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Selected Verse: Isaiah 57:5 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Isa 57:5	King James	Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Enflaming yourselves--burning with lust towards idols [GESENIUS]; or else (compare Margin), in the terebinth groves, which the Hebrew and the parallelism favor (see on Isa 1:29) [MAURER]. under . . . tree-- (Kg2 17:10). The tree, as in the Assyrian sculptures, was probably made an idolatrous symbol of the heavenly hosts. slaying . . . children--as a sacrifice to Molech, &c. (Kg2 17:31; Ch2 28:3; Ch2 33:6). in . . . valleys--the valley of the son of Hinnom. Fire was put within a hollow brazen statue, and the child was put in his heated arms; kettle drums (Hebrew, toph) were beaten to drown the child's cries; whence the valley was called Tophet (Ch2 33:6; Jer 7:3). under . . . clifts--the gloom of caverns suiting their dark superstitions.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Enflaming yourselves--burning with lust towards idols [GESENIUS]; or else (compare Margin), in the terebinth groves, which the Hebrew and the parallelism favor (see on Isa 1:29) [MAURER].

under . . . tree-- (Kg2 17:10). The tree, as in the Assyrian sculptures, was probably made an idolatrous symbol of the heavenly hosts.

slaying . . . children--as a sacrifice to Molech, &c. (Kg2 17:31; Ch2 28:3; Ch2 33:6).

in . . . valleys--the valley of the son of Hinnom. Fire was put within a hollow brazen statue, and the child was put in his heated arms; kettle drums (Hebrew, toph) were beaten to drown the child's cries; whence the valley was called Tophet (Ch2 33:6; Jer 7:3).

under . . . clifts--the gloom of caverns suiting their dark superstitions.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Inflaming yourselves - Burning, that is, with lust. The whole language here is derived from adulterous intercourse. The sense is, that they were greatly addicted to idolatry, and that they used every means to increase and extend the practice of it. The Vulgate, however, renders this, 'Who console yourselves.' The Septuagint renders it, 'Invoking (παρακαλοῦντες parakalountes) idols.' But the proper meaning of the Hebrew word חמם châmam is, "to become warm; to be inflamed, or to burn as with lust." With idols - Margin, 'Among the oaks.' Hebrew, באלים bā'ēlı̂ym. Vulgate, In diis - 'With the gods.' Septuagint, Εἴδωλα Eidōla - 'Idols.' So the Chaldee and Syriac. The Hebrew may denote 'with gods,' that is, with idol-gods; or it may denote, as in the margin, 'among the oaks,' or the terebinth groves, from איל 'ēyl, plural אילים 'ēylı̂ym, or אלים 'ēlym (the terebinth). See the word explained in the note at Isa 1:29. Kimchi and Jarchi here render it by 'the terebinth tree.' Lowth renders it, 'Burning with the lust of idols;' and probably this is the correct interpretation, for, if it had meant oaks or the terebinth tree, the phrase would have been "under" (תחת tachath) instead of "in" or "with" (ב b). Under every green tree - (See the notes at Isa 1:29; compare Deu 22:2; Kg2 17:10; Ch2 28:4). Slaying the children - That is, sacrificing them to the idol-gods. This was commonly done by burning them, as when they were offered to Moloch, though it is not improbable that they were sometimes sacrificed in other ways. It was a common custom among the worshippers of Moloch. Thus it is said of Ahaz Ch2 28:3, that he 'burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire.' The same thing is said of Manasseh, to whose time the prophet most probably refers. 'And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom' (Ch2 33:6; compare Jer 7:31). The same thing was practiced in the countries of the Babylonian empire Kg2 17:31, and from Deu 12:31, it is evident that it was commonly practiced by pagan nations. The Phenicians, according to Eusebius (Praep. Evan. iv. 16), and the Carthagenians, according to Diodorus Siculus (xx. 14), practiced it. In the valleys - The place where these abominations were practiced by the Jews was the valley of the son of Hinnom (see the references above); that is, the valley of Jehoshaphat, lying to the south and the southeast of Jerusalem. A large hollow, brass statue was erected, and the fire was enkindled within it, and the child was placed in his heated arms, and thus put to death. The cries of the child were drowned by the music of the תף tôph, or kettle-drums (see the notes at Isa 5:12, where this instrument is fully described), and hence, the name of the valley was Tophet. Under the clefts of the rocks - Dark and shady groves, and deep and sombre caverns were the places where the abominable rites of the pagan superstitions were practiced (compare the notes at Isa 11:1).

