Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees. Isaiah 10:1-4 Crime under colour of law Sir E. Strachey, Bart. The prophet has described the sins of Ephraim in a general manner; but on the mention of Judah he proceeds to denounce what we know from the whole tenor of his discourses he felt to be the worst form of the guilt of his own people, with a particularity which it is perhaps not fanciful to attribute to his thoughts being now directed homewards. The Ten Tribes were far more ferocious and anarchical than the men of Judah; there are more indications in the latter of that national respect for law which so characterises the English, that it has been observed (by Lord Campbell), that though history attributes to us our share in national wickedness, our crimes have almost always been committed under colour of law, and not by open violence, — as in the series of judicial murders in the reigns of Henry VIII, Charles II, and James II. And thus Isaiah, recurring to Judah, denounces the utmost severity of God's wrath in the day in which He, the righteous Judge, shall come to visit "an hypocritical nation," whose nobles and magistrates decree, and execute, unrighteous decrees, — "to turn aside the needy from judgment," etc. (ver. 2). They are satisfied, that they are safe in their heartless selfishness, with peace at home and protection abroad restored by their statecraft and their alliance with Assyria. But while they thus rejoice at home, "desolation cometh from afar." To whom will they fly for help when God has abandoned them? Under whose protection will they leave their wealth, their dignities, their glory, which they have been heaping up for themselves? Captivity or death are the only prospects before them. And yet, as though no judgments could sufficiently condemn and punish their utter wickedness, me prophet repeats — "For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand stretched out still." ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) God against all unrighteousness J. Parker, D. D. The Lord's voice is always for righteousness, What is it that is denounced? It the very thing that is to be denounced evermore. There is nothing local or temporary in this cause of Divine offence. The Lord is against all unrighteous decrees, unnatural alliances, and evil compacts. This is the very glory of the majesty of omnipotence, that it is enlisted against even form of evil and wrong. Then, "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed" — scribes or registrars who preserve all the forms of the court, and keep their pens busy upon the court register, writing down every case, and appearing to do the business correctly and thoughtfully; and yet, all the while, these very registrars were themselves plotting "to take away the right from the poor, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless." The court of law was turned into a means of robbery, as it is in nearly every country under the sun. The scribes who wrote down the law were men who secretly or overtly broke it; the judge used his ermine as a cloak, that under its concealment he might thrust his hand farther into the property of those who had no helper. "For all this His auger is not turned away." Blessed be His name! Oh, burn Thou against us all; mighty, awful, holy God, burn more and more, until we learn by fire what we can never learn by pity. The Lord speaks evermore for the poor, for the widow, for the fatherless, for the helpless. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Oppressors of the poor and needy I. THE INDICTMENT drawn up against these oppressors (vers. 1, 2). They are charged — 1. With making wicked laws and edicts. Woe to the superior powers that devise and decree these decrees; they are not too high to be under the Divine check; and woe to the inferior officers that draw them up, and enter them upon record, "the writers that write the grievousness," they are not too mean to be within the Divine cognisance. Principal and accessories shall fall under the same woe. 2. With perverting justice in the execution of the laws that were made. No people had statutes and judgments" so righteous as they. had; and yet corrupt judges found ways to turn aside the needy from judgment, to hinder them from coming at their right. 3. With enriching themselves by oppressing those that lay at their mercy, whom they ought to have protected. II. A CHALLENGE given them, with all their pride and power, to outface the judgments of God (ver. 3). Will there not come a desolation upon those that have made others desolate? Perhaps it may come from far, and therefore may he long in coming, but it will come at last. Reprieves are not pardons. 1. There is a day of visitation coming, a day of inquiry and discovery, a searching day which will bring to light, to a true light, every man and every man's work. 2. The day of visitation will be a day of desolation to all wicked people, when all their comforts and hopes will be lost and gone. 3. Impenitent sinners will be utterly at a loss, and will not know what to do in the day of visitation and desolation. 4. It concerns us all seriously to consider what we shall do in the day of visitation — in a day of affliction, in the day of death and judgment, and to provide that we may do well. III. SENTENCE PASSED UPON THEM, by which they are doomed, some to imprisonment and captivity. ( Matthew Henry . ) Legalised injustice J. Lyth, D. D. I. MAGISTRATES AND RULERS ARE ANSWERABLE TO GOD. II. THEIR DECISIONS WILL BE REVISED. III. THEIR DECISIONS WILL IN MANY INSTANCES BE REVERSED. IV. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR INJUSTICE WILL RETURN BACK UPON THEMSELVES. ( J. Lyth, D. D. ) Oppression resisted J. R. Green's English People. (Taxation of Henry VIII): — In every county a tenth was demanded from the laity and a fourth from the clergy by the royal commissioners. But the demand was met by a general resistance...A revolt actually broke out among the weavers of Suffolk; the men of Cambridge banded for resistance; the Norwich clothiers, though they yielded at first, soon threatened to rise. "Who is your captain?" the Duke of Norfolk asked the crowd. "His name is Poverty," was the answer, "for he and his cousin Necessity have brought us to this doing." There was, in fact, a general strike of the employers. Cloth makers discharged their workers, farmers put away their servants. "They say the king asketh so much that they be not able to do as they have done before this time." Such a peasant insurrection as was raging in Germany was only prevented by the unconditional withdrawal of the royal demand. ( J. R. Green's English People. ) And what will ye do in the day of visitation? Isaiah 10:3 The day of visitation R. Macculloch. In Scripture style the season in which God is pleased to draw near to a person or people, that He may accomplish various important purposes, is called a day of visitation. 1. Sometimes His visitation is intended to afford deliverance and consolation to the oppressed, by extricating them from servitude and misery, and introducing them into a happy and comfortable condition. In this sense the Lord is said to have visited His people Israel, when He delivered them from Egyptian bondage ( Exodus 4:31 ); and to have visited and redeemed His people when He bestowed upon them the greatest mercy ( Luke 1:68 ). 2. Sometimes it is designed to manifest His tender care and constant inspection of His people, over whom He exerciseth the most vigilant attention, that He may effectually promote their best interests ( Psalm 89:32 ). Such times are indeed days of visitation, wherein God sensibly draws near with the proofs of His kindness and favour, which He most undeservedly confers; and in which He appears with His rod of correction, that He may administer necessary chastisements, and restore those who had forsaken His laws from their wanderings. 3. At other times, God visits those who have not profited by the many warnings they have received, nor repented of the sins they have committed, notwithstanding the repeated corrections that He hath administered, to execute upon them desolating judgments and terrible vengeance ( Jeremiah 5:9 ). In this last sense, I suppose, the day of visitation is here meant. ( R. Macculloch. ) The day of visitation Essex Remembrancer. So far from God having abandoned the world, He is continually calling it to account. Not only has He fixed in His eternal mind a period of final visitation, but days of visitation are repeatedly coming. And who knows how many may come to us? I. THE SOLEMN PERIOD SPOKEN OF. God is said to "visit" men when He comes to them, or reveals Himself, either in mercy or judgment. Christ Himself calls the days of His ministry among the Jews the day of their visitation — their Gospel day of mercy. But the term, as used in our text, is to be understood in the contrary sense, to denote a period of judgment. There are several periods which are days of Divine visitation. 1. The day of trouble. 2. The day of affliction. 3. The day of death. 4. The day of judgment. II. THE SOUL-AWAKENING APPEAL MADE. 'What will ye do? To whom will ye flee for help?" This language implies that something has need to be done — that help will be required. Self-sufficient as we may wish to think ourselves when all is bright, whenever either of the days of Divine visitation comes, we shall find that "help" will be needed in order to stand the trial well. If so, what will you do? 1. What in the day of trouble? Many are then overwhelmed thereby; in these circumstances many die in despair, fade away in melancholy, or lay violent hands on themselves. When every draught of life's cup is the very gall of bitterness, where will ye go for sweetness? 2. Should afflictive visitations come on, what then will ye do? You may flee to the physician, but he can do no more than the God means may permit him. 3. And then, when the day of dissolution, that awful day of "visitation" comes, what will ye do? Will you send for your minister to pray for you? But what avail his prayers, if your do not pray for yourself? 4. And when the last great day — that day of all days — comes, oh, what then shall we do? And where shall we flee for help? Now, bring all this to a point.(1) Settle it in your minds that days of visitation will come.(2) How necessary, now in the time of our merciful visitation of Gospel offers and encouragements, to make the Almighty God our friend by faith in Christ.(3) If we do not, must we not expect to be abandoned and left to everlasting ruin, without help or hope? ( Essex Remembrancer. ) What will ye do in the day of visitation B. Beddome, M. A. ? — However wicked men may flatter themselves, or be flattered by others, God will not do it. I. Let us notice TWO OR THREE PARTICULARS CONTAINED IN THE TEXT, before we pursue the principal inquiry. 1. The persons originally addressed were the children of Israel, a rebellious people; but the words are applicable to sinners of every description. 2. For the people of Israel "a day of visitation" was appointed, and the same may be said of us. There are days Of visitation to individuals as well as to whole nations. II. PURSUE THE PRINCIPAL INQUIRY: "What will ye do?" etc. 1. Will you plead and expostulate with God? At a throne of grace the sinner may indeed plead with God, but what arguments will avail at the tribunal of His justice? 2. Will you attempt to resist Him! 3. Will you fly from Him! Whither? 4. Will you harden yourselves against Him; and seeing you cannot escape punishment, endeavour to support yourselves under it as well as you can; saying, with impenitent Israel, "Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it"? ( Jeremiah 10:19 ). "Who can stand before His indignation?" ( Joel 2:11 ; Nahum 1:2-6 ). 