TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. On ver. 16. 1177 comp. ver. 33; i. 24; iii. 1; xix. 4. Note the paronomasia which evidently aims at an artistic sound imitation. .vers. 23, 24; iii אדני יהוה צבאות where it is always the “כרמל On ver. 17. DI' comp. on ix. 13.-fruitful, cultivated garden and field," is also elsewhere opposed to forest (xxix. 17), while again in other places 2 ; 24 .xxxvii) כרמל is mentioned as part of the יער Kings xix. 23). This is no contradiction, the notions of the two words occurring sometimes in a broader, sometimes in a narrower sense. 15; xxii. 5, 12, 14, 15; xxviii. 22; Jer. ii. 19; xlvi. 10; xlix. 5; 1. 25, 31.—D`inyp are properly "the fat parts" (comp. Gen. xxvii. 28, 39), then (abstr. pro coner. Ps. lxxviii. 31); "the fat men," by whom Isaiah understands all that have a share in Assyria's greatness. Comp. xxvii. 4, where alone the word occurs again in Isaiah.—, from attenuare, maciare, Niph. conOn ver. 18. DD, ä#. dey. Comp. 1, Syr. nesiso, voσcîv, tabescere (xvii. 4) occurs only here in Isaiah (comp. "to be sick."xxiv. 16). It means macies, tabies, “consumption, phthi- xxxiv. 3, "to pine away."- like Jer. xliv. 28; "-infin. from DD xiii. 7; xix. 1; sis.”—p verb, comp. xxx. 14; lxv. 5, p only here. : ז' Ezek. xii. 16, etc. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. T 2. Therefore--write them.-Vers. 16- | soul are the entire man (Ps. xvi. 9; lxxviii. 26; 19. "Therefore" introduces the consequences lxxxiv. 3.”)—KnobEL. I except to this only that follow the double guilt of Assyria portrayed that the expression is restricted to men. Have above. That necessary consequence is punish- not the beast and the plant a soul too? Comp. ment. The, not personal, glory of Assyria shall Gen. ii. 19. And is it not said in our very be burnt so as if the LORD kindled a fire under passage that forest and field shall be anihilated it. The comparison of the consumption which from the soul to the flesh? Thus in some sense is not meant literally, and the before Tip show soul and flesh, i. e., body are attributed to plants. From his exhaustless store the Prophet produces that no real fire is meant. It is the fire of God's another figure, and calls Assyria a weakling, who holy wrath that is the correlative of His love. pining dies away. The latter is the light of Israel in whom God takes pleasure (2 Sam. xxii. 29; Ps. xxvii. 1; Mic. vii. 8), but a consuming fire for all that is against God and His kingdom (Deut. iv. 24; ix. 3; Isa. xxx. 33; xxxiii. 14). Like ix. 17, thorns and thistles are contrasted with the nobler representatives of vegetation. The comparison does not refer to the army of Assyria with its various grades of rank and file, but to the nation with all its glory. Thorns and thistles mean all lowly and inferior persons, forest and fruitful field those of elevation and splendor. The expression "from soul to body" ( is found only here). It is to be compared with i. 6, "from the sole of the foot to the head." As the latter signifies the entire outward, visible surface of the body, so the latter the entire organism generally. Not only the outward, but the inward shall be anihilated. "For body and one. Yet a remnant shall remain, but a very feeble Of the lordly forest there shall be left only a clump that may be counted; so far from numerous that a boy can count and write a list of them. And truly, what was left of Assyria after its destruction may be compared to the little forest or grove of cedars that the traveller now finds on Lebanon. But I mean not merely the overthrow of Sennacherib, but Nineveh's destruction by the Babylonians and Medes. the Prophet's vision comprehends the whole future both of Israel and of Assyria. For The figure of the boy writing down the trees, seems to me remarkable in respect to the history of culture. We hear in this place of a boy that can write, the like of which we find even Judg. viii. 14, and that counts the trunks of the trees. Is the figure pure invention of the Prophet? or was he brought to use it from observation? II. ISRAEL'S REDEMPTION IN GENERAL. CHAPTER X. 20-24. 1. THE BELIEVING REMNANT OF ISRAEL RETURNS OUT OF THE SHATTERED 20 WORLD-POWER. CHAP. X. 20-23. AND it shall come to pass in that day, That the remnant of Israel, And such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, Shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; But shall stay upon the LORD, The Holy One of Israel in truth. 21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, Unto the mighty God. 22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, Yet a remnant 'of them shall return: The consumption decreed shall overflow 'with righteousness. 