What does Isaiah 2:22 Mean?

Verse Meaning

This section ( Isaiah 2:5-22) closes as it opened, with an exhortation, this one being negative. Isaiah called on his hearers to stop trusting in man. His life, after all, comes from God, who should be trusted (cf. Genesis 2:7; Genesis 7:22; Psalm 146:4). Human beings have no real value as objects of trust. Idolatry is but a result of man"s self-glorification, not its cause. Human beings will never bring about Israel"s glorious destiny. Only God can and will do that. This verse, like Isaiah 2:5, is transitional, and bridges the preceding proclamation of universal judgment with the following more specific judgment. [source][source]

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Context Summary

If men will not repent, they must suffer. If they will not voluntarily put away their idols and sorceries, they will be compelled to do so in the anguish of their disappointment with their helpless deities, Isaiah 2:20. Nothing in that great civilization would be spared. High towers, fenced walls, ships, treasures, armor-all would perish. Their vaunted faith in man would cease. Life would become elemental in its simplicity amid the shelter of the ragged rocks. In sarcastic phrase the prophet depicts a despairing nation choosing for ruler the first man that came along with a decent coat on his back, Isaiah 2:6; but in vain. We can almost hear the sob of the prophet's soul in Isaiah 2:8-9, and recall the tears of a greater than Isaiah, Who wept over this same Jerusalem eight hundred years afterward. Patriotism is one of the purest passions that can burn in the heart of man! "Lives there a man, with soul so dead, that never to himself has said, This is my own, my native land!" [source]

Chapter Summary: Isaiah 2

¹  Isaiah prophesies the coming of Christ's kingdom
⁶  Wickedness is the cause of God's forsaking
¹⁰  He exhorts to fear, because of the powerful effects of God's majesty