ISAIAH
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| Chapter 18 | Like chapter 1, the introduction to the whole, it is without any special heading, treats in language of the sublimest pathos of Ethiopia. |
| Chapter 19 | Treats in a calmer and more descriptive tone of Egypt. |
| Chapter 20 | Treats of both Egypt and Ethiopia in the style of historic prose. |
The kingdom to which all three prophecies refer is one and the same - the Egypt-Ethiopian kingdom; but
| Chapter 18 | Refers to the Ruling nation |
| Chapter 19 | Treats of the Conquered nation |
| Chapter 20 | Embraces both together |
The reason why such particular
attention is given to Egypt in the prophecy, is that no nation on earth was so
mixed up with the history of the kingdom of God, from the patriarchal times
downwards, as Egypt was.
And because Israel, as the law plainly enjoined upon
it, was never to forget that it had been sheltered for a long time in Egypt, and
there had grown into a great nation, and had received many benefits; whenever
prophecy has to speak concerning Egypt, it is quite as earnest in its promises
as it is in its threats.
And thus chapter 19 of Isaiah falls into two distinct halves
| 19:1-15 | a threatening one |
| 19:18-25 | a promising one |
And just in proportion as the coil of punishments is unfolded on the one hand by the prophet, the promise is also unfolded in just as many stages on the other; and moving on in ever new grooves, rises at length to such a height, that it breaks not only through the limits of contemporaneous history, but even through those of the Old Testament itself, and speaks in the spiritual language of the world-embracing love of the New Testament.
The Oracle concerning Egypt
Isaiah 19:1-17
From the NKJV
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The oracle opens with a short introduction, condensing the whole of the substance of the first half into a few weighty words - an art in which Isaiah peculiarly excelled. In this the name of Egypt, the land without an equal, occurs no less than three times.
Jehovah rides upon clouds when He is about to reveal Himself in His judicial majesty (Ps 18:11); and in this instance He rides upon a light cloud, because it will take place rapidly. The word kal signifies both light and swift, because what is light moves swiftly; and even a light cloud, which is light because it is thin, is comparatively `aab (OT:5645), i.e., literally dense, opaque, or obscure.
The idols of Egypt shake (nuwa` (OT:5128), as in Isa 6:4; 7:2), because Jehovah comes over them to judgment (cf., Ex 12:12; Jer 46:25; Ezek 30:13): they must shake, for they are to be thrown down; and their shaking for fear is a shaking to their fall.
| Exodus 12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. (NKJV) |
| Jeremiah 46:25 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Behold, I will bring punishment on Amon of No, and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings — Pharaoh and those who trust in him. (NKJV) |
| Ezekiel 30:13 Thus says the Lord GOD: "I will also destroy the idols, and cause the images to cease from Noph; there shall no longer be princes from the land of Egypt; I will put fear in the land of Egypt. (NKJV) |
The Vav apodosis in wªnaa`uw (OT:5128) together the cause and effect, as in Isa 6:7. - In what judgments the judgment will be fulfilled, is now declared by the majestic Judge Himself.
Civil war will rage in Egypt.
The people once so shrewd are now at their wits' end.
Their spirit is quite poured out (naabªqaah
(OT:1238).
Then (and this is also part of the judgment) they turn for help, in counsel and action, where no help is to be found, viz., to their "nothings" of gods, and the manifold demoniacal arts, of which Egypt could boast of being the primary seat. On the names of the practicers of the black art, see Isa 8:19.
But all this is of no avail: Jehovah gives them up to be ruled over by a
hard-hearted and cruel king.
The prophecy does not relate to a foreign
conqueror, so as to lead us to think of Sargon (Knobel) or Cambyses (Luzzatto),
but to a native despot.
In comparing the prophecy with the fulfillment, we must
bear in mind that verse 2 relates to the national revolution that broke out in Sais,
and resulted in the overthrow of the Ethiopian rule.
Kingdom against kingdom
This exactly suits those twelve small kingdoms into
which Egypt was split up after the overthrow of the Ethiopian dynasty in the
year 695, until Psammetichus, the dodekarch of Sais, succeeded in the year 670
in comprehending these twelve states once more under a single monarchy.
The hand of a cruel master
This
very Psammetichus (and the royal house of Psammetichus generally) is the hard
ruler, the reckless despot.
He succeeded in gaining the battle at Momemphis, by which he established himself in the monarchy, through having first of all strengthened himself with mercenary troops from Ionia, Caria, and Greece. From his time downwards, the true Egyptian character was destroyed by the mixture of foreign elements.
The Egyptian nation very soon came to feel how oppressive this new dynasty was, when Necho (616-597), the son and successor of Psammetichus, renewed the project of Ramses-Miamun, to construct a Suez canal, and tore away 120,000 of the natives of the land from their homes, sending them to wear out their lives in forced labor of the most wearisome kind.
A revolt on the part of the native troops, who had been sent against the rising
Cyrene, and driven back into the desert, led to the overthrow of Hophra, the
grandson of Necho (570), and put an end to the hateful government of the family
of Psammetichus.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
From the NKJV
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The prophet then proceeds to foretell another misfortune that was coming upon Egypt: the Nile dries up, and with this the fertility of the land disappears.
In verse 5 the Nile is called yâm (a sea), just as Homer calls it Oceanus, which, as Diodorus observes, was the name given by the natives to the river (Egypt. oham).
The White Nile is called bahr el-abyad (the White Sea),
the Blue Nile bahr el-azrak,
and the combined waters bahr en-Nil, or, in the language of the Besharîn, as
here in Isaiah, yaam.
And in the account of the creation, in Genesis 1, yammim is
the collective name for great seas and rivers.
But the Nile itself is more like an inland sea than a river, from the point at which the great bodies of water brought down by the Blue Nile and the White Nile, which rises a few weeks later, flow together; partly on account of its great breadth, and partly also because of its remaining stagnant throughout the dry season. It is not till the tropical rains commence that the swelling river begins to flow more rapidly, and the yâm becomes an nâhâr.
The rivers will turn foul
he'ezniychuw (OT:2186), probably from zaanach (OT:2186)
"to have an offensive smell; to be rancid, or putrid."
It means 'the rivers shall become putrid-or have an offensive smell;'
that is, shall become stagnant, and send forth unwholesome "miasmata"
producing sickness, as stagnant waters often do.
The Vulgate renders it, 'And the rivers shall fail.'
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by
Biblesoft)
The fishermen will mourn
In this verse, and the two following, the prophet describes the
calamities that would come upon various classes of the inhabitants,
as the consequence of the failing of the waters of the Nile.
The first class which he mentions are the fishermen. Egypt is mentioned
(Num 11:5), as producing great quantities of fish. 'We remember the fish
which we did eat in Egypt freely.'
