Isaiah 28:20

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

the bed: Isaiah 57:12, Isaiah 57:13, Isaiah 59:5, Isaiah 59:6, Isaiah 64:6, Isaiah 66:3-6, Jeremiah 7:8-10, Romans 9:30-32, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:7 - and they Isaiah 8:8 - Immanuel Isaiah 30:1 - cover Malachi 2:16 - covereth

Cross-References

Genesis 28:1
So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. "Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women," he commanded.

Genesis 28:2
"Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother's father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

Genesis 28:3
May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples.

Genesis 28:7
and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

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 28:15
Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

Genesis 28:20
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,

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.'"

1 Samuel 1:11
And she made a vow, pleading, "O LORD of Hosts, if only You will look upon the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, not forgetting Your maidservant but giving her a son, then I will dedicate him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall ever come over his head."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For the bed is shorter than that [a man] can stretch himself [on it],.... When a bed is short, a man cannot lie at his full length, and at ease:

and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself [in it]; when the bedclothes are narrow a man cannot cover himself with them, so as to be warm and comfortable. These proverbial expressions are interpreted by Kimchi of Jerusalem, when besieged by the Assyrian army, when the inhabitants of it were much straitened, distressed, and made uncomfortable; perhaps it may be better understood of the same city when besieged by the Romans, to which the Jews flocked from all parts, in such numbers, for shelter, that there was not room enough for them, at least not provision, and which was the cause of that great distress and miserable condition they were reduced to: in general, the design of the words may be to show that all refuges and shelters, all means made use of for safety and protection, by which they endeavoured to cover and secure themselves, would be insufficient; and particularly such that laid themselves at ease on the bed of their own righteousness, not submitting to Christ and his righteousness, and covered themselves with the rags of their own doings, and not with the garments of his salvation, would find themselves in a very uncomfortable and unsafe state.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the bed is shorter ... - This is evidently a proverbial saying, and means that they would find all their places of defense insufficient to secure them. They seek repose and security - as a man lies down to rest at night. But they find neither. His bed furnishes no rest; his scanty covering furnishes no security from the chills of the night. So it would be with those who sought protection in idols, in the promises of false prophets, and in the aid which might be obtained from Egypt. So it is with sinners. Their vain refuges shall not shield them. The bed on which they seek rest shall give them no repose; the covering with which they seek to clothe themselves shall not defend them from the wrath of God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 28:20. For the bed is shorter — A mashal or proverbial saying, the meaning of which is, that they will find all means of defence and protection insufficient to secure them, and cover them from the evils coming upon them. מסך massek, Isaiah 22:8, the covering, is used for the outworks of defense, the barrier of the country; and here, in the allegorical sense, it means much the same thing. Their beds were only mattresses laid on the floor; and the coverlet a sheet, or in the winter a carpet, laid over it, in which the person wrapped himself. For כהתכנס kehithcannes, it ought probably to be מהתכנס mehithcannes. Houbigant, Secker.