Ver. 1. The vision of Isaiah.] That which was not unfitly affirmed of a modern expositor, that his commentaries on this prophecy of Isaiah are mole parvi, eruditione mangni, small in bulk, but great in worth, may much more fitly be spoken of the prophecy itself, which is aureus quantivis precii libellus, worth its weight in gold. A “great roll” or “volume” it is called, (Isaiah 8:1) because it is magnum in parvo, much in a little; and it is said there to be “written with a man’s pen,” that is, plainly and perspicuously; so little reason was there that John Haselbach, professor at Vienna, should read twenty-one years to his auditors upon this first chapter only, and yet not finish it. I confess there is no prophecy but hath its obscurity—the picture of prophecy is said to hang in the Pope’s library like a matron with her eyes covered—and Jerome saith that this of Isaiah containeth all rhetoric, ethics, and theology. But if brevity and suavity, which Fulgentius maketh to be the greatest graces of a sentence—if eloquence of style, and evidence of vision may carry it with the reader, here they are eminently met in this seraphical orator, of whom we may far better say than the learned critic doth of Livy, Non ita copiosus ut nimius; neque ira suavis ut lascicus; nec adeo lenis ut remissus: non sic tristis ut horridus; neque ita simplex ut nudus; aut adeo comptus ut affectata compositione calamistris videatur inustus. Par verbis materia, par sententia rebus, &c. A courtier he was, and a master of speech; a man of noble birth, and as noble a spirit; not the first of the holy prophets, and yet worthily set in the first place—as St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is for like cause set before the rest—because in abundance of visions he exceedeth his fellows; and in speaking of the Lord Christ, he delivereth himself more like an evangelist than a prophet, and is therefore called the evangelical prophet. In the New Testament he is cited by Christ and his apostles sixty different times at least; and by the more devoted heathens he was not a little respected, as appeareth by the history of that Ethiopian eunuch. (Acts 8:26-40) The vision.] That is, The several visions or doctrines so certainly and clearly revealed to him by God, as if he had seen them with his bodily eyes. See Isaiah 2:1 Na 1:1. For they are not to be hearkened to who hold that these seers, the prophets, understood not their own prophecies, (1 Peter 1:10,11) though it is true that those “holy men of God spake as they were moved,” acted, and powerfully carried on (φερομενοι) to see and say as they did, by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:21) Of Isaiah.] Which signifieth “God’s health.” He would indeed have healed that perverse people to whom he was sent; but they “would not be healed,” as he sadly complaineth, (Isaiah 44:4 53:1) turning them over to God with a Non convertentur; They will not repent, let them therefore perish. When there is no hope of curing, there must be cutting. The Son of Amoz.] Who likewise was a prophet, say the Hebrews, and of royal extraction. Which he saw.] Not which I saw; thus he speaketh for modesty sake. Luther wittily saith, that Haec ego feci, haec ego feci, shows men to be nothing else but faeces, dregs. Concerning Judah and Jerusalem.] The inhabitants whereof lived in God’s good land, but would not live by God’s good laws; to them was objected, as afterwards to the Athenians, Eos scire quae recta sunt, sed facere nolle, that they knew what was right, but had no mind to do it, though this and other prophets used their best oratory in inviting those of them that did rebel, inciting those that did neglect, hastening those that did linger, and recalling those that did wander, to sue out their pardons, and make their peace with their Maker. In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.] And longer too, if that be true which the Hebrews tell us, that at the age of one hundred twenty-six years he was sawn asunder by Manasseh (his grandson by the mother’s side) with a wooden saw. Sure it is that Manasseh was a most bloody persecutor, and perhaps not inferior to Dioclesian, in whose days such cruelty was exercised toward the Christian bishops and others, Ut totum orcurn dicas in orbem effusum, ubi nemo nisi tortus vel terror sit, as if hell had been broken loose, and all men turned either torturers or tortured. Snepfius. Mercat. Atlas. Casaub. Jerome. Est in fragmentis Demadis, orationes Demosthenis esse ονομαστι καλας. De Isaiae visionibus idem puta. Conciones habet poenitentiales, comminatorias et consolatorias. Luth. in Ps. cxxvii. Jerome, lib. xv. in Isa. in fine. Bussieres.
Ver. 2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.] Exordium patheticum! Moses-like, he calleth heaven and earth, brutas illas mutasque creaturas, to record against God’s rebels, whose stupendous stupidity is hereby taxed. (Deuteronomy 4:26,30:19 31:28) Heaven and earth do hear and obey God’s voice, for “they are all his servants,” (Psalms 119:91) keeping their constant course. Only man, that great heteroclite, breaketh order, and is therefore worse than other creatures, because he should be better. For the Lord hath spoken it.] So Jeremiah 13:15, “Hear and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken it.” Jehovah, whose voice “shaketh not the earth only, but the heavens also,” (Hebrews 12:26 Psalms 104:32) at whose dreadful presence mountains melt, rocks rend asunder, and the whole fabric of heaven and earth is astonished, horribly afraid, and very desolate; (Jeremiah 2:12) this great Jehovah—whose name is great among the heathen. (Malachi 1:11) The Pythagoreans used to swear by τετρακτην, Quaternity, the name Jehovah consisting of four letters in the Hebrew, which also they called πηγην αεναου φυσεως, the fountain of eternity— Aphihu, even he hath spoken, or ‘is about to speak’— scil., by my mouth and ministry. “Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: fear ye not me? saith Jehovah. Will ye not tremble at my presence?” &c. (Jeremiah 5:21,22) “Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may see.” (Isaiah 42:18) Thus must ministers preach to the conscience, cut to the quick, rouse up themselves and wrestle with their hearers, goring their very souls with smarting pain, while they speak “as the oracles of God,” (1 Peter 4:11) with all gravity and authority. I have nourished and brought up children.] Or, Advanced, exalted them. Brevicula verba, sed causa querulandi maxima; a short but sharp contest. God had adopted, educated, and advanced the people of Israel; but “Jesurun waxed fat, and kicked,” as young mulets, when they have sucked, lift up the heel and kick the dam’s dugs, as hawks when fully fed forget their master. And they have rebelled against me.] Or, Transgressed, blasphemed. Rebellion is a kind of blasphemy, (Numbers 15:30,31 Ezekiel 20:27) and unthankfulness is, as one saith, an accumulative sin, a voluminous wickedness. Many sins are bound up in it, as Cicero saith of parricide. Solon would make no law against parricide, because he thought none would be so vile as to commit it. Lycurgus would make no law against ingratitude for like reason. A person that deviates from the ordinary rule; an ‘anomaly’. Lingua mea est calamus S.S. et guttur meum est tuba divino inflata et clangens anhelitu.—Deut. xxxii. 15. Plato Aristotelem vocabat mulum.