23 For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, In the midst of all the land. can only designate the fate of those Israelites that do not belong to "the remnant."-But what is Many suppose it signifies the righteous state of the whole community, which they have attained to by reason of the judgments (DRECHSLER according to xlviii. 18; Amos v. 24). But the following verse seems to me to conflict with this, which seems to be wholly an expla is found כְּלָיוֹן .These words are difficult .כליון וגו' evidently כָּלָה כליון ח' ש' צ' nation of the words | כִלְיוֹן עֵינַיִם again only Dt. xxviii. e5, in the expression כִּי to נחרצה כליון corresponds to חרוץ which, after ry (Ps. Ixix. 4; exix. 82, 123; Lam. ii. 11) must be rendered oculorum consumtio, "consumption, failure of the power of vision." So we must take it here in the sense of "wearing off, consuming, desolating." is part. pass. from, incidere, decidere, definere, decernere (comp. 1 Kings xx. 40). In Isa. it is found again only as a qualifying adjective to the threshing roller (xli. 15) or as name for the roller itself, (xxviii. 27). It is so named because an implement fur כליון חרוץ .nished with sharp corners and edges can only mean, therefore: "destruction is limited, determined, concluded.”—In 7 is easily discerned an antithesis to : for as in the latter there is the no TT Therefore out of regard for the word-pair. This latter word, too, is found only xxviii. 22, and also in Dan. ix. 27; xi. 36, where the words are repeated out of Isaiah.--But we עשה בקרב for ; עשה as object of כלח ונח' tion of something sharply marked off, so in the former must take there is the notion of flooding over (viii. 8; xxviii. 2,15,- is explanation of . Precisely thereby 17, 18; xxx. 28; xliii. 2; xlvi. 12). We thus obtain the we see that states nothing more than that wide figure of something determined, sharply defined, but over all the earth shall be known and manifest what which in a certain sense extends itself, and withal, too, overflowing with a certain effect, as it were, settling it is, viz., a proof of the righteousness of (with the accusat. of abundance). That which is God. Were p to mean the conformity of human fixed, determined, is called ', what is widespread condition to God's righteousness, then this thought עשה בכל האי could not be rendered by the simple | כליון According to the foregoing .צדקה is said to be tion. T: EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. And it shall come to pass all the land. Vers. 20-23. The Prophet turns again to his own nation. Assyria's fall is Israel's salva"In that day," i. e., when the destruction of Assyria shall have taken place (vers. 16-19), Israel will indeed still exist, but only as a remnant (vii. 3; xi. 11, 16; xxviii. 5), and as those escaped ( comp. on iv. 2). But this remnant will at last have learned what ministers to their peace. It will no more lean on Assyria as Ahaz has done. It is plainly seen from this, that the present passage was composed at a period when the Assyrian alliance (2 Kings xvi. 7 sqq.), was already an historical fact. By the single word 2, which points back to ver. 5, the Prophet indicates how foolish and ruinous that alliance was. Israel's remnant will rather lean on Jehovah, the holy God (comp. on i. 4), who is Israel's app, rock and refuge (viii. 4) What is meant by "in truth" may be best seen from Jer. iv. 1-4, who speaks of sincere, and entire return to Jehovah, of swearing in His name, "in truth, judgment and righteousness," of reformation that "breaks up the fallow ground and does not sow among thorns," of circumcision of the heart, and not of the flesh. So here, leaning on the LORD "in truth," is such wherein the heart is no longer divided between Jehovah and the creature, but belongs to Him wholly and alone. The expression is found again in Isaiah xvi. 5; xxxviii. 3; xlviii. 1; Lxi. 8; comp. Jer. xxxii. 40 sq. That it may not be thought that he has used the expression "remnant of Israel" with no special significance, the Prophet repeats it in ver. 21, with great emphasis, at the same time defining it more exactly. No false support is offered in these words, which would ill-agree with the promise that Israel shall lean on the LORD "in fancied that where Abraham's seed was, there truth." True, the Israel "according to the flesh" salvation and life were guaranteed. But to them apply the words of John Baptist: "Begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, That God is able of | arises from this, that the Prophet has in mind his these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. words in ix. 5. The return to El-gibbor-Jehovah