Isaiah 22:1-4
The joy of the people and the sorrow of the prophet.... [ Continue Reading ]
The joy of the people and the sorrow of the prophet.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The burden of the valley of vision_ Or, THE ORACLE "VALLEY OF VISION." The heading (prefixed by an editor) is taken from a phrase in Isaiah 22:5 (see the note). _What aileth thee now_ Better: WHAT MEANEST THOU, I WONDER (cf. ch. Isaiah 3:15). _gone up to the housetops_ cf. ch. Isaiah 15:3; Judges... [ Continue Reading ]
Isaiah 22:1-14. The inexpiable sin of Jerusalem The key to this passage the most lurid and minatory of all Isaiah's prophecies is the irreconcileable antagonism between the mood of the prophet and the state of public feeling around him. In a time of universal mirth and festivity he alone is overwhe... [ Continue Reading ]
_full of stirs_ R.V. FULL OF SHOUTINGS. _joyous city_ JUBILANT CITY, as ch. Isaiah 32:13. A festive disposition seems to have characterised the inhabitants of Jerusalem in Isaiah's time; cf. also ch. Isaiah 5:14. That their gladness on this occasion was "the forced gaiety of despair" is indicated by... [ Continue Reading ]
_thy rulers_ THY CHIEFTAINS, the same word as in Isaiah 1:10, there in its civil, here in its military sense. _they are bound by the archers_ Better: WITHOUT BOW (which they had thrown away) THEY WERE TAKEN PRISONERS. _all that are found in thee_ ALL OF THINE THAT WERE FOUND. which _have fled from... [ Continue Reading ]
_Look away from me_ i.e. "leave me alone," as Job 7:19. _labour not_is strictly PRESS NOT UPON ME, and _spoiling_should be DESTRUCTION. The prophet's gaze is already on the future. _daughter of my people_ The phrase, common in Jeremiah and Lamentations, occurs only here in Isaiah.... [ Continue Reading ]
The first half of the verse reads: FOR A DAY OF TUMULT AND TRAMPLING AND CONFUSION HATH JEHOVAH OF HOSTS, "a series of inimitable assonances" (Cheyne) in the Hebr. (cf. Nahum 2:10 [Hebrews 11]). The form of the sentence is the same as in Isaiah 2:12. The words _in the valley of vision_belong (in sp... [ Continue Reading ]
The connexion here becomes very uncertain. It seems clear that Isaiah 22:5 (from its form) must refer to the future, while Isaiah 22:8 undoubtedly go back to what is past. The transition must apparently take place either at Isaiah 22:6 or Isaiah 22:8. Now the tenses in Isaiah 22:6 would be naturally... [ Continue Reading ]
_Elam_(see on Isaiah 21:2) and _Kir_(not identified: 2 Kings 16:9; Amos 1:5; Amos 9:7) are mentioned as furnishing auxiliaries to the Assyrian army. There is force in Cheyne's argument that some words may have fallen out before this verse, since it is difficult to understand the prominence given to... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it shall come to pass_ strictly, AND IT CAME TO PASS, in the scene beheld by the prophet. _set themselves … gate_ TAKE UP THEIR STATION TOWARDS THE GATE.... [ Continue Reading ]
_he discovered the covering of Judah_ Probably "exposed the defencelessness of the state." The subj. may be Jehovah or the enemy, or it may be indefinite. The clause is virtually the protasis to the following "And when the defencelessness of Judah was exposed, thou didst look, &c." _the house of th... [ Continue Reading ]
The preparations for the siege. Cf. 2 Chronicles 32:2-5; 2Ch 32:30; 2 Kings 20:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
The first half reads YE SAW (i.e. examined) THE BREACHES OF THE CITY OF DAVID (the citadel of Zion, 2 Samuel 5:7; 2 Samuel 5:9) FOR THEY WERE MANY. Jerusalem was evidently quite unfit to stand a siege. The water supply was still defective, as it had been 34 years before (see ch. Isaiah 7:3). The _lo... [ Continue Reading ]
_And ye have numbered the houses_ AND YE NUMBERED, apparently to see which could best be spared for the purpose specified in the next clause, "to fortify the wall," cf. Jeremiah 33:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
For _ditch_read RESERVOIR as R.V. The "old pool" is very probably the pool of Siloam (though this is not certain) and the "reservoir" would be intended to retain its surplus water. _between the two walls_ a part of the city adjoining the royal gardens, where there was a gate (see 2 Kings 25:4; Jere... [ Continue Reading ]
_in that day did the Lord … call_ not only by the silent march of events, but also by the voice of HIS prophet: see ch. Isaiah 32:11. The call was to seriousness and humiliation, expressed by the customary signs of mourning. (Cf. Joel 2:12; Amos 8:10; Isaiah 3:24; Isaiah 20:2, &c.)... [ Continue Reading ]
The ignoring of Jehovah's presence in this crisis is an unpardonable sin.... [ Continue Reading ]
