In ‘a’ Yahweh calls on His chosen leader to set up his banner on the bare mountains calling together his forces together under their princes, while in the parallel it is Yahweh of hosts Who is mustering them for battle, calling them together from the farthest parts of the earth as the weapons of His indignation. In ‘b’ those called to fulfil Yahweh’s anger are both consecrated and highly exultant, and in the parallel they gather in the mountains in a great noise of tumult of nations gathered together.

13.1 ‘The burden of Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.’

The fact that Babylon comes first in the list emphasises Isaiah’s growing awareness that the Babel of old (Genesis 10.8-10; 11.1-9), God’s old enemy, was raising its head again as the leader of the attempted conspiracy. The ogre had again taken charge. He was aware from Scripture of the place of Babel in the scheme of things as the great enemy of freedom and truth, and proponent of world disintegration as revealed in Genesis 10-11; 14. And the burden had come on him that Babylon must be destroyed.

This awareness of the old traditions of Babylon’s one time greatness, and its present proud boasting made him aware that this nation, which was at this point already again demonstrating its rising power, would continue to be the great enemy of God’s people and the instrument of His great judgment on them (39.6-7). It had to be. For was not Babel traditionally the symbol of all that was proud and evil (Genesis 11.1-9), the great challenger of God (13.19; 14.13-14), and even in Isaiah’s day, the great boaster about its future, and its past?

But he was now being made aware that, as in Genesis, Babel/Babylon was doomed, even before it began its present meteoric rise. For God’s judgment had been pronounced on it from the beginning. This was all part of the burden that lay on Isaiah’s heart as he prophesied against Babylon, aware of what it had been, knowing what it was, recognising what it was becoming, surmising what it would do to God’s people, and declaring the end that must finally result, its ultimate destruction, because God was against it. (As with the destruction of the Amalekites promised in Exodus 17.14, 16, which took generations to unfold, it would happen in God’s time).

Babylon is truly spoken of here in apocalyptic terms. Much of the language used here will reappear in speaking of the end times. And similar language is used of the other arch-enemy of God’s people, the Edomites (chapter 34). Yet although it may be the great enemy of God, Isaiah roots Babylon firmly in history. For while it might be portentous, there was nothing mythical about it. The rising again of Babylon was to be curtailed as a result of ‘world’ forces gathered against them (13.4-5), and these included the dreadful Medes (13.17), who would continually be set on them like a man sets his dog on an intruder. And its final destruction would inevitably follow, although how much later Isaiah did not know.

As with all the prophets he saw the future as one whole. The purpose of prophecy was to declare what God was going to do, not when. He foresaw the assaults by the nations that must take place on Babylon; and in its continuing devastations, following its risings again (which he would witness at least twice under Sargon and Sennacherib), he saw the prospect of its final desolation. How they would all fit together he did not know. It was not his concern. That was in God’s hands.

13.2

The nations are called together against Babylon to a perpetual, unceasing battle. A banner is to be set up where all can see it, on the bare mountains (compare 18.3). The banner may well be seen as over an overlord’s tent, from which the orders go out to the nations, both by voice and a directing motion of the arm. The mountains are bare to stress the starkness of the picture. The whole picture is deliberately anonymous. It is the whole world that is being summoned to destroy the monster Babylon.

‘That they may go into the gate of the princes, (or ‘of those who are willing’).’ This was in order that they might enrol under their chosen leaders, or in order to align themselves with the willing volunteers. The gate was always the place of assembly, for the public square, such as it was, would be there. Thus they go there in order to enrol under their leaders, or as willing volunteers. (‘Nadib’ can mean either those who are willing, or the nobility, those willing to take responsibility. Either is possible here). All nations will willingly volunteer to go against Babylon.

13.3 ‘I have commanded my consecrated ones (‘holy ones’), yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, my proudly exulting ones.’

These are a people consecrated to Yahweh’ purposes (although they probably do not know it). They are His mighty men, there to reveal His anger against Babylon. They are men of great pride and of warlike demeanour. They are joined together with one purpose, the destruction of Babylon, the enemy of the ages. They have been set apart by God for this sacred task.

We are not to see them as particularly morally righteous. Their status lies in the fact that God is using them to fulfil His purpose, (just as ungodly Assyria had previously been described as the rod of God’s anger (10.5)), and not because of what they are. But they are not just one nation. They are all nations from the ends of the world. (All would participate in it at different times, or will do one day in its reproduction in Revelation, for Babylon was not only a city it was an idea)

13.4-5

Anyone who reads and listens can hear the sound in the mountains of an army, a great international army, gathered together and inevitably noisy as the different nations expressed themselves, for it is Yahweh ‘of hosts’ who has mustered ‘the host’ to battle. And He has mustered them from a distant country, from the farthest parts, and they have come as the weapons of His anger to destroy the land of Babylon. Such a host would be necessary against the Babylon of Isaiah’s visions.

This could equally describe either an Assyrian confederacy, with its widespread alliances, or the later Medo-Persian army which would include forces from far afield, for prior to attacking Babylon they had expanded to the east, and even the later Persian army under Xerxes. Indeed in the end it was describing all of them. Isaiah does not name the leader of the adversaries. He is not told who it is. It is the one appointed by God to do His bidding. But he knows that such world forces will rise and humiliate Babylon, and will not cease until the task is fulfilled. The fulfilment of this would in fact occur over the centuries until at last the task was complete and Babylon was no more thus it is describing events that occurred more than once. (And Revelation indicates that the idea of Babylon would continue, and would also have to be destroyed). Chapter 13 thus covers a continuous process until the fate of Babylon is accomplished (compare again how God in the same way decreed the end of the Amalekites (Exodus 17.14, 16; Numbers 24.20; Deuteronomy 25.19), even though it was to take many centuries, and how in chapter 34, He decrees the end of Edom in similar language to here. Babylon, the Amalekites and Edom were all symbols of what was totally rejected by God). This burden cannot be strictly compared with the burdens that follow, for they will be ‘temporary’ in the particular historical situation, but this one is unswerving and final.

There are no particular grounds for seeing anything here as referring specifically to behaviour towards Judah, although they would be seen as being caught up in the general overall picture (see 14.1-3). They were a part of the whole, even if an exclusive part. Furthermore as the account goes on all the nations surrounding Judah will be mentioned, north, south, east and west. So in one sense Judah is in the middle of it. But Babylon’s doom goes beyond all that. It has been necessary almost from the beginning of history. And many nations will be involved in it.

The Apocalyptic Destruction of Babylon (13.6-16).

The forces having been gathered by Yahweh on the remoteness of the bare mountain, they are to be unleashed in ‘the Day of Yahweh’, and it will seem as though the whole earth is involved.

Analysis of 13.6-15.

• a Howl, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. As the destruction from the Almighty (Shaddai) will it come. Therefore will all hands be feeble, and every heart of man will melt, and they will be dismayed.
• b Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them. They will be in pain like a woman in labour. They will be amazed at one another. Their faces will be faces of flame
• c Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it (9).
• d For the stars of heaven and its constellations will not give their light, the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause her light to shine (10).
• d And I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more rare (’oqir) than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir (’ophir) (11-12).
• c Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of her place, in the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger (13).
• b And it will come about that as the hunted roe, and as the sheep that no man gathers, they will turn every man to his own people, and will flee every man to his own (14).
• a Every man who is found will be thrust through, and everyone who is taken will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes, their houses will be spoiled, and their wives ravished (15-16).

In ‘a’ the Day of Yahweh is at hand (compare verse 9), coming as destruction from the Almighty, so that all hands will be feeble and ‘every heart of man’ melt, and in the parallel ‘every man’ will be thrust through, infants will be dashed in pieces, houses will be despoiled, wives will be ravished. In ‘b’ pangs and sorrows will take hold of them, they will be in pain like a woman in labour, they will be amazed at one another and their faces will be faces of flame, and in the parallel they will turn and flee to their own countries and their own kindred like hunted animals. In ‘c’ the day of Yahweh comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it, and in the parallel He will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of her place, in the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger. In ‘d’ the stars of heaven and its constellations will not give their light, the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause her light to shine, and in the parallel he will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. He will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir.

