Isaiah 22:4

Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Therefore said I, Look away from me.—The tone is that of one who wishes to be alone in his sorrow. It is too deep for visits of consolation. He “refuses to be comforted.” Isaiah bewails the destruction of “the daughter of his people” in much the same strain as that of Jeremiah over a later catastrophe (Lamentations 3:48).

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 22:4-5. Therefore said I, &c. — “Behold the prophet here anticipating those lamentations which he was afterward to pour forth, and which Jeremiah so pathetically poured forth, an eye-witness of this calamity. For the expressions here are too strong to be applied to any other calamity than the great and final one, when the Jews were carried captives to Babylon;”

of which the prophet had a clear foresight. Look away from me — Take off your eyes and thoughts from me, and leave me alone, that I may take my fill of sorrow. Labour not to comfort me — For all your labour will be lost. I neither can nor will receive any consolation. Because of the spoiling, &c. — Of that city and nation, whereof I am a member. The title of daughter is often given both to cities and nations, as hath been observed before. For it is a day of treadling down — In which my people are trodden under foot by their insolent enemies; and of perplexity by the Lord of hosts — This is added, partly to show, that this did not happen without God’s providence; and partly to aggravate their calamity, because, not only men, but God himself fought against them; breaking down the walls — Of the strong cities of Judah; which was done both by Sennacherib and by Nebuchadnezzar; and of crying to the mountains — With such loud and dismal outcries as should reach to the neighbouring mountains. “Who does not see,” says Vitringa, “in Isaiah, thus weeping over Jerusalem, a type of Jesus weeping over this same city in its last extremity?”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:1-7 Why is Jerusalem in such terror? Her slain men are not slain with the sword, but with famine; or, slain with fear, disheartened. Their rulers fled, but were overtaken. The servants of God, who foresee and warn sinners of coming miseries, are affected by the prospect. But all the horrors of a city taken by storm, faintly shadow forth the terrors of the day of wrath.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Look away from me - Do not look upon me - an indication of deep grief, for sorrow seeks to be alone, and grief avoids publicity and exposure.

I will weep bitterly - Hebrew, 'I will be bitter in weeping.' Thus we speak of "bitter" sorrow, indicating excessive grief (see the note at Isaiah 15:5; compare Jeremiah 13:17; Jeremiah 14:17; Lamentations 1:16; Lamentations 2:11; Micah 1:8-9).

Labour not - The sense is, 'My grief is so great that I cannot be comforted. There are no topics of consolation that can be presented. I must be alone, and allowed to indulge in deep and overwhelming sorrow at the calamities that are coming upon my nation and people.'

Because of the spoiling - The desolation; the ruin that is coming upon them.

The daughter of my people - Jerusalem (see the note at Isaiah 1:8; compare Jeremiah 4:11; Jeremiah 6:14; Jeremiah 8:19, Jeremiah 8:21-22; Lamentations 2:11; Lamentations 4:3, Lamentations 4:6, Lamentations 4:10).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. Look … from me—Deep grief seeks to be alone; while others feast joyously, Isaiah mourns in prospect of the disaster coming on Jerusalem (Mic 1:8, 9).

daughter, &c.—(see on [720]Isa 1:8; [721]La 2:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Look away from me; take off your eyes and thoughts from me, and leave me alone, that I may take my fill of sorrows.

Labour not to comfort me; for all your labour will be lost, I neither can nor will receive any consolation.

Of the daughter of my people; of that city and nation whereof I am a member. The title of daughter is oft given both to cities and nations, as hath been noted before.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore said I,.... Not God to the ministering angels, as Jarchi; but the prophet to those that were about him, his relations, friends, and acquaintance:

look away from me; turn away from me, look another way; cease from me, let me alone; leave me to myself, that I may weep in secret, take my fill of sorrow, and give full vent to it:

I will weep bitterly; or, "I will be bitter", or, "bitter myself in weeping" (n); it denotes the vehemence of his grief, the greatness of his sorrow, and the strength of his passion:

labour not to comfort me; make use of no arguments to persuade me to lay aside my mourning; do not be urgent and importunate with me to receive consolation, for my soul refuses to be comforted:

because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people; his countrymen, which were as dear to him as a daughter to a tender parent, now spoiled, plundered, and made desolate by the ravages of the enemy, in many cities of Judea.

