Isaiah 64:2

2 They would tremble like water boiling over a hot fire. Come and reveal your power to your enemies, and make the nations tremble at your presence!

Isaiah 64:2 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 64:2

As when the melting fire burneth
Or, "the fire of melting" {k}; a strong vehement fire, as Kimchi, such as is used under a furnace for melting metals; though De Dieu thinks a slow gentle fire is intended, such as is sufficient to keep the liquor boiling; which he concludes from the use of the word in the Arabic language, which, according to an Arabic lexicographer ^F12 he quotes, so signifies; and to the same purpose Hottinger ^F13, by the help of the Arabic language, interprets the word of a small low noise, the hissing of a boiling pot; though, as Vitringa observes, could it be granted, which can not, that a slow fire raises great bubbles in water, such as when it boils; yet the fire, with which God consumes his enemies, in a figurative sense, is represented as most vehement and noisy. It seems much better, with R. Jonah, quoted by Kimchi, to understand it of "dry stubble", which makes a great blaze and noise, and causes water to boil and rise up in bubbles; and with this agree some other versions, which render it by "bavins" ^F14, dry sticks and branches of trees; which being kindled, the fire causeth the waters to boil;
as the fire, under the pot, causes the waters to boil in it; the church here prays that the wrath of God might break forth upon his and her enemies, like fire that melts metals, and boils water. The figures used seem to denote the fierceness and vehemency of it. The Targum is,

``as when thou sendedst thine anger as fire in the days of Elijah, the sea was melted, the fire licked up the water;''

as if the allusion was to the affair in ( 1 Kings 18:38 ) ( 2 Kings 1:10-14 ) , but rather the allusion is, as Kimchi and others think, to the fire that burnt on Mount Sinai, when the Lord descended on it, and the cloud which flowed with water, as the above writer supposes, and which both together caused the smoke: to make thy name known to thine adversaries;
his terrible name, in the destruction of them; his power and his glory: that the nations may tremble at thy presence;
as Sinai trembled when the Lord was on it; and as the antichristian states will when Christ appears, and the vials of his wrath will be poured out; and the Lord's people will be delivered, and the Jews particularly converted.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 (oyomh va) "ignis liquefactionum", Calvin, Vatablus; "igne liquationum", Cocceius.
F12 Eliduri in Lexico Arabico tradit (omh) , "significare quemvis lenem et submissum strepitum", De Dieu.
F13 "Quemadmodum accenso igne fit lenis submissusque strepitus, sibilus et stridor ferventis ollae, et ignis excitat bullas", Hottinger. Smegma Orientale, I. 1. c. 7. p. 146.
F14 "Quemadmodum conflagrante igne cremia", Junius & Tremellius; "nam quum accendit ignis cremia", Piscator; "sicut ardente igne ex ramalibus", Grotius; "ut ignis cremia consumens strepero motu exsilit", Vitringa.

Isaiah 64:2 In-Context

1 Why don't you tear the sky open and come down? The mountains would see you and shake with fear.

2 They would tremble like water boiling over a hot fire. Come and reveal your power to your enemies, and make the nations tremble at your presence!

3 There was a time when you came and did terrifying things that we did not expect; the mountains saw you and shook with fear.

4 No one has ever seen or heard of a God like you, who does such deeds for those who put their hope in him.

5 You welcome those who find joy in doing what is right, those who remember how you want them to live. You were angry with us, but we went on sinning; in spite of your great anger we have continued to do wrong since ancient times.