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Isaiah had only withering contempt for this kind of political astuteness. Although he had been sedulously shut out of their counsels, he knew precisely what they sought to achieve, and how. 'Your deputation is even now on its way down to Egypt.' For God's people to depend on Egypt was always a going down (e.g. Gen. 12:10).

 

Why did they not instead "ask of my mouth", that is, of Isaiah who was Jehovah's abundantly accredited spokesman? What a contrast with this fawning attempt at friendship with Pharaoh (whose title would sound, to a good Hebrew, like 'Bad Mouth'!). The prophet's language echoes the rebuke of Israel's treaty with the Gibeonites without "asking counsel at the mouth of the Lord" (Josh. 9:14).

 

There is a specially interesting feature in this situation. There are indications that Sennacherib had his spies in Jerusalem, who kept him informed about conditions and developments there (see H.Gt, ch. 13). So when the deputation went off to Egypt, the Assyrian king soon knew about it, and with rough mockery (2 Kgs. 18:21-24) he derided the duplicity of this Jewish statesmanship.

 

Also, Isaiah poured scorn on those who sought to "strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh" (cp. 20:5). Why be such fools as to "trust in the shadow of Egypt"? In the time of Moses it was the shadow of the Lord's pillar of cloud that had been the protection of God's people. Then why not now? Had not Isaiah earlier urged this faith on his panic-stricken contemporaries? (4:5,6).

 

But it was not long after this time that Hezekiah, hitherto helpless because of his leprosy, now enjoyed a miraculous cure. Forthwith he went into the temple to beseech the further help of his God, and at the same time he sent members of his cabinet to seek guidance from Isaiah (2 Kgs. 19:1,2). What a contrast with the Political scheming and deceit that had been attempted hitherto!

 

In spite of all the efforts at secrecy, Isaiah knew what was going forward "His (Pharaoh's) princes are at Zoan (to meet your deputation), and his ambassadors are at Hanes (where the deliberations are to take place)". The irony of it, for Zoan was the Egyptian city which had witnessed the marvels and might of Jehovah on behalf of his bondslave people (Ps. 78:12). And Hanes was Tahpanhes which, more than a century later, witnessed the overthrow of Egyptian might by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 43:9,10). At this point LXX reads, with significant difference: "For the rulers of Tanis (Tahpahnes) are evil angels." Did the Hebrew text which LXX followed have an extra word alluding back to "the destroyer" who smote the Egyptian firstborn (Ex.12:23)? — Make a treaty with the men of Egypt and they will do you no more good than destroying angels at Passover did to the Egyptians!

 

These Egyptian negotiators would prove to be ashamed of having as a possible ally such a state as Judah, "a people ('am, Jews) that could not profit them", but who were only "a shame and a reproach." Hence when at last Sabaka, the Pharaoh did launch his campaign in Judaea it was simply to stave off the Assyrian threat to Egypt, not to attempt to save Jerusalem.

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30:6,7 "The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. For the Egyptian shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still."

 

In his usual style, Isaiah goes in for double meanings here, in one phrase after another.

 

The "burden" is a prophetic message of woe, like the long series in ch. 13-23. It also refers to the long train of asses and camels which have set off for the Negeb, as though heading for Elath, for exportation to some southern or eastern land. But this is just part of the camouflage adopted by the princes who are actually sending their deputation, accompanied by many rich and rare gifts, to Egypt. An inscription of Sargon II says that in his time "the peoples of Palestine carried presents to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, unto a prince who did not save." Now it was in the hope that that country's massive resources would yet come to Judah's aid via Gaza and the coastal plain. The much more difficult alternative via Negeb and the central tracks of the Sinai peninsula was intended to mislead the Assyrian intelligence service. But the scheme was "blown" through Isaiah's open publication of what was afoot. And of course he made himself enemies by such prophetic activities as these!

 

The route now taken would mean much hardship for the entire caravan. Also the results of the journey would only be "trouble and anguish."

 

The wilderness had been like that for Israel when they wearily travelled it to their Land of Promise (Dt. 8:15). Then what could they expect as now they chose to reverse direction? "Fiery flying serpents" had brought misery to the people in that far-off time (Num. 21:6). Could they expect anything better now? Let them read the symbolism of that experience, especially since the same vivid language described God's angels of evil and affliction (6:2). So also would their messengers (v.4 LXX) be.

 

These Egyptians would prove to be "a people that shall not profit them." To seek help there was to lean on a broken reed.

 

The prophetic nickname for Egypt was Rahab, the boastful, the braggart, the lazy crocodile (51:9), who was to be "broken in pieces" at the time when God "scattered His enemies with His strong arm" (Ps. 89:10) — here the defeat of Pharaoh's great army (2 Kgs. 19:9) at El-tekeh and the utter destruction of the Assyrians at Jerusalem are curtly brought together. With what biting sarcasm does Isaiah declare: "Their (Egyptian) strength is to sit still!" Had not Moses forbidden God's people to return to Egypt? (Dt. 17:16).

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30:8-11 "Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."

 

There is to be no escape from the prophet's unpalatable witness. His "burden" is to be written in duplicate — first, on a tablet for these wily rogues at court to read that it might provide full justification of the prophet's veracity when his testimony was proved true by events soon to follow; also, there must be a copy preserved in the volume of Isaiah's writings, and here it is. It is as though Isaiah were insisting: There will be a threefold fulfilment of this burden (like Ezekiel's "overturn, overturn, over-turn") _ now, in the latter day (AV mg), and after a long time ("for ever"); cp. the Apocalypse (Rev. 1:11) with its relevance to the first century and to much later days, even to the glories of the Messianic kingdom. Isaiah had confidence that his message would be fully vindicated (cp. 8:1,2,10; Dt. 18:20-22). More than this, he deemed his "burden" to have the same permanent value as Moses' law (Dt. 31:22-26). The third fulfilment suggested is underlined by a repetition (in v.14) of the imagery of Psalm 2.

 

These who now received the prophet's tablet of revelation were "a rebellious people" (Dt. 32:20), "lying children" whose word (to Assyrian and to Egyptian alike) was not to be trusted. They even hoped to deceive Jehovah the Father of their race.

 

So, to make his witness the more incisive, Isaiah wrote down also their words of reprobation of divine truth (cp. v.2; 28:12; and the attitude of their fathers at Sinai):

 

"No more of your visions from heaven! An end to your prophesying what you say are 'right things'. Instead, give us something more tolerable — 'smooth things', whether true or not (28:15b), something we can use to hoodwink these Egyptians. Otherwise, get out of our way, with all your prating about 'the way of righteousness' and Him whom you call 'the Holy One of Israel'. How much will holiness helps us out of this political mess we are in?'

 

They talked in exactly the same way to Isaiah's colleagues (Mic. 2:6,11).

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30:12-14 "Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit."

 

The response to all this scornful cynicism is forthright; and it comes from the Holy One whose very Name has been despised. His word (v. 10) has been contemp­tuously pushed aside. Instead, the mainstay of their policy has become high war tax­ation (as in 2 Kgs. 15:20) to pay for the lavish "persuader" sent to Pharaoh (v.6), and a deviousness devoid of any vestige of integrity. "And they stay thereon," that is, they are confident that such a crooked policy will work.

 

So, by two vivid figures of speech, Isaiah shows that its utter collapse will be both inevitable and tragic.

 

First, there is the picture of an ominous crack developing in a high city wall (Jerusalem's defences!) and running down to the very foundations so that a gradual bulge and then complete collapse are inevitable, leaving a yawning gap as an open invitation to the enemy to mount an attack there. "A bowing wall shall ye be, a totter­ing fence" (Ps. 62:3).

