Isaiah 22:1

CHAPTER XXII

Prophecy concerning Jerusalem, 1-14.

Sentence against Shebna, who was over the household, 15-19.

Prophecy concerning Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, 20, 21.

From Eliakim, Isaiah, (agreeably to the mode universally

adopted in the prophetical writings, of making the things then

present, or which were shortly to be accomplished, types or

representations of things to be fulfilled upon a larger scale

in distant futurity,) makes a transition to the Messiah, of

whom Eliakim was a type, to whom the words will best apply,

and to whom some passages in the prophecy must be solely

restrained, 20-24.

The sentence against Shebna again confirmed, 25.

This prophecy, ending with the fourteenth verse of this chapter, is entitled, "The oracle concerning the valley of vision," by which is meant Jerusalem, because, says Sal. ben Melech, it was the place of prophecy. Jerusalem, according to Josephus, was built upon two opposite hills Sion and Acra, separated by a valley in the midst. He speaks of another broad valley between Acra and Moriah, Bell. Jud. v. 13; vi. 6. It was the seat of Divine revelation; the place where chiefly prophetic vision was given, and where God manifested himself visibly in the holy place. The prophecy foretells the invasion of Jerusalem by the Assyrians under Sennacherib; or by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. Vitringa is of opinion that the prophet has both in view: that of the Chaldeans in the first part, Isaiah 22:1, which he thinks relates to the flight of Zedekiah, 2 Kings 25:4; and that of the Assyrians in the latter part, which agrees with the circumstances of that time, and particularly describes the preparations made by Hezekiah for the defence of the city, Isaiah 22:8. Compare 2Ch Isaiah 32:2. - L.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXII

Verse Isaiah 22:1. Art - gone up to the house-tops - "Are gone up to the house-tops"] The houses in the east were in ancient times, as they are still, generally, built in one and the same uniform manner. The roof or top of the house is always flat, covered with broad stones, or a strong plaster of terrace, and guarded on every side with a low parapet wall; see Deuteronomy 22:8. The terrace is frequented as much as any part of the house. On this, as the season favours, they walk, they eat, they sleep, they transact business, (1 Samuel 9:25, see also the Septuagint in that place,) they perform their devotions Acts 10:9. The house is built with a court within, into which chiefly the windows open: those that open to the street are so obstructed with lattice-work that no one either without or within can see through them. Whenever, therefore, any thing is to be seen or heard in the streets, any public spectacle, any alarm of a public nature, every one immediately goes up to the house-top to satisfy his curiosity. In the same manner, when any one has occasion to make any thing public, the readiest and most effectual way of doing it is to proclaim it from the house-tops to the people in the streets. "What ye hear in the ear, that publish ye on the house-top," saith our Saviour, Matthew 10:27. The people running all to the tops of their houses gives a lively image of a sudden general alarm. Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place is as follows: "Dans les festes pour voir passer quelque chose, et dans les maladies pour les annoncer aux voisins en allumant des lumieres, le peuple monte sur les terrasses." "In festivals, in order to see what is going forward, and in times of sickness, in order to indicate them to neighbours by lighting of candles, the people go up to the house-tops."