Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.
a door-post (as prominent) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
up
שַׂ֖מְתְּsamt
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
remembrance
זִכְרוֹנֵ֑ךְzikh.ro.Nekh
H2146
a memento (or memorable thing · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
discovered
גִּלִּ֣יתgi.Lit
H1540
to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · verb, piel perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
up
וַֽתַּעֲלִ֗יva.ta.'a.Li
H5927
to ascend · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
enlarged
הִרְחַ֤בְתְּhir.Chavt
H7337
to broaden (intransitive or transitive · verb, hiphil perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
bed
מִשְׁכָּבֵךְ֙mish.ka.veKh
H4904
a bed (figuratively · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
made
וַתִּכְרָתva.tikh.rot-
H3772
to cut (off · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
lovedst
אָהַ֥בְתְּ'a.Havt
H157
to have affection for (sexually or otherwise) · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
bed
מִשְׁכָּבָ֖םmish.ka.Vam
H4904
a bed (figuratively · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
where
יָ֥דyad
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular absolute
sawest
חָזִֽיתcha.Zit
H2372
to gaze at · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person feminine 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
Ezekiel 8:8-12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
Ezekiel 16:25-28 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that…
Ezekiel 16:32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
Ezekiel 23:2-20 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
Ezekiel 23:41 And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 57:3-12
We have here a high charge, but a just one no doubt, drawn up against that wicked generation out of which God's righteous ones were removed, because the world was not worthy of them. Observe,
I. The general character here given of them, or the name and title by which they stand indicted, Isa 57:3. They are told to draw near and hear the charge, are set to the bar, and arraigned there as sons of the sorceress, or of a witch, the seed of an adulterer and a whore, that is, they were such themselves, they were strongly inclined to be such, and their ancestors were such before them. Sin is sorcery and adultery, for it is departing from God and dealing with the devil. They were children of disobed…
"Remembrance," that is, memorials of thy idolatry: the objects which thou holdest in remembrance. They hung up household tutelary gods "behind the doors"; the very place where God has directed them to write His laws "on the posts and gates" (Deu 6:9; Deu 11:20); a curse, too, was pronounced on putting up an image "in a secret place" (Deu 27:15).
discovered thyself--image from an adulteress.
enlarged . . . bed--so as to receive the more paramours.
made . . . covenant--with idols: in open violation of thy "covenant" with God (Exo 19:5; Exo 23:32). Or, "hast made assignations with them for thyself" [HORSLEY].
thy bed . . . their bed--The Jews' sin was twofold; they resorted to places of…
Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance "Behind the door, and the door-posts, hast thou set up thy memorial" - That is, the image of their tutelary gods, or something dedicated to them; in direct opposition to the law of God, which commanded them to write upon the door-posts of their house, and upon their gates, the words of God's law; Deu 6:9; Deu 11:20. If they chose for them such a situation as more private, it was in defiance of a particular curse denounced in the law against the man who should make a graven or a molten image, and put it in a secret place; Deu 27:15. An ancient MS., with another, has אחר achar, without the conjunction ו vau, and.
The Church Fathers
"You have made a bargain for yourselves with them" means, "You have united with many demons, and you have followed their laws, and you have covenanted to serve each one."
Rightly does God through the prophet reproach the sinful soul that goes whoring away from him and say, "You thought, if you withdrew from me, you would have more?" But like that younger son, why, you have ended up feeding pigs; why, you have lost all things; why, you have remained in want and left it very late before you grew tired and came back. Now at last realize that what the Father gave you, he could keep for you more safely.… O sinful soul, filled with harlotries, turned foul and faded, turned unclean, and still loved like that! So go back to the beautiful one, in order to return to beauty; go back and speak to him who alone suffices you.… So lift your heart up, do not leave it on the ground, or in those beggarly treasures or in a place to rot. In Adam, too, the root of all evils was avarice. You see, he wanted more than he had received, because God had not been enough for him.
