Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 30:20

"And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be hidden anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers;" — Isaiah 30:20 (ASV)

The bread of adversity. —Better, bread in small quantity, and water in scant measure. The words seem to imply an allusion to the scant rations of a siege such as Jerusalem was to endure from the Assyrian armies.

For this, there should be the compensation that the true “teachers” of the people, Isaiah and his fellow-workers, should at least be recognised—no longer thrust into a corner, as they had been in the days of Ahaz. The clearer vision of the truth was to be the outcome of the sharp teaching of chastisement.

A various reading gives “your teacher,” that is, Jehovah Himself; but the plural seems more in harmony with the context. In the mission of Isaiah 37:2, we have a virtual fulfilment of the prediction.