24Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:25that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.26This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.27For Yahweh of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
28This burden was in the year that king Ahaz died.
24 Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.
26 This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27 For Yahweh of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
28 This burden was in the year that king Ahaz died.
KJVKing James Version
24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,
25 That I will break Asshur in My land, and upon My mountains tread him under foot; then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulder.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Isaiah 43:13(v27)Yes, since the day was, I am he. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?”
Job 23:13(vv24, 27)But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does.
Proverbs 19:21(vv24, 27)There are many plans in a man’s heart, but Yahweh’s counsel will prevail.
Isaiah 46:10-11(v24)I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all…
2 Chronicles 20:6(v27)and he said, “Yahweh, the God of our fathers, aren’t you God in heaven? Aren’t you ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and…
Show all 49 cross-references
Proverbs 21:30(vv24, 27)There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against Yahweh.
Job 9:12(v27)Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’
Jeremiah 29:11(v24)For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
Acts 4:28(v24)to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.
Romans 8:28(v27)We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Ephesians 1:9(v24)making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
Psalms 33:11(v27)The counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Matthew 11:25(v24)At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding,…
Amos 8:7(v24)Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.
Romans 8:31(v27)What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Exodus 17:16(v24)He said, “Yah has sworn: ‘Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.’ ”
Psalms 92:5(v24)How great are your works, Yahweh! Your thoughts are very deep.
Psalms 110:4(v24)Yahweh has sworn, and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
Jeremiah 23:20(v24)Yahweh’s anger will not return until he has executed, and until he has performed the intents of his heart. In the latter days, you will…
Isaiah 46:11(v27)I call a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have…
Jeremiah 4:28(v27)For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken it. I have planned it, and I have not repented,…
Lamentations 3:37(v24)Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
Hebrews 4:3(v24)For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;” although…
Isaiah 23:9(vv26–27)Yahweh of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
Psalms 33:10(v24)Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.
Hebrews 6:16-18(v24)For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. In this way God, being determined…
Jeremiah 44:26(v24)“Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ‘Behold, I have sworn by my great name,’ says Yahweh, ‘that my…
Job 40:8(v27)Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
Daniel 4:31-35(v27)While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from the sky, saying, “O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: ‘The kingdom has…
Isaiah 9:4(v25)For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.
2 Kings 16:20(v28)Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s city, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.
Isaiah 9:12(v27)The Syrians in front, and the Philistines behind; and they will devour Israel with open mouth. For all this, his anger is not turned away,…
Isaiah 37:36-38(v25)Then Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the…
Nahum 1:13(v25)Now I will break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart.”
Exodus 15:12(v26)You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them.
2 Chronicles 28:27(v28)Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem, because they didn’t bring him into the tombs of the kings…
Isaiah 5:25(v26)Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains…
Isaiah 10:12(v25)Therefore it will happen that when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the…
Isaiah 10:16-19(v25)Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning…
Isaiah 10:32-34(v25)This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. Behold, the Lord,…
Isaiah 13:1(v28)The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
Isaiah 14:5(v25)Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
Isaiah 30:30-33(v25)Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of…
Zephaniah 3:6-8(v26)I have cut off nations. Their battlements are desolate. I have made their streets waste, so that no one passes by. Their cities are…
Isaiah 6:1(v28)In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.
Isaiah 10:24-27(v25)Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, says “My people who dwell in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the…
Isaiah 17:12-14(v25)Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty…
Isaiah 31:8-9(v25)“The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his…
Ezekiel 39:4(v25)You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the ravenous birds…
49 distinct cross-references across this passage (53 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (22 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv25, 28From the Jews.
From the Jews.
As I have begun to destroy the Assyrians in Sennacherib: so will I continue, and destroy them wholly, when I shall deliver you from Babylon.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv24–28Isa 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying,…
Isa 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, [so] shall it stand:
Ver. 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn.] If he had but said it only it had been sure enough, for he cannot lie, he cannot deny himself; but when he sweareth anything we may build upon it, especially since he is Lord of hosts. He can do more than he will, but whatsoever he willeth shall undoubtedly be done; for what should hinder? Iuravit Iehovah, is the best assurance.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv24, 25, 26, 28I will not repent of this threatening, as I…
I will not repent of this threatening, as I did of that against Nineveh, Jon 3:4,10. And this solemn oath is added to confirm the faith of God’s people, because otherwise the destruction of this vast and mighty empire might seem incredible. But it is to be diligently observed, that this verse doth not only concern this present prophecy of Babylon’s destruction by the Medes and Persians, but is also to be extended unto the foregoing prophecy concerning the overthrow of Sennacherib and the Assyrian host, Isa 10, as appears by the next verse, where the sum of that prophecy is repeated. Nor is this any digression, but very pertinent to the main design and business of this chapter; inasmuch as the overthrow of that great Assyrian host, and of the deliverance of God’s people at that time, was a pledge of the certain accomplishment of that future destruction of the city and empire of Babylon, and of their deliverance out of that captivity.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v24The destruction of Babylon and the Chaldean empire was…
The destruction of Babylon and the Chaldean empire was a thing at a great distance; the empire had not risen to any considerable height when its fall was here foretold: it was almost 200 years from this prediction of Babylon's fall to the accomplishment of it. Now the people to whom Isaiah prophesied might ask, "What is this to us, or what shall we be the better for it, and what assurance shall we have of it?" To both questions he answers in these verses, by a prediction of the ruin both of the Assyrians and of the Philistines, the present enemies that infested them, which they should shortly be eye-witnesses of and have benefit by. These would be a present comfort to them, and a pledge of future deliverance, for the confirming of the faith of their posterity. God is to his people the same to day that he was yesterday and will be hereafter; and he will for ever be the same that he has been and is. Here is,
I. Assurance given of the destruction of the Assyrians (Isa 14:25): I will break the Assyrian in my land. Sennacherib brought a very formidable army into the land of Judah, but there God broke it, broke all his regiments by the sword of a destroying angel. Note, Those who wrongfully invade God's land shall find that it is at their peril: and those who with unhallowed feet trample upon his holy mountains shall themselves there be trodden under foot. God undertakes to do this himself, his people having no might against the great company that came against them: "I will break the Assyrian; let me alone to do it who have angels, hosts of angels, at command." Now the breaking of the power of the Assyrian would be the breaking of the yoke from off the neck of God's people: His burden shall depart from off their shoulders, the burden of quartering that vast army and paying contribution; therefore the Assyrian must be broken, that Judah and Jerusalem may be eased. Let those that make themselves a yoke and a burden to God's people see what they are to expect. Now, 1. This prophecy is here ratified and confirmed by an oath (Isa 14:24): The Lord of hosts hath sworn, that he might show the immutability of his counsel, and that his people may have strong consolation, Heb 6:17, Heb 6:18. What is here said of this particular intention is true of all God's purposes: As I have thought, so shall it come to pass; for he is in one mind, and who can turn him? Nor is he ever put upon new counsels, or obliged to take new measures, as men often are when things occur which they did not foresee. Let those who are the called according to God's purpose comfort themselves with this, that, as God has purposed, so shall it stand, and on that their stability depends. 2. The breaking of the Assyrian power is made a specimen of what God would do with all the powers of the nations that were engaged against him and his church (Isa 14:26): This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth (the whole world, so the Septuagint), all the inhabitants of the earth (so the Chaldee), not only upon the Assyrian empire (which was then reckoned to be in a manner all the world, as afterwards the Roman empire was, Luk 2:1, and with it many nations fell that had dependence upon it), but upon all those states and potentates that should at any time attack his land, his mountains. The fate of the Assyrian shall be theirs; they shall soon find that they meddle to their own hurt. Jerusalem, as it was to the Assyrians, will be to all people a burdensome stone; all that burden themselves with it shall infallibly be cut to pieces by it, Zac 12:3, Zac 12:6. The same hand of power and justice that is now to be stretched out against the Assyrian for invading the people of God shall be stretched out upon all the nations that do likewise. It is still true, and will ever be so, Cursed is he that curses God's Israel, Num 24:9. God will be an enemy to his people's enemies, Exo 23:22. 3. All the powers on earth are defied to change God's counsel (Isa 14:27): "The Lord of hosts has purposed to break the Assyrian's yoke, and every rod of the wicked laid upon the lot of the righteous; and who shall disannul this purpose? Who can persuade him to recall it, or find out a plea to evade it? His hand is stretched out to execute this purpose; and who has power enough to turn it back or to stay the course of his judgments?"
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II. Assurance is likewise given of the destruction of the Philistines and their power. This burden, this prophecy, that lay as a load upon them, to sink their state, came in the year that king Ahaz died, which was the first year of Hezekiah's reign, Isa 14:28. When a good king came in the room of a bad one then this acceptable message was sent among them. When we reform, then, and not till then, we may look for good news from heaven. Now here we have, 1. A rebuke to the Philistines for triumphing in the death of king Uzziah. He had been as a serpent to them (Isa 14:29), had bitten them, had smitten them, had brought them very low, Ch2 26:6. He warred against the Philistines, broke down their walls, and built cities among them. But when Uzziah died, or rather abdicated, it was told with joy in Gath and published in the streets of Ashkelon. It is inhuman thus to rejoice in our neighbour's fall. But let them not be secure; for though when Uzziah was dead they made reprisals upon Ahaz, and took many of the cities of Judah (Ch2 28:18), yet out of the root of Uzziah should come a cockatrice, a more formidable enemy than Uzziah was, even Hezekiah, the fruit of whose government should be to them a fiery flying serpent, for he should fall upon them with incredible swiftness and fury: we find he did so. Kg2 18:8, He smote the Philistines even to Gaza. Note, If God remove one useful instrument in the midst of his usefulness, he can, and will, raise up others to carry on and complete the same work that they were employed in and left unfinished. 2. A prophecy of the destruction of the Philistines by famine and war. (1.) By famine, Isa 14:30. "When the people of God, whom the Philistines has wasted, and distressed, and impoverished, shall enjoy plenty again," and the first-born of their poor shall feed (the poorest among them shall have food convenient), then, as for the Philistines, God will kill their root with famine. That which was their strength, and with which they thought themselves established as the tree is by the root, shall be starved and dried up by degrees, as those die that die by famine; and thus he shall slay the remnant: those that escape from one destruction are but reserved for another; and, when there are but a few left, those few shall at length be cut off, for God will make a full end. (2.) By war. When the needy of God's people shall lie down in safety, not terrified with the alarms of war, but delighting in the songs of peace, then every gate and every city of the Philistines shall be howling and crying (Isa 14:31), and there shall be a total dissolution of their state; for from Judea, which lay north of the Philistines, there shall come a smoke (a vast army raising a great dust, a smoke that shall be the indication of a devouring fire at hand), and none of all that army shall be alone in his appointed times; none shall straggle or be missing when they are to engage; but they shall all be vigorous and unanimous in attacking the common enemy, when the time appointed for the doing of it comes. None of them shall decline the public service, as, in Deborah's time, Reuben abode among the sheepfolds and Asher on the sea-shore, Jdg 5:16, Jdg 5:17. When God has work to do he will wonderfully endow and dispose men for it.
III. The good use that should be made of all these events for the encouragement of the people of God (Isa 14:32): What shall one then answer the messengers of the nations?
1. This implies, (1.) That the great things God does for his people are, and cannot but be, taken notice of by their neighbours; those among the heathen make remarks upon them, Psa 126:2. (2.) That messengers will be sent to enquire concerning them. Jacob and Israel had long been a people distinguished from all others and dignified with uncommon favours; and therefore some for good-will, others for ill-will, and all for curiosity, are inquisitive concerning them. (3.) That it concerns us always to be ready to give a reason of the hope that we have in the providence of God, as well as in his grace, in answer to every one that asks it, with meekness and fear, Pe1 3:15. And we need go no further than the sacred truths of God's word for a reason; for God, in all he does, is fulfilling the scripture. (4.) The issue of God's dealings with his people shall be so clearly and manifestly glorious that any one, every one, shall be able to give an account of them to those that enquire concerning them. Now,
2. The answer which is to be given to the messengers of the nations is, (1.) That God is and will be a faithful friend to his church and people, and will secure and advance their interests. Tell them that the Lord has founded Zion. This gives an account both of the work itself that is done and of the reason of it. What is God doing in the world, and what is he designing in all the revolutions of states and kingdoms, in the ruin of some nations and the rise of others? He is, in all this, founding Zion; he is aiming at the advancement of his church's interests; and what he aims at he will accomplish. The messengers of the nations, when they sent to enquire concerning Hezekiah's successes against the Philistines, expected to learn by what politics, counsels, and arts of war he carried his point; but they are told that these successes were not owing to any thing of that nature, but to the care God took of his church and the interest he had in it. The Lord has founded Zion, and therefore the Philistines must fall. (2.) That his church has and will have a dependence upon him: The poor of his people shall trust in it, his poor people who have lately been brought very low, even the poorest of them; they more than others, for they have nothing else to trust to, Zep 3:12, Zep 3:13. The poor receive the gospel, Mat 11:5. They shall trust to this, to this great truth, that the Lord has founded Zion; on this they shall build their hopes, and not on an arm of flesh. This ought to give us abundant satisfaction as to public affairs, that however it may go with particular persons, parties, and interests, the church, having God himself for its founder and Christ the rock for its foundation, cannot but stand firm. The poor of his people shall betake themselves to it (so some read it), shall join themselves to his church and embark in its interests; they shall concur with God in his designs to establish his people, and shall wind up all on the same plan, and make all their little concerns and projects bend to that. Those that take God's people for their people must be willing to take their lot with them and cast in their lot among them. Let the messengers of the nations know that the poor Israelites, who trust in God, having, like Zion, their foundation in the holy mountains (Psa 87:1), are like Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides for ever (Psa 125:1.), and therefore they will not fear what man can do unto them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv24–28The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,.... The Septuagint…
The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,.... The Septuagint only read, "these things saith the Lord of hosts"; for, as Kimchi on the place observes, his word is his oath; but for the comfort of his people, and for the confirmation either of the prophecies concerning the fall of Babylon, or of the following concerning the destruction of the Assyrian monarchy, or both, he adds his oath to his word, to show that the sentence passed in his mind, and now expressed, was irrevocable:
surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; as he had shaped and schemed it, and drew the form and image in his own mind, or fixed and settled it there, so should it be done in due time, as every thing is that is determined by the Lord; and this shows that nothing is casual, or comes by chance, but everything as it is purposed of God; and that as everything comes to pass which he has resolved, so every such resolution proceeds from thought, and is the produce of the highest wisdom and prudence:
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and as I have purposed, so it shall stand; or "counselled" (l); within himself, for he does all things according to the counsel of his will; and which always stands firm, sure, and unalterable, let what devices soever be in the heart of man.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv24, 25, 26, 28Saying - This verse does not only concern Babylon's…
Saying - This verse does not only concern Babylon's destruction, but also the overthrow of Sennacherib and the Assyrian host, which was a pledge of the destruction of the city and empire of Babylon.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv25, 28Verse 25. I will break the Assyrian - upon…
Verse 25. I will break the Assyrian - upon my mountains - "To crush the Assyrian - on my mountains"] The Assyrians and Babylonians are the same people, Herod. i. 199, 200. Babylon is reckoned the principal city in Assyria, ibid. 178. Strabo says the same thing, lib. xvi. sub init. The circumstance of this judgment being to be executed on God's mountains is of importance; it may mean the destruction of Sennacherib's army near Jerusalem, and have a still farther view: compare Eze 39:4; and see Lowth on this place of Isaiah.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv24, 28Isa 14:24-27. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, &c.…
Isa 14:24-27. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, &c. — Here begins another prophecy against the Assyrians, which was to be fulfilled much sooner than the foregoing, even in the life-time of the prophet. But, “though of a peculiar and different, it is not of a totally foreign argument: it contains the epilogue and conclusion of the foregoing prophecy. As what the prophet foretold concerning the destruction of Babylon might justly seem great beyond expectation, he was desirous that the truth of the prediction should be collected from another remarkable and not dissimilar divine judgment, which should precede the completion of this prophecy, namely, the wonderful slaughter which the king of Assyria should meet with in Canaan itself, as an example of the divine indignation, and a pledge of the truth of similar predictions denouncing the destruction of the enemies of the people of God.” And here, to give his people greater assurance of the accomplishment of this prediction, and thereby to confirm their faith in it, and all other prophecies which his prophet was commissioned to deliver, God adds his solemn oath; saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, that I will break the Assyrian — Sennacherib and his Assyrian army; in my land — In Judea, which was God’s land in a peculiar sense, chosen by him, and inhabited by his people; and upon my mountains tread him under foot — In my mountainous country, for such Judea was, especially about Jerusalem, where his army was destroyed; then shall his yoke depart, &c. — See on Isa 10:27. This the purpose upon the whole earth — Upon this vast empire, now in the hands of the Assyrians, and shortly to come into the hands of the Babylonians; and this is the hand, &c. — The providence of God executing his purpose.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv24–28The Lord of hosts - (see the note at…
The Lord of hosts - (see the note at Isa 1:9). It is evident that this verse and the three following, is not directly connected with that which goes before, respecting Babylon. This pertains to the Assyrian; that had relation to Babylon. Vitringa says that this is attached to the prophecy respecting Babylon, and is a unique yet not altogether foreign argument, and is a sort of epilogue to the prophecy respecting Babylon. The design, he says, is this. As the events which had been foretold respecting Babylon seemed so great and wonderful as to be almost incredible, the prophet, in order to show the Jews how easily it could be accomplished, refers them to the case of Sennacherib, and the ease with which he and his army had been destroyed. Lowth supposes that the Assyrians and Babylonians here are one people. Rosenmuller supposes that this prophecy respecting Sennacherib has been “displaced” by the collector of the prophecies of Isaiah, and that it should have been attached to the prophecy respecting the Assyrian monarch (see Isa. 10.) The probable sense of the passage is that which makes it refer to the predicted destruction of Sennacherib Isa. 10; and the design of the prophet in referring to that here is, to assure the Jews of the certain destruction of Babylon, and to comfort them with the assurance that they would be delivered from their captivity there.
