Isaiah 30:25

And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) There shall be upon every high mountain . . .—The picture of a golden age is continued. The mountains and hills, often so dry and barren, should flow down with rivers of waters, and irrigate the valleys. And this should coincide with the day of a “great slaughter,” perhaps of the enemies of Israel, perhaps also of the people themselves (judgment coming before the blessing), and of the fall of the “towers” in which they had put their trust. (Comp. Isaiah 40:4.) As before, man’s extremity was to be God’s opportunity. Possibly, however, the “towers” are those of the besiegers of the city.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 30:25. On every high mountain, and every high hill — Which are commonly dry and barren; shall be rivers and streams of water — Fertilizing and refreshing blessings, showered down by God upon his church and people. This verse certainly cannot be understood literally, and the mystical meaning, according to Vitringa and some others, is, “that in all the more celebrated places, whether of kingdoms or cities, there should be synagogues, public schools, or oratories, in which the word of God, and the doctrine of pure religion, should be copiously taught, and the waters of sound instruction poured out,” so that the lovers of true wisdom, piety, and virtue, might there quench their thirst. The time in which these benefits should be conferred upon the church is denoted by this character, namely, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers shall fall — That is, when God should take severe vengeance upon the enemies of his people. Perhaps the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, with the subversion of the Jewish state, and the slaughter of immense multitudes of Jews, events connected with the calling of the Gentiles, and the extensive propagation of the gospel, might be first in the prophet’s view. The words may further refer to the overthrow of the pagan, persecuting Roman empire, and the great slaughter that preceded or accompanied it. But, undoubtedly, the words ultimately refer to the destruction of all the antichristian powers, the subversion of the fortresses and towers of Satan’s kingdom, making way for the universal diffusion of divine truth and spread of true religion. “This shall be remarkably fulfilled,” says Lowth, “at the time when there shall be a terrible destruction of God’s enemies, (Revelation 14:20; Revelation 19:21,) and when the great ones of the earth shall fall, denoted here by high towers, or the fortifications of mystical Babylon.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

30:19-26 God's people will soon arrive at the Zion above, and then they will weep no more for ever. Even now they would have more comfort, as well as holiness, if they were more constant in prayer. A famine of bread is not so great a judgment as a famine of the word of God. There are right-hand and left-hand errors; the tempter is busy courting us into by-paths. It is happy if, by the counsels of a faithful minister or friend, or the checks of conscience, and the strivings of God the Spirit, we are set right when doubting, and prevented from going wrong. They shall be cured of their idolatry. To all true penitents sin becomes very hateful. This is shown daily in the conversion of souls, by the power of Divine grace, to the fear and love of God. Abundant means of grace, with the influences of the Holy Spirit, would be extended to places destitute of them. The effect of this should be comfort and joy to the people of God. Light, that is, knowledge, shall increase. This is the light which the gospel brought into the world, and which proclaims healing to the broken-hearted.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the day of the great slaughter - When the enemies of the people of God shall have been destroyed - probably in a time subsequent to the slaughter of the army of the Assyrians.

When the towers fall - The towers of the enemy; perhaps referring here to the towers of Babylon. After they should fall, the Jews would be favored with the time of prosperity to which the prophet here refers.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. Even the otherwise barren hills shall then be well-watered (Isa 44:3).

the day, &c.—when the disobedient among the Jews shall have been slain, as foretold in Isa 30:16: "towers," that is, mighty men (Isa 2:15). Or else, the towers of the Assyrian Sennacherib, or of Babylon, types of all enemies of God's people.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill; which are commonly dry and barren, and destitute of rivers.

In the day of the great slaughter; when God shall destroy the enemies of his people, he will shower down his blessings upon his church.

The towers; either properly, the towers of Babylon, for which she was famous; or metaphorically, the high and mighty potentates, which fought against God’s people, as Isaiah 2:15.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill,.... Which were round about Jerusalem, and in other parts of Judea:

rivers and streams of water; such abundance of rain, that it should flow in streams like rivers, from the higher to the lower lands, and water them. This may in a spiritual sense be understood of the great plenty of the ministry of the Gospel, in all the kingdoms of the world, great and small, signified by mountains and hills; and which may also intimate the open and public ministrations of it in them, Zechariah 14:8 or of the blessings of grace, and the graces of the Spirit, communicated everywhere; see Isaiah 41:18, John 7:38. This is applied to the times of the Messiah by the Jews (g) themselves, and respects the latter part of those times:

in the day of the great slaughter; not of Sennacherib's army by the angel, as many Jewish and Christian interpreters understand it; nor of the Babylonians, at the taking of Babylon by Cyrus; but of the antichristian kings, and their armies, Revelation 19:17. So the Targum paraphrases it,

"for the ruin of kings and their armies, in the day of the great slaughter;''

and a great slaughter it will be indeed:

when the towers fall; not the batteries and fortifications raised in the Assyrian camp, at the siege of Jerusalem, which fell when they were destroyed by the angel; or the great men and princes in that army, which then fell; though towers sometimes signify great persons, such as princes; see Isaiah 2:15 and so the Targum interprets it here; and may be true of the antichristian princes; for of the fall of the great city of Rome, and of other cities of the nations, with the towers thereof, is this to be understood, even of mystical, and not of literal Babylon; see Revelation 11:13.

(g) Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 212. 3.

