Isaiah 28:11

Isa 28:11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

Ver. 11. For with stammering lips, &c.] With a lisping lip. Heb., With scoffs of lip, or with language of mocks. Surely God scorneth the scorners, {Pro 3:34} for he loveth to retaliate, and proportion choice to choice, {Isa 66:3-4} device to device, {Mic 2:1; Mic 2:3} frowardness to frowardness, {Psa 18:26} scoffing to scoffing. {Pro 1:25-26}

And with another tongue.] Lingua exotica, such as they shall be no whit the better for. See 1Co 14:21. We read of John Elmar, Bishop of London in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, that on a time when he saw his audience grow dull in their attention to his sermon, he presently read unto them many verses of the Hebrew text, whereat they all started, admiring what use he meant to make thereof; then showed he them their folly, that whereas they neglected English, whereby they might be edified, they listened to Hebrew, whereof they understood not a word; and how justly God might bring in Popery again, - with Latin service, blind obedience, and dumb offices, - for their contempt of the gospel.

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.

Isa_28:11

With stammering lips

Assyrian speech

By men of strange lips Jehovah will speak Assyrian to them; and with a more frightful iteration than the prophet used. (A. B.Davidson, LL. D.)

A great moral principle

We gather from Isaiah that God speaks twice to men, first in words and then by deeds, but both times very simply and plainly. (G. A. Smith, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 28:11-12. For — Or, rather, therefore, as the particle כיis often used. For the prophet here evidently intends to express the punishment of their dulness. With stammering lips, and another tongue — By people of a strange language, whom he will bring among them, and into whose power he will deliver them; will he speak to this people — Seeing they will not hear him speaking by his prophets and ministers, in their own language, they shall hear their enemies speaking to them in a strange language. It was a great aggravation of the misery of the Jews, during their captivity, that they did not understand the language of the Chaldeans, whose captives they were. To whom he said — To which people, the Lord, by his ministers, said, This — This doctrine, or the word of the Lord, as it follows, Isa 28:13; is the rest — The only way, in the observance of which you will find rest. Wherewith, &c. — The word wherewith is supplied by our translators, there being nothing for it in the Hebrew, which is, cause ye the weary to rest — Namely, your weary minds and weary country. As if he had said, As rest is offered you by the prophets in God’s name, do you embrace it; which is to be done by hearkening to God’s word. So shall this people, which hath been so often, and so long, wearied and harassed by great and manifold calamities, find rest and peace. Yet they would not hear — They were wilfully ignorant, and obstinately refused the very means of instruction.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28:11 God will have to speak through circumstances such as hardship, exile, and death in order to get through to his hardened people. • a strange language: In the New Testament, Paul applied this text to the spiritual gift of tongues as a sign of judgment to unbelievers (see 1 Cor 14:21-22).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Let one teach what he can, yet they shall no more understand him, than if he spake in a strange language.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

For--rather, "Truly." This is Isaiah's reply to the scoffers: Your drunken questions shall be answered by the severe lessons from God conveyed through the Assyrians and Babylonians; the dialect of these, though Semitic, like the Hebrew, was so far different as to sound to the Jews like the speech of stammerers (compare Isa 33:19; Isa 36:11). To them who will not understand God will speak still more unintelligibly.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(11) With stammering lips and another tongue . . .—The “stammering lips” are those of the Assyrian conquerors, whose speech would seem to the men of Judah as a barbarous patois. They, with their short sharp commands, would be the next utterers of Jehovah’s will to the people who would not listen to the prophet’s teaching. The description of the “stammering tongue” re-appears in Isa_33:19. (Comp. Deu_28:49.) In 1Co_14:21, the words are applied to the gift of “tongues,” which, in its ecstatic utterances, was unintelligible to those who heard it, and was therefore, as the speech of the barbarian conquerors was in Isaiah’s thoughts, the antithesis of true prophetic teaching.

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

11. Isaiah parries the gibe with a terrible threat. Jehovah is about to employ a more uncouth language, to which their mocking description will fully apply, viz., the harsh barbarous accents of the Assyrian invaders.

stammering lips] either “stammerings of lip” or “stammerers of lip” (cf. the Greek use of βάρβαρος). Comp. 1Co_14:21.