13.6-8

The day that is coming and is in view will be Yahweh’s day. ‘The day of Yahweh’ means that period in which He reveals His power in judgment, whenever it is, as He carries forward His purposes, so that through history there are different ‘days of Yahweh’. (Thus various such days are to be seen in Daniel’s description of the four empires, as one follows another into destruction, although there not mentioned as such). But it would eventually, as a result of such writings as this, come to signify a great final day when God and His opponents would, as it were, come face to face in one last great war, before the everlasting kingdom was established. That is how John in Revelation saw it, a city that represented what Babylon symbolised, although it was not necessarily the literal Babylon. That had been destroyed long before (Revelation 14.8; 17-18).

‘At hand.’ This refers to space rather than time. It is near in the sense that it was within striking distance. All would inevitably be caught up in it, first their neighbours and then themselves. It would be unavoidable.

The command is to ‘howl’ (plural). Compare Amos 5.16-17. All are to howl for it will inevitably be a day of destruction. Both the Almighty and the world are here exacting vengeance on Babylon and what it stands for, and this series of events will inevitably concern Jerusalem/Judah, or what remains of them. The destruction will be like the descriptions of the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah, but on a vaster scale. The whole world will be shaking. The descriptions are of people in panic and terror, in fear and perplexity, their faces burning with horror and dismay. No one knows when, but Babylon is doomed. Such things would in fact happen time and again as Babylon was on its way to its destruction. Through Babylon great suffering would come on men.

‘Destruction from the Almighty’ (sod mi ssadday). Note the assonance. Isaiah constantly uses assonance to emphasise his meaning and make it memorable. In all that would happen men were to recognise that this came from Yahweh as judgment on men’s sins.

13.9

The moral purpose behind what is happening is here described. It is the day of Yahweh when He steps in to put right particular situations. Note the stress on His ‘anger’, His revulsion against their sin. Babylon has sinned against Judah and Jerusalem, it has sinned against the nations, it has sinned against God. It had once proudly asserted itself against God (Genesis 11). It would do so again and again (14.13-14). Thus His anger towards it, and thus the reason why His day will come on it. As it desolated the land of others, so its own land will be desolated. Its sinners would be destroyed.

13.10-11

In a world where the heavenly bodies were seen as gods and goddesses, and natural phenomenon were interpreted astrologically, it was inevitable that the destruction of such a nation would be seen in heavenly terms, especially in the case of a city so imbued with the occult as Babylon (chapter 47). What was happening to Babylon was happening to its gods. Bel was bowing down, Nebo was stooping (46.1). Furthermore, as the smoke welled up from burning fields and cities, and the skies became distorted, and blood and smoke filled men’s eyes, natural phenomena would take on an eerie look. The stars would become hidden, the sun dark, the moon unshining. Astrologers would search the heavens and find in them portents of what was happening. Thus the very heavens themselves would be seen as involved.

Isaiah had earlier described God’s judgment on Israel in terms of darkness and distress (5.30), how much more so the judgment on Babylon. We can compare here how when God was punishing Egypt one of the plagues was a plague of thick darkness which resulted when Moses stretched his hand towards heaven (Exodus 10.21-23) when exactly this situation would have been true. All of heaven would have been invisible.

And inevitably so, for Yahweh the Creator would be punishing the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. Men had put light for darkness, and darkness for light (5.20). God would do so too. The lights would go out for Babylon. He was humbling the proud, and bringing low the haughty, especially the ‘haughtiness of the terrible’. (Note that the literal events are those happening on earth). Something of this haughtiness comes out in 14.12-14. Kings of Babylon, terrible in the eyes of the world, and especially of a small nation like Judah, saw themselves as exalted above the stars of God. Thus the very stars themselves must be blotted out (compare Daniel 8.10; 11.36).

13.12

In the day of Babylon’s doom in its continual occurrences the land would appear deserted as populations melted away from before the invading forces. They would seemingly disappear, until the enemy had moved on. The armies would search and find no one. All would have fled, in some cases leaving their gold behind. That could still be found. Note the play on words in ’oqir and ’ophir, they would be ‘more oqir than ophir’. Ophir has not been identified (Arabia, East Africa and India have all been suggested) but was famous for its gold (1 Kings 9.28; 1 Chronicles 29.4; 2 Chronicles 8.18; Job 22.24; 28.16; Psalm 45.9).

13.13

Note how this is paralleled with verse 9. It is the Day of Yahweh, the day of His fierce anger, the time for dealing with sin. The continuing destruction of Babylon is to be an earthshaking event. Even the heavens will tremble. For it is Yahweh revealing His wrath against the pride of rebellious man from the beginning. Similar language was used by great kings as they described their progress in warfare. In their arrogance they saw the world shaking before them. But in Yahweh’s case it would regularly be true, and it would be true for Babylon.

Here the term ‘Yahweh of hosts’ is particularly poignant, for His anger is revealed in ‘the hosts’ He has gathered together against Babylon whose continual activity will bring Babylon down (again and again).

13.14-16

Here are described man’s experiences during that Day. The hunted roe and the wild sheep are unprotected and vulnerable. They are on their own. And so it will be with the people who gather to Babylon, drawn by the magnet of the pomp and glory that draws all men. Now they are to be left without a protector, and will have to flee to their homelands. And those who are caught will be summarily slain, for to be involved with the sinful is to be sinful and to be punished with them. The consequences in infant deaths, houses ravaged, and women raped are the normal consequences of war, when men lose control of themselves. The vivid language has become very realistic. This is war as it was known. What happened in detail was not God’s purpose, it was the consequence of the kind of instruments He had to use.

A Vivid Picture of Babylon’s Future And Its End (13.17-22).

Having depicted the destruction of Babylon in apocalyptic terms Isaiah brings it down to earth. He partly does it in terms of the Medes. The Medes participated in a number of invasions of Babylon from Sargon II onwards and were very much feared. They founded their own empire and up to around the time of Cyrus II (whose father was Persian and whose mother was Medan) were the senior partners of the Medo-Persian alliance. While they sometimes had to pay tribute to a particularly powerful Assyrian king, (and at one stage to the Scythians), they were never really subjugated, and in the end assisted in the destruction of first Assyria, and then Babylonia. They were wild fighters of Indo-Iranian origin who came from the north and settled in the Near East and were expert bowmen, and they were feared by all. Sargon spoke of them as ‘madaia dannuti’ (‘the mighty Medes’). No one wanted to see the Medes approaching their city. It struck a cold chill to the heart.

Analysis of 13.17-22.

• a Behold I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not regard silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it (17).
• b And their bows will dash the young men in pieces, and they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eye will not spare children (18).
• c And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah (19).
• c It will never be inhabited, nor will it be dwelt in from generation to generation, nor will the Arabian pitch tent there, nor will shepherds make their flocks to lie down there (20).
• b But the wild beasts of the wilderness will lie there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures, and ostriches will dwell there, and he-goats (‘goat-satyrs’) will dance there (21).
• a And wolves will howl in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces, and her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged (22).

These parallels are significant in the understanding of the reputation of the Medes. In ‘a’ the Medes who cannot be bought off will be stirred up against Babylon and in the parallel wolves and jackals will dwell there, and her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged. In ‘b’ Medan bows will dash young men in pieces, and the Medes are totally merciless as regards children, and in the parallel the ruins of Babylon will be inhabited by wild beasts, howling creatures, and ‘goat-satyrs’, bringing out the reputation of the Medes. In ‘c’ glorious Babylon will become like Sodom and Gomorrah, a desolate and forgotten heap, and in the parallel it will never be inhabited and it will be avoided by men.

13.17-18

If we would interpret Scripture truly we have no right to rip this verse from its context. Here we are told quite clearly that what has been described, ‘the burden of Babylon’ (verse 1), is to occur at the hands of the nations, and partly, but only partly, at the hands of the Medes, those fearsome peoples from beyond Babylon.

