Chapter 32
Isaiah 32:1-20
1. Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgement.
2. And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
3. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim; and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
4. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
5. The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6. For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry; and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7. The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
8. But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.
9. Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.
10. Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.
11. Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones; strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
12. They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13. Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
14. Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
15. Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
16. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever.
18. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet restingplaces.
19. When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.
20. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.
1. Behold, a King shall reign. He means that God will still be gracious to his Church, so as to restore her entirely; and the best method of restoring her is, when good government is maintained, and when the whole administration of it is conducted with propriety, and with good order. This prediction undoubtedly relates to Hezekiah and his reign, under which the Church was reformed and restored to its former splendor; for formerly it was in a wretched and ruinous condition. Ahaz, who was a wicked and disgraceful hypocrite, had corrupted everything according to his own wicked dispositions, and had overturned the whole condition of civil government and of religion. (2 Kings 16:2, 3.) He therefore promises another king, namely, Hezekiah, whose power and righteousness shall restore the state of affairs which is thus wretched and desperate. In a word, he presents to us in this passage a lively picture of the prosperous condition of the Church; and as this cannot be attained without Christ, this description undoubtedly refers to Christ, of whom Hezekiah was a type, and whose kingdom he foreshadowed.
In righteousness and judgment. Here he follows the ordinary usage of Scripture, which employs those expressions to denote good government; for by righteousness is meant equity and good government, and by judgment is meant that part of equity which upholds good men, and defends them from the assaults of the wicked. It is undoubtedly true that the duty of a good prince embraces a wider extent than “righteousness and judgment;” for his great aim ought to be to defend the honor of God and religion. But the ordinary usage of Scripture is, to describe the whole observation of the law by the works of the second table; for, if we refrain from acts of injustice, if we aid, as far as lies in our power, those who are oppressed by others, and, in a word, if we maintain brotherly kindness, we give evidence of the fear of God, from which such fruits spring and grow. From a part, therefore, the Prophet has described the whole.