TT sought out from all quarters; they kindle the | though another is made to take his place. This lamps-they clarify the wine-they set the ranks is only a rhetorical artifice to heighten the effect. in order they prepare carpets, etc. But y The very words "what he sees he will declare," means in Hebrew nothing else than speculari; contain a praise of the watchman. For it is not and (which occurs only here, but with which said . That would indicate only the duty of TY, Lam. iv. 17, and 9, ver. 8, may be com- the watchman. But T gives us to understand pared) must accordingly denote specula, "watch- that he will really fulfil this duty. The perfects tower, watch, looking out." It seems to me that up ver. 7, cannot mean," and he shall the Prophet does not wish us to suppose that in a city surrounded by the enemy, a merry carousal took place without the precaution of appointing guards. He means to say only that they were so reckless as to enjoy a banquet even though watches had been set. How dangerous even that could be, is soon apparent when the cry reaches the revellers in the midst of their carousal: the foe is come, anoint the shield! So foolhardy are TT: see, hearken." For the watchman is not to be .... war. TT phet actually appointed the watchman, would properly be told immediately after issuing the command. But this point, as self-evident, is here they that they do not abandon their revelry given by the LORD to the Prophet is related (vii. passed over, as in other cases where a command (which was proverbial and is mentioned in Scrip- 3 sqq.; viii. 1 sq., 3 sqq.). The watchman saw ture xiv. 11; xlvii. 1; Jer. li. 7; Dan. v. 1, and elsewhere, e. g., in CURTIUS V. 6); but in the first a train of horsemen (3 is a collective, bepresence of the beleaguering foe indulge in ban- sides in Isaiah only, v. 10, in the signification queting, though they took the precaution of set- jugum; is eques, then sometimes equus, xxi. ting a watch. According to XENOPHON as quoted above, 25, there was really a guard in the castle, 6, 7; xxviii. 28; xxxi. 1; xxxvi. 9) followed but they were ( 27) intoxicated. The princes called attention to the fact that the Medes were by a train of asses and camels. Interpreters have who are said only now to arise and anoint the renowned for their cavalry (Cyrop. I. 6, 10), shield, are the surprised Babylonians. The anointing of the leather shield (2 Sam. i. 21) was Persians (Cyrop. iv. 3, 4 sqq.; vi. 1, 26 sqq.). We which Cyrus was the first to introduce among the in order to make it more compact, firm, smooth and shining (comp. HERZOG P. Enc., and WINER learn from this last place that Cyrus furnished his Real-Lex. Art. Schild). [In 2 Sam. i. 21 the army with numerous and improved chariots of Hebrew text must be consulted. The anointing Persian cavalry in a brief period, appears from To what a formidable arm Cyrus raised the which in the E. V. is made, by supplying an ima- his being able to march against Babylon with ginary ellipsis, to refer to Saul, refers not to him, 40,000 horsemen (Cyrop. VII. 4, 16). The embut to his shield.-D. M.]. It is a sign of great ployment of asses and camels, not only for transnegligence that the Babylonians have not anointed their shields, notwithstanding the enemy port, but also in battle, is an established fact. In is before the gates. Now they must either fight nians, a nation dwelling next the Persians to the regard to asses, STRABO relates of the Caramawith unanointed shields, or yield without a east, and subdued by them, that they "prai struggle. όνοις οἱ πολλοὶ καὶ πρὸς πόλεμον σπάνει τῶν ἵππων.” And HERODOTUS relates that the Scythians in fighting against the Persians under Darius Hystaspis, found no worse enemies than the asses, at whose strange appearance and braying the horses took fright (iv. 129). That Cyrus himself employed camels in battle is expressly related by XENOPHON: Cyrop. vi. 1,30: vii. 1, 22, 27. The watchman sees then an army in march. The Prophet does not mention that he saw infantry. Prominence is evidently given only to what is peculiar and characteristic. And, in fact, hardly another army could have been then found which presented such a diversity of animals used in war as the Persian host with its wonderful variety of races. The watchman not only saw, he also heard, or rather tried to hear; for he really heard nothing at first. The strange, long, martial train disappeared. The watchman then sees and hears nothing for a long time. This surprises him. He becomes impatient. He is not aware that meanwhile a great work is accomplishing which requires time: the capture of Babylon. In his impatience, which does not, however, lessen his zeal, he calls now with a lion's voice (properly as a lion, comp. Ps. xxii. 14; Isa. xlvi. 3, etc.; Rev x. 3): I stand in vain night and day on the watch-tower. We see from this that that army in march, ver. 7, was a passing appearance, and 6. For thus hath-broken unto the ground. Vers. 6-9. in the beginning of ver. 6 seems to be explicative. In fact the