Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 2:16

And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.

16. ships of Tarshish ] The largest class of merchant vessels then used. They were first built by the Phnicians for the long voyage to Tartessus (Tarshish) in Spain; but the name (like our “Indiaman”) was applied to large ships whatever their destination. Since the harbour of Elath was at this time in the possession of Judah the prophet may allude to fleets sailing thence to the East in the service of Jotham. More likely, however, he is thinking of the Phnician argosies which he had seen in the Mediterranean. pleasant pictures ] An obscure expression, found only here. The noun is thought to be derived from a verb meaning “to see,” but this lends itself to a variety of senses. The rendering of A.V. seems to rest on the Vulg., “omne quod visu pulchrum est”; or perhaps like that of R.V. (“imagery”) on the analogy of a cognate Heb. noun (Num 33:52; Pro 25:11); “watch-towers” (R.V. marg.) is based on the Peshito (see Cheyne, Comm. II. p. 137),

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And upon all the ships of Tarshish – Ships of Tarshish are often mentioned in the Old Testament, but the meaning of the expression is not quite obvious; see 1Ki 10:22; 2Ch 9:21; 2Ch 20:36-37; Psa 48:7, … It is evident that Tarshish was some distant land from which was imported silver, iron, lead, tin, etc. It is now generally agreed that Tartessus in Spain is referred to by the Tarshish of Scripture. Bruce, however, supposes that it was in Africa, south of Abyssinia; see the note at Isa 60:9. That it was in the west is evident from Gen 10:4; compare Psa 72:10. In Eze 28:13, it is mentioned as an important place of trade; in Jer 10:9, it is said that silver was procured there; and in Eze 28:12, it is said that iron, lead, silver, and tin, were imported from it. In 2Ch 9:21, it is said that the ships of Tarshish returned every three years, bringing gold and silver, ivory, apes and peacocks. These are productions chiefly of India, but they might have been obtained in trade during the voyage. In Isa 23:1; Isa 60:9, the phrase, ships of Tarshish, seems to denote ships that were bound on long voyages, and it is probable that they came to denote a particular kind of ships adapted to long voyages, in the same way as the word Indiaman does with us. The precise situation of Tarshish is not necessary to be known in order to understand the passage here. The phrase, ships of Tarshish, denotes clearly ships employed in foreign trade, and in introducing articles of commerce, and particularly of luxury. The meaning is, that God would embarrass, and destroy this commerce; that his judgments would be on their articles of luxury, The Septuagint renders it, and upon every ship of the sea, and upon every beautiful appearance of ships. The Targum, and upon those who dwell in the isles of the sea, and upon those who dwell in beautiful palaces.

And upon all pleasant pictures – Margin, pictures of desire; that is, such as it should be esteemed desirable to possess, and gaze upon; pictures of value or beauty. Tatum, costly palaces. The word rendered pictures, s’^ekyoth, denotes properly sights, or objects to be looked at; and does not designate paintings particularly, but everything that was designed for ornament or luxury. Whether the art of painting was much known among the Hebrews, it is not now possible to determine. To a certain extent, it may be presumed to have been practiced; but the meaning of this place is, that the divine judgment should rest on all that was designed for mere ornament and luxury; and, from the description in the previous verses, there can be no doubt that such ornaments would abound.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 2:16

Pleasant pictures

The proper use of art

Sir Joshua Reynolds wisely, stated the canon for artists when, referring to the choice of subjects, he said.

No subject can be proper that is not generally interesting. It ought to be either some eminent instance of heroic action or heroic suffering. There must be something, either in the action or in the object, in which men are universally concerned, and which publicly strikes upon the public sympathy. They who are not content to copy what is ignoble, or reproduce what is insignificant–who use art to expound and apply the teaching of God in nature and revelation–who design to address the heart, and so elevate the imaginations and judgments of men, are benefactors of their race–ministers at the altar of truth and righteousness. The work of such artists can be regarded as eminently sacred. (J. H. Hitchens, D. D.)

The far-reaching influence of art

The preachers voice must be occasionally silenced by weariness, and ultimately hushed by death; but the artists pictures continue to tell their own tale, and enforce their own lessons to all spectators, night and day, so long as they may be preserved. The authors book, upon the loftiest possible theme, can be read only by those who are familiar with the language in which it is written, and among the would-be readers will be some who, being unaccustomed to the laws of thought, will lay the book aside as uninteresting; but pictures are biographies, histories, homilies, poems which, without words, can be studied at a glance. (J. H. Hitchens, D. D.)

