The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood.

“For how shall we not regard it fearful, if one who knows God shall not recognize the Lord? While the ox and the donkey, stupid and foolish animals, will know one who feeds them, Israel is found to be more irrational than these? And having, by Jeremiah, complained against the people on many grounds, God adds, "They have forsaken me, says the Lord."”

“If the love of children for their parents is a natural endowment and if this love is noticeable in the behavior even of brute beasts, as well as in the affection of human beings in early infancy for their mothers, let us not appear to be less rational than infants or more savage than wild beasts by alienating ourselves from him who made us by being unloving toward him.… This gratitude is characteristic not only of humans, but it is also felt by almost all animals, so that they attach themselves to those who have conferred some good upon them.”

“Therefore "Jesus found a donkey and sat upon it." … The donkey's colt upon which no one had sat (for this fact is found in the other Evangelists) we understand as the people of the nations which had not received the Lord's law. However, the donkey (because both beasts were led to the Lord) is his community which came from the people of Israel, clearly not unbroken, but which recognized the Master's manger.”

“his owner Heb. קֹנֵהוּ [is] like מְתַקְּנוֹ, the one who affixes him to the plowshare for plowing by day, and since he has accustomed him to this, he knows him. The dull donkey, however, does not recognize his master until he feeds him. Israel was not intelligent like the ox, to know, when I called him and said, “Israel will be your name” (Gen. 35:10), and I informed them of several of My statutes, yet they deserted Me, as is related in Ezekiel (20:39): “Let each one go and worship his idols.” Even after I took them out of Egypt and fed them the manna and called them, “My people, the children of Israel,” they did not consider even as a donkey. Another explanation is: An ox knows its owner An ox recognizes his owner so that his fear is upon him. He did not deviate from what I decreed upon him, by saying, I will not plow today. Neither did a donkey say to his owner, I will not bear burdens today. Now, these [creatures,] who were created to serve you, and are not destined to receive reward if they merit, or to be punished if they sin, did not change their manner, which I decreed upon them. Israel, however, who, if they merit receive reward, and if they sin are punished. does not know i.e., did not want to know; they knew but trod with their heels, and my people did not take heart to consider.”

“The ox knoweth, etc. Ox and ass are mentioned, as animals which are in constant use among people. אבוס the crib. The place for the ass’s food. The form of the word is in the construct state the same as in the absolute. The participle passive Kal, 1) אבוסים Kings 5:3) and אבוס (Prov. 15:17), ‘fatted,’ is derived from this word; it means literally, ‘placed at the crib.’ Israel doth not know. They are, therefore, in their character inferior to the cattle. My people doth not consider. Repetition of the preceding idea, as usual in most of the prophecies, in the song of Moses (Deut. 32), in the parables of Balaam (Num. 23., 24iMy people doth not consider. Repetition of the preceding idea, as usual in most of the prophecies, in the song of Moses (Deut. xxxii.), in the parables of Balaam (Num. xxiii., xxiv.), etc. The meaning of the whole verse is, I have brought them up, but they do not know me.”

