Isaiah 2 commentary

ISAIAH 2 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
The Mountain of the LORD
1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem:
1.BARNES, “The word - This indicates that this is the commencement of a new prophecy. It
has no immediate connection with the preceding. It was delivered doubtless at a different time,
and with reference to a different class of events. In the previous chapter the term “vision” is used
Isa_2:1, but the meaning is substantially the same. The term “word” ‫דבר‬ dabar, denotes a
“command, a promise, a doctrine, an oracle, a revelation, a message, a thing,” etc. It means here,
that Isaiah foresaw certain “future events” or “things” that would happen in regard to Judah and
Jerusalem.
Judah ... - see the notes at Isa_1:1.
2. BI, “Heading to a small collection
(chaps.
2-4), the contents of which are— Isa_2:1-4) All nations shall yet acknowledge the God of Israel.
Isa_2:5-22; Isa_3:1-26; Isa_4:1) Through great judgments shall both Israel and thenations be
brought to the knowledge of Jehovah Isa_4:2-6) When these judgments are overpast, all Zion’s
citizens shall be holy. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)
A general view of the chapter
The Isa_2:2-4, it should be premised, recur with slight variations in the fourth chapter of Micah,
and are supposed by many to have been borrowed by both writers from some older source. The
prophet appears before an assembly of the people, perhaps on a Sabbath, and recites this
passage, depicting in beautiful and effective imagery the spiritual preeminence to be accorded in
the future to the religion of Zion He would dwell upon the subject further; but scarcely has he
begun to speak when the disheartening spectacle meets his eye of a crowd of soothsayers, of gold
and silver ornaments and finery, of horses and idols; his tone immediately changes, and he
bursts into a diatribe against the foreign and idolatrous fashions, the devotion to wealth and
glitter, which he sees about him, and which extorts from him in the end the terrible wish,
“Therefore forgive them not” (verses 5-9). And then, in one of his stateliest periods, Isaiah

declares the judgment about to fall upon all that is “tall and lofty,” upon Uzziah’s towers and
fortified walls, upon the great merchant ships at Elath, upon every object of human satisfaction
and pride, when wealth and rank will be impotent to save, when idols will be cast despairingly
aside, and when all classes alike will be glad to find a hiding place, as in the old days of
Midianite invasion or Philistine oppression (Jdg_6:2; 1Sa_13:6), in the clefts and caves of the
rocks. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Isaiah’s citizenship in Jerusalem
Isaiah’s citizenship in Jerusalem colours all his prophecy. More than Athens to Demosthenes,
Rome to Juvenal, Florence to Dante, is Jerusalem to Isaiah. She is his immediate and ultimate
regard, the centre and return of all his thoughts, the hinge of the history of his time, the one
thing worth preserving amidst its disasters, the summit of those brilliant hopes with which he
fills the future. He has traced for us the main features of her position and some of the lines of
her construction, many of the great figures of her streets, the fashions of her women, the arrival
of embassies, the effect of rumours. He has painted her aspect in triumph, in siege, in famine,
and in earthquake; war filling her valleys with chariots, and again nature rolling tides of
fruitfulness up to her gates; her moods of worship and panic and profligacy—till we see them all
as clearly as the shadow following the sunshine and the breeze across the cornfields of our own
summers. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Judah and Jerusalem
There is little about Judah in these chapters: the country forms but a fringe to the capital. (Prof.
G. A. Smith, D. D.)
The Word of the Lord “seen”
Though the spirit of man has neither eyes nor ears, yet when enabled to perceive the
supersensuous, it is altogether eye. (F. Delitzsch.)
3. GILL, “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw,.... That is, the vision which he saw,
for a new one here begins, though agreeable to what goes before; or the prophecy of future
things, which he had given to him in a visionary way. The Targum paraphrases it,
"the word of prophecy, which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, prophesied:''
or the thing, the "decree", as some choose to render it, the purpose of God concerning things to
come, which was revealed to the prophet, and he here declares:
concerning Judah and Jerusalem; the church and people of God, and what should befall
them and their enemies in the latter day: this inscription stands for this and the three following
chapters.

4. HENRY, “The particular title of this sermon (Isa_2:1) is the same with the general title of
the book (Isa_1:1), only that what is there called the vision is here called the word which Isaiah
saw (or the matter, or thing, which he saw), the truth of which he had as full an assurance of in
his own mind as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes. Or this word was brought to him in a
vision; something he saw when he received this message from God. John turned to see the voice
that spoke with him. Rev_1:12.
This sermon begins with the prophecy relating to the last days, the days of the Messiah, when
his kingdom should be set up in the world, at the latter end of the Mosaic economy. In the last
days of the earthly Jerusalem, just before the destruction of it, this heavenly Jerusalem should
be erected, Heb_12:22; Gal_4:26. Note, Gospel times are the last days. For 1. They were long in
coming, were a great while waited for by the Old Testament saints, and came at last. 2. We are
not to look for any dispensation of divine grace but what we have in the gospel, Gal_1:8,
Gal_1:9. 3. We are to look for the second coming of Jesus Christ at the end of time, as the Old
Testament saints did for his first coming; this is the last time, 1Jo_2:18.
Now the prophet here foretels,
I. The setting up of the Christian church, and the planting of the Christian religion, in the
world. Christianity shall then be the mountain of the Lord's house; where that is professed God
will grant his presence, receive his people's homage, and grant instruction and blessing, as he
did of old in the temple of Mount Zion. The gospel church, incorporated by Christ's charter, shall
then be the rendezvous of all the spiritual seed of Abraham. Now it is here promised, I. That
Christianity shall be openly preached and professed; it shall be prepared (so the margin reads it)
in the top of the mountains, in the view and hearing of all. Hence Christ's disciples are compared
to a city on a hill, which cannot be hid, Mat_5:14. They had many eyes upon them. Christ
himself spoke openly to the world, Joh_18:20. What the apostles did was not done in a corner,
Act_26:26. It was the lighting of a beacon, the setting up of a standard. Its being every where
spoken against supposes that it was every where spoken of. 2. That is shall be firmly fixed and
rooted; it shall be established on the top of the everlasting mountains, built upon a rock, so that
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, unless they could pluck up mountains by the roots.
He that dwells safely is said to dwell on high, Isa_33:16. The Lord has founded the gospel Zion.
3. That it shall not only overcome all opposition, but overtop all competition; it shall be exalted
above the hills. This wisdom of God in a mystery shall outshine all the wisdom of this world, all
its philosophy and all its politics. The spiritual worship which it shall introduce shall put down
the idolatries of the heathen; and all other institutions in religion shall appear mean and
despicable in comparison with this. See Psa_68:16. Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill
which God desires to dwell in.
II. The bringing of the Gentiles into it. 1. The nations shall be admitted into it, even the
uncircumcised, who were forbidden to come into the courts of the temple at Jerusalem. The
partition wall, which kept them out, kept them off, shall be taken down. 2. All nations shall flow
into it; having liberty of access, they shall improve their liberty, and multitudes shall embrace
the Christian faith. They shall flow into it, as streams of water, which denotes the abundance of
converts that the gospel should make and their speed and cheerfulness in coming into the
church. They shall not be forced into it, but shall naturally flow into it. Thy people shall be
willing, all volunteers, Psa_110:3. To Christ shall the gathering of the people be, Gen_49:10.
See ch. 60:4, 5.
5. JAMISON, “The inscription.

The word — the revelation.
6. K&D, “The limits of this address are very obvious. The end of Isa_4:1-6 connects itself
with the beginning of chapter 2, so as to form a circle. After various alternations of admonition,
reproach, and threatening, the prophet reaches at last the object of the promise with which he
started. Chapter 5, on the other hand, commences afresh with a parable. It forms an
independent address, although it is included, along with the previous chapters, under the
heading in Isa_2:1 : “The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw over Judah and Jerusalem.”
Chapters 2-5 may have existed under this heading before the whole collection arose. It was then
adopted in this form into the general collection, so as to mark the transition from the prologue
to the body of the book. The prophet describes what he here says concerning Judah and
Jerusalem as “the word which he saw.” When men speak to one another, the words are not
seen, but heard. But when God spoke to the prophet, it was in a supersensuous way, and the
prophet saw it. The mind indeed has no more eyes than ears; but a mind qualified to perceive
what is supersensuous is altogether eye.
The manner in which Isaiah commences this second address is altogether unparalleled. There
is no other example of a prophecy beginning with ‫ה‬ָ‫י‬ ָ‫ה‬ְ‫.ו‬ And it is very easy to discover the reason
why. The praet. consecutivum v'hayah derives the force of a future from the context alone;
whereas the fut. consecutivum vay'hi (with which historical books and sections very generally
commence) is shown to be an aorist by its simple form. Moreover, the Vav in the fut. consecut.
has almost entirely lost its copulative character; in the praet. consec., on the other hand, it
retains it with all the greater force. The prophet therefore commences with “and”; and it is from
what follows, not from what goes before, that we learn that hayah is used in a future sense. But
this is not the only strange thing. It is also an unparalleled occurrence, for a prophetic address,
which runs as this does through all the different phases of the prophetic discourses generally
(viz., exhortation, reproof, threatening, and promise), to commence with a promise. We are in a
condition, however, to explain the cause of this remarkable phenomenon with certainty, and not
merely to resort to conjecture. Isa_2:2-4 do not contain Isaiah's own words, but the words of
another prophet taken out of their connection. We find them again in Mic_4:1-4; and whether
Isaiah took them from Micah, or whether both Isaiah and Micah took them from some common
source, in either case they were not originally Isaiah's.
(Note: The historical statement in Jer_26:18, from which we learn that it was in the days
of Hezekiah that Micah uttered the threat contained in Mic_3:12 (of which the promise sin
Mic_4:1-4 and Isa_2:2-4 are the direct antithesis), apparently precludes the idea that Isaiah
borrowed from Micah, whilst the opposite is altogether inadmissible, for reasons assigned
above. Ewald and Hitzig have therefore come to the conclusion, quite independently of each
other, that both Micah and Isaiah repeated the words of a third and earlier prophet, most
probably of Joel. And the passage in question has really very much in common with the book
of Joel, viz., the idea of the melting down of ploughshares and pruning-hooks (Joe_3:10),
the combination of rab (many) and atsum (strong), of gephen (vine) and te'enah (fig-tree), as
compared with Mic_4:4; also the attesting formula, “For Jehovah hath spoken it” (Chi
Jehovah dibber: Joe_3:8), which is not found in Micah, whereas it is very common in Isaiah
- a fact which makes the sign itself a very feeble one (cf., 1Ki_14:11, also Oba_1:18). Hitzig,
indeed, maintains that it is only by restoring this passage that the prophetic writings of Joel
receive their proper rounding off and an appropriate termination; but although swords and
spears beaten into ploughshares and pruning-hooks form a good antithesis to ploughshares

