John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 2:11

"The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day." — Isaiah 2:11 (ASV)

The loftiness of the looks of man shall be humbled. Wicked men, relying on the wealth, quietness, and prosperity they currently enjoy, regard the threats of the Prophets with haughty disdain. They thus harden their hearts against God and are even led to indulge in wantonness.

On this account, Isaiah here determines, as we have already said, to repress their arrogance. It is as if he had said, “The time will come when this pride of yours, by which you vainly and madly contend against God, will be brought down.”

For wicked men, though they pretend to have some religion, are still so daring that they rise up against God Himself and imagine that they are higher than God. On the other hand, by thundering against them, he lays low their haughtiness, that he alone may be exalted.

And this is what we have already said: when crimes are allowed to go unpunished, it is like a cloud held before our eyes, which hinders us from beholding the glory of the Lord. But when he takes vengeance on men’s transgressions, his glory shines forth clearly. Solomon also gives this as the reason why wicked men are hardened against God: it is because they think that bad and good men are equally happy in this world.

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11).

For they all grow more insolent and are more and more blinded.

But here he shows that when proud men have been brought to their proper level, nothing will prevent God from being acknowledged for who he is.

It was indeed very fitting that the people should, of their own accord, humbly behold the greatness of God, under whose shadow they were defended. For this purpose, the descendants of Abraham were so remarkably distinguished by numerous blessings, that they might be the mirror of the glory and holiness of God.

Isaiah now threatens that, because the Jews have risen up against him, God will employ a new method of exalting his glory: namely, by their destruction.

When he speaks of lofty looks and loftiness, he uses an outward gesture to denote the inward pride of the mind, for sinful confidence almost always betrays, by the very looks, a contempt of God and of men. In the same sense, David describes the man whose eyes are lofty (Psalms 101:5).