 

The resulting collapse, as the wall crumbles into ruin, suggests another figure — that of an earthenware jar which has become unclean by reason of its foul contents and is therefore fit only to be smashed to fragments (Lev. 15:12). Now there is no usefulness, neither for charcoal cooking nor for ladling a cup of cold water.

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30:15-17 "For thus saith the LORD GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill."

 

Now the Holy One of Israel offers an alternative to the calamity just foretold. But it depends on repentance — "returning" to their God. "Be my true Israel, and be content to rest in Me." As in the time of Ahaz (7:4 s.w.), it can be only by this quietness and confidence in their God that they can experience and display a real strength (cp. Hos. 14:3).

 

Evidently Assyrian secret agents reported this prophetic counsel to their masters, for before the siege of Jerusalem began Rabshakeh went out of his way to counter the effect of Isaiah's exhortation, his raucous bullying of Hezekiah's deputation (36:4-5) actually uses Isaiah's phraseology, pouring scorn on any trust in Jehovah and also mocking the futility of the lean-on-Egypt policy of the political schemers.

 

Apart from the faithful remnant, Isaiah made no impression on the faithless men of influence. They "would not". Their attitude became "a denial of every lesson taught by the plagues of Egypt, the Passover and the Exodus" (Birks).

 

"No!", they said, "rather than what you say, we will flee upon horses (al sus nanus)" — they had their escape route already planned — "we will ride upon the swift" (cp. "make haste", 28:16).

 

Indeed! comments Isaiah sardonically. Then flee you shall; and your swift steeds shall be pursued by those more swift. Here is a firm prophetic assurance that the faithless would abandon Jerusalem just before the siege began (as also did the Arabian mercenaries; 21:15), and yet would fall into the hands of the enemy.

 

Moses had forbidden his people ever to put trust in horses imported from Egypt (Dt. 17:16). And any contemplated return to Egypt was likewise proscribed as a vote of no confidence in the God of their fathers (Dt. 28:68).

 

But Moses and Isaiah alike spoke in vain. These men would rather lean on an arm of flesh. Horses and chariots would surely achieve their salvation (31:1)

 

Had they forgotten that Assyrian cavalry and chariots had established an empire — and that within two generations?

 

Through Moses and Joshua the promise had been made to Israel that "five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight" (Lev. 26:8; Josh. 23:10). But their faithlessness would reverse drastically this expectation (Lev. 26:36,37; Dt. 28:25; 32:30): "At the rebuke of five shall ye (all) flee; till ye (the faithful remnant) be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain (Zion), and as an ensign (a pole) on a hill top." Here was a reminder of an earlier promise that "the root of David (Hezekiah himself) shall stand for an ensign of the people" (11:10) — the seemingly dead pole would root itself firmly. This is precisely what happened to Hezekiah, and his experience became a prophecy to the nation.

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30:18,19 "And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee."

 

"Therefore" — because your sins require the chastisement of heaven (Kay) and because God can come to your aid only when there is repentance — the Lord will wait and appear to be totally inactive, but this seeming heedlessness is really to create an opportunity for gracious rescue. "The longsuffering of our Lord is salvation" (2 Pet. 3:15).

 

"Therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy on you" reads somewhat strangely. It may be that in the Hebrew word for 'exalted' there is an example of the fairly common confusion between D and R (see Ps. 119:25,153). The alternative: "he will be silent" now gives an easy parallelism with the first half of the verse (cp. also Dt. 30:1-3). "The Lord shall...repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left" (Dt. 32:36).

 

This lovingkindness of God is not for all who belong to Israel. In itself that name is no qualification. The blessing is for "them that wait for him" — those who hang on in faith that their God will not let them down. These are in sharp contrast with the others who put their trust in horses and chariots and the might of Egypt. So this promise of succour is not even for all in Jerusalem, but for "the people that dwell in Zion at Jerusalem", that is, those whose faith is centred in the temple and their Jehovah who is worshipped there. "For God will save Zion, and will build (i.e. re­build) the cities of Judah" (Ps. 69:35 — a psalm belonging to this period).

 

There comes in here a significant switch to singular pronouns (v. 19), with reference to Hezekiah, without whose fine example the faithful remnant would be all at sea.

 

"Thou shalt weep no more." The good king had cause enough for tears — the sorry state of his nation, and the doom pronounced upon himself: "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live." So he "wept sore" and "prayed unto the Lord." Healed forthwith by a cake of figs (No! by the irrepressible faith that was in him; 38:1 -3,21), he lost no time in going "into the house of the Lord, with clothes rent and covered with sackcloth" (even after 2 Kgs. 20:6), to intercede for his people and his Land (37:1,2,15-22), and to give thanks for the answer to his earlier prayer.

 

The rest of his reign was such a happy experience of personal and national health and prosperity that Isaiah's words were literally true: "thou shalt weep no more."

 

The ensuing verses go on to outline the three necessary conditions for this extraordinary outpouring of protection, healing, and blessing:

 

a. Repentance (as in v. 15).

 

b. The abolition of all idol-worship (v.22).

 

Careful heed to the message of the prophets (v.20c,21).

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30:20,21 "And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."

 

Here is a prophecy of the people of Jerusalem being called on to endure siege conditions — very restricted supplies of food and water — precisely as had been more drastically foretold earlier (3:1). Yet they will never reach the point of starvation (33:16). In fact, v.23 goes on to make a deliberate contrast with such a prospect.

 

This limitation of supplies of food and drink came on Isaiah himself very specially, "the teacher removed into a corner" (the noun here can be read as singular or plural, but the verb is singular, and the allusion in Revelation 1:10 surely settles it that one teacher is referred to: the plural reading would mean the entire coterie of prophets Micah, Nahum, Joel, Obadiah, Habakkuk and others).

 

Evidently Isaiah had been put under restraint (house arrest?) because of his personal unpopularity with the princes, and the "subversive" character of his message (37:2; cp. 8:1 7). Micaiah had had a like experience, and for a like reason (1 Kgs. 22:27). And the situation was to repeat itself in Jeremiah's time (Jer. 37:16,17).

 

But of course it was not by decision of Hezekiah that this persecution came upon the prophet, but because of the animosity of princes and priests who had already exerted themselves to deride his message and influence.

 

Here now was assurance that the restriction was not to last. This loyal teacher from God would "not be removed into a corner any more." Vindicated at last by the healing of the king and the sweeping away of Assyrian menace, Isaiah would be an honoured teacher through to the end of Hezekiah's glorious fifteen years, even when his message again became unpopular (39:5-8). Hence the emphatic promise that "thine eyes shall see thy teacher, and thine ears shall hear." Isaiah had faithfully committed his inspired word to writing, but the teaching of the book had been set aside or lightly disregarded (28:11,12; 29:18), so the personal witness must be renewed.

 

There must be no turning to the right hand or to the left. The phrases describe trenchantly enough a tendency to go away from the right paths of the Lord, especially into ways of idolatry (Dt. 5:32; Josh. 1:7). But just now the trend was towards political idolatry — turning to the right to make an alliance with Egypt, or to the left, to placate the remorseless Assyrians.

 

"A voice behind thee," that of the prophet himself still standing staunchly, in the right path, would continue to rebuke and to keep conscience alive. (Could there be a more specific locative sense to "behind thee"?)

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30:22 "Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence."

