John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 29:17

"Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?" — Isaiah 29:17 (ASV)

Is it not yet a little while? The Lord now declares that He will make those wicked men know who they are; as if He had said, “You are now asleep in your pride, but I will speedily awaken you.” People indulge themselves until they feel the powerful hand of God; and therefore the Prophet threatens that the judgment of God will overtake such profound indifference.

And Lebanon will be turned into Carmel. Under the names “Lebanon” and “Carmel,” He intended to express a renewal of the world and a change of affairs. But as to the object of the allusion, commentators differ widely from each other. Mount “Lebanon” was clothed with trees and forests, and “Carmel” had fruitful and fertile fields.

Many think that the Jews are compared to “Carmel,” because they will be barren, and Christians to “Lebanon,” because they will yield a great abundance of fruits. That opinion is certainly plausible, as people are usually gratified by everything that is ingenious.

But a parallel passage, which we will afterward see (Isaiah 32:15), will show that the Prophet here employs the comparison for the purpose of magnifying the grace of God. For, when He will again begin to bless His people, the vast abundance of all blessings will take away from “Carmel” the celebrity which it possessed.

He therefore threatens that He will turn “Lebanon” into “Carmel,” that is, a forest will become a cultivated field and will produce grain. The cultivated fields will yield such a great abundance of fruits that, if their present and future conditions are compared, they may now be pronounced unfruitful and barren.

This mode of expression will be more fully explained when we come to consider Isaiah 32:15.

Others view “Carmel” as a common noun, but I prefer to regard it as a proper name. For it means that those fruitful fields may now be considered uncultivated and barren in comparison with the new and unusual fertility. Others explain it allegorically, taking “Lebanon” to denote proud men, and “Carmel” to denote humble and ordinary people.

This may be thought acute and ingenious, but I prefer to follow the simpler interpretation I have already stated. So that the godly may not be discouraged, He passes from threatenings to proclaim grace, and declares that when, by enduring for a little while the cross laid on them, they will have given evidence of the obedience of their faith, a sudden renewal is at hand to fill them with joy.

And yet, by shutting out the ungodly from this hope, He intimates that when they are at ease and promise themselves peace or a truce, destruction is very near. For, as Paul tells us, when they shall say, Peace and Safety, then sudden destruction will overtake them (1 Thessalonians 5:3).