Isaiah 64:11

Isa 64:11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.

Ver. 11. Our holy and our beautiful house.] The Church riseth higher and higher in her complaints to God; we must do likewise.

Where our fathers praised thee.] Their own praises there they mention not, as not holding them worth mentioning.

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_64:11

Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee, is burned up with fire

The burnt temple

I.

HERE IS PATHETIC LAMENTATION.

1. The children of Israel regarded the temple as their own house. They spoke of it as Gods house. But because it was Gods it was their own, for they were Gods; and all that particularly belonged to Him had a special interest for them, and they had a special claim in it.

2. This temple was sacred in the peoples eyes. The prophet calls it, our holy house. It was really so.

3. The Jews, exiled abroad, thought of yonder ruined house where their fathers praised the Lord. There is no attachment stronger than that which exists between men and women, sons and daughters of Christian fathers and mothers, who are worshipping in the place where their predecessors worshipped.

4. All their pleasant things were laid waste.

II. HERE IS AFFECTIONATE EXPOSTULATION. Wilt Thou refrain Thyself? etc. The plain English of it is, Canst Thou bear to see this, Lord? Does it not affect Thee as it does us? Hast Thou no sighs, no groans, no tears? And if Thou hast, wilt Thou not pluck Thy hand from out Thy bosom and help us? Wilt Thou not open Thy lips and speak a word of peace? We cannot bear Thy silence, Lord. Wilt Thou hold Thy peace, and afflict us very sore? (T. Spurgeon.)

All our pleasant things are laid waste

Religious thing, pleasant things

The ordinances of religion are, to the Israel of God, pleasant things.

I. WHAT ARE THEY?

1. In the number of their pleasant things, they include the sanctuary. To them the temple is not a ]prison, a place of confinement and correct!on; but the house of their heavenly Father, their holy and beautiful house; beautiful because holy.

2. In the number of their pleasant things they include Sabbaths. To many, indeed, Gods holy day is uninviting, and even irksome. But the Christian calls the Sabbath a delight, and considers the holy of the Lord honourable. To him it is a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; a weekly jubilee: and, wearied with the toils, and follies, and vexations of the world, he hails a day of seclusion from it.

3. Are not the Scriptures some of their pleasant things?

4. This too will apply to the preaching of the Word.

5. They find it a pleasant thing to approach God in prayer, and to come before His presence with singing--a pleasant thing to surround His table, and to refresh their minds with the memorials of a Saviours dying love--to be in the circle of pious friends, and hear from their lips what God has done for their souls.

II. HOW THEY BECOME SO POWERFULLY ATTRACTIVE. For it is certain they are not so universally: by numbers they are not only neglected, but despised. Whence, then, do real Christians find them so pleasing?

1. There is in them a suitableness to their dispositions. Thus we know music charms those who have an ear for it. Money is a pleasant thing to the covetous; honour to the ambitious; scandal to the slanderous. In all these instances there is something that meets the taste; and that which gratifies always delights. So it is here. The pleasure of the Christian does not depend upon persuasion--but inclination.

2. experience is another source of this pleasure.

3. Continual need also renders them pleasant things.

III. REVIEW WHAT WE HAVE SAID--and learn--

1. To justify religion from the reproaches of the world. The world pretends that the services which religion demands of us are all slavery and gloom. But if you are willing to enter in, let no mans heart fail him.

2. Let us try ourselves by this rule. A man may want assurance and still be in a state of safety: but if he be habitually a stranger to pleasure in Divine things, and can pass through all the services of religion as a mere formalist, it is an awful proof that he has no part nor lot in the matter; his heart is not right in the sight of God. A number of speculative opinions, cold ceremonies, cheap moralities, in which the affections have no share, can never be a substitute for real devotion.

3. What an affliction do Christians sustain when they are deprived of their pleasant things! This may be done in two ways.

(1) By the removal of these privileges from them. Thus persecution has sometimes forbidden them to assemble together, and has silenced their preachers, destroyed their sanctuaries, and banished all religious ordinances from a neighbourhood. God sometimes inflicts His judgments upon a place for neglect and abuse of Gospel privileges.

