Bible Commentary

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 14:1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. BOOK 5 PROPHECIES NOT RELATING TO ISAIAH'S TIME In the first thirty-nine chapters of the Book of Isaiah-the half which refers to the prophet’s own career and the politics contemporary with that - we find four or five prophecies containing no reference to Isaiah himself nor to any Jewish king under whom he laboured, and painting both Israel and the foreign world in quite a different state from that in which they lay during his lifetime. These prophecies are chapter 13, an Oracle announcing the Fall of Babylon, with its appendix, Isaiah 14:1-23 , the Promise of Israel’s Deliverance and an Ode upon the Fall of the Babylonian Tyrant; chapters 24-27, a series of Visions of the breaking up of the universe, of restoration from exile, and even of resurrection from the dead; chapter 34, the Vengeance of the Lord upon Edom; and chapter 35, a Song of Return from Exile. In these prophecies Assyria is no longer the dominant world-force, nor Jerusalem the inviolate fortress of God and His people. If Assyria or Egypt is mentioned, it is but as one of the three classical enemies of Israel; and Babylon is represented as the head and front of the hostile world. The Jews are no longer in political freedom and possession of their own land; they are either in exile or just returned from it to a depopulated country. With these altered circumstances come another temper and new doctrine. The horizon is different, and the hopes that flush in dawn upon it are not quite the same as those which we have contemplated with Isaiah in his immediate future. It is no longer the repulse of the heathen invader; the inviolateness of the sacred city; the recovery of the people from the shock of attack, and of the land from the trampling of armies. But it is the people in exile, the overthrow of the tyrant in his own home, the opening of prison doors, the laying down of a highway through the wilderness, the triumph of return, and the resumption of worship. There is, besides, a promise of the resurrection, which we have not found in the prophecies we have considered. With such differences, it is not wonderful that many have denied the authorship of these few prophecies to Isaiah. This is a question that can be looked at calmly. It touches no dogma of the Christian faith. Especially it does not involve the other question, so often-and, we venture to say, so unjustly-started on this point, Could not the Spirit of God have inspired Isaiah to foresee all that the prophecies in question foretell, even though he lived more than a century before the people were in circumstances to understand them? Certainly, God is almighty. The question is not, Could He have done this? but one somewhat different: Did He do it? and to this an answer can be had only from the prophecies themselves. If these mark the Babylonian hostility or captivity as already upon Israel, this is a testimony of Scripture itself, which we cannot overlook, and beside which even unquestionable traces of similarity to Isaiah’s style or the fact that these oracles are bound up with Isaiah’s own undoubted prophecies have little weight. "Facts" of style will be regarded with suspicion by any one who knows how they are employed by both sides in such a question as this; while the certainty that the Book of Isaiah was put into its present form subsequently to his life will permit of, -and the evident purpose of Scripture to secure moral impressiveness rather than historical consecutiveness will account for, -later oracles being bound up with unquestioned utterances of Isaiah. Only one of the prophecies in question confirms the tradition that it is by Isaiah, viz ., chapter 13, which bears the title "Oracle of Babylon which Isaiah, son of Amoz, did see"; but titles are themselves so much the report of tradition, being of a later date than the rest of the text, that it is best to argue the question apart from them. On the other hand, Isaiah’s authorship of these prophecies, or at least the possibility of his having written them, is usually defended by appealing to his promise of return from exile in chapter 11 and his threat of a Babylonish captivity in chapter 39. This is an argument that has not been fairly met by those who deny the Isaianic authorship of chapters 13-14, 23, 24-28, and 35. It is a strong argument, for while, as we have seen, there are good grounds for believing Isaiah to have been likely to make such a prediction of a Babylonish captivity as is attributed to him in Isaiah 39:6 , almost all the critics agree in leaving chapter 11 to him. But if chapter 11 is Isaiah’s, then he undoubtedly spoke of an exile much more extensive than had taken place by his own day. Nevertheless, even this ability in 11 to foretell an exile so vast does not account for passages in 13-14:23, 24-27, which represent the Exile either as present or as actually over. No one who reads these chapters without prejudice can fail to feel the force of such passages in leading him to decide for an exilic or post-exilic authorship. Another argument against attributing these prophecies to Isaiah is that their visions of the last things, representing as they do a judgment on the whole world, and even the destruction of the whole material universe, are incompatible with Isaiah’s loftiest and final hope of an inviolate Zion at last relieved and secure, of a land freed from invasion and wondrously fertile, with all the converted world, Assyria and Egypt, gathered round it as a centre. This question, however, is seriously complicated by the fact that in his youth Isaiah did undoubtedly prophesy a shaking of the whole world and the destruction of its inhabitants, and by the probability that his old age survived into a period whose abounding sin would again make natural such wholesale predictions of judgment as we find in chapter 24. Still, let the question of the eschatology be as obscure as we have shown, there remains this clear issue. In some chapters of the Book of Isaiah, which, from our knowledge of the circumstances of his times, we know must have been published while he was alive, we learn that the Jewish people has never left its land, nor lost its independence under Jehovah’s anointed, and that the inviolateness of Zion and the retreat of the Assyrian invaders of Judah, without effecting the captivity of the Jews, are absolutely essential to the endurance of God’s kingdom on earth. In other chapters we find that the Jews have left their land, have been long in exile (or from other passages have just returned), and that the religious essential is no more the independence of the Jewish State under a theocratic king, but only the resumption of the Temple worship. Is it possible for one man to have written both these sets of chapters? Is it possible for one age to. have produced them? That is the whole question. CHAPTER XXVII BABYLON AND LUCIFER DATE UNCERTAIN Isaiah 13:1-22 ; Isaiah 14:1-23 THIS double oracle is against the City { Isaiah 13:2-22 ; Isaiah 14:1-2 } and the Tyrant { Isaiah 14:3-23 } of Babylon. I. THE WICKED CITY { Isaiah 13:2-22 ; Isaiah 14:1-23 } The first part is a series of hurried and vanishing scenes-glimpses of ruin and deliverance caught through the smoke and turmoil of a Divine war. The drama opens with the erection of a gathering "standard upon a bare mountain" ( Isaiah 13:2 ). He who gives the order explains it ( Isaiah 13:3 ), but is immediately interrupted by "Hark! a tumult on the mountains, like a great people. Hark! the surge of the kingdoms of nations gathering together. Jehovah of hosts is mustering the host of war." It is "the day of Jehovah" that is "near," the day of His war and of His judgment upon the world. This Old Testament expression, "the day of the Lord," starts so many ideas that it is difficult to seize any one of them and say this is just what is meant. For "day" with a possessive pronoun suggests what has been appointed beforehand, or what must come round in its turn; means also opportunity and triumph, and also swift performance after long delay. All these thoughts are excited when we couple "a day" with any person’s name. And therefore, as with every dawn some one awakes saying, This is my day; as with every dawn comes some one’s chance, some soul gets its wish, some will shows what it can do, some passion or principle issues into fact: so God also shall have His day, on which His justice and power shall find their full scope and triumph. Suddenly and simply, like any dawn that takes its turn on the round of time, the great decision and