Matthew Henry on Isaiah 2:10–end
The prophet here goes on to show what a desolation would be brought upon their land when God should have forsaken them. This may refer particularly to their destruction by the Chaldeans first, and afterwards by the Romans, or it may have a general respect to the method God takes to awaken and humble proud sinners, and to put them out of conceit with that which they delighted in and depended on more than God. We are here told that sooner or later God will find out a way,
I. To startle and awaken secure sinners, who cry peace to themselves, and bid defiance to God and his judgments (Isa 2:10): "Enter into the rock; God will attack you with such terrible judgments, and strike you with such terr…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 2:22
The high ones (Isa 2:11, Isa 2:13) on whom the people trust, shall be "brought low" (Isa 3:2); therefore "cease from" depending on them, instead of on the Lord (Psa 146:3-5).
Next: Isaiah Chapter 3
John Gill on Isaiah 2:22
Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils,.... "From that man" (y), meaning antichrist, the man of sin; who is but a mere man, a poor, frail, mortal man; though he sits in the temple of God, as if he was God, showing himself to be God, by taking that to himself which belongs to the Deity. This is advice to the followers of antichrist, to cease from going after him, and worshipping him, seeing he is not the living God, but a dying man:
for wherein is he to be accounted of? The Targum is,
"for he is alive today, and tomorrow he is not, and he is to be accounted as nothing;''
and much less as Peter's successor, as head of the church, and vicar of Christ, and as having all power in h…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Isaiah 2:22–end
Cease therefore from man These words are clearly connected with what goes before, and have been improperly separated from them by some interpreters. For Isaiah, after having addressed the ungodly in threatenings concerning the judgment of God, exhorts them to refrain from deluding themselves by groundless confidence; as if he had said, "I see that you are blinded and intoxicated by false hope, so that no argument can prevail with you; and this you do, because you claim too much for yourselves. But man is nothing; and you have to do with God, who can reduce the whole world to nothing by a single act of his will."
Whose breath is in his nostrils The former part of the verse is explained in va…