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 whom he said,.... Either the Lord himself, or the prophet Isaiah; or rather the Lord by him, and other prophets; so the Targum,

"to whom the prophets said;''

that is, the true prophets of the Lord said to the people, or to the priests and other prophets; or Christ and his apostles, as follows:

This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest: and this is the refreshing: that is, by teaching the word of God, the true knowledge of him, and the sound doctrines of the Gospel, and the duties of religion; this would be the best way of casing and refreshing the minds and consciences of the people, burdened with a sense of sin, or distressed and disconsolate through afflictions and calamities upon them, and be the most effectual method of continuing them in ease and peace in their own land, and of preserving them from captivity, and other judgments threatened with; see Mat 11:28,

yet they would not hear; having no regard to the Lord and his prophets; nor any compassion to their countrymen, afflicted and distressed in mind or body; nor to the doctrine of Christ and his apostles.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For - This verse is to be understood as a response to what the complaining and dissatisfied people had said, as expressed in the previous verse. God says that he will teach them, but it should be by another tongue - a foreign language in a distant land. Since they refused to hearken to the messages which he sent to them, and which they regarded as adapted only to children, he would teach them in a manner that should be “much more” humiliating; he would make use of the barbarous language of foreigners to bring them to the true knowledge of God.

With stammering lips - The word which is used here is derived from a verb (לעג lâ‛âg), which means to speak unintelligibly: especially to speak in a foreign language, or to stammer; and then to mock, deride, laugh at, scorn (compare Isa 33:19; Pro 1:26; Pro 17:5; Psa 2:4; Psa 59:9; Job 22:19). Here it means in a foreign or barbarous tongue; and the sense is, that the lessons which God wished to teach would be conveyed to them through the language of foreigners - the Chaldeans. They should be removed to a distant land, and there, in hearing a strange speech, in living long among foreigners, they should learn the lesson which they refused to do when addressed by the prophets in their own land.

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

For; or, therefore, as this particle is oft used. For this seems to be the punishment of their dulness.

With stammering lips; either,

1. In way of condescension, as mothers and nurses teach children, lisping and stammering with them. Or,

2. In way of judgment; which suits best with the next clause.

And another tongue; by people of a strange language, whom he shall bring among them, and into whose power he shall deliver them; which is a great aggravation of their misery: see Deu 28:49; Jer 5:15; Eze 3:5.

Will he speak to this people: seeing they will not hear him speaking by his prophets and ministers, in their own language, they shall hear their enemies speaking to them in a strange and rough language.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11, 12. For — One explanation of this is, that the wicked prophets were about to continue, and got as far as “for,” when Isaiah snatched the word from them and proceeded thence himself: “Yes, for,” etc. Another translation is, “Yea, or truly,” the prophet’s own commencing words.

Stammering lips — “Yes, with a stammering tongue,” that is, with another dialect, “will God speak to this people.” That dialect shall be the semi-Semitic patois of the fierce people beyond the Euphrates. It is said that the Assyrian Semitic was to Jewish ears much the same as the provincial lower Saxon (Platt-Deutsch) is to the pure high German language — said patois being mixed perhaps with Iranian, possibly with Tartar elements. See 2Ki_18:26-28; Isa_36:11. It is proper to suppose, from the exigences of the text, that exile to Assyria is here threatened in consequence of such scoffing, which was alarmingly becoming the rule, not the exception, in the conduct of the Jews.

To whom — The scoffing Jews. God had repeatedly said, This is the rest, namely, trusting in Jehovah of Hosts, and not in Syrian (chap. 7) nor in Egyptian (chapter 37) alliances.

Yet they would not hear — God’s fruitless patience and teachings will not always be continued.

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

Vers. 11-13. JUDAH"S PUNISHMENT. God will retort on the Jews their scorn of his prophet, and, as they will not be taught by his utterances, which they find to be childish and unrefined, will teach them by utterances still more unrefined those of the Assyrians, which will be quite as monotonous and quite as full of minutiae as Isaiah"s.

