Isaiah 47:11

Isa 47:11 Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, [which] thou shalt not know.

Ver. 11. Therefore shall evil come upon thee.] An evil, "an only evil," {as Eze 7:5} both unexpected and inexpiable; such as thou canst neither avoid nor abide.

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_47:11-15

Therefore shall evil come upon thee

Sudden destruction

The predicted calamity is represented as a great storm, which suddenly arises in eastern countries, and blows with such violence as to Spread devastation and ruin wherever its fury extends.

(R. Macculloch)

False securities: an exposure and a challenge

Can you find a solitary instance in which God approved iniquity? Was ever His sword sheathed in presence of evil? This constancy of judgment upon corrupt ways is itself an argument. One act of moral hesitation would have destroyed God! Time cannot modify Divine judgments. What was wrong in Babylon is wrong here: what was right in the most ancient time will be right on the worlds last day. We should remind ourselves of these elementary principles; for their very simplicity may cause us to neglect their claims. We shall regard the solemn denunciations as if spoken to our own city.

I. LOOK AT THIS PICTURE OF UTTER AND MOST PAINFUL BEWILDERMENT. Evil shall come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. There are times when the wind seems to be blowing from all quarters at once. There are times when all things seem to have a controversy with us. We set down our feet, and, lo, they are fastened to the ground: we put forth our hand, and an invisible weapon smites it: we look round, and behold the path is ploughed up, so that there is no way of retreat. We lose our own sagacity. Our wit fails us. Once our mind was quick, now it is dead or helpless. We lose confidence in ourselves; substances become shadows; the strongest of our fortresses melt away; and in our friends face there are discovered lines of suspicion or of mortal hate. This is the necessary and inevitable result of sin.

1. We have been warned of it.

2. A way of escape has been made.

II. HEAR THE DIVINE CHALLENGE ADDRESSED TO THE FALSE POWERS IN WHICH WE HAVE TRUSTED. Stand now with thine enchantments, &c. (Isa_47:12). Think that we are now called upon to set out in order the false securities in which we have trusted! There is one,--Money; there is two,--Chance; there is three,--Self-confidence; there is four--Atheisticspeculation. Now let them do for us all they can. God has challenged them!

1. They ought to be most useful when most needed.

2. They should show their sufficiency by their fearlessness. It is a challenge. I hear the whirlwind coming,--get out your money. You thought something would happen--something is happening,--Gods judgment is descending; where is your God Chance? You have confidence in yourself; be it so; make bare your arm,--see, it is but lightning,--it is but flood upon flood,--it is but world dashing against world, &c. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. There is to be a great collision. In that collision only the true can stand.

III. SEE THE DOOM OF FALSE SECURITIES. Behold, they shall be as stubble, &c. (Isa_47:14).

1. Let no man complain of want of opportunity of observing the value of his moral securities.

2. Let no man complain of having been allowed to live unwarned.

3. Think of so living that at last a man shall be left without a coal at which to warm himself! This is the end of sin,--this is the worthlessness of false gods! So far as we have had experience of life, we have seen the terrible failure of all false things. We have seen the judgment of God in parts. It is not all left to be revealed. We are entitled to reason from the past to the future; and when our own experience has, as a matter of fact, confirmed the revelation of God, we may know that future to be a terrible one to the servants of unrighteousness. What is the duty of man as dictated by mere common sense? It is to seek and trust that which is true.

(1) We cannot escape the trial of our securities.

(2) If we set ourselves against God, we challenge all the forces of His creation, fire, wind, flood, pestilence, &c. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Monthly prognosticators

(Isa_47:13):--The special reference is to the preparation of monthly almanacs (based on astrological calculations) in which coming (disasters were foretold, lucky and unlucky days pointed out, &c. A specimen of these almanacs is translated by Sayce in Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)

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

FALSE SECURITIES

Isa_47:11-15, Therefore shall evil come upon thee, &c.

