Isaiah 8:15

And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) And many among them shall stumble, and fall . . .—The accumulation of words more or less synonymous has obviously, as before, the emphasis of iteration. Possibly for the prophet and his disciples, each word had a distinct ethical significance, which we can only partially recover. Looking to the figure implied in Isaiah 8:14, they seem to describe the several stages of the capture of the animal for whom the trap has been laid. It first stumbles, then falls into the pit, and breaks its limbs, then is fastened in the trap, and is powerless to escape.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:9-16 The prophet challenges the enemies of the Jews. Their efforts would be vain, and themselves broken to pieces. It concerns us, in time of trouble, to watch against all such fears as put us upon crooked courses for our own security. The believing fear of God preserves against the disquieting fear of man. If we thought rightly of the greatness and glory of God, we should see all the power of our enemies restrained. The Lord, who will be a Sanctuary to those who trust in him, will be a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offence, to those who make the creature their fear and their hope. If the things of God be an offence to us, they will undo us. The apostle quotes this as to all who persisted in unbelief of the gospel of Christ, 1Pe 2:8. The crucified Emmanuel, who was and is a Stumbling-stone and Rock of offence to unbelieving Jews, is no less so to thousands who are called Christians. The preaching of the cross is foolishness in their esteem; his doctrines and precepts offend them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And many among them - Many by the invasion under the Assyrian. Many were taken captive; many killed. and many were carried to Babylon. The repetition here of so many expressions so nearly synonymous is emphatic, and shows that it would be certainly done.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. stumble … taken—images from the means used in taking wild animals.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Many among them; not all, for there shall be a remnant, as was foretold, Isaiah 4:2 5:13.

Shall stumble at that stone or rock, mentioned Isaiah 8:14. This was accomplished at the coming of the Messias, whom the Jews rejected to their own destruction.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And many among them,.... Not all, though the greater part; for Christ was set for the falling and rising of many in Israel, Luke 2:34,

shall stumble, and fall, and be broken: stumble at Christ, the stumbling stone; fall by unbelief into other sins and punishment, and be broken in pieces by this stone, Matthew 21:44,

and be snared, and be taken; and so die in their sins, and perish eternally. The allusion is to birds being taken in a snare or trap, or with bird lime, and therein or thereby held and detained.

Geneva Study Bible

And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. many among them] Not all; a “Remnant shall turn” and be saved: how, is more fully shewn in the next verses. The expressions of this verse are reproduced with little variation in ch. Isaiah 28:13. They are frequently alluded to in the N.T. (Luke 2:34; Matthew 21:44 : Romans 9:33).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Many among them (so the Vulgate, Ewald, Delitzsch, and Knobel). But most others translate, "Many shall stumble thereon,"i.e. on the stone and the rock (Rosenmüller, Gesenius, Vance Smith, Kay, Cheyne). Fall, and be broken. The effect of stumbling against a stone (Matthew 21:44; Luke 20:18). Be snared, and be taken. The effect of being caught in a gin (Psalm 9:15, 16). Isaiah 8:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The object of their fear was a very different one. "Jehovah of hosts, sanctify Him; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your terror. So will He become a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence (vexation) to both the houses of Israel, a snare and trap to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and shall fall; and be dashed to pieces, and be snared and taken." The logical apodosis to Isaiah 8:13 commences with v'hâhâh (so shall He be). If ye actually acknowledge Jehovah the Holy One as the Holy One (hikdı̄sh, as in Isaiah 29:23), and if it is He whom ye fear, and who fills you with dread (ma‛arı̄tz, used for the object of dread, as mōrah is for the object of fear; hence "that which terrifies" in a causative sense), He will become a mikdâsh. The word mikdâsh may indeed denote the object sanctified, and so Knobel understands it here according to Numbers 18:29; but if we adhere to the strict notion of the word, this gives an unmeaning apodosis. Mikdâsh generally means the sanctified place or sanctuary, with which the idea of an asylum would easily associate itself, since even among the Israelites the temple was regarded and respected as an asylum (1 Kings 1:50; 1 Kings 2:28). This is the explanation which most of the commentators have adopted here; and the punctuators also took it in the same sense, when they divided the two halves of Isaiah 8:14 by athnach as antithetical. And mikdâsh is really to be taken in this sense, although it cannot be exactly rendered "asylum," since this would improperly limit the meaning of the word. The temple was not only a place of shelter, but also of grace, blessing, and peace. All who sanctified the Lord of lords He surrounded like temple walls; hid them in Himself, whilst death and tribulation reigned without, and comforted, fed, and blessed them in His own gracious fellowship. This is the true explanation of v'hâyâh l'mikdâs, according to such passages as Isaiah 4:5-6; Psalm 27:5; Psalm 31:21. To the two houses of Israel, on the contrary, i.e., to the great mass of the people of both kingdoms who neither sanctified nor feared Jehovah, He would be a rock and snare. The synonyms are intentionally heaped together (cf., Isaiah 28:13), to produce the fearful impression of death occurring in many forms, but all inevitable. The first three verbs of Isaiah 8:15 refer to the "stone" ('eben) and "rock" (tzūr); the last two to the "snare" (pach), and "trap" or springe (mōkēsh).

(Note: Malbim observes quite correctly, that "the pach catches, but does not hurt; the mokesh catches and hurts (e.g., by seizing the legs or nose, Job 40:24): the former is a simple snare (or net), the latter a springe, or snare which catches by means of a spring" (Amos 3:5).)

All who did not give glory to Jehovah would be dashed to pieces upon His work as upon a stone, and caught therein as in a trap. This was the burden of the divine warning, which the prophet heard for himself and for those that believed.