Isaiah 2:21

Isa 2:21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Ver. 21. To go into the clefts of the rocks.] See Isa 2:10. Only here the double repetition of this dreadful judgment is very emphatic, and may serve to teach preachers to inculcate upon their hearers God’s severity against sinners, and to remind them much of those last things, death, judgment, hell. Utinam ubique de his dissereretur, saith Chrysostom, that excellent preacher. Oh that these things might resound from all pulpits!

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. The warning begun in Isa_2:10 continues.

To go — This is an infinitive of purpose — that these frightened idol worshippers may go into hiding-places away from the coming terror of Jehovah.

It is easy to conceive our prophet as delivering this fearful message in the temple courts at Jerusalem, or even in the royal courts, with his disciples about him (for it is presumable that he had a school of young prophets within or near Jerusalem) furnishing the choral refrains at Isa_2:11; Isa_2:17; Isa_2:19; Isa_2:21.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 21. See Clarke on Isa 2:19.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(21) To go into the clefts of the rocks . . .—Comp. for the phrase, Exo_33:22. The picture of Isa_2:19 is reproduced, with some noticeable variations. As men feel shock after shock of the earthquake, and see the flashing fires, and hear the crash of the thunder, they leave the larger caverns in which they had at first sought shelter, and where they have left the idols that were once so precious, and fly to the smaller and higher openings, the “clefts of the rocks,” and the rents of the crags, in their unspeakable panic.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. See on Isa_2:10; Isa_2:19. Translate: to enter into the hollows of the rocks and clefts of the crags, &c.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To go - That is, that he may go.

Clefts of the rocks - see the note at Isa 2:19.

Into the tops ... - The tops of such rocks were not easily accessible, and were, therefore, deemed places of safety. We may remark here, how vain were the refuges to which they would resort - as if they were safe from “God,” when they had fled to the places in which they sought safety from “man.” The image here is, however, one that is very sublime. The earth shaking; the consternation and alarm of the people; their renouncing confidence in all to which they had trusted; their rapid flight; and their appearing on the high projecting cliffs, are all sublime and terrible images. They denote the severity of God’s justice, and the image is a faint representation of the consternation of people when Christ shall come to judge the earth; Rev 6:15-17.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

To go into; or, as they go into; i.e. "as they make their escape, they shall fling the idols away." The clefts of the rocks. (comp. Exo_33:22, the only other passage of Scripture where the word occurs) The tops of the ragged rocks; rather, the rents, or crevices. The idea of hiding themselves from the awful majesty of God is kept up throughout. (cf. vers. 10 and 19; and see also Luk_23:30)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

"To creep into the cavities of the stone-blocks, and into the clefts of the rocks, before the terrible look of Jehovah, and before the glory of His majesty, when He arises to put the earth in terror." Thus ends the fourth strophe of this "dies irae, dies illa," which is appended to the earlier prophetic word. But there follows, as an epiphonem, this nota bene in Isa 2:22 : Oh, then, let man go, in whose nose is a breath; for what is he estimated at? The Septuagint leaves this v. out altogether. But was it so utterly unintelligible then? Jerome adopted a false pointing, and has therefore given this marvellous rendering: excelsus (bâmâh!) reputatus est ipse, by which Luther was apparently misled. But if we look backwards and forwards, it is impossible to mistake the meaning of the verse, which must be regarded not only as the resultant of what precedes it, but also as the transition to what follows. It is preceded by the prediction of the utter demolition of everything which ministers to the pride and vain confidence of men; and in Isa 3:1. the same prediction is resumed, with a more special reference to the Jewish state, from which Jehovah is about to take away every prop, so that it shall utterly collapse. Accordingly the prophet exhorts, in Isa 2:22, to a renunciation of trust in man, and everything belonging to him, just as in Psa 118:8-9; Psa 146:3, and Jer 17:5. The construction is as general as that of a gnome. The dat. Commodi לכם (Ges. 154, 3, e) renders the exhortation both friendly and urgent: from regard to yourselves, for your own good, for your own salvation, desist from man, i.e., from your confidence in him, in whose nose (in cujus naso, the singular, as in Job 27:3; whereas the plural is used in Gen 2:7 in the same sense, in nares ejus, "into his nostrils") is a breath, a breath of life, which God gave to him, and can take back as soon as He will (Job 34:14; Psa 104:29). Upon the breath, which passes out and in through his nose, his whole earthly existence is suspended; and this, when once lost, is gone for ever (Job 7:7). It is upon this breath, therefore, that all the confidence placed in man must rest - a bad soil and foundation! Under these conditions, and with this liability to perish in a moment, the worth of man as a ground of confidence is really nothing. This thought is expressed here in the form of a question: At (for) what is he estimated, or to be estimated? The passive participle nechshâb combines with the idea of the actual (aestimatus) that of the necessary (aestimandus), and also of the possible or suitable (aestimabilis); and that all the more because the Semitic languages have no special forms for the latter notions. The Beth is Beth pretı̄, corresponding to the Latin genitive (quanti) or ablative (quanto) - a modification of the Beth instrumenti, the price being regarded as the medium of exchange or purchase: "at what is he estimated," not with what is he compared, which would be expressed by ‛eth (Isa 53:12; compare μετά, Luk 22:37) or ‛im (Psa 88:5). The word is בּמּה, not בּמּה, because this looser form is only found in cases where a relative clause follows (eo quod, Ecc 3:22), and not bama=h, because this termination with ā is used exclusively where the next word begins with Aleph, or where it is a pausal word (as in Kg1 22:21); in every other case we have bammeh. The question introduced with this quanto (quanti), "at what," cannot be answered by any positive definition of value. The worth of man, regarded in himself, and altogether apart from God, is really nothing.

The proclamation of judgment pauses at this porisma, but only for the purpose of gathering fresh strength. The prophet has foretold in four strophes the judgment of God upon every exalted thing in the kosmos that has fallen away from communion with God, just as Amos commences his book with a round of judgments, which are uttered in seven strophes of uniform scope, bursting like seven thunder-claps upon the nations of the existing stage of history. The seventh stroke falls upon Judah, over which the thunderstorm rests after finding such abundant booty. And in the same manner Isaiah, in the instance before us, reduces the universal proclamation of judgment to one more especially affecting Judah and Jerusalem. The current of the address breaks through the bounds of the strophe; and the exhortation in Isa 2:22 not to trust in man, the reason for which is assigned in what precedes, also forms a transition from the universal proclamation of judgment to the more special one in Isa 3:1, where the prophet assigns a fresh ground for the exhortation.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Continuing the sentence, he declares the end for which they should throw away their idols, namely, to save themselves, casting them off as worthless encumbrances in order the more quickly to take refuge in the rocks. “To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the fissures of the cliffs (or crags) from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of His majesty in His arising to terrify the earth,” or as Lowth more poetically renders it, to strike the earth with terror. The final recurrence of the same refrain which closed the eleventh and seventeenth verses, marks the conclusion of the choral or strophical arrangement at this verse, the next beginning a new context.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

נקרת The clefts of. Literally a hollowed place of.

סעפי. Branchlike pieces projecting from the rocks, where people can hide themselves.

לערוץ To be mighty. Root ערץ; comp. עריץ mighty. According to others, it is a transitive verb, meaning to terrify; אל תערץ (Jos. 1:9) has, perhaps, the same meaning, the word לבך thine heart, being supplied—do not terrify or discourage thine heart—and עריץ (29:20), is then a transitive adjective, terrible, like אימים (Gen. 14:5), the terrifying ones.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.