his denunciations. Like his great Master, of whom he prophesied, he was fain not to "break the bruised reed" or "quench the smoking flax." When he had searched men's wounds with the probe, he was careful to pour in oil and wine. So now, having denounced the sinners of Judah through three long paragraphs (verses 7-22), he has a word of consolation and encouragement for the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 28:23-29

Proverbial lore. The ploughman's activity and the thresher's are set before the people as a parable of Israel's tribulations. At least, this is one of the views of the passage. I. THE PURPOSE OF AFFLICTION . It is from God, and the end ever kept in view is the good of the soul and its productiveness. The ploughman does not plough for ploughing's sake. He opens the soil, turns up the furrows, breaks the clods with the harrow, and all to prepare for the sowing of the seed. And so... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 28:23-29

Divine discrimination. There are two preliminary lessons we may gather from these verses before we pluck the principal one. I. THAT IN THE ACTS AND INDUSTRIES OF MAN WE MAY FIND APT ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE WISDOM OF GOD . "Give ear and hear" ( Isaiah 28:23 ). There is something well worth observing in human husbandry; it will teach the student a useful lesson respecting the ways of God. Not only from the lilies of the field and from the birds of the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 28:24

Doth the plowman plow all day ? The Church of God, go often called a vineyard, is here compared to an arable field, and the processes by which God educates and disciplines his Church are compared to those employed by man in the cultivation of such a piece of ground, and the obtaining of a harvest, from it. First of all, the ground must be ploughed, the face of the earth "opened" and the "clods broken." This, however, does not go on forever; it is for an object—that the seed may be sown; and,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 28:24-28

The analogy of Divine to human methods of working. Isaiah's comparison in this chapter rests wholly upon the assumption of an analogy between God's dealings and man's, when the latter are such as are consonant with reason. Reason, the highest gift of God to man, be assumes to be an adumbration of some quality in the Divine nature, which bears a real resemblance to it. "Reason cometh forth from the Lord of hosts." It is the voice of God speaking in the soul of man. Let man follow it, and his... read more

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