Isaiah 22:14

And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) It was revealed in mine ears . . .—The special form indicates that the warning was “borne in,” ringing, as it were, on the inward ears of the prophet, as an oracle of God. That sensual recklessness could have but one end in all countries and ages, and that end was death. No formal religion, no chastisement, even, would avail to purge an iniquity like that in the absence of a true repentance.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:8-14 The weakness of Judah now appeared more than ever. Now also they discovered their carnal confidence and their carnal security. They looked to the fortifications. They made sure of water for the city. But they were regardless of God in all these preparations. They did not care for his glory in what they did. They did not depend upon him for a blessing on their endeavours. For every creature is to us what God makes it to be; and we must bless him for it, and use it for him. There was great contempt of God's wrath and justice, in contending with them. God's design was to humble them, and bring them to repentance. They walked contrary to this. Actual disbelief of another life after this, is at the bottom of the carnal security and brutish sensuality, which are the sin, the shame, and ruin of so great a part of mankind. God was displeased at this. It is a sin against the remedy, and it is not likely they should ever repent of it. Whether this unbelief works by presumption or despair, it produces the same contempt of God, and is a token that a man will perish wilfully.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

It was revealed in mine ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until ye die - That is, the sin is so aggravated that it shall never be expiated or pardoned. Few sins can be more aggravated than revelry and riot, thoughtlessness and mirth over the grave. Nothing can show a more decided disregard of God, and nothing a more grovelling and sensual disposition. And yet, it is the common sin of the world; and there can be nothing more melancholy than that a race hastening to the grave should give itself to riot and dissipation. One would think that the prospect of a speedy and certain death would deter people from sin. But the very reverse is true. The nearer they approach death, the more reckless and abandoned do they often become. The "strength and power" of depravity is thus shown in the fact that people can sin thus when near the grave, and with the most fearful warnings and assurances that they are soon to go down to eternal wo.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. Notwithstanding Jehovah's "call to mourning" (Isa 22:12), many shall make the desperate state of affairs a reason for reckless revelry (Isa 5:11, 12, 14; Jer 18:12; 1Co 15:32).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

It was revealed in mine ears; what I am saying is not my own invention, nor uncertain reports, but what I heard with these ears of mine. The like phrase we have 1 Samuel 9:15, the Lord had told Samuel in his ear. This iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die; you shall feel the sad effects of this wickedness, and my just displeasure for it, as long as you live. This is not spoken exclusively, as if it should be purged after their death, which is absurd and impious to imagine, at least concerning such as lived and died in this desperate and impenitent condition; but emphatically. to show that God will have no mercy upon them in that time of life, in which he useth and delighteth to give repentance and remission of sins to mankind.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts,.... Both what they said in the preceding verse Isaiah 22:13, their profane, impious, and scoffing language; which perhaps was not expressed by words, but said in their hearts, and which God the searcher of hearts knew, and revealed it to the prophet; and also what he determined to do upon this, which is afterwards said, which being a purpose within himself, could not be known without a divine revelation; so the Targum,

"the prophet said, with mine ears I was hearing, when this was decreed from before the Lord of hosts;''

namely, that their iniquity should not be forgiven; the Vulgate Latin version is, "the voice of the Lord of hosts is revealed in mine ears"; saying what is expressed in the next clause: but the Septuagint, and Arabic versions, understand it of the ears of Lord of hosts himself: and Aben Ezra thinks the word "ani" or "I" is wanting, and so Kimchi; and that the words should be rendered thus, "it was revealed in mine ears, I am the Lord of hosts": and so it is by some others, "it was revealed in the ears of me, the Lord of hosts" (q), or, "of the Lord of hosts"; the wickedness, profaneness, and luxury of the people; the cry of their sins came up into the ears of the Lord of hosts, and therefore he determined to do what he next declares:

Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die; it being of heinous nature, so daring, insolent, and affronting, such a contempt of God and his word, and discovering such impenitence and hardness of heart, it should not be expiated by any sacrifice whatever; not by the day of atonement, nor death itself, as the Jews from hence fancy; in short, it should not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in that to come; for if not till they died, then not after, where there is no repentance, nor remission; see Matthew 12:32 the words are in the form of an oath, "if this iniquity be purged, or expiated", &c. (r); the Lord swears to it, that it never should be pardoned, but they should die in it; as a corporeal, so an eternal death. The Targum interprets it of the second death; that is, as Kimchi explains it, the death of the soul in the world to come; see Revelation 21:8,

saith the Lord God of hosts; and therefore this would certainly be the case; for his word and oath are his two immutable things, in which it is impossible for him to lie.

(q) "et revelabitur in auribus meis Domini exercituum", Montanus; "et revelatum in auribus Domini", &c. Musculus. (r) "si exibitur", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator; "si expietur", Junius & Tremellius.

Geneva Study Bible

And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. And it was revealed … hosts] Render with R.V. And Jehovah of hosts revealed himself in mine ears. The message comes to the prophet like an external voice, which he knows to be that of the Lord (cf. ch. Isaiah 5:9).

