CHAPTER XLVII _The destruction of Babylon is denounced by a beautiful_ _selection of circumstances, in which her prosperous is_ _contrasted with her adverse condition. She is represented as a_ _tender and delicate female reduced to the work and abject_ _condition of a slave, and bereaved of eve... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 47:2. _TAKE THE MILLSTONES, AND GRIND MEAL_ - "Take the mill, and grind corn"] It was the work of slaves to grind the corn. They used hand-mills: water-mills were not invented till a little before the time of Augustus, (see the Greek epigram of Antipater, which seems to celebrate it as... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 47:3. _I WILL NOT MEET_ THEE AS _A MAN__ _- "Neither will I suffer man to intercede with me."] The verb should be pointed, or written, אפגיע _aphgia_, in Hiphil.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 47:4. _OUR REDEEMER _- "Our Avenger"] Here a chorus breaks in upon the midst of the subject, with a change of construction, as well as sentiment, from the longer to the shorter kind of verse, for one distich only; after which the former subject and style are resumed. Isaiah 45:16.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 47:6. _I WAS WROTH WITH MY PEOPLE_] God, in the course of his providence, makes use of great conquerors and tyrants as his instruments to execute his judgments in the earth; he employs one wicked nation to scourge another. The inflicter of the punishment may perhaps be as culpable as t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 47:7. _SO THAT THOU DIDST NOT _- "Because thou didst not"] For עד _ad_, read על _al_; so two MSS., and one edition. And for, אחריתה _acharithah_, "the latter end _of it_," read אחריתך _acharithecha,_ "_thy_ latter end;" so thirteen MSS., and two editions, and the _Vulgate_. Both the _si... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 47:9. _THESE TWO_ THINGS _SHALL COME TO THEE IN. A MOMENT_] That is, suddenly. Belshazzar was slain; thus the city became metaphorically a _widow_, the _husband_ - the governor of it, being slain. In the time in which the king was slain, the Medes and Persians took the city, and slew ma... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 47:11. _THOU SHALT NOT KNOW FROM WHENCE IT RISETH_ - "Thou shalt not know how to deprecate"] שחרה _shachrah_; so the _Chaldee_ renders it, which is approved by _Jarchi_ on the place; and _Michaelis_ Epim. in Praelect. xix.; see Psalms 78:34. Videtur in fine hujus commatis deese verbum,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 47:13. _FROM_ THESE THINGS - "What are the events"] For מאשר _measher_, read מה אשר _mah asher_, so the _Septuagint_, "what is to happen to thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 47:15. _TO HIS QUARTER _- "To his own business"] לעברו _leebro_. Expositors give no very good account of this word in this place. In a MS. it was at first לעבדו _leabdo, to his servant_ or _work_, which is probably the true reading. The sense however is pretty much the same with the com... [ Continue Reading ]