victory of Divine justice shall at last break out of the long delay of ages. "Howl ye, for the day of Jehovah is near; as destruction from the Destructive does it come." Very savage and quite universal is its punishment. "Every human heart melteth." Countless faces, white with terror, light up its darkness like flames. Sinners are "to be exterminated out of the earth; the world is to be punished for its iniquity." Heaven, the stars, sun and moon aid the horror and the darkness, heaven shivering above, the earth quaking beneath; and between, the peoples like shepherd-less sheep drive to and fro through awful carnage. From Isaiah 13:17 the mist lifts a little. The vague turmoil clears up into a siege of Babylon by the Medians, and then settles down into Babylon’s ruin and abandonment to wild beasts. Finally { Isaiah 14:1 } comes the religious reason for so much convulsion: "For Jehovah will have compassion upon Jacob, and choose again Israel, and settle them upon their own ground; and the foreign sojourner shall join himself to them, and they shall associate themselves to the house of Jacob." This prophecy evidently came to a people already in captivity-a very different circumstance of the Church of God from that in which we have seen her under Isaiah. But upon this new stage it is still the same old conquest. Assyria has fallen, but Babylon has taken her place. The old spirit of cruelty and covetousness has entered a new body; the only change is that it has become wealth and luxury instead of brute force and military glory. It is still selfshness and pride and atheism. At this, our first introduction to Babylon, it might have been proper to explain why throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation this one city should remain in fact or symbol the enemy of God and the stronghold of darkness. But we postpone what may be said of her singular reputation, till we come to the second part of the Book of Isaiah where Babylon plays a larger and more distinct role. Here her destruction is simply the most striking episode of the Divine judgment upon the whole earth. Babylon represents civilisation; she is the brow of the world’s pride and enmity to God. One distinctively Babylonian characteristic, however, must not be passed over. With a ring of irony in his voice, the prophet declares, "Behold, I stir up the Medes against thee, who regard not silver and take no pleasure in gold." The worst terror that can assail us is the terror of forces, whose character we cannot fathom, who will not stop to parley, who do not understand our language nor our bribes. It was such a power with which the resourceful and luxurious Babylon was threatened. With money the Babylonians did all they wished to do, and believed everything else to be possible. They had subsidised kings, bought over enemies, seduced the peoples of the earth. The foe whom God now sent them was impervious to this influence. From their pure highlands came down upon corrupt civilisation a simple people, whose banner was a leathern apron, whose goal was not booty nor ease but power and mastery, who came not to rob but to displace. The lessons of the passage are two: that the people of God are something distinct from civilisation, though this be universal and absorbent as a very Babylon; and that the resources of civilisation are not even in material strength the highest in the universe, but God has in His armoury weapons heedless of men’s cunning, and in His armies agents impervious to men’s bribes. Every civilisation needs to be told, according to its temper, one of these two things. Is it hypocritical? Then it needs to be told that civilisation is not one with the people of God. Is it arrogant? Then it needs to be told that the resources of civilisation are not the strongest forces in God’s universe. Man talks of the triumph of mind over matter, of the power of culture, of the elasticity of civilisation; but God has natural forces, to which all these are as the worm beneath the hoof of the horse: and if moral need arise, He will call His brute forces into requisition. "Howl ye, for the day of Jehovah is near; as destruction from the Destructive does it come." There may be periods in man’s history when, in opposition to man’s unholy art and godless civilisation, God can reveal Himself only as destruction. II. THE TYRANT { Isaiah 14:3-23 } To the prophecy of the overthrow of Babylon there is annexed, in order to be sung by Israel in the hour of her deliverance, a satiric ode or taunt-song (Hebrews mashal , Eng. ver. parable) upon the King of Babylon. A translation of this spirited poem in the form of its verse (in which, it is to be regretted, it has not been rendered by the English revisers) will be more instructive than a full commentary. But the following remarks of introduction are necessary. The word mashal, by which this ode is entitled, means comparison, similitude, or parable, and was applicable to every sentence composed of at least two members that compared or contrasted their subjects. As the great bulk of Hebrew poetry is sententious, and largely depends for rhythm upon its parallelism, mashal received a general application; and while another term - shir - more properly denotes lyric poetry, mashal is applied to rhythmical passages in the Old Testament of almost all tempers: to mere predictions, proverbs, orations, satires or taunt-songs, as here, and to didactic pieces. The parallelism of the verses in our ode is too evident to need an index. But the parallel verses are next grouped into strophes. In Hebrew poetry this division is frequently effected by the use of a refrain. In our ode there is no refrain, but the strophes are easily distinguished by difference of subject-matter. Hebrew poetry does not employ rhyme, but makes use of assonance, and to a much less extent of alliteration-a form which is more frequent in Hebrew prose. In our ode there is not much either of assonance or alliteration. But, on the other hand, the ode has but to be read to break into a certain rough and swinging rhythm. This is produced by long verses rising alternate with short ones falling. Hebrew verse at no time relied for a metrical effect upon the modern device of an equal or proportionate number of syllables. The longer verses of this ode are sometimes too short, the shorter too long, variations to which a rude chant could readily adapt itself. But the alternation of long and short is sustained throughout, except for a break at Isaiah 14:10 by the introduction of the formula, "And they answered and said," which evidently ought to stand for a long and a short verse if the number of double verses in the second strophe is to be the same as it is-seven-in the first and in the third. The scene of the poem, the underworld and abode of the shades of the dead, is one on which some of the most splendid imagination and music of humanity has been expended. But we must not be disappointed if we do net here find the rich detail and glowing fancy of Virgil’s or of Dante’s vision. This simple and even rude piece of metre, liker ballad than epic, ought to excite our wonder not so much for what it has failed to imagine as for what, being at its disposal, it has resolutely stinted itself in employing. For it is evident that the author of these lines had within his reach the rich, fantastic materials of Semitic mythology, which are familiar to us in the Babylonian remains. With an austerity, that must strike every one who is acquainted with these, he uses only so much of them as to enable him to render with dramatic force his simple theme-the vanity of human arrogance. For this purpose he employs the idea of the underworld which was prevalent among the northern Semitic peoples. Sheol-the gaping or craving place-which we shall have occasion to describe in detail when we come to speak of belief in the resurrection, is the state after death that craves and swallows all living. There dwell the shades of men amid some unsubstantial reflection of their earthly state ( Isaiah 14:9 ), and with consciousness and passion only sufficient to greet the arrival of the newcomer and express satiric wonder at his fall ( Isaiah 14:9 ). With the arrogance of the Babylonian kings, this tyrant thought to scale the heavens to set his throne in the "mount of assembly" of the immortals, "to match the Most High." But his fate is the fate of all mortals-to go down to the weakness and emptiness of Sheol. Here, let us carefully observe, there is no trace of a judgment for reward or punishment. The new victim of death simply passes to his place among his equals. There was enough of contrast between