Biblion Bible Commentary
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A King Will Reign in Righteousness
Isaiah 32:1-20
1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice. · WEB
Under a just government, words go back to meaning what they mean, and a fool stops being called noble.
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice Isaiah 32:1.
A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land Isaiah 32:2.
Four images of what good rulers are, and every one is shelter. Not strength, not splendor — a windbreak, a roof, water, and the shade of a rock. In that country a large rock throwing shade is the difference between walking on and lying down.
The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen. The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly Isaiah 32:3–4.
The faculties shut down in chapter six Isaiah 6:10 are opened again, and the last is the one to notice: people who could not get the words out will speak clearly.
The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel be highly respected Isaiah 32:5.
The reversal of Isaiah 5:20. Where evil had been called good, the words go back to their meanings, and the specific repair is that titles start matching the men who hold them.
For the fool will speak folly... to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail Isaiah 32:6.
And the definition given of folly is not stupidity but what it does to somebody else's dinner.
But the noble devises noble things, and he will continue in noble things Isaiah 32:8.
Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters Isaiah 32:9.
The address turns, as in chapter three, to the comfortable women of the capital, and the charge is complacency rather than ornament. For days beyond a year you will be troubled... for the vintage will fail Isaiah 32:10 — the security they are resting on is one bad harvest deep.
The palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys Isaiah 32:14.
Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field Isaiah 32:15.
One word turns the chapter. Everything before it is decline; everything after it follows from a pouring out, and the reversal is agricultural — desert into farmland, farmland into forest.
The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever Isaiah 32:17.
The two words the thirtieth chapter offered and Judah refused Isaiah 30:15, now produced rather than proposed. Peace is described as righteousness's work — a product, made by it, rather than a separate thing negotiated alongside it.
My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places, though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely Isaiah 32:18–19.
The safety is not the absence of the storm. The two verses are held together by though.
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