 

Hezekiah's reign had begun with a wholesome reformation and a fine orgy of idol-smashing (2 Chr. 31:1). But it is not to be expected that a complete clearance was made. Now, years later, one of the necessary conditions of the blessing of heaven was that he provide a demonstration of complete intolerance of any infractions of the Second Commandment.

 

Most idols were fashioned out of wood and then covered with silver or gold (40:19; Jer. 10:3,4). The word used here for, "cast away" actually means "scatter." It is that used to describe Moses' strewing of the golden calf on the waters of the stream from the smitten rock after the idol had been burnt and pulverised. The like process is indicated here also (cp. 2 Kgs. 23:6).

 

The contemptuous phrasing suggests — what was almost invariably the case — that the worship of these false gods was essentially a sex-religion. "Get thee hence!"

 

30:23,24 "Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan."

 

"In that day" (which is always the day when God goes into action) one of the rewards of a faithful return to Him will be the blessings of extraordinary fruitfulness and prosperity — abundant rainfall (v.25; Lev. 26:4), excellent growing conditions, and such crops as will mean food fit for humans now being fed in abundance to the animals. When the Assyrians were at the gate, this remarkable promise was expanded to assure the superabundant harvest appropriate to a Year of Jubilee (2 Kgs. 19:29-31). A land ravaged from end to end by destructive invaders would find itself marvellously provided for by the compassion of a caring God.

 

But there are hints here also of an allegorical meaning. "Doth God take care for oxen?" (1 Cor. 9:9). And are young asses employed to ear, that is, plough (Latin: arare) the ground? And would any farmer take the trouble to winnow out chaff from the provender fed to his beasts? So, via special blessing on land and animals, God promises a new era of spiritual richness for His people.

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30:25 "And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall."

 

The promise of ample rain and unusual fruitfulness (v.23) is expanded here. Even the bare hillsides, normally arid and desolate, will burgeon with growth.

 

But it is only reference to the cataclysmic destruction of the Assyrian camp which harmonizes the stark contrast in this passage. It was to be a night of great carnage, with all the might of the enemy reduced to ruin, and especially the siege-towers, already prepared but not yet in place (37:33) would be smashed up (see on 33:18). These were astonishing developments to foretell before they happened.

 

30:26 "Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven-fold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound."

 

Literality is impossible here. Nor does Isaiah himself encourage any attempt at it, for earlier he has spoken of the time of Israel's humiliation as "the moon con­founded, and the sun ashamed" (24:23). And later, concerning the Messianic kingdom filled with comfort and blessing for his people: "Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself" (60:20). And the present context points to a like meaning: "in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his People, and healeth the stroke of their wound."

 

But there are various overtones in this language. The sevenfold intensification of light may be meant to suggest the happy divine reversal of the sevenfold wrath of God against His people, as foretold in Leviticus 26:18,21,24,28. And since the word here for "sun" is not shemesh but chamah, the sun's intense heat, a word very often used for the fury of the Lord (e.g. 34:2; 59:18; 63:3,5,6), there might even be a suggestion of God's use of Israel in judgment against recalcitrant Gentiles (60:12; Ps. 149:9).

 

Again, there is some evidence for a rabbinic view that the light of a full moon is only one seventh of the light of the sun, in which case there is suggested here a week of Passover full moon. It was at Passover when the stroke of the Lord re­moved the Assyrian threat. And the sevenfold intensification of the sun's light would also point to the forty-ninth Year of Jubilee, which is certainly part of the present context.

 

Again, is it inappropriate to draw attention to the fact that the only two "fenced cities" not destroyed by Sennacherib were Libnah (Hebrew for moon) and Jerusalem, the "sun" of the nation (consider Ps. 150:1)? In any case, there is here the undeniable idea of Israel being associated with the Glory of the Lord, as certainly happened in the remarkable theophany of deliverance just referred to.

 

"I kill, and I make alive: I wound, and I heal" (Dt. 32:39). Never was there, in all Israel's history, a more signal demonstration of the truth of these words.

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30:27,28 "Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err."

 

The intimations of an imminent theophany bringing overpowering destruction become more and more specific as the occasion draws nearer (cp. 29:5-8). It is called "the name of the Lord" with allusion to the deliverance God brought to His people in the time of Moses (Ex. 3:13,15; 6:3). He is Jehovah, the God who made covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He who is and was and is to come, who promised and guided in the past, who is active in the desperate situation of the present, and who will bring all His purposes with His people to complete fulfilment. Nor is it artificial to see allusion here to the great deliverance from Egypt, for Isaiah's mind is almost obsessed with the comparison between that occasion, never to be lost from the nation's memory, and the divine rescue which divine inspiration taught him to expect in his own time; e.g. 4:5,6; 10:24-26; 11:15,16; 49:9,10 —these are only a few examples out of a long catalogue that could be compiled.

 

"The name of the Lord cometh from far" is a strange expression. Its strangeness has led most commentators to give it the meaning of "from remote time," but Isaiah's six other usages of this Hebrew expression plainly refer to remote distance. Here, then, is support for the idea that the angelic judgment on the Assyrian army came in a mighty whirlwind from the Red Sea. "His lips — his breath (Acts 2:2) — full of indignation" suggests thunder; "his tongue a devouring fire" — lightning; "as an overflowing stream" describes a tremendous downpour filling every wadi with a mighty torrent (LXX: like water sweeping in a torrent bed); and RV: "in thick rising smoke" (AV: the burden thereof is heavy) suggests the frightening eye of the storm, like a pillar of cloud and fire. Again, the word for "midst" is really "causing a division," as happened between Israelites and Egyptians at the crossing of the Red Sea. The destructive effect of a whirlwind can be very localised. Presumably this is how the wreck of the Assyrian camp is to be accounted for, whilst the faithful in Jerusalem went unharmed. Perhaps the figure of the sieve has the same idea of a separation between those appointed to destruction and those to be preserved.

 

But "a bridle in the jaws of the people" uses the normal word for Israel, and "bri­dle" suggests the plan of the faithless to make a fast escape from the beleaguered city: "We will flee upon horses...we will ride upon the swift" (30:16). Yet such a policy would only "cause them to err."

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30:29 "Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel."

 

This passage, even if without any parallel, would be decisive as a prophecy of the Assyrian destruction taking place at Passover:

 

a. "A holy solemnity"; i.e. one of the great feasts.

 

b. "In the night"; Passover stands alone in this respect: Ex. 12:42.

 

c. "Gladness of heart"
(simchath lebab).
To this day the Hebrew phrase describes a feast of the Lord.

 

d. The word for "pipe" is derived from the verb to "slay", a connection which makes no sense whatever except as a reminiscence of the slaying of the firstborn and of the Egyptian charioteers.

 

e. "Ye shall have a song" might perhaps refer to Ex. 15, but more probably to Ps. 114-118 the Paschal Hallel, and both of them replete with allusions to Passover deliverance.

 

f. "The rock of Israel" (RV) reads readily of the altar of burnt-offering, "the precious corner stone...the stone of stumbling" (see on 8:14), The blood of all the Passover lambs was poured out at the base of this altar.

 

g. Isaiah 31:5; 37:36; 26:20,4; 29:1; Ps. 44:1,22, (a Hezekiah psalm) — more Passover allusions.

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30:30-33 "And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest and hailstones. For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."