and pruning-hooks beaten into swords and spears (Joe_3:10), the coming of great and
mighty nations to Mount Zion after the previous judgment of extermination would be too
unprepared or much too abrupt a phenomenon. On the other hand, we cannot admit the
force of the arguments adduced either by E. Meier (Joel, p. 195) or by Knobel and G. Baur
(Amos, p. 29) against the authorship of Joel, which rest upon a misapprehension of the
meaning of Joel's prophecies, which the former regards as too full of storm and battle, the
latter as too exclusive and one-sided, for Joel to be the author of the passage in question. At
the same time, we would call attention to the fact, that the promises in Micah form the
obverse side to the previous threatenings of judgment, so that there is a presumption of their
originality; also that the passage contains as many traces of Micah's style (see above at
Isa_1:3) as we could expect to find in these three verses; and, as we shall show at the
conclusion of this cycle of predictions (chapters 1-6), that the historical fact mentioned in
Jer_26:18 may be reconciled in the simplest possible manner with the assumption that
Isaiah borrowed these words of promise from Micah. (See Caspari, Micha, p. 444ff.))
Nor was it even intended that they should appear to be his. Isaiah has not fused them into the
general flow of his own prophecy, as the prophets usually do with the predictions of their
predecessors. He does not reproduce them, but, as we may observe from the abrupt
commencement, he quote them. It is true, this hardly seems to tally with the heading, which
describes what follows as the word of Jehovah which Isaiah saw. But the discrepancy is only an
apparent one. It was the spirit of prophecy, which called to Isaiah's remembrance a prophetic
saying that had already been uttered, and made it the starting-point of the thoughts which
followed in Isaiah's mind. The borrowed promise is not introduced for its own sake, but is
simply a self-explaining introduction to the exhortations and threatenings which follow, and
through which the prophet works his way to a conclusion of his own, that is closely intertwined
with the borrowed commencement.
6B. MEYER, “A VISION OF WORLD PEACE
Isa_2:1-11
This and the four following chapters must be classed together as a distinct portion of this book,
belonging to the earliest years of Isaiah’s ministry. Their date is 735 B.C.; about the time of the
accession of Ahaz to the throne. Isa_2:2-4 are evidently an ancient prophecy by some unknown
seer, for Micah also quotes it. This section presents a fair vision of the future, when the beloved
city must become the center of the religious life of the world, the seat of the theocracy, the
burning nucleus of a reign of love and peace. We cherish this ancient prophecy as our guiding
star in the present storm. But it can be realized only when the Son of God, riding forth on His
white horse, has subdued His enemies. Then Rev_21:1-27 and Rev_22:1-21 will fulfill this
ancient dream. The contrast between the ideal city and the actual is terrible, Isa_2:6-9. But let
us not despair. The exalted Lord, from the right hand of power, is hastening the coming of the
day of God.
7.CALVIN, “1.The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw This prophecy is a confirmation of that
doctrine which we had a little before, concerning the restoration of the Church. For since it is difficult to
cherish the hope of safety, when we are, as it were, in the midst of destruction, while the wrath of God
burns and consumes everything far and wide, or while his threatenings strike terror into our minds, at

such a period the bare promises are hardly sufficient to support us and to allay our fears. For this reason
the Lord determined that to the consolation which had already been proclaimed there should be added
this special vision, by way of confirmation, in order to make it more certain and undoubted that, whatever
calamities might arise, his Church would never perish. I have no doubt, therefore, but that this vision
agrees with what is stated in the 26th and 27th verses of the former chapter.
Hence we learn what was the advantage and design of visions; for since doctrine sometimes has not
sufficient weight with us, God therefore adds visions, that by means of them he may seal his doctrine to
us. Since, therefore, this vision is connected with the former promise, we learn from it this useful doctrine,
that all visions of every kind which God formerly gave to his Prophets must be joined to the promises in
such a manner as to be seals of them. And thus we perceive more and more the astonishing goodness of
God, that, not satisfied with giving us his bare word, he places before our eyes, as it were,
representations of the events.
He has added a confirmation, that the restoration of the Church is a matter of very great importance, and
necessary to be known. For where is the truth of the Lord, where is faith, if there be no Church? If there
be none, it follows that God is a liar, and that everything contained in his word is false. But as God
frequently shows, by striking proofs, that he preserves the Church by unknown methods and without the
assistance of men, so he now declares by a remarkable prediction that he will do this.
There were two purposes to be served by this prediction. First, since Isaiah, and others who came after
him, were unceasingly to proclaim terror, on account of the obstinate wickedness of the people, until the
temple should be burnt, and the city destroyed, and the Jews carried into captivity, it was necessary that
such severity should be mitigated towards believers by some consolation of hope. Secondly, as they were
to languish in captivity, and as their minds were shaken, even after their return, by a succession of varied
calamities, and at length were almost overwhelmed with despair by the dreadful desolation and
confusion, they might a hundred times have fainted, if they had not been upheld. As to those who had
already fallen, they were raised up and confirmed by the promised restoration, to such an extent, at least,
that they retained among them the practice of calling on God, which is the only and undoubted remedy for
the worst of evils. ‫,הדבר‬ (haddabar,) the word, is rendered by some interpreters the thing, which accords
with the general signification of this term; but it is better to view it as denoting a divine purpose. Isaiah
says that it was revealed to him by a special vision.
8. EBC, “Isaiah 2:1-4:6
THE THREE JERUSALEMS

AFTER the general introduction, in chapter 1, to the prophecies of Isaiah, there comes another
portion of the book, of greater length, but nearly as distinct as the first. It covers four chapters,
the second to the sixth, all of them dating from the same earliest period of Isaiah’s ministry,
before 735 B.C. They deal with exactly the same subjects, but they differ greatly inform. One
section (chapters 2-4.) consists of a number of short utterances-evidently not all spoken at the
same time, for they conflict with one another-a series of consecutive prophecies, that probably
represent the stages of conviction through which Isaiah passed in his prophetic apprenticeship;
a second section (chapter 5) is a careful and artistic restatement, in parable and oration, of the
truths he has thus attained; while a third section (chapter 6) is narrative, probably written
subsequently to the first two, but describing an inspiration and official call, which must have
preceded them both. The more one examines chapters 2-6., and finds that they but express the
same truths in different forms, the more one is confirmed in some such view of them as this,
which, it is believed, the following exposition will justify. chapters 5 and 6 are twin appendices
to the long summary in 2-4: chapter 5 a public vindication and enforcement of the results of that
summary, chapter 6 a private vindication to the prophet’s heart of the very same truths, by a
return to the secret moment of their original inspiration. We may assign 735 B.C., just before or
just after the accession of Ahaz, as the date of the latest of these prophecies. The following is
their historical setting.
For more than half a century the kingdom of Judah, under two powerful and righteous
monarchs, had enjoyed the greatest prosperity. Uzziah strengthened the borders, extended the
supremacy and vastly increased the resources of his little State, which, it is well to remember,
was in its own size not larger than three average Scottish counties. He won back for Judah the
port of Elah on the Red Sea, built a navy, and restored the commerce with the far East, which
Solomon began. He overcame, in battle or by the mere terror of his name, the neighbouring
nations-the Philistines that dwelt in cities, and the wandering tribes of desert Arabs. The
Ammonites brought him gifts. With the wealth, which the East by tribute or by commerce
poured into his little principality, Uzziah fortified his borders and his capital, undertook large
works of husbandry and irrigation, organised a powerful standing army, and supplied it with a
siege artillery capable of slinging arrows and stones. "His name spread far abroad, for he was
marvellously helped till he was strong." His son Jotham (740-735 B.C.) continued his father s
policy with nearly all his father’s success. He built cities and castles, quelled a rebellion among
his tributaries, and caused their riches to flow faster still into Jerusalem. But while Jotham
bequeathed to his country a sure defence and great wealth, and to his people a strong spirit and
prestige among the nations, he left another bequest, which robbed these of their value-the son
who succeeded him. In 735 Jotham died and Ahaz became king. He was very young, and stepped
to the throne from the hareem. He brought to the direction of the government the petulant will
of a spoiled child, the mind of an intriguing and superstitious, woman. It was-when the national
policy felt the paralysis consequent on these that Isaiah published at least the later part of the
prophecies now marked off as chapters 2-4 of his book. "My people," he cries-"my people!
children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee
cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths."
Isaiah had been born into the flourishing nation while Uzziah was king. The great events of that
monarch’s reign were his education, the still grander hopes they prompted the passion of his
virgin fancy. He must have absorbed as the very temper of his youth this national consciousness
which swelled so proudly in Judah under Uzziah. But the accession of such a king as Ahaz, while
it was sure to let loose the passions and follies fostered by a period of rapid increase in luxury,
could not fail to afford to Judah’s enemies the long-deferred opportunity of attacking her. It was
an hour both of the manifestation of sin and of the judgment of sin-an hour in which, while the
majesty of Judah, sustained through two great reigns, was about to disappear in the follies of a
third, the majesty of Judah’s God should become more conspicuous than ever. Of this Isaiah had

