Isaiah 31:2

Isa 31:2 Yet he also [is] wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.

Ver. 2. Yet he also is wise.] Yea, he is "the only wise God," whatever the world’s wizards think of him or of themselves. They counted the voyage down to Egypt the wisest way; {a} and to rest altogether upon God, to be altogether impolitic as the case now stood. Egypt also, they knew, was famous for wisdom, {Isa 19:11-12} but considered not how God had fooled them, {Exo 1:10; Exo 1:12} and taken those foxes in their own craft. {1Co 3:19}

And will bring evil.] To those evil counsellors especially,

“Hδε κακη βουλη τω βουλευσαντι κακιστη”

{a} Tacita antithesis in qua latet Antanaclasis.

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_31:2

Yet He also is wise

God works in history

You have been clever and successful, but have you forgotten that God also is wise, that He too has His policy, and acts reasonably and consistently?

You think you have been making history; but God also works in history, and surely, to put it on the lowest ground, with as much cleverness and persistence as you do. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)

Forgetfulness of God

The forgetfulness, against which Isaiah directs this shaft of satire, is the besetting sin of very religious people, of very successful people, and of very clever people. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)

The religion that ignores God

It is the temptation of an ordinary Christian, churchgoing people, like ourselves, with a religion so full of marvellous mercies, and so blessed with regular opportunities of worship, to think of God only in connection with these, and practically to ignore that along the far greater stretches of life He has any interest or purpose regarding us. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)

Man no match for God

After Moscow, Napoleon is reported to have exclaimed, The Almighty is too strong for me. (Prof. 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.

And knoweth their crafty enterprises, and will bring all to naught.

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

he also is wise--as well as the Egyptian priests, so famed for wisdom (Act 7:22), but who are "fools" before Him (Isa 19:11). He not only devises, but executes what He devises without "calling back His words" (Num 23:19).

home--the whole race.

help--the Egyptian succor sought by the Jews.

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

Verse 2. His words - "His word"] דברו debaro, singular, without י yod, two MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's the Septuagint, and Targ. Hieros. דרכיו derachaiv, his ways, is found in one MS.

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

(2) Yet he also is wise.—The words have a ring of sarcasm in them. Isaiah admits ironically that the counsellors of Hezekiah were wise in their generation. He reminds them that there might be some little wisdom in Jehovah, and in the prophet by whom He spake.

And will not call back his words.—Such words, e.g., as those of the preceding chapter (Isa_30:12-13; Isa_30:16-17).

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

2. Yet he also is wise] as well as the shrewd diplomatists who have negotiated this treaty! The words are ironical, yet they have a serious meaning; the prophet, alone in his view of the political situation, reassures himself by thinking of the transcendent wisdom of Jehovah and the fixity of His purpose.

and will bring evil] Rather, brings trouble (cf. Amo_3:6) in consequence of His wisdom.

and will not call back (better: and hath not recalled) his words] The “words” are such prophecies as Isa_28:16 ff., Isa_29:14 ff., Isa_30:13 f., 16 ff.

the house of [the] evildoers is Judah (ch. Isa_1:4); their help (i.e. “helpers “) is Egypt.

2, 3. A demonstration of the folly of trusting Egypt rather than Jehovah.

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.

Yet he also is wise,.... That is, God, the Holy One of Israel, is, whom they disregarded; and wiser too than the Egyptians, to whom they sought for help, and who were thought to be a wise and political people; and wiser than themselves, who imagined they acted a prudent part, in applying to them; so wise as to know all their schemes, and able to confound them, as well as most certainly and fully to complete his own; and it would have been therefore the highest wisdom to have sought to him, and not to men:

and will bring evil; the evil of punishment or affliction on wicked men, which he has threatened, and which they could in no wise escape, by taking the methods they did:

and will not call back his words; his threatenings delivered by the prophets: these, as he does not repent of, he will not revoke or make void, but fulfil and accomplish; what he has said he will do, and what he has purposed he will bring to pass; and therefore it was a weak and an unwise part they acted, by applying to others, and slighting him:

but will arise against the house of evildoers; not the ten tribes of Israel, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; but rather the people of the Jews, or some particular family among them; it may be the royal family, chiefly concerned in sending the embassy to Egypt, or in advising to it; though it may be the singular is put for the plural, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it "the houses"; and so may design all those great families which joined in this affair, and are therefore called "evildoers"; as all such are that put their confidence in the creature, and not in the Lord; and against such he will "arise", in a hostile manner, sooner or later, against whom there is no standing; see Job 9:4,

and against the help of them that work iniquity; that is, against the Egyptians, the helpers of the Jews, who were workers of iniquity, and therefore their help and hope in it would be in vain; or else the latter part is descriptive of the Egyptians their helpers, who were a wicked and idolatrous nation, and so not to be sought unto for help, or trusted in, since, God being against them, it would be to no purpose, as he is against all workers of iniquity.