The prophecy respecting Babylon was uttered “before” the destruction of Sennacherib; but it is to be remembered that its design was to comfort the Jews “in” Babylon. The prophet therefore throws himself “beyond” the period of their captivity - though it was to occur many years “after” the prophecy respecting Babylon was uttered; and with this view he introduces the subject of the Assyrian. At that future time, Sennacherib would have been destroyed. And as God would have fulfilled the prophecy respecting the proud and self-confident Assyrian, so they might have the assurance that he “would” fulfill his predictions respecting the no less proud and self-confident king of Babylon; and as he would have delivered his people from the invasion of the Assyrian, even when he was at the gates of Jerusalem, so he would deliver them in their captivity in Babylon.
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Hath sworn - (see Gen 24:7; Exo 13:5, Exo 13:11; Exo 33:1; Num 32:10; Heb 3:18; Heb 6:13). Yahweh is often represented as making use of an oath to denote the strong confirmation, the absolute certainty of what he utters. The oath here was designed to comfort the Jews, when they should be in Babylon, with the assurance that what he had thus solemnly promised would assuredly come to pass.
As I have thought - As I have designed, or intended. God’s promises never fail; his purposes shall all be accomplished (compare Isa 46:10-11). This passage is full proof that God does not “change:” that whatever his purposes are, they are inflexible. Change supposes imperfection; and it is often affirmed that God is immutable 1Sa 15:29; Mal 3:6; Jam 1:17.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv25, 28Assyrian. 4 Kings xix. (Worthington) --- Sennacherib, (St. Jerome)…
Assyrian. 4 Kings xix. (Worthington) --- Sennacherib, (St. Jerome) Cambyses, or Holofernes. The sight of their chastisement would ben an earnest of the fall of Babylon. (Calmet) --- The allies of Assyria, (Menochius) or the enemies of God’s people, will also be punished, chap. xv. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn vv24, 28Isa_14:24 to Isa_20:6
II. PROPHECIES RELATING TO ASSYRIA AND TO THE NATIONS THREATENED BY ASSYRIA, PHILISTIA, MOAB, SYRIA, AND ARAM-EPHRAIM, ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT
Isa_14:24 to Isa_20:6
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a) Prophecy against Assyria
Isa_14:24-27
We have explained above why the prophecy against Assyria occupies the second place and after the one against Babylon. A prophecy against Assyria could not be omitted. It was necessary as a background to the prophecies that follow. But it needed only to be a short one. For the Prophet is sensible that the power of Assyria is shattered by the overthrow of Sennacherib—therefore fore that, in a prophetic sense, it is in principle a thing done away. But to Assyria and the other nations named in the superscription above, the Prophet does not proclaim merely temporal destruction. He sets before all more or less plainly the prospect of partaking of the Messianic salvation of the future.
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24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,
Surely as I have thought, so 35shall it come to pass;
And as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 36That I will break the Assyrian in my land,
And upon my mountains tread him under foot:
Then shall his yoke depart from off them,
And his burden depart from off their shoulders.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth:
And this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
27 For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?
37And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_14:24. דִּמָּה in the sense of animo componere, “to dispose in thought,” only again Isa_10:7; moreover the Prophet seems to have had in mind in this place, Num_33:56.——The Perfect היתה expresses the coincidence of the realization with the thought. No sooner said than done, i.e., as God conceives a thought, it is also (as to principle) realized. The following imperf. תקום has then the meaning that what is, as to principle, realized, must arise, set up as actual, outward circumstance. Before תקום the כּן is not repeated, but היא is used, evidently for the sake of variety. The thought is essentially the same. It is a sort of Anacoluthon——היה and קום are used as in Isa_7:7; Isa_8:10.
Isa_14:25. The infin. לשׁבר depends on the oath-clause Isa_14:24 b; what is determined shall be fulfilled frangendo Assyrios, etc. לשׁבר is therefore inf. modalis or gerundivus.——With אבוסנו (comp. Isa_14:19; Isa_63:6; Isa_63:18) the language returns from the infinitive construction to the verbum fin., according to a frequent Hebrew usage.——The suffixes in מעליהם and שׁכמו have nothing to which they can relate in the words of Isa_14:24-25.—Moreover from Isa_14:4 onwards, Israel is not referred to. True, in Isa_14:1-2, Israel is likewise spoken of in the third person, and with quite similar suffixes (עליחם Isa_14:1, שׁביהם ,נגשׂיהם Isa_14:2); but then Isa_14:3 intervenes, in which Israel is spoken of in the second person. It must, therefore, be assumed that the suffixes Isa_14:25 refer back, not only over the entire Maschal (4–23), but also away over Isa_14:3 to Isa_14:1-2, and that these verses originated, not at the same time with the rest of the prophecy against Babylon, but much earlier. All this is very improbable. I cannot therefore agree with Vitringa and Drechsler, but must side with the view, that the present verses are a fragment of a greater prophecy for Israel of a comforting nature, which, however, cannot be identical with 7–12 because in these Assyria is regarded in a totally different light from that which appears in the present verses.
Isa_14:27. יָפֵר comp. Isa_8:10. [“This has been variously translated “scatter” (LXX.), “weaken” (Vulg.), “avert” (Luth.), “dissolve” (Calvin), “change” (J. D. “Michaelis”), “hinder” (Gesen.), break (Ewald [Naegelsb.]); but its true sense is that given in the Eng. Version and by De Wette (vereiteln) [see Fuerst Lex.]. The meaning of the last clause is not simply that his hand is stretched out, as most writers give it, but that the hand stretched out is his, as appears from the article prefixed to the participle נטויה. (See Gesen. § 108, 3. Ewald, § 560.—J. A. A.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Whoever reads the prophecies of Isaiah against the heathen nations with attention, must feel surprise that in them, there is relatively little more said about Assyria. After occupying in 7–12 the foreground, it retreats in 13 and onward into the background. On the other hand Babylon now stands front and the Prophet recognizes in it the representative of the perfectly developed world-power that has attained to the exclusive possession of dominion. Now the question arises: how are Assyria and Babylon related? What becomes of Assyria if now Babylon is called the world-power? How is it to be explained that according to Isa_10:24-27 Israel at the end of days is delivered out of bondage to Assyria, if at that end-period not Assyria but Babylon stands at the summit of the world-power? These questions are solved by the short section before us, Isa_14:24-27. It appears therein that in the immediate future Assyria must be destroyed, that, therefore, Israel may expect deliverance from the yoke of Assyria in a brief season, but that therewith Israel is neither delivered forever, nor is the world-power for ever broken up. But Babylon walks in the footsteps of Assyria; and if in 7–12 the world-power appeared solely under the name of Assyria, it happened only because the Prophet could not then distinguish that which followed Assyria from Assyria itself, and therefore comprehended it under one name.
2. The Lord of hosts——turn it back.
Isa_14:24-27. Drechsler attaches great weight to the fact that the phrase “the Lord of hosts hath sworn,” is preceded by a thrice repeated “saith the Lord of hosts,” Isa_14:22-23. He says the former is only a climax of these latter. He lays stress, too, on the fact that the thrice repeated “Lord of hosts” of Isa_14:22-23 has its correlative in the double use of the same in Isa_14:24; Isa_14:27, and that the same words which in Isa_14:23 “conclude the proper body of the discourse, in Isa_14:24 begin the appendix.” He, therefore, regards Isa_14:24-27 as an integral part of the discourse that extends through Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:27, and therefore as having originated at the same time. But that is impossible. The words Isa_14:24-27 must be older than, the catastrophe of Sennacherib before Jerusalem, for they foretell it. But the prophecy against Babylon Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:23 must be much more recent, for it is the product of a much higher and, therefore, of a much later prophetic knowledge [? Tr.]. If, too, in the points named there appears a certain correspondence, yet it remains very much a question whether that is intentional. The expressions in question, so far as they correspond, occur exceedingly often in all sorts of connections.
The expression “the Lord hath sworn” is especially frequent in Deuteronomy, but always with the Dative of the person whom the oath concerns (Deu_1:8; Deu_2:14; Deu_4:31, etc.). In Isaiah it occurs again, Isa_45:23; Isa_54:9; Isa_62:8.—The contents of the oath is: “as I have thought … so shall it stand.”
[“From the distant view of the destruction of Babylon, the Prophet suddenly reverts to that of the Assyrian host, either for the purpose of making one of these events accredit the prediction of the other, or for the purpose of assuring true believers, that while God had decreed the deliverance of the people from remoter dangers, He would also protect them from those at hand.—On the formula of swearing vide supra, v. 9.—Kimchi explains היתה to be a preterite used for a future, and this construction is adopted in most versions, ancient and modern. It is, however, altogether arbitrary and in violation of the only safe rule as to the use of tenses, viz., that they should have their proper and distinctive force, unless forbidden by the context, or the nature of the subject; which is very far from being the case here.——The true force of the preterite and future forms, as here employed, is recognized by Aben Ezra, who explains the clause to mean that according to God’s purpose, it has come to pass and will come to pass hereafter. The antithesis is rendered still more prominent by Jarchi, by whom this verse is paraphrased as follows—‘Thou hast seen, oh Nebuchadnezzar, how the words of the prophets of Israel have been fulfilled in Sennacherib, to break Assyria in my land, and by this thou mayest know that what I have purposed against thee shall also come to pass’ (comp. Eze_31:3-18).—The only objection to this view is that the next verse goes on to speak of the Assyrian overthrow, which would seem to imply that the last clause of this verse (24) as well as the first relates to that event. Another method of expounding the verse, therefore, is to apply היתה and תקום to the same events, but in a somewhat different sense,—‘As I intended it has come to pass, and as I purposed, it shall continue.’ The Assyrian power is already broken, and shall never be restored. This strict interpretation of the preterite does not necessarily imply that the prophecy was actually uttered after the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. Such would indeed be the natural inference from this verse alone: but for reasons which will be explained below, [viz., in comment on Isa_14:26.—Tr.] it is more probable that the Prophet merely takes his stand in vision at a point of time between the two events of which he speaks, so that both verbs are really prophetic, the one of a remote the other of a proximate futurity, but for that very reason their distinctive forms should be retained and recognized. Yet the only modern writers who appear to do so in translation are Calvin and Cocceius, who have factum est, and J. D. Michaelis, who has ist geschehen.—J. J. A. So also substantially Barnes.]
In my land and on my mountain the Lord says. Therefore not in his own land or some other land, but in Palestine the annihilating blow shall fall on Assyria. This evidently points to the overthrow of Sennacherib before Jerusalem (2Ki_19:35; Isa_37:36). Though even after this overthrow Assyria’s power did not at once appear broken, still it was such inwardly and in principle. As much as Nebuchadnezzar after his victory at Carchemish was ruler of the world, though outwardly he had not that appearance (Jeremiah 25), so Assyria, after the Lord had smitten him in his territory, from the view-point of God, and according to inward and divine reality, was broken to pieces and trodden down.—The consequence of that overthrow of Assyria is that Israel shall be freed from his dominion.
The words his yoke shall depart,etc. sound essentially the same as Isa_10:27. Other resemblances are of Isa_14:24 to Isa_7:5; Isa_7:7; Isa_8:10; Isa_10:7; Isa_14:25 to Isa_9:3; Isa_10:27; Isa_14:26 to Isa_9:11; Isa_9:16; Isa_9:20; Isa_10:4; Isa_11:11; Isa_14:27 to Isa_8:10. But much as Isa_14:24-27 remind one of chapts. 7–12, there is still this essential difference, that in the last named chapters there is no where a prophecy of an overthrow of Assyria in the holy land itself. In general the gaze of the Prophet in those chapters is directed to a much more remote distance. There he looks on Assyria still as representative of the world-power generally, and thus, too, Assyria’s overthrow coincides for him with the overthrow of the world-power in general by the Messiah. Here we encounter a look into the immediate future. It must belong to the time before the defeat of Sennacherib. Therefore our verses cannot belong originally to the prophecy against Babylon. [See above in Text. and Gram.].
When the Prophet (Isa_14:26) declares that the catastrophe predicted for Assyria is significant for the whole earth, and for all nations, he does it by reason of the connection that exists between all acts of the Godhead. That defeat of Sennacherib, too, is an integral moment of the decree that the Lord has determined concerning the whole earth, and all nations. This counsel of God stands so firm that no power of the world can hinder its execution; the hand which the Lord has stretched out to do this execution nothing can turn aside from its doing.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. How grand is the Prophet’s contemplation of history! How the mighty Assyria shrivels up, which in chapters 7–12, played so great a part! Only a line or so is devoted to it here, “Das macht, es ist gericht, eir Wörtlein bann es fällen.” The Prophet knows that Sennacherib’s defeat before Jerusalem is at once the overthrow of the Assyrian world-power, and the deliverance of Israel from his yoke, although Assyria stood yet a hundred years and did harm enough to Judah still (2Ch_33:11). But God always sees the essence of things. What He wills, comes to pass; and when it has happened, perhaps no one knows what that which has come to pass means: only the future makes it plain. The fruit germ frosted in the blossom, may remain green for days. Only by degrees it becomes yellow, then black, and evidently dead.
[“By this assurance (Isa_14:24-27) God designed to comfort His people, when they should be in Babylon in a long and dreary captivity. Comp. Psalms 137. And by the same consideration His people may be comforted in all times. His plans shall stand. None can disannul them. No arm has power to resist Him. None of the schemes formed against Him shall ever prosper. Whatever ills, therefore, may befall His people; however thick, gloomy, and sad their calamities may be; and however dark His dispensations may appear, yet they may have the assurance that all His plans are wise, and that they all shall stand.”—Barnes].
Footnotes:
[35]it has come to pass.
[36]To break.
[37]And his is the hand that is stretched out.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv24–28A FRAGMENT AS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS…
A FRAGMENT AS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS UNDER SENNACHERIB. (Isa 14:24-27)
In this verse the Lord's thought (purpose) stands in antithesis to the Assyrians' thoughts (Isa 10:7). (See Isa 46:10-11; Sa1 15:29; Mal 3:6).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv24, 26, 2824, 25. A change is here made from the…
24, 25. A change is here made from the prophetic scene in the distance, to a nearer view: to that of the Assyrian power with which Judah is more or less to be concerned for a hundred or more years before reaching the Babylonian era. This is done either to make the events predicted of Assyria accredit those predicted of Babylon, or to assure the prophet’s own generation of Jews that God is as interested to protect them from Assyria as he is to deliver the coming generations from Babylon.
I have sworn — To this God’s oath is interposed.
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I will break the Assyrian — To Isaiah this event is quite in the near future, and Sennacherib is the prominent sufferer.
In my land — So claimed Lev_25:23. Immanuel’s land, Isa_8:8.
My mountains — Isa_49:11; Isa_65:9.
Yoke… burden — Same as in Isa_9:4; Isa_10:27. In this land and upon these mountains Assyria virtually fell to pieces for a season, so far forth as Jerusalem was concerned, in the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. See the vision of this event in Isa_10:33-34. If further words be necessary as to the allusion again to Assyria, and just in this place, they may be to this effect: The fate of both Assyria and Babylon were, in the absolute sense, in far future to Isaiah. The prophecy against Assyria had, in partial form, already gone forth. The foregoing prophecy against Babylon is complete. As a pledge of its fulfilment the matter of these two verses is placed here, in accordance with assurances common to the prophets, as appears in Jer_50:18, “Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.” The purpose and certainty against Assyria are a pledge for the purpose and certainty against Babylon. There is another view less probable, but having plausibility, namely, that Isaiah quite survived what seemed the assured fate of Assyria, and then himself confidently appended these verses as God’s pledge against Babylon, thus reaffirming predictions against Assyria formerly made.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv24, 25, 26, 2824. The Lord of hosts hath sworn] cf. Amo_4:2;…
24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn] cf. Amo_4:2; Amo_6:8; Amo_8:7; Isa_45:23; Isa_54:9; Isa_62:8. The formula is nowhere else used by Isaiah.
come to pass … stand] Combined as in ch. Isa_7:7.
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Ch. Isa_14:24-32. Two Isaianic Fragments
i. Isa_14:24-27. An announcement of Jehovah’s purpose to destroy the Assyrians on the soil of Canaan. In spite of the absence of a title these verses cannot without violence be explained as a continuation of the oracle on Babylon. They bear every evidence of being a genuine prophecy of Isaiah; and both in form and substance they shew an obvious resemblance to those of ch. Isa_10:5 ff. and ch. 18. Some critics, indeed, regard them as a misplaced fragment of one or other of these chapters. Without going so far as this we may at least with some confidence assign the passage to the same period of Isaiah’s ministry, probably the early years of Sennacherib’s reign.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv24–28(24) The Lord of hosts hath sworn . .…
(24) The Lord of hosts hath sworn . . .—The long “oracle” of Babylon is followed by a fragmentary prophecy against Assyria (Isa_14:24-27), possibly misplaced, possibly, as opening with a solemn asseveration, like that of the preceding verse, added by way of proof, that the word of the Lord of Hosts would be fulfilled on Babylon, as it had been on Assyria, with which, indeed, Babylon was closely connected—almost, perhaps, identified—in his thoughts.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv24, 25, 27, 28Vers. 24-27. A FURTHER PROPHECY OF DELIVERANCE FROM ASSYRIA.…
Vers. 24-27. A FURTHER PROPHECY OF DELIVERANCE FROM ASSYRIA. From the distant prospect of an ultimate deliverance from the power of Babylon, the prophet turns his gaze to a nearer, if not a greater, deliverance. The present enemy is Assyria. It is she who has carried Samaria into captivity, and who now threatens the independence of Judah. Deliverance from her has already been promised more than once; (Isa_10:16-19, Isa_10:25-27, Isa_10:33, Isa_10:34) but apparently the people are not reassured they still dread the foe who is so near, and who seems so irresistible. God, therefore, condescends to give them a fresh prophecy, a fresh assurance, and to confirm it to them by an oath (ver. 24). The Assyrian power shall be broken her yoke shall be cast off (ver. 25); God has declared his purpose, and nothing can hinder it (ver. 27).
