Isaiah 14:1-2

Despite Their Exile, Israel's Cause Is Not Lost (Isaiah 14:1).

Typical of Isaiah is that in the midst of the burden of Babylon, and the descriptions of its downfall, come promises of restoration for Israel and Judah. In the midst of it all Yahweh has not forgotten His people.

Analysis.

a For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel (Isaiah 14:1 a).

b And set them in their own land, and the stranger will join himself with them (Isaiah 14:1 b).

c And they will cleave to the house of Jacob (Isaiah 14:1 c).

c And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place (Isaiah 14:2 a).

b And the house of Israel will possess them in the land of Yahweh, for servants and for handmaids (Isaiah 14:2 b).

a And they will take them captive whose captives they were, and they will rule over their oppressors (Isaiah 14:2 c).

In ‘a' Yahweh will yet have compassion on Israel and again set His choice on them, and in the parallel the result will be that their situation will be overturned, and they will make captive their captors, and will rule over their oppressors. In ‘b' He will set them in their own land and foreigners will join with them, and in the parallel the foreigners will be possessed in the land of Yahweh for servants and for handmaids. In ‘c' these foreigners will cleave to the house of Jacob, and they will bring them to their place.

Isaiah 14:1

‘For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob,

And will yet choose Israel,

And set them in their own land,

And the stranger will join himself with them,

And they will cleave to the house of Jacob,

And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place,

And the house of Israel will possess them in the land of Yahweh,

For servants and for handmaids,

And they will take them captive whose captives they were,

And they will rule over their oppressors.'

One guarantee of the shortlived nature of any Babylonian glory is the fact that God is to restore His people to spiritual greatness. Having witnessed the devastation of Samaria and the dragging of the cream of Israel's leaders into captivity, Isaiah promises that one day they will be restored. Yahweh will yet have compassion on them, and again choose them. Their loss of status before God is only temporary. They are His beloved people, beloved because He has chosen to love them (Deuteronomy 7:7). They will be re-established in the land which God had given them as an inheritance centuries before, ‘the land of Yahweh', and they will be set there by Him to enjoy His rest (see Deuteronomy 12:10; 2 Samuel 7:1) and aliens will join themselves with them and seek to become part of them.

Indeed God will turn the tables on the world. Those who had oppressed them will assist in their deliverance and become their servants and captives, for they will come under Israel's rule. Thus is given the guarantee of the final triumph of God's people, although, as often stressed elsewhere, it will be of but a remnant. And other nations will share in that triumph by their connection with them. Compare Isaiah 45:14; Isaiah 49:22; Isaiah 60; Isaiah 66:19.

We must not see this latter as the demeaning of the nations. This was the conception of the time of the way in which an empire was established, with the leading nation having under it the subsidiary nations who served them and provided servants.

There was partial fulfilment of this after the later exile of Judah. Israel and Judah were re-established in the land and their power and area of authority grew, with many reversals, so that in the century or so prior to the time of Jesus the Jews had widespread rule with erstwhile enemies under them. Thus it had a literal, though partial, earthly fulfilment. Then it was partly fulfilled as the Jewish Christian Apostles and teachers went out into the world, winning men to Christ, and the nations, including those who had oppressed Israel, submitted to the Apostolic authority, captured by love. But in the end the coming Davidic kingdom must be in mind here, the everlasting kingdom described in earthly terms, when all nations would be gathered in the new Jerusalem (Isaiah 66:23) in the other world.

We must ever remember that to Isaiah and the prophets both Israel and Judah were still within the promises of God. Thus the final triumph under the Davidic king was promised to both.