B
Critital
0n M Srritxtris 0f (jplfr anfr
UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF
THE REV. CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, D.D.
Professor of Theological Encyclopedia and Symbolics
Union Theological Seminary, New York
THE REV. SAMUEL ROLLES DRIVER, D.D.
Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford
THE REV. ALFRED PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
Late Master of University College, Durham
The International
Critical Commentary
On the Holy Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments
EDITORS' PREFACE
THERE are now before the public many Commentaries,
written by British and American divines, of a popular
or homiletical character. The Cambridge Bible for
Schools, the Handbooks for Bible Classes and Private Students,
The Speaker's Commentary, The Popular Commentary (Schaff),
The Expositor 1 s Bible, and other similar series, have their
special place and importance. But they do not enter into the
field of Critical Biblical scholarship occupied by such series of
Commentaries as the Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum
A. T. ; De Wette's Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum
N. T. ; Meyer's Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar ; Keil and
Delitzsch's Biblischer Commentar uber das A. T. ; Lange's
Theologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerk ; Nowack's Handkommentar
zum A. T. ; Holtzmann's Handkommentar zum N. T. Several
of these have been translated, edited, and in some cases enlarged
and adapted, for the English-speaking public ; others are in
process of translation. But no corresponding series by British
or American divines has hitherto been produced. The way has
been prepared by special Commentaries by Cheyne, Ellicott,
Kalisch, Lightfoot, Perowne, Westcott, and others; and the
time has come, in the judgment of the projectors of this enter-
prise, when it is practicable to combine British and American
scholars in the production of a critical, comprehensive
Commentary that will be abreast of modern biblical scholarship,
and in a measure lead its van.
THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL COMMENTARY
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons of New York, and Messrs.
T. & T. Clark of Edinburgh, propose to publish such a series
of Commentaries on the Old and New Testaments, under the
editorship of Prof. C. A. BRIGGS, D.D., D.Litt, in America, and
of Prof. S. R. DRIVER, D.D., D.Litt., for the Old Testament, and
the Rev. ALFRED PLUMMER, D.D., for the New Testament, in
Great Britain.
The Commentaries will be international and inter-confessional,
and will be free from polemical and ecclesiastical bias. They
will be based upon a thorough critical study of the original texts
of the Bible, and upon critical methods of interpretation. They
are designed chiefly for students and clergymen, and will be
written in a compact style. Each book will be preceded by an
Introduction, stating the results of criticism upon it, and discuss-
ing impartially the questions still remaining open. The details
of criticism will appear in their proper place in the body of the
Commentary. Each section of the Text will be introduced
with a paraphrase, or summary of contents. Technical details
of textual and philological criticism will, as a rule, be kept
distinct from matter of a more general character ; and in the
Old Testament the exegetical notes will be arranged, as far as
possible, so as to be serviceable to students not acquainted with
Hebrew. The History of Interpretation of the Books will be
dealt with, when necessary, in the Introductions, with critical
notices of the most important literature of the subject. Historical
and Archaeological questions, as well as questions of Biblical
Theology, are included in the plan of the Commentaries, but
not Practical or Homiletical Exegesis. The Volumes will con-
stitute a uniform series.
The International Critical Commentary
ARRANGEMENT OF VOLUMES AND AUTHORS
THE OLD TESTAMENT
GENESIS. The Rev. JOHN SKINNER, D.D., Principal and Professor of
Old Testament Language and Literature, College of Presbyterian Church
of England, Cambridge, England. [Now Ready.
EXODUS. The Rev. A. R. S. KENNEDY, D.D., Professor of Hebrew,
University of Edinburgh.
LEVITICUS. J. F. STENNING, M.A., Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford.
NUMBERS. The Rev. G. BUCHANAN GRAY, D.D., Professor of Hebrew,
Mansfield College, Oxford. '[Now Ready.
DEUTERONOMY. The Rev. S. R. DRIVER, D.D., D.Litt., Regius Pro-
fessor of Hebrew, Oxford. \Now Ready.
JOSHUA. The Rev. GEORGE ADAM SMITH, D.D., LL.D., Principal of the
University of Aberdeen.
JUDGES. The Rev. GEORGE MOORE, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Theol-
ogy, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. [Now Ready.
SAMUEL. The Rev. H. P. SMITH, D.D., Professor of Old Testament
Literature and History of Religion, Meadville, Pa. [Now Ready.
KINGS. The Rev. FRANCIS BROWN, D.D., D.Litt, LL.D., President
and Professor of Hebrew and Cognate Languages, Union Theological
Seminary, New York City.
CHRONICLES. The Rev. EDWARD L. CURTIS, D.D., Professor of
Hebrew, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. [Now Ready.
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. The Rev. L. W. BATTEN, Ph.D., D.D., Pro-
fessor of Old Testament Literature, General Theological Seminary, New
York City.
PSALMS. The Rev. CHAS. A. BRIGGS, D.D., D.Litt., Graduafe Fro.
fessor of Theological Encyclopaedia and Symbolics, Union Theological
Seminary, New York. [2 vols. Now Ready
PROVERBS. The Rev. C. H. TOY, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Hebrew,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. [Now Ready.
JOB. The Rev. S. R. DRIVER, D.D., D.Litt. Regius Professor of He-
brew. Oxford.
THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL COMMENTARY
ISAIAH. Chaps. I-XXVII. The Rev. G. BUCHANAN GRAY, D.D., Pro-
fessor of Hebrew, Mansfield College, Oxford. [Now Ready.
ISAIAH. Chaps. XXVIII-LXVI. The Rev. A. S. PEAKE, M.A., D.D.,
Dean of the Theological Faculty of the Victoria University and Professor of
Biblical Exegesis in the University of Manchester, England.
JEREMIAH. The Rev. A. F. KIRKPATRICK, D.D., Dean of Ely, sometime
Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge, England.
EZEKIEL. The Rev. G. A. COOKE, M.A., Oriel Professor of the Interpre-
tation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, and the Rev. CHARLES F.
BURNEY, D.Litt., Fellow and Lecturer in Hebrew, St. John's College,
Oxford.
DANIEL. The Rev. JOHN P. PETERS, Ph.D., D.D., sometime Professor
of Hebrew, P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia, now Rector of St. Michael's
Church, New York City.
AMOS AND HOSEA. W. R. HARPER, Ph.D., LL.D., sometime President
of the University of Chicago, Illinois. [Now Ready.
MICAH, ZEPHANIAH, NAHUM, HABAKKUK, OBADIAH, AND JOEL.
Prof. JOHN P. SMITH, University of Chicago; W. HAYES WARD, D.D., LL.D.,
Editor of The Independent, New York; Prof. JULIUS A. BEWER, Union
Theological Seminary, New York. [Now Ready.
ZECHAR1AH TO JONAH. Prof. H. G. MITCHELL, D.D., Prof. JOHN P.
SMITH and Prof. J. A. BEWER. [In Press.
ESTHER. The Rev. L. B. PATON, Ph.D., Professor of Hebrew, Hart-
ford Theological Seminary. [Now Ready.
ECCLESIASTES. Prof. GEORGE A. BARTON, Ph.D., Professor of Bibli-
cal Literature, Bryn Mawr College, Pa. [Now Ready,
RUTH, SONG OF SONGS AND LAMENTATIONS. Rev. CHARLES A.
BRIGGS, D.D., D.Litt., Graduate Professor of Theological Encyclopaedia
and Symbolics, Union Theological Seminary, New York.
THE NEW TESTAMENT
ST. MATTHEW. The Rev. WiLLOUGHBY C. ALLEN, M.A., Fellow and
Lecturer in Theology and Hebrew, Exeter College, Oxford. \Noie Ready.
ST. MARK. Rev. E. P. GOULD, D.D., sometime Professor of New Testa-
ment Literature, P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia. [Now Ready.
ST. LUKE. The Rev. ALFRED PLUMMER, D.D., sometime Master of
University College, Durham. \Njw Ready.
THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL COMMENTARY
ST. JOHN. The Very Rev. JOHN HENRY BERNARD, D.D., Dean of St.
Patrick's and Lecturer in Divinity, University of Dublin.
HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS. The Rev. WILLIAM SANDAY, D.D.,
LL.D., Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford, ana the Rev. WlL-
LOUGHBY C. ALLEN, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer in Divinity and Hebrew,
Exeter College, Oxford.
ACTS. The Rev. C. H. TURNER, D.D., Fellow of Magdalen College,
Oxford, and the Rev. H. N. BATE, M.A., Examining Chaplain to the
Bishop of London.
ROMANS. The Rev. WILLIAM SANDAY, D.D., LL.D., Lady Margaret
Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Rev.
A. C. HEADLAM, M.A., D.D., Principal of King's College, London.
[Now Ready.
I. CORINTHIANS. The Right Rev. ARCH ROBERTSON, D.D., LL.D.,
Lord Bishop of Exeter, and Rev. ALFRED PLUMMER, D.D., late Master of
University College, Durham. [Now Ready.
II. CORINTHIANS. The Rev. DAWSON WALKER, D.D., Theological
Tutor in the University of Durham.
GALATIANS. The Rev. ERNEST D. BURTON. D.D., Professor of New
Testament Literature, University of Chicago.
EPHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS. The Rev. T. K. ABBOTT, B.D.,
D.Litt., sometime Professor of Biblical Greek, Trinity College, Dublin,
now Librarian of the same. [Now Ready.
PHILIPPIANS AND PHILEMON. The Rev. MARVIN R VINCENT,
D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature, Union Theological Seminary, New
York City. [Now Ready.
THESSALONIANS. The Rev. JAMES E. FRAME, M.A., Professor of
Biblical Theology, Union Theological Seminary, New York City.
[/ Press.
THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. The Rev. WALTER LOCK, D.D., Warden
of Keble College and Professor of Exegesis, Oxford.
HEBREWS. The Rev. JAMES MOFFATT, D.D., Minister United Free
Church, Broughty Ferry, Scotland.
ST. JAMES. The Rev. JAMES II. ROPES, D.D., Bussey Professor of New
Testament Criticism in Harvard University.
PETER AND JUDE. The Rev. CHARLES BIGG, D.D., sometime Regius
Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.
[Now Ready.
EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. The Rev. E. A. BROOKE, B.D., Fellow
and Divinity Lecturer in King's College, Cambridge.
REVELATION. The Rev. ROBERT H. CHARLES, M.A., D.D., sometime
Professor of Biblical Greek in the University of Dublin.
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
GEORGE BUCHANAN GRAY
VOL. I
I DEPAR^
Y
AL CRITICAL COMMENTARY
A
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL
COMMENTARY V; v\
ON
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
I-XXXIX
BY
GEORGE BUCHANAN GRAY, D.D., D.LlTT.
PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS
IN MANSFIELD COLLEGE, OXFORD
XL-LXVI
BY
ARTHUR S. PEAKE, D.D.
RYLANDS PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL EXEGESIS
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
INTRODUCTION, AND COMMENTARY ON I-XXVII t
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1912
BS
OoD
.z
,
Rights of Translation and Reproduction are Reserved
PREFACE.
THIS Commentary should have been written by another ;
and all who are in any way familiar with the work of the
late Dr. A. B. Davidson, and conscious of the profound
sympathy and penetrating insight that he always brought
to the interpretation of Scripture, must regret that he had
made no substantial progress with the Commentary, which
the editors of this series had entrusted to him, at the time
when Christian scholarship and Christian life were left the
poorer by his death.
After Dr. Davidson's death, the editors, with a view to
the speedier completion of this series, decided to make the
Commentary on Isaiah the work of two writers; and at
their request I undertook the preparation of the Com-
mentary on chs. 1-39. For the present volume I am,
then, entirely responsible ; and, owing to the unequal size
of the two main parts of the Book of Isaiah, the con-
clusion of my work must be held over for the second
volume, which will also contain Dr. Peake's Commentary
on chs. 40-66, completing the work.
For the general Introduction to the entire book I am
also solely responsible, though Dr. Peake, who has read
it, is in general agreement with it, and in particular with
such references as it contains to chs. 40-66. The more
special Introduction to those chapters will be written by
him, and appear in vol. ii. The second volume will also
contain full Indexes to the whole work.
I cannot claim, as I could in writing my Preface to
V
Vi PREFACE
the Commentary on Numbers, in this series, that the lack
of recent Commentaries is in itself sufficient justification
for the publication of a new one. Once again I have
been able to avail myself of the learning of Dillmann,
with on this occasion the additions or corrections of
Kittel ; but as a commentator on Isaiah, Dillmann stands
far less alone. Like all who have devoted themselves to
the study of Isaiah since 1892, I am profoundly indebted
to the Commentary of Bernhard Duhm, as my frequent
references to him may be left to show ; frequently agree-
ing with him, I have also frequently differed from him ;
but often when I have differed, I have differed because
I first have learnt from him. In some respects Duhm
seems to me to have led those astray who have followed
him too closely, and particularly by his line- and strophe-
divisions; but that is only a small offset to the really
great service which he has rendered. Marti in brief com-
pass has found it possible to advance frequently beyond
Duhm ; and to his work I have constantly turned, and
seldom unrewarded. But to come now nearer home.
Two names of Oxford scholars should always be associ-
ated with the study of Isaiah: they are those of Robert
Lowth (Introduction, 44) and T. K. Cheyne. The
Commentary of the latter at the end of last century for
long stood out conspicuous, in the general dearth of good
English Commentaries on the Old Testament; it was
itself the successor of earlier and valuable works on
Isaiah, and it has been succeeded and, in some measure
superseded, by his later works, especially (though even
these are not his latest discussions of Isaiah) his edition
of the Hebrew text and of an English Translation with
notes in Haupt's Sacred Books of the Old Testament.
But the English student is also happy in the possession
of excellent shorter Commentaries by Skinner (Cambridge
Bible), Whitehouse (Century Bible}, and Wade (West-
minster Commentaries). The last appeared too recently
to be of much use to me in the preparation of this volume.
Briefer still, but admirable also, and to be commended in
PREFACE Vii
particular because, as in Dr. Skinner's, the text is printed
in poetical form, is McFadyen's Commentary in The Bible
for Home and School. Of works not taking the form of
a Commentary it must suffice to refer to Driver's Isaiah:
His Life and Times, the famous volumes in the Expositors
Bible by the distinguished Principal of Aberdeen Uni-
versity, and to the translations in poetical form by Box
(1908), Glazebrook (Studies in the Book of Isaiah, 1910),
and Kent (in the Students' Old Testament : The Sermons,
Epistles, and Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets, 1910). But
my purpose here is not to compile a catalogue, or to re-
peat what will be found elsewhere (pp. xvi ff.) ; sufficient
has been said to show that recent works on Isaiah are
lacking neither in quality nor in quantity. One other
work in French may be referred to; I have found
Condamin's Livre d'Isate (1905) valuable not only for its
intrinsic merits, but because it is based on a different
theory of rhythm, and it frequently criticises the work
of writers with whom, in general, I am in greater agree-
ment.
I have made no attempt to record opinions with any-
thing approaching the fullness of reference that marks
Harper's Commentary on Amos and Hosea in this series.
Consideration of space alone forbade it ; two volumes for
a commentary on what, after all, is a short book may seem
ample, yet they are but little when compared with the
1600 double-columned folio pages of Vitringa, or even the
1600 smaller pages of Gesenius. But I have endeavoured
to discharge that part of my duty which consists in atten-
tion to the history of exegesis : if I have seldom or never
referred to some Commentaries of the I9th century, though
they were excellent in their day, it is because much that
was said in them, as much that is said in my own, has an
earlier origin. I have made constant use of Jerome's
Commentary as a good example of patristic scholarship
and exegesis, and as the source of so much that served
throughout the Middle Ages, and of not a little that is
rightly repeated to-day. Another important source of
viii PREFACE
interpretation is to be found in the work of the mediaeval
Jewish scholars, among whom I have chiefly consulted
Rashi, Kimhi, and Ibn Ezra. I have made more occa-
sional use of, or at least more limited reference to, Calvin,
Grotius, Vitringa, and Koppe; but with Gesenius' great
Commentary (1821) comes a fresh and plentiful source
of valuable information and suggestion ; it still repays
constant use of it ; Hitzig and Ewald, among those who
fill up the time before the recent writers to whom 1 have
referred, also made characteristic contributions to the
interpretation of Isaiah.
The task of interpreting the Book of Isaiah is by no
means complete; and this is largely because the philo-
logical basis is as yet far from secure. This cannot be
conveniently discussed in briefer commentaries ; but as a
contributor to the present series I have, as in duty bound,
devoted much attention to it. I might be more satisfied
with the result of my labours if I could feel that two or
three important fields of inquiry were really worked out.
As it is, I must at least indicate here what appear to
me certain general grounds for considering much of the
interpretation tentative and uncertain.
I. The text is frequently corrupt, frequently at least
open to suspicion of corruption, even where it has very
generally been accepted without demur. Ultimately in
many passages we shall always be driven back on conjec-
ture ; but I am persuaded that the evidence of the Greek
version has not been as yet completely and accurately
sifted (cp. Introduction, 4).
Another but partially worked out subject that bears
very considerably on the soundness of the text, and often
in consequence on interpretation, is that of metre or
rhythm. I came to the study of Isaiah still sceptical on
the subject of Hebrew metre; I remain sceptical of the
finality of any existing theory of it ; but the approxima-
tion to regularity in the parallel periods is too striking
to be neglected, and I have systematically drawn atten-
tion to it in the small print notes prefixed to the trans-
PREFACE IX
lations: at the same time I have endeavoured to make
the irregularities, which in the present text at all events
are frequent, as obvious as the approximations to regu-
larity. At the present stage metrical arguments alone
appear to me a precarious textual criterion, but as con-
firmatory of other considerations they often have value.
I discuss the matter more fully in the Introduction
( 44-57).
2. Uncertainty of another kind is due to the in-
sufficiency of our historical knowledge. The brilliant
genius of Winckler, in particular, has started many theories
of ancient history, geography, and thought which, if sound,
would largely modify the interpretation of the Book of
Isaiah, as well as most of our conceptions of the history
of Israel and the influence of the Jews on religion and
history. I have not found myself able to go very far in
adopting these theories, but the discussions of Winckler
and others serve at least to throw into relief the in-
adequacy of our knowledge of the facts (as distinguished
from theories based upon them) of that history which
must form the background to the Book of Isaiah.
The plan of the present series provides for a trans-
lation of the poetical parts of the Old Testament : this
has called for a translation of by far the greater part of
the Book of Isaiah, virtually, indeed, of the whole of it
apart from chs. 36-39. I have aimed at making my
translations the pivot of the Commentary ; apart from it
they have, indeed, little claim to consideration ; I have
deliberately, where necessary, sacrificed form and style, in
order to make them as expressive as possible of what
I understand the Hebrew text to mean, but also of the
numerous uncertainties which appear to me at present
to beset the text. For this reason I have introduced
many marks of interrogation; and as additional marks
of interrogation I would suggest that the single inverted
commas, which indicate emendation, should be regarded :
few emendations are certain, though many enable us to
approximate more closely to the original thought of the
X PREFACE
writer than do the prevalent conjectural translations of
the existing Hebrew text. By conjectural translation
I mean translations that rest on ancient or modern guesses
at the meaning of words or phrases, and either lack sup-
port in usage and etymology altogether, or obtain the
semblance of such support only by means of improbable
inferences from actual usage (see, e.g., p. 458 top). In
some cases, if any translation at all is attempted, there is
no escape from guessing, and it is merely a question
whether the guess shall take the form of conjectural
emendation, or of conjectural translation.* Where the
sense seemed to me hopelessly obscure, and any prevalent
conjectural rendering or reading more likely to conceal
than to illumine the meaning of the passage as a whole,
1 have preferred to leave words or lines entirely un-
translated.
I would draw attention here to what I have discussed
more fully in the Introduction : the line divisions of the
translations are determined by regard for parallelism and
with disregard of rhythm or metre, where this conflicts
with parallelism.
In general, I have given entire in the translations what
appears to me to constitute a single poem, and no more ;
occasionally, for particular purposes, I have, however,
brought together in translation what may be a collection
of one or more poems, or fragments, rather than a single
poem (see, e.g., I 1 " 17 5 8 " 24 ). The small print in the transla-
tions indicates the possibility that the words in question
are intrusive ; but the degree of uncertainty so indicated
varies greatly ; in some cases it is very slight.
So many features of these Commentaries are now
familiar that they call for no special explanation here.
But to one detail I must refer. I have in general followed
* I have discussed these alternatives in an essay entitled English Versions
and the Text of the Old Testament (in Mansfield College Essays, presented to
the Reverend A. M, Fairbaim, D.D., London, 1909), and both in that
Essay and in Hastings' Smaller Dictionary of the Bible, art. Text, Versions,
and Languages, 40, I have given illustrations of conjectural translation in
the EV. See also S. R. Driver, Expositor, Jan. 1910, p. 23.
PREFACE XI
Swete's text of the Greek version, accepting his authority
in matters of accentuation, etc., when I had no occasion
to question it. But one principle of accentuation followed
in that text is misleading in relation to many, of the more
or less minute, points of philology. I refer to the accen-
tuation of the proper names and of transliterations of
Hebrew words, for which there is no authority in the
oldest Greek MSS. In Swete's text the accentuation of
the later MSS is abandoned, and the Greek forms in
question are accentuated in accordance with the accentua-
tion of the vocalised Hebrew of the Massoretic text.*
Unfortunately, owing to a misunderstanding, the accentua-
tion of Swete's text has been allowed to stand in some of
the transliterations cited in this Commentary; it was in-
tended that all such words should have been consistently,
as they are frequently, left without accent as in Lagarde's
edition, and in the names cited in EBi. For the same
reason, breathings (which in Swete's text are inserted in
accordance with the existing Massoretic Hebrew text, so
that they possess no authority of their own) are omitted.
Unless, in common with most modern writers on
Isaiah, I am fundamentally wrong in the conclusion that
the Book of Isaiah is not, as we have received it, the work
of Isaiah, it must be one of the main tasks of a com-
mentator on the book to disengage the work of that
prophet from the accretions which it has received, and so
to recover, as I have attempted to do in the last division
of the Introduction, the spirit and teaching of a single
personality in place of the confused and composite form
that must present itself, if we attempt to treat the entire
book as the work of a single mind. This, I say, is one
of the tasks of the commentator ; another is, of course, to
do the same service for the author of the main part of
chs. 40-55. But there is yet another; and that is to do
justice to other contributors ,to the book, and, above all,
to approach with sympathy the work of, perhaps, many
nameless writers that now forms so large a part of it.
* Swete, Old Testament in Greek, i. p. xiii.
Xli PREFACE
No full justice can be done to a book which is a great
monument of Jewish religion after the Exile, if all our
attention is devoted to determining whether this or that
passage is " genuine," and dismissing it as not " genuine/'
if it is not the work of Isaiah. In reference to works such
as the Book of Isaiah, the term " genuine " is indeed
misleading. None of these nameless writers may have
possessed the religious genius of Isaiah, but together they
represent the play of the earlier prophetic teaching on the
Jewish Church. In religion, as elsewhere, great person-
alities count first, and it is the privilege of a student of
the Book of Isaiah to come face to face with one, if not
two, such personalities : but the religious community is
the necessary outcome, or field of action, of the great
religious personality and his teaching, and the student
of the Book of Isaiah has but half entered into his inherit-
ance, if he communes with Isaiah and the great exilic
prophet, but fails to feel the life of that post-exilic
religious community which not only preserved for them-
selves and for us the words of the earlier prophets, but
preserved them in books which were also made to breathe
the hopes and aspirations that sustained the Jews through
centuries of isolation, oppression, and temptation.
I cannot bring this Preface to a close without acknow-
ledging my gratitude to Dr. Driver for the help which
I have again received from his reading of my proofs, and
the numerous suggestions which he has made with regard
to them. These have withheld me, at times at least, from
unsafe places, and they have enabled me to enrich my
Commentary ; my only regret is that, without more
extensive alteration of the printed sheets than seemed
reasonable, I could not enrich it still more from the same
source.
G. BUCHANAN GRAY.
December 1911.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED, . , . . xv
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA, , . . . xxi
INTRODUCTION, ....... xxiii
1-3. Title and Place in the Canon, .... xxiii
4. Text and Versions, ..... xxv
5~7 The Book of Isaiah a post-exilic Compilation, . . xxix
8-40. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah, . . xxxii
(1) External Evidence, .... xxxii
(2) The Greek Version and the Prophetic Canon, . xxxix
(3) The testimony of the Book of Isaiah to itself, . xlv
(4) Prophetic teaching and Prophetic literature, . liii
(5) Tentative synthesis from the preceding evidence, Iv
titeria for distinguishing the words of Isaiah from the
additions of later writers, . . . . Ivii
44*57' The poetic forms of the Prophetic literature, and of the
Book of Isaiah in particular, . . . . lix
5^-76. Isaiah in relation to the political and social conditions
of his age, ...... Ixviii
77-89- Isaiah as Prophet and Teacher, .... Ixxxi
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, ...... xcvii
COMMENTARY, ....... i
MAP I. Egypt, Syria and Assyria . . . To face title-page
,, 2. Moab and part of Judah, to illustrate the Commentary on
Is lo 37 ' 83 15. 16, . . . To face page 273
xiil
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED.
Aq.
AV.
EV.
MT
OT.
RV.
a, . .
& .
Symm. .
.
Theod. .
i. TEXTS AND VERSIONS.
Aquila (p. xxvi).
Authorised Version.
English Version.
The Massoretic Text (i.e. the vocalised text of the
Hebrew Bible). Variants in the Hebrew codices
have been cited from De Rossi, Variae Lectionts
Vet. Test., vol iii., or R. Kittel, Biblia Hebraica.
Old Testament.
Revised Version.
The Greek (LXX) Version of the Old Testament
(ed. Swete, Cambridge, 1887-1894). The readings
of the codices are, when necessary, distinguished
thus: (5r A (5 B (Alexandrian, Vatican, etc.). For
the cursives, reference has been made to Vet. Test.
Graece, cum varits lectionibus, ed. Holmes, Oxon.
1798, which is cited as HP followed by a numeral.
Jewish recension of the Hebrew (unvocalised) text,
i.e. the consonants of the ordinary Hebrew MSS
and printed Bibles.
The consonants of the traditional Hebrew Text (fa)
irrespective of the present word divisions and after
the removal of the vowel consonants : see p. xxv.
Old Latin version of (5r : see p. xxix n. *
The Syriac Version (Peshi^to).
Symmachus (p. xxvi).
The Jewish Aramaic Version or Targum (p. xxvi).
Theodotion (p. xxvi).
Vulgate.
XVI
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED
2. AUTHOR'S NAMES AND BOOKS.
[See also the literature cited at the beginning of several sections of the
Commentary ; the works thus given are, within the section, often cited by
the author's name only.]
AJSL .
ATAO .
Baud. .
BDB
Box, G. E. .
Breasted, J. H.
Bredenkamp, C. J. .
Che[yne], T. K.
CIS
Cond[amin], A.
COT .
Dav[idson], A. B. .
DB
Del[itzsch, Franz] .
Del.
Di[llmann, A.] .
Dr[iver, S. R.]
American Journal of Semitic Languages and Litera-
ture.
See Jeremias.
W. W. von Baudissin, Einleitung in die Bticher des
Alien Testaments, 1901.
A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
based on the Lexicon and Thesaurus of Gesem'us,
by F. Brown, C. A. Briggs, and S. R. Driver,
Oxford, 1906.
The Book of Isaiah, 1908.
(1) A History of Egypt, 1906;
(2) Ancient Records of Egypt, 1906 (a collection of
Egyptian historical texts, transliterated, translated,
and annotated).
Der Prophet Jesaja erlautert, 1886-1887.
PI= The Prophecies of Isaiah, ed. 5, 1889 ;
Introd= Introduction to the Book of Isaiah, 1895 ;
SBOT, see SBOT below.
Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Paris, 1881 ff.
Le Livre d'lsa'ie, 1905.
The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the OT. ; a transla-
tion (London, 1885), by O. C. Whitehouse, of the
second edition of Die Keilinschriften und das alte
Testament (abbreviated KAT), by Eb. Schrader.
References are given to the pages of the 2nd
German edition which are marked in the margin
of the translation.
A third edition of the German work (KAT*) has
been edited (and indeed entirely rewritten) by H.
Zimmern and H. Winckler (1903).
Hebrew Syntax (Edin. 1894).
Dictionary of the Bible, and in particular A Diction-
ary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings (Edin.
1898-1902).
Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah
(translated from the 4th edition, 1889), Edin. 1890.
In reference to Assyrian matters stands for Friedrich
Delitzsch (especially Assyrisches Handworterbuch,
1896).
Der Prophet Jesaja, 1890.
(1) A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew
(ed. 3, Oxford, 1892).
(2) An Introduction to the Literature of the OT
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED
XV11
Du[hm, B.] .
EBi.
Eich[horn, J. G. L.]
Ew[ald, H.] .
Exp.
Ges[enius, W.]
Ges-B. .
Giesebrecht, Fried. .
G K.
Gressmann, H. .
Hal[evy, L]
Hackmann, H.
Hitz[ig, F.] .
Houb[igant, C. F.] .
HPN .
Ibn Ezra, Abraham
(t"67)
JBLit. .
Jer[ome] (t 420)
Jeremias, A. . .
JPh
JThS
KAT
KB
Kennett, R. .
VOL. I. b
(abbreviated LOT), cited according to the pagina-
tion of ed. 8 (Edin. 1909), which is also that of
editions 6 and 7.
Das Buchjesaia, 1892 (ed. 2, 1902).
Encyclopaedia Biblica, edited by T. K. Cheyne and
J. S. Black, 1899-1903.
(1) Einleitung in das Alte Testament ', ed. 2, 1787;
(2) Die Hebrdischen Propheten, 1816-1819.
Die Propheten des Alien Bundes, ed. 2, 1867, 1868.
The Expositor.
Der Prophet Jesaja, 1821.
Wilhelm Gesenius' Hebrdisches und Aramdisches
Handworterbuch uber das Alte Testament . . .
bearbeitet von Frants Buhl, 1910.
Beitrdge zur Jesaiakritik, 1890.
Gcsenius* Hebrew Grammar, as edited and enlarged
by the late E. Kautzsck . . . second English
edition, revised in accordance -with the twenty -
eighth German edition (1909), by A. Cowley,
1910.
Der Ursprung der israclitisch-judischen Eschatologie,
1905-
Le Livre cTIsaie (in course of publication in Revue,
Semitique : carried down to ch. xxii., July 1911).
Die Zukutiftsemvartung des fesaia, 1893.
Der Prophet Jesaja, 1833.
Biblia Hebraica cum notis criticis et versione latitta,
t. IV) Prophetae posteriores, Paris, 1753.
Studies in Hebrew Proper Names, by G. Buchanan
Gray, 1896.
Hebrew Commentary on Isaiah in Buxtorf's Biblia
Rabbinica.
Journal of Biblical Literature (Mass., U.S.A.).
Commentariorum in Isaiam libri octo et decem, in
Migne's Patrologia Latina, vol. 24.
(1) ATAO = Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alien
Orients (ed. 2, 1906) ; English translation by
C. L. Beaumont (1911) ;
(2) BNTBabylonisches im Neuen Testament, 1905.
Journal of Philology.
Journal of Theological Studies.
See COT.
Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, ed. Eb. Schrader (Berlin,
1889 ff.).
A collection of Assyrian and Babylonian texts
transliterated and translated into German by various
scholars.
The Composition of the Book of Isaiah, 1910.
XV111
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED
K i [m h i, David]
(t 1230)
Kit[tel, R.] .
K6n[ig, Ed.] .
Koppe, J. B. , .
Kue[nen, A.] . .
Lag[arde, P. de]
Levy, J. .
Liebmann
LOT .
Lowth, R.
Luzzatto, S, D. .
Marti, K.
Meinhold, J. .
NHB .
Numbers
NSE .
NSI
Onont. . .
Oo.
Or[elli, C. von]
Ottley, R. R. .
PEFQuSt. .
PRE .
Rashi .
Hebrew Commentary on Isaiah in Buxtorf's Biblia
Rabbinica.
(1) Der Prophet Jesaja, a new edition (1898) of Di. ;
(2) Biblia Hebraica, 1906.
Historisch- Kritisches Lehrgebdude der Hebrdischen
Sprache, 1881, 1895 : tne concluding volume (cited
as Kon. iii. or simply Kon.) appeared in 1897 with
a fresh title, Historisch- Comparative Syntax der
Hebrdischen Sprache.
The references to the Syntax are to the sections, but
the references to the earlier volumes are to the pages.
D. R. LowtKs Jesaias . . . mit Zusdtzen und
Anmerkungen, 17796*".
Historisch - critisch Onderzoek . . . Tweede detl, De
Profetische Boeken des ouden verbondes, 1889.
(1) Semitica, i., 1878;
(2) Uebersicht iiber die . . . iiblichc Bildung der
Nomina : abbreviated BN.
NHB = Neuhebrdisches u. Chalddisches Wb'rtcrbuch.
See p. 397.
See Dr.
Isaiah: a new translation; with a preliminary
dissertation, and notes, critical, philological, ana
explanatory, 1778 (ed. 3, 1795, has been used).
// Profeta Isaia volgarizzato e commentato ad uso deg?
Israeliti, 1867 (an Italian translation with Hebrew
Commentary).
Das Buch Jesaja, 1900.
Die Jesajaerzdhhmgen Jesaja 36-39, 1 898.
See Levy.
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of
Numbers, by George Buchanan Gray, 1903.
Lidzbarski, Handbuch der Nordsem. Epigraphik, 1898.
G. A. Cooke, A Text-book of North- Semitic Inscrip-
tions, 1903.
Onomastica Sacra, ed. Lagarde (Gott. 1887).
This contains several ancient Onomastica, includ-
ing those of Eusebius and Jerome.
H. Oort (see p. 397).
The Prophecies of Isaiah (English translation by J. S.
Banks, 1889), 8 I9O4.
Isaiah according to the Septuagint, 1904, 1906.
Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement.
Herzog's Real-Encyklopddie fur Protestantische 7'heo-
logie u. Kirche ; 3rd edition, by A. Hauck.
Rfabboni] Sh[elomoh] Y[ishaki] (1040-1105).
Hebrew Commentary on Isaiah in Buxtorf's
Biblia Rabbinica.
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED
XIX
Rev. Bibl.
Rogers, R. W.
Saad. . .
SBOT
Sievers, E. .
Skinner, J.
Smith, G. A. .
Sta[de, B.] .
Th. Tiljd.] .
TSK .
Vitr[inga, C.] .
Wade, G. W. .
Whitehouse, O. C.
ZATW .
ZDMG .
ZDPV .
Revue Biblique Internationale publife par
pratique deludes Bibliques f labile au couvent
Dominicain Saint- Etiennc de Jerusalem (Paris).
A History of Babylonia and Assyria^ ed. 2, 1901.
Saadiah (f942).
7'he Sacred Books of the Old 7estament t ed. Paul
Haupt. (Part IO, The Book of Jsaiah, by T. K.
Cheyne Hebrew Text, 1899 ; English translation,
1898.)
Aletrische Studien. i. Studien zur hebrdischen
Metrik, Erster Theil ; Untersuchungen : Zweiter
Theil ; Textproben (including Is 1-5. 14. 37 22ff - 40).
These studies are published in the Abhandlungen
der Philologisch-Historischen Classe der Konig.
Sdchsichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften^ Ein-
undzwanzigstcr Band (1901).
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah (vol. I (i.-xxxix.),
1896; vol. 2 (xl.-lxvi.), 1898), in The Cambridge
Bible for Schools and Colleges.
The Book of Isaiah, 1889, 1890.
Lehrbuch der Hebrdischen Grammatik, 1879.
Theologisch Tijdschrift (Leiden).
Theologische Studien u. Kritiken (Gotha).
Commentarius in librtim prophetiarum Jesaiae . . .
editio nova, Leovardiae, 1724.
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah (1911).
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah ( Century Bible), i. ,
1905-
Zeitschrijt fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft.
Zeitschrift des deutschen morgenldndischcn Gesell-
schaft.
Zeitschrift der deutschen Palastina- Vereins.
Biblical passages are cited according to the Hebrew enumeration of
chapters and verses : where this differs from the English enumeration, the
reference to the latter has commonly (except in the philological notes) been
added in a parenthesis.
The sign t, following a series of references, indicates that all examples
of the phrase, word, or form in question, occurring in the OT, have been
quoted.
The single inverted comma (e.g. "and 'he' strikes bargains," 2 6 ) is used
to indicate departures from the Hebrew consonantal text ; such readings are
not necessarily conjectural ; many rest on the evidence of <Br.
al.=alii (others).
Cp. = Compare.
Ct. = Contrast.
NH = New Hebrew (the language of the Mishnah, etc.).
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA.
P. 69 (phil. n. on 3 14 ) ; also p. 80 (n. on 4 4 ), p. 86 (n. on 5*),
p. in (n. and phil. n. on 6 13 ). Whether or not "W3, to exter-
minate^ also developed the specific meaning to exterminate by
depasturing, or whether or not "PJD, a (domestic) beast, gave rise
to a denominative vb. meaning to depasture, depasturing seems
to be in the writer's mind both in 3 14 , where the treatment of the
vineyard, however reckless and destructive, is yet probably con-
ceived as yielding some profit (cp. v. 14d ) to the persons ad-
dressed, and in 5 5 where destruction by animals is suggested by
the parallel D"ID. In these passages, therefore, even if depasture
could not be defended as a literal rendering, it might be admitted
as a paraphrase bringing out the particular form of destruction
which was probably in the writer's mind. If the text of J^ in
Ex 22 4 was sound, and not, as it probably is, corrupt (see, e.g.,
Dr. ad loc), 1V3 might perhaps be a denominative of Tya, beast ;
in this case it might either mean to depasture, or merely (being
quite synonymous with njn) to graze. But, apart from the very
doubtful evidence of Ex 22 4 , nothing suggests that "1JJ3 was a
denominative of "Vys ; on the other hand, "Vya may rather be a
noun created after the root had developed the meaning to de-
pasture. If the meaning attaching to "ij?3, when it is used ot
animals, is a direct development from the root, so far from being
merely synonymous with njn, to graze, it should be to graze
destructively, to remove (or destroy} by grazing, to depasture ; for the
idea of total removal, or destruction, is so fundamental to, or so
closely associated with, the root *iy3 and its derivatives, that, as
applied to animals, it would naturally call up the idea of the
destruction which they do, rather than the profit they receive, by
feeding ; "iy3 would therefore be entirely fitting in reference to
the reckless indifference of the persons addressed in 3 14 and to
the destructive browsing of the beasts let in through the broken
walls and hedges of 5 5 , but (unless the word lost much of its
force) ljni> would not be a suitable substitute for njr6 in a
promise such as Budde would make of 6 13 (see n. there)
Setting aside the meanings to burn, to blaze (e.g. Ex 22 5 , Is
XXli ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA
i 31 9 17 io 17 34 9 42 25 43 3 62 1 , and so in the Aramaic of C), as prob
ably going back to a distinct root, a possible connection between
most of the remaining meanings of "1JD can be discerned. In
Syr. ;>*^> bears the meanings to search out, and then to glean
(i.e. to search out the last grapes and remove them) : see Payne
Smith, s.v. j^*"\ and cp. i K i4 10 (Pesh.) ^rsr>AV>; y^\
liOjJD }_L>Q._,t. To glean would suit Is 3 U admirably : Ye
have gleaned my vineyard to the last grape ; but since it would
not also suit 5 5 , it would be rather hazardous to postulate glean
as a meaning of "IJO in Hebrew. The idea of total removal (e.g.
of jnn, Dt i3 6 ; &l, i K i4 10 ; BHpn, Dt 26 13 ), which is so con-
spicuous in Hebrew, may also start from the meaning to search
out. If the idea of total removal of pasture by cattle was early
developed, the Heb. and Syr. VJD, ]i^*~>, a (domestic) beast,
Ar.^c, a camel, and, more rarely, an ass, Eth. beraivi, an ox,
may have meant literally total removers (of herbage), depasturers.
Possibly also yu> *|5cLLO, dung, was so called as that which is
put away : cp. i K i4 10 Wtfn 1JD' "1>K3. Other denominatives
will then have arisen with meanings derived directly from TJQ,
beast, and jo, dung; cp. "1JO (Kal, Niph., Piel, Hiph.), to be
brutish, stupid (see, e.g., Is iQ 11 ), r^^ (Peal and Ethpeal), to be
fierce; for derivatives from ?, dung, see Lane.
P. 321, line 26. The entire collection of the Elephantine
papyri is now published; see E. Sachau, Aramdische Payprus
und Ostraka aus einer judischen Militdr-kolonie zu Elephantine,
Leipzig, 1911. It now seems clear that the Jewish colony at
Elephantine was military in origin.
P. 382, 1. 8 of small print. K33P is probably, if a Hebrew
name, a hypocoristicon of (i)rPJ3B>, as is NW of irTO, and KyBt?
of irpy&P. In the OT (i)m3B> occurs only in Chr., Ezr., Neh.
But on seals, some of which are probably pre-exilic, it occurs
with some frequency; in^3^, probably also PM31P, and perhaps
^3[B>] too, occur stamped on jar handles found at Tell el-Judeideh
(about 22 miles from Jerusalem). See M. A. Levy, Siegel u.
Gemmen, pp. 40, 45 ; Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in
Palestine, ii9f. ; Clermont-Ganneau, PEF Qu. St., 1902, pp.
264-266; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, i. 183 (cp. p. 182), ii. 70.
INTRODUCTION.
1-3. Title and Place in the Canon. %
i. THE Book of Isaiah is one of the eight sections, or
volumes, entitled DWDJ, Prophets, which constitute the second
of the three parts of which the Hebrew Scriptures, DW33 min
D^airDI, consist. This part, according to a mediaeval Jewish
distinction,* subdivides into D'OE'Ni DW33, the Former Prophets,
consisting of the four books, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings,
and the D'3inN D'fcO3D, the Latter Prophets, consisting of the four
books, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, " The Twelve " (the " Minor
Prophets," as the last named is commonly called, constituting a
single volume).
In Hebrew printed Bibles, in Hebrew MSS, and in Hebrew
tradition, the eight books called " Prophets " form a group which
is never broken either by omission or intrusion ; moreover,
when and where the custom of confining a single roll f to a single
book | did not exclusively prevail, and many books were written
in the same roll or codex, the " former prophets " always precede
the " latter prophets " without variation of order. On the other
hand, there is evidence of some variation of order within the
group of the latter prophets.
In Hebrew printed Bibles, Isaiah immediately follows Kings,
and is then followed by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, "The Twelve";
and this is the order of the latter prophets in the earliest
extant Hebrew MSS, such as the codices at St. Petersburg,
* H. E. Ryle, The Canon of the Old Testament, p. 228.
t H. St. J. Thackeray argues that in early times each book occupied two
rolls: see JThS ix., 85-98; Grammar of the OT in Greek, p. 65.
% Lk 4" ; Baba Bathra, \-$b.
xxiii
XXIV INTRODUCTION
dated in the years which correspond to A.D. 916 and 1009
respectively, and commonly in other MSS, except those written
in Germany or France. On the other hand, according to a
Rabbinic decision recorded in Baba Bathra, 14^,* the correct
position of Isaiah is after Ezekiel; this order is also found in
many MSS, especially those written in Germany or France. In
other MSS, e.g. a Paris MS dated 1286 and Brit. Mus. MS
Oriental 2091, a yet different arrangement is found, viz. Jeremiah,
Isaiah, Ezekiel, "The Twelve"; see, further, C. D. Ginsburg,
Introd. to the Massoretico- Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible
(1897), pp. i ff. For different views of the relative antiquity of
the different arrangements and for the reasons of them, see Ryle,
Canon > pp. 225-229 ; E. Konig, Einleitung in das AT, p. 458.
2. In ffir the " latter prophets " are separated from the
"former prophets," Kings being followed by Chronicles, and,
in most MSS, by other books also, before any of the "latter
prophets" occur. In the arrangement of the group, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, "The Twelve," the MSS of ffi differ: in
some, e.g. B (and consequently in Swete's edition of (5r), A, and V,
the minor Prophets precede Isaiah, which is followed by Jeremiah
(together with Baruch, Lam., and the Letter of Jeremy) and
Ezekiel. In N, Isaiah stands first of the group. Varieties of
arrangement are also found in various lists of the Jewish
Scriptures in Greek and Latin writers : thus Isaiah stands first
of the group, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, " The Twelve," in lists of
the Eastern Church, such as those of Melito (latter half of 2nd
cent. A.D.), Origen (f 254), Leontius (f c. 543), and in lists of
the Western Church, such those of Rufftnus (f 410), and Cassio-
dorus (f c. 570) ; but it stands after " The Twelve " in the Eastern
lists of Athanasius (t 373), Epiphanius (f 403), Amphilochius
(t after 394), John of Damascus (f before 754), the Laodicene
Canons (c. 360), and in the Western lists of Hilary (f 367), Augus-
tine (f 430), and the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397). See, further,
Swete, Introd. to the OT in Greek, pp. 197-230.
3. The title of the Book in Heb. MSS and commonly in
Hebrew references is simply nw 11 , Isaiah ; so in (5r it is Ho-aias.
Occasionally in references to the book fuller titles are found,
such as Isaiah the prophet (Acts 8 30 , ' HcratW TOV 7rpo<f>rJTr)v ; cp.
v. 28 ), the book of the prophet Isaiah (Lk 4 17 /?i/3Atoi> TOV
* The passage is translated at length in Ryle, Canon, pp. 273 f.
TEXT AND VERSIONS XXV
'Ho-cuov) : in (!S Q the title runs Ho-aias opa/zaTioros (rd. opa/m-nar^s) ;
but the full title of EV does not rest on MS authority.
The form of the name in the Title ?vyr (Origen, lorcrta) differs from
that which is used in the Book itself, viz. in'jw. So also of other prophets
whose names ended with the divine name, the shorter form occurs in the title,
whether that or the longer form occurs in the books : see .TDV, .may, ,TJE*,
mat. That is to say, the form of the name in the title is governed by the
usage of the age when the title was added, not by the usage of the Book to
which it is prefixed. On the earlier use of both forms, see Bonk, in ZA TW>
1891, pp. 126 ff. : at the end of proper names the shorter form rr is already
exclusively employed in the Assouan and Elephantine Papyri (5th cent. B.C.).
4. Text and Versions.
4. It is unnecessary to write at length on the Text and
Versions of the Book of Isaiah, for all that is of peculiar import-
ance to the study of this book is limited to the question of the
value of the Greek version ; for the rest the conditions are those
which are discussed in any general treatment of the Text and
Versions of the Old Testament,* and which have also been briefly
described by the present writer in Hastings' Smaller Dictionary
of the Bible, art. Text and Versions. Elaborate accounts of the
Versions of Isaiah in particular are given by Ges. (i. 56-106),
and (with special reference to chs. 24-27) by Liebmann, in
ZATW, 1902, pp. 1-56, 285-304.
In the present work the symbol J^ 1 is used as a convenient
abbreviation for the consonants of the traditional Hebrew text,
irrespective of the present word divisions and after the removal
of the vowel letters (n, \ ^). It is important to observe that the
symbol denotes in any particular instance a hypothetical text ;
for though there can be no question that these vowel letters were
much more sparingly used in the period when the prophecies
were written than later (cp. G-K. 7), and that they still were
more sparingly used as late as the date of the Greek version
(see, e.g., the phil. nn. on 8 16 2i 2 ); yet to some extent and for
some purposes, especially, for example, to indicate a final vowel,
they were employed as early as the age of Isaiah (cp. the
Siloam Inscription, Mesha's Inscription, etc.). Nevertheless,
in all cases it is important to consider what meaning a passage
may have borne apart from these vowel letters ; for there can
* See also Dr., Samuel, Introd. 3-4 (ed. i, pp. xxxvi-lxxxiv).
xxvi INTRODUCTION
never be any certainty that they are due to the original author,
and at times their presence or absence makes a serious difference
to the meaning ; see, e.g., i 11 " 13 .
The variations* between the existing Hebrew MSS, the
earliest of which is dated A.D. 916 ( i), present as usual but
little of interest. Nor are the variants from the consonants of
the Hebrew text suggested by the Vulgate, the Targum,f or the
Syriac Version,! or the surviving fragments of the Greek
translations (2nd cent. A.D.) of Aquila, Symmachus, and
Theodotion, numerous or important; more frequently these
versions show a different interpretation from that which is
embodied in the vowels added by the Massoretes (6th-8th
cent. A.D.) to the consonants of the Hebrew text ; cp., as an
interesting example, 3 12 , where Aq. 3T render D'CO, but MT
points D^J.
But in spite of this evidence that the text of Isaiah, in
common with that of the rest of the Old Testament, has been
handed down with great care since the 2nd cent. A.D., there can
be no question that between 700 B.C. and A.D. 100 it suffered in
many passages serious corruption. This is clear from internal
evidence, as the discussion of numerous passages in the Com-
mentary must be left to show. It is also clear that the Greek
version, the date of which was probably not much later than
150 B.C. ( 22), was made from a text differing considerably from
J^. But though the difference between the Hebrew original
of the Greek version ((5r) and the traditional Hebrew text (J^) is
clear, the exact form, and in many cases even the approximate
form, of the Hebrew original of (5r cannot be determined.
Indeed, it has been questioned whether (& is of any appreciable
value for the determination of the original text. For example,
Mr. Ottley, to whom we are indebted for a useful edition of
Codex Alexandrinus (A) of Isaiah, with introduction and notes,
writes, " In Isaiah I find it hard to see that the LXX gives any
* Collected in De Rossi, Variae Lectiones Vet. Test. (1786), vol. iii.
t Lagarde, Prophetae Chaldaice (1872). Cp. Bacher, Kritische unter-
suchungen zum Propheten- Thar gum, in ZDMG, 1874. See, further, the
Bibliography in Stenning's art. Targum, in DB.
% D. L. Warszawski, Die Peschitta zu Jesaja (Kap. J-Jp), ihr Verhdltnis
zum massoretischen Texte, zur Septnaginta u. zum 7'argum, Berlin, 1897.
Collected in F. Field, Origenis Hexaplorwn quae supersunt.
TEXT AND VERSIONS xxvii
proof at all (unless in a few isolated exceptions) of an older and
superior Hebrew text : because the translators seem to have
been so constantly mistaken in reading their Hebrew, or unable
to translate it, as to deprive their witness of all authority " (i. 49) ;
and again (p. 50), " the failures of the translator (or translators) in
reading his original may have been largely justified by illegibility
of MSS, and very likely by abbreviations also ; the actual script
may have been difficult. But over and above all this, it seems
as if his knowledge of Hebrew was imperfect : and if this was so,
he may have thought that he saw before him not merely some-
thing different from the reality, but something such as no skilled
Hebrew writer would have written. The hypothetical Hebrew
underlying his Greek need not therefore be always good or
^ classical Hebrew, and this must be taken into account. If this
view be correct, it takes away yet more from any claim of the
LXX to give decisive witness as to a Hebrew text older than we
have, or can trace from other sources." There is much here
that rests on correct observation ; but the conclusions drawn are
unsound. There can be little question (i) that the translators
.sometimes, and even often, misread the Hebrew before them ;
(2) that their knowledge of Hebrew was imperfect ; (3) that the
Hebrew which they thought they saw before them was such as
no skilled Hebrew writer would have written. But over against
this we have to observe: (i) the possibility that a translator
misread his text is balanced by the equal or almost equal
probability that copyists of the original text also at times
misread ; moreover, what was obviously misreading on the part
of the translators does not in all cases seriously conceal the
reading which was actually before them, and which may be
a valuable variant of the reading in Jf, just as while some
misprints are extremely confusing, or, simply because they make
some sense, dangerous, others that make nonsense are im-
mediately detected and understood. We must then reckon with
the possibility of mis-copying, whether we follow f^ or whether
-we follow fflr,* and we have no more ground for refusing to con-
* Mr. Ottley, indeed, would meet this by a dogmatic consideration,
" Some minds, moreover, will still not refuse to entertain the idea that the
Heb. text has been guarded, not only by the watchful care of the Jews, but
also by the special providence of the Almighty " (ii. p. xvii). Yet even if
dogmatic considerations were in place here at all, it is difficult to see why the
XXVlii INTRODUCTION
sider the evidence of (Hr, because the translators' sometimes
misread their original, than we have for refusing to consider the
evidence of f^ ; (2) the lack of knowledge of Hebrew on the
part of the translators may in some passages make the recovery
of the text which they translated difficult, or impossible ; on the
other hand, in other cases it may be the surest pledge of the
actual existence of a particular reading; even translators with
inadequate knowledge do not make nonsense of their translation
in mere wilfulness : if only the nonsense in the translation can,
as is sometimes the case, be seen to be the equivalent (or an
obvious misreading) of Hebrew letters that, rightly understood,
make good sense, we have about the best evidence we can
possess that such a Hebrew reading actually existed; the
translators of Judges, as is well known, makes nonsense by
rendering the precative "Q, ev e/xot; but an lv e/xot making
nonsense is better proof than if it made sense that the translators
actually read the Hebrew letters 'O ; (3) " Hebrew such as no
skilled Hebrew writer would have written " is to be found not
only in the Hebrew which the Greek translators in some passages
attempt to render, but in the present Hebrew text itself; and in
some places where the Hebrew is impossible, or at least poor
and improbable, in the present Hebrew text, it is good in what
appears to have been before the translators of ffi.
The main difficulty in the use of (3r is occasioned by its
tendency, which is at times very conspicuous, to paraphrase.
But though it is important that this should be fully recognised,
and duly allowed for, it is still the fact that the mass of the
translation is either not paraphrastic at all, or not paraphrastic in
such a manner as to prevent the recognition of the Hebrew text
lying behind it. Generally speaking, <& renders three different
forms of service: (i) where it agrees with J^, it proves the
existence of the reading in question at least as early as c. 150
B.C. ; (2) where it differs from f^, and the Hebrew lying behind
it is obvious, it proves the existence of a reading differing from
J^ about 150 B.C. ; (3) even when it is obviously paraphrastic it
may more or less clearly support J^ (cp. e.g. 8 6 n.), or raise a
more or less serious suspicion of J^.
Almighty granted to the text of the Jews a special Providence which He
withheld from the Greek Text, which became the Bible of the Christian
Church.
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH A POST-EXILIC COMPILATION XXIX
Much more work needs to be done, both on the text of (5
itself, which at present needs in many passages to be laboriously
sought for,* and on the idiosyncrasies of the translators; and till
this has been accomplished, the actual evidence of (5r cannot be
either exhaustively or in all cases accurately determined. At
present it is necessary for each succeeding investigator of the
Book of Isaiah to test critically the suggestions of his predecessors,
for readings have been claimed for (5r on very questionable
grounds ; and, on the other hand, there are readings latent in &
that have not been considered. A difficult practical question,
however, arises, viz., how in a commentary of limited scope to
discuss with fullness f the evidence of this version, or to indicate
it with brevity without at the same time misleading the reader.
It has been found impossible to include a reference to all
variants or possible variants, and it has seemed best where the
Hebrew equivalent of Or is ambiguous to quote the Greek rather
than, if not as well as, a possible Hebrew equivalent. Occasion-
ally the Greek has been cited without comment where it may
seem to some at least to raise or strengthen a reasonable
suspicion of the correctness of the text of J^.
Valuable special studies of the Greek translation of (Ex and
the Hebrew text underlying it are those of Liebmann (see p. 397
below) on chs. 24-27, and Zillesen on ch. 53, in ZATW xxv.
261-284.
5-7. The Book of Isaiah a post-exilic Compilation.
5. It is probable that the title ' Isaiah," attached to the
entire book ( 3), was intended to imply that the prophet Isaiah
was the author of the whole, and that the book, as we now have
it, owed its form to him. It is true that it would be in accord-
* Swete, OT in Greek, vol. iii., prints the text of B with the variants of
X A O Q Z F ; other variants must be sought in Holmes and Parsons, Vet. Test.
Graece, iii. For attempts to group the MSS of Isaiah, see Liebmann, in
ZATW, 1902, pp. 9ff. ; Ottley, i. 8ff. The proportion of the Old Latin
Version of (5r that has survived is fortunately large about three-quarters of
the whole ; see Petrus Sabatier, Bibliorum sacrorum versiones antiquae, ii.
5I5-639.
t A reference to the notes on 2 6 25 3f - 34 72 ' 14 , in ZATW, 1911, pp. in-
127, will show what is the present writer's conception of adequate fullness, and
the consequent impossibility of discussing all the passages that need it, with
any approach to fullness in the present work.
XXX INTRODUCTION
ance with Jewish practice to entitle the book from a prominent
word in the opening sentence,* and such is the name Isaiah,
though title and book differ as to the orthography of the name
( 3); true > too > tnat tne Talmud, in the passage already ( r)
referred to, records that " Hezekiah and his college wrote Isaiah "
whatever that may mean.f Yet the simplest supposition is
that the titles of the " latter prophets " implied authorship from the
first, as they certainly suggested it later. Be this, however, as it
may, the references in the NT ( nf.) are sufficient evidence
that it was customary, as early as the ist cent. A.D., to
attribute anything and everything in the book so entitled to
Isaiah, and the passage in Sir. discussed below ( 14) carries back
this custom to the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. It is
precarious to infer the existence of a conflicting theory, or
tradition, from the fact that Isaiah, according to some authorities,
had its place in the Canon after Jeremiah and Ezekiel
(0.
But ancient as the theory that Isaiah is the author of all that
is in the book that bears his name may be, it is certainly very
erroneous. The book is badly arranged : to refer to but a single
point, the account of the prophet's call stands not at the
beginning, where we might expect it (cp. Jer i, Ezk i, Hos i,
but cp. Am 7 14f> ), but in ch. 6. Yet bad arrangement by itself
need prove nothing more at most than that the arrangement of
the material was not due to Isaiah : the material arranged might
still be entirely his ; Mohammed was the author, though not
the arranger, of the entire Koran, and an analogy for the position
of the account of Isaiah's call in the middle of the book may
be found in the fact that Mohammed's call is only recorded
towards the close of the Koran (Sura 96)4
6. The proof that Isaiah is, nevertheless, not the author of
the Book of Isaiah, lies in the fact that a large part of the Book
was written at the least two centuries after his time, and some
of it later still. How large a part is subsequent to the age of
Isaiah it may be difficult to determine ; but even a superficial
critical survey of the Book must discern that so much is subsequent
* Cp. e.g. 131D3 as a title of Numbers : Numbers, p. xx.
t Cp. Driver, LOT, p. viif. ; Cheyne, Introd. p. xviii.
+ Cp. G. B. Gray, The Comparative Study of Semitic Literature, in t
Contemporary Review, July 1907, pp. 84 ff.
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH A POST-EXILIC COMPILATION XXXI
to his age that it is incorrect and misleading to speak or think of
the Book as the work of Isaiah; it is, on the other hand, a
compilation of the post-exilic period, containing, it is true,
prophecies of Isaiah which were already ancient when the Book
was compiled, but containing also, and in larger quantity,
prophecies and narratives of much more recent date.
Just as parts of the Book unmistakably presuppose the
conditions of the 8th century B.C. as those under which they
were written, so others as clearly pre-suppose the conditions of
the 6th century. Thus 9 7 -io 4 pre -supposes the existence of
the Northern kingdom, which came to an end in 722 B.C., and
predicts its fall; chs. 40-55 pre-suppose the Babylonian Exile,
which began in 597 (586) B.C., as an existing fact, and predict its
approaching end, pre-suppose that Cyrus has already advanced
far in his victorious career, and predict that he will become
master of Babylon (which as a matter of fact he did in 538 B.C.),
and release the Jewish exiles. A prophecy, unless it can be
shown to be a vaticinium ex eventu, must have been written before ^
what it predicts, but after what it pre-supposes ; 9 7 -io 4 was
therefore written before 722 B.C., and 40-55 before 538; but
the latter section, since it pre-supposes that Cyrus has already
achieved remarkable victories, must have been written after
<:. 550 B.C. Much of chs. 56-66 probably pre-supposes conditions
that prevailed nearly a century later in the middle of the 5th
century ; but this is less superficially obvious and as yet less
generally admitted. Ch. 13 pre-supposes an age when Babylon
was still "the glory of kingdoms" (i3 19 ) but already threatened
by the Medes : the conditions, not predicted but pre-supposed as
already existing, are again not those of the age of Isaiah, when
Assyria was the_ciojnainjynJ^jgwlgVpower ; they are those of the
6th century B.C., the age of the Babylonian exile, which is almost
unmistakably pre-supposed also in i4 lf> ; thus i3 2 -i4 2 , like 40-
55, was written long subsequent to the age of Isaiah. On similar
grounds, not to speak here of passages of more ambiguous
origin, ai 1 " 10 24-27. 34 f. must have been written not earlier
than the 6th century B.C.
