XIV. (1) FOR THE LORD WILL HAVE MERCY ON JACOB... — The words imply a prevision of the return of the Israelites from exile, and therefore of the exile itself. The downfall of Babylon was certain, because without it the mercy of the Lord to Israel could not be manifested. The whole section is an ant... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PEOPLE SHALL TAKE THEM... — Literally, _the peoples._ In Ezra 1:1; Ezra 6:7, we have what answered, in a measure, to the picture thus drawn; but here, as elsewhere, the words paint an ideal to which there has been as yet no historical reality fully corresponding. No period of later Jewish histor... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL COME TO PASS... — The condition of the exiles in Babylon is painted in nearly the same terms as in Habakkuk 2:13. A monarch bent on building towers and walls and palaces, who had carried off all the skilled labour of Jerusalem, was likely enough to vex their souls with “fear” and “hard bond... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THOU SHALT TAKE UP THIS PROVERB AGAINST THE KING OF BABYLON. — The prophet appears once more (comp. Isaiah 5:1; Isaiah 12:1) in his character as a psalmist. In the _mashal_ or _taunting-song_ that follows, the generic meaning of “proverb” is specialised (as in Micah 2:4; Habakkuk 2:6; Deuterono... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD HATH BROKEN THE STAFF OF THE WICKED... — The “staff” and the “sceptre” are alike symbols of power, the former being that on which a man supports himself, the other that which he wields in his arm to smite those who oppose him.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WHO SMOTE... — Better, _which smote,_ the whole verse being of the nature of a relative clause, with the “sceptre” for antecedent. A CONTINUAL STROKE. — Literally, _a stroke without ceasing._ IS PERSECUTED, AND NONE HINDERETH. — Better, _completing_ the parallelism, _with a trampling that is no... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BREAK FORTH INTO SINGING... — The phrase is noticeable as characteristic of Isaiah (Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 49:13; Isaiah 52:9; Isaiah 54:1; Isaiah 55:12), and is not found elsewhere. The emancipated nations are represented as exulting in the unfamiliar peace that follows on the downfall of their... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, THE FIR TREES REJOICE AT THEE. — The tree has been identified (Carruthers, in _Bible Educator, 4,_ 359) with the Aleppo pine (_Pinus halepensis_)_,_ which grows abundantly on the Lebanon range above the zone of the evergreen oaks. The LXX. often translates it by “cypress,” the Vulgate and Autho... [ Continue Reading ]
HELL FROM BENEATH IS MOVED FOR THEE... — “Hell,” or _Sheol,_ is, as elsewhere, the shadow-world, the region of the dead. Into that world the king of Babylon descends. The “dead” and the Rephaim are there, the _giant-spectres,_ now faint and feeble (Deuteronomy 2:11; Deuteronomy 3:11), of departed fo... [ Continue Reading ]
ART THOU ALSO BECOME WEAK AS WE? — The question implies, of course, an affirmative answer. The king of Babylon, the report of whose coming had roused awe and wonder, is found to be as weak as any of the other Rephaim, the _eidôla,_ or shadowy forms, of Homer (_Il, xxiii._, 72). With these words the... [ Continue Reading ]
THY POMP IS BROUGHT DOWN TO THE GRAVE. Literally, _to Sheol,_ as in Isaiah 14:9. The “pomp” is the same as the “beauty” of Isaiah 13:19. THE NOISE OF THY VIOLS. — Perhaps _harps,_ or _cymbals,_ representing one of the prominent features of Babylonian culture (Daniel 3:5). The singers see, as it wer... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW ART THOU FALLEN FROM HEAVEN, O LUCIFER, SON OF THE MORNING! — The word for Lucifer is, literally, _the shining one,_ the planet Venus, the morning star, the _son of the dawn,_ as the symbol of the Babylonian power, which was so closely identified with astrolatry. “Lucifer” etymologically gives t... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN. — The boast of the Chaldæan king is represented as nothing less than an apotheosis, which they themselves claimed. So Shalmaneser describes himself as “a sun-god” (_Records of the Past,_ iii. 83), Assurbanipal as “lord of all kings” (_ib.,_ iii. 78). In contrast with the _... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BE LIKE THE MOST HIGH. — The Chaldaean king is rightly represented as using a Divine name (_Elîôn_)_,_ which was not essentially Israelite, but common to the Phœnicians and other kindred nations. (See Genesis 14:18; Daniel 4:24; Luke 8:28; Acts 16:17.) The Persians carried their adulation sti... [ Continue Reading ]
