Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 25

O Lord, thou art my God. —The burst of praise follows, like St. Paul’s in Romans 11:33-36, upon the contemplation of the glory of the heavenly city.

Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. —It is better to omit the words in italics, and to treat the words as standing in the objective case, in apposition with “wonderful things.” The “counsels of old” are the eternal purposes of God made known to His prophets. The absence of a conjunction in the Hebrew emphasizes the enumeration.

Thou hast made of a city an heap. —The city spoken of as “the palace of strangers” was, probably in the prophet’s thought, that which he identified with the oppressors and destroyers of his people—that is, Nineveh or Babylon; but that city was also for him the representation of the world-power which in every age opposes itself to the righteousness of God’s kingdom. The Babylon of Isaiah becomes the type of the mystical Babylon of the Apocalypse. The words as they stand expand the thought of Isaiah 24:10. (Compare to Isaiah 27:10.)

Therefore shall the strong people ... —Better, “a fierce people and a city,” the Hebrew having no article before either noun. The words paint the effect of the downfall of the imperial oppressor on the outlying fiercer nations, who were thus taught to recognize the righteous judgments of the God of Israel. (Revelation 15:4.)

You have been a strength ... —Literally, a fortress. The fierceness of the oppressor is represented by the intolerable heat, and the fierce tornado of an eastern storm, dashing against the wall, threatening it with destruction. From that storm the faithful servants of the Lord should find shelter as in the castle of the great King.

You shall bring down the noise of strangers ... —The thought of Isaiah 25:4 is reproduced with a variation of imagery, the scorching “heat” in a “dry” (or parched) “land.” This is deprived of its power to harm by the presence of Jehovah, as the welcome shadow of a cloud hides the sun’s intolerable blaze. (Compare to Isaiah 32:2.) It is noticeable that the Septuagint in both passages gives “Sion” for “dry place” (Hebrew tsayôn), perhaps following a various reading, perhaps interpreting.

The branch of the terrible ones ... —Better, the song. The Hebrew noun is a rare one, but is found in this sense in Song of Solomon 2:12. The triumph song of the dread oppressors is thought of as blighting the world like a spell of evil; but this also is to be brought low, and hushed in silence.