John Gill Commentary Isaiah 57:8

"And behind the doors and the posts hast thou set up thy memorial: for thou hast uncovered [thyself] to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them: thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it." — Isaiah 57:8 (ASV)

Behind the doors also and the posts have you set up your remembrance

The memorial of your idols, as the Targum. As the Heathens had their "lares" and "penates", their household gods, so the Papists have their tutelar images, which they place in their houses, and in their bedchambers; their images of saints, their crucifixes and superstitious pictures, which they call "memories", and "laymen's books".

for you have discovered yourself to another than me^F14; or, "from me"; departing from me, and leaving my bed; rejecting Christ as King of saints, deserting his worship and ordinances; you have uncovered yourself to another, prostituted yourself to another, been guilty of spiritual adultery or idolatry; receiving and acknowledging another for head of the church, according to whose will all things in worship are directed.

and have gone up; to the bed set up in the high place; to idolatrous temples and altars, there to offer sacrifice.

you have enlarged your bed; to take in many adulterers, and idolatrous worshippers; and so, as Musculus observes, many small chapels, at first erected for this and the other saint, through the vast concourse of people to them, and the gifts they have brought, have, in process of time, become large and magnificent temples.

and made a covenant with them; with idols, and idol worshippers; agreeing to receive the mark and name of the beast, and to worship his image, (Revelation 13:15–17) , or, "you have cut for yourself more than they" {o}; more trees to make idols of, or to make more room for the placing of idols in groves than the Heathens: or, "you have hewed it for yourself", a bed larger ^F16 than theirs; that is, your bed you have made larger than theirs: or, "you have cut for yourself from them" ^F17; taken away from emperors and kings part of, their dominions, and joined them to your patrimony, and appropriated them to your own use.

you loved their bed where you saw it; took delight and pleasure in places of idolatrous worship, and in their idolatry, wherever they were: or, "you loved their bed, a hand you have seen" ^F18; stretched out to help you, or give you power, or to invite, encourage, and receive you into the idolatrous bed; or rather any pillar, monument ^F19, or statue, erected for idolatry, which seen, they fell down to and worshipped.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F14: (ytam) "a me", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vitringa.
• F16: "Caedens tibi amplius Cubile quam illorum sit", Junius & Tremellius.
• F17: "Et excidisti tibi ex eis", Montanus.
• F18: (tyzx dy) "manum vidisti", Montanus, Cocceius.
• F19: "Ubi monumentum vidisti", Vitringa.