1. 1. ISAIAH 14 COMMENTARY EDITED BY GLENN PEASE 1 The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob. 1.BARNES, For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob - That is, he will pity the captive Jews in Babylon. He will not abandon them, but will remember them, and restore them to their own land. And will yet choose Israel - Will show that he regards them as still his chosen people; or will again choose them by recovering them from their bondage, and by restoring them to their country as his people. The names Jacob and Israel here simply denote the Jews. They do not imply that all of those who were to be carried captive would return, but that as a people they would be restored. And set them ... - Hebrew, Will cause them to rest in their own country; that is, will give them peace, quietness, and security there. And the stranger shall be joined to them - The stranger, here, probably refers to those foreigners who would become proselytes to their religion, while they were in Babylon. Those proselytes would be firmly united with them, and would return with them to their own land. Their captivity would be attended with this advantage, that many even of those who led them away, would be brought to embrace their religion, and to return with them to their own country. If it is asked what evidence there is that any considerable number of the people of Chaldea became Jewish proselytes, I answer, that it is expressly stated in Est_8:17 : And many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. Ezra, indeed, has not mentioned the fact, that many of the people of Babylonia became proselytes to the religion of the Jews, but it is in accordance with all that we know of their history, and their influence on the nations with which, from time to time, they were connected, that many should have been thus joined to them. We know that in subsequent times many of other nations became proselytes, and that multitudes of the Egyptians, the Macedonians, the Romans, and the inhabitants of Asia Minor, embraced the Jewish religion, or became what were called proselytes of the gate. They were circumcised, and were regarded as entitled to a part of the privileges of the Jewish people (see Act_2:9-11; compare Act_17:4, Act_17:17). Tacitus, speaking of his time, says, that every abandoned man, despising the religion of his country, bears tribute and revenue to Jerusalem, whence it happens that the number of the Jews is greatly increased. - (Hist. v. 5.) That the Jews, therefore, who were in Babylon should induce many of the Chaldeans during their long captivity to become proselytes, is in accordance with all their history.
2. 2. 2. CLARKE, And will yet choose Israel - That is, will still regard Israel as his chosen people; however he may seem to desert them, by giving them up to their enemies, and scattering them among the nations. Judah is sometimes called Israel; see Eze_13:16; Mal_1:1; Mal_2:11 : but the name of Jacob and of Israel, used apparently with design in this place, each of which names includes the twelve tribes, and the other circumstances mentioned in this and the next verse, which did not in any complete sense accompany the return from the captivity of Babylon, seem to intimate that this whole prophecy extends its views beyond that event. 3. GILL, For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, will yet choose Israel,.... While the Jews were in captivity, the Lord seemed to have no pity for them, or compassion on them, and it looked as if he had rejected them, and wholly cast them off; but by delivering them from thence, he showed that he had a merciful regard unto them, and made it to appear that they were his chosen people, and beloved by him: and this is a reason why Babylon should be destroyed, and her destruction be no longer deferred, because the Lord's heart of compassion yearned towards his own people, so that his mercy to them brought ruin upon others: a choice of persons to everlasting salvation, though it is not made in time, but before the foundation of the world, yet is made to appear by the effectual calling, which therefore is sometimes expressed by choosing, 1Co_1:26 and is the fruit and effect of sovereign grace and mercy, and may be intended here; the words may be rendered, "and will yet choose in Israel" (t), some from among them; that is, have mercy on them, and call them by his grace, and so show them to be a remnant, according to the election of grace; and such a chosen remnant there was among them in the times of Christ, and his apostles, by which it appeared that the Lord had not cast off the people whom he foreknew: and set them in their own land: or "cause them to rest upon their own land" (u); for the word not only denotes settlement and continuance, but rest, which they had not in Babylon; but now should have, when brought into their own land; and no doubt but reference is had to the original character of the land of Canaan, as a land of rest; and hither shall the Jews be brought again, and be settled when mystical Babylon is destroyed: and the stranger shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob; by which is meant, that proselytes should be made to the Jewish religion, who should be admitted into their church state, as well as into their commonwealth, and should abide faithful to the profession they made; which doubtless was fulfilled in part at the time of the Jews' return from the Babylonish captivity, when many, who had embraced their religion, cleaved to them, and would not leave them, but went along with them into their land, that they might join with them in religious worship there; but had a greater accomplishment in Gospel times, when Gentiles were incorporated into the same Gospel church state with the believing Jews, and became fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of the same promises and privileges; and so Kimchi and Ben Melech apply this to the times of the Messiah; and Jarchi to time to come, when Israel should be redeemed with a perfect redemption: because from the word translated "cleave" is derived another, which signifies a scab; hence the Jews (w) have a saying, "proselytes are grievous to Israel as a scab.''
3. 3. 4. HENRY, 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 (Isa_14:1): 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, Psa_77:8. 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, Zec_8:23. 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, Act_2:47. 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 (Ezr_1:4, Ezr_1:6), 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
4. 4. 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, Psa_49:14. 6. They should see a happy termination of all their grievances (Isa_14:3): 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. 5. JAMISON, Isa_14:1-3. The certainty of deliverance from Babylon. choose set His choice upon. A deliberate predilection [Horsley]. Their restoration is grounded on their election (see Psa_102:13-22). strangers proselytes (Est_8:17; Act_2:10; Act_17:4, Act_17:17). Tacitus, a heathen [Histories, 5.5], attests the fact of numbers of the Gentiles having become Jews in his time. An earnest of the future effect on the heathen world of the Jews spiritual restoration (Isa_60:4, Isa_60:5, Isa_60:10; Mic_5:7; Zec_14:16; Rom_11:12). 6. K&D, But it is love to His own people which impels the God of Israel to suspend such a judgment of eternal destruction over Babylon. For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will once more choose Israel, and will settle them in their own land: and the foreigner will associate with them, and they will cleave to the house of Jacob. And nations take them, and accompany them to their place; and the house of Israel takes them to itself in the land of Jehovah for servants and maid-servants: and they hold in captivity those who led them away captive; and become lords over their oppressors. We have here in nuce the comforting substance of chapters 46-66. Babylon falls that Israel may rise. This is effected by the
5. 5. compassion of God. He chooses Israel once more (iterum, as in Job_14:7 for example), and therefore makes a new covenant with it. Then follows their return to Canaan, their own land, Jehovah's land (as in Hos_9:3). Proselytes from among the heathen, who have acknowledged the God of the exiles, go along with them, as Ruth did with Naomi. Heathen accompany the exiles to their own place. And now their relative positions are reversed. Those who accompany Israel are now taken possession of by the latter (hithnachel, , like hithpatteach, Isa_52:2, ; cf., p. 62, note, and Ewald, 124, b), as servants and maid-servants; and they (the Israelites) become leaders into captivity of those who led them into captivity (Lamed with the participle, as in Isa_11:9), and they will oppress (radah b', as in Psa_49:15) their oppressors. This retribution of life for like is to all appearance quite out of harmony with the New Testament love. But in reality it is no retribution of like for like. For, according to the prophet's meaning, to be ruled by the people of God is the true happiness of the nations, and to allow themselves to be so ruled is their true liberty. At the same time, the form in which the promise is expressed is certainly not that of the New Testament; and it would not possibly have been so, for the simple reason that in Old Testament times, and from an Old Testament point of view, there was no other visible manifestation of the church (ecclesia) than in the form of a nation. This national form of the church has been broken up under the New Testament, and will never be restored. Israel, indeed, will be restored as a nation; but the true essence of the church, which is raised above all national distinctions, will never return to those worldly limits which it has broken through. And the fact that the prophecy moves within those limits here may be easily explained, on the ground that it is primarily the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity to which the promise refers. And the prophet himself was unconscious that this captivity would be followed by another. 7. BI, Gods mercy and Israels converts I. THE PRINCIPLE OF GODS MORAL GOVERNMENTMercy. This people had grievously sinned. 1. They had sinned against light. The direct revelation of heaven had been given to them as a nation 2. They rebelled amid privileges. The Mighty God interfered to protect them from their foes. 3. They had sinned in spite of rebukes and punishments. The rebellious people had been carried captive into a heathen nation. II. THE CONSTANCY OF DIVINE PURPOSESI will yet choose, etc. Notwithstanding all their rebellion I will yet have mercy on them. Nothing can separate from the love of God. III. THE RESTORATIVE BLESSEDNESS OF RELIGION. When God takes a man in hand, He restores him. In paradise he was the image and associate of God. Salvation will make him nothing more. Heaven will contain additional elements of joy, but the man will be restored. IV. THE CONTAGION OF ENTHUSIASM. When the Jews should return, many of the heathen, leaving their own country and their idols, would return along with them. And the strangers shall be joined with them. This was part of Gods design in the Captivity. It was not only to punish His people for their sin, but also to render them a blessing to others. God often appoints
