Introduction

¹The Lives of the Prophets (C. C. Torrey, trans., Philadelphia: Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, 1946), p. 34.

²R. H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Harper and Bros., 1941), p. 422.

³S. R. Driver, Isaiah, His Life and Times (“Men of the Bible” series) (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., n.d.), Chap. IX.

⁴The great Hebrew term for God, YAHWEH, Moffatt translates, “The Eternal.” W. F. Albright looks upon it as part of a formula meaning, “He who causes to be what comes into existence” (From, the Stone Age of Christianity [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1940], pp. 197-98). See the explanation of this term in BBC, EL 110, fn. 1.

⁵He who leads men in creative Christian worship will profit by a careful study of these four stages as suggested in Isaiah 6. A valuable study of “Creative Worship” is to be found in chapters VII—IX of E. S. Brightman's Religious Values (New York: Abingdon Press, 1925), pp. 173-237.

⁶For discussions of the problem of how many Isaiahs, and a history of the critical attacks upon the unity of the book, consult A. B. Davidson, Old Testament Prophecy (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1904); Geo. L. Robinson, “Isaiah,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, edited by James Orr (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Co., 1915), pp. 1504-5; and Carl W. E. Naegelsbach's introduction to his commentary on Isaiah in the Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, edited by John Peter Lange (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, n.d.). A modern writer who seeks to justify the threefold authorship of the book is R. H. Pfeiffer, op. cit. The drawing of a bold, black line between chapters 39 and 40 in the Moffatt Bible seems purely arbitrary. To this writer the case presented for the unity of Isaiah by Oswald T. Allis seems convincing. Cf. The Unity of Isaiah (Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed Pub. Co., 1950).

I. Introductory Prophecies, 1:1—6:13

¹The word “me” appears in the Septuagint (LXX), the Vulgate, and the other ancient versions.

²Today in Palestine the tourist may see these temporary shacks, made from a few poles and palm branches, standing in the midst of the cucumber and melon patches to provide shade and temporary lodging for the pickers. But after the fruit season they stand beneath the burning sun in deserted silence.

³Tow is that part of the flax which remains after the linen substance has been stripped from it. It is most combustible.

⁴The Hebrew term here may mean “to see or behold,” but it is especially appropriate in speaking of those things which are presented to the minds of the prophets (Gesenius), and hence it suggests “to look upon with the mind, to contemplate.” Psychologically, Isaiah seems to be both auditory and visionary—he both sees and hears the word of the Lord (cf. 6:8).

⁵The problem of who quotes whom here cannot be definitely settled. Some scholars think both men are quoting an older unknown prophet.

⁶Here Isaiah makes a play on the plural of the word for idols, which in Hebrew is elilim (vain, false gods), in contrast with the plural for gods, which in Hebrew is elim.

⁷A Phoenician colony located near the Strait of Gibraltar.

⁸Perhaps the list of these items in John B. Phillips, Four Prophets (N.Y.: Macmillan Co., 1963), p. 68, is as precise as any. Some of the Hebrew terms are now obscure.

⁹“Isaiah,” Ellicott's Commentary on the Whole Bible, ed. Charles John Ellicott (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, n.d.), ad loc.

¹⁰A wine vat was made of stone on two levels. The upper and larger vat was shallower and in it the grapes were thrown and trodden (cf. Isa. 63:3). The lower one was smaller and deeper. Into it the grape juice would flow by a channel from the upper vat. From thence it was dipped up and poured into the goatskin bottles (such as are still used for water today in some parts of Palestine) for carrying and preservation.

¹¹The Assyrian inscriptions give Sennacherib's boast of having carried off 200,150 captives in his first attack against Judah.

¹²“This is not the first … of Isaiah's prophecies, but his inauguration to a higher degree of the prophetic office: verse 9, etc., implies the tone of one who had already experienced of the people's obstinacy” (Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, David Brown, Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Whole Bible [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, n.d.], ad loc. Plumptre, Naegelsbach, and Delitzsch agree with this, and George L. Robinson suggests it. The opening statement in this chapter would also indicate that Uzziah was not yet dead when Isaiah saw this vision, though the recording of it was probably not made until afterward. That Isaiah wrote Uzziah's biography is evident from II Chron. 26:22. On Isaiah's call and sanctification see Introduction.

¹³Seraphims is used nowhere else in the OT. Here it specifies God's attendants arranged about the throne like hovering courtiers. And according to this reference these creatures had six wings and one face, whereas the cherubim in Ezekiel's vision had four faces and four wings (Ezek. 1:6; cf. Gen. 3:24; Exod. 25:18-20; Ezek. 10:14; 20:21).

¹⁴We do not strain exegesis when we see in this trisagion an intimation of the Holy Trinity. Cf. H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology (Kansas City, Mo.: Nazarene Publishing House, 1940), I, 440.

¹⁵The contention being that the tongs and the Uve coal were from the brazen altar of sacrifice, not the golden altar of incense. Its fire had been originally kindled by God himself and it was kept burning continually (cf. Lev. 9:24).

¹⁶Plumptre, op. cit., loc. cit.

¹⁷The Hebrew term here indicates the quality of being “up and down.”

¹⁸The Hebrew term includes sins of weakness as well as wickedness.

¹⁹The Hebrew word, Kaphar, is in the Hebrew Pual (passive) verb form here, which Gesenius notes is perhaps best translated “obliterated” or “deleted” since it is both passive and intensive in form. Hence the KJV translation is valid.

²⁰It is the contention of Delitzsch that the seraphim were the ministrants of the “fire of divine love.” Cf. Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1949 [reprint]), I, 197.

²¹Delitzsch, op. cit., ad loc.

²²Ibid., I, 199.

²³On the doctrine of the remnant, consult John Bright, The Kingdom of God (Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1953), c. 3. Bright observes: “The reader of Isaiah senses at once that denunciation and doom are balanced there by a glorious hope …” (p. 83). Isaiah predicted both the exile and return, as Plumptre states: “From the first hour of Isaiah's call the thought of an exile and a return from exile was the keynote of his teaching, and of that, thought thus given in germ, his whole after-work was but a development, the horizon of his vision expanding and taking in the form of another empire than the Assyrian as the instrument of punishment” (op. cit., Zoc. cit.). As to the holy seed, the NT writers think of this as Jesus, the Author of a new humanity, the final One of the remnant, who comes as the true Son of Man (cf. Gal. 3:16). In Isaiah, the idea of the name of his son, Shear-jashub (7:3; the remnant) constantly reappears (cf. 1:27; 4:2-3; 10:20; 29:17; 30:15; cf. also Rom. 11:5, 26-27).

II. The Book of Immanuel, 7:1—12:6

¹In India and Burma many such places are still in use.

²Pekah is so called to emphasize his insignificance (II Kings 15:25). Then, as today, the phrase son of may express contempt and even a curse. Cf. “sons of Belial.” Our taxi driver in Cairo expressed his scorn for the man who pushed his cart across the street in front of us, calling him in Arabic the “son of a donkey.” Therefore the phrase son of Tabeal (6) indicates the low origin of the man in spite of the fact that in Aramaic Tabe-El means “God is Good.”

³True to Isaiah's prophecy, at the end of sixty-five years Ashurbanipal had carried off the last remnant of the inhabitants of Samaria and peopled it with an alien race.

⁴George Adam Smith suggests: “If you will not have faith, you cannot have staith” (“The Book of Isaiah,” The Expositor's Bible, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll [Hartford, Conn.: The S. S. Scranton Co., 1903]), ad loc.

⁵“Conservative Christian thought on the proper translation of the Hebrew term here moves between two poles. One is the recognition that the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT made some one hundred fifty years before Christ) understood the meaning to be ‘virgin,’ and Matthew so applied it in reference to the birth of Jesus (Matt. 1:22-23). The other is the necessity of protecting the historical fulfillment of Isa. 7:1-20 in Isaiah's time, and the uniqueness of the virgin birth of Jesus. There was a child born in Isaiah's time, and that child was not virgin-bom as was our Lord.

“It is possible to see in Isaiah's use of the term almah (a young woman of marriageable age) in 7:14 an evidence of divine wisdom, since the Hebrew language also has a word (bethulah) which means only virgin. The Bible affirms only one Virgin Birth, not two, as would be the case if we both accept the historical accuracy of Isaiah 7 and at the same time insist that almah here must be translated ‘virgin.’

“Therefore there is in Isaiah's prophecy the dual reference that conservative Bible scholars find in many OT Messianic prophecies. The words of the prophet had a clear reference to events then about to happen. At the same time those words had an added meaning for the future that has been seen more clearly in the light of NT revelation” (W. T. PURKISEH).

The reader will find many facets of the whole problem explored in the treatment by Dr. Naegelsbach, op. cit.; Professor George Rawlinson in “Isaiah” (Exposition and Homiletics), The Pulpit Commentary, ed. H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell (Chicago: Wilcox and Follett, n.d.); E. H. Plumptre, op. cit.; two chapters in Edward J. Young, Studies in Isaiah (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1954), pp. 143-98; and on the meanings of almah, bethulah, and Immanuel by R. B. Y. Scott “Isaiah 1—39” (Exegesis), and by G. G. D. Kilpatrick, “Isaiah 1—39” (Exposition), The Interpreter's Bible, ed. George A. Buttrick, et al. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1956).

⁶Isaiah therefore has a word for modern rulers: “If you will not affirm a faith in Almighty God, God will not confirm your little kingdoms in their hoped-for security.”

⁷Clabbered milk is delightfully satisfying in times of high temperature in arid countries. It is heartily relished by workers in the hot summer as they reap the harvests. Honey is abundant in Palestine and is one of nature's most nourishing and wholesome foods. With no refrigeration, and in times of devastation of the land and crops by foreign invaders, foods movable and spontaneously produced by nature would be the only abundant articles for eating.

Chemically, the modem medical formulae prescribed for the nurture of infants are not too much different from this combination named by Isaiah. “Curds and honey” are chief items in the diet of Bedouin Arabs yet today.

⁸The same thing happened to Isaiah as to Amos and Jeremiah. “Whenever the prophets were at all zealous in their opposition to the appeal for foreign aid, they were accused and branded as standing in the service of the enemy, and conspiring for the overthrow of the king” (Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 236).

⁹For a fine poetic translation, see George Buchanan Gray, “A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Isaiah,” International Critical Commentary (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912), pp. 164-65.

¹⁰Handel has done Bible readers a disservice by separating the two so forcefully in his oratorio, The Messiah. Of course he was following Martin Luther's German translation.

¹¹The Hebrew term ad (meaning “until, even to, up to, as far as, to the point that”), here translated everlasting, has a spatial as well as a temporal significance. Coming from adah (to pass over, to go on), its primary meaning is passing, or progress in space, and then secondarily, duration of time. Hence Abi ad means not only “perpetual Father” but also “ubiquitous Father.” He is not only a Father forever but an ever-present Father, existing everywhere at one and the same time and for all time. Cf. Gesenius; and Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew Lexicons.

¹²IB, V, 233.

¹³One sees them in the villages of the fellahin along the Nile

III. Oracles Against Foreign Nations, 13:1—23:18

¹The Hebrew is shodmish-Shaddai. Shaddai comes from the verb root shadad, “to destroy”; hence the phrase may be translated, “destruction from the destroyer.”

²Astronomical disturbances in the day of the Lord (Yom Yahweh) are natural symbols of a time of terror (Joel 2:31; 3:15; Matt. 24:29; Luke 21:25).

³Bedouins shrink in superstitious horror from camping on sites of ruins. According to Herodotus, Babylon was the most famous and the strongest of all the cities of Assyria. It was fabulously adorned. Modern archaeologists have found it a hideous waste. The vast city became a desolated ruins.

⁴The Hebrew for the dead (9) is Rephaim, ‘shades, or giant spectres.”

⁵This Latin term means “light bringing” and indicates the “morning star,” Venus. The KJV son of the morning translates better “morning star.”

⁶IB suggests 720 B.C. (ad loc).

⁷There is a remarkably frequent recurrence of the words, “I burnt” (ashrup), in the Assyrian inscriptions.

⁸Moab means “from father” and suggests the descent of the Moabites from the elder daughter of Lot, who gave this name to her son. Cf. Gen. 19:30-37.

⁹The prophet is painfully affected by what he sees. All that he predicts evokes his deepest sympathy as he identifies in true empathy with the unfortunate nation whose woe and desolation he predicts. Jeremiah includes this oracle almost in its entirety in his own oracle on Moab. Cf. Jeremiah 48.

¹⁰For an understanding of these two chapters see Num. 21:26-30; II Kings 3; Isa. 25:10-12; Jeremiah 48; Ezek. 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3; Zeph. 2:8-11. The comments of Delitzsch, op. cit., and John Skinner, The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges” (Cambridge: University Press, 1915), are superior. For the geographical situation consult map 2. See also Denis Baly, The Geography of the Bible (New York: Harper and Brothers, n.d.), Chap. XIX. The articles on “Moab,” “Moabite,” and “Moabite Stone,” in Merrill T. Unger, Unger's Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1957), and in the ISBE should be noted. See also comments on Jeremiah 48 in this volume.

¹¹Ar (1) is the ancient Hebrew term for “City,” and Kir is the ancient name for the modern El Kerak. Dibon, Medeba, Nebo (2), and Horonaim (5) are all mentioned in the inscription on the Moabite stone, which testifies to their antiquity.

