O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, [and] not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
11, 12. The outward splendour of the new Jerusalem described in highly figurative language; comp. Tob 13:16-17 ; Rev 21:18-21.
I will lay thy stones with fair colours ] lit. in antimony (R.V. marg.). Antimony ( pkh) was used by Oriental females as an eye-powder to blacken the edges of the eyelids and enhance the lustre of the eyes (2Ki 9:30; Jer 4:30; comp. the name of Job’s third daughter, Keren-hap-pukh, ‘horn of eye-powder,’ Job 42:14. see further Lane, Manners and Customs, &c. ed. 1890, pp. 29 ff.). In the figure the antimony would represent the costly mortar used to set off the brilliancy of the still more costly stones. The of the LXX. seems to stand for (instead of ), a kind of precious stone; see Exo 28:18 &c. In 1Ch 29:2, where we read of “stones of pkh” (R.V. “stones for inlaid work”) prepared for the Temple, the idea must be different; but whether that passage has any connexion with the present image is doubtful.
I will lay thy foundations (lit. “I will found thee”) with sapphires ] Exo 24:10; Eze 1:26.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O thou afflicted – In the previous verses, Yahweh had merely promised protection, and had in general terms assured them of his favor. Here he shows that they should not only be defended, but that his church would rise with great beauty, and be ornamented like a most splendid palace or temple. This is to be regarded as addressed primarily to the exiles in Babylon near to the close of their seventy years captivity. But nothing forbids us to apply it to the church in all similar circumstances when persecuted, and when she is like a ship rolling on the heaving billows of the ocean.
Tossed with tempest – Lowth, Beaten with the storm. The idea is that of a ship that is driven by the tempest; or any object that is tossed about with a whirlwind ( soarah). See Jon 1:11-13; Hos 13:3; Heb 3:14. The figure is especially striking in an Oriental country. Tempests and whirlwinds there, are much more violent than they are with us, and nothing there can stand before them (see Harmers Obs. vol. i. p. 92ff Ed. Loud. 1808).
And not comforted – They were far away from all the comforts which they had enjoyed in their own land, and they were apparently forsaken by God.
Behold, I will lay thy stones – It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to compare the prosperity of the church to a splendid temple or palace. In the book of Tobit (Tobit 13:16, 17) a description of Jerusalem occurs, which has all the appearance of having been copied from this, or at least shows that the writer had this passage in his eye. For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls, and battlements, and towers, of pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of Ophir. And in the book of Revelation Rev 21:18-21, a similar description occurs of the New Jerusalem. Possibly John had his eye upon this passage in Isaiah, though he has greatly amplified the description. The passage here undoubtedly contains a figurative description of the future prosperity and glory of the church of God. Lowth remarks on it, justly, These seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise moral and spiritual meaning. The phrase I will lay thy stones, refers to the work of masonry in laying down the foundation of a building, or the stones of which a building is composed, in mortar or cement. Literally, I cause to lie down. The word here used ( rabats) is usually appropriated to an animal that crouches or lies down.
With fair colors – This translation by no means conveys the idea of the original. The sense is not that the stones would have fair colors, but that the cement which would be used would be that which was commonly employed to make the most valued colors. The edifice which would be reared would be as costly and magnificent as if the very cement of the stones consisted of the most precious coloring matter; the purest vermilion. The word rendered here fair colors ( puk) denotes properly, seaweed, from which an alkaline paint was prepared; then paint itself, dye, fucus, and also that with which the Hebrew women tinged their eyelashes (stibium). This is composed of the powder of lead ore, and was drawn with a small wooden bodkin through the eyelids, and tinged the hair and the edges of the eyelids with a dark sooty color, and was esteemed to be a graceful ornament. This practice is of great antiquity.
It was practiced by Jezebel (see 2Ki 9:30, where the same word is used as here); it was practiced among the Greeks and Romans (Xen. Cyr. i. 11); and it is still practiced in Africa (see Shaws Travels, pp. 294, 295). The word used here is rendered paint, or painted 2Ki 9:30; Jer 22:14; and glistening stones 1Ch 29:2. It does not occur elsewhere. In the passage in Chronicles it may mean the carbuncle, as it is rendered here by the Septuagint, ( anthraka); but it here denotes, doubtless, the valued paint or dye which was used as an ornament. The description here is that the very stones should be laid in cement of this description, and is of course equivalent to saying that it would be in the most costly and magnificent manner. It may be added, however, that it would not be the mere fact that the stibium would constitute the cement that the prophet seems to refer to, but probably he also means to intimate that this would contribute greatly to the beauty of the city. The cement in which bricks or stones is laid in a building is partly visible, and the beauty of the structure would be augmented by having that which was regarded as constituting the highest ornament used for cement.
And thy foundations with sapphires – The sapphire is a well-known gem distinguished for its beauty and splendor. In hardness it is inferior to the diamond only. Its colors are blue, red, violet, green, white, or limpid.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 54:11-17
O thou afflicted
The city of God
The reference is still to Jerusalem.
In the former paragraph, she was addressed as a barren wife; here as destined to arise from her encumbering ruins, and become the joy of the whole earth. Of course, the primary reference is to that actual rebuilding which took place under the direction of Nehemiah. But there is a further and more spiritual meaning. These words must refer to that city of God which is ever arising amid the ruins of all other structures. Watched by the ever-attentive eye of the great Architect, wrought by unseen hands, tested by the constant application of the line of truth and the plummet of righteousness, and emerging slowly from heaps of rubbish into strength and beauty. A description is given of the pricelessness of the structure, the privileges of the inhabitants, and the safety which is assured by the Word of God; and let us not hesitate to appropriate this blessed vision. It is put clearly within our reach by the assurance with which the chapter closes, that this is the heritage of all the servants of the Lord. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Gods promise to the afflicted Church
I. THE LOW AND AFFLICTED STATE OF THE CHURCH.
1. She is deeply distressed; and the language of Divine compassion towards her is, Oh thou afflicted! Piety exempts from future wrath, but not from present trouble. Saints have their afflictions in common with others.
2. The Church of God is also described as being tossed with tempests, like a ship driven from her anchors, carried to and fro by the boisterous waves, and ready every moment to be swallowed up. A storm at sea also well represents the terrors of an awakened conscience, and the agonies of a mind in deep distress; when awful providences are joined with inward darkness, so that one trouble excites and sharpens another.
3. The Church is afflicted, and not comforted. Sometimes light arises out of darkness, and God comforts His people in all their tribulations: but here every species of relief is withheld.
II. THE COMPASSION OF GOD TOWARDS HIS AFFLICTED PEOPLE, AND THE PROMISE MADE FOR THEIR RELIEF. Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, etc. This is as if the Lord had said, I will turn thy sorrow into joy, thy tears into triumphs.
1. The Church is here represented as a building, whether as a common dwelling or a temple is immaterial. The materials are various. Some are placed in a more conspicuous situation than others; but all are useful and necessary, in different degrees. The various parts of the edifice require to be united, in order to form an entire structure; a confused heap of materials, scattered and unconnected, afford no idea of a building. A temple is designed for worship, and a house for habitation; the Church of God is designed for both.
2. The several parts of this building are next described; the stones that are to be laid, and also the foundations. None but spiritual materials, none but living stones are fit to make a part of this building. The foundation of this building is Christ Jesus. All true believers are united to Him, and rest their eternal all upon Him, as a building rests upon its foundation.
3. We have a promise of future felicity, and glory to the Church. I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and thy foundations with sapphires. These expressions may imply–
(1) The Churchs worth and excellency.
(2) Its comeliness and beauty.
(3) Its firmness and stability. The precious stones and the sapphires, with which this building is to be erected, are durable as well as beautiful, and expressive of the perpetuity of the Gospel Church.
(4) Its future glory. The Church shall indeed be raised to a greater degree of glory in this world; but she shall be transcendently and eternally glorious in the world to come. The future glory of the Church, as predicted by the prophet, is similar to that of the New Jerusalem, which the apostle saw descending from God out of heaven. Let then the afflicted Church, and individual believers, bless God for such a promise! Let them exercise faith and patience, and wait its full accomplishment. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
The city of God
I. THE PRICELESSNESS OF THE STRUCTURE. What an enumeration of precious stones! Let us consider what jewels are. A jewel is a bit of ordinary earth which has passed through an extraordinary experience. Then there is a special fitness in this address to the afflicted people of God.
I. Foundations of sapphire. Underneath our live, underpinning the history of the world of men, the one ultimate fact for us all is the love of God. They are stable. They are fair.
2. Windows of agates. Agates are varieties of quartz, and bear evidently in their texture the mark of fire. Indeed, they are always found in the igneous rocks, from which they drop out when such rocks decompose under the action of water and air. The agate is partially transparent; not opaque, as flint; not transparent, as rock-crystal–it admits light, tempering it as it passes. God makes windows of agates; He takes our sorrows and makes them windows through which we may gaze into the unseen. In sorrow we see the unsatisfying nature of the world, and the reality of the unseen; we learn to appreciate the tenderness and delicacy of human love; we have insight into the meaning of Gods providences; we behold the value and truth of Scripture.
3. Gates of carbuncles. There is a good deal of uncertainty as to the precise stone indicated by the Hebrew word rendered carbuncle. It seems better, therefore, to take the suggestion of the duplicate vision in the Apocalypse, and to think of gates of pearl. The pearl is said to result from the infliction of a wound in the oyster, which leads it to throw out the precious fluid that congeals into a pearl. If so, every pearl on the neck of beauty is the lasting memento of a stab of pain. At any rate, each pearl commemorates the hazard of human life in the divers descent into the ocean depths. It is true of life; all our outgoings into wider ministry, nobler life, greater responsibility of blessedness, are due to the precious action of sorrow, self-sacrifice, and pain. There is no gate into the life, which is life indeed, which has not cost us dear.
II. THE PRIVILEGES OF THE CHILDREN OF THE CITY.
1. They shall be all taught of God. It is a deep and helpful thought that God has opened a school in this dark world, and has Himself undertaken to act as Schoolmaster. It is the Father who teaches. He knows our frame, etc. To be taught of God is to be led by His own hand into a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of redemption.
2. Great shall be the peace of thy children. We have first peace with God, through faith in the blood and righteousness of Christ; then the peace of God, which here is called great, and elsewhere that passeth understanding. Some parts of the ocean laugh the sounding-line to scorn. You may let out 1,000, 2,000, even 6,000 fathoms, and still the plumb falls clear. So it is when Gods peace, driven from all the world, comes to fold its wings of rest in the heart. It is better than joy, which falters and fluctuates; better than the ecstacy which may have its reactions. And these two rest on each other. The more you know God, the more peace you have; because you find Him more worthy of your trust.
