Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 48:22

"There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked." — Isaiah 48:22 (ASV)

There is no peace, says the Lord, to the wicked - This verse contains a sentiment whose truth no one can doubt. To the transgressor of the laws of God, there can be no permanent peace, enjoyment, or prosperity.

The word "peace" is used in the Scriptures in all these senses (see the note at Isaiah 48:18). There may be the appearance of joy, and there may be temporary prosperity, but there is no abiding, substantial, permanent happiness, such as is enjoyed by those who fear and love God. This sentiment occurs frequently in Isaiah. It is repeated in Isaiah 57:21; and in Isaiah 57:20, he says that ‘the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.’

The truth of this declaration cannot be doubted, but it is not perfectly clear why it is introduced here. It is probably a part of the song with which they would celebrate their return, and it may have been used for one of the following reasons:

1. As a general maxim, expressed in view of the joy they had in their return to their own land. They experienced profound peace, triumph, and joy. This was because they had evidence that they were the objects of divine favor and protection. How natural it was, in view of these blessings, to say that the wicked had no such comfort, and in general, that there was no peace for them of any kind, or from any source.

2. It may have been said because many of their countrymen might have chosen to remain in Babylon when the others returned to their own land. They probably formed connections there, amassed wealth, and refused to join those who returned to Judea to rebuild the temple. And the meaning may be that, amidst all the wealth they might have gained and amidst the idolatries that prevailed in Babylon, they could never enjoy the peace experienced by those who returned to the land of their fathers.

Whatever the reason for its use here, it contains a most important truth that demands the attention of all people. The wicked, as a matter of sober truth, have no permanent and substantial peace and joy. They have none:

1. In the act of wickedness. Sin may be accompanied by the gratifications of bad passions, but in the act of sinning itself, there can be no substantial happiness.

2. They have no solid, substantial, profound peace in the business or pleasures of life. This world can provide no joys such as are derived from the hope of a life to come. Pleasures ‘pall upon the sense,’ riches take wings, disappointment comes; and the highest earthly and sensual pleasure leaves a sad sense of want—a feeling that something in the capacities and needs of the immortal mind has not been filled.

3. They have no peace of conscience; no deep and abiding conviction that they are right. They are often troubled, and there is nothing this world can provide that will give peace to a heart agitated by the guilt of sin.

4. They have no peace on their deathbed. There may be apathy, callousness, insensibility, freedom from much pain or alarm. But that is not peace, any more than sterility is fruitfulness, or death is life, or the frost of winter is the greenness of spring, or a desert is a fruitful field.

5. Often, in these circumstances, there is the opposite of peace. There is not only no positive peace, but its contrary. There is often disappointment, care, anxiety, distress, deep alarm, and the dreadful apprehension of eternal wrath. There is no situation in life or death where the sinner can certainly expect peace, or where he will be sure to find it. It is highly probable that his mind will often be filled with alarm, and that his deathbed will be one of despair.

6. There is no peace for the wicked beyond the grave. “A sinner can have no peace at the judgment bar of God; he can have no peace in hell.” In all the world to come, there is no place where he can find rest; and whatever this life may be, even if it is a life of prosperity and external comfort, yet for him there will be no prosperity in the world to come, and no external or internal peace there.