Holy Bible

The burden of the desert of the sea. Isaiah 21:1-10 The desert of the sea Sir E. Strachey, Bart. This enigmatical name for Babylon was no doubt suggested by the actual character of the country in which the city stood. It was an endless breadth or succession of undulations "like the sea," without any cultivation or even any tree: low, level, and full of great marshes; and which used to be overflowed by the Euphrates, till the whole plain became a sea, before the river was banked in by Semiramis, as Herodotus says. But the prophet may allude also to the social and spiritual desert which Babylon was to the nations over which its authority extended, and especially to the captive Israelite; and perhaps, at the same time, to the multitude of the armies which it poured forth like the waters of the sea. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) The prophecy against Babylon Dean Farrar, D. D. It is a magnificent specimen of Hebrew poetry in its abrupt energy and passionate intensity. The prophet is, or imagines himself to be, in Babylon. Suddenly he sees a storm of invasion sweeping down through the desert, which fills him with alarm. Out of the rolling whirlwind troops of armed warriors flash into distinctness. A splendid banquet is being held in the great Chaldean city; the tables are set, the carpets are spread; they eat, they drink, the revel is at its height. Suddenly a wild cry is heard, "Arise, ye princes, anoint the shield!" — in other words, the foe is at hand. "Spring up from the banquet, smear with" oil the leathern coverings of your shields that the blows of the enemy may slide off from them in battle. The clang of arms disturbs the Babylonian feast. The prophet sitting, as it were an illuminated spirit, as a watchman upon the tower calls aloud to ask me cause of the terror. What is it that the watchman sees? The watchman, with deep, impatient groan, as of a lion, complains that he sees nothing; that he has been set there, apparently for no purpose, all day and all night long. But even as he speaks there suddenly arises an awful need for his look-out. From the land of storm and desolation, the desert between the Persian Gulf and Babylon, he sees a huge and motley host, some mounted on horses, some on asses, some on camels, plunging forward through the night. It is the host of Cyrus on his march against Babylon. In the advent of that Persian host he sees the downfall of the dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar and the liberation of Judah from her exile. On the instant, as though secure of victory, he cries out, "Babylon is fallen." And he, that is, Cyrus the Persian king, a monotheist though he be, a worshipper of fire and the sun, has dashed in pieces all the graven images of the city of Nimrod. Then he cries to his fellow exiles in Babylonian captivity, "O my people, crushed and trodden down" — literally, "O my grain, and the son of my threshing floor" — "this is my prophecy for you; it is a prophecy of victory for your champions; it is a prophecy of deliverance for yourselves." ( Dean Farrar, D. D. ) The Persian advance on Babylon J. A. Alexander. (vers. 7, 9): — It is a slight but obvious coincidence of prophecy and history that Xenophon represents the Persians advancing by two and two. ( J. A. Alexander. ) The Persian aversion to images J. A. Alexander. The allusion to idols (ver. 9) is not intended merely to remind us that the conquest was a triumph of the true God over false ones, but to bring into view the well-known aversion of the Persians to all images. Herodotus says they not only thought it unlawful to use images, but imputed folly to those who did it. Here is another incidental but remarkable coincidence of prophecy even with profane history. ( J. A. Alexander. ) "The burden of the desert of the sea G. Matheson, D. D. There is a burden in all vast things; they oppress the soul. The firmament gives it; the mountain gives it; the prairie gives it. But I think nothing gives it like looking on the sea. The sea suggests something which the others do not — a sense of desertness. In the other cases the vastness is broken to the eye. The firmament has its stars; the mountain has its peaks; the prairie has its flowers; but the sea, where it is open sea, has nothing. It seems a strange thing that the prophet, in making the sea a symbol of life's burden, should have selected its aspect of loneliness. Why not take its storms? Because the heaviest burden of life is not its storms but its solitude. There are no moments so painful as our island moments. One half of our search for pleasure is to avoid self-reflection. The pain of solitary responsibility is too much for us. It drives the middle-aged man into fast living, and the middle-aged woman into gay living. I cannot bear to hear the discord of my own past. It appalls me; it overwhelms me; I fly to the crowd to escape my unaccompanied shadow. ( G. Matheson, D. D. ) Anoint the shield. Isaiah 21:5 "Anoint the shield J. Kitto, D. D. The ancient shields being mostly of stout leather stretched over a frame or rim of metal or wood, it was necessary to rub them with oil, lest they should become hard and crack, or lest they should become so rigid that an arrow or spear might easily penetrate them. Shields of this kind are still much in use, and still require the same treatment, in Western Asia; and we have ourselves frequently seen them on sale in the bazaars, and in use among the Arabs, the Kurds, and the Caucasians. ( J. Kitto, D. D. ) Things that did not happen G. Matheson, D. D. What is a shield? It is a very peculiar part of God's armour. It is not a strength in calamity; it is something which prevents calamity from coming. My strength is my power to bear; but my shield is my escape from bearing. My strength lifts me when the blow falls; my shield catches the blow before it falls. My strength supports what is; my shield wards off what might have been. I have often praised God for the strength; but I have seldom anointed the shield. I have recognised a thousand times His songs in the night; but I have not sufficiently thanked Him that the night itch has not been deeper. ( G. Matheson, D. D. ) O My threshing, and the corn of My floor. Isaiah 21:10 God's threshing F. Delitzsch. Babylon is the instrument employed by the Divine wrath to thresh with. But love takes part also in the work of threshing, and restrains the action of wrath. A picture likely to give comfort to the grain lying for threshing on the floor, i.e. , to the people of Israel which, mowed down as it were and removed from its native son, had been banished to Babylon, and there subjected to a tyrannical rule. ( F. Delitzsch. ) Comfort for God's afflicted people I. THE CHURCH IS GOD'S FLOOR, in which the most valuable fruits and products of this earth are, as it were, gathered together and laid up. II. TRUE BELIEVERS ARE THE CORN OF GOD'S FLOOR. Hypocrites are but as the chaff and straw, which take up a deal of room, but are of small value, with which the wheat is now mixed, but from which it shall be shortly and forever separated. III. THE CORN OF GOD'S FLOOR MUST EXPECT TO BE THRESHED by afflictions and persecutions. IV. EVEN THEN, GOD OWNS IT FOR HIS THRESHING — it is His still; nay, the threshing of it is by His appointment and under His restraint and direction The threshers could have no power against it but what is given them from above. ( M. Henry . ) The burden of Dumah. Isaiah 21:11, 12 The burden of Dumah Buchanan Blake, B. D. Like Moab, Edom had once formed part of David's dominions, but in the days of disruption and weakness both had rebelled. What about Edom now? When Moab was so soon to fall — when the Assyrian was spreading devastation all around — what was to be Edom's fate? The prophet hears the appeal addressed to him as God's watchman and with anxious repetition. The words, "Watchman, what of the night? How much of the night has passed?" contain the cry of perplexity and a demand for light and guidance. But the answer is an oracle of silence. Not yet is Edom to be told what is God's will concerning her future. She is assured that there will be alternations of light and darkness for her as for all in the time of their probation. Meanwhile, patience is to have its perfect work; and after a little while she may inquire again. A later prophecy shows the work of Divine judgment on this land. ( Buchanan Blake, B. D. ) Dumah D. Merson, M. A. , B. D. It lay to the south of Palestine, thus bordering on the inheritance of Judah. It was a wild mountainous district, inhabited by a race whose character reflected the rugged nature of their surroundings. They were constantly at war with their neighbours, especially the Jews, and spent a large portion of their time making inroads into southern Palestine for the sake of plunder and conquest. On account of these invasions, and also because they joined the Chaldeans against the Jews, the most sweeping denunciations were pronounced against them. In course of time these denunciations were followed by disasters, in consequence of which the Edomites became a vanquished people, and were finally incorporated with the Jewish nation. Then, when at a later period the whole of that region passed into the hands of the Greeks and Romans, it became known by the Greek name of Idumea — Dumah being the old Hebrew name. Hence the "burden of Dumah" means the prophecy concerning the fate of Idumea or Edom. ( D. Merson, M. A. , B. D. ) The oracle of Dumah Dean Farrar, D. D. The land of Edom pleads for some vision to her also. Judah is to be rescued. The prophet has seen the Persian host in its varied array — troops of chariots and horsemen crashing through the brazen gates of idolatrous Babylon, extinguishing its feasts in blood, issuing from it with the cry of victory. It is good news for Judah, but what shall it be for Edom? It is as if the voice of Esau cried out once more, "Hast Thou but one blessing, O my Father. Bless me, even me also, O my Father." And as the prophet stands in imagination on the peak of the hill, he hears a voice calling to him out of Seir, the stronghold of the Edomites, a sharp, agitated cry, "Watchman, how far in the night? Watchman, what hour of the night? Does the darkness still linger, is the morning near?" Well might Edom be in terror; the sons of Esau had behaved to Judah in her hour of affliction with malignant hatred which had wounded her to the heart. In Obadiah, in Amos, in Ezekiel, in Jeremiah, you may read traces of their crime. When the Jews fled before the advances of Nebuchadnezzar, the Edomites, true to their miserable destiny, their hand against every man and every man's hand against them, had cruelly massacred and intercepted the helpless fugitives, and had