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

Yet he also is wise - God is wise. It is in vain to attempt to deceive him, or to accomplish such purposes without his knowledge.

And will bring evil - The punishment which is due to such want of confidence in him.

But will arise against the house of the evil-doers - This is a general proposition, and it is evidently just as true now as it was in the time of Isaiah.

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

Words. The Lord will punish the wicked Jews, (Calmet) after the Egyptians. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] x. 1.) --- The former would not believe the prophets. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

He also is wise: you think you are wise, and act wisely in engaging the Egyptians, who are a wise and warlike people, to help you; but God is not inferior to them in wisdom nor in strength, but much their superior; and therefore you have done foolishly and wickedly in preferring them before him.

Will bring evil; will execute his judgments upon you, notwithstanding all that you or your allies the Egyptians can do to hinder it.

Will not call back his words, his threatenings denounced against you, but will infallibly execute them.

Will arise; though at present he sit still, yet he will bestir himself and fight.

Against the house of evil-doers; against this wicked and rebellious people of the Jews.

The help; the helpers, as it is explained in the next verse; the abstract being put for the concrete.

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

Yet he also is wise. Intense irony. "Wisdom is not wholly confined to the human counselors whose advice Judah follows. (Isa_29:14) He (Jehovah) is "wise" too, and could give prudent counsel if his advice were asked." As he is not consulted, he will bring evil upon his people, and will not call back, or retract, his words of threatening, but will give them accomplishment, by rising up against the house of the evildoers (i.e. the Jews), and their help (i.e. the Egyptians).

Vers. 2, 3. The folly of trusting in an arm of flesh.

"Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man," says the psalmist; (Psa_146:3) for there is no help in them." All human props are uncertain

I BECAUSE OF HUMAN CHANGEFULNESS. Men do not continue always of one mind. They make promises, and regret that they have made them, and find some way of escaping their force, or else boldly break them with a cynical disregard to what others may think or say. Their interests change, or the views that they take of them; and the wise policy of to-day seems foolishness, or even madness, tomorrow. Some men are actuated by mere caprice, and have no sooner effected a desired purpose than it loses favor in their eyes, and seems to them of little worth. They will make heavy sacrifices to obtain an alliance, and none to maintain it. They sigh always for something that they have not, and despise what they have. Human protection is always uncertain, owing to the fickleness of man, who is naturally double-minded," and "unstable in all his ways". (Jam_1:8)

II BECAUSE OF POSSIBLE INSUFFICIENCY. The human protector may, with the best intentions in the world, prove insufficient. Syria and Ammon summoned Assyria to their aid when they contended with David; (2Sa_10:6, 16 Psa_83:8) but the result was the entire defeat of the confederate army. Hannibal called on Macedonia to assist him against the Romans; but Macedonia proved too weak, and her efforts resulted in her own subjection. There must, in almost every case, be the risk that the protector, though doing all he can, may fail, and our having called him in exasperate, or even infuriate, our adversary.

III BECAUSE OF HUMAN GREED AND SELFISHNESS. The protector may become, is only too apt to become, the oppressor and the conqueror. Rome"s vast empire was built up largely by taking states under her protection, and then absorbing them. Had Egypt succeeded in defeating Assyria, and rolling back the tide of invasion that had so long been rising higher and higher, and threatening her own independence and that of her neighbors, the result would simply have been that Judaea and Samaria would have been absorbed into Egypt, or at any rate have become Egyptian dependencies. The small state that calls in one powerful kingdom to help her in her struggle against another rarely gains anything more than an exchange of masters.