the arrogance of a tyrant claiming Divinity and his fall into the common receptacle of mortality to point the prophet’s moral without the addition of infernal torment. Do we wish to know the actual punishment of his pride and cruelty? It is visible above ground (strophe 4); not with his spirit, but with his corpse; not with himself, but with his wretched family. His corpse is unburied, his family exterminated; his name disappears from the earth. Thus, by the help of only a few fragments from the popular mythology, the sacred satirist achieves his purpose. His severe monotheism is remarkable in its contrast to Babylonian poems upon similar subjects. He will know none of the gods of the underworld. In place of the great goddess, whom a Babylonian would certainly have seen presiding, with her minions, over the shades, he personifies-it is a frequent figure of Hebrew poetry-the abyss itself. "Sheol shuddereth at thee." It is the same when he speaks ( Isaiah 14:13 ) of the deep’s great opposite, that "mount of assembly" of the gods, which the northern Semites believed to soar to a silver sky "in the recesses of the north" ( Isaiah 14:14 ), "upon the great range which in that direction" bounded the Babylonian plain. This Hebrew knows of no gods there but One, whose are the stars, who is the Most High. Man’s arrogance and cruelty are attempts upon His majesty. He inevitably overwhelms them. Death is their penalty: blood and squalor on earth, the concourse of shuddering ghosts below. The kings of the earth set themselves And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall have them in derision. He who has heard that laughter sees no comedy in aught else. This is the one unfailing subject of Hebrew satire, and it forms the irony and the rigour of the following ode. The only other remarks necessary are these. In Isaiah 14:9 the Authorised Version has not attempted to reproduce the humour of the original satire, which styles them that were chief men on earth "chief-goats" of the herd, bellwethers. The phrase "they that go down to the stones of the pit" should be transferred from Isaiah 14:19 to Isaiah 14:20 . And thou shalt lift up this proverb upon the king of Babylon, and shalt say, - I. Ah! stilled is the tyrant, And stilled is the fury! Broke hath Jehovah the rod of the wicked, Sceptre of despots: Stroke of (the) peoples with passion, Stroke unremitting, Treading in wrath (the) nations, Trampling unceasing. Quiet, at rest. is the whole earth, They break into singing; Even the pines are jubilant for thee, Lebanon’s cedars! "Since thou liest low, cometh not up Feller against us." II. Sheol from under shuddereth at thee To meet thine arrival, Stirring up for thee the shades, All great-goats of earth! Lifteth erect from their thrones All kings of peoples. 10. All of them answer and say to thee, - "Thou, too, made flaccid like us, To us hast been levelled! Hurled to Sheol is the pride of thee, Clang of the harps of thee; Under thee strewn are (the) maggots Thy coverlet worms." III. How art thou fallen from heaven Daystar, sun of the dawn (How) art thou hewn down to earth, Hurtler at nations. And thou, thou didst say in thine heart, "The heavens will I scale, Far up to the stars of God Lift high my throne, And sit on the mount of assembly, Far back of the north, I will climb on the heights of (the) cloud, I will match the Most High!" Ah I to Sheol thou art hurled, Far back of the pit! IV. Who see thee at thee are gazing; Upon thee they muse: I s this the man that staggered the earth, Shaker of kingdoms? Setting the world like the desert, Its cities he tore down: Its prisoners he loosed not (Each of them) homeward. All kings of people, yes all, Are lying in their state; But thou! thou art flung from thy grave, Like a stick that is loathsome. Beshrouded with slain, the pierced of the sword, Like a corpse that is trampled. They that go down to the stones of a crypt, Shalt not be with them in burial. For thy land thou hast ruined, Thy people hast slaughtered. Shall not be mentioned for aye Seed of the wicked! Set for his children a shambles, For guilt of their fathers! They shall not rise, nor inherit (the) earth, Nor fill the face of the world with cities. V. But I will arise upon them, Sayeth Jehovah of hosts; And I will cut off from Babel Record and remnant, And scion and seed, Saith Jehovah: Yea, I will make it the bittern’s heritage, Marshes of water! And I will sweep it with sweeps of destruction. Sayeth Jehovah of hosts. Isaiah 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: CHAPTER XVII ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS 736-702 B.C. Isaiah 14:24-32 ; Isaiah 15:1-9 ; Isaiah 16:1-14 ; Isaiah 17:1-14 ; Isaiah 18:1-7 ; Isaiah 19:1-25 ; Isaiah 20:1-6 ; Isaiah 21:1-17 ; Isaiah 23:1-18 THE centre of the Book of Isaiah (chapters 13 to 23) is occupied by a number of long and short prophecies which are a fertile source of perplexity to the conscientious reader of the Bible. With the exhilaration of one who traverses plain roads and beholds vast prospects, he has passed through the opening chapters of the book as far as the end of the twelfth; and he may look forward to enjoying a similar experience when he reaches those other clear stretches of vision from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh and from the thirtieth to the thirty-second. But here he loses himself among a series of prophecies obscure in themselves and without obvious relation to one another. The subjects of them are the nations, tribes, and cities with which in Isaiah’s day, by war or treaty or common fear in face of the Assyrian conquest, Judah was being brought into contact. There are none of the familiar names of the land and tribes of Israel which meet the reader in other obscure prophecies and lighten their darkness with the face of a friend. The names and allusions are foreign, some of them the names of tribes long since extinct, and of places which it is no more possible to identify. It is a very jungle of prophecy, in which, without much Gospel or geographical light, we have to grope our way, thankful for an occasional gleam of the picturesque-a sandstorm in the desert, the forsaken ruins of Babylon haunted by wild beasts, a view of Egypt’s canals or Phoenicia’s harbours, a glimpse of an Arab raid or of a grave Ethiopian embassy. But in order to understand the Book of Isaiah, in order to understand Isaiah himself in some of the largest of his activities and hopes; we must traverse this thicket. It would be tedious and unprofitable to search every corner of it. We propose, therefore, to give a list of the various oracles, with their dates and titles, for the guidance of Bible-readers, then to take three representative texts and gather the meaning of all the oracles round them. First, however, two of the prophecies must be put aside. The twenty-second chapter does not refer to a foreign State, but to Jerusalem itself; and the large prophecy which opens the series (chapters 13-14:23) deals with the overthrow of Babylon in circumstances that did not arise till long after Isaiah’s time, and so falls to be considered by us along with similar prophecies at the close of this volume. (See Book V) All the rest of these chapters-14-21 and 23-refer to Isaiah’s own day. They were delivered by the prophet at various times throughout his career; but the most of them evidently date from immediately after the year 705, when, on the death of Sargon, there was a general rebellion of the Assyrian vassals. 1 Isaiah 14:24-27 -OATH OF JEHOVAH that the Assyrian shall be broken. Probable date, towards 701. 2 Isaiah 14:28-32 -ORACLE FOR PHILISTIA. Warning to Philistia not to rejoice because one Assyrian king is dead, for a worse one shall arise: "Out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a basilisk. Philistia shall be melted away, but Zion shall stand." The inscription to this oracle ( Isaiah 14:28 ) is not genuine. The oracle plainly speaks of the death and accession of Assyrian, not Judaean, kings. It may be ascribed to 705, the date of the death of Sargon and accession of Sennacherib. But some hold that it refers to the previous change on the Assyrian throne-the death of Salmanassar and the accession of Sargon. 