YET THOU SHALT BE BROUGHT... — We note in the use of the same words (“ the sides, or _recesses,”_ of the pit), as in the previous verse, the contrast of an indignant sarcasm. Yes, the prophet seems to say, the proud king has found his way to those “recesses;” but they are not in heaven, but in Hades... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT SEE THEE... — THE CONTEXT SHOWS that the picture before the prophet’s eye is no longer the shadow-world of Hades, but the field of battle, Men look at the corpse of the mighty conqueror as it lies dishonoured, bloody, and unburied.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT OPENED NOT THE HOUSE OF HIS PRISONERS. — Better, as in the margin, _he loosed not his prisoners to their homes._ This was, we may note, a characteristic feature of the cruelty of the Assyrian kings. So Sennacherib and Assurbanipal boast of having carried off captive kings in “chains of iron” (_... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE KINGS OF THE NATIONS... — The “house” in which the monarchs lie is, of course, their sepulchre. Such sepulchres, as in the case of the pyramid graves of the Egyptian kings, the “eternal home” as they themselves called it (comp. Ecclesiastes 12:5), were often almost literally the “house,” or... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKE AN ABOMINABLE BRANCH. — The noun is the same as in Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 60:21. The idea seems to be that of a scion or shoot which is mildewed and blasted, and which men fling away as loathsome. AS THE RAIMENT OF THOSE THAT ARE SLAIN... — The image reminds us of the “garments rolled in blood “o... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT BE JOINED WITH THEM IN BURIAL... — The curse of the dishonoured death is connected with its cause. The conqueror had inflicted that shame even on his own people, and was punished in like kind himself. Comp. Jeremiah’s prediction as to Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:19), and parallel instances... [ Continue Reading ]
PREPARE SLAUGHTER FOR HIS CHILDREN. — Literally, as in Jeremiah 51:40, _a slaughter house._ The command may be addressed to the Medes of Isaiah 13:17, or to any minister of the Divine vengeance. In the judgment of God, as seen in history, that judgment falls necessarily on the last members of an evi... [ Continue Reading ]
SON, AND NEPHEW... — The latter word, as throughout the Bible, is used in its true sense as “grandson,” or “descendant.” (Comp. 1 Timothy 5:4.) Every word that could express descent is brought together to express the utter extirpation of the Babylonian dynasty. The Hebrew adds the emphasis of allite... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL ALSO MAKE IT A POSSESSION FOR THE BITTERN... — Naturalists are not agreed as to the meaning of the noun. In the LXX. and Vulgate it appears as “hedgehog,” or “porcupine,” and the “tortoise,” “beaver,” “otter,” and “owl” have all been suggested by scholars. Its conjunction with “pelican in Isa... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD OF HOSTS HATH SWORN... — The long “oracle” of Babylon is followed by a fragmentary prophecy against Assyria (Isaiah 14:24), possibly misplaced, possibly, as opening with a solemn asseveration, like that of the preceding verse, added by way of proof, that the word of the Lord of Hosts would... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT I WILL BREAK THE ASSYRIAN IN MY LAND... — The words found their fulfilment in the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. The “mountains” are the hills round Jerusalem on which the army of the Assyrians was encamped. They were sacred, as the phrase, _“my_ mountains,” shows, to Jehovah (comp. Isaiah... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS THE HAND THAT IS STRETCHED OUT ... — The words point, as it were, to the idea of a universal history. The fall of the Assyrian power and of Babylon does not stand alone, but forms part of a scheme embracing all nations and all ages (Isaiah 9:12).... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS HAND IS STRETCHED OUT. — Literally, and more emphatically, _His is the outstretched hand. _... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE YEAR THAT KING AHAZ DIED WAS THIS BURDEN. — The prophecies against Babylon and Assyria are naturally followed by a series of like predictions, dealing with other nations which played their part in the great drama of the time. The date of that which comes next in order is obviously specified,... [ Continue Reading ]
REJOICE NOT THOU, WHOLE PALESTINA. — Better, _Rejoice not thou, Philistia, all of thee; i.e.,_ give not thyself wholly to rejoicing. Here, as in Exodus 15:14, “Palestina” is used, not in the wider meaning with which we are familiar, but specifically as the country of the Philistines. The historical... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE FIRSTBORN OF THE POOR SHALL FEED. — As the “children of the needy” in Psalms 72:4 are simply the poor as a class, so the “firstborn” are those who, as it were, inherit the double portion, not of riches, but of poverty. (Comp. “the firstborn of death” in Job 18:13.) The people spoken of are t... [ Continue Reading ]
HOWL, O GATE... — The “gate,” as elsewhere, is the symbol of the city’s strength. The “city_”_ stands probably for Ashdod, as the most conspicuous of the Philistine cities. FROM THE NORTH. — Here of the Assyrian invaders, as in Jeremiah 1:14; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 46:20 of the Chaldean. The “smok... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT SHALL ONE THEN ANSWER...? — The words obviously imply that the prophet either had received, or expected to receive, a message of inquiry from the Philistines, and that this is his answer. It seems not improbable, indeed, that the series of prophecies that follow were delivered in answer to such... [ Continue Reading ]