-
ISAIAH 13 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
A Prophecy Against Babylon
13 A prophecy against Babylon that Isaiah son of
Amoz saw:
1.BARNES, The burden of Babylon - Or, the burden respecting, or
concerning Babylon. This prophecy is introduced in a different
manner from those which have preceded. The terms which Isaiah
employed in the commencement of his previous prophecies, were
vision (see the note at Isa_1:1), or word Isa_2:1. There has been
considerable diversity of opinion in regard to the meaning of the
word burden, which is here employed. The Vulgate renders it,
Onus - Burden, in the sense of load. The Septuagint Horasis -
Vision. The Chaldee,
The burden of the cup of malediction which draws near to
Babylon. The Hebrew word
mas's'a', from nas'a', to lift, to raise up, to bear, to bear
away, to suffer, to endure), means properly that which is borne;
that which is heavy; that which becomes a burden; and it is also
applied to a gift or present, as that which is borne to a man
2Ch_17:11.
It is also applied to a proverb or maxim, probably from the
weight and importance of the sentiment condensed in it Pro_30:1;
Pro_31:1. It is applied to an oracle from God 2Ki_4:25. It is often
translated burden Isa_15:1-9; Isa_19:1; Isa_21:11, Isa_21:13;
Isa_22:1; Isa_23:1; Isa_30:6; Isa_46:1; Jer_23:33-34, Jer_23:38;
Neh_1:1; Zec_1:1; Zec_12:1; Mal_1:1. By comparing these places, it
will be found that the term is applied to those oracles or
prophetic declarations which contain sentiments especially weighty
and solemn; which are employed chiefly in denouncing wrath and
calamity; and which, therefore, are represented as weighing down,
or oppressing the mind and heart of the prophet. A similar useage
prevails in all languages. We are all familiar with expressions
like this. We speak of news or tidings of so melancholy a nature as
to weigh down, to sink, or depress our spirits; so heavy that we
can scarcely bear up under it, or endure it. And so in this case,
the view which the prophet had of the awful judgments of God and of
the calamities which were coming upon guilty cities and nations,
was so oppressive, that it weighed down the mind and heart as a
heavy burden. Others, however, suppose that it means merely a
message or prophecy which is taken up, or borne, respecting a
place, and that the word indicates nothing in regard to the nature
of the message. So Rosenmuller, Gesenius, and Cocceius, understand
it. But it seems some the former interpretation is to be preferred.
Grotins renders it, A mournful prediction respecting Babylon.
Did see - Saw in a vision; or in a scenical representation. The
various events were made to pass before his mind in a vision, and
he was permitted to see the armies mustered; the consternation of
the people; and the future condition of the proud city. This verse
is properly the title to the prophecy.
-
2. CLARKE, The burden of Babylon - The prophecy that foretells
its destruction by the Medes and Persians: see the preceding
observations.
3. GILL, The burden of Babylon,.... That is, a prophecy
concerning Babylon, as the word is rendered, Pro_31:1. The
Septuagint and Arabic versions translate it "the vision"; it
signifies a taking up (w) a speech against it, and pronouncing a
heavy sentence on it, such an one as should sink it into utter
destruction; which will be the case of mystical Babylon, when it
shall be as a millstone cast into the sea, never to be brought up
again, Rev_18:21. The Targum is, "the burden of the cup of cursing
to give Babylon to drink:'' after some prophecies concerning the
Messiah and his kingdom, and the church's song of praise for
salvation by him, others are delivered out concerning the enemies
of the people of God, and their destruction, and begin with Babylon
the chief of these enemies, and into whose hands the people of
Israel would be delivered for a while; wherefore this prophecy is
given forth, in order to lay a foundation for comfort and relief,
when that should be their case; by which it would appear that they
should have deliverance from them by the same hand that should
overthrow them: which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see: by a spirit
of prophecy; for this he saw not with his bodily eyes, though it
was as clear and certain to him as if he had. The Targum is, "which
Isaiah the son of Amoz prophesied.''
4. HENRY, The general title of this book was, The vision of
Isaiah the son of Amoz, Isa_1:1.
Here we have that which Isaiah saw, which was represented to his
mind as clearly and fully as if
he had seen it with his bodily eyes; but the particular
inscription of this sermon is the burden of
Babylon. 1. It is a burden, a lesson they were to learn (so some
understand it), but they would be
loth to learn it, and it would be a burden to their memories, or
a load which should lie heavily
upon them and under which they should sink. Those that will not
make the word of God their
rest (Isa_28:12; Jer_6:16) shall find it made a burden to them.
2. It is the burden of Babylon or
Babel, which at this time was a dependent upon the Assyrian
monarchy (the metropolis of which
was Nineveh), but soon after revolted from it and became a
monarchy of itself, and a very potent
one, in Nebuchadnezzar. This prophet afterwards foretold the
captivity of the Jews in Babylon,
Isa_39:6. Here he foretels the reprisals God would make upon
Babylon for the wrongs done to
his people. In these verses a summons is given to those powerful
and warlike nations whom God
would make us of as the instruments of his wrath for the
destruction of Babylon: he afterwards
-
names them (Isa_13:17) the Medes, who, in conjunction with the
Persians, under the command
of Darius and Cyrus, were the ruin of the Babylonian
monarchy.
5. JAMISON, Isa_13:1-22. The thirteenth through twenty-third
chapters contain prophecies as to foreign nations. The thirteenth,
fourteenth, and twenty-seventh chapters contain prophecies as to
Babylon and Assyria. The predictions as to foreign nations are for
the sake of the covenant people, to preserve them
from despair, or reliance on human confederacies, and to
strengthen their faith in God: also in order to extirpate
narrow-minded nationality: God is Jehovah to Israel, not for
Israels sake alone, but that He may be thereby Elohim to the
nations. These prophecies are in their right chronological place,
in the beginning of Hezekiahs reign; then the nations of Western
Asia, on the Tigris and Euphrates, first assumed a most menacing
aspect.
burden weighty or mournful prophecy [Grotius]. Otherwise,
simply, the prophetical declaration, from a Hebrew root to put
forth with the voice anything, as in Num_23:7 [Maurer].
of Babylon concerning Babylon.
6. K&D, The heading in Isa_13:1, Oracle concerning Babel,
which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see, shows that chapter 13 forms
the commencement of another part of the whole book.
Massah (from ), efferre, then effari, Exo_20:7) signifies, as we
may see from 2Ki_9:25, effatum, the verdict or oracle, more
especially the verdict of God, and generally, perhaps always, the
judicial sentence of God,
(Note: In Zec_12:1. the promise has, at any rate, a dark side.
In Lam_2:14 there is no
necessity to think of promises in connection with the mas'oth;
and Pro_30:1 and Pro_31:1 cannot help us to determine the prophetic
use of the word.)
though without introducing the idea of onus (burden), which is
the rendering adopted by the Targum, Syriac, Vulgate, and Luther,
notwithstanding the fact that, according to Jer_23:33., it was the
scoffers who associated this idea with the word. In a book which
could throughout be traced to Isaiah, there could be no necessity
for it to be particularly stated, that it was to Isaiah that the
oracle was revealed, of which Babel was the object. We may
therefore see from this, that the prophecy relating to Babylon was
originally complete in itself, and was intended to be issued in
that form. But when the whole book was compiled, these headings
were retained as signal-posts of the separate portions of which it
was composed. Moreover, in the case before us, the retention of the
heading may be regarded as a providential arrangement. For if this
oracle of Babel lay before us in a separate form, and without the
name of Isaiah, we should not dare to attribute it to him, for the
simple reason that the overthrow of the Chaldean empire is here
distinctly announced, and that at a time when the Assyrian empire
was still standing. For this reason the majority of critics, from
the time of Rosenmller and Justi downwards, have regarded the
spuriousness of the prophecy as an established fact. But the
evidence which can be adduced in support of the testimony contained
in the heading is far too strong for it to be set aside: viz., (1.)
