Isaiah 2

You have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob: full of things from the east, fortune-tellers like the Philistines, striking hands with foreigners’ children. Wesley: the body of the nation; eastern idolatrous manners; Philistines infamous for those practices; leagues, friendships, and marriages.

Judah has filled itself with foreign ways. The east is Syria and Chaldea. They pleased themselves in strangers; the forsaking answers that filling. Rites, hands struck.

Calvin: surely thou hast forsaken. Perverse disposition—idolatry, then just rejection. He still addresses them, even when he stands astonished. Full from the east: vices contracted from that quarter. Like the Philistines, though God had separated them. Children of strangers: foreign nations they preferred to God.

The forsaking is His just sentence on their filling. Both sides agree: house of Jacob, east, fortune-tellers, foreigners.

Wesley: they have heaped up riches and still greedily pursue more.

Wealth piled up in Judah’s days. The sin is the heap and the trust. Horses were a king’s forbidden stockpile (Deut 17).

Calvin: not the things themselves but covetousness and sinful confidence. Insatiable eagerness—no end. Horses and chariots: God forbade kings a multitude lest they return to Egypt and trust the stable.

False confidence in what the land holds. Neither side disputes this: silver, gold, horses, chariots.

The land is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, what their fingers have made. The filling of v. 7 now has a god attached.

Judah bows to the work of its own fingers. Handmade gods are still chosen. The Holy One of 1:4 is traded for a carving.

Calvin: idols are empty things (elilim). A block neglected, then finished by a mortal, is worshipped as Deity. He who bows before an idol professes divine worship. The work of their own hands aggravates the crime.

They honor what they cannot confer on themselves. Both traditions see: idols, hands, fingers.

So man is brought low, and mankind is humbled; therefore don’t forgive them! Wesley: men of all ranks fall down and worship idols.

The bow of v. 8 becomes the bringing-low. Do not forgive: a plea over a nation’s unrepented idolatry, not a denial that snow was offered in 1:18. The body of the nation is in view.

Calvin: mean and mighty—no rank free of the stain. Some read it as the coming ruin. Forgive them not: toward such obstinate men God will not be appeased. Tacit reservation of a remnant; he does not speak of every individual. Restoration of a new Church is not to be expected till judgments have destroyed the temple.

Sentence on the obstinate, remnant not named here. Neither side disputes this: man brought low.

Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty. Wesley: such calamities that you will be ready to hide in rocks and caves from glorious and terrible judgments.

The command to enter the rock pictures the dread of invasion. Majesty is the Lord’s; the caves are Judah’s.

Calvin: not an exhortation but a denunciation. The judgment is more to be dreaded than a thousand deaths. Dread of the Lord: the scourges; His magnificent glory: He is to be dreaded according to the measure of that glory.

Terror is His appearing as judge. They hide in rock and dust from the terror of the LORD and the glory of his majesty.

Haughty looks brought low, lofty pride humbled, the Lord alone exalted in that day. The day is His.

The pride shows on their faces. The exaltation of the Lord does not empty the looks of being theirs before they fall.

Calvin: wicked men, relying on wealth, regard threatenings with disdain. The time will come when this pride is brought down. When crimes pass unpunished, a cloud hides His glory; vengeance makes it shine. He alone exalted: they thought themselves higher than God.

He lays low that He alone may be seen. Haughty, humbled, Lord alone, that day.

The LORD of Armies has a day against everything proud and haughty, everything lifted up—it shall be brought low. Wesley: the time of God’s taking vengeance upon sinners.

Vengeance on Judah’s pride, which also names how God always meets the proud. A day that is His.

Calvin: God is the enemy of all the proud. He appoints a day, as in judicial trials, on which proud men are summoned. If our minds were convinced of this, who would not abhor pride?

Previously appointed, not a surprise to Him. Lord of hosts, proud, lofty, brought low. Cedars follow.

For all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up; against all the oaks of Bashan. Wesley: cedars and oaks thrown down by wind, earthquake, or lightning; stately houses built of them destroyed.

Trees and the houses they became. Pride used what Lebanon grew.

Calvin: allegory—mortal wishes never reach the height of mountains and trees, which God throws down as wind scatters leaves. He is not angry with cedars He made; the evil lies in men who trust what is high.