'The Nile,' says Diodorus (i.), 'abounds with incredible numbers of
all sorts of fish.'
Herodotus (ii. 93) says that large quantities of fish were produced in the Nile:
'
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Fine Flax
Egypt was celebrated anciently for producing flax in large quantities, and
of a superior quality.
The fine linen of Egypt which was manufactured from this is celebrated in
Scripture (Prov 7:16; Ezek 27:7). The Egyptians had early carried the art of
manufacturing linen to a great degree of perfection.
| Proverbs 7:16 Have spread my bed with tapestry, colored coverings of Egyptian linen. (NKJV) |
| Ezekiel 27:7 Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was what you spread for your sail; (NKJV) |
The 10-fold Desolation of Egypt
| 1. | (verse 5) | Waters shall fail from the sea |
| 2. | (verse 5) | The Nile will be wasted and dried up |
| 3. | (verse 6) | Rivers shall be diverted |
| 4. | (verse 6) | Irrigation shall end |
| 5. | (verse 6) | Reeds and rushes shall wither |
| 6. | (verse 7) | Papyrus reeds and every other growing thing shall wither |
| 7. | (verse 8) | Fishing industry shall end |
| 8. | (verse 9) | Flax works will close |
| 9. | (verse 9) | Weaving shall cease |
| 10. | (verse 10) | Fisheries shall close |
From the NKJV
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The prophet now dwells upon the punishment which falls upon the pillars of the land, and describes it in verses 11-13.
Zoan is the Tanis of primeval times (Num 13:22), which was situated on one of the arms through which the Nile flows into the sea (viz., the ostium Taniticum), and was the home from which two dynasties sprang.
Noph (per aphaer. = Menoph, contracted into Moph in Hos 9:6) is Memphis, probably the seat of the Pharaohs in the time of Joseph, and raised by Psammetichus into the metropolis of the whole kingdom.
Consequently princes of Zoan and Memphis are princes of the chief cities of the land, and of the supposed primeval pedigree; probably priest-princes, since the wisdom of the Egyptian priest was of world-wide renown (Herod. ii. 77, 260), and the oldest kings of Egypt sprang from the priestly caste. Even in the time of Hezekiah, when the military caste had long become the ruling one, the priests once more succeeded in raising one of their own number, namely Sethos, to the throne of Sais.
These magnates of Egypt, with their wisdom, would be turned into fools by the history of Egypt of the immediate future; and (this is the meaning of the sarcastic "how can ye say") they would no longer trust themselves to boast of their hereditary priestly wisdom, or their royal descent, when giving counsel to Pharaoh.
From the NKJV
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The spirit that God pours out (as it also said elsewhere) is not only a spirit of salvation, but also a spirit of judgment.
The whole nation was reeling to and fro, and unsettled in their counsels, as a man is who is so intoxicated as to reel and to vomit. Nothing could more strikingly express, first, the "fact" of their perverted counsels and plans, and secondly, God's deep abhorrence of the course which they were pursuing.
Head or tail
High or low; strong or weak: those in office and those out of
office.
All shall be dispirited and confounded.
Rosenmüller understands by the head here, the "political"
orders of the nation,
and by the tail the "sacerdotal" ranks.
But the meaning more probably is, the highest and the lowest ranks - all
the politicians, and priests, and princes, on the one hand,
as the prophet had just stated; and all the artificers, fishermen,
etc., on the other, as he had stated (Isa 19:8-10).
This verse, therefore, is a "summing up" of all he
had said about the calamities that were coming upon them.
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
From the NKJV
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In that day
The day when this burden should be fulfilled (not “the day of the
Lord”).
The result of all these plagues, which were coming upon Egypt, would be fear of Jehovah and of the people of Jehovah.
The waving (tenuphâh) of the hand points back to the foregoing judgments, which have fallen upon Egypt blow after blow. These humiliations make the Egyptians as soft and timid as women. And the sacred soil of Judah, which Egypt has so often made the scene of war, throws them into giddiness, into agitation at the sight of terrors, whenever it is mentioned. The author of the plagues is well known to them, their faith in the idols is shaken, and the desire arises in their heart to avert fresh plagues by presents to Jehovah.
The land of Judah will be a terror
The threatening hand of God will be held out and shaken over Egypt,
from the side of Judea; through which the Assyrians will march to invade
it. It signifies that kind of terror that drives one to his wit's end,
that causes him to reel like a drunken man, to be giddy through
astonishment.
(from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by
Biblesoft)
This prophecy was fulfilled in the seventh century B.C., when the
Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal conquered Egypt. Egypt's demise
would be accompanied by economic disaster caused by the drying up of the
Nile and by a complete breakdown in leadership
(from Holman Bible Handbook. (c) Copyright 1992 by Holman Bible Publishers. All
rights reserved.)
| EGYPT, ASSYRIA AND ISRAEL BLESSED |
From the NKJV
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At first there is only slavish fear; but there is the beginning of
a turn to something better.
Five cities are very few for Egypt, which was
completely covered with cities; but this is simply a fragmentary commencement of Egypt's future and complete conversion. The description given of them, as
beginning to speak the language of Canaan, i.e., the sacred language of the
worship of Jehovah (comp. Zeph 3:9), and to give themselves up to Jehovah with
vows made on oath, is simply a periphrastic announcement of the conversion of
the five cities.
| Zephaniah 3:9-10 For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the LORD, to serve Him with one accord. (10) From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, the daughter of My dispersed ones, shall bring My offering. |
Five cities
These were probably
| Heliopolis Leontopolis Daphne Migdol Memphis |
City of
Destruction
The word Heliopolis, "City of the Sun," has here been deliberately altered, in a
play on words, to read city of destruction.
(from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by
Moody Press)
One of these five will be called 'Ir ha-Heres.
But what does 'Ir ha-Heres mean?
The Septuagint has changed it into po'lis
asede'k, equivalent to 'Ir hazzedek (city of righteousness), possibly in honor
of the temple in the Heliopolitan nomos, which was founded under Ptolemaeus
Philometor about 160 BC, during the Syrian reign of terror, by Onias IV, son of the high priest Onias III, who emigrated to Egypt.
'Ir ha-cheres would mean "city of the sun", as the
Talmud in the leading passage concerning the Onias temple (in b. Menahoth 110 a) thinks that even the received reading may be understood in
accordance with Job 9:7, and says "it is a description of the sun."
"Sun-city"
was really the name of one of the most celebrated of the old Egyptian cities, viz., Heliopolis, the city of the sun god Ra, which was situated to the
north-east of Memphis, and is called On in other passages of the Old Testament.
Ezekiel (Ezek 30:17 "The young men of Aven") alters this into Aven, for the purpose of branding the
idolatry of the city.
