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Selected Verse: Isaiah 1:31 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Isa 1:31	Strong Concordance	And the strong [02634] shall be as tow [05296], and the maker [06467] of it as a spark [05213], and they shall both [08147] burn [01197] together [03162], and none shall quench [03518] them.
	King James	And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

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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]
strong--powerful rulers (Amo 2:9). maker of it--rather, his work. He shall be at once the fuel, "tow," and the cause of the fire, by kindling the first "spark." both--the wicked ruler, and "his work," which "is as a spark."

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

strong--powerful rulers (Amo 2:9).

maker of it--rather, his work. He shall be at once the fuel, "tow," and the cause of the fire, by kindling the first "spark."

both--the wicked ruler, and "his work," which "is as a spark."

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
And the strong - Those who have been thought to be strong, on whom the people relied for protection and defense - their rulers, princes, and the commanders of their armies. As tow - The coarse or broken part of flax, or hemp. It means here that which shall be easily and quickly kindled and rapidly consumed. As tow burns and is destroyed at the touch of fire, so shall the rulers of the people be consumed by the approaching calamities. And the maker of it - This is an unhappy translation. The word פעלו po‛ălô may be indeed a participle, and be rendered 'its maker,' but it is more commonly a noun, and means his work, or his action. This is its plain meaning here. So the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee. It means, that as a spark enkindles tow, so the works or deeds of a wicked nation shall be the occasion or cause of their destruction. The ambition of one man is the cause of his ruin; the sensuality of a second is the cause of his; the avarice of a third is the cause of his. These passions, insatiable and ungratified, shall be the occasion of the deep and eternal sorrows of hell. So it means here, that the crimes and hypocrisy of the nation would be the real cause of all the calamities that would come upon them as a people. Shall both burn together - The spark and the flame from the kindled flax mingle, and make one fire. So the people and their works would be enkindled and destroyed together. They would burn so rapidly, that nothing could extinguish them. The meaning is, that the nation would be punished; and that all their works of idolatry and monuments of sin would be the occasion of their punishment, and would perish at the same time. The "principle" involved in this passage teaches us the following things: (1) That the wicked, however mighty, shall be destroyed. (2) That their works will be the "cause" of their ruin - a cause necessarily leading to it. (3) That the works of the wicked - all that they do and all on which they depend - shall be destroyed. (4) That this destruction shall be final. Nothing shall stay the flame. No tears of penitence, no power of men or devils, shall "put out" the fires which the works of the wicked shall enkindle.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

And the strong - Those who have been thought to be strong, on whom the people relied for protection and defense - their rulers, princes, and the commanders of their armies.

As tow - The coarse or broken part of flax, or hemp. It means here that which shall be easily and quickly kindled and rapidly consumed. As tow burns and is destroyed at the touch of fire, so shall the rulers of the people be consumed by the approaching calamities.

And the maker of it - This is an unhappy translation. The word פעלו po‛ălô may be indeed a participle, and be rendered 'its maker,' but it is more commonly a noun, and means his work, or his action. This is its plain meaning here. So the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee. It means, that as a spark enkindles tow, so the works or deeds of a wicked nation shall be the occasion or cause of their destruction. The ambition of one man is the cause of his ruin; the sensuality of a second is the cause of his; the avarice of a third is the cause of his. These passions, insatiable and ungratified, shall be the occasion of the deep and eternal sorrows of hell. So it means here, that the crimes and hypocrisy of the nation would be the real cause of all the calamities that would come upon them as a people.

Shall both burn together - The spark and the flame from the kindled flax mingle, and make one fire. So the people and their works would be enkindled and destroyed together. They would burn so rapidly, that nothing could extinguish them. The meaning is, that the nation would be punished; and that all their works of idolatry and monuments of sin would be the occasion of their punishment, and would perish at the same time. The "principle" involved in this passage teaches us the following things:

(1) That the wicked, however mighty, shall be destroyed.

(2) That their works will be the "cause" of their ruin - a cause necessarily leading to it.