A painting of how idle proud confidence is. The cedars of Lebanon and oaks of Bashan stand for all that is lofty.

Wesley: hills to which men betake themselves in danger.

High ground in Judah’s map, and the trust parked there. The mountain of 2:2 is the Lord’s; these hills are rivals.

Calvin: harmless creatures hold out the judgment, to convince the unprincipled that presumption will not pass unpunished.

Creation is not the culprit; trust in height is. Mountains, hills, lifted up.

Wesley: that to which you trusted for defence.

Every high wall of Judah’s cities will fall. Trust is the sin; masonry is the scene.

Calvin: towers and walls are not merely figurative. Men who think themselves well defended congratulate themselves that they no longer need God. He will throw down the defenses of false confidence.

Nests from which they look down on heaven. Both traditions agree: tower, wall.

Wesley: ships of the sea by which you fetched riches from remote parts.

The ships of Tarshish stand for trade. Remote gold funded the idols of v. 8.

Calvin: Tarshish as the sea-trade that fed wealth. Navigation is not condemned in itself; abundance leads to pride, and distant trade to covetousness. Beautiful pictures: luxury that follows riches.

The haul becomes the trust. The ships of Tarshish and the beautiful craft will be brought down.

Haughtiness of man humbled, lofty pride brought low, the Lord alone exalted in that day. The refrain of v. 11 after the catalogue.

The same day, the same pride, still theirs until it falls. The Lord alone—shared confession.

Calvin: he had his eye on men when he described loftiness. The Lord will not cease to inflict punishment till haughtiness is brought low, even if reprobate hearts are not changed.

Pride is the target; He alone is left standing. Both traditions agree: humbled, Lord alone, that day.

And the idols shall utterly pass away. The fillings of vv. 7–8 meet a day that empties them.

Handmade gods do not survive the day. Judah actually has to lose them. The warning is meant in earnest.

Calvin: as he joined idolatry with luxury and covetousness in the reproof, he joins them in the punishment. Idols abolished.

He removes what fingers made. The idols will be completely gone.

People enter caves of the rocks and holes of the earth, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth. Wesley: the idolatrous Israelites.

The invitation of v. 10 becomes what they will do. Hiding in Judah’s limestone, under a terror that is His.

Calvin: repetition because it is hard to impress sincere fear. They choose to be swallowed by gulfs rather than come under His eye. Arise: He appears to sleep while He delays; He arises as judge. The Chaldeans and Assyrians promote His glory even as scourges.

When He rises, the earth is shaken by His hand, including the empires He uses.

In that day, men shall cast away idols of silver and gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats. Wesley: into the meanest and darkest places, where moles and bats abide.

A throwing when the terror lands. They made them; they will not keep them. Silver from v. 7 goes underground.

Calvin: idolaters are not ashamed till visited by sore distress. The work of their own hands is not entitled to adoration: what sort of gods are made by men? Moles’ holes: filthy places for a disgraceful concealment.

Adversity unmasks the cloak. Silver, gold, moles, bats.

To enter caverns of the rocks and clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of the LORD, and the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth. The same rising as v. 19; the idols are already thrown.

Still hiding, now without the silver gods. Majesty has not lessened.

Calvin: Christ takes this threatening for the Jews: they shall say to the mountains, Cover us (Luke 23:30). The ungodly prefer the cleft to His eye.

“Caverns”—the same day, the same rise. Both note: rocks, cliffs, terror, majesty.

Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he? Wesley: never admire or place your trust in man; breath quickly stopped; what excellency is in him, considered in himself, and without dependence on God.

After the long catalogue of pride in ch. 2, the command is simple: stop trusting in man. Arminian readers take it as an imperative. Judah must stop leaning on princes, soothsayers, and itself, because human breath is fleeting.

Calvin: cease from man—you are blinded by false hope because you claim too much for yourselves. Breath in the nostrils: life is a breath that vanishes. Begin with ourselves: do not trust our own wisdom or industry. This throws down the pompous applauses of free-will and merits. As soon as men claim the smallest thing, let them perceive they are nothing. We are brought back to God, the Author of every blessing.

Not trusting man includes not trusting our will as a rival to grace. On this both agree: breath in the nostrils, of what account.