I. Look at this picture of utter and painful bewilderment. This is the necessary and inevitable result of sin.

1. We have been warned of it.

2. A way of escape has been made.

II. Hear the divine challenge addressed to the false powers in which we have trusted, as money, chance, self-confidence, atheism.

1. They ought to be most useful when most needed.

2. They should show their sufficiency by their fearlessness. See text.

(1.) There is to be a great collision.

(2.) In that collision only the true can stand.

III. See the doom of false securities.

1. Let no man complain of want of opportunity of estimating the value of his moral securities; or,

2. Of having been allowed to live unwarned.

APPLICATION.—

1. We cannot escape the trial of our securities.

2. If we set ourselves against God, we challenge all the forces of His creation—fire, wind, flood, pestilence, &c.—J. C. Gray: Biblical Museum, in loco.

THE PORTION OF THE UNGODLY. [1474]

[1474] A minister, living at Wisbech, authenticates the following singular case of conversion through our sermon on “The Portion of the Ungodly,” No. 444. The writer says in a recent letter to us, “Seventeen years ago it pleased the Lord to permit me to dream that the end of the world was come, and in my dream I saw the saints rising with the Lord Jesus to glory. I was left, and near me, upon a large quantity of stubble stood an acquaintance who addressed me thus:—They used to say in the other world that we should be in fire, but it is not so.’ In a moment flames burst out, and in my fright I awoke. A few days after my dream my friend and I heard you preach at the Tabernacle. Judge how great was our surprise when you announced for your text, Isa_47:14, ‘Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.’ ” In August, 1876, a severe affliction, the dream, and our sermon resulted in our friend’s conversion.—Rev. C H. Spurgeon, in the Sword and Trowel, vol. xv. pp. 294, 295.

Isa_47:14. Behold, they shall be as stubble, &c.

Part of a terrible description of God’s judgment upon Babylon and Chaldea. It is a truth beyond dispute that God’s justice is not partial; that the description of the destruction which He awards to one class of sinners is a most fair picture of what He will do with others, for God hath not two or three ways of dealing with men in His justice. The ruin of Chaldea is to us, to-day, a representation and metaphorical description of the destruction which shall surely come upon impenitent sinners when the Lord cometh out of His place to “judge His enemies,” &c. At first sight the figures in our text seem contradictory.

I. THE FIRST FIGURE. The punishment of the wicked will be,

1. “easily inflicted.” “They shall be as stubble.” Nothing can be more easy than to kindle stubble when it is fully dry. So shall it be with impenitent sinners.

(1.) The power of memory shall become a vehicle of sorrow.

(2.) Conscience.

(3.) Increased knowledge. Now you know enough to leave you without excuse, but then your knowledge shall increase so as to leave thee without pretence of apology.

(4.) Companions.

2. Most searching and terrible. The metaphor of fire is used in Scripture, because it is that which of all things causeth most pain, and is the most searching and trying.

3. Most inevitable. “They shall not,” &c. There is hope now; there shall be no hope then. How can it be avoided? Man has no strength to match the Most High; no wisdom to invent another plan of salvation; no ability to hide from God’s presence.

If you profess to be a Christian nominally, you believe this—one of the fundamental truths of revelation.

II. THE SECOND FIGURE. “There shall not be a coal,” &c.; by which is meant that there shall be nothing in hell that can give the sinner a moment’s comfort. Nothing as the soul lifts its eye to heaven, for that is lost. Nothing in hell itself, for the more there are, the more wretched. Nothing in themselves, nor in their thoughts. Nothing in God, for the sting of all the punishment will be—“I deserve it; I brought this on myself.” Nothing in the past, for that will give agony. Nothing in the soul’s present condition. Nothing in their future condition, for they shall never see the shadow of a hope.