vers. 6-9 are related to the preceding 2-5 as an explanation and more particular description. If we could already from verses 2-5 know in general that the ruin of Babylon through Elam and Media was decreed, and that it would be effected by an assault, we see (ver. 7) the army of the Elamites and Medians in march before our eyes, and (ver. 9) the complete success of the attack is announced. The train of thought is the following: Babylon is to be besieged by Elam and Media, and to be captured by a surprise. For the Prophet sees a mighty army moving against Babylon, and soon after, another band coming from Babylon, which proclaims the downfall of the city and of its idols. The connecting of the two parts by the formula: "For thus said Jehovah," reminds one of chap viii. 11. What the Prophet now beholds in vision is represented in what follows, as if a watchman appointed by the command of God had seen it, and communicated it to him. This style of costume is very effective (comp. 2 Sam. xviii. 24 sqq.; 2 Kings ix. 17 sqq.). Elsewhere the Prophet himself is represented as a watchman on the pinnacle (Hab. ii. 1; Zech. i. 8 sqq.). And, indeed, here too Isaiah himself is the watchman, priate remark that Isaiah has perhaps in his eye here" the well-known iconoclastic zeal of the Persians." 12. T:' ing and sifting by divine judgments, xxv. 10; xxviii. 27 sq.; xli. 15; Micah iv. 13; Hab. iii. The expression - reminds one of such expressions as A son of the threshing-floor is one who lies on it, and is threshed, and that not merely briefly and accidentally, but for a long time, as it were habitually. For he belongs to the floor as a child to its mother. Accordingly is stronger than that after it had vanished, there had been a pause, which the watchman could not explain. He addresses his call to ', that is to Jehovah. At the same time the Prophet gives up the assumed 7. O my threshing―unto you.-Ver. 10. character, and lets us see plainly that he himself These words intimate the proper immediate object is the watchman. HITZIG and MEIER would of the prophecy. Judah is to be comforted by the read "my lord." This would suit the connec- prediction of the fall of the Babylonian fortress. tion better, but must the more readily be rejected The words seem aimless, if what precedes them is as a correction, as the Prophet could quite easily regarded as vaticinium post eventum. We have in drop the character which he personates. The ver. 10 a summary of chaps. xl.-lxvi. 777 watchman had hardly uttered these complaining (for which other editions read ) is aπ. λɛy. words when that for which he had waited so long It means what is crushed by threshing. Israel is took place. He sees again something which so called as the object of the divine judgment gives information: a little band of men who ride which was executed on him by means of the exile. in pairs, comes from Babylon. The -is is frequently employed in the sense of cleansto be regarded as spoken with emphasis. For it stands in a certain contrast to what precedes; hitherto I have perceived nothing, but now, etc. We must, therefore, translate, “but, lo, there comes," etc. Who is the subject of " in ver. 9? Obviously the watchman. We might think of the troop of horsemen coming from Babylon. This would be possible. But this alteration of the subject would need to be indicated in some way. The want of any indication of this kind is in favor of our assuming the same subject that had. Israel is so named because in the exile governed the whole preceding series of sentences. The watchman learned by inquiry or knew it from infallible signs: Babylon is fallen! A grand utterance! Hence the repetition of . In Jer. li. 8 this place is quoted. Also in Rev. xviii. 2. Jeremiah likewise emphatically sets forth the downfall of Babylon as a defeat of its gods (Jer. 1. 2, 38; li. 44, 47, 52). The subject of 2 can be Jehovah. It can also be he who was Jehovah's instrument for this work, the conqueror of Babylon Cyrus. This "he" who afterwards comes clearly and distinctly under his proper name into the Prophet's field of vision, appears here still veiled as it were: the threshing floor had become his home, his mother-country. It is the Prophet who speaks, but in the name, and as it were, out of the soul of God. Otherwise the second half of this verse threshed people, to whom the threshing-floor had become a home, is still the Prophet's own beloved people. With sorrow he announces to them that they must be threshed in Babylon; with joy he declares that they will be delivered from the threshing-floor. Both events are certain. And Israel may and ought to believe this. It is indeed inconceivable that the Prophet can make such an announcement. He himself does not understand even the connection. He therefore would contain an intolerable transition. This is a preg-declares emphatically: I have not excogitated nant construction, comp. viii. 11; xiii. 8; xiv. 9, this; but I have heard it from Jehovah, and 10; xx. 2. DRECHSLER makes the not inappro- | therefore declare I it to you as certain truth. B.