the descriptive style as well as the whole stamp of the prophecy,
which resembles the undisputed prophecies of Isaiah in a greater
variety of points than any passage that can be selected from any
other prophet. We will show this briefly, but yet amply, and as far
as the
-
nature of an exposition allows, against Knobel and others who
maintain the opposite. And (2.) the dependent relation of Zephaniah
and Jeremiah - a relation which the generally admitted muse-like
character of the former, and the imitative character of the latter,
render it impossible to invert. Both prophets show that they are
acquainted with this prophecy of Isaiah, as indeed they are with
all those prophecies which are set down as spurious. Sthelin, in
his work on the Messianic prophecies (Excursus iv), has endeavoured
to make out that the derivative passages in question are the
original passages; but stat pro ratione voluntas. Now, as the
testimony of the heading is sustained by such evidence as this, the
one argument adduced on the other side, that the prophecy has no
historical footing in the circumstances of Isaiah's times, cannot
prove anything at all. No doubt all prophecy rested upon an
existing historical basis. But we must not expect to be able to
point this out in the case of every single prophecy. In the time of
Hezekiah, as Isa_39:1-8 clearly shows (compare Mic_4:10), Isaiah
had become spiritually certain of this, that the power by which the
final judgment would be inflicted upon Judah would not be Asshur,
but Babel, i.e., an empire which would have for its centre that
Babylon, which was already the second capital of the Assyrian
empire and the seat of kings who, though dependent then, were
striving hard for independence; in other words, a Chaldean empire.
Towards the end of his course Isaiah was full of this prophetic
thought; and from it he rose higher and higher to the consoling
discovery that Jehovah would avenge His people upon Babel, and
redeem them from Babel, just as surely as from Asshur. The fact
that so far-reaching an insight was granted to him into the
counsels of God, was not merely founded on his own personality, but
rested chiefly on the position which he occupied in the midst of
the first beginnings of the age of great empires. Consequently,
according to the law of the creative intensity of all divinely
effected beginnings, he surveyed the whole of this long period as a
universal prophet outstripped all his successors down to the time
of Daniel, and left to succeeding ages not only such prophecies as
those we have already read, which had their basis in the history of
his own times and the historical fulfilment of which was not sealed
up, but such far distant and sealed prophecies as those which
immediately follow. For since Isaiah did not appear in public again
after the fifteenth year of Hezekiah, the future, as his book
clearly shows, was from that time forth his true home. Just as the
apostle says of the New Testament believer, that he must separate
himself from the world, and walk in heaven, so the Old Testament
prophet separated himself from the present of his own nation, and
lived and moved in its future alone.
7. BI, The prophets burden
Whenever we find the word burden in this association it means
oracle, a speech of doom; it is never connected with blessing,
hope, enlarged opportunity, or expanded liberty; it always means
that judgment is swiftly coming, and may at any moment burst upon
the thing that is doomed. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The power to see
Which Isaiah did see. How did he see it? The word see needs to
be defined every day. Blind men may see. We do not see with the
eyes only, else truly we should see very little; the whole body
becomes an eye when it is fun of light, and they who are holiest
see farthest. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God. Men see morally, intellectually, sympathetically, as well as
visually. How could Isaiah see this burden of Babylon when it did
not fall upon the proud city for two centuries! Is there, then, no
annihilation of time and space? Are we the mean prisoners we
thought ourselves to be is it so, that we are caged round by
invisible iron, and
-
sealed down by some oppressive power, or blinded by some
arbitrary or cruel shadow? We might see more if we looked in the
right direction; we might be masters of the centuries if we lived
with God. Isaiah is never weary of saying that he saw what he
affirms. He does not describe it as having been seen by some other
man; having written his record he signs it, or having begun to
deliver his prophecy he writes it as a man writes his will; he
begins by asserting that it is his testament, his own very witness,
for he was there, saw it, and he accepts the responsibility of
every declaration. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Babylon stands for the spirit of the world
In the New Testament, Babylon, more than any other city, stood
for the personification of the forces of the world against God. In
the history of Israel Babylon was the scourge of God to them. They
were as grain under the teeth of the threshing machine. In the
Captivity the Jews felt the weight of Babylons cruelty, so that in
the prophetic literature of the Exile, Babylon became the type of
oppression and of the insolence of material force. Thought is
carried back to primitive times in the Book of Genesis, in which
Babylon is pictured in the vain and arrogant attempt to rival God:
Go to, let us build us a city, and tower whose top may reach unto
heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon
the face of the whole earth. So deeply had the experience of
Babylons cruelty entered into the heart of Israel that even in the
New Testament, St. John, in the Book of Revelation, uses the word
Babylon to describe the material power of Rome. He could not get a
better word than just the old word Babylon to represent the
overwhelming force of the great Roman Empire, with its legions of
soldiers, with its policy which made the whole world a network of
nerves running back to their sensitive centre in the haughty city
on the Tiber. St. John saw past the glitter and the conquest, and
recognised in pagan Rome the mighty Babylon which lifts her impious
head against God. To him she was the scarlet woman; he heard, her
say in the pride of her heart, as the prophet had heard Babylon
say, I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Thus
the very name Babylon came to take on the religious signification
of the spirit of the world; it stood for the dead weight of the
material which resists the spirit. (Hugh Black, M. A.)
The doom of Babylon
Here the prophet pronounces doom upon the bloated empire which
seemed to stand so secure, and notes the evidence of weakness in
spite of apparent prosperity and careless trust in material
resources. Disregard of human rights, lusts, and selfishness and
pride of life, and the impious atheism which disregarded all this
he declared would all exact their inevitable price. Cruelty and
oppression would react upon the tyrant after their usual historic
fashion. The huge accumulations on which they rested would only
attract the foe, would weaken her hands in her hour of trial, and
make her, in spite of her wealth, an easy prey to the spoiler. To
Babylon would come a time when she would have more money than men.
It is a picture of absolute ruin which the prophet gives, when the
great city would be depopulated (Isa_13:12). (Hugh Black, M.
A.)
The Babylonian spirit
The Babylonian spirit has not left the world, and every great
civilisation (for it is not confined to one) is menaced in the same
way by the temptation of forgetfulness of God, cruelty of sheer
force, insolence of pride, and the empty trust of wealth. Our foes
are the old foes with a new face on them. (Hugh Black, M. A.)
-
8. CALVIN, 1. The burden of Babylon From this chapter down to
the twenty-fourth, the Prophet
foretells what dreadful and shocking calamities awaited the
Gentiles and those countries which were best
known to the Jews, either on account of their being contiguous
to them, or on account of the transactions
of commerce and alliances; and he does so not without weighty
reasons. When various changes are
taking place, some think that God sports with the affairs of
men, and others, that everything is directed by
the blind violence of fortune, as profane history sufficiently
testifies; very few are aware that these things
are appointed and regulated by the purpose of God. There is
nothing of which it is more difficult to
convince men than that the providence of God governs this world.
Many indeed acknowledge it in words,
but very few have it actually engraven on their heart. We
tremble and shudder at the very smallest
change, and we inquire into the causes, as if it depended on the
decision of men. What then shall be
done, when the whole world is thrown into commotion, and the
face of affairs is so completely changed in
various places, that it appears as if everything were going to
ruin?
It was therefore highly useful that Isaiah and other prophets
should discourse about calamities of this
nature, that all might understand that those calamities did not
take place but by the secret and wonderful
purpose of God. If they had uttered no prediction on those
subjects, such a disordered state of affairs
might have shaken and disturbed the minds of the godly; but when
they knew long beforehand that this
would happen, they had in the event itself a mirror of the
providence of God. When Babylon was taken,
which they had previously learned from the mouth of the Prophet,
their own experience taught them that
the prediction had not been made in vain, or without solid
grounds.