III. “BEHOLD.” Turn not away your eyes from this meditation. Children of God, behold it; it will make you grateful; make you love poor sinners. Unconverted sinner, behold it. Better to think of it now than to think of it for ever. If false, reject it; but if real, meditate upon these things; and may God lead you out of self to Christ. “Turn ye,” &c.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 444.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

from whence it riseth--Hebrew, "the dawn thereof," that is, its first rising. Evil shall come on thee without the least previous intimation [ROSENMULLER]. But dawn is not applied to "evil," but to prosperity shining out after misery (Isa 21:12). Translate, "Thou shall not see any dawn" (of alleviation) [MAURER].

put . . . off--rather, as Margin, "remove by expiation"; it shall be never ending.

not know--unawares: which thou dost not apprehend. Proving the fallacy of thy divinations and astrology (Job 9:5; Psa 35:8).

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 11. Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth - "Thou shalt not know how to deprecate"] שחרה shachrah; so the Chaldee renders it, which is approved by Jarchi on the place; and Michaelis Epim. in Praelect. xix.; see Ps 78:34.

Videtur in fine hujus commatis deese verbum, ut hoc membrum prioribus respondeat. "A word appears to be wanting at the end of this clause to connect it properly with the two preceding. - SECKER.

In order to set in a proper light this judicious remark, it is necessary to give the reader an exact verbal translation of the whole verse: -

"And evil shall come upon thee, thou shalt not know how to

deprecate it;

And mischief shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able

to expiate it;

And destruction shall come suddenly upon thee, thou shalt

not know" --

What? how to escape, to avoid it, to be delivered from it? perhaps צאת ממנה tseth mimmennah, "they could not go out from it," Jer 11:11. I am persuaded that a phrase is here lost out of the text. But as the ancient versions retain no traces of it, and a wide field lies open to uncertain conjecture, I have not attempted to fill up the chasm, but have in the translation, as others have done before me, palliated and disguised the defect, which I cannot with any assurance pretend to supply. - L.

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

(11) Thou shalt not be able to put it off . . .—The words have been variously rendered: (1) of which thou shalt know no dawn, i.e., after the night of calamity; and (2) which thou shalt not be able to charm away. Stress is laid on the destruction being at once unforeseen and irretrievable.

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

11. evil] is the same word as “wickedness” in Isa_47:10; the play on the two meanings of the word is intentional.

from whence it riseth] The literal rendering is given in R.V. “the dawning thereof.” But the metaphor is unnatural (of calamity), and the parallelism of the next line shews that an inf. must be read. A similar Arabic verb means “to charm”; accordingly most commentators now translate which thou shalt not know (how) to charm away (see R.V. marg.). Some, however, prefer a slight alteration of the text, reading “to buy off” (שׁחדהּ for שׁחרחּ; cf. the parallelism in Pro_6:35).

to put off] is literally to expiate, i.e. avert by an offering. “They try to avert evil and procure good, either by purifications, sacrifices, or enchantments.” (Diodorus Siculus, quoted by Lenormant, l.c. p. 12.)

which thou shalt not know] The parallelism with the other two lines of the tristich suggests that an inf. should be supplied at the end: which thou shalt not know how to … (so Duhm).

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.

Therefore shall evil come upon thee,.... The evil of punishment, a great calamity; so Nebuchadnezzar foretold, as Abydenus relates (o), that a calamity, should come upon the Babylonians; a day of evil, because of the above sins Babylon was guilty of:

thou shall not know from whence it riseth; from what quarter it will come, little dreaming of Cyrus, with whom the Chaldeans had had no quarrel. So mystical Babylon will not know from whence her ruin will come; little thinking that the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication with her, and have given their kingdoms to her, will hate her, and burn her flesh with fire: or, "thou shall not know the morning of it" (p): that is, on what day, or at what time, it will be. Babylon was taken when it was not thought of, as appears from the book of Daniel, and profane history. Aristotle (q) reports, that it was said, that the third day after Babylon was taken, one part of the city did not know that it was taken. Or the sense is, this day of evil and calamity should be such a dark and gloomy day, there should be no light in it, it should be as the night, and therefore its morning or light should not be known, so Aben Ezra: "and mischief shall fall upon thee"; contrived for others; the pit dug for others she should fall into herself: though the phrase seems to denote the mischief coming from above, by the hand of heaven, and suddenly and irresistibly; which should fall with weight and vengeance upon her, to the crushing and utter destruction of her:

