Isaiah 29:14

29:9-16 The security of sinners in sinful ways, is cause for lamentation and wonder. The learned men, through prejudice, said that the Divine prophecies were obscure; and the poor urged their want of learning. The Bible is a sealed book to every man, learned or unlearned, till he begins to study it with a simple heart and a teachable spirit, that he may thence learn the truth and the will of God. To worship God, is to approach him. And if the heart be full of his love and fear, out of the abundance of it the mouth will speak; but there are many whose religion is lip-labour only. When they pretend to be speaking to God, they are thinking of a thousand foolish things. They worship the God of Israel according to their own devices. Numbers are only formal in worship. And their religion is only to comply with custom, and to serve their own interest. But the wanderings of mind, and defects in devotion, which are the believer's burden, are very different from the withdrawing of the heart from God, so severely blamed. And those who make religion no more than a pretence, to serve a turn, deceive themselves. And as those that quarrel with God, so those that think to conceal themselves from him, in effect charge him with folly. But all their perverse conduct shall be entirely done away.

Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people,.... Because of their hypocrisy and formality, their regard to men, their doctrines and commandments, and not to the will and word of God, therefore he determines "to deal marvellously with this people": even a marvellous work, and a wonder; that is, something exceedingly marvellous, which would be matter of astonishment to everyone that observed it; and is as follows: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid; and be no more: this was eminently fulfilled in the wise men, the doctors and learned Rabbins of the Jews; and they themselves own (x), that, from the time the temple was destroyed, the wise men became like to Scribes, and the Scribes to those that looked after the synagogues, and these became like the common people, and they grew worse and worse: and Maimonides acknowledges (y), that this respects their present case; he says, when the Heathen princes destroyed their best things, took away their wisdom, and their books, and killed their wise men, they became ignorant and unlearned; which evil God threatened them for their iniquities, as is said in this passage: and also this had its accomplishment in the wise philosophers of the Gentiles; see 1 Corinthians 1:18. (x) Misna Sota, c. 9. sect. 15. (y) More Nevochim, par. 2. c. 11. p. 212.

But the despised doctrine of salvation by faith in a crucified Saviour, God in human nature, purchasing the church with his own blood, to save multitudes, even all that believe, from ignorance, delusion, and vice, has been blessed in every age. And the weakest instruments God uses, are stronger in their effects, than the strongest men can use. Not that there is foolishness or weakness in God, but what men consider as such, overcomes all their admired wisdom and strength.

Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even an wonderful work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall {m} perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (m) Meaning, where God is not worshipped according to his word, both magistrates and ministers are fools and without understanding.

Shall disappear and vanish; for this answers to, shall perish, in the former clause. A veil shall be east upon the eyes of their minds; they shall give no evidences or proofs of their wisdom, but their folly shall be made manifest. And this was indeed a wonderful thing for their wise men to be made fools.

14. (Hab 1:5; Ac 13:41). The "marvellous work" is one of unparalleled vengeance on the hypocrites: compare "strange work," Isa 28:21. The judgment, too, will visit the wise in that respect in which they most pride themselves; their wisdom shall be hid, that is, shall no longer appear, so as to help the nation in its distress (compare 1Co 1:19).

14 . Israel being thus hopelessly estranged from true knowledge of Jehovah, Jehovah must (and will) reveal His character in a way not to be misunderstood. behold, I will proceed ] The Hebr. has the same peculiar construction as in Isaiah 28:16 . to do a marvellous … wonder ] Render: to work wonderfully with this people,—wonderfully and wondrously (cf. Isaiah 28:21 ). the wisdom of their wise men (cf. Jeremiah 18:18 ) shall perish ]—so far will the issue surpass human forethought. shall be hid ] shall hide itself , in shame and confusion.