 

In a mighty climax of language the theophany of destruction against the Assyrians is described in more detail. "The glory of his voice" is the thunder of the storm (Ps. 29:4 etc; Jn. 12:28,29; Ex. 19:16; 20:18; contrast Is. 37:23). And with this, lightning on a massive scale, as in Psalm 83:13,14 which also describes whirlwind. "Scattering and tempest" are cloud-burst (Delitsch) and a heavy destroying rain. A storm of hail is mentioned repeatedly; e.g. 28:2; 32:19. Hail and fire were elements of the Egyptian deliverance (Ex. 9:18-26). And all these phenomena are brought together in Ps. 77:15-20, another eloquent Hezekiah psalm linking the deliverance from Egypt with the more recent rescue.

 

As Moses' rod, held out over Egypt and over the waters of the Red Sea brought judgment, so also now the Assyrian (Ashur, actually) is to be "beaten down with a rod of smiting." Each time this appointed staff (staff of doom; RVm) in the hands of Isaiah now passes to and fro, there will be battles of shaking (s.w. 19:16), that is, earthquake, as He (the Lord) fights "in her" (Jerusalem). "The breath of the Lord" (cp. "blast"; 37:7) will be "kindled in her (Heb.);" "her pile will be fire and much wood." (9:5; Ps. 46:9). Here is strong emphasis that the destruction is to be at Jerusalem and for Jerusalem's sake. Constantly there is promise of a repetition of the early Passover theophany in Egypt (Ex. 14:21; 15:8).

 

"From yesterday (i.e. Isaiah's earlier prophecies) Tophet (=fireplace) is ordained." The valley round the south-west corner of Jerusalem may have been already the place of burning of the city's rubbish, in which case the multitudinous human bodies and animal carcases were perhaps dragged thither (by surviving Assyrians taken prisoner?), there to be destroyed, thus saving the city from stench and plague.

 

But there is here also a clever play on words. The king (melech) is also Moloch who in the decadent times of Ahaz had been honoured by having royal children passed through the fire (2 Kgs. 16:3) there in Tophet. And the word "prepared" is that which describes Jachin, the great brazen pillar where a new king stood to be anointed in the presence of God and the people (2 Kgs. 11 ;4; 23:3).

 

Thus is presented a strongly ironic picture of Jehovah presenting in Tophet the Assyrian god Ashur, a mere idol of wood and metal, to be passed through the fire to Moloch! In this way is Ashur 'dedicated' to rule over the people of Israel — by a fiery consecration which consumes him utterly!

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The Last Days

 

Isaiah 30 is quite explicitly about "the end time": "Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever" (v.8).

 

But how the emphasis varies!

 

There is one picture after another of a wayward Israel determined to work out its own salvation, and with little fear of God, or of trembling for its own inadequacies (v.1). Thus, in these days more than ever, they still "add sin to sin" — the rejection of the claims of Christ is added to a long-lasting rejection of God and His law.

 

Specially, there is castigation of a ready dependance on political manoeuvering. Today, as then (v. 2-5) a treaty with Egypt will solve their biggest headaches. The fools! Haven't they wit to see that there is no real intention to be firm friends with Israel? Any attempt at this is bound to collapse in ruins. Not for nothing does the Bible prophecy speak of Egypt as one of Israel's outstanding enemies in the last days (Jl. 3:19; Dt. 28:68; Is. 19:18-20).

 

Yet Israel has blithely given Sinai back to Egypt, and has got virtually nothing in return. It is not just the princes of Zoan who are fools. Even as politicians the Knesset are a poor lot, as they will know when they find that "the strength of Egypt is to sit still" (v.7).

 

Religiously this people of Israel has little to recommend it to the care of the angels: "a rebellious people, lying children, who know not the law of the Lord" (v.9). They neither know nor want to know. To those who can tell them they are bland and pleasant until the Word of God is in the mouth of those who are the New Israel, and then: "Prophesy not unto us right things...prophesy deceits...Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us" (v.10).

 

Instead there is a strange mixture of liberal attitudes with their very opposite — a policy of "oppression and perverseness." One hears disturbing stories about the treatment of the Arab minority (v.12).

 

Be warned! says Isaiah; there will come a sudden collapse, like the disintegration of a wall which looks as though it could stand for centuries, or like the smashing of a potter's vessel (v.13,14) into lots of useless fragments (the only thing to be done with a temple jar that has been declared unclean; Lev. 15:12).

 

Only in returning to their God is there any hope of rest (v.15). This has been the lesson of many an experience in their past history, but there is no will to learn. "And ye would not." A great accumulation of prophetic warnings make that truth as plain as brightest daylight that there can be no Messiah for Israel until first there is a becoming repentance. (See T.E. ch. 2).

 

There is now some sign of this, thank God, but only on a meagre scale. Even among the New Israel there is reluctance to recognize this truth or to show compliance.

 

Instead, little Israel — "the world's fourth super-power"! — continues to cultivate the arts of war: "We will ride upon the swift" and thereby make no friends nor assurance of safety (v.16).

One day there will come national disintegration: "One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one" (v.17). And yet there is a promise that Jerusalem will survive, as it did in the matchless days of Hezekiah (v.17). But there can come no salvation except there be first "the voice of thy cry", the lament and plea of repentant Jewish hearts, for always, and very very patiently, God looks and waits for this (v.18,19).

 

At last the time of adversity and affliction (v. 20) will change when heed is given to God-sent teachers hitherto disregarded. Willingness to walk in the right way (v.21), an utterly new feature in Israel's national life, will lead on to vigorous rejection of the evils which God so completely abhors (v.22).

 

And the entire nation will move into the gracious blessings and comforts of a Year of Jubilee (v.23-25), the glorious Messianic Age long foreshadowed. Once and for all God will "bind up the breach of his people, and heal the stroke of their wound" (v. 26).

 

On the other hand, for those who hated the chosen people with deep, bitter, and intensifying hatred, and should have known better, there will be a mighty theophany of judgment. The last attempt to "lead Israel off, a bridle in their jaws" (v.28), will come to nought.

 

The deliverance, greater by far than that under Moses, will again come at Passover (v.29); and a devastation, greater by far than happened at the Red Sea, will bear final witness that "he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye." Tophet, with more than one horror fulfilment to its 'credit' will become a permanent museum (66:24) outmatching Yad Vashem. The lesson taught Sennacherib and his Ashur was nothing compared to what this will be.

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Chapter 31

 

31:1-3 "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together."

 

A very plain and straightforward passage, repeating the censure of 30:2-7. This set purpose of Jerusalem's politicians to defeat Assyrian invasion with a multitude of Egyptian chariots had evidently become an obsession. The intention was, however, known to Sennacherib's intelligence service and treated with derision (36:6-9). The Holy One of Israel treats it in the same way.

 

It is not to be believed that Hezekiah, man of faith, was behind such a policy. If he had forgotten the Law's command to the kings of Judah, Isaiah would have reminded him (Dt. 1 7:16). And did not his coronation psalm declare: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God" (Ps. 20:7)?

 

If these princes of Judah had read their Bible, if they had celebrated Passover in the right spirit, would it not have been ground into their minds that all the military might of Egyptian chariotry can do nothing either against or for the people of Jehovah when the Holy One of Israel lifts up himself?

 

Yet the temptation to rely on Egypt must have been great. One ancient historian states that at one time between Memphis and Thebes there were a hundred stables, each with two hundred horses.

 

Against this, the memory of the crossing of the Red Sea lost its effect on faithless minds. It was easy to forget that the God of Israel too has His chariots of spirit, not flesh — the cherubim of glory (Ez. 1; Zech. 6:1-8; and especially Dt. 20:1).'

 

There is strong irony in the reminder that "Jehovah also is strong...and will not call back his words." This last phrase may refer to the ban (in Dt. 17:16) on any reliance on Egyptian chariots — such a prohibition still stands. An alternative is to read the words as meaning that, whereas on not a few occasions there has come (because of human change of heart) a modification in divine decision, regarding this principle of reliance on Egypt (or on the modern equivalent of Egypt) no change of mind on God's part is ever possible (see, for example, Ez. 17:15).

 

The collision, between the Egyptian and Assyrian forces took place at El-tekeh, the outcome being (according to Sennacherib's account) a massive over­throw of the Egyptian multitude. It involved the capture of many highly-placed officers in Pharaoh's army.

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31:4,5 "For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it."

 

Here is another of Isaiah's explicit declarations of divine inspiration of his prophecies. But how did the Lord speak to him? In his initiation it was through an angel (6:6,7). But his phrase: "the valley of vision" suggests another medium.

 

Here he has two very vivid figures of speech which may have been visions in the first instance, and which were then interpreted for him.

 

The first is of a lion which has a lamb (a Passover lamb?) under his paw and which he is determined to keep for himself in spite of the efforts of shepherds ringing him round and eager to have the sheep for themselves. It is a picture of mount Zion surrounded by hostile nations, determined to gain possesion of the hill of God, but He as a lion fends them off with His roar and His strength. Is not Zion called Ari-el, the Lion of God, the name of the One who dwells there?

 

"So shall the Lord of hosts (of angels; 37:36) come down to fight upon (not, for) mount Zion".

The figure changes, and needs no explanation. As a mother bird flutters over its young, so will Jehovah defend Jerusalem.

 

The specially important detail here is the use of the word "passing over." Here it clearly does not mean "pass by" (an idea often wrongly read into Ex. 12:23), but rather, "hovering over in protection." It is the rare verb (pasach) from which comes "Passover" (pesach). In this context it is another clear reference to Passover as the time when God's deliverance of Jerusalem took place, a repeat on an even more impressive scale, of God's rescue of Israel from Egypt by an angelic stroke of It is time to bring together the various allusions in Isaiah and Hezekiah psalms and elsewhere, to Passover as the time of year when Sennacherib's army was destroyed:

 

a. This passage (31:5) explicitly.

 

b. 30:29: "a song in the night when a holy solemnity is kept." See details in the commentary there.

 

c. 26:20: "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...the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain" (more slain than can be buried). All this is Passover language.

 

d. 26:20,21: "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...the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain" (more slain than can be buried). Passover language again.

 

e. 29:1: "add ye year to year, let them kill sacrifices." The new year began in Passover month, and of course it was then especially when sacrifices — the Passover lambs — were slain in such numbers. The context of this passage is certainly the Assyrian denouement.

 

f. 52:12: "Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go with flight: for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rearward." The entire passage is about Passover with specific reference to Israel's experience when coming out of Egypt and about deliverance from the Assyrians. Note particularly verse 4.

 

g. 37:36: "Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians..." And the next verse: "and Sennacherib departed..." uses the word from which "Nisan" is derived. The same word comes again in 38:12 about the healing of Hezekiah's sickness, which happened at the same time.

 

h. Psalm 102:13: "The time to favour her: yea, the set time is come," Here the Hebrew for "set time" is a word which always refers to a feast of the Lord. In its Hezekiah reference this can only be Passover. The same verse has: "Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion." (There is, of course, Messianic reference also.)

 

i. Isaiah 36:10 (the words of Rabshakeh, the renegade Jew — see H.Gt.):

 

"and am I now come up without Jehovah against this land to
destroy
it?
Jehovah
said unto me, Go up against this land and
destroy
it." Here the word "destroy" is the same as in Ex. 12:23. Rabshakeh knew about the Passover observance, and represented himself as God's destroying angel commissioned to operate as in the first Passover.

 

j. Joel 2:23 should read: "He hath given you (the children of Zion) a teacher of righteousness (why ever did AV read it so differently?) and the Lord will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain (in the autumn) and latter rain in the first month (in Nisan, just before Passover)." The context certainly concerns the Second Coming.

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31:6,7 "Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin."

 

Passages like this make it more and more certain that whilst the zeal of Hezekiah had brought about a substantial repentance among his people, the nation as a whole still held with strong inclination to the corruptions initiated in the time of Ahaz. But the atmosphere had changed so much from that evil era that now they "deepened revolt", that is, their apostasy had had to go underground (see 29:15 for the same idea).

 

However, "in that day" of God's open and violent action there would not only be a massive judgment against the cruel confident enemy but also such a scarifying effect on these secret apostates as to drive them to despise and jettison their contemptible images (2:20; 30:22; Dt. 9:21), just as hitherto they had thrust away the word of the Lord (s.w. 8:6; 30:12).

 

It needs to be recognized clearly that this turning away from a false way of life was not to be the necessary pre-condition for the deliverance which was now repeatedly being promised by the prophet. That was assured in any case. But its impact was to be shattering on the unworthy among the citizens of Jerusalem also (cp. 33:14).

 

31:8,9 "Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem."

 

The modernists are quite dogmatic that the two preceding verses (6,7) are out of place or are interpolations, because — they say — with them out of the way this chapter runs on as a straight declaration of judgment on the Assyrians. Why is it that they overlook the importance of that mighty theophany as a dramatic lesson also for the benefit of the wayward majority of the population of Jerusalem? It was a double purpose act of God.

 

There is no mistaking the plain intention of the Almighty, as now set out here, to destroy the might of Assyria at Jerusalem and to scare out of their wits those who might survive.

 

The stroke will be applied by a sword wielded by no one "born of man" (Kay's incisive translation). The enemy will "flee from the sword" (of Jehovah — not specified), and his crack troops ("his young men") who survive will be "put to task work," restoring the desolations they have so callously created. There is an im­pressive contrast: Here a king flees and his soldiers have to labour in bondage. But in the next verse (32:1), king Hezekiah reigns in righteousness, and princes (his new cabinet) rule in judgement.

 

The sword of the Lord is a constantly repeated idea in both history and prophecy — against false Balaam (Num. 22:23), against the Godless Canaanites (Josh. 5:13), against callous invading Midianites (Jud. 7:20), against all the heterogeneous enemies of Israel in the last days (Jer. 25:16,27; Ez. 38:21; Is. 34:6; 66:16).

 

Literally, the very awkward Hebrew phrase reads: "and his ensign from the face of the sword (of Jehovah)." This needs to be linked with the previous phrase: "his rock shall pass away." There is also a double contrasting allusion to the great victory of Israel over Amalek at the smitten rock, a victory only assured because the hands of Moses were held up to heaven. This was the ensign which put courage and power into the troops led by Joshua. So the place was called Jehovah-nissi (Ex. 17:15. s.w.) There is an immediate allusion to this in 32:2: "as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." "For their rock (i.e. the nod they worship) is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges" - so declared Moses (Dt. 32:31). And so it transpired when "his (the Assyrian's) rock passed away." Later Isaiah has a superbly scornful picture of the gods of the invaders being salvaged from the carnage outside Jerusalem; loaded on a cart, they depend for their survival on the "weary beast" which draws them away from the devastating glory of the God of Israel (47:1-7). And the boastful princes who command Sennacherib's troops are either so many corpses lying around (37:36) or they flee in terror at the sight and power of the Glory of the Lord "whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace (the pillar of fire, as at the first Passover) is in Jerusalem."

