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2. The Mountain of the Lord

¹ This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

² In the last days

   the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established
   as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
   and all nations will stream to it.

³ Many peoples will come and say,

   “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
   to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
   so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
   the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
⁴ He will judge between the nations
   and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
   and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
   nor will they train for war anymore.

⁵ Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the LORD.

The Day of the LORD

    ⁶ You, LORD, have abandoned your people,
   the descendants of Jacob.
They are full of superstitions from the East;
   they practice divination like the Philistines
   and embrace pagan customs.
⁷ Their land is full of silver and gold;
   there is no end to their treasures.
Their land is full of horses;
   there is no end to their chariots.
⁸ Their land is full of idols;
   they bow down to the work of their hands,
   to what their fingers have made.
⁹ So people will be brought low
   and everyone humbled—
   do not forgive them. Or not raise them up

    ¹⁰ Go into the rocks, hide in the ground
   from the fearful presence of the LORD
   and the splendor of his majesty!
¹¹ The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled
   and human pride brought low;
the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

    ¹² The LORD Almighty has a day in store
   for all the proud and lofty,
for all that is exalted
   (and they will be humbled),
¹³ for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty,
   and all the oaks of Bashan,
¹⁴ for all the towering mountains
   and all the high hills,
¹⁵ for every lofty tower
   and every fortified wall,
¹⁶ for every trading ship Hebrew every ship of Tarshish
   and every stately vessel.
¹⁷ The arrogance of man will be brought low
   and human pride humbled;
the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,
    ¹⁸ and the idols will totally disappear.

    ¹⁹ People will flee to caves in the rocks
   and to holes in the ground
from the fearful presence of the LORD
   and the splendor of his majesty,
   when he rises to shake the earth.
²⁰ In that day people will throw away
   to the moles and bats
their idols of silver and idols of gold,
   which they made to worship.
²¹ They will flee to caverns in the rocks
   and to the overhanging crags
from the fearful presence of the LORD
   and the splendor of his majesty,
   when he rises to shake the earth.

    ²² Stop trusting in mere humans,
   who have but a breath in their nostrils.
   Why hold them in esteem?

20. In that day a man will cast away his idols Idolaters are amazingly delighted with their own superstitions and ungodly worship; for although they abound in enormities and crimes, still they betake themselves to this refuge, that they imagine that their worship appeases God. Just as in the present day, if we should represent the crimes and lawless passions of every kind which abound among the papists, they certainly will not be able to deny our statements, but will flatter themselves on this ground, that they have a plausible form of worship, and will believe that this vail covers all their crimes. Accordingly, the Prophet deprives idolaters of this cloak, and threatens that they will no longer be able to conceal their pollution; for the Lord will compel them to throw away their idols, that they may acknowledge that they had no good reason for placing their hope and confidence in them.

In short, they will be ashamed of their foolishness; for in prosperity they think that they enjoy the favor of God, as if he showed that he takes delight in their worship; and they cannot be convinced to the contrary, until God actually make evident how greatly he abhors them. It is only when they are brought into adversity that they begin to acknowledge their wickedness, as Hosea strikingly illustrates by comparing them to whores, who do not acknowledge their wickedness so long as they make gain, and live in splendor, but who, when they are deprived of those enjoyments, and forsaken by their lovers, begin to think of their wretchedness and disgrace, and enter into the way of repentance, of which they had never thought while they enjoyed luxury. (Hosea 2:5.) The same thing almost always happens with idolaters, who are not ashamed of their wickedness, so as to cast away their idols, until they have been visited by very sore distress, and made almost to think that they are ruined.

Which they made; that is, which were made for them by the agency of workmen. Nor was this all unnecessary addition; for he means that pretended gods are not entitled to adoration: and what sort of gods can they be that have been made by men, seeing that God exists from himself, and never had a beginning? It is therefore highly foolish, and contrary to reason, that men should worship the work of their own hands. So then by this expression, he aggravates their criminality, that idols, though they are composed of gold or silver, or some other perishable material, and have been manufactured by men, are yet worshipped instead of God; and at the same time he states the reason why they are displeasing to God: it is, because they are worshipped. On what pretense will the papists now excuse their ungodliness? for they cannot deny that they render adoration to images; and wherever such worship is performed, there ungodliness is clearly proved.

Into the holes of the moles and of the bats By the holes of the moles he means any filthy places in which they are disgracefully concealed.