King James Version
Isaiah 25
12 verses with commentary
Praise for the Lord's Salvation
O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name</strong>—After chapter 24's devastating judgment, chapter 25 erupts in worship. The personal pronouns emphasize covenant relationship: 'my God' (אֱלֹהָי, Elohai). <strong>I will exalt thee</strong> (אֲרוֹמִמְךָ, aromimka) means to lift up, magnify, make great—responding to God's self-revelation in judgment with worship.<br>...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
XXV.
(1) **O Lord, thou art my God.**—The burst of praise follows, like St. Paul’s in Romans 11:33-36, upon the contemplation of the glory of the heavenly city.
**Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.**—It is better to omit the words in italics, and to treat the words as standing in the objective case, in apposition with “wonderful things.” The “counsels of old” are the eternal purposes ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 7
Ec 7:1-29.
1. (See on Ec 6:12).
**name--**character; a godly mind and life; not mere reputation with man, but what a man is in the eyes of God, with whom the name and reality are one thing (Is 9:6). This alone is "good," while all else is "vanity" when made the chief end.
**ointment--**used lavishly at costly banquets and peculiarly refreshing in the sultry East. The Hebrew for "...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 25
**Verses 1-3**
God needs not search into any thing; nothing can be hid from him. But it is the honour of rulers to search out matters, to bring to light hidden works of darkness.
For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For thou hast made of a city an heap</strong> (כִּי שַׂמְתָּ מֵעִיר לְגָל, ki samta me'ir legal)—The Hebrew גַּל (gal, heap) means a pile of ruins, rubble. God actively reduced a proud city to waste. <strong>Of a defenced city a ruin</strong> (עִיר מִבְצָר לְמַפֵּלָה, ir mivtsar lemapelah)—Even fortified cities (מִבְצָר, mivtsar, fortress-cities thought impregnable) collapse into ruins (מַ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Thou hast made of a city an heap.**—The city spoken of as “the palace of strangers” was, probably in the prophet’s thought, that which he identified with the oppressors and destroyers of his people—*i.e., *Nineveh or Babylon; but that city was also for him the representation of the world-power which in every age opposes itself to the righteousness of God’s kingdom. The Babylon of Isaiah beco...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
2. Proving that it is not a sensual enjoyment of earthly goods which is meant in Ec 3:13; 5:18. A thankful use of these is right, but frequent feasting Solomon had found dangerous to piety in his own case. So Job's fear (Ec 1:4, 5). The house of feasting often shuts out thoughts of God and eternity. The sight of the dead in the "house of mourning" causes "the living" to think of their own "end."
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 25
**Verses 1-3**
God needs not search into any thing; nothing can be hid from him. But it is the honour of rulers to search out matters, to bring to light hidden works of darkness.
Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee</strong> (עַל־כֵּן יְכַבְּדוּךָ עַם־עָז, al-ken yekhabducha am-az)—The Hebrew עָז (az, strong) indicates powerful, mighty nations. Their worship isn't voluntary but compelled by witnessing God's judgments. כָּבַד (kavad, glorify) means to give weight, honor, acknowledge importance. Even enemy nations must acknowledge YHWH's supremacy when they...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Therefore shall the strong people . . .**—Better, “a *fierce people *and a city,” the Hebrew having no article before either noun. The words paint the effect of the downfall of the imperial oppressor on the outlying fiercer nations, who were thus taught to recognise the righteous judgments of the God of Israel. (Comp. Revelation 11:13; Revelation 15:4.)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**3. Sorrow--**such as arises from serious thoughts of eternity.
**laughter--**reckless mirth (Ec 2:2).
**by the sadness ... better--**(Psa 126:5, 6; 2Co 4:17; He 12:10, 11). Maurer translates: "In sadness of countenance there is (may be) a good (cheerful) heart." So Hebrew, for "good," equivalent to "cheerful" (Ec 11:9); but the parallel clause supports English Version.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 25
**Verses 1-3**
God needs not search into any thing; nothing can be hid from him. But it is the honour of rulers to search out matters, to bring to light hidden works of darkness.
