XXXIII. (1) WOE TO THEE THAT SPOILEST... — No chapter in the prophet’s writings presents so little traceable connection. A thought is expressed in one, or it may be two, verses, and then another follows without anything to link it on. This may be, perhaps, explained either by the strong emotion whic... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD, BE GRACIOUS... — Faith transforms itself into prayer. The prophet will still “wait” upon God. In the change of person, “_their_ arm,” “_our_ salvation,” we hear the very words of the prayer as it was spoken, the first referring to the soldiers who were to fight the battles of their country,... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THE NOISE OF THE TUMULT... — The “people” are the mingled nations of the Assyrian armies; the “tumult” is that of the rush and crash, as of a mighty tempest, when Jehovah should at last up lift Himself for the deliverance of His chosen ones.... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR SPOIL... — The words are addressed to the invader. He who came to spoil should find himself spoiled. As caterpillars and locusts devour the green herbage, so should he (or they, the indefinite pronoun standing for the people of Jerusalem) strip his camp of all its treasures.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD IS EXALTED... — The vision of the seer takes in the ideal city of God, Jehovah dwelling on high in His holy Temple, the city at last filled with “judgment and righteousness.”... [ Continue Reading ]
WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE... — The words are used in the higher sense, as in Proverbs 1:1, in contrast with the craft and devices of men, just as the “fear of the Lord” is the true treasure, in contrast with the silver and gold in which Hezekiah had been led to place his trust.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THEIR VALIANT ONES. — Literally, _their lions of God._ Heb., _Arielam,_ probably with a reference to the “Ariel” of Isaiah 29:1, the lion-like heroes of the lion-like city. (Comp. 2 Samuel 23:20; 1 Chronicles 11:22.) The whole passage paints the panic caused by the approach of Sennacherib.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HIGHWAYS LIE WASTE... — Another feature in the picture of terror. No traveller dared to show himself in the main road. (Comp. Judges 5:6.) HE HATH BROKEN. — Sennacherib is denounced as having broken the treaty of 2 Kings 18:14. Hezekiah had complied with his conditions, and yet there was no sus... [ Continue Reading ]
THE EARTH MOURNETH... — Lebanon, with its cedars, _the_ Sharon (as we say, _the_ Campagna), Bashan, with its oaks (Isaiah 2:13), Carmel, with its copse-wood, are the types of beauty and fertility, now languishing and decaying. Possibly the embassy referred to was sent in the autumn, so that the prop... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW WILL I RISE... — We note the emphatic iteration of the adverb of time. Man’s necessity was, as ever, to be God’s opportunity. He had been, as it were, waiting for this crisis, and would at once arise in His might.... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL CONCEIVE CHAFF... — Primarily the words are addressed to the Assyrian invaders, but not without a side glance at all who had been weaving their own webs of policy instead of trusting in Jehovah. Scheme and result, conception and parturition, would be alike worthless. YOUR BREATH, AS FIRE..... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE PEOPLE SHALL BE... — The two images of destruction are singularly vivid. The limekiln and the oven which was fed with thorns were alike in this. The outcome of their work was seen in a residuum of ashes.... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR, YE THAT ARE FAR OFF... — The fate of Assyria is proclaimed as a warning to other nations, and to Israel itself. For the “sinners in Zion” also there is the furnace of fire of the wrath of God. “Who,” they ask, “can dwell with that consuming fire, those everlasting (_œonian?_) burnings,” which... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT WALKETH RIGHTEOUSLY... — The answer to the question shows that the words point not to endless punishments, but to the infinite holiness of God. The man who is true and just in all his dealings can dwell in closest fellowship with that holiness which is to others as a consuming fire. To him i... [ Continue Reading ]
THINE EYES SHALL SEE THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY... — Torn from their context, the words have been not unfitly used to describe the beatific vision of the saints of God in the far-off land of heaven. So the Targum gives “Thine eyes shall see the Shekinah of the King of Ages.” Their primary meaning is, ho... [ Continue Reading ]
THINE HEART SHALL MEDITATE TERROR — i.e., shall recall the memory of the past evil days, as a dream that had passed away, leaving behind it the thankful joy which rises out of such recollections. WHERE IS THE SCRIBE? — Then, in those times of panic, each Assyrian official was an object of dread. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT SEE A FIERCE PEOPLE... — Better, _The fierce people thou shalt not see_ ... The words answer the question just asked. The whole Assyrian army, with their barbarous, unintelligible speech (Isaiah 28:11), shall have passed away.... [ Continue Reading ]
LOOK UPON ZION... — The words sound like an echo of Psalms 46, 48, which were probably written by the sons of Korah on the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. Men had seen Zion desecrated by Ahaz, besieged by Sennacherib; now they should see it once again as it had been at the beginning of Hezekiah’s... [ Continue Reading ]
A PLACE OF BROAD RIVERS AND STREAMS... — Better, _rivers and canals._ The bold imagery has its starting-point in what the prophet had heard of the great cities of the Tigris and Euphrates. What those rivers were to Nineveh and Babylon, that the presence of Jehovah would be to Jerusalem, that could b... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD IS OUR JUDGE... — The verb is better omitted, and the threefold iteration of the name of Jehovah, in each case with a special characteristic, taken as the subject of the final verb: “The Lord, our judge, the Lord, our lawgiver ... He will save us.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THY TACKLINGS ARE LOOSED... — The words have been taken as applicable either to Assyria, as one of the _“_ships of Tarshish” that had been wrecked, or to Zion, as a vessel that had been driven by the wind and tossed, but had escaped shipwreck. On the whole, the first view seems most in harmony with... [ Continue Reading ]
THE INHABITANT SHALL NOT SAY, I AM SICK... — The words seem to have had their starting- point in the pestilence which attacked the Assyrian army, and which had probably been felt, during the siege, in Jerusalem itself. The prophet, seeing in such a pestilence the punishment of iniquity, couples toge... [ Continue Reading ]