(n) "amarificabo me in fletu", Montanus; "amaritudine afficiam me in isto fletu", Junius & Tremellius.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep {g} bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.

(g) He shows what is the duty of the godly, when God's plagues hang over the Church, and especially of the ministers, Jer 9:1.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. Look away from me] i.e. “leave me alone,” as Job 7:19.

labour not is strictly press not upon me, and spoiling should be destruction. The prophet’s gaze is already on the future.

daughter of my people] The phrase, common in Jeremiah and Lamentations, occurs only here in Isaiah.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Therefore said I. The prophet turns from the description of the scene before him to an account of his own feelings. Look away from me, he says; "leave me free to vent my sorrow without restraint; I wish for no consolation - only leave me to myself." Because of the spoiling. The word used sometimes means" destruction;" but" spoiling" is a better rendering here. Sennacherib describes his "spoiling" of Jerusalem on this occasion as follows: "Thirty talents of gold, eight hundred talents of silver, precious carbuncles, great... stones, couches of ivory, lofty thrones of ivory, skins of buffaloes, horns of buffaloes, weapons, everything, a great treasure, and his daughters, the eunuchs of his palace, male musicians, and female musicians, to Nineveh, the city of my dominion, did Hezekiah send after me" (G. Smith, 'Eponym Canon,' p. 135, II. 29-37). To what straits Hezekiah was reduced in order to collect a sufficient amount of the precious metals we learn from 2 Kings 18:15, 16. Isaiah 22:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Therefore I say, Look away from me, that I may weep bitterly; press me not with consolations for the destruction of the daughter of my people! For a day of noise, and of treading down, and of confusion, cometh from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision, breaking down walls; and a cry of woe echoes against the mountains." The note struck by Isaiah here is the note of the kinah that is continued in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Jeremiah says sheber for shod (Lamentations 3:48), and bath-ammi (daughter of my people) is varied with batḣZion (daughter of Zion) and bath-yehudah (daughter of Judah). Mērēr babbeci (weep bitterly) is more than bâcâh mar (Isaiah 33:7): it signifies to give one's self thoroughly up to bitter weeping, to exhaust one's self with weeping. The two similar sounds which occur in Isaiah 22:5, in imitation of echoes, can hardly be translated. The day of divine judgment is called a day in which masses of men crowd together with great noise (mehūmâh), in which Jerusalem and its inhabitants are trodden down by foes (mebūsâh) and are thrown into wild confusion (mebūcâh). This is one play upon words. The other makes the crashing of the walls audible, as they are hurled down by the siege-artillery (mekarkar kir). Kirkēr is not a denom. of kı̄r, as Kimchi and Ewald suppose (unwalling walls), but is to be explained in accordance with Numbers 24:17, "he undermines," i.e., throws down by removing the supports, in other words, "to the very foundations" (kur, to dig, hence karkârâh, the bottom of a vessel, Kelim ii. 2; kurkoreth, the bottom of a net, ib. xxviii. 10, or of a cask, Ahaloth ix. 16). When this takes place, then a cry of woe echoes against the mountain (shōa‛, like shūa‛, sheva‛), i.e., strikes against the mountains that surround Jerusalem, and is echoed back again. Knobel understands it as signifying a cry for help addressed to the mountain where Jehovah dwells; but this feature is altogether unsuitable to the God - forgetting worldly state in which Jerusalem is found. It is also to be observed, in opposition to Knobel, that the description does not move on in the same natural and literal way as in a historical narrative. The prophet is not relating, but looking; and in Isaiah 22:5 he depicts the day of Jehovah according to both its ultimate intention and its ultimate result.