Isaiah 57:11

11. Of whom hast thou been afraid Much in these verses is very obscure, and this verse more than all. The question and context imply that there really was one or more who were objects of fear. But they were not such as would relieve from fear. Is there here an obscure reference to Israel and Judah in the times of Ahaz and Hezekiah? Much like this could have been asked in the past days of Isaiah. Look at chap. 28. The facts of that history seem prophetically paralleled along almost all the earthly life of the Jews. The Jews relied, not on Jehovah, but on earthly powers, to deliver them. One time it is Egypt; another, Syria; at another, it is Assyria. So through all their future, the same question applies. Not Jehovah, indeed, but weak man is carnal Israel’s reliance. Is not this the key to the meaning, and are not the words following, to Isaiah 57:13, sheer irony on the same line of thought? The description of life at Jerusalem in Isaiah’s time, and long afterward, is put in strong colours, but the inward spirit of that life is not overdrawn. In the reign of Ahaz idolatry became rampant, even on the surface; in Hezekiah’s time it was repressed, but not fully suppressed; in Manasseh’s, it was outrageous. Josiah attempted to crush it forever, but it was too late. The proneness to idolatry in the nation could not be arrested its onward rush dashed the nation to ruin. Captivity and exile alone cured the evil. A similar spiritual aspect, though assuming a different phase, largely appeared in the ruling class at Jerusalem in Christ’s time; and so far forth this prophecy has continued application.