6. 6. the afflictions of His people for His own glory, and we must not mourn but rejoice if we are counted worthy of forwarding His cause. V. THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF RELIGION. It commands affection and regard. It is our duty to render it attractive so as to win others. (Homilist.) Gods passion to Israel We have here in nuce the comforting substance of chaps. 40-46. Babylon falls in order that Israel may rise. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.) 8. PULPIT, THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL, AND HER SONG OF TRIUMPH OVER BABYLON. The destruction of Babylon is to be followed by the restoration of Israel, with the good will of the nations, and by their exercising rule over their late oppressors (Isa_14:1, Isa_14:2). In this time of rest and refreshment they will sing a song of triumph over Babylon. The song extends from Isa_14:4 to Isa_14:23. It consists of five stanzas, or strophes, each comprising seven long lines, after which there is a brief epode, or epilogue, of a different character. This epode is comprised in Isa_14:22 and Isa_14:23. Isa_14:1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob. God's purpose of mercy upon Israel requires, as its preliminary, the destruction of Babylon, and may be considered as the final cause of that destruction. His desire to have mercy on Israel soon is the reason why the days of Babylon are not prolonged (see Isa_13:22). Will yet choose Israel. The Captivity was a rejection of Israel from their position as a favored raceGod's peculiar people; their restoration was a fresh "choice" of them out of all the nations of the world, a free act of grace on his part; to which they had no claim or right whatsoever. And set them in their own land; or, on their own ground. The land that once was theirs, but which they had forfeited by their disobedience, could only become "their own" again by a fresh gift from God. The strangers shall be joined with them; rather, the stranger shall join himself to them. On the return from the Captivity, there would be an influx of proselytes from the nations, who would voluntarily join themselves to those whom they saw favored both by God and man (comp. Est_8:17). Though the Jews did not commonly seek proselytes, they readily received such as offered themselves. A further fulfillment of the prophecy took place when the Gentiles flocked into the Church of God after the coming of Christ. 9. CALVIN, 1.For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob. The particle (ki) having various significations, we might take it as signifying But, and might connect this verse with the former verse in the following manner: But (or, yet) the Lord will have compassion on Jacob. But I consider it to be better and
7. 7. more appropriate to view the particle (ki), in this as well as in many other passages, as used for assigning a reason; and thus the meaning will be, will destroy Babylon, because he will have compassion on Israel, whom he cannot despise or reject. Hence we see that the Prophet had hitherto endeavored to soothe the grief of a wretched people, in order to inform them that they ought to entertain good hopes in the midst of their afflictions, of which God would be the avenger. (Psa_94:1.) Here, therefore, as in a picture, Babylon is contrasted with the Church of God; Babylon, I say, elevated to the highest power, which had plunged the Church into such a miserable and afflicted condition, that it was not probable that she could ever be raised up again. But the Lord casts down Babylon from her lofty situation, and thus testifies that he cares for his people, however mean and despicable they may be. It yields very great consolation to us to learn that the whole world is governed by God for our salvation. All things are directed to this object, that those whom he has elected may be saved, and may not be overwhelmed by any changes, however numerous, that shall befall them. It will be asked, Was there a period during which God had no compassion ? Undoubtedly, he always had compassion; but while the people were distressed by heavy calamities, it was not perceived; for, having their minds previously occupied with a view of God anger, and, judging from outward appearances, they could not perceive God compassion. Yet the Lord was always like himself, and never laid aside his nature. Thus it is proper to distinguish between the knowledge which springs from faith and the knowledge which springs from experience; for when the tokens of God anger are visible all around, and when the judgment of the flesh leads us to believe that he is angry, his favor is concealed from us; but faith raises our hearts above this darkness, to behold God in heaven as reconciled towards us. What follows is somewhat more startling. And will yet choose Israel, or, will again choose Israel. God election is eternal. He does not choose us as if this had never before come into his mind; and as we were chosen before the foundation of the world, (Eph_1:4,) so he never repents of his choice. (Rom_11:29.) But when the Lord chastises his people, this has the appearance of rejecting them; as we learn from the frequent complaints of the saints, Lord, why hast thou cast us off ? (Psa_74:1.) We look at God rejection or election according to our weakness, and judge of his feelings toward us by the outward action. (I speak of the knowledge which is derived from experience, and which is corrected by the light of faith.) Accordingly, when the Lord calls us, that is, confirms his election, he is said to choose us; and when he gives evidence that he is displeased, he is said to reject us. The meaning, therefore, is, the Lord has treated his people so severely, as if he had rejected them; yet by the actual event he will at length show and prove that he has adopted them, by giving abundant evidence of his election, and by having compassion on them for ever. We now may readily conclude what we have already said, namely, that the chastisements which the
8. 8. godly endure are widely different from that deadly stroke, however light it may be, which is inflicted on the ungodly. The godly are immediately led to consider their election, the confident belief of which cheers their hearts; but the ungodly see nothing but darkness, bottomless pits, and frightful desolation on all sides. Whenever, therefore, the Lord chastises us, we ought immediately to call to remembrance this distinction, that we may strengthen our hearts by the hope of a happier condition. And shall cause them to rest in their own land. In their return he holds out an evidence of favor and reconciliation; for to the children of Abraham the land of Canaan was a pledge of their adoption. And the stranger shall be joined to them. The Prophet foretells the calling of the Gentiles; as if he had said, only will the Lord restore them to the possession of the land of Canaan, but will enlarge them by a great increase; for he will associate the Gentiles with them, that the two peoples may become one and the same body. This benefit, therefore, is not limited to a short period, but extends to the whole Church, which the Lord promises to place in safety; for he speaks, not of the Church in his own time, but of the Church which shall be till the kingdom of Christ, and during his kingdom; otherwise that addition would have been inappropriate. 2 Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations and make them male and female servants in the LORDs land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors. 1.BARNES, And the people shall take them - That is, the people in Babylon. And bring them to their place - That is, they shall attend them to the land of Judea, and aid in restoring them to their own country. There is reference here, doubtless, to the fact that