In view of what we know of history the temptation for us here is to assume that this refers to the taking of Babylon in 539 BC by the Medes and the Persians. But it is important to note that the total emphasis here is on the Medes alone, and the Medes were a constant threat to Babylon from the very moment of their arrival from the steppes, even though spasmodically ‘controlled’ by Assyria. There is no mention, or even hint, here of the Persians. The point here is that the Medes will be let loose on them, those dreadful Medes whose bows shoot a man to pieces. But while they were to be specially feared they would only be one invader among many (verse 4). Humanly speaking the fierce Medes would be an obvious ally for any attack on Babylon. They loved warfare and were just waiting there on its eastern borders, looking for their opportunity. Isaiah’s prophecies were enlightened common sense inspired by God. And the Medes would certainly be closely involved in most of Babylon’s downfalls. Thus there is no reason for reading a Medo-Persian conflict here.

But when the Medes struck, said Isaiah, it would be because God had stirred them up. They would not be able to be bought off by bribery or offers of gold. They would be ‘under divine orders’. And the bows for which they were famous would destroy the enemy, and the usual consequences of war would then follow, for the Medes would particularly have no pity. It is unusual to see a bow as ‘dashing in pieces’ but the words are picked up from verse 16. In mind, however, may be the picture of someone torn apart by arrows, the idea being of the multitude of arrows that the Medes would let loose.

13.19 ‘And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.’

‘The glory of kingdoms, the Beauty.’ These were probably descriptions that Babylon was applying to itself in its connections with Judah (39.1). As they boasted of their wealth and success, in order to impress Hezekiah, this would be the kind of language that they had used, and Isaiah takes it up and mocks it. He is angry because they are depicting themselves in terms that challenge Yahweh’s supremacy. That is what makes him realise that Babel/Babylon has not changed. And he is angry that Hezekiah has yielded to it. But such boasting would explain why Hezekiah felt it necessary to reveal his own comparatively puny treasures, comparatively puny but of which he was so proud (39.2). No doubt the Babylonian embassy had brought large gifts in their hands.

So Babylon even now saw itself as ‘the glory of kingdoms’. It was the ‘Beauty’ of which the Chaldeans were so proud. They gloried in themselves though the centuries, and no nation boasts like the resurrected nation. The ‘Chaldeans’ were a prominent group in southern Babylonia and the term was later used of all Babylonians, as here. Babylon was recognised throughout the known world for its splendour. Even Nineveh could not compare with it and its ancient civilisation. And their pride in the fact knew no bounds.

But the same words ‘glory’ and ‘beauty’ were used of the ‘sprouting of Yahweh’ in 4.2 and of Yahweh Himself in 28.5. Thus Isaiah saw Babylon as exalting itself to the same status as God and His ways. It was the Anti-God. And in its blasphemy it would suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah, which were bywords for sinfulness.

‘Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.’ This is Babylon’s final destiny. Isaiah sees it as clearly as if it were in his own day. The Medes will continue to be a thorn in their sides, and would be a part of the alliances that would continually and finally break them, until they would in the end be nothing but a ruin on a mound of earth.

It is the genius of the Hebrew prophets that they prophesied of trends and purposes which in the end became more true than they at first realised. These words of Isaiah are a good example of this. He did not know that the Medan impact on Babylon would be far greater than he realised, nor at this stage did he realise quite how great Babylon would become in the not too distant future. That was a realisation that possibly grew on him as he contemplated that future. For once he knew that Assyria’s end was ‘near’, he may possibly have begun to see Babylon as the obvious candidate for rising to prominence and then have come to recognise what the consequences for Israel/Judah would be. And then this prophecy would be even more true. But if so that would come later when he realised that the Assyrian venture against Babylon had not been the final end for Babylon, in respect of a future that he knew must come.

13.20-22

For its end would inevitably come. The ‘world’ invasions would do their work. The contrast here is with its glory and its beauty. It will become a ghost town, a deserted city, an eerie place. The fact that the wandering Arab, the caravanners, or shepherd will not pitch tent or settle their sheep there may suggest the idea that it would be seen as cursed or haunted. And this is borne out by the following description.

These descriptions parallel the mention of the Medes. They bring out just how much the Medes were feared, and how they were looked on. The ruined castles and palaces will become homes for wild beasts and ghostly creatures, places where wolves and jackals will be king, and mysterious presences, howling creatures and goat-satyrs, the invention of fevered minds, will wander. Paradoxically we too do not need to believe in ghosts to be conscious of ghostly presences in such a situation.

This was to be the final end of ancient Babylon, as today we know it was. It did happen eventually, and the Medes would have a big hand in it, and that is all that Isaiah foresaw and was prophesying. The fact that it did not happen quite as simply as portrayed is proof that it is genuine prophecy.

‘And her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.’ This desolation of Babylon, ‘the glory of the kingdoms’, described throughout the chapter, is neither dated nor specifically connected with Israel and Judah. And there is no mention of the exile. It is thus quite possible that it was the coming of the ambassadors from Babylon that set up this train of thought, and resulted in this burden, with its certainty of Babylon’s final total destruction. Thus Isaiah warns that Babylon’s time is coming, and that, in divine terms, in the not too distant future. In spite of all her boasting her future glory will only be temporary, for among her enemies will be the dreaded Medes.

Chapter 14 Exiled Israel Will Be Restored. Further Judgments on the King of Babylon. Judgment on Assyria and The Rejection of Philistine Ambassadors.

Having depicted the demise of Babylon Isaiah now looks more closely at more of its causes. She would humiliate Israel and Judah and her king would exalt himself to heaven.

Despite Their Exile, Israel’s Cause Is Not Lost (14.1-2).

Typical of Isaiah is that in the midst of the burden of Babylon, and the descriptions of its downfall, come promises of restoration for Israel and Judah. In the midst of it all Yahweh has not forgotten His people.

Analysis.

• a For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel (1a).
• b And set them in their own land, and the stranger will join himself with them (1b).
• c And they will cleave to the house of Jacob (1c).
• c And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place (2a).
• b And the house of Israel will possess them in the land of Yahweh, for servants and for handmaids (2b).
• a And they will take them captive whose captives they were, and they will rule over their oppressors (2c).

In ‘a’ Yahweh will yet have compassion on Israel and again set His choice on them, and in the parallel the result will be that their situation will be overturned, and they will make captive their captors, and will rule over their oppressors. In ‘b’ He will set them in their own land and foreigners will join with them, and in the parallel the foreigners will be possessed in the land of Yahweh for servants and for handmaids. In ‘c’ these foreigners will cleave to the house of Jacob, and they will bring them to their place.

14.1-2

One guarantee of the shortlived nature of any Babylonian glory is the fact that God is to restore His people to spiritual greatness. Having witnessed the devastation of Samaria and the dragging of the cream of Israel’s leaders into captivity, Isaiah promises that one day they will be restored. Yahweh will yet have compassion on them, and again choose them. Their loss of status before God is only temporary. They are His beloved people, beloved because He has chosen to love them (Deuteronomy 7.7-8). They will be re-established in the land which God had given them as an inheritance centuries before, ‘the land of Yahweh’, and they will be set there by Him to enjoy His rest (see Deuteronomy 12.10; 2 Samuel 7.1) and aliens will join themselves with them and seek to become part of them.

Indeed God will turn the tables on the world. Those who had oppressed them will assist in their deliverance and become their servants and captives, for they will come under Israel’s rule. Thus is given the guarantee of the final triumph of God’s people, although, as often stressed elsewhere, it will be of but a remnant. And other nations will share in that triumph by their connection with them. Compare 45.14-25; 49.22-26; 60; 66.19-24.

We must not see this latter as the demeaning of the nations. This was the conception of the time of the way in which an empire was established, with the leading nation having under it the subsidiary nations who served them and provided servants.

There was partial fulfilment of this after the later exile of Judah. Israel and Judah were re-established in the land and their power and area of authority grew, with many reversals, so that in the century or so prior to the time of Jesus the Jews had widespread rule with erstwhile enemies under them. Thus it had a literal, though partial, earthly fulfilment. Then it was partly fulfilled as the Jewish Christian Apostles and teachers went out into the world, winning men to Christ, and the nations, including those who had oppressed Israel, submitted to the Apostolic authority, captured by love. But in the end the coming Davidic kingdom must be in mind here, the everlasting kingdom described in earthly terms, when all nations would be gathered in the new Jerusalem (66.23) in the other world.

We must ever remember that to Isaiah and the prophets both Israel and Judah were still within the promises of God. Thus the final triumph under the Davidic king was promised to both.