5. Will you cast yourselves at His feet, and adopt the humble and submissive language of David: "If He say, I have no delight in thee, here am I; let Him do to me as seemeth good in His sight"? This certainly would be highly proper, before the decree is gone forth, and such humiliation would be accepted; but it cannot be done afterwards, or if done, it would not avail Propose then to yourselves another question: What shall I do before this day of visitation come, that I may avoid the tremendous consequences? ( B. Beddome, M. A. ) The day of visitation and preparation for it N. M. Harry. I. A DAY OF VISITATION IS COMING UPON ALL MEN. II. IT IS OF THE GREATEST IMPORTANCE TO BE PREPARED FOR THIS DAY. 1. Because your happiness, when the day of visitation comes, will depend upon it. 2. It will be positive misery to be unprepared. 3. You have an invaluable treasure in peril. 4. If you come to judgment unprepared it will be too late forever. III. GOD IN HIS MERCY PRESSES THIS SOLEMN QUESTION UPON OUR SERIOUS AND DEVOUT CONSIDERATION. 1. It appears clear that God does sincerely desire the happiness of all men. 2. His thus pressing this solemn thought upon men's consideration shows that they are unwilling to obey God. 3. Man's want of happiness is entirely with himself and not with God. ( N. M. Harry. ) Where will ye leave your glory? The vanity of earthly glory John Foster. The principal word in this short question seems, by its very sound, to bring before the mind indistinctly, a vision of something great and magnificent, yet unsubstantial and vain. When we bring our thoughts upon it more distinctly, we recognise it as the most conspicuous favourite term of heathenism. We mean a heathenism of all times and countries; that action and passion of the human mind, by which notions and feelings of greatness, transcendent value, have been attached to certain things of but imaginary worth; which things have been coveted, adored, toiled for, fought for, lived for, died for — as glory. "Glory," therefore, has been the name of vanity turned into a god. And how vast the dominion of this idolatrous delusion! What it consists of — the world's glory — is readily apprehended. That a man be conspicuous among and above his fellow mortals; be much observed, admired, even envied as being that which they cannot be. I. Where will ye LEAVE your glory? It is, then, after all, not really united to the man. He expends the ardour of his soul to combine it with his being — to make it his very substance — but it is extraneous still! He may have to go where it will not accompany him. II. And WHERE will they leave their glory? Where, that it can in any sense continue to be theirs — theirs, for any beneficial or gratifying effect to them? What will it be to them how it falls to other mortals? Nothing is more mournful than parting with what is passionately loved, under a perfect certainty of possessing it no more. III. As the concluding part of these meditations, let us briefly APPLY THEM TO SEVERAL OF THE FORMS OF THIS WORLD'S GLORY. There is presented a Christian, a heavenly, an eternal glory. When the lovers of glory are invited to this, and scorn it, and reject it, what is it that they take? 1. The most common form of the idolised thing is — what may be called the material splendour of life; that which immediately strikes the senses. But they must leave their glory. 2. It is, in part, a different and additional form of the world's glory, when we mention elevated rank in society. All know how vehemently coveted and envied is this glory, — how elated, for the most part, the possessors of it feel. But the thought of leaving it! With what a grim and ghostly aspect this thought must appear, when it will sometimes intrude! 3. The possession of power is perhaps the idol supreme; to have at control, and in complete subjection, the action and the condition of numbers of mankind; to see the crowd, whether in heart obsequious or rebellious, practically awed, submissive, obedient. But it is not that voice that is long to command! 4. We might have named martial glory, — the object of the most ardent aspiration, and of the most pernicious idolatry. There is often an utter delusion in this expectation. 5. In the last place might be named intellectual glory, — that of knowledge, talent, and great mental performance. If, in that passion for renown, you have exerted great powers of mind to do fatal mischief — to overwhelm truth — to corrupt the morals — to explode religion — to degrade the glory of the Redeemer — what then? If you can, in that world, have any vital sympathy with your fame, your influence remaining in this, the consequence would but be a quick continual succession of direful shocks, conveyed to your living spirit from what your works are doing here. Contrast with all them forms of folly, the predominant aim of a Christian — which is "glory" still; but a glory which he will not have to leave; a glory accumulating for him in the world to which he is going. ( John Foster. ) O Assyrian. Isaiah 10:5-34 "O Assyrian Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. "Ho Asshur," the name both of the people and its national god. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. ) The judgment of the world power Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. The leading idea of the passage is the contrast between the mission assigned to Assyria in the scheme of Jehovah's providence, and the ambitious policy of universal dominion cherished by the rulers of that empire, Assyria was the instrument chosen by Jehovah to manifest His sole Deity by the extinction of all the nationalities that put their trust in false gods. But the great world power, intoxicated by its success, and attributing this to its own wisdom and resource, recognises no difference between Jehovah and other gods, but confidently reckons on proving His impotence by the subjugation of His land and people. Hence, it becomes necessary for Jehovah to vindicate His supreme Godhead by the destruction of the power which has thus impiously transgressed the limits of His providential commission. And this judgment will take plebe at the very moment when Assyria seeks to crown its career of conquest by an assault on Jehovah's sanctuary on Mount Zion, the earthly seat of His government. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. ) Assyria an instrument of vengeance J. Parker, D. D. We must not omit the reflection that this was a terrible thing for Assyria. What man likes to be an instrument through which righteousness will punish some other man! Who would willingly accept a calling and election so severe? ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Nations instruments in the hands of God J. Parker, D. D. What are the nations but instruments in the hands of Him who made them? So we are puzzled and perplexed by many an imperial policy; we do not like it, and yet still it proceeds to work out all its mysterious issues — now severe, now beneficent. We are in tumult and darkness and perplexity, thick and that cannot be disentangled; and how seldom we realise the fact that all this may be a Divine movement, clouding of the Divine presence, and an outworking of Divine and eternal purposes. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Our Assyria may be the world Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. in Christ's sense, that flood of successful, heartless, unscrupulous, scornful forces which burst on our innocence, with their challenge to make terms and pay tribute, or go down straightway in the struggle for existence...It is useless to think that we common men cannot possibly sin after the grand manner of this imperial monster. In our measure we fatally can. In this commercial age private persons very easily rise to a position of influence which gives almost as vast a stage for egotism to display itself as the Assyrian boasted. But after all the human Ego needs very little room to develop the possibilities of atheism that are in it. An idol is an idol, whether you put it on a small or a large pedestal. A little man with a little work may as easily stand between himself and God as an emperor with the world at his feet. Forgetfulness that he is a servant, a trader on graciously intrusted capital — and then at the best an unprofitable one — is not less sinful in a small egoist than in a great one; it is only very much more ridiculous than Isaiah, with his scorn, has made it to appear in the Assyrian. ( Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. ) Our Assyria may be the forces of nature Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. which have swept upon the knowledge of this generation with the novelty and impetus with which the northern hosts burst across the horizon of Israel. Men today, in the course of their education, become acquainted with laws and forces which dwarf the simpler theologies of their boyhood, pretty much as the primitive beliefs of Israel dwindled before the arrogant face of Assyria. The alternative confronts them either to retain, with a narrowed and fearful heart, their old conceptions of God, or to find their enthusiasm in studying, and their duty in relating themselves to, the forces of nature alone. If this be the only alternative, there can be no doubt but that most men will take the latter course. We ought as little to wonder at men of today abandoning certain theologies and forms of religion for a downright naturalism — for the study of powers that appeal so much to the curiosity and reverence of man — as we wonder at the poor Jews of the eighth century before Christ forsaking their provincial conceptions of God as a tribal Deity for homage to this great Assyrian who handled the nations and their gods as his playthings. But is such the only alternative? Is there no higher and sovereign conception of God, in which even these natural forces may find their explanation and term? Isaiah found such a conception for his problem, and his problem was very similar to ours. Beneath his idea of God, exalted and spiritual, even the imperial Assyrian, in all his arrogance, fell subordinate and serviceable. The prophet's faith never wavered, and in the end was vindicated by history. Shall we not at least attempt his method of solution? We could not do better than by taking his factors. Isaiah got a God more powerful than Assyria, by simply exalting the old God of his nation in righteousness. ( Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. ) Howbeit he meaneth not so. Isaiah 10:7-9 Man proposes, but God disposes "He meaneth not so." 1. The wise God often makes even the sinful passions and projects of men subservient to His own great and holy purposes. 2. When God makes use of men as instruments in His hands to do His work, it is very common for Him to mean one thing, and them to mean another; nay, for them to mean quite contrary to what He intends ( Genesis 50:20 ; Micah 4:11, 12 ). Men have their ends, and God His; but we are sure "the counsel of the Lord that shall stand." ( M. Henry . ) God's use of evil men J. Trapp. As in applying of leeches the physician seeketh the health of his patient, the leech only the filling of his gorge, so is it when God turneth loose a bloody enemy upon His people; He hath excellent ends, which they think not on. ( J. Trapp. ) It is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. Assyrian conquests Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. The significance of ver. 9 appears when the dates of the events alluded to are considered...The application to Jerusalem is obvious...It is true the conquests alluded to in vers. 9-11 are not those of Sennacherib, and vers. 13, etc., would be in his mouth an exaggeration; and hence the prophecy has been referred by some to the period of Sargon. But the subject in vers. 7-11 is "Assyria" (see ver. 5), and though Isaiah may have regarded the king (ver. 12) as being here the speaker, yet vers. 5, etc., show that he speaks, not with reference to his personal achievements, but as an impersonation of the policy of his nation. And this policy Sennacherib in 701 was truly maintaining. The language of these verses does not, therefore, in reality militate against a date which in other respects is in entire accordance with the contents of the prophecy. ( Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. ) Foolish ambition R. Macculloch. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, having enlarged his dominions by the conquest of Macedonia, was bent upon subduing Italy, and adding it to his empire. Asking the advice of his counsellor Cineas, he inquired of the prince what he meant to do after he conquered Italy? "Next," said he, "I mean to invade Sicily, which is a rich and powerful country and not far off." "When you have got Sicily," said Cineas, "what then?" "Africa," replied the king, "containing many fine kingdoms, is at no great distance, and through my renown and the valour of my troops, I may subdue them." "Be it so," said the counsellor, "when you have vanquished the kingdoms of Africa, what will you do then!" Pyrrhus answered, "Then you and I will be merry to make you and me merry: had you all the world you could not be more merry, nor have better cheer." ( R. Macculloch. ) When the Lord hath performed His whole work upon Mount Zion. Isaiah 10:12 God's two-sided providence 1. God designed to do good to Zion and Jerusalem by this providence. When God lets loose the enemies of His Church and people, and suffers them for a time to prevail, it is in order to the performing of some great good work upon them; and when that is done, then, and not till then, He will work deliverance for them. 2. When God had wrought this work of grace for His people, He would work a work of wrath and vengeance upon their invaders. ( M. Henry . ) Stoutness of heart R. Macculloch. The "stout heart" here threatened is entirely different from true magnanimity or greatness of mind, arising from good principles and accompanied with other virtues, which excites to the most laudable and renowned actions. It is an odious, stubborn disposition, which acts in direct contrariety to lowliness of mind and poverty of spirit, whereby people are inclined to think modestly of their abilities and performances; it proceeds from pride, is strengthened by external grandeur and dignity, and discovered by vain self-conceit and foolish boasting of past exertions and successes, and future intended enterprises. The fruit of the king of Assyria's stout heart was a daring expedition against Jerusalem, undertaken in proud contempt of the true God, and accompanied with blasphemous insults, repeatedly offered to the Most High over all the earth. ( R. Macculloch. ) Penalty in apparent success J. Trapp. When the scum is at highest, it falls in the fire. ( J. Trapp. ) For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it. Isaiah 10:13 The ungodliness of worldly pursuits R. Gordon, D. D. 1. Let us reflect on the total forgetfulness of God, and the unwillingness to recognise His power and presence, with which objects of human interest and ambition are frequently prosecuted and enjoyed. 2. Let us dwell on the spirit with which worldly men engage in the pursuit of their favourite objects, the temper and disposition of mind with which they encounter disappointment, and the kind of happiness which they derive from the success of their enterprises.(1) The ardour with which they prosecute these is virtually a declaration that they are determined to be happy independently of God; the firmness and perseverance with which they struggle with adversity, and labour to retrieve their losses, are so many attempts to dispute with Him the determination of events, and to wrest from His hand the government of the universe; and when they have been successful almost or altogether to the extent of their expectations, and when they contrast the success that has rewarded them with the failure and disappointment that have befallen others in similar circumstances, — the principle which lies at the foundation of all their enjoyments, and gives zest to every other gratification, is substantially that which is expressed in our text, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent."(2) It is not, however, to those only who place their chief good in a given portion of this world's wealth, that these observations are applicable. They will be found to hold equally true in the case of those who can find in the exercise of high intellectual endowments a gratification which mere worldly wealth never could furnish, — but who have not yet acquired any capacity for the purer and more permanent happiness of a growing conformity to the Divine image in this world, and the enjoyment of eternal communion with God in the world to come. Elevated as such pursuits may be, and profound as is the homage of respect which the world is called upon, and readily consents to pay to them, yet, wherever they constitute the only portion that the soul seeks after, and occupy that place in the affections which God claims as His own, then they bear upon them the same impress of ungodliness which characterises the schemes of worldly aggrandisement, and may ultimately be traced to the very same principle.(3) The same remark is applicable also to the man who, by the benevolence of his character and the irreproachable regularity of his life, has secured the world's respect, and who builds with confidence on his many virtues as a sure foundation of hope for the future; for when such a man contrasts his own character with that of multitudes around him, it will be with feelings of self-complacency. 3. It would be easy, by entering on the detail of particular cases, to show how the principle in the text pervades all the business and the pleasures of an unregenerate world. 4. The sentiment is as foolish with regard to the sinner, as it is impious with respect to the Almighty; for as well might it be supposed that the movements of the material universe would remain undisturbed, though the principle that is essential to its stability were annihilated, as that an intelligent and moral creature could be permanently blessed, if released from the law of dependence on his Creator. ( R. Gordon, D. D. ) "Remover of boundaries B. Blake, B. D. A title assumed by the Assyrian kings. They claimed to be king of kings, and lord paramount or superior. ( B. Blake, B. D. ) Robbing treasure Great conquerors are many times no better than great robbers. ( Matthew Henry . ) And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people. Isaiah 10:14 A proud boast of utter subjugation Sir E. Strachey, Bart. The Assyrian conqueror has gathered all the earth as one gathers the eggs from which he has first driven off the terrified hen bird. But she would hover round her rifled nest and its plunderer with a trepidating flight and piercing cry, than which no movements and sounds in the brute creation express more anguish; while these spoiled nations dare not show even such instinctive signs of a broken heart, but know a depth beyond that depth — "there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped." ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) Easy conquest W. Day, M. A. "I have taken by my might the riches of the people, with as great ease as a countryman takes young birds out of a nest; yea, as one taketh and gathereth eggs which the bird hath forsaken" — which is easier than to take birds. ( W. Day, M. A. ) Unholy brag Strange that ever men, who were made to do good, should take a pride and take a pleasure in doing wrong or doing mischief to all about them without control, and should reckon that their glory which is their shame. ( M. Henry . ) Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Isaiah 10:15 The Divine supremacy W. Winterburn. All the various orders of creatures, natural and supernatural, animate and inanimate, are under the control of the Divine Being, who uses them for the accomplishment of His own purposes. The Assyrians were not conscious of being the Lord's servants; it was, therefore, no virtue in them to be employed in His service. Mark the speech of the king of Assyria, it is vain and fulsome enough. Here observe — I. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. 1. This is a doctrine of Scripture. 2. The term sovereignty is suitable here, since it is significant of the supremacy of the Divine Being. Where shall we go for manifestations of the Divine sovereignty? (1) To creation. (2) The moral government of the world furnishes the most striking illustration of the Divine sovereignty. II. THE SUBJECTION OF MEN. 1. Man is not a merely passive instrument, but an active being, dependent upon and under the control of his Maker. 2. Man is a voluntary agent, has in possession a power which we call will, and an awful power it is either for good or evil. It imports responsibility. 3. Still, whatever may be said about the will of man, or the will of a nation, considered as a power, it must be allowed that man and his circumstances, that nations with all their complicated affairs, are under the control of the Divine Being. 4. The Divine Being is still at the head of the nations of the earth, directing and controlling all their affairs, for the accomplishment of His own ends; just as a man directs and

Benson Commentary Isaiah 10:1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; Isaiah 10:1-2 . Wo, &c. — The first four verses of this chapter are closely connected with the foregoing, and ought to have been joined thereto, being a continuation of the subject treated of in it. We have here the fourth evil charged on the people, and the punishment of it. The sin complained of is the injustice of the magistrates and judges, who decreed unrighteous decrees — That is, made unjust laws, and gave forth unjust sentences, which is termed in the next clause, writing grievousness, or grievous things, edicts which caused grief and vexation to their subjects. To turn aside the needy from judgment — From obtaining a just sentence, because these rulers and judges either denied or delayed to hear their causes, or when they heard them decided unjustly; to take away the right from the poor — Whom I have, in a special manner, committed to your care; of my people — Whom I had taken into covenant with myself; and therefore this is an injury, not only to them, but also to me. The punishment assigned to this iniquity is, that they should be absolutely deserted and deprived of all help and protection from God, whose laws they had so shamefully perverted; and should perish miserably before their enemies, who should come from far. Isaiah 10:2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! Isaiah 10:3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? Isaiah 10:3-4 . What will ye do — To save yourselves? in the day of visitation? — When I shall come to visit you in wrath, as the next words limit the expression. The desolation which shall come from far — From the Assyrians. This he adds, because the Israelites, having weakened the Jews, and being in amity with the Syrians, their next neighbours, were secure. To whom will ye flee for help — To the Syrians, as now you do? But they shall be destroyed together with you, 2 Kings 16:9 ; and where will you leave your glory — To be kept safe for your use, and to be restored to you when you call for it? By their glory, he means, either, 1st, their power and authority, which now they so wickedly abused; or, 2d, their wealth, gotten by injustice, as glory sometimes means: see Genesis 31:1 ; Psalm 49:16-17 . Without me — Without my favour and help, which you have forfeited, and do not seek to recover; they shall bow down — Notwithstanding all their succours; under the prisoners — Or among the prisoners; and they shall fall under the slain — Or among the slain. The meaning is, that it was in vain for the Israelites to trust in their own strength, or in the assistance of the Syrians, or any other allies, since it was from God