3 Isaiah 15:1-9 - Isaiah 16:12 -ORACLE FOR MOAB. A long prophecy against Moab. This oracle, whether originally by himself at an earlier period of his life, or more probably by an older prophet, Isaiah adopts and ratifies, and intimates its immediate fulfilment, in Isaiah 16:13-14 : "This is the word which Jehovah spake concerning Moab long ago. But now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all the great multitude, and the remnant shall be very small and of no account." The dates both of the original publication of this prophecy and of its reissue with the appendix are quite uncertain. The latter may fall about 711, when Moab was threatened by Sargon for complicity in the Ashdod conspiracy or in 704, when, with other states, Moab came under the cloud of Sennacherib’s invasion. The main prophecy is remarkable for its vivid picture of the disaster that has overtaken Moab and for the sympathy with her which the Jewish prophet expresses; for the mention of a "remnant" of Moab; for the exhortation to her to send tribute in her adversity "to the mount of the daughter of Zion"; { Isaiah 16:1 } for an appeal to Zion to shelter the outcasts of Moab and to take up her cause: "Bring counsel, make a decision, make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts, bewray not the wanderer;" for a statement of the Messiah similar to those in chapters 9 and 11; and for the offer to the oppressed Moabites of the security of Judah in Messianic times ( Isaiah 16:4-5 ). But there is one great obstacle to this prospect of Moab lying down in the shadow of Judah-Moab’s arrogance. "We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud," { Isaiah 16:6 , cf. Jeremiah 48:29 ; Jeremiah 48:42 ; Zephaniah 2:10 } which pride shall not only keep this country in ruin, but prevent the Moabites prevailing in prayer at their own sanctuary ( Isaiah 16:12 )-a very remarkable admission about the worship of another god than Jehovah. 4 Isaiah 17:1-11 -ORACLE FOR DAMASCUS. One of the earliest and most crisp of Isaiah’s prophecies. Of the time of Syria’s and Ephraim’s league against Judah, somewhere between 736 and 732. 5 Isaiah 17:12-14 -UNTITLED. The crash of the peoples upon Jerusalem and their dispersion. This magnificent piece of sound, which we analyse below, is usually understood of Sennacherib’s rush upon Jerusalem. Isaiah 17:14 is an accurate summary of the sudden break-up and "retreat from Moscow" of his army. The Assyrian hosts are described as "nations," as they are elsewhere more than once by Isaiah. { Isaiah 22:6 ; Isaiah 29:7 } But in all this there is no final reason for referring the oracle to Sennacherib’s invasion, and it may just as well be interpreted of Isaiah’s confidence of the defeat of Syria and Ephraim (734-723). Its proximity to the oracle against Damascus would then be very natural, and it would stand as a parallel prophecy to Isaiah 8:9 : "Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of the distances of the earth: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces"-a prophecy which we know belongs to the period of the Syro-Ephraimitic league. 6 Isaiah 18:1-7 -UNTITLED. An address to Ethiopia, "land of a rustling of wings, land of many sails, whose messengers dart to and fro upon the rivers in their skiffs of reed." The prophet tells Ethiopia, cast into excitement by the news of the Assyrian advance, how Jehovah is resting quietly till the Assyrian be ripe for destruction. When the Ethiopians shall see His sudden miracle they shall send their tribute to Jehovah, "to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion." It is difficult to know to which southward march of Assyria to ascribe this prophecy-Sargon’s or Sennacherib’s? For at the time of both of these an Ethiopian ruled Egypt. 7 Isaiah 19:1-25 -ORACLE FOR EGYPT. The first fifteen verses ( Isaiah 19:1-15 ) describe judgment as ready to fall on the land of the Pharaohs. The last ten speak of the religious results to Egypt of that judgment, and they form the most universal and "missionary" of all Isaiah’s prophecies. Although doubts have been expressed of the Isaiah authorship of the second half of this chapter on the score of its universalism, as well as of its literary style, which is judged to be "a pale reflection" of Isaiah’s own, there is no final reason for declining the credit of it to Isaiah, while there are insuperable difficulties against relegating it to the late date which is sometimes demanded for it. On the date and authenticity of this prophecy, which are of great importance for the question of Isaiah’s "missionary" opinions, see Cheyne’s introduction to the chapter and Robertson Smith’s notes in "The Prophets of Israel" (p. 433). The latter puts it in 703, during Sennacherib’s advance upon the south. The former suggests that the second half may have been written by the prophet much later than the first, and justly says, "We can hardly imagine a more ‘swan-like end’ for the dying prophet." 8 Isaiah 20:1-6 -UNTITLED. Also upon Egypt, but in narrative and of an earlier date than at least the latter half of chapter 19. Tells how Isaiah walked naked and barefoot in the streets of Jerusalem for a sign against Egypt and against the help Judah hoped to get from her in the years 711-709, when the Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-chief, came south to subdue Ashdod. 9 Isaiah 21:1-10 -ORACLE FOR THE WILDERNESS OF THESEA, announcing but lamenting the fall of Babylon. Probably 709. 10 Isaiah 21:11-12 -ORACLE FOR DUMAH. Dumah, or Silence - Psalm 94:17 ; Psalm 115:17 , "the land of the silence of death," the grave - is probably used as an anagram for Edom and an enigmatic sign to the wise Edomites, in their own fashion, of the kind of silence their land is lying under-the silence of rapid decay. The prophet hears this silence at last broken by a cry. Edom cannot bear the darkness any more. "Unto me one is calling from Seir, Watchman, how much off the night? how much off the night? Said the watchman, Cometh the morning, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire, come back again." What other answer is possible for a land on which the silence of decay seems to have settled down? He may, however, give them an answer later on, if they will come back. Date uncertain, perhaps between 704 and 701. 11. 21:13-17 -ORACLE FOR ARABIA. From Edom the prophet passes to their neighbours the Dedanites, travelling merchants. And as he saw night upon Edom, so, by a play upon words, he speaks of evening upon Arabia: "in the forest, in Arabia," or with the same consonants, "in the evening." In the time of the insecurity of the Assyrian invasion the travelling merchants have to go aside from their great trading roads "in the evening to lodge in the thickets." There they entertain fugitives, or (for th

For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob. Isaiah 14:1 God's mercy and Israel's converts Homilist. I. THE PRINCIPLE OF GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT — Mercy. This people had grievously sinned. 1. They had sinned against light. The direct revelation of heaven had been given to them as a nation 2. They rebelled amid privileges. The Mighty God interfered to protect them from their foes. 3. They had sinned in spite of rebukes and punishments. The rebellious people had been carried captive into a heathen nation. II. THE CONSTANCY OF DIVINE PURPOSES — "I will yet choose," etc. Notwithstanding all their rebellion I will yet have mercy on them. Nothing can separate from the love of God. III. THE RESTORATIVE BLESSEDNESS OF RELIGION. When God takes a man in hand, He restores him. In paradise he was the image and associate of God. Salvation will make him nothing more. Heaven will contain additional elements of joy, but the man will be restored. IV. THE CONTAGION OF ENTHUSIASM. When the Jews should return, many of the heathen, leaving their own country and their idols, would return along with them. "And the strangers shall be joined with them." This was part of God's design in the Captivity. It was not only to punish His people for their sin, but also to render them a blessing to others. God often appoints the afflictions of His people for His own glory, and we must not mourn but rejoice if we are counted worthy of forwarding His cause. V. THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF RELIGION. It commands affection and regard. It is our duty to render it attractive so as to win others. ( Homilist. ) God's passion to Israel F. Delitzsch, D. D. We have here in nuce the comforting substance of chaps. 