(from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
Onias, who had fled, in disappointment at not getting the high-priesthood, into
Egypt, and rose to high rank under Ptolemy Philometer, read 'city of the sun' [hacherec
(OT:2775)] - i.e., On, or Heliopolis: he persuaded Ptolemy Philometer (149 BC)
to let him build a temple in the prefecture (nome) of Heliopolis, on the ground
that it would induce Jews to reside there, and that the very site was foretold
by Isaiah 600 years before. So 16 manuscripts also read. So Vulgate reads.
The Chaldaic
reads, 'One of them shall be called The city, the house of the sun which is
doomed to be destroyed.'
(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright
(c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
From the NKJV
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This temple, which was altogether unlike the temple of Jerusalem in its outward appearance, being built in the form of a castle, and which stood for more than two hundred years (from 160 BC to A.D. 71 AD, when it was closed by command of Vespasian), was splendidly furnished and much frequented; but the recognition of it was strongly contested both in Palestine and Egypt. It was really situated "in the midst of the land of Egypt." But it is out of the question to seek in this temple for the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, from the simple fact that it was by Jews and for Jews that it was erected. And where, in that case, would the obelisk be, which, as Isaiah prophesies, was to stand on the border of Egypt, i.e., on the side towards the desert and Canaan?
| The Altar | was to be "a sign" | ('oth) | that there were worshippers of Jehovah in Egypt |
| The Obelisk | was to be "a witness" | ('eed) | that Jehovah had proved Himself, to Egypt's salvation, to be the God of the gods of Egypt |
And now, if they who erected this place of worship and this monument cried to Jehovah, He would show Himself ready to help them; and they would no longer cry in vain, as they had formerly done to their own idols (verse 3).
Consequently it is the approaching conversion of the native Egyptians that is
here spoken of.
The fact that from the Grecian epoch Judaism became a power in
Egypt is certainly not unconnected with this. But we should be able to trace
this connection more closely, if we had any information as to the extent to
which Judaism had then spread among the natives, which we do know to have been
by no means small.
The therapeutae described by Philo, which were spread through all the nomoi of Egypt, were of a mixed Egypt-Jewish character (vid. Philo, Opp. ii. p. 474, ed. Mangey).
It was a victory on the part of the religion of Jehovah, that Egypt was covered with Jewish synagogues and coenobia even in the age before Christ. And Alexandra was the place where the law of Jehovah was translated into Greek*, and thus made accessible to the heathen world, and where the religion of Jehovah created for itself those forms of language and thought, under which it was to become, as Christianity, the religion of the world.
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And
after the introduction of Christianity into the world, there were more than one
mazzebah (obelisk) that were met with on the way from Palestine to Egypt, even
by the end of the first century, and more than one mizbeach (altar) found in the
heart of Egypt itself. The importance of Alexandria and of the monasticism and anachoretism of the peninsula of Sinai and also of Egypt, in connection with the
history of the spread of Christianity, is very well known.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
From the NKJV
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From that small commencement
of five cities, and a solitary altar, and one solitary obelisk, it has now come
to this: Jehovah extends the knowledge of Himself to the whole of Egypt (nowda`
(OT:3045), reflective, and throughout all Egypt there arises the knowledge of God, which soon shows itself in acts of worship.
Egypt, though converted, is still sinful; but Jehovah smites it, "smiting and
healing" (nâgoph verâpho'), so that in the act of smiting
the intention of healing prevails; and healing follows the smiting, since the
chastisement of Jehovah leads it to repentance. Thus Egypt is now under the same
plan of salvation as Israel.
From the NKJV
|
In that day - the glorious future, the day of the Lord. Not the same
as verse 11.
Asshur, as we already know from chapter 18, is equally humbled; so that now the two
great powers, which have hitherto only met as enemies, meet in the worship of
Jehovah, which unites them together.
Shall server with - `aabªduw (OT:5647) is
used in the sense of worship, as in verse 21.
Friendly inter relation is
established between Egypt and Assyria by the fact that both nations are now
converted to Jehovah. The road of communication runs through Canaan.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
From the NKJV
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Thus is the way prepared for the highest point of all.
Israel is added to the covenant
between Egypt and Asshur, so that it becomes a tripartite covenant in which
Israel forms the "third part".
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Israel has now reached the great end
of its calling - |
If Israel relied upon Egypt, it deceived itself, and was deceived; and if it
relied on Assyria, it only became the slave of Assyria, and had Egypt for a foe. Thus Israel was in a most painful vise between the two great powers of the
earth, the western and the eastern powers.
But how will all this be altered now! Egypt and Assyria become one in Jehovah, and Israel the third in the covenant.
Israel is lo longer the only nation of God, the creation of God, the heir of
God; but all this applies to Egypt and Assyria now, as well as to Israel.
To give full expression to this, Israel's three titles of honor are mixed together, and each of the three nations receives one of the choice names - nachali, "my inheritance," being reserved for Israel, as pointing back to its earliest history. This essential equalization of the heathen nations and Israel is no degradation to the latter. For although from this time forward there is to be no essential difference between the nations in their relation to God, it is still the God of Israel who obtains this universal recognition, and the nation of Israel that has become, according to the promise, the medium of blessing to the world.
Thus has the second half of the prophecy ascended step by step from
salvation to salvation,
as the first descended step by step from judgment to
judgment.
The culminating point in verse 25 answers to the lowest point in verse 15.
Every step in the ascending half is indicated by the expression "in that day."
Six times do we find this signpost to the future within the limits of verses 16-25.
| 1. | (verse 16) | In that day - Egypt will be afraid and fear |
| 2. | (verse 18) | In that day - 5 cities in Egypt will serve the Lord |
| 3. | (verse 19) | In that day - There will be an altar and pillar to the Lord in Egypt |
| 4. | (verse 21) | In that day - The Egyptians will know the Lord |
| 5. | (verse 23) | In that day - Egypt and Assyria will serve the Lord together |
| 6. | (verse 24) | In that day - Egypt, Assyria, and Israel will serve the Lord together |
The two halves of the prophecy are like the two wings of a bird. And it is only through its second half that the prophecy becomes the significant center of the Ethiopic and Egyptian trilogy. For chapter 19 predicts the saving effect that will be produced upon Egypt by the destruction of Assyria. And Isa 19:23 ff. announces what will become of Assyria. Assyria will also pass through judgment to salvation.
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Acts 15:6-17 |
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Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when
there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them:
|
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Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul
declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the
Gentiles. And after they had become silent, James answered,
saying,
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|
|
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| (NKJV) |
| THE SIGN AGAINST EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA |
From the NKJV
|
Tartan
tar'tan; Assyr. tartanu and turtanu)
The title or official designation
of the commander in chief of the Assyrian army (2 Kings 18:17; the
NIV
translates the term as "supreme commander").
