ISAIAH
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| 1. | Judgment on the Nations | 3. | Sennacherib Boasts against Yahweh | |
| 2. | The future Glory of Zion | 4. | Lesson 16 from the Amplified Version |
Isaiah 34:1 - 35:10
Finale Of The Judgment Upon All The World
(More especially upon Edom)
And Redemption Of The People Of Jehovah
These two chapters stand in precisely the same relation to chapters 28-33 as chapters 24-27 to chapters 13-23. In both instances the special prophecies connected with the history of the prophet's own times are followed by a comprehensive finale of an apocalyptic character.
We feel that we are carried entirely away from the stage of history.
| There is no longer that foreshortening, by which the prophet's perspective was characterized before the fall of Assyria. |
The tangible shapes of the historical present, by which we have been hitherto surrounded, are now spiritualized into something perfectly ideal.
| We are transported directly into the midst of the last things; and the eschatological vision is less restricted, has greater mystical depth, belongs more to another sphere, and has altogether more of a New Testament character. |
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BACKGROUND:
There are many passages in Jeremiah (viz., Jer 25:31; 46:10;
50:27,39; 51:40) that cannot be explained in any other way than on the
supposition that Jeremiah had the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 34 before
him. We cannot escape from the conclusion, that just as we find
Jeremiah introducing earlier prophecies generally into his cycle of
prophecies against the nations, and, in the addresses already
mentioned, borrowing from Amos and Nahum, and placing side by side
with a passage from Amos (compare Jer 25:30 with Amos 1:2) one of a
similar character, and agreeing with Isaiah 34, so he also had
Isaiah 34 and 35 before him, and reproduced it in the same sense as he did
other and earlier models.
| Jeremiah 25:30 | Amos 1:2 | ||
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It is equally certain that Zephaniah 1:7-8, and 2:14, stand in a dependent relation to Isaiah 34:6,11
| Zephaniah 1:7-8, and 2:14 | Isaiah 34:6,11 | ||
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Just as Zephaniah 2:15 was related to Isaiah 47:8
| Zephaniah 2:15 | Isaiah 47:8 | ||
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And Zephaniah 2:14 to Isaiah 13:21-22
| Zephaniah 2:14 | Isaiah 13:21, 22 | ||
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Just as chapters 24-27 are full of the clearest marks of Isaiah's authorship,
so is
it also with chapters 34-35.
They belong to the latest revelations received by the prophet,
to the last steps
by which he reached that ideal height at which he soars in chapters 40-66,
and from which he never descends again to the stage of passing history,
which lay so far beneath. After the fall of Assyria, and when
darkness began to gather on the horizon again, Isaiah broke completely
away from his own times.
| "The end of all things" became more and more his own true home. |
And the bright center of his prophecies is not the fall of Asshur (for this was already prophetically a thing of the past, which had not been followed by complete salvation),
| but deliverance from Babylon. |
And the bright noon-day background of his prophecies is no longer the realized idea of the kingdom of prophecy - realized, that is to say, in the one person of the Messiah, whose form had lost the sharp outlines of chapters 7-12 even in the prophecies of Hezekiah's time -
| but the parousia (coming of the Christ) of Jehovah, which all flesh would see. |
It was the revelation of the mystery of the incarnation of God, for which all this was intended to prepare the way.
| And there was no other way in which that could be done, than by completing the perfect portrait of the Messiah in the light of the ultimate future, so that both the factors in the prophecy might be assimilated. |
The prophetic cycles in chapters 24-27 and 34-35 stand in the relation of preludes to
it.
In ch. 40-66 the process of assimilation is fully at work, and there is
consequently no book of the Old Testament which has gone so thoroughly into New
Testament depths, as this second part of the collection of Isaiah's prophecies,
which
| commences with a prediction of the parousia of Jehovah, and |
| ends with the creation of the new heaven and new earth. |
Edom here is what Moab was in chapters 24-27.
By the side of Babylon, the empire of the world, whose policy of conquest led to its enslaving Israel,
| it represents the world in its hostility to Israel as the people of Jehovah. |
In this its unbrotherly, hereditary hatred, it represented the sum-total of all the enemies and persecutors of the church of Jehovah. The special sidepiece to chapter 34 is Isaiah 63:1-6.
| (1) Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed
garments from Bozrah, this One who is glorious in His apparel, traveling
in the greatness of His strength? — "I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save." (2) Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? (3) "I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, and trampled them in My fury; their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My robes. (4) For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come. (5) I looked, but there was no one to help, and I wondered that there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; and My own fury, it sustained Me. (6) I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, made them drunk in My fury, and brought down their strength to the earth." (NKJV) |
What the prophet here foretells relates to all nations, and to every individual within them, in their relation to the congregation of Jehovah.
The summons does not invite them to look upon the completion of the judgment, but to hear the prophecy of the future judgment; and it is issued to everything on the earth, because it would all have to endure the judgment upon the nations (see at Isa 5:25; 13:10).
