Isaiah 34:16-17

3. CONCLUDING REMARK: SUMMONS TO COMPARE THE PROPHECY WITH ITS FULFILMENT

Isaiah 34:16-17

16          Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read,

No one of these 24shall fail,

None shall want her mate:For my mouth it hath commanded, and bhis spirit it hath gathered them,

17     And he hath cast the lot for them,

And his hand hath divided it unto them by line:They shall possess it for ever,From generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 34:16. Comp. כָּתַב with על Isaiah 30:8; Jeremiah 36:29; Deuteronomy 27:3; Deuteronomy 27:8, etc.——וקראו comp. Isaiah 29:11-12.——The LXX. reads דָרָֽשׁוּ instead of דִּרְשׁוּ and refer the word to what goes before. Moreover it has somehow confounded מעל־ספר with מִסְפָר, and derived קְרָאוּ from קָרָא occurrere, for it reads thus: ἐκεῖ ἔλαφοι συνήντησαν καὶ ἴδον τὰ πρόσωπα · ἀριθμῷ παρῆλθον. In the παρῆλθον is doubtless a reference to Genesis 2:19. Strangely enough late expositors (Knobel, Meier) adopt this rendering through misconception of the passage.—I do not believe that the feminines in אחת מהנה and אשׁה רעותה Hate relate only to the living beings enumerated in vers, 5–15. For why are not other traits of the prophecy, murder, burning, etc, to be fulfilled? And why conceive of all the living beings as feminine? The Prophet changes the gender ver, 17. I agree with those that take these feminines in a neuter sense, and as relating to all the traits of the predicted judgment, which is grammatically quite justifiable (comp. Isaiah 41:22).——נעדר is used Isaiah 40:26, as here, in the sense of desiderari, deesse.——As אִשָּׁה אֲחוֹתָהּ is said of inanimate things (Exodus 26:3; Exodus 26:5-6, etc.) so the same is possible of אשה רעותה (asyndeton like Isaiah 34:15). פקדו is=“to miss,” (properly: to verify by inspection the non-existence, comp. 1 Samuel 20:6; 1 Samuel 25:15). The 3d pers. plur. denotes the impersonal subject=“one.”—פִי occasions great difficulty. Some (as Drechsler) would refer the suffix in פי to the Prophet and in רוחו to God. But could the Prophet say: my mouth has commanded it? He could only say “announced,” (הִגִיד or the like). Thus the Vulg. translates: quod ex ore meo procedit, ille mandavit. But the LXX. has simply, ὅτι κύριος ἐνετείλατο αὑτοῖς. It is better, with several Rabbis and Delitzsch, to refer both suffixes to God: “ my mouth has commanded it and its spirit, i. e., the spirit of my mouth has gathered them.” Still this is a strange form of expression. For it appears as if the Lord distinguished between His spirit and the spirit of His mouth, as if the latter were not His spirit; a distinction that does not appear Psalms 33:6; Job 15:30. More over the explanation of Gesenius, who would take הוא for the nomen regens belonging to כּי (comp. מימי היא Nahum 2:9), is not satisfactory. This construction is quite abnormal; for Nahum 2:9 is not similar. With the exception of the clause “for my mouth—hath gathered them,” not only the entire preceding part of the chapt. but also verses 16, 17 are spoken only by the Prophet. A corruption of the text was very possible, in as much as כִּיהוּ, by reason of the הוּא after רוּחוֹ, could easily change to כּי הוּא. Hence I think that we must simply translate “his mouth.”—קבצן (Piel, see list) is to be referred to the same objects as the fem. suffixes preceding.

Isaiah 34:17. הכּיל גורל only here in Isaiah; comp. Psalms 22:19; Ezekiel 24:6, etc. גורל alone and חִלֵק see list.—קַו and ײרשׁוה and ישׁכנו בה comp. on verse 11.—לדור ודור see verse 11.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The Prophet translates himself in spirit into the time when his prophecy shall have been fulfilled. As a pledge to his present readers of the reliability of his predictions he, so to speak, stakes his own and God’s honor on the fulfilment, which must be compromised by the non-fulfilment. For what the mouth of the Lord has announced, that the Spirit of the Lord will bring to pass. Though the immediate reference of these words is to the prophecy against Edom, it lies in the nature of things that the present summons concerns in the same way all predictions of the Prophet. It is hard to see why only the prophecy against Edom should be provided with such a postscript as the present. It is therefore a natural conjecture that this postscript stands connected with the position, and general significance of this prophecy against Edom. The latter concludes part first: for with 36 the historical pieces begin. We have found, too, this prophecy against Edom to be an exemplification in one nation of what is to happen to all (Isaiah 34:1-4). We may then take this postscript as pertaining to all the preceding threatening prophecies, because all of them are, so to speak, comprehended in this last one against Edom. Now as chap 34 is certainly more recent than most of the foregoing pieces, it is probable that this postscript was first added when the collection was made, to which perhaps the expression “Book of the Lord” refers. But, one may ask, why is this postscript put at the end of 35.? The verses 16, 17 are by their contents most intimately connected with Isaiah 34:5-15. But why such an appeal to the written word only after a threatening prophecy? Christ, too, speaks the significant words “behold I have told you before” (Matthew 24:25; Mark 13:23) after announcing judgments. God’s salvation comes to the pious, and they know from whose hand it comes. But the wicked will not hear of God’s sending judgments. They ascribe them to accident or fatalistic necessity. Therefore it specially concerns them to prove, that the judgment is something announced beforehand, and thus is something previously known and determined, that it is therefore the act of Him who knows all His works from the beginning of the world (Acts 15:18). Added to this, 35, points forwards more than backwards. It is the bridge to chapters 40–66, as it were, the morning twilight of the day of salvation, which dawns with chap. 40.

2. Seek ye—dwell therein. Isaiah 34:16-17. The summons to read in the written book seems to me to indicate that the Prophet has just been busy with a book and finished it, which he calls “the book of the Lord.” Gesen., and Drechsl., explain this to mean that the Prophet “had in mind the insertion of his oracle in a collection of holy Scriptures;” that he “knew it to be a part of a greater whole, into which, in its time, it must be adopted.” But then why does he think this only of this prophecy? Even though elsewhere there is mention of recording single prophecies for the purpose of appealing to them afterwards (Isaiah 8:1; Isaiah 30:8), still there is nowhere, beside the present, any mention of an entire book that deserved to be called “the book of the Lord.” But we evidently stand here at a boundary. The prophecies of part first conclude. Chapters 36–39, form an historical supplement. With 40, the second part begins. And at this significant point a “book of the Lord” is mentioned. This is certainly not to be explained by saying that in closing his prophecy the Prophet happened here to mention the future book of which it was to become a part. It is much more likely that the Prophet provided this prophecy with such a conclusion, when he put this prophecy at the end of a great book, that he called Jehovah-book, as containing the entire Jehovah-word announced by him. The expression סכּר יהוה occurs only here. Only a work in which Jehovah had space to give an all-sided revelation of His nature and will, deserved this name. And only a Prophet that was conscious of having been God’s faithful instrument in all he had said and written, could set such a title to his book.

The prophecy must he fulfilled because God is author of it. This is the general sense. But as to particulars כִּי occasions difficulty, on which see Text. and Gram. The Spirit of God, or perhaps more correctly the breath of God drives, or rather blows together, from all quarters what God needs in one place for the accomplishment of His counsel. Compare an analogous use of קִבֵּץMic 1:7. The various beings or powers mentioned in Isaiah 34:5-15 are partly masculine, partly feminine. The Prophet repeats with emphasis that the total of them, i.e., the representatives of both genders are endowed with the land of Edom in eternal possession. He has similarly expressed the difference in gender by the different gender terminations, Isaiah 3:1.

[On Isaiah 34:17. “An evident allusion to the division of the land of Canaan, both by lot and measuring line. (See Numbers 26:55-56; Joshua 18:4-6). As Canaan was allotted to Israel, so Edom is allotted to these doleful creatures.”—J. A. Alexander.].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isaiah 34:1-4. Because Revelation 6:12-17 has express reference to this passage, some would conclude that the Prophet here has in view only that special event of the world’s judgment (the opening of the sixth seal). But that is not justified. For other passages of the New Testament that do not specially relate to the opening of the sixth seal are based on this passage (Matthew 24:29; 2 Peter 3:7 sqq.; Revelation 14:11; Revelation 19:11 sqq.). It appears from this that the present passage is, as it were, a magazine from which New Testament prophecy has drawn its material for more than one event of fulfilment.

2. On Isaiah 34:16. The word of God can bear the closest scrutiny. Indeed it desires and demands it. If men would only examine the Scriptures diligently and with an unclouded mind and love of truth, “whether these things are so,” as did the Bereans (Acts 17:11; John 5:39)!

3. On Isaiah 35:3. “The Christian church is the true Lazaretto in which may be found a crowd of weary, sick, lame and wretched people. Therefore, Christ is the Physician Himself (Matthew 9:12) who binds up and heals those suffering from neglect (Ezekiel 34:16; Isaiah 61:1). And His word cures all (Wis 16:12). His servants, too, are commissioned officially to admonish the rude, to comfort the timid, to bear the weak, and be patient with all (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Therefore, whoever feels weak, let him betake himself to this Bethania; there he will find counsel for his soul,” Cramer.

4. [On Isaiah 35:8-9. “They who enter the path that leads to life, find there no cause of alarm. Their fears subside; their apprehensions of punishment on account of their sins die away, and they walk that path with security and confidence. There is nothing in that way to alarm them; and though there are many foes—fitly represented by lions and wild beasts—lying about the way, yet no one is permitted to ‘go up thereon.’ This is a most beautiful image of the safety of the people of God, and of their freedom from all enemies that could annoy them.” “The path here referred to is appropriately designed only for the redeemed of the Lord. It is not for the profane, the polluted, the hypocrite. It is not for those who live for this world, or for those who love pleasure more than they love God. The church should not be entered except by those, who have evidence that they are redeemed. None should make a profession of religion who have no evidence that they belong to “the redeemed,” and who are not disposed to walk in the way of holiness. But for all such it is a highway on which they are to travel. It is made by leveling hills and elevating valleys; across the sandy desert and through the wilderness of this world, infested with the enemies of God and His people. It is made straight and plain, so that none need err; it is defended from enemies, so that all may be safe; because ‘He,’ their Leader and Redeemer, shall go with them and guard that way.” Barnes in loc.]

Footnotes:

[24]fails, Neither one nor the other does one miss,