But there was also another reason why the Lord commanded that
the destruction of Babylon and other
nations should be foretold. These predictions were of no
advantage to Babylon or the other nations, and
these writings did not reach them; but by this consolation he
intended to alleviate the grief of the godly,
that they might not be discouraged, as if their condition were
worse than that of the Gentiles; which they
would have had good reason to conclude, if they had seen them
unpunished escape the hand of God. If
the monarchy of Babylon had remained unshaken, the Jews would
not only have thought that it was in
vain for them to worship God, and that his covenant which he had
made with Abraham had not been
fulfilled, since it fared better with strangers and wicked men
than with the elect people; but a worse
suspicion might have crept into their minds, that God showed
favor to accursed robbers, who gave
themselves up to deeds of dishonesty and violence, and despised
all law both human and divine. Indeed,
they might soon have come to think that God did not care for his
people, or could not assist them, or that
-
everything was directed by the blind violence of fortune.
Accordingly, that they might not faint or be
thrown into despair, the Prophet meets them with the consoling
influence of this prediction, showing that
the Babylonians also will be punished.
Besides, the comparison taught them how severe was the
punishment that awaited them, which they had
knowingly and willingly brought upon themselves. For if God
pronounces such dreadful threatenings
against the unbelieving and irreligious Gentiles, who wandered
in darkness, how much greater will be his
rigour and severity against a rebellious people who have
intentionally sinned against him!
The servant who knoweth his master will, and doeth it not, is
justly beaten with many stripes.
(Luk_12:47.)
Thus when God threatened such dreadful punishment against the
blind Gentiles, the Jews, who had been
instructed in the law, might behold as in a mirror what they had
deserved.
But the chief design which Isaiah had in view in these
predictions was, to point out to the Jews how dear
and valuable their salvation was in the sight of God, when they
saw that he undertook their cause and
revenged the injuries which had been done to them. He spoke
first of the desolation and ruin that would
befall the kingdom of Judah and of Israel, because judgment must
begin at the house of God. (1Pe_4:17.)
God takes a peculiar care of his own people, and gives his chief
attention to them. Whenever therefore
we read these predictions, let us learn to apply them to our
use. The Lord does not indeed, at the present
day, foretell the precise nature of those events which shall
befall kingdoms and nations; but yet the
government of the world, which he undertook, is not abandoned by
him. Whenever therefore we behold
the destruction of cities, the calamities of nations, and the
overturning of kingdoms, let us call those
predictions to remembrance, that we may be humbled under God
chastisements, may learn to gather
wisdom from the affliction of others, and may pray for an
alleviation of our own grief.
The burden. As to the word burden, which frequently occurs, I
shall state briefly in what sense it ought to
be understood. It was generally employed by the prophets of God,
whenever they threatened any
afflictive event, in order to inform the people that no
afflictive event happened which the Lord himself did
not lay as a burden on men shoulders. The wickedness and
obstinacy of the people having constrained
the prophets to preach incessantly about God chastisements, the
consequence was, that as a matter of
ordinary jesting they called all the prophecies by the name of a
burden; as is evident from Jer_23:36,
where the Lord kindles into fierce indignation, because they not
only spoke of his word contemptuously,
but also held it up to dislike. This word makes known to the
godly, that the Lord appoints all calamities
and afflictions, that every one may suffer the punishment of his
own sin.
-
Which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw. He expressly states that
what he is about to utter was revealed to
him by a heavenly vision, that the weight which is thus given to
it may render it victorious over all the
judgments pronounced by the flesh. It was difficult to believe
that a monarchy so flourishing, and so
prodigiously rich, could be overturned in any way. Their eyes
being dazzled by beholding such vast
power, the Prophet draws away their attention from it to believe
the heavenly revelation, that they may
expect by faith the judgment of God which they could not
comprehend by the unaided exercise of their
own minds.
9. PULPIT, THE BURDEN OF BABYLON. The series of prophecies which
commences with this chapter and continues to the close of
Isa_23:1-18; is connected together by the word massa, burden. It
has been argued that the term "burden" is an incorrect translation
of massa, as used by Isaiah and later prophets (Nah_1:1;
Hab_1:1;Zec_9:1; Zec_12:1; Mal_1:1); and that "utterance," or
"prophecy," would be more suitable (comp. Pro_30:1; Pro_31:1, where
massa is thus rendered in the Authorized Version). But the facts
remain that massa means a "burden" in the ordinary sense, and that
the prophecies to which it is prefixed are generally (in Isaiah
always) of a denunciatory character. The translation may therefore
be allowed to standat any rate in the present chapter. It is
remarkable that Babylon heads the list of the Church's enemies in
the present catalogue. Dr. Kay supposes the term "Babel" to be
equivalent to "Asshur-Babel," and to designate "the
Assyro-Babylonian Empire." He thinks that "Babel" heads the list on
account of Assyria's position, under Tiglath-Pileser and
Shalmaneser, in the van of Israel's adversaries. But neither Isaiah
nor any other sacred writer knows of an Assyro-Babylonian kingdom
or empire. Assyria and Babylonia are distinct kingdoms in Genesis
(Gen_10:8-12), in 2 Kings (18-20.), in 2 Chronicles (2Ch_20:12.),
in Isaiah (36-39.) and in Ezekiel (23; 30; 31.). They had been at
war almost continuously for above seven centuries before the time
of Isaiah. Assyria had, on the whole, proved the stronger of the
two, and had from time to time for a longer or a shorter period
held Babylonia in subjection. But the two countries were never more
one than Russia and Poland, and, until Tiglath-Pileser assumed the
crown of Babylon in 729 B.C; they bad always been under separate
monarchs. Individually, I can only account for the high position
here given to Babylon by the prophet, on the supposition that it
was thus early revealed to him that Babylonia was the great enemy
to be fearedthe ultimate destroyer of Judah and Jerusalem, the
power that would carry the Jewish people into captivity.
Isa_13:1
Which Isaiah J did see (comp. Isa_1:1; Isa_2:1, etc.). Isaiah
always "sees" his prophecies, whether they are of the nature of
visions (as Isa_6:1-13.) or the contrary. The word is probably used
to express the strong conviction that he has of their absolute
certainty.
10. EBC, PROPHECIES NOT RELATING TO ISAIAHS TIME
In the first thirty-nine chapters of the Book of Isaiah-the half
which refers to the prophets own career and the politics
contemporary with that - we find four or five prophecies containing
no reference to Isaiah himself nor to any Jewish king under whom he
laboured, and painting both Israel and the foreign world in quite a
different state from that in which they lay during his lifetime.
These prophecies are chapter 13, an Oracle announcing the Fall of
Babylon, with its appendix, Isa_14:1-23, the Promise of Israels
Deliverance and an Ode upon the Fall of the Babylonian Tyrant;
chapters 24-27, a series of Visions of the breaking up of the
universe, of
-
restoration from exile, and even of resurrection from the dead;
chapter 34, the Vengeance of the Lord upon Edom; and chapter 35, a
Song of Return from Exile.
In these prophecies Assyria is no longer the dominant
world-force, nor Jerusalem the inviolate fortress of God and His
people. If Assyria or Egypt is mentioned, it is but as one of the
three classical enemies of Israel; and Babylon is represented as
the head and front of the hostile world. The Jews are no longer in
political freedom and possession of their own land; they are either
in exile or just returned from it to a depopulated country. With
these altered circumstances come another temper and new doctrine.
The horizon is different, and the hopes that flush in dawn upon it
are not quite the same as those which we have contemplated with
Isaiah in his immediate future. It is no longer the repulse of the
heathen invader; the inviolateness of the sacred city; the recovery
of the people from the shock of attack, and of the land from the
trampling of armies. But it is the people in exile, the overthrow
of the tyrant in his own home, the opening of prison doors, the
laying down of a highway through the wilderness, the triumph of
return, and the resumption of worship. There is, besides, a promise
of the resurrection, which we have not found in the prophecies we
have considered.