alone they could obtain deliverance, without whose aid, or when he deserted them, they should all bow down under the yoke of the Assyrians. In the Septuagint, and vulgar Latin, these words are joined to the foregoing verse, to this sense: “Whither will this people flee for refuge to preserve themselves, that they may not bow down, or be subdued among the captives, or destroyed among the slain?” Isaiah 10:4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Isaiah 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. Isaiah 10:5 . O Assyrian, &c. — We have here the fourth section of the fifth sermon, which reaches to the end of this chapter, and which is two-fold; containing, 1st, A proposition in this verse; and, 2d, The unfolding of it in the following verses. It is a new and distinct prophecy, and, as the former part of it foretels the invasion of Sennacherib and the destruction of his army, it must have been delivered before the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign. “In the former chapters the prophet had foretold the fate of the Ephraimites and Syrians, who had determined to attack, and, if possible, subvert the Jewish Church and state. He therefore now turns his discourse to the Assyrians, the executors of this judgment, who also in their time should make the same attempt against Judea, and denounces their punishment, teaching, at the same time, in what light they were held by God, and consequently were to be considered by the careful observers of the ways of God. The proposition in this verse is elegant, but very difficult to be turned into another language, according to its original force. Its immediate meaning is, ‘Wo to the Assyrian, who is the rod of mine anger, and the staff, which is in his hands, is my severity;’ that is, ‘whatever strength or power they have, which they have used in afflicting my people, would have been none at all, if my people had not provoked my wrath and severity; so that, not the Assyrians themselves, but my wrath and severity, and the decrees of my justice, ought to be esteemed the rod and staff beating my people; since, without that severity, the Assyrians themselves could have done nothing.’ Vitringa remarks, that all the characters of this prophecy belong to Sennacherib; though possibly it may have a more extensive scope, and refer to the destruction of all the enemies of God, and the following great empires, which God made use of as rods and scourges, to chastise and amend his people, till the manifestation of the kingdom of his Son in the world: see Jeremiah 51:20 .” — Dodd. Be this as it will, the prophet here instructs us in a great and important truth: “That God often prospers wicked and tyrannical governments to be his scourge and the instruments of his vengeance upon others; and when they have done the work which God allots them, he then punishes them for those very oppressions which they have exercised toward their neighbours, and to which they were carried on purely by their own ambition and covetousness, although Providence made them serviceable to better ends and purposes.” — Lowth. Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Isaiah 10:6-7 . I will send him — By my providence, giving him both opportunity and inclination to undertake this expedition; against a hypocritical nation — Or, a profane nation, as the word ?? Šrather signifies; and against the people of my wrath — The objects of my just wrath, devoted to destruction. To tread them down like the mire of the streets — Easily to conquer them, and utterly to destroy them, as he did after this time. Howbeit, he meaneth not so — He does not design the execution of my will, but only to extend his conquests, and thereby to enlarge his empire, and gratify his ambition. Which is seasonably added, to justify God in his judgments threatened to the Assyrian, notwithstanding this service. But to destroy nations not a few — To sacrifice multitudes of people to his own pride and covetousness, which was abominable impiety. Isaiah 10:7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. Isaiah 10:8 For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? Isaiah 10:8-10 . For he saith, Are not my princes, &c. — Are they not equal for power, and wealth, and glory, to the kings of other nations, though they be my subjects and servants? Is not Calno as Carchemish? — Have I not conquered one place as well as another, the stronger as well as the weaker? Have I not from time to time added new conquests to the old? None of those cities, against which he had turned his arms, had been able to resist him; but he had subjugated them all. Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, and Arpad, were cities of Syria and Israel, which this mighty monarch had subdued. Is not Samaria — Or, Shall not Samaria be, as Damascus? — Shall I not take that as I have done this city? For although Damascus, possibly, was not yet taken by the Assyrians, yet the prophet speaks of it as actually taken, because these words are prophetically delivered, and supposed to be uttered by the king of Assyria, at or about the time of the siege of Samaria, when Damascus was taken. As my hand hath found — Hath taken, as this word is often used, the kingdoms of the idols — Which worshipped their own idols, and vainly imagined that they could protect them from my power. He calls the gods of the nations, not excepting Jerusalem, idols, by way of contempt, because none of them could deliver their people out of his hands, and because he judged them to be but petty gods, far inferior to the sun, which was the god of the Assyrians. Whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem — Namely, in reputation and power. Which blasphemy of his proceeded from his deep ignorance of the true God. Isaiah 10:9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? Isaiah 10:10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; Isaiah 10:11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? Isaiah 10:12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. Isaiah 10:12 . Wherefore — Because of this impudent blasphemy; when the Lord hath performed his whole work — Of chastising his people as long as he sees fit. I will punish the fruit of the stout heart, &c. — Here it is foretold, says Bishop Newton, that when the Assyrians “shall have served the purposes of Divine Providence, they shall be severely punished for their pride and ambition, their tyranny and cruelty to their neighbours. Now there was no prospect of such an event” when Isaiah uttered this prediction, namely, “while the Assyrians were in the midst of their successes and triumphs; but still the word of the prophet prevailed; and it was not long after these calamities brought upon the Jews, that the Assyrian empire, properly so called, was overthrown, and Nineveh destroyed.” Isaiah 10:13 For he saith, 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 : Isaiah 10:13-14 . For he saith, &c. — “From hence to the twentieth verse we have a more full exposition and confirmation of what had gone before, particularly the pride of the Assyrian and his vain boasting in these verses; a refutation thereof in Isaiah 10:15 ; and the punishment ordained for him by God, in Isaiah 10:16-19 . By the strength of my hand I have done it, &c. — Here the prophet sets forth his insolent boasting of the greatness of his deeds, the prosperity of his empire, and the success of his warlike expeditions, all which are ascribed by him to the prudence of his own counsels, and the valour and strength of his forces; but without any the least acknowledgment of any superior and overruling power.” I have removed the bounds of the people — I have invaded their lands, and added them to my own dominions, Proverbs 22:28 . And have robbed their treasures — Hebrew, ???????? , their prepared things, their gold and silver, and other precious things, which they had been long preparing and laying up in store. And I have put down the inhabitants — Deprived them of their former glory and power. And my hand hath found as a nest — As one finds young birds in a nest; and as one gathereth eggs — Which the dam hath left in her nest; have I gathered all the earth — All the riches of the earth: an hyperbole not unusual in the mouths of such boasters. “The comparison is elegant; and nothing could more strongly or significantly describe the insolent boasting of the Assyrian. It is remarkable, that birds, after they have laid their eggs in their nests, are most diligent in their care of them; and if, at any time, they are obliged, for fear of the spoiler, to forsake them, they hover about their nests, and flutter around, moving their wings, and peeping, chirping, or lamenting; thus imitating the affections of the human mind. The prophet elegantly implies by this simile the extreme dread of this proud and oppressing king which reigned in the minds of the conquered people, and we find that the mighty tyrants and conquerors of Asia did spread such terror.” See Lowth’s Twelfth Prelection, and Dodd. Isaiah 10:14 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 peeped. Isaiah 10:15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. Isaiah 10:15 . Shall the axe boast itself, &c. — How absurd is it for thee, who art but an instrument in God’s hand, to blaspheme thy Lord and Master, who has as great power over thee as a man hath over the axe wherewith he heweth? As if the rod, &c. — See the margin; or, as if the staff, &c. — Should forget that it was wood, and should pretend, or attempt, to lift up itself — Either without, or against the man that moveth it. As if it were no wood — Literally translated, it is, As if the staff should lift up no wood; that is, should lift up man, who is very different from wood: as if the staff should lift the man instead of the man lifting the staff. In this way does the prophet refute the vain boasts of the Assyrian, and teach him, that, “in all his counsels, motions, and works, he was but the minister of the Divine Providence; incapable of doing any thing without the divine will and permission; and therefore his boasting was to be considered in no other light than as if the axe, or saw, or rod, should magnify themselves against him who handled them, and should ascribe to themselves that effect which was only caused by the mover.” Isaiah 10:16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. Isaiah 10:16-19 . Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts — The sovereign Lord and General of his and of all other armies; send among his fat ones leanness — Strip him, and all his great princes and commanders, of all their wealth, and might, and glory. And under his glory he shall kindle, &c. — He will destroy his numerous and victorious army, and that suddenly and irrecoverably, as the fire doth those combustible things which are cast into it; which was fulfilled 2 Kings 19:25 . And the light of Israel — That God, who is, and will be, a comfortable light to his people; shall be a fire — To the Assyrians; and it shall devour his thorns and briers — His vast army, which is no more able to resist God than dry thorns and briers are to oppose the fire which is kindled among them. And shall consume the glory of his forest — “The briers and thorns,” says Bishop Lowth, “are the common people; and the glory of his forest are the nobles, and those of the highest rank and importance. The fire of God’s wrath shall destroy them, great and small.” And of his fruitful field — Of his soldiers, who stand as thick as ears of corn do in a fruitful field. Hebrew, Of his Carmel; an allusion possibly to the vain threat, which God foreknew the Assyrian would hereafter utter, with regard to Israel, I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel, Isaiah 37:24 . Both soul and body — Hebrew, ????? ??? ???? , from the soul, even to the flesh, a proverbial expression. The fire of God’s wrath shall consume them entirely and altogether. And they shall be — The state of the king, and of his vast and valiant army, shall be as when a standard- bearer fainteth — Like that of an army, when either the standard-bearer is slain, or rather flees away, which strikes a terror into the whole army, and puts them to flight. Bishop Lowth, in this clause, follows the reading of the LXX., ?? ? ?????? ??? ?????? ????????? , It shall be, as when one fleeth out of raging flames: that is, “The few that escape shall be looked upon as having escaped from the most imminent danger.” The rest of the trees of his forest — The remainders of that mighty host; a child may write them — A child, or the meanest accountant, may number and register them. It is justly observed by Dr. Dodd, that “the emphasis of this passage consists in the elegance of the metaphors.” The first, taken from leanness, destroying the fat, and marring the beauty of the human form, well describes that terrible plague which destroyed the flower of the Assyrian host. The second, taken from fire, which, with unconquerable fury, in a short time reduces combustible matter to ashes, gives us a striking picture of the quick and almost instantaneous ruin brought on that army, by the irresistible power of the destroying angel, especially as that fire is represented as kindled by the light of Israel. And the third metaphor of the thorns and briers, which are so far from having any power to withstand the fury of the flames, that they provoke and feed it, affords us a lively emblem of the utter inability of the Assyrian monarch, or his mighty host, to make the least resistance against that divine vengeance which their crimes had merited. Isaiah 10:17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; Isaiah 10:18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth. Isaiah 10:19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them. Isaiah 10:20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. Isaiah 10:20 . And it shall come to pass, &c. — The prophet having, 1st, Explained the cause for which God had decreed to permit the Assyrians to have such power over his people, namely, for the punishment of hypocrites, and the purification of his church; and having also shown the crimes which the kings of Assyria would commit in executing his judgments, and the punishment ordained for them, Isaiah 10:6-12 ; and having, 2d, Confirmed these things, and given a new exhibition of the pride of the Assyrian, with a yet fuller declaration of the divine judgment upon him, Isaiah 10:13-19 ; proceeds now, 3d, To predict, that a two-fold consequence, friendly to the state of the church, should arise from this memorable judgment; opposed to the two-fold vice of the people, before the execution of it. 1st, There were among them men fearing God, but who yet regarded the power of the Assyrian with greater fear than they ought. These, by this great deliverance granted to the church, would be henceforth confirmed, as to their faith and confidence in the power and goodness of God. 2d, There were, besides these, many others totally alienated from God, who, by means of this great miracle, would be brought to repentance, and a serious acknowledgment of the God of Israel. Nay, not only the pious of those, but of future times, would, by this means, be confirmed in their faith, and adherence to the true God. Thus the prophet: Such as are escaped of the house of Jacob — Such Jews as shall be preserved from that sweeping Assyrian scourge, by which great numbers, both of Israel and Judah, shall be destroyed, and from the succeeding calamities. For that this place looks beyond the deliverance from the Assyrian army, unto the times of the New Testament, seems probable, 1st, From the following verses, which belong to that time, as we shall see: 2d, From the state of the Jewish nation, which, after that deliverance, continued to be very corrupt, and averse from that reformation, which Hezekiah and Josiah prosecuted with all their might; and therefore the body of that people had not yet learned this lesson, of sincerely trusting in God alone. 3d, From St. Paul’s explication and application of these words, Romans 9:27 . Shall no more stay upon him that smote them — Shall learn by this judgment, not to trust to the Assyrians, or any other allies, for help, as Ahaz and his people now did; but shall stay upon the Lord in truth — Not by profession only, but sincerely. Isaiah 10:21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. Isaiah 10:21-23 . The remnant shall return — Hebrew, ???? ????? , shear- jashub, the name given to one of the prophet’s sons, (see Isaiah 7:3 ,) in confirmation of the truth of God’s promises. It may be rendered, as here, the remnant, or, a remnant, or, but a remnant, shall return; unto the mighty God — Hebrew, ?? ???? , the very appellation given to Christ, Isaiah 9:6 . For though thy people Israel — Or, thy people, O Israel; to whom the prophet, by an apostrophe, directs his speech; be as the sand, &c ., yet a remnant — Or, a remnant only, as before; shall return — For that this is a threatening in respect of some, as well as a promise in respect of others, is evident from the rest of this, and from the following verse. The consumption decreed shall overflow — God’s judgments are said to overflow when they spread generally, the metaphor being taken from an inundation that sweeps all before it. The destruction of the people of Israel was already decreed by the fixed counsel of God, and therefore must needs be executed, and like a deluge overflow them, with, or in righteousness, as the word is rendered Romans 9:28 , that is, with justice, and yet with clemency, inasmuch as he spared a considerable remnant of them, when he might have destroyed them utterly. In the midst of the land — In all the parts of the land, not excepting Jerusalem, which was to be preserved in the Assyrian invasion. Bishop Lowth translates these verses, “Though thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them only shall return. The consummation decided overfloweth with strict justice: For a full and decisive decree shall Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, accomplish in the midst of the land.” The prophet’s affirming, that only a remnant of Judah and Ephraim should be preserved, and return in true repentance to God, might justly cause wonder and offence, both to Jews and Israelites, at the time when he spoke these things: for it implied that far the greater part of the people should perish, which they must have conceived highly improbable, especially as they were at that time very numerous and flourishing. The prophet, therefore, declares repeatedly, and more explicitly, that God had determined, by an absolute and precise decree, thus to exercise his justice and severity upon them. This, it is evident, is the sense of the present passage, though there is some difficulty in the expressions. This prophecy was, in part, fulfilled at the Babylonish captivity, but there can be no doubt that it has also a reference to the times of the Messiah: see note on Romans 9:27 . Indeed, as Lowth observes, the remnant, so miraculously preserved in Jerusalem from Sennacherib’s invasion, were a type or figure of that small number of converts under the gospel, styled ????????? , ( Acts 2:47 ,) such as should be saved, namely, such as should escape the vengeance which fell upon the main body of the Jewish nation, for their sin in rejecting Christ. And there shall be another remnant of them that shall be saved in the latter days of the Christian Church. Isaiah 10:22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. Isaiah 10:23 For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land. Isaiah 10:24 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. Isaiah 10:24 . Therefore, &c. — We have here the fourth part of the enarration, or unfolding of the proposition, mentioned Isaiah 10:5 , namely, the application of it to the consolation of the people of God: to which, having digressed a little, the prophet returns, it being the true and proper scope of his discourse, to comfort the pious with respect to the evils that threatened their republic. The words are an inference, not from the verses immediately foregoing, but from the whole prophecy: as if he had said, Seeing the Assyrian shall be destroyed, and the remnant of my people preserved and restored, thus saith the Lord God of hosts — The Lord of all the armies of earth and heaven, the God superior to all human, yea, to all crested power; O my people that dwellest in Zion — Where I dwell; where are the ordinances of my worship and service, my temple, my priests; the thrones of justice which I have established, and the princes of the house of David mine anointed; where my people assemble to worship me, and where I am present to defend them: Be not afraid of the Assyrian — A man that shall die, the son of man that shall be as grass; forgetting the Lord thy maker, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. With his staff indeed shall he smite thee, (as Bishop Lowth translates it,) and his rod shall he lift up against thee. He shall threaten and correct, yea, afflict thee, but not destroy thee; after the manner of Egypt — As the Egyptians formerly did, and with the same ill success to themselves, and comfortable issue to you. Isaiah 10:25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. Isaiah 10:25-26 . For yet a very little while, &c. — Here the prophet proceeds to assign the reasons why the Lord would not have his people to fear the Assyrians, because, in a short time, he would take vengeance upon them, and that in a very singular and extraordinary manner, as he did upon the Midianites and Egyptians: the consequence of which would be the removal of the yoke now imposed, or to be imposed upon them. The indignation — My displeasure at my people, which is the rod and staff in their hand, Isaiah 10:5 ; shall cease — And, when it ceaseth, they will be disarmed, and disabled from doing any farther mischief. And mine anger in their destruction — Hebrew, ?? ?????? , upon, or, with their destruction, as Dr. Waterland properly renders the words, namely, the destruction of the Assyrians. The enemy that threatens and afflicts God’s people, shall himself be reckoned with and punished. The rod wherewith God corrected them shall not only be laid aside, but put into the fire, and it shall appear by its destruction that his anger is turned away from them. The reader will recollect that, upon the destruction of the Assyrian army, the calamities wherewith God had chastised his people in a great measure ceased, at least for a time. The Lord of hosts — Who is well able; shall stir up a scourge for him — He lifted up his staff against Zion; and God will now lift up a scourge for him: he was a terror to God’s people, and God will be a terror to him. The destroying angel shall be his scourge, which he can neither flee from nor contend with. According to the slaughter of Midian — Whom God slew suddenly and unexpectedly in the night. At the rock of Oreb — Upon which one of their chief princes was slain, and nigh unto which the Midianites were destroyed. And as his rod was upon the sea — To divide it, and make way for thy deliverance, and for the destruction of the Egyptians. So shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt — As he did in Egypt, to bring his plagues upon that land and people. Thus the prophet, for the encouragement of God’s people, quotes precedents, and puts them in mind of what God had done formerly against the enemies of his church, who were very strong and formidable, but were brought to ruin. Respecting the last clause of this verse, “I think,” says Bishop Lowth, “there is a designed ambiguity in these words. Sennacherib, soon after his return from his Egyptian expedition, which, I imagine, took him up three years, invested Jerusalem. He is represented by the prophet as lifting up his rod, in his march from