Hath sworn. This is the emphatic word the new thing in the prophecy. God but seldom declares his purposes with an oath never but in condescension to the weakness of his creatures, who, though they misdoubt his word, can feel the immutability of an oath, (Heb_6:17) and yield it the credence and the confidence which they refuse to a bare assertion. As I have thought... as I have purposed. A reference to the prophecies previously given in Isa 10. So shall it come to pass; literally, so it hath been a striking instance of the preterite of prophetic certainty." So shall it stand; literally, as I have purposed, that shall stand.
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God"s condescension in confirming promises by oath.
It is a weakness on the part of man to need any confirmation of a promise which God makes. "God cannot lie"; (Tit_2:1-8) "He keepeth his promise forever". (Psa_146:6) When he condescends to swear that his promise shall hold good, it does not really add to the certainty of the thing promised, since the certainty was absolute from the first. But man is so accustomed to misdoubt his fellows that he will even misdoubt God, as though with him were variableness or shadow of turning." And God, knowing man"s heart and compassionating his weakness, does sometimes, though but rarely, add to his promises, for man"s greater contentment, the confirmation of an oath. After the Flood God covenanted with mankind that he would never again destroy the earth by water, (Gen_9:11) and confirmed the covenant by oath. (Isa_65:9) On the call of Abraham, he swore that he would give the land of Canaan to his posterity, (Gen_24:7) and afterwards that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. With David he made a covenant, and swore to it, that he would "establish his seed forever, and build up his throne to all generations". (Psa_89:3, Psa_89:4) To his own Son he swore, at what time we know not, "Thou art a Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek". (Psa_110:4) And here we find that he condescended to swear to Israel that the Assyrians should "be broken," and their yoke "depart off them." Wonderful condescension of him whose word is truth! Not merely not to punish those who doubt him, but to compassionate them, to make allowance for them, to yield compliance to their weakness, and give them such an assurance as compels their belief. "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, they might have a strong consolation a hope on which to anchor their soul. (Heb_6:17-19)
Vers. 24-28. Oracle concerning Asshur.
The fate of Sennacherib and his host appears to be introduced in order to confirm the solemn oracle just delivered concerning Babylon (see Exposition).
I THE STRONG ASSURANCES OF JEHOVAH. He is represented here and in other passages as taking an oath that he will fulfill his Word. But in such oaths he can appeal to no mightier name, he can invoke no power more awful than his own. Homer makes Zeus swear by the Styx, the dark river of the underworld. And Zeus is himself subject to necessity, to fate. But the God of the Hebrews comprises in himself all the associations of woeful necessity, of irresistible fate; in a word, of law, of intelligence at one with will, of will equal to the execution of all the designs of intelligence. Where men are weak it is that the brain is separated from the hand and the foot. The thoughts that rise before them, they either cannot or they dare not translate immediately into fact. A chain of means, of secondary causes, lies between them and their ends. And so we have the great thinkers who cannot act, and the great actors who fail in thought. Magnificent poets, philosophers, dreamers, on the one side; on the other, magnificent conquerors Alexanders, Napoleons; both stupendous failures. In God are united omniscience and omnipotence the All-Thinker, the All-Doer. His purposes are equivalent to deeds; his deeds are living and visible thoughts.
II THE DOOM OF THE ASSYRIAN. (See Isa 10) The prophetic tense and the prophetic mode of contemplation may refer to the past; so here. The thought is expressed in Jer_1:18, Jer_1:19, "Behold, I will punish the King of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the King of Assyria." The one event was a pledge of the other (Delitzsch). Asshur had been broken in Canaan, had been subdued upon the mountains of the Holy Land, and the people been released from his yoke and his burdens. "Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, The host with their banners at sunset were seen; Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay wither"d and strewn.... And the widows of Asshnr were loud in their wail, And the idols were broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
III THE IMMUTABLE COUNSEL OF JEHOVAH.
1. Its contents. It is earth-embracing, and its symbol is the" hand stretched out over all the heathen." Assyria and Babylon destroyed, heathendom must vibrate through all its extent, and totter to its fall. Turning from the particular to the general for only in this way can we reap the full instruction of such oracles and standing amidst the ruins of fallen, or on the ground of now shaking empires, we may listen in awe to the ever-living voice of him who saith, "I will shake all nations, till their Desire come." About a thousand years later, and we find Rome shaking beneath that outstretched hand. We may see the mementoes of that shock to-day, in the ruins of the Palatine and the Forum and the Sacred Way. Yet a thousand years, and again she shakes, this time to her inmost conscience, beneath that hand, that voice of judgment. At the Reformation it might seem that the Almighty was about to make a short work in the earth. But a thousand years are in his sight but a day. "The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small." Let us remember that the great cycles of history are repeated in small in the round of each man"s life. The great world, the macrocosmos, is mirrored in the microcosmos, the small world of each conscience. Above every one of us the hand is outstretched shall it be to bless or to curse? "Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
2. Its inflexibility. Who can break this counsel, who hinder or turn back that hand? And what people or confederacy of peoples, knit in closest alliance of arms and girt with all the furniture of war, can resist dissolution, when once his thought is against them, his hand upraised? "Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us". (Isa_8:10) So may the lovers of the truth and the right confidently exclaim, "God is with us." What the superstitious man calls his luck or fortune, what the metaphysician obscurely designates as necessity, or the nature of things, or the supremacy of the moral Law, is to the religious man the inflexible will of a personal Being. The duty, the art, the wisdom, the salvation of life, is in obedience to that will. It is to know that we are here to be acted upon by that will rather than to act from our own self-center. We are "God"s puppets." He gives to men and to nations a certain space Wherein to learn what freedom is, and what its soon-reached limits. Then comes the higher lesson, to know that freedom can only be secured by obedience; that in the choice of the supreme will for our own will, we recover that better freedom in which is strength and peace and stability forever. J.
Vers. 24-27. Divine purpose and Divine power.
We have our thoughts directed in this passage to
I THE DIVINE PURPOSE. "I have thought... I have purposed... this is the purpose... upon the whole earth," etc. God had a special purpose respecting Assyria, and he may have had a distinct purpose in inspiring Isaiah to pronounce at this especial time what it was, viz. that, in the dark days of Babylonian captivity, his people might remember its fulfillment, and be assured of an accomplishment for which they had still to wait. But these expressions suggest to us the existence of Divine purposes in the mind of God, dating from the remote past and stretching on into the far future. God"s purposes in regard to his creatures have been or are:
1. Creative. In the "far backward and abysm of time" he determined to call worlds, beings, intelligent and immortal spirits, into existence, to be the objects of his thought, care, love; to many of whom he himself should be the Object of worship, affection, service.
2. Ministrative. His purpose was that of boundless benefaction of conferring on multitudes and millions of sentient beings a life of happiness and, to a vast, number, that of true dignity and worth.
3. Punitive. His purpose has been to punish, never indeed under the impulse of mere resentment, but always in the interests of righteousness and, ultimately, in that of true happiness also.
4. Restorative. He has purposed, and does purpose, to restore; either
(1) his people to a heritage they have forfeited, or
(2) those who have wandered from his service to the spiritual and moral integrity from which they have fallen.
II THE DIVINE POWER. "So shall it come to pass... so shall it stand... I will break... I will tread under foot... This is the hand that is stretched out... Who shall disannul... who shall turn back" (his hand)? It is true that:
1. God has taken time to effect his purpose; e.g. the building of this world for man"s residence, the preparation of the world for Christ"s coming.
2. God has permitted his rebellious children to lessen the sum of happiness and worth they would otherwise have possessed.
3. God"s beneficent design for the redemption of the world by the gospel has been hindered by external opposition and by internal shortcoming. Yet it remains true, and this is the larger as it is the brighter half of the truth, that:
(1) God"s purpose of beneficence, if it can be said to have been checked, has not been defeated: from his strong and bountiful hand he has been bestowing life, joy, blessedness, excellency, which is quite incalculable, which entirely baffles our imagination as it is beyond our reckoning.
(2) God"s purpose of punishment has been and will be fulfilled; witness the Flood, the outcasting of the guilty Canaanites, the destruction of "the cities of the plain," the decimation of Sennacherib"s army and "the breaking of the Assyrian," the extinction of Babylon, etc. And now, though impiety holds up its head for years, and though vice staves off the evil day of disease and death, and though crime long eludes the pursuer, yet the hand of God does come down in retribution; his holy purpose cannot be disannulled. "Let sinners look to it". (see Num_32:23 Psa_37:35, Psa_37:36)
(3) God"s purpose of restoration will one day be accomplished. This is the purpose which is purposed upon the whole earth," and "this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations." The Lord of hosts hath purposed." There may be many obstacles in the way. Difficulties may, to the eye of human calculation, seem actually insurmountable; the estimable forces of truth may appear unequal to cope with the overwhelming agencies of error and evil. But this our great hope is not a bold enterprise of man; it is the purpose of the living God, the Lord of hosts. "His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" Let the Christian worshipper offer expectant prayer; let the Christian workman go up to his post with holy confidence; for the purpose of God, though it be long delayed, shall assuredly be fulfilled. C.
The security of the Divine Word.
Cheyne translates, "Sworn has Jehovah Sabaoth, saying, Surely, according as I have planned, so shall it be; and according as I have purposed, that shall stand." God here declares that it is his fixed and unalterable purpose to destroy Assyria. And who can stop the fulfillment of the Divine Word? In answer to this question, we say
I CAN NATURAL FORCES? No, for that was settled when the Red Sea parted asunder, and made a highway for God"s people.
II CAN NATURAL EVENTS? No, for that was settled in the wilderness. Such commonplace things as murmurings and rebellions could destroy a particular generation, but could not keep Israel out of Canaan.
III CAN INDIVIDUAL MEN? No, for that was settled in Nebuchadnezzar, who had to learn, by humiliation, that God"s will would have to be done.
IV CAN COMBINED MAN? No, for that was settled when the kings of Canaan joined to oppose God"s advancing hosts, and were swept away, before them, like a summer cloud before the sun.
Nobody and nothing can stop the fulfillment of God"s Word. We may go with it, the flood will carry us with it, like helpless logs, if we struggle to oppose. But the Word and will of God are always righteous, beneficent, and good; so it is well that they should abide. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v24Surely as I have thought, so shall it come…
Isa_14:24
Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass
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Gods infinite intelligence
To think and to purpose are the attributes of all rational beings, whether created or uncreated.
I. God is such an infinitely perfect being, that His thoughts and purposes are CO-ETERNAL WITH HIMSELF. God cannot possibly exist Without His thoughts and purposes. A child at school in France, was asked whether God reasoned or not. The child paused awhile, and answered, No: God is too perfect to reason. He knows everything without reasoning. Newton himself could not have given a better answer. Everything that exists in God now, has existed in Him from eternity.
II. As His thoughts and put poses flow exclusively from Himself, they are ABSOLUTE; they are, primarily considered, unconditional. This is a necessity that does not militate, in the least degree, against the accountability of man. They must have been absolute, or no being could possibly have existed.
III. The thoughts and purposes of the Almighty are INFINITELY GLORIOUS; in other words, are infinitely worthy of Himself. It is in the fulfilment of His own thoughts and purposes that He develops all the beauty of His own perfections; it is in the development of all the beauty of His own perfections, that He confers every good on the creature. Take two axioms in divinity. All good is from God--all evil is from the creature. Do justice to these truths, and they will, as two keys, unlock some of the most difficult passages in Scripture.
IV. The purpose of God is REPLETE WITH LOVE AND TENDERNESS. The sovereign purpose of God, properly speaking, involves nothing but good. Evil is to be traced to another source. But what does it comprise chiefly? A Saviour. We were suffered to fall into the deepest guilt, that God might display His glory to the utmost in our salvation. (W. Howels.)
Gods purposes must be fulfilled
The wheels in a watch or a clock move contrary one to another, someone way, and some another, yet all serve the intent of the workman, to show the time, or to make the clock to strike. So in the world the providence of God may seem to run cross to His promises. One man takes this way, another runs that way. Good men go one way, wicked men another. Yet all in conclusion accomplish the will, and centre in the purpose of God, the great Creator of all things. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v24
CHAPTER XVII
ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS
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736-702 B.C.
Isa_14:24-32; Isaiah 15-21, 23
THE centre of the Book of Isaiah (chapters 13 to 23) is occupied by a number of long and short prophecies which are a fertile source of perplexity to the conscientious reader of the Bible. With the exhilaration of one who traverses plain roads and beholds vast prospects, he has passed through the opening chapters of the book as far as the end of the twelfth; and he may look forward to enjoying a similar experience when he reaches those other clear stretches of vision from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh and from the thirtieth to the thirty-second. But here he loses himself among a series of prophecies obscure in themselves and without obvious relation to one another. The subjects of them are the nations, tribes, and cities with which in Isaiahs day, by war or treaty or common fear in face of the Assyrian conquest, Judah was being brought into contact. There are none of the familiar names of the land and tribes of Israel which meet the reader in other obscure prophecies and lighten their darkness with the face of a friend. The names and allusions are foreign, some of them the names of tribes long since extinct, and of places which it is no more possible to identify. It is a very jungle of prophecy, in which, without much Gospel or geographical light, we have to grope our way, thankful for an occasional gleam of the picturesque-a sandstorm in the desert, the forsaken ruins of Babylon haunted by wild beasts, a view of Egypts canals or Phoenicias harbours, a glimpse of an Arab raid or of a grave Ethiopian embassy.
But in order to understand the Book of Isaiah, in order to understand Isaiah himself in some of the largest of his activities and hopes; we must traverse this thicket. It would be tedious and unprofitable to search every corner of it. We propose, therefore, to give a list of the various oracles, with their dates and titles, for the guidance of Bible-readers, then to take three representative texts and gather the meaning of all the oracles round them.
First, however, two of the prophecies must be put aside. The twenty-second chapter does not refer to a foreign State, but to Jerusalem itself; and the large prophecy which opens the series (chapters 13-14:23) deals with the overthrow of Babylon in circumstances that did not arise till long after Isaiahs time, and so falls to be considered by us along with similar prophecies at the close of this volume. (See Book V)
All the rest of these chapters-14-21 and 23-refer to Isaiahs own day. They were delivered by the prophet at various times throughout his career; but the most of them evidently date from immediately after the year 705, when, on the death of Sargon, there was a general rebellion of the Assyrian vassals.
1. Isa_14:24-27-OATH OF JEHOVAH that the Assyrian shall be broken. Probable date, towards 701.
2. Isa_14:28-32-ORACLE FOR PHILISTIA. Warning toPhilistia not to rejoice because one Assyrian king is dead, for a worse one shall arise: "Out of the serpents root shall come forth a basilisk. Philistia shall be melted away, but Zion shall stand." The inscription to this oracle (Isa_14:28) is not genuine. The oracle plainly speaks of the death and accession of Assyrian, not Judaean, kings. It may be ascribed to 705, the date of the death of Sargon and accession of Sennacherib. But some hold that it refers to the previous change on the Assyrian throne-the death of Salmanassar and the accession of Sargon.
3 Isaiah 15-Isaiah 16:12-ORACLE FOR MOAB. A long prophecy against Moab. This oracle, whether originally by himself at an earlier period of his life, or more probably by an older prophet, Isaiah adopts and ratifies, and intimates its immediate fulfilment, in Isa_16:13-14 : "This is the word which Jehovah spake concerning Moab long ago. But now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all the great multitude, and the remnant shall be very small and of no account." The dates both of the original publication of this prophecy and of its reissue with the appendix are quite uncertain. The latter may fall about 711, when Moab was threatened by Sargon for complicity in the Ashdod conspiracy or in 704, when, with other states, Moab came under the cloud of Sennacheribs invasion. The main prophecy is remarkable for its vivid picture of the disaster that has overtaken Moab and for the sympathy with her which the Jewish prophet expresses; for the mention of a "remnant" of Moab; for the exhortation to her to send tribute in her adversity "to the mount of the daughter of Zion"; {Isa_16:1} for an appeal to Zion to shelter the outcasts of Moab and to take up her cause: "Bring counsel, make a decision, make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts, bewray not the wanderer;" for a statement of the Messiah similar to those in chapters 9 and 11; and for the offer to the oppressed Moabites of the security of Judah in Messianic times (Isa_16:4-5). But there is one great obstacle to this prospect of Moab lying down in the shadow of Judah-Moabs arrogance. "We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud," {Isa_16:6, cf. Jer_48:29; Jer_48:42; Zep_2:10} which pride shall not only keep this country in ruin, but prevent the Moabites prevailing in prayer at their own sanctuary (Isa_16:12)-a very remarkable admission about the worship of another god than Jehovah.
4. Isa_17:1-11 -ORACLE FOR DAMASCUS. One of the earliest and most crisp of Isaiahs prophecies. Of the time of Syrias and Ephraims league against Judah, somewhere between 736 and 732.
5. Isa_17:12-14 -UNTITLED. The crash of the peoples upon Jerusalem and their dispersion. This magnificent piece of sound, which we analyse below, is usually understood of Sennacheribs rush upon Jerusalem. Isa_17:14 is an accurate summary of the sudden break-up and "retreat from Moscow" of his army. The Assyrian hosts are described as "nations," as they are elsewhere more than once by Isaiah. {Isa_22:6; Isa_29:7} But in all this there is no final reason for referring the oracle to Sennacheribs invasion, and it may just as well be interpreted of Isaiahs confidence of the defeat of Syria and Ephraim (734-723). Its proximity to the oracle against Damascus would then be very natural, and it would stand as a parallel prophecy to Isa_8:9 : "Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of the distances of the earth: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces"-a prophecy which we know belongs to the period of the Syro-Ephraimitic league.
