The Mystery of Ephraim

George Kennan, the top American-Russia scholar who laid the foundation for US Cold War foreign-policy strategy, said NATO’s expansion into Central Europe in the 1990s was “the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era.” He warned that expanding NATO would damage the US-Russia relationship so deeply that Russia would never become a partner and would remain an enemy.

The US Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991 penned an essay nine days before the invasion, answering the question of whether the brewing crisis was, at that point, avoidable. “In short, yes,” he explained. On whether it was predictable, “Absolutely. NATO expansion was the most profound strategic blunder made since the end of the Cold War.” RT by Bradley Blankenship 4 Mar, 2022.

Isaiah 27

¹ In that day the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. — the “dragon” is as in Psalm 74:13-14; Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 32:2, could be the standing emblem of Egypt: the other, so specifically mentioned, the “leviathan” in Job 41:1, there is always a possibility of an endtime revelation, that is, it could be real!

² In that day sing ye unto her, “A vineyard of red wine! — in that day sing ye to her: a vineyard of red wine; meaning, of the best wine, which this vineyard, that is, the Kingdom would bring forth as pleasing to the Lord.

³ I, the Lord, do keep it; I will water it every moment. Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. — I the Lord do keep it; it is understood here or implied as ‘Yehovah said’ (compare Psalm 121:3-5); I will water it every moment; that is, constantly, as a vinedresser does his vineyard.

⁴ Fury is not in Me. Who would set the briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would go through them; I would burn them together. — Fury is not in me; Or, wrath have I none; that is, wrath isn’t a natural character of God, but because of briers and thorns, symbols of God’s enemies (sins and wickedness), against Me, I am provoked into anger and fury and burn them together.

⁵ Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” — Or let my enemies take hold of my strength, that they may make peace with me; and they shall find peace with me.

⁶ He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. — Or, In the days that come Jacob shall strike root;

— Israel shall blossom with bud and fill the face of the world with fruit; in all parts of the world; or of the great number of converts made everywhere; so the Targum says, by “fruit” to mean children’s children; the sense is, that when the Kingdom of God is settled and established, grounded in the right doctrines of truth, it shall be flourishing and fruitful, abounding in good works and with increased numbers of converts;

— it shall be like the mustard tree, when it becomes so great a tree as that the birds of the air make their nests in it; and as the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, when it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth.

⁷ Hath He smitten him, as He smote those that smote him? Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? — that is, “Hath He (Yehovah) smitten him (Israel) as He smote those that smote him; or is he slain according to the slaughter of those that are slain by Him?”

⁸ In measure, when it shooteth forth, Thou wilt debate with it; He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind. — Rashid: when they sent them out, it strove with it: When Egypt sent Israel out, it strove with it, the seah of the measure with its seah; He spoke with His harsh wind: (הָגָה) He spoke with His harsh speech; on the day of the east wind: On the day (concerning which Scripture states) (Ex. 14:21): “And the Lord led the sea with a strong east wind.”

⁹ By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin: When he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten asunder, the Asherah poles and sun images shall not stand up. — by this therefore; by this manner of God’s dealing with his people shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged;

— the groves and the images shall not stand up; erect to be worshipped; but shall be thrown down, demolished and broke to pieces; and by thus abandoning their idols and idolatrous practices;

— sun images shall not stand up; today we are honouring the host of heaven with more than 98.5 percent of Christians honouring the Sun by observing Sunday worship. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east; whose Godly penalty is to be “cut off” to death (Deuteronomy 17:3-5) – ’till they die’ or ”shall not stand up.”

¹⁰ Yet the fortified city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness; there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down and consume the branches thereof. — yet the fortified city; most probably this means Jerusalem, shall be desolate.

¹¹ When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off; the women come and set them on fire, for it is a people of no understanding. Therefore He that made them will not have mercy on them, and He that formed them will show them no favor. — for it is a people of no understanding; and may be applied as Isaiah 1:3; Jeremiah 8:7; Deuteronomy 32:28, to Israel as an apostate;

— will not have mercy; will show them no favor; that is, “will not spare.” God will have “measure” and “mercy” in his punishment of Israel but will not so have mercy as not to punish severely.

¹² And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. — from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt; from Euphrates to the Niles, which were the two borders of the Land of Promise, Joshua 1:4. All the Israelites which are left in the land; which are here opposed to those of them that are dispersed into foreign parts, such as Assyria and Egypt.

