9 Take your stand, indolent women! Listen to me! Indulgent, indolent women, listen closely to what I have to say. 10 In just a little over a year from now, you'll be shaken out of your lazy lives. The grape harvest will fail, and there'll be no fruit on the trees. 11 Oh tremble, you indolent women. Get serious, you pampered dolls! Strip down and discard your silk fineries. Put on funeral clothes. 12 Shed honest tears for the lost harvest, the failed vintage. 13 Weep for my people's gardens and farms that grow nothing but thistles and thornbushes. Cry tears, real tears, for the happy homes no longer happy, the merry city no longer merry. 14 The royal palace is deserted, the bustling city quiet as a morgue, The emptied parks and playgrounds taken over by wild animals, delighted with their new home. 15 Yes, weep and grieve until the Spirit is poured down on us from above And the badlands desert grows crops and the fertile fields become forests. 16 Justice will move into the badlands desert. Right will build a home in the fertile field. 17 And where there's Right, there'll be Peace and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust. 18 My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood - in safe houses, in quiet gardens. 19 The forest of your pride will be clear-cut, the city showing off your power leveled. 20 But you will enjoy a blessed life, planting well-watered fields and gardens, with your farm animals grazing freely.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 32:9-20
Commentary on Isaiah 32:9-20
(Read Isaiah 32:9-20)
When there was so much provocation given to the holy God, bad times might be expected. Alas! how many careless ones there are, who support self-indulgence by shameful niggardliness! We deserve to be deprived of the supports of life, when we make them the food of lusts. Let such tremble and be troubled. Blessed times shall be brought in by the pouring out of the Spirit from on high; then, and not till then, there will be good times. The present state of the Jews shall continue until a more abundant pouring out of the Spirit from on high. Peace and quietness shall be found in the way and work of righteousness. True satisfaction is to be had only in true religion. And real holiness is real happiness now, and shall be perfect happiness, that is, perfect holiness for ever. The good seed of the word shall be sown in all places, and be watered by Divine grace; and laborious, patient labourers shall be sent forth into God's husbandry.