torture. Yet it seems to me that locus languendi, even if
one overlooks the permutation of N and , is still a
vocabulum satis languidum for place of torture. I would

like therefore, with J. D. MICHAELIS, GESENIUS, KNOBEL,
MEIER and others, to assume that 777 is an error
of transcribing for 3, as also an old edition
(Thessalon, 1,600) actually reads. It favors this, too, that
(superbire, opprimire) and also correspond in
parallelism, iii. 5.—Ver. 5. '
(comp. Ezek.
xix. 11), as epexegesis of D'y
is any way to
be understood as a tyrant's sceptre. This is confirmed
by the statement of ver. 6.-Ver. 6. The expression
occurs only here: in Isa. i. 5; xxxi.

6; lix. 13, in the sense of revolt. On see at x. 4.
The conjecture of DOEDERLEIN, that instead of 77

אֵשֶׁת מֵאֵךhas, according to the analogy | although there is no analogy for this, for מַרְדַת we should read

of, much plausibility. The confounding of and not analogous, and before strong consonants always might easily happen in the unpointed text. Neither lengthens to ī as substitute for doubling (EWALD, § 84 a.`. 7775 or 77 occur elsewhere. 77 is nom. passivum: the being pursued, being hounded on, like being scared off, cast away, 2 Sam. xxiii. 6. stations, Isa. xxix. 3. a, stirred in, Lev. vi. 14, etc. curs again liv. 2; lviii. 1.— kindred to (comp. EWALD, 322, a.), is poetic negation. It occurs in Christ) is named 'Eλλýλ by EPIPHANIUS (Adv. Haer. II. p. 127. Ed. Paris.). Also BuxTORF (Lex. Chald. talm. et Rabb. Isaiah, again only xxxii. 10. See on

xvii. 13: with only in this place, which seems to depend on the latent notion of lording it, like 77 however is the nearer, n, are construed with the Accus., and .Ver. 15. The adversative thought is introduced by 7. The restrictive fundamental meaning (" only," which receives adversative force in such a connection nisi rectius dixeris i. e. sed. comp. Jer. v. 5) seems to involve here a certain irony: but pity, that thou must down to

The .י) צפון stands opposed to ירכתי בור .Orkus | עוֹרֵר the discourse continues with the masculine form

comp. on xiii. 13, where it is associated with .-Ver. 17. The masculine suffixes in 1 and 10 refer to a latent masculine notion in, probably to P, which Isaiah is wont to use as parallel with ♫ (xviii. 3; xxvi. 18), and uses as masculine oftener than all other Old Testament writers (ix. 18; xviii. 2; xxvi. 18; lxvi. 8, beside these only Gen. xiii. 6). This is favored,

אסירי but אסירי תבל for there is no אסירים also, by

Poccurs (Lam. iii 34). [“The anomaly of gender may be done away by referring both the pronouns to the King himself, who might just as well be said to have destroyed his own cities, as his own land and his own people (ver. 20), the rather as his sway is supposed to have been universal.-J. A A.].—Concerning the pregnant construction л comp. Jer. 1. 33.--Ver. 19. is an exclusively Isaianic word. It occurs, beside the present, only xi. 1, lx. 21, except where Dan. xi. 7 quotes xi. 1.—, in Isaiah only here, is probably

chosen for the sake of the alliteration.

Isaiah again lxiii. 12.

in

only here.- in מטען

5 is Kaph veritatis (comp. on xiii. 6) and what has been said figuratively is now said without figure.19 occurs again xxxiv. 3; xxxvii. 36; lxvi. 24. Part. i only here; other forms from a ver. 25; Ixiii. 6, Ver. 20. from only here in Isaiah.

18.

Comp. Gen. xix. 6. Ver. 21. poetic; occurs again xxvi. 10, 11, 14, 18; xxxiii. 20, 21, 23, 24; xxxv. 9; xl. 24; xliii. 17; xliv. 8, 9; comp. on xxvi. 8.—Ver. 22. Of the pairs of alliterated words is a current word with Isaiah (comp. at vii. 13; x. 19), stand together in the three passages where they recur: Gen. xxi. 23; Job xviii. 19 and here.