(3) That the works of the wicked - all that they do and all on which they depend - shall be destroyed.

(4) That this destruction shall be final. Nothing shall stay the flame. No tears of penitence, no power of men or devils, shall "put out" the fires which the works of the wicked shall enkindle.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
Isa 1:31 shows in a third figure where this spark was to come from: "And the rich man becomes tow, and his work the spark; and they will both burn together, and no one extinguishes them." The form poalo suggests at first a participial meaning (its maker), but החסון would be a very unusual epithet to apply to an idol. Moreover, the figure itself would be a distorted one, since the natural order would be, that the idol would be the thing that kindled the fire, and the man the object to be set on fire, and not the reverse. We therefore follow the lxx, Targ., and Vulg., with Gesenius and other more recent grammarians, and adopt the rendering "his work" (opus ejus). The forms פּעלו and פּעלו (cf., Isa 52:14 and Jer 22:13) are two equally admissible changes of the ground-form פעלו (פּעלו). As Isa 1:29 refers to idolatrous worship, poalo (his work) is an idol, a god made by human hands (cf., Isa 2:8; Isa 37:19, etc.). The prosperous idolater, who could give gold and silver for idolatrous images out of the abundance of his possessions (Châson is to be interpreted in accordance with Isa 33:6), becomes tow (talm. "the refuse of flax:" the radical meaning is to shake out, viz., in combing), and the idol the spark which sets this mass of fibre in flames, so that they are both irretrievably consumed. For the fire of judgment, by which sinners are devoured, need not come from without. Sin carries the fire of indignation within itself. And an idol is, as it were, an idolater's sin embodied and exposed to the light of day. The date of the composition of this first prophecy is a puzzle. Caspari thoroughly investigated every imaginary possibility, and at last adopted the conclusion that it dates from the time of Uzziah, inasmuch as Isa 1:7-9 do not relate to an actual, but merely to an ideal, present. But notwithstanding all the acuteness with which Caspari has worked out his view, it still remains a very forced one. The oftener we return to the reading of this prophetic address, the stronger is our impression that Isa 1:7-9 contain a description of the state of things which really existed at the time when the words were spoken. There were actually two devastations of the land of Judah which occurred during the ministry of Isaiah, and in which Jerusalem was only spared by the miraculous interposition of Jehovah: one under Ahaz in the year of the Syro-Ephraimitish war; the other under Hezekiah, when the Assyrian forces laid the land waste but were scattered at last in their attack upon Jerusalem. The year of the Syro-Ephraimitish war is supported by Gesenius, Rosenmller (who expresses a different opinion in every one of the three editions of his Scholia), Maurer, Movers, Knobel, Hvernick, and others; the time of the Assyrian oppression by Hitzig, Umbreit, Drechsler, and Luzzatto. Now, whichever of these views we may adopt, there will still remain, as a test of its admissiblity, the difficult question, How did this prophecy come to stand at the head of the book, if it belonged to the time of Uzziah-Jotham? This question, upon which the solution of the difficulty depends, can only be settled when we come to Isa 6:1-13. Till then, the date of the composition of chapter 1 must be left undecided. It is enough for the present to know, that, according to the accounts given in the books of Kings and Chronicles, there were two occasions when the situation of Jerusalem resembled the one described in the present chapter.

