Isaiah 32
The Reign of Righteousness 1–8
Warning to Complacent Women 9–14
Restoration Through the Spirit 15–20
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Isaiah 32
Verse 1
a king shall reign in righteousness — Melek, king, and tsedeq, righteousness, with ‘princes’ who ‘rule’ (sarar) in judgment (mishpat). The Son is addressed in Heb 1:8, ‘a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom’. David had said, ‘He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God’ (2 Sam 23:3).
Verse 2
an hiding place from the wind — Two words for shelter: machabe, a hiding place, and cether, a covert. Isaiah says of the LORD himself, ‘a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat’ (Isa 25:4). Here ‘a man’ (ish) is the shelter, with water in a ‘dry place’ and a rock’s shadow in a ‘weary’ land (ayeph, as in Ps 63:1).
Verse 5
The vile person… the churl — Nabal, the fool, the word of 1 Sam 25:25, ‘as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him’; and kilay, the miser, found only here and in v.7. ‘Liberal’ is nadib, the willing or generous, set against them, and ‘bountiful’ (shoa) is a rare word, also in Job 34:19.
Verse 6
the vile person will speak villany — Nebalah, folly as moral fault, the word of 1 Sam 25:25 and Gen 34:7. Chaneph, ‘hypocrisy’, occurs only here. The charge ends in deeds: to ‘make empty the soul of the hungry’ and to make the thirsty’s drink ‘fail’. Matt 15:19 names the source, ‘out of the heart proceed evil thoughts’.
Verse 8
by liberal things shall he stand — Nadib, the willing: ‘whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it’ for the tabernacle (Ex 35:5), and ‘thy free spirit’ in Ps 51:12. The same word also means a prince, as in ‘put confidence in princes’ (Ps 118:9). Here the noble is the generous, and what he plans holds him up (qum, to stand).
Verse 9
ye women that are at ease — Shaanan, secure or untroubled, the word of Amos 6:1, ‘Woe to them that are at ease in Zion’. ‘Careless’ is batach, trusting; it is repeated in vv.10 and 11. The women addressed recall the ‘daughters of Zion’ of Isa 3:16, and the warning is given in v.10: they shall be ‘troubled’ (ragaz, to tremble).
Verse 10
the vintage shall fail — Batsir, the grape-gathering, and asef, the ingathering, from the root of the ‘feast of ingathering’ at the year’s end (Ex 23:16; 34:22). The harvest the feast celebrates ‘shall not come’. The failure of vine and fruit in judgment is also in Jer 8:13 and Isa 5:5–6.
Verse 14
the palaces shall be forsaken — Armon, palace, as in Jer 9:21, and natash, to leave unattended. The city’s ‘multitude’ (hamon, its noise) is left, and the forts and towers are given to ‘wild asses’ and flocks. ‘For ever’ is limited by the ‘Until’ of v.15.
Verse 15
Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high — Arah, to empty out; the gift is poured from above, as in Acts 2:17, ‘I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh’, and Titus 3:6, ‘Which he shed on us abundantly’. The reversal, ‘the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest’, is the language of Isa 29:17.
Verse 17
the work of righteousness shall be peace — Tsedaqah gives shalom; its ‘effect’ (avodah, service or labour) is ‘quietness’ (shaqat, rest) and ‘assurance’ (betach, security) ‘for ever’. The New Testament joins them: ‘the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace’ (Jas 3:18), ‘the peaceable fruit of righteousness’ (Heb 12:11).
Verse 19
When it shall hail — Barad, hail, comes down on ‘the forest’ (yaar, the word of v.15). Hail is the LORD’s instrument against the proud in Isa 28:2 and 30:30, ‘with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones’. The city is brought ‘low’ (shaphel), the word for being humbled; the forest is also the figure in Isa 10:18, 34.
Verse 20
Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters — Ashre, ‘Blessed’, the word that opens the Psalter (Ps 1:1). Sowing ‘beside all waters’ with ox and ass goes with the rain on the seed and the oxen and young asses that ‘ear the ground’ in Isa 30:23–24. Eccl 11:1 says, ‘Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.’