-AGAINST EDOM. CHAPTER XXI. 11, 12. That under Dumah we are to understand Edom | far-fetched is the assumption that the Simeonis conceded by almost all modern interpreters. In favor of this view there are the following reasons: 1) All other localities, which actually bear the name of Dumah, are either too near or too remote, and do not furnish any hold for the assumption that Isaiah made them the objects of a Massa (oracle). What would such a Massa mean as directed against the isolated city of Dumah, situated in the mountains of Judah (Josh. xv. 52), or against that Ishmaelitish Dumah, of which mention is made in Gen. xxv. 14; 1 Chr. i. 30, or against the three still more distant and insignificant places called Dumah, which are not once mentioned in the Old Testament, and which according to the Arabian geographers are situated in Irak, Mesopotamia and Syria (comp. GESENIUS, DELITZSCH, and KNOBEL on our place)? We could most readily think of the Ishmaelitish Dumah (Genesis xxv. 14). But how ites, who, according to 1 Chron. iv. 42 sq., emigrated to Edom, settled just in Dumah! And does not our Massa stand among prophecies directed against heathen nations? 2) The Prophet declares expressly that the cry came to him from Seir. But would he have uttered the taunting expression of ver. 12 against Israelites dwelling on mount Seir? 3) All the four prophecies in chaps. xxi. and xxii. have, as was already remarked, emblematic inscriptions. It accords, therefore, entirely with the manner of forming inscriptions observed in these chapters, if we assume that is intentionally formed from Dis. Consul WETZSTEIN indeed affirms in his Excursus on Isa. xxi. in DELITZSCH's Commentary, p. 692, that the putting of Dumah for Edom by a play upon the name, would necessarily be misunderstood. But this is by no means the case. For the character of the other inscriptions gives every reader an obvious hint how this one too is to be taken. And then we have the words " out of Seir" immediately following. That Isaiah is the author of this prophecy is disputed by some rationalistic interpreters (PAULUS, BAUR, EICHHORN, ROSENMUELLER), but is maintained by even GESENIUS, HITZIG, HENDEWERK, EWALD and KNOBEL. It most clearly bears the stamp of Isaiah's style, which only the most obstinate prejudice can fail to see. It is difficult to say anything respecting the time of composition. If we should insist with KNOBEL that the question put by the Idumeans to the Prophet supposes a close relation between them and the Jews, and that such a relation existed only during the rule of Uzziah and Jotham over Judah, which lasted till 743, we should arrive at the conclusion that the prophecy was composed before 743. But the night here spoken of, if we have respect to the then existing state of affairs and to the analogy of all Isaiah's prophecies, cannot possibly mean anything else than the misery threatened by the Assyrian power. If now the Edomites are represented as inquiring if this calamity will soon end, they must in that case have had some experience of it. During the reign of Uzziah and Jotham, however, they had not yet suffered from the Assyrian dominion. The time when the Assyrians threatened the freedom of all nations as far as Egypt (EWALD, Gesch. des V. Isr. III. p. 670; comp. HITZIG, Gesch. des V. Isr. p. 221) was rather the period after the capture of Samaria, when the Assyrian king was engaged in war against Egypt, and was obliged to take care to secure his left flank, and his line of retreat against the warlike nations that occupied the country between Palestine and Egypt. This was the time of Hezekiah (comp. remarks on xx. 1), or more exactly, the time between the capture of Samaria and the baffled attempt on Jerusalem by the army of Sennacherib (xxxvi. and xxxvii.). At that time the Assyrians frequently penetrated into the South of Palestine. Then, if ever, was the time when an inquiry, like that contained in this prophecy, could come from Edom to the Prophet of Jehovah in Jerusalem. 11 CHAPTER XXI. 11, 12. THE BURDEN OF DUMAH. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? 12 The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night; TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. Ver. 11. The participle without specification of subject is often used for the finite verb (Ex. v. 16; Gen. for xxiv. 30; xxxii. 7; Isa. xi. 6, etc..). Here p stands and implies the impersonal or indefinite subject (ix. 5; Jer. xxiii. 6; xxxiii. 16, et saepe). The form in the second question may have been chosen for the sake of variety, as had been employed in the first question. Moreover, it is not improbable that is the Idumean form of the word, as we have already in xv. 1 found it to be the form used by the Moabites. T: Ver. 12. is the Aramaean word for i, but occurs not unfrequently in Hebrew authors. Isaiah, in particular, uses the word often, ver. 14; xli. 5, 23, 25; xliv. 7; xlv. 11; lvi. 9, 12 (in the two last the imperative form also). But the NN (with as the last radical letter) is found only here and Deut. xxxiii. 