And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the will, in its time, be possible only in the form of trees: every tree, therefore, which bringeth not the return to El-gibbor-Messiah. Therefore forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the Isaiah does not promise an unconditional, unifire." Luke iii. 8, 9. From this we see that not versal return of all that may be called Israelite, all that remain after the great judgments belong and that descends from Abraham, but he makes to "the remnant," but only those that bear a most displeasing and threatening restriction. genuine fruits of repentance. Paul confirms this And if in the time to which he points, the time Rom. xi. 4 sq., when, to the question " hath God when the world-power will be judged, Israel were cast away his people?" he replies by referring numerous as the sand by the sea-a condition to the seven thousand that did not bow the knee which is even a fulfilment of promise and a theoto Baal (1 Kings xix. 18), and then continues: cratic state of blessedness (comp., on ix. 2; Gen. even so then at this present time also, there is xxii. 17)-Jehovah still can bring Himself not a remnant according to the election of grace." to make all these Israelites according to the flesh We may say, therefore; Isaiah's remnant is the partakers of the promised blessing. This is the "election" (Ekλoyý) of Paul. "The election hath thought that Paul carries out in Rom. ix., and in obtained it, and the rest were blinded." Rom. this sense he cites our passage in vers. 27, 28. xi. 7. This is confirmed, too, by the way that "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel," Isaiah defines the aim of the return. Jer. says he says ver. 6. "Nerther, because they are the iv. 1: "If thou wilt return, O Israel, return to seed of Abraham, are they all children: but in me." A false returning, therefore, is possible Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is: They (vid. my com. on Jer. iv. 1 sqq.). Precisely on which are the children of the flesh, these are not this account Isaiah says in, our passage the rem- the children of God, but the children of the God Almighty." promise are counted for the seed," vers. 7, 8. It is not the fleshly descent from Abraham that Therefore the LORD prepares an election of which is the criterion of belonging to "the remnant," the criterion is birth from God, regeneration, but the return to God Almighty. It is plain that faith. As proof the Apostle cites, as already Jehovah the God of Israel is meant. But that said, our passage among other Old Testament Isaiah should call Him here just by this name, ❘ statements. .. אל גבור nant will return to 2. THE CONDEMNED WORLD-POWER IS NOT TO BE FEARED EVEN IN THE 24 PRESENT. CHAPTER X. 24-27. THEREFORE thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian : He shall smite thee with a rod, 1And shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. 25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, And mine anger 'in their destruction. 26 And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him According to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: And as his rod was upon the sea, So shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. 27 And it shall come to pass in that day, That his burden 'shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. 1 Or, But he shall lift up his staff for thee. • Lord Jehovah of hosts. b (turns) to. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. .Gen. xix) מִצְעָר another form for מִזְעָר .25 .On ver Heb. shall remove. • unlaced because of fat. nant sense=“directs, turns itself."-y is employed then just as ver. 3.-) han (from a tritum, consumtum esse) is är. λey. It means consumtio, i. e., of the Assyrians. Thus the words form a fitting transition to ver. 26. 20; Isa. Ixiii. 18, etc.) - parvitas, paucitas, beside here is found only xxix. 17; xvi. 14; xxiv. 6. It is thus a word peculiar to the first part of Isaiah.-The expression Dyin occurs only here and Dan. xi. 36, which is taken from our passage. Comp. Dyr y xxvi. 20. It On ver. 26. i used of "wielding" a scourge only is needless to change the reading 11 DN1. Supply here: it is used 2 Sam. xxiii. 18; 1 Chr. xi. 11, 20 of after 'DNI (comp. e. g. ix. 20) and construe in a preg-brandishing a spear. Notice the paronomasia y TT and iyi again in Isaiah only xxviii. 