Isaiah 26:21 - Exposition

The Lord cometh out of his place (comp. Micah 1:3 ). In the Psalms God is represented as "bowing the heavens and coming down," bringing them, as it were, with him. Here (and in Micah) he quits his place in heaven, as a king quits his own country when he proceeds to take vengeance on rebels in another. The expressions are, both of them, accommodations to human modes of thought. To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity ; literally, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth upon him . The earth also shall disclose her blood ; literally, her bloods ; i.e. her bloodsheddings; the many murders committed by man upon her surface. Isaiah denounced "murderers" in his first chapter (verse 27). Manasseh's murders were the main cause of the first destruction of Jerusalem ( 2 Kings 24:4 ). The second destruction was equally a judgment for the innocent blood that had been shed upon the earth, "from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Bars-chins" ( Matthew 23:35 ). Bloodshed "cries to God for vengeance" ( Genesis 4:10 ), and will be one of the main causes of the world's final destruction ( Revelation 16:6 ; Revelation 18:20 ). And shall no more cover her slain . "There is nothing covered that shall not" in the last day "be revealed, and hid that shall not be known" ( Matthew 10:26 ). Every murder, however secret, will be brought to light, and every murderer, however unsuspected previously, denounced and punished.