Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 2:6
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
"For Thou hast rejected Thy people, the house of Jacob; for they are filled with things from the east, and are conjurors like the Philistines; and with the children of foreigners they go hand in hand." Here again we have "for" (Chi) twice in succession; the first giving the reason for the warning cry, the second vindicating the reason assigned. The words are addressed to Jehovah, not to the people. Saad., Gecatilia, and Rashi adopt the rendering, "Thou has given up thy nationality;" and this rendering is supported by J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, and Luzzatto. But the word means "people," not "nationality;" and the rendering is inadmissible, and would never have been thought of were it not that there was apparently something strange in so sudden an introduction of an address to God. But in Isa 2:9; Isa 9:2, and other passages, the prophecy takes the form of a prayer. And nâtash (cast off) with âm (people) for its object recals such passages as Psa 94:14 and Sa1 12:22. Jehovah had put away His people, i.e., rejected them, and left them to themselves, for the following reasons: (1.) Because they were "full from the east" (mikkedem: min denotes the source from which a person draws and fills himself, Jer 51:34; Eze 32:6), i.e., full of eastern manners and customs, more especially of idolatrous practices. By "the east" (kedem) we are to understand Arabia as far as the peninsula of Sinai, and also the Aramaean lands of the Euphrates. Under Uzziah and Jotham, whose sway extended to Elath, the seaport town of the Elanitic Gulf, the influence of the south-east predominated; but under Ahaz and Hezekiah, on account of their relations to Asshur, Aram, and Babylon, that of the north-east. The conjecture of Gesenius, that we should read mikkesem, i.e., of soothsaying, it a very natural one; but it obliterates without any necessity the name of the region from which Judah's imitative propensities received their impulse and materials. (2.) They were onenim (= meonenim, Mic 5:11, from the poelonen: Kg2 21:6), probably "cloud-gatherers" or "storm-raisers," (Note: There is no force in the explanation "concealing," i.e., practising secret arts; for the meaning "cover" or "conceal" is arbitrarily transferred to the verb onen, from gânan and Cânan, which are supposed to be cognate roots. As a denominative of ânân, the cloud, however (on this name for the clouds, see at Isa 4:5), onen might mean "he gathered auguries from the clouds." Or if we take onen as a synonym of innen in Gen 9:14, it would mean "to raise storms," which would give the rendering νεφοδιῶκται, tempestarii, storm-raisers. The derivation of onen from Ny(i, in the sense of the Arabic 'âna (impf. ya ı̄nu), as it were to ogle, oculo maligno petere et fascinare, founders on annen, the word used in the Targums, which cannot possibly be traced to Ny(i. From a purely philological standpoint, however, there is still another explanation possible. From the idea of coming to meet we get the transitive meaning to hold back, shut in, or hinder, particularly to hold back a horse by the reins (inân), or when applied to sexual relations, 'unna ('unnina, u'inna) )an el-mar'ati, "he is prevented (by magic) from approaching his wife," Beside the Arabic 'innı̄n and ma'nūn (to render sexually impotent by witchcraft), we find the Syriac 'anono used in the same sense.) like the Philistines (the people conquered by Uzziah, and then again by Hezekiah), among whom witchcraft was carried on in guilds, whilst a…
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