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Selected Verse: Isaiah 19:14 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Isa 19:14 |
King James |
The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| err in every work thereof--referring to the anarchy arising from their internal feuds. HORSLEY translates, "with respect to all His (God's) work"; they misinterpreted God's dealings at every step. "Mingled" contains the same image as "drunken"; as one mixes spices with wine to make it intoxicating (Isa 5:22; Pro 9:2, Pro 9:5), so Jehovah has poured among them a spirit of giddiness, so that they are as helpless as a "drunken man." |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
The Lord hath mingled - The word מסך mâsak, "to mingle," is used commonly to denote the act of mixing spices with wine to make it more intoxicating Pro 9:2, Pro 9:5; Isa 5:22. Here it means that Yahweh has poured out into the midst of them a spirit of giddiness; that is, has produced consternation among them. National commotions and calamities are often thus traced to the overruling providence of God (see the note at Isa 19:2; compare Isa 10:5-6).
A perverse spirit - Hebrew, 'A spirit of perverseness.' The word rendered 'perverse' is derived from עוה ‛âvâh, "to be crooked or perverted." Here it means, that their counsels were unwise, land such as tended to error and ruin.
To err as a drunken man ... - This is a very striking figure. The whole nation was reeling to and fro, and unsettled in their counsels, as a man is who is so intoxicated as to reel and to vomit. Nothing could more strikingly express, first, the "fact" of their perverted counsels and plans, and secondly, God's deep abhorrence of the course which they were pursuing. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| In Isa 19:14 and Isa 19:15 this state of confusion is more minutely described: "Jehovah hath poured a spirit of giddiness into the heart of Egypt, so that they have led Egypt astray in all its doing, as a drunken man wandereth about in his vomit. And there does not occur of Egypt any work, which worked, of head and tail, palm-branch and rush." The spirit which God pours out (as it also said elsewhere) is not only a spirit of salvation, but also a spirit of judgment. The judicial, penal result which He produces is here called עועים, which is formed from עועו (root עו, to curve), and is either contracted from עועוים, or points back to a supposed singular עועה (vid., Ewald, 158, b). The suffix in b'kribâh points to Egypt. The divine spirit of judgment makes use of the imaginary wisdom of the priestly caste, and thereby plunges the people, as it were, into the giddiness of intoxication. The prophet employs the hiphil התעה to denote the carefully considered actions of the leaders of the nation, and the niphal נתעה to denote the constrained actions of a drunken man, who has lost all self-control. The nation has been so perverted by false counsels and hopes, that it lies there like a drunken man in his own vomit, and gropes and rolls about, without being able to find any way of escape. "No work that worked," i.e., that averted trouble (עשׂה is as emphatic as in Dan 8:24), was successfully carried out by any one, either by the leaders of the nation or by the common people and their flatterers, either by the upper classes or by the mob. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Mingled - Or, hath poured out or given them to drink. To err - In all their designs and undertakings. Staggereth - When he is so drunk, that he reels to and fro, and vomits up his drink. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| In the midst thereof - בקרבם bekirbam; so the Septuagint, and perhaps more correctly." - Secker. So likewise the Chaldee. |
5 Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.
2 She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.
22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
5 Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.
2 She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.
14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.