Isaias 29:8

Filipino Cebuano Bible

8 Ug mahitabo nga ingon sa usa ka gigutom nga tawo nga magadamgo, ug ania karon, siya magakaon; apan siya mahagmata, ug ang iyang kalag walay sulod: kun ingon sa usa ka tawo nga giuhaw nga magadamgo, ug ania karon, siya nagainum, apan siya nahagmata, ug ania karon, siya gipugdaw, ug ang iyang kalag mibati ug kahinam: maingon man nianak ang panon sa tanang mga nasud, nga makig-away batok sa bukid sa Sion.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

as when: Isaiah 10:7-16, 2 Chronicles 32:21

behold: Isaiah 44:12

Reciprocal: Job 20:8 - fly away Psalms 73:20 - As a Psalms 90:5 - as a sleep Isaiah 10:12 - I will Obadiah 1:16 - and they shall be Nahum 1:15 - he

Gill's Notes on the Bible

It shall be even as when a hungry [man] dreameth, and, behold, he eateth,.... That is, he dreams of food, and imagines it before him, and that he is really eating it:

but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; his stomach is empty when he awakes, and he finds he has not ate anything at all:

or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh: who fancies that he has got a cup of liquor in his hand, and at his mouth, and is drinking it with a great deal of eagerness and pleasure:

but he awaketh, and, behold, [he is] faint, and his soul hath appetite; when he awakes, he is not at all refreshed with his imaginary drinking, but still desires liquor to revive his fainting spirits, and extinguish his thirst:

so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against Mount Zion; either shall quickly perish; or, having raised their expectations, and pleased themselves with the booty they should obtain, of which they thought themselves sure, shall find themselves mistaken, and all like an illusive dream. Some interpret this of the disappointment of Sennacherib's army; and others of the insatiable cruelty of the Chaldeans; but rather, if the above sense pleases not, it would be better to understand it of the Jews, who, amidst their greatest danger, flattered themselves with the hope of deliverance, which was all a dream and an illusion; and to which sense the following words seem to incline.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

It shall even be ... - This is a most striking figure representing the earnest desire of the Assyrian to possess the city of Jerusalem, and his utter disappointment. The comparison is elegant and beautiful in the highest degree. It is performed up to great perfection; and is perfectly suited to illustrate the object in view. The same image substantially is found in the classic writers; and this, says Lowth, may, for beauty and ingenuity, fairly come in competition with one of the most elegant of Virgil (greatly improved from Homer, “Iliad” xxii. 119), where he has applied to a different purpose, but not so happily, the same image of the ineffectual workings of the imagination in a dream:

Ac veluti in somnis oculos ubi languida pressit

Nocte quies, nequicquam avidos extendere cursus

Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus aegri

Succidimus; non lingua valet, non corpore notae

Sufficiunt vires; nec, vox, nec verba scquuniur.

AEniad xii. 908.

And as when slumber seals the closing sight,

The sick wild fancy labors in the night,

Some dreadful visionary foe we shun,

With airy strides, but strive in vain to run;

In vain our baffled limbs their powers essay,

We faint, we struggle, sink, and fall away;

Drained of our strength we neither fight nor fly,

And on the tongue the struggling accents die.

Pitt.

See also Lucretius (iv. 10-19), who also expresses the same image as Isaiah. As the simile of the prophet is drawn from nature, an extract which describes the actual occurrence of such a circumstance will be agreeable. ‘The scarcity of water,’ says Park, ‘was greater here at Bubaker than at Benown. Day and night the wells were crowded with cattle lowing, and fighting with each other to come at the trough. Excessive thirst made many of them furious; others being too weak to contend for the water, endeavored to quench their thirst by devouring the black mud from the gutters near the wells; which they did with great avidity, though it was commonly fatal to them. This great scarcity of water was felt by all the people of the camp; and by none more than myself. I begged water from the negro slaves that attended the camp, but with very indifferent success, for though I let no opportunity slip, and was very urgent in my solicitations both to the Moors and to the negroes, I was but ill supplied, and frequently passed the night in the situation of Tantalus. No sooner had I shut my eyes, than fancy would convey me to the streams and rivera of my native land; there, as I wandered along the verdant bank, I surveyed the clear stream with transport, and hastened to swallow the delightful draught; but alas! disappointment awakened me, and I found myself a lonely captive, perishing of thirst amid the wilds of Africa.’ (“Travels in Africa”).