urged Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the Holy City. It is to this that the sad Psalmist of the Exile alludes when he says: "Remember, O Lord, against the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem, how they cried, 'Down with it, down with it, even to the ground.'" Naturally, therefore, in the approaching hour of Judah's emancipation, the prophet has not much comfort to bestow on these cruel and treacherous" sons of the desert. All he can say to the Edomites at first is a riddling message of which not much can be made. But then, after this stern and dubious answer, as though somewhat relenting, the watchman cries, "If ye wish to inquire again, inquire ye," and then, very briefly, "Return, come." In other words. "The oracle for you, sons of Edom, is no vaticination about a mere earthly future." It may be summed up in two words — in the warning, "Repent," and in the invitation, "Come." ( Dean Farrar, D. D. ) Edomites and Jews: a hostile world attacking the Church D. Merson, M. A. , B. D. It may help us to the true meaning of this question, if we keep in mind the relation in which the Edomites stood the Jews. That relation was one of the closest, if we have respect to origin or birth; but if we have respect to friendship, then the feelings existing between them were of the most hostile kind. Descended from a common stock, they kept alive the family animosities. The Edomites, who were the descendants of Esau, hated the Israelites on account of the deceitful conduct of Jacob their father. The sight of the prosperity of the sons of Jacob perpetuated the old grudge in the breast of the less favoured sons of Esau; and their seasons of adversity were made the occasions of bitter sneers. These two nations have become associated in our minds, the one with the people of God, the other with their enemies. The sons of Jacob were chosen, in preference to the sons of Esau, to be the medium of carrying the Divine blessings to all nations. The Edomites were in consequence filled with envy and hatred towards their brethren, lost no opportunity of attacking them in the most envenomed spirit, and thus they may justly be regarded as a type of the hostile world attacking the Church of God. Here, then, we seem to have a clue to the interpretation of the passage before us. If we regard the Jewish nation as a type of the Church or people of God, and the Edomites as a type of the hostile world, we have here a question addressed to the Church by the world, and we have the Church's reply. ( D. Merson, M. A. , B. D. ) Eastern watchmen M. H. Seymour, M. A. It was the custom in the regions of the East in ancient times, to erect lofty watchtowers, so high as to be above all surrounding buildings, and to place watchmen on them, who should observe all that came within their view and report accordingly. The design of this custom was to prevent the approach of an enemy unforeseen. The watchman in his lofty tower observed in the distance the gathering of armies and the mustering of hosts; he could see in the far-off horizon the glistening of weapons and the waving of the banners of war; and then he gave warning and the people prepared for the event. There is very frequent allusion to this custom in the Scriptures; and it is in reference to it, that the ministers of the Church of God are described as the Lord's "watchmen." It is their duty to stand upon the walls and upon the watchtowers of the Church that they may see the approaching danger, and to give warning, that the people perish not ( Isaiah 62:6 ; Ezekiel 33:2 , etc.). ( M. H. Seymour, M. A. ) Watchman Prof. Driver, D. D. A different word from that in verse 6, and signifying not one who spies or looks out, but one who guards or keeps ( Psalm 130:6 ). ( Prof. Driver, D. D. ) The burden T. Adams. is in two respects — 1. Of the prophets that bear it. The Word of the Lord is a heavy burden till they are delivered of it; there is no rest to the surcharged conscience. The ministry is a matter of both honour and burden. Are there none that catch at honour, but will not meddle with the burden. 2. Of the people that were to suffer it. The judgments of God are heavy on whomsoever they light. It is true of them what the philosopher said of himself, Perieram nisi periissem , — they are undone that are not undone. Security is the very suburbs of hell. An insensible heart is the devil's anvil, he fashioneth all sins on it, and the blows are not felt. ( T. Adams. ) The burden of Dumah A. Williams, M. A. I. THE CHARACTER HERE GIVEN OF THE PROPHET. II. THE IMPORTUNITY OF THE PEOPLE APPLYING TO HIM. III. HIS ANSWER. 1. We may tender the prophet's answer to any who would perplex themselves or others with inquiries respecting the existing state of this world's affairs. 2. The wicked, walking after their own lusts and counsels, sometimes, in a scoffing manner, inquire of ministers, "What of the night? What think ye of my state and prospects? What of the truth of religion? What of the uses and importance of godliness? My wickedness thrives, and you said that it would be my ruin; my vices are pleasant, and you said that they would be bitter; my mind is at ease, and you said that I should be harassed in conscience. Where is the truth of your words? where the severity of judgment? — what evidence of a day of retribution?" The awful answer again is, "the morning cometh, and also the night." 3. The prophet's answer was given to persons in trouble; and thus applied, its import is various. To some who demand of us, in seasons of their distress, "Watchman, what of the night?" the answer is, Time is fast passing, and your sorrows are fast passing with it. To others, "The morning cometh," but as yet it is profound night to you, many and heavy sorrows still await you. Your spiritual condition is such, that our Heavenly Father will seek to bring you to Himself by many grievous visitations; hateful indeed, to the natural will, but most salutary for the soul's health. Or else, perhaps, as you have approved yourselves to God in the season of prosperity, it is the Divine pleasure to make experiment of you in the fiery furnace of adversity, to see whether "tribulation can separate you from the love of Christ." To others again, the answer is, It is the seventh hour, the midnight of your affliction is already past, and if passed by a little only, you have already suffered the extreme of your earthly portion of endurance; all that follows shall be comparatively light, and work for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, if in patience ye possess your souls. ( A. Williams, M. A. ) The watchman's report and advice T. Dealtry, D. D. I. WHO IS THE WATCHMAN REFERRED TO? II. THE INQUIRY INSTITUTED. 1. The whole state of the world demands of the servants of God that they should prayerfully and diligently regard the signs and movements of the times. 2. There are personal inquiries which ought to press upon all who are rightly impressed with a sense of their responsibility to God. "How is the period of my probation passing? What is the progress of the night, which is to be succeeded by a morrow which knows no change or ending? How speeds the night in which my soul's salvation is to be determined?" III. THE WATCHMAN'S REPORT IN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION. "The morning cometh, and also the night." This report is most comprehensive, and may convey the following ideas — 1. That there will be nothing settled or permanent: changes may be expected.(1) There has always been a mixture of light and darkness in the Church — in its perceptions of truth, and in the events connected with it.(2) So in the case of the individual Christian, in times of sorrow and distress: darkness has appeared to compass his path; yet he has not been without gleams of comfort and light. 2. But the report without doubt is designed to indicate a period of coming joy to believers, of misery and woe to the wicked — to the one the morning cometh, to the other night. 3. There is one other observation in the watchman's report worthy of attention, namely, that the morning and the night are said to come together; "the morning cometh, and also the night." It may seem strange to many that these periods should be said to come simultaneously. But if you look at the characters to whom they thus come, the difficulty is removed. That which will be a time of light and comfort to the righteous, will be one of darkness and dismay to the ungodly. Indeed, it is partly so in the present imperfect state of things. The very blessings of the impenitent are turned into curses; their day of mercy and grace becomes a night of darkness and calamity; whilst, on the other hand, all that appear night and trouble to the people of God, are means of increased light and joy to them. Their sorrow is turned into joy; their tribulation worketh patience and experience and hope. IV. THE ADVICE WHICH THE WATCHMAN GIVES IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE REPORT. 1. Inquiry is the first duty recommended. We look for nothing, and expect nothing so long as there is indifference. It was the great sin of God's professing people of old, that "they would not consider." It is only when we can excite a spirit of serious inquiry that we can hope for lasting good from our efforts. 2. But to diligent inquiry, return to God is recommended. All inquiry in fact is for this purpose, and it would be useless if it did not issue in an actual return to your Father. 3. The prophet closes with one more observation, and it is used by way of encouragement — "Come." ( T. Dealtry, D. D. ) The watchman's report and advice N. Hill. I. THE WATCHMAN'S REPORT. 1. As it may be supposed to respect the public affairs of our country. 2. The state of virtue and piety among us. II. THE WATCHMAN'S ADVICE. The doom of Dumah was not inevitably fixed; she would yet be indulged with a morning of opportunities; and the only sure ground of hope was in a returning to God. We have as a nation something of Dumah's morning — some farther space for reflection and repentance. It must be of the greatest moment to know what an offended God expects. "Inquire; return; come." The inquiring, returning, coming, so kindly and seasonably urged on Dumah, in her night, are recommended to us on every ground, whether human or Divine. 1. Nothing can be more fit and proper in itself. 2. It is the subject of a Divine command. 3. In the patience and forbearance of God, and in the wonderful method He has devised for the pardon and salvation of a guilty people, we have a loud call and a most powerful motive to "inquire, return, and come." 4. And there are important and happy consequences resulting from a sinful people's inquiring, returning', and coming to God. ( N. Hill. ) "Watchman, what of the night W. Archer Butler, D. D. I. CONSIDER THE QUESTION. 