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The Last Days

 

As with the beginning of chapter 30, so also in these opening verses there is anticipation of a feverish effort to make friends with Egypt and ensure its support. That treaty with Egypt has been made, and has already proved worthless and in time will be seen to be an even poorer investment.

 

The 700 B.C. trust in horses and chariots has its close counterpart today in Israel's dedication to the most up-to-date of modern armaments. And over against that is the nation's undeniable failure to put trust in the God of their fathers. Israeli politicians especially have no aspiration at all to emulate the faith of Abraham, or of Hezekiah.

 

Politically, but not at all geographically, a case can be made for seeing the United States as the modern equivalent of the Egypt of Isaiah's day. If this is valid, then there is special significance in the words: "He that helpeth and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fall down together" (v.3).

 

This faithlessness of modern Israel will yet find its rebuke, for "he (Jehovah) is wise, and will bring evil...against the house of evildoers" (v.2).

 

Nevertheless, Jerusalem is God's city, and He will not suffer any multitude of nations to wrest it from Him. "The Lord of hosts (of angels; Mt. 24:31) will come down to fight upon mount Zion" (v.4). That phrase "come down" is the language of theophany (cp. 64:1; Ex. 19:20; Gen. 11:5; 18:21), but in the last days there will be an impressive literality about it.

 

And also about verse 5, with its clear allusion to Passover! Several of the passages listed in the earlier commentary on verse 5 obviously have a reference to the end time; Daniel describes the end of the age with a word (mo'ed) which very frequently, indeed nearly always, refers to one of the great feasts of the Lord (8:19; 12:7). Nor can it be accident that the mysterious repeated "three and a half years", if measured from the Feast of Trumpets, finds its conclusion at Passover. Also, a remarkable passage in Joe! foretells "a teacher of righteousness" and links him with "the latter rain in the first month (Passover)" (2:23).

 

The figure of "birds flying...and hovering over" Jerusalem (v.5) was turned by Jesus into the simile of "a hen gathering her chickens under her wings" (Mt. 23:37) — there must be a link there, for the figure comes nowhere else in all the Bible. Jesus made his big efforts on behalf of Jerusalem at four successive Passovers — "and they would not." Again, in A.D.70, the divine persuasion came at Passover, for the siege began immediately after the feast. Is there not a further pointer here to a final Passover intervention — when there are more distinct signs of repentance in God's people? This factor is the necessary prelude to any experience of divine deliverance: "Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted" (v.6).

 

When that change of disposition comes, there will be such a spirit of revulsion against all the crude materialism and self-indulgence (v.7) so familiar in Israel today that it will be like seeing a nation new-born.

 

This repentance will be in the first place the cause, and afterwards on a wider scale the consequence, of the sudden and violent divine intervention to save Israel.

 

The vindictive and confident enemies round about will turn and flee from the Land because there they experience the majesty of the Glory of the Lord (v.8,9), and can only cower away from it, leaving their multitudinous dead in a war-stricken country­side.

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Chapter 32

 

32:1,2 "Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."

 

Here is another of the dramatic switches of tone and idea so characteristic of Isaiah (cp.10:34-11:1; 34:11-14,-35:1; 29:16,17; 30:17,18). The allusions to "king...princes...rock" carry over from the previous verses; but there is a fine transition from judgment and fear to godliness and tranquility.

 

Who is this king? "Hezekiah or the Messiah may be intended," says the Soncino Bible. The correct answer is: both, the one being (as right through this prophecy) the prototype of the other.

 

And, in that setting, the princes are Hezekiah's cabinet, appointed on his recovery from sickness — so different in character from the scheming politicians who sent their ambassadors to Zoan (34:4).

 

In more senses than one, good Hezekiah became a hiding place from the wind (God's Spirit of judgment). In his suffering "the Lord laid on him the iniquity of all" his people (53:6); he was a superb prototype of a suffering Messiah. But also in his personal example and leadership: "Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah" (2 Chr. 32:7,8).

 

Here was one who proved himself to be "a covert from the tempest" of the wrath of God, so that the holy city did not share in the mighty expression of judgment which was already foretold. It would come so near as to paralyse with fright the ungodly in Israel (33:14), and yet the experience of devastation which shattered the Assyrian pride brought no ruin on Jerusalem (30:30; 29:5,6).

 

Instead of a rush of mighty waters (zarem), Zion, the "dry place", would know the placidity of streams of water, as at Siloam. "There is a river the streams (s.w.) whereof make glad the city of God" (Ps. 46:4). Is it possible that at the time of the Lord's hurricane men actually cowered in their fright in the conduit lately driven through the rock from the Virgin's Fountain?.

 

The people in Jerusalem were to be reminded of how their forefathers in the wilderness "a weary land" had water from a smitten rock the "rock of glory" (Heb) which also sheltered them from the fierce heat of the sun and from the animosity of Amalekite enemies — cp. the earlier allusion — (in 31:8 Hebrew text) to the "ensign, banner" (Ex. 17:6,15) of the enemy.

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32:3-8 "And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak plainly. The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand."

 

When the student of prophecy encounters a passage like this one, full of abstract terms, it is important to remember that the prophets were not given to moralising in an abstract fashion (which is the way nearly all the commentators take this paragraph). Rather, it is necessary here to look for specific reference such as is appropriate to this Isaiah context.

 

Already several indications have been noted of corrupt administration in Hezekiah's kingdom during the critical period when his sickness compelled him to withdraw from government (29:4; 22:15ff etc). With the king's miraculous recovery there came, of course, a dramatic change in the quality of the men now handling the reins of authority. This has already been intimated in verse 1.

 

And now, in the repetition of the word "liberal" there comes a further suggestion of transformation in the character of the administration, for the word nadib has a basic meaning of "the wholesome goodhearted use of power." Its cognate word nadab nearly always describes those who are willing-hearted towards God and His temple service. Hence "liberal" (nadib) means a high-souled ruler or prince — a no­ble, in both senses of the word.

 

The present paragraph, then is not to be read in general terms in praise of good wholesome men and decrying the value of those who show a mean or selfish spirit. It is to be understood as a prophecy of an imminent dramatic change for the better in the quality of the administration of Hezekiah's kingdom.

 

"Eyes...ears...heart (that is, mind)...and tongue" (v.3,4) of those well-placed to influence the life of the nation for good will be uplifted. The earlier prophetic cen­sures (6:10; 29:10) will no longer be necessary. Those who had been mocked by the sophisticated men of Jerusalem (28:9-11) as quite inadequate for the public affairs of the nation would come to the fore.

 

And, conversely, vile and churlish men who had gloried in the adulation formerly accorded to them because in the seats of power, would now be seen for what they truly were — not noble or bountiful, but self-seekers and hypocrites, men who, whatever their profession, were essentially, "against the Lord" and oppressors of the truly devout, the meek of the earth.

 

The word for "vile" (nabal) is well exemplified by its reference to Nabal, the rough, sensual, utterly self-centred boor who scorned David, the Lord's anointed (1 Sam. 25).

 

But there are indications of contrast of a different kind — that of Hezekiah's beneficent rule over against 'the evil tricks of the trickster' (v.7, Wade) who "devised wicked devices, to destroy the poor with lying words." Such phrases are used about the Assyrian invader in a diversity of passages (e.g. Nah. 1:11; is. 54:16; 13:5). The cunning of Rabshakeh and his skilful perversion of facts in his propaganda war match very well the scornful tirade now used against him as well as against those inside the city who would not have hesitated to collaborate selfishly had they been able.

