Isaiah 64:2

2 as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil--to make thy name known to thy adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at thy 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 O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence--

2 as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil--to make thy name known to thy adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at thy presence!

3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains quaked at thy presence.

4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him.

5 Thou meetest him that joyfully works righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?