I
S A I A H
CHAP. XIV.
In
this chapter, I. More weight is added to the burden of Babylon, enough to sink it like a mill-stone; I. It is
Israel's cause that is to be pleaded in this quarrel
with
Babylon, ver. 1-3. 2. The king of Babylon, for the
time being, shall be remarkably brought down and triumphed over, ver. 4-20. 3.
The whole race of the Babylonians shall be cut off and extirpated, ver. 21-23.
II. A confirmation of the prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, which was a
thing at a distance, is here given in the prophecy of the destruction of the
Assyrian army that invaded the land, which happened not long after, ver.
24-27. III. The success of Hezekiah against the Philistines is here foretold,
and the advantages which his people would gain thereby, ver. 28-32.
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Promises
to Israel.
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B.
C. 739.
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1 For the LORD
will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their
own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave
to the house of Jacob. 2 And the people shall take them, and bring
them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of
the LORD
for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives
they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. 3 And it
shall come to pass in the day that the LORD
shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard
bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
This comes in here as the reason why Babylon must be overthrown and ruined,
because God has mercy in store for his people, and therefore, 1. The injuries
done to them must be reckoned for and revenged upon their persecutors. Mercy
to Jacob will be wrath and ruin to Jacob's impenitent implacable adversaries,
such as Babylon was. 2. The yoke of oppression which Babylon had long laid on
their necks must be broken off, and they must be set at liberty; and, in order
to this, the destruction of Babylon is as necessary as the destruction of
Egypt and Pharaoh was to their deliverance out of that house of bondage. The
same prediction is a promise to God's people and a threatening to their
enemies, as the same providence has a bright side towards Israel and a black
or dark side towards the Egyptians. Observe,
I. The ground of these favours to Jacob and Israel--the kindness God had for
them and the choice he had made of them (v. 1): "The Lord will
have mercy on Jacob, the seed of Jacob now captives in Babylon; he will
make it to appear that he has compassion on them and has mercy in store for
them, and that he will not contend for ever with them, but will yet choose
them, will yet again return to them; though he has seemed for a time to
refuse and reject them, he will show that they are his chosen people and that
the election stands sure." However it may seem to us, God's mercy is not
gone, nor does his promise fail, Ps. lxxvii. 8.
II. The particular favours he designed them. 1. He would bring them back to
their native soil and air again: The Lord will set them in their own land,
out of which they were driven. A settlement in the holy land, the land of
promise, is a fruit of God's mercy, distinguishing mercy. 2. Many should be
proselyted to their holy religion, and should return with them, induced to do
so by the manifest tokens of God's favourable presence with them, the
operations of God's grace in them, the operations of God's grace in them, and
his providence for them: Strangers shall be joined with them, saying, We
will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you, Zech. viii. 23.
It adds much to the honour and strength of Israel when strangers are joined
with them and there are added to the church many from without, Acts ii. 47.
Let not the church's children be shy of strangers, but receive those whom God
receives, and own those who cleave to the house of Jacob. 3. These proselytes
should not only be a credit to their cause, but very helpful and serviceable
to them in their return home: The people among whom they live shall
take them, take care of them, take pity on them, and shall bring them
to their place--as friends, loth to part with such good company--as
servants, willing to do them all the good offices they could. God's people,
wherever their lot is cast, should endeavour thus, by all the instances of an
exemplary and winning conversation, to gain an interest in the affections of
those about them, and recommend religion to their good opinion. This was
fulfilled in the return of the captives from Babylon, when all that were about
them, pursuant to Cyrus's proclamation, contributed to their removal (Ezra i.
4, 6), not as the Egyptians, because they were sick of them, but because they
loved them. 4. They should have the benefit of their service when they had
returned home, for many would of choice go with them in the meanest post,
rather than not go with them: They shall possess them in the land of the
Lord for servants and handmaids; and as the laws of that land saved it
from being the purgatory of servants, providing that they should not be
oppressed, so the advantages of that land made it the paradise of those
servants that had been strangers to the covenants of promise, for there was one
law to the stranger and to those that were born in the land. Those whose
lot is cast in the land of the Lord, a land of light, should take care that
their servants and handmaids may share in the benefit of it, who will then
find it better to be possessed in the Lord's land than possessors in any
other. 5. They should triumph over their enemies, and those that would not be
reconciled to them should be reduced and humbled by them: They shall take
those captives whose captives they were and shall rule over their oppressors,
righteously, but not revengefully. The Jews perhaps bought Babylonian
prisoners out of the hands of the Medes and Persians and made slaves of them.
