Isaiahchapter 2
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Speaks with:Isaiah 2×5Isaiah 13×2Micah 4×2Zechariah 8×2Isaiah 31×2Isaiah 23×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The word Isaiah sees concerning Judah and Jerusalem begins with the latter days: the mountain of Jehovah's house established above all hills, all nations flowing to it, the law going forth from Zion, and swords beaten into plowshares as war ceases. From that vision the chapter pivots to indictment: the house of Jacob is filled with diviners from the east, with silver, horses, chariots, and idols the people worship. A day of Jehovah comes against everything proud and lofty: cedars of Lebanon, oaks of Bashan, high towers, ships of Tarshish. Men flee into caves and clefts of the rocks before the terror of Jehovah, casting their idols to the moles and bats, and the chapter closes with the charge to cease trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils.
Context
Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview
- A. 1–5 The Mountain of the LORD's House Lifted Up
- B. 6–11 A Land Full of Silver, Horses, and Idols
- C. 12–22 A Day Against Everything Proud and Lofty
The outline
A.The Mountain of the LORD's House Lifted Upvv. 1 to 5
Read vv. 1 to 5 →B.A Land Full of Silver, Horses, and Idolsvv. 6 to 11
Read vv. 6 to 11 →C.A Day Against Everything Proud and Loftyvv. 12 to 22
Read vv. 12 to 22 →
The world behind this chapter
Isaiah 2The history
In the ancient world a god's authority was pictured as a mountain. Temples were built on high ground, and the higher the mountain, the greater the claim. Zion is a modest hill; Judeans knew it was outclassed by the great sanctuaries of the region. The promise that this hill would be lifted above every other was a claim about whose God actually ran the world.
Beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks is a smith's picture. A village blacksmith worked the same iron for both — a spearhead and a vine-pruning hook are close cousins in shape, and metal was scarce enough that tools were reforged rather than replaced. Farmers had watched their plow blades go the other direction when war came.
The list of what Judah was full of is a list of what money had bought. Silver and gold with no end. Horses and chariots without number, which meant a standing arms trade with Egypt, the very thing the Law of Moses had forbidden a king to build up. Fortune-tellers from the east, brought in with the trade. Under Uzziah, Judah had reopened the Red Sea port at Elath and pushed its borders out; the goods and the diviners came in together.
The hiding places are literal. The hills of Judah are honeycombed with limestone caves and old quarry holes, and when armies came the villagers went into them. Isaiah says that on the day the LORD rises, men will run for those same holes and throw their silver idols to the moles and bats on the way.
What it meant to them
To a generation congratulating itself, the chapter said the wealth was the evidence for the prosecution, not the defense.
But it opens with the other picture first: nations streaming uphill on their own feet to learn, and war ending because the arguments end. Judeans heard a promise that the little hill they were standing on was the future capital of the world.
Sources cited
- J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary
- Walton, Matthews & Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Isaiah 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.