Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 14:1
For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
1. The immediate result of the judgment on Babylon will be the emancipation of Israel from captivity.
will yet choose Israel ] Rather, will again choose, as formerly in Egypt (cf. Zec 2:12).
the strangers ] the sojourner, or protected guest; here used, as in later Hebrew, with the sense of “proselyte”: ch. Isa 56:3-7; Zec 2:11; Zec 8:21-23.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob – That is, he will pity the captive Jews in Babylon. He will not abandon them, but will remember them, and restore them to their own land.
And will yet choose Israel – Will show that he regards them as still his chosen people; or will again choose them by recovering them from their bondage, and by restoring them to their country as his people. The names Jacob and Israel here simply denote the Jews. They do not imply that all of those who were to be carried captive would return, but that as a people they would be restored.
And set them … – Hebrew, Will cause them to rest in their own country; that is, will give them peace, quietness, and security there.
And the stranger shall be joined to them – The stranger, here, probably refers to those foreigners who would become proselytes to their religion, while they were in Babylon. Those proselytes would be firmly united with them, and would return with them to their own land. Their captivity would be attended with this advantage, that many even of those who led them away, would be brought to embrace their religion, and to return with them to their own country. If it is asked what evidence there is that any considerable number of the people of Chaldea became Jewish proselytes, I answer, that it is expressly stated in Est 8:17 : And many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. Ezra, indeed, has not mentioned the fact, that many of the people of Babylonia became proselytes to the religion of the Jews, but it is in accordance with all that we know of their history, and their influence on the nations with which, from time to time, they were connected, that many should have been thus joined to them. We know that in subsequent times many of other nations became proselytes, and that multitudes of the Egyptians, the Macedonians, the Romans, and the inhabitants of Asia Minor, embraced the Jewish religion, or became what were called proselytes of the gate. They were circumcised, and were regarded as entitled to a part of the privileges of the Jewish people (see Act 2:9-11; compare Act 17:4, Act 17:17). Tacitus, speaking of his time, says, that every abandoned man, despising the religion of his country, bears tribute and revenue to Jerusalem, whence it happens that the number of the Jews is greatly increased. – (Hist. v. 5.) That the Jews, therefore, who were in Babylon should induce many of the Chaldeans during their long captivity to become proselytes, is in accordance with all their history.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 14:1
For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob
Gods mercy and Israels converts
I.
THE PRINCIPLE OF GODS MORAL GOVERNMENT–Mercy. This people had grievously sinned.
1. They had sinned against light. The direct revelation of heaven had been given to them as a nation
2. They rebelled amid privileges. The Mighty God interfered to protect them from their foes.
3. They had sinned in spite of rebukes and punishments. The rebellious people had been carried captive into a heathen nation.
II. THE CONSTANCY OF DIVINE PURPOSES–I will yet choose, etc. Notwithstanding all their rebellion I will yet have mercy on them. Nothing can separate from the love of God.
III. THE RESTORATIVE BLESSEDNESS OF RELIGION. When God takes a man in hand, He restores him. In paradise he was the image and associate of God. Salvation will make him nothing more. Heaven will contain additional elements of joy, but the man will be restored.
IV. THE CONTAGION OF ENTHUSIASM. When the Jews should return, many of the heathen, leaving their own country and their idols, would return along with them. And the strangers shall be joined with them. This was part of Gods design in the Captivity. It was not only to punish His people for their sin, but also to render them a blessing to others. God often appoints the afflictions of His people for His own glory, and we must not mourn but rejoice if we are counted worthy of forwarding His cause.
V. THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF RELIGION. It commands affection and regard. It is our duty to render it attractive so as to win others. (Homilist.)
Gods passion to Israel
We have here in nuce the comforting substance of chaps. 40-46. Babylon falls in order that Israel may rise. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
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, 25.
Certainty of the prophecy, and immutability of the Divine
counsels, 26, 27.
Palestine severely threatened, 28-31.
God shall establish Zion in these troublous times, 32.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. And will yet choose Israel.] That is, will still regard Israel as his chosen people; however he may seem to desert them, by giving them up to their enemies, and scattering them among the nations. Judah is sometimes called Israel; see Eze 13:16; Mal 1:1; Mal 2:11: but the name of Jacob and of Israel, used apparently with design in this place, each of which names includes the twelve tribes, and the other circumstances mentioned in this and the next verse, which did not in any complete sense accompany the return from the captivity of Babylon, seem to intimate that this whole prophecy extends its views beyond that event.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord will have mercy on Jacob; God will pity and deliver his people; and therefore will destroy Babylon, which hinders it, and set up Cyrus, who shall promote it.
will yet choose Israel; will renew his choice of them; for he had refused and rejected them.
The stranger shall be joined with them: so they did in part at their coming from Babylon, being thereunto moved either by the favour which the Jews had in the Persian court, or by the consideration of their wonderful deliverance, and that exactly in the time designed by their holy prophets. But what was then begun was more fully accomplished at the coming of the Messiah.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. choose“set His choiceupon.” A deliberate predilection [HORSLEY].Their restoration is grounded on their election (see Ps102:13-22).
strangersproselytes(Est 8:17; Act 2:10;Act 17:4; Act 17:17).TACITUS, a heathen[Histories, 5.5], attests the fact of numbers of the Gentileshaving become Jews in his time. An earnest of the future effect onthe heathen world of the Jews’ spiritual restoration (Isa 60:4;Isa 60:5; Isa 60:10;Mic 5:7; Zec 14:16;Rom 11:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, will yet choose Israel,…. While the Jews were in captivity, the Lord seemed to have no pity for them, or compassion on them, and it looked as if he had rejected them, and wholly cast them off; but by delivering them from thence, he showed that he had a merciful regard unto them, and made it to appear that they were his chosen people, and beloved by him: and this is a reason why Babylon should be destroyed, and her destruction be no longer deferred, because the Lord’s heart of compassion yearned towards his own people, so that his mercy to them brought ruin upon others: a choice of persons to everlasting salvation, though it is not made in time, but before the foundation of the world, yet is made to appear by the effectual calling, which therefore is sometimes expressed by choosing, 1Co 1:26 and is the fruit and effect of sovereign grace and mercy, and may be intended here; the words may be rendered, “and will yet choose in Israel” t, some from among them; that is, have mercy on them, and call them by his grace, and so show them to be a remnant, according to the election of grace; and such a chosen remnant there was among them in the times of Christ, and his apostles, by which it appeared that the Lord had not cast off the people whom he foreknew:
and set them in their own land: or “cause them to rest upon their own land” u; for the word not only denotes settlement and continuance, but rest, which they had not in Babylon; but now should have, when brought into their own land; and no doubt but reference is had to the original character of the land of Canaan, as a land of rest; and hither shall the Jews be brought again, and be settled when mystical Babylon is destroyed:
and the stranger shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob; by which is meant, that proselytes should be made to the Jewish religion, who should be admitted into their church state, as well as into their commonwealth, and should abide faithful to the profession they made; which doubtless was fulfilled in part at the time of the Jews’ return from the Babylonish captivity, when many, who had embraced their religion, cleaved to them, and would not leave them, but went along with them into their land, that they might join with them in religious worship there; but had a greater accomplishment in Gospel times, when Gentiles were incorporated into the same Gospel church state with the believing Jews, and became fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of the same promises and privileges; and so Kimchi and Ben Melech apply this to the times of the Messiah; and Jarchi to time to come, when Israel should be redeemed with a perfect redemption: because from the word translated “cleave” is derived another, which signifies a scab; hence the Jews w have a saying,
“proselytes are grievous to Israel as a scab.”
t “et eliget adhuc in Israele”, Pagninus, Montanus. u “et requiescere eos faciet”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus. w T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 47. 2. & Kiddushin, fol. 70. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But it is love to His own people which impels the God of Israel to suspend such a judgment of eternal destruction over Babylon. “For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will once more choose Israel, and will settle them in their own land: and the foreigner will associate with them, and they will cleave to the house of Jacob. And nations take them, and accompany them to their place; and the house of Israel takes them to itself in the land of Jehovah for servants and maid-servants: and they hold in captivity those who led them away captive; and become lords over their oppressors.” We have here in nuce the comforting substance of chapters 46-66. Babylon falls that Israel may rise. This is effected by the compassion of God. He chooses Israel once more ( iterum , as in Job 14:7 for example), and therefore makes a new covenant with it. Then follows their return to Canaan, their own land, Jehovah’s land (as in Hos 9:3). Proselytes from among the heathen, who have acknowledged the God of the exiles, go along with them, as Ruth did with Naomi. Heathen accompany the exiles to their own place. And now their relative positions are reversed. Those who accompany Israel are now taken possession of by the latter ( hithnachel , , like hithpatteach , Isa 52:2, ; cf., p. 62, note, and Ewald, 124, b), as servants and maid-servants; and they (the Israelites) become leaders into captivity of those who led them into captivity ( Lamed with the participle, as in Isa 11:9), and they will oppress ( radah b’ , as in Psa 49:15) their oppressors. This retribution of life for like is to all appearance quite out of harmony with the New Testament love. But in reality it is no retribution of like for like. For, according to the prophet’s meaning, to be ruled by the people of God is the true happiness of the nations, and to allow themselves to be so ruled is their true liberty. At the same time, the form in which the promise is expressed is certainly not that of the New Testament; and it would not possibly have been so, for the simple reason that in Old Testament times, and from an Old Testament point of view, there was no other visible manifestation of the church ( ecclesia) than in the form of a nation. This national form of the church has been broken up under the New Testament, and will never be restored. Israel, indeed, will be restored as a nation; but the true essence of the church, which is raised above all national distinctions, will never return to those worldly limits which it has broken through. And the fact that the prophecy moves within those limits here may be easily explained, on the ground that it is primarily the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity to which the promise refers. And the prophet himself was unconscious that this captivity would be followed by another.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Promises to Israel. | B. C. 739. |
1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. 2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. 3 And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
This comes in here as the reason why Babylon must be overthrown and ruined, because God has mercy in store for his people, and therefore, 1. The injuries done to them must be reckoned for and revenged upon their persecutors. Mercy to Jacob will be wrath and ruin to Jacob’s impenitent implacable adversaries, such as Babylon was. 2. The yoke of oppression which Babylon had long laid on their necks must be broken off, and they must be set at liberty; and, in order to this, the destruction of Babylon is as necessary as the destruction of Egypt and Pharaoh was to their deliverance out of that house of bondage. The same prediction is a promise to God’s people and a threatening to their enemies, as the same providence has a bright side towards Israel and a black or dark side towards the Egyptians. Observe,
I. The ground of these favours to Jacob and Israel–the kindness God had for them and the choice he had made of them (v. 1): “The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, the seed of Jacob now captives in Babylon; he will make it to appear that he has compassion on them and has mercy in store for them, and that he will not contend for ever with them, but will yet choose them, will yet again return to them; though he has seemed for a time to refuse and reject them, he will show that they are his chosen people and that the election stands sure.” However it may seem to us, God’s mercy is not gone, nor does his promise fail, Ps. lxxvii. 8.
II. The particular favours he designed them. 1. He would bring them back to their native soil and air again: The Lord will set them in their own land, out of which they were driven. A settlement in the holy land, the land of promise, is a fruit of God’s mercy, distinguishing mercy. 2. Many should be proselyted to their holy religion, and should return with them, induced to do so by the manifest tokens of God’s favourable presence with them, the operations of God’s grace in them, the operations of God’s grace in them, and his providence for them: Strangers shall be joined with them, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you, Zech. viii. 23. It adds much to the honour and strength of Israel when strangers are joined with them and there are added to the church many from without, Acts ii. 47. Let not the church’s children be shy of strangers, but receive those whom God receives, and own those who cleave to the house of Jacob. 3. These proselytes should not only be a credit to their cause, but very helpful and serviceable to them in their return home: The people among whom they live shall take them, take care of them, take pity on them, and shall bring them to their place–as friends, loth to part with such good company–as servants, willing to do them all the good offices they could. God’s people, wherever their lot is cast, should endeavour thus, by all the instances of an exemplary and winning conversation, to gain an interest in the affections of those about them, and recommend religion to their good opinion. This was fulfilled in the return of the captives from Babylon, when all that were about them, pursuant to Cyrus’s proclamation, contributed to their removal (Ezr 1:4; Ezr 1:6), not as the Egyptians, because they were sick of them, but because they loved them. 4. They should have the benefit of their service when they had returned home, for many would of choice go with them in the meanest post, rather than not go with them: They shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids; and as the laws of that land saved it from being the purgatory of servants, providing that they should not be oppressed, so the advantages of that land made it the paradise of those servants that had been strangers to the covenants of promise, for there was one law to the stranger and to those that were born in the land. Those whose lot is cast in the land of the Lord, a land of light, should take care that their servants and handmaids may share in the benefit of it, who will then find it better to be possessed in the Lord’s land than possessors in any other. 5. They should triumph over their enemies, and those that would not be reconciled to them should be reduced and humbled by them: They shall take those captives whose captives they were and shall rule over their oppressors, righteously, but not revengefully. The Jews perhaps bought Babylonian prisoners out of the hands of the Medes and Persians and made slaves of them. Or this might have its accomplishment in their victories over their enemies in the times of the Maccabees. It is applicable to the success of the gospel (when those were brought into obedience to it who had made the greatest opposition to it, as Paul) and to the interest believers have in Christ’s victories over their spiritual enemies, when he led captivity captive, to the power they gain over their own corruptions, and to the dominion the upright shall have in the morning, Ps. xlix. 14. 6. They should see a happy termination of all their grievances (v. 3): The Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and thy fear, and from thy hard bondage. God himself undertakes to work a blessed change, (1.) In their state. They shall have rest from their bondage; the days of their affliction, though many, shall have an end; and the rod of the wicked, though it lie long, shall not always lie on their lot. (2.) In their spirit. They shall have rest from their sorrow and fear, sense of their present burdens and dread of worse. Sometimes fear puts the soul into a ferment as much as sorrow does, and those must needs feel themselves very easy to whom God has given rest from both. Those who are freed from the bondage of sin have a foundation laid for true rest from sorrow and fear.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 14
DIVINE MERCY TOWARD JACOB
Verse 1-2 PROSPERITY FOR THE COVENANT NATION
1. Self-will and rebellion, on the part of His own, have prompted God to use Gentile powers in the necessary chastisement and discipline or His erring people.
2. The arrogance and cruelty of these Gentile instruments of His wrath will bring His judgment upon them – after He has accomplished His purpose upon Israel.
3. In His judgment on her oppressors, the Lord is manifesting His covenant-faithfullness (“hesed”, mercy) toward the nation that has broken His covenant; He is faithful!
4. By His own choice He will restore Israel to her own land – the land of Promise – where, disciplined to the obedience of faith, she will be an instrument of blessing to the Gentiles over whom she will have triumphed, (Isa 49:22-23; Isa 61:5-7).
5. This indicates that, restored to the position of covenant-fellowship (from which the nation was cut off, through the disobedience of unbelief), Israel will fulfill (during the millennium) the role of ministering to the Gentiles – the work that her ancient father’s refused.
a. Israel will be the chief nation on earth during the millennium, (Eze 36:24-28; Zec 10:6; Mic 4:6-8; Mic 7:15-20; Zep 3:14-20; Isa 61:8-11; Zec 8:23; Isa 49:22-23; Isa 66:12; Isa 60:11-12; Zec 14:12-19).
b. However, the nation of Israel will be ruled over by the twelve apostles of Christ, (Luk 22:28-30).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob. The particle כי ( ki) having various significations, we might take it as signifying But, and might connect this verse with the former verse in the following manner: But (or, yet) the Lord will have compassion on Jacob. But I consider it to be better and more appropriate to view the particle כי ( ki), in this as well as in many other passages, as used for assigning a reason; and thus the meaning will be, “God will destroy Babylon, because he will have compassion on Israel, whom he cannot despise or reject.” Hence we see that the Prophet had hitherto endeavored to soothe the grief of a wretched people, in order to inform them that they ought to entertain good hopes in the midst of their afflictions, of which God would be the avenger. (Psa 94:1.) Here, therefore, as in a picture, Babylon is contrasted with the Church of God; Babylon, I say, elevated to the highest power, which had plunged the Church into such a miserable and afflicted condition, that it was not probable that she could ever be raised up again. But the Lord casts down Babylon from her lofty situation, and thus testifies that he cares for his people, however mean and despicable they may be. It yields very great consolation to us to learn that the whole world is governed by God for our salvation. All things are directed to this object, that those whom he has elected may be saved, and may not be overwhelmed by any changes, however numerous, that shall befall them.
It will be asked, Was there a period during which God had no compassion ? Undoubtedly, he always had compassion; but while the people were distressed by heavy calamities, it was not perceived; for, having their minds previously occupied with a view of God’s anger, and, judging from outward appearances, they could not perceive God’s compassion. Yet the Lord was always like himself, and never laid aside his nature. Thus it is proper to distinguish between the knowledge which springs from faith and the knowledge which springs from experience; for when the tokens of God’s anger are visible all around, and when the judgment of the flesh leads us to believe that he is angry, his favor is concealed from us; but faith raises our hearts above this darkness, to behold God in heaven as reconciled towards us. What follows is somewhat more startling.
And will yet choose Israel, or, will again choose Israel. God’s election is eternal. He does not choose us as if this had never before come into his mind; and as we were chosen before the foundation of the world, (Eph 1:4,) so he never repents of his choice. (Rom 11:29.) But when the Lord chastises his people, this has the appearance of rejecting them; as we learn from the frequent complaints of the saints, Lord, why hast thou cast us off ? (Psa 74:1.) We look at God’s rejection or election according to our weakness, and judge of his feelings toward us by the outward action. (I speak of the knowledge which is derived from experience, and which is corrected by the light of faith.) Accordingly, when the Lord calls us, that is, confirms his election, he is said to choose us; and when he gives evidence that he is displeased, he is said to reject us. The meaning, therefore, is, “Though the Lord has treated his people so severely, as if he had rejected them; yet by the actual event he will at length show and prove that he has adopted them, by giving abundant evidence of his election, and by having compassion on them for ever.”
We now may readily conclude what we have already said, namely, that the chastisements which the godly endure are widely different from that deadly stroke, however light it may be, which is inflicted on the ungodly. The godly are immediately led to consider their election, the confident belief of which cheers their hearts; but the ungodly see nothing but darkness, bottomless pits, and frightful desolation on all sides. Whenever, therefore, the Lord chastises us, we ought immediately to call to remembrance this distinction, that we may strengthen our hearts by the hope of a happier condition.
And shall cause them to rest in their own land. In their return he holds out an evidence of favor and reconciliation; for to the children of Abraham the land of Canaan was a pledge of their adoption.
And the stranger shall be joined to them. The Prophet foretells the calling of the Gentiles; as if he had said, “Not only will the Lord restore them to the possession of the land of Canaan, but will enlarge them by a great increase; for he will associate the Gentiles with them, that the two peoples may become one and the same body.” This benefit, therefore, is not limited to a short period, but extends to the whole Church, which the Lord promises to place in safety; for he speaks, not of the Church in his own time, but of the Church which shall be till the kingdom of Christ, and during his kingdom; otherwise that addition would have been inappropriate.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
2.
BABYLON (Continued)
a. DESPISED
TEXT: Isa. 14:1-11
1
For Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land; and the sojourner shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2
And the peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and for handmaids: and they shall take them captive whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
3
And it shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve,
4
that thou shaft take up this parable against the king of Babylon and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
5
Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers;
6
that smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.
7
The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
8
Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid low, no hewer is come up against us.
9
Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10
All they shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
11
Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and worms cover thee.
QUERIES
a.
How would the house of Israel possess their former captors?
b.
Why was the whole earth at rest at Babylons downfall?
PARAPHRASE
And Jehovah will have mercy upon His covenant people; He will yet fulfill all His covenant promises to them. Their blessings will one day be so glorious that those now outside the covenant of Israel will be joined to Gods covenant people and become a part of them. God will cause those who once took His covenant people captive to return them to their land and eventually His people will make some of these heathen a possession of Gods kingdom and servants of the Most High God. Yes, even people from those nations which once took the covenant people captive will one day be taken captive by them. Those who once ruled over Gods people will one day come under the rule of God. When that day comes to pass God will have delivered His covenant people from sorrow, trouble and servitude, and His people will proclaim concerning their great enemy, At last our enemy has been defeated and his kingdom destroyed. God has broken the power of the enemy that ruled over us so long in unrestrained terribleness. The whole earth and all of nature rejoices at the rest it receives from the defeat of Gods enemy. All the citizens of Hades crowd to meet him as he enters the same place where they dwell. World leaders and earths mightiest rulers, long dead, are there to greet him. With one voice they all cry out, Are you as weak as we are? Have you become like us here? All this enemys grandeur and power has been stripped from him and all his reveling is over. His covering now is not silk and satin, but worms and maggots.
COMMENTS
Isa. 14:1-6 DELIVERANCE AND DOMINION: Here is an instance of the prophets use of shortened perspective. It is a favorite vehicle of prophetic literature. The prophet first speaks of the return of the covenant people from the Babylonian captivity when the Persian emperor Cyrus (Cf. Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:1 ff) took the Jews and brought them to their place by his edict and financial aid to rebuild Jerusalem. But then, skipping over some five centuries between the Persian release of the Jews to the time when their former captors will become their captives, the prophet shortens his perspective. There can be only one meaning to the prophets indication that sojourners would join themselves to the Jews and cleave to the house of Jacob. We believe there is only one way to interpret the statement that the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and for hand-maids: and they shall take them captive whose captives they were and they shall rule over their oppressors, and that interpretation is one that finds the fulfillment in the Messianic kingdom, the church. This is the only possible interpretation considering the fact that such widespread Jewish domination never literally occurred. This interpretation is also substantiated by parallel passages (Cf. Isa. 2:3; Isa. 49:22-26; Zec. 8:20-23). All of these hyperbolic figures of speech find their fulfillment in Eph. 2:11-14. God delivers the Jews after their period of chastening in captivity. Out of that delivered people comes a faithful remnant which will through five centuries produce a faithful progeny through which the Messiah will be born in the flesh. He will establish Gods kingdom, the church, upon the earth. The Gentiles, former enemies and captors of Gods covenant people, will become members of Gods covenant people. What the prophet leaves out here is all the history of the Jewish people between the restoration from captivity and the establishment of the church. All this history is not important to Isaiahs purpose. The deliverance from Babylonian captivity actually becomes a type of the ultimate deliverance from the bondage of Satan and sin, mans greatest enemies. See our comments in Minor Prophets on Oba. 1:7-21 and Amo. 9:11-12.
Isa. 14:7-11 DELIGHT AT DEGRADATION: Whenever God delivers His people and destroys His enemies the whole world is benefited, Most of the world does not realize it as a benefit because the world sees through eyes of flesh not faith. Gods people rejoice when His enemies are defeated for they see through eyes of faith their deliverance. Even nature itself benefits when those in rebellion against God are defeated for rebels against Gods sovereign rule usually deface and pervert Gods natural creation. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had built a road in the Wady Brissa in Lebanon in order to plunder the territory of its magnificent cedars and take them back to Babylon to build pagan temples and palaces.
Sheol is the Old Testament place of the dead. The Old Testament speaks of life hereafter, of judgment and of resurrection. But the whole experience of the hereafter is in the shadows. Nothing really clearly outlined. Here the king of Babylon is said to be welcomed into the region of the dead with a great stirring of those who have gone on before. Especially great world rulers and leaders long ago dead now greet the king of Babylon with the taunt, So you also are as weak as we were? You died too! All your former pomp and glory has passed away like ours! Death is inevitable to all, great and small, rich and poor, powerful and weak. Every human body has a cover of worms in its destiny. We wonder which king of Babylon this is. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have acknowledged Jehovah as God in Dan. 4:34-37 (see our comments in Daniel, College Press). Perhaps Isaiah is referring to Belshazzar who would not learn from his fathers experience (Cf. Dan. 5:17-23). Whoever it may be, the lesson is inescapableearthly kings and kingdoms dare not lay their hand on the apple of His eye (His covenant people) for God will bring all His enemies down to Sheol.
QUIZ
1.
What is shortened perspective as the prophets use it?
2.
Why is it improbable that this text is to be taken as figurative hyperbole?
3.
What is the Babylonian captivity and deliverance typical of?
4.
Why does the world rejoice when Gods enemies are defeated?
5.
Why mention the fact that the king of Babylon was taunted in Sheol?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XIV.
(1) For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob . . .The words imply a prevision of the return of the Israelites from exile, and therefore of the exile itself. The downfall of Babylon was certain, because without it the mercy of the Lord to Israel could not be manifested. The whole section is an anticipation of the great argument of Isaiah 40-66, and the question of its authorship stands or falls on the same grounds.
The strangers shall be joined with them . . .The thought is one specially characteristic of the later prophecies of Isaiah (Isa. 44:5; Isa. 55:5; Isa. 56:3-6), but is prominent in the earlier also (Isa. 2:2). In later Hebrew the same words came to be applied to the proselytes who are conspicuous in the apostolic age (Act. 2:10; Act. 6:5), and in them, as before in the adhesion and support of the Persian kings and satraps, and as afterwards in the admission of the Gentiles into the kingdom of the Christ, we may trace successive fulfilments of the prophets words.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. For The word is a sign of a continued drift of thought from the foregoing chapter.
The Lord will have mercy In accordance with a perpetual covenant. It was a mercy to punish with captivity. The discipline was needed.
On Jacob Jacob and Israel are terms collective of the spiritual people Jews purified through their afflictions in Babylon. Such carried the seeds of their religion with them, which grew to fruit-age. Thus the Lord has mercy on them and re-chooses them.
Strangers shall be joined with them Proselytes in Babylon to the true religion. In like manner, from Est 8:17, we learn that “many of the people of the land became Jews,” as the effect of evidences that God had mercy on them and chose them. Many probably accompanied them back to their land.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Despite Their Exile, Israel’s Cause Is Not Lost ( Isa 14:1-2 ).
Typical of Isaiah is that in the midst of the burden of Babylon, and the descriptions of its downfall, come promises of restoration for Israel and Judah. In the midst of it all Yahweh has not forgotten His people.
Analysis.
a For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel (Isa 14:1 a).
b And set them in their own land, and the stranger will join himself with them (Isa 14:1 b).
c And they will cleave to the house of Jacob (Isa 14:1 c).
c And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place (Isa 14:2 a).
b And the house of Israel will possess them in the land of Yahweh, for servants and for handmaids (Isa 14:2 b).
a And they will take them captive whose captives they were, and they will rule over their oppressors (Isa 14:2 c).
In ‘a’ Yahweh will yet have compassion on Israel and again set His choice on them, and in the parallel the result will be that their situation will be overturned, and they will make captive their captors, and will rule over their oppressors. In ‘b’ He will set them in their own land and foreigners will join with them, and in the parallel the foreigners will be possessed in the land of Yahweh for servants and for handmaids. In ‘c’ these foreigners will cleave to the house of Jacob, and they will bring them to their place.
Isa 14:1-2
‘For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob,
And will yet choose Israel,
And set them in their own land,
And the stranger will join himself with them,
And they will cleave to the house of Jacob,
And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place,
And the house of Israel will possess them in the land of Yahweh,
For servants and for handmaids,
And they will take them captive whose captives they were,
And they will rule over their oppressors.’
One guarantee of the shortlived nature of any Babylonian glory is the fact that God is to restore His people to spiritual greatness. Having witnessed the devastation of Samaria and the dragging of the cream of Israel’s leaders into captivity, Isaiah promises that one day they will be restored. Yahweh will yet have compassion on them, and again choose them. Their loss of status before God is only temporary. They are His beloved people, beloved because He has chosen to love them (Deu 7:7-8). They will be re-established in the land which God had given them as an inheritance centuries before, ‘the land of Yahweh’, and they will be set there by Him to enjoy His rest (see Deu 12:10; 2Sa 7:1) and aliens will join themselves with them and seek to become part of them.
Indeed God will turn the tables on the world. Those who had oppressed them will assist in their deliverance and become their servants and captives, for they will come under Israel’s rule. Thus is given the guarantee of the final triumph of God’s people, although, as often stressed elsewhere, it will be of but a remnant. And other nations will share in that triumph by their connection with them. Compare Isa 45:14-25; Isa 49:22-26; Isaiah 60; Isa 66:19-24.
We must not see this latter as the demeaning of the nations. This was the conception of the time of the way in which an empire was established, with the leading nation having under it the subsidiary nations who served them and provided servants.
There was partial fulfilment of this after the later exile of Judah. Israel and Judah were re-established in the land and their power and area of authority grew, with many reversals, so that in the century or so prior to the time of Jesus the Jews had widespread rule with erstwhile enemies under them. Thus it had a literal, though partial, earthly fulfilment. Then it was partly fulfilled as the Jewish Christian Apostles and teachers went out into the world, winning men to Christ, and the nations, including those who had oppressed Israel, submitted to the Apostolic authority, captured by love. But in the end the coming Davidic kingdom must be in mind here, the everlasting kingdom described in earthly terms, when all nations would be gathered in the new Jerusalem (Isa 66:23) in the other world.
We must ever remember that to Isaiah and the prophets both Israel and Judah were still within the promises of God. Thus the final triumph under the Davidic king was promised to both.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 14:1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
Isa 14:1
Isa 14:2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Isa 14:3-21
1. O Lucifer –Isa 14:12, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer , son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”
2. Son of the morning –
Isa 14:12, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”
Isa 14:11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
Isa 14:11
Isa 14:11 Comments – A dead body will attract files, which lay eggs and maggots. These maggots consume the flesh of the dead. The function of maggots is to consume dead flesh, thus cleaning up the environment. The similar statement in Mar 9:44, “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,” testifies to the fact that those people who are condemned to hell will experience the consuming fly maggots as well as consuming fire. However, since their flesh will never be totally consumed, the maggots and the fire will eternally do their duty of continual consumption of human flesh.
Isa 14:13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Isa 14:13
2Th 2:4, “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
Isa 14:12-15 Comments Satan’s Pride Brings About His Downfall – The pride of Satan’s heart has deceived him. Note a similar passage in Oba 1:3-4, “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD.”
Isa 14:28-32 Judgment upon Philistia Isa 14:28-32 contains Isaiah’s prophecy against Philistia.
