The Impossibility of Human Help: the Certainty of Divine Protection The alliance with Egypt (now apparently consummated) is again the starting point of this fifth "Woe." As in ch. Isaiah 29:5-7, there is some uncertainty as to where the transition from denunciation to promise takes place; but the b... [ Continue Reading ]
Woe to them that put their trust in the horses and chariots of Egypt! The Jews were painfully conscious of their weakness in cavalry as compared with the Assyrians, and this was one of the considerations that made a league with Egypt so attractive in their eyes (see ch. Isaiah 30:16; Isaiah 36:8-9).... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yet he also is wise_ as well as the shrewd diplomatists who have negotiated this treaty! The words are ironical, yet they have a serious meaning; the prophet, alone in his view of the political situation, reassures himself by thinking of the transcendent wisdom of Jehovah and the fixity of His purp... [ Continue Reading ]
A demonstration of the folly of trusting Egypt rather than Jehovah.... [ Continue Reading ]
_men, and not God … flesh, and not spirit_ In these antitheses Isaiah formulates his religious conception of history. The present crisis has not been brought about by the mere collision of earthly forces (Egypt, Assyria, Judah); faith discerns in it the operation of a spiritual principle, and knows... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse reads: AS THE LION GROWLS, AND THE YOUNG LION OVER HIS PREY, AGAINST WHOM THE WHOLE BAND OF SHEPHERDS HAS BEEN CALLED OUT HE IS NOT TERRIFIED BY THEIR CRY, NOR DISMAYED AT THEIR SHOUTING SO JEHOVAH OF HOSTS WILL COME DOWN, &c. Compare with this truly Homeric simile _Il_. 18:161 f., 12:299... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehovah's protection of Jerusalem is expressed by a very different figure that of birds hovering over their nests. The word for _birds_denotes especially small, sparrow-like, birds; and its use here might seem less appropriate than in Psalms 11:1 as a synonym for timidity. It is, however, frequently... [ Continue Reading ]
Comp. Isaiah 30:22; Isaiah 17:8; Isaiah 2:8 and esp. Isaiah 2:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
_not of a mighty man … mean man_ R.V. NOT OF MAN … MEN (see on ch. Isaiah 2:9). Lit. "of a Not-man … Not-mortal," i.e. a superhuman sword. _shall be discomfited_ R.V. SHALL BECOME TRIBUTARY, "be subjected to bond-service," as 1 Kings 9:21 f., &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
The discomfiture of the Assyrians will be accomplished by Jehovah Himself. The connexion with what precedes is not very close.... [ Continue Reading ]
_he shall pass over_to _his strong hold_ The clause is difficult. R.V. and A.V. marg. take "his Rock" as subj., "Rock" being a figurative designation either of the king of Assyria or its national deity. This view has nothing to commend it. The A.V. gives a good sense, but a better translation perhap... [ Continue Reading ]