Isaiah 50:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 50:11
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
to kindle · verb, piel perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
hand
מִיָּדִי֙mi.ya.Di
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix
down
תִּשְׁכָּבֽוּןtish.ka.Vun
H7901
to lie down (for rest · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural + paragogic nun
sorrow
לְמַעֲצֵבָ֖הle.ma.'a.tze.Vah
H4620
anguish · preposition + noun, common feminine 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
Jeremiah 17:5-7 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
Romans 1:21-22 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foo…
John 8:24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the…
Matthew 15:6-8 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Psalms 20:7-8 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
Isaiah 28:15-20 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through…
Jonah 2:8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 50:10–end
The prophet, having the tongue of the learned given him, that he might give to every one his portion, here makes use of it, rightly dividing the word of truth. It is the summary of the gospel. He that believes shall be saved (he that trusts in the name of the Lord shall be comforted, though for a while he walk in darkness and have no light), but he that believes not shall be damned; though for a while he walk in the light of his own fire, yet he shall lie down in sorrow.
I. Comfort is here spoken to disconsolate saints, and they are encouraged to trust in God's grace, Isa 50:10. Here observe, 1. What is always the character of a child of God. He is one that fears the Lord with a filial fear,…
In contrast to the godly (Isa 50:10), the wicked, in times of darkness, instead of trusting in God, trust in themselves (kindle a light for themselves to walk by) (Ecc 11:9). The image is continued from Isa 50:10, "darkness"; human devices for salvation (Pro 19:21; Pro 16:9, Pro 16:25) are like the spark that goes out in an instant in darkness (compare Job 18:6; Job 21:17, with Psa 18:28).
sparks--not a steady light, but blazing sparks extinguished in a moment.
walk--not a command, but implying that as surely as they would do so, they should lie down in sorrow (Jer 3:25). In exact proportion to mystic Babylon's previous "glorifying" of herself shall be her sorrow (Mat 25:30; Mat 8:12; Re…
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire,.... To enlighten and warm yourselves; who, rejecting Christ the Light of the world, and despising the glorious light of his Gospel, and loving darkness rather than light, set up the light of nature and reason as the rule of faith and practice; or the traditions and doctrines of men to be guided by; or their own righteousness for their justification before God, and acceptance with him:
that compass yourselves about with sparks, that fly out of the fire kindled, or are struck out of a flint, which have little light and no heat, and are soon out; which may denote the short lived pleasures and comforts which are had from the creature, or from anything of a man…
The Church Fathers
This "fire" is not "from the altar." The fire that is "from the altar" is the fire of the Lord. But that which is outside the altar is not of the Lord but is properly of each one who sins.… This fire is of those who have ignited it, just as it also was written in other places, "Walk in your fire and in the flame which you kindled for yourselves." But to Isaiah his own fire was not applied but the fire of the altar that "will cleanse his lips."
If then this is the character of the body that rises from the dead, let us now see what is the meaning of the threatened "eternal fire." Now we find in the prophet Isaiah that the fire by which each person is punished is described as belonging to himself. For it says, "Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled for yourselves." These words seem to indicate that every sinner kindles for himself the flame of his own fire and is not plunged into a fire that has been previously kindled by someone else or that existed before him.
One light alone let us shun: that which is the offspring of the terrible fire. Let us not walk in the light of our own fire and in the very flame we have kindled. For I know of a cleansing fire that Christ came to send on the earth, and that he himself is anagogically called a fire. This Fire takes away whatever is material and of evil habit. This he desires to kindle with all speed, for he longs for speed in doing us good, since he gives us even coals of fire to help us. I know also a fire that is not cleansing but avenging; either that fire of Sodom, which he pours down on all sinners, mingled with brimstone and storms, or that which is prepared for the devil and his angels.
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
Ship — No one writer in the whole range of Greek and Roman literature has supplied us with so much information concerning the merchant-ships of the ancients as St. Luke in the narrative of St. Paul’s voyage…
Fire · Illustrative of: The hope of hypocrites — Illustrative of: The hope of hypocrites
Self-Righteousness · 2:9; — 2:9;
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).
Lo, all of you kindle a fire. He upbraids the Jews with choosing to kindle for themselves their own light, instead of drawing near to the light of God. This passage has been badly expounded; and if we wish to understand its true meaning, we must attend to the contrast between the light of God and the light of men; that is, between the consolation which is brought to us by the Word of God and the empty words of comfort uttered by men, when by idle and useless things they attempt and toil to alleviate their distresses. Having formerly spoken of "light" and "darkness," and having promised light to believers, who hear the voice of the Lord, he shews that the Jews had rejected this light, in orde…
Thus far we have the words of the servant. The prophecy opened with words of Jehovah (Isa 50:1-3), and with such words it closes, as we may see from the expression, "this shall ye have at my hand," in Isa 50:11. The first word of Jehovah is addressed to those who fear Him, and hearken to the voice of His servant. Isa 50:10"Who among you is fearing Jehovah, hearkening to the voice of His servant? He that walketh in darkness, and without a ray of light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and stay himself upon his God." The question is asked for the purpose of showing to any one who could reply, "I am one, or wish to be such an one," what his duty and his privileges are. In the midst of the…
warm yourselves by your own fires: Spiritually complacent people are unresponsive toward God. Though they have comfort and security now, they will soon fall down in great torment (see 66:24).
Rashi on Isaiah 50:11
Behold all of you who do not hearken to the voice of His prophets.
who kindle fire of His wrath upon yourselves.
and give power to flames Who strengthen the flames; they are sparks and burning coals that are cast up with a slingshot. It has a cognate in the Aramaic tongue, זִיקוּקִין דְּנוּר, flames of fire (Ber. 58b), so many slingers (זִיקָתָא) are assigned to us (Baba Mezia 94a) [frondeles in O.F., sling].
go in the flame of your fire According to your way, you will be punished.
from My hand shall this retribution come to you.