¹²Nebo was the mountain with the temple of Chemosh, the central sanctuary of Moab, in honor of her chief deity.

¹³The Moabites were akin to the Hebrews both racially and linguistically.

¹⁴The KJV says: brook of the willows (7). But these willows are really oleanders. Cf. Denis Baly, op. cit., p. 217. The Zered served as a boundary line between Moab and Edom. It is the southernmost of the four main trans-Jordan rivers which flow westward into the rift valley. The Yarmuk and the Jabbok flow into the Jordan River; the Arnon and the Zered make their rapid descent into the Dead Sea itself.

¹⁵Petra is the Rose-Red fortress of the biblical Edomites. Cf. the National Geographic Magazine, CVIII, No. 6, 853-70. It is one of the favorite side trips from Jerusalem in modern Jordanian tourism.

¹⁶George Adam Smith refers to this oracle as “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 B.C.” (op. cit., ad loc).

¹⁷Cf. Deut. 2:36; 3:12 for Aroer in the land of Reuben, which later became the possession of Moab (Jer. 48:19); and Num. 32:34; Josh. 13:25; II Sam. 24:5 for a city with the same name in Gad, near Rabbah of Ammon. The first was Amoritish and the other Ammonitish.

¹⁸Probably “the valley of the giants” (terrible ones) on the border between Benjamin and Judah (Josh. 15:8). Here David repeatedly defeated the Philistines (II Sam. 5:18, 22; 23:13; I Chron. 11:15; 14:9). Perhaps the modern el-Bika', which slopes away to the southwest from the rim of the Valley of Hinnom, is referred to here.

¹⁹In the olive harvest the trees are beaten with long sticks (Deut. 24: 20). The women and the older girls then gather up the fruit from the ground. The youngsters often climb into the branches to reach the highest fruit, but rarely can one beat every olive from its tree.

²⁰These were probably gardens of the Adonis cult in which pots filled with earth were planted with flowers, small grain, and vegetables, and tended for rapid growth under the sun's heat. These were then regarded as manifestations of the reproductive powers of Adonis, the god of fertility. A prominent and voluptuous part was taken in these rites by women; hence Isaiah addresses Israel here in the second person feminine. The prophet is sure that such devotion to foreign gods will leave the nation helpless in the day of calamity.

²¹Let the preacher consult Alexander Maclaren's sermon on “A Godless Life,” in his Expositions of Holy Scripture (New York: George H. Doran Co., n.d.), based on verses 10-11 of this passage.

²²Even today in Jordan and Syria, high, flat prominences are used as threshing floors. There the chaff is winnowed from the wheat on these windy places.

²³The rolling thing is not a tumbleweed in a whirlwind, but those spinning “dust-devils” (as the Arabs call them), little twisters that precede the storm in swift succession. Cf. Denis Baly, op. cit., p. 65.

²⁴It has been variously translated as “land of the rustling wings” (ASV), “land of the whirring wings” (Gray in ICC), “land of buzzing insects” (Phillips). The idea of “buzzing insects” is based on the fact that Ethiopia is one home of the dreaded tsetse fly, and the fact that “the fly … of Egypt” is spoken of in 7:18. But George Adam Smith's translation seems most plausible.

²⁵See the National Geographic map, “The Nile Valley: Land of the Pharaohs,” Atlas plate number 58, May, 1965, for much valuable information.

²⁶Our English word “paper” is from “papyrus,” whose broad, reedlike leaves were used for writing material. A boat frame covered with these and then daubbed with pitch would be a light canoe and very maneuverable.

²⁷People of the Near East are shorter than the average European or American.

²⁸A recent visitor observed and photographed the marching army of a Zulu chieftain in Swaziland. Each warrior was over six feet tall, and they came in ranks lined one after another to the beating of Zulu drums, stamping fiercely as they marched in step, until the very earth shook as though they were a passing freight train. Delitzsch thus translates “a people of treading down,” i.e., stomping the earth as they march.

²⁹“Mutterers,” responding with a low, thin voice, like those that “peep” in 8:19, even using some peculiar form of ventriloquism.

³⁰Cf. Skinner and Delitzsch.

³¹Alfred Lilienthal, a Jew, argues for the spiritual mission of Israel today, in his article, “Israel's Flag Is Not Mine,” Reader's Digest, 55:329 (Sept., 1949), pp. 49-54. He says: “Judaism, I have felt, was a religious faith which knew no national boundaries, to which a loyal citizen of any country could adhere.”

³²The Greek is polis asedek; 'ir haccedek must have been the Hebrew that was being translated. Some have suggested “City of the Sun,” which they identify with Heliopolis, the city of the sun-god Ra, situated northeast of Memphis. Others suggest Leontopolis, “the City of the Lion,” since there was in later years a Jewish temple there built by the Jewish refugee Onias, who appealed to this very prophecy as sufficient warrant for its being built there (cf. Josephus Antiquities xiii. 3. 1 f., and Jewish Wars, vii. 10. 2. Cf. also the Sibyllene Oracles v. 488-510). Driver, however, suggests: “Isaiah says, that it will be no more 'ir ha-cheres, the city of the sun, but 'ir ha-heres, the city of destruction, the city in which the sun-worship has been destroyed” (op. cit., p. 94).

³³This can hardly be a reference to the great pyramid of Cheops at Giza, as the British Israelites would contend. Cf. S. R. Driver, op. cit., p. 94.

³⁴Egypt was a Christian country from the third to the seventh centuries A.D.

³⁵Kilpatrick is absolutely right: “The alternative is before us, a godless civilization moving to its own doom and damnation, or a race which has found its salvation and its peace in a common faith and obedience to Almighty God.” For “peace is not basically a matter of treaties but of a new spirit in human relationships” (IB, V, 283).

³⁶Cf. Driver, Naegelsbach, and Plumptre.

³⁷The shields were greased on the side toward the enemy to more effectively ward off his blows with spear or sword.

³⁸In place of chariot (9) read “troop” or “cavalcade.” Both asses and camels were captured in large numbers when Sennacherib defeated Merodach-baladan. His inscription says 11,173 asses and 5,230 camels.

³⁹Gesenius tells us that the basic idea of the Hebrew term is to “prick up the ears” and to “listen sharply.” The Hebrew idiom says: “Listening, he listened intently.”

⁴⁰The destruction of the idols usually accompanied the overthrow of any state of which they were deemed the patrons and the protectors.

⁴¹This message of doom finds its echo in Rev. 14:8; 18:2, where Babylon is typical of all antichristian influences.

⁴²Dumah is the modern site of ej-Jauf at the southeast end of the Wadi Sirhan, located on a line due east from Ezion-geber and Jebel Ramm. Consult the Rand McNally Bible Atlas, Map XI, p. 245.

⁴³The Hebrew for watchman does not specify a “lookout” but rather a “guardian.” Luther's German is excellent here, and closer to the Hebrew than is the KJV.

⁴⁴Cf. David S. Boyer, “Petra, Rose-Red Citadel of Biblical Edom,” National Geographic Magazine, CVIII, No. 6 (Dec, 1955), 853-70. For an admirable sketch of the history and archaeology of the Edomites see Nelson Glueck, “The Civilization of the Edomites,” Biblical Archaeologist, X, No. 4 (Dec. 1947), 77-84. For a discussion of the degrading practices of their religion see Geo. L. Robinson, The Sarcophagus of an Ancient Civilization; Petra, Edom, and the Edomites (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1930).

⁴⁵“Isaiah,” The Century Bible (Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1905), ad loc.

⁴⁶The land of Dedan lies along the eastern shore of the Red Sea (see map 1) halfway between Petra and Mecca, and centered around el 'Ela.

⁴⁷Tema (sometimes spelled Teima) is north and east of Dedan (el-'Ela) about half the distance to Dumah (ej-Jauf). The people were outstanding in their practice of Arab hospitality. One of their own poets has written: “No fire of ours was ever extinguished at night without a guest, and of our guests never did one disparage us.” Cf. Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, ed. Robert Frew (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1950), ad loc.

⁴⁸In 1611, at the time of the KJV translation, the word “prevent” meant “to go out to welcome.”

⁴⁹Kedar was probably the area north of the Wadi Sirhan, due east of the Dead Sea and almost at the center of the north end of the Arabian peninsula. Kedar was a son of Ishmael (Gen. 25:13), as were also Dumah and Tema (Gen. 25:14-15).

⁵⁰The waters of the Gihon spring were conveyed to the Pool of Siloam by a subterranean tunnel (II Kings 20:20; II Chron. 32:30). Cf. Unger's Bible Dictionary, article “Hezekiah (The Siloam Inscription),” pp. 480-81.

⁵¹George Adam Smith, op. cit., ad loc.

⁵²Ibid., p. 319. By the rolling stone Smith understands Shebna, the foreigner, who was eventually tossed into foreign captivity.

⁵³Sargon records the fact that he plundered the district of Samaria, the house of Omri, and reigned from Yatnan (Cyprus), “which is in the midst of the sea of the setting sun,” from Phoenicia and Syria to remote cities of Media. Sennacherib boasts of the fact that Luti, king of Zidon, fled to Yatnan (Cyprus), “which is in the midst of the sea.”

⁵⁴One of the best interpretations of this difficult chapter is by George Adam Smith, op. cit. See also Skinner, op. cit.; Plumptre, op. cit.; and Rawlinson, op. cit.; the articles on Tyre in Unger's Bible Dictionary; and A. S. Kapelrund, “Tyre,” The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, ed. George A. Buttrick (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962), IV, 721-23; and comments on Ezekiel 27—29 in this volume.

⁵⁵S. R. Driver, op. cit., p. 103.

⁵⁶Antiquities viii. 3.1.

⁵⁷In addition to the shipping of wheat from Egypt, these Phoenician vessels also carried the linen products of Egypt's flax industry (Ezek. 27:7). The Egyptians had no timber for building large ships. Moreover, they hated the sea, and hence were willing for the Phoenicians to provide the ships to carry their products to the various Mediterranean ports.

⁵⁸ii. 44.

⁵⁹The word is Canaanite, connoting “merchant” or “trader.”

⁶⁰Op. cit., ix. 14. 2.

⁶¹The word means “defiled, or raped.”

⁶²Note The Berkeley Version, Moffatt's translation, and that of J. B. Phillips.

⁶³This prophecy seems now to be fulfilled in the case of Beirut, the modern successor to Tyre. Yet who knows whether Tyre itself may not become a center of commerce, even though for now Haifa and Beirut serve its ancient functions?

⁶⁴George Rawlinson, op. cit., p. 374.

IV. World Judgment and Israel's Redemption, 24:1—27:13

¹Cf. George L. Robinson, The Book of Isaiah (New York: Y.M.CA. Press, 1910), pp. 99-106.

²One of the best discussions of this chapter is by George Adam Smith, op. cit., c. XXVIII, “The Effect of Sin on Our Material Circumstance.”

³“With Isaiah ‘hinneh’ (behold) always refers to something future” (Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 425).

⁴G. A. Smith, op. cit., p. 417.

⁵Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 426, ⁶Cf. ERV, ASV, RSV, and others.

⁶Cf. ERV, ASV, RSV. and others.

⁷Cf. Gray and Skinner.

⁸Cf. Gen. 4:10; Num. 35:33; Deut. 21:1-9; Job 16:18; Ps. 106:38; Jer. 3:9.

⁹Op. cit., p. 427.

¹⁰“The sin of the world lies in the violation of these fundamental dictates of morality, especially the law against murder, which is the principal stipulation of the Noahic Covenant (Gen. 9:5-6)”—Skinner, op. cit., pp. 181-82.

¹¹Delitzsch sees here “the genuine mark of Isaiah … in the description of the vanishing away of men down to a small remnant.” Skinner notes that “desolating and practiced wars have reduced the population of all countries; but the process of extermination is not yet at an end.” Cf. their commentaries, ad loc.

¹²But Delitzsch suggests: “All the sources of joy and gladness are destroyed … the taste of the men themselves turns it to bitterness.”

¹³The Hebrew term tohu, in the phrase kiryath tohu, is the same as in Gen. 1:2, where the primeval earth was tohu wabochu, “without form, and void.”

¹⁴This writer recalls the rioting, burning, looting, and even shooting which characterized the Watts riot in Los Angeles in August, 1965, where even the most efficient police force was helpless to bring things under control.

¹⁵“Men weep in the fields because there is no vintage” (Plumptre, op. cit., ad loc.). The Hebrew bears this meaning.

¹⁶Rawlinson, op. cit., ad loc.

¹⁷For Isaiah's doctrine of the remnant see Introduction.

¹⁸“Yahweh in its literal grammatical signification, puts emphasis upon the absolute, underived, and therefore unlimited, unconditional, unchangeable, eternal being of God” (Alexander Maclaren, op. cit., p. 117).

¹⁹Op. cit., p. 385. Let the reader consult Jesus' parable of the tares, “gather out the tares first… then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Neither Jesus nor Isaiah taught a “suppressionist millennium.” The wicked will be eradicated from the earth first, and then shall the righteous possess it as their own. See Matt. 13:30, 43. Dr. H. Orton Wiley used to emphasize this in his classes.