The expression qetseph layehoovâh (indignation of the LORD) implies that Jehovah was ready to execute His wrath. The nations that are hostile to Jehovah are slaughtered, the bodies remain unburied, and the streams of blood loosen the firm masses of the mountains, so that they melt away.
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (1) Come near, nations, to hear; and pay attention, peoples. Let the earth hear and everything in it, the world and all that it brings forth. (2) For the Lord is angry against all the nations and furious at all their host. He has doomed them and (Not in MT) has determined that they be slaughtered. (them for slaughter MT) (3) There slain and their corpses will be cast down, and their stench will rise up. The (Not in MT) mountains will be socked with their blood. |
See Note in lesson 15 on the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
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The judgment foretold by Isaiah also belongs to the last things; for it takes place in connection with the simultaneous destruction of the present heaven and the present earth.
The heaven, that is to say, the present system of the universe, breaks up into atoms, and is rolled up like a book that has been read through; and the stars fall down as a withered leaf falls from a vine, when it is moved by even the lightest breeze, or like the withered leaves shaken from the fig-tree.
The expressions are so strong, that they cannot be understood in any other sense than as relating to the end of the world (Isa 65:17; 66:22; compare Matt 24:29).
| Isaiah 65:17 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. |
| Isaiah 66:22 "For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me," says Yaweh, "So shall your descendants and your name remain." |
| Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. |
| Revelation 21:1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. |
When we look at the following kii (for) in verse 5, it undoubtedly appears strange that the prophet should foretell the passing away of the heavens, simply because Jehovah judges Edom. But Edom stands here as the representative of all powers that are hostile to the church of God as such, and therefore expresses an idea of the deepest and widest cosmical signification (as Isa 24:21 clearly shows).
And it is not only a doctrine of Isaiah himself, but a biblical doctrine
universally, that God will destroy the present world as soon as the measure of the sin which culminates in unbelief, and in the persecution of the congregation
of the faithful, shall be full.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
REMEMBER:
"You must further know that the prophets see things shown to them allegorically, such as the candlesticks, horses, and mountains of Zechariah (Zech. 4:2; 6:1-7), which Amos saw, the animals of Daniel (Dan. 7 and 8), the seething pot of
Jeremiah (Jer. 1:13), and similar allegorical objects shown to represent
certain ideas."
Moses Maimonides –the guide for the perplexed –on Prophecy
If in the study of prophecy, you make every thing literal, you will have problems.
The Jews understood the meaning and we also need to understand it as well.
Paul
the Learner
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (4) The valley will be split, all the host of the heavens will fall (All the host of the heavens will rot away MT) and the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. All their host will wither, like a leaf withering (as when a leaf withers MT) off the vine or like withering off the fig tree. |
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Jehovah does not appear here in person as judge, but His sword appears; just as in Gen 3:24, the "He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way" is mentioned as an independent power standing by the side of the cherub. The sword is His executioner, which has no sooner drunk deeply of wrath in heaven, i.e., in the immediate sphere of the Deity, than it comes down in wild intoxication upon Edom, the people of the ban of Jehovah, i.e., the people upon whom He has laid the ban, and there, as His instrument of punishment, fills itself with blood, and fattens itself with fat.
Just as in chapter 63 Jehovah is represented as a treader of the wine-press,
| and the nations as the grapes; |
| and the nations as the animals offered |
| Zephaniah 1:7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD; for the day of the LORD is at hand, for the LORD has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests. |
| Jeremiah 46:10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. The sword shall devour; it shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood; for the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the River Euphrates. |
| Ezekiel 39:17 And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, "Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field: 'Assemble yourselves and come; gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal which I am sacrificing for you, a great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel. |
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (5) Indeed my sword will be seen (drink its fill MT) in the heavens. Watch, it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have doomed for judgment. (6) The Lord has a sword filled with blood, gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of rams’ kidneys. Indeed the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. (7) The wild oxen will fall with them and the young bulls with the mighty steers. Their land will be drunk with blood and their soil saturated with fat. |
Note: From the end of verse 9 (Dead Sea Scrolls) through the end of verse 10 the punctuation of 1Q1sa shows that the series of clauses was intentionally divided in a way different from that chosen in the Masoretic Text.
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Thus does Jehovah avenge His church upon Edom.
The one expression, "for the cause of Zion," is like a flash of lightning,
throwing light upon the obscurity of prophecy, both backwards and forwards.
A day and a year of judgment upon Edom would do justice
to Zion against its accusers and persecutors (riibh, vindicare). The everlasting punishment, which would fall upon it, is depicted in
figures and colors, suggested by the proximity of Edom to the Dead Sea, and the
volcanic character of this mountainous country. The unquenchable fire, and the eternally ascending smoke, proves
that the end of all things is referred to. The prophet meant primarily, no
doubt, that the punishment announced would fall upon the land of Edom, and
within its geographical boundaries; but this particular punishment represented
the punishment of all nations, and all men who were Edomite’s in their feelings
and conduct towards the congregation of Jehovah.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
The day of the Lord's vengeance - marks the brief space of time
which the execution of the vengeance on the foe shall occupy.
