Jesaja 7:25

Gereviseerde Lutherse Vertaling

zodat men ook tot al de bergen, die men met houwelen pleegt om te hakken, niet kan komen uit vrees voor de doornen en distels; maar men zal daarop runderen drijven en ze door schapen laten vertreden.

Parallel Translations

Gereviseerde Leidse Vertaling
En alle bergen, weleer met de spade omgespit, men komt er niet meer, uit vrees voor de doornen en distelen; zij dienen om er de runderen in te jagen en om door de schapen vertrapt te worden.

Staten Vertaling
Ook al de bergen, die men met houwelen pleegt om te hakken, daar zal men niet komen uit vrees der doornen en der distelen; maar die zullen wezen tot inzending van den os, en tot vertreding van het kleinvee.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

but it: Isaiah 7:21, Isaiah 7:22, Isaiah 13:20-22, Isaiah 17:2, Zephaniah 2:6

Reciprocal: 2 Chronicles 34:6 - mattocks Isaiah 5:17 - shall the lambs Isaiah 27:10 - there shall the

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And [on] all hills that shall be digged with the mattock,.... Which could not be ploughed with a plough, but used to be dug with a mattock or spade, and then sowed with corn:

there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns; where thorns and briers used not to grow, and where there was no fear or danger of being overrun with them, as the vineyards in the valleys and champaign country; yet those places should become desolate in another way; or rather, there shall be now no fences made of briers and thorns, which deter cattle from entering into fields and vineyards thus fenced:

but it shall be for the setting forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle; there being no fence of briers and thorns to keep them out, cattle both of the greater and lesser sort should get into the corn, and feed upon it, and make such places desolate, where much pains were taken to cultivate them. The Targum is,

"it shall be for a place of lying down of oxen, and for a place of dwelling of flocks of sheep;''

not for pastures, but for folds for them; though the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, suggest these places should become pastures; and therefore some understand this as a prophecy of a change in the country for the better, and of the great fruitfulness of it after the Jews' return from the Babylonish captivity.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And on all hills ... - All the fertile places in the mountains that used to be cultivated with the spade. Vineyards were often planted on the sides of hills; and those places were among the most productive and fertile in the land; see Isaiah 5:1.

The mattock - The spade; the garden hoe; or the weeding-hook. An instrument chiefly used, probably, in vineyards.

There shall not come thither - There shall not be.

The fear of briers and thorns - This does not make sense; or if it does, it is not a sense consistent with the connection. The idea of the whole passage is, that the land, even the most fertile parts of it, should be given up to briers and thorns; that is, to desolation. The Hebrew here, is ambiguous. It may mean, ‘thou shalt not come there, for fear of the briers and thorns.’ That is, the place that was formerly so fertile, that was cultivated with the spade, shall now be so completely covered with thorns, and shall furnish so convenient a resting place for wild beasts and reptiles, as to deter a man from going there. The Septuagint, and the Syriac, however, understand it differently - as denoting that those places should be still cultivated. But this is evidently a departure from the sense of the connection. Lowth understands it in the past tense; ‘where the fear of briers and thorns never came.’ The general idea of the passage is plain, that those places, once so highly cultivated, would now be desolate.

Shall be for the sending forth ... - Shall be wild, uncultivated, and desolate - vast commons on which oxen and sheep shall feed at large. “Lesser cattle.” Hebrew ‘Sheep, or the flock.’ Sheep were accustomed to range in deserts and uncultivated places, and to obtain there, under the guidance of the shepherd, their subsistence. The description, therefore, in these verses, is one of extensive and wide desolation; and one that was accomplished in the calamities that came upon the land in the invasions by the Egyptians and Assyrians.