Isaiah 24:14

They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) They shall cry aloud from the sea . . .—The utterers of the praise are obviously the remnant of the saved, whether of the “Jews of the dispersion,” or of the Gentiles. To them there appears in the midst of the desolation, the vision of the glory of the Lord, and far off, from the sea (the Mediterranean, as the great sea of the ancient world) they raise their song of praise.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:13-15 There shall be a remnant preserved from the general ruin, and it shall be a devout and pious remnant. These few are dispersed; like the gleanings of the olive tree, hid under the leaves. The Lord knows those that are his; the world does not. When the mirth of carnal worldlings ceases, the joy of the saints is as lively as ever, because the covenant of grace, the fountain of their comforts, and the foundation of their hopes, never fails. Those who rejoice in the Lord can rejoice in tribulation, and by faith may triumph when all about them are in tears. They encourage their fellow-sufferers to do likewise, even those who are in the furnace of affliction. Or, in the valleys, low, dark, miry places. In every fire, even the hottest, in every place, even the remotest, let us keep up our good thoughts of God. If none of these trials move us, then we glorify the Lord in the fires.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They shall lift up their voice - They who are left in the land; or who are not carried away to Babylon. 'To lift up the voice' in the Scriptures may denote either grief or joy; compare Genesis 21:6; 1 Samuel 24:16; Judges 2:4; Ruth 1:9, ..., where to lift up the voice is conected with weeping; and Ezekiel 21:22; Psalm 93:3; Isaiah 40:29; Isaiah 42:11, etc., where it is connected with exultation and joy. The latter is evidently the idea here, that the few who would escape from captivity by fleeing to neighboring countries, would lift up their voice with exultation that they had escaped.

They shall sing for the majesty of the Lord - They shall sing on account of the glory, or goodness of Yahweh, wire had so mercifully kept and preserved them.

They shall cry aloud from the sea - From the isles and coasts of the Mediterranean where they would have escaped, and where they would find a refuge. No doubt many of the inhabitants adjacent to the sea, when they found the land invaded, would betake themselves to the neighboring islands, and find safety there until the danger should be overpast. Lowth renders this,

'The waters shall resound with the exaltation of Jehovah,'

Where he supposes מים should be rendered as if pointed מים mayâm 'waters,' not as it is in the present Hebrew text, מים miyâm 'from the sea.' The sense is not materially different; but there seems to be no good reason for departing from the usual interpretation.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. They—those who are left: the remnant.

sing for the majesty of the Lord—sing a thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord, who has so mercifully preserved them.

from the sea—from the distant lands beyond the sea, whither they have escaped.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They; the remnant preserved.

For the majesty of the Lord; for his glorious power and goodness manifested in their deliverance.

They shall cry aloud, in way of exultation and thanksgiving to God.

From the sea; from the isles of the sea, as this is explained in the next verse; from those parts beyond the sea, into which they were carried captive, and in which they were miraculously preserved.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing,.... That is, as the Septuagint version adds,

"they that are left upon the earth;''

these shall lift up their voice, in singing the praises of God, for his judgments on Babylon, and avenging the blood of his saints; and for their deliverance and salvation, and the inestimable blessings they are now put into the possession of; these are they, who, having gotten the victory over the beast and his image, sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, Revelation 15:2,

for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea: so the Hebrew accents distinguish these clauses; and the sense is, that from the west, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, from the western nations, where Protestantism chiefly prevails; or from the Mediterranean Sea, which lay west of Judea; from the maritime countries, the countries bordering upon it, where at this time will appear many that will embrace the Gospel of Christ; or from the isles of the sea, as the phrase is explained in the next verse Isaiah 24:15, such as our isles of Great Britain and Ireland; great acclamations will be made unto the Lord, on account of his glorious majesty, seen in the destruction of antichrist, and in setting up his own kingdom and glory: these are the four and twenty elders, who will fall down, and give thanks to Christ, for taking to himself his great power, and reigning; and these triumphant and victorious persons are represented as standing on a sea, while they make their shouts and hallelujahs; see Revelation 11:16 this, with what follows in the two next verses Isaiah 24:15, belong to the Philadelphian church state, or spiritual reign of Christ, and express the light and joy that will attend that.

Geneva Study Bible

They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from {i} the sea.

(i) From the utmost coasts of the world, where the gospel will be preached as in Isa 24:16.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. They shall lift up their voice] Rather: These lift up their voice. The pronoun at the beginning is emphatic and stands in contrast to the “I” of Isaiah 24:16.

they shall sing, for the majesty …] Better (following the accents) they shout: for the majesty of Jehovah they cry aloud, &c. The last words from the sea (i.e. the Mediterranean) point to the West as the quarter whence the songs of triumph proceed. Cf. “in the coasts,” Isaiah 24:15.

14–16. Already, indeed, the prophet can hear songs of praise ascending from distant parts of the earth, hailing the dawn of a better day; but he himself cannot share these enthusiastic hopes. It is not likely that this representation is purely ideal. Events must have occurred which excited the premature expectation of an immediate deliverance. It is difficult to conceive the historical situation which is presupposed. The most natural supposition will be that the singers referred to are Israelites of the Dispersion, who follow with sympathetic interest the development of some great crisis in the fortunes of the people of God, but whose vision is unable to perceive the darker signs of the times which are manifest to the prophet. A more exact determination of the circumstances must depend on the date which is found best to harmonise all the indications of the prophecy.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - They shall lift up their voice. Even in this time of depression and ruin there shall he a "remnant," which will be faithful to God, and which, from the midst of the sufferings and calamities of the period, will "lift up its voice," in songs of adoration and praise, to Jehovah, and sing, or "send forth a cry." This chorus of praise will go forth - to a large extent - from the sea; i.e. from the Mediterranean. Isaiah 24:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

There is now a church there refined by the judgment, and rejoicing in its apostolic calling to the whole world. "They will lift up their voice, and exult; for the majesty of Jehovah they shout from the sea: therefore praise ye Jehovah in the lands of the sun, in the islands of the sea the name of Jehovah the God of Israel." The ground and subject of the rejoicing is "the majesty of Jehovah," i.e., the fact that Jehovah had shown Himself so majestic in judgment and mercy (Isaiah 12:5-6), and was now so manifest in His glory (Isaiah 2:11, Isaiah 2:17). Therefore rejoicing was heard "from the sea" (the Mediterranean), by which the abode of the congregation of Jehovah was washed. Turning in that direction, it had the islands and coast lands of the European West in front (iyyi hayyâm; the only other passage in which this occurs is Isaiah 11:11, cf., Ezekiel 26:18), and at its back the lands of the Asiatic East, which are called 'urim, the lands of light, i.e., of the sun-rising. This is the true meaning of 'urim, as J. Schelling and Drechsler agree; for Dderlein's comparison of the rare Arabic word awr, septentrio is as far removed from the Hebrew usage as that of the Talmud אור אורתּא, vespera. Hitzig's proposed reading באיים (according to the lxx) diminishes the substance and destroys the beauty of the appeal, which goes forth both to the east and west, and summons to the praise of the name of Jehovah the God of Israel, על־כּן, i.e., because of His manifested glory. His "name" (cf., Isaiah 30:27) is His nature as revealed and made "nameable" in judgment and mercy.