Isaiah 33:20 - Exposition

Look upon Zion , etc.; i.e. turn thy thoughts, O Judah, from the past to the present—from the time of the siege to the time after the siege terminated. The city of our solemnities ; or, of our festal meetings ; the city where we celebrate our Passovers, our Feasts of Weeks, our Feasts of Ingathering, and the like. A tent that shall not be taken down . There is, perhaps, a reference to Sennacherib's threat to remove the entire population from Jerusalem to a far country ( Isaiah 36:19 ). This threat should not take effect. Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed. By "the stakes" are meant "the tent-pegs," to which the ropes are fastened which keep the tent firm (comp. Exodus 27:10 ; Exodus 38:18 , Exodus 38:31 ; 4:21 ). The promise that they shall "never" be removed must be understood either as conditional on the people's walking uprightly ( Isaiah 33:15 ), or as a promise of a long continuance merely.