III. THEIR SAFETY. The waster fulfils a useful function: the knife that cuts away the dead wood; the fire that eats out the alloy; the winnowing fan that rids the wheat of the chaff; the east wind tearing through the forest; the frost crumbling up the soil; the vast army of animals that devour and destroy. I have created the waster to destroy. This is the strong Hebrew way of saying that God permits, and overrules, and brings out good by means of the evil that had seemed destructive of all good. (F. B.Meyer, B. A.)
Zions foundations, windows, gates, and borders
I. THE STATE, CHARACTER, AND CONDITION OF THE SUFFERING CHURCH OF GOD. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. Every one of these expressions is pregnant with heavenly meaning.
1. O thou afflicted. Affliction is one of the marks that God stamps upon His people.
2. Tossed with tempest. Some are tossed with a tempest of doubts and fears; others with a tempest of lusts and corruptions; others with a tempest of rebellion and fretfulness; others with a storm of guilt and despondency; others with gloomy forebodings and dismal apprehensions. Thus are they driven from their course, their sun and stars all obscured; no clear evidences, no bright manifestations; darkness above and a raging sea beneath; breakers ahead, and no harbour in sight.
3. But the Lord adds another word, not comforted–that is, not comforted by, not capable of comfort from, man. This I look upon as a very decisive mark of a work of grace upon the soul. God has received the Churchs comfort in His own hands; from His lips alone can consolation be spoken into her soul.
II. THE BLESSED CLUSTER OF GOSPEL PROMISES THAT GOD MAKES TO HIS SUFFERING CHURCH. Behold, He says, as though He would draw her special attention to the work that He was about to perform. I will lay thy stones with fair colours. The Lord here seems to take the figure of a building; or rather of a temple, for His people are compared to a temple.
His work upon their soul He compares to the work of an architect, or a builder who lays stone upon stone until he puts on the top-stone with shoutings of grace, grace, unto it.
1. The first promise that He makes relative to this building of mercy is–I will lay her stones with fair colours. This seems to be general description of the work of God in rearing up the spiritual building before Ha fair colouring. But in the words, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, there seems to be a reference also to the cement in which the stones are laid, as well as to the stones themselves. What is this cement? Is it not blood and love?
2. But the Lord goes on to particularize His work. He speaks of her foundations, her windows, her gates, and borders, and He tells us how they are all severally formed and made. Beginning at the beginning, He describes the material and laying of her foundations–I will lay thy foundations with sapphires. Before we can stand firmly in to things of God, we must have a good foundation, something solid for our faith, our hope, our love, our all to rest upon. But what is a sapphire? A precious stone, the distinguishing feature of which is its peculiar clear and beautiful colour–a heavenly blue. I would not press the figure too closely, but may it not fitly represent from its nature and colour a special gift from heaven? What a mercy for you if your faith has such a sapphire for its foundation; when you do not rest upon the bare letter of Gods word, but upon the testimony of God laid into your soul.
3. But the Lord also adds–and I will make thy windows of agates. What is a window for? Chiefly to admit light and air, and also to give us a prospect of the scenery without. But the windows are of agate. Glass in those days was not used for windows; it was known for various other purposes; for it has been lately found in Nineveh, as well as in the tombs of Egypt; but its use for windows is of comparatively modern date. But why are they made of agate? Though not as clear as glass, it is what is called semi-transparent, that is, sufficiently transparent to admit a considerable amount of light. The sun shining through a window of agate might lose a portion of its brightness, but not much of its light. Upon Zion in her time-state the Sun of Righteousness does not shine in all his brightness. The windows of agate whilst she is in the flesh temper his rays. Her prospects, too, are not fully bright and clear. We have not those clear views which the saints have in glory where they see Jesus face to face.
4. But the Lord speaks also of Zions gates. These gates are to give admission to the temple which He is rearing for His own habitation. But of what material are the gates? These, too, like the foundations and windows, are of precious stones. And thy gates of carbuncles. Now we must not be too fanciful in our interpretation of Gods word; yet, doubtless, the Spirit of God chose these jewels with some peculiar meaning. The carbuncle is of a blood-red colour. And why should the Lord have chosen that Zions gates should be of this peculiar colour? May we not believe that there is some mystic allusion here to the blood of the Lamb? But what are gates for? Entrance and exit. Zion has her gates of exit and entrance. She has her gates of access to God, entrance into the presence of the Most High. And who has opened the door, or rather who has not only opened it, and made it, but Himself is it? I am the door, saith Jesus; and was not the door opened through His rent flesh? (Heb 10:19-20). But gates not only give admission but exit. Not only do prayers, supplications and tears, rise up with acceptance through the gates of carbuncle, and thus enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, but promises also, tokens, testimonies and visits come down. And as every prayer, to be a prayer, is breathed through the gate of carbuncle, through the blood of the Lamb, so every answer, that is an answer, comes down through the same consecrated channel.
5. But the Lord also speaks of Zions borders. He tells us He will make all her borders of pleasant stones. There shall be nothing common about her. No architect pays the same attention to the courts and outbuildings that he pays to the mansion itself. If the mansion be of stone these may be of brick. Not so with God, Zions Divine Architect. Zions very borders, courts, outbuildings, are all of the same material with the mansion itself. Thus Gods providential dealings, which often form the outward setting of His inward mercies, are of pleasant stones. But for whom are these mercies? The meritorious? the diligent? the industrious? We read not so. O thou afflicted, etc. What 1 are all these mercies for such as they? They are the only persons who will prize them, or glorify God for them. (J. C. Philpot.)
Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours
The decorations of Nature
Natures temple is not a hueless, monotonous structure like the pyramids of Egypt. It is richly decorated. It is overlaid with chaste and beautiful ornamentation. Every stone is painted with fair colours, accurately toned, and in perfect keeping. Not a rock that peers above the surface of the earth but is clothed with the rainbow tints of moss and lichen, and wreathed with the graceful tenderness of fern and wild-flower. Every mountain is clothed with the variegated verdure of forest and pasture, blending gradually upwards into the sober grey of crag, and the silvery whiteness of snow, and the quiet blue of the cloud-flecked sky. And when the living hues of plants are absent, there is compensation in the rich colours of the rocks, or in the bright reflections of the heavens. The brilliant crimson of Sinais granite and sandstone cliffs makes up for their naked sterility; and if the mountain ranges of northern Europe are destitute of the emerald verdure of the Alps, they are covered instead with purple light as with a robe, and gather out of the sky at sunrise and twilight hues softer than the plumage of a dove, and more radiant than the petals of rose and violet. Even works of human art are decorated by nature with a picturesque glory of colour and light, in harmony with her own landscapes. The castle or the abbey, left untenanted, falls into ruin; but Nature–whose profound peace succeeds all strife of man, and whose passive permanency mocks his fast-perishing creeds–steps in to claim her reversion; and wherever her soft finger touches, there new beauties spring up and shame the artists proudest triumphs. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
The adornments of grace
As Nature deals with the materials of her framework, so the Divine Artificer deals with the living materials of His spiritual temple. Every stone that is fit to be built into the walls of His holy habitation is richly sculptured and decorated. He leaves none in the meanness and vileness of their natural state. He digs them out of the fearful pit and the miry clay that they may be chiselled and polished, so as to be ornaments of the structure in which they stand. He makes the Sun of righteousness to shine upon the dark vapour-cloud of their nature, and thus paints it with the rainbow hues of grace. Black in themselves, He makes them comely in the reflected light of His love. From the moment that the favour of God is restored to them, they are wakened to a new existence and a better principle. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
Stones with fair colours
I. WHAT ARE THE FAIR COLOURS WITH WHICH THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER IS ADORNED?
1. Humility is one of the most conspicuous of them. It is the soft purple hue of the lowly violet, hid among its leaves, and known only by its fragrance; of the fruit when it is ripest; of the hills when most saturated with sunset light, and most like Heaven. It is the ornament which, in the sight of God, is of great price; it is the secret of true refinement and distinction in the eyes of men; it is the glory of the inner man renewed in sanctified self-denial and self-forgetfulness. By nothing is the genuine believer distinguished from the mere formalist and hypocrite more than by his humility.
2. Patience. It is the tender green of the grass, which, through summers heat and winters frost, remains unchanged, which may be trampled under foot and injured in every way, and yet retains its vitality unimpaired.
3. Benevolence. It is the quiet blue of the sky, which shines upon the just and the unjust, which sends down rain and dew upon the evil and the good. This is the virtue which counteracts the natural selfishness of the heart, and takes us out of ourselves. It is by the uniform and enlarged exercise of it that the disciples of the Lord are distinguished from the people of the world, who are ever intent only upon their own interests and pleasures. It is by their benevolence that they are assimilated to the Universal Giver, whose tender mercies are over all His works, and are never exhausted–to the compassionate Saviour, who though He was rich yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich, and whose meat and drink on earth was to go about continually doing good–to the holy angels, whose happiness is increased by seeing sinners repenting on earth, and by being sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation.
4. Zeal. It is the ruby hue of the blood which circulates through the veins, and animates the whole body with life and vigour. It is the crimson heat which energizes or melts everything it, and pervades all with its own glow. It stimulates to the performance of every duty, infuses life into every experience, fervour into all devotion, spirit into all work, and overcomes difficulty as fire overcomes every resisting object.
5. Moderation or temperance. It is the golden mean between two extremes–the safe though narrow path between opposite evils that come veryclose to each other. It is the souls centre of gravity.
6. All these and other graces are summed up in charity. As every lovely hue is light, so every lovely grace is love. This is the rainbow which gathers up and harmonizes all other qualities, and bends its Divine beauty over the whole life of the Christian. It is the genus of which all the Christian virtues are the species. Patience is the attitude of love, zeal is the energy of love, humility is the upset of love, benevolence is the acting of love.
II. WHAT ARE THE PROPERTIES OF THESE FAIR COLOURS?
1. They should be harmonious. They should be developed proportionally, so that each, instead of detracting from, may add lustre to the other. Though the graces are possessed by the believer in various degrees of perfection, yet in every person some one or other is predominant, becomes so conspicuous as to colour the rest, and give the whole character its prevailing hue. The New Jerusalem above will be a glorious city, because there shall be gathered together, in varied but harmonious splendour, the brightness of the diamond, the ruddy flame of the topaz,, the deep green of the emerald, the shining gold of the jasper, the milk-white filminess of the onyx, the heavenly blue of the sapphire, the lovely violet of the amethyst, the burning changes of the opal, and the soft beauty of the pearl!
2. The fair colours with which God lays the stones of His spiritual temple are not superficial. There is no plating, or enamelling, or veneering. Grace works from within outwards, renews the heart, and thus transforms the life.
