(5) Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers . . .--The thought of Isaiah 25:4 is reproduced with a variation of imagery, the scorching "heat" in a "dry" (or parched) "land." This is deprived of its power to harm, by the presence of Jehovah, as the welcome shadow of a cloud hides the sun's intolerable blaze. (Comp. Isaiah 32:2.) It is noticeable that the LXX. in both passages gives "Sion" for "dry place" (Heb. tsayon), perhaps following a various reading, perhaps interpreting. The branch of the terrible ones . . . --Better, the song. The Hebrew noun is a rare one, but is found in this sense in Song Song of Solomon 2:12. The triumph song of the dread oppressors is thought of as blighting the world like a spell of evil; but this also is to be brought low, and hushed in silence.Verse 5. - Thou shalt bring down. The past foreshadows the future. What God had done in "bringing down" the enemies of his saints, he would do again and again. He could as easily bring to naught the clamorous uprising of heathen nations (strangers) against his people, as temper the sun's heat by the interposition of a thick cloud. The branch; rather, the song (comp. Isaiah 24:16; Job 35:10; Psalm 95:2; Psalm 119:51). The exultant chant of triumph which the ungodly are sure to raise as they deem their victory over the people of God complete, will be stopped in mid-career, and "brought low," or reduced to silence, by the crushing overthrow predicted in Isaiah 24. 25:1-5 However this might show the deliverance of the Jews out of captivity, it looked further, to the praises that should be offered up to God for Christ's victories over our spiritual enemies, and the comforts he has provided for all believers. True faith simply credits the Lord's testimony, and relies on his truth to perform his promises. As God weakens the strong who are proud and secure, so he strengthens the weak that are humble, and stay themselves upon him. God protects his people in all weathers. The Lord shelters those who trust in him from the insolence of oppressors. Their insolence is but the noise of strangers; it is like the heat of the sun scorching in the middle of the day; but where is it when the sun is set? The Lord ever was, and ever will be, the Refuge of distressed believers. Having provided them a shelter, he teaches them to flee unto it.Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers,.... Such as are strangers to God and godliness, to Christ, his Gospel, and truths, to the Spirit and his operations of grace; the clamour and noise of such against true religion, and the professors of it, their persecuting rage and fury, this the Lord in his own time will bring down, and cause to cease, and it shall be heard no more:as the heat in a dry place: which parches the earth, and burns and dries up the grass and fruits of it; to which persecution is compared: even the heat with the shadow of a cloud; as that is brought down, and caused to cease by the shadow of a cloud, sheltering from the scorching beams of the sun, and by letting down rain, which moistens the earth; so the Lord protects his people from the fury of persecution, and abates it by the interposition of his power and providence; and at last puts an end to it: the branch of the terrible ones shall be made low; meaning the most eminent of them; a branch being put for a most eminent person, Isaiah 4:2 perhaps the pope of Rome is meant, the head of the antichristian party, the principal of the terrible persecutors, who shall be brought low and destroyed by Christ, at his coming. Some render it, "the song of the terrible ones shall be brought low" (d); it will be brought a note lower; their triumphing will be at an end; the voice of harpers and musicians, of pipers and trumpeters, will be heard no more among them; but instead thereof weeping and howling, Revelation 18:9. (d) "cantus fortium humiliabitur, vel humiliabit se", Vatablus; see Cant. ii. 12. |
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