thou shalt not be able to put it off; or, "to expiate it" (r); and atone for it, either by prayers and entreaties, which God will not regard, Isa 47:3 or by gifts, or by ransom price, by gold and silver, which the Medes and Persians were no lovers of, Isa 13:17,

and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know; that is, before hand; neither the persons from whom nor the time when it shall come; notwithstanding their astrologers, diviners, and monthly prognosticators, pretended to tell what would come to pass every day; but not being able by their art to give the least hint of Babylon's destruction, as to either time or means, the Chaldeans were in great security, quite ignorant of their ruin at hand, and which therefore came suddenly and unawares upon them; as will the destruction of mystical Babylon.

(o) Ib. c. 41. p. 456. (p) "non scis auroram ejus", Montanus, Vatablus, Cocceius; "cujus non cognoscis auroram", Vitringa. That is, as Ben Melech explains it, thou shalt not know the time of its coming; for it shall come suddenly, as a thing comes in a morning, which a man is not aware of till he sees it. (q) Politic. l. 3. c. 3. (r) "non potens placare eam", Montanus; "expiare", Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Vitringa.

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

Therefore shall evil come upon thee - In consequence of thy pride and self-confidence; of the prevalence of corruption, licentiousness, and sin; of the prevalence of the arts of magic and of divination abounding there; and of the cruel and unfeeling oppression of the people of God; for all these crimes ruin shall come certainly and suddenly upon thee.

Thou shalt not know from whence it cometh - Margin, ‘The morning thereof.’ The margin expresses the true sense of the phrase. The word used here (שׁחר shachar) means “the aurora,” the dawn, the morning (see the notes at Isa 14:12). Lowth has strangely rendered it, ‘Evil shall come upon thee, which thou shalt not know how to deprecate.’ But the word properly means the dawning of the morning, the aurora; and the sense is, that calamity should befall them whose rising or dawning they did not see, or anticipate. It would come unexpectedly and suddenly, like the first rays of the morning. It would spring up as if from no antecedent cause which would seem to lead to it, as the light comes suddenly out of the darkness.

And mischief - Destruction; ruin.

Thou shalt not be able to put it off - Margin, ‘Expiate.’ This is the sense of the Hebrew (see the notes at Isa 43:3). The meaning is, that they could not then avert these calamities by any sacrifices, deprecations, or prayers. Ruin would suddenly and certainly come; and they had nothing which they could offer to God as an expiation by which it could then be prevented. We need not say how strikingly descriptive this is of the destruction of Babylon. Her ruin came silently and suddenly upon her, as the first rays of morning light steal upon the world, and in such a way that she could not meet it, or turn it away.

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

Know. All this shews the vanity of magic, which cannot announce future events to do any good. (Calmet)

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).

Therefore shall evil come upon thee; or rather, when it shall come: Heb. the morning of it, the day or time of its approach. And they are justly upbraided and derided for this ignorance, because the astrologers, the star-gazers, and the monthly prognosticators, mentioned here, Isa 17:13, pretended punctually to foretell the particular time of all future events. And this explication agrees with the history, Babylon being surprised by Cyrus when they were in deep security, as is manifest, both from Scripture, Jer 51:31; Da 5, and from other histories.

Desolation shall come upon thee suddenly; or, when thou shalt not know it. Thou shalt not apprehend thy danger till it be too late.

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

Therefore shall evil come upon thee. Connect this with the first clause of ver. 10, "Thou hast trusted in thine own evil (moral), therefore shall evil (physical) fall upon thee." The same word, ra"ah, is used in both places. Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth. So the Vulgate, Vitringa, Gesenius, and Dr. Kay. But the bulk of modern commentators (Hitzig, Ewald, Delitzsch, Nagelsbach, Weir, Cheyne) render, "Thou wilt not know how to charm it away. " Both meanings are possible, and are almost equally good; but the parallelism of the clauses is in favour of the latter rendering. Shakhrah should correspond in construction, as in sound, with kappRah. to put it off; literally, to expiate; i.e. to get rid of it by means of expiatory rites. Which thou shalt not know; or, of which thou shalt not be aware. (On the carelessness and want of foresight displayed by the Babylonians, see the comment on ver. 8.)