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
The participles which follow in the next v. are in apposition to אתּ, and confirm the predicates already applied to them. They soon give place, however, to independent sentences. "Ye that inflame yourselves by the terebinths, under every green tree, ye slayers of children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks. By the smooth ones of the brook was thy portion; they, they were thy lot: thou also pouredst out libations to them, thou laidst meat-offerings upon them. Shall I be contented with this?" The people of the captivity are addressed, and the idolatry handed down to them from their ancestors depicted. The prophet looks back from the standpoint of the captivity, and takes his colours from the time in which he himself lived, possibly from the commencement of Manasseh's reign, when the heathenism that had for a long time been suppressed burst forth again in all its force, and the measure of iniquity became full. The part. niphal הנּחמים is formed like נחן in Jer 22:23, if the latter signifies miserandum esse. The primary form is נחם, which is doubled like נגּר from גּרר in Job 20:28, and from which נחם is formed by the resolution of the latent reduplication. Stier derives it from; but even if formed from this, נחם would still have to be explained from נחם, after the form נצּת. 'Elı̄m signifies either gods or terebinths. But although it might certainly mean idols, according to Exo 15:11; Dan 11:36 (lxx, Targ., and Jerome), it is never used directly in this sense, and Isaiah always uses the word as the name of a tree (Isa 1:29; Isa 61:3). The terebinths are introduced here, exactly as in Isa 1:29, as an object of idolatrous lust: "who inflame themselves with the terebinths;" ב denotes the object with which the lust is excited and inf Lamed. The terebinth ('ēlâh) held the chief place in tree-worship (hence אלנם, lit., oak-trees, together with אלם, is the name of one of the Phoenician gods), (Note: See Levy, Phnizische Studien, i. 19.) possibly as being the tree sacred to Astarte; just as the Samura Acacia among the heathen Arabs was the tree sacred to the goddess 'Uzza. (Note: Krehl, Religioin der vorisl. Araber, p. 74ff.) The following expression, "under every green tree," is simply a permutative of the words "with the terebinths" in the sense of "with the terebinths, yea, under every green tree" (a standing expression from Deu 12:2 downwards) - one tree being regarded as the abode and favourite of this deity, and another of that, and all alluring you to your carnal worship. From the tree-worship with its orgies, which was so widely spread in antiquity generally, the prophet passes to the leading Canaanitish abomination, viz., human sacrifices, which had been adopted by the Israelites (along with שׁחטי we find the false reading שׂחטי, which is interpreted as signifying self-abuse). Judging from the locality named, "under the clefts of the rocks," the reference is not to the slaying of children sacrificed to Moloch in the valley of Hinnom, but to those offered to Baal upon his bâmōth or high places (Jer 19:5; Eze 16:20-21; Hos 13:2; Psa 106:37-38). As we learn from the chronique scandaleuse many things connected with the religious history of Israel, which cannot be found in its historical books, there is nothing to surprise us in the stone-worship condemned in Isa 57:6. The dagesh of חלּקי is in any case dagesh dirimens. The singular is wither חלק after the form חכמי (cf., עצבי, Isa 58:3), or חלק after the form ילדי. But חלק, smoothness, never occurs; and the explanation, "in the smoothnesses, i.e., the smooth places of the valley, is thy portion," has this also against it, that it does not do justice to the connection בּ חלק, in which the preposition is not used in a local sense, and that it leaves the emphatic הם הם quite unexplained. The latter does not point to places, but to objects of worship for which they had exchanged Jehovah, of whom the true Israelite could say ה חלקי, Psa 119:57, etc., or בה לי חלק, Jos 22:25, and גּורלי תּומיך אתּה (Thou art He that maintaineth my lot), Psa 16:5. The prophet had such expressions as these in his mind, and possibly also the primary meaning of גורל = κλῆρος, which may be gathered from the rare Arabic word 'garal, gravel, stones worn smooth by rolling, when he said, "In the smooth ones of the valley is thy portion; they, they are thy lot." In the Arabic also, achlaq (equilvaent to châlâq, smooth, which forms here a play upon the word with חלק, châlâq) is a favourite word for stones and rocks. חלּקי־נחל, however, according to Sa1 17:40 (where the intensive form חלּוּק, like שׁכּוּל, is used), are stones which the stream in the valley has washed smooth with time, and rounded into a pleasing shape. The mode of the worship, the pouring out of libations, (Note: Compare the remarks made in the Comm. on the Pentateuch, at Gen 29:20, on the heathen worship of anointed stones, and the Baetulian worship.) and the laying of meat-offerings upon them, confirm this view. In Carthage such stones were called abbadires (= אדיר, אבן); and among the ancient Arabs, the asnâm or idols consisted for the most part of rude blocks of stone of this description. Herodotus (3:8) speaks of seven stones which the Arabs anointed, calling upon the god Orotal. Suidas (s.v. Θεῦς ἄρης) states that the idol of Ares in Petra was a black square stone; and the black stone of the Ka'aba was, according to a very inconvenient tradition for the Mohammedans, an idol of Saturn (zuhal). (Note: See Krehl, p. 72. In the East Indies also we find stone-worship not only among the Vindya tribes (Lassen, A.K. i. 376), but also among the Vaishnavas, who worship Vishnu in the form of a stone, viz., the sâlagrâm, a kind of stone from the river Gandak (see Wilson's Sanscrit Lexicon s.h.v. and Vishnu-Purn, p. 163). The fact of the great antiquity of stone and tree worship has been used in the most ridiculous manner by Dozy in his work on the Israelites at Mecca (1864). He draws the following conclusion from Deu 32:18 : "Thus the Israelites sprang from a divine block of stone; and this is, in reality, the true old version of the origin of the nation." From Isa 51:1-2, he infers that Abraham and Sara were not historical persons at all, but that the former was a block of stone, and the latter a hollow; and that the two together were a block of stone in a hollow, to which divine worship was paid. "This fact," he says, "viz. that Abraham and Sarah in the second Isaiah are not historical persons, but a block of stone and a hollow, is one of great worth, as enabling us to determine the time at which the stories of Abraham in Genesis were written, and to form a correct idea of the spirit of those stories.") Stone-worship of this kind had been practised by the Israelites before the captivity, and their heathenish practices had been transmitted to the exiles in Babylon. The meaning of the question, Shall I comfort myself concerning such things? - i.e., Shall I be contented with them (אנּחם niphal, not hithpael)? - is, that it was impossible that descendants who so resembled their fathers should remain unpunished.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

