Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me.

“The very words of Moses (De 32:1); this implies that the law was the charter and basis of all prophecy (Isa 8:20). Lord--Jehovah; in Hebrew, "the self-existing and promise-fulfilling, unchangeable One." The Jews never pronounced this holy name, but substituted Adonai.”

The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”

“God regards His covenant-people in their designed unity. not know--namely, his Owner, as the parallelism requires; that is, not recognize Him as such (Ex 19:5, equivalent to "my people," Joh 1:10, 11).”

Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children of depravity!

“So "nation--people--seed children." provoked--literally, "despised," namely, so as to provoke (Pr 1:30, 31). Holy One of Israel--the peculiar heinousness of their sin, that it was against their God (Am 3:2). gone . . . backward--literally, "estranged" (Ps 58:3).”

And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city besieged.

“Metropolis or "mother-city" is the corresponding term. The idea of youthful beauty is included in "daughter." left--as a remnant escaping the general destruction. cottage--a hut, made to give temporary shelter to the caretaker of the vineyard. lodge--not permanent.”

Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!

“God saith to the sinner, "Wash you," &c., that he, finding his inability to "make" himself "clean," may cry to God, Wash me, cleanse me (Ps 51:2, 7, 10).”

Your silver has become dross; your fine wine is diluted with water.

“Thy princes and people are degenerate in "solid worth," equivalent to "silver" (Jer 6:28, 30; Eze 22:18, 19), and in their use of the living Word, equivalent to "wine" (So 7:9). mixed--literally, "circumcised." So the Arabic, "to murder" wine, equivalent to dilute it.”

I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”

“As the degeneracy had shown itself most in the magistrates (Isa 1:17-23), so, at the "restoration," these shall be such as the theocracy "at the first" had contemplated, namely, after the Babylonish restoration in part and typically, but fully and antitypically under Messiah (Isa 32:1…”

Zion will be redeemed with justice, her repentant ones with righteousness.

“The judgment and righteousness are God's first (Isa 42:21; Ro 3:26); so they become man's when "converted" (Ro 8:3, 4); typified in the display of God's "justice," then exhibited in delivering His covenant-people, whereby justice or "righteousness" was produced in them. converts--so MAURER.”

And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob.

“If the curse foretold against Israel has been literally fulfilled, so shall the promised blessing be literal. We Gentiles must not, while giving them the curse, deny them their peculiar blessing by spiritualizing it.”

For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east; they are soothsayers like the Philistines; they strike hands with the…

“Therefore--rather, "For": reasons why there is the more need of the exhortation in Isa 2:5. thou--transition to Jehovah: such rapid transitions are natural, when the mind is full of a subject. replenished--rather, filled, namely, with the superstitions of the East, Syria, and Chaldea.”

Their land is full of silver and gold, with no limit to their treasures; their land is full of horses, with no limit to their chariots.

“God designed there should be as wide as possible a distinction between Israel and the Egyptians. He would have His people wholly dependent on Him, rather than on the ordinary means of warfare (Ps 20:7).”

Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty.

“Poetical form of expressing that, such were their sins, they would be obliged by God's judgments to seek a hiding-place from His wrath (Re 6:15, 16). dust--equivalent to "caves of the earth," or dust (Isa 2:19).”

Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises…

“The fulfilment answers exactly to the threat (Isa 2:10). they--the idol-worshippers. caves--abounding in Judea, a hilly country; hiding-places in times of alarm (1Sa 13:6). shake . . . earth--and the heavens also (Heb 12:26). Figure for severe and universal judgments.”

the mighty man and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the soothsayer and the elder,

“Fulfilled (2Ki 24:14). prudent--the Hebrew often means a "soothsayer" (De 18:10-14); thus it will mean, the diviners, on whom they rely, shall in that day fail.”

the commander of fifty and the dignitary, the counselor, the cunning magician, and the clever enchanter.

“The mechanic's business will come to a standstill in the siege and subsequent desolation of the state; artisans are no mean "stay" among a nation's safeguards. eloquent orator--rather, as Vulgate, "skilled in whispering," that is, incantation (Ps 58:5).”

A man will seize his brother within his father’s house: “You have a cloak—you be our leader! Take charge of this heap of rubble.”

“Thou hast clothing--which none of us has. Changes of raiment are wealth in the East (2Ki 5:5). ruin--Let our ruined affairs be committed to thee to retrieve.”

The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles—

“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, &c.--Luxury had become great in Uzziah's prosperous reign (2Ch 26:5). stretched forth--proudly elevated (Ps 75:5). wanton--rather, "making the eyes to glance about," namely, wantonly (Pr 6:13) [MAURER].”

their festive robes, capes, cloaks, and purses;

“Here begin entire articles of apparel. Those before were single ornaments. changeable--from a root, "to put off"; not worn commonly; put on and off on special occasions. So, dress-clothes (Zec 3:4). mantles--fuller tunics with sleeves, worn over the common one, reaching down to the feet.”

and their mirrors, linen garments, tiaras, and shawls.

“But the Septuagint, a transparent, gauze-like, garment. hoods--miters, or diadems (Isa 62:3; Zec 3:5). veils--large enough to cover the head and person. Distinct from the smaller veils ("mufflers") above (Ge 24:65).”

What more could I have done for My vineyard than I already did for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?

“God has done all that could be done for the salvation of sinners, consistently with His justice and goodness. The God of nature is, as it were, amazed at the unnatural fruit of so well-cared a vineyard.”

I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”

“I will . . . command--The parable is partly dropped and Jehovah, as in Isa 5:7, is implied to be the Owner: for He alone, not an ordinary husbandman (Mt 21:43; Lu 17:22), could give such a "command."”

For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight.

“The play upon words is striking in the Hebrew, He looked for mishpat, but behold mispat ("bloodshed"); for tsedaqua, but behold tseaqua (the cry that attends anarchy, covetousness, and dissipation, Isa 5:8, 11, 12; compare the cry of the rabble by which justice was overborne…”

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.

“The jubilee restoration of possessions was intended as a guard against avarice. till there be no place--left for any one else. that they may be--rather, and ye be. the earth--the land.”

Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers!

“Greek, hades; "the unseen world of spirits." Not here, "the place of torment." Poetically, it is represented as enlarging itself immensely, in order to receive the countless hosts of Jews, which should perish (Nu 16:30). their--that is, of the Jewish people.”

But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

“God shall be "exalted" in man's view, because of His manifestation of His "justice" in punishing the guilty. sanctified--regarded as holy by reason of His "righteous" dealings.”