40-46. Babylon falls in order that Israel may rise. ( F. Delitzsch, D. D. ) The Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow. Isaiah 14:3 Sorrow's crown W. Birch. I. SORROW IS THE COMMON LOT. Though nobody is always sorrowful, there is in every life many a time when the mind is sore and the heart bruised. Yet people with a sore heart often sing; they find relief in breathing a hymn of prayerful trust. How beautiful is a good man under affliction! A child is often sore in mind because he is not understood and has not the heart-felt sympathy of those who direct him, Women also are sorrowful. Though a man be (n the most fortunate state of life he will have something to bruise his heart. I have heard of a lady whose husband was the worship of both her mind and heart; and when he was killed in a railway accident, her grief was so terrible that in a moment she seemed ten years older. A short time afterwards, she lost her children, and later on, through the failure of a bank, her fortune disappeared; but she endured these misfortunes with calmness, and her minister once asked, "How is it that you can bear up so well after the loss of your children and your money?" She replied, "In the death of my husband the greatest wound came the first." It is unwise to meet sorrow halfway. But there is one sorrow that we should seek and cultivate; it is the sorrow that we are not more godly. There is another sorrow which is worth having; it is that pain of heart which feels for the man or woman who is wounded in the conflict of life. In the ancient world, sorrow was considered to be God's curse, but the early Christians saw that God meant it as a sacred discipline: and therefore when sorrow came to them, they called it "tribulatio," using the word and image to set forth an elevating truth, namely, the separation of the evil in them from the good. II. Let us notice ONE OR TWO PERSONAL SORROWS IN WHICH SOME OF YOU ARE MORE OR LESS CONCERNED. 1. If you are sore in mind because you have done wrong, let your first thought be one of gratitude, that God can and does forgive your sins. 2. Many good people are sore in mind through a physical or temporal trouble. What is more unpleasant than to hear a cart wheel screeching every time it turns? So, you have in your lot something like a screeching wheel, and every move makes you feel the affliction. But the oil of Divine grace will cure it. III. THE CROWN OF SORROW IS TRUSTING GOD. "In all thy ways acknowledge Him," etc. IV. Let us learn THE OBJECT OF SORROW. It is to teach us to be patient and kindly. If you put roses into a cracked pot of commonest clay, it will breathe forth perfume; and from the most prickly plant, the thorn, we gather the sweetest flowers, So if the peace of God perfume your sorrowing heart, the thorns and briars of your affliction shall make your life bright with the flowers of godliness and charity. Bear your sorrow with true courage and sublime cheerfulness, not only for your own sake, but for our sake who look on you; for we wish to learn the way to bear our pain. ( W. Birch. ) God an island when fortunes are wrecked W. Birch. Let me tell you of a man who went home one day, and sitting down in his armchair, put his hand on his brow as if in great trouble. His little child went up to him, saying, "Father, what's the matter?" Looking down upon her with eyes of despair, he replied, "Ah, little Mary, I'm ruined!" She said, "Ruined, father, what's that?" He answered, "Why, my child, I'm like a man in a boat on the sea, and during a storm the boat has upset, and he is east on a desolate island." She climbed on his knee, stroking his face, and after awhile, exclaimed. "Well but, father, you know, you have only lost the boat; you haven't lost yourself, have you?" With tears in his eyes, he said, "Ah, no, thank God! I have only lost the boat; my heart and my life remain!" Then she asked, "Father, what's the name of the island?" He replied, "That is the worst of it Mary." "I don't know." She said, "But, father, I know; yea, I know the name of the island you are on; why, father, it is a nice island!" The wretched man tried to smile, and drawing the dear little face to his breast, said, "Mary, dear, tell me the name of the island!" She replied, "Oh, father, don't you know? you are dull tonight! why, father, the name of the island is God!" The sorrowful man was very, still, and little Mary looking up in his face, put her arms round his neck, saying, "Poor father, what makes you cry? Why don't you go upstairs and tell God about it?" Then he gently lifted the dear child down, and went to tell out his heart's sorrow to God. It is true his business had fallen but a Divine hand upheld him. ( W. Birch. ) Trusting God in affliction W. Birch. A coloured preacher was in the habit of exhorting his people when they were in affliction to "Truss de Lord." When they were in sore distress, he had only one remedy, "Brudder, truss de Lord!" One day, however, while the old parson was crossing a river, the boat upset, and being unable to swim, he made a great splutter and screamed like a madman. After much trouble, he was got out and brought safely to the river bank, when one of his congregation said, "Masea Preacher, why didn't you truss de Lord; why did you holler and scream when you were in de river; why didn't you truss de Lord, and be patient?" The dark minister exclaimed, "Ah, you know, brudder, It is truss de Lord on de land, not on de water." Of course, anybody can trust in the Lord when they are on the land of peace and comfort; but it needs Christian faith and fortitude to be contented in the waters of affliction. ( W. Birch. ) The Christian attitude towards trouble W. Birch. Christians who give up their special religious work because they are in sorrow, may be likened to rusty nails in a bag under the counter of the ironmonger's shop; while the man who keeps on doing his best, believing that God is with him, is a man in a sure place, ready to bear all the weight that is hung on it. ( W. Birch. ) Thou shalt take up this proverb against the King of Babylon. Isaiah 14:4-23 The "proverb against the King of Babylon Sir E. Strachey, Bart. Lowth is generally thought not to speak with exaggeration when he calls it the finest [song] of its kind extant in any language. It is a song of triumph in the form of a dirge, and therefore involves an undercurrent of sarcasm or irony. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) An ode of triumph Prof . E. R. Driver, D. D. This ode, if it is to be admired as it deserves, must be read as a whole: its perfection as a work of art, its picturesque imagery, the delicate and subtle vein of irony by which it is penetrated — it is called a "taunt song" — will not endure partial quotation or paraphrase. The line of thought is as follows. In the first strophe (vers. 4-8), the prophet declares exultingly how at length the tyrant is stilled, the earth is at peace; only the sound of rejoicing is heard. In the second (vers. 9-11), he accompanies in thought the Shade of the King of Babylon as it journeys to the Underworld, and imagines the ironical greeting which there meets it from the lips of the other kings — still, as on earth, supposed to be invested with the panoply of State. The third strophe (vers. 12-15) depicts the abasement of the Babylonian monarch in its full magnitude: he who would have joined the ranks of the gods, is east down to the inmost recesses of the pit. In the fourth and last strophe (ver. 16-20), the prophet's thought passes to the battlefield — from the feeble Shade to the unburied, dishonoured corpse: the passers-by express their amazement at the contrast which its fate presents to that of other kings after their death; it is excluded from the royal burial place, flung aside as a worthless bough, hidden amongst the bodies of slain, common soldiers, The prophet concludes with an epilogue, spoken in his own person, and re-asserting emphatically the final and irretrievable ruin of the great city (vers. 21-23). The best commentary on this prophecy is the long and impassioned invective against Babylon contained in Jeremiah 50:1-51:58 . ( Prof . E. R. Driver, D. D. ) Destruction of the King of Babylon The Babylonian monarchy bade fair to be an absolute, universal, and perpetual one, and in these pretensions vied with the Almighty; it is, therefore, very justly not only brought down, but exulted over when it is down. ( M. Henry . ) "The golden city R. Macculloch. (ver. 4) is a graphical description of that city, which was renowned for its immense riches and intern. parable splendour. ( R. Macculloch. ) Deliverance from an evil dominion R. Macculloch. If the nations rejoice at the overthrow of a haughty, tyrannical prince, and the re-establishment of tranquillity and liberty, how much greater ought to be the triumph of those who are delivered from the dominion of divers impetuous lusts, and enjoy the earnests of spiritual and eternal rest! ( R. Macculloch. ) "Hell Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. (ver. 9), as always in the Old Testament = the Greek Hades; not a place of