The participles which follow in the next v. are in apposition to אתּ, and confirm the predicates already applied to them. They soon give place, however, to independent sentences. "Ye that inflame yourselves by the terebinths, under every green tree, ye slayers of children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks. By the smooth ones of the brook was thy portion; they, they were thy lot: thou also pouredst out libations to them, thou laidst meat-offerings upon them. Shall I be contented with this?" The people of the captivity are addressed, and the idolatry handed down to them from their ancestors depicted. The prophet looks back from the standpoint of the captivity, and takes his colours from the time in which he himself lived, possibly from the commencement of Manasseh's reign, when the heathenism that had for a long time been suppressed burst forth again in all its force, and the measure of iniquity became full. The part. niphal הנּחמים is formed like נחן in Jer 22:23, if the latter signifies miserandum esse. The primary form is נחם, which is doubled like נגּר from גּרר in Job 20:28, and from which נחם is formed by the resolution of the latent reduplication. Stier derives it from; but even if formed from this, נחם would still have to be explained from נחם, after the form נצּת. 'Elı̄m signifies either gods or terebinths. But although it might certainly mean idols, according to Exo 15:11; Dan 11:36 (lxx, Targ., and Jerome), it is never used directly in this sense, and Isaiah always uses the word as the name of a tree (Isa 1:29; Isa 61:3). The terebinths are introduced here, exactly as in Isa 1:29, as an object of idolatrous lust: "who inflame themselves with the terebinths;" ב denotes the object with which the lust is excited and inf Lamed. The terebinth ('ēlâh) held the chief place in tree-worship (hence אלנם, lit., oak-trees, together with אלם, is the name of one of the Phoenician gods),

(Note: See Levy, Phnizische Studien, i. 19.)

possibly as being the tree sacred to Astarte; just as the Samura Acacia among the heathen Arabs was the tree sacred to the goddess 'Uzza.

(Note: Krehl, Religioin der vorisl. Araber, p. 74ff.)

The following expression, "under every green tree," is simply a permutative of the words "with the terebinths" in the sense of "with the terebinths, yea, under every green tree" (a standing expression from Deu 12:2 downwards) - one tree being regarded as the abode and favourite of this deity, and another of that, and all alluring you to your carnal worship.

