17. turned--as contrasted with your "turnings of things upside
down"
(Isa 29:16),
there shall be other and better turnings or revolutions; the
outpouring of the Spirit in the latter days
(Isa 32:15);
first on the Jews; which shall be followed by their national
restoration (see on
Isa 29:2;
Zec 12:10)
then on the Gentiles
(Joe 2:28).
fruitful field--literally, "a Carmel"
(see on
Isa 10:18).
The moral change in the Jewish nation shall be as great as if the
wooded Lebanon were to become a fruitful field, and vice versa. Compare
Mt 11:12,
Greek: "the kingdom of heaven forces itself," as it were,
on man's acceptance; instead of men having to seek Messiah, as they had
John, in a desert, He presents Himself before them with loving
invitations; thus men's hearts, once a moral desert, are reclaimed so
as to bear fruits of righteousness: vice versa, the ungodly who seemed
prosperous, both in the moral and literal sense, shall be exhibited in
their real barrenness.
JFB.
Picture Study Bible