Isaiah 64:2

2 As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil - To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the ¹nations may 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 Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, That the mountains might quake at Your presence -

2 As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil - To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!

3 When You did awesome things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.

4 For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.

5 You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned, We continued in them a long time; And shall we be saved?

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 99:1; Jeremiah 5:22; Jeremiah 33:9

Footnotes

• [a]. Ch 64:1 in Heb