Isaiah 24:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 24:16
From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
an edge or extremity · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
earth
הָאָ֜רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
heard
שָׁמַ֙עְנוּ֙sha.Ma'.nu
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common plural
songs
זְמִרֹ֤תze.mi.Rot
H2158
a song to be accompanied with instrumental music · noun, common feminine plural absolute
glory
צְבִ֣יtze.Vi
H6643
splendor (as conspicuous) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
righteous
לַצַּדִּ֔יקla.tza.Dik
H6662
just · preposition with the article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
said
וָאֹמַ֛רva.'o.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
leanness
רָזִיra.zi-
H7334
thinness · noun, common masculine singular absolute
leanness
רָֽזִיra.zi-
H7334
thinness · noun, common masculine singular absolute
woe
א֣וֹי'o
H188
lamentation · interjection
dealers
בֹּגְדִ֣יםbo.ge.Dim
H898
to cover (with a garment) · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
treacherously
בָּגָ֔דוּba.Ga.du
H898
to cover (with a garment) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
dealers
בּוֹגְדִ֖יםbog.Dim
H898
to cover (with a garment) · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
very
וּבֶ֥גֶדu.Ve.ged
H899
a covering · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
treacherously
בָּגָֽדוּba.Ga.du
H898
to cover (with a garment) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
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
Isaiah 21:2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Med…
Isaiah 33:1 Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt…
Jeremiah 3:20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 5:11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
Exodus 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Psalms 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Psalms 22:27-31 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
Psalms 58:10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 24:16–end
These verses, as those before, plainly speak,
I. Comfort to saints. They may be driven, by the common calamities of the places where they live, into the uttermost parts of the earth, or perhaps they are forced thither for their religion; but there they are singing, not sighing. Thence have we heard songs, and it is a comfort to us to hear them, to hear that good people carry their religion along with them even to the most distant regions, to hear that God visits them there and gives encouragement to hope that he will gather them thence, Deu 30:4. And this is their song, even glory to the righteous: the word is singular, and may refer to the righteous God, who is just in all he has brought up…
Songs to God come in together to Palestine from distant lands, as a grand chorus.
glory to the righteous--the burden of the songs (Isa 26:2, Isa 26:7). Amidst exile, the loss of their temple, and all that is dear to man, their confidence in God is unshaken. These songs recall the joy of other times and draw from Jerusalem in her present calamities, the cry, "My leanness." HORSLEY translates, "glory to the Just One"; then My leanness expresses his sense of man's corruption, which led the Jews, "the treacherous dealers" (Jer 5:11), to crucify the Just One; and his deficiency of righteousness which made him need to be clothed with the righteousness of the Just One (Psa 106:15).
treacherous…
From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs,.... Of praise and thanksgivings, on account of the judgments of God on antichrist; for the glorious appearance of Christ's kingdom; for the spread of his Gospel throughout the world; for the conversion of the Jews, and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles everywhere; wherefore these songs are heard from all parts of the world, and the uttermost parts of them; these are the voices said to be heard in heaven, or in the church, everywhere, Revelation 11:15 so some Jewish writers (x) interpret the words of the days of the Messiah, and of the songs then to be sung:
even glory to the righteous; to the righteous One; meaning eithe…
The Church Fathers
"The Spirit of the Lord filled the world." But that will be done with the broken horns of sinners. The horns of the righteous one are said to be exalted, concerning which Isaiah prophesied: "From the ends of the earth we heard praises announcing the glory of the righteous one." The church is understood to have seven horns, as does every world in which the sevenfold grace of the Spirit rules on account of his remarkable sevenfold operation. And eyes are mentioned here because of illumination. It is in relation to this, I believe, that Zechariah said, "These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which run through all the earth."