9. 9. Cyrus would assist them (compare Ezr_1:1-11), and that many of the inhabitants of Chaldea who would become proselytes, would be willing to accompany them to their own land. And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord - Not in a foreign land, and among strangers and foes, but in their own land, and among the institutions of their own religion. They would be willing to return with them, and occupy a humble place among them, as servants, for the sake of enjoying the privileges of the true religion. It was a matter of course among the Hebrews, that proselytes would be regarded as occupying a less elevated place in society than native-born Jews. And they shall take them captive ... - That is, they shall induce them to become proselytes; to be willing to accompany them to their own homes, and to become their servants there. It does not mean that they would subdue them by force; but they would be able, by their influence there, to disarm their opposition; and to induce them to become the friends of their religion. And they shall rule over their oppressors - This is one instance where the people of God would show that they could disarm their oppressors by a mild and winning demeanour, and in which they would be able to induce others to join with them. Such would be the force of their example and conduct, of their conversation and of their deportment, even in the midst of proud and haughty Babylon, that their oppressors would be won to embrace the religion of their captives. If, in proud and haughty Babylon, those who loved the Lord could thus do good; if, when they were captives, they could have such an influence over their haughty masters, where is there a place in which the friends of God may not be useful by their example, their conversation, and their prayers? 2. CLARKE, For servants and handmaids - For thrallis and thrallesses. - Old Bible. Male and female slaves. 3. GILL, And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place,.... That is, the people among whom the Jews dwelt in Babylon, who had a kindness for them, and especially such of them as were proselyted to their religion should attend them in their journey home, and supply them with all necessaries for provision and carriage, as they were allowed to do by the edict of Cyrus, Ezr_1:4 and this will have a further accomplishment in the latter day, when the Gentiles shall bring their sons and daughters in their arms, and on their shoulders, and on horses, and in chariots, to Jerusalem, Isa_49:21 which last passage Kimchi refers to, as explanative of this: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord, for servants and handmaids; by the "land of the Lord" is meant the land of Israel, which was peculiarly his; for though the whole earth is his, yet he chose this above all others for the place of his worship, under the former dispensation; and where his son, in the fulness of time, should appear in human nature, preach the Gospel, perform miracles, and work out the salvation of his people; and where his feet shall stand at the latter day, when he comes to judge the world; this is the same with Immanuel's land, Isa_8:8 hither many of the Chaldeans coming along with the Jews, and having embraced their religion, chose rather to be servants and handmaids to them, than to return to their own land, and who were a kind of inheritance or possession to the Jews; though some think that these were such as they bought of the Babylonians, that came with them to be
10. 10. their servants, and not they themselves. It may be understood of Gentile converts in Gospel times, who would willingly and cheerfully engage in the service of the church of God, and by love serve his people, and one another. Kimchi explains this clause by Isa_61:5, and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors: that is, the Babylonians, who had carried the Jews captive, should be taken captives by them, and made slaves of; which might be true of those they bought of them, when they returned to their own land; or, as some think, this had its accomplishment in the times of the Maccabees, when they conquered many people, who before had carried them captive, and oppressed them; and in a spiritual and mystical sense has been fulfilled in the times of the Gospel, through the spread of it in the Gentile world, by the ministry of the apostles, who were Jews; by which means many of the nations of the world were brought to the obedience of Christ and his church. 4. PULPIT, And the people shall take them; rather, peoples shall take them. The heathen nations among whom they have dwelt shall rejoice at the restoration of Israel to their own land, and even escort them in a friendly spirit to their borders (comp. Ezr_1:4, Ezr_1:6; Neh_2:7-9). Some shall go so far as voluntarily to become their bondservants in Palestine. They shall take them captive, whose captives they were. This can scarcely have been intended literally. The Jews were at no time a conquering people, nor one that set itself to "take captives." The true meaning is that Jewish ideas shall penetrate and subdue the nations generally, and among them those with whom Israel had dwelt as captives. The Jews did become very powerful and numerous both in Assyria and Babylonia about the first century after Christ, and Christian Churches were early formed in Mesopotamia, Adiabene, and even Babylon. 5. JAMISON, the people of Babylon, primarily. Of the whole Gentile world ultimately (Isa_49:22; Isa_66:20; Isa_60:9). their place Judea (Ezr_1:1-6). possess receive in possession. captives not by physical, but by moral might; the force of love, and regard to Israels God (Isa_60:14). 6. Charles Simeon, Isa_14:2. They shall take them captives whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors. IN the midst of the prophecies relating to the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, we shall find many expressions which necessitate us to look forward to some other event for their full accomplishment. The destruction of Babylon is undoubtedly the subject of this and of the preceding chapter. The whole forms one prophecy, abounding with the most beautiful imagery, and, in point of composition, equalling, if not
11. 11. excelling, the most admired poems of antiquity. But if we could confine the preceding part of this verse, and the verse before it, to that event, (which yet we cannot with any propriety,) what must we do with the words before us?they were never accomplished at that period: the Jews did not carry the Babylonians into captivity; nor at any subsequent period did they rule over them. But if we understand these words as looking forward to another redemption, then will they be easy; and their accomplishment will be seen, not only in the Church at large, but in every individual member of it. The grace of Christ triumphed over all its opponents in the apostolic age; and will, in a yet more extensive manner, in the millennial period. The peculiar way in which his grace triumphs, is a subject worthy of our more particular attention: and the words of our text afford us a fit occasion for setting it before you. We shall, I. Trace a work of grace on the souls of men Taking such a view of it as is suggested by our text, there are four distinct states in which the Christian will successively be found:a state, 1. Of captivity [This is the state of every man, before the grace of God enters into his heart. The Jews in Babylon were not more enslaved than we are by nature. Our principles and actions are altogether in bondage to the world. Nothing appears so free as the mind: yet, in our natural state, we are so shackled with prejudice, that we cannot exercise it aright: we cannot apprehend truth, when it is proposed to us: the things of the Spirit of God appear even foolishness to us; neither can we receive them, because our faculties are pre- occupied by the current sentiments of the world. Our ways too are under the same constraint. Custom has prescribed the paths in which we shall walk; and we dare not violate its arbitrary laws. Let us even see the light of a bright example set before us. we feel not ourselves at liberty to follow it. As far as fashion authorizes a holy life, we will go: we may perform a round of religious duties; but to cultivate real piety is contrary to our inclination, and beyond our power. As the world by its maxims, so sin by its allurements, fetters and controuls us. So interwoven with all our faculties is sin, that we cannot resist its influence. Sooner might an Ethiopian change his complexion, or a leopard his spots, than the natural man break forth from the dominion of sin. Though he do not yield to it in a gross and shameless way, yet his thoughts and desires are altogether vitiated by it; nor is so much as one inclination or affection free from its malignant taint. A principle of evil resides within him, and dictates every imagination of his heart [Note: Gen_6:5.]. We may observe also, that Satan maintains a tyrannic sway over the natural man, as over his rightful
12. 12. vassal. How he works upon our minds, we cannot exactly say: (for we know not how our own spirit operates upon our material body; and therefore we must not wonder if we cannot declare how that wicked spirit operates on our spirits:) but he certainly does work in all the children of disobedience, and lead them captive at his will. And when the grace of God first comes into the soul, it finds us altogether under the power of that strong man armed.] 2. Of conflict [The first entrance of grace into the soul stirs it up immediately to break its bonds, and assert its liberty. The person who is once enlightened to see what masters he has served, and what will be his recompense, is filled with indignation against himself for so long submitting to such ignominious bondage. He first probably begins with efforts made in his own strength: but when he finds how unavailing they are, he will betake himself to prayer, and implore help from above. Now the sins to which he once addicted himself are resisted; and the very inclinations to them are bitterly bewailed. Now he cannot be satisfied with taking his notions of sin and duty from the world, or with conforming himself to the standard which the world approves: he inquires what Gods will is, and determines to renounce whatever is inconsistent with it. Difficulties he meets with, innumerable difficulties, in his new course: his indwelling corruptions, like a stream obstructed by a dam, threaten to bear down all before them: and Satan exerts himself, by various wiles and devices, to divert him from his purpose: and the world, Satans best advocate and co- adjutor, labours, by menaces or allurements, to keep him under its dominion: but he gathers strength from opposition, and courage from defeat; and resolves, that nothing but victory or death shall put an end to his warfare.] 3. Of victory [No person will long continue to oppose his spiritual enemies, without reaping the fruit of his exertions in victory and triumph. After he has once learned to use the armour which God has prepared for him, he finds, to his unspeakable comfort, that none of his enemies can stand before him. The world, that was once so formidable, has lost its power: and neither sin nor Satan can deceive him, as they once did. The grace of Christ is now found sufficient for him: and though he still is violently assaulted with various temptations, he is enabled to repel them by the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit. Sometimes indeed he is ready to exclaim, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? but soon he recollects himself, and adds, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.] 4. Of dominion
13. 13. [This is that state of which the text particularly speaks: and doubtless it is a state to which many attain. That the warfare will ever cease in this world, we have no reason to expect; but that our progress will be more easy, and our victory more certain, in proportion as we become habituated to the contest, there can be no doubt. As there are babes, young men, and fathers in the family of Christ, so are there amongst his army some, who have not only gained the victory, but are dividing the spoil. The world is crucified to them; sin is mortified, and Satan bruised under their feet. They are filled with a peace that passeth all understanding, and a joy that is unspeakable and glorified. The prize is, by anticipation at least, already in their hands. They enjoy already the earnest of heaven in their souls; and they are looking forward with delight to the happy hour, when they shall cease from their warfare altogether, and rest for ever in the bosom of their Lord.] Though doubtless many variations will be found in the duration or degree in which the different parts of this experience exist in different persons, yet this, on the whole, is the experience of every true believer, he emerges from his natural bondage, and comes forth into the liberty of Gods children. Such, I say, is the work of divine grace in the soul: and we shall now proceed to, II. Make some observations upon it We remark then that this work is, 1. A stupendous work [None but God is equal to it. None but an Almighty Being could have created the universe out of nothing: nor can any other Being create anew the souls of men. Every good soldier of Jesus Christ must say, He that hath wrought us to self-same thing, is God. The power exercised in this work is compared, by St. Paul, with that which was put forth in the resurrection of Christ, and his establishment on his throne, above all the principalities of heaven or hell [Note: Eph_1:19-21.]. Let all then who have within themselves an evidence that they are the subjects of it, rejoice: let them magnify their God in the energetic language of the Psalmist [Note:Psa_35:10.]: and let them go forth, and shew what great things the Lord has done for them.] 2. An effectual work [We wish not to discourage those who find difficulties in their warfare: but yet we must say, that God does not do his work by halves (if we may so express it). If he begin a good work in any soul, he will not suffer Satan to defeat his purpose. He will give more and more grace, till it prove effectual to the end for which
14. 14. it is given. Grace that is not sufficient, (I mean, that does not finally prevail,) is not true grace. We know, that if a judgment be formed from the actual attainments of the religious world, we shall be ready to think that piety and carnality, and victory and bondage, can consist together. But they cannot; and those who with a religious profession unite an habitual subjection to any one sin, will feel themselves grievously disappointed in the issue. They may dream of plaudits from their Judge; but he will say to them, I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity. The weapons of our warfare are sufficiently powerful to cast down all the strong-holds of Satan, and to bring even our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ: the soldier therefore that yields to any one of his spiritual enemies, betrays his Lord; and for submitting to the chains of sin, will be bound in chains of everlasting darkness.] 3. A work of which none need despair [A more desperate state than that described in the text, can scarcely be conceived: they were captives, and captives in a state of grievous oppression: yet they are not only delivered, but made to rule over their very oppressors. Who then has any reason to despair? We may say perhaps, that our enemies are more powerful than those of others; that by our own consent they have acquired an indisputable right over us; and that therefore we cannot hope for deliverance. But God states, and answers, this very case [Note: Isa_49:24-26.]. And, not content with this, he makes his readiness to relieve such persons a prominent feature in his own character: as if he were especially to be known by it [Note: Amo_5:9.]. He makes his promises too to this very description of persons [Note: Psa_72:4; Psa_72:12-13.], as though he counted himself most glorified, when the weakness of his people has given the most scope for the exercise of his almighty power [Note:2Co_12:9.]. To the weakest then, and to the most desponding, we would say with the prophet, that though without God the strongest of men should bow down under the prisoners, and fall under the slain [Note: Isa_10:4. Jer_37:10.], yet with him you shall be able to do all things [Note: Php_4:13.]: even the lame shall take the prey [Note: Isa_33:23.], and the feet of the poor and of the needy shall tread down their mightiest enemies [Note: Isa_26:5-6.].] 7.CALVIN, 2.And the peoples shall take them. He means that the foreign nations will be willing to become their companions, and in such a manner that they will not scruple to discharge the duties of servants. An instance of this was given, (Ezr_1:6,) when the people were brought back from Babylon; but that was only a slight foretaste of those things which were accomplished by Christ, to whom all these statements must be referred. The Lord softened the hearts of the nations, who regarded that people with deadly hatred, so that by their guidance he brought them back to their native country, and bestowed on them their former liberty. But so far were many of the nations from assisting the Jews, after their return
15. 15. from Babylon, that all the neighbors earnestly entered into a league to distress them. (Ezr_4:4.) They certainly attempted not only to banish them from the land of Canaan, but to drive them entirely out of the world. These things therefore were done in the kingdom of Christ, to whom has been given all power, not only in earth, but also in heaven, (Mat_28:18,) and by whom the Gentiles, who formerly had been strangers, were united to the Jews, so as not only to assist them in keeping their inheritance, but also to submit calmly and willingly to bear the yoke. It is with this view that he adds And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids. The Jews being in some sort the first-born (Exo_4:22) in the house of God, we who are joined to them appear as if we had assembled under their roof; for they go before us, and hold the highest rank above all the nations, and undoubtedly would still hold it, if they did not by their ingratitude deprive themselves of these great privileges. And yet their ingratitude did not hinder the Lord from actually performing these things; for the Apostles, being Jews, subdued foreign nations by the word of God, and even those very nations by whom they were formerly carried captive, and to whom they had been tributaries, such as the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Persians, and finally, the Roman empire; so that all the nations might justly be called their inheritance, though they did not wish to rule over them, but to gain them to God, that they might acknowledge the same Lord and Prince as themselves. These statements must therefore be referred to the dominion and yoke of Christ, to whom the Jews subdued the Gentiles, not to a government of an outward nature, such as the Jews falsely imagine. 3 On the day the LORD gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you, 1.BARNES, And it shall come to pass - That is, then thou shalt take up a taunting song against the king of Babylon Isa_14:4. That the Lord shall give thee rest - (compare Isa_38:12). The nature of this predicted rest, is more fully described in Eze_28:25-26. From thy sorrow - The long pain of thy captivity in Babylon.
16. 16. And from thy fear - Hebrew, Trembling. That is, the apprehension of the ills to which they were continually exposed. Trembling is usually one effect of fear. And from thy hard bondage - The severe and galling servitude of seventy years. 2. CLARKE, In the day In that day - bayom hahu. The word hahu is added in two MSS. of Kennicotts, and was in the copies from which the Septuagint and Vulgate translated: , in die illa, ( , MS. Pachom. adding ,) in that day. This is a matter of no great consequence: however, it restores the text to the common form, almost constantly used on such occasions; and is one among many instances of a word apparently lost out of the printed copies. 3. GILL, And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow,.... In captivity, and on account of that, being out of their own land, deprived of the free exercise of their religion, and at a distance from the house of God, and continually hearing the reproaches and blaspheming of the enemy, and seeing their idolatrous practices, and their ungodly conversation; all which must create sorrow of heart to the sincere lovers and worshippers of God: and from thy fear; of worse evils, most cruel usage, and death itself, under the terror of which they lived: and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve; as before in Egypt, so now in Babylon; but what that was is not particularly expressed anywhere, as the former is, see Exo_1:13 and when they had rest from all this in their own land, then they should do as follows: 4. PULPIT, The hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve (comp. Isa_47:6). We have no detailed account of the Babylonian, as we have of the Egyptian, servitude; but it was probably well-nigh as grievous. A few, of royal descent, might be eunuchs in the palace of the great king (2Ki_20:18; Dan_1:3), and hold offices of trust; but with the bulk of the nation it was otherwise. Psa_137:1-9, has the plaintive ring which marks it as the utterance of a sorely oppressed people. And there are passages of Ezekiel which point in the same direction (see especially Eze_34:27- 29). 5. JAMISON, rest (Isa_28:12; Eze_28:25, Eze_28:26).
