John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 8:21

"And they shall pass through it, sore distressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their God, and turn their faces upward:" — Isaiah 8:21 (ASV)

Then they shall pass through that land. Not to permit believers to be ensnared by common errors, he adds how dreadful is the punishment that awaits the ungodly when they have revolted from God and have labored to induce others to join in the same revolt. The passage is somewhat obscure, but this obscurity arises from a lack of proper attention in examining the words.

The verb עבר (gnabar) is emphatic, for by passing through he means that uncertainty in which people wander up and down and are not able to find a resting-place or any permanent abode. To the indefinite verb, we must supply a noun: The Jews shall pass. By the pronoun בה (bahh), in it, he means Judea, which the Lord had preferred to all other countries; and therefore, it is easily understood, though the Prophet does not express it.

It is as if he had said, “I promised indeed that that country would be the perpetual inheritance of my people (Genesis 13:15; Genesis 17:8), but they shall lead a wandering and restless life, as is the case with those who, driven from their habitations and afflicted with hunger, pestilence, and every kind of calamity, seek but nowhere find a better condition and abode.”

These words are therefore contrasted with the extraordinary kindness of God, which is so frequently mentioned by Moses—namely, that they will have a fixed residence in Judea. For here he threatens that they will be stragglers and wanderers, not in their own but in a foreign country, so that wherever they come, they will be attacked and hunted down by innumerable vexations.

When they shall be hungry. The Prophet appears to point out the conversion of the Jews, as if he had said, “When they have been weighed down by afflictions, they will eventually repent.” And undoubtedly, this is the remedy by which the Lord generally cures the disease of obstinacy. Yet, if anyone supposes that the word hunger describes the indignation and roaring of the wicked without repentance, it may be stated that it includes not only hunger and thirst but, by a figure of speech in which a part is taken for the whole (συνεκδοχικῶς), every other kind of calamity.

They shall fret themselves. They will begin to be displeased with themselves and to loathe all the supports on which they had formerly relied; and this is the beginning of repentance. For in prosperity we flatter ourselves, but in severe adversity we loathe everything that is around us. But if it is thought preferable to refer it to the reprobate, this word denotes the bitterness, which is so far from leading them to humility that it rather aggravates their rage.

And curse their king and their God. By King, some suppose that he means God. In this sense, Zephaniah used the word מלכם (malcham), that is, their King (Zephaniah 1:5).

But here I draw a distinction between King and God, for wicked people are first blinded by a false confidence in idols, and afterwards, they place their defense in earthly things.

When the Jews had a king, they were proud of his glory and power. When Isaiah preached, wicked people enraged the king against him and even aroused the whole nation to follow the king as their standard-bearer.

Since, therefore, their false boasting had been partly in the idols and partly in the king, he threatens that they will be afflicted with so many calamities that they will be constrained to abhor both their gods and the king.

And this is the beginning of repentance: to loathe and drive far from us everything that kept us back or led us away from God.

And look upward. He describes the trembling and agitation of mind by which wretched people are tormented until they have learned steadfastly to look up.

There is, indeed, some proficiency, as I lately hinted, when, as a consequence of having been taught by afflictions and chastisements, we throw away our indifference and endeavor to find remedies.

But we must advance further. Fixing our eye on God alone, we must not gaze on all sides or, through fickleness, be tossed to and fro (Ephesians 4:14).

However that may be, Isaiah threatens the utter destruction of the Jews, for so thoroughly were they hardened that their rebellion could not be subdued by a light and moderate chastisement from the hand of God.

Yet it might be taken in a good sense, that the Jews will eventually raise their eyes to heaven; but in that case, we must read separately what follows—