III. HOW ARE THESE FAIR COLOURS PRODUCED? God is their author. It is He who says, I will lay thy stones with fair colours. They are not the spontaneous products of our own corrupt nature, nor even the forced growths of our own careful cultivation. The beauties of holiness are no mere fancy-sketch, no original picture. They are a copy of the Great Master. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
The co-operation of providence and grace
The work of the Spirit is aided by Gods providential dealings without. It is to the afflicted, tempest-tossed, and not comforted, that God says, Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours. I have seen a literal fulfilment of these words in Nature. It is a remarkable circumstance that the most brilliant colours of plants are to be seen on the highest mountains, in spots that are most exposed to the wildest weather. The brightest lichens and mosses, the loveliest gems of wild flowers, abound far up on the bleak storm-scalped peak. One of the richest displays of organic colouring I have ever beheld was near the summit of Mont Chenelettaz, a hill about 10,000 feet high, immediately above the great St. Bernard Hospice. The whole face of an extensive rock was covered with a most vivid yellow lichen, which shone in the sunshine like the golden battlement of an enchanted castle. There, in that lofty region, amid the most frowning desolation, exposed to the fiercest tempests of the sky, this lichen exhibited a glory of colour such as it never shows in the sheltered valley. I have two specimens of the same lichen before me, one from the great St. Bernard, and the other from the wall of a Scottish castle deeply embosomed among sycamore trees; and the difference in point of form and colouring between them is most striking. The specimen nurtured amid the wild storms of the mountain-peak is of a lovely primrose hue, and is smooth in texture and complete in outline; while the specimen nurtured amid the soft airs and the delicate showers of the lowland valley is of a dim rusty hue, and is scurfy in texture and broken in outline. And is it not so with the Christian who is afflicted, tempest-tossed, and not comforted? Till the storms and vicissitudes of Gods providence beat upon him again and again, his character appears marred and clouded by selfish and worldly influences. But trials clear away the obscurity, perfect the outlines of his disposition, and give brightness and beauty to his piety. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
The world unfavourable to beauty of Christian character
But though the trials of life are well fitted to bring out the fair colours of the Christian character, there is a sense in which the world may be said to be unfavourable to them. Its climate is not like the glowing air and the clear sunny sky of Egypt or Italy, which embalm architectural remains in imperishable beauty, and present the temples erected ages ago as sharply-defined in their sculpture, and as fresh and undimmed in their colouring as if built only yesterday. Iris like our own misty climate. It is difficult to preserve the beauty of holiness in a world lying in wickedness, to keep the garments unspotted from the flesh. The fair colours of grace require to be constantly renewed, polished, brightened. But as Christians, another Will than your own has begun to work in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And your holiness will surely spread in spite of every opposition over your whole nature and life, transforming you in the renewing of your mind, preserving you from the pollutions of the world, and preparing you for being presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
The beautifying power of Divine grace
These fair colours of grace are within reach of all. In nature there is hardly a stone that is not capable of crystallizing into something purer and brighter than its normal state. Coal, by a slightly different arrangement of its particles, is capable of becoming the radiant diamond. The slag cast out from the furnace as useless waste, forms into globular masses of radiating crystals. From tar and pitch the loveliest colours are now manufactured. The very mud on the road, trampled under foot as the type of all impurity, can be changed by chemical art into metals and gems of surpassing beauty. And so the most unpromising materials, from the most worthless moral rubbish that men east out and despise, may be converted by the Divine alchemy into the gold of the sanctuary, and made jewels fit for the mediatorial crown of the Redeemer. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
Fair colours:
Antimony was the costly black mineral powder with which the Eastern women painted their eyelids to throw up the lustre of their eyes. The dark cement in which the gems of the walls, gates, battlements, and even the foundations of the City were to be set, and which was to enhance their brilliance, was to be composed of this costly pigment. (S. Cox, D. D.)
And lay thy foundations with sapphires
Foundations of sapphires
By the sea-shore we find samples of many of the rocks which form the crust of the earth. The commonest specimen among them has something to commend it either in colour or in form. It is assuredly not of worthless and unsightly materials that the hidden parts of the earth are constructed. Unlike mans work, which is carefully elaborated only where the eye is intended to see it, Gods work is the same throughout. Not only is beauty lavished upon the superstructure–upon the grass, and the flowers, and the trees, that are to meet the gaze–but the very foundations are composed of onyx stones and stones to be set, glistering stones and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. A similar principle appears throughout the spiritual creation, of which the scheme of nature is only the visible picture. In the moral works of God as well as in the natural, beauty is combined with utility–grace with strength. He lays the foundations of the general Christian Church, and of the individual Christian character, with sapphires. Those hidden principles and motives upon which the grand superstructure of faith and charity is guilt, are not only strong and steadfast, but beautiful. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
The sapphire
The sapphire is one of the brightest and most valuable of those mysterious unfading flowers of the inner earth which we call jewels. Born of darkness, stranger to the light, it yet holds in its core of focussed rays the blue of heaven. Gentians, violets, forget-me-nots, calm lakes and summer skies, glacier-depths and living springs, have their passing and perishing loveliness enshrined and concentrated in its heart of rock. There is one variety, of a singularly soft pure azure, which has the power of retaining its lovely memory of heaven, even by candlelight, when an ordinary sapphire looks black. It is sometimes found in masses of considerable size, and may therefore appropriately be spoken of in connection with foundations. It formed the pavement, like the body of heaven in its clearness, under the feet of the God of Israel, as seen by the elders in Exodus; and the throne of glory which appeared to Ezekiel in vision resembled a sapphire stone. It was the fifth precious stone in the breastplate of the Jewish high-priest, and had the name of Simeon engraved upon it; and the second foundation of the New Jerusalem is a sapphire. The minute account in Exodus and Revelation, of this and other jewels that adorned the sacerdotal apparel and the walls of the heavenly city, indicates the symbolic reverence attached to their use by the Jews. And this belief in their mystic qualities passed from India and Persia to Greece and Rome, and after playing a considerable part in the Gnostic systems of Alexandria, became finally transferred to the Christian Church, as we find Bishop Marboeuf of Rennes, in the eleventh century, versifying their talismanic influences in his curious Lapidarium. Even St. Jerome praises the sapphire for its use in conciliating to its wearer the favour of princes, quelling his enemies, dispersing sorceries, setting free the captive, and even assuaging the wrath of God himself. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
Blue
Blue is an exceedingly lovely colour. It is quiet and subdued, attracting without dazzling the eye, suggestive of peace and repose. It is the most universally distributed of all hues. It forms the pleasing background of nature, on which the more brilliant colours of tree and flower and field come forth to arrest our attention, not only by their own beauty, but also by the force of contrast. We see it in the boundless expanse of the sky which bends over and idealizes our dull cold earth, and forms, with its varied changes, a part of the landscape, not the mere empty space that surrounds it. We see it in the distant hills, that assume on the horizon the azure colour of the sky, from sympathy of beauty and peace. We see it in the far-stretching ocean that covers three-fourths of the surface of the globe; in the lake, the river, and the stream, the mirrors which reflect and spiritualize the changeable beauty of earth and heaven. We see it in the blue-bell that rings out the pensive requiem of natures mutability on quiet autumn eves; and in the human eye, the most wonderful of Gods works, which reflects the world without and the world within–which is at once useful as an organ of vision, and beautiful as a spiritual and expressive window of the soul And as in the temple of nature, from the viewless air to the ethereal lustre of childhoods innocent eye, the hue of the sapphire predominates, so in the tabernacle and temple of old it was pre-eminent, being always mentioned in connection with gold in the enumeration of the sacred furniture. As the gold was emblematic of the glory and majesty of God, so the blue combined with it, in the sacred appointments of the tabernacle, might be aptly employed to represent His love and grace. Such an interpretation would be in strict accordance with the symbolism of nearly all nations, among whom blue has always been associated with ideas of love. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
Sapphire foundations
We may therefore understand the sapphire foundations of the Christian life which God lays, to be, in general terms, the love of God in Christ; His general love in providence, and His particular and surpassing love in redemption. It is on this beautiful and serene background that all the great manifestations of grace given to mankind are displayed. The temple of Solomon was built on the rocky foundation of Mount Moriah, a place consecrated to the work of redemption, from the time when Abraham offered there the ram which the Lord had provided, instead of his son Isaac, and the destroying angel sheathed there, by the threshing-floor of Araunah, the sword of judgment, on account of Davids sacrifice. And so the spiritual temple is also built upon the work of redemption as its sapphire foundation. What beautiful emblems of Christs love are the two grandest objects of nature–sapphire sea and sapphire sky! The boundless extent of heavens blue field cannot be measured even by the astronomer, so the length and breadth, and height and depth of the love of Christ surpass all knowledge. Or, to take the sea as the comparison, the sea touches the shore along one narrow line, and all the beauty and fertility of that shore are owing to its life-giving dews and rains;, but it stretches away from the shore, beyond the horizon, into regions which mans eye has never seen, and the further it recedes, the deeper and the bluer its waters become. And so the love of Christ touches us along the whole line of our life, imparts all the beauty and fruitfulness to that life, but it stretches away from the point of contact into the unsearchable riches of Christ, the measureless fulness of the Godhead–that ocean of inconceivable, incommunicable love which no plummet can sound, or eye of angel or saint ever scan. The Hebrew word sappir, translated sapphire in our version, is derived from the same root as the words that signify a book, writing, or engraving; and according to the Talmud, the two tables of stone, on which the Law was written on Sinai, were formed of sapphires. Blessed be God, it is not on the sapphire foundations of the Law that we are now to build our trust. The obedience that can rest on these foundations must be perfect in every jot and tittle, and perpetual, without cessation or suspense, without question or doubt, from the beginning to the end of life. But such an obedience we cannot rear. Christs finished work is now our sapphire foundation. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
I will lay thy foundations with sapphires:
The structure of our faith is four-square, like that of the temple of old. The chief corner-stone which binds the whole together is the redemption-love of Christ; but connected with it as a foundation for the believers stability and hope, is–
1. The covenant of grace, embracing every blessing from the first moment of incipient peace in the soul to the consummation of that peace in heaven, extending in its administration to the most minute particulars, making ample provision for every evil that can possibly happen to us, and securing calmness in the prospect and in the hour of death.