Archaeology has shown conclusively
that the expression "tartan" is not a proper name.
| 2 Kings 18:17 The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. (NIV) |
Sargon
Never once named by classic writers, and in Scripture only here.
The monuments show that he was the son of Shalmaneser, and the father of Sennacherib.
Sent him
This expedition is mentioned on the monument found at
Khorsabad.
A
usurper, called “Javan,” or “the Greek,” had been put on the throne of Ashdod by
Hezekiah in the place of “Akimit.”
Although the name of Sargon is mentioned anywhere else in the Old Testament; but it may now be accepted as an established result of the researches which have been made, that Sargon was the successor of Shalmanassar, and that Shalmaneser (Shalman, Hos 10:14), Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon, are the names of the four Assyrian kings who were mixed up with the closing history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. It was Longperrier who was the first to establish the identity of the monarch who built the palaces at Khorsabad, which form the north-eastern corner of ancient Nineveh, with the Sargon of the Bible. We are now acquainted with a considerable number of brick, harem, votive-table, and other inscriptions that bear the name of this king, and contain all kinds of testimony concerning him.
It was he, not Shalmanassar, who took Samaria after a three years' siege; and in
the annalistic inscription he boasts of having conquered the city, and removed
the house of Omri to Assyria. Oppert is right in calling attention to the fact,
that in 2 Kings 18:10 the conquest is not attributed to Shalmanassar himself, but to the army. Shalmanassar died in front of Samaria; and Sargon not only put
himself at the head of the army, but seized upon the throne, in which he
succeeded in establishing himself, after a contest of several years' duration
with the legitimate heirs and their party. He was therefore a usurper.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
This Sargon, the founder of a new Assyrian dynasty, who reigned from 721-702 (according to Oppert), and for whom there is at all events plenty of room between 721-20 and the commencement of Sennacherib's reign, first of all blockaded Tyre for five years after the fall of Samaria, or rather brought to an end the siege of Tyre which had been begun by Shalmanassar (Josephus. Ant. ix. 14, 2), though whether it was to a successful end or not is quite uncertain. He then pursued with all the greater energy his plan for following up the conquest of Samaria with the subjugation of Egypt, which was constantly threatening the possessions of Assyria in western Asia, either by instigation or support.
The attack upon Ashdod was simply a means to this end. As the Philistines were led to join Egypt, not only by their situation, but probably by kinship of tribe as well, the conquest of Ashdod - a fortress so strong, that, according to Herodotus (ii. 157), Psammetichus besieged it for twenty-nine years - was an indispensable preliminary to the expedition against Egypt. When Alexander the Great marched against Egypt, he had to do the same with Gaza.
How long Tartan required is not to be gathered from verse 1. But if he conquered it as quickly as Alexander conquered Gaza - in five months - it is impossible to understand why the following prophecy should defer for three years the subjugation of Ethiopia and Egypt. The words, "and fought against Ashdod, and took it," must therefore be taken as anticipatory and parenthetical.
From the NKJV
|
It was not after the conquest of Ashdod, but in the year in which the siege commenced, that Isaiah received the admonition.
We see from this that Isaiah was clothed in the same manner as
| Elijah | (2 Kings 1:8, 2) "He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist." |
| John the Baptist | (Matt 3:4) "John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist" |
With the great importance attached to the clothing in the East, where the feelings upon this point are peculiarly sensitive and modest, a person was looked upon as stripped and naked if he had only taken off his upper garment. What Isaiah was directed to do, therefore, was simply opposed to common custom, and not to moral decency. He was to lay aside the dress of a mourner and preacher of repentance, and to have nothing on but his tunic (cetoneth); and in this, as well as barefooted, he was to show himself in public.
This was the costume of a man
| who had been robbed and disgraced, |
| or else of a beggar or prisoner of war. |
From the NKJV
|
It is not till Isaiah has carried out the divine instructions, that he learns the reason for this command to strip himself, and the length of time that he is to continue so stripped.
The expression "has walked" (ca'asher hâlac) stands here at the commencement of the symbolical
action, but it is introduced as if with a retrospective glance at its duration
for three years, unless indeed the preterite hâlac stands here, as it frequently
does, to express what has already commenced, and is still continuing and
customary.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
To the shame of Egypt
It shall be a disgrace to them to be subdued, and to be carried captive in
so humiliating a manner.
It is remarked by Belzoni (`Operations and Recent Discoveries in Egypt and Nubia'),
that in the figures on the remains of their temples, prisoners are often
represented as naked, or only in aprons, with disheveled hair,
and with their hands chained.
He also remarks, that on a "bas-relief," on the recently-discovered
graves of the kings of Thebes, a multitude of "Egyptian and
Ethiopian prisoners" are represented - showing that Egypt and Ethiopia
were sometimes "allied," alike in mutual defense and in bondage
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
From the NKJV
|
But if Egypt and Ethiopia are thus shamefully humbled, what kinds of impression will this make upon those who rely upon the great power that is supposed to be both unapproachable and invincible?
This territory
haa'iy (OT:339), which
signifies both an island and a coast-land, is used as the name of Philistia
(Zeph 2:5), and as the name of Phoenicia (Isa 23:2,6); and for this
reason Knobel and others understand it here as denoting Philistia with the inclusion of
Phoenicia.
But as the Assyrians had already attacked both Phoenicians and
Philistines at the time when they marched against Egypt, there can be no doubt
that Isaiah had chiefly the Judaeans in his mind. This was the interpretation
given by Jerome ("Judah trusted in the Egyptians, and Egypt will be destroyed"),
and Ewald, Drechsler, Luzzatto, and Meier have adopted it.
The expressions are
the same as those in which a little further on we find Isaiah reproving the
Egyptian tendencies of Judah's policy. At the same time, by "the inhabitant of
this coast-land" we are not to understand Judah exclusively, but the inhabitants
of Palestine generally, with whom Judah was mixed up to its shame, because it
had denied its character as the nation of Jehovah in a manner so thoroughly
opposed to its theocratic standing.
Unfortunately, we know very little concerning the Assyrian campaigns in Egypt.
But we may infer from Nah 3:8-10, according to which the Egyptian Thebes had
fallen (for it is held up before Nineveh as the mirror of its own fate), that
after the conquest of Ashdod Egypt was also overcome by Sargon's army.
| Nahum 3:8-10 Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall. Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies. Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains. (NIV) |
In the
grand inscription found in the halls of the palace at Khorsabad, Sargon boasts
of a successful battle that he had fought with Pharaoh Sebech at Raphia, and in
consequence of which the latter became tributary to him. Still further on he
relates that he had dethroned the rebellious king of Ashdod, and appointed
another in his place, but that the people removed him, and chose another king;
after which he marched with his army against Ashdod, and when the king fled from
him into Egypt, he besieged Ashdod, and took it.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
This conquest Sargon ascribes to himself in person, so that apparently we must think of that conquest which was carried out by Tartan; and in that case the words, "he fought against it," etc., need not be taken as anticipatory. It is quite sufficient, that the monuments seem to intimate that the conquest of Samaria and Ashdod was followed by the subjugation of the Egypt-Ethiopian kingdom.
But inasmuch as Judah, trusting in the reed of Egypt, fell away from Assyria under Hezekiah, and Sennacherib had to make war upon Egypt again, to all appearance the Assyrians never had much cause to congratulate themselves upon their possession of Egypt, and that for reasons that are not difficult to discover. At the time appointed by the prophecy, Egypt came under the Assyrian yoke, from which Psammetichus first delivered it; but, as the constant wars between Assyria and Egypt clearly show, it never patiently submitted to that yoke for any length of time.
The confidence which Judah placed in Egypt turned
out most disastrously for Judah itself, just as Isaiah predicted here. But the
catastrophe that occurred in front of Jerusalem did not put an end to Assyria,
nor did the campaigns of Sargon and Sennacherib bring Egypt to an end. And, on
the other hand, the triumphs of Jehovah and of the prophecy concerning Assyria
were not the means of Egypt's conversion. In all these respects the fulfillment
showed that there was an element of human hope in the prophecy, which made the
distant appear to be close at hand. And this element it eliminated. For the
fulfillment of a prophecy is divine, but the prophecy itself is both divine and
human.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
| THE FALL OF BABYLON PROCLAIMED |
Assuming, what indeed seems impossible to modern critics - namely, that a prophet's insight into futurity might stretch over hundreds of years - the Massa contains within itself and round about itself the strongest proofs of its genuineness.
| Within itself: for both the thoughts themselves, and the manner in which they are expressed, are so thoroughly Isaiah's, even in the most minute points, that it is impossible to conceive of any prophecy in a form more truly his own. |
| Round about itself: inasmuch as the four massa's (Isa 21:1-11-13-17, and 22), are so intertwined the one with the other as to form a tetralogy, not only through their emblematical titles and their visionary bearing, but also in many ways through the contexts themselves. |
The
designation of the prophet as a "watchman" is common to the first and second
Massa's;
and in the fourth, Jerusalem is called the valley of vision, because
the watchtower was there, from which the prophet surveyed the future fate of
Babylon, Edom, and Arabia.
And just as in the first, Elam and Madai march
against Babylon; so in the fourth (Isa 22:6) Kir and Elam march against
Jerusalem.
The form of expression is also strikingly similar in both instances
(compare Isa 22:6-7, with ch. 21:7).
The Oracle concerning the Wilderness of the Sea
Isaiah 19:1-17
From the NKJV
|
Just as the massâ Bâbel (the Burden of Babel) rests upon a prophecy against Asshur, which forms, as it were, a pedestal to it, and cannot be supposed to have been placed there by any one but Isaiah himself; so that massa midbar-yâm rests, as it were, upon the pillars of its genuineness, and announces itself velut de tripode as Isaiah's. This also applies to the heading. We have already noticed, in connection with Isa 15:1, how closely the headings fit in to the prophecies themselves. Isaiah is fond of symbolical names (Isa 29:1; 30:7). And midbar-yâm (desert of the sea) is a name of this kind applied to Babylon and the neighborhood.
The continent on which Babylon stood was a midbâr, a great plain running to the south into Arabia desert; and so intersected by the Euphrates as well as by marshes and lakes, that it floated, as it were, in the sea. The low-lying land on the Lower Euphrates had been wrested, as it were, from the sea; for before Semiramis constructed the dams, the Euphrates used to overflow the whole just like a sea (pelagi'zein, Herod. i. 184). Abydenus even says, that at first the whole of it was covered with water, and was called thalassa (Euseb. praep. ix. 41). We may learn from Isa 14:23, why it was that the prophet made use of this symbolical name. The origin and natural features of Babylon are made into ominous prognostics of its ultimate fate. The true interpretation is found in Jeremiah (Jer 51:13; 50:38).
| Jeremiah 51:13 You who live by many waters and are rich in treasures, your end has come, the time for you to be cut off. (NIV) |
| Jeremiah 50:38 A drought on her waters! They will dry up. For it is a land of idols, idols that will go mad with terror. (NIV) |
The power which first brings destruction upon the city of the world, is a hostile army composed of several nations.
Whirlwinds in the south
Are storms which have their starting-point in the
south, and therefore come to Babylon from Arabia desert; and like all winds that
come from boundless steppes, they are always violent.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
| Zechariah 9:14 "And YAHWEH shall appear over them, And his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; And the Lord YAHWEH shall sound the trumpet; And shall march in the whirlwinds of the south." |
Treacherous dealer deals treacherously
Referring to the military stratagem employed by Cyrus in taking Babylon.
Vatablus translates '(There is, or will be) a treacherous dealer
(the Medo-Persian invader), to the treacherous dealer' (Babylon).
Babylon is repaid in her own coin. (Isa 33:1; Hab 2:8)
The Hebrew is habogeed bogeed, vehashodeed shodeed: 'the
treacherous dealer treacherous dealer, the spoiler spoiler!'
(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright
(c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
| Isaiah 33:1 Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed. (NIV) |
| Habakkuk 2:8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you, because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city, and of all who dwell in it. (NKJV) |
From the NKJV
|
Here again, as in the case of the prophecy concerning Moab, what the prophet has given to him to see does not pass without exciting his feelings of humanity, but works upon him like a horrible dream.
The prophet does not describe in detail what he saw; but the violent agitation produced by the impression leads us to conclude how horrible it must have been.
Pain
Chalchâlâh is the contortion produced by cramp.
Pangs
tzirim is the word properly
applied to the pains of childbirth.
Distressed
na'avâh means to bend, or bow one's self, and is also used to denote a convulsive utterance of pain.
Wavered
tâ'âh denotes a
feverish and irregular beating of the pulse.
The darkness of evening and night, which the prophet loved so much (cheeshek, a desire arising from inclination, and always longed for, either that he might give himself up to contemplation, or that he might rest from outward and inward labor, had been changed into quaking by the horrible vision. It is quite impossible to imagine, as Umbreit suggests, that nesheph chishki (the darkness of my pleasure) refers to the nocturnal feast during which Babylon was stormed (Herod. i. 191, and Xenophon, Cyrop. vii. 23).
From the NKJV
|
This is not a scene from the hostile camp, where they are strengthening themselves for an attack upon Babylon: for the express allusion to the covering of the table is intended to create the impression of confident and careless good living; and the exclamation "anoint the shield" (cf., Jer 51:11 "Make the arrows bright! Gather the shields!") presupposes that they have first of all to prepare themselves for battle, and therefore that they have been taken by surprise.
What the prophet sees, therefore, is a banquet in Babylon
They content themselves with this one precautionary measure, and give themselves up with all the greater recklessness to their night's debauch (cf., Isa 22:13). The prophet mentions this, because it is by the watch that the cry, "Rise up, ye princes," etc., is addressed to the feasters.
The shield-leather was generally oiled, to make it shine and protect it from wet, and, more than all, to cause the strokes it might receive to glide off. The infatuated self-confidence of the chief men of Babylon was proved by the fact that they had to be aroused. They fancied that they were hidden behind the walls and waters of the city, and therefore they had not even got their weapons ready for use.
From the NKJV
|
The prophecy is continued with the conjunction "for" (ci).
The tacit
link in the train of thought is this:
they act thus in Babylon, because the
destruction of Babylon is determined.
The form in which this thought is embodied
is the following:
the prophet receives instruction in the vision to set a watchman upon the watchtower,
who was to look out and see what more took place.
In other cases it is the prophet himself who stands upon the
watch-tower (v. 11; Hab 2:1 "I will stand at my watch and station myself on
the ramparts"); but here in the vision a distinction is made
between the prophet and the person whom he stations upon the watch-tower
(specula).
The prophet divides himself, as it were, into two persons. He now
sees through the medium of a spy, just as Zechariah sees by means of the angel
speaking in him; with this difference, however, that here the
spy is the instrument employed by the prophet.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
He saw a chariot
A cavalcade (a body of riders, namely), some riding in pairs on horses (literally,
a pair of horsemen, i.e., two abreast), others riding on donkeys, others on camel
The Persians used donkeys and camels for war (Strabo, xv. 2, sec. 14; Herodotus, iv. 129) (Maurer). Horsley translates, 'one drawn in a car, with a pair of riders, drawn by a donkey, drawn by a camel:'
Cyrus is the man; the car drawn by a camel and donkey yoked together, and driven by two
postillions, one on each, is the joint army of Medes and Persians under their respective leaders.
He thinks the more ancient military cars were driven by men riding on the beasts
that drew them
(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
From the NKJV
|
At length the procession has vanished; he sees nothing and hears
nothing, and is seized with impatience.
He loses all his patience, and growls as if he
were a lion, with the same dull, angry sound, the same long, deep breath out of full lungs, complaining to God that he has to stand so long
at his post without seeing anything, except that inexplicable procession that
has now vanished away.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
This is the speech of the watchman, and is addressed, not to
Yahweh, but to him that appointed him. It is designed to show the
"diligence" with which he had attended to the object for which he was
appointed. He had been unceasing in his observation; and the result
was, that now at length he saw the enemy approach like a lion, and
it was certain that Babylon now must fall.
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Meaning, Darius who overcame Babylon.
(from Geneva Notes, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright ©
2003 Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
From the NKJV
|
It is now clear enough where the long
procession went to when it disappeared.
It entered Babylon, made itself master
of the city, and established itself there.
And now, after a long interval, there
appears a smaller cavalcade, which has to carry the tidings of victory
somewhere; and the spy hears them cry out in triumph, "Fallen, fallen is
Babylon!"
In Rev 18:1-2, the same words form the shout of triumph raised by the angel, the antitype being more majestic than the type, whilst upon the higher ground of the New Testament everything moves on in spiritual relations, all that is merely national having lost its power.
| Revelations 18:2-3 "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries." (NIV) |
Still even here the spiritual inwardness of the affair is so far expressed, that it is Jehovah who dashes to the ground; and even the heathen conquerors are obliged to confess that the fall of Babylon and its pesilim (compare Jer 51:47,52) is the work of Jehovah Himself.
| Jeremiah 51:47 & 52 For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will all lie fallen within her. But days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan." (NIV) |
What is here only hinted at from afar - namely, that Cyrus would act as the anointed of Jehovah - is expanded in the second part (ch. 40-66) for the consolation of the captives.
From the NKJV
|
The night vision related and recorded by the prophet, a prelude to the revelations contained in ch. 40-60, was also intended for the consolation of Israel, which had already much to suffer, when Babylon was still Assyrian, but would have to suffer far more from it when it should become Chaldean.
Threshing (duush)
A figure used to represent crushing oppression in Isa 41:15;
and judicial visitation in Jer 51:33; and again, as in the present instance, chastising plagues, in which wrath and good intention are mingled together.
| Isaiah 41:15 "See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. (NIV) |
| Jeremiah 51:33 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come." (NIV) |
Israel, placed as it was under the tyrannical supremacy of the imperial power, is called the
medusshâh (the threshing) of Jehovah - in other
words, the corn threshed by Him;
also His "child of the threshing-floor,"
inasmuch as it was laid in the floor, in the bosom as it were of the
threshing-place, to come out threshed.
This floor, in which Jehovah makes a judicial separation of grains and
husks in Israel, was their captivity. Babylon is the instrument of the threshing
wrath of God.
But love also takes part in the threshing, and restrains the
wrath. This is what the prophet has learned in the vision - a consolatory figure for the threshing-corn in the floor, i.e., for
Israel, which was now subject to the power of the world, and had been mowed off
its own field and carried captive into Babylonia.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
| PROCLAMATION AGAINST EDOM |
The Oracle concerning Dumah
Isaiah 21:11, 12
From the NKJV
|
Dumah
A tribe and region of Ishmael in Arabia, now called Dumah the Stony,
situated on the confines of Arabia and the Syrian desert - a part put for the
whole of Edom.
Seir
The principal mountain in Idumea, south of the Dead Sea, in
Arabia.
(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright
(c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
This oracle consists of a question, addressed to the prophet from Seir, and of
the prophet's reply.
Seir is the mountainous country to the south of Palestine,
of which Edom took possession after the expulsion of the Horites.
What of the night?
How far is it in the night?
The Hebrew is shomer mah-millayelah? Shomer ma-milleyl?
How far gone is the night? How far
gone the night?
This is Edom’s inquiry. Duumâh is deep, utter silence, and therefore the land of the dead.
It is turned into an emblem of the future fate of Edom, by
the removal of the - sound from the beginning of the word to the end. It becomes
a land of deathlike stillness, deathlike sleep, and deathlike darkness.
Luther translates the participle: "they cry".
For
the rest, however, we have deviated from Luther's excellent translation, for the
purpose of giving to some extent the significant change from milayªlaah
(OT:3915) and mileeyl (OT:3915).
The more winged form of the second question is
expressive of heightened, anxious urgency and haste. The wish is to hear that it
is very late in the night, and that it will soon be past.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
Just as a sick man longs for a sleepless night to come to an end, and is
constantly asking what time it is, so do they inquire of the prophet out of Edom, whether the night of tribulation will not be soon over. We are not to
understand, however, that messengers were really sent out of Edom to Isaiah; the
process was purely a pneumatically one. The prophet stands there in Jerusalem,
in the midst of the benighted world of nations, like a sentry upon the watch
tower; he understands the anxious inquiries of the nations afar off, and answers
them according to the word of Jehovah, which is the plan and chronological
measure of the history of the nations, and the key to its interpretation. What, then, is the prophet's reply?
He lets the inquirer "see through a glass darkly."
The Edomites as well as the Jews were subdued by the Babylonians. They
inquire of the prophet how long their subjection is to last:
(from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by
Biblesoft)
From the NKJV
|
And the history was quite in accordance with such an answer.
| The Assyrian period of judgment was followed Chaldean, and the Chaldean by the Persian, and the Persian by the Grecian, and the Grecian by the Roman. |
Again and again there was a glimmer of morning dawn for Edom (and what a glimmer in the Herodian age!), but it was swallowed up directly by another night, until Edom became an utter Duumâh, and disappeared from the history of the nations. The prophet does not see to the utmost end of these Edomite’s nights, but he has also no consolation for Edom.
It is altogether different with Edom from what it is with Israel, the nocturnal portion of whose history has a morning dawn, according to promise, as its irrevocable close. The prophet therefore sends the inquirers home. Would they ask any further questions, they might do so, might turn and come.
In shuubuu (turn back) there lies a significant though ambiguous hint.
It is only in the
case of their turning, coming, i.e., coming back converted, that the prophet has
any consolatory answer for them. So long as they are not so, there is suspended
over their future an interminable night, to the prophet as much as to
themselves.
The way to salvation for every other people is just the same as for Israel - namely, the way of repentance.
| PROCLAMATION AGAINST ARABIA |
The Oracle concerning Arabia
Isaiah 21:13-17
From the NKJV
|
The heading ba`ªraab masaa', when pointed as we have it,
signifies "oracle against Arabia."
But why not massâ 'Arâb, since massâ (burden) is
followed by a simple genitive in the other three headings? Or again, is this the
only heading in the tetralogy that is not symbolical?
We must assume that the
Beth by which this is distinguished is introduced for the express purpose of
rendering it symbolical, and that the prophet pointed it first of all baa`ereb
(OT:6153), but had at the same time ba`ªraab in his mind. The earlier
translators (LXX, Targum, Syriac, Vulgate, American
Revised.) read the second ba`ªraab like the first.
The oracle commences with an evening scene, even
without our altering the second ba`ªrab.
And the Massa (Burden) has a symbolical title
founded upon this evening scene.
Evening darkness is settling upon Arabia, and the morning-land is
becoming an evening-land.
'Arab, written with pathach, is Arabia; and ya'ar here is the solitary barren desert, as distinguished from
the cultivated land with its cities and villages.
The meaning of the passage before us we therefore take to be this:
the trading caravans of the Dedanians, that mixed
tribe of Cushites and Abrahamides dwelling in the neighborhood of the Edomite’s, when on their way from east to west, possibly to Tyre, would be obliged to encamp in the wilderness, being driven out of the
caravan road in consequence of the war that was spreading from north to south.
They are driven back with fright towards the south-east as far as Tema.
In the forest
baya`ar (OT:3293).) The word ya`ar (OT:3293) 'forest'
usually denotes a grove, a collection of trees. But it may
mean here, any place of refuge from a pursuing foe; a region
of thick underwood; an uncultivated, inaccessible place,
where they would be concealed from an invading enemy.
Dedanites
Descendants of "Dedan." There are two men of this name mentioned in
the Old Testament
The son of Raamah, the son of Cush
|
|
The son of Jokshan, the son of Abraham by Keturah
|
Tema
Tema was one of the sons of Ishmael, and is supposed to have
populated the city of Thema in Arabia.
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
But even here in the land of Tema they do not feel themselves safe. The inhabitants of Tema are obliged to bring them water and bread ("its bread," lachmo, referring to noodeed: the bread necessary in order to save them), into the hiding-places in which they have concealed themselves.
"How humiliating," as
Drechsler well observes, "to be obliged to practice their hospitality, the pride
of Arabian customs, in so restricted a manner, and with such unbecoming
secrecy!"
But it could not possibly be done in any other way, since the weapons
of the foe were driving them incessantly before them, and the war itself
was rolling incessantly forward like an overwhelming colossus.
From the NKJV
|
Within a year
What has been said before was figurative. Here the prophet speaks without
a metaphor, and fixes the time when this should be accomplished. It
is not usual for the prophets to designate the exact "time" of
the fulfillment of their prophecies in this manner.
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Kedar
The name Kedar is here the collective name of the Arabic tribes
generally.
In the stricter sense, Kedar, like Nebaioth, which is associated with
it, as a nomadic tribe of Ishmaelites, which wandered as far as the Elanitic
Gulf. Within the space of a year, measured as exactly as is generally the case
where employers and laborers are concerned, Kedar's freedom, military strength,
numbers, and wealth (all these together constituting its glory), would all have
disappeared.
Nothing but a small remnant would be left of the heroic sons of
Kedar and their bows.
They are numbered here by their bows (in distinction from
the numbering by heads), showing that the righting men are referred to.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
The period of the fulfillment of the prophecy keeps us still within the Assyrian
era.
In Herodotus (2, 141), Sennacherib is actually called "king of Arabians and
Assyrians" (compare Josephus, Ant. x. 1, 4); and both Sargon and Sennacherib, in
their annalistic inscriptions, take credit to themselves for the subjugation of Arabian tribes.
But in the Chaldean era Jeremiah predicted the same things
against Kedar (ch. 49) as against Edom;
and Jer 49:30-31 was evidently written
with a retrospective allusion to this oracle of Isaiah.
When the period fixed by
Isaiah for the fulfillment arrived, a second period grew out of it, and one
still more remote, inasmuch as a second empire, viz., the Chaldean, grew out of
the Assyrian, and inaugurated a second period of judgment for the nations.
| Jeremiah 49:30 "Flee, get far away! Dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Hazor!" says the LORD. "For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a plan against you. (NKJV) |
After a short glimmer of morning, the night set in a second time upon Edom, and a second time upon Arabia.
| LESSON 9 FROM THE AMPLIFIED VERSION |
Isaiah 19:1 - 21:17 - from the Amplified Version
19:1 THE MOURNFUL, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up)
concerning Egypt: Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to
Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the hearts of
the Egyptians will melt within them.
(2) And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, every one
against his brother and every one against his neighbor, city against city, and
kingdom against kingdom.
