Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 7. As a dream] This is the beginning of the comparison, which is pursued and applied in the next verse. Sennacherib and his mighty army are not compared to a dream because of their sudden disappearance; but the disappointment of their eager hopes is compared to what happens to a hungry and thirsty man, when he awakes from a dream in which fancy had presented to him meat and drink in abundance, and finds it nothing but a vain illusion. The comparison is elegant and beautiful in the highest degree, well wrought up, and perfectly suited to the end proposed. The image is extremely natural, but not obvious: it appeals to our inward feelings, not to our outward senses; and is applied to an event in its concomitant circumstances exactly similar, but in its nature totally different. See De S. Poes. Hebr. Praelect. xii. For beauty and ingenuity it may fairly come in competition with one of the most elegant of Virgil, greatly improved from Homer, Iliad xxii. 199, where he has applied to a different purpose, but not so happily, the same image of the ineffectual working of imagination in a dream:- Ac veluti in somnis, oculos ubi languida pressit Nocte quies, necquicquam avidos extendere cursus Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus aegri Succidimus; non lingua valet, non corpore notae Sufficiunt vires, nec vox, nec verba sequuntur. AEn., xii. 908.
"And as, when slumber seals the closing sight, The sick wild fancy labours in the night; Some dreadful visionary foe we shun With airy strides, but strive in vain to run; In vain our baffled limbs their powers essay; We faint, we struggle, sink, and fall away; Drain'd of our strength, we neither fight nor fly, And on the tongue the struggling accents die." PITT.
Lucretius expresses the very same image with Isaiah:- Ut bibere in somnis sitiens quum quaerit, et humour Non datur, ardourem in membris qui stinguere possit; Sed laticum simulacra petit, frustraque labourat, In medioque sitit torrenti flumine potans.
As a thirsty man desires to drink in his sleep, And has no fluid to allay the heat within, But vainly labours to catch the image of rivers, And is parched up while fancying that he is drinking at a full stream.
Bishop Stock's translation of the prophet's text is both elegant and just:- "As when a hungry man dreameth; and, lo! he is eating: And he awaketk; and his appetite is unsatisfied.
And as a thirsty man dreameth; and, lo! he is drinking: And he awaketh; and, lo! he is faint, And his appetite craveth." Lucretius almost copies the original.
All that fight against her and her munition "And all their armies and their towers"] For htdxmw hybx tsobeyha umetsodathah, I read, with the Chaldee, µtdxmw µabx tsebaam umetsodatham.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- The desolations of Samaria. (Is. 28:1-4) The prosperity of Judah; with reproofs for sinfulness and unbelief. (Is. 28:5-15) Christ is pointe out as the sure Foundation for all believers. (Is. 28:16-22) God' dealings with his people. (Is. 28:23-29)
Is. 28:1-4 What men are proud of, be it ever so mean, is to them as crown; but pride is the forerunner of destruction. How foolishl drunkards act! Those who are overcome with wine are overcome by Satan and there is not greater drudgery in the world than hard drinking Their health is ruined; men are broken in their callings and estates and their families are ruined by it. Their souls are in danger of being undone for ever, and all merely to gratify a base lust. In God' professing people, like Israel, it is worse than in any other. And he is just in taking away the plenty they thus abuse. The plenty they wer proud of, is but a fading flower. Like the early fruit, which, as soo as discovered, is plucked and eaten.
Is. 28:5-15 The prophet next turns to Judah, whom he calls the residu of his people. Happy are those alone, who glory in the Lord of host himself. Hence his people get wisdom and strength for every service an every conflict. But it is only in Christ Jesus that the holy God communicates with sinful man. And whether those that teach are drun with wine, or intoxicated with false doctrines and notions concernin the kingdom and salvation of the Messiah, they not only err themselves but lead multitudes astray. All places where such persons have taugh are filled with errors. For our instruction in the things of God, it is needful that the same precept and the same line should be ofte repeated to us, that we may the better understand them. God, by his word, calls us to what is really for our advantage; the service of God is the only true rest for those weary of the service of sin, and ther is no refreshment but under the easy yoke of the Lord Jesus. All thi had little effect upon the people. Those who will not understand what is plain, but scorn and despise it as mean and trifling, are justl punished. If we are at peace with God, we have, in effect, made covenant with death; whenever it comes, it cannot do us any rea damage, if we are Christ's. But to think of making death our friend while by sin we are making God our enemy, is absurd. And do not the make lies their refuge who trust in their own righteousness, or to death-bed repentance? which is a resolution to sin no more, when it is no longer in their power to do so.
Is. 28:16-22 Here is a promise of Christ, as the only foundation of hope for escaping the wrath to come. This foundation was laid in Zion in the eternal counsels of God. This foundation is a stone, firm an able to support his church. It is a tried stone, a chosen stone approved of God, and never failed any who made trial of it. A corne stone, binding together the whole building, and bearing the whol weight; precious in the sight of the Lord, and of every believer; sure foundation on which to build. And he who in any age or natio shall believe this testimony, and rest all his hopes, and his never-dying soul on this foundation, shall never be confounded. The right effect of faith in Christ is, to quiet and calm the soul, til events shall be timed by Him, who has all times in his own hand an power. Whatever men trust to for justification, except the righteousness of Christ; or for wisdom, strength, and holiness, excep the influences of the Holy Ghost; or for happiness, except the favou of God; that protection in which they thought to shelter themselves will prove not enough to answer the intention. Those who rest in righteousness of their own, will have deceived themselves: the bed i too short, the covering too narrow. God will be glorified in the fulfilling of his counsels. If those that profess to be members of God's church, make themselves like Philistines and Canaanites, the must expect to be dealt with as such. Then dare not to ridicule the reproofs of God's word, or the approaches of judgements.
Is. 28:23-29 The husbandman applies to his calling with pains an prudence, in all the works of it according to their nature. Thus the Lord, who has given men this wisdom, is wonderful in counsel, an excellent in his working. As the occasion requires, he threatens corrects, spares, shows mercy, or executes vengeance. Afflictions ar God's threshing instruments, to loosen us from the world, to par between us and our chaff, and to prepare us for use. God wil proportion them to our strength; they shall be no heavier than there is need. When his end is answered, the trials and sufferings of his people shall cease; his wheat shall be gathered into the garner, but the chaf shall be burned with unquenchable fire _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew והיה1961 כחלום2472 חזון2377 לילה3915 המון1995 כל3605 הגוים1471 הצבאים6633 על5921 אריאל740 וכל3605 צביה6633 ומצדתה4685 והמציקים׃6693