1. Some ask the report of the night with utter carelessness as to the reply. 2. Some ask in contempt. 3. Some ask in horror and anguish of heart. II. WHAT IS STILL THE DUTY OF HIM WHO HOLDS THE MOMENTOUS POSITION OF WATCHMAN IN THE CITY OF GOD? 1. He did not turn away from the question, in whatever spirit it was asked. 2. He uttered with equal assurance a threat and a promise. 3. He pressed the necessity of care in the study and earnest inquiry after the nature of the truth. 4. He summed up all by an anxious, a cordial, and a reiterated invitation to repentance and reconciliation with an offended but pardoning God. Thus, the single verse might be regarded as an abstract of the duties of the ministerial office. ( W. Archer Butler, D. D. ) The world's challenge and the Church's response T. Stephenson. I. This is THE WORLD'S CHALLENGE TO THE CHURCH. From the midst of that darkness which, by reason of the limitation of our knowledge, encompasses us all; and from thy midst of that double darkness which enwraps those who are untouched and unchanged by the love of Christ Jesus, this challenge is continually coming to the Church. This is — 1. The cry of scepticism. The scepticism of our day is, in some instances, evidently the error of noble but misguided spirits, who, having discovered that in some matters of belief concerning which they had thought themselves very sure, they were wholly in the wrong, and having in other cases been baffled in the search for certainty, have too hastily given up all hope of obtaining saris. faction and rest with respect to many of the most momentous questions of human life. There is, however, a shallower scepticism. It addresses the Church in tones of equal incredulity, but breathing the spirit of vanity, hostility, and contempt. 2. The cry of the world's worldliness. Men who are living for this life only, ask the question. There is a terribly close connection between worldliness and scepticism of the scoffing and contemptuous sort. The tendency of a life in which there is no regard for God and eternity, is to produce an unbelief far more blighting than that disbelief which is the result of misguided thinking. And with all the wild recklessness or supercilious scorn or stolid indifference of old times, they ask, "What of the night? You prophets of darkness, who take so gloomy a view of the condition of the world, who warn us of a perpetual darkness for those who live so heedlessly, what of the night? You who profess to believe that your religion can do such great things, where are the signs of its power, and of the accomplishment of its work? What signs of the dissipation of the darkness of which you speak, and of the coming of the day?" 3. The cry of the world's agony. From the darkness of the sin which is shutting out of the life all joy and purity and hope, from the woe which is crushing them, men make their appeal to the Church of God. They ask for the causes of this darkness and for the means by which it may be removed. But there are many who are conscious that the agony they feel is attributable to their sin; and in the sense of their alienation from God they ask of the Church, pleadingly, What of the night? It is not simply the apprehension of darkness, but the consciousness of it, the darkness of being sinful. "Oh tell us if there be forgiveness, peace, purity, and rest, for guilty, storm-tossed, polluted, and wearied hearts!" 4. The cry of the world's hope. Many have felt the dawn of a new day in their own hearts, and now they continually pray, "Thy kingdom come." Although they have light within, they see the darkness around them. But because of what they have themselves experienced, they cannot despair of the case of humanity. II. THE RESPONSE WITH WHICH THE CHURCH IS ENTRUSTED, and which she is bound urgently and confidently to deliver. "The morning cometh, and also the night." 1. The Church's message to the world is a message of mingled mercy and severity, of joyous and of sad import. We look at what Christianity has done and is doing in the world; and the result of the examination is a deep and growing conviction that the evidences of Christianity never were so strong or convincing as today.(1) And this is our answer to scepticism. Account for Christianity. See what it has done for nations, what for a single life!(2) This, too, is our answer to the cry of the worldly. However blind men may be to the fact, however incapable of reading the signs of the times, assuredly the course of human history proclaims "the morning cometh"; the morning of a day which shall reveal the falseness of every mode of life which involves forgetfulness of God; the morning of a day when every heart unconsecrated to God shall declare its dissatisfaction, and when every cherished lust of wrong shall reveal its insatiable appetite, by the cry, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."(3) And this is the message of the Church to the agonised: "The morning cometh" of the day when the wounds of humanity shall be forever healed; when the sorrow of men shall be turned into joy. We see signs of this already, in the present amelioration of man's condition which Christianity produces.(4) And in the brightness of that morning, which many signs proclaim cometh for the world, the hopeful shall find all, and more than all, for which their hearts have ever yearned, and more than all of which their imagination ever dreamed. 2. But alas! if it be true that the morning cometh, it is not less necessary that we should add, "and also the night." The dawning of the day of Christ will leave some in profounder darkness. 3. Therefore, we close with the urgent personal appeal of the prophet: "If ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come." Let this be the commencement of an earnest inquiry as to the claims Christianity, and we do not fear for the result. Let the value of the world be estimated, and compared with the value of the favour and the life of God; and there can be but one issue. Let this be the day of earnest seeking for the light, the peace and the pardon of God; and the agony of a troubled heart and the burden of a guilty conscience shall be taken away, and the spirit shall know the life and liberty of Christ Jesus. "Inquire ye," and in this truth as it is in Jesus ye shall find all you need. ( T. Stephenson. ) The burden of Dumah I. ENDEAVOUR TO EXPLAIN IT. II. EXHIBIT THE LESSONS WHICH IT TEACHES; or, apply it to the friends and the foes of God. 1. We have an illustration of the conduct of a taunting world; a world often disposed not to reason, but to make derision of religion; a world always finding occasions, in some peculiar state of the Church, or in some aspect of religion, for the exhibition of irony or scorn. 2. We have in the response of the watchman, "The morning cometh," an illustration of the times of light and prosperity in the Church destined to succeed those of calamity. We may apply it to the individual Christian in the midst of calamity. Thus, too, it is of the Church universal. In her darkest hours, it was true that brighter days were to dawn. So it is now. The night of sin is to be succeeded by a long bright day. There is one thing only that is certain in the future history of this world — its conversion to God and to the true religion. 3. In like manner we have an illustration of a third important fact — the night of calamity that is coming on a sinful and scoffing world. 4. There remains one other idea. That is, if you — the despiser — will inquire in a humble manner; if you will come with proper reverence, and will turn from your sins, light will stream along your path; and the sun of prosperity will ride up your sky, and pour down his noontide radiance upon you also. ( A. Barnes , D. D. ) "Watchman, what of the night F. W. Brown. I. THE WATCHMAN AS TYPICAL OF EVERY TRUE AMBASSADOR OF THE CROSS. 1. He occupied vantage ground. He was selected for the office; placed in an appropriate position — where, unhindered, he could carry on his observations. 2. He possessed knowledge of the ground he surveyed a mere enthusiast would not do, nor a novice, nor an enemy; a patriot would be the best, with a clear head and a warm heart. 3. He would expect implicit obedience to his cries. If he said "All well!" people might rest; if, "To arms!" people must be up. Apply these points to the office of the Christian ministry. II. THE INQUIRER OF THE WATCHMAN AS TYPICAL OF THE ANXIOUS SEEKER AFTER SALVATION. 1. He was painfully conscious of the darkness. Every awakened sinner feels the darkness of ignorance, and danger, and guilt, and wonders what of the night — how, and when will it end? 2. He was anxiously desirous of the light. The anxious seeker after salvation longs for the Light of the world — the light of the glorious Gospel to shine into his heart. III. THE ANSWER OF THE WATCHMAN AS TYPICAL OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE SOUL IN RELIGION. 1. The morning cometh — the morning of day, of newness of life, of glorious opportunity. 2. "Also the night." The day will not last forever, let us work while it is called day. ( F. W. Brown. ) The world's interrogation and the Church's response W. A. Gray. I. WHEN NIGHT HANGS HEAVILY ON THE CHURCH, IT HANGS STILL MORE HEAVILY ON THE WORLD. The Assyrian oppression lay like a cloud on Judah, but in lying on Judah it projected a still heavier cloud upon Edom. The world is so bound up with the Church that, consciously or unconsciously, it rises with the Church's rising, falls with the Church's falling, rejoices in the Church's freedom, pines in the Church's bondage, is lightened by the Church's sunshine, is shadowed by the Church's clouds. And this, take the world in what aspect you may, as the world of society, the world of business, the world of pleasure. What is the practical lesson? Do not leave the Church because the Church may be wrapped in adversity; if you do, a deeper adversity is awaiting you in the quarter to which you repair. And the same law holds good in a wider sense. We are compassed with mystery. Some persons, impatient with the obscurities of faith, take refuge in the greater obscurities of unbelief. Restless under the clouds of Judah, they seek relief amidst the heavier clouds of Edom. There never was a greater mistake than to suppose that because Christianity is bound up with problems, the abandonment of belief is the abandonment of mystery. II. And the fact is, the world realises this; for note as the next thought we deduce from the passage, THAT IN THE MIDST OF THIS COMMON NIGHT, ENVELOPING BOTH CHURCH AND WORLD, THE WORLD TURNS TO THE CHURCH FOR LIGHT. It is very suggestive that in the general pressure of the general gloom the Edomite is represented as appealing to the Jew, a representative of the Jewish God., Was there none to consult nearer home? Where were the seers of Idumea? Through all ages the principle is the same. Ever, in the midst of the cloud that surrounds us all, the world puts its questions to the Church. Sometimes, indeed, the question is ironical. Sometimes it is curious. Often, however, the question is earnest. III. And thus we come up to the next plain lesson, THAT WHEN THE WORLD QUESTIONS THE CHURCH, THE CHURCH MUST BE READY TO ANSWER. That implies — 1. That the Church has an answ

