1._For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob. _The particle כי (_ki_) having various significations, we might take it as signifying _But_, and might connect this verse with the former verse in the following manner: _But _(or, _yet_) _the Lord will have compassion on Jacob_. But I consider it to be... [ Continue Reading ]
2._And the peoples shall take them. _He means that the foreign nations will be willing to become their companions, and in such a manner that they will not scruple to discharge the duties of servants. An instance of this was given, (Ezra 1:6,) when the people were brought back from Babylon; but that... [ Continue Reading ]
3._And it shall be in that day. _He adds a confirmation of the former promises. In this way the Lord provides for our weakness; for we find it difficult to render a full belief to his word, especially when the state of our affairs appears to contradict it. But by this method the Lord chooses to put... [ Continue Reading ]
4._Then thou shalt take up this saying. _(213) By the term _witty saying_, or _parable_, (for the Hebrew word משל (_mashal_) denotes “sayings that are weighty and remarkable, and worthy of being observed,”) he shows that the ruin of Babylon will be so great that it will even become _a proverb_, whic... [ Continue Reading ]
5._The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked. _He answers the question which has just been put; for he did not intend that believers should doubt that it would happen, but rather that they should be amazed at such wonderful works of God; for the question had a tendency to arouse their minds to mo... [ Continue Reading ]
7.and 8._They break forth into singing. _Here he shows how greatly tyrants are hated by the whole world. When they are dead or ruined, all men break forth into joy, and express the feelings which they formerly entertained towards the tyrants, and which they dissembled through fear. Then do their hat... [ Continue Reading ]
9._Hell from beneath is moved for thee. _(217) As he had formerly attributed gladness to the trees, so now, by a similar figure, he attributes speech to _the dead _(218) He arouses them, as it were, from their _graves_, to mock at the pride of this tyrant. The whole passage is ironical, and full of... [ Continue Reading ]
10._All shall speak and say to thee. _These are taunts with which the dead jeer the tyrant who has joined them, as if they asked him what is the reason why he too is dead like other men. Struck with the singularity of the event, Isaiah pretends that they inquire with astonishment about it as somethi... [ Continue Reading ]
11._Thy pomp is laid down in the grave. _He mentions royal pomp, that this change may be more attentively considered by comparing the latter with the former; and he shows that that pomp could not prevent him from being reduced to the same level with other men. Under the term _musical instruments_, h... [ Continue Reading ]
12._How art thou fallen from heaven! _Isaiah proceeds with the discourse which he had formerly begun as personating the dead, and concludes that the tyrant differs in no respect from other men, though his object was to lead men to believe that he was some god. He employs an elegant metaphor, by comp... [ Continue Reading ]
13._Yet thou saidst in thy heart. _These words must be connected with what goes before. _To say _means here, according to the custom of the Hebrew language, _to resolve in one’s own mind. _The Prophet ridicules the pride of the Babylonian monarch, who, relying on his greatness, ventured to promise t... [ Continue Reading ]
14._I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. _(225) It might certainly be thought strange that the Prophet thus accuses the Babylonian monarch, as if he wished to make himself equal to God, since, as we have said, this thought could scarcely enter into the mind of a man without making him abso... [ Continue Reading ]
15._But thou shalt be brought down to the grave. _He formerly explained the intention of the king of Babylon, which was, that he should place his throne above the clouds; but he now contrasts with it an opposite event, namely, _the sides of the pit _or _ditch_, that is, some corner of a sepulcher in... [ Continue Reading ]
16._They that see thee. _The Prophet again, personating the dead, mocks at that wicked king. It might also be viewed as relating to the living; but it is better to apply the whole of this discourse to the dead, if we would not rather refer it to the grave itself, which amounts nearly to the same thi... [ Continue Reading ]
17._He made the world as a wilderness. _He expresses the cruel and savage disposition of the tyrant, by saying that he _brought desolation on the world_, that he _overthrew cities_, that he _did not release prisoners_. It is sometimes the custom of conquerors to release prisoners, in order to win th... [ Continue Reading ]
