Isaiah 32:4

4 The heart of the hasty will understand and know, 1and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.

Isaiah 32:4 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 32:4

The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge
Such who have been hasty and precipitant, as the word F3 signifies; who have not given themselves time to consider what they have read or heard, or has been proposed unto them, and have hastily received every thing that has been suggested to them, especially by carnal sense and reason, shall now sit down, and coolly consider things, and so gain an understanding of divine and spiritual knowledge, of the knowledge of Christ, of his person, offices, grace, righteousness, and salvation; an experimental knowledge and understanding of these things, heart and not head knowledge: and the tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak plainly;
or, "shall make haste to speak neatly" F4; elegantly and politely; such who hesitated in their speech, and spoke in a blundering manner, and scarcely intelligibly, especially when they spoke of divine and spiritual things, yet now, without the least hesitation, in the freest and most ready manner, with all plainness and propriety shall talk of these things, to the great delight, satisfaction, and use of those that hear them: this was true of the apostles of Christ, those babes and sucklings, out of whose mouth God ordained praise, and who were most of them Galilaeans, very illiterate and unpolished, and yet these, especially when they had the gift of tongues, spake the great things of God very readily, and in good language; and also is true of other ministers of the word, raised up among the barbarous nations of the world.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 (Myrhmn) "inconsideratorum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "praecipatorum", Montanus.
F4 (twxu rbdl rhmt) "festinabit loqui nitida", Pagninus; "polite", Munster; "diserte", Calvin; "loqui venusta", Cocceius.

Isaiah 32:4 In-Context

2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
4 The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
5 The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.
6 For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

Cross References 1

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.