2. The revealed truth of God is another sapphire foundation connected with the precious corner-stone.
3. The experience of the believer is yet another sapphire foundation. The objective revelation of the Gospel has been followed by the subjective operation of the Spirit. The outward teaching of inspiration has become an inward Divine illumination. The doctrine has become a living power whose strength has been tried and proved; the Divine announcement has passed into the form of a human experience; the creed is no mere formula of speech, no mystic incantation, but corresponds with needs of his soul, which he has probed to the bottom in the hour of difficulty. In short, Christ proclaimed by Old Testament types and prophecies, revealed in the Gospels, preached in the Apostolic Acts and Epistles, has become Christ formed in the soul the hope of glory. The sapphire is one of the most precious jewels; ranking next to the diamond in value. It is precious for its own beauty and rarity, and precious on account of the labour revolved in obtaining it. And who can estimate the preciousness of the sapphire foundations of our faith, the work of redemption which cost the humiliation, suffering, and death of the Son of God to accomplish; and the experience of the truth in the soul wrought out through much sorrow, through doubts, and fears, and terrible struggles? The sapphire is also one of the purest of the precious stones. The ancient meteoric stone called the Kaaba, built into the sacred mosque at Mecca, and still pressed with devotion by the lips of every pilgrim, may be taken to represent in its blackness and earthliness, the Mohammedan religion. But the foundation of Christianity is a pure transparent sapphire. It has no flaws, no dross, no earthy ingredients. These foundations are steadfast and enduring. They are not composed of perishable materials–not even of rocks that weather and crumble away–but of sapphires, next to the diamond the hardest of the precious stones. Jewels, as a class, are the most lasting of all earthly objects–the most beautiful as well as the most imperishable form in which matter appears. They are therefore expressive types of stability and permanence. The sapphire foundations of the Christian life are everlasting. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. Behold, I will lay thy stones – “Behold, I lay thy stones”] These seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise, moral, or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner: “For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls, and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of ophir.” Tob. 13:16, 17. Compare also Re 21:18-21.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted; O thou my poor church, vho hast frequently been, and wilt again and again be, in a most afflicted and comfortless condition for a time, be not discouraged thereby.
I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; I will make thee exceeding beautiful and glorious. Which yet is not to be understood of outward pomp and worldly glory, as is evident from many places of Scripture, which assure us that Christs kingdom is of another nature, and that the external condition of Gods church is, and for the most part will be, mean and calamitous in this world; but of a spiritual beauty and glory, consisting in the plentiful effusion of excellent gifts, and graces, and comforts; although these shall be followed with eternal glory in heaven. See the like description of the churchs glory, Rev 21:11, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. not comfortedby anyone;none gave her help or comfort.
lay . . . with faircoloursrather, “lay . . . in cement of vermilion“[LOWTH]. The Hebrewfor “fair colors” means stibium, the paint withwhich Eastern women painted their eyelids and eyelashes (2Ki9:30). The very cement shall be of the most beautiful color (Re21:18-21).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted,…. Or, “O thou poor” s church; for the first Christian churches chiefly consisted of poor persons, not many mighty and noble being called; and which were greatly “afflicted” with false teachers, who broached errors and heresies, and made schisms among them; and “tossed with tempests” like a ship at sea; or “stormed” t with the rage and fury of violent persecutors, such as the Roman emperors were; and not “comforted”, having none to administer any external comfort or relief to them; none of the kings or princes of the earth, or any civil magistrate to protect and defend them; what comfort they had was internal and spiritual; what they had from Christ and his Spirit, and by the word and ordinances; or rather this may describe the state of the church under Papal tyranny and persecution, which brings it nearer to the times of peace and prosperity after promised:
behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours; or, “with paint” u; such as women used to paint their faces or eyes with, 2Ki 9:30. The Targum is,
“behold, I will lay with paint the stones of thy pavement;”
and the words seem plainly to design the stones of a pavement, and perhaps by an hypallage or transposition may be rendered,
I will lay thy pavement with glistering stones; so the word is translated 1Ch 29:2 or, “with stones of paint” w; which are of the colour of the “stibium”, or paint before mentioned, and which was of a black colour; and Aben Ezra says the word here signifies a precious stone of a black colour; perhaps black marble is meant, a stone fit for pavements; but, be these stones what they will, they design in the spiritual sense the materials of a Gospel church, those “lively stones” which
are built up a spiritual house, and which are beautified with the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God; and may also denote that the lowest and meanest of the Lord’s people, pointed out by stones of the pavement, should be thus adorned:
and lay thy foundations with sapphires; a precious stone of a white colour, according to R. Saadiah Gaon; but, according to Aben Ezra, of a red colour; though the sapphire is usually said to be of a sky colour, shining with specks of gold. The Targum renders it, “with precious stones”; and so the foundation of the wall of the New Jerusalem is said to be garnished with all manner of precious stones, Re 21:19, this may respect Christ, the sure foundation God has laid in Zion, the foundation of the apostles and prophets; the one and only foundation of the church of Christ, and all true believers, who is more precious than sapphires, or all the most precious stones; he always has been the foundation of his church in all ages; but the meaning is, that he shall now appear most clearly and manifestly to be the foundation, and to be a firm, rich, and glorious one; see Ex 24:10.
s V. L. Munster, Pagninus; “O paupercula”, Tigurine version; “inops”, Cocceius. t “tempestate obruta”; Munster, Vatablus, Forerius. u “in fuco”, Tigurine version; “in stibio”, Sanctius. w “Stibinis lapidibus”, Forerius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, not comforted, behold, I lay thy stones in stibium, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; and make thy minarets of ruby, and thy gates into carbuncles, and all thy boundary into jewels.” At the present time the church, of which Jerusalem is the metropolis, is sunk in misery, driven with tempest like chaff of the threshing-floor (Hos 13:3), without comfort; because till now it has waited in vain for any act of consolation on the part of God, and has been scorned rather than comforted by man ( is a part. kal, not pual; and 3rd pers. praet. like , Isa 62:12, and , Hos 1:6; Hos 2:3). But this will be altered; Jerusalem will rise again from the dust, like a glorious building of God. Jerome makes the following apt remark on Isa 54:11: “ in stibio , i.e., in the likeness of an elegant woman, who paints her eyes with stibium ; referring to the beauty of the city.” Pukh is eye-black ( kohl , cf., kachal , Eze 23:40), i.e., a sooty compound, the chief component of which was powdered antimony, or else manganese or lead, and with which oriental women coloured their eyebrows, and more particularly the eyelids both above and below the eyes, that the beauty of the latter might be all the more conspicuous (2Ki 9:30). The classic , fucus , has a meaning foreign to the Hebrew word, viz., that of rouge for the cheeks. If, then, stibium (antimony), or any blackening collyrium generally, served the purpose of mortar in the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the stones of its walls (not its foundation-stones, , which is the reading adopted by Ewald, but, on the contrary, the visible stones of its towering walls) would look like the eyes of a woman shining forth from the black framework of their painted lids, i.e., they would stand out in splendour from their dark ground. The Beth in bassapprm indicates the means employed. Sapphires serve as foundation-stones, for the foundation of Jerusalem stands as immoveably firm as the covenant of God. The sapphire blue is the colour of the heaven, of revelation, and of the covenant. The sh e mashoth , however, i.e., the minarets which stand out like rays of the sun, and also the gates, have a red appearance. Red is the colour of blood, and hence of life and of imperishableness; also the colour of fire and of lightning, and hence of wrath and victory. Jehovah makes the minarets of “ruby.” The Sept. and Jerome adopt the rendering iaspidem (a jasper); at any rate, (which is the proper way of writing the word: Ewald, 48, c)
(Note: The first is dagessatum , the second raphatum : see Norzi. The word forms one of the eighteen which have a dagesh after a word ending with a vowel sound ( ): see Masora Magna on Dan 5:11, and Heidenheim’s , 41 a. The object is to secure greater euphony, as in ( ), Isa 10:9, which is one of the eighteen words.)
is a red sparkling jewel (from kidked ; cf., kdod , scintilla ). The arches of the gates He forms of , stones of fiery splendour (from qadach , to burn: hence qaddachath , ), that is to say, or carbuncle stones (from c arbunculus , a small red-hot coal), like ruby, garnet, etc. Jerome has adopted the false rendering lapides sculptos , after Symm. (from = , findere ?). The accusative of the predicate is interchanged with , and then with , to denote the materia ex qua . The whole territory (precinct) of Jerusalem is turned by Jehovah into precious stones, that is to say, it appears to be paved with such stones, just as in Tobit 13:17 the streets are said to be “paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of Ophir,” i.e., to be covered with a mosaic formed of precious stones. It is upon the passage before us that Tobit 13:16, 17, and Rev 21:18-21, are founded. The motley colours of the precious stones, with which the new Jerusalem is adorned, are something more than a mere childish fancy. Whence, then, do the precious stones derive their charm? The ultimate ground of this charm is the fact, that in universal nature everything presses to the light, and that in the mineral world the jewels represent the highest stage of this ascending process. It is the self-unfolding process of the divine glory itself, which is reflected typologically in the several gradations of the manifold play of colours and the transparency of the precious stones. For this reason, the high priest wore a breastplate with twelve precious stones, upon which were the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; and for this same reason, the author of the Apocalypse carries out into detail in chapter 21 the picture of the new Jerusalem, which is here sketched by the prophet of the Old Testament (without distinguishing time from eternity), adding crystals and pearls to the precious stones which he there mentions one by one. How can all this be explained, except on the ground that even the mineral world reflects the glory of those eternal lights from which God is called the “Father of lights,” or except on the assumption that the saints in light will one day be able to translate these stony types into the words of God, out of which they have their being?
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Prosperity of the Church; The Prosperity of Zion. | B. C. 706. |
11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. 12 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. 13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. 14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. 15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. 16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
Very precious promises are here made to the church in her low condition, that God would not only continue his love to his people under their troubles as before, but that he would restore them to their former prosperity, nay, that he would raise them to greater prosperity than any they had yet enjoyed. In the foregoing chapter we had the humiliation and exaltation of Christ; here we have the humiliation and exaltation of the church; for, if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. Observe,
I. The distressed state the church is here reduced to by the providence of God (v. 11): “O thou afflicted, poor, and indigent society, that art tossed with tempests, like a ship driven from her anchors by a storm and hurried into the ocean, where she is ready to be swallowed up by the waves, and in this condition not comforted by any compassionate friend that will sympathize with thee, or suggest to thee any encouraging considerations (Eccl. iv. 1), not comforted by any allay to thy trouble, or prospect of deliverance out of it.” This was the condition of the Jews in Babylon, and afterwards, for a time, under Antiochus. It is often the condition of Christian churches and of particular believers; without are fightings, within are fears; they are like the disciples in a storm, ready to perish; and where is their faith?
II. The glorious state the church is here advanced to by the promise of God. God takes notice of the afflicted distressed state of his church, and comforts her, when she is most disconsolate and has no other comforter. Let the people of God, when they are afflicted and tossed, think they hear God speaking comfortably to them by these words, taking notice of their griefs and fears, what afflictions they are under, what distresses they are in, and what comforts their case calls for. When they bemoan themselves, God bemoans them, and speaks to them with pity: O thou afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted; for in all their afflictions he is afflicted. But this is not all; he engages to raise her up out of her affliction, and encourages her with the assurance of the great things he would do for her, both for her prosperity and for the securing of that prosperity to her.
1. Whereas now she lay in disgrace, God promises that which would be her beauty and honour, which would make her easy to herself and amiable in the eyes of others.