Or this might have its accomplishment in their victories over their enemies in
the times of the Maccabees. It is applicable to the success of the gospel
(when those were brought into obedience to it who had made the greatest
opposition to it, as Paul) and to the interest believers have in Christ's
victories over their spiritual enemies, when he led captivity captive, to the
power they gain over their own corruptions, and to the dominion the upright
shall have in the morning, Ps. xlix. 14. 6. They should see a happy
termination of all their grievances (v. 3): The Lord shall give thee
rest from thy sorrow and thy fear, and from thy hard bondage. God himself
undertakes to work a blessed change, (1.) In their state. They shall have rest
from their bondage; the days of their affliction, though many, shall have an
end; and the rod of the wicked, though it lie long, shall not always lie on
their lot. (2.) In their spirit. They shall have rest from their sorrow and
fear, sense of their present burdens and dread of worse. Sometimes fear puts
the soul into a ferment as much as sorrow does, and those must needs feel
themselves very easy to whom God has given rest from both. Those who are freed
from the bondage of sin have a foundation laid for true rest from sorrow and
fear.
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The
Doom of the King of Babylon.
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B.
C. 739.
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4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against
the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city
ceased! 5 The LORD
hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the
rulers. 6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual
stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none
hindereth. 7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they
break forth into singing. 8 Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and
the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is
come up against us. 9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee
at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief
ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the
nations. 10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also
become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? 11 Thy pomp is
brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is
spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 12 How art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in
the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought
down to hell, to the sides of the pit. 16 They that see thee shall
narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the
man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; 17 That
made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that
opened not the house of his prisoners? 18 All the kings of the
nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own
house. 19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable
branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with
a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under
feet. 20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because
thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of
evildoers shall never be renowned. 21 Prepare slaughter for his
children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess
the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. 22 For I
will rise up against them, saith the LORD
of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew,
saith the LORD.
23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I
will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD
of hosts.
The kings of Babylon, successively, were the great enemies and oppressors of
God's people, and therefore the destruction of Babylon, the fall of the king,
and the ruin of his family, are here particularly taken notice of and
triumphed in. In the day that God has given Israel rest they shall take up
this proverb against the king of Babylon. We must not rejoice when our
enemy falls, as ours; but when Babylon, the common enemy of God and his
Israel, sinks, then rejoice over her, thou heaven, and you holy apostles
and prophets, Rev. xviii. 20. The Babylonian monarchy bade fair to be an
absolute, universal, and perpetual one, and, in these pretensions, vied with
the Almighty; it is therefore very justly, not only brought down, but insulted
over when it is down; and it is not only the last monarch, Belshazzar, who was
slain on that night that Babylon was taken (Dan. v. 30), who is here
triumphed over, but the whole monarchy, which sunk in him; not without special
reference to Nebuchadnezzar, in whom that monarchy was at its height. Now
here,
I. The fall of the king of Babylon is rejoiced in; and a most curious and
elegant composition is here prepared, not to adorn his hearse or monument, but
to expose his memory and fix a lasting brand of infamy upon it. It gives us an
account of the life and death of this mighty monarch, how he went down
slain to the pit, though he had been the terror of the mighty in the
land of the living, Ezek. xxxii. 27. In this parable we may observe,
1. The prodigious height of wealth and power at which this monarch and
monarchy arrived. Babylon was a golden city, v. 4 (it is a
Chaldee word in the original, which intimates that she used to call herself
so), so much did she abound in riches and excel all other cities, as gold does
all other metals. She is gold-thirsty, or an exactress of gold (so some
read it); for how do men get wealth to themselves but by squeezing it out of
others? The New Jerusalem is the only truly golden city, Rev. xxi. 18, 21. The
king of Babylon, having so much wealth in his dominions and the absolute
command of it, by the help of that ruled the nations (v. 6),
gave them law, read them their doom, and at his pleasure weakened the
nations (v. 12), that they might not be able to make head against
him. Such vast and victorious armies did he bring into the field, that, which
way soever he looked, he made the earth to tremble, and shook kingdoms
(v. 16); all his neighbours were afraid of him, and were forced to
submit to him. No one man could do this by his own personal strength, but by
the numbers he has at his beck. Great tyrants, by making some do what they
will, make others suffer what they will. How piteous is the case of mankind,
which thus seems to be in a combination against itself, and its own rights and
liberties, which could not be ruined but by its own strength!
