Give ye ear, and hear my voice ,.... So said the prophet, as the Targum introduces the words; and because what he was about to say was of importance, and delivered in a parabolical manner, and required attention, he makes use of a variety of words to the same purpose, to engage their attention: hearken, and hear my speech ; now about to be made; listen to it, and get the understanding of it. read more
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
Give ye ear, and hear my voice "Listen ye, and hear my voice" - The foregoing discourse, consisting of severe reproofs, and threatenings of dreadful judgments impending on the Jews for their vices, and their profane contempt of God's warnings by his messengers, the prophet concludes with an explanation and defense of God's method of dealing with his people in an elegant parable or allegory; in which he employs a variety of images, all taken from the science of agriculture. As the husbandman... read more
Give ye ear (comp. Psalms 49:1 ; Psalms 78:1 ). A preface of this kind, enjoining special attention and thought, was appropriate to occasions when instruction was couched in a parabolic form. read more
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
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
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
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
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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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