Isaiah 57:7

Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Set thy bed . . .—Idolatry being as adultery, the “bed” follows naturally as representing the locality of the idol-worship. Comp. Ezekiel 16:31; Ezekiel 23:17.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 57:7-8. Upon a lofty and high mountain — In high places, which were much used for religious worship, both by the Israelites and heathen: hast thou set thy bed — Thine altar, as appears from the sacrifice mentioned in the next clause, where thou didst commit spiritual whoredom with idols. Behind the doors also and the posts — Behind the posts of the doors of thy house; hast thou set up thy remembrance — That is, the images of their tutelary gods, or some monuments or tokens, placed there as memorials of them, in direct opposition to the law of God, which commanded them to write upon the door-posts of their houses, and upon their gates, the words of his law, Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 11:20. If they chose for them such a situation as more private, it was in defiance of a particular curse denounced in the law against the man who should make a graven or a molten image, and put it in a secret place, Deuteronomy 27:15. For thou hast discovered thyself, &c. — “The prophet describes their idolatry under the metaphor of a woman’s being false to her husband’s bed, Isaiah 57:3. So he tells them that they had committed spiritual adultery, when they went up to the high places to sacrifice, Isaiah 57:7. That they had multiplied their idolatries, as an unchaste woman does her lovers; that they had broken their covenant with God, whom they had acknowledged to be their lord and husband, and made a new contract with idols to serve them.” — Lowth. Thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it — No sooner didst thou see the heathen idols, but thou wast enamoured with them, and didst fall down and worship them, like a lewd woman, who is inflamed with lust toward almost every man she sees.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

57:3-12 The Lord here calls apostates and hypocrites to appear before him. When reproved for their sins, and threatened with judgments, they ridiculed the word of God. The Jews were guilty of idolatry before the captivity; but not after that affliction. Their zeal in the worship of false gods, may shame our indifference in the worship of the true God. The service of sin is disgraceful slavery; those who thus debase themselves to hell, will justly have their portion there. Men incline to a religion that inflames their unholy passions. They are led to do any evil, however great or vile, if they think it will atone for crimes, or purchase indulgence for some favourite lust. This explains idolatry, whether pagan, Jewish, or antichristian. But those who set up anything instead of God, for their hope and confidence, never will come to a right end. Those who forsake the only right way, wander in a thousand by-paths. The pleasures of sin soon tire, but never satisfy. Those who care not for the word of God and his providences, show they have no fear of God. Sin profits not; it ruins and destroys.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Upon a lofty and high mountain - The design of this verse and the following, is, to show the extent, the prevalence, the publicity, and the grossness of their idolatry. The language is that which would appropriately express adulterous intercourse, and is designed to show the abhorrence in which God held their conduct. The language is easy to be understood, and it would not be proper to go into an extended explanation of the phrases used. It is common in the Scriptures to compare idolatry among the people of God, with unfaithfulness to the marriage vow. The declaration that they had placed their bed on a high mountain, means, that in the rites of idolatrous worship, there was no concealment. It was public and shameless.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. Upon … high mountain … bed—image from adultery, open and shameless (Eze 23:7); the "bed" answers to the idolatrous altar, the scene of their spiritual unfaithfulness to their divine husband (Eze 16:16, 25; 23:41).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Upon a lofty and high mountain, in high places, which were much used for religious worship, both by Israelites and by heathens,

hast thou set thy bed; thine altar, as appears from the sacrifice here following, in which thou didst commit spiritual whoredom with idols. Compare Ezekiel 23:17,41.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed,.... Temples and altars, which are usually built on high places, where they commit spiritual adultery; that is, idolatry, in imitation of the Heathens, who had their temples and altars on high places; and the idolatry of the church of Rome, in this context, is all along expressed in language agreeable to the Heathen idolatry, and in allusion to it. Some think this phrase denotes impudence in their idolatrous worship; for not content to worship under trees, in valleys, and under clifts of rocks, and such dark places; now, as not blushing at, or being ashamed of their actions, erect their altars in the most public places. Perhaps some reference may be had to the city of Rome itself, built on seven mountains, the seat of antichrist, and where the principal bed for idolatry is set up. The Targum is,

"on a high and lofty mountain thou hast the place of the house of thy dwelling;''

which agrees very well with the great city, the seat of the beast.

Even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice; the sacrifice of the mass, to do which the idolaters go to their high places, their temples, and to their high altars, and especially in the great city.