(1.) This is here promised by a similitude taken from a city, and it is an apt similitude, for the church is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Whereas now Jerusalem lay in ruins, a heap of rubbish, it shall be not only rebuilt, but beautified, and appear more splendid than ever; the stones shall be laid not only firm, but fine, laid with fair colours; they shall be glistering stones, 1 Chron. xxix. 2. The foundations shall be laid or garnished with sapphires, the most precious of the precious stones here mentioned; for Christ (the church’s foundation), and the foundation of the apostles and prophets, are precious above any thing else. The windows of this house, city, or temple, shall be made of agates, the gates of carbuncles, and all the borders (the walls that enclose the courts, or the boundaries by which her limits are marked, the mere-stones) shall be of pleasant stones, v. 12. Never was this literally true; but it intimates, [1.] That, God having graciously undertaken to build his church, we may expect that to be done for it, that to be wrought in it, which is very great and uncommon. [2.] That the glory of the New-Testament church shall far exceed that of the Jewish church, not in external pomp and splendour, but in those gifts and graces of the Spirit which are infinitely more valuable, that wisdom which is more precious than rubies (Prov. iii. 15), than the precious onyx and the sapphire, and which the topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal,Job 28:16; Job 28:19. [3.] That the wealth of this world, and those things of it that are accounted most precious, shall be despised by all the true living members of the church, as having no value, no glory, in comparison with that which far excels. That which the children of this world lay up among their treasures, and too often in their hearts, the children of God make pavements of, and put under their feet, the fittest place of it.
(2.) It is here promised in the particular instances of those things that shall be the beauty and honour of the church, which are knowledge, holiness, and love, the very image of God, in which man was created, renewed, and restored. And these are the sapphires and carbuncles, the precious and pleasant stones, with which the gospel temple shall be enriched and beautified, and these wrought by the power and efficacy of those doctrines which the apostle compares to gold or silver, and precious stones, that are to be built upon the foundation, 1 Cor. iii. 12. Then the church is all glorious, [1.] When it is full of the knowledge of God, and that is promised here (v. 13): All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. The church’s children, being born of God, shall be taught of God; being his children by adoption, he will take care of their education. It was promised (v. 1) that the church’s children should be many; but lest we should think that being many, as sometimes it happens in numerous families, they will be neglected, and not have instruction given them so carefully as if they were but few, God here takes that work into his own hand: They shall all be taught of the Lord; and none teaches like him. First, It is a promise of the means of instruction and those means authorized by a divine institution: They shall all be taught of God, that is, they shall be taught by those whom God shall appoint and whose labours shall be under his direction and blessing. He will ordain the methods of instruction, and by his word and ordinances will diffuse a much greater light than the Old-Testament church had. Care shall be taken for the teaching of the church’s children, that knowledge may be transmitted from generation to generation, and that all may be enriched with it, from the least even to the greatest. Secondly, It is a promise of the Spirit of illumination. Our Saviour quotes it with application to gospel grace, and makes it to have its accomplishment in all those that were brought to believe in him (John vi. 45): It is written in the prophets, They shall be all taught of God, whence he infers that those, and those only, come to him by faith that have heard and learned of the Father, that are taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, Eph. iv. 21. There shall be a plentiful effusion of the Spirit of grace upon Christians, to teach them all things, John xiv. 26. [2.] When the members of it live in love and unity among themselves: Great shall be the peace of thy children. Peace may be taken here for all good. As where no knowledge of God is no good can be expected, so those that are taught of God to know him are in a fair way to prosper for both worlds. Great peace have those that know and love God’s law, Ps. cxix. 165. But it is often put for love and unity; and so we may take it. All that are taught of God are taught to love one another (1 Thess. iv. 9) and that will keep peace among the church’s children and prevent their falling out by the way. [3.] When holiness reigns; for that above any thing is the beauty of the church (v. 14): In righteousness shall thou be established. The reformation of manners, the restoration of purity, the due administration of public justice, and the prevailing of honesty and fair dealing among men, are the strength and stability of any church or state. The kingdom of God, set up by the gospel of Christ, is not meat and drink, but this righteousness and peace, holiness and love.
2. Whereas now she lay in danger, God promises that which would be her protection and security.
(1.) God engages here that though, in the day of her distress, without were fightings and within were fears, now she shall be safe from both. [1.] There shall be no fears within (v. 14): “Thou shalt be far from oppression. Those that have oppressed thee shall be removed, those that would oppress thee shall be restrained, and therefore thou shalt not fear, but mayest look upon it as a thing at a great distance, that thou art now in no danger of. Thou shalt be far from terror, not only from evil, but from the fear of evil, for it shall not come near thee so as to do thee any hurt or to put thee in any fright.” Note, Those are far from terror that are far from oppression; for it is as great a terror as can fall on a people to have the rod of government turned into the serpent of oppression, because against this there is no fence, nor is there any flight from it. [2.] There shall be no fightings without. Though attempts should be made upon them to insult them, to invade their country, or besiege their towns, they should all be in vain, and none of them succeed, v. 15. It is granted, “They shall surely gather together against thee; thou must expect it.” The confederate force of hell and earth will be renewing their assaults. As long as there is a devil in hell, and a persecutor out of it, God’s people must expect frequent alarms; but, First, God will not own them, will not give them either commission or countenance; they gather together, hand joins in hand, but it is not by me. God gave them no such order as he did to Sennacherib, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, ch. x. 6. And therefore, Secondly, Their attempt will end in their own ruin: “Whosoever shall gather together against thee, be they ever so many and ever so mighty, they shall not only be baffled, but they shall fall for thy sake, or they shall fall before thee, which shall be the just punishment of their enmity to thee.” God will make them to fall for the sake of the love he bears to his church and the care he has of it, in answer to the prayers made by his people, and in pursuance of the promises made to them. “They shall fall, that thou mayest stand,” Ps. xxvii. 2.
(2.) That we may with the greatest assurance depend upon God for the safety of his church, we have here, [1.] The power of God over the church’s enemies asserted, v. 16. The truth is they have no power but what is given them from above, and he that gave them their power can limit and restrain them. Hitherto they shall go, and no further. First, They cannot carry on their design without arms and weapons of war; and the smith that makes those weapons is God’s creature, and he gave him his skill to work in iron and brass (Exo 31:3; Exo 31:4) and particularly to make proper instruments for warlike purposes. It is melancholy to think, as if men did not die fast enough of themselves, how ingenious and industrious they are to make instruments of death and to find out ways and means to kill one another. The smith blows the coals in the fire, to make his iron malleable, to soften it first, that it may be hardened into steel, and so he may bring forth an instrument proper for the work of those that seek to destroy. It is the iron age that is the age of war. But God has created the smith, and therefore can tie his hands, so that the project of the enemy shall miscarry (as many a project has done) for want of arms and ammunition. Or the smith that forges the weapons is perhaps put here for the council of war that forms the design, blows the coals of contention, and brings forth the plan of the war; these can do no more than God will let them. Secondly, They cannot carry it on without men, they must have soldiers, and it is God that created the waster to destroy. Military men value themselves upon their great offices and splendid titles, and even the common soldiers call themselves gentlemen; but God calls them wasters made to destroy, for wasting and destruction are their business. They think their own ingenuity, labour, and experience, made them soldiers; but it was God that created them, and gave them strength and spirit for that hazardous employment; and therefore he not only can restrain them, but will serve his own purposes and designs by them. [2.] The promise of God concerning the church’s safety solemnly laid down, as the heritage of the servants of the Lord (v. 17), as that which they may depend upon and be confident of, that God will protect them from their adversaries both in camps and courts. First, From their field-adversaries, that think to destroy them by force and violence, and dint of sword: “No weapon that is formed against thee (though ever so artfully formed by the smith that blows the coals, v. 16, though ever so skilfully managed by the waster that seeks to destroy) shall prosper; it shall not prove strong enough to do any harm to the people of God; it shall miss its mark, shall fall out of the hand or perhaps recoil in the face of him that uses it against thee.” It is the happiness of the church that no weapons formed against it shall prosper long, and therefore the folly of its enemies will at length be made manifest to all, for they are but preparing instruments of ruin for themselves. Secondly, From their law-adversaries, that think to run them down under colour of right and justice. When the weapons of war do not prosper there are tongues that rise in judgment. Both are included in the gates of hell, that seek to destroy the church; for they had their courts of justice, as well as their magazines and military stores, in their gates. The tongues that rise in judgment against the church are as such as either demand a dominion over it, as if God’s children were their lawful captives, pretending an authority to oppress their consciences, or they are such as misrepresent them, and falsely accuse them, and by slanders and calumnies endeavour to make them odious to the people and obnoxious to the government. This the enemies of the Jews did, to incense the kings of Persia against them, Ezr 4:12; Est 3:8. “But these insulting threatening tongues thou shalt condemn; thou shalt have wherewith to answer their insolent demands, and to put to silence their malicious reflections. Thou shalt do it by well-doing (1 Pet. ii. 15), by doing that which will make thee manifest in the consciences even of thy adversaries, that thou art not what thou art represented to be. Thou shalt condemn them, that is, God shall condemn them for thee. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, Ps. xxxvii. 6. Thou shalt condemn them as Noah condemned the old world that reproached him, by building the ark, and so saving his house, in contempt of their contempts.” The day is coming when God will reckon with the wicked men for all their hard speeches which they have spoken against him, Jude 15.
The last words refer not only to this promise, but to all that go before: This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. God’s servants are his sons, for he has provided an inheritance for them, rich, sure, and indefeasible. God’s promises are their heritage for ever (Ps. cxix. 111); and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. God will clear up the righteousness of their cause before men. It is with him, for he knows it; it is with him, for he will plead it. Or their reward for their righteousness, and for all that which they have suffered unrighteously, is of God, that God who judges in the earth, and with whom verily there is a reward for the righteous. Or their righteousness itself, all that in them which is good and right, is of God, who works it in them; it is of Christ who is made righteousness to them. In those for whom God designs a heritage hereafter he will work righteousness now.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 11-17: PEACE, PROSPERITY AND DIVINE PROTECTION
1. Paul’s allegory, in Galatians 4, would indicate that this passage is addressed to the people represented by Hagar and Mt Sinai – the “Jerusalem which now is, and, is in the bondage with her children”, (Gal 4:25).
a. Wretched, storm-tossed and disconsolate, she will be restored to a place of honor and to such a state of beauty as will reflect the glory of her Lord, (vs. 11-12; Isa 51:18-19; Isa 51:21; Isa 29:6; Isa 14:32; Isa 28:16; comp. Rev 21:19).
b. Her children will be taught of the LORD (vs. 13a; Jer 31:34; comp. Joh 6:45; 1Th 4:9), and great will be their undisturbed peace, (vs. 13b; comp. Isa 48:18; Isa 66:12-13).
