Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary
Select a resource above

Government with Justice Predicted

32

See, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule with justice.

2

Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,

a covert from the tempest,

like streams of water in a dry place,

like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

3

Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed,

and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.

4

The minds of the rash will have good judgment,

and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.

5

A fool will no longer be called noble,

nor a villain said to be honorable.

6

For fools speak folly,

and their minds plot iniquity:

to practice ungodliness,

to utter error concerning the L ord,

to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,

and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

7

The villainies of villains are evil;

they devise wicked devices

to ruin the poor with lying words,

even when the plea of the needy is right.

8

But those who are noble plan noble things,

and by noble things they stand.

 

Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

9

Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;

you complacent daughters, listen to my speech.

10

In little more than a year

you will shudder, you complacent ones;

for the vintage will fail,

the fruit harvest will not come.

11

Tremble, you women who are at ease,

shudder, you complacent ones;

strip, and make yourselves bare,

and put sackcloth on your loins.

12

Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,

for the fruitful vine,

13

for the soil of my people

growing up in thorns and briers;

yes, for all the joyous houses

in the jubilant city.

14

For the palace will be forsaken,

the populous city deserted;

the hill and the watchtower

will become dens forever,

the joy of wild asses,

a pasture for flocks;

15

until a spirit from on high is poured out on us,

and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

The Peace of God’s Reign

16

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,

and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.

17

The effect of righteousness will be peace,

and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

18

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,

in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

19

The forest will disappear completely,

and the city will be utterly laid low.

20

Happy will you be who sow beside every stream,

who let the ox and the donkey range freely.

 


17. And the work of righteousness shall be peace. A little before, he censured severely that peace which made the Jews drowsy and slothful; he now promises a different kind of repose, which will be a striking proof of the love of God, who has received them into favor, and will faithfully guard them. We ought therefore to observe the implied contrast between that brutal repose which the reprobate think that they obtain by their presumption in committing every kind of wickedness, and in which they also fall asleep, and that different kind of repose, on the other hand, which the children of God obtain by a religious and holy life, and which Isaiah exhorts us to desire, shewing that we ought fearlessly to believe that a blessed and joyful peace awaits us when we have been reconciled to God.

In this way he recommends to them to follow uprightness, that they may obtain assured peace; for, as Peter declares, there is no better way of procuring favor, that no man may do us injury, than to abstain from all evil-doing. (1 Peter 3:13.) But the Prophet leads them higher, to aim at a religious and holy life by the grace of God; for nothing is more unreasonable than that wicked men should desire to have peace, while they are continually fighting against God. That wish is indeed common; for hardly one person in a hundred shall be found who does not loudly extol peace, while at the same time every man raises up enemies to himself in the earth, and all in vast crowds disturb heaven and earth by their crimes. Now, the latter repose, being perpetual, is compared by him to the former, which is slight and momentary.

The effect of righteousness. When peace receives this designation, let us learn that, as wars proceed from the wrath of God, which we provoke by our wickedness, so peace springs from his blessing. When, therefore, we see enemies enraged to battle, and rising furiously against us, let us seek no other remedy than repentance; for the Lord will easily allay commotions when we have returned to him. He it is, as the Psalmist says, who

“maketh wars to cease to the ends of the earth, who breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in pieces, and burneth the chariots in the fire.” (Psalm 46:9.)

We have already said that these things do not relate exclusively to Hezekiah, but must be referred to Christ.


VIEWNAME is study