Isaiah 28:26
in Isaiah 28For his God instructs and teaches him properly.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For his God doth instruct him aright, and doth teach him.
KJV
For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
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This verse in Isaiah 28
Commentary
9 notes on this verseSecond, the discretion of his judgment, for he punishes some in one way and others in a different way, just as a farmer beats out wheat in one way and cumin in another, and he indicates this where it says: for he will instruct him …
This site's exposition
Listen and hear my voice
on Isaiah 28:23-26
The chapter turns from woe to parable with a call, "Listen and hear my voice". The plowman does not plow forever, for "When he has leveled its surface" he sows "caraway" and "cumin". Verse 26 credits his skill to God: "For his God instructs and teaches him properly".
This site's exposition
his God instructs and teaches him
Clarke notes the nations credited the skill of the plowman to their gods, and he cites Sirach 7:15 on the Most High ordaining the work. Isaiah names the God who teaches him. The LORD who instructs the plowman also measures his own judgment.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Vers. 23 seqq.) Pay attention and listen to my voice: listen and hear my speech. Does the plowman plow all day to sow, break up the soil, and harrow it? When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow dill, scatter cumin, plant wheat in rows, barley, millet, and rye in their proper place? For his God instructs him and teaches him the right way.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. The prophet warns the kingdom of the ten tribes of the judgments that were coming upon them for their sins, which were soon after executed by the king of Assyria, who laid their country waste, and carried the people into captivity.
Since the king himself is served of the field, the advancing of the art of husbandry is a common service to mankind more than the cultivating of most other arts. The skill of the husbandman is from God, as every good and perfect gift is.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
For his God doth instruct him - All nations have agreed in attributing agriculture, the most useful and the most necessary of all sciences, to the invention and to the suggestions of their deities. “The Most High hath ordained husbandry, “saith the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 7:15. Namque Ceres fertur fruges, Liberque liquoris Vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For his God doth instruct him ... - Margin, ‘He bindeth it in such sort as his God doth teach him.’ The more correct idea is conveyed in the text. The word יסרו yiserô, properly means, he instructs, admonishes, or teaches him. The idea that skill in agriculture is communicated by God is not one that is discordant to reason, or to the general teachings of the Bible. Thus the achitectural and mechanical skill of Bezaleel and Aholiab, by which they were enabled to make the tabernacle, is said expressly to have been imparted to them by God Exo 31:2-6. Thus also Noah was taught how to build the ark Gen 6:14-16. We are not, indeed, to suppose that the farmer is inspired; or that God communicates to him by special revelation where, and when, and how he shall sow his grain, but the sense is, that God is the author of all his skill. He has endowed him with understanding, and taught him by his providence. It is by the study of what God teaches in the seasons, in the soil, in the results of experience and observation, that he has this art. He teaches him also by the example, the counsel, and even by the failures of others; and all the knowledge of agriculture that he has is to be traced up to God.
The words behind it
4 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְיִסְּר֥וֹ | veyisero | and he instructs him | H3256 → | |
| לַמִּשְׁפָּ֖ט | lamishpat | to <the> judgment | H4941 → | 422 times |
| אֱלֹהָ֥יו | ʾelohav | God his | H430 → | 2601 times |
| יוֹרֶֽנּוּ׃ | yorenu | he teaches him | H3384 → | 80 times |
וְיִסְּר֥וֹand he instructs him
veyiseroH3256 →
לַמִּשְׁפָּ֖טto <the> judgment
lamishpatH4941 →422 times
אֱלֹהָ֥יוGod his
ʾelohavH430 →2601 times
יוֹרֶֽנּוּ׃he teaches him
yorenuH3384 →80 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 1:17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
it leads to
- John 3:27
John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.
- Matthew 7:11
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
- Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
- John 8:12
Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
- Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
- John 3:27
Through
Psalms 144:1Blessed be the LORD, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.
it leads to
- Psalms 18:34
He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
- 2 Samuel 22:35
He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
- Psalms 18:2
The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
- Psalms 18:34
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.