Isaiah 32:10

Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Many days and years . . .—Literally, days to the year, a phrase after the pattern of “add ye year to year” in Isaiah 29:1, but implying, not the long continuance of the trouble, but its quick arrival, as in “a year and a day.”

The vintage shall fail . . .—The words are commonly taken as predicting a literal failure of the vine-crop, and therefore of the supply of wine for the banquets of the rich. A truer insight into the language of a poet-prophet would lead to our seeing in it a symbol of the failure of all forms of earthly joy.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:9-20 When there was so much provocation given to the holy God, bad times might be expected. Alas! how many careless ones there are, who support self-indulgence by shameful stubbornness! We deserve to be deprived of the supports of life, when we make them the food of lusts. Let such tremble and be troubled. Blessed times shall be brought in by the pouring out of the Spirit from on high; then, and not till then, there will be good times. The present state of the Jews shall continue until a more abundant pouring out of the Spirit from on high. Peace and quietness shall be found in the way and work of righteousness. True satisfaction is to be had only in true religion. And real holiness is real happiness now, and shall be perfect happiness, that is, perfect holiness for ever. The good seed of the word shall be sown in all places, and be watered by Divine grace; and laborious, patient labourers shall be sent forth into God's husbandry.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Many days and years - Margin, 'Days above a year.' This is a literal translation of the Hebrew. Septuagint, 'Make mention of a day of a year in sorrow, with hope.' Targum, 'Days with years.' Kimchi supposes it means 'two years.' Grotius supposes it means 'within three years.' Various other interpretations may be seen in Poole's Synopsis. Gesenius renders it, 'For a year's time,' according to the common expression 'a year and a day,' denoting a complete year, and supposes that it means a considerable time, a long period. The phrase literally means 'the days. upon (or beyond) a year,' and may denote a long time; as the entire days in a year would denote a long period of suffering. Lowth renders it, not in accordance with the Hebrew, 'Years upon years.' Noyes, 'One year more, and ye shall tremble.' Perhaps this expresses the sense; and then it would denote not the length of time which they would suffer, but would indicate that the calamities would soon come upon them.

For the vintage shall fail - A large part of the wealth and the luxury of the nation consisted in the vintage. When the vine failed, there would be, of course, great distress. The sense is, that in consequence of the invasion of the Assyrians, either the people would neglect to cultivate the lands, or they would fail to collect the harvest. This might occur either from the dread of the invasion, or because the Assyrian would destroy everything in his march.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. Many days and years—rather, "In little more than a year" [Maurer]; literally, "days upon a year" (so Isa 29:1).

vintage shall fail—through the arrival of the Assyrian invader. As the wheat harvest is omitted, Isaiah must look for the invasion in the summer or autumn of 714 B.C., when the wheat would have been secured already, and the later fruit "gathering," and vintage would be still in danger.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Many days and years, Heb. Days above a year, i.e. a year and some days; which notes either,

1. The time from this prophecy to the beginning of this judgment; or rather,

2. The time of the continuance of it, that it should last for above one year; as indeed this did, and no longer; for Hezekiah reigned in all but twenty-nine years, 2 Kings 18:2, and Sennacherib came in his fourteenth year, and after his defeat and departure God promised and added to him fifteen years more, 2 Kings 20:6.

The vintage shall fail, during the time of the Assyrian invasion. And this commination is here added to qualify the foregoing promise, and to warn them, that although God would give them so good a king, and there should be some reformation of their former abuses under the government of Ahaz; yet as there were many sins among them not yet repented of, so they should be severely chastised for them.

