Matthew Henry on Isaiah 30:8-17
Here, I. The preface is very awful. The prophet must not only preach this, but he must write it (Isa 30:8), write it in a table, to be hung up and exposed to public view; he must carefully note it, not in loose papers which might be lost or torn, but in a book, to be preserved for posterity, in perpetuam rei memoriam - for a standing testimony against this wicked generation; let it remain not only to the next succeeding ages, but for ever and ever, while the world stands; and so it shall, for the book of the scriptures no doubt, shall continue, and be read, to the end of time. Let it be written, 1. To shame the men of the present age, who would not hear and heed it when it was spoken. Let it…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 30:13
Image from a curve swelling out in a wall (Psa 62:3); when the former gives way, it causes the downfall of the whole wall; so their policy as to Egypt.
John Gill on Isaiah 30:13
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall,.... Or, "as a falling breach" (m); contempt of the word of God, and trusting in wickedness, rejecting the counsel of God, and placing confidence in the creature, these would be the cause of ruin; which ruin is signified by the breach of a falling wall, or by a breach in a wall, by reason of which it is in danger of falling, and is just ready to fall:
swelling out in a high wall; like a wall that bellies out and bulges, and which, when it once begins to do, suddenly falls; and the higher it is, it comes with more force, and the greater is the fall:
whose breaking cometh suddenly, at an instant; and so it is suggested, should…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Isaiah 30:13
Therefore shall your iniquity be like a breach falling. This is a threatening of punishment, and Isaiah expresses it by a very appropriate metaphor. He compares wicked men to a wall that is rent, or that bulges out. As the "swelling out" of a wall threatens the ruin of it, because it cannot stand unless all the parts of it adhere closely to each other, so the haughtiness and insolence of wicked men are a sign and very sure proof of their approaching ruin; because the more they are puffed up and swelled without any solid value, [293] the more readily do they throw themselves down headlong, and it is impossible for them not to fall speedily by their own weight. "Rise up," says he, "and act ins…