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

Isa 1:31 shows in a third figure where this spark was to come from: "And the rich man becomes tow, and his work the spark; and they will both burn together, and no one extinguishes them." The form poalo suggests at first a participial meaning (its maker), but החסון would be a very unusual epithet to apply to an idol. Moreover, the figure itself would be a distorted one, since the natural order would be, that the idol would be the thing that kindled the fire, and the man the object to be set on fire, and not the reverse. We therefore follow the lxx, Targ., and Vulg., with Gesenius and other more recent grammarians, and adopt the rendering "his work" (opus ejus). The forms פּעלו and פּעלו (cf., Isa 52:14 and Jer 22:13) are two equally admissible changes of the ground-form פעלו (פּעלו). As Isa 1:29 refers to idolatrous worship, poalo (his work) is an idol, a god made by human hands (cf., Isa 2:8; Isa 37:19, etc.). The prosperous idolater, who could give gold and silver for idolatrous images out of the abundance of his possessions (Châson is to be interpreted in accordance with Isa 33:6), becomes tow (talm. "the refuse of flax:" the radical meaning is to shake out, viz., in combing), and the idol the spark which sets this mass of fibre in flames, so that they are both irretrievably consumed. For the fire of judgment, by which sinners are devoured, need not come from without. Sin carries the fire of indignation within itself. And an idol is, as it were, an idolater's sin embodied and exposed to the light of day.

The date of the composition of this first prophecy is a puzzle. Caspari thoroughly investigated every imaginary possibility, and at last adopted the conclusion that it dates from the time of Uzziah, inasmuch as Isa 1:7-9 do not relate to an actual, but merely to an ideal, present. But notwithstanding all the acuteness with which Caspari has worked out his view, it still remains a very forced one. The oftener we return to the reading of this prophetic address, the stronger is our impression that Isa 1:7-9 contain a description of the state of things which really existed at the time when the words were spoken. There were actually two devastations of the land of Judah which occurred during the ministry of Isaiah, and in which Jerusalem was only spared by the miraculous interposition of Jehovah: one under Ahaz in the year of the Syro-Ephraimitish war; the other under Hezekiah, when the Assyrian forces laid the land waste but were scattered at last in their attack upon Jerusalem. The year of the Syro-Ephraimitish war is supported by Gesenius, Rosenmller (who expresses a different opinion in every one of the three editions of his Scholia), Maurer, Movers, Knobel, Hvernick, and others; the time of the Assyrian oppression by Hitzig, Umbreit, Drechsler, and Luzzatto. Now, whichever of these views we may adopt, there will still remain, as a test of its admissiblity, the difficult question, How did this prophecy come to stand at the head of the book, if it belonged to the time of Uzziah-Jotham? This question, upon which the solution of the difficulty depends, can only be settled when we come to Isa 6:1-13. Till then, the date of the composition of chapter 1 must be left undecided. It is enough for the present to know, that, according to the accounts given in the books of Kings and Chronicles, there were two occasions when the situation of Jerusalem resembled the one described in the present chapter.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
The strong - Your idols, which you think to be strong and able to defend you. As tow - Shall be as suddenly and easily, consumed by my judgments, as tow is by fire. The maker - Of the idol, who can neither save himself nor his workmanship.

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⁹ Yet destroyed [08045] I the Amorite [0567] before [06440] them, whose height [01363] was like the height [01363] of the cedars [0730], and he was strong [02634] as the oaks [0437]; yet I destroyed [08045] his fruit [06529] from above [04605], and his roots [08328] from beneath.