2. The wretched abuse of all this wealth and power, which the king of Babylon
was guilty of, in two instances:--
(1.) Great oppression and cruelty. He is known by the name of the oppressor
(v. 4); he has the sceptre of the rulers (v. 5), has the
command of all the princes about him; but it is the staff of the wicked,
a staff with which he supports himself in his wickedness and wickedly strikes
all about him. He smote the people, not in justice, for their
correction and reformation, but in wrath (v. 6), to gratify his
own peevish resentments, and that with a continual stroke, pursued them
with his forces, and gave them no respite, no breathing time, no cessation of
arms. He ruled the nations, but he ruled them in anger, every thing he
said and did was in a passion; so that he who had the government of all about
him had no government of himself. He made the world as a wilderness, as
if he had taken a pride in being the plague of his generation and a curse to
mankind, v. 17. Great princes usually glory in building cities, but he
gloried in destroying them; see Ps. ix. 6. Two particular instances, worse
than all the rest, are here given of his tyranny:-- [1.] That he was severe to
his captives (v. 17): He opened not the house of his prisoners;
he did not let them loose homeward (so the margin reads it); he kept
them in close confinement, and never would suffer any to return to their own
land. This refers especially to the people of the Jews, and it is that which
fills up the measure of the king of Babylon's iniquity, that he had detained
the people of God in captivity and would by no means release them; nay, and by
profaning the vessels of God's temple at Jerusalem, did in effect say that
they should never return to their former use, Dan. v. 3. For this he was
quickly and justly turned out by one whose first act was to open the house of
God's prisoners and send home the temple vessels. [2.] That he was oppressive
to his own subjects (v. 20): Thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain
thy people; and what did he get by that, when the wealth of the land and
the multitude of the people are the strength and honour of the prince, who
never rules so safely, so gloriously, as in the hearts and affections of the
people? But tyrants sacrifice their interests to their lusts and passions; and
God will reckon with them for their barbarous usage of those who are under
their power, whom they think they may use as they please.
(2.) Great pride and haughtiness. Notice is here taken of his pomp, the
extravagancy of his retinue, v. 11. He affected to appear in the utmost
magnificence. But that was not the worst: it was the temper of his mind, and
the elevation of that, that ripened him for ruin (v. 13, 14): Thou
has said in thy heart, like Lucifer, I will ascend into heaven.
Here is the language of his vainglory, borrowed perhaps from that of the
angels who fell, who not content with their first estate, the post assigned
them, would vie with God, and become not only independent of him, but equal
with him. Or perhaps it refers to the story of Nebuchadnezzar, who, when he
would be more than a man, was justly turned into a brute, Dan. iv. 30. The
king of Babylon here promises himself, [1.] That in pomp and power he shall
surpass all his neighbours, and shall arrive at the very height of earthly
glory and felicity, that he shall be as great and happy as this world can make
him; that is the heaven of a carnal heart, and to that he hopes to ascend, and
to be as far above those about him as the heaven is above the earth. Princes
are the stars of God, which give some light to this dark world (Matt. xxiv.