been privately conscious, as we shall see, for five years. "In the year that king Uzziah died,"
(740), the young Jew "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." Startled into
prophetic consciousness by the awful contrast between an earthly majesty that had so long
fascinated men, but now sank into a leper’s grave, and the heavenly, which rose sovereign and
everlasting above it, Isaiah had gone on to receive conviction of his people’s sin and certain
punishment. With the accession of Ahaz, five years later, his own political experience was so far
developed as to permit of his expressing in their exact historical effects the awful principles of
which he had received foreboding when Uzziah died. What we find in chapters 2-4 is a record of
the struggle of his mind towards this expression; it is the summary, as we have already said, of
Isaiah’s apprenticeship.
"The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." We do not know
anything of Isaiah’s family or of the details of his upbringing. He was a member of some family
of Jerusalem, and in intimate relations with the Court. It has been believed that he was of royal
blood, but it matters little whether this be true or not. A spirit so wise and masterful as his did
not need social rank to fit it for that intimacy with princes which has doubtless suggested the
legend of his royal descent. What does matter is Isaiah’s citizenship in Jerusalem, for this
colours all his prophecy. More than Athens to Demosthenes, Rome to Juvenal, Florence to
Dante, is Jerusalem to Isaiah. She is his immediate and ultimate regard, the centre and return of
all his thoughts, the hinge of the history of his time, the one thing worth preserving amidst its
disasters, the summit of those brilliant hopes with which he fills the future. He has traced for us
the main features of her position and some of the lines of her construction, many of the great
figures of her streets, the fashions of her women, the arrival of embassies, the effect of rumours.
He has painted her aspect in triumph, in siege, in famine, and in earthquake; war filling her
valleys with chariots, and again nature rolling tides of fruitfulness up to her gates; her moods of
worship and panic and profligacy-till we see them all as clearly as the shadow following the
sunshine, and the breeze the breeze, across the cornfields of our own summers.
If he takes wider observation of mankind, Jerusalem is his watch-tower. It is for her defence he
battles through fifty years of statesmanship, and all his prophecy may be said to travail in
anguish for her new birth. He was never away from her walls, but not even the psalms of the
captives by the rivers of Babylon, with the desire of exile upon them, exhibit more beauty and
pathos than the lamentations which Isaiah poured upon Jerusalem’s sufferings or the visions in
which he described her future solemnity and peace.
It is not with surprise, therefore, that we find the first prophecies of Isaiah directed upon his
mother city: "The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem."
There is little about Judah in these chapters: the country forms but a fringe to the capital.
Before we look into the subject of the prophecy, however, a short digression is necessary on the
manner in which it is presented to us. It is not a reasoned composition or argument we have
here; it is a vision, it is the word which Isaiah saw. The expression is vague, often abused and in
need of defining. Vision is not employed here to express any magical display before the eyes of
the prophet of the very words which he was to speak to the people, or any communication to his
thoughts by dream or ecstasy. They are higher qualities of "vision" which these chapters unfold.
There is, first of all, the power of forming an ideal, of seeing and describing a thing in the
fulfilment of all the promise that is in it. But these prophecies are much more remarkable for
two other powers of inward vision, to which we give the names of insight and intuition-insight
into human character, intuition of Divine principles-"clear knowledge of what man is and how
God will act"-a keen discrimination of the present state of affairs in Judah, and unreasoned
conviction of moral truth and the Divine will. The original meaning of the Hebrew word saw,
which is used in the title to this series, is to cleave, or split; then to see into, to see through, to
get down beneath the surface of things and discover their real nature. And what characterises

the bulk of these visions is penetrativeness, the keenness of a man who will not be deceived by
an outward show that he delights to hold up to our scorn, but who has a conscience for the inner
worth of things and for their future consequences. To lay stress on the moral meaning of the
prophet’s vision is not to grudge, but to emphasise its inspiration by God.
Of that inspiration Isaiah was himself assured. It was God’s Spirit that enabled him to see thus
keenly; for he saw things keenly, net only as men count moral keenness, but as God Himself sees
them, in their value in His sight and in their attractiveness for His love and pity. In this
prophecy there occurs a striking expression "the eyes of the glory of God." It was the vision of
the Almighty Searcher and Judge, burning through man’s pretence, with which the prophet felt
himself endowed. This then was the second element in his vision-to penetrate men’s hearts as
God Himself penetrated them, and constantly, without squint or blur, to see right from wrong in
their eternal difference. And the third element is the intuition of God’s will, the perception of
what line of action He will take. This last, of course, forms the distinct prerogative of Hebrew
prophecy, that power of vision which is its climax; the moral situation being clear, to see then
how God will act upon it.
Under these three powers of vision Jerusalem, the prophet’s city, is presented to us-Jerusalem
in three lights, really three Jerusalems. First, there is flashed out (Isa_2:2-5) a vision of the ideal
city, Jerusalem idealised and glorified. Then comes (Isa_2:6 - Isa_4:1) a very realistic picture, a
picture of the actual Jerusalem. And lastly at the close of the prophecy (Isa_4:2-6) we have a
vision of Jerusalem as she shall be after God has taken her in hand-very different indeed from
the ideal with which the prophet began. Here are three successive motives or phases of
prophecy, which, as we have said, in all probability summarise the early ministry of Isaiah, and
present him to us first, as the idealist or visionary; second, as the realist or critic; and, third, as
the prophet proper or revealer of God’s actual will.
I. THE IDEALIST
(Isa_2:1-5)
All men who have shown our race how great things are possible have had their inspiration in
dreaming of the impossible. Reformers, who at death were content to have lived for the moving
forward but one inch of some of their fellow-men, began by believing themselves able to lift the
whole world at once. Isaiah was no exception to this human fashion. His first vision was that of a
Utopia, and his first belief that his countrymen would immediately realise it. He lifts up to us a
very grand picture of a vast commonwealth centred in Jerusalem. Some think he borrowed it
from an older prophet; Micah has it also; it may have been the ideal of the age. But, at any rate,
if we are not to take Isa_2:5 in scorn, Isaiah accepted this as his own. "And it shall come to pass
in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." The prophet’s own
Jerusalem shall be the light of the world, the school and temple of the earth, the seat of the
judgment of the Lord, when He shall reign over the nations, and all mankind shall dwell in
peace beneath Him. It is a glorious destiny, and as its light shines from the far-off horizon, the
latter days, in which the prophet sees it, what wonder that he is possessed and cries aloud, "O
house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord!" It seems to the young
prophet’s hopeful heart as if at once that ideal would be realised, as if by his own word he could
lift his people to its fulfilment.
But that is impossible, and Isaiah perceives so as soon as he turns from the far-off horizon to the
city at his feet, as soon as he leaves tomorrow alone and deals with today. The next verses of the
chapter-from Isa_2:6 onwards-stand in strong contrast to those which have described Israel’s
ideal. There Zion is full of the law and Jerusalem of the word of the Lord, the one religion
flowing over from this centre upon the world. Here into the actual Jerusalem they have brought

all sorts of foreign worship and heathen prophets; "they are replenished from the East, and are
soothsayers like the Philistines, and strike hands with the children of strangers." There all
nations come to worship at Jerusalem; here her thought and faith are scattered over the
idolatries of all nations. The ideal Jerusalem is full of spiritual blessings; the actual, of the spoils
of trade. There the swords are beat into ploughshares and the. spears into pruning-hooks; here
are vast and novel armaments, horses and chariots. There the Lord alone is worshipped; here
the city is crowded with idols. The real Jerusalem could not possibly be more different from the
ideal, nor its inhabitants as they are from what the prophet had confidently called on them to be.
II. THE REALIST
(Isa_2:6 - Isa_4:1)
Therefore Isaiah’s attitude and tone suddenly change. The visionary becomes a realist, the
enthusiast a cynic, the seer of the glorious city of God the prophet of God’s judgment. The recoil
is absolute in style, temper, and thought, down to the very figures of speech which he uses.
Before, Isaiah had seen, as it were, a lifting process at work, "Jerusalem in the top of the
mountains, and exalted above the hills." Now he beholds nothing but depression. "For the day of
the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and haughty, upon all that is lifted up,
and it shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Nothing in the great
civilisation, which he had formerly glorified, is worth preserving. The high towers, fenced walls,
ships of Tarshish, treasures and armour must all perish; even the hills lifted by his imagination
shall be bowed down, and "the Lord alone be exalted in that day." This recoil reaches its extreme
in the last verse of the chapter. The prophet, who had believed so much in man as to think
possible an immediate commonwealth of nations, believes in man now so little that he does not
hold him worth preserving: "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is
he to be accounted of?"
Attached to this general denunciation are some satiric descriptions, in the third chapter, of the
anarchy to which society in Jerusalem is fast being reduced under its childish and effeminate
king. The scorn of these passages is scathing; "the eyes of the glory of God" burn through every
rank, fashion, and ornament in the town. King and court are not spared; the elders and princes
are rigorously denounced. But by far the most striking effort of the prophet’s boldness is his
prediction of the overthrow of Jerusalem itself (Isa_3:8). What it cost Isaiah to utter and the
people to hear we can only partly measure. To his own passionate patriotism it must have felt
like treason, to the blind optimism of the popular religion it doubtless appeared the rankest
heresy-to aver that the holy city, inviolate and almost unthreatened since the day David brought
to her the ark of the Lord, and destined by the voice of her prophets, including Isaiah himself, to
be established upon the tops of the mountains, was now to fall into ruin. But Isaiah’s conscience
overcomes his sense of consistency, and he who has just proclaimed the eternal glory of
Jerusalem is provoked by his knowledge of her citizens’ sins to recall his words and intimate her
destruction. It may have been that Isaiah was partly emboldened to so novel a threat, by his
knowledge of the preparations which Syria and Israel were already making for the invasion of
Judah. The prospect of Jerusalem, as the centre of a vast empire subject to Jehovah, however
natural it was under a successful ruler like Uzziah, became, of course, unreal when every one of
Uzziah’s and Jotham’s tributaries had risen in revolt against their successor, Ahaz. But of these
outward movements Isaiah tells us nothing. He is wholly engrossed with Judah’s sin. It is his
growing acquaintance with the corruption of his fellow countrymen that has turned his back on
the ideal city of his opening ministry, and changed him into a prophet of Jerusalem’s ruin.
"Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory." Judge,
prophet, and elder, all the upper ranks and useful guides of the people, must perish. It is a sign
of the degradation to which society shall be reduced, when Isaiah with keen sarcasm pictures the