“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. Here begins the treatise of this book, from which the division will be taken according to what the subject matter requires. Now it has been said that its principal intention concerns the coming of Christ, and the calling of the Gentiles. Now it is clear that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, as is said in Psalm 24. Hence, when Christ was born, it was said by Simeon, Luke 2: behold, this one is set for the fall and the resurrection of many in Israel. And when the Gentiles were entering in, it was said by the Apostle, Romans 11: blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in. This book, therefore, is divided into two parts. In the first is set forth the threat of divine justice unto the destruction of sinners; in the second, the consolation of divine mercy unto the resurrection of the just, chapter 40, there, "be comforted." The first is divided into three. For since he speaks principally concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the first part he threatens the two sinning tribes; in the second, others who persecute them, chapter 7, "and it came to pass." In the third he delivers them from threatening enemies, chapter 32, "behold in justice." The first is divided into two. In the first he reproaches their fault and threatens a correcting punishment; in the second he threatens a punishment condemning the incorrigible, chapter 6: "in the year that king Uzziah died." The first is divided into two. In the first he charges the fault on the side of aversion, in the second on the side of conversion, chapter 2, there, "the word which he saw." The first into two. In the first he charges against them the sin of aversion from the worship of God; in the second, from justice toward one's neighbor, there, "how has she become." The first into three. In the first he rebukes the fault; in the second he threatens punishment for the fault, there, "your land is desolate." In the third he seeks a remedy for the punishment, there, "hear the word of the Lord." The first into three. In the first he seeks a witness for the judgment; in the second he charges the deformity of the sin, there, "I have nourished sons"; in the third he shows the incorrigibility of the sinners, there, "upon what shall I strike you." Now he calls upon the creature as witness in the judgment of sin, which had also been witness in the binding of the precept. Deuteronomy 32: "Hear, O heavens, the things I speak" — for indeed the creature had been witness of the obligation to the precept. Deuteronomy 32. Now it is invoked as arbiter of the transgression. Psalm 49: "he called the heaven from above." But at another time it will be called as an instrument of divine vengeance. Wisdom 16: "the creature, serving its Creator, will grow fierce in torment against the unjust." But it seems unfitting that earth and heaven, which are insensible creatures, should be called upon to hear. But it must be said that, with respect to those who are of a rational nature, the insensible creature is called upon to show forth the divine power. Job 38: "I shut it up within my bounds." And Romans 4: "he calls the things that are not as though they were." And by the evidence of a deed. 2 Kings 12: "I indeed will do this thing in the sight of all Israel, and in the sight of the sun." And Luke 19: "the stones will cry out, if these should be silent, I say to you"; to aggravate malice. Jeremiah 2: "Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and, O gates thereof, be very desolate." To magnify joy. Psalm 95: "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth exult." To astonish sorrow. Hosea 4: "Because of this the land shall mourn, and everyone who dwells in it shall languish." As if he were to say: your sin is so evident that it would be convicted by irrational things, if it could be so; and likewise concerning the others. Or there is here a metonymy, so that heaven is put for the Angels, and earth for men. "Heavens" — plural for singular. Or because, according to the letter, there are many heavens and one center, which is the earth. "The Lord has spoken." That you may hear him speaking, by whose speaking you were made. Psalm 148: "He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created." "Hear, O heavens" — as being distant; "give ear, O earth" — as being near. "I have nourished sons." Here he shows the deformity of the sin, and concerning this he does three things. First he shows contempt in the affection; second, ignorance in the intellect, there, "the ox has known"; third, aversion in the effect of the deed, there, "woe to the sinful nation," etc. And this order is kept, so that ignorance is aggravated by contempt, lest ignorance excuse contempt. He aggravates the contempt by the benefit bestowed; hence concerning the first he does two things. First he calls to mind the benefit; second, the vice of ingratitude, there, "but they." Now he sets down a threefold benefit. The first is that of filial adoption, when he says, "sons." Exodus 4: "Israel is my firstborn son." The second, that of careful upbringing, there, "I have nourished." Wisdom 16: "You nourished your people with the food of Angels." The third, that of singular exaltation, there, "and I have exalted." Wisdom 11: "showing, by the thirst which then was, how you exalted your own, and slew their adversaries." The first as regards the assumption and exaltation of the fathers; the second, in the deliverance of the sons; the third, in the subjugation of the enemies. "They have despised me." (Here he sets down the vice of ingratitude.) Jeremiah 3: "As if a woman should despise her lover, so has the house of Israel despised me." Now he aggravates the ignorance by the example of brute beasts; hence concerning this he does two things. First he brings in the knowledge of brute beasts; second, the ignorance of sinners, there, "but Israel" — "the ox has known" — by a certain custom of benefit. "But Israel." He charges against them a twofold ignorance: namely, of the one commanding, when he says, "has not known me," against what he had said, "his possessor"; and against the meaning of the name; "Israel" is interpreted "seeing God." John 16: "they have not known the Father, nor me." Ignorance of the law: "has not understood," against what he had said, "the manger," and what he had said, "people," who is subject to the precepts of the lawgiver. Hosea 8: "I will write for them my manifold laws, which have been reckoned as though foreign." Now he aggravates the effect of the deed by confirmed practice; hence first he shows the confirmation; second, their aversion, "they have forsaken." He shows the confirmation, first, through the custom of sin, which induces a habit; hence he says, "sinful nation." For thus a sinner is by habit as a singer is by art, or by office; below, chapter 48: "I have called you a transgressor from the womb." Second, through the readiness of sin, which is, as it were, a certain heaviness in the one sinning; (hence he says: "a people laden with iniquity"). Gregory: "a sin which is not washed away by penance soon, by its own weight, drags one to another." Psalm 13: "their feet are swift to shed blood." Third, from the succession of sin: because, imitating the sins of their fathers, they have them as if by propagation; hence he says, "wicked seed," that is, of the most wicked, according to another translation. Psalm 105: "we have sinned with our fathers, we have acted unjustly, we have done iniquity." Fourth, as to the magnitude of the sins, when he says, "wicked children." Ezekiel 22: "slanderous men have been in you, to shed blood, (...) they have wrought wickedness in the midst of you." Below, chapter 57: "are you not wicked children, a lying seed?" "Upon which — adding." Here he shows the incorrigibility of the sin, removing a threefold mode of correction. First, that which is through the divine scourge, saying, "upon which," that is, to what end, "adding," namely, that from where correction comes, from there you add sins? Jeremiah 2: "in vain have I struck your children: they have not received discipline." Second, that which is through the counsel or help of a neighbor, when he says, "every head is languid": because no one is fit to come to another's aid, on account of his own weakness. And this he shows as regards the person of the king or the prince, saying: "every head is languid." 1 Kings 15: "Did you not, when you were little in your own eyes, become head over the tribes of Israel?" As regards the person of the priest, "every heart is mourning": for the heart is the first to receive life from the soul and to transmit it into the body, being as it were a medium between soul and body; so the priest is a medium between God and the people. Exodus 4: "you shall be to him in those things that pertain to God." As regards the person of a private man, when he says: "from the sole of the foot"; below, chapter 56: "all have turned aside, each to his own way." And it must be noted that the unfitness of the king is shown in languor, because he could have come to aid by punishing, through power. Ecclesiasticus 7: "seek not to become a judge, unless you are able by strength to break through iniquity." That of the priest is shown in mourning, through which he becomes unfit for the sacrifices, by which he used to expiate sins. Leviticus 10: "how could I eat it, or please the Lord in the ceremonies, with a mournful mind?" Psalm 99: "enter into his sight with exultation." But the private man could correct by example; and therefore he is shown to be unfit through sin, which is designated in the privation of health: Psalm 13: "all have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable"; namely, for correcting. Third, there, "wound and bruise," he removes the mode that is through human effort, as when someone is disposed toward grace, which blots out sins, through good works. Hence he says: "wound" — evident guilt, and "bruise" — hidden envy, and "swelling sore" — inflating pride — "is not bound up" by the restraining bond of the law. Jeremiah 2: "of old you have broken my yoke, you have burst my bonds, you have said, I will not serve" — as to the first: "nor cured with medicine" — charity healing — as to the second: Proverbs 10: "charity covers all sins": "nor fomented with oil" — humility soothing — (as to the third), Judith 9: "the prayer of the humble and meek has always pleased you." Ecclesiasticus 3: "the greater you are, the more humble yourself in all things." Proverbs 15: "a mild answer breaks wrath." Judges 9: "can I forsake my fatness, which both gods and men make use of?" "Your land." Here he threatens punishment; and first he sets down the judgment of the one punishing; second, whatever comfort of consolation there is, there, "unless the Lord." He sets down a threefold punishment. First, as to the destruction of possessions; hence he says, "your land is desolate," as to the open fields, which will be as uncultivated as a desert. Below, chapter 7: "for briers and thorns shall be in all the land." "Your cities are burned," as to the towns. Amos 2: "I will send a fire into Judah, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem." Jeremiah 4: "I looked, and behold Carmel a wilderness, and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the wrath of his fury." The second punishment is as to the destruction of the produce of the land; hence he says: "they devour the region," as to the fruits. Deuteronomy 28: "let it devour the fruit of your cattle, and the fruits of your land, until you perish." "It shall be desolate," as to the destruction of trees and vineyards. Jeremiah 4: "woe to us, for we are laid waste." Third, as to the captivity of men; hence he says: "the daughter of Zion shall be left" — that is, Jerusalem, or the temple, whence was the guard of the whole province — "as a lonely one," and "as a shelter in a vineyard," after the vintage. Below, chapter 5: "for the vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah his delightful plant." "As a hut in a field of cucumbers," after the last fruits have been gathered, by which he signifies the fathers. Hosea 9: "as the first fruits of the fig tree, in its top, I saw their fathers." "As a city that is laid waste," because it was the metropolis. Ezekiel 33: "the city is laid waste, said he who had come from Jerusalem." Jeremiah 6: "this is the city of visitation: all calumny is in the midst of her." "Unless the Lord of hosts." Here is set down the consolation from the promise of a seed to be delivered. Now the Lord left them the seed of the flesh gathered together. Below, chapter 43: "from the east I will bring your seed, and from the west I will gather you." The seed of blessing promised. Galatians 3: "to Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed." The seed of preaching spread abroad. Below, chapter 27: "he who shall go forth with impetus from Jacob, and Israel shall flourish and bud: and they shall fill the face of the world with seed." The new seed of the saints. Below, chapter 66: "as the new heavens and the new earth, which I make to stand before me, so shall your seed stand, and your name, says the Lord." "I have nourished sons," etc. Here three things are noted: the benefit of nourishment, the privilege of exaltation, the contempt of ingratitude. Now he nourished them in the time of the law, when the heir was still a little child, Galatians 4, first refreshing them with promises in the fathers. Galatians 3: "to Abraham were the promises made." Second, governing by judgments in the lawgivers, Psalm 147: "he has not done in like manner to every nation, and his judgments he has not made manifest to them." Third, defending by aids in the judges and kings, Judith 5: "their God defends them, and we shall be a reproach to all the earth." Fourth, he instructed by admonitions in the prophets, Malachi 2: "and the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth." Fifth, he corrected by scourges through enemies, 2 Maccabees 6: "for indeed not to allow sinners to act according to their own mind for a long time, but to apply vengeance at once, is a mark of great kindness." But he exalted them in the time of grace, first, as to the assumption of flesh. Hebrews 2: "nowhere does he take hold of the Angels; but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham." Second, by personal preaching, Matthew 10: "I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel." Third, by his own manner of life, John 10: "many good works have I done among you: for which work," etc.; fourth, by the working of miracles, John 5, and Luke 7: "because a great prophet has risen up among us, and because God has visited his people." Fifth, by the preaching of the disciples, Psalm 44: "instead of your fathers, sons are born to you: you shall make them princes over all the earth." But, on the contrary, they revile the lineage of Christ, Luke 4: "is not this the son of Joseph?" They condemn his teaching, Matthew 26 and Luke 23: "from Galilee even to this place, we have found this man perverting our nation." They blaspheme his life, Matthew 9: "why does your master eat with publicans and sinners?" They pervert his miracles, Matthew 12: "he casts out devils by the prince of devils." They kill his disciples, Matthew 10: "behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves."”

“The ox knoweth his owner,.... Knows his voice, when he calls him, and follows him where he leads him, whether to plough in the field, or feed in the meadows; and the ass his masters crib, or "manger"; where he is fed, and to which he goes when he wants food, and at the usual times. Gussetius (w) interprets the words; the ass knows the floor where he treads out the corn, and willingly goes to it, though it is to labour, as well as to eat; and so puts Israel to shame, who were weary of the worship of God in the temple, where spiritual food was provided for them, but chose not to go for it, because of labour there. But Israel doth not know; his Maker and Owner, his King, Lord, and Master, his Father, Saviour, and Redeemer; he does not own and acknowledge him, but rejects him; see Joh 1:10. My people doth not consider; the Jews, who were the people of God by profession, did not stir themselves up to consider, nor make use of means of knowing and understanding, divine and spiritual things, as the word used (x) signifies; they would not attend to the word and ordinances, which answer to the crib or manger; they would not hear nor regard the ministry of the word by Christ and his apostles, nor suffer others, but hindered them as much as in them lay; see Mat 23:13. The Targum is, "Israel does not learn to know my fear, my people do not understand to turn to my law.'' In like manner the more than brutal stupidity of this people is exposed in Jer 8:7. (w) Comment. Ling. Ebr. p. 13, 14. (x) a "intellexit". So Gussetius says it signifies a spontaneous application, by which you stir up yourself to understand; which is an action leading to wisdom, and without which no man can be wise, Comment. Ling. Ebr. p. 121.”

“(Jer 8:7). crib--the stall where it is fed (Pro 14:4). Spiritually the word and ordinances. Israel--The whole nation, Judah as well as Israel, in the restricted sense. God regards His covenant-people in their designed unity. not know--namely, his Owner, as the parallelism requires; that is, not recognize Him as such (Exo 19:5, equivalent to "my people," Joh 1:10-11). consider--attend to his Master (Isa 41:8), notwithstanding the spiritual food which He provides (answering to "crib" in the parallel clause).”

“Jehovah then complains that the rebellion with which His children have rewarded Him is not only inhuman, but even worse than that of the brutes: "An ox knoweth its owner, and an ass its master's crib: Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." An ox has a certain knowledge of its buyer and owner, to whom it willingly submits; and an ass has at least a knowledge of the crib of its master (the noun for "master" is in the plural: this is not to be understood in a numerical, but in an amplifying sense, "the authority over it," as in Exo 21:29 : vid., Ges. 108, 2, b, and Dietrich's Heb. Gram. p. 45), i.e., it knows that it is its master who fills its crib or manger with fodder (evus, the crib, from avas, to feed, is radically associated with φάτνη, vulgar πάτνη, Dor. and Lac. πάτνη, and is applied in the Talmud to the large common porringer used by labourers). (Note: Nedarim iv 4 jer. Demai viii. The stable is called repheth Even in jer. Shebuoth viii. 1, where cattle are spoken of as standing b'evus, the word signifies a crib or manger, not a stable. Luzzatto tries to prove that evus signifies a threshing-floor, and indeed an enclosed place, in distinction from geren; but he is mistaken.) Israel had no such knowledge, neither instinctive and direct, nor acquired by reflection (hithbonan, the reflective conjugation, with a pausal change of the e4 into a long a, according to Ges. 54, note). The expressions "doth not know" and "doth not consider" must not be taken here in an objectless sense - as, for example, in Isa 56:10 and Psa 82:5 -viz. as signifying they were destitute of all knowledge and reflection; but the object is to be supplied from what goes before: they knew not, and did not consider what answered in their case to the owner and to the crib which the master fills," - namely, that they were the children and possession of Jehovah, and that their existence and prosperity were dependent upon the grace of Jehovah alone. The parallel, with its striking contrasts, is self-drawn, like that in Jer 8:7, where animals are referred to again, and is clearly indicated in the words "Israel" and "my people." Those who were so far surpassed in knowledge and perception even by animals, and so thoroughly put to shame by them, were not merely a nation, like any other nation on the earth, but were "Israel," descendants of Jacob, the wrestler with God, who wrestled down the wrath of God, and wrestled out a blessing for himself and his descendants; and "my people," the nation which Jehovah had chosen out of all other nations to be the nation of His possession, and His own peculiar government. This nation, bearing as it did the God-given title of a hero of faith and prayer, this favourite nation of Jehovah, had let itself down far below the level of the brutes. This is the complaint which the exalted speaker pours out in Isa 1:2 and Isa 1:3 before heaven and earth. The words of God, together with the introduction, consist of two tetrastichs, the measure and rhythm of which are determined by the meaning of the words and the emotion of the speaker. There is nothing strained in it at all. Prophecy lives and moves amidst the thoughts of God, which prevail above the evil reality: and for that very reason, as a reflection of the glory of God, which is the ideal of beauty (Psa 50:1), it is through and through poetical. That of Isaiah is especially so. There was no art of oratory practised in Israel, which Isaiah did not master, and which did not serve as the vehicle of the word of God, after it had taken shape in the prophet's mind. With Isa 1:4 there commences a totally different rhythm. The words of Jehovah are ended. The piercing lamentation of the deeply grieved Father is also the severest accusation. The cause of God, however, is to the prophet the cause of a friend, who feels an injury done to his friend quite as much as if it were done to himself (Isa 5:1). The lamentation of God, therefore, is changed now into violent scolding and threatening on the part of the prophet; and in accordance with the deep wrathful pain with which he is moved, his words pour out with violent rapidity, like flash after flash, in climactic clauses having no outward connection, and each consisting of only two or three words.”