["The specific meaning son and nephew (i. e., nepos, grandson), given in the Engl. Version, and most of the early writers, and retained by UMBREIT, is derived from the Chaldee Paraphrase (17). ABEN EZRA makes the language still more definite by explaining to

נכר a son, and נין,a father שאר ,be a man himself

grandson.--But the more general meaning of the terms now held to be correct, is given in the LXX. (ovoμа Kai Kaтáλeiμμa kai orépua) and the VULGATE (nomen et reliquias et germen et progeniem.)"-J. A. A.]

Ver. 23. NON is Pilp., of a root N (NIU) pellere,

protrudere, that occurs only here, from which also the substantive NUNUD is formed. Some have justly found in this word a reference to ` clay, out of which the brick-builded Babylon emerged. But the broom, of which Jehovah makes use, is (infin. nomin.), destruction.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

(vers. 20, 21). Finally Jehovah Himself confirms the announcement of destruction, extending the warning of punishment to Babylon entire, and presents to it the prospect of desolation in the same manner as occurs chap. xiii. ver. 21 sq. (vers. | 22, 23).

2. And it shall come to pass- -hindereth.-Vers. 3, 6. A song of derision about the representative of the Babylonish world-power cannot be appropriate while one is in its power. When one is out of reach of his arm, then the long pent-up resentment may find expression. The service (y, comp. xxviii. 21; xxxii. 17) is also called "hard" (, Exod. i. 6; vi. 9; Deut. xxvi. 6) in the description of the Egyptian bondage. Thus we have a reminder of the resemblance between the first and the second exile.

1. In that day wherein the LORD will grant Israel the deliverance described in vers. 1, 2, Israel shall sing a song of derision about the king of Babylon (vers. 3, 4a). The Prophet has no particular king in mind, but the king of Babylon in abstracto. With wonderful poetic vigor and beauty he shows how the proud possessor of the worldpower, who in titanic arrogance would mount to equality with the very Godhead, shall be cast down to the lowest degradation and wretchedness by the omnipotence of the true God. He begins with a joyful exclamation that the scourge of the nations is broken (vers. 46-6). The earth now has rest; the very cypresses and cedars rejoice that they are no more felled (vers. 7, 8). On the other hand, the under-world, the kingdom of the dead, rises in commotion at the new arrival. Spectres hurry to meet him-the princes under them rise off their seats (ver. 9). "Thou, too, comest to us," they call to him (ver. 10). Then the Prophet takes up the discourse again, personating Israel, into whose mouth he puts the words, and brings out the contrast in the history of the Babylonian: Thy pomp is cast down to hell, the sound of revel in thy palaces is hushed, and thy body moulders in the grave, a star cast down from heaven (vers. 10-12). Thou wouldst raise thyself to the level of the Godhead, and now descendest into the deepest depth of the lower world (vers. 13-15). Also the subjects of the dead king express their thoughts at the spectacle of the unburied, cast-away corpse, seeing in this present wretchedness the punishment of past wrong-do- | ing: Is this the man that shook and desolated the earth (vers. 16, 17)? While the bodies of other kings lie quiet in their graves, his corpse, without a grave, is cast away as a despised and tram- 4. Hell from beneath -like unto us. pled carcase (vers. 18, 19). This is the punish--Vers. 9, 10. On Sheol see ver. 14. ["The Engment for his having ruined land and nation. lish word Hell, though now appropriated to the Therefore shall his generation be exterminated condition or place of future torments, corresponda

3. The whole earth - - against us.-Vers. 7, 8. But not merely the world of mankind, the impersonal creatures were disquieted by this world-despot, who knew no law but his own passions, and they, too, rejoice, jubilant at the repose. Representative of all others, the elevated giants of the forest high up on Lebanon speak, to utter their joy that, since the end of the tyrant, they are no more felled. Cypress (xxxvii. 24; xli. 19; lv. 13; lx. 13), a hard and lasting wood, was used, not only for house and ship-building (1 Kings v. 8, 10; Ezek. xxvii. 5), but also in the manufacture of lances (Nah. ii. 4) and musical instruments (2 Sam. vi. 5; comp. Isa. xiv. 11). [“According to J. D. MICHAELIS, Antilibanus is clothed with firs as Libanus or Lebanon proper is with cedars, and both are here introduced as joining in the general triumph. J. A. A.]