For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress</strong>—The Hebrew מָעוֹז (maoz, strength/stronghold) appears twice, emphasizing God as fortress for the vulnerable. דַּל (dal, poor) and אֶבְיוֹן (evyon, needy) describe those without resources or power. בַּצַּר־לוֹ (batsar-lo, in his distress) indicates dire straits, extreme trouble. While God judges the ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Thou hast been a strength . . .**—Literally, *a fortress. *The fierceness of the oppressor is represented by the intolerable heat, and the fierce tornado of an eastern storm, dashing against the wall, threatening it with destruction. From that storm the faithful servants of the Lord should find shelter as in the castle of the great King.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-5**
For a prince to suppress vice, and reform his people, is the best way to support his government.
Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers</strong> (שְׁאוֹן זָרִים תַּכְנִיעַ, she'on zarim takhnia)—The Hebrew שְׁאוֹן (she'on, noise) suggests tumult, uproar, boasting of invaders. זָרִים (zarim, strangers/foreigners) are those outside God's covenant. תַּכְנִיעַ (takhnia, bring down/humble) indicates forceful suppression of their arrogant clamor.<br><br><strong>As the heat in a dry pl...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers . . .**—The thought of Isaiah 25:4 is reproduced with a variation of imagery, the scorching *“*heat” in a “dry” (or *parched*) “land.” This is deprived of its power to harm, by the presence of Jehovah, as the welcome shadow of a cloud hides the sun’s intolerable blaze. (Comp. Isaiah 32:2.) It is noticeable that the LXX. in both passages gives “Sio...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
5. (Psa 141:4, 5). Godly reproof offends the flesh, but benefits the spirit. Fools' songs in the house of mirth please the flesh, but injure the soul.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-5**
For a prince to suppress vice, and reform his people, is the best way to support his government.
And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast</strong> (וְעָשָׂה יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת לְכָל־הָעַמִּים...מִשְׁתֶּה, ve'asah YHWH Tsevaot lekhol-ha'amim...mishteh)—This marks dramatic shift from judgment to salvation. יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת (YHWH Tsevaot, LORD of hosts/armies) emphasizes sovereign power. <strong>In this mountain</strong> likely means Mount Zion, where God's p...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **And in this mountain shall the Lord . . .**—The mountain is, as in Isaiah 2:1, the hill of Zion, the true representative type of the city of God. True to what we may call the catholicity of his character, Isaiah looks forward to a time when the outlying heathen nations shall no longer be excluded from fellowship with Israel, but shall share in its sacrificial feasts even as at the banquet of...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. crackling--**answers to the loud merriment of fools. It is the very fire consuming them which produces the seeming merry noise (Joe 2:5). Their light soon goes out in the black darkness. There is a paronomasia in the Hebrew, Sirim ("thorns"), Sir ("pot"). The wicked are often compared to "thorns" (2Sa 23:6; Na 1:10). Dried cow-dung was the common fuel in Palestine; its slowness in burning mak...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 6-8** The kind reception of repentant sinners, is often in the New Testament likened to a feast. The guests invited are all people, Gentiles as well as Jews. There is that in the gospel which strengthens and makes glad the heart, and is fit for those who are under convictions of sin, and mourning for it. There is a veil spread over all nations, for all sat in darkness. But this veil the L...
Read full commentary →And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. destroy: Heb. swallow up cast: Heb. covered
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people</strong> (וּבִלַּע בָּהָר הַזֶּה פְּנֵי־הַלּוֹט הַלּוֹט עַל־כָּל־הָעַמִּים, ubila bahar hazeh penei-halot...al-kol-ha'amim)—The verb בָּלַע (bala, destroy/swallow up) means to consume, devour, annihilate completely. פְּנֵי (penei, face) with הַלּוֹט (halot, covering/veil) describes something covering people'...