Geneva Study Bible

Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy {g} bed: even there thou wentest up to offer sacrifice.

(g) That is, your altars in an open place, like an impudent harlot, that cares not for the sight of her husband.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. As in the valleys, so on the hill-tops, the people had sacrificed to strange gods. Cf. Hosea 4:13; Jeremiah 2:20; Ezekiel 6:13.

hast thou set thy bed] The image is suggested by the frequent comparison of idolatry (in Israel) to adultery. Cf. Hosea 4:12; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:2; Ezekiel 16:25.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed. Instead of reserving thy marriage-bed for me, Jehovah (Isaiah 54:5), thou hast set it up on those "high places," with which the hill-tops of Judaea are everywhere crowned (see 1 Kings 14:23; 1 Kings 16:4; 2 Chronicles 33:17; Ezekiel 15:16, etc.). Almost every hill-top is still, in a sense, held sacred in Palestine (Conder, in 'Quarterly Statement of Palest. Explor. Fund,' 1875, p. 39). Even thither wentest thou up, etc. (On the persistency of the Jews in maintaining the high-place worship, see 1 Kings 14:23; 1 Kings 15:14; 1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 12:3; 2 Kings 14:4; 2 Kings 15:4; 2 Kings 21:3, etc.) The best kings failed in their attempts to put it down Isaiah 57:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prophet now proceeds with perfects, like שׁפכתּ and העלית (addressed to the national community generally, the congregation regarded as a woman). The description is mostly retrospective. "Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set up thy bed; thou also ascendedst thither to offer slain offerings. And behind the door and the post thou didst place thy reminder: for thou uncoveredst away from me, and ascendedst; thou madest thy bed broad, and didst stipulate for thyself what they had to do: thou lovedst their lying with thee; thou sawest their manhood." The lovers that she sought for herself are the gods of the heathen. Upon lofty mountains, where they are generally worshipped, did she set up her bed, and did all that was needed to win their favour. The zikkârōn, i.e., the declaration that Jehovah is the only God, which the Israelites were to write upon the posts of their houses, and upon the entrances (Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 11:20), for a constant reminder, she had put behind the door and post, that she might not be reminded, to her shame, of her unfaithfulness. That this explanation, which most of the commentators adopt, is the true one, is proved by the expression מאתּי כּי which follows, and according to which זכרון is something inconvenient, which might and was intended to remind them of Jehovah. מאתּי, away, far from me, as in Jeremiah 3:1, and like מתּחתּי, which is still more frequently used. It is unnecessary to take gillı̄th with ערותך understood (Ezekiel 23:18) as equivalent to "thou makest thyself naked," or with reference to the clothes equals ἀνασύρεις. משׁכּב is the common object of all three verbs, even of ותּעלי (with double metheg), after Genesis 49:4. On ותּכרת for ותּכרתי (cf., Jeremiah 3:5), see Ewald, 191, b. The explanation "thou didst bind," or "thou didst choose (some) of them to thyself," is contrary to the general usage, according to which ל כּרת signifies spondere (2 Chronicles 7:18), and (עם כּרת pacisci (1 Samuel 22:8), in both cases with בּרית to be supplied, so that מן (בּרית) כּרת would mean stipulari ab aliquo, i.e., to obtain from a person a solemn promise, with all the force of a covenant. What she stipulated from them was, either the wages of adultery, or the satisfaction of her wanton lust. What follows agrees with this; for it is there distinctly stated, that the lovers to whom she offered herself gratified her lust abundantly: adamasti concutibum eorum (mishkâb, cubile, e.g., Proverbs 7:17, and concubitus, e.g., Ezra 23:17), manum conspexisit. The Targum and Jewish commentators adopt this explanation, loco quem delegisti, or (postquam) locum delegisti. This also is apparently the meaning of the accents, and most of the more modern commentators have adopted it, taking יד in the sense of place or side. But this yields only a very lame and unmeaning thought. Doederlein conjectured that יד was employed here in the sense of ἰθύφαλλος; and this is the explanation adopted by Hitzig, Ewald, and others. The Arabic furnishes several analogies to this obscene use of the word; and by the side of Ezekiel 16:26 and Ezekiel 23:20, where the same thing is affirmed in even plainer language, there is nothing to astonish in the passage before us. The meaning is, that after the church of Jehovah had turned away from its God to the world and its pleasures, it took more and more delight in the pleasures afforded it by idolatry, and indulged its tastes to the full.