Isaiah 31:2. Yet he also is wise— There are two things which those who placed their confidence in Egypt peculiarly extolled in the Egyptians; namely, their wisdom and strength; particularly the strength of their cavalry. The prophet, comparing the Egyptians in each respect with God, beats down the vanity of their carnal confidence; for, though the Egyptians were wise and powerful, yet he acquaints them that God was more wise and more powerful, who could never want understanding to conceive the most proper means, nor power to carry those means into execution. The prophet makes use of the figure called meiosis, expressing much less than is meant, when speaking of God he says, Yet he also is wise; and in the third verse, though he denies not the strength of the Egyptians, yet he sets forth the imbecility of that strength when compared with God.

Isaiah 31:4. For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, &c.— For thus hath Jehovah spoken by me, &c. Isaiah 31:5. As birds hovering [over their young], so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem, defending and delivering it, protecting and rescuing it. Men of a carnal worldly mind, who understood not the secret ways of God, often inferred against his promises delivered by the prophets, that, in certain cases, they waited in vain for the divine help: groaning under the Assyrian yoke, they had not experienced the present aid of God, no more than in many of their wars against the Syrians. Reason, therefore, required that they should seek their aid from more powerful people; in which pretence they dissembled the truth, which was, that they were wanting to God, not God to them; as they proudly rejected that condition of repentance and faith which the prophets joined to all their promises of grace. But that Isaiah might entirely beat down this exception, he here places before their eyes an example of the defence and deliverance which God would undoubtedly perform for his people in Sion, publicly to shew that neither power nor affection was wanting in God to protect those who truly repented and trusted only in him. This he illustrates by two similes: the first referring to strength and undaunted resolution, taken from a lion roaring over his prey, and unappalled by any opposition: so, he says, would God fight for mount Sion, and for the hill thereof; that is to say, for Moriah, upon which the temple was built. The other simile refers to his affection and care, and is taken from the care, solicitude, and affection of birds defending their young. The meaning of it is, that God would not only protect his people, as birds do their young by brooding over them, but also would keep them free from all danger, would deliver and avenge them; which is more than birds are able to perform. There is no need to refer to the history, as it has been done so often already. See Vitringa.