Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 22:1
The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?
1. The burden of the valley of vision ] Or, The Oracle “Valley of Vision.” The heading (prefixed by an editor) is taken from a phrase in Isa 22:5 (see the note).
What aileth thee now ] Better: What meanest thou, I wonder (cf. ch. Isa 3:15).
gone up to the housetops ] cf. ch. Isa 15:3; Jdg 16:27; Neh 8:16. The flat roofs of the houses are thronged by excited citizens keeping holiday, perhaps watching some public spectacle. The prophet, wandering disconsolate through the streets, ironically inquires the reason of this unseasonable demonstration.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 4. The joy of the people and the sorrow of the prophet.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Isa 22:1-14. The inexpiable sin of Jerusalem
The key to this passage the most lurid and minatory of all Isaiah’s prophecies is the irreconcileable antagonism between the mood of the prophet and the state of public feeling around him. In a time of universal mirth and festivity he alone is overwhelmed with grief and refuses to be comforted. In the rejoicings of the populace he reads the evidence of their hopeless impenitence and insensibility, and he concludes his discourse by expressing the conviction that at last they have sinned beyond the possibility of pardon. The circumstances recall our Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem on the day of His triumphal entry (Luk 19:41 ff.).
It may be regarded as certain that the prophecy belongs to the period of Sennacherib’s invasion (701), although it is difficult to select a moment when all the elements of the highly complex situation with which it deals might have been combined. There is just one incident that seems to meet the requirements of the case, viz., the raising of the blockade of Jerusalem, in consequence of Hezekiah’s ignominious submission to the terms of Sennacherib (see General Introd., pp. xxxviii f.) It must be noted that this was not the last episode in that memorable campaign. The real crisis came a little later when the Assyrian king endeavoured by threats to extort the entire surrender of the capital. It was only at that juncture that Hezekiah unreservedly accepted the policy of implicit trust in Jehovah which Isaiah had all along urged on him; and it was then that the prophet stepped to the front with an absolute and unconditional assurance that Jerusalem should not be violated. That the earlier deliverance should have caused an outbreak of popular joy is intelligible enough; as it is also intelligible that Isaiah should have kept his eye fixed on the dangers yet ahead. The allusions to the recent blockade are amply accounted for, and the prophet’s expectation of a terrible disaster yet in store is obviously based on his view of the continued and aggravated impenitence of his countrymen.
The following analysis of the prophecy is partly influenced by this reading of the historical setting, and it is right to say that at one or two points the view adopted is somewhat tentative.
i. Isa 22:1-4. While the city abandons itself to demonstrations of frantic gaiety, in spite of the disgrace that has overtaken the country, Isaiah shuts himself up in solitary and inconsolable anguish.
ii. Isa 22:5-7. He sees in vision a great day of calamity approaching, when the Assyrian shall again thunder at the gates of Jerusalem; and although the picture is not completed it leaves the impression that the city’s day of doom has arrived.
iii. Isa 22:8-11. At this point (although the transition is extremely abrupt) the prophet seems to go back to the past, in order to trace the evidence of the people’s unbelief. In the height of the danger they had paid minute attention to human measures of defence, but with never a thought of Him whose strange work then appealed so closely to their conscience.
iv. Isa 22:12-14. And this spirit of unbelief remains with them still. It has caused them to misread the providential lesson of their escape, and to find an occasion of thoughtless revelry and merriment in what was so obviously a call to serious reflection and penitence. For such a sin Isaiah has only a “fearful looking-for of judgment” to announce.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The burden – (see the note at Isa 13:1). The valley gay’. Septuagint, Pharangos – Valley. Chaldee, The burden of the prophecy respecting the city which dwells (that is, is built) in the valley, which the prophets have prophesied concerning it. There can be no doubt that Jerusalem is intended (see Isa 22:9-10). It is not usual to call it a valley, but it may be so called, either
(1) because there were several valleys within the city and adjacent to it, as the vale between mount Zion and Moriah; the vale between mount Moriah and mount Ophel; between these and mount Bezetha; and the valley of Jehoshaphat, without the walls of the city; or
(2) more probably it was called a valley in reference to its being encompassed with hills, rising to a considerable elevation above the city.
Thus mount Olivet was on the east, and overlooked the city. Jerusalem is also called a valley, and a plain, in Jer 21:13 : Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the Lord. Thus it is described in Relands Palestine: – The city was in the mountain region of Judea, in an elevated place, yet so that in respect to the mountains by which it was surrounded, it seemed to be situated in a humble place, because mount Olivet, and other mountains surrounding it, were more elevated. So Phocas says, The holy city is placed in the midst of various valleys and hills, and this is wonderful ( Thaumaston) in it, that at the same time the city seems to be elevated and depressed, for it is elevated in respect to the region of Judea, and depressed in respect to the hills around it. (Relands Palestine, iii. 802, in Ugolinis Thesaurus, vi.) It was common with Isaiah and the other prophets to designate Jerusalem and other places, not by their proper names, but by some appellation that would be descriptive (see Isa 21:1; Isa 29:1).
Of vision – (see the note at Isa 1:1). The word here means that Jerusalem was eminently the place where God made known his will to the prophets, and manifested himself to his people by visions.
What aileth thee now? – What is the cause of the commotion and tumult that exists in the city? The prophets throws himself at once into the midst of the excitement; sees the agitation and tumult, and the preparations for defense which were made, and asks the cause of all this confusion.
That thou art wholly gone up to the house-tops – That all classes of the people had fled to the house-tops, so much that it might be said that all the city had gone up. Houses in the East were built in a uniform manner in ancient times, and are so to this day. (See a description of the mode of building in the notes at Mat 9:1 ff.) The roofs were always flat, and were made either of earth that was trodden hard, or with large flat stones. This roof was surrounded with a balustrade Deu 22:8, and furnished a convenient place for walking, or even for eating and sleeping. Whenever, therefore, anything was to be seen in the street, or at a distance; or when there was any cause of alarm, they would naturally resort to the roof of the house. When there was a tower in the city, the inhabitants fled to that, and took refuge on its top (see Jdg 9:50-53). The image here is, therefore, one of consternation and alarm, as if on the sudden approach of an enemy.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 22:1
The burden of the valley of vision
The valley of vision
This expression is applied to Jerusalem, where Jehovah was pleased to give visions concerning His will to His servants.
(B. Blake, B. D.)
The valley of vision
It is quite in place, in so far as round Jerusalem there are mountains, and the very city, which in relation to the country occupied an elevated position, in relation to the mountains of the immediate neighbourhood appeared to stand on a low level. Because of this two-fold aspect Jerusalem is called (Jer 21:13) the inhabitant of the valley, and immediately on the back of this the rock of the plain, and (Jer 17:3) the mountain in the fields, whereas Zep 1:11) not all Jerusalem, but a part of it (probably the ravine of the Tyropaeum) is called the mortar, or as we say, basin. If we add to this that Isaiahs house was situated in the lower city, and that therefore the point of view from which the epithet was applied was there, the expression is perfectly appropriate. (F. Delitzsch.)
Jerusalem, the valley of vision
Furthermore, the epithet is intended to be more than geographical. A valley is a lonely, quiet depression, shut in and cut off by mountains. Similarly is Jerusalem the sheltered, peaceful place, closed against the world, which Jehovah has chosen in order to show there to His prophets the secrets of His government of the world. (F. Delitzsch.)
The valley of vision spiritualised
Where Bibles and ministers are, there is a valley of vision, from which is expected fruit accordingly. (M. Henry.)
The inexpiable sin of Jerusalem
The key to this passage (Isa 22:1-14)–the most lurid and minatory of all Isaiahs prophecies–is theirreconcilable antagonism between the mood of the prophet and the state of public feeling around him. In a time of universal mirth and festivity he alone is overwhelmed with grief and refuses to be comforted. In the rejoicings of the populace he reads the evidence of their hopeless impenitence and insensibility, and he concludes his discourse by expressing the conviction that at last they have sinned beyond the possibility of pardon. The circumstances recall our Lords lamentation over Jerusalem on the day of His triumphal entry. (J. Skinner, D. D.)
The historical allusion
It may be regarded as certain that the prophecy belongs to the period of Sennacheribs invasion (701), although it is difficult to select a moment when all the elements of the highly complex situation with which it deals might have been combined. There is just one incident that seems to meet the requirements of the case, namely, the raising of the blockade of Jerusalem, in consequence of Hezekiahs ignominious submission to the terms of Sennacherib. It must be noted that this was not the last episode in that memorable campaign. The real crisis came a little later when the Assyrian king endeavoured by threats to extort the entire surrender of the capital. It was only at that juncture that Hezekiah unreservedly accepted the policy of implicit trust in Jehovah which Isaiah had all along urged on him; and it was then that the prophet stepped to the front with an absolute and unconditional assurance that Jerusalem should not be violated. That the earlier deliverance should have caused an outbreak of popular joy is intelligible enough; as it is also intelligible that Isaiah should have kept his eye fixed on the dangers yet ahead. The allusions to the recent blockade are amply accounted for, and the prophets expectation of a terrible disaster yet in store is obviously based on his view of the continued and aggravated impenitence of his countrymen. (J. Skinner, D. D.)
What aileth thee now?—
A mad holiday
In these words we can hear the old man addressing his fickle child, whose changefulness by this time he knew so well. We see him standing at his door watching this ghastly holiday. What are you rejoicing at in such an hour as this, when you have not even the bravery of your soldiers to celebrate, when you are without that pride which has brought songs from the lips of a defeated people as they learned that their sons had fallen with their faces to the foe, and has made even the wounds of the dead borne through the gate lips of triumph, calling to festival? (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
A new years question
I. It specially designates THEE. There is an identity in human experience. But there is at the same time an intense personality in each one of us, secrets in our experience–secret struggles, failures, motives, emotions.
II. A SPECIFIC TIME–NOW. Not the past–or the future–but the present.
III. THE AILMENT.
IV. THE QUERY is suggestive, as though the prophets inquiries were made with a view to a remedy. What is the specific for the ailment? Wealth, etc.? No! personal salvation. (Preachers Magazine.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXII
Prophecy concerning Jerusalem, 1-14.
Sentence against Shebna, who was over the household, 15-19.
Prophecy concerning Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, 20, 21.
From Eliakim, Isaiah, (agreeably to the mode universally
adopted in the prophetical writings, of making the things then
present, or which were shortly to be accomplished, types or
representations of things to be fulfilled upon a larger scale
in distant futurity,) makes a transition to the Messiah, of
whom Eliakim was a type, to whom the words will best apply,
and to whom some passages in the prophecy must be solely
restrained, 20-24.
The sentence against Shebna again confirmed, 25.
This prophecy, ending with the fourteenth verse of this chapter, is entitled, “The oracle concerning the valley of vision,” by which is meant Jerusalem, because, says Sal. ben Melech, it was the place of prophecy. Jerusalem, according to Josephus, was built upon two opposite hills Sion and Acra, separated by a valley in the midst. He speaks of another broad valley between Acra and Moriah, Bell. Jud. v. 13; vi. 6. It was the seat of Divine revelation; the place where chiefly prophetic vision was given, and where God manifested himself visibly in the holy place. The prophecy foretells the invasion of Jerusalem by the Assyrians under Sennacherib; or by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. Vitringa is of opinion that the prophet has both in view: that of the Chaldeans in the first part, Isa 22:1-5, which he thinks relates to the flight of Zedekiah, 2Kg 25:4-5; and that of the Assyrians in the latter part, which agrees with the circumstances of that time, and particularly describes the preparations made by Hezekiah for the defence of the city, Isa 22:8-11. Compare 2Ch Isa 32:2-5. – L.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXII
Verse 1. Art – gone up to the house-tops – “Are gone up to the house-tops”] The houses in the east were in ancient times, as they are still, generally, built in one and the same uniform manner. The roof or top of the house is always flat, covered with broad stones, or a strong plaster of terrace, and guarded on every side with a low parapet wall; see De 22:8. The terrace is frequented as much as any part of the house. On this, as the season favours, they walk, they eat, they sleep, they transact business, (1Sa 9:25, see also the Septuagint in that place,) they perform their devotions Ac 10:9. The house is built with a court within, into which chiefly the windows open: those that open to the street are so obstructed with lattice-work that no one either without or within can see through them. Whenever, therefore, any thing is to be seen or heard in the streets, any public spectacle, any alarm of a public nature, every one immediately goes up to the house-top to satisfy his curiosity. In the same manner, when any one has occasion to make any thing public, the readiest and most effectual way of doing it is to proclaim it from the house-tops to the people in the streets. “What ye hear in the ear, that publish ye on the house-top,” saith our Saviour, Mt 10:27. The people running all to the tops of their houses gives a lively image of a sudden general alarm. Sir John Chardin’s MS. note on this place is as follows: “Dans les festes pour voir passer quelque chose, et dans les maladies pour les annoncer aux voisins en allumant des lumieres, le peuple monte sur les terrasses.” “In festivals, in order to see what is going forward, and in times of sickness, in order to indicate them to neighbours by lighting of candles, the people go up to the house-tops.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Of the valley of vision; of Judah; and especially of the City of Jerusalem, as the next verse showeth; which is called a valley, because a great part of it stood in a valley, and comparatively to those higher mountains wherewith it was encompassed; of which see Psa 121:1; 125:2; Isa 52:7; and the valley of vision, because of the many and clear visions or revelations of Gods mind in that place, above all other parts of the world. As the prophets are called seers, 1Sa 9:9, so prophecy is frequently called vision, as 1Sa 3:1; Isa 1:1; Eze 7:13,26.
Gone up to the housetops, as they used to do in times of great confusion and consternation, that they might mourn, and look, and cry to Heaven for help. Compare Isa 15:3; Jer 48:38.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. of . . . valley of visionrather,”respecting the valley of visions”; namely, Jerusalem, theseat of divine revelations and visions, “the nursery ofprophets” [JEROME],(Isa 2:3; Isa 29:1;Eze 23:4, Margin; Lu13:33). It lay in a “valley” surrounded by hills higherthan Zion and Moriah (Psa 125:2;Jer 21:13).
theethe people ofJerusalem personified.
housetopsPanic-struck,they went up on the flat balustraded roofs to look forth and seewhether the enemy was near, and partly to defend themselves from theroofs (Jud 9:51, &c.).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The burden of the valley of vision,…. A prophecy concerning Jerusalem, so called, because it lay in a valley, encompassed about with mountains, and which was the habitation of the prophets or seers, and the seat of vision and prophecy; and perhaps there is an allusion to its name, which signifies the vision of peace, or they shall see peace. The Septuagint version calls it, “the word of the valley of Sion”; and the Arabic version,
“a prophecy concerning the inhabitants of the valley of Sion, to wit, the fields which are about Jerusalem.”
The Targum is,
“the burden of the prophecy concerning the city which dwells in the valley, of which the prophets prophesied;”
by all which it appears, that not the whole land of Judea is thought to be meant, only the city of Jerusalem, so called, not from its low estate into which it would fall, through the wickedness of the people, and so rather to be called a valley than a mountain, as Kimchi; but from its situation, it being, as Josephus h says, fortified with three walls, except on that side at which it was encircled with inaccessible valleys; and hence it may be, that one of its gates is called the valley gate, Ne 2:13 and besides, there was a valley in it, between the mountains of Zion and Acra, which divided the upper and lower city, as he also elsewhere says i. The burden of it is a heavy prophecy of calamities that should come upon it, or at least of a fright it should be put into, not in the times of Nebuchadnezzar, when it was taken and destroyed, as Jarchi and Kimchi, and another Jew Jerom makes mention of; nor in the times of Titus Vespasian, according to Eusebius, as the said Jerom relates; but in the times of Hezekiah, when Judea was invaded, and Jerusalem besieged by Sennacherib:
what aileth thee now? or, “what to thee now?” k what is come to thee? what is the matter with thee now? how comes this strange and sudden change?
that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? not to burn incense to the queen of heaven, which was sometimes done, and is the sense of some mentioned by Aben Ezra; but either for safety, to secure themselves from their enemies; or to take a view of them, and observe their motions, and cast from thence their arrows and darts at them; or to look out for help, or to mourn over their distresses, and implore help of the Lord; see Isa 15:2 and this was the case, not only of some, but of them all; so that there was scarce a man to be seen in the streets, or in the lower parts of their houses, but were all gone up to the tops of them, which were built with flat roofs and battlements about them, De 22:8.
h De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 4. sect. 1. i Ib. l. 6. c. 6. k “quid tibi accidit?” Vatablus; “quid tibi nunc est?” Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The prophet exposes the nature and worthlessness of their confidence in Isa 22:1-3: “What aileth thee, then, that thou art wholly ascended upon the house-tops? O full of tumult, thou noisy city, shouting castle, thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor slaughtered in battle. All thy rulers departing together are fettered without bow; all thy captured ones are fettered together, fleeing far away.” From the flat house-tops they all look out together at the approaching army of the foe, longing for battle, and sure of victory ( c ullak is for c ullek , Isa 14:29, Isa 14:31). They have no suspicion of what is threatening them; therefore are they so sure, so contented, and so defiant. is inverted, and stands for , like in Isa 8:22. is used to denote self-confident rejoicing, as in Zep 2:15. How terribly they deceive themselves! Not even the honour of falling upon the battle-field is allowed them. Their rulers ( katzin , a judge, and then any person of rank) depart one and all out of the city, and are fettered outside “without bow” ( m ikkesheth ), i.e., without there being any necessity for the bow to be drawn ( min, as in Job 21:9; 2Sa 1:22; cf., Ewald, 217, b). All, without exception, of those who are attacked in Jerusalem by the advancing foe ( nimza’aik , thy captured ones, as in Isa 13:15), fall helplessly into captivity, as they are attempting to flee far away (see at Isa 17:13; the perf. de conatu answers to the classical praesens de conatu ). Hence (what is here affirmed indirectly) the city is besieged, and in consequence of the long siege hunger and pestilence destroy the inhabitants, and every one who attempts to get away falls into the hands of the enemy, without venturing to defend himself, on account of his emaciation and exhaustion from hunger. Whilst the prophet thus pictures to himself the fate of Jerusalem and Judah, through their infatuation, he is seized with inconsolable anguish.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Consternation of Jerusalem. | B. C. 718. |
1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? 2 Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. 3 All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far. 4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. 5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. 6 And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. 7 And it shall come to pass, that thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
The title of this prophecy is very observable. It is the burden of the valley of vision, of Judah and Jerusalem; so all agree. Fitly enough is Jerusalem called a valley, for the mountains were round about it, and the land of Judah abounded with fruitful valleys; and by the judgments of God, though they had been as a towering mountain, they should be brought low, sunk and depressed, and become dark and dirty, as a valley. But most emphatically is it called a valley of vision because there God was known and his name was great, there the prophets were made acquainted with his mind by visions, and there the people saw the goings of their God and King in his sanctuary. Babylon, being a stranger to God, though rich and great, was called the desert of the sea; but Jerusalem, being entrusted with his oracles, is a valley of vision. Blessed are their eyes, for they see, and they have seers by office among them. Where Bibles and ministers are there is a valley of vision, from which is expected fruit accordingly; but here is a burden of the valley of vision, and a heavy burden it is. Note, Church privileges, if they be not improved, will not secure men from the judgments of God. You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore will I punish you. The valley of vision has a particular burden. Thou Capernaum, Matt. xi. 23. The higher any are lifted up in means and mercies the heavier will their doom be if they abuse them.
Now the burden of the valley of vision here is that which will not quite ruin it, but only frighten it; for it refers not to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, but to the attempt made upon it by Sennacherib, which we had the prophecy of, ch. x., and shall meet with the history of, ch. xxxvi.. It is here again prophesied of, because the desolations of many of the neighbouring countries, which were foretold in the foregoing chapters, were to be brought to pass by the Assyrian army. Now let Jerusalem know that when the cup is going round it will be put into her hand; and, although it will not be to her a fatal cup, yet it will be a cup of trembling. Here is foretold,
I. The consternation that the city should be in upon the approach of Sennacherib’s army. It used to be full of stirs, a city of great trade, people hurrying to and fro about their business, a tumultuous city, populous and noisy. Where there is great trade there is great tumult. It used to be a joyous revelling city. What with the busy part and what with the merry part of mankind, places of concourse are places of noise. “But what ails thee now, that the shops are quitted, and there is no more walking in the streets and exchange, but thou hast wholly gone up to the house-tops (v. 1), to bemoan thyself in silence and solitude, or to secure thyself from the enemy, or to look abroad and see if any succours come to thy relief, or which way the enemies’ motions are.” Let both men of business and sportsmen rejoice as though they rejoiced not, for something may happen quickly, which they little think of, that will be a damp to their mirth and a stop to their business, and send them to watch as a sparrow alone upon the house-top, Ps. cii. 7. But why is Jerusalem in such a fright? Her slain men are not slain with the sword (v. 2), but, 1. Slain with famine (so some); for Sennacherib’s army having laid the country waste, and destroyed the fruits of the earth, provisions must needs be very scarce and dear in the city, which would be the death of many of the poorer sort of people, who would be constrained to feed on that which was unwholesome. 2. Slain with fear. They were put into this fright though they had not a man killed, but so disheartened themselves that they seemed as effectually stabbed with fear as if they had been run through with a sword.
II. The inglorious flight of the rulers of Judah, who fled from far, from all parts of the country, to Jerusalem (v. 3), fled together, as it were by consent, and were found in Jerusalem, having left their respective cities, which they should have taken care of, to be a prey to the Assyrian army, which, meeting with no opposition, when it came up against all the defenced cities of Judah easily took them, ch. xxxvi. 1. These rulers were bound from the bow (so the word is); they not only quitted their own cities like cowards, but, when they came to Jerusalem, were of no service there, but were as if their hands were tied from the use of the bow, by the extreme distraction and confusion they were in; they trembled, so that they could not draw a bow. See how easily God can dispirit men, and how certainly fear will dispirit them, when the tyranny of it is yielded to.
III. The great grief which this should occasion to all serious sensible people among them, which is represented by the prophet’s laying the thing to heart himself; he lived to see it, and was resolved to share with the children of his people in their sorrows, Isa 22:4; Isa 22:5. He is not willing to proclaim his sorrow, and therefore bids those about him to look away from him; he will abandon himself to grief, and indulge himself in it, will weep secretly, but weep bitterly, and will have none go about to comfort him, for his grief is obstinate and he is pleased with his pain. But what is the occasion of his grief? A poor prophet had little to lose, and had been inured to hardship, when he walked naked and barefoot; but it is for the spoiling of the daughter of his people. It is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity. Our enemies trouble us and tread us down, and our friends are perplexed and know not what course to take to do us a kindness. The Lord God of hosts is now contending with the valley of vision; the enemies with their battering rams are breaking down the walls, and we are in vain crying to the mountains (to keep off the enemy, or to fall on us and cover us) or looking for help to come to us over the mountains, or appealing, as God does, to the mountains, to hear our controversy (Mic. vi. 1) and to judge between us and our injurious neighbours.
IV. The great numbers and strength of the enemy, that should invade their country and besiege their city, Isa 22:6; Isa 22:7. Elam (that is, the Persians) come with their quiver full of arrows, and with chariots of fighting men, and horsemen. Kir (that is, the Medes) muster up their arms, unsheath the sword, and uncover the shield, and get every thing ready for battle, every thing ready for the besieging of Jerusalem. Then the choice valleys about Jerusalem, that used to be clothed with flocks and covered over with corn, shall be full of chariots of war, and at the gate of the city the horsemen shall set themselves in array, to cut off all provisions from going in, and to force their way in. What a condition must the city be in that was beset on all sides with such an army!
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 22
THE ORACLE OF “THE VALLEY OF VISION”
In this chapter Isaiah turns from dealing with the nations surrounding Palestine to Judah (Jerusalem) itself. The situation he describes is a tragedy that the people of. God have brought upon themselves by their sins. To date the prophecy is almost impossible. Its fulfillment is probably in many parts- reaching clear down to the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Titus in 70 A.D.
Verse 1-11: JUDAH TO BE JUDGED AS OTHER NATIONS
1. The prophet scathingly denounces a people who indulge in riotous celebration when they have nothing to celebrate (Verse 1-2a).
2. He clearly sees what is coming upon them: destruction, by famine and pestilence; the capture of their military leaders, who will be bowed as prisoners, and taken away, without resistance, (Verse 2b-3; Jer 14:18; La 2:20).
3. Heartbroken, over the thoughtfullness of a people soon to face disaster, Isaiah desires solitude that he may pour out his grief -weeping bitterly for the daughter of his people, (Verse 4; Jer 4:19; Jer 9:1; Mic 1:8-9).
4. The trouble that is to come upon Jerusalem is from the hand of the Lord, (Verse 4-5; Isa 37:3; La 1:5; 2:2); the walls of the city will be broken down and the mournful cries of her inhabitants (to the mountains) will be mockingly echoed back upon them.
5. Elam and Kir (confederates with Assyria) will furnish horsemen and chariots, armed with quiver and shield, so that the choice valleys of Judah will be full of chariots set in array against the very gates of Jerusalem, (Verse 6-7).
6. The enemy will remove the veil of Judah – dismantling her defensed cities, (Verse 8a; Isa 47:3; Nah 3:5; Isa 36:1).
7. Even when surrounded by armies, the people of Jerusalem are presumptuous and self-confident – trusting their own resources,. (Verse 8b-11; 2Ki 20:12-21; 2Ch 32:2-7; 2Ch 32:30).
a. They looked to Solomon’s armory for weapons, (1Ki 7:2; 1Ki 10:17).
b. Noting the breaches in the walls of Jerusalem, they dismantled houses for materials with which to repair them, (2Ch 32:5).
c. And they dealt most wisely regarding the water supply for the city, (comp. 2Ki 20:20; 2Ch 32:2-5).
8. But, they are viewed as being in such a state of apostacy from God that they would not look unto, or reverence, the Lord their Maker, (Verse 11b; Isa 5:12; Psa 28:5).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. The burden of the valley of vision. Isaiah again prophesies against Judea, which he calls the valley of vision. He gives this appellation to the whole of Judea rather than to Jerusalem, of which he afterwards speaks; but now in the preface he includes the whole of Judea. He appropriately calls it a “valley,” for it was surrounded on all sides by mountains. It is a harsher view of the metaphor, which is adopted by some, that Jerusalem is called “a valley,” because it was thrown down from its loftiness. The reason why he adds the words, of vision, is plain enough. The Lord enlightened the whole of Judea by his word; the prophets were continually employed in it, and that was the reason why they called them seers. (1Sa 9:9.) There is also an implied contrast here, for valleys have less light than open plains, because the height of the mountains intercepts the light of the sun. Now, this valley, he tells us, is more highly enlightened than those countries which were exposed on all sides to the sun. It was by the extraordinary goodness of God that this happened; for he means, that it was enlightened, not by the rays of the sun, but by the word of God.
Besides, the Prophet unquestionably intended to beat down that foolish confidence with which the Jews were puffed up, because God had distinguished them above others by remarkable gifts. They abused his word and prophecies, as if by means of them they had been protected against all danger, though they were disobedient and rebellious against God. He therefore declares that visions will not prevent God from punishing their ingratitude; and he even aggravates their guilt by this mark of ingratitude, that amidst such splendor of heavenly doctrine they still continued to stumble like the blind.
What hast thou here? or, What hast thou now? He now addresses Jerusalem; not that this defeat affects Jerusalem alone, but because the whole country thought it safe to take refuge under the shadow of the sanctuary which then existed, and to lead the Jews to reflect, since this befell a fortified city, what would become of other cities which had no means of defense. He asks in astonishment, “What does it mean that every person leaves his house and flies to the house-top for the purpose of saving his life?” Among the Jews the form of house-tops was different from what is now customary with us, and hence arose that saying of Christ,
“
What you have heard in the ear proclaim on the housetops.” (Mat 10:27.)
