“The bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone. The sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.”
The bricks have fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change [them into] cedars. (n) We were but weak, when the enemy overcame us, but we will make ourselves so strong, that we will neither care for our enemies, nor fear God's threatenings.
These obstinate men despise their calamity and treat it as an opportunity for splendor: the fallen bricks become an excuse to build palaces, the felled trees to plant cedars. We see this same hardness everywhere. Europe has suffered thirty or forty years of affliction and chastisement, yet luxury swells, passions burn hotter, shame falls away. Those very calamities have become fuel for excess. What follows but heavier blows?
AI summary
The Lord sends warning before He wounds; He spoke through His prophets, but Israel refused to hear. Those willingly ignorant of God's wrath revealed against sin shall be made to know it by feeling it. The people's insolence defies justice itself: they say, let God do His worst, we will hold our ground, rebuild stronger than before. They will not repent at the word, so they shall learn through the blow.
AI summary
Commenting on Isaiah 9:8-21