2. Her establishment will be “in righteousness”, (vs. 14a; Isa 1:26-27; Isa 9:7; Isa 62:1).
a. Far from oppression (vs. 14b; comp. Isa 9:4; Isa 14:4-7), she will have no need to be afraid, (vs. 4).
b. And terror shall never again come near to her, (vs. 14c; Isa 33:18-20).
3. Though foes attempt to stir up strife against her, it will not be of the Lord, (vs. 15a); they will be subdued to her service, (vs. 15b; Isa 41:11-16).
4. The creative power of Jehovah will be used in the defense of His people, (vs. 16-17).
a. No weapon that is formed against her will function in that unholy cause, (vs. 17a; comp. Isa 17:12-14; Isa 29:8).
b. And every tongue that rises against her in judgment she will ultimately judge, (vs. 17b; Isa 50:8-9; comp. Rom 8:33-34).
5. Marvelous is the heritage that Jehovah, in righteousness, has provided for His saints! (vs. 17c; Isa 45:24; Isa 46:13; Rom 4:24-25).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11. Thou wretched. He continues the same subject, and promises not only that the Church shall be restored to her ancient splendor, but that God will cause her to be adorned with attire of greater magnificence, as if it had been wholly composed of precious stones. All this was expressed by Haggai in a single word, when he said,
“
The glory of the latter temple shall be greater than the glory of the former.” (Hag 2:10)
As to the names of the jewels (72) which are here described by the Prophet, and about which even the Hebrew writers are not agreed, we need not give ourselves much trouble, provided we understand the meaning of the passage.
This earnest address is exceedingly well fitted for soothing the grief of believers; for it represents the Church, which was ready to be drowned, as being now rescued by him from shipwreck. Whenever therefore we shall see her violently shaken by tempests, and weighed down by a load of distresses, and deprived of all consolation, let us remember that these are the very circumstances which induce God to give assistance.
(72) “These seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise moral or spiritual meaning.” Lowth.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE CHURCH, Isa. 54:11-12.
I. The distressed condition of the Church. Without. Within. II. The promised glory of the Church. Completed. Adorned. Perfected with grace. III. The perpetuation of the Church. Her children instructedblessed with abundant peace. IV. The inviolable security of the Church. Established. Protected from oppression, fear, terror.Dr. Lyth.
THE AFFLICTED AND BEAUTIFIED CHURCH
Isa. 54:11-12. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, &c.
These verses, which doubtless had a reference to the future glory of Israel, are in a spiritual sense true of Gods people in all time. In them God sees His people as they often are, and as they will be when His purposes concerning them shall have been accomplished. We find in them
I. GODS PEOPLE DESCRIBED. O thou afflicted. How often this has been true of the Church; of the individual believer (Psa. 34:19). Tossed with tempest. How often have heresies and dissensions shaken the Church to its foundations! And not comforted: all ordinary sources of comfort having proved vain; the true source of comfort not having been sought. How often it is our own fault that we are comfortless! Herein we are apprised
1. Of Gods knowledge. How important is this, that God knows our sins and our sorrows! (Joh. 10:14).
2. Gods sympathy. The tone is sympathetic; the speaker is touched with a feeling of our infirmities.
3. Gods affection. This is not a taunt, nor a complaint, nor a rebuke. Love speaks here: true love, deep love, Divine love. Mere friendship leaves us when our dark days come; but love calls us by our name in the darkness as in the light.
II. GODS PROMISE DECLARED. We may leave all fanciful speculation and content ourselves with seeing here the contrast between the present and future condition,
(1) of Israel;
(2) of the Church.
This is a picture of a beautiful city; its pavements fair, its foundations firm, its windowsor rather its battlementsall radiant, its gates like a burning coal, its bordersits whole circuitfull of glory. We may note
1. That God promises what is needful. Stones, foundations, battlements; no city is complete without these. It is that which we most need that God offers to bestow upon us.
2. God promises that which is valuable. Zion is to be rebuilt, not merely with stones, but with precious stones. God acts like Himself in blessing His people. He gives the best of the best.
3. What God promises He undertakes to carry out (Jos. 21:45; Jos. 23:14; 1Ki. 8:56). Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Who will taste and see that the Lord is gracious?Walter J. Mayers.
I. A desolate condition described. Apply it
1. To the history of the Church at large. Like a vessel in a storm, but always saved from shipwreck.
2. To the experience of individual Christians. It may be with
1. Outward calamities.
2. Mental griefs.
3. Fore-boding fears. But God beholds with a complacent eye. He is no indifferent observer. All the relations He sustains breathe consolation (Isa. 54:5). Make sure of the friendship of Him who is the pilot of the vessel, and then commit your interests to His guidance; otherwise when storms come you will have no anchor, and when death comes no hope.
II. The gracious promise given. Not only taken off the tossing wave, but promised a city rising from ruins. A promise of the final restoration of the Church, begun on earth, perfected in heaven.
1. The skill of the architect. God claims the work as His own (Eph. 1:19).
2. The strength of the foundation. Combining beauty and durability.
3. The beauty of the super-structure. What beauty like the beauty of holiness.
4. The happiness and security of the worshippers.Samuel Thodey.
GODS PUPILS
Isa. 54:13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord.
Teaching and learning are the universal and everlasting occupations of all mankind. It is well to learn of wise men; it is better still to learn of the all-wise God. A precious promise is this given to Israel, and through Israel to mankind.
I. THE SCHOOL. What, where, is Gods school? The largest and truest answer is
1. The world, which to those who apprehend it aright, is not altogether a workshop or a play-ground, but a school, in which the highest lessons are taught and may be acquired.
2. The Church, which is a higher form of the school, where the teaching is, as it were, more advanced.
II. THE SCHOLARS. All who will learn may learn.
It is the education of mankind which is proceeding in this school; and there are those who do not know it, who little think it, who are the pupils of the giver of light and wisdom.
III. THE TEACHER. Upon this, in-deed, all depends. The Lord under-takes to be our teacher. This office He fulfils by His servants inspired to convey His mind and will, but, above all, by His Son, the Great Teacher, the Light of the world.
IV. THE LESSONS. They are mainly
1. Gods truth concerning His own character and relationship to men.
2. Gods will, which is the same as our duty, the summons addressed to our faith and obedience.
V. THE DISCIPLINE. Knowledge alone is no blessing. In all education the moral result, the influence upon character is of supreme concern. Gods discipline is unspeakably precious. Just it is; and yet, gentle too.
VI. THE PURPOSE EFFECTED BY DIVINE TEACHING AND TRAINING.
1. Knowledge. When of the right sort a priceless boon.
2. Character. The ultimate result of the highest teaching.
3. Usefulness. God teaches us, that, through us, He may teach our fellowmen.
4. Eternal life. Life is eternal learning, and heaven is the approach of the soul to Him from whose fulness it drinks in unfailing and everlasting supplies.
Application. There is needed, in-order to learn, a lowly and teachable disposition. The cry of the heart should be, Teach me Thy way, O God!Homiletical Library, vol. ii., p. 76.
I. The relation which believers sustain to the Churchthy children. II. The advantages they enjoy in the Church. 1. Divine instruction.
2. Great peace: the peace of Godprofound, strengthening, satisfying, enduring, &c.
Isa. 54:14. I. The foundation of the Churchrighteousness. II. The security of it. III. The comfort of it. Oppression, and terror, and fear excluded. IV. The permanency of it.
Isa. 54:15. I. The last combination of the Churchs enemies. II. Its unauthorised character. III. Utter abortiveness. IV. The blessed assurance.
Isa. 54:16-17. I. All agencies and forces are the creation of God. II. He licenses, employs, controls them as He pleases. III. Hence no weapon or power can prosper against the Church which He has redeemed.J. Lyth, D.D.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(11) I will lay thy stones with fair colours.The first germ of the idealising symbolism of the new Jerusalem. The language of Tob. 13:16-17, shows the impression which it made on the Jews of the captivity. It takes its highest form, excluding all thoughts of a literal fulfilment, in Rev. 21:19-21. The Hebrew word for fair colours indicates the kohl, the black powder of antimony, or manganese, used by women in the East on eyelids and eyebrows, so as to enhance the brilliancy of the eyes. (2Ki. 9:30, 1Ch. 29:2, Jer. 4:30.) Here, apparently, it is used in the same way as the setting of the sapphires and other gems. For windows read pinnacles.
Sapphires . . .As with the choice of the twelve gems for the High Priests breast-plate, it is probable that each stone, over and above its visible beauty, had a symbolical significance. Sapphire, e.g., represented the azure of the firmament, as the sapphire throne of the Eternal (Exo. 24:10, Eze. 1:26; Eze. 10:1), and the rubies (not agates) and carbuncles may, in like manner, have answered to the fiery glow of the Divine love and the Divine wrath.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11, 12. Hitherto the Church, or Zion, has been a lone female, afflicted, or insulted; tossed with tempest, unprotected, jostled about, furious storms driving in upon her; but now, instead of ruined walls and torn-up pavements, a blessed spiritual vision is the medium in which she is to be seen. The stones of Zion shall be laid in solid gems of variegated colours, and of a strength and quality most precious and most enduring. The Hebrew mind revelled in figures of this kind to exhibit the future Church in her splendour, permanence, and power. Both in the apocryphal book of Tobit, (chap. Isa 13:16-17,) and especially in Rev 21:18-27, the whole resources of rhetoric in this line of figures, descriptive of the glories of Zion or the New Jerusalem, seem worked to exhaustion. Beauty, preciousness, solidity, are characteristics after which the whole heart and understanding are put upon the strain to describe.
Thy windows Here so called because light is transmitted through them. The lexicons give other definitions, such as battlements, pinnacles, and the like; implying, however, some relation to the sun, as if the material they were made of was transparent, and so admitted the light.
Sapphires Gems translucently blue, and in foundations beautifully offsetting the azure of the sky.
Agates, the same as rubies; and carbuncles, the same as glittering gems.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Continuing and Final Establishment of His People ( Isa 54:11-17 ).
Isaiah’s prophecies of Israel’s future have a number of facets, for he is preparing them for the whole future. The prophecies found a partial fulfilment in Israel’s being built up again with returning exiles and the establishment of the land. God’s graciousness to them was revealed in different ways. Prophets came among them and taught them. The Scriptures grew. They had periods of independence and plenty. They were a witness to God’s truth among the nations. We must never forget the faithful who were awaiting the coming of God’s chosen One and continued His witness as His Servant.
Then after the coming of Jesus Christ the new Israel grew and expanded around the world. They too preached and prospered. The Scriptures were further built up. There were always enemies, but they knew that with God as their God they need not fear.
And all awaited the final day when God would establish His everlasting kingdom and bring all to conclusion. So in Isaiah’s teaching we must expect to find aspects of all three for he was proclaiming the future of the people of God.