Egypt, and threatening the people of God, as Pharaoh and the Egyptians had done, when they pursued them to the Red sea. But God, in his turn, will lift up his rod, as he did at that time over the sea, in the way, or, after the manner of Egypt: and as Sennacherib had imitated the Egyptians in his threats, and came full of rage against them from the same quarter; so God will act over again the same part that he had taken formerly in Egypt, and overthrow their enemies in as signal a manner.” Isaiah 10:26 And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. Isaiah 10:27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. Isaiah 10:27 . In that day his burden shall be taken away, &c. — The burden imposed on the Jews by the Assyrian. They shall not only be eased of the Assyrian army, now quartered upon them, and which was a grievous yoke and burden on them; but they shall no more pay that tribute to the king of Assyria which, before this invasion, he had exacted from them, 2 Kings 18:14 ; shall no longer be at his service, nor lie at his mercy, as they had done; nor shall he ever again put the country under contribution. Perhaps, as some think, the promise may look to the deliverance of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon, if not also to the redemption of believers from the tyranny of sin and Satan. Because of the anointing — Hebrew, ???? ???? , literally, Because of, from before, or, from the presence of, the oil, ointment, or fatness. Leigh says, “Est nomen generale ad omnem pinguedinem sive naturalem, sive conditam: It is a general name for every kind of fatness, whether natural or artificial.” Hence some translate the sentence, “The yoke shall be loosed because of the fatness;” supposing the meaning to be, that the affairs of the Jews would be in so good a condition, signified by fatness, after this destruction of the Assyrian army, that the Assyrians would not pretend any longer to lay any burden of tribute, or any impositions upon them, as they had done, ever since Ahaz put himself under their protection, and, as it were, made a surrender of himself and people to them, to become tributary to them. But the common interpretation given of the text seems preferable, namely, The yoke shall be destroyed, because of the (oil, unction, or) anointing — That is, out of regard to the holy unction, which God had established among his people. Or, for the preservation of the priesthood and kingdom, priests and kings being both initiated into their offices by the ceremony of anointing. The Jews, therefore, and some others, apply this to Hezekiah, who was the anointed of the Lord, an active reformer, and very dear to God, and in answer to whose prayers, as we read, ( Isaiah 37:15 ,) God gave this deliverance. But possibly it might be better understood of David, who is often mentioned in Scripture by the name of God’s anointed; and for whose sake God gave many deliverances to the succeeding kings and ages, as is expressly affirmed 1 Kings 11:32 ; 1 Kings 11:34 . And, which is more considerable, God declares that he would give this very deliverance from the Assyrian for David’s sake, 2 Kings 19:34 ; 2 Kings 20:6 . But the Messiah is principally intended, of whom David was but a type; and who was in a particular manner anointed above his fellows, as is said Psalm 45:7 . For he is the foundation of all the promises, ( 2 Corinthians 1:20 ,) and of all the deliverances and mercies granted to God’s people in all ages. Vitringa is of opinion, that “the prophet, in this last passage, rises in his ideas; and, having expressed the temporal deliverance of the church in the preceding cla

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 10:1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; CHAPTER III THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD, OR TRUE PATRIOTISM THE CONSCIENCE OF OUR COUNTRY’S SINS 735 B.C. Isaiah 5:1-30 ; Isaiah 9:8 - Isaiah 10:4 THE prophecy contained in these chapters belongs, as we have seen, to the same early period of Isaiah’s career as chapters 2-4, about the time when Ahaz ascended the throne after the long and successful reigns of his father and grandfather, when the kingdom of Judah seemed girt with strength and filled with wealth, but the men were corrupt and the women careless, and the earnest of approaching judgment was already given in the incapacity of the weak and woman-ridden king. Yet although this new prophecy issues from the same circumstances as its predecessors, it implies these circumstances a little more developed. The same social evils are treated, but by a hand with a firmer grasp of them. The same principles are emphasised-the righteousness of Jehovah and His activity in judgment - but the form of judgment of which Isaiah had spoken before in general terms looms nearer, and before the end of the prophecy we get a view at close quarters of the Assyrian ranks. Besides, opposition has arisen to the prophet’s teaching. We saw that the obscurities and inconsistencies of chapters 2-4 are due to the fact that that prophecy represents several stages of experience through which Isaiah passed before he gained his final convictions. But his countrymen, it appears, have now had time to turn on these convictions and call them in question: it is necessary for Isaiah to vindicate them. The difference, then, between these two sets of prophecies, dealing with the same things, is that in the former (chapters 2-4), we have the obscure and tortuous path of a conviction struggling to light in the prophet’s own experience; here, in chapter 5, we have its careful array in the light and before the people. The point of Isaiah’s teaching against which opposition was directed was of course its main point, that God was about to abandon Judah. This must have appeared to the popular religion of the day as the rankest heresy. To the Jews the honour of Jehovah was bound up with the inviolability of Jerusalem and the prosperity of Judah. But Isaiah knew Jehovah to be infinitely more concerned for the purity of His people than for their prosperity. He had seen the Lord "exalted in righteousness" above those national and earthly interests, with which vulgar men exclusively identified His will. Did the people appeal to the long time Jehovah had graciously led them for proof that He would not abandon them now? To Isaiah that gracious leading was but for righteousness’ sake, and that God might make His own a holy people. Their history, so full of the favours of the Almighty, did not teach Isaiah, as it did the common prophets of his time, the lesson of Israel’s political security, but the far different one of their religious responsibility. To him it only meant what Amos had already put in those startling words, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities." Now Isaiah delivered this doctrine at a time when it brought him the hostility of men’s passions as well as of their opinions. Judah was arming for war. Syria and Ephraim were marching upon her. To threaten his country with ruin in such an hour was to run the risk of suffering from popular fury as a traitor as well as from priestly prejudice as a heretic. The strain of the moment is felt in the strenuousness of the prophecy. Chapter 5, with its appendix, exhibits more grasp and method than its predecessors. Its literary form is finished, its feeling clear. There is a tenderness in the beginning of it, an inexorableness in the end, and an eagerness all through which stamp the chapter as Isaiah’s final appeal to his countrymen at this period of his career. The chapter is a noble piece of patriotism-one of the noblest of a race who, although for the greater part of their history without a fatherland, have contributed more brilliantly than perhaps any other to the literature of patriotism, and that simply because, as Isaiah here illustrates, patriotism was to their prophets identical with religious privilege and responsibility. Isaiah carries this to its bitter end. Other patriots have wept to sing their country’s woes; Isaiah’s burden is his people’s guilt. To others an invasion of their fatherland by its enemies has been the motive to rouse by song or speech their countrymen to repel it. Isaiah also hears the tramp of the invader; but to him is permitted no ardour of defence, and his message to his countrymen is that they must succumb, for the invasion is irresistible and of the very judgment of God. How much it cost the prophet to deliver such a message we may see from those few verses of it in which his heart is not altogether silenced by his conscience. The sweet description of Judah as a vineyard, and the touching accents that break through the roll of denunciation with such phrases as "My people are gone away into captivity unawares," tell us how the prophet’s love of country is struggling with his duty to a righteous God. The course of feeling throughout the prophecy is very striking. The tenderness of the opening lyric seems ready to flow into gentle pleading with the whole people. But as the prophet turns to particular classes and their sins his mood changes to indignation, the voice settles down to judgment; till when it issues upon that clear statement of the coming of the Northern hosts every trace of emotion has left it, and the sentences ring out as unfaltering as the tramp of the armies they describe. I. THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD { Isaiah 5:1-7 } Isaiah adopts the resource of every misunderstood and unpopular teacher, and seeks to turn the flank of his people’s prejudices by an attack in parable on their sympathies. Did they stubbornly believe it impossible for God to abandon a State He had so long and so carefully fostered? Let them judge from an analogous case in which they were all experts. In a picture of great beauty Isaiah describes a vineyard upon one of the sunny promontories visible from Jerusalem. Every care had been given it of which an experienced vinedresser could think, but it brought forth only wild grapes. The vinedresser himself is introduced, and appeals to the men of Judah and Jerusalem to judge between him and his vineyard. He gets their assent that all had been done which could be done, and fortified with that resolves to abandon the vineyard. "I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briers and thorns." Then the stratagem comes out, the speaker drops the tones of a human cultivator, and in the omnipotence of the Lord of heaven he is heard to say, "I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." This diversion upon their sympathies having succeeded, the prophet scarcely needs to charge the people’s prejudices in face. His point has been evidently carried. "For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant; and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry." The lesson enforced by Isaiah is just this, that in a people’s civilisation there lie the deepest responsibilities, for that is neither more nor less than their cultivation by God; and the question for a people is not how secure does this render them, nor what does it count for glory, but how far is it rising towards the intentions of its Author? Does it produce those fruits of righteousness for which alone God cares to set apart and cultivate the peoples? On this depends the question whether the civilisation is secure, as well as the right of the people to enjoy and feel proud of it. There cannot be true patriotism without sensitiveness to this, for however rich be the elements that compose the patriot’s temper, as piety towards the past, ardour of service for the present, love of liberty, delight in natural beauty, and gratitude for Divine favour, so rich a temper will grow rancid without the salt of conscience; and the richer the temper is, the greater must be the proportion of that salt. All prophets and poets of patriotism have been moralists and satirists as well. From Demosthenes to