The gathering, to wit, of the other fruits of the earth; as that feast which was observed after the gathering of all the fruits was called the feast of ingathering, Exodus 23:16.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Many days and years shall ye be troubled,.... Or, "days above a year" (k); a year, and somewhat more, yet not two years; which some understand of the time from this prophecy, until their troubles began, by the invasion of Sennacherib; and others of the continuance of it, it lasting more than a year; or, "days with a year"; so Kimchi, days upon a year, year upon year, one year after another; and so denotes a long duration of their troubles; and so the troubles of the Jews, before their utter destruction by the Romans, lasted a great while, and since to this day; for the prophecy respects those times. Kimchi says it may be interpreted of the destruction of the whole land of Israel, and of the destruction of the temple in the days of Zedekiah; or of the destruction of the second temple, that is, by the Romans:

for the vintage shall fail; being spoiled by the enemy, or taken for their own use; and so there would be no wine to cheer their hearts, and make them merry:

the gathering shall not come; of the other fruits of the earth; when the time of ingathering should come, at which there was a feast that bore that name, there should be none to be gathered in; the consequence of which must be a famine, and such there was before and at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

(k) "dies super annum", Vatablus; "dies ultra annum", Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

Many days and years shall ye be troubled, {g} ye careless women: {h} for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.

(g) Meaning that the affliction would continue long and when one year was past, yet they should look for new plagues.

(h) God will take from you the means and opportunities, which made you contemn him: that is, abundance of worldly goods.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. Many days and years] The Hebr. reads literally “days beyond a year,” probably a current popular phrase like “year and day.” Both A.V. and R.V. regard the expression as accus. of duration, but the context shews that it fixes the point of time when ease and security give place to anxiety. The meaning is “in little more than a year.” Comp. the less definite note of time in ch. Isaiah 29:1.

The feature of the judgment which is emphasised is the failure of the vintage and the fruit harvest (gathering); what follows shews that this is not the result of natural causes, but of a wholesale devastation of the land. The significance of the prediction would depend greatly on the season of the year at which it was uttered; on any natural interpretation of his words, the prophet means to assert that the next year’s harvest will never be gathered.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Many days and years shall ye be troubled; rather, in a year and days; i.e. "in less than two years." The object of the prophet is not to fix the duration of the trouble, but to mark the time of its commencement (comp. Isaiah 29:1). Shall ye be troubled; rather, shall ye tremble, or shudder (so Deuteronomy 2:25; Psalm 77:18; Psalm 99:1; Isaiah 5:25; Isaiah 64:2; Jeremiah 33:9, etc.). Ye careless women; rather, ye confident ones. The word is different from that employed in vers. 9 and 11. The vintage shall fail; literally, has failed - "the perfect of prophetic certitude" (Cheyne). Some critics understand a literal failure, or destruction, of the vintage through the invasion of the Assyrians. Others suggest a refer-once to Isaiah 5:4-7. The vineyard of the Lord (Judah) has utterly failed to bring forth grapes - there is no ingathering - therefore destruction shall fall upon it. Isaiah 32:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This short address, although rounded off well, is something more than a fragment complete in itself, like the short parabolic piece in Isaiah 28:23-29, which commences in a similar manner. It is the last part of the fourth woe, just as that was the last part of the first. It is a side piece to the threatening prophecy of the time of Uzziah-Jotham (Isaiah 3:16.), and chastises the frivolous self-security of the women of Jerusalem, just as the former chastises their vain and luxurious love of finery. The prophet has now uttered many a woe upon Jerusalem, which is bringing itself to the verge of destruction; but notwithstanding the fact that women are by nature more delicate, and more easily affected and alarmed, than men, he has made no impression upon the women of Jerusalem, to whom he now foretells a terrible undeceiving of their carnal ease, whilst he holds out before them the ease secured by God, which can only be realized on the ruins of the former.