21.nya occurs in the Hebrew parts of the Old Testament only in three other places, viz., xxx. 13; lxiv. 1 in the sense of tumescere, ebullire, and Obad. 6 in the sense of searching, seeking out, studiose quacrere. In this latter signification the word is common in the Aramaean (Dan. ii. 13, 16, 23; vi. 5, 8, etc.). EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 1. The Prophet hears a cry sounding forth from Seir putting to him as watchman the question: How much of the night is past? Thereupon the watchman answers: Morning comes, and also night i. e., first a ray of morning light, then immediately dark night again. And when it will have become night again, you can, if you please, again inquire. Quaerere licet. Whether you will receive a favorable answer is another question. 2. The burden-return, come.-Vers. 1112. The appellative noun occurs only in two places of the Old Testament: Ps. xciv. 17; cxv. 17. In these places the word denotes that world of death where everlasting silence reigns. In the passage before us the word has manifestly a similar meaning. Dumah has, it is true, no etymological connection with Edom. For the latter is derived from the root Drubrum, rufum esse in Gen. xxv. 30. But as the Prophet represents Babylon under the name of the desert of the sea," Jerusalem (xxii. 1), under the name of "the valley of vision," and further in ver. 13 takes y in a double sense, alluding to its radical meaning as an appellative, so here by a slight modification of the name he calls Edom Dumah; and hereby he intimates that Edom is destined to become Dumah, i. e., silence, to sink into the silence of nonentity.-Seir is the mountainous region which extends from the south | tion? The answer for him who can understand of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic gulf, and which became the abode of Esau,(Gen. xxxii. 3; xxxiii. 14, 16; xxxvi. 8) and of his descendants, who are thence called the children of Seir (2 Chron. xxv. 11, 14). The word is found only here in Isaiah. Elsewhere the Prophet always uses Edom. It is natural for him to employ the name Seir here. For if the call is to sound forth from Edom to Jerusalem, it must proceed from the mountain-height, and not from the valley. The Prophet is addressed as , because he is regarded as standing on his watch. The word is of like import with a ver. 6, and this affinity of signification is one reason for placing together the prophecies against Babylon (vers. 1-10) and Edom (vers. 11 and 12). ¡ before is partitive. How much of the night (the night of tribulation, comp. v. 30; viii. 20 sqq. xlvii. 5; Jer. xv. 9; MICAH, iii. 6, etc.), is past? As a sick man who cannot sleep or compose himself, so Edom in distress inquires if the night will not soon come to an end. The repetition of the question indicates the intensity of the wish that the night may speedily be gone. The answer to the question is obscure, and seems to be designedly oracular, and at the same time ironical. The first part of the answer runs (ver. 12) morning is come, and also night. What does this mean? How can morning and night come together? Or, how can it be yet night if the morning is come? If we compare the historical events to which the Prophet's answer refers, we can understand these words which must have been unintelligible to the first hearers or readers of the oracle. For, in fact, a ray of morning light was then very soon to shine. The overthrow of Sennacherib before Jerusalem was at hand. That was morning twilight, the dawn. But the glory did not last long. For after the Assyrian power, the Babylonian quickly arises, and completes what the former began (Jer. xxv. 21; xxvii. 3; xlix. 7 sqq.). This change is frequently repeated: the "Chaldaean time of judgment is followed by the Persian, the Persian by the Grecian, the Grecian by the Roman; ever for a brief interval a gleam of morning for Edom (think particularly of the time of the Herods), which was quickly lost in the returning night, till Edom was turned entirely into silence, and disappeared from history (DELITZSCH). The second part of the answer is, if possible, still more enigmatical than the first. The Prophet in dismissing those who question him, by telling them that they may come again, manifestly intends to mock them. For of what advantage is it to be allowed to come again? They knew they might do so. But what will they hear if they come again? What has the Prophet to announce to them as the final doom of their na the hint is given by the word Dumah. The words for "come" and " inquire" belong rather to the Aramaean than to the Hebrew dialect, the word for "inquire" occurs farther in this sense, only in Daniel, and in the prophecy of Obadiah, of which Edom is the subject. Further, the singular verbal ending, which Isaiah here multiplies, making a sort of rhyme out of it, was probably current in the Idumean idiom. He mocks the inquirers, therefore, with Idumean sounds. "Return, come," is