Tourgenieff. from Dante to Mazzini, from Milton to Russell Lowell, from Burns to Heine, one cannot recall any great patriot who has not known how to use the scourge as well as the trumpet. Many opportunities will present themselves to us of illustrating Isaiah’s orations by the letters and speeches of Cromwell, who of moderns most resembles the statesman-prophet of Judah; but nowhere does the resemblance become so close as when we lay a prophecy like this of Jehovah’s vineyard by the side of the speeches in which the Lord Protector exhorted the Commons of England, although it was the hour of his and. their triumph, to address themselves to their sins. So, then, the patriotism of all great men has carried a conscience for their country’s sins. But while this is always more or less a burden to the true patriot, there are certain periods in which his care for his country ought to be this predominantly, and need be little else. In a period like our own, for instance, of political security and fashionable religion, what need is there in patriotic displays of any other kind? but how much for patriotism of this kind-of men who will uncover the secret sins, however loathsome, and declare the hypocrisies, however powerful, of the social life of the people! These are the patriots we need in times of peace; and as it is more difficult to rouse a torpid people to their sins than to lead a roused one against their enemies, and harder to face a whole people with the support only of conscience than to defy many nations if you but have your own at your back, so these patriots of peace are more to be honoured than those of war. But there is one kind of patriotism more arduous and honourable still. It is that which Isaiah displays here, who cannot add to his conscience hope or even pity, who must hail his country’s enemies for his country’s good, and recite the long roll of God’s favours to his nation only to emphasise the justice of His abandonment of them. II. THE WILD GRAPES OF JUDAH { Isaiah 5:8-24 } The wild grapes which Isaiah saw in the vineyard of the Lord he catalogues in a series of Woes ( Isaiah 5:8-24 ), fruits all of them of love of money and love of wine. They are abuse of the soil ( Isaiah 5:8-10 , Isaiah 5:17 ), a giddy luxury which has taken to drink ( Isaiah 5:11-16 ), a moral blindness and headlong audacity of sin which habitual avarice and drunkenness soon develop ( Isaiah 5:18-21 ), and, again, a greed of drink and money-men’s perversion of their strength to wine, and of their opportunities of justice to the taking of bribes ( Isaiah 5:22-24 ). These are the features of corrupt civilisation not only in Judah, and the voice that deplores them cannot speak without rousing others very clamant to the modern conscience. It is with remarkable persistence that in every civilisation the two main passions of the human heart, love of wealth and love of pleasure, the instinct to gather and the instinct to squander, have sought precisely these two forms denounced by Isaiah in which to work their social havoc-appropriation of the soil and indulgence in strong drink. Every civilised community develops sooner or later its land-question and its liquor-question. "Questions" they are called by the superficial opinion that all difficulties may be overcome by the cleverness of men; yet problems through which there cries for remedy so vast a proportion of our poverty, crime, and madness, are something worse than "questions." They are huge sins, and require not merely the statesman’s wit, but all the patience and zeal of which a nation’s conscience is capable. It is in this that the force of Isaiah’s treatment lies. We feel he is not facing questions of State, but sins of men. He has nothing to tell us of what he considers the best system of land tenure, but he enforces the principle that in the ease with which land may be absorbed by one person the natural covetousness of the human heart has a terrible opportunity for working ruin upon society. "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land." We know from Micah that the actual process which Isaiah condemns was carried out with the most cruel evictions and disinheritances. Isaiah does not touch on its methods, but exposes its effects on the country-depopulation and barrenness, -and emphasises its religious significance. "Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without an inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah Then shall lambs. feed as in their pasture, and strangers shall devour the ruins of the fat ones" -i.e., of the luxurious landowners ( Isaiah 5:9 , Isaiah 5:10 , Isaiah 5:17 ). And in one of those elliptic statements by which he often startles us with the sudden sense that God Himself is acquainted with all our affairs, and takes His own interest in them, Isaiah adds, "All this was whispered to me by Jehovah: In mine ears-the Lord of hosts" ( Isaiah 5:9 ). During recent agitations in our own country one has often seen the "land laws of the Bible" held forth by some thoughtless demagogue as models for land tenure among ourselves; as if a system which worked well with a small tribe in a land they had all entered on equal footing, and where there was no opportunity for the industry of the people except in pasture and in tillage, could possibly be applicable to a vastly larger and more complex population, with different traditions and very different social circumstances. Isaiah says nothing about the peculiar land laws of his people. He lays down principles, and these are principles valid in every civilisation. God has made the land, not to feed the pride of the few, but the natural hunger of the many, and it is His will that the most be got out of a country’s soil for the people of the country. Whatever be the system of land-tenure-and while all are more or less liable to abuse, it is the duty of a people to agitate for that which will be least liable-if it is taken advantage of by individuals to satisfy their own cupidity, then God will take account of them. There is a responsibility which the State cannot enforce, and the neglect of which cannot be punished by any earthly law, but all the more will God see to it. A nation’s treatment of their land is not always prominent as a question which demands the attention of public reformers; but it ceaselessly has interest for God, who ever holds individuals to answer for it. The land-question is ultimately a religious question. For the management of their land the whole nation is responsible to God, but especially those who own or manage estates. This is a sacred office. When one not only remembers the nature of land-how it is an element of life, so that if a man abuse the soil it is as if he poisoned the air or darkened the heavens-but appreciates also the multitude of personal relations which the landowner or factor holds in his hand-the peace of homes, the continuity of local traditions, the physical health, the social fearlessness and frankness, and the thousand delicate associations which their habitations entwine about the hearts of men-one feels that to all who possess or manage land is granted an opportunity of patriotism and piety open to few, a ministry less honourable and sacred than none other committed by God to man for his fellow-men. After the land-sin Isaiah hurls his second Woe upon the drink-sin, and it is a heavier woe than the first. With fatal persistence the luxury of every civilisation has taken to drink; and of all the indictments brought by moralists against nations, that which they reserve for drunkenness is, as here, the most heavily weighted. The crusade against drink is not the novel thing that many imagine who observe only its late revival among ourselves. In ancient times there was scarcely a State in which prohibitive legislation of the most stringent kind was not attempted, and generally carried out with a thoroughness more possible under despots than where, as with us, the slow consent of public opinion is necessary. A horror of strong drink has in every age possessed those who from their position as magistrates or prophets have been able to follow for any distance the drifts of social life. Isaiah exposes as powerfully as ever any of them did in what the peculiar fatality of drinking lies. Wine is a mocker by nothing more than by the moral incredulity which it produces, enabling men to hide from themselves the spiritual and material effects of over-indulgence in it. No one who has had to do with persons slowly falling from moderate to immoderate drinking can mistake Isaiah’s meaning when he says, "They regard not the work of the Lord; neither have they considered the operation of His hands." Nothing kills the conscience like steady drinking to a little excess; and religion, even while the conscience is alive, acts on it only as an opiate. It is not, however, with the symptoms of drink in individuals so much as with its aggregate effects on the nation that Isaiah is concerned. So prevalent is excessive drinking, so entwined with the social customs of the country and many powerful interests, that it is extremely difficult to rouse public opinion to its effects. And "so they go into captivity for lack of knowledge." Temperance reformers are often blamed for the strength of their language, but they may shelter themselves behind Isaiah. As he pictures it, the national destruction caused by drink is complete. It is nothing less than the people’s captivity, and we know what that meant to an Israelite. It affects all classes: "Their honourable men are famished, and their multitude parched with thirst. The mean man is bowed down, and the great man is humbled." But the want and ruin of this earth are not enough to describe it. The appetite of hell itself has to be enlarged to suffice for the consumption of the spoils of strong drink. "Therefore hell hath enlarged her desire and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth among them, descend into it." The very appetite of hell has to be enlarged! Does it not truly seem as if the wild and wanton waste of drink were preventable, as if it were not, as many are ready to sneer, the inevitable evil of men’s hearts choosing this form of issue, but a superfluous audacity of sin, which the devil himself did not desire or tempt men to? It is this feeling of the infernal gratuitousness of most of the drink-evil-the conviction that here hell would be quiet if only she were not stirred up by the extraordinarily wanton provocatives that society and the State offer to excessive drinking- which compels temperance reformers at the present day to isolate drunkenness and make it the object of a special crusade. Isaiah’s strong figure has lost none of its strength today. When our judges tell us from the bench that nine-tenths of pauperism and crime are caused by drink, and our physicians that if only irregular tippling were abolished half the current sickness of the land would cease, and our statesmen that the ravages of strong drink are equal to those of the historical scourges of war, famine, and pestilence combined, surely to swallow such a glut of spoil the appetite of hell must have been still more enlarged, and the mouth of hell made yet wider. The next three Woes are upon different aggravations of that moral perversity which the prophet has already traced to strong drink. In the first of these it is better to read, draw punishment near with cords of vanity, than draw iniquity. Then we have a striking antithesis-the drunkards mocking Isaiah over their cups with the challenge, as if it would not be taken up, "Let Jehovah make speed, and hasten His work of judgment, that we may see it," while all the time they themselves were dragging that judgment near, as with cart-ropes, by their persistent diligence in evil. This figure of sinners jeering at the approach of a calamity while they actually wear the harness of its carriage is very striking. But the Jews are not only