The Demise of Babylon And Humiliation of Its Boastful Kings (14.3-23).

The coming of the Babylonian ambassadors to Hezekiah had had a profound influence on Isaiah. As he thought on the future, with the Assyrians seen as a doomed empire because of what God had revealed to him, he began to realise that Babylon, the permanent enemy of God, the city with great ambitions, of which he was keenly aware through their recent visit, would take advantage of it, and again rise to prominence. Great Babel would rise again to seek to restore its glorious past and would in turn crush the people of God, as God had revealed to him (39.6-7), and entangle them in what Babylon stood for (which is why later he would warn them to flee from it - 48.20). It was an idea that took possession of him with all its consequences, so much so that later he would seek to prepare God’s people for those consequences. Others no doubt thought that he had become obsessed with the idea. But if so his obsession was of God. And included in that obsession was the certainty that Babylon must finally be destroyed.

He had already prophesied Babylon’s downfall (chapter 13). But now he was beginning to realise that its final downfall, although finally certain, would not be yet. This might well partly have resulted from the fact that although Babylon was defeated by the Assyrians, first under Sargon II, and then under Sennacherib, it became clear that it was not the final downfall of which God had assured him. Thus he began to realise that there would have to come a further rise in power and glory before its final fall. And he clearly began to link that with the downfall of Assyria (14.24-27).

The result was that he even perhaps began to visualise something of Babylon’s future greatness, (although he never depicts it as in quite the league of Assyria) of which there were already traces in its pride and boasting, and the devastation it would then wreak on the world of those days, as the pride and arrogance of Assyria had before it. He had the example of Assyria to go by, and it was not an encouraging one. And he knew that the judgment that was to come on Judah (6.10-11) would be at the hands of the very kings of Babylon to whom Hezekiah was looking for support. That indeed is what he informed Hezekiah quite clearly (39.6-7). And as all he knew of great conquering overlords was gleaned from his knowledge of Assyria and their ways, he foresaw the inevitable carrying away into exile of people from Judah, as spoils for the king of Babylon.

Thus he felt it necessary to issue this declaration that any coming greatness of Babylon should not be seen as too great a concern as it would be only temporary. It would be followed by God’s certain judgment. Babel could not, and would not, be allowed to prosper permanently.

Analysis of 14.3-23.

• a And it will come about in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard service with which you were made to serve (3).
• b That you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How has the oppressor ceased, how has the exactor (or ‘place of gold’) ceased” (4).
• c Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers, (5).
• d Who smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger with a persecution that none restrained (6).
• e The whole earth is at rest and is quiet, they break out into singing. Yes, the fir trees rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are laid down, no feller has come up against us” (7-8).
• f Sheol from beneath is moved for you, to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the shades (Rephaim) for you, even all the he-goats of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones the kings of the nations (9).
• g They all will answer and say to you, “Are you also become as weak as us? Have you become like us?” (10).
• h Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of your harps. The worm is spread under you, and worms cover you (11).
• i How are you fallen from heaven, O day-star (helel), son of the morning (shahar - dawn). How are you cut down to the ground, who laid low the nations (12).
• j And you said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God” (13a).
• j “I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the uttermost parts of the north” (13b).
• i “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” (14).
• h Yet you will be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit (15).
• g Those who see you will look on you narrowly, they will consider you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble? Who shook kingdoms?” (16).
• f “Who made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew its cities. Who did not loose his prisoners to their home?” (17).
• e All the kings of the nations, all of them sleep in glory, every one in his own house, but you are cast out, away from your sepulchre, like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, as a carcass trodden underfoot (18-19).
• d You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. The seed of evildoers will not be named for ever (20).
• c Prepare slaughter for his children, because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they rise not up nor possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities (21).
• b “And I will rise up against them,” says Yahweh of hosts, “And cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says Yahweh (22).
• a “And I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of hosts. (23).

In ‘a’ in the day that Yahweh will give them rest from their sorrow, and from their trouble, and from the hard service with which they were made to serve, that in the parallel He will make Babylon a possession for the hedgehog, and pools of water, and will sweep it with the broom of destruction (He will perform His hard service on Babylon). In ‘b’ they were to take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How has the oppressor ceased, how has the exactor (or ‘place of gold’) ceased”, and in the parallel their oppressor has ceased and his son, and his son’s son. Even their name has been cut off.

In ‘c’ Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers (of Babylon), and in the parallel He has prepared slaughter for his children because of their father’s iniquity so that they may not rise up or possess the earth or fill the face of the world with cities. In ‘d’ the tyrant had smitten the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, and ruled the nations in anger with a persecution that none restrained, and in the parallel, it was precisely because the tyrants had destroyed their land, and slain their people that they would not be joined with them in burial, and would not be named for ever.

In ‘e’ The whole earth is at rest and is quiet, the people break out into singing, the fir trees rejoice at him, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are laid down, no feller has come up against us”, (all is at peace), and in the parallel all the kings of the nations, all of them sleep in glory, every one in his own house, (all are at peace), while in contrast the Babylonian tyrants are cast out, away from their sepulchre, like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, thrust through with the sword, and go down to the stones of the pit, as a carcass trodden underfoot.

In ‘f’ Sheol (the grave world) from beneath is moved to meet the tyrant at his coming. It stirs up the shades (Rephaim) for him, even all the he-goats (chief men) of the earth, and has raised up from their ‘thrones’ the kings of the nations, in order to challenge him and in the parallel we are told why they are stirred up, it is because he had made their world as a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, and did not loose his prisoners to their home, (which is one reason why they want to challenge him). In ‘g’ they ask him “Are you also become as weak as us? Have you become like us?” while in the parallel they look on him narrowly, and consider him, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble? Who shook kingdoms?”

In ‘h’ his pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of his harps. The worm is spread under him, and worms cover him, and in the parallel he is brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit. In ‘i’ the prophet says, “How are you fallen from heaven, O day-star (helel), son of the morning (shahar - dawn)? How are you cut down to the ground, who laid low the nations?” and in the parallel he had said “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High”. In ‘j’ he had said in his heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”, and in the parallel he had said “I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the uttermost parts of the north”.

It is quite clear that some of these parallels cannot possibly be written off as a coincidence. There is on the whole a remarkable equation between them.

14.3 ‘And it will come about in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard service with which you were made to serve, that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How has the oppressor ceased, how has the exactor (or ‘place of gold’) ceased.” ’

There is no thought here of exile. However, at the time of the visiting ambassadors from Babylon Isaiah had informed Hezekiah of the fate that awaited Judah as a result of Hezekiah’s folly. Everything that he and Judah had would be carried off to Babylon along with his sons and the nobles of their people, and they would become slaves in Babylon (39.6-7). Thus now he seeks to bring some comfort on the back of his warning, both on behalf of those who would be taken (he had no conception of the full exile) and on behalf of those who would be hardly treated in Judah itself.

Isaiah must have been well aware that any return of Israel/Judah from Assyrian territory would not happen until Assyrian domination has ceased (Assyria would not allow it), that Assyria would be limited in its treatment of Judah because of Yahweh’s help (37.6-7, 33-35), and that on Assyria being weakened Babylon would inevitably rise again. Or perhaps he is just seeing Babylon as exerting itself in its periods of independence. Either way he knows that both Israel and Judah will at some stage suffer under the hand of Babylon, and that if any royal exiles are to return from Babylon (as opposed to returning from elsewhere) it will have to be connected in some way with the demise of Babylon, for such royal exiles were to be the direct consequence of Hezekiah’s action, and they would also result from Babylon’s belligerence (39).

Note that in fact in context here no mention is made of any other exiles from Judah, but even though not exiled they were still under bondage to Assyria and, once freed from Assyria would be to Babylon (for that was the implication of the royal exiles being taken). On the other hand Isaiah may have seen what would happen to Judah as simply a continuation of what had happened to Israel, seeing all as the one people of God, and thus have connected exiles from Israel with Judah. This would explain further why he realises that the return of all exiles cannot happen until Babylon’s future power is broken.

