A.C. 714. swim and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. 12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy wall shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust. ISAIAH XXVI. 1 A song inciting to confidence in God, 5 for his judgments, 12 and for his favour to his people. 20 An exhortation to wait on God. 1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. 2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which * Heb. truths. keepeth the truth may enter in. Heb. peace, peace. 3 Thou wilt keep him † in perfect peace, whose mind is Or, thought, stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. or, imagina tion. Heb. the rock of ages 4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: 5¶For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust. 6 The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy. 7 The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. 8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. 9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. 11 LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: Or, toward. but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy || at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them. thy people. * Or, for us 12 ¶ LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works * in us. 13 O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. 14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. 15 Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast A. C. 714. increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. 16 LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. 17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. 18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. 19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. 20 ¶ Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. * Heb. secret speech. 21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to c Mic. i. 3. punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her † blood, and shall no more cover + Heb. bloods. her slain. ISAIAH XXVII. 1 The care of God over his vineyard. 7 His chastisements differ from judgments. 12 The church of Jews and Gentiles. 1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even tor, crossing leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dra- like a bar. gon that is in the sea. 2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. 3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment : lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would § go through them, I would & Or, march burn them together. 5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. 6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. against. 7¶Hath he smitten him, || as he smote those that smote Heb. accordhim? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? stroke of those, A. C. 714. 8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east thou sendest it wind. forth. * Or, when + Or, when he removeth it. + Or, sun images. 9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and ‡ images shall not stand up. 10 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof. 11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour. 12 ¶ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. 13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem. 713. SECTION IX. Prophecy of the Invasion of Judea; and the Destruction of Babylon. ISAIAH XXII. VER. 1–1547. 1 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? 47 In this animated and beautiful chapter, the prophet represents the people of Jerusalem as running to the house tops, to gaze on an approaching army. At the time of the delivery of this prophecy, it is most probable that the host of Assyria was daily expected to appear before Jerusalem. On comparing Isaiah xxii. 9. with 2 Chron. xxxii. 5. it will be evident that the Prophet alludes in the plainest terms to the warlike preparations of Hezekiah for the defence of the city. Bishop Horsley's conjecture, however, is very probable, that these first fourteen verses refer to the siege and capture of Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah. In his opinion, the impenitence alluded to in ver. 11 and 13, and the 2 Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous A. C. 713. city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. * bow. 3 All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the * Heb. of the archers all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far. be bitter in 4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; +I will weep + Heb. I will bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling weeping. of the daughter of my people. 5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GoD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the moun tains. 6 And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. + Heb. made naked. choice of thy valleys. 7 And it shall come to pass, that § thy choicest valleys Heb. the shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array || at the gate. 8¶ And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest. 9 Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool. 10 And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall. 11 Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago. 12 And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth : ||Or, toward. 13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and dch. lvi. 12. drink; for to morrow we shall die. 14 And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. utter ruin denounced in ver. 14, suit not the time of Hezekiah, nor the event of Sennacherib's expedition. This prophecy may indeed be considered as referring to both these events; one may be regarded as it were the type of the other.-Horsley's Bib. Crit. vol. ii. Wisd. ii. 6. 1 The prophet, bewailing the captivity of his people, seeth in a vision the fall of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. 11 Edom, scorning the prophet, is moved to repentance. 15 The set time of Arabia's calamity. 1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in 48 Part of this prophecy was to be fulfilled within a year of its delivery, see ver. 16.; and it was probably given about the same time with the others contained in this part of the book of Isaiah; that is, immediately before, or after, the fourteenth of Hezekiah, the year of Sennacherib's invasion. It is supposed the king of Assyria overran these several clans of Arabians on his first march into Judea, or perhaps on his return from the Egyptian expedition. The operation of the Spirit of God upon the minds of his prophets may be supposed to bear some analogy to the ordinary operations of the human intellect. In the latter instance the process of recollection is effected, by one idea suggesting another; which being usual, and common, is denominated natural: in the former, future events are anticipated by what may be considered prophetic association; that is, on the occurrence of any great event, God, by his Spirit, enables the prophet to foresee a succession of future events, which will succeed the one which is immediately present before him; and this being unusual, and uncommon, can be attributed only to divine and miraculous influence. The grand subject of the prophecy in chap. xxi. is the overthrow of the Babylonian empire; the destruction of which appears to have been associated in Isaiah's mind, with the ruin which hung over, and menaced Jerusalem. For a very curious, and, not improbably, correct interpretation of ver. 11, 12, vide Fragments of Calmet. After the burthen of Jerusalem he recurs to the burthen of Babylon, "the desert of the sea," which he foresees would bring ruin on his native land, a more fatal ruin than that with which she was then threatened; and that Babylon, in her turn, would be destroyed by the increasing greatness of that power, which now, comparatively small, and obscure, was enrolled in the service of the enemies of Judah. He sees the men of Kir and Elam, chap. xxii. 6. (the Medes and Persians) among the soldiers of Assyria, he sees their future greatness, and the final overthrow of Babylon. He foresees these circumstances in prophetic vision, and relates them, as orderly as an uninspired writer would have done from association or recollection. At the very moment when these united forces were in array against Jerusalem; he predicts the time, when the Medes and Persians, arrived at their height of power, should in like manner be leagued against Babylon. He enters into the midst of things; and describes, in bold and animated language, the very banquet at which the princes and nobles should be seated when "all the images of her gods should be broken to the ground." "Prepare the table, watch in the tower," are terms literally expressive of the actual security and revelling of the sovereign: Belshazzar was eating and drinking with his wives and concubines, till the Persians entered his palace, forced the goblet from his lips, and compelled his princes to "arise, and anoint the shield." Ver. 5. Compare this prophecy with its wonderful accomplishment, Daniel v. |