Benson Commentary Isaiah 21:1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land. Isaiah 21:1 . The burden of the desert of the sea — That is, of Babylon, as is evident from Isaiah 21:9 . Some think it is so called prophetically, because, although it was at present a populous city, it was shortly to be made desolate, and turned into a marsh, and pools of water. But ???? ?? may be properly rendered, the plain of the sea: for Babylon stood on a plain, and the country about it, and especially below it, toward the sea, was a great flat morass, often overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. “Semiramis,” says Herodotus, “confined the Euphrates within its channel, by raising great dams against it; for before it overflowed the whole country like a sea.” And Abydenus, speaking of the building of Babylon, observes, “It is reported that all this part was covered with water, and was called the sea; and that Belus drew off the waters, conveying them into proper receptacles.” It was only by these means, it appears, and by the many canals that were made in the country, that it became habitable. It, however, still more fully and perfectly answered the title of the plain, or desert of the sea, here given it, in consequence of the Euphrates being turned out of its channel by Cyrus, and afterward suffered still to drown the neighbouring country, by which it became, in time, a great barren, morassy desert, which it continues to be to this day. See note on Isaiah 13:20 . This second prediction, concerning Babylon, (which, with the two short prophecies following, makes the sixth discourse of this second part of Isaiah’s Visions,) “is a passage,” says Bishop Lowth, “of a singular kind for its brevity and force; for the variety and rapidity of the movements; and for the strength and energy of colouring, with which the action and event are painted. It opens with the prophet’s seeing, at a distance, the dreadful storm that is gathering, and ready to burst upon Babylon: the event is intimated in general terms; and God’s orders are issued to the Persians and Medes to set forth upon the expedition which he has given them in charge. Upon this the prophet enters into the midst of the action; and in the person of Babylon expresses, in the strongest terms, the astonishment and horror that seizes her on the sudden surprise of the city, at the very season dedicated to pleasure and festivity. Then, in his own person, he describes the situation of things there; the security of the Babylonians, and, in the midst of their feasting, the sudden alarm of war. The event is then declared in a very singular manner. God orders the prophet to set a watchman to look out, and to report what he sees; he sees two companies marching onward, representing, by their appearance, the two nations that were to execute God’s orders; who declare that Babylon is fallen.” As whirlwinds in the south, &c. — Bishop Lowth’s translation of this passage gives it a peculiar force and elegance. “Like the southern tempests, violently rushing along, From the desert he cometh, from the terrible country. A dreadful vision! it is revealed unto me: The plunderer is plundered, and the destroyer is destroyed. Go up, O Elam; from the siege, O Media! I have put an end to all her vexations.” By southern tempests, or whirlwinds in the south, the prophet means tempests in those extensive deserts which lay southward from Judea, in which the winds rush along with great force, as meeting with no obstruction from mountains, hills, trees, or buildings. To these he compares the sweeping and irresistible ruin which, by terrible armies, was about to come on Babylon from Media and Persia, through the deserts that lay between it and those countries. “The prophet,” says Lowth, “renews his threatenings against Babylon, as he does afterward, (chap. 47.,) to convince the Jews, by this repetition, of the certainty of the event, and thereby support them under their captivity when it should come.” Isaiah 21:2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease. Isaiah 21:2 . A grievous vision is declared unto me — A vision or prophecy, predicting dreadful calamities about to fall upon Babylon. The treacherous dealer, &c. — In these words the prophet either describes the sin of the Chaldeans, for which God would send the following judgment upon them, namely, they persisted in the practice of treachery and rapine, to which they had been so long accustomed; or he speaks of the Medes and Persians, and represents them as paying the Babylonians in their own coin, and using the same treachery and violence toward them which they had used toward others. The words may be properly rendered, Thou, O Elam, that dealest treacherously with the treacherous dealer, or, that oppressest the oppressor, and spoilest the spoiler, go up, besiege, &c. Babylon had long oppressed and ravaged other countries: and it was now her turn to be oppressed and ravaged. Elam was an eminent province of Persia, bordering upon Media, and is here put for Persia in general. God here gives the Medes and Persians their commission to go up and take Babylon, and thereby to put an end to the sighs and groans of the captive Jews, and of other nations held in bondage, and oppressed by that tyrannical and cruel empire. Isaiah 21:3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it ; I was dismayed at the seeing of it . Isaiah 21:3-4 . Therefore my loins, &c. — “We have here a symbolical description of the greatness of the Babylonish calamity; the prophet exhibiting in himself, as in a figure, an emblem of the extreme distress, consternation, and horror, which should ensue on this occasion.” See Isaiah 15:5 ; Isaiah 16:8-9 ; Luke 21:26 . He speaks of his loins being filled with pain, with a reference to the following similitude of child- bearing. Pangs have taken hold on me — Sharp and grievous pains, or extreme anguish, as the word ????? properly means, torments like those of a woman in labour. I was, or, rather, I am, bowed down — Oppressed with an intolerable load of sorrow and distress, at the hearing of it — Hebrew, ????? , that I cannot (that is, cannot endure to) hear it. So Dr. Waterland, who reads the three next clauses thus: I am dismayed that l cannot see it: my heart panteth: horror confounds me. Such was the distress and anguish, the confusion and dismay, undoubtedly, of myriads of the inhabitants of Babylon, on the night when the city was unexpectedly taken; and particularly of Belshazzar, when he saw the hand that wrote, and the writing on the wall, and especially when he heard Daniel’s interpretation of it. Then, indeed, was the night of his pleasure turned into fear unto him, in which remarkable words the prophet alludes to the circumstance of Babylon’s being taken in the night of an annual festival, “while the inhabitants were dancing, drinking, and revelling, which is more fully set forth in the next verse.” According to Herodotus, the extreme parts of the city were in the hands of the enemy, before they, who dwelt in the middle of it, knew any thing of their danger. Isaiah 21:4 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me. Isaiah 21:5 Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield. Isaiah 21:5 . Prepare the table — Furnish it with meats and drinks, as it follows. The prophet foretels what the Babylonians would be doing when their enemies were upon the point of entering their city: Watch in the watch-tower — To give us notice of any approaching danger, that we may more securely indulge ourselves in mirth and pleasures. Arise, ye princes — Either, 1st, Ye princes of Babylon. Arise from the table, and run to your arms: which sudden alarm was the consequence of tidings from the watch- tower. Or, 2d, Ye Medes and Persians; as if he had said, While your enemies, the Babylonians, are feasting securely, prepare and make your assault. Most commentators understand the clause in this latter sense. Dr. Waterland, after Vitringa, renders it, The table is spread: the watchman stands upon the watch; they eat, they drink: Arise now, ye princes, &c. The words paint in lively colours the security and revelling of the Babylonians, at the very time when the divine command is given to the Medes and Persians to seize this proper moment to make the assault. See Jeremiah 51:11 ; Jeremiah 51:28 , &c. The expression, Anoint the shield, means, Prepare your arms: make ready for the battle. The shield is put for all their weapons, offensive and defensive. They used to anoint their shields with oil to preserve and polish them, and make them slippery, that their enemies’ darts might not fix in and penetrate, but slide off from them. Isaiah 21:6 For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. Isaiah 21:6 . For thus hath the Lord said unto me — I speak only what God hath caused me to see and hear in a vision, the particulars whereof are related in the following verses. “The Holy Spirit, to make Isaiah, and, by him, the church, most certain of this memorable event, confirms the preceding revelation by an elegant emblem, offered to the prophet in vision. This emblem exhibits to us the prophet commanded by God to set a watchman, in this verse; and, in what follows, the consequence of the execution of the command, namely, that the watchman attended accurately to the least motion of the nations against Babylon, and, after long expectation, had discovered” what is afterward related. See Vitringa. The reader will observe, that as the command to set a watchman was given to the prophet in a vision, so it was executed by him only in a vision. It signified, however, what should really be done afterward, namely, when the Medes and Persians should march to besiege and attack Babylon. Isaiah 21:7 And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed: Isaiah 21:7 . And he saw a chariot with two riders, &c. — “This passage,” says Bishop Lowth, “is extremely obscure from the ambiguity of the term ??? ,” (here rendered chariot,) “which is used three times; and which signifies a chariot, or any other vehicle, or the rider in it; or a rider on a horse, or any other animal; or a company of