6. Isaiah 18 -UNTITLED. An address to Ethiopia, "land of a rustling of wings, land of many sails, whose messengers dart to and fro upon the rivers in their skiffs of reed." The prophet tells Ethiopia, cast into excitement by the news of the Assyrian advance, how Jehovah is resting quietly till the Assyrian be ripe for destruction. When the Ethiopians shall see His sudden miracle they shall send their tribute to Jehovah, "to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion." It is difficult to know to which southward march of Assyria to ascribe this prophecy-Sargons or Sennacheribs? For at the time of both of these an Ethiopian ruled Egypt.
7. Isaiah 19 -ORACLE FOR EGYPT. The first fifteen verses (Isa_19:1-15) describe judgment as ready to fall on the land of the Pharaohs. The last ten speak of the religious results to Egypt of that judgment, and they form the most universal and "missionary" of all Isaiahs prophecies. Although doubts have been expressed of the Isaiah authorship of the second half of this chapter on the score of its universalism, as well as of its literary style, which is judged to be "a pale reflection" of Isaiahs own, there is no final reason for declining the credit of it to Isaiah, while there are insuperable difficulties against relegating it to the late date which is sometimes demanded for it. On the date and authenticity of this prophecy, which are of great importance for the question of Isaiahs "missionary" opinions, see Cheynes introduction to the chapter and Robertson Smiths notes in "The Prophets of Israel" (p. 433). The latter puts it in 703, during Sennacheribs advance upon the south. The former suggests that the second half may have been written by the prophet much later than the first, and justly says, "We can hardly imagine a more swan-like end for the dying prophet."
8. Isaiah 20 -UNTITLED. Also upon Egypt, but in narrative and of an earlier date than at least the latter half of chapter 19. Tells how Isaiah walked naked and barefoot in the streets of Jerusalem for a sign against Egypt and against the help Judah hoped to get from her in the years 711-709, when the Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-chief, came south to subdue Ashdod.
9. Isa_21:1-10 -ORACLE FOR THE WILDERNESS OF THESEA, announcing but lamenting the fall of Babylon. Probably 709.
10. Isa_21:11-12 -ORACLE FOR DUMAH. Dumah, or Silence - Psa_94:17; Psa_115:17, "the land of the silence of death," the grave - is probably used as an anagram for Edom and an enigmatic sign to the wise Edomites, in their own fashion, of the kind of silence their land is lying under-the silence of rapid decay. The prophet hears this silence at last broken by a cry. Edom cannot bear the darkness any more. "Unto me one is calling from Seir, Watchman, how much off the night? how much off the night? Said the watchman, Cometh the morning, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire, come back again." What other answer is possible for a land on which the silence of decay seems to have settled down? He may, however, give them an answer later on, if they will come back. Date uncertain, perhaps between 704 and 701.
11. 21:13-17 -ORACLE FOR ARABIA. From Edom the prophet passes to their neighbours the Dedanites, travelling merchants. And as he saw night upon Edom, so, by a play upon words, he speaks of evening upon Arabia: "in the forest, in Arabia," or with the same consonants, "in the evening." In the time of the insecurity of the Assyrian invasion the travelling merchants have to go aside from their great trading roads "in the evening to lodge in the thickets." There they entertain fugitives, or (for the sense is not quite clear) are themselves as fugitives entertained. It is a picture of the "grievousness of war," which was now upon the world, flowing down even those distant, desert roads. But things have not yet reached the worst. The fugitives are but the heralds of armies, that "within a year" shall waste the "children of Kedar," for Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken it. So did the prophet of little Jerusalem take possession of even the far deserts in the name of his nations God.
12. Isaiah 23 -ORACLE FOR TYRE. Elegy over its fall, probably as Sennacherib came south upon it in 703 or 702. To be further considered by us.
These, then, are Isaiahs oracles for the Nations, who tremble, intrigue, and go down before the might of Assyria.
We have promised to gather the circumstances and meaning of these prophecies round three representative texts. These are-
1. "Ah! the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of mighty waters they rush; nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He rebuketh it, and it fleeth afar off, and is chased like the chaff on the mountains before the wind and like whirling dust before the whirlwind." {Isa_17:12-13}
2. "What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find refuge the afflicted of His people." {Isa_14:32}
3. "In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, and the work of My hands Assyria, and Mine inheritance Israel". {Isa_19:24-25}
I.
The first of these texts shows all the prophets prospect filled with storm, the second of them the solitary rock and lighthouse in the midst of the storm: Zion, His own watchtower and His peoples refuge; while the third of them, looking far into the future, tells us, as it were, of the firm continent which shall rise out of the waters-Israel no longer a solitary lighthouse, "but in that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth." These three texts give us a summary of the meaning of all Isaiahs obscure prophecies to the foreign nations-a stormy ocean, a solitary rock in the midst of it, and the new continent that shall rise out of the waters about the rock.
The restlessness of Western Asia beneath the Assyrian rule (from 719, when Sargons victory at Rafia extended that rule to the borders of Egypt) found vent, as we saw, in two great Explosions, for both of which the mine was laid by Egyptian intrigue. The first Explosion happened in 711, and was confined to Ashdod. The second took place on Sargons death in 705, and was universal. Till Sennacherib marched south on Palestine in 701, there were all over Western Asia hurryings to and fro, consultations and intrigues, embassies and engineerings from Babylon to Meroe in far Ethiopia, and from the tents of Kedar to the cities of the Philistines. For these Jerusalem, the one inviolate capital from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, was the natural centre. And the one far-seeing, steady-hearted man in Jerusalem was Isaiah. We have already seen that there was enough within the city to occupy Isaiahs attention, especially from 705 onward; but for Isaiah the walls of Jerusalem, dear as they were and thronged with duty, neither limited his sympathies nor marked the scope of the gospel he had to preach. Jerusalem is simply his watchtower. His field-and this is the peculiar glory of the prophets later life-his field is the world.
How well fitted Jerusalem then was to be the worlds watchtower, the traveller may see to this day. The city lies upon the great central ridge of Palestine, at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. If you ascend the hill behind the city, you stand upon one of the great view-points of the earth. It is a forepost of Asia. To the east rise the red hills of Moab and the uplands of Gilead and Bashan, on to which wandering tribes of the Arabian deserts beyond still push their foremost camps. Just beyond the horizon lie the immemorial paths from Northern Syria into Arabia. Within a few hours walk along the same central ridge, and still within the territory of Judah, you may see to the north, over a wilderness of blue hills, Hermons snowy crest; you know that Damascus is lying just beyond, and that through it and round the base of Hermon swings one of the longest of the old worlds highways-the main caravan road from the Euphrates to the Nile. Stand at gaze for a little, while down that road there sweep into your mind thoughts of the great empire whose troops and commerce it used to carry. Then, bearing these thoughts with you, follow the line of the road across the hills to the western coastland, and so out upon the great Egyptian desert, where you may wait till it has brought you imagination of the southern empire to which it travels. Then, lifting your eyes a little further, let them sweep back again from south to north, and you have the whole of the west, the new world, open to you, across the fringe of yellow haze that marks the sands of the Mediterranean. It is even now one of the most comprehensive prospects in the world. But in Isaiahs day, when the world was smaller, the high places of Judah either revealed or suggested the whole of it.
But Isaiah was more than a spectator of this vast theatre. He was an actor upon it. The court of Judah, of which during Hezekiahs reign he was the most prominent member, stood in more or less close connection with the courts of all the kingdoms of Western Asia; and in those days, when the nations were busy with intrigue against their common enemy, this little highland town and fortress became a gathering place of peoples. From Babylon, from far-off Ethiopia, from Edom, from Philistia, and no doubt from many other places also, embassies came to King Hezekiah, or to inquire of his prophet. The appearance of some of them lives for us still in Isaiahs descriptions: "tall and shiny" figures of Ethiopians {Isa_18:2}, with whom we are able to identify the lithe, silky-skinned, shining-black bodies of the present tribes of the Upper Nile. Now the prophet must have talked much with these strangers, for he displays a knowledge of their several countries and ways of life that is full and accurate. The agricultural conditions of Egypt; her social ranks and her industries (chapter 19); the harbours and markets of Tyre (chapter 23); the caravans of the Arab nomads, as in times of war they shun the open desert and seek the thickets {Isa_21:14} -Isaiah paints these for us with a vivid realism. We see how this statesman of the least of States, this prophet of a religion which was confessed over only a few square miles, was aware of the wide world, and how he loved the life that filled it. They are no mere geographical terms with which Isaiah thickly studs these prophecies. He looks out upon and paints for us, lands and cities surging with men-their trades, their castes, their religions, their besetting tempers and sins, their social structures and national policies, all quick and bending to the breeze and the shadow of the coming storm from the north.
We have said that in nothing is the legal power of our prophets style so manifest as in the vast horizons, which, by the use of a few words, he calls up before us. Some of the finest of these revelations are made in this part of his book, so obscure and unknown to most. Who can ever forget those descriptions-of Ethiopia in the eighteenth chapter?-"Ah! the land of the rustling of wings, which borders on the rivers of Cush, which sendeth heralds on the sea, and in vessels of reed on the face of the waters! Travel, fleet messengers, to a people lithe and shining, to a nation feared from ever it began to be, a people strong, strong and trampling, whose land the rivers divide"; or of Tyre in chapter 23?-"And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations." What expanses of sea! what fleets of ships! what floating loads of grain! what concourse of merchants moving on stately wharves beneath high warehouses!
Yet these are only segments of horizons, and perhaps the prophet reaches the height of his power of expression in the first of the three texts, which we have given as representative of his prophecies on foreign nations. Here three or four lines of marvellous sound repeat the effect of the rage of the restless world as it rises, storms, and breaks upon the steadfast will of God. The phonetics of the passage are wonderful. The general impression is that of a stormy ocean booming in to the shore and then crashing itself out into one long hiss of spray and foam upon its barriers. The details are noteworthy. In Isa_17:12 we have thirteen heavy M-sounds, besides two heavy Bs, to five Ns, five Hs, and four sibilants. But in Isa_17:13 the sibilants predominate; and before the sharp rebuke of the Lord the great, booming sound of Isa_17:12 scatters out into a long yish-sha oon. The occasional use of a prolonged vowel amid so many hurrying consonants produces exactly the effect now of the lift of a storm swell out at sea and now of the pause of a great wave before it crashes on the shore. "Ah, the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of the mighty waters they rush: nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He checketh it"-a short, sharp word with a choke and a snort in it-"and it fleeth far away, and is chased like chaff on mountains before wind, and like swirling dust before a whirlwind."
So did the rage of the world sound to Isaiah as it crashed into pieces upon the steadfast providence of God. To those who can feel the force of such language nothing need be added upon the prophets view of the politics of the outside world these twenty years, whether portions of it threatened Judah in their own strength, or the whole power of storm that was in it rose with the Assyrian, as in all his flood he rushed upon Zion in the year 701.
II.
But amid this storm Zion stands immovable. It is upon Zion that the storm crashes itself into impotence. This becomes explicit in the second of our representative texts: "What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find a refuge the afflicted of His people". {Isa_14:32} This oracle was drawn from Isaiah by an embassy of the Philistines. Stricken with panic at the Assyrian advance, they had sent messengers to Jerusalem, as other tribes did, with questions and proposals of defences, escapes, and alliances. They got their answer, Alliances are useless. Everything human is going down. Here, here alone, is safety, because the Lord hath decreed it.
With what light and peace do Isaiahs words break out across that unquiet, hungry sea! How they tell the world for the first time, and have been telling it ever since, that, apart from all the struggle and strife of history, there is a refuge and security of men, which God Himself has assured. The troubled surface of life, nations heaving uneasily, kings of Assyria and their armies carrying the world before them-these are not all. The world and her powers are not all. Religion, in the very teeth of life, builds her a refuge for the afflicted.
The world seems wholly divided between force and fear. Isaiah says, It is not true. Faith has her abiding citadel in the midst, a house of God, which neither force can harm nor fear enter.
This then was Isaiahs Interim-Answer to the Nations-Zion at least is secure for the people of Jehovah.
III.
Isaiah could not remain content, however, with so narrow an interim-answer: Zion at least is secure, whatever happens to the rest of you. The world was there, and had to be dealt with and accounted for-had even to be saved. As we have already seen, this was the problem of Isaiahs generation; and to have shirked it would have meant the failure of his faith to rank as universal.
Isaiah did not shirk it. He said boldly to his people, and to the nations: "The faith we have covers this vaster life. Jehovah is not only God of Israel. He rules the world." These prophecies to the foreign nations are full of revelations of the sovereignty and providence of God. The Assyrian may seem to be growing in glory; but Jehovah is watching from the heavens, till he be ripe for cutting down. {Isa_18:4} Egypts statesmen may be perverse and wilful; but Jehovah of hosts swingeth His hand against the land: "they shall tremble and shudder". {Isa_19:16} Egypt shall obey His purposes (chapter 17). Confusion may reign for a time, but a signal and a centre shall be lifted up, and the world gather itself in order round the revealed will of God. The audacity of such a claim for his God becomes more striking when we remember that Isaiahs faith was not the faith of a majestic or a conquering people. When he made his claim, Judah was still tributary to Assyria, a petty highland principality, that could not hope to stand by material means against the forces which had thrown down her more powerful neighbours. It was. no experience of success, no mere instinct of being on the side of fate, which led Isaiah so resolutely to pronounce that not only should his people be secure, but that his God would vindicate His purposes upon empires like Egypt and Assyria. It was simply his sense that Jehovah was exalted in righteousness. Therefore, while inside Judah only the remnant that took the side of righteousness would be saved, outside Judah wherever there was unrighteousness, it would be rebuked, and wherever righteousness, it would be vindicated. This is the supremacy which Isaiah proclaimed for Jehovah over the whole world.
How spiritual this faith of Isaiah was, is seen from the next step the prophet took. Looking out on the troubled world, he did not merely assert that his God ruled it, but he emphatically said, what was a far more difficult thing to say, that it would all be consciously and willingly Gods. God rules this, not to restrain it only, but to make it His own. The knowledge of Him, which is today our privilege, shall be tomorrow the blessing of the whole world.
When we point to the Jewish desire, so often expressed in the Old Testament, of making the whole world subject to Jehovah, we are told that it is simply a proof of religious ambition and jealousy. We are told that this wish to convert the world no more stamps the Jewish religion as being a universal, and therefore presumably a Divine, religion than the Mohammedans zeal to force their tenets on men at the point of the sword is a proof of the truth of Islam.
Now we need not be concerned to defend the Jewish religion in its every particular, even as propounded by an Isaiah. It is an article of the Christian creed that Judaism was a minor and imperfect dispensation, where truth was only half revealed and virtue half developed. But at least let us do the Jewish religion justice; and we shall never do it justice till we pay attention to what its greatest prophets thought of the outside world, how they sympathised with this, and in what way they proposed to make it subject to their own faith.
Firstly then, there is something in the very manner of Isaiahs treatment of foreign nations, which causes the old charges of religious exclusiveness to sink in our throats. Isaiah treats these foreigners at least as men. Take his prophecies on Egypt or on Tyre or on Babylon-nations which were the hereditary enemies of his nation-and you find him speaking of their natural misfortunes, their social decays, their national follies and disasters, with the same pity and with the same purely moral considerations with which he has treated his own land. When news of those far-away sorrows comes to Jerusalem, it moves this large-hearted prophet to mourning and tears. He breathes out to distant lands elegies as beautiful as he has poured upon Jerusalem. He shows as intelligent an interest in their social evolutions as he does in those of the Jewish State. He gives a picture of the industry and politics of Egypt as careful as his pictures of the fashions and statecraft of Judah. In short, as you read his prophecies upon foreign nations, you perceive that before the eyes of this man humanity, broken and scattered in his days as it was, rose up one great whole, every part of which was subject to the same laws of righteousness, and deserved from the prophet of God the same love and pity. To some few tribes he says decisively that they shall certainly be wiped out, but even them he does not address in contempt or in hatred. The large empire of Egypt, the great commercial power of Tyre, he speaks of in language of respect and admiration; but that does not prevent him from putting the plain issue to them which he put to his own countrymen: If you are unrighteous, intemperate, impure-lying diplomats and dishonest rulers-you shall certainly perish before Assyria. If you are righteous, temperate, pure, if you do trust in truth and God, nothing can move you.
But, secondly, he, who thus treated all nations with the same strict measures of justice and the same fulness of pity with which he treated his own, was surely not far from extending to the world the religious privileges which he has so frequently identified with Jerusalem. In his old age, at least, Isaiah looked forward to the time when the particular religious opportunities of the Jew should be the inheritance of humanity. For their old oppressor Egypt, for their new enemy Assyria, he anticipates the same experience and education which have made Israel the firstborn of God. Speaking to Egypt, Isaiah concludes a missionary sermon, fit to take its place beside that which Paul uttered on the Areopagus to the younger Greek civilisation, with the words, "In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel Mine inheritance."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn vv24, 28The Destruction of the Power of Assyria
The Destruction of the Power of Assyria
A short section belonging to the same period as Isa_10:5 to Isa_12:6 (cp. Isa_14:25 with Isa_10:27); the subject is the overthrow of the Assyrian invader, and the prophecy was literally fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib's army.
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24-27. It is Jehovah's sworn and unalterable purpose to destroy the Assyrian power, that his burdensome rule over Judah and the nations may cease.
25. Upon my mountains] i.e. the mountains of Judah (Isa_49:11; Isa_65:9). 26. All the nations] Jehovah's merciful purpose embraces not only His own people, but the nations generally.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn vv26, 28whole earth
whole earth
This universality is significant and marks the whole passage as referring, not merely to a near judgment upon Assyria, but in a yet larger sense to the final crash of the present world-system at the end of the age. (See "Times of the Gentiles," Luk 21:24; Rev 16:14; Dan 2:44; Dan 2:45 "Armageddon,"; Rev 16:14; Rev 19:17. No other such universal catastrophe on the nations is known to Scripture.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv24, 26, 28Yahweh of hosts
Yahweh of hosts
See how you translated this in Isaiah 1:9.
