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"What, say they, doth he treat us as mere infants just weaned? Doth he teach us like
little children, perpetually inculcating the same elementary lessons, the mere rudiments of
knowledge; precept after precept, line after line? imitating at the same time, and
ridiculing in verse 10, the concise prophetical manner. God by His prophet retorts upon
them with great severity their own contemptuous mockery. Yes, saith He, it shall be, in
fact, as you say: ye shall be taught by a strange tongue, and a stammering lip, in a
strange country; ye shall be carried into captivity by a people whose language is
unintelligible to you, and which ye shall be forced to learn like children" (Bishop Lowth).
"We must conceive the abrupt, intentionally short, reiterated and almost childish
words of verse 10 as spoken in mimicry, with a mocking motion of the head, and in
childish, stammering, taunting tone" (Ewald).
The Hebrew reads:
ZAV LAZAV, ZAV, LAZAV
KAV LA KAV, KAV LA KAV
ZE ER SHAM, ZE ER SHAM.
Or, as the Companion Bible puts it: "Law upon law, *Saw upon saw."
(NOTE: * - "Saw", allied with "saga", a sententious saying, "a wise saw".).
The word "stammering" here does not refer to a defect in the power of speech, as
"stuttering", but rather to the scorn with which the Jew looked upon the "jabbering" of
other tongues. Laag is translated "scorn", "derision", "mock"; and the Margin of
Isa. 33: 19 gives the rendering "ridiculous".
It would take us too far afield to speak here of the spiritual gifts which were poured
out upon the church during the Acts, but the fact that Paul cites this very passage in
I Cor. 14: 21, shows that the Gentiles received these gifts "to provoke Israel to
jealousy". This view we have always maintained in our exposition of the gifts in the
church and will be found in the articles concerned. The only point we make here is that
the thought of mockery and derision is incipient in the reference, and that judgment is
imminent, both in Isa. 33: and in I Cor. 12: - 14:
Israel had refused the "rest and refreshing" which the Lord had offered:
"To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and
this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear" (Isa. 28: 12).
"How often", said the Saviour, "would I have gathered your children . . . . . and ye
would not" (Matt. 23: 37).
The same charge is repeated in Isa. 30: where, instead of the covenant with death
and hell, we find the people "trusting in the shadow of Egypt":
"That strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of
Egypt! . . . . . For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I
cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still . . . . . In returning and rest shall ye be
saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not"
(Isa. 30: 2, 7, 15).