29); but he will exalt his throne above them all. [2.] That he shall
particularly insult over God's Mount Zion, which Belshazzar, in his last
drunken frolic, seems to have had a particular spite against when he called
for the vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, to profane them; see Dan. v. 2. In
the same humour he here said, I will sit upon the mount of the congregation
(it is the same word that is used for the holy convocations), in the sides
of the north; so Mount Zion is said to be situated, Ps. xlviii. 2. Perhaps
Belshazzar was projecting an expedition to Jerusalem, to triumph in the ruins
of it, at the time when God cut him off. [3.] That he shall vie with the God
of Israel, of whom he had indeed heard glorious things, that he had his
residence above the heights of the clouds. "But thither,"
says he, "will I ascend, and be as great as he; I will be like him
whom they call the Most High." It is a gracious ambition to covet
to be like the Most Holy, for he has said, Be you holy, for I am holy;
but it is a sinful ambition to aim to be like the Most High, for he has said, He
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and the devil drew our first
parents in to eat forbidden fruit by promising them that they should be as
gods. [4.] That he shall himself be deified after his death, as some of the
first founders of the Assyrian monarchy were, and stars had even their names
from them. "But," says he, "I will exalt my throne above
them all." Such as this was his pride, which was the undoubted omen
of his destruction.
3. The utter ruin that should be brought upon him. It is foretold, (1.) That
his wealth and power should be broken, and a final period put to his pomp and
pleasure. He has been long an oppressor, but he shall cease to be so, v.
4. Had he ceased to be so by true repentance and reformation, according to the
advice Daniel gave to Nebuchadnezzar, it might have been a lengthening of his
life and tranquillity. But those that will not cease to sin God will make to
cease. "The golden city, which one would have thought might
continue for ever, has ceased; there is an end of that Babylon. The
Lord, the righteous God, has broken the staff of that wicked prince,
broken it over his head, in token of the divesting him of his office. God has
taken his power from him, and rendered him incapable of doing any more
mischief: he has broken the sceptres; for even these are brittle things, soon
broken and often justly." (2.) That he himself should be seized: He is
persecuted (v. 6); violent hands are laid upon him, and none
hinders. It is the common fate of tyrants, when they fall into the power of
their enemies, to be deserted by their flatterers, whom they took for their
friends. We read of another enemy like this, of whom it is foretold that he
shall come to his end and none shall help him, Dan. xi. 45. Tiberius and
Nero thus saw themselves abandoned. (3.) That he should be slain, and go
down to the congregation of the dead, to be free among them, as the
slain that are no more remembered, Ps. lxxxviii. 5. He shall be weak as
the dead are, and like unto them, v. 10. His pomp is
brought down to the grave (v. 11), that is, it perishes with him;
the pomp of his life shall not, as usual, end in a funeral pomp. True glory
(that is, true grace) will go up with the soul to heaven, but vain pomp will
go down with the body to the grave: there is an end of it. The noise of his
viols is now heard no more. Death is a farewell to the pleasures, as well
as to the pomps, of this world. This mighty prince, that used to lie on a bed
of down, to tread upon rich carpets, and to have coverings and canopies
exquisitely fine, now shall have the worms spread under him and the worms
covering him, worms bred out of his own putrefied body, which, though he
fancied himself a god, proved him to be made of the same mould with other men.
When we are pampering and decking our bodies it is good to remember they will
be worms'-meat shortly. (4.) That he should not have the honour of a burial,
much less of a decent one and in the sepulchres of his ancestors. The kings
of the nations lie in glory (v. 18), either their dead bodies
themselves so embalmed as to be preserved from putrefaction, as of old among
the Egyptians, or their effigies (as with us) erected over their graves. Thus,
as if they would defy the ignominy of death, they lay in a poor faint sort of
glory, every one in his own house, that is, his own burying-place (for
the grave is the house appointed for all living), a sleeping house, where the
busy and troublesome will lie quiet and the troubled and weary lie at rest.
But this king of Babylon is cast out and has no grave (v. 19);
his dead body is thrown, like that of a beast, into the next ditch or upon the
next dunghill, like an abominable branch of some noxious poisonous
plant, which nobody will touch, or as the clothes of malefactors put to death
and by the hand of justice thrust through with a sword, on whose dead
bodies heaps of stones are raised, or they are thrown into some deep quarry
among the stones of the pit. Nay, the king of Babylon's dead body shall
be as the carcases of those who are slain in a battle, which are trodden
under feet by the horses and soldiers and crushed to pieces. Thus he shall
not be joined with his ancestors in burial, v. 20. To be denied
decent burial is a disgrace, which, if it be inflicted for righteousness' sake
(as Ps. lxxix. 2), may, as other similar reproaches, be rejoiced in (Matt. v.