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as I have intended, so it will come about; and as I have purposed, so it will be
These two phrases mean basically the same thing. AT: "the things that I have planned will surely happen" (See: Parallelism)
I will break the Assyrian in my land
Breaking represents defeating. AT: "I will defeat the Assyrian in my land" or "I will cause the Assyrian in my land to be defeated" (See: Metaphor)
the Assyrian
This represents the Assyrian king and his army. AT: "the king of Assyria and his army" or "the Assyrian army" (See: Synecdoche)
trample him underfoot
This represents completely defeating him. (See: Metaphor)
Then his yoke will be lifted from off them and his burden from off their shoulder
This can be expressed with an active verb. AT: "Then I will lift his yoke from them and his burden from their shoulder" (See: Active or Passive)
Then his yoke will be lifted from off them and his burden from off their shoulder
These two phrases mean basically the same thing. Lifting the yoke and burden represents setting people free from slavery. AT: "Then I will set the Israelites free from slavery to Assyria like removing a heavy burden from their shoulder" (See: Parallelism and Metaphor)
his yoke ... his burden
The word "his" refers to Assyria.
from off them ... from off their shoulder
The words "them" and "their" refer to the people of Israel.
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv24–2614:24-27 This prophecy resumes declaring judgment on Assyria (see…
14:24-27 This prophecy resumes declaring judgment on Assyria (see ch 10). The placement of this prophecy after the judgment against Babylon suggests close connections between Assyria and Babylon.
14:24 I have planned . . . I have decided: No nation can either diminish or resist God’s plans to bring judgment against Assyria or his plans in general. The prophets understood and communicated God’s plan so that his people could respond appropriately.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv25, 28 From the Jews.
From the Jews.
As I have begun to destroy the Assyrians in Sennacherib: so will I continue, and destroy them wholly, when I shall deliver you from Babylon.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv24–28 Isa 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying,…
Isa 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, [so] shall it stand:
Ver. 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn.] If he had but said it only it had been sure enough, for he cannot lie, he cannot deny himself; but when he sweareth anything we may build upon it, especially since he is Lord of hosts. He can do more than he will, but whatsoever he willeth shall undoubtedly be done; for what should hinder? Iuravit Iehovah, is the best assurance.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 28 I will not repent of this threatening, as I…
I will not repent of this threatening, as I did of that against Nineveh, Jon 3:4,10. And this solemn oath is added to confirm the faith of God’s people, because otherwise the destruction of this vast and mighty empire might seem incredible. But it is to be diligently observed, that this verse doth not only concern this present prophecy of Babylon’s destruction by the Medes and Persians, but is also to be extended unto the foregoing prophecy concerning the overthrow of Sennacherib and the Assyrian host, Isa 10, as appears by the next verse, where the sum of that prophecy is repeated. Nor is this any digression, but very pertinent to the main design and business of this chapter; inasmuch as the overthrow of that great Assyrian host, and of the deliverance of God’s people at that time, was a pledge of the certain accomplishment of that future destruction of the city and empire of Babylon, and of their deliverance out of that captivity.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v24 The destruction of Babylon and the Chaldean empire was…
The destruction of Babylon and the Chaldean empire was a thing at a great distance; the empire had not risen to any considerable height when its fall was here foretold: it was almost 200 years from this prediction of Babylon's fall to the accomplishment of it. Now the people to whom Isaiah prophesied might ask, "What is this to us, or what shall we be the better for it, and what assurance shall we have of it?" To both questions he answers in these verses, by a prediction of the ruin both of the Assyrians and of the Philistines, the present enemies that infested them, which they should shortly be eye-witnesses of and have benefit by. These would be a present comfort to them, and a pledge of future deliverance, for the confirming of the faith of their posterity. God is to his people the same to day that he was yesterday and will be hereafter; and he will for ever be the same that he has been and is. Here is,
I. Assurance given of the destruction of the Assyrians (Isa 14:25): I will break the Assyrian in my land. Sennacherib brought a very formidable army into the land of Judah, but there God broke it, broke all his regiments by the sword of a destroying angel. Note, Those who wrongfully invade God's land shall find that it is at their peril: and those who with unhallowed feet trample upon his holy mountains shall themselves there be trodden under foot. God undertakes to do this himself, his people having no might against the great company that came against them: "I will break the Assyrian; let me alone to do it who have angels, hosts of angels, at command." Now the breaking of the power of the Assyrian would be the breaking of the yoke from off the neck of God's people: His burden shall depart from off their shoulders, the burden of quartering that vast army and paying contribution; therefore the Assyrian must be broken, that Judah and Jerusalem may be eased. Let those that make themselves a yoke and a burden to God's people see what they are to expect. Now, 1. This prophecy is here ratified and confirmed by an oath (Isa 14:24): The Lord of hosts hath sworn, that he might show the immutability of his counsel, and that his people may have strong consolation, Heb 6:17, Heb 6:18. What is here said of this particular intention is true of all God's purposes: As I have thought, so shall it come to pass; for he is in one mind, and who can turn him? Nor is he ever put upon new counsels, or obliged to take new measures, as men often are when things occur which they did not foresee. Let those who are the called according to God's purpose comfort themselves with this, that, as God has purposed, so shall it stand, and on that their stability depends. 2. The breaking of the Assyrian power is made a specimen of what God would do with all the powers of the nations that were engaged against him and his church (Isa 14:26): This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth (the whole world, so the Septuagint), all the inhabitants of the earth (so the Chaldee), not only upon the Assyrian empire (which was then reckoned to be in a manner all the world, as afterwards the Roman empire was, Luk 2:1, and with it many nations fell that had dependence upon it), but upon all those states and potentates that should at any time attack his land, his mountains. The fate of the Assyrian shall be theirs; they shall soon find that they meddle to their own hurt. Jerusalem, as it was to the Assyrians, will be to all people a burdensome stone; all that burden themselves with it shall infallibly be cut to pieces by it, Zac 12:3, Zac 12:6. The same hand of power and justice that is now to be stretched out against the Assyrian for invading the people of God shall be stretched out upon all the nations that do likewise. It is still true, and will ever be so, Cursed is he that curses God's Israel, Num 24:9. God will be an enemy to his people's enemies, Exo 23:22. 3. All the powers on earth are defied to change God's counsel (Isa 14:27): "The Lord of hosts has purposed to break the Assyrian's yoke, and every rod of the wicked laid upon the lot of the righteous; and who shall disannul this purpose? Who can persuade him to recall it, or find out a plea to evade it? His hand is stretched out to execute this purpose; and who has power enough to turn it back or to stay the course of his judgments?"
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II. Assurance is likewise given of the destruction of the Philistines and their power. This burden, this prophecy, that lay as a load upon them, to sink their state, came in the year that king Ahaz died, which was the first year of Hezekiah's reign, Isa 14:28. When a good king came in the room of a bad one then this acceptable message was sent among them. When we reform, then, and not till then, we may look for good news from heaven. Now here we have, 1. A rebuke to the Philistines for triumphing in the death of king Uzziah. He had been as a serpent to them (Isa 14:29), had bitten them, had smitten them, had brought them very low, Ch2 26:6. He warred against the Philistines, broke down their walls, and built cities among them. But when Uzziah died, or rather abdicated, it was told with joy in Gath and published in the streets of Ashkelon. It is inhuman thus to rejoice in our neighbour's fall. But let them not be secure; for though when Uzziah was dead they made reprisals upon Ahaz, and took many of the cities of Judah (Ch2 28:18), yet out of the root of Uzziah should come a cockatrice, a more formidable enemy than Uzziah was, even Hezekiah, the fruit of whose government should be to them a fiery flying serpent, for he should fall upon them with incredible swiftness and fury: we find he did so. Kg2 18:8, He smote the Philistines even to Gaza. Note, If God remove one useful instrument in the midst of his usefulness, he can, and will, raise up others to carry on and complete the same work that they were employed in and left unfinished. 2. A prophecy of the destruction of the Philistines by famine and war. (1.) By famine, Isa 14:30. "When the people of God, whom the Philistines has wasted, and distressed, and impoverished, shall enjoy plenty again," and the first-born of their poor shall feed (the poorest among them shall have food convenient), then, as for the Philistines, God will kill their root with famine. That which was their strength, and with which they thought themselves established as the tree is by the root, shall be starved and dried up by degrees, as those die that die by famine; and thus he shall slay the remnant: those that escape from one destruction are but reserved for another; and, when there are but a few left, those few shall at length be cut off, for God will make a full end. (2.) By war. When the needy of God's people shall lie down in safety, not terrified with the alarms of war, but delighting in the songs of peace, then every gate and every city of the Philistines shall be howling and crying (Isa 14:31), and there shall be a total dissolution of their state; for from Judea, which lay north of the Philistines, there shall come a smoke (a vast army raising a great dust, a smoke that shall be the indication of a devouring fire at hand), and none of all that army shall be alone in his appointed times; none shall straggle or be missing when they are to engage; but they shall all be vigorous and unanimous in attacking the common enemy, when the time appointed for the doing of it comes. None of them shall decline the public service, as, in Deborah's time, Reuben abode among the sheepfolds and Asher on the sea-shore, Jdg 5:16, Jdg 5:17. When God has work to do he will wonderfully endow and dispose men for it.
III. The good use that should be made of all these events for the encouragement of the people of God (Isa 14:32): What shall one then answer the messengers of the nations?
1. This implies, (1.) That the great things God does for his people are, and cannot but be, taken notice of by their neighbours; those among the heathen make remarks upon them, Psa 126:2. (2.) That messengers will be sent to enquire concerning them. Jacob and Israel had long been a people distinguished from all others and dignified with uncommon favours; and therefore some for good-will, others for ill-will, and all for curiosity, are inquisitive concerning them. (3.) That it concerns us always to be ready to give a reason of the hope that we have in the providence of God, as well as in his grace, in answer to every one that asks it, with meekness and fear, Pe1 3:15. And we need go no further than the sacred truths of God's word for a reason; for God, in all he does, is fulfilling the scripture. (4.) The issue of God's dealings with his people shall be so clearly and manifestly glorious that any one, every one, shall be able to give an account of them to those that enquire concerning them. Now,
2. The answer which is to be given to the messengers of the nations is, (1.) That God is and will be a faithful friend to his church and people, and will secure and advance their interests. Tell them that the Lord has founded Zion. This gives an account both of the work itself that is done and of the reason of it. What is God doing in the world, and what is he designing in all the revolutions of states and kingdoms, in the ruin of some nations and the rise of others? He is, in all this, founding Zion; he is aiming at the advancement of his church's interests; and what he aims at he will accomplish. The messengers of the nations, when they sent to enquire concerning Hezekiah's successes against the Philistines, expected to learn by what politics, counsels, and arts of war he carried his point; but they are told that these successes were not owing to any thing of that nature, but to the care God took of his church and the interest he had in it. The Lord has founded Zion, and therefore the Philistines must fall. (2.) That his church has and will have a dependence upon him: The poor of his people shall trust in it, his poor people who have lately been brought very low, even the poorest of them; they more than others, for they have nothing else to trust to, Zep 3:12, Zep 3:13. The poor receive the gospel, Mat 11:5. They shall trust to this, to this great truth, that the Lord has founded Zion; on this they shall build their hopes, and not on an arm of flesh. This ought to give us abundant satisfaction as to public affairs, that however it may go with particular persons, parties, and interests, the church, having God himself for its founder and Christ the rock for its foundation, cannot but stand firm. The poor of his people shall betake themselves to it (so some read it), shall join themselves to his church and embark in its interests; they shall concur with God in his designs to establish his people, and shall wind up all on the same plan, and make all their little concerns and projects bend to that. Those that take God's people for their people must be willing to take their lot with them and cast in their lot among them. Let the messengers of the nations know that the poor Israelites, who trust in God, having, like Zion, their foundation in the holy mountains (Psa 87:1), are like Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides for ever (Psa 125:1.), and therefore they will not fear what man can do unto them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv24–28 The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,.... The Septuagint…
The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,.... The Septuagint only read, "these things saith the Lord of hosts"; for, as Kimchi on the place observes, his word is his oath; but for the comfort of his people, and for the confirmation either of the prophecies concerning the fall of Babylon, or of the following concerning the destruction of the Assyrian monarchy, or both, he adds his oath to his word, to show that the sentence passed in his mind, and now expressed, was irrevocable:
surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; as he had shaped and schemed it, and drew the form and image in his own mind, or fixed and settled it there, so should it be done in due time, as every thing is that is determined by the Lord; and this shows that nothing is casual, or comes by chance, but everything as it is purposed of God; and that as everything comes to pass which he has resolved, so every such resolution proceeds from thought, and is the produce of the highest wisdom and prudence:
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and as I have purposed, so it shall stand; or "counselled" (l); within himself, for he does all things according to the counsel of his will; and which always stands firm, sure, and unalterable, let what devices soever be in the heart of man.
(l) "consului", Montanus, Cocceius; "consilium inivi", Junius & Tremellius; "consultavi", Piscator.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 28 Saying - This verse does not only concern Babylon's…
Saying - This verse does not only concern Babylon's destruction, but also the overthrow of Sennacherib and the Assyrian host, which was a pledge of the destruction of the city and empire of Babylon.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv25, 28 Verse 25. I will break the Assyrian - upon…
Verse 25. I will break the Assyrian - upon my mountains - "To crush the Assyrian - on my mountains"] The Assyrians and Babylonians are the same people, Herod. i. 199, 200. Babylon is reckoned the principal city in Assyria, ibid. 178. Strabo says the same thing, lib. xvi. sub init. The circumstance of this judgment being to be executed on God's mountains is of importance; it may mean the destruction of Sennacherib's army near Jerusalem, and have a still farther view: compare Eze 39:4; and see Lowth on this place of Isaiah.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv24, 28 Isa 14:24-27. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, &c.…
Isa 14:24-27. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, &c. — Here begins another prophecy against the Assyrians, which was to be fulfilled much sooner than the foregoing, even in the life-time of the prophet. But, “though of a peculiar and different, it is not of a totally foreign argument: it contains the epilogue and conclusion of the foregoing prophecy. As what the prophet foretold concerning the destruction of Babylon might justly seem great beyond expectation, he was desirous that the truth of the prediction should be collected from another remarkable and not dissimilar divine judgment, which should precede the completion of this prophecy, namely, the wonderful slaughter which the king of Assyria should meet with in Canaan itself, as an example of the divine indignation, and a pledge of the truth of similar predictions denouncing the destruction of the enemies of the people of God.” And here, to give his people greater assurance of the accomplishment of this prediction, and thereby to confirm their faith in it, and all other prophecies which his prophet was commissioned to deliver, God adds his solemn oath; saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, that I will break the Assyrian — Sennacherib and his Assyrian army; in my land — In Judea, which was God’s land in a peculiar sense, chosen by him, and inhabited by his people; and upon my mountains tread him under foot — In my mountainous country, for such Judea was, especially about Jerusalem, where his army was destroyed; then shall his yoke depart, &c. — See on Isa 10:27. This the purpose upon the whole earth — Upon this vast empire, now in the hands of the Assyrians, and shortly to come into the hands of the Babylonians; and this is the hand, &c. — The providence of God executing his purpose.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv24–28 The Lord of hosts - (see the note at…
The Lord of hosts - (see the note at Isa 1:9). It is evident that this verse and the three following, is not directly connected with that which goes before, respecting Babylon. This pertains to the Assyrian; that had relation to Babylon. Vitringa says that this is attached to the prophecy respecting Babylon, and is a unique yet not altogether foreign argument, and is a sort of epilogue to the prophecy respecting Babylon. The design, he says, is this. As the events which had been foretold respecting Babylon seemed so great and wonderful as to be almost incredible, the prophet, in order to show the Jews how easily it could be accomplished, refers them to the case of Sennacherib, and the ease with which he and his army had been destroyed. Lowth supposes that the Assyrians and Babylonians here are one people. Rosenmuller supposes that this prophecy respecting Sennacherib has been “displaced” by the collector of the prophecies of Isaiah, and that it should have been attached to the prophecy respecting the Assyrian monarch (see Isa. 10.) The probable sense of the passage is that which makes it refer to the predicted destruction of Sennacherib Isa. 10; and the design of the prophet in referring to that here is, to assure the Jews of the certain destruction of Babylon, and to comfort them with the assurance that they would be delivered from their captivity there.
The prophecy respecting Babylon was uttered “before” the destruction of Sennacherib; but it is to be remembered that its design was to comfort the Jews “in” Babylon. The prophet therefore throws himself “beyond” the period of their captivity - though it was to occur many years “after” the prophecy respecting Babylon was uttered; and with this view he introduces the subject of the Assyrian. At that future time, Sennacherib would have been destroyed. And as God would have fulfilled the prophecy respecting the proud and self-confident Assyrian, so they might have the assurance that he “would” fulfill his predictions respecting the no less proud and self-confident king of Babylon; and as he would have delivered his people from the invasion of the Assyrian, even when he was at the gates of Jerusalem, so he would deliver them in their captivity in Babylon.
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Hath sworn - (see Gen 24:7; Exo 13:5, Exo 13:11; Exo 33:1; Num 32:10; Heb 3:18; Heb 6:13). Yahweh is often represented as making use of an oath to denote the strong confirmation, the absolute certainty of what he utters. The oath here was designed to comfort the Jews, when they should be in Babylon, with the assurance that what he had thus solemnly promised would assuredly come to pass.