With such differences, it is not wonderful that many have denied
the authorship of these few prophecies to Isaiah. This is a
question that can be looked at calmly. It touches no dogma of the
Christian faith. Especially it does not involve the other question,
so often-and, we venture to say, so unjustly-started on this point,
Could not the Spirit of God have inspired Isaiah to foresee all
that the prophecies in question foretell, even though he lived more
than a century before the people were in circumstances to
understand them? Certainly, God is almighty. The question is not,
Could He have done this? but one somewhat different: Did He do it?
and to this an answer can be had only from the prophecies
themselves. If these mark the Babylonian hostility or captivity as
already upon Israel, this is a testimony of Scripture itself, which
we cannot overlook, and beside which even unquestionable traces of
similarity to Isaiahs style or the fact that these oracles are
bound up with Isaiahs own undoubted prophecies have little weight.
"Facts" of style will be regarded with suspicion by any one who
knows how they are employed by both sides in such a question as
this; while the certainty that the Book of Isaiah was put into its
present form subsequently to his life will permit of, -and the
evident purpose of Scripture to secure moral impressiveness rather
than historical consecutiveness will account for, -later oracles
being bound up with unquestioned utterances of Isaiah.
Only one of the prophecies in question confirms the tradition
that it is by Isaiah, viz., chapter 13, which bears the title
"Oracle of Babylon which Isaiah, son of Amoz, did see"; but titles
are themselves so much the report of tradition, being of a later
date than the rest of the text, that it is best to argue the
question apart from them.
On the other hand, Isaiahs authorship of these prophecies, or at
least the possibility of his having written them, is usually
defended by appealing to his promise of return from exile in
chapter 11 and his threat of a Babylonish captivity in chapter 39.
This is an argument that has not been fairly met by those who deny
the Isaianic authorship of chapters 13-14, 23, 24-28, and 35. It is
a strong argument, for while, as we have seen, there are good
grounds for believing Isaiah to have been likely to make such a
prediction of a Babylonish captivity as is attributed to him in
Isa_39:6, almost all the critics agree in leaving chapter 11 to
him. But if chapter 11 is Isaiahs, then he undoubtedly spoke of an
exile much more extensive than had taken place by his own day.
Nevertheless, even this ability in 11 to foretell an exile so vast
does not account for passages in 13-14:23, 24-27, which represent
the Exile either as present or as actually over. No one who reads
these chapters without prejudice can fail to feel the force of such
passages in leading him to decide for an exilic or post-exilic
authorship.
Another argument against attributing these prophecies to Isaiah
is that their visions of the last things, representing as they do a
judgment on the whole world, and even the destruction of the
-
whole material universe, are incompatible with Isaiahs loftiest
and final hope of an inviolate Zion at last relieved and secure, of
a land freed from invasion and wondrously fertile, with all the
converted world, Assyria and Egypt, gathered round it as a centre.
This question, however, is seriously complicated by the fact that
in his youth Isaiah did undoubtedly prophesy a shaking of the whole
world and the destruction of its inhabitants, and by the
probability that his old age survived into a period whose abounding
sin would again make natural such wholesale predictions of judgment
as we find in chapter 24.
Still, let the question of the eschatology be as obscure as we
have shown, there remains this clear issue. In some chapters of the
Book of Isaiah, which, from our knowledge of the circumstances of
his times, we know must have been published while he was alive, we
learn that the Jewish people has never left its land, nor lost its
independence under Jehovahs anointed, and that the inviolateness of
Zion and the retreat of the Assyrian invaders of Judah, without
effecting the captivity of the Jews, are absolutely essential to
the endurance of Gods kingdom on earth. In other chapters we find
that the Jews have left their land, have been long in exile (or
from other passages have just returned), and that the religious
essential is no more the independence of the Jewish State under a
theocratic king, but only the resumption of the Temple worship. Is
it possible for one man to have written both these sets of
chapters? Is it possible for one age to. have produced them? That
is the whole question.
Isaiah 13:1-14:23
BABYLON AND LUCIFER
DATE UNCERTAIN
THIS double oracle is against the City (Isa_13:2-22; Isa_14:1-2)
and the Tyrant (Isa_14:3-23) of Babylon.
I. THE WICKED CITY
(Isa_13:2-22; Isa_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" (Isa_13:2). He who gives
the order explains it (Isa_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 persons name. And therefore, as
with every dawn some one awakes saying, This is my day; as with
every dawn comes some ones 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 Isa_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 Babylons ruin and abandonment to wild beasts. Finally
(Isa_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 worlds
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 mens cunning, and in His
armies agents impervious to mens 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
Gods 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 mans history when, in opposition to mans unholy art and
godless civilisation, God can reveal Himself only as
destruction.
II. THE TYRANT
(Isa_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 Isa_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 Virgils or of Dantes 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 (Isa_14:9), and with consciousness and passion only
sufficient to greet the arrival of the newcomer and express satiric
wonder at his fall (Isa_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 prophets 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
(Isa_14:13) of the deeps 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" (Isa_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. Mans 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 Isa_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 Isa_14:19
to Isa_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,
Lebanons 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 bitterns heritage,
Marshes of water!
And I will sweep it with sweeps of destruction.
Sayeth Jehovah of hosts.
-
2 Raise a banner on a bare hilltop,
shout to them;
beckon to them
to enter the gates of the nobles.
1.BARNES, Lift ye up a banner - A military ensign or standard.
The vision opens here; and the first thing which the prophet hears,
is the solemn command of God addressed to the nations as subject to
him, to rear the standard of war, and to gather around it the
mighty armies which were to be employed in the destruction of the
city. This command, Lift ye up a banner, is addressed to the
leaders of those armies to assemble them, and to prepare them for
war.
Upon the high mountain - It was customary for military leaders
to plant a standard on a tower, a fortress, a city, a high
mountain, or any elevated spot, in order that it might be seen
afar, and be the rallying point for the people to collect together
(see the note at Isa_11:10). Here, the prophet does not refer to
any particular mountain, but means simply, that a standard should
be raised, around which the hosts should be assembled to march to
Babylon. The Chaldee renders it, Over the city dwelling in
security, lift up the banner.
Exalt the voice - Raise up the voice, commanding the people to
assemble, and to prepare for
the march against Babylon, Perhaps, however, the word voice here
( qol) refers to the clangor, or sound, of a trumpet used for
mustering armies. The word is often used to denote any noise, and
is frequently applied to thunder, to the trumpet, etc.
Unto them - That is, to the Medes and Persians, who were to be
employed in the destruction of Babylon.
Shake the hand - In the way of beckoning; as when one is at so
great a distance that the voice cannot be heard, the hand is waved
for a sign. This was a command to beckon to the nations to assemble
for the destruction of Babylon.
That they may go into the gates of the nobles - The word
rendered here nobles (
ned)yb)ym) means, properly, voluntary, free, liberal; then those
who are noble, or liberally-minded, from the connection between
nobleness and liberality; then those who are noble or elevated in
rank or office. In this sense it is used here; compare Job_12:21;
Job_34:18; 1Sa_2:8; Psa_107:40; and Pro_8:16, where it is rendered
princes; Num_21:18, where it is rendered nobles. Lowth renders it
here princes. Noyes renders it tyrants - a sense which the word has
in Job_21:28 (see the note at that place). There is no doubt that
it refers to Babylon; and the prophet designs probably to speak of
Babylon as a magnificent city - a city of princes, or nobles. The
Chaldee renders it, That they may enter its gates, which open to
them of their own accord; retaining the original signification of
voluntariness in the Hebrew word, and expressing the idea that the
conquest would be easy. Our common translation has expressed the
correct sense.
-
2. CLARKE, Exalt the voice - The word lahem, to them, which is
of no use, and rather weakens the sentence, is omitted by an
ancient MS., and the Vulgate.
