Isaiah 28:21 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 28:21
For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
to rise (in various applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
mount
כְהַרkhe.har-
H2022
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Perazim
פְּרָצִים֙pe.ra.Tzim
H6559
Peratsim · proper noun, a place name
wroth
יִרְגָּ֑זyir.Gaz
H7264
to quiver (with any violent emotion · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
valley
כְּעֵ֖מֶקke.'E.mek
H6010
a vale (i.e. broad depression) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Gibeon
בְּגִבְע֣וֹןbe.giv.'on
H1391
Gibon · preposition + proper noun, a place name
do
לַעֲשׂ֤וֹתla.'a.Sot
H6213
to do or make · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
work
מַעֲשֵׂ֙הוּ֙ma.'a.Se.hu
H4639
an action (good or bad) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
strange
זָ֣רzar
H2114
to turn aside (especially for lodging) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
work
מַעֲשֵׂ֔הוּma.'a.Se.hu
H4639
an action (good or bad) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
pass
וְלַֽעֲבֹד֙ve.la.'a.Vod
H5647
to work (in any sense) · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
act
עֲבֹ֣דָת֔וֹa.Vo.da.To
H5656
work of any kind · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
strange
נָכְרִיָּ֖הna.khe.ri.Yah
H5237
strange · adjective, feminine singular absolute
act
עֲבֹדָתֽוֹa.vo.da.To
H5656
work of any kind · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
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
1 Chronicles 14:11 So they came up to Baal-perazim; and David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the bre…
Joshua 10:12 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of…
2 Samuel 5:20 And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach…
Joshua 10:10 And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to…
2 Samuel 5:25 And David did so, as the LORD had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer.
1 Chronicles 14:16 David therefore did as God commanded him: and they smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gazer.
Lamentations 2:15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call…
Deuteronomy 29:21-24 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in t…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 28:14-22
The prophet, having reproved those that made a jest of the word of God, here goes on to reprove those that made a jest of the judgments of God, and set them at defiance; for he is a jealous God, and will not suffer either his ordinances or his providences to be brought into contempt. He addressed himself to the scornful men who ruled in Jerusalem, who were the magistrates of the city, Isa 28:14. It is bad with a people when their thrones of judgment become the seats of the scornful, when rulers are scorners; but that the rulers of Jerusalem should be men of such a character, that they should make light of God's judgments and scorn to take notice of the tokens of his displeasure, is very sad.…
Perazim--In the valley of Rephaim (Sa2 5:18, Sa2 5:20; Ch1 14:11), there Jehovah, by David, broke forth as waters do, and made a breach among the Philistines, David's enemies, as Perazim means, expressing a sudden and complete overthrow.
Gibeon-- (Ch1 14:16; Sa2 5:25, Margin); not Joshua's victory (Jos 10:10).
strange--as being against His own people; judgment is not what God delights in; it is, though necessary, yet strange to Him (Lam 3:33).
work--punishing the guilty (Isa 10:12).
John Gill on Isaiah 28:21
For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim,.... Where the Lord broke forth on David's enemies the Philistines, as the breach of waters; see Isaiah 28:17 and destroyed them, from whence the place had the name of Baalperazim, 2 Samuel 5:20. The Targum is,
"for as the mountain which moved when the glory of the Lord was revealed in the days of Uzziah the king;''
referring to the earthquake in his time, Amos 1:1,
he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; Josephus Ben Gorion (b) makes mention of the valley of Gibeon, where a battle was fought between Cestius the Roman general and the Jews, in which the latter got the victory, and says it was about six miles from Jerusalem: here the Phil…
Hence Isaiah, contemplating our salvation and [Christ's] passion, well said: "That he may do his work, his strange work; that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him." For the work of God is to gather the souls that he created and call them back to the joys of the eternal light. But it is not the work [of] God in his essence to be flogged, to be smeared with spittle, to be crucified, to die and to be buried, but this is the work of a sinful person who deserved all these things for his sins. But [Jesus] himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And he who in his own nature always remains incomprehensible deigned to be comprehended in our nature and to be flogged, because if he had not assumed the attributes of our weakness he could never have raised us to the power of his fortitude.… And he does his strange work that he might do his proper work, because insofar as he bore our sins in infirmity he led us who are his creatures to the glory of his fortitude in which he lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through ages of ages. Amen.