²⁰This is a good English attempt to preserve Isaiah's play on the terms, pachad, pachoth, and pach, in the Hebrew. Cf. Jer. 48:43 ff.; Amos 5:19.

²¹Rawlinson, op. cit., X, 385.

²²Plumptre, op. cit., ad. loc.

²³“The earth is … broken … shattered … shaken” (Berk.). “The earth breaks asunder … cracks asunder … shakes asunder” (Smith-Goodspeed).

²⁴Op. cit., ad. loc.

²⁵Cf. Delitzsch, Moffatt, Plumptre.

²⁶Op. cit., ad loc.

²⁷Quoted by Delitzsch, op. cit., ad. loc.

²⁸Cf. Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon on the term Paqad.

²⁹Schriftbeweis, i, 320-21.

³⁰Alexander Maclaren's sermon on “The Song of Two Cities,” based on Isa. 26:1-10, is worthy of notice. Cf. op. cit. The same may be said for his sermons “Our Strong City” (on 26:12) and “The Inhabitant of the Rock” (26:3-4).

³¹The name for God in v. 4 is Yah Yahweh (only here and at 12:2 in the OT); it reads in the Septuagint, “God, the great, the Eternal.” It is a superlative expression for the Absolute Deity, “the Rock of Ages,” as the added Hebrew phrase should be translated. God is a certain Refuge for all eternity, inasmuch as He is the dynamic and eternal Cause of all being.

³²Rephaim, sometimes translated “shades,” is technical Hebrew for the inhabitants of the underworld.

³³George Adam Smith, op. cit., p. 451. Italics are Smith's.

³⁴The Greek of the Septuagint for this term is “holy.” Whitehouse, op. cit., ad loc, suggests “ruthless” as a translation of the Hebrew.

³⁵Delitzsch violently disagrees with this and says: “I regard every exposition of verse 12 which supposes it to refer to the return of the captives as altogether false. The Euphrates and the brook of Egypt, i.e., the Wady el-Arish, were the north-eastern and south-western boundaries of the land of Israel, according to the original promise (Gen. 15:18; I Kings 8:65), and it is not stated that Jehovah will beat on the outside of the boundaries, but within them” (op. cit., p. 460). The Wady el-Arish is fifty miles southwest of Gaza.

V. Six Woes of Warning, 28:1—33:24

¹Cf. Delitzsch, op. cit., II, 1.

²The early fig is a special delicacy (Hos. 9:10; Mic. 7:1) for any passerby. Figs usually ripen in early August. If then one sees a ripe fig in June, his eye is attracted by it and it scarcely touches his hand before he has eaten it. Isaiah predicts that luxurious Samaria will vanish like such a dainty morsel.

³V. 10 is all monosyllables in the Hebrew.

⁴The Assyrian language is composed mainly of monosyllables and three fundamental vowels.

⁵Rawlinson, op. cit., ad loc.

⁶The Greek of the Septuagint reads, Ouai polis Ariel. I am taking the position that Isaiah had also the Hehrew ' ir-el in mind as he used the term ' Ariel. Jerusalem was for the prophet at once the “lion of God,” “the city of God,” and “the altar-hearth of God.” Ariel is clearly a mystic name for Jerusalem. It is generally explained as equivalent to ' Ari-El, “lion of God.” But Delitzsch suggests that the meaning should be “hearth of God” or “altar of God” as in Ezek. 43:15-16.

⁷Adam Clarke is no doubt correct in saying that “the first Ari-el [sic] here seems to mean Jerusalem, which should be distressed by the Assyrians; the second Ari-el seems to mean the altar of burnt offerings” (A Commentary and Critical Notes: The Old Testament [New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, n.d.], ad. loc).

⁸The Prophecies of Isaiah (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1889), p. 164.

⁹“Go on year after year, keep your solemn feasts; yet know that God will punish you for your hypocritical worship, consisting of mere form destitute of true piety! Probably delivered at the time of some great feast, when they were thus employed.”—Adam Clarke, ad loc.

“Isaiah's second woe is pronounced upon Ariel, the altar-hearth of God, i.e., Jerusalem, the sacrificial center of Israel's worship. David had first inaugurated the true worship of Jehovah in Zion. But now Zion's worship had become so formal and heartless Jehovah determines within another full year to allow Jerusalem to be besieged and fall (vs. 1-4).” G. L. Robinson, op. cit., p. 110.

¹⁰Adam Clarke, op. cit., ad loc.

¹¹Isaiah “makes it abundantly clear … that the deliverance will be unexpected and unexplainable by the natural circumstances of the Jews themselves, that it will be evident as the immediate deed of God” (George Adam Smith, op. cit., p. 215).

¹²Plumptre, op. cit., ad loc.

¹³Cf Delitzsch and Von Orelli. Skinner observes: “This proud boastful monster—its proper name is ‘Inaction’” (op. cit., ad loc.).

¹⁴The Hebrew term shubah occurs only here in the OT. According to Gesenius it indicates not only “returning” but “conversion.” The Greek of the Septuagint is apostrapheis, meaning “to turn oneself away.” Hence Von Orelli suggests that the Greek term metanoia would have been a better translation from the Hebrew, since it is the term for repentance.

¹⁵Op. cit., p. 172.

¹⁶Op. cit., ad loc.

¹⁷B'lil khamitz is probably a kind of mash of barley, oats, and vetches, made from savory with salt and sour vegetables, and having the chaff removed from the grain by being winnowed with the shovel.

¹⁸Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 177.

¹⁹Some translators say “leading bridle,” others “halter,” others “lasso.” This last, if applied to wild horses, is the most appropriate.

²⁰Thus we are made to understand some of the connotation of the term Gehenna, as Jesus used it.

²¹Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 178.

²²Ibid.

²³Interpreters have taken all three translations of the Hebrew preposition.

²⁴Delitzsch observes: “The power of Assyria is broken forever; even its young men are forthwith subjected to tribute or slavery” (op. cit., ad loc.).

²⁵Op. cit., p. 179.

²⁶The KJV reads, And a man shall be as an hiding place, as does also the ASV. Many commentators see here a specific reference to the ONE MAN, Christ Jesus, whom they see as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. Cf., for example, P. F. Bresee's sermon, “Jesus, Our Sheltering Rock,” Sermons on Isaiah (Kansas City, Mo.: Nazarene Publishing House, n.d.), pp. 111-19. The majority of the more recent translations and commentators read “each man.” In this case Isaiah is picturing a future Messianic commonwealth in which all the men of government will be men of ideal character and true nobles in their administration of the affairs of state.

²⁷The vile person shall no more be called liberal is another of Isaiah's plays on words; the nabal shall no more be called nadib.

The churl is kilai in Hebrew. Adam Clarke defines this as “the avaricious man; he who starves himself amidst his plenty, and will not take the necessaries of life for fear of lessening his stock.” Such a person gives up interest in both worlds, starved in this one, and damned in the next” (op. cit.).

The word for bountiful is shoa, which Clarke defines as “he who is abundantly rich; who rejoices in his plenty, and deals out to the distressed with a liberal hand” (ibid.)

Liberal is translated “noble” in the ASV and RSV. The Greek of the Septuagint is kalokagathos, meaning “beautiful and good.”

The vile person will speak villany (6) is better translated, “The fool will still utter folly.” Cf. ASV. Such a person is guilty of heresy, a hollow profession, and even scoffing at sacred things, for he will utter error against the Lord.

²⁸J. A. Alexander, Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1953 [reprint], 2 vols, in 1), II, 2.

²⁹Adam Clarke is not sure that the passage is addressed to actual women. The Targums read “ye provinces” and “ye cities.” He thinks therefore that verses 9-14 deal with the desolation of Judea.

³⁰The Hebrew is ephel and no doubt indicates the ground swell at the southern extremity of the eastern hill (Mount Moriah) of Jerusalem. Beneath this the tourist to Jerusalem now sees the huge excavations known as “Solomon's stables,” where a large number of horses could be housed.

³¹Adam Clarke, op. cit., ad loc.

³²Op. cit., pp. 115-16.

VI. Retrospect and Prospect: Indignation and Salvation, 34:1—35:10

¹C. C. Torrey insists that these chapters are inseparable, like two sides of a coin, expressing the twin themes of judgment on God's enemies and blessedness for the righteous. Cf. The Second Isaiah (New York: Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1928).

²Utterly destroyed (cherem) is a technical word for that which has been irrevocably devoted to Deity and must therefore be destroyed. Cf. Josh. 6:18; 7:12.

³Unicorns in the KJV margin is rhinoceros. Other commentators have suggested everything from “wild bulls” to “antelope.”

⁴Cf. Baly, op. cit., pp. 239-51.

⁵As c. 13 singled out Babylon for special doom, so c. 34 singles out Edom. Edom stands as a symbol of the profane and godless oppressor of God's people. In the quarrel of Zion with the nations of the world, Edom has persistently taken the side of Israel's enemies. His profane and earthly nature renders him incapable of understanding his brother's spiritual claims. Filled with envy and malice, he is likewise glad to assist in disappointing such claims. (Cf. G. A. Smith, op. cit., pp. 438-39).

⁶The screech owl (14) is translated “night monster” in the margin of the KJV. The idea of either ghosts or demons is out of place in a list of wild and solitary birds and animals. It must refer to some sort of “nocturnal bird,” or perhaps the vampire bat with its screeching and built-in radar system. The satyr of 14 is translated “shaggy monster” by J. A. Alexander. Its Hebrew term is sa'ir, “he-goat,” so why try to make a demon out of it, as many of the commentators are wont to do? We ought not to read Greek and Roman mythologies back into Isaiah, when “a wild goat” will suffice. Wild beasts of the desert … meet with the wild beasts of the island. Isaiah makes a play on the terms Ziim and Ijim. Perhaps they are best translated “desert wolves and jackals” (C. von Orelli). For vultures in 15, RSV has “kites.” On the flora and fauna of Palestine, cf. Denis Baly, op. cit., Chap. VII, or Unger's Bible Dictionary, article “Animal Kingdom.”

⁷Cf. Naegelsbach, op. cit., pp. 369-70.

⁸Naegelsbach, ad loc.

⁹The pronoun is emphatic in the Hebrew.

¹⁰“Mirage” appears in the ASV margin. The Hebrew is sharab and occurs only again in 49:10. It has been translated “burning sand” (RSV), “scorching sand” (Berk.), “the mirage” (Von Orelli and Delitzsch).

¹¹Op. cit., p. 371.

¹²E. E. Hewitt, “Jesus Has Lifted the Load.”

¹³Op. cit., p. 192.

VII. Historical Interlude: Isaiah and Hezekiah, 36:1—39:8

¹Cf. BBC, II, 476-89.

²Cf. Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 78.

³Cf. Von Orelli, and others.

⁴Manasseh was only twelve years old when his father died.

⁵Von Orelli's translation. Note that Shebna has now been replaced by Eliakim and serves only in the secondary office as secretary. Modern terminology would make Eliakim the prime minister, and Shebna the secretary of state.

⁶Plumptre, op. cit., ad. loc.

⁷The Hebrew word is equivalent to the French garcon, “boy” or “waiter.”

⁸The Hebrew is Malek Yahweh, which many OT scholars recognize as referring to a Christophany, or an appearance of Christ.

⁹Shalem, perfect, comes from the adjective shalam, “whole, entire.” C. von Orelli translates it “with undivided heart.” Hezekiah thus testified that there was no double-mindedness about his relationship with God.

¹⁰For the man who died too soon, see I Kings 13.

PART Two: CONSOLATION, CHAPTERS 40—66

¹In each of these three divisions the grand themes of future salvation find expression in a distinctive way. In the first part, the glorious God triumphs over powerless idols. From the Christian viewpoint it is the rule of God the Father and the coming of His kingdom which this part celebrates. In the second part, the seer is absorbed in the suffering of the Holy and Just One, which will bring the salvation of the many, and to himself be the path to glory. In NT language, here is the atoning work of the Son of God, clothed in OT garb. Finally, in the third part, the cleansed, glorified, and blessed Church of the future is depicted as a nation of worshippers of the true God of all peoples. Here is the work of the Holy Spirit.—cf. Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 217.

²“Isaiah 40-66” (Exegesis), IB, V, 384 ff.

³History and Theology in Second Isaiah (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965), p. 30.

⁴A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Chicago: Moody Press, 1964). Cf. his chapters on Isaiah.

⁵Deutro-Isaiah, a Theological Commentary on Isaiah 40 —55 (New York: Abingdon Press, 1965), p. 12.

⁶Op. cit., p. 121.

⁷It is not necessary to suppose that 150 years elapsed between cc. 39 and 40. Sennacherib had stripped Judah bare and had almost captured Jerusalem in 701 B.C.

Postulate a prophet, therefore, who was constantly looking for comfort to the future (1:27-28; 2:2-4; 6:13; 7:16; 8:4; 10:20-23; 11:6-16; 17:14; 18:7; 19:19-25; 26:20; 29:5, 17-24; 30:31; 31:8; 32:16-20; 33:17-24; 35:10; 37:26-29, 33-35; 38:5-6), and cc. 40 ff. find a most satisfactory setting at the close of the eighth century B.C. The problem of prime importance before the prophet's mind would naturally be to explain why Jehovah allowed His own chosen people to be thus humiliated (Geo. L. Robinson, op. cit., p. 131).