3. GILL, Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain,.... Or
"upon the mountain Nishphah"; some high mountain in Media or
Persia, proper to set a standard on, or erect a banner for the
gathering men together, to enlist themselves as soldiers, and so
form an army to march into the land of Chaldea. Vitringa thinks
there may be an allusion to the mountain Zagrius, which divides
Media and Persia from Assyria, mentioned by Strabo (x). Or "upon a
high mountain"; any high mountain fit for such a purpose; or
"against the high mountain", as some (y) read it; meaning Babylon,
called a mountain, Jer_51:25 not because of its situation, for it
was in a plain; but because of its eminence above other cities and
states. The Targum is, "against the city that dwells securely, lift
up a sign;'' a token of war, proclaim war against it, that lives at
ease, and is in peace; and so the word is used in the Talmudic
language, as Kimchi observes; and to this agrees Jarchi's note, "to
gather against the mountain that is quiet, and trusts in its
tranquillity, lift up a banner to the nations.'' Exalt the voice
unto them; the Medes, mentioned by name in Isa_13:17 such as were
within call, or were gathered together by the lifting up of the
banner; such were to be urged with great vehemency to enlist
themselves, and engage in a war against Babylon: shake the hand;
beckon with it to them that are afar off, that cannot hear the
voice: that they may go into the gates of the nobles; that dwell in
the city of Babylon, where they might expect to find rich plunder;
though some understand this of the nobles or princes of the Medes
and Persians, as Kimchi observes, that should enter through the
gates of Babylon into the city; and by others it is interpreted of
the soldiers coming to the doors of the leaders or generals of the
army, to give in their names, and enlist themselves in their
service; which well agrees with what goes before.
4. HENRY, The place doomed to destruction is Babylon; it is here
called the gates of the nobles (Isa_13:2), because of the abundance
of noblemen's houses that were in it, stately ones and richly
furnished, which would invite the enemy to come, in hopes of a rich
booty. The gates of nobles were strong and well guarded, and yet
they would be no fence against those who came with commission to
execute God's judgments. Before his power and wrath palaces are no
more than cottages. Nor is it only the gates of the nobles, but the
whole land, that is doomed to destruction (Isa_13:5); for, though
the nobles were the leaders in persecuting and oppressing God's
people, yet the whole land concurred with them in it.
5. JAMISON, Lift ... banner (Isa_5:26; Isa_11:10).
-
the high mountain rather, a bare (literally, bald, that is,
without trees) mountain; from it the banner could be seen afar off,
so as to rally together the peoples against Babylon.
unto them unto the Medes (Isa_13:17), the assailants of Babylon.
It is remarkable that Isaiah does not foretell here the Jews
captivity in Babylon, but presupposes that event, and throws
himself beyond, predicting another event still more future, the
overthrow of the city of Israels oppressors. It was now one hundred
seventy-four years before the event.
shake ... hand beckon with the hand - wave the hand to direct
the nations to march against Babylon.
nobles Babylonian. Rather, in a bad sense, tyrants; as in
Isa_14:5, rulers in parallelism to the wicked; and Job_21:28
[Maurer].
6. K&D, The prophet hears a call to war. From whom it
issues, and to whom or against whom it is directed, still remains a
secret; but this only adds to the intensity.On woodless mountain
lift ye up a banner, call to them with loud sounding voice, shake
the hand, that they may enter into gates of princes! The summons is
urgent: hence a threefold signal, viz., the
banner-staff planted on a mountain made bald (nishpeh, from
which comes shephi, which only occurs in Isaiah and Jeremiah), the
voice raised high, and the shaking of the hand, denoting a violent
beckoning - all three being favourite signs with Isaiah. The
destination of this army is to
enter into a city of princes (nedb m, freemen, nobles, princes,
Psa_107:40, cf., Psa_113:8), namely, to enter as conquerors; for it
is not the princes who invite them, but Jehovah.
7.PULPIT, Lift ye up a banner; rather, a standard"an ensign," as
in Isa_5:26 : Isa_11:12. "Ensigns"
were used both by the Assyrians and the Egyptians. "Banners," or
flags, do not seem to have been
employed in the ancient world. Upon the high mountain; rather,
upon a bare mountainone that was
clear of trees, so that the signal might be the better seen from
it. God's army having to be summoned
against Babylon, the summons is made in three ways:
(1) by a signal or ensign lifted up on a high hill;
(2) by a loud call or shout; and
(3) by waving or beckoning with the hand.
The whole description is, of course, pure metaphor. That they
may go into the gates of the nobles.
Either that they may enter into the palaces of the grandees in
Babylon, or that they may take the towns of
the tributary princes.
-
8. CALVIN, 2.Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain. The
word mountain contains a metaphor;
for the discourse relates to Babylon, which, we know, was
situated on a plain; but with a view to its
extensive dominion, he has assigned to it an elevated situation,
like a fortress set on high above all
nations. But perhaps it will be thought better to take the word
mountain as used indefinitely; as if he had
said, a signal is given there will be a vast assemblage from
very distant countries, because all men will
be attracted towards it by the wide and extensive influence of
the sight; and, indeed, I consider this
opinion to be more probable, but I chose to mention at first the
opinion which had been commonly
received. Yet it might be thought absurd that the Prophet here
enjoins the creatures to yield, as it were,
obedience to him, if God had not fortified the Prophet by his
instructions and authority. A private man here
commands the Medes and Persians, assembles armies, orders a
banner to be lifted up, and sounds the
trumpet for battle.
This should therefore lead us to consider the majesty of God, in
whose name he spoke, and likewise the
power and efficacy which is always joined with the word. Such
modes of expression are frequently found
in the Prophets, that, by placing the events as it were before
our eyes, he may enable us to see that God
threatens nothing by his servants which he is not ready
immediately to execute. Isaiah might indeed have
threatened in plain and direct terms, Persians and Medes will
come, and will burst through the gates
of Babylon, notwithstanding the prodigious strength of its
fortifications. But those exclamations are far
more energetic, when he not only assumes the character of a
herald and proclaims war, but, as if he
exercised the highest authority, orders the Medes and Persians
to assemble like hired soldiers. Not only
does he show that they will be ready at the bidding of God,
because they are moved by his secret
influence; but, having been sent by God to announce the ruin of
Babylon, he claims for his own voice the
accomplishment of what appeared to be beyond belief. It amounts
to this, God hath spoken about what
shall happen, we ought to entertain no doubt concerning it. It
deserves our notice also, that he describes
the Persians and Medes, without mentioning their names; for that
threatening is more emphatic, when he
points them out, as it were, with the finger, as when we say,
and that man. This contributes to the
certainty of the prophecy, when he points out such distant
events as if they were at hand.
Shake the hand, that they may enter within the gates of the
nobles. When he says, Shake the hand, and
they shall enter, he means that the Persians and Medes shall no
sooner begin to advance at the
command of God than their road shall be plain and easy in spite
of every obstruction. Though the
Hebrews call Princes, (Nedibim,) that is, generous and
bountiful, on which is also founded that
saying of Christ, , they are called benefactors, (Luk_22:25,)
yet I think that the
Prophet draws our attention to the splendor of power in which
the Babylonians gloried. They were
furnished above others with forces and warlike armaments, so
that it appeared to be incredible that they
-
could ever be vanquished. But the Prophet threatens that nothing
shall hinder God from opening up a
way and entrance to the enemies.
3 I have commanded those I prepared for battle;
I have summoned my warriors to carry out my
wrath
those who rejoice in my triumph.
1.BARNES, I have commanded - This is the language of God in
reference to those who were about to destroy Babylon. He claimed
the control and direction of all their movements; and though the
command was not understood by them as coming from him, yet it was
by his direction, and in accordance with his plan (compare the
notes at Isa_10:7; Isa_45:5-6). The command was not given by the
prophets, or by an audible voice; but it was his secret purpose and
direction that led them to this enterprise.