Pictures

Pictures are by some relegated to the realm of the trivial, accidental, sentimental, or worldly, but the text shows that God scrutinises pictures, and whether they are good or bad, whether used for right or wrong purposes, is a matter of Divine observation and judgment. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)

The prostitution of art

That the artists pencil and the engravers knife have sometimes been made subservient to the kingdom of evil is frankly admitted. After the ashes and sconce were removed from Herculaneum and Pompeii the walls of those cities discovered to the explorers a degradation in art which cannot be exaggerated. Satan and all his imps have always wanted the fingering of the easel; they would rather have possession of that than the art of printing, for types are not so potent and quick for evil as pictures. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

Bad pictures should be avoided

Pliny the elder lost his life by going near enough to see the eruption of Vesuvius, and the further you can stand off from the burning crater of sin, the better. Never till the books of the Last Day are opened shall we know what has been the dire harvest of evil pictorials and unbecoming art galleries. Despoil a mans imagination and he becomes a moral carcase. The show windows of English and American cities in which have sometimes hung long lines of brazen actors and actresses in style insulting to all propriety, have made a broad path to death for multitudes of people. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

The value of Bible pictures

I refer to your memory and mine when I ask if your knowledge of the Holy Scriptures has not been mightily augmented by the woodcuts or engravings in the old family Bible, which father and mother read out of, and laid on the table in the old homestead when you were boys and girls. The Bible scenes which we all carry in our minds were not gotten from the Bible typology, but from the Bible pictures. To prove the truth of it in my own case, the other day I took up the old family Bible which I inherited. Sure enough, what I have carried in my mind of Jacobs ladder was exactly the Bible engraving of Jacobs ladder; and so with Samson carrying off the gates of Gaza; Elisha restoring the Shunamite son; the massacre of the innocents; Christ blessing little children; the Crucifixion, and the Last Judgment. My idea of all these is that of the old Bible engravings which I scanned before I could read a word. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

Gustave Dores pictures

In 1833 forth from Strasburg, Germany, there came a child that was to eclipse in speed and boldness and grandeur anything and everything that the world had seen since the first colour appeared on the sky at the creation, Paul Gustave Dore. At eleven years of age he published marvellous lithographs of his own. Saying nothing of what he did for Miltons Paradise Lost, emblazoning it on the attention of the world, he takes up the Book of books, the monarch of literature, the Bible, and in his pictures The Creation of Light, The Trial of Abrahams Faith, The Burial of Sarah, Joseph Sold by his Brethren, The Brazen Serpent, Boaz and Ruth, David and Goliath, The Transfiguration, The Marriage in Cana, Babylon Fallen,–two hundred and five Scriptural scenes in all,–and that with a boldness and grasp and almost supernatural afflatus that make the heart throb, and the brain reel, and the tears start, and the cheeks blanch, and the entire nature quake with the tremendous things of God and eternity and the dead. I actually staggered down the steps of the London Art Gallery under the power of Dores Christ Leaving the Praetorium. Profess you to be a Christian man or woman, and see no Divine mission in art, and acknowledge you no obligation either in thanks to God or man? (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 16. See Clarke on Isa 2:13.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The ships of Tarshish; the ships of the sea, as that word is used, Psa 48:7, whereby you fetched riches and precious things from the remote parts of the world.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

16. TarshishTartessusin southwest Spain, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, near Gibraltar.It includes the adjoining region: a Phoelignician colony; hence itsconnection with Palestine and the Bible (2Ch9:21). The name was also used in a wide sense for the farthestwest, as our West Indies (Isa 66:19;Psa 48:7; Psa 72:10).”Ships of Tarshish” became a phrase for richly ladenand far-voyaging vessels. The judgment shall be on all thatminister to man’s luxury (compare Re18:17-19).

picturesordered to bedestroyed (Nu 33:52). Still tobe seen on the walls of Nineveh’s palaces. It is remarkable thatwhereas all other ancient civilized nations, Egypt, Assyria, Greece,Rome, have left monuments in the fine arts, Judea, while risingimmeasurably above them in the possession of “the livingoracles,” has left none of the former. The fine arts, as inmodern Rome, were so often associated with polytheism, that Godrequired His people in this, as in other respects, to be separatefrom the nations (De4:15-18). But Vulgate translation is perhaps better, “Allthat is beautiful to the sight”; not only paintings, but allluxurious ornaments. One comprehensive word for all that goes before(compare Rev 18:12; Rev 18:14;Rev 18:16).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And upon all the ships of Tarshish,…. Upon all the merchants and merchandises of Rome. The Targum is,

“and upon all that dwell in the islands of the sea.”

See Re 16:20. Tarshish, as Vitringa observes, designs Tartessus or Gades in Spain, which must bring to mind the memorable destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1558, as he also notes.