(2) By removing Christians from these privileges. Thus business may call them away from a favoured situation, accidents or sickness may detain them prisoners from the courts of the Lord.

4. Let us be very thankful that these pleasant things are within our reach--that we have been so long favoured with them--that we have them in so rich an abundance--that we have liberty to partake of them--and strength to go forth and enjoy them.

5. Let us raise our thoughts and desires after the pleasant things of heaven. Philip. Henry often, said, when he had finished the delightful exercises of the Sabbath, Well, if this be not the way to heaven, I know not what is. These are introductory to the glory that shall be revealed: they are foretastes to endear it, and earnests to insure it. (W. Jay.)

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

Wherein we rejoiced and worshipped thee.

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

house--the temple.

beautiful--includes the idea of glorious (Mar 13:1; Act 3:2).

burned-- (Psa 74:7; Lam 2:7; Ch2 36:19). Its destruction under Nebuchadnezzar prefigured that under Titus.

pleasant things--Hebrew, "objects of desire"; our homes, our city, and all its dear associations.

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) Our holy and our beautiful house . . .—The destruction of the Temple, which, on the assumption of Isaiah’s authorship, the prophet sees in vision, with all its historic memories, comes as the climax of suffering, and, therefore, of the appeal to the compassion of Jehovah.

All our pleasant things . . .—Probably, as in 2Ch_36:19, the precincts, porticoes, and other “goodly buildings” of the Temple.

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

11. The reference must apparently be to the first Temple and its destruction by the Chaldæans. The expression, and indeed the whole tone of the passage, suggest an event not quite recent; it is not the present generation, but their fathers who praised God in the “holy and beautiful house.” The question then comes to be whether this could have been said after the erection of Zerubbabel’s Temple. In spite of the tendency to hyperbolical language which marks the prayer, and the painful contrast between the magnificence of the first Temple and the poverty of the second, it is difficult to think that the author should absolutely ignore the existence of the sanctuary if it had been restored. See Introductory note.

is burned with fire] Lit. “has become a burning of fire”; cf. ch. Isa_9:5.

our pleasant things] Rather, our desirable places; cf. 2Ch_36:19; Lam_1:10; Eze_24:21; Eze_24:25.

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.

Our holy and our beautiful house,.... Meaning the temple, the house of God, as Aben Ezra: called "holy", because dedicated to holy uses; where the holy sacrifices were offered up, the holy service of God performed; and where the holy God granted his presence, and where were the symbols of it: and "beautiful", in its building, as the first temple was that was built by Solomon; but here the second temple is meant, built by Zerubbabel, which being repaired and beautified by Herod, was a very beautiful building; and the Jews say (d), that

"he who has not seen the building of Herod has never seen a beautiful building;''

or it may be rendered, "the house of our holiness, and of our glory" (e); where their holy services were performed, and which was the glory of their nation, and on which they gloried and boasted:

where our fathers praised thee: with psalms and songs; the singers in the temple, as Aben Ezra; and the priests and all the people also, who, by their various services, as well as songs, gave praise and glory to God in this place; they do not mention their own services and praises, which they had been very negligent of, or not sincerely performed; but their fathers, which had been acceptable to the Lord, and therefore would bear mentioning when theirs would not: now this place, in which the glory of God and the interest of his people were concerned,

is burnt up with fire; this is true, as Kimchi observes, both of the first and second temple; the first was burnt with fire by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Jer 52:13, and the second by the Romans under Titus the man emperor, as Josephus (f) relates:

and all our pleasant things are laid waste; their pleasant land, and pleasant cities, and especially Jerusalem, the palaces of their princes and nobles, and all the riches and grandeur of them, the temple, and all the rich vessels and utensils in it.

(d) T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 4. 1. & Succa, fol. 51. 2. (e) "domus sanctitatis nostae, et gloriae nostrae", Calvin, Junius & Tremellius, Forerius. (f) De Bello Judaeorum, l. 6. c. 4. sect. 2.

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

Our holy and our beautiful house - The temple. It was called ‘holy,’ because it was dedicated to the service of God; and ‘beautiful,’ on account of its extraordinary magnificence. The original word more properly means glorious.