17. 17. 6. K&D 3-6, The song of the redeemed is a song concerning the fall of the king of Babel. Isa_14:3, Isa_14:4. Instead of the hiphil hinniach (to let down) of Isa_14:1, we have here, as in the original passage, Deu_25:19, the form heniach, which is commonly used in the sense of quieting, or procuring rest. is trouble which plagues (as is trouble which oppresses), and rogez restlessness which wears out with anxious care (Job_3:26, cf., Eze_12:18). The assimilated min before the two words is pronounced mi, with a weak reduplication, instead of me, as elsewhere, before , , and even before (1Sa_23:28; 2Sa_18:16). In the relative clause , is not the Hebrew casus adverb. answering to the Latin ablative qu servo te usi sunt; not do ... belong to one another in the sense of quo, as in Deu_21:3, qu (vitul); but it is regarded as an acc. obj. according to Exo_1:14 and Lev_25:39, qu'on t'a fait servir, as in Num_32:5, qu'on donne la terre (Luzzatto). When delivered from such a yoke of bondage, Israel would raise a mashal. According to its primary and general meaning, mashal signifies figurative language, and hence poetry generally, more especially that kind of proverbial poetry which loves the emblematical, and, in fact, any artistic composition that is piquant in its character; so that the idea of what is satirical or defiant may easily be associated with it, as in the passage before us. The words are addressed to the Israel of the future in the Israel of the present, as in Isa_12:1. The former would then sing, and say as follows. How hath the oppressor ceased! The place of torture ceased! Jehovah hath broken the rod of the wicked, the ruler's staff, which cmote nations in wrath with strokes without ceasing subjugated nations wrathfully with hunting than nevers stays. Not one of the early translators ever thought of deriving the hap. leg. madhebah from the Aramaean dehab (gold), as Vitringa, Aurivillius, and Rosenmller have done. The former have all translated the word as if it were marhebah (haughty, violent treatment), as corrected by J. D. Michaelis, Doederlein, Knobel, and others. But we may arrive at the same result without altering a single letter, if we take as equivalent to , , to melt or pine away, whether we go back to the kal or to the hiphil of the verb, and regard the Mem as used in a material or local sense. We understand it, according to madmenah (dunghill) in Isa_25:10, as denoting the place where they were reduced to pining away, i.e., as applied to Babylon as the house of servitude where Israel had been wearied to death. The tyrant's sceptre, mentioned in Isa_14:5, is the Chaldean world-power regarded as concentrated in the king of Babel (cf., shebet in Num_24:17). This tyrant's sceptre smote nations with incessant blows and hunting: maccath is construed with macceh, the derivative of the same verb; and murdaph, a hophal noun (as in Isa_9:1; Isa_29:3), with rodeh, which is kindred in meaning. Doederlein's conjecture (mirdath), which has been adopted by most modern commentators, is quite unnecessary. Unceasing continuance is expressed first of all with bilti, which is used as a preposition, and followed by sa rah, a participial noun like calah, and then with b'li, which is construed with the finite verb as in Gen_31:20; Job_41:18; for b'li chasak is an attributive clause: with a hunting which did not restrain itself, did not stop, and therefore did not spare. Nor is it only Israel and other subjugated nations that now breathe again.
18. 18. 7.CALVIN, 3.And it shall be in that day. He adds a confirmation of the former promises. In this way the Lord provides for our weakness; for we find it difficult to render a full belief to his word, especially when the state of our affairs appears to contradict it. But by this method the Lord chooses to put our faith to the test, when he still promises the salvation of which all hope has been taken away. From thy sorrow, and from thy trembling, and from thy hard bondage. He confirms what he has said by a variety of expressions, that, by removing all doubt, we may not cease to rely on his promises, even when our affairs are desperate. Yet by the same considerations he at the same time exhorts the Jews to gratitude, that they may never bury in forgetfulness a work of God so excellent and so worthy of remembrance. He expressly intended to mention the yoke and bondage, that the Jews might be fully aware that the Lord would take away these obstructions whenever he pleased, and that they could not at all prevent him from immediately delivering his people, when he thought fit. We ought also to apply this to our own use, in the present day, with reference to the wretched bondage and wicked yoke of Antichrist by which Christians are bound. Though they are confined and bound by snares and chains in every direction, they have God for their deliverer, who will quickly remove all difficulties and every kind of annoyances; and this ought to be extended to all sorrows, distresses, and afflictions. 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury[a] has ended! 1.BARNES, That thou shalt take up - Thou shalt utter, declare, or commence. The word take up, is used in the sense of utter, speak, or declare, in Exo_20:7; Exo_23:1; Psa_15:2. This proverb - ( hamashal). Vulgate, Parable. Septuagint ton threnon - Lamentation. The Hebrew word mashal, usually rendered proverb, is also rendered a parable, or a by-word. It properly denotes a metaphor, a comparison, a similitude; and is applied usually to a brief and pungent sentiment or maxim, where wisdom is embodied in few words. In these the ancients abounded. They had few books; and hence arose the necessity of condensing as much as possible the sentiments of wisdom, that they might be easily
19. 19. remembered, and transmitted to future times. These maxims were commonly expressed in figurative language, or by a brief comparison, or short parable, as they are with us. The word also means, figurative discourse generally; and hence, a song or poem Num_23:7, Num_23:18; Job_27:1; Job_29:1; Psa_49:5. It is also used to denote a satire, or a song of triumph over enemies Mic_2:4; Heb_4:6; Joe_2:17. It is evidently used in this sense here - to denote a taunting speech, a song of triumph over the prostrate king of Babylon. In this beautiful song, there are all the elements of the most pungent satire, and all the beauties of the highest poetry. Against the king of Babylon - Over the king of Babylon, or in regard to him. It is not certain that any particular king of Babylon is here intended. If there was, it was probably Belshazzar, in whose reign the city was taken (see the notes at Isa_14:22). It may, however, be designed to denote the Babylonian empire - the kingdom that had oppressed the Jews; and thus the king may be referred to as the head of the nation, and as the representative of the whole people. How hath the oppressor ceased! - The word oppressor ( noges') denotes, properly, the exactor of tribute, and refers here to the fact that Babylon had oppressed its dependent provinces, by exacting large revenues from them, and thus cruelly oppressing them. Ceased - Ceased to exact tribute; or (Hebrew) is at rest. It is now at rest, and no more puts forth its power in oppressing its dependent provinces. The golden city - Babylon. The word used here ( made hebah) occurs nowhere else in the Bible. According to the Jewish Commentators, it means an exactress of gold, as if derived from de hab, used for ze hab, gold. Gesenius and Michaelis prefer another reading ( mare hebah), from ( rahab), and suppose that it means oppression. The Vulgate renders it tribute - The tribute hath ceased. The Septuagint Epispoudastes - Solicitor, or exactor (of gold). Vitringa supposes that the word means gold, and that it refers to the golden scepter of its kings that had now ceased to be swayed over the prostrate nations. The most probable sense is, that it means the exactress of gold, or of tribute. This best expresses the force of the word, and best agrees with the parallelism. In this sense it does not refer to the magnificence of the city, but to its oppressive acts in demanding tribute of gold from its dependent provinces. 2. CLARKE, This proverb This parable - mashal, I take this to be the general name for poetic style among the Hebrews, including every sort of it, as ranging under one or other, or all of the characters, of sententious, figurative, and sublime; which are all contained in the original notion, or in the use and application of the word mashal. Parables or proverbs, such as those of Solomon, are always expressed in short pointed sentences; frequently figurative, being formed on some comparison; generally forcible and authoritative, both in the matter and the form. And such in general is the style of the Hebrew poetry. The verb mashal signifies to rule; to exercise authority; to make equal; to compare one thing with another; to utter parables, or acute, weighty, and powerful speeches, in the form and manner of parables, though not properly such. Thus Balaams first prophecy, (Num_23:7-10), is called his mashal; though it has hardly any thing figurative in it: but it is beautifully sententious, and, from the very form and manner of it, has great spirit, force, and energy. Thus Jobs last speeches, in answer to his three friends, chap. 27-31, are called mashals; from no one particular character, which discriminates them from
20. 20. the rest of the poem, but from the sublime, the figurative, the sententious manner which equally prevails through the whole poem, and makes it one of the first and most eminent examples extant of the truly great and beautiful in poetic style. See the note on Pro_1:1 (note). The Septuagint in this place render the word by , a lamentation. They plainly consider the speech here introduced as a piece of poetry, and of that species of poetry which we call the elegiac; either from the subject, it being a poem on the fall and death of the king of Babylon, or from the form of the composition, which is of the longer sort of Hebrew verse, in which the Lamentations of Jeremiah, called by the Septuagint , are written. The golden city ceased - madhebah, which is here translated golden city, is a Chaldee word. Probably it means that golden coin or ingot which was given to the Babylonians by way of tribute. So the word is understood by the Vulgate, where it is rendered tributum; and by Montanus, who translates it aurea pensio, the golden pension. Kimchi seems to have understood the word in the same sense. De Rossi translates it auri dives, rich in gold, or auri exactrix, the exactor of gold; the same as the exactor of tribute. 3. GILL, That thou shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon,.... Or "concerning" him, his fall, and the fall of the Babylonish monarchy with him; if we understand this of any particular king of Babylon, it seems best not to interpret it of Nebuchadnezzar, whom Jerom mentions, in whom the empire was in its greatest glory: but of Belshazzar, in whom it ended; the king of Babylon may be here considered as a type of antichrist, and what is said of the one may be applied to the other: the "proverb" or "parable" taken up into the mouth, and expressed concerning him, signifies a sharp and acute speech, a taunting one, full of ironies and sarcasms, and biting expressions, as the following one is. The Septuagint render it, a "lamentation"; and the Arabic version, a "mournful song"; but as this was to be taken up by the church and people of God, concerning their great enemy, whose destruction is here described, it may rather be called a triumphant song, rejoicing at his ruin, and insulting over him: and say, how hath the oppressor ceased! he who oppressed us, and other nations, exacted tribute of us, and of others, and made us to serve with hard bondage, how is he come to nothing? by what means is he brought to ruin; by whom is this accomplished? who has been the author of it, and by whom effected? this is said as wondering how it should be brought about, and rejoicing that so it was: the golden city ceased! the city of Babylon, full of gold, drawn thither from the various parts of the world, called a golden cup, Jer_51:7 and the Babylonish monarchy, in the times of Nebuchadnezzar, was signified by a golden head, Dan_2:32 so mystical Babylon, or the Romish antichrist, is represented as decked with gold, and having a golden cup in her hand; and as a city abounding with gold, Rev_17:4. The word here used is a Chaldee or Syriac word (x), and perhaps is what was used by themselves, and is the name by which they called this city, and is now tauntingly returned; the word city is not in the text, but supplied. Some render "tribute" (y), a golden pension, a tribute of gold, which was exacted of the nations in subjection, but now ceased; and when that tyrant and oppressor, the Romish antichrist, shall cease that tribute which he exacts of the nations of the earth will cease also, as tithes, first fruits, annates, Peter's pence, &c.
21. 21. 4. HENRY, 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_18:20. 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_5:30), 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, Eze_32:27. 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, Isa_14:4 (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_21:18, Rev_21:21. 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 (Isa_14:6), gave them law, read them their doom, and at his pleasure weakened the nations (Isa_14:12), 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 (Isa_14:16); 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! 5. JAMISON, Isa_14:4-23. The Jews triumphal song thereat. It moves in lengthened elegiac measure like a song of lamentation for the dead, and is full of lofty scorn [Herder]. Isa_14:4-8. A chorus of Jews express their joyful surprise at Babylons downfall. The whole earth rejoices; the cedars of Lebanon taunt him. proverb The Orientals, having few books, embodied their thoughts in weighty, figurative, briefly expressed gnomes. Here a taunting song of triumph (Mic_2:4; Hab_2:6).
22. 22. the king the ideal representative of Babylon; perhaps Belshazzar (Dan_5:1-31). The mystical Babylon is ultimately meant. golden city rather, the exactress of gold [Maurer]. But the old translators read differently in the Hebrew, oppression, which the parallelism favors (compare Isa_3:5). 6. BI, The proverb against the King of Babylon Lowth is generally thought not to speak with exaggeration when he calls it the finest [song] of its kind extant in any language. It is a song of triumph in the form of a dirge, and therefore involves an undercurrent of sarcasm or irony. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.) An ode of triumph This ode, if it is to be admired as it deserves, must be read as a whole: its perfection as a work of art, its picturesque imagery, the delicate and subtle vein of irony by which it is penetratedit is called a taunt songwill not endure partial quotation or paraphrase. The line of thought is as follows. In the first strophe (Isa_14:4-8), the prophet declares exultingly how at length the tyrant is stilled, the earth is at peace; only the sound of rejoicing is heard. In the second (Isa_14:9-11), he accompanies in thought the Shade of the King of Babylon as it journeys to the Underworld, and imagines the ironical greeting which there meets it from the lips of the other kingsstill, as on earth, supposed to be invested with the panoply of State. The third strophe (Isa_14:12-15) depicts the abasement of the Babylonian monarch in its full magnitude: he who would have joined the ranks of the gods, is east down to the inmost recesses of the pit. In the fourth and last strophe (verse 16-20), the prophets thought passes to the battlefieldfrom the feeble Shade to the unburied, dishonoured corpse: the passers-by express their amazement at the contrast which its fate presents to that of other kings after their death; it is excluded from the royal burial place, flung aside as a worthless bough, hidden amongst the bodies of slain, common soldiers, The prophet concludes with an epilogue, spoken in his own person, and re- asserting emphatically the final and irretrievable ruin of the great city (Isa_14:21-23). The best commentary on this prophecy is the long and impassioned invective against Babylon contained in Jer_50:1-46; Jer_51:1-58.(Prof. E. R. Driver, D. D.) Destruction of the King of Babylon 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 exulted over when it is down. (M. Henry.) The golden city (Isa_14:4) is a graphical description of that city, which was renowned for its immense riches and intern parable splendour. (R. Macculloch.)
23. 23. Deliverance from an evil dominion If the nations rejoice at the overthrow of a haughty, tyrannical prince, and the re-establishment of tranquillity and liberty, how much greater ought to be the triumph of those who are delivered from the dominion of divers impetuous lusts, and enjoy the earnests of spiritual and eternal rest! (R. Macculloch.) Hell (Isa_14:9), as always in the Old Testament = the Greek Hades; not a place of torment, but the meeting place of all living (Job_30:23). The prophets representation is based upon the ideas current among the people. See Bishop Lowths Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, Lecture 7. The same idea is elaborated in greater detail by Eze_32:17-32. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.) An image of the soul The mythological idea of Hades proceeds on the two-fold truth, that what and how man has been in this world is not obliterated in the other world, but becomes essentially manifest, and that there is an immaterial self-formation of the soul in which all that the individual man has become through his own self-determination under God-given relations is reflected as in a mirror, and that in an abiding figure. This image of the soul, to which the dead body is related as the shattered form of a mould, is the shadowy corporeity of the inhabitants of Hades, in which they appear essentially, although in the condition of spirits, as what they were in this life. (F. Delitzsch.) Hell Hell is moved as a city is moved when a great king is brought prisoner thither, and everyone runs out of his house to see him. (W. Day, M. A.) Lucifer (Isa_14:12):In his splendour [the King of Babylon] is likened to the morning star, which was worshipped by the Babylonians under the name of Istar. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.) Impious expectations disappointed (Isa_14:13-15):That he should go to Sheol at all was a fate never contemplated by his soaring and self-deifying pride. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.) Pride Pride and ambition know no bounds (Isa_14:14). (R. Macculloch.)
24. 24. The bittern (Isa_14:23), Hebrews kippod. The word occurs also in chap. Zep_2:14. It has been rendered otter, tortoise, owl, beaver, porcupine (R.V.). No one of the renderings proposed is satisfactory. Bittern is freer from objection than any other bird which might be proposed. It is a solitary bird, and loves such haunts as would be supplied by the marshes which were found in districts of Edom and Babylon and Nineveh, as the fruit of the desolation sent on them. It feeds at night, and hides during the day among the long grass and rushes of its favourite habitats. (J. Duns, D. D., F. R. S. E.) The bosom of destruction (Isa_14:23):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 bosom of destruction? (M. Henry.) The Churchs exultation over her foes Surely, in some such terms as these, the Church shall one day exult over all her foes, and especially over the great apostate power of Babylon the Great, the City of the Seven Hills. And still more, over the cast out prince of this world, of whom the King of Babylon and other princes of this world have been the types and representatives. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) 7. PULPIT, Thou shalt take up this proverb; rather, this parable, as the word is translated in Num_23:1-30, and Num_24:1-25.; in Job_26:1; Job_29:1; Psa_49:4; Psa_78:2; Eze_17:2; Eze_20:49; Eze_21:5; Eze_24:3; Mic_2:4; Hab_2 :6; or "this taunting speech," as our translators render in the margin (see Cheyne, ad loc.; and comp.Heb_2:6). The golden city. There are two readings heremadhebah and marhebah. The latter reading was preferred anciently, and is followed by the LXX; the Syriac and Chaldee Versions, the Targums, Ewald, Gesenius, and Mr. Cheyne. It would give the meaning of" the raging one." Madhebah, however, is preferred by Rosenmller, Vitringa, and Dr. Kay. It is supposed to mean "golden," from d'hab, the Chaldee form of the Hebrew zahob, gold. But the question is pertinentWhy should a Chaldee form have been used by a Hebrew writer ignorant of Chaldee and Chaldea? 8. CALVIN, 4.Then thou shalt take up this saying. (213) By the term witty saying, or parable, (for the Hebrew word (mashal) denotes that are weighty and remarkable, and worthy of being observed, he shows that the ruin of Babylon will be so great that it will even become a proverb, which usually happens in great and astonishing events.
25. 25. How hath the oppressor ceased? The word How throws it into the form of a question expressive of astonishment and ridicule. It might be thought incredible that Babylon, furnished with such abundant wealth and forces, should be overturned and fall into the hands of the enemy. Justly, therefore, does he ridicule their foolish and vain confidence, that, being swelled with haughtiness, they thought that they were invincible, and were placed beyond the reach of all danger. Yet it may be thought to be inconsistent with the modesty of godly persons to scoff at the misery of others, for they ought rather to have pitied them. But it is not inconsistent with compassion, when our zeal is regulated by the justice of the judgment of God; for in that case we may with human feelings compassionate those who perish through their folly, and at the same time laugh at their insolence and madness. As the Lord scoffs at them, laughing at their senselessness, so he bids us, through zeal for his glory, mock at them; not that we may be swelled with impudence, but that we may praise his goodness and power. By this example, therefore, we may scoff at the enemies of God, when they are vanquished or brought down, as we may scoff at Antichrist, whose power we daily see diminished and gradually falling into decay. How hath the city covetous of gold ceased! (214) The word , (madhebah,) in this clause, might be rendered golden, or ornamented with gold; but as it is connected with the word Oppressor or Tyrant, it probably denotes covetousness and insatiable greediness for gold, to which the Babylonians were subject. It is usually the case with great empires and states and wealthy nations, that the greater their abundance, the stronger is their greediness to possess more. (215) (213) That thou shalt take up this proverb, (or, taunting speech.) Eng. Ver. FT205 The golden city ceased ! Eng. Ver. FT206 , (madhebah,) being a Chaldee word, was probably the epithet by which that people distinguished their capital, as the Italians say, Florence the fair, Padua the learned, etc. Stock FT207 With a continued stroke. (Heb. a stroke without removing.) Eng Ver. A stroke without intermission. Stock With a stroke unremitted. Lowth FT208 Hell from beneath (or, the grave) is moved for thee. Eng. Ver.
26. 26. FT209 The dead. Eng. Ver. The mighty dead. Stock. Rephaim, the gigantic spectres. Ghosts are commonly magnified by vulgar terror to a stature superior to the human. Rosenmuller FT210 The allusion is obviously to a passage from Juvenal which the author, on a former occasion (See page 174), quoted at greater length. Ed 5 The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, 1.BARNES, The Lord hath broken - Yahweh, by the hand of Cyrus. The staff of the wicked - That is, the scepter of the king of Babylon. The word rendered staff ( mateh) may mean either a bough, stick, staff, rod, or a scepter. The scepter was the symbol of supreme power. It was in the form of a staff, and was made of wood, ivory, or gold. It here means that Yahweh had taken away the power from Babylon, and destroyed his dominion. 2. PULPIT, The staff the scepter. Symbols of Babylonian power (scrap. Isa_10:5). 3. GILL, The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked,.... This is an answer to the above question, how the exactor and his tribute came to cease; this was not by man, but by the Lord himself; for though he made use of Cyrus, the work was his own, he broke the power of the wicked kings of Babylon: and the sceptre of the rulers; that were under the king of Babylon; or of the several kings themselves, Nebuchadnezzar, Evilmerodach, and Belshazzar; so Kimchi interprets it. This may be applied to the kingdom of antichrist, and the antichristian states, which shall be broken to shivers as a potter's vessel by Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, Rev_2:27. The "staff" and "sceptre" are emblems of power and government; and "breaking" them signifies the utter destruction and cessation of authority and dominion. 4. HENRY, Great oppression and cruelty. He is known by the name of the oppressor (Isa_14:4); he has the sceptre of the rulers (Isa_14:5), 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
27. 27. and wickedly strikes all about him. He smote the people, not in justice, for their correction and reformation, but in wrath (Isa_14:6), 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, Isa_14:17. Great princes usually glory in building cities, but he gloried in destroying them; see Psa_9:6. Two particular instances, worse than all the rest, are here given of his tyranny: - [1.] That he was severe to his captives (Isa_14:17): 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_5:3. 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 (Isa_14:20): 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. 5. JAMISON, staff not the scepter (Psa_2:9), but the staff with which one strikes others, as he is speaking of more tyrants than one (Isa_9:4; Isa_10:24; Isa_14:29) [Maurer]. rulers tyrants, as the parallelism the wicked proves (compare see on Isa_13:2). 6. PULPIT 4-23, Triumph over enemies. The "taunt-song" of Israel, as it has been called (Cheyne), like the "song of Deborah" in the Book of Judges (5.), raises the question how far triumph over a national enemy is a feeling that can be indulged with propriety. There can be no doubt that it is I. A NATURAL FEELING. "The song of Deborah and Barak" expresses the feelings which have usually animated the victors in national contests from the beginning of the world to the present day. The poems of Homer show us the great warriors of the heroic age giving the freest possible vent to their passions of scorn and hatred on such occasions. The heroes of Germany and Iceland indulge in the same strain. North American Indians are said to have been equally outspoken. The "natural man" would, beyond all question, on every occasion of the kind, give free and unfettered expression to his feelings of triumph and delight, nor would he see any reason for checking his feelings, or making any effort to moderate them. There is also a good side to the feeling, inasmuch as it is
28. 28. II. CONNECTED WITH THANKFULNESS TO GOD FOR DELIVERANCE. In the song of Deborah and Barak, and again in the song of Moses (Exo_15:1-21), this is very marked. "Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves. Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel" (Jdg_5:2, Jdg_5:3). "The Lord is my Strength and Song, and is become my Salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his Name" (Exo_15:2, Exo_15:3). "Sing ye to the Lord, for he bath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea" (Exo_15:21). It is not their own valor, or strength, or prudence, and warlike skill that the Hebrew leaders vaunt in their songs of triumph, but the greatness and strength and wisdom of the God who has given to them the victory over their enemies. And so the Christian song of joy for a victory has ever been the "To Deum""We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord." So long as wars continue, so long as swords are not beaten' into ploughshares, or spears into pruning-hooks (Isa_2:4), it must be right for the combatants to look to the God of battles for aid and countenance and success; and if so, it must be right for them to return him thanks for his aid given, which can best be done by songs of praise and psalms of thanksgiving. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the feeling of triumph is one which ought to be very carefully watched and kept under control, since it is III. LIABLE TO DEGENERATE INTO SELF-GLORIFICATION. When Assyria was victorious, her song of triumph was as follows: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people; and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped" (Isa_10:13, Isa_10:14). There is something of the same spirit in the song of Deborah and Barak: "The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel" (Jdg_5:7). "Awake, awake, Deborah, awake, awake, utter a song; arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abiuoam" (Jdg_5:12). Weak human nature is apt to have its head turned by success, and to attribute the result to its own prowess, instead of the mercy and goodness of God. IV. LIABLE TO DEGENERATE INTO SCORN OF, AND INSULTATION OVER, THE ENEMY. Scorn and insult are utterly unchristian, and a Christian "song of triumph" should most carefully avoid them; but they are very dear to the "natural man," and very apt to show themselves in the outpourings of a human heart on the occasion of a triumph. The closing passage of the song of Deborah is of the nature of insult, and so is a considerable portion of Isaiah's "taunt-song." The "evangelical prophet" was not himself fully possessed of the evangelical spirit. In his time the precept had not yet gone forth, "Love your enemies" (Mat_5:44), and men believed it to be natural and right to hate them (see Psa_139:22). Insult and scorn
29. 29. were but indications of hate, or of hate mingled with contempt for those who had been proved weal;, and so seemed to be legitimately bestowed on beaten foes. But the Christian may hate no man, may despise no man, knowing that each human soul is in God's sight of priceless value. Consequently, although he may rejoice in victory, and even compose songs of triumph, he is bound to avoid anything like insultation over the defeated. They are his brethren, they are souls for whom Christ died; they may be among those with whom he will hold sweet converse in the world to come. 7.CALVIN, 5.The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked. He answers the question which has just been put; for he did not intend that believers should doubt that it would happen, but rather that they should be amazed at such wonderful works of God; for the question had a tendency to arouse their minds to more earnest attention. It is as if he had said that it did not happen at random or through the blind violence of fortune that they have not been oppressed by continual bondage, but that it ought to be ascribed to the providence of God, who hath broken that hard yoke of bondage. Now, the ungodly are amazed at such works, and remain bewildered, because they do not see the reason; but the godly know that this ought to be ascribed to God. Let us therefore learn to admire the works of God, and while we are amazed at them, let us acknowledge him to be the Author; and let us not think that any of them ought to be lightly passed over, especially when he displays his power for redeeming his Church, when by his wonderful power he delivers each of us from the bondage of the devil, from the tyranny of Antichrist, from eternal death. It is no ordinary work, of which any part ought to be ascribed to the power of man or to any other cause. To the staff of the wicked he adds the sceptre of the rulers; and by this repetition he means that no imperial power can support unjust tyranny. And immediately afterwards he states more clearly that the monarchy of the Babylonians would be destroyed, because it was unjust and tyrannical, when he says (Isa_14:6) that the people had been struck with an incurable stroke, (216) and that there was no limit to the violence, because they had rioted with impunity in unbounded licentiousness. This reminds us that at length God will not spare tyrants, though he may wink at them for a time. The same destruction awaits them as, we learn, befell Babylon; for the Lord is righteous, (Psa_11:7,) and is always like himself. 6 which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows,
30. 30. and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression. 1.BARNES, He who smote - This may either refer to the king of Babylon, or to the rod or scepter which he had used, and which was now broken. Herder refers it to the scepter, that which smote the nations. (On the meaning of the word smote, see the notes at Isa_10:20) The people - The nations that were subject to his authority. With a continual stroke - Margin, A stroke without removing. Vulgate, Plaga insanabili - With an incurable plague. - Septuagint the same - Plege aniato. The Hebrew is, as in the margin, A smiting without removing, or without cessation. There was no relaxation in its oppressions, it was always engaged in acts of tyranny. He that ruled the nations - Babylon was the capital of a vast empire, and that empire was composed of many dependent nations. Is persecuted - By those that make war upon it. Its turn had come to be oppressed, and overthrown. And none hindereth - No nation opposes the invader. None of the dependent kingdoms of Babylon have any real attachment to it, but all rejoice at its downfall. The most mighty kingdom of the earth is helpless and ruined. What a change was this! How sudden and striking the revolution! And what a warning to proud and guilty cities! 2. PULPIT, He who smote the people; rather, which smote the peoples. The participle translated "he who smote" refers to "staff" or "scepter." With a continual stroke; i.e. incessantly, one war following another without pause or stop. He that ruled, etc.; rather, which ruled the nations in anger with a persecution that held not back. 3. GILL, He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke,.... The king of Babylon, who made war with the people and nations of the earth, and conquered them, smote them with the edge of the sword to gratify his passions, and satiate his bloodthirsty mind; and those that were spared, he ruled with rigour, and oppressed them with tribute and hard bondage; and, when he had conquered one nation, attacked another, and so went on pursuing his victories without intermission, giving no respite neither to his army, nor to the people: he that ruled the nations in anger; not with justice and clemency, but in a tyrannical and oppressive way, even his own nation, as well as the nations whom he subdued: is persecuted; is, pursued by the justice of God, overtaken and seized, and brought to condign punishment;
31. 31. and none hindereth; the execution of the righteous judgment upon him; none of the neighbouring kings and nations, either tributary to him, or in alliance with him, give him the least help or assistance, or attempt to ward off the blow upon him, given him, under the direction and appointment of God, by Cyrus the Persian. So the Romish antichrist, who has made war with the saints, and has smitten them with the sword, and gone on to do so without any intermission for ages together, and has tyrannised over them in a most cruel manner, he shall be persecuted, and taken, and brought to his end, and there shall be none to help him; see Rev_13:7. 4. PULPIT, Song of redeemed Israel I. THE OCCASION OF THE SONG. (Isa_14:1-3.) The immediate purpose of that awful convulsion of the nations described in the preceding chapter was judgment; but beyond this lies the purpose of mercy. The inspired song of Israel is ever of "mercy and judgment." One loving purpose works, whether through the hiding of the cloud and the storm, or in the manifest brightness of the calm summer day. Whether he makes himself known to us amidst terror and trembling, or in peace and tranquilly flowing hours, "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world." After the storm comes the still small voice, heard in the sanctuary, echoed in the heart, "Fear not; I am with thee." Jehovah will give his people rest in their land from the cruel sufferings of slavery. The heathen will look on, astonished at the deliverance of Israel, and wilt be convinced that there is a truth in the religion of Israel superior to that of their own. They will escort the people of Jehovah to the sacred place, and there become attached to their service as dependents. To the prophetic conscience it seems that this is but in accordance with the law of compensation. It seems preposterous, nothing less than an invasion of the true order of things, for a community which holds the purest principles to be enslaved to one whose power is built on falsehood. The conscience of the prophet teaches him that as God is right, so there must be a rectification of the world's wrong. The present first must become the last, and the last first, and the world must be turned upside down, that Israel may obtain and retain her destined lead among the nations. This is a leading ideal of prophecy, and we find it reappearing in the days of Christ. We may, indeed, without straining a point, say that such predictions, born of the profoundest religious convictions, have been fulfilled in the course of our religion. It will hardly be denied that the great spiritual principles summed up in the phrase, "the kingdom of God upon earth" have grown upon the world, have obtained a larger and more commanding recognition with every great change among the nations. Israel, Greece, broke up as nations only to resign their deposit of truth to a larger stewardship; and Rome's work was fulfilled when she became the vehicle of Christianity to the wide Western world. The forms of Divine fulfillment seen by the prophets in their forecast may not have been always the truest forms, limited as they were by conditions of space and time. The substance and spirit of their message was of eternal truth. II. THE CONTENTS OF THE SONG. (Isa_14:4-8, )
32. 32. 1. The picture of rest from tyranny. The Babylonian oppressor shall be quelled; his lordly pride and wrath shall cease. For the staff of authority wielded by impious hands shall be broken,