(Verse 16) From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the Just One. And I said: My secret to me, my secret to me. Alas for me! LXX: From others we have heard wonders of the earth: the hope of the just, and they say + my mystery to me **. This which is said my mystery to me is not found in the LXX, but it has been added from Theodotion's translation in Greek. Again, instead of what they placed as woe, so that it is joined to the following verse, in Hebrew it is said Oi LI (), which properly means woe to me. Furthermore, for the ends that we have set forth more clearly for the sake of explanation, it is found in Hebrew 'Mecchenaph' (which means 'wing', not 'end'). Therefore, concerning those about whom it was said above, 'They shall lift up their voice and praise, when they neigh from the sea, and glorify the Lord in their teachings, and see the name of the Lord God of Israel praised in the islands of the sea', then they shall sing with united voice and say: 'From the ends of the earth, that is, from the prophets and the saints of the Lord, who, with wings assumed like a dove, hasten to the kingdom of the heavens, we have heard His praises proclaimed; and may it be fulfilled that the glory and hope of the Just may not be in vain, but that all things may be fulfilled.' And while they were saying these things, and the saints were neighing from the sea, and lifting up their voice and praising, the Prophet speaks to himself: When, he says, I heard these things, and perceived that the prophecy of the prophets was to be fulfilled in the overthrow of the world, I spoke to myself with an internal affection of the heart: I cannot narrate all that I see. My tongue sticks to my throat, my voice is cut off by pain. Woe is me, how great a order of torments is passing before my eyes! I perceive things that are present and things that are to come. However, those who think that this should be understood as the person of God are mistaken, not following the order of things. And I wonder in what sense the Psalms and praises, which are read in Hebrew as Zemroth, were interpreted as portents by the LXX, unless perhaps it is a sign and portent that, with the Jewish people excluded, the unbelieving multitude of gentiles might be saved first.
Dictionary and topics
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…
Gentiles · PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF — PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF
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).
From the uttermost part [128] of the earth. This verse contains two statements which have some appearance of being at variance with each other. It begins with a joyful description of the praises of God, and next passes on to complaints and lamentations, in which he bewails the treachery of transgressors, who overturn religion and godliness. So far as relates to praises, we have said that we can neither praise God nor call upon him, till he reveal himself to us, and give a taste of his goodness, that we may entertain hope and confident expectation of life. Hence those sayings of David,
"In the grave who shall praise thee, O Lord? In death who shall confess to thee?" (Psalm 6:5.)
When we fee…
This appeal is not made in vain. Isa 24:16. "From the border of the earth we hear songs: Praise to the Righteous One!" It no doubt seems natural enough to understand the term tzaddı̄k (righteous) as referring to Jehovah; but, as Hitzig observes, Jehovah is never called "the Righteous One" in so absolute a manner as this (compare, however, Psa 112:4, where it occurs in connection with other attributes, and Exo 9:27, where it stands in an antithetical relation); and in addition to this, Jehovah gives צבי (Isa 4:2; Isa 28:5), whilst כבוד, and not צבי, is ascribed to Him. Hence we must take the word in the same sense as in Isa 3:10 (cf., Hab 2:4). The reference is to the church of righteous men,…
But my heart is heavy with grief: The prophets were well acquainted with the emotional pain brought on by the sin of their people and its consequences (see 15:5; 21:4; Jer 15:10; Mic 1:8). • Although aspects of the new world are present, the deceit of the old world still prevails for a time.
Rashi on Isaiah 24:16
From the end of the earth Jonathan paraphrases: From the Temple, which is at the edge of the land of Israel in the east, as we learned: (Maaser Sheni 5:2) [According to Lev. 19:23 25, the produce of the vineyards produced during the first three years of its growth may neither be eaten nor may any benefit be derived therefrom. The produce of the fourth year must be taken to Jerusalem and eaten there. If this is inconvenient, the owner may redeem the produce and take the redemption money to Jerusalem, where he must buy food to eat with the sanctity of כֶּרֶם רְבָעִי, the fourth year vineyard. The Rabbis decreed, however, that within a day’s journey from Jerusalem, all produce must be brought t…