15, K`ri עורי must be conceived as dependent on ומטהו- On ver. 27. The last clause is obscure. It defines the manner of releasing from the yoke. an Pual occurs only here and Job xvii. 1. The original meaning of "a rope ") "to bind " ligare, pignore obligare. Piel, cum tormentis eniti, parere, but also "to twist round and round, to turn the bottom הבל is to twist" (thence חבל or cord. DELITZSCH represents, on the authority of statements of SCHEGG, that to this day in the Orient the yoke is fastened to the pole by a cord about the neck. Thus the Prophet would evidently say that, because of the fat ( causal as it often is, ii. 10; vii. 2, etc.) which grows on the well-fed Israel, the rope breaks, and thus the yoke apparatus falls off. On this account it seems to me probable that 7, (though otherwise comes from and not the reverse), is still here to be regarded as a Pual denominativum and privativum coined ad hoc (comp. on y ver. 33).The figure in most to the topmost" (French bouleverser); xiii. 5; liv. 16; Mic. ii. 10; Song of Sol. ii. 15; Eccl. v. 5. In Isa. 10 is drawn from beasts of burden. In ix. 3, xxxii. 7 there seems beside to lie in the word the mean aphy the two words are combined; but separated ing of "ensnaring." So there seems here, beside the EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Therefore thus saith of the anoint- | clause of ver. 26 contains a magnificent figure full ing (fat).-Vers. 24-27. . If all that is true that of art. First from Assyria's hand is taken the the Prophet, from ver. 5 on, has said of Assyria staff that he is to raise over Israel and put into as the momentary instrument of God's chasten- the hand of Jehovah. This appears from the reing, and how shall God's word not be sure?-lation of ver. 26 b. to the last clause of ver. 24. then Israel need not fear Assyria even in present Then this staff in the hand of Jehovah is transimpending danger. Assyria will, indeed, execute formed to the likeness of the rod with which chastisement on Israel, but only a discipline with Moses in Egypt prepared the Red Sea for a way a staff and rods (ver. 5), not with the sword, i. e. of escape for Israel (xi. 16). The sea here is that only a transitory one, not such as ends in destruc- which spreads out before Israel in the distress tion. The Prophet intimates that the captivity occasioned by Assyria. The raising up of the rod by the northern world-power will be, as it were, here () corresponds to that raising it over a continuation of that suffered from the southern. Israel ( ver. 24) for which Assyria used it. A Assyria therefore will tread in the footsteps of Egypt. He will raise the staff over Israel in the twofold raising of the rod took place in Egypt: way (ver. 26, Amos iv. 10), i. e. in the manner one over Israel, the other over the sea. Both of Egypt. For as Egypt could not attain his are repeated now. Neither the rod flourished object of extirpating the Israelite by killing the over Israel for chastisement shall be wanting, male children that were born and by hard labor, nor the rod of God, which, as there, shall open a just as little should Assyria succeed. For only a way through the deep sea of trouble. As is very little, and the wrath would cease. The familiarly known, the passage through the Red Prophet, therefore, conceives of the wrath as in Sea is often mentioned and turned to account in progress, but presents its speedy end in prospect. a variety of ways: comp. xliii. 16; 1. 2; li. 10; The Lord will brandish the scourge over Assy-xiii. 11; Ps. Ixvi. 6; lxxiv. 13; lxxvii. 20: ria as He smote Midian at the rock of Oreb lxxvii. 13; cxiv. 3, etc. (comp. ix. 3). That was one of the most glorious victories of the Israelites; but the glory of it belonged neither to Gideon nor to his army, but to the Lord (Jud. vii. 2 sqq., 25). The second At the time referred to Israel shall be freed from the yoke of Assyria (ix. 3; xiv. 25), which is signified first by the figure of the load of a beast of burden, second by that of the yoke. 28 3. THE IMPETUOUS ONSET OF THE CONDEMNED WORLD-POWER IN THE LIGHT OF ITS FINAL RUIN. CHAP. X. 28-34. HE is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; At Michmash he hath laid up his "carriages: 29 They are gone over the passage: They have taken up their lodging at Geba; Gibeah of Saul is fled. 30 'Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: 'Cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth. 31 Madmenah is removed; The inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee. 32 As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: He shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, The hill of Jerusalem. 33 Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, Shall lop the bough with terror: And the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, And the haughty shall be humbled. 34 And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, And Lebanon shall fall 'by a mighty one. On ver. 28. N with like Jud. xviii. 