Isaiah 30:13

13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you ¹like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

Isaiah 30:13 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 30:13

Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready
to fall
Or, "as a falling breach" ^F13; contempt of the word of God, and trusting in wickedness, rejecting the counsel of God, and placing confidence in the creature, these would be the cause of ruin; which ruin is signified by the breach of a falling wall, or by a breach in a wall, by reason of which it is in danger of falling, and is just ready to fall: swelling out in a high wall;
like a wall that bellies out and bulges, and which, when it once begins to do, suddenly falls; and the higher it is, it comes with more force, and the greater is the fall: whose breaking cometh suddenly, at an instant;
and so it is suggested, should be the ruin of this people; the high towering confidence they had in Egypt would fall with its own weight, and they with it, and be broken to pieces in a moment; and which is further illustrated by another simile.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (lpwn Urpk) "sicut ruptura cadens", Montanus, Cocceius, De Dieu. Ben Melech observes, that a breach is after the building is fallen; for the breach does not fall, but it is said on account of the end of it, or what it is at last, as in Isa. xlvii. 2. "grind meal" or "flour".

Isaiah 30:13 In-Context

11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel."

12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,

13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

14 and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."

15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." But you were unwilling,

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 62:3