With stammering lips and with another tongue. The Assyrian language, though a Semitic idiom nearly allied to Hebrew, was sufficiently different to sound in the ears of a Jew like his own tongue mispronounced and barbarized.

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

Another tongue - By people of a strange language, whom he shall bring among them, seeing they will not hear him speaking, by his prophets, in their own language.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The prophet takes the ki ("for") out of their mouths, and carries it on in his own way. It was quite right that their ungodliness should show itself in such a way as this, for it would meet with an appropriate punishment. "For through men stammering in speech, and through a strange tongue, will He speak to this people. He who said to them, There is rest, give rest to weary ones, and there is refreshing! But they would not hear. Therefore the word of Jehovah becomes to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, a little here, a little there, that they may go and stumble backwards, and be wrecked to pieces, and be snared and taken." Jehovah would speak to the scoffing people of stammering tongue a language of the same kind, since He would speak to them by a people that stammered in their estimation, i.e., who talked as barbarians (cf., βαρβαρίζειν and balbutire; see Isa 33:19, compared with Deu 28:49). The Assyrian Semitic had the same sound in the ear of an Israelite, as Low Saxon (a provincial dialect) in the ear of an educated German; in addition to which, it was plentifully mixed up with Iranian, and possibly also with Tatar elements. This people would practically interpret the will of Jehovah in its own patios to the despisers of the prophet. Jehovah had directed them, through His prophets, after the judgments which they had experienced with sufficient severity (Isa 1:5.), into the true way to rest and refreshing (Jer 6:16), and had exhorted them to give rest to the nation, which had suffered so much under Ahaz through the calamities of war (2 Chron 28), and not to drag it into another way by goading it on to rise against Assyria, or impose a new burden in addition to the tribute to Assyria by purchasing the help of Egypt. But they would not hearken (אבוּא = אבוּ, Isa 30:15-16; Ges. 23, 3, Anm. 3). Their policy was a very different one from being still, or believing and waiting. And therefore the word of Jehovah, which they regarded as en endless series of trivial commands, would be turned in their case into an endless series of painful sufferings. To those who thought themselves so free, and lived so free, it would become a stone on which they would go to pieces, a net in which they would be snared, a trap in which they would be caught (compare Isa 8:14-15).

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.)

“For with stammering lips and with another tongue will He speak unto this people.” As the words translated stammering lips may denote either foreign or scoffing speech (the former being usually described in the Old Testament as stammering), some suppose a double allusion here, to wit, that as they had mocked at the divine instructions by their stammering speech, so He would speak to them in turn by the stammering lips of foreigners in another language than their own. This, though by no means an obvious construction in itself, is preferred by the latest writers and countenanced by several analogous expressions in the subsequent context.

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

with mocking lips and a foreign tongue he will speak to this people

Here "lips" and "tongue" represent the foreigners who speak a different language than the Israelites do. It is implied that this refers to the Assyrian army that will attack Israel. AT: "Yahweh will speak to this people through enemy soldiers who will speak a foreign language" (See: Synecdoche and Active or Passive)

mocking lips

"stammering lips"

This is the rest

The abstract noun "rest" can be stated as an adjective. AT: "This is the resting place" (See: Abstract Nouns)

give rest to him who is weary

The abstract noun "rest" can be stated as a verb. AT: "let whoever is tired come and rest" (See: Abstract Nouns)

this is the refreshing

The abstract noun "refreshing" can be stated as a verb. AT: "this is the place where you can be refreshed" (See: Abstract Nouns)

translationWords

mock

alien

tongue

people group

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

With distorted speech (בְּלַעֲגֵי שָׂפָה) Similarly, לְעָגִים and (infra 32:4), עִלְּגִים, are both expressions of distorted speech, which is not readily grasped.

he speaks to this people Everyone who speaks to them words of prophecy or admonition is to them like a distorted language, which they cannot understand.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

בלעני שפה With laughing lips. Comp. לענ derision (Ps. lxxix., 4). The teacher speaks to the child in a laughing and mocking way.

And with another tongue. The teacher usually tries to substitute letters which are easy to pronounce for the more difficult ones; in the same manner the prophet must speak, when he rebukes this people.

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.