Глава 32

1–8. A righteous king will reign in Jerusalem and, as a result, truth and honesty will triumph in society. 9–20. The punishment awaiting the women of Jerusalem, and the future glorification of the Jewish people. Isaiah 32:1–8. As in the 11th chapter, after what is depicted in the 10th chapter. the fall of Assyria, Isaiah immediately begins to paint a picture of the future messianic time, and in the 32nd chapter he depicts the accession of a righteous ruler in Jerusalem, coinciding with the defeat of Asshur. Under the new ruler, all rulers of Jerusalem will protect justice and take care of the welfare of the people. Anyone who is now unable to listen to divine revelation will then be able to understand and explain everything in this revelation. At that time, the worship of unworthy people will also end, and virtue will be respected. Isa.32:1. Behold, the King will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule by law; Isa.32:2. and each of them will be like a protection from the wind and a cover from bad weather, like sources of water in the steppe, like a shadow from a high rock in a thirsty land. "Tsar" . As can be seen from other places in the book of Isaiah (mainly from chapters 9 and 11), the prophet called the Messiah a righteous king - righteous in the full sense of the word. Therefore, here too it denotes the Messiah. But in contrast to chapters 9 and 11, the prophet does not go into a description of the personal activities of this king, but depicts mainly the figures around him - the ministers. This is probably explained by the fact that the prophet and the people recognized King Hezekiah, under whom this speech was composed, as a good ruler, but were not satisfied with the composition of his ministry or the secret royal council. “Steppe” is actually a dry, waterless desert. In euros The text here contains the word zajon, very reminiscent of the name of Jerusalem - zijon (play on words). The "rock" is a wonderful shelter for a traveler walking in the desert - better than a tree. Isa.32:3. And the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. Isa.32:4. And the heart of the frivolous will be able to reason; and those who are tongue-tied will speak clearly. “The eyes of those who see... are the ears of those who hear.” Some interpreters see here simply as a designation of people who own all the senses, but do not want to use them, who close their eyes and ears so as not to see or hear what they do not like (Nägelscbach). But, taking into account what the prophet said earlier about the state of the prophets and seers of his time (Is. 29:9, 10), here too we see an indication of the prophets who were honored to see visions and hear revelations from God. Then these prophets will carry out their great ministry without hindrance. “Frivolous... and tongue-tied.” These are false prophets, or better yet, the leaders of public opinion of that time, unable to distinguish truth from lies themselves, unable to convey their thoughts to others in understandable language. Isa.32:5. The ignorant will no longer be called respectable, and the treacherous will no longer be said to be honest. Isa.32:6. For the ignorant speaks foolish things, and his heart thinks of evil, to act hypocritically and blaspheme against the Lord, to deprive the soul of the hungry of bread and take away the drink of the thirsty. Isa.32:7. The insidious has disastrous actions: he plots schemes to destroy the poor with words of lies, even though the poor man is right. Isa.32:8. But he who is honest thinks about what is honest and stands firm in everything that is honest. From the rulers and leaders of the Jews, the prophet now moves on to the depiction of simply noble people. Nowadays, people are often called not according to their actual merits. Nobles, that is, noble, are called ignorant and treacherous, that is, those who plot intrigues against their neighbor. Under the Messiah this will not happen. Each will be rewarded according to his deserts. To show how badly people are acting at the present time, incorrectly assessing nobility and ignominy, the prophet says that an ignoramus or a fool brings great harm to society. He not only says stupid things, but also harbors bad intentions, denies the Lord and harms defenseless people, robbing them of their last means of livelihood. In the same way, it is a sin to bow down to treacherous people who are ready to destroy the poor in all sorts of dishonest ways. On the contrary, an honest person thinks and does what is in accordance with the rules of honor - this should not be subjected to the slightest doubt. So, this means that in the time of the Messiah, honorary distinctions will not be given to anyone for free. Only a person with a certain high moral outlook and the ability to put his thoughts into practice will be respected! Isaiah 32:9–20. Turning now to the carefree noble women of Judah, the prophet depicts the devastation of the land of Judea - in particular, the devastation of Jerusalem. The country of the chosen people will remain in this state until the Spirit poured out from above renews the lives of the people; then truth and peace and, in general, all prosperity will be established everywhere in Judea. The prophet addresses the prediction of the devastation awaiting Judea to women because noble women, such as he has in mind here, will find it most difficult to endure the hardships associated with the impending devastation of the country. Isa.32:10. A few more days beyond the year, and you will be horrified, careless ones! for there will be no gleaning of