Instead of this the people rush to drown reflection in riotous festivities. The immediate occasion of the revelry was no doubt a great sacrifice of thanksgiving to Jehovah for their unexpected deliverance, but this only rendered their irreligious spirit more detestable to Jehovah (cf. Isaiah 1:10-17... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it was revealed … hosts_ Render with R.V. AND JEHOVAH OF HOSTS REVEALED HIMSELF IN MINE EARS. The message comes to the prophet like an external voice, which he knows to be that of the Lord (cf. ch. Isaiah 5:9). _Surely_ The form is that of adjuration (cf. Isaiah 14:24). _purged from you_ Bett... [ Continue Reading ]
_this treasurer_ Better: THIS OFFICIAL. The "this" is contemptuous. The word for "official" (_sôkçn_) is not elsewhere found. It seems to mean either "associate" (like the "king's friend" of 2 Samuel 15:37; 2 Samuel 16:16; 1 Kings 4:5; 1 Chronicles 27:33), or "administrator" (the Assyrian _šaknu_).... [ Continue Reading ]
Isaiah 22:15-25. A Philippic against an influential Politician Shebna, the minister here addressed, is supposed from his name and from Isaiah's indignation at his ambitious desire to have a magnificent sepulchre in Jerusalem, to have been a foreigner in the royal service. The office which he holds... [ Continue Reading ]
We may imagine the meeting between Isaiah and the vizier to have taken place at the sepulchre which the latter, after the Eastern fashion, was having prepared in his lifetime. By this act the _novus homo_asserted his equality with the aristocracy of Jerusalem, a piece of presumption which evidently... [ Continue Reading ]
_will carry thee away … captivity_ Translate: WILL FLING THEE FORTH VIOLENTLY, O THOU MAN. The A.V. preserves the sense but entirely misses the bold metaphor, which is carried on to the middle of Isaiah 22:18. The next words _and will surely cover thee_, when so rendered, hardly suit the context. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
The doom of Shebna is set forth in language of extraordinary force and passion.... [ Continue Reading ]
The first half of the verse reads: HE WILL ROLL THEE UP IN A BUNDLE ( AND TOSS THEE) LIKE A BALL INTO A SPACIOUS LAND (lit. "a land broad on both sides," as Genesis 34:21; Judges 18:10). The words "and toss thee" have to be supplied from the context; the construction is pregnant. The figure expresse... [ Continue Reading ]
The subject here is Jehovah; the change of person resembles that in Isaiah 10:12. After Isaiah 22:18, the verse reads like an anti-climax, but it is added to prepare for... [ Continue Reading ]
Eliakim is called _my servant_as Isaiah is in ch. Isaiah 20:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
The elevation of the head of the prophetic party at court.... [ Continue Reading ]
_robe_("tunic") … _girdle_ The palace officials seem to have worn distinctive liveries (1 Kings 10:5); the uniform of the vizier was apparently a tunic and a girdle of special pattern. The word for "girdle" is used elsewhere only of the priestly girdle (see Exodus 39:29, &c.). For _strengthen_, tran... [ Continue Reading ]
_the key of the house of David_ The symbol of unlimited authority over the royal household, carrying with it a similar influence in all affairs of state; like Pharaoh's signet-ring in the hands of Joseph, Genesis 41:40-44 _upon his shoulder_ Cf. Isaiah 9:6; and with the whole verse comp. Revelation... [ Continue Reading ]
_a nail_ usually a "tent-peg" (and so probably in a figurative sense, Zechariah 10:4); but also (Ezekiel 15:3) a peg on which household utensils are suspended. The latter idea (according to Isaiah 22:25) must be intended here. _a glorious throne_ Better: A SEAT OF HONOUR. _to his father's house_ a... [ Continue Reading ]
An under-current of satire seems unmistakeable. _all the glory_ perhaps: THE WHOLE WEIGHT (see "burden" in next verse). _the offspring and the issue_ THE SCIONS AND THE OFFSHOOTS (Cheyne). The second expression is decidedly contemptuous, and so (more or less) are all that follow. It cannot be to E... [ Continue Reading ]
If Isaiah 22:24 stood alone it might be barely possible to interpret it in a sense favourable to Eliakim. But taken in connexion with Isaiah 22:25 it seems to convey an imputation of the unworthy exercise of patronage on his part, a filling of important offices with worthless relatives and dependent... [ Continue Reading ]
The fall of Eliakim's house, described under the same metaphor. It is not necessarily implied that the minister himself lived to see this reverse of fortune; living or dead, his name was the "peg" of the family's nobility, and when the crash came, it might truly be said that the "peg fastened in a s... [ Continue Reading ]