Geneva Study Bible

And there shall be upon every high {x} mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

(x) By these various manners of speech he shows that the happiness of the Church will be so great, that no one is able sufficiently to express it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. Even the arid slopes of the hills of Palestine shall then flow with water.

slaughter, when the towers fall] cf. ch. Isaiah 2:12 ff. It is a vague poetic allusion to the day of the Lord, when all His enemies are destroyed.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - Rivers and streams of water; rather, rivulets, courses of water. Channels, along which water was conveyed for the purpose of irrigation, are intended (comp. Ezekiel 47:1-12; Joel 3:18). No doubt there is a secondary allegorical meaning running through the whole description of Judah's prosperity (vers. 23-26). In this allegorical intention the waters stand for the streams of God's grace. In the day of the great slaughter. Equivalent to "the day of vengeance" (Isaiah 34:8) the day when God shall tread down his enemies. The prophet passes from the immediate effect of Judah's repentance to a broader view of what shall happen when God's kingdom is established upon the earth. When the towers fall; i.e. when there shall be a general "pulling down of strong holds," and a "casting down of every high thing that exalts itself against God" (2 Corinthians 10:4, 5). Isaiah 30:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The promise, after setting forth this act of penitence, rises higher and higher; it would not stop at bread in time of need. "And He gives rain to thy seed, with which thou sowest the land; and bread of the produce of the land, and it is full of sap and fat: in that day your flocks will feed in roomy pastures. And the oxen and the young asses, which work the land, salted mash will they eat, which is winnowed with the winnowing shovel and winnowing fork! And upon every high mountain, and every hill that rises high, there are springs, brooks in the day of the great massacre, when the towers fall." The blessing which the prophet depicts is the reverse of the day of judgment, and stands in the foreground when the judgment is past. The expression "in that day" fixes, as it were, the evening of the day of judgment, which is followed by the depicted morning of blessing. But the great mass of the Jewish nation would be first of all murdered in war; the towers must fall, i.e., (though without any figure, and merely as an exemplifying expression) all the bulwarks of self-confidence, self-help, and pride (Isaiah 2:15; Micah 5:9-10). In the place of the self-induced calamities of war, there would now come the God-given rich blessings of peace; and in the place of the proud towers, there would come fruitful heights abounding with water. The field would be cultivated again, and produce luxuriant crops of nutritious corn; so that not only the labour of man, but that of the animals also, would receive a rich reward. "Rain to thy seed:" this is the early rain commencing about the middle of October. אשׁר as an accusative, זרע being construed with a double accusative, as in Deuteronomy 22:9. מקניך might be the singular, so far as the form is concerned (see Isaiah 1:30; Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 22:11); but, according to Exodus 17:3, it must be taken as a plural, like מוריך. The 'ălâphı̄m are the oxen used in ploughing and threshing; the ‛ăyârı̄m, the asses used for carrying manure, soil, the sheaves, or the grain. Belı̄l châmı̄ts is a mash (composed of oats, barley, and vetches, or things of that kind) made more savoury with salt and sour vegetables;

(Note: Such as Salsola kali, Salsola tragus, Salsola soda, and other plants of the family of the chenopodiaceae.)

that is to say, a farrago (from bâlal, to mix; Comm. on Job, at Job 40:19-24). According to Wetzstein, it is ripe barley (unthreshed during the harvest and threshing time, and the grain itself for the rest of the year) mixed with salt or salt vegetables. In any case, belı̄l is to be understood as referring to the grain; this is evident from the relative clause, "which has been winnowed" ( equals mezōreh, Ewald, 169, d), or perhaps more correctly, "which he (one) winnows" (part. kal), the participle standing for the third person, with the subject contained within itself (Ewald, 200), i.e., not what was generally given from economy, viz., barley, etc., mixed with chopped straw (tibn), but pure grain (habb mahd, as they say at the present day). Rachath is a winnowing shovel, which is still used, according to Wetzstein, in Merj. Gedur, and Hauran; mizreh, on the other hand, is the winnowing fork with six prongs. Dainty food, such as was only given occasionally to the cattle, as something especially strengthening, would then be their regular food, and would be prepared in the most careful manner. "Who cannot see," exclaims Vitringa, "that this is to be taken spiritually?" He appeals to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:9, viz., that God does not trouble Himself about oxen. But Paul did not mean this in the same sense as Aristotle, who maintained that the minima were entirely excluded from the providence of God. What the Scriptures say concerning cattle, they do not say for the sake of the cattle, but for the sake of men; though it does not follow that the cattle are to be understood figuratively, as representing men. And this is the case here. What the prophet paints in this idyllic style, in colours furnished by the existing customs,

(Note: Asses particularly, even those of a guest, are generally very much neglected. The host throws them a little grass, and then hangs up the fodder-sack full of chopped straw; and it is a sign of extraordinary hospitality of corn is given to the asses as well as to the horses. - Wetzstein.)

is not indeed intended to be understood in the letter; and yet it is to be taken literally. In the age of glory, even on this side of eternity, a gigantic stride will be taken forward towards the glorification of universal nature, and towards the end of all those sighs which are so discernible now, more especially among domestic animals. The prophecy is therefore to be interpreted according to Romans 8:19.; from which we may clearly see that God does trouble Himself about the sighing of an ox or ass that is overburdened with severe toil, and sometimes left to starve.