torment, but the "meeting place of all living" ( Job 30:23 ). The prophet's representation is based upon the ideas current among the people. See Bishop Lowth's "Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews," Lecture 7. The same idea is elaborated in greater detail by Ezekiel 32:17-32 . ( Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. ) An image of the soul F. Delitzsch. The mythological idea of Hades proceeds on the two-fold truth, that what and how man has been in this world is not obliterated in the other world, but becomes essentially manifest, and that there is an immaterial self-formation of the soul in which all that the individual man has become through his own self-determination under God-given relations is reflected as in a mirror, and that in an abiding figure. This image of the soul, to which the dead body is related as the shattered form of a mould, is the shadowy corporeity of the inhabitants of Hades, in which they appear essentially, although in the condition of spirits, as what they were in this life. ( F. Delitzsch. ) "Hell W. Day, M. A. is moved as a city is moved when a great king is brought prisoner thither, and everyone runs out of his house to see him. ( W. Day, M. A. ) Lucifer Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. (ver. 12): — In his splendour [the King of Babylon] is likened to the morning star, which was worshipped by the Babylonians under the name of Istar. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. ) Impious expectations disappointed Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. (vers. 13-15): — That he should go to Sheol at all was a fate never contemplated by his soaring and self-deifying pride. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. ) Pride R. Macculloch. and ambition know no bounds (ver. 14). ( R. Macculloch. ) "The bittern J. Duns, D. D., F. R. S. E. (ver. 23), Hebrews kippod. The word occurs also in chap. 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14 . It has been rendered otter, tortoise, owl, beaver, porcupine (R.V.). No one of the renderings proposed is satisfactory. "Bittern" is freer from objection than any other bird which might be proposed. It is a solitary bird, and loves such haunts as would be supplied by the marshes which were found in districts of Edom and Babylon and Nineveh, as the fruit of the desolation sent on them. It feeds at night, and hides during the day among the long grass and rushes of its favourite habitats. ( J. Duns, D. D., F. R. S. E. ) "The bosom of destruction (ver. 23): — When a people have nothing among them but dirt and filth, and will not be made clean with the besom of reformation, what can they expect but to be swept off the face of the earth with "the bosom of destruction"? ( M. Henry . ) The Church's exultation over her foes F. B. Meyer, B. A. Surely, in some such terms as these, the Church shall one day exult over all her foes, and especially over the great apostate power of Babylon the Great, the City of the Seven Hills. And still more, over the cast out prince of this world, of whom the King of Babylon and other princes of this world have been the types and representatives. ( F. B. Meyer, B. A. ) Hell from beneath is moved for thee. Isaiah 14:9 The first five minutes after death Davey Biggs, D. D. There is a very well-known story told of a man who had served his king and country in many a distant land, and in many a strange experience, coming back home, and talking to his friends of the wonderful sights which he had seen, and the wonderful experiences which he had gone through. And when they remarked to him on the sort of wonders he had experienced and known, he checked them with saying, "There is something more wonderful than anything I have yet known, which I still have to experience," and when they asked him what it was, he said, "It is the first five minutes after death." The first five minutes after death! It was upon what happens in the first five minutes after death that the prophet was exercising himself here in this particular prophecy. ( Davey Biggs, D. D. ) Life beyond the grave Davey Biggs, D. D. 1. The prophet believed that for those who pass through the gate of death there would be recognition in the strange life beyond the grave. He believed that those who were inhabiting that world before other individuals entered into it would know them, would be there ready to greet them, greet them as in this ease with horror, with dismay, with, as it were, congratulations that what had been tyrannical in the world of life before death had now, as it were, found its level, the opportunity of tyranny gone. The prophet pictures the expectation that there was in the hearts of those who had known what it was to be cruelly oppressed in this world when their oppressor came to join them. He shows that the attitude of those who were within the grave in the unseen world was one of expectation. 2. There is memory there, memory not only of our past selves, but about other people; memory, too, of those living on the earth. ( Davey Biggs, D. D. ) Recognition beyond the grave Davey Biggs, D. D. We know that what was only conjecture in the mind of the prophet when he painted hell stirring up the dead to meet Belshazzar, King of Babylon, has become certainty through the revelation given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. I do not know how anybody can read through the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and not feel that, whatever the intention was with which the parable was spoken, incidentally our Lord does teach us that in the life beyond the grave the personality which we have known here in this life continues. As personality shows itself in self-consciousness, so our Lord shows that the rich man and Lazarus are conscious of their own existence. There is mutual recognition too. The rich man has not any doubt whatever who it is in whose bosom Lazarus was reposing; and I suppose at the very least fifteen centuries parted them. In the same mysterious way Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration knew that it was Moses and Elijah who were talking with the Messiah. There is a wonderful power of recognition of even those whom we have never met. We shall know, and our Lord Jesus Christ wishes us to know that we shall know, the great people in the past to whom we owe such great debts. ( Davey Biggs, D. D. ) Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. Isaiah 14:24 God's infinite intelligence W. Howels. To think and to purpose are the attributes of all rational beings, whether created or uncreated. I. God is such an infinitely perfect being, that His thoughts and purposes are CO-ETERNAL WITH HIMSELF. God cannot possibly exist Without His thoughts and purposes. A child at school in France, was asked whether God reasoned or not. The child paused awhile, and answered, "No: God is too perfect to reason. He knows everything without reasoning." Newton himself could not have given a better answer. Everything that exists in God now, has existed in Him from eternity. II. As His thoughts and put. poses flow exclusively from Himself, they are ABSOLUTE; they are, primarily considered, unconditional. This is a necessity that does not militate, in the least degree, against the accountability of man. They must have been absolute, or no being could possibly have existed. III. The thoughts and purposes of the Almighty are INFINITELY GLORIOUS; in other words, are infinitely worthy of Himself. It is in the fulfilment of His own thoughts and purposes that He develops all the beauty of His own perfections; it is in the development of all the beauty of His own perfections, that He confers every good on the creature. Take two axioms in divinity. All good is from God — all evil is from the creature. Do justice to these truths, and they will, as two keys, unlock some of the most difficult passages in Scripture. IV. The purpose of God is REPLETE WITH LOVE AND TENDERNESS. The sovereign purpose of God, properly speaking, involves nothing but good. Evil is to be traced to another source. But what does it comprise chiefly? A Saviour. We were suffered to fall into the deepest guilt, that God might display His glory to the utmost in our salvation. ( W. Howels. ) God's purposes must be fulfilled The wheels in a watch or a clock move contrary one to another, someone way, and some another, yet all serve the intent of the workman, to show the time, or to make the clock to strike. So in the world the providence of God may seem to run cross to His promises. One man takes this way, another runs that way. Good men go one way, wicked men another. Yet all in conclusion accomplish the will, and centre in the purpose of God, the great Creator of all things. ( Sibbes, Richard , D. D. ) Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina. Isaiah 14:29-32 Philistia Sir E. Strachey, Bart. was the southwest coast of the land of Canaan, to the whole of which it afterwards gave its name in the Greek form of Palestine, and was nominally included in the tribe of Judah. It was originally inhabited by the Avites, who were expelled by the Caphtorim, a race of Egyptian origin, but supposed to have come immediately from Crete or Cyprus, and who, under the name of Philistines, continued as a distinct, and for the most part independent nation, in spite of the efforts of Israel to subdue them. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) The Philistines Sir E. Strachey, Bart. were very formidable enemies to Israel in the days of Samuel and of Saul. The strong kings, David, Solomon, and Jehoshaphat, kept them in subjection, but in the days of Jehoram they invaded Judah ( 2 Samuel 5:17-25 ; 2 Samuel 21:15 ; 2 Chronicles 17:11 ; 2 Chronicles 21:16, 17 ). Uzziah again repressed them, and crippled their power, dismantling their walled cities, and building fortresses of his own to command them ( 2 Chronicles 26:6, 7 ); and no doubt they continued tributary during the still vigorous government of his successor Jotham. But during the weak reign of Ahaz, they "invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah"; and not only invaded, but settled themselves in them and their neighbouring villages ( 2 Chronicles 28:18 ): and to this state of things Isaiah addresses himself in this prophecy. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) The rod of the taskmaster Sir E. Strachey, Bart. is Isaiah's frequent image for the control of a dependent and tributary nation: all Philistia had rejoiced when the rod of David and of Uzziah fell broken from the hands of Ahaz, and expressed their joy by wasting or taking possession of their former master's lands; but Isaiah warns them that the old root of Israel, which from the days of Samson had sent forth many a rod with a serpent's life like the rod of Moses, would soon again produce a basilisk with its royal crest, its inevitable spring, and its mortal bite, to take vengeance on his enemies. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) Hezekiah and the Messiah F. Delitzsch. The basilisk is Hezekiah, and the flying dragon is the Messiah (such is the explanation of the Targum); or, what is the same thing, the former is the Davidic kingdom of the immediate future, and the latter the Davidic kingdom of the ultimate future. The figure may appear inappropriate, because the serpent is a symbol of evil; but it is not a symbol merely of creaturely evil, but also of the Divine curse; the curse, however, is the energy of penal justice, and as the executor of this justice as a judgment of God on Philistia, the Davidic king is here called a serpent in a climax rising through three stages. Perhaps the choice of the figure was suggested by Genesis 49:17 ; for the saying concerning Dan was fulfilled in Samson the Danite, the sworn enemy of the Philistines. ( F. Delitzsch. ) The law of conquests and exterminations Sir E. Strachey, Bart. If the spread of civilisation, knowledge, justice, virtue, religion, and whatever else distinguishes men from beasts, is a good and not an evil, then it is good for men to use all the means which are really necessary to effect that end, even though some of them be never so rough and unpleasing; and it is not less base in public than in private morals to shrink from the responsibility of ourselves doing that which we know it is good to have done. If a weak, effeminate, degenerate nation can be improved by subjection to a stronger, manlier, more virtuous nation, then it is not only the right but the duty of the latter to bring it into subjection, whenever the indications of God's providence, be they of peace or war, show that the time has come. And if the nation is not merely degenerate but hopelessly corrupt, then it is not only the right but the duty of some worthier nation to destroy it, and rid the world of its abominations. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) The Gospel a means of national salvation Sir E. Strachey, Bart. The Gospel has given to us, in modern Christendom, means of reclaiming nations who would have been irreclaimable by any measures which Greeks or Romans or even Jews could apply; and we are bound to act with corresponding gentleness and forbearance. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) "The first born of the poor Sir E. Strachey, Bart. (ver. 30) seems to be a Hebrew idiom for the "really, eminently poor," like that of "Son of Man" to express the man. Or the prophet may mean that the first of the next generation, the children of the present depressed Israelites, shall he delivered from the miseries which the Philistines are now inflicting on their fathers. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? Isaiah 14:32 God's work in founding Zion The kingdom of Judah was low and broken; foreign invasions and intestine divisions had made it so. In this state of things God takes notice of the joy and triumphing of the Philistines. To take them off from their pride and boasting He lets them know that from the people whom they despised their desolation was at hand, though they seemed to be perplexed and forsaken for a season (vers. 29-31). I. There is AN INQUIRY. "What shall one answer," etc. They come to make inquiry after the work of God among His people, and it is fit that an answer be given to them. Two things are observable in this interrogation. 1. The nations about will be diligently inquiring after God's dispensations among His people. There are certain affections and principles that are active in the nations, that will make them restless, and always put them upon this inquiry. The people of God, on one account or other, shall be in all seasons a separated people. No sooner, then, is any people, or portion of them, thus dedicated to God, but all the nations about, and those amongst them not engaged in the same way with them, instantly look on them as utterly severed from them, having other ways, ends, and interests than they; being built up wholly on another account and foundation. They reckon not of them as a people and a nation. The conclusion they make concerning them is, that of Haman ( Esther 3:8 ).(1) They are full of enmity against them.(2) A second principle, whereby they are put upon their inquiries, is fear. They fear them, and therefore will know how things stand with them, and what are the works of God amongst them ( Habakkuk 3:7 ; Psalm 48:1-6 ). Fear is solicitous and inquiring; it will leave nothing unsearched, unlooked into; it would find the inside and bottom of everything, wherein it is concerned. Though the more it finds, the more it is increased; yet the greater still are its inquiries, fearing more what it knows not than what it knows. 2. The issues of God's dispensations amongst His people shall be so evident and glorious, that everyone, anyone, though never so weak, if not blinded by prejudice, shall be able to give a convincing answer concerning them to the inquiries of men. II. THERE IS THE RESOLUTION GIVEN OF THE INQUIRY. Hereof are two parts —(1) What God hath done.(2) What His people shall, or ought to do. Wrap up at any time the work of God and the duty of His people together, and they will be a sufficient answer to any man's inquiry after the state of things among them. 1. The great design of God in His mighty works and dispensations is the establishment of His people, and their proper interest, in their several generations. To make this clear some few things are previously to be considered —(1) The proper interest of the people of God is to glorify Him in their several places, stations, and generations: none of us are to live unto ourselves.(2) God is the only proper and infallible judge, in what state and condition His people will best and most glorify His name, in their several generations.