From the tree-worship with its orgies, which was so widely spread in antiquity generally, the prophet passes to the leading Canaanitish abomination, viz., human sacrifices, which had been adopted by the Israelites (along with שׁחטי we find the false reading שׂחטי, which is interpreted as signifying self-abuse). Judging from the locality named, "under the clefts of the rocks," the reference is not to the slaying of children sacrificed to Moloch in the valley of Hinnom, but to those offered to Baal upon his bâmōth or high places (Jer 19:5; Eze 16:20-21; Hos 13:2; Psa 106:37-38). As we learn from the chronique scandaleuse many things connected with the religious history of Israel, which cannot be found in its historical books, there is nothing to surprise us in the stone-worship condemned in Isa 57:6. The dagesh of חלּקי is in any case dagesh dirimens. The singular is wither חלק after the form חכמי (cf., עצבי, Isa 58:3), or חלק after the form ילדי. But חלק, smoothness, never occurs; and the explanation, "in the smoothnesses, i.e., the smooth places of the valley, is thy portion," has this also against it, that it does not do justice to the connection בּ חלק, in which the preposition is not used in a local sense, and that it leaves the emphatic הם הם quite unexplained. The latter does not point to places, but to objects of worship for which they had exchanged Jehovah, of whom the true Israelite could say ה חלקי, Psa 119:57, etc., or בה לי חלק, Jos 22:25, and גּורלי תּומיך אתּה (Thou art He that maintaineth my lot), Psa 16:5. The prophet had such expressions as these in his mind, and possibly also the primary meaning of גורל = κλῆρος, which may be gathered from the rare Arabic word 'garal, gravel, stones worn smooth by rolling, when he said, "In the smooth ones of the valley is thy portion; they, they are thy lot." In the Arabic also, achlaq (equilvaent to châlâq, smooth, which forms here a play upon the word with חלק, châlâq) is a favourite word for stones and rocks. חלּקי־נחל, however, according to Sa1 17:40 (where the intensive form חלּוּק, like שׁכּוּל, is used), are stones which the stream in the valley has washed smooth with time, and rounded into a pleasing shape. The mode of the worship, the pouring out of libations,

(Note: Compare the remarks made in the Comm. on the Pentateuch, at Gen 29:20, on the heathen worship of anointed stones, and the Baetulian worship.)

and the laying of meat-offerings upon them, confirm this view. In Carthage such stones were called abbadires (= אדיר, אבן); and among the ancient Arabs, the asnâm or idols consisted for the most part of rude blocks of stone of this description. Herodotus (3:8) speaks of seven stones which the Arabs anointed, calling upon the god Orotal. Suidas (s.v. Θεῦς ἄρης) states that the idol of Ares in Petra was a black square stone; and the black stone of the Ka'aba was, according to a very inconvenient tradition for the Mohammedans, an idol of Saturn (zuhal).

(Note: See Krehl, p. 72. In the East Indies also we find stone-worship not only among the Vindya tribes (Lassen, A.K. i. 376), but also among the Vaishnavas, who worship Vishnu in the form of a stone, viz., the sâlagrâm, a kind of stone from the river Gandak (see Wilson's Sanscrit Lexicon s.h.v. and Vishnu-Purn, p. 163). The fact of the great antiquity of stone and tree worship has been used in the most ridiculous manner by Dozy in his work on the Israelites at Mecca (1864). He draws the following conclusion from Deu 32:18 : "Thus the Israelites sprang from a divine block of stone; and this is, in reality, the true old version of the origin of the nation." From Isa 51:1-2, he infers that Abraham and Sara were not historical persons at all, but that the former was a block of stone, and the latter a hollow; and that the two together were a block of stone in a hollow, to which divine worship was paid. "This fact," he says, "viz. that Abraham and Sarah in the second Isaiah are not historical persons, but a block of stone and a hollow, is one of great worth, as enabling us to determine the time at which the stories of Abraham in Genesis were written, and to form a correct idea of the spirit of those stories.")

Stone-worship of this kind had been practised by the Israelites before the captivity, and their heathenish practices had been transmitted to the exiles in Babylon. The meaning of the question, Shall I comfort myself concerning such things? - i.e., Shall I be contented with them (אנּחם niphal, not hithpael)? - is, that it was impossible that descendants who so resembled their fathers should remain unpunished.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Enflaming - Lusting after them, and mad upon them. Slaying - In way of sacrifice to their idols. Valleys - He seems to allude to the valley of Hinnom in which these cruelties were practised. Clifts - Which they chuse either for shade, or for those dark vaults, in rocks, which were convenient for idolatrous uses.

Top

³ Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁶ And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

³ Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

³¹ And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

¹⁰ And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:

²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

¹ And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

¹² And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

³¹ Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

³¹ And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

³¹ And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

³ Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

⁴ He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

¹⁰ And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:

² And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again.

²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

¹ Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
² Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

¹⁸ Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.

²⁰ And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.

⁴⁰ And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.

⁵ The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

²⁵ For the LORD hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye children of Reuben and children of Gad; ye have no part in the LORD: so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the LORD.

⁵⁷ CHETH. Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.

³ Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

⁶ Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?

³⁷ Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
³⁸ And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.

² And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

²⁰ Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
²¹ That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

⁵ They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:

² Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:

²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

³ To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

³⁶ And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.

¹¹ Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

²⁸ The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

²³ O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!