Isaiah 26:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 26:11
LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
up
רָ֥מָהRa.mah
H7311
to be high actively · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
see
יֶחֱזָי֑וּןye.che.za.Yun
H2372
to gaze at · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + paragogic nun
see
יֶחֱז֤וּye.che.Zu
H2372
to gaze at · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
ashamed
וְיֵבֹ֙שׁוּ֙ve.ye.Vo.shu
H954
properly · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine plural
envy
קִנְאַתkin.'at-
H7068
jealousy or envy · noun, common feminine singular construct
people
עָ֔ם'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
fire
אֵ֖שׁ'esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · noun, common both genders singular construct
enemies
צָרֶ֥יךָtza.Rei.kha
H6862
narrow · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
devour
תֹאכְלֵֽםto.khe.Lem
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine 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
Hebrews 10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Isaiah 5:24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shal…
Micah 5:9 Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.
Exodus 9:14 For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there i…
1 Samuel 5:6-11 But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts there…
1 Samuel 6:9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth-shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know th…
Job 34:27 Because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways:
Psalms 10:12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 26:5-11
Here the prophet further encourages us to trust in the Lord for ever, and to continue waiting on him; for,
I. He will make humble souls that trust in him to triumph over their proud enemies, Isa 26:5, Isa 26:6. Those that exalt themselves shall be abased: For he brings down those that dwell on high; and wherein they deal proudly he is, and will be, above them. Even the lofty city Babylon itself, or Nineveh, he lays it low, Isa 25:12. He can do it, be it ever so well fortified. He has often done it. He will do it, for he resists the proud. It is his glory to do it, for he proves himself to be God by looking on the proud and abasing them, Job 40:12. But, on the contrary, those that humble them…
lifted up--to punish the foes of God's people. They who will not see shall be made to "see" to their cost (Isa 5:12).
their envy at the people--that is, "Thy people." LOWTH translates, "They shall see with confusion Thy zeal for Thy people."
fire of . . . enemies--that is, the fire to which Thine enemies are doomed (Isa 9:18).
John Gill on Isaiah 26:11
Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see,.... Or, "thy high hand they will not see" (y); when it is exalted, and become glorious in power, in punishing wicked men; though the punishment is visible, yet they will not consider that it comes from the hand of God, but attribute it to chance, misfortune, or second causes, Psalm 28:5 or when the hand the Lord is manifest in doing good to his own people, in delivering them out of their oppressions, and the hands of their oppressors; in reviving his cause and interest, and enlarging the kingdom of his Son; they will not see, own, and acknowledge the power and glory of it. The Targum favours this latter sense,
"Lord, when thou shall be re…
O Jehovah, though thy hand is lifted up. This is an explanation of the former statement; for he brings forward nothing that is new, but shews more clearly what he had formerly stated in a few words. He had already said that the wicked "will not behold the majesty of the Lord;" and now he explains that "majesty" to be that which is visible in the works of God. He does not send us to that hidden majesty which is concealed from us, but leads us to the works, which he denotes figuratively (metonumikos) [172] by the hand. Here he again censures the wicked, and shews that they cannot be excused on the plea of ignorance; for, though they perceive nothing, still the hand of God is openly visible; an…
The Church Fathers
Note that there are two kinds of zeal, one full of love, the other full of hatred. The former is indicated in the words, "The zeal of your house has devoured me"; the latter, in the words, "Zeal has taken hold of the senseless people, and now fire shall devour your opponents."
A fire went before the Lord's coming when the hearts of the unfaithful seethed at the preaching of the prophets so that they were fired with the heat of anger, and they debated the murder of those preachers. So this is the fire that shall go before him, but it devoured instead those who stirred it. As the prophet Isaiah said, "And now fire will devour your enemies." Next comes, "And shall burn his enemies round about." "Shall burn," as we have stated, refers to the indignation and sudden mental heat that the enemies of the holy church experienced at that time. "Round about" we must interpret as "on all sides," for as the preachers were few, a countless crowd of enemies hemmed them in.
I know the glittering sword, and the blade made drunk in heaven, bidden to slay, to bring to nothing, to make childless and to spare neither flesh nor marrow nor bones. I know him who, though free from passion, meets us like a bear robbed of her cubs, like a leopard in the way of the Assyrians, not only those of that day, but if anyone now is an Assyrian in wickedness. Nor is it possible to escape the might and speed of his wrath when he watches over our impieties, and his jealousy, which knows to devour his adversaries, pursues his enemies to the death. I know the emptying, the making void, the making waste, the melting of the heart and knocking of the knees together;7 such are the punishments of the ungodly.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Blindness · 21:14;22:13,14; — 21:14;22:13,14;
Blindness, Spiritual · The wicked wilfully guilty of — The wicked wilfully guilty of
Envy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Jews, The · All other nations: Envied — All other nations: Envied
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).
The situation still remains essentially the same as in Isa 26:11-13 : "Jehovah, Thy hand has been exalted, but they did not see: they will see the zeal for a people, being put to shame; yea, fire will devour Thine adversaries. Jehovah, Thou wilt establish peace for us: for Thou hast accomplished all our work for us. Jehovah our God, lords besides Thee had enslaved us; but through Thee we praise Thy name." Here are three forms of address beginning with Jehovah, and rising in the third to "Jehovah our God." The standpoint of the first is the time before the judgment; the standpoint of the other two is in the midst of the redemption that has been effected through judgment. Hence what the prophe…
An upraised fist expresses anger and the threat of judgment (see also 19:16). • Fire was often an image for God’s judgment.
Rashi on Isaiah 26:11
O Lord, Your hand has been taken away I have seen many Aggadic Midrashim on the verses of the above section and the following, but they are not appropriate, either because of the grammatical forms of the language or because of the context of the verses. I had to explain it according to its order. There is an Aggadic Midrash that states that the prophet begs that the nations not see the bounty of the Holy One, blessed be He, when He lavishes good upon Israel. The Holy One, blessed be He, replied, “It is better that they see and be ashamed,” (Eliyahu Zuta ch. 21). (The Midrash explains the verse as follows: O Lord, take away Your hand, so that they see not. I.e., the prophet begs that God conc…