unconscious of judgment, they are confused as to the very principles of morality: "Who call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" In his fifth Woe the prophet attacks a disposition to which his scorn gives no peace throughout his ministry. If these sensualists had only confined themselves to their sensuality they might have been left alone; but with that intellectual bravado which is equally born with "Dutch courage" of drink, they interferred in the conduct of the State, and prepared arrogant policies of alliance and war that were the distress of the sober-minded prophet all his days. "Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight." In his last Woe Isaiah returns to the drinking habits of the upper classes, from which it would appear that among the judges even of Judah there were "six-bottle men." They sustained theft extravagance by subsidies, which we trust were unknown to the mighty men of wine who once filled the seats of justice in our own country. "They justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him." All these sinners, dead through their rejection of the law of Jehovah of hosts and the word of the Holy One of Israel, shall be like to the stubble, fit only for burning, and their blossom as the dust of the rotten tree. III. THE ANGER OF THE LORD { Isaiah 5:25 ; Isaiah 9:8 - Isaiah 10:4 ; Isaiah 5:26-30 } This indictment of the various sins of the people occupies the whole of the second part of the oration. But a third part is now added, in which the prophet catalogues the judgments of the Lord upon them, each of these closing with the weird refrain, "For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still." The complete catalogue is usually obtained by inserting between the 25th and 26th verses of chapter 5 { Isaiah 5:25-26 }. the long passage from chapter 9, verse 8, to chapter 10, verse 4. It is quite true that as far as chapter 5 itself is concerned it does not need this insertion; Isaiah 9:8-21 ; Isaiah 10:1-4 is decidedly out of place where it now lies. Its paragraphs end with the same refrain as closes Isaiah 5:25 , which forms, besides, a natural introduction to them, while Isaiah 5:26-30 form as natural a conclusion. The latter verses describe an Assyrian invasion, and it was always in an Assyrian invasion that Isaiah foresaw the final calamity of Judah. We may, then, subject to further light on the exceedingly obscure subject of the arrangement of Isaiah’s prophecies, follow some of the leading critics, and place Isaiah 9:8-21 ; Isaiah 10:1-4 between verses 25-26 of chapter 5; and the more we examine them the more we shall be satisfied with our arrangement, for strung together in this order they form one of the most impressive series of scenes which even an Isaiah has given us. From these scenes Isaiah has spared nothing that is terrible in history or nature, and it is not one of the least of the arguments for putting them together that their intensity increases to a climax. Earthquakes, armed raids, a great battle, and the slaughter of a people; prairie and forest fires, civil strife and the famine fever, that feeds upon itself; another battle-field, with its cringing groups of captives and heaps of slain; the resistless tide of a great invasion; and then, for final prospect, a desolate land by the sound of a hungry sea, and the light is darkened in the clouds thereof. The elements of nature and the elemental passions of man have been let loose together; and we follow the violent floods, remembering that it is sin that has burst the gates of the universe, and given the tides of hell full course through it. Over the storm and battle there comes booming like the storm-bell the awful refrain, "For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still." It is poetry of the highest order, but in him who reads it with a conscience mere literary sensations are sobered by the awe of some of the most profound moral phenomena of life. The persistence of Divine wrath, the long-lingering effects of sin in a nation’s history, man’s abuse of sorrow and his defiance of an angry Providence, are the elements of this great drama. Those who are familiar with "King Lear" will recognise these elements, and observe how similarly the ways of Providence and the conduct of men are represented there and here. What Isaiah unfolds, then. is a series of calamities that have overtaken the people of Israel. It is impossible for us to identify every one of them with a particular event in Israel’s history otherwise known to us. Some it is not difficult to recognise; but the prophet passes in a perplexing way from Judah to Ephraim and Ephraim to Judah, and in one case, where he represents Samaria as attacked by Syria and the Philistines, he goes back to a period at some distance from his own. There are also passages, as for instance Isaiah 10:1-4 , in which we are unable to decide whether he describes a present punishment or threatens a future one. But his moral purpose, at least, is plain. He will show how often Jehovah has already spoken to His people by calamity, and because they have remained hardened under these warnings, how there now remains possible only the last, worst blow of an Assyrian invasion. Isaiah is justifying his threat of so unprecedented and extreme a punishment for God’s people as overthrow by this Northern people, who had just appeared upon Judah’s political horizon. God, he tells Israel, has tried everything short of this, and it has failed; now only this remains, and this shall not fail. The prophet’s purpose, therefore, being not an accurate historical recital, but moral impressiveness, he gives us a more or less ideal description of former calamities, mentioning only so much as to allow us to recognise here and there that it is actual facts which he uses for his purpose of condemning Israel to captivity, and vindicating Israel’s God in bringing that captivity near. The passage thus forms a parallel to that in Amos, with its similar refrain: "Yet ye have not returned unto Me, saith the Lord," { Amos 4:6-12 } and only goes farther than that earlier prophecy in indicating that the instruments of the Lord’s final judgment are to be the Assyrians. Five great calamities, says Isaiah, have fallen on Israel and left them hardened: 1st, earthquake; { Isaiah 5:25 } 2d, loss of territory; { Isaiah 9:8-12 } 3d, war and a decisive defeat; { Isaiah 9:13-17 } 4th, internal anarchy; { Isaiah 9:18-21 } 5th, the near prospect of captivity. { Isaiah 10:1-4 } 1. THE EARTHQUAKE.-Amos { Isaiah 5:25 } closes his series withan earthquake; Isaiah begins with one. It may be the same convulsion they describe, or may not. Although the skirts of Palestine both to the east and west frequently tremble to these disturbances, an earthquake in Palestine itself, up on the high central ridge of the land, is very rare. Isaiah vividly describes its awful simplicity and suddenness. "The Lord stretched forth His hand and smote, and the hills shook, and their carcases were like offal in the midst of the streets." More words are not needed, because there was nothing more to describe. The Lord lifted His hand; the hills seemed for a moment to topple over, and when the living recovered from the shock there lay the dead, flung like refuse about the streets. 2. THE LOSS OF TERRITORY.-So { Isaiah 9:8-21 } awful a calamity, in which the dying did not die out of sight nor-fall huddled together on some far off battle-field, but the whole land was strewn with her slain, ought to have left indelible impression on the people. But it did not. The Lord’s own word had been in it for Jacob and Israel, { Isaiah 9:8 } "that the people might know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria." But unhumbled they turned in the stoutness of their hearts, saying, when the earthquake had passed: "The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stones"; the "sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." Calamity did not make this people thoughtful; they felt God only to endeavour to forget Him. Therefore He visited them the second time. They did not feel the Lord shaking their land, so He sent their enemies to steal it from them: "the Syrians before and the Philistines behind; and they devour Israel with open mouth." What that had been for appalling suddenness this was for lingering and harassing-guerilla warfare, armed raids, the land eaten away bit by bit. "Yet the people do not return unto Him that smote them, neither seek they the Lord of hosts." 3. WAR AND DEFEAT.-The { Isaiah 9:13-17 } next consequent calamity passed from the land to the people themselves. A great battle is described, in which the nation is dismembered in one day. War and its horrors are told, and the apparent want of Divine pity and discrimination which they imply is explained. Israel has been led into these disasters by the folly of their leaders, whom Isaiah therefore singles out for blame. "For they that lead these people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed." But the real horror of war is that it falls not upon its authors, that its victims are not statesmen, but the beauty of a country’s youth, the helplessness of the widow and orphan. Some question seems to have been stirred by this in Isaiah’s heart. He asks, Why does the Lord not rejoice in the young men of His people? Why has He no pity for widow and orphan, that He thus sacrifices them to the sin of the rulers? It is because the whole nation shares the ruler’s guilt; "every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly." As ruler so people, is a truth Isaiah frequently asserts, but never with such grimness as here. War brings out, as nothing else does, the solidarity of a people in guilt. 4. INTERNAL ANARCHY.-Even { Isaiah 9:18-21 } yet the people did not repent; their calamities only drove them to further wickedness. The prophet’s eyes are opened to the awful fact that God’s wrath is but the blast that fans men’s hot sins to flame. This is one of those two or three awful scenes in history, in the conflagration of which we cannot tell what is human sin and what Divine judgment. There is a panic wickedness, sin spreading like mania, as if men were possessed by supernatural powers. The physical metaphors of the prophet are evident: a forest or prairie fire, and the consequent famine, whose fevered victims feed upon themselves. And no less evident are the political facts which the prophet employs these metaphors to describe. It is the anarchy which has beset more than one corrupt and unfortunate people, when their mis-leaders have been overthrown: the anarchy in which each faction seeks to slaughter out the rest. Jealousy and distrust awake the lust for blood, rage seizes the people as fire the forest, "and no man spareth his brother." We have had modern instances of all this; these scenes form a true description of some days of the French Revolution, and are even a truer description of the civil war that broke out in Paris after her late siege. "If that the heavens do not their visible spirits Send quickly down to tame these vile offences, I will come, Humanity must perforce prey on itself Like monsters of the deep." 5. THE THREAT OF CAPTIVITY.-Turning { Isaiah 10:1-4 } now from the past, and from the fate of Samaria, with which it would appear he has been more particularly engaged, the prophet addresses his own countrymen in Judah, and paints the future for them. It is not a future in which there is any hope. The day of their visitation also will surely come, and the prophet sees it close in the darkest night of which a Jewish heart could think-the night of captivity. Where, he asks his unjust countrymen-where "will ye then flee for help? and where will you leave your glory?" Cringing among the captives, lying dead beneath heaps of dead-that is to be your fate, who will have turned so, often and then so finally from God. When exactly the prophet thus warned his co