Commentary upon the Prophecy of Isaiah

Vers. 13. Therefore my people is gone into captivity, because they had no knowledge, and the glory thereof are men famished, and the multitude is dried up with thirst.

Vers. 13. Therefore my people is gone into captiuitie, because they had no knowledge, and the glorie thereof are men famished, and the multitude is dried vp with thirst.

I Allow not the exposition of some interpreters; namely, as if the people fell into many vices through ignorance and error, because the teachers had their mouths shut up: which in the end was the cause of their ruin. No, he rather sets himself against a gross and voluntary ignorance: as if he should say, They drew their destruction upon themselves by their own folly. The sense is then, that the people shall perish because they had despised instruction; whereas they might have been at their ease, if they would have believed good counsel. And therefore the Prophet expressly saith, My people: because they were separate from other nations by a singular privilege; to the end they being kept and guided under God, might hold a right manner of good life. As it is said in Deut. 4.7. What nation is so great that hath ordinances and laws so righteous, or to whom the gods come so near unto them, as the Lord thy God is near (at this day) unto thee? This shall be your wisdom and understanding in the sight of all the people to hear your God. Such profaneness therefore greatly aggravates the crime; that this people should be stark blind in the midst of so great light. And therefore this accusation, namely, That the people which God had taken into his charge should be without knowledge, was very grievous. For the law was every way sufficient for the direction of their whole life: seeing it is a shining light amiddest the common darkness of this world. And therefore it was a monstrous thing that the people would not give themselves to walk in the way which was set before them, but rather wilfully cast themselves headlong into destruction. The Prophet now to their reproach tells them that they ought to impute all the calamities w•ich they endured, to their own default, because they refused to bend their ear to God, who would so faithfully have taught them.