And they that erred in spirit, shall know understanding, and they that murmured, shall learn the law.

“Woe, Ariel. In this part he sets forth a threat against the people, or against the city; and it is divided into two parts. In the first he threatens the punishment of temporal destruction; in the second, the punishment of spiritual blindness, Be astonished. Concerning the first, two things. In the first he threatens destruction; in the second he sets forth some sort of consolation, and it shall be as a dream. The first into two. In the first, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. In the second, by the Romans, and I will encompass. Concerning the first, three things. First he recalls its former dignity. Ariel, that is, lion of God, because by the power of God, in the times of David and Solomon, it feared no one, just as a lion does not either. Proverbs 30: a lion, strongest of beasts, will tremble at the meeting of no one. Or on account of the altar of holocausts, which was there, which consumed animals as a lion does. And so as it is taken in Ezekiel 43: or perhaps on account of its shape, because it was situated after the manner of a lion. He conquered. 1 Kings 17: for I conquered the lion and the bear. Second he sets forth the destruction, positing three things: the cessation of feasts, add, as if to say, for many years. Have rolled around, that is, have perished. Hosea 3: they shall sit many days without sacrifice and without ephod. Siege, and I will encircle with a rampart, namely by the Chaldeans. Ezekiel 4: it shall be in a state of siege; and he hints at the conquest arising from sorrow, and she shall be sorrowful. Lamentations 1: many are her groans, etc. Third he sets forth the restoration made under Jesus the high priest and others, concerning whom the whole of Esdras treats. And it shall be to me; as if to say: retaining only a shadow of its former dignity. But on the contrary: Haggai 2: great is the glory of this latter house, more than of the former. And it must be said that this is said on account of the fact that it was visited by the Son of God himself, even bodily. And I will encompass. Here he threatens destruction by the Romans; and concerning this he sets forth four things. First, the siege, and I will encompass as a sphere, that is, round about. Luke 19: your enemies shall encompass you with a rampart. Habakkuk 1: he shall laugh at every fortification, and shall heap up a mound. Second, the humiliation of the besieged, you shall be humbled; and the sign of the humiliation: you shall speak out of the earth, that is, just as if you were under the earth, you shall even be heard speaking lowly, bearing the words of a python-spirit, who used to chant incantations silently. Zephaniah 3: I will take away out of your midst the evil-speakers of your pride. Or the merit of the humiliation, reproving in them the sin of avarice, you shall speak out of the earth; and of idolatry, and it shall be as of a python-spirit. Third he sets forth the multitude of enemies, and it shall be as dust: Joel 1: a nation has come up; or the destruction of the enemies, as above, 17: it shall be carried off like the dust of the mountains before the face of the wind. Fourth he sets forth the destruction itself, and it shall be suddenly: metaphorically, on account of the ferocity of the enemies. Jeremiah 4: he shall come up as a cloud, and as a tempest: his chariots are swifter than eagles. And it shall be as a dream. Here he applies a certain consolation drawn from the punishment of the enemies, because, like a vain thing, they shall come to nothing, carrying back no advantage from the destruction of Judea, just as neither does one who is hungry or thirsty gain anything from food or drink dreamed of. Ecclesiasticus 34: vain hope and a lie are to a senseless man, and dreams lift up the imprudent. Zechariah 12: I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden to all peoples. Note on that word, and it shall be as a dream, that a thing is called a dream, first, on account of vanity. Ecclesiasticus 34: the vision of dreams is according to this; second, on account of brevity. Job 20: like a dream flying up he shall not be found. Third, on account of the obscurity of its knowing. Job 33: through a dream, in a vision of the night. Fourth, on account of the perversity of the soul. Below, 56: sleeping, and loving dreams. Be astonished, here he threatens the punishment of blindness: and first he foretells the blindness of the Jews; second, the conversion of the Gentiles, is it not yet. Concerning the first, two things. First he sets forth the blindness; second he assigns its reason, and the Lord said. Concerning the first, three things. First he foretells the blindness, setting forth those things which disturb the judgment of reason: be astonished, from the consideration of the evils of fault or of punishment. Jeremiah 2: be astonished, O heavens, at this, and, O gates of heaven, be very desolate. And wonder, from the consideration of great things. Psalm 138: wonderful are your works. Waver, from the uncertainty of things to be chosen. James 1: for he who hesitates is like the wind; be shaken, from the inconstancy of purposes. Job 4: your hands have strengthened the staggering. Be drunk, from the anxiety of sorrows. Habakkuk 2: drink also, you, and be fast asleep; the cup of the right hand of the Lord shall come round about you. Second he sets forth the manner of the blindness, for he has mingled; that is, as mingled wine he has given to drink, your eyes, namely the prophets. Above, 19: the Lord has mingled in its midst a spirit of dizziness. Third he sets forth the effect of the blindness, because the book of sacred Scripture and the visions of all the prophets they shall not understand. And it shall be to you. Apocalypse 5: I saw in the right hand of him who sat a book. And the Lord said. Here he sets forth the cause of the blindness, namely their own sin: first as to the affections; second as to the intellect, woe to those who are deep. Concerning the first he sets forth two things. First the fault of contempt of God, but his heart, because they cloak it with words, with lips, with human observances. And they feared. Jeremiah 12: you are near to their mouth, and far from their reins. Matthew 15: you have made void the commandment of God for the sake of your traditions. Second, the punishment, therefore behold I, great, according to their own reputation, or formerly. Obadiah: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject: 1 Corinthians 1. Woe to those who are deep. Here he sets forth the sin on the part of the intellect, because they did not believe in the providence of God, that he would know the things that are done concerning us: and concerning this he does two things. First the devising of the error is set forth. Now they said that they escaped God's notice, on account of the depth of the heart, where they turned over their wicked counsels: hence he says, who are deep, Jeremiah 17: the heart of man is deep and unsearchable; who shall know it? And on account of the obscurity of the places in which they carried out their wicked works: hence he says, whose are, John 3: everyone who does evil hates the light. Ecclesiasticus 16: do not say, I shall be hidden from God. Second the just rebuke is set forth, it is perverse. You have not made it, because God knows insofar as he is the cause of the thing. Below, 45: woe to him that contradicts his maker. Below, 64: and now, O Lord, you are our father, but we are clay; and you our fashioner, and we are all the works of your hands. Is it not. Here he foretells the conversion of the Gentiles: and concerning this he does three things. First he foretells the conversion to grace. Lebanon, the Gentiles, because it was a mountain in the land of the Gentiles; into Carmel, into the grace which the Jews had through circumcision, because it is interpreted knowledge of circumcision. Into a forest, that is, into the barrenness in which the Gentiles previously were. Below, 32, the same is found. To sacred knowledge, the deaf, namely the Gentiles, who previously had not heard the words of the law. Matthew 2: the blind see. John 9: I have come into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. To spiritual gladness, and they shall add. Psalm 9: I will be glad and exult in you, I will sing to your name, O Most High. Second he assigns the occasion, or reason, of the conversion, from the fall of the Devil: for he has failed who prevailed, through power; the mocker, the deceiver through cunning. Above, 16: the wretch is consumed, from the blindness of the Jewish people: because blindness in part has come upon Israel: Romans 11. Cut down are those who watched: eagerness toward evil. Proverbs 4: for they do not sleep, unless they have done evil. Who to sin, by wicked examples and teachings. Him that reproved, as to the contempt of discipline. Amos 5: they have hated him that reproves in the gate. They have turned aside, as to the vanity of sin, because that which does not attain its end is in vain. Wisdom 5: what has pride profited us, or what has the boasting of riches conferred upon us? Third he sets forth the return of the Jews at the end of the world, therefore thus says; who redeemed, Genesis 11. Not now, that is, in this time, shall he be confounded, with a good confusion. Ecclesiasticus 4: there is a confusion that brings glory; sons, the apostles, murmurers, that is, those who formerly murmured. Above, 27: they that shall go forth with impetus from Jacob, and Israel shall blossom and bud. Or it can be expounded otherwise, of the prosperity which is promised to them once Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar has been destroyed. Carmel into a forest; that is, so great shall be the fertility of the land of promise, that the fertility of Carmel shall be reckoned barrenness in comparison to it. The mocker, Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar. His sons, the three youths in the furnace of fire: or because their own children shall render the praise of my name, which they themselves did not render in their youth.”

“They also that erred in spirit,.... In judgment, and in spiritual things; as the Jews have done, ever since the Messiah's coming, being given up to a spirit of error, as the Targum, on Isa 29:10 calls it; they have erred concerning the Scriptures, and the prophecies of them; concerning the Messiah, his work and office; concerning his truths and his ordinances, and by preferring their traditions to the word of God: but these shall come to understanding; to a spiritual understanding of Christ, and salvation by him; of his Gospel, and the doctrines of it; as well as of themselves, their state and condition: and they that murmured; at Christ, and what was delivered by him; at the reception of sinners by him; at the calling of the Gentiles; and at the providence of God that have attended them, ever since their rejection of the true Messiah: shall learn doctrine; the doctrine of the Messiah; not the law, as Kimchi and Ben Melech; but the Gospel, which Christ "received" from his Father, as the word (f) used signifies, and his disciples received from him, and the church has received from them, and has been transmitted to us Gentiles, and will be to the Jews in the latter day, who will learn the true knowledge of it. (f) a "capere, accipere, est id quod aliquis sibi sumit dicendum", Gusset. Ebr. Comment. p. 443. Next: Isaiah Chapter 30”

“Murmured. Magicians, (Grotius) or false sages, chap. xxviii. 9. (Calmet) Bible Text & Cross-references: God’s heavy judgments upon Jerusalem, for their blind obstinacy: with a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles. 1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city which David took: year is added to year: the solemnities are at an end. 2 And I will make a trench about Ariel, and it shall be in sorrow and mourning, and it shall be to me as Ariel. 3 And I will make a circle round about thee, and will cast up a rampart against thee, and raise up bulwarks to besiege thee. 4 Thou shalt be brought down, thou shalt speak out of the earth, and thy speech shall be heard out of the ground: and thy voice shall be from the earth like that of the Python, and out of the ground thy speech shall mutter. 5 And the multitude of them that fan thee, shall be like small dust, and as ashes passing away, the multitude of them that have prevailed against thee. 6 And it shall be at an instant suddenly. A visitation shall come from the Lord of hosts in thunder, and with earthquake, and with a great noise of whirlwind and tempest, and with the flame of devouring fire. 7 And the multitude of all nations that have fought against Ariel, shall be as the dream of a vision by night, and all that have fought, and besieged, and prevailed against it. 8 And as he that is hungry dreameth, and eateth, but when he is awake, his soul is empty: and as he that is thirsty dreameth, and drinketh, and after he is awake, is yet faint with thirst, and his soul is empty: so shall be the multitude of all the Gentiles that have fought against Mount Sion. 9 Be astonished, and wonder, waver, and stagger: be drunk, and not with wine: stagger, and not with drunkenness. 10 For the Lord hath mingled for you the spirit of a deep sleep; he will shut up your eyes; he will cover your prophets and princes, that see visions. 11 And the vision of all shall be unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which when they shall deliver to one that is learned, they shall say: Read this: and he shall answer: I cannot, for it is sealed. 12 And the book shall be given to one that knoweth no letters, and it shall be said to him: Read: and he shall answer: I know no letters. 13 *And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify me, but their heart is far from me, and they have feared me with the commandment and doctrines of men: 14 Therefore, behold I will proceed to cause an admiration in this people, by a great and wonderful miracle: *for wisdom shall perish from their wise men, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 15 Woe to you that are deep of heart, to hide your counsel from the Lord: and their works are in the dark, and they say: *Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? 16 This thought of yours is perverse: as if the clay should think against the potter, and the work should say to the maker thereof: Thou madest me not: or the thing framed should say to him that fashioned it: Thou understandest not. 17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Libanus shall be turned into charmel, and charmel shall be esteemed as a forest? 18 And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and out of darkness and obscurity the eyes of the blind shall see. 19 And the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor men shall rejoice in the holy One of Israel. 20 For he that did prevail hath failed, the scorner is consumed, and they are all cut off that watched for iniquity: 21 That made men sin by word, and supplanted him that reproved them in the gate, and declined in vain from the just. 22 Therefore, thus saith the Lord to the house of Jacob, he that redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not now be confounded, neither shall his countenance now be ashamed. 23 But when he shall see his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him sanctifying my name, and they shall sanctify the holy One of Jacob, and shall glorify the God of Israel: 24 And they that erred in spirit, shall know understanding; and they that murmured, shall learn the law.”

“They . . . that erred-- (Isa 28:7). learn doctrine--rather, "shall receive discipline" or "instruction." "Murmuring" was the characteristic of Israel's rebellion against God (Exo 16:8; Psa 106:25). This shall be so no more. Chastisements, and, in HORSLEY'S view, the piety of the Gentiles provoking the Jews to holy jealousy (Rom 11:11, Rom 11:14), shall then produce the desired effect. Jewish ambassadors were now on their way to Egypt to seek aid against Assyria (Isa 30:2-6, Isa 30:15; Isa 31:1). Isaiah denounces this reliance on Egypt rather than on Jehovah. God had prohibited such alliances with heathen nations, and it was a leading part of Jewish polity that they should be a separate people (Exo 23:32; Deu 7:2). Next: Isaiah Chapter 30”