As I have thought - As I have designed, or intended. God’s promises never fail; his purposes shall all be accomplished (compare Isa 46:10-11). This passage is full proof that God does not “change:” that whatever his purposes are, they are inflexible. Change supposes imperfection; and it is often affirmed that God is immutable 1Sa 15:29; Mal 3:6; Jam 1:17.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv25, 28 Assyrian. 4 Kings xix. (Worthington) --- Sennacherib, (St. Jerome)…
Assyrian. 4 Kings xix. (Worthington) --- Sennacherib, (St. Jerome) Cambyses, or Holofernes. The sight of their chastisement would ben an earnest of the fall of Babylon. (Calmet) --- The allies of Assyria, (Menochius) or the enemies of God’s people, will also be punished, chap. xv. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv24, 28 Isa_14:24 to Isa_20:6
II. PROPHECIES RELATING TO ASSYRIA AND TO THE NATIONS THREATENED BY ASSYRIA, PHILISTIA, MOAB, SYRIA, AND ARAM-EPHRAIM, ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT
Isa_14:24 to Isa_20:6
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a) Prophecy against Assyria
Isa_14:24-27
We have explained above why the prophecy against Assyria occupies the second place and after the one against Babylon. A prophecy against Assyria could not be omitted. It was necessary as a background to the prophecies that follow. But it needed only to be a short one. For the Prophet is sensible that the power of Assyria is shattered by the overthrow of Sennacherib—therefore fore that, in a prophetic sense, it is in principle a thing done away. But to Assyria and the other nations named in the superscription above, the Prophet does not proclaim merely temporal destruction. He sets before all more or less plainly the prospect of partaking of the Messianic salvation of the future.
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24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,
Surely as I have thought, so 35shall it come to pass;
And as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 36That I will break the Assyrian in my land,
And upon my mountains tread him under foot:
Then shall his yoke depart from off them,
And his burden depart from off their shoulders.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth:
And this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
27 For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?
37And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_14:24. דִּמָּה in the sense of animo componere, “to dispose in thought,” only again Isa_10:7; moreover the Prophet seems to have had in mind in this place, Num_33:56.——The Perfect היתה expresses the coincidence of the realization with the thought. No sooner said than done, i.e., as God conceives a thought, it is also (as to principle) realized. The following imperf. תקום has then the meaning that what is, as to principle, realized, must arise, set up as actual, outward circumstance. Before תקום the כּן is not repeated, but היא is used, evidently for the sake of variety. The thought is essentially the same. It is a sort of Anacoluthon——היה and קום are used as in Isa_7:7; Isa_8:10.
Isa_14:25. The infin. לשׁבר depends on the oath-clause Isa_14:24 b; what is determined shall be fulfilled frangendo Assyrios, etc. לשׁבר is therefore inf. modalis or gerundivus.——With אבוסנו (comp. Isa_14:19; Isa_63:6; Isa_63:18) the language returns from the infinitive construction to the verbum fin., according to a frequent Hebrew usage.——The suffixes in מעליהם and שׁכמו have nothing to which they can relate in the words of Isa_14:24-25.—Moreover from Isa_14:4 onwards, Israel is not referred to. True, in Isa_14:1-2, Israel is likewise spoken of in the third person, and with quite similar suffixes (עליחם Isa_14:1, שׁביהם ,נגשׂיהם Isa_14:2); but then Isa_14:3 intervenes, in which Israel is spoken of in the second person. It must, therefore, be assumed that the suffixes Isa_14:25 refer back, not only over the entire Maschal (4–23), but also away over Isa_14:3 to Isa_14:1-2, and that these verses originated, not at the same time with the rest of the prophecy against Babylon, but much earlier. All this is very improbable. I cannot therefore agree with Vitringa and Drechsler, but must side with the view, that the present verses are a fragment of a greater prophecy for Israel of a comforting nature, which, however, cannot be identical with 7–12 because in these Assyria is regarded in a totally different light from that which appears in the present verses.
Isa_14:27. יָפֵר comp. Isa_8:10. [“This has been variously translated “scatter” (LXX.), “weaken” (Vulg.), “avert” (Luth.), “dissolve” (Calvin), “change” (J. D. “Michaelis”), “hinder” (Gesen.), break (Ewald [Naegelsb.]); but its true sense is that given in the Eng. Version and by De Wette (vereiteln) [see Fuerst Lex.]. The meaning of the last clause is not simply that his hand is stretched out, as most writers give it, but that the hand stretched out is his, as appears from the article prefixed to the participle נטויה. (See Gesen. § 108, 3. Ewald, § 560.—J. A. A.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Whoever reads the prophecies of Isaiah against the heathen nations with attention, must feel surprise that in them, there is relatively little more said about Assyria. After occupying in 7–12 the foreground, it retreats in 13 and onward into the background. On the other hand Babylon now stands front and the Prophet recognizes in it the representative of the perfectly developed world-power that has attained to the exclusive possession of dominion. Now the question arises: how are Assyria and Babylon related? What becomes of Assyria if now Babylon is called the world-power? How is it to be explained that according to Isa_10:24-27 Israel at the end of days is delivered out of bondage to Assyria, if at that end-period not Assyria but Babylon stands at the summit of the world-power? These questions are solved by the short section before us, Isa_14:24-27. It appears therein that in the immediate future Assyria must be destroyed, that, therefore, Israel may expect deliverance from the yoke of Assyria in a brief season, but that therewith Israel is neither delivered forever, nor is the world-power for ever broken up. But Babylon walks in the footsteps of Assyria; and if in 7–12 the world-power appeared solely under the name of Assyria, it happened only because the Prophet could not then distinguish that which followed Assyria from Assyria itself, and therefore comprehended it under one name.
2. The Lord of hosts——turn it back.
Isa_14:24-27. Drechsler attaches great weight to the fact that the phrase “the Lord of hosts hath sworn,” is preceded by a thrice repeated “saith the Lord of hosts,” Isa_14:22-23. He says the former is only a climax of these latter. He lays stress, too, on the fact that the thrice repeated “Lord of hosts” of Isa_14:22-23 has its correlative in the double use of the same in Isa_14:24; Isa_14:27, and that the same words which in Isa_14:23 “conclude the proper body of the discourse, in Isa_14:24 begin the appendix.” He, therefore, regards Isa_14:24-27 as an integral part of the discourse that extends through Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:27, and therefore as having originated at the same time. But that is impossible. The words Isa_14:24-27 must be older than, the catastrophe of Sennacherib before Jerusalem, for they foretell it. But the prophecy against Babylon Isa_13:1 to Isa_14:23 must be much more recent, for it is the product of a much higher and, therefore, of a much later prophetic knowledge [? Tr.]. If, too, in the points named there appears a certain correspondence, yet it remains very much a question whether that is intentional. The expressions in question, so far as they correspond, occur exceedingly often in all sorts of connections.
The expression “the Lord hath sworn” is especially frequent in Deuteronomy, but always with the Dative of the person whom the oath concerns (Deu_1:8; Deu_2:14; Deu_4:31, etc.). In Isaiah it occurs again, Isa_45:23; Isa_54:9; Isa_62:8.—The contents of the oath is: “as I have thought … so shall it stand.”
[“From the distant view of the destruction of Babylon, the Prophet suddenly reverts to that of the Assyrian host, either for the purpose of making one of these events accredit the prediction of the other, or for the purpose of assuring true believers, that while God had decreed the deliverance of the people from remoter dangers, He would also protect them from those at hand.—On the formula of swearing vide supra, v. 9.—Kimchi explains היתה to be a preterite used for a future, and this construction is adopted in most versions, ancient and modern. It is, however, altogether arbitrary and in violation of the only safe rule as to the use of tenses, viz., that they should have their proper and distinctive force, unless forbidden by the context, or the nature of the subject; which is very far from being the case here.——The true force of the preterite and future forms, as here employed, is recognized by Aben Ezra, who explains the clause to mean that according to God’s purpose, it has come to pass and will come to pass hereafter. The antithesis is rendered still more prominent by Jarchi, by whom this verse is paraphrased as follows—‘Thou hast seen, oh Nebuchadnezzar, how the words of the prophets of Israel have been fulfilled in Sennacherib, to break Assyria in my land, and by this thou mayest know that what I have purposed against thee shall also come to pass’ (comp. Eze_31:3-18).—The only objection to this view is that the next verse goes on to speak of the Assyrian overthrow, which would seem to imply that the last clause of this verse (24) as well as the first relates to that event. Another method of expounding the verse, therefore, is to apply היתה and תקום to the same events, but in a somewhat different sense,—‘As I intended it has come to pass, and as I purposed, it shall continue.’ The Assyrian power is already broken, and shall never be restored. This strict interpretation of the preterite does not necessarily imply that the prophecy was actually uttered after the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. Such would indeed be the natural inference from this verse alone: but for reasons which will be explained below, [viz., in comment on Isa_14:26.—Tr.] it is more probable that the Prophet merely takes his stand in vision at a point of time between the two events of which he speaks, so that both verbs are really prophetic, the one of a remote the other of a proximate futurity, but for that very reason their distinctive forms should be retained and recognized. Yet the only modern writers who appear to do so in translation are Calvin and Cocceius, who have factum est, and J. D. Michaelis, who has ist geschehen.—J. J. A. So also substantially Barnes.]
In my land and on my mountain the Lord says. Therefore not in his own land or some other land, but in Palestine the annihilating blow shall fall on Assyria. This evidently points to the overthrow of Sennacherib before Jerusalem (2Ki_19:35; Isa_37:36). Though even after this overthrow Assyria’s power did not at once appear broken, still it was such inwardly and in principle. As much as Nebuchadnezzar after his victory at Carchemish was ruler of the world, though outwardly he had not that appearance (Jeremiah 25), so Assyria, after the Lord had smitten him in his territory, from the view-point of God, and according to inward and divine reality, was broken to pieces and trodden down.—The consequence of that overthrow of Assyria is that Israel shall be freed from his dominion.
The words his yoke shall depart,etc. sound essentially the same as Isa_10:27. Other resemblances are of Isa_14:24 to Isa_7:5; Isa_7:7; Isa_8:10; Isa_10:7; Isa_14:25 to Isa_9:3; Isa_10:27; Isa_14:26 to Isa_9:11; Isa_9:16; Isa_9:20; Isa_10:4; Isa_11:11; Isa_14:27 to Isa_8:10. But much as Isa_14:24-27 remind one of chapts. 7–12, there is still this essential difference, that in the last named chapters there is no where a prophecy of an overthrow of Assyria in the holy land itself. In general the gaze of the Prophet in those chapters is directed to a much more remote distance. There he looks on Assyria still as representative of the world-power generally, and thus, too, Assyria’s overthrow coincides for him with the overthrow of the world-power in general by the Messiah. Here we encounter a look into the immediate future. It must belong to the time before the defeat of Sennacherib. Therefore our verses cannot belong originally to the prophecy against Babylon. [See above in Text. and Gram.].
When the Prophet (Isa_14:26) declares that the catastrophe predicted for Assyria is significant for the whole earth, and for all nations, he does it by reason of the connection that exists between all acts of the Godhead. That defeat of Sennacherib, too, is an integral moment of the decree that the Lord has determined concerning the whole earth, and all nations. This counsel of God stands so firm that no power of the world can hinder its execution; the hand which the Lord has stretched out to do this execution nothing can turn aside from its doing.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. How grand is the Prophet’s contemplation of history! How the mighty Assyria shrivels up, which in chapters 7–12, played so great a part! Only a line or so is devoted to it here, “Das macht, es ist gericht, eir Wörtlein bann es fällen.” The Prophet knows that Sennacherib’s defeat before Jerusalem is at once the overthrow of the Assyrian world-power, and the deliverance of Israel from his yoke, although Assyria stood yet a hundred years and did harm enough to Judah still (2Ch_33:11). But God always sees the essence of things. What He wills, comes to pass; and when it has happened, perhaps no one knows what that which has come to pass means: only the future makes it plain. The fruit germ frosted in the blossom, may remain green for days. Only by degrees it becomes yellow, then black, and evidently dead.
[“By this assurance (Isa_14:24-27) God designed to comfort His people, when they should be in Babylon in a long and dreary captivity. Comp. Psalms 137. And by the same consideration His people may be comforted in all times. His plans shall stand. None can disannul them. No arm has power to resist Him. None of the schemes formed against Him shall ever prosper. Whatever ills, therefore, may befall His people; however thick, gloomy, and sad their calamities may be; and however dark His dispensations may appear, yet they may have the assurance that all His plans are wise, and that they all shall stand.”—Barnes].
Footnotes:
[35]it has come to pass.
[36]To break.
[37]And his is the hand that is stretched out.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv24–28 A FRAGMENT AS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS…
A FRAGMENT AS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS UNDER SENNACHERIB. (Isa 14:24-27)
In this verse the Lord's thought (purpose) stands in antithesis to the Assyrians' thoughts (Isa 10:7). (See Isa 46:10-11; Sa1 15:29; Mal 3:6).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv24, 26, 28 24, 25. A change is here made from the…
24, 25. A change is here made from the prophetic scene in the distance, to a nearer view: to that of the Assyrian power with which Judah is more or less to be concerned for a hundred or more years before reaching the Babylonian era. This is done either to make the events predicted of Assyria accredit those predicted of Babylon, or to assure the prophet’s own generation of Jews that God is as interested to protect them from Assyria as he is to deliver the coming generations from Babylon.
I have sworn — To this God’s oath is interposed.
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I will break the Assyrian — To Isaiah this event is quite in the near future, and Sennacherib is the prominent sufferer.
In my land — So claimed Lev_25:23. Immanuel’s land, Isa_8:8.
My mountains — Isa_49:11; Isa_65:9.
Yoke… burden — Same as in Isa_9:4; Isa_10:27. In this land and upon these mountains Assyria virtually fell to pieces for a season, so far forth as Jerusalem was concerned, in the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. See the vision of this event in Isa_10:33-34. If further words be necessary as to the allusion again to Assyria, and just in this place, they may be to this effect: The fate of both Assyria and Babylon were, in the absolute sense, in far future to Isaiah. The prophecy against Assyria had, in partial form, already gone forth. The foregoing prophecy against Babylon is complete. As a pledge of its fulfilment the matter of these two verses is placed here, in accordance with assurances common to the prophets, as appears in Jer_50:18, “Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.” The purpose and certainty against Assyria are a pledge for the purpose and certainty against Babylon. There is another view less probable, but having plausibility, namely, that Isaiah quite survived what seemed the assured fate of Assyria, and then himself confidently appended these verses as God’s pledge against Babylon, thus reaffirming predictions against Assyria formerly made.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 26, 28 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn] cf. Amo_4:2;…
24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn] cf. Amo_4:2; Amo_6:8; Amo_8:7; Isa_45:23; Isa_54:9; Isa_62:8. The formula is nowhere else used by Isaiah.
come to pass … stand] Combined as in ch. Isa_7:7.
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Ch. Isa_14:24-32. Two Isaianic Fragments
i. Isa_14:24-27. An announcement of Jehovah’s purpose to destroy the Assyrians on the soil of Canaan. In spite of the absence of a title these verses cannot without violence be explained as a continuation of the oracle on Babylon. They bear every evidence of being a genuine prophecy of Isaiah; and both in form and substance they shew an obvious resemblance to those of ch. Isa_10:5 ff. and ch. 18. Some critics, indeed, regard them as a misplaced fragment of one or other of these chapters. Without going so far as this we may at least with some confidence assign the passage to the same period of Isaiah’s ministry, probably the early years of Sennacherib’s reign.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv24–28 (24) The Lord of hosts hath sworn . .…
(24) The Lord of hosts hath sworn . . .—The long “oracle” of Babylon is followed by a fragmentary prophecy against Assyria (Isa_14:24-27), possibly misplaced, possibly, as opening with a solemn asseveration, like that of the preceding verse, added by way of proof, that the word of the Lord of Hosts would be fulfilled on Babylon, as it had been on Assyria, with which, indeed, Babylon was closely connected—almost, perhaps, identified—in his thoughts.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv24, 25, 27, 28 Vers. 24-27. A FURTHER PROPHECY OF DELIVERANCE FROM ASSYRIA.…
Vers. 24-27. A FURTHER PROPHECY OF DELIVERANCE FROM ASSYRIA. From the distant prospect of an ultimate deliverance from the power of Babylon, the prophet turns his gaze to a nearer, if not a greater, deliverance. The present enemy is Assyria. It is she who has carried Samaria into captivity, and who now threatens the independence of Judah. Deliverance from her has already been promised more than once; (Isa_10:16-19, Isa_10:25-27, Isa_10:33, Isa_10:34) but apparently the people are not reassured they still dread the foe who is so near, and who seems so irresistible. God, therefore, condescends to give them a fresh prophecy, a fresh assurance, and to confirm it to them by an oath (ver. 24). The Assyrian power shall be broken her yoke shall be cast off (ver. 25); God has declared his purpose, and nothing can hinder it (ver. 27).
Hath sworn. This is the emphatic word the new thing in the prophecy. God but seldom declares his purposes with an oath never but in condescension to the weakness of his creatures, who, though they misdoubt his word, can feel the immutability of an oath, (Heb_6:17) and yield it the credence and the confidence which they refuse to a bare assertion. As I have thought... as I have purposed. A reference to the prophecies previously given in Isa 10. So shall it come to pass; literally, so it hath been a striking instance of the preterite of prophetic certainty." So shall it stand; literally, as I have purposed, that shall stand.
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God"s condescension in confirming promises by oath.
It is a weakness on the part of man to need any confirmation of a promise which God makes. "God cannot lie"; (Tit_2:1-8) "He keepeth his promise forever". (Psa_146:6) When he condescends to swear that his promise shall hold good, it does not really add to the certainty of the thing promised, since the certainty was absolute from the first. But man is so accustomed to misdoubt his fellows that he will even misdoubt God, as though with him were variableness or shadow of turning." And God, knowing man"s heart and compassionating his weakness, does sometimes, though but rarely, add to his promises, for man"s greater contentment, the confirmation of an oath. After the Flood God covenanted with mankind that he would never again destroy the earth by water, (Gen_9:11) and confirmed the covenant by oath. (Isa_65:9) On the call of Abraham, he swore that he would give the land of Canaan to his posterity, (Gen_24:7) and afterwards that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. With David he made a covenant, and swore to it, that he would "establish his seed forever, and build up his throne to all generations". (Psa_89:3, Psa_89:4) To his own Son he swore, at what time we know not, "Thou art a Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek". (Psa_110:4) And here we find that he condescended to swear to Israel that the Assyrians should "be broken," and their yoke "depart off them." Wonderful condescension of him whose word is truth! Not merely not to punish those who doubt him, but to compassionate them, to make allowance for them, to yield compliance to their weakness, and give them such an assurance as compels their belief. "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, they might have a strong consolation a hope on which to anchor their soul. (Heb_6:17-19)
Vers. 24-28. Oracle concerning Asshur.
