Isaiah 25:5
Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers,.... Such as are strangers to God and godliness, to Christ, his Gospel, and truths, to the Spirit and his operations of grace; the clamour and noise of such against true religion, and the professors of it, their persecuting rage and fury, this the Lord in his own time will bring down, and cause to cease, and it shall be heard no more:
as the heat in a dry place: which parches the earth, and burns and dries up the grass and fruits of it; to which persecution is compared:
even the heat with the shadow of a cloud; as that is brought down, and caused to cease by the shadow of a cloud, sheltering from the scorching beams of the sun, and by letting down rain, which moistens the earth; so the Lord protects his people from the fury of persecution, and abates it by the interposition of his power and providence; and at last puts an end to it:
the branch of the terrible ones shall be made low; meaning the most eminent of them; a branch being put for a most eminent person, Isaiah 4:2 perhaps the pope of Rome is meant, the head of the antichristian party, the principal of the terrible persecutors, who shall be brought low and destroyed by Christ, at his coming. Some render it, "the song of the terrible ones shall be brought low" {d}; it will be brought a note lower; their triumphing will be at an end; the voice of harpers and musicians, of pipers and trumpeters, will be heard no more among them; but instead thereof weeping and howling,
{d} hney Myuyre rymz "cantus fortium humiliabitur, vel humiliabit se", Vatablus; see Cant. ii. 12.