¹³ And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown; and they shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. — In the land of Assyria, the ten tribes were carried away in II Kings 17:6; and it is probable that many of the other two tribes were also with them. A portion of the ten tribes would also be re-gathered, and would return with the others to the land of their fathers upon the blowing of the trumpet.

Isaiah 28

The twenty-eighth through thirty-third chapters form almost one continuous prophecy concerning the destruction of intoxicated Ephraim, the impiety and folly of Judah, their dangers to make allies with Egypt or Assyria.

¹ Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! — that is, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, the proud state and kingdom of the ten tribes. This pride is about Ephraim, the United States: “But if we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us,” Madeleine Albright; and the many and excellent vines among them, showing that the prophet’s work was not limited to Judah and Jerusalem, but extended to the northern kingdom, Israel;

— parallel Scriptures in Ezekiel 36: “the mountain of Israel” this prophecy is concerning the desolations of the United States, UK and France; “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys” these are the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg;

— shoot forth your branches; that is, the trees that grew upon them should; the vines, and the olive trees, planted on hills and mountains; these are their colonies: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa; American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands (US); Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Virgin Islands (UK); Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Mayotte, Réunion (France).

— is a fading flower; beauty “whose glorious beauty or ornament is a fading flower” – the image of “drunkards” it was the custom at feasts to wreathe with flowers; so this indispensable Ephraim stood upon the head of the fertile valley,” that is, situated on a hill surrounded with the rich valleys as the best of a garland; but that garland is “fading,” and this intoxicated Ephraim is now close to ruin, not to be depended upon, soon to be destroyed and discarded away quickly.

² Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. — behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one; they have a powerful king with a mighty army; which as a tempest of hail; that beats down herbs and plants, and branches of trees, men and beasts:

— and a destroying storm; which carries all before it, blows down houses and trees, and makes terrible devastation wherever it comes: as a flood of mighty waters overflowing; whose torrent is so strong there is no stopping it;

— the Targum says, “so shall people come against them, and remove them out of their own land into another land, because of the sins which were in their hands.”

³ The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet; — so this mighty and powerful prince shall cast down upon intoxicated Ephraim, the crown of pride, the people of Israel, and the king of it; he shall take the crown from his head, and cast it to the ground with a strong hand;

⁴ and the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower and as the early fruit before the summer, which when he that looketh upon it seeth; while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up. — and the glorious beauty which is on the head of the fat valley; meaning the riches and fruitfulness of the ten tribes, and especially of Ephraim the head of them:

— shall be a fading flower; as before declared, Isaiah 28:1 and here repeated to show the certainty of it, and to awaken their attention to it; and as the hasty fruit before the summer; the first ripe fruit, that which is ripe before the summer fruits in common are; the Septuagint render it the first ripe fig; and so the Targum: which when he that looks upon it sees it; that it is goodly and desirable, and so gathers it, Micah 7:1;

— while it is yet in his hand he eats it up; and as soon as he has got it into his hand, he cannot keep it there to look at, or forbear eating it, but greedily devours and swallows it down at once; denoting what a desirable prey the ten tribes would be to their enemies from the South, and how swift, sudden and inevitable would be their destruction.

⁵ In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people, — in that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people, signifying that the faithful who do not put their trust in any worldly prosperity but made God their glory, will be honoured with a diadem of beauty.

⁶ and for a spirit of judgement to him that sits in judgement, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. — and for a spirit of judgement to him that sit in judgement; that is, the Lord would give honour and glory to the people in general, so wisdom and prudence, a spirit of judgement and discerning, to those who sit in the Sanhedrin in particular, who sit to do justice, and execute judgement among their subjects;

— and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate; as wisdom is promised to the king and judges, so strength of body and mind, valour and courage, to the prince and his army; so that they should turn the battle, and cause their enemies to flee before them, and pursue them to the very gates of their cities.

⁷ But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink; they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgement. — but they have erred through wine; through strong drink are out of the way;

— the priest, to whom strong drink was expressly forbidden, the prophet; the teachers, they run into the same excess of wine and strong drink, whereby they besot themselves and fall into numerous errors; they err and stumble in judgement; their intoxicated shepherds mistake in the teaching, pronouncing and discharging the sentence of the law.

⁸ For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. — the subject is still the drunkards of Ephraim; so that there is no place clean or free from vomit and filthiness, no table, or part of one, of prince, prophet, priest, and people; the Targum adds, “pure from rapine or violence.”

⁹ “Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. — whom shall he teach knowledge? – not the drunken priest or prophet, who were both unfit for teaching men knowledge; but either the true priest or prophet of the Lord, or the Lord himself; these are of age and free; and not subjected to false doctrines; there among his people that are capable and willing to be taught the good knowledge of God.

¹⁰ For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little.” — for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, signifying, that a single concept must be dealt with as children do, from the letter a and then b when first instructed in the rudiments of a language, then one rule given and then another, and so one after another, until letter z, till they have gone through the whole:

— line upon line, line upon line; who are taught first to write one line, and then another; or to draw one line and write after that and then another; or where to begin one line and when finished where to begin another;

— here a little, and there a little; a verse or two on the same subject here (like studying the subject of Ephraim) out of one book and a similar subject out of another; a little a day and a little the next and so on, that the whole picture may not be overburdened at once.

¹¹ For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people, — with stammering lips in and another tongue by people of a strange language, whom God will bring them into whose power He will deliver them; will He speak to this people; this is because they are not hearing Him speaking now by His prophets in their own language, they shall hear their enemies speaking to them in a strange language. In misery of the house of Jacob, during their captivity, a time of Jacob’s trouble, that they may then be compelled to understand the language of their enemies.

¹² to whom He said, “This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest,” and, “This is the refreshing” — yet they would not hear. — to whom he said, the Lord himself, or the prophet Isaiah; so the Targum says, “to whom the prophets said” that is, the true prophets of the Lord said to the people, as follows:

— this is the rest for those weary to rest: and this is the refreshing: that is, by teaching the word of God, the true knowledge of him, and the sound doctrines; this would be the best way of refreshing the minds and health of the people, burdened, distressed and disconsolate through afflictions and calamities upon them, preserving them from captivity, and other judgements;

— yet they would not hear; having no regard to the Lord and his prophets; nor any compassion to their countrymen, afflicted and distressed in mind or body; nor to the true knowledge of God.

¹³ But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little, that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken and snared and taken. — but the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept; which were despised and derided by them; they took the prophet’s words out of context, and in a scoffing manner repeating them;

— precept upon precept, precept upon precept; the words may be rendered, “though the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept” which were delivered in a plain and easy a manner to understand, yet so stupid were they as not to receive those precepts, and so perverse and stubborn as wilfully to reject them; hence they were given up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart;

— that they might go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken: that they may fall backward, backslide from God, and be broken; and be ensnared and taken in a net by their enemies and again be carried away into captivity; and then be dispersed among the nations.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem, — the prophet, Isaiah, now directly attacks the great men of Jerusalem, as being the leaders in crime, and as being eminently deserving of the wrath of God.

¹⁵ because ye have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” — we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement: as safe from death and secure from hell or the grave, as if a covenant and compact had been formally entered into between them. The phrases are expressive of their being fearless of them, and of their confidence and assurance that they should not be hurt by them;

— for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves; not what they themselves reckoned so, but what the prophet Isaiah or the Lord by him, called so, whose words they used and in whose language they spoke; meaning either their lying prophets and the false doctrines they delivered to them, promising them peace when destruction was at hand; or their idols which are falsehood and lying vanities; or their carnal policy, and crafty methods of acting with their enemies;

— by which they hoped to deceive them; or else their wealth and riches, got by lying, stealing and fraud; and perhaps all may be intended in which they might put their trust and confidence and on account of them expect security from threatened evils, though no other than lies and falsehood; and the same may be observed of all outward acts of religion, rites, ceremonies and works of righteousness done by men, in which they place their trust and hope to be saved by them from wrath to come;

— this verse describes America’s most prominent lying secretary of state in history, Mike Pompeo: “I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole,” former CIA director and now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 15, 2019 at a forum at Texas A&M University, TX. “It was like – we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.” Interestingly, a Christian religious news broadcaster picked up on Pompeo’s words and described it with such precision as follows: “that’s not the resume of the Secretary of State… that’s the resume of Satan.”

¹⁶ Therefore thus saith the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste. — behold, the one foundation on which building, we can build secure, and safe as well as secure, is that foundation which is laid in the Messiah, the Son of God, a tested stone, a precious stone, a stone that has borne all the weight that the world has laid upon it, and borne it up;

— cornerstone; uniting the several parts of the building together, making Ephraim and Judah, now sadly divided, one stick; and Jews and Gentiles, now implacable enemies, one church, one people and one Kingdom.

¹⁷ Judgement also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. — Judgement also will I lay to the line; that is, God will execute just judgement, as it were by a line and plummet annexed to it; that is, with exactness and care. I will severely punish and utterly destroy all who reject that stone;

— and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, the lies they made their refuge; God’s judgements, which in the Scriptures are compared to a storm of hail or rain, shall discover the vanity of all their crafty and wicked devices and shall sweep them away by the rushing waters that shall flush them out from their hiding places.

¹⁸ And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. — disannulled; made void, or of none effect; it shall stand you in no stead; ye shall be trodden down by it; which you flattered yourselves that it should not come unto you, would be thrown down and trampled upon by it as the mire of the streets.

¹⁹ From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you, for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night; and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.” — from the time that it goes forth it shall take you; as soon as this overflowing scourge or judgement shall go forth; into the land, it shall take or seize upon you scoffers, or carry you away, which agrees with the metaphor of a flood;

— morning by morning it shall pass over; it shall not only come to you, contrary to your presumption, but it shall abide upon you; and when it hath passed over you, it shall return again to you, morning after morning; and shall follow you day and night, without giving you the least respite.

²⁰ For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. — for the bed is shorter; that is, for those lying refuges, to which they trust, will not be able to give them the protection which they expect from them;

²¹ For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim; He shall be wroth as in the Valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work, and bring to pass His act, His strange act. — the Lord shall rise up as in Mt Perazim, the point of the reference to David’s victories at Baal Perazim (1 Chronicles 14:11), and at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 14:16) is that then Jehuah had interposed on behalf of His people against their enemies. The “new and strange” work, the very paradox of prophecy, was that He would now rise up to overthrow His own people.

²² Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consuming even determined upon the whole earth. — now therefore be not mockers, for their own sakes do not make a mock of God’s word and threats, lest their bands be made strong, more sure and unavoidable, and more severe and terrible, as bands are when they are tied faster and more strongly upon a prisoner;

— for I have heard from the Lord a consumption; God hath assured Isaiah that he will utterly root out the people of Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes; and the Jews, the kingdom of the two tribes, even the whole earth.

²³ Give ye ear and hear my voice; hearken and hear my speech. — therefore, give ear, and hear my voice, so said the prophet because what he was about to say was of importance and required attention.

²⁴ Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? Doth he open and break the clods of his ground? — do the ploughman plough all day to sow? Or “every day” he ploughs in order to sow; by ploughing he prepares the ground for sowing; and he does not plough every day in the year; he has other work besides ploughing; such as breaking of clods, sowing seed and threshing the grain after it is ripe, reaped and gathered. 

²⁵ When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the dill and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place? — as the plowman has his appointed time and various instruments for his labour, so has the Lord for his selection: for he selects and punishes some at one time and some at another; some after one sort and some after another, so that his chosen seed is beaten and tried, but not broken as are the wicked.

²⁶ For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. — for his God gives the husbandman instruction and discretion how to sow his seed at what time and in a proper place; for this refers to what goes before and after; threshing or beating out of corn, according to his knowledge and discretion God teaches him.

²⁷ For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the dill is beaten out with a staff and the cummin with a rod. — the lesson of the parable is that it comes to nations and individuals in season and in measure in bringing in the minute details and drawing this lesson from them; that the method suitable to one kind of grain would be ruinous to another; and that even the rougher methods are applied with moderation.

²⁸ Bread corn is beaten, because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. — “bread corn” of the wheat or barley is beaten, for this a severer chastisement, a more thorough threshing is needed; but the end of threshing is the preservation not the destruction of the grain.

²⁹ This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. —in counsel and in giving counsel to man, this cometh from the Lord of hosts; all this wisdom the husbandman has, in manuring his ground, in sowing it with proper seed and in threshing it out in a manner suitable to it, agriculture or husbandry, even among the heathens, is always ascribed to God as an invention of his and it was the first work which God put man to, and instructed him as all other arts and sciences that come from God.

~ by Joel Huan on March 10, 2022.

Posted in Isaiah