⁸The rich symbolism of this name applies to much more than a Persian conqueror, as the commentary where this name appears will seek to show.

⁹“Ennead” refers to the ninefold arrangement within each of these three major sections.

¹⁰Op. cit., p. 124.

¹¹Ibid., pp. 125-26.

¹²Op. cit., p. 210.

¹³Ibid., p. 215.

¹⁴The Bearing of Archaeology on the Old Testament (New York: The American Tract Society, 1941), p. 102.

VIII. The First Ennead: The Incomparable Deity, 40:1—48: 22

¹Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 135.

²George Adam Smith, op. cit., p. 79-80.

³Ibid., p. 81.

⁴The Hebrew is Ruach Yahweh, “breath of the Lord.” The Hebrew term for breath, wind, and spirit is in each case ruach.

⁵Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 138.

⁶The literal Hebrew meaning of Dabar Elohenu.

⁷Op. cit., p. 221.

⁸Op. cit., p. 139.

⁹Op. cit., p. 84.

¹⁰There should be a comma following behold, as is the case in most of the more recent translations.

¹¹Op. cit., p. 140.

¹²The Hebrew luth is from ul, “to suckle, to give milk.” Hence those that are with young are those with lambs at their sides. The sheep are not taken to the heights for the summer pasture until after the lambing season is finished.

¹³A span is the distance between the point of the little finger and the thumbnail when the hand is widened as far as possible. A measure is about one-half of a bushel.

¹⁴Cf. James D. Smart, op. cit., p. 58.

¹⁵Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 224; cf. Moffatt's translation.

¹⁶Cf. George A. F. Knight, op. Cit., p. 39.

¹⁷This name for God is used in Isaiah 1—39 twelve times, and in 40—66 thirteen times, a fact which argues for identity of authorship.

¹⁸Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 228.

¹⁹George Adam Smith, op. cit., p. 99.

²⁰George Rawlinson translates it: “Should even the youths faint and be weary, and should the young men utterly fail, yet they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

²¹Plumptre, op. cit., od. loc.

²²To whom does the prophet have reference? Modern critics almost unanimously decide in favor of Cyrus. Yet such commentators as Torrey, Kissane, Adam Clarke, Calvin, and the Jewish exegetes see a great argument being developed on the basis of Israel's history. Hence the person referred to is Abraham, raised up from the east (Ur of the Chaldees), and from the north (Haran).

²³Cf. Heb. 2:16. Paul used it in three different senses: (1) the seed of Abraham according to the flesh—Jew; (2) heirs of the faith of Abraham; and (3) “the Seed,” which is Christ. Hence the election of Israel in the OT must be understood in the light of the NT idea of the calling and election of the Church. But (1) the visible Church falls short; (2) the invisible Church approximates it; and (3) only the person of Christ fulfills it.

²⁴Op. cit., p. 57.

²⁵Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 231.

²⁶Adam Clarke, op. cit., ad loc.

²⁷Ibid.

²⁸George Adam Smith, op. cit., p. 132.

²⁹Delitzsch sees the Isaianic concept of the Servant beginning with all Israel, decreasing to the remnant, and culminating in the one suffering Mediator; who, as the Second David, calls forth a second Israel made up of the partakers of salvation, who in turn become the second Adam or the new race of the redeemed. This he thinks of as a rising pyramid at whose apex is the Saviour, who becomes the Seed of a transformed, spiritual, and expanding Israel (op. cit., p. 174).

³⁰The Hebrew term for “justice” is Mishpat. Its four main meanings are presented and discussed in a footnote by George Adam Smith, op. cit., p. 229. q.v.: (1) In a general sense it has reference to a legal process (cf. 41:1) which culminates in justice for all concerned. (2) It has reference to a person's cause or rights (40:27; 49:4). (3) It may specify an ordinance instituted by Jehovah for the life and worship of His people (58). (4) In general it has reference also to the sum of the laws given by Jehovah to Israel (51:5; 58:2). It thus runs parallel to righteousness, truth, and uprightness. Let the Hebrew student also consult the term in Gesenius' Lexicon.

³¹Delitzsch declares: “An unprejudiced commentator must admit that the ‘servant of Jehovah’ is pointed out here, as He in Whom and through Whom Jehovah concludes a new covenant with His people, in the place of the old covenant that was broken. …” ( op. cit., p. 179). He continues: “All that Cyrus did, was simply to throw idolatrous nations into a state of alarm, and set exiles free. But the Servant of Jehovah opens blind eyes; and therefore the deliverance which He brings is not only redemption from bodily captivity, but from spiritual bondage also” (ibid., p. 180).

³²Delitzsch is commenting here on the Hebrew term tsedeq, about which his further comment is: “The action of God in accordance with His purposes of love and His plan of salvation” (ibid., p. 178).

³³Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 237.

³⁴Here we follow the majority of the commentators, but Naegelsbach makes a good case for the position that continues to see here in vv. 18-21 further explications of the picture of the Ideal Servant, even Christ. In that case we have portrayed for us the problem of One so devoted to His task that it is impossible for anything to get His attention.

³⁵Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 239.

³⁶James D. Smart, op. cit., p. 98.

³⁷The Hebrew text of this passage is obscure. The versions evidently did not understand it and any attempt to reconstruct it is largely guesswork. Many of the translations therefore follow the Greek Old Testament (LXX) here. The above quotation from the Peshitta makes as good sense as any of them.

There is much to be said in favor of James D. Smart's suggestion that the words Babylon and Chaldeans be omitted from the verse. It would then read: “For your sakes I will send and cause all the fugitives to embark with rejoicing in their ships” (op. cit., p. 105). See his entire “Excursus on the Babylon-Chaldea Passages” ( ibid., pp. 102-6).

The reference here to ships would have been significant in Isaiah's day but not in the time of Cyrus. Chaldean navigation was immense then, according to Herodotus 1, 184; and Strabo Bk. xvi. That Merodach-baladan, after his defeat by Sennacherib, took flight downstream on Babylonian ships is recorded in an ancient cylindrical inscription of his day. “The ships of Ur” are celebrated at a very remote period in the history of lower Mesopotamia.

Cyrus diverted the Euphrates, and the Persian monarchs built dams and cataracts to prevent upstream navigation against their kingdoms. Hence Clarke and others would insist that this reference is preexilic.

The Chaldeans were a Semitic people who settled in the lower Euphrates valley, and after a long struggle wrested Babylon from the Assyrians, by whom it had been conquered, and established the Chaldean (Babylonian) empire after the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C. Notice that there is no mention of Cyrus here, and this is the first mention of Babylon in this hemisphere of Isaiah's book.

³⁸Many commentators see here a cessation of sacrifices and thus argue that this was written during the Babylonish captivity, but a similar cessation of sacrifice must surely have occurred during the rigors of the Assyrian invasion and the siege of Sennacherib.

³⁹Gleason L. Archer, “Isaiah,” The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, ed. Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison (Chicago: Moody Press, 1963), p. 640.

⁴⁰This analogy appears in both hemispheres of Isaiah's book and argues for their unity of authorship.

⁴¹Op. cit., p. 640.

⁴²George Adam Smith would translate it: “Therefore I let my holy cities be profaned,” citing Hos. 3:4 as warrant for doing so ( op. cit., od loc. ).

⁴³Op. cit., p. 110.

⁴⁴The Code of Hammurabi (226-27) bears evidence of the ancient custom of branding or tattooing the name of the owner on the hand of his slave.

⁴⁵See George Adam Smith's commendable translation of this passage, op. cit., pp. 153-55.

⁴⁶Consult Oswald T. Allis, op. cit., Chap. V, and his chart on the attached flyer, which admirably analyzes this prophetical poem. Cf. pp. 62-80.

⁴⁷Hence St. Paul's term for “the universe” is Hebrew in its concept, though it is expressed in the Greek as ta panta,“all things.”

⁴⁸Some commentators see here a reference to the fact that Cyrus and his army diverted the Euphrates River from its usual course through the city of Babylon, using its bed as an entrance to the city. But the reference in this passage is evidently to the wonders wrought by God in the deliverance of Israel at the crossing of the Red Sea (cf. 43:16; 51:10).

⁴⁹Here God is talking, not Cyrus. “The fact is, only the foundation of the temple was laid in the days of Cyrus, the Ammonites having prevented the building; nor was it resumed till the second year of Darius, one of his successors” (Clarke, op. cit., ad loc). The Temple was actually built in the days of Haggai and Zechariah.

⁵⁰The term Cyrus is Koresh in the Hebrew. In the Elamite language, according to A. B. Davidson, “the name Cyrus is said to mean shepherd.” In the Persian the word Kuru was used to indicate “the sun.” The specific name Kuros(Cyrus) in Greek would indicate “supreme power, authority, validity, security.” Hence it appears as a general term suitable for any ruler to adopt who regarded himself as the supreme authority or as “the Sun” of his people's hopes. And, according to Strabo, the Persian King, Cyrus was at first called Agradates; hence the name Cyrus was later assumed by him. Isaiah seems to use the term as a symbol of deliverance and salvation.

Conservative scholars, such as George L. Robinson, Oswald T. Allis, and C. W. E. Naegelsbach, have insisted that the chapters containing these references to Cyrus were purely prediction used by the prophet to indicate the divine foreknowledge. The one Isaiah of Jerusalem thus projected himself into the future in this instance as also we have seen him doing in chapters 24—27. For, as Robinson says, “Scarcely would a contemporary have spoken in such terms [as Isaiah does] of the real Cyrus of 538 B.C. since … in one and the same context, Cyrus is both predicted and treated as proof that a prediction is in him being fulfilled (44:24-28; 45:21)” (cf. his Book of Isaiah, p. 136).

It must not be overlooked that the human agent here is “the anointed one” (Messiah) in whom God “fulfills all his purpose.” Moreover, we see in these references the identification of God with His Servant, who is His Witness, so much so that the victory of the Witness is the manifestation of God's own glory (Smart, op. cit., p. 121). Furthermore, how can the prophet at one moment expect redemption through the power of God's transforming Spirit in Israel, and at another moment transfer the same hope of redemption to a Persian king? It is inconsistent also to think that a prophet who so emphatically spoke of the nothingness of earthly rulers should now make an exception to this in the case of the Persian. Moreover, the victories of 45:1-3 are significantly in keeping with Isaiah's theme of salvation and redemption if they are looked upon, not as military conquests in the mid-sixth century, but as a subduing of the nations before God's Messiah in preparation for the establishment of God's universal kingdom. Again, God grasps the right hand of this Cyrus in such a manner that His acts are the acts of God. At 49:3 the “servant” is assigned a mission to Israel, and at 49:1 He is called from the womb and given His name by God. Hence Smart insists that it is from within Israel that must come the One who will recall Israel to its destiny. Smart also insists that the modern scholars are unable to show how the triumphs of Cyrus were to convince the whole of humanity of the fact that the God of Israel was the one and only true God (cf. 45:3 and 6).

It therefore seems quite evident to this writer that, all things considered, including the unity of Isaiah's prophecy and its frequent element of prediction, plus the spelled-out character and qualities of the individual deliverer, that Cyrus, in Isaiah's prophecy, has primary reference to the one and only KORESH, the Lord Jesus Christ, who surely in a spiritual sense fulfills all that is predicted of the Cyrus whom Isaiah names and upon whom he places unlimited hopes as the Servant of God and Redeemer of exiles and the foreign nations. This contention, we hope, will become more evident as the items of the commentary progress, as we work through the scriptures about to come before us. Our contention is that Cyrus can be a world saviour only if he is really “The World's Saviour,” called from the womb as God's true Messiah and Redeemer.

The advantage of this view is simply stated: it allows us to affirm the unity of Isaiah's prophecy, which is objected to by critics chiefly on the basis of the Cyrus passages; and it allows us also to keep the name Cyrus as the intended name for a prophetically envisaged person. Thus we avoid the position taken by Smart and Torrey that it is a later interpolation for sheer political reasons.

Isaiah was truly predicting God's one and only Messiah, the Incarnation of righteousness, salvation, and deliverance. He is the One who supervises the new exodus of the spiritual exiles out from the “city of the godless” (Babylon), and back again to the rebuilding of “the city of God” (the New Jerusalem). Only such a transformed and spiritual Israel would also serve to convince the world that the living God is the Eternal One, besides whom there is none else.

Cf. T. G. Pinches, “Cyrus,” ISBE, pp. 773-76. Also M. J. Dresden, “Cyrus,” IDB, Vol. ?-D, pp. 754-55.

⁵¹Though thou hast not known me would be a troubling clause for the suggested reference of the term Cyrus. But see the footnote above on 42:18-21, where again Jesus is the suggested Referent. “I have surnamed thee,” is translated by Knox to read, “I have found a title for thee.” Laterally the Hebrew says, “a comparison for thee,” as Kissane has pointed out.

⁵²The Targum of Jonathan so regards this as having reference to a resurrection. Ronald Knox puts verse 8 in parentheses and translates it as follows: “You heavens, send dew from above, you skies, pour down upon us the rain we long for, him, the Just One; may he, the Savior, spring from the closed womb of earth, and with hint let right order take its being.”

⁵³Edward J. Kissane, The Book of Isaiah(Dublin: Browne and Nolan, Ltd., 1941), ad loc.