And upon all pleasant pictures; of Christ and the Virgin Mary, of angels, and of saints departed, the Papists make use of to help their devotion. The Targum is,

“and upon all that dwell in beautiful palaces;”

such as those of the pope and his cardinals at Rome, and of archbishops and bishops at other places. The Septuagint version is, “and upon all the sight of the beauty of ships”; such were the ships of the Phoenicians, which were very much ornamented, and beautiful to behold.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

16. And upon all ships of Tarshish Tarshish was unquestionably the Hebrew name for Cilicia; and as the Jews had much traffic with that nation, Scripture frequently mentions the ships of Tarshish, which are so called, because they sailed on that sea. Navigation cannot, indeed, be condemned on its own account; for, by importing and exporting articles of merchandise, it is of great advantage to mankind. Nor can any fault be found with this mode of intercourse between nations; for it is the will of God that the whole human race should be joined together by, mutual acts of kindness. But as it most frequently happens that abundance leads to pride and cruelty, Isaiah reproves this kind of merchandise, which was the chief source of the wealth of the land. Besides, in that merchandise which is carried on with distant and foreign nations, there is often a large amount of tricks and dishonesty, and no limit set to the desire of gain. First, then, Isaiah means that the Jews will be deprived of riches, that they may learn to submit to God. Secondly, he describes covetousness and unlawful gains by means of a sign, as if one were to express murder by holding out a bloody sword.

And upon elegant pictures This second part of the verse shows still more clearly that the Prophet condemns navigation, which had brought many corruptions into the land. It is too frequent and common that riches are followed by luxury, effeminacy, and a superfluity of pleasures, which we commonly see in wealthy countries and commercial cities; for those who trade by sea in distant countries are not satisfied with the commodities obtained at home, but carry away new luxuries which were formerly unknown. Since, therefore, wealth is usually the mother of superfluity, the Prophet here mentions costly furniture, as if he had said that the Jews, by adorning their houses at great expense, draw down upon themselves the judgment of God; for he employs the word pictures, by a well-known figure of speech, to denote rich tapestry, and the productions of Phrygia, and vessels framed with consummate skill

It is certain that the manners of men are corrupted, when they eagerly pursue, in every direction, superfluous enjoyments And we see how destruction was brought on the Roman Empire by delicacies of this nature; for before they traveled into Greece, the greatest moderation prevailed among them; and no sooner had Asia been vanquished than they began to grow soft and effeminate; and when their eyes were dazzled by pictures, furniture, precious stones, and tapestry and their nostrils regaled by ointments and perfumes, all their senses were immediately overpowered, and, by imitating the luxury of the East as a higher form of civilization, they began gradually to indulge in every kind of debauchery.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(16) And upon all the ships of Tarshish.The words point to the commerce in the Red Sea carried on by the fleets of Uzziah and Jotham (1Ki. 22:48); perhaps also to that in the Mediterranean with Tarshish, or Tartessus (Spain), as in Jon. 1:3. The ships of Tarshish had come to be used generically for all ships of the class used in such commerce, whether crossing the Mediterranean to Spain, or circumnavigating Africa, or passing over the Persian Gulf to Ophir.

Upon all pleasant pictures.Literally, upon all imagery of delight (Comp. Lev. 26:1; Num. 33:52.) The combination of the phrase with the ships of Tarshish suggests the inference that it includes the works of art which were brought by them from East and West. For these, it would seem, there was a mania among the higher classes in Jerusalem, like that which in later times has fastened upon china, or pictures, or carvings in ivory. So the ships of Solomon brought gold and silver, and ivory and apes and peacocks (1Ki. 10:22). The ivory beds of Amo. 6:4, the gold rings set with the beryl, the ivory overlaid with sapphires, the pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold of Son. 5:14-15, the precious things in the treasury of Hezekiah (Isa. 39:2), may be taken as examples of this form of luxury. The stheticism of the Roman Empire, of the Renaissance of the fifteenth century, of the age of Louis XIV., of our own time and country, presents obvious parallels.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

16. Ships of Tarshish Meaning, perhaps, large and strong ships, suitable for distant voyages. “Tarshish” is supposed to be Tartessus, in the southwest of Spain. But it denotes, by way of figure, commerce in general.

Pleasant pictures Deu 4:15-18. It is not known that the Jews indulged in paintings. Whatever represented splendour may be all that is meant a parallel sentence, a rhythmical effect merely. Jehovah is to destroy every thing in which the pride of man has indulged.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 2:16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.

Ver. 16. And upon all the ships of Tarshish. ] Or, Of the Mediterranean Sea, the ships whereof were of great bulk and burden, and perhaps were garnished and inlaid with curious pictures, called here pictures of desire:

“ Pictasque innare carinas. ” – Virg.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)