Isa 14:28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Isa 14:28
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Judgment upon Babylon Comments – Isa 13:1 to Isa 14:27 records Isaiah’s prophecy against Babylon. This prophecy is the longest and first in a collection of prophecies against foreign nations, revealing that the seat of Satan dwells in this nation. The downfall of this major stronghold of Satan will serve as a testimony of God’s divine power to the other minor strongholds, as He systematically decrees judgment against them.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prophecies Against the Nations Isa 13:1 to Isa 27:13 records prophecies against twelve nations, culminating with praise unto the Lord. God planted the nation of Israel in the midst of the nations as a witness of God’s plan of redemption for mankind. Instead of embracing God’s promises and commandments to mankind, the nations rejected Israel and their God, then they participated in Israel’s destruction. Although God judges His people, He also judged these nations, the difference being God promised to restore and redeem Israel, while the nations received no future hope of restoration in their prophecies; yet, their opportunity for restoration is found in Israel’s rejection when God grafts the Church into the vine of Israel (Rom 11:11-32). The more distant nations played little or no role in Israel’s idolatry, demise, and divine judgment, so they are not listed in this passage of Scripture.
It is important to note in prophetic history that Israel’s judgment is followed by judgment upon the nations; and Israel’s final restoration is followed by the restoration of the nations and the earth. Thus, some end time scholars believe that the events that take place in Israel predict parallel events that are destined to take place among the nations.
Here is a proposed outline:
1. Judgment upon Babylon Isa 13:1 to Isa 14:27
2. Judgment upon Philistia Isa 14:28-32
3. Judgment upon Moab Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:14
4. Judgment upon Damascus Isa 17:1-14
5. Judgment upon Ethiopia Isa 18:1-7
6. Judgment upon Egypt Isa 19:1-25
7. Prophecy Against Ethiopia & Egypt Isa 20:1-6
8. Judgment upon the Wilderness of the Sea Isa 21:1-10
9. Judgment upon Dumah Isa 21:11-12
10. Judgment upon Arabia Isa 21:13-17
11. Judgment upon Judah Isa 22:1-25
12. Judgment upon Tyre Isa 23:1-18
13. Judgment upon the Earth Isa 24:1-23
14. Praise to God for Israel’s Restoration Isa 25:1 to Isa 27:13
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Deliverance of Israel
v. 1. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, v. 2. And the people shall take them and bring them to their place, v. 3. And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy fear and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, v. 4. that thou shalt take up this proverb, v. 5. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers, v. 6. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, v. 7. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet, v. 8. Yea, the fir-trees, v. 9. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, v. 10. All they shall speak and say unto thee, v. 11. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, v. 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! v. 13. For thou hast said in thine heart, v. 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, v. 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit, v. 16. They that see thee, v. 17. that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? v. 18. All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house, v. 19. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, v. 20. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, v. 21. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers, v. 22. For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, v. 23. I will also make it,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Isa 14:1-23
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL, AND HER SONG OF TRIUMPH OVER BABYLON. The destruction of Babylon is to be followed by the restoration of Israel, with the good will of the nations, and by their exercising rule over their late oppressors (Isa 14:1, Isa 14:2). In this time of rest and refreshment they will sing a song of triumph over Babylon. The song extends from Isa 14:4 to Isa 14:23. It consists of five stanzas, or strophes, each comprising seven long lines, after which there is a brief epode, or epilogue, of a different character. This epode is comprised in Isa 14:22 and Isa 14:23.
Isa 14:1
For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob. God’s purpose of mercy upon Israel requires, as its preliminary, the destruction of Babylon, and may be considered as the final cause of that destruction. His desire to have mercy on Israel soon is the reason why the days of Babylon are not prolonged (see Isa 13:22). Will yet choose Israel. The Captivity was a rejection of Israel from their position as a favored raceGod’s peculiar people; their restoration was a fresh “choice” of them out of all the nations of the world, a free act of grace on his part; to which they had no claim or right whatsoever. And set them in their own land; or, on their own ground. The land that once was theirs, but which they had forfeited by their disobedience, could only become “their own” again by a fresh gift from God. The strangers shall be joined with them; rather, the stranger shall join himself to them. On the return from the Captivity, there would be an influx of proselytes from the nations, who would voluntarily join themselves to those whom they saw favored both by God and man (comp. Est 8:17). Though the Jews did not commonly seek proselytes, they readily received such as offered themselves. A further fulfillment of the prophecy took place when the Gentiles flocked into the Church of God after the coming of Christ.
Isa 14:2
And the people shall take them; rather, peoples shall take them. The heathen nations among whom they have dwelt shall rejoice at the restoration of Israel to their own land, and even escort them in a friendly spirit to their borders (comp. Ezr 1:4, Ezr 1:6; Neh 2:7-9). Some shall go so far as voluntarily to become their bondservants in Palestine. They shall take them captive, whose captives they were. This can scarcely have been intended literally. The Jews were at no time a conquering people, nor one that set itself to “take captives.” The true meaning is that Jewish ideas shall penetrate and subdue the nations generally, and among them those with whom Israel had dwelt as captives. The Jews did become very powerful and numerous both in Assyria and Babylonia about the first century after Christ, and Christian Churches were early formed in Mesopotamia, Adiabene, and even Babylon.
Isa 14:3
The hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve (comp. Isa 47:6). We have no detailed account of the Babylonian, as we have of the Egyptian, servitude; but it was probably well-nigh as grievous. A few, of royal descent, might be eunuchs in the palace of the great king (2Ki 20:18; Dan 1:3), and hold offices of trust; but with the bulk of the nation it was otherwise. Psa 137:1-9, has the plaintive ring which marks it as the utterance of a sorely oppressed people. And there are passages of Ezekiel which point in the same direction (see especially Eze 34:27-29).
Isa 14:4
Thou shalt take up this proverb; rather, this parable, as the word is translated in Num 23:1-30, and Num 24:1-25.; in Job 26:1; Job 29:1; Psa 49:4; Psa 78:2; Eze 17:2; Eze 20:49; Eze 21:5; Eze 24:3; Mic 2:4; Hab 2:6; or “this taunting speech,” as our translators render in the margin (see Cheyne, ad loc.; and comp. Heb 2:6). The golden city. There are two readings heremadhebah and marhebah. The latter reading was preferred anciently, and is followed by the LXX; the Syriac and Chaldee Versions, the Targums, Ewald, Gesenius, and Mr. Cheyne. It would give the meaning of” the raging one.” Madhebah, however, is preferred by Rosenmller, Vitringa, and Dr. Kay. It is supposed to mean “golden,” from d’hab, the Chaldee form of the Hebrew zahob, gold. But the question is pertinentWhy should a Chaldee form have been used by a Hebrew writer ignorant of Chaldee and Chaldea?
Isa 14:5
The staff the scepter. Symbols of Babylonian power (scrap. Isa 10:5).
Isa 14:6
He who smote the people; rather, which smote the peoples. The participle translated “he who smote” refers to “staff” or “scepter.” With a continual stroke; i.e. incessantly, one war following another without pause or stop. He that ruled, etc.; rather, which ruled the nations in anger with a persecution that held not back.
Isa 14:7
At rest singing. The first result of the fall of Babylon is general peace, rest, and quiet; then the nations, recognizing the blessedness of the change, burst out into a song of rejoicing. The peace did not really continue very long; for Persia took up the role of conqueror which Babylon had been forced to drop, and, under Cambyses and Darius Hystaspis, produced as much stir and disturbance as had been caused by Babylon; Still, there was an interval of about eleven years between the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, and the expedition by Cambyses against Egypt.
Isa 14:8
Fir trees cedars. We may detect a double meaning hereone literal, the other metaphorical. Literally, the trees of Lebanon and the other mountain ranges would be spared, since, while both the Assyrian and Babylonian kings cut timber in the Syrian forests for building purposes, the Persians had no such practice; metaphorically, the firs and cedars are the kings and nobles of the countries (comp. Eze 31:16), who likewise had a respite. Since thou art laid down; rather, since thou liest low. The first stanza here ends, and the second begins with the next verse.
Isa 14:9
Hell from beneath. The Hebrew Sheol corresponded nearly to the Greek Hades, and the Latin Inferi. It was a dismal region in the center of the earth, whither departed souls descended, and where they remained thenceforth. There were various depths in it, each apparently more dismal than the preceding; but there is no evidence that it was considered to contain any place of happiness, until after the return from the Captivity. The prophet here represents Sheol as disturbed by the advent of the Babylonian monarch, and as rousing itself to receive him. The great ones of the earth, and the kings, who are kings even in Hades, and sit upon thrones, are especially moved by the occasion, and prepare to meet and greet their brother. Personal identity and continued consciousness of it after death are assumed; and the former earthly rank of the inmates seems to be recognized and maintained. It stirreth up the dead. Hell in the aggregatethe place personifiedproceeds to arouse the individual inmates, who are called rephaimthe word commonly translated “giants” (Deu 2:11, Deu 2:20; Deu 13:12; Jos 12:4; Jos 13:12, etc.), but meaning properly “feeble ones.” The shades or ghosts of the departed were regarded as weak and nerveless, in comparison with living men (compare the Homeric ). All the chief ones; literally, the he-goats (comp. Jer 1:8; Jer 51:40; Zec 10:3). Raised up from their thrones; i.e. “caused to rise up from their thrones,” and stand in eager expectation of what was about to happen.
Isa 14:10
Art thou also become weak as we? rather, So thou also art made weak as we! (On the supposed weakness of the dead, see the comment on Isa 14:9.)
Isa 14:11
The noise of thy viols. (On the fondness of the Babylonians for music, and the number and variety of their musical instruments, see Dan 3:7, Dan 3:10, etc.) The word here translated “viol” is more commonly rendered “psaltery.” (On the probable character of the instrument intended, see note on Isa 5:12.) The worm is spread under thee, etc.; rather, beneath thee is spread the maggot, and the worm covereth thee. The thought of the grave brings the thought of corruption with it. For cushion and for coverlet the royal corpse has only the loathsome creatures which come with putrescence. At this point the second stanza terminates.
Isa 14:12
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer! Babylon’s sudden fall is compared, with great force and beauty, to the (seeming) fall of a star from heaven. The word translated “Lucifer” means properly “shining one,” and no doubt here designates a star; but whether any particular star or no is uncertain. The LXX. translated by , whence our “Lucifer.” The subjoined epithet, “son of the morning” or “of the dawn,” accords well with this rendering. How art thou cut down to the ground! One of Isaiah’s favorite changes of metaphor. It is a favorite metaphor also to which he revertsthat of representing the destruction of a nation by the felling of a tree or of a forest (comp. Isa 2:12, Isa 2:13; Isa 10:33, Isa 10:34, etc.). Which didst weaken the nations; rather, which didst prostrate the nations. The word used is one of great force (comp. Exo 17:13; Job 14:10).
Isa 14:13
For thou hast said; rather, and thouthou saidst; i.e. weak as thou art now shown to have been, it was thou that didst dare to say. I will ascend into heaven, etc. (comp. Isa 10:13, Isa 10:14; Isa 37:24, Isa 37:25). Isaiah represents rather the thoughts of the Babylonian monarch than his actual words. The Babylonian inscriptions are full of boasting egotism; but they do not contain anything approaching to impiety. The king may regard himself as, in a certain sense, Divine; but still he entertains a deep respect and reverence for those gods whom he regards as the most exalted, as Merodach, Bel, Nebo, Sin, Shamas. He is their worshipper, their devotee, their suppliant. The Babylonian monarchs may have believed that after death they would mount up to heaven and join the “assembly of the great gods”; but we scarcely know enough as yet of the religions opinions of the Babylonians to state positively what their belief was on the subject of a future life. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation. The early commentators explained this of Mount Zion, especially on account of the phrase, “in the sides of the north,” which is used of the temple-bill in Psa 48:2. But it is well objected that Mount Zion was a place of no grandeur or dignity or holiness to the Babylonians, who had made it a desolation; and that no Babylonian monarch would have desired to “sit“ there. Moreover, the “mountain” of this passage must be one which is “above the heights of the clouds” and “above the stars of God,” which the most imaginative poet could not have said of Mount Zion. A mythic mountain, belonging to the Babylonian theosophy, was therefore seen to be intended, even before the times of cuneiform decipherment (Rosenmller, Michaelis, Knobel). Now that the Babylonian inscriptions can be read, it is found that there was such a mountain, called “Im-Kharsak,” or “Kharsak-Kurra,” which is described as “the mighty mountain of Bel, whose head rivals heaven, whose root is the holy deep,” and which “was regarded as the spot where the ark had rested, and where the gods had their seat”. In Babylonian geography this mountain was identified, either with the peak of Rowandiz, or with Mount Elwend, near Ecbatana. In the sides of the north. Both Elwend and Rowandiz are situated to the northeast of Babyloua position which, according to ancient ideas, might be described indifferently as “north” or “east.”
Isa 14:14
I will be like the Most High (comp. Isa 47:8). It is a mistake to say that “the Assyrians gave the name of God to their monarchs” (Kay), or, at any rate, there is no evidence that they did. Nor does any king, either Assyrian or Babylonian, ever assume a Divine title. There is a marked difference in this respect between the Egyptian and the Assyro-Babylonian religions. Probably Isaiah only means that Babylonian monarchs thought of themselves as gods, worked their own wills, were wrapped up in themselves, did not in heart bow down to a higher Power.
Isa 14:15
Thou shalt be brought down; rather, thou art brought down (comp. Isa 14:9-11). The sides of the pit; or, the recessesthe “lowest parts” of the pit. With those words the third stanza terminates.
Isa 14:16
They that see thee. Dr. Kay well observes that “here the scene of the parable is changed back to earth. The corpse of the mighty conqueror is lying unburied.” Shall narrowly look upon thee. Like the inhabitants of hell (Isa 14:10), those of earth also shall scarcely believe their eyes. They shall look close to see if it is indeed the great king that is slain.
Isa 14:17
That opened not the house of his prisoners; literally, that loosed not his prisoners homewards. The long imprisonment of Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar (thirty-six years, 2Ki 25:27) is an illustration; but perhaps it is rather the retention in captivity of the entire Jewish people that is brought to the prophet’s cognizance.
Isa 14:18
All the kings of the nations, etc.; i.e. the other kings, speaking generally, died in peace, and had an honorable burial, each one in the sepulcher that he had prepared for himself as his final abode or “house” (comp. Isa 22:16). The care taken to prepare tombs was not confined to Egypt, though there obtaining its greatest development. Among others, the Persian kings certainly prepared their own sepulchers; and probably the practice was general.
Isa 14:19
But thou art cast out (see Isa 14:13). Again “thou” is emphatic. Translate, But thouthou art cast out. The Babylonian monarch did not rest in the tomb which he had prepared for himself. His body was “cast out”left, apparently, where it fell in battle. If there is allusion to any individual, it is probably to Belshazzar (Dan 5:30). Like an abominable branch. As a shoot from a tree, which is disapproved, and so condemned and cut away. As the raiment of those that are slam. The garments of the slain, soaked in blood (Isa 9:5), were useless, and were consequently flung away or left to rot uncured for. So was it with the corpse of the great king. That go down to the stones of the pit. This clause is thought to be misplaced. It deranges the meter and damages the sense. Corpses were not interred on fields of battle in the East (Herod; 3.26). They were left to be “trodden underfoot.” It is best, with Ewald and Mr. Cheyne, to transfer the clause to the commencement of the next verse. Thus the fourth stanza is relieved, and the fifth properly filled out.
Isa 14:20
If we make the alteration suggested in the preceding note, this verse will begin as follows: “They that have gone down to the stoner of the pit, with these thou shalt not be joined in burial”a repetition certainly of the first clause of Isa 14:19, but with amplification, and with the reason appended. Thou hast destroyed thy land; i.e. “brought ruin on it by displeasing God, and causing him to visit it with a judgment.” The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned; rather, shall not be named forever (comp. Psa 109:13). The meaning is that they shall have no seed, or, if they have any, that it shall be early cut off, and the whole race blotted out. Pretenders rose up under Darius Hystaspis, claiming descent from Belshazzar’s father, Nabenidus; but the claim is characterized as false, and a false claim would scarcely have been set up had real descendants survived.
Isa 14:21
Prepare slaughter for his children. Belshazzar had “wives and concubines” (Dan 5:2), and therefore probably children. The magnanimity of Cyrus may have spared them; but neither Cambyses nor Darius Hystaspis had the same merciful disposition. As soon as there was seen to be danger of Babylon revolting, they would almost certainly be put to death. For the iniquity of their fathers (comp. Exo 20:5). The destruction of their posterity was a part of the punishment of the fathers. That they do not rise; i.e. “that they do not recover themselves and become great monarchs once more, and once more build great cities, “such as those which they were famous for Babel, Erech, Accad, Calneh, Ur, Sepharvaim, Borsippa, Opts, Teredon, etc. It was as city-builders that the Babylonians were especially celebrated (Gen 10:10; Dan 4:30; Herod; 1:178, etc.).
Isa 14:22, Isa 14:23
These verses constitute the epode of the poem. Their main object is to make it clear that the punishment about in fall on Babylon comes from none other than Jehovah, whose Name occurs twice in Isa 14:22, and emphatically closes Isa 14:23. The lines are much more irregular than those of the strophes, or stanzas.
Isa 14:22
And cut off from Babylon the name. It is not quite clear in what sense her “name” was to be “cut off” from Babylon. One of the main masses of ruin still bears the old name almost unchanged (Babil), and can scarcely be supposed to have lost it and afterwards recovered it. Perhaps “name” here means “fame” or “celebrity” (comp. Deu 26:19; Zep 3:20). Son and nephew; rather, son and grandson, or issue and descendants. The same phrase occurs in the same sense in Gen 21:23 and Job 18:19.
Isa 14:23
A possession for the bittern. Some water-bird or other is probably intended, since the word used is joined in Isa 36:11 with the names of three other birds, and is also certainly a bird’s name in Zep 2:14; but the identification with the “bittern” is a mere guess, and rests on no authority. And pools of water. The swampy character of the country about the ruins of Babylon is generally noticed by travelers. It arises from neglect of the dams along the course of the Euphrates. Ker Porter says that “large deposits of the Euphrates water are left stagnant in the hollows between the ruins”.
Isa 14:24-27
A FURTHER PROPHECY OF DELIVERANCE FROM ASSYRIA. From the distant prospect of an ultimate deliverance from the power of Babylon, the prophet turns his gaze to a nearer, if not a greater, deliverance. The present enemy is Assyria. It is she who has carried Samaria into captivity, and who now threatens the independence of Judah. Deliverance from her has already been promised more than once (Isa 10:16-19, Isa 10:25-27, Isa 10:33, Isa 10:34); but apparently the people are not reassuredthey still dread the foe who is so near, and who seems so irresistible. God, therefore, condescends to give them a fresh prophecy, a fresh assurance, and to confirm it to them by an oath (Isa 14:24). The Assyrian power shall be brokenher yoke shall be cast off (Isa 14:25); God has declared his purpose, and nothing can hinder it (Isa 14:27).
Isa 14:24
Hath sworn. This is the emphatic wordthe new thing in the prophecy. God but seldom declares his purposes with an oathnever but in condescension to the weakness of his creatures, who, though they misdoubt his word, can feel the immutability of an oath (Heb 6:17), and yield it the credence and the confidence which they refuse to a bare assertion. As I have thought as I have purposed. A reference to the prophecies previously given in Isa 10:1-34. So shall it come to pass; literally, so it hath beena striking instance of the “preterite of prophetic certainty.” So shall it stand; literally, as I have purposed, that shall stand.
Isa 14:25
I will break the Assyrian in my land. This is referred by some critics to the miraculous destruction of Sennacherib’s army, and regarded as a proof that the scene, of that destruction was Judaea. But it is possible that a disaster to the forces of Sargon may be intended (see the comment on Isa 10:28-32). His yoke shall depart from off them (comp. Isa 10:27). The Assyrian yoke, imposed by Tiglath-Pileser (2Ki 16:7-10), and (according to his own inscriptions) again by Sargon, was thrown off by Hezekiah, who “rebelled against the King of Assyria, and served him not” (2Ki 18:7). It was this rebellion that provoked the expedition of Sennacherib, described in 2Ki 18:13-16; and it may be this rejection of the yoke which is here prophesied.
Isa 14:26
The whole earth all the nations. Blows struck against Assyria or Babylonia affected all the then known nations Each, in its turn, was “the hammer of the whole earth” (Jer 1:1-19 :23), and a check received by either caused world-wide disturbance. No sooner did one subject nation recover her freedom, than an electric shock ran through all the restplots were laid, confederacies formed, revolts planned, embassies sent hither and thither. The complete destruction of Assyria involved a complete change in the relations, not only of the principal powersEgypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, Elam, but even of the minor onesPhilistia, Edom, Moab, Syria, Phoenicia, Ammon.
Isa 14:27
His hand is stretched out; literally, his is the outstretched hand, which is more emphatic.
Isa 14:28-32
THE BURDEN OF PHILISTIA. The Philistines had suffered grievously at the hands of Judah in the reign of Uzziah (2Ch 26:6), and had retaliated in the reign of Ahaz (2Ch 28:18). It would seem that after this they were invaded by Tiglath-Pileser, who penetrated as far as Gaza, which lie took and made tributary, as he also did Ascalon. Tiglath-Pileser died shortly before Ahaz, and the present “burden” seems to have been uttered in connection with his death. Isaiah warns Philistia (equivalent to “Palestina“) that her rejoicing is premature; Tiglath-Pileser will have successors as powerful and as cruel as himself, and these successors will carry destruction and ravage over the whole land.
Isa 14:28
In the year that King Ahaz died was this burden. These words introduce the “burden of Philistia,” and shows that it is chronologically out of place, since the prophecies from Isa 10:1-34. to Isa 14:1-27 have belonged to the reign of Hezekiah. Ahaz appears to have died early in B.C. 725.
Isa 14:29
Whole Palestina. The Greeks called Philistia , or “Syria of the Philistines,” whence the Latin “Palestina” and our “Palestine.” Isaiah addresses the country as “whole Palestine,” because, while it was made up of a number of principalities (1Sa 6:18), his message concerned it in its entirety. The rod of him that smote thee is broken. This can scarcely refer to the death of Ahaz, since Ahaz did not smite the Philistines, but was smitten by them (2Ch 28:18). It may, however, refer to the death of Tiglath-Pileser, which took place only a year or two previously. Out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice; i.e. a more poisonous serpent (see note on Isa 11:8). Shal-maneser can scarcely be meant, since he does not, appear to have attacked the Philistines. Probably Sargon is intended, who “took Ashdod” (Isa 20:1), made Khanun, King of Gaza, prisoner, and reduced Philtstia generally to subjection. And his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. The fruit of the cockatrice will be even more terrible and venomous. He will resemble the “fiery flying serpent” of the wilderness (Num 21:6). Sennacherib is, perhaps, this “fruit.” He conquered Ascalon and Ekron, and had the kings of Gaze and Ashdod among his tributaries.
Isa 14:30
The firstborn of the poor shall feed. The “firstborn of the poor” are the very poor (Jarchi, Rosenmller). The refer-once is to the poor Israelites, who will “feed” and “lie down in safety” when Philistia is held in subjection. I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. God kills with famine, man with the sword (see 2Sa 24:13, 2Sa 24:14). When the Philistines had resisted behind their strong walls till hunger had done its work by thinning their ranks, the Assyrian conqueror would storm their strongholds and slaughter “the remnant.”
Isa 14:31
Howl, O gate; cry, O city. Each city of Philistia is hidden to howl and lament. All will suffer; not one will be spared. Art dissolved; literally, art melted; i.e. “faintest through fear” (comp. Jos 2:9; Jer 49:23). There shall come from the north a smoke. The “smoke” is the Assyrian host, which ravages the country as it advances, burning towns, and villages, and peasants’ cots, and watchmen’s towers. It enters the country “from the north,” as a matter of course, where it adjoins upon Judaea. The coast route, which led through the Plain of Sharon, was that commonly followed by Egyptian armies. None shall be alone in his appointed times; rather, there shall be no straggler at the rendezvous.
Isa 14:32
What shall one then answer, etc.? What answer shall be made to the Philistine ambassadors, when they come to Jerusalem and entreat for aid? Simply thisthat God has founded and will protect Zion, and that the poor and weak among God’s peoplewhether Jews or Philistineshad better betake themselves to the shelter of the “city of the great King.”
HOMILETICS
Isa 14:4-23
Triumph over enemies.
The “taunt-song” of Israel, as it has been called (Cheyne), like the “song of Deborah” in the Book of Judges (5.), raises the question how far triumph over a national enemy is a feeling that can be indulged with propriety. There can be no doubt that it is
I. A NATURAL FEELING. “The song of Deborah and Barak” expresses the feelings which have usually animated the victors in national contests from the beginning of the world to the present day. The poems of Homer show us the great warriors of the heroic age giving the freest possible vent to their passions of scorn and hatred on such occasions. The heroes of Germany and Iceland indulge in the same strain. North American Indians are said to have been equally outspoken. The “natural man” would, beyond all question, on every occasion of the kind, give free and unfettered expression to his feelings of triumph and delight, nor would he see any reason for checking his feelings, or making any effort to moderate them. There is also a good side to the feeling, inasmuch as it is
II. CONNECTED WITH THANKFULNESS TO GOD FOR DELIVERANCE. In the song of Deborah and Barak, and again in the song of Moses (Exo 15:1-21), this is very marked. “Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves. Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel” (Jdg 5:2, Jdg 5:3). “The Lord is my Strength and Song, and is become my Salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his Name” (Exo 15:2, Exo 15:3). “Sing ye to the Lord, for he bath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea” (Exo 15:21). It is not their own valor, or strength, or prudence, and warlike skill that the Hebrew leaders vaunt in their songs of triumph, but the greatness and strength and wisdom of the God who has given to them the victory over their enemies. And so the Christian song of joy for a victory has ever been the “To Deum””We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.” So long as wars continue, so long as swords are not beaten’ into ploughshares, or spears into pruning-hooks (Isa 2:4), it must be right for the combatants to look to the God of battles for aid and countenance and success; and if so, it must be right for them to return him thanks for his aid given, which can best be done by songs of praise and psalms of thanksgiving. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the feeling of triumph is one which ought to be very carefully watched and kept under control, since it is
III. LIABLE TO DEGENERATE INTO SELF–GLORIFICATION. When Assyria was victorious, her song of triumph was as follows: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people; and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped” (Isa 10:13, Isa 10:14). There is something of the same spirit in the song of Deborah and Barak: “The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel“ (Jdg 5:7). “Awake, awake, Deborah, awake, awake, utter a song; arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abiuoam” (Jdg 5:12). Weak human nature is apt to have its head turned by success, and to attribute the result to its own prowess, instead of the mercy and goodness of God.
IV. LIABLE TO DEGENERATE INTO SCORN OF, AND INSULTATION OVER, THE ENEMY. Scorn and insult are utterly unchristian, and a Christian “song of triumph” should most carefully avoid them; but they are very dear to the “natural man,” and very apt to show themselves in the outpourings of a human heart on the occasion of a triumph. The closing passage of the song of Deborah is of the nature of insult, and so is a considerable portion of Isaiah’s “taunt-song.” The “evangelical prophet” was not himself fully possessed of the evangelical spirit. In his time the precept had not yet gone forth, “Love your enemies” (Mat 5:44), and men believed it to be natural and right to hate them (see Psa 139:22). Insult and scorn were but indications of hate, or of hate mingled with contempt for those who had been proved weal;, and so seemed to be legitimately bestowed on beaten foes. But the Christian may hate no man, may despise no man, knowing that each human soul is in God’s sight of priceless value. Consequently, although he may rejoice in victory, and even compose songs of triumph, he is bound to avoid anything like insultation over the defeated. They are his brethren, they are souls for whom Christ died; they may be among those with whom he will hold sweet converse in the world to come.
Isa 14:24
God’s condescension in confirming promises by oath.
It is a weakness on the part of man to need any confirmation of a promise which God makes. “God cannot lie” (Tit 2:1-15 :18); “He keepeth his promise forever” (Psa 146:6). When he condescends to swear that his promise shall hold good, it does not really add to the certainty of the thing promised, since the certainty was absolute from the first. But man is so accustomed to misdoubt his fellows that he will even misdoubt God, as though with him were “variableness or shadow of turning.” And God, knowing man’s heart and compassionating his weakness, does sometimes, though but rarely, add to his promises, for man’s greater contentment, the confirmation of an oath. After the Flood God covenanted with mankind that he would never again destroy the earth by water (Gen 9:11), and confirmed the covenant by oath (Isa 65:9). On the call of Abraham, he swore that he would give the land of Canaan to his posterity (Gen 24:7), and afterwards that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. With David he made a covenant, and swore to it, that he would “establish his seed forever, and build up his throne to all generations” (Psa 89:3, Psa 89:4). To his own Son he swore, at what time we know not, “Thou art a Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (Psa 110:4). And here we find that he condescended to swear to Israel that the Assyrians should “be broken,” and their yoke “depart off them.” Wonderful condescension of him whose word is truth! Not merely not to punish those who doubt him, but to compassionate them, to make allowance for them, to yield compliance to their weakness, and give them such an assurance as compels their belief. “God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, they might have a strong consolation”a hope on which to anchor their soul (Heb 6:17-19).
Isa 14:32
No sure refuge but Zion.
When danger threatens men commonly invoke human aid”trust in Egypt, fly to Assyria”think to be safe if some great king, or powerful statesman, or important country, will take them under protection. But every such refuge is untrustworthy. States prove themselves” braised reeds” in the time of trouble, “piercing the hand which leans on them” (2Ki 18:21). Princes disappoint expectation, and show that “there is no help in them“ (Psa 146:3). Statesmen find it inconvenient to redeem the pledges which they have given, and turn a deaf car to the appeals for aid addressed to them. But the ear of God is always open to men’s cries. They may appeal with confidence to him either in
I. THE EARTHLY ZION, his holy mountain, the “city set upon an hill” (Mat 5:14), in which he has promised that there shall dwell his presence forever. The Church of God, founded upon the sure rock of faith in Christ, is a refuge from the assaults of doubt and unbelief, from the wiles of Satan, from the seductions of evil men. When the great army of unbelief advances, like a smoke from the north (Isa 14:31), and threatens to obscure the whole world with the dark mantle of agnosticism, marshalling its hosts with military precision, so that “there is not one straggler at the rendezvous,” let men remember one thing, “The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people may trust in it” (Isa 14:32). The poor of his people, such as feel themselves “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev 3:17), may find in the Church of Christthe Church with which he continues always, “even unto the end of the world”a refuge, a defense, a rallying-point, from which they may defy the dark host of their enemies. Against the Church the gates of hell shall not prevail. Her Lord is her Defender, and will give her victory over all her foes. The Lord’s people may safely trust in her. Or, if this does not suffice, if (as happens to men in some moods) every earthly stay seems vain, they may go “boldly to the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16), and address themselves directly to God in
II. THE HEAVENLY ZIONthe “heaven of heavens”the sphere where he sits enthroned above angels and archangels, yet from which he is ever lending an attentive ear to the cry of all his creatures. The earthly Zion is but a temporary abiding-place for individuals; the heavenly Zion is alone their true home. In the heavenly Zion alone are they wholly safesaved, garnered, gathered in, secure forever. There is the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev 22:1); there is “the river of the water of life, clear as crystal” (Rev 22:1); there is the “tree of life,” with its “twelve manner of fruits,” and its leaves which are “for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2). The earthly Zion is but a type of the heavenly; it is on the heavenly that our thoughts should rest, our minds dwell, our spirits stay themselves (Col 3:1-3).
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 14:1-23
Song of redeemed Israel
I. THE OCCASION OF THE SONG. (Isa 14:1-3.) The immediate purpose of that awful convulsion of the nations described in the preceding chapter was judgment; but beyond this lies the purpose of mercy. The inspired song of Israel is ever of “mercy and judgment.” One loving purpose works, whether through the hiding of the cloud and the storm, or in the manifest brightness of the calm summer day. Whether he makes himself known to us amidst terror and trembling, or in peace and tranquilly flowing hours, “God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world.” After the storm comes the still small voice, heard in the sanctuary, echoed in the heart, “Fear not; I am with thee.” Jehovah will give his people rest in their land from the cruel sufferings of slavery. The heathen will look on, astonished at the deliverance of Israel, and wilt be convinced that there is a truth in the religion of Israel superior to that of their own. They will escort the people of Jehovah to the sacred place, and there become attached to their service as dependents. To the prophetic conscience it seems that this is but in accordance with the law of compensation. It seems preposterous, nothing less than an invasion of the true order of things, for a community which holds the purest principles to be enslaved to one whose power is built on falsehood. The conscience of the prophet teaches him that as God is right, so there must be a rectification of the world’s wrong. The present first must become the last, and the last first, and the world must be turned upside down, that Israel may obtain and retain her destined lead among the nations. This is a leading ideal of prophecy, and we find it reappearing in the days of Christ. We may, indeed, without straining a point, say that such predictions, born of the profoundest religious convictions, have been fulfilled in the course of our religion. It will hardly be denied that the great spiritual principles summed up in the phrase, “the kingdom of God upon earth” have grown upon the world, have obtained a larger and more commanding recognition with every great change among the nations. Israel, Greece, broke up as nations only to resign their deposit of truth to a larger stewardship; and Rome’s work was fulfilled when she became the vehicle of Christianity to the wide Western world. The forms of Divine fulfillment seen by the prophets in their forecast may not have been always the truest forms, limited as they were by conditions of space and time. The substance and spirit of their message was of eternal truth.
II. THE CONTENTS OF THE SONG. (Isa 14:4-8, )
1. The picture of rest from tyranny. The Babylonian oppressor shall be quelled; his lordly pride and wrath shall cease. For the staff of authority wielded by impious hands shall be broken, the tyrant’s scepter dashed from his hand. His part will be reversed; having incessantly smitten the people in his cruel rage, and trodden them beneath Ills feet in the exercise of arbitrary and unchecked power, he will himself be powerless, as all injustice must be, disjoined from physical force. See the critical notes for the discussion of the meaning of the words, and the strong images of violence, inspired by tyrannic caprice and cruelty, which they call up in the imagination. “The oppressor’s scorn, the proud man’s contumely,” are enumerated by our great poets among those conditions which tempt men to doubt the worth of existence. Take away the freedom of religious life, the placid enjoyment of old customs of family and social life, from a people, and you extract from them the relish for life.
“‘Tis liberty, fair liberty alone,
That gives the fleeting flower of life its sweetness and perfume.”
There is no deeper passion, nor one more just, than the hatred of tyranny, m the human breast. If we look at the question from the point of view of the tyrant himself, his lot is odious. Xenophon represents Hiero of Syracuse lamenting to the poet Simonides his unhappiness. He must surround himself with guards whom he cannot trust. Intimate friendship, such as blesses the meanest of his subjects, must be to him denied. He cannot close the sleepless eye of suspicion. Amiable ha may be and sympathetic by nature, yet his heart may not expand in the chilling atmosphere which surrounds him. The cruel necessities of power may even render the lot of the oppressor less enviable than that of the oppressed. The heart of the people in every hind and age cries out against tyranny as an abuse of the moral order, a violence done to the nature of things. And the true prophet, ever feeling in unison with that heart, translating its dim yearnings into articulate oracles, denounces and predicts the downfall of tyranny as inevitable, if the kingdom of Jehovah on earth is a reality. “There remaineth a rest for the people of God.” “The empire is peace.” These words, once uttered vainly by a potentate in our time, and soon sternly refuted by the roar of artillery from around the walls of his fair city and from a score of battle-fields throughout his pleasant land, contain the policy of the kingdom of the Messiah. Selfishness, ambition, tyranny of individual wills,these are the most constant causes of restlessness and war. When “all man’s good” shall be “each man’s rule,” such evils will be impossible; the “unsuffering kingdom” of the Messiah will come, and the meek will inherit the earth.
2. The sympathy of nature with man. How exquisite is the poetic feeling for nature in the next verses (7, 8)! Like all the imagery of Hebrew poesy, they are full of simplicity, sublimity, pathos. “Now resteth, now is quiet all the earth; songs of jubilation break forth. The cypresses rejoice on thy account, the cedars of Lebanon. Since thou liest low (they say) none will come up to lay the axe against us.” The Chaldean used the wood of these trees, of great durability, for his buildings, his besieging apparatus, his ships. A small remnant, heirs of those magnificent trees on Lebanon of the prophet’s time, still stands on the spot. They seem, in their robust and beautiful forms, the very type of human life in the ideal freedom and independence of its growth. There is a strong poetic feeling for the tree in the Hebrew psalmists and prophets. The just man is like the tree planted by the flowing stream, or like the palm flourishing in the desert, the image of outward suffering and deprivation. We all yearn for the sight of the trees. We cannot see their leaves fall in autumn without something of a pang. We hail the returning blush on the beech woods of our own land in the springtime, and the dimly deepening green of the hedgerows. A silent sense of sympathy steals to our heart, as if sickness, old age, and death were illusions, life the only reality. The dimpling reflections of the sunlight on the leaves are as smiles, and as a whisper from the spiritual world the rustle or’ the wind among them. We can understand how in olden time men felt the trees to be oracular, and believed, or half believed them to be tenanted by supernatural beings. A landscape without a tree, like a sea without a sail, is a sight we cannot long endure without pain. Such feelings have undoubtedly a religious meaning and value. As we listen to them and cultivate them, the faith grows stronger that a Divine love and sympathy is stirring at the very heart of things. It is an ill thing if we permit on every occasion our cold scientific conscience to chide us out of such a mood. In the present exalted mood of the prophet, the trees seem not merely to offer a silent sympathy, but to find tongue and to break forth into articulate triumph. Still more boldly, in Isa 4:1-6 :12, they are conceived as clapping their hands in joy. Here the cypresses and cedars, appropriated by the patriotic eagerness of the prophet, as it were, exult in deliverance from the axe of the alien feller, as he exults in the breaking of the alien scepter.
III. LESSON ON THE SYMPATHY OF MIND WITH NATURE. Let us not be tempted to idle words in speaking of that high faculty of poetic fancy exercised upon the objects and scenes of nature, and illustrated in this passage. A great spiritual poet of our ageWordsworthhas taught us religiously to cherish it. We accept the teaching, but not in its exaggerated forms. It has been asserted as a principle of primary and universal import, that “it has pleased God to educate mankind from the beginning through impressions derived from the phenomena of the natural world.” A sounder theology and a juster theory of the imagination teaches otherwise. The home, the school, the Church, the state, society,these are the scenes of our spirit’s training in religion and in morals, for time and for eternity. We cast upon the forms of the external world reflections of sentiments and truths we could not divine from that world. We know the physical cosmos through the moral cosmos, not vice versa. As to poets of the highest order, all have been at home in the grandeurs of the spiritual world, not all have been affected by the forms of nature. This has been especially remarked of Dante. This observation is fixed almost exclusively upon the Divine and human world. And, indeed, it must be admitted that the noblest objects of contemplation are God and man himself. “The universe and all its fair and glorious forms is indeed included in the wide empire of imagination; but she has placed her home and her sanctuary amidst the inexhaustible varieties and impenetrable mysteries of the human mind . Is it not the fact that external objects never strongly excite our feelings but when they are contemplated with reference to man, as illustrating his destiny or as influencing his character?” (Macaulay). We can find in Nature only what we take to her. The key to her mystical meanings is to be found in the awakened conscience, the heart made pure. Petrarch, unlike Dante, loved the face of nature. But on one occasion, in the midst of a glow of delight in a glorious prospect, he remembered that he had a volume of St. Augustine in his pocket. Opening the book at random, he read these words: “Men go to admire the lofty mountains, the mighty sea-billows, the broad courses of the rivers, the circuit of the ocean, the orbit of the stars; and they neglect themselves.” He closed the book and reproached himself. Even the heathen philosophers might have taught him a deeper truth. Doubtless. Socrates said that “trees did not teach him anything, but man.” Let us adapt the saying to religious feeling. The trees will yield no oracles but those which have been first heard in the inmost conscience. And if there are times when they seem to whisper of gladness, or to smile and clap their hands for joy, it is because God has already opened a fountain of perennial trust and hope within the soul. Then “fruitful trees and all cedars” will praise the Lord, when the heart is filled with praise. “The outward face of nature is a religious communication to those who come to it with the religious element already in them, but no man can get a religion out of the beauty of nature. Those who have first made the knowledge of themselves and their own souls their care, its glory has ever turned to light and hope. They have read in nature an augury and a presage; they have found in it a language and a revelation’ (Moztey).J.
Isa 14:9-23
Song of redeemed Israel: the scene in Hades.
I. ENTRANCE OF THE TYRANT INTO THE UNDERWORLD. (Isa 14:9-11.) The realm of the departed trembles with the excitement of expectation as the great potentate of Babylonia approaches to take up his abode in those gloomy regions. The shades of departed chiefs and kings bestir themselves, and rise from their thrones in amazement to greet the newcomer. “Hast thou also become weak like us? Art thou become one of us?’ His pomp and splendor is cast down to the lowest depth, the sound of his festive harp is silenced in that joyless place. Instead of his costly rugs, maggots are now his bedclothes, and his counterpane worms.
II. IDEAS OF THE UNDERWORLD. These pictures reach far back into antiquity, and represent a deep and universal belief in the heart of mankind. Sheol among the Hebrews, Hades and Tartaros among the Greeks, the realm of Dis or Pluto among the Romans, are different representations of the same ideas of conscience. But with the Hebrew it is connected more sublimely and simply with the faith in the one supreme and righteous God.
1. It is viewed as a stale of physical exhaustion. In Homer (‘Odyssey,’ 11.) the departed are described as faint, helpless ghosts, who recover nor memory and consciousness till they have drunk of the blood poured by Odysseus into the trench. And when his mother has thus revived and has spoken to him
“Thrice in my arms I strove her shade to hind;
Thrice through my arms she slipp’d like empty wind,
Or dreams, the vain illusion of the mind .
All, all are such when life the body leaves
No more the substance of the man remains,
Nor bounds the blood along the purple veins.”
Pale and wan beneath those “nether skies,” their lot is in extreme contrast to that of their friends who still “breathe in realms of cheerful day.”
2. It is a place of profound sadness and regret. Who can forget the piercing pathos of Achilles’ words when Odysseus hails him as a king among the shades, even as on earth he had been a guardian divinity to his countrymen
“Talk not of ruling in this dolorous gloom,
Nor think vain words (he cried) can ease my doom.
Rather I’d choose laboriously to bear
A weight of woes and breathe the vital air,
A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread,
Than reign the sceptered monarch of the dead.”
Oh, how gladly, exclaims Virgil, in describing the suicides in hell, would they now endure poverty and toil beneath the deep sky! But vain the wish; justice forbids, and they must remain confined in the horrid swamp, with its melancholy waters, shut in by the ninefold stream of Styx. A sullen discontent is the mood of others, like Ajax, brooding over the loss of the prize of arms. It is a scene of hopelessness. The descent is easy; but to retrace the stepsthe Roman poet admits the possibility only to a few, sons of gods, favored by Jupiter, or inspired by superhuman virtue. Says the gloomy Italian, “All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” In the soul, where all these dread events must happen, first and last, what is this weakness, this unavailing regret, this void of hope, but the reaction of powers abused, of passions indulged beyond their proper bound? According to our sowing must be our reaping, and our daily deeds must be reflecting their color upon the wall of the inner chamber of the mind, till it becomes to us either prison or palace, a hell or a heaven.
III. THE CONTEMPLATION OF PAST GREATNESS. From the depth of sorrow men learn to measure past blessings, from the lowest point of abject humiliation the height of previous greatness. Two things, in all history, in all legend, in the experience of daily life, impress the imagination, and through the imagination the moral consciencethe rise of the obscure into glory, and the fall of the great into ignominy. Such changes hint at a great law, the principle of which is one, the effects of whose operation are dual and diverse. The King of Babel had been as the morning star, the type of the Orient in all its splendor of intellectual light, heralding the dawn and the onward march of the sun. How true a proposition is it in reference to human culture, “Light comes from the East!” Babylonia was an early center of such culture; and dimly through the records of the past we may there discern all those passions and energies at work in that great kingdom which lead first to external greatness, then to moral corruption, finally to external ruin. The remains of Oriental architecture, as significant to those who understand the ethical meaning of art as a whole literature could have been, speak of a towering ambition, such as the prophet here describes. In no way can we be more astonished at the vastness of the passions of man’s little heart, than in contemplating those colossal tombs and temples and palaces of ancient lands. They seem a visible challenge to time, a defiance of death, an arrogation of divinity and of immortality. To the prophet they, with other accompaniments of despotic power, appeared as the attempt of vain man to measure himself with heaven. The secret thought he detects in the heart of the tyrant is, “To heaven I will ascend, beyond God’s stars I will raise my throne, and sit down on the mount of all the gods, in the extreme north; will ascend to the heights of the clouds, and make myself like the Most High.” The north was in ancient thought generally the sacred quarter. Zeus dwelt in Olympus, on the north borders of Greece. Apollo came from the Hyperboreans, the people beyond the north wind. Zion is “on the sides of the north, the city of the great king.” And in his epiphany in the tempest, Jehovah comes in majesty from the north. The magnificent heathen would then have rivaled him. He said in his heart as he looked on his palaces and hanging gardens, as he reviewed his troops, as he listened to the echoes of Western alarms, “By the strength of my hand I have done it;” “As one gathereth deserted eggs, I have gathered all the earth” (Isa 10:11, Isa 10:14). He felt himself to be like a magnificent tree, deftly striking his roots through the whole succulence of the earth, overtopping all other growths, sheltering all fowls in his branches, all beasts, yea, all nations, in his shade. All other trees, the cedar in the garden of God, the fir tree and the chestnut, seemed to envy him (Eze 30:1-26.). And now! Oh, tragic change! his boughs are broken, his branches scattered on the earth, his shade deserted; the birds and beasts remain, but only as haunters of a ruin. “Now thou art east into hell, into the lowest depth.”
IV. ASTONISHMENT AT PRESENT IGNOMINY.
1. The world looks on. “Is this the man who made the earth tremble through and through, who shook the kingdoms to their base? who made the world as a desert, and destroyed its cities, and let not his captives return home?” The scene is changed from Hades; no longer is the monarch viewed even as in the underworld, to which only the buried could pass. It is an outcast corpse the spectators look upon, and no sight could to ancient feeling be more abhorrent, or signify more deeply the curse of a hero’s end. The other kings of the peoples rest each in his magnificent mausoleum; he lies amongst the meanest corpses of those slain upon the battle-field; not even hastily interred in a hole filled with stones, but liable to be trampled underfoot by the victor. He who would have grasped the earth in his ambitious embrace, cannot now find six feet of it to shelter his remains. The lurid light of such an end is cast back upon the beginning. To a prophetic eye false greatness is already smitten by the Divine judgment, the effects of which will be one day the amazement and the horror of men.
2. The prophet reads the moral. Such an end of the waster of lands and fierce murderer of peoples must serve as example and prototype to all times. It is no mere personal, but a dynastic doom. The seed of evil-doers, the tyrant’s progeny, will pass into oblivion; his sons will expiate his offences in a bath of blood, so that the very species of human savages called “tyrants” shall no more be propagated. Every general truth has its particular application to a given time and condition; so every particular catastrophe that fills the nations with amaze is to be traced up to some great central ever-working cause. And for good or for evil, there is organic sympathy in the lives and fates of individuals. If we wrench ourselves not free from the family vice, what can we expect but the family doom? If we are partakers, by the force of custom or example, of the sins of our party, profession, class, we may not be exempt from the moral disgrace which must sooner or later overtake it.
V. CLOSING ORACLE. It uses images of the utmost energy and tragic vehemence. Jehovah will root out of Babylon name and remnant, sprout and shoot. It shall become the heritage of “hedgehogs and swamps,” shall be swept with the besom of destruction. The doom of great citieswhat is it but the doom of individuals “writ large?” In that doom may be seen eternal justice; can we find mixing with it eternal mercy, eternal love? In these scenes of horror on earth, in the reflected miseries of Hades? Must history ever pursue its spiral course, and epicycle upon epicycle of sin and damnation eternally succeed? Let us fall back upon our deepest hopes, and think that the yearning of the creature cannot exceed that of the Creator, and that at the foundation of hell’s floor must still be Divine justice and love. So Dante sang
“Justice the founder of my fabric moved;
To rear me was the task of power Divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.”
J.
Isa 14:24-28
Oracle concerning Asshur.
The fate of Sennacherib and his host appears to be introduced in order to confirm the solemn oracle just delivered concerning Babylon (see Exposition).
I. THE STRONG ASSURANCES OF JEHOVAH. He is represented here and in other passages as taking an oath that he will fulfill his Word. But in such oaths he can appeal to no mightier name, he can invoke no power more awful than his own. Homer makes Zeus swear by the Styx, the dark river of the underworld. And Zeus is himself subject to necessity, to fate. But the God of the Hebrews comprises in himself all the associations of woeful necessity, of irresistible fate; in a word, of law, of intelligence at one with will, of will equal to the execution of all the designs of intelligence. Where men are weak it is that the brain is separated from the hand and the foot. The thoughts that rise before them, they either cannot or they dare not translate immediately into fact. A chain of means, of secondary causes, lies between them and their ends. And so we have the great thinkers who cannot act, and the great actors who fail in thought. Magnificent poets, philosophers, dreamers, on the one side; on the other, magnificent conquerorsAlexanders, Napoleons; both stupendous failures. In God are united omniscience and omnipotencethe All-Thinker, the All-Doer. His purposes are equivalent to deeds; his deeds are living and visible thoughts.
II. THE DOOM OF THE ASSYRIAN. (See Isa 10:1-34.) The prophetic tense and the prophetic mode of contemplation may refer to the past; so here. The thought is expressed in Jer 1:18, Jer 1:19, “Behold, I will punish the King of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the King of Assyria.” The one event was a pledge of the other (Delitzsch). Asshur had been broken in Canaan, had been subdued upon the mountains of the Holy Land, and the people been released from his yoke and his burdens.
“Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
The host with their banners at sunset were seen;
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay wither’d and strewn .
And the widows of Asshnr were loud in their wail,
And the idols were broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!”
III. THE IMMUTABLE COUNSEL OF JEHOVAH.
1. Its contents. It is earth-embracing, and its symbol is the” hand stretched out over all the heathen.” Assyria and Babylon destroyed, heathendom must vibrate through all its extent, and totter to its fall. Turning from the particular to the generalfor only in this way can we reap the full instruction of such oraclesand standing amidst the ruins of fallen, or on the ground of now shaking empires, we may listen in awe to the ever-living voice of him who saith, “I will shake all nations, till their Desire come.” About a thousand years later, and we find Rome shaking beneath that outstretched hand. We may see the mementoes of that shock to-day, in the ruins of the Palatine and the Forum and the Sacred Way. Yet a thousand years, and again she shakes, this time to her inmost conscience, beneath that hand, that voice of judgment. At the Reformation it might seem that the Almighty was about to make a short work in the earth. But a thousand years are in his sight but a day. “The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.” Let us remember that the great cycles of history are repeated in small in the round of each man’s life. The great world, the macrocosmos, is mirrored in the microcosmos, the small world of each conscience. Above every one of us the hand is outstretchedshall it be to bless or to curse? “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
2. Its inflexibility. Who can break this counsel, who hinder or turn back that hand? And what people or confederacy of peoples, knit in closest alliance of arms and girt with all the furniture of war, can resist dissolution, when once his thought is against them, his hand upraised? “Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us” (Isa 8:10). So may the lovers of the truth and the right confidently exclaim, “God is with us.” What the superstitious man calls his luck or fortune, what the metaphysician obscurely designates as necessity, or the nature of things, or the supremacy of the moral Law, is to the religious man the inflexible will of a personal Being. The duty, the art, the wisdom, the salvation of life, is in obedience to that will. It is to know that we are here to be acted upon by that will rather than to act from our own self-center. We are “God’s puppets.” He gives to men and to nations a certain space Wherein to learn what freedom is, and what its soon-reached limits. Then comes the higher lesson, to know that freedom can only be secured by obedience; that in the choice of the supreme will for our own will, we recover that better freedom in which is strength and peace and stability forever.J.
Isa 14:28-32
Oracle concerning Philistia.
I. THE HISTORICAL OCCASION. It dates from about the time of the death of Ahaz, and was on his death incorporated with the book. The Edomites and the Philistines, who had given way before the powers of David, had taken advantage of the weakness of Ahaz’s government to invade Judah They had taken possession of several towns in the south of the land (2Ch 28:17, 2Ch 28:18). The Syrians in the front and the Philistines in the rear seemed to threaten and devour the land with open mouth (Isa 9:12). But the year of the death of Ahaz brought Hezekiah to the throne, who successfully resisted Assyria and smote the Philistines to Gaza (2Ki 18:8), not only recovering the cities, but defeating them in their own land. To this eventful time, then, the oracle belongs.
II. WARNING TO PHILISTIA.
1. The might of the Davidic house. Its symbols are a rod, a staff, a serpent, a cerastes or basilisk, and a flying dragon. The “rod that smote Philistia” was the scepter of David and of Solomon, later wielded by Azariah or Uzziah (2Ki 15:1-7; 2Ch 26:1), who broke down the wall of Gath and of Gabneh and of Ashdod. But the conflict with Syria and Ephraim had brought the power of Judah low; the rod was broken in pieces. But the power of Judah is no mere rod; a root is the fitting symbol of its inexhaustible vigor. The tembinth oak is not perished when its leafy honors have fallen (Isa 6:13), and from the root of Jesse a young sucker shall yet spring (Isa 11:1). With this symbol is connected that of the serpent, also widely viewed in antiquity as a chthonic symbol, i.e. as representing the powers supposed to be seated in the heart of the earth. The serpent is a “son of earth,” and this significance may be seen illustrated in the story of the appearance of the serpents, which were devoured by horses, to Croesus. The horses symbolized the invading enemy, under Cyrus (Herod; 1:78). The Greek legends of the slaying of a serpent or dragon by a hero, seem in several cases to denote the taking possession of a landor of a sanctuaryApollo, Perseus, Bellerophon. If such be the meaning of the serpent here, then, says the prophet, so far from destroying the serpent of Judah, its power in the land, the Philistine will encounter a more dangerous and deadly form of that power. A cerastes or basilisk shall arise in the person of Hezekiah; nay, a flying dragon shall be the ripe fruit from the indestructible root. The flying dragon is explained by the Targum to be the Messiah, so that the reference would be to the Davidic government of the immediate future under Hezekiah, and that of the ultimate future under the coming Anointed (Delitzsch). Ewald, however, refers to the Assyrian. In religious symbolism the dragon stands for the foul fiend; in historical symbolism he may stand for the avenger, as here. The tribal ensign of Dan was in like manner the serpent (Gen 49:17), whose deadly hatred to the Philistines appeared in the deeds of the hero Samson.
2. Effects of the Davidic rule. The poor will feed upon Jehovah’s pasture, and the helpless lie down in peace. Deeply depressed, menaced on every hand, they shall nevertheless find, under the care of the good Shepherd, nourishment and tranquility unbroken by fears (cf. Zep 3:12, Zep 3:13). The foe will be eradicated by starvation or put to the sword. The picture may be regarded, as other similar pictures, as an allegory of the rule of the eternal Messiah, the enjoyment of the eternal sabbath. For historical relations ever give back some reflection of eternal verities, and these verities enter into and govern the events of every epoch. From every time of national distress, of personal trouble, the spiritual song, undying in its truth and assurance, may be heard arising, “Jehovah is my Shepherd; I shall not want He prepareth for me a table in the presence of mine enemies.”
III. CALM AMIDST THE STORMS. Let the strong cities of Philistia lift up the cry of wailing. A smoke, and behind the smoke dense unbroken ranks of men are rolling from the north. Firm is their discipline, united and invincible their army. What, then, will be Judah’s fate? Shall she, too, melt away in the fire? What answer do the messengers of the nations bring? “That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and upon it the sufferers of my people trust.” Nothing can bring us triumph but the adherence to principle; nothing should dismay us where that adherence is constant. “Reverence the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your Fear, and let him be your Dread; and he shall be for a Sanctuary” (Isa 8:13). “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious Cornerstone, a sure Foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isa 28:16). The “poor of the flock” (Zec 11:7), the despised, suffering, and persecuted in every age, are welcome to the sanctuary and to the heart of the great God. While the tempest rages without and his judgments are abroad in the earth, they are sheltered in his pavilion, concealed in the secret place of the Most High. The lowly heart, looking up to that hand, so awful in menace towards all that is “high and lifted up,” sees it relax, expand, become as a canopy of protecting tenderness. The suffering are stronger than they seem; they know a way of escape from the worst; they can flee to the Name of Jehovah as a strong Tower; they can enter their closet and shut to the door; they can pray to the Father in secret. The thought of eternal Love is itself a “little sanctuary,” whose walls, as they tarry there, recede, open, and afford the prospect of eternal day.J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 14:5
The false staff.
“The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked.” True of the King of Babylon, this is true also of every evil man. It was a sentence that God commanded to be taken up as a proverb against him, and it may be illustrated as a universal proverb in all ages and nations. Men lean on a staff; and unless God be the Rod and the Staff, assuredly it will be broken.
I. HEALTH IS A STAFF. Men lean on that. A well-organized frame and a well-strung nervous system cause men to mistake the tranquil composure of good spirits for the peace which only religion can bestow. Then comes the season of affliction; the silver cord, if not loosened, is weakened; the golden bowl, symbol of the brain, if not broken, is sadly shaken; and with broken health, all else seems broken too. The spirits fail, the inspirations of enterprise and endeavor are weakened, and the proud staff is broken.
II. WEALTH IS A STAFF. Wicked men find that money “answereth all things.” It is the key that unlocks the gates of art and travel, and the loadstone that draws genius and beauty to their festivals. It seems a strong support, and, leaning on it, many are tempted to pity the noblest hero if he be poor, and the rarest intellect if it be linked with low estate. But riches take to themselves wings and flee away. The bank breaks, the factory burns, the funds fall, the mines are exhausted; and then, with the departure of riches, departs also feigned affection and the flatterer’s praise. “How hath the golden city ceased!”
III. POWER IS A STAFF. They shall say (Isa 14:4), “How hath the oppressor ceased!” etc. For wicked men often have such power over others that they can use them for their evil schemes, and bribe them so that they tell no tales that shall bring shame and dishonor. But this does not last. Some “revealing hour” comes. The man that has been “lifted up” is laid low; he can no longer use his old power. Lost character has left him discrowned. Even worldly men will not trust him now. The Josephs are honored; the Daniels are trusted. The Mordecais are doomed. No staff will support in life or death but the old staff: “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 14:1-3
The reign of sin and the rest of God.
Taking the period of exile as a picture of the condition of the human soul when it is in a foreign land, under the sway of the enemy, apart and afar from its true heritage, and regarding the return and the “rest” (Isa 14:3) in their own laud as a picture of the soul’s condition when it has been brought back to God and has re-entered on his service, we have here some valuable suggestions.
I. OUR SPIRITUAL CONDITION UNDER THE REIGN OF SIN.
1. It is one in which we may look for sorrow, and sorrow unrelieved by those alleviations in which godliness finds its solace (Isa 14:3). Sin and sorrow go hand-in-hand, or, if not thus conjoined, the latter follows surely and steadily on the steps of the former. The grosser transgressions bring the sterner miseries, but all departure from God and from rectitude leads down to trouble, to dissatisfaction, to sadness of spirit.
2. It is one in which anxiety is always appropriate. “Thy fear” (Isa 14:3). For it is a condition in which the Divine Disposer of everything is unreconciled to us, is decidedly and seriously displeased with us, is warning us of an evil doom; in which we have no right to reckon on the continuance of his kindness for another hour, and in which the termination of our earthly course places us before a judgment-bar at which we are not prepared to stand.
3. It is one of spiritual bondage. “Thy hard bondage” (Isa 14:3). How truly sin is a slavery we see when we regard it in its more flagrant forms. We see the drunkard, the opium-eater, the liar, so enslaved by their respective vices, that, try how they may to free themselves, they are held down as by an unseverable chain. The children of folly are its pitiable victims, held in a “hard bondage” from which they strive to escape, and often strive in vain. All sin, that of omission as well as commission, is enslaving. The withholding from God that which he claims leads the soul down into a confirmed habit of neglect, of indifference, of procrastination, which holds it fast in its evil toils.
4. It is one of exile. They who are living in sin are living in a country which, emphatically, is not” their own land” (Isa 14:1). They were created to live with God, consciously near to him, rejoicing in him, engaged perpetually in his service; under the sway of sin, human souls are living afar off; in a foreign country, in a “strange land” (Psa 137:4).
II. THE REST WHICH GOD GIVES US HERE.
1. He sets his heart on us to deliver us. He “has mercy on us; he chooses us” (Isa 14:1). He looks upon each one of us with distinguishing interest, affection, yearning. He “earnestly remembers” us, that he may save us.
2. He leads us back to himself. By different ways he leads us home, and “sets us in our own land.” He so acts upon our souls, in his grace and in his providence, that we are led to penitence and faith, and thus find ourselves back in his favorer and his service.
3. The condition to which God restores us is one of spiritual rest.
(1) We rest from sorrow in the possession of inward peace and abiding joy.
(2) We rest from fear in the enjoyment of well-grounded trust, and a hope which will never make ashamed.
(3) We rest from bondage in the heritage of a spiritual freedom (Joh 8:36; Rom 8:21; Gal 5:1, Gal 5:13).
4. The rest which we have from him is consistent with a large measure of holy usefulness. The children of Israel were to take back with them to their own land these “strangers,” who were thenceforth to be their servants instead of their oppressors (Isa 14:1, Isa 14:2). So are the children of God, by patient, strenuous activity, to win their adversaries to the faith and love of Christ; to make them possessors of the privileges of the kingdom of God even with themselves, and to secure their active help in the conquests they have still to make.C.
Isa 14:4-23
Sin and its humiliations.
This strong, poetical utterance of Isaiah, though primarily directed against one particular city and, probably, one individual king, may convey to us all some serviceable lessons respecting sin generally, and more especially the humiliations which are in its train. We gather therefrom
I. THAT THE OPPRESSIVENESS OF SIN, THOUGH LONG CONTINUED, WILL CERTAINLY BE BROKEN DOWN. (Verses 4-7.) Sin is constantly, naturally, oppressive. It grasps at power that it may wield it to its own satisfaction, irrespective of the rights of the weak and the helpless. Often its usurpation, like that of Babylon, is very long continued. The oppressed are weary under their affliction; they cry patiently to Heaven for deliverance and redress; they are sometimes apt to think that they are forgotten by the righteous and merciful One. But they are not unobserved by him (Exo 3:7). He hears their cry; he determines on their relief; at the right moment he intervenes. “The staff of the wicked is broken.” “He who smote” is smitten down, and “the whole earth is at rest.”
II. THAT SIN MAKES NO TRUE FRIENDS. Adversity is the test of faithfulness. Until the dark hour comes we cannot be quite sure whether our acquaintances are, or are not, our friends; then we “know the proof” of them. In the hour of Babylon’s discomfiture there would be found “none to hinder” (verse 6) her destruction. Her allies would fail her then; her dependencies would make no effort to save her; she would be “alone when she fell” (Ecc 4:10). The “friends” whom sinners make are not “friends in deed,” for they will not prove to be “friends in need.” If financial ruin, the loss of his good name, overwhelming bereavement, protracted sickness, the near prospect of death, should overtake a man, it is not to his ungodly companions he would resort, for to them he would look in vain. The man of God will not be without those who will graciously and generously intervene to “hinder“ the calamity which impends, to alleviate the sorrows which are wounding the spirit.
III. THAT THE REACH OF SIN, IN ITS EFFECTS, IS EXCEEDINGLY WIDE. (Verse 8) The trees of the mountain forest rejoice in the downfall of Babylon. The requirements of that selfish and remorseless power extended even so far as to the cedars of Lebanon. They felt the weight of its tyranny, the edge of its exactions. The evil consequences of the unlawful exercise of power are never confined within a narrow compass; they spread far and wide; they reach places, people, generations, which we might have supposed they would not touch. No man who uses his powers wrongfully can calculate how far the evil will extend, or how many will be glad when there is “no more strength in his right hand.” The most striking lesson in this vivid and eloquent passage is
IV. THAT SIN CARNIES SAD HUMILIATIONS IN ITS EVIL TRAIN. (Verses 9, 19.) The humiliation to which the proud monarch of Babylon is subjected is painted in rich and glowing colors (see Exposition). From the loftiest height of honor he is cast down to the lowest depth of shame; from the softest bed of luxury to the “narrow house of death,” where the worm will be his couch and his coverlet (verse 11). God abases the sinner; to whatever height he climbs, from that summit he must come down to the ground and suffer the painful smart of humiliation.
1. It may be from the point of impious assumption. (Verses 13-15, 18, 19; see Dan 5:22, Dan 5:23, Dan 5:30; Act 12:21-23.)
2. It may be from the summit of human, authority and power. (Verses 9-12, 16, 17.)
3. It may be from the position of the common heritage of man. They who have climbed the highest must fall the furthest, but inasmuch as we have all sinned we must all pay one of the invariable penalties of sin. We cannot continuously ascend, we cannot maintain our position at a certain height. The hour comes when we must decline. Even if there be not for us a sudden and precipitous fallas to most of the vain-glorious and oppressive there will bethere must come the gradual descent: the fading of faculty, the diminution of strength, the waning of influence, the advance of conscious feebleness, increasing dependence on others, the sick-chamber, death, and the dark, lonely grave. Nothing can save us from this declension, this dishonor. But there are in the gospel of Christ blessed and glorious compensations. Instead of death, is life eternal; instead of humiliation, everlasting glory.C.
Isa 14:20
The children of the ungodly; or, parental responsibility.
“The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned.” We must not insist on a literal fulfillment of these words. It is not intended that there has never been an instance in which the children of wicked parents have attained to celebrity. Here, as elsewhere, the spirit, not the letter, “giveth life.” The ill fortune which attends the sons of the guilty may be regarded as
I. A DISTINCT, DIVINELY ORDERED PENALTY. Under the old dispensation it certainly was this. That was a dispensation in which temporal rewards and punishments were almost everything; then the spiritual and the eternal were only faintly felt as motives to action. And one of the most potent considerations which could be brought to bear was the effect of a man‘s behavior on the fortunes of his children; consequently we continually meet with the prospects of “thy seed,” for good or for evil, as a powerful incentive to righteousness, or dissuasion from sin. There can hardly be a stronger force than this; where everything else would fail, this might succeed. There is nothing that reaches us so surely, that moves us so mightily, as an argument in which our children’s fortunes are concerned. Whatever “touches them touches the apple of our eye.” And here God is saying to those who were showing signs of wandering from his service, “If you fall into great sin and grievous condemnation, you not only do yourselves irreparable wrong, but you involve your children also in misery and shame. The penalty of your guilt will go down to them.”
II. THE INEVITABLE RESULT OF RIGHTEOUS LAW. It is likely, in a very high degree, that the children of evil-doers will follow in the steps of their parents, and stoop to the shame to which they fall. All things are against them.
1. They are without the incentive which comes from inheriting a good name and the natural desire to perpetuate it.
2. They are weighted with the positive and most serious disadvantage of bearing a name which is dishonored.
3. They are depressed by a positive and disheartening sense of shame, if they have not imbibed the spirit and acquired the habits of their parents. In the latter case (which is by far the worse of the two):
4. They suffer in their character, and therefore in their career, from the degenerating influences to which they are subjected. And without the preserving and directing principles which make life a true success, impelled by the passions, the prejudices, the ambitions which constitute it a lamentable failure, they do not rise to “renown;” they sink down into disregard, into actual disrepute, into open shame.
(1) This is not positively inevitable. A determination to pursue a holy course, under the guidance of God, in the service of Jesus Christ, will redeem the unlikeliest life from failure, and lift it up to honor and usefulness.
(2) If not for other reasons, then for the sake of our children, let us walk in the ways of godliness; for their present and lasting interests are bound up in the choice we make as to the path we will ourselves pursue.C.
Isa 14:24-27
Divine purpose and Divine power.
We have our thoughts directed in this passage to
I. THE DIVINE PURPOSE. “I have thought I have purposed this is the purpose upon the whole earth,” etc. God had a special purpose respecting Assyria, and he may have had a distinct purpose in inspiring Isaiah to pronounce at this especial time what it was, viz. that, in the dark days of Babylonian captivity, his people might remember its fulfillment, and be assured of an accomplishment for which they had still to wait. But these expressions suggest to us the existence of Divine purposes in the mind of God, dating from the remote past and stretching on into the far future. God’s purposes in regard to his creatures have been or are:
1. Creative. In the “far backward and abysm of time” he determined to call worlds, beings, intelligent and immortal spirits, into existence, to be the objects of his thought, care, love; to many of whom he himself should be the Object of worship, affection, service.
2. Ministrative. His purpose was that of boundless benefactionof conferring on multitudes and millions of sentient beings a life of happiness and, to a vast, number, that of true dignity and worth.
3. Punitive. His purpose has been to punish, never indeed under the impulse of mere resentment, but always in the interests of righteousness and, ultimately, in that of true happiness also.
4. Restorative. He has purposed, and does purpose, to restore; either
(1) his people to a heritage they have forfeited, or
(2) those who have wandered from his service to the spiritual and moral integrity from which they have fallen.
II. THE DIVINE POWER. “So shall it come to pass so shall it stand I will break I will tread under foot This is the hand that is stretched out Who shall disannul who shall turn back” (his hand)? It is true that:
1. God has taken time to effect his purpose; e.g. the building of this world for man’s residence, the preparation of the world for Christ’s coming.
2. God has permitted his rebellious children to lessen the sum of happiness and worth they would otherwise have possessed.
3. God’s beneficent design for the redemption of the world by the gospel has been hindered by external opposition and by internal shortcoming. Yet it remains true, and this is the larger as it is the brighter half of the truth, that:
(1) God’s purpose of beneficence, if it can be said to have been checked, has not been defeated: from his strong and bountiful hand he has been bestowing life, joy, blessedness, excellency, which is quite incalculable, which entirely baffles our imagination as it is beyond our reckoning.
(2) God’s purpose of punishment has been and will be fulfilled; witness the Flood, the outcasting of the guilty Canaanites, the destruction of “the cities of the plain,” the decimation of Sennacherib’s army and “the breaking of the Assyrian,” the extinction of Babylon, etc. And now, though impiety holds up its head for years, and though vice staves off the evil day of disease and death, and though crime long eludes the pursuer, yet the hand of God does come down in retribution; his holy purpose cannot be disannulled. “Let sinners look to it” (see Num 32:23; Pro 11:21; Psa 37:35, Psa 37:36).
3. God’s purpose of restoration will one day be accomplished. “This is the purpose which is purposed upon the whole earth,” and “this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.” “The Lord of hosts hath purposed.” There may be many obstacles in the way. Difficulties may, to the eye of human calculation, seem actually insurmountable; the estimable forces of truth may appear unequal to cope with the overwhelming agencies of error and evil. But this our great hope is not a bold enterprise of man; it is the purpose of the living God, the Lord of hosts. “His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” Let the Christian worshipper offer expectant prayer; let the Christian workman go up to his post with holy confidence; for the purpose of God, though it be long delayed, shall assuredly be fulfilled.C.
Isa 14:29-32
A truth, a test, and a solution.
We have here
I. A TRUTH RESPECTING AN INDIVIDUAL DEATH; viz. that we may hope or may fear too much from the death of one man. Philistia was evidently inclined to hope too much from the death of a Jewish king; another was arising (Hezekiah) who would be to his predecessor what a cockatrice was to a serpenta still more formidable enemy. (2Ki 18:8). The wicked nation, or the unprincipled party, or the unscrupulous man that indulges a feeling of security because some strong opponent is dead may, probably will, find itself (himself) miserably disappointed. The resources of a righteous providence are not exhausted, though a very pillar of justice be fallen. Or, on the other hand, the righteous may fear too much from the death of a powerful friend. Will not the good cause perish now that the tongue of its most able advocate is silent in death? Christianity did not perish with the departure of Christ or with the death of the apostles. The Father of spirits will not let righteousness expire for want of righteous men, whom he can create and endow and send forth into the world.
II. A TEST FOR THE COMMUNITY. IS the nation, is the Church, doing its work, fulfilling its Master’s will concerning it? One good, if not faultless, test is found in the answer to the questionIs it carting for its humblest members? If nothing better can be said for the nation than that its monarch is living in magnificence, or that its rulers or nobles are possessed of great wealth and rejoicing in splendid luxury, then is that nation rapidly descending to ruin. If nothing better can be said for the Church than that its hierarchy is powerful or its ministers well sustained, then is that Church a long way from its Lord’s ideal. It is when it can be said of the one that “the firstborn (the poorest) of the poor feed, and the needy lie down in safety” (Isa 14:30), and of the other that “the poor of the people trust in it,” or “betake themselves unto it” (Isa 14:32),it is then that the end of their existence is answered. The “community” exists for “the common people,” and especially the Church exists for the “little ones,” the poor, the needy, the unbefriended, the young, the dependent.
III. THE SOLUTION OF PROSPERITY. What should be the answer given to the “messengers of the nation” inquiring about the deliverance of Jerusalem? This: “The Lord hath founded Zion” (Isa 14:32). This is the best account we can give to others, as it is the best we can give to ourselves, of any deliverance or of any prosperity we may be enjoying. To refer it to good fortune is shallow and irreverent. To ascribe it to our own ability or energy, or to that of our friends, is insufficient and, it may be: spiritually harmful. We are safe and wise in attributing it to God (Psa 87:7; Psa 89:17; Psa 115:1; 1Co 4:7). Our faculties, our resources, our opportunities, are all of him; and from him come the energizing force and the overruling power without which all our efforts must be in vain. The reverent and religious spirit
(1) gladly dedicates to the cause of Christ and of his Church all that it can yield, and
(2) thankfully refers all prosperity enjoyed to his guiding finger, his protecting power, his life-giving Spirit.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 14:1
God’s mercy may delay, it does not fail.
The captivity in Babylon seems to be in the thought of the prophet, and it would be a long and weary time, during which the people, even the faithful among the people, might think God had “forgotten to be gracious,” or “delayed his coming;” so assurances are given that, however it may please God to tarry, holding back the fulfillment of his promises, they are always “yea and amen,” and at the last it wilt be found that “not one word hath failed of all that the Lord hath spoken.” The historical connection of the passage is that the fall of Babylon, to which previous reference has been made, was to be designed, overruled, by Jehovah for the fulfillment of his promise and the restoration of his people. God is said to “yet choose Israel,” because permitting them to go into captivity was an appearance of having temporarily cast them off. In illustration of the topic suggested by the passage, we note
I. MERCY CAN PROMISE. Judgment is always blended with mercy. Mercy must get in its gracious and comforting word. Judgment without mercy is only crushing. Mercy holds before us the hope that enables us to endure the judgment, and learn the lessons of it. Show what the Captivity would have been to Israel without the promises, and the hope of return when the judgment had wrought its work.
II. MERCY CAN HOLD BACK FULFILMENT OF PROMISE. Illustrated in the forty years of wandering in the desert: an unexpected holding back, necessitated by the willfulness and murmuring of the people. Or by David, promised the kingdom, but required to wait for it, even after the death of Saul.
III. MERCY CAN KEEP FIRM TO CONDITIONS OF PROMISE. This is the real reason of the delay. All promises are conditional; and it could be neither wisdom nor kindness on God’s part to show indifference to the conditions. Our not meeting conditions is the real reason for prolonged and renewed delays. God never really tarries. His deliverances and benedictions always come at the first possible moment. This may be shown in relation to the Captivity; and the promised Messiah only appeared “when the fullness of time was come.”
IV. MERCY CANNOT BE SATISFIED WITHOUT FULFILLING, PROMISES AT LAST. We are to think of God’s mercy as a most active attribute. It is watching for its opportunity; determined not to be frustrated; working to secure its ends; and, sooner or later, accomplishing its gracious purpose. Mercy will be finally triumphant.R.T.
Isa 14:3
The Lord’s rest.
“The Lord shall give thee rest.” The word “rest“ summarizes God’s deliverances, and God’s protections, and God’s provisions, for his captive people. Assurbanipal boasts that he made his Arabian prisoners carry heavy burdens and build brickwork. And the wearied Hebrews in Egypt were promised the Lord’s rest in Canaan. Treating the topic in a comprehensive manner, we may say that the rest which God provides for his creatures must be like himself, and it must be adapted to the deepest and best in them.
I. WHAT GOD‘S REST IS. It must stand related to character, not to mere attributes, nor to mere conditions. God must, indeed, be thought of as feeling the differences of outward conditions; the varied states of his creatures do move him to pity, sympathy, anger, or grief. “In all their affliction he is afflicted.” But he is always at rest, because the changes in circumstances never imperil the basis-principles of his character. “Justice and judgment are always the habitation of his throne.” We are “restless unquiet sprites,” as Keble calls us, not because we are in the midst of variable conditions and circumstances, or because these affect our feeling, but because the varying circumstances put in peril the principles of our character. God has eternal rest, because if “the elements melted with fervent heat, the earth and all therein were burned up,” God would never question the perfect fatness and righteousness of his rule. Or we may put it in this way. Rest comes from the dominion of one faculty in us; under that dominion all the various powers of our nature fall into order, take their place, keep the peace, and secure for us rest. War may be a thing of the soul as well as of the circumstances, and the inward war consists in the conflict of motives. Mind, and will, and judgment, and affections are out of harmony, and make the war in the soul. But we can conceive of nothing like this in God. He is at rest because in his Divine nature, which is the true after which we are imaged, there is the order and harmony that follow upon the rule of the highest faculty. And what, for God, may we think is the highest faculty? This surely is the fullest revelation of God”God is love.” Ruling love secures rest. And if, for God, the highest is “love,” what is the highest for man? Surely it must be “trust.” Then the rest of God is the rest of character and of love; and the rest for man is the rest of character and of trustof that character which grows up out of the root “trust.” But, treating the subject in another way, we may see what is involved in saying that God’s rest, as provided for man, must be adapted to man, to the deepest and best in him. Rest is the great longing of every heart. All men everywhere have this for their supreme quest.
1. Man, as man, is ever seeking rest. It is his “good time coming.”
2. Man, as a sinner, is ever seeking rest.
3. Man, as redeemed, is ever seeking rest.
God’s rest for man is a glorious whole, beginning within us, in the faith we set on God, spreading through all the forces of our being its hallowing influence, and bringing the quietness and peace of settled, centered character; reaching even to the circumstances in which we are placed, modifying them, bringing them into its obedience, and so growing from the rest of the soul to the sublime, eternal, all-embracing rest of heaven.
II. WHO MAY WIN THE LORD‘S REST? It is very easy to say that, since it is the rest of faith, only believers win it. But we have come to talk about “faith” and “believing” in such a way that they are rather magical words to conjure with, than deep, full, rich expressions whose divinest meanings we grasp and use. Are believers only those who accept a particular creed, and have a common intellectual conception of the “plan of salvation?” Or is the true believer the man who possesses the spirit of trust; whose heart leans on God; whose loving reliances are on the heavenly Father? Surely the faith that saves is the yielding of the self to God; it is the heart’s grasp of the righteousness and mercy which are revealed in Jesus Christ. This we can all win, and this is the Lord’s rest.
III. How FAR MAY THIS REST BE A PRESENT CONSCIOUS POSSESSION? It is a mistaken notion that all the facts and processes of the religious life must come into conscious recognition. Our Lord taught us that the growth of souls was like that of the plants. It goes on secretly, no man knoweth how; no man can trace all the processes of change from seed to blade, from blade to ear, from ear to full corn in the ear. Rest may be ours, and we may not think about it. It will never be won merely by seeking for it. It will be won by doing our duty, by simple obedience, by living in the grace of Christ, by perseverance in well-doing, by “holding fast the profession of our faith without wavering.” Be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,” and it will be plain to others that you have reached the Lord’s rest; and it may be that sometimes the joy of that rest will come into your own consciousness, and you wilt feel that “peace passing understanding” which is the foretaste of the “sweet rest of heaven.”R.T.
Isa 14:4
God’s judgments on other nations than our own.
The “burdens” are given as a series of prophetic visions; events pass before the prophet’s mind as in a moving panorama, and he notes down just the things that more particularly arrested his attention. A prophetical description of an event will differ from an historical account of the same event, by being a irate outline, or else a vigorous word-painting of certain salient features, rather than a circumstantial detail. Prophetical work is akin to poetical work, and its due apprehension depends on spiritual sympathy rather than on logical precision. The passage commencing with Isa 14:4 is perhaps the most striking passage in this series of burdens. It is an ode of triumph on the fall of the Babylonian monarch. Bishop Lowth says of it that he “knows not a single instance, in the whole compass of Greek and Roman poetry, which in every excellence of composition can be said to equal or even approach it. It may with truth be affirmed that there is no poem of its kind extant in any language, in which the subject is so well laid out, and so happily conducted, with such variety of images, persons, and distinct actions, with such rapidity and case of transition, in so small a compass, as in this ode of Isaiah. For beauty of disposition, strength of coloring, greatness of sentiment, brevity, perspicuity, and force of expression, it stands among all the monuments of antiquity unrivalled.” Babylon may be treated as a representative of all the nations surrounding and related to Israel. They are the great nations of the ancient world, but they fringed round the land of Canaan on the north, the east, and the south. The prophet denounces Babylon, and Moab, and Syria, and Egypt, and Tyro, and solemnly warns Edom.
I. AS NEIGHBORING NATIONS, THEIR PROPHESIED DESOLATION BECAME A POWER ON THE JEW. At the time that Isaiah wrote his first prophecy the nation of Israel was in a perilous and painful position. The consequences of prolonged national self-will and idolatry were pressing heavily upon it. The great Asiatic nation, which was to be the Divine agent in their punishment, was coming nearer and nearer to them, swallowing up, in its irresistible progress, the intervening kingdoms. The northern portion, that called Israel in distinction from Judah, was about this time subdued by Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, and its people were carried away captive. The kings of Judah only secured a temporary respite by paying a heavy tribute, and the one or two good kings of the period, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, did but, as it were, make the dying taper flare up for a while ere it suddenly went out in darkness. It must have been a hard thing for a godly man to live in such a time, and in the midst of such surroundings. We can imagine the pious Jew in such an age saying, “Are we not the covenant people of God? Have we not been, through long years, the special objects of his guidance, defense, and care? Yet it seems now as if God had forgotten us. These surrounding nations are in the height of prosperity. See Babylon the magnificent! See Damascus the wealthy! See Tyre the commercial!” To such as these, in Jerusalem and in Judaea, the prophecies of Isaiah, charged with the “burdens” of these prosperous nations, would come as a Divine consolation, and would say to them, “Do not confine your thoughts to that only which you can at present see; take in the future; view things in the larger light of him who has all men and nations in his control, and the long ages in which to work his purposes.” Isaiah shows them that sin is sin everywhere, it carries its tremendous consequences everywhere. Delays are, everywhere, but the long-suffering patience of God that loudly calls to repentance. For the unrepentant everywherecall him Gentile or call him Jew, be he covenanted or be he uncovenantedthere is only a “fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” But these prophecies were intended to be a power upon the many as well as upon the few. The many were heedless and blind, puffed up with their apparent security. For long years the warnings of their earlier national history had been neglected. In their self-security they had even ceased to fear the “Judge of all the earth.” To them there came the voice as of a man rapt in sublime vision: “I see the burden of Babylon. Exalted to heaven in privilege; thrust down to hell in disgrace, I see the place of Babylon. Behold, it is not: the hand of the Lord hath swept it away.” “Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand: it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.”
II. AS GREAT AND PROMINENT NATIONS, GOD‘S DEALINGS WITH THEM CARRY LESSONS FOR ALL AFTER GENERATIONS. In order to reach us with helpful moral influences, God finds it necessary to set the little matters concerning the progress of our little life in large before us in the histories of nations. A nation is, as it were, a man whose entire life-course can be watched through from childhood to decay. The invisible things of morals may be made manifest in the visible scenes of history. An old divine has the following remark: “God can punish nations in this world, but for the punishment of individuals he wants both this world and the next.” We live such brief lives here on earth that we cannot get extensive and worthy ideas of the issues of sin from studying merely our own experiences. Nor can we, even from the most striking cases of individual suffering, as a result of sin, discern the full majesty of the Divine indignation. But the life of a nation can be set forth in its completeness; it is a finished whole. We can read the story of Babylon and Tyre, from cradle to grave. The life of a nation is long enough for us to trace in its history its growth, its sin, its fall, and its woe. And the calamities that come at last upon sinful nations are figured in such aspects of terror as to create the profoundest impression on us. This may be illustrated by the Persian overthrow of Babylon, or the Roman siege of Jerusalem, or the manifest decay of the Turkish empire in our own times.
1. From this subject we learn to have faith in God about the nations of the earth. God has set England in the very midst of the world-kingdoms, very much as he set old Canaan in the center of the great ancient empires, on purpose that we might be a gracious power on them, and learn wise lessons from them. God is painting truth for us in his dealings with them. And God’s ways, whether in the small for individuals, or in the large for nations, are ways of chastisement, are instinct with love; are intended to do them good. in their latter end. So we may have faith in God concerning the nations of the earth.
2. And we learn to have faith in God about a true and godly life. If we only see lives in the little, as Asaph did, who wailed out the seventy-third psalm, we may easily be bewildered. But see lives in the large, in the mass, and then we are assured that iniquity never flourishes through; at the last it always “biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” Many a man dies without the suffering and punishment exhausting itself. But a nation never dies without the sin-degradations and the sin-judgments being plain to view upon it. It is true, forever true, that “righteousness tendeth unto life.” Sin is simply a tremendous, awful burden, more than any man can bear, such as no man can bear away. Kept, it must crush unto wounding and woe. Somehow, somewhere, outside ourselves, we must find a sin-bearer, who can carry our sin away.R.T.
Isa 14:9
The Hebrew conception of Sheol.
Henderson says, “In this verse the state of the dead is represented as thrown into great agitation, on its being announced that the mighty King of Babylon is about to enter. Personages of the same rank, as the fittest to conduct the ceremony of his reception, and the most likely to sympathize with him, are selected to present themselves and address him on the occasion. They rise from their thrones of state on which they had been sittingperpetuating in mock majesty the pageant which they had exhibited while on earth.” “Sheol is here used collectively of the entire population of shades. The word means first a grave, or individual sepulcher, and then the grave as a general receptacle, indiscriminately occupied by all the dead without respect to character.” In its further signification it means the abode of disembodied souls, and these are regarded poetically as retaining not only a form, but a position also, analogous to that which they had on earth. It is an interesting and important, though a difficult question, how far we may regard Holy Scripture as colored by the common conceptions of a future state in ancient times. We need not regard such conceptions as tree, because they belonged rather to the imaginations of men than to the revelations of God. The subject may profitably be discussed under the following headings; but little or no treatment is suggested, because different conclusions are reached by different schools of theologians.
I. On the nature and occupations of the future state, or condition of the dead, no precise revelations were made in olden times.
II. Men seem to have been left to fashion the future by their own imaginations. The general line of thought seems to have been started by Egyptian notions concerning the dead; but each nation put its characteristic seal upon its eschatology.
III. There is a very real sense in which “life and immortality have been brought to light” by Jesus Christ.
IV. But the light he sheds falls rather on the character of the future than on the form of it. He meets all that man actually requires to know; he satisfies man in nothing that he too curiously seeks to know. The essence of Christ’s revelation of the future is, that moral goodness is crowned with everlasting blessedness.R.T.
Isa 14:12
The ambitious spirit in man.
The word “Lucifer” means the “light-bringer,” and so has been in modern times associated with our matches. As standing in this text, it has often been taken as a synonym for Satan; but it really is a highly poetical description of the King of Babylon, and the Babylonian empire is in Scripture represented as the type of the ambitions, aspiring, tyrannical, and self-idolizing power. Isa 14:13 gives the supreme boasting of this king: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” “Babylon had shone forth in the dawn of. the world’s history with surprising luster, but was perverted by self-admiration.” It should be remembered that the ancient Oriental notion was that kings were incarnations of the Divine, and everything was done to sustain this sentiment. We have evidence of this as regards Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia, Such a sentiment must have fostered national ambition to an extravagant height. Treating the King of Babylon as a type, we consider the general subject of the “ambitious spirit in man,” observing
I. THAT IT IS THE SPRING– OF ENTERPRISE. The true spring of human enterprise should be loyalty and devotion to God. Next to that we place supreme desire for the well-being of others, the “enthusiasm of humanity.” But these have been made to give place, and self-interests have fashioned the ambitions which have inspired men to heroic and persevering deeds, in all the various spheres of life. Illustrate, from commerce, science, travel, literature, and extension of kingdoms. Ambition has been the source of achievement and the spirit of progress. It may be shown how far it has thus proved an element in the well-being of the race. Without ambition the world could never have been won for man.
II. IT IS ALSO A CONDITION OF INDIVIDUAL GROWTH. Without it a man remains in the educational anti intellectual range of his class, and the social sphere in which he was born. Illustrate from the farm-laborer, who, through a long life, plods on his simple way, attaining nothing, because utterly lacking the inspiration of ambition. The spread of education is chiefly important for thisit shows higher levels, and starts ambition. A man ceases to grow when he ceases to aspire. And the infinite perfection of God is the sublime height set before us. We may all grow on until we have become like him.
III. IT IS THE SPIRIT IN MAN TO WHICH RELIGION APPEALS. Religion finds it crushed down into hopelessness, and it touches it, quickening it into new vigor and hope. Religion finds it diverted to base and merely self-seeking ends, and it brings it back to the right lines, and makes it noble and self-denying. Man, made in the image of God, and made for God, must want to reach God. Religion sets God before himso attractively in the person of the Lord Jesusthat the ambitions are drawn in, and become one supreme ambition to be worthy sons and devoted servants of the Lord God Almighty. The Christian ought to be the most ambitious of all men. A Christian without his sacred ambitious does no honor to his name.
IV. IT IS THE SPIRIT IN MAN WHICH MUST BE KEPT UNDER STRICT LIMITATIONS. Because ambition so soon and so easily gets beyond self-controlthe control of the sanctified selfand becomes self-willed, self-seeking; a mere striving to attain, whether God will have us attain or not. Then ambition is like that of the King of Babylon, and it must bring us under Divine arrestings, checkings, and judgments. The law of limitation is, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” There is no fear for the influence of any ambitions that come after, this first and supreme one. The sin and folly of men’s usual ambitions lie in their putting God last. It is with them “all of self, and none of thee.”R.T.
Isa 14:21
Children suffering for the fathers.
The idea finding poetical expression here is, that the judgments of God necessarily fall on the last membersthe children-of a corrupt and wicked dynasty. It is in the public and open administrations of providence, it is in the events and circumstances and history of this world, and not in the secret dealings of God with each individual soul, that the law of this text applies. For the sake of moral influence upon the whole race, children are seen to suffer for their parents’ wrongdoing. But no children can bear, before God, the burden of their parents’ guilt. The law of the children suffering, generation after generation, belongs to the solidarity of the race. But that is a purely material conception. Souls are individual, and every soul must bear entirely its own burden. It may share, it can share, no one else’s. “So, then, each one of us must give account of himself to God.” This truth may be fully illustrated along the following line.
I. CHILDREN SUFFERING FOR THE FATHERS IS A PHYSICAL LAW. Much has recently been discovered concerning the law of heredity, but only the fringe of a great subject has yet been touched. No greater calamity rests on men than the bodily bias and tendency given by diseased or degraded parentage. The familiar illustration is drunkenness; the fact equally applies to other sins.
II. CHILDREN SUFFERING FOR THE FATHERS IS A MORAL CONDITION. That is, as an established and recognized fact it is designed to be a moral power on parents. It is a persuasion to righteousness for the children’s sake. No higher moral force on affectionate natures can be provided than this consideration, “You physically injure those whom you love best, if you are self-indulgent.”
III. CHILDREN SUFFERING FOR THE FATHERS IS A DIVINE JUDGMENT. Striking men in one of their tenderest places. Men would bear an extreme of suffering, if they might bear it all themselves; but it is terrible to think that they drag their children under, and the weight will crush them. Only let us see quite clearly, that it is the disability and the suffering of sin, but not the guilt of it, which thus passes from generation to generation.R.T.
Isa 14:24
The security of the Divine Word.
Cheyne translates, “Sworn has Jehovah Sabaoth, saying, Surely, according as I have planned, so shall it be; and according as I have purposed, that shall stand.” God here declares that it is his fixed and unalterable purpose to destroy Assyria. And who can stop the fulfillment of the Divine Word? In answer to this question, we say
I. CAN NATURAL FORCES? No, for that was settled when the Red Sea parted asunder, and made a highway for God’s people.
II. CAN NATURAL EVENTS? No, for that was settled in the wilderness. Such commonplace things as murmurings and rebellions could destroy a particular generation, but could not keep Israel out of Canaan.
III. CAN INDIVIDUAL MEN? No, for that was settled in Nebuchadnezzar, who had to learn, by humiliation, that God’s will would have to be done.
IV. CAN COMBINED MAN? No, for that was settled when the kings of Canaan joined to oppose God’s advancing hosts, and were swept away, before them, like a summer cloud before the sun.
Nobody and nothing can stop the fulfillment of God’s Word. We may go with it, the flood will carry us with it, like helpless logs, if we struggle to oppose. But the Word and will of God are always righteous, beneficent, and good; so it is well that they should abide.R.T.
Isa 14:32
Zion a safety for the poor.
Take Zion as a type of Christ’s Church in all the ages. It should be a shelter for the poor in the following five senses which may be attached to the word.
I. In the sense of the ignorant.
II. In the sense of the meek.
III. In the sense of the yoking.
IV. In the sense of the persecuted.
V. In the sense of the doubting.
Every age is, in one form or another, a troublous age for all earnest souls. The Church is ever the abiding earth-shelter, type and suggestion of that soul-rest in God which the poorin every sensemay always find.R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 14:1. For the Lord will have mercy The prophet here continues his discourse concerning Babylon, wherein we have a continuation of the prophesy concerning the fall of the Babylonish empire and its rulers, Isa 14:1-23 and a prophesy interwoven, concerning the great slaughter which the king of Assyria should meet with on the mountains of Israel; Isa 14:24-27 the former part describes, first, the fruit or consequence of the fall of Babylon; that is to say, the perfect deliverance of the people of God; Isa 14:1-3 and secondly, continues the prediction concerning the fall of the Babylonish kings, Isa 14:4-20 and the destruction of Babylon, Isa 14:21-23. This chapter is not only connected with that preceding by the particle for, but by the argument in the last clause; her time is near to come, &c. A reason, therefore, is here given, not only for the fall of Babylon, but also for the speedy approach of that fall, which was not to be delayed, because the deliverance of the church, determined by God, depended upon it. These verses exhibit to us as well the antecedent as the consequent blessings to be conferred upon the people of God after the fall of Babylon; which the prophet piously considers in their cause; namely, the mercy of JEHOVAH. The antecedent benefits are three; 1. The choosing of the house of Jacob. 2. The placing of them in their own land. 3. Rest from grief, fear, and the hard bondage of former times (Isa 14:3.). The consequent benefits are also threefold: 1st, the joining of proselytes to the people of God, by the communion of the same religion, Isa 14:1. 2nd, The offices of humanity, charity, and benevolence, to be shewn them by certain people, who should bring them to their own place, Isa 14:2. 3rdly, The hereditary possession of many nations who had vexed them, joined with dominion over them, Isa 14:2. There can be no doubt that this prophesy refers to the restoration of the Jews after the Babylonish captivity; but as that restoration was figurative of their great and future one under the Gospel, these words, most likely, have a remote reference hereto. See Rom 15:27.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2. THE DELIVERANCE OF ISRAEL
Isa 14:1-2
1For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob,
And will yet choose Israel,
And set them in their own land:
And the strangers shall be joined with them,
And they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2And 1the people shall take them, and bring them to their place:
And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord
For servants and handmaids:
And 2they shall take them captives, 3whose captives they were;
And they shall rule over their oppressors.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Isa 14:1. . comp. Isa 28:2; Isa 46:7. as to sense and construction like Isa 56:3; Isa 56:6, where alone the word occurs again in this sense.Niph. only here. Comp. Hithp. 1Sa 26:19 and on Isa 37:30.
Isa 14:2. Hithp. in Isa. only here.The accusative depends on the transitive notion that is latent in the reflexive form. Comp. Num 33:54 and often. The expression occurs only here. But comp. Isa 14:25; Joe 1:6; 4:2; Jer 2:7, etc.. Comp. 1Ki 8:46-50. in Isa. only here, Isa 14:6; Isa 41:2 (Hiph.).. Comp. Isa 3:12; Isa 9:3; Isa 60:17.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The reason for the destruction of Babylon described in Isa 13:14-22 is here indicated by the Prophet to be the intention of Jehovah to have mercy again on His people, and bring them back into their land. That shall take place by the glad consent and even active co-operation of the heathen nations. These will join themselves to Israelin fact lead Israel into their own land (Isa 14:1). Israel will then have them for servants and maids, and will hold those in prison who before devoted them to such a fate (Isa 14:2).
2. For the Lordtheir oppressors.
Isa 14:1-2. Though Israels deliverance is not the sole motive of the Lord in destroying Babylon, it is yet a chief motive. Isaiah in the second part, and Jeremiah in the denunciations of judgments (Jeremiah 50, 51) that connect so closely with the present and the later prophecies of Isaiah on this subject, frequently declare that Babylons fall is to be Israels deliverance (e.g., Jer 50:4 sqq., Jer 50:8 sqq., Jer 50:28; Jer 51:6, Jer 50:36 sqq., Jer 50:45 sqq.). The adhesion of strangers, who would be witnesses of the mighty deeds of Jehovah in judging and delivering, is a trait that the second return from bondage will have in common with the first (Exo 12:19; Exo 12:38; Num 11:4, etc.). And the people shall take them, etc.It is more exactly explained that this adhesion of strangers will not be to seek protection, but to form an honorable and serviceable attendance as friends and admirers. This is a thought that often recurs in the second part of Isa 44:5; Isa 49:22 sq.; Isa 55:5; Isa 60:4-9 sq., This notion that strangers should amicably attend Israel and then be enslaved for it occasions offence. But the heathen will only display this friendliness constrained thereto by the mighty deeds of Jehovah. And even if the Old Testament knows of a conversion of the heathen to Jehovah (Hos 2:23; Isa 65:1; comp. Rom 9:24 sqq.; Isa 10:18 sqq.)yet, from the Old Testament view-point, there remains ever such a chasm between Israel and even the converted heathen that for the latter no other position was conceivable than that of those strangers who went along to Canaan out of Egypt or the desert, or of the Canaanites that remained (1Ki 9:20 sq). This is a consequence of that fleshly consciousness of nobility of which Israel was full. Only by Christ could that chasm be bridged over, in whom there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision (Gal 5:6; Gal 3:28; Rom 10:12). [The simple meaning of this promise seems to be that the church or chosen people and the other nations should change places, the oppressed becoming the oppressor, and the slave the master. This of course admits both an external and internal fulfilment. In a lower sense and on a smaller scale it was accomplished in the restoration of the Jews from exile; but its full accomplishment is yet to come, not with respect to the Jews as a people, for their pre-eminence has ceased forever, but with respect to the church, including Jews and Gentiles, which has succeeded to the rights and privileges, promises and actual possessions of Gods ancient people. The true principle of exposition is adopted even by the Rabbins. Jarchi refers the promise to the future, to the period of complete redemption. Kimchi more explicitly declares that its fulfilment is to be sought partly in the restoration from Babylon, and partly in the days of the Messiah. J. A. Alex.in loc.]
Footnotes:
[1]Or, nations.
[2]Or, they shall be captors of their captors.
[3]Heb. that had taken them captives.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This chapter is explanatory of the former. The Lord showeth the causes of Babylon’s ruin, to avenge the cause of his people, and to punish their enemies.
Isa 14:1
What a beautiful opening is here! And now while we are enabled to read the prophecies, unfolded and fulfilled in Christ, how is the whole explained to our clearest apprehension! Reader! though the final accomplishment of this prophecy refers to the restoration of the Jews, when all the Gentiles shall be gathered in, yet the Lord’s mercy to his people, whom he foreknew, is all along carried on, from age to age, in the Church, and is uniformly spoken of as the one great object of his providence and grace!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 14:8
Ruskin says on this text: ‘Consider such expressions as that tender and glorious verse in Isaiah, speaking of the cedars on the mountains as rejoicing over the fall of the king of Assyria: “Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art gone down to the grave, no feller is come up against us.” See what sympathy there is here, as if with the very hearts of the trees themselves.’
References. XIV. 9. D. Biggs, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. 1901, p. 315. XIV. 32. F. E. Paget, Sermons for Special Occasions, p. 65. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlv. No. 2612.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Burden of Babylon
Isaiah 13-14
It is well that there are some men who see what may be called the more majestic and overpowering aspects of God. Some of us are afraid almost to utter the great words which properly belong to the deity as descriptive of his nature and attributes and government. Herein what a wonderful difference there is between the Old Testament and the New, between the Hebrew and the Greek! Neither is sufficient alone: some men never look at the sky; they look only at the earth; others are not satisfied with looking at what is under their feet, they must with eager yet reverent eyes search the mystery of the heavens. We need all kinds of revelation in order that we may approximate to an idea concerning God’s nature, so wondrous, yet so simple; so lifted up above all time and space as known to us, and yet walking by our very sides, and tabernacling within us as an invited guest.
This is called “The Burden of Babylon.” Whenever we find the word burden in this association it means oracle, a speech of doom; it is never connected with blessing, hope, enlarged opportunity, or expanded liberty; it always means that judgment is swiftly coming, and may at any moment burst upon the thing that is doomed. “Which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.” We have ventured to lay it down that there is a genius of Biblical interpretation, that things are not to be taken always in their literal and most obvious and superficial sense. This doctrine cannot be proved by one single instance; we must search the whole record in order to seize this doctrine as a possession which enables us to open many a door in the great wall, built of gold and jasper, of revelation. “Which Isaiah did see.” How did he see it? The word “see” needs to be defined every day. Blind men may see. We do not see with the eyes only, else truly we should see very little; the whole body becomes an eye when it is full of light, and they who are holiest see farthest: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Men see morally, intellectually, sympathetically, as well as visually. How could Isaiah see this burden of Babylon when it did not fall upon the proud city for two centuries? Is there, then, no annihilation of time and space? Are we the mean prisoners we thought ourselves to be? is it so, that we are caged round by invisible iron, and sealed down by some oppressive power, or blinded by some arbitrary or cruel shadow? We might see more if we looked in the right direction; we might be masters of the centuries if we lived with God. Isaiah is never weary of saying that he saw what he affirms. He does not describe it as having been seen by some other man; having written his record he signs it, or having begun to deliver his prophecy he writes it as a man writes his will; he begins by asserting that it is his testament, his own very witness, for he was there, saw it, and he accepts the responsibility of every declaration.
“Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain” ( Isa 13:2 ). Does that mean geographically high? Not necessarily. Here again we have need to commit ourselves to the genius of Biblical interpretation. The high mountain is really a bare mountain, not bearded with a forest, not tufted with a few trees, with which the banner might be confused, but a bare, bald, rock-like height, where nothing is to be seen but the uplifted banner of God. Truly, in Christian warfare we might learn something from military enterprise. Have we put our banner in the right place? It is not enough to have a banner, we must be careful where we plant it; it may be mistaken for a tree, it may get entangled among the branches of great oaks or cedars: it is not enough to have a light, we must put it on the candlestick, and set it on the table, and not cover it with a bushel so that the darkness may be unrelieved by its presence: it is not enough to have intelligence, we must properly display it, use it for the benefit of those who are not so intelligent as we are: it is not enough to have schools, we must set the doors wide open, and compel the ignorant to enter that they may return from the sanctuary of wisdom instructed and mentally fortified: it is not enough to have a church, we must open every door and every window, and bid all the people welcome the more wicked, the more welcome; the more ignorant, if willing to learn, the more desired with the solicitude of sympathy and interest. “Shake the hand” ( Isa 13:2 ). Is that a common signification? Is it to be read as the words would be read to-day in describing social approaches and intercourses? The word is a military word, and it signifies an emphatic gesture of the hand, so that there may be no mistake as to the place indicated: the index-fingers seems long enough to reach the top of the mountain, and to point out the very locality which the banner is to occupy. In military exploits men are not afraid of emphasis: how much afraid we are of it in the Church! The children of this world are wiser than the children of light. When men are determined upon conquering a position with guns and swords, they go about it as if they meant to conquer. How is the Church going about the conversion of the world to-day? Hardly going about the work at all, mumbling where it should roar, giving vague directions where it should give specific indications. Carlyle has said we are lost in many enterprises for want of emphasis. And there may be emphasis which is not properly distributed. We may be earnest about little things instead of great things: “Thy servant was busy here and there,” and the king passed by; not, Thy servant was slothful, slumbering, but was busy “here and there,” and it is impossible for any man to be busy both here and there. That is the difficulty of misdirected effort, ill-spent vigour, and vain earnestness, that men do not keep to the line, they are not found constantly at the point: they are preaching in Genesis in the morning and in Timothy in the evening; therefore the Bible is scattered, broken up; its continuity is lost, its pressure ceases to be one of the master-forces in life. Yet do not the people love the emphatic gesture, the soldier who knows the gate he means to take? Do they not applaud him in their journals, and celebrate him in their songs? Is it to be so, that only the Church is to be wanting in fervour, in military precision, in dignity and constancy, in warfare and instruction?
“That they may go into the gates of the nobles” ( Isa 13:2 ). The strongest gates are to be broken down. The great judgments of God do not seek little postern entrances; they are royal judgments, and must enter by royal ways. There are gates in parks and in castles which are only opened when the monarch approaches. God is the Monarch, and when he comes we must open the central gates gates passed only by the nobles and the crowned ones of the land. “The nobles.” Aristocracy, then, is of some antiquity; not by any possibility of such high antiquity as the common people. But the word “lord,” as used in ordinary speech, is a word we would not willingly let die, if we could keep it to its first meanings. It comes by abbreviation from an old Saxon word, laford , and laford comes from an old Saxon verb which means to sustain, to succour. When our lords are succourers we will never violate their house, meet where they may. When the greatest are the kindest they can never be dispossessed. The time has come by the agency of Christian thought and sympathy when men must vindicate their claim to every primacy by their wisdom, their goodness, their fitness, their moral quality. To bring back words to their first meanings is like bringing back prodigals to their father’s house, that they may have rings on their fingers, shoes on their feet, and be clothed with the best robe. Herein every one can have a great title. When the emulation is to exceed one another in kindness, charity, love, sympathy, then the world will be occupied by one class by the very aristocracy of heaven.
Isaiah says ( Isa 13:5 ): “They come from a far country, from the end of heaven.” What a small solar system Isaiah had! He had great advantages in his vision of the Eternal; when he describes God we are touched by the majesty of his description; but when he talks about “a far country” and “from the end of heaven” we long for some little boy of our own common schools to teach him a little about geography. This is good, and most helpful to a right interpretation of the Bible; this brings us to its high point, to the things it means at all times and under all circumstances. This shows the fearlessness of truth; it will occupy any instrument, or use any medium we can supply; it attaches itself to the intelligence of the day, and uses that for purposes of enlightenment and progress. Who can tell where is the end of heaven? The destruction which is to fall upon Babylon is to come as a destruction from the Almighty. Here is a curious play upon words, which, as the old commentators would say, cannot be Englished. The word “Almighty” here means “the destroyer.” In the original language it is almost a pun, a play upon syllables and tones, “it shall come as a destruction from the destroyer.” How seldom is the word “Almighty” used in connection with the tender aspects of the divine nature; power would always seem to have been associated with thoughts of judgment, penalty, sovereignty of a stern and exacting kind. In this sense the word is found eight times in the Pentateuch, and twenty-three times in the Book of Job alone. All we can do with a prophecy of this kind is to find out its central principle, which belongs to all ages and to all countries. The prophecy brings God before us as the God of nations. That is a thought which we seldom realise. We fix our unit in the individual. So does God, but he also uses the unit as descriptive of a totality. Babylon is a unit; yea, Assyria, of which Babylon was part the haughty capital is a unit; so Media, Egypt, Damascus, Syria. Always understand what the unit is that God is speaking about sometimes an individual, sometimes a country, sometimes a world, sometimes the universe. A unit is more than one. It is one literally, but there may be a unit of simplicity and a unit of complexity. God handles the nations as single entities: Babylon counts one, Nineveh counts one, every nation is a one; they are millions in the detail, but God lifts up the nation in its unity, examines it, judges it, sentences it, in its unity. Are we not accustomed to the same method of dealing with great questions? Do we not invest a nation with a character? How would the nation of the Jews have been described in olden times? How would the health of England or America or any other country be now stated? As if the country were but one individual. Who hestitates to speak about the function of a whole people, assigning one function to the Roman character, and a totally distinct function to the Greek instinct and culture? We ourselves, therefore, speak as God speaks of nations in their unity. A very mysterious thought this, and full of urgent instruction and suggestiveness. A metropolis may be pronounced healthy, as we have already seen, when there are hundreds of dying men in it. So there are two standards of judgment, or two views and aspects, under which questions may be considered. Say, for example, London is the healthiest city in the empire. That might be met by the assurance that indisputable statistics prove that in London at the very time of the declaration of its healthfulness there are five thousand men whose lives are despaired of. Yet the statement regarding the sanitary condition of the metropolis may be perfectly right. So we speak of England, or some other country, being honest, inspired by a spirit of equity, or honour, or courage. When a country with such a character issues a loan, all the eagles of the earth come down upon it at once. Why? Because of the character which lies behind. The word is the bond. If a country with a great character has made a proposal, the proposal will be carried out, come what may. Whoever, therefore, helps the improvement of individual character, helps the elevation of all the best national characteristics. To work for a child is to work for the nation; to work in the Sunday-school is to amend the national reputation. Thus we operate together, and co-operate with God, and the great purpose is to turn the burden into a blessing.
God is also represented as the destroyer of nations “Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt” ( Isa 13:7 ). How terrible is this! But this is not the worst. There is a purposed cruelty which the Almighty infuses into his judgments when he has to deal with a people like the cities of Babylon; he says: “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it” ( Isa 13:9 ). The word “cruelty” is not withheld. It may startle us and shock us until we come to the explanatory word, which is also to be found in the document. We must not stop at the adjective, we must go in quest of the substantive which has brought it into relation, and which it either qualifies or is explained by. Our inquiry must be: On whom will God visit a cruel judgment? And if the answer is, as it will be found to be in the succeeding chapter, we shall find that the words are well balanced, and that the way of the Lord is equal, and that the word “cruelty,” which seems to be so undivine, is really the only word that could have been used with propriety and precision under circumstances so unparalleled and so exciting.
The destructions of the Lord will be executed on an infinite scale “for the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine”; and God “will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” How often is this text misunderstood! How many times has it been explained as meaning the value which God sets upon a man, or the value which man will one day set upon man, because of the creation of humanity in the image and likeness of God. That thought itself is right, but it has no relation whatever to this particular text. Let us read the text, then, in the light of the history. So tremendous and complete shall be the devastation that shall fall upon Babylon that it will be hardly possible anywhere to find a man, and his rarity shall indicate his preciousness. Because the men are so few the greater will be the surprise that they are in existence at all; for when God caused his scythe to swing through the harvests of Babylon it was not expected that a single ear would be left in the devastated field. Thus the utterance is a menace, a judgment; it is not part of a lecture upon the dignity of human nature, it is an illustration of the vastness of the sweep of the judgments of God. How complete is that devastation!
“And Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall be there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged” ( Isa 13:19-22 ).
You remember Milton’s description of what happened at the time of the flood: “And in their palaces, where luxury late reigned, sea-monsters whelped and stabled.” “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Oh, Babylon Pride where art thou when touched from above? The withering fire passes through all pomp until it burns the hidden root. All this we may say is historical and local. On the other hand, all this is moral and suggestive. This process may take place in the Babylon of the mind. The greatest mind is only safe whilst it worships. The most magnificent intellectual temple is only secure from the judgment and whirlwind of heaven in proportion as its altar is defended from the approach of every unworthy suppliant. If we hand over God’s altar, whether mental or ecclesiastical, to wrong custodians, or devote either to forbidden purposes, then make way for God’s judgments: wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and the houses that were full of beauty and colour and charm shall be full of doleful creatures; and the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. This may happen to any one of us. Beware of arrogancy, pride, worldliness, self-sufficiency; beware of the betrayal of trusts: nature will re-enter if we be unfaithful. We speak of our wisdom in putting cautionary covenants into all our legal documents, and especially a man assures himself that he is doubly safe when he has secured the right of re-entry under certain breaches of agreement; he says to himself with complacency, That is justifiable; I have arranged that in the event of certain things failing I shall re-enter. Nature always puts that clause into her covenants. She re-enters in a moment. If the gardener is too late by one day with his spade or seed or other attention, nature begins to re-enter; and if he tarry for a week he will find that nature has made great advances into the property. It is so with education, with the keeping up of intelligence, with the maintenance of healthy discipline; relax a month, and nature re-enters, and nature plays the spoiler. Nature is not a thrifty, careful husbandman. Nature has a function of desolation; she will grow weeds in your richest flower-beds if you neglect them for a day. God re-enters by the spirit of judgment and by the visitations of anger. Herein his providence is but in harmony with the kingdom which he has instituted within the sphere which we call husbandry, and even within the sphere which we denominate by education or discipline. It is one government. Neglect your music for a month, and you will find at the end that nature has re-entered, and you are not wanted; you have not brought with you the wedding-garment of preparation up to date. There must be no intermission; the last line must be filled in. Nature will not have things done in the bulk, in the gross: nature will not allow us simply to write the name; she will weave her webwork all round the garment if we have neglected the borders, and paid attention to only the middle parts.
And how does God justify all this treatment of Babylon? We find the answer in the fourteenth chapter; he says the Babylonians were oppressors, and Babylon was an oppressor, and Babylon was the staff of the wicked. That is the explanation, and God’s explanation is always moral. God never judges men because they have been good, nor smites them because of overmuch prayer; wherever we find the record of judgment we find a record of disobedience, rebellion, haughtiness. How terrible is the fate of the wicked! He shall be mocked in his later time; they who were already on the ground shall receive him on the dust, and say:
“All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” ( Isa 14:10-14 ).
Now we see the quantity with which God had to deal, and also the justice of his judgment and the wisdom of the very cruelty which plagued an arrogancy which nothing else could touch. You do not appease a tiger by sprinkling scented water upon his open mouth. You must deal with cases as you find them, taking a complete measure of them, and understanding all the forces in them and exercised by them; and so judged it will be found that God, whilst a consuming fire, is also a God of love. The eye that looked upon the Egyptians struck off the iron wheels of their chariots: that same eye, looked at from the position occupied by Israel, made morning and warmth and comfort and security infinite. God is to us what we are to God: to the froward he will show himself froward; to the good he will show himself good. This is the abiding and the unchangeable law. If we were wise with the superior yea, the supreme wisdom we should consider that the first thing to be done is to set ourselves in a right relation to God; then all the other relations will fall into their proper place. A quaint old critic has said that if the treble string of the viol be right, he knows that the rest will be right: the bass seldom gets wrong; he looks for the treble string. Out of that we may gather some lessons of a spiritual kind. Look for the religious line in a man’s character for his veneration, his reverence, his sense of moral dignity and moral responsibility; and if his heart be right toward God he may have his little eccentricities and vanities, but all these will sink into nothingness before the power that can pray, and before the passion that can love.
Prayer
Almighty God, thou hast promised that death shall be swallowed up in victory. Thou canst not bear death. There is no death in God. The wages of sin is death: but thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thy Son hath abolished death, obliterated it, wiped it out, turned it into nothingness. The broad river is narrow now; men need not pass through it, they can step over it. How near is heaven! how close at hand the invisible! how all but within hand-reach all that we call heaven! We bless thee that in this little life we have hope of immortality. Corruption is not a constant companion. We look for the Lord Jesus, who shall change our common body and make it like unto his own glorious body; then when our citizenship in heaven is completed we shall walk with the saints in light, and do all thy will without reluctance and without weariness. These great anticipations make us strong even now, so that the valley is as a mountain, and the rough place as a road smoothed by God. Such are the miracles thou dost work in our consciousness and our experience, that we have no apprehension of time and space and sense and imprisonment and limitation, but are oftentimes with thy very self in the innermost, uppermost places, where the light never fades. We bless thee for all men who have gone down into the depths valiantly, who have sung in the deep places the song of the redeemed, and who have sent us messages in whispers that the rod and the staff of God can comfort the lone traveller in the darkest valley. This is enough. We are often affrighted, we carry our anticipated death like a burden and die many deaths even whilst we live; but for all sweet messages, all comforting assurances, all inspiring words, all exceeding great and precious promises, we thank God, for they are God’s word only. Grant us strength that we may do thy will; when we have accomplished thy purpose in our life upon the earth make the last time brief, and let us see our Lord, if it please thee, even with somewhat of suddenness. We pray always at the Cross. It is the altar on which no prayer dies, but every prayer is multiplied a thousandfold because of the pleading blood, the infinite, the eloquent Sacrifice. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XIV
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 6
Isaiah 13-23
This section is called “The Book of Foreign Prophecies,'” because it treats of the foreign nations in their relation to Judah and Israel.
There are ten foreign nations here mentioned, as follows: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Dumah, Arabia, and Tyre, with second prophecies against Egypt, Ethiopia, and Babylon, and one thrown in against Israel, Judah) Jerusalem, and Shebna, each. This Shebna was probably a foreigner. He was to be degraded from his high office and Eliakim was to take his place.
The radical critics assign to this section a much later date because of the distinctly predictive prophecies contained in it. There is no question that it reflects the condition of Babylon long after the time of Isaiah, and unless one believes heartily in supernatural revelations, the conclusion that it was written much later than the time of Isaiah, is unavoidable. The author accepts it as a prophecy of Isaiah and holds tenaciously to the theory of the unity of the book.
In Isaiah 13-23 the prophet gives us a series of judicial acts on various surrounding peoples, each of whom embodied some special form of worldly pride or ungodly self-will. But Asshur-Babel was conspicuous above all the rest. After fourteen centuries of comparative quiet, she was now reviving the idea of universal empire, notwithstanding the fact that Nimrod’s ruined tower stood as a perpetual warning against any such attempt. This was the divine purpose, that God might use it for his own instrument to chastise, both the various Gentile races, and especially his own people, Israel. This was the “hand that is stretched out upon all the nations” (Isa 14:26 ), to break up the fallow ground of the world’s surface, and prepare it for the good seed of the kingdom of God. Not only are these chapters (Isaiah 13-23) thus bound together inwardly, but they are also bound together outwardly by a similarity of title. We cannot detach Isaiah 13-14 from what has gone before without injury to the whole series, because
1. It is only in these chapters that we have the full antithesis to the mighty overflowing of the Assyrian deluge in Isaiah 7-8, and Isa 10 .
2.Isa 12 is a fit introduction to Isaiah 13-14, in that the deliverance of Zion, so briefly alluded to in Isa 12 , requires a further view of the enemies’ prostration, which these chapters supply. In Isa 14:2-27 we find the song of triumph analogous to Exo 15 , rather than in Isa 12 .
3.Isa 14:27 seems to be a fit termination of the section which began with Isa 7:1 .
4. There are many verbal links that connect these chapters with the preceding chapters. For example, take Isa 10:25 and Isa 13:3 ; Isa 10:27 and Isa 13:5 ; Isa 9:18 and Isa 13:13 , et multa al.
5. The complete cutting off of Ephraim foretold in Isa 7 requires a fuller revelation of the divine purpose concerning Asshur-Babylon, as its counterpoise and this is found in Isaiah 13-14.
From Isa 14:28 we infer that this prophecy was written toward the end of Ahaz’s reign. At that time spiritual darkness had won the conquest of the whole world. The “lamp of God” was now dark in his tabernacle. Hoshea, king of Israel, was the vassal of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Ahaz had long ago surrendered himself to Tiglath-pileser. So the light of prophecy, with such a background, was very luminous now. Assyria was at this time at the height of her power, but Isaiah tells with distinctness that Assyria shall be broken in pieces in the Holy Land, and it is certain that Assyria received just such a blow in the defeat of Sennacherib’s army.
The prophet also saw the doom of Babylon, the city which was at this time the real center of the empire. He even mentions the instruments of the destruction, commencing with the Medes, who were not at this time an independent nation. Nothing can be more definite than Isaiah’s statements as to the absolute ruin of the “Golden City,” which prediction at the time must have seemed to violate all probability. Yet we have abundant evidence that it was all fulfilled, both regarding the nearer event of its capture by the Medes and also the ultimate desolation of its site.
The significant word with which each of these prophecies opens is the word “burden” which has here its original and ordinary meaning. This original meaning of the word seems to be supplied from 2Ki 9:25 , where it is used to mean the divine sentence on Ahab: “Jehovah laid this burden upon him.” The appropriateness of its use here is in the fact that the prophecy to which it is prefixed is usually denunciatory in character, and always so in Isaiah. It is easy to see that it here means a grievous threatening oracle. It is claimed by some that this word is used elsewhere in a good sense, as in Zec 12:1 and Mal 1:1 , but upon close examination of these passages in their connection it will be seen that they are denunciatory and that the word has its primary meaning in these instances also.
The reason that Babylon was given first consideration among the enemies of God’s people seems to be the fact that a divine revelation came to Isaiah at this early date (725 B.C.) showing that Babylon was to be the great enemy to be feared, as the ultimate destroyer of Judah and Jerusalem, the power that would carry the Jewish people into captivity. The main points of the denunciation against her are as follows:
1. The instruments of God’s destruction of Babylon are the far-away nations, which God himself will assemble for this work of destruction (Isa 13:2-5 ).
2. The vivid description of the sweeping devastation, which is all inclusive in the objects of its vengeance (Isa 13:6-16 ).
3. The Medes are named as the instruments to begin this work, and the permanent effects of the desolation to follow (Isa 13:17-22 ).
4. The reason for all this is God’s favor to Jacob who had been oppressed by these foreigners (Isa 14:1-2 ).
5. Israel’s parable of exaltation over Babylon reciting their oppressive work and God’s intervention which humbled Babylon and exalted Israel (Isa 14:3-20 ).
6. The final announcement of Babylon’s doom and the permanency of its desolation (Isa 14:21-23 ).
The prophecy against Assyria under this first burden consists of God’s oath of assurance to his people that his purpose already foretold concerning Assyria should stand. Babylon in the first part of the prophecy is presented as the most formidable enemy of God’s people, but it had not yet become so fearful then. But Assyria was their dread at this time. So Isaiah comes nearer home to meet their present need and assures them that they need not fear the Assyrian for God’s purpose concerning him should stand.
There are several things in this burden that call for special consideration:
1. In Isa 13:2-5 the prophet speaks of the mustering of the host to battle as if it were then in the process of assembling, indicating the vividness of it all to the prophet’s mind as present, though it was only a vision of the future.
2. In Isa 13:3 Jehovah speaks of his “consecrated ones,” clearly referring to the Medes and Persians. Now in what sense were they “consecrated ones”? It means that they were the instruments of his purpose, set apart for the specific work of executing his judgment. They were consecrated, or set apart, by the Lord for this work though they themselves were ungongcious of the function they performed. There are many illustrations of such use of men by the Lord recorded in the Scriptures, two notable examples of which are Cyrua and Caesar Augustus.
3. In Isa 13:10 there is a reference to the darkening of the heavenly luminaries. This is an expression of Nature’s sympathy with the Lord. When he is angry, the lights of the heavens grow dark, as at the crucifixion of our Lord, and as it will be at the end of the world. So it is often the case in the time of great judgments. There seems also to be a special fitness in the expression here in view of the importance attached to the signs of the heavenly bodies by the Chaldeans at this time.
4. The desolation described in Isa 13:20-22 is witnessed by every traveler of today who passes the site of this once glorious and proud Babylon.
5. In Isa 14:9-11 we have the glad welcome given to these Babylonians in their entrance into the lower spirit world. The inhabitants of this region are represented as rising up to greet and welcome these unfortunate Babylonians. The idea of personal identity and continued consciousness after death is here assumed by the prophet.
6. In Isa 14:12 there is a back reference to the fall of Satan who, before his fall, was called Lucifer. Here Babylon in her fall is represented as Lucifer) the bright star of the morning from heaven. Our Saviour refers to the incident of Satan’s falling also in Luk 10:18 , and we have a like picture of him in Rev 12:7-9 , all of which must be considered in the light of the analogue of Satan’s fall when he sinned and was cast out of heaven.
7. In Isa 14:25 Jehovah says he will “break the Assyrian in his land,” which refers to the destruction of Sennacherib’s host from which Assyria never recovered. In Isa 14:26 the Lord explains that Assyria was the hand that he had stretched out for chastisements upon the nations of the world as they were related to Judah and Israel.
The series of burdens from Isa 14:28-23:18 may be viewed as an unrolling of the “purpose concerning the whole earth,” just mentioned in Isa 14:26 . Though the prophet stands on his watchtower and turns his eye around to the different points of the horizon and surveys the relation in which each nation stands to the advancing judgment, his addresses to the nations must be thought of as chiefly meant for the warning and comfort of Israel, which had too often adopted the sins of those whom she was meant to sanctify.
The burden of prophecy against Philistia is a warning to Philistia, following closely upon the death of Tiglath-pileser which brought great rejoicing to Philistia, because they thought the rod that smote them was broken. The prophet here reminds them that out of the serpent’s root there would come forth the adder. In other words, there would arise from Assyria an enemy far more deadly than the one who had been cut off, and instead of being a mere serpent he would be a fiery flying serpent. The reference is, probably, to Sargon who took Ashdod, made the king of Gaza prisoner and reduced Philistia generally to subjection. At this time the poor of Israel would feed safely, but Philistia was to be reduced by famine and the remnant slain by the Assyrians who are here referred to as “a smoke out of the north.” Then God’s people will answer Philistia’s messengers that Jehovah had founded Zion and in her the afflicted would take refuge.
Some critics say that the bulk of the prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) is quoted by Isaiah from an earlier writer, and that he merely modified the wording and added a few touches here and there. To this we answer that speculations of this kind are in the highest degree uncertain and lead to no results of any importance whatever. What matters it whether Isaiah quoted or not? There is no proof that he did and it makes no difference if be did. The author will contend that Isaiah was the original author of these two chapters until the critics produce at least some proof that he quoted from an earlier author.
A brief outline of these two chapters is as follows:
1. A vivid picture of Moab’s overthrow (Isa 15 ).
2. Moab exhorted to flee to the house of David for shelter, but refuses to make the right use of his affliction (Isa 16:1-12 ).
3. A confirmation of the prophecy and its speedy fulfilment (Isa 16:13-14 ).
For the picture of Moab’s overthrow the reader may read Isa 15 . It is a vivid account of this overthrow and cannot be well improved upon.
In Isa 16:1-5 we have an exhortation to Moab to take refuge with the house of David. Perhaps there is here an implication that Moab is not safe in his relation to Israel but that there would be safety for him if he would take shelter under the wings of Judah. Anyhow, there is a promise to Moab that he might find shelter and security, if only he would comply with the conditions herein set forth. But the pride of Moab was the cause of his downfall, which was utterly complete and accompanied by great wailing (Isa 16:6-8 ).
The prophet was moved to pity and tears for Moab upon witnessing such desolation and sadness as should come to this people. No gladness, no joy, no singing, and no joyful noise was to be found in his borders (Isa 16:9-12 ). Such a prophetic sight of Jerusalem made Jeremiah the weeping prophet and moved the blessed Son of God to tears. “Your house is left unto you desolate” is the weeping wail of our Lord as he saw the sad fate of the Holy City.
The time set here by the prophet for the humiliation of Moab is exactly three years, strictly measured, as a hireling would measure the time for which he would receive his pay, the fulfilment of which cannot be determined with certainty because we do not have the exact date of the prophecy, nor do we know which one of the different invasions that would fulfil the conditions is really meant. Considering the date given in Isa 14:28 we may reasonably conclude that the date of this prophecy was in the first or second year of Hezekiah’s reign, and may have had its fulfilment by Shalmaneser, who besieged Samaria in the fourth year of the reign of Hezekiah, sending a detachment to these eastern parts of the country.
It is said that Damascus has been destroyed and rebuilt oftener than any other Eastern city. This may account for the fact that Damascus, treated so severely by Tiglath-pileser, was again in a position to attract the attention of Shalmaneser when he advanced against Samaria. In the time of Jeremiah the city had been rebuilt, but we do not hear of any more kings of Damascus.
The burden of prophecy against Damascus includes two prophecies concerning Israel and Judah and one concerning Ethiopia, and the main points of this prophecy are the ruin of Damascus (Isa 17:1-3 ) ; only a remnant left to Jacob who would look to Jehovah, because he had forgotten the God of his salvation (Isa 17:4-11 ) ; the multitude of the heathen invaders suddenly destroyed (Isa 17:12-14 ) ; Ethiopia’s interest in these movements, and her homage to Jehovah according to which she sends a present to him (Isa 18:1-7 ).
There are several things in this burden that need special attention:
1. The language referring to the overthrow of Damascus is not to be pressed too far. Damascus was besieged and temporarily destroyed, but it revived. See Jer 49:23-27 ; Eze 27:18 ; and the New Testament references. Damascus is still a city of importance.
2. In Isa 17:12-14 we have an account of the sudden destruction of the Assyrian army which was literally fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib’s host (2Ki 19:35-37 ).
3. There is some controversy as to what nation is referred to in Isa 18:2 ; Isa 18:7 , but it is surprising that there should be such controversy, since the evidence is overwhelming that the nation here mentioned was Ethiopia. This is a region south of Egypt and far up the Nile. The inhabitants, though black, were not ignorant and weak, but a nation of vigor and influence in the days of Isaiah. Cf. the Abyssinians.
4. The act of homage to Jehovah by Ethiopia as mentioned in Isa 18:7 is not given and therefore not easily determined and can be ascertained only with some probability. There is evidence that Ethiopia was intensely interested in the downfall of Sennacherib which is prophesied in this connection, therefore, it is probable that the present was sent to Jehovah in connection with Ethiopia’s alliance with Israel which existed at this time. It is true that the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it were not favorable. The government and idolatry were most securely established and the things predicted seemed most improbable, from the human point of view.
Then what the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this? The men of Ephraim and some in Judah were at this time bent on throwing themselves upon Egypt for protection against Assyria. This was both wrong in itself and impolitic. So Isaiah was hedging against such alliance by showing the coming humiliation of the power to which they were looking for aid.
There was an element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites. The tender sympathy expressed for penitent Egypt in Isa 19:20-23 must have assured the Israelites that if they would return to their God, he would be entreated of them and heal them.
The prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 is a prophecy relating to the political condition of Egypt, in which Jehovah will cause civil strife and confusion, destroying the power of their idols and the wisdom of their wise, and will place over them one who is a “cruel Lord” and a “fierce king.”
The fulfilment of this prophecy is found in the internal strife in Egypt during the days of Tirhakah and Psammetichus iii the early part of the seventh century B.C. and the conquering of Egypt by Esar-haddon, who was decidedly a “cruel prince” and treated Egypt with severity, splitting it up into a number of governments, yet this prophecy has been referred to Sargon, to Cambyses, and to Darius Ochus, and some think it is applicable to the successive rulers of Egypt, generally, viz: Chaldean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Saracen, and Turkish. But this is not probable.
The picture in Isa 19:5-10 is a picture of the distressful condition of Egypt while passing through the trying ordeal just prophesied. Then follows (Isa 19:11-15 ) a picture of the confusion of the wise men of Egypt as their wisdom is turned into folly.
There are five happy effects of this judgment on Egypt, in stages which reach a happy climax:
1. The Egyptians are stricken with fear because of Jehovah and because of the land of Judah, similar to the fear that came upon them when they were visited with the ten plagues (Isa 19:16-17 ).
2. Egypt shall learn the language of Canaan and swear unto Jehovah. The language here referred to is the Hebrew which was spoken largely in the country after the introduction of so many Jews there. The “five cities” represents, perhaps, the low and weakened condition of Egypt after the judgment is visited upon it (Isa 19:18 ).
3. The worship of Jehovah is established in Egypt (Isa 19:19-22 ). This was literally fulfilled in the building of the temple at Leontopolis by Onias IV, with special license from Ptolemy Philometor, to whom he is said to have quoted this passage from Isaiah. Here was offered sacrifice to Jehovah and the oblation, according to this prophecy. Through the Jewish law and influence the idolatry of Egypt was overthrown and they were prepared for the coming Saviour, whom they received through the evangelization of the missionaries in the early centuries of the Christian era.
4. The consequent union of Egypt and Assyria in worship (Isa 19:23 ).
5. The unity and equality of the nations in blessing. This and the preceding stage of this happy effect finds a primary fulfilment in the wide-spread influence of the Jews over Syria and the adjacent countries under the Syro-Macedonian kings, as well as over Egypt under the Ptolemies. But a larger fulfilment is to be found in the events at Pentecost, which sent devout men back from Jerusalem into Egypt and Libya on one side, and into Parthis, Media, Elam, and Mesopotamia, on the other, to tell how God, having raised up his Son Jesus (the Prince and Saviour), had sent him to bless the Jews first, and in them all nations.
The prophecy of Isa 20 is a prophecy against Egypt and Ethiopia, who were the hope of Israel in alliance, to be delivered from Assyria, which the prophet labored to prevent. It consists, (1) of the historical circumstance. This is related in Isa 20:1 which gives the date at the year in which Tartan came to Ashdod, etc. (2) Isaiah’s symbolical action and its meaning (Isa 20:2-4 ). This was a common occurrence with the prophets. Here the action symbolized the humiliating captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia which was fulfilled either by Sennacherib or by Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. (3) The reason for this visitation upon Egypt and Ethiopia, viz: Israel looked to these powers instead of Jehovah and they could not be blessed while they were in alliance with backslidden Israel. So the Lord was taking care of Israel in his dealings with Egypt and Ethiopia.
“The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), is a prophecy against Babylon and contains a vivid description of the marshalling of forces against Babylon for her destruction, the overwhelming sympathy of the prophets, the expelling of sensual security, instructions to the Lord’s watchman, the fulfilment, and the final declaration. The forces marshalled for her destruction are the Medes and Elamites under Cyrus and the prophet leaves us not in doubt that the reference here is to Babylon. There can be no mistake that this prophecy has its fulfilment in the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. All this is because of her relation to Israel and therefore the encouragement of God’s people and the glory of the one eternal Jehovah.
“The burden of Dumah” is generally conceded to be a prophecy against Edom, because the word “Seir” occurs in it as the place from which the one is represented as calling to the prophet. The word “Dumah” means silence and is used allegorically, “of the Silent Land” of the dead (Psa 94:17 ), and refers here, perhaps, to the silent or low state of Edom at this time. In this burden someone is represented as calling to the prophet out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night?” To which the watchman replied, “There is a brighter day ahead, but it is to be followed by a period of darkness for you; if you will repent, you may do so.”
The prophecy against Arabia is a prophecy of the desolation to come upon Arabia and her borders, deranging their commerce and causing flight and privation, which would be accomplished in one year. The date of the prophecy is not very well determined but the fulfilment is found in Sargon’s expedition into Arabia during which the caravans had to leave their regular routes and “take to the woods.”
“The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ) is a prophecy against Jerusalem in which we have set forth a vivid picture of the revellings of the city (Isa 22:1-4 ) ; then a description of an outside foreign army threatening the city, causing surprise, and a hasty preparation for the siege (Isa 22:5-11 ); instead of humbling themselves, putting on sackcloth and weeping, and appealing to God’s mercy, they try to drown care in drink and sensual enjoyment (Isa 22:12-14 ) ; then follows the degrading of Shebna from his high office and the placing of Eliakim in his position (Isa 22:15-25 ). The events herein described were fulfilled either in Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem or in that of Nebuchadnezzar. There are some difficulties in fitting this prophecy to either siege and in matters where we have such limited knowledge it does not become us to be dogmatic. Some parts fit one better, and other parts fit the other better, but all things considered, the author is inclined to believe that this prophecy refers to the Assyrian invasion.
There are three distinct paragraphs given to the burden of Tyre (Isa 22:13 ): (1) The greatness of Tyre as a city of commerce and the wail of distress for the fate of the city; (2) Jehovah’s purpose to cause this destruction and stain the pride of all her glory; (3) Babylon, an example of what will come to Tyre and the promise of Tyre’s returned prosperity after seventy years. After this period Tyre will revive and be of service to Jehovah’s people. The first part of the prophecy fits into the history which shows the many reverses of this city and may refer to the Babylonian siege specifically. The last part of the prophecy may have its fulfilment in the orders of Cyrus to the Tyrians to rebuild the Temple, and the Tyrian ships were of incalculable aid in disseminating Judaism before Christ and Christianity since Christ.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the section (Isaiah 13-23) called and what the appropriateness of the title?
2. What the foreign nations mentioned in this book of prophecies and what additional prophecies thrown in?
3. What the position of the radical critics relative to this section?
4. What the connection between the parts of this section?
5. What the special connection between Isaiah 13-14 and the preceding section?
6. What the date of the prophecy in Isaiah 13-14, what the conditions both in Israel and Judah, and also in the other nations, at this time, and what the sure light of prophecy in this dark hour?
7. What the significant word with which each of these prophecies opens, what its meaning, and what its appropriateness in this connection?
8. Why was Babylon given by the prophet first consideration among the enemies of God’s peoples and what the main points in this denunciation against her?
9. What the prophecy against Assyria under this first burden and why put in here?
10. What the special things to be noted in this burden?
11. How may the series of burdens from Isa 14:28 and Isa 23:18 be viewed and what the object of the warnings?
12. What the burden of prophecy against Philistia and how is the destructive work upon the country here described?
13. What say the critics of this prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) and what the reply?
14. Give a brief outline of these two chapters.
15. Give the picture of Moab’s overthrow?
16. What the exhortation and promise to Moab in. Isa 16:1-5 ?
17. What the cause of the downfall that was to follow?
18. How did this sight of the future destruction of Moab affect the prophet and what examples of other such sympathy in the Bible?
19. What the time fixed for the humiliation of Moab and when its fulfilment?
20. What is a remarkable characteristic of Damascus, and for what does it account?
21. What does this burden against Damascus include and what the main points in it?
22. What are the things in this burden that need special attention?
23. What the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it?
24. What is the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this?
25. What element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites?
26. What the prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 and when was it fulfilled?
27. What the picture in Isa 19:5-10 ?
28. What is set forth in Isa 19:11-15 ?
29. What the important and happy effects of this judgment on Egypt?
30. What the prophecy of Isa 20 and what its contents?
31. What “The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), and what its striking points?
32. What is “The burden of Dumah” and what its interpretation?
33. What the prophecy against Arabia and when the fulfilment?
34. What “The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ), and what the salient points in the prophecy?
35. What the outline of the burden of Tyre and what the salient points of the interpretation?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Isa 14:1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
Ver. 1. For the Lord will have mercy upon Jacob. ] And therefore destroy Babylon. as Isa 13:1-22 Such is his love to his Church that for her sake, and in revenge of her wrongs, he will fall foul upon her enemies. Si in Hierosolymis fiat scrutinium, quanto magis in Babylon. a
And the strangers shall be joined with them.
a Bernard.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 14
In the chapter before us the Spirit of God goes forward to Israel’s deliverance. The connection is plain. The general character of the Burden becomes thus evident and most instructive. “For Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and rest them in their own land: and the stranger shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and for handmaids; and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors” (vv. 1, 2). The overthrow of Babylon involves the emancipation of Israel. It has thus much greater importance than the history of any ordinary power; and the past Babylon is simply a type of the fall of the greater power, its final heir, which is to the last the enslaver of the Jews, the would-be protector but master of the holy city. Israel are yet to have as their servants the very persons who formerly enslaved them themselves. Expecting this glory for Israel, and this mighty deliverance for the people of the Jews, one can understand their exulting tone.
“And it shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased! Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers. He that smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, hath a persecution without restraint. The whole earth is at rest – is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the cypresses rejoice at thee, the cedars of Lebanon, [saying,] Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet [thee] at thy coming; it stirreth up the giants for thee, all the chief ones (or, he-goats) of the earth, raising up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All of them shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, the noise of thy lyres: the worm is spread under thee, and vermin covereth thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations! And thou saidst in thine heart, I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of assembly, in the recesses of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, they shall consider thee, [saying,] [Is] this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; [that] made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew the cities thereof; [that] let not loose his prisoners to their home? All kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast out from thy sepulchre like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain – those thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under foot. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people: the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever. Prepare ye slaughter for his children because of the iniquity of their fathers; that they rise not up and possess the earth, nor fill the face of the world with cities. And I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son, saith Jehovah. I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith Jehovah of hosts” (vv.3-23).
The king of Babylon sets forth no other than the last head of the Beast, just as Nebuchadnezzar was the first of that line. We must distinguish the imperial chief of the last days from the religious head of the antichrist; and the more carefully, because, having a similar policy and being confederates in evil, they are very generally confounded by ancients and moderns. Although the king of Babylon typifies the person who will finally have the Jews as his vassals, it would be a great mistake to conceive that it is to be a king of the Babylon in Shinar. We refer to this now merely to show that it rests upon a wrong principle. Some have the thought that there will be a re-establishment of oriental Babylon in the last days. They suppose there will be a literal city in the plain of Shinar. This appears to be fundamentally false.
The New Testament points out by evident marks what the future one will be; and, in order apparently to guard against that illusion, even contrasts the Apocalyptic Babylon in some respects with that of the Chaldees. The Babylon of the old world was built upon a plain; the future Babylon is characterized by the seven mountains it sits on. Thus every one of common information would distinguish the scene of Chaldean pride, and understand the locality of the future Babylon. There is but one city that has had universally and proverbially this title attached to it among Gentiles, Jews, and Christians. Other cities may include seven or more hills, but everywhere Rome has acquired a designation from the circumstance; so that if you speak of the seven-hilled city, there was, there is, hardly an educated child but would answer, “It must be the famous city on the banks of the Tiber.” So every one must have known in apostolic days. This is the city which is to occupy in the last days the same kind of importance that Babylon had in the beginning of Gentile times. It began then and ends with the person that is called in the Book of Revelation, “the Beast.” There were four Beasts in Daniel, but one is by St. John called “the Beast,” as indeed only the last then existed; and if it had to become imperially extinct, it was also to rise again and be present once more before its judgement.
Here then God makes the old enemy to be a type of the new one that menaces them. The final holder of the power of Babylon thus naturally is a type of him who will wield imperial power against the glory of God in the last days. So in Rev 17 the general principle is exceeding clear, without the violent supposition of a literal metropolis in Chaldea; where man would have not merely to build the city, but, first of all, to create seven hills. Another thing the Spirit of God speaks of is the reigning of the city over the kings of the earth, not of the control exercised over the empire, but far beyond, under the symbol of the harlot riding the beast; she sits too on “the waters.”
The Apocalyptic Babylon will finally shift from a papal heathen character, as it did from an openly heathen beginning, to final utter corruption. What we have in Isaiah furnishes the groundwork for that which meets us in the Revelation. Thus the strong language in verses 9-14 could scarcely be said to have been exhausted in Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar. There was pride and self-exaltation in the one, and most degrading and profane luxury in the other; but what we have here will be fully verified in the last days and not before. After taking this place of power, the lofty one is to be thus abased as no Babylonish monarch ever was historically.
We do not enter into the rest of the chapter farther than to point out another declaration in verses 24, 25. Some suppose that the king of Babylon and the Assyrian are one and the same person; it is a common mistake, and particularly among men of learning. But it is clear that the later statement is something added to the fall of Babylon’s king, who has been already judged. Then the Assyrian follows, who is dealt with summarily in Jehovah’s land. This agrees perfectly with what may be gathered from other parts of God’s word as to the future. “Jehovah of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, it shall stand: to break the Assyrian in my land; and on my mountains I will trample him; and his yoke shall depart from off them, and his burden from off their shoulders: this the purpose [that is] purposed concerning the whole earth, and this the hand [that is] stretched out over all the nations. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall frustrate [it]? and his hand [is] stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (vv. 24-27)
But, if we look at the past history of Israel, the Assyrian came up first; his army was destroyed, and himself sent back into his own land, there to be slain by his rebellious sons in the house of his god. The astonishing destruction of his host was typical of the fall of “the Assyrian” in the last days, but only an earnest of it. This was considerably before Babylon was allowed of God to become supreme. It was after the disappearance of Nineveh that Babylon sprang up into the first place. The Assyrian never gained the supremacy of the world, but Babylon did, as a sovereign grant from God, after the royal house of David had become the helper on of idolatry, following the Jewish people in their love for the abominations of the heathen. Then, not before, God told (as it were) the king of Babylon to take the whole world to himself. Babylon was always most conspicuous for its many idols; but as the chosen witness had become idolatrous, the worst might as well have supremacy as another. Babylon was thus exalted to the empire of the world, when Lo-Ammi (not-My-people) was written on all Israel, even on Judah. Its active enmity and idolatry could hardly be thought a claim on the true God, Jehovah; on the other hand, all this was not allowed to hinder its rise in God’s sovereignty into the place of the government of the world. This was, in fact, subsequent to the destruction of the Assyrian, which we have seen before in other chapters (Isa 8 ; Isa 10 ) must besides contemplate the future.
Here, not as in previous history, Babylon is judged first; then the Assyrian comes up and is smitten in the land of God’s people. Why is this? Because the Spirit of God is now taking the circumstances of the Assyrian as well as the king of Babylon, not as a history of the past, but as looking onward to the last days; and in the last days the king represented by Babylon will be destroyed first, when the power of the Assyrian will be broken last of all. This perfectly agrees with the scene as a typical or prophetic picture of the last days. Whereas, if you confine it to the past, it does not tally, and there could be no right understanding of it. While the Spirit of God speaks of the Assyrian subsequently to Babylon, it is certain that in past history the Assyrian fell first in order, then Babylon afterwards. By-and by Babylon will be smitten in the last holder of the Beast’s power, and this in connection with the Jews; while the power then answering to the king of Assyria will come up after that, when God occupies Himself with the ten tribes of Israel. The Babylonian despot and the Assyrian, then, are two distinct enemies of the Lord, and types of two different powers in the last days, the one before, the other after, the Jews are in recognized relationship with Jehovah.
The Lord grant that we may be enabled to profit by all scripture, using it for instruction and warning, as well as refreshment and joy. All plans for worldly ease and honour will end only in destruction and bitter disappointment. Our business is to work out what God gives us now to do. He is saving souls to be the companions of Christ in heaven. Our responsibility meanwhile is to carry out His thoughts of mercy toward sinners, and His love to and in those that cleave to the name of His
The division of chapters is singularly unhappy here, for Isa 14:24-27 has a distinct place of its own to mark the future judgement of the Assyrian relatively to the “burden” of Babylon, which is to be the inverse of history. Also the last five verses of the chapter form a sub-section to themselves, though the whole appears to be connected. The two following chapters (Isa. 15 – Isa 16 ) are but one subject, and a new one. What adds to the confusion is the insertion of the sign of the new paragraph at Isa 14:29 ; whereas Isa 14:28 really pertains to the new “burden” – not to Babylon or to the Assyrian, but to God’s Judgement on the Philistines.
“In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. Rejoice not thou, Philistia, all of thee, because the rod that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper and his fruit [shall be] a fiery flying serpent. And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; but I will kill thy root with famine, and thy remnant shall be slain. Howl, O gate! cry, O city! dissolved, O Philistia, [is] the whole of thee; for out of the north cometh smoke, and none straggleth (or, standeth aloof) in his gatherings. And what shall [one] answer the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in it the afflicted of his people find refuge” (vv. 28-32).
The death of Ahaz might naturally excite the hopes of his neighbours, the Philistines, who had been put down by the strong hand of his grandfather Uzziah. Of him it is written in 2Ch 26:4-8 that “he did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah according to all that his father Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought Jehovah, God made him to prosper. And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities in [the country of] Ashdod, and among the Philistines. And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gur-baal, and the Meunim. And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah; and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt; for he strengthened [himself] exceedingly.”
And now not only Uzziah but Ahaz were gone, “the rod [of him] that smote” the land of the Philistines was “broken.” The enemy had learnt to despise Judah in the days of unworthy Ahaz. “For Jehovah brought Judah low because of Ahaz, king of Israel: for he made Judah naked and transgressed sore against Jehovah.” Who was his son that they should fear him? Let them not rejoice, however; “for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.” The primary accomplishment of this was in the reign of Hezekiah, of whom it is recorded (2Ki 18:8 ) that “he smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.”
But is there any reason whatever to suppose that this “burden” is an exception to the rest? Especially does the strength of the language point to a mightier destruction than what was inflicted by that pious king of Judah. Its proper fulfilment therefore awaits the latter day. And then to the full will be seen the twofold application of divine power, when, on the one hand, “the first-born of the poor shall feed and the needy shall lie down in safety”; and, on the other, Jehovah will not merely break the rod, but kill the root of Philistia with famine and slay its remnant (v. 30). In the next verse the prophet bursts forth with the utmost animation, calling on the gate to howl, and the city to cry out. “Howl, O gate! cry, O city! dissolved, O Philistia, the whole of thee; for out of the north cometh smoke, and none straggleth in his gatherings (i.e. of troops).” Thus an overwhelming and vigorously sustained force is threatened, which will sweep all before itself, as far as the Philistines are concerned. Here too the end is deliverance for the tried of His people. “And what shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and the afflicted of his people shall trust [or, find refuge] in it.”
This forms a sufficiently distinct sub-section: Babylon judged; the Assyrian broken in Jehovah’s land; Philistia melted away; and Zion founded by Jehovah as a refuge for the afflicted of His people.
It is instructive to observe that in the day that is coming Jehovah will deal with comparatively small powers as well as the greatest, according to their behaviour toward Israel. Thus, after Babylon and Assyria, we have now Philistia, as we shall have in their place Moab and Syria, the races and lands which surrounded the chosen people. It is in vain to argue that they are now unknown, or to assume that they are extinct. Whatever may have been in the past, these chapters look on to the future; and He, Who will before all the world bring forward distinctly Israel as compared with Judah, will not fail to single out the long hidden remnants of their neighbours for His retribution in the end of the age.
Nor can we have a more manifest evidence of divine prescience conveyed to God’s people than that Babylon should take precedence of Assyria, then in its glory, while Babylon gave no sign of its eventual supremacy; unless indeed we add that, in contrast with history which testifies of Assyria’s fall making way for Babylon’s rise, we read in prophecy of Assyria to be trodden down on Jehovah’s mountains after the desolation of Babylon has been set out to the utmost: a prophecy which awaits fulfilment.
This was feebly, or not at all, seen by the mass of interpreters of old and in modern times. Bishop Lowth expresses their vagueness when he remarks on v. 25 that “the Assyrians and Babylonians are the same people”; yet he refers to his father, W. Lowth, who, after giving a similarly uncertain sound, says, “I am apt to think that by the Assyrian may be meant some remarkable enemies of God’s church (see note on Isa 11:14 ; Isa 32:16 ), and particularly those expressed by Gog and Magog (Eze 38 ), who, as the prophet there tells us (v. 17), were under several names “spoken of by the prophets of Israel”; and it is particularly said of them that they shall ‘fall upon the mountains of Israel.'” This is at least better than his son’s comment, and ought to have dispelled at once the confusion of Assyria with Babylon. It ought also to have shown without a doubt that our prophet was given to speak of a judgement which closes Jehovah’s indignation against Israel (for “the church” of course is not in question) in the destruction of the last of their enemies, when His whole work is performed on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem. Even Dr. Driver confesses (Lit. of the Old Testament, 202) that “The prophecy has no connection with what precedes. It is directed against Assyria, not Babylon; and it anticipates, not the capture of the city of Babylon, but the overthrow of the hosts of Assyria in Judah.” This witness is true; but, if true, it points to an immense intervention of God at the close of the age, no such overthrow having ever been in the past, whatever the earnest then given.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 14:1-2
1When the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.
Isa 14:1 the Lord will have compassion This VERB (BDB 933, KB 1216, Piel IMPERFECT, cf. Isa 49:13; Isa 49:15; Isa 54:7-8) denotes YHWH’s special relationship with His covenant people (cf. Hosea 1-2), as does choose (BDB 103, KB 119, Qal PERFECT, cf. Isa 41:8-9; Isa 44:1; Isa 49:7). In Isa 9:17 Israel’s God will have no compassion on His covenant people (cf. Hosea 1-3;) and in Isa 13:18 the Medes will have no compassion on Babylon, but YHWH will again restore His unique relationship with Abraham’s seed!
After YHWH uses the powers of Mesopotamia to punish His covenant people’s disobedience, He will instigate a new exodus and a new conquest! See Special Topic: Characteristics of Israel’s God .
Jacob. . .Israel These two terms could be used for both the Northern Ten Tribes and the Southern Two Tribes being united again. See Special Topic: Israel (the name) .
Isa 14:1-2 strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. The peoples There are two options for interpreting Isa 14:1-2 : (1) either Isa 14:1-2 go together and describe the same group (i.e., strangers. . .peoples) or (2) Isa 14:1 describes the blessings of non-Jews (i.e., strangers) and Isa 14:2 describes the defeated enemies of Israel as being their servants.
It is difficult in Isaiah and Micah to balance YHWH’s attitude and actions towards the nations.
1. He loves them and includes them into His covenant people (cf. Isa 2:2-4; Isa 11:10, see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan )
2. He judges them and puts them in servitude (i.e., Isa 60:10; Isa 61:5)
Somehow both are true! The prophets move back and forth, often in the same context, between these two poles. Option #1 reflects Genesis 1-3; Genesis 12, while option #2 reflects Israel’s history in Canaan.
In Isaiah the nations return the covenant people to their land (i.e., Canaan) and become one with them in the worship of YHWH (cf. Isa 49:22; Isa 60:4-14; Isa 66:20). This may reflect the new exodus. Many foreign people left Egypt with Israel and others joined her along the way (wilderness wanderings and conquest). Maybe the imagery of Isa 14:2 reflects this. If so, it would solve the problem of #2 above.
Isa 14:2-3 There is a role-reversal between Isa 14:2 (servitude of Israel’s enemies) and Isa 14:3 (Israel’s servitude, which is now over). The role-reversal plot is common in the OT. YHWH acts in unexpected ways to affirm the choice of Abraham’s seed (cf. Genesis 12, 15, 17). The purpose of His special attention is not favoritism, but an eternal redemptive plan (cf. Gen 3:15; Gen 12:3) for all humans made in His image (cf. Gen 1:26-27).
As so often in Isaiah, there is a short-term focus and a long-term focus. The prophet merges these two horizons. A good example might be chapter 13, where Babylon and Neo-Babylon’s judgment are merged.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
choose. See note on Isa 1:29.
set them = make them rest. Compare Isa 14:3.
land = soil
strangers = sojourners, foreign proselytes. Isaiah sees far beyond the Captivity. Hebrew. gur. See note on Isa 5:17. Thus, the mention of strangers is not confined to latter part of Isaiah as alleged by some. See App-79.
the house of Jacob. See note on Isa 2:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 14
For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob ( Isa 14:1 ).
Again, now he moves out to the end of the Kingdom Age where Israel is restored and exalted among the world.
The people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over the oppressors. And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou was made to serve. That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers ( Isa 14:2-5 ).
Now you remember that in Revelation, the angel in the fourteenth chapter flies through the midst of the heaven saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city” ( Rev 14:8 ), and so forth, and declares the fall of this Babylonian system. “The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers.”
He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us ( Isa 14:6-8 ).
The trees have an opportunity to grow.
Now we are getting into the area of the beast, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the one who is anointed with Satan’s power as he makes reference to
Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Your pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee ( Isa 14:9-11 ).
This man that the whole world marvels at, his reception in hell will be an interesting thing. As the kings rise up and say, “Hey, you… “
Now the prophecy lapses from the beast to the power behind the beast, or the antichrist to Satan who gave him the power.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High ( Isa 14:12-14 ).
These five “I wills” of Satan. This was the beginning of sin in the universe. This was the beginning of the rebellion against God’s government and God’s kingdom, and they came with Satan’s willing against the will of God.
In Ezekiel we are told concerning Satan that he at one time was an anointed cherub. Cherubim, the B-I-M, or the I-M, is actually a plural suffix in the Hebrew language. So a cherub would be singular. But there are cherubim; there are many of these angelic beings. Satan was one of these exalted angelic beings. Interesting it would seem that the cherubim are there to guard the holiness of God. And perhaps he was the chief over the cherubim. It would seem to indicate that as Ezekiel addresses him in the form of the king of Tyre, “the anointed cherub that covers. Thou has been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, beryl, onyx, sapphire, carbuncle,” and so forth. “Thou wast perfect in beauty, perfect in wisdom, perfect in all of your ways until the day that iniquity was found in thee” ( Eze 28:13-15 ). And then he speaks of his fall.
Now Isaiah tells us exactly what the iniquity was. It was his declaring, “I will,” in opposition to God’s will. And anytime you declare your will in opposition to God’s will, that’s sin. That’s rebellion. Rebellion against God. Sin is the failure to do the will of God, to surrender, to submit to the will of God. “I will ascend into heaven. I will sit also. I will exact my throne above the stars of God.” Stars of God being the angels of God. “I’m going to exalt above them. I will sit also on the mount of the congregation on the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights. I will be like the Most High.” Interesting. The climactic “I will” of Satan: “I will be like God.”
Shakespeare in the one play has someone addressing Cromwell, “Oh, Cromwell, flee ambition. For by this sin the angels fell.” I will be like God.
It is interesting when Satan came into the garden to tempt Eve, what was the hook? “God doesn’t want you to eat that fruit, for He knows that the day that you eat that fruit, you will be like God. You want to be like God? Eat this fruit.” And that was the hook. It was the thing that tripped him up, and so it’s the very thing then that he used to trip Eve up–to be like God. “God doesn’t want you to eat it. He’s afraid you’re going to be like Him.”
So any of these religions today that make you like God, that put you in a God category, “When you die, you and your wife can be as gods. You go to your own little planet,” be careful. That was the hook that got Satan. That was the hook that he used for Eve. These that make a god out of you. “Recognize the god in you.” The self-realizations. What is the self-realization concept? “I am God,” that’s what I need to realize. Isn’t that wonderful? Tragic! But so many people are being drawn by this desire to be God. And so the god in me blesses the god in you, the self-realization of who I am. So Satan’s fall: “I will be like the Most High.”
Now the interesting thing is that God is making us again in His image. When God first created man, He created man in His image and after His likeness. But man through disobedience, in his desire to be like God, fell from that image of God. And “by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; so that death passed unto all men, for all sinned” ( Rom 5:12 ). So if I want to know what God intended when He created man, I can’t look around the world and find it. Because in the world that doesn’t exist, because I see fallen man. I see man that is filled with greed. I see man that is filled with hatred, with avarice. I see a man who is controlled by his own desires and lust. That isn’t the way God intended man to live. That isn’t what God intended for man.
We see man in his fallen state. But God reached down to touch man in his fallen state, and the purpose of God in working in your life tonight is to restore unto you that which was lost through the fall. God wants to restore you back into His image. And so Paul said, “We, with open face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory to glory into the same image” ( 2Co 3:18 ). That doesn’t mean I’m God. It doesn’t mean I’m going to be God. I’m always going to be me. But I will be conformed again by the Spirit of God into the image of Jesus Christ, where love will once again dominate instead of greed or selfishness, and made again into the image of Jesus Christ. That’s the purpose of God’s work in our lives tonight.
So Satan fell. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?” You said you’re going to exalt yourself. You’re going to be like God.
Yet you will be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms ( Isa 14:15-16 );
Man, when you see Satan down there, you’ll say, “Wow, is that the guy that gave me such a bad time? The man that created all of the problems for this universe? The one that started the whole rebellion against God. Is that? Wow, look at him.” What a sight that’s going to be.
That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities; that opened not the house of his prisoners? [All the kingdoms of the earth, or] all the kings of the nations, even all of them that lie in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass that is trodden under foot ( Isa 14:17-19 ).
The kings are buried in tombs, sepulchers and so forth. But you’re going to be cast out of the grave. You’re going to be like the coat of a man who has fallen in battle that’s just cast aside to be trodden down under the feet.
Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and the remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD ( Isa 14:20-22 ).
How many of you have met a Babylonian lately? They don’t exist. God cut them off. The name, the son, the nephew, they are no more family, Babylonians.
I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts. The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand ( Isa 14:23-24 ):
That is one powerful verse. God said. He’s sworn. This is, men take an oath to confirm what they have said as being really true. Well, God who has never spoken anything but truth, when God swears to something, man, how true can you get? How firm can it be? How well can a thing be established? When God has sworn, “Surely as I have thought, it shall come to pass.” God’s Word shall surely be fulfilled.
When the Lord told Daniel to write these things, He said, “For the prophecy is certain” ( Dan 2:45 ). It’s going to be fulfilled. God declares, “Surely as I have thought, so it’s going to be. And as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” The purposes of God are set. They cannot be changed. The plan of God will be fulfilled.
That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who can disannul it? his hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? ( Isa 14:25-27 )
The tremendous, awesome sovereignty of God.
In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden ( Isa 14:28 ).
So now we’re moving on into a new area. It is not distinguished by a chapter change, but it is distinguished by the fact that he introduces this new section by, “In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.”
Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent ( Isa 14:29 ).
Now he’s just spoken of the destruction of Assyria, but don’t rejoice because Assyria is broken by Babylon, because now God is going to bring the Babylonians against you.
And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it ( Isa 14:30-32 ).
So God is going to found Zion, the ultimate bottom line. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 14:1. For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
This promise had a measure of fulfillment when Israel was brought back from Babylon; and still is it true that, when Gods people come to their worst, there is always something better before them. On the other hand, it is equally sure that, when sinners come to their best, there is always something terrible awaiting them. The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew; and his declaration agrees with this prophecy, The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. I believe that there will be a far grander fulfillment of this prophecy in that day when God shall bring back his chosen people to their own country, and then shall be the fullness of blessing to the Gentiles also: The strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
Isa 14:2. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
The chosen people have the worst of it now in many parts of the world, but they shall have the best of it by-and-by; they shall not always be trampled on, their time of uplifting shall come at the last, sad there is nothing after the last; that which is last, lasts for ever.
Isa 14:3-4. And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
O child of God, thou shalt by-and-by have a glorious season of rest! Today is thy time of labour; thou art now under hard bondage; but thou shalt yet come forth into the fullness of thy liberty in Christ Jesus. In that day, Jehovah himself shall give thee rest from all thy grief and fears; thou shalt obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. This was a great prophecy for Isaiah to utter, for, in his day, there was no power on earth equal to that of Babylon. That great city abounded in palaces and extraordinary wealth, and its power was such that no kingdom could stand against it. For a while, it broke in pieces all those who fought against it; yet God broke Babylon in his own time; and here is a song of rejoicing in anticipation of its overthrow, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
Isa 14:5. LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers.
No power can ever be permanently strong that is founded upon wickedness; sooner or later, it will have to come to an end. A falsehood may array itself in the garments of wisdom and strength, and go forth to fight hopefully for victory; but, in the end, it must die. The stone of truth will find out the giants brow, and lay him headlong in death.
Isa 14:6-7. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
The Babylon, that none could resist, becomes herself destroyed and there is no one to come up to her assistance. Go at this day, and see where the owl dwells, and mark the habitation of the dragons, and say to yourself, This is Babylon, the great city that was the queen over all nations; but she did evil in the sight of the Lord, and spake extremely proudly; and, behold, Jehovah hath crumbled her in the dust; and, now that Babylon is gone, the whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they breath forth into singing.
Isa 14:8. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
For the cruel kings of Babylon cut down the nations as the woodman with his axe fells the trees of the forest; but when the power of Babylon was broken, peace and quietness reigned everywhere, O brethren, what a blissful day it will be when the modern Babylon is taken away also, for to this hoar she is the troubler among the nations! Wherever the blight of Popery comes, there is evil, there is oppression, there is bondage; and only when Romanism shall be utterly swept sway, and cast like a millstone into the flood, will it be said, The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Here is a very wonderful picture of the king of Babylon going down to the grave.
Isa 14:9-10. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
It is a fine pictorial representation of the spirits of departed kings lifting themselves up from their beds of dust, and saying, Art thou, king of Babylon, that slew us, also come here? The mighty conqueror, art thou thyself conquered, and brought to the grave?
Isa 14:11-15, Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
God hates pride with a perfect hatred. He drives his sword through the very heart of it, and cuts it in pieces. None can be great and mighty, and boast of what they are able to do, without provoking the King of kings to put forth against them some of his great power. Oh, let none of as talk about climbing to heaven by our good works, or getting there by our merits, lest it should happen to us also that we should be brought down to Hades, to the sides of the pit.
Isa 14:16-18. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
That is, they lie in state, each one in the mausoleum of his family. They went down to death, and they were buried with all the honour and glory that were supposed to be due to their high position.
Isa 14:19. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
So total, so terrible, so disgraceful, was the destruction of Babylon, that no honour or glory remained to it.
Isa 14:20-22. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renouned. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts,
And he has done it. It seemed the most unlikely thing to happen; but the Lord spake, and it was done; and all the glory of Babylon was swept away. I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts,
Isa 14:22-27. And cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts. The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
And God did this to the Assyrians in the day when Sennaeherib invaded the land, and the angel of destruction slew the whole host in one night. What a striking simile the Lord uses here! This is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Conceive in your mind the picture here drawn, Jehovah himself puts out the hand of his almightiness, and challenges the nations to stand up in opposition to it.
Isa 14:28. In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
About this time, the Philistines had plucked up courage, and had invaded Judah.
Isa 14:29. Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpents root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
Ahaz was defeated, but Hezekiah was raised up to be the leader of the LORDs people.
Isa 14:30. And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
If Gods enemies have a bright day or two, it shall soon be showery weather with them. They may for the moment exult over Gods people, but he knows that their day of reckoning is coming.
Isa 14:31. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whose Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
That is the way the Babylonians would come running down from the north. No one would be able to hide himself from them, not a single person would find a shelter, or escape from their terrible adversaries.
Isa 14:32. What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.
Though the passage seems dark at first, yet it is full of consolation to the people of God, and is of similar import to that other gracious promise: No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Isa 14:1-11
Isa 14:1-2
CONTINUATION OF THE PROPHECY AGAINST BABYLON
Except for the last nine verses of this chapter, it is a continuation of the prophecy against Babylon. Those last verses carry prophecies against Assyria and against Philistia.
Scholars of all shades of belief have joined in extolling the sublime, effective manner in which this chapter is written. The highly imaginative reception which the illustrious dead are represented as giving the fallen king of Babylon is unique in the literary history of mankind. There’s nothing like it anywhere else. It appears in the form of a sarcastic “welcome” to Babylon’s fallen monarch, in which his former glory is dramatically contrasted with his position in death!
The first two verses carry an assurance that God’s promises to Israel will yet be fulfilled; Isa 14:3-20 present the taunting, sarcastic “welcome” to Babylon’s dead king! Isa 14:21-23 have a final prophetic curse against Babylon; Isa 14:24-27 prophesy the breaking of the power of Assyria; and the final five verses (Isa 14:28-32) have a prophetic warning for Philistia.
Isa 14:1-2
“For Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the sojourner shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and for handmaids: and they shall take them captive whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.”
The promise here that God will “again” choose Israel means first of all that Israel, through repeated rebellions, had at this point in their history lost their status as God’s chosen people, a solemn truth emphasized especially in the prophecy of Hosea. There were, of course, some new things in this second “choice” of the Israel destined to receive all of God’s promises. This also is spelled out in Hosea (See my comments on this in Vol. 2 of the Minor Prophets Series). The Israel to be honored in this “second choosing” would not apply to any race whatever but would be equally applicable to Jews and Gentiles alike. Gomer, the wife of Hosea, it will be remembered, was bought back from slavery by her husband, not as his wife but as his slave. In the same manner, Israel would be “chosen” again, all right; but her status was forever altered as a race. Moreover, their re-entry into “Jehovah’s land” would be in the Church of Jesus Christ, not a re-entry into Palestine. It should be carefully noted, as Barnes pointed out that, “Although the names Jacob and Israel used in these verses simply denote Jews, they do not imply that all who were to be carried into captivity would return.” Only a remnant returned; and the undeniable meaning of this is that only a very small part of racial Israel would be in that “second choosing.”
The statement here that the former oppressors of the Jews would become their captives as “servants and handmaids” cannot possibly be construed literally. “The true meaning is that Jewish ideas (particularly Christianity) shall penetrate and subdue mankind generally, and that among such converts to Christ there will be those peoples who once had enslaved the Jews.”
There is a prophecy in Rev 3:9 in which God foretold that racial Jews would “come and worship before the feet of the Church in Philadelphia,” not literally, of course, but as beautifully explained by James Moffatt’s Translation of the Bible (1929). Throughout the ages many faithful Jews have received Christ, and they are still doing so. Thus, in what Moffatt calls, “The grim irony of providence,” “What the Jews fondly expected of the Gentiles, they themselves will give to the Gentiles. They will play the roll of the heathen and acknowledge that the Church is the true Israel of God.” (For further comments on this see Vol. 12, p. 80 in my New Testament Series.)
The key to understanding this is in the truth that Christ Alone is the true Israel of God (See John 15.). Every baptized believer “in Christ” is a bond-servant of Christ; and every Gentile who ever became a Christian by being baptized “into Christ” thus became a “servant” of Christ, who is indeed the true Israel of God. No doubt the racial Jews of Isaiah’s day mistakenly believed that they were “the” Israel of God who were destined to possess their enemies as slaves. It is all a question of understanding who are the “slaves” (Christians) and who are the “Israel.” In this prophetic promise of Rev 3:9, the “worshippers” are the convened Jews represented as worshipping the Lord, the true Israel; and in Isaiah’s passage here, the “slaves” are the convened Gentiles, slaves of Christ. Thus, the “slaves” of this passage and the “worshippers” of Rev 3:9 are merely “Christians” gathered from every race under heaven without racial preference or partiality of any kind.
As Hailey put it, “The returned Jews never actually enslaved Gentiles. The prophecy was fulfilled as they conquered foreigners by the Spirit of God through the truth, `Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2Co 10:5).”
To be sure, the ultimate complete fulfillment of this lay so far into the future that the prophecy could have been of little value to the Jews of Isaiah’s times; and that no doubt accounts for the great fact that there were also included in the prophecy many things relating to immediate fulfillments. For example, the “turn of the captivity of Israel” in the ultimate sense related to the rescue of the nation and their deliverance from sin, as indicated in Luk 4:18. The peoples (Gentiles) taking the Jews and bringing them into their place had an immediate fulfillment. “This refers to the fact that Cyrus would assist them (Ezra 1).”
There was also an immediate fulfillment of the Gentiles becoming servants of the Jews in the sense of their becoming fellow-worshippers of the true God, proselytes to the Jewish faith, of whom there were increasing numbers as the falsity and futility of paganism became more and more evident. Cornelius (Acts 10) was such a person.
Isa 13:3-8
“And it shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and shall say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers; that smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid low, no hewer is come up against us.”
Who is this “King of Babylon,” against whom these verses are pointed? We favor the view that he is a symbolical figure, standing in the passage for all of the evil rulers of that era, and symbolizing, ultimately, all of the wicked tyrants who ever lived. Barnes believed he was Belshazzar, the evil Babylonian ruler whose reign terminated the kingdom. Kidner believed it was “the whole dynasty”; Kelley pointed out that many scholars identify the ruler here as an Assyrian king, perhaps Sargon II. This latter suggestion violates the text which clearly says the “king of Babylon.” It would appear that Hailey’s comment is correct. “No one king is before the prophet’s mind; Isaiah is simply personifying the whole spirit of Babylonian rulers.” It is also true that, here where we have the great kings sleeping on maggots and worms in death, “We are confronted with the last brutal truth for the hedonist,” not just for some ancient king, or even for some ancient dynasty, but for all men of every age or nation who live solely for the world and its power and glory.
“The golden city (Isa 14:4) …” This title was given to Babylon, because she was an exactress who extorted gold from her victims and stored great quantities of it.
“Broken the staff of the wicked …” The staff, or scepter, was a symbol of the power great rulers exercised over their subjects. What is meant is that God would thwart the purposes of evil rulers.
The metaphor of the firs and cedars joining in the song of joy that the evil ruler has fallen is in keeping with many similar passages in God’s Word. “Let the heavens rejoice … the sea roar … the field be joyful … the trees rejoice …” (Psa 96:11-13).
Isa 14:9-11
“Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they that answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become as weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and worms cover thee.”
What a welcoming committee! The kings who have brought death to so many are doomed to death; and this inspired picture reveals the kind of welcome they would receive in the other world!
Sheol is not a very definite place, as the word is used in the Old Testament.; but here it refers to the dwelling place for the spirits of the wicked dead; and what we have here represents these wicked dead as welcoming the king of Babylon, “with malicious satisfaction, because all of his brief earthly glory has been extinguished, even as was theirs.”
SHEOL
Properly speaking, this word means “the grave” or the realm of the dead. It comes from a word which means “asking, demanding, requiring, seeking,” and carries with it the thought of insatiable desire to consume all living beings. It is variously translated as the grave, hell, Hades, or the pit. It is different from a grave in that a grave is dug for some individual, whereas, Hades includes all graves, and beyond that all who ever died without regard to where their bodies were placed. All the dead are in Sheol, but not all the dead are in graves. Some are in the sea, and others were trodden or plowed into the mire of some battlefield, or eaten by wild beasts.
It is called: Abaddon (destruction), Job 26:6; a place of silence, Psa 94:17; a place of darkness and the shadow of death, Job 10:21; in Sheol are the foundations of the mountains, Deu 32:22; men penetrate Sheol by digging into the earth, Amo 9:2; the roots of trees strike down into it, Eze 21:16; Korah and others went down alive into it, Num 16:30; Num 16:33; “In Sheol, there is no knowledge, nor can any praise God or give thanks there, Psa 6:5; Ecc 9:10; and Isa 38:10-11.”
However, “It is erroneous to think of Sheol as a place independent of God; `If I make my bed in Sheol,’ says the Psalmist, `Behold, thou art there’ (Psa 139:8).”
There is little Biblical information regarding the question of whether the dead are conscious or not. Based upon an inaccurate understanding of Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, some think that perhaps the wicked dead are conscious; but Lazarus was not portrayed as conscious. Others cite the fact that Samuel was summoned from the dead (1Sa 28:11-15) and that in this section of Isaiah the dead kings of ancient times are represented as giving a sarcastic welcome to the arrival in death (Hades) of the king of Babylon. However, we believe this so-called “example” of conscience activity in death is no more than a literary device. The case of Samuel cannot be so explained; but certainly, we can deny that the witch of Endor had anything to do with it. Samuel came back, all right, but it almost scared the witch to death!
And then, there is the case of Moses and Elijah appearing on the mount of Transfiguration with Christ and carrying on intelligent conversation with the Lord. In this event, however, there was an extraordinary factor. Elijah was most certainly translated; and since God buried Moses, it is likely that he also was translated. At least, no one knows for sure.
The scripture most favorable to the idea of consciousness in Sheol is Christ’s astounding declaration in Mat 22:31-33 that God is God of the living and not of the dead, affirming at the same time that He is indeed the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. Add to this, the sacred promise of Jesus Christ that he will be with his church “always, even unto the end of the world” (Mat 28:20), which most certainly includes God’s being with his saints in Sheol.
To us, there does not appear any sufficient grounds for dogmatic conclusions on this question; and therefore we leave it as one of “the hidden things,” belonging unto the Lord.
This sarcastic “welcome” song addressed to the fallen king of Babylon has two themes, identified by Kidner as: (1) the unqualified relief that the whole world (even the trees of the forest) received when they heard he was dead (Isa 14:3-11); and (2) the second theme pertained to the “fallen Day Star (Lucifer in KJV),” and the king of Babylon’s vain ambition (Isa 14:12-21).
Isa 14:1-6 DELIVERANCE AND DOMINION: Here is an instance of the prophets use of shortened perspective. It is a favorite vehicle of prophetic literature. The prophet first speaks of the return of the covenant people from the Babylonian captivity when the Persian emperor Cyrus (Cf. Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1 ff) took the Jews and brought them to their place by his edict and financial aid to rebuild Jerusalem. But then, skipping over some five centuries between the Persian release of the Jews to the time when their former captors will become their captives, the prophet shortens his perspective. There can be only one meaning to the prophets indication that sojourners would join themselves to the Jews and cleave to the house of Jacob. We believe there is only one way to interpret the statement that the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and for hand-maids: and they shall take them captive whose captives they were and they shall rule over their oppressors, and that interpretation is one that finds the fulfillment in the Messianic kingdom, the church. This is the only possible interpretation considering the fact that such widespread Jewish domination never literally occurred. This interpretation is also substantiated by parallel passages (Cf. Isa 2:3; Isa 49:22-26; Zec 8:20-23). All of these hyperbolic figures of speech find their fulfillment in Eph 2:11-14. God delivers the Jews after their period of chastening in captivity. Out of that delivered people comes a faithful remnant which will through five centuries produce a faithful progeny through which the Messiah will be born in the flesh. He will establish Gods kingdom, the church, upon the earth. The Gentiles, former enemies and captors of Gods covenant people, will become members of Gods covenant people. What the prophet leaves out here is all the history of the Jewish people between the restoration from captivity and the establishment of the church. All this history is not important to Isaiahs purpose. The deliverance from Babylonian captivity actually becomes a type of the ultimate deliverance from the bondage of Satan and sin, mans greatest enemies. See our comments in Minor Prophets on Oba 1:7-21 and Amo 9:11-12.
Isa 14:7-11 DELIGHT AT DEGRADATION: Whenever God delivers His people and destroys His enemies the whole world is benefited, Most of the world does not realize it as a benefit because the world sees through eyes of flesh not faith. Gods people rejoice when His enemies are defeated for they see through eyes of faith their deliverance. Even nature itself benefits when those in rebellion against God are defeated for rebels against Gods sovereign rule usually deface and pervert Gods natural creation. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had built a road in the Wady Brissa in Lebanon in order to plunder the territory of its magnificent cedars and take them back to Babylon to build pagan temples and palaces.
Sheol is the Old Testament place of the dead. The Old Testament speaks of life hereafter, of judgment and of resurrection. But the whole experience of the hereafter is in the shadows. Nothing really clearly outlined. Here the king of Babylon is said to be welcomed into the region of the dead with a great stirring of those who have gone on before. Especially great world rulers and leaders long ago dead now greet the king of Babylon with the taunt, So you also are as weak as we were? You died too! All your former pomp and glory has passed away like ours! Death is inevitable to all, great and small, rich and poor, powerful and weak. Every human body has a cover of worms in its destiny. We wonder which king of Babylon this is. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have acknowledged Jehovah as God in Dan 4:34-37. Perhaps Isaiah is referring to Belshazzar who would not learn from his fathers experience (Cf. Dan 5:17-23). Whoever it may be, the lesson is inescapable-earthly kings and kingdoms dare not lay their hand on the apple of His eye (His covenant people) for God will bring all His enemies down to Sheol.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTERS THIRTEEN AND FOURTEEN
THE BURDEN OF BABYLON
WE NOW COME to a distinct section of Isaiah’s prophecy, dealing particularly with the nations with whom Israel had to do in the past centuries and some of whom it will have to meet in the coming Day of the Lord. In chapters thirteen through twenty-three we have “burdens,” that is, prophetic messages, relating particularly to Babylon (13,14), Moab (15,16), Damascus, the capital of Syria (17), some unnamed maritime power west of Ethiopia (18), Egypt (19), Egypt and Ethiopia (20), Edom and Arabia, (21) and of Tyre (23). Two messages also refer definitely to Palestine itself in connection with the attacks of their enemies, namely, part of chapter twenty-one and chapter twenty-two.
The nations mentioned in these chapters were those from whom Israel suffered in the past and some of them will appear on the scene in the last days, still manifesting their old enmity toward the chosen race.
In chapters thirteen and fourteen Isaiah looks on into the future, predicting the destruction that he foresaw would come upon Babylon as a result of the Medo-Persian invasion of Chaldea. It may seem strange that Babylon should occupy the place it does in these prophetic visions inasmuch as it was but an insignificant power in Isaiah’s day, completely overshadowed by Assyria, but the spirit of prophecy enabled Isaiah to look on to the time when these two would be combined in one great dominion of which the city of Babylon would be the capital.
This was the power destined to carry out the judgments of GOD against Judah because of its rebellion and idolatry. As we read these chapters it is easy to see that back of the literal rulers of Babylon there was a sinister spirit-personality denominated as Lucifer, the son of the morning. That this evil angel is identical with Satan himself seems to be perfectly clear.
We note, then, the first part of the prophecy, which will have a double fulfillment: first, Babylon’s destruction by the armies of Cyrus and Cyaxares (who is probably the same as the Darius of Daniel 5), and then the final destruction of the Assyrian in the last days.
In eloquent and dramatic language Isaiah pictures the downfall of the future oppressor of the
people of GOD.
“The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: and they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible” (verses 1-11).
The picture presented goes far beyond that of the literal destruction of Babylon on the Euphrates in the days of the Medo-Persian conquest. It vividly presents the conditions that will prevail not only among the nations of central and western Asia, but of all Gentile powers in the day of the Lord’s indignation.
In other words, the doom that fell upon Babylon of old was an illustration of the terrible fate that awaits the godless Gentile powers who will be taken in red-handed rebellion against the Lord and His Anointed in the last days. It will be noted that many of the expressions used in these verses are practically identical with those of other prophecies concerning the Day of the Lord and with the events to follow the breaking of the sixth seal in the book of Revelation.
“I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land. Everyone that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces’ before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished” (verses 12-16).
As we compare this passage with Hag 2:6, 7; Heb 12:25-29; Zec 14:4, 5, and other passages relating to the Day of the Lord, we learn that not only will the kingdoms of the world be broken to pieces but there will be tremendous natural convulsions that will shake the earth and cause disorder even among the heavenly bodies, so that the people of the world will be in abject terror because of the judgments of the Lord.
So large a portion of the human race will be destroyed in the conflicts and natural catastrophes of those days that a man will be more precious than gold, and fear and terror will take hold upon all of the inhabitants of the earth who do not know and wait for the Lord in that day of His power.
“Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tents there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged” (verses 17-22).
Here the prophet reverts to the literal destruction of Babylon which began with its siege and overthrow by the Medes and Persians, but was not consummated fully until some centuries later when at last that one-time proud city was leveled to the dust, its palaces destroyed, its hanging gardens ruined, and its destruction made so complete that in all the centuries since it has never been able to rise again.
It is true that from time to time small villages have been built near the site of the ancient city, but the ruins of Babylon recently uncovered by archeologists show how completely the prophet’s words have been fulfilled.
Even to this day the Arabian refuses to pitch his tent there, thinking that demons prowl by night among the ruins of the city, where owls and lizards (dragons) and other creatures of the night abound. GOD has decreed that Babylon shall never rise again. The Babylon of the Revelation is a symbolic picture of the great religious-commercial organization of the last days which will become fully developed after the true Church has been caught up to be with the Lord.
Its doom, like that of the ancient city, will soon be consummated and it too will fall, never to lift itself up again against GOD and His people.
In chapter fourteen, we see that GOD links Israel’s future restoration with Babylon’s doom. Though centuries were to elapse between the two events yet, inasmuch as through the decree of Cyrus a remnant was permitted to return to Jerusalem, thus fulfilling a part of the divine predictions concerning the recovery of Judah, so their final restoration is linked with the complete overthrow of Gentile power.
“For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their
oppressors” (verses 1,2).
Note the expression, “They shall take them captives, whose captives they were.” This seems to give the true explanation of that much-controverted passage in Eph 4:8, “He led captivity captive.” These words are quoted from Psa 68:18.
The same Hebraism is found in Jdg 5:12 where the meaning is perfectly clear: Barak was to lead captive those who had held Israel captive. So CHRIST, by His triumphant resurrection, has overthrown the powers of hell and led captive Satan and his hosts who held humanity captive for so long. Satan was utterly defeated at that time (Heb 2:14) and those who had once been his victims are now delivered from his power. In Col 2:15 we are told that CHRIST, in rising from the dead, spoiled, or made a prey of, principalities and powers, that is, the hosts of evil; therefore Satan is now a defeated foe. His judgment has not yet been carried out but is as certain as that GOD’s Word is true. It is for the believer to resist the devil, steadfast in the faith, knowing that he can have no power against those who cleave to the Word of God.
In the section that follows, Israel is seen exulting over the destruction of her great enemy.
“And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up two proverbs against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us” (verses 3-8).
The “king of Babylon” seems to be used here as a synonym for all Gentile powers that throughout the centuries have taken part in the persecution of GOD’s ancient people. When the last great enemy shall be destroyed they will be able to rejoice in the manifestation of the Lord’s power, and just as Israel sang on the shores of the Red Sea as they viewed the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, so in that coming day will they be able to raise the Song of Moses and the Lamb as they see all their enemies brought to naught.
We come to something now that enables us to understand how sin began in the heavens, and also to comprehend something of the unseen powers that throughout the centuries have dominated the minds of evil-disposed men, seeking to thwart the purpose of GOD. The fall of Lucifer portrays the fall of Satan.
The passage links very closely with Ezekiel 28, which should be carefully considered in the effort to understand this fully.
“Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy
viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (verses 9-15).
These words cannot apply to any mere mortal man. Lucifer (the light-bearer) is a created angel of the very highest order, identical with the covering cherub of Ezekiel 28. He was, apparently, the greatest of all the angel host and was perfect before GOD until he fell through pride.
It was his ambition to take the throne of Deity for himself and become the supreme ruler of the universe.
Note his five “I wills.” It was the assertion of the creature’s will in opposition to the will of the Creator that brought about his downfall, and so an archangel became the devil! Cast down from the place of power and favor which he had enjoyed, he became the untiring enemy of GOD and man, and down through the millennia since has exerted every conceivable device to ruin mankind and rob GOD of the glory due to His name.
It is of him our Lord speaks in Joh 8:44. The Lord there shows that Satan is an apostate, having fallen from a position once enjoyed, and we know from other Scriptures how he ever goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
The Cross was the precursor of Satan’s doom, but he is determined to wreak his vengeance upon mankind so far as he can before his own final judgment takes place, because his heart is filled with hatred against GOD and against those whom GOD loves. We know from other passages that Lucifer was not alone in his rebellion (2Pe 2:4), and our Lord speaks of “the devil and his angels” (Mat 25:41), and this is confirmed in Rev 12:7, where we read of the coming war in heaven between Michael and his angels, and the dragon and his.
These evil angels are the world-rulers of this darkness (Eph 6:12). They seek to dominate the hearts and minds of the rulers of the nations, stirring them up to act in opposition to the will of GOD. Therefore we need not be surprised to find in the next verses of our chapter that the king of Babylon seems to be, as it were, confounded with Lucifer. The actual meaning, of course, is that he was controlled or dominated by him.
His downfall is described:
“They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast
destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts” (verses 16-23).
This passage is highly poetical, but describes in no uncertain terms the utter destruction of the last great enemy of Israel in the Day of the Lord. See also Eze 31:16-18. All the glory of the warrior and the pride of world conquest end in utter destruction.
None who has dared to rise up in pride and arrogance to defy the living GOD has ever been able to escape the inevitable result of his folly.
In the Assyrian of the last days, we see as it were the incarnation of all the persecuting powers who have distressed Israel since their dispersion among the Gentiles.
“The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is matched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (verses 24-27).
When the nations are gathered together for the Armageddon conflict, the Lord Himself will destroy the Assyrian with every other enemy of CHRIST and His truth. Israel will be completely delivered and GOD glorified in the kingdom to be set up in righteousness.
In the last five verses of the chapter we have a separate prophecy, given in the last year of King Ahaz, relating to Palestine and its people.
“In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, And his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it” (verses 28-32).
For the time being GOD had turned back the armies of Syria and of Assyria, but greater conflicts were in the future. These we know came to pass in the days of Hezekiah, and finally, at the close of the short reign of Zedekiah. First, the land was overrun by the Assyrians who, however, were turned back without accomplishing their purpose, but because of Judah’s lack of repentance and self-judgment, eventually the armies of Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, slew thousands of
the people, and carried many more into captivity. Nor was this to be the last distress that would come upon that doomed land. Throughout the long years since their dispersion, Palestine has been a veritable battleground and Israel’s sufferings have beggered all description, but the day of their deliverance is yet to come through the very One whom the nation rejected when He came in lowly grace as the promised Saviour and Messiah.
~ end of chapter 13, 14 ~
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/
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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Isa 14:32
“The Lord hath founded Zion;” this is the guarantee of His love and her stability. “The poor of her people shall trust in it”-or, as the margin has it, shall betake themselves unto it-this is one purpose of the Church’s mission upon earth,-the care, the teaching, the education, the guidance of the poor.
I. The strongest, most fundamental title of protection is creation. Even among ourselves, no one frames an object to destroy it; he who makes, makes that he may preserve. And if this be so in human nature, shall there be nothing to compare with it in the Divine? God, indeed, who is eternal, can require no successor to whom to devise His purposes of love; but all the claims that the thing framed can have on Him who framed it, hold with tenfold force when the object is not, as in our humbler works, the mere apposition of preexisting materials, in which nothing is ours except the order of arrangement, but is itself, alike in matter and in form, the direct offspring of His own inexhaustible power and goodness. (1) Behold, then, how as His own “God loved the world;” how as not only His own, but His own in pain and anguish, and endeared to His inmost heart as such, God hath loved His Church. He spoke to bid the one, He died to make the other, exist. (2) In this Church of His is His own honour pledged. He hath not covenanted with the world that now is to immortalise it; but He has passed His own word for the perpetuity of His Church. Nothing so framed was ever framed to perish; He has infused into it His own Spirit, and His Spirit is life. (3) Is not the Church in its ultimate perfection set forth as the very reward of all the sorrows of its Lord? and shall He be defrauded of His recompense? (4) There is more than creation to bind the Church to Christ, more than promise, more than reward; there is communion, oneness, identification. A man may desert his child; he cannot desert himself. With such a union there can be no separation; if Christ be immortal, the Church is so; when He dies she shall perish, but not till then.
II. The text predicts that this Zion of God shall be the resort of His poor, and the object of their trust. The Church of Christ is one vast institute for the benefit of the poor. He who loved all, eminently loved them; and His Church has ever, even in her darkest days, retained much of the character He thus impressed.
W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, 2nd series, p. 227.
At first sight the prediction which closes the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah seems of temporary interest only, and to speak of judgments which within a very few years were destined to fall upon one of the most inveterate enemies of God’s ancient people; and yet I cannot but think those commentators right who, following the opinion of divers of the Fathers of the Church, have found in the passage an allusion to the Gospel and Church of Christ.
I. That the prophecy would be one of pressing and immediate interest to the contemporaries of the prophet is obvious from the manner in which it is ushered in: “In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden” (or, as we should nowadays say, this denunciation of wrath) against the Philistines. After bidding the inhabitants of Palestine howl for the judgments that were impending, Isaiah, speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, makes the inquiry and gives the answer of the text. It was usual for neighbouring nations, who were friends and allies, to send ambassadors, and congratulate each other on success. When, therefore, the coming triumph over the Philistines should be known abroad, and the envoys of friendly states should inquire of Judah into the circumstances of his success, “Let this answer,” said the prophet, “suffice: that the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it.”
II. No one can read that promise and not feel that it was intended to have an ampler scope for its fulfilment than in the personal security of a handful of Jewish peasants; the whole turn of expression is redolent of Gospel times. Such words were never fully verified till Christ, the Son of David, had founded the Christian Church, and made His gracious offer to a world enslaved in the most cruel of all bondage: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
F. E. Paget, Sermons for Special Occasions, p. 65.
References: Isa 14:10.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 178. Isa 16:1.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages from the Prophets, vol. i., pp. 35,46. Isa 17:10, Isa 17:11.-A. Maclaren, Old Testament Outlines, p. 179.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 14
Israels Restoration and Blessing After Babylon is Fallen and the Burden of Philistia
1. Israels restoration and exaltation (Isa 14:1-2) 2. The proverb against the king of Babylon (Isa 14:3-11) 3. The triumph over Lucifer (Satan) (Isa 14:12-20) 4. Babylons destruction (Isa 14:21-23) 5. The Assyrian broken (Isa 14:24-27) 6. The burden of Philistia (Isa 14:28-32)When the last great Babylon is overthrown the Lord will remember His people and Jerusalem in mercy. He will then set His people in rest in their own land. The king of Babylon here in this chapter is not Nebuchadnezzar, nor his grandson Belshazzar, but the final great king of Babylon. It is the little horn of Dan 7:1-28, the great political head of the restored Roman Empire. Behind this final king of the times of the Gentiles looms up Satan, who energized that wicked and false king. The description of him who was Lucifer, the light-bearer, and his fall is of deep interest.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
the Lord: Isa 40:1, Isa 40:2, Isa 44:21, Isa 44:22, Isa 54:7, Isa 54:8, Lev 26:40-45, Deu 4:29-31, Neh 1:8, Neh 1:9, Psa 98:3, Psa 102:13, Psa 136:10-24, Psa 143:12, Jer 50:4-6, Jer 50:17-20, Jer 50:33, Jer 51:4-6, Jer 51:34-37, Luk 1:54, Luk 1:72-74
choose: Isa 27:6, Zec 1:17, Zec 2:12
set: Deu 30:3-5, Jer 24:6, Jer 24:7, Jer 29:14, Jer 30:18-22, Jer 31:8-12, Jer 32:37-41, Eze 36:24-28, Eze 39:25-29
the strangers: Isa 19:24, Isa 19:25, Isa 49:16-23, Isa 56:6-8, Isa 60:3-5, Isa 66:20, Rth 1:14-18, Est 8:17, Jer 12:15, Jer 12:16, Zec 2:11, Zec 8:22, Zec 8:23, Mal 1:11, Luk 2:32, Act 15:14-17, Eph 2:12-19
Reciprocal: Lev 25:44 – General Deu 30:7 – General Rth 1:16 – thy people Ezr 2:65 – servants Neh 10:29 – clave Est 9:1 – though it was turned Isa 21:2 – all the Isa 24:21 – the Lord Isa 60:9 – because Isa 60:14 – sons Isa 61:5 – General Jer 16:15 – that brought Jer 23:8 – General Jer 30:7 – but Jer 33:26 – and have Jer 49:2 – shall Israel Joe 3:8 – your sons Amo 9:12 – possess Oba 1:17 – possess Zep 2:7 – turn Zec 10:6 – for I have Luk 1:71 – we
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 14:1. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob Will pity and deliver his people; and therefore will destroy Babylon. which hinders their deliverance, and will raise up and exalt Cyrus, who shall promote it; and he will not prolong the time, but do these things speedily, as the prophet had just affirmed. For he is continuing his discourse concerning Babylon, and assigning the reason, not only of its fall, but of the speedy approach of that fall, as predicted in the last clause of the preceding chapter. It was not to be delayed, because the deliverance of the church of God depended upon it. And will yet choose Israel Will renew his choice of them, for he had appeared to reject and cast them off: or he will still regard them as his chosen people, however he may seem to desert them by giving them up to their enemies, and scattering them among the nations. Israel is put for Judah, as it frequently is. Israel being the name which God gave to Jacob, as a mark of his favour, it is chiefly made use of by the prophets when they deliver some gracious promise, or announce some blessing from the mouth of God, especially such a one as concerns the twelve tribes, all equally descended from Jacob, as this prophecy, in its ultimate sense, undoubtedly does. And the strangers shall be joined to them It is probable that many strangers were made proselytes to the Jewish religion during their captivity, who were willing to go along with them into Judea, there to enjoy the free exercise of their religion. And others, who had not been proselytes before, might be induced to become such, and unite themselves to them, either through the favour shown to the Jews in the Persian court, or by consideration of their wonderful deliverance taking place exactly at the time foretold by the prophets. But what was then begun was more fully accomplished at the coming of the Messiah.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 14:1. And set them in their own land. This prediction is so correct, as appears from the books of Nehemiah and Ezra, that no man can doubt the truth of prophecy; and its literal accomplishment demonstrates the truth of divine revelation.
Isa 14:6. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke. Nebuchadnezzar began his career by joining the Medes to overthrow Nineveh. In his twelfth year he destroyed Ecbatana, the capital of the Medes. After that he turned his arms against all the countries of western Asia, but the immortal Judith, by killing his general Holofernes, stopped the expedition for one year! He conquered all the countries from Antioch to Egypt. His strokes on the nations were continual strokes. Yet Tyre resisted him in a siege of thirteen years.
Isa 14:12. Oh Lucifer, son of the morning. The Babylonian empire was accounted the sun of the east, and her king as the morning light. He is here called Lucifer; that is, light maker. His presence, in the glory in which he was created, occasioned brightness. Such is the import of the Hebrew word hailail, from the expansion of light.
Isa 14:13. I will sit also upon the mountin the sides of the north. Mount Zion, and the temple, were situate on the north side of Jerusalem. So that in his pride he said, he would fill the throne of God, and be like the Most High.
Isa 14:15. Thou shalt be brought down to hell, or hades, as described in Psa 9:17; Psa 16:10.
Isa 14:20. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial. This punishment was inflicted on some idolatrous kings of Judah, who were not allowed to be buried with David. Belshazzars carcase was trodden underfoot, being slain at the feast by the Medes.
Isa 14:29. A fiery flying serpent. When Herodotus travelled in Egypt, he was shown by the priests a species of serpent preserved in their collections, which had wings, not of feathers, but something like the bat. Professor Cuvier, living in Paris, enumerates the Pterodactyli or flying lizards, tail short, neck long, muzzle elongated, and armed with sharp teeth. One of the species is the size of a thrush, and the other not larger than a bat. Vide Plin. lib. 24. c. 13.
REFLECTIONS.
Isaiah having foretold the sore destruction of Babylon, now consoles his captive country, who should rise by her fall, and bring back from their captivity a considerable number of the forlorn heathen as servants to do their harder work. Then follows the mystical parable, or song of reproach against Babylon. Here indeed we enter on classic ground; here the schools of Greece and Rome must yield to the schools of the Hebrew prophets. Homer, Virgil, and others, whose daring imaginations entered the abodes of Tartarus, must all concede the laurel to Isaiah. He surpasses them in the grandeur of his subjects, in the powers of satire, in the boldness of metaphor, and the beauties of diction. He had before his eyes the Nebuchadnezzar who shook off the Assyrian yoke, annihilated their empire, conquered Asia, rebuilt his capital, and having then no equal on earth, equalled himself with the MOST HIGH, and forced the east to adore his statue. He had before his eyes a Belshazzar who inherited all the power, and all the pride of his Sire. He had before his eyes this huge empire, which like the ancient tower of Babel fell by its own weight when nobody suspected danger. Instead of the tears and elegies due to innocence oppressed, he saw all the surrounding nations relieved of the iron sceptre, giving glory to retributive justice, and filled with songs of praise. He opens his song with a boldness worthy of his subjects. How has the oppressor ceased? The crimes and cruelties of the Babylonian kings are marked, to teach rulers to govern in the fear of the Lord, knowing that they are only ministers of the God of heaven, whose kingdom alone is an everlasting kingdom.
The second apostrophe seems to be to Nebuchadnezzar, though he is not mentioned by name. Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming! All the murdered kings and princes of Asia, whose only crime was defending their country, arose from their beds of state in which they were interred, to salute him as he entered the wide gaping caverns of Tartarus; for he had been accustomed to receive homage more than human in his triumphs of honour. They ask him why he was come alone, or but with the few slaves murdered to keep their masters company. They ask what he had done with all his power, of which he now had not a vestige left. They ask where was his pomp of purple, guards, chariots, and nobles. They ask why he had exchanged his perfumes for the worm, his music for howling, his riches for poverty, and his palace for a dungeon. But the grandest stroke of satire is levelled against his assumed divinity. Here, as though hell failed in eloquence, borrowing language for once of heaven, they exclaim, How art thou fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning! Thou, who but yesterday didst set up thyself above JEHOVAH the God of heaven; who didst burn his temple, and claim the worship of an empire to thy statue, how art thou cast down to the lowest abyss of hell! Thou who didst make the earth to tremble, and cities desolate, and the world a wilderness; thou who didst never open the house of thy prisoners. Know oh man, that the fetters of eternal darkness shall never be loosed from thy feet.Ah, who can bear the irony of hell! And if this is but the entrance into the abyss, what must the dregs of the punishment be! Come then to this gloomy school ye proud, ye oppressors, ye avaricious, and ye infidels, who like this great monarch set up reason above the laws of the Most High. Here you shall learn that you are only men; and that injured innocence, and oppressed humanity are about to feast their eyes on your misery. Come hither also ye riotous and crowded theatres, who love no light but the nocturnal tapers. Here is a real tragedy, perfect in all its characters, and interesting in all its parts. All the scenes are sublime, and qualified to inform your judgment, instruct your conscience, and impress your heart; and happy is the man disposed to profit by the instruction.
From the eighteenth verse, the poem is literally applicable to Belshazzar. The kings of the earth were generally buried with funeral honours, and their armour laid at their side, as though they were ready to awake, and defend their country at a moments notice. But Belshazzar fell intoxicated, and was pierced disgracefully among the slain in the general carnage. See Daniel 5.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 13:1 to Isa 14:23. The Utter Ruin of Babylon and Triumphal Ode over her Monarchs Death.Historical conditions are here presupposed entirely different from those of Isaiahs time. The subject of Isaiah 13 is the overthrow of Babylon by the Medes a century and a half after his age. Since the downfall is said to lie in the near future, the prophecy must have been written very near the close of the Exile. The description of Babylon is also not true to the situation of Isaiahs day. The great oppressing empire, whose downfall he predicted, was Assyria. Babylon was subject to it, though it revolted from time to time, and it was united in friendly relations with Judah by hate for the common oppressor. In our prophecy Babylon is no longer a subject state, but the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans pride, proud and arrogant, haughty and terrible. The ode in Isa 14:4 b Isa 14:21 probably belongs to the same date. It is a song of triumph over the fall of an unnamed oppressor. The writer pictures with undisguised exultation the taunts that will be aimed at the fallen tyrant in Sheol. Although the king is not named, the close connexion with the preceding prophecy makes it likely that the king of Babylon is meant. Isa 14:1-4 a is apparently an editorial link between Isaiah 13 and the ode that follows. If so, the reference to the restoration is to the return from the Dispersion rather than simply from Babylon. Prophecies of the return were not necessarily composed before the return under Cyrus, for neither that nor the subsequent return led by Ezra embraced more than a comparatively small remnant of the Jewish population out of Palestine. Long afterwards the hope of restoration was still cherished.
Isa 14:1-23. For Yahweh in His pity will restore Israel to its own land, and some of the heathen will join Israel as proselytes (cf. Isa 56:3; Isa 56:6 f.). The nations will bring them back to Palestine (Isa 49:22 f., Isa 60:9-14, Isa 66:20), and the oppressors will serve those whom they had oppressed. Then when Israel has been rescued it will utter this taunting song over the king of Babylon. The song is written m the so-called lamentation rhythm, which was used largely, though not exclusively, for dirges and elegies. Now has the oppressor ceased, ceased the terror! The tyrant staff is broken that smote the nations in incessant anger and trampled them with a trampling that none could cheek. The earth is at peace, the trees rejoice that they will no longer be felled by the oppressor to provide timber for ships, buildings, and implements of war. The poet now depicts the fortunes of the fallen tyrant after his death, first of his shade (Isa 14:9-15), then of his corpse (Isa 14:16-20). First he follows the kings shade to Sheol. This was the underworld, to which the shades of men were supposed to go after death, leading there a shadowy existence, regarded here apparently as the counterpart or pale reflection of the life which they led on earth. Thus the kings of the nations still sit on thrones. The passage should be compared with the striking description in Eze 32:18-32*, which differs from this to some extent in its representation. Here the kings are said to rise in amazement to meet the king of Babylon. They had not expected this invincible monarch to be overthrown, but now he is with them, as weak as they. This is the end of his pomp and his music; worms are his couch and his coverlet. So far from sitting on a throne like his fellow-kings, he is doomed to lie on the soil of the underworld, which is pictured as infested with worms, an indication of the close associations between Sheol and the grave. Later he is said to be brought down to the furthest recesses of the pit (Isa 14:15). He is thus dishonourably cast aside, no longer the centre of observation. The reason is, it would seem, the fact that his corpse remains unburied (Isa 14:19). Son of the Goddess of the Dawn (Job 3:9*), he aspired, as himself a demigod and king of a world empire, to become one of the gods (Ezekiel 28), sitting in their assembly on their mountain home in the far North. He is like the morning star, which shines brightly, but only for a brief period, quickly disappearing before the sun. The falling of the star (cf. Rev 9:1) is probably suggested by the falling of a meteor. How startling the contrast between the height he hoped to reach in the uttermost North and the depth into which he is plunged in the furthest recesses of Sheol! The scene changes to the battlefield (Isa 14:16), where the corpse of the king lies unburied. Those who see it will, as they closely scrutinise it, moralise on the change of fortune. Invincible though he had been, and holding his conquests so firmly, yet, unlike other kings, he is not honoured with burial in his own tomb. The text of Isa 14:17-20 has apparently suffered from transposition and corruption (see below). Not only is he excluded from his royal tomb, his whole brood falls and their very names are forgotten (Isa 14:20). Let the conquerors extirpate his children, that his dynasty may not perpetuate the mischief of his rule. Isa 14:22 f. is perhaps an editorial conclusion describing the desolation of Babylon. When its irrigation system fell into neglect, the overflow of the Euphrates formed marshes, since it was no longer carried off by the canals (p. 50).
Isa 14:4. golden city: read the raging or terror.
Isa 14:9. the dead: i.e. Rephaim (Gen 14:5*).
Isa 14:11. viols: perhaps we might illustrate from Isa 21:5, where the princes of Babylon are represented as at a banquet when the enemy were at their gates, and from the account of Belshazzars feast in Daniel 5.
Isa 14:19. The text seems to mean that the kings body is cast away unburied, like a worthless branch, cut off the tree and thrown aside; that it is flung into a pit with the rest of the bodies of the slain, so that he is surrounded by them on every side. But the language is strange, especially the phrase, that go down to the stones of the pit. Probably we should read, but thou art cast forth with the slain that are thrust through with the sword, that go down to the base of the pit, as a carcase trodden under foot. The remaining words then form an introduction to Isa 14:20. They do not make a complete sentence, and probably some words have dropped out. It has been suggested to read: [How art thou out off] from thy grave, like an abominable branch. [How liest thou there without honour] clothed [with shame]. This is a largely conjectural restoration, but it gives a good sense and avoids the difficulties raised by the present text. Something like this is very probably right. The king is called an abominable branch in the sense that he is a shoot disgraceful to the family tree, and therefore deserving to be lopped off (cf. Isa 11:1, Joh 15:6).
Isa 14:20. with them in this context can refer only to the kings of the nations (Isa 14:18), which is very awkward, since the pronoun ought naturally to refer to the slain. But neither is satisfactory. He should be spoken of as buried with his ancestors. Read with Duhm, as for thy fathers, thou shalt not be joined, etc.
Isa 14:21. cities: read heaps of ruins, unless the word, which is unnecessary and metrically inconvenient, should be struck out. With this verse the ode comes to an end.
Isa 14:23. porcupine: AV bittern probably suits the passages where it occurs better, though porcupine is philologically much the best supported (see EBi, HDB, SDB2).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
14:1 For {a} the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers {b} shall be joined with them, and they shall unite with the house of Jacob.
(a) He shows why God will haste to destroy his enemies, that is, because he will deliver his Church.
(b) Meaning that the Gentiles will be joined with the Church and worship God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The focal point of this oracle against Babylon is Israel’s security and future after this judgment. These verses summarize what Isaiah later recorded in more detail in chapters 40-66.
Earlier Isaiah predicted that Israel would experience defeat and captivity. After that Yahweh would have compassion on her, choose her again for blessing, as He had following the Exodus (Exo 19:4-6), and resettle her in her own land. Consequently many Gentiles would voluntarily attach themselves to God’s people. The Israelites would then have authority over those who formerly had authority over them (cf. 1Sa 17:8-9). They would take the lead domestically, militarily, and politically.
A second Exodus took place when the Israelites returned from captivity in Babylon, but a third Exodus will happen in the future when they return to their land following their present worldwide dispersion (cf. Isa 56:6; Isa 60:10; Isa 61:5). Amillennialists interpret this as a prophecy of the inclusion of Gentiles into God’s spiritual kingdom, the church. [Note: E.g., Young, 1:433-34.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
BOOK 5
PROPHECIES NOT RELATING TO ISAIAH’S TIME
In the first thirty-nine chapters of the Book of Isaiah-the half which refers to the prophets own career and the politics contemporary with that – we find four or five prophecies containing no reference to Isaiah himself nor to any Jewish king under whom he laboured, and painting both Israel and the foreign world in quite a different state from that in which they lay during his lifetime. These prophecies are chapter 13, an Oracle announcing the Fall of Babylon, with its appendix, Isa 14:1-23, the Promise of Israels Deliverance and an Ode upon the Fall of the Babylonian Tyrant; chapters 24-27, a series of Visions of the breaking up of the universe, of restoration from exile, and even of resurrection from the dead; chapter 34, the Vengeance of the Lord upon Edom; and chapter 35, a Song of Return from Exile.
In these prophecies Assyria is no longer the dominant world-force, nor Jerusalem the inviolate fortress of God and His people. If Assyria or Egypt is mentioned, it is but as one of the three classical enemies of Israel; and Babylon is represented as the head and front of the hostile world. The Jews are no longer in political freedom and possession of their own land; they are either in exile or just returned from it to a depopulated country. With these altered circumstances come another temper and new doctrine. The horizon is different, and the hopes that flush in dawn upon it are not quite the same as those which we have contemplated with Isaiah in his immediate future. It is no longer the repulse of the heathen invader; the inviolateness of the sacred city; the recovery of the people from the shock of attack, and of the land from the trampling of armies. But it is the people in exile, the overthrow of the tyrant in his own home, the opening of prison doors, the laying down of a highway through the wilderness, the triumph of return, and the resumption of worship. There is, besides, a promise of the resurrection, which we have not found in the prophecies we have considered.
With such differences, it is not wonderful that many have denied the authorship of these few prophecies to Isaiah. This is a question that can be looked at calmly. It touches no dogma of the Christian faith. Especially it does not involve the other question, so often-and, we venture to say, so unjustly-started on this point, Could not the Spirit of God have inspired Isaiah to foresee all that the prophecies in question foretell, even though he lived more than a century before the people were in circumstances to understand them? Certainly, God is almighty. The question is not, Could He have done this? but one somewhat different: Did He do it? and to this an answer can be had only from the prophecies themselves. If these mark the Babylonian hostility or captivity as already upon Israel, this is a testimony of Scripture itself, which we cannot overlook, and beside which even unquestionable traces of similarity to Isaiahs style or the fact that these oracles are bound up with Isaiahs own undoubted prophecies have little weight. “Facts” of style will be regarded with suspicion by any one who knows how they are employed by both sides in such a question as this; while the certainty that the Book of Isaiah was put into its present form subsequently to his life will permit of, -and the evident purpose of Scripture to secure moral impressiveness rather than historical consecutiveness will account for, -later oracles being bound up with unquestioned utterances of Isaiah.
Only one of the prophecies in question confirms the tradition that it is by Isaiah, viz., chapter 13, which bears the title “Oracle of Babylon which Isaiah, son of Amoz, did see”; but titles are themselves so much the report of tradition, being of a later date than the rest of the text, that it is best to argue the question apart from them.
On the other hand, Isaiahs authorship of these prophecies, or at least the possibility of his having written them, is usually defended by appealing to his promise of return from exile in chapter 11 and his threat of a Babylonish captivity in chapter 39. This is an argument that has not been fairly met by those who deny the Isaianic authorship of chapters 13-14, 23, 24-28, and 35. It is a strong argument, for while, as we have seen, there are good grounds for believing Isaiah to have been likely to make such a prediction of a Babylonish captivity as is attributed to him in Isa 39:6, almost all the critics agree in leaving chapter 11 to him. But if chapter 11 is Isaiahs, then he undoubtedly spoke of an exile much more extensive than had taken place by his own day. Nevertheless, even this ability in 11 to foretell an exile so vast does not account for passages in 13-14:23, 24-27, which represent the Exile either as present or as actually over. No one who reads these chapters without prejudice can fail to feel the force of such passages in leading him to decide for an exilic or post-exilic authorship.
Another argument against attributing these prophecies to Isaiah is that their visions of the last things, representing as they do a judgment on the whole world, and even the destruction of the whole material universe, are incompatible with Isaiahs loftiest and final hope of an inviolate Zion at last relieved and secure, of a land freed from invasion and wondrously fertile, with all the converted world, Assyria and Egypt, gathered round it as a centre. This question, however, is seriously complicated by the fact that in his youth Isaiah did undoubtedly prophesy a shaking of the whole world and the destruction of its inhabitants, and by the probability that his old age survived into a period whose abounding sin would again make natural such wholesale predictions of judgment as we find in chapter 24.
Still, let the question of the eschatology be as obscure as we have shown, there remains this clear issue. In some chapters of the Book of Isaiah, which, from our knowledge of the circumstances of his times, we know must have been published while he was alive, we learn that the Jewish people has never left its land, nor lost its independence under Jehovahs anointed, and that the inviolateness of Zion and the retreat of the Assyrian invaders of Judah, without effecting the captivity of the Jews, are absolutely essential to the endurance of Gods kingdom on earth. In other chapters we find that the Jews have left their land, have been long in exile (or from other passages have just returned), and that the religious essential is no more the independence of the Jewish State under a theocratic king, but only the resumption of the Temple worship. Is it possible for one man to have written both these sets of chapters? Is it possible for one age to. have produced them? That is the whole question.