7. Thus, then, we have to recognise in the Book of Isaiah at
least these different elements : (a) prophecies of the 8th century
B.C., (b) prophecies of the 6th century B.C. or later, and (c) the
work of an editor who brought together these prophecies which,
XXXli INTRODUCTION
though so widely separated in time, are intermingled in a single
compilation.
The fact that the Book of Isaiah is not the work of the
prophet of Isaiah, but a post-exilic compilation, ought to be the
starting-point in all detailed criticism, or interpretation of the
Book. In a continuous work, such as the historical narratives
of Josephus or Thucydides, alien matter may have intruded ; but,
unless signs of interpolation can be detected, the presumption is
that any section of the whole is of the same origin as the rest.
On the other hand, in a compilation of disconnected pieces of
different authorship and different ages, no such presumption
holds : each piece must be judged by itself. It does not follow
that a passage is not Isaiah's because it contains no unmistak-
able evidence that it was written in the 8th century ; but just as
little does it follow that a passage must be Isaiah's because it
bears no unmistakable marks of belonging to a later age. It
may well be that much in this or any similar compilation must,
for lack of decisive evidence, remain of uncertain date and
origin. But the fact that much proves uncertain or ambiguous,
when we attempt a more detailed and exact analysis of the Book
and its contents, cannot invalidate the conclusion that follows
from what is obvious, viz., that the Book is a post-exilic compila-
tion : nor is it wise to minimise the significance of this
conclusion.
We may now proceed to a more detailed examination of the
origin of the Book of Isaiah : and in the first instance to an
examination of the external evidence to the existence of the
Book.
8-19. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah :
(i) External Evidence.
8. Apart from the significance of the Greek version ( 20-
22), and the history of the Prophetic Canon ( 23-26), external
evidence shows : (i) that the Book of Isaiah in its present form
and extent existed at latest by the end of the ist century A.D.
( 10-13); (2) that a Book of Isaiah having certain of the
most conspicuous features of the present Book, if not the present
Book itself, existed about 180 B.C. ( 14-17); moreover, certain
external evidence suggests (3) that part of the Book of Isaiah,
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xxxiii
viz. chs. 40-66 in whole or in part, about 300-200 B.C. passed in
certain circles under the name of Jeremiah ( 18, 19). The
most reasonable inference from the evidence is that neither the
present Book of Isaiah nor a book either approaching it in
extent or possessing its outstanding features existed long before
200 B.C., but that either this present Book or a book possessing
the same outstanding features and attributed to Isaiah existed not
long after that date.
9. The nature of the Book of Isaiah, as indicated in 5-7,
necessarily limits the significance of certain forms of external
evidence. A quotation of known age from any part of a work
like the histories of Thucydides or Josephus would determine
the terminus ad quern of the entire work, even though it were
anonymous ; but a mere quotation, say from ch. 66 of the Book
of Isaiah, while it would determine the terminus ad quern of that
particular prophecy, would prove nothing as to the date of the
Book of Isaiah ; for the quotation might be from ch. 66 before
that chapter was included in the compilation that now bears the
name of Isaiah, just as a quotation (Jer 26 18 ) from a prophecy
now included in "The Twelve" (Mic 3 12 ) only proves that
Micah's prophecy existed before Jeremiah's time, and proves
nothing with regard to the date of " The Twelve," which as a
matter of fact also contains prophecies of the 5th cent. (Malachi),
and cannot have been compiled for at least two centuries after
the quotation in Jeremiah.
10. But there is other evidence that is available for proving
not only the date of some particular passage, but of the book in
which such passages are incorporated.
It is unnecessary to labour the point that the conclusion of
the Canon of the Jewish Scriptures, which may be fixed about
the end of the ist cent. A.D., prevented henceforth any addition
to, or alteration in, the books included within it ; and that since
Isaiah formed part of this Canon, the Book at that time existed
in its present form and extent. It will suffice to refer, for a
matter so generally admitted, to standard works on the Canon of
the Old Testament.
But in view of recent theories ( 17) that would place the
final stages in the compilation of the Book of Isaiah much later
than was formerly considered possible, it is worth collecting the
evidence of the New Testament of which some (e.g. Romans)
VOL. i. c
XXXIV INTRODUCTION
carries us back to the middle of the ist cent. A.D., and all to
some part of that century.
Quotations from, or allusions to, the Book of Isaiah in the
NT may be divided into three classes : the first class consists of
those quotations which specify Isaiah, or the Book of Isaiah, as
the source ; the second specify or imply the Jewish Scriptures as
the source ; and the third, mostly allusions rather than quotations,
specify no source. Only the first two classes are of interest
here.
IT. The passages from Isaiah (Jf or ffi) cited in the NT with
direct reference to that book, and the NT passages in which
the citations are made, are as follows :
Is i 9 cited in Ro 9 29 .
6 9f - Mt i3 14f -, Jn i2 40f -, Ac 28 26f - ; cp. Mk 4 12 , Lk 8 10 .
8 23 9 i ( 9 if.) n Mt4 15f .
io 22f - Ro 9 27f -.
n 10 Ro ice 12
,, JXU L$ .
2 9 13 Mt i5 8f -, Mk 7 6f -.
4 o 3 - 5 Mt 3 3 , Mk i 3 , Lk 3 4 - 6 , Jn i 28 .
42 1 ' 4 Mt I2 18 ' 21 .
53 1 Ro io 16 , Jn i2 38 .
53 4 Mt 8".
53* Ac 8 3 *
61" Lk 4 18f '.
65* Ro io 2 <*
12. The passages cited with some formula implying that they
are derived from the Jewish Scriptures, or in some cases more
specifically from "the prophet(s)" (Mt i 22 , Jn 6 45 , Ac 7 48 ),
are :
Is 7 14 cited in Mt i 23 .
8 14 ( + 2 8 16 ) Ro 9 33 (i P 2 8 ).
8 17f - He 2 13
,, ,, rac i .
25 8 i Co is 54 .
28 llf - i Co i 4 21
28 16 Ro 9 33 io 11 , i P 2
2 9 10 ( + 6 10 ) Ro ii 8 .
29 14 i Co i 19 .
( 4 o- 8 ) (i P I 24 '-).
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH XXXV
Is 45 23 cited in Ro I4 11 .
49 6 ii Ac J 3 47 -
49 8 2 Co 62 -
52* , ,
i 15 ) Ro io
52 11 ,, 2 Co 6"
53 12 ,, (Mk i 5 28 ), Lk 22 37.
54 1 ,, Gal 4 27 .
54 13 Jn 6
55 3 } >i Ac i3 34 .
56 7 Mt 2i 13 = Mk n 17 =
CQ 20f. T? IT 26f.
5v JXU * L
64* i Co 2 9 (free).
A c -49f.
,, ,, rvc y
13. In addition to these quotations in the NT, the following
quotations from Josephus (BJ, written about 73-75 A.D., and
Anf., written about 93 A.D.) and other works of the ist century
A.D. may be given here :
Is i 10 is referred to Isaiah in Asc. Is 3 10 .
i9 19 * Jos. Ant. xiii. 3 1 ; BJvii. io 3 .
44 28 45 1 n J s - Ant - xi - jlf *-
43 2 ii ii 4 Mac i8 14 .
Philo (first half of the ist cent A.D.) refers Is i 9 to "a certain
prophet, the kinsman and friend of Moses (Quaest. 43)."
14. We may next consider the evidence of the Book of
Ecclesiasticus, which was written about 180 B.c.f The author
in his praise of famous men (44 1 ~5o 21 ) writes thus of Isaiah
(48 22-25 ): J_
* It would perhaps be arguable, though the point is not here put forward
as having any probability, that Jos. refers to an uncanonical pseudepigraphon
whence Is IQ 19 was subsequently incorporated in the present Book ; he speaks
not only of a or the Book of Isaiah, but also of his books : see Ant. xi. I 2
rb fii[3\iov rijs avrov irpo<f>r)Tetas 6 'Hcrcuas KartXtire ; Ant. x. 2 2 S/iravd^ 6<ra
t Mr. Hart (Ecclesiasticus in Greek) argues ingeniously, but unsuccessfully
(cp. e.g. Kennett, p. 89), that Ecclesiasticus was written c. 280 B.C.
J Du. (p. vii) remarks, without, however, alleging any reason, that it is by
no means certain that Ben Sirach wrote 4S 22 " 25 .
XXXVI INTRODUCTION
22 For Hezekiah did that which was good,*
And was strong in the ways of David, f
Which Isaiah the prophet commanded (him),
Who was great and faithful in his vision. |
23 In his days the sun stood still, ||
And he added life to the king ;
. 24 By the spirit of might he saw the end,
And comforted the mourners in Sion :
25 For ever he declared things that should be,
And hidden things before they came.
Just before this passage, in vv. 18ff -, Ben Sirach had summarised,
as the most significant events of Hezekiah's days, the approach
and overthrow of Sennacherib, and, referring to the prayer of
the people to God, had said, playing on the name of Isaiah (cp.
Is 7 18 ), as in v. 22b he plays on the name of Hezekiah, that
Yahweh " saved them by the hand of Isaiah " (in W "P3 DJJBW).
15. From the main passage we can infer with certainty that
this writer referred, and that apparently without any uncertainty,
chs. 40-66, or at least what is most characteristic in those
chapters, to the prophet Isaiah. V. 24 refers unmistakably to the
recurrent arguments from prophecy in, e.g., 4i 21 ' 24 43 9 46 48 7ff -,
and vv. 24f - are intentionally coloured with the phraseology of Is
40-66 : what the idols could not do, Isaiah by the spirit of might
(cp. Is 1 1 2 ) could : cp. nnnoai nvna ran D^y iy . . . mnK nm
jKia *)zb with ipyj &6 "itpK Dipoi mriK JWJOD TJB (Is 46 10 ),
n:npn ISPK n i:i> vrr (Is 4i 22 ). Cp. also ;vx ^a nnyi with
(Is 40 1 ), '1:1 vv ^a^ DIB D^^N b nnji> (Is 61*-).
t Of David, f^S ; + his father, <&.
j Vv. 220 - d - 23 are missing, through mutilation of the MS, from pj. Vv. 22c - d
23 above are translated from (5. For * 5 has |" ni? ] ^ ^ ^ Vo. the
(most) praiseworthy of the prophets. (Or is probably correct. 'Ev opdvei
O.VTOV, in his vision, probably corresponds to uiim in the original ; cp. Spavcs
= pm in 4O 6 , and also, e.g., in Is I 1 , Nah I 1 ; but it might also =vaD3 : cp.
II 2 49 8 ; that it renders rnin (cp. 46 15 ), as Peters infers, is improbable, more
especially if opdo-ews in 46 15 is a gloss from 4S 22 (Smend, Peters).
'Ef Tats 7//4^ ais O.VTOV: & (J1 r _x.D5 ^Q ^SO, because by his hand:
cp. 46".
||'A'e7r65i(r' = iDy, 46"* in reference to Jos io 13 ; here, too, probably
aveir65i(Tv renders "ray, though the allusion is to TDBM nifni, at avtfir) 6 ^Xios,
Is s8 8 .
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH XXXVli
16. We can, further, infer with great probability that in Ben
Sirach's Book of Isaiah chs. 40-66 were already preceded by
chs. 36-39, and certain visions, or prophecies (cp. n. on ptn in
i 1 in the Commentary), corresponding to some or all of chs. i-
35. V. 23 certainly refers to the narrative that appears both in
2 K 20 and Is 38 ; Ben Sirach has already (vv. 18 ' 21 ) drawn on
the group of narratives (2 K i7 18 -2O = Is 36-39) to which this
belongs in his praise of Hezekiah ; his recurrence to it in prais-
ing Isaiah is best accounted for by the supposition that these
chapters stood in his Book of Isaiah : for he selects in praising
the prophets Jeremiah (49 6ft ) and Ezekiel (49 8f- ) certain phrases
or incidents from the books that bear their names. The entire
first part of Is., viz. chs. 1-35, would be summarily recalled by
the term vision in v. 22d , if that word already stood in the title
to the whole Book of Isaiah (i 1 )
17. The great characteristic of the Book of Isaiah as it now
exists is that it consists of a group of prophecies, chs. 1-35,
which we will call A ; a historical section, chs. 36-39, B ; and
another group of prophecies, chs. 40-66, C. The present book,
then, expressed in a formula, is A 4- B + C.
It is highly probable, if not certain, that the Book of Isaiah
as it existed c. 180 B.C. already consisted of A-f B + C, just
as the " Book of the Twelve " must already have contained
twelve sections referred to twelve different prophets ; cp. Sir 49 10 .
But the question remains : were the three parts as they
existed then co-extensive with the three parts as they exist now ?
This is a question which the direct testimony of external
evidence does not answer. Till recently the identity of Ben
Sirach's Book of Isaiah and our own was not questioned. But
Du. and several others since have claimed that both A and C
received accretions after 180 B.C. It is entirely a question of
probability which must be estimated in the light of internal as
well as external evidence.
1 8. Meantime we may proceed to consider the evidence of
2 Ch 36 22f - = Ezr i 1 - 8 . This appears to give a terminus a quo for
the Book of Isaiah, to show that when Chronicles was written,
i.e. not earlier than 300 B.C., and perhaps later, though a Book
of Isaiah may have existed, and doubtless did exist, it was less
extensive than the present Book ; that as yet chs. 40-66 formed
no part of it.
XXXviii INTRODUCTION
The last verses of Chronicles read as follows :
20b And they (viz. the exiles) were servants to him (Nebu-
chadnezzar) and his sons, until the rule of the sovereignty of
Persia, 21 in order to fulfil (rntfW>) the word of Yahweh by the
mouth of Jeremiah, until the land enjoyed her sabbaths : all the
days of its desolation, it kept sabbath to fulfil seventy years.
22 And in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to
complete (rrfa^) the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah,
Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, and he
made proclamation through all his kingdom and also (put it) in
writing, saying, 23 Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, " All the
kingdoms of the earth hath Yahweh, God of Heaven, given to
me, and he hath commanded concerning me that I should build
for him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah : whosoever then
is among you of all his people, Yahweh his God be with him,
and let him go up (Ezr i 8 ) to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and
build the house of Yahweh, the God of Israel."
In v. 21 the Chronicler quite obviously, and even explicitly,
refers to the fulfilment of the prophecy in Jer 29 that the
Exile would last seventy years and then come to an end. In
vv. 22f - and Ezr i 3 = Ezr i 1 ' 8 it seems equally obvious that the
Chronicler is referring to the fulfilment of Yahweh's words in
Is 44 28 , Cyrus " shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of
Jerusalem, She shall be built, and to the Temple, Thy foundation
shall be laid," just as the words that immediately follow in Is.
" Thus saith Yahweh to ... Cyrus, whose right hand I have
holden, to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of
kings" (45 1 ), obviously seem to prompt the opening words of
Cyrus' decree in Ezr i 2a .
19. But this prophecy in Is 44 28 is referred not to Isaiah,
but to Jeremiah ! unless, therefore, appearance deceive us, Is 40--
66 was attributed by the Chronicler, and if so, certainly not by
him alone, to Jeremiah ; in this case chs. 40-66 as yet formed
no part of a Book of Isaiah.
Du. seems to have been the first to recognise the obvious significance of
2 Ch 36 22f< for the history of the Book of Isaiah. It had been obscured
previously, and is still obscured, by a prevalent, but most improbable, inter-
pretation (e.g. see Ryle, Bertholet, Curtis on the passage) : according to
this interpretation, v. 22 as well as y. 21 refers to the prophecy of seventy years ;
but (l) v.- 2 is far more naturally taken as giving an additional statement to
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH XXxix
v. 21 rather than a mere repetition, as referring to a further fulfilment rather
than repeating a reference to the same ; note, "and in the first year," etc. ;
(2) though rrtaV, v. 23 , might be a mere synonym of rm^D 1 ?, v. 21 , it is at least as
probable that it means in order to complete the fulfilment of what Jeremiah
said : Jeremiah had prophesied that the exile must last seventy years : it had
done so, and that prophecy was fulfilled (v. 21 ) : Jeremiah had also (in Is 44^
4S 1 ) prophesied that Cyrus would secure the rebuilding of the Temple ; in
order to complete the fulfilment of Jeremiah's predictions, Yahweh had
moved Cyrus to give the Jews permission to return and build the Temple ;
(3) whether we admit the distinction in (2) or not, v. 22 is closely linked
with v. 28 , and the prophecy to be fulfilled, referred to in v. 22 , is most naturally
identified with the prophecy cited by Cyrus in his decree in v. 28 ; only so is
the entire form of vv. 28 '- really explained ; if v. 22 was merely to repeat v. 21 ,
the writer would rather have said simply, In the first year of Cyrus, Yahweh
brought up the people, or moved Cyrus to let the people return, to Judah ;
the double reference to the building of the house clearly indicates that this
is the point to which the writer in v. 22 moves forward.
It would be preferable, if the interpretation just suggested were proved
impossible, to infer that Jeremiah in v. 22 has been accidentally substituted
for Isaiah, or that the entire clause I.TDV B3 m.T nan rrta 1 ? in v. 22 is a mis-
placed variant of 'v 'sa m,T -m niN^o*? in v. 31 . But inasmuch as other con-
siderations tend to show that the Book of Isaiah was certainly not complete
much, if at all, before 180 B.C., and there is certainly no evidence to show
that chs. 40-66 were attributed to Isaiah much earlier than Sir 48 22 ' 25 (c. 180
B.C.), it is unnecessary to assume textual corruption, and very unwise to
prefer an unnatural to an obvious interpretation * of 2 Ch 36 s8 .
20-27. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah : (2) The
Greek Version and the Prophetic Canon.
20. In addition to the direct external testimony to the exist-
ence of the Book of Isaiah before the ist cent. A.D., there are two
important matters that indirectly testify to it the existence of
an early Greek version of the Book, and the existence of a
* It is interesting to observe how Josephus, intentionally or unintention-
ally, softens down the difficulty ; and it is significant that he quite clearly
and naturally sees in 2 Ch 36 28 a fulfilment of Is 44 s8 45 1 : see Ant. xi. I 1 * 2 ,
especially 2, where he says : " Now Cyrus knew this (raCra, viz. that Cyrus*
name had been foretold by the ' prophets,' etc. ) from reading the book of
his prophecies which Isaiah left behind him : for this (prophet) said secretly
(4v airofipriTff)) that God spoke thus to him : ' My will is, that Cyrus, whom I
have appointed king of many and great nations, send my people to their
own land, and build my Temple.' This Isaiah foretold 140 years before
the Temple was demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read this ... an
earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to carry out (irot^<rac) what was
so written," etc.
xl INTRODUCTION
prophetic canon prior to the conclusion of the entire Canon of
the Old Testament at the end of the ist cent. A.D.
(a) The Greek Version.
In respect of the relation between the Hebrew text and the
Greek version, the Book of Isaiah presents a striking contrast
to the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek version of the Book of
Jeremiah differs widely from the present Hebrew text both in
extent and in arrangement : from this fact it is a reasonable
inference that at the time the Greek version was made the form
and extent of Jeremiah had not been firmly fixed, and it is a
tolerably certain inference that at that time even the prophetic
books were not protected from re-arrangement and expansion by
any theory of the sanctity of Scripture such as protected the
entire Canon from the ist cent. A.D. onward. In arrangement
the Book of the Twelve also differs in the Hebrew and Greek
Bibles. On the other hand, both in extent and arrangement, the
present Hebrew Text and the Greek Version of the Book of Isaiah
are substantially identical. Two or three' verses (2 22 38 15 4o 7 56 12 ),
present in J^, are absent in (Sr, and in sundry other places (Si is
shorter than ^ by a clause or two ; and in much the same
number of cases (Si has clauses not found in J^. There is no
difference of arrangement.
The most natural and obvious conclusion to draw is that, at
the date when the Greek version was made, the Book of Isaiah had
already reached its present form and also, with the possible excep-
tion of some or all of the slight + and - of (Sir, its present extent.
21. An alternative conclusion is, indeed, possible : a Book of
Isaiah, smaller than the present, may have been translated into
Greek at a certain date; additions may have been made after
that date to the Hebrew text, and these additions may have been
subsequently translated into Greek, and added to the existing Greek
version, yet so that their position in the version corresponded
exactly to their position in the original (ct. Jeremiah). But if
this were actually the case, the additions to the original Greek
version should reveal themselves as such by differences of style
and method, for even quite brief additions to the original text of
(Si are commonly betrayed by stylistic differences.* But as a
matter of fact the Greek version of Isaiah is marked in general
* See nn. on n 3 and the references in Thackeray, Grammar, p. 294,
under "Interpolations."
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xli
by greater homogeneity of style than the versions of Jeremiah and
" the Twelve" : such differences as exist are not perhaps sufficient
to prove difference of translators, and, if they are sufficient, they
would point to chs. 40-66 (or perhaps 40-55, 56-66) proceeding as
a whole from one translator and chs. 1-39 as a whole from another ;
they would lend no probability to a theory that such parts of the
Book of Isaiah (e.g. chs. 24-27) as have been regarded by some
recent writers as the latest parts of the book, and not written before
the last third of the 2nd cent. B.C., were translated by a different
hand from that which translated the main body of chs. 1-39.
Thackeray has argued that whereas three hands are distinguishable in the
Greek version of Jeremiah (a. chs. 1-28 ; /3. 29-51 ; 7. 52 Greek enumera-
tion) and two in Ezekiel (a. chs. 1-27 and 40-48 ; ft. 28-39, including a
heterogeneous section $3. 36 s4 ' 38 ), there is no similar evidence pointing to the
work of different translators in Isaiah ; he is able to point to common character-
istics that run through the whole Book of Isaiah, for example, the translitera-
tion of niNa* in the phrase mm* mrr, which, rarely found outside Isaiah,
occurs in Isaiah fifty- three times ; the phrase /juicpbs KO.I fttyas, or dirb fuicpov 2wj
fj.eyd\ov, occurs in five places (9 14 ( 13 > 22 s ' 24 33 4 - 19 ), where the Hebrew does
not immediately suggest it ; the phrase els rbv aluva XP^ VOV is used seven
times in Isaiah, and elsewhere only in Ex I4 13 , Bar 3 32 (cp. rbv a.lG>va. xpfoov,
v. 18 ), Jth I5 10 : and in general Isaiah is marked by greater correctness of style
than Jeremiah and Ezekiel : seeJT/iS iv. 245-266, 398-411 ; Grammar, n f.
I have myself drawn attention to differences as between chs. 1-39 and 40-66,
and amongst others to differences in the use of the article and in the
rendering of TDK m and DM3 ; the particles Trd\tv, $17, SIOTI, and rolvvv, which
are frequent in chs. 1-39, are almost entirely absent from chs. 40-66 : see
JThS, 1911, pp. 286-293.
22. What, then, is the date of the Greek version ? Briefly
stated, the most important evidence is as follows : (i) the
author of Wisdom, commonly supposed to have written about
50 B.C.,* must have been familiar with the existing version of
Isaiah, for in 2 12 he quotes the very peculiar version of Is 3 10 (5 :
cp. also Wis i5 10 with Is 44 20 (5r. Other later or more uncertain
but interesting traces of ($r are to be found in 4 Mac i8 14ff - (cp.
Is 43 2 ), Orac. Sibyll. iii. 606 (cp. Is 2 19ff -), 708 ff. (cp. Is u 6ff -);
(2) the translator of Ecclesiasticus in his prologue (c. 132 B.C.)
refers to (Greek) versions of "the law and the prophecies (ai
Trpo^retat) and the rest of the books " ; (3) the style and
language of the version.
* Thackeray (Grammar, 6 1 f.), on grounds of Greek orthography, proposes
an earlier date, c. 130 B.C. ; cp. Church Quart. Rev^e^v t Oct. 1910, pp. 209 f.
xlii INTRODUCTION
It is possible that a more thorough and detailed investigation of the style
and language of (5r may yield more convincing results than have been obtained
at present. Thackeray (JThS iv. 583, x. 300-303) adduces considerations,
worthy indeed of attention, but by no means final or conclusive on this
particular issue, to show that Isaiah was translated earlier than the other
prophetical books : (l) the Greek of Isaiah approaches more nearly than that
of the other prophetical books to the classical style : in the Grammar,
Thackeray classifies it as good KOIV$I Greek with the Pentateuch, translated in
the 3rd cent. B.C., but also with i Mac. which cannot have been written before
the end of the 2nd cent. B.C.; (2) "the greater ease of style, and the
tendency to give a free rather than a verbatim rendering," maybe "marks
of a comparatively early date," though the analogy of the Aramaic Versions
would, so far as it had any value, point to the opposite conclusion; the
earliest Targum is far less free than the later Targums ; (3) some of the
renderings in Isaiah agree with renderings in the Book of Exodus ; there
are also, it may be added, affinities with renderings in other books of the
Pentateuch ; see Ges. i. 56, and cp. the use of &px&v as an equivalent in Pent,
and Is. (also in Ezk.) of 1*?D, to which H. Wiener draws attention in Bibli-
otheca Sacra, 1911, pp. 491 ff. In the Grammar, Thackeray "conjectures"
that Isaiah may have been translated near the beginning of the 2nd cent. B.C.,
the other prophetical books nearer its close. The occurrences in Isaiah of
the form ovdeis (fj.i}6els) and ouSets (wdels) would indicate a date not much, if
at all, before 132 B.C., if we could trust the orthographical tradition:
unfortunately we cannot do so ; see Thackeray, Grammar, pp. 58 ff. It is
scarcely safe at present to assert more than that proof is not yet forthcoming
that the language and style of the version are less compatible with a date
c. 150 B.C., or even earlier, than with a later date.
The Greek version, then, is certainly not later than the Book
of Wisdom, i.e. than the first half of the ist cent. B.C. More-
over, either (a) this version is earlier than 132 B.C., or (b) the
prophecies referred to in the Prologue to Sir. did not include
Is., or (c) the version known to the author of the Prologue and
the existing version are not identical. Of these alternatives (a)
is the most probable, though neither (&) nor (c) can be ruled out
as absolutely impossible ; and, indeed, if Thackeray is right in
considering the version of large parts of 2-4 Kings to be not
earlier than the ist cent. B.C., then the Trpo^Tciai of the Prologue
to Sir, were at all events not co-extensive with the books of the
" prophetic Canon " (cp. i).
Failing good evidence to the contrary, it will be wise to
reckon with the probability that the Greek version of Isaiah
existed, if not even earlier, at least very soon after 150 B.C., and
consequently that by the same date the Book of Isaiah had
attained its present extent, except for any sections which can be
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xliii
shown to have been translated into Greek by other hands than
those responsible for the main body of the work (cp. 21).
23. (b) The "prophetic Canon."
After the final determination of the Canon of Scripture at the
end of the First Century A.D., every book included in it was
protected from expansion or alteration ( 10). But the final
determination of the Canon was, probably, the last of three
stages, of which the first was the acceptance of the Law, i.e. the
Pentateuch, in the 5th cent. B.C. (Neh 8) ; the second consisted
in the constitution of a second group of sacred writings, which
continue to exist as the second part of the Hebrew Bible,
"the Prophets" ( i). This second stage was probably reached
early in the 2nd cent B.C. ; for Daniel, written c. 167 B.C., though
it would naturally belong to the group, as a matter of fact forms
no part of it*
24. Can we then argue : The prophetic Canon was complete
before the middle of the 2nd century B.C., probably even before
c. 165 B.C., the Book of Isaiah forms part of that Canon, there-
fore the Book of Isaiah can contain nothing of Maccabaean
origin, can scarcely contain anything written after the close of
the 3rd cent. B.C. ? The argument has been used, and its
validity has been disputed. It is scarcely safe to press it too far,
or to rely on it exclusively. The final determination of the
entire Canon falls at a period (ist-2nd cent. A.D.) when we have
evidence that a very strict theory of the letter of Scripture was
developing. But we are not justified in assuming that the same
theory existed in the 2nd cent. B.C., and that it was applied to
the earlier and smaller bodies of Scripture that had gained, or
were then gaining, form and recognition. As a matter of fact,
we have evidence that such a theory, even if it existed, was
ineffective : " the Law " received additions after the time of
Ezra (Numbers, p. xxxi ff.), the Books of Jeremiah and "The
Twelve " differ in extent or arrangement or both in fir and f^,
Isaiah (Jf) itself has in all probability received some very slight
additions even after the date of fflr, and harmless additions
to the text of the Samaritan Pentateuch (Numbers, p. xxxviii f.)
* For a fuller discussion of the summary statements of this section, refer-
ence must again be made to standard works on the Canon. It is to be
observed that Du. (p. vif.) disputes the value of the argument from the
absence of Daniel.
xliv INTRODUCTION
show a similar tendency in the neighbouring Samaritan com-
munity.
Thus the rigid theory of the finality of Scripture and the strict
division between Scripture and its interpretation, which prevailed
from the ist cent. A.D. downwards, had been preceded by a
period during which the ancient words of the prophets were
subject to adaptation to the new conditions and needs of later
generations. Ancient promise or threat and modern interpreta-
tion, application, or modification, were at this period not kept
absolutely distinct, but were combined into new written words
adapted to present needs.
25. And yet the failure of Daniel to be incorporated in the
prophetic Canon shows that in some degree the extent of
expansion or change to which " the Prophets " were subjected
was limited. Is it likely that entire sections like chs. 24-27,
(32) 34-35 were first incorporated in the Book of Isaiah after the
middle, or even after the end, of the 2nd cent. B.C.? Daniel
and, say, Is 24-27 are, indeed, not quite in the same case:
to have included Daniel in the prophetic Canon would have been
to expand that Canon by the introduction of the work of a
prophet not yet recognised ; whereas, if chs. 24-27 had indepen-
dently established a claim to be Isaiah's, their inclusion merely
meant that the work of a prophet already recognised in the
Canon was made more complete.
On the whole, it seems improbable that long sections not
obviously related to the existing Book, and the place which they
now occupy in it, were first incorporated in it after "the
Prophets " had become a body of Scripture. They would
naturally, like Daniel, have found their way into the "writings."
26. Du. and Marti dismiss the argument from the Canon
altogether, on the ground that the History of the Canon must be
judged by what it contains and not vice versa. This is perfectly
true ; and if any section of the Book bears unmistakable evidence
of having been written at the end of the 2nd cent. B.C., it
certainly follows that the Book of Isaiah and the prophetic Canon
were still open to expansion as late as that. But if it is a case of
probability merely, if it merely seems probable, without appearing
certain, that a section of the Book was written at so late a date,
then we are justified in placing probability over-against prob-
ability : a possible, but not necessary, theory of the interpretation
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xlv
and origin of a section may rightly be judged unproven if it
conflicts with the probable, even though not certain, history of
the prophetic Canon.
27. Reviewing the various lines of evidence which have
already been discussed, we should not expect to find much in
the present Book of Isaiah that was written after c. 180 B.C., still
less to find much that was written after c. 150 B.C., unless differences
in Ob can be established which point to different translators.
On the other hand, there is no reason why even much of the
Book may not have been written as late as the 3rd cent. B.C., for
our present Book, in common probably with the Book of the
Twelve, appears to have taken shape within that century, and
rather perhaps towards its close than its beginning. Whether
matter so late even as the 3rd cent. B.C., and, if any, how much
of such matter is to be found in the Book, will be determined
mainly by internal evidence.
28-35. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah : (3) The
Testimony of the Book of Isaiah to itself.
28. When we turn to interrogate the Book itself as to its
origin and history, two significant features at once strike us: (i)
the arrangement of the matter; (2) the presence of several titles.
To the arrangement of the Book a passing reference has
already been made in 5. Certain principles of arrangement
can be detected,* but none is consistently carried through.
Regard for the subject-matter may have exercised some influence
in keeping, if not in bringing, together kindred prophecies or
sections: as in Ezekiel (chs. 25-32) and Jeremiah (chs. 46-51),
so in Isaiah (chs. 13-23), prophecies concerning foreign nations
are grouped together ; yet this principle of arrangement is less
consistently carried through in Isaiah, for (i) the foreign
prophecies in chs. 13-23 are interrupted by a section, or
sections, dealing with Judah in ch. 22; (2) other foreign
prophecies appear elsewhere in the Book ; Edom is the subject
of ch. 34, Babylon of ch. 47 ; so in the book of " The Twelve "
prophecies concerning foreign nations are separated from one
another ; see, e.g., Am i f., Nahum ; in this case the reason is
obvious : the book of " The Twelve " is a compilation which in
* Ges. pp. i8ff. ; Cornill, Die Composition des Buches Jcsaia, in ZATW
iv. 83-105 ; Che. Introd. xxii.
Xlvi INTRODUCTION
its arrangement is primarily governed by the principle that
previously existing books (Amos, Nahum, etc.) should be retained
distinct in the compilation : the same principle is probably
responsible for the separation in the existing Book of Isaiah of
chs. 34 and 47 from chs. 13-23.
Another principle that has exercised some influence in the
^arrangement of Isaiah is regard for chronology : " the year in
which Uzziah died" (6 1 ), i.e. c. 740 B.C., is followed in ch. 7 by a
section that refers definitely to the reign of the next king but one
to Uzziah, Ahaz (from c. 735 B.C.); i4 28 refers to "the year in
which king Ahaz died," which was not later than 715 B.C.; 20 1
refers to the year 711 B.C., and the Assyrian king Sargon; chs.
36-39, to the days of Hezekiah and Sennacherib, the successor
of Sargon; 44 27 etc. to Cyrus, c. 550 B.C. Yet a detailed
examination shows that, apart from the striking disregard of
chronology, which allows ch. 6, the record of Isaiah's call to be
a prophet, to stand after a group of his prophecies (chs. 1-5),
chronological sequence is frequently violated in the present
arrangement of the Book. The extent to which prophecies are
out of chronological sequence may be in part due to the
inadequacy of the post-exilic ( 5-7) editor's knowledge ; but
in part this also is probably due to the desire to keep distinct the
previously existing books which he has incorporated in his
compilation. And in any case the extent of chronological
inconsequence in the Book of Isaiah is after all no greater than
in the Kor'an, though that work was arranged within a generation
of its composition, and while a considerable amount of valuable
tradition as to the age of its several parts was still young.
29. Certainly the presence of various titles strongly suggests
that the editor of the Book of Isaiah has incorporated in his
compilation previously existing books much as he found them,
without attempting any free and general rearrangement of the
material thus at his command. This editor may himself be the
author of the title in i 1 , but scarcely of the title in 2 1 , for 2 1 , far
from being the heading of a mere section, is as wide in its scope
as i 1 ; it stands where it does because the editor has here
incorporated, title and all, a previously existing book. A further
title occurs in I3 1 , which runs, "the Oracle of Babylon, which
Isaiah the son of Amos saw," and in the succeeding chapters
down to ch. 23 a number of sub-titles follow, "the Oracle of
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xlvii
Moab" (is 1 ), "the Oracle of Damascus" (i; 1 ), and so forth.
Was I3 1 like 2 1 originally the title of a previously existing book
which the editor of Isaiah incorporated entire, or was it shorter
like the titles of I5 1 i; 1 etc., and merely a sub-title of a section?
On the one hand, the general title of an entire book containing
oracles on several nations would more appropriately have run,
" The Oracles which Isaiah the son of Amos saw " ; on the other
hand, the editor who had already (i 1 ) prefixed a title indicating
Isaiah as author of the whole volume, had no obvious reason for
reasserting his authorship in this particular sub-title. On the
whole, it seems most probable that chs. 13-23 are derived from
an independent " Book of Oracles " ; possibly this was at one time
anonymous, and the later ascription to Isaiah was recorded by
attaching a clause to the title of the first section of the Book,
while it still circulated separately and before it had come to
form part of the present Book of Isaiah.
30. We find no further titles; but other sections of the
book are marked off by certain characteristics. Chs. 28-32
consist of a series of sections beginning with the exclamation
^n (28 1 2Q 1 30 1 3 1 1 33 1 ); these are widely separated from a series
of shorter sections which begin with the same exclamation ($ 8 ' 24 ) ;
these two series of similar sections are probably separated in the
present Book of Isaiah because the editor found them in different
works which he has incorporated entire : cp. the separation of
the prophecies in chs. 34. 47 from chs. 13-23. Chs. 36-39
(except 39 9 " 20 ) are an extract from the Book of Kings.
The book thus divides into these sections :
a. i. General Title attributing authorship to Isaiah (i 1 ), and
a small group of prophecies (i 2 ' 81 ).
b. 2-12. A Book of prophecies mainly concerning "Judah
and Jerusalem," ascribed in a title (2 6 ) to Isaiah.
c. 13-23. "Oracles" which the title to the first section (13*)
probably intends to attribute to Isaiah.
d. 24-27. Anonymous Prophecy.
e. 28-33. A collection of poems beginning with ''in.
/ 34 f. Anonymous Prophecy.
g. 36-39. Mainly an extract from 2 Kings.
h. 40-66. Anonymous Prophecy.
Of these sections, g. has its analogy in Jer 52, and the
analogy suggests that it once formed the close of a volume
xlviii INTRODUCTION
attributed to Isaiah, whether that volume contained the whole or
only part ( 17) of what now stands between the title i 1 and
this historical appendix in chs. 36-39. There is also this differ-
ence between chs. 1-39 and 40-66, that whereas much in chs.
1-39 was written later than the age of Isaiah and as late as most,
if not all, of 40-66, yet throughout 1-39 we constantly return
to direct references to Isaiah, or prophecies unmistakably of his
age ; but in 40-66 there is no reference to Isaiah, nor are there
any prophecies of his age.
31. Probably, then, a stage, if not the latest, consisted in
attaching chs. 40-66 to chs. 36-39, which latter chapters were
already preceded by chs. 1-35 in whole or in part. Whether this
attachment of chs. 40-66 to 1-39 was in the first instance due
to the fact that a roll containing a Book of Isaiah 1-39 was
filled out with what was understood to be an anonymous
prophecy (chs. 40-66), either simply to fill a blank space, or to
make the fourth prophetic collection approximate more nearly in
size to Jeremiah, Ezekiel and " The Twelve," or whether chs.
40-66 were attached to chs. 1-39 because they had already
come to be attributed to Isaiah, are speculations that need be
pursued no further here ; see, however, Eichhorn, Einleitung, iii.
(1783) 94; Ges. pp, i7f. ; Cheyne, Introd. xviif., 237 f.
Both books, chs. 1-39 and chs. 40-66, had had their own
separate history before they came, whether by accident or
design, to be treated as a single work. Chs. 40-66 appear to
contain work of at least two periods (c. 540 and c. 450 B.C.)
separated from one another by nearly a century : the matter will
be fully argued in its proper place in the Commentary. An
editor must have brought together the work of these two different
periods, and that scarcely much before, and possibly, even
probably, considerably after, the close of the 5th century.
32. It remains to discuss here the separate history and the
complexity of chs. 1-39 more fully. From the nature of the
case, various alternative theories are often possible : no attempt
will be made to discuss or even to mention them all : it must
suffice to indicate so much as will suggest the complexity of the
problem, and the number of stages by which chs. 1-39 may have
attained their present form.
The Book that contained chs. 40-66 was in the first instance
anonymous ; but the Book that was concluded with chs. 36-39
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xlix
the long extract from Kings relating to Isaiah was probably
from the first understood to consist entirely of prophecies by
Isaiah and narratives relating to him, in this resembling the
Books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. As a matter of fact, Is 1-39
may contain the work of nearly as many different writers as the
book of " the Twelve," but, unlike that book, it passed as the
work of, or about, a single prophet.
33. But how much of chs. 1-35 belonged to the Book of
which chs. 36-39 formed the closing section ? In all probability
at least the three sections which are referred by separate titles
to Isaiah, viz. (a) ch. i ; () chs. 2-12 ; (c) chs. 13-23. But did
this Book also include from the first the anonymous chapters
24-35 ? Of these chapters, 28-33 (3 2 ) contain much that is ad-
mittedly the work of Isaiah, whereas chs. 24-27. (33). 34. 35 con-
tain nothing that can with any probability be defended as work
of the 8th cent. B.C. A theory that the anonymous sections 24-
27. 33. 34. 35 are subsequent interpolations cannot be considered
proved, but it would have in itself nothing improbable. Only it
would be reasonable to believe that if chs. 24-27. 33. 34. 35 were
interpolated into a Book of Isaiah that consisted of i. 2-12. 13-
23. 28-32, they were so interpolated because they were already
believed to be the work of Isaiah, or, if we prefer the alternative,
because the interpolator wished them to pass as Isaiah's.
Again, if these prophecies were added to a book that closed with
chs. 36-39, it is easy to see why they were inserted somewhere in
the middle among the prophecies rather than appended to the
narratives, though the reason for the particular place assigned
them may not be obvious. On the other hand, if they were
interpolated after chs. 40-66 had been already added to a book
which consisted of chs. i. 2-12. 13-23. 28-32. 36-39, it is by no
means easy to see why they were interpolated where they now
stand rather than at the close of the prophecies in chs. 40-66, for
they are certainly not very obviously connected with their present
setting. From this point of view, then, there seems some
probability that, if interpolated at all, chs. 24-27 and 33-35 were
interpolated before chs. 36-39 and 40-66 were united, i.e. before
c. 1 80 B.C. ; and if this were so, it would follow that chs. 24-27
and 33-35 were written before 180 B.C. The case is rather
different with igi7(io)-25 : if this were written c. 160 B.C., it must
have been interpolated ; but it may equally well have been inter-
VOL. i. d
1 INTRODUCTION
polated after the union of chs. 36-39 and 40-66, as before : after
66 it would have stood in no natural connection ; in ch. 19 the
verses are attached to others which also deal with Egypt.
34. We proceed next to a survey of the sections of which
several, if not all, once existed separately as smaller books.
Ch. i may have been a prophetic fly-sheet of about the size
of the Book of Obadiah, or its several parts may have been first
put together by the final editor of the Book : see Introd. to ch. i
in the Comm.
2-12. This section, which opens with its own title and
has the main body of its contents enclosed between poems
(2 2 ' 4 12) relating to the Ideal Future, may well have formed
a Book of Isaiah. But if so, like our present Book it had
itself had a history. It may be noted that (i) the section is
wider in its scope than " Judah and Jerusalem " (a 1 ), for see g 7 -
io 4 ; (2) the account of Isaiah's call falls in the middle of it,
ch. 6 ; (3) chs. 6-8 are more largely narrative than " vision,"
fifn (2 1 ; cp. n. on i 1 ) ; (4) in 5 25 - 29 we have a clear case of mis-
placement; these verses form the close to 9 7 -io 4 ; (5) not a
little even of these chapters is later than the age of Isaiah.
There is room for various conjectures ; 6-8 18 shows in the
main at least a clear chronological sequence, and is drawn in part,
if not entirely, from an autobiographical work by Isaiah; chs.
2-5 contain prophetic poems and sayings. It is possible that 2 1
was in the first instance a title to a small body of prophecy say
2-4, or 2-5, to which the extracts from autobiographical, or
biographical, memoirs 6-8 18 were appended, as chs. 36-39
were appended to 1-35.* The remainder of chs. 2-12, including
the prophetic poem on Ephraim (9 7 -io 4 ), may have gained its
way into this Book at one time or at several. It is, of course,
conceivable that some or all of such additional matter was
added by the final editor of the Book : but this is not probable ;
for had he been freely re-arranging his material, it would have
been natural to group 9 7 -io 4 with other prophecies concerning
Ephraim, such as i7 w
* It is less probable that the Book, claiming in its title to be prophecies
concerning Judah and Jerusalem, contained, in addition to 2-5, 9 7 -lo 4 r and
that 6-9 6 was subsequently interpolated between 2-5 and 9 7 -io 4 (Di.) ; nor is
Di.'s argument that Isaiah himself is answerable for combining 2-5. 6-9 a
(or 6-1 1 16 ) at all conclusive.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH li
But if we cannot speak with certainty as to the original
contents of the Book to which 2 1 was the prefixed title, or as to
its contents when used by the editor who incorporated it into
Is 1-39, so neither can we speak with certainty as to the date
of the Book, either in its original or expanded form. In its
expanded form, however, it must be a work of the post-exilic
period : for not a little of 2-1 2 was first written in that period,
ch. 12 by very general consent, probably also other passages,
viz. 2 2-4 4 2 ' 6 (9 1 ' 6 ) ii and parts of 10.
Chs. 13-23. This book consists of (a) a series of "oracles"
indicated by title (I3 1 ) and sub-titles (15* ly 1 ig l 2I 8 - 11 - 18 22 1
23!), (b) sections not entitled "oracles" (14-- 1712-14 l8 .
(i9 17 - 25 ). 20. 22 15 ' 25 ). The term NB>, which appears in the titles
that give so striking an external feature to this section, occurs
nowhere else in the Book of Isaiah except in 3O 6 , but it is found
in the titles of certain sections of the book of " The Twelve " ; see
Hab i 1 , Nah i 1 , Zee 9 1 I2 1 , Mai i 1 . This Book of Oracles, if,
as seems likely, the ten sections entitled K5?B, oracle^ once
existed separately, was a post-exilic work, for some of the oracles
were themselves written in the Exile or later certainly 13*-! 4*
2 1 1 ' 10 , possibly also 15 f. 19 (in whole or part), 23 ; but the Book
also contained some work belonging to the age of Isaiah ; see
ch. 17. It is possible, and indeed far from improbable, that the
untitled sections were, most or all of them, added to the " Book
of Oracles " before that work was utilised by the editor of Isaiah
1-39 ; but some at least of the additions, e.g. c. 20, must have
been made after the " Book of Oracles " as a whole had been
attributed to Isaiah.
Chs. 24-27. This anonymous prophecy is certainly post-
exilic, and so, too (even though they be of independent origin),
are the songs now incorporated with it; see more fully the
Introduction to the section in the Commentary.
Chs. 28-33. Externally these chapters are held together by
the recurrent ^in at the beginning of sections. A further striking
characteristic is the constant interchange of denunciations which
bear the stamp of a particular period in Isaiah's career, and
passages of glowing promise. Some almost certainly, and possibly
all, of the passages of promise are of post-exilic origin (see, e.g.,
on 28 5f - 29 17-24 3o 18 ' 26 ). Since this feature does not run through
the whole of chs. 1-39, we may infer that it marked these
Ill INTRODUCTION
chapters before they were incorporated in chs. 1-39. In chs.
28-33 we Appear to have a record of a period in Isaiah's career
made the basis of a (late) post-exilic work; see, further, on
28-33 ) an d for an elaboration of the hypothesis barely suggested
here, see M. Bruckner, Die Composition des Buches Jes. cc.
28-33 (c- 1897).
Chs. 34f. An anonymous post-exilic prophecy.
35. This summary statement of much that will be found
more fully discussed in the Commentary is enough to show that
the Book of Isaiah is the final stage in a literary process of
which many of the previous stages fell within the post-exilic
period. And thus an analysis of the Book itself, though it may
not indicate a precise date for the origin of the complete Book,
certainly prepares us for the suggestion of 2 Ch 36 (see above,
1 8), that the Book did not as yet exist c. 300 B.C., and to
believe that it did not exist any long time before 180 B.C.
We can only go further, if we can determine the age of the
latest section of the Book ; for the Book, of course, in its final form
is later than its latest section. Unfortunately there are several
sections which are clearly post-exilic, but of which the exact age
is anything but clear. The present writer hesitates, as the Com-
mentary must be left to show, to follow Du. and others in
assigning much, or Kennett in assigning more than half, of the
book to the 2nd cent. B.C., and some passages even to the end
of that century. But it is extremely difficult to believe that
chs. 24-27 were written until far on in the post-exilic period, and
jgi9-25 ma y have been written as late as 160 B.C., and inserted
in the then virtually closed Book. Even after that date a few
brief notes marginal glosses in the first instance may have
found their way into the text and probably did ; see 2 20 6 13 (last
clause), etc.
The exact age of the last editor's work cannot be determined ;
but the character of the age can be divined. Is 24-27 is an
apocalyptic work, and forms part of the Book of Isaiah ; no
great time after the conclusion of that Book we have evidence
of the activity of apocalyptic thought in Daniel and the earlier
portions of Enoch. The latest editor of the Book, as probably
enough some of the editors of the books he utilised or incorpor-
ated, lived in an age saturated with apocalyptic thought. It
need not surprise us if the thought of the age has frequently
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH liii
affected the form in which even the ancient prophecies have
been handed on to us.
36-39. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah : (4) Prophetic
Teaching and Prophetic Literature.
36. Literature was not the primary expression of prophecy.
Elijah was a speaker, he was not a writer; and (so far as we
know) Amos was the first prophet to record his teaching in
writing. But the earliest of even the so-called literary prophets
were speakers first and writers afterwards : Amos, Isaiah, Micah,
and doubtless Hosea, too, were called in the first instance to
deliver a message to the nation by word of mouth. The call to
write, when it is recorded (Is 3o 8 , Jer 36 2 ), came to these prophets
later ; their first need was fitness or power to speak, pure lips,
and not "the pen of the ready writer." Later, prophecy,
especially as it passed over into apocalyptic, became purely
literary; it was expressed from the first in writing. There is
also much of the prophetic literature of which we cannot say with
certainty whether it rests on spoken prophecy or not.
37. Much of the Book of Isaiah, including perhaps most or
all of that which is unrelated to the prophet Isaiah, may rest on
no previously spoken word : it may have had literary form from
the first : in this case all that is needed is to trace the literary
process to its literary origin. But much certainly goes back to the
public or private utterances of the prophet Isaiah, and in this
case we have to inquire what is the relation between the first
literary stage and the spoken word. Our information on this
point is unfortunately scanty, but it is suggestive ; so also is the
form of the written record itself. The questions that arise
cannot be adequately answered ; but much of the Book of Isaiah
can only be satisfactorily discussed and interpreted, if the possi-
bilities or probabilities in this matter are constantly kept in mind.
38. The records of Isaiah's teaching consist of (a) prophecies,
(ft) memoirs of the prophet, either (a) autobiographical, 6-8 18
(in the main), and a document underlying 28-32 ; or (ft) bio-
graphical, 20. 36-39.
In b (ft) we certainly see Isaiah through the medium of
others, and, probably, in chs. 36-39 through the medium of
somewhat long popular tradition. In b (a) we have Isaiah's
Hv INTRODUCTION
account of himself; but how do the prophecies stand related to
him and his spoken words ? *
The first thing to be remarked is that the prophecies are
almost without exception poems or poetic fragments ( 44 ff.),
and that these poems are short. Probably the longest poem is
9 7 -io* and 5 26 - 29 ; and this, in Hebrew, scarcely exceeds 300
words. We have therefore no speech, sermon, oration (or what-
ever other term we may prefer to use) of Isaiah's that would have
taken in its present literary form more than 4 or 5 minutes to
deliver.
Now, were these poems (a) Composed first and then recited by
the prophet in public ; or (ft) were they written after the prophet
had spoken or preached in a different style and at greater length,
in order to perpetuate, not the words of his speech, but the ideas
that had formed the substance of it ; or (y) are some of them, and
particularly the more fragmentary, pregnant sayings remembered
by his hearers, and subsequently grouped together much like the
" Logia " of the Gospels ?
39. The alternatives just suggested are not mutually exclusive :
all three processes may actually have taken place and each may
account for some of the prophecies that have survived in literary
form. Certainly the prophets may at times have availed them-
selves of the methods of the Moshelim (Nu 2i 27 : see Numbers,
pp. 299 f., xiii f.) ; but, having gathered their audience, they may
have held it by reciting, instead of songs of past victory, poems
of their own composing in which they laid bare the real signifi-
cance of the present ; perchance the song of the vineyard in 5 1 ' 7
had such an origin. So, too, in view of much that is fragmentary,
it is far from improbable that we owe something to the memory
of the disciples of the prophet (cp. 8 16 ' 18 ); and certainly the
grouping of six or seven brief "Woes" in 5 8 ' 24 recalls the
"Beatitudes" of the Gospels which we have received in two
very different groupings, one of which at least is not that of their
author. But probably the bulk of the prophecies in the Book of
Isaiah, as in Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah, are condensations into
artistic poetic form of what Isaiah had said in public at greater
length, but without the same restraint of form. This is
suggested by the particular instance recorded in 3o 8 (8 16 is
more ambiguous), read in the light of the full account given
* Cp. Cheyne, Introd. xxix.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH Iv
by Jeremiah (ch. 36) of the way in which he came to commit
his teaching to writing : not till Jeremiah had been teaching for
more than twenty years did he compose the prophetic poems
which summarise what he had said. How early, or how often,
Isaiah gave literary form to his teaching we cannot determine :
there is some reason for believing that it was some years after
his Call that he wrote his account of it (see on ch. 6), and the
preparation of these memoirs may have been Isaiah's first literary
work. In the case of the prophecies on the Northern kingdom,
the two most probable alternatives are these : either (a) Isaiah
wrote 9 7 -io 4 ly 1 ' 9 28 1 - 4 and despatched the written poems to be
recited or read by others, or (b) he himself, like Amos (Am 7 10 ' 15 ),
proceeded to some place in the North, delivered his message,
and subsequently reduced the substance of what he had said
to literary form. Some of the " oracles " on foreign nations were
presumably cast in literary form from the first (cp. Di. xxi),
though ch. 1 8 again may well be a summary of what Isaiah had
previously spoken.
40. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah : (5) A
tentative synthesis from the preceding evidence.
40. In the preceding analytical discussion it has several
times been pointed out that more than one theory will
satisfy many of the phenomena: no synthesis of results can
therefore be more than tentative; all that is offered here
is one such tentative theory * of the origin of the Book of
Isaiah.
At times rather than continuously between the years c. 740
to 701 B.C., and perhaps somewhat later, Isaiah was a public
teacher in Judah ; he gradually gathered around him disciples.
Some years after he had been teaching he wrote some memoirs
recording the experience which made him a prophet and the way
in which he had in the earlier years (735-732) of the reign of
Ahaz delivered his prophetic message. He also at various times
perpetuated in the form of prophetic poems the substance of
what he had said in rebuke of the sins of Judah (see, e.g., 2-4),
or Ephraim (9 7 -io 7 I7 1 ' 11 28 1-4 ), or in reference to political issues
of the day in which foreign nations also were involved (see, e.g.,
* For another recent theory, see Kennett, pp. 39-42.
Ivi INTRODUCTION
chs. 1 8. 28-31); in some cases he was moved to do this by
the unwillingness of the people to listen to him (3o 8 ).
The memoirs and prophetic poems of Isaiah, forming small
booklets, became the treasures of his disciples and their suc-
cessors ; it is probable enough that early owners of these booklets
made annotations in them, and we have, perhaps, an instance of
7th century annotations in 7 8c - d .
But the personality of Isaiah impressed itself not only on his
immediate disciples : he became the hero of popular story, and
some of these stories relating to the latest period(s) in his life
were a century or more later written down, and found their way
like the similar cycle of stories about Elijah and Elisha into the
Book of Kings (2 K 18-20).
Various writers during and after the Exile wrote oracles on
foreign nations ; and a great writer produced a book (Is 40-55)
intended to rouse and encourage the Exiles in Babylon.
After the Exile much of the existing prophetic literature was
newly arranged and expanded, especially by the addition of
passages of promise and comfort ; and among the results of this
activity were books closely resembling chs. 2-12 and chs. 13-23.
New and independent prophecy was also produced, and in
the middle of the 5th cent. B.C. much of 56-66 was written.
Later, chs. 40-55 and 56-66 were combined into a single book.
Other independent post-exilic works are chs. 34 f., 24-27 the
latter written late in the post-exilic period.
Possibly about the beginning of the 3rd cent. B.C. the
existing Books of Isaiah (2-12 and 13-23 and? 28-32) were
brought together by an editor who prefixed a title i 1 and
another booklet of Isaiah's (i 2 " 31 ), and added (36-39) to the
prophecies the narratives from 2 K i7 13 -2o (with the omission,
however, of 2 K i8 14 ' 16 and the addition of Is 38 9 ' 20 ) : whether
this editor also included in his work chs. 24-27 and 33. 34. 35,
or whether these sections were later interpolated, is uncertain.
Some time before 180 B.C., chs. 1-39 (24-27. 34 f. possibly
being absent) and 40-66 were united in a single whole, which
with Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and "The Twelve" formed four volumes
of prophecy of approximately equal size.
After 1 80 B.C. the Book of Isaiah may have received some
additions such as i9 17 ' 25 , possibly even, though less probably, 24-
27- 34 ^
CRITERIA FOR DISTINGUISHING WORDS OF ISAIAH Ivii
About 1 50 B.C. the Book of Isaiah was translated into Greek.
After this date it is very doubtful whether the Book received any
additions extending beyond a clause or a verse : such small
additions, however, were made to the Hebrew text and include
6 13 (last clause) 2 20 .
Against even such minor additions the Hebrew text was
secured from the end of the ist cent A.D. onwards by the
conclusion of the Canon and the doctrine of the finality of
Scripture. Thenceforward the Book of Isaiah could no longer
be adapted to the needs or hopes of the living community by
addition or alteration, but only by exegesis ; between the 5th
and the gth centuries A.D. the approved exegesis was closely
wedded with the text by means of the vowel points. At times
these vowel points are flagrantly at variance with the actual
sense of the text, and embody not a possible interpretation of
the prophecies, but the hopes of these later Jews (see, e.g. y on
63 1 - 6 )-
41-43. Criteria for distinguishing the words of Isaiah from
the additions of later writers.
41. The task of interpreting a work with a history so long
and complicated and yet in detail so obscure and uncertain as
that which has just been sketched, is difficult indeed. There is
no question that the Book contains words of Isaiah and words
of other and later authors ; nor can there be any serious doubt
that in parts of the Book these two elements are closely inter-
mingled. We may immediately set aside chs. 40-66, 24-27,
34 f. as containing no words of Isaiah, though in their turn these
chapters also present their own similar problems of analysis.
But in chs. 1-23, referred by title to Isaiah, and in chs. 28-33,
how and to what extent can the earlier and the later elements
be distinguished? The earlier critical method was rough and
ready, and left correspondingly rough places for the interpreter ;
tacitly the accepted canon was : what cannot be clearly proved
to be later than the age of Isaiah is the work of Isaiah. But
the canon is illegitimate. The Book of Isaiah is a late com-
pilation : even the books incorporated in it and attributed to
Isaiah chs. 2-12 and 13-23 are post-exilic works. All that
can be strictly claimed is that what clearly proceeds from Isaiah
Iviii INTRODUCTION
is to be regarded as his, all that clearly proceeds from other
or later writers is not to be regarded as his, and all that is
neither clearly his nor clearly not his must be regarded as un-
certain. And, of course, there is wide range in the degrees of
uncertainty.
42. The criteria for distinguishing the work of different
writers and determining the date of any particular passage are
mainly of three kinds.
(a) The Political and Social implications.
In some cases these are clear and ample; they show that
chs. 6-8 are, in the main, the work of Isaiah; that chs. i^ 2 - 22
and 40-55 (in the main) are works of the exilic period. In
other cases the interpretation of what is implied is less clear.
It is certain that if n 1 implies that the dynasty of David has
fallen, the prophecy, n 1 * 8 , was written no earlier than the
Exile ; but many interpreters find themselves able to place an
interpretation on the verse which would leave the date an open
question.
(b) Style and Language.
These may prove or help to prove either (i) that a passage,
or even a clause, is not Isaiah's ; or (2), more definitely, the ap-
proximate date of such a passage. It is unnecessary to use the
argument from style and language to prove that chs. 40-55 are
not the work of Isaiah ; for it is abundantly clear from criteria
of class (a) alone that these chapters were written 150 years
after the close of Isaiah's career. At the same time, style and
language alone would suffice to show that 40-55 were not the
work of Isaiah, though they would not quite so closely define
the date of that work.
The data have been very carefully collected by Cheyne (Intro-
duction)^ who at times may overrate the significance of them.
(c) Ideas.
In this case, too, there is frequently room for difference of
judgment on the facts; for we cannot write the history of
Hebrew ideas with such precision and certainty as to rule out
the possibility that some ideas which seem to find expression
solely in later religion may not have been current earlier. In
particular is there difference of judgment at the present time
as to the critical significance of certain eschatological ideas (see
below, 89).
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE lix
43. In most cases a final judgment on any passage will rest
in some measure on criteria of all three classes ; and in cases
where no single type of criteria yields ground for certainty, the
combination of probabilities derived from a study of the three
classes may yield a high degree of probability approaching
certainty ; in others, even all the criteria combined will only give
a balance of probabilities (9 1 ' 6 ), and sometimes this will be
of the slightest kind, so that to one observer the balance may
seem, if it inclines at all, to incline to one side, though to
another observer it will appear to incline to the other.
