Isaiah 30:23 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 30:23
Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
cattle
מִקְנֶ֛יךָmik.Nei.cha
H4735
something bought · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
feed
יִרְעֶ֥הyir.'Eh
H7462
to tend a flock · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
large
נִרְחָֽבnir.Chav
H7337
to broaden (intransitive or transitive · verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
pastures
כַּ֥רkar
H3733
a ram (as full-grown and fat) · 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
Zechariah 8:11-12 But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days, saith the LORD of hosts.
Psalms 65:9-13 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn,…
Isaiah 32:20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.
Isaiah 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden,…
Zechariah 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one gr…
Genesis 41:18 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:
Psalms 36:8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
Psalms 104:13-14 He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 30:18-26
The closing words of the foregoing paragraph (You shall be left as a beacon upon a mountain) some understand as a promise that a remnant of them should be reserved as monuments of mercy; and here the prophet tells them what good times should succeed these calamities. Or the first words in this paragraph may be read by way of antithesis, Notwithstanding this, yet will the Lord wait that he may be gracious. The prophet, having shown that those who made Egypt their confidence would be ashamed of it, here shows that those who sat still and made God alone their confidence would have the comfort of it. It is matter of comfort to the people of God, when the times are very bad, that all will be well…
rain of--rather, "for thy seed." Physical prosperity accompanies national piety; especially under the Old Testament. The early rain fell soon after the seed was sown in October or November; the latter rain in the spring, before the ripening of the corn. Both were needed for a good harvest.
increase--the produce.
fat--bread made of the best wheat flour (compare Gen 49:20; Deu 32:14).
John Gill on Isaiah 30:23
Then shall he give thee rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal,.... Or, "rain to thy seed" (f); that is, when the seed is sown in the earth, the Lord will give the former rain, and cause it to take root, and spring up:
and bread of the increase of the earth; the earth, being watered with rain, should give its increase of corn, of which bread should be made; so that there would be seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, as in Isaiah 55:10,
and it shall be fat and plenteous; or "fat and fat"; very fat and rich, exceeding good bread, and plenty of it; and after the siege of the city by Sennacherib's army was broke up, and that was destroyed, for years following there was g…
(Verse 23.) And you shall defile the plates of your carved silver, and the garment of your molded gold, and scatter them like the impurity of a menstruating woman: go forth, you shall say to it. LXX: And you shall defile the silver and the gold idols: you shall break them and scatter them like the water of a menstruating woman, and you shall cast them away like feces. When you understand the truth, and those who deceive do not approach you, but your eyes have seen your teacher, and your ears have always heard him: This is the way, walk in it, neither to the right nor to the left; then you shall break and scatter all errors and idols, and the likenesses of truth, which the skilled tongue has composed in the splendor of eloquence, which is translated as silver, and in the reasoning of wisdom, which sounds like gold, and you shall judge them as unclean, like the most filthy blood of a menstruating woman, which the Seventy translated into other words for the water of a menstruating woman.
For "in a good heart wisdom will rest," and "he that fears the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness." But that we must attain to spiritual knowledge in the order of which we have already spoken, we are taught also by the blessed apostle. For when he wanted not merely to draw up a list of all his own virtues but rather to describe their order, that he might explain which follows what, and which gives birth to what, after some others he proceeds as follows: "In watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long suffering, in gentleness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned." And by this enumeration of virtues he evidently meant to teach us that we must come from watchings and fastings to chastity, from chastity to knowledge, from knowledge to long suffering, from long suffering to gentleness, from gentleness to the Holy Spirit, from the Holy Spirit to the rewards of love unfeigned. When then by this system and in this order you too have come to spiritual knowledge, you will certainly have, as we said, not barren or idle learning but what is vigorous and fruitful. And the seed of the word of salvation that has been committed by you to the hearts of your hearers will be watered by the plentiful showers of the Holy Spirit that will follow. And according to this the prophet promised, "The rain will be given to your seed, wherever you shall sow in the land, and the bread of the corn of the land shall be most plentiful and fat."
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
Hezekiah — Whom Jehovah has strengthened. (1.) Son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chr. 29:1), whom he succeeded on the throne of the kingdom of Judah. He reigned twenty-nine years (B.C. 726-697). The history of this…
Gifts From God · .Rain and fruitful sea — .Rain and fruitful sea
Gifts Of God, The · Temporal: Rain and fruitful seasons — Temporal: Rain and fruitful seasons
Rain · Sent by God — Sent by God
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).
Then will he give rain to thy seed. From the fruit he again shews how desirable it is to be converted to God; for the fruit of repentance is, that he receives converted persons into favor, and bestows his blessing on them, so that they are in want of nothing, but, on the contrary, are loaded with every kind of blessings. As troubles and distresses proceed from the wrath of God, whom we provoke by our crimes, so, when he is pacified, everything goes on prosperously with us, and we obtain every sort of kindness, as the Law more fully testifies. (Leviticus 26:3-13; Deuteronomy 28:3-14.) A little before, he had spoken of "rain," from which they were led to expect an abundant supply of food; but…
The promise, after setting forth this act of penitence, rises higher and higher; it would not stop at bread in time of need. "And He gives rain to thy seed, with which thou sowest the land; and bread of the produce of the land, and it is full of sap and fat: in that day your flocks will feed in roomy pastures. And the oxen and the young asses, which work the land, salted mash will they eat, which is winnowed with the winnowing shovel and winnowing fork! And upon every high mountain, and every hill that rises high, there are springs, brooks in the day of the great massacre, when the towers fall." The blessing which the prophet depicts is the reverse of the day of judgment, and stands in the f…
The people of Judah would again enjoy covenant blessings rather than curses (see Lev 26:4).
Rashi on Isaiah 30:23
And He shall give I.e., the Holy One, blessed be He, shall give the rain for your seed.
fat (וְשָׁמֵן) an expression of fat. Therefore, its accent is below (on the last syllable) and it is voweled with a kamatz (tzeireh).
a fattened lamb until the lambs will become fat and wide.
lamb (כַּר) a lamb. Alternatively, a wide plain. Comp. (Gen. 12:10) “the plain (כִּכַּר) of the Jordan,” (below 32:15) “Carmel,” meaning a wide plain, full of grain.
