Isaias ii.
Notes & Commentary:
Ver. 1. Jerusalem. Many particular prophecies are blended with the general one, which regards Christ. (Calmet)
Ver. 2. Days. The whole time of the new law, from the coming of Christ till the end of the world, is called in the Scripture the last days; because no other age, or time shall come after it, but only eternity. (Challoner) — It is therefore styled the last hour, 1 John ii. (Worthington) — Mountains. This shews the perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ: for a mountain upon the top of mountains cannot be hid. (Challoner) — This evidently regards the Church, Matthew v. (Worthington) — The Jews can never shew the fulfillment of this prophecy in any material temple. Micheas (iv. 1.) copies this text.
Ver. 3. Jerusalem. Our Saviour preached there, and in some sense the religion established by him, may be esteemed a reform, or accomplishment of the old law.
Ver. 4. War. Ezechias enjoyed peace after the defeat of Sennacherib, as the whole world did at the birth of Christ. (Calmet) — Claudentur belli portæ. (Virgil, Æneid i.)
Ver. 5. Lord. Ezechias, or rather Christ and his Church, invite all to embrace the true faith. (Calmet)
Ver. 6. Jacob. Thus the converts address God, (Haydock) or the prophet gives the reasons of the subversion of the ten tribes. — Filled. Consecrated as priests. — Children. Imitating idolatrous nations, (Calmet) and marrying with them, (Calmet; Septuagint; Theodoret) or even giving way to unnatural sins. (St. Jerome) (Menochius) — The Jews were not utterly cast off till they had put Christ to death. His Church shall never perish. (Worthington)
Ver. 8. Horses. Which the kings were forbidden to multiply, Deuteronomy xvii. 16. Great riches often precede the ruin of states.
Ver. 9. Forgive. Septuagint, “I will not dismiss them.” Hebrew, “and thou hast not pardoned them.”
Ver. 10. Rock. Screen thyself if thou canst. He alludes to the kingdom of Israel, which was ruined by idolatry, ver. 18, 20.
Ver. 13. Basan. Israel; or Syria and the Ammonites, (Calmet) whom Nabuchodonosor subdued, five years after he had taken Jerusalem, (Josephus, [Jewish Antiquities?] x. 11.) as the Idumeans, (ver. 14.) Philistines, and Egyptians, (ver. 15.) and Tyrians, (ver. 16.) who felt also the indignation of the Lord, Jeremias xxv. 15.
Ver. 16. Tharsis. In Cilicia, denoting large ships for merchandise. — Fair. Hebrew, “desirable pictures.” Septuagint, “ships.” (Calmet)
Ver. 18. Destroyed. This was verified by the establishment of Christianity. And by this and other texts of the like nature, the wild system of some modern sectaries is abundantly confuted, who charge the whole Christian Church with worshipping idols, for many ages. (Challoner) — Yea, for above a thousand years, while she still professed the name of Christ. (Worthington)
Ver. 20. Bats. The Egyptians adored all sorts of animals. (Herodotus ii. 65.) — Ægyptus portenta colat. (Juvenal xv.) — Omnigenumque Deum monstra. (Virgil, Æneid viii.) — The mole was much esteemed by magicians, who promised any the art of divination and success, who should eat the heart of one still warm. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxx. 3.) The Israelites were always ready to embrace such superstitious practices. (Calmet)
Ver. 22. High. Adhere to Jesus Christ. (Origen) (Menochius) — Septuagint omit this sentence, and St. Jerome thinks they did it perhaps for fear of shocking their brethren. In Jeremias xvii. — It is supplied from Aquila’s version, “how must he be esteemed?” (Calmet) — Protestants, “for wherein is he to be accounted of?” Jesus will kill the wicked one with the spirit of his mouth, 2 Thessalonians ii. 8. (Haydock) — No dependence must be had in man. The Israelites vainly trusted in Egypt. (Calmet)
Bible Text & Cross-references:
All nations shall flow to the Church of Christ. The Jews shall be rejected for their sins. Idolatry shall be destroyed.
1 The word that Isaias, the son of Amos, saw, concerning Juda and Jerusalem.
2 *And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go, and say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
6 For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob: because they are filled as in times past, and have had soothsayers as the Philistines, and have adhered to strange children.
7 Their land is filled with silver and gold: and there is no end of their treasures.
8 And their land is filled with horses: and their chariots are innumerable. Their land also is full of idols: they have adored the work of their own hands, which their own fingers have made.
9 And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased: therefore, forgive them not.
10 Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.
11 The lofty eyes of man are humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be made to stoop: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 Because the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and high-minded, and upon every one that is arrogant, and he shall be humbled.
13 And upon all the tall and lofty cedars of Libanus, and upon all the oaks of Basan.
14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the elevated hills.
15 And upon every high tower, and every fenced wall.
16 And upon all the ships of Tharsis, and upon all that is fair to behold.
17 And the loftiness of men shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
18 And idols shall be utterly destroyed.
19 *And they shall go into the holes of rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.
20 In that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which he had made for himself to adore, moles and bats.
21 And he shall go into the clefts of rocks, and into the holes of stones, from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.
22 Cease ye, therefore, from the man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he is reputed high.
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*
2: Micheas iv. 1.
19: Osee x. 8.; Luke xxiii. 30.; Apocalypse vi. 16.