Kennett (pp. 4 f. ) states the problem well ; but his method of solution would
be sound only if our knowledge of all periods of Jewish history were full instead
of being with reference to some periods exceedingly meagre, and with refer-
ence to most, inadequate. "It is necessary," he writes, "to inquire with
reference to each section or fragment which literary criticism declares to be
homogeneous, at what period every one of its phrases would have a clear
meaning. ... If history repeats itself, it seldom does so to such an extent
that every word and phrase of a document written in one age will be equally
suitable to another : and for practical purpose it will usually be enough to
point out one period of history to which such a document really corresponds
in all its parts." Unfortunately for this method, there is a vast difference
between suitability to a particular age and suitability to what is known of
the same age : a document may very well correspond, or not be inconsistent
with, what is known of two or three different periods of all of which next
to nothing is known ; and if the correspondence with only one such period
is pointed out, a false impression of certainty or probability is necessarily
given. As a matter of fact, considerable parts of the Book of Isaiah are not
inconsistent with what is known of more periods than one (cp. e.g. the
introduction to IQ 1 " 15 ) : if our knowledge were increased, the range of ambigu-
ity might be diminished ; on the other hand it might be increased ; for what
had seemed peculiar to a particular period may be shown by fuller knowledge
to have been common to more than one : till lately an allusion to a Jewish
Temple in Egypt would have corresponded to what was known of the period
from c. 1 60 B.C. to 73 A.D. only ; it is now known that there was a Jewish ,
Temple in Egypt from before 525 down to 411 B.C. also. /
44-57. The poetical forms of the prophetic literature^
and oj the Book of Isaiah in particular.
44. Robert Lowth (1710-1787), sometime Professor of
Poetry in the University of Oxford and Bishop of London,
rendered two great services to the critical study of the Old
Testament. He revealed by a masterly analysis the parallelistic
structure of Hebrew poetry ; and he perceived that the prophetic
Ix INTRODUCTION
literature was poetical in form.* He also proved that in trans-
lating from Hebrew poetry it is possible to reproduce not only
the sense, but also the form, in so far as this depends on parallel-
ism ; and in his translation of Isaiah he presented the poetical
form of the original to the eye of his readers. In this he was
followed amongst others by Koppe, who translated his Isaiah into
German, by Gesenius in the translation prefixed to his Com-
mentary, and by the English scholar Henderson (1840). Un-
fortunately this practice suffered a check ; and even in Cheyne's
Commentary,! which in other respects marked a notable advance
in the criticism and interpretation of the Book, the prophecies
were translated throughout in the form of prose : still more
unfortunately the RV (1885), which presented the Psalms, Job,
and other poetical parts of the OT in poetical form, by printing
the Prophets as prose, obscured the important fact that the
greater part of these books is no less poetical in form than either
Psalms or Job.
Parallelism is one of the forms of Hebrew poetry : is it the
only one? Since the time of Lowth the question of Hebrew
metre, which he had treated as non-existent or irrecoverable,
has received repeated attention. Into the general question \ it
is impossible to enter at length here ; but it is necessary to
explain the principle on which the form given to the translations,
and the account taken of metre in the Commentary, have been
decided.
45. In the translations the division into lines has been deter-
mined primarily by regard to parallelism : i.e. Lowth's method
has been resumed. This would be justifiable even if the metre
were always clearly to be recognised which it is not; for there
would be no reason to adopt in translating from Hebrew a
method which for good reasons has found no favour with those
who have translated the metrical lines of other poetry : in
translations (which are not themselves metrical) from Homer or
Vergil, for example, it is not customary to distinguish in the
* De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum Praelectiones (1753) A new translation of
Isaiah (1778).
t The Prophecies of Isaiah (1880, 1882 ; ed. 5, 1889).
% Cp. Harper, Amos and Hosea (in this series), pp. clxiv-clxix, and W. H.
Cobb, A Criticism of Systems of Hebrew Metre (1905), a useful survey of the
subject, with (pp. 191-202) an extensive bibliography.
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE Ixi
translation the lines of the original ; neither is there any reason
so to distinguish the Hebrew metrical lines if, or when, these
lines do not coincide with the periods of parallelism, as Du., for
example, has not infrequently done (see, e.g., p. 212 below, note
on the structure of n 1 ' 8 ).
46. But parallelism is not a constant phenomenon of
Hebrew poetry : lines frequently occur which are not related to
their neighbours by parallelism of terms, or even by a general
parallelism of sense. What Lowth called "synthetic parallel-
ism " (Dr. LOT 363) is in reality absence of parallelism in
lines such as
Yet I have set my king
Upon Zion, my holy hill.
But in a poem which contains for the most part lines parallel in
sense, the remainder of the poem in which parallelism is absent
tends to fall into periods of the same length. So, in the example
just cited,
nn
contains two periods of the same length as the periods in
v. 1 of the same Psalm which are related to one another by
parallelism
HV now own
If an entire poem contained no parallel lines, there would be no
sound reason for distinguishing the lines in the English transla-
tion ; yet if the end of the lines always coincided with a pause
in the sense, the line-division might be retained in English as a
form of articulation ; and when, as is most frequently the case,
parallelism is sometimes present, sometimes (though generally
less frequently) absent, it is convenient to show the line-division
throughout.
This approximation to a similar length and rhythmical
character in the periods of a poem is the best evidence that
parallelism is not the only form of Hebrew poetry, but that it
followed also certain rhythmical laws, however elastic those laws
may have been.
47. So far it is assumed that the rhythmical unit and the
Ixii INTRODUCTION
sense divisions in Hebrew poetry are identical; and that that
poetry has nothing to show like
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos; or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song
in which passage the rhythmical units regularly close where there
is no sense-division, and the pauses of sense occur in the middle of
the rhythmical units. If the assumption is wrong, and if Sievers
is right in his contention that " run on " lines do occur even with
frequency in Hebrew poetry, it might have a considerable bearing
on textual criticism ; but it would not affect the correct method
of dividing the lines in an English translation : these might and
should still serve the useful purpose of clearly presenting the
parallelistic structure coinciding with sense-divisions.
But the more elaborate metrical analysis of Hebrew texts,
such as Bickell or Sievers offers, rest on too precarious a basis to
be made as yet a secure instrument even of textual criticism.
48. The prominent element in Hebrew poetry is the accented
syllable ; the laws that governed the number of unaccented
syllables that accompanied it are obscure, though it is obviously
an over-statement, as Cobb (op. dt. 123 f.) caustically points out,
to say that the number of unaccented syllables was " a matter of
no consequence" (Harper, Amos and Hosea, p. clxvii). We
may, then, at the present stage of investigations into Hebrew
metre, obtain a provisional determinant of rhythm in Hebrew
poetry by observing the accented syllables. Each word, or each
complex of words united by makkeph, represents, generally
speaking, a single-word accent ; it may be that in some cases in
a word of five or more syllables the secondary accent also ranks
as a word-accent, and that, e.g. tof>fn> Ps 2 5 , DiTriTnjn Is io 13d ,
* <J * y - "* *
contains not one accent only, but two. Seeing that MT can no
more be trusted in its particular applications of makkeph than in
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE Ixiii
respect of the vowels, it will be seen that there is room even in
this simpler determination of rhythm for no little uncertainty.
49. Broadly speaking, the lines of Hebrew poetry are related
to one another in one of two ways : they are equal, or they are
unequal; in the one case we have a balancing rhythm t in the
other an echoing rhythm ; for example, in I 8
, L^^
injp iw in* 3 *
DISK -norn oju*^
-
the lines in each couplet balance one another ; each line of the
first couplet certainly contains three accents; each line of the
second couplet also contains three accents, if MT is right,
and it probably is so, in leaving the &6 in each line unconnected
by makkeph with the verb ; if the makkeph is inserted the lines
still balance, but the length of each is two accents. In the
one case the couplet may be described as 3 : 3, in the other
as 2 : 2.
50. Examples of echoing rhythm* are found later in the
same chapter, especially in vv. 21 ' 28 , and also, e.g., in i3 2 ' 8 i4 4 ' 21 ;
jSi. 26. 27 mav serve as examples :
ruvn
imp
rknro
man
In each of these couplets a line of three accents is followed
by a line of two : the rhythm is 3 : 2.
51. Within the broad distinction into balancing and echoing
couplets, minor distinctions are to be observed, especially in
balancing couplets : the length of the lines in balancing couplets
* On account of its use in elegies, this rhythm has also been termed the
Kinah (elegy} rhythm. But it can no longer be maintained that the rhythm
is peculiar to elegy, though it may be said to be characteristic of it. On this
rhythm, see Budde, ZATW, 1882, pp. 1-52; Dr. LOT 457-459 ; EBi. s.v.
Lamentation^ 2, and Poetical Literature^ 8. For examples in the Book
of Isaiah of the rhythm not in elegy, see i lof ' 40"'
Ixiv INTRODUCTION
commonly varies between two and four accents : e.g. 32 11 contains
two couplets 2:2:
mn
t, nnaa nrn
mjn
mom
and in addition to i 8 given above, 32 15c - d - 16 may serve as
examples of 3 : 3 :
iTni
npro
Couplets which in the last analysis are 4 : 4 are rarer. Of
course, wherever a succession of couplets 2 : 2 occurs, it would
be possible, by combining two lines, to express the rhythm as
4 : 4. The real distinction, however, lies here that in some
periods of four accents there is a marked pause after the second
accent, and also the two parts of this period of four accents are
parallel in sense (cp. 32" above), whereas in others there is
neither pause nor parallelism within the periods in either line,
or at least not in both of the lines of four accents that constitute
the couplet. Clear examples of couplets 4 : 4 are 5 16 9 2c - d :
empn
vvpa
opira i
See also note on rhythm prefixed to chs. 15 f.
Periods of five accents without a pause scarcely occur ; for
most couplets 5 : 5 can also be treated rhythmically as double
couplets of 3 : 2, with 2 : 3 as a rare variant. And the same
is true of periods of six accents, though these may occasionally,
from certain points of view, be treated as rhythmical units ; for
successive periods may be differently divided, some into 3 : 3,
others in 2 : 2 : 2 ; see on i 2f - and 26 1 ' 19 ; cp. also, e.g. t Ps i 1
2:2:2 followed by 3 : 3.
52. There is less variety in echoing couplets: the prevailing
type of these is 3 : 2, already illustrated ( 50). Obviously
3 : 2 may be regarded as an abbreviated 3 : 3, and we might,
therefore, expect 2 : i and 4 : 3, abbreviations of 2 : 2 and 4 : 4
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE Ixv
respectively, to be as frequent variations on 3 : 2 as are 2 : 2
and 4 : 4 on 3 : 3 ; but 2 : i is not, at least, a frequent variant,
and 4 : 3 (cp. Sievers' frequent "Siebeners") rarely possesses
the characteristic echoing value of 3 : 2. Interchanging with
3 : 2 we find rather 4 : 2 or 2 : 2.
That the echo is the really characteristic thing in periods of
five accents appears from two considerations: (i) these periods
are, with the rarest exceptions, divided into 3:2; the obvious
alternative 2 : 3, which would give no echoing effect, does occur,
but with such rarity * that some writers consider its occurrence
sufficient evidence that the lines have suffered accidental trans-
position : such accidents certainly occurred, for see Ps i8 45 =
2 S 22 46 ; (2) the rhythmic echo is frequently combined with a
sense echo, i.e. two terms of the first line are paralleled in the
second line, the third is not merely not paralleled, that happens
often enough in parallel couplets 3 : 3, but it has nothing
corresponding to it.
53. So far this analysis of the rhythmical facts has been
confined to the couplet, f or distich, which is so prevalent in
all Hebrew poetry. There also occur, though with far less
frequency, monostichs and tristichs; tetrastichs, too, though
these can generally be regarded as two distichs. The distich
is a rhythmical complex in itself: the monostich is not; it merely
acquires a specific rhythmical quality from its relation to other
lines, most of which will almost invariably be found to be com-
bined into distichs. The monostich is a period in a poem
equivalent in length to one line of a distich. A tristich is a
complex of three rhythmically similar lines, and for this reason
can only occur in balancing rhythm. Both monostichs and
tristichs are of relatively rare occurrence even in the existing
text, and in the original they were probably rarer still. Whether
three lines are to be regarded as a tristich, or as a distich followed
or preceded by a monostich, will sometimes, when all three lines
are not parallels, be uncertain. In the translations the second
line of the distich and the second and third of tristichs are inset.
* Cp. Sievers, Metrische Studien, pp. 1 1 1 f.
f It is because the couplet is so characteristic of Hebrew poetry that I
prefer the symbols 2 : 2, 3 : 3, 4 : 4, 3 : 2, etc., which describe the couplet,
to the terms dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, for line:
of two, three, four, five, and six accents respectively.
VOL. I. e
Ixvi INTRODUCTION
54. Rhythmically similar periods may, from the point of view
of parallelism, be different in character : and inasmuch as par-
allelism is made the basis of the line-divisions of the translations
in this volume, rhythmically similar periods are differently
treated. This applies more especially to the typical echoing
lines. In the examples given above the entire period of five
accents divides into two unequal lines, of which the second and
shorter is parallel to the first and longer :
And I will restore thy judges as at the first,
And thy counsellors as at the beginning.
Denoting the ideas or main terms by a. b. c, and the parallel
ideas by a' b', etc., the scheme is a. b. c | b' c'. In other cases
there is no parallelism between the unequal divisions of the
period of five accents ; and parallelism, if it occurs, is between
the entire periods the scheme being a. b. c. d. e | a' b' c' d' e',
or, almost invariably, with less complete correspondence, a. b. c.
d. e a' b' c' f. g., and so forth ; cp., for example :
I am satiated with burnt-offerings of rams and fat of fed
beasts ;
And in the blood of bullocks and he-goats I delight not.
Here the distich is 5 : 5, and the parallelism of terms or ideas,
which extends over the entire length of the lines, may be repre-
sented thus : a. b. c. (b). d | b' c' d' a'. But if parallelism
were disregarded and rhythm only considered, each line of the
above distich would be correctly described as 3 : 2.
55. Enough, perhaps, has been said to indicate the chief
varieties of couplets or distichs that occur in Hebrew. There
remains the question, How are such distichs combined into a
poem ? Must a poem consist entirely of distichs identical both
in rhythmical quantity and in rhythmical quality ? For example,
does a poem necessarily consist of a succession of couplets 3:3;
and, if the couplets are occasionally interrupted by monostichs
or tristichs, must these consist exclusively of lines of three
accents? Or is it possible for couplets 3 : 3 to be interchanged
with other balancing distichs 2 : 2 or 4 : 4, or even with couplets
of another quality and kind, viz. the echoing couplets 3:2?
Certainly in our present text we get almost every possible
combination, within a few verses, and, unless all the separate
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE Ixvii
poems are exceedingly short, within the same poem. But (i)
the mixture of lines of different quality, the echoing and the
balancing, is probably far less frequent than the mixture of
lines of different length but of the same quality ; (2) the extent
of mixture, even of lines of the same quality but of different
length, was probably less in the original texts ; (3) the extent
of mixture differs greatly, at all events in the present text, in
different poems ; (4) it is generally possible to discern a
dominant rhythm^ i.e. a rhythm which occurs more frequently
throughout the poem in question than any other rhythm, and
commonly more often than all other rhythms put together.
56. If the preceding remarks suggest that there is considerable
uncertainty or irregularity in Hebrew rhythms or metre, they
will very correctly convey the impression left on the present
writer by his study of them. Is the uncertainty and irregularity
so great as to cast doubt on the very existence of rhythm, or, at
least, on the value of these rhythmical uncertainties and irregu-
larities for the criticism or interpretation of the Book? Such
scepticism is not unnaturally provoked by the far-reaching
changes that are often made in the text in obedience to hypo-
thetical laws of metre. On the other hand, there is too much
approximation even to metrical regularity to justify such com-
plete scepticism. The notes on rhythm prefixed to the various
poems must be left to tell their own tale : the attempt is there
made to analyse the actual facts of the existing text, and to give
the reader a clue to, if not always a complete statement of, the
differences in quantity or quality in the Hebrew text of the
lines and distichs of the poem, as presented in the translations.
Without some such statement the reader would often acquire a
very erroneous impression sometimes suspecting irregularity
where regularity prevails, and sometimes the reverse ; * a refer-
ence back to these notes will also give a measure of the value to
be set on the rhythmical considerations when such are sub-
sequently referred to in the commentary or philological notes.
It may be rarely wise to insist on any textual change merely
on rhythmical grounds : on the other hand, when rhythmical and
other considerations point towards the same change, though
each consideration taken by itself may have slight weight, taken
* This needs to be borne in mind by those who use the translations of Du. ,
Cheyne, or Box.
Ixviii INTRODUCTION
together they may have much. Further, though a line may seem
abnormally long, all that the rhythm will suggest is that one or
more words are intrusive ; it will not determine which unless,
indeed, we can pass beyond the detection of rhythm of word
accents to syllabic rhythm.
Again, the mere occurrence of a 2:2 distich in the midst ot
3 : 3 distichs (as, e.g., in 2 2-4 ) may be a very unsafe ground for
treating the 2 : 2 distich as intrusive. On the other hand, a
change in the dominant rhythm, as, say, from 3 : 3 to 3 : 2 (see
chs. 13. 34), may generally raise a suspicion that we have passed
from one poem to another.
57. A further form of Hebrew poetry is the strophe. If the
lines of the original be leproduced in the translation, so, too, should
the strophes. They are marked off in the translation by spaces.
In some cases the strophic division is obvious, as, e.g., in
9 7 -io 4 , where each strophe closes with a refrain. In other cases
the division is less obvious; we can only be guided by the
greater sense-pauses.
In connection with the strophe, the question of regularity
again presents itself. Are the strophes of a poem necessarily
of the same length ? In certain cases they appear to be so ; in
others it is doubtful whether there is more than some approxima-
tion to regularity. Du., in general, succeeds in reducing the
poems to strophes of regular length, but sometimes at con-
siderable cost; see the notes in this Commentary prefixed to
n 1 ' 8 13.
58-73. Isaiah in relation to the political and social
conditions of his age.
58. The greater part of Isaiah's life fell within the last half
of the 8th cent. B.C., but he must have been born from ten to
twenty years before 750; and, since he was certainly living and
active in 701, he probably outlived the century, possibly even by
as much as ten or twelve years. In his boyhood his countryman
Amos, of the land and kingdom of Judah, prophesied against
the neighbouring kingdom of Israel ; and Jerusalem, the home of
Isaiah, lay about half-way between Tekoa, the home of Amos,
and Bethel, the scene of his preaching. Both Tekoa and Bethel
lay within an easy day's walk of Jerusalem, at a distance of
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixix
about twelve miles from the capital. In Isaiah's early manhood
and the first years of his own activity as a prophet, Hosea, a
native of the Northern kingdom, was preaching to his own
people of judgment to come ; and about half-way through Isaiah's
active life his teaching was enforced by Micah. Isaiah living
in the capital, and Micah living in the country, a day's journey
towards the coast, and the coast road by which merchants and
soldiers from time immemorial had passed, as they still passed,
from the valley of the Euphrates to the valley of the Nile,
saw and judged some things differently, yet with fundamental
agreement.
59. Isaiah received the call to prophesy in the year that
Uzziah, king of Judah, died (6 1 ), i.e. in, or within a year or
two of, 740 B.C. as late as 738 on one interpretation of
certain Assyrian records, not necessarily quite so late as 740
on another.
Ahaz became king of Judah not later than 735 B.C., for Tiglath-pileser *
mentions him (Ja-u-ha-zi (mat) Ja-u-da-ai) along with other Syrian princes as
paying tribute to him in 734 B.C. ; and, according to 2 K i6 7 , Is 7 1 " 16 , he was
already king during the Syro-Ephraimitish war which preceded Tiglath-pileser's
campaign of 734. To Ahaz' predecessor, Jotham, the Book of Kings assigns
a reign of 16 years, which would carry back the death year of Uzziah to
751 ; but, as is well known, these chronological statements of Kings cannot
be implicitly trusted ; a date as early as 751 for Isaiah's call is improbable,
since he was still active 50, if not 60, years after that date.
Now, in the Annals of the year 738, Tiglath-pileser mentions an Azariah
(Az-ri-ia-a-u, 1. 131 ; Az-ri-a-[u], 1. 123 ; [Az-ri-i]a-a-u, 1. in ; [Is-ri-]ia-a-u,
104; Is-ri-ia-u, 105) of the land of Ja-u-da-ai (1. 104), or Ja-u-di (1. 105).
Since Uzziah of Judah was (also) called Azariah according to several passages
in the OT (cp. 6 1 n.), there seemed to be at least a good prima facie case
for the identification of " Az-ri-ia-u (mat) Ja-u-da-ai (Ja-u-di)," and .viy (or
mVF "jSb (imp. Schroder (A!Wwlr$ffe*i und Geschichtsforshung, pp. 395-
421 ; cp. KAT*} argued for the identification, and it was generally accepted,
with the result that Uzziah's death was placed in 740 (the year to which
Schrader erroneously referred this part of the Annals) or later. It thus
became necessary to contract Jotham's reign within very narrow limits.
On the basis of Rost's edition of the Annals (1893), which placed several
things in a new light, and of native inscriptions of a land of "IN* in northern
Syria discovered in 1890 close to Zinjirli (see now Cooke, NSI, pp. I59ff.),
Winckler (Altor. Forschungen^ i. 1-23) challenged the identification, and
argued that the Az-ri-ya-u of the inscriptions was not king of Judah (mn)
but of 'IN', to which the Assyrian Ja-u-di might equally well correspond.
* Clay Tablet, Reverse 1. II.
Ixx INTRODUCTION
Briefly stated the case stands thus : according to the inscription, Az-ri-ia-u
was the prime mover in opposition to Assyria, and was supported by 19
districts of Hamath ; these districts were conquered by Tiglath-pileser and
made an Assyrian province ; the fate of Az-ri-ia-u himself is, owing to a muti-
lation of the inscription, obscure : "19 districts of Hamath . . . which in
their sin and folly had taken the side of Az-ri-ia-u I added to the territory of
Assyria" (11. 130-132); cp. "who had taken the side of and strengthened
Az-ri-ia-u" (1. in).
Now it would certainly be remarkable if two contemporary kings of two
countries, the names of which are scarcely distinguishable, had the same
name ; remarkable also, in spite of the parallel case of Jaubidi, king of
Hamath in 720 B.C. (Sargon, Nimrud-inscription, 1. 8), that a king of a
northern Syrian state should bear a name compounded with n\ On the
other hand, (i) it is not certain that Azariah rather than, or as well as,
Uzziah was the name of the king of Judah ; (2) a somewhat parallel caprice
of similarity, which certainly led to a wrong identification, is afforded by Mena-
hem, king of Israel (and therefore of Samaria), in 738 B.C., and Menahem,
king of Samsimuruna in 701 B.C. (Sennacherib's inscription : Taylor Cylinder,
ii. 47) ; (3) nothing in the OT, or in what is otherwise known of the history
of the period, would lead us to expect that Uzziah of Judah would be the
leader of an opposition to Assyria, and supported by the distant districts of
Hamath (only) ; (4) so late a date as 738 for the death of Uzziah, though not
impossible, is, failing direct evidence, not very probable.
60. Of Isaiah's life between the year of his call, c. 740 B.C.
and 735 we have no direct and unambiguous records ; but we may
infer from 8 2 (n.) that he had during these years himself grown
assured of, and probably also gained recognition for, his pro-
phetic calling. In pursuit of it he may have visited Ephraim
( 39) an d spoken according to the tenor of 9 7 -io 4 . In 6-8 8
we can trace his activity in the opening years of the reign of
Ahaz, who succeeded to the throne c. 735. He had then been
already some time married, and was the father of a child at least
three or four years old (7 2 n.), to whom he had given the name
Shear- Yashub, which, meaning "a Remnant shall return," ex-
pressed an important element in his teaching ( 86). He appears
to have had easy access to the king (7 lff - : chs. 36 ff.), and he
may have belonged to a family of some standing, though the
inference to this effect drawn from 8 2 is precarious, and the view
that he was of royal blood (i 1 n.) rests on nothing more than
Rabbinic ingenuity. Another son was born to him in 734, and
to the younger as to the elder he gave a name, Maher-shalal-
hash baz, embodying one prominent element in his teaching, hisv
conviction, viz., that Damascus and Israel were doomed to early
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxi
extinction. In thus using these opportunities of his domestic
life to enforce and emphasise his teaching, he was adopting
a practice, and perhaps deliberately following the example, of
Hosea (Hos i). At this time, as probably throughout his life,
he was resident in Jerusalem (cp. 6 1 7 8 22 18ff - a8 14 36-39).
61. For more than twenty years (c. 733-711) the life of
Isaiah remains a blank to us, except so far as we can follow it by
surmise and conjecture : there is no narrative of this period,
except, perhaps, that which records the embassy from Merodach-
baladan (ch. 39), and no prophecy that can with certainty be
referred to these years (though see i4 28 n. 28 1-4 ). And yet within
these twenty years falls the most outstanding event, for a Jew,
of the whole century: in 72*, Samaria, the capital of the
Northern kingdom, was, after a three years' siege, captured by
the Assyrians ; the tribes, which had hitherto been the more
numerous and more powerful common inheritors with Judah of
the Land of Promise which Yahweh the God of Israel had given
to His people, were exiled, and their land became an Assyrian
province.
The fact, if it be a fact,* that Judah between 734 and 711
quietly accepted the Assyrian over-lordship and took no part in
the attempts of Samaria in 724-722, or of several neighbouring
states in 720, to cast it off, is at best scarcely more than a partial
reason for this remarkable silence. Isaiah certainly preached
a policy of non-intervention ; and if Judah during this period
practised it, Isaiah may have been satisfied with the external
policy of Judah, and so have found little occasion for reiterating
this particular element in his teaching. But the injustice and
unrighteousness against which he also raised his voice were
scarcely less in need of denunciation during these years than
during other parts of his life. Some of the prophecies, the date
of which cannot be closely determined, may therefore belong to
these years : for example, parts of chs. 25.
* Neither the OT nor the Assyrian inscriptions directly record any
revolt of Judah from Assyria during this period. But in an inscription of the
year 717, Sargon speaks of himself as mu-sak-nis (tndtu) Ja-u-du sa asar-su
rzt-u-ku, "subduer of the far-off land of Ja-u-di" (Nimrod Inscription, 1. 8 ;
AT? ii. 37). From this it has sometimes been inferred (cp. KAT* 67) that
Judah took part in the Syrian revolt of 720, as it certainly did in the revolt
of 711. It is, however, possible that Ja-u-di is here 'IK and not mn\ Sec
above, 59.
Ixxii INTRODUCTION
62. Ch. 20, a narrative referring to the year 711 B.C., relates
that, on one occasion at least, Isaiah enforced his spoken
message by strange symbolical action ; for three years he went
barefoot and half-clad, and so by his conduct represented the
lot of those whose captivity he predicted.
Again some years are a blank, and then, in a series of
prophecies (in chs. 28 6 -3i, and, perhaps, ch. 18) we are able
to trace, and in a group of narratives (chs. 36 f. and perhaps
also 38 f.) to see the deep impression left on the popular mind
by, the part which Isaiah played at the time of Sennacherib's
invasion of Palestine in 701, and probably, if Sennacherib really
invaded Palestine some ten years later ( 70), on that occasion
also.
The date of Isaiah's death is unknown : even if the tradition,
based probably on some Midrash, and perhaps alluded to in
He ii 87 , that Isaiah was sawn asunder by King Manasseh,*
deserved credence, it would determine little ; for the date of
Manasseh's accession cannot be closely or certaintly fixed;
according to some chronological schemes it is to be placed as early
as 698 i.e. 29 years (2 K r8 2 ) after 727, in which year, accord-
ing to one statement in the Book of Kings (2 K i8 10 ), the earliest
date of the accession of Hezekiah must be placed, according
to others as late as 686, i.e. 29 years after the date which another
statement in Kings (2 K i8 13 ), if correct, would require us to
assign to Hezekiah's accession. But the date of Isaiah's death
would be brought down to about 690 B.C. at earliest, if he really
played a part on the occasion of Sennacherib's (hypothetical)
second invasion ( 70).
63. Isaiah's life was spent during a time of change in the
political and social conditions of Judah. This change was due
in large measure to the new and greater activity of Assyria, f
* " Beliar was wroth with Isaiah ; and he dwelt in the heart of Manasseh,
and he sawed him in sunder with a wooden saw," Ascension of Isaiah^ 5 1
(probably written in the first century A.D.) ; Charles, A sc. of Isaiah , p. xliv.
t For the evidence for the details enumerated in the following sections,
see the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser (ed. Rost, 1893), Sargon (ed. H.
Winckler, 1889), Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, and Asshurbanipal ; also the
Assyrian Eponym lists (KB \. 204-215) and the Babylonian Chronicle
(KB ii. 273 ff. ). New editions of the Inscriptions of the Assyrian kings just
mentioned are promised in the Vorderasiatische Bibliothek, but none has
yet appeared. Meantime KB ii. contains a convenient collection of most of
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxiii
which followed on the accession of Tiglath-pileser to the throne
of that country in 745 B.C., and which was already beginning to
make itself felt in the West by the year 742, and probably, there-
fore, a year or two before the death of Uzziah and the call
of Isaiah.
Since the disruption of the united kingdoms of Judah and
the northern tribes on the death of Solomon, c. 930, Judah the
smaller had also been the weaker of the two, and often stood
rather in the position of a vassal-state to the Northern kingdom.
The attendance of Jehoshaphat of Judah on Ahab of Israel
(i K 22), when that monarch was conducting one of those
campaigns against Syria which formed the characteristic political
feature of the 9th cent. B.C., may not have been altogether
voluntary, but rather the service rendered by a vassal to his over-
lord. And this relation of the two kingdoms to one another
may account for there being no direct reference to Judah, as
distinct from Israel, in the Assyrian records of the 9th cent. Be
this as it may, Assyria had already in the 9th cent, made itself
felt among the Syrian and Palestinian states. As early as 876,
Asshurnazirpal with his army reached the coast of Northern
Phoenicia, and re-established that command of the line of
communication with the Mediterranean which had been won
by Tiglath-pileser I. in the i2th cent, and subsquently lost. To
secure what he had won, Asshurnazirpal left an Assyrian colony
in Aribua, a town near the river Sangara (mod. Nahr-el-Kebir),
and on the northern frontier of the state of Hamath. Phoenician
cities as far south as Tyre, far further south than he himself or
his army proceeded, sent him gifts. On the other hand, Damascus
was neither attacked nor, like the Phoenician states, induced to
send gifts. Shalmaneser n. made several attempts to extend the
area of Assyrian authority in Syria, though at first without any
success. Ben-hadad of Damascus was the leader of a Syrian
league which checked the Assyrian advance ; his chief supporters
were Hamath and Israel. In 854, Shalmaneser fought a battle
the more important. A clear and admirable presentation of the history of
Assyria from the accession of Asshurnazirpal to the death of Asshurbanipal
will be found in R. H. Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria (ed. 2, 1903),
ii. pp. 46-282 ; in the same work fuller references to editions and translations
of the inscriptions relating to each reign will also be found. A recent full
discussion of Sargon's reign in particular is, A. T. Olmstead, Western Asia
in the days of Sargon of Assyria (New York, 1908).
Ixxiv INTRODUCTION
against the combined Syrian forces at Karkar near the Orontes
and further south than the Nahr-el-Kebir ; the Assyrian king
claimed a victory, but, since neither tribute nor acquisition of
territory followed, the victory was barren ; similarly fruitless were
the Assyrian western campaigns of 849 and 846 B.C. The next
campaign, that of 842 B.C.; was more effective; Ben-hadad of
Damascus had now been succeeded by Hazae), and Ahab of
Israel by Jehu. Israel had fallen away from the Syrian league,
and Jehu in this year paid tribute to Assyria, in this perhaps
anticipating the policy of Ahaz of Judah a century later (735
B.C. ; cp. Is 7). Damascus, though it suffered siege and the
ravaging of its immediate surroundings, successfully resisted
the Assyrians, and Shalmaneser was unable to capture the
city, either in this year or in 839. Nor could his successor
Shamsi-Adad (825-813 B.C.), who rather lost ground in the West :
but Adad-Nirari (812-783) repeated the limited success of
Shalmaneser; he received tribute from Israel as well as from
Sidon, Tyre, Edom, and Philistia, and he besieged and harassed,
but failed to conquer, Damascus. During the reigns of the next
three kings (782-745), Assyria suffered a marked decline; a
(probably) unsuccessful campaign against Damascus in 773, and
others against the far more northern towns of Hadrach and
Arpad in 755 and 754 respectively, exhausts the list of the
Assyrian western movements during this period. Thus for a full
generation Assyria had passed practically out of sight of Israel
and Judah, and even their bulwark (i7 2 ) Damascus had felt but
little shock from Assyrian attack.
64. Egypt during the same period was also weak and divided
( 68), and exercised little influence and no restraint over Palestine.
Thus there was the same opportunity which David had used with
so much vigour and success three centuries before for the Pales-
tinian states to enjoy freedom from the thrall of the great Empires
of the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates valleys, and to strive for the
supremacy among themselves. Alike in Israel and Judah the
period of Assyria's greatest weakness was covered by a single reign
of Jeroboam n. in the North, and of Uzziah in Judah. This
meant internal political stability not only for Judah, but for the
generally more unstable Northern kingdom. According to 2 K
I4 25-28 (cp. Am 6 U ), Jeroboam re-established the dominion of
Israel from the Dead Sea in the South to the entering in of
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxv
I-Iamath (cp. Nu i3 21 n.) in the North, and also gained the
supremacy over Damascus. One of the earliest and most signifi-
cant of Uzziah's achievements (2 K i4 22 ), unless it is rather to
be attributed to his predecessor Amaziah, was the recovery of
Elath (which was lost again by Ahaz, 2 K i6 6 ) ; he thereby
regained for Judah that command of the trade route to the Red
Sea which Solomon had held (i K 9 26 ), but which had subse-
quently been lost. The Chronicler, in a passage where he may
well be drawing on ancient and trustworthy data, gives further
illustrations of the success and strength of Judah at this time :
Uzziah waged successful war against the Philistines, Ammonites,
and Meunim (? Minaeans) ; he strengthened the fortifications of
Jerusalem; he devoted himself to the rearing of cattle, of which
he had many, and agriculture (2 Ch 26 6-15 ).
65. The Books of Kings and Chronicles record the success
and prosperity of the kings, Jeroboam and Uzziah ; but we are
not left merely to infer from this that others besides the kings
were prosperous ; the prophecies of Amos and Isaiah speak
clearly of wealth and luxury, and the dissoluteness that accom-
panies them, in both the Northern (Am 3 15 5 11 6 4 ' 6 , Is g 9 17* 28 1 ' 4 )
and the Southern (Is 2 7 3 lof - s 9 - 12f - 14 - 22 28 7f -) kingdoms. But
though increase of wealth extended beyond the king, it was not
widely or evenly distributed ; the lot of the weaker seems rather
to have become aggravated. Not a little of the increased wealth
was probably due to trade (see below, p. 53); and not a little of
the wealth so acquired was expended in bringing unjust pressure
to bear on the weak, in repeating the conduct of Ahab towards
Naboth which had so provoked Elijah ( i K 2 1) : the nouveaux riches
bought up the patrimonies of their needier fellow-countrymen ;
by aggregation great estates arose (below, pp. 90 ff.), and cruel
evictions (Mic 2 2 ) aroused the indignation of the humane. In
the courts the weak could obtain no redress, for money again
bribed the judges (io 2 ).
66. But if the weaker and poorer had not shared in the
increased wealth and luxury of Uzziah's time, there is little
reason to suppose that they profited by the changes that came
after his death and during the lifetime of Isaiah : the most
immediate effect, so far as Judah was concerned, was that that
country became tributary to Assyria in 735-734 B.C. and remained
so ; tribute meant heavier taxation, and this was doubtless to a
Ixxvi INTRODUCTION
large extent wrung out of the poor, even though the king obtained
it directly from the "mighty men" of Judah (cp. 2 K i5 20 of
Israel). Be that as it may, this is clear : whereas Isaiah had
grown up to early manhood in the latter half of a long and pros-
perous reign, a citizen of a country that paid no tribute to any
foreign power, near neighbour to the kindred kingdom of Israel,
which was also free and prosperous, within a year or two of his
call he had seen the kingdom of Israel torn by faction after the
death of Jeroboam (c. 746), and heard of Assyria's more vigorous
action in the West. Arpad offered a stern resistance to Tiglath-
pileser, but in 740 it fell before him ; and Assyria recovered what
the kings of the 9th century had won for it, and their weaker
successors had lost access to the Mediterranean. But this was
merely the prelude to greater achievements in the West than the
greatest of the past; in 738, Tiglath-pileser defeated an extensive
coalition of Syrian states, which included, or consisted of, " 19
districts of Hamath," " which in their disloyalty had fallen away
to Azriyau of the land of Ja-u-di," who is identified by many
with Uzziah (Azariah), king of Judah (see above, p. Ixx) ; these
districts he made an Assyrian province ; he captured Kullani
(io 7 n.) ; he received tribute, amongst others, from Rason of
Damascus, Menahem of Samaria (whose land, according to 2 K
i5 19f -, he had invaded), Hirom of Tyre, and Zabibi, queen of
Arabia. About 735, Ahaz paid tribute (2 K i6 7f -), and hence-
forward Judah was tributary to Assyria. In 734, Tiglath-pileser
was in Philistia, and captured Gaza, furthest S. of the Philistine
cities and nearest to Egypt ; in 733 and 732 he was attacking
Damascus and Israel ; in the former year he captured the northern
districts of Israel (2 K i5 29 ), and in the latter year he achieved
what his predecessor in the 9th century had attempted and failed
to achieve, the capture of Damascus ; the native sovereignty was
abolished (i7 3 ); Damascus became an Assyrian province. Ten
years later, in consequence of Hoshea's withholding the annual
tribute to Assyria (2 K 1 7 4 ), the same fate befell Samaria, after a
protracted siege (724-722) conducted by Shalmaneser (727-722)
and Sargon (722-705) successively. In accordance with the
new Assyrian policy, the Israelites were carried captive to dis-
tant districts (Gozan, Media, etc. 2 K 1 7 6 ), while Babylonians,
Cuthites, and others were settled in Samaria. Henceforward,
instead of a kindred people, Judah had on its northern border,
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxvii
which lay but an easy day's walk from Jerusalem, an Assyrian
province and a mixed population (2 K ly 24 - 41 ).
67. In 720, Sargon quelled an important and extensive rising
in Syria, which may have been instigated or fomented by
Merodach-baladan of Babylon (see on ch. 39) ; he defeated
Yaubidi of Hamath at Karkar the scene of an earlier victory
of Shalmaneser n. (p. Ixxiv) and the combined forces of IJanno
of Gaza and Sibe (Biblical So, or rather Se'we') of Musri (Egypt? :
see 68 f.) at Raphia, on the coast between Gaza and Egypt ;
perhaps also in the same campaign he inflicted defeat on Judah
(but see above, p. Ixxi n.).
In 715, Sargon (Annals, 97-99) subdued certain Arab tribes,
and received tribute from, amongst others, Pir'u (? Pharaoh),
king of Musur (? Egypt). It may be surmised that Judah did
not remain uninterested in these events, but there is no evidence
that in this year it took any active part in opposition to Sargon,
or that Sargon came any nearer to Judah than Arabia.
In 711, by his Tartan (20 1 ) rather than in person, Sargon
quelled another rising, of which Ashdod was the centre, but in
which not only Philistia, but also Moab, Edom, and Judah were
concerned (see Sargon's Annals, 205-221 ; General Inscription,
90-110). Moreover, behind these Palestinian states stood,
according to Is 20 1 , Egypt and Ethiopia (D'HVO and W\3) ; accord-
ing to Sargon's inscriptions, Musur and Miluhha, which have
commonly likewise been equated with Egypt and Ethiopia.
68. In 712 (Breasted) the Ethiopian dynasty established its authority over,
and at the same time brought union and increased strength to, Egypt. Till
recently (see below) it was supposed that Sabako, the first of the Ethiopian
kings of Egypt, succeeded to the throne as early as 728 : on that hypothesis,
now known to be erroneous, there was little difficulty in accounting for
Egypt, or, as under the circumstances, it was quite natural to say, Ethiopia,
intriguing with the Syrian states and inducing them to oppose Assyria ; the
identification of So (Nio, 2 K 17* MT), or rather S6we" (KID, cp. Assyr. Sib'i),
with Sabako, though frequently made, was always more questionable and, in-
deed, indefensible. Before the accession of the Ethiopian dynasty lies a period
of great obscurity in Egyptian history, though this much may be said, that the
Delta was at the time governed by a number of petty princes, and the Pharaoh
of the lists who is mentioned immediately before Sabako is Bokchoris. It is
possible, then, as Breasted even recently has written (Hist, of Egypt, 549 f.),
that So (2 K I7 4 ) was "an otherwise unknown Delta dynast," that "unable
to oppose the formidable armies of Assyria, the petty kinglets of Egypt con-
stantly fomented discontent and revolt among the Syro-Palestinian states, in
Ixxviii INTRODUCTION
order, if possible, to create a fringe of buffer states between them and the
Assyrians," possible also that the " Pir'u, king of Musur," of Sargon's record of
715 B.C. was Bokchoris, who in that case is mentioned by his title (Pharaoh)
instead of his proper name ; just as Hebrew writers use the expression, not
found in Egyptian, "Pharaoh, king of Egypt" (e.g. 36 n., cp. F. LI.
Griffith, in DB, s.v. " Pharaoh ").
Alt (Israel u. Aegypten, pp. 44 ff.) conceives the situation somewhat differ-
ently : according to him, the pressure of Ethiopia on Egypt, which had already
become severe in the time of the Ethiopian Pi'ankhi (from about 741 B.C.
according to Breasted's chronology, or earlier according to others), had brought
about a certain reaction against the gradual dissolution of the Egyptian kingdom
into a large number of petty princedoms, especially in the Delta, that marked
the period of the 22nd and 23rd dynasties (c. 945-^. 718, Breasted). The
Pi'ankhi stele (Breasted, Ancient Records, iv. 860-883) reveals Tefnakhte
of Sais, whose son Bokchoris became the sole ruler of the 24th dynasty,
as exercising a supremacy over the Delta princes, and as so far anticipating
that renewed unity of Egypt which certainly marks the time of the Ethiopian
dynasty. Under these circumstances, Tefnakhte may already have exercised
sufficient political far-sightedness to have perceived the danger threatening
Egypt from Assyria, and to have provoked the Palestinian states to oppose
the Assyrian advances.
But there are certainly here unsolved, or but partially solved, problems ;
and Winckler, and after him others, have sought quite another way out.
69. As early as 1893, Winckler, in Alter. Forschungen, i. 24 ff., argued that
the Assyrian Musur and the Hebrew Misraim in many cases meant not
Egypt, but "the country abutting on Edom, the later Nabataea." In his
earlier or later discussions of the subject, accordingly, Sibe, the ally of Hanno
of Gaza, becomes an Arab sheikh, and Pir'u (cp. the Sabaean anr jns), king
of Musur in 715, is Arabian not Egyptian; it is again the Arabian people
whom Pir'u ruled, and not Egypt under the new Ethiopian dynasty, that stand
behind the revolting Palestinians in 711 and even in 701; Egypt first
co-operates with Palestine under Tirhakah in the (hypothetical) second cam-
paign of Sennacherib in Palestine about 691 B.C. (see 70). The theory
that the Assyrian Musur and the Hebrew onso may refer not only to Egypt,
*but also to a district in North Arabia, has also been presented by others ;
various forms of the theory and various conclusions drawn from it may be
studied in H. Winckler, Altor. Forschungen (1893), i. 24-41, Musri- Meluhha,
Main (1898), KAT* (1903), 67, 70-72, 136-151, 172, 273 (see also Index,
s.v. Musri), Die jiingsten Kdmpfer -wider den Panbabylonismus (1907);
F. Hommel, Vier neue Arabische Landschaftsnamen ; T. K. Cheyne, Mizraim,
in EBi. iii. (1902), and, e.g., Traditions and Beliefs of Ancient Israel (1907),
xi f., 171-173; Decline and Fall of the Kingdom of Judah (1908), xiii ff.,
xli f., 88 ; The Two Religions of Israel (1911), pp. 335. 345. 356-3 ! (see also
references in Index to Misrim in the three works last named). It is not
without significance that Breasted in his History of Egypt is able to dispense
with the theory of the North Arabian Musri, and that Ed. Meyer (Die
Israeliten u. ihre Nachbarstamme ( 1 906), 455-47 1 ) decisively and totally rejects
the theory ; see also against the theory in its application to the times of
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxix
Isaiah, Fr. Kiichler, Die Stellnng des Propheten Jesaja zur Politk seiner Zeit
(1906); A. T. Olmstead, Western Asia in the days of Sargon of Assyria
(1908), pp. 56-71. A. Alt in his survey of the relations between Israel and
Egypt in the time of Isaiah (Israel u. Aegypten, 1909, pp. 41-87), while
admitting Pir'u, king of Musur in 715 B.C. (Sargon, Annals, 97), to bean
Arabian, limits the significance of the Arabian Musur, and allows far more
for the activity of Egypt in Palestine than do most of those who admit the
existence of a kingdom of Musur in Arabia.
Fortunately for the understanding of Isaiah, it is of relatively little im-
portance whether between 720 and 701 B.C. the power that kept stirring up
the Palestinian states was Egypt, the history of which country immediately
prior to 712 is obscure, or Musur in North Arabia, of which, as an inde-
pendent kingdom in Arabia sufficiently important to divide with Assyria the
interests of Palestinian states, nothing is known for certain, and which,
perhaps, has never enjoyed more than a speculative existence.
70. Sennacherib, Sargon's successor, had also once at least
to secure Assyrian authority in Syria by force: in 701, Philistia
and Judah at the instigation, not of an Arabian kingdom of
Musur or Meluhha (Wi.), but of the Ethiopian dynasty in Egypt,
were in revolt. In two respects Sennacherib's campaign, which
was undertaken to suppress this revolt, was not an unqualified
success : victory over the Egyptians at Eltekeh was not followed
up by an invasion of Egypt itself, and Jerusalem, though it was
besieged, was not captured. Nevertheless Judah, in common
with the rest of Syria, remained tributary to Assyria. According
to a hypothesis which would explain the allusion to Tirhakah
in 37 9 , Sennacherib was again called back to Syria (c. 690 B.C.) :
the nearest support for this hypothesis in Assyrian sources is an
account of a campaign against Arabia, the date of which is un-
known, but which may have taken place about 690.
This campaign was already known by allusions to it in inscriptions ot
Esarhaddon and Asshurbanipal, when in 1904 (Orientalische Literatur-
zettung, cols. 69, 70), Scheil announced the discovery of an inscription of
Sennacherib describing the campaign. This inscription was published by
Ungnad, in Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler, i. 77 ff. ; and in a translation,
for which I am indebted to Prof. R. W. Rogers, it runs as follows :
" Telhunu, the queen of Arabia, in the desert, from her I took away a
thousand camels. The fear of my dominion cast her down, and Hazail also.
They left their tents and fled to Adummatu, whose location is in the desert,
a place of thirst, where there is neither provision nor place to drink." If
from Arabia, Sennacherib (who is himself described in Herod, (ii. 141) as
" king of the Arabians and of the Assyrians," and whose army, as the " army
of the Arabians"), somewhat repeating his movements of 701, advanced on,
without entering, Egypt, and also attacked Judah, it would be possible to
Ixxx INTRODUCTION
regard the different narratives which, it is clear, have been combined in
chs. 36 f. (see Comm.)> as narratives of different events and not different and
discordant narratives of the same event, and also to justify the allusion to
" Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia" (37 9 ) ; Tirhakah was not king of Ethiopia in
701, he was king in or soon after 694. On the other hand, it is doubtful
whether either Hezekiah or Isaiah, who are also associated with the narra-
tive that refers to Tirhakah, were alive in 690 ; Isaiah would probably at that
time have been between 70 and 80 years of age. Some further discussion of
these points will be found in the discussion of chs. 36 f. in the Comm.
71. Since the Egyptian chronology comes into consideration on several
occasions, it may be convenient briefly to indicate here the grounds on which,
contrary to earlier views, the date of Tirhakah's accession can be fixed with
certainty as falling after 701 B.C., and consequently the beginning of the
Ethiopian dynasty as falling about 712 or 714 B.C., and not as early as 728.
According to a Serapeum stele (Breasted, Ancient Records ; iv. 959), an
Apis died at the age of 21 years, 2 months, 7 days, on the 2 1st day of the
1 2th month of the 2Oth year of Psamtik : since according to the same stele
the Apis was born in the 26th year of Tirhakah, Tirhakah's reign cannot have
exceeded 27 years. Now Tirhakah was certainly still alive and king in
668-667, for Asshurbanipal, who became king of Assyria in 668, defeated
Tirhakah in his first campaign ; Asshurbanipal also states of Tirhakah
(Rassam Cylinder, ii. 21 ; KB ii. p. i66f.), il-lik sitnat mu-Si-Su, his night-
fate came (upon him), which should mean that Tirhakah was not only defeated
at that time, but died. In that case the year of Tirhakah's succession is
694-693 ; it cannot have been earlier. Some Egyptologists, disregarding this
interpretation of the Assyrian inscription, and reckoning back 138 years, a
number obtained from calculations based on data given in the Egyptian
records (Breasted, Ancient Records, iv. 1026-1029) from the close of the
26th dynasty in 525 B.C., obtain 663 as the date of Psamtik i.'s accession and
Tirhakah's death ; this gives 689-688 as the date of Tirhakah's accession.
The years of accession of Tirhakah's immediate predecessors, Sabako and
Shabataka, the first two kings of the Ethiopian dynasty, cannot be so closely
determined by the inscriptions. But from an inscription that mentions year
3 of Shabataka, it appears that Shabataka's third year was near 700 B.C.
(Breasted, iv. 887 ; and cp. 452 n. c). Manetho assigns to Sabako 8, to
Shabataka 14 years in all 22 years ; Syncellus 12 years to each of these
kings in all 24 years. Thus the earliest date, that rests on any evidence, for
the beginning of the Ethiopian dynasty is 24 years before 694-693, i.e. 718-
717 ; Breasted's dates are 712 B.C. for Sabako, 700 for Shabataka.
Bokchoris, who immediately preceded Sabako, reigned at least 6 years,
exactly the period stated by Africanus (44 according to Syncellus).
72. The ultimate goal of the Assyrian advance resumed by
Tiglath-pileser iv. and his successors was first attained after the
lifetime of Isaiah : after an apparently unsuccessful invasion of
Egypt in 676, Esarhaddon captured Memphis in 671, and
Assurbanipal took Thebes in 667.
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER Ixxxi
73. This rapid sketch may serve to make clear the political
conditions under which Isaiah lived, and to which not a little of
the form of his teaching is due. Briefly, Isaiah's public life
coincided with the first half of the period of 80 years from the
accession of Tiglath-pileser to the Assyrian conquest of Egypt,
during which the Assyrian advance westwards and supremacy in
the West was, though at first resisted, unchecked : conquered
districts never permanently recovered their independence, tribu-
tary states never permanently escaped the necessity of paying
tribute : for example, Damascus never recovered the indepen-
dence which it lost in 732, nor did the retreat of Sennacherib
release Judah from tribute.
74-89. Isaiah as Prophet and Teacher.
74. Isaiah appears from the first to have discerned the
meaning and issue of the new spirit and policy ( 63) of Assyria,
and to have realised the fruitlessness of political combinations
against that power : he was certainly convinced of the wrongness
of Judah in taking any part in them. Against all such combina-
tions, of which there was no lack, he consistently set himself.
No one who instigated these combinations, whether as at one
time it was Merodach-baladan (721-709 B.C., and also 702 B.C.)
of Babylon (cp. ch. 39), or as at others one of the kings of
the Ethiopian dynasty which established its authority over Egypt
about 712 B.C. ( 71), or, as it may have been earlier, one of the
Delta chieftains who divided authority in Egypt prior to 712, or,
as some think, the rulers of a region in Arabia called Muur
( 69), counted against Assyria : they were one and all helpless
and useless (cp. ch. 20).
The only, yet at the same time an overwhelming, counter-
weight to Assyria was not political, nor human : it was the power
and purpose of Yahweh. Yahweh was using Assyria to achieve
His purpose (io 5 ) : so long as Assyria carried out that purpose no
powers would avail against it : as soon as Assyria overstepped its
commission, it, too, must go down before the greater power of
Yahweh (io 5 - 17 ). Not man, but God determines history that
is the key-note to Isaiah's political action and advice ; not by
clever alliances, but by watching for and quietly carrying out the
will of Yahweh is the true welfare of the state to be secured.
VOL. i. /
Ixxxii INTRODUCTION
The advance of Assyria was, according to Isaiah, by the will of
Yahweh ; that advance would necessarily entail the withdrawal
of the Syro-Ephraimitish army from Jerusalem, therefore let
Ahaz and his people put away their fear of Syria and Ephraim
(ch. 7), nor pay Assyria to do what it will assuredly do, unpaid by
them : such seems to have been Isaiah's advice in 735, and if
so it included a condemnation of Ahaz in becoming voluntarily,
and while as yet there was no need, a tributary to Assyria, in
seeking by political action instead of reliance on Yahweh to
escape the attack of the combined forces of Ephraim and
Damascus. But, once the step had been taken, Isaiah judged
it to be the will of Yahweh that Judah should remain tributary,
and certainly that it should not attempt to escape that tribute by
yielding to the invitations, whether of Egypt, or Babylon, or
its neighbours in Palestine, to revolt. Finally, though it was
the will of Yahweh that Assyria should punish not only Ephraim
but Judah too, it was (if we may trust the popular biographical
stories of the prophet in chs. 36-39) the will of Yahweh, as Isaiah
read it, that Jerusalem should not be taken by Sennacherib ;
consequently in 701 he is as confident that the Assyrians will
not capture Jerusalem as he had been in 735 that the Syro-
Ephraimitish army would not do so ; and he counsels Hezekiah
accordingly. But though on the one occasion he was con-
vinced that Raon, and on the other that Sennacherib, would
not capture Jerusalem, it is quite another question whether he
ever abandoned his belief that the sin of Judah would lead
Yahweh to destroy His people and their land ( 85-87).
75. In 735, Isaiah appears to have appraised at its true worth
the condition of Ephraim and Syria, and in 701 (and ? 711) the
promises of Egypt. Whether his diagnosis of the political situa-
tion was at other times and in all respects equally correct, or his
policy of non-intervention always politically sound, is a secondary
question. And not only is it a secondary question ; it may, if
it is not kept in its place, very seriously obscure what is of
primary significance in the life and character of Isaiah. Isaiah
is of " the goodly fellowship of the prophets " ; and consequently
how far he secured the safety of the Jewish state at the time,
and so secured its continued existence for another century, is of
little moment ; what is all-important to determine, so far as we
can, is his faithfulness and fruitfulness as a teacher sent from
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER Ixxxiii
God : what had he himself learned from God, what did he teach
his own age, and what through it has he contributed to man's
increasing knowledge and consciousness of God ?
76. These questions can be answered up to a point; but,
owing to the uncertainty that hangs over many questions of the
literary origin of much of Is 1-39 ( 8-43), they cannot with
advantage be pursued into the detail that has sometimes been
attempted. Here, at all events, no fresh elaborate attempt will
be made to trace development in Isaiah's conceptions and
teaching, to bring to light conflicting conceptions in his view
of the future, for example, or in his judgment of Assyria, and
then to determine the chronological sequence of the changes.
All the more elaborate structures of Isaiah's " theology " rest of ,
necessity on shifting and insecure foundations ; even if it were ' '
certain, and it is not, that passages such as u 1 " 8 9 1 ' 6 32 1-8 were
the work of Isaiah at all, it is altogether uncertain at wnat period j X
of his life he composed them, and how he came by, or how he
modified, his conceptions of a Messiah.*
77. If there is one passage in which, above all others, we may
feel certain that Isaiah speaks to us in his own words, it is ch. 6 ;
and that chapter, in spite, if not also in some measure in virtuCj
of its brevity, clearly reveals to us a personality of great spiritual
depth and moral power. And this revelation, though in that
case the name of the person revealed would be unknown, would
remain, even if any one cared to question Isaiah's authorship of
the chapter. As a matter of fact, there is no ground for raising
such a question, or for doubting that we owe that chapter and
much else in the Book of Isaiah to one and the same person.
But, in attempting a synthesis of Isaiah's character and teaching,
it will be well to start from, and at every possible point to return
to, this record. We are not at liberty to affirm that nothing that
* For theories of changing expectations of the future attributed to Isaiah,
see, e.g., B. Duhm, Die Theologie der Propheten (1875), pp. 158-168 (in
some respects modified in his Comm., 1892) ; H. Guthe, Das Zukunftsbild
des Jesaia (1885), a theory withdrawn in Jesaia (Keligionsgeschichtliche Volks-
bucher), 1907 ; F. Giesebrecht, Beitrdge zur Jesaiakritik (1890), pp. 76-84 ;
H. Hackmann, Die Zukunftserwartung des Jesaia (1893). Cp. also G. A.
Smith, DB ii. 489-491, and also in the Review of Theology and Philosophy,
1907 (July), pp. 2 ff., where, inter a/*a, the reason of Guthe's modification of
his earlier complex theory is criticised. See also Exp., 1904, pp. 330-342.
On Isaiah's attitude towards Assyria, see F. Wilke's/<?ja/Vz u. Assur, 1905.
Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION
finds no expression here was ever elsewhere expressed by Isaiah ;
but the more clearly whatever else claims to be Isaiah's can be
related to this chapter, the more confident may we feel that the
claim is good.
78. Isaiah, though a prophet and a pioneer in religious ex-
perience and the apprehension of religious truth, was none the
less, and indeed necessarily and naturally, the child of his people's
past, the inheritor of their beliefs and experience. To him, as
to them, Sion had been pre-eminently the place of Yahweh's
earthly abode (8 16 ; cp. 8 6 n.) from the time that David, the
chosen of Yahweh, had encamped there (29 1 ), and by Yahweh's
power, then and there manifested, had wrested it from the
Jebusites (2 S 5 4 ' 10 6).* But the hereditary belief of childhood
became the conviction begotten of personal experience ; it was
in Sion that Isaiah himself saw with his own eyes Yahweh seated
on His throne in royal state (6 lff -). Again, to Isaiah, as to his
countrymen, the people of Israel, both (8 14 ) Judah and the tribes
of the now separate Northern kingdom, were connected by special
and peculiar ties with Yahweh ; they were Yahweh's family (i 2 ),
Yahweh's people (i 8 ), compared with whom others were aliens
(i 7 ); they were His treasure and carefully tended possession
(5 1 * 7 ). And so in turn Yahweh was peculiarly the possession of
Israel : the people recognised the existence of gods of other
nations as well of their own, and, when necessary, distinguished
Yahweh by the term God of Israel (cp. e.g. Jg n 21 ' 24 ); Isaiah's
favourite term for Yahweh is a modification of this older term,
and it retains (though with a difference (see below)) the sugges-
tion of Yahweh's special relation to Israel : Yahweh is the Holy
One of Israel. It is unnecessary to attempt any complete cata-
logue of popular beliefs, such as that in Seraphim (6 2 ), which find
expression in Isaiah. The two that have been more particularly
referred to are important for this reason : though Isaiah rises
above the old limited thought of God which confined Him in the
range of His presence and the extent of His authority, he retains
what there was of permanent value in the belief in the local
manifestation of deity and His connection with a single people ;
a more exalted conception of God did not rob Isaiah of the great
intensity of the limited popular belief; God does not cease to be
* These passages are derived from a Jewish work probably already ancient
in the time of Isaiah, and familiar to him.
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER Ixxxv
near because He is also afar off (io 8 n.); nor, again, because
He is God of all, does Yahweh cease to claim the special service
of a nation or an individual ; nor, because His glory fills the
whole world, does He cease to be intensely personal, commun-
ing as a person with His servants the prophets, and still therefore
best described in that anthropomorphic and anthropopathic lan-
guage which had its roots in those more limited religious beliefs,
in which the personal qualities of a god, and the devotion of his
worshippers to him, were accentuated by his relations or conflicts
with other and similar deities.