Isa 54:11-12
‘O you afflicted one, storm torn, not comforted,
Behold I will set your stones in beautifying colours,
And lay your foundations with sapphires.
And I will make your pinnacles of rubies,
And your gates of fiery stones,
And all your border of pleasurable stones.’
Though they are afflicted and storm torn, and not yet comforted (Isa 40:1), His people will be built by Yahweh into a city of glorious beauty. It is a new city, a city of beauty and splendour, a city worthy of God (compare Isa 26:1-4), a city of righteousness, a faithful city (Isa 1:25-26). A city like no other (compare Revelation 21). It is the new Jerusalem putting on its beautiful garments and excluding all uncleanness and all that is not within His covenant (Isa 52:1), and deliberately not identified except as representing God’s people.
The stones are set in eye paint for beauty, the foundations are laid in a vivid blue stone, its pinnacles (literally ‘suns’, possibly the topmost parts which glisten in the sun) are of fiery red stones, its gates are of ‘fiery’ stones, and its border is of ‘stones which bring pleasure’. The whole picture is one of glorious beauty. It has become the most desirable of cities, like that in Revelation 21.
The basic idea here is of a building up of the people of God, at first imperfect and lacking the fullness that would come later, but ever glorious and looking towards the final completion when God would be all in all. For His people are His building (1Co 3:9-16; Eph 2:20-22), God’s temple (2Co 6:16; 1Pe 2:5; 1Co 6:19), a city set on a hill that could not be hidden (Mat 5:14; Heb 12:22). And one day that city will be revealed in all its glory (Revelation 21).
Isa 54:13-14
‘And all your children will be taught of Yahweh,
And the peace of your children will be great.
You will be established in righteousness,
You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear,
And from terror, for it will not come near you.’
The practical side is now emphasised. All who are of this city will be taught by Yahweh, they will have great peace (wellbeing) and be established in righteousness. And all oppression of any kind, so common in earthly society, and all that is fearful and terrifying externally, will be far away so that there is nothing to disturb their hearts or their security.
In the final analysis this can only refer to the everlasting kingdom under the Davidic king (compare Jer 23:5-6; Eze 37:24-28) in the new heaven and earth. In the final analysis all will be well under His rule. But a secondary application may be made to those on the journey, for the principles are set firm. It is not for nothing that they are seen as dwelling in tents (Isa 54:2), but are to be established as a city. Those who travel will also discover the truth of these words (1Pe 2:11; Heb 11:13). All who are His will be taught by Him (Jer 31:33-34; 1Co 2:9-16), just as the Servant was (Isa 50:4-5), although not to the same extent; all may enjoy great peace (Isa 26:3; Php 4:7). They are to be established in righteousness ( Rom 1:16-17 ; 1Co 1:30; 2Co 5:21), and while they are not safe from oppression and terrors they need not fear them. They are preparing for that final day.
Isa 54:15
‘Behold they may gather together, but not by me.
Whoever will gather together against you will fall because of you.’
In the growth of God’s true people through time there will be many enemies who will gather against God’s people. But the time of God’s using them as an instrument against His people will have gone. Such enemies will not gather under His command, and indeed He will make them fall. God’s protection for His people will ever be guaranteed.
Isa 54:16-17
‘Behold I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals,
And produces a weapon for his work,
And I have created the waster to destroy.
No weapon that is formed against you will prosper,
And every tongue which will arise against you in judgment, you will condemn.’
He now wants His people to recognise that all is finally under His control. Are weapons being made? He created their maker. Are people engaged in wasting and destroying in the world? God created the waster. He is sovereign over all. So His people need not be concerned, for they are under special protection. In the final analysis no weapon can hurt the people of God, although it may not seem so for a time, and no tongue will progress with its accusations, without finally being condemned.
Isa 54:17
‘This is the inheritance of the servants of Yahweh,
And their righteousness is of me, says Yahweh.’
For this is His people’s inheritance. Note that Israel as ‘the Servant’ have now become ‘the servants of Yahweh’. Once the ultimate Servant was reached the term no longer applied generally, except by expansion. What they have and are now comes to them through the ultimate Servant. Thus the portion of the Servant becomes the inheritance of the servants of Yahweh, whose inheritance it is to enjoy all He has obtained for them. And when they are accounted righteous, and become righteous, it is of Yahweh. For He and the Servant work as One. All their righteousness essentially comes from Him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Lord’s Promise of Perfect Security for the Church
v. 11. O thou afflicted, v. 12. And I will make thy windows of agates, v. 13. And all thy children, v. 14. In righteousness shalt thou be established, clothed with salvation, v. 15. Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by Me, v. 16. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work, v. 17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Isa 54:11-12. O, thou afflicted, &c. O, thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, void of comfort; behold, I range thy stones in paint, and found thee upon sapphires: Isa 54:12. And I make thy turrets of rubies, and thy gates of carbuncles, and the whole circuit of thy walls of precious stones. The Almighty preserver and protector of the church, here, in elegantly figurative terms, proceeds to assure her of his care towards her, as well in adorning and furnishing her with every spiritual gift, as in defending her against her enemies. The general meaning of the prophesy is, that God would render his church most beautiful, splendid, and pleasant to the spiritual eye, such as is a city to the natural eye, composed of precious, shining, red, and beautiful stones. The true ornaments of the church, and of its members, are those internal virtues and graces which render it so lovely in the sight of its great Redeemer. The reader will find this emblem of our prophet finely illustrated by St. John in his description of the new Jerusalem; where all will be pure, excellent, and holy, and whence every thing defiling and abominable will be for ever excluded. See Revelation 21. If in this prophesy the gospel-church, in its first institution, be alluded to, we must understand that church as it exists in the sacred writings, while there can be no doubt that a future and more glorious state of the church is referred to in this remarkable prophesy. See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Every believer in Christ, as well as the Church at large, should take comfort from these gracious promises and assurances; for while they are spoken to the Church in general, they are intended for the special and personal consolation of every individual believer. And most sweet they are! Tried and tempted souls are afflicted souls, tossed about like ships on the tempestuous waters; but there shall be peace in Jesus. The New Testament Church, like the Jerusalem above, shall be glorious in her Lord’s presence and favor, as those streets above are said to be paved with gold and precious stones. And, what is yet infinitely more sure to give comfort, all the children of grace shall be well taught, as well as well accommodated; for the Lord himself will condescend to become the teacher. And the consequence of this divine teaching is, that they shall come to Christ, and find all peace in him. Our blessed Lord himself was pleased to quote this passage, and apply it to himself, as concerning him and his gospel, Joh 6:45 . Reader! do not forget to make application also of the blessed doctrine of our Lord upon it, and put down for thy comfort, what cannot be denied, that if thou art come to Christ, it is, and must be the sole result of divine teaching. Eph 4:20-21 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 54:11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, [and] not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
Ver. 11. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. ] This is the Church’s style and state in this present life: Ecclesia est haeres crucis, The church’s cross clings, saith Luther. None out of hell have suffered more than saints.
Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours.
And lay thy foundations with sapphires.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 54:11-17
11O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted,
Behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
And your foundations I will lay in sapphires.
12Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies,
And your gates of crystal,
And your entire wall of precious stones.
13All your sons will be taught of the LORD;
And the well-being of your sons will be great.
14In righteousness you will be established;
You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear;
And from terror, for it will not come near you.
15If anyone fiercely assails you it will not be from Me.
Whoever assails you will fall because of you.
16Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire of coals
And brings out a weapon for its work;
And I have created the destroyer to ruin.
17No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
And their vindication is from Me, declares the LORD.
Isa 54:11-13 Notice the number of jewels used as a way to show God’s favor (cf. Eze 28:13).
1. antimony (BDB 806, KB 918) – either a black stone, cf. 1Ch 29:2, or black mortar, cf Isa 54:11
2. sapphires (BDB 705, KB 764) – possibly lapis-lazuli
3. rubies (BDB 461, KB 460)
4. crystal (BDB 869, KB 82) – possibly beryl
5. precious stones, but not specified as to which ones
Only one of these jewels (#2) was used in the breastplate of the High Priest (cf. Exo 28:17-19; Exo 39:10-11).
The imagery of jeweled walls is taken over by John in Rev 21:18-21.
Isa 54:11 O afflicted one This is poetically parallel to O barren one of Isa 54:1. They both refer to the returnees.
Isa 54:13 All your sons will be taught of the LORD This sounds very much like Jer 31:34 (i.e., the new covenant). Jesus quotes this verse in Joh 6:45 related to the Father drawing believers/disciples to Himself through Jesus.
The NEB revocalizes the MT and changes and all your sons to your masons, but the UBS Text Project gives and all your sons an A Rating (very high probability).
Isa 54:14 This verse mentions four things that the returnees will experience of God’s care and protection.
1. you will be established in righteousness – Hithpolel IMPERFECT (BDB 465, KB 464)
2. oppression will be far from you – Qal IMPERATIVE (BDB 934, KB 1221)
3. you will not fear – Qal IMPERFECT (BDB 431, KB 432)
4. terror will not come near you – Qal IMPERFECT (BDB 897, KB 1132)
Isa 54:15-17 This is surely a passage on YHWH’s sovereignty. One wonders how this truth relates to eschatological persecution of believers.
Isa 54:15 This verse is similar in meaning to Gen 12:3 b. The returnees may experience problems but they are not from God and will be punished (cf. Isa 41:11-16). There is a Qal INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE, a Qal IMPERFECT, and a Qal PERFECT of the same Hebrew root (BDB 158, KB 184). This grammatical construction emphasizes their possible problem but God’s sure actions on their behalf.
Isa 54:16-17 This verse, like Joh 6:45, emphasizes the sovereignty of YHWH to accomplish His purpose through the seed of Abraham (i.e., Israel and the Messiah).
Isa 54:17 the servants of the LORD The NASB Study Bible has a good note on this phrase (p. 1033).
After ch. 53 the singular ‘servant’ no longer occurs in Isaiah. The ‘servants’ (see Isa 63:17; Isa 65:8-9; Isa 65:13-15; Isa 66:14) are true believers – both Jew and Gentile (see Isa 56:6-8) – who are faithful to the Lord. They are in a sense the ‘offspring’ of the servant (Isa 53:10).
their vindication is from Me There is no VERB in the MT. YHWH will deliver His people.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Isa 54:11-17
Isa 54:11-17
“O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, behold, I will set thy stones in fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy pinnacles with rubies, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy border of precious stones. And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they shall gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall because of thee. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the fire of coals, and bringeth forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah, and their righteousness which is of me, saith Jehovah.”