Where our fathers praised thee - Few attachments become stronger than that which is formed for a place of worship where our ancestors have long been engaged in the service of God. It was now a great aggravation of their sufferings, that that beautiful place, consecrated by the fact that their forefathers had long there offered praise to God, was lying in ruins.

Is burned up with fire - (See 2Ch 36:19).

And all our pleasant things - All that is precious to us (Hebrew); all the objects of our desire. The reference is to their temples, their homes, their city - to all that was dear to them in their native land. It would be difficult to find a passage anywhere in the Bible - or out of it - that equals this for tenderness and true pathos. They were an exiled people; long suffering in a distant land with the reflection that their homes were in ruins; their splendid temple long since fired and lying in desolation; the rank grass growing in their streets, and their whole country overrun with wild beasts, and with a rank and unsubdued vegetation. To that land they longed to return, and here with the deepest emotion they plead with God in behalf of their desolate country. The sentiment here is, that we should go to God with deep emotion when his church is prostrate, and that then is the time when we should use the most tender pleadings, and when our hearts should be melted within us.

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

Our holy and our beautiful house; the temple, Isa 60:7; q.d. Not only our cities, and our principal cities, but even our temple, which we thought sacred and inviolable, in which we have gloried, because it was thine, and our fathers, and ours, the place where thy holy service was performed, and thy glory and presence was manifested.

Our fathers; not presuming to mention themselves, they had been so every way abominable, but their fathers.

All our pleasant things; the king’s palace, and the houses of the nobles, and other places of state and magnificence, 2Ki 25:9; Lam 1:7,10; or, their synagogues; or, those stately pieces about the temple.

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

Our holy and our beautiful house. This is the true meaning. The exiles have the tenderest and most vivid remembrance of the holiness and the beauty (or glory) of that edifice, which had formed the centre of the national life for above four centuries, and had been a marvel of richness and magnificence. Many of them had seen it with their own eyes, (Ezr_3:12) and could never forget its splendours. Where our fathers praised thee. Though in the later times of the Captivity there were still some of the exiles who had seen the temple, and probably worshipped in it, yet with the great majority it was otherwise. They thought of the temple as the place where their "fathers" had worshipped. Burned up with fire. (see 2Ki_25:9 2Ch_36:19 Jer_52:13) Our pleasant things; or, our delectable things as in Isa_44:9; the courts, gardens, outbuildings of the temple, are probably meant.

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

Pleasant things - The king's palace, and the houses of the nobles, and other pieces of state and magnificence.

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

“Our house of holiness and beauty, (in) which our fathers praised Thee, has been burned up with fire, and all our delights (or desirable places) have become a desolation.” The elliptical use of the relative in reference to place is the same as in Gen 39:20. ‘Burned up,’ literally, become a burning of fire, as in Isa 9:6. The reference in this verse is of course to the destruction of the temple, but to which destruction is disputed. Some refer it to the Babylonian conquest, when the temple, as we are expressly told, was burnt (Jer 52:13), some to its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes, at which time, however, it was not consumed by fire; many later writers, with the Jews themselves, to its destruction by the Romans, since which the city and the land have lain desolate. To the first and last of these events the words are equally appropriate. Either hypothesis being once assumed, the particular expressions admit of being easily adapted to it. With our own hypothesis the passage may be reconciled in several different ways. There is nothing, however, in the terms themselves, or in the analogy of prophetic language, to forbid our understanding this as a description of the desolations of the church itself, expressed by figures borrowed from the old economy and from the ancient history of Israel. If literally understood, the destruction of the temple and the holy city may be here lamented as a loss not merely to the Jewish nation, but to the church of God to which they rightfully belong and by which they ought yet to be recovered, a sense of which obligation blended with some superstitious errors gave occasion to the fanatical attempt of the crusades. (See above; on Isa 63:18).

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

will You remain silent and afflict us Will You remain silent concerning what is done to us? Until here is the prophet’s prayer. Its beginning is (supra 63:7) “The kind acts of the Lord I will mention.”

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.

תחשה Wilt Thou hold Thy peace? Wilt Thou not hasten to save us.

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.