Matthew Henry on Isaiah 6:9–end
God takes Isaiah at his word, and here sends him on a strange errand - to foretel the ruin of his people and even to ripen them for that ruin - to preach that which, by their abuse of it, would be to them a savour of death unto death. And this was to be a type and figure of the state of the Jewish church in the days of the Messiah, when they should obstinately reject the gospel, and should thereupon be rejected of God. These verses are quoted in part, or referred to, six times, in the New Testament, which intimates that in gospel time these spiritual judgments would be most frequently inflicted; and though they make the least noise, and come not with observation, yet they are of all judgment…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 6:13
and it shall return, and . . . be eaten--Rather, "but it shall be again given over to be consumed": if even a tenth survive the first destruction, it shall be destroyed by a second (Isa 5:25; Eze 5:1-5, Eze 5:12), [MAURER and HORSLEY]. In English Version, "return" refers to the poor remnant left in the land at the Babylonish captivity (Kg2 24:14; Kg2 25:12), which afterwards fled to Egypt in fear (Kg2 25:26), and subsequently returned thence along with others who had fled to Moab and Edom (Jer 40:11-12), and suffered under further divine judgments.
tell--rather, "terebinth" or "turpentine tree" (Isa 1:29).
substance . . . when . . . cast . . . leaves--rather, "As a terebinth or oak in wh…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Isaiah 6:13
But yet in it shall be a tenth,.... Which some understand of ten kings that should reign over Judah from this time, the death of Uzziah, unto the captivity, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra observe; and which are, as Kimchi reckons them, as follows, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah; but the prophecy, as we have seen, respects not the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, but their present one; wherefore the words are to be understood of a few persons, a remnant, according to the election of grace, that should be called, and saved amidst all the blindness, darkness, and destruction that should come upon that people; and may be illustrated by the wor…