in etymology and early usage to the Hebrew word | Canaanitish giants who were exterminated by diin question. GESENIUS derives it, with the Ger- vine command, and might be chosen to represent man Hölle, from Höhle, "hollow" but the Eng-the whole class of departed sinners. Or, in this lish etymologists from the Anglo-Saxon helan, "to case, we may suppose the kings and great ones of cover," which amounts to the same thing,-the the earth to be distinguished from the vulgar dead ideas of a hollow and a covered place being equally as giants or gigantic forms. Either of these hyappropriate. As Sheol, retained by HENDERSON, potheses precludes the necessity of finding a new and the Greek word Hades, introduced by LowTH root for a common word, or of denying its plain and BARNES, require explanation also, the strong use elsewhere. As to mere poetical effect, so and homely Saxon form will be preferred by often made a test of truth, there can be no comevery unsophisticated taste. EWALD and UM-parison between the description of the dead as BREIT [and NAEGELSBACH] have the good taste weak or quiet ones, and the sublime conception of to restore the old word Hölle in their versions. gigantic shades or phantoms." Some comment J. A. A.] As the Prophet has before personified on the text as if it were "not a mere prosopopœia the trees of Lebanon, so here he personifies the or poetical creation of the highest order, but a world of the dead. He presents it as governed by chapter from the popular belief of the Jews as to a common will. This will, so to speak, the will the locality, contents and transactions of the unof the ruler, roused by the appearance of the king seen world. Thus GESENIUS, in his Lexicon and of Babylon, electrifies the entire kingdom, so that Commentary, gives a minute topographical deit gets into unusual commotion and turns to the scription of Sheol, as the Hebrews believed it to approaching king in wonder (comp. ver. 16). exist. With equal truth a diligent compiler might Especially the kings already there in the king-construct a map of hell, as conceived by the Engdom of the dead, the colleagues of the Babylonian,lish Puritans, from the descriptive portions of are in commotion. D'N (xxvi. 14, 19) are the Paradise Lost. This kind of exposition is chargelax, nerveless, powerless, who have no body, and able with a rhetorical incongruity in lauding the thus no life-power more, who are only outlines, creative genius of the poet, and yet making all his shades. The word is without article, likely be- grand creations commonplace articles of popular cause not all 7, but only a part of them, i. e., belief. The true view of the matter, as determined all (the strong ones, or he-goats) shall be both by piety and taste, appears to be that the pasmade to rise. These are called he-goats (i. 11; sage now before us comprehends two elements, and xxxiv. 6), not only because on earth they were only two: religious verities or certain facts, and the leader-goats of the nation-flocks (Zech. x. 3; poetical embellishments. It may not be easy to Ps. lxviii. 31; Jer. 1. 8), but because they are still distinguish clearly between these-but it is only such. It seems to me that there underlies here between these that we are able or have any occathe representation of Ps. xlix. (14) 15: "Like sion to distinguish. The admission of a tertium sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall pas- quid in the shape of superstitious fables is as false ture them" [feed on them, Eng. Version.]. There-in rhetoric as in theology." J. A. A.] fore, perhaps it reads, earth, and not the earth, for the latter would be the earth as abode of the living. In the kingdom of the dead the dead are like a great flock-death pastures them: but those that were he-goats on earth are such also in the under-world. For the latter has no independent life. It only reflects in outline what life accomplished in complete, corporeal existence. Only to the end of ver. 10 do the words of the shades extend. For, on the one hand, much discourse does not become them (KNOBEL), and, on the other, much of what follows does not become the mouths of shades, viz.: the derision of the Babylonian that would retort on themselves, and because vers. 16 a and 20 a they would speak of themselves in the third person. Therefore from ver. 11 on the author of the Maschal again speaks. ["The ancient versions and all the early writers understand D' to mean giants. Its application to the dead admits of several explanations equally plausible with that of GESENIUS (who in the earlier editions of his Lexicon and in his Commentary on Isaiah derives it from 5, but in the last edition of his Lexicon derives it from 75, to be still or quiet, a supposititious meaning founded on an Arabic analogy), and entitled to the preference according to the modern laws of lexicography, because instead of multiplying, they reduce the number of distinct significations. The shades or spectres of the dead might naturally be conceived as actually larger than the living man, since that which is shadowy and indistinct is commonly exaggerated by the fancy. Or there may be an allusion to the

