Isaiah 33:19

Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) Thou shalt not see a fierce people . . .—Better, The fierce people thou shalt not see . . . The words answer the question just asked. The whole Assyrian army, with their barbarous, unintelligible speech (Isaiah 28:11), shall have passed away.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 33:19. Thou shalt not see a fierce people — As Moses said of the Egyptians, (Exodus 14:13,) The Egyptians, whom you have seen to- day, you shall see them again no more; so I say of the Assyrians, that fierce and warlike people, whom thou hast seen, with great terror, near the walls of Jerusalem, thou shalt see them again no more; a people of a deeper speech, &c. — A foreign nation whose language is unknown to thee. Of a stammering tongue, &c. — Of which see on Isaiah 28:11.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

33:15-24 The true believer watches against all occasions of sin. The Divine power will keep him safe, and his faith in that power will keep him easy. He shall want nothing needful for him. Every blessing of salvation is freely bestowed on all that ask with humble, believing prayer; and the believer is safe in time and for ever. Those that walk uprightly shall not only have bread given, and their water sure, but they shall, by faith, see the King of kings in his beauty, the beauty of holiness. The remembrance of the terror they were in, shall add to the pleasure of their deliverance. It is desirable to be quiet in our own houses, but much more so to be quiet in God's house; and in every age Christ will have a seed to serve him. Jerusalem had no large river running by it, but the presence and power of God make up all wants. We have all in God, all we need, or can desire. By faith we take Christ for our Prince and Saviour; he reigns over his redeemed people. All that refuse to have Him to reign over them, make shipwreck of their souls. Sickness is taken away in mercy, when the fruit of it is the taking away of sin. If iniquity be taken away, we have little reason to complain of outward affliction. This last verse leads our thoughts, not only to the most glorious state of the gospel church on earth, but to heaven, where no sickness or trouble can enter. He that blotteth out our transgressions, will heal our souls.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thou shalt not see a fierce people - Or, rather, 'this fierce and boasting people you shall not see.' They shall not enter the city; but though they are advancing with so much confidence, they shall be suddenly cut, off and destroyed. The word rendered "fierce," (נועז nô‛âz from נעז yâ‛az), probably means strong, or wicked. Lowth renders it, 'barbarous people,' as if it were לועז lô‛ēz. Michaelis also adopts this reading by supposing an error in transcribing, a change of the Hebrew letter נ (n) into the Hebrew letter ל (l). Such a change might have easily occurred, but there is no authority from the manuscripts for making an alteration in the text The word strong, or mighty, agrees well with the connection.

A people of a deeper speech - A people whose language is so deep, that is, so dark, or obscure, that it cannot be understood by you. This refers to the army of the Assyrians, who spoke the Syrian language, which was understood by some of the Jews, but which was unintelligible to the mass (see Isaiah 36:11).

Than thou canst perceive - Than you can understand.

Of a stammering tongue - (see the note at Isaiah 28:11). Margin, 'Ridiculous;' a sense which the Hebrew will bear, but the more appropriate meaning is that of a barbarous, or unintelligible foreign language.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. fierce people—The Assyrians shall not be allowed to enter Jerusalem (2Ki 19:32). Or, thou shalt not any longer see fierce enemies threatening thee as previously; such as the Assyrians, Romans, and the last Antichristian host that is yet to assail Jerusalem (De 28:49, 50; Jer 5:15; Zec 14:2).

stammering—barbarous; so "deeper," &c., that is, unintelligible. The Assyrian tongue differed only in dialect from the Hebrew, but in the Assyrian levies were many of non-Semitic race and language, as the Medes, Elamites, &c. (see on [750]Isa 28:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thou shalt not see a fierce people: as Moses said of the Egyptians, Exodus 14:13, so I say of the Assyrians, that fierce and warlike people, whom thou-hast seen, with great terror, near the walls of Jerusalem, Thou shalt see them again no more.

A people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; a foreign nation, whose language is abstruse and unknown to thee.

Of a stammering tongue; of which see on Isaiah 28:11.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou shalt not see a fierce people,.... A people of a fierce countenance, as in Daniel 8:23 fierce in their looks, furious in their temper, cruel and bloodthirsty in their practices, confirmed and hardened in their sins, whose consciences are seared as with a red hot iron; a character given of the Papists, 1 Timothy 4:2 these shall be no more seen nor feared:

a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; than the people in common could, having their worship and devotion not in their mother tongue, but in the Latin tongue:

of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand: meaning the same as before, a barbarous language, as everyone is to those who understand it not; so the Syriac and Assyrian languages were to the Jews, 2 Kings 18:26 and so the Roman language to other nations; but now no more to be used in religious worship; nor shall the church of God be any more visited by Turks or Papists, and be in any dread of them more.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. Thou shalt not see the fierce people] Some render “people of barbarous speech”; cf. ch. Isaiah 28:11.

of a deeper speech, &c.] (Ezekiel 3:5), of too deep speech to be understood.

that thou canst not understand] Or, without sense.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - Thou shalt not see a fierce people, etc.; rather, thou shalt see no more that barbarous people - the Assyrians - a people gruff of speech that rhea caner, or hear them, stammering of tongue that thee caner not understand them (comp. Isaiah 28:11). The generation which witnessed the destruction of Sennacherib's army probably did not see the Assyrians again. It was not till about B.C. 670 that Manasseh was "taken with hooks by the captains of the King of Assyria, and carried to Babylon" (2 Chronicles 33:11). Isaiah 33:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The tribulation has passed away like a dream. "Thy heart meditates upon the shuddering. Where is the valuer? where the weigher? where he who counted the towers? The rough people thou seest no more, the people of deep inaudible lip, of stammering unintelligible tongue." The dreadful past is so thoroughly forced out of mind by the glorious present, that they are obliged to turn back their thoughts (hâgâh, meditari, as Jerome renders it) to remember it at all. The sōphēr who had the management of the raising of the tribute, the shōqēl who tested the weight of the gold and silver, the sōpher 'eth hammigdâl who drew up the plan of the city to be besieged or stormed, are all vanished. The rough people (נועז עם, the niphal of עזז, from יעז), that had shown itself so insolent, so shameless, and so insatiable in its demands, has become invisible. This attribute is a perfectly appropriate one; and the explanation given by Rashi, Vitringa, Ewald, and Frst, who take it in the sense of lō‛ēz in Psalm 114:1, is both forced and groundless. The expressions ‛imkē and nil‛ag refer to the obscure and barbarous sound of their language; misshemōă to the unintelligibility of their speech; and בּינה אין to the obscurity of their meaning. Even if the Assyrians spoke a Semitic language, they were of so totally different a nationality, and their manners were so entirely different, that their language must have sounded even more foreign to an Israelite than Dutch to a German.