Isaiah 32

10. Many days and years--rather, "In little more than a year" [MAURER]; literally, "days upon a year" (so Isaiah 29:1 ).
vintage shall fail--through the arrival of the Assyrian invader. As the wheat harvest is omitted, Isaiah must look for the invasion in the summer or autumn of 714 B.C., when the wheat would have been secured already, and the later fruit "gathering," and vintage would be still in danger.

11. strip you--of your gay clothing. (See Isaiah 2:19 Isaiah 2:21 ).

12. lament for . . . teats--rather, shall smite on their breasts in lamentation "for thy pleasant fields" ( Nahum 2:7 ) [MAURER]. "Teats" in English Version is used for fertile lands, which, like breasts, nourish life. The transition from "ye" to "they" ( Isaiah 32:11 Isaiah 32:12 ) is frequent.

13. ( Isaiah 5:6 , 7:23 ).
houses of joy--pleasure-houses outside of Jerusalem, not Jerusalem itself, but other cities destroyed by Sennacherib in his march ( Isaiah 7:20-25 ). However, the prophecy, in its full accomplishment, refers to the utter desolation of Judea and its capital by Rome, and subsequently, previous to the second coming of the King ( Psalms 118:26 , Luke 13:35 , 19:38 ); "the joyous city" is in this view, Jerusalem ( Isaiah 22:2 ).

14. palaces--most applicable to Jerusalem
multitude . . . left--the noisy din of the city, that is, the city with its noisy multitude shall lie forsaken [MAURER].
forts--rather, "Ophel" (that is the mound), the term applied specially to the declivity on the east of Zion, surrounded with its own wall ( 2 Chronicles 27:3 , 33:14 , 2 Kings 5:24 ), and furnished with "towers" (or watchtowers), perhaps referred to here ( Nehemiah 3:26 Nehemiah 3:27 ).
for ever--limited by thee, "until," &c., Isaiah 32:15 , for a long time.

15. This can only partially apply to the spiritual revival in Hezekiah's time; its full accomplishment belongs to the Christian dispensation, first at Pentecost ( Joel 2:28 , Acts 2:17 ), perfectly in coming times ( Psalms 104:30 , Ezekiel 36:26 , 39:29 , Zechariah 12:10 ), when the Spirit shall be poured on Israel, and through it on the Gentiles ( Micah 5:7 ).
wilderness . . . fruitful field . . . forest--when Judea, so long waste, shall be populous and fruitful, and the land of the enemies of God shall be desolate. Or, "the field, now fruitful, shall be but as a barren forest in comparison with what it shall be then" ( Isaiah 29:17 ). The barren shall become fruitful by regeneration; those already regenerate shall bring forth fruits in such abundance that their former life shall seem but as a wilderness where no fruits were.

16. judgment--justice.
wilderness--then reclaimed.
fruitful field--then become more fruitful ( Isaiah 32:15 ); thus "wilderness" and "fruitful field" include the whole land of Judea.

17. work--the effect ( Proverbs 14:34 , 3:18 ).
peace--internal and external.

18. sure . . . quiet--free from fear of invasion.

19. Literally, "But it shall hail with coming down of the forest, and in lowness shall the city (Nineveh) be brought low; that is, humbled." The "hail" is Jehovah's wrathful visitation ( Isaiah 30:30 , Isaiah 28:2 Isaiah 28:17 ). The "forest" is the Assyrian host, dense as the trees of a forest ( Isaiah 10:18 Isaiah 10:19 Isaiah 10:33 Isaiah 10:34 , Zechariah 11:2 ).

20. While the enemy shall be brought "low," the Jews shall cultivate their land in undisturbed prosperity.
all waters--well-watered places ( Isaiah 30:25 ). The Hebrew translation, "beside," ought rather to be translated, "upon" ( Ecclesiastes 11:1 ), where the meaning is, "Cast thy seed upon the waters when the river overflows its banks; the seed will sink into the mud and will spring up when the waters subside, and you will find it after many days in a rich harvest." Before sowing, they send oxen, &c., into the water to tread the ground for sowing. CASTALIO thinks there is an allusion to the Mosaic precept, not to plough with an ox and ass together, mystically implying that the Jew was to have no intercourse with Gentiles; the Gospel abolishes this distinction ( Colossians 3:11 ); thus the sense here is, Blessed are ye that sow the gospel seed without distinction of race in the teachers or the taught. But there is no need of supposing that the ox and ass here are yoked together; they are probably "sent forth" separately, as in Isaiah 30:24 .