27, it means "the falling over on."-"——πpon, commisit, mandavit, deposuit, Jer. xxxvi. 20; xl. 7; xl. 10. On ver. 32. ♫♪ Pilel, only here; Hiph. with similar meaning, xi. 15; xiii. 2; xix. 16; 2 Kings v. 11. The swinging of the hand is the gesture of one threatening. which is found nowhere else, and probably results from 2 Or, mightily. yet to-day in Nob to halt. he fells. tail," Josh. x. 19; “to eradicate," Ps. lii. 7; po "to remove stones," v. 2. [As in English one says "to stone," i. e., take the stones out]. This sy is aπ. ey- an. Aey., as regards meaning is certainly identical with, Ezek. xvii. 6; xxxi. 5, 6, 8, 12, 13. It appears to be a poetic expression for the grand, luxurious branch and leafy growth of the tree ( origi - תִּפְאֶרֶת פְאֵר .nal meaning splendere, nitere, comp | בית-ציון stands in accus. localis; Kethibh has הר וגו קוֹמָה-.terrefacto הר בית יהוה a confounding with On ver. 33. (comp. y xvii. 6; xxvii. 10), Pi. denominativum and privativum like the German aesten from Ast, Koepfen from Kopf (comp. "to cut off the , ä. λey. is "terror" in an active sense per- the standing timber" (comp. xxxvii. 24). EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 1. The foregoing disposes the reader to look a valley North of the city. [Concerning the lofor an immediate portrayal of the destruction of cation of all the places named in the text conAssyria. But to his surprise the Prophet trans-sult "ROBINSON and SMITH's Bib. Res. in Palates him back into the commencement of the lestine, Vol. II.]. hostilities of Assyria, against Israel (vers. 28-32). This first onslaught of Assyria was so impetuous, that it seemed as if Jerusalem could not resist. But it only appeared so. How little dangerous that onslaught was appears from the brief description of the inevitable, impending ruin of the world-power, that immediately follows (vers. 33, 34). A contrast is hereby presented that gives a most striking effect, which is still more enhanced by the masterly, dramatic representation of the march of the Assyrians against Jerusalem. So that this little passage proves to be a master-piece of Art, both by its arrangement as a whole and its execution in detail. 2. He comes -the hill of Jerusalem. Vers. 28-32. These verses describe the last part of the march to Jerusalem. For, no doubt, Aiath is the same as Ai that lay North-east of Jerusalem (or "the stone heap," Josh. vii. 2 sqq., * Neh. xi. 31, [false reading; 1 Chr. vii. 28), which is probably identical with Dy (Josh. xviii. 23) comp. FAY in loc.). FINN, VAN DE VELDE, ARNOLD, KNOBEL, identify Aiath in Tell-el-Hadschar that lies less than an hour South-east of Beitin (Bethel). On the other hand DELITZSCH, following SCHEGG who personally investigated the spot, locates Aiath about six hours north of Jerusalem in Tejjibe, that is situated on a hill with an extended prospect, in whose neighborhood there is still found a small village, Churbet Ai. It will perhaps depend on whether the locality of Tejjibe corresponds with Josh. viii. 11, 13, according to which there was Migron, which is mentioned beside only 1 Sam. xiv. 2 but in all probability this passage is corrupt: ARNOLD in HERZ. R. Encycl. XIV. p. 755) appears to have been quite insignificant. DELITZSCH regards it as identical with BurgMagran, a cluster of ruins eight minutes from Bethel. But, then, would they not have marched backwards? Michmash, a city of Benjamin as all the rest named here, plays an important part in the history of Saul and Jonathan, 1 Sam. xiii., xiv. It still exists as a small deserted village with the name Muchmas one hour North of Geba (now Dscheba), three hours and a half North of Jerusalem (ROBINSON and S. II. comp. RUETSCHI, HERZ. R. Encycl. IX. p. 526). There the Assyrians left their baggage in order to press on quicker. "The passage of Michmash is mentioned 1 Sam. xiii. and xiv. It is the Wadyes-Suweinit (according to others es-Suweikeh― comp. RUETSCHI, l. c.)-a deep, rough ravine, forty-eight minutes wide, immediately below Michmash. As it runs from East to West, they must cross it obliquely to approach Jerusalem. The ravine is difficult to traverse. It is hardly credible that the proper highway from Shechem or Nabulus (comp. ARNOLD in HERZ. R. Encycl. XV. p. 163 sq. Art. "Strassen in Palaestina,") passed through it. The Prophet's description is ideal. He depicts not what is past but what is future, and that, not in the manner of historical accuracy, but as became his prophetic interests. He would depict how the enemy presses forward with utmost speed, by the shortest way, deterred by no obstacles. On the arduous way they |