Man"s helplessness in presence of Divine calamities.

The point impressed is that disaster takes unexpected and overwhelming forms, against which the wisest man fails to take precautions. Man can only affect the smallest of circumstances that are put into his control, and the few persons who are under his immediate influence. But each one of us belongs to a great whole, and is affected by great forces, which God alone controls. We are carried whither we would not. We are borne down by evils which we seem to have done nothing to create. We are helpless before the hurricanes and earthquakes and pestilences with which God can smite. After illustrating and impressing this point, show how we ought to stand to the Divine order. We may so stand that no event arranged by the Divine wisdom can take shape for us as calamity.

I WE MAY STRIVE TO BE FREE OF THE DIVINE ORDER.

II WE MAY RESIST THE DIVINE ORDER.

III WE MAY PUT OURSELVES IN HARMONY WITH THE DIVINE ORDER, That involves our fitting our will to the Divine will; and that self-seeking man will never do until he is "humbled under God"s mighty hand. R.T.

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

Therefore - This agrees with the history. Babylon being surprized by Cyrus, when they were in deep security.

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

“And (so) there cometh (or has come) upon thee evil;” with an evident allusion to the use of wickedness in the verse preceding, so as to suggest an antithesis between natural and moral evil, sin and suffering, evil done and evil experienced. The common version (therefore shall evil come) is not strictly accurate. Most of the modern writers make it present; but the strict sense of the preterit is perfectly consistent with the context and the usage of the Prophet, who continually depicts occurrences still future, first as coming, then as come, not in fact but in vision, both as certain to occur and as historically represented to his own mind. “And there shall fall upon thee (a still stronger expression than the one before it, there shall come upon thee) ruin.” According to the modern lexicographers the noun itself means fall, but in its figurative application to destruction or calamity. It occurs only here and in Eze 7:26. “Thou shalt not be able to avert it,” or resolving the detached Hebrew clauses into one English period, ‘which thou shalt not be able to avert.’ The exact meaning of the last word is ‘atone for, expiate,’ and in this connection, ‘to avert by expiation’, whether in the strict sense of atoning sacrifice or in the wider one of satisfaction and propitiation. If we assume a personification of the evil, the verb may mean to appease, as in Gen 32:20; Pro 16:14. In any case, the clause describes the threatened judgment as inexorable and inevitable. “And there shall come upon thee suddenly a crash,” or as it has been rendered, ‘a crashing fall,’ a common metaphor for sudden ruin, “(which) thou shalt not know.” This may either mean, ‘of which thou shalt have no previous experience’, or ‘of which thou shalt have no previous expectation’. The former meaning is the one most readily suggested by the words. The latter may be justified by the analogy of Job 9:5, ‘who removeth the mountains and they know not,’ which can only mean that he removes them suddenly or unawares.

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

you shall not know how to remove it by prayer Heb. לֹֹא תֵדְעִי שַׁחְרָהּ. You shall not know to pray about it (Jonathan). Whom will you beseech to extricate you therefrom?

to rid yourself of it Heb. כַּפְּרָהּ, to wipe it away and to remove it, and this is every expression of atonement (כַּפָּרָה). It is an expression of wiping and taking away.

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.

יום רעה═רעה A day of evil.

לא תדעי שחרה Thou shalt not know its light. It will be like a night, which is not relieved by daylight; שחר means light.

הׂוׇה Mischief. It is derived from הוה to become; comp. ואתה הוה that thou mayest become (Neh. 6:6); it signifies an evil that comes suddenly; of the same root is והותי and my calamity (Job 6:2).

כפרה To put it off by ransom; comp. כפר ransom (Ex. 30:12); or to annul it; comp. יכפרנה will remove it (Prov. 16:14).

שואה Desolation.

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.