79. But Isaiah is not only the child of his people, he is the
child also of the new prophetic movement which began while he
was still a boy ( 58). There is no direct allusion, it is true, in
any of Isaiah's prophecies to either Amos or Hosea, and not
very much that can be said to be unmistakably due to either of
these two older prophets ; but there is too much resemblance in
the fundamental positions of all three prophets for it to be
probable that, in a small country, no knowledge of the earlier
passed to and influenced the later. Only this must be added :
Isaiah, though, unlike Amos (7 14 ), he did not refuse the title
prophet (8 3 ), was no prophet of the school ; he did not repeat,
merely because he approved, what he had heard about Amos'
preaching at Bethel, or what he had read in some fly-sheet
containing the substance of Hosea's teaching. It is probable
enough that he was familiar with what Amos had taught and
Hosea was teaching before the crucial day in the year of Uzziah's
death ; but he first began to say with power the same things, or
to treat of similar themes, after that day on which he saw Yahweh,
and heard and obeyed His call to service (ch. 6). Even before his
call, as we may well believe, there had been added, in the mind
of Isaiah, to the old and limited conceptions which he had
received in childhood from his natural kinsmen or ordinary
acquaintance, some of the new and wider conceptions of spiritual
kinsmen such as Amos and Hosea ; and all these conceptions,
popular and prophetic alike, were fused by his own personal
experience, as recorded in ch. 6, into a vital unity, which became
Yahweh's message through him to his people.
80. The vision that showed Yahweh seated in ion con-
vinced Isaiah also that the whole earth was the sphere of
Yahweh's action (6 3 ) ; the sin of Israel (6 5 - 9ff -), Yahweh's own
Ixxxvi INTRODUCTION
peculiar people, is seen as a blot in the world-enveloping blaze
of Yahweh's glory ; the weakness and meanness of man and of
all that man relies on for help, or looks up to as lofty and
majestic, is seen in heightened relief against the absolutely
unrivalled majesty and the inaccessible exaltation of Yahweh
(6 1 * 5 2 6 ' 19 3i lf -). Neither here nor elsewhere does Isaiah take
occasion to assert with precision, like the later Jewish prophet
(45 5 - 18 - 22 ), that there is no God but Yahweh, or, like Muhammed,
that there is no God but the (one) God ; yet his conception of
Yahweh leaves no room for any other being of the same class
(cp. 2 17f> ) ; the world that is full of Yahweh's glory has no room
left in which to reflect the glory of any other God ; and if Assyria
is Yahweh's instrument (io 5ff> ), made merely to serve His pur-
pose, or, failing to do so, to be by Him destroyed, there is n6
place for any gods of Assyria to control and guide that nation.
The images, whether of Yahweh or of other gods, which abounded
in Judah (2 8 ), and commanded the devotion of the people, are of
no real value and quite powerless to help (2 18 : cp. 2 8 n.) ; and
the same is true of the spirits that were supposed to haunt trees
and gardens (i 29f> : cp. i7 10 ), and of the spirits whom the necro-
mancers consulted (8 19 ). But whether Isaiah denied all reality
of existence to national gods other than Yahweh, or whether he
assigned to them some subordinate position in Yahweh's world
government, we cannot determine with certainty. In this virtual
monotheism, Isaiah was anticipated by Amos. Into a fuller dis-
cussion of its origin and nature it is not possible to enter here.
But two things may be said: (i) this apprehension of the
greatness and uniqueness of Yahweh, carrying with it the total
disregard of, if not absolute disbelief in, the gods of other
nations, was the accompaniment not of national aggrandisement,
but of national decline ; it was the very men who perceived before-
hand the approaching doom of Israel and the destruction of its
existence as a nation who also believed and taught that Yahweh
so controlled the entire world that no room was left for any other
divine controllers ; and the fact that in the course of his ministry
the larger part of Yahweh's people perished or were exiled from
their land, and that the Northern kingdom ceased to be, never
led Isaiah to waver in his conviction that Yahweh alone was
exalted and great. In earlier times and to the great bulk of
Isaiah's contemporaries Israel seemed as necessary to Yahweh as
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER Ixxxvii
Yahweh was to Israel ; in Isaiah's thought Israel owed everything
to Yahweh (i 3 ), and through Him alone could be; Yahweh, on the
other hand, was in no way dependent on Israel, but would rather
vindicate His greatness by Himself destroying His people since
they had turned away from Him, and become incurably sinful
and corrupt (6 9 ' 18 : cp. 83-87). (2) But if the increased sense
of the greatness of the God of Israel, and the new sense of His
uniqueness which characterises the prophetic teaching in general
and Isaiah's in particular, was in no way the reflection of an
increase in the national strength and fame of Israel, so neither
was it the outcome of speculation on the fusion of peoples and
of a common principle lying behind all their deities. The new
prophetic conception of Yahweh is no abstraction from qualities
common to Yahweh the god of Israel, and Chemosh the god of
Moab, or the gods of the conquering Assyrians. And the
prophetic conception of Yahweh is as distinct and different from
the monistic speculations which appear to have arisen in i
Babylon, as it is from the old popular Hebrew religion. There
may be room to question the absoluteness, and certainly the
explicitness, of the monotheism of the prophets of the 8th
century ; there can be no doubt of the intensity with which they
apprehended Yahweh as a distinct and living personality. He is
to them not power, but person ; not the lowest common measure
of all known deities, but a personal God whose activity com-
prehends all that seemed to them worthy in the activity which
other nations had attributed to their several gods.
8 1. On one occasion Isaiah had been allowed to see Yahweh ;
but not every day, nor, so far as we know, ever again after the
first occasion, did Isaiah see Yahweh as he had seen Him then ;
yet what he had once seen he must have known to be always
there, though by no means there alone; the power that ruled
the world was Yahweh, and Yahweh dwelt in Jerusalem-
unseen (cp. i8 4 ), unheard, unrecognised even or misunderstood,
and the might of His quiet working utterly unsuspected (8 6 n.),
by those whose ears were heavy and whose eyes closed, and
whose heart was without understanding (6 lof - 5 llf -) ; and dwelling
there He was working out His plan, which would prove to be to
the confusion and destruction of those who, regardless of it and
reckless of what was not seen, formed plans of their own (30 lf - 15 ),
associating themselves with and trusting in flesh and not spirit,
Ixxxviii INTRODUCTION
in what was human and not in what was divine (30* 3 1 1 * 8 : 8 12 ' 15 :
ct. 28 16 ' 18 ). Isaiah is certain of Yahweh ; from him the quiet-
ness of His action, and the fact that He waits His time (i8 4 ),
does not conceal (ct. 5 18f- ) the all-sufficient power and wisdom
that will carry through the line of action on which He has
decided. Yahweh is to him not only the Supreme Power in
the World, but also the consistent Purpose which works itself out
in human history, yet supreme power and consistent purpose in
a person ; " a power not ourselves that makes for righteousness "
would be a correct translation into abstract language of Isaiah's
thought, but certainly a translation and, moreover, a translation
which Isaiah could not and would not have made himself. To
Isaiah, Yahweh is as personal as the politicians of his day : he
can compare them : each has his plan ; but the plan of the
politicians is doomed to failure, because it has no power behind
it ; because it is not only unrelated to, but opposed to the wisdom
and power that reside in Yahweh, and are directed against
iniquity. Cp. 30 1 " 5 3I 1 ' 3 ; also 5 llf - 28 21f - and if, or in so far as,
the work of Isaiah, io 12 - 23 i 4 24 - 26f - 22".
82. The consummation and manifestation of Yahweh's plan
was expected at a definite time, which Isaiah, as Amos before
him and many since his day, expected in the near, even the
immediate, future. Isaiah (2 6 ^ 19 ) follows Amos in using the old
popular phrase, "the day of Yahweh," with a meaning quite
opposed to that which the people generally put upon it ; * the
people expected on that day help from their national God, the
God of Israel, and consequent prosperity (Am 518-20) . Amos and
Isaiah, to whom Yahweh was God of righteousness first and
God of Israel only second, and in so far as the national relation
was not inconsistent with the moral, expected on that day
disaster to Israel; Isaiah pictures it as manifesting the unique
exaltation of Yahweh, and convicting men of the uselessness of
all other sources of help but Him. He whom Isaiah called the
Holy One of Israel, unlike the God of Israel of the popular
thought, does not work necessarily, and under the present con-
ditions certainly does not work at all, for the prosperity of
* Gressmann argues that the conception of the Day of Yahweh as a day of
disaster for Israel was not a creation of the prophets, but that they only
ethicised a previously existing popular belief in a coming world-catastrophe
(Isr. jtid. Eschatotogie, pp. I42ff.).
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER 1XXX1X
Israel ; He will manifest His holiness by securing righteousness
and destroying, if need be, the entire people of Israel in order to
secure this (5 16 : cp. e.g. 5 5 ' 7 ).
83. Yahweh was God controlling the whole world, and work-
ing out in the history of mankind a consistent plan that would
establish and secure righteousness: such was Isaiah's belief: how
does his favourite term for God, "the Holy One of Israel,"
stand related to it ? The term, as we have seen, is, in respect of
its national limitation, rooted in the old, popular, national
religion ; and so also, of course, is the first part of the term
intimately associated with early and even primitive religion.
"Holy" (tJTJp) is a word which was originally, and in certain
connections remained to the end, completely destitute of moral
import (Numbers^ pp. 209-211); but just as Amos gave, or re-
stored to, the " Day of Yahweh " a meaning which it had never
had, or had practically lost, in popular usage, and just as Hosea
charged with spiritual meaning the conception of the marriage
of the deity which in the popular religion was fouled with the
basest associations, so Isaiah, out of a term that was at best
ethically neutral and a definition that suggested national limita-
tion, created a phrase that served him well in expressing a
conception of God intensely moral and free from national limi-
tations. It has been acutely observed* that it was the very
emptiness in respect of ethical meaning of the term holy that
enabled Isaiah to charge it with his own deep ethical conception
of God. In itself it denotes not a particular personal quality,
but rather the essential nature of deity; whatever is god, or
related to, or set apart for the service of the gods, is holy; if,
therefore, the conception of god is unethical, or non-ethical, so
also are the associations of the term holy ; but if the conception
of God is ethical, so also are the associations of the term : "the
Holy God hath shown himself holy in righteousness" (5 16 ).
" Yahweh of Hosts " (and that which is related to Him) exhausts
for Isaiah the idea of holiness (6 3 ) : there are for him no other
holy gods ; the Holy One of Israel is the God who formed and
revealed Himself to and guided Israel ; He is also the One God
whose glory fills the world.
The Holy One of Israel is, then, not limited by needing
* Cp. e.g. W. R. Smith, Prophets 1 , 225; Davidson, Ezekitl, xxxixf. j
Skinner, xlvi.
XC INTRODUCTION
Israel ; His glory shines apart from Israel. Nay more, the very
closeness of the relation between Yahweh and Israel can only
mean the more necessary and more immediate destruction of
Israel, if Israel is unholy, unfit through unrighteousness to be
associated with Yahweh.
84. And what constituted holiness in Israel? what were the
qualities or conditions that made the approach of Israel tolerable
to Yahweh or safe to Israel ? Not that they should come having
scrupulously observed laws of ceremonial cleanness, not that
they should come with hands full of presents of sacrificial
animals for Yahweh ; they showed zeal enough and to spare in
honouring Yahweh thus in accordance with ancient custom and
prescription (2Q 13 ) and ancient thought of what pleased Yahweh.
But the Holy One of Israel was indifferent to these things ; He
loathed hands stained with the blood of murder, however full of
sacrificial presents ; He desired justice which He did not find, not
sacrifice with which He was satiated (i 11 - 13 5 7 ). It is not neces-
sary to conclude that Isaiah regarded sacrifice as positively
offensive and intolerable to God under all conditions, but he
regards it as something that Yahweh does not require, and that
in no way palliates the sin of those who offer it ; Israel has gone
deep in rebellion against God, and the multiplication of sacrifices,
so far from being proof of renewed loyalty, merely affords fresh
evidence that the nation is without knowledge of Yahweh.
The conviction of the sin of Yahweh's people and the
destruction which it necessarily involved, in addition to the
vitalising and deepening of his conception of God, was the chief
result to Isaiah of his vision. But what more exactly did his
conviction involve ? With what view of the future of his nation
did Isaiah undertake his prophetic mission? Did he remain
constant to that view throughout ? These questions have
received, and, till the literary origin of several passages can be
determined with greater certainty than at present, are likely to
receive, different answers. All that will be attempted here is to
bring out the salient ideas that must be duly weighed in attempt-
ing any answer, and to indicate some of the uncertainties.
85. That the Holy One of Israel being righteous cannot
tolerate unrighteousness, but will destroy the unrighteous, is a
fundamental conviction with Isaiah. But there certainly goes
along with this a belief in the grace and forgiveness of Yahweh.
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER XC1
Both these points are illustrated by the vision : feeling his sin
and uncleanness, Isaiah immediately awakes to the danger of
the sight which he has seen, the Holy presence in which he
stands ; " then cried I, Woe is me ! for I am undone : for I am a
man of unclean lips ... for it is the king, Yahweh of Hosts,
whom my eyes have seen " ; but with the awakened conscious-
ness of sin, and recognition of its offensiveness to the Holy
Yahweh of Hosts, comes immediately the sense of forgiveness ;
the seraph touches his unclean lips with the burning coal, and
assures him that his iniquity will pass away from him and his sin
be expiated. Freed from his sin, not by sacrifice or outward
rite learned from men, but by the free grace of Yahweh meeting
him at once as he turns away in horror from his sin to Yahweh,
he is not exposed to the destructive reaction of Yahweh's
righteousness against sin.
But Isaiah associates with his danger not only his own
personal sin, but the sin of his people : " I am dwelling in the
midst of a people of unclean lips." It might have seemed a
natural sequel if Isaiah had received a commission to awaken
the people to a similar sense of Yahweh's presence in their
midst and of their sin, and, consequently, of the imminence of
destruction, unless they repented and received forgiveness. But
this is not the actual sequel in the vision : Yahweh, in the words
of the commission, tacitly accepts Isaiah's admission of the
people's sin ; He does not dwell on it, but only on the fact that
the people will, sinning on, remain blind to the consequences of
sin, and, therefore, suffer those consequences to the full : Israel
will perish, and the land of Israel will be desolated. And Israel,
the people who are to perish, must be understood as including
both houses of Israel, and certainly Judah ; the meaning of ch. 6
must not be blunted by limiting the people whose destruction
is determined to those of the Northern kingdom ; see n.
on 6 9 .
86. But the possibility of forgiveness and riddance from sin
which Isaiah had personally experienced, he assuredly did not
limit to himself; not in the vision itself, but in the name which
he gave his eldest son very shortly after his call (y 3 n.), we find
this more directly implied, unless indeed, which is not very
likely, Shear-yashub is, as some have supposed, a name of purely
sinister meaning. Isaiah, then, anticipated that a remnant of
XCii INTRODUCTION
individuals, a small part of the whole of Israel, would return to
Yahweh, be forgiven, and become quit of their sin.
How then did these ideas ot the irremediable moral condition
of the people necessarily involving the destruction of the nation,
and of a Remnant that should return in penitence to Yahweh,
work themselves out in Isaiah's teaching?
87. The belief in the imminent and certain destruction of the
people is by no means limited to the narrative of the vision ;
it was expressed in the name given by Isaiah to his second son
Maher-shalal-hash-baz (8 2 n.), and was implicit even in the name
of Shear-yashub the remnant that returns is but the remnant of a
larger part that perishes ; and the same belief, clearly in relation to
Judah, is the theme, for example, of the parable of the Vineyard
(5 1 " 7 ), and again it is expressed in what is commonly understood
to be the latest of Isaiah's utterances, " Surely this iniquity shall
not be expiated for you till ye die," 22 14 . So far as the Northern
kingdom is concerned, there is nothing to suggest that Isaiah
ever expected that more than a few individuals (17) would
escape destruction : see 9 7 -io 4 + 5 26-29 I7 U1 28 1 ' 4 . On the other
hand, at times he certainly seems to have held that Judah would
survive at least the perils immediately threatening her \ so at the
time of the Syro-Ephraimitish war (735 B.C.) he maintained
against the King and Court that Jerusalem had nothing to fear
from the invaders (7 1 " 16 ); and, if we admit 37^ 21 ^ 35 , in 701 B.C.
Isaiah maintained that Sennacherib would not enter Jerusalem,
because Yahweh would defend it for His own sake and for
David's sake. It would be quite unsafe to press the reason
given in this narrative (which is not the work of Isaiah, but an
account based on popular tradition) for Isaiah's belief that Jeru-
salem would not fall to Sennacherib : if he held that belief, we
may more safely seek the reasons in io 5ff - : the Assyrians were not
to capture Jerusalem, because their disregard of Yahweh's com-
mission must be punished by ill-success. But Isaiah's conviction,
after being justified by the event, may well have made a deep im-
pression on the popular mind : it may have formed the basis of
the popular stories that gathered round this period of his work,
while his own reasons for his conviction were forgotten and other
less welcome elements in his teaching passed out of the popular
mind; and this may account for the fact that Jeremiah's de-
fenders appeal not to Isaiah, but to Micah as an earlier prophet
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER xciii
who had predicted the fall of Jerusalem and yet been left
unmolested. A conviction of Isaiah that Jerusalem would not
fall on a particular occasion and under particular circumstances
went, all against the intention of the prophet, to strengthen the
popular dogma that on no occasion and under no circumstances
would Jerusalem fall, because Yahweh must defend His own.
Unless Isaiah changed the fundamental conviction that
underlies the narrative of the vision, he must have held through-
out that the only way to safety for Jerusalem lay in a return to
Yahweh and the establishment of righteousness. Certainly the
terms of Yahweh's commission in the vision do not hold out the
hope that Isaiah's preaching will bring about the repentance of
the people and the safety of the state ; but in spite of this a
conditional promise underlies some of the sayings of the prophet,
and other sayings which at least cannot be clearly shown to be
not his: see i 19 (and perhaps also i 18 (n.)) 7 9 $o 15 . But the
condition implicit in 7 9 If ye believe, ye shall be established
was not fulfilled : Ahaz and his people did not " believe " : and
by this further disloyalty to Yahweh they drew destruction nearer,
not at the hands of the Syrians and Ephraimites, indeed, whom,
as the prophet warned them, they needlessly feared, but at the
hand of the Assyrians (8 6 ' 8 ). So later, while Isaiah insisted that
no harm would befall the city from Sennacherib, he may have
held, and apparently did (22") hold, that harm would befall it
from another quarter, unless they repented. Whether he
expected that the disaster would in this case be due to the direct
interposition of Yahweh we cannot say ; but it is altogether im-
probable that Isaiah believed that Assyria by its arrogance, and
consequent unfitness to be any longer Yahweh's instrument of
punishment, had left Yahweh without other means of punishing
and destroying His own sinful people.
88. Beyond the judgment, Isaiah looked to the establishment
of a new Sion where the corrupt and unjust judges and the faith-
less counsellors of the present would be replaced by just judges
and faithful counsellors, and the whole community would be
righteous and loyal to Yahweh (i 26 ) : cp. 28 16 ' 18 . Out of the
remnant would arise (cp. 8 17 ) a new state.
Yahweh does not need Israel, the actual sinful people ; nay,
His righteousness must destroy them : but it will also re-create
out of those who by their righteousness come out of the fire of
XC1V INTRODUCTION
judgment a new state in Sion. The influence of his time and
people on Isaiah ( 78) may still be seen ; it leads him to place
the new state in Sion ; but there is nothing here inconsistent with
the conviction that the Holy One of Israel, being resident in
Sion, must destroy the existing city and society.*
89. How far and in what way did Isaiah elaborate his concep-
tion of the life in Sion after the judgment ? The question turns
on the criticism of passages like 9 1 ' 6 n 1 ' 8 3o 19 ' 26 32 1-8 33 ; the
view taken in the Commentary is that none of these passages can
be assigned with certainty to Isaiah, that several of them are for
various reasons more or less clearly not his work : under these
circumstances, reference should be made to the commentary on
the various passages for the more elaborate details of the future
which are to be found in them.
But a few general remarks may be made here :
(i) Though unquestionably Isaiah was in the first instance a
prophet of judgment, and his narrative of the vision contains no
word of promise, or any suggestion of a happier future and the
establishment of a righteous society beyond judgment, it would
be quite unreasonable, even if there were no evidence at all to
the contrary, such as i 26 , to infer that his mind never dwelt on
the ideal which should be the very opposite of the present state.
With his conception of Yahweh, and especially of Yahweh's
work in history, His carefully-maturing plans, he could not well
have thought that Yahweh's work would be complete with the
destruction first of Israel and then of arrogant Assyria. Yahweh
looked for righteousness (5 7 ) : but if, as assuredly He would do,
He destroyed the people whom He had chosen that they might
produce it, but to whom He had looked for it in vain, He would
renew His work of choice and construction till He obtained the
righteous society of His desire. Nothing could be more natural
than that the idea of a righteous state on earth should possess
Isaiah ; and if so, nothing again could be more natural than for
him to place it in Sion, where Yahweh dwelt ( 78, 88). And this
is precisely what he does in i 21 - 26 , where the picture of the ideal
state is most intimately and closely connected with the picture
and condemnation of the actual city. Unfortunately none of the
* It is probable that G. A. Smith (DB ii. 490) considerably overstates
Isaiah's conviction when he says, "There was no other way for a spiritual
community to exist in Isaiah's day except through the security of Jerusalem."
xcv
other passages that deal with this ideal future are thus inti-
mately connected with the condemnation of the present. This,
of course, is not proof that such passages are not the work of
Isaiah, but it does distinctly weaken the positive grounds for
holding that they are.
(2) Many of the passages in question are attached to pro-
phecies of judgment without being organically connected with
them. In these cases it would be difficult to believe that in one
and the same speech Isaiah drew alarming pictures of coming
disaster and bright pictures of coming glory, without in any way
marking or defining the relation between them. But again this
is not in itself necessary proof that the passages of promise are
not the work of Isaiah : the present arrangement may be due to
editors. At the same time, it is perhaps remarkable that i 21-2G
stands almost alone in organically connecting the two ideas.
(3) There were probably two sides to Isaiah's activity : he
spoke in public to the people, he delivered to the nation
Yahweh's message of national doom ; he also probably taught his
disciples (8 16 n.). There is nothing impossible in the view that
more elaborate pictures of the glorious future, though they formed
no part of his public teaching, were yet presented by him to his
disciples. At the same time it must b^ admitted that there is
nothing in most, if indeed in any of the passages in question,
that suggests this more limited audience.
(4) Though the mere fact that a passage implies the belief that
a glorious future awaits Judah or Sion, or again that Assyria, the
enemy of Judah, will be destroyed, is no evidence that the pass-
age cannot be the work of Isaiah (cp. (i)); and though it could
be shown that all the ideas contained in such passages are frag-
ments of a pre-prophetic eschatology, as Gressmann has argued, it
is anything but probable that Isaiah, out of patriotic sympathy,
was content to perpetuate the traditional eschatological matter
"without much troubling about the inner unity" (Gressmann,
p. 243) of his teaching. Patriotic sympathy of that kind, we
may be fairly sure, was as absent from Isaiah as later from Jere-
miah. Isaiah may have utilised such traditional eschatological
ideas ; but if so, we shall be safer in believing that he modified
them by the setting he gave them, and by the inner unity into which
he worked them with that message of judgment which he had
received in his vision In a word, if the more elaborate pictures
XCV1 INTRODUCTION
of eschatological blessedness which stand in Is 1-39 are, any
of them, the work of Isaiah, they have reached us independently
of their original setting (cp. (3)). In another respect Gressmann
scarcely conceives the problem correctly. Those who have
argued against the genuineness of the eschatological passages
may too often have relied over much on the criterion of ideas ;
it may be, for example, that an allusion to a multiplicity of
nations receiving judgment before Jerusalem (e.g. ly 12 - 14 ; cp.
pp. 307 f.) is not a conclusive proof that the passage which con-
tains it is later than the 8th century; but Gressmann is himself
one-sided, even if less dangerously so, when he claims that faeonly
" legitimate criterion for so denying the genuineness (of a passage)
consists of the historical circumstances pre-supposed in it " (" als
einzig berechtigtes Kriterium, um die Echtheit zu leugnen, sind
nur die vorausgesetzten zeitgeschichtlichen Verhaltnisse anzu-
sehen"); and he is wrong in his conclusion that "so long as
these (historical circumstances pre-supposed) do not speak against
the original authorship of him in whose book the future hope
(Heilseschatologie) is handed down, so long may the 'genuine-
ness' be maintained " ("so lange wird man die Echtheit aufrecht
erhalten diirfen ") : all that follows, in the case of the Book of
Isaiah at least, is this, that provided the historical pre-suppositions
are not inconsistent with the age of Isaiah, so long may the
genuineness of any particular passage remain an open question ;
the passage may be Isaiah's, or it may be the work of some writer
living in any age with which also the historical pre-suppositions
are not inconsistent (cp. 43). For though the book bears the
name of Isaiah, considerable parts even of chs. 1-39 are by
general consent the work of later ages ; and, moreover, the edi-
torial processes through which the book has passed belong to
periods when eschatology was rife.* Generations subsequent
to Isaiah have played too large a part in the composition of the
Book of Isaiah for it to be more than one possibility among
several that a passage, the historical pre-suppositions of which
are vague, is Isaiah's. The possibilities in such cases must be
reduced in number, if at all, by other criteria.
*Cp. Th. L. W. van Ravensteyn, De Eenheid der eschatologischen Voorstel-
lingen in het Boek Jesaja (Utrecht, 1910), in which as against Gressmann it is
argued that the eschatology (as distinct from the prophetic elements) of all parts of
the Book of Isaiah belong to a single period, and that probably the 4th century.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES
xcvn
io\O \j) O O^ !*
t^. tx (^ t^ t^ t^
\j v v! vl v
35
V)
M
h
[Many prophecies of
Isaiah cannot be pre-
cisely dated, and are
not entered here.
Chapters of Isaiah in
brackets refer to the
date indicated, but
*7?
r 1 4* VD
rt 8
1* ^
1 ? a- 1 I
fs J +
2 c <3 K <2
c g ^* > v- o
22 .S *8 7
=3 N 'bx
5 rt
r\ cfl tf)
Vj t (
>* -j> w
"2 'O O X
44 3 .* J
t
> o
o
I^.*-; **
H
is||
Va
j
C rt
rt ^J
C |M
J2 rt
"
r< L- **^ **^
1 s 1
s, js 4i,
/5 *< i- ^ w rt
<
5 fc
OT 3
Srt >.
m
15
'8.8
rt
OJ
.
C
maneser
(A Cl4 3 ** *^^ dl *^^
*o r 1 S r fLi
* *j h 5 U T3 5 g.^*<
> * . .M - c6 o
* "T 1 K* CltH-t (0 Trt 4J
x~.
TJP.fr*
< 3
1
2*8 Jt
Cd rt
rt
T3 2
*^ G
1 s -fl
C
C/5 rt
a
ONT3 ^.
I
^^
D
tj*^ rt rt
rt
m
- PH
&
13
3
6 "
J
M 4>
C
rt
s ^r s
JO o
H
5
1
3
J=
<U
S rt g
2 2 g
<U /^ *^ ^^
A
rt
3
OH
rt g
fr
-rt ' s 'g
B
S a "a.*
"S
<
pS J* i i
1 g
Q
<H 6 rt j
1 2
.
S ^I'E o-j
6 rt
4 ,jC3
|^i Q (/) ""
s
S 2 ^-.
O
rt *.S * ^
X
Tt
"S?^: i? s % ^
f^ rt rt ""^ ^^
00
oo
. N . r>. i^ t^
i ,J~ ti c *'
<o OO vj C
O
H
J
<J
U
.
O
3
O
XCVlll
INTRODUCTION
3
_A !M| fk|
^
OJ t^
J
C pq
8
-*- '
^
<
> *b
N N
tn
> i
Ib
O r^- v
IM (4>-l
fc
S c>
V n- 4>
.s
S- c7^
M
- M N"
? T S ^3
3
-C rt
.3 ja
TL 7i\ ^ - rt
*> ^ CJ
M
h- <
tf> 10 t S
H Q O g
oo W ^ "3
o
T-K-d 2
*ll
ASSYRIA,
BABYLON, ETC.
to Tiglath-pileser
Philistine campaign
Capture of Gaza
Is >
1 Q ft
c^ 1*
fas 1
S.lSS 6
c rt -Su rt
| Q c3 s S
1
1
tn
t ^
lie
5 O
^Q *w
3 3
o bfiQ w
> s
tf>
o--^
2 K^ ^*-* f
a
w '
j
ofNorth-
Israelites
s - ^llfl 1'
B
5 Ss
rtv X
S o**^,
e VH CMO
co
i i
JS c
x S
W
!JH *"^"_C '^ ^ 4^ i
1-1 1 a 1 Sf
~ ' U k-ri vj Co ^ .
(XiSC a/
^ o.S
*!*
o
V4-I ,-1
3
3
r 4 "G
jS
"5 *55
<u N
2
1
Q K
&
cL
"t^i
N
SJ
1
I" 1
0)
Q rt _2 1*^
<0
PO PJ f*. ^
CO f) N N
f^ t^ t>> 1*^
N
' g "
o ""
f
i
w
U
i
O
o
J
o
o
g
ffi
u
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES
xcix
_ <:
i ?
EGY
09
xxvii flf.
8*
cu
c
o
i
s
See the
BABY
*_
OOOeU
^s 1 or
.s;
^X) M rt;s rtSS
C
"
1
PL.
W 2 S *
42
<
B
O
N
VO
O
e
g W
-s a
"3
.
& !1
53 e
INTRODUCTION
a
vO
v
X
4-1 4->
vl
"c S
Ss-
^T^
2
* 0^
2 "dj
^ -i
C/5
1 1
t/i jj
13
^ -^
to
O
5*
u
&'
M
K^ rt
^^ ^ "S
oo H.
^" ^
o
43 *I ^ S
VD 10
C 'O
S
t^ C ^* Q*
1 1
rt C
S. ftjji
S^^Jji
M
^
u
9
rt ^
8
*
t!
^."S
1
5*
o
i2<^,
S
T
W
11
u
V
w
ti *i 'JH *
tn "^
J
&!-*
<u
w
""^ H S ^
9J Ctf
<
rt rt ^ .M
H
w SH
H 0.
M
'O en en
*O "S S * _e " *O
C g
OLOGICA
J
H
M
a?
S
>
i *^
ctf ^ O
^^ -" S
* 8"S
3 S S
1
S 8 ! fl
T3 fl^ M
1 J"^ |S.f
<u So
Is e rt >,? s M *~
"^ o'55
43 u, u
ciS W
" O
CHRON
<
w
i
<
at
fc
1
S ^g 1
_Q O C '
I7n ^3 O *5
!n * *o ""O rt
III 11
111 1
CO UI K<
^ > > 5 i N
w'o'o "3^^ "I'S'i
3 g*M ^"^^^ BJa"
III 9llI
D^; u, pq 2
Pi
P
c
(U
c
s
.2 6
^
<u
u
K
"J
S
|
2 2
<U 4;
W
Q
s
OO
ll'll &
r ON N MOO
DM <N VO O O OO
5 O VO . *O V3 IO
1
o ""
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES
Cl
38
^
< .: ~ .r
.,
S
t of
lised
c 5^
2.1 o -3
S V, *e
quo
T
nanta
Id
M
i
Con
fix
Con
of
Hebrew MS
y
N
so
ed
so
lie
est
ah
Ea
I
*
a-S
5r
3
8-8
CLi
-g-H.
|.a
11
-8
*
G,
j
rt
o
i
c
rt
*
.
II
.
II
-S
E B
CJOO
a
"w tuo O
e
f
<\j
In
COMMENTARY.
"Quae si longa tibi videbitur, non mihi imputes, sed
Scripturae sanctae difficultati, praecipueque Isaiae prophetae,
qui tantis obscuritatibus involutus est, ut prae magnitudine
rei brevem explanationem putem, quae per se longa est.
Certe nos studiosis scribimus, et sanctam Scripturam scire
cupiencibus, non fastidiosis, et ad singula nauseantibus."
JEROME.
"I. I. A title defining the subject and age of Isaiah's pro-
phecies. It served, in the first instance, perhaps, as a title of
chs. i 12 only. It was prefixed, not by Isaiah, but by a post-
exilic editor. Isaiah, in accordance with the prominence given
by him to Jerusalem throughout his prophecies (i 21ff - 3 16ff -
(4 3ff -) io 32ff - 22 lff - 28 17ff - 29 lff - 30 19ff -), speaks of Jerusalem and
Judah (3 1 - 8 5 s 22 21 : occasionally elsewhere, 2 K 24 20 , Ezr 2 1 );
in the title, as in 2 1 and, e.g., 2 K i8 22 , 2 Ch 34 3 - 8 , the order is
fudah and Jerusalem. A contemporary Jew would have had
no occasion to add to the list of kings the explanatory clause
kings of Judah (cp. Jer i 2 *-, Mic 2 1 ) ; an editor looking back on
the monarchy as a vanished institution might well do so. It is
doubtful, too, whether Isaiah would have applied the term
vision to his collected prophecies (see below). The period of
Isaiah's prophetic activity may be correctly described, though
this is not certain (cp. 6 1 n.), as beginning in the reign of Uzziah :
and the title is certainly correct in extending the period into the
reign of Hezekiah (cp. chs. 36-39) : but Judah and Jerusalem
is an inadequate description of the scope of Isaiah's teaching,
still more of chs. 1-39; chs. 13-23 contain a series of oracles
directed against foreign nations; and even within chs. 1-12
at least one prophecy (9 7 -io 4 ) is primarily concerned with
Ephraim.
The vision] ptn signifies (i) a vision, then (2) the verbal
record of what is seen in vision, and also, perhaps, with a total
loss of the original sense of the word, (3) any revelation or
VOL. i. i
2 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
prophetic discourse even though it has not been suggested by
vision. The word is used here with either the second or the
third of these meanings ; in illustration of these, cp. " the book
of the vision of Nahum," Nah i 1 ; "the vision of Obadiah," i 1 ;
" the matter ("Olfl) which Isaiah saw-in-vision " (n?n), Is 2 1 ; " the
rest of the affairs of Hezekiah . . . behold they are written in
the vision of Isaiah," 2 Ch 32 32 ; " write the vision and inscribe
it on the tablets," Hab 2 2 . Certainly neither the verb ntn nor
the noun J1TH is necessarily late, nor the belief that God revealed
things to some prophets by means of vision (cp. Nu i2 6 24 4 - 14 ,
i K 22 17 - 19 , Am 7-9, Jer i 11 - 13 ). Nevertheless, since actual
vision plays but little part in the recorded experience of Isaiah,
and when he does refer to such experiences (6 1 ), he, like Amos,
uses the verb n&o, the use of fitn in this and similar titles
may be due to the later conception that the chief function of
prophecy was apocalyptic, that prophecy was a revelation of the
final stage of history: cp. e.g. Dn 8 2 and Ben Sirach's (48 5 )
description of Isaiah mriK ntn miaj nm To the authors of
these titles the prophecies of Isaiah, Nahum, Obadiah may
have been, as they subsequently were to many generations of
Christian scholars, not so much or at all the teaching of these
prophets to their own age, but a record of events seen in vision
several centuries before they actually happened. Consequently,
vision not improbably retains here the second of the meanings
mentioned above. Isaiah'] the name means Yahweh has delivered,
or Yahweh is deliverance (cp. Ps. 29 1 ; see phil. n.) : the prophet
is the only pre-exilic person of the name who is known ; but
several persons so named are mentioned in Chr. Ezr. Neh. and
also in the Assouan papyri (5th cent. B.C.). Son of 'Amos] the
name 'Amos is otherwise unknown; but the root 'amas., to be
mighty, occurs in Amaziah a fact which probably created,
without in the slightest justifying, a Rabbinic theory that Isaiah's
father and King Amaziah were brothers (cp. Pesikta d. Rab
Kahana, nyb). By a grosser blunder, resting on ignorance of
Hebrew, but assisted perhaps by the Rabbinic canon, that
where a prophet's father is mentioned the father himself was
a prophet, Isaiah's father (pDK, (5r 'A/AWS) was identified with the
prophet Amos (DEJJ, (5r '
so always throughout the book : in the title of the book jryB>% see
ntrod. 3. MT may be right in pointing in;yt>: (cp. 'Haafas, (&), and the
I- 2-31 3
name may, as Del. maintains, consist of a 3rd pf. + W a formation already
common in the 8th cent. (HPN 176 f. : cp. 192), cp. <rt6(r Kuptos (Onom.
Coislinianum, in Lag. Onom. i65 OT ) ; but since yv does not occur in the Kal
and the n. pr. .ryenn actually occurs later, yv may be a noun, yet scarcely
a noun in the construct, so that the name means aurrjpla Kvpiov, salus datum i
(Jer. al. : see Lag. Onom. 69', I73 69 , I9I 60 ), but rather predicative (cp. HPN
75 ff., 175 f.) Yahwch is salvation : cp. in the inverse order jwVic, where the
second element, in spite of MT pointing, is yv rather than yv, and also Vxyr,
Lidzbarski, NSf. The original pronounciation may have been 'n ? 'V^!, like
n, XeX*(e)ias : cp. Origen's 'leaata, and 'Ie<r<r(e)/oi in <Br, 2 Ch 26 a .
I. 2-31. A Collection of Prophetic Poems.
This section stands between two titles (i 1 2 1 ): and it is
natural to infer from this fact that the editor derived it from
another source than ch. 2 ff. : see Introd. 29. Why the
editor, who can scarcely have been Isaiah himself, placed this
section first cannot be determined; it has been suggested that
the reason may be found in its general character and " immediate
applicability to many other circumstances " of ancient, or later
(Ro 9 29 ), Jewish life (Di.). But, as a matter of fact, it did
not prove more widely applicable than other sections of the
book : 6-8 18 , or even ch. 6 by itself, which on chronological
grounds should stand first, is also cited more frequently in the
NT.
It must also remain uncertain whether the editor found the
chapter circulating by itself, a prophetic fly-sheet of about the
same size as the prophecy of Obadiah, or himself arranged
passages drawn from some larger collection, or even from dif-
ferent sources. However this may be, the section is not a
single poem or prophetic oration : it consists of several distinct
poems or fragments. Most clearly distinct is vv. 21 ' 26 < 28 > : this is
a complete poem with well-marked rhythmical character, and
reflects a different historical situation from vv. 1 ' 19 : in vv. 81 ' 26
judgment is still to come ; in vv. 6 ' 9 it is in process of fulfilment.
Since there is no indication that these vv. have been interpolated,
the chapter immediately falls into at least three independent
sections vv. 2 ' 20 , 2 i-26(28)^ 27(29)-3i. gut o f these sec tions the first
is scarcely a unity; the fresh start in v. 18 suggests, and the
contents, if not also the rhythm, favour, the conclusion that
vv 18-20 are an independent saying or sayings. Whether even
vv. 2 ' 17 are a single poem is uncertain.
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Koppe distinguished as separate poems or fragments vv. 2 * 9 (time of Ahaz)
and vv. 10 - 20 (time of Hezekiah) ; Lagarde (Semitica^ i. if.) and Corn. (ZA TW,
1884, pp. 86-88), vv. 2f - 4 ' 9 - 10 -" ; Cheyne (Introd.), vv. 2 - 4 - 5 - 9 - 10 - 17 (cp. Stade,
Gesch. i. 586 n. 2, 622).
But whether vv. 2 ' 17 be a unity or not, the difficulty of maintaining the
strict unity of the entire chapter has been increasingly felt since Koppe first
seriously raised the question. Some, however, still maintain that it is a
literary unity; for example, Di. says, "The chapter is just as little as
many others an oratorical unity or the accurate report of a speech actually
delivered : it is too rich in ideas and varied in contents for this, and the con-
nection both within vv. 10 " 21 and between these verses and vv. 2 " 9 and 24 " 81 is not
close enough. But in view of the relation of v. 10 to v. 9 , and the references
back from v. 26 to vv. 17 and 12f *, and from v. 28 to v. 24 , the literary unity of the
chapter cannot reasonably be denied : that is to say, we must see in it a
literary work composed by Isaiah himself, in which he has enriched a speech
delivered on some particular occasion with leading thoughts and turns from
other similar speeches delivered at not too widely separated periods, and
reduced the whole to a form used by earlier and later prophets (Hos 4 1 , Mic 6,
Ps 50) of a legal process between God and the people " (but see below,
p. 27). Cond. has recently maintained that his strophic theory proves
w.2-27 t o be a single poem, which is unfortunate for the strophic theory.
If the chapter consists of different poems, questions of date,
so far as they can be answered, fall for consideration in connec-
tion with the several sections. Here it must suffice simply to
record the earlier view elaborately maintained as late as the
1 9th cent, by C. P. Caspari,* that the chapter belongs to the
reign of Uzziah and is earlier than ch. 6 ; and the wide diverg-
ence of judgment among other writers who have maintained the
unity of the chapter, the two main views being that it belongs to
the period of the Syro-Ephraimitish war in 735 (Ges., Del., Di.),
the other that it belongs to the time of Sennacherib's invasion
in 701 (Vitr., Eich., W. R. Smith). Many other theories are
referred to by Caspari (p. i ff.).
So also the question of rhythm is dealt with in detail in the various
sections. For a different view from that which is taken below of the changes
of rhythm in this chapter, see Francis Brown, The Measurements of Hebrew
Poetry ', \n.JBLit., 1890, 82-86, who finds vv. 2 " 4 six- toned, vv. 5 ' 20 five-toned,
vv. 21 " 28 six-toned, vv. 29 ' 31 five-toned.
I. 2-17. The sin of YahweWs people, their punishment and
mistaken sense of His requirements.
Rhythm and Parallelism. Cp. Introd. "On Poetic forms." Within
vv. 2 ' 17 there is a marked difference between vv. 2 ' 8 ' 16c - 17 and 10 " 16b : balancing
* Beit rage zur Einleitungin das B. Jes. , Berlin, 1848.
I. 2-17 5
rhythm is dominant in the first named verses, echoing rhythm (3 : 2) is clearly
to be recognised in vv. 10< u - 12a - (omitting D3TD) 14b> 18 *- (omitting D3D) 18b ' "fc- 1 **-
18b ; the rest of vv. 1(M6b is more uncertain, partly at least owing to textual
corruption. Of the lines clearly 3 : 2 only vv. nb< 14b show parallelism of sense
between their parts : but the entire periods 5 : 5 are parallel in vv. 10 - llb - -
isa. b . ih us absence of parallelism, or parallelism only of longer periods, as
well as difference of rhythm, sharply distinguishes vv. 1(M6b from vv. 2 " 8 and
16c. 17^
Where the balancing rhythm prevails, some difference of length in the
lines may be observed :
(a) Vv. 2 ' 8 consist of one tristich 2 : 2 : 2, and three distichs 3 : 3, i.e. four
complete periods of six accents.
(b) Vv. 4 ' 8 : most of the distichs are unmistakably 2 : 2, but v. 4 *- 1 * is 3:3
unless 'in is rhythmically independent (see p. 89) and pyiaa, one
accent: in MT it is two. Insert makkephs as follows: no^Sy (so
generally in MT), Tijrian in v. 5 *, after <Vi in v. 6 , and perhaps in
vvrn(\)sr\v in v. 7 (see phil. n.). Lines irregularly of three accents
are v. 7 *, unless nnx be omitted : and vv. 4L unless v. 4 *- * * (2 : 3 : 2 in
2$, 2:3 in (ffir) is intrusive (see Comm. ); 7e omitted in the trans-
lation is probably a gloss (see Comm.).
(c) Vv. 16c - 17 : distichs 2: 2.
(d) V. 9 , if tayDD be omitted ((5), consists of two distichs, 3:3 and 2:2
respectively ; i.e. it is like vv. 2 - 8 * in balancing rhythm. If oyos be
retained and taken with what follows, **' d is 3 : 2 and rhythmically
similar to vv. loff ' ; 8 *' b might perhaps with difficulty be read in the
same rhythm by inserting makkeph, wS'Vnin.
Strophes. The translation will show that vv. 2 ' 8 falls into four, or vv. 4 ' 8
into three, almost equal sense-divisions ; v. 9 is but half the length of any one
of them. Again, two sets of four lines of five accents are recognisable in
vv. 11 ' 12a and 15 - 16b , and the intervening verses before they were amplified may
have been of the same length : then v. 10 with its two lines stands by itself.
If the text of $? were preferable to (Hr in v. 9 (see above), it would be tempting
to see in vv. 2 " 8 and 9 ' 16b two poems rhythmically different in character but each
divided into four equal strophes.
The marked difference in poetical form between vv. 2 ' 8 and
vv. 10 ' 16 , which has just been pointed out and is in some measure
indicated in the translation, makes the unity of vv. 2 ' 17 uncertain.
But the thought of the two poems, if there are two poems here
rather than one, is not so different that either suffers much by
being read with the other, and in a consecutive translation of
vv 2-17 t ne relation of v. 9 can be more readily considered ; that
verse may be rhythmically, textually, and exegetically uncertain,
and may possibly be intrusive, but it cannot be rejected with
confidence.
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Israel's unfilial conduct and its punishment.
2 Hear, O heaven,
And give ear, O earth !
For 'tis Yahweh hath spoken
"Children have I reared and brought up,
But they have rebelled against me;
8 An ox knoweth its owner,
And an ass it's master's manger;
Israel doth not know,
My people doth not consider."
* Ah ! sinful nation,
People whose guilt is heavy,
Brood that doeth evil,
Children that deal corruptly
Who have forsaken Yahweh,
Contemned the Holy One of Israel,
Are estranged (?) backward
6 Wherefore will ye yet be smitten,
(Wherefore) continue in your defection?
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart diseased :
6 From the sole of the foot to the very head
No soundness is in him ;
(But) bruises and contusions
And still bleeding wounds,
Not pressed out, nor bound up,
Nor softened with oil.
7 Your land is a desolation,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Your tilled land before you,
Aliens are devouring it ;
8 And the daughter of Sion is left
Like a booth in a vineyard,
Like a night refuge in a cucumber-field,
Like a tower (?) for the watch (?).
9 Had not Yahweh of Hosts
Left of us some that escaped,
Like Sodom had we become,
Gomorrah had we resembled.
i. 2-17 7
Not Sacrifice!
10 Hear the word of Yahweh, | ye chiefs of Sodom !
Give ear to the instruction of our God, | people of
Gomorrah !
11 What good to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? | saith
Yahweh.
I am satiated with burnt-offerings of rams | and fat of fed
beasts ;
And in the blood of bullocks and he-goats | I delight not.
12 When ye come to see my face, | who hath required this at
your band ?
Trample my courts 18 shall ye no more,
To bring gifts is vain,
Smoke (of sacrifice) is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath, convoking of convocations, I cannot (endure);
Fast and Sacred Seasons 14 your new moons and your set times my
soul hateth.
They have become a burden upon me, | I weary of carrying.
15 And when ye spread out your hands, | I will hide mine
eyes from you
Yea when ye make many prayers, | I do not listen.
Your hands are full of shed-blood : | 16 wash youselves pure ;
Put away the evil of your doings | from before mine eyes.
But Justice.
IC Cease to do evil,
17 Learn to do well ;
Seek out the right,
Make the violent (?) keep straight (?) ;
Secure the right of the orphan,
Undertake the cause of the widow.
Heaven and earth are summoned to listen to Yahweh's charge
against His people : they have requited His fatherly care with
indifference and open rebellion (vv. 2f< ). Sufficient reason this
that blow after blow has fallen till Judah is covered with bruises
and wounds from head to foot (vv. 4 - 6 ), that the land of Judah
8
has been desolated and its cities burned by a foreign army,
which now invests Jerusalem itself (vv. 7f> ). Indeed, had not
Yahweh saved a few, Judah would have been wiped out of
existence as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 9 ). But
even now in the beleaguered city so we must understand the
transition if the poem is one rulers and people alike utterly
misunderstand Yahweh : misfortune has at last awakened them
to their need of Him, but not to the nature of their sins, or of
His demands : they bring Him in abundance sacrifices which
He abhors, they are still indifferent to justice and humanity
which He requires the very hands which they stretch out to
Him in prayer are stained with the blood of murder (vv. 1(M6 ).
Yahweh's word to them (v. 10 ), if they would really find Him, is :
Not sacrifice (vv. 11 " 15 ), nor prayers unaccompanied by moral
change ( 15f *)> but justice !
The leading ideas of vv. 2 - 17 are (a) sin, (b) punishment,
(c) misunderstanding of what Yahweh demands, (ct) what
Yahweh actually demands ; (a) and (b\ (c) and (d) are, each
pair taken separately, very natural sequences, but it is a question
whether (c), which is really an explication of (a), would not im-
mediately have followed (a) had all entered into the same poem.
The date of the poem, or at least of vv. 2 - 8 , is 701 B.C. ; see n. on
v. 7 , where other less probable theories are cited. Nothing in
vv. 2 - 17 j s inconsistent with the date 701, for it is only by a very
improbable interpretation that v. 2 can be made to imply a present
state of national prosperity. On the other hand, nothing either in
vv. 2f - or vv. 1(Kl7 independently points to the year 701 ; and if any
of these verses are derived from different poems, their exact date
is uncertain : the ideas are such as Isaiah might have expressed
at almost any time of his life.
2a. b. C. Exordium. Since the prophet is about to utter
the words of none other than Yahweh, words which Yahweh has
spoken to him, which he must not and cannot keep to himself
(cp. Am 3 7f> , Jer 2o 9 ), heaven and earth (cp. Jer 2 12 ) are called
upon to give audience ; cp. Dt 32* for the same rhetorical appeal,
and for a similar one Mic 6 1 ; for heaven and earth as witnesses,
cp. also Dt 4 26 3o 19 32 29 . Hear . . . give ear] cp. 28 23 32 9 ,
Gn 4 23 : this type of prelude may, as Du. suggests, have been
derived from popular poetry.
I. 2, 3 9
2d. e. 3. Yahweh charges Israel with unfilial con-
duct. Yahweh's charge against His people is that in return
for His fatherly (Hos ix 1 " 4 ) care (cp. Am 3 2 ) they have broken
loose from Him and become rebels against His authority.
Children] EV rightly renders D^3 thus, as in the phrase
"children of Israel," and 5T correctly interprets the word as
equivalent to "my people" (v. 8 ). Less satisfactory is the
rendering sons;* for though, when the Hebrews spoke of
children they no doubt thought primarily of sons, the plural
D^3 is not limited in meaning to male children (see Gn 3,
Jos ly 2 ), and note, even in the sing., a male child ("OT p) in
Jer 2o 12 . Where parallelism admits (it does not here) the use
of the terms, Yahweh's people may be described as His " sons "
and "daughters" (43 6 ). Brought up and reared] i.e. played
the part of a parent by them. For 7*\\ in this sense, cp. 23*
49 21 5 1 18 , 2 K io 6 , Hos 9 12 ; and for DDT), 23*, also the analogous
use in Ezk 31*: so *sn} in the Kal is used of the growth of the
infant (Gn 2i 8 ) or youth (Gn 2I 20 ). Both verbs have also the
meaning to make great, powerful, exalted', and the second by
many f and both by some \ have been so understood here ; but
the two verbs should be rendered as synonyms (see phil. n.);
and both the parallel in 23* and the context here (see vv. 8f> )
favour interpreting the ,line of Yahweh's parental care for
Israel, not of the pre-eminence of Israel among the nations, or
of the greatness of Israel in numbers and military power. Con-
sequently, there is no allusion to the prosperity of Judah, and
the case for assigning this passage to the same early period of
Isaiah's activity as 2 6ff - (Che. Introd. p. 2) falls to the ground.
In the simplest terms, without the pathetic details of Hosea's
picture of Yahweh training and tending His child (Hos n 1 *,
esp. v. 8 ), Isaiah places in contrast Yahweh's parental care which
had brought Israel to manhood, and Israel's unfilial conduct
in casting off the father's authority and disobeying the father's
commands. They have rebelled against me] '3 y&J>B means to
revolt from one's ruler (e.g. i K I2 19 , 2 K i 1 ), to renounce
authority (cp. Tntf! ^ WS, Hos 8 1 ) : here it is used of a child's
renunciation of a father's authority. A reference to idolatry,
* Ew., Di., Che., Du., Whitehouse, Box.
t <5r (C^wo-a), U (exaltavi], Di., Du., Che., Marti, al.
t Ki., RVmarg. AV, RV (text), Ges., Cond.
IO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
which has sometimes been suspected here, would be possible
(cp. Jer 2 8 - 29 3 13 ), but it is very far from certain ; other ways of
rebelling against Yahweh were to rely on Egypt or Assyria
(Hos 7 13 ), or to be unjust, inhumane ; cp. 59 12ff - and the use of
the noun y^Q in Am 5 12 ; moreover, Am. chs. i. 2 are simply a
series of illustrations of inhumanity regarded in the light of
rebellion against Yahweh.
3. Israel has not only been an unfilial child of Yahweh, but
has shown himself less intelligent than the animals (cp. Jer 8 7 )
that form part of a household (Ex 2o 17 ). Ox and ass find their
way to their stables ; but Israel cares nothing for Yahweh, nor
discerns that it owes everything to Him : cp. the thought of
Hos 2 10 ( 8 >, Dt 32 16 , where it is implied that Israel not only did
not recognise Yahweh, their true Baal or owner, as the giver of
harvest, but attributed the produce of Canaan to the ancient
Baals of the land. Owner . . . master\ the first word (Hip)
denotes TOV K-n/ora/tevov (fflr), one who has come into possession
of anything as, for example, by purchase (cp. Lv 25 30 , Zee n 5 );
the second (?yi) is commonly used of the person to whom
property belongs (e.g. Ex 2i 28 , Jg i9 22 ). Israel] If vv. 8 and 8
belong to the same poem, Israel is not the Northern kingdom,
but Judah : cp. 5 7 n.
4-9. Israel sinful and suffering. Isaiah, like Amos in
3 3 - 8 , follows up the brief saying of Yahweh (vv. 2c - d - 3 ) with speech
in his own person. 4. And first with a cry of threat and lamenta-
tion, Ah/ or Woel (5 5 * 11 etc.), he emphasises by means of a
succession of short clauses the rebellious and unfilial conduct
of Israel, the nation, people, race, and children of Yahweh : they
are sinful, heavily laden with guilt, evil-doers (cp. 9 16 3i 2 ), and
of corrupt life (cp. Gn 6 12 , Zeph 3 7 , Ps I4 1 ). 46. f. g. One at
least of the last three lines of v. 4 is probably not original, possibly
none of them are (Marti), though strophic regularity requires two
lines here. r omits the last line, and the previous one is
rhythmically suspicious. If the lines stood by themselves they
would probably, if not quite necessarily, imply idolatry (5E);
but the remainder of the poem suggests that Isaiah had,
instead of idolatry, ethical offences in mind. To forsake
Yahweh often, though not invariably (Dt 28 20 ), with writers
later than Isaiah, means specifically to abandon Him for another
God; see, e.g., Jg 2 llf - io 6 - 10 , Dt 3i 16 , Jer i 16 2 13 5 7 ; and if
I. 3-6 II
w. 28f< below were originally connected with one another, the
same specific sense was intended there. To contemn (pw) God
was to think little of His power, to distrust His capacity to
fulfil His promises or His threats (Nu 5 24 i2 6 I4 11 - 28 I6 80 ,
Ps jo 8 ' 18 74 10>18 ); and once (Dt 3i 20 ) it is associated with
serving other gods. The verb in the last line (see phil. n.) refers
to idolatry in Ezk 14*, and so do similar phrases in Ps 44
yS 67 . The Holy One of Israef] Isaiah's favourite term for Yah-
weh : see Introduction. 5a. b. The question put to the persons
addressed in ** b - c> d . Why will the people invite fresh punish-
ment by renewing and continuing their sinful courses ? Judah
to Isaiah, as Israel to Amos (4 6 " 12 ), appears to have suffered
already often and severely. Wherefore'] the regular meaning of
no~i>y. Many modern interpreters* appeal to Job 38 and
render on what (fart of the body) will ye yet be smitten, seeing
that none is left which has not already been smitten : this
destroys the parallelism, and, as Cond. justly urges, it pro-
duces an "image assez froide," for the person who chastises
does not take pains to discover a spot on which no stroke has
yet fallen. ( Wherefore) will ye continue in your defection] the
force of wherefore in the previous line is carried on into this,
and these two lines are, like their neighbours, parallel in sense
"ny being parallel in thought to IB'Din, and mo, defection, which
necessarily implies punishment, to 1DJ1. Generally the second
line is taken to be circumstantial (G-K. 156^; Or. 163) or
relative seeing that, or ye that, continue, etc. The term defection
occurs also in 31, Jer 28 16 , Dt i3 6 . The original sense of the
verb "ilD is to turn aside from one's course, from the straight
road (Dt 2 27 , Jg 4 18 i4 8 ) : then morally it means to turn aside,
whether from the right from Yahweh, His commands, etc.
(Ex 32 8 , i S i2 20 ) or from the wrong (Job 28 28 , Ps 34 16 ); but,
used absolutely, the verb, like the noun here, has the sinister
sense Ps i4 3 , Jer 5 23 , Dt n 16 17"; religiously it is the anti-
thesis of ta or iy ins? how long will this people turn away from
Yahweh to their undoing, instead of returning to Him to be
healed ? Cp. Hos 6 1 , Am 4 9 Hj; Drop &6l . . . wan.
5C. d. 6. The whole body politic is sick. In contrast with
v. 5 *- 1 * (plural vbs.), we have now one of those personifications
of the entire nation which are so frequent with Hebrew writers
* Ges., Ew., Di., Du., Che., Guthe, Marti, Whitehouse ; cp. H super quo.
12 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(cp. Numbers^ pp. 265 f., 370) : Judah is a wounded man whose
bruises and sores, so recent that the blood still flows, receive
no attention : there is nought of soundness in him ; cp. particularly
Hos 5 18 , " Ephraim perceived his sickness, and Judah his wound,"
and Hos 7 9 , where Ephraim is described as a man sapped of his
strength and grown grey without realising it. The injuries are
described by three terms : JJVS, bruises, produced by crushing
(nai, Dt 23 2 ), or smiting (nan, Ca 5 7 , i K 2o 37 ) : the term also
occurs in Job 9 17 , Pr 2y 16 (fig.), and, coupled as here with
mnn, in Ex 2i 25 , Gn 4 23 , Pr 2o 30 (ffir) f ; the remaining instances
of mian are 53 5 , Ps 38 6 (festering stripes) : the third term n3E is
of wide meaning (cp. nan), but it includes open, bleeding wounds
(i K 22 35 ), and it is such that are here pictured they are n*nt3,
moist, juicy (Jg i5 15 : cp. tc^), i.e. still bleeding. These wounds
have not been pressed out to purify them from purulent matter,
nor bound up with bandages, nor softened and the pain of them
assuaged by the pouring in of oil (cp. Jer. 8 22 , Lk io 84 ).
7. 8. The figurative (w. 6a * b ' 6 ) is followed by a literal
description of the desperate state of Judah : the whole country
lies desolated by the ravages of war, the cities have been burnt
out, and, at the moment, before the very eyes of the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, an army of foreigners is encamped and supporting
itself on the produce of the fields. The capital, indeed, still
stands, but insecure as the slight structures made for their
refuge by those working in the fields, too far away from their
homes to return to them at night.
The only known circumstances that correspond to this description are
those of the year 701 B.C. Sennacherib in his account of his campaign of
that year writes : " Hezekiah of Judah, who had not bowed himself under
the yoke, 46 of his fortified towns, fortresses, and small cities in their
neighbourhood innumerable, with casting down of battering-rams and assault
of siege-engines, with attack of infantry, of arrows ... I besieged, I
captured. . . . Himself, like a bird in a cage, in the midst of Jerusalem,
the city of his kingship, I shut up. Fortifications against him I erected, and
those coming forth from the gates of his city I turned back " (Taylor Cylinder,
iii. 11-17 and 20-23). " V. 7 describes what those shut up in the capital could
see, and is silent about the 200,000 Jews whom Sennacherib boasts of having
taken prisoners (from the other cities ; Taylor Cylinder, iii. 17-20) probably
because they had as yet no knowledge of this" (Du.). The actual descrip-
tion of the Syro-Ephraimitish war (see on ch. 7), even with the additional
details of 2 Ch 28, falls short of the present, but some (e.g. Di. ) infer from
the general character of ancient warfare that the circumstances of that war
I. 6-8 13
must have been such as to justify the terms in which Isaiah here speaks.
It has been questioned whether an army largely composed of Israelites would
be called "aliens" (am). No siege of Jerusalem by Sargon, to which some
referred this description,* is recorded, and the hypothesis that there was
such a siege is now generally abandoned. f
Your tilled land before you~\ the fields or cultivated country
(ncntf, cp. Gn 3 17 ), within sight of those addressed, i.e. the besieged
in Jerusalem. Aliens] the word means belonging to another class,
or circle (Nu i 51 n.), here, therefore, belonging to another race,
foreigners (cp. Jer 5 19 , Ezk 28 7 , La 5 2 ) : this would very naturally
describe either Assyrians or Syrians, but much less naturally an
army consisting equally of Syrians and Ephraimites, since the
latter were not D^f in the sense here intended. Are devouring
it] for the idiom HOIK iotf, to eat the land, meaning to live on its
produce, see Gn 3 17 ; for its use of an enemy living on the
produce of an invaded or conquered country, cp. Jer 8 16 . The
enemy have reduced the country behind them to ruin by fire
and sword, and they have now closed in on Jerusalem and are
living on its immediate neighbourhood; the addition at this
point of the phrase, and (it is) a desolation like the overthrow
of . . . does not seem very suitable : it is, moreover, structurally
redundant. Probably the words are a gloss \ on the word
desolation at the beginning of the verse, meaning your land is a
desolation and that a desolation like the overthrow of. ...
Grammatically, the clause, an overthrow of aliens (f^fflr), may
mean either such an overthrow as barbarians customarily bring
about, or such an overthrow as customarily befalls barbarians
(cp. Del.) ; but neither meaning is very probable. It is far more
probable that D^T, aliens, has replaced DID, Sodom ; everywhere
else the word overthrow (roans) refers to the overthrow of
Sodom and Gomorrah (i3 19 , Dt 29 22 , Am 4 11 , Jer 49 5o 40 ).
8. Daughter of Sion\ Cities with their inhabitants are poetically
regarded as a woman; cp. e.g. "daughter of Babylon," 47!;
" virgin Israel," Am 5 2 . Sion here is used widely of the entire
city, not of the South-Eastern Hill alone (cp. G. A. Smith,
Jerusalem, i. 269). A booth] for the slightness and insecurity of
the rOD, cp. Job 27 18 ; and of the night-refuge (rofe), Is 242,
* Cp. Che. PI, Introd. notes to x. 5~xii. 6.
t Che. Introd. p. 3f. (with references); cp. Driver, Isaiah (1888), p. 101.
$ So Du., Che., Marti, Cond. al.
So, e.g., Ew., Che., Du., Mar.
14 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
" It shall shake to and fro like a night-refuge." For a picture
of a modern structure of this kind, see SBOT, p. 162. Like
a tower for tjte watch] No entirely satisfactory rendering of
Vya can be suggested; like a tower for the watch (cp.
71JD, 2 K iy 9 ) fits in well with the two preceding lines,
but "Vy, meaning alarm-post^ or tower (? cp. Tiy: Kon.), and
miVJ, watch, are both uncertain. Besieged, too, is a questionable
rendering of mflU ; and it is an objection both to as a besieged
city (RV) and like a ' forsaken' (nzwy, cp. 6o 15 62 12 ) '(y
(Che. SBOT), that Sion not merely resembles, but actually is,
a besieged, or forsaken, city. A well-guarded city would be the
safest rendering, and yet it can only really express the meaning
if Haupt (see SBOT) is right in treating the clause as a gloss ;
and this is improbable, for the structure of the poem seems to
require the line. See also phil. n.
9. Had not Yahweh allowed some of the Jews to escape, the
nation would have perished as completely as the " cities of the
plain" (Gn iQ 28 , Dt 29 22f ). According to v. 8 , Jerusalem stands
entire, though isolated now and insecure: the escaped of this
v. ought to be, then, the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
the conviction lying behind the words that in Jerusalem they are
safe, that the capital is inviolable : and yet v. 8 suggests anything
but the invincibility of Jerusalem ; and for this reason Marti
suspects the originality of v. 9 in its present position. On the
difference in rhythm and strophic length that distinguishes v. 9
from vv. 4 * 8 , see above. Some that escaped] RV inadequately
renders remnant ; TnK>, from a root meaning to take fright, run
away (cp. Ar. sarada), is one who survives from defeat, one
who escapes-, cp. e.g. Jer 31*, Nu 24 19 . In MT, though not in
<5r,U, the survivors are said to be like a little, i.e. very few : cp.
Jtti Dy3, "like a little moment," 26 20 . f^ also admits of the
word DJJEO being taken with the next clause almost had we
become (cp. Gn 26 10 ; BDB 5900). But this fails to do justice
to the obvious thought of v. 9 , for if Yahweh had not allowed
some to escape, Judah would have been clean wiped out, and,
therefore, not almost, but quite like Sodom.
2. TiDDm 'nV"iJ] the simple (not consecutive) waw coupling two synonymous
terms (Dr. 131 f.). Ki. rightly remarks, "Two words of like meaning are
used for the sake of emphasis, but the sense of both is one and the same " ;
he is wrong, however (see above), in the meaning which he gives to both
oy *?D Syo DTIDDITI DJTIN 'n*?-u D. cm] but they ; the emphasis implied by the
I. 9 AND I. 2-6 15
use of the separate pronoun is in such cases as this best expressed by rendering
i, but, instead of and; cp. On 42*, and further, Dr. 160, Obs. (p. 201).
3. on*] sere for hateph seghol : G-K. 840, y. y 03K, means to feed up,
fatten, and DUK is \htfetding trough : cp. Job 39 9 . v^ya] pluralis majestatis ;
G-K. 1241. yv K 1 ? SKIB"] < 'I<r/>a7jX <W yue owe fyvw : the ace. pronoun
here (and in the next clause) is an interpretation, not a variant. The
objects in Hebrew are left to be supplied in thought : cp. 6 9 . *oy] some 30
MSS and also (Hr&H read 'Djn a mistaken assimilation to the previous
lines. 4. in] may be followed by the 3rd pers. as in 5 11 10 I7 12 and
often : see Kon. Hi. 32 \a, b. But 'in is also followed by the 2nd pers. (e.g.
33 1 55 1 * J er 47 6 ) an d if tne text De sound, both here and in 5 8 by the 3rd
pers. (v. 4 , cf. 8 J^ ; <5r, 2nd pers.) passing over into the 2nd (v."*). py naa]
for this genitival cstr., see G-K. 128.*; and for n3| = n39, Sta. 202^. yni
D'jnc] the two terms, whether in apposition or cstr. and gen. (Kon. 337^),
are co-extensive; cp. 6s* 3 : hence not seed, i.e. descendants, of evil-doers,
but seed t i.e. race, consisting of evil-doers; (&, correctly, o"ir^p/j.a irovqpdv
(cp. tE&). It is possible that 0'jnD = Djno was originally yiD, and that the
clause was symmetrical with its three fellows. D'rrrwD] sc. Dam (Gn 6 13 ), or
something similar. enp ntt . . . m.T DK] Marti finds the repeated prosaic rm
suspicious. Tint* riu] (ffir om. The punctuators treat nt} as Niph. of *ni, as
also, though in view of v. 7 doubtfully, in Ezk 14 ; the cstr. is then pregnant,
they are estranged (horn Yahweh and gone) backward a strange mixture of
two figures each in itself sufficient (Marti). So already U abalienati sunt
retrorsum, The consonants may also be punctuated np (cp. Ezk 14'), Niph.
of 1H, but they have dedicated themselves backwards is no more probable.
E (cp. &) has minK 1 ? uni nnnow the same phrase that is used to render JIDJ
linn in 5O 5 ; whether { actually read UD3 for nu is doubtful, but this has been
suggested as the original reading by Marti : for "inK JDJ, cp. Ps 4O 18 70* and
references above. Since the poem is for the most part composed of distichs,
one (if not all) of the last three clauses of the v. seems superfluous : the
last being absent from (Br has not unnaturally been suspected (Brown, Du.) ;
but rhythmically the clause *?oe>' emp TIK ISNJ, with three accents against the
prevailing two accent lines, is more doubtful ; it is also a less satisfactory
balance to m.vnK uiy than iin* 1*113. Haupt (SBOT, p. 109) attempts
to meet the case by transposing mo (emended to iS'Din) iB'Din from v. B
and making it parallel to iinx na 5. no ^y] Kit. no-ny? Possible, but
unnecessary. t^to SD] with poet, omission of the art. : G-K. 127*-. Hence
the whole head, not every head (RVmarg.), as if every individual Israelite
were physically sick and covered with actual sores. ^n 1 ?] probably V of the
product : cp. 2 Ch 2i 18 . 6. ono 13 p] (& has no equivalent for one -a, but
it is a mistake when Marti says that (5r omits the whole clause : the otire of
<ffir implies that they read }'K ; and as without ono la the sentence (there is no
wound, etc. ) is impossible in the context, we must suppose that (3r used a
text from which ono n had accidentally dropped out. The clause is not a gloss
from Ps 38 4< 8 . MT punctuates nho a strange nominal formation from Don,
on which see Kon. ii. 98 n. I. Better with Haupt, in SOT(p. no), DFIO,
there is nought of soundness. ni] MT by accentuating on the penult, perhaps
intended to connect the form with vi (see Del.). Going back to the
1 6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
consonants alone we may connect it with mi, mi, or mi. Olsh. (p. 536)
<ta
treated it as pass. Kal f 32 ^ tj)> from Ttt (cp. G-K. $2c, 67m): we must
then suppose mi is an otherwise unused modification of ms, to bind up, with a
special technical sense (cp. Du., Kon. i. 328, 333 f.). Sta. ( 415^) considers
m to be Pual of mi ; but it is doubtful whether the sense required here could
naturally be derived from mi, to disperse, scatter, winnow. BDB treats the
form as pass, of nil = 5 Ol , $\ , to compress; cp. mim, Job 39, and the ambiguous
forms in Is 59 (pressed under foot) and Jg 6 s8 (pressing, wringing out a
fleece). However the form be explained, the sense is reasonably well secured.
man . . . lean . . . m] naan (a transcriptional error for iaan?) could be
explained by G-K. 148^, but the change of cstr. is extraordinary, and is not
satisfactorily explained by calling it an approximation to a chiasm (Del. ), or
by treating naan as impersonal cstr. (G-K. 144^) and there has been no
softening with oil, or by the distance from the subject (cp. 3S 9 *, Jer 44 21b ;
Kon. 346^). Marti, partly on the ground of the cstr., partly on the ground
that binding up should follow, not precede, the treatment with oil, deletes
'n N^I ini vh as a gloss on mum J/JCB, which, when it came into the text, led to
] being prefixed to naan K 1 ?. Both objections could be met less drastically
by supposing that .TIB nabi originally followed wan N*?I ini N 1 ? ; and, since
DHD 13 }'N is not a gloss, the distichic structure would favour this alternative.
7. t?N roans?] if the line is of two accents, v m msnv, or perhaps rn9n^ (cp. 64
9 4 (Sir) : or omit &K as a gloss. nrw D %l ?aK] insert makkeph, or omit nrm. trVan,
ar<? (now) devouring'. Dr. 135 (2). rrjtt} vy] nsa regularly means to watch,
guard (from danger) hence a aVy guarded (from danger). The sense
besiege is but doubtfully supported by Ezk 6 12 , where the meaning may
rather be preserved, and Jer 4 16 , where dE suggests D'YiK. The regular word for
to besiege is ^y n, cp. *.,. 29' 2 K 6 24t : hence Di. explains nm as the Niph.
part, of this vb. Du. and Marti treat nnisi as an infin. noun like nyior, nsiap,
nniaa, meaning watch (Beobachtung).
10-17. The futility of sacrifices. With the formula,
Hear the word of Yahweh, a fresh section, if not a fresh poem,
begins, and the change is marked by a change of rhythm (see
above, p. 4 f.). There has been too much sacrifice and too little
justice that is what has alienated Yahweh from Israel and led
Him to punish His people again and again (vv. 5 ^ 9 ), and that is
why even now He takes no notice of their prayers (v. 15 ) so as
to rescue them.
This is one of the most notable statements of the common
standpoint of the prophets: that what He demands of those
who worship Him is not sacrifice, but justice and humanity.
Compare, for example, among those who preceded Isaiah,
Hos 6 4 ' 6 and Am 4 4 5 21 ' 25 \ and among those who followed him,
Mic 6 6 - 8 , Jer 7 4 - 21f -, Is 4o 16 .
I. 6-9 AND 10-17 17
Sacrifice and many of the forms of religion Israel shared with
the nations, and it is not the institution, but the repudiation, of
sacrifice that distinguishes the religion of Israel. Not, perhaps,
that the utterances of the prophets need be taken as a prohibi-
tion absolute of sacrifice (ct. 3o 29 ) for their own time ; but cer-
tainly a non-sacrificial, not less than a monotheistic, religion was
the natural outcome of their teaching. Historically, the unessen-
tial character of sacrifice in the higher development of Hebrew
religion is shown by the continuance of the religion without
sacrifice during the first Exile and, subsequently, both in Judaism,
after the fall of the Temple, and in Christianity. Prior to the
Exile the practical outcome of prophetic teaching did not extend
to the suppression of sacrifice, but only to its purification and
centralisation (Deuteronomy : the reforms of Josiah) ; but the
emphasis laid by the prophets on the essentially ethical nature of
Yahweh and of His demands upon men (cp. Mic 6 6 ^ 8 ) enabled
the nation not only to survive the Exile, but as a religious com-
munity to emerge from it even stronger.
10. Under the suggestive and caustic titles chiefs of Sodom,
people of Gomorrah^ Isaiah addresses the prophets of Jerusalem
and Judah, and especially their leaders, whom he elsewhere re-
gards as responsible for the moral condition of the people (v. 23 ).
" V. 10 is most closely connected with v. 9 , for the address to the
chiefs of Sodom, etc., would be unintelligible without v. 9 ; even
if the persons intended could be conjectured, it would remain
obscure why the people of Jerusalem are so termed. This, to be
sure, does not exclude the possibility that vv. loffi> were not spoken
in the same breath with vv. 2 " 9 . . . . Jerusalem is compared with
Sodom and Gomorrah in the first instance because of their
almost identical fate ; whether also on account of the similarity
of their moral state could only be decided if it were known
what Isaiah understood 'the cry of Sodom' (Gn i8 20 ) to mean :
if he had Gn 19 in mind, a moral comparison would have
implied great exaggeration" (Du.). This is probably right -if
the connection is due to Isaiah, and not, as some think, to a
later editor, who brought together two independent poems on
account of the verbal resemblances in w. 9 and 10 , or supplied
v. 9 as a link between vv. 1 ' 8 and 10 ' 17 . Certainly the fate (i3 19 ,
Am 4 10 , Jer 2o 16 49 18 , Zeph 2 9 ) of Sodom and Gomorrah is
more frequently alluded to in the OT than their sins (La 4 6 ,
VOL. I. 2
1 8 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Dt 32 32 , Ezk i6 16ff -), though both are naturally enough some-
times thought of at the same time (Dt 2Q 22 ), as is so frequently
the case with the references in the Koran to Ad and Thamud.
On the other hand, if Sodom typifies for Isaiah the same sins-
pride, fullness of bread, prosperous ease, failure to help the poor
and the needy as it did a century and more later for Ezekiel
(i6 49 ), the comparison of the moral state of Judah with Gomorrah
would have been quite in harmony with his general point of
view, and sufficiently obvious for him to begin an address to a
crowd assembled in the temple courts (vv. 10 ' 12 ), which numbered
among it persons of position, with the epithets chiefs of Sodom,
people of Gomorrah. Chiefs] the word pvp is a synonym of BW in
the sense of leader: cp. Mic 3 1 - 9 (in parallelism with B>&O), Jg 1 1 6 -
(=B>K1, vv. 8 - 9 ) n (coupled with B*n). In Jg 1 1 6 - n , Jos io 24 (JE),
Dn ii 18 the word is used of a leader in war: in Is 3 7 22 s ,
Mic 3 1 - 9 , Pr 6 r f (a leader of the ants) it is used more generally ;
in Pr 25 16 pfp is corrupt. In Hebrew the word appears to
have retained less of the apparently original meaning decide
than has the Arabic Kadi. Chiefs of the people of Yahweh
ought to make it their aim to keep things right in the State
(Mic 3 1 ); but, since Isaiah shares with Micah (3 9 ) the view
that their aim is just the opposite, he addresses them not as
chiefs of Yahweh's people, but as chiefs of Sodom ; so also the
people misled by them are worthily termed people of Gomorrah.
Yet the prophet has for these misleading chiefs and misled
people a communication from Yahweh : they have gone astray
because they have misunderstood what Yahweh really cares
for. The doom of Sodom and Gomorrah will only become
actually theirs if they refuse to obey the word of God by His
prophet : cp. the survey of neglected prophetic monitions in the
Koran, Sura 7. The instruction of our God] the word min in
passages such as these is very unsatisfactorily represented by law
(RV). Both in the sing, and the plural it is used in Ex.-Dt and
elsewhere of laws properly so called ; but an earlier sense, which
was also retained even after the special sense of law had become
established, was instruction, teaching, direction, in the first instance
probably a communication of the will of the god ; cp. the Assyr.
tertu, if the term is derived from Babylon (KAT*, p. 606); or,
perhaps, m\ to cast lots, Jos i8 6 , if the word is of Hebrew origin.
The word is also used of the teaching given to a child by a parent,
I. 10-14 19
which may be in the form of command or law (cp. Pr 6 20 - 23 ), or
of much wider scope; and, as the context suggests, in Pr 4 2 i 8 ,
it is the imparting of wisdom. The instruction of God is teach-
ing concerning the will and ways of God (2 8 ), more especially as
communicated through prophets (8 6 3o 9 : cp. La 2 9 , Job 22 32 )
or priests (Hos 4 6 , Jer 2 8 i8 18 ). II. Why this constant bringing
of sacrifices? that is the question which Yahweh is repeatedly
putting to the people. How mistaken a proceeding, if it is
intended to please, not the people themselves (Am 4*), but
Yahweh I He has no good of sacrifices; cp. Am 5 21ff -, Jer 6 20 ,
Is i5 82f *. The first term DD^rQT (v. lla ) is used widely of all slain
sacrifices, many of which went mainly to furnish forth a feast
for those who sacrificed; the two following lines refer to the
special sacrifices, the burnt-offering, and to the special parts
(Lv 3 17 , cp. 2 S 2 15f - i4 82f -) of all sacrifices, to wit, the fat and the
blood (Lv 3 17 , cp. 2 S 2 15f - I4 82f> ), which were not consumed by
the people, but reserved entirely as holy to Yahweh Fallings]
except in 1 1 6 the word {0"ID is always used (Am 5 22 , Ezk 39 18 , 2 S
6 13 , i K i 9 ' 19 - 26 ) of beasts fattened for sacrifice ; in some cases
it is clear that these fatted beasts were eaten (apart from the
flesh and the blood) by the worshippers (so i K i). Bullocks']
3^ adds, and lambs ; but the words are due to an annotator
who desired completeness; they are absent from ffi, and the
tone and sense are rhythmically and rhetorically complete without
them.
12-14. As vocalised and accented by the Massoretes, the
Hebrew text yields a less severe utterance than ffi. Alike in J^
and (Sir, v. 11 has implicitly denied that sacrifices form any essen-
tial part of the religion of Yahweh What good are they to
Him ? At any rate, He has received them in superabundance :
and they give Him no pleasure. Then (5r (followed in the
translation above) continues : Certainly it is not God who has
asked man to bring sacrifices when they come to worship Him :
offerings are useless; the smoke ascending from them when
burnt on the altar is an absolute abomination to Him ; the
sacred seasons with the preparatory fast and the accompanying
gluttonous (cp. 28 7 ) feasts are hateful to Him. Cp. Am 5 21 ' 26 .
Offence was probably given at a relatively early period by
this unqualified condemnation of religious worship; and by a
single slight change in the consonantal text, viz. the substitution
2O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of jltf, iniquity ', for DIV,/^/ (so (5r), in v. 13 , a milder interpretation
was made possible. According to MT, Yahweh repudiates not
the bringing of sacrifice, but the trampling of His courts, and
condemns not all offerings and sacred seasons, but vain offerings
and iniquitous festivals. This interpretation already appears in
&3TF ; but though much older than the Massoretic punctuation,
it is in all probability not original. That the severity of such
a saying was softened, is far more probable than that it was
enhanced. There are reasons for thinking that the text of
these verses ha's suffered enlargements or other changes (see
phil. n.) to which even (3r gives no clue ; but these do not appear
to have affected the fundamental meaning of the passage.
12. To see my face] i.e. to worship Me. The anthropo-
morphism implicit in the phrase, which is frequently used of
visiting, or being admitted to the presence of men (Gn 43 3 ,
Ex io 28 , 2 K 25 19 ), has been obscured by the punctuators (see
phil. n.), hence EV to appear before me. A similar attempt to
soften down a phrase that implied the visibility of God is
seen in (Si's paraphrase of Ex 24 10 : J^ there runs, "and they
saw the God of Israel," (8c "and they saw the place where
the God of Israel stood." Who hath required this ?] viz. offer-
ings (v. 11 ) certainly not Yahweh. Isaiah criticises the law
and religious customs of his time with the same freedom as
Jeremiah (7 22f -), and, later, our Lord Himself (Mt 5). Even
the earliest law required that the Hebrews when they came " to
see Yahweh's face" should not come empty-handed (Ex 23 15
34 20 ). Trample my courts'] i.e. the courts of the Temple in
Jerusalem. The trampling may be that of the sacrificial
animals (v. 11 ) which the worshippers bring with them (cp. Ezk
26 11 ), or the irreverent entrance of the worshippers themselves
into the sacred precincts ; cp. the use of irareZv, (Sr's rendering
here, in Jer n 2 , and of Karairar^v ( = DDi i6 4 ) in i Mac 3 45 - 61
4 60 . The awe which fell upon Isaiah as he entered the temple-
precincts, the place of the Holy One of Israel (cp. ch. 6), makes
the careless familiarity with which others treated them peculiarly
offensive to him (cp. 28 8 n.). 13. Offerings'] the word nm
means etymologically, and frequently in Hebrew usage, presents,
gifts : it is here used with its widest sacrificial sense of any
offerings made to the deity, whether of vegetables or animals ;
cp. Gn 4 3 " 5 ; (Sr (o-e/u'SaAis also 66 3 ) gives it the specific sense of
I. 12, 13 21
cereal offering which it acquired later (P). Sacrificial savours]
mtDp, later used (e.g. by P) of the fragrant smoke produced by
burning aromatic substances, originally (see phil. n.) meant the
smell of the burning flesh of sacrifices, and this is its meaning here.
The early Hebrews, in common with the Babylonians, thought
of the gods as delighting in these savoury smells; in the
Babylonian Flood story we read, "The gods smelt the savour,
the gods smelt the sweet savour; the gods gathered like flies
over the sacrificer " ; cp. in Heb. Gn 9 21 , i S 26, and the sacri-
ficial term " savour of gratification " (EV, sweet savour) which
held its own to the latest times. The prophets with their more
spiritual conception of Yahweh repudiate the belief; the scent
of burnt flesh is not a pleasure, but an abomination to God
(cp. Am 5 21 ). New moon and sabbath] for the coupling of these
two sacred days, cp. 2 K 4 28 , Am 8 5 ; for the religious observance
of the new moon, i S 2o 5ff -, and see Benzinger, Arch. 69. The
attitude of the successors of the prophets is in striking contrast
to Isaiah's: see 56 4 * 6 , Jer i7 21ff - (both post-exilic). The calling
of assembly] or, as we may render so as to retain the etymological
connection of vb. and noun (tf"ipD Sip), the convoking of convoca-
tions. If the clause is a part of the original text (see phil. n.), it
explains that what is particularly intolerable to Yahweh on the
sacred days is the meetings, or rather, the summoning of such
meetings, to which the Jews were probably called by the voice, as
are the Moslems to-day. In P (Ex 12, Lv 23, Nu 28 f. 19 times
in all) BHp &Op, holy assembly, is the technical term for the meet-
ing of the community on the Sabbath, the new moon, and other
sacred occasions ; and fcOpD, assembly, unqualified, both here and
in 4 6 , must have the same meaning. The only other occurrences
of NlpO are Neh 8 8 , Nu io 2 , where the sense is entirely different.
Fast and sacred season\ so (3r, cp. Joel i 14 2 15 ; J^ has the
milder, and therefore probably not the original, reading iniquity
and sacred gathering (see phil. n.) ; this would mean that God
does not tolerate sacred gatherings associated with iniquity;
cp. iniquity and teraphim, i S i5 23 . According to fflr, we have
another of the absolute statements that abound here: fasting
and sacred seasons are not demanded by Yahweh under any
circumstances : He cannot endure them. The fasting intended
is quite probably that fasting which was widely practised " as a
preparation for the sacramental eating of the holy flesh " (W. R.
22 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Smith, Rel. Sem^- 413): the sacramental eating itself would be
intimately associated in Isaiah's mind with the second term
mvy, cp. Am 5 21 , 2 K io 20 - 24 . The precise force of rmy is not
clear. Except in Jer 9 1 @> it is always used of something sacred
or religious (cp. 2 K io 20 ^jni rrvxy 1EJJ5) ; but whether it is
a sacred gathering, as Jer 9 a ( 2 > and perhaps 2 K io 20 would
suggest, or a sacred season, as the parallelism with an in Am 5 21 ,
and perhaps the remaining uses would rather suggest, is not
quite certain. In the laws (Dt i6 8 , Lv 23 36 , Nu 29 35 ) it is re-
quired that the rmy shall be accompanied by abstinence from
work (cp. (& dpyiW). In view of this taboo on work, which
may well be ancient, and the use of the word "ViW in Jer $6 5
Neh 6 10 and of 1VV3 in i S 2i 8 , Marti's suggestion is probable
that mvy meant a time during which men are under taboo.
Such gatherings or seasons occurred annually on the last day of
the Feast of Massoth (Dt i6 8 ), and of Booths (Lv 23 26 , Nu 29 25 ,
2 Ch 7 9 , Neh 8 18 ) ; they were also proclaimed when it seemed
specially necessary to appease Yahweh or seek His favour (Joel
i 14 2 15 ' 17 and perhaps Am 5 21 ). 14. Your new moons and your
set times] perhaps a gloss on new moon and sabbath : see above.
The set times (D'nyitt) are seasons that recur in the course of the
year (Gn i 14 ), annual sacred days or times. A burden] the
noun (mtD), Dt i 13 ; the vb., Job 37 11 . It is a burden that rests
upon (?y) Yahweh, and which He has grown weary of carrying.
The bold anthropomorphism (f^?U) is euphemized by ffiSC.
15 f. Prayers, too, though long and frequent (cp. Mt 6 7 ), when
offered by blood-stained evil-doers who persist in their wrong-
doing, are of no avail. It is significant that the absolute terms
in which the inefficacy of sacrifices and sacred seasons is
asserted is followed by a careful definition of the prayers
that are without effect. Not all prayers, but your prayers, are
useless \ not unto all who call upon Him does Yahweh turn a
deaf ear, but to those who pray without recognising the need for
amendment of life; even these murderers, and these violent and
oppressive men whom Isaiah addresses will find Yahweh ready
to hear if they cease from their evil ways, and instead of defraud-
ing and oppressing the weak the widow and the orphans see
that they get their rights. The prophet's teaching anticipates that
of our Lord in Mt 5 23f - ; Pr 28 9 1 5 8 - 29 may also be compared.
When ye spread out your hands] The gesture of prayer was
I. 14-17 23
to spread out the palm (*p) of the hands (cp. Ex g 29 ' M , Ez 9*,
Job ii 13 , Ps 44 21 , and (with T) Ps i4 86 ). From the time that
Yahweh was thought to dwell in heaven, the hands were
stretched heavenwards (i K S 22 - 54 , 2 Mac 3 20 ). Cp. the varying
custom of the Greeks, "The suppliant stood with face and
hands upraised to heaven when he called upon the dwellers
therein. In addressing the deities of the sea, he might merely
stretch his arms towards the waters. And when the beings
addressed were those of the nether world, the suppliant would
stretch his hands downwards"; Gardner and Jevons, Greek
Antiquities, p. 223. The attitude was that more generally of
entreaty (65 2 , La i 17 ). I will hide mine eyes from you] turn away
from and disregard you : cp. Pr 28 27 . Yahweh turns away His
eyes from hands red with shed blood. The blood (DW) is not
the sacrificial blood of v. 11 , which would be, as it is there, D*T
(G-K. 124 n.) ; nor is it simply blood as rendering ceremonially
unclean, so that Hector's plea (Iliad> vi. 268) that he cannot
pray " imbued with blood and dust," though cited here by Ges.,
is but a very partial parallel : it is blood (guiltily) shed ; cp. 4*,
Hos i* 4 4 , Gn 4 lof -.
l6. Wash you, make yourselves pure\ wash yourselves pure,
figuratively for what is stated literally in the next line. The
word wash is used ritually, but when so used the result is
ritual cleanness ("intD e.g. Lv 14*). Here the result is moral
purity, righteousness ; rDT is never used of ceremonial cleanness,
but of ethical purity: cp. Job 15* 25* (where it is parallel with
plV to be righteous\ Ps 57, Mic 6 10 (shall I be pure with wicked
balances and with a bag of deceitful weights?), Ps 73 18 ng 9 , and
the use of the kindred root *pT> especially in Job 8 6 9 30 . 16, 17.
Cease to do evil, learn to do we//] " an abstract paraphrase of the
highly concrete exhortations" (Che. SBOT^ p. in), and there-
fore judged by Du., Che., Marti to be a gloss ; Du. also argues
that the clauses overload the metre ; yet the two clauses metri-
cally resemble the four that follow. Marti refers to Jer 4 22 7 6 ;
but the second of these passages serves as a parallel to the
present combination of the general and the particular.
I7b. C. d. e. Illustrations of the positive requirements of Yahweh
the powerful must be kept within bounds, the rights of the
weak must be secured : cp. the denunciation of the opposite
conduct in io 2 . Seek out right] inquire what is demanded
24 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
by D2fc?D, i.e. old established custom which rested on the will of
Yahweh as it had been declared of old by successive decisions ;
such customs were gathered together into a body of customs or
judgments before the time of Isaiah, and one such collection has
come down to us (Ex 2i lff -). As our Lord selected (Mt 22 87ff> ),
or approved (Lk io 27 ) the selection, from the great bulk of the
later Jewish law, of two principles, love of God and love of man,
as a summary of the law of God, so Isaiah here selects (cp. Ex
22 20f. 23 6f> ) the duty of maintaining even-handed justice between
the strong and the weak as the very essence of Yahweh's
demands. Cp. the somewhat fuller summary of a later writer
in Mic 6 8 . Make the violent keep straight] so, in spite of some
uncertainty, the clause may best be rendered ; see phil. n. The
versions agree in expressing a sense similar to U, subvenite
oppresso, whence EV. Secure the right of] or do justice to, a
frequent sense of DBK>, cp. 6 23 n 4 , i S 24, Ps 43 1 72*.
9. niNix mrp] for the breviloquence, cp. G-K. 125^. Yne>] <&
TS semen ; variants? II. ^ HD!?] for this idiom, see Gn 27 48 , Am 5 18 . TDN\J
frequentative impf. ; Dr. 33. 12. 'Jfl nta^] see G-K. $i/ for other
instances where MT assumes syncope of the n of Niph. inf. : and see Kon.
ii. pp. 3i2f. for the use of the ace. of D'JB if the vb. were really Niph. But
the punctuation is due to scruples against the suggestion that man could see
God (Geiger, Urschrift, pp. 337 flf.). Point ':D nte-j^. V. la should end with
D3T (cp. (), and nsn DDT be carried over to 18 . In M punctuate Kit? ntyo
(cp. (&) instead of xwngf?, and for pK read mx (with <!&). Then 13 and 14
stand thus :
nmo K'an is'Din vh '-ran om
"h N\T wjnn
nnxjn Dis
Sy vnf
The lines, it will be observed, are irregular. Marti by omitting the words
enclosed between f and in v. 12 D3TD reduces the passage to "tolerably regular "
lines of four accents (the rhythm of vv. 2 ' 8 but not of vv. 10L 12a - 15L ). Certainly
'DI QD'tsnn (your, not necessarily all, new moons), which might well be a gloss
intended to mitigate the absoluteness of raen enn and *apD tnp, is (in spite
of the parallel in Ps 45 5 - 9 , Job 42 9 cited by Del. ) an awkward asyndeton ; but
the arguments in favour of the other omissions are far less substantial. Haupt
gains rhythmical regularity by omitting D3HjnDi DiTEnn and ma 1 ? l( ?y vn (with
Marti) and also n*n Dm, rmj;i JIK VDIK *6, 'rsanNJC'. Though the rhythmical
irregularity is probably due to some and perhaps considerable textual corrup-
tion, no reconstruction in detail seems likely to command general assent.
12. nNi] this, viz. the conduct just described; cp., for this use of nw (fem.
G-K. 122?), Dt 32 6 , Jg 7 14 , Ps iiS 23 etc. The nNT is clearly understood
1. 9-17 25
thus, and rightly, by ffi ; but according to MT and the verse division nxi
points forward (cp. 27', Jer 9 28 , I S II s ) to nsw cm ODTD] v in such
phrases is not necessarily literal : cp. JiffS T3, Pr i8 21 and, frequently, T3 n3i,
to jr^z ;> M* hand of . In itself, therefore, this phrase does not exclude the
possibility of the cstr. in MT. A Hebrew would certainly not have said who
hath required 03'Sro that ye should trample, as Du.'s criticism would suggest.
n*n DDI] in MT a permutative of TIKI : grammatically possible, for rpa may
take as its obj. the simple ace. without h (Jer 26 21 ). But according to dSc con
'ran is the ace. of ifl'Din *S (v. u ), preceding its vb. like the ace. infin. in Gn
48". iB'oin wV] the K 1 ? of emphatic command : G-K. 1070. N'3n] in MT inf.
cstr. without ^ (G-K. 114*7*) dependent on ]D' ; but it is rather an inf. cstr.
constituting together with its ace. nruo the subj. of a sentence : cp. 7 U , I S
23 20 . mop] the smell produced by aromatic substances is expressed in
P either by the full phrase DTJD mop (Ex 25* etc.) or by mop alone (Nu i6 Mff< ).
By a natural extension of meaning mop came to mean also, alike in Heb.
(Lv io 17 ) and Phoen. (see G. A. Cooke, NSI, p. 126), the substance which
produced this smell. But etymologically nap (nnp) has a much wider meaning :
note the sense of smoke in Heb. no'p (Gn IQ 28 ), Assyr. gutru (i.e. nnp),
Aram. KnBip(=je'y, Ps i8 9 ), Jo (="mp)> to smoke (of a fire), and the develop-
ment from that meaning ofyo, aloe wood burnt for fumigation, and jUai,
scent of flesh-meats roasted on live coals (cp. EBi. 2165 n. i). Hence, too,
the verbal forms in Heb. nep and vopn mean to burn so as to produce smoke :
so Am 4 8 (of leavened material), I S 2 16 (of fat) ; and then they are used very
frequently without an object and sometimes in parallelism with a wide term
like mi (Hos 4" n 12 , Is 65'): i.e. nop or YBpn and nai are general terms
alluding to different aspects of sacrifice mt to the slaying of the victim, np
to the burning of the victim so as to produce a savour agreeable to the Deity.
In a similar wide sense is mop used here and in Ps 66 18 and .mop in Dt 33 10 .
In view of the well-established pre-exilic use of the vb. it is quite unnecessary
to doubt, with Marti, whether Isaiah could have used the noun. *6 . . . enn
'w pK ^31K] on the cstr. of MT, see Dr. 197, Obs. 2. mpo top]
felt the lack of the copula (see above) and supplied it KO! ijfj^p
(cp. Jn 7 s7 ), et festivitates alias. VDIK 6] ^y = able to endure, only here and
Ps ioi 8 (doubtful). But cp. also Hos 6 B , Job 42 2 . Perhaps nty^ has dropped
out; cp. Jer 44 s2 . 14. *to} 'HN'N] cstr. as Jer 6 11 9 4 15 2O 9 : Kb} is instead
of the usual nNB> ; G-K. 766. (Br renders paraphrastically of/K^ri av^o-u ras
et/iapTfas bn&v ; KBU might, of course, mean forgive, yet not naturally here after
the preceding clause. (& also paraphrases mo by irXTjer/Aoi'iJ. 15. 02^9:11]
G-K. 6q/"., 6ie. The vocalised text assumes a use of the Piel for the more
common Kal in some other places also : see 6$*, Jer 4 81 , La I 17 , Ps 143'.
D'Dn orv] on the order, see Dr. 208 (3). 16. win wm] cp. G-K.
h. tin] as accented Hithp. of nai (G-K. 54^) ; but perhaps rather
Niph. of T.DI iafn. jnn] infin. absolute as direct obj.: G-K. 113^; so 3'evi
in v. 17 . 17. VWK] ne'N means to go straight on (Pr 9" and, MT Piel, 4 14 ) ; the
Piel in 3 12 9 16 to cause to go straight on (antithesis to nynn) ; whether it further
developed the meaning to keep within bounds, which would be very suitable
26 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
here, is uncertain ; but it is almost suggested by the association with
make the violent, instead of breaking all bounds by ill-treatment of the weak,
keep straight. Punishment of the violent is not required by the context, and
Che.'s proposal np: unnecessary. The versions probably connected iv& with
n^N, n^K, happiness, and then rendered freely : fflr pfoa<r0e, C& O2J_lo, Vg.
subvenitc. port] the Versions give the word a passive sense : fflr aSiKotfievov,
& |V) ir (^, & D'Jtn, *B oppresso. But the form Slop has in some cases
an active sense ; cp. P'IB>V> J er 223 > P n ?> J er 6 s7 . The meaning must be inferred
from the association of {'Din with Viyo in Ps 7i 4 , and the root may be a by-form
of Don, to treat violently ', rather than of fon, to be sour, sharp.
1 8-20. Yahwetts Invitation.
The sayings between the opening line (4 accents) and the closing formula
are distichs consisting of long lines containing 4 or 5 accents each and parallel
in sense. Perhaps originally each line contained 5 accents (=3 + 2).
These distichs resemble some of those in vv. 10 " 16 , but are quite dissimilar to
those that follow in vv. 21 ' 26 where the lines are shorter (3 or 2) and the
parellelism is between lines unequal in length.
18 Come, now, and let us reprove one another, saith Yahweh :
Though your sins were like scarlet (robes), they might become
white like snow;
Though they were red like crimson, they might become
like wool.
19 If ye be willing and obey, on the best of the land shall ye
feed,
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, on husks (?) shall ye feed
For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.
Attempts have been made to find a connection between these
lines and vv 2 ' 17 "Jehovah has been addressing His people in
anger, but even in the exhortations of vv. 16 - 17 His love had begun
to move. This love, which seeks not the destruction of Israel,
but their inward and outward salvation, now breaks forth in v. 18 "
(Del.) But the lack of close connection has by no means
escaped notice. Ew. suspected the loss of a v. before v. 18 ; Di.
suggested that Isaiah placed the section, though delivered under
other circumstances, side by side with the foregoing, because
both sections agree in maintaining that only by repentance and
acquiescence in the ethical demands of God can the people be
saved.
It certainly seems doubtful whether Isaiah would in im-
mediate succession first represent the people as red-handed
I. 1 8-20 27
criminals (v. 15 ) and then treat the redness of their sins as
hypothetical (v. 18 ).
Nor must we claim the unity of a trial scene for the chapter. Whether
the vb. in v. 18 implies the figure of a trial (see below) or not, Cheyne
(Introd. 6) is right in withdrawing his earlier (PI} acquiescence in Ewald's
theory that vv. 2 " 4 introduce a great trial scene, of which vv. 18 ' 31 give the
conclusion, and in abandoning as illegitimate his earlier translation, "Come
now and let us bring our dispute to an end."
Du. suspects and Marti concludes that vv. 18 and 19< * are unconnected
sayings. The reasons are partly formal ( " in v. 18 Yahweh speaks, cp. m,T TDK' ;
in v. 19f> the prophet, otherwise the closing formula would run : for my mouth
hath spoken it" (Marti)), partly based on the interpretation (see below).
18. Come> now] the introductory (&o) roi or (&o) 13^ expresses
various emotions, and is used by persons of different positions,
as (i) by one equal to another, Gn 3I 44 i9 82 , i S 20 11 , 2 K 14*;
(2) by a superior to an inferior, e.g. Jg 19, i S 9 10 14*; or
(3) by an inferior to a superior Jg i9 u . Other instances are
Gn 37 20 - S7 , 2 K 7 4 , Neh 6 2 - 7 , Ps 8 3 5 , Is 2 s , Ca ; 12 . The phrase
commonly introduces a proposal for the mutual benefit of the
parties, or, at least, for that of the party addressed. Let us
reprove one another] the various efforts to render nnDU show how
difficult it is to discover an English equivalent that is at once
etymologically justifiable and suitable to the context. The
Niphal of ro* occurs but twice elsewhere : in Gn 2o 16 it means
to be righted; in Job 23 7 (followed by Dj;) it means to argue with,
put one's case. Here the Niphal must be reciprocal. In Job 23 7
the Niph. and in Mic 6P- the Hithp. occur in connection with
the figure of a lawsuit ; so also the Hiph. is often used of giving
judicial decisions (e.g. 2 4 i i sf -, Job 9 33 ), or in passages where the
figure of a law-court or of judgment is or may be present ; see
Job 138- 16 19* 22*, Ps 5i 8 - 21 , Pr 24 s5 , Is 29 21 , Am 5, Hab i 18 .
Hence many claim that it means here let us go to law with one
another^ carry on litigation with one another, and tacitly, therefore,
that "Israel is worthy of death" (Del.); whence Del. further infers
that Yahweh " is willing to remit the punishment," and to deal
with Israel " not in accordance with His retributive justice, but
according to His free mercy alone." Marti and Du., starting from
the same translation, argue that in a court of law, justice and not
mercy must rule, and that therefore the following saying cannot
contain an offer of free pardon, but something very different.
Yet it is very precarious to base the interpretation of the whole
28 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
passage on the assumption that nrDU must imply a lawsuit ; the
Hiph. (as also the noun nnain) is frequently used where any such
process is definitely excluded or not necessarily present Gn 2i 25 ,
Ezk 3 26 , Pr 3 12 9 7f - is 12 i9 25 28 23 , Ps i4i 5 , Job 5 17 . The occur-
rence of nrDin and nvjj in parallelism (Pr i 25 - 30 ) suggests that
nnDIJ was nearly =nwi3 (e.g. Neh 6 7 ), and meant little more than
advise together, reason together (EV). Or, derived from the Hiph
in the sense to reprove, find fault with (e.g. Ezk 3 26 , Job 6 25 ), the
Niph. may mean to reprove one another, to point out one another's
faults, to discuss with one another who is right and who wrong.
Cp. Rashi's comment, "nrD13, i.e. I and you together, that we
may know who has wronged whom : and if it is you who have
wronged me, I will yet give you hope of repentance." For
the offer of free pardon in such a connection, cp. 4322-28 *_
Saith Yahweh~\ the frequentative sense again : i 11 n. Though
your sins were\ the case is put as a merely imaginary
one (Driver, 143: cp. e.g. Nu 22 18 , Jer 2 22 ), and the argu-
ment is : even though the people may have committed the
most flagrant sins, they may regain the highest degree of
innocence ; and if, hereafter, they continue obedient to Yahweh
(v. 19 ), they may enjoy prosperity. The Hebrew might also
be rendered,! If your sins are . . . they shall become (cp. Dr.
136 ()), and, perhaps, even though your sins are like scarlet
robes, shall they become white like snow ? and so in the next line.
But Dr. Burney has lately argued with much force that " no clear
case occurs throughout the OT in which a question is to be
assumed as implied by the speaker's tone (without use of an
interrogative particle) in the apodosis of a conditional or con-
cessive sentence " (JThS xi. 433-35)-
Especially since the time of J. D. Michaelis, exception has been taken to
the interpretation of v. 18 as an offer of forgiveness, and various others have
been proposed. It is urged that such an offer of complete forgiveness is out
of place in a summons to judgment (yet cp. naatfj in 43 s6 after v. 25 ), that it
is out of accord with vv. 24 ' 26 - 28- 31 , that Isaiah "nowhere so complacently
offers the people free forgiveness: ct. 22 14 " (Du.). Unless nmia (see n.
above) necessarily implies the figure of judgment, the first objection falls to
the ground, the second can be met by abandoning the unity of the chapter
* Since the above note was written, C. F. Burney (JThS xi. 433-438)
also has challenged the prevalent view that nmu implies a legal process.
t J. D. Mich., Koppe, Eichh., We., Box. Cp. G-K. 1500; Davidson,
Syn. 121.
I. 18 29
(for doing which there are other good reasons) ; the third, if its cogency
were admitted, by questioning the Isaianic authorship of the verse.
Elsewhere in OT forgiveness is represented as (i) a removal of sin, the
vbs. used being NffJ, Ton, p'mn, Yayn; cp. Mic 7 19 and the "scapegoat";
(2) a covering over or hiding of sin: noa and ?nS3 (BDB, Kon. ET xxii.
2 33) ; (3) a disregarding of sin : cp. nsi K 1 ?, 43 20 ; jsn *?*, Dn 9 8 , see also
Is 38"; (4) a cleansing from sins or a wiping away of sins, nno and ?nD3
(Ges-B. ; KAT*, 601); cp. Ps Si 4 ' 9 , Zee is 1 . The figure here employed
would certainly be unparalleled, if it refers to forgiveness. It has been argued
that it would also be unsuitable, representing the sins, not as vanishing, but
as changing their appearance : they remain as white sins. But the language
is that of poetry not of science, and sins "covered over" also remain. It
has also been urged that the saying makes no allusion to Yahweh's action
in forgiveness, the sins of themselves just become white sins. Yet the intro-
ductory formula may be held to suggest Yahweh's action.
The interrogative interpretation, though grammatically questionable (see
above), would accord with prophetic teaching (see, e.g.. We. Proleg. c. II,
I end ; ed. 4, p. 423 f. ). If the sins are really flagrant, are they to put
on the appearance of mere trifling errors ? The whole argument of Yahweh
in vv. 18 " 20 then embodies the fundamental new teaching of the prophets :
that Yahweh is Israel's God does not make Him more lenient to Israel's
sin (cp. Am 3 2 ) : scarlet sins He will treat as scarlet, not as white (v. 18 ) :
only through obedience to Yahweh's moral demands can Yahweh's favour
be gained (v. 19 ) : disobedience must invoke disaster (v. 20 ).
Du. and Marti prefer to give the saying a sarcastic tone : though your
sins were scarlet, of course they can easily turn white : of course you know
how to make innocent lambs of yourselves. Then cp. Jer 2 M for a direct
negation of what is here implicit in the sarcasm. But this gives a less
satisfactory connection between vv. 18 and w , which Marti (perhaps rightly)
does not seek to establish. Hackm. (p. 118 n.) raises the question whether
scarlet robes are not here symbols of pomp and majesty (cp. Rev 17*), and
the meaning consequently, Your sins, though they may now flaunt forth in
all the glory of colour, will lose it and become washed out. But the associa-
tion of whiteness with innocence as contrasted with sin seems too close to
admit of this interpretation.
Scarlet . . . crimson] not two colours, but one: the second
word (cp. La 4 8 ) means primarily worm, the insect whence the
colour was obtained (see EBi, Colours 14, Crimson, Scarlet}.
The first word is pi. DW, and means as in Pr 3i 21 (cp. sing.
2 S i 24 , Jer 4 30 ) scarlet clothes: cp. 0*13, linen clothes (G-K. i25/).
Sin is conceived of as a blood-stained (cp. 63 1 ' 3 ) garment
enwrapping the sinner : cp. the " filthy garments " of iniquity
(Zee 3 3f> ). White as snow] cp. Ps 51*. Ges. recalls here the
saying of the Arabs, that the holy stone of Mecca fell white
from heaven but became black on account of the sins of men ;
3O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
cp. also, for the whiteness of restored innocence, Rev 7 13f - 19f - .
Like woof] a sheep's fleece as typical of whiteness may appear
to us anti-climactic after snow; but not so to the Hebrews.
Black sheep were exceptional (Gn 3o 32ff< ) : the colour of wool
was regularly white: hence the "beloved's" teeth are compared
to ewes shorn and washed (Ca 4 2 ), and the hair of the
"Ancient of Days" is compared to wool as well as snow
(Dan 7 9 ): Rev i 14 , however, is explicit "as white wool."
19. The alternative here presented obedience and prosperity,
or disobedience and destruction recalls Isaiah's attitude when
the Syro-Ephraimitish army was approaching Jerusalem (ch. 7 f.) :
cp. also 3o 9ff - 15ff -. The good of the /and] i.e. the produce of the
land: Gn 452- 23 . Feed} i>DK as in vJ.On husks shall ye feed]
^ is ambiguous and the exact meaning uncertain. If this line
is symmetrical with the preceding, 3in should be the direct
object of fetfn (Kal); then render either (i) ye shall feed on
desolation (2?.n), but an abstract noun is not very probable here,
or (2) . . . on desolations (Du. reading ribnn ; note following n),
an idiom used of animals in 5 17 , but less obviously applicable
to men, or (3) ... on husks> lit. the carob, or carob-pods p^n,
or D'inn ; see Che. SBO T t and Husks in EBi.). There is no
certain example of this word in the text of the OT, but it is
frequent in NH and Aramaic. Carobs were the food of swine
(Lk i5 16 ) and donkeys (Levy, NHB, s.v.), and, in time of dis-
tress, of men: cp. Lk i5 16 and the saying in Midrash R. cited
by Levy (NHB ii. io5b), "When Israelites are reduced to the
carob (K3nr6 ^fcOB* p^*), they repent." If v. 19 and v. 20a are
not perfectly symmetrical, % may be treated as a bold passive
(MT) construction and rendered either (4) ye shall be devoured
with the sword (RV), or, less probably, (5) ye shall be made to
devour the sword (Ges-B. s.v. f>3tf). For the idiom the sword
devours in the act., cp. 2 S 2 26 i8 8 . For the mouth of Yahweh
hath spoken (it)] Perhaps a late addition : cp. 4o 5 58 U , Mic 4 4 ,
and see Cheyne, Introd. p. 7 n. 3. If not, and vv. 18 ' 20 belong
together, the divine speech ends at v. 18 , and vv. 19f contains the
prophet's comment : cp. on vv. 2 " 4 .
18. O'JBQ] 4 MSS (cp. VV.) '3t?3. lonN'-DK] many MSS ONI: possibly
right, cp. v. 20 note the rhythm, but note also a^ preceding. 20. iV?Nfl :nn]
to the cstr. assumed by RV (see no. 4 above), an exact parallel is afforded
I. 19 AND 21-26 31
by the Arabic idiom cited by Kon. iii. 102, hnriqa ^ttaubu '/mismtira, the
garment was torn with the nail. See, further, on Hebrew constructions more
or less similar, G-K. \z\c.d\ Kon. iii. 332^.
I. 21-26 (28). An Elegy on Jerusalem.
In this, as in other kinoth, i.e. elegies (e.g. La 1-4), the echoing rhythm
(see Introd.) is employed. Parallelism is constant, but within the distichs
(3 : 2), not as in vv. lof> 18 ' 20 , between the periods of 5 accents. Of the 12
distichs, or strictly n distichs and a line ( 25a ) in the present text, 5 are
unambiguously 3 : 2, viz. vv. 21 *- b ; " d ; * d ; * d ; * b , and another
f 23 *- f ) is 2 : 3 (makkeph IBEB"-N I ? and nooforyil) unless by transposing the lines
(cp. Introduction) we make this also 3 : 2. Another distich (26- d ) is 4 : 2.
Two distichs consist in the present text of lines that are rhythmically balanced,
viz. S2a * b (3 : 3) and 28a> b (2 : 2) : on these and on the irregularities in 21 - d -
24a. b. SB* see no tes below.
Vv. 21 ' 26 divide into two equal strophes, each containing 6 distichs (in
the present text the second contains but 5$) : the first strophe beginning
with n3'K deals with the present state of the city : the second introduced by
pS with its future.
Vv. 27 '* contain two distichs of which the former (3 : 2) is exactly similar
in type to those of w. 21 ' 26 : the second (4:3) less so.
21 How hath she become a harlot 1
The (once) faithful city,
Sion which was full of justice
Wherein righteousness abode, but now murderers.
22 Thy silver hath become dross,
Thy drink adulterated (?) with water.
23 Thy rulers are unruly,
And associates of thieves;
Every one loveth bribes,
And pursueth rewards;
They secure not the right of the orphan,
Nor doth the widow's cause come unto them.
24 Therefore saith the Lord
Yahweh Of Hosts the Mighty One of Israel :
Ah I I will get me comfort from my adversaries,
Avenge myself on my foes.
25 And I will turn my hand against thee.
And I will smelt out thy dross 'in the furnace,'
And remove all thine alloy.
32 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first,
And thy counsellors as at the beginning ;
Afterwards thou shalt be called City of Justice,
Faithful City.
27 Sion shall find redemption through justice,
And they that turn of her through righteousness :
28 And the destruction of rebels and sinners shall be together,
And those that forsake Yahweh shall be consumed.
The following considerations indicate that vv. 21 ' 26 contain a
complete poem distinct from what now precedes it and follows
it: (i) it opens with the characteristic opening of independent
elegies mK as in La i 1 2 1 4 1 , Jer 48 17 , cp. "pN in 2 S i 19 ;
(2) it is a complete treatment of a subject which is artistically
treated under two aspects in two symmetrical strophes (see
above) Jerusalem, its present state (vv. 21 - 23 ), its future (vv. 24 ' 26 ) ;
(3) in v. 26 the subject reaches an effective close ; (4) the relation
between rhythm and parallelism (see above), which is maintained
almost unbroken throughout vv. 21 ' 26 , scarcely appears at all in
vv. 1 ' 20 ; v. 27 is similar, but in addition to the first three of the
considerations just stated, exegesis (see below) favours the con-
clusion that vv. 27f ' formed no original part of the elegy.
The date of the poem is uncertain. The criteria on which
Du. and Hackm. rely for referring it to the time before or
during the Syro-Ephraimitish war, and those which lead Che.
and Marti to refer it to about 705 B.C., are unlike insufficient.
Du. argues that the eschatology which arose out of the crisis
described in chs. 7, 8 is not yet represented here ; Hackm., that
the eschatology agrees with that of ch. 8 j Che. and Marti
consider that the parallelism in thought of vv. 23b and 17 connects
the two pieces in time, and Marti sees in the misleading leaders
(v. 23 ) an allusion to the party favouring the Egyptian alliance.
If the similarity of v. 23 and v. 17 is not sufficient (and it is not)
to prove that both belong to the same piece, it proves nothing :
the affliction of the orphan and widow was perennial, and cannot
have attracted Isaiah's attention at one period of his life only.
The similarity may rather have been the cause that led an editor
whether Isaiah or another to place the one poem after the
other.
I. 21-23 33
21-23. First Strophe. ion, once the faithful city, has turned
faithless ; once the loyal wife of Yahweh, she has wandered from
Him and become a harlot (cp. Hos 2). By a further figure
(v. 22 ) and by illustrative literal charges (v. 23 ), the present
unrighteousness of Sion, once the home of righteousness, is
emphasised : the leaders of the people lead them only into
rebellion against Yahweh; they pervert justice, letting thieves
go unpunished in return for a share in their gains, and through
their love of unjust gain (cp. 5 28 , Mic 3 11 ) they deprive the poor
who can pay them nothing for their right (cp. vv. 16f -).
Adopting allusively Hosea's figure of the nation, or city, as
Yahweh's wife, Isaiah gives it an even more direct ethical
application. Judah is here Yahweh's faithless wife because she
has taken to be her paramours, not other gods, the Baals, but
unrighteousness.
21. The faithful city] mp is a choice synonym for Ty, the
ordinary word for city (cp. Nu 2i 28 , Ps 48 2 ), and occurs again
when Isaiah (29 1 ) describes Jerusalem as "the city where David
encamped." Of the days of David the prophet may be here
thinking. The phrase recurs as the closing words of the poem :
what Sion once was it will again become, when it has passed
through the purifying judgment. Abode] impf. was wont to
abide ; p to spend the night (cp. io 29 ), perhaps because a man's
place by night is his home, developed the further sense to abide ;
cp. Job i7 2 19*, Ps 25 13 . V. 21 , unless the rhythm is quite
irregular, contains two words too much. Possibly the intrusive
clause is the faithful city : if this were omitted, v. 21 would contain
two good echoing distichs, each contrasting (though the arrange-
ment of the two would be chiastic) the present and past character
of the city. Du. omits the last clause of the v., but now murderers^
which in this case must be a note based on vv. 15 - 18 : then the
first clause of the v. describes the present condition (cp. vv. 22 - 2S ),
and the three remaining clauses glance back at the past con-
dition of the city : in this case Sion ((& : cp. vv. 26f> $f) in v. 21e
has been accidentally omitted in J^ : Haupt selects for omission
the clause that was full of justice. 22. In two figures present
and past are contrasted : the degeneration of the city is like
the exchange of silver for dross, or good sound wine for a
disagreeable drink (see phil. n.). 23. Thy rulers are unruly] so
Che. brings out this (D'TOD "p^), tne nrst of several paronomasias,
VOL. i. 3
34 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
which occur in Isaiah's writings ; it may have been borrowed, to-
gether with the figure of the harlot (v. 21 ), from Hosea (2. 4 15 ).
The word DmiD means stubborn^ rebellious (Dt 2i 18 ) ; it is chiefly
used of conduct towards Yahweh, see, e.g., 30* 65 2 , and cp. the
figure in Hos 4 16 . 23b. Every one] or rather the whole mass of
them: cp. 9 16 i5 3 , and see BDB 481^ (bot). The judges not
only take bribes when offered, but go in pursuit of, follow eagerly
after, payments : they pursue not peace (DW, Ps 34 15 ), but
payment (D'3D^P, here only).
24-26. Second Strophe. This opens with a different figure :
Judah by her unrighteousness has become, not as in v. 21 the
wandering, disloyal wife, but the enemy of Yahweh on whom
He is about to avenge Himself. But Yahweh contemplates
more than punishment ; He has in view refinement and purifica-
tion ; taking up one of the figures of the first strophe (v. 22 ), the
prophet asserts that Yahweh will smelt away the dross and
bring again pure silver (v. 25 ); and then, corresponding to the
literal charges of v. 28 , comes the promise that Yahweh will
restore again just judges as in the first days of the city, the
days of David, and the city will become again as of yore the
home of righteousness (v. 26 )
24. The Lord Yahweh of Hosts] so 3 1 io 16 - 38 19*: but
here perhaps the words are an addition (Du.); Budde and Marti
omit instead the Mighty One of Jacob (Gn 49 24 ), thinking this
less in place than Yahweh of Hosts, which might here very
suitably suggest Yahweh who makes war upon His people.
t read the phrase Mighty One of Jacob in the form mighty ones
of Jacob after the following word ^n ; and this increases the
suspicion that the words may not be original. 24b. Yahweh
will comfort himself (DnJK as, e.g., Ezk 5 18 , Jer 3i 15 ) by taking
vengeance on those unjust rulers who by their unrighteousness
had made themselves His enemies. In the popular use of the
phrase the enemies of Yahweh were the enemies of Israel
(5T : cp. e.g. Jg 5 31 ) : with Isaiah, as with Amos (cp. Am 5 18 " 20 ),
Yahweh's enemies are His own people. 25- / will turn my hand
against thee\ so Am i 8 , Zee i3 7 , Ps 8i 15 : not "I will bring my
hand again " (RVmarg.), as though another judgment, such as
is described in vv. 5ff -, had already visited Israel. / will smelt
away thy dross as with alkali\ so flf ; (Sr perhaps differently (see
phil. n.). If the assertion is correct that alkalies were used by
I. 23-26 AND 2T, 23 35
the ancients to accelerate the separation of the dross in the
ore from the metal (Nowack, Arch. i. 245 ; Ges.), Jfy should
mean, I will smelt thee quickly, or clean (( : cp. EV) as
quickly, or clean, as if I used alkali in smelting silver ore. But
this is very doubtful (cp. Dr. on Mai 3 3 ). Elsewhere alkali is
mentioned only as cleansing the person or clothes see Mai 3*,
Jer 2 22 (JVC), and, perhaps, Job 9 80 (13). Since the i8th century
(Seeker, Lowth) many have emended "QD into 133, in the furnace ;
and this, or "O3, as in the furnace, is probably right. 25 f- The
verse is important in its bearing on Isaiah's view, or ideal, of the
Future. No individual ruler figures here : the prophet does
not think of a king; but those who advise and give decisions
in the State, those who mould its life, are to be men of char-
acter: under their guidance the people will no longer, as at
present (v. 23 ), be led into revolt against Yahweh, but will again
become faithful and righteous. The name, as in all such cases,
denotes the actual character of the city (cp. 62*, Ezk 48 86 ) : it
will actually be the city of righteousness. Again, Isaiah does not
expect the annihilation of Judah, as perhaps Amos expected
that of Israel: the judgment will be severe: good and bad
alike must suffer according to the figure that is used, the whole
city must pass through the furnace : but in the result the good
will come forth as pure gold, the bad will be cast away as
worthless dross. The removal of the bad is expressed figurat-
ively (v. 25b - c ) ; the discovery of the good directly (v. 26 ).