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(7) **The face of the covering** **cast over all people . . .**—To cover the face was, in the East, a sign of mourning for the dead (2Samuel 19:4); and to destroy that covering is to overcome death, of which it is thus the symbol. With this there probably mingled another, though kindred, thought. The man whose face is thus covered cannot see the light, and the “covering” represents the veil (2Cori...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**7. oppression--**recurring to the idea (Ec 3:16; 5:8). Its connection with Ec 7:4-6 is, the sight of "oppression" perpetrated by "fools" might tempt the "wise" to call in question God's dispensations, and imitate the folly (equivalent to "madness") described (Ec 7:5,6). Weiss, for "oppression," translates, "distraction," produced by merriment. But Ec 5:8 favors English Version.
**a gift--**tha...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 6-8** The kind reception of repentant sinners, is often in the New Testament likened to a feast. The guests invited are all people, Gentiles as well as Jews. There is that in the gospel which strengthens and makes glad the heart, and is fit for those who are under convictions of sin, and mourning for it. There is a veil spread over all nations, for all sat in darkness. But this veil the L...
Read full commentary →He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
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KJV Study Commentary
This prophetic declaration announces death's ultimate defeat, one of the Old Testament's clearest statements on resurrection and eternal life. 'He will swallow up death in victory' (bala ha-mavet la-netsach, בָּלַע הַמָּוֶת לָנֶצַח) uses vivid imagery—death, which devours humanity, will itself be devoured. The verb bala (swallow, engulf) depicts complete consumption. 'In victory' or 'forever' (net...
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(8) **He will swallow up . . .**—The verb is the same as the “destroy” of Isaiah 25:7. The words are an echo of the earlier promise of Hosea 13:14. They are, in their turn, re-echoed in the triumph-anthem of St. Paul in 1Corinthians 15:54. The clause, “the Lord God shall wipe away tears,” is in like manner reproduced in Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:4.
**The rebuke of his people . . .**—The taunt...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
8. connected with Ec 7:7. Let the "wise" wait for "the end," and the "oppressions" which now (in "the beginning") perplex their faith, will be found by God's working to be overruled to their good. "Tribulation worketh patience" (Ro 5:3), which is infinitely better than "the proud spirit" that prosperity might have generated in them, as it has in fools (Psa 73:2, 3, 12-14, 17-26; Jas 5:11).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 6-8** The kind reception of repentant sinners, is often in the New Testament likened to a feast. The guests invited are all people, Gentiles as well as Jews. There is that in the gospel which strengthens and makes glad the heart, and is fit for those who are under convictions of sin, and mourning for it. There is a veil spread over all nations, for all sat in darkness. But this veil the L...
Read full commentary →And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us</strong> (הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֵינוּ זֶה קִוִּינוּ לוֹ וְיוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ)—The demonstrative pronoun <em>zeh</em> (this one) conveys joyful recognition: <em>this</em> is the God we longed for! The verb <em>qivvinu</em> (we waited, hoped) in piel stem indicates patient, expectant waiting. <strong>This is the LORD; we have waited for him, w...
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(9) **It shall be said in that day.**—The speakers are obviously the company of the redeemed, the citizens of the new Jerusalem. The litanies of supplication are changed into anthems of praise for the great salvation that has been wrought for them.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9. angry--**impatient at adversity befalling thee, as Job was (Ec 5:2; Pr 12:16).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 9-12** With joy and praise will those entertain the glad tidings of the Redeemer, who looked for him; and with a triumphant song will glorified saints enter into the joy of their Lord. And it is not in vain to wait for him; for the mercy comes at last, with abundant recompence for the delay. The hands once stretched out upon the cross, to make way for our salvation, will at length be stre...