My sanctified ones - The Medes and Persians; not called
sanctified because they were holy, but because they were set apart
by the divine intention and purpose to accomplish this. The
word sanctify ( qadash) often means to set apart - either to
God; to an office; to any sacred use; or to any purpose of
religion, or of accomplishing any of the divine plans. Thus, it
means to dedicate one to the office of priest Exo_28:41; to set
apart or dedicate an altar Exo_39:36; to dedicate a people
Exo_19:10-14; to appoint, or institute a fast Joe_1:14; Joe_2:15;
to sanctify a war Joe_3:9, that is, to prepare ones-self for it, or
make it ready. Here it means, that the Medes and Persians were set
apart, in the purpose of God, to accomplish his designs in regard
to Babylon (compare the note at Isa_10:5-6).
My mighty ones - Those who are strong; and who are so entirely
under my direction, that they may be called mine.
For mine anger - To accomplish the purposes of my anger against
Babylon.
Even them that rejoice in my highness - It cannot be supposed
that the Medes and Persians really exulted, or rejoiced in God or
in his plans, for it is evident that, like Sennacherib Isa. 10,
they were seeking to accomplish their own purposes, and were not
solicitous about the
plans of God (compare the note at Isa_47:6). The word rendered
my highness ( ga'a.va0
th)y) means, properly, my majesty, or glory. When applied to
people, as it often is, it means pride or arrogance. It means here,
the high and exalted plan of God in regard to Babylon. It was a
mighty undertaking; and one in which the power, the justice, and
the dominion of God over nations would be evinced. In accomplishing
this, the Medes and Persians would rejoice or exult, not as the
fulfilling of the plan of God; but they would exult as if it were
their own plan, though it would be really the glorious plan of God.
Wicked people often exult in their success; they glory in the
execution of their purposes; but they are really accomplishing the
plans of God, and executing his great designs.
-
2. CLARKE, I have commanded my sanctified ones - mekuddashai,
the persons
consecrated to this very purpose. Nothing can be plainer than
that the verb kadash, to make holy, signifies also to consecrate or
appoint to a particular purpose. Bishop Lowth translates, my
enrolled warriors. This is the sense.
3. GILL, I have commanded my sanctified ones,.... The Medes and
Persians, so called, not because sanctified by the Spirit of God,
or made holy persons, through the regenerating and renewing grace
of God, or purified by the blood of Christ, and prepared for glory;
but because they were set apart in the mind and counsel of God for
a special work and service, and were qualified by him with courage
and strength to perform it, and therefore said to be his; and this
command that was given them was not by a voice from heaven, or in a
message by one of his prophets; but by a secret instinct, and, by
the power of his providence, stirring them up to engage in such an
enterprise (z). I have also called my mighty ones; meaning Cyrus
and Darius, and the officers of their armies, with the common
soldiers, who were furnished with might and strength to do his
will, to which they were called in his providence: for mine anger;
to execute his wrath upon the Babylonians; so the Targum, "that
they may avenge my wrath upon them:'' or, "in mine anger"; which
being stirred up, put him upon calling those mighty ones to his
service, and fitting them for it: literally it is, "to my nose"
(a); to be before him, to be at his beck and will, and to minister
his wrath and vengeance: even them that rejoice in my highness; in
doing that which tended to the exaltation and glory of God; they
went cheerfully about the work, and exulted and triumphed in their
success: or, "that rejoice my highness" (b); make me glad, because
I am glorified by them. So seven angels, the Lord's holy and mighty
ones, will be employed in pouring out the vials of his wrath on
mystical Babylon, Rev_15:1.
4. HENRY, The persons brought together to lay Babylon waste are
here called, 1. God's sanctified ones (Isa_13:3), designed for this
service and set apart to it by the purpose and providence of God,
disengaged from other projects, that they might wholly apply
themselves to this, such as were qualified for that to which they
were called, for what work God employs men in he does in some
measure fit them for. It intimates likewise that in God's
intention, though not in theirs, it was a holy war; they designed
only the enlargement of their own empire, but God designed the
release of his people and a type of the destruction of the New
Testament Babylon. Cyrus, the person principally concerned, was
justly called a sanctified one, for he was God's anointed
(Isa_45:1) and a figure of him that was to come. It is a pity but
all soldiers, especially those that fight the Lord's battles,
should be in the strictest sense sanctified ones; and it is a
wonder that those dare be profane ones who carry their lives in
their hands. 2. They are called
-
God's mighty ones, because they had their might from God and
were now to use it for him. It is said of Cyrus that in this
expedition God held his right hand, Isa_45:1. God's sanctified ones
are his mighty ones. Those whom God calls he qualifies; and those
whom he makes holy he makes strong in spirit. 3. They are said to
rejoice in his highness, that is, to serve his glory and the
purposes of it with great alacrity. Though Cyrus did not know God,
nor actually design his honour in what he did, yet God used him as
his servant (Isa_45:4, I have surnamed thee as my servant, though
thou hast not known me), and he rejoiced in those successes by
which God exalted his own name. 4. They are very numerous, a
multitude, a great people, kingdoms of nations (Isa_13:4), not rude
and barbarous, but modelled and regular troops, such as are
furnished out by well-ordered kingdoms. The great God has hosts at
his command. 5. They are far-fetched: They come from a far country,
from the end of heaven. The vast country of Assyria lay between
Babylon and Persia. God can make those a scourge and ruin to his
enemies that lie most remote from them and therefore are least
dreaded.
5. JAMISON, sanctified ones the Median and Persian soldiers
solemnly set apart by Me for the destruction of Babylon, not
inwardly sanctified, but designated to fulfil Gods holy purpose
(Jer_51:27, Jer_51:28; Joe_3:9, Joe_3:11; where the Hebrew for
prepare war is sanctify war).
for mine anger to execute it.
rejoice in my highness Those who are made to triumph for My
honor [Horsley]. The heathen Medes could not be said to rejoice in
Gods highness Maurer translates, My haughtily exulting ones
(Zep_3:11); a special characteristic of the Persians [Herodotus,
1.88]. They rejoiced in their own highness, but it was His that
they were unconsciously glorifying.
6. K&D, I have summoned my sanctified ones, also called my
heroes to my wrath, my proudly rejoicing ones. To my wrath is to be
explained in accordance with Isa_10:5. To
execute His wrath He had summoned His sanctified ones
(mekuddashim), i.e., according to Jer_22:7 (compare Jer_51:27-28),
those who had already been solemnly consecrated by Him to go into
the battle, and had called the heroes whom He had taken into His
service, and who were His instruments in this respect, that they
rejoiced with the pride of men intoxicated with victory
(vid., Zep_1:7, cf., Isa_3:11). is a word peculiarly Isaiah's;
and the combination 8 is so unusual, that we could hardly expect to
find it employed by two authors who stood in no relation whatever
to one another.
7. PULPIT, I have commanded my sanctified ones. The pronoun "I"
is emphatic"I myself." Not only
will an external summons go forth, but God will lay his own
orders on them whom he chooses for his
instruments, and bid them come to the muster. All who carry out
his purposes are, in a certain sense,
"sanctified ones" (comp.Jer_22:7; Jer_51:27; Zep_1:7, etc.).
Here the Modes and Persians are specially
in. tended (see Isa_13:17). For mine anger; i.e. "for the
purpose of executing my anger." Even them
that rejoice in my highness; rather, my proudly exultant ones
(Cheyne, Rosenmller,
-
Gesenius). AEschylus calls the Persians ; Herodotus, (1. 41).
The high spirits,
however, natural to gallant soldiers on going out to war, rather
than any special haughtiness or arrogancy,
are intended.
8. CALVIN, 3.I have commanded my sanctified ones. (198) Here the
Prophet introduces the Lord as
speaking and issuing his commands. He calls the Medes and
Persians sanctified ones, that is, those
whom he has prepared. The verb (kadash) is used in various
senses; for sometimes it refers to the
spirit of regeneration, and this belongs peculiarly to the elect
of God. But sometimes it means
to wish or prepare, and that meaning is more appropriate to this
passage. All who are created by the Lord
are likewise appointed by him for a fixed purpose. He does not
throw down men at random on the earth,
to go wherever they please, but guides all by his secret
purpose, and regulates and controls the violent
passions of the reprobate, so as to drive them in whatever
manner he thinks fit, and to check and restrain
them according to his pleasure. He therefore calls them
sanctified ones, apart and prepared to execute
his will, though they had no such intention. Hence also we are
taught to ascribe to the secret judgment of
God all violent commotions, and this yields wonderful
consolation; for whatever attempts may be made by
wicked men, yet they will accomplish nothing but what the Lord
has decreed.
