to gird on (as a belt · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
sackcloth
שָֽׂקSak
H8242
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joel 1:13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the…
Micah 1:16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
Joel 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not t…
Ecclesiastes 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Amos 8:10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness u…
James 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Ezra 9:3 And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.
Nehemiah 9:9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 22:8-14
What is meant by the covering of Judah, which in the beginning of this paragraph is said to be discovered, is not agreed. The fenced cities of Judah were a covering to the country; but these, being taken by the army of the Assyrians, ceased to be a shelter, so that the whole country lay exposed to be plundered. The weakness of Judah, its nakedness, and inability to keep itself, now appeared more than ever; and thus the covering of Judah was discovered. Its magazines and stores, which had been locked up, were now laid open for the public use. Dr. Lightfoot gives another sense of it, that by this distress into which Judah should be brought God would discover their covering (that is, uncloak th…
did the Lord God call--Usually the priests gave the summons to national mourning (Joe 1:14); now JEHOVAH Himself shall give it; the "call" shall consist in the presence of a terrible foe. Translate, "shall call."
baldness--emblem of grief (Job 1:20; Mic 1:16).
John Gill on Isaiah 22:12
And in that day did the Lord God of hosts,.... When it was a day of trouble, of treading down, and of perplexity; when Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrian army; and when the people were so much concerned, and so careful for their defence and preservation; then did the Lord
call to weeping and to mourning; to confess and mourn over their sins, the cause of these calamities; to lament their unhappy case; to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, and, by prayer and supplication, with tears to implore his help and assistance, and grant them deliverance; this the Lord called them unto by the voice of his Providence, by the afflictive dispensations of it, and also by his prophets, who…
And the Lord of hosts called. The wicked obstinacy of the people is exhibited by the Prophet with additional aggravations. What left them altogether without excuse was the fact, that while they were exposed to so great dangers, they despised the godly remonstrances of the prophets, and rejected the grace of God, when he wished to heal and restore them. It is a proof of consummate depravity, when men have so completely laid aside all feeling that they fearlessly despise both instruction and chastisements, and obstinately "kick against the pricks," (Acts 9:5,) and this makes it evident that they have been "given over to a reprobate mind." (Romans 1:28.)
When he says, that "the Lord called" th…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 12-14) And the Lord God of hosts shall call in that day to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth. And behold joy and gladness, killing calves, and slaying sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die. And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts. In the present captivity and siege of Jerusalem, when the city was being pressed by sword, famine, and thirst, Jeremiah called the people to repentance (Jeremiah 34). On the other hand, kings, princes, and the miserable populace, in their desperate state, devoted themselves to feasting. However, nothing offends God more than a neck raised after sins, and being despised out of desperation. This is also spoken by Amos: I will not turn away from him for three or four transgressions; because he has thought and done them and has not repented, moreover he has taught evil. Wherefore now it is said: If this iniquity remain unpunished to you, until ye die. (Amos I, 4). Allegorical interpreters say it is about the passion of Christ, that God has called even after the crucifixion of the Lord and Saviour an unfaithful people to repentance, and nevertheless that people has delivered itself to despair and pleasure. The beginning of this vision, where it says: Full of outcry, a populous city, a joyful town, refers to that time when the people, instigated by the Pharisees, echoed with the same voice against Jesus: Crucify, crucify such a one: we have no king but Caesar. (John XIX, 6, 7). The Apostle also made use of this testimony, writing to the Corinthians about the resurrection: If the dead do not rise again, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die (I Cor. XV, 32).
(Verse 12 and following) And on that day the Lord God of hosts will call for weeping and mourning, for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing calves and slaughtering rams, eating meat and drinking wine: 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts: 'Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,' says the Lord God of hosts. Every day the Lord God of hosts invites heretics to repentance, who, despising the water of the old pool between two walls, dig a pit for themselves and gather the water of the lower pool, which does not have water from heaven but from the earth; and He calls them to weeping; Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:5). And to lamentation, lest they hear afterwards: We have mourned to you, and you have not lamented (Matthew 11:17). And for baldness, so that they may shave off all the works of death and rid their bodies of anything that does not live in the body. And for the belt of the robe, so that they may not be bound with a rope around their waist near Jerusalem. But on the contrary, for weeping and lamentation, baldness and sackcloth, they had joy and gladness, and as if everything were ending in death, they slaughtered calves and lambs, so that they could eat meat and drink wine, and they spoke words of blasphemy. While we are in the present age, we abound in delights. For tomorrow, which is the future time, will be without meaning. When they were saying these things, the Lord heard words of blasphemy and threatened that He would not let go of this wickedness until they either die and perish in sin and vices, or drag themselves down to the underworld with their own faults. And this can be understood not only of heretics, but of every sinner who, neglecting his sins, becomes worse through despair; and ensnared by pleasures, combines blasphemy with sin, thinking that all sense of living things ends in death, saying that statement of Epicurus: 'After death, there is nothing, and death itself is nothing.'
Dictionary and topics
Baldness — From natural causes was uncommon (2 Kings 2:23; Isa. 3:24). It was included apparently under “scab” and “scurf,” which disqualified for the priesthood (Lev. 21:20). The Egyptians were rarely subject…
Girdle — (1.) Heb. hagor, a girdle of any kind worn by soldiers (1 Sam. 18:4; 2 Sam. 20:8; 1 Kings 2:5; 2 Kings 3:21) or women (Isa. 3:24). (2.) Heb. ‘ezor, something “bound,” worn by prophets (2 Kings 1:8;…
Sennacherib — Sin (the god) sends many brothers, son of Sargon, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria (B.C. 705), in the 23rd year of Hezekiah. “Like the Persian Xerxes, he was weak and vainglorious, cowardly…
Baldness · Artificial, a sign of mourning — Artificial, a sign of mourning
Happiness · .Leads to recklessness — .Leads to recklessness
Head · Illustrative: (Made bald,) of heavy judgments — Illustrative: (Made bald,) of heavy judgments
Judgments · Should lead to: Contrition — Should lead to: Contrition
And so far as it had proceeded already, it was a call from Jehovah to repentance. "The Lord, Jehovah of hosts, calls in that day to weeping, and to mourning, and to the pulling out of hair, and to girding with sackcloth; and behold joy and gladness, slaughtering of oxen and killing of sheep, eating of flesh and drinking of wine, eating and drinking, for 'tomorrow we die.' And Jehovah of hosts hath revealed in mine ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be expiated for you until ye die, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts." The first condition of repentance is a feeling of pain produced by the punishments of God. But upon Jerusalem they produce the opposite effect. The more threatening the future,…
Judah’s feasting and disobedience resulted in a prophecy of judgment.
Rashi on Isaiah 22:11
And a ditch you made A pool of water, to be a defense (lit., strength) for the city.
between the two walls the double walls, the low wall and the high wall, and the water of the old pool.
but you did not look to its Maker Now, if you ask, Hezekiah, too, did so, as it is stated (in II Chron. 32:5) “And he strengthened himself, and he built up all the broken down wall, and he went up on the towers and outside the other wall, and he strengthened the Millo of the city of David,” the answer is that Hezekiah “trusted in the Lord God of Israel, etc.” (II Kings 18:5), but you, in the days of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah did not look to its Maker.
and Him Who fashioned it from afar From the time He crea…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
— 1:8;2:1-12;6:11,12;8:15-17;10:19;11:9,10;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