The year of recompenses - when God will retaliate on those
who have contended with Zion.
The "year," the lengthened duration of Zion's recompense for
her past sufferings.
Edom had thought to extend its borders by laying hold of its neighbor's lands,
and had instigated Babylon to cruelty toward fallen Judah (Psalm 137:7; Ezekiel
36:5); therefore Edom shall suffer the same herself. The final
winding up of the controversy between God and all enemies of Him and His
people is also shadowed forth (Malachi 4:1,3; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Revelation
11:18; 19:2).
(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright
(c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
| Psalm 137:7 Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, "Raze it, raze it, To its very foundation!" |
| Ezekiel 36:5 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Surely I have spoken in My burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave My land to themselves as a possession, with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country." |
| Malachi 4:1 "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," says the LORD of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch. |
| 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. |
| Revelation 11:17-18 "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth." |
| Revelation 19:2 For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her. |
No one shall pass through - Edom's original offence was, it
would not let Israel pass through their land in peace to Canaan: God
"recompenses" them in kind; no traveler shall pass through
Edom.
Volney was forced to confirm the truth of this prophecy: "From the
reports of the Arabs, southeast of the Dead Sea, within three days'
journey, are upwards of thirty ruined towns, absolutely
deserted."
(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright
(c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Note:
To the student of Scripture, you must sometimes put down to opposing
opinions, and then let the student decide which seems the best solution. Jewish
theologians and Christian theologians disagree on many points of interpretation
of the Scriptures and as long as we only see part and only know part of what God
really means, there will be differences.
Paul the Learner
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (8) Indeed the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. (9) Its streams will be turned into pitch, and its soil into sulfur, and its land will become pitch. (burning pitch 1Q1sa. ) (10) It will burn night and day and will never be extinguished. Its smoke will go up from generation to generation, and it will lie waste forever and ever. No one will pass through it. (Night or day it will not be extinguished. Forever its smoke will go up; from generation to generation it will lie waste. Forever and ever no one will pass through it MT. the LXX divides differently and does not have the final sentence.) |
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The land of Edom, in this geographical and also emblematical sense, would become a wilderness; the kingdom of Edom would be forever destroyed.
The description of the ruin, which commences in verse 11 with a list of animals that frequent marshy and solitary regions, is similar to the one in Isa 13:20-22; 14:23 (compare Zeph 2:14, which is founded upon this). Isaiah's was the original of all such pictures of ruin that we meet with in the later prophets.
| Zephaniah 2:14 The herds shall lie down in her midst, every beast of the nation. Both the pelican and the bittern shall lodge on the capitals of her pillars; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be at the threshold; for He will lay bare the cedar work. |
According to well-established tradition, it is the long-necked pelican, which lives upon fish (the name is derived either from qow' (OT:6958), to vomit, or, as the construct is qª'at, from a word qaa'aah (OT:6958), formed in imitation of the animal's cry).
Line of confusion
The level and the measure are commonly employed for the purpose of building up;
but here Jehovah is represented as using these fore the purpose of pulling down
(a figure met with even before the time of Isaiah: vid. Amos 7:7 (...
the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand),
and 2 Kings
21:13 (And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria
and the plummet of the house of Ahab); inasmuch as He carries out this negative reverse of building
with the same rigorous exactness as that with which a builder carries out his
well-considered plan, and throws Edom back into a state of desolation and
desert, resembling the disordered and shapeless chaos of creation.
Thus the primeval kingdom with its early monarchy, which is long preceded that of Israel, is brought to an end (Gen 36:31 - ...the land of Edom before any king reigned over the children of Israel).
choreyhaa (OT:2715) (its nobles) stands at the head as a kind of protasis. Edom was an elective monarchy; the hereditary nobility electing the new king. But this would be done no more. The electoral princes of Edom would come to nothing. Not a trace would be left of all that had built up the glory of Edom.
| Daniel 4:34-35 And at the end of the days [seven years], I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding and the right use of my mind returned to me; and I blessed the Most High [God] and I praised and honored and glorified Him Who lives forever, Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion; and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say to Him, What are You doing? AMP |
Note: The kingdoms that man builds is not eternal, it exists only by the will of
God.
Paul the Learner.
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (11) The pelican and the porcupine will possess it, and the owl and the raven will dwell in it. Over it he will stretch a line, and chaos, (a line of chaos MT) and plumb lines of emptiness, and its nobles. (12) They (Her nobles LXX.) will call it No Kingdom There, and all its princes will be nothing. |
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The allusion to the monarchy and the lofty electoral dignity leads the prophet on to the palaces and castles of the land. Starting with these, he carries out the picture of the ruins in verses 13-15.