I have also called my mighty ones. The phrase, I have called,
conveys more than the phrase, I have
commanded, which he had used in the former clause. It means that
they will be roused to action, not only
at the bidding of God, but by the very sound of his voice; as if
I were to call a person to me, and he were
immediately to follow. He threatens, therefore, that Babylon
shall be destroyed by the Medes and
Persians, in the same manner as if they obeyed the call of God;
for though they were prompted to battle
by their own ambition, pride, and cruelty, yet God directed
them, without knowing it, to execute his
judgment.
(198) My appointed ones. (kadash) is to select and set apart for
a work, particularly for one of God
appointment. See Jer_22:7, Zep_1:7. Stock
FT190 The LORD and the weapons of his indignation. Eng. Ver.
FT191 From the Almighty. Eng. Ver.
FT192 (shod mishshaddai). This title of God is here employed for
the sake of the
-
alliteration, destruction from the destroyer, from him who is
all-powerful to destroy ( ) (shadad) as well
as to save. Rosenmuller
FT193 By a happy coincidence, the English word panic conveys
exactly the meaning of the Latin
adjective Panicus , which is here said to be derived from the
name of the heathen God Pan, the god of
the mountains, cattle, &c. Ed
FT194 Their faces shall be as flames. (Heb. faces of the
flames.) Eng. Ver. Faces of flames shall be
their faces. Stock
FT195 See Xen. Cyr., book 7, chapter 5.
FT196 Jarchi quotes the words, to add the drunken to the
thirsty, (Deu_29:19,)add year to year,
(Isa_29:1,) and add burnt-offerings to your sacrifices,
(Jer_7:21,) and his annotator Breithaupt translates
the verb (saphah) by a word in his native French, accueillir ,
which means togather, or flock together.
Ed
FT197 Which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall
not delight in it. Eng. Ver.
FT198 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces. Eng.
Ver.
FT199Shall be as when God overthrew. (Heb. as the
overthrowing.)--Eng. Ver.
FT200 But wild beasts of the desert (Heb. Ziim) shall lie there.
Eng. Ver.
FT201 It is a gratifying proof of the progress of knowledge and
of the decay of superstition, that such
words as Hobgoblins, Hob-thrushes, Robin-goodfellows, and even
Fairies, answering to the grotesque
names which Calvin has brought from his own vernacular, have
grown antiquated, and are not likely to be
replaced by terms of modern date. Howell definition of
Loup-garou is a curious record of superstitious
belief. mankind Wolfe, such a one as once being flesht on men,
and children, will rather starve than feed
on any thing else; also, one that, possessed with an extream and
strange melancholy, beleeves he is
turned Wolfe, and as a Wolfe behaves himselfe, etc. Ed
FT202 And the wild beasts of the islands (Heb. Iim) shall cry.
Eng. Ver.
FT203 And hyoenas shall cry in their palaces, and jackals in
their tabernacles of delight. Stock
-
4 Listen, a noise on the mountains,
like that of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations massing together!
The LORD Almighty is mustering
an army for war.
1.BARNES, The noise of a multitude in the mountains - The
prophet here represents himself as hearing the confused tumult of
the nations assembling to the standard reared on the mountains
Isa_13:2. This is a highly beautiful figure - a graphic and vivid
representation of the scene before him. Nations are seen to hasten
to the elevated banner, and to engage in active preparations for
the mighty war. The sound is that of a tumult, an excited multitude
hastening to the encampment, and preparing for the conquest of
Babylon.
Like as of a great people - Hebrew, The likeness of a great
people. That is, such a confused and tumultuous sound as attends a
great multitude when they collect together.
A tumultuous noise - Hebrew, The voice of the tumultuous noise
of the kingdoms of nations gathered together.
The Lord of hosts - Yahweh, the God of hosts, or armies (note
Isa_1:9).
Mustereth - Collects; puts in military array. Over all this
multitude of nations, hastening with confused sounds and tumult
like the noise of the sea, putting themselves in military array,
God, unseen, presides, and prepares them for his own great designs.
It is not easy to conceive a more sublime image than these mighty
hosts of war, unconscious of the hand that directs them, and of the
God that presides over them, moving as he wills, and accomplishing
his plans.
2. CLARKE, Of the battle For the battle - The Bodleian MS. has
lemilchamah. Cyruss army was made up of many different nations.
Jeremiah calls it an assembly of great nations from the north
country, Jer_50:9. And afterwards mentions the kingdoms of Ararat,
Minni, and Ashchenaz, (i.e. Armenia, Corduene, Pontus or Phrygia,
Vitring.), with the kings of the Medes, Jer_51:27, Jer_51:28. See
Xenophon. Cyrop.
3. GILL, The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a
great people,.... That is, like the noise of a very numerous
people; this noise was heard either on the mountains
-
of Media, where they flocked in vast numbers to the standard
set; or on the mountains upon the borders of Chaldea, when the army
under Cyrus was marching towards Babylon: a tumultuous noise of the
kingdoms of nations gathered together; for Cyrus's army consisted
of several kingdoms and nations; for besides the thirty thousand
Persians he brought with him into Media, where he was made general
of the Medes also, and was sent with the joint forces of both
nations against Babylon, the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and
Ashchenaz, were prepared, gathered together, and called forth
against it, Jer_51:27, the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the
battle; or the warlike army: it was the Lord, that has the armies
of heaven and earth at his command, who in his providence caused
such a numerous army to be formed, directed them where to march,
and put them in battle array, and gave them the victory.
4. HENRY, The summons given them is effectual, their obedience
ready, and they make a very formidable appearance: A banner is
lifted up upon the high mountain, Isa_13:2. God's standard is set
up, a flag of defiance hung out against Babylon. It is erected on
high, where all may see it; whoever will may come and enlist
themselves under it, and they shall be taken immediately into God's
pay. Those that beat up for volunteers must exalt the voice in
making proclamation, to encourage soldiers to come in; they must
shake the hand, to beckon those at a distance and to animate those
that have enlisted themselves. And they shall not do this in vain;
God has commanded and called those whom he designs to make use of
(Isa_13:3) and power goes along with his calls and commands, which
cannot be resisted. He that makes men able to serve him can, when
he pleases, make them willing too. It is the Lord of hosts that
musters the host of the battle, Isa_13:4. He raises them, brings
them together, puts them in order, reviews them, has an exact
account of them in his muster-roll, sees that they be all in their
respective posts, and gives them their necessary orders. Note, All
the hosts of war are under the command of the Lord of hosts; and
that which makes them truly formidable is that, when they come
against Babylon, the Lord comes, and brings them with him as the
weapons of his indignation, Isa_13:5. Note, Great princes and
armies are but tools in God's hand, weapons that he is pleased to
make use of in doing his work, and it is his wrath that arms them
and gives them success.
5. JAMISON, the mountains namely, which separate Media and
Assyria, and on one of which the banner to rally the hosts is
supposed to be reared.
tumultuous noise The Babylonians are vividly depicted as hearing
some unwonted sound like the din of a host; they try to distinguish
the sounds, but can only perceive a tumultuous noise. nations
Medes, Persians, and Armenians composed Cyrus army.