Surely …] The form is that of adjuration (cf. Isaiah 14:24).

purged from you] Better; expiated for you. Cf. 1 Samuel 3:14. The threat neither implies that the sin could be expiated by the death of the sinner, nor means merely that guilt would lie on them as long as they lived; it is a definite intimation that the unexpiated sin will call down punishment, and the punishment will be death.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - It was revealed in mine cars by the Lord of hosts; rather, the Lord of hosts revealed himself in mine ears, saying. This iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die. The sin of turning a call to repentance into an excuse for rioting and drunkenness is one which God will not pardon. It implies a hardness of heart which cannot fail to issue in final impenitence. Isaiah 22:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And so far as it had proceeded already, it was a call from Jehovah to repentance. "The Lord, Jehovah of hosts, calls in that day to weeping, and to mourning, and to the pulling out of hair, and to girding with sackcloth; and behold joy and gladness, slaughtering of oxen and killing of sheep, eating of flesh and drinking of wine, eating and drinking, for 'tomorrow we die.' And Jehovah of hosts hath revealed in mine ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be expiated for you until ye die, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts." The first condition of repentance is a feeling of pain produced by the punishments of God. But upon Jerusalem they produce the opposite effect. The more threatening the future, the more insensibly and madly do they give themselves up to the rude, sensual enjoyment of the present. Shâthoth is interchanged with shâthō (which is only another form of שׁתה, as in Isaiah 6:9; Isaiah 30:19), to ring with shâchōt (compare Hosea 10:4). There are other passages in which we meet with unusual forms introduced for the sake of the play upon the words (vid., Isaiah 4:6; Isaiah 8:6; Isaiah 16:9, and compare Ezekiel 43:11, and the keri of 2 Samuel 3:25). The words of the rioters themselves, whose conduct is sketched by the inf. abs., which are all governed by hinnēh, are simply "for tomorrow we shall die." This does not imply that they feel any pleasure in the thought of death, but indicates a love of life which scoffs at death. Then the unalterable will of the all-commanding God is audibly and distinctly revealed to the prophet. Such scoffing as this, which defies the chastisements of God, will not be expiated in any other way than by the death of the scoffer (cuppar, from câphar, tegere, means to be covered over, i.e., expiated). This is done in the case of sin either by the justice of God, as in the present instance, or by the mercy of God (Isaiah 6:7), or by both justice and mercy combined (as in Isaiah 27:9). In all three cases the expiation is demanded by the divine holiness, which requires a covering between itself and sin, by which sin becomes as though it were not. In this instance the expunging act consists in punishment. The sin of Jerusalem is expiated by the giving up of the sinners themselves to death. The verb temūthūn (ye shall die) is written absolutely, and therefore is all the more dreadful. The Targum renders it "till ye die the second (eternal) death" (mōthâh thinyânâh). So far as they prophecy threatened the destruction of Jerusalem by Assyria, it was never actually fulfilled; but the very opposite occurred. Asshur itself met with destruction in front of Jerusalem. But this was by no means opposed to the prophecy; and it was with this conviction that Isaiah, nevertheless, included the prophecy in the collection which he made at a time when the non-fulfilment was perfectly apparent. It stands here in a double capacity. In the first place, it is a memorial of the mercy of God, which withdraws, or at all events modifies, the threatened judgment as soon as repentance intervenes. The falling away from Assyria did take place; but on the part of Hezekiah and many others, who had taken to heart the prophet's announcement, it did so simply as an affair that was surrendered into the hands of the God of Israel, through distrust of either their own strength or Egyptian assistance. Hezekiah carried out the measures of defence described by the prophet; but he did this for the good of Jerusalem, and with totally different feelings from those which the prophet had condemned. These measures of defence probably included the reservoir between the two walls, which the chronicler does not mention till the close of the history of his reign, inasmuch as he follows the thread of the book of Kings, to which his book stands, as it were, in the relation of a commentary, like the midrash, from which extracts are made. The king regulated his actions carefully by the prophecy, inasmuch as after the threats had produced repentance, Isaiah 22:8-11 still remained as good and wise counsels. In the second place, the oracle stands here as the proclamation of a judgment deferred but not repealed. Even if the danger of destruction which threatened Jerusalem on the part of Assyria had been mercifully caused to pass away, the threatening word of Jehovah had not fallen to the ground. The counsel of God contained in the word of prophecy still remained; and as it was the counsel of the Omniscient, the time would surely come when it would pass out of the sphere of ideality into that of actual fact. It remained hovering over Jerusalem like an eagle, and Jerusalem would eventually become its carrion. We have only to compare the temūthūn of this passage with the ἀποθανείσθε of John 8:21, to see when the eventual fulfilment took place. Thus the "massa of the valley of vision" became a memorial of mercy to Israel when it looked back to its past history: but when it looked into the future, it was still a mirror of wrath.