Isa 54:11-12, here describe “the external beauty of the kingdom of God.” Of course, the language is wholly metaphorical, much like the magnificent description of the “New Jerusalem,” coming down out of heaven from God in Revelation 21-22. Men, many of them, at least, do not view God’s church in such extravagantly magnificent colors; but this is God’s view, the correct view. The Church is the most beautiful, sublime, glorious, and magnificent entity upon the planet earth. Her head is in heaven itself; and there’s no other organization known among men that is worthy even to be compared with the Church.
Isa 54:13 is a glimpse of the inner, spiritual glory and beauty of the Church. “All thy children shall be taught of God”! Membership in the Jewish nation was via natural birth and the circumcision that followed (in the case of males) some eight days later. Thus, unless such individuals were carefully instructed and reared in their faith, they remained as persons who had no knowledge whatever of God. The words here show that a new system was being followed during the reign of Messiah. Just as Jeremiah had foretold:
“For they shall all know me (in the days of the New Covenant), from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more” (Jer 35:1-19).
The simple meaning of this is that infants and children before accountability “cannot belong” to the Christian Church, for they do not “know the Lord,” the presumptuous acceptance of infant church membership by some churches to the contrary, notwithstanding. One must “know the Lord” before he can become a member.
The balance of these verses speak of the peace, tranquillity, security, safety, and absence of fear among God’s people in the Church.
In times past God had brought powerful enemies against his people, but never again. There indeed may arise powerful and determined enemies, but the Lord will not be with them (Isa 54:15). God’s people shall be established in righteousness (Isa 54:14); but that righteousness shall not be of themselves, but of Jehovah (Isa 54:17).
A further word about that “righteousness” is in order. The righteousness that redeems and establishes the people of God is genuine, not imputed, or faked; it is the real thing. It is the righteousness achieved and wrought by Jehovah through Christ, the righteousness of Jesus Christ being in fact the only actual righteousness ever known on earth. Now without that righteousness, no one shall ever see God or be saved. How, then does one acquire it? Oh, it is imputed to man upon the basis of faith, some say. Ah no! That would be altogether a phony righteousness. How then, does one possess it? God’s way of saving stinking sinners is not by shooting righteousness into stinking sinners, but by requiring that sinners deny themselves, confess Christ, repent and be baptized “into Christ” who is righteous, that is, by transferring sinners “into Christ.” Thus, no man who ever lived can be saved except as he is identified with Christ, as Christ, and in Christ; and then, he is not saved as John Smith or Joe Bloke, but “as Christ.”
Isa 54:11-12 PRECIOUSNESS: When this marriage takes place between God and His new Zion, the bride (the church) will be regaled in beauty. The old Zion, having degraded itself with idolatry and paganism (Jer 18:12-17, etc.), is about to be taken captive and made a byword among the nations. The old Zion will suffer shame, humiliation and mocking. The old Zion will be loathed as a harlot (cf. Eze 16:1-52), but Jehovah will restore her fortunes and make her the beautiful, new Zion (Eze 16:53-63).
The Hebrew word puk in Isa 54:11 is translated fair colors but might be more accurately translated antimony because the Hebrew word apparently refers to a mineral powder used as an eye pigment (cf. 2Ki 9:30) which was also mixed with a liquid to make a cement or paste in which stones or jewels might be set. This puk would make a setting that would enhance the beauty of the jewels. That is the point of the passage. Peniyniym is the Hebrew word for rubies (they are red); sappiyriym are sapphires (they are blue-green); aekeddakh is Hebrew for carbuncles (they are also brilliant red) and the word more literally means simply, sparkling. The new Zion will be beautiful and precious. Peter must have had this in mind when he wrote 1Pe 2:4-10! Christs church is precious and pure (Eph 5:25-27) The best human words available to John to describe the extravagant beauty of the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:9-21) were words describing jewels and precious stones. Of course, the precious stones will be purified, sanctified Christians who are living stones in whom the Spirit of the living God abides (cf. Eph 2:19-22).
Isa 54:13-17 PROTECTION: The phrase, . . . taught of Jehovah is quoted by Jesus (Joh 6:45) in His sermon on The Bread of Life. It is therefore a prediction of the Messiah. Isaiah was predicting the Incarnation! Jesus Christ was the bread come down out of heaven. The new Zion would be established and continually sustained by eating the incarnated Bread from Heaven. The new Zion would have the privilege of being taught directly by God in the flesh. The old Zion had only divers portions and divers manners of Gods revelation through the prophets (Heb 1:1), but in the messianic age the new Zion would be spoken to by God Incarnate in the Son. Anyone taught by Jesus is taught by God Himself.
The protection God is promising Zion here is essentially spiritual. It should be clearly understood by any student of the New Testament that Christians are never promised complete deliverance from wars, sicknesses, trials and tribulations. All who live godly in this world will suffer persecution (2Ti 3:12). The prophets never promised the Jewish people a time when they would be free of physical tribulation on this earth. The promise that Zion shall be far from oppression is a promise of freedom from spiritual oppression (guilt, fear of judgment). The new Zion will be founded in righteousness (cf. Isa 2:1-4; Isa 9:6-7; Isa 11:1-16, etc.). The imputed righteousness of God because of the atoning death of Christ will free the new Zion from guilt and fear of judgment. The Lord will protect His church and the gates of eternal death shall never prevail against it because Christ will partake of flesh and blood and destroy the power of the devil which is the fear of death (cf. Heb 2:14-18; Isa 25:6-9). In Isa 54:15-17 the prophet clearly predicts that Zion will suffer physical attacks as well as judgmental accusations (probably referring to the chief slanderer himself, the devil), but none of it shall prevail against Gods new Zion. God is the Creator of everything and everyone. He is able to control all His creation and use it to fulfill His ultimate purpose which is the redemption of those who come into covenant relationship to Him through the Servant. And He will do so! Zions future righteousness cannot be gainsaid. The accuser of all mankind cannot hurt Gods new Zion with his accusations. The heritage of new Zion shall be the perfect righteousness of God Himself, which God has given her by His grace through His Servant. The Hebrew word tsedek is able to be translated righteousness or justness. The meaning in this text apparently has more of the flavor of justification, vindication or exoneration. Gods new Zion will be cleared of all guilt and be given Gods righteousness through her covenant marriage in the Servant.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
thou afflicted: Isa 54:6, Isa 49:14, Isa 51:17-19, Isa 51:23, Isa 52:1-5, Isa 60:15, Exo 2:23, Exo 3:2, Exo 3:7, Deu 31:17, Psa 34:19, Psa 129:1-3, Jer 30:17, Joh 16:20-22, Joh 16:33, Act 14:22, Rev 11:3-10, Rev 12:13-17
tossed: Mat 8:24, Act 27:18-20
not comforted: Lam 1:1, Lam 1:2, Lam 1:16, Lam 1:17, Lam 1:21
I will lay: 1Ki 5:17, 1Ch 29:2, Eze 40:1 – Eze 42:20, Eph 2:20, 1Pe 2:4-6, Rev 21:18-21
sapphires: Exo 24:10, Exo 28:17-20, Exo 39:10-14, Son 5:14, Eze 1:26, Eze 10:1
Reciprocal: 1Ki 6:30 – General 1Ki 7:10 – the foundation 2Ch 3:6 – precious Job 7:4 – tossings Job 28:6 – sapphires Psa 61:2 – my heart Psa 72:7 – In his days Isa 33:5 – he hath Isa 44:26 – that saith Lam 1:9 – she had Eze 28:13 – every Mat 14:24 – tossed Mar 6:48 – he saw Luk 8:23 – came 1Co 3:12 – precious Rev 21:14 – foundations Rev 21:19 – the foundations
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 54:11-12. O thou afflicted, &c. O thou, my church, which hast been in a most afflicted and comfortless condition; behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, &c. I will make thee exceedingly beautiful and pure, stable and glorious. For, as Bishop Lowth justly observes, these seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise moral or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, (Tob 13:16-17,) describes the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner. For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls, and towers, and battlements, with pure gold; and the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of Ophir. It must be well observed, however, that it is not any external pomp or worldly glory that is intended to be set forth in these verses, as is evident from many parts of Scripture, which assure us that Christs kingdom is of another nature, and that the outward condition of Gods church is, and, for the most part, will be, mean and afflicted in this world: but it is of a spiritual beauty and glory that these things are spoken, consisting in a plentiful effusion of excellent gifts, graces, and comforts upon the church, which, however, will be followed with eternal glory in heaven. We have a similar description of the churchs glory Rev 21:11, &c. I will make thy windows of agates Hebrew, , lapis pretiosus quasi scintillans dictus, says Buxtorf; a precious stone, so called from its sparkling. One kind of these stones, according to Pliny, was transparent like glass. But some render the word crystal; and the LXX., and some others of the ancients, translate it jasper. The truth is, the proper signification of the Hebrew names of precious stones is not perfectly known to the Jews themselves. It may suffice us to know that this was some very clear, transparent, and probably sparkling precious stone. And all thy borders The utmost parts or walls, of pleasant stones. The church is here evidently compared to a building, whose foundation, pavement, gates, and windows are all named.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
54:11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, [and] not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with {k} fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
(k) By this he declares the excellent estate of the Church under Christ.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The rebuilt city 54:11-17
Isaiah changed his illustration from a restored wife to a rebuilt city, but the point remains the same. The contrast between the city of man and the city of God is one that Isaiah developed quite fully (cf. Isa 1:26-27; Isa 2:2-4; Isa 4:2-6; Isa 12:1-6; Isa 24:10; Isa 25:1-9; Isa 26:1-6; Isa 35:10; Isa 47:1; Isa 52:1; Isa 66:10-14). The people of God can anticipate a glorious future. The prophet was not describing the rebuilding of Jerusalem following the Jews’ return from exile. He was using the image of rebuilding a city to convey the joy and security that lay in the future for all God’s people, particularly Israel.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Presently God’s people were wretched, but they would be redeemed. They were bereft of support, without stability, and in despair, all of which God in His compassion noted. They would enjoy richness, abundance, completeness, and variety. Antimony was a black powder that masons added to mortar that held stones in place. It set off the beauty of the stones by providing a dark edging for them. Women also used this powder as mascara to color their eyes (cf. 2Ki 9:30). Foundations of sapphires (lapis lazuli, a prized dark blue stone) would be foundations of the highest quality and greatest beauty. The battlements Isaiah saw were bright red rubies. The gates were clear crystal, and the walls were a mosaic of other precious stones. This description recalls the picture of the New Jerusalem in Rev 21:9 to Rev 22:5. Is that just a poetic description of an ideal city, like this one, or is it a literal description of a specific city? Probably it, too, is a poetic description of the ideal residence of the redeemed throughout eternity, but the New Jerusalem is nonetheless a real place (cf. Joh 14:1-2). This picture, of wealth, stability, and confidence, contrasts strongly with the conditions of poverty, insecurity, and despair in Isa 54:11. The key is God, who will effect the change: "I will."