A King Will Reign in Righteousness
Isa 32:1 See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.
Isa 32:2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.
Isa 32:3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.
Isa 32:4 The fearful heart will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.
Isa 32:5 No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected.
Isa 32:6 For fools speak folly, their hearts are bent on evil: They practice ungodliness and spread error concerning the LORD; the hungry they leave empty and from the thirsty they withhold water.
Isa 32:7 Scoundrels use wicked methods, they make up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.
Isa 32:8 But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.
Complacent Women Warned of Disaster
Isa 32:9 You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say!
Isa 32:10 In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come.
Isa 32:11 Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure! Strip off your fine clothes and wrap yourselves in rags.
Isa 32:12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines
Isa 32:13 and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers— yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.
Isa 32:14 The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
Isa 32:15 till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.
Isa 32:16 The LORD’s justice will dwell in the desert, his righteousness live in the fertile field.
Isa 32:17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
Isa 32:18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.
Isa 32:19 Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely,
Isa 32:20 how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.
Isa 32:1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, And princes will rule with justice.
Isa 32:2 A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, And a cover from the tempest, As rivers of water in a dry place, As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Isa 32:3 The eyes of those who see will not be dim, And the ears of those who hear will listen.
Isa 32:4 Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
Isa 32:5 The foolish person will no longer be called generous, Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
Isa 32:6 For the foolish person will speak foolishness, And his heart will work iniquity: To practice ungodliness, To utter error against the LORD, To keep the hungry unsatisfied, And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
Isa 32:7 Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans To destroy the poor with lying words, Even when the needy speaks justice.
Isa 32:8 But a generous man devises generous things, And by generosity he shall stand.
Complacent Women Warned of Disaster
Isa 32:9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, Hear my voice; You complacent daughters, Give ear to my speech.
Isa 32:10 In a year and some days You will be troubled, you complacent women; For the vintage will fail, The gathering will not come.
Isa 32:11 Tremble, you women who are at ease; Be troubled, you complacent ones; Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, And gird sackcloth on your waists.
Isa 32:12 People shall mourn upon their breasts For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
Isa 32:13 On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city;
Isa 32:14 Because the palaces will be forsaken, The bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
Isa 32:15 Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.
Isa 32:16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
Isa 32:17 The work of righteousness will be peace, And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
Isa 32:18 My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, In secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places,
Isa 32:19 Though hail comes down on the forest, And the city is brought low in humiliation.
Isa 32:20 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.
1 The blessings of Christ’s kingdom. 9 Desolation is foreshown. 15 Restoration is promised to succeed.
A King Will Reign in Righteousness
Isa 32:1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, And princes will rule with justice.
Reign in righteousness.
Isaiah turns from the imminent Assyrian attack on Jerusalem (ch. 31:8, 9) to the time of peace that was to follow. The withdrawal of Sennacherib in 701 was followed by several years of peace under the just rule of Hezekiah. In a similar way the overthrow of all the forces of Satan will be followed by Christ’s eternal reign in righteousness and glory.
As usual, the prophetic picture of peace and security following upon tribulation blends into a description of the glories of the world to come, the Messianic age. In this Messianic setting the “king” is Christ.
Isa 32:2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.
The Messiah would be to His people a source of comfort, contentment, and rest, a place of protection and shelter. In the dry and burning desert He would be as a life-giving stream, the cooling shade of a great rock.
Isa 32:3 The eyes of those who see will not be dim, And the ears of those who hear will listen.
The eyes of man’s spiritual understanding will be opened that he may comprehend the things of God.
Isa 32:4 Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
The rash. Compare ch. 6:10. The “rash” are those who do not take time to think things through to reach sound conclusions. In the promised time of restoration such people will exercise sound judgment. Blessed with clear understanding and keen discernment, they will not be compelled to speak in broken words or with a faltering tongue.
Isa 32:5 The foolish person will no longer be called generous, Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
“The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the rogue said to be honorable.” Men will no longer mistake ignorance for wisdom or darkness for light. They will not “call evil good, and good evil” (ch. 5:20).
Isa 32:6 For the foolish person will speak foolishness, And his heart will work iniquity: To practice ungodliness, To utter error against the LORD, To keep the hungry unsatisfied, And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
Isaiah graphically portrays the actions of the “fool.” In the better day to come, men will be recognized for what they are, not for what they pretend to be. A sinner will be classified as such and will receive a sinner’s certain reward.
Isa 32:7 Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans To destroy the poor with lying words, Even when the needy speaks justice.
Isa 32:8 But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.
Isa 32:8 But a generous man devises generous things, And by generosity he shall stand.
He will not suffer for having been generous.
Complacent Women Warned of Disaster
Isa 32:9 You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say!
Isaiah addresses the favored women in Jerusalem, who, because of their pampered lives, feel most keenly the hardships of a siege. Compare his denunciation of the haughty “daughters of Zion” in ch. 3:16–26.
Isa 32:10 In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come.
Isa 32:11 Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure! Strip off your fine clothes and wrap yourselves in rags.
They are called to mourn and repent, to put on sackcloth in place of their costly finery. Prayer and fasting are in order, not feasting and merrymaking.
Isa 32:12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines
Oriental manner of expressing grief and distress. Prosperity would soon give way to desolation and distress.
Isa 32:13 and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers— yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.
Thorns and briers. A symbol of desolation (see on ch. 7:23–25).
Houses of merriment. The stately villas where the wealthy gathered for their banquets and drunken revelries. The prediction of v. 13 was partially fulfilled at the time of Sennacherib’s invasion, more fully so when Nebuchadnezzar laid the country waste, and still later when the Romans devastated the land.
Isa 32:14 The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
Isa 32:15 till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.
These words were partially fulfilled in the great reformation sponsored by Hezekiah, but more completely so at the time of Pentecost (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17; see also Hosea 6:3; Joel 2:23; Zech. 10:1; Rev. 18:1).
Fertile field. Primarily, at least, a figurative expression (Isa. 32:16; cf. Isa. 5:1–7; Gal. 5:22, 23). The time would come when there would be outpourings of God’s Spirit upon the world, which would cause regions spiritually barren and desolate to blossom as the rose. This is one of Isaiah’s favorite themes (Isa. 29:17; 35:1; 41:17–20; 55:13).
Counted for a forest. What was already a “fruitful field” would become even more productive.
Isa 32:16 The LORD’s justice will dwell in the desert, his righteousness live in the fertile field.
Justice would flourish in what had previously been a moral wilderness, and the righteousness of the already “fruitful field” would not be diminished in the least.
Righteousness is the result of living in harmony with the will of God. God is love, and all His commandments are “righteousness” (Ps. 119:172). Men who love God with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves are at peace with God and with the world about them. Lasting peace can prevail only where there is a solid foundation of righteousness. Without justice there can be no peace (Isa. 48:22). Men who cling to sin will never find peace, no matter how earnestly they seek it. The greatest need of our troubled world is an understanding of this important, fundamental principle.
Isa 32:19 Though hail comes down on the forest, And the city is brought low in humiliation.
The Targums read, “the forest goes down utterly.” In contrast with the “peaceable habitation” of the righteous (v. 18), desolation will be the certain lot of the wicked (see Rev. 16:19; 18:2, 21).
Isa 32:20 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.
Those who labor faithfully now are promised a sure and abundant harvest.
The Jews employed both oxen and asses in their agricultural activities (Deut. 22:10; Isa. 30:24). These were the common domestic beasts of burden in the ancient Orient.