(Verse 21, 22.) For just as the Lord will stand on the mountain of divisions, and will be angry in the valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his strange work, to carry out his task, his alien task. And now do not mock: lest perhaps your chains be tightened. For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a conclusion and an abbreviation over all the earth. LXX: As the mountain of the wicked rises, the Lord will arise, and it will be in the valley of Gibeon, when he does his work with fury, the work of bitterness and his fury he will use as if it were alien: and his bitterness as if it were foreign. And do not rejoice, neither let your bonds be strengthened, for I have heard from the Lord God of Hosts that the things which he will do upon the whole earth are consummated and abbreviated. The Lord has promised to place a precious stone in the foundations of Zion, in order to overturn falsehood and the hope of the wicked; and to abolish the covenant with death and the agreement with hell by a powerful storm. Because the princes did not want to accept Him, just as in the past against the Allophyli, when David reigned on the mountain of divisions, which in Hebrew is called Pharasim, the Lord brought down his adversaries, from where the place also received its name. And as in the valley of Gibeon, under the leadership of Joshua, when the confidence of the inhabitants in themselves spoke to God: Sun, stand still in Gibeon, and moon, in the valley of Aijalon ((or Elon)) (Joshua 10:12); and the sun stood still for the space of a whole day; and many of the foreign invaders perished: so the Lord will be angry with the wicked and the mockers, in order to accomplish His work. For it is not the work of the Lord to destroy those whom He has created; but to perform a work that belongs more to cruelty than to clemency. And again the same thing is repeated in other words, so that it may accomplish its work. It is not his task to punish sinners, but the stranger, and alien from him, that he may punish who is the Savior. Therefore, since the Lord is about to rise again from his patience, and will not spare: just as he did not spare on Mount Pharasim, and in the valley of Gibeon: I warn you, O mocking men, that you should not at all laugh at my prophets, and that you should not think that the things they proclaim are not going to happen, lest if you persist in mocking, the bonds of your…
Dictionary and topics
Baal — Lord. (1.) The name appropriated to the principal male god of the Phoenicians. It is found in several places in the plural BAALIM (Judg. 2:11; 10:10; 1 Kings 18:18; Jer. 2:23; Hos. 2:17). Baal is…
Baal-perazim — Baal having rents, bursts, or destructions, the scene of a victory gained by David over the Philistines (2 Sam. 5:20; 1 Chr. 14:11). Called Mount Perazim (Isa. 28:21). It was near the valley of…
Perazim — (a breach), Mount, a name which occurs in (Isaiah 28:21) only—unless the place which it designates is identical with the Baal-perazim mentioned as the scene of one of David’s victories over the…
Perazim, Mount — Mount of breaches, only in Isa. 28:21. It is the same as BAAL-PERAZIM (q.v.), where David gained a victory over the Philistines (2 Sam. 5:20).
Baal-Perazim · General references — General references
Infidelity · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Rain · David — David
Sin · .No es — .No es
Valleys · Mentioned in scripture: Gibeon — Mentioned in scripture: Gibeon
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).
on Isaiah 28:21
For as in Mount Perazim. Since he speaks here of the reprobate, the Prophet holds out nothing but terrors and cruel punishment; for while the Lord deals kindly and gently with his children, he shews that he will be an object of terror to the reprobate. For this purpose he produces examples, in which the Lord displayed his arm in defense of his people, as when he routed the Philistines in the valley of Perazim, when David pursued them, (2 Samuel 5:20; 1 Chronicles 14:11,) and at another time, when the Amorites and other enemies were slain by the Israelites in the valley of Gibeon, with Joshua as their leader, to whom the Lord granted that the "sun and moon should stand still," that they might…
It would be with them as it was with the Philistines when David turned their army into water at Baal-perazim (Sa2 5:20; Ch1 14:11), or when on another occasion he drove them before him from Gibeon to Gezer (Ch1 14:13.). "For Jehovah will rise up as in the mountain of Perazim, and be wroth as in the valley at Gibeon to work His work; astonishing is His work; and to act His act: strange is His act." The Targum wrongly supposes the first historical reminiscence to refer to the earthquake in the time of Uzziah, and the second to Joshua's victory over the Amorites. The allusion really is to the two shameful defeats which David inflicted upon the Philistines. There was a very good reason why victo…
as he did . . . at Mount Perazim: See 2 Sam 5:20. • God had rescued Israel through a hailstorm at Gibeon (Josh 10:10-12), but now he would turn against them.
Rashi on Isaiah 28:21
For like the mountain of breaches Jonathan paraphrases: For, just as the mountains quaked when the glory of the Lord was revealed on the day of King Uzziah, (supra. 6:4,) and as the miracles He performed for Joshua in the valley of Gibeon (Jos. 10:12f) (to punish the wicked who transgressed His word,) so shall He be revealed to punish those who perform (strange deeds, strange are their deeds, and those who worship pagan deities, strange is their worship).
strange is His deed He will seem to you as a stranger, for He will bring upon them ([all other editions:] upon you) harsh retribution.
and to perform His work (וְלַעֲבֹד עֲבֹדָתוֹ) like work of the soil, ‘laborer’ in O.F.