He speaks of the tribulation that Israel/Judah are going through. They are enduring sorrow (see 1 Chronicles 4.9) including painful toil (compare Genesis 3.16; 5.29), great trouble (inner fear and rage) and oppressive bondage in their ‘service’. But this will be removed. (But there is no mention of exile).

He puts words about the king of Babylon into their mouths because he knows that by the time deliverance from oppression comes it is Babylon who will be responsible for oppression, as he had told Hezekiah (39.6-7). Although not mentioned here Judah will be included in the punishment. For Judah must be punished for relying on Babylon, and the exiles of Israel will share in that punishment because Babylon has taken over as their oppressor because they are connected with Judah (compare 11.12). Thus it is from Babylon overlordship that they will finally have to be delivered. And anyway in Isaianic terms in the end all who would be redeemed must be redeemed from ‘Babylon’, for Babylon is the great enemy of God who must rise at the end prior to its doom.

The word for ‘parable’ is mashal meaning a parable, a saying, a way of expressing things. Thus this is an expression of what the king of Babylon is seen to be. He is an oppressor and an exactor. The latter word is of unknown meaning. Some take it as from the root thhb (gold) and read ‘place of gold’ (RV ‘golden city’). In that case there would be an ironic contrast, the place of oppression and the golden place. But the stress is undoubtedly on oppression.

14.5-6

The exultation is in the fact that Yahweh has stepped in to act. He has broken the staff of the wicked. The staff was broken when a man was removed from office, as a sign that his authority was over and done with, and here it was the wicked ruler’s sceptre that was broken. Thus here in vision the king of Babylon’s power has been broken. He has been removed from office.

He is described in strong terms. He had beaten the people continually and unmercifully, he had persecuted the peoples without restraint, and all because of the anger that bubbled up within him. He is seen as a raging tyrant. No wonder then that the nations rejoiced at his removal from power. Thus we have here his presentiment that Babylon will yet seek to lord it over the nations. In view of how he saw Babylon it was inevitable.

Later he will make clear that in fact Yahweh will ensure that the very names of these tyrants will be wiped out, with the further guarantee that their sons will be prevented from following in their footsteps (verses 21-22).

14.7-8

All creation (the known world) will rest and relax, and rejoice at the tyrant’s downfall. ‘Laid down’ here signifies the sleep of death. Now that the Babylonian tyrant has been dealt with the world can be spared God’s wrath. This suggested comparison sees the feller as God’s instrument of judgment as in 10.33-34. Others however consider the feller to be descriptive of oppressive kings, and their rejoicing to be because now that he is dead there is no oppressor.

14.9-10

Sheol is the world of the grave, the shadowy underworld where life is not real life but a half-life as a shadow. The dead kings have thrones but they are not reigning. Their thrones are but the identifying shadows of what once was.

So the idea is that the shadowy world of Sheol is all that awaits him. Sheol is depicted here as moving in order to welcome the king of Babylon. It stirs up the shadows, but only in order to ask the question which demonstrates that he too has become like them, a shadow without reality (they could not imagine nothingness). Could such a king become but a shadow? The answer expected was ‘yes’. It was a way of emphasising just what he had become.

Later in verse 16 the question will be, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble?’ as they see in his present state his total lack of any power.

‘He-goats’. With their fierceness and strength and vigour these are often used to depict powerful leaders.

This is not to be seen as an accurate picture of the world beyond the grave. It was rather the picture given by those who could not imagine such a world, to whom death was really the end, but who also could not imagine nothingness. The recognition and conversation is but a way of getting over the message. We may gather from it the idea of future life and future recognition, but it is doubtful if Israel saw it in that way. Their point was that the only world left to them after this life was the shadowy world of the grave.

14.11

The picture is sarcastic. The king so splendid and gorgeously arrayed in life had as it were brought his pomp down to the tomb, but it was a pomp of worms. And his ears still rang with the sound of the musical instruments that had comforted him on earth, but what crawled over him was worms. Now the maggots covered him, crawling over him both above and below in his cold, unwelcoming tomb. All his oils and his perfumes went for nothing here. Compare here Ezekiel 32.18-31. It was a world of graves.

14.12

While on earth the unidentified king of Babylon had depicted himself as semi-divine. He had seen himself as the equivalent of Helel, the day-star, the shining one. Helal, the son of Shahar (the Dawn) is known from the Ugaritic texts, and the whole account is based on the myth of the lesser deity who seeks to depose the chief gods only to be hurled from the heavens. The comment is sarcastic. The king’s claims to semi-deity are revealed as nonsense by his descent into the grave. He had not really ‘fallen from heaven’, that was sarcasm, he had rather fallen from earth into his grave.

It is possible that we are to see Isaiah here as representing the king’s false claims in terms of a Canaanite myth known to his readers, rather than as the king actually claiming to be that particular god. The king would think in terms of his own gods. But whichever way it was the point is clear. All his claims to any kind of divinity have proved false.

More realistic was his claim to have laid low the nations. But now this too has collapsed about him for he himself is laid low.

14.13-14

The king’s fivefold claims are indicative of a false covenant, for five is the number of covenant. They are in contrast with the five titles of Immanuel (9.6). Note the continual ‘I’. He has eyes only for himself. He is his own god. First we find the king’s decision to ‘ascend into heaven’, to become a wonder. This is followed by placing his throne above the lesser deities, to become the counsellor. Then he ascends further to the ‘mount of the assembly in the uttermost parts of the north’, which was a description of the home and gathering of the gods as described in the Ugaritic texts, thus becoming the mighty god. Then he ascends above the heights of the clouds which surround the chief gods, seeking to be the everlasting father. And in the end he challenges the chief god himself, he seeks to be the great prince. Thus this is a depiction of the gradual climb of the ambitious ‘semi-deity’ towards his ultimate goal of being the chief god, before being cast down for his presumption. Isaiah sets it in a context where his challenge is to the Most High God Himself.

It may well be that this was to some extent acted out ritually in the temple of Marduk, but men were expected to see beyond the depiction and recognise a greater ‘reality’, just as the Egyptians were expected to accept that the visible Pharaoh was Horus. The picture is thus drawn by Isaiah of the overweening pride of the kings of Babylon, and the proof of their falsehood in the fact of their deaths and descent into the grave.

It should be noted here that there are no Scriptural grounds for referring this description to Satan, although certainly we may consider that it is an apt picture of rebellion against God, and as such illustrative of how Satan might have behaved. But we can go no further than that.

14.15-17

Here it is made clear that the king is but a man. Isaiah has no time at all for his false claims. Rather than reaching ‘to the uttermost parts of the north’, he will be brought down to Sheol, to ‘the uttermost parts of the pit’. ‘The pit’ is one name for Sheol which reflects its worst aspect. And it puts his career into perspective. He had been great on earth, and his greatness is emphasised in question form, but now he had been levelled by the great leveller. Note the five questions which deliberately contrast with the king’s own five statements of intent. Their basis was that, rather than rising to be with the gods, had he not in reality caused trouble on earth? Had he not made the earth tremble, had he not shaken kingdoms, had he not turned the world into a wilderness, had he not overthrown its cities, had he not refused to release the prisoners so that they could return to their own countries? The criticism is of that which is earthly, destructive and evil, revealing his real nature as a tyrant, not as a god. The nations do not see him as a god. But he had so shocked by his cruelty even these men of war, who were used to violence, that he was seen as a destroyer and as utterly callous.

14.18-20

And because of his life of shame he will not be allowed proper burial. All the kings whom he defeated and who slavishly served him will be buried in honour and ‘sleep in glory’, in the gorgeous clothing and jewels in which kings were buried, and in their great mausoleums, their splendid buildings for the important dead. But he is to be cast out, his clothing to be that of the bodies of the slain killed with the sword, their blood testifying to his evil ways and his lust for conquest. And he himself will be tossed into the bottom of a forgotten pit to be trodden underfoot because men have forgotten where he is buried.

‘Because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people.’ This was why his fate was as it was. He had brought destruction on his own people. Possibly the thought includes that he is to so be humiliated because he has tried to ensure that his chosen heirs inherited the throne, resulting in a failed civil war. Or it may simply mean that he brought destruction on his people and land because of his own warlike ways, and the arousing of the enmity of others. But either way he who thought of himself as so successful had failed as a king and destroyed his own people.