⁵⁴James D. Smart, op. cit., p. 133.

⁵⁵Ibid., p. 136.

⁵⁶Op. cit., pp. 137-38.

⁵⁷However the Septuagint renders it, “Ye who have lost heart.”

⁵⁸“Throughout the extent of Bible history, from Genesis to Revelation, One City remains, which in fact and symbol is execrated as the enemy of God and the stronghold of evil. … Babylon is the Atheist of the Old Testament, as she is the Antichrist of the New” (George Adam Smith, op. cit., p. 189).

⁵⁹Ibid., p. 196. Italics are mine.

⁶⁰“In verse 16 the pre-incamate Christ identifies himself as the one sent by the Father and the Spirit to convey God's prophetic message to the inspired prophet” (Gleason L. Archer, op. cit., p. 643).

IX. The Second Ennead: The Servant of the Eternal One, 49:1—57:21

¹Through insight given by the Holy Spirit, Isaiah foresaw that his nation would be scattered as far east as China. Chinese Jews have returned to Palestine in this age of Israel's rebirth. Missionaries even to Japan have become convinced that sometime in the distant past there have been contacts with Hebrew practices.

²Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 246.

³The tongue of the learned is the KJV reading, but the ASV margin gives the term “disciples” as an alternate reading. The substantive of this in Hebrew ( limmudhim ) seems to have been coined by Isaiah, and occurs substantivally only in the Book of Isaiah at 8:16-17; here at 50:4; and again at 54:13. Hence we have another intimation of the unity of Isaiah's entire book from the standpoint of its vocabulary. An argument for its unity is strongly advanced by Dr. Naegelsbach. Consult his vocabulary for Isaiah as given at the conclusion of his book in the Lange Commentary.

⁴Op. cit., p. 202.

⁵Op. cit., p. 205. Knight also says: “The doctrine of hell is just as integral to the Old Testament revelation as it is to the New” ( ibid., p. 206).

⁶Let the sermonizer consult Maclaren's five sermons dealing with the various aspects of the Servant's ministry and character:

I. The Servant's Words to the Weary, 50:4

II. The Servant's Filial Obedience, 50:5

III. The Servant's Voluntary Suffering, 50:6

IV. The Servant's Inflexible Resolve, 50:7

V. The Servant's Confidence in Ultimate Triumph, 50:8-9

—Expositions of Holy Scripture, ad loc.

⁷Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat, st. xvii.

⁸This is the preferred translation of the more recent versions. However, the Peshitta version in Lamsa's translation reads: “faded like a wilted beet,” which is surely different. The picture explains v. 17. The sons cannot help their mother, for they too have drunk the cup of divine fury and lie like corpses in the intersections (cf. Lam. 2:12).

⁹The bare right arm, unhampered by any of their flowing garments, is characteristic of the costumes worn by people of the Near and Far East yet today.

¹⁰The four “servant songs” and their major themes are as follows:

I. The Character of the Servant, 42:1-4

II. The Calling of the Servant, 49:1-6

III. The Work of the Servant, 50:4-9

IV. The Fate of the Servant, 52:13—53:12

According to George L. Robinson, this “servant song” has fifteen verses divided into five strophes of three verses each as follows:

I. The Servant's Destiny, 52:13-15

II. The Servant's Career, 53:1-3

III. The Servant's Sufferings, 53:4-6

IV. The Servant's Submission, 53:7-9

V. The Servant's Reward, 53:10-12

(The Book of Isaiah, p. 146)

This Servant concept is woven throughout the Gospel of Mark (in which we have preserved for us the memoirs and the preaching of Peter). Let the interested reader consult H. C. Thiessen's Introduction to the New Testament, pp. 139-49, for valuable insights. See especially his outline of Mark on p. 147.

¹¹“The remnant becomes a redemptive priesthood and not merely a selected strain, a transforming and not merely a destroying ferment.”—John Oman, Grace and Personality, p. 236.

¹²We have already noted Delitzsch's “pyramid” as a graphic portrayal of the decreasing number of the “righteous remnant” culminating in the one Mediator, “the Servant of Jehovah” ( supra., p. 175), but the decreasing remnant culminates in the one Mediator and the expanding Christianity begins with that same Mediator.

Turning the page sideways and viewing from the right-hand margin, we have the inverted and upright pyramids depicting “The Servant of Jehovah” in history and prophecy.

¹³The New Testament writers definitely apply this passage to Jesus. This is evident from the fact that they use the same Septuagint term for Servant in their Greek as is used in Isaiah's prophecy, namely, pais. This has been translated “child” in the KJV and thus does not carry the same force as in the Greek. It is equivalent to Garcon in the French, which means “hoy” and, more properly, “waiter” or “servant.” This Greek term appears in Isa. 42:1; 52:13; and 53:11; and is there translated “servant.” It appears in the New Testament in several places such as Matt. 12:18; Acts 3:13, 26; 4:27, 30; and is applied specifically to Jesus. In each of these instances it should have been translated “servant,” as it has been more properly translated in the ASV.

The New Testament references to this passage prove that:

(1) Prior to Jesus' time it was part of the Old Testament terminology.

(2) It refers to the Messiah (Matt. 8:17; Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37; John 12:38; Acts 8:28-35; Rom. 10:16; I Pet. 2:21-25).

(3) It is taken for granted as applicable to the passion of our Lord (Mark 9:12; Rom. 4:25; I Cor. 15:3; II Cor. 5:21; I Pet. 1:19; 2:21-25; I John 3:5).

That Jesus himself called the attention of His disciples to this passage as prophetic of His own sufferings may be undoubtedly inferred from Luke 24:25-27 and 44-46.

That this passage is truly Isaianic is substantiated by the fact that rhetorical questions abound in Isaiah's book throughout all its parts just as they do here in this passage. Cf. also Smart, op. cit., p. 200.

¹⁴Cf. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, op. cit., ad loc.

¹⁵The Shadow of the Cross: Insights into the meaning of Calvary drawn from the Hebrew text of Isaiah 53 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1957). The quotation appears on page 3. Another very fine study is that of Edward J. Young, Isaiah Fifty-three, a Devotional and Expository Study(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1953).

¹⁶We especially commend the translations of Knight, Alex R. Gordon (Smith-Goodspeed), and C. von Orelli.

¹⁷We may recall here Pilate's attempt to secure the pity of the mob which called for the death of Jesus as he presented the disfigured Galilean, saying, “Behold the man!” (John 19:5)

¹⁸“Isaiah 40—66” (Exegesis), The Interpreter's Bible, ed. George A. But-trick, et al., V (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1956), 618.

¹⁹Op. cit., p. 229.

²⁰“Isaiah 40—66” (Exposition), The Interpreter's Bible, ed. George A. Buttrick, et at, V (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1956), 618.

²¹Quoted by Plumptre, op. cit., ad loc.

²²Smart, op. cit., p. 212.

²³Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 293.

²⁴North, op. cit., p. 140

²⁵Olin A. Curtis, The Christian Faith, p. 329.

²⁶The Berkeley Version and Von Orelli are followed by Knight, who reads: “I am going to inlay thy stones in antimony” ( op. cit., p. 250). Antimony is a “lead-ore used for blackening the eyelids, to make the eyes shine out more lustrously. It is to be the mortar with which the new stones of Jerusalem will be set, that they may shine forth like dazzling eyes; for they are brilliant gems. We may also refer to the excellent joining of the wall-stones used formerly in Palestine. The foundation-stones will be sky-blue sapphires (Exod. 28:18)” (Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 297).

²⁷Translation by George A. P. Knight, op. cit., p. 250.

²⁸George A. F. Knight, op. cit., p. 254.

²⁹Op. cit., p. 221.

³⁰Op. cit., p. 402.

³¹The ancient ritual for cutting a covenant involved the slaying of a mutually selected ox whose carcass was divided in two halves by splitting its spinal column. Between these two halves of beef the parties to the covenant stood while taking their vows. When these were completed, each man took his half home with him as a token of the agreement.

³²Op. cit., p. 255. His italics.

³³Op. cit., ad loc.

³⁴Op. cit., ad loc.

³⁵Op. cit., p. 226.

³⁶Op. cit., ad loc.

³⁷Ibid. Italics added.

³⁸Op. cit., ad loc.

X. The Third Ennead: Future Glory, 58:1—66:24

¹Naegelsbach, op. cit., p. 630.

²George Adam Smith, Op. cit., p. 416.

³James D. Smart, op. cit., p. 248-49.

⁴Ibid., p. 247.

⁵Op. cit., p. 688.

⁶Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 315.

⁷Ibid., p. 316.

⁸Ibid.

⁹Ibid.

¹⁰Naegelsbach, op. cit., p. 639.

¹¹Plumptre, op. cit., ad loc.

¹¹Muilenberg, op. cit., p. 693.

¹³Plumptre, op. cit., ad loc.

¹⁴The sermonizer will find help and insight in Maclaren's sermon on these verses entitled “The Sunlit Church” (Expositions of Holy Scripture ).

¹⁵Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 325.

¹⁶John Wesley taught an experience of repentance for believers.

¹⁷Isaiah makes a play on the two Hebrew words here 'epher and pa'er. Hence Moffatt's happy use of the English terms coronals and coronachs.

¹⁸“It would appear from Song of Solomon 3:11 that bridegrooms wore a special head-dress on the day of their espousal, and this is here compared to the priestly ‘bonnet,’ or ‘mitre’ (Exod. 28:4; 39:28; Ezek. 44:18)” (Plumptre, Op. cit., ad loc.).

¹⁹We may think of this chapter as “God's Covenant with the Holy People.” It was so designated by Dr. P. F. Bresee when he preached from it to the students and graduating classes of Pasadena College, and named it “the college chapter.” From it Dr. H. Orton Wiley delivered thirty-five Investiture Day addresses to seniors and their fellow students at Pasadena College and Northwest Nazarene College. His last time to do so was in 1960, at which time he repeated his very first sermon on the chapter. That sermon is now in print in a book of sermons by Pasadena College professors entitled Faith in These Times(Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1961).

²⁰Naegelsbach, Op. cit., p. 669.

²¹Matthew Henry, op. cit., ad loc.

²²Ibid.

²³Op. cit., p. 440.

²⁴Delitzsch, op. cit., ad loc.

²⁵Op. cit., p. 449.

²⁶Ibid., p. 447.

²⁷Op. cit., p. 729.

²⁸Op. cit., od loc.

²⁹Cf. Rawlinson in the Pulpit Commentary, ad. loc.

³⁰Op. cit., p. 676.

³¹Space does not permit a full exposition of this position here. The reader is referred to the very splendid exposition of Gen. 12:1 ff. by Lange, and C. W. E. Naegelsbach's exposition of this present verse, both in Lange's Commentary. Cf. also Delitzsch's commentary here.

³²Op. cit., od loc.

³³Naegelsbach in Lange's Commentary, p. 677.

³⁴Ibid.

³⁵Op. cit., ad loc.

³⁶So contend Delitzsch, Rawlinson, and Plumptre (who says, “not Moses only, but Israel collectively”). C. von Orelli says: “In bestowing Him on these leaders, He made Him dwell in the heart, in the bosom of the nation, which of course gave rise to the possibility of grieving and rebelling against Him, verse 10” ( op. cit., p. 333).

³⁷Op. cit., p. 677.

³⁸Op. cit., ad loc.

³⁹Op. cit., pp. 269-70.

⁴⁰Rawlinson, op. cit., ad loc.

⁴¹Cf. Naegelsbach, Op. cit., p. 679.

⁴²Op. cit., ad loc.

⁴³Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 334.

⁴⁴Henry Sloan Coffin, op. Cit., p. 742.

⁴⁵Op. cit., ad loc.

⁴⁶Henry Sloan Coffin, op. cit., p. 747.

⁴⁷Von Orelli, op. cit., p. 338.

⁴⁸James Muilenberg, op. cit., p. 748.

⁴⁹Bora is the Hebrew, and it is to be distinguished from 'ashah, “to form or shape or fabricate from that which already exists.”

⁵⁰Here the Septuagint reads “tree of life”; cf. Rev. 22:2.

⁵¹Op. cit., pp. 465-66.

⁵²Op. cit., p. 758.

⁵³Op. cit., pp. 757 ff.

⁵⁴V. 6 of this chapter would indicate a temple then standing in Jerusalem at the time of this chapter's writing.

⁵⁵Delitzsch, Op. cit., ad loc.

⁵⁶Coffin, op. cit., p. 767.

⁵⁷So explains George Adam Smith, op. cit., p. 463, note.

⁵⁸George Adam Smith, op. cit., p. 467.

⁵⁹Ibid., p. 466.

⁶⁰Ibid., p. 467.

Introduction

¹Charles Edward Jefferson, Cardinal Ideas of Jeremiah(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1928), pp. 194, 197.

²John Paterson, “Jeremiah,” Peake's Commentary on the Bible(New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1962), p. 539.

³Ibid., p. 537.

⁴C. A. Robinson, Ancient History(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951), p. 103.

⁵John Bright, “Jeremiah,” The Anchor Bible(New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1965), p. xxxix.

⁶Op. cit., p. 538.

⁷Ibid.

⁸See II Kings 24:1; also Dan 1:1.