despairing people choosing a certain man to be their ruler because he alone has a coat to his
back! (Isa_3:6)
With increased scorn Isaiah turns lastly upon the women of Jerusalem, (Isa_3:16-26; Isa_4:1-2)
and here perhaps the change which has passed over him since his opening prophecy is most
striking. One likes to think of how the citizens of Jerusalem took this alteration in their
prophet’s temper. We know how popular so optimist a prophecy as that of the mountain of the
Lord’s house must have been, and can imagine how men and women loved the young face,
bright with a far-off light, and the dream of an ideal that had no quarrel with the present. "But
what a change is this that has come over him, who speaks not of tomorrow, but of today, who
has brought his gaze from those distant horizons to our streets, who stares every man in the
face, (Isa_3:9) and makes the women feel that no pin and trimming, no ring and bracelet,
escape his notice! Our loved prophet has become an impudent scorner!" Ah, men and women of
Jerusalem, beware of those eyes! "The glory of God" is burning in them; they see you through
and through, and they tell us that all your armour and the "show of your countenance," and your
foreign fashions are as nothing, for there are corrupt hearts below. This is your judgment, that
"instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness, and instead of a girdle a rope, and instead of
well-set hair baldness, and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth, and branding instead
of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament
and mourn, and she shall be desolate and sit upon the ground!"
This was the climax of the prophet’s judgment. If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it
be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot. If the
women are corrupt the state is moribund.
III. THE PROPHET OF THE LORD
(Isa_4:2-6)
IS there, then, no hope for Jerusalem? Yes, but not where the prophet sought it at first, in
herself, and not in the way he offered it-by the mere presentation of an ideal. There is hope,
there is more-there is certain salvation in the Lord, but it only comes after judgment. Contrast
that opening picture of the new Jerusalem with this closing one, and we shall find their
difference to lie in two things. There the city is more prominent than the Lord, here the Lord is
more prominent than the city; there no word of judgment, here judgment sternly emphasised as
the indispensable way towards the blessed future. A more vivid sense of the Person of Jehovah
Himself, a deep conviction of the necessity of chastisement: these are what Isaiah has gained
during his early ministry, without losing hope or heart for the future. The bliss shall come only
when the Lord shall "have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged
the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of
burning." It is a corollary of all this that the participants of that future shall be many fewer than
in the first vision of the prophet. The process of judgment must weed men out, and in place of all
nations coming to Jerusalem, to share its peace and glory, the prophet can speak now only of
Israel-and only of a remnant of Israel. "The escaped of Israel, the left in Zion, and he that
remaineth in Jerusalem." This is a great change in Isaiah’s ideal, from the supremacy of Israel
over all nations to the bare survival of a remnant of his people.
Is there not in this threefold vision a parallel and example for our own civilisation and our
thoughts about it? All work and wisdom begin in dreams. We must see our Utopias before we
start to build our stone and lime cities.
"It takes a soul
To move a body; it takes a high-souled man
To move the masses even to a cleaner stye;

It takes the ideal to blow an inch inside
The dust of the actual."
But the light of our ideals dawns upon us only to show how poor by nature are the mortals who
are called to accomplish them. The ideal rises still as to Isaiah only to exhibit the poverty of the
real. When we lift our eyes from the hills of vision, and rest them on our fellow-men, hope and
enthusiasm die out of us. Isaiah’s disappointment is that of every one who brings down his gaze
from the clouds to the streets. Be our ideal ever so desirable, be we ever so persuaded of its
facility, the moment we attempt to apply it we shall be undeceived. Society cannot be
regenerated all at once. There is an expression which Isaiah emphasises in his moment of
cynicism: "The show of their countenance doth witness against them." It tells us that when he
called his countrymen to turn to the light he lifted upon them he saw nothing but the exhibition
of their sin made plain. When we bring light to a cavern whose inhabitants have lost their eyes
by the darkness, the light does not make them see; we have to give them eyes again. Even so no
vision or theory of a perfect state-the mistake which all young reformers make- can regenerate
society. It will only reveal social corruption, and sicken the heart of the reformer himself. For the
possession of a great ideal does not mean, as so many fondly imagine, work accomplished; it
means work revealed-work revealed so vast, often so impossible, that faith and hope die down,
and the enthusiast of yesterday becomes the cynic of tomorrow. "Cease ye from man, whose
breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted?" In this despair, through which every
worker for God and man must pass, many a warm heart has grown cold, many an intellect
become paralysed. There is but one way of escape, and that is Isaiah’s. It is to believe in God
Himself; it is to believe that He is at work, that His purposes to man are saving purposes, and
that with Him there is an inexhaustible source of mercy and virtue. So from the blackest
pessimism shall arise new hope and faith, as from beneath Isaiah’s darkest verses that glorious
passage suddenly bursts like uncontrollable spring from the very feet of winter. "For that day
shall the spring of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent
and comely for them that are escaped of Israel." This is all it is possible to say. There must be a
future for man, because God loves him, and God reigns. That future can be reached only through
judgment, because God is righteous.
To put it another way: All of us who live to work for our fellow-men or who hope to lift them
higher by our word begin with our own visions of a great future. These visions, though our youth
lends to them an original generosity and enthusiasm, are, like Isaiah’s, largely borrowed. The
progressive instincts of the age into which we are born and the mellow skies of prosperity
combine with our own ardour to make our ideal one of splendour. Persuaded of its facility, we
turn to real life to apply it. A few years pass. We not only find mankind too stubborn to be forced
into our moulds, but we gradually become aware of Another Moulder at work upon our subject,
and we stand aside in awe to watch His operations. Human desires and national ideals are not
always fulfilled; philosophic theories are discredited by the evolution of fact. Uzziah does not
reign for ever; the sceptre falls to Ahaz: progress is checked, and the summer of prosperity
draws to an end. Under duller skies ungilded judgment comes to view, cruel and inexorable,
crushing even the peaks on which we built our future, yet purifying men and giving earnest of a
better future, too. And so life, that mocked the control of our puny fingers, bends groaning to the
weight of an Almighty Hand. God also, we perceive as we face facts honestly, has His ideal for
men; and though He works so slowly towards His end that our restless eyes are too impatient to
follow His order, He yet reveals all that shall be to the humbled heart and the soul emptied of its
own visions. Awed and chastened, we look back from His Presence to our old ideals. We are still
able to recognise their grandeur and generous hope for men. But we see now how utterly
unconnected they are with the present-castles in the air, with no ladders to them from the earth.
And even if they were accessible, still to our eyes, purged by gazing on God’s own ways, they
would no more appear desirable. Look back on Isaiah’s early ideal from the light of his second

vision of the future. For all its grandeur, that picture of Jerusalem is not wholly attractive. Is
there not much national arrogance in it? Is it not just the imperfectly idealised reflection of an
age of material prosperity such as that of Uzziah’s was? Pride is in it, a false optimism, the
highest good to be reached without moral conflict. But here is the language of pity, rescue with
difficulty, rest only after sore struggle and stripping, salvation by the bare arm of God. So do our
imaginations for our own future or for that of the race always contrast with what He Himself has
in store for us, promised freely out of His great grace to our unworthy hearts, yet granted in the
end only to those who pass towards it through discipline, tribulation, and fire.
This, then, was Isaiah’s apprenticeship, and its net result was to leave him with the remnant for
his ideal: the remnant and Jerusalem secured as its rallying-point.
9. PULPIT 1-4. “The golden age.
I. THE BLESSED OR GOLDEN AGE A SUBJECT OF EARLY PROPHECY. It is believed that we have
in these verses a very ancient oracle, first delivered by the earlier prophet Joel (see Joe_3:10), and from
him repeated by Isaiah and Micah (Mic_4:1-4). An eternal hopefulness lived in the heart of the great
prophets, like a light shining in a dark place, amidst all the scenes of national sin and depression. What
has been said of true poetry is to be said of prophecy—it is the "light that never shone on sea or shore;
the inspiration and the poet's dream."
II. A REVIVAL OF RELIGION WILL USHER IN THE GOLDEN AGE. The mountains were earliest seats
of Divine worship, both amongst Jews and Gentiles. One of the seats of the great god of the Greeks,
Mount Lycaeos in Arcadia, commanded, Pausanias tells us, a view over nearly the whole Peloponnese.
Zion was a small and lowly mount, but it is to become a peak that shall overtop all mountains, the "joy of
the whole earth" (Psa_48:2), unrivalled in the majesty of its Divine associations (Psa_68:16). The
Gentiles will make pilgrimages to this holy mountain. All this poetically describes the commanding
influence of true religion.
1. The revival of religion means the revival of morality. When the conscience is really awakened, the
inquiry will ever be—What must we do? What are the ways and paths of God? What are the principles of
a true, a just, and a blessed life?
2. It means social unity. In the vision the Gentiles are seen converging with the Jews to one point—to
Zion. The more deep religion is, the more do men feel that truth is but one, thought one, spiritual worship
one. The love of God solves all differences in itself.
3. True religion is a self-diffusive power. It goes forth like light, like heat, like a fame and rumor insensibly
stealing through the air.
III. JUSTICE AND PEACE WILL BE THE EFFECTS OF TRUE RELIGION. We can clearly see that it is
so from the course of history. With the progress of Christianity, the administration of justice within the
sphere of each nation has become milder, because more thoughtful, more respectful of the value of the
individual life. Not only so, the idea of international justice has gained ground. Whatever a certain school
of Politicians may say, conscience does gain ground in the dealings of nation with nation. Wrong cannot
be done to the weak without censure. Nations as well as individuals are more alive to the voice of public
opinion, and more sensible of shame. In our own time, "justice" has again and again been the watchword
of our politics, and has gained attention and overcome the clamors of the bellicose and the sneers of the
cynical. Let us-be thankful for these things. Best of all, peace and its occupations replace war and its
waste, as true religion prevails. In this beautiful picture, or slight sketch of a picture, we see the soldier
going back to his fields, that he may turn the murderous steel into the hoe, the share, the pruning-knife,
while the arsenals and military schools are closed (see the touch added by Mic_4:4;
cf. Psa_46:9; Hos_2:20; Zec_9:10). It is the picture of an ideal and a future, not yet nor soon perhaps to
be converted into an actual present, except in the delightful world of holy dreams which makes the best of