the grapes, and the time of harvest will not come. In Chapter 29 (v. 2 et seq.) the prophet said that there was a year left before the siege of Jerusalem. Here he adds an indefinite number of days to the year, since he has in mind the devastation of the entire Jewish land, which should have occurred somewhat later than the siege of Jerusalem. Isa.32:11. Shudder, you carefree ones! be horrified, you careless ones! throw off your clothes, be naked and gird your loins. "Be naked". – As a sign of sadness, the women took off their outer, most valuable, clothes. “Gird up your loins” - with simple sackcloth, so as not to walk completely naked (cf. Is. 3:23). Isa.32:12. They will beat their chests about the beautiful fields, about the fruitful vine. Pampered women will first of all regret what was delivered to Jerusalem from the rich fields of Judea and from the luxurious vineyards, which, of course, will all be devastated by the Assyrian troops. Here you can see a hint that Jewish women were also given over to a passion for wine, like their husbands. Isa.32:13. Thorns and thistles will grow in the land of my people, and in all the houses of joy in the rejoicing city; Isa.32:14. for the palaces will be abandoned; the bustling city will be abandoned; Ophel and the tower will forever serve, instead of caves, as a refuge for wild donkeys and grazing herds, The Prophet here, obviously, is not talking about the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians under Hezekiah, when the enemies of the Jews had to shamefully flee from the walls of Jerusalem, but about the devastation of Jerusalem by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar. Thus, here, as in other cases, the prophet is transferred from the near future to more distant times. “Ophel” - (hill, goddess) formed part of Jerusalem and, as it seems, represented the southeastern slope of the church mount. There was a tower on top of Ophel (cf. Neh. 3:26). "Wild Ass". This animal loves the loneliness of deserts (Job.39:5). Consequently, where he appears is quiet and deserted, like in the desert. And so it will be in Jerusalem, which was once bustling with life! “Forever” is an expression that sometimes means a very long time, as can be seen from the following verse (cf. Isa. 63:16). Isa.32:15. until the Spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the desert becomes a garden, and the garden is considered a forest. Here the prophet depicts future messianic times, when the situation of the chosen people will change for the better in all respects - both in the sense of moral and in the sense of material well-being. "Spirit from Above". The force that will accomplish this great metamorphosis in the internal and external life of the people will be the Spirit, which will pour out upon the people and their country in excessive abundance from on high. This Spirit is the life-renewing principle of people, the wonderful power of God. The prophet Joel spoke about this Spirit even earlier to Isaiah (Joel 2:28), but in this latter the increase in the fertility of the Promised Land precedes the outpouring of the Spirit, whereas in Isaiah it is the result of the outpouring of the Spirit. 41 Isa.32:16. Then judgment will be established in this desert, and justice will abide in the fruitful field. Isa.32:17. And the work of righteousness will be peace, and the fruit of justice will be peace and security forever. Isa.32:18. Then my people will live in an abode of peace and in safe villages and in the chambers of the blessed. The Prophet has just (13-14 v.) depicted Judea as a barren desert, therefore, as a place in which one cannot count on any security or on any operation of ordinary laws: the Bedouins govern with travelers according to their own customs. But in the days of the Messiah, Palestine will again be a country where justice is respected and where it will therefore be completely safe to live. Isa.32:19. And hail will fall on the forest, and the city will descend into the valley. Isa.32:20. Blessed are you who sow by all the waters and send there the ox and the donkey. And external natural disasters will pass by the populated areas of Judea at that time. “Hail” - at that blessed time, if it falls, it will only fall on the forest, and not on the fields and homes of the Jews, so that only forest trees will suffer from it. 42 “The city will descend into the valley,” that is, Jerusalem or, in fact, its population will not hide behind the city walls, but will boldly walk through the valleys surrounding the city. This means that there will no longer be enemies in the vicinity of Jerusalem. "Those who sow by all waters". In Palestine, farmers usually threw their seeds directly into the soil loosened by spring floods and then drove oxen and donkeys across this sown soil, which thus trampled the seeds into the ground with their hooves. In the future, the Jews will have a lot of such valleys (with all the waters), which indicates the time when they alone will own all of Palestine. The stanzas in the poem of chapter 32 are divided as follows: 1 stanza – 1–5 art. – (3, 3) 2nd stanza – 6–8 art. – (3, 3) 3rd stanza – 9–11 art. – (2, 2, 2) 1st stanza – 12–14 art. – (3, 3) 2nd stanza – 15–20 st. – (3, 3) In the Slavic translation it is written quite clearly - “Dondezh will find upon us the Spirit from the Most High” - an obvious indication of the active component of the Holy Trinity. Note ed. In the Slavic translation from LXX, it is said more definitely about the hail: “If the hail falls, it will not come to you.” Note ed. You might be interested in: