Isaiah 28:18

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem. ¹⁵For you said, "We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place." ¹⁶So this is what the Lord GOD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken. ¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level." Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place. ¹⁸Your covenant with death will be dissolved, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be trampled by it.¹⁹As often as it passes through, it will carry you away; it will sweep through morning after morning, by day and by night. Sheer terror will come from understanding the message. ²⁰Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too small to wrap around you. ²¹For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task. ²²So now, do not mock, or your shackles will become heavier. Indeed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of Hosts a decree of destruction against the whole land.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

your covenant: Isaiah 7:7, Isaiah 8:10, Jeremiah 44:28, Ezekiel 17:15, Zechariah 1:6

shall be disannulled: For kuppar Houbigant, Archbp. Secker, and Bp. Lowth, would read tuppar; but the former may well have the sense ascribed to it here, as it signifies in Chaldee and Syriac, abstersit, diluit, abolevit.

when: Isaiah 2:15, Isaiah 8:8, Jeremiah 47:2, Daniel 8:9-13, Daniel 9:26, Daniel 9:27, Daniel 11:40, Revelation 12:15, Revelation 17:15

trodden down by it: Heb. a treading down to it, Isaiah 28:3, Malachi 4:1-3

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 13:5 - prophet Job 40:8 - disannul Ecclesiastes 8:8 - neither Isaiah 5:5 - trodden down Isaiah 16:6 - but Isaiah 30:28 - an overflowing Isaiah 59:6 - webs Jeremiah 19:7 - I will make Lamentations 1:15 - trodden Galatians 3:17 - cannot

Cross-References

Genesis 22:3
So Abraham got up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took along two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had designated.

Genesis 28:10
Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.

Genesis 28:12
And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God's angels were going up and down the ladder.

Genesis 31:13
I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up and leave this land at once, and return to your native land.'"

Genesis 31:45
So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a pillar,

Genesis 35:14
So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken to him-a stone marker-and he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.

Genesis 35:20
Jacob set up a pillar on her grave; it marks Rachel's tomb to this day.

Numbers 7:1
On the day Moses finished setting up the tabernacle, he anointed and consecrated it and all its furnishings, along with the altar and all its utensils.

1 Samuel 7:12
Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."

2 Samuel 18:18
During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King's Valley, for he had said, "I have no son to preserve the memory of my name." So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom's Monument.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And your covenant with death shall be disannulled,.... Or, "be besmeared" x, or daubed over, as the ark was with pitch, Genesis 6:14 where the same word is used as here; so that it shall not be legible, as any writing that is blotted out by ink, or any other liquor, so that it cannot be read; in like manner this their covenant with death should be so obliterated, that the articles of it could not be made out, and so of no force; thus the Targum renders it,

"shall be made void;''

Genesis 6:14- ::

and your agreement with hell shall not stand; or "vision", or "provision" y; which they had made by compact, with the greatest care, caution, and foresight, to secure themselves from destruction, would be found insufficient. The Targum is,

"and our peace, which was with the destroyer, shall not stand;''

Genesis 6:14- ::

when the overflowing scourge shall pass through: the land of Judea and the city of Jerusalem; Genesis 6:14- ::

then shall ye be trodden down by it: though they flattered themselves it should not come near them, yet it would; and they would not be able to stand before it, but would be thrown down, and trampled upon by it as the mire of the streets; see Luke 21:24.

x וכפר "Heb. oblinetur", Piscator; "quasi pica illita tabulae literaeque foederis incrustentur, inducantur ac dispereant", Gusset. Comment. Ebr. p. 397. y וחזותכם "et visio vestra", Vatablus; "cautio vestra", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Heb. "visio", i.e. "provisio", Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And your covenant with death - (see the note at Isaiah 28:15).

Shall be disannulled - The word rendered ‘shall be disannulled,’ (וכפר v^ekupar from כפר kâphar), properly means “to cover, overlay;” then to pardon, forgive; then to make atonement, to expiate. It has the idea of blotting out, forgiving, and obliterating - because a writing in wax was obliterated or “covered” by passing the “stylus” over it. Hence, also, the idea of abolishing, or rendering nought, which is the idea here. “When the overflowing scourge” (see the note at Isaiah 28:15).

Then ye shall be trodden down by it - There is in this verse a great intermingling of metaphor, not less than three figures being employed to denote the calamity. There is first the scourge, an instrument of punishment; there is then the idea of inundating waters or floods; then there is also the idea of a warrior or an invading army that treads down an enemy. All the images are designed to denote essentially the same thing, that the judgments of God would come upon the land, and that nothing in which they had trusted would constitute a refuge.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 28:18. Your covenant with death shall be disannulled - "Your covenant with death shall be broken"] For כפר caphar, which seems not to belong to this place, the Chaldee reads תפר taphar, which is approved by Houbigant and Secker. See Jeremiah 33:21, where the very same phrase is used. See Prelim. Dissert. p. l.