⁹It would appear that the Babylonian army took the smaller cities of Judah before it pressed the siege against Jerusalem. Lachish, a fortress city, lying in the foothills southwest of Jerusalem, served to keep the lines of communication open toward Egypt. Lachish had to be destroyed before Jerusalem could be taken. The language of these Letters reminds one of the Book of Jeremiah. They are written in ancient Hebrew script on pieces of pottery, and many of them deal with the problems of a military officer in an outpost some distance from Lachish. They reveal the frustrations of this officer in those harrowing days just before the fortress of Lachish fell. For a translation of these letters see Lachish Letters, ed. Harry Torczyner (London: Oxford University Press, 1938); also W. F. Albright's “A Supplement to Jeremiah: The Lachish Ostraca,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 61 (Feb., 1936), pp. 15-16; “A Re-examination of the Lachish Letters,” Ibid., No. 73 (Feb., 1939), p. 16.

¹⁰“Jeremiah,” Layman's Bible Commentaries(London: SCM Press, Ltd., 1961), pp. 12 ff.

¹¹Ibid., p. 13.

¹²Kuist, op. cit., p 14

I. The Preface, 1:1-3

¹See George Adam Smith, Jeremiah(New York: George H. Doran Co., 1922), p. 66.

²J. P. Hyatt, Prophetic Religion(New York: Abingdon Press, 1947), pp. 31 ff.

II. Jeremiah's Induction, 1:4-19

¹Hyatt, op. cit., pp. 311 ff.

²The Hebrew word for child ( na'ar ) is used in the OT to refer to an infant (Exod. 2:6; Isa. 7:16; 8:4; etc.), a small boy (Gen. 21:12; 22:5; 37:2; 43:8), or a young man of marriageable age (Gen. 34:19; II Sam. 18:5, 12, etc.). We therefore cannot determine the age of Jeremiah from this passage. It is quite likely that he was at least seventeen years of age at this time. He may have been older.

³Stanley R. Hopper, “Jeremiah” (Exposition), The Interpreter's Bible, ed. George A. Buttrick, et al.(New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951), V, 802.

⁴Cf. John Wesley's view of Christian perfection as being a state of entire devotement to God.

⁵Hyatt, op. cit., p. 48. See also Hebrew-English Lexicon by Brown, Driver & Briggs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), p. 611.

⁶Kyle M. Yates, Preaching from the Prophets(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1942), p. 2.

⁷C. A. McConnell used to say, “God changes His plans to suit man's changing choices, but God's purposes never change; they are eternal.”

⁸IB, V (expos.), 805.

⁹J. P. Hyatt, “The Book of Jeremiah” (Exegesis), The Interpreter's Bible, ed. George A. Buttrick, et al.(New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951), V, 798 f.

¹⁰KJV margin has given the literal sense of the Hebrew here.

¹¹Kuist, op. cit., p. 29.

III. Arraignment of the House of Jacob, 2:1—10:25

¹IB, V (expos.), 813.

²They that handle the law seems to indicate that already in Israel there were scribes, or teachers who explained the Law (the Torah).

³Reference to the prophets here would mean members of the prophetic guild or the school of the prophets. These professional prophets had been present in Israel since the time of Samuel.

⁴The terms Chittim and Kedar are actually expressions for the extremities of west and east. Chittim is Cyprus and the islands thereabout, while Kedar is the name of a tribe of Arabs to the east of Judah. These are heathen peoples who serve false gods.

⁵Memphis was the capital of lower Egypt, and Tahpanhes (Tahapanes, KJV) was the site of one of the Egyptian king's favorite palaces (see map 3).

⁶II Kings 22—23.

⁷C. J. Ball, “The Prophecies of Jeremiah,” The Expositor's Bible(New York: George H. Doran Co.), pp. 114 ff.

⁸Kuist, op. cit., p. 31.

⁹There is a good deal of conjecture among scholars concerning the ark of the covenant. Some think that it disappeared during the wicked reign of Manasseh, and if so, it was gone at this writing. Others think it was destroyed with the Temple in 586 B.C., but it does not appear in the list of treasures taken by Nebuchadnezzar in c. 52. No one really knows. Jeremiah, however, is saying that the old order of which it was a symbol will be replaced by the new, and the mere symbol will not be desired or missed.

¹⁰A. S. Peake, “Jeremiah,” The New Century Bible (Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1910), p. 114.

¹¹Hyatt, Prophetic Religion, p. 167.

¹²IB, V (exeg.), 831.

¹³Op. cit., p. 115.

¹⁴IB, V (expos.), 832.

¹⁵John Skinner, Prophecy and Religion (Cambridge: University Press, 1951), p. 151.

¹⁶John Calvin, “The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah,” Calvin's Commentaries, trans. by John Owen (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1950), p. 205. John Skinner says, “Circumcision … was … an act of dedication signifying the removal of the impurity inherent in the state of nature, through which the individual becomes a member of the religious community” (op. cit., pp. 151-52).

¹⁷Op. cit., p. 246.

¹⁸See John Wesley's sermon “The Circumcision of the Heart,” Wesley's Works (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1958), V, 203.

¹⁹See Kuist, op. cit., p. 31.

²⁰Ibid.

²¹Jonah's prophecy concerning Nineveh is a case in point. See Pater-son's Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets (New York: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1948), p. 6.

²²See Adam Clarke, A Commentary and Critical Notes, IV (New York: The Methodist Book Concern, n.d.), 264.

²³IB, V (expos.), 840.

²⁴Peake, op. cit., p. 130.

²⁵See IB, V (exeg.), 856.

²⁶The prophet Amos was a native of Tekoa (Amos 1:1).

²⁷For alternate interpretations see IB, V, 859.

²⁸The use of the word congregation is rather strange; the Hebrew is obscure but it seems to refer to Israel as a whole. See Peake, op. cit., p. 142.

²⁹Sheba is a tribe of noted traders in southwest Arabia, and sweet cane is probably not sugarcane, but calamus, an herb used in making incense.

³⁰Cf. I Sam. 15:22.

³¹See Calvin, op. cit., p. 391; IB, V, 875; Peake, op. cit., p. 152; Clarke, op. cit., p. 274.

³²C. W. Eduard Naegelsbach, “The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah,” A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, ed. John Peter Lange; trans. Philip Schaff (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915), p. 97.

³³See also 2:10-11; 5:22-23; 18:13-17.

³⁴Kuist, op. cit., p. 39.

³⁵Peake, op. cit., p. 165.

³⁶IB, V (expos.), 892.

³⁷Kuist, op. cit., p. 40.

³⁸See ASV, RSV, and C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, “Jeremiah,” Commentaries on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956, reprint), p. 192; IB, V, 896; NBC, p. 616; and J. F. Graybill, “Jeremiah,” The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 666.

³⁹Ibid.

⁴⁰Kuist, op. cit., p. 41.

⁴¹Ibid.

⁴²Tarshish in Spain or Sicily was the westernmost extremity of the known world, noted for its silver; Uphaz is unknown, but thought by some to be the land of Ophir, noted for its gold.

⁴³Kuist, ibid., p. 42.

⁴⁴Clarke, op. cit., p. 284.

⁴⁵Kuist, op. cit., p. 42.

IV. Confessions and Predictions, 11:1—20:18

¹Kuist, op. cit., 47.

²This is a point in favor of the unity of Isaiah, since if the last half of Isaiah were written by a “second Isaiah” in the period of the return from Exile, Jeremiah could not have known about it.

³Clarke, op. cit., p. 291; Lange, op. cit., p. 143; see also E. Stanley Jones, Christian Maturity (New York: Abingdon Press, 1947), p. 173.

⁴Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 253.

⁵Lange, op. cit., p. 150.

⁶Cf. Ezek. 2:8—3:3; Rev. 10:9-10.

⁷Peake, op. cit., p. 213.

⁸For further explanation of the various rites for the dead, see Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., pp. 267 ff., or Lange, op. cit., pp. 158 ff.

⁹Cf. 3:17; 7:24; 9:14; 11:8; 13:10; 18:12; 23:17.

¹⁰Kuist, op. cit., p. 55.

¹¹G. A. Smith, op. cit., p. 346.

¹²Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 281.

¹³Some scholars think Jeremiah is referring to Zedekiah when he put his trust in Egypt. See IB, V (exeg.), 950.

¹⁴The same Hebrew form from which we get the word “Jacob.”

¹⁵Kuist, op. cit., p 57.

¹⁶Ibid.

¹⁷This phrase can also be read, “they who chastise [mistreat] me [Jeremiah].”

¹⁸Only here do we hear of the gate of the children of the people. Despite many conjectures, any sure identification of this gate remains uncertain. A decision is not important since Jeremiah was further instructed to go to all the gates of Jerusalem.

¹⁹The potter's workshop was probably located in the valley of Ben Hinnom, south of Jerusalem. It would include, beside the shop, a “field for storing and treading the clay, a kiln for vessels, and a dump for discards” (IB, V [exeg.], 961).

²⁰See G. A. Smith, op. cit., pp. 186 ff.; John Skinner, Prophecy and Religion (Cambridge: University Press, 1957), pp. 162 ff.

²¹Smith, op. cit., p. 189; cf. Matt. 25:46; Luke 19:41-44.

²²Studies in the Prophecy of Jeremiah (New York: Fleming H. Reveil Company, 1931), pp. 107 ff.

²³Smith, op. cit., pp. 186 ff.

²⁴L. Elliot Binns, “The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah,” Westminster Commentaries (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1919), p. 147.

²⁵Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 296.

²⁶Binns, op. cit., p. 149.

²⁷This valley, to the south of Jerusalem, had been made into a place of worship to false gods by the wicked Mannaseh (II Chron. 33:6). Children were sacrificed there to these false gods. When Josiah instituted his reform, this place was made into a rubbish heap for the city (II Kings 23:10) and its name changed to Tophet. In other scriptures this place is likened to hell, the rubbish heap of the universe.

²⁸To be distinguished from the city gate of that name—this was probably the north gate of the Temple's inner court.

²⁹IB, V (exeg.), 973.

³⁰Op. cit., p. 155. Other scholars want to solve the problem by inserting w. 14-18 after 10. This would make w. 11-13 follow 18.

³¹The Bible nowhere teaches that the life with God is a placid journey. On the contrary, it teaches that men of God in all ages have had at times the fiercest kind of temptations, frustrations, inner struggles, periods of deep questionings, and battles of faith. They have had to stand, as it were, at the doors of their souls with a drawn sword and fight off the demonic forces that sought to destroy them. Even the Master had His moments of fierce struggle (Matt. 26:37-44; Mark 15:34; Luke 4:1-13).

³²IB, V (exeg.), 976.

V. A Forecast of the End, 21:1—29:32

¹The Pashur listed here is not the same Pashur mentioned in c. 20. This one is the son of Melchiah, the other “the son of Immer.”

²Kuist, op. cit., p. 67.

³Ibid.

⁴Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 340.

⁵Scholars have sought to discover just what happened at the death of Jehoiakim. Some think he died in a palace revolt, and his body was desecrated. Others think that, dying during the siege, he was hastily buried, and the Chaldeans, learning of this (8:1 ff.), disinterred and dishonored his body. Still others think he was captured by the Chaldeans in a foray outside the walls of the city (597 B.C.) and was bound in chains but died of disease and exposure in the camp of the enemy—and in the events that followed the capture of the city, his body was dishonored and never given a decent burial. Cf. Lange, op. cit., p. 202; Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 341.

⁶“It is not clear to whom the words of 22:20-23 are addressed, but they affirm the same principle for which Jeremiah has been pleading” (Kuist, op. cit., p. 70).

⁷IB, V (exeg.), 985.

⁸Ibid., p. 987.

⁹Binns, op. cit., p. 173.

¹⁰The word swearing (Heb., 'alah) may be translated “cursing,” or “oath,” but it fits the context much better to render it “the curse” (see RSV).

¹¹Kuist, op. cit., p. 73.

¹²Peake, op. cit., p. 269.

¹³Kuist, op. cit., ad loc.

¹⁴Peake, op. cit., 271.

¹⁵It is only fair to say that there are chronological difficulties concerning Nebuchadnezzar's appearance at Jerusalem in 606-605 B.C. Various arguments are given. For a cross-section of the different views see the following: E. J. Young, Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949); G. L. Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Chicago: Moody Press, 1964), pp. 369 ff.; J. E. H. Thompson, “The Book of Daniel,” Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1950), XIII, iff.; R. H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948), p. 756.

¹⁶IB, V (expos.), 999.

¹⁷Kuist, op. cit., p. 79.

¹⁸Paterson, op, cit., pp. 538, 545.

¹⁹Kuist, op. cit., p. 80.

²⁰Paterson, op. cit., p. 545.

²¹IB, V (exeg.), 1012.

²²Op. cit., p. 70.

²³Binns quoting Cheyne, op. cit., p. 210.

²⁴Paterson, op. cit., p. 554.

²⁵Nehelemite means “dweller of Nehelam,” but no such place name is found in the OT. Its etymology suggests “to dream” and this has given rise to the marginal rendering, “dreamer” (ISBE).

VI. The Book of Consolation, 30:1—33:26

¹Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., II, 2; IB, V (expos.), 1043; G. C. Morgan, op. cit., p. 160.

²Op. cit., p. 160.

³Some scholars think that the book referred to here comprises only cc. 30—31, while others include 32—33. The present writer holds to the latter view. The Hebrew word for book (sepher) may be used for either a short letter or a large volume such as the Book of Genesis, or Isaiah.

⁴Morgan, op. cit., p. 162.

⁵Ibid.

⁶T. K. Cheyne, “The Book of Jeremiah” (Expos.), The Pulpit Commentary, XI (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans, [reprint] 1950), 600.

⁷Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit II, 6.

⁸Kuist, op. cit., p. 89.

⁹Morgan, op. cit., p. 170.

¹⁰In the Near East to this day, the firstborn son has a special place in the father's heart. I Chron. 5:1 says that, because Reuben defiled his father's couch, the birthright was given to the sons of Joseph. This explains the reference to Ephraim, Joseph's son, in v. 9 above.

¹¹Fred M. Wood, Fire in My Bones (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1959), p. 152.

¹²Paterson, op. cit., p. 556.

¹³Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., II, 39.

¹⁴Kuist, op. cit., p. 97.

¹⁵James Fleming, Personalities of the Old Testament (New York: Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1946), p. 329.

¹⁶Binns, op. cit., p. 240; also James, op. cit., p. 1.

¹⁷J. F. Graybill, op. cit., p. 679.

¹⁸Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., II, 46.

¹⁹The court of the prison (2) was a part of the king's palace. It seems to have been an open court around which were situated the barracks of the king's bodyguard. It was “used for political prisoners who did not require strict confinement” (IB, V [exeg.], 1043). Apparently outside people could view what went on in the court (10, 12). See Binns, op. cit., p. 245.

²⁰IB, V (exeg.), 1045; John Bright, op. cit., p. 239.

²¹Paterson, op. cit., p. 556.

²²Op. cit., pp. 193 ff.

²³Paterson, op. cit., p. 628.

²⁴F. Cawley, “Jeremiah,” The New Bible Commentary, ed. Francis Davidson, et al. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956), p. 628.

²⁵Kuist, op. cit., p. 102.

²⁶Binns, op. cit., p. 253.

²⁷Cf. G. C. Morgan's exegesis of this passage, op. cit., pp. 200 ff.

²⁸Ibid., p. 204.

²⁹Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., II, 72; Morgan, op. cit., p. 201.

³⁰Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., II, 73; Paterson, op. cit., p. 557.

³¹Cawley, NBC, p. 628.

VII. Counsel for Kings, 34:1—36:32

¹Lachish (see map 2) was a fortress city twenty-three miles southwest of Jerusalem, which commanded the highway that ran from the coastal plain (the Shephelah) to Jerusalem. Before the capital city could be forced to capitulate, this stronghold would have to be taken. Excavations at this site have uncovered the Lachish Letters written during the very period under consideration. See Introduction for a discussion of the importance of the Lachish Letters to an understanding of the life and times of Jeremiah. Azekah was between Lachish and Jerusalem.

²Cf. Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 81.

³IB, V (exeg.), 1054; see also Peake, op. cit., II, 137; Graybill, op. cit., p. 680.

⁴Binns observes, “The number of slaves must have been very great as the frequent invasions had ruined the small landowners, who were oppressed by the greed of the great proprietor and in their poverty reduced to servitude” (op. cit., p. 260).

⁵In ancient times a covenant between two parties was confirmed by killing an animal, preferably a calf, and cutting it into halves. Between these pieces the two parties passed, intimating “that if either of them broke the covenant it would fare with him as the slain and divided animal” (Unger's Bible Dictionary, p. 224).

⁶On “superficial repentance” see Jer. 34:8-11 Pulpit Commentary, XI, 87.

⁷Merrill F. Unger, Unger's Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1957), p. 913; IB, V (exeg.), 1062; Paterson, op. cit., p. 557.

⁸Antiquities of the Jews X. 9.1.

⁹IB, V (exeg.), 1064.

¹⁰Kuist, op. cit., p. 110.

¹¹Unger's Bible Dictionary, p. 561.

VIII. The Fall of Jerusalem, 37:1—40:6

¹Some scholars see 1-2 as a transition device of the editor (perhaps Baruch) to notify the reader that he is moving from the reign of Jehoiakim (c. 3) to the reign of Zedekiah. The change is so abrupt that the editor thought the reader should be notified.

²Cawley, NBC, p. 630.

³Most modern translators have changed this to read “three men.” However it seems best to follow the Masoretic text, for perhaps the anger of the princes, and the opposition that might have been encountered, required the thirty men.

⁴Pulpit Commentary, XI (II), 138.

⁵Rab-saris has usually been translated as “chief eunuch,” and Rab-mag as “chief Magi, or soothsayer.” These translations are not satisfactory, but a high military or diplomatic official is most certainly meant. (See J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), pp. 307-8; also, IB, V (exeg.), 1078 ff.; Bright, op. cit., p. 243.

⁶Riblah in the land of Hamath (see map 1) was a very strategic military point in the ancient world. It lay at the crossroads of western Asia. From there the highway moved south toward Damascus, Jerusalem, and the gates of Egypt; to the east, the Euphrates and Babylon; to the southwest, Tyre and Sidon; to the north, the central plains of Asia Minor. Pharaohnecoh had quartered here before the battle of Carchemish.

⁷Op. cit., p. 116.

IX. In the Wake of Ruin, 40:7—44:30

¹This phrase appears seven times in this section: 40:11; 42:15, 19; 43:5; 44:12, 14, 28; “remnant in Judah,” 40:15.

²IB, V (exeg.), 1084.

³Bright, op. cit., p. 254.

⁴Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 132.

⁵The Chaldeans apparently left some members of the royal house in Palestine; Peake, op. cit., p. 189.

⁶Archeologists have uncovered the remnant of an excellent' water system here. It is the modern Ej Jib.

⁷“Jezaniah is here called the son of Hoshaiah; in 40:8 he is called the son of the Maachathite; in 43:2 Azariah is named as the son of Hoshaiah. There must have either been two Jezaniahs and two Hoshaiahs, or there is an error in the text” (Lange's Commentary, p. 342).

⁸Peake, op. cit., p. 193.

⁹Op. cit., p. 251, ¹⁰Kuist, op. cit., p. 120.

¹⁰Kuist. op. cit., p. 120.

¹¹Images of Beth-shemesh (13) would be “the obelisks of Beth-shemesh”—House of the Sun—a famous temple dedicated to the sun, with a row of obelisks in front of it (Berk., fn.).

¹²Pritchard, op. cit., p. 308; IB, V (exeg.), 1095; Kuist, op. cit., p. 121.

¹³Antiquities X. 9.7.

¹⁴See Clarke, op. cit., IV, 367; Peake, op. cit., p. 208; Binns, op. cit., p. 314.

¹⁵See Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., pp. 168 ff.

X. God's Message to Baruch, 45:1-5

¹Kuist, op. cit., p. 123.

²Pulpit Commentary, XI, 201.

³Bright, op. cit., p. 186.

XI. Oracles Against Foreign Nations, 46:1—51:64

¹Kuist, op. cit., p. 125.

²Libyans and Lydians were people from ancient Put and Lud. Put is probably “Punt,” a people along the east coast of Africa near Egypt. Lud was probably a Libyan people west of Egypt (Ludim or Lubim). See Peake, op. cit., II, 217; Bright, op. cit., p. 306.

³Cawley, NBC, p. 634.

⁴In Hebrew all the words are singular except “strong ones” (ASV, text; valiant men, KJV). The LXX and the Vulgate plus sixty-five other MSS. read it in singular.

⁵This is John Bright's paraphrase (op. cit., p. 303). ASV renders it, “They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath let the appointed time pass by.”

⁶For fuller treatment see Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., pp. 197 ff.

⁷D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldean Kings (London: British Museum, 1956).

⁸IB, V (exeg.), 1112.

⁹Vv. 29-34 are parallel to parts of Isaiah 15—16; vv. 43-44 are parallel to Isa. 24:17-18; 45-46 are parallel to Num. 21:28-29; 24:17. Cf. BBC comments on these passages.

¹⁰For more detailed opinions, see Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 129; IB, V (exeg.), 1112; Cawley, NBC, p. 635.

¹¹While RSV translators and John Bright in the Anchor Bible go to “strongholds” for the word works in v. 7, it does not change the meaning. The Moabites still were guilty of putting their trust in the wrong place.

¹²In 1868 archeologists found the Moabite Stone of Dibon. This has added greatly to our understanding of this period of OT history. Mesha, king of Moab, recorded his victories over Israel on this stone. The names of the following cities mentioned in this chapter are found on the Moabite Stone: Nebo, Dibon, Horonaim, Aroer, Kiriathaim, Jahzah, Kerioth, Bozrah, Beth-meon, and Beth-diblathaim.

¹³Kuist, op. cit., p. 130.

¹⁴See Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 226.

¹⁵Antiquities X. 9.7.

¹⁶Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 233.

¹⁷The double-dealing nature of the Ammonites is revealed by the following: “In the times of Jeremiah they appear (a) as allies of Babylon (II. Kings. 24:2); (b) leagued against Babylon (Jer. 27:3); (c) offering refuge to fugitive Jews (Jer. 40:14); (d) plotting to murder Gedaliah (Jer. 40:14),” Binns, op. cit., p. 343.

¹⁸Bright, op. cit., p. 325.

¹⁹See Peake, op. cit., pp. 239 ff.; Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., pp. 237 ff.

²⁰This, of course, raises the question of the date of Obadiah. Some scholars think Obadiah was not written until 585 B.C. If this is true, then both Jeremiah and Obadiah quote from an oracle that is older than either of them.

²¹Dedan was an Arabian city just outside the borders of Edom. Traders from Dedan were often found dealing with the merchants of Teman and Bozrah.

²²Peake, op. cit., p. 244.

²³Keil and Delitzsch, op. cit., H, 244.

²⁴This verse has given translators trouble. The literal “Anxious care is on the sea” does not make sense. The RSV has the apparent meaning.

²⁵J. W. Swain, The Ancient World (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1950), I, 187 ff.

²⁶Ibid., p. 178.

²⁷Bright, op. cit., p. 338; see also Ezek. 32:24.

²⁸Elamites evidently were forcibly settled in Samaria, according to Ezra 4:9, and Jews from Elam were present at Pentecost (Acts 2:9).

²⁹Bright, op. cit., p. 359.

³⁰E. J. Young, op. cit., p. 228; also NBC, pp. 636-37.

³¹There is a play on the Hebrew roots Mrh and Pqd. Mar marrati was a district of southern Babylonia; the Puqudu was a people of eastern Babylonia. Mrh means “to rebel” and Pqd means to “punish.”

³²Bright, op. cit., p. 212.

XII. Historical Appendix, 52:1-34

¹The present writer thinks that there may have been several more deportations than scholars have previously supposed. He believes that those listed in 28-30 are included here because they had not been recorded elsewhere.

²IB, V (expos.), 1142.

Introduction

¹Apion. I.8.

²C. W. E. Naegelsbach, “Lamentations,” Lange’s Commentary on Holy Scripture. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, [reprint], n.d.), p. 1.

³H. T. Kuist, “Lamentations,” Layman’s Bible Commentaries (London: SCM Press, Ltd., 1961), p. 141.

⁴See Psalms 25; 34; 35; 111; 112; 119; 145; and Provo 31: 10-31.

III. The Song of a Suffering Prophet, 3:1-66

¹A. S. Herbert, “Lamentations,” Peake's Commentary on the Bible (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1962), p. 566.

²Wormwood was a bitter substance, usually associated with gall. Smith-Goodspeed interpret it, “He hath sated me with anguish.”

³W. F. Adeney, “Lamentations of Jeremiah,” Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950 [reprint]), p. 39.

⁴Vv. 22-23 were the inspiration for, and furnish key phrases in, the language of Thomas Chisholm's hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

V. The Prayer of a Penitent Nation, 5:1-22

¹Carl F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, “Lamentations of Jeremiah,” Commentaries on the Old Testament, II (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956, [reprint]), 455.

Introduction

¹This king's name appears in the Book of Ezekiel and frequently in these comments. The Babylonians pronounced the name with an r, Nebuchadrezzar; hence most recent commentaries use the r. It is found according to both spellings in the Hebrew of Ezekiel but usually with the n. Therefore Babylon's king is more widely known according to this spelling.

²R. B. Y. Scott of Princeton Seminary would certainly have included Ezekiel when he said, “The prophets were driven by an overpowering will to say what they shrank from saying” (1960 presidential address to the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis at Union Seminary in N.Y.C.).

³Carl Gordon Howie, The Date and Composition of Ezekiel (Philadelphia: Society of Bib. Lit., 1950), p. 1.

I. The Call to Be a Prophet, 1:1—3:27

¹The word prophet means “one who speaks for another.” Cf. Exod. 7:1, “Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” Aaron was to be Moses' spokesman. We also read, “He [Aaron] shall be thy [Moses'] spokesman” (Exod. 4:16). The prefix pro in the word prophet does not mean “beforehand,” as in “procession,” but “instead of,” as in “pronoun.” The prophet is God's spokesman who speaks to men in God's stead. See A. C. Knudson, The Beacon Lights of Prophecy (New York: Eaton and Mains, 1914), p. 30.

²Jehoiachin's captivity was an actual imprisonment, and it was not relaxed until 561 B.C.

³The Chebar may have been a canal, and the captives employed in digging it.