 

However, the operation of selfish political scheming, both inside the city and out­side its walls, was soon to be swept away, and instead "the noble ruler (Hezekiah) will devise noble policies, and by these noble intentions shall he rise up (Heb.)", that is, from his sick bed.

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32:9-11 "Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech. Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come. Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins."

 

The sequence here suggests a connection, and maybe comparison, with an earlier section of Isaiah. In 3:1-5 there is sustained censure of the princes and rulers of Judah. This is followed (3:16-24) with an exposure of the godless vanities of women, probably of the women associated with the temple service. Here, in chapter 32, in verses 3-8, comes a repudiation of the faithless men who hitherto had exercised control over the nation's policies. And now, in verses 9-11, the women, well satisfied with their self-indulgent way of life, are warned of the dramatic change in life-style that is to befall them. This would certainly come about when their fine country houses, choicely sited outside Jerusalem, were overrun and plundered by the Assyrians.

 

The phrase "many days and years" is misleading. Literally, it is "days upon a year", with reference to the Feast of Tabernacles (seven days, in the beginning of the civil year — hence "the vintage shall fail"?), or to Passover and Unleavened Bread (seven days at the beginning of the religious year).

 

The phrases: "Rise up...hear my voice...give ear unto my speech" suggest the need to rise up in order to give careful heed to a divine revelation (see Jud. 3:20). The words echo the prophet's introduction to his graphic parable in 28:23-29. This suggests that the present apostrophe to the women may have a marked parabolic intention (in verse 11 the first verb is masculine plural, and the other verbs are masculine singular). But if figurative, what meaning? "The despair of grammarians" (Cambridge Bible). Development on such lines is not easy.

 

32:12-14 "They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city: Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;"

 

King James' men assumed that verse 12 runs on from verse 11, but in fact the rest of the verse vetoes this; and so also does the word "lament", for it is masculine in form.

 

Instead, the Hebrew word for "breasts", when re-pointed, reads "fields", and this (according to the rest of the verse) is clearly correct. The whole of this passage is about the desolation which the Assyrians would inflict everywhere or, at the least, intend with savage glee, concerning Jerusalem.

 

"Thorns and briars", the curse of Eden (Gen. 3:18) would come — did come — on the paradise of "the land of my people", and also on "the houses of joy", that is, the swanky residences of the aristocracy.

 

The picture of a similar desolation of itself was only prospective — what the Assyrian plunderers intended that they would actually bring about. In fact, it did not happen. But it was no human power that intervened to stave off the Assyrian horror. They certainly meant the "palaces" (the House of the Sanctuary, according to the Targum) to become forsaken; and the fort of Ophel (Heb.), "the stronghold of the daughter of Zion" (s.w. Mic. 4:8) and the towers with which Jotham had strengthen­ed the fortifications (2 Chr. 27:3,4) were meant to be "dens for ever." Doubtless this would soon seem to be inevitable, but Isaiah qualifies all this significantly with his "until" in the next verse.

 

"A joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks" was doubtless the kind of desolation those invaders had already spread through many a countryside, and they meant to do the same in Judah also. And they did, but not "for ever".

 

That reference to "wild asses" doubtless has also a symbolic meaning. For Ishmael, forefather of the wild Bedouin tribes, was "as a wild ass among men" (Gen. 16:12 RV); and whenever those Ishmaelite wanderers saw an opportunity for forage or plunder in a countryside where normally strength kept them excluded, they were prompt to take advantage of the weakness of their Jewish brethren.

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32:15-19 "Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places; When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place."

 

This "until" introduces a dramatic change of tone in the prophecy. Here now is a charming picture of the new era in store for God's people when all their troubles have been swept away.

The great rains, such as came in fertilizing abundance in the promised Year of Jubilee, are used as a figure of "the Spirit poured upon us from on high" (cp. 44:3). Contemporary Joel has the same figure, associated by him specially with Passover and explicitly interpreted as a token of a promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Jl. 2:23,28). And since the New Testament use of this Scripture fits both the first century Pentecost and the one yet to come, it seems not unlikely that the great revival in Hezekiah's day was a prototype of both, even though the historical record does not describe explicitly a gift of the Spirit on the enthusiastic worshippers of those days.

 

The rest of this Isaiah passage is loaded with abstract terms — "righteousness... peace...quietness" — yet it needs to be remembered that the prophets had little interest in abstract ideas. They were concerned with concrete situations, practical experiences. So whilst some of this phraseology is a clear anticipation of the blessings of the unique Year of Jubilee in Hezekiah's reign, the real meaning has to do with God's people, a wilderness, about to be transformed into a fruitful field by the exhilarating example of their king and the startling salvation to be brought so unexpectedly by the angel of the Lord.

 

In the Land itself what was normally deemed to be a fruitful field would come to be reckoned as no better than the unkempt wildness of a forest compared with the a transformation did not come about in Hezekiah's time, even though with the splendid lead from Isaiah and his fellow-prophets there was every opportunity for it. Instead, one has to wait for the day of Messiah for this fulness of fulfilment (cp. the phrase "for ever", in v.17).

 

It is the judgement and the righteousness of good king Hezekiah which Isaiah extols. The peace and quietness foretold are to be the work and effect of his righteousness. Those last fifteen years of that chequered reign must have been an extraordinarily fine era.

 

And with the removal of all threats of further invasion, God's people would "dwell in a peaceable habitation (33:20) and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places."

 

But verse 19 presents a sharp contrast (and there is little doubt that it belongs to the preceding verses, for no amount of adroit manoeuvring can link it intelligently with verse 20). The RV reading helps considerably here: "the city (i.e. Jerusalem) shall be utterly laid low." This, with the mention of hailstorm, suggests that even the holy city would not escape from the devastation brought by the storm of divine wrath on the Assyrian encampments round about. And of course it would be appropriate to the situation, for in spite of king and prophets there was no lack of un­faithfulness in Hezekiah's subjects. They needed to be scared into a more worthy recognition of the awe-inspiring authority and power of the God of their fathers.

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32:20 "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass."

 

The vision swings back to its lovely picture of a peaceful, settled, well-ordered society. The Land is cleared of Assyrians. The people are back at their normal occupations. The special blessing of God in their Jubilee Year — "opening the windows of heaven" (Lev. 25:21) — encourages assiduous cultivation. And because of the special exigencies of the national situation, the full observance of normal Mosaic precept was set aside. The farmer tills his soil with ox and ass harnessed together (cp. Dt. 22:10). National recovery from the invasion goes forward at a phenomenal rate.

 

The Last Days

 

It is easy to see that this entire chapter has much relevance to the 20th Century as well as to Hezekiah's far-off days.

 

The one who has risen up (v.8 Heb.) and who now "reigns in righteousness" is a Melchizedek king-priest, for he is "first king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is, king of peace" (v.17; Heb. 7:2). He is "a rock of glory" (Mt. 16:18; note the context), pouring forth waters of truth and healing, and also giving rest under his shadow to those that are weary (4:6; 25:4,5). He is a king who bears the covenant name of God (33:22); and in that day Isaiah will "see the king, the Lord of hosts" (6:5), and will not shrink away unclean.

 

But first there will come the hail of the wrath of God against a generation which outmatches the evil of Sodom (Rev. 8:7). Yet even at such a time there will be shelter and protection for the faithful remnant (v.2; 26:20,21; Rev. 7:16,17 RV).

 

He upon whom the Lord laid the iniquity of us all (53:6) will likewise save his people from the outpouring of retribution against a world of sinners.

 

With the king there will also be "princes who rule in judgment" (Mt. 20:28; Rev. 20:4). They too will overshadow God's people with blessing and healing (s.w. Acts 5:15).

 

But the vile and the churlish, whose hypocritical prototypes felt the lash of the the poor with lying words" (v.5-7).

 

By contrast with these, those who are the Lord's own, will be given seeing eyes and hearing ears. These, deemed by the world to be "rash" and "stammerers" will understand the knowledge of God and will speak it forth plainly (v.3,4) to peoples now more ready to give heed. This fine millennial activity will be all the more effective because of "the Spirit poured upon us from on high," precisely as Joel also has foretold (Jl. 2:28,23). It is an enrichment that begins at Passover, "the first month" (cp. Ez. 36:26,27; 39:29).

 

The lovely pictures in this chapter of a land and people enjoying tranquillity and assurance tell of an even better Jubilee in which, both literally and spiritually, the wilderness becomes a fruitful field (v. 15; 35:1,2). And in that fruitful field the ox and the ass labour at the good work together — Jew and Gentile will be one in the service of their Creator, and the ancient Law which was originally designed to keep them separate (Dt. 22:10) will be abrogated for ever in a new society where righteousness, quietness and assurance endure "for ever" (v.17).

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Chapter 33

 

33:1 "Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee."

 

Chapters 28-33 are usually referred to as the Six Woes of Isaiah, but a review of their contents makes very evident their lack of homogeneity — in two respects:

 

a. The first five (28:1; 29:1,15; 30:1; 31:1) are all addressed to the un­worthy in Jerusalem; but 33:1 is plainly a denunciation of Assyrian treachery.

 

b. The Woes do not concern themselves only with judgment on those whom they first address. Each section is made up of quite a diversity of fragmentary prophecies — against Assyrians, against politicians of Jerusalem, against Egypt, against the faithlessness and godless ways of God's people; and also there are superb prophecies about the Messianic king and the blessings of his reign.

 

In these chapters it is specially evident that much of Isaiah's writing is made up of short fragmentary sections put together without concern for continuity or for chronological sequence. This is a feature of Isaiah's work which has largely gone neglected, leaving the work of many commentators an incoherent shambles.

 

Here, in 33:1, the spoiler who is spoiled (s.w. Ps. 137:8, a Sennacherib psalm, as Thirtle has shown in "OT. Problems") is certainly the Assyrian invader. The contortions of the modernists are always something to marvel at, but a record in ab­surdity was surely achieved by Cheyne when he insisted that Isaiah 53 was written in the Persian period, 350 years later, by a writer who put himself in imagination in the time of Hezekiah and tried to write as Isaiah would have written!!

 

In one of his inscriptions Sennacherib boasted that he was "a keeper of treaties", yet the witness of Isaiah (21:2; 24:16; and especially here) is that duplicity was the norm of his political behaviour. Even the payment of massive tribute (2 Kgs. 18:16) made no difference to his aggressive empire-building. The Hebrew word for "deal treacherously" is associated with another for "garment". The deceiver covers up his true intentions.

 

"They dealt not treacherously with thee." The early negotiations by the princes of Judah may have been made in good faith. Later their simultaneous attempts at political agreement with both Assyrian and Egyptian crumbled in ruin.

 

But now, Isaiah asserts with all confidence, "when thou shalt cease to spoil (after the capture and destruction of Lachish), thou shalt be spoiled." Contemporary Joel 2 has sustained a picture of the irresistible Assyrian invasion as comparable to the inroads of a ruinous swarm of locusts. With grim irony Isaiah now proceeds to use the same figure about the plundering of the Assyrian camp outside Jerusalem.

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33:2 "O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble."

 

"Waiting for the Lord" is quite one of the most poignant ideas in all Isaiah's prophecies. It embodies a picture of a faithful minority who look with eager and almost pathetic expectancy for a divine intervention which will save them and their Land from a desperate situation from which they have no power to extricate themselves: "We have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord: we have waited for him, we will be glad, and rejoice in his salvation" (25:9) "We have waited for thee, O Lord: the desire of our soul is to thy name (i.e. for the fulfilment of thy purpose)" (26:8). "Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee (except thee), what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him" (64:4). But this waiting for the Lord to go into action is a two-sided business: "Blessed are all they that wait for him", but also (in the same verse) "the Lord waits, that he may be gracious unto you" (30:18) — in other words, the faithful remnant are kept waiting because there are others also for whom the Lord waits and goes on waiting because there is not yet the godly response that he looks for. It is the same paradox as in Peter's teaching about the Second Coming: "What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy way of life and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God...we look for new heavens and earth...seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation" (2 Pet. 3:11-15), that is, you are to interpret God's long delay as an opportunity to ensure salvation — for yourselves? for others who hesitate? Both Old and New Testaments have many eloquent passages on this theme of "waiting".

 

The emphasis in the present passage on "every morning" is specially appropriate to the difficult circumstances of the time, for "morning by morning it (the Assyrian scourge) will pass over, by day and by night" so that "it becomes a vexation only to understand the report" (28:19).

 

The strange switch of possessive pronouns: "be thou their arm...our salvation also", is no real difficulty. In the first, the nation as a whole is considered all of it in need of heaven's rescue operation. But it will be specially "our salvation" for the faithful few who have known and have looked with the confidence of faith for the eagerly desired deliverance.

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33:3,4 "At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered. And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them."

 

The golden rule of Old Testament expositors, that it is rarely safe to interpret your Hebrew tenses with dogmatism, finds illustration here in the past tenses of verse 3 followed by futures (if they are such) in verse 4. The dramatic phrases read as though they are a description of events as they happened. But the passage could be a vivid snapshot recorded in later, more leisured, times; or it could be (as so much else in this group of chapters surely is) an actual prophecy of the exciting experiences in store when Sennacherib's army was destroyed.

 

"The noise of the tumult" describes the overpowering majesty of the theophany and storms (as in 28:15; 29:5-7; 30:30). Elsewhere these words picture a lashing rain (1 Kgs. 18:41), and the fearful threat of Sennacherib's conglomerate army assembled against Jerusalem (Is. 13:4; see commentary on this). "The lifting up of thyself" (s.w. Ps. 118:16, a Hezekiah psalm) certainly means the indignant action of the Lord of hosts against the enemies of His people (118:10).

 

The "people" who flee are the faithless rulers in Jerusalem, who, without confidence in their God, seek safety in flight from the approach of the enemy (30:16; 22:3). The word for "people" refers, literally hundreds of times, to the people of Israel.

 

The more important aspect of this crisis is that the "nations (goyim, Gentiles) were scattered." If the AV reading can be insisted on (and this is Isaiah's more common usage), there is further indication here of the Assyrian army being substantially re­inforced by allies and mercenaries.

 

The passage seems to echo the words of Moses when the ark set forward: "Rise up, O Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered" (Num. 10:35). It describes the Shekinah Glory going into action.

 

Joel 2 has sustained and vivid anticipation of the northern invader (these brutal Assyrians) going irresistibly through the Land plundering and ravaging everywhere (2:1-11; cp. Is. 10:14; 17:5). Now Isaiah picks up the same powerful figure of speech — but the tables are turned, for his locusts are the inhabitants of Jerusalem rushing out of the city to plunder the devastated camp of the enemy. Even "the lame take the prey" (v.23c). These locusts "run to and fro", in a way that natural locusts never do; it is a picture of eager delighted citizens making one trip after another to the enemy camp to see what they can salvage. "Shall he run upon them" is, more literally: "is the running (of the people) into it (the wreck of the hostile army)".

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