12); it is the lot of the two witnesses, Rev. xi. 9. But if, as here, it be
the just punishment of iniquity, it is an intimation that evil pursues
impenitent sinners beyond death, greater evil than that, and that they shall rise
to everlasting shame and contempt.
4. The many triumphs that should be in his fall.
(1.) Those whom he had been a great tyrant and terror to will be glad that
they are rid of him, v. 7, 8. Now that he is gone the whole earth is
at rest and is quiet, for he was the great disturber of the peace; now
they all break forth into singing, for when the wicked perish there
is shouting (Prov. xi. 10); the fir-trees and cedars of Lebanon now think
themselves safe; there is no danger now of their being cut down, to make way
for his vast armies or to furnish him with timber. The neighbouring princes
and great men, who are compared to fir-trees and cedars (Zech. xi. 2), may now
be easy, and out of fear of being dispossessed of their rights, for the
hammer of the whole earth is cut asunder and broken (Jer. l. 23), the axe
that boasted itself against him that hewed with it, ch. x. 15.
(2.) The congregation of the dead will bid him welcome to them, especially
those whom he had barbarously hastened thither (v. 9, 10): "Hell
from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming, and to
compliment thee upon thy arrival at their dark and dreadful regions." The
chief ones of the earth, who when they were alive were kept in awe by him
and durst not come near him, but rose from their thrones, to resign them to
him, shall upbraid him with it when he comes into the state of the dead. They
shall go forth to meet him, as they used to do when he made his public entry
into cities he had become master of; with such a parade shall he be introduced
into those regions of horror, to make his disgrace and torment the more
grievous to him. They shall scoffingly rise from their thrones and seats
there, and ask him if he will please to sit down in them, as he used to do in
their thrones on earth? The confusion that will then cover him they shall make
a jest of: "Hast thou also become weak as we? Who would have
thought it? It is what thou thyself didst not expect it would ever come to
when thou wast in every thing too hard for us. Thou that didst rank thyself
among the immortal gods, art thou come to take thy fate among us poor mortal
men? Where is thy pomp now, and where thy mirth? How hast thou fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer! son of the morning! v. 11, 12. The king of
Babylon shone as brightly as the morning star, and fancied that wherever he
came he brought day along with him; and has such an illustrious prince as this
fallen, such a star become a clod of clay? Did ever any man fall from such a
height of honour and power into such an abyss of shame and misery?" This
has been commonly alluded to (and it is a mere allusion) to illustrate the
fall of the angels, who were as morning stars (Job xxxviii. 7), but how
have they fallen! How art thou cut down to the ground, and levelled with
it, that didst weaken the nations! God will reckon with those that
invade the rights and disturb the peace of mankind, for he is King of nations
as well as of saints. Now this reception of the king of Babylon into the
regions of the dead, which is here described, surely is something more than a
flight of fancy, and is designed to teach these solid truths:-- [1.] That
there is an invisible world, a world of spirits, to which the souls of men
remove at death and in which they exist and act in a state of separation from
the body. [2.] That separate souls have acquaintance and converse with each
other, though we have none with them: the parable of the rich man and Lazarus
intimates this. [3.] That death and hell will be death and hell indeed to
those that fall unsanctified from the height of this world's pomps and the
fulness of its pleasures. Son, remember, Luke xvi. 25.
(3.) Spectators will stand amazed at his fall. When he shall be brought
down to hell, to the sides of the pit, and be lodged there, those that
see him shall narrowly look upon him, and consider him (v. 15, 16);
they shall scarcely believe their own eyes. "Never was death so great a
change to any man as it is to him. Is it possible that a man, who a few hours
ago looked so great, so pleasant, and was so splendidly adorned and attended,
should now look so ghastly, so despicable, and lie thus naked and neglected? Is
this the man that made the earth to tremble and shook kingdoms? Who could
have thought he should ever come to this?" Ps. lxxxii. 7.
5. Here is an inference drawn from all this (v. 20): The seed of
evil-doers shall never be renowned. The princes of the Babylonian monarchy
were all a seed of evil-doers, oppressors of the people of God, and therefore
they had this infamy entailed upon them. They shall not be renowned for
ever (so some read it); they may look big for a time, but all their pomp
will only render their disgrace at last the more shameful. There is no credit
in a sinful way.
II. The utter ruin of the royal family is here foretold, together with the
desolation of The royal city.
1. The royal family is to be wholly extirpated. The Medes and Persians, that
are to be employed in this destroying work, are ordered, when they have slain
Belshazzar, to prepare slaughter for his children (v. 21) and
not to spare them. The little ones of Babylon must be dashed against the
stones, Ps. cxxxvii. 9. These orders sound very harshly; but, (1.) They
must suffer for the iniquity of their fathers, which is often visited
upon the children, to show how much God hates sin and is displeased at it,
and to deter sinners from it, which is the end of punishment. Nebuchadnezzar
had slain Zedekiah's sons (Jer. lii. 10), and, for that iniquity of his, his
seed are paid in the same coin. (2.) They must be cut off now, that they may
not rise up to possess the land and do as much mischief in their day as
their fathers had done in theirs--that they may not be as vexatious to the
world by building cities for the support of their tyranny (which was Nimrod's
policy, Gen. x. 10, 11) as their ancestors had been by destroying cities.
Pharaoh oppressed Israel in Egypt by setting them to build cities, Exod. i.
11. The providence of God consults the welfare of nations more than we are
aware of by cutting off some who, if they had lived, would have done mischief.
Justly may the enemies cut off the children: For I will rise up against
them, saith the Lord of hosts (v. 22), and if God reveal it as his
mind that he will have it done, as none can hinder it, so none need scruple to
further it. Babylon perhaps was proud of the numbers of her royal family, but
God had determined to cut off the name and remnant of it, so that none
should be left, to have both the sons and grandsons of the king slain; and yet
we are sure he never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures.
2. The royal city is to be demolished and deserted, v. 23. It shall be
a possession for solitary frightful birds, particularly the bittern,
joined with the cormorant and the owl, ch. xxiv. 11. And thus the utter
destruction of the New-Testament Babylon is illustrated, Rev. xviii. 2. It has
become a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Babylon lay low, so that
when it was deserted, and no care taken to drain the land, it soon became pools
of water, standing noisome puddles, as unhealthful as they were
unpleasant: and thus God will sweep it with the besom of destruction.
When a people have nothing among them but dirt and filth, and will not be made
clean with the besom of reformation, what can they expect but to be swept off
the face of the earth with the besom of destruction?
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The
Doom of the Assyrians; The Doom of the Philistines.
B.
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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. 29 Rejoice not thou, whole
Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the
serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a
fiery flying serpent. 30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed,
and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine,
and he shall slay thy remnant. 31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou,
whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a
smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. 32
What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD
hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.
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 (v. 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 (v. 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. vi. 17, 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 (v. 26): This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole
earth (the whole world, so the LXX.), 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,
Luke ii. 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, Zech. xii. 3, 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. xxiv. 9. God will be an enemy to his people's
enemies, Exod. xxiii. 22. 3. All the powers on earth are defied to change
God's counsel (v. 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?"
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, v. 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 (v. 29), had bitten them, had
smitten them, had brought them very low, 2 Chron. xxvi. 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 (2 Chron.
xxviii. 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. 2 Kings xviii.
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, v. 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 (v. 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, Judg. v. 16, 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 (v. 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, Ps. cxxvi. 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, 1 Pet. iii.
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, Zeph. iii. 12, 13.
The poor receive the gospel, Matt. xi. 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 (Ps. lxxxvii. 1), are like Zion, which cannot
be removed, but abides for ever (Ps. cxxv. 1), and therefore they will not
fear what man can do unto them.
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