Isa 2:6-8, 16 | JFB | STEP | 6. Therefore —rather, "For": reasons why there is the more need of the exhortation in . thou —transition to Jehovah: such rapid transitions are natural, when the mind is full of a subject. replenished —rather, filled, namely, with the superstitions of the East, Syria, and Chaldea. soothsayers —forbidden ( ). Philistines —southwest of Palestine: antithesis to "the east." please themselves —rather, join hands with, that is, enter into alliances, matrimonial and national: forbidden ( , &c.).

Isaiah 2:6-8

6. Therefore—rather, "For": reasons why there is the more need of the exhortation in Isa 2:5.

thou—transition to Jehovah: such rapid transitions are natural, when the mind is full of a subject.

replenished—rather, filled, namely, with the superstitions of the East, Syria, and Chaldea.

soothsayers—forbidden (De 18:10-14).

Philistines—southwest of Palestine: antithesis to "the east."

please themselves—rather, join hands with, that is, enter into alliances, matrimonial and national: forbidden (Ex 23:32; Ne 13:23, &c.).

7. gold—forbidden to be heaped together (De 17:17). Solomon disobeyed (1Ki 10:21, 27).

horses . . . chariots—forbidden (De 17:16). But Solomon disobeyed (1Ki 20:26). Horses could be used effectively for war in the plains of Egypt; not so in the hilly Judea. God designed there should be as wide as possible a distinction between Israel and the Egyptians. He would have His people wholly dependent on Him, rather than on the ordinary means of warfare (Ps 20:7). Also horses were connected with idolatry (2Ki 23:11); hence His objection: so the transition to "idols" (Isa 2:8) is natural.

8. (Ho 8:4). Not so much public idolatry, which was not sanctioned in Uzziah's and Jotham's reign, but (see 2Ki 15:4, 35) as private.

Isaiah 2:16

16. Tarshish—Tartessus in southwest Spain, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, near Gibraltar. It includes the adjoining region: a Ph nician colony; hence its connection with Palestine and the Bible (2Ch 9:21). The name was also used in a wide sense for the farthest west, as our West Indies (Isa 66:19; Ps 48:7; 72:10). "Ships of Tarshish" became a phrase for richly laden and far-voyaging vessels. The judgment shall be on all that minister to man's luxury (compare Re 18:17-19).

pictures—ordered to be destroyed (Nu 33:52). Still to be seen on the walls of Nineveh's palaces. It is remarkable that whereas all other ancient civilized nations, Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, have left monuments in the fine arts, Judea, while rising immeasurably above them in the possession of "the living oracles," has left none of the former. The fine arts, as in modern Rome, were so often associated with polytheism, that God required His people in this, as in other respects, to be separate from the nations (De 4:15-18). But Vulgate translation is perhaps better, "All that is beautiful to the sight"; not only paintings, but all luxurious ornaments. One comprehensive word for all that goes before (compare Re 18:12, 14, 16).