6. K&D, The command of Jehovah is quickly executed. The
great army is already coming down from the mountains. Hark, a
rumbling on the mountains after the manner of a great people; hark,
a rumbling of kingdoms of nations met together! Jehovah of hosts
musters an army, those that have come out of a distant land, from
the end of the heaven: Jehovah and His
instruments of wrath, to destroy the whole earth. Ko0l commences
an interjectional sentence,
-
and thus becomes almost an interjection itself (compare
Isa_52:8; Isa_66:6, and on Gen_4:10). There is rumbling on the
mountains (Isa_17:12-13), for there are the peoples of Eran, and in
front the Medes inhabiting the mountainous north-western portion of
Eran, who come across the lofty Shahu (Zagros), and the ranges that
lie behind it towards the Tigris, and descend upon the lowlands of
Babylon; and not only the peoples of Eran, but the peoples of the
mountainous north of Asia generally (Jer_51:27) - an army under the
guidance of Jehovah, the God of hosts of spirits and stars, whose
wrath it will execute over the whole earth, i.e., upon the
world-empire; for the fall of Babel is a judgment, and accompanied
with judgments upon all the tribes under Babylonian rule.
7. PULPIT, The noise of a multitude in the mountains. I do not
know why Isaiah should not have been
"thinking of his geography" (Cheyne). As soon as the Greeks knew
anything of the Persians, they knew of
them as a mountain people, and attributed their valor and their
handy habits to the physical character of
their country (Herod; 9.ad fin.). Jeremiah connects the invading
army which destroyed Babylon with
mountains, when he derives it from. Ararat (comp. Gen_8:4),
Minni (Armenia), and Ashchenaz
(Jer_51:27). At any rate, the mention of "mountains" here is
very appropriate, both Media and Persia
being, in the main, mountainous countries. A great people; or,
much peoplenot necessarily of one
nation only. The host of the battle; rather, a host of war; i.e.
a multitude of men, armed and prepared for
war.
8. CALVIN, 4.The noise of a multitude in the mountains. He adds
a still more lively representation,
( ,) that is, a description by which he places the event as it
were before our eyes. The
prophets are not satisfied with speaking, without also giving a
bold picture of the events themselves.
Words uttered plainly, and in the ordinary manner, do not strike
us so powerfully or move our hearts so
much as those figures which delineate a lively resemblance of
the events. As if he had said, indeed, you
hear a man speaking, but know that this voice will be so
powerful that at the sound of it nations shall be
roused, peoples shall make a noise, and in vast crowds shall
shout and roar to bring destruction on the
inhabitants of Babylon. This proclamation, therefore, will be as
efficacious, even after that I am dead, as if
you now saw what I foretell to you.
In this event, therefore, we see how great is the efficacy of
the word, which all the creatures both in
heaven and in earth obey. We ought to be more strongly confirmed
in the belief of this doctrine, by
perceiving that every one of the events which had been predicted
many centuries before has taken place.
For this reason he declares that the Lord of hosts mustereth the
host of the battle, that the various nations
are moved by God direction, and that, although nothing was
farther from their intention than to inflict the
-
punishment which he had appointed, still they do nothing but
according to his command, as if some
earthly general were to draw up his forces.
5 They come from faraway lands,
from the ends of the heavens
the LORD and the weapons of his wrath
to destroy the whole country.
1.BARNES, They come - That is, Yahweh and the weapons of his
indignation - the collected armies come. The prophet sees these
assembled armies with Yahweh, as their leader, at their head.
From a far country - The country of the Medes and Persians.
These nations, indeed, bordered on Babylonia, but still they
stretched far to the north and east, and, probably, occupied nearly
all the regions to the east of Babylon which were then known.
From the end of heaven - The Septuagint renders this, =??A??K?LK
Ap'
akrou themeliou tou ouranou - From the extreme foundation of the
heaven. The expression in the Hebrew, From the end, or extreme peri
of heaven, means, the distant horizon by which the earth appears to
be bounded, where the sky and the land seem to meet. In Psa_19:6,
the phrase, from the end of the heaven denotes the east, where the
sun appears to rise; and unto the ends of it denotes the west:
His going forth is from the end of the heaven; And his circuit
unto the ends of it.
It is here synonymous with the phrase, the end of the earth, in
Isa_5:26.
Even the Lord - The word even, introduced here by the
translators, weakens the three of this verse. The prophet means to
say that Yahweh is coming at the head of those armies, which are
the weapons of his indignation.
The weapons of his indignation - The assembled armies of the
Medes and Persians, called the weapons of his indignation, because
by them he will accomplish the purposes of his anger against the
city of Babylon (see the note at Isa_10:5).
To destroy the whole land - The whole territory of Babylonia, or
Chaldea. Not only the city, but the nation and kingdom.
2. CLARKE, They come from a far country - The word meerets is
wanting in one MS. and in the Syriac: They come from afar.
-
From the end of heaven - Kimchi says, Media, the end of heaven,
in Scripture phrase, means, the East.
3. GILL, They come from a far country, from the end of
heaven,.... The east, as Kimchi observes; the Targum is, from the
ends of the earth; the furthermost parts of it, as Persia and Media
were: the former is bounded on the south side by the main ocean;
and the latter, part of it by the Caspian sea; and between Babylon
and these kingdoms lay the large kingdom of Assyria; so that this
army might be truly said to come from a far country: even the Lord,
and the weapons of his indignation; the Medes and Persians, who
were the instruments of his wrath and vengeance against Babylon;
just as Assyria is called the rod of his anger, Isa_10:5 with these
he is said to come, because this army was of his gathering,
mustering, ordering, and directing, in his providence; the end and
design of which was, to destroy the whole land; not the whole
world, as the Septuagint render it; but the whole land of Chaldea,
of which Babylon was the metropolis. The Targum is, "to destroy all
the wicked of the earth.''
4. KRETZMAN, They come from a far country, from the end of
heaven, from beyond the
horizon, where the earth appears to be hounded by the sky, even
the Lord, and the weapons of His
indignation, to destroy the whole land, literally, "to overturn
the whole earth," for the entire world, then
known, would feel the ravages of the war of destruction
determined upon by Jehovah. The prophet now
turns directly to the heathen nations, with Babylon in the
lead:
5. JAMISON, They namely, Jehovah, and the armies which are the
weapons of His indignation.
far country Media and Persia, stretching to the far north and
east.
end of heaven the far east (Psa_19:6).
destroy rather, to seize [Horsley].
6. PULPIT, They come from a far country (comp. Isa_46:11). Both
Media and Persia were "far
countries" to the Hebrews, Persia especially. There is no
indication that they knew of any countries more
remote towards the East. Hence the expression which follows,
"from the end of heaven"the heaven
being supposed to end where the earth ended. Isaiah, like the
other sacred writers, conforms his
language on cosmical subjects to the opinions of his day. Even
the Lord. With a most effective
anthropomorphism, Jehovah is made to march with the army that he
has mustered (verse 4) against the
-
land that has provoked his wrathi.e. Babylonia. The weapons
(comp. Isa_10:15; Jer_1:1-
19 :25; Jer_51:20). To destroy the whole land. Many critics
would render ha-arets by "the earth" here. It
may be granted that the language of the prophecy goes beyond the
occasion in places, and passes from
Babylon to that wicked world of which Babylon is a type; but,
where the context permits, it seems better to
restrict than to expand the meaning of the words employed.
7.CALVIN, 5.Coming from a distant country. He repeats and
confirms more fully what I stated a little
before, that the operations of war do not spring up at random
from the earth; for though everything
disorderly is vomited out by the passions of men, yet God rules
on high; and therefore Isaiah justly
ascribes sovereignty to God. Next, he adds, that armed men are
nothing else than the weapons of his
indignation. He says that they will come from a distant country,
to overturn the monarchy of Babylon,
because we are not afraid of dangers unless when they are close
at hand. Babylon was so strongly
fortified, and was surrounded by so many kingdoms and provinces
which were subject to it, that it
seemed as if there were no way by which an enemy could approach.
In short, as if she had been situated
in the clouds, she dreaded no danger.
From the end of heaven. There being no trouble all around that
threatened them, he gives warning that
the calamity will come from a distance. Though everything
appears to be calm and peaceful, and though
we are not at variance with our neighbors, God can bring enemies
from the end of h