‘Like an abominable branch.’ He is the total opposite of the righteous branch of 11.1. Instead of being righteous and introducing righteousness like the righteous branch, he will introduce evil and do iniquity, encouraging others to do the same.

We are not necessarily to see here any particular king of Babylon. It is the kingship as a whole that is being described, with its continued arrogance through the centuries, and its final shame and ignominy that is being emphasised. It is not necessarily a specific, real burial that is in mind, but the picturing of a worthy end for such a tyrant, (although Isaiah may have known more than we do).

‘Because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. The seed of evildoers will not be named for ever.’ What he has brought on his own land means that his seed must be wiped out, not even to be named. This may suggest that the reason why he does not have a proper burial is due to the practise of kings, who sought to ensure the appointment to the throne of their chosen heirs by getting rid of rivals towards the end of their reign, which often involved civil war. It may possibly be suggesting that he had attempted that here and had failed, being usurped by a rival, and that his own ignominious death and the death of his children had resulted (compare 2 Kings 10.1-14). The final comment is then Isaiah’s comment on the situation, amplified in the next verse. His chosen descendants will lose even their name because he has been so evil in his deeds that Yahweh has determined that his seed will not inherit.

On the other hand the suggestion may simply be that by his activities each king has brought destruction and suffering on his own people. Their grandiose ideas had ended again and again in misery for their people. Thus God will not allow their dynasty to continue.

14.21

In any successful rebellion not only would the king be disposed of, but any possible heirs would also be slaughtered. There was always the possibility that such might rally support and rebuild Babylon. Thus to ensure that they did not seek to take possession of the land or to build strong cities in order to establish their position, they too would be put to death. They suffered for the sins of their fathers as well as for their own. We should always remember that what we do with our lives and the way we behave often affects our children’s destiny.

Or this may simply be a general statement that God’s sentence is on all related to the kings of Babylon. They are doomed by the sins of their fathers which they share. The result being that Babylon will never finally rise again to possess the earth or build its fortresses.

‘And fill the face of the world with cities.’ There may well here be a reference to Genesis 10.11-12.

14.22

Yahweh was determined to ensure that the dynasty in Babylon could never rise again. Their name would be cut off by removing all traces of the royal house. Every last remnant would be removed. The point being made here is that God would make so sure that the end of Babylon really was the end of Babylon, that no sons of the royal house would be allowed to survive so as to restore it. In no other way could it be ensured that Babylon would not rise again.

14.23

Babylon would finish up as waste ground where the hedgehog would live in holes, and pools of water would form in hollows, because God had swept it clean with the broom of destruction. The picture of the broom sweeping clean emphasises the completeness of the judgment. This picture of God hard at work ‘spring cleaning’ Babylon parallels the hard labour that Israel and Judah had performed for Babylon (14.3). Babylon’s extraction of labour from Yahweh’s people was now receiving its own reward.

It is clear from all this how infamously special Babylon was seen to be. It was seen as the great enemy of God. It was a picture of all that was bad in the world, and its end was in accordance with the picture. It illustrated all sinfulness and was a warning of what sinfulness would bring men to. And in the end, although it would take many centuries, all was fulfilled. But in all that is written here we should note that there is no hint of Judah’s exile in Babylon.

Judgment on Assyria (14.24-27).

But the reader is asking, what of Assyria? Thus Assyria is dealt with briefly and for the last time judgmentwise in this section. To Isaiah it is of no more consequence. But the picture of the destruction of Babylon reminds him that Assyria must also be destroyed. Its days are numbered (even though its empire would last for another hundred years) until it is ready to worship Yahweh (19.23-24).

Analysis of 14.24-27.

• a Yahweh of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely as I have thought, so will it come about, and as I have purposed, so will it stand” (24).
• b “That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountain tread him under foot” (25a).
• b Then his yoke will depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulder (25b).
• a This is the purpose which is purposed on the whole earth (or ‘land’), and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations. For Yahweh of hosts has purposed, and who will disannul it, and His hand is stretched out and who will turn it back?

In ‘a’ Yahweh’s purpose is stated, and in the parallel the fact that He has purposed it and it is His purpose is repeated threefold stressing that it is so. In ‘b’ the Assyrian is to be broken and trodden underfoot, and the result will be that that his yoke is removed from them, and the burden of him removed from His people’s shoulders.

14.24-25 ‘Yahweh of hosts has sworn saying,

Isaiah now declares God’s thoughts and purpose for Assyria, certain because sworn by an oath. What God thinks concerning Assyria will become fact, what God purposes will become a reality. The thought (or plan) refers to the initial idea, the purpose to its worked out fulfilment. And His thought and purpose are that He is about to break the Assyrian in His own land, in Judah. Assyria had presumptuously invaded God’s land and trodden on His mountain (the central highlands are regularly called ‘the mountain’ in Scripture - e.g. Exodus 15.17; Psalm 78.54). Now God would break him and tread him underfoot, and it would be in His land because of his effrontery in so behaving towards God’s land. Thus would Judah’s burden be removed, the yoke would be removed from his shoulder (compare 10.27). They would no longer be subservient to Assyria.

In about 701 BC this was fulfilled when Assyria’s might was indeed broken in God’s land by the mysterious death of a large proportion of its army as they were investing Jerusalem and Libnah (37.36) which resulted in the Assyrian retreat. So much for their previous derision about what Yahweh could do (36.18-20).

14.26-27

As he does regularly Isaiah now speaks universally (that is, universally in the terms of his day). God is not just concerned for His own land. The whole earth is His. Thus all the known earth will be affected, and His hand will be stretched out on all nations. Thus Assyria is doomed and will finally be totally broken. No one can prevent it for it is Yahweh’s purpose and will be accomplished by His hand which no one can turn back once it has begun to act. And that will be the end of Assyria.

Note ‘the purpose which is purposed -- for Yahweh has purposed’, a threefold emphasis on the fact that this is the purpose of Yahweh. His people need not fear. Assyria may appear invulnerable, but not in the face of Yahweh’s purposing.

The brevity of this whole declaration emphasises its certainty. Assyria is already doomed, and can be dismissed in a couple of sentences.

The Burden of Philistia (14.28-32).

This comes ‘in the year that King Ahaz died’. Thus it is probable that we are to see some connection between the death and the oracle. Philistia are told that they must not rejoice at the breaking of ‘the rod’, for another will arise to continue their harassment, and they will also experience famine and further invasion.

Philistia had often experiened subjugation by the house of David. They were subdued by David (2Sam 5:17-25; 21:15) and still paid tribute in the reign of Jehoshaphat (2Chron 17:11), but rebelled against Jehoram (2Chron 21:16, 17), were again subdued by Uzziah (2Chron 26:6), and again shook off the yoke in the reign of Ahaz (2Chron 28:18).

Analysis of 14.28-32.

• a This burden was in the year that King Ahaz died. ‘Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that smote you is broken, for out of the snake’s root will come forth a viper, and his fruit will be a fiery flying snake (28-29).
• b And the firstborn of the poor will feed, and the needy will lie down in safety, and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be slain (30).
• b Howl, O gate, cry, O city, you are melted away (demoralised), Philistia, all of you. For there comes a smoke out of the north, and none stands aloof at his appointed times.
• a What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her will the afflicted of her people seek refuge.

In ‘a’ Philistia are seen as rejoicing over the death of Ahaz because his loyalty to Assyria had been a hindrance to the anti-Assyrian confederacy, and being warned that Hezekiah will not be any better for them, because he will not join with their plans and will prove more than a match for any aggressors, while in the parallel the assurance is given the Yahweh has founded Zion which will be a strength to those who seek refuge in her, a further warning not to meddle with Judah. In ‘b’ they are assured that under Hezekiah the nation will again prosper after the bad days at the end of Ahaz’s reign when they were under siege by their neighbours, while Philistia will suffer famine and slaughter, while in the parallel has only punishment from Assyria to look forward to, and they will not be able to stand aloof from it.

14.28 ‘This burden was in the year that King Ahaz died.’

Again we have the strange indication of time given on the basis of a king’s death. (Normally reference would be to the next king’s accession). Thus we would expect some connection with what follows.

14.29

The most obvious explanation of the breaking of the rod is the death of Ahaz, ‘the rod’ thereby being broken. This has been objected to on the grounds that he was not in a position to hurt Philistia. But as a vassal of the king of Assyria he may well have been provided with Assyrian troops under an Assyrian commander, so that they could mingle with his own and be used to punish Philistia for some infraction against them or, it may be that with Assyrian soldiers temporarily stationed in Judah with his approval, he had at some stage been a rod to keep Philistia in line. Thus he could have been a rod to them.

Others see ‘the rod that smote you’ as referring to David, and thus by inference to the Davidic house. For David and his descendants were certainly a rod to Philistia. Ahaz is then seen as ‘the broken rod’ because he had lost his independence and had become a mere vassal king. This again ties the rod in with Ahaz. In this case Isaiah is telling Philistia not to rejoice that the Davidic house has lost its independence.

These words were possibly spoken when an embassy came from Philistia with proposals for a rebellion. It is not likely that this was on the death of a king of Assyria (rebellions regularly occurred when kings died) for none fit the timing, but it may well have been a rebellion fomented by Egypt which Ahaz’s loyalty to Assyria had previously thwarted. Thus Ahaz’s death might have been seen by them as increasing the possibility of support from Judah, and their hopes may thus have been placed in the new young king Hezekiah. If so Isaiah clearly disapproved of it, as we would expect, for he would be urging Hezekiah to trust in Yahweh alone. Indeed it may have been their subsequent punitive expedition to punish Hezekiah for observing Isaiah’s request that resulted in Hezekiah’s defeat of them in the fourth year of his reign (2 Kings 18.8).

‘All of you.’ This would be the combined force of Philistine cities, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ashdod. (The king of Ekron was loyal to Assyria which was why Hezekiah at some stage imprisoned him in Jerusalem). They were constantly seeking opportunities to break free from Assyria. In 734 BC Gath refused to pay tribute and was sacked. In 720 BC Gaza, Ashkelon and Gath all sided with Egypt against Assyria, and when the Egyptian forces were defeated at Gaza found themselves again defeated and occupied. In 711 BC Ashdod played a major part in a joint rebellion with west Palestine states and it too was defeated. Thus this attempt was one among many.

The idea of the rod becoming a snake comes from the Exodus narrative (4.2-3; 7.10-12). The snake’s root may be Assyria. The viper in their midst is then not identified but would be far worse for them than Ahaz and would bring on them the might of Assyria, pictured in terms of the snake which as it struck with amazing speed appeared as if to fly (compare 30.6). If a rebellion did arise it was certainly crushed.

But the idea may equally be that Ahaz was the rod which became the snake’s root producing the viper Hezekiah who became a flying serpent to rout Philistia as mentioned above.

14.30

This would suggest that the last part of Ahaz’s reign was a time of shortage, possibly due to Philistine retaliation once the Assyrian forces had gone, so that the poor had seen their firstborn die of starvation and the needy and undefended had lived precariously. The satisfactory feeding of the firstborn was a measure of general prosperity. The firstborn would be the first to receive food after the parents because of his status, thus if the firstborn did not feed neither did the others. This demonstrates that the times had indeed been desperate. But the accession of Hezekiah has produced better days so that their firstborn now have sufficient food and the needy sleep soundly. So God will now return the compliment and bring famine and warfare on the Philistines. While the root of the Davidic house will prosper, the root of the Philistines will starve.

14.31-32

We know from 2 Kings 18.7 that Hezekiah had broken with Assyria. Thus Philistia may well have done so at the same time. Both therefore await ‘the smoke from the north’, that is the dust clouds raised by the advancing Assyrians. But while Hezekiah will be confident in Yahweh the Philistines will all be demoralised for they have no one to look to, and they are desperately seeking allies. Therefore they will howl. The gate was the point of attack for any advancing army. That is why the howl will come from the gate as the army approaches.

‘None stands aloof at his appointed times.’ This must refer to the fact that none can evade what is coming. None can stand back and pretend not to be part of it. For when their appointed time comes they will be forced to face the invading army whatever happens, or alternatively to surrender and face the consequences in excessive tribute and severe punishment.

In view of this how should Hezekiah respond to the Philistine approaches? What answer should he give to the messenger from the allied nations? Isaiah’s answer is simple. It is Yahweh Who has founded Zion and thus it is Zion which is a safe place of refuge at this time when He still looks with favour on it. So as the armies approach the people can flee for refuge into the city that is God’s foundation, which He has established and will therefore protect, and there they will be secure. They therefore have no need of alliances with foreign nations. We are always safest when our reliance is on God.

Chapter 15 Judgment on Moab.

Isaiah’s next burden is that the Assyrians will advance on Moab as an easy target (‘within three years’ - see 16.14). Their cities will rapidly be defeated one by one, and laid waste, and the whole nation will weep in anguish. Chapter 15 is a vivid picture of a whole land in turmoil and fleeing for its survival before advancing hordes, described as though it had happened because it is a certainty in the mind of God. They have no reliable god to trust in. They are not therefore the kind of people in whom the kings of Israel can put their confidence.

The chapter is a warning to us also not to put our trust in things that can only fail us. For if we do one day we will see them in chaos in a similar way to Moab.

Analysis:

• a The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, it is brought to nought. For in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, it is brought to nought (1).
• b He is gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places to weep. Moab howls over Nebo, and over Medeba. On all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off (2).
• c In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth. On their housetops and in their broad places, everyone howls, weeping abundantly (literally ‘going down in weeping’) (3).
• d And Heshbon cries out, and Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud, his soul trembles within him (4).
• d My heart cries out for Moab, her nobles flee to Zoar, to Eglath-Shelishiyah, for by the ascent of Luhith they go up with weeping, for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction (5).
• c For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate, for the grass is withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing (6).
• b Therefore such wealth as they have accumulated, and that which they have laid up, they will carry away, to the Brook of the Willows, for the cry is gone round the borders of Moab, its howling to Eglaim, and its howling to Beer-elim (7-8).
• a For the waters of Dimon are full of blood, for I will bring yet more on Dimon. A lion on him who escapes of Moab, and on the remnant of the land (9).

In ‘a’ the cities are dually laid waste and brought to nought, and in the parallel the waters of Dimon are full of blood, and will be so even more, and the escapee wil be taken by a lion. In ‘b’ there is weeping and howling, and in the parallel crying out and howling. In ‘c’ they are girded with sackcloth, and in the parallel the waters are desolate, and the grass withered and failing. In ‘d’ Heshbon cries out and the armed men cry aloud with trembling, and in the parallel the prophet cries out over Moab, go up weeping and raise a cry of destruction.

15.1-2 ‘The burden of Moab.

In chapter 14 Isaiah ended with the approaching dust clouds of the Assyrian army, and the failing hearts of the Philistines. Now he moves on to their actual approach on one of the rebel nations, on Moab. The inevitable is described. Assyria’s power is such that nothing human can stand before their armies. So effective is their siege expertise that the cities of Ar and Kir are both laid waste in a single night. Both are brought to nought.

However Kir means ‘city’. Thus the idea may be of ‘each city’ rather than one particular city, that is, a number of cities. Indeed Nebo and Medeba have fallen. The cities are mentioned in the main from south to north. ‘He’ is probably Moab. So the idea is that the Moabites go to Bayith and Debir to weep before their gods in the high places. The whole of Moab weeps. They make themselves bald and cut off their beards, both evidences of severe mourning.

15.3-4

All the land fall to weeping. They wear sackcloth, a sign of mourning. They go to their housetop shrines, and gather in the open spaces to weep. This is the price for opposing Assyria, for their soldiers will show little mercy. Heshbon was the capital city, on the northern border, Elealeh another associated city. But their cries would reach even down to Jahaz in the south. And as the armed men waited for the Assyrian armies to reach them, each of them too would tremble deep within and cry aloud.

15.5

Panic has seized the whole of Moab. The nobles flee to the Dead Sea area, to Zoar, and to Eglath-Shelishiyah. The people stream to the ascent of Luhith, weeping as they climb. They take the highway of Horonaim in their desperation to get away, crying out concerning the destruction of Moab. The whole of Moab are refugees.

‘My heart cries out for Moab.’ This may be Isaiah, or it may be God speaking (compare verse 9). He does not find judgment easy to bear.

Some read ‘Eglath Shelishiyah’ as referring to ‘a heifer of the third year’, and see it as indicating that Moab is like an untamed heifer now being subjected to the yoke.

15.6

Nimrim is possibly the Wadi Numeirah, which flows into the Dead Sea near its southern end, a dry river bed which floods in the rainy season. But there is no water now at which they can quench their thirst, the grass has withered, no new sproutings take place, all is dry and dead.

15.7

Their only hope is escape across the border. This is the sad sight of a stream of refugees carrying all their earthly possessions as they stumble on their way to the south hoping to find refuge. The Brook of the Willows (or ‘Ravine of the Poplars’) is probably the Brook Zered on the southern border (compare Amos 6.14 - ‘the Brook of the Arabah’).

15.8-9

The whole of the border area with its different cities is filled with weeping people as they stream to the border for what they hope will be safety. Dimon may be a local variant of Dibon (Dibon is read by the Isaiah scroll Qa at Qumran). There is to be no let up. The waters of Dimon will flow with blood, and more and more so as the advance continues.

‘I will bring yet more on Dimon.’ God allows the Assyrian action to build up. He does not prevent it. He does not intervene in world affairs. He allows them to follow a direction based on the way He has made the world. Thus in that sense it is seen as God’s action. The ‘lion’ represents lion-like soldiers, eager for the prey. They will attack the fleeing refugees and those who have remained to fight a rearguard action.

Chapter 16 Moab, Her Refugees In Desperate Straits, Seek Refuge in Edom And Consider Refuge in Judah, But Decide Against It.

God was ready to provide Moab with a safe shelter in Judah, but they preferred remaining in Edom rather than having to submit to the requirements of Yahweh.

Moab’s Consideration of An Appeal to the King of Judah (16.1-5).

Analysis of 16.1-5.

• a Send the lambs, for the ruler of the land, from Sela which is towards the wilderness, to the mount of the daughter of Zion (1).
• b For it will be that, as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be, at the fords of Arnon (2).
• c Give counsel, exercise justice (make a just decision), make your shadow as the night, in the midst of the noonday (3a).
• d Hide the outcasts, do not betray the wanderer (3b).
• d Let my outcasts dwell with you (4a).
• c As for Moab, be a covert to him, from the face of the spoiler
• b For the extortioner is brought to nothing, spoiling ceases, those who tread down, are consumed out of the land (4b).
• a And a throne will be established in covenant love, and one will sit (or ‘one sits’) on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness (5).

In ‘a’ gifts are to be sent to the ruler who rules over the land of Judah and over mount Zion, and in the parallel the just and righteous ruler is described in glowing terms. In ‘b’ the daughters of Moab are in a hapless state, defenceless and hopeless, while in Judah righteousness rules, none are ‘spoiled’ or tread down the weak. In ‘c’ a plea is made to Judah for their shadow to cover the fleeing Moabites, and in the parallel the request is made for them to be a covert to him from the face of the spoiler. In ‘d’ the request is that their outcasts may be hidden in Judah and not betrayed, and in the parallel that they may dwell with them (in safety).

16.1-2

Having fled into Edom (Sela is in Edom) for refuge the decision is taken to appeal to Judah for help, to ‘the mount of the daughter of Zion’, sending a gift of lambs, a payment for the privilege asked for (compare 2 Kings 3.4). Alternately it may indicate submission to the Davidic kingship. They had been subdued and rendered tributary by David (2Sam 8:2), and when the kingdom was divided, they continued in subjection to the ten tribes till the death of Ahab, paying yearly, or perhaps at the accession of every new king, a tribute of a hundred thousand lambs and as many rams with the wool (2Ki 3:4,5). Thus the point here may be the renewal of tribute in return for protection. Alternatively the gift might have been seen as necessary so that national pride could be maintained at all costs. The appeal will go to the ruler of the land. In mind especially is the hapless state of the young women of Moab still seeking to cross the fords of Arnon in numbers, looking back in fear at the advancing Assyrian soldiery. Whereas the daughter of Zion prospers, the daughters of Moab are in a hapless state.

The young women are always the ones who suffer most in such circumstances. They are a prey to the enemy and unable to defend themselves. They are like birds that have become separated from the flock, like helpless nestlings when the nest has been destroyed.

Note the vague ‘ruler of the land’ and the way Jerusalem is described. Both avoid specifics. They do not speak of the anointed Davidic king, or refer to the Mount of Yahweh. They do not want to be seen as submitting to the son of David or to the God of Judah. They prefer to put themselves at the mercy of the people without wanting any deep involvement.

16.3-4a

The appeal to Judah is put into words. Let the leaders of Judah discuss the matter and come to a conclusion, let them make a just decision. Let the daughter of Zion act as a shadow to Moab from the heat of the Assyrian sun, let them shelter the outcasts and not hand back the refugees to the advancing Assyrians. Let them give them a place where they can settle as resident aliens for a time until the crisis is past. Let them be a place of refuge from the spoiler.

16.4b-5

Some see this as Zion’s conditional acceptance speech, a declaration that Moab must recognise the terms on which they can come. They must recognise that Judah is a well ruled land, ruled by one who sits on a throne established in covenant love and truth, sitting in the tent of David and ruling justly. Therefore there must be no misbehaviour, for all who misbehave will be severely dealt with. They must be willing to obey the Law of righteousness as expressed in the covenant. (‘Will be’ and ‘will sit’ then simply refer to what they will find when they come. Hebrew verb tenses must not be pressed timewise. They refer rather to completed or incompleted action).

Others see this as the flattery that follows the appeal. The Moabite leaders know about the hopes of Israel and define the ruler of the land to whom they are appealing in those terms. They know that he is a just king, they say, whose righteous reign has rid Judah of extortioners, of spoilers, of oppressors, who sits on a throne of mercy, who deals honestly, who is of the Davidic house, honourable like David was, judging fairly, seeking justice, quick to do what is right. The implication therefore is that he will not refuse their request.

Even others, however, see verse 5 as spoken by Isaiah or God, and therefore a glimpse into the future Messianic reign, but as a direct reference this sits ill with what follows and seems out of context, although they would argue that Isaiah is deliberately seeking to bring in a reference to Immanuel as a reminder of what will be. What,. however, would seem more acceptable is the idea that this a description of an idealistic king which was applied rather hopefully to the house of David, and thus in that sense foreshadows the Messiah.

This stability and security of Judah is seen to be in direct contrast with the sad state of the daughters of Moab, and the description of the king ruling in strength and justice thus provides hope for the refugees.

The Request To Judah Is Never Actualised Because of the Pride of Moab, With Sad Results (16.6-14).

Analysis of 16.6-14.

• a We have heard of the pride of Moab, (he is very proud), even of his arrogance, and his pride and his wrath. His boastings are nothing
• b Therefore will Moab howl for Moab. Everyone will howl. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth, utterly stricken
• c For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations, have broken down its choice plants. They reached even to Jazer, they wandered into the wilderness. Her branches were spread abroad, they passed over the sea
• c Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah, I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, for on your summer fruits and on your harvest, the shout has failed, and gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field, and in the vineyards there will be no singing, nor joyful noise, no treader will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shout to cease
• b For which reason My bowels sound like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir-heres. And it will come about that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and will come to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail
• a This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab in time past. But now Yahweh has spoken saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hired servant, and the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, with (in spite of) all his great multitude, and the remnant will be very few and not mighty (13-14).

In ‘a’ the pride of Moab and his boastings are spoken of, and in the parallel their boastings will prove in vain for they will be brought into contempt and become few in number. In ‘b’ the result will be that Moab will howl, and mourn for the lack of their religious rites, and in the parallel Yahweh’s heart will sound like a doleful harp, for when Moab wear themselves out on their high places and come to their sanctuary to pray, they will not prevail. In ‘c’ there is weeping because the fields of Heshbon and the vine of Sibmah fail, and the choice plants that reached to Jazer will be broken down, While in the parallel, following the reverse order, there is weeping in Jazer, and the vine of Sibmah and Heshbon will be watered with their tears because the harvest of grain and vine has failed and there is no joy in harvest there.

16.6-7