18._All the kings of the nations. _He contrasts the king of Babylon with other kings, in order to show that, after his death, he will be more wretched than all the rest. And thus by comparison he gives a more enlarged view of the judgment of God, by which he would avenge the injuries done to his Chu... [ Continue Reading ]
19._But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch. _He shows that the kings of Babylon will be loaded with such disgrace, that they will even be cast out of the sepulcher which they possessed by inheritance, and will exhibit a disgraceful spectacle. It may be asked, Is it of so great... [ Continue Reading ]
20._For thou hast laid thy land desolate. _This is the reason why he says that the king of Babylon did not deserve burial. He who has laid the _earth _desolate does not deserve that _the earth _shall receive him into its bosom and cover him. As _the earth _supports the living, so it covers the dead,... [ Continue Reading ]
21._Prepare slaughter for his children. _Here Isaiah prophesies more plainly than before against the king of Babylon. He speaks of the whole of his descendants, to whom he intimates that this destruction extends. We must keep in mind what we formerly said, that hitherto the Prophet has spoken not of... [ Continue Reading ]
22._For I will rise up against them. _The Lord now declares that he will do what he had formerly, by the Prophet, commanded others to do. Both statements ought to be observed, that it is the work of God, when wicked men are ruined, though he may employ the agency of men in executing his judgments. H... [ Continue Reading ]
23._And I will make it to be a possession of the hedgehog. _(228) He again confirms the same things which he formerly predicted, namely, that henceforth it will not be a habitation of men, but will resemble a hideous cavern, in which wild beasts shall lurk. קפד (_kippod_) is rendered by some _a beav... [ Continue Reading ]
24._The Lord of hosts hath sworn. _For more full confirmation an oath was necessary. There is nothing of which it is more difficult to convince us than that wicked men will immediately be ruined, when we see them flourishing, and furnished with all means of defense, and seemingly placed out of dange... [ Continue Reading ]
25._That I may bruise the Assyrian in my land. _Some think that this relates to Sennacherib’s army, which the hand of God destroyed by means of an angel, when he besieged Jerusalem. (2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36.) If this interpretation be preferred, the meaning will be, that the Lord will shortly gi... [ Continue Reading ]
26._This purpose which is purposed upon the whole earth. _The Lord is not satisfied with one or two confirmations, and can scarcely refrain from proclaiming it more and more abundantly, because he knows well that our minds are naturally prone to distrust. No confirmation suffices for us, even though... [ Continue Reading ]
27._For the Lord of hosts hath decreed. _Isaiah here employs what may be regarded as a concluding exclamation, to confirm more fully the preceding statement. Having said that it is the purpose of the Lord, in order to show that it cannot be broken or made void, (Psalms 33:11,) he puts a question as... [ Continue Reading ]
28._In the year that King Ahaz died. _Here the fifteenth chapter ought to have begun, for the Prophet enters on a new subject; and this plainly shows how absurdly the chapters are divided, or rather torn asunder. Having spoken of the Babylonians, he passes to the Philistines; (230) or, perhaps, befo... [ Continue Reading ]
29._Rejoice not, thou whole Philistia. _(231) He begins by checking the vain and groundless confidence with which the _Philistines _were puffed up, and, by adding _Thou whole_, he intimates that all of them would feel a portion of this calamity; as if he had said that not only would that country be... [ Continue Reading ]
30._And the first-born of the poor shall feed. _The Prophet, as has been already said, has not so much in view the Philistines, to whom his threatenings were of no avail, as the Jews, whom he wished to comfort in their affliction; for they were so grievously afflicted that they were not far from des... [ Continue Reading ]
31._Howl, O gate. _Here the Prophet makes use of amplifications, that by means of them he may seal his predictions on the hearts of the godly, and may press with greater earnestness those things of which they might otherwise have entertained doubts. In explaining another passage, where it is said th... [ Continue Reading ]
32._And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nation? _I choose to interpret this of any _nations _whatever, and not of a single _nation_; for strangers, as soon as they enter into any city, are wont to ask what is done, that they may hear some news. It is as if he had said, “_What shall b... [ Continue Reading ]