21. 'nN^D] G-K. go!. na p 1 ?' pis] three accents, or (nrp^) two. On the
impf. p 1 ?', see Dr. 30. 22. l*ao] since the text in Hos 4 18 , Nah I 10 is
doubtful, this may be the only occurrence in Heb. of the noun. The vb.
is used of hard drinking (56 ia , Dt 2I 20 , Pr 23 20 ). In Ass. sabu means sesame-
wine t and possibly in Heb. K3D meant specifically some strong or choice
A
wine. In Arabic Uu; (probably a loan word) and some derivative nouns are
used of or with reference to wine generally. ^ino] meaning uncertain. The
suggestions offered are (i) that ^>no, which in NH means to circumcise (cp.
SID), meant also, though of this there is no evidence, to cut. Then for to
cut wine, meaning to spoil it by adulteration with water, many parallels
are cited by Ges. (after Schultens) from Arabic, e.g.
J> lcsj-) > ^*obJ', and other languages (e.g. "scelus est jugulare
Falernum": Martial I 18 ), and Marti compares the French couper du vin.
The versions, including EV, paraphrase mixed: better, adulterated for the
figure has in view wine adulterated in commerce rather than simply weakened
36 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
with water for table use. Cp. Q& ol KdTrvjXol aov fj.L(ryov<ri rbv olvov {55cm
which, however, wrongly turns the figure into a direct charge. (2) Others
(cp. J. Earth, Beitrdge z. Erkl. des Jes. p. 3f.) interpret the word in the
light of NH *?niD, Ar. (J^*, "the dark turbid liquid pressed out of olives"
(Nold. , Che. ). D'Da] probably a gloss to secure the understanding of Vinn :
it is rhythmically superfluous. 23. Two weighty words (subj. and pred.)
in a against two closely connected in b : cp. Dr. LOT, p. 458. Budde to
establish three accents in the first line adds vn. 24. pV] frequent in Isaiah :
BDB 486/5. 25. T^y 'T ro'BW] either the long line of a distich of which
the shorter line has been lost, or a gloss ; see Marti's Comm. where several
possibilities are discussed. The remainder of the v. is a distich 3:2. It
is most unlikely that Du.'s harsh lines (3 : 2 and 2 : 2) are original ; he
divides :
a isijmi | T^y "T 1 nrtsw
.T^'is ^ | 'TVDKi Y:TD
(3r renders the entire v. as follows : Kcu 4irdb) TT^V xet/sa pov tiri <r KO!
ete Ka0ap6v. rods d aTreiOovvras airoXfob} Kal d^eXcD irdiras av6fj.ovs d-rrb (rod :
but we cannot safely infer that (Sr's Hebrew text was fuller and contained
the now missing half line ; for the overlined words are probably a later
addition to <5r : see Thackeray, Grammar^ p. 230.
27, 28. Two distichs re-open, or enforce, the theme apparently
closed in v. 26 . In thought v. 27 is parallel to v. 26 (the survival
of the good), v. 28 to v. 25b< c (the destruction of the bad).
Yet the thought is not quite the same : here the writer does
not speak of any judgment yet to come which is to affect all
alike (v. 25 and even Am 9 9ff ): for the (true) Sion, viz. those
in her who turn away from unrighteousness, the future has only
deliverance (men) : the coming destruction will affect only the
sinners (cp. 33 5 - 14f -); ct. her converts^ or they that turn of her, i.e.
converts who belong to ion, with the terms in v. 28 without the
pronoun sinners have no part or lot in ion.
Still greater is the difference if BQK>D and nplX are used of
man's justice and righteousness,* as in 5 7 9 6 , Am 5 7 6 12 : for then
v. 27 means ion will be delivered because she is just and
righteous. As another writer puts it, Yahweh will repay accord-
ing to deserts : to Sion, deliverance, for her conduct has deserved
it; to sinners, destruction (5 9 17 ' 20 6i 8 ). If this be the correct
interpretation the verses can scarcely be Isaiah's.
In view of the parallelism of the clauses we must not with
3T (cp. (3r) take tD2t?D as meaning the Judgment (Day) as in
Ps. i 6 , and np"J righteousness; the meanings should be parallel.
* Rashi, Ki., Ges., Che. aL
I. 23-28 37
If Isaiah's, the thought is rather this Sion, i.e. those in her
who turn away from sin, will be delivered by means of Yahweh's
refining judgment and by His judicial righteousness, which will
distinguish the just from the unjust : cp. the thought of v. 25
and the use of BBBto and nplX in 5" 28 17 . The hope of the
righteous in Sion was in the fact that Yahweh must do right
and therefore cannot destroy ion, for in so doing He would
carry away good and bad alike (cp. Gn 18).
27. Shall be ransomed] ma strictly means to buy a person
or animal off from death, etc., by means of a substitute or
money-payment (e.g. Ex i3 18 ) : it is used figuratively of deliver-
ance from trouble, danger, etc. Hos 13", Ps y8 42 (see Dr. Deut.
10 1). It is hardly necessary to press the figure as closely as
Du. does " Sion is to be ransomed, is consequently at present
a slave or debtor. But the strange owner or creditor has not
the right or the full right that he claims. Therefore Sion is not to
be set at liberty by payment, but by a just judgment " : though,
if the passage be post-exilic, it is likely enough that Du. divines
the writer's thought They that turn of her] cp. 6 10 7 8 io 26 . ^
may also mean her captivity (fTStt'), and is so taken by
28. '"1 T}I] abrupt and unusual : perhaps rather ^i?^i, or
Vv. m cannot be referred with any confidence to Isaiah : see the foregoing
interpretation. Che. (Introd. p. 7) urges : "Of the four participial class
names, though three have points of contact with Isaiah (see 6 10 7' I 2 - 4 ), none
actually occur in the Book of Isaiah, except in prophecies which on many
grounds cannot be Isaiah's (a. yvs> '3t7, 59 20 ; b. wye, 46* 53 12 ; c. n'Kon, 13
33 14 ; d. mn '3iy, 65". Add to this that ms (though found in Hos 7 13 13")
does not occur elsewhere in true Isaiah, 29 s2 35 10 , not to add 51", being
late passages." Not quite conclusive, though suggestive. More suspicious
is the sharp division of the people into two classes defined by their respective
labels : ct. the sinfulness of the entire nation in vv> 10> 21 2 6ff ' 3 8 5 1 " 7 * 18 6 8< 9flr -
8 6 . Certainly we find in Isaiah the germ of the subsequently permanent
distinction between the two classes in Israel the sinner and the righteous :
see 8 11 " 18 , and cp. the distinction of silver and dross, which, however, a fiery
smelting, i.e. a severe judgment affecting the whole people, is first to rendet
manifest. In vv. 27 '- the judgment, so it would seem, is to consume a previously
distinguished class of sinners and to rescue those who had previously mani-
fested their righteousness : cp. 65 14ff -, Mai 3 1 *- 31 (3 13 ~4 8 ).
1.29-31. Fragments: Condemnation of Tree Worship.
Vv. 29 *- contains two distichs of parallel lines in 4 : 4 rhythm (makkeph
v.v-3 and lea'-'a): there is nothing like them in the rest of the chapter.
38 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
V. 81 contains two disticns in 3 : 2 rhythm : in the first the lines are parallel
in sense. V. 31 resembles v. 27 .
29 For ' ye ' shall be ashamed of the terebinths in which
ye delighted,
And abashed because of the gardens that ye chose;
30 For ye shall be as a terebinth whose leafage fades,
And as a garden which hath no water.
81 And the strong one shall become tow ;
And his work a spark;
And they shall both burn together,
With none to quench them.
The sinners will perish (v. 28 ), because Yahweh whom they
have forsaken will not, and the gods housing in trees and beside
springs, whom they have chosen in His stead, cannot save
them. Cp. 2 20 if' u , Jer 2 26 - 28 .
Such is the connection if vv. 27 ' 31 form a connected whole
and do not rather consist of two fragments vv. 27f - 29 - 31 .* If
the connection be real, ffir may be right in reading all the verbs
in vv. 29f - in the 3rd pers. ; but see phil. n.
Nothing in the verses indicates clearly either date or author-
ship. They may have been written by Isaiah either before
722 B.C. and addressed, like 9 7 -io 4 , to the Northern kingdom,!
or after that year and addressed to Judah ; or, again, they may
have been written in the 5th cent, and addressed to apostate Jews
by a man like-minded with the author of 65 12 66 3f - (note "im :
little used by Isaiah). | The practices condemned were of great
antiquity and persisted later (Jer 2 27 i7 2 , Ezk 6 13 , Is 57 4ff ' 65 3 ).
29. For ye shall be ashamed} i.e. fail to receive expected
help; see 2o 5f -, Jer i2 13 48 13 , Mic 3 7 (|| nsn as here and Job 6 20 ),
Ps 25 2f 37 19 . Ye is conjecturally substituted for they (?^ffir) :
see phil. n. Terebinths] or, more widely, sacred trees. D^JK may
at times (cp. Hos 4 16 ) refer specifically to terebinths ; so Or in
v. 80 , and see EBi. and DB> s.v. ; but even more frequently the
word is used of any large umbrageous tree, such as palms, appa-
rently, at Elim (Ex 1 5 27 ), which a numen 7N was popularly supposed
to inhabit or frequent. This wider meaning is intended here,
and (5r significantly paraphrases TWI/ etSwXwi/ avrw. The venera-
* Che., Du. f Du., Che. J Marti.
I- 29-31 39
tion of such trees was ancient, and must have prevailed in
Canaan before the Hebrew invasion ; the Hebrews who were
loyal to Yahweh either identified the numen with Him (cp. Gn
i3 18 i8 lff -, Jg 9 87 etc.), or like Hosea (4 13f -) and this writer, they
recoiled entirely from the veneration of these trees doubtless
on account of the cults connected with them. Many trees in
Palestine are still thought to be inhabited by spirits, and are the
objects of vows and offerings from both Bedawin and Fellarjin :
see S. I. Curtiss, Primitive Sem. Rel. 90 ff., and the material
collected by J. G. Frazer in Sacred Oaks and Terebinths (pp.
nof.), one of the Anthropological Essays presented to E. B.
Tylor. Lagrange (Rel. Sem. 173) denies that the trees themselves
were objects of worship. 30. These worshippers will perish
like the objects they worship. The life of the holy tree is seen
in its thick foliage, of the numen of a spring in its bubbling
waters : these idolaters will shrivel up and fail like a tree whose
leaves wither and a garden in which the fountain that made it
luxurious flows no more. 31. This v. might continue v. 88 as
well as v. 80 : rhythmically, it is similar to vv. 27f - and dissimilar to
vv. 29f \ It is capable of more than one interpretation as it stands,
and various emendations have been proposed (see phil. n.).
Perhaps the work of the strong means preparations for war,
alliances, and so forth (cp. 3i lf< ); these works are the sparks
which set fire to the strong who become as tow (mjtt, Jg 16*),
i.e. inflammable, and so the strong and all his works come to
nothing such a meaning would quite accord with Isaiah's
standpoint : cp. 9 17 .
29. un'] 3rd pers. ; but in the dependent relative clause and in the succeed-
ing lines the vbs. are 2nd pers. nmna, nsnn, omon, vnn. That this change
was due to the excitement of the author at the end of his discourse (Del. ) is not
rendered probable by Di.'s reference to 5 8 22 16 31'. Three Heb. MSS and
ST read itson a correction rather than a survival from a continuous correct
tradition. The real question is whether W3' is a survival of the true text in
which the verbs were in the 3rd pers. (so (Hr), or an early error for iffnn due
to accident, or a deliberate substitute for itson, the purpose of which was to .
create a connection with v. 28 . Failing good reasons to the contrary, it is
better to assume a single error (\w? for lean) than four. Marti suggests that
the 2nd pers. arose after onion, meant to be Dn'iDn, was read DJVjoq ; but
<&, which has the 3rd pers. (probably substituted for the 2nd pers. of $? to
improve the connection), does not appear to have read on^pn ; if -fj^otjXovTo
really presupposes anything but Dwpq, it presupposes npn. D^'ND] the
absence of the art. here is noticeable : ct. HUJTO. nVm] agrees with nSw
4O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(fern.) not with riy (masc.) ; cp. py naa oy, v. 4 . 31. fon] Am 2 9 f
of the Amorites). For jon, Lagarde proposed to read }nn, and for iVys
in the next clause i^ya a sun-image and its Baal. Du. 's criticism of this
emendation has not been met. i^fc] possibly for ^ ; cp. 'nxn, 52;
G-K. 93^ ; Kon. ii. 493. More probably Ki. interprets MT (though not |^)
correctly when he sees in pn idol, and ^y_3 the part. he that makes it. The
fulfilment of the prophecy he then finds in the fact that 'na ^a r\~\v pNnnaa
D'Wilfll D'^osn vn onai t^xa D^IT. ps'j] air. \ey. ; cp. po (Ezk i 7 ), NH
pao, Ar. ,-cl), to shine, flash, sparkle, whence the sense spark is inferred
perhaps not quite securely. Rubens ( Crit. Remarks, p. 1 1 n. ) suggests f *yj
(cp. 7 19 55 18 )> which as inflammable stuff would be a good parallel to myj and
would better account for Tirr nyai in the next line.
II. XII. Prophecies mainly devoted to Judah and Jerusalem.
These chapters very much in their present form probably
constituted a distinct book before the larger work of which
they now are part came into existence. When they were
incorporated in the larger work, the title which had previously
attached to them was retained (2 1 ), in spite of the fact that
another was prefixed (i 1 ) to the first chapter of the larger work
(see Introd. 29). The title, 2 1 , describes the prophecies as
the word t or matter , which Isaiah the son of Amos saw (in vision :
cp. I3 1 ) concerning Judah and Jerusalem. On the names and on
the conceptions underlying the terminology, see i 1 n. The
scope of these chapters is fairly well described as Judah and
Jerusalem (i 1 n.), though this is not an exhaustive description,
since 9 7 -io 4 is primarily concerned with Ephraim; but this
title was, of course, never intended to cover chs. 13-23, which
mainly consist of prophecies concerning foreign nations, and are
provided with another title (I3 1 ).
It has been argued that originally the title 2 1 stood immediately
before 2 s and that 2 2-4 , now misplaced, formed the conclusion,
and that an admirable one, to i 27 ' 31 (Lagarde, Stade, Gesch. i.
608 ; Cheyne, Marti) ; but the argument is very precarious.
These chapters fall into groups as follows : 2-4, 5, 6-9, 9 7 -io 4 ,
I0 5 -I2.
II.-IV. -Jerusalem ideal and actual.
The sections into which these chapters fall and their
contents may be briefly described thus : 2 1 Title (see above) ;
2 2 ' 4 Jerusalem the religious centre of the entire world ; 2 5 ' 22 The
(D'yi^xa ';
I. 31-11. 4 41
Day of Yahweh, which is about to bring low the land of Jacob,
now wealthy, self- sufficient, and forgetful of Yahweh ; 3 M6
Jerusalem and Judah denounced and threatened; S 16 -^
Denunciation of the women of Jerusalem ; 4 2-6 The holiness
and glory of Jerusalem after a purifying judgment.
Jerusalem is the prominent, when it is not the exclusive,
subject of every section, except 2 6 ' 22 . The entire section consists
of warnings by Isaiah of judgment to come (2 6 -4 1 ) enclosed
between two poems of exilic or post-exilic writers who had an
eye only for glory to come, and either disregarded judgment
altogether (a 2 " 4 ), or looked upon it as, in large part at least,
accomplished (4 2 " 6 ).
II. i. Title. See above.
nin -WK] (& 6 ycv6/j,ei>os vp6s, i.e. ^K .rn it?* ; cp. Hos I 1 , Jl I 1 . With
$?, cp. Am i 1 : in Mic I 1 both SK rrn "\VK and mn nrK occur.
II. 2-4. Sion the religious Capital of the World.
Including the two final lines, absent from the text of Is. but found in Mic
4*, the following poem contains ten distichs of balanced (3 : 3, or 2 : 2) and
parallel lines. V. 8 **- is a 2:2 distich ; the remaining distichs are 3 : 3,
except that the now uncertain text of v. 2 *"* 1 may have contained irregularities,
and v. 3 *, if the IIDN is original, contained four accents ; in v. 4 * D.vnin'jm was
probably read as two, and in v. 46 'wVn-'u (cp. Sievers) as one,
I.
2 And it shall come to pass in the end of the days
The mountain of Yahweh A shall be
Firmly set on the top of the mountains,
And raised higher than the hills.
2.
And nations shall come streaming to it,
3 And many peoples shall go and say :
Come and let us go up to Yahweh's mountain,
And to the house of the God of Jacob :
3-
That he may instruct us out of his ways,
And that we may walk in his paths,
For from ion instruction goes forth,
And the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
42 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
4 And he will judge between the nations,
And give decisions for many peoples;
And they will beat their swords into ploughshares,
And their spears into pruning-knives.
5-
Nation against nation shall not lift up sword,
Nor learn any more (the art of) war,
[Mic 4 But they will dwell each under his vine
And under his fig-tree, with none to terrify.]
A strophic arrangement so naturally reveals itself that it is
reasonable to suppose that it was intended : the ten distichs
divide into five sets of twos (Marti), each of which deals with a
distinct point or aspect of the subject, thus :
1. The exaltation of Sion.
2. The advent of the Nations ;
3. To obtain, at its source, instruction in the religion of
Yahweh.
4. Yahweh, the arbiter of the Nations.
5. Under Yahweh's government (strophe 4) there will be
universal peace and unmolested enjoyment of the fruits of the
earth.
Du.'s division into three strophes of six lines is much less probable. That
the poem may be read in its completeness, the final lines from Micah are
added in square brackets, without prejudice to the question whether they
ever formed part of the Book of Isaiah. So in regard to the numerous
variations between the text of the poem as given in Is. and Mic. (Hebrew
and Greek) it is impossible to determine whether the inferior readings arose
before, at the time of, or after incorporation in either book ; consequently
the translation is based on what appears to be the nearest that we can get to
the original text of the poem by a comparison of the two forms in which it
occurs.
The origin of the poem is obscure ; that it occurs both in the
Book of Isaiah and in the Book of the Twelve (Mic 2 1 * 4 )
necessarily raises questions, and these have been very differently
answered.
In the earlier stages of criticism the questions asked were Was the poem
written by Isaiah and borrowed by Micah ? or written by Micah and borrowed
II. 2-4 43
by Isaiah? or borrowed by both these prophets from some now unknown
predecessor ? It was assumed that one at least of the two prophets must have
borrowed. We need scarcely with Du. pronounce such borrowing on the part
of a true prophet incredible, or, if real, a theft (Jer 23 30 ) ; still there is no
other clear example of a prophet borrowing from another at this length, and
this being so it would be strange that this particular poem should be cited
independently by two prophets. But once due weight is given to the
character of the books of prophetic literature, this assumption that either
prophet borrowed becomes unnecessary, not to say precarious. The Book of
Isaiah and the Book of the Twelve are alike collections made after the Exile,
and indeed not long before the end of the 3rd cent. B.C. (Introd. 8ff. 35) ;
this poem has been preserved in both collections, just as some Psalms (e.g. 14
= 53) have been preserved in more than one hymn-book. It is perfectly
possible that this poem owes its double preservation not to a double process
either of quotation or interpolation, but to the fact that at some time before
the close of the 3rd cent, it passed under two ascriptions, to Micah and
Isaiah respectively, and was therefore incorporated by two editors in their
different compilations. It is important to observe that the poem stands
isolated in both books ; in Isaiah it follows a title, and has therefore no
connection with what precedes ; in Micah it follows the statement that ion,
Jerusalem, and the mountain of the house will be reduced to desolation. If
the poem were really appended by Micah, it is difficult to believe that he
would have left the strong contrast entirely unmarked ; so necessary is it to mark
it (if the passages are really connected) that RV mistranslates n'm, but it shall
come to pass, etc., in order to create an antithesis, though as a matter of fact
rrm marks sequence not contrast. Even if Micah were quoting, he could
have secured the contrast by simply dropping rrm and starting his quotation
with the next word. If Micah added 4 1 " 4 to 3 1 ' 12 the apologists for Jeremiah
were singularly audacious in their use of 3 12 (Jer 26 18 ). What follows the
poem in Isaiah has some sort of connection with it (see on v. 6 ), so also has
what follows in Micah ; yet in neither place is it the connection of originally
continuous passages. Both editors, wishing to include the poem in their collec-
tions, had to find some place for it ; but the reasons for the particular place
given elude us just as do the reasons for the order in which Psalm follows
Psalm, though the editor of Micah may have been guided by the principle of
catch-word arrangement ("mountain of the house" 3 13 4 1 ). Whether the
poem owes its place in Isaiah to the final editor of the book, or to the
compiler of chs. 2-12, is uncertain : perhaps the latter alternative is the more
probable.
Judged by itself, without prejudice derived from its present
position, the poem perhaps does not betray its origin un-
mistakably. But if the arguments that have been adduced
be insufficient to prove that it was not written in the 8th cent.
B.C., still more insufficient are the arguments to prove that it
was. The spirit of the whole and some of the particular ideas,
as hinted in the commentary that follows, leave the impression
44 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of a passage that was written nearer to the time of chs. 40-55 and
Ezek. than of Isaiah.
If Zee 8 20 * 22 , Jl 4 10 be reminiscences and not anticipations of lines of
the poem, a minimum date is fixed ; the poem in that case is earlier than
520 B.C. For the theory, still preferred by Box, that the poem is the work of
a prophet earlier than either Mic. or Is., see Koppe, Hitz., Ew., Del., Di. ;
the similarities to Joel on which this theory partly rested now point, for what
they are worth, to a post-exilic origin, for the theory of the early origin of
Joel scarcely continues to be defensible. The authorship of Isaiah is still
maintained by Du. (who connects the passage with ii 1 ' 8 32 1 ' 5 - 1MO as products
of Isaiah's old age) ; the authorship of Mic. by Ryssel, Textgeschichte des Micha,
218-224 (see also Ges.) ; G. A. Smith argues for the " possibility of a date in
the 8th or beginning of the 7th cent." (Book of the Twelve, i. 365-367). The
later origin of the poem suggested by Stade (ZATIV, 1881, 165-167, and
1884, 292) is accepted by We. (Klcine Proph. I39f.), Nowack (Kleine
Propheteri)) Hackmann (126 ff. ), Cheyne (Introd. 9-16), and Toy (Judaism and
Christianity > 313). Toy, with whom Marti agrees, dates the poem about
500 B.C., though he considers the beginning of the Greek period also possible
2a. b. C. d. First Strophe. The text is in some details
uncertain (see phil. n.). In the end of the days] "the final
period of the future so far as it falls within the range of the
speaker's perspective " (Dr. Deut. p. 74) : the phrase is applied,
for example, to Israel's settlement in Canaan (Gn 49 1 ), to
Israel's conquest of Edom and Moab (Nu 24 14 ), and, as here,
to the Messianic age ; cp. e.g. Hos 3 5 , Jer 232, and in NT He
i 8 , i P i 20 , Jn 6 89 i2 48 . The phrase itself is not late (cp. in
Assyr. ina ahrat umi) ; nor is it safe to conclude with Che.
(Introd. n) and Marti that it is necessarily so when used in
connection with Messianic expectations ; so soon as such
expectations arose and needed expression, such a phrase being
obviously suitable would naturally be employed. Yahwetts
mountain} i.e. Mt. ion. Yahwetts mountain is the reading of
ffi both here and in Mic. J^ in both places has the unique
phrase mountain of Yahwetis house \ cp. mountain of the
House> Mic 3 12 . The temple is directly mentioned in the next
line. Firmly set] for the force of }1D3, cp. Jg i6 26 and
especially Ps 93 lf - ; the word is the opposite of BID, which
describes the tottering or shaking of that which has become
insecure, whether mountains (Ps 46 3 ) or kingdoms (/&, v. 7 ).
After all the commotions which will precede the Messianic age,
removing the things that can be shaken (Hag 2 6f -, He i2 26f -),
II. 2, 3 45
Mt. Sion and the universal kingdom of which it will be the
centre (Ps 87) will remain immovable, unshaken, because the
one true God, governor and judge of all nations (strophe 4), is
there (Ps 46 6 ). The poet breathes the same spiritual atmosphere
as the authors of Ps 46 and 87 : cp. also Is 9. On the top of
the mountains] this is but one of the possible translations of the
phrase D^nn B>JO3 : for this rendering, cp. e.g. Ex 24 17 , Is 42".
Doubtless two i>y might have been used to express this (Di.),
but is scarcely necessary. Other possible translations are (i) as
the chief of the mountains^ or the chief, choicest mountain : for the
3 essenfiae, cp. G-K. 119*, BDB 88; and for PfcO = chief, cp. e.g.
Jg io 18 , Ezk 27 22 (choicest) ; (2) on the chief 'of 'the mountains ; Du.
adopts this in connection with a reading of (5r " and the house
of (our) God (shall be established) on the chief of the moun-
tains." But this is not the most probable text : see phil. n.
The effect of it is to predict the coming exaltation directly of
the temple and only indirectly of Mt. Sion. Whatever translation
be correct, the entire meaning is hardly that mountain will be
piled on mountain and Mt. Sion on the top of all, though this
interpretation appears in Rabbinic literature : " The Holy One
will bring Sinai and Tabor and Carmel, and build the Sanctuary
on the top of them " (Pesifcta 1?. Kahana, 144^). On the other
hand, it is unlikely that it is merely metaphorical (Di.) ; but as
Messianic expectation looked forward to various transformations
in the physical world (40* 4i 18f -, Ezk 47 lff -, Jl 4(s) 18 , Zee 14),
so here to the elevation of Mt. Sion to such a height that it
should overtop all mountains instead of being, as in the actual
world, overtopped by other mountains of Palestine (Ps 68 15f -)
and even by the neighbouring mountains ; the Mt. of Olives, for
example, is nearly 300 feet higher. To Ezekiel, the temple hill
in vision appeared " very high " (4o 2 ), and the author of Zee i4 10
expected the relative elevation of Sion to be produced by the
depression of the surrounding country (cp. below, vv. 12ff -).
26, 3a. b. C. Second Strophe. All nations will come
streaming (liru\ Jer 3i 12 5i 44 ) to this conspicuous and immov-
able mountain to Sion and to Yahweh, no more to Babylon
and to Bel (Jer 5I 44 ). The expectation of such an advent of the
nations frequently occurs in late prophecies, e.g. 60, 66 23 , Jer
3 17 , Zee 8 20 ' 22 i 4 16 - 19 , Hag 2 6f - : cp. Ps 65* etc. But did the
prophets of the 8th cent, attach this world-wide significance to
46 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the Temple and the Temple Mount ? God of Jacob~\ The
phrase occurs nowhere else in either Isaiah or Micah : it is
frequent in the Psalms (e.g. 46* 75 76 7 84) : see also 2 S 23 1 .
3d. e. f. g. Third Strophe. The object of the nations in
coming to Sion will be to learn and practise the only true
religion the ways, or conduct, which Yahweh prescribes and
approves. The nations are to feel the moral attraction of the
Hebrew or Jewish religion. The standpoint is substantially that
of chs. 40-55 (see, e.g., 42 3f< ) with some differences in detail; in
40-55 the missionary people are to carry the knowledge of
Yahweh to the nations ; here, the nations are to come to ion
to receive it (cp. Ps 87, Zee 8 20 ' 22 ): in 40-55 Israel is the
Teacher ; here, Yahweh Himself (cp. Ps 94 16 ). But the political
subserviency of the nations to Israel, as sometimes anticipated
(e.g. 6o 12 ), seems as little thought of here as in chs. 40-55. Du.,
however, in defending the Isaianic authorship minimises the
meaning unduly : " perhaps," he says, " the nations will not even
give up their own cults : they merely acknowledge that Yahweh
is the most upright and truest God. Recognition to a certain
extent of strange gods was something quite usual in antiquity :
even earlier, foreigners sought Yahweh (Naaman), or Israelites
other gods (2 K i)." But the outlook here is to something
unusual, something fresh and remarkable. That he may instruct
us of his ways] of (}n) = out of (the treasure of), not concerning'.
cp. Ps 94 12 , cp. EC 7 10 . For from Sion (emphatic) . . . from
Jerusalem] the lines are perhaps echoed in 37 32 (Meinhold,
P- 47>
4a. b. C. d. Fourth Strophe. If all the nations practise the
moral requirements of the religion of Yahweh (strophe 3), they
will naturally refer their disputes to Him, He alone being God
and King ; there will be no further need for the arbitrament of
war. The writer's ideal is universal peace (strophe 5) ; ct. the
conceptions underlying the ancient phrases " the Wars of
Yahweh," "the day of Yahweh." The reverse of the last two
lines occurs in Jl 4 10 : on the relation between the two passages,
see Exp., Sept. 1893, PP- 2i4f., 2i8f. Ploughshares'] is the
conventional rendering of DTlfc?, which is obviously the name
of an agricultural implement; but precisely what, neither the
etymology, which is obscure, nor the usage (i S i3 20f *, Jl 4 10 , Mic
4 8 f), suffices to determine.
ii. 2-4 47
4 e. f. + Mic 4 4 *' b . Filth Strophe. The poem closed
with a picture of world- wide peace and quiet agricultural life.
2. It is not certain that the existing evidence preserves quite completely
the original words of this first strophe. However we choose amongst it,
some awkwardness remains. On the whole, Mic. seems distinctly better than
Is. ; the rhythm in Mic. is that of the rest of the poem, and the parallelism
is better. To make this clear both texts are given here, rhythmically
marked :
Is. mrr-iva in | rrrv paa | D'D'n nnruo || nvn
.myaJD Kt?:i | o'inn vtrv
Mic. m.T rva in nvr | D'D'n mna .T-TI
.royajD Kin Km | omn rna paa
In Isaiah, after throwing nni out of the rhythmical scheme, we have the
long six-accented line with two caesuras, which is unparalleled, and scarcely
very suitable, in this poem. The words myaao Ntwi D'inn roa also awaken
suspicion, not because they would form a 2 : 2 distich (v. 8 * 1 * e ), but because they
seem insufficiently independent to form a distich at all. This second objec-
tion applies also in some degree to the second distich in Mic. , unless we may
give to nvr a force greater than that of the mere copulative or auxiliary :
if it could mean here, as, of course, it often does elsewhere (e.g. Gn I and BDB,
col. 226 bot.), come into existence, the two distichs would be sufficiently inde-
pendent. Was there a belief that there would be a new creation of the mountain
of Yahweh in the Messianic age ? and even if so could such a belief be expressed
by rt'iT ? But the reading rrn* is not free from suspicion : for it (apparently) Mic.
dfr has tyQavte, and Is. (& has tytftavts for T.V paa ; jj.<f>av{$ might conceivably
(cp. 65 1 ) point to cnr (Niph. of em as used in Am 5"), if this vb. yielded a
meaning more suitable to the strophe instead of one that anticipates the next.
For some other features of (5r see following notes, and for a view in some
respects different see SBOT. nw . . . nm] cp. 7 28 : also 7 18 - 21 , and see
Dr. 121. For .rm (5r reads nvr a, which Du. adopts. mrr rva in] the
phrase occurs nowhere else ; it may be the result of a conflation of the
readings. (& in Mic. simply has ri> 6po$ TOV Kvplov, i.e. rra is absent, while
here <5r reads ri> 6pos "Kvptov KO.\ 6 ol/cos TOV 0eoD, i.e. DM^K rrai nin' in the
two readings not yet conflate (cp. v. 8 ). myaJD x^i] Mic. niyaan Kin vxry\ ;
the length of the line in Mic. is more probably correct than in Is. On the
other hand, ton, if to be expressed, might rather be expected in the previous
clause. (5r Is. ical v^wd-fjfferai vire.pdvu T&V fiovvwv, <& Mic. Kal fAereupiffd^creTai
hrepdva) T&V fiovv&v ; except in these two passages f/Trepdvu nowhere else renders
the simple D. Did ^ fyo once stand here (cp. Mai I 8 , Gn 5 7 ) ? Possibly,
but the corruption of *? Vyo into D Nin is not easy. V^K] Mic. v^>y. D'H-V^D]
read D'U ; cp. Mic. ; Sa makes D'ai of the parallel clause anti-climactic. In Mic.
D'u stands in the next line, D'Dy here : r has here (rd) tf)vi\ in both clauses
(=D'ia). The same difference between the Hebrew texts occurs in v. 4 *' b =
Mic 4**' h . 4. D'ai D'oy . . . D'un] Mic. pini iy D'osy o'u . . . OUT D'oy ffi
supporting f^). Rhythm strongly favours the originality of Is. here ; the
text of Mic. may have been influenced by Zee S 22 .
48 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
5. A brief homiletic reflection which unites the poem
that precedes with that which follows, and derives its phraseology
in part from the one, in part from the other : O house of Jacob
(cp. v. 6 ), come and let us go (cp. v. 3 ) in the light of Yahweh : i.e.
let us not be behind the nations as while what is next described
continues (vv. 6ff< ), we are ; they propose to walk in Yahweh's paths :
let us do the same, following the path lighted 'up by the law (cp. Ps
1 19 108 , Pr 6 23 ). The words are apparently prose, and certainly out-
side the rhythmic and strophic scheme of either the preceding
or the following poem : they are probably an editorial remark.
Mic 4 1 ' 4 ( = Is 2 2 ' 4 ) is followed by (i) the concluding formula, "for the
mouth of Yahweh of Hosts hath spoken it" (cp. Is i 20 ^ 6 s8 14 ), and then (2)
by a homiletic reflection fuller and more rhythmical than Is. : in Micah the
point is at present the nations walk each in the name of its god, but we in
the way of our God, the true God. Mic. asserts what Is. exhorts to. What
then is the relation between the two ? or are they the independent comments on
the poem of two different editors ? Obviously the words O house of Jacob are to
be explained from what follows in Is., i.e. so much of Is. is independent : thus
the common matter is reduced to JUT ma mSji ID"? (Is.) and 13 1 ?' D'Dyn Va D
ijn oViy 1 ? irn^N m.v DBO 1^3 umw mrr orn WK (Mic.), and the actual verbal
coincidence is limited to the overlined words ; these are derived from the
poem, and in making a variation on the phrase used in the poem mxa "j^n
m.T, Is. and Mic. differ from one another (Is. TIN, Mic. Dtf). If either passage is
dependent on the other, is Mic 4 an expansion of Is 2 5 (Che.), or Is 2 B an
abbreviation of Mic 4 (Marti)? If, as has been urged, the editor of Is.
abbreviated because there was merely so much space to fill up, why did he
add O house of Jacob"} The closer approximation of the na^ji 13^ of Is. as
compared with the i*?J umNi of Mic. to the phraseology of the poem (nVjMi 13^
and 'a nD*?3i) might seem to favour the priority of Is. But the question is
hardly to be answered with confidence either way.
II. 6-22. The Day of Yahweh.
This section, pronounced by Du. to be the worst preserved
of the entire book, has certainly suffered very serious mutilation
in transmission. (Sr preserves some better readings than ^ (see
v. 6 n.), but the text had already fallen into disorder before the
time of (&. In the main the sense is clear in spite of the state
of the text, but it is more difficult to determine with certainty the
form of the poem (or poems).
The presence of refrains (v. u = v. 17 , cp. v. 9 : and v. 10 = v. 19 =v. 21 ) points
to a poem (or poems) divided into strophes. But what is the rhythm ? In
vv ia-17 (d own to vn 1 ? ; in v. ls omit D'twam c'Din) and in v. 18 we have 15
lines of three accents, for the most part combined into distichs of parallel
II. 5, 6-22 49
lines; six, or if we makkeph ann ^03 in v. 7a all, of the seven lines in vv. 7 '-
and the last line of the refrain in vv. 19 - 21 are of the same length ; so also is
the last line of v.', which at present stands isolated and without a parallel.
On the other hand, the first part of v. a in $J certainly is not in 3 : 3 rhythm ;
possibly it should be read as two distichs 3 : 2, though the second of these
is certainly corrupt and the first is rather 2 : 2, if not indeed a single line of
three accents (Sievers). There is at least one distich 3 : 2, perhaps two, in
the refrain as it appears in vv. 19 ' 21 : but as it appears in v. 10 it contains at most
one 3 : 2 distich ; even that, as the other distich certainly is, may be 2 : 2.
Whether in any of the three places the refrain now retains its original form
may be doubted. Clearly then the dominant rhythm throughout w. 6 " 21 is
3 : 3, and it is not improbable that this rhythm was originally maintained
unbroken. Du., followed by Cheyne, has indeed postulated two fragments
with different rhythm : (a) vv. 11 ' 17 , rhythm 3 : 3 ; (6) w. 6 " 10 - 18 ' 21 , long lines
(3 + 2, or the like). But the difference in rhythm, if it existed at all, did not
originally, nor does it now, coincide with this division.
Obviously v. 6 is not the beginning of a poem, perhaps one or
two strophes have been lost (Du.) ; or the refrain now appearing
in w. 10 - 19< 21 was an opening refrain, and this alone preceded v. 6 ;
then w. 9 and 17 are closing refrains (Marti). The matter peculiar
to each strophe probably consisted of twelve lines, i.e. six distichs.
Enough has been said to indicate that the form of the
following translation is only an approximation to that of the
original poem.
I.
19 Enter into the caves of the rocks,
And [hide yourselves] in the holes of the dust;
Away from the terror of Yahweh,
And from His glorious majesty,
When he arises to terrify the earth.
For he hath abandoned his people,
. . . the house of Jacob,
For his land is full of ' traders ' (?)
And 'he' strikes bargains with (?) the children of foreigners,
7 And (so) his land has become full of silver and gold,
And there is no end to his stores;
And (so) his land has become full of horses,
And there is no end to his chariots;
8 And so his land has become full of idols,
To the work of his hands 'he* bows down,
To that which his fingers have made.
VOL. i. 4
( 9 ) n * And ' the pride of man shall ' sink low,'
And the loftiness of man be ' abased ' ;
And Yahweh alone shall be exalted, A
[But the idols shall one and all vanish]
2.
10 Enter into [the caves of] the rock,
And hide yourselves in [the holes of] the dust;
Away from the terror of Yahweh
And from His glorious majesty.
12 For Yahweh of Hosts hath a day,
Against everything that is proud and lofty,
And against everything that is uplifted and 'high/
A A
13 And against all cedars of Lebanon,
And against all oaks of Bashan;
14 And against all lofty mountains,
And against all uplifted hills;
15 And against every high tower,
And against every fortified wall ;
16 And against all ships of Tarshish,
And against all ...
17 And the pride of man shall sink low,
And the loftiness of man be abased:
And Yahweh alone shall be exalted A A
18 But the idols shall one and all vanish.
The subject of the poem is the Day of Yahweh (v. 12 ), when
Yahweh will gloriously and terribly manifest His presence (v. 10 ).
Isaiah follows Amos in depicting this " Day," which was popularly
expected to bring "light" and national success (Am 5 18 ), as a
day of terror for Israel no less than for the rest of the world. It
is not to be a day on which Israel's foes will for ever go under
and Israel emerge successful, but on which Israel with the rest of
mankind will do well to seek out holes and crannies (vv. 10 - 17 ), if
haply they may there cower away from Yahweh. And the reason
for this common doom that awaits Israel as well as the rest of the
world is Israel's abandonment of Yahweh, which has led in turn
to His abandonment of them. Israel has grown wealthy, and has
II. 6-22 5 T
expended its wealth on equipments for war (v. 7 ) and on the
manufacture of idols (v. 8 ) and in these has placed its trust;
thereby in Yahweh's judgment, if not in its own, showing dis-
loyalty to Yahweh : consequently Yahweh has abandoned Israel ;
it is no more His people, has no longer closer ties with Him than
the rest of mankind, and must therefore share the result of the
common overthrow of all wherein man places his pride and
confidence on the day which will show Yahweh alone supreme,
and all the works of man's hands, including the idols, valueless
(w. 11 - 19 ). According to the present text of v. 6c a specific offence
of Israel has been the practice of magic ; whether this is what
was originally intended by that line, or whether it spoke of a
recent increase in foreign trade as the cause of the increased
wealth that has led to abandonment of Yahweh, is discussed
below. The first strophe dwells more fully on the present
condition of Israel ( 6c " 8 ), the two refrains and the ominous words
of v. 6 *- b indicating the coming doom. The second strophe is
entirely devoted to a description of that doom the day of
Yahweh is at hand, when He will overthrow all lofty and towering
objects and man's pride itself, all that rises above the ordinary
level and thereby even distantly competes with the sole exaltation
of Yahweh which the " Day " is to manifest, and consequently
all the objects in which foolish man, not recognising Him that is
truly High and lifted up, has vainly placed his trust.
Whether these two strophes constituted the entire poem or
not, the connection of the two main subjects prevailing sin and
inevitable judgment is clear and characteristically prophetic;
and each is forcibly expressed by the monotonous cast of the
sentences : wealth, wealth, nothing but wealth and the trust in it
(vv. 6 ' 8 ) ; overthrow, overthrow, nothing but overthrow of all else
but Yahweh (vv. 12 ' 16 ).
Since the term " House of Jacob " in v. 6 is ambiguous, it
must remain uncertain whether Isaiah is here depicting the doom
of the Northern Kingdom (as in 9 7ff " 1 7 1 * 9 ), or of the Southern
Kingdom, or of both together. In either case the prevalence of
wealth and the easy confidence in the more than sufficiency of
the military resources of the kingdom point to a very early period
in Isaiah's career say before the Assyrian campaign of 738 B.C.,
as the probable if not certain date of the poem ; some, too, detect
the "rush and abandon" of youth in the composition, and the
52 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
influence in vv. 12 " 16 of the great earthquake that occurred in
Isaiah's childhood (Am i 2 , Zee i4 5 ).
6. For he hath abandoned his people} so <5r : Jfy f or tnou hast
abandoned thy people (see phil. n.). The words are obviously
not the beginning of a poem ; nor could they be so regarded,
even if *3 might be rendered surely, or certainly (BDB, p.
472^: cp. Nu 23 23 n.). Nor can they give the reason for v. 5 ;
they cannot mean " for thou (Israel) hast abandoned thy
nationality, or national character " * an interpretation which
places on Dy an impossible meaning. The subject of the vb.,
whether the 3rd pers. ((5) or the 2nd (f^), is God. What originally
preceded v. 6 can only be conjectured ; if, as in the translation
above, the refrain of vv. 10 - 19t 21 , the reading of (Sr is the more
suitable. -Jacob} (5r Israel-, either term might refer exclusively
to the Northern kingdom (9?) ; but 8 14 proves that " Israel " with
Isaiah included Judah, and the same is doubtless true of Jacob
(cp., further, 5 7 8 17 io 21 2Q 22 ). In Mic 3 8f - Jacob, House of Jacob,
is even used when the reference is to Judah exclusively. For his
(i.e. Jacob's} land is full of, etc.] so r, in harmony with the follow-
ing lines : ^for they are full of. The last part of v. 6 is certainly
more or less corrupt (see phil. n.). Literally rendered, ffi reads :
For they are full from (or, fuller than) the East,
(or, For they are full from of old)
And of (or, and (they are)) soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they strike (bargains) with (?) the children of
foreigners.
6r reads :
And their land is full as of old of soothsayings like that of
the Philistines,
And many alien children have been born to them.
The first line in J^ obviously lacks an object : RV " for they
be filled (with customs) from the East " is not a translation of Jf,
but virtually rests on an unacknowledged and improbable con-
jectural emendation. Many others since Lowth have conjecturally
supplied, as an object to they are full of, the word diviners : then
the first and second lines in f^ thus emended express the same
general thought as the first line in Or the land of Jacob is full
of soothsayers. The connection between the presence of sooth
* Saad., Hitz.
II. 6 53
sayers and the striking of bargains with foreigners (third line in
is not obvious ; and since the meaning of the third line is by no
means beyond question, Marti suspects a third reference in that
line to magic or enchantment Still no such meaning can be
extracted from the text of the third line or from any obvious
emendation of it. But if we look at the wider context, another
question arises, viz., Is any reference to soothsaying or the like
probable ? Ought we not rather to find in the line(s) that precede
a sense parallel to that of the third line ? By a conjecture dis-
cussed in the phil. n. and more fully in ZATW, 1911, pp. 112 ff.,
and tentatively expressed in the above translation, this is obtained.
Judah (or Israel) has become a busy commercial people thronged
with foreign traders : hence flows wealth, which is expended on
munitions of war and the manufacture of handiwork to which,
instead of Yahweh, the people pay worship. The word D3WD,
conjecturally substituted for D^y and rendered "traders" is
literally Canaanites (cp. Zeph i 11 , Ezk I6 29 , and? Hos i2 8 ; Is
238, Pr 3 1 24 , and ? Zee i4 21 ) a fact which would increase the
suitability of foreigners in the parallel. For the association of the
presence of foreigners with a wealth-producing commerce, cp.
ch. 23, Ezk 27. On the increase of trade in Israel in the sixth
century B.C., see G. A. Smith in EBi. 5174, " the Hebrew prophets
from Amos onwards bear witness to an extraordinary increase of
trade, and to the tempers which grow with it. ... The old agri-
cultural economy is disturbed ; farmers give place on their ancestral
lands to a new class of rich men, who can only have been created
by trade ; and the rural districts are partly depopulated (Is 5 8ff -,
Mic 2 1 ' 5 - 9 ). The sins of trade : covetousness, false weights, and
the oppression of debtors and of the poor, are frequently castigated
(Am 2 6 4 1 8 4ff -, Hos i2 7 , Is 3 5 - 16 5 2 3, Mic 2 and 3)." Like the
Philistines] the appropriateness of the comparison in the text of
J^ or (& is obscure. We have no other indication that the
Philistines were pre-eminent in divination. That the Philistines
consulted oracles (2 K i 2 ) and resorted to magic practices (i S
6 2 ) merely shows that they formed no exception to the general
habits of the ancient world. On the other hand, the Philistines
were great traders, and Gaza was one of the great markets of the
ancient world : cp. G. A. Smith, Hist. Geog., ch. ix. If we retain
the Hebrew text, we may perhaps best explain alike from East
and West (cp. g 11 n 14 ) they borrow their magic customs. The
54 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
particular form of magic expressed by D^y, which is denounced
in Dt i8 10 , Lv ip 26 , and otherwise referred to in Jg 9 37 , Mic 5 11 ,
Is 57 3 , 2 K 2 1 6 , is uncertain; it has been variously explained
from py, a cloud, hence rain-producers, from py, the eye, hence
persons who exercise the power of the evil-eye, a power widely
believed in and dreaded down to the present day in Palestine ;
from the Arabic gunnat, a twang, the hum of insects, hence
diviners as the interpreters of such sounds, or as delivering their
instruction with such sounds, or " singing " * their spells ; and
from the Arabic 'anna, to appear, hence dealers in phenomena
(see references in BDB, s.v.). He strikes bargains with foreigners]
fif they, etc. : the sing, in reference to Jacob, the personified
people, should probably be restored in agreement with the
following clauses. On the degree of uncertainty attaching to the
verb, see phil. n. : the rendering adopted seems at least more
probable than the alternative they abound with ((Sr, AVmarg.). 7.
Whether the previous v. had led up to it or not, we have here
clearly enough a description and tacit condemnation of the
multiplication of material resources (gold, silver, and stores) and
equipment of war (horses, chariots} which had been the result of
the long and successful reign of Jeroboam n. in the N. and of
Uzziah in the S. Isaiah in common with other prophetic writers
condemns these things because they blind men to worthy and
spiritual ideals, which are summed up for him in Yahweh the
Holy One of Israel: cp. 3o 15 ' 17 3I 1 ' 3 , Mic 5 10 , Hos 8 14 , Zee 4
9 10 , Dt i7 16f - (cp. 20 1 ' 4 ), Ps 2o 8 . 8. Idols] the word W>K also
occurs in vv. 18 - 20 io lof - iQ 1 - 8 3i 7 , Ezk 30", Hab 2 18 , Ps 96*
(= i Ch i6 26 ) 97 7 , Lv 19* 26 1 . It often conveys an unmistakable
suggestion of contempt. The meaning of the word as used by
the prophets is sufficiently indicated by the expressions Wtfn 'jn,
worthless shepherds (Zee u 17 ), and ^K 'NBi, good-for-nothing
physicians (Job i3 4 ). It is possible that it was originally a
respectable word for gods,t just as D^D3 must have been for
priests, and that it was the irony of the prophets that associated
it with the adjective ^K, worthless (cp. Syr. ^x^|), or perchance
the negative i>N, perhaps, too, with a play on f>K, strong-, so here,
* Cp. Incantatio, carmen, iraoi8Ji, and see references and illustrations in
J. B. Jevons's Essay, " Graeco-Italian Magic," in Anthropology and the Classics
(ed. R. R. Marett), pp. 94 ff., 99 f.
t See BDB.
II. 7->5 55
his land is full, not of strong ones, but of noughts or good-for-
nothings. The work of his hands . . . that which his fingers
have made] cp. i7 8 , Hos i3 2 . 9. The v. omitted in the transla-
tion above is parallel in sense to v. 11 ; the last clause seems
corrupt ; the first two clauses re-appear in 5 16 , whence perhaps
they were transferred to the present passage, in the first instance
as a marginal parallel : see, further, phil. n. 10. Variants of the
refrain occur in vv. 19 and 21 for which see phil. n. ; on the original
position of the refrain, see above, p. 49. When Yahweh marches
forth on His day, the earth quakes (Jg 5 4 ), or He comes in the
thunder-storm. If from human enemies men run for safety to
the caves (i S i3 6 ), how much more before this foe! cp. Hos
io 8 . From before the terror of Yahweh, and from his glorious
majesty] cp. the expressions of Assyrian conquerors, pul-ha-at
bilu-ti-ia na-mur-rat kakki-ia iz-zu-ti ip-la-hu-ma, "of the terror
of my lordship, the panic of my mighty weapons they were afraid "
(Shalmaneser, Monolith, ii. 19 = KB i. 171); "Him, Hezekiah,
terror of the glory of my lordship (pul-hi mMammf bilu-ti-ia)
overwhelmed" (Sennacherib, Taylor Cylinder, iiL 2<) = KB ii.
95)-
12-17. V. 12 states the general theme of the strophe : Yahweh
on His Day will lay low every lofty object, that His own unique
exaltation may appear (v. 17 ) ; then in detail the prophet pictures
the overwhelming and irresistible might of Yahweh, affecting first
Lebanon (io 34 i4 8 etc.) and Bashan (33 n.), laying low the great
and strong trees that cover them (v. 13 ) and the hills themselves
(v. 14 ), and then the creations of man's pride and confidence
on land, his citadels and walled cities (v. 15 ), and on sea, his
ships (v. 16 ). The line of movement is from the N.E. (Lebanon
N., Bashan E.) : does the prophet think of the Assyrians as
Yah weh's warriors (cp. io 4 )? 15 f. In these verses Isaiah may
have specially in mind, though not exclusively, the towers and
fortifications which Uzziah built and the new sea trade which
resulted from Uzziah's capture of Elath on the Red Sea (2 K
i4 22 ). "Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem over the
corner gate, and over the valley gate, and over the angle (of the
wall), and fortified them," and Jotham " built much on the wall
of Ophel" (2 Ch 26 9 27 3 ; cp. G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, ii. H9f.,
125). 15. Fortified] mi3 means cut off, inaccessible, and so forti-
fied, impregnable (cp. Jer i5 20 ) : cp. " thy high and fortified walls
56 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
wherein thou trustest " (Dt 28 52 ) 16. Ships of TarshisK] ships
fit to make the longest voyages, large ships, consequently ships
with lofty masts. The meaning is obvious from the context here
and in some of the other passages where the phrase occurs (23 L 14
6o 9 , Ezk 27 25 , Ps 48 7 , 2 Ch 9 21 ). ffi either transliterates the
proper name (6o 9 ), or renders by TrXota Kapx^oi/os (23!- 14 ), or, as
perhaps here, by TrAotov QaXao-a-rjs (but see EBi. 4897 n. i); see
also Ezk 27 25 . The best identification of Tarshish still seems
to be Tartessus (236 n.) in Spain at the remote corner of the
ancient world. And against all ... ] the phrase (monn m s 3fc?)
might perhaps (see phil. n.) mean desirable or costly imagery ', but
this does not suit the context, which requires that the phrase
should describe some lofty object; moreover, the analogy of
vv . 13-15 suggests that the phrase should describe something closely
resembling, or intimately connected with, large ships. None of
the various suggested renderings of the phrase, as in f^ or
emended, satisfy both these requirements (see phil. n.). 17. Cp.
v. 11 . 18. But the idols will one and all vanish forms an excellent
antithetical parallel to the third line of v. 17 Yahweh alone will
be exalted-, cp. Ps io2 27 heaven and earth vanish (spn as here:
also Job 9 26 ), Yahweh abides.
Ip. Cp. v. 10 , and see phil. n. When he arises to terrify the
earth\ pxn pyi>, ut terreat terram. Enter into the caves] so v. 10
Or ; f^ and they shall enter, which would mean that the idols will
enter into the caves. 20. An annotation in prose, or, at least, not
in the dominant rhythm of the poem. It explains how the idols
will get into the caves (v. 19 J^). Men perceiving the uselessness
of the idols will throw them away (cp. 3o 22 3i 7 ) to animals that
house in the darkness of caves and holes. Moles] or rats.
The noun msnsn means literally a much-digging (animal). AV,
RV rightly, though without acknowledgment, abandon the
unintelligible MT (ni3 nanf)) and follow U talpes. Bats'] "The
majority of the bats of Palestine (and they are very numerous)
inhabit caves, caverns, tombs, ruins, and disused buildings "
(EBi.}. With the standpoint of this annotator, cp. Bar 6 20f \
" They are as one of the beams of the temple ; and men say
their hearts are eaten out, when things creeping out of the earth
devour both them and their raiment . . . upon their bodies and
heads alight bats, swallows, and birds ; and in like manner the
cats also. Whereby ye may know that they are no gods."-
II. 16-22 57
21. Either a corrupt variant of vv. 10 and 19 (Du.), or the annotator
(v. 20 ) has slightly modified the refrain to convey his meaning
men will cast away the idols so that they, the idols, may find
themselves clefts and crannies (Marti). 22. A still later annota-
tion,* for, unlike v. 20 < 21 >, it is later than (5r, from which the v. is
absent. It is an obvious reflection on the chapter cease to
place confidence in man (cp. Jer i7 6 , Ps i46 8f -), who is of no
account ; but it is the reflection of some reader possessed of
a roll of the prophet rather than (as Di. suggests) of Isaiah
himself when he put ch. 2 and ch. 3 together. In whose nostril is
a breath'] Cp. Gn 2 7 y 22 , Job 278. The breath being given by
God, man lives ; but being withdrawn, he dies (rm, Ps I04 29 ).
The history of the interpretation of the v. is interesting and explains
the rendering of the U, and consequently of some English versions. Jews,
correctly understanding the clause at what is he accounted to mean that he
is of no worth, referred the passage to Christ. Jerome met this not by
denying the reference to Christ, but by placing on the words 3BTU nD3 '3 an
impossible meaning. He points out, correctly, of course, that TO3 may be
pronounced BAMMA at what, or BAMAH, which he interprets cxcelsus (it is, of
course, the (heathen) high place). He renders the whole verse, "Quiescite
ergo ab homine, cuius spiritus in naribus eius : quia excelsus reputatus est
ipse," and comments, "Quisquam ne hominum ita quempiam laudet ut dicat :
cavete ne offendatis eum, qui omnino nihili est? Ergo e contrario sic
intellegendum : Cum haec universa ventura sint vobis, et prophetali spiritu
praedicantur, moneo atque praecipio, ut quiescatis ab eo qui secundum
carnem quidem homo est, et habet animam, et ita spirat, et naribus halitum
trahit ut nos homines spiramus et vivimus : sed secundum divinam majestatem
excelsus et est et reputatur et creditur. Tacita mecum mente pertractans, non
possum invenire rationem quare LXX tarn perspicuam de Christo prophetiam
in Graecum noluerint vertere. Caeteri enim, qui verterunt quidem, sed
sermonem ambiguum ad impietatis traxere sensum, non mirum cur male
interpretati sint, nee voluerint de Christo gloriosum quid dicere in quern
non credebant : videlicet Judaei aut Semijudaei, id est, Ebionitae."
6. iny nntfoj] For the form nnro:, see G-K. 44^-. & (2L) reads avfJKev
yap rbv \abv atirov. It is disputed whether this represents a real Hebrew
variant ID? Btw (so Mar. ; cp. Du.) or not (Che. SBOT). (& fits the
context better, for nowhere else throughout the entire passage is Yahweh
addressed, except in a probably corrupt clause (v. 9 ). On the other hand, it
is difficult to account for the derivation of f^ from (Jr's reading. If the
stichos be editorial (Che.), J^ may be right ; but if part of the poem, <& is to be
preferred. If the text were substantially correct a suggestion of W. R.
Smith in a letter to Che. (SBOT) would deserve attention; this is, that n
(lost by haplography after m.v) should be prefixed to '3, so as to give a
* So Che. (following Studer : see SBOT), Du., Marti, Cond.
58 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
sentence of the form of Mic 4 9 and of the same tenour as Ezk 8 12 , Jer 2 5 , 2 K i 8 .
3py] (Hr 'lo-pa^X. IN^D] (& ^veirX^a-dij, i.e. tbo or rather ni^D, since fflc
read WIK after mpo. Dipc] fflr ws rd dir' dpx^s (cp. U&<&) perhaps freely for
|, or reading mpD3 ; after dpx^s, (5r continues ^ X^P a avrwi> ({ p3jnN)=iJnN
(cp. v. 7 ), and then for D'33yi has k\Trj8ovi<rfj,Qv, i.e. D^jy without the waw.
Apparently, then, (Br's Hebrew text read Q'ny UTIK DipD2 JIN^D 3 ; this is
probably nearer at least to the original text than ffi MT, which arose from
the accidental loss of ptf in D'33yi:nx and the subsequent change of HN^D
into ixta If <5r read mpD3, the 3 also dropped out. But <& even is
scarcely the original text. Possibly mpD3 is a corrupt dittograph of nK^os.
This would leave a better sentence than f^, but substantially the same sense :
their land is full of enchanters like the Philistines. If the allusion to
enchanters is rightly suspected (see comm.), we may conjecture that D'33y is an
error for D'ayjs, traffickers ; by also omitting D'nB^s>3 we should obtain, finally,
a line not only parallel to the probable sense of, but rhythmically equal to,
I,TSB" Dn33 nV3l. That the clauses D'ne'Wn D^yi Dipo I*?D '3 are in some
measure corrupt is generally admitted ; the emendation most usually adopted,
since the time of Lowth, has been the insertion of DDpD or 'Dop or D'DDp before
mpo, or the substitution of one of these words for Dipo ; but there are serious
objections to this widely accepted emendation: (i) IM^D with a personal
subject and a personal object is improbable ; (2) the emendation fails to
explain (K, and falls to the ground if ffir's text, which contains an object tor
iKta, be correct ; (3) D'jw^fla O'Hin is left awkwardly limping, if a second
object of IN^D, and inelegant, though abstractly possible (Dr. 135 (6)), if it
be a new predicate ; (4) DTIB^M . . . IN^D '3 is too long for one line, somewhat
too short for two, and if two lines, the following line is left isolated. D'jajn]
if the text be correct (but see last n. ), D'Hy is Poel part, without the performa-
tive D, as in Jer 27 ; G-K. 52*. ip'ssr on3J n^3i] D'IDJ n*?', if the text is
correct, must be a unique variant of 133 '33 or on33 ; it scarcely means
young foreigners ^(Di.). Hitz. proposed n'5 for n^3. The vb. pats", to suffice,
occurs once in the Kal in a North Palestinian source (i K 2O 10 ), and the noun
psff, sufficiency, in Job 2O 22 ; the vb. also occurs in the late Heb. of Ecclus.
(39 s3 (Kal), 39 16 42" (Hiph.)), and pflD is common in Aramaic. The use by
Isaiah of a vb. with such a history is not very probable, though it was natural
for (fix to assume its use. It is safer to suppose that pat? here = pso (G-K.
6k) ; this (with D'fls) means to strike hands (in anger, Nu 24, or mockery,
La 2 15 , Job 27 23 ) ; cp. <jL(Lj, and the citation by Lane (Arab. Diet. 1373)
of the tradition "jjy. J ,2JL means the striking of hands of the
contracting parties on the occasion of selling and buying in token of ratifica-
tion thereof in the markets" Unless we adopt Hitz.'s emendation we
must suppose that pst?(n) is here a breviloquence for D'S3 pst?(n), cp.
Pr II 15 =13 ypn, Pr I7 18 22 s6 , and the alternative expressions
H Jo ,<} /*^> an d t&e (Lane, p. 1700), meaning to strike hands in
concluding a bargain: cp. also dji^, (i) a striking of the hands, (2)
a contract. The most suspicious thing in the present text is the prep, a : we
II. 6-i 8 59
should rather expect V or oy. 7. *? nxp pm] Nah 2 10 . 8. D'^K unx
very probably a parallel line has fallen out : Du. suggests vnnxyV n*p pm.
yinw] read mnnj?', note VT : otherwise explain by G-K. 145*7. 9. DIK nr'i
cn^ Ktrn *?i ff'K *?BB>'i] a^ w mankind is bowed down and man humbled'.
the consequences of v. s , though actually appertaining to the future, are
described as though they had already ensued (Dr. Tenses 8 , p. 94) : and (there-
fore) do thou (Yahweh) not forgive them, a poetical way of expressing and
therefore shall they not be forgiven (Dr. 57). So with some ingenuity, but
without probability, $} may be explained. It is difficult to believe that
vv. 9 ' lu - b are anything but corrupt variants of the refrain which occurs in
nearly its original form in vv. 17 - 18 . Yet another variant probably occurs in
5 15 : there the first four words are as here, but instead of the almost certainly
corrupt on 1 ? Km VKI, 5 15 has ru^srn DM3J 'J'jn. For Ktrn, <K has dvj<ru =
KPN. 10. The refrain occurs with variants in v. 19 : it is improbable that the
rhythmical dissimilarity of the two occurrences of the refrain is original ; since
the rhythm was probably 3 : 3, restore nnyo (or nnpj, cp. v. 21 ) and rv6nD as
in v. 19 . Moreover, read 1*0 (ffi : cp. v. 19 ) for KU and UDon for pen : in v. 19
supply from here UDtsn before m^no. At the end of the v. (Br read pyS iDipa
p as in vv. 19 - 21 $%. inNJ vino] for similar combinations of synonyms,
cp. Ps I45 8 - ia : J. Kennedy proposes UIKJ nym? (cp. I S I4 18 ) : unnecessary ;
see Che. SBOT. xi. Ssr mnnj ry] G-K. itfa : but the text is probably
corrupt. See on v. 9 . Kim ovn] rhythmically redundant and probably an
editorial addition ; but the refrain should be completed as in m by restoring
here IS^rr *?^3 abbtOn. 12. Wi] (5r Kal ficrtupov ical raTreivud^a-ovTai, of
which the first two words = ?33) or a word of a similar sense. The parallel
suggests that this was right ; Kal TO.TT. rendered Vsn after it had come into
the text. 13. D'Kwm DTnn] Sta., Marti omit : the words are rhythmically
redundant and they weaken the sense, for cedars of Lebanon being the tallest
of their kind need no epithet (cp. " ships of Tarshish" without epithet).
16. monn nvar] mon means that which is desirable, or, by a slight and
easy transference of meaning, precious, costly (see 2 Ch 36 10 "all the costly
furniture " of the temple ; cp. Hag 2 7 ). But the art. is suspicious : ct. 'Va
mon regularly : possibly monn as well as nrDe> is corrupt. The idea of
desirableness or costliness does not elsewhere in this strophe interrupt the
monotonous expression of the idea of loftiness, nvae' together with nvDtfD,
the only other derivative of the root found in OT (see Nu 33 B1 n.), is
explained by the Aram. KDD, to look out, look for, expect. Meanings that
have been suggested are imagery (EV : cp. notfD in Nu. ; and (& here Kal wl
Trdo-av 6tav ir\ol<av Kd\\ovs), watch towers (? & (^0?, Ew., RVmarg. ), flags
(of ships as being conspicuous ; Ges. Thes. ). Other renderings presumably
based on the text, but either questionable, or paraphrastic, are palaces ({), 1J
quod visu pulchrum est (for both words). The most interesting emendation
suggested in rors7=:nrsD (Jon I 5 ), ships (Siegfried-Stade) ; while Bennett
(see BDB, s.v.) and others have suggested that nvojy itself may have been
a term for a particular kind of ship: cp. Che. in SBOT, who ultimately
prefers to read monn mD3 ; both emendations half, but only half, meet the
case (see comm. above). 18. ^rr S'Sa D*V*Wm] exactly equal rhythmically
to the first two lines of v. 17 and also to the last line, if we omit KWI DV3 as
60 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
editorial. Restore 1*0 laW (Marti) ; this gives at once the pi. vb. required
after D*7*7mi (cp. (3r KaroLKptyovvLv) and the imper. at the beginning of
v. 19 corresponding to v. 10 . V'Va is ace. (cp. G-K. 118, 5) in entirety, all
together, one and all ', cp. \*J>.*s>- ipi\j]\ as a variant on (uAJ^ _A*>-
(Wright, Ar. Gram. ii. 826), and, e.g., lxA*s>- Vr*^' & f ort ^ a ^ together
(Kor. 4, 73), *J^>- ^i j j i<^' ww/ ^ ***? shal1 al1
have entered therein (ib. 6, 36). 20. WJ7] subj., ace. to Hitz., Di., is M^/, viz.
the craftsmen : improbable. Either VT has dropped out (cp. 3i 7 ), or the vb.
was sing. nj?y, scarcely ityy (Lag., Du.) with retention of the original 3rd
radical (cp. G-K. 75^). (ffir also has no equivalent for i 1 ?. nns nsnV] the
correct Massoretic text, though a few Hebrew MSS have gone back to the
original reading of ^ nnsnan 1 ?. (5r (TOJS /wircuois) clearly read one word
only : so Theod. 0a/>0a/>w0 '. For meanings that have been suggested for the
impossible nns nan 1 ?, see Ges., Di. ; for the nominal form msisn, G-K. S^n.
22. JO i^in] So with different nuances, Ex I4 12 , I S 9 5 , Pr 23*, Job 7 16 , 2 Ch
35 21 . anj] with gerundive force, G-K. i\6e. noa] *pretii\ G-K. IIQ/.
III. I-I 5 .
This section has been commonly regarded as a single con-
tinuous whole. More probably, as Du. has suggested, it consists
of two poems, (i) vv. 1 ' 12 , (2) vv. 13-15 ; the first has been enlarged
by the incorporation of notes and parallels, the second perhaps
lacks its conclusion.
The reasons for supposing that there are two poems here
are briefly these: (i) v. 13 constitutes an obviously suitable
commencement of a poem ; (2) the attitude towards the rulers in
vv. 1 ' 5 and v. 14 is different ; the point of the former verses is that
the rulers are to be removed, and that their removal will cause
the fall of the state, the point of the latter that the conduct of
the rulers has brought Yahweh to judgment ; (3) a marked
difference of rhythm and structure.
In vv. 18 ' 15 a consistent rhythm is very clearly maintained (3 : 3) and in
three out of the four couplets the lines are parallel in sense ; in vv. 1 ' 12
no single rhythm is maintained throughout in the present text, but the
dominant rhythm is 3 : 2 ; see v. 1 (to ruyc'Di, two distichs), v. 5 (two distichs),
v. 8 (to Ssa) ; v. 4 is ambiguous 3 : 2 (MX) or 3 : 3. Another good 3 : 2
distich may be obtained by transposing 7e and reading psp 'JD'BTrnV
Ban n\lN"N7 | QV. The interruption of the 3 : 2 rhythm may be partly, or
entirely, due to textual corruption and interpolation ; but whether this
be so or not, there is certainly but little of the rhythm and parallelistic
II. 20-22 AND III. 1-15 6l
structure of w. 1 ** 18 invv. 1 ' 12 ; it appears only in v. 12 and possibly also v. 4 ;
vv. 10 ' n divide into periods of three accents, but the periods of parallelism
are 6 : 6. Thus, judged by rhythm alone, v. 1 - might go with vv. 13 ' 10 ;
but if 1 ' 1 * is not continuous, the new start in v. 13 obviously marks the main
division.
III. I-I2. A Prophecy of Anarchy in Judah.
Rhythm. Irregular, but in vv. 1 * 8 the distichs shown in the translation are
mostly 3 : 2, in 10 * n they are 6 : 6. See more fully just above.
1 For behold the Lord
Yahweh of Hosts
Is removing from Jerusalem and Judah
Staff and stay.
2 The whole staff of bread and the whole staff of water. The mighty man
and the warrior, the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the
elder ; 8 the captain of fifty and the man of repute and the counsellor
and the skilled in magic arts and the expert in charms.
4 And I will give youths to be their captains,
And caprice shall rule over them ;
* And the people shall tyrannise man over man,
Yea, each one over his neighbour;
The youth shall act rudely towards the old man,
And the lightly esteemed towards the highly respected.
6 When a man shall lay hold on his fellow,
In whose father's house is a mantle (saying,)
Come, thou shalt b our ruler,
And this ruin shall be under thine hand,
7 He shall make utterance in that day, saying,
I will not be a binder up,
For in my father's house there is no bread,
And there is no mantle;
Ye shall not make me ruler of the people;
8 For Jerusalem hath stumbled,
And Judah hath fallen;
For their tongue and their deeds are against Yahweh,
(?) Provoking the eyes (?) of His glory.
Their partiality hath witnessed against them,
And they have given evidence of their sin like Sodom
without concealing ought.
62 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Woe to themselves, for they have done themselves harm.
10 ' Happy is ' the righteous, for he is fortunate : for they
eat the fruit of their doings.
11 Woe to the unrighteous : he is unfortunate : for the
dealing of his hands is done unto him.
12 The taskmasters of my people deal cruelly,
And exactors of usury rule them.
O my people, thy guides mislead,
And confound the way of thy paths.
The main theme of the foregoing verses is as follows :
Yahweh is on the point of removing from Judah all those who
give stability to the state by the discharge of civil or military
duties, or by advice. All effective administration will then come
to an end, violence will pervail, age and character will no longer
command respect, and, even if appealed to, men of standing and
substance will refuse to act as leaders. This imminent and cer-
tain collapse of the state (vv. 1 - 7 ) is Yahweh's judgment on His
people for evil ways and unblushing sins (vv. 8 *').
As a matter of fact this theme is exhausted in w. W)b , and indeed is
sufficiently presented in the rhythmically similar distichs (3 : 2) within
vv. 1 ' 9 . Vv. 4t 9a ' 12 may be sayings that had at one time another setting.
The last clauses of v. 1 have been generally, and rightly, regarded as
a gloss (see below) : and some (cp. Che. Introd. 17) consider that the
catalogue in vv. 2 *-, which seems to be in prose, has been interpolated or at
least expanded.
For all that is known the main theme of vv. 1 ' 12 might have
been handled at many periods of Isaiah's life. The argument
drawn from vv. 4 - 12 that these verses were written in anticipation,
or at the beginning, of the reign of Ahaz, is very precarious (see
comm.); and not much less so Hackmann's argument (p. 122)
that the wickedness of which Isaiah speaks must have been
long observed by him and in vain denounced, to account for his
certainty of ruin.
I. For} the '3 links 3 1 ' 15 to 2 6ff - (Marti), or 222 (Di.), but is
perhaps editorial, and was possibly absent from the text of (3*
(see phil. n.). The Lord Yahweh of Hosts] i 24 n. Jerusalem
and Judah} cp. i 1 n. Staff and stay] all means of support
whatsoever, all "pillars of the state" (cp. iQ 13 , Jg 2o 2 , i S i4 38 ,
Zee io 4 ): EV by its alliteration happily secur^ some similarity
III. 1-3 63
to the original (see phil. n.). "Staff and stay" appears to
receive two explications : first, in the clause every staff of bread
and every staff of water, it is interpreted of what supports
physical life; the removal or breaking of such a staff means
famine, see Lv 26 26 , Ezk 4 16 5 16 i4 13 (where staff is ntDO, not jytttD).
Since there is no further suggestion of famine (except, at most
subsidiarily, in v. 7 ), but the entire prophecy turns on the removal
of the staff as next explained, this clause is generally considered
to be a gloss supplied by a reader who was familiar with Ezekiel,
and who saw in the present passage a prophecy of the famine that
accompanied the Fall of Jerusalem in 586.* 2. 3. An enumera-
tion of typical pillars of state, military, judicial, religious ; vv. 4 *
the social disorder and confusion which follows when every such
staff and stay (v. 1 ) is removed. The pillars of state are enumer-
ated mostly in pairs, but in a curious order, or lack of order ; v. 8
contains a second and similar series rather than a continuation of
the series begun in v. 2 , yet scarcely of less important though
similar officials (Di.), for the classes mentioned second and third in
v. 8 are certainly important Further, the enumeration is of persons
whom the prophet's audience accounted sources of strength:
" diviners " and " charmers " could never have appeared such to
Isaiah himself, and indeed his fundamental thought here as in ch. 2
is that Yahweh alone is the true strength of Judah ; in alienating
Him and thus losing His support, the people work their own fall
and ruin (v. 8 ). The mighty man and the man of war] cp. Ezk
39 20 where the prefixing of " all " to the second term (nonta B*N)
suggests that the first (lUJ) denotes the soldier under some
aspect ot superiority, whether the veteran or soldier in command
(Di.), or the soldier by profession, Berufsoldat (Ges-B.), a
member of the bodyguard as distinguished from the man who
simply takes to arms in time of war (cp. 2 S 23 8 , Jer 5 16 ). In
view of such passages as i S i6 18 ly 83 , 2 S i; 8 , the distinction,
if it ever existed apart from the suggestion of the context, was
scarcely well-marked. The diviner] the term Dpp denotes a
person who obtained information by divination, as, for example,
by drawing lots with arrows (Ezk 2i 26f - ( 21f ->); the practice is
directly or tacitly condemned whenever it is referred to in OT
(cp. e.g. Dt i8 lof '). See fuller notes in Numbers, 329, 355. 3.
Captain of fifty] may be intended to refer typically to petty
*So, or substantially so, Ges., Hitz., Di., Che., Du., Cond., Marti.
64 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
military officers : or possibly f^ should be differently punctu-
ated and the term rendered " captain of the armed men " (see
phil. n.). The man of repute] lit. he whose face is lifted up (NlBO
D'OQ), the person whose reputation rests on actual achievement
rather than on mere occupation of office ; cp. 2 K 5 1 , Naaman
not only held high office, but enjoyed a high repute because of
his victories over Israel; the phrase also occurs in 9 W , Job 22 8
(II WT S^N). The counsellor] an important person see i 20 9 5
I9 11 , Mic 4 9 , Job 3 14 i2 17 . The skilled in magic arts] so with
RVmarg. rather than the cunning artificer or craftsman,
see phil. n. The expert in charms] or, more literally, he that
has understanding of whispering charms ; the adjectives (DDn,
}133) used in the two parallel clauses are frequently combined
(Gn 4I 88 - 89 Dt i 18 4 6 , i K 3 12 ). The noun vrb, starting from the
sense of whispering, found in the vb. in 2 S i2 19 , Ps 41*, and
in Aram, and Eth., came to be used specifically of the speech of
the serpent-charmer (Ec lo 11 , cp. Ps 58 6 ), and then, as apparently
here, more widely of charms or spells (cp. 3 20 ).
4. And I will make youths their captains] the sudden intro-
duction between w. 1 " 8 and w. 5ff * of Yahweh speaking in the first
person is strange : the v. is possibly not in its original position
(see above). Captain] "it? as in v. 2 . And caprice shall rule
them] abstract for concrete capricious persons. The kind of
conduct intended by D^yn is illustrated less by the only other
occurrence of the noun (66 4 ) than by some uses of the vb.
(Wtynn), which means to treat some one (maliciously) for one's own
pleasure, with the result that they are made to look ridiculous, or
lose character (Nu 22 s9 , Ex io 2 , i S 6 fl , Jg iQ 25 ). The noun seems
to denote here the habit of mind that leads to action guided
by no sound or grave reason. If this v. stands in its original
position, it repeats the thought of vv. 2 ' 8 under another form.
" In removing the elders he virtually makes youths captains over
them " (Di.). The terms are quite general, and there is no good
reason for detecting, as many do, a specific allusion to Ahaz, who
succeeded to the throne in 735 B.C. at the age of twenty (2 K i6 2 ) ;
and if there were any such allusion, it would be to the prospect
(Che. Introd. 18 f.) of such a succession, not (as Del. and others
assume) to the actual reign of Ahaz : the tenses in vv. 1 " 6 naturally
refer to the future. 5. Political and moral anarchy. Respect
for the old is a duty coupled in Lv 1 9 32 with the fear of God.
III. 6-8 65
6-8. In this condition of things, when the state is obviously
falling to pieces, authority and leadership will no longer be
desired, but will be refused even by those upon whom it is
thrust. When a man lays hold on his clansman in whose father's
house is a mantle (saying), Come] the words may also be trans-
lated, When a man lays hold on his clansman in his father's house
(saying), Thou hast a mantle : the first translation is supported
by the reply in my fathers house there is . . . no mantle (v. 7 ).
Clansman] not brother in the limited English sense of the word,
for note his (not, their) father ; and below (v. 7 ) my (not, our).
In his father's house'] if this be the right translation (see above),
the suggestion is that in this evil time men keep at home and
need to be dragged into public (cp. Am 5 18 ). Does it also
imply that the man addressed is a person of family who lives in
his own ancestral home ? Or should we draw just the opposite
conclusion, viz. that authority goes begging (cp. 4 1 ) to the
lower classes, to those who are singled out by the mere
possession of a mantle? Or is mantle here a robe of office,
and the meaning : you belong to a family which has furnished
officers of state?* This ruin] the overthrown mass (n^3Dn)
caused by the fall of the state (cp. rrw r6s?a, v. 8 ). Under thy
hand] or authority: cp. Gn i6 9 and (T nnnio) Ex i8 10 . The
phrase is parallel to thou shalt be ruler in the previous line :
cp. " Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a
king over themselves," 2 K 8 20 . *J. A binder up] of wounds or
fractures received by the state in its fall (fifeoo, v. 8 : r6pa, v. 8 ) ;
cp. i 6 3o 26 , Hos 6 1 . 8. The reason for the imminent and, as
the prophetic perfects in line a imply, certain fall of the state is
the opposition of the people to Yahweh in both word and deed.
On the strange style of line b, see phil. n. 9. Their partiality]
lit. their regard for faces, viz. in dispensing justice. This is
certainly the most obvious interpretation ; f it assumes that the
nominal phrase DfTOQ man follows the meaning of D^S "Pan in
Dt i 17 i6 19 , Pr 24 23 28 21 . On the ground that the entire people
rather than the judicial class alone is here condemned many
consider the interpretation unsuitable, and rather hazardously
propose either (i) the show (or, appearance) of their faces, \ or
the examination of their faces; or (2) their impudence : but
* Marti. f QT&, RVmarg., Du., Marti, Che.
t Di., AV, Ges., Del., Cond. Joseph Kimhi, Di.
VOL. I. 5
66 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(2) assumes that man is from V"On (Job i9 3 t), itself of most
uncertain meaning (BDB); cp. & alcrxyvrj. Some such
meaning as the last would no doubt give a good parallel to the
following line, and would be acceptable if it were philologically
better supported : the whole v. would then mean : they are
shameless as the men of Sodom in their sin.
pc, 10, II. General moral reflections. "The connec-
tion is certainly rather loose and . . . Isaiah is here merely
putting together in writing leading ideas of prophecy" (Di.);
but the sayings may be later than the age of Isaiah, and probably
are if Du. is right, as he well may be, in detecting here (ct. vv. 1 ' 9 )
a well-marked doctrine of individual retribution, and in the
righteous and the unrighteous the pious observer and the
careless disregarder of the Law respectively. II. The dealing
of his hands'} Jg 9 16 , Pr i2 14 : for the idea that as a man deals he
is dealt with, see 33 1 (of nations).
12. Misgoverned and misled. The first distich describes
the pitiable state of Yahweh's people due to the cruelties of
severe rulers and money-lenders (ffir), or to the caprice of
incompetent rulers boys (cp. v. 4 ) and women (MT, EV).
Those who adopt the latter interpretation find an allusion here
to Ahaz and his harem. Here as in v. 4 Yahweh is the speaker,
and, as probably there, the rhythm (3 : 3) is unlike that which
most prevails in vv. 1 ' 9 . Unlike v. 4 which predicts, this distich
describes an existing state of things. c. d. The change from the
3rd pers. of description to the 2nd of address suggests that the
two couplets of v. 12 may come from different poems. A variant
of this one occurs, probably out of place, in g 15 .
I. run 3](0r ISofi 5iJ, possibly -=njn without '3, cp. 22" lo 33 and also I3 9
62 11 where run is rendered t'5oi> ydp. TDD . . . run] of the imminent future :
Dr. 135 (3). mirrDi D^ITD] in <5r (except B) the order is reversed : cp. i 1
2 1 in f^ ; but ct. 3 8 both dfr and ffy. nwoi jys?D] masc. and fern, forms
combined to exhaust an idea : see Kon. iii. 91, who cites Nah 2 13 , Ex 35 22 ,
Is II 12 , 2 S I9 26 , and Ges. on this passage, who cites Arabic examples, such as
X ^ )), -*' <y L, he has neither male nor female sheep, i.e. nothing at
all. Neither -ruytra nor (thus pointed) jy.tf'p occurs again: with jypp (cstr. ),
cp. 2 S 22 19 =Ps i8 19 f. ^31 . . . Va] ffi omits ^3 in both clauses. 2. inj]
(8x ylyavra /cat Iffx^ovra, scarcely a real variant, but the last two words in ffi
may be a dittograph from v. 1 , or a doublet. 3. D'tPDn nt?] the versions
anticipate the D'^pq of MT with which Haupt (SBOT) compares the Assyr.
rob franJa. Che. (after Sta.) points QTOD the armed men; for DTP^n, see
III. I-I2 67
Ex I3 18 , Jos I 14 4 ia , Jg 7", and cp. Ges-B. 18 pp. 239/5, 2400, with references
there given. pyvi D'3S KIPJI] (5r ical Bav^arbv ff6/j.ftov\ov (cp. 9) : instead of
the two terms of J^, ffi probably had but one : we should perhaps omit fyvi (Gun.
in Sievers), then v. 4 would consist of pairs of grammatically symmetrical terms ;
it cannot safely be claimed (Marti) that (Br omits Q'JS Kirn, for cp. Te0ai//*eur-
fdvos Trpocrd)Tr(f = 's Kit?3 in 2 (4) K 5 1 . D'tnn Dam] H sapientem de architects ;
and, but that the superlative would be out of place, ^ might certainly mean
the cunningest craftsman (G-K. 133,^, //). But the gen. is rather that of
improper annexion (G-K. 128*) and O'tnn pi. of an assumed sing, rnn,
meaning crafts, handiwork (cp. EV), or, more probably, in view of the
following clause, magic arts : cp. _;_*, to practise magic ; see, further, BDB.
4. D'ViSyn] abstract pi. ; G-K. 85^5. b:m] generally taken to be Niphal,
with reciprocal sense (G-K. $id) of fcoa, to drive (to work : 58 3 ), be a task-
master (cp. Ex 3 7 ) or a ruler ; especially a foreign or oppressive ruler (9* I4 4 ).
The Niph. with a different force occurs in 53', I S I3 8 (? J4 24 ). B>JJ read by
8 MSS is not preferable. The Versions read differently or rendered inade-
quately (5r /cai 0-vfj.ireo-eiTai, QL jnjm, & \\&\ 1O. 6. man n^BODm] ffi
apparently read 'J^3ci wrong ; note wV, plural suf., in the previous clause.
naV] either $> + 2nd sing. m. suff. as in Gn 2J 37 , 2 S iS 22 (G-K. 103^- and Qid),
or 2nd sing. impr. of -]Sn with emphatic ending (G-K. 48z). 8. nnD ( ?]=niTDn l ?
(G-K. 53^), but many of the alleged instances of this syncope are questionable.
mo, to be contentious, rebellious (towards], is commonly used either absolutely
or with a personal, or virtually personal (mi), object, or with an ace. signifying
a command : 'jy if='ry is a strange object for the vb. The sentence DJ16 % D
. . . TTQD 'jy is rhythmically overloaded and awkward, whether with Di. we
interpret their tongue and their deeds are in relation to Yahweh of such a
kind that they must provoke, etc., or with Du. al. assume that VK stands for
^y. (Sr renders icai al y\&<ro'ai a'urwv /terA avoplas, ra irpos Ktipiov diret^oOvres.
diori vvv tTaireivuQi] ^ d6a afrruv, which may point to the presence between
nno 1 ? and 'Jy of some letters now lost in J^ (cp. J5&). For '3y, ffir probably
read ruy, & py; neither variant is preferable to f^ or supports Gratz's
conjecture '3B. The scriptio defectiva 'jy for 'vy (read by a few Heb. MSS) is
suspicious, though it occurs in Phoenician : see Lidzbarski, NSE 339, Eph.
i. 158. 10. 3io '3 pn* TICK] awkward, even if 3 is=3ri recitative (BDB
471^ bottom), p'ls subj. of 210 prefixed for emphasis (cp. Gn iS 20 , Dt 3I 29 ,
Mic 5 4 ), and me means fortunate, prosperous (Jer 44 17 , Ps II2 5 ) Say ye
the righteous is fortunate. Lowth, al. read "WK for VIDN, which makes aio D
rather superfluous. ffi renders curiously or from a fuller text elir6vTes
A^o-w/tef (Wis 2 12 "&ve5peti(T(i)fjLCi>) TOV diicaiov, tin Suo'xp^o'Tos yfuv foriv.
II. yn ]}v~b "IN] rather awkward whether ynV be connected with "IK or with
jn. 12. ^lyo] " V?iy 103," Ki. ; but there is no other instance of S^iyo for the
frequently occurring ^y, child. This interpretation is as ancient as Symm.,
and has been adopted by a stream of interpreters since ; a slight variation of it
Is obtained by treating SViyo as part. Poel of an otherwise unknown denom.
vb. from S^y, child, meaning to act the child (BDB 760^). W. R. Smith
cited by Che. (SBOT) attempted to obtain a less questionable basis for this
interpretation by emending *?ViyD vrjj into SViy crjj. In spite of the lack of
68 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
an expressed object it is more probable that ^SiyD is part. Poel of ?7y, to
glean (<Hr3T3f>, Aq., Theod., U spoliaverunt^ or to act with severity towards
(Marti, Cond.). For the sing. pred. distributing the pi. subj. (VB>:IJ), see, e.g.,
Gn 27 29 and, further, G-K. 1457. Others take VBUJ as //. majestatis (G-K.
I24>6), referring to a single person. D'sw] <&, Aq. 01 dbrcuroiWes, QT N3in "ID,
Theod. daveta-rat, i.e. DTJ (so Houb., Marti, Cond.); <5> (-A-3, U mulieres,
i.e. D'Sty MT, Rashi, Ki., and most moderns. T"nn -pi] the expression
is curious : but Q5c scarcely suggests a real variant (T^JT 'i)> and Cheyne's
omission of Tn on rhythmical grounds is very unsafe in view of the varieties of
rhythm in the chapter : $? is an excellent balanced distich. TnrriN] for Tnn"|N
lengthened vowel due to T and the counter tone : Sta. 109. ij? 1 ?^] by a bold
figure, paths, of which all trace had been obliterated, might perhaps have been
described as swallowed up. But we may infer that jta, to swallow up,
developed, or a distinct root (allied to ^3) furnished, the meaning to confuse,
confound, see 28* g 15 ig s , Ps loy 27 55 ; Barth, Beitrdge, 4!
III. 13-15. A Judgment Scene.
The rhythm is 3 : 3 ; in three of the four distichs the lines are parallel
in sense. The concluding formula is a monostich of three accents.
18 Yahweh is taking his stand to plead,
And is standing to judge 'his people 1 ;
14 Even Yahweh will enter into judgment
With the elders and princes of his people.
"And ye, ye have depastured the vineyard,
What ye have plundered from the poor is in your
houses :
16 What mean ye that ye crush my people,
And grind the faces of the poor?"
Is the oracle of the Lord Yahweh of Hosts.
The prophet sees Yahweh in the act (2J, *TO, participles,
Dr. 135) of taking up His position as judge (v. 13 ); so far it is
the fact that a judgment scene is opening that the order of the
words emphasises. But in v. 14 the emphasis changes : it is on
the judge ; it is none other than Yahweh who comes, and He
comes to call to account the rulers of His people. Then in vv. 14c - d
i5a. b j^e lays the charge which opens with effective abruptness
and ye ye rulers, the very persons appointed to protect the
p OOr y e have robbed and wronged them.
The more elaborate judgment scene of Mic 6 1 opens also
more elaborately. Cp., too, the opening of the judgment scene
of Ps 82.
III. I3-IV. i 69
13. His people] so rightly ffi ; cp. v. 14 ; J^ peoples, which Du.
explains, unsatisfactorily, of the Hebrew tribes ; the reading has
rather arisen from the desire to turn the particular judgment of
Israel into a world judgment. 14. The elders] representatives
of the families, survivals from the earlier clan-constitution of
Israel The princes] the officials of the royal government. Ye
have depastured the vineyard] perhaps a proverbial expression
(Du.) : if the vineyard were used figuratively of the Hebrew
people or state, perhaps we should have had my vineyard (so ffi).
In either case the meaning is instead of tending the vineyard, as
true guardians should have done, so that the shoots of the vines
should not be eaten off by intruding animals, they have used it
recklessly for their own immediate profit (cp. v. 14d ) by letting loose
their own animals to eat it down. Grind the faces] the verb fPlB
is commonly used of grinding corn between the mill-stones.
The poor] here plural, in v. w singular collective.
14. an*o] cp. 'JKi, Ps 2'. omya] cp. ij?3 in 5* where the parallel ODTD and
the context (cp. 5 5 n.) suggest that ijn refers to destruction by animals (cp.
Ex 22 4 ?). Depasture may be a specific development of the meaning exter-
minate (4* n. 6 13 , Nu 24 M ), or lya, to depasture, may have been originally a
distinct root; see, further, Addenda. n^ta] G-K. 95/4. 'ayn n 1 ?^] plunder
taken from the poor ; cp. 1'3'K tyv, spoil taken from thine enemies^ Dt 2O 14 ;
G-K. 128^. D^C] G-K. 37 c. 15. man* . . . OKJ] (Hr omits.
III. i6-IV. i. The Doom of the Ladies of Jerusalem.
The lines in most of these distichs are parallel in sense, but the rhythm
varies : in 3 1W * 4 1 and probably in 3 20 also (note the echoing parallelism) it is
still predominantly and was once perhaps exclusively, an echoing rhythm ;
but the lines balance (3 : 3 or 4 : 4) in 3 240 - * x certainly, and in 3 24a - b if
nvn be disregarded and .vrrpD makkephed : so also, if these verses be not
prose, in 3 18 - 23 and in 3 s5 , if imuji be read as two accents (Sievers).
16 Because they are haughty
The daughters of $ion,
And go with outstretched necks,
And ogling with their eyes;
Yea, go tripping ever as they go,
And jingling with their feet:
17 The Lord shall smite with a scab the scalps of the
daughters of ion,
And Yahweh shall lay bare their shame (?).
7O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
18 In that day the Lord will turn away the finery of the anklets and the
net-bands (?) and the moons, 19 the ear-rings and the bracelets and the veils,
20 the head-dresses and the armlets and the sashes and the perfume-boxes and
the charms, 21 the signet-rings and the nose-rings, ^ the state-gowns and the
mantles and the shawls and the satchels (?), K the diaphanous garments and
the linen garments and the turbans and the large veils. 24 And it shall come
to pass,
Instead of perfume there shall be rottenness,
And instead of a girdle a rope ;
And instead of workmanship of hair well dressed (?), baldness,
And instead of a rich dress girding of sackcloth,
Branding instead of beauty.
25 Thy men shall fall by the sword,
And thy mighty in the battle.
26 Its gates shall mourn and lament,
And it shall be clean empty sitting on the ground.
4 1 And seven women shall lay hold
On a single man in that day,
Saying, We will eat our own bread,
And wear our own mantle:
Only be thy name called over us;
Take away our reproach.
The ladies of Jerusalem, who now spend their days walking
about the city, casting wanton looks, and calling attention to
themselves, will be smitten with unclean disease and exposed to
insult (vv. 16f -) ; they will be deprived of all their choice clothing,
perfumes, amulets, and knick-knacks (w. 18 ' 23 ) ; instead they will
become offensive, will feceive coarse clothing and turn bald
(v. 24 ) : in the city, which will have lost its men in battle (v. 25 )
and be lying empty and desolate (v. 26 ), seven women will think
themselves fortunate if they can find a single man to take them
into his possession without providing them with either food or
clothing.
The fates of the women are alternatives: for the seven
women of 4 1 are scarcely the leprous women of 3 17 .
Possibly these alternatives did not originally appear in the same poem.
Rhythmical differences in 3 16 ~4 T have been pointed out above. There are
other features that throw doubt on the unity, or completeness, of the passage ;
in v. 25 there is a very sudden address to a city, presumably Sion ; in v. 26 the
III. i6-IV. i 71
city is spoken of in the 3rd pers. ; if vv. 26 '- really led up to 4 1 , neither the
loss of men nor the emptiness of the city must be taken absolutely. V. 24
might be a development of v. 17 though it is rhythmically different from w. 16t ;
but if it is, the catalogue of w. 18 ' 28 " completely conceals the close connection
between v. 17 and v. 24 " (Cheyne). In the catalogue, note the use of the article
21 times, and ct. the anarthrous nouns in v. 84 . It is also claimed that the
catalogue "displays an attention to trifles which is out of character with
Isaiah, who in his description selects representative features (see, e.g., 9*' 8 ),
and abstains from giving exhaustive catalogues (ct. Ezk 27)." On the other
hand, Gun. sees in the "jaw-breaking" (Zungenbrecherische) list (Sievers)
an expression of the prophet's anger (cp. Whitehouse). Du., Che., Marti,
Box attribute vv. 18 " 23 to "the inveterate editorial habit of supplementing,'
and treat vv. 28 '- as a misplaced fragment of an elegy ; this leaves, as a single
poem in denunciation of the women, 3 16f * M 4 1 . Possibly, if the unity of the
passage is abandoned, and it is difficult to defend it, 3 1M * is a little poem by
itself : it would be quite complete, and as long as some of the shorter and
earlier suras of the Koran ; 3 24 is not in the same rhythm, and, perhaps, not
even 4 1 . Another possibility is that lines have been lost (between w. 24 ' * M )
and others mutilated.
There is little to determine the date of this passage: in
specially denouncing women (cp. 32 9ff -), Isaiah follows Amos
(4 lff -); and the picture of the women in search of a husband
(4 1 ) may have been written about the same time as its companion
the men in search of a ruler (3 6 ' 8 ). Du. suggests that 3 25f> is
too elegiac in tone to be Isaiah's.
l6. And Yahweh said] these words were probably prefixed
by an editor * who wished to indicate the commencement of a
new poem, and overlooked the fact that the prophet, not Yahweh
(cp. v. 17 ), is the speaker. Haughty] naj, to be high, acquired the
meaning to be proud, set up, stuck up, self-sufficient: cp. Jer I3 15 ,
Ezk i6 50 , Zeph 3". The daughters of Sion\ the ladies of the
"West-end": on Sion lay the royal palace. Tripping'] the vb.
P)1DB (here only) probably signifies the quick, tripping gait, making
a patter on the ground, of the women whose legs were bound
by ornamental chains (v. 20 ?) ; just as f)B denotes little children,
probably on account of their pattering walk. The word is
onomatopoetic : cp. the like sounding Aryan tap: ^Jt^h has
amongst other meanings that of passing by quickly, and <^ftg^
is used of a flickering candle. Cp. U, plaudebant ambulabant
pedibus suis. -Jingling with their feet] so walking that the metal
anklets, a favourite ornament with the women of the East,
* Che., Marti.
72 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
striking against one another, make a jingling noise and attract
attention. Cp. Muhammed's prohibition " Let them not strike
with their feet, so that those ornaments of theirs that be hidden
be made known" (Kor. 24 81 ). 17. A scab} such as accompanies
leprosy, Lv i3f. Shame] cp. 47 3 , Jer i3 26 , La i 8 , Ezk i6 37 ; but
the meaning of J is very doubtful. U renders hair, and this has
been defended by Sta. : the veil worn by women of position will be
stripped away (cp. 47 2 ), and the hair exposed ; see, further, phil. n.
18-23. A catalogue of one-and-twenty articles of women's
finery : probably a prose addition to the poem : see small print
n. above. Some of the terms are of uncertain meaning, and it is
therefore difficult to say whether the catalogue is carelessly
compiled without any principle of arrangement, or an artistically
constructed list. Cond. ingeniously defends the latter view, and
argues that the bijoux and analogous articles are mentioned first
(vv. 18 ' 21 ), and then the sumptuous vestments (vv. 22f -). But D'"IND,
head-dresses (v. 20 ), and niD\J, turbans (v. 21 ), are widely separated
from one another. Cond. also detects a subtle arrangement of
grammatical forms ; the 2 1 forms fall into three groups of 8, 5
and 8 ; the first 8 nouns consist of 3 masc. pi. + 3 fern. pi. -f
i masc. + i fern. ; the second 8 are disposed in an inverse order,
3 fern. pi. + 3 masc. pi. + i fern. + i masc. Two earlier scholars
wrote extensive monographs on this list : N. W. Schroder, Comm.
de vestitu mulierum Heb. adjes. 3 16ff *, 1745, and A. Th. Hartmann,
Die Hebrderin am Putztisch, 1809 ; see also the commentaries of
Ges., Del., Di. The following notes merely attempt to indicate
briefly the nature of the evidence for the meanings attributed to
the words. 18. Anklets} cp. the sing. D3V in Pr 7 22 f (text
doubtful), the denominative vb. in v. 16 , and ^juwl^c, the cord tied
in the forepart of the nose of a camel to his fore-legs (Lane).
The net-bands] the D^B> in NH was the ornamental band that
passed from ear to ear over the H3DD, a net covering and enclos-
ing the hair (Levy, iv. 498) ; (5r ra 7rAoKia. Less probably 1 and
10 have interchanged, and the word means a little sun (..yuJuJi),
a pendant worn round the neck. Cp. the next term. The moons}
amulets worn by animals (Jg 8 21 - 26 f) as well as women. They
were pendants in the shape of the moon, in particular perhaps of
the new, or crescent (RV), moon ; the meaning was evident to
(cp. U lunulae\ and is supported by the etymology,
in. 17-20 73
which is obvious : pnB> is a derivative, not necessarily a diminu-
tive (G-K. &6g), from "inj? (= ^-, the new moon), which occurs
not only in Aramaic literature (see Levy, s.v. tor^D, Nino), but
also in early Aramaic and in South-Arabian inscriptions as
the name of the moon, or moon-God; the god "ins? is men-
tioned along with WW in the Aramaic inscription of Zakir
(9th cent. B.C.).* Similarly, hilal, the new moon, is also used
of crescent-shaped ornaments or amulets : We. Reste d. Arab.
Heidenthums^, 145. Ip. The ear-rings] Jg S 26 ! : there also coupled
with " moons." These nefiphoth were probably drop-like or pearl
ear-rings; cp. t]BJ, to drip, nitphe (cstr.), drops (of water); Ar.
natafat, an ear-ring or small pearl, natfafa, to put on ear-rings,
and (reflexive) tana(tafa. Bracelets] with nr)t?t cp. the Aram.
1; > j KTB>, chains, both for the arms and other parts of the body.
& is here explicit, KT ^TS? : cp. also Arab, siwar, a bracelet, and
Assyr. semiru ( sewiru, Sawiru) with the same meaning : see
Zimmern in ZA 17, 242. BDB derive from <s/Tit5>. Veils'] with
c /
cp. Jxj, a kind of veil (Freytag). It is doubtful whether
recognised this meaning. 20. Head-dresses] D^NB else-
where used of the ornamental cap of a bridegroom (6i 3 - 10 ) or of
priests (Ex 39^, Ezk 24 17 - 2S 44 18 f). Armlets'] with nnyvf, cp.
/
(Nu 3 1 60 (n.), 2 S i 10 ) and Juic, the upper part of the arm.
a large bracelet. Others derive from IJflf, to march, and
render step-chains, i.e. chains connecting the anklets (v. 18 ).
Sashes'] Jer 2 s2 f : cp. the vb. in Is 4i 8 . The perfume boxes'] lit.
houses of soul, or soul-houses, these may have been carried in the
sashes; cp. Ca i 18 . Unfortunately the meaning is far from
certain ; Pr 2 7 9 gives very uncertain support for 1PD3 meaning
perfume. Nor is boxes of desire, or exciting the sense of smell, very
probable : see BDB 6610, 109^. Haupt (SBOT, p. 82) would
derive B>D3 here from the Assyr. pas&su, and explain ointment-boxes.
Frazer retains the normal sense of soul for B>B3, and traces the
phrase to the belief in the external soul : " it may well be that
these ' houses of the soul ' were amulets in which the soul of the
wearer was supposed to lodge" : Anthropological Essays presented
* Pognon, Inscriptions Stmitiques (1908), no. 86, ii. 24, reproduced by
Driver in Exp., June 1908, pp. 481 ff., with note on Sahar (p. 489). See also
Cooke, NSI 1 88.
74 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
to E. B. Tylor, p. 148. Charms] or amulets probably consisting
of something inscribed with magic formulae : with D^np here, cp.
Wrh in v. 3 . 21. Signet-rings] see, e.g., Est 3 12 Gn 4i 42 . Nose-
rings] cp. <?.,#. Gn 24 47 . 22. State-gowns'] Zee 3 4 : apparently
so called as those which were stripped off (fin) before resuming
ordinary life : ct. the English " undress," dress not worn on
formal occasions. Mantles] niStDVD t : cp. *|Dy, to envelope oneself
|| t?X>, to clothe oneself , Ps 65 14 ; u_5Lac> <* mantle. Shawls] or veils
(DB i. 627 b ): Ru 3 15f \ Satchels] or purses', with D^nnf, cp.
<Lj **. with the same meaning. Peiser, on the ground that pockets
are out of place here, surmises that this is another term for clothing,
ZATW, 1897, 341. 23. Diaphanous garments] (5r, apparently
for D^vitf, has Sia<j>avf) Aa/cowKa j if this be the right meaning, the
garments are so termed as revealing (npj) the form beneath : cp.
Assyr. guttnu, an article of clothing^ Arab. *^, fine silk
garments. Others render mirror -s, i.e. tablets (cp. 8 1 n.), that
reveal the reflected face. Linen garments] Jg i4 12 - 18 , Pr 3i 5i4 t :
cp. Assyr. sudinnu, a garment ; see EBi. 2933; Moore, Judges,
335, 337. Turbans] costly or official: see especially Ecclus n 5 ;
see also 62 s , Zee 3 6 , Job 29 14 , Ecclus 47 6 f. Large veils] like
the modern tzar (DB i. 627) may be intended by D'TTt (Ca 5 7 t):
cp. 1^31, mm, in Gn 24 65 38 14 , & Jer = flf *pjnt.
24. Perfume] the smell of sweet aromatics used, for example,
by women in purification (Est 2 12 ), or at burial (2 Ch i6 14 ). The
contrast is rottenness (pB), i.e. the smell of scabs or festers (v. 17 ) :
cp. " my wounds fester (lp3) stinkingly," Ps 38 6 . A rope\] that
encircles (5]p3, 29 1 ) the waist. Hair well dressed] n^j?p f is to
be interpreted, in the light of the context and ntP'pp, hammered^
or turned, metal work, of some artistic treatment of the hair. A
rich dress] such should be the meaning of the obscure 7^nsf :
(5 Xiro>v /Ao-o7rop<v/3os. Sackcloth] 2o 2 n. Branding for beauty]
the clause, if not a popular assonance placed on the margin by a
reader (Du.), may be a fragment of a distich. With S 3 cp. ma,
Ex 2 1 25 . Sta. (ZATIV, 1905, 133) suggests that it is not the
branding of punishment that is referred to, but branding as a
means of cure. This is energetically applied to men and children,
but the beauty of women and girls is spared : they will be so
III. 2I-IV. I AND III. 16-24 75
spared no more, when the days of catastrophe come. 25, 26.
On the relation of these verses to the rest, see pp. 70 f. Thy . . .
its . . . it\ these pronouns are fem. and refer to the city (of
Jerusalem). The gates (D'nnB, 13*) mourn (^3K1 13, 19*),
because people no longer pass through them. The empty city is
pictured as one sunk to the ground and mourning : cp. La 2 10 ,
Job 2 18 , Is 47 1 . IV. I. Women will not wait for men to ask them
in marriage, but will press to be married, promising to forego the
food and raiment which a husband should provide (Ex 2i 10 ), if
only they may gain protection against insults by passing into a
man's possession. Be thy name called over us] i.e. pass as our
owner, or possessor : cp. 63, 2 S I2 28 , Dt 28 10 , Am 9 12 .
III. 16. '3 jy] 7 8 6 29" : also Nu n, I K 13" 2i 29 t- Isaiah does not
use the more frequent nr jy. rmoj] i.e. nto} with preservation of the
radical (G-K. 75^) : K're, rivipf rvnpbD] not, as in some MSS and the
Bomberg edition, 'VD, whence AVmarg. deceiving with their eyes. IE'? is
air. Xe*y. in Hebrew, but cp. Aram, npo, to look out, eye, especially with evil
intent (so I S i8 9 J5), or to look about : cp. also ] omV), squint-eyed. In
ory np the vb. may be causative and the noun a direct ace. , making the eyes
look about, or more probably the Piel is intensive and the noun, as in the
previous clause, an epexegetical gen. (G-K. 128*), ogling with the eyes. <3r
renders here tv vev/mffiv 6<t>da\(uav, & 1 1 V* |]iD^S, U nutibus oculorum.
Q pry jpaiDD may express the same sense (cp. Levy, Aram. Worterbuch, ii.
571), or, as some think, it means anointing their eyes with stibium. " Rabbi
Jose of Caesarea explained, 'they painted their eyes with np'D } ; Resh
Lakish said, 'with red collyrium '" (Pesikta d. R. Kahana, I32a, b).
njs^n *]is! -pWi] G-K. 113^, w. DirSro] on- for jn- ; G-K. 1350. ruojyn]
pathah for Sere : cp. I3 18 , and see G-K. 52^. The vb. is a denominative of
osy ; v." n. 17. nsn] v for o : G-K. 6k : cp. nnco(D), a scab, Lv I3 6 ' 8 14".
jnns] in I K 7 80 nine denotes the sockets in the lintel and threshold in
which the doors turned, and the Arabic Cl^i means inter stitium, space
between two Jlngers ; hence it has been most precariously inferred that ne
meant pudenda muliebria. If this meaning, which seems in harmony with
the context, was intended, it is not improbable that l-nns, or rather jnnu mm,
is a corruption of jnnmm, nain being used as in 47* ; see J. Bachmann in
TSK, 1894, p. 650. <!&,& may have detected this meaning and euphemised
TO o"xfrina. abr&v, <n > Vr> . "^rojj mp\ 3J. crinem carum, on the
other hand, treated fnnfl as = jnnKD (G-K. 23/) ; and this explanation has
been defended by Sta., as earlier by Koppe and Hitz., in ZATW vi. 336,
xxvi. 130-133. 18. niKBn] this cstr. case is followed by twenty-one genitives
an extraordinary instance of a construction which, even in milder forms,
the language preferred to avoid; G-K. I28a : Kon. iii. 276. 24. npyo]
pointless before nirpo, and probably a dittograph of it (Du.). rruno] perhaps
76 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the original, or a dittograph, of mun above. 24, 25. THD '3' nnn '3] ffi xal 6
ui6s <rou 6 Kd\\iffTos 8v ayaTrys, perhaps presupposes a different text. With
the form ? (= '!?), cp. % 'y, jf ; see G-K. 24^, 937. 26. am pa!? nnpji]
with this cstr. cp. 29* ; and see Dr. 163 Obs. To be cleaned out (cp. Zee
5 5 ), though rare in Hebrew, may be the original meaning of nj?3 : see BDB.
IV. i. Kinn ova] (5r om.
IV. 2-6. -Judah and Jerusalem after the Judgment.
There is unquestionably a marked tendency in the following poem to a
rhythm formed by groups of two accents, one, two or three such groups
forming lines, which are combined into balanced distichs and are parallel in
sense. If the words represented in the translation by small print be
additions, and no* .T,T (**) be read as one accent (cp. Sievers), this rhythm
is not merely dominant but maintained unbroken. The separate lines, or the
sections marked off by |, correspond (the small print being disregarded) to
two accents in the Hebrew. The transposition in v. 6 (DDV py before 'Syi
Txnpo) does not affect the rhythm, but it secures greater independence and
more complete parallelism for the two lines.
Other views of the rhythmical structure will be found in Marti, Sievers,
Cond., and Box. Du. and Che. print the whole as prose.
2 In that day | the vegetation of Yahweh shall be | a beauty
and a glory,
And the fruit of the land | a pride and an adornment |
for the escaped of Israel.
3 And it shall come to pass those that remain in Sion,
And those that are left in Jerusalem
Holy shall they be called,
All that are written for life in Jerusalem.
4 When the Lord shall have washed away | the filth of the
daughters of Sion,
And shall rinse away from its midst | the bloodstains of
Jerusalem,
With the spirit of judgment,
And the spirit of extermination,
5 Then will Yahweh create | over the whole site of Mount ion |
c a cloud by day,
And over its assemblies' | smoke and brightness of fire | a
flame by night ;
For over all glory is a canopy 6 and a booth,
And he will be a shade | by day (?) from the heat,
A refuge and a shelter | from storm and from rain.
iv. 2-6 77
After Yahweh, by means of an exterminating judgment (v. 4 )
which will allow few to escape (vv. 2b - 3 ), has cleansed Jerusalem
from moral filth and bloodstains (v. 4 ), a time will come when
the land of Israel will be clothed again with verdure and will
produce crops, which will make the Jewish survivors from the
judgment and their land glorious in the eyes of the nations (v. 2 ).
ion will again become a city of sacred convocations (v. 6 ) ; the
entire community will be holy (v. 8 ); and Yahweh will visibly
manifest His presence in the same way as at the Exodus in
cloud by day and flaming brightness by night (v. 6 ) ; and He will
protect His city and people from all manner of misfortune and
disaster (v. 6 ).
Even if this poem were Isaiah's, it would be doubtful in what
period of his life it was written ; it has often been assigned to
the same period as s 16 -^, but the connection of 4* and 3 16 is
probably illusory : see below.
It is more probably of exilic, or post-exilic, origin, though by
no means necessarily so late as the 2nd cent. (Du.). Whether
written for the purpose or obtained from some already existing
book, it may have been added to 3 lQ -4 l in order that the little
book consisting of chs. 2-4 might have a consolatory conclusion.
Though the awkwardness and incoherence of style, the absence of rhythm
and the slight amount of parallelism, which have been alleged as reasons for
questioning the Isaianic authorship (Che. Introd. 20 f. ), may be in large part
clue to textual corruption, or incorrect analysis of the rhythm and parallelism
(see above), the ideas and thought of the passage alone are sufficient to
render a late date very probable. "Jerusalem is already first and foremost
a city of religious rites (cp. 33 20 ). The ' convocations ' are the 'holy 'ones
of the later legislation (Ex I2 l , Lv 23 2 - 87 , Nu 2S 26 - 2 2g l - ' l2 ). To
Isaiah such festivals were uncongenial (i i8 ). ... To the writer of 4 2 ' H they
would be glorified in the future by a constant appearance of the glory of
Yahweh (cp. 24* ob 1 - 2 - w - , Ezk 42 1 ' 5 ) " (Che.). The writer by no means
disregards ethical qualities (v. 4 ), but in his union of ritual and ethical he
more closely resembles Ezekiel (ch. 18 with 40-48) and later writers (48 2 52 1
62 12 , Zee I4 20 ' 21 , Jl 4 17 , Ezr S 28 ) than Isaiah (e.g. I 2 "-)- See, further, the
Comm.
In language the most significant fact is the use of K13 (< to) in v. 5 , a
word which is predominantly, if not exclusively, late ; cp. Che. Introd. p. 21,
and Ges-B. s.v., with the references there given.
In 1884 (ZA TW, pp. 149-151), Sta. thought it possible to regard vv> * 3
(in this order) as Isaiah's, and only vv. 8 - 6 as late ; and some still admit the
late origin only of v. 6 (with 5c ) : so Di., Cond., Whitehouse. But there is
really no good ground for separating v. 6 from what precedes ; on the other
hand, a common rhythmical character probably runs through vv. 2 ' 6 (see
78 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
above), and v. 8 is connected with v. 3 by a point of style (see phil. n. on v.*).
Du., Che., Marti, Kent agree in regarding the whole of 4 2 " 6 as late, while
Dr. (LOT) still assigns the whole to Isaiah.
2. In that day] not the day that is mentioned in v. 1 , 3 18 , but
a time determined by what follows, to wit, after the judgment.
The vegetation of Yahweh} all that Yahweh will cause to grow out
of the soil; cp. Gn 2 9 , Ps io4 14 I47 8 . In order to emphasise
the point that Yahweh will be the source of the future fertility,
the writer employs mrp HDV as an alternative to the more usual
phrases noiKn HCtt (Gn ig 25 ), m^n '* (Ezk i6 7 ) ; but it is at least
unnecessary to think of the land yielding a miraculous growth
without any work of man (Marti) : for see Ps ic>4 14 . niDV means
not branch (EV), but whatever grows or shoots forth from the
ground, whether herbage (Gn 2 5 ), or trees (Ex io 5 ) ; meta-
phorically it is used as a term for him who should re-establish
the Davidic monarchy (Jer 23 5 33 15 , Zee 3 8 6 12 ), and it has often *
been given a Messianic sense in this passage ; but this is incon-
sistent with the parallel the fruit of the ground, which indeed
Del. unsuccessfully labours to show also means the Messiah !
Di. criticises this and some other mistaken interpretations at
length. The fruit of the land} of Palestine (cp. Nu i3 26 ). The
land of promise was a fruitful land (Dt 8 7 ' 10 , cp. 28 1 ' 14 ), but from
the first promise was accompanied by warning : if the people
neglected Yahweh the fertility of the goodly land was to be
destroyed, or neutralised, by war, depopulation, continuous
drought, bad seasons ; see Lv 26, Dt 28, esp. vv. 22 ^ 24 - 8S - 88ff -, and
cp. Mai 3 7 ' 12 . The people had neglected Yahweh : the threats
had been carried out, harvests were yielding little, and what this
poem promises is a restoration of the natural fertility of the land
to those that escape and remain (v. 8 ), after the cleansing, exter-
minating judgment (v. 4 ) ; the fertility and fruitfulness of their
land is to be the pride and glory of the community that
survives, making it enviable in the eyes of the nations : cp.
37 30-32 6o i4f. 622-^ j er ^ Ezk 2o 6 34 25 ' 29 . The escaped of Israel}
the abstract HD^D is used for the concrete: cp. io 20 i5 9 37 31f> ,
Jg 2 1 17 , 28 is 14 ; it is not confined to late writers, though in
its technical sense of those that escape the (final) judgment
(cp. Ob 17 , Jl 3 8 ) it not improbably is. 3. Those that remain
. . . those that are left . . . they . . . all that are written} all
* , Ki., Vitr., Del., Lag.
iv. 2-4 79
these words in Heb. are sing, collectives ; for such sing, collect,
participles, see y 22 , 2 Ch 34 21 : cp. also Gn 4 20 , and see O-K.
i26/. Holy shall they be called] because they will actually be
(i 26 n.) such: cp. Zee i4 20ff -. All that are written for life in
Jerusalem} a third description of the community referred to in
a, b ; for it is altogether improbable that the clause is restrictive
(Di.), meaning that though there will be some who will acci-
dentally (!) escape the judgment, only those who escape by the
pre-ordination of Yahweh will be called holy. The v. may be
awkward, but the awkwardness is not overcome thus, nor by
rejecting this last line as a gloss (Sta.), for this does not restore
either ease of style or regularity of parallelism. Those who will
be found to have been written for life will consist of those who
sought and feared Yahweh (Am 5*, Mai 3 16 ), who did good and
not evil (Am 5 14 , Ps 69 29 ), and so avoided the exterminating judg-
ment (v. 4 ), which destroys the wicked (Mai 3 19 ). To be written
for life is to have one's name written in " the book of Yahweh,"
otherwise known as " the book of life (or the living)," etc. ;
those whose names are written there live, those whose names
have never been written there, or have been erased, die. The
earliest reference in the OT to this book is Ex 32 82f - ; later
references are frequent: see Mai 3, Ps 69 29 , Dn I2 1 , En 47 s
1 04! io8 3 , Jubilees 30 20 ' 22 , Lk lo 20 , Ph 4 8 , He I2 2S , Rev 3*
138 X y8 20 i2. 16 2 1 27 . In most of these later references the
life secured for those whose names are written is that of the
blessed after death ; here it is life on earth as a member of the
holy Jewish community. The idea of the book of Yahweh, or
of life, has its parallel, if not indeed its origin, in Babylon : the
god Nebo wrote on tables "not only the fate of the world, but
also that of individuals," and there were "tables of favour" and
" of good works " : see KAT*, pp. 402 ff. ; and Jeremias' article
" Book of Life," in Hastings, Encyc. of Rel. and Ethics. 4. The
daughters of ion\ (&Jhe sons and daughters of $ion : this is not
a variant, but an amplified translation expressing the probably
correct conclusion that the context requires a reference to the
entire population and not merely to the women ; nm, the
daughters of, is very probably an annotator's insertion * to
establish a connection with 3 16 : the omission of the word
improves the balance of the two lines and restores the normal
* So tentatively Marti.
8o
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
parallelism Sion . . . Jerusalem : cp. e.g. 4O 9 4i 27 64, Mic
3 io. 12. Then with the filth of Sion, cp. " the uncleanness " of
Jerusalem, Ezk 22 15 . The bloodstains of Jerusalem} cp. Ezk
22 2ff -, Jer 2 34 ; the writer may be thinking in particular of the
innocent blood that was the cause of the Exile : 2 K 2 1 16 24 8f> ,
Ezk 7 23 22 2 '*, and ? Ps 5i 16 . Rinsed out] m is used in Ezk 4o 38 ,
2 Ch 4 6 of rinsing clean animals offered for sacrifices : later (Levy,
NHB, s.v.\ of rinsing out cups also. In Assyr. dihu and rihsu
are synonyms, as IT! and pm here : see Del. Proleg. 277 n. i.
With the spirit of "judgment, etc.] that unseen power, the spirit of
Yahweh, which at other times is creative or life-giving (Gn i 8 ,
Ps io4 80 ), will come into play, executing judgment on those who
have filled Jerusalem with blood, and exterminating all evil-doers
(i 28 , Am 9 10 ). The word "1JQ, extermination (C), may be used
with conscious reference to the Deuteronomic phrase, "Thou
shalt exterminate that which is evil from thy midst"; e.g. Dt i3 6 .
"IJD also means to burn : hence (3r5?U, E V, the spirit of burning :
cp. Mt 3 11 . 5. Over the city thus purified will rest the same
physical phenomena that marked Yahweh's presence at the
Exodus, Ex i3 21f< . Then will Yahweh create] (& And he
will come and (it shalt) be ; but this is not preferable to Pf (see
phil. n.). The creation of the cloud by day and the flame by
night is a parallel to the return of the "glory of Yahweh" (Ezk
43 1 " 4 ) after the Exile to the holy city, which becomes in conse-
quence the city of Yahweh's presence (Ezk 48 35 ) ; these
accompaniments of the divine presence are to cover not only
the Temple (cp. Ex 40 84 - 88 , i K 8 lof -), but the whole site of Mount
Sion. Its assemblies] i 13 n. For over all glory is a canopy\ or
for over all (cp. Gn i6 12 24 1 ), glory is a canopy. This strange
remark, which is not much illuminated by the quotation in Ecclus
4o 27 , is probably an annotation : it may be corrupt ; the opening
words of v. 6 and a booth, probably belong to it, either as a
synonym added to a canopy or a note explaining it. nan in
Jl 2 16 , Ps i9 6 f is the bridal chamber: here it is supposed to
have a less restricted meaning canopy, covering : cp. the vb. in
2 S 1 5 s0 , Jer i4 3 . "As the king sits under, as the bride and
bridegroom go under, a canopy, so the Temple Mount as a
king's throne, the religious community as bride of the heavenly
bridegroom, must have a canopy over it" (Du.). 6. And he
will be] so & ; % and a booth (emphatic) will be, or, a booth will
IV. 2-6, V. 8 1
it (viz. Sion) be \ both most improbable, for booths (cp. Jon 4 5 )
and cities at all times furnished some sort of shelter from
weather, but the point of the v. is that Yahweh will be the shelter
and protection of the community, and that therefore no harm or
hurt will befall it: cp. 25"* and Ps 9i lf - (where i>, HDHO, and
ino are predicated of Yahweh as are i% noriD, and "iinDD here),
i2i 6f - (Yahweh giving shade from the heat), Jl 4 16 (Yahweh a
refuge ; and so often in Pss.).
2. Whether <5r read very differently (Che. ) or paraphrased a text similar
to |^ (cp. Oort, Th. Tijd. xx. 565) is uncertain ; perhaps nds was read nn*
( = Xd/i7retv, La 4 7 ). 3. TDK' . . . nrn] Dr. 121, Obs. I ; but .rm can be
spared, and it seems to be rhythmically redundant. 1^ TDK'] 'V HDKJ, to be
called, occurs also in ig w 32 6i 6 62 4 f. 4. OK] when, cp. 24** 2S 28 and, in
narrative of the past, Gn 38", Nu 2i 9 , and, if the text be sound, Am 7 2 . V. 4
is taken by many as the completion of v. 8 , not the commencement of v. 5 .
5. m,v *03i] ^jj&F ; but <5r reads nal ?}ei nal &TTCU = .T,TI N3i. Che., who
renders He will come and there will be, and Marti adopt (Hi ; Du. Cond.
combine (fix and ^ and read ni.T K3i ; this involves, as Du. perceives, the
omission, which is supported by neither $? nor ffi, of ^3 before p3D ; for
*?y K3 in a friendly sense, cp. Ex iS 23 . n*npo] some MSS read .T*npD.
nmpD Syi] (5r /cat TT&VTO. ra ire/>tKikXy avrfy (claimed by Oort as = rrcnjo), 5 (?)
O"L5._KJ ^L, & n'TQiv n'3 VIK *?yi, U <?/ &' invocatus est. ffi's Trd^ra may
render Vy misread ^>3, or Va may have been lost in ^ (cp. || pao Sa) ; Du.
with less probability omits Sy altogether. The parallelism is improved if
we suppose this clause originally stood after DDV. 'i pyi] jt?y is perhaps a
dittograph of py, and the two i subsequent additions. 5, 6. TOrVar^p '3
n'nn nDOl nsn] r ical ird<r^ T-Q 56J77 ffKeTraffB^o-erai Kal ?<rrat. In (3r (r/ce7ra(r-
6-/l<reTat (=130, Ex 4O 8 - n ) renders one of the words nsn and fl3Di, and has no
equivalent for the other. Instead of .T.nn, Q5c probably read nm ; and this,
moreover, is probably the true reading, for which n'nn was substituted after
n3D was erroneously separated from what precedes. From n\m to the end of
v. 6 is a well-balanced distich (4 : 4) of parallel lines ; though the balance
would be imperfect if <5r is correct in omitting DDV : probably in this respect
|^ is preferable to ffi, though it is possible DDV conceals a synonym to ^
Yahweh will be a shade and a ... from the heat ; note the writer's fondness
for synonyms : see vv. 2 ** b> 6b and probably 8b . If the reading mi be correct,
the intrusive nature of n3Di nan 1133-^3-^ '3 is obvious.
V.
This chapter is in no sense a continuation of ch. 4 : from
the Messianic hopes at the end of chs. 2-4 we return here to
announcements of judgments in three very distinct and un-
connected poems (i) w. 1 ' 7 , the parable of the vineyard;
VOL i. 6
82 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(2) vv. 8 ' 24 , a collection of "woes"; (3) vv. 25 ' 31 , the misplaced
conclusion of 9 7 -iof
V. 1-7. The Parable of the Vineyard.
Special Discussions : P. Cersoy, " L' Apologue de la Vigne," in Rev. Bibl.^
1899, pp. 2-12 ; P. Haupt, " Isaiah's Parable of the Vineyard," AJSL xix.
193-202.
The rhythm of the poem can only be reduced to regularity by extensive
omissions such as Haupt makes in reducing the whole to four stanzas, each
consisting of four lines, each line containing four accents equally divided by a
caesura. If the present text is substantially correct, the quality of the rhythm
appears to change ; the light tripping effect of short lines (down to v. 5b ) gives
place to longer and weightier lines in the grave and solemn application of the
parable at the close. The following types of distich occur :
2
3
3
4
4
4
: 2 in vv. 1 ** b (makkeph wrrrffK and "nrr
substituted for 'vrty, * b - " d .
: 3 in vv. 20 - d> ** b (?) 5a - b (makkeph 'JN-nffN-n
: 2 in vv. lc - d ($), 2e - f - * b - b (probably).
: 2 in v. 40 - d .
: 4 in vv. 80 * d * 7 ** b (makkeph Vnva or omit I
: 3 in vv. 6 *- b (if w*6 and TgnAl may each
7c. d
IT), 0< d (if ^-,Tn be
H\ 60. d
be read as one accent),
1 Let me sing of my loved one, I pray,
A song of ... touching his vineyard.
A vineyard belonged to my loved one
On a fertile hill-top ;
2 And he opened up the ground, and cleared out its stones,
And he planted it with the choicest vines ;
And he built in its midst a tower,
And hewed out in it also a wine-press;
And he expected it to yield grapes,
And it yielded wildings.
8 And now, ye dwellers in Jerusalem,
And ye men of Judah,
Judge, pray, between me
And between my vineyard.
4 What remained to do for my vineyard
That I had not done in it?
Why when I looked for yield of grapes
Yielded it wildings?
V. i-7 83
8 And now, pray, let me acquaint you
With what I shall do to my vineyard;
1 will take away its hedge that it be depastured,
I will make breaches in its walls that it be trampled down,
6 I will make it a waste, unpruned and unhoed,
And it shall spring up with thorns and briars;
And I will command the clouds
That they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of Yahweh Sebaoth is the House of Israel,
And the men of Judah the plantation in which he
delighted ;
And he expected justice, but, behold, bloodshed,
Righteousness, but, behold, a cry!
In Jif the poem is articulated as follows : v. la - b , introduction ;
lc - 2 , the prophet's description of the vineyard; 8-d , the speech
of the owner of the vineyard which towards its close (v. 6c - d )
somewhat clearly reveals the speaker to be Yahweh ; v. 7 , the
prophet's interpretation of the parable. In ffi vv. lb - 2 also belong
to the speech of the owner.
The vineyard which has received all the care that any vine-
yard could receive is Judah ; its owner, Yahweh ; the fruit it
should have yielded, righteousness and justice ; the fruit actually
yielded, violence and inhumanity. With great rhetorical effect-
iveness the ultimate conclusion is left for the audience to draw
for themselves Yahweh will abandon Judah to destruction.
With the theme of the parable, cp. the teaching of Amos
at Bethel a generation before : see especially Am 3 2 . For
other applications of the figure of the vineyard to Israel, see
27 2ff -, Jer 2 21 i2 lof -, Ps 8o 9ff -, Mt 2i 88ff -. In the specific applica-
tion of details, as of the tower in v. 2 to the Temple, of the
wine-press to the altar, 3D (cp. Jerome) is mistaken.
Possibly enough this poem was recited by Isaiah (cp.
Introd. 36 ff.) on a great national feast day : at the close of the
vintage and in the Temple Courts he would easily have found
men of the country as well as of the city v. 8 *- b : cp. Jer 36.
But the year in which the poem was either written or recited
cannot be even approximately determined : the thoughts
expressed in it may have occupied Isaiah's mind at almost any
period of his life. Du. argues, inconclusively, that the parable
8 4
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
form indicates that the poem was written early, since later the
audience would have guessed from the start the burden of the
song: Hackm. (p. 123), that it was written late, when Isaiah,
being long known as a prophet of evil, had to conceal his
meaning in order to gain a hearing. An early date has been
inferred by others rather on account of the early date, assumed
or proved, of the neighbouring poems (chs. 2-4 5 8 ' 80 ) than
from anything in the parable itself.
la. b. These lines are ambiguous, and the text not beyond
question. My loved one\ TT is used of Judah (Jer n 15 , Ps 6o 7 ),
and Benjamin (Dt 33 12 ) as the loved one of Yahweh : cp. also
Ps I27 2 . Here, if the text in v. lc is correct, it must be applied
to Yahweh : yet it is remarkable that Isaiah should use, even in
parable, so familiar a term : poets of another race and temper
may speak of God as " my darling," * but to Isaiah, Yahweh was
the Holy One, the Lord, the Mighty One. If v. lc is corrupt we
might render in lb to my loved one, i.e. Israel (cp. (S3cF3T, AV), or of
my beloved (vineyard) : see below. That TT in v. la is Israel and
Tf in v. lb and by restoration in v. lc is Yahweh, as Sta. (ZA W
xxvi. 134) proposed, is very improbable. The song of '. . .] mi,
left untranslated on account of its ambiguity, may be a synonym
(cp. e.g. Ca i 13f -) of TT in the previous line : in also means
uncle, and is actually rendered here by Jer., though with obvious
unsuitability, patruelis. In the pi. 0*111 means love, but always
perhaps specifically sexual desire or its satisfaction : see Ezk
i6 8 23 17 , Pr 7 18 , Ca i 2 ' 4 4 10 5 1 . If we render the song of my
beloved (MT, EV), then v. la will imply that the loved one is the
subject of the poem, or the person to whom it is addressed, lb
that he is the author of the song and his vineyard the subject :
this is awkward and improbable in itself; moreover, the next
lines show that the friend is not the author, but the subject of
the poem : he is spoken of in the 3rd pers. Di. indeed, though
quite unsatisfactorily, attempts to meet this difficulty by suggest-
ing that Isaiah has translated the words of the friend into the
3rd pers. and so avoided making God recite a popular song (ct.
2 7 2 " 6 )- His vineyard] (Hi my vineyard. If we adopt (Sr, and
also the ist persons of <& in v. 2 , and assume further that
TT!? in line c is a corruption, under the influence of the same
word in the previous line, of "9, that TT might be used of life-
* E. G. Browne, A Year amongst the Persians, p. 490.
V. I, 2 85
less objects, and that in was not limited to sexual desire,
then, pointing *ift we should have an excellent introductory
couplet :
Let me sing of the thing that I love,
The song of my love for my vineyard.
Then the entire song, so far as it treats directly of the vineyard, is
in the first person : the prophet in reciting it seems at first to be
referring to a vineyard of his own, and only towards the close
does he allow it to be seen that he is speaking in Yahweh's
name. But the difficulties of the v., and of the relation of J^
and (Sir, have as yet reached no solution.
ia-2. The site of the vineyard is an isolated hill-top or hill,
which catches all the sunshine : the soil is fertile. The owner
has carefully turned the soil to increase its power to bear well,
and cleared it of stones, an important process in the rocky,
stony but potentially fruitful soil of Palestine; cp. Job 5 28 , ct.
2 K 3 19 . On this well-chosen and well-prepared soil vines of
choice stock have been planted, and something more than a
mere temporary shelter (i 8 ), a permanent tower (cp. Mt 2i 33 ), has
been erected for the protection of the vineyard. Finally, a wine-
press is hewn out in the rock to receive the juice of the grapes
which ought to be the result of all this care. The actual crop
consists of worthless berries.
My loved one] possibly an error for to me: see last n. on
v. lb . A fertile hill-top] in Heb. idiom, which U renders literally,
and after it, Wycliffe, a horn the son of oil. The use of pp, horn, is
paralleled by ^.3, a small hill, or a part of a hill separated from
the rest, and by Alpine names such as Gabelhorn, Matterhorn ;
with pK>, oil, for fatness, fertility, cp. D^B> &OJ, 28 1 , and the use of
the vb. in Dt 32 ; and for the idiomatic use of " son," see BDB,
s.v. 8. 2. He opened up the ground] in NH the vb. pTJJ (here only
in OT) means to turn over the ground, as, for example, under olive-
trees (VJVT nnn PTW INVB), or in a graveyard, to see whether bones
remain there : see Levy, NHB, s.v. In Arabic the root occurs
with a similar meaning. MT perhaps rightly treats the word as a
Piel he well, or frequently, turned over the ground; 6rF, AV, he
fenced it, anticipate a point that comes out in v. 6 . Choicest
vines'] f^ Sorek apparently the name of a specially choice
vine : cp. Jer 2 21 f. The nomen unitatis np"rt? in Gn 49 n f. A
86
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
wine-press] the 3|T is strictly the lower trough into which the
juice pressed out in the upper trough drained off; but it is
sometimes used of the whole press: see EBi. 531 iff. The
wine-press is hewn out, i.e. in the solid rock, which in Palestine
rises close to the surface of the soil and often crops out above
it. Wildings'] U renders D^KS (v. 4 f) by labruscas, i.e. grapes
that grow wild : and this is doubtless right. The root in Aram,
means to be bad, evil, in Heb. to have a bad smell. 3. For the
transition in ff| at this point to the ist person, see above. Du.
supposes that up till now the audience treat the matter as a joke,
ask themselves, will the owner get rid of the vineyard to us,
or turn it into pasture, or perchance try the experiment of
planting it with wild vines. But the owner does not ask the
audience what he should do : on this his mind is made up and
communicated immediately (vv. 5f< ). He asks for their judgment
on the vineyard, i.e. on themselves. Like David (2 S 12), they
are driven to self-condemnation ; for they can only avoid self-
condemnation by denying the applicability of the parable, i.e. by
denying Yahweh's care (v. 7a - b ), or the present prevalence in
Israel of violence and unrighteousness (7- d ). 4. After this v.,
before the first and now of v. 6 (cp. v. 3 ), a pause may be assumed
in which the audience silently allow that the owner had done all
that was required for the vineyard, and that for the vineyard itself
no excuse can be offered. 5 Judgment on the vineyard : all
protection, care, and attention to be withdrawn from it. V. 5 fills
in fresh features of the picture. The vineyard had been pro-
tected by a hedge such as those hedges of the prickly pear which
form so efficient a protection to the gardens of modern Palestine
around Beirut or Gaza and elsewhere, and by a wall, perhaps
of stone (cp. Nu 22 4 ). Hedge and wall will be removed, so
that cattle and wild beasts will be no longer hindered from coming
in to depasture and trample down ; cp. Ecclus 36 30 . Much of the
present treeless character of Palestine is due to the grazing off
of unprotected young shoots by goats : cp. y 25 . 6. All that
the site, henceforth unpruned and untilled, will yield will be
thorns and briars. Even rain will be withheld from it by
command of the owner. 7- F r tne owner is Yahweh, who has
power to withhold rain, and does do so as a punishment for wrong-
doing: cp. Am 4 7 , Dt n 10-17 . Bloodshed] the exact meaning is
not quite certain : see phil. n. The word was probably a rare one
v. 1-7 8;
chosen to gain one of the two effective assonances of these final
lines which cannot be satisfactorily represented in English he
looked for mispa^ and lo ! mispaf}, jor fdhakah, and lo I $ ec akah,
the cry especially of the wronged : see, e.g., Gn 27 s4 , Ps 9 18 . The
house of Israel] either (i) this refers (whether exclusively or in-
clusively) to the northern kingdom, in which case the parable was
composed before 722 B.C. ; but, in view of the distinct limitation
to Judah in v. 8 , this seems a little improbable ; or (2) it is a
synonym for Judah, as Israel perhaps is in i 8 (cp. 8 14> 18 31*,
Mic i 14t , cf. i K i2 17 ); but this usage, though frequent enough
later, was certainly, and naturally, rare before the Fall of Samaria.
I. 'TV 1 ?] for the 5> here and in lonaV, cp. e.g. Gn 2O 18 , Ps 3*. <& apparently
read TV 1 ? without the suffix (ry ^aTr^py). urn] (& *Dna; see Comm.
"rn nTtr] Lowth, whom many have followed, suggested DHn 'v, a love~song y
which does not meet the difficulties mentioned above, and labours under the
fresh difficulty that the song is scarcely a love-song in a general and unde-
fined sense. 2. inSpo'i] Piel privative : G-K. 52^. 4. nwy 1 ?] Dr. 203.
D'trta . . . jniD] for the interrogative affecting the entire chain of sentences,
cp. 22 12 Sb 3 . 5. nvy 'JK] fut. instans : Dr. 135 (3). non] the infin. Abs. is
explained by G-K. 1130? as virtually dependent on the notion of willing
implied in wy : by Kon. 4oc*/, as in virtual apposition to the objec. nt?K.
nsuro] in MT the 3 is dagheshed, which would suggest as the root ~\iv More
probably (note wawplene) the 3 should be rapht, as in Pr I5 19 and, with D
for v, in Mic ; 4 . The root is TV (Job i 10 , Hos 2 8 t) = TD (Job 3 23 38 8 ), to
shut in. nna] the context is the best clue to the meaning of this word, which,
if it occurs again, occurs only in 7 19 . In 7 19 MT points ninn, here rip? ; if
the words are from the same root and that root nna, the word should be
punctuated here n$3. In Arabic ci^v) means to cut off, to cut, whence it is
customary to explain n'na in 7 19 as cut off, abrupt places, precipices, and nro
here as end or destruction, and the whole phrase nna n' as parallel to n"?3 nry
(lO 28 ), to make an utter end of . But this is all uncertain. The addition of
the clauses 'ui TOP vh favours a rather different meaning, such as waste or
derelict land. 6. nby] cp. 34 18 , Pr 24 81 . nsbo] ffi's avo^iav, T$ iniquitas,
are general renderings guessed from the context; & |^j25dA>j, rapine,
plunder, is more specific. Del., though without reference to j&, argues for
such a meaning on precarious etymological grounds. If v stands incorrectly
for D (cp. G-K. 6), the word may be explained from the Arabic -^i-, to
pour out, to shed (blood) : Lane, s.v. t cites the phrase -.iLj *^>^ there
is shedding of blood between them. Cp. Is*- JUu*<* I* J, Kor. 6 146 . Cp. rrso,
Is 37 80 : also, if correctly read, Job 14 and, in the Mishnah, nso of a river
pouring out alluvial soil (see Levy). Haupt proposes to read
corruption, instead of
88 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
V. 8-24. A Collection of Denunciations.
Six, or perhaps in the original text seven or more (cp.
w. 14 - 23 nn> ^ classes of persons are successively threatened in
sections introduced by the word ''in, ah \ (v. 8 n.).
The third, fourth, and fifth sections are the shortest ; they
consist of a single tetrastich, tristich, and distich respectively:
each defines a class that is threatened, but indicates its fate by
means of the ominous interjection alone.
In the first, second, and sixth sections, not only the class but
its punishment is described : the threat is introduced by Ah ! the
punishment by therefore^ in vv. 13 - 24 and (by emendation) in v. 9 .
So in is followed by p$> in Am 6 1 ' 7 , Mic 2 1 ' 3 , Jer 22 13 ' 18 2^- 5o 27 ,
Ezk I3 3 " 8 - 18 - 20 34 2 ' 7 . Since, however, in 28 1 2Q 1 - 15 , Jer 48 1 , Am
5 18 , Zeph 2 6 , Hab 2, no therefore follows ah I it is unnecessary
to assume with Du. that a description of punishment so intro-
duced must have fallen out of the text in sections 3, 4, 5.
The rhythmical differences, as well as these differences of
structure, suggest that the following sections are sayings uttered
at different times, perhaps also memorised, or recorded by
different disciples of the prophet, and then ultimately brought
together by an editor on account of their beginning with the
same interjection : cp. chs. 28-33, an d the Beatitudes of the
Gospels of which one at least of the two arrangements (Mt 5 8 ^ 12 ,
Lk 6 20 ^ 26 ) must be due to an editor.
It is customary to refer these sayings to an early period of
Isaiah's life, and to assume that they refer to Judah. The
latter assumption at least is probable, failing clear evidence to
the contrary. Yet neither the dates at which nor the audience to
which they were delivered can be considered absolutely certain.
To facilitate the perception of differences of structure,
the translation of all the denunciations is given together.
Several re-arrangements have been suggested and are recorded
by Giesebrecht, who himself suggests the following : lo 1 5 23
I0 2-4 58-10. 22. 11-13. 17-19. 14-16. 20. 21. 24 (Beitrdge, 21-23). No g reat
probability attaches to any of these suggestions.
Parallelism is conspicuous and the parallel lines balance perfectly, or give
at least more the impression of balance than of echo : the distichs are certainly
not for the most part 3 : 2 (Du.). The distichs are 3 : 3 in vv. 131 "- c - *- d ,
and probably in 12c - d - 14 1B - 17 ; 4 : 4 in w. 16 - and probably 22 ; 5 : 5 in " ;
V. 8-24 89
6 : 6 (?) in M . In ** lla - 20 * (cp. 28 1 31* 33 1 ) MH forms no part of the balance
of the distich : in 31 * it does. Cp. Sievers, 360 ff.
I.
8 Ah ! they that add house to house,
That join field to field;
Till there is no more room . . .
... in the midst of the land.
9 * Therefore ' Yahweh of Hosts ' hath sworn ' in mine ears :
" Surely many houses shall become a desolation,
Great and goodly (houses) without inhabitant ;
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
And a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah."
2.
11 Ah ! they that rise early in the morning in pursuit of
strong drink,
That tarry into the twilight while wine inflames them ;
12 Whose feast is wont to be (made merry with) lute and
harp, timbrel and flute and wine,
But who behold not the activity of Yahweh,
And see not the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people hath gone into exile for lack of
knowledge,
And its nobility are dying of hunger,
And its populace are parched with thirst
14 Therefore Sheol hath enlarged its appetite,
And opened its mouth immeasurably wide.
And her splendour and her populace shall descend
(thither),
And her tumult and (all) in her that (now) is exultant.
15 And man sinketh down and men are brought low,
And the eyes of the exalted are brought low,
16 And so Yahweh of Hosts hath become exalted in judg-
ment,
And the Holy God hath shown himself holy in right-
eousness.
17 And lambs shall graze . . .
And ' kids ' shall feed upon the ruins.
90
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
18 Ah ! they that draw guilt (on themselves) with cords of
ungodliness,
And (the punishment of their) sin as with wagon-ropes ;
19 Who say, Let him speedily hasten his work that we may
see,
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw
near and be fulfilled that we may know (it).
20 Ah ! they that call evil good and good evil,
Making light into darkness and darkness into light,
Making sweet into bitter and bitter into sweet.
21 Ah ! they that are wise in their own eyes,
And in their own sight intelligent
6.
22 Ah ! the mighty topers of wine,
And the valiant in mixing strong drinks,
23 Who acquit the guilty in return for a bribe,
And deprive the innocent of his acquittal.
24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire devoureth stubble,
And hay falls (to ashes) in the flame,
Their root shall be as rottenness,
And their blossom when it opens as dust.
^For they have despised the instruction of Yahweh of
Hosts,
And contemned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
8-10. Denunciation of those who dispossess their neighbours
of their homesteads in order to increase their own estates.
Such dispossession, whether brought about by fraudulent or
oppressive action (Mic 2 2 ) or by purchase (cp. i K 2i 8 ), cut
deep into a strong religious feeling in favour of the perpetua-
tion in the family of the family land. It is probable that
religious feeling and the immediate appeal to the human
V. 8-io 9 1
sentiment occasioned by evictions rather than a far-seeing percep-
tion of the effect which the new fashion might have on the
national economy, account for the common criticism of Isaiah
and Micah : Micah appears to feel most keenly the sufferings of
the evicted, Isaiah perhaps the effect on the powerful appropri-
ators. But Yahweh has sworn, and Isaiah heard the oath, that
these men who trust in the greatness of their estates, purchased,
perhaps, with money gained in trade (cp. 2 6 n.), will find in them
the cause of their own ruin. Deprived by Yahweh of its fertility,
the land will yield no return, and will therefore swallow up the
money spent on working it. 8. Ah /] cp. i 4 28 1 2Q 1 etc. Till
there is no room . . .] left for any but these rich land purchasers,
till the old yeoman class ceases to retain any position in the
country. This is what the context suggests : whether it is ex-
pressed by the two words which follow in Jf, and which may be
translated and ye are made to dwell alone, is doubtful : see phil. n.
9. Therefore Yahweh of Hosts hath sworn in my ears] RV tacitly
emends the text, but badly. J^ is certainly wrong ; it can only be
translated in my ears is Yahweh of Hosts, which is nonsense, or in
the ears of Yahweh of Hosts, which would be obviously defective,
ffir goes far to support the conjecture adopted in the trans. : see
phil. n. In my ears] the prophet has heard Yahweh's threat,
Am 3 7 . 10. Ten acres] ten times as much ground as a yoke of
oxen can plough in a day, will only yield one bath, i.e. about
8 gallons of wine : and seed sown will only yield a ^th ; a homer
= 10 ephahs, Ezk 45".
8. np . . . TJD] Dr. 117 f. Dipo OB* iy] < fra roC ir\rjfflov &<f> frurral TI
a paraphrastic rendering of perhaps the same words as now stand in |^.
0313^ nroenm] ffi ^ okijo-ere fj.6voi may imply very nearly the same letters as |.
But the sudden introduction of the 2nd pers. casts suspicion on |^ ; and it is
very doubtful whether the Hophal of 3? (Is 44^ =to be inhabited) really meant
to be a landowner (Du. ). 9. m.T ama] (fix jjicofoOii yap eZj rd Srra Kvptov, i.e.
*" M?K3 j?Dt?J ?, which is obviously in itself unsuitable, but points to [j]3[V]
'"' 'jm3 jnw as the original text (Marti) ; for the frequent confusion of D
and 3, cp. Driver, Samuel, p. Ixviii. Note the formula of the oath N'TDK which
follows. Others, on the ground of 22 14 , restore n^ p^. TOSJ] for the closed
syllable in the cstr. pi., see G-K. 93*.
11-13. Woe to tnose wno gi ye themselves up to carousals,
drinking from early morning till late in the evening, made merry
with music, and blinded by their gaieties to the work of
Yahweh, or, as we might say, to the reality of the unseen. The
92 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
punishment of these wine-bibbers and gluttons will be hunger and
thirst accompanying exile. Similar denunciations occur in Am
6**, and of women who drink in 4 1 : cp. also Ecclus io 16f -
Twilight] strictly the time when the (evening) breeze springs up :
cp. Gn 3 8 . Hath gone into exile] the perfect used with reference
to a future irrevocably fixed. 13. For lack of knowledge} cp.
Hos 4 ; for lack of the knowledge of God (cp. i 8 ), which the
leaders ought to have given, but had not, the whole people is
doomed : a general captivity is imminent : cp. Am 6 7 . Possible
also is the rendering without knowledge, unawares, i.e. in their
intoxication they will fail to realise their fate : cp. Job 4 20 . Its
nobility] or those held in honour : 11123 is abstract for concrete
(cp. 3 25 ), and the sing. suf. refers to my people. Dying with
hunger] 2JTI 'TID, or '") VVp (MT), men of hunger, i.e. famished
with hunger. Its populace] or, the crowd thereof: the entire
people ( 18a ), plebs* ( 18c ) as well as nobles ( 18b ), will suffer
privation. For 1133 and |1n as antithetic terms, see i6 14 ; and
for jicn, meaning the undistinguished mass of people, 2 S 6 19 .
The crowd |1DH is so called from the noise (nn) of a multitude,
and most f give the word here a specific reference to the
noisy revellers (cp. v. 14 ) of v. 12 , making the terms of 18b * co-
extensive instead of complementary.
14. Therefore] cp. v. 13 ; the recurrence of therefore with no
ah \ intervening suggests that a verse (beginning with ah !) has
been lost at this point ; note also that there is nothing in v. 18 to
which the four pronominal suffixes (her) of v. 14 can attach ; these
pronouns doubtless refer to a city, probably Jerusalem.
Sheot] is personified as an insatiable (Hab 2 5 , Pr 3o 16 ) monster
ready to swallow up in an instant the whole of the gay city-
throng (cp. 22 lf -); but alongside of this personification, the
belief in Sheol as a country under the earth makes itself felt ;
the multitude go down into it : cp. Gn 37 35 . 15. A repetition,
with some variation, of 2 lla - b - 17 *- b ; here probably out of place, as
Eichhorn already perceived. V. 14 speaks of men perishing, v. 15 of
their being brought low; and, unlike the rest of vv. 8 ' 24 which
speaks of definite classes, v. 15 refers to mankind in general.
16. Cp. 2 llc , but the resemblance here is much less close than in
the previous v. Nevertheless many t consider that this v. also is
* Du. t Hitz., Ew., Del., Di., Che., Marti.
J Eich., Sta., Du., Che., Kit., Marti, Cond.
V. ii-iy 93
interpolated ; yet it would not be impossible to discover a con
nection between v. 14 and v. 16 : the holiness of God is revealed
through His righteousness, His righteousness through His judg-
ment on His own people and city (v. 14 ), who have violated His
demands for justice and humanity (cp. 5 7 ). 17. A picture of
desolation, which once perhaps immediately followed not v. 10 *
but v. 14 , forming its sequel : on the desolate site of the once busy
and exultant city, cattle now feed : cp. 17* 32 14 . The point of the
v. is clear from the words, And lambs shall graze . . . and (on)
ruins . . . shall . . . feed : the other words are uncertain ; but
probably kids (cp. (Sir) was the subject of the 2nd vb. Line b Jff
is commonly understood to mean, (Shcpherd-)wanderers shall
feed, i.e. cause their flocks to feed, on the ruins, which were once
the home of the fat, i.e. of the prosperous persons ; but this is
impossible ; not to speak of other improbabilities, D^"U does not
mean wanderers. The corruption of D^J ((), kids, into D S ~U (jfy),
sojourners, may be not unconnected with an early allegorising
interpretation which may even underlie (3r, " and they that were
spoiled shall feed like bulls, and lambs shall devour the wastes of
them that were led away," and appears clearly in C, " and the
righteous shall feed, as was said concerning them : they shall
multiply, and the righteous shall possess the substance of the
unrighteous." Jer. gives a Christian turn to the allegory, " Tune
qui fuerunt de agnorum numero non haedorum pascentur in
Ecclesiae pratis." Finally, Rashi (abbreviated) " the poor will
now come to sojourn (TiA) in the houses of the rich who had
oppressed them, and will devour their portion." These are
interesting examples of interpretation eliciting the exact opposite
of the writer's intention.
II. npaa 'D'awD] cstr. before a prep. ; G-K. 1300. Dp^T] Dr. 163.
12. DrrnsfD] sing. ; G-K. 93^. 13. njn ^UD] for the causal p, cp. Dt 9 s8 .
'09] MT seems to embody a late interpretation ; <5H<SU all imply 'rip.
With MT, cp. KIP 'no and p 'no, Job n 11 22 15 . Hitzig's suggestion to read
here mo after Dt 32 24 (itself doubtful) has found considerable favour. 14.
n?aj] &B3, appetite, as 2Q 8 , Pr 23 2 . '3 enpj] to show oneself holy in or by means
of: Nu 2O 13 (P) and several times in Ezek. , e.g. 2S 22 - *. 17. mms] ffi tbs ravpoi,
i.e. DIUND. Iff (juxta ordinem suum), Rashi, Ki., AV, give nai the meaning
of manner (cp. e.g. Dt I5 2 ) feeble and improbable; modern scholars, since
Ges., have commonly assumed that *m = nalo, pasture (cp. |i-^? field), and
* Ew., Guthe, Cond.
94
rendered as in their pasture, i.e. freely ; but in Mic 2 12 f, where nm, pasture (?)
is supposed to occur, the text is very doubtful. Marti proposes naiOD.
tato cr-u D'nD nmm] corrupt ; for ana j^, fflr read nyia, kids (Apves, cp. &pva =
HJ, Ex 23 19 etc. ) ; and this was not suggested by D 1 ^?, lambs, in the parallel
clause, since ffi there renders dirjpTraa-^voi, i.e. 0?to9. Whether even OHJ
is the original text, or a note explaining failings (?), D'nD (Du. ) is not quite
certain ; but on the whole the simple term kids is a more likely parallel to
lambs. For the meaning of DTID f, cp. D'rro (n^iy) Ps 66 1B t : ^>v*, to contain
marrow, be fat ; (nb), marrow. D'nD may be a corruption of DiT[rmn], or the
like. Unless a word has dropped out in a (see Marti), b should contain only
three words, i.e. either OHJ or D'no is superfluous.
18, 19. Woe to those who give themselves up to sin in the
belief that Yahweh will not punish them. Who draw guilt]
with its punishment near to themselves by their carelessness :
for "JK>D and the parallel terms cords, wagon-ropes, see Hos 1 1 4 .
The figure of v. 18a is heightened in 18b : wagon-ropes are strong,
unbreakable. 19. Scepticism with regard not to God's existence,
but the reality of His moral government (cp. v. 16 ), underlies this
mocking speech ; cp. Ps lo 8 * 6 36 1 - 4 . Possibly v. 19 has lost an
initial s in ; it is rhythmically unlike v. 18 .
20. Woe to those who deny the reality of moral distinctions :
ct. 32 5 . 21. Cp. 28^' 29 ub . 22 f. If these verses are really
connected they condemn those who drink heavily and also
pervert justice. Isaiah might very well have pronounced woe
on those who go fuddled into court (cp. 28 7 ), but this is not
what is done here : these persons acquit the guilty not because
they are too intoxicated to see who is guilty and who innocent,
but because they have taken a bribe from the guilty party ; cp.
i 23 , Ex 23 8 . It is forced, too, to assume that the line of thought
is Drinking is expensive, and bribes are necessary to pay the
bill. Drunkenness has already been denounced, v. 11 ; some
transpose v. 28 to follow v. 11 . The valiant in mixing strong
drinks'] Heady mixtures are also referred to in Ca 8 2 , Pr 23 30 ;
and the spiced wines used by the modern Jews of Hebron and
Jerusalem are such mixtures. See Kennedy in EBi., Wine, 29.
The sin denounced is certainly not that of mingling water with
the wine ! (Del.). The guilty . . . the innocent] not the wicked
. . . the righteous (RV); here as in Dt 25! ysn pHV retain
their original forensic sense. 24. Quickly as chaff and stubble
catch fire and are reduced to ashes, will judgment fall on those
V. 18-24, 25-30 95
who have neglected to comply with Yahweh's expressed will.
This judgment is not closely related to the sins denounced in
vv> 22f. . the cau se for it is given in what follows in lines c and f.
Thus the v. has a distinct character, and it may not have reached
us in its original form (Du.). Note, too, that the judgment is
described figuratively (c, d); and ^enforced by comparison with
another and discordant figure (a, b). Their root shall be as
rottenness^ etc.] stock and shoot will become worthless, the stock
will rot, and the fruit grow mouldy. Cp. Am 2, Hos 9 16 , Mai 3 19 ,
and Eshmunazar's curse " Let them have no root below or fruit
above" (CIS\. 1L u, 12). The ms is the budding shoots or
foliage (Nah i 4 ), the bud or blossom (i8 5 ). For they have
despised, etc.] Cp. I 4 .
18. Line a is longer than b ; Da. would supply a vb. || to *aro ; Sievers
would omit ntton, thereby making v. M a single line of 6 accents. 20. jnV] ^
as in v. 1 . 23. D'p'i*] read pnx with <Sr: note the || yen and the following
HDD. 24. TK jiff 1 ? rp ^3K3] the obj. of the infin. first, then the subj. : a rare
cstr., G-K. H5/&. mr6 vvn\ flaming hay (Kon. iii. 3060); or nar6 is ace.
chaff (sinks down) into (or, as) flame (Marti). nn] Dr. 117, 118.
V. 25-30. The Final Destruction ofEphraim.
6 *' 29 contain the conclusion to 9 7 -io 4 ; the translation and
critical discussion will be found on pp. 177 ff. Some attribute
yy 26a-c an( j so a i so t o that poem : more probably they are fragments
or editorial additions.
25a-C. The rhythm is obscure (see Sievers), or lacking ; but
the opening words of the v. may be a distich 4:4:
Wherefore the anger of Yahweh was hot against his people,
And he stretched out his hand against him and smote him.
Wherefore'] this v. is not needed to give the consequence of
v 24e. f^ f or tn at has been already stated in v. 24 *-*. Moreover, the
judgment in v. 24 is complete the people are there described as
being destroyed root and branch ; but v. 25a even in itself and still
more as leading up to vv. 26 ' 29 describes a partial judgment a
destructive but not an absolutely annihilating earthquake : the
mountains quaked, and their corpses became like refuse in the midst
of the streets. Against him~\ the people : ct. their in c.
96 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
V. 25a " c may be an editorial link to prepare the way for 25d * e by indicating
a partial judgment that has not exhausted Yahweh's power to punish ; it
seems to be in part educed from the refrain itself and in part built up with
the help of frequently repeated details of theophanies and judgments : with
the quaking mountains, cp. I3 13 " 16 , Am 8 8 , Mic I 3fm , Nah I 5 etc., with corpses
abandoned in the streets, Jer g 21 i6 4 25^, Zeph I 17 : so Giesebrecht, Beitrage,
p. 9. Others (e.g. Du. ) hold that 25a " c is part of a lost strophe of the poem.
25d-2p. Conclusion of p 7 -I0 4 - 25d. e. The refrain of
a lost strophe, or of the last strophe in 9 7 -io 4 . His anger
turned not bacti\ cp. I2 1 , Jer 4 8 , Hos i4 5 , Ps 85 3 etc. His hand
is still stretched out] to smite and to destroy : cp. Ex 9 15 , 2 S 24 16 .
26-29. This last strophe describes the final destruction of
Ephraim : a nation from the end of the earth is depicted
advancing swiftly, irresistibly on the doomed nation; Ephraim
will resemble the prey of a lion whereof nothing is rescued (ct.
Am 3 12 ) ; it will perish utterly, and none will remain to provoke
Yahweh's anger further. At the end of this strophe, the refrain
(v. 25d - e ), which closes all the other strophes of the poem, would
clearly be out of place.
It has been commonly supposed that Isaiah without naming
them refers to the Assyrians (cp. Am 6 U ), the only people on his
horizon that satisfy the terms used. Gressmann (pp. 174 ff.),
indeed, has argued that the description does not strictly apply to
the Assyrians, that it was not written from Isaiah's knowledge
of them and their methods, but was derived from the stereotyped
indefinite descriptions of the Destroying Army which formed
a feature of the (hypothetical) pre-prophetic Eschatology. It is
true that there is nothing so distinctive in the description that
it might not have been applied by later writers to other invaders
Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, or Romans ; but
this is not strange in a brief poetical description of an expected
invasion. That there is anything actually unsuitable to the
Assyrians is a conclusion which appears to rest on prosaic
interpretation (see v. 27b n.).
26a. b. Yahweh summons a nation in arms from the ends of
the earth. A signaf] cp. u 10 - 12 i8 3 ; placed on a bare height
such a signal was conspicuous afar. In Nu 2i 8f - DJ signifies
a lofty pole> in Ezk 27 7 , Is 33 23 apparently a sail or pennon, here
probably a lofty pole with a flag attached. A nation afar off~\
so ffir ; f^ nations afar off^ a reading which has arisen accident-
ally (see phil. n.), or is due to a scribe who wished to assimilate
V. 25-29
97
to ii 12 or to introduce the plurality of nations to which later
writers frequently refer. J^ has been explained of the nations
united in the Assyrian army (cp. i4 26 i7 12f - 29 3o 28 33 s ), or as
a conventional eschatological usage (Gressmann). But the
correctness of the reading of Or is proved by the consistent use
of the singular, rendered by plurals in RV, throughout the rest
of the strophe. The term nation afar off (pmoo *u) is applied
in Jer 5 15 to another people, probably the Scythians. On the
idea of distance, see io 8 n. Whistle for it] summon it; 7 18 n.
From the end of the earth] cp. Jer 6 22 . The centre of the
Assyrian empire lay some thirty days' journey from Palestine.
Du., Di., and others infer that Isaiah's earth was a small one ;
Gressmann (p. 176), that he here uses the phrase because it was
a technical eschatological expression. Both conclusions are
precarious : Isaiah was a poet. 26 C-27 a. Assyria comes with
all speed, but without fatigue. With the way in which, while
speaking of the entire armed nation as a single personality (cp.
Numbers^ pp. 265 f.), Isaiah yet thinks of the individuals
composing it, cp. Dt 25 18 , Remember how Amalek . . . fell in
with thee, and smote at thy rear all those that were fagged (for
there were such), seeing that thou (i.e. the entire body of the
Israelites) wast faint and weary. 27b. // slumbers not nor sleeps]
the line is not improbably intrusive (see p. 177), though it is
rather prosaic of Du. to insist that it must be so because the
words could apply to God only (Ps i2i 4 ). 270. d. The army is
all trim, and, 28a. b, its weapons ready. Its bows bent] as they
would be only on the point of being used. For the bows and
arrows of Assyrian armies, see 2i 16 22 6 37 83 ; of other armies, e.g.
Jer 5 M . 28c. d. The cavalry, too, of the Assyrians (cp. 22 6f -
36) sweeps on unhindered and with the pace and onset of the
whirlwind. Its horses' hoofs are like flint] horses were not shod,
and therefore hard hoofs were a highly prized virtue in them :
Ges. compares the xoAKOTroS* rmro) of Homer, and gives other
classical and Arabic illustrations. Its wheels like the whirlwind}
cp., in a similar description, Jer 4 18 ; in Is 66 15 Yahweh's chariots
are compared to the whirlwind, which leads Gressmann to
consider the present description " fabulous " : poetical rather,
like the deAAoTroSes ITTTTOI, "horses with feet as swift as the
storm," of the Homeric Hymn (in Ven. 217), or Fitzgerald's
"I came like water, and like wind I go." 29. The form of the
VOL. i 7
98 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
text is suspicious, see phil. n., but the sense is clear. The
noise of the advancing army, compared in 1 7 12 to the tumult of
mighty waters, is here compared to the dread (Am 3 8 ) roar (nJKG?)
of a lion (cp. Jer 2 15 , Ps 74*) ; the figure thus introduced is de-
veloped, and the utter destruction of Israel to which the poem
works up as its climax is expressed, by the statement that the lion
(Assyria) growling (DH^) seizes (?n&0), or holds fast (c^. W. R. Smith
Proph?, p. 24) its prey (Israel), whom no one attempts to deliver.
26. pirriD DuV] D'U may be an error for *u through dittography of D, or
read prnoo ^b (Roorda, al. mult. ) : cp. Jer 5 15 ; after the words had been
wrongly divided the scriptio plena was inserted inpm. Vp mno] cp. mno ^p,
Jl 4 4 : mno is adverbial, ^p ace. of the state hastily as a fleet one. 28. is]
P
flint, thus pointed here only, but cp. "x and Arab. U. rfcfcn ttvru] read
rather with ffi V^jfo wrru (so Sievers) : this balances the lines better ; $J is
due to dittography of the \ 29, 3Oa. There are several considerations
which justify suspicion as to the correctness of the text : ( I ) The Hebrew
variant JKtfi, mtr in v. 891 * ; (2) the virtual repetition of the first word of v. 29 *
in 29b (JNB" ruttr) : (3) the undue shortness of one of the four lines of v. 29
of wb , if orun be thrown forward to , or of d if this line is limited to V'SD pni ;
(4) the position of DfU'i in <5r after iron.; (5) certain other features of (ffi :
thus l^ mKV = 6pyi(affiv (al. 6pfj.u<rtt>), but iWz^TraptffTyKav ; B^B'i = &/3oXet,
whereas At/SdAXeii' nowhere else=isVfl; in Is 2 20 it renders T^n ; in 22",
*?^8 ; (6) the improbable meaning that has to be attached to B^B'i in the
present text. There is no means of restoring the exact form of the text, nor
is it very necessary, for the sense is sufficiently established. JKt?' is not
improbably a gloss on, or variant of, 'V ruNt?. B'^s'i] this is supposed to mean
carries off into security, i.e. the lion carries off the prey to a place where it
may eat undisturbed. But the sense of escape, deliverance is so prominent in
the uses of the root that it is very doubtful whether the Hiphil expressed the
very opposite.
30. The succession of intelligible distichs of regular rhythm
leading up to a climax and a conclusion in v. 29 , is here followed
by some exceedingly obscure sentences. Rhythm is not obvious,
but is certainly different from that which prevails in w. 26 ^ 29 .
. Render : And he will growl over him in that day as the growling of
the sea ; and if he looks to the earth, then lol distressful (?) darkness,
and the light has grown dark in the clouds (??) thereof. There are
two main theories of interpretation : (i) Some, including Del.,
consider that the subject and object of the growl are the same as
the subject and object in w. 26 ' 29 : Assyria growls, and Israel hears
the ominous sound. The growl, and the unrelieved darkness on
which the eyes of the prey rest, imply the doom of Israel. On
v. 26-30, vi. 99
this interpretation v. 80 is parallel to v. 29 *- b ; it does not carry the
thought as far as v. 290 - d ; for this reason, v. 80 would probably be
a parallel, not belonging to vv. 26 - 29 . (2) Others * consider that
the subject changes : it is Assyria here against whom the growl
is uttered, and Assyria whose outlook is unrelieved gloom. In
this case it is equally difficult to believe that v. 80 is the original
sequel to v. 29 .
ean] Piel or Niph. Elsewhere Heb. always uses the Hiph. of this vb.
Du. has pointed out the similarity to 8 W of v. Mb (|Q), and the still greater
similarity of v. 301 * <5r, which omits ~\&n IINI. That the two passages are not
unrelated is probable ; that a process of assimilation has gone on is also
probable. Under the circumstances it is safest to question, or accept very
tentatively, the strange interpretations that have been offered of 5 80 . py is
probably a mere corruption (cp. S 23 and (Br in both passages). The accentua-
tion and punctuation of MT IIKI ~\v ~[wn embodies an old interpretation (noticed
by Rashi) which took IINI ~w together 9& = moon (nx = nno !) and sun. Cond.,
making one or two emendations, attaches 8 206 ' M ' w to 5 26 - a *.
VI. The Vision and the Call of Isaiah.
There is no reason to question the impression conveyed by
this chapter that we are here reading the prophet's autobiography,
from which we have further extracts in 8 1 ' 18 and, perhaps, in
7 1 ' 16 . The narrative is in prose ; the words spoken by the
seraphim and by Yahweh are in poetical form, perhaps also the
words of the seraph in v. 7 . The interrogations of Isaiah in w. 8 - 9
are too brief to show poetical form, and the rhythmical quality of
his first startled cry in v. 6 is not obvious ; the words may be
read as three lines (so in KitteFs text) of six accents each, but
without parallelism ; Du. divides them into four words of unequal
length. Cond. remarks : " Le style rhy throe", propre a la solennitd
des oracles, convient mal a la spontaneity de ce cri d'effroi,"
which has some force, and would have more if the cry at the
time formulated itself in spoken words, and if Isaiah necessarily
repeated verbatim in his narrative written subsequently the
words he heard, or the words he uttered, at the time of the
vision. The translation distinguishes the words that seem more
clearly poetical in form.
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on
a throne that was lofty and uplifted, and his skirts filling the
* Du., Marti; cp. &.
IOO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Temple. 2 Seraphim were standing above him : each had six
wings two to cover the face, two the feet, and two to fly with.
3 And they kept calling to each other, and saying,
Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of Hosts,
The whole earth is full of his glory.
* And the foundations (?) of the threshold trembled at the voice
of them that called, and the House began to fill with smoke.
5 And I said, " Woe is me ! for I am undone ; for I am a
man of unclean lips, and am dwelling in the midst of a people of
unclean lips : for it is the King, Yahweh of Hosts, whom mine
eyes have seen." 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a
red-hot stone in his hand, which with tongs he had taken off the
altar, 7 and with it he touched my mouth, and said, Lo ! this has
touched thy lips : thy iniquity will pass away (from thee), and
thy sin will be expiated. 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord,
saying,
Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?
And I said, Here am I : send me. * Then he said, Go, arid
say unto this people,
Hearken on, but understand not !
See, yea, see, but perceive not !
10 Make dull the heart of this people,
And make its ears heavy, and plaster over its eyes ;
Lest it see with its eyes and hear with its ears,
And its heart understand, and it be healed once more.
11 And I said : How long, O Lord ? And he said,
Until they lie waste
Cities without inhabitant
And houses without human beings
And the ground be left a desolation ;
12 And Yahweh remove men far away,
And the forsaken places in the land be many:
13 And though a tenth yet (remain) in it :
It must again be exterminated.
Like an oak or a terebinth, wherein at the felling is a stump.
On a day within a few months of the death of Uzziah,
VI. 101
though whether before or after that event is uncertain, Isaiah
came up to the Temple. And falling into an ecstasy, he saw
and heard more than he had been wont to see and hear things
that others who were present that day in the Temple Courts
neither saw nor heard : he saw Yahweh in kingly state ; in His
Holy presence he felt his own uncleanness ; he realised the
power of Yahweh to forgive immediately without sacrifice or gift
on man's part (ct. i 12 ' 14 ) ; he heard, understood, and obeyed His
call to service.
This is record of fact] but the fact is spiritual experience,
which must be described, though inadequately, by means of
material terms and pictures.
The central fact is the decision of the prophet to deliver
Yahweh's message to His people ; and this decision was taken on
a single particular day. Yet, though we cannot be certain, we
may somewhat safely assume that the vision of Yahweh, bring-
ing with it the clear apprehension on the prophet's part of
Yahweh's purpose concerning him, was the culmination of a
longer experience; not, we may well believe, for the first time
on that day had he felt his own unworthiness, or contrasted the
moral uncleanness of his people with the ethical holiness of
God (vv. 4 - 6 ) ; he had been anxious to speak to his people, but
had not yet been sure of the divine commission to speak, nor
certain what to say. Some such experience before the call is
suggested, if not by one or two details in the account of the
day of decision, yet certainly by the analogy of the experience
of other great religious personalities of Mohammed, for
example, who had long felt that his people were astray from
God before the particular day when the call came to him,
"Recite, in the name of thy Lord, recite" (Kor. g6 1 ).
It is not only probable that the narrative thus presupposes
a religious experience of which it records the culmination, but it
is possible that, as some have supposed, it is coloured by the
prophet's experience after the day of decision. It is generally
held, and certainly probable, that this account of his call was not
written by Isaiah immediately after the event, but some years
later, when it was natural to define the year to which the record
refers. It may be then that the terms of the divine commission
in vv. 9ff - reflect the discouraging effect on Isaiah of years of
fruitless warning (but see below).
IO2 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
1-4. The Vision. I. In the year that king Uzziah died]
for this method of dating, see i4 28 , and cp. KAT*, p. 323. The
Hebrew year ran from autumn to autumn (EBi. 5365). Between
two autumns King Uzziah died : between the same two autumns
Isaiah received his call. That is all that can be inferred with
certainty from the clause. It leaves the question open whether
Isaiah received his call before (cp. i 1 ) or after Uzziah's death.
Early Babylonian usage defined the remainder of a year after
the accession of a new ruler as " the year in which N. [the new
ruler's predecessor] entered into the house of his father " : later,
when the system of numbering the years of a king from the
istof Nisan after his accession prevailed, i.e. from about 1500
B.C., the broken year before that ist of Nisan was known as
" the beginning of his reign " (E. Meyer, Gesch. d. Alterthums 2 ,
i. ii. pp. 330 f.). If Hebrew usage followed contemporary
Assyrian usage, Isaiah's call took place before the death of
Uzziah. Uzziah died within a few years of 740 B.C. : some
time before 735 (cp. 7 1 ), but after 738, if Uzziah (Azariah) is
correctly identified with the Azriyau of Jaudi mentioned by
Tiglath-pileser in his annals of the year 738. If that identifica-
tion is fallacious (see Introduction), Uzziah's death may have
occurred before 740, yet not so early as 753 (Jerome, cp.
Del.). Uzziah] so (inny) i 1 7 1 , 2 K 1582.3^ 2 Ch 26 ifr. ^ and
(n^) 2 K i5 13 - 30 , Hos i 1 , Am i 1 , Zee i4 6 , perhaps also Uzzah
(2 K 2i 18 - 26 ); but Azariah (nnrj;), 2 K 14" 151.7.17.23.2^ x QI
3 12 , and (irmiy) 2 K i5 6 - 8 . Unless the king bore both names,
the distribution of the evidence in OT favours Uzziah. Azariah
would be confirmed if the identification of this king with Azriyau
of Jaudi (last note) were certain.
/ saw the Lord] There is no elaborate description of the
divine being here (cp. Am 7 7 9*; ct Ezk i, Dn 7); but the
very terseness heightens the impression that is given of the
ideas that dominated Isaiah at this moment; he is absorbed
with the thought of the kingliness of Yahweh ; he sees nothing
but Yahweh enthroned : his eyes cannot linger on the divine
face (cp. Ex 33 20 " 23 ), they fall instinctively to the skirts of His
robes which fill the Temple. On a throne] Isaiah, like Micah
the Morashtite (i K 22 19 ), sees Yahweh in kingly state, enthroned
on a conspicuously lofty throne. His skirts] this, however
aesthetically unsatisfactory in English, and not train (RV), is the
VI. 1-4 103
correct rendering of DB>; for the D>1B> are the loose-flowing
parts of the robe or upper garment (^JJO, Ex 2S 88 ), especially the
part from the waist downward (cp. Jer 1 3 22 - 26 , Nah 3 6 ) ; here the
word is used of the robe as it flows down over the knees of
Yahweh seated on the throne, and reaches to and covers the
floor. This boldly anthropomorphic touch was euphemised
away by the ancient translators : ffi renders his glory (cp. Jn
i2 41 ), 3D the brilliance of his glory ', U (following Symm., Theod.)
quae sub ipso erant. Ibn Ezra gains the same end by an interest-
ing, though improbable, explanation ; he refers the suffix to the
throne, and sees in the skirts the loose hanging draperies with
which it is " the custom of kings " to have their thrones covered.
Filling the Temple] i.e. covering the entire floor, unless, indeed,
we could suppose with Jer. and some Jewish commentators that
the throne was lifted up high above the Temple, and that the
Temple itself was filled by the flowing skirts ; but had this been
the meaning, covering the Temple would seem the more appropri-
ate description. The Temple] in Hebrew, as in Sumerian (e-gal) t
from whence through the Assyrian (e-kallu) the Hebrews
borrowed the word, foTJ denotes primarily a great house, a royal
residence^ a palace (i K ai 1 , 2 K 2o 18 , Pr 3o 28 ); but in actual
usage it more frequently refers to the " House of Yahweh " or
Temple, whether to the whole (i S i 9 3 8 , 2 K 23* 24 18 , Hag 2 16 ,
Neh 6 10 ), or the front and larger chamber (i K 6 17 , Ezk 4I 1 ) as
distinguished from the smaller inner chamber (Wl). In one
passage clearly (Ps n 4 ), in others (Mic i 2 , cp. vv. 8 *-, Ps i8 7 29*,
cp. vv. lf -) probably, the term i>3'n is used of Yahweh's heavenly
residence; but in none of these passages is the sense temple
rather than palace required. At a later period the idea of a
Temple in heaven was familiar in certain Jewish pircles ; this can
be first traced clearly at the end of the 2nd cent B.C. (Test. Levi
5 1 ), and then frequently in John's Apocalypse (e.g. y 1 , ct. n 19 ).
That such an idea existed in Israel in the time of Isaiah there
is no direct proof, and the attempt to prove the early existence
in Babylonia of such an idea has so far met with doubtful
success. But even though such an idea may have been
familiar to Isaiah, and though, in that case, he might have used
the term ?3T1 of the heavenly as well as of the earthly Temple, it
is not to any such heavenly temple, as many * have supposed,
* E, Koppe, Del., Di., Jeremias (ATAO 3 , p. 565, BNT6S).
104 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
that Isaiah here refers, but to the Temple of Jerusalem * which
was daily before his eyes. He sees in vision no strange and
unfamiliar scene, but a long familiar scene transfigured. This
interpretation is favoured by (i) the unqualified reference to the
temple and the altar (v. 6 ), contrasted with the careful qualification
(" the temple that is in heaven ") of such writers as the authors
of the Testaments and the Apocalypse of John, and (2) by the
analogy of the visions of Amos (9 1 ), where an earthly altar and an
earthly temple are unmistakably the scene of vision, and of
Ezekiel (S s io 4 ). Nor can it be safely urged in favour of the
alternative interpretation, that "the presence of the seraphim
is a sufficient indication that the scene is in heaven . . if Elisha's
servant, when his eyes were opened, saw horses and chariots of
fire in Dothan (2 K 6 17 ), Isaiah, with eyes open in vision, might
well see seraphim in Jerusalem. It is indeed the very fact that
he sees Yahweh holding court in Jerusalem that gives full point
to his alarm ; it is the actual presence of the Holy One of Israel
in the midst of Israel and not remote in heaven that spells
doom to the unclean people ; the sinners in Sion must needs be
alarmed (cp. 33 14 )." t A persistent Jewish exegetical tradition, as
represented indirectly by Jer. and directly by Rashi, explains
that Isaiah saw Yahweh " sitting on his throne in heaven with
his feet in the (earthly) Temple, ' the footstool of his feet ' '
(Rashi); cp. "non ipse Dominus implebat Templum cuius
coelum thronus est et terra scabellum pedum eius . . sed ea quae
sub pedibus eius erant implebant Templum " (Jer.). 2. Beside
Yahweh stand seraphim : since He is seated and they stand-
ing^ they rise above him not iV, viz. the Temple (Jer.). Each
seraph has six wings (cp. Rev 4 8 ), one pair to screen their faces
from the unbearable brightness of the divine presence (cp. Ex 3 6 ,
i K i9 18 ), one to conceal their feet, i.e. their nakedness (so
7 20 36 12 K e re; cp. "their bodies," Ezk i 11 ), from the divine eye
(Ex 2o 26 28 42ff -), and one to use in flight (cp. v. 6 ). Again, Isaiah
only particularises what closely concerns him at the moment.
His allusions to the seraphim serve to emphasise his thought of
Yahweh's majesty and kingliness ; if these lofty and superhuman
*Lowth, Ges., Du., Cheyne (SBOT 138 f.), Skinner, Whitehouse.
t Cited from an article by the present writer, "The Heavenly Temple
and the Heavenly Altar " (Exp., May, June, 1908, pp. 385-402, 530-546), in
which the points summarised in the text are discussed at length.
vi. 2
beings must screen their faces, how much more mortals (cp. Job
4 17ff -) : so again not slowly with feet, but with the rapidity of
flight they move to do Yahweh's bidding. <5r represents the
seraphim as standing round Yahweh (KVK\<O avrov), feeling
perhaps that the majesty of Yahweh requires that He should,
even when seated, tower above His attendants. But to Isaiah,
Yahweh appeared majestic in size and attended by beings
equally colossal. It is unnecessary to press the sense of ^y so
as to insist that the seraphim stood on their feet (though see
next clause) : the vb. is certainly used of objects or beings
without feet (Nu i4 14 ). But the attempt made by Del., Di., Che.
(in TV), and others to prove that it means "to hover," is not
successful.
Many interesting questions are raised by this description which it was no
concern of Isaiah's to satisfy, and which modern investigation has only
partially illumined. What was the form of the seraphim ? Were they human ?
Were they serpentine? How many were attending Yahweh? As to their
form : they stand (icy, see above), and have feet (v. a ) and hands (v. 6 ), and
therefore, if originally connected with serpents, they have acquired non-
serpentine characteristics. Beings half human half animal in appearance
figure in later descriptions (Ezk I, Rev 4 7 ). The connection of the
seraphim with serpents is suggested by the name r\~ue, which, meaning to
burn, is used in Nu 2i 6f< of serpents, apparently so called from the burning
sensation produced by their bite (see Numbers, p. 277), and in Is I4 29 30* of
flying serpents (|| ffru, nys*). According to 2 K i8 4 , at the time of Isaiah's
vision there stHl stood (probably in the Temple Court) the bronze serpent,
or seraph, the erection of which popular tradition attributed to Moses (Nu
2 1 4 ' 9 ) ; on this object Isaiah's eye may have been resting just before he fell
into ecstasy. We may infer, if not with certainty yet with probability, from
v. 4 that the seraphim of Isaiah's vision were stationed about the threshold
of the temple, and by a further inference may be led to suspect that the
seraphim belong to