5. Thy pomp- of the pit.-Vers. 11-15. The contrasts between what the Babylonian would be and what he now is are here set forth. The pomp he prepared for his eyes to see, and the glorious sounds he let his ears hear are swallowed up by hell. His body, once so dearly cared for and couched, has now maggots for a couch and worms for a covering. Passages from Job (vii. 5; xxi. 26) seem here to present themselves to the Prophet's mind. Shining and high was he once, like the morning star; now he is fallen from heaven. 'n, shining star, is called "son of the morning," because it seems to emerge out of the morning dawn (comes et alumnus aurorae). "In the southern heavens, when mirrored in the waves of the sea, this planet has a brighter gleam than with us" (LEYRER in HERZ. R. Encycl. XIX. p. 563). TERTULLIAN, GREGORY THE GREAT, and latterly STIER, with reference to Luke x. 18, have taken the star fallen from heaven for Satan. Hence originates the name Lucifer (VULGATE— although, Job xxxviii. 32, is also so rendered), έws pópoç (LXX.). Once he was mighty over the nations-but now he is himself broken

and cast to the earth (xxii. 25).

The following And thou hast said, etc. (ver. 13) seems at first sight to stand in antithesis to that vers. 13-15 belong together. For the 77, what precedes (ver. 12). But examination shows "thou art brought down," ver. 15, corresponds to the hys, "I will ascend," of vers. 13 and 14, and

ver. 12 is complete in itself, each clause of it containing a complete antithesis; the lofty star is fallen, the conqueror lies prostrate on the ground. Thus the before is not adversative, but simply the copulative: and thou who thoughtst to mount to the heavens must go down to hell. The world-power is by its very nature inimical to God: its aim is to supplant God and put itself in His place. This tendency is indwelling in the worldpower derived from its transcendental author, Satan, and is realized in every particular representative. Thus, then, here the Babylonian expresses his purpose of assuming the highest place, not simply on earth among the lords of the world, but in heaven itself, and that above the stars, which seem here to be conceived of as the residences of the spirits of God, the M, Job xxxviii. 7, and the spheres of their manifestation, according to heathen notions, which very well suit in the mouth of the Babylonian. Let him be enthroned above the stars, and he, too, is "god of hosts." Let the throne of the potentate be above the stars; then he shall stand on the pinnacle of the sacred mountain of the gods, about which the constellations circle, and which the heathen notions of the Orient represent as in the North. This mountain is variously named by the different nations. It is called Meru (Kailasa, in the direction beyond the Himalaia) by those in India, Alburg by the others; nor does the Olympus of the Greeks stand wholly disconnected herewith. Comp. RHODE, Heil. Saga des Zendvolkes, p. 229 sq.; GESENIUS, Jes. II. p. 516 sqq.; LASSEN, Ind. Alterthumskunde I. p. 34 sq.; MOVERS, Phön. II. 1, p. 414; KOHUT, Jüd. Angelol. u. Daemonol. in den Abhh. f. d. Kunde des Morgenl., 1866, p. 57.