Verse 14. - I will proceed to do a marvelous work . Commentators are not agreed what this "marvelous work" was. Some, with Delitzsch, consider it to be the hardening of the hearts of the Jews to such an extent that even the appearance of wisdom and understanding, which the rulers of the people had hitherto retained, would completely disappear. Others, with Mr. Cheyne, regard it as the coming siege, with those extreme sufferings and perils (vers. 3, 4) which the Jews would have to undergo - sufferings and perils barely consistent with the previous covenant-promises made to the nation. It is difficult to decide between these two views; but, on the whole, Mr. Cheyne's view seems preferable. A marvelous work and a wonder ; rather, a marvelous work and a marvel . The repetition is for the sake of emphasis. For the wisdom ; rather, and the wisdom ; i.e. "when I do my marvel, then the wisdom of the wise men shall perish" - all their crafty designs and plans shall be of no avail, but come wholly to naught. The chief of these designs was that alluded to in the next verse. Isaiah 29:14

(14) I will proceed to do a marvellous work . . . —The sure doom of hypocrisy would come upon the hypocrites: not loving the light, they would lose the light they had, and be left to their self-chosen blindness. Here, again, history was to repeat itself, and the words of Isaiah were to be fulfilled in an age and in a manner that lay beyond the horizon of his thoughts.

I will proceed to do - Hebrew, 'I will add to do;' that is, I will do it. For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish - I will bring calamity upon them which shall baffle all the skill and wisdom of their wise men. Shall be hid - That is, shall not appear; shall vanish. It shall not be sufficient to prevent the calamities that shall come upon the nation.

This stupefaction was the self-inflicted punishment of the dead works with which the people mocked God and deceived themselves. "The Lord hath spoken: Because this people approaches me with its mouth, and honours me with its lips, and keeps its heart far from me, and its reverence of me has become a commandment learned from men: therefore, behold, I will proceed wondrously with this people, wondrously and marvellously strange; and the wisdom of its wise men is lost, and the understanding of its intelligent men becomes invisible." Ever since the time of Asaph ( Psalm 50 , cf., Psalm 78:36-37 ), the lamentation and condemnation of hypocritical ceremonial worship, without living faith or any striving after holiness, had been a leading theme of prophecy. Even in Isaiah's introductory address (chapter 1) this complain was uttered quite in the tone of that of Asaph. In the time of Hezekiah it was peculiarly called for, just as it was afterwards in that of Josiah (as the book of Jeremiah shows). The people had been obliged to consent to the abolition of the public worship of idols, but their worship of Jehovah was hypocrisy. Sometimes it was conscious hypocrisy, arising from the fear of man and favour of man; sometimes unconscious, inasmuch as without any inward conversion, but simply with work-righteousness, the people contented themselves with, and even prided themselves upon, an outward fulfilment of the law ( Micah 6:6-8 ; Micah 3:11 ).

Instead of נגּשׁ (lxx, Vulg., Syr., Matthew 15:8 ; Mark 7:6 ), we also meet with the reading נגּשׂ, "because this people harasses itself as with tributary service;" but the antithesis to richaq (lxx πόῤῥω ἀπέχει ) favours the former reading nichash, accedit; and bephı̄v (with its moth) must be connected with this, though in opposition to the accents. This self-alienation and self-blinding, Jehovah would punish with a wondrously paradoxical judgment, namely, the judgment of a hardening, which would so completely empty and confuse, that even the appearance of wisdom and unity, which the leaders of Israel still had, would completely disappear. יוסיף (as in Isaiah 38:5 ) is not the third person fut. hiphil here (so that it could be rendered, according to Isaiah 28:16 , "Behold, I am he who;" or more strictly still, "Behold me, who;" which, however, would give a prominence to the subject that would be out of place here), but the part. kal for יוסף. That the language really allowed of such a lengthening of the primary form qatĭl into qatı̄l, and especially in the case of יוסיף, is evident from Ecclesiastes 1:18 (see at Psalm 16:5 ). In ופלא הפלא, פלא (cf., Lamentations 1:9 ) alternates with the gerundive (see at Isaiah 22:17 ): the fifth example in this one address of the emphatic juxtaposition of words having a similar sound and the same derivation (vid., Isaiah 29:1 , Isaiah 29:5 , Isaiah 29:7 , Isaiah 29:9 ).