Isaiah 2:18

The closing refrain of the next two strophes is based upon the concluding clause of Isa 2:10. The proclamation of judgment turns now to the elilim, which, as being at the root of all the evil, occupied the lowest place in the things of which the land was full (Isa 2:7, Isa 2:8). In a short v. of one clause consisting of only three words, their future is declared as it were with a lightning-flash. "And the idols utterly pass away." The translation shows the shortness of the verse, but not the significant synallage numeri. The idols are one and all a mass of nothingness, which will be reduced to absolute annihilation: they will vanish Câlil, i.e., either "they will utterly perish" (funditus peribunt), or, as Câlil is not used adverbially in any other passage, "they will all perish" (tota peribunt, Jdg 20:40) - their images, their worship, even their names and their memory (Zac 13:2).

With this chapter begins a new sermon, which is continued in the two following chapters. The subject of this discourse is Judah and Jerusalem (Isa 2:1). In this chapter the prophet speaks, I. Of the glory of the Christians, Jerusalem, the gospel-church in the latter days, in the accession of many to it (Isa 2:2, Isa 2:3), and the great peace it should introduce into the world (Isa 2:4), whence he infers the duty of the house of Jacob (Isa 2:5). II. Of the shame of the Jews, Jerusalem, as it then was, and as it would be after its rejection of the gospel and being rejected of God. 1. Their sin was their shame (Isa 2:6-9). 2. God by his judgments would humble them and put them to shame (Isa 2:10-17). 3. They should themselves be ashamed of their confidence in their idols and in an arm of flesh (Isa 2:18-22). And now which of these Jerusalems will we be the inhabitants of - that which is full of the knowledge of God, which will be our everlasting honour, or that which is full of horses and chariots, and silver and gold, and such idols, which will in the end be our shame?