And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruits of them.

And they have built houses, and inhabited, And planted vineyards, and eaten their fruit.

And they will be building houses and living in them; planting vine-gardens and getting the fruit of them.

They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

Ædificabunt domos, et inhabitabunt; plantabunt vites, et comedent fructum earum.

and 22. They shall build houses and inhabit them. In these verses he mentions what is written in the Law; for these are the blessings of the Law, that they who have obeyed God shall dwell in the houses which they have built, and shall gather fruit from the trees which they have planted. (Leviticus 26:10.) On the other hand, the disobedient shall be expelled from the houses which they built, and shall give place to foreigners, and shall be deprived of the fruits of the trees which they planted. "The Lord," saith Isaiah, "shall protect you from that curse, so as to enjoy your property." Now the Prophets hold out those things which relate to the present life, and borrow metaphors from them; but it is in order that they may teach us to rise higher and to embrace eternal and blessed life. We must not fix our whole attention on these transitory blessings, but must make use of them as ladders, that, being raised to heaven, we may enjoy eternal and immortal blessings. To the Church, which has been renewed, and which rests on nothing but God's good pleasure and undeserved favor, is justly promised the enjoyment of those blessings of which unbelievers had deprived themselves. According to the days of a tree. Some think that this is a promise of eternal life; as if men had the tree of life; but that is forged ingenuity, and far removed from the Prophet's meaning. And I do wonder that commentators give themselves so much trouble in explaining this passage; for the Prophet speaks, not only of life, but of a peaceful condition of life; as if he had said, "Ye shall plant vineyards, and shall eat the fruit of them; and ye shall not be removed from this life before receiving the fruit, which shall be enjoyed, not only by yourselves, but by your children and posterity. He employs the metaphor of a tree, because he had formerly spoken of planting vineyards; and accordingly he promises that the people shall peacefully enjoy both their houses and their vineyards, and shall not be molested by enemies or robbers, and this peaceful condition shall last as long as the life of a tree. And my elect shall perpetually enjoy [1] the work of their hands. A work is said to be continued or perpetuated when the result of it is prosperous; for otherwise men would subject themselves to long and severe toil, and all to no purpose, if God did not grant success. Enemies will either take away or destroy what we have begun, and the completion of it will be out of our power; and therefore it is strictly said to be continued, not when merely some progress is made, but when it is brought to a close. Here it ought to be observed, that we cannot possess our wealth and have the peaceful and lawful enjoyment of it in any other way than by dwelling in the kingdom of Christ, who is the only heir of the world, and without being ingrafted into his body. Wicked men may indeed enjoy, for many years, the good things of this life; but they will continually be uneasy, and will wretchedly devour themselves, so that even possession shall be destructive and deadly; for it is only by faith that we obtain all that belongs to a blessed life, and they who have not faith cannot be members of Christ.

Footnotes

1 - "Ou, jouiront en vieil aage de l'oeuvre de leurs mains." "Or, shall enjoy in old age the work of their hands."

And they shall build houses - (See the notes at Isaiah 62:8-9).

And they shall (b) build houses, and inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
(b) He proposes to the faithful the blessings which are contained in the law, and so under temporal things comprehends the spiritual promises.

And they shall build houses, and inhabit them,.... In Jerusalem, and other parts of Judea: though this need not be limited to the Jews, but be considered as reaching to all the Lord's people, the Gentiles also; who will be in no fear of enemies, or ever be disturbed by them, but shall dwell in their own houses peaceably and quietly; this is the reverse of what is threatened to the wicked, Deuteronomy 28:30,
and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them; they shall both live to dwell in their houses when built, and till their vineyards bring forth fruit, and then eat of them; and they shall be preserved from enemies breaking in upon them, and wasting their plantations.

(See on Isaiah 62:8; Amos 9:14).

In the place of the threatened curses of the law in Leviticus 26:16 (cf., Deuteronomy 28:30), the very opposite will now receive their fullest realization. "And they will build houses and inhabit them, and plant vineyards and enjoy the fruit thereof. They will not build and another inhabit, nor plant and another enjoy; for like the days of trees are the days of my people, ad my chosen ones will consume the work of their hands. They will not weary themselves in vain, nor bring forth for sudden disaster; for they are a family of the blessed of Jehovah, and their offspring are left to them." They themselves will enjoy what they have worked for, without some one else stepping in, whether a countryman by violence or inheritance, or a foreigner by plunder or conquest (Isaiah 62:8), to take possession of that which they have built and planted (read יטעוּ without dagesh); for the duration of their life will be as great as that of trees (i.e., of oaks, terebinths, and cedars, which live for centuries), and thus they will be able thoroughly to enjoy in their own person what their hands have made. Billâh does not mean merely to use and enjoy, but to use up and consume. Work and generation will be blessed then, and there will be no more disappointed hopes. They will not weary themselves (יגעוּ with a preformative י without that of the root) for failure, not get children labbehâlâh, i.e., for some calamity to fall suddenly upon them and carry them away (Leviticus 26:16, cf., Psalm 78:33). The primary idea of bâhal is either acting, permitting, or bearing, with the characteristic of being let loose, of suddenness, of overthrow, or of throwing into confusion. The lxx renders it εἰς κατάραν, probably according to the Egypto-Jewish usage, in which behâlâh may have signified cursing, like bahle, buhle in the Arabic (see the Appendices). The two clauses of the explanation which follows stand in a reciprocal relation to the two clauses of the previous promise. They are a family of the blessed of God, upon whose labour the blessing of God rests, and their offspring are with them, without being lost to them by premature death. This is the true meaning, as in Job 21:8, and not "their offspring with them," i.e., in like manner, as Hitzig supposes.