Isaiah 29:1-24

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:8

It shall be even as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth ,.... That is, he dreams of food, and imagines it before him, and that he is really eating it: but he awaketh, and his soul is empty ; his stomach is empty when he awakes, and he finds he has not ate anything at all: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh : who fancies that he has got a cup of liquor in his hand, and at his mouth, and is drinking it with a great deal of eagerness and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:9

Stay yourselves, and wonder ,.... Stop a while, pause a little, consider within yourselves the case and circumstances of these people, and wonder at their stupidity. Kimchi thinks these words were spoken in the times of Ahaz, with respect to the men of Judah; and so Aben Ezra says, they are directed to the men of Zion; and it is generally thought that they are spoken to the more religious and sober part of them; though, by the following verse Isaiah 29:10 , it appears that the case was... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:10

For the Lord hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep ,.... Gave them up to a stupid frame of spirit; to a reprobate mind, a mind void of judgment and sense; to judicial blindness and hardness of heart: this was remarkably fulfilled in the Jews, in the times of Christ and his apostles, who choosing darkness rather than the light of the Gospel, which shone around them, were righteously given up to such a temper of mind; and to nothing else can be imputed their obstinate rejection of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:11

And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed ,.... The prophecies of all the prophets contained in the Scriptures; or all the prophecies in the book of Isaiah, concerning the Messiah, were no more seen, known, and understood, both by the priests and the people, than if they had been in a book, written, rolled up, and sealed. And this was owing, not to the obscurity of these writings, or because they were really sealed up, but to the blindness and stupidity... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:12

And the book is delivered to him that is not learned ,.... Or that knows not a book or letters, as before, and so consequently cannot read, having never been put to school, or learned to read: saying, Read this, I pray thee ; or "now" F23 נא "nunc", Pagninus, Montanus. , at once, immediately: and he saith, I am not learned ; he does not excuse himself on account of its being sealed, but on account of his want of learning; which shows the former was but an excuse. In short,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:13

Wherefore the Lord said ,.... Concerning the hypocritical people of the Jews in Christ's time, as the words are applied by our Lord himself, Matthew 15:7 , Forasmuch as this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me ; Kimchi observes, there is a double reading of the word נגש , rendered "draw near": in one reading of it, it signifies to be "afflicted"; and then the sense is, "when this people are afflicted, with their mouth, and with their lips, they... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:14

Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people ,.... Because of their hypocrisy and formality, their regard to men, their doctrines and commandments, and not to the will and word of God, therefore he determines "to deal marvellously with this people": even a marvellous work, and a wonder ; that is, something exceedingly marvellous, which would be matter of astonishment to everyone that observed it; and is as follows: for the wisdom of their wise men ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:15

Woe unto them ,.... Or, "O ye", that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord ; which they consulted against Christ, to take away his life, to persecute his apostles, and hinder the spread of his Gospel; which though they consulted in private, and formed deep schemes, imagining they were not observed by the Lord, yet he that sits in the heaven saw them, and laughed at their vain imaginations, Psalm 2:1 , and their works are in the dark ; in the dark night, as if the darkness... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:16

Surely your turning of things upside down ,.... Revolving things in their minds, throwing them into different shapes, forming various schemes, and inverting the order of things by their deep counsels, and seeking to hide things from the Lord: or, "O the perverseness of you" F26 So some in Gataker; הפככם "subversio vestra", Pagninus, Montanus. ; in imagining and saying that no eye saw, nor anyone knew, what they did, not the Lord himself. So the Vulgate Latin version, "this is your... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 29:17

Is it not yet a very little while ,.... In a short space of time, in a few years, what follows would come to pass; when there would be a strange change and alteration made in the world, and by which it would appear, that the Lord not only knows, but foreknows, all things: and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field ; the forest of Lebanon should be as Carmel. The meaning is, that the Gentile world, which was like a forest uncultivated, and full of unfruitful trees, to which... read more

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