Read full commentary →For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill . trodden down under: or, threshed, etc trodden down for: or, threshed in Madmenah
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest</strong> (כִּי־תָנוּחַ יַד־יְהוָה בָּהָר הַזֶּה)—Mount Zion becomes the resting place of God's <em>yad</em> (hand, power). The verb <em>nuach</em> (rest, settle, remain) indicates permanent presence. God's hand, which scattered enemies, now rests protectively on His people. <strong>And Moab shall be trodden down under him</strong>—Sudden...
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(10) **Moab shall be trodden down . . .**—There seems at first something like a descent from the great apocalypse of a triumph over death and sin and sorrow, to a name associated with the local victories or defeats of a remote period in the history of Israel. The inscription of the Moabite stone, in connection with Isaiah 15, helps to explain the nature of the allusion. Moab had been prominent amo...
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10. Do not call in question God's ways in making thy former days better than thy present, as Job did (Job 29:2-5). The very putting of the question argues that heavenly "wisdom" (Margin) is not as much as it ought made the chief good with thee.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 9-12** With joy and praise will those entertain the glad tidings of the Redeemer, who looked for him; and with a triumphant song will glorified saints enter into the joy of their Lord. And it is not in vain to wait for him; for the mercy comes at last, with abundant recompence for the delay. The hands once stretched out upon the cross, to make way for our salvation, will at length be stre...
Read full commentary →And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>He shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim</strong>—The subject 'he' is ambiguous: either Moab desperately flailing to escape judgment, or God actively executing judgment. The Hebrew verb <em>paras</em> (spread out, stretch) describes a swimmer's arm motions. The image: futile thrashing in an overwhelming flood. <strong>And h...
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(11) **As he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim.**—The structure of the sentence leaves it uncertain whether the comparison applies (1) to Jehovah spreading forth His hands with the swimmer’s strength to repress the pride of Moab, or (2) to the outstretched hands upon the Cross, or (3) to Moab vainly struggling in the deep waters of calamity. Each view has the support of commentators....
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
11. Rather, "Wisdom, as compared with an inheritance, is good," that is, is as good as an inheritance; "yea, better (literally, and a profit) to them that see the sun" (that is, the living, Ec 11:7; Job 3:16; Psa 49:19).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 9-12** With joy and praise will those entertain the glad tidings of the Redeemer, who looked for him; and with a triumphant song will glorified saints enter into the joy of their Lord. And it is not in vain to wait for him; for the mercy comes at last, with abundant recompence for the delay. The hands once stretched out upon the cross, to make way for our salvation, will at length be stre...
Read full commentary →And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust</strong> (וּמִבְצַר מִשְׂגַּב חוֹמֹתֶיךָ הִשַּׁח הִשְׁפִּיל הִגִּיעַ לָאָרֶץ עַד־עָפָר)—Four Hebrew verbs describe total destruction: <em>shachach</em> (bow down, bring low), <em>shaphil</em> (humble, abase), <em>higgia</em> (cause to touch/reach), <em>ad-aphar</em> (unto dust...
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(12) **And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls . . .**—Primarily the words, as interpreted by Isaiah 25:10, point to Kir-Moab (Isaiah 15:1) as the stronghold of the nation. Beyond this they predict a like destruction of every stronghold, every rock-built fortress (2Corinthians 10:5) of the great world-power of which Moab was for the time the symbol.
**Ellicott's Commentary for English Reade...
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12. Literally, (To be) in (that is, under) the shadow (Is 30:2) of wisdom (is the same as to be) in (under) the shadow of money; wisdom no less shields one from the ills of life than money does.
**is, that--**rather, "the excellency of the knowledge of wisdom giveth life," that is, life in the highest sense, here and hereafter (Pr 3:18; Joh 17:3; 2Pe 1:3). Wisdom (religion) cannot be lost as mon...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 9-12** With joy and praise will those entertain the glad tidings of the Redeemer, who looked for him; and with a triumphant song will glorified saints enter into the joy of their Lord. And it is not in vain to wait for him; for the mercy comes at last, with abundant recompence for the delay. The hands once stretched out upon the cross, to make way for our salvation, will at length be stre...
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