The fate of Sennacherib and his host appears to be introduced in order to confirm the solemn oracle just delivered concerning Babylon (see Exposition).
I THE STRONG ASSURANCES OF JEHOVAH. He is represented here and in other passages as taking an oath that he will fulfill his Word. But in such oaths he can appeal to no mightier name, he can invoke no power more awful than his own. Homer makes Zeus swear by the Styx, the dark river of the underworld. And Zeus is himself subject to necessity, to fate. But the God of the Hebrews comprises in himself all the associations of woeful necessity, of irresistible fate; in a word, of law, of intelligence at one with will, of will equal to the execution of all the designs of intelligence. Where men are weak it is that the brain is separated from the hand and the foot. The thoughts that rise before them, they either cannot or they dare not translate immediately into fact. A chain of means, of secondary causes, lies between them and their ends. And so we have the great thinkers who cannot act, and the great actors who fail in thought. Magnificent poets, philosophers, dreamers, on the one side; on the other, magnificent conquerors Alexanders, Napoleons; both stupendous failures. In God are united omniscience and omnipotence the All-Thinker, the All-Doer. His purposes are equivalent to deeds; his deeds are living and visible thoughts.
II THE DOOM OF THE ASSYRIAN. (See Isa 10) The prophetic tense and the prophetic mode of contemplation may refer to the past; so here. The thought is expressed in Jer_1:18, Jer_1:19, "Behold, I will punish the King of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the King of Assyria." The one event was a pledge of the other (Delitzsch). Asshur had been broken in Canaan, had been subdued upon the mountains of the Holy Land, and the people been released from his yoke and his burdens. "Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, The host with their banners at sunset were seen; Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay wither"d and strewn.... And the widows of Asshnr were loud in their wail, And the idols were broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
III THE IMMUTABLE COUNSEL OF JEHOVAH.
1. Its contents. It is earth-embracing, and its symbol is the" hand stretched out over all the heathen." Assyria and Babylon destroyed, heathendom must vibrate through all its extent, and totter to its fall. Turning from the particular to the general for only in this way can we reap the full instruction of such oracles and standing amidst the ruins of fallen, or on the ground of now shaking empires, we may listen in awe to the ever-living voice of him who saith, "I will shake all nations, till their Desire come." About a thousand years later, and we find Rome shaking beneath that outstretched hand. We may see the mementoes of that shock to-day, in the ruins of the Palatine and the Forum and the Sacred Way. Yet a thousand years, and again she shakes, this time to her inmost conscience, beneath that hand, that voice of judgment. At the Reformation it might seem that the Almighty was about to make a short work in the earth. But a thousand years are in his sight but a day. "The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small." Let us remember that the great cycles of history are repeated in small in the round of each man"s life. The great world, the macrocosmos, is mirrored in the microcosmos, the small world of each conscience. Above every one of us the hand is outstretched shall it be to bless or to curse? "Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
2. Its inflexibility. Who can break this counsel, who hinder or turn back that hand? And what people or confederacy of peoples, knit in closest alliance of arms and girt with all the furniture of war, can resist dissolution, when once his thought is against them, his hand upraised? "Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us". (Isa_8:10) So may the lovers of the truth and the right confidently exclaim, "God is with us." What the superstitious man calls his luck or fortune, what the metaphysician obscurely designates as necessity, or the nature of things, or the supremacy of the moral Law, is to the religious man the inflexible will of a personal Being. The duty, the art, the wisdom, the salvation of life, is in obedience to that will. It is to know that we are here to be acted upon by that will rather than to act from our own self-center. We are "God"s puppets." He gives to men and to nations a certain space Wherein to learn what freedom is, and what its soon-reached limits. Then comes the higher lesson, to know that freedom can only be secured by obedience; that in the choice of the supreme will for our own will, we recover that better freedom in which is strength and peace and stability forever. J.
Vers. 24-27. Divine purpose and Divine power.
We have our thoughts directed in this passage to
I THE DIVINE PURPOSE. "I have thought... I have purposed... this is the purpose... upon the whole earth," etc. God had a special purpose respecting Assyria, and he may have had a distinct purpose in inspiring Isaiah to pronounce at this especial time what it was, viz. that, in the dark days of Babylonian captivity, his people might remember its fulfillment, and be assured of an accomplishment for which they had still to wait. But these expressions suggest to us the existence of Divine purposes in the mind of God, dating from the remote past and stretching on into the far future. God"s purposes in regard to his creatures have been or are:
1. Creative. In the "far backward and abysm of time" he determined to call worlds, beings, intelligent and immortal spirits, into existence, to be the objects of his thought, care, love; to many of whom he himself should be the Object of worship, affection, service.
2. Ministrative. His purpose was that of boundless benefaction of conferring on multitudes and millions of sentient beings a life of happiness and, to a vast, number, that of true dignity and worth.
3. Punitive. His purpose has been to punish, never indeed under the impulse of mere resentment, but always in the interests of righteousness and, ultimately, in that of true happiness also.
4. Restorative. He has purposed, and does purpose, to restore; either
(1) his people to a heritage they have forfeited, or
(2) those who have wandered from his service to the spiritual and moral integrity from which they have fallen.
II THE DIVINE POWER. "So shall it come to pass... so shall it stand... I will break... I will tread under foot... This is the hand that is stretched out... Who shall disannul... who shall turn back" (his hand)? It is true that:
1. God has taken time to effect his purpose; e.g. the building of this world for man"s residence, the preparation of the world for Christ"s coming.
2. God has permitted his rebellious children to lessen the sum of happiness and worth they would otherwise have possessed.
3. God"s beneficent design for the redemption of the world by the gospel has been hindered by external opposition and by internal shortcoming. Yet it remains true, and this is the larger as it is the brighter half of the truth, that:
(1) God"s purpose of beneficence, if it can be said to have been checked, has not been defeated: from his strong and bountiful hand he has been bestowing life, joy, blessedness, excellency, which is quite incalculable, which entirely baffles our imagination as it is beyond our reckoning.
(2) God"s purpose of punishment has been and will be fulfilled; witness the Flood, the outcasting of the guilty Canaanites, the destruction of "the cities of the plain," the decimation of Sennacherib"s army and "the breaking of the Assyrian," the extinction of Babylon, etc. And now, though impiety holds up its head for years, and though vice staves off the evil day of disease and death, and though crime long eludes the pursuer, yet the hand of God does come down in retribution; his holy purpose cannot be disannulled. "Let sinners look to it". (see Num_32:23 Psa_37:35, Psa_37:36)
(3) God"s purpose of restoration will one day be accomplished. This is the purpose which is purposed upon the whole earth," and "this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations." The Lord of hosts hath purposed." There may be many obstacles in the way. Difficulties may, to the eye of human calculation, seem actually insurmountable; the estimable forces of truth may appear unequal to cope with the overwhelming agencies of error and evil. But this our great hope is not a bold enterprise of man; it is the purpose of the living God, the Lord of hosts. "His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" Let the Christian worshipper offer expectant prayer; let the Christian workman go up to his post with holy confidence; for the purpose of God, though it be long delayed, shall assuredly be fulfilled. C.
The security of the Divine Word.
Cheyne translates, "Sworn has Jehovah Sabaoth, saying, Surely, according as I have planned, so shall it be; and according as I have purposed, that shall stand." God here declares that it is his fixed and unalterable purpose to destroy Assyria. And who can stop the fulfillment of the Divine Word? In answer to this question, we say
I CAN NATURAL FORCES? No, for that was settled when the Red Sea parted asunder, and made a highway for God"s people.
II CAN NATURAL EVENTS? No, for that was settled in the wilderness. Such commonplace things as murmurings and rebellions could destroy a particular generation, but could not keep Israel out of Canaan.
III CAN INDIVIDUAL MEN? No, for that was settled in Nebuchadnezzar, who had to learn, by humiliation, that God"s will would have to be done.
IV CAN COMBINED MAN? No, for that was settled when the kings of Canaan joined to oppose God"s advancing hosts, and were swept away, before them, like a summer cloud before the sun.
Nobody and nothing can stop the fulfillment of God"s Word. We may go with it, the flood will carry us with it, like helpless logs, if we struggle to oppose. But the Word and will of God are always righteous, beneficent, and good; so it is well that they should abide. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v24 Surely as I have thought, so shall it come…
Isa_14:24
Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass
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Gods infinite intelligence
To think and to purpose are the attributes of all rational beings, whether created or uncreated.
I. God is such an infinitely perfect being, that His thoughts and purposes are CO-ETERNAL WITH HIMSELF. God cannot possibly exist Without His thoughts and purposes. A child at school in France, was asked whether God reasoned or not. The child paused awhile, and answered, No: God is too perfect to reason. He knows everything without reasoning. Newton himself could not have given a better answer. Everything that exists in God now, has existed in Him from eternity.
II. As His thoughts and put poses flow exclusively from Himself, they are ABSOLUTE; they are, primarily considered, unconditional. This is a necessity that does not militate, in the least degree, against the accountability of man. They must have been absolute, or no being could possibly have existed.
III. The thoughts and purposes of the Almighty are INFINITELY GLORIOUS; in other words, are infinitely worthy of Himself. It is in the fulfilment of His own thoughts and purposes that He develops all the beauty of His own perfections; it is in the development of all the beauty of His own perfections, that He confers every good on the creature. Take two axioms in divinity. All good is from God--all evil is from the creature. Do justice to these truths, and they will, as two keys, unlock some of the most difficult passages in Scripture.
IV. The purpose of God is REPLETE WITH LOVE AND TENDERNESS. The sovereign purpose of God, properly speaking, involves nothing but good. Evil is to be traced to another source. But what does it comprise chiefly? A Saviour. We were suffered to fall into the deepest guilt, that God might display His glory to the utmost in our salvation. (W. Howels.)
Gods purposes must be fulfilled
The wheels in a watch or a clock move contrary one to another, someone way, and some another, yet all serve the intent of the workman, to show the time, or to make the clock to strike. So in the world the providence of God may seem to run cross to His promises. One man takes this way, another runs that way. Good men go one way, wicked men another. Yet all in conclusion accomplish the will, and centre in the purpose of God, the great Creator of all things. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v24
CHAPTER XVII
ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS
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736-702 B.C.
Isa_14:24-32; Isaiah 15-21, 23
THE centre of the Book of Isaiah (chapters 13 to 23) is occupied by a number of long and short prophecies which are a fertile source of perplexity to the conscientious reader of the Bible. With the exhilaration of one who traverses plain roads and beholds vast prospects, he has passed through the opening chapters of the book as far as the end of the twelfth; and he may look forward to enjoying a similar experience when he reaches those other clear stretches of vision from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh and from the thirtieth to the thirty-second. But here he loses himself among a series of prophecies obscure in themselves and without obvious relation to one another. The subjects of them are the nations, tribes, and cities with which in Isaiahs day, by war or treaty or common fear in face of the Assyrian conquest, Judah was being brought into contact. There are none of the familiar names of the land and tribes of Israel which meet the reader in other obscure prophecies and lighten their darkness with the face of a friend. The names and allusions are foreign, some of them the names of tribes long since extinct, and of places which it is no more possible to identify. It is a very jungle of prophecy, in which, without much Gospel or geographical light, we have to grope our way, thankful for an occasional gleam of the picturesque-a sandstorm in the desert, the forsaken ruins of Babylon haunted by wild beasts, a view of Egypts canals or Phoenicias harbours, a glimpse of an Arab raid or of a grave Ethiopian embassy.
But in order to understand the Book of Isaiah, in order to understand Isaiah himself in some of the largest of his activities and hopes; we must traverse this thicket. It would be tedious and unprofitable to search every corner of it. We propose, therefore, to give a list of the various oracles, with their dates and titles, for the guidance of Bible-readers, then to take three representative texts and gather the meaning of all the oracles round them.
First, however, two of the prophecies must be put aside. The twenty-second chapter does not refer to a foreign State, but to Jerusalem itself; and the large prophecy which opens the series (chapters 13-14:23) deals with the overthrow of Babylon in circumstances that did not arise till long after Isaiahs time, and so falls to be considered by us along with similar prophecies at the close of this volume. (See Book V)
All the rest of these chapters-14-21 and 23-refer to Isaiahs own day. They were delivered by the prophet at various times throughout his career; but the most of them evidently date from immediately after the year 705, when, on the death of Sargon, there was a general rebellion of the Assyrian vassals.
1. Isa_14:24-27-OATH OF JEHOVAH that the Assyrian shall be broken. Probable date, towards 701.
2. Isa_14:28-32-ORACLE FOR PHILISTIA. Warning toPhilistia not to rejoice because one Assyrian king is dead, for a worse one shall arise: "Out of the serpents root shall come forth a basilisk. Philistia shall be melted away, but Zion shall stand." The inscription to this oracle (Isa_14:28) is not genuine. The oracle plainly speaks of the death and accession of Assyrian, not Judaean, kings. It may be ascribed to 705, the date of the death of Sargon and accession of Sennacherib. But some hold that it refers to the previous change on the Assyrian throne-the death of Salmanassar and the accession of Sargon.
3 Isaiah 15-Isaiah 16:12-ORACLE FOR MOAB. A long prophecy against Moab. This oracle, whether originally by himself at an earlier period of his life, or more probably by an older prophet, Isaiah adopts and ratifies, and intimates its immediate fulfilment, in Isa_16:13-14 : "This is the word which Jehovah spake concerning Moab long ago. But now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all the great multitude, and the remnant shall be very small and of no account." The dates both of the original publication of this prophecy and of its reissue with the appendix are quite uncertain. The latter may fall about 711, when Moab was threatened by Sargon for complicity in the Ashdod conspiracy or in 704, when, with other states, Moab came under the cloud of Sennacheribs invasion. The main prophecy is remarkable for its vivid picture of the disaster that has overtaken Moab and for the sympathy with her which the Jewish prophet expresses; for the mention of a "remnant" of Moab; for the exhortation to her to send tribute in her adversity "to the mount of the daughter of Zion"; {Isa_16:1} for an appeal to Zion to shelter the outcasts of Moab and to take up her cause: "Bring counsel, make a decision, make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts, bewray not the wanderer;" for a statement of the Messiah similar to those in chapters 9 and 11; and for the offer to the oppressed Moabites of the security of Judah in Messianic times (Isa_16:4-5). But there is one great obstacle to this prospect of Moab lying down in the shadow of Judah-Moabs arrogance. "We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud," {Isa_16:6, cf. Jer_48:29; Jer_48:42; Zep_2:10} which pride shall not only keep this country in ruin, but prevent the Moabites prevailing in prayer at their own sanctuary (Isa_16:12)-a very remarkable admission about the worship of another god than Jehovah.
4. Isa_17:1-11 -ORACLE FOR DAMASCUS. One of the earliest and most crisp of Isaiahs prophecies. Of the time of Syrias and Ephraims league against Judah, somewhere between 736 and 732.
5. Isa_17:12-14 -UNTITLED. The crash of the peoples upon Jerusalem and their dispersion. This magnificent piece of sound, which we analyse below, is usually understood of Sennacheribs rush upon Jerusalem. Isa_17:14 is an accurate summary of the sudden break-up and "retreat from Moscow" of his army. The Assyrian hosts are described as "nations," as they are elsewhere more than once by Isaiah. {Isa_22:6; Isa_29:7} But in all this there is no final reason for referring the oracle to Sennacheribs invasion, and it may just as well be interpreted of Isaiahs confidence of the defeat of Syria and Ephraim (734-723). Its proximity to the oracle against Damascus would then be very natural, and it would stand as a parallel prophecy to Isa_8:9 : "Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of the distances of the earth: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces"-a prophecy which we know belongs to the period of the Syro-Ephraimitic league.
6. Isaiah 18 -UNTITLED. An address to Ethiopia, "land of a rustling of wings, land of many sails, whose messengers dart to and fro upon the rivers in their skiffs of reed." The prophet tells Ethiopia, cast into excitement by the news of the Assyrian advance, how Jehovah is resting quietly till the Assyrian be ripe for destruction. When the Ethiopians shall see His sudden miracle they shall send their tribute to Jehovah, "to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion." It is difficult to know to which southward march of Assyria to ascribe this prophecy-Sargons or Sennacheribs? For at the time of both of these an Ethiopian ruled Egypt.
7. Isaiah 19 -ORACLE FOR EGYPT. The first fifteen verses (Isa_19:1-15) describe judgment as ready to fall on the land of the Pharaohs. The last ten speak of the religious results to Egypt of that judgment, and they form the most universal and "missionary" of all Isaiahs prophecies. Although doubts have been expressed of the Isaiah authorship of the second half of this chapter on the score of its universalism, as well as of its literary style, which is judged to be "a pale reflection" of Isaiahs own, there is no final reason for declining the credit of it to Isaiah, while there are insuperable difficulties against relegating it to the late date which is sometimes demanded for it. On the date and authenticity of this prophecy, which are of great importance for the question of Isaiahs "missionary" opinions, see Cheynes introduction to the chapter and Robertson Smiths notes in "The Prophets of Israel" (p. 433). The latter puts it in 703, during Sennacheribs advance upon the south. The former suggests that the second half may have been written by the prophet much later than the first, and justly says, "We can hardly imagine a more swan-like end for the dying prophet."
8. Isaiah 20 -UNTITLED. Also upon Egypt, but in narrative and of an earlier date than at least the latter half of chapter 19. Tells how Isaiah walked naked and barefoot in the streets of Jerusalem for a sign against Egypt and against the help Judah hoped to get from her in the years 711-709, when the Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-chief, came south to subdue Ashdod.
