Isaiah 25

Isaiah 25:1-12 . CONTINUATION OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER. THANKSGIVING FOR THE OVERTHROW OF THE APOSTATE FACTION, AND THE SETTING UP OF JEHOVAH'S THRONE ON ZION.

The restoration from Babylon and re-establishment of the theocracy was a type and pledge of this.

1. wonderful--( Isaiah 9:6 ).
counsels of old--( Isaiah 42:9 , 46:10 ). Purposes planned long ago; here, as to the deliverance of His people.
truth--Hebrew, Amen; covenant-keeping, faithful to promises; the peculiar characteristic of Jesus ( Revelation 3:14 ).

2. a city . . . heap--Babylon, type of the seat of Antichrist, to be destroyed in the last days (compare Jeremiah 51:37 , with Revelation 18:1-24 , followed, as here, by the song of the saints' thanksgiving in Revelation 19:1-21 ). "Heaps" is a graphic picture of Babylon and Nineveh as they now are.
palace--Babylon regarded, on account of its splendor, as a vast palace. But MAURER translates, "a citadel."
of strangers--foreigners, whose capital pre-eminently Babylon was, the metropolis of the pagan world. "Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise" ( Isaiah 29:5 , Ephesians 2:12 ; see in contrast, Joel 3:17 ).
never be built--( Isaiah 13:19 Isaiah 13:20 , &c.).

3. strong people--This cannot apply to the Jews; but other nations on which Babylon had exercised its cruelty ( Isaiah 14:12 ) shall worship Jehovah, awed by the judgment inflicted on Babylon ( Isaiah 23:18 ).
city--not Babylon, which shall then be destroyed, but collectively for the cities of the surrounding nations.

4. the poor . . . needy--the Jews, exiles from their country ( Isaiah 26:6 , 41:17 ).
heat--calamity ( Isaiah 4:6 , 32:2 ).
blast--that is, wrath.
storm--a tempest of rain, a winter flood, rushing against and overthrowing the wall of a house.

5. Translate, "As the heat in a dry land (is brought down by the shadow of a cloud, so) thou shalt bring down the tumult (the shout of triumph over their enemies) of strangers (foreigners); and as the heat by the shadow of the cloud (is brought low), so the branch (the offspring) of the terrible ones shall be brought low." PARKHURST translates the Hebrew for "branch," the exulting song. JEROME translates the last clause, "And as when the heat burns under a cloud, thou shalt make the branch of the terrible ones to wither"; the branch withering even under the friendly shade of a cloud typifies the wicked brought to ruin, not for want of natural means of prosperity, but by the immediate act of God.