Isaiah 31:7

Isa 31:7 For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you [for] a sin.

Ver. 7. For in that day,] scil., Of your effectual conversion; {Isa 30:22} or, when the Assyrian shall assault you, then you shall see the vanity of your idols, and of all human helps. {Isa 2:20; Isa 2:22}

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.

By these fruits your repentance shall be known, as Isa. 2:20.

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

In the day of trial the idols will be found to render no help and will therefore be cast away. Compare as to the future restoration and conversion of Israel simultaneously with the interposition of Jehovah in its defense, Zac 12:9-14; Zac 13:1-2.

for a sin--that is, whereby especially you contracted guilt (Kg1 12:30).

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 7. Which your own hands have made unto you for a sin - "The sin, which their own hands have made."] The construction of the word חטא chet, sin, in this place is not easy. The Septuagint have omitted it: MSS. Pachom. and I. D. II. and Cod. Marchal. in margine, supply the omission by the word ἁμαρτιαν, sin, or ἁμαρτημα, said to be from Aquila's Version, which I have followed. The learned Professor Schroeder, Institut. Ling. Heb. p. 298, makes it to be in regimine with ידיכם yedeychem, as an epithet, your sinful hands. The Septuagint render the pronoun in the third person, αἱ χειρες αυτων, their hands; and an ancient MS. has, agreeable to that rendering, להם lahem, to them, for לכם lachem, to you; which word they have likewise omitted, as not necessary to complete the sense.

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

(7) In that day every man shall cast away . . .—The act is the same as that of Isa_2:20, but with a marked difference of motive: there it springs from the terror of despair, here from the repentance which is the ground of hope.

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

7. Comp. Isa_30:22, Isa_17:8, Isa_2:8 and esp. Isa_2:20.

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.

For in that day,.... When deliverance shall be wrought; when men shall be convinced of the vanity and insufficiency of their idols to help them, and of their sin in worshipping them; when they shall be brought to repentance for it, and turn to the Lord as an evidence of it:

every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold; with contempt and abhorrence of them, as the word (w) signifies; every man "his" own idol, and even those that were of the greatest value, which were made of gold and silver:

which your own hands have made unto you for a sin; their idols were the work of their own hands, and were made by them in order to commit sin with, the sin of idolatry; or sin may be put for the punishment of sin, which is the issue and consequence of such practices: or it may be rendered, "which your hands of sin", or "sinful hands, have made" (x); it was a sin to make such idols, especially with a view to worship them; it was a sin to worship them; and the fruit of it was deserved punishment.

(w) a "spernere, reprobare." (x) "manus vestrae flagitiosae", Bootius Animadv. Sacr. l. 4. c. 2. sect. 12.

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

For in that day - That is, in the invasion of Sennacherib, and the events that shalt be consequent thereon.

Every man shall cast away his idols - (see the note at Isa 30:22; compare the note at Isa 2:20).

For a sin - Or rather, the sin which your own hands have made. The sense is, that the making of those idols had been a sin, or sin itself. It had been “the” sin, by way of eminence, which was chargeable upon them.

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

Idols. Their worship was afterwards more severely prohibited, chap. xxx. 21.

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).

For when the Assyrian shall invade your land, you shall find the vanity of those idols to which you have trusted; and therefore shall cast them away with indignation, and be forced to seek to me for help. So this is added as an argument to persuade them to practise his counsel of turning to God. Which your own hands have made unto you for a sin; which you have made as instruments of your sin of idolatry. Or, which your sinful hands (by a common Hebraism, called hands of sin) have made for you. Or, the sin (as an idol is called, Deu 9:21) which your hands have made for you. So there is only a transposition of one word, which is very usual in the Hebrew text.

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

7, 8. In that day — The day of the surrender of idolatry. Idols of silver…

of gold — By such means idolatry was raised to precious attractiveness.

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

For in that day every man shall cast away his idols. "In that day the day of Assyria"s discomfiture shall the vanity of idols be seen and recognized. They have not helped Assyria. How should they help Judah? (comp. Isa_30:22)

Vers. 7-9. The fire of Jehovah.

I "OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FINE." He burns from that sacred oracular center in Jerusalem. And his foes are seen melting away before him the Assyrian fleeing from and falling before the sword, the huge rock of his power disappearing, princes falling into panic terror as the rallying signal of Judah is raised. The briars and thorns of iniquity, all the weed-like growth of worldly ways are kindled and devoured.

II OUR GOD IS A LIGHT OF SALVATION. "Light of Israel" goes along with devouring fire". (Isa_10:17) To be enlightened is to know God and our relation to him. It is to know what is not Divine, and what is sinful, and what is worthless in reference to salvation. And so the people, having returned," will be seen respecting their "not-gods of silver and their not-gods of gold," the sinful manufacture of godless art.

III THERE MUST BE BOTH THE FIERY AND THE ILLUMINATING ELEMENT IS TRUE RELIGION. Enthusiasm is needed; without it we have no motive force. Evil will yield to nothing else than to the heart aflame with piety, the tongue of Heaven-kindled fire. Yet blind zeal is mischievous; and therefore the illuminated mind is needed, the discriminating intelligence. The union of intellect with piety, the white heat of zeal kindling all it touches into light-giving flame, what can resist it? J.

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

The first is, that idolatry would one day be recognised in all its abomination, and put away. "For in that day they will abhor every one their silver idols and their gold idols, which your hands have made you for a sin," i.e., to commit sin and repent, with the preponderance of the latter idea, as in Hos 8:11 (compare Kg1 13:34). חטא, a second accusative to עשׂוּ, indicating the result. The prospect is the same as that held out in Isa 30:22; Isa 27:9; Isa 17:8; Isa 2:20.

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.)

This acknowledgement you will be constrained to make sooner or later. “For in that day (of miraculous deliverance) they shall reject (cast away with contempt), a man (i.e., each) his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your sinful hands have made for you, or, which your own hands have made for you as sin, (i.e., as an occasion and a means of sin).” In like manner the golden calves are called the sin of Israel (Deu 9:21; Amo 8:14). For the true construction of his silver and his gold, see the note on Isa 2:20. Trust in idols and reliance upon human helpers are here, and often elsewhere, put together, as identical in principle, and closely connected in the experience of ancient Israel. (See the notes on Isa 2:8).

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

Your hands. Your workmen.

חטא For a sin; for a sin κατ ἐξοχήν, a sin that surpasses all others.

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.