When the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled to the house-tops, they left their houses open to be a prey to enemies, and this was a proof that they were exceedingly afraid. It is likewise possible that they went up to the house-tops for the purpose of throwing down javelins and other weapons against the enemies, whose arrival not only terrified them, but made them flee in consternation, and yet they did not escape danger.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
2.
JUDAH
a. IRREVERENT ATTITUDES
TEXT: Isa. 22:1-14
1
The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?
2
O thou that art full of shoutings, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; thy slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.
3
All thy rulers fled away together, they were bound by the archers; all that were found of thee were bound together; they fled afar off.
4
Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
5
For it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.
6
And Elam bare the quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.
7
And it came to pass, that thy choicest valleys were full of chariots and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.
8
And he took away the covering of Judah; and thou didst look in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.
9
And ye saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10
And ye numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and ye brake down the houses to fortify the wall.
11
Ye made also a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye looked not unto him that had done this, neither had ye respect unto him that purposed it long ago.
12
And in that day did the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
13
and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.
14
And Jehovah of hosts revealed himself in mine ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you till ye die, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
QUERIES
a.
Where is the valley of vision?
b.
Who is going to weep bitterly?
c.
Why would they say, let us eat and drink . . . etc.?
PARAPHRASE
This is Gods message concerning Jerusalem, the place where Gods word goes forth. What is the matter with you? Why are you all running up to the housetops? You are all consumed with the madness of revelry and irresponsibility. There is nothing to celebrate in your dead for they have not died honorably on the field of battle. Your leaders tried to desert you, but they were captured and taken prisoner. Everyone who tried to escape was either slain or captured. Some of you tried to console me, but I said, Do not try to console me, this is not a time for consoling but a time for weeping. I cannot be consoled when I see my people bring upon themselves inevitable destruction. No, these are days of confusion and affliction from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts. In the place where Gods word is supposed to reside, an enemy is breaking down Jerusalems walls and the enemys cries of success echo among the mountains. The expert warriors of Elam came in wagonloads and warriors from as far away as Kir took up arms against you. Your finest and most strategic lands were filled with wagon-loads of these warriors. The enemy had you completely besieged occupying even the city gates. The enemy exposed your decadence and your foolishness. And where do you look for help? To man-made weapons you run for deliverance. You thought you could deliver yourself. You saw the walls of your city in disrepair. You saw that you would need water for a time of siege. So you calculated what you thought it would take to fix all your defences and tore down houses and repaired your wall; and you made a reservoir between the two walls for an increased water supply; but not once did you ask for help from Him who lets this come upon you. He is the One who planned it long ago and you do not know it. When this was happening to you it was the Lord calling you to repent. His call to you is to weep, to mourn, to shave your heads in contrition, and to put on the sackcloth of penitence. But instead, you sing and dance and play, and feast and drink. You fatalists! You say, Let us eat and drinkwhats the difference, for tomorrow we shall die. The Lord of hosts has revealed to me that this sin will never be forgiven you, not even when you die.
COMMENTS
Isa. 22:1-4 FRIVOLITY: The events of this chapter apparently are those events surrounding the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib about 701 B.C. According to 2Ki. 18:14-16 Sennacherib had advanced against Jerusalem and demanded a heavy tribute, which somehow Hezekiah was able to amass and so buy off the attacker. For a while Sennacherib respected the terms of the tribute and withdrew his forces from Jerusalem. This first part of chapter 22 reflects the frivolity permeating the whole city after Sennacheribs withdrawal.
The valley of vision refers to Jerusalem and Judah as the repository of Gods revealed word which came so often in olden times by vision. The prophet rebukes the peoples irreverence and frivolity when they should have been solemnly and faithfully seeking Gods direction by asking, What is the matter with you? The people were running up to the tops of houses, gawking, shouting gleefully to one another, and all over the city there was a frivolous holiday spirit. In spite of all the warnings of the prophets they could not seem to grasp the impact of what had just happened. They did not understand the Assyrian siege as a warning from God that they should repent. They were shouting and reveling as if their armies had been victorious in battle. But their dead had not died honorably on the field of battlethey had died of starvation and pestilence which always follows a siege. In fact, their rulers had deserted their posts of leadership and tried to escape. They were captured and carried off by the enemy. Evidently someone had tried to console Isaiah and gainsay his interpretation that the Assyrian siege meant repent. Someone suggested Isaiah join in the shouting and frivolity. Isaiahs reply was, Do not look toward consoling me. This is the time for weeping bitterly. I cannot take comfort in the impenitent self-destruction of my people.
Isa. 22:5-7 FOREBODING: The prophet proceeds to retell the foreboding events of the siege. He interprets it as a day of discomfiture, of affliction, of confusion. Its source, he says, is the Lord, Jehovah of hosts. Joel interpreted the locust plague as a Day of Jehovah. Joel even called the locusts Gods army. God works through natural phenomena to call the world to repentance (Rom. 1:18-20; Act. 14:15-18); He warns the world to repent by allowing reprobate sinners to receive in their own persons the due penalty of their errors (Rom. 1:26-32); and He calls the world to repentance and salvation through the preaching of the Word (Act. 17:22-31). In Jerusalems case God was using at least two of these methods of calling. The Assyrians had broken down parts of Jerusalems walls. Their shouts of encouragement to one another in attacking Jerusalem were reverberating through the hills and valleys surrounding the city. The Assyrians brought with them expert soldiers by the wagon (chariot) load from as far away as Elam (Persia) and Kir (Armenia). This massive army inundated the peaceful valleys around Jerusalem. Those choice valleys where all their fertile farm lands lay were bivouac areas for teeming masses of men, chariots and horses. The Assyrians had the city so well trapped in a siege they could safely occupy the city gate areas.
Isa. 22:8-11 FOLLY: Apparently the veil of frivolity was ripped from the faces of the people momentarily as they contemplated what the Assyrians had done. Somehow they began to take a serious look at things. They could see the situation called for help. But where did they go for help? They went to their own devices. They went to the armory of the forest. This armory had been built by Solomon with cedars from Lebanon (1Ki. 7:2-6). Among other things it contained the golden shields which Solomon had made (1Ki. 10:17), and was one of the objects later shown by Hezekiah to the envoys of Merodach-baladan (Isa. 39:2). They were proud of their own abilities to prepare for war. They built water reservoirs to store up water for the siege. They calculated how many house-bricks it would take to repair the breaches in the walls and tore down the houses and repaired the wall. Leupold says, But in their mad haste to get everything done in quick order, no time was left for looking to Him who controls situations like this and alone can extricate those that have become entangled in their complications. The prophets way of stating the case indicates how strongly he believes in the total control of the Almighty in every human situation, and that faith demands that his help be earnestly sought. Jeremiah would say, . . . my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water (Jer. 2:13).
Isa. 22:12-14 FATALISM: A second look at their situation caused them some soberness. But the tragedy is it did not lead them to repentthey responded with a foolhardy fatalism. Their reaction was to engage in hedonism. God was calling to repentance. Their reaction was reasonable enough. If one does not believe in One God, The God of Truth and Justice, a sort of epicurean fatalism is all that is left. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. When men deny the historical realities of Gods redemptive work in Jesus Christ today the only alternative is epicurean fatalism.; The apostle Paul told the Corinthians (1Co. 15:30-34) that he would not be playing Christian martyr if there was no resurrection. To the contrary, the only sensible alternative to life hereafter is hedonism in the here and now! Liberal theologians who deny the authenticity and credibility of the New Testament and who refuse to accept the deity of Jesus Christ and the historicity of His resurrection, are schizophrenic ostriches with their heads in the sand. They are living in a world of make believe when they pretend there is something to Christianity. Those who deny the existence of God, the authority of His Word, and still try to play at the game of Churchianity are obscurantists par excellence! The mixture of liberal theology and existential philosophy has produced a generation of hedonistic fatalists, Their shibboleth is Meaning is found only in meaninglessness. This brand of fatalism has been preached by Sarte, Camus, Hemingway, Scheslinger and a host of others. It has fathered a generation of do-your-own-thing hedonists, since, tomorrow we die and life is never more absurd than at the grave. So, you see, modern existential-fatalism is not new! There is nothing new under the sun! Unbelief will produce the same moral anarchy in one generation after another.
QUIZ
1.
What historical events do these verses probably refer to?
2.
What was the first attitude of the people of Jerusalem?
3.
How did Isaiah interpret these events?
4.
Where did the people turn for solutions to their circumstances?
5.
Why were the people so fatalistic?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXII.
(1) The burden of the valley of vision.The valley of vision is Jerusalem, lying as it did (Jer. 21:13) in a valley, as compared with the hills round about it (Psa. 125:2). If we think of the prophets dwelling as being in the lower city, in the valley of Tyropon, the epithet becomes still more appropriate. That valley would be to him in very deed a valley of vision, where he saw things present and to come. Possibly the name became more characteristic from the impulse given to the prophetic dreams of all who claimed to be seers. The prophet looks out, and sees the people in a state of excitement, caused probably by the near approach of the Assyrian armies. They are on the house-tops, the flat roofs of which were a customary place of concourse (Jdg. 16:27; Neh. 8:16), keeping their revels, as those do who meet the approach of danger with a reckless despair (Isa. 22:13). By some commentators (Birks, Kay,) the valley of vision has been identified with Samaria.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Valley of vision Jerusalem itself, the seat of prophecy, the residence of Isaiah and his school of disciples. It is called a “valley” because, though on hills, it is surrounded by hills higher than itself; and because on three sides valleys steeply sloping to the city run into one running to the Dead Sea eastward.
What aileth thee A question occasioned by revelry resounding from all the housetops in a time of real peril, and this, from a daring, defiant sense of security. The question is a rebuke. The housetops were flat, and used as places of resort.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God’s People Must Choose Between Excessive And Unjustified Hilarity Resulting From False Confidence, or Mourning Over Sin and Trusting In Him ( Isa 22:1-11 )
Jerusalem is seen as having become a scene of rejoicing, but Isaiah is only too well aware that it is all for the wrong reasons. For in the face of the approaching enemy, instead of having confident trust in Yahweh, they are spurring themselves on and are wildly elated and fatalistic, and are relying on their own defences and on their allies, unaware that they are no longer under Yahweh’s protection.
But Isaiah wants them to know that he has been walking in the valleys outside Jerusalem, and while walking in one of them he has had a vision. He has seen into the future of what is going to happen in that valley as the enemy troops arrive with their chariots, and horses, and bows, and set up their siege equipment, and lay siege to Jerusalem, as they have done with regard to all the cities of Judah (Isa 22:5-8). And he has seen the blood that will be shed as a result of it. This is now his burden. The burden of the valley of vision in which he has seen working out ‘the Day’ that is coming from the Lord (Isa 22:5). And yet all the while Jerusalem rejoices, unaware of what is coming.
Analysis.
a The burden of the valley of vision.
b What do you think you are doing (literally ‘what to you then?’), now that you have wholly gone up to the housetops? O you who are full of shoutings, a tumultuous city, a joyous town. Your slain are not slain with the sword, nor are they dead in battle. All your rulers fled away together, they were bound by the archers. All who were found of you were bound together. They fled far off (Isa 22:1-3).
c Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Do not rush to comfort me for the spoiling of the daughter of my people, for it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, in the valley of vision. A breaking down of the walls and a crying to the mountains (Isa 22:4-5).
d And Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. And it came about that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate (Isa 22:6).
d And he took away the covering of Judah, and you looked in that day to the armour in the house of the forest, and you saw the breaches of the city of David that they were many. And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool, and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between the two walls, for the water of the old pool, but you did not look to him who had done this, nor did you have respect to him who fashioned it long ago (Isa 22:7-11).
c And in that day the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, called to weeping and to mourning, and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth (Isa 22:12).
b And behold, (instead of that there was ) joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die”.
a And Yahweh of hosts revealed himself in my ears. “Surely this iniquity will not be purged from you until you die,” says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts. (Isa 22:13-14).
In ‘a’ Isaiah speaks of the valley of vision, where he has received a vision from God of what is coming, and in the parallel he declares the solemn message that he has received. In ‘b’ there is joy and gladness, but it is not because they have won a great victory resulting in slain heroes, for they have rather avoided battle, and the only captives were those who were caught on the run, and in the parallel similar joy and gladness proves to result from a fatalism and a casualness of attitude that can only be displeasing to Yahweh. In ‘c’ Isaiah weeps over the people because they are despoiled, and yet he does not seek comfort because it is a day of discomfiture, of treading down and of perplexity, while in the parallel Yahweh calls all to the same weeping and mourning. Note that in both parallels reference is made to ‘the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts’. In ‘d’ we find reason for his grief in the presence of enemy hordes in their valleys and at their gates and in the parallel it is revealed to be because Yahweh has taken away His covering, so that they are looking to various expediencies by which to defend themselves, but are failing to look to the One Who has done this, the One Who had planned it long before.
Isa 22:1-3
‘The burden of the valley of vision.
What do you think you are doing (literally ‘what to you then?’),
Now that you have wholly gone up to the housetops?
O you who are full of shoutings,
A tumultuous city, a joyous town.
Your slain are not slain with the sword,
Nor are they dead in battle.
All your rulers fled away together,
They were bound by the archers.
All who were found of you were bound together.
They fled far off.’
‘The burden of the valley of vision.’ The heading is a paradox. How can the valley of vision be a burden to the visionary? (For in each previous case the name connected with the burden has been subjected to judgment). If this was the place where Isaiah had received his visions, why then should he be burdened about what would happen to it? The answer lies in the fact that he is aware that the valley will shortly be overrun by enemies for in his vision he has seen them there (Isa 22:5-7). But while he had received the visions from God there Jerusalem/Judah had not on the whole listened to what he had to say. That was why Jerusalem would suffer and the valley be overrun. And that was why he was now burdened for the valley, because he knew what would shortly be happening in it
It is possible also that there is the added thought that he is burdened because the vision had had to be given in a valley and not on the mountain of Yahweh (compare Psa 23:4), because he had had to go outside Jerusalem to receive his vision. And that because it was not to be a vision of triumph, such as could have been received on the mountain of Yahweh, but a dark vision, a vision of sadness and disaster.
‘What do you think you are doing (literally ‘what to you then’) now that you have wholly gone up to the housetops?’ ‘What to you then’ is a phrase that expresses disapproval (compare Jer 2:18; Hos 14:8). It is clear from this that Isaiah considers that they have no grounds for rejoicing. Indeed that he thinks that their rejoicing reveals how spiritually sick they are. It is possible that their going up to the housetops simply has in mind a means of expressing delight as men openly rejoiced (contrast Isa 15:3). But there is actually probably a darker significance to it in that he is speaking of their having gone up to their housetops so as to enter their rooftop shrines which were dedicated to the host of heaven, and to other gods (Jer 19:13; Zep 1:5). Thus their gratitude is seen as being wrongly directed. Their hearts are in the wrong place. (LXX adds ‘which help you not’).
‘O you who are full of shoutings, a tumultuous city, a joyous town.’ This is a picture of a city’s jubilation at some kind of good news. They are possibly rejoicing in anticipated deliverance (because Sennacherib has withdrawn or has accepted their surrender on favourable terms), or in hope of deliverance (because they have heard news that their Egyptian allies are coming), or because their defences have been satisfactorily completed and their water sources secured so that they are sure that they can now hold out, but there is no thought of what it has all cost Judah, no mention of gratitude to Yahweh, no mention of going to the Temple to worship, no thought of what they have lost by it. It is self-congratulatory, and that after a miserable showing, with God forgotten. And seemingly it was temporary rejoicing for they were still anticipating the possibility of death on the morrow (Isa 22:13), although that may simply have indicated an irreligious spirit.
‘Your slain are not slain with the sword, nor are they dead in battle. All your rulers fled away together, they were bound by the archers. All who were found of you were bound together. They fled far off.’ He wants to know what they can possibly have to rejoice about when they bring to mind the real picture that they should have been considering. It is a dismal one of failure, even of cowardice. For as a nation they had not offered firm resistance. They had not died in battle. Rather their leaders had fled into hiding and had been taken prisoner under the threat of archers rather than at sword point, an ignominious situation, while the remainder of the people had also fled, apart from those who were discovered, taken captive and chained together. What was there to rejoice about in that?
The reference is probably to what had happened throughout Judah, for Sennacherib himself records how during his campaign certain of the forces of Judah had deserted Hezekiah’s cause and had betrayed their people. They had not put on a brave show at all.
Isa 22:4-5
‘Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Do not rush to comfort me for the spoiling of the daughter of my people, for it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, in the valley of vision. A breaking down of the walls and a crying to the mountains.’
Because of this (‘therefore’) Isaiah declares that he himself is not rejoicing. Rather he is grief stricken. He wants no comfort from such people. For he is only too aware that he has witnessed the despoiling of his people, a spoiling which need not have happened had they trusted in Yahweh. It had been a day of discomfiture, a day when the people had been trodden down, a day when he had been perplexed before the sovereign Lord in the valley of vision. In his inaugural vision he had seen the state of the people before God, but this did not mean that he found what had happened to them now as easy to bear. If only they had trusted in Yahweh from the start all this would have been avoided.
For the truth is that if men do not trust and obey God, they must recognise that there is always a cost. But that does not necessarily make it easier to understand. Rather it is often perplexing and heartbreaking to those who minister to them.
It is easy to forget that, although Jerusalem had been delivered each time there was an invasion, there had always been a great cost for the people of Judah as a whole. The deliverance was regularly deliverance at the last hour after huge suffering had been experienced by the many, and many had been taken off to exile. And Isaiah had seen it all and had been perplexed as he had received his visions from God. It had been ‘a day of breaking down of walls’. Possibly he was thinking of the many walls of the cities of Judah that had been destroyed (as Sennacherib wrote in his annals, ‘forty six cities of Judah I besieged and took)’. It had been ‘a day of crying to the mountains’. Possibly the thought in mind is of the screams of the people as they had cried to the surrounding mountains for help (compare Isa 10:30), especially those in the lowlands who had been looking in vain to the king, ‘the breath of their nostrils’, in his mountain fastness. But the king had not been able to help them. He had been too busy seeking to help himself. How little then there was really to rejoice in.
‘For the spoiling of the daughter of my people.’ Nothing is worse than the rape of a daughter. It is a grief to the whole family. And Isaiah saw what had happened to his people as being similar to his own daughter having been ravished. Compare ‘the daughter of my people’ with ‘the daughter, Zion’ (Isa 1:8). That had been Jerusalem, this was the whole people that had been ‘raped’ (see Jer 4:11; Jer 6:14; Jer 8:11; Jer 8:19; Jer 8:22; Jer 9:1).
Isa 22:6-7
‘And Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. And it came about that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.’
He now describes what he had seen in the valley of vision. There is here a pointed reference to the fact that their erstwhile allies in whom they had trusted were now in array against Judah. This may be connected with the betrayal mentioned in Isa 21:2. The Elamites, or some of them, had changed sides. They may, of course, have been forced to do so because of their defeat at Sennacherib’s hands. But Isaiah sees the irony of it. They had trusted in their allies, and here they were, invading their land. The exact location of Kir is unknown but it was the destination of some of the Israelites taken into Assyrian captivity (see 2Ki 16:9; Amo 1:5; Amo 9:7).
The result had been that the whole of the lowlands of Judah had been occupied, with the dreaded bowmen of Elam, and with the warriors ready for battle, with uncovered shields, from Kir. Their finest valleys had been covered with enemy chariots (as the valley of vision would also shortly be). The horsemen had pressed in on the gates of their cities, the weak point in their defences. Was this really something to rejoice in?
Isa 22:8-11
‘And he took away the covering of Judah, and you looked in that day to the armour in the house of the forest, and you saw the breaches of the city of David that they were many, and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool, and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between the two walls, for the water of the old pool, but you did not look to him who had done this, nor did you have respect to him who fashioned it long ago.’
But worst of all for Judah was that God had withdrawn His favour from them. He had removed His protective covering from Judah (contrast Isa 4:5-6), because instead of looking to Him, they had looked to the armour in the house of the forest. They had considered that their armour was a better thing to trust in than Yahweh. And while they were gloating at their armour they were unaware of the invisible protection that had been removed. Well, they could have their armour. For thus Judah was left at the mercy of her enemies, and her armour would prove insufficient.
The ‘house of the forest’ had been built by Solomon and was called this because of the cedar pillars that supported its roof. It was used as an armoury and royal treasury (1Ki 7:2; 1Ki 10:17).
But while they had ceased to look to God they had also not looked to their defences. ‘You saw the breaches of the city of David that they were many.’ The walls had been allowed to crumble, and gaps had appeared in them, so that they would not be strong enough to take the hammering of a battering ram. And the result was that the city of David, which, with the Davidic house at its head under God, should have been invincible, had become an easy prey for an enemy.
So they had set themselves to frenzied activity, working to repair the defences and to guarantee the availability of water during a siege. ‘You gathered together the waters of the lower pool, and you numbered (assessed) the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You also made a reservoir between the two walls, for the water of the old pool.’ The walls had been rebuilt and strengthened by taking selected buildings, tearing them apart, and using the materials to repair the walls. A reservoir was also built between the two walls which they had filled with water from the old pool. This would include the work done on the tunnel which Hezekiah built so as to provide an underground water supply from the spring Gihon, which was then covered in so as to be invisible to attackers (2Ki 20:20; 2Ch 32:2-4). The old pool was possibly the pool formed around that spring, from which water was brought to the reservoir, or it may have been the pool which had previously been the mainstay of their water supply. The result was that now they had had strong walls and plenty of water although it had been at a cost. But in all this there had been one thing that was lacking.
‘But you did not look to him who had done this, nor did you have respect to him who fashioned it long ago.’ The tragedy was that they had left Yahweh out of account. They had ignored the One Who had chosen Jerusalem, the One Who had placed the spring there, and the One Who had shaped the city and its surrounds to be right for the purpose that He had purposed for it. Indeed had they looked to Him all the other preparations would have been unnecessary, but they chose rather to ‘improve’ on God’s handiwork while ignoring God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 22:1-25 Judgment upon Judah – Isa 22:1-25 contains a prophecy of the invasion of Jerusalem by the Assyrian army. We know from other passages of Scriptures that this event took place in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah. We find the story of Hezekiah’s fortification of the city and encouragement to the people in 2Ch 32:1-8, and a reference to it in 2Ki 20:20. We are given a picture of the confusion in the city in Isa 22:1-3. We have a description of the sorrow and pains of the prophet in Isa 22:4 as he sees in a vision this event taking place in the city. We also see in this passage the purpose of divine judgment. As harsh and painful it is to mankind, it has a redemptive work, and that is to restore man back to fellowship with God; for we read in Isa 22:11, “but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.” God wanted the people of Jerusalem to look to Him during the time of trouble. He wanted to be their deliverer.
2Ki 20:20, “And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?”
Isa 22:1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?
Isa 22:1
Comments – “of the valley” Jerusalem was surrounded by mountains (Psa 125:2). Jeremiah describes the people of Jerusalem as “inhabitants of the valley” (Jer 21:13).
Psa 125:2, “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.”
Jer 21:13, “Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?”
Comments – “of vision” A vision is given to priests for the purpose of delivering a word from the Lord to the people (1Sa 3:1, Mic 3:6, Rom 3:2). Priests would enter the Temple and receive God’s judgment and wisdom, as did Zacharias concerning the birth of his son John the Baptist (Luk 1:5-25). Thus, Jerusalem is described as a valley of vision since its primary function is to serve as the seat of judgment from God by means of the Temple services.
1Sa 3:1, “And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.”
Mic 3:6, “Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.”
Rom 3:2, “Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.”
Comments – The LXX reads, “The word of the valley of Sion.” Thus, we see from this how the ancient Jews understood this phrase to be a reference to Jerusalem. We must note the phrases “the spoiling of the daughter of my people” (Isa 22:4) and “the city of David” (Isa 22:9) as supportive of the ancient Jewish interpretation that Jerusalem is being referred to in this prophecy.
Isa 22:1 “What aileth thee now” Comments – In other words, “What troubles you, what is the matter?”
Isa 22:1 “that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops” Comments – The people went to the housetops for better views. Their homes did not have sufficient windows that looked out, perhaps for personal security. Thus, when they heard a multitude of noises without, as described in the next verse (Isa 22:2), they had to go to their rooftops to find out what was going on. They went up to get a view of the approaching enemy, and cast arrows down upon them. A second possibility is that they went up upon their roofs to weep and mourn and cry out to their idols, or perhaps to Jehovah (Isa 15:3, Jer 48:38).
Isa 15:3, “In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses , and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.”
Jer 48:38, “There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the LORD.”
Isa 22:2 Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
Isa 22:2
Isa 22:2 “a joyous city” Comments – This “joyous” city was not rejoicing in God’s blessings, but rather, the people were eating and drinking in order to find comfort in the few remaining days of their life before destruction falls upon them (Isa 22:12-13, Mic 6:3-6)
Isa 22:12-13, “And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: And behold joy and gladness , slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.”
Mic 6:3-6, “O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the LORD. Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?”
Isa 22:2 “thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle” Comments – The people died of famine and pestilence (Jer 38:2; Jer 52:6, Lam 4:9-10).
Jer 38:2, “Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.”
Jer 52:6, “And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.”
Lam 4:9-10, “They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
Isa 22:3 All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far.
Isa 22:4 Isa 22:4
2Ki 19:21, “This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.”
Lam 2:13, “What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?”
How much God hurts when He has to chasten His children. Dad once said before spanking me, “Son, this is gonna hurt me worse than it does you.”
Isa 22:5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
Isa 22:5
Luk 23:30, “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.”
Isa 22:6 And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
Isa 22:6
[43] R. F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), “Elamites.”
[44] John Gill, Isaiah, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Isaiah 22:6.
2Ki 16:9, “And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir , and slew Rezin.”
Isa 15:1, “The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence;”
Amo 1:5, “I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir , saith the LORD.”
Amo 9:7, “Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir ?”
Isa 22:7 And it shall come to pass, that thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.
Isa 22:8 Isa 22:8
Job 1:10, “Hast not thou made an hedge about him , and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.”
Isa 22:8 “and thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest” Comments – The “house of the forest” refers to Solomon’s palace (1Ki 7:2; 1Ki 10:16-17).
1Ki 7:2, “He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.”
1Ki 10:16-17, “And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target. And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.”
The armour refers to the five hundred golden shields, which were later replaced with brass.
Isa 22:9 Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
Isa 22:10 Isa 22:10
In 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21, David’s act of numbering the people showed him giving consideration to man’s strength and ability.
A key verse is 1Ch 27:23. The young were not numbered because of faith in God that He would cause the increase.
1Ch 27:23, “But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under: because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens.”
Isa 22:10 “and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall” – Comments In Isa 22:10 the Jews appear to have counted how many houses would be needed to fortify the wall in order to hold off the enemy; but they did not turn to the One who created it all. During the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib in 701 B.C., the Jews looked to the arm of flesh. They trusted and acted according to their own abilities instead of looking to the Lord. They will perform this same vain act of defense during the siege by Babylon in 587-586 B.C. (Jer 33:4).
Jer 33:4, “For thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are broken down to make a defence against the mounds and against the sword;” ( ASV)
The Lord has brought me to this verse many times to correct me when I am walking in the flesh, depending upon my own abilities. Man today is trying to build a wall of defence around himself with financial strength, a good home, health, life insurance etc. If he has the best-trained doctors money can buy, it cannot deliver him from God’s wrath.
Isa 22:11 Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.
Isa 22:11
[45] R. F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), “Water Supply.”
2Ki 20:20, “And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?”
Isa 22:11 “but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago” – Comments – God brought about this siege and planned it long ago (Isa 37:26).
Isa 37:26, “Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps.”
When we find ourselves living under a curse, we must understand that God brought it upon us to bring us to Him (Isa 22:12); so we must repent and turn to Him for help and mercy and grace (Heb 4:15-16).
Heb 4:15-16, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Isa 22:12 And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
Isa 22:12
Psa 34:18, “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Isa 22:13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.
Isa 22:13
Isa 22:22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Isa 22:22
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 Oracle of the Valley of Vision
v. 1. The burden of the Valley of Vision, v. 2. Thou that art, v. 3. All thy rulers, v. 4. Therefore said I, Look away from me, v. 5. For it is a day of trouble v. 6. And Elam, v. 7. And it shall come to pass that thy choicest valleys, v. 8. And He, v. 9. Ye have seen also the breaches of the City of David, v. 10. And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, v. 11. Ye made also a ditch between the two walls, v. 12. And in that day did the Lord God of hosts, v. 13. and, behold, v. 14. And It was revealed In mine ears by the Lord of hosts,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Isa 22:1-14
A PROPHECY AGAINST JERUSALEM. The prophet, present in Jerusalem, either actually, or at any rate in spirit, sees the inhabitants crowded together upon the housetops, in a state of boisterous merriment (Isa 22:1, Isa 22:2). Outside the walls is a foreign army threatening the town (Isa 22:5-7). Preparations have been made for resistance, which are described (Isa 22:8-11); but there has been no turning to God. On the contrary, the danger has but made the bulk of the people reckless. Instead of humbling themselves and putting on sackcloth, and weeping, and appealing to God’s mercy, they have determined to drown care in drink and sensual enjoyment (Isa 22:12, Isa 22:13). Therefore the prophet is bidden to denounce woe upon them, and threaten that Jehovah will not forgive their recklessness until their death (Isa 22:14). There is nothing to mark very distinctly the nationality of the foreign army; but it is certainly represented as made up of contingents from many nations. Delitzsch holds that the Assyrian armies were never so made up, or, at any rate, that the nations here mentioned never served in its ranks; but this is, perhaps, assuming that our knowledge on the subject is more complete and exact than is really the case. It is almost impossible to imagine any other army than the Assyrian besieging Jerusalem in Isaiah’s time. Moreover, the particulars concerning the preparations made against the enemy (verses 9-11) agree with those mentioned in 2Ch 32:3-5 and 2Ch 32:30 as made by Hezekiah against Sennacherib. And the second section of the chapter has certainly reference to this period. It seems, therefore, reasonable to regard the siege intended as that conducted by Sennacherib in his fourth year, of which we have a brief account in his annals.
Isa 22:1
The burden of the valley of vision. “The valley of vision” is only mentioned here and in Isa 22:5. It must have been one of the deep depressions near Jerusalem troll which there is a good view of the town. The LXX. render, “the burden of the valley of Zion.” What aileth thee now? Jerusalem is addressed by the prophet, who assumes the role of a spectator, surprised at what he sees, and asks an explanation. That thou art wholly gone up to the housetops. Partly, no doubt, they went to watch the enemy anti his movements, as Rosenmller says; but still more for feasting and revelry (Jdg 16:27; Neh 8:16). The flat roofs of Oriental houses are often used as places of recreation and entertainment, especially in the evening.
Isa 22:2
A joyous city (comp. Isa 22:13). Thy slain men are not slain with the sword. It is a blockade rather than a siege. Men die, not of wounds, but of privations (Lam 4:9). Sennacherib himself says, “Hezekiah, like a caged bird, within Jerusalem, his royal city, I confined; towers round about him I raised; and the exit of the great gate of his city I shut”.
Isa 22:3
All thy rulers are fled together; rather, all thy chief men. We must make allowance for Oriental hyperbole. The meaning is that numbers of the principal men, regarding resistance as vain, had endeavored to make their escape from the doomed town, but had been captured and bound by the enemies’ archers. All that are found in thee; rather, belonging to thee. The reference is to those who had made their escape and were fleeing far away. The archers seize them, and bind them all together. We often see a number of captives bound together by a single rope in the Egyptian bas-reliefs. Which have fled from far; rather, which were flying far away.
Isa 22:4
Therefore said I. The prophet turns from the description of the scene before him to an account of his own feelings. Look away from me, he says; “leave me free to vent my sorrow without restraint; I wish for no consolationonly leave me to myself.” Because of the spoiling. The word used sometimes means” destruction;” but” spoiling” is a better rendering here. Sennacherib describes his “spoiling” of Jerusalem on this occasion as follows: “Thirty talents of gold, eight hundred talents of silver, precious carbuncles, great stones, couches of ivory, lofty thrones of ivory, skins of buffaloes, horns of buffaloes, weapons, everything, a great treasure, and his daughters, the eunuchs of his palace, male musicians, and female musicians, to Nineveh, the city of my dominion, did Hezekiah send after me”. To what straits Hezekiah was reduced in order to collect a sufficient amount of the precious metals we learn from 2Ki 18:15, 2Ki 18:16.
Isa 22:5
It is a day By the Lord; rather, there is a day to the Lord; or, the Lord has a day. God has in reserve such a day; and it will assuredly arrive in due course. Hence the prophet’s grief. In the valley of vision. We may suppose that Hezekiah, before he made the submission recorded in 2Ki 18:14 and in the ‘Cylinder of Sennacherib,’ col. 4.11. 28, 29, tried the chances of battle against the Assyrians in this valley, and that Isaiah had a prophetic vision of the fight. Breaking down the walls; rather, undermining. The Assyrian sculptures show numerous examples of this practice. Sometimes swords or spears are used to dislodge the stones of the wall, sometimes crow-bars or axes. Crying. Some regard this word, and also that translated “the walls” in the preceding clause, as proper names, and render the passage, “Kir undermineth, and Shoa is at the mount” (Ewald, Cheyne, Luzzatto). But it seems unlikely that “Kit” would be mentioned twice.
Isa 22:6
Elam bare the quiver. Elam, the country extending from the Zagros range to the Lower Tigris, and watered by the Choaspes, Eulaeus, Pasitigris, and other rivers, was an independent kingdom from a very early date (Gen 14:1, Gen 14:9), and in Isaiah’s time was generally hostile to Assyria. Sargon, however, relates that he conquered a portion of the country, planted colonies in it from the more western parts of his empire, and placed both colonists and natives under the governor of Babylon. It is thus quite possible that both Sargon and Sennacherib may have had a contingent of Elamites in their armies. With chariots of men and horsemen; rather, with troops of men (who were) horsemen (comp. Isa 21:7). Kir uncovered the shield. “Kir” is mentioned in 2 Kings as the place to which Tiglath-Pileser transported the inhabitants of Damascus (2Ki 16:9), and by Amos (Amo 9:7) as the original country from which the Syrians were derived. It has been recently identified with Kirkhi, near Diarbekr, or with Kirruri, in the Urumiyah country (Cheyne); but neither identification is marc than possible. (On uncovering shields as a preliminary to engaging in battle, see Caesar, ‘Do Bell. Gall.,’ 2.21.)
Isa 22:7
And it shall come to pass, etc. This verse and the next are closely connected, and introduce the new subject of the preparations which the Jews made for their defense. Translate, And it came to pass, when thy choicest valleys were full of chariots (or, troops), and the horsemen had set themselves in array toward the gate, that then did he draw off the cavorting of Judah, etc.
Isa 22:8
The covering of Judah was that which hid their weakness either from themselves or from the enemyprobably the former. God drew this aside, and they suddenly saw their danger, and began to think how they could best defend themselves. Arms were the first things needed. The armor of the house of the forest. “The house of the forest” was probably that portion of the palace of Solomon which he had called “the house of the forest of Lebanon” (1Ki 7:2-5). This was, it would seem, used as an armor (1Ki 10:17; 1Ki 14:27; Isa 39:2).
Isa 22:9
Ye have seen also . are many; rather, ye saw also were many. The breaches of the city of David. “The city of David” may be here a name for Jerusalem generally, as “the city where David dwelt” (Isa 29:1), or it may designate the eastern hill, where David fixed his residence (2Sa 5:7; Neh 3:15, Neh 3:16, Neh 3:25; Neh 12:37). In 2Ch 32:5 we read that Hezekiah at this time “built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Mille in the city of David,” where a particular part of Jerusalem seems certainly to be meant. Ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool. The arrangements made by Hezekiah with respect to the water-supply at the time of Sennacherib’s invasion, seem to have been the following: He found on the north of the city, where the Assyrian attack was certain to be delivered, in the vicinity of the Damascus gate, a pool or reservoir (Isa 7:3), fed by a conduit from some natural source, which lay open and patent to view. The superfluous water ran off from it by a “brook” (2Ch 32:4), which passed down the Tyropoeon valley, and joined the Kedron to the southeast of Ophel. His first step was to cover over and conceal the open reservoir, and also the” brook” which ran from it, at least as far as the northern city wall, to prevent their use by the Assyrians. He then further made a conduit underground (2Ch 32:30) within the city, along the Tyropoeon depression, to a second reservoir, or “pool,” also within the city, which could be freely used by the inhabitants (see 2Ch 32:11; and comp. Ecclesiasticus 48:17). Further, it is probable that he carried a conduit from this second pool, under the temple area, to the” fount of the Virgin” on the eastern side of Ophel, and thence further conveyed the water by a tunnel through Ophel to the “pool of Siloam.” The inscription recently discovered at this peel is probably of Hezekiah’s time.
Isa 22:10
Ye have numbered have broken down; rather, ye numbered ye broke down. The “numbering” was probably in order to see how many could be spared for pulling down. The repair of the walls with materials thus furnished was a sign of extreme haste and urgency. It would seem from Isa 22:7, Isa 22:8 that the repairs were not begun until the town was invested.
Isa 22:11
Ye made also a ditch; rather, a lake, or reservoir (see the comment on Isa 22:9). But ye have not looked unto the maker thereof; i.e. you have not looked to God, who in his eternal counsels foreknew and decreed all the steps that you are taking for your defense (see below, Isa 37:26).
Isa 22:12
In that day. The day alluded to in Isa 22:7, when the choice valleys in the neighborhood of Jerusalem were first seen to be full of a hostile soldiery, and the Assyrian horsemen were observed drawing themselves up opposite the gates. Such a sight constituted an earnest call upon the people for immediate repentance. Baldness (comp. Isa 15:2; Mic 1:16; Amo 8:10). It has been said that “baldness” was forbidden by the Law (Cheyne); but this is not so, absolutely. Baldness was wholly forbidden to the priests (Le Isa 21:5; comp. Eze 44:20); and certain peculiar modes of shaving the hair, the beard, and the eyebrows, practiced by idolatrous nations, were prohibited to all the people (Le 19:27; Deu 14:2). But such shaving of the head as was practiced by Job (Job 1:20) and other pious men, was not forbidden to laymen, any more than the wearing of sackcloth. It was regarded as a natural mode of exhibiting grief.
Isa 22:13
And behold joy and gladness (comp. Isa 22:2). “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,” is a common sentiment, if not a common expression. It has been supposed to have given rise to the Egyptian practice of carrying round the model of a mummy to the guests at feasts. According to the Greeks, Sardanapalus had a phrase very like it engraved upon his tomb. Sailors have often acted upon it, when they found it impossible to save their ship. On seeing their city invested, a portion of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, despairing of safety, did as sailors have done so frequently.
Isa 22:14
It was revealed in mine cars by the Lord of hosts; rather, the Lord of hosts revealed himself in mine ears, saying. This iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die. The sin of turning a call to repentance into an excuse for rioting and drunkenness is one which God will not pardon. It implies a hardness of heart which cannot fail to issue in final impenitence.
Isa 22:15-24
PROPHECY ON THE DEPOSITION OF SHEBNA AND THE ELEVATION OF ELIAKIM. In its first and simplest application, this section predicts the fall of one state official and the advancement of an-othermatters, no doubt, of some importance in the court history of the time, but scarcely (with reverence be it said) of such moment as to be worthy either of prophetic announcement or of divinely inspired record. It has, therefore, been generally felt that there must be a secondary application of the passage. According to some, the two officials represent respectively the two cove-hunts, the old and the new; according to others, they stand for the two great parties in the Jewish slate of the timethat which put its trust in Jehovah, and that which leant upon heathen alliances.
Isa 22:15
The Lord God of hosts. This form, Adonay Jehovah Tsabaothrarely used by Isaiah, but occurring above in verses 5, 12, and 13seems to show that this section is in its right place, being intended as a sequel to the description of Sennacherib’s siege. This treasurer. The word “this“ is contemptuous. That translated “treasurer” is of doubtful import. The key to it is probably to be found in the cognate noun, translated “storehouse” in 2Ch 32:28, and “store” in 1Ki 9:19; 2Ch 8:4, 2Ch 8:6; 2Ch 16:4; 2Ch 17:12. Translate, this storekeeper. Shebna. The name, which is not found elsewhere, is thought to be Syriac rather than Hebrew, and Shebna himself is conjectured to have been a foreign adventurer, perhaps “a refugee from Damascus” (Cheyne). (See the next verse.) Which is over the house. An office like the imperial praefectus palatio“ at Rome, or the Frankish “mayor of the palace” (see Gen 41:40; 1Ki 4:6; 1Ki 18:3). At this time it seems to have been the highest office that a subject could hold (2Ch 26:21; 2Ki 18:18, etc.).
Isa 22:16
What hast thou here? i.e. what business, or what right? It seems, certainly, to be implied that Shebna was wholly unconnected with Jerusalem. Whom hast thou here? i.e. what relations? what family? To be justified in hewing out a large tomb, Shebna should have had a numerous family for whom graves would be needed. Otherwise, his excavation of a grand sepulcher was merely selfish and ostentatious. As he that heweth him out a sepulcher on high. Jewish tombs of any pretension were generally excavations in the solid rock, on the side of some hill or mountain, and had often a very elevated position. Tombs exist on the slopes of all the hills about Jerusalem, but are most numerous on the eastern side of the temple mount, which slopes steeply to the Kedron valley. A square-topped doorway leads into a chamber, generally square, from which recesses, six or seven feet long, two broad, and three high, are carried into the rock horizontally, either on a level with the floor, or with a platform, or shelf, halfway up one of the walls. These recesses have been called loculi. After a body had been placed in one, it was commonly closed by a stone, which fitted into the end, and thus shut off the body from the chamber. Chambers had sometimes twelve such loculi. An habitation (comp. Ecc 12:5). We must not suppose, however, that the Jews, like the Egyptians and Etruscans, regarded the soul as inhabiting the tomb. The soul descended into sheol; the grave was the “habitation“ of the body only.
Isa 22:17
The Lord win carry thee away with a mighty captivity; rather, the Lord will hurl thee away, O man, with a hurling; i.e. “will hurl thee away to a distance.” It is not said that Shebna would be a captive. Will surely cover thee; literally, will cover thee with a covering; i.e. “will make thee obscure” (Rosenmller)a fitting punishment for one who aimed at attracting attention and making himself famous (Isa 22:16).
Isa 22:18
He will surely violently turn and toss thee, etc.; literally, rolling he will roll thee with rolling like a ball, etc. Into a large country. Assyria, or perhaps Egypt. If Shebna was disgraced on account of his recommending the Egyptian alliance, he may not improbably have taken refuge with Tirhakah. There the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord’s house; rather, there shall be the chariots of thy glory, O thou shame of thy lord‘s house. His chariots, in which he gloried, should accompany him, either as spoil taken by the enemy, or as the instruments of his flight.
Isa 22:19
I will drive thee from thy station; rather, from thy post, or office. Shall he pull thee down. Jehovah scorns to be meant in both clauses (comp. Isa 34:16). The full accomplishment of this prophecy is nowhere declared to us. We merely find that, by the time of Rabshakeh’s arrival at Jerusalem as Sennacherib’s envoy (Isa 36:2-4), Shebna had lost his post as prefect of the palace, and filled the lower position of scribe or secretary. He may, however, have been subsequently further degraded, and thereupon he may have fled to Egypt, as Jeroboam did (1Ki 11:40).
Isa 22:20
In that day. In the day of Shebna’s deposition from his office of prefect of the palace. My servant Eliakim. On the dignity of this title, when given by God himself, see the comment on Isa 20:3.
Isa 22:21
With thy robe with thy girdle. The dress of office worn by Shebna would be taken from him, and Eliakim would be invested therewith. The “robe” is the long-sleeved cloak or tunic worn commonly by persons of rank; the “girdle” is probably an ornamental one, like those of the priests (Exo 28:39), worn over the inner tunic. He shall be a father; i.e. a protector, counselor, guide (comp. Job 29:16, “I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out”). It is, perhaps, implied that Shebna had not conducted himself as a “father.”
Isa 22:22
The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder. A key would seem to have been the special badge of the prefect’s office, which included the control of the stores (Isa 22:15), and the general management of the household. It was, perhaps, a part of the form of investiture, that the key should be first laid on the prefect’s shoulder and then delivered into his hand. Among the Greeks the priests of Ceres are said to have borne a key on their shoulder, permanently, as a badge of office (Callimach; ‘Hymn. ad Cererem,’ 1. 45). The reference to this passage in Rev 3:7 is sufficient to show that Eliakim, the “servant of Jehovah” (Rev 3:20), is, to a certain extent, a type of Christ; perhaps also of his faithful ministers (Mat 16:19; Joh 20:23).
Isa 22:23
I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place (comp. Ezr 9:8; Zec 10:4). The idea intended to be expressed is firmness and fixity of tenure. He shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house (compare the next verse). All his relations, even the most remote, shall derive honor from him, and bask in the sunshine of his prosperity. So shall all members of the family of God, made sons of God by adoption in Christ, participate in the final glory of Christ in his eternal kingdom.
Isa 22:24
All the glory. According to scriptural notions, the “glory” of a family consists very much in its size (Gen 15:5; Psa 127:5, etc.). And Christ’s glory in his final kingdom will consist greatly in the number of the saved (Rev 7:4-9). The offspring and the issue; i.e. the flourishing scions, and the despised seedlings alike. The word translated “issue” is a term of contempt (see Eze 4:15). From the vessels of cups; rather, of bowls (comp. Exo 24:6). To all the vessels of flagons; rather, of pitchers. “A numerous, undistinguished, family connection” seems to be intended (Delitzsch).
Isa 22:25
SEQUEL OF THE PROPHECY CONCERNING ELIAKIM. This verse has been truly called “an enigma” (Kay). It is impossible to understand it of Shebna. “The nail that was fastened in a sure place” can only refer to the nail said to have been so fastened in Isa 22:23. Are we, then, to understand that Eliakim too will experience a reverse of fortune? But then all the force of the contrast between him and Shebna would be gone. Is it not possible that the prophet, seeing in Eliakim a type of the Messiah, and becoming more and more Messianic in his utterances, has ended by forgetting the type altogether, and being absorbed in the thought of the antitype? He, the nail, so surely fixed in his eternal place, would nevertheless be “removed” for a time, and then “he cut down and fall” (comp. Isa 52:14; Isa 53:8). At the same time would be “cut off” the burden which Messiah bore (Isa 53:12, “He bare the sin of many”).
Isa 22:25
In that day. Not the day of Shebna’s fall, certainly (Isa 22:20), but some ether. Is not the day that of Christ’s earthly mission, when it seemed as if his people were about to acknowledge him, and his throne to be established, but suddenly Messiah was “cut off” (Dan 9:26)stricken for the transgression of his people (Isa 53:8)? The burden that was upon it shall be cut off. The great burden upon the Messiah was the load of human sin which he had to bear. “He himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1Pe 2:24). By his death this burden was “cut off” (1Jn 2:2; 2Co 5:19; Eph 2:16; Col 2:14). For the Lord hath spoken it. The double attestation, at the beginning and at the end of the verse, is a mark of the vast importance of the announcement contained in it, which is, in fact, the germ of the great doctrine of the atonement.
HOMILETICS
Isa 22:4-6
Isaiah weeping for the daughter of his people a type of Christ lamenting over Jerusalem.
Isaiah was in many respects a type of Christ. His name, which sight ties “Salvation of Jehovah,” is a near equivalent of “Jesus,” which means “Jehovah is Savior.” Tradition says that he was of royal lineage, like Jesus. The sphere of his teaching was in the main Jerusalem, where our Lord’s principal discourses were delivered. He reproved sin, yet pitied the sinner, like Jesus (see Homiletics on Isa 15:5). He was, like Jesus, martyred at Jerusalem. We may, therefore, without impropriety, regard the “bitter weeping” of verse 4 as in some respect the counterpart of our Lord’s lament on the day of his triumphal entry into the city, when he beheld it from the brow of Olivet. They were alike in several respects.
I. BOTH WERE CAUSED BY PROPHETIC VISION OF THE HORRORS OF A SIEGE. In Isaiah’s time the siege had begun. The enemy was investing the place (verse 7). But his tears flowed on account of the future “spoiling” of his people on that “day of trouble and treading down and perplexity;” when there was to be “breaking down of walls and crying to the mountains” (verse 5), and Elam was to “bear the quiver,” and Kir to “uncover the shield.” Jesus wept because the days were coming upon Jerusalem, when “her enemies would cast a trench about her, and compass her round, and keep her in on every side, “and at last” lay her even with the ground, and her children within her” (Luk 19:43, Luk 19:44). In the one case Rome was the enemy, in the other Assyria, both equally truculent. In the one case final destruction impended; in the other a punishment far short of final destruction, but still a very severe punishment. In both cases grievous sins had provoked the catastrophe, yet the thought of these did not prevent the tears from being shed on account of it.
II. BOTH DERIVED THEIR BITTERNESS FROM THE FACT THAT THE SUFFERER WAS OF KIN TO THE MOURNER. “I will weep,” said Isaiah, “because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.” The woes of other peoples shocked and distressed him to some extent (Isa 15:5; Isa 16:9-11; Isa 21:3, Isa 21:4); but not as those of his own nation, his “kinsmen according to the flesh.” And so it was with Jesus. Patriotism moved the spirits of both mourners, and rendered their grief especially poignant.
III. BOTH WERE AGGRAVATED BY THE THOUGHT THAT THE SUFFERING WAS UNEXPECTED. Isaiah tells us that at Sennacherib’s siege no preparations had been made to resist the foe, until the choice valleys were full of troops, and the horsemen set in array at the gates (verses 7-10). Our Lord gives it as the climax of the horrors at the siege by Titus, that Jerusalem had not “known the day of her visitation” (Luk 19:44). Jerusalem was at the time expecting the Messiah, who would enable them to cast off the Roman yoke. She did not know that her Messiah had come. Just when she was looking for a glorious deliverance, there came a crushing disaster. So Hezekiah was probably looking for victory by the help of Egypt, when he had to make the most abject submissionto strip the temple in order to satisfy the cravings of the conqueror for “spoil,” and to see a large part of his people carried into captivity.
Isa 22:15-24
Shebna and Eliakim: a moral lesson.
It is a remark of Bishop Butler’s, that the moral government of God, though it may be very imperfectly carried out, is at any rate begun, in this world. Many virtues have natural rewards, and many vices natural punishments, attached to them. Again, though undoubtedly the righteous do suffer a large share of affliction, and the ungodly are often seen in great prosperity, yet, on the other hand, very signal instances from time to time manifest themselves, of the punishment of the wicked in this life by a grievous downfall, and the reward of the righteous by an exaltation to worldly greatness and honor. The most signal instance presented to us in Scripture of the double Nemesis is that of Haman and Mordecai in the Book of Esther. In that most striking tale, the whole history of the two men is set before us, and the rise of the one and fall of the other are interconnected in a way that lends peculiar interest to the narrative. Here we have simply a moral contrast, leading to a contrast of result.
I. A MORAL CONTRAST.
1. Shebna, selfish, isolated, vain-glorious; noted for his display of chariots, like Absalom (2Sa 15:1); no “father” to the people under his charge; no good adviser of the king his master; chiefly desirous of handing his name down to posterity by a magnificent tomb; perhaps not even a worshipper of Jehovah.
2. Eliakim, God’s “servant;” kind and thoughtful for others; regarded as “a father,” not only by the people of Jerusalem, but by the entire “house” or tribe of Judah; looked up to by a large body of relations, of whom many were poor and of low rank, and willingly sharing his prosperity with them; an honest and prudent counselor to his king; a faithful worshipper of the One God, whose unity his name proclaimed. No two dwellers at the same court, no two servants of the same king, could well be more different in character, in circumstances, in moral desert.
II. A CONTRAST OF RESULT.
1. Shebna, degraded from his office, is forced for a time to serve in one of very inferior dignity. Then he is either further degraded or so dissatisfied with his position that he cannot bear to retain it. He becomes a refugee in a distant land, an exile, an outcast.
2. Eliakim, advanced into Shebna’s place, has the key of the house of David placed upon his shoulder, becomes his king’s most trusty counselor and representative, is a glory and a support to his father’s house, and retains his position, if not till his death, at any rate for a long period. In estimating the extent to which God’s moral government is carried on in this world, such instances as those of Haman and Mordecai, Shebna and Eliakim, should by no means be omitted from our calculation. History contains very many such cases.
Isa 22:15-24
Shebna and Eliakim: an allegory.
Shebna, set over the house of the king by the king himself, but unfaithful in his office, worldly, carnal, fond of grandeur and display, typifies the old covenant, and the priesthood to which it was committeda priesthood which looked more to the enrichment of the treasury than to the pure service of God (Mar 7:11), and which was not above the weakness of raising up grand sepulchers for its members in a conspicuous place (1 Macc. 13:27-30). This priesthood, found wanting, had to be cast away, and a better priesthood, after a different order, to be instituted. Eliakim typifies this new priesthooda priesthood “made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life” (Heb 7:16). Primarily, he typifies Christ himself, the true “Servant of the Lord” (Isa 42:1-4; Isa 43:10; Isa 49:3, Isa 49:6; Isa 52:13, etc.), the perpetual High Priest of his Church, the eternal Possessor of “the key of David, who openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth” (Rev 3:7), who “hath the keys of hell and of death” (Rev 1:18). Eliakim was “a father” to Judah and Jerusalem; among Christ’s names is that of “Everlasting Father” (Isa 9:6). Eliakim was “as a nail fastened in a sure place;” Christ is gone up where he “forever sitteth on the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12). Eliakim had a “glorious throne;” Christ’s throne is that “great white” one, which is set in heaven (Rev 20:11), out of which “come lightnings, and thunderings, and voices” (Rev 4:5). On Eliakim hung all the members of his father’s house; on Christ depends, for pardon, for peace, for life, for glory, every true Christian. Secondarily, Eliakim may be regarded as typifying the faithful minister of Christ, to whom the power of the keys is communicated in a certain modified sense (Mat 16:19), who, binding and loosing according to Christ’s ordinance, binds and looses effectively, so that none can undo his work, and, as a faithful steward in the household of Christ, dispenses the good things committed to his charge by his King and Master. The faithful minister will not blench before the powers of evil, any more than Eliakim did before Rabshakeh (Isa 36:11, Isa 36:21); he will be “a father” to the people of God, i.e. a protector, a guide, a friend; and with those who “hang upon him” he will always be ready to share both his material and his spiritual blessings.
Isa 22:25
Messiah’s burden and Messiah’s death.
How Christ’s death atones for sin we know not, and need not too curiously inquire. But, if plain words have a plain meaning, it is impossible to doubt that this is the teaching of Scripture. “By his stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5); “He is the Propitiation for our sins” (1Jn 2:2); “One died for all” (2Co 5:14). It is quite possible that there is something in the nature of things, which we cannot fathom, that made it impossible for man’s sins to be forgiven unless God died for them. Our wisdom is to avoid curious speculation, and to view the matter on its practical side. Thus viewed, it manifestly calls on us for three things.
I. INTENSE HATRED OF SIN, ON ACCOUNT OF ITS HAVING CAUSED MESSIAH‘S DEATH. If an animate, or even an inanimate, thing has caused the death of one we loved, how bitterly we detest it! Often we cannot bear to look upon it, nay, even to see a thing of the same kind. How, then, should we hate sinhateful in itself, hateful in its effects, hateful in its origin, most hateful in that it caused the death of the one Man who alone of all that have ever lived did not deserve to die! And he, moreover, One who dearly loved us, who came down from heaven for us, lived a life of privation and suffering for us, at last died for our sakes.
II. INTENSE LOVE OF CHRIST, ON ACCOUNT OF HIS HAVING DIED FOR US. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” But Christ died for his enemies. Sin is an insuperable barrier between God and man, sets them at variance, makes them adversaries. And till Christ died man could not be forgiven. So he died for those with whom he was at enmity! And died by what a death!
1. More painful probably than any other.
2. Considered at the time more disgraceful.
3. Aggravated by the insults of lookers-on.
4. Regarded as bringing a man under a curse.
III. INTENSE LOVE OF GOD THE FATHER, ON ACCOUNT OF HIS GIVING HIS SON TO DIE FOR US. We cannot realize the love of the Father for the Son; but we cannot doubt that it transcends any love known on earth. Yet he gave him to suffer all that he sufferedand why? For us. Because he loved us. As our Lord himself says, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Joh 3:16). If the knowledge of this fact fail to stir up love towards the Father in our souls, we must be “past feeling” (Eph 4:19), utterly dead to any high motive, scarcely better than “brute beasts” (Jud Isa 1:10).
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 22:1-14
Judgment upon Jerusalem.
I. THE PROPHET AS SPECTATOR. The valley of vision seems to mean Jerusalem as a whole, round about which are mountains (Psa 125:2); the city is spoken of, when compared with the surrounding mountains, as the “inhabitant of the valley,” otherwise as the “rock of the plain” (Jer 21:13; comp. Jer 17:3). If Isaiah is gazing from his house in the lower town, the city would appear as in a valley in relation to the mountains inside as much as those outside (Delitzsch). He sees the whole population crowded together on the house-tops, and the air is filled with the uproar of merriment. The house-tops were places of resort at festival-time (Jdg 16:27; Neh 8:16).
II. THE MIRTH OF DESPAIR. It was famine and pestilence which, forcing the people into despair, had brought about this mad rebound of hollow merriment. The slain of the city had not been slain upon the field; but the crowding in of fugitives from the country had occasioned the plague. The description reminds us of Zephaniah’s picture of Nineveh: “This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me” (Zep 2:15). And again we think of scenes in connection with the plagues in the Italian cities of the Middle Ages, when revelry and story-telling are said to have gone on amongst groups who had withdrawn themselves from the horrors around them. How terrible the contrast between the dark background of calamity and this hollow feverish exhibition of merriment in the foreground! “I said of laughter, What is it?” Let us thank God for the precious gift of humor. Its light, lambently playing upon the sternest and most awful scenes and imagery of the mind, was given to relieve the tragedy of life. In melancholy minds the source of humor is deeply seated. But how different the cheerfulness which springs from the sense that the scheme of things is sound and right, that “God‘s in his heaven, all’s right with the world,” and that which confronts a hopeless future with mad defiance! There is something lurid, ominous, in the latter, full of foreboding; and the scene in Jerusalem may be dwelt upon as typical of the ill-timed mirth of the sinner when danger is impending, soon to be quenched in silence and night. The rulers have fled away from the devoted city; in the face of the enemy they have flung down their bows and yielded themselves prisoners. All is lost.
III. THE FORECAST OF DOOM.
1. The grief of type prophet. In warm patriotism he identifies himself with his city and his people, and gives way to bitter tears; a prototype of Jesus in later days, looking on the doomed city, perhaps, from some similar point of view. We are reminded also of Jeremiah, whose heart “fainted” under a similar sense of the miseries of the people, and who exclaims, “Oh that my head were full of waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might bewail the slain of my people!” (Jer 4:31; Jer 9:1). These are living examples of compassion, and of true patriotic feeling, including a true Church feeling. “We are altogether unworthy of being reckoned in the number of the children of God, and added to the holy Church, if we do not dedicate ourselves and all that we have to the Church in such a manner that we are not separate from it in any respect. Especially the ministers of the Word ought to be moved by this feeling of grief, because, being appointed to keep watch and to look at a distance, they ought also to groan when they perceive the tokens of approaching ruin” (Calvin).
2. The siege and capture. “We seem to see and hear the last hurrying stages of the siege and capture” (Cheyne). In one of the valleys the hosts of the enemy are seen thickly trampling and spreading dismay and confusion all around. As the undermining of the walls by the siege artillery goes on, cries of woe beat against the surrounding hills, and are echoed back again. The terrible famed bowmen of Elam (comp. Jer 49:35)and the people of Kir, together forming, as it would seem, the vanguard of Assyria, are seen advancing. The valleys about the city, all teeming with associations of the pastKedron, Gihon, Rephaim, Hinnomare ploughed by hoofs of horses and wheels of chariots; and the foe is drawn up in column, ready to enter the “great gate,” so soon as it shall be broken down by the battering-rams.
3. The state of the inhabitants. Jehovah draws aside the curtain from Judah. This may mean
(1) he exposes their weakness to the enemy; or
(2) he takes away the blindness of the people to their danger.
Probably the former. In either case the hand of an overruling Providence is recognized. The “forest house,” or arsenal built by Solomon on Zion, is examined (1Ki 7:2; 1Ki 10:17; cf. Isa 39:2). The “city of David,” i.e. the fortress on Mount Zion, is inspected by the leading men, and the numerous breaches in the walls are observed. They survey the houses, and take material from them to repair the wall. They concentrate the water-supply in one reservoirthe “lower pool,” and form a basin between the two walls. These preparations may be compared with those of Hezekiah (2Ch 32:2-5).
IV. FATAL FORGETFULNESS. All these precautions would be too late! A dreadful word! And why?
1. The Divine counsel has been forgotten. “Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass” (Isa 37:26). These harpers, and violinists, and tabret-players, and feasters have not “regarded the work of Jehovah, nor considered the operation of his hands” (Isa 5:12). Self-reliance may be religious, or it may mean an attempt to be independent of God, and so end in alienation from God. How feeble and how foolish policy must become if from the first it ignores the Divine will, and at the last only comes to acknowledge a destiny above human might and human calculation! The idea of all that will be exists in the mind of God; we may know something of his meaning by constantly consulting the “living oracles,” by truthful thinking, by loyal actingin a word, by communion with the living God. What can attention to ramparts and ditches and reservoirs avail, if men have not found their defense in God? If he be trusted, what is there to fear? If he be denied, what can shield from calamity? “The fate of Jerusalem is said to have been fashioned long ago in God, But Jerusalem might have averted its realization, for it was no absolute decree. It Jerusalem repented, that realization would be averted” (Delitzsch).
2. Divine warnings have been neglected. God had calledin that day; at every critical time. By many ways he speaksby the living and passionate tones of prophet and brother man, by the general course of events, by the touch of sorrow, by the hints of personal experience. There is a time for everything under the sun; to know our opportunity makes the wisdom of the world; to know the “time of our visitation” is the wisdom of heaven. But, alas! the Jews knew it not; “rushing to the banquet-table with despair in their hearts, and wasting the provisions which ought to have been husbanded for the siege.” “Let us cat and drink; for tomorrow we die.” The sensualism of despair (Cheyne). When the light of life, bright faith and hope toward God, dies out, what remains but to counterfeit its glow by some artificial illumination, kindled from the tow of physical excitement? A love of life which scoffs at death (Delitzsch). ‘Tis dangerous to scoff; to scoff at the great scoffer Death, what is this but the last extreme of self-abandonment? And does not despair imply the last sin we can commit? And is not recklessness its evidence? And follows there not upon all this the shadow of a state unforgiven, a mind eternally unreconciled? Who can but tremble as he meditates on these things? “Probably if the real feeling of the great mass of worldly men were expressed, they could not be better expressed than in the language of Isaiah: ‘We must soon die, at all events; we cannot avoid thatit is the common doom of all. And since we have been sent into a dying world; since we have had no agency in being placed here; since it is impossible to prevent this doom,we may as well enjoy life while it lasts, and give ourselves to pleasure and revelry. While we can, we will take our comfort, and, when death comes, we will submit to it, because we cannot avoid it'” (Barnes). But such argumentation cannot really satisfy the conscience. Blessed the Word which evermore, in the mercy of the Eternal, calls to repentance, and reminds us that “now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation!”J.
Isa 22:15-19
Denunciation of Shebna.
I. SHEBNA THE HOUSE STEWARD. He was the steward of the householda high office, as we may see from the allusion in Isa 36:3; Isa 37:2. Once it was held by a king’s son (2Ch 26:21; cf. 1Ki 4:6; 1Ki 18:3). This officer stood nearest the king, and had the domestic affairs of the palace under his superintendence. The office of the mayor of the palace under the Merovingian kings of France has been compared with it. It is thought that Shebna was not a native Israelite, as his father’s name is not mentioned. Possibly he was a Syrian from Damascus, and a leader of the Egyptianizing party, whose perverse and crooked policy in collecting the subsidy for Egypt is denounced by the prophet in Isa 30:12.
II. HIS PRIDE AND OSTENTATION. He was busy hewing out for himself a family sepulcher in the rock. We realize what is meant when we see figured in works of art the magnificent rock-built tombs of Persia, of Lydia and Phrygia and Lycia, of Phoenicia, and the vast pyramid-tombs of Egypt. There kings desired to “lie in honor, each in his own house” (Isa 14:18). So, too, grandeesEshmunazar King of Sidon, Joseph of Arimathaea, etc.built themselves sepulchers in their lifetime. At Rome we look upon the famous tomb of Hadrian, now called the Castle St. Angelo, and the tomb of Caecilia Metella upon the Appian Way, the pyramid of Cestius. What may we learn from the habit of tomb-building? It expresses man‘s protest against the doom of mortality. On the tomb of Sardanapalus is said to have been written, “Eat, drink, and love; for the rest is little worth;” and yet the tomb itself is a witness that there hovers before the mind the thought of the future, in which man would still live and still be remembered by his fellows, even though only by means of the lifeless stone. Thus it expresses man’s infinite longings, the cravings of a nature that nothing but eternity can satisfy. There was, then, something great, something even sublime, in this tomb-building instinct. “The power of acting for a distant object, of realizing distant good, and reaching forward to it over an intervening period of labor, has something moral in it.” Yet, on the other hand, the motive may be something of a much lower ordervanity, self-exaltation. So the prophet views the undertaking of Shebna. He has no right, as a foreigner, thus to appropriate the soil of the sacred city, the slope of one of its hills.
III. THE DENUNCIATION. In the vehemence of his indignation, the prophet declares that Jehovah will clutch the offender tightly, will roll him as a ball, and toss him into a broad land; thither he, with the chariots on which he has been rolling about the city, shall go to die! Notice the opposition between the might of Jehovah and the weakness of mere man, however exalted. Shall mortal man attempt to rival the Eternal, proudly seeking to perpetuate his memory on earth (compare the thoughts in Job 4:17; Job 10:5; Job 22:2)? The leading Hebrew teaching recursthe insignificance of ephemeral and frail man in presence of the mighty, just, and ever-living God. “The renown of that sepulcher which Shebna had built is indirectly contrasted with the ignominy which quickly followed it.” “That the mask of his high rank might not screen him from the prediction, the prophet expressly states that the office which he holds aggravates his guilt and renders him more detestable. Let princes, therefore, if they do not wish to expose themselves and their houses to reproaches, learn to act with judgment in appointing men to hold office Infer that God is highly displeased with that ambition by which men seek to obtain undying renown in the world instead of being satisfied with those honors which they enjoy during life. God punishes their haughtiness and presumption, and causes those things which they wished to be the records of their glory to become their disgrace and shame” (Calvin).J.
Isa 22:20-25
Installment of Eliakim.
I. A SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. So he is characterized. The title may be of personal, spiritual, import, or of official; or both may be blended, as in the case of Isaiah himself (Isa 20:3); or there may be a separation of the two. Unhappy for a nation or for a Church if the true servants of the Eternal, the true devotees of right and truth, are excluded from the places of honor and influence; or if the “ministers and stewards” of Divine mysteries are so only technically and officially. The true servant must in any case be called. He must not push himself forward, but must be drawn forward by invisible, Divine leading. He does not “achieve greatness,” but it is “thrust upon him.” “In that day I will call to my servant.” The words suggestively remind us of that principle of Divine selection which runs through the order of the world. In this, in every day, the “right men” are wanted for every place. In this day, too, there is much excitement about education. What men can do by the instruction of the intellect is very limited; in quiet places and in hidden ways, unknown to the schools, the Almighty is growing men and training men till the time is ripe for their service, and his call is heard.
II. HIS INVESTITURE.
1. It is the solemn, symbolical way of transferring an office. We think of Elijah finding the son of Shaphat ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, and casting his mantle upon him as he passed by (1Ki 19:19). That was the prophet’s simpler dress; this is the tunic of a man of rank and state. The girdle was an essential article of Oriental dress, worn by all classes and by both sexes. The fineness of its quality denoted the rank of the wearer. Here it was probably similar to that worn by the priests (Exo 28:39; Exo 39:29). Josephus describes it as made of linen so fine that it looked like the slough of a snake, and it was embroidered with flowers of scarlet, blue, purple (‘Ant.,’ 3.7. 2). This is the only place where the word abneth is used for any but a priestly girdle.
2. The girdle is in other ways symbolic. Jehovah “girds kings with a girdle,” and “ungirds them according to his pleasure” (Job 12:18). Thus to be “girded with strength” is a symbol of Divine invigoration (1Sa 2:4); to be “girded with gladness,” of refreshment (Psa 30:11). “Have your loins girt about with truth” (Eph 6:14); “Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end”are noble Christian exhortations, carrying with them all the force of the old Oriental imagery. To be ungirt is a way of describing nervelessness, lack of strength and manhood; and the very picture of the good servant is of one “whose loins are girt about, whose lamp is burning.”
III. THE SPIRIT AND FUNCTIONS OF THE STEWARD.
1. He is to be like a father to the people. An appropriate term for the chief man of a town or the prime minister of a country (1Ch 2:24; 1Ch 4:5; cf. 1Ch 9:6; Job 29:16; Jdg 5:7). So the Roman senators were patres. It speaks of benevolence united with wisdom and experiencea rule both firm and loving. The great Father in heaven must be the sublime ideal before us in all positions of rule and influence on earth.
2. He is to bear the key. This is an ancient badge of office; Callimachus represents the priestess of Demeter as having a key upon her shoulder (‘Hymn. ad Cererem,’ 1.45), and in the ‘Supplices’ (291) of AEschylus, in like manner, Io, priestess of Hera, is “key-holder” of the goddess. For illustration the following interesting passage may be cited from Roberts: “How much delighted was I when I first saw the people, especially the Moors, going along the streets, with each his key on his shoulder! The handle is sometimes made of brass, though sometimes of silver, and is often nicely worked in a device of filigree. The way it is carried is to have the corner of a kerchief tied to a ring; the key is then placed on the shoulder, and the kerchief hangs down in front. At other times they have a bunch of large keys, and then they have half on one side of the shoulder and half on the other. For a man thus to march along with a largo key on his shoulder, shows at once that he is a person of consequence. ‘Roman is in great favor with the modehir, for he now carries the key.’ ‘Whose key have you got on your shoulder?’ ‘I shall carry my key on my own shoulder.'” (For the application to the apostles and to the Lord himself, see Mat 16:19; Rev 3:7.)
3. His tenure of office. The nails must be those hooks or spikes which were worked into the mortar of the walls of houses while still soft, answering the purpose of cramp-irons to hold the walls together, and pegs to hang things on. So, in temples, armor, shields, helmets, swords, spoils of war, were hung on such nails. An appropriate image these of stability, of (to use a modern coinage) reliableness. All may depend upon a man such as this; all “know where to find him;” sacred and precious trusts may be reposed on him without fear of disappointment. So in Zec 10:4 the “peg“ means a prince.
IV. ABUSES OF STATION AND OFFICE. There is “another side” to everything good in human institutions. “All the honor of his father’s house” will be found hanging upon Eliakim. All his humble relationsthe “small fry,” as we say; the “small vessels,” as the prophet calls themwill look up to him, and. he will shed luster anti give support to all. The allusion is to vessels of a small kindbasins, leathern bottles, earthen pitchers. We must respect the judgment of the majority of commentators, who see a turn in the prophecy about Eliakim here. There is an impression of nepotism, of favoritism; and it seems that the firm “peg” is, after all, to be loosened from its place. And if so, how instructive the passage! How is it that man, once high in esteem and general confidence, came to be weighed in the balances and found wanting? Some weakness of flesh and blood, some undue leaning to one’s kith and kin, some dement of partiality or favoritism, is often the cause. “His family makes a wrong use of him; and he is more yielding than he ought to be, and makes a wrong use of his office to favor them! He therefore falls, and brings down all with him that hung upon the peg, and who have brought him to ruin through the rapacity with which they have grasped at prosperity” (Delitzsch). Whatever view may be taken of the passage, ’twere well to remind ourselves of the old lesson, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” God. raises up and brings low. Let us walk softly, nor boast ourselves if for a time we flourish like a green bay tree. Our own weakness may, like a worm, be gnawing at our root. The “pitted speck” in the “garnered fruit” may be spreading, the “little rift” in the lute be widening.
“More the treacherous calm I dread
Than tempests sailing overhead.”
Let us be content with obscurity, with fallentis semita vitae, seeing that station brings out men’s weaknesses no less than their strength, and the loftier the columnar height of the great, the more overwhelming the fall.J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 22:17
Captivity, and yet safety.
“Behold, the Lord will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee.” These threatenings of the Almighty had mercy at the heart of them. Captivity was a drastic remedy, but it once and again saved the health of Israel It was a time of home-longing and sickness of heart. It was a time when the old religious memories flooded the heart till they filled it with an aching sense of shame for sin, and supplication for mercy.
I. GOD CARRIED THEM AWAY. The enemies of Israel were but instruments in the hands of Jehovah. He reigned over their interests as truly then as in their more prosperous day. “The day is thine, the night also is thine.” And in the Captivity, God was disciplining the people as no other dispensation could. Their lofty looks were changed for penitential tears, and their proud hearts were brought low. God would, in due time “turn again the captivity of Israel;” and the Law would be read again, and not only be read, but be “lived.”
II. THE CAPTIVITY WAS A MIGHTY ONE. It occurred to a mighty multitude; it affected mighty interests; and it produced, mighty results. For this people God had formed for himself, to show forth his praise. We have to learn the lesson too. How tremendous are the powers of grief and loss, change and sickness, under which God often brings his children captive now! We are “prisoned” by pain and circumstance. In our hours of solitude and sorrow, God renews our will, separates the chaff from the wheat in our character, and meetens us for service here and for the inheritance of the saints in light hereafter.
III. THE COVERING WAS SURE. They were not cast away; they were only cast down. The almighty wings were still over them. In strange lands, amid strange faces, and listening to strange voices, they could not sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. But the time of joy was to return. God was very near them still, and none could really harm them. What a covering! Not the mere roof of the home; not the mere outward raiment; but the Lord himself’ was there, spreading his shield over them, when they were away from the munitions of rocks and from the defenses of dear Jerusalem. Sure! That is what we want. He also is our Dwelling-place in all generations and under all skies.W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 22:1-14
The sorrow of the world.
We have here a striking picture of that which, in distinction from “godly sorrow,” Paul calls “the sorrow of the world.”
I. THAT GOD SENDS SORROW TO HUMAN SOULS. These national distresses were to be of his sending; it was to be “a day of trouble by the Lord of hosts” (Isa 22:5). The human instrumentality would be visible enough, and both those who inflicted the blow and those who endured ittheir enemies and themselvesmight fail to discern any Divine hand at work; nevertheless, it was a chastisement that came from heaven, it was sent of God. And to whatever second causes we may trace our troubles in the day of our “treading down and of perplexity,” or in the day of our loss, or suffering, or bereavement, we may always go beyond the instrumentality to him “of whom are all things,” and feel that what has happened to us is “by the Lord of hosts.”
II. THAT HIS PURPOSE THEREIN IS OUR SPIRITUAL AMENDMENT. “In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping,” etc. (Isa 22:12). God would then invite to a general humiliationhe would draw their minds to a view of their guilt, and lead them to repentance and so to restoration and life. This is always the Divine purpose in adversity. God seeks our spiritual amendment. Other methods of instruction failing, he lays his hand upon us so that we must feel his touch; he speaks to us in tones it is difficult to disregard; and we know that the thing from which he calls us is sinsin in one or other (or in some) of its many forms; we know also that the thing to which he summons us is rectituderightness of heart and life.
III. THAT THIS HIS DIVINE END IS SOMETIMES ENTIRELY DEFEATED. “Behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep,” etc. (Isa 22:13). Both national history and the biography of individual men prove to us that affliction may produce the very opposite result to that for which it is sent. Never has the city been so abandoned to vice as when the plague was raging and the dead lay unburied in the streets. Many a man allows adversity to drive him to dissolute enjoyments or to ruinous crimes, instead of letting it allure him to a Divine Deliverer. Trouble that was intended to lead to heavenly wisdom and to the service of God only too often hardens a stony heart, makes still ungodlier the man who has forsaken the sanctuary, fastens the fetters of some enslaving vice on the limbs of its wretched victim.
IV. THAT UNSANCTIFIED SORROW LEADS TOWN TO SPIRITUAL DEATH. This iniquity would not be purged until they died (Isa 22:14). It would end, not only with, but in death. Death is the penalty of unsanctified sorrow: “The sorrow of the world worketh death” (2Co 7:10). It leads down inevitably to that utter estrangement from God, that unlikeness to God, and that condemnation by God, in which spiritual death is found here; it leads on to that final banishment from his presence and glory in which it will be found hereafter.C.
Isa 22:4
Christian patriotism.
The profound concern which the prophet of the Lord displays for “the daughter of his people,” showing us that the reception and the record of the prophetic vision did not interfere with his strong feelings as a Hebrew patriot, may suggest thoughts on Christian patriotism. This is to be clearly distinguished from:
1. The exaggerated self-consciousness or vain-gloriousness which some “patriots” exhibit.
2. The exclusiveness of spirit which others betray.
3. The diseased sensitiveness which leads many to catch at the first apparent international wrong as a valid casus belli. A great deal passes current as patriotism which would have been allowable, if not creditable, under heathenism, but which is simply false and guilty under the Divine teaching we have received who have learned of Christ. That man is the true friend of his country who takes
I. A DEEP AND PRACTICAL INTEREST IN ITS POLITICAL WELFARE. A part of the “spoiling” to which Isaiah refers is to be found in the threatened seizure of his country’s political independence, its being made subcut and tributary to the invader; this could not be other than a calamity of the first consequence in his eyes. The Christian patriot, while he ought to oppose most strenuously all unrighteous projects on the part of his own people, does well to be earnestly concerned for the integrity, the independence, the reputation, of his native land.
II. A PRACTICAL INTEREST IN ITS MATERIAL WELL–BEING. No doubt this “spoiling” included, in the prophet’s thought, the destruction of its property and the deportation of its wealth. Considering how all the citizens, the wage-receiving multitudes as welt as the wealthier minority, are affected by the material prosperity of the land, it is right and Christian for us to make this a matter of careful and conscientious effort.
III. A PROFOUND INTEREST IN ITS MORAL AND SPIRITUAL CONDITION. It was
(1) the moral condition of Jerusalem, feasting and making merry on the day of its humiliation (verses 12, 13); and also
(2) its spiritual condition, forgetting its true Deliverer (verse 11), and slighting his discipline (verse 12), which so much distressed the holy prophet.
And it should be the moral and spiritual condition of our country which should create in us and call forth from us our most profound solicitude. And this because
(1) that is the matter of most intrinsic importance;
(2) that is the thing on which the Divine judgment and determination will depend; and
(3) that will be ultimately decisive of our country’s political and material interests. If we would do our whole duty in relation thereto, we shall:
1. Join in prayer for Divine mercies.
2. Be careful to exert the influence of a godly and irreproachable example.
3. Exert all our power as individual men and through useful organizations for the guidance and the elevation of the people.C.
Isa 22:15-25
Human reckoning and Divine interruption.
We have one instance, if not twoaccording to the application we give to the “nail” of the twenty-fifth verseof ill-founded security. It is a lesson very necessary to teach, for it seems to be one very hard to learn.
I. HUMAN RECKONING. Shebna had carefully and successfully built up his position in the state, and he made sure that he should keep it; he had not only “feathered his nest,” but he had made up his mind that he should “die in his nest.” He had arranged beforehand the place of his sepulcher (Isa 22:16). “The nail was fastened in a sure place” (Isa 22:25). All his plans were drawn, and he confidently anticipated that they would be justified by the event. In this respect he was but a type and specimen of mankind; we do the same thing in our turn and in our way.
1. It may seem strange that it should be so. A modest view of our own capacities; the instruction we gain by reading what has happened to men in the past; the lessons we gather from our observation of human life;all these might save us from the error, but they do not.
2. The fact is that men do indulge in this illusion: the boy counts on the prizes he will win at school, and the young man on the honors he will gain at college; the tradesman reckons on the profits he will make in business, and the professional man on the mark he will make in his vocation; the minister anticipates the work he will accomplish in his sphere, and the statesman indulges the confident expectation that he will carry the measures on which his heart is set. Others, we know, have failed, but we, we think, shall avoid their errors and escape their discomfiture.
II. DIVINE INTERRUPTION. Shebna’s calculations were to be entirely overthrown; instead of living on and dying in Jerusalem, and being buried in the sepulcher he had so elaborately prepared, he should be hurled away like a ball by the strong arm of Jehovah into a distant land, where he should live and die in inglorious exile.
1. It may be that Divine judgment will overtake us, as it evidently overtook and overwhelmed this prefect of the palace. His ostentation (Isa 22:16), his luxury (“the chariots of thy glory,” Isa 22:18), his tyranny (implied in characterizing Iris successor “a father to the inhabitants,” in contrast to his own severities), brought down upon him the Divine displeasure and the prophetic denunciation. Sooner or later our sin will find us out. If we owe our elevation to our iniquity, or if, on the summit of our success, we fear not God, neither regard the claims of man, we may be sure that at some time and in some way defeat and dishonor will await us.
2. Or it must be that disciplinary changes will affect us. Whatever there is in sorrow which is not judgment is discipline. And of this latter, we must all have our share; we shall find that events will not fill up the outlines we draw, that our future wilt be very different from that which we picture it now: boyhood will not prove to be all that childhood imagines; still less will manhood be what youth supposes; friends will forsake us, schemes will be thwarted, hopes will be extinguished, props will be cut in twain, clouds will come up and rains will pour down, as we little think to-day. The hour will come when the nail that now seems so fast will be removed, and all that hangs upon it be brought to the ground (Isa 22:25). (See Luk 12:16-21; Jas 4:13-16.)
III. THE GOOD ON WHICH WE MAY RECKON WITHOUT FEAR OF INTERRUPTION.
1. Holy service, either in the form of action or endurance.
2. The favor of God, the friendship of Jesus Christ.
3. Eternal blessedness. Between the faithful soul and these high hopes no power can intervene.C.
Isa 22:20-25
Authority and influence.
On the deposition of Shebna, Eliakim was appointed prefect, clothed with the robe and invested with the keys of office; henceforth he should shut and open, should appoint and depose according to his good pleasure. We look at
I. THE EXCELLENCE OF HUMAN AUTHORITY.
1. It satisfies a craving which is both broad and deep. Doubtless his succession to the high office vacated by Shebna brought great gratification to the heart of Elialdm. Men covet office, and the authority which it brings. Many meek and lowly minded ones, indeed, there are who have no such thirst of spirit; but, on the other hand, there are very many who profoundly desire and exceedingly enjoy it. The craving is both broad and general; its satisfaction, consequently, brings an intense and a widespread delight.
2. It conduces to order and to all those activities and pleasures of which order is the first condition.
3. It enables its holder to confer benefits
(1) on those whom he is most desirous of serving”a glorious throne to his father’s house,” a source of strength and succor to all those related to him; and also
(2) on those whom he should account it a privilege to servehe can be “a father to the inhabitants,” etc; a source of blessing to his fellow-countrymen;
(3) on those who are specially deservinga man in authority can admit to office those who are capable and honorable, while he can exclude those who are incapable and undeserving (Isa 22:22).
On the other hand, it has to be remembered that authority
(1) often injures its possessor by making him selfish or self-sufficient;
(2) is often grossly and pitifully abused;
(3) is often suddenly and unexpectedly withdrawn, plunging him who holds it into humiliation and distress (Isa 22:25).
II. THE GREATER, EXCELLENCE OF HOLY INFLUENCE. Our Lord gave his apostles promise of power; but he distinctly told them that such power would lie, not in the exercise of authority, but in the exertion of influence (Mar 10:42-45). They were to be commissioned to deliver the most vitalizing and transforming truth, and to live a life purified and ennobled by that truth; their utterance and their action together would have a most decisive influence on individual men and on society at large. We inherit the privilege which the Master conferred on them. The truth they taught we teach; the life they lived we live. And this Divine, this redeeming, this everlasting wisdom, thus revealed from God, and thus manifested through us, is a far greater and a far mightier thing than the exercise of any human authority whatever. For by their attitude towards it men determine their destiny; by it they stand or fall (Mat 21:44; Joh 3:36; 2Co 2:15, 2Co 2:16). It “opens, and no man can shut; it shuts, and no man can open.” It is not only a mightier, but also a more blessed thing. This holy influence, thus exerted by the wise and good, through lip and life,
(1) shuts men out of evils into the power of which none can thenceforth draw them;
(2) opens the gate into kingdoms from which none can exclude themthose of Divine wisdom, of holiness, of usefulness, of heavenly joy and glory;
(3) has a salutary and elevating effect upon the heart of him who wields it. It blesses him that gives as much as him that takes.
1. Only the minority among mankind can possibly exercise authority; it is to a small fraction only that it will prove a blessing; and from all of these it will soon be removed by the fickleness of man or by the lapse of time.
2. But it is open to every child of man to exert a holy influence; this will confer a true, spiritual, undying good on others, and will leave a lasting, inward blessing on the giver. It is far the better of the two.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 22:1, Isa 22:2
Ill-timed joy.
The “valley of vision” is, without doubt, Jerusalem, though Mr. Birks thinks Samaria may be meant. The Prophet Isaiah speaks thus poetically of it as the place where he had his visions. Now he sees the people hurrying, in great excitement, on to the fiat roofs of the city, to watch the gathering hosts of Sennacherib’s army. The attitude of the people surprised him. At such a time, when pestilence decimated the inhabitants, the leading citizens had fled to secure their personal safety, and the enemy was at the very door, he looked for humiliation before God, or at least the calmness of a noble courage; but alas! even in such an hour it was a “tumultuous city, a joyous city.”
I. JOY IS ILL–TIMED WHEN IT EXPRESSES SELF–SECURITY. Foolish notions of the impregnability of their city possessed the Jews, in spite of the fact that it had been taken. Self-reliance blinded them to the elements of weakness in themselves, and to the strength and energy of their foes. We have heard many a man laugh at threatened danger, and say, “I am safe,” and show, as Jerusalem did, the folly of joy with no better basis than self-security.
II. JOY IS ILL TIMED WHEN IT EXPRESSES THE RECKLESSNESS OF DESPAIR. Some think that was rather the spirit of Jerusalem at this timethe spirit which says, “Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die” (see verses 12, 13). Self-restraint is very dependent on hope. Illustrate by the wild excitement and foolish things done when shipwreck is imminent; or by the riotings of the man who knows he is within an hour of bankruptcy. “I said of laughter, It is mad.” There is an old saying which explains such reckless, heartless joy: “Whom the gods would destroy they first dement.” All such joy is foolish and perilous, especially because it keeps men from the duty of the hour, the doing of which might be the means of delivering them from the danger.
III. JOY IS ILL TIMED WHENEVER IT HAS NO ROOTAGE OF RELIANCE ON GOD. Joy in God is the foundation of all joy. We can rejoice in what we possess; for it is God-given. We can rejoice in what we lose; for the Lord taketh away. We can rejoice in the future; for “the Lord doth provide.” We can rejoice in the darkness and peril; for “he that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.”R.T.
Isa 22:2
The moral influence of pestilence.
“Thy slain men are not slain with the sword.” “The words imply something like a reproach of cowardice. Those who had perished had not died fighting bravely in battle, but by the pestilence which then, as at all times, was prevalent in the crowded streets of a besieged city? The law of epidemic disease is found to be thisthe conditions which are peculiarly favorable to the development of vice and immorality are exactly the conditions most favorable to epidemic disease. Illustrative references may be made to overcrowding in houses, and to want of cleanliness, and neglect of adequate sanitary precautions. From the picture given in the passage now before us we gather the following sentences.
I. PESTILENCE CREATES FRIGHT. And this prepares the way for the march of the pestilence; partly because those in whom are the seeds of disease go to other places, carrying the evil with them; and partly because fear lowers vitality, and so limits the power of resistance to disease. Fright in time of pestilence was painfully exhibited in the recent visit of the cholera to the towns in the south of France.
II. PESTILENCE BREAKS UP SOCIAL LIFE. By the flight, from the infected neighborhood, of all whose means permit. By the disturbance of commerce, business, education, etc. Worse than this, danger of life nourishes self-interest, so that men are ready to sacrifice others to save themselves. At such times the worst of humanity is revealed in the many, and the best of humanity in the few.
III. PESTILENCE OFTEN LEADS TO RECKLESSNESS. As was most painfully seen in the time of the great plague of London, and as is indicated by Isaiah in the text. Despair flings the reins on the neck of lust.
IV. PESTILENCE MAKES HEROES. Madame de Genlis tells of an incident in connection with the peste at Marseilles. The true nature of the disease was unknown, and could only be discovered by a post-mortem examination, but that was certain death to the operator. All the doctors drew back. Then a young surgeon, named Guyon, of great celebrity in his profession, devoted himself for the safety of his country. He made the necessary examination, recorded his observations, made his suggestions, placed the papers in a vase Of vinegar, retired to the lazaretto, and in twelve hours was deada hero made by the pestilence.R.T.
Isa 22:4
A time to weep.
“Therefore I say, Look away from me; let me weep bitterly.” Eastern weeping is excessive, unrestrained. Westerns go to the other extreme, and severely repress all expressions and signs ‘of emotion. Eastern grief is often exaggerated, and it is in danger of being conventional and even hypocritical. Public weeping, at least on the part of the prophets, became a testimony and a warning. It belonged to their teaching by signs. Isaiah’s weeping here drew public attention, and led to inquiries as to the meaning of such exceeding distress. The following points are sufficiently suggestive to need no more than brief statement.
I. WE MAY WEEP IN ANTICIPATION. If we can see trouble ahead, and our distress can be the means of awakening others who are careless, but who ought to be preparing to meet the trouble, our very griefs may be a “fore-warning.”
II. WE MAY WEEP IN TIME OF TROUBLE. Because tears are the natural expressions of feeling, and the natural relief of overcharged feeling. Danger to brain and heart attend undue restraint of tears.
III. WE MAY WEEP IN SYMPATHY WITH OTHERS. Often such silent sympathy is more effective than any words. To feel with another so as to join in the same expression of feeling is most soothing and comforting. The sublime illustration of this is our Redeemer weeping in human sympathy with gentle Mary at the grave of Lazarus.
IV. WE MUST NOT LET OUR WEEPING BECOME A SELF–INDULGENCE. This is a greater peril to us all than we are wont to estimate. There is a luxury of grief; a keeping it up for the sake of the comforting and petting it brings; a pleasant giving way. Weeping is wrong, is mischievous, the moment it passes beyond the bounds of what is necessary for relief. As soon as self comes in, and we will to give way, our weeping becomes sin.
V. WE MAY WEEP AS A TESTIMONY. For this we have the example of our Divine Lord and Master, who” when he beheld the city [of Jerusalemthe very city concerning which Isaiah wept], wept over it, saying, Oh that thou hadst known, in this thy day, the things that make for thy peace!” John Howe most suggestively calls this “The Redeemer’s tears wept over lost souls.”R.T.
Isa 22:8
Man’s trust in his weapons.
“Thou didst look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest.” A sermon for the times, in which the highest science and inventive skill are devoted to the perfecting of the deadliest engines of war; and when men dare to say that “Providence is always on the side of the largest battalions.” “Some trust in horses, and some in chariots, but we will trust in the Name of the Lord;” “A horse is a vain thing for safety;” “God is a Refuge for us.”
I. MEN TRUSTING IN WEAPONS ONLY. By the term “weapons” understanding all that belongs to armies, navies, fortifications, and the material forces on which nations depend (see Isa 22:9-11). So often we hear that “Her navy is England’s defense;” “Her insular position is her security:” Great guns, powerful ships, efficient drill, brave heartsthese, they say, guard Albion’s honor. But these are only things, and they have to be continually changed and renewed. We can never be quite sure that we are abreast of the war-engines or the war force of other nations, and trust in mere weapons involves keeping the nation at a perpetual strain. Again and again we are alarmed as somebody argues our insecurity because of the state of our army and navy and coaling-stations.
II. MEN TRUSTING IS GOD ONLY. They should trust in God first and chiefly; but not only, if by that is meant letting the trust keep our hands idle, and put us on an expectation of miraculous deliverance. There have been times in the history of our race when men were required to do nothing, and simply to trust. In face of the Red Sea Moses said, Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” And Sennacherib’s army was overthrown without use of man’s military forces. But these are exceptional cases, designed to impress one side of truth.
III. MAN MAKING HIS TRUST IN GOD APPEAR THROUGH THE USE OF HIS WEAPONS. This is, in every way, man’s most difficult work. It may be dangerous self-confidence to trust weapons only. It may be mere listlessness to trust God only. It is the essence of piety to brace ourselves to all noble and wise endeavor, and keep through all our doings a soul full of trustings in God. This is but illustration in the war-spheres of the universal rule, “Workout your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure.”R.T.
Isa 22:12
God’s call to penitence.
“In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth.” These are the Eastern signs and expressions of penitence and humiliation; as may be illustrated in the case of Nineveh, which repented at the preaching of Jonah (Jon 3:5-9). God calls on the people to “lament their sins, by which they had brought these judgments upon their land, and to dispose themselves to a reformation of theft lives by a holy seriousness, and a tenderness of heart under the Word of God.” God is ever, and has ever been, in various ways, calling men to repentance, because men are sinful, and constantly grieving him and ruining themselves by their willfulness.
I. GOD‘S CALLS TO PENITENCE BY HIS PROPHETS. From Enoch (Jud Jon 1:15), and Noah, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, etc. It is the burden of prophecy. Their voice is ever crying, “Put away the evil of your doings.”
II. GOD‘S CALLS TO PENITENCE BY THE SILENT MARCH OF EVENTS. See the plea of Joel on foretelling invasions (Joe 2:12-14). “Coming events cast their shadows before,” and those shadows ought to prove calls of God to thought and moral preparation.
III. GOD‘S CALLS TO PENITENCE BY THE REVEALED WORD. “When God threatens us with his judgments he expects and requires that we humble ourselves under his mighty hand, that we tremble when the lion roars, and in a day of adversity consider” (Matthew Henry).
IV. GOD‘S CALLS TO PENITENCE BY JOHN BAPTIST. A most remarkable person, as standing on the dividing line between the new and old dispensations. He carries forward into the new God’s great demand in the old, “Repent.” And he shows that moral preparation by repentance is the threshold of the new kingdom of forgiveness, acceptance, and grace.
V. GOD‘S CALLS TO PENITENCE BY THE LORD JESUS AND HIS APOSTLES. They still demand repentance. Our Lord sends his apostles out with this message, and the apostles in the Pentecostal time, and in their letters, plead, saying, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you.”
VI. GOD‘S CALLS TO PENITENCE IN MODERN PREACHING. In this, more than in any other aspect of revealed truth, modern preaching fails. The ministers of the present day have no oppressive burden from the Lord, almost making them run away like Jonaha burden of demanding “repentance of sin.”R.T.
Isa 22:14
Iniquity that cannot be purged in this life.
God is a God of infinite mercy to forgive sin, and yet he will “by no means clear the guilty.” He will surely visit iniquity by fixing its consequences upon the sinner, and even also upon others who may be related to him.
I. SIN–PENALTIES THAT CAN BE REMOVED NOW, WHILE WE ARE IN‘ THIS WORLD. They are such as rest on the soul. Sin has a twofold aspectit is both an act of transgression and a spirit of self-will. It is the soul that sinneth; the self-will, as opposing God’s will, is the fountain and source of all wrong-doing. But the soul finds expression and action through the body, and consequently there will be both spiritual and bodily penalties following upon all sin. The soul will undergo a hardening process: The body will come into disabilities and sufferings. Pharaoh is willful. Then the Lord, in his judgment, wilt harden Pharaoh’s heart; smite him in the tenderest part of his family feeling by the death of his firstborn; and bring down the pride of Egypt by an ignominious overthrow in the Red Sea. The soul-penalties attaching to sin are expressed in the sentence, “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” Death, spiritual death, is the necessary result of soul-sin. Our first father, Adam, began to die when, in a spirit of self-will and self-pleasing, he ate the forbidden fruit. Every one of us, nowadays, begins to die the “eternal death” when we sin with our souls. The sphere of the atonement made by our Lord Jesus, in his life and in his cross, is precisely this sphere of soul-penalties. Christ removes the penalties of sin which come upon our souls. Christ renews the life of love, and trust, and submission, and joy in God, which effectually prevents any of the hardenings and debasings of sin becoming permanent in our cases.
II. SIN–PENALTIES THAT CANNOT NOW BE REMOVED. The penalties and consequences of sin that come on our bodies, our circumstances, and others who are connected with us. God has appointed the order in which family and social life should be arranged and conducted. If we would carry out that Divine order perfectly, and obey those Divine laws faithfully, heaven, with its eternal purities, its peace passing understanding, and its joy unspeakable, would be begun below. Sin, in its outward aspect, is the infringement of this Divine order, the breaking of those gracious and holy laws. To every such infringement a natural penalty is attached. This is expressed in a figure by the familiar words, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” The redemption provided by the Lord Jesus does not immediately and directly touch these natural penalties of sin. There is an important sense in which the forgiving God “by no means clears the guilty.” The child of the drunkard or the sensualist will not have the spirit of drink or of passion taken out of him, nor will he be renewed from his physical deterioration, because his father becomes a Christian in his later years. Consequences of wrong reach on until they get altogether beyond hand-grasp. Do any wrong, and for the soul of the wrong there is forgiveness, and full restoration, in the Divine mercy, through the precious blood-shedding; but you may pursue all your life after the natural consequences, and you shall never overtake them, never master them, never remove them. On they go, carrying their burdens of woe to the third and fourth generation. And Isaiah reminds us that there are some special kinds of iniquity to which the rule must more especially apply, for whose consequences there can be no earthly purging. They are such as are:
1. Maintained in a spirit of willfulness.
2. Such as outlast all warnings and corrections.
3. Such as have become a cause of open reproach.
4. And such as have been the means of ruining others.
In all these cases the judgment must come, and the sinner’s fellow-men must see it hanging over him as long as he lives. If it were not so, adequate impressions of the evil and hatefulness of sin could not be kept before the eyes of men. Though we should also see that these sin-penalties, lying so heavy on the race, are part of the Divine remedial scheme for finally delivering humanity from its self-serving and its sin.R.T.
Isa 22:16, Isa 22:17
Man’s plans for himself frustrated by God’s plan for him.
The answering New Testament case to this is our Lord’s account of the prosperous farmer, who had no room to bestow his fruits and his goods. He said to himself, “I will pull down my barns and build greater.” But God said, “Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee.” In the passage before us, Shebna, in the full ‘assurance that he will die quietly, and be buried honorably in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, proposes to build a tomb or sepulcher for himself. It would be one of the rock-hewn sepulchers on the slopes of the hills surrounding the holy city. The aristocratic families had their private sepulchers, but this Shebna was a new man, not belonging to any of the ancient families, so he had to begin a sepulcher as one part of his ambition to found a family. God’s plan for him was quite different to his plan for himself. He was to be carried away into captivity, and the fair creation of his energies would fall into ruins. “Man proposes, God disposes.”
I. MEN OUGHT TO MAKE PLANS. The Bible never opposes foresight, practical wisdom, reasonable ambitions, taking life with a strong hand, or the statesmanlike sagacity, that estimates public movements and prepares for inevitable changes, life man’s ship is expected to drift anyhow; the man’s hand must be always at the helm, and the man must know for what port he sails.
II. MEN TOO OFTEN MAKE PLANS IN A SPIRIT OF SELF–RELIANCE. As the Apostle James (Jas 4:13-15) puts it, men say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain.” The mistake lies in that will. “Whatever happens, I will.” “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare.”
III. MEN SHOULD MAKE PLANS IN THE SPIRIT OF DEPENDENCE ON GOD; and with due reference of every case to him. As James says (Jas 4:15), “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this, or that.” Man’s will sometimes is strong, and carries him over and through great difficulties; but God is ever stronger than he, and grasps him with effectual restraints.R.T.
Isa 22:18
God’s violent providences.
Margin Revised Version, “He will surely wind thee round and round like a ball and toss thee.” Generally the figure is assumed to be that of a ball flung violently on a smooth, even plain, where it bounds on and on with nothing to stay its progress. But a gentleman was in the island of Mitylene during a great storm of wind in winter, and observed a peculiar plant, not unlike wormwood, which grows into a compact, globular form, with very stiff stalks and branches. In the winter the plant dies down to the ground, and in its dry and light condition is torn from its roots by the wind, and set bounding over the wide and unenclosed country. He reports having seen five or six of these balls coursing along at once. If such plants were found in the countries familiar to the prophet, they would furnish a vivid emblem of the man who is at the mercy of a higher power, and helpless either to choose his own course or to find rest. The point which is proposed for illustration is that there must be a variety of arrows in the Lord’s quiver, and a needs-be sometimes for the severest and most searching dealings. God must sometimes display his sovereign power over men in a crushing and overwhelming way, in order to silence the tongue of pride, to prove that man can never get beyond God’s reach, never raise Babel-towers that he cannot overwhelm. The mightiest forces of nature are God’s instruments. And man’s pride he will utterly abase. Compare the death of the lord who scorned the prophet’s assurance of immediate deliverance (2Ki 7:19, 2Ki 7:20); Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation in the hour of his boasting (Dan 4:29-33); and Herod’s awful death (Act 12:20-23), when he permitted men to offer him the honors due alone to God. Man’s folly in trying God’s power to smite and wound is finely satirized by Eliphaz the Temanite (Job 15:25, Job 15:26): “For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty. He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers.”R.T.
Isa 22:20, Isa 22:21
The influence of an individual on public policy.
Governments always drift into the control of the most energetic, or most gifted, man. They go astray unless ruled by some master-spirit. It is said, with as much truth as satire, that “committees are always committees of one.” They are the comfortable agencies by means of which some strong-willed man gets his own way. And it may be urged that at least as much good as evil attends the arrangement. Eliakim is raised up as a master-spirit, in a time of national anxiety, and he is to prove a “father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.” There recur times in our national history when public ministrations on such a theme as this may wisely guide public opinion. Such topics as the following are suggested.
I. THE GENIUS OF THE PUBLIC LEADER. As much a Divine endowment and trust for the world’s use as the gifts of the orator, the artist, or the poet.
II. THE EVIL INFLUENCE OF THE UNPRINCIPLED PUBLIC LEADER. In his permission of wrong things. In his securing of right things by wrong methods. In the public example which encourages unprincipled dealings in private life.
III. THE POWER OF THE GODLY PRINCIPLED LEADER. He elevates the tone of society. Avoids causes of offence to neighboring nations. Aims at the permanent well-being of the whole people. Puts the moral progress of the nation before its material prosperity. Such leaders were Moses and David.
IV. THE DUTY OF THE GIFTED INDIVIDUAL TO TAKE PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY. Illustrate by Cincinnatus. A true man finds a sphere of service for his God in the common affairs of the nation. Joseph served God through years of famine in Egypt. Daniel served his God through important national changes and revolutions. The history of each age in nations is really the biography of the leading individual of the age. The world curses or blesses the memory of its public leaders.R.T.
Isa 22:22
The symbol of authority.
The “key on the shoulder” is no mere badge of the steward’s office; it represents delegated authority. Large wooden locks and keys were used in the East, and these keys were heavy enough to need carrying on the shoulder. But the expression is best regarded as a recognized figure of speech. The figure may receive four illustrations.
I. THE KEY OF COURT OFFICE. As in case of Eliakim.
II. THE KEY OF RABBIS, AS TEACHERS. Remember the expression, “The key of knowledge.”
III. THE KEY OF CHRIST, AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH. (Rev 3:7.)
IV. THE KEYS AS COMMITTED TO PETER. (Mat 16:19.)R.T.
Isa 22:23
The sure nail as a type.
The idea may be the peg driven into the ground, round which to fasten the tent-ropes. But, more probably, the reference is to a peg in the wall, driven in so securely that things may be safely hung upon it. The word is here used metaphorically in application to the support which Eliakim would yield to all his dependent relations. It is the type of the man on whom others can depend. The following points will be readily worked out and illustrated.
I. THE SORT OF MAN WHO CAN THUS BE A NAIL FOE OTHERS TO DEPEND ON.
II. THE TYPE FULLY REALIZED IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
III. THE TYPE REALIZED, IN MEASURE, IN CHRIST–LIKE MEN AND WOMEN. Nothing better can be said of any of us than thisMen trust us. What can be said of woman nobler than this, “The heart of her husband trusteth in her?”R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 22:1. The burden of the valley of vision The seventh discourse of the second book, contained in this chapter, relates to the calamity of the people of Jerusalem, and to the fall of Shebna. Besides the inscription, it contains first, an account of the calamity and perturbation of the people of Jerusalem at the time of the irruption of their enemies upon Judaea; Isa 22:1-14. And secondly, the judgment upon Shebna; Isa 22:15-25. In the former part of the prophesy we have, first, a mystical delineation of the fatal calamity which should bring destruction upon the city under king Zedekiah, set forth under the figure of an exprobatory address directed to the people of Jerusalem, secure and exulting in the prosperity of the present times. Secondly, the calamity and fear of the approaching time, in which the Assyrians should invade and possess themselves of a great part of Judaea, which should be the forerunner, as it were, of a latter and more grievous calamity; Isa 22:6 to the middle of Isa 22:11. Thirdly, the crimes of the people, which provoked God’s indignation against them; inconsideration, impenitence, and carnal security: Isa 22:11-14. Vitringa is of opinion, that Jerusalem is here called the valley of vision, because it was the seat of prophesy, the place where God revealed himself in prophetic visions; and it might be called the valley, with respect to the hills wherewith it is surrounded. He conjectures, that possibly there were schools of the prophets in that valley which was beneath the temple. The reader should observe, that as a two-fold calamity to come upon Jerusalem is foretold in this chapter; so the latter, and the more grievous, is placed first; and after it, that which in order should precede, and be as it were the forerunner of it. See a similar example, chap. Isa 14:28, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 22:1-3. What aileth thee now, &c. The former part of this discourse sets forth the distress of Jerusalem from the Chaldees and Assyrians; and in these verses we have, first, the fate of the city; the commotion and perturbation thereof upon the report of the hostile army approaching to besiege it, and the sad circumstances of that calamity, and of that time. Vitringa thinks that the beginning of the second verse should be connected with the first, and thus read and understood; What aileth thee now, that thou art all of thee gone up to the house-tops,Thou city, full of acclamations, tumultuous, exulting? “Whence comes it, that thou, who wast lately so full of joy and exultation, now in terror and silence ascendest the house-tops, either to reconnoitre the approaching enemy, or to consult for thine own safety?” The prophet by this mode of address means severely to rebuke the people. He goes on to relate four circumstances of this time; the first is, That the city, before it should be taken by the Chaldeans, should lose numbers of its people by a severe famine. Thy deceased men are not pierced through with the sword, nor dead in battle. See 1Sa 4:9. The second is, that it should be deserted by the rulers and chief men; All thy rulers are fled together; which was the case. See Jer 39:3-4. The third is, that these rulers, thus flying away, should be taken and bound by the enemy. See 2Ki 25:6-7. Jer 39:6. Lam 4:19. The fourth circumstance is, that the people who remained in Jerusalem after the flight of the rulers, but especially the soldiers who were set over the defence of the lower city, should also be bound. See 2Ch 32:4-5; 2Ch 32:33. 2Ki 25:11. Jer 40:1 and Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
D.AGAINST THE HAUGHTY AND DEFIANT SPIRIT OF JERUSALEM AND ITS MAGNATES
Isaiah 22
This chapter interrupts the series of prophecies against foreign nations. On account of its emblematic superscription, it is incorporated in the little book () that is distinguished by such superscriptions (21 and 22). Hence its present place. It contains two parts of almost equal length. In both, presumption is rebuked; in Isa 22:1-7, the presumption of the secure and reckless Jerusalem; in Isa 22:8-14, its incorrigible obstinacy, which even a perception of danger cannot overcome. In the second part of the chapter (Isa 22:15-25) the Prophet declares the punishment of the haughtiness of Shebna, the steward of the palace, involving his deposition and the calling of a worthier successor, who, however, would be likewise in danger of abusing his high office. Touching the time of the composition of the first part, we have to observe that it forms a whole. But in Isa 22:8-14 the Prophet sets the wicked obstinacy of the present time in opposition to the inconsideration of an earlier. The time referred to (Isa 22:8-12) is ascertained without difficulty from a study of these verses. It was the period of Hezekiah, and just when the Assyrians were threatening the city (xxxvi. and xxxvii.), which was by no means secured against all danger by the measures which Hezekiah took for its defence (2Ch 32:2 sqq. 30). There must have been then in Jerusalem persons, who in opposition to the blind, thoughtless presumption of former times (Isa 22:1-7), saw clearly the danger, yet in their wicked obstinacy would not seek the Lord, but desired only to satisfy their low carnal passions. The second part of the chapter belongs to the same time. It is directed against Shebna, the proud steward of the palace. In consequence of the divine displeasure here declared, he was actually deprived of his high office, and Eliakim, the person indicated by Isaiah, was appointed his successor. In chapters 36 and 37 we find Eliakim acting as steward of the palace and Shebna only a scribe. The latter had, it is clear, repented and submitted to the judgment of God. Therefore the punishment with which he was threatened was mitigated. But since Eliakim appears in 36 and 37 as already steward of the palace, this prophecy must belong to a somewhat earlier time.
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1. AGAINST JERUSALEMS BLIND PRESUMPTION AND DEFIANCE IN SIGHT OF DANGER
Isa 22:1-14
a) The punishment of blind presumption
Isa 22:1-7
1The burden of the valley of vision.
What aileth thee now,
That thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?
2Thou that art full of stirs,
A tumultuous city,
A joyous city;
Thy slain men are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle.
3All thy rulers are fled together,
They are bound12 by the archers;
All that are found in thee are bound together,
Which have fled3 from far.
4Therefore said I, Look away from me;
4 I will weep bitterly,
Labour not to comfort me,
Because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
5For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity
By the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision,
Breaking down the walls,
And of crying to the mountains.
6And Elam bare the quiver
With chariots of men and horsemen,
And Kir5 uncovered the shield.
7And it shall come to pass,
That6 thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots,
And the horsemen shall set themselves in array7 at the gate.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 22:1. The question (comp. Isa 22:16 and on Isa 3:15) is intensified by (Isa 19:12). for comp. Mic 2:12.
Isa 22:2. In (apposition to ) the accusative stands first for the sake of emphasis.
Isa 22:3. On , i.e., far off, comp. on Isa 17:13.
Isa 22:4. properly: I will with weeping bring forth what is bitter. The Piel (in Isaiah only here, comp. Gen 49:23; Exo 1:14) is here, as often, employed like Hiphil in the causative sense. In this sense the Hiphil actually occurs Zec 12:10. (comp. Gen 19:15) insistere is found only here in Isaiah.
Isa 22:5. , tumultus, perturbatio, Deu 7:23; Deu 28:20; in Isaiah only here. , conculcatio, besides only Isa 18:2; Isa 18:7. implicatio, entangling, confusion, besides only Mic 7:4. Notice the assonance in these three words. is to be taken neither as verb. denominativum, nor as substantive (demolition) nor as apposition to . It is the participle Pilpel from fodere, effodere, of which the Kal occurs Isa 37:25 and the perf. Pilpel, Num 24:17. As to its construction it is in apposition to . Grammar does not require the repetition of the preposition. Notice here how the sound is an echo to the sense. is clamor, vociferatio, especially a cry for help. The word occurs only here.
Isa 22:6. quiver, in Isaiah besides Isa 49:2. The before is the of concomitance = with. are chariots equipped with menmanned chariots in opposition to wagons for lading (). (comp. on Isa 21:7) stands , but yet is governed by . The meaning, therefore, is: Elam has seized the quiver in the midst of chariots and horsemen, i. e., has furnished an army of bowmen together with chariots and horsemen.
Isa 22:7. without object = aciem struere , Psa 3:7. Comp. Isa 49:15. Notice, too, the alliteration.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. In this first half of the discourse directed to the whole of Jerusalem, the Prophet assails the presumption with which the inhabitants formerly witnessed the approach of the enemy on an occasion not more closely specified. He asks the meaning of their going up to the roofs of the houses. It was plainly in order to see the approaching foe, although the Prophet does not expressly say this (Isa 22:1). But the noise which prevailed in the streets, and the universal gaiety prove that the enemy was not regarded with apprehension, but with proud defiance (Isa 22:2). In contrast with this presumption stands the result which the Prophet proceeds to depict. He sees the slain and prisoners of all ranks who fell into the hands of the enemy, not in manly conflict, but in cowardly flight (Isa 22:3). A second contrast to that insolent gaiety, is formed by the profound sorrow which the Prophet Himself now feels as he looks upon the ruin of the daughter of his people (Isa 22:4). For the Lord Himself brings the day of destruction on Jerusalem, while he employs as His instruments for this purpose distant nations terribly equipped for war, as whose representatives only Elam and Kir are named (Isa 22:6-7).
2. The burdenfled from far.
Isa 22:1-3. The expression the valley of vision is taken from Isa 22:5. Consult the Commentary on that verse for further particulars. That the title is formed after the analogy of the superscriptions, Isa 21:1; Isa 21:11; Isa 21:13, and that the prophecy is placed here for that reason is self-evident. A hostile army advances against Jerusalem. But the inhabitants of Jerusalem are not afraid of the enemy. They ascend the roofs of the houses to see the foe. This is in itself quite natural. But yet the Prophet asks in a tone of displeasure, What is the matter with thee that thou in a body goest upon the roofs? The party addressed is plainly the personified Jerusalem. It is no good sign that all Jerusalem goes up on the house-tops. For this looks as if the coming of the enemy was regarded in Jerusalem as a spectacle for the amusement of all the people. It is yet worse that the accustomed noise prevails in the streets, and this noise is a joyous one. The city is called which epithet includes the idea of haughtiness as well as joy, as we see from Isa 13:3; Zep 3:11. (Comp. Isa 23:12; Psa 94:3; Jer 50:11; Jer 51:39; 2Sa 1:20). It is uncertain to what particular occasion the Prophet here alludes. He cannot have in view what is related 2Ki 16:5; Isa 7:1; for great despondency then reigned. This can be said too of chapter 36; 2Ch 28:20 is too doubtful. (Comp.Ewald,History III. p. 667 note). It was probably some event of less importance, perhaps the appearance of a predatory troop. The indignation of the Prophet would befit such an occurrence. The insolence at sight of a seemingly slight danger annoyed him, inasmuch as the appearance before Jerusalem of a single soldier belonging to the army of a power aiming at universal sovereignty, should have made them sensible of the danger threatening them from that quarter. This danger passes into fact before the Prophets eye. He sees a hostile army before the walls of Jerusalem. It is of course a different one from that whose appearance so little discomposed the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now things take quite another turn. Insolence is changed into its opposite, into base cowardice; security, into the greatest distress. The Prophet sees the ground covered with dead bodies of his people. They have perished miserably, have died an inglorious death. And those very rulers ( comp. Isa 1:10; Isa 3:6 sq.), who, on the occasion referred to in Isa 22:1-2, had doubtless set the example of proud defiance, are now found to be the most cowardly. They flee all together, and are, without the drawing of a bow on their part or on that of the enemy (on in the signification without see on Isa 14:19) taken and bound. But not only the chief men behaved with cowardice. All the Jews who fell into the power of the enemy ( thy found ones not those found in thee) were taken in their flight. They fled afar, not from far (comp. Isa 17:13). They had sought in their timidity to flee far away, for they thought themselves safe only at the farthest possible distance from their endangered home. We here readily call to mind what is related 2Ki 25:4 sqq.; Jer 39:4 sqq. Comp. Lam 4:17-20 of the flight of king Zedekiah and all his soldiers.
3. Therefore said Imy people.
Isa 22:4. In opposition to that blind presumption (Isa 22:2) the Prophet, who clearly perceives what will be hereafter, experiences profound grief. His sorrow is unintelligible to the people. They seek to comfort him. He refuses to be comforted, and asks only to be permitted to give vent to his grief. Look away from me, recalls vividly to mind Job 7:19; Job 14:6; Ps. 39:14; but in these places the Lord is entreated to turn away His holy, and, therefore, judging eye from sinful men. The expression, the daughter of my people first occurs here. It is not to be taken as the partitive genitive, but as the genitive of apposition, or more accurately, the genitive of identity. The daughter of my people is a daughter, i. e., a female who is my people in so far as she represents, or personifies my people. The expression, as the analogous one daughter of Zion, corresponds to our expressions, Germany, Prussia, Bavaria, etc. These expressions with us likewise denote the personified unity of a people under the representation of a female. Observe further how the Prophet depicts the punishment of their presumption in words which afterwards served as a model for the lamentation over Jerusalems destruction by the Chaldaeans (Lam 2:11; Lam 3:48).
4. For it is a daythe gate.
Isa 22:5-7. The conduct of the Prophet is determined by the procedure of the Lord. As He has decreed a day of destruction on Jerusalem, the sorrow of the Prophet is not without a cause. The expression is peculiar to Isaiah. It occurs Isa 2:12 (Isa 34:8). What it means is learnt from Isa 63:4 where it is called a day of vengeance in my heart. The expression in a somewhat modified form is used by Jeremiah (Isa 46:10) and Ezekiel (Isa 30:3). The scene of this act of judgment is to be the valley of vision. That Jerusalem is thus denoted is most clearly determined by the context. Knobels view that the expression does not mark the city itself, but only one of the valleys surrounding it, is very strange. Not to speak of other things, how would a judgment falling on only one of the valleys surrounding Jerusalem, correspond to the words of Isa 22:2? I believe that light is thrown on the expression the valley of vision by Joe 3:12 sqq. The expression the day of the Lord is found first in Joel. While then Isaiah speaks of a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity which the Lord has, he is led to think on the place which, according to Joel, should be the scene of the day of the Lord. This place is the valley of Jehoshaphat, or, as it is termed a little after, (Joe 3:14) the valley of decision. The place of judgment is thus denoted in Joel by symbolical names. He speaks of the judgment on the heathen which does not touch Israel. Isaiah speaks of the judgment on Jerusalem alone, and therefore does not call the place of judgment the valley of decision, but chooses instead of it another symbolical name. He calls it the valley of vision. Too much stress has been laid on the representation of a valley, both here and in Joe 3:12; Joe 3:14. The valley of Jehoshaphat is not the valley of Kidron, which from this passage was afterwards called the valley of Jehoshaphat; but it is an ideal plain spread out at the foot of mount Zion, not called a valley from its lying between two mountains (compare also the valley, plain of Jezreel Jos 17:16; Jdg 6:33; Hos 1:5), but in opposition to the lofty height from which Jehovah descends. We have then neither to think on the situation of Jerusalem between mountains (Psa 125:2), nor on the low street in a valley in which the Prophet is supposed to have dwelt. But Jerusalem is called a valley as being on this lower earth in opposition to the heavenly height from which the Judge comes. There are, besides, not wanting traces of the use of in the wider signification of planities, plain. (Comp. 2Sa 8:13; Psa 60:2; Num 21:2). But why the valley of vision? To me it seems that we must not overlook the fact, that in Isa 22:1-14 seeing is so much spoken of. The inhabitants of Jerusalem go up on the roofs to see (Isa 22:1). But they do not see as they ought. Then the Lord removes partially the covering from their eyes, and they look to their armory (Isa 22:8). They look also to the breaches in their walls (Isa 22:9), and to the lower pool; but alas! they do not look to Him who formed all this long ago (Isa 22:11). The Prophet, on the other hand, whose eye the Lord had entirely opened, sees accurately (Isa 22:14). Might not then Jerusalem be called the valley of (prophetic) vision, because in it the true God-imparted seeing has its place, in opposition to the defective and often quite perverse seeing? The Prophet would therefore mean: In the place where the divine seeing has indeed its home, but on account of false human seeing is not regarded, the Lord will appear to hold judgment. The breaking down of the wall took place at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans (Jer 39:2). Crying to the mountain.It seems to me to suit the context better, if we (with Ewald, Drechsler) under understand not the neighboring mountain sides, but the mountain on which the Lord dwells, whence He, according to Joe 3:16 sq., roars and utters His judgment, and to which the prayers of the suppliants are directed (Psa 2:6; Psa 3:5; Psa 99:9; Psa 121:1; Isa 2:3; Isa 8:18; Isa 10:12; Isa 10:32; Isa 11:9, etc.). Isa 22:6-7 explain what is said in Isa 22:5. The general, indefinite and before Elam involves in this connection the notion and truly, namely. (Comp. Gesen.Thes. p. 394 c). Elam (comp. Isa 11:11; Isa 21:2) is the Persian Uvaja, i. e., the Susiana of the Greeks (Schrader,Cuneif. Inscr. p. 31). That the Elamites were renowned as archers appears from Jer 49:30 (comp. Herzog,R. Encycl. III. p. 748). Kir is described by Amos (Isa 9:7) as the earlier dwelling of the Syrians. He also predicts that the Syrians should be brought back thither (Isa 1:5), a prophecy whose fulfilment is attested 2Ki 16:9. It has been almost universally assumed since J. D. Michaelis (opposed to this view are Knobel,Voelkertafel (Ethnological Table) p. 151. Keil on 2Ki 16:9; Vaihinger in Herzog,R. Encycl. XV., p. 394) that this Kir is the region near the river , a tributary of the Araxes, which falls into the Caspian Sea (comp. Ewald,Hist. III., p. 638). Delitzsch properly observes that the river is written not with but with . The name has not yet been found in the Assyrian inscriptions. That the Prophet named Elam and Kir as representatives of the Assyrian host is certainly possible. Only we must understand the matter thus: For the Prophet who always beheld Assyria in the foreground of his field of vision, Assyria signifies the worldly power in general, for which reason he elsewhere includes even Babylon under the name of Assyria (Isa 7:20; Isa 8:7). He mentions Elam and Kir, because they were remote and unknown nations. For the prophets frequently render their announcements of judgment more dreadful, by the threatening that distant people, entirely unknown, and therefore quite reckless and pitiless, should be the instrument of the judgment (comp. Deu 28:49; Isa 33:19; Jer 5:15). The uncovering of the shield (comp. Csar Bell. Gall., 11, 21) is proper for infantry, so that all the constituents of an armyarchers, chariots of war, cavalry, infantry, will be represented. In Isa 22:7 the exact rendering is And it came to pass; thy best valleys were full, etc. But the past tense is not to be understood absolutely. The Prophet does not pass suddenly from the description of future things to depict what had already taken place. He is to be understood relatively. He marks only a progress in the picture of the future which he beholds. He sees the chariots and horsemen (Isa 22:6) not merely at rest. He sees them in motion, he marks how they fill the environs of Jerusalem. This movement which belongs to the future, he describes as if it took place before his eyes. Thy choicest valleys, lit., the choice of thy valleys, thy best, most fruitful valleys, chief of these the valley of Rephaim (Isa 17:5), are filled and overrun with chariots and horsemen, they are so numerous. But they not merely threaten from a distance. They approach close to Jerusalem. The horsemen have taken their stand right before the gate in order to make a dash the moment they are required.
Footnotes:
[1]Heb. of the bow.
[2]without bow.
[3]afar.
[4]Heb. I will be bitter in weeping.
[5]Heb. made naked.
[6]Heb. the choice of thy valleys.
[7]Or. toward.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The invasion of the land of Judah, is here predicted, and sad events implicated in it: but towards the close, there are many precious promises, typical, as it should seem, of Judah’s deliverer, even Christ.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The valley of vision, must mean Judah, for the Psalmist describes it as such, Psa 125:2 . And the holy city, Jerusalem, is called a land of vision, on account of the prophet’s dwelling in it, and delivering their predictions there. And here, the Lord’s land, which is the glory of all lands, comes in for her visitation also, because of transgression. The songs of the temple are changed for the cries of the streets; and the people are in distress, in the prospect of the enemy’s approach. Reader! what is said here of God’s people in general, may be said of every individual in particular: when without are fightings, within will be fears; correction is in the covenant. Psa 89 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Key of the House of David
Isa 22:22
Not often, even in Isaiah, are there words more full of mystery than these.
I. See how, of David also, according to his degree, it might be said that ‘He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’. Persecuted by his own brethren in the army of the Israelites; hunted after by his own lord, King Saul; ridiculed by his own wife, Michal; betrayed by his own familiar friend, Ahithophel; conspired against by his own favourite son, Absalom; all but delivered to death by his own subjects at Keilah; to say nothing of his many battles, painful wanderings, little rest; and that whole lifelong struggle on account of which God said, ‘Thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed much blood upon the earth’. See also how poor and needy he was; asking bread from Ahimelech the priest; requesting milk and cheese from Nabal the Carmelite; taking a cruse of water from King Saul; thankful for fruit from Abigail. So that when Gabriel said, in that cottage of Nazareth, ‘The Lord God shall give Him the seat of His father David’; and when Isaiah prophesied here, ‘The key of the house of David will I lay on His shoulder,’ what is the key but the bitter Cross? what is the seat but extreme poverty?
II. Notice for every word tells that word: ‘The key of the house of David will I lay on His shoulder’ not shoulders and why? Because the Son of God did not endure the Death of the Cross on the right shoulder of His Godhead, but on the left shoulder of His humanity alone; so that, suffering as a Man, He should ransom like a God.
III. ‘The key of the house of David will I lay upon His shoulder.’ Beyond all other, David was a man of war. Now look what the natural heart says on the one hand, and what the Lord God of all power declares on the other: ‘The people be strong that dwell in the land; and the cities are walled and very great; and moreover we saw the children of Anak there’. All very true; but here is the answer: ‘The key of the house of David will I lay upon His shoulder’. So take courage. There is some one fenced city of a besetting sin of which you ought to take possession, some one Jericho in your hearts that defies the rule of the Lord God of Hosts. But that key will open it for you. Does not the way in which it was at first taken up, and then wearily borne along the Via Dolorosa, speak of its omnipotence? Only trust to it, and it will open the strongest wards of the most crafty lock wherewith Satan ever barred your passage yet, or ever shall bar it. And well for you that it is laid on His shoulder, not on yours. That key which opened the gates of Death and Hell, how shall it not throw back any other portals for your entrance?
J. M. Neale, Occasional Sermons, p. 34.
Illustration. Saint Teresa says very beautifully: ‘O my soul, O my heart, if thou wilt, if thou desire to, enter into bliss, why dost thou not serve and go after good Jesus, Who hath the key of it? The key of this world, the men of this world have: the key of hell, Satan hath; the key of life, none but Christ. O good Jesus! O True Love of my soul! seeing that Thou art the Gate which is to be opened, and the House which we are to enter into, and the glory which we are to enjoy, why dost Thou not open to this my sinful soul, which is weary of calling for Thee? O Redeemer of my spirit, O sweetness of my life, seeing Thou hast said, that Thou didst not come into this world but to save sinners, and goest about to seek for none but sinners: why dost Thou not open to me, who am the greatest sinner of all sinners?’
J. M. Neale, Occasional Sermons, p. 37.
References. XXIII. 4. R. Primrose, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. 1906, p. 103. XXIII. 18. S. Chadwick, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxvii. 1905, p. 91.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Valley of Vision
Isa 22
Jerusalem was the valley of vision. Jerusalem was called a valley in this instance in relation to the great hills by which the Holy City was surrounded “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people.” The mountain-tops are higher than the pinnacles of the minster or the abbey, the temple or the cathedral. We always build under God. Some wondrous change has taken place here. Jerusalem is inquired about as an invalid would be asked after “What aileth thee now?” What is this trouble? Thy name really is associated with joy: “Thou art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city”; a thousand angels sing in the darkest night in thy sky, and thou art full of gladness: what trouble is this that makes thy heart sore, that infuses a new tone into thy voice? This is not customary, what is the meaning of it? In the valley of vision are found men who are gifted with eyesight. A very perilous gift! In a modified sense, blessed are they who see nothing: in the larger sense, requiring ample time for its exposition and vindication, blessed are they who see the whole horizon; they often see dimly, that is to say, the figures upon the horizon may be mistaken for clouds, little as the hand of man, but they gladden the prophet’s heart, the prophet sees the farther meanings, the larger blessings, the days that are coming morning light, crowned with glory, and never descending into nocturnal shades. We need men of that piercing vision to help us, for sometimes the days are laden with darkness; now and again it is irony to speak of day, for the whole sky seems to be clothed with frowns; it is at such times that men of vision are right heartily welcome. They see in the darkness; because of the inspiration of God, the darkness and the light are both alike unto them. These men we call prophets, who are not to be interpreted by deaf, dumb, and blind men, but only by those who have kindred faculty, though in very limited degree. To what changes, then, are men and hearts, and cities and lands, exposed! “What aileth thee?” Our joy may be turned into sorrow; the root out of which came bud and blossom and fruit, beautiful to the eyes and to be desired to make one wise, may grow nothing but poison. We hold nothing certainly, with an assurance that cannot be broken, with guarantees that cannot be violated. When we grip any prize with our poor five fingers, the fingers themselves may fail to hold the blessing, and that which we thought secure may vanish in a moment. Make the best of the present time; realise what is written as soon as you can, turn it into positive, absolute property, into soul, into manhood, that cannot be taken away from you but by your own consent.
Yet what taunting there is in all this apparent condolence! “Thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.” How graciously cruel we can sometimes be! How we can taunt and mock men even with messages of condolence and sympathy and yearning solicitude. What is the meaning of this reproach? The meaning is that the men were cowards, that they were all wounded in the back and not in the breast; they had turned away from the enemy, and had been struck down from behind. Or it may mean that the men had killed themselves; luxury had overpowered them: yielding to the weaknesses of the flesh had ended in their destruction. We glory in our heroes, we are ashamed of our cowards. A reckoning is made of men’s actions, and in the long-run men have the right epitaph assigned to them in the graveyard of the ages. The question for us to propose to ourselves is, What shall be our record when we are dead? Shall men say of us, They died bravely, they died hard, they struck back again with heroic force, and now that they are dead even those who opposed them will place a wreath upon the cold heart? Or shall it be said of us, They will never be missed for their valour, their sympathy, their generosity, their goodness; they have left no empty place in any human heart? It is for us to say what our record in these regards shall be. Blessed be God, it lies within the power of every one of us to make somebody weep really cry manly noble tears, because our face is seen no more. You can do that in the family, in the business circle, in the church; you do not want the world for a stage, you want but your common daily sphere in which to live a life of beauty, and create a memory of beneficence.
Then see how nature itself may be degraded by the spirit of war:
“And it shall come to pass, that thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate’ ( Isa 22:7 ).
The valley was never made for war; the choice valley was made for garden-land and wheatfields and vineyards, not for the pomp and circumstance of war, for the carnage of military cruelty. Thus nature is degraded, dishonoured, discrowned. Gibeon, and Rephaim, and Hinnom, and Jehoshaphat meant to grow wine and oil and bread for the inhabitants of the city are turned into a great slaughter-house. Sin degrades everything, blights all the flowers, hushes all the music, turns back all the light; it hates the morning, because the morning reveals, detects, and makes stand out in ghastly clearness things that long to hide themselves in some merciful cloud. So it is with the degradation of our faculties. Think of Imagination that wing of the soul, that power by which we create new heavens and a new earth being degraded, so as to have to take into account numbers of men opposed to men, questions of bloodshed, questions of storming and overwhelming cities innocent and useful upon the earth; think of imagination being employed in discovering new methods of villainy! To such base uses may we come, that the poet’s faculty may become a thief’s investment! He will consider in the night-time what he may do to-morrow. What is he doing? harnessing a very steed of heaven to a chariot that can roll only in a downward direction, and terminate its rolling only in hell. What art thou doing, O bad man? perverting the finest faculties, filling the choicest valleys with proofs of evil, hurrying down thy whole nature to the base service of the devil. We should be careful of such prostitution: it leaves us weaker, poorer, meaner men; our faculties were meant to grow in an upward direction, to be plentiful in outshoots, in great branches each of which is equal to a tree itself, bearing an abundant harvest of fruit so that hunger may be satisfied, and creating great amplitude of shade under which the weary may lie down and rest. Sometimes it excites solicitude that men should have to consider any little questions at all that they should be troubled with bread-getting, money-making, world-caressing, they who ought always to be far away out, meeting God half-way, and holding high speech in tabernacles not made with hands. But it has pleased God so to constitute us that we must deal with little questions sometimes. Blessed be God, we need never deal with mean, unworthy, wicked questions; all these we can take up and throw into the fire, and though our questions be limited by our necessities they need not be debased by our passions and evil desires.
Now we come upon a line which we thought was to be found only in the New Testament; we come upon the sensualist’s creed, and are surprised to find it an old one:
“Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we shall die” ( Isa 22:13 ).
He lives wisely who lives in eternity: our citizenship is in heaven. The gait of the Christian as he moves should indicate that he is not simply walking for exercise, but travelling towards a city whose builder is God; he has hardly time to take off his sandals or to set down his staff; he says, “I can tarry but a night.” Whither art thou bound, then? For the infinite, the eternal, the invisible; give me bread and water for the moment, I hasten to the feast of God. Let us say that there is more or less of ideality in this: what would life be without its ideal views, its prophetic outlook, its genius of grasping the future? “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die,” is a fool’s creed, even if it were true as to time. Say we die to-morrow, to eat and drink to-day is a beast’s recreation. Say there is no third day, that life is made up of to-day and to-morrow, even then the right way is to abstain from eating and drinking, so far as they are exercises merely ministrant to the flesh, even then it were best to do good, to suffer for others, to dry the tear of sorrow, to help the lame, and lead the blind, and sing to those who are ill at ease. So that any way, even if there be no third day, it is better to live the upper life; and if there be a third day, and if that third day be a gate swinging back upon eternal duration, then blessed are they, and they only, whose lives are hidden with Christ in God.
Now comes another tone of mockery. The whole chapter is a wonderful succession of prophetic, expository, and rhetorical variety. The Lord mocks the insecure defences of men:
“Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house” ( Isa 22:15 ).
The word “treasurer” may mean companion, it may mean chamberlain, it may mean a man who is in charge of the king’s house, one who is in high office, who can do what he will under the king: go to him and taunt him, “What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock?” (Isa 22:16 .) What does it all amount to? The rock is God’s. Nature will one day say, Let me go back to my Creator; oh, thief, do not steal one pebble of all the earth; oh, wicked man, burden me not with thy carcase I will not carry thee, thou foul thing! God will empty the sepulchres of the rocks; he will throw the wicked away. “Behold, the Lord will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee. He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country” ( Isa 22:17-18 ). The image is that of throwing a ball upon a level and smooth surface, so that it rolls to an infinite length; without attrition or hindrance of an appreciable kind, away rolls the smooth ball over the smooth surface, far beyond the measurement of men. Let us take heed to this. We can build nothing that God cannot unroof. God may begin, and does begin, at either of two points in his work of dehabilitation. Say he will come down upon the wicked man and work out his judgment; he will take part of the roof away, and a roof is no stronger than its weakest point even a roof yields to that general law and through that unroofed space the storm will pour down in pitiless fury. But God has another way of working out his judicial purpose, a way very secret, and wholly beyond the control of men; in that way he touches the foundation line, takes off the cornerstone, and the whole fabric is shaken down, and none can hinder the fall. The entire volume of human history is full of illustration of this. None can tell in what way God will come; the great and blessed and all-saving truth is that he is coming, does come, must come, and none can hinder, and that his coming means judgment to the wicked and recognition to the good.
Now the Lord will come, and in tender mercy will edify, reconstruct, speak a word of hope to the heart of men:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah” ( Isa 22:20 ).
Who was he? Nobody can tell. Where else is he referred to in Holy Writ? Probably nowhere. Was he, then, a man without renown? That depends upon what you mean by renown, for he is indicated in the text by terms which imply infinite fame. Say “Eliakim,” and nobody knows him; say “My servant Eliakim,” and obscurity rises up into eminence unrivalled, and never to be surpassed. Renown, then, may be nominal, or it may be moral. Nominal renown is a thing that comes and goes, a coloured cloud, a bubble on the river, a noise in the air, nothing that is substantial, nothing that is beneficent in itself; but moral renown, the renown of goodness, the fame of character, the reputation associated with deeds of sacrifice or valour that is a renown which lives in heaven. My soul, strive for it! see that no man take thy crown. Yet God glorifies obscurity; he brings forward unknown men to do great public work. Who can tell how God is training men in secret now? Young men, take heart; men working in obscure places, do not be discouraged: God keeps a perfect register of all his servants, and he knows well all their capacities and functions, and at the right time he will say, Come, stand up; O thou least among the children of men, go to the front, and I will crown thee with strength “I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah” ( Isa 22:21 ). Mark the royal “I.” There is no hint of consultation; there is no suggestion of having received a vote unanimous or divided, from some sustaining, watchful, or critical party; this I rolls on like a cataract; it is the voice of infinite sovereignty.
“And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open” ( Isa 22:22 ).
Still the same tone. The Lord reigneth! Never let us try to settle how it is that one man is here and another man is there, and bring our petty judgment to bear upon the allotment; rather say, All these things are in God’s hand; he setteth up, he putteth down, he calls the obscure to renown, and he puts back the foremost man into the cloud, so that he cannot be seen again. Lord, work as thou wilt, only give thy servants the believing heart, that they may know that thou doest all things well.
“And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place” ( Isa 22:23 ).
The image is that of a strong nail being driven into a beam, and on that nail, as on a peg, shall be hung all the issues of the family “the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.” How one man becomes the head of the family, the strength of the nation, the leader of the people, the dependence of empires! Were that man to be taken out of his place, it would seem as though the whole nation would perish by his removal; were that character to fail, it would seem as if the whole Church would go mourning the rest of her days, sighing, sobbing, because the son of the morning had lost his centre and plunged into infinite night. That is what God does in society: he makes some men as nails and pegs, on which are hung great responsibilities; he makes some men as pillars on whom he rests all that is uppermost in the temple of his providence; he makes some men leaders, shepherds going in advance, that they may lead God’s nations and flocks and households to his appointed place: let us recognise their character and their standing, and though we may not emulate their power, we can give them the joy of knowing that we never forget them in our tenderest prayers.
Is Eliakim safe evermore? No. There is a word of warning. Elevation is only held on good character. Even God who drove in the nail can take it out again:
“In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the Lord hath spoken it” ( Isa 22:25 ).
No nail once driven in can do without God, saying, I am driven in now, so I care not what may happen. The highest lives in obedience; the strongest man becomes weaker than the weakest when he ceases to pray. Genius cannot keep a man in a high moral elevation. His genius will soon be discovered to be but cleverness, not the blooming out of a life that is hidden in the very mystery of God. Leader of the people, even thou mayest be dispossessed of thy leadership. Great statesmen are in the hands of God. Journalists, thinkers, the advance-guard of every name, all these hold their position on their good conduct. Let them be good and faithful servants; let there be no selfishness in their ambition, no vain conceit because of the influence with which God hath clothed them; even the nail that is fastened in the sure place may be removed, the very beam in which it finds a place may be cut in two and burned in unquenchable fire. So, then, we are nothing but in God; we have no standing but in the Lord. Let us realise this, and pay attention to conduct. But we cannot pay attention to conduct unless we pay attention to spirit. Conduct is nothing in itself: it is everything only in so far as it expresses an inward, pure, gracious, holy temper.
Thus through all history we find the moral element, the eternal nerve by which God sustains and executes his purpose, without which history would become a chapter of accidents and society would revert to chaos. All figures, metaphors, and symbols may be changed or adapted according to the genius of the prophet who speaks; but the great central quantity of truth no man may touch, diminish, or trifle with. In all history we come upon a day of judgment. In all life’s tragic story there is the outline of a great white throne. Judgment is not an invention of the evangelists, or a bold guess of the apostolic mind. Judgment began in Eden. As soon as man was limited by laws, permissions, and prohibitions, he stood before a judgment-seat; he might not know it, but he looked upon the face of a Judge. Blessed be God, there is another and brighter thought; as soon as God showed any interest in man he began to redeem him. The first act of love necessitated the Cross. There was no stopping-place in the logic of mercy, until it consummated itself in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we could work that idea out we should in very deed be great theologians.
This is the method of God. Daily mercies are the cross in detail, the Cross is the gathering up and assurance for the future of all other blessing. Take it by analysis, and we have the cross broken up into daily bread, and bodily clothing, and nightly sleep, and continual watchfulness a detailed and tender Providence that numbers the very hairs of our head. Take it by synthesis, and all these things, little in themselves, are incomplete in themselves; put one down as a unit, add to it, gather in all the series, do not hesitate to include all the sections, phases, varieties of providence, and you will find your heart burning within you, love glowing in the soul, because you will soon come to see that you cannot stop until you come to a place called Golgotha. The moment God spoke to the sinner hopefully, he began to atone for the sinner’s sin. It was one of two things: damnation or redemption. There is no middle point in all the purpose of God. Say that God spared Adam long enough to have a conversation with him, in which the words, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent,” occurred, and the whole catastrophe is involved in that communication. Do not let us break up God’s providence. Do not fritter away God’s meanings. When he made one grass blade to grow, he meant to clothe the earth with roses and flowers of summer; when he caused one little pearl dewdrop to settle upon the earth, he meant to fertilise the globe and make it fruitful in all goodness and loveliness; when he spoke to the sinner and did not scourge him with eternal damnation, he meant by that restrained look that he would one day send forth his Son, made of a woman, born under the law, to redeem and restore all things. This is a great prophecy, and we should be greater men if we yielded ourselves to the teaching which God has provided in his Book.
Prayer
Almighty God, when thy judgments are abroad in the earth the inhabitants thereof will learn righteousness. Speak unto us, we humbly pray thee in the name of Jesus Christ thy Son, not in the language of judgment but in the language of mercy. We cannot bear the light of thy holiness, for we have sinned, and we are corrupt, and there is no health in us. We would look upon thy pity and love, thy Cross, O thou Emmanuel, God with us. We turn towards thy Cross, and our burden soon melts away; we hear the gospel of thy love, and answering it with penitence and faith, behold we enter upon the enjoyment of new heavens and a new earth: old things are passed away, and all things have become new. This is the glory of thy gospel, thou Christ of God; it banishes all night, and gloom, and winter, and death; it brings life and immortality to light; it causes heaven to condescend to earth, and lifts up earth into the horizon of the sky. May we understand thy gospel to be a call to discipline as well as to pardon. Having the promises of God, may we purify ourselves, may we answer love with holiness. May the spirit of love dwell in us, that our life may be one of heavenly charitableness, feeling sympathy in relation to those who are lost and needy, and in mortal pain; may we enter into all the mystery of the ministry of Christ, who went about doing good. Thus may we confirm in action what we say in words, and live in the midst of men the prayers which we breathe in the sanctuary. For all gospel words and gospel light and gospel hope we bless thee: they make the wilderness blossom as the rose; they abolish death, they dry up the tears of sorrow, and replace them with the tears of joy. We bless thee that joy hath her sweet tears, that joy cannot express herself wholly in laughter, but must blind herself with gracious rain, whereby all things bright and beautiful are multiplied and seen the more vividly. We give our lives into thy keeping. They are strange mysteries: they blaspheme, and pray; sometimes they are ecstatic with piety more than earthly, and sometimes they wallow in the depths of hell. But our lives are thine; the image they bear is not ours; nothing but the flaw, the fault, the corruptness, can be claimed by us; the glory, the suggestion, the budding immortality these are God’s. God’s name be praised! Watch the evolution of our lives, that we may grow in grace and knowledge and truth and pureness, and though sometimes we may seem to be worsted in the fight may we come again to the battle with recruited power, with completer energy, with more absolute consecration to the banner of Christ. Pity all who are weak and sad, sore of heart, wounded in spirit; lead the blind by a way that they know not; comfort the disconsolate with solaces from the Cross; minister unto those that can no more minister unto themselves; and give us all to feel that we are in the keeping of God, under the direction of the eternal Spirit, and that what is asked of us by thee is filial obedience, complete consent of the heart, willingness to be and to do all that is included in the will of God. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us king’s and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 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 22:1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?
Ver. 1. The burden. ] See Isa 13:1 .
Of the valley of vision,
Of vision.
What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the house tops?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 22
Chapter 22 consists of a prophecy wholly directed against Jerusalem, and entitled, “The burden of the valley of vision.” There may have been some anticipation in the prophet’s day, but it was partial. So much so was this the case, that Vitringa can only eke out an appearance of an historical answer by piecing together the invasion of the city by the Assyrians under Sennacherib, and that by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar; and even this by the strong inversion which places the Chaldean movement in verses 1-5 (comp. 2Ki 25:4 , 2Ki 25:5 ) and the Assyrian in the part that follows (with which 2Ch 32:2-5 corresponds). Granting this as a primary application, it affords a strong presumption that this chapter, like the last and all we have seen, points to the great day when the reckoning of nations will come in “the morning,” and of every individual throughout its course, even to the judgement of the secrets of the heart. It seems strange that believers should rest satisfied with so small an instalment from One Who pays to the uttermost farthing. The spirit that treats as an illusion the expectation of a punctual fulfilment for these prophecies as a whole, in every feature save those expressly limited to a definite time in certain particulars, is either ignorance or scepticism, or, what is common enough, a mixture of both.
The order here ought to strike an attentive reader who believes in inspiration. After the events it would have been unmeaning, were man alone concerned. For where then is the sense of putting a vision of Jerusalem after that of Babylon, and of Babylon reduced to “the desert of the sea “? The order owes all its propriety and force to its looking onward to the end of the age, when Jerusalem shall be taken after Babylon’s fall, and the false administrator be replaced by the true, the Righteous Servant.
“The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? Thou that wast full of stir, a town of tumult, a joyous city, thy slain [are] not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. All thy rulers fled together, they are bound without the bow, all that are found of thee are bound together, they fled far off. Therefore said I, Look away from me: let me weep bitterly; labour not to comfort me for the spoiling of the daughter of my people. For [it is] a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord Jehovah of hosts in the valley of vision, of breaking down the wall, and of crying to the mountains. And Elam beareth the quiver, with chariots of men [and] horsemen; and Kir uncovereth the shield. And it shall come to pass [that] thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate” (vv. 1-7). The certainty of the accomplishment of prophecy awakens the deepest feeling for God’s people, and even for their enemies on whom the judgement falls. It is the opposite of fatalism and its hardness on the one hand, and on the other, of that indifference to which the uncertainty of unbelief leads.
The city is shown us in the early verses, changed from its stir and tumultuous joy to the deepest uneasiness and deadly fear, the slain not fallen in battle but ignominious slaughter, all the rulers fled, but taken and bound; so that the prophet can but turn and weep alone in bitterness. For the trouble and perplexity sprang not from the dust but were by Jehovah of hosts.
The central verses expose the utter vanity and unpardonable sin of recourse to human measures by the people of God when He is dealing with them in judgement. Their only right place at such a time is to bow to His hand and accept the chastening He is pleased to inflict, always confident that mercy rejoices against judgement, and that the end of Jehovah is that He is exceeding pitiful and of tender mercy. Here there was no humiliation in them, no recognition of Him or His ways. “And he uncovereth the covering of Judah; and thou didst look in that day to the armour in the house of the forest. And ye saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool. And ye numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses ye broke down to fortify the wall. And ye made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But ye looked not unto the maker thereof, neither had regard unto him that fashioned it long ago. And in that day did the Lord Jehovah of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth; and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. And it was revealed in mine ears by Jehovah of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts” (vv. 8-14). The one effort was to escape by policy – a fatal path for the people of God, which speedily leads into mere latitudinarian Sadduceeism. The believer is delivered alike from fear and haste, and from despair and present license.
The close of the chapter sets before us the setting aside of the unworthy Shebna who had crept into the place of chief minister, next to the throne, living only for self, and even seeking after death nothing but his own name and glory. “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts, Go, get thee in to this treasurer, unto Shebna who is over the house, [and say,] What hast thou here, and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewn thee out here a sepulchre, [as] one hewing him out a sepulchre on high, graving a habitation for himself in the rock? Behold, Jehovah will hurl thee away violently as a strong man, and he will wrap thee up closely. He will surely roll and toss thee [like] a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there [shall be] the chariots of thy glory, O shame of thy lord’s house. And I will thrust thee from thine office, and from thy station will He pull thee down” (vv. 15-19).
Thereon Jehovah’s servant Eliakim is called to take the reins of office in his stead, a father to Jerusalem and Judah, with the key of David’s house laid by Jehovah on his shoulder, with full authority and adequate power. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkijah; and I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him [as] a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father’s house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons” (vv. 20-24). We cannot here fail to recognize the type of Christ displacing the Antichrist. The very fact of the past historical circumstances being put together without regard to mere date, as we have seen, and with personages introduced who officially were not the highest, yet described in terms which open out to a dominion and power beyond the highest, prepares one for the magnificent events of the latter day in the Holy Land as the only complete fulfilment of the scripture before us.
“In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in a sure place be removed, and be cut down and fall; and the burden that [was] upon it shall be cut off; for Jehovah hath spoken” (v. 25). It was not the position, but the person that made the difference. Shebna had just the same place, but he utterly failed and wrought ruin. Not so Eliakim who followed, as we have seen, in the verses last before us. Rev 3:7 warrants the application to Christ.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 22:1-11
1The oracle concerning the valley of vision.
What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?
2You who were full of noise,
You boisterous town, you exultant city;
Your slain were not slain with the sword,
Nor did they die in battle.
3All your rulers have fled together,
And have been captured without the bow;
All of you who were found were taken captive together,
Though they had fled far away.
4Therefore I say, Turn your eyes away from me,
Let me weep bitterly,
Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.
5For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day of panic, subjugation and confusion
In the valley of vision,
A breaking down of walls
And a crying to the mountain.
6Elam took up the quiver
With the chariots, infantry and horsemen;
And Kir uncovered the shield.
7Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
And the horsemen took up fixed positions at the gate.
8And He removed the defense of Judah.
In that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest,
9And you saw that the breaches
In the wall of the city of David were many;
And you collected the waters of the lower pool.
10Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem
And tore down houses to fortify the wall.
11And you made a reservoir between the two walls
For the waters of the old pool.
But you did not depend on Him who made it,
Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago.
Isa 22:1 oracle This is a textual marker of a new message from YHWH directed at a national/ethnic group. Surprisingly in the midst of YHWH’s judgment on the surrounding nations He addresses Judah, possibly because of her sin, she is just another goim (nations).
It is surely possible that these messages are related to specific historical invasions. In differing years, different armies and nations were affected. But Hebrew poetry is so vague that a specific historical situation is difficult to ascertain. Possibly there has been a later editing of Isaiah’s messages based on certain word plays or key words, not historical events (i.e., the poems are out of chronological order).
Remember the main point of the whole oracle and the main truth of each strophe is the way to approach the prophet’s (i.e., YHWH’) meaning, not great attention to all the details and rare words.
the valley of vision Because of the use of this phrase in Isa 22:5 b, it must refer to the day of panic sent by the LORD of hosts (note Joe 3:14).
Surprisingly the JB changes vision to Hinnom (cf. Jer 7:31-34). The LXX has valley of Zion.
Isa 22:1-2 b These are a description of a time of rejoicing in Jerusalem.
1. up to the housetops
2. you who were full of noise
3. you boisterous town
4. you exultant city
The JB (footnote) assumes it relates to Hezekiah’s initial victories over Assyria in 705 B.C. or 713 B.C. (Jewish Study Bible).
Isa 22:2-3 d Apparently some of the city (i.e., leaders and soldiers) fled before the invaders.
1. they were captured, but not in battle
2. their leaders fled too, but were also captured
3. all of them who fled were taken into exile
Because of these lines of poetry many believe this chapter refers to the siege of Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., when Zedekiah fled the city and was captured (cf. 2Ki 25:4-6), but I think it refers to Assyria’s invasion of one of the following:
1. Tiglath-pileser III (Isaiah 7-12)
2. Shalmaneser V (cf. 2 Kings 17)
3. Sargon II (fall of Samaria in 722 B.C., cf. Isa 28:1-6)
4. Sennacherib (705 and 701 B.C., Isaiah 36-39; 2 Kings 18-19)
This chapter seems to relate specifically to Hezekiah’s reign (715-687 B.C.). But as often happens in Isaiah, these invasions are presented as mingled. Isaiah was primarily concerned with theology; history was a servant to present these truths about God, mankind, sin, and salvation.
Isa 22:4 The prophet speaks of himself, as he did in Isa 21:3-4
1. turn your eyes away from me, BDB 1043, KB 1609, Qal IMPERATIVE
2. let me weep bitterly, BDB 600, KB 638, Piel IMPERFECT used in a COHORTATIVE sense
3. do not try to comfort me, BDB 21, KB 23, Hiphil IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense (to comfort, BDB 636, KB 688, Piel INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT)
The prophet wanted to be left alone so as to work through his grief privately.
the daughter of my people This is an idiomatic phrase for a people or ethnic group (cf. Isa 1:8; Isa 10:30; Isa 10:32; Isa 16:1; Isa 23:10-12; Isa 37:22; Isa 47:1; Isa 47:5; Isa 52:5; Isa 62:11). Here it refers to the covenant people of Judah (i.e., daughter of Zion).
Isa 22:5 This verse describes YHWH’s day of panic. It is just the opposite of Isa 22:1-2.
1. panic, BDB 223, cf. Deu 28:20
2. subjugation, BDB 101, used only thrice, cf. Isa 18:2; Isa 18:7
3. confusion, BDB 100, used only twice, cf. Mic 7:4
4. breaking down of walls, , BDB 903 II, KB 1148, Pilpel PARTICIPLE (only here; some scholars think the root is an Arabic or Ugaritic root meaning, shout, crackle, or make noise (KB 1128 I, )
5. crying to the mountain (no VERBAL)
to the mountain The NOUN (BDB 249) is SINGULAR and may refer to the temple mount (i.e., cry out to YHWH).
Isa 22:6-7 These verses describe the military aspects of the invasion. Elam and Kir (possibly Media, cf. Isa 21:2; 2Ki 16:9) were northern areas of Mesopotamia. They became mercenaries in the Assyrian army to keep from being invaded.
Isa 22:6
NASBinfantry
NKJVmen
REBAram
The MT has men (, BDB 9, see Isa 31:8, where adam is also used in a military sense), but for parallelism some change it to Aram, . This (d) vs. (R) is a common confusion in Hebrew.
Isa 22:8 He removed the defense of Judah Defense in this verse means covering (BDB 697). They did not trust in Him (cf. Isa 22:11 c,d) so He removed His protective presence (i.e., a cloud, cf. Isa 4:5; Psa 105:39). This has been the problem through all of Israel’s history. God’s people do not trust and obey Him and there are consequences! The cursings and blessings of Deuteronomy 27-29 show them clearly.
The defense may have literally referred to the fortress Azekah (Jewish Study Bible, footnote, p. 825).
In that day This is a common idiom in the Prophets for the day of God’s visitation (i.e., Isa 19:16; Isa 19:18-19; Isa 19:21; Isa 19:23-24). See Special Topic: That Day .
NASByou depended on
NKJV, NRSVyou looked to
NJByou turned your gaze to
The VERB (BDB 613, KB 661, Hiphil IMPERFECT) denotes that they trusted in their weaponry, not YHWH.
of the house of the forest This was the name of the armory in Jerusalem (cf. 1Ki 7:2; 1Ki 10:17).
Isa 22:9 The historical setting appears to be the time of Hezekiah. He built (2Ki 20:20) pools for the collection of water during sieges (cf. Isa 22:11; Isa 7:3; Neh 3:16). Apparently Hezekiah did a lot of physical preparation to the defenses of Jerusalem just before Sennacherib came in 701 B.C., but they are not what saved the city of Jerusalem; it was YHWH and His greater purpose (Isa 22:11).
Isa 22:10-11 This verse seems to describe the walls of Jerusalem as double walls (which has no archaeological confirmation). Many people moving into the city for refuge had built temporary houses in the space between the two walls. But these houses had to be removed (see IVP, Bible Background Commentary, p. 614).
Another possible way to understand the text was that some houses were destroyed to fill up the space between walls. This made it more difficult for siege machines to knock a hole in the city’s wall.
This same area may have been filled with water at certain low places (cf. Isa 22:11). This served as
1. a barrier to those who breached the outer wall
2. a surplus water supply for the city which was full of refugees
Isa 22:11 But you did not depend on Him who made it This is the theological key to the context. The same VERB of Isa 22:8 b is repeated (here a Hiphil PERFECT, lit. look). They were trusting in their own fortifications and provisions for war, not in their covenant God!
Nor did you take into consideration Him The VERB (BDB 906, KB 1157) is a Qal PERFECT. God’s people had forsaken the promises of preservation that He made to them. Isaiah emphasizes these promises and asserts regularly that Jerusalem will not fall.
The reason God will not let her fall is His overarching purpose (i.e., plan, lit. formed, BDB 427, KB 428, Qal PARTICIPLE, cf. Isa 37:26; Isa 46:11; Jer 18:11) for His people.
1. inform the world about YHWH
2. model a godly society
3. be the channel for the coming Messiah
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
burden = oracle.
valley of vision. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it Jerusalem, in relation to the high hills around. Similar names: “inhabitant of the valley, “”rock of the plain” (Jer 21:13), “mountain in the fields” (Jer 17:3). The reference is to Isa 22:5.
vision. Here the most solemn visions had been seen: Abraham (Gen 22:2, Gen 22:14, compare the name Jehovah-jireh); also David (1Ch 21:16, 1Ch 21:28). and the many visions of Isaiah (Isa 1:1; Isa 6:1-4, &c). The Septuagint reads “Zion”.
gone up, &c. Denoting a time of popular rejoicing. Refers to past time. Compare Mat 24:16. Luk 21:21.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 22
Now in chapter 22 he turns his attention to Jerusalem, which is referred to as the valley of vision. And this is,
The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that you’ve gone up to the housetops? That you are full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far. Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people ( Isa 22:1-4 ).
And so he sees them not being slain with the sword. And in seeing their destruction, he weeps. He said, “Don’t try to comfort me, because I’m weeping for the spoiling of the daughter of my people.”
For it is a day of trouble, a day of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. And it shall come to pass, that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest. You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you have gathered together the waters of the lower pool. And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall ( Isa 22:5-10 ).
Now he is speaking of the preparations that were going on at that moment in Jerusalem in preparing themselves for the threatened invasion by Assyria, which had destroyed the Northern Kingdom, and now Assyria was threatening to come with her armies to destroy Jerusalem. And so Hezekiah the king was making these precautions. First of all, he dug this tunnel some 1,700 feet from the spring of Gihon into the pool of Siloam. Coming under the wall of the city under the area of Ephal there, the old city that… Ephal that came up from the spring of Gihon. And through this rock they dug this tunnel 1,700 feet long because the spring of Gihon has a good head of water that flows through it constantly. And that was one of the major supplies for water in Jerusalem. It happened to be outside of the wall because it was down in the Kidron Valley at the base of Ophel there. And so what they did was dig the tunnel and then they covered over the spring so that the Assyrians would not know the source of the supply of their water. And so they diverted it through this tunnel. Brought it into the pool of Siloam within the gates so that they would have a water supply during the siege of the Assyrians.
And then they took some of the houses and they broke down the walls in order to fortify… the houses, they broke them down to fortify the breaches that were in the walls that were surrounding Jerusalem. And they were just fortifying the city and preparing the city for this coming invasion by Assyria.
You’ve made a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool ( Isa 22:11 ):
And they have done all of these things, but-and this is what the prophet is getting on to their case about. You’ve done all, fortified the walls, you’ve dug the pool… the tunnel for the water and so forth,
but you have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had you respect for him that fashioned it ( Isa 22:11 ).
In other words, who created the spring of Gihon? Who put the source of water there? You tried to fortify yourself with your own ingenuity, but you haven’t really looked to God for your help or for your guidance or for your protection or for your strength.
This is a mistake I think that we oftentimes make, is that we are doing everything in the natural, but we’re not doing anything in the supernatural. We’re not looking to God. We’re not looking for God’s strength or God’s guidance or God’s help. A lot of people today that are doing all kinds of things in storing up foods and trying to prepare themselves for a coming desolation that they envision, and they’re not really looking to God. They’re not really turning to God for guidance, for help. They’re not really trusting in the Lord. They’re trusting in their own capacities. And so the prophet finds fault with them for not looking to God.
In that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth ( Isa 22:12 ):
Now the baldness was the shaving of their heads as a vow unto God. And God was calling them for a consecration and a commitment unto Him. Now God had said, “If My people, called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, then will I hear from heaven” ( 2Ch 7:14 ). But rather than humbling themselves and praying and seeking God, they were taking every natural precaution that they could, but not taking God into account at all. Now God does expect us to use wisdom and to take natural precautions. But He also wants us to look to Him and to trust in Him. And when God is calling us to times of fasting and prayer and waiting upon Him, then it is manifestly wrong that we seek our own resources for our deliverance. And so when they should be weeping and mourning, girding themselves with sackcloth, they were having parties.
There was the slaying of the oxen, the killing of sheep, the eating of flesh, the drinking of wine: [and they were saying] let us eat, drink [and be merry]; because tomorrow we’re going to die ( Isa 22:13 ).
Reminds us of the world in which we live today that is faced with one of the greatest crisis in the history of mankind as the superpowers are girding themselves for war. As the United States is diverting more and more of our budget towards a military posture in order that we might counteract the tremendous military build-up by Russia and the military superiority that she has gained. And the superpowers are girding for a super war. And we look around at the scene in America when God is calling for weeping, God is calling for prayer, God is calling for sackcloth. We see the people just blithely going on seeking pleasure, leaving God out of their lives, and it seems to be the attitude, “Eat, drink and be merry, tomorrow we die.” And so the prophet comes out against this.
And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity will not be purged until you die ( Isa 22:14 ),
There’s no cleansing for it. The course is set. The die is cast. They won’t change until the judgment comes.
saith the Lord GOD of hosts ( Isa 22:15 ).
What a terrible, awesome indictment.
Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say, What do you have here and who do you have here, that you have hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and he that graveth a habitation for himself in a rock? Behold, the LORD will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will cover thee ( Isa 22:15-17 ).
Now while all this is going on, here this guy who was the treasurer of the nation was building himself out of the rock a beautiful sepulcher. If you go to Israel in the Kidron Valley you’ll see some beautiful sepulchers that were hewn out of the rock there in the Kidron Valley. And this guy was cutting him out one of these fancy sepulchers for himself. And the prophet Isaiah says, “Hey, why are you making yourself a fancy sepulcher here in the land as though you’re going to get buried here? You’re going to get carried away captive and they’re going to cover you someplace else.”
You know, people laying up their plans for the future. God’s going to interrupt your plans.
He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there you are going to die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of the lord’s house. And I will drive thee from your station, and from your state shall he pull thee down. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: And I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah ( Isa 22:18-21 ).
Now Shebna was the treasurer, but Eliakim was also one of Hezekiah’s counselors. They were both men of state. And later when the Rabshakeh who is one of the spokesmen for king Sennacherib of Assyria, when he came to bring the… not an edict, but a demand for surrender from king Hezekiah, Eliakim and Shebna were two of the men that dealt in the matters of state. Now, Eliakim evidently was God’s choice. Shebna was a foreigner who was usurping a place there, trying to build himself a big tomb to be buried in and all. He said, “You’re going to be carried away and buried elsewhere in a large land,” and all.
Now in this the two men, Shebna and Eliakim, you have one of these cases where you have a prophecy that is veiled in the near fulfillment and in the far fulfillment. He was dealing with a particular situation. These two men were at that time men of state in Israel. And Shebna was to lose his position and Eliakim was moved in–God’s choice. But from a prophetic standpoint, you have here Shebna as a type of the antichrist and Eliakim as the type of Jesus Christ. And even as the antichrist will come and be hailed and seek to ingratiate himself to Israel, yet he will be destroyed and the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, will come and establish the kingdom.
So you have here types of yet the future. And so when you get into verse Isa 22:22 , it lapses on out and Jesus picks up verse Isa 22:22 when He is talking to the church of Philadelphia. And He is introducing Himself to the church of Philadelphia in Revelation chapter 3 there, “Unto the church of Philadelphia write; These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth” ( Rev 3:7 ). So Jesus makes this verse apply to Him. That is why we say that it had an immediate fulfillment, but also it looked down prophetically and yet has a future fulfillment as Jesus takes these very words out of verse Isa 22:22 and applies them to Himself.
And the key of the house of David will I lay on his shoulder ( Isa 22:22 );
That is Eliakim.
and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house ( Isa 22:22-23 ).
And so a little light of future burst in and then he comes back to the local situation.
And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it ( Isa 22:24-25 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 22:1-4
Isa 22:1-4
THE BURDEN OF JERUSALEM (Isa 22:1-14)
This chapter falls into two divisions, the burden of Jerusalem (Isa 22:1-14), and the replacement of Shebna by Eliakim (Isa 22:15-25).
It is significant that in this division where, for the principal part, foreign nations which were enemies of God’s people are repeatedly denounced, there should suddenly appear this stern, almost hopeless denunciation of Jerusalem itself, at this point, alas, actually accounted as an enemy of truth and righteousness. This oracle appearing here against Jerusalem says that, “If God’s people are going to behave like the heathen nations, they must suffer the same consequences for their behavior. This becomes clear as we study the prophecy.
Isaiah prophesies in this passage the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem, but the situation which led to this prophecy is not certainly known. It would appear that following the miraculous lifting of the siege by Sennacherib because of the death of his army in a single night, instead of responding with an outpouring of thanksgiving to God and a renewal of faith and devotion, Judah wholeheartedly engaged in a boisterous, sensuous outpouring of merriment and celebration, marked by scandalous and irresponsible behavior. Against such a background of carnality, Isaiah announced God’s prophecy of the “death” of the city. Thus there are two sieges of Jerusalem which appear in the passage (1) that of Sennacherib in 701 B.C., and (2) that of Nebuchadnezzar which led to the captivity of Judah. This is the reason why some scholars see one of those occasions In the prophecy, and others see the other. For example, Archer saw a picture of the Babylonian destruction, thus:
“The people from their rooftops would behold the approach of the Babylonian troops … Their king Zedekiah would try to flee from the city. Lamentable destruction would be meted out to both the city and the people.”