a pleonasm employed for the sake of the rhyme in the Hebrew. If, then, in ver. 12 there is irony both in the style and sense, it is more than probable that an actual inquiry vented such a question as suitable to the circumcame to the Prophet from Edom, than that he instances. For why should he have taunted the Edomites for their questioning, if they had not really inquired of him? That would have been a mockery altogether unjust and uncalled for. But it is quite probable that such a question was really put to the Prophet. The Edomites saw in Jehovah the national God of the Israelites, and conceded to Him the same real existence which they ascribed to their own false gods. From their point of view Jehovah could have prophets by whom He revealed His will and futurity; as their gods had their oracles and their organs in the goëtae. Such recognition on the part of the heathen of a divine power in the prophets of Israel is oftentimes met with. The king of Assyria, for example, sent Naaman to Samaria that Elisha might heal him (2 Kings v. 1 sqq.). The Syrian king believed that the same Elisha betrayed all his plans to the king of Israel (2 Kings vi. 12 sqq.). The Syrian Benhadad sent Hazael to Elisha to inquire if he would recover from his sickness (2 Kings viii. 7 sqq.). The fame too of Isaiah, as a great Prophet of Jehovah, could have extended to Edom, and, though Edom was no longer in a state of dependence on Judah, the common distress could have occasioned the inquiry. But this question, as it did not proceed from the right believing state of heart, but from an essentially heathen way of thinking, drew from the Prophet an ironical rebuff. [May not those closing words, "if ye will inquire, inquire ye," be intended to intimate that further disclosures would be afterwards made in regard to the future of Edom? The Prophet in the 34th chapter actually returns to this subject, and gives in plain terms the information which he here withholds. Other prophets, as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah and Malachi foretell the judgment that would come upon Edom, and the solitude and desolation to which it should be reduced. All travellers who have visited the country, testify to the fulfilment of these predictions, and report that Edom has become a veritable Dumah, a land of silence.-D. M.] 13 C.-AGAINST ARABIA. CHAP. XXI. 13-17. THE BURDEN UPON ARABIA. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim. 14 The inhabitants of the land of Tema 'Brought water to him that was thirsty, From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, 16 For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, 17 And the residue of the number of archers, For the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it. the pausal form is, which, except in pause, occurs • Heb. bows. the uncommon form instead of the usual, in order to give the double sense of Arabia and evening, and perhaps to intimate that Arabia should be a land not of the rising, but of the setting sun. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 1. Even the free pastoral and martial tribes of the Arabian desert must succumb to a power that crushes all before it. The Prophet vividly describes the fate of those tribes in his own peculiar way by setting before our eyes one effect of the pressure of the great worldly power. The caravans proceeding to the various chief emporiums of trade in ancient times, such as Tyre, Sidon, Babylon, were wont to cross the desert without molestation from mighty foes. But now a force assails them, against which they are unable to defend themselves, as they could against the attacks of the separate plundering tribes of Bedouins (comp. MOVERS, Phon. II., p. 409). They are forced to give way, and are scattered. The fugitives seek shelter where they can find it. They are fortunate if, far from the regular route, in one of the oäses, or on a mountain slope, they can reach a wood which will conceal them from the eyes of their pursuers, and in which they can find pasture and shade for their cattle. Out of this wood they dare not venture. In order, therefore, that the may obtain subsistence, the inhabitants of th neighboring places must bring them bread an water (vers. 13, 14). From this single circum stance it is easy to infer that the glory of th Arabians who bordered on Syria and Babylon, a whose representatives the Kedarenes are me tioned, is hastening to an end. Within the spa of a year, says the Prophet, their power will reduced to a minimum (vers. 16, 17). 2. In the forest-of war.- -Vers. 13-15. do not think that we should, as WETZSTEIN SU poses, take y' in the sense of the Arabic war, e. a place covered with fragments of volcan rock. For the Hebrew word never means an thing else than forest. We are simply inform here that the caravans driven from their cour sought shelter in some wood; and woods the actually are there, partly in the oäses, partly the slopes of the western mountains. The for conceals the fugitives, and at the same time f |