chariots or riders. The prophet may possibly mean a cavalry in two parts, with two sorts of riders; riders on asses, or mules, and riders on camels: or led on by two riders, one on an ass, and one on a camel.” Or, as some think, the verse may be rendered, He saw a cavalcade, two file of horse, ( ??? ?????? ,) with ass-carriages, and carriages of camels; and he attended with very close attention. According to this translation, the meaning is, that the watchman saw the army of the Medes and Persians, with their usual cavalcade of horse, (attended by those beasts of burden, asses and camels, which accompanied armies,) moving toward Babylon; upon which he gave the greatest attention possible. Or, according to the common reading, Darius and Cyrus, leading the Medes and Persians, are intended to be distinguished by the two riders, or the two sorts of cattle. The baggage of Cyrus’s army, Herodotus tells us, was carried on camels. Isaiah 21:8 And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: Isaiah 21:8-9 . And he cried, A lion — “The present reading, ???? , a lion, is so unintelligible,” says Bishop Lowth, “and the mistake so obvious, that I make no doubt that the true reading is ???? ,” ( he that saw, or looked out, ) “as the Syriac translator manifestly found it in his copy, who renders it by ???? , speculator,” the observer, or watchman. The bishop, therefore, renders the clause, He that looked out on the watch cried aloud. My lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower — The watchman speaks these words to the prophet, who, by command from God, had set him in this station; to whom, therefore he gives the following account of his discharge of the office wherewith he was intrusted. In the daytime, &c., whole nights — According to thy command I have stood, and do stand continually, both day and night, in my ward. This is said to express his great care and attention, and thereby to confirm the truth of the prediction which follows, as that which would as certainly come to pass, as if a watchman had descried the approach of an enemy afar off. And behold, here cometh a chariot, &c. — Or, as in Isaiah 21:7 , a cavalcade of men; two file of horse, &c. Bishop Lowth renders it, from the Syriac and Ephraim Syrus, Behold, here cometh a man, one of the two riders: and he answered — Answered to the prophet, who set him to watch, or the Lord, by whose command he was set. Babylon is fallen, is fallen — The expression is doubled, to show the certainty of the event. It is usual, likewise, for the prophets to speak of a thing future as if it were already accomplished, to signify that it will certainly be accomplished; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken, &c. — “It is remarkable that Xerxes, after his return from his unfortunate expedition into Greece, partly out of religious zeal, being a professed enemy to image-worship, and partly to reimburse himself after his immense expenses, seized the sacred treasures, plundered or destroyed the temples and idols of Babylon, and thereby accomplished this prophecy.” — Bishop Newton. Isaiah 21:9 And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. Isaiah 21:10 O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. Isaiah 21:10 . O my thrashing, &c. — In these words, which form the conclusion of the prophecy, “the application, the end, and design of it, are admirably given in a short expressive address to the Jews, partly in the person of God, partly in that of the prophet.” The first words of the verse, O my thrashing, and the corn of my floor, are supposed to be spoken by God, in which thrashing is put for the corn thrashed, and the corn thrashed for people sorely afflicted and punished: as if he had said, “O my people, whom for your punishment I have made subject to the Babylonians, to try and to prove you, and to separate the chaff (or straw) from the corn, the bad from the good among you; hear this for your consolation: your punishment, your slavery and oppression, will have an end in the destruction of your oppressors.” The reader will observe, “the image of thrashing is frequently used by the Hebrew poets, with great elegance and force, to express the punishment of the wicked and the trial of the good, or the utter dispersion and destruction of God’s enemies.” That which I have heard, &c. — Here “the prophet abruptly breaks off the speech of God, and instead of continuing it in the form in which he had begun, and in the person of God, he changes the form of address, and adds, in his own person, That which I have heard, &c., have I declared unto you.” In which words he signifies, that he had faithfully related to them what God had revealed to him, and that the predictions which he had uttered were not his own inventions, but the very word of God, which, therefore, would be infallibly accomplished in their season. See Bishop Lowth. Isaiah 21:11 The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? Isaiah 21:11-12 . The burden of Dumah — Or Idumea, as appears by the mention of mount Seir, which follows. This prophecy, “from the uncertainty of the occasion on which it was uttered, and from the brevity of the expression,” is acknowledged to be extremely obscure. The general opinion of interpreters seems to be, that it refers to the time of some common calamity, which the prophet foresaw would oppress Judea and the neighbouring countries, as suppose the invasion of the Assyrians, or the tyrannical domination of the Babylonians. During this calamity the prophet introduces the Idumeans, inquiring of him concerning the quality and duration of it. He informs them in answer, that “the calamity should soon pass from Judea, and that the light of the morning should arise to the Jews, while the Idumeans should be oppressed with a new and unexpected affliction; so that what should be a time of light to the Jews, should be to them a time of darkness. The prophet, foreseeing that they would scarcely believe his words, admonishes them that the matter was fixed, as they would find the more accurately they inquired into it.” According to this general view of the passage, the particular expressions may be interpreted as follows: Watchman — So they term the prophet, either seriously or in scorn, because the prophets were so called by God and by the people of the Jews; what of the night — What have you certain to tell us of the state of the night? How far is it advanced? Do you observe no signs of the approach of the morning? That is, what do you observe of our present distress and calamity? Is there any appearance of its departure, and of the approach of the morning of deliverance? The prophet answers enigmatically, The morning cometh — Deliverance to the Jews; and also the night — To the Idumeans: to them I will give light; you I will leave in darkness. So St. Jerome and the Chaldee Paraphrase. See Dodd. Or the meaning of the prophet’s answer may be, “that the deliverance of the Jews would come in its appointed time; but that the day of their prosperity would be succeeded by a dark night of adversity: or, that after a short continuance of approaching prosperity to the Edomites, a dreadful ruin would come upon them, of which the prophet saw no end.” — Scott. The last clause, If ye will inquire, &c, is taken by some to be an exhortation to the Edomites, to consider their ways, to repent and turn to God. Lowth paraphrases it thus: “If you will inquire indeed, and ask questions in earnest, inquire of God first, ask his mercy, and afterward come again, and ye shall have a more favourable answer.” Isaiah 21:12 The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come. Isaiah 21:13 The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim. Isaiah 21:13 . The burden of Arabia — “While God revealed to his prophet the fate of foreign nations, among others he declares that of those Arabians who inhabited the western part of Arabia Deserta, or Petrea,” and bordered upon the Idumeans last mentioned. They are here termed the companies of Dedanim, being the descendants of Dedan, the son of Jokshan, the son of Abraham by Keturah; and travelling companies, because a great number of them used to travel together the same way, as now companies travelling together in those parts are called caravans. In saying, In the forest shall ye lodge, the prophet foretels that they should be driven into flight by the Assyrians, or that that populous country should be turned into a desolate wilderness. Isaiah 21:14 The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled. Isaiah 21:14-15 . The inhabitants of the land of Tema — Another part of Arabia, (of which see Job 6:19 ; Jeremiah 25:23 ,) namely, the posterity of Tema, Ishmael’s son; brought water to him that was thirsty — To the Dedanites, who are here represented as being reduced to great straits, being forced to flee from the enemy without any provision for their subsistence. They prevented with bread him that fled — That is, that fled for his life from the sword of the enemy, as is more fully expressed in the next verse. “To bring forth bread and water, in such cases of distress, is an instance of common humanity; especially in these desert countries, in which the common necessaries of life, more particularly water, are not easily met with, or procured.” See Deuteronomy 23:4 . Isaiah 21:15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. Isaiah 21:16 For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail: Isaiah 21:16-17 . For thus hath the Lord said — Hitherto the prophet had spoken figuratively: now he ceases to do so; within a year — From the time of the delivery of this prophecy, according to the years of a hireling — Namely, an exact year: for hirelings diligently observe and wait for the end of the year, when they are to receive their wages. And this prophecy “was probably delivered about the same time with the rest in this part of the book, that is, soon before or after the 14th of Hezekiah, the year of Sennacherib’s invasion. In his first march into Judea, or in his return from the Egyptian expedition, he might, perhaps, overrun these several clans of Arabians, whose distress, on some such occasion, is the subject of this prophecy.” — Bishop Lowth. And all the glory of Kedar shall fail — Their power and riches, and all things wherein they used to glory The Kedarenes were another division of the Arabians, descended from Kedar, Ishmael’s son, ( Genesis 25:13 ,) who were famous for the use of the bow, as is intimated in Isaiah 21:17 , at which weapon their ancestor Ishmael was very expert, Genesis 21:20 . The same people are said to dwell in the tents of Kedar, ( Psalm 120:5 ; Song of Solomon 1:5 ,) and were remarkable for their swarthiness, the word Kedar signifying black or tawny. It is here foretold that they should suffer a grievous slaughter, whereby their mighty men should be diminished, and that they should be deprived of their flocks, tents, furniture, and wealth, and be obliged to save themselves by fleeing into the interior parts of the desert. Isaiah 21:17 And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it . Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 21:1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land. CHAPTER XI DRIFTING TO EGYPT 720-705 13. B.C. Isaiah 20:1-6 ; Isaiah 21:1-10 ; Isaiah 38:1-22 ; Isaiah 39:1-8 FROM 720, when chapter 11 may have been published, to 705-or, by rough reckoning, from the fortieth to the fifty-fifth year of Isaiah’s life-we cannot be sure that we have more than one prophecy from him; but two narratives have found a place in his book which relate events that must have taken place between 712 and 705. These narratives are chapter 20: How Isaiah Walked Stripped and Barefoot for a Sign against Egypt, and chapters 38 and 39: The Sickness of Hezekiah, with the Hymn he wrote, and his behaviour before the envoys from Babylon. The single prophecy belonging to this period is Isaiah 21:1-10 , "Oracle of the Wilderness of the Sea," which announces the fall of Babylon. There has been considerable debate about the authorship of this oracle, but Cheyne, mainly following Dr. Kleinert, gives substantial reasons for leaving it with Isaiah. We postpone the full exposition of chapters 38 and 39 to a later stage, as here it would only interrupt the history. But we will make use of chapters 20 and Isaiah 21:1-10 in the course of the following historical sketch, which is intended to connect the first great period of Isaiah’s prophesying, 740-720, with the second, 705-701. All these fifteen years, 720-705, Jerusalem was drifting to the refuge into which she plunged at the end of them-drifting to Egypt. Ahaz had firmly bound his people to Assyria, and in his reign there was no talk of an Egyptian alliance. But in 725, when the "overflowing scourge" of Assyrian invasion threatened to sweep into Judah as well as Samaria, Isaiah’s words give us some hint of a recoil in the politics of Jerusalem towards the southern power. The "covenants with death and hell," which the men of scorn flaunted in his face as he harped on the danger from Assyria, may only have been the old treaties with Assyria herself, but the "falsehood and lies" that went with them were most probably intrigues with Egypt. Any Egyptian policy, however, that may have formed in Jerusalem before 719, was entirely discredited by the crushing defeat, which in that year Sargon inflicted upon the empire of the Nile, almost on her own borders, at Rafia. Years of quietness for Palestine followed this decisive battle. Sargon, whose annals engraved on the great halls of Khorsabad enable us to read the history of the period year by year, tells us that his next campaigns were to the north of his empire, and till 711 he alludes to Palestine only to say that tribute was coming in regularly, or to mention the deportation to Hamath or Samaria of some tribe he had conquered far away. Egypt, however, was everywhere busy among his feudatories. Intrigue was Egypt’s forte . She is always represented in Isaiah’s pages as the talkative power of many promises. Her fair speech was very sweet to men groaning beneath the military pressure of Assyria. Her splendid past, in conjunction with the largeness of her promise, excited the popular imagination. Centres of her influence gathered in every state. An Egyptian party formed in Jerusalem. Their intrigue pushed mines in all directions, and before the century was out the Assyrian peace in Western Asia was broken by two great explosions. The first of these, in 711, was local and abortive: the second, in 705, was universal, and for a time entirely destroyed the Assyrian supremacy. The centre of the Explosion of 711 was Ashdod, a city of the Philistines. The king had suddenly refused to continue the Assyrian tribute, and Sargon had put another king in his place. But the people-in Ashdod, as everywhere else, it was the people who were fascinated by Egypt-pulled down the Assyrian puppet and elevated Iaman, a friend to Pharaoh. The other cities of the Philistines, with Moab, Edom, and Judah, were prepared by Egyptian promise to throw in their lot with the rebels. Sargon gave them no time. "In the wrath of my heart, I did not divide my army, and I did not diminish the ranks, but I marched against Asdod with my warriors, who did not separate themselves from the traces of my sandals. I besieged, I took, Asdod and Gunt-Asdodim . . . I then made again these towns. I placed the people whom my arm had conquered. I put over them my lieutenant as governor. I considered them like Assyrians, and they practised obedience." It is upon this campaign of Sargon that Mr. Cheyne argues for the invasion of Judah, to which he assigns so many of Isaiah’s prophecies, as, e.g. , chapters 1 and Isaiah 10:5-34 . Some day Assyriology may give us proof of this supposition. We are without it just now. Sargon speaks no word of invading Judah, and the only part of the book of Isaiah that unmistakably refers to this time is the picturesque narrative of chapter 20. In this we are told that "in the year" the Tartan, the Assyrian commander-in-chief, "came to Ashdod when Sargon king of Assyria sent him" [that is to be supposed the year of the first revolt in Ashdod, to which Sargon himself did not come], "and he fought against Ashdod and took it:-in that time Jehovah had spoken by the hand of Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth," the prophet’s robe, "from off thy loins, and thy sandal strip from off thy foot; and he did so, walking naked," that is unfrocked, "and barefoot." For Egyptian intrigue was already busy; the temporary success of the Tartan at Ashdod did not discourage it, and it needed a protest. "And Jehovah said, As My servant Isaiah hath walked unfrocked and barefoot three years for a sign and a portent against Egypt and against Ethiopia" [note the double name, for the country was now divided between two rulers, the secret of her impotence to interfere forcibly in Palestine] "so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, stripped and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of Ethiopia their expectation and because of Egypt their boast. And the inhabitant of this coastland" [that is, all Palestine, and a name for it remarkably similar to the phrase used by Sargon, "the people of Philistia, Judah, Edom, and Moab, dwelling by the sea"] "shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we had fled for help to deliver ourselves from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape-we?" This parade of Isaiah for three years, unfrocked and barefoot, is another instance of that habit on which we remarked in connection with Isaiah 8:1 : the habit of finally carrying everything committed to him before the bar of the whole nation. It was to the mass of the people God said, "Come and let us reason together." Let us not despise Isaiah in his shirt any more than we do Diogenes in his tub, or with a lantern in his hand, seeking for a man by its rays at noonday. He was bent on startling the popular conscience, because he held it true that a people’s own morals have greater influence on their destinies than the policies of their statesmen. But especially anxious was Isaiah, as we shall again see from chapter 31, to bring, this Egyptian policy home to the popular conscience. Egypt was a big-mouthed, blustering power, believed in by the mob; to expose her required public, picturesque, and persistent advertisement. So Isaiah continued his walk for three years. The fall of Ashdod, left by Egypt to itself, did not disillusion the Jews, and the rapid disappearance of Sargon to another part of his empire where there was trouble, gave the Egyptians audacity to continue their intrigues against him. Sargon’s new trouble had broken out in Babylon, and was much more serious than any revolt in Syria. Merodach Baladan, king of Chaldea, was no ordinary vassal, but as dangerous a rival as Egypt. When he rose, it meant a contest between Babylon and Nineveh for the sovereignty of the world. He had long been preparing for war. He had an alliance with Elam, and the tribes of Mesopotamia were prepared for his signal of revolt. Among the charges brought him by Sargon is that, "against the will of the gods of Babylon, he had sent during twelve years ambassadors." One of these embassies may have been that which came to Hezekiah after his great sickness (chapter 39). "And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his spicery, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not." Isaiah was indignant. He had hitherto kept the king from formally closing with Egypt; now he found him eager for an alliance with another of the powers of man. But instead of predicting the captivity of Babylon, as he predicted the captivity of Egypt, by the hand of Assyria, Isaiah declared, according to chapter 39, that Babylon would some day take Israel captive; and Hezekiah had to content himself with the prospect that this calamity was not to happen in his time. Isaiah’s prediction of the exile of Israel to Babylon is a matter of difficulty. The difficulty, however, is not that of conceiving how he could have foreseen an event which took place more than a century later. Even in 711 Babylon was not an unlikely competitor for the supremacy of the nations. Sargon himself felt that it was a crisis to meet her. Very little might have transferred the seat of power from the Tigris to the Euphrates. What, therefore, more probable than that when Hezekiah disclosed to these envoys the whole state of his resources, and excused himself by saying "that they were come from a far country, even Babylon," Isaiah, seized by a strong sense of how near Babylon stood to the throne of the nations, should laugh to scorn the excuse of distance, and tell the king that his anxiety to secure an alliance had only led him to place the temptation to rob him more in the face of a power that was certainly on the way to be able to do it? No, the difficulty is not that the prophet foretold a captivity of the Jews in Babylon, but that we cannot reconcile what he says of that captivity with his intimation of the immediate destruction of Babylon, which has come down to us in Isaiah 21:1-10 . In this prophecy Isaiah regards Babylon as he has been regarding Egypt-certain to go down before Assyria, and therefore wholly unprofitable to Judah. If the Jews still thought of returning to Egypt when Sargon hurried back from completing her discomfiture in order to beset Babylon, Isaiah would tell them it was no use. Assyria has brought her full power to bear on the Babylonians; Elam and Media are with her. He travails with pain for the result. Babylon is not expecting a siege; but "preparing the table, eating and drinking," when suddenly the cry rings through her, "‘Arise, ye princes; anoint the shield.’ The enemy is upon us." So terrible and so sudden a warrior is this Sargon! At his words nations move; when he saith, "Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media!" it is done. And he falls upon his foes before their weapons are ready. Then the prophet shrinks back from the result of his imagination of how it happened-for that is too painful-upon the simple certainty, which God revealed to him, that it must happen. As surely as Sargon’s columns went against Babylon, so surely must the message return that Babylon has fallen. Isaiah puts it this way. The Lord bade him get on his watchtower-that is his phrase for observing the signs of the times-and speak whatever he saw. And he saw a military column on the march: "a troop of horsemen by pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels." It passed him out of sight, "and he hearkened very diligently" for news. But none came. It was a long campaign. "And he cried like a lion" for impatience, "O my Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower by day, and am set in my ward every night." Till at last, "behold, there came a troop of men, horsemen in pairs, and" now "one answered and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods he hath broken to the ground." The meaning of this very elliptical passage is just this: as surely as the prophet saw Sargon’s columns go out against Babylon, so sure was he of her fall. Turning to his Jerusalem, he Says, "My own threshed one, son of my floor, that which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you." How gladly would I have told you otherwise! But this is His message and His will. Everything must go down before this Assyrian. Sargon entered Babylon before the year was out, and with her conquest established his fear once more down to the borders of Egypt. In his lifetime neither Judah nor her neighbours attempted again to revolt. But Egypt’s intrigue did not cease. Her mines were once more laid, and the feudatories of Assyria only waited for their favourite opportunity, a change of tyrants on the throne of Nineveh. This came very soon. In the fifteenth year of his reign, having finally established his empire, Sargon inscribed on the palace at Khorsabad the following prayer to Assur: "May it be that I, Sargon, who inhabit this palace, may be preserved by destiny during long years for a long life, for the happiness of my body, for the satisfaction of my heart, and may I arrive to my end! May I accumulate in this palace immense treasures, the booties of all countries, the products of mountains and valleys!" The god did not hear. A few months later, in 705, Sargon was murdered; and before Sennacherib, his successor, sat down on the throne, the whole of Assyrian supremacy in the southwest of Asia went up in the air. It was the second of the great Explosions we spoke of, and the rest of Isaiah’s prophecies are concerned with its results. 2 CHAPTER XVII ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS 736-702 B.C. Isaiah 14:24-32 ; Isaiah 15:1-9 ; Isaiah 16:1-14 ; Isaiah 17:1-14 ; Isaiah 18:1-7 ; Isaiah 19:1-25 ; Isaiah 20:1-6 ; Isaiah 21:1-17 ; Isaiah 23:1-18 THE centre of the Book of Isaiah (chapters 13 to 23) is occupied by a number of long and short prophecies which are a fertile source of perplexity to the conscientious reader of the Bible. With the exhilaration of one who traverses plain roads and beholds vast prospects, he has passed through the opening chapters of the book as far as the end of the twelfth; and he may look forward to enjoying a similar experience when he reaches those other clear stretches of vision from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh and from the thirtieth to the thirty-second. But here he loses himself among a series of prophecies obscure in themselves and without obvious relation to one another. The subjects of them are the nations, tribes, and cities with which in Isaiah’s day, by war or treaty or common fear in face of the Assyrian conquest, Judah was being brought into contact. There are none of the familiar names of the land and tribes of Israel which meet the reader in other obscure prophecies and lighten their darkness with the face of a friend. The names and allusions are foreign, some of them the names of tribes long since extinct, and of places which it is no more possible to identify. It is a very jungle of prophecy, in which, without much Gospel or geographical light, we have to grope our way, thankful for an occasional gleam of the picturesque-a sandstorm in the desert, the forsaken ruins of Babylon haunted by wild beasts, a view of Egypt’s canals or Phoenicia’s harbours, a glimpse of an Arab raid or of a grave Ethiopian embassy. But in order to understand the Book of Isaiah, in order to understand Isaiah himself in some of the largest of his activities and hopes; we must traverse this thicket. It would be tedious and unprofitable to search every corner of it. We propose, therefore, to give a list of the various oracles, with their dates and titles, for the guidance of Bible-readers, then to take three representative texts and gather the meaning of all the oracles round them. First, however, two of the prophecies must be put aside. The twenty-second chapter does not refer to a foreign State, but to Jerusalem itself; and the large prophecy which opens the series (chapters 13-14:23) deals with the overthrow of Babylon in circumstances that did not arise till long after Isaiah’s time, and so falls to be considered by us along with similar prophecies at the close of this volume. (See Book V) All the rest of these chapters-14-21 and 23-refer to Isaiah’s own day. They were delivered by the prophet at various times throughout his career; but the most of them evidently date from immediately after the year 705, when, on the death of Sargon, there was a general rebellion of the Assyrian vassals. 1 Isaiah 14:24-27 -OATH OF JEHOVAH that the Assyrian shall be broken. Probable date, towards 701. 2 Isaiah 14:28-32 -ORACLE FOR PHILISTIA. Warning to Philistia not to rejoice because one Assyrian king is dead, for a worse one shall arise: "Out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a basilisk. Philistia shall be melted away, but Zion shall stand." The inscription to this oracle ( Isaiah 14:28 ) is not genuine. The oracle plainly speaks of the death and accession of Assyrian, not Judaean, kings. It may be ascribed to 705, the date of the death of Sargon and accession of Sennacherib. But some hold that it refers to the previous change on the Assyrian throne-the death of Salmanassar and the accession of Sargon. 3 Isaiah 15:1-9 - Isaiah 16:12 -ORACLE FOR MOAB. A long prophecy against Moab. This oracle, whether originally by himself at an earlier period of his life, or more probably by an older prophet, Isaiah adopts and ratifies, and intimates its immediate fulfilment, in Isaiah 16:13-14 : "This is the word which Jehovah spake concerning Moab long ago. But now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all the great multitude, and the remnant shall be very small and of no account." The dates both of the original publication of this prophecy and of its reissue with the appendix are quite uncertain. The latter may fall about 711, when Moab was threatened by Sargon for complicity in the Ashdod conspiracy or in 704, when, with other states, Moab came under the cloud of Sennacherib’s invasion. The main prophecy is remarkable for its vivid picture of the disaster that has overtaken Moab and for the sympathy with her which the Jewish prophet expresses; for the mention of a "remnant" of Moab; for the exhortation to her to send tribute in her adversity "to the mount of the daughter of Zion"; { Isaiah 16:1 } for an appeal to Zion to shelter the outcasts of Moab and to take up her cause: "Bring counsel, make a decision, make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts, bewray not the wanderer;" for a statement of the Messiah similar to those in chapters 9 and 11; and for the offer to the oppressed Moabites of the security of Judah in Messianic times ( Isaiah 16:4-5 ). But there is one great obstacle to this prospect of Moab lying down in the shadow of Judah-Moab’s arrogance. "We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud," { Isaiah 16:6 , cf. Jeremiah 48:29 ; Jeremiah 48:42 ; Zephaniah 2:10 } which pride shall not only keep this country in ruin, but prevent the Moabites prevailing in prayer at their own sanctuary ( Isaiah 16:12 )-a very remarkable admission about the worship of another god than Jehovah. 4 Isaiah 17:1-11 -ORACLE FOR DAMASCUS. One of the earliest and most crisp of Isaiah’s prophecies. Of the time of Syria’s and Ephraim’s league against Judah, somewhere between 736 and 732. 5 Isaiah 17:12-14 -UNTITLED. The crash of the peoples upon Jerusalem and their dispersion. This magnificent piece of sound, which we analyse below, is usually understood of Sennacherib’s rush upon Jerusalem. Isaiah 17:14 is an accurate summary of the sudden break-up and "retreat from Moscow" of his army. The Assyrian hosts are described as "nations," as they are elsewhere more than once by Isaiah. { Isaiah 22:6 ; Isaiah 29:7 } But in all this there is no final reason for referring the oracle to Sennacherib’s invasion, and it may just as well be interpreted of Isaiah’s confidence of the defeat of Syria and Ephraim (734-723). Its proximity to the oracle against Damascus would then be very natural, and it would stand as a parallel prophecy to Isaiah 8:9 : "Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of the distances of the earth: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces"-a prophecy which we know belongs to the period of the Syro-Ephraimitic league. 6 Isaiah 18:1-7 -UNTITLED. An address to Ethiopia, "land of a rustling of wings, land of many sails, whose messengers dart to and fro upon the rivers in their skiffs of reed." The prophet tells Ethiopia, cast into excitement by the news of the Assyrian advance, how Jehovah is resting quietly till the Assyrian be ripe for destruction. When the Ethiopians shall see His sudden miracle they shall send their tribute to Jehovah, "to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion." It is difficult to know to which southward march of Assyria to ascribe this prophecy-Sargon’s or Sennacherib’s? For at the time of both of these an Ethiopian ruled Egypt. 