This chapter contains a prophecy concerning the destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem by the Romans; the character and condition of the people of the Jews, previous to it; the calling of the Gentiles, by the preaching of the Gospel; the ruin of antichrist, and the conversion of the Jews,…

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt Many Jewish writers by “Ariel” understand the altar of burnt offerings; and so the Targum, “woe, altar, altar, which was built in the city where David dwelt;” and so it is called in (Ezek. 43:15, Ezek.

Yet I will distress Ariel Or “straiten” it, by causing it to be besieged; and this he would do, notwithstanding their yearly sacrifices, and their observance of their solemn feasts, and other ceremonies of the law, in which they placed their confidence, and neglected weightier matters: and there…

And I will camp against thee round about Or as a “ball” or “globe” [[13]]; a camp all around; the Lord is said to do that which the enemy should do, because it was by his will, and according to his order, and which he would succeed and prosper, and therefore the prophecy of it is the more terrible;…

And thou shalt be brought down To the ground, and laid level with it, even the city of Jerusalem, as it was by the Romans; and as it was predicted by Christ it would, though some understand this of the humbling of the inhabitants of it, by the appearance of Sennacherib’s army before it, and of…

Moreover, the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust Or “of those that fan thee” [[15]], as the Vulgate Latin Version; and so the Targum, “of those that scatter thee;” or of thine enemies, as others; meaning the Romans, who were a strange people to them, who got the dominion over them,…

Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise That is, not the multitude of strangers and terrible ones, unless they could be understood of the wicked among the Jews; but thou Ariel, or Jerusalem, shalt be punished by the Lord of hosts; for this…

And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel The Roman army, which consisted of men of all nations, that fought against Jerusalem; the city in which was the altar, as the Targum paraphrases it: even all that fight against her, and her munition, and that distress her; that besieged…

It shall be even as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth That is, he dreams of food, and imagines it before him, and that he is really eating it: but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; his stomach is empty when he awakes, and he finds he has not ate anything at all: or as when a…

Stay yourselves, and wonder Stop a while, pause a little, consider within yourselves the case and circumstances of these people, and wonder at their stupidity.

For the Lord hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep Gave them up to a stupid frame of spirit; to a reprobate mind, a mind void of judgment and sense; to judicial blindness and hardness of heart: this was remarkably fulfilled in the Jews, in the times of Christ and his apostles, who…

And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed The prophecies of all the prophets contained in the Scriptures; or all the prophecies in the book of Isaiah, concerning the Messiah, were no more seen, known, and understood, both by the priests and the people, than if…

And the book is delivered to him that is not learned Or that knows not a book or letters, as before, and so consequently cannot read, having never been put to school, or learned to read: saying, Read this, I pray thee; or “now” [[21]], at once, immediately: and he saith, I am not learned; he does…

Wherefore the Lord said Concerning the hypocritical people of the Jews in Christ’s time, as the words are applied by our Lord himself, : Forasmuch as this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me; Kimchi observes, there is a double reading of the word (נגש) ,…

Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people Because of their hypocrisy and formality, their regard to men, their doctrines and commandments, and not to the will and word of God, therefore he determines “to deal marvellously with this people”: even a marvellous work,…

Woe unto them Or, “O ye”, that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord; which they consulted against Christ, to take away his life, to persecute his apostles, and hinder the spread of his Gospel; which though they consulted in private, and formed deep schemes, imagining they were not observed…

Surely your turning of things upside down Revolving things in their minds, throwing them into different shapes, forming various schemes, and inverting the order of things by their deep counsels, and seeking to hide things from the Lord: or, “O the perverseness of you” [[24]]; in imagining and…

Is it not yet a very little while In a short space of time, in a few years, what follows would come to pass; when there would be a strange change and alteration made in the world, and by which it would appear, that the Lord not only knows, but foreknows, all things: and Lebanon shall be turned into…

And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, &c.] That is, in the Gospel day, or times of the Gospel dispensation, when that should be preached to the Gentiles; who before were deaf, but now should be made to hear, and be willing to hear, and hear so as to understand the doctrines…

The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord The “meek”, lowly, and humble, are such who are made sensible of sin, and become humble under a sense of it; who see the insufficiency of their own righteousness, and submit to the righteousness of Christ; who attribute all they have, and are, to…

For the terrible one is brought to nought Who before was so to the people of God; meaning not Sennacherib king of Assyria, but some formidable enemy or enemies under the Gospel dispensation; as the Scribes and Pharisees, and the Jewish sanhedrim; who were “violent” [[2]], as it may be rendered,…

That make a man an offender for a word Inadvertently spoken, unwarily dropped, without any bad design or ill meaning; or for a word misplaced or misconstrued; or for preaching and professing the word of God, the Gospel of salvation, and adhering to it; which is the true character of the persecutors…

Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham That brought him from Ur of the Chaldees; that freed him from idolatry, and from a vain conversation before conversion, and delivered him from many evils and dangers afterwards; and saved him with an everlasting salvation, through the Messiah, the…

But when he seeth his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him That is, it will be a pleasure to the church of God, signified by Jacob, when they shall observe a great number of Jacob’s posterity, or of the Jews, born again, become the “children” of the church, born in her, and nursed up…

They also that erred in spirit In judgment, and in spiritual things; as the Jews have done, ever since the Messiah’s coming, being given up to a spirit of error, as the Targum, on calls it; they have erred concerning the Scriptures, and the prophecies of them; concerning the Messiah, his work and…