our life. But for every one who works and lives in the true Christian spirit, the picture ever more nearly
tends to coincide with the reality.
IV. REFLECTIONS OF THIS PROPHECY AMONG THE GENTILES. Doubtless a large collection might
be made of passages of similar scope from the lore of other nations. Best known are those from the
Roman poets. Virgil, like Joel (Joe_3:10), reverses the imagery. When right and wrong are confused,
wars prevail and all manner of crimes. The plough receives no honor; the fields run to weeds, because
the farmers have gone to serve as soldiers, and the curved sickles are turned into the rigid sword
('Georg.,' 1.506, sqq.). So Ovid: in time of war the sword is apter than the plough; the toiling ox gives way
to the war-horse, while hoes and rakes are turned into javelins ('Fast.,' 1.697, sqq.). He further sketches
the picture of peace bringing back the ox to the yoke, and the seed to the ploughed land. For "Peace
nourishes Ceres, and Ceres is the foster-child of Peace." We must reserve the further pictures of the
perfection of the golden age in the Gentile poets until we come to Isa_11:1-16. In their way they, too,
recognized that so happy a state of things could only be brought about by religion—by the returning of
men to obedience to Divine laws.
V. MODERN LESSONS. Let us "come and walk in the light of the Eternal." In that light the hideousness
of war and of the national discords, which lead to it, are clearly seen. No sound understanding can ever
look upon war as other than an occasional and dread necessity. Preaching against war may do a certain
good. But practically to walk in the light and lead others to it is better. All sides of the subject need to be
better understood by the popular mind. The most serious fallacies prevail. Were the energies now
employed in preparing for and carrying on war devoted to exploring, breaking up, and cultivating new
regions, how truly blessed the result! In fighting with the stubbornness of nature man may find an outlet
for all his pugnacious energy. The poets should sanctify their art to glorifying the ideals of peace rather
than those of war. None can read these lines without being enkindled—
"Ah, when shall all men's good
Be each man's rule, and universal peace
Lie like a shaft of light across the land,
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea,
Thro' all the circle of the golden year?"
(Tennyson.)
And let every earnest toiler in whatever sphere for the good of man, for the glory of God, take these
words to heart—
"Unto him who works, and feels he works,
This same grand year is ever at the doors."
2
In the last days

the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
1.BARNES, “In the last days - ‫הימים‬ ‫באחרית‬ be
'acharı yth hayamı ym. In the “after” days; in
the “futurity” of days; that is, in the time to come. This is an expression that often occurs in the
Old Testament. It does not of itself refer to any “particular” period, and especially not, as our
translation would seem to indicate, to the end of the world. The expression properly denotes
“only future time” in general. But the prophets were accustomed to concentrate all their hopes
on the coming of the Messiah. They saw his advent as giving character, and sublimity, and
happiness to all coming times. Hence, the expression came to denote, by way of eminence, the
times of the Messiah, and is frequently used in the New Testament, as well as the Old, to
designate those times; see Act_2:17; compare Joe_2:28; Heb_1:2; 1Pe_1:5, 1Pe_1:20; 1Jo_2:18;
Gen_49:1; Mic_4:1; Deu_4:30; Jer_48:47; Dan_11:28.
The expressions which follow are figurative, and cannot well be interpreted as relating to any
other events than the times of the Messiah. They refer to that future period, then remote, which
would constitute the “last” dispensation of things in this world - the “last” time - the period,
however long it might be, in which the affairs of the world would be closed. The patriarchal
times had passed away; the dispensation under the Mosaic economy would pass away; the times
of the Messiah would be the “last” times, or the last dispensation, under which the affairs of the
world would be consummated. Thus the phrase is evidently used in the New Testament, as
denoting the “last” time, though without implying that that time would be short. It might be
longer than “all” the previous periods put together, but it would be the “last” economy, and
under that economy, or “in” that time, the world would be destroyed, Christ would come to
judgment, the dead would be raised, and the affairs of the world would be wound up. The
apostles, by the use of this phrase, never intimate that the time would be short, or that the day of
judgment was near, but only that “in” that time the great events of the world’s history would be
consummated and closed; compare 2Th_2:1-5. This prophecy occurs in Micah Mic_4:1-5 with
scarcely any variation. It is not known whether Isaiah made use of Micah, or Micah of Isaiah, or
both of an older and well-known prophecy. Hengstenberg (“Chris.” i., pp. 289, 290) supposes
that Isaiah copied from Micah, and suggests the following reasons:
1. The prediction of Isaiah is disconnected with what goes before, and yet begins with the
copulative ‫ו‬ (v), “and.” In Micah, on the contrary, it is connected with what precedes and
follows.
2. In the discourses of the prophets, the promise usually follows the threatening. This order is
observed by Micah; in Isaiah, on the contrary, the promise contained in the passage precedes
the threatening, and another promise follows. Many of the older theologians supposed that the
passages were communicated alike by the Holy Spirit to both writers. But there is no
improbability in supposing that Isaiah may have availed himself of language used by Micah in
describing the same event.
The mountain of the Lord’s house - The temple was built on mount Moriah, which was
hence called the mountain of the Lord’s house. The temple, or the mountain on which it was
reared, would be the object which would express the public worship of the true God. And hence,

to say that that should be elevated higher than all other hills, or mountains, means, that the
worship of the true God would become an object so conspicuous as to be seen by all nations; and
so conspicuous that all nations would forsake other objects and places of worship, being
attracted by the glory of the worship of the true God.
Shall be established - Shall be fixed, rendered permanent.
In the top of the mountains - To be in the top of the mountains, would be to be
“conspicuous,” or seen from afar. In other words, the true religion would be made known to all
people.
Shall flow unto it - This is a figurative expression, denoting that they would be converted to
the true religion. It indicates that they would come in multitudes, like the flowing of a mighty
river. The idea of the “flowing” of the nations, or of the movement of many people toward an
object like a broad stream, is one that is very grand and sublime; compare Psa_65:7. This cannot
be understood of any period previous to the establishment of the gospel. At no time of the
Jewish history did any events occur that would be a complete fulfillment of this prophecy. The
expressions evidently refer to that period elsewhere often predicted by this prophet Isa_11:10;
Isa_42:1, Isa_42:6; Isa_49:22; Isa_54:3; Isa_60:3, Isa_60:5, Isa_60:10; Isa_62:2; Isa_66:12,
Isa_66:19, when “the Gentiles” would be brought to the knowledge of the true religion. In
Isa_66:12, there occurs a passage remarkably similar, and which may serve to explain this:
‘Behold I will extend peace to her (to Zion) as a river;
And the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream.’
Under the Messiah, through the preaching of the apostles and by the spread of the gospel, this
prophecy was to receive its full accomplishment.
2. CLARKE, “In the last days “In the latter days” - “Wherever the latter times are
mentioned in Scripture, the days of the Messiah are always meant,” says Kimchi on this place:
and, in regard to this place, nothing can be more clear and certain. And the mountain of the
Lord’s house, says the same author, is Mount Moriah, on which the temple was built. The
prophet Micah, Mic_4:1-4, has repeated this prophecy of the establishment of the kingdom of
Christ, and of its progress to universality and perfection, in the same words, with little and
hardly any material variation: for as he did not begin to prophesy till Jotham’s time, and this
seems to be one of the first of Isaiah’s prophecies, I suppose Micah to have taken it from hence.
The variations, as I said, are of no great importance.
Isa_2:2. ‫הוא‬ hu, after ‫ונשא‬ venissa, a word of some emphasis, may be supplied from Micah, if
dropped in Isaiah. An ancient MS. has it here in the margin. It has in like manner been lost in
Isa_53:4 (note), and in Psa_22:29, where it is supplied by the Syriac, and Septuagint. Instead of
‫כל‬‫הגוים‬ col haggoyim, all the nations, Micah has only ‫עמים‬ ammim, peoples; where the Syriac has
‫כל‬‫עמים‬ col ammim, all peoples, as probably it ought to be.
Isa_2:3. For the second ‫אל‬ el, read ‫ואל‬ veel, seventeen MSS., one of my own, ancient, two
editions, the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, Chaldee, and so Micah, Mic_4:2.
Isa_2:4. Micah adds ‫עד‬‫רחק‬ ad rachok, afar off, which the Syriac also reads in this parallel place
of Isaiah. It is also to be observed that Micah has improved the passage by adding a verse, or
sentence, (Mic_4:4) for imagery and expression worthy even of the elegance of Isaiah: -

“And they shall sit every man under his vine,
And under his fig tree, and none shall affright them:
For the mouth of Jehovah, God of hosts, hath spoken it.”
The description of well established peace, by the image of “beating their swords into
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,” is very poetical. The Roman poets have
employed the same image, Martial, 14:34. “Falx ex ense.”
“Pax me certa ducis placidos curvavit in usus:
Agricolae nunc sum; militis ante fui.”
“Sweet peace has transformed me. I was once the property of the soldier, and
am now the property of the husbandman.”
The prophet Joel, Joe_3:10, hath reversed it, and applied it to war prevailing over peace: -
“Beat your ploughshares into swords,
And your pruning-hooks into spears.”
And so likewise the Roman poets: -
- Non ullus aratro
Dignus honos: squalent abductis arva colonis,
Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
Virg., Georg. 1:506.
“Agriculture has now no honor: the husbandmen being taken away to the wars,
the fields are overgrown with weeds, and the crooked sickles are straightened into
swords.”
Bella diu tenuere viros: erat aptior ensis
Vomere: cedebat taurus arator equo
Sarcula cessabant; versique in pila ligones;
Factaque de rastri pondere cassis erat.
Ovid, Fast. 1:697.
“War has lasted long, and the sword is preferred to the plough. The bull has
given place to the war-horse; the weeding-hooks to pikes; and the harrow-pins
have been manufactured into helmets.”
The prophet Ezekiel, Eze_17:22-24, has presignified the same great event with equal
clearness, though in a more abstruse form, in an allegory; from an image, suggested by the
former part of the prophecy, happily introduced, and well pursued: -
“Thus saith the Lord Jehovah:
I myself will take from the shoot of the lofty cedar,
Even a tender scion from the top of his scions will I pluck off:
And I myself will plant it on a mountain high and eminent.
On the lofty mountain of Israel will I plant it;
And it shall exalt its branch, and bring forth fruit,
And it shall become a majestic cedar:

And under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing;
In the shadow of its branches shall they dwell:
And all the trees of the field shall know,
That I Jehovah have brought low the high tree;
Have exalted the low tree;
Have dried up the green tree;
And have made the dry tree to flourish:
I Jehovah have spoken it, and will do it.”
The word ‫ונתתי‬ venathatti, in this passage, Eze_17:22, as the sentence now stands, appears
incapable of being reduced to any proper construction or sense. None of the ancient versions
acknowledge it, except Theodotion, and the Vulgate; and all but the latter vary very much from
the present reading of this clause. Houbigant’s correction of the passage, by reading instead of
‫ונתתי‬ venathatti, ‫ויונקת‬ veyoneketh, and a tender scion which is not very unlike it, perhaps better
‫ויונק‬ veyonek, with which the adjective ‫ר‬‫ך‬ rach will agree without alteration - is ingenious and
probable; and I have adopted it in the above translation. - L.
3. GILL, “And it shall come to pass in the last days,.... The days of the Messiah, as Aben
Ezra rightly interprets it; and it is a rule laid down by Kimchi and Ben Melech, that wherever the
last days are mentioned, the days of the Messiah are intended. The days of the Messiah
commenced in the latter part of the Old Testament dispensation, or Jewish world, towards the
close of their civil and church state, at the end of which he was to come, Hab_2:3 and
accordingly did, which is called the end of the world, and the last days; that is, of that state,
Heb_1:2 and ushered in the world to come, or Gospel dispensation, which is properly the days of
the Messiah, reaching from his first to his second coming; the first of which were the times of
John the Baptist, Christ and his apostles; the latter days of that dispensation take in the rise and
reign of antichrist, 1Ti_4:1 the last days of it are those which bring in the perilous times, the
spiritual reign of Christ, and the destruction of antichrist, and which will precede the personal
coming of Christ, 2Ti_3:1 and these are the days here referred to.
That the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the
mountains; by "the mountain" of the Lord's house is meant, not Mount Moriah, on which the
temple was built, as Kimchi interprets it; nor the temple itself, as the Targum; though in the last
days of it, and at the first coming of the Messiah, that had a greater glory than ever it had before,
through the personal presence of Christ in it; through the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the
apostles there, on the day of Pentecost; and through the Gospel being first preached here by
Christ and his apostles, from whence it went forth into all the world, as is afterwards predicted it
should; but the kingdom of Christ, which is his church, is here designed; called "the Lord's
house", because of his building, and where he dwells, and which he will at this time beautify and
glorify; the materials of it are lively stones, or true believers; laid on Christ the foundation, into
which there is no right entrance but through faith in him, who is the door, and where is plenty of
provisions; the pillars and beams of it are the ministers of the Gospel, and its windows are the
ordinances: here Christ is as a Son over his own house; he is the Master of it, the High Priest and
Prophet in it; and his servants are the stewards of it, to give to everyone their portion; and happy
are they that have a name and a place in it: and it is called "the mountain", in allusion to Mount
Zion, on which the temple stood; because of its immovableness, being secured in the everlasting
and electing love of God, and in the unalterable covenant of grace, founded on the Rock Christ,

and guarded by the mighty power of God. This is "established in the top of the mountains"; in
Christ, who is higher than the kings of the earth, signified by mountains, Rev_17:9 who is the
Head of all principality and power; not in their first head, or in themselves, is the establishment
of the saints, but in Christ, 2Co_1:21 he is the stability of their persons, of their grace, and of
their life, spiritual and eternal. Here it seems to denote the superiority of the kingdom and
interest of Christ to all civil and religious states; the settlement and security of it; its standing
above them, and continuance when they shall be no more, even all antichristian states, both
Papal, Pagan, and Mahometan, Rev_16:19.
and shall be exalted above the hills; Mount Zion is above Mount Sinai, or the Gospel
dispensation is preferable to the legal one. It is an observation of Jarchi, that it shall be exalted
by a greater sign or miracle that shall be done in it than was done in Sinai, Carmel, and Tabor;
the law was given on Sinai, and many wonders wrought; but on Zion the Messiah himself
appeared, and his Gospel was published, and miracles wrought by him. And in the latter day,
when Christ, and he alone, shall be exalted, as he will at the time this prophecy refers to,
Isa_2:11 the church will be exalted; the glory of the Lord will be risen upon her; the interest of
Christ will exceed all other interests; his religion will be the prevailing one; the kingdoms of this
world will become his; and his dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the end
of the earth. This may also denote the visibility of the kingdom and church of Christ; it will be as
a city on a hill; and however obscure the church is now, being in the wilderness, it will at this
time be visible to all:
and all nations shall flow unto it; that is, many out of all nations shall be converted, and
come freely and willingly to join themselves to the church of Christ; they shall come in great
numbers, in company together, and that continually, like flowing streams; they shall first flow to
the Lord, and to his goodness, and then to his church and ordinances; see Isa_60:4.
4. BI, “Isaiah’s description of the last days
The description of “the last days”—which in the Hebrew begins, “And it hath come to pass . . .
the mountainof Jehovah’s house shall be established,” etc.
is an instance of the use of the perfect tense to express the certain future. Its explanation seems
to be that the structure of such a passage as that before us is imaginative, not logical—a picture,
not a statement. The speaker completely projects himself into “the last days”; he is there, he
finds them come; he looks about him to see what is actually going on, and sees that the
mountain of Jehovah’s house is about to be—still in process of being—established at the head of
the mountains; he looks again, and the nations have already arrived at the place prepared for
them, yet so freshly that they are still calling one another on; and as they come up they find that
the King they seek is already there, and has effected some of His judgments and decisions before
they arrive for their, turn. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
An epitome of Isaiah’s vision
(verses 2-4):—Isaiah, “rapt into future times,” sees the throne of the Lord of Israel established in
sovereignty over all the nations of the earth, and they becoming willing subjects to Him, and
friendly citizens to each other. The nations attain to true liberty, for they come to submit
themselves to the righteous laws and institutions, and to the wise and gracious word and

direction of that King whose service is perfect freedom; and to true brotherhood, for they leave
their old enmities and conflicts, and make the same Lord their Judge and Umpire and
Reconciler. And all this, not by some newly invented device of the nations, some new result of
their own civilisation, but by the carrying out of the old original purpose and plan of God, that
His chosen people of the Jews should be the ministers of these good things, and that in them
should all nations of the earth be blessed,—that “out of Zion should go forth the law, and the
Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.” This is the vocation of the Hebrew people. This, says the
prophet, is the key to all our duties as a nation, this is the master light to guide us to right action.
(Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
The supremacy of Mount Zion
Transport yourselves for a moment to the foot of Mount Zion. As you stand there, you observe
that it is but a very little hill. Bashan is far loftier, and Carmel and Sharon outvie it. As for
Lebanon, Zion is but a little hillock compared with it. If you think for a moment of the Alps, or of
the loftier Andes, or of the yet mightier Himalayas, this Mount Zion seems to be a very little hill,
a mere molehill, insignificant, despicable, and obscure. Stand there for a moment, until the
Spirit of God touches your eye, and you shall see this hill begin to grow. Up it mounts, with the
temple on its summit, till it outreaches Tabor. Onward it grows, till Carmel, with its perpetual
green, is left behind, and Salmon, with its everlasting snow sinks before it. Onward still it grows,
till the snowy peaks of Lebanon are eclipsed. Still onward mounts the hill, drawing with its
mighty roots other mountains and hills into its fabric; and onward it rises, till piercing the
clouds it reaches above the Alps; and onwards still, till the Himalayas seem to be sucked into its
bowels, and the greatest mountains of the earth appear to be but as the roots that strike out from
the side of the eternal hill; and there it rises till you can scarcely see the top, as infinitely above
all the higher mountains of the world as they are above the valleys Have you caught the idea,
and do you see there afar off upon the lofty top, not everlasting snows, but a pure crystal table
land, crowned with a gorgeous city, the metropolis of God, the royal palace of Jesus the King?
The sun is eclipsed by the light which shines from the top of this mountain; the moon ceases
from her brightness, for there is now no night: but this one hill, lifted up on high, illuminates the
atmosphere, and the nations of them that are saved are walking in the light thereof. The hill of
Zion hath now outsoared all others, and all the mountains and hills of the earth are become as
nothing before her. This is the magnificent picture of the text. I do not know that in all the
compass of poetry there is an idea so massive and stupendous as this—a mountain heaving,
expanding, swelling, growing, till all the high hills become absorbed, and that which was but a
little rising ground before, becomes a hill the top whereof teacheth to the seventh heavens. Now
we have here a picture of what the Church is to be. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A vision of the latter day glories
Of old, the Church was like Mount Zion, a very little hill. What saw the nations of the earth when
they looked upon it? A humble Man with twelve disciples. But that little hill grew, and some
thousands were baptized in the name of Christ; it grew again and became mighty. But still,
compared with the colossal systems of idolatry, she is but small. The Hindoo and the Chinese
turn to our religion, and say, “It is an infant of yesterday; ours is the religion of ages.” The
Easterns compare Christianity to some miasma that creeps along the fenny lowlands, but their
systems they imagine to be like me Alps, outsoaring the heavens in height. Ah, but we reply to
this, “Your mountain crumbles and your hill dissolves, but our hill of Zion has been growing,
and strange to say, it has life within its bowels, and grow on it shall, grow on it must, till all the

systems of idolatry shall become less than nothing before it.” Such is the destiny of our Church,
she is to be an all-conquering Church, rising above every competitor. The Church will be like a
high mountain, for she will be—
1. Preeminently conspicuous.
2. Awful and venerable in her grandeur.
3. The day is coming when the Church of God shall have absolute supremacy.
The Church of Christ now has to fight for her existence; but the day shall come when she shall be
so mighty that there shall be nought left to compote with her. How is this to be done? There are
three things which will ensure the growth of the Church.
1. The individual exertion of every Christian.
2. We may expect more.
The fact is, that the Church, though a mountain, is a volcano—not one that spouts fire, but that
hath fire within her; and this inward fire of living truth, and living grace, expands her side, and
lifts her crest, and upwards she must tower, for truth is mighty, and it must prevail—grace is
mighty, and must conquer—Christ is mighty, and He must be King of kings. Thus there is
something more than the individual exertions of the Church; there is a something within her
that must make her grow, till she overtops the highest mountains.
3. But the great hope of the Church is the second advent of Christ. When He shall come,
then shall the mountain of the Lord’s house be exalted above the hills. We must fight on day
by day and hour by hour; and when we think the battle is almost decided against us, He shall
come, the Prince of the kings of the earth. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
“All nations shall flow unto it”
Observe the figure. It does not say they shall come to it, but they shall flow unto it.
1. It implies, first, their number. Now it is but the pouring out of water from the bucket; then
it shall be as the rolling of the cataract from the hillside.
2. Their spontaneity. They are to come willingly to Christ; not to be driven, not to be
pumped up, not to be forced to it, but to be brought up by the Word of the Lord, to pay Him
willing homage. Just as the river naturally flows downhill by no other force than that which
is its nature, so shall the grace of God be so mightily given to the sons of men, that no acts of
parliament, no state churches, no armies will be used to make a forced conversion.
3. But yet again, this represents the power of the work of conversion. They “shall flow to it.”
Imagine an idiot endeavouring to stop the river Thames. The secularist may rise up and say,
“Oh, why be converted to this fanatical religion? Look to the things of time.” (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The mountain of the Lord’s house
The text calls our attention—
I. TO A PERIOD OF TIME WHEN THE EVENTS OF WHICH IT SPEAKS ARE TO OCCUR.
“The last days.” The phrase means, generally, the age of the Messiah; and is thus understood by
both Jewish and Christian commentators. The apostle has put this meaning beyond all doubt.