The word tsiyyim (wild beasts of the desert) - a particular species of animals to be named. This is the interpretation given by Rashi (in loc.) and Kimchi in Jer 50:39 to the Targum word tamvân. We do not render 'iyyiim "wild cats", but "jackals," lit. the creature of the night, was a female demon (sheedâh) of the popular mythology; according to the legends, it was a malicious fairy that was especially hurtful to children. There is life in Edom still; but what a caricature of that which once was there! In the very spot where the princes of Edom used to proclaim the new king, satyrs now invite one another to dance (Isa 13:21); and there kings and princes once slept in their palaces and country houses, the liiliith (screech owl), which is most at home in horrible places, finds, as though after a prolonged search, the most convenient and most comfortable resting-place.
Now observe
| 1. | How the places which men have deserted, and keep at a distance from, are proper receptacles for other animals, which the providence of God takes care of, and will not neglect. |
| 2. | Whom those resemble that are morose, unsociable, and unconversable, and affect a melancholy retirement; they are like these solitary creatures that take delight in desolations. |
| 3. | What a dismal change sin makes; it turns a fruitful land into barrenness, a frequented city into a wilderness. |
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (13) Thorns will grow in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It will be a habitation of jackals, an abode for ostriches. (14) Desert cats will meet hyenas, (1Q1sa has an unusual spelling of this word.) and goat-demons will call to each other. There too, liliths will settle, and they will find themselves (the Lilith will settle 1Q1sa, and it will find itself MT) a place of rest. (15) The owl (1Q1sa and MT have different spellings of this word; it occurs only this once in the Bible, and the identity of the animal it designates is disputed.) will make its nest there, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; indeed, indeed, (Not in MT) buzzards will gather there, every one with its mate. |
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The book of the Lord. This proves there was a book in existence, which
could be searched.
Whenever any one compared the prophecy with the fulfillment, they would be found
to coincide.
The phrase `al (OT:5921) kaatab (OT:3789) is used for entering in a book,
inasmuch as what is written there is placed upon the page;
and mee`al (OT:5921)
daarash (OT:1875) (used here) for searching in a book, inasmuch as a person leans over the
book when searching in it, and gets the object of his search out of it.
The
prophet applied the title "The Book of Jehovah" to his collection of the
prophecies with which Jehovah had inspired him, and which He had commanded him
to write down.
Whoever lived to see the time when the judgment should come upon Edom,
| would have only to look inquiringly into this Holy Scripture; |
| he would find the most exact agreement between them. |
The creatures named, which loved to frequent the marshes and solitary places, and ruins, would all really make their homes in what had once been Edom. But the satyrs and the liiliith, which were only the offspring of the popular belief - what of them? They, too, would be there; for in the sense intended by the prophet they were actual devils, which he merely calls by well-known popular names to produce a spectral impression.
Edom would really become a rendezvous for all the animals mentioned, as well as for such unearthly spirits as those that he refers to here. The prophet, or rather Jehovah, whose temporary organ Isaiah was, still further confirms this by saying, "My mouth hath commanded it, and His breath has brought them (all these creatures) together."
In the second part of verse 16 the
prophet is speaking of Jehovah;
whereas in the first Jehovah speaks through the prophet.
As the first creating word proceeded from the mouth of Jehovah, so also does the word of prophecy, which resembles such a word; and the breath of the mouth of Jehovah, i.e., His Spirit, is the power which accomplishes the fiat of prophecy, as it did that of creation, and moulds all creatures and their history according to the will and counsel of God (Ps 33:6).
| Psalm 33:6-9 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. (NKJV) |
A prelude of the fulfillment of this swept over the mountainous land of Edom
immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem; and it
has never risen to its previous state of cultivation again.
It swarmed with
snakes, and the desolate mountain heights and wild crows and eagles only inhabited
barren tablelands, and great flocks of birds.
But the ultimate fulfillment, to
which the appeal in verse 16 refers, is still in the future, and will eventually
fall upon the abodes of those who spiritually belong to that circle of hostility
to Jehovah (Jesus) and His church, of which ancient Edom was merely the center
fixed by the prophet.
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (16) Study and read from the book of the Lord: and not one (not one of them MT) will be missing, each its mate. (none of them lacks a mate MT) For it is his (my MT) mouth that has commanded, and it is his spirit that has gathered them. (Masculine 1Q1sa. Feminine MT) (17) It is he who has cast the lot for them, and his hands (hand MT.) divided it for them with the line forever. (1Q1sa. the line. Forever they will possess it; from generation to generation will they dwell in it.) |
| THE FUTURE GLORY OF ZION |
Isaiah 35:1-10
Jehovah: The King In His Glory
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| This is called an alternation. The Bible is full of Structures which I call the fingerprint of God. |
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The wilderness and the wasteland - the land of Edom referred to in
Isa. 34:9-16.
While Edom becomes a waste, the Land becomes a paradise; and the way of the
return thither a peaceful highway.
Shall be glad for them = shall rejoice over
them - the noisome creatures of Isa. 34:14-16, which were the evidences of
the vengeance of Isa. 34:8 and the glorious results as seen in
Isa. 35:4.
The former portrays one aspect of it, and the latter the other.
The wilderness
is glad for the removal of the Edomite’s, of which removal the presence of the
wild creatures (Isa. 34:13-17) was the token.
The desert shall rejoice, and blossom abundantly.
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (1) The wilderness and the dry land will rejoice, the desert will celebrate and blossom like the crocus. (2) It will blossom luxuriantly and rejoice greatly with joy and song. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. |
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Hebrews 12:12-13
Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make
straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but
rather be healed. (NKJV)
Luke 7:20-22
So the men came to Jesus and said, "John the Baptist sent us to You to ask,
Are You the one Who is to come, or shall we [continue to] look for another?"
In that very hour Jesus was healing many [people] of sicknesses and
distressing bodily plagues and evil spirits, and to many who were blind He gave
[a free, gracious, joy-giving gift of] sight.
So He replied to them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the
blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news (the Gospel)
preached to them." [Isa 29:18,19; 35:5,6; 61:1.] (AMP)
Edom falls, never to rise again.
Its land is turned into a horrible wilderness. But, on the other hand, the wilderness through which the redeemed Israel returns
is changed into a flowery field.
So joyful and so gloriously adorned will the barren desert, which has been hitherto so mournful, become, on account of the great things that are in store for it.
Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon have, as it were, shared their splendor with the desert, that all might be clothed alike in festal dress, when the glory of Jehovah, which surpasses everything self in its splendor, should appear; that glory which they would not only be privileged to behold, but of which they would be honored to be the actual scene.
The prophet now exclaims to the afflicted church, in language of unmixed consolation, that Jehovah is coming.
Those who have become weak
in faith, hopeless and despairing,
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The stronger are to tell such of their brethren as are perplexed and timid,
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For Jehovah is coming
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| the ultimate object is the salvation of His people. |
The bodily defects mentioned here there is no reason for regarding as figurative representations of spiritual defects . The healing of bodily defects, however, is merely the outer side of what is actually effected by the coming of Jehovah (for the other side, comp. Isa 32:3-4).
And so, also, the change of the desert into a field abounding with water is not a mere poetical ornament; for in the last times, the era of redemption, nature itself will really share in the doxa that proceeds from the manifested God to His redeemed.
The eyes of the blind
When Messiah (Memra) came, these miracles were the
evidence that He had indeed come to save His People (Matthew 11:1-6), but they
rejected Him. Hence, these with other similar prophecies are in abeyance.
| John had based his own claims on Isaiah 40:3 (The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of Yahweh; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.) |
| While Jesus based His claims on the passage before us - Isaiah 35:5,6. |
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (3) Strengthen the weak hands, support the stumbling knees. (4) Say to those who are disheartened, “Be strong, do not fear; see, your God will bring (come with MT.) Vengeance, he will bring (come with MT) divine recompense to save you.” (5) Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will unclose. (6) Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing. Yes, water will burst out in the wilderness, and streams will run (Not in MT or LXX) through the desert. (7) The scorching desert will become a pool, and the thirsting ground fountains of water; in the habitation of jackals, a grassy resting place with ( is her resting place; the grass 1Q1sa. will become MT) reeds and rushes. |
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In the midst of such miracles, by which all nature is glorified, the people of Jehovah are redeemed, and led home to Zion. Not only unclean persons from among the heathen, but even unclean persons belonging to Israel itself, will never pass along that holy road; none but the church purified and sanctified through sufferings, and those connected with it.
laamow (OT:3807) (whoever), to them, and to them
alone, does this road belong, which Jehovah has made and secured, and which so
readily strikes the eye, that even an idiot could not miss it.
Everlasting joy soars above their head; they lay fast hold of delight and joy (compare on
Isa 13:8), so that it never departs from them. On the other hand, sorrow and sighing flee away.
The whole of verse 10 is like a mosaic from Isa 51:11; 61:7; 51:3; and what is affirmed of the holy road, is also affirmed in Isa 52:1 of the holy city.
| Isaiah 51:11 So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away. |
| Isaiah 51:3 For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. |
| Isaiah 61:7 Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs. |
| Ezra 8:31 Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. And the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the road. |
The whole chapter is, in every part, both in thought and language, a prelude of that book of consolation for the exiles in their captivity. Not only in its spiritual New Testament thoughts, but also in its ethereal language, soaring high as it does in majestic softness and light, the prophecy has now reached the highest point of its development.
| Titus 3:3-7 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (NKJV) |
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (8) A highway will be there, and they will call it (it will be called MT) The Holy Way. (Mt, unlike 1Q1sa, repeats Way) The unclean will not pass over it; it and for whomever is traveling, (1Q1sa. but it will be for them; travelers MT) even fools, will not go astray. (9) There will be no lion or violent beast there; it will not come up on it, and it will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk, (10) and the ransomed of the Lord will return and enter Zion with singing. Everlasting joy will be upon their heads. They will attain joy and happiness, and sorrow and mourning will flee away. |
| SENNACHERIB BOASTS AGAINST YAHWEH |
Fulfillments Of Prophecy
And Prophecies Belonging To The Fourteenth Year Of
Hezekiah's Reign
And The Times Immediately Following
To the first six books of Isaiah's prophecies there is now appended a seventh.
| 1 | Isaiah chapters 1-6 | Book of Hardening | |
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| 2 | Isaiah chapters 7-12 | Book of Immanuel | |
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| 3 | Isaiah chapters 13-23 | Book Concerning the Nations | |
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| 4 | Isaiah chapters 24-27 | Book of the Great Catastrophe | |
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| 5 | Isaiah chapters 28-33 | Book of Woes, or of the Precious Corner-stone | |
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| 6 | Isaiah chapters 34-35 | Book of the Judgment upon Edom and Restoration of Israel | |
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| 7 | Isaiah chapters 36-39 | Book of Histories | |
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Isaiah 36:1-37:7
First Assyrian Attempt to Compel the Surrender of Jerusalem
Marcus v. Niebuhr, in his History of Asshur and Babel (p. 164), says,
"Why should not Hezekiah have revolted from Asshur as soon as he ascended the
throne? He had a motive for doing this, which other kings had not - namely, that
as he held his kingdom in belief from his God, obedience to a temporal monarch
was in his case sin."
But this assumption, which is founded upon the same idea
as that, in which the question was put to Jesus concerning the tribute money, is
not at all in accordance with Isaiah's view, as we may see from chapters 28-32; and
Hezekiah's revolt cannot have occurred even in the sixth year of his reign.
For Shalmanassar, or rather Sargon, made war upon Egypt and Ethiopia after the destruction of Samaria, without attempting anything against Hezekiah. It was not till the time of Sargon, who overthrew the reigning house of Assyria, that the actual preparations for the revolt were commenced, by the formation of an alliance between the kingdom of Judah on the one hand, and Egypt, and probably Philistia, on the other, the object of which was the rupture of the Assyrian yoke.
The campaign of Sennacherib the son of Sargon, into which we are transported in the following history, was the third of his expeditions, the one to which Sennacherib himself refers in the Cuneiform inscription upon the prism: "dans ma 3 e campagne je marchai vers la Syrie." The position that we find Sennacherib taking up between Philistia and Jerusalem, to the southwest of Jerusalem, is a very characteristic one in relation to both the occasion and the ultimate object of the campaign.
(Note: We shall show the variations in the text of 2 Kings 18:13 ff., as far
as we possibly can, in our translation. K. Signifies the book of Kings. But the
task of pronouncing an infallible sentence upon them all we shall leave to those
who know everything.) "And it came to pass in the (K. and in the) fourteenth
year of king Hizkîyahu, Sancherîb king of Asshur came up against all the
fortified cities of Judah, and took them. (K. Adds: Then Hizkiyah king of Judah
sent to the king of Asshur to Lachish, saying, I have sinned, withdraw from me
again; what thou imposes upon me I will raise.
Compare 2
Kings 18:13-20:19, on which Isaiah is not dependent, and 2 Chron. 32:1-33,
which is not dependent on either. This history is a proof of Isaiah’s prophetic
mission and gifts.
History and prophecy are thus combined: for the latter is history foretold, and
the former is (in this and many cases) prophecy fulfilled: the two accounts
being perfectly independent.
Rabshakeh
In 2 Kings 18:17, it is said that he sent Tartan, and Rabsaris,
and Rabshakeh.
It is probable that Rabshakeh only is mentioned in Isaiah because the expedition
may have been mainly under his direction, or more probably because he was
the principal speaker on the occasion to which he refers.
From Lachish
This was a city in the south of the tribe of Judah, and was
southwest of Jerusalem.
| It was situated in a plain, and was the seat of an ancient Canaanite king. It was rebuilt and fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:9). |
| It was in some respects a border town, and was a defense against the incursions of the Philistines. |
| It was therefore situated between Jerusalem and Egypt, and was in the direct way of Sennacherib in his going to Egypt, and on his return. |
| It lay, according to Eusebius and Jerome, seven Roman miles from Eleutheropolis toward the south. |
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (1) In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. (2) The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem (1Q1sa and MT use variant spellings) to King Hezekiah with a very large army. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of Fuller’s Field. |
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Hezekiah's confidential ministers go there also.
On the office of the house-minister, or major-domo, which was now filled by
Eliakim instead of Shebna.
The chronicler has a portion of this
address of Rabshakeh in
2 Chron 32:10-12.
And just as the prophetic words in the
book of Kings have a Deuteronomic sound, and those in the Chronicles the ring of
a chronicle, so do Rabshakeh's words, and those which follow, sound like the
words of Isaiah himself.
(From Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition,
Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
In the staff of this broken reed
The same comparison of Egypt with a broken reed, or a reed which
broke while they were trusting to it. Reeds were doubtless used often for
staves. They were light and hollow, with long joints. The idea
here is, that as a slender reed would break when a man leaned on it,
and would pierce his hand, so it would be with Egypt. Their reliance
would give way, and their trusting to Egypt would be attended with injury
to themselves (compare Isaiah
30:5,7;
31:3).
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
High places
The worship of idols was usually performed in groves on high places;
or on the tops of hills and mountains.
It seems to have been supposed that worship in such places was more acceptable
to the Deity. Chapels, temples, and altars, were erected
on such places, and ministers and priests attended there to officiate.
| Even the kings of Judah, notwithstanding the express prohibition of Moses (Deuteronomy 12), were engaged in such acts of worship (2 Kings 12:4; 14:4; 15:4,35; 2 Chronicles 15:17; 20:33). |
| Solomon himself sacrificed in chapels of this kind (1 Kings 3:2). |
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Give a pledge
The Hebrew verb `aarab (OT:6148) (hostages) means properly
| to mix or mingle; |
| then, to exchange commodities by barter or traffic; |
| then, to become surety for anyone, to exchange with him, to stand in his place; |
| then, to pledge, to pledge one's life, or to give security of any kind. |
There was much severity in this taunt. The Jews hoped to defend themselves. Yet here was an immense army coming up to lay siege against them. What hope had they of defense? So weak and feeble were they, that Rabshakeh said they could not furnish even two thousand horsemen to resist all the host of the Assyrians. There was also, doubtless, much truth in this taunt.
| It was not permitted by the law of Moses for the Jews to keep cavalry, nor for their kings to multiply horses. The reason of this may be seen in the notes at Isaiah 2:7. Though some of the kings, and especially Solomon, had disregarded this law of Moses, yet Hezekiah had endeavored to restore the observance of the law, and it is probable that he find no cavalry, and that the art of horsemanship was little known in Jerusalem. |
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Captain of the least
The word 'captain' here pachat (OT:6346),
denotes a Prefect or Governor of a province less than a Satrap, an
officer who was under the Satrap, and subject to him.
It is applied to an officer in
| the Assyrian empire | (2 Kings 18:24) |
| the Chaldean empire | (Jeremiah 51:23) |
| the Persian empire | (Esther 8:9; 9:3) |
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Have I now come up without the LORD
A boastful inference from the past successes of Assyria, designed to
influence the Jews to surrender - their own principles bound them to yield to
Yahweh's will. He may have heard from partisans in Judah, and
deserters, if he was not one himself, what Isaiah had foretold (Isaiah
10:5-6).
(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright
(c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Or it may be that he uses the name Yahweh here as synonymous with the name of GOD, and means to say that he had been divinely directed to come up in that expedition. All the ancient warriors usually consulted the gods, and endeavored by auguries to obtain the divine approbation of their plans of conquest, and Rabshakeh may mean simply to say that his master came now under the divine sanction and direction.
Or, he made use of this as a mere pretence for the purpose of
influencing the people who heard him, and to whom he said he was sent
(Isaiah 36:12), in order to alienate their minds from Hezekiah, and
to induce them to surrender. He knew that it was one of the
principles of the Jews, however little they regarded it in practice,
to yield to his authority. Wicked people will be glad to plead divine
authority for their purposes and plans when they can have the slightest pretence
for it.
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
From The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible
| (3) Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and
Joah son of Asaph the recorder came out to him. (4) The Rabshakeh said to them,
“Say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of
Assyria: What is this source of confidence that you yourself are trusting in? (5) Do you think that words
alone equate to counsel and strength for battle? Now in whom do you trust, that
you have rebelled against me? (6) Indeed, you are depending on Egypt, that broken
reed of a staff, which pierces the palm of anyone who leans on it: so is Pharaoh
king of Egypt to all who trust in him.’ (7) “But if you (Plural 1Q1sa and LXX. Singular MT.) say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God’ – is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, after which he said to Judah and Jerusalem. ‘You will worship before this altar in Jerusalem? – (8) Come now, make a wager (Plural verb 1Q1sa and LXX. Singular in MT) with my lord, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to supply riders for them. (9) How can you reject one captain from among the least of my master’s servants, and entrust yourselves (yourself MT) to Egypt for chariots and horsemen? (10) Now do you think that it is without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? It was the Lord who said to me, ‘Go up to this land to destroy it.’“ |
| LESSON 16 FROM THE AMPLIFIED VERSION |
Isaiah 34:1 - 36:10 - from the Amplified Version
34:1 COME NEAR, you nations, to hear;
and hearken, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it; the world,
and all things that come forth from it.