¹ In the year [08141] that king [04428] Uzziah [05818] died [04194] I saw [07200] also [0853] the Lord [0136] sitting [03427] upon a throne [03678], high [07311] and lifted up [05375], and his train [07757] filled [04392] [0853] the temple [01964].
² Above [04605] it stood [05975] the seraphims [08314]: each one [0259] had six [08337] wings [03671]; with twain [08147] he covered [03680] his face [06440], and with twain [08147] he covered [03680] his feet [07272], and with twain [08147] he did fly [05774].
³ And one cried [07121] unto another, and said [0559], Holy [06918], holy [06918], holy [06918], is the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635]: the whole earth [0776] is full [04393] of his glory [03519].
⁴ And the posts [0520] of the door [05592] moved [05128] at the voice [06963] of him that cried [07121], and the house [01004] was filled [04390] with smoke [06227].
⁵ Then said [0559] I, Woe [0188] is me! for I am undone [01820]; because I am a man [0376] of unclean [02931] lips [08193], and I dwell [03427] in the midst [08432] of a people [05971] of unclean [02931] lips [08193]: for mine eyes [05869] have seen [07200] the King [04428], the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635].
⁶ Then flew [05774] one [0259] of the seraphims [08314] unto me, having a live coal [07531] in his hand [03027], which he had taken [03947] with the tongs [04457] from off the altar [04196]:
⁷ And he laid [05060] it upon my mouth [06310], and said [0559], Lo, this hath touched [05060] thy lips [08193]; and thine iniquity [05771] is taken away [05493], and thy sin [02403] purged [03722].
⁸ Also I heard [08085] the voice [06963] of the Lord [0136], saying [0559], Whom shall I send [07971], and who will go [03212] for us? Then said [0559] I, Here am I; send [07971] me.
⁹ And he said [0559], Go [03212], and tell [0559] this people [05971], Hear [08085] ye indeed [08085], but understand [0995] not; and see [07200] ye indeed [07200], but perceive [03045] not.
¹⁰ Make the heart [03820] of this people [05971] fat [08080], and make their ears [0241] heavy [03513], and shut [08173] their eyes [05869]; lest they see [07200] with their eyes [05869], and hear [08085] with their ears [0241], and understand [0995] with their heart [03824], and convert [07725], and be healed [07495].
¹¹ Then said [0559] I, Lord [0136], how long? And he answered [0559], Until the cities [05892] be wasted [07582] without inhabitant [03427], and the houses [01004] without man [0120], and the land [0127] be utterly [08077] desolate [07582],
¹² And the LORD [03068] have removed [07368] men [0120] far away [07368], and there be a great [07227] forsaking [05805] in the midst [07130] of the land [0776].
¹³ But yet in it shall be a tenth [06224], and it shall return [07725], and shall be eaten [01197]: as a teil tree [0424], and as an oak [0437], whose substance [04678] is in them, when they cast [07995] their leaves: so the holy [06944] seed [02233] shall be the substance [04678] thereof.

⁷ Your country [0776] is desolate [08077], your cities [05892] are burned [08313] with fire [0784]: your land [0127], strangers [02114] devour [0398] it in your presence, and it is desolate [08077], as overthrown [04114] by strangers [02114].
⁸ And the daughter [01323] of Zion [06726] is left [03498] as a cottage [05521] in a vineyard [03754], as a lodge [04412] in a garden of cucumbers [04750], as a besieged [05341] city [05892].
⁹ Except [03884] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635] had left [03498] unto us a very small [04592] remnant [08300], we should have been [01961] as Sodom [05467], and we should have been like [01819] unto Gomorrah [06017].

⁶ And wisdom [02451] and knowledge [01847] shall be the stability [0530] of thy times [06256], and strength [02633] of salvation [03444]: the fear [03374] of the LORD [03068] is his treasure [0214].

¹⁹ And have cast [05414] their gods [0430] into the fire [0784]: for they were no gods [0430], but the work [04639] of men's [0120] hands [03027], wood [06086] and stone [068]: therefore they have destroyed [06] them.

⁸ Their land [0776] also is full [04390] of idols [0457]; they worship [07812] the work [04639] of their own hands [03027], that which their own fingers [0676] have made [06213]:

²⁹ For they shall be ashamed [0954] of the oaks [0352] which ye have desired [02530], and ye shall be confounded [02659] for the gardens [01593] that ye have chosen [0977].

¹³ Woe [01945] unto him that buildeth [01129] his house [01004] by [03808] unrighteousness [06664], and his chambers [05944] by wrong [04941]; that useth his neighbour's [07453] service [05647] without wages [02600], and giveth [05414] him not for his work [06467];

¹⁴ As many [07227] were astonied [08074] at thee; his visage [04758] was so marred [04893] more than any man [0376], and his form [08389] more than the sons [01121] of men [0120]:

³¹ And the strong [02634] shall be as tow [05296], and the maker [06467] of it as a spark [05213], and they shall both [08147] burn [01197] together [03162], and none shall quench [03518] them.