Isaiah 32:17

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁹Stand up, you complacent women; listen to me. Give ear to my word, you overconfident daughters. ¹⁰In a little more than a year you will tremble, O secure ones. For the grape harvest will fail and the fruit harvest will not arrive. ¹¹Shudder, you ladies of leisure; tremble, you daughters of complacency. Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists. ¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines, ¹³and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers-even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry. ¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken, the busy city abandoned. The hill and the watchtower will become caves forever-the delight of wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks- ¹⁵until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high. Then the desert will be an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest. ¹⁶Then justice will inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field. ¹⁷The work of righteousness will be peace; the service of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.¹⁸Then my people will dwell in a peaceful place, in safe and secure places of rest.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the work: Isaiah 26:3, Isaiah 48:18, Isaiah 54:13, Isaiah 54:14, Isaiah 55:12, Isaiah 57:19, Isaiah 66:12, Psalms 72:2, Psalms 72:3, Psalms 85:8, Psalms 119:165, Romans 14:17, Philippians 4:6-9, James 3:17, James 3:18

quietness: Isaiah 2:3, Isaiah 2:4, Isaiah 9:7, Isaiah 11:6-9, Isaiah 11:13, Psalms 112:6-9, Proverbs 14:26, Ezekiel 37:21, Ezekiel 37:22, Ezekiel 37:25, Ezekiel 39:29, Micah 4:3, Micah 4:4, 2 Corinthians 1:12, Hebrews 6:11, 2 Peter 1:10, 2 Peter 1:11, 1 John 3:18-24, 1 John 4:17

Reciprocal: Job 34:29 - When he giveth Psalms 37:37 - General Psalms 112:3 - and his Proverbs 3:2 - and peace Isaiah 11:10 - his rest Isaiah 30:15 - in returning Romans 2:10 - and peace Romans 5:1 - we have Colossians 2:2 - of the full 1 Timothy 4:8 - having Hebrews 12:11 - peaceable 1 John 3:19 - shall

Cross-References

Genesis 33:3
But Jacob himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the work of righteousness shall be peace,.... Not works of righteousness done by men, no, not by the best of men; for though peace may be had and enjoyed in doing them, yet it does not arise and flow from thence, because there is no justification by them, and salvation through them, without which there can be no true solid peace; nor the work of righteousness in men, which is their sanctification, and is indeed the work of God, and follows upon the pouring forth of his Spirit, and therefore bids fairer to be the sense than the former; yet peace is one part and branch of the work itself; see Romans 14:17 but the work of righteousness wrought out for man is rather meant, even the righteousness of Christ, a work proposed unto him, which he undertook, and has wrought out, and which was a work, and lay in working, and was a very toilsome and laborious one; the consequence of which is "peace", inward peace of soul now, and eternal peace hereafter; the righteousness of Christ applied removes the guilt of sin from the conscience, it being perfect justifies from all things, and yields a tranquillity and serenity of mind, which is had in a way of believing, in this righteousness now, and it will issue in everlasting peace and rest in the world to come; the end of the perfect and upright man, who is perfectly justified by Christ's righteousness, is peace, Psalms 37:37:

and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever; or, q "the service of righteousness"; the same as before, with the "work of righteousness": a service which Christ performed, as a servant, in obedience to the law, in the room and stead of his people; a service perfectly and completely done, and what is well pleasing unto God; and which, when a sensible sinner sees its interest in, produces "quietness" of soul, under the mighty hand of God, amidst all the calamities in the world, and judgments upon men, under the load of calumny and reproach cast upon him, and notwithstanding all the charges and accusations of Satan: moreover, this also gives "assurance for ever", of interest in divine things, in the love of God, and relation to him as a Father, in Christ as a Saviour and Redeemer, and in the glorious inheritance which this gives a title to; or a holy confidence and boldness at the throne of grace now, having this righteousness to make mention of as a justifying one, and also hereafter, before the throne of judgment, this being what will answer for him in a time to come.

q ועבדת הצדקה "et cultus justitiae", V. L. Montanus; "labor, seu operatio", Piscator, Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the work of righteousness - That which righteousness produces; or the effect of the prevalence of righteousness on the nation.

Shall be peace - There shall be no internal agitation, and no conflicts with foreign nations.

Quietness and assurance - This is a beautiful description of the happy effect of the prevalence of piety; and it is as true now as it was in the time of Isaiah. True religion would put an end to strifes and litigations; to riots and mobs; to oppressions and tumults; to alarms and robbery; to battle, and murder, and conflict.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 32:17. The work of righteousness — Righteousness works and produces peace.

The effect of righteousness — עבדת abodath, the culture. Righteousness, cultivated by peace, produces tranquillity of mind and permanent security. Reader, hast thou the principle? If so, dost thou cultivate it? If thou dost, thou hast peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and a sure and certain hope of everlasting life.