(2) For the Lord is indignant against all nations, and His wrath is against all
their host. He has utterly doomed them, He has given them over to slaughter.
(3) Their slain also shall be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies shall
rise, and the mountains shall flow with their blood.
(4) All the host of the heavens shall be dissolved and crumble away, and the skies
shall be rolled together like a scroll; and all their host [the stars and the
planets] shall drop like a faded leaf from the vine, and like a withered fig
from the fig tree. [Revelation 6:13,14.]
(5) Because My sword has been bathed and equipped in heaven, behold, it shall come
down upon Edom [the descendants of Esau], upon the people whom I have doomed for
judgment. [Obadiah 8-21.]
(6) The sword of the Lord is filled with blood [of sacrifices], it is gorged and
greased with fatness — with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the
kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah [capital of Edom] and a
great slaughter in the land of Edom.
(7) And the wild oxen shall fall with them, and the [young] bullocks with the [old
and mighty] bulls; and their land shall be drunk and soaked with blood, and
their dust made rich with fatness.
(8) For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense, for the cause of
Zion.
(9) And the streams [of Edom] will be turned into pitch and its dust into
brimstone, and its land will become burning pitch.
(10) [The burning of Edom] shall not be quenched night or day; its smoke shall go
up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass
through it forever and ever. [Revelation 19:3.]
(11) But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it; the owl and the bittern
and the raven will dwell in it. And He will stretch over it [Edom] the measuring
line of confusion and the plummet stones of chaos [over its nobles].
(12) They shall call its nobles to proclaim the kingdom, but nothing shall be
there, and all its princes shall be no more.
(13) And thorns shall come up in its palaces and strongholds, nettles and brambles
in its fortresses; and it shall be a habitation for jackals, an abode for
ostriches.
(14) And the wild beasts of the desert will meet here with howling creatures
[wolves and hyenas] and the [shaggy] wild goat will call to his fellow; the
night monster will settle there and find a place of rest.
(15) There shall the arrow snake make her nest and lay her eggs and hatch them and
gather her young under her shade; there shall the kites be gathered [also to
breed] every one with its mate.
(16) Seek out of the book of the Lord and read: not one of these [details of
prophecy] shall fail, none shall want and lack her mate [in fulfillment]. For
the mouth [of the Lord] has commanded, and His Spirit has gathered them.
(17) And He has cast the lot for them, and His hand has portioned [Edom] to [the
wild beasts] by measuring line. They shall possess it forever; from generation
to generation they shall dwell in it.
35:1 THE WILDERNESS and the dry land
shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose and the autumn
crocus.
(2) It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory
of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of [Mount] Carmel and [the
plain] of Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty and splendor
and excellency of our God.
(3) Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble and tottering knees.
[Hebrews 12:12.]
(4) Say to those who are of a fearful and hasty heart, Be strong, fear not!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance; with the recompense of God He will
come and save you.
(5) Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped.
(6) Then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall
sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the
desert. [Matthew 11:5.]
(7) And the burning sand and the mirage shall become a pool, and the thirsty
ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lay resting, shall
be grass with reeds and rushes.
(8) And a highway shall be there, and a way; and it shall be called the Holy Way.
The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for the redeemed; the
wayfaring men, yes, the simple ones and fools, shall not err in it and lose
their way.
(9) No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall
not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk on it.
(10) And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, and
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
36:1 NOW IN the fourteenth year of King
Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities
of Judah and took them. [2 Kings 18:13,17-37; 2 Chronicles 32:9-19.]
(2) And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh [the military official] from
Lachish [the Judean fortress commanding the road from Egypt] to King Hezekiah at
Jerusalem with a great army. And he stood by the canal of the Upper Pool on the
highway to the Fuller's Field.
(3) Then came out to meet him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the [royal]
household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recording
historian.
(4) And the Rabshakeh said to them, Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the
king of Assyria: What reason for confidence is this in which you trust?
(5) Do you suppose that mere words of the lips can pass for warlike counsel and
strength? Now in whom do you trust and on whom do you rely, that you rebel
against me? [2 Kings 18:7.]
(6) Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised and broken reed, Egypt, which
will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to
all who trust and rely on him.
(7) But if you say to me, We trust in and rely on the Lord our God — is it not He
Whose high places and Whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to Judah and
to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar? [2 Kings 18:4,5.]
(8) Now therefore, I pray you, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria and
give him pledges, and I will give you two thousand horses — if you are able on
your part to put riders on them.
(9) How then can you repulse the attack of a single captain of the least of my
master's servants, when you put your reliance on Egypt for chariots and for
horsemen?
(10) Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have now come up against this land to
destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.
(End of Lesson 16)
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Second Covenant |
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