On the other hand, “It is generally supposed to belong to the invasion of Sennacherib.” Of course, it is difficult to imagine such a sorrowful and pessimistic reaction on the part of Isaiah to the great victory for Judah that occurred in the destruction of Sennacherib’s army; but this difficulty disappears when it is understood that it was not the victory over Sennacherib that led to this sorrowful denunciation of Jerusalem, and to her being sentenced to death, actually. Ah no, this prophecy was given upon the occasion of Judah’s carnal and licentious response to that victory. It was then destined that Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people removed to a foreign land in captivity because, as Isaiah stated it, “Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you till ye die, saith the Lord of hosts” (Isa 22:14).
Here also is the explanation of why Jerusalem is called the “valley of vision” in Isa 22:1. Jerusalem was not, in the physical sense “a valley.” Peake flatly stated that, “Jerusalem is no valley, but he supposed that the prophet might have been speaking of a valley near Jerusalem. We do not accept that explanation. We believe the “valley” is a valley of shame and immorality into which the chosen people had fallen. The vaunted Mount Zion was nothing high at all in the scenes revealed here, but a wretched valley symbolically representing Judah at the very moment when God’s merciful grace was no longer able to contain and overlook their wretched sins.
Such considerations as these lead us to accept the conclusion of an older writer, Vitringa, as quoted by Lowth, that, “This prophecy has both of these invasions in view.
Isa 22:1-4
“The burden of the valley of vision, What aileth thee now that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? O thou that art full of shoutings, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; thy slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. All thy rulers fled away together, they were bound by the archers; all that were found of thee were bound together; they fled afar off. Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
The double nature of this prophecy appears in the very first paragraph. The first two verses here depict the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “In a state of boisterous merriment. Of course, some scholars ascribe this boisterous condition to indifference on the part of Jerusalem, as the soldiers of Babylon begin the siege, due to an Epicurean philosophy of “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” It seems to this writer, however, that the occasion of the lifting of Sennacherib’s siege would have been a much more likely occasion for such merriment. The Babylonian siege is certainly suggested by the flight of the leaders in Isa 22:3. Archer wrote that this is a reference to the fact that “Their king Zedekiah would vainly attempt flight from the city. The behavior of the people was what caused Isaiah’s bitter weeping, because he realized that the inappropriate response of the people would displease the Lord and that the sure punishment and destruction of the city would follow, as indicated in Isa 22:4. In spite of all the terrible hardship and disasters that had come upon the Jews, “They were still insensitive to the true demands of God. In the midst of their light-hearted festivities, therefore, he asked to be left alone that he might weep bitter tears over their destruction.
Isa 22:1-4 FRIVOLITY: The events of this chapter apparently are those events surrounding the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib about 701 B.C. According to 2Ki 18:14-16 Sennacherib had advanced against Jerusalem and demanded a heavy tribute, which somehow Hezekiah was able to amass and so buy off the attacker. For a while Sennacherib respected the terms of the tribute and withdrew his forces from Jerusalem. This first part of chapter 22 reflects the frivolity permeating the whole city after Sennacheribs withdrawal.
The valley of vision refers to Jerusalem and Judah as the repository of Gods revealed word which came so often in olden times by vision. The prophet rebukes the peoples irreverence and frivolity when they should have been solemnly and faithfully seeking Gods direction by asking, What is the matter with you? The people were running up to the tops of houses, gawking, shouting gleefully to one another, and all over the city there was a frivolous holiday spirit. In spite of all the warnings of the prophets they could not seem to grasp the impact of what had just happened. They did not understand the Assyrian siege as a warning from God that they should repent. They were shouting and reveling as if their armies had been victorious in battle. But their dead had not died honorably on the field of battle-they had died of starvation and pestilence which always follows a siege. In fact, their rulers had deserted their posts of leadership and tried to escape. They were captured and carried off by the enemy. Evidently someone had tried to console Isaiah and gainsay his interpretation that the Assyrian siege meant repent. Someone suggested Isaiah join in the shouting and frivolity. Isaiahs reply was, Do not look toward consoling me. This is the time for weeping bitterly. I cannot take comfort in the impenitent self-destruction of my people.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In the midst of the prophecies concerning the nations occurs one of protest against the indifference of Jerusalem to the prophet’s messages. He first describes the joyous people as they stand in contrast to him, with his sorrow and his broken heart. He introduces his description by inquiring what ails them. He then declares it to be a day of discomfiture, and speaks of the gathering armies and of the siege of the city. It was a day in which Jehovah had called to mourning, and they were filled with merriment. This was an unpardonable sin, as it revealed their absolute callousness. Immediately following this protest, the prophet utters his denunciation on Shebna, the ruler, filled with pride, declaring that he would be rejected from his office. His place was to be taken by Eliakim, whose appointment and administration are described. This is another instance in which for us the local application is overshadowed by the Messianic values.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
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 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE VALLEY OF VISION
THE prophet now turns to deliver a message from the Lord to the people of Jerusalem at a time when it was in danger of being destroyed by the Assyrian armies of Sennacherib and his allies from Elam and Kir. Elam, as we know, is Persia and had been for centuries an enemy of Assyria, but at this very time it had become tributary thereto and sent an army to cooperate with Sennacherib in an attempt to conquer the land of Judah. In the opening verses, Isaiah exposes the true state of those who were professedly the people of GOD but had forgotten Him and turned aside from obedience to His Word.
“The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? Thou that art full of stars, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: All that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far. Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. And it shall come to pass, that thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest” (verses 1-8).
While like many of the passages in this book these words evidently will have a second fulfillment in the last days when Palestine will be exposed to the great Eastern powers that will be seeking to dispossess the Jew and take over their land, they had their primary application to those in Hezekiah’s day who, while they dreaded the approach of Sennacherib’s armies, nevertheless tried to stifle their fears by mirth and frivolity rather than by turning in heart to the Lord and seeking that deliverance which He alone could give.
The condition of His people caused the prophet intense anguish of heart, and as he looked down, as it were, upon the city which some two centuries later was to be destroyed by the Babylonians,
he wept over it even as our blessed Lord at a later day looked down from the Mount of Olives upon the glorious temple that Herod had built, and bewailed the fact that Jerusalem knew not the time of her visitation and so must be devoted to destruction.
In Isaiah’s day that destruction was deferred because of the faithfulness of King Hezekiah, and later of Josiah, but nevertheless, the prophet recognized the fact that the Holy City was evidently to become the prey of the cruel and covetous Gentile nations.
In the following verses Isaiah speaks of the preparations that Hezekiah made to enable the city to resist the threatened siege.
“Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall. Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool; but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago” (verses 9-11).
We read elsewhere of these precautions which demonstrated Hezekiah’s wisdom and foresight, but these alone would not have saved the city. It was divine intervention alone which destroyed the Assyrian army and delivered Jerusalem. While on Hezekiah’s part there was, as we know, sincere turning to the Lord, it was otherwise with the mass of the people. Even the grave danger to which they were exposed failed to bring them consciously into the presence of GOD or to lead them to self-judgment that they might be in a position to seek His face and count upon His mercy.
“And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die. And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts” (verses 12-14).
There seemed to be no true realization either of their danger nor of their lamentably low spiritual condition. When they should have been humbled before the Lord, waiting upon Him with fasting and prayer and other evidences of repentance, they were feasting and rejoicing, living as though life was only intended for merriment and frivolity. Their motto seemed to be “let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.”
It will be remembered that the Apostle Paul quotes these words when, in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, he demonstrates the folly of those who, while professing to be saved through faith in CHRIST, yet denied the Resurrection. This would leave Christians absolutely hopeless. For CHRIST’s name’s sake they gave up the pleasures of the world and yet they would have nothing to look forward to in eternity.
Why not then take the ground of the Epicurean poets, Aratus and Cleanthes, who also expressed exactly the same sentiment as that of the careless, materialistic Jews of Isaiah’s day? – for they too wrote, “Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.”
To every thoughtful person this is the height of folly. It is a tremendously serious thing to be alive in a world like this and to know that an eternity of either happiness or misery lies beyond. Surely then every sensible man would recognize the fact that life is not given to be frittered away in pleasure-seeking, but to be used sensibly and in the fear of GOD, “with eternity’s values in view.”
The last part of the chapter is of an altogether different character.
Now our attention is directed to two men, both of whom held positions of trust in Hezekiah’s government. We read of them again in chapters thirty-six and thirty-seven of this book. Shebna was what we might call Hezekiah’s Premier and also Chancellor of the Exchequer, or, to use a term more common in our land, Secretary of the Treasury. But he was evidently n man of selfish character, greedy, crafty, and ambitious, using his office for personal enrichment and self-glorification. This comes out clearly:
Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say, What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that gaveth an habitation for himself in a rock?” (verses 15, 16).
Shebna had caused a grand mausoleum to be built, or cut out, for himself, in the limestone rock where the kings of Judah were buried. He desired in this way to perpetuate his memory in years to come. But GOD, who sees not as man sees, discerned the worthlessness of his character and was about to deal with him in judgment. He was to be removed from his office and carried into captivity, to die in a distant land. Who then would occupy the sepulcher he had prepared for himself?
Many think of this man as a type of the antichrist of the last days and it may be that this interpretation is correct. At any rate, the characters of the Man of Sin and that of Shebna are akin one to the other, and the judgment of the one, in each instance, gives place for the recognition of another who will fulfill GOD’s purpose. The successor to Shebna was Eliakim, who is manifestly a type of our Lord JESUS CHRIST who will take over the reins of the government of this world when antichrist has been destroyed.
“Behold, the Lord will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee. He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord’s house. And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: and I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, All vessels of small
quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons” (verses 17-24).
Eliakim was a trustworthy man, a true statesman, and loyal servant of Hezekiah. He was a statesman, not a mere politician. He was motivated by sincere love for his country and characterized by the fear of GOD. He was to take the office vacated by Shebna. To him was to be committed the key of David, that is, the key to the royal treasury, over which he was given authority to open and close as he saw fit. In this we see a very dear type of our blessed Lord, who uses the very expressions which we have here when He addresses the Church in Philadelphia, Rev 3:7: “These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth.”
To those who look up to Him as their divinely-given Guide and Protector, He opens the treasure-house of divine truth, revealing to them the precious things which GOD has stored away In His Word. Eliakim was to be as a nail, fastened in a sure place. The reference is to the wooden peg, driven into the supporting post of a tent. Upon this peg were hung vessels used in camp-life and the garments of those dwelling in the tent. So upon Eliakim would depend the means of refreshment and comfort which GOD had provided for His people.
We may see in this figure an illustration of the security of those who have put their trust in CHRIST for salvation.
He is, indeed, a nail fastened in a sure place, and upon Him may be hung the various vessels, from the little cups to the large flagons. Their safe-keeping consists not in their own ability to cling to the nail, but in the fact that they are hung upon that nail so that they remain in security so long as the nail itself abides in its place, and for our blessed Lord there will never be any failure. While the old creation fell in Adam, the new creation stands in CHRIST, upon whom all the glory of the house of GOD is suspended.
The last verse evidently reverts to Shebna. It could not by any possibility refer to Eliakim as it would be a direct contradiction of what has just been declared concerning him.
“In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the Lord hath spoken it” (verse 25).
The expression “In that day” refers definitely to the day spoken of above when Shebna would be set to one side and Eliakim would take his office. Thank GOD, the day is not far distant when all that is of Satan will be annulled and destroyed and only that which is of GOD will remain. Then our Lord JESUS will take over the authority conferred upon Him by the Father and all things will be subjected to His will and sustained by Him.
~ end of chapter 22 ~
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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
CHAPTER 22
The Burden of the Valley of Vision (Jerusalem)
1. Jerusalems deplorable state (Isa 22:1-4) 2. The invading armies (Isa 22:5-7) 3. The siege and the calamity (Isa 22:8-14) 4. Shebna (Isa 22:15-19) 5. Eliakim (Isa 22:20-25)This is another intensely interesting prophecy. Jerusalem has passed through many sieges and at last in part the prophecy has been fulfilled. But there is another siege of Jerusalem impending. It will come after the message of the fall of the final Babylon. See Zec 14:1-21. Still more interesting are Shebna and Eliakim, mentioned in this chapter. Shebna, the proud one, is the usurper, the type of the Antichrist. Eliakim is the type of Christ, He whose right it is to reign. It is Christ displacing Antichrist, which is seen in Isa 22:15-25. Compare Isa 22:22 with Rev 3:7.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
burden
See note 1, (See Scofield “Isa 13:1”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
am cir, 3292, bc cir, 712
the valley: Jerusalem being situated in the midst of surrounding hills, and the seat of Divine revelation, is here termed “the valley of vision.” This prophecy foretells the invasion of Jerusalem by the Assyrians under Sennacherib; and probably also, by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. Psa 125:2, Jer 21:13
of vision: 1Sa 3:1, Psa 147:19, Psa 147:20, Pro 29:18, Mic 3:6, Rom 3:2, Rom 9:4, Rom 9:5
What: Gen 21:17, Jdg 18:23, 1Sa 11:5, 2Sa 14:5, 2Ki 6:28, Psa 114:5
that thou: The eastern houses are built with a court within, into which chiefly the windows open; those that open to the street being so obstructed with lattice work, that no one can see through them. Whenever, therefore, anything is to be seen or heard in the streets, any public spectacle, or any alarm, everyone immediately goes up to the house-top to satisfy his curiosity. Hence all the people running to the top of their houses, gives a lively image of a sudden general alarm. Isa 15:3, Deu 22:8, Jer 48:38
Reciprocal: Isa 8:8 – he shall pass Isa 13:1 – burden Isa 13:4 – noise Jer 18:22 – a cry Jer 47:2 – then the Hos 10:14 – shall a Nah 1:1 – burden Hab 1:1 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 22:1-3. The burden of the valley of vision Of Judah, and especially of Jerusalem, called a valley, because a great part of it stood in a valley between the opposite hills of Zion and Acra, and between Acra and Moriah; (see Josephuss Jewish War, 5:13; and 6:6;) and the valley of vision, because it was the seat of divine revelation, the place where chiefly prophetic visions were given, and where God manifested himself visibly in the most holy place. The reader will observe this is the seventh discourse of the second part; and relates to the calamity brought on Jerusalem by the invasion of the Assyrians or Chaldeans, or both, and to the fall of Shebna.
What aileth thee now? The prophet refers here to the commotion into which the city was, or, he foresaw, would be, thrown upon the report of the approach of the hostile army to besiege it, and to the perturbation of the peoples minds and the general confusion. That thou art wholly gone up to the house-tops Either to reconnoitre the approaching enemy, or to consult for thine own safety. Thou that art Or rather, wast, full of stirs Of great trade, people hurrying to and fro about their business; a tumultuous city Populous and noisy; a joyous city Full of revelling and jollity. What ails thee now that the shops and mercantile houses are quitted, and there is no more walking in the streets, but thou art to be seen crowding the housetops? The houses in the East were, in ancient times, as they are still generally, built in one and the same uniform manner. The roof, or top of the house, is always flat, covered with broad stones, or a strong plaster of terrace, and guarded on every side with a low parapet wall. The terrace is frequented as much as any part of the house. On this, as the season favours, they walk, they eat, they sleep, they transact business, they perform their devotions. The house is built with a court within, into which chiefly the windows open; those that are open to the street are so obstructed with lattice-work that no one either without or within can see through them. Whenever, therefore, any thing is to be seen or heard in the streets, any public spectacle, any alarm of a public nature, every one immediately goes up to the housetops to satisfy his curiosity. In the same manner, when any one had occasion to make any thing public, the readiest and most effectual way of doing it was, to proclaim it from the house-tops to the people in the streets. Bishop Lowth.
Thy slain men are not slain with the sword But either by famine or pestilence in the siege. Sennacheribs army having laid the country waste, and destroyed the fruits of the earth, provisions must needs be very scarce and dear in the city, which would be the death of many of the poorer sort of people, who would be constrained to feed on what was unwholesome. But this prediction, with that contained in the next verse, was more eminently fulfilled when the city was besieged by the Chaldeans. See Jer 14:18; Jer 38:2. And Vitringa is of opinion, that the prophet has that calamity in view, as well as the affliction suffered under the Assyrian invasion. All thy rulers are fled together Zedekiah and his chief commanders, whose flight he foretels. See Jer 39:3-4. They are bound by the archers Bishop Lowth renders this clause, they are fled from the bow, that is, from the bows and arrows of the Assyrian archers: or, as others translate this former part of the verse, All thy captains are fled together with a wandering flight from the bow. That is, they are fled far and wide; they are bound Namely, those who could not flee away fast enough to escape the Chaldeans. All that are found in thee Namely, in the city, with Zedekiah, during the siege; for those who had fled to the Chaldeans saved their lives and liberties. Or, as the words, , may be rendered, All that are found of thee, or belonging to thee; which have fled from far Or, have fled a great way off, namely, who fled from Jerusalem, but were pursued and overtaken by the enemy, 2Ki 25:4-7, and Jer 52:8-11.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 22:1. The valley of vision. A valley near Jerusalem, so called because of a school of the prophets said to have been there.
Isa 22:3. All thy rulers are fled. All thy captains of hundreds and thousands are gone beyond the Jordan, or wherever they could, from the bow and piercing arrows of the bloody Assyrians. The terror of the invaders deprived the people of natural courage.
Isa 22:6. Elam, then subject to the Assyrians, bare the quiver, and were famed for archery. Jer 49:35. Men and horsemen. Isaiah saw the far-famed Persian cavalry in the beautiful vales of Jerusalem, for the horse cannot act on rugged hills. Kir, a city of Media; but there were other towns of that name. He saw the infantry of that country uncover the shield, and prepare for battle.
Isa 22:8. He discovered the covering of Judah. It might read, Judah hath removed her covering, and looked for carnal armour, instead of the covering promised in chap. 5:5, the shield of Jehovahs angels.
Isa 22:13. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die. St. Paul cites this text as epicurean language. If there be no hereafter, yet the infidel had better die sober, and die bravely; for by courage he might save himself and his country. The prophet says, that this should be a time of weeping and of sackcloth, not of feasting.
Isa 22:20. My servant Eliakim, supposed to be a highpriest, and a great minister. But mystically the reference is to Christ, on whose shoulders the government shall rest.
On a review of this chapter, a special reference is had to the invasion under Sennacherib, king of Assyria, for there was no Eliakim to heal and restore Zion after the invasion made by Nebuchadnezzar.
Isa 22:22. The key of the house of David. A key worn over the shoulder, or pendant to the neck, was a badge of high office and dignity. Christ gave Peter and the apostles the keys of his kingdom; and this honour he will confer on every victorious soul.
Isa 22:23. As a nail in a sure place. Hebrews itad, designates strength and security to the state, or to the flock. Ecc 12:11.
REFLECTIONS.
We see in this chapter, as well as in other correspondent passages of vision, the abundant light which broke into the mind of the holy prophets. All the particulars of the investiture of Jerusalem by the Assyrians were depicted to Isaiah. He saw the multitude approach the city, and all the trembling inhabitants of Jerusalem viewing them from the flat roofs of their houses. He saw the nobles leaving their mansions in the country to take refuge in the city; and their panic was so great that they seemed as dead men before the sword could approach them; slain, but not with the sword.
The despair of the whole city he described as the last stage of despondency, and in the highest style of grief. Labour not to comfort me. This shows that the progress of the Assyrian army was bloody, cruel, and devastating to the last degree.
But while he saw the inhabitants of Jerusalem repair their walls, open their arsenals, number their houses, and secure their water; he saw that they had no particular regard to the Lord, who made all these things; that when the Lord called them to weeping, to fasting, and to prayer, he saw them eating flesh and drinking wine in despair; for they said, To-morrow we shall die. What a portrait of despair: what a character of carnal and irreligious men in the day of trouble! Where is now the spirit of their fathers, which sought divine protection from the invader, and relied on arms only in a secondary view? Oh that wicked men could see their own portrait in the sentiments of the wicked shut up in Jerusalem. They promise themselves impunity in crimes, they talk of a mercy nowhere promised in the sacred writings, and hope that the end of a sinful course will be happy. But when that day shall come, and they know not but it is at the door, then they shall be all gloom, indecision, and despair.
The reproof of Shebna is very instructive. This man, whether priest or prince, had the reins of government in his hands, and was unworthy of his honours. Elated with the vanity of oriental luxury, he was preparing himself a splendid mausoleum, hewn out of the rock and decorated. Isaiah had the arduous service of mortifying his pride by a positive declaration that he should never need it, as the enemy would carry him away to die in a distant land, where his funeral would require less of pomp! And what thousands of Shebnas do we see building houses, and engaged in works which neither they nor their heirs shall ever enjoy. And it was no small addition to his mortification to hear of Eliakims nomination to his place, a man of piety and worth. This man entered into office in difficult times, with the promise that he should be as a nail in a sure place; or as a pin built in the wall of a house, so he should long enjoy his place, and be a stay and a blessing to the whole nation. The worth of a good minister is above all estimation.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 22:1-14. Jerusalems Inexcusable Frivolity.The prophecy apparently belongs to the time of Sennacheribs invasion. Its menacing tone contrasts with that of some other prophecies of the time. The people had provoked Isaiahs sternest anger by giving themselves up to festivity. Probably this was after the siege had been raised, either temporarily or when Sennacheribs army had been withdrawn after the disaster recorded in Isa 37:36. In the reaction caused by this relief the inhabitants recklessly surrendered themselves to riotous merriment, recognising (Isa 22:13) that they might still be doomed to die. The valley of vision cannot be Jerusalem itself, for it was no valley, but must be some valley in the neighbourhood. It seems to mean the valley concerning which the vision was seen.
The prophet is amazed at the manifestations of festivity. The people are on the house-tops, perhaps watching the retreat of the Assyrians or some spectacle in the streets. But another vision passes before the prophets inward eye in strange contrast to their riotous exultation. Her slain have met no honourable death in battle, her rulers have fled before the Assyrians and been made prisoners by the archers. The slain have been killed in flight or executed. The prophet therefore cannot share in the mirth of the citizens and refuses to be comforted, for Yahweh has sent a day of crushing defeat: in the valley of vision they are shattering the walls, and a cry of distress goes up to the mountains. Elam (Jer 49:34-39*) sent a contingent of archers with chariots and horsemen, and Kir (Amo 9:7*) took the shields from the cases in preparation for battle. The valleys were crowded with chariots, and the cavalry were set in array to assault the gates. Then the defencelessness of the city was laid bare, and the Jews made hasty attempts to atone for their former blindness by putting it in a state of defence. They examined the armour in the arsenal (1Ki 10:17), found the walls of Zion in a ruinous condition; they retained the waters of the lower pool (situation unknown) in the city by stopping the outlets, to secure an adequate water supply during the siege. They numbered the houses to see which furnished the most suitable material, and could most easily be spared. They used these to mend and strengthen the walls. They stored the water of the old pool in a reservoir. But in all these preparations they had left God out of their reckoning. Yet all that had occurred was but the working out of His long-premeditated scheme, but they had not the insight to see His hand in history. Yahweh had called to mourning and humiliation, but they had given themselves to mirth and feasting, probably on the sacrifices of thank-offering for deliverance But in their festivity there was a tragic undertone; they may well have realised that their position might soon be desperate again, and have drowned in reckless gaiety all care for the uncertain future. Sins so heinous must be punished by death.
Isa 22:5. Remove the semi-colon from vision to hosts.
Isa 22:6. The Elamites were famous archers.Omit of men.
Isa 22:9 b Isa 22:11 a. Possibly a prosaic interpolation: if omitted, we get a finer connexion between Isa 22:9 a and Isa 22:11 byou looked to the breaches of the city, but you did not look to Yahweh.
Isa 22:11. the old pool: perhaps the pool of Siloam.
Isa 22:12. baldness: shaving of the head in token of sorrow.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
22:1 The burden of the {a} valley of vision. What {b} aileth thee now, that thou hast wholly gone up to the housetops?
(a) Meaning, Judea, which was compassed about with mountains, and was called the valley of visions, because of the prophets, who were always there, whom they named Seers.
(b) He speaks to Jerusalem, whose inhabitants fled up to the housetops for fear of their enemies.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The prophet employed another enigmatic title that implied a contrast with the actual condition of the place described to indicate the object of this oracle (cf. Isa 21:1). "Valley of vision" refers to Jerusalem (cf. Isa 22:5; Isa 22:9-10). Isaiah pictured it as the depressed place (cf. Psa 125:2) where he received a depressing vision, namely, the inevitable judgment that would come on the city. In this valley there was a notable lack of vision among God’s people when it came to seeing things from His perspective. The mention of a valley suggests the valleys that surrounded Jerusalem on three sides, the Kidron Valley on the east and the Hinnom Valley on the west and south.
". . . Jerusalem was an enclosed place, hidden and shut off from the world, which Jehovah had chosen as the place in which to show to His prophets the mysteries of His government of the world." [Note: Delitzsch, 1:390.]
Isaiah thought the residents of Jerusalem had behaved inappropriately by going up on their flat housetops to rejoice. Some turn of events in his day had resulted in the people feeling very secure. Perhaps Sargon’s attack on Ashdod followed by his return to Assyria in 711 B.C., or God’s deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib in 701 B.C. (cf. Isa 37:36), was the historical occasion for their rejoicing.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
BOOK 4
JERUSALEM AND SENNACHERIB
701 B.C.
INTO this fourth book we put all the rest of the prophecies of the Book of Isaiah, that have to do with the prophets own time: chapters 1, 22 and 33, with the narrative in 36, 37. All these refer to the only Assyrian invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem: that undertaken by Sennacherib in 701.
It is, however, right to remember once more, that many authorities maintain that there were two Assyrian invasions of Judah-one by Sargon in 711, the other by Sennacherib in 701-and that chapters 1 and 22 (as well as Isa 10:5-34) belong to the former of these. The theory is ingenious and tempting; but, in the silence of the Assyrian annals about any invasion of Judah by Sargon, it is impossible to adopt it. And although Chapters 1 and 22 differ very greatly in tone from chapter 33, yet to account for the difference it is not necessary to suppose two different invasions, with a considerable period between them. Virtually, as will appear in the course of our exposition, Sennacheribs invasion of Judah was a double one.
1. The first time Sennacheribs army invaded Judah they took all the fenced cities, and probably invested Jerusalem, but withdrew on payment of tribute and the surrender of the casus belli, the Assyrian Vassal Padi, whom the Ekronites had deposed and given over to the keeping of Hezekiah. To this invasion refer Isa 1:1-31; Isa 22:1-25. and the first verse of 36.: “Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them.” This verse is the same as 2Ki 18:13, to which, however, there is added in 2Ki 18:14-16 an account of the tribute sent by Hezekiah to Sennacherib at Lachish, that is not included in the narrative in Isaiah. Compare 2Ch 32:1.
2. But scarcely had the tribute been paid when Sennacherib, himself advancing to meet Egypt, sent back upon Jerusalem a second army of investment, with which was the Rabshakeh; and this was the army that so mysteriously disappeared from the eyes of the besieged. To the treacherous return of the Assyrians and the sudden deliverance of Jerusalem from their grasp refer Isa 33:1-24, Isa 36:2-22, with the fuller and evidently original narrative in 2Ki 18:17-19. Compare 2Ch 32:9-23.
To the history of this double attempt upon Jerusalem in 701-chapters 36 and 37 – there has been appended in 38 and 3 an account of Hezekiahs illness and of an embassy to him from Babylon. These events probably happened some years before Sennacheribs invasion. But it will be most convenient for us to take them in the order in which they stand in the canon. They wilt naturally lead us up to a question that it is necessary we should discuss before taking leave of Isaiah-whether this great prophet of the endurance of the kingdom of God upon earth had any gospel for the individual who dropped away from it into death.