First, let us discuss the Hebrew text, which differs greatly from the LXX in this passage. As mentioned above, to the place where it says: 'You have set your bed on a high and lofty mountain,' and it accuses and rebukes her as a prostitute, in the entrance of houses and in dark places, a harlot behind the doors, so that anyone who wished to enter the house would have the pleasure exposed before their eyes. Now it accuses and refutes her as an adulterous wife, because while she was sleeping with her husband, she secretly received an adulterous man and uncovered his cloak, or even widened her bed and made an agreement, composing instruments of deception with adulterers. But he says this to show that not only in the fields and houses did they worship idols, but also in the Temple they placed the image of Baal, which Ezekiel also says he saw when the wall was pierced. 'You loved their bed,' he says, 'with an open hand' (Ezek. VIII), so that you would not be ashamed of your sin and desire to hide the shame of your fornication, but rather sin freely. And you adorned yourself with royal ointment and multiplied your idols. And the meaning is this: You sought various ornaments, so that you could attract adulterers both by sight and by smell. But what is said, 'You have adorned yourself with ointment for a king,' is understood in two ways: either for the king God, when you adorn yourself with those things which he has given you and prostitute yourself to idols; or certainly for the idol king of the Ammonites, who is called Moloch, and in our language, 'king sounds': which we read as Melchom in other places according to the LXX (Zephaniah 1). And you sent your ambassadors far away, so that you would have an inclination for fornicating not only with the idols of nearby nations but also with those of distant nations. But the Babylonians and Egyptians have their own meaning. And you have been humbled, it says, even to the underworld. Not the humility that is praiseworthy, but the one in which Ammon humbled his own sister Thamar (2 Kings 13). And truly great is this humility, or rather a descent even to the underworld, from the light and pinnacle of chastity into the darkness of a brothel, or rather a plunge into the abyss of lust. To whom it is said in another place: You will be led even to the underworld. According to the Septuagint, in those things which differ, this…
Dictionary and topics
Idolatry — Image-worship or divine honour paid to any created object. Paul describes the origin of idolatry in Rom. 1:21-25: men forsook God, and sank into ignorance and moral corruption (1:28). The forms of…
Commandments · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Idolatry · Objects of, worshipped: In secret places — Objects of, worshipped: In secret places
Infidelity · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Legends (Inscriptions) · and forehead — and forehead
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).
Isaiah 57:8 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
John Gill on Isaiah 57:8
Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance,.... The memorial of thine idols, as the Targum. As the Heathens had their "lares" and "penates", their household gods, so the Papists have their tutelar images, which they place in their houses, and in their bedchambers; their images of saints, their crucifixes and superstitious pictures, which they call "memories", and "laymen's books":
for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me; or, "from me" (n); departing from me, and leaving my bed; rejecting Christ as King of saints, deserting his worship and ordinances; thou hast uncovered thyself to another, prostituted thyself to another, been guilty of spiritual adulter…
Behind the door. He dwells largely on the crime of which we have already spoken, that the people may no longer flatter themselves in their inventions. It is probable that Isaiah alludes to the words of Moses, by which God commanded them to have the Law continually placed before them, to attach it to the posts of their houses, and to keep it written and wrapped around their arms and the fringes of their garments, that they might be constantly reminded of their duty. (Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 11:20) But the Jews, on the contrary, polluted the doors and posts of their houses by tokens of idolatry, and left no corner free or pure from such pollutions. Thus they came to forget everywhere God…
The prophet now proceeds with perfects, like שׁפכתּ and העלית (addressed to the national community generally, the congregation regarded as a woman). The description is mostly retrospective. "Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set up thy bed; thou also ascendedst thither to offer slain offerings. And behind the door and the post thou didst place thy reminder: for thou uncoveredst away from me, and ascendedst; thou madest thy bed broad, and didst stipulate for thyself what they had to do: thou lovedst their lying with thee; thou sawest their manhood." The lovers that she sought for herself are the gods of the heathen. Upon lofty mountains, where they are generally worshipped, did she set…
climbed into bed: The people of Israel had a sickening commitment to the fertility religions, which included sex as part of their rituals.
Rashi on Isaiah 57:8
And behind the door and the doorpost you have directed your thoughts Since he compares her to an adulterous woman, for whom her paramours look and wait before the door of her house, while she, lying beside her husband, directs her heart and her thoughts to the door and the doorpost, how she will open the door and come out to them.
for while with Me, you uncovered [us] and went up You were lying beside Me, and you removed the cover with which we were covered together, and you went up from beside Me.
you widened your couch to accommodate many adulterers.
and made for yourself a covenant with them.
you loved their couch when you chose for yourself יָד, a place, to demonstrate to them your l…