7 Isaiah 19:1-25 -ORACLE FOR EGYPT. The first fifteen verses ( Isaiah 19:1-15 ) describe judgment as ready to fall on the land of the Pharaohs. The last ten speak of the religious results to Egypt of that judgment, and they form the most universal and "missionary" of all Isaiah’s prophecies. Although doubts have been expressed of the Isaiah authorship of the second half of this chapter on the score of its universalism, as well as of its literary style, which is judged to be "a pale reflection" of Isaiah’s own, there is no final reason for declining the credit of it to Isaiah, while there are insuperable difficulties against relegating it to the late date which is sometimes demanded for it. On the date and authenticity of this prophecy, which are of great importance for the question of Isaiah’s "missionary" opinions, see Cheyne’s introduction to the chapter and Robertson Smith’s notes in "The Prophets of Israel" (p. 433). The latter puts it in 703, during Sennacherib’s advance upon the south. The former suggests that the second half may have been written by the prophet much later than the first, and justly says, "We can hardly imagine a more ‘swan-like end’ for the dying prophet." 8 Isaiah 20:1-6 -UNTITLED. Also upon Egypt, but in narrative and of an earlier date than at least the latter half of chapter 19. Tells how Isaiah walked naked and barefoot in the streets of Jerusalem for a sign against Egypt and against the help Judah hoped to get from her in the years 711-709, when the Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-chief, came south to subdue Ashdod. 9 Isaiah 21:1-10 -ORACLE FOR THE WILDERNESS OF THESEA, announcing but lamenting the fall of Babylon. Probably 709. 10 Isaiah 21:11-12 -ORACLE FOR DUMAH. Dumah, or Silence - Psalm 94:17 ; Psalm 115:17 , "the land of the silence of death," the grave - is probably used as an anagram for Edom and an enigmatic sign to the wise Edomites, in their own fashion, of the kind of silence their land is lying under-the silence of rapid decay. The prophet hears this silence at last broken by a cry. Edom cannot bear the darkness any more. "Unto me one is calling from Seir, Watchman, how much off the night? how much off the night? Said the watchman, Cometh the morning, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire, come back again." What other answer is possible for a land on which the silence of decay seems to have settled down? He may, however, give them an answer later on, if they will come back. Date uncertain, perhaps between 704 and 701. 11. 21:13-17 -ORACLE FOR ARABIA. From Edom the prophet passes to their neighbours the Dedanites, travelling merchants. And as he saw night upon Edom, so, by a play upon words, he speaks of evening upon Arabia: "in the forest, in Arabia," or with the same consonants, "in the evening." In the time of the insecurity of the Assyrian invasion the travelling merchants have to go aside from their great trading roads "in the evening to lodge in the thickets." There they entertain fugitives, or (for the sense is not quite clear) are themselves as fugitives entertained. It is a picture of the "grievousness of war," which was now upon the world, flowing down even those distant, desert roads. But things have not yet reached the worst. The fugitives are but the heralds of armies, that "within a year" shall waste the "children of Kedar," for Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken it. So did the prophet of little Jerusalem take possession of even the far deserts in the name of his nation’s God. 12 Isaiah 23:1-18 -ORACLE FOR TYRE. Elegy over its fall, probably as Sennacherib came south upon it in 703 or 702. To be further considered by us. These, then, are Isaiah’s oracles for the Nations, who tremble, intrigue, and go down before the might of Assyria. We have promised to gather the circumstances and meaning of these prophecies round three representative texts. These are- 1. "Ah! the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of mighty waters they rush; nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He rebuketh it, and it fleeth afar off, and is chased like the chaff on the mountains before the wind and like whirling dust before the whirlwind." { Isaiah 17:12-13 } 2. "What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find refuge the afflicted of His people." { Isaiah 14:32 } 3. "In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, and the work of My hands Assyria, and Mine inheritance Israel". { Isaiah 19:24-25 } I. The first of these texts shows all the prophet’s prospect filled with storm, the second of them the solitary rock and lighthouse in the midst of the storm: Zion, His own watchtower and His people’s refuge; while the third of them, looking far into the future, tells us, as it were, of the firm continent which shall rise out of the waters-Israel no longer a solitary lighthouse, "but in that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth." These three texts give us a summary of the meaning of all Isaiah’s obscure prophecies to the foreign nations-a stormy ocean, a solitary rock in the midst of it, and the new continent that shall rise out of the waters about the rock. The restlessness of Western Asia beneath the Assyrian rule (from 719, when Sargon’s victory at Rafia extended that rule to the borders of Egypt) found vent, as we saw, in two great Explosions, for both of which the mine was laid by Egyptian intrigue. The first Explosion happened in 711, and was confined to Ashdod. The second took place on Sargon’s death in 705, and was universal. Till Sennacherib marched south on Palestine in 701, there were all over Western Asia hurryings to and fro, consultations and intrigues, embassies and engineerings from Babylon to Meroe in far Ethiopia, and from the tents of Kedar to the cities of the Philistines. For these Jerusalem, the one inviolate capital from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, was the natural centre. And the one far-seeing, steady-hearted man in Jerusalem was Isaiah. We have already seen that there was enough within the city to occupy Isaiah’s attention, especially from 705 onward; but for Isaiah the walls of Jerusalem, dear as they were and thronged with duty, neither limited his sympathies nor marked the scope of the gospel he had to preach. Jerusalem is simply his watchtower. His field-and this is the peculiar glory of the prophet’s later life-his field is the world. How well fitted Jerusalem then was to be the world’s watchtower, the traveller may see to this day. The city lies upon the great central ridge of Palestine, at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. If you ascend the hill behind the city, you stand upon one of the great view-points of the earth. It is a forepost of Asia. To the east rise the red hills of Moab and the uplands of Gilead and Bashan, on to which wandering tribes of the Arabian deserts beyond still push their foremost camps. Just beyond the horizon lie the immemorial paths from Northern Syria into Arabia. Within a few hours’ walk along the same central ridge, and still within the territory of Judah, you may see to the north, over a wilderness of blue hills, Hermon’s snowy crest; you know that Damascus is lying just beyond, and that through it and round the base of Hermon swings one of the longest of the old world’s highways-the main caravan road from the Euphrates to the Nile. Stand at gaze for a little, while down that road there sweep into your mind thoughts of the great empire whose troops and commerce it used to carry. Then, bearing these thoughts with you, follow the line of the road across the hills to the western coastland, and so out upon the great Egyptian desert, where you may wait till it has brought you imagination of the southern empire to which it travels. Then, lifting your eyes a little further, let them sweep back again from south to north, and you have the whole of the west, the new world, open to you, across the fringe of yellow haze that marks the sands of the Mediterranean. It is even now one of the most comprehensive prospects in the world. But in Isaiah’s day, when the world was smaller, the high places of Judah either revealed or suggested the whole of it. But Isaiah was more than a spectator of this vast theatre. He was an actor upon it. The court of Judah, of which during Hezekiah’s reign he was the most prominent member, stood in more or less close connection with the courts of all the kingdoms of Western Asia; and in those days, when the nations were busy with intrigue against their common enemy, this little highland town and fortress became a gathering place of peoples. From Babylon, from far-off Ethiopia, from Edom, from Philistia, and no doubt from many other places also, embassies came to King Hezekiah, or to inquire of his prophet. The appearance of some of them lives for us still in Isaiah’s descriptions: "tall and shiny" figures of Ethiopians { Isaiah 18:2 }, with whom we are able to identify the lithe, silky-skinned, shining-black bodies of the present tribes of the Upper Nile. Now the prophet must have talked much with these strangers, for he displays a knowledge of their several countries and ways of life that is full and accurate. The agricultural conditions of Egypt; her social ranks and her industries (chapter 19); the harbours and markets of Tyre (chapter 23); the caravans of the Arab nomads, as in times of war they shun the open desert and seek the thickets { Isaiah 21:14 } -Isaiah paints these for us with a vivid realism. We see how this statesman of the least of States, this prophet of a religion which was confessed over only a few square miles, was aware of the wide world, and how he loved the life that filled it. They are no mere geographical terms with which Isaiah thickly studs these prophecies. He looks out upon and paints for us, lands and cities surging with men-their trades, their castes, their religions, their besetting tempers and sins, their social structures and national policies, all quick and bending to the breeze and the shadow of the coming storm from the north. We have said that in nothing is the legal power of our prophet’s style so manifest as in the vast horizons, which, by the use of a few words, he calls up before us. Some of the finest of these revelations are made in this part of his book, so obscure and unknown to most. Who can ever forget those descriptions-of Ethiopia in the eighteenth chapter?-"Ah! the land of the rustling of wings, which borders on the rivers of Cush, which sendeth heralds on the sea, and in vessels of reed on the face of the waters! Travel, fleet messengers, to a people lithe and shining, to a nation feared from ever it began to be, a people strong, strong and trampling, whose land the rivers divide"; or of Tyre in chapter 23?-"And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations