Isaiah 57:8

8 and thou settedest thy memorial behind the door, and behind the post. For besides me, thou uncoveredest thee (to another), and tookest (in the) adulterer; thou alargedest thy bed, and madest a bond of peace with them (thou hast a large, or a big, bed, and madest a covenant, or an agreement, with them); thou lovedest the bed of them with (an) open hand,

Isaiah 57:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 57:8

Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy
remembrance
The memorial of thine 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 thou hast discovered thyself to another than me;
or, "from me" ^F14; departing from me, and leaving my bed; rejecting Christ as King of saints, deserting his worship and ordinances; thou hast uncovered thyself to another, prostituted thyself 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 art gone up;
to the bed set up in the high place; to idolatrous temples and altars, there to offer sacrifice: thou hast enlarged thy 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, "thou hast cut for thyself 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, "thou hast hewed it for thyself", a bed larger ^F16 than theirs;
that is, thy bed thou hast made larger than theirs: or, "thou hast cut for thyself from them" ^F17; taken away from emperors and kings part of, their dominions, and joined them to thy patrimony, and appropriated them to thine own use: thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it;
took delight and pleasure in places of idolatrous worship, and in their idolatry, wherever they were: or, "thou lovedst their bed, a hand thou hast seen" ^F18; stretched out to help thee, or give thee power, or to invite, encourage, and receive thee into the idolatrous bed; or rather any pillar, monument ^F19, or statue, erected for idolatry, which seen, they fell down to and worshipped.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F14 (ytam) "a me", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vitringa.
F15 (Mhm Kl trktw) "et caedis tibi arbores plusquam illi", Piscator.
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.

Isaiah 57:8 In-Context

6 Thy part is in the parts of the strand, this is thy part; and to them thou sheddest out moist offering (and thou pourest out a drink offering to them), thou offeredest (a) sacrifice. Whether I shall not have indignation on these things?

7 Thou puttedest thy bed on an high hill and enhanced (Thou puttest thy bed on a high and exalted hill), and thither thou ascendedest to offer sacrifices;

8 and thou settedest thy memorial behind the door, and behind the post. For besides me, thou uncoveredest thee (to another), and tookest (in the) adulterer; thou alargedest thy bed, and madest a bond of peace with them (thou hast a large, or a big, bed, and madest a covenant, or an agreement, with them); thou lovedest the bed of them with (an) open hand,

9 and adornedest thee with [the] king's ointment, and thou multipliedest thy pigments; thou sentest far thy messengers, and thou art made low till to hells (thou sentest out thy messengers, or thy procurers, far and wide, even down to hell).

10 Thou travailedest in the multitude of thy (own) way(s), and saidest not, I shall rest (I shall cease, or I shall stop now); thou hast found the way of thine hand, therefore thou prayedest not (to me).