(3) Providential dispensations are discoveries of the wisdom of God in disposing of the condition of His people, so as they may best glorify Him. These things being premised, it is easy to give light and evidence to the assertion laid down. 2. It is the duty of God's preserved remnant, laying aside all other aims and contrivances, to betake themselves to the work of God, founding Zion, and preserving the common interest of His people. "God hath founded Zion, and the poor of the people shall trust therein," or betake themselves unto it. We are apt to wander on hills and mountains, everyone walking in the imagination of his own heart, forgetting our resting place. When God was bringing the power of the Babylonian upon His people, the prophet Jeremiah could neither persuade the whole nation to submit to his government, nor many individuals among them to fall to him in particular. And when the time of their deliverance from that captivity was accomplished, how hardly were they persuaded to embrace the liberty tendered! ( J. Owen , D. D. ) God's care for His people 1. The great things God doth for His people are, and cannot but be, taken notice of by their neighbours ( Psalm 126:2 ). 2. Messengers will be sent to inquire concerning them. Jacob and Israel have long been a people distinguished from all others, and dignified with uncommon favours; and therefore, some for goodwill, others for ill-will, and all for curiosity, are inquisitive concerning them. 3. It concerns us always to be ready to "give a reason of the hope" that we have in the providence of God, as well as in His grace, in answer to everyone that asks it, "with meekness and fear." 4. The issue of God's dealings with His people shall be so manifestly glorious that anyone, everyone, shall be able to give an account of them to those that inquire concerning them. ( M. Henry . ) The Church founded for a refuge F. E. Paget, D. D. At first sight the prediction which closes the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah seems of temporary interest only, and to speak of judgments which within a very few years were destined to fall upon one of the most inveterate enemies of God's ancient people; and yet I cannot but think those commentators right who, following the opinion of divers of the fathers of the Church, have found in the passage an allusion to the Gospel and Church of Christ. I. That the prophecy would be one of PRESSING AND IMMEDIATE INTEREST TO THE CONTEMPORARIES OF THE PROPHET is obvious from the manner in which it is ushered in: "In the year that King Ahaz died was this burden" (or, as we should nowadays say, this denunciation of wrath) against the Philistines. After bidding the inhabitants of Palestine howl for the judgments that were impending, Isaiah, speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, makes the inquiry and gives the answer of the text. It was usual for neighbouring nations, who were friends and allies, to send ambassadors, and congratulate each other on success. When, therefore, the coming triumph over the Philistines should be known abroad, and the envoys of friendly states should inquire of Judah into the circumstances of his success, "let this answer," said the prophet, "suffice: that the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it." II. No one can read that promise and not feel that it was INTENDED TO HAVE AN AMPLER SCOPE for its fulfilment than in the personal security of a handful of Jewish peasants; the whole turn of expression is redolent of Gospel times. Such words were never fully verified till Christ, the Son of David, had founded the Christian Church, and made His gracious offer to a world enslaved in the most cruel of all bondage: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ( F. E. Paget, D. D. ) The Church's heavenly origin and beneficent mission W. Archer Butler, D. D. I. "The Lord hath founded Zion"; THIS IS THE GUARANTEE OF HIS LOVE AND HER STABILITY. The strongest, most fundamental title of protection is creation. Even among ourselves, no one frames an object to destroy it; he who makes, makes that he may preserve. And if this be so in human nature, shall there be nothing to compare with it in the Divine? God, indeed, who is eternal, can require no successor to whom to devise His purposes of love; but all the claims that the thing framed can have on Him who framed it, hold with tenfold force when the object is not, as in our humbler works, the mere apposition of pre-existing materials, in which nothing is ours except the order of arrangement, but is itself, alike in matter and in form, the direct offspring of His own inexhaustible power and goodness. 1. Behold, then, how as His own "God loved the world"; how as not only His own, but His own in pain and anguish, and endeared to His inmost heart as such, God hath loved His Church. He spoke to bid the one, He died to make the other, exist. 2. In this Church of His is His own honour pledged. He hath not covenanted with the world that now is to immortalise it; but He has passed His own word for the perpetuity of His Church. Nothing so framed was ever framed to perish; He has infused into it His own Spirit, and His Spirit is life. 3. Is not the Church in its ultimate perfection set forth as the very reward of all the sorrows of its Lord; and shall He be defrauded of His recompense? 4. There is more than creation to bind the Church to Christ, more than promise, more than reward; there is communion, oneness, identification. A man may desert his child; he cannot dese

14:1-23 The whole plan of Divine Providence is arranged with a view to the good of the people of God. A settlement in the land of promise is of God's mercy. Let the church receive those whom God receives. God's people, wherever their lot is cast, should endeavour to recommend religion by a right and winning conversation. Those that would not be reconciled to them, should be humbled by them. This may be applied to the success of the gospel, when those were brought to obey it who had opposed it. God himself undertakes to work a blessed change. They shall have rest from their sorrow and fear, the sense of their present burdens, and the dread of worse. Babylon abounded in riches. The king of Babylon having the absolute command of so much wealth, by the help of it ruled the nations. This refers especially to the people of the Jews; and it filled up the measure of the king of Babylon's sins. Tyrants sacrifice their true interest to their lusts and passions. It is gracious ambition to covet to be like the Most Holy, for he has said, Be ye holy, for I am holy; but it is sinful ambition to aim to be like the Most High, for he has said, He who exalts himself shall be abased. The devil thus drew our first parents to sin. Utter ruin should be brought upon him. Those that will not cease to sin, God will make to cease. He should be slain, and go down to the grave; this is the common fate of tyrants. True glory, that is, true grace, will go up with the soul to heaven, but vain pomp will go down with the body to the grave; there is an end of it. To be denied burial, if for righteousness' sake, may be rejoiced in, Mt 5:12. But if the just punishment of sin, it denotes that impenitent sinners shall rise to everlasting shame and contempt. Many triumphs should be in his fall. God will reckon with those that disturb the peace of mankind. The receiving the king of Babylon into the regions of the dead, shows there is a world of spirits, to which the souls of men remove at death. And that souls have converse with each other, though we have none with them; and that death and hell will be death and hell indeed, to all who fall unholy, from the height of this world's pomps, and the fulness of its pleasures. Learn from all this, that the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. The royal city is to be ruined and forsaken. Thus the utter destruction of the New Testament Babylon is illustrated, Re 18:2. When a people will not be made clean with the besom of reformation, what can they expect but to be swept off the face of the earth with the besom of destruction? 14:24-27 Let those that make themselves a yoke and a burden to God's people, see what they are to expect. Let those that are the called according to God's purpose, comfort themselves, that whatever God has purposed, it shall stand. The Lord of hosts has purposed to break the Assyrian's yoke; his hand is stretched out to execute this purpose; who has power to turn it back? By such dispensations of providence, the Almighty shows in the most convincing manner, that sin is hateful in his sight. 14:28-32 Assurance is given of the destruction of the Philistines and their power, by famine and war. Hezekiah would be more terrible to them than Uzziah had been. Instead of rejoicing, there would be lamentation, for the whole land would be ruined. Such destruction will come upon the proud and rebellious, but the Lord founded Zion for a refuge to poor sinners, who flee from the wrath to come, and trust in his mercy through Christ Jesus. Let us tell all around of our comforts and security, and exhort them to seek the same refuge and salvation.