9. Isa_21:1-10 -ORACLE FOR THE WILDERNESS OF THESEA, announcing but lamenting the fall of Babylon. Probably 709.
10. Isa_21:11-12 -ORACLE FOR DUMAH. Dumah, or Silence - Psa_94:17; Psa_115:17, "the land of the silence of death," the grave - is probably used as an anagram for Edom and an enigmatic sign to the wise Edomites, in their own fashion, of the kind of silence their land is lying under-the silence of rapid decay. The prophet hears this silence at last broken by a cry. Edom cannot bear the darkness any more. "Unto me one is calling from Seir, Watchman, how much off the night? how much off the night? Said the watchman, Cometh the morning, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire, come back again." What other answer is possible for a land on which the silence of decay seems to have settled down? He may, however, give them an answer later on, if they will come back. Date uncertain, perhaps between 704 and 701.
11. 21:13-17 -ORACLE FOR ARABIA. From Edom the prophet passes to their neighbours the Dedanites, travelling merchants. And as he saw night upon Edom, so, by a play upon words, he speaks of evening upon Arabia: "in the forest, in Arabia," or with the same consonants, "in the evening." In the time of the insecurity of the Assyrian invasion the travelling merchants have to go aside from their great trading roads "in the evening to lodge in the thickets." There they entertain fugitives, or (for the sense is not quite clear) are themselves as fugitives entertained. It is a picture of the "grievousness of war," which was now upon the world, flowing down even those distant, desert roads. But things have not yet reached the worst. The fugitives are but the heralds of armies, that "within a year" shall waste the "children of Kedar," for Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken it. So did the prophet of little Jerusalem take possession of even the far deserts in the name of his nations God.
12. Isaiah 23 -ORACLE FOR TYRE. Elegy over its fall, probably as Sennacherib came south upon it in 703 or 702. To be further considered by us.
These, then, are Isaiahs oracles for the Nations, who tremble, intrigue, and go down before the might of Assyria.
We have promised to gather the circumstances and meaning of these prophecies round three representative texts. These are-
1. "Ah! the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of mighty waters they rush; nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He rebuketh it, and it fleeth afar off, and is chased like the chaff on the mountains before the wind and like whirling dust before the whirlwind." {Isa_17:12-13}
2. "What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find refuge the afflicted of His people." {Isa_14:32}
3. "In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, and the work of My hands Assyria, and Mine inheritance Israel". {Isa_19:24-25}
I.
The first of these texts shows all the prophets prospect filled with storm, the second of them the solitary rock and lighthouse in the midst of the storm: Zion, His own watchtower and His peoples refuge; while the third of them, looking far into the future, tells us, as it were, of the firm continent which shall rise out of the waters-Israel no longer a solitary lighthouse, "but in that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth." These three texts give us a summary of the meaning of all Isaiahs obscure prophecies to the foreign nations-a stormy ocean, a solitary rock in the midst of it, and the new continent that shall rise out of the waters about the rock.
The restlessness of Western Asia beneath the Assyrian rule (from 719, when Sargons victory at Rafia extended that rule to the borders of Egypt) found vent, as we saw, in two great Explosions, for both of which the mine was laid by Egyptian intrigue. The first Explosion happened in 711, and was confined to Ashdod. The second took place on Sargons death in 705, and was universal. Till Sennacherib marched south on Palestine in 701, there were all over Western Asia hurryings to and fro, consultations and intrigues, embassies and engineerings from Babylon to Meroe in far Ethiopia, and from the tents of Kedar to the cities of the Philistines. For these Jerusalem, the one inviolate capital from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, was the natural centre. And the one far-seeing, steady-hearted man in Jerusalem was Isaiah. We have already seen that there was enough within the city to occupy Isaiahs attention, especially from 705 onward; but for Isaiah the walls of Jerusalem, dear as they were and thronged with duty, neither limited his sympathies nor marked the scope of the gospel he had to preach. Jerusalem is simply his watchtower. His field-and this is the peculiar glory of the prophets later life-his field is the world.
How well fitted Jerusalem then was to be the worlds watchtower, the traveller may see to this day. The city lies upon the great central ridge of Palestine, at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. If you ascend the hill behind the city, you stand upon one of the great view-points of the earth. It is a forepost of Asia. To the east rise the red hills of Moab and the uplands of Gilead and Bashan, on to which wandering tribes of the Arabian deserts beyond still push their foremost camps. Just beyond the horizon lie the immemorial paths from Northern Syria into Arabia. Within a few hours walk along the same central ridge, and still within the territory of Judah, you may see to the north, over a wilderness of blue hills, Hermons snowy crest; you know that Damascus is lying just beyond, and that through it and round the base of Hermon swings one of the longest of the old worlds highways-the main caravan road from the Euphrates to the Nile. Stand at gaze for a little, while down that road there sweep into your mind thoughts of the great empire whose troops and commerce it used to carry. Then, bearing these thoughts with you, follow the line of the road across the hills to the western coastland, and so out upon the great Egyptian desert, where you may wait till it has brought you imagination of the southern empire to which it travels. Then, lifting your eyes a little further, let them sweep back again from south to north, and you have the whole of the west, the new world, open to you, across the fringe of yellow haze that marks the sands of the Mediterranean. It is even now one of the most comprehensive prospects in the world. But in Isaiahs day, when the world was smaller, the high places of Judah either revealed or suggested the whole of it.
But Isaiah was more than a spectator of this vast theatre. He was an actor upon it. The court of Judah, of which during Hezekiahs reign he was the most prominent member, stood in more or less close connection with the courts of all the kingdoms of Western Asia; and in those days, when the nations were busy with intrigue against their common enemy, this little highland town and fortress became a gathering place of peoples. From Babylon, from far-off Ethiopia, from Edom, from Philistia, and no doubt from many other places also, embassies came to King Hezekiah, or to inquire of his prophet. The appearance of some of them lives for us still in Isaiahs descriptions: "tall and shiny" figures of Ethiopians {Isa_18:2}, with whom we are able to identify the lithe, silky-skinned, shining-black bodies of the present tribes of the Upper Nile. Now the prophet must have talked much with these strangers, for he displays a knowledge of their several countries and ways of life that is full and accurate. The agricultural conditions of Egypt; her social ranks and her industries (chapter 19); the harbours and markets of Tyre (chapter 23); the caravans of the Arab nomads, as in times of war they shun the open desert and seek the thickets {Isa_21:14} -Isaiah paints these for us with a vivid realism. We see how this statesman of the least of States, this prophet of a religion which was confessed over only a few square miles, was aware of the wide world, and how he loved the life that filled it. They are no mere geographical terms with which Isaiah thickly studs these prophecies. He looks out upon and paints for us, lands and cities surging with men-their trades, their castes, their religions, their besetting tempers and sins, their social structures and national policies, all quick and bending to the breeze and the shadow of the coming storm from the north.
We have said that in nothing is the legal power of our prophets style so manifest as in the vast horizons, which, by the use of a few words, he calls up before us. Some of the finest of these revelations are made in this part of his book, so obscure and unknown to most. Who can ever forget those descriptions-of Ethiopia in the eighteenth chapter?-"Ah! the land of the rustling of wings, which borders on the rivers of Cush, which sendeth heralds on the sea, and in vessels of reed on the face of the waters! Travel, fleet messengers, to a people lithe and shining, to a nation feared from ever it began to be, a people strong, strong and trampling, whose land the rivers divide"; or of Tyre in chapter 23?-"And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations." What expanses of sea! what fleets of ships! what floating loads of grain! what concourse of merchants moving on stately wharves beneath high warehouses!
Yet these are only segments of horizons, and perhaps the prophet reaches the height of his power of expression in the first of the three texts, which we have given as representative of his prophecies on foreign nations. Here three or four lines of marvellous sound repeat the effect of the rage of the restless world as it rises, storms, and breaks upon the steadfast will of God. The phonetics of the passage are wonderful. The general impression is that of a stormy ocean booming in to the shore and then crashing itself out into one long hiss of spray and foam upon its barriers. The details are noteworthy. In Isa_17:12 we have thirteen heavy M-sounds, besides two heavy Bs, to five Ns, five Hs, and four sibilants. But in Isa_17:13 the sibilants predominate; and before the sharp rebuke of the Lord the great, booming sound of Isa_17:12 scatters out into a long yish-sha oon. The occasional use of a prolonged vowel amid so many hurrying consonants produces exactly the effect now of the lift of a storm swell out at sea and now of the pause of a great wave before it crashes on the shore. "Ah, the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of the mighty waters they rush: nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He checketh it"-a short, sharp word with a choke and a snort in it-"and it fleeth far away, and is chased like chaff on mountains before wind, and like swirling dust before a whirlwind."
So did the rage of the world sound to Isaiah as it crashed into pieces upon the steadfast providence of God. To those who can feel the force of such language nothing need be added upon the prophets view of the politics of the outside world these twenty years, whether portions of it threatened Judah in their own strength, or the whole power of storm that was in it rose with the Assyrian, as in all his flood he rushed upon Zion in the year 701.
II.
But amid this storm Zion stands immovable. It is upon Zion that the storm crashes itself into impotence. This becomes explicit in the second of our representative texts: "What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find a refuge the afflicted of His people". {Isa_14:32} This oracle was drawn from Isaiah by an embassy of the Philistines. Stricken with panic at the Assyrian advance, they had sent messengers to Jerusalem, as other tribes did, with questions and proposals of defences, escapes, and alliances. They got their answer, Alliances are useless. Everything human is going down. Here, here alone, is safety, because the Lord hath decreed it.
With what light and peace do Isaiahs words break out across that unquiet, hungry sea! How they tell the world for the first time, and have been telling it ever since, that, apart from all the struggle and strife of history, there is a refuge and security of men, which God Himself has assured. The troubled surface of life, nations heaving uneasily, kings of Assyria and their armies carrying the world before them-these are not all. The world and her powers are not all. Religion, in the very teeth of life, builds her a refuge for the afflicted.
The world seems wholly divided between force and fear. Isaiah says, It is not true. Faith has her abiding citadel in the midst, a house of God, which neither force can harm nor fear enter.
This then was Isaiahs Interim-Answer to the Nations-Zion at least is secure for the people of Jehovah.
III.
Isaiah could not remain content, however, with so narrow an interim-answer: Zion at least is secure, whatever happens to the rest of you. The world was there, and had to be dealt with and accounted for-had even to be saved. As we have already seen, this was the problem of Isaiahs generation; and to have shirked it would have meant the failure of his faith to rank as universal.
Isaiah did not shirk it. He said boldly to his people, and to the nations: "The faith we have covers this vaster life. Jehovah is not only God of Israel. He rules the world." These prophecies to the foreign nations are full of revelations of the sovereignty and providence of God. The Assyrian may seem to be growing in glory; but Jehovah is watching from the heavens, till he be ripe for cutting down. {Isa_18:4} Egypts statesmen may be perverse and wilful; but Jehovah of hosts swingeth His hand against the land: "they shall tremble and shudder". {Isa_19:16} Egypt shall obey His purposes (chapter 17). Confusion may reign for a time, but a signal and a centre shall be lifted up, and the world gather itself in order round the revealed will of God. The audacity of such a claim for his God becomes more striking when we remember that Isaiahs faith was not the faith of a majestic or a conquering people. When he made his claim, Judah was still tributary to Assyria, a petty highland principality, that could not hope to stand by material means against the forces which had thrown down her more powerful neighbours. It was. no experience of success, no mere instinct of being on the side of fate, which led Isaiah so resolutely to pronounce that not only should his people be secure, but that his God would vindicate His purposes upon empires like Egypt and Assyria. It was simply his sense that Jehovah was exalted in righteousness. Therefore, while inside Judah only the remnant that took the side of righteousness would be saved, outside Judah wherever there was unrighteousness, it would be rebuked, and wherever righteousness, it would be vindicated. This is the supremacy which Isaiah proclaimed for Jehovah over the whole world.
How spiritual this faith of Isaiah was, is seen from the next step the prophet took. Looking out on the troubled world, he did not merely assert that his God ruled it, but he emphatically said, what was a far more difficult thing to say, that it would all be consciously and willingly Gods. God rules this, not to restrain it only, but to make it His own. The knowledge of Him, which is today our privilege, shall be tomorrow the blessing of the whole world.
When we point to the Jewish desire, so often expressed in the Old Testament, of making the whole world subject to Jehovah, we are told that it is simply a proof of religious ambition and jealousy. We are told that this wish to convert the world no more stamps the Jewish religion as being a universal, and therefore presumably a Divine, religion than the Mohammedans zeal to force their tenets on men at the point of the sword is a proof of the truth of Islam.
Now we need not be concerned to defend the Jewish religion in its every particular, even as propounded by an Isaiah. It is an article of the Christian creed that Judaism was a minor and imperfect dispensation, where truth was only half revealed and virtue half developed. But at least let us do the Jewish religion justice; and we shall never do it justice till we pay attention to what its greatest prophets thought of the outside world, how they sympathised with this, and in what way they proposed to make it subject to their own faith.
Firstly then, there is something in the very manner of Isaiahs treatment of foreign nations, which causes the old charges of religious exclusiveness to sink in our throats. Isaiah treats these foreigners at least as men. Take his prophecies on Egypt or on Tyre or on Babylon-nations which were the hereditary enemies of his nation-and you find him speaking of their natural misfortunes, their social decays, their national follies and disasters, with the same pity and with the same purely moral considerations with which he has treated his own land. When news of those far-away sorrows comes to Jerusalem, it moves this large-hearted prophet to mourning and tears. He breathes out to distant lands elegies as beautiful as he has poured upon Jerusalem. He shows as intelligent an interest in their social evolutions as he does in those of the Jewish State. He gives a picture of the industry and politics of Egypt as careful as his pictures of the fashions and statecraft of Judah. In short, as you read his prophecies upon foreign nations, you perceive that before the eyes of this man humanity, broken and scattered in his days as it was, rose up one great whole, every part of which was subject to the same laws of righteousness, and deserved from the prophet of God the same love and pity. To some few tribes he says decisively that they shall certainly be wiped out, but even them he does not address in contempt or in hatred. The large empire of Egypt, the great commercial power of Tyre, he speaks of in language of respect and admiration; but that does not prevent him from putting the plain issue to them which he put to his own countrymen: If you are unrighteous, intemperate, impure-lying diplomats and dishonest rulers-you shall certainly perish before Assyria. If you are righteous, temperate, pure, if you do trust in truth and God, nothing can move you.
But, secondly, he, who thus treated all nations with the same strict measures of justice and the same fulness of pity with which he treated his own, was surely not far from extending to the world the religious privileges which he has so frequently identified with Jerusalem. In his old age, at least, Isaiah looked forward to the time when the particular religious opportunities of the Jew should be the inheritance of humanity. For their old oppressor Egypt, for their new enemy Assyria, he anticipates the same experience and education which have made Israel the firstborn of God. Speaking to Egypt, Isaiah concludes a missionary sermon, fit to take its place beside that which Paul uttered on the Areopagus to the younger Greek civilisation, with the words, "In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel Mine inheritance."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On vv24, 28 The Destruction of the Power of Assyria
The Destruction of the Power of Assyria
A short section belonging to the same period as Isa_10:5 to Isa_12:6 (cp. Isa_14:25 with Isa_10:27); the subject is the overthrow of the Assyrian invader, and the prophecy was literally fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib's army.
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24-27. It is Jehovah's sworn and unalterable purpose to destroy the Assyrian power, that his burdensome rule over Judah and the nations may cease.
25. Upon my mountains] i.e. the mountains of Judah (Isa_49:11; Isa_65:9). 26. All the nations] Jehovah's merciful purpose embraces not only His own people, but the nations generally.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv26, 28 whole earth
whole earth
This universality is significant and marks the whole passage as referring, not merely to a near judgment upon Assyria, but in a yet larger sense to the final crash of the present world-system at the end of the age. (See "Times of the Gentiles," Luk 21:24; Rev 16:14; Dan 2:44; Dan 2:45 "Armageddon,"; Rev 16:14; Rev 19:17. No other such universal catastrophe on the nations is known to Scripture.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv24, 26, 28 Yahweh of hosts
Yahweh of hosts
See how you translated this in Isaiah 1:9.
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as I have intended, so it will come about; and as I have purposed, so it will be
These two phrases mean basically the same thing. AT: "the things that I have planned will surely happen" (See: Parallelism)
I will break the Assyrian in my land
Breaking represents defeating. AT: "I will defeat the Assyrian in my land" or "I will cause the Assyrian in my land to be defeated" (See: Metaphor)
the Assyrian
This represents the Assyrian king and his army. AT: "the king of Assyria and his army" or "the Assyrian army" (See: Synecdoche)
trample him underfoot
This represents completely defeating him. (See: Metaphor)
Then his yoke will be lifted from off them and his burden from off their shoulder
This can be expressed with an active verb. AT: "Then I will lift his yoke from them and his burden from their shoulder" (See: Active or Passive)
Then his yoke will be lifted from off them and his burden from off their shoulder
These two phrases mean basically the same thing. Lifting the yoke and burden represents setting people free from slavery. AT: "Then I will set the Israelites free from slavery to Assyria like removing a heavy burden from their shoulder" (See: Parallelism and Metaphor)
his yoke ... his burden
The word "his" refers to Assyria.
from off them ... from off their shoulder
The words "them" and "their" refer to the people of Israel.
translationWords
Yahweh of hosts
oath
Assyria
yoke
burden
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv24–26 14:24-27 This prophecy resumes declaring judgment on Assyria (see…
14:24-27 This prophecy resumes declaring judgment on Assyria (see ch 10). The placement of this prophecy after the judgment against Babylon suggests close connections between Assyria and Babylon.
14:24 I have planned . . . I have decided: No nation can either diminish or resist God’s plans to bring judgment against Assyria or his plans in general. The prophets understood and communicated God’s plan so that his people could respond appropriately.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.