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A Prophecy of Deliverance from Foes33 Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed; you treacherous one, with whom no one has dealt treacherously! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have stopped dealing treacherously, you will be dealt with treacherously.
2 O L ord, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble. 3 At the sound of tumult, peoples fled; before your majesty, nations scattered. 4 Spoil was gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, they leaped upon it. 5 The L ord is exalted, he dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness; 6 he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the L ord is Zion’s treasure.
7 Listen! the valiant cry in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. 8 The highways are deserted, travelers have quit the road. The treaty is broken, its oaths are despised, its obligation is disregarded. 9 The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away; Sharon is like a desert; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10 “Now I will arise,” says the L ord, “now I will lift myself up; now I will be exalted. 11 You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble; your breath is a fire that will consume you. 12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”
13 Hear, you who are far away, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge my might. 14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: “Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting flames?” 15 Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly, who despise the gain of oppression, who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it, who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed and shut their eyes from looking on evil, 16 they will live on the heights; their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks; their food will be supplied, their water assured.
The Land of the Majestic King17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty; they will behold a land that stretches far away. 18 Your mind will muse on the terror: “Where is the one who counted? Where is the one who weighed the tribute? Where is the one who counted the towers?” 19 No longer will you see the insolent people, the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend, stammering in a language that you cannot understand. 20 Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be pulled up, and none of whose ropes will be broken. 21 But there the L ord in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor stately ship can pass. 22 For the L ord is our judge, the L ord is our ruler, the L ord is our king; he will save us.
23 Your rigging hangs loose; it cannot hold the mast firm in its place, or keep the sail spread out.
Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided; even the lame will fall to plundering. 24 And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity. New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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7. Behold, their messengers 77 “Their valiant ones, or messengers.” — (Eng. Ver.) “The Targum and some other ancient versions seem to treat אראלם, (erellam,) as a contraction of אראה לם, (ereh lam, or eraeh lam.) Thus Aquila has ὁραθήσομαι αὐτοῖς Symmachus,ὀφθήσομαι; the Vulgate, videntes But there is no example of the form לם (lam) for להם (lahaem). — Alexander. shall cry without. It is difficult to determine whether Isaiah relates historically the fearful perplexity and imminent danger to which the Jews were reduced, in order to exhibit more strikingly the favor of deliverance, or predicted a future calamity, that the hearts of the godly might not soon afterwards faint under it. For my own part, I think it probable that this is not the history of, a past transaction, but that, as a heavy and sore temptation was at hand, it was intended to fortify the hearts of believers to wait patiently for the assistance of God when their affairs were at the worst. However that may be, the sad and lamentable desolation of the Church is here described, that believers may not cease to entertain good hope even in the midst of their perplexity, and that, when they have been rescued from danger; they may know that it was accomplished by the wonderful power of God. The ambassadors of peace wept bitterly. It is given as a token of despair, that the ambassadors who had been sent to appease the tyrant were unsuccessful; for every way and method of obtaining peace was attempted by Hezekiah, but without any success. Accordingly, “the ambassadors” returned sad and disconsolate, and even on the road could not dissemble their grief, which it was difficult to conceal in their hearts, when matters were in so wretched a condition. He undoubtedly means that Sennacherib has haughtily and disdainfully refused to make peace, so that “the ambassadors,” as; if they had forgotten their rank, are constrained to pour out in public their grief and lamentations, and, ere they have returned to their king and given account of their embassy, openly to proclaim what kind of answer they have obtained from the cruel tyrant, 88 “Eliakim, with the rest, who returned to Hezekiah, with their clothes rent, in despair at the rejection of all conditions of peace. Isaiah 36:2, 22.” — Stock. Others think, that by “the ambassadors of peace” are meant those who were wont to announce peace; but that interpretation appears to me to be feeble and farfetched. By “the ambassadors of peace,” therefore, I understand to be meant those who had been sent to pacify the king, that they might purchase peace on some condition. |