⁴The lion was the national emblem of Babylon. In the Louvre Museum in Paris one can view clay lions from ancient Babylon, in varying degrees of ferocity.

⁵For a full discussion of the phrase see “Son of Man” in HDB. In this article we read, “Ezekiel has a profound sense of the majesty of Jehovah; and the expression is no doubt intended to mark the distance which separated the prophet, as one of mankind, from Him” (James Hastings, ed., Dictionary of the Bible ([N.Y.: Scribner's Sons, 1923]), IV, 579.

⁶It should be kept in mind that after Israel, the northern ten tribes, fell to Assyria in 721, Judah itself was frequently called Israel, as here.

⁷This book would have been made from either animal skins sewn together or long strips of papyrus, in scroll form. The fact that papyrus was often used is in part the reason so few ancient manuscripts have survived. When papyrus could not be obtained, skin was used. What was a difficulty to men in ancient times has become a blessing to us in the better survival of the skins which were used.

II. Prophecies Against Jerusalem, 4:1—24:27

¹It seems to have lasted from Jan. 15, 588, to July 19, 586 B.C.

²This was the first of the two Jeroboams who ruled the northern kingdom of Israel.

³See F. Gardiner, “Ezekiel,” An Old Testament Commentary, ed. Chas. Ellicott (N.Y.: Cassell & Co., 1844), V, 220.

⁴W. J. Shroder, “Ezekiel,” A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, ed. John P. Lange (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1876), loc. Cit.

⁵Nobody knows whether the Hebrews at this time were starting their year in the spring or in the fall. Dates are given according to the theory that they were using the older calendar, beginning the year in late March or early April. This seems evident from 45:21, which places the Passover in the “first month.”

⁶See W. L. Wardle, “Ezekiel,” The Abingdon Bible Commentary, ed. F. C. Eiselen, Edwin Lewis, and D. G. Downey (N.Y.: Abingdon, 1929), p. 719.

⁷This is probably the Daniel who, like Ezekiel, was a captive of Babylon. Contra, see G. R. Beasley-Murray, “Ezekiel,” The New Bible Commentary, ed. F. Davidson (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1953), p. 653.

⁸Aholah means “her tent”; Aholibah, “my tent is in her.” “The Arabs today frequently give names of similar rhythm to their children” (Berk., fn.).

III. Prophecies Against Heathen Peoples, 25:1—32:32

¹This variance from the Hebrew, and many others, can be checked by the Bible student who does not understand the Greek, in an English translation of the Septuagint by Charles Thompson and edited by C. A. Muses (The Septuagint Bible, Indian Hills, Colo.: The Falcon's Wing Press, 1960).

²John Paterson, The Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948), p. 178.

³Against Apion, I, 21.

⁴To read further about Tyre, and other Bible places, see the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, edited by James Orr.

⁵See the poetic form in one of the modern-language translations, e.g., Moffatt, Smith-Goodspeed, or RSV.

⁶For this contrast see Adam Clarke, A Commentary and Critical Notes (N.Y.: Abingdon, n.d.), loc. cit.

⁷See comments on 31:18.

⁸In the NT hades, the underworld, is a comparable expression (Luke 10: 15; Acts 2:27).

IV. Restoration and Hope, 33:1—48:35

¹A highly quotable statement is made in this connection by Walter R. Roehrs: “…there is no group insurance against God's judgment” (“Ezekiel,” The Biblical Expositor [Phila.: Holman Co., 1960], II, 251).

²See Herbert G. May, op. Cit., VI, 247-48.

³Op. Cit., IV, 512.

⁴See Alfred Rahlfs, ed., Septuaginta (N.Y.: Societate Biblica Americana, 1949), II, 831.

⁵Op. Cit., IV, 513.

⁶See discussion in F. Gardiner, op. cit., p. 301.

⁷It is the living God, as opposed to the lifeless idols made by men, who is behind all these promises of restoration—and who is therefore able to follow through and fulfill the promises. This is why the phrase as I live appears so often in this section (33:11, 27; 34:8; 35:6). For a superb discussion of God as the living God see Otto Baab, The Theology of the Old Testament (N.Y.: Abingdon, 1949), pp. 24-28. Baab says, “Perhaps the most typical word for identifying the God of the Old Testament is the word ‘living’” (p. 24). See Josh. 3:10; Ps. 42:2; 84:1-2. For the oath, “As the Lord liveth,” see Judg. 8:19; Ruth 3:13; I Sam. 19:6; 20:21.

⁸This is why Judah (Israel) is called Edom's “brother” (Obad. 10, 12).

⁹For further graphic description of this and other phrases in this passage see “Obadiah,” Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, by C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Minor Prophets, II, 364.

¹⁰Op. cit., 178.

¹¹For a more thorough discussion of this subject see A. C. Knudson, The Religious Teachings of the Old Testament (N.Y.: Abingdon, 1918), pp. 137-53.

¹²“The Scriptures of course connect God's holiness with His moral nature (e.g., in the passage being treated and very explicitly in Ezek. 43:7). But they also connect His holiness with His metaphysical attributes. It is connected with His power and majesty, e.g., in many places. In Isa. 6:3 we read, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts”—the angelic hosts, here. Such is shown in Ps. 47:8: “God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.” God is “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isa. 57:15).

¹³Although there is much of ceremonial holiness in those chapters, the so-called ceremonial matters often have moral connotations—e.g., the prohibitions against improper relationships with various relatives (Lev. 18:6-24).

¹⁴Jer. 31:31-34 is a similar passage. This passage in Jeremiah is quoted in Hebrews 8 and 10. See comments in H. Orton Wiley, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1959), pp. 382 ff.

¹⁵For one of the most thorough of biblical and historical studies of the doctrine and experience of entire sanctification, as emphasized by John Wesley, see George Allen Turner, The Vision Which Transforms (Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1965), 352 pp.

¹⁶Op. Cit., IV, 521.

¹⁷This prophecy is a peculiarly fertile source of what has come to be known as Arminianism. For a resumé of this theological stance, see Gerald O. McCulloh, Man's Faith and Freedom (N.Y.: Abingdon, 1962), 128 pp. See Rom. 8:4 as an outstanding “imparted righteousness” passage. Calvinists have often taught that God's requirements are fulfilled only in Christ, and not in the individual Christian. But Paul there says, “That the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4, ASV). See Daniel Steele's comments on this passage in his Half Hours with St. Paul (Chicago: The Christian Witness Co., 1909), p. 71.

¹⁸“Op cit., IV, 521. It is also worthy of note that this is the only Old Testament text included in John Wesley's famous “Thirty Texts” upon which he placed major emphasis in teaching Christian perfection.

¹⁹Op. cit., IV, 526.

²⁰Ibid.

²¹This might mean New Year's Day. According to Lev. 25:9 the tenth day of the seventh month was New Year's Day, although that special occasion was moved to the first day of the seventh month (Lev. 23:24; Num. 29:1). Cf. G. A. Cooke, “The Book of Ezekiel,” The International Critical Commentary (N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937), II, 429.

²²See Alfred Rahlfs, ed., op. Cit., p. 843.

²³This is probably Mt. Zion (see Ps. 48:2; Isa. 2:2).

²⁴Keil concludes, “The corpses of the kings are therefore the dead idols, for which the kings (for example Manasseh) had built altars or high places in the sanctuary, i.e., in the courts of the temple (II Kings 21:4, 5-7)” (Prophecies of Ezekiel, II, 281).

²⁵See Herbert G. May, op. Cit., p. 317, for a study of the measurements. The approximations in The Berkeley Version are helpful: ephah equals about one bushel; bath, about ten gallons; the homer or cor was equal to ten ephahs or baths. The shekel was a little more than half an ounce, and the gerah at one-twentieth of a shekel would be worth about four cents. The maneh was about one and one-half pounds.

²⁶Quoted without reference by Edwin Lewis, The Drew Gateway (Madison, N.J., University), spring issue, 1958.

²⁷The Doctrine of the Prophets (N.Y.: Macmillan, 1907), p. 521.

²⁸The Prophets: Elijah to Christ (Chicago: Fleming H. Reveil, 1917), p. 35.

²⁹Ibid., p. 46.

³⁰The Beacon Lights of Prophecy, p. vii.

³¹Sanhedrin XXXIV, col. 2.

Introduction

¹Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised 1940 (London: Oxford University Press, 1951), p. 201.

²Among these apocalypses, often called pseudepigrapha, are I and II Enoch, Book of Noah, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Assumption of Moses, Apocalypse of Baruch, Apocalypse of Abraham, Apocalypse of Elijah, Testament of Job, Syballine Oracles, Apocalypse of Peter, Apocalypse of Paul, Revelation of Bartholomew, and many others.

³Daniel the Prophet (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1885), pp. 308-10.

⁴The Prophecy of Daniel (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949), ad loc.

⁵Harold H. Rowley, Jewish. Apocalyptic and the Dead Sea Scrolls (London: Athlone Press, University of London, 1957), pp. 17, 23; Miller Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls (New Haven: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1950), pp. 28, 63.

II. The Chaldean Apocalypse, 2:1—7:28

¹“The Book of the Prophet Daniel,” Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, trans, by M. G. Easton (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1862), pp. 89-90.

²Voices from Babylon (Philadelphia: The Castle Press, 1879), pp. 96-105.

³Ibid., p. 342.

⁴Op. cit., pp. 131-32.

⁵Op. cit., p. 138.

⁶Ibid., pp. 149-51.

⁷R. P. Dougherty, Nabonidus and Belshazzar (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929), pp. 42-47, 59-66, 134, 192-200.

⁸Seiss, op. cit., p. 141.

⁹Ibid., pp. 141 ff.

¹⁰Keil, op. cit., p. 185.

¹¹R. P. Dougherty, op. cit., p. 94.

¹²Op. cit., pp. 139 ff.

¹³Antiquities of the Jews, Book X. 11. 4.

¹⁴Darius the Mede (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1959), pp. 66 ff.

¹⁵The Book of Daniel (Los Angeles: Bible House of Los Angeles, 1943), pp. 97-98.

¹⁶Keil supports this view and cites Hofmann, Ebrard, and Kliefoth in agreement; op. Cit., p. 226.

¹⁷E. B. Pusey, op. Cit., pp. 123-25.

¹⁸RSV and Berk, translate “thrones were placed” rather than thrones were cast down.

¹⁹The Oxford Annotated Bible, ed. Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 1078.

²⁰E. J. Young, The Messianic Prophecies of Daniel (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1954), p. 17.

²¹E. J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949), pp. 293-94.

²²Commentary on Daniel, trans. by Gleason L. Archer (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1938), p. 129.

²³C. F. Keil, op. cit., p. 241.

²⁴Arno C. Gaebelein, The Harmony of the Prophetic Word (New York: Fleming H. Reveil Co., 1907), p. 70.

²⁵E. J. Young, The Messianic Prophecies of Daniel, p. 30.

²⁶Ibid., pp. 31 ff.

²⁷Keil, op. cit., pp. 269-70; E. J. Young, The Messianic Prophecies of Daniel, pp. 27-28.

²⁸Young, ibid., pp. 40-41.

III. The Hebrew Apocalypse, 8:1—12:13

¹Op. cit., p. 283.

²Ibid, p. 291.

³Ibid.

⁴Commentary on Daniel, trans, by Gleason L. Archer, op. Cit., p. 86.

⁵For an interesting discussion of the place of angels in the divine scheme, cf. Arno C. Gabelein, Gabriel and Michael the Archangel (New York: Our Hope Publications, 1945).

⁶Jerome, op. cit., p. 63.

⁷Commentaries on the Book of Daniel, Vol. II, trans. by Thomas Myers (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1948 [reprint]), pp. 137-38, ⁸Op. cit., p. 349.

⁸“Seventy heptads”—7x7x10—is the period in which the divine work of greatest moment is brought to perfection. Consequently since these numbers represent periods of time, the length of which is not stated, and since they are symbolical, it is not warrantable to seek to discover the precise length of the sevens. This cannot be done, nor for that matter, can the length of any of the individual sevens be discovered or determined. …

⁹E. J. Young, The Prophecy of Daniel, pp. 192-94.

¹⁰Op. cit., pp. 95-96.

¹¹Op. cit., pp. 212-13.

¹²E. J. Young, The Messianic Prophecies of Daniel, pp. 56, 82.

¹³Op. cit., p. 400.

¹⁴Op. cit., pp. 184 ff.

¹⁵Op. cit., pp. 402-3.

¹⁶C. F. Keil identifies the Being who appeared to Daniel as The Angel of Jehovah, the divine Logos, and refers to Rev. 1:13 (op. Cit., p. 410).

¹⁷The translation in The Berkeley Version, together with the footnotes, will be a great help in understanding 11:5-35.

¹⁸Op. cit., pp. 129-31.

¹⁹The Prophecy of Daniel, p. 241.

²⁰Op. cit., pp. 279-86.

²¹Op. cit., II, 374.

²²Daniel the Prophet (New York: Fleming H. Reveil Co., n.d.), p. 58.

²³A Commentary and Critical Notes (Nashville: Abingdon Press, n.d.), IV, 618.

²⁴The Prophecy of Daniel, pp. 225, 258.

²⁵Op. cit., IV, 619.

²⁶Expositions of Holy Scripture (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1938), VI, 84-93.