“God, who spake in times past unto the fathers, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His
Son.”
1. The expression intimates, that the dispensations which the prophets of the Old Testament
lived, were but preparatory to one of complete perfection. To the future all these ancient holy
men were ever looking. The patriarchal was succeeded by the Mosaic age. Prophet came
after prophet; but all were looking forward. All things around them, and before them, were
typical shadowy.
2. The emphasis which the of last days, intimates, also, the views they had of the complete
efficiency of that religious system which the Messiah was to introduce. On that age all their
hopes of the recovery of a world they saw sinking around them rested; and in the
contemplation of this efficient plan of redeeming love, they mitigated their sorrows. They felt
that the world needed a more efficient system, and they saw it descend with Messiah from
heaven.
3. The days of the Messiah were regarded by the ancient Church as “the last days,” because
in them all the great purposes of God were to be developed and completed.
II. TO THE STATE OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF GOD IN THE LAST DAYS. “The mountain
of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above
the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Some have considered this as a prediction of the
actual rebuilding of the temple, and the restoration of the political and church-state of the Jews,
in the close of the latter days of the times of the Messiah. Such an interpretation, if allowed,
would not at all interfere with that in which all agree, that, whatever else the prediction may
signify, it sets forth, under figures taken from the Levitical institutions, the future state of the
general Church of Christ. For the principle which leads to such an interpretation, we have no
less authority than that of the apostle Paul, who uniformly considers the temple, its priests, and
its ritual, as types of heavenly things; and in one well-known passage, makes use of them to
characterise the true Church of Christ. “But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city” of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The mountain of the Lord’s house is no longer covered
with ruins, but established in the top of the hills. We learn from it—
1. That the Church shall be restored to evangelical order and beauty: it shall be as Mount
Zion.
(1) Zion was the place of sacrifice. And in the last days the true sacrifice shall be
exhibited here.
(2) Mount Zion was the throne of majesty. And in coming to the evangelical Zion we
come to God as the universal Sovereign and Judge. In the latter days Gospel law will
shine there as brightly as Gospel grace.
(3) Zion was the mountain of holiness. And in these glorious clays holy shall all they be
who name the name of Christ.
(4) Zion was the special residence of God. On the day of Pentecost He took possession of
the Church; but in the latter days there shall be special manifestations of His presence in
richer displays of vital power. To this state we are ever to labour to bring the Church,
avoiding, ourselves, all that is inconsistent with truth in doctrine and holiness in life. For
the richer effusions of grace we are earnestly to pray.
2. In this state the Church shall be distinguished by its zeal. “Out of Zion shall go forth the
law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” So it was in the best estate of the Jewish
Church. The Gospel is to be preached in all nations; and till you send forth the law they will
not say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.” We thus see the connection
between the best state of the Church and this holy zeal. All history proves it.

III. TO CERTAIN SPECIAL OPERATIONS OF GOD BY WHICH THE EFFORTS OF HIS
RESTORED CHURCH TO BLESS AND SAVE THE WORLD SHALL BE RENDERED
EFFECTUAL. Without God, not all the efforts of the Church, even in her best state, can be
effectual.
1. He shall judge among the nations. The word “judge” is not always used in its purely
judicial sense, but in that of government,—the exercise of regal power both in mercy and
judgment; and in this sense we here take it. He shall so order the affairs of the world, that
opportunities shall be afforded to His Church to exert herself for its benefit. And thus is He
judging among the nations in our own day.
2. It is a part of the regal office to show mercy; and thus, too, shall He “judge among the
nations.” This He shall do by taking off those judicial desertions which, as a punishment for
unfaithfulness, He has inflicted. “He shall judge among the nations.” He shall do this
judicially, yet not for destruction, but correction. Then are two sorts of judgments;
judgments of wrath, and judgments of mercy. When grace is given with judgments, then do
they become corrective and salutary.
3. It is, therefore, added, “and shall rebuke many people”; or, according to Lowth’s
translation, “work conviction among them.” And may we not hope that this is approaching?
Even while waiting for the glorious period described and promised in the preceding
prophecy, the Church is called to “walk in the light of the Lord” (Isa_2:5).
1. Walk by this light of truth yourselves.
2. Set the glory of these splendid scenes before you, and let them encourage you to
increasing exertions for the spread of truth, holiness, and love throughout the earth.
(Richard Watson.)
The glorious exaltation and enlargement of Church
I. THE GLORY AND EXALTATION. “The mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established,”
etc.
II. THE ENLARGEMENT. “All nations shall flow unto it.”
III. THE PROSPERITY of the Church begins to be described in Isa_2:4. (J. Mede, B. D.)
The Church’s visibility and glory
There are—
I. TIMES WHEN THE CHURCH IS VISIBLE BUT NOT GLORIOUS.
II. TIMES WHEN IT IS NEITHER VISIBLE NOR GLORIOUS.
III. TIMES WHEN IT IS TO BE BOTH VISIBLE AND GLORIOUS. (J. Mede, B. D.)
The mountain of the Lord’s house
I. THE PERIOD REFERRED TO. The reference is not to the Gospel era as a whole, but to an
advanced period of it, even the time of the great millennial prosperity. The golden age of the
Greeks and Romans was the past, but our golden age is yet to come.

II. THE CHEERING TRUTH DECLARED. “The mountain,” etc. Often has Zion languished, but
she is to become a praise in the whole earth. In this striking figure two things are embraced—
1. Elevated position.
2. Permanent duration.
III. THE GENERAL INTEREST AWAKENED. We have here—
1. The invitation given. “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.”
2. The considerations by which it is enforced. “And He will teach us of His ways, and we will
walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from
Jerusalem.” It is the seat of Divine instruction on the one hand, and the centre of holy
influence on the other.
IV. THE HAPPY RESULTS DECLARED (verse 4). This is—
1. A consummation most devoutly to be desired.
2. Absolutely certain in its realisation. “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares.”
3. The means whereby it win be accomplished. By God judging or ruling among the nations,
and rebuking or working conviction among them. (Anon.)
The future glory and amplitude of the Church
1. The Gospel dispensation was designed to supersede that which was given by the hand of
Moses; it was to be exalted above this hill.
2. The Gospel also was destined to triumph over all those corrupt systems of religion which
have ever been received among men.
3. The assertion before us is also understood as a prophecy relative to the fulness of the
Church when the Jews shall be called in. This important event is foretold by the sacred
writers. (S. Ramsey, M. A.)
Isaiah’s wideness of view
Consider what that prediction meant in Isaiah’s time. He lived within well-defined boundaries
and limitations: the Jew was not a great man in the sense of including within his personal
aspirations all classes, conditions, and estates of men; left to himself he could allow the Gentiles
to die by thousands daily without shedding a tear upon their fallen bodies; he lived amongst his
own people; it was enough for him that the Jews were happy, for the Gentiles were but dogs.
Here is a new view of human nature, great enlargement of spiritual boundaries. (J. Parker, D.
D.)
The Church of the future—Goethe and Isaiah
It is quite the fashion in these days for those who do not believe in the Christian religion to
bestow on it their patronage. The Bible is full of delusion and falsehood, but they regard it, on
the whole, as a book that deserves notice; parts of it are almost as good as the Rig-Veda. The
Church has been the handmaid of bigotry and superstition, yet they find in the history of the

Church some passages that are inspiring. Jesus of Nazareth was a teacher in whose doctrine they
find many things to set right; yet, so rich were His contributions to ethical science that they feel
themselves justified in bestowing on Him a qualified approval. This fashion of patronising
Christianity may have been set by Goethe. Into that temple of the future which he describes in
his Tale, the little hut of the fisherman, by which he symbolises Christianity, was graciously
admitted. “This little hut had, indeed, been wonderfully transfigured. By virtue of the Lamp
locked up in it [the light of reason] the hut had been converted from the inside to the outside
into solid silver. Ere long, too, its form changed; for the noble metal shook aside the accidental
shape of planks, posts and beams, and stretched itself out into a noble case of beaten,
ornamented workmanship. Thus a fair little temple stood erected in the middle of the large one;
or, if you will, an altar worthy of the temple.” This is Goethe’s view of the Church of the future.
He has been magnanimous enough to provide a niche for it in the perfected temple of the Great
Hereafter; it is to serve as a pretty decoration of that grand structure, as a dainty bit of bric-a-
brac. About twenty five centuries before Goethe’s day another poet, dwelling somewhere in the
fastnesses of Syria, had visions of the future in form and colour quite unlike this of the German
philosopher. In Isaiah’s sight of the latter day, the Church of God is not merely a feature—it
furnishes the outline, it fills the whole field of vision. It is not merely a trait of the picture—it is
the picture. Instead of putting the Church into a niche in the templeof the future, to be kept
there as a kind of heirloom—a well-preserved antique curiosity—Isaiah insists that the Church in
the temple, and that all stores and forces of good are to be gathered into it, to celebrate its
empire and to decorate its triumph. The mountain of the Lord’s house, the typical Zion on which
the spiritual Church is builded, is to be exalted above all other eminences. Toward that all eyes
shall turn; toward that all paths shall lead; toward that shall journey with joy all pilgrim feet. For
the heralds of its progress, for the missionaries of its glad tidings it shall have many nations; it
shall give to all the world the ruling law and the informing word. This is Isaiah’s view of the
Church of the future. When twenty-five centuries more shall have passed it will be easier to tell
whether the Hebrew or the German was the better seer. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
The Church of the future
Isaiah shows us the Church of the future only in outline; the great fact which he gives us is that
in the last days the spiritual Jerusalem shall gather into itself all the kingdoms of the world and
all the glory of them. It may be possible for us in some indistinct way to fill in this outline; to
imagine, if we cannot prophesy, what the scope and character of the future Church shall be.
I. WILL IT HAVE A CREED? A creed is only a statement, more or less elaborate, of the facts and
principles of religion accepted by those who adhere to it. Religion is not wholly an affair of the
emotions; it involves the apprehension of truth. In the future, as in the past, this truth must be
stated, in order to be apprehended. A man’s creed is what he believes; and there must be creeds
as long as there are believers. It is probable, however, that the creeds may be considerably
modified as the years pass. Certainly they have been undergoing modifications, continually,
through the centuries gone by. It must be remembered, however, that the changes through
which theological science has been passing have been changes of spirit rather than of substance,
of form more than of fact. The essential truth remains. The great changes in theology are moral
changes. Theology is constantly becoming less materialistic and more ethical. This progress will
continue through the future. The creed of the future will contain, I have no doubt, the same
essential truth that is found in the creeds of the present; but there may be considerable
difference in the phrasing of it, and in the point of view from which it is approached.
1. Men will believe in the future in an infinite personal God, the Creator, the Ruler, the
Father of men. The abstract, impersonal Force to which Agnosticism leads us has no relation

to that which is deepest in man, and can have none. Christ bade us love the Lord our God
with all our heart and mind and soul. Can any man ever be perfectly happy until he has
found some Being whom he can love in this way? Must not the Being who is worthy to be
loved in this way be both perfect and infinite? And is it possible for a man to love with heart
and mind and soul, any being, however vast or powerful, that has neither heart nor mind nor
soul?
2. Concerning the mode of the Divine existence, men will learn in the future to speak more
modestly than they have spoken in the past. It will become more and more evident that it is
not possible to put the infinite into terms of the finite. There is the doctrine of the Trinity;
there is truth in it, or under it; but can anyone put that truth into propositions that shall be
definite and not contradictory?
3. II one may judge the future by the past there is no reason to fear that the person of Jesus
Christ will be less commanding in the Church of the future than it is in the Church of the
present.
4. The fact of sin will not be denied by the Church of the future. Doubtless organisation and
circumstance will be taken into the account in estimating human conduct; but the power of
the human will to control the natural tendencies, to release itself from entangling
circumstances, and to lay hold on the Divine grace by which it may overcome sin, will also be
clearly understood. The supremacy of the moral nature will be vindicated.
5. Punishment, as conceived and represented by the Church of the future, will not be an
arbitrary infliction of suffering, but the natural and inevitable consequence of disobedience
to law. It will be discovered that the moral law is incorporated into the natural order, and
that its sanctions are found in that order; while, in the work of redemption, God interposes
by His personal and supernatural grace to save men from the consequences of their own
disobedience and folly. Law is natural; grace is supernatural Transgressors will be made to
see, what they now so dimly apprehend, that no effect can be more closely joined to its cause
than penalty to sin.
6. Whatever the creed of the future may be, however, it will not be put to the kind of use
which the creed of the present is made to serve. It will not be laid down as the doctrinal
plank over which everybody must walk who comes into the communion of the Church. The
Church, like every other organism, has an organic idea, and that is simple loyalty to Jesus
Christ, the Head of the Church. There will be but one door into that Church—Christ will be
the door.
II. WHAT WILL BE THE POLITY OF THE FUTURE CHURCH? It is likely that, of the various
sorts of ecclesiastical machinery, each of the several religious bodies will freely choose that
which it likes best. Doubtless the Church will have some form of government: it will not be a
holy mob; lawlessness will not be regarded as the supreme good, in Church or in State. In
whatever ecclesiastical mould the Church of the future may be cast, there will be no mean
sectarianism in existence then. The various families of Christians will dwell as happily together
as well-bred families now do in society. Though there be diversities of form in the future, there
will be real and thorough intercommunion and cooperation among Christians of all names, and
nothing will be permitted to hold apart those who follow the same Leader and travel the same
road.
III. WHAT KIND OF WORK WILL BE DONE BY THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE? It will
have many ways of working that the Church of the present has not dreamed of. “The field is the
world,” Christ has told us; and in that better day the Church will have learned to occupy the
field.

1. Paul said that as a preacher of the Gospel he magnified his office. There is no office more
honourable. But it must not be inferred that there is no other Way of preaching the Gospel
except the formal utterance of religious truth, in the presence of a congregation. The truth
will be disseminated, in that time, in many other ways. For though the living voice is the best
instrument for the proclamation of the truth, so far as it will reach, it cannot reach very far.
The art of printing has been given to the world since that day; and by that invention the
whole business of instructing and influencing men has been revolutionised. The Church has
already appropriated this agency; and it is doubtless true that it will be employed in the
future more effectively than in the past. Neither will the range of teaching be so narrow as it
has sometimes been in the past. To apply the ethical rule of the New Testament to the
conduct of individuals, and to the relations of men in society, will be the constant obligation
of the pulpit. Out of Zion must go forth the law by which parents, children, neighbours,
citizens, workmen, masters, teachers, pupils, benefactors, beneficiaries, shall guide their
behaviour. Science, long the nightmare of the theologians, will no more trouble their
dreams; it will be understood that there can be no conflict between truths; that physical
science has its facts and laws, and spiritual science its facts and laws; that these are diverse
but not contradictory, and that the one is just as positive and knowable as the other. The
unfriendliness now existing between the scientists and the theologians will exist no longer,
because both parties will have learned wisdom.
2. But the work of teaching will not be the only work to which the Church of the future will
address itself. Large and wise enterprises for the welfare of men will be set on foot; many of
the instrumentalities now in use will continue to be employed, under modified forms, and
many new ones will be devised. It will be understood that the law of the Church is simply
this, “Let us do good to all men as we have opportunity.” (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
The magnet which draws the nations
The Church is established on the top of the mountain, and all nations are flowing unto it. Yes,
flowing up hill! Yes, up the mountain side! When I was a boy I said, “That is false rhetoric, a
mistake—flowing to the top of the mountain; it cannot be.” I went to the workshop of a friend,
and I saw in the dust a parcel of steel filings. And he had a magnet, and, as he drew it near to the
steel filings, they were attracted to it and kissed the magnet. Then I said, Give me a magnet large
enough, place it on the mountain top, and it will draw all the nations unto it. That magnet is the
Lord Jesus Christ, for He said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me.”
(Bp. M. Simpson, D. D.)
5. JAMISON, “Same as Mic_4:1. As Micah prophesied in Jotham’s reign, and Isaiah in
Uzziah’s, Micah rests on Isaiah, whom he confirms: not vice versa. Hengstenberg on slight
grounds makes Mic_4:1 the original.
last days — that is, Messiah’s: especially the days yet to come, to which all prophecy hastens,
when “the house of the God of Jacob,” namely, at Jerusalem, shall be the center to which the
converted nations shall flock together (Mat_13:32; Luk_2:31, Luk_2:32; Act_1:6, Act_1:7);
where “the kingdom” of Israel is regarded as certain and the time alone uncertain (Psa_68:15,
Psa_68:16; Psa_72:8, Psa_72:11).

mountain of the Lord’s house ... in the top, etc. — the temple on Mount Moriah: type
of the Gospel, beginning at Jerusalem, and, like an object set on the highest hill, made so
conspicuous that all nations are attracted to it.
flow — as a broad stream (Isa_66:12).
6. K&D, “The subject of the borrowed prophecy is Israel's future glory: “And it cometh to
pass at the end of the days, the mountain of the house of Jehovah will be set at the top of the
mountains, and exalted over hills; and all nations pour unto it.” The expression “the last days”
(acharith hayyamim, “the end of the days”), which does not occur anywhere else in Isaiah, is
always used in an eschatological sense. It never refers to the course of history immediately
following the time being, but invariably indicates the furthest point in the history of this life - the
point which lies on the outermost limits of the speaker's horizon. This horizon was a very
fluctuating one. The history of prophecy is just the history of its gradual extension, and of the
filling up of the intermediate space. In Jacob's blessing (Gen 49) the conquest of the land stood
in the foreground of the acharith or last days, and the perspective was regulated accordingly. But
here in Isaiah the acharith contained no such mixing together of events belonging to the more
immediate and the most distant future. It was therefore the last time in its most literal and
purest sense, commencing with the beginning of the New Testament aeon, and terminating at its
close (compare Heb_1:1; 1Pe_1:20, with 1 Cor 15 and the Revelation). The prophet here
predicted that the mountain which bore the temple of Jehovah, and therefore was already in
dignity the most exalted of all mountains, would. one day tower in actual height above all the
high places of the earth. The basaltic mountains of Bashan, which rose up in bold peaks and
columns, might now look down with scorn and contempt upon the small limestone hill which
Jehovah had chosen (Psa_68:16-17); but this was an incongruity which the last times would
remove, by making the outward correspond to the inward, the appearance to the reality and the
intrinsic worth. That this is the prophet's meaning is confirmed by Eze_40:2, where the temple
mountain looks gigantic to the prophet, and also by Zec_14:10, where all Jerusalem is described
as towering above the country round about, which would one day become a plain. The question
how this can possibly take place in time, since it presupposes a complete subversion of the whole
of the existing order of the earth's surface, is easily answered. The prophet saw the new
Jerusalem of the last days on this side, and the new Jerusalem of the new earth on the other
(Rev_21:10), blended as it were together, and did not distinguish the one from the other. But
whilst we thus avoid all unwarrantable spiritualizing, it still remains a question what meaning
the prophet attached to the word b'rosh (“at the top”). Did he mean that Moriah would one day
stand upon the top of the mountains that surrounded it (as in Psa_72:16), or that it would stand
at their head (as in 1Ki_21:9, 1Ki_21:12; Amo_6:7; Jer_31:7)? The former is Hofmann's view, as
given in his Weissagung und Erfüllung, ii. 217: “he did not indeed mean that the mountains
would be piled up one upon the other, and the temple mountain upon the top, but that the
temple mountain would appear to float upon the summit of the others.” But as the expression
“will be set” (nacon) does not favour this apparently romantic exaltation, and b'rosh occurs more
frequently in the sense of “at the head” than in that of “on the top,” I decide for my own part in
favour of the second view, though I agree so far with Hofmann, that it is not merely an
exaltation of the temple mountain in the estimation of the nations that is predicted, but a
physical and external elevation also. And when thus outwardly exalted, the divinely chosen
mountain would become the rendezvous and centre of unity for all nations. They would all “flow

Isaiah 2 commentary

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Isaiah 2 commentary