Isaiah 32:14

Render: For the palace is forsaken, the tumult of the city is a solitude (as in ch. Isaiah 6:12), &c. The tenses are prophetic perfects.

the forts and towers Better as in R.V.: the hill and the watch tower. The first word is -Ophel, the name of the southern projection of the hill on which the temple stood (Nehemiah 3:26 f., Nehemiah 11:21; 2 Chronicles 27:3; 2 Chronicles 33:14), and is doubtless mentioned as the aristocratic quarter of the city, near the royal palace. The word translated "watch tower" occurs nowhere else, and is of uncertain significance; probably, like Ophel, it denotes a particular locality in the capital.

The phrase for evermust be understood in a relative sense, being restricted by the "until" of Isaiah 32:15.

The verse contains an absolute and explicit prediction of the complete overthrow of Jerusalem. Dillmann's assertion that such an expectation must have been expressed in different language is inexplicable, and his distinction between destruction and desolation is sophistical. Surprising as this idea may be alongside of certain passages in this section of the book, it is not to be explained away, and after all it does not go very much beyond what is said in ch. Isaiah 29:4. For a complete parallel, however, we must go back to the early prophecy of ch. Isaiah 5:14; Isaiah 5:17.