CHAPTER XIV _Deliverance of Israel from captivity, which shall follow the_ _downfall of the great Babylonish empire_, 1, 2. _Triumphant ode or song of the children of Jacob, for the signal_ _manifestation of Divine vengeance against their oppressors_, 3-23. _Prophecy against the Assyrians_, 24... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:2. _FOR SERVANTS AND HANDMAIDS_] _For thrallis and_ _thrallesses_. - OLD BIBLE. Male and female slaves.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:3. _IN THE DAY_ - "In that day"] ביום ההוא _bayom hahu_. The word ההוא _hahu_ is added in _two_ MSS. of _Kennicott's_, and was in the copies from which the _Septuagint_ and _Vulgate_ translated: εν τῃ ἡμερᾳ εκεινῃ, _in die illa_, (ᾑ αναπαυσει, MS. Pachom. adding ה,) in that day... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:4. _THIS PROVERB_ - "This parable"] משל _mashal_, I take this to be the general name for poetic style among the Hebrews, including every sort of it, as ranging under one or other, or all of the characters, of sententious, figurative, and sublime; which are all contained in the origi... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:9. _HELL FROM BENEATH IS MOVED FOR THEE TO MEET_ THEE] That is, _Nebuchadnezzar_. "_It_ (hell) hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the earth; - the _ghosts_ (rephaim) of all the _mighty_ _ones_, or _goats_, (עתודי attudey,) of the earth - all the oppressors of mankind.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:11. _COVER THEE_ - "Thy covering."] _Twenty-eight_ MSS. (_ten_ ancient) of _Kennicott's, thirty-nine_ of _De Rossi's, twelve_ editions, with the _Septuagint_ and _Vulgate_, read ומכסך _umechassecha_, in the singular number.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:12. _O LUCIFER, SON OF THE MORNING_] The _Versions_ in general agree in this translation, and render הילל _heilel_ as signifying _Lucifer_, Φωσφωρος, the _morning star_, whether _Jupiter_ or _Venus_; as these are both _bringers of the morning light_, or _morning stars_, annually in... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:13. _I WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN_] I will get the empire of the whole world. _I will exalt my throne above the stars of_ _God_ - above the Israelites, who are here termed the stars of God. So the _Targum_ of Jonathan, and _R. D. Kimchi_. This chapter speaks not of the ambition and fall... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:19. _LIKE AN ABOMINABLE BRANCH_ - "Like the tree abominated"] That is, as an object of abomination and detestation; such as the tree is on which a malefactor has been hanged. "It is written," saith St. Paul, Galatians 3:13, "Cursed is every man that hangeth on a tree," from Deuteron... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:20. _BECAUSE THOU HAST DESTROYED THY LAND_, c. - "Because thou hast destroyed thy country thou hast slain thy people"] Xenophon gives an instance of this king's wanton cruelty in killing the son of Gobrias, on no other provocation than that, in hunting, he struck a boar and a lion wh... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:23. _I WILL SWEEP IT WITH THE BESOM OF DESTRUCTION_ - "I will plunge it in the miry gulf of destruction"] I have here very nearly followed the Version of the _Septuagint_; the reasons for which see in the last note on De Poesi Hebr. Praelect, xxviii. _The besom of destruction_, as... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:25. _I WILL BREAK THE ASSYRIAN - UPON MY MOUNTAINS_ - "To crush the Assyrian - on my mountains"] The Assyrians and Babylonians are the same people, Herod. i. 199, 200. Babylon is reckoned the principal city in Assyria, _ibid_. 178. Strabo says the same thing, lib. xvi. _sub init_. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:28. _IN THE YEAR THAT KING AHAZ DIED WAS THIS BURDEN_] Uzziah had subdued the Philistines, 2 Chronicles 26:6; but, taking advantage of the weak reign of Ahaz, they invaded Judea, and took, and held in possession, some cities in the southern part of the kingdom. On the death of Ahaz,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:30. _AND THE FIRST-BORN OF THE POOR, C._] The _Targum_ goes on applying all to the _Messiah_. "And the poor of the people shall he feed, and the humble shall dwell securely in his days: and he shall kill thy children with famine, and the remnant of thy people shall he slay." _I WILL... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:31. _THERE SHALL COME FROM THE NORTH A SMOKE _- "From the north cometh a smoke"] That is, a cloud of dust raised by the march of Hezekiah's army against Philistia; which lay to the south-west from Jerusalem. A great dust raised has, at a distance, the appearance of smoke: _Fumantes p... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 14:32. _THE MESSENGERS OF THE NATION_ - "The ambassadors of the nations"] The _Septuagint_ read גוים _goyim_, εθνων, plural; and so the _Chaldee_, and one MS. The ambassadors of the neighbouring nations, that send to congratulate Hezekiah on his success, which in his answer he will ascr... [ Continue Reading ]