The first part of the address proclaims the annihilation of their false ease. "Ye contented women, rise up, hear my voice; ye confident daughters, hearken to my speech! Days to the year: then will ye tremble, confident ones! for it is all over with the vintage, the fruit harvest comes to nought. Tremble, contented ones! Quake, ye confident ones! Strip, make yourselves bare, and gird your loins with sackcloth! They smite upon their breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. On the land of my people there come up weeds, briers; yea, upon all joyous houses of the rejoicing city. For the palace is made solitary; the crowd of the city is left desolate; the ofel and watch-tower serve as caves for ever, for the delight of wild asses, for the tending of flocks." The summons is the same as in Genesis 4:23 and Jeremiah 9:19 (comp. Isaiah 28:23); the attributes the same as in Amos 6:1 (cf., Isaiah 4:1, where Isaiah apostrophizes the women of Samaria). שׁאנן, lively, of good cheer; and בּטח, trusting, namely to nothing. They are to rise up (qōmnâh), because the word of God must be heard standing (Judges 3:20). The definition of the time "days for a year" (yâmı̄m ‛al-shânâh) appears to indicate the length of time that the desolation would last, as the word tirgaznâh is without any Vav apod. (cf., Isaiah 65:24; Job 1:16-18); but Isaiah 29:1 shows us differently, and the Vav is omitted, just as it is, for example, in Daniel 4:28. Shânâh is the current year. In an undefined number of days, at the most a year from the present time (which is sometimes the meaning of yâmı̄m), the trembling would begin, and there would be neither grapes nor fruit to gather. Hence the spring harvest of corn is supposed to be over when the devastation begins. ימים is an acc. temporis; it stands here (as in Isaiah 27:6, for example; vid., Ewald, 293, 1) to indicate the starting point, not the period of duration. The milel-forms פּשׁטה, ערה, חגרה ,ערה , are explained by Ewald, Drechsler, and Luzzatto, as plur. fem. imper. with the Nun of the termination nâh dropped - an elision that is certainly never heard of. Others regard it as inf. with He femin. (Credner, Joel, p. 151); but קטלה for the infinitive קטלה is unexampled; and equally unexampled would be the inf. with He indicating the summons, as suggested by Bttcher, "to the shaking!" "to the stripping!" They are sing. masc. imper., such as occur elsewhere apart from the pause, e.g., מלוכה (for which the keri has מלכה) in Judges 9:8; and the singular in the place of the plural is the strongest form of command. The masculine instead of the feminine appears already in הרדוּ, which is used in the place of חרדנה. The prophet then proceeds in the singular number, comprehending the women as a mass, and using the most massive expression. The He introduced into the summons required that the feminine forms, רגזי, etc., should be given up. ערה, from ערר, to be naked, to strip one's self. חגרה absolute, as in Joel 1:13 (cf., Isaiah 3:24), signifies to gird one's self with sackcloth (saq). We meet with the same remarkable enall. generis in Isaiah 32:12. Men have no breasts (shâdaim), and yet the masculine sōphedı̄m is employed, inasmuch as the prophet had the whole nation in his mind, throughout which there would be such a plangere ubera on account of the utter destruction of the hopeful harvest of corn and wine. Shâdaim (breasts) and שׂדי (construct to sâdōth) have the same common ring as ubera and ubertas frugum. In Isaiah 32:13 ta‛ăleh points back to qōts shâmı̄r, which is condensed into one neuter idea. The ki in Isaiah 32:13 has the sense of the Latin imo (Ewald, 330, b). The genitive connection of עלּיזה קריה with משׂושׂ בּתּי (joy-houses of the jubilant city) is the same as in Isaiah 28:1. The whole is grammatically strange, just as in the Psalms the language becomes all the more complicated, disjointed, and difficult, the greater the wrath and indignation of the poet. Hence the short shrill sentences in Isaiah 32:14 : palace given up (cf., Isaiah 13:22); city bustle forsaken (i.e., the city generally so full of bustle, Isaiah 22:2). The use of בּעד is the same as in Proverbs 6:26; Job 2:4. ‛Ofel, i.e., the south-eastern fortified slope of the temple mountain, and the bachan (i.e., the watch-tower, possibly the flock-tower which is mentioned in Micah 4:8 along with ‛ofel), would be pro speluncis, i.e., would be considered and serve as such. And in the very place where the women of Jerusalem had once led their life of gaiety, wild asses would now have their delight, and flocks their pasture (on the wild asses, perâ'ı̄m, that fine animal of the woodless steppe, see at Job 24:5; Job 39:5-8). Thus would Jerusalem, with its strongest, proudest places, be laid in ruins, and that in a single year, or ever less than a year.