(3) And the spirit of the Egyptians within them will become exhausted and emptied
out and will fail, and I will destroy their counsel and confound their plans;
and they will seek counsel from the idols and the sorcerers, and from those
having familiar spirits (the mediums) and the wizards.
(4) And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard and cruel master,
and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
(5) And the waters shall fail from the Nile, and the river shall be wasted and
become dry.
(6) And the rivers shall become foul, the streams and canals of Egypt shall be
diminished and dried up, the reeds and the rushes shall wither and rot away.
(7) The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of
the Nile shall become dry, be blown away, and be no more.
(8) The fishermen will lament, and all who cast a hook into the Nile will mourn;
and they who spread nets upon the waters will languish.
(9) Moreover, they who work with combed flax and they who weave white [cotton]
cloth will be confounded and in despair.
(10) [Those who are] the pillars and foundations of Egypt will be crushed, and all
those who work for hire or who build dams will be grieved.
(11) The princes of Zoan [ancient capital of the Pharaohs] are utterly foolish;
the counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become witless (stupid). How
can you say to Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings?
(12) Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now [if they are so wise],
and let them make known what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt [if
they can].
(13) The princes of Zoan have become fools, and the princes of Memphis are
confused and deceived; those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have led
Egypt astray.
14 The Lord has mingled a spirit of perverseness, error, and confusion within
her; [her leaders] have caused Egypt to stagger in all her doings, as a drunken
man staggers in his vomit.
(15) Neither can any work [done singly or by concerted action] accomplish anything
for Egypt, whether by head or tail, palm branch or rush [high or low].
(16) In that day will the Egyptians be like women [timid and helpless]; and they
will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts
that He shakes over them.
(17) And the land of Judah [allied to Assyria] shall become a terror to the
Egyptians; everyone to whom mention of it is made will be afraid and everyone
who mentions it--to him will they turn in fear, because of the purpose of the
Lord of hosts which He purposes against Egypt.
(18 ) In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the
language of [the Hebrews of] Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts.
one of them will be called the City of the Sun or Destruction.
(19) In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of
Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.
(20) And it will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of
Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send
them a savior, even a mighty one, and he will deliver them. [Judg 2:18; 3:9,15.]
(21) And the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know
(have knowledge of, be acquainted with, give heed to, and cherish) the Lord in
that day and will worship with sacrifices of animal and vegetable offerings;
they will vow a vow to the Lord and perform it.
(22) And the Lord shall smite Egypt, smiting and healing it; and they will return
to the Lord, and He will listen to their entreaties and heal them.
(23) In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the
Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians
will worship [the Lord] with the Assyrians.
(24) In that day Israel shall be the third, with Egypt and with Assyria [in a
Messianic league], a blessing in the midst of the earth,
(25) Whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, blessed be Egypt My people and
Assyria the work of My hands and Israel My heritage.
20:1 IN THE year that the Tartan [Assyrian commander in chief] came to Ashdod in
Philistia, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, he fought against Ashdod and took it.
(2) At that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, Go, loose the
sackcloth from off your loins and take your shoes off your feet. And he had done
so, walking around stripped [to his loincloth] and barefoot.
(3) And the Lord said, As My servant Isaiah has walked [comparatively] naked and
barefoot for three years, as a sign and forewarning concerning Egypt and
concerning Cush (Ethiopia),
(4) So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Ethiopian
exiles, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with buttocks uncovered--to the
shame of Egypt.
(5) And they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Ethiopia their hope and
expectation and Egypt their glory and boast.
(6) And the inhabitants of this coastland [the Israelites and their neighbors]
will say in that day, See! This is what comes to those in whom we trusted and
hoped, to whom we fled for help to deliver us from the king of Assyria! But we,
how shall we escape [captivity and exile]?
21:1 THE MOURNFUL, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning the
Desert of the Sea [which was Babylon after great dams were raised to control the
waters of the Euphrates River which overflowed it like a sea--and would do so
again]: As whirlwinds in the South (the Negev) sweep through, so it [the
judgment of God by hostile armies] comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
(2) A hard and grievous vision is declared to me: the treacherous dealer deals
treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All
the sighing [caused by Babylon's ruthless oppressions] I will cause to cease
[says the Lord]. [Isa 11:11; 13:17.]
(3) Therefore are my [Isaiah's] loins filled
with anguish, pangs have seized me like the pangs of a woman in childbirth; I am
bent and pained so that I cannot hear, I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
(4) My mind reels and wanders, horror terrifies me. [In my mind's eye I am at the
feast of Belshazzar. I see the defilement of the golden vessels taken from God's
temple, I watch the handwriting appear on the wall--I know that Babylon's great
king is to be slain.] The twilight I looked forward to with pleasure has been
turned into fear and trembling for me. [Dan 5.]
(5) They prepare the table, they
spread the rugs, [and having] set the watchers [the revelers take no other
precaution], they eat, and they drink. Arise, you princes, and oil your shields
[for your deadly foe is at the gates]!
(6) For thus has the Lord said to me: Go, set [yourself as] a watchman, let him
declare what he sees.
7 And when he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, and a troop
of camels, he shall listen diligently, very diligently.
(8) And [the watchman] cried like a lion, O Lord, I stand continually on the
watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my station every night.
(9) And see! Here comes a troop of men and chariots, horsemen in pairs! And he
[the watchman] tells [what it foretells]: Babylon has fallen, has fallen! And
all the graven images of her gods lie shattered on the ground [in my vision]!
(10) O you my threshed and winnowed ones [my own people the Jews, who must be
trodden down by Babylon], that which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, I have [joyfully] announced to you [Babylon is to fall]!
(11) The mournful, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning Dumah
(Edom): one calls to me from Seir (Edom), Watchman, what of the night? [How far
is it spent? How long till morning?] Guardian, what of the night?
(12) The watchman said, the morning comes, but also the night. [Another time, if
Edom earnestly wishes to know] if you will inquire [of me], inquire; return,
come again.
(13) The mournful, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning
Arabia: In the forests and thickets of Arabia you shall lodge, O you caravans of
Dedanites [from northern Arabia].
(14) To the thirsty [Dedanites] bring water, O inhabitants of the land of Tema [in
Arabia]; meet the fugitive with bread [suitable] for him.
(15) For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow,
and from the grievousness of war [the press of battle].
(16) For the Lord has said this to me, within a year, according to the years of a
hireling [who will work no longer than was agreed], all the glory of Kedar [an
Arabian tribe] will fail.
(17) And the remainder of the number of archers and their bows, the mighty
men of the sons of Kedar, will be diminished and few; for the Lord, the God of
Israel, has spoken it.
(End of Lesson 9)
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Second Covenant |
Topical Studies |
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