highest place. And this, as remarked above, is the aim of Satan and of his earthly sphere of power, the world-power, which culminates in Antichrist (Dan. xi. 36; 2 Thess. ii. 3 sq.). This tendency of the world-power explains how, not only heathen, but now and then also Jewish and Christian princes, have laid claim to divine honors, or at least have suffered such to be paid them. CURTIUS (VIII. 5) praises the Persians because: non pie solum, sed etiam prudenter reges suos inter Deos colunt. In inscriptions Persian kings are explicitly called čkyovo Vεбv, ÈK YévoνÇ DEĞν, and even coi. Comp. HENGSTENBERG, Introd. to the O. Test. I. [p. 124 sqq. of the German Ed.]. This is well known in regard to the Roman Emperors. Such deification had its extremest illustration in the case of Diocletian, who made himself an object of divine worship as a representative of the highest God. Comp. ALB. VOGEL, Prof., Der Kaiser Diocletian, ein Vortrag, Gotha, 1857. Herod let himself be called God, and had to suffer dearly for that assumption of honor such as belongs to God alone (Acts xii. 21 sqq.). In Christian Europe, too, there have not been wanting instances of such heathenish adulation of princes. See under Doctrinal and Ethical remarks below.

Ver. 15 expresses, in contrast with the pretensions of the Babylonian, what his actual fate shall be. [See above in Text. and Gram.]

6. They that see -with cities.-Vers. "They that see" are not the denizens of 16-21. hell, for they have before them the dead as an unburied corpse. The underlying thought of the passage is, however, that the sins of the deceased are enumerated (vers. 16, 17), and his fate is designated as their merited punishment. Thus it says, "they that see thee," i. e. they that see thee lying an unburied corpse look upon thee. Because he destroyed the rest of countries, he himself now finds no rest in the grave. Because he made a desert of the fruitful land to be taken in this sense here in contrast with 7272, comp. on xiii. 11), he lies himself a deserted carcase; because he showed no pity to prisoners, he is himself pitilessly dealt with.

Many expositors down to FUERST (Conc. p. 501) and SHEGG [J. A. A. states both views without deciding; so also substantially BIRKS] have been led by the expression to hold that the mountain meant in the text is Zion, as the gathering place of the Israelites, for which they appeal especially to Ps. xlviii. 3. But Zion lay neither to the north of Palestine nor to the north of Jerusalem, nor does the mention of Zion in this sense become the lips of the possessor of the worldI do not think it probable that the following power. Dne (remotest corners, ENG. VERS. words are to be ascribed to others than the D', sides), are the thighs, which (considered from those seeing thee, ver. 16, e. g. to the Prophet. The within outwardly), form the extremest boundaries, internal connection with vers. 16, 17 is too close. as well as (regarded in their junction), the ex- "Is this the man," says ver. 16? What kind of tremest points. Thus the word stands for the in- man? Why just that one who, according to ver. most corner (e.g., of a cave, 1 Sam. xxiv. 4) as 19, lies as a trampled carcase. Then ver. 22, well as for the extremest boundary of a land. what the Prophet says in the name of the LORD, Thus Jer. vi. 22; xxv. 32 says (sides, comes in all the more emphatically as confirming coasts of the earth); and here Isa. (and after him this. It is then the subjects of the king that reEzek. xxxviii. 6, 15; xxxix. 2) says (ex-mark, that whereas all other kings lie in state in tremest, highest North). The expressions "above the tombs of their ancestors (comp. 2 Kings xxi. the stars of God" and "mount of the congrega- 18, 2 Chr. xxxiii. 20) their king is cast away far tion" signify the loftiest height intensively, "the from his grave (=procul, Jer. xlviii. 45; Lam. heights of the clouds" (y-an expression iv. 9). found only here), in an extensive sense. far as the clouds extend (Ps. xxxv. 6; lvii. 11; cviii. 5) the dominion of the true God reaches, and everywhere the clouds are His air chariots and air thrones (xix. 1; Ps. xcvii. 2; civ. 3; Dan. vii. 13). If, then, the Babylonian reigns in the loftiest Most expositors in explaining the following heights and every where, he has become like the But it seems to highest God. But thereby he has supplanted the words take as part. pass. highest God: for two cannot at once occupy theme that then the two following participles appear

"

For as

When trees are felled, or pruned, many a small But he is cast away as a despised branch. branch, which compared to the whole tree is worthless, is cast aside and trampled in the

mud.