IV BECAUSE THE GREATEST HUMAN STRENGTH IS POWERLESS AGAINST GOD. The Egyptians were "men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit" (ver. 8). Had all the chariots of Egypt come forth, and all their footmen and all their horsemen, they would not have saved Judah, since God had declared that here there was no work for Egypt", (Isa_19:15) and that Judah, if she trusted in Egypt, "should be ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory". (Isa_20:5) God can strike an army with blindness, as he did that of Benhadad (2Ki_6:18) on one occasion; or with panic fear, as he did that of the same monarch on another; (2Ki_7:6) or he can cause quarrel to break out among the constituent parts of an army, and make the soldiers slay one another; (2Ch_20:28) or he can send out a destroying angel, and kill a hundred and eighty thousand men in a night. (2Ki_19:35) Again, the God of battles determines the issue of battles. "It is nothing to him to help, whether with many or with them that have no power". (2Ch_14:11) He can cast down and bring to naught the mightiest human protector; he can save, if he wills to save, by his own angelic army, without the intervention of any human aid at all.

Divine reservation and consistency.

"Yet he... will bring evil, and will not call back his words" Doubtless God seems to call back his words. "The Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do". (Exo_32:14 2Sa_24:16 Jud_1:2:18, etc.) "He heard their cry... and repented, according to the multitude of his mercies", . (Psa_105:44, Psa_105:45) Yet, says the prophet, "he will bring evil and not call back his words." How explain this? The explanation of it is found in the fact that there is some necessary reservation understood, if not expressed, in the Divine promise and in the Divine threatening.

I HIS RESERVATION AND CONSISTENCY IN PROMISE. God promises life to the obedient and the faithful; yet there are those who believe themselves, and are believed, to be among this number, whose end is destruction. Has God called back his word? No; for his promise was contingent on their steadfastness, and they have forfeited all claim on his promised word. (Jos_24:20 Psa_85:8 Eze_33:13Jo Eze_15:6 Heb_6:4:8)

II HIS RESERVATION AND CONSISTENCY IN THREATENING. Although God may seem to call back his words of solemn threatening, yet he "will bring evil;" he is not inconsistent with himself.

1. God reveals his wrath against sin. He declares that it shall not go unpunished; that the soul that sinneth shall die; that the wages of sin is death.

2. God offers pardon. The message of the gospel of Christ is essentially and emphatically one of Divine mercy.

3. His mercy in Christ Jesus is large and free. It is not grudging, halfhearted. It is not like the forgiveness we extend to one another. (Isa_55:7-9) It means a complete restoration of the estranged but reconciled child to full parental favor. (Luk_15:22, Luk_15:23) Where, then, is the Divine consistency? It is found in the consideration that:

4. His declaration of penalty was always contingent on the attitude of the sinner. (Eze_33:14, Eze_33:15) It is not intended to be absolute and unalterable, whatever be the future career of the guilty. Like all his promises, God"s warnings are conditional. God does not call back his own words from their meaning or their fulfillment, he calls us back, through them, to our duty and to our right relation to himself. And, besides:

5. He does bring evil in some serious measure. For:

(1) Previous to our penitence sin has wrought suffering, sorrow, weakness.

(2) At the time of penitential return it works self-reproach, shame, anxiety.

(3) Reconciliation is inevitably followed by some kind and some degree of spiritual deterioration; there is a lost power, a lessened influence, a narrowed sphere the absolutely irremovable consequences of repeated wrong-doing and protracted ill-being. C.

The wisdom of God in his punishments.

"Yet he also is wise." These words seem to have been spoken as an ironical parenthesis. He also, as well as the Jewish politicians. "The words vindicate to Jehovah the skill and power adequate to inflict punishment on both the contracting parties, together with veracity in carrying his threatenings into execution." "God was as wise as the Egyptians, and ought therefore to have been consulted; he was as wise as the Jews, and could therefore thwart their boasted policy." As Isaiah leads us to consider so many phases of the subject of Divine punishment, we only suggest this topic as giving a fresh point of view. We are reminded of the wisdom, rather than the mysteriousness, severity, or love, of the Divine judgments and chastisements. In sending calamities God is wise." Covering the whole subject, the following divisions may be taken.

I God"s wisdom is seen in the threatenings, which act as warnings, and increase the guiltiness of the willful.

II God"s wisdom is seen in making his threatenings conditional, so that repentance of, and forsaking, sin may be hopeful.

III God"s wisdom is seen in fulfilling threatenings, so that no willful men may dare to presume.

IV God"s wisdom is seen in what he does for sinners themselves by his judgments.

V God"s wisdom is seen in what he does by his judgments for the spiritual training of the onlookers. "He is known by the judgments which he executeth. R.T.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Ver. 3. The help of Egypt.

A party in Judah is negotiating with Egypt; and the prophet points out the falseness of this policy.

I IT IS A RELIANCE UPON BRUTE FORCE. "Horses" are symbolic of martial strength. And Judah, being peculiarly deficient in cavalry, was tempted to trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen". (Isa_36:8, Isa_36:9) Famed in Homer was Egyptian Thebes, with the hundred gates, and the two hundred men who issued forth from each with horses and chariots ("Iliad," 9:382). The memory of the pursuit of the Israelites at the time of the Exodus contained the picture of those chariots and horsemen. (Exo_14:6, Exo_14:9) They were in request in Solomon"s time. (1Ki_19:2-6) Egyptian cavalry, the very nerve and sinew of war; Egypt who possesses them, the most coveted ally. "On horses will we fly...on the swift will we ride," was the word of the party. Such was their "creaturely confidence." These horses were but "flesh," and "all flesh is as grass," and withers when the breath of the Eternal blows upon it. The strength of the creature is but the strength of the dependent nature; folly, then, to lean on that which is itself a leaning thing.

II IT IS A RELIANCE UPON MAN, AND NOT UPON GOD. Here man, as usual in the Hebrew prophets, is sharply opposed to God; the dependent, the frail, the mortal, to the self-dependent, the Strong, the Immortal and Eternal; the tool to the hand that holds it, the might that alone can render it effective. The axe, the saw, the staff: they are dead and helpless things, until they are brought into connection with spiritual force. So horses and chariots can avail naught, unless they be the instruments of the Lord of hosts, the engines of a spiritual and enduring policy in the earth. Man himself, without tools and weapons, is the most defenseless of animals; with them, yet still without God, he is in no better plight.

III IT IS TYPICAL OF IRRELIGIOUSNESS IN GENERAL. The folly is not so much in looking to material resources and defenses as in not looking to the Holy One of Israel in "not consulting Jehovah." All worldliness is negative, and there lies its weakness. It is a strategy of life which defeats itself; moving far from the true base of operations, and finding itself presently cut off, without the chance of return. Again, it is a departure from the Source of true wisdom. The "wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the understanding ones this is policy, prudence. In Jehovah is a higher wisdom than that of Jewish politicians; his is wisdom united with perfect rectitude. And without reverence for him, the "fear of Jehovah," men do not partake of this higher wisdom.

IV THE END OF EGYPTIAN HELP. In the first place, the hollowness of the Jewish policy will be exposed. The word of Jehovah has gone forth, and will not come back to him void. For it is itself spiritual force, truth, mightier than any material force that is known. Put into the mouth of a prophet, (Jer_1:9) those words become mighty as fire, to devour all that stays their course as wood. (Jer_5:1-4) "All that the Lord speaketh must be done". (Num_23:26) The wall of a worldly wisdom will bulge and suddenly fall, and the "wisdom of the wise ones" be brought to naught. The words of the Eternal are backed up by the hand of the Eternal; and, when stretched out, the "helper" who has been so much looked up to will be seen to totter, and the "helped" one be buried beneath the ruins. J.

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

He is safe - You think you are safe, in engaging the Egyptians; but God is not inferior to them in wisdom or strength, and therefore you have done foolishly, in preferring them before him, who will execute his judgments upon you, notwithstanding all the Egyptians can do. The help - The helpers, as it is explained in the next verse.

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

“And (yet) He too is wise, and brings evil, and His words He removes not, and He rises up against the house of evil-doers, and against the help of the workers of iniquity.” The word yet is required by our idiom in this connection. ‘Too’ implies a comparison with the Egyptians, upon whose wisdom, as well as strength, the Jews may have relied, or with the Jews themselves, who no doubt reckoned it a masterpiece of wisdom to secure such powerful assistance. The comparison may be explained as comprehending both. God was as wise as the Egyptians, and ought therefore to have been consulted; He was as wise as the Jews, and could therefore thwart their boasted policy. There is in this sentence an obvious irony. The house of evil-doers is their family or race (Isa 1:4), here applied to the unbelieving Jews. The Egyptians are called their help, and both are threatened with destruction. To rise up is to show one’s self, address one’s self to action, and implies a state of previous forbearance or neglect.

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

and His words He did not retract What He said, “And the Lord shall take you back to Egypt in ships” (Deut. 28:68). This is payment in kind, for I said to you, “You shall no longer see it (ibid.),” and you went there of your own free will. Eventually, you shall go there in exile against your will.

and He rose on the ten tribes, who are a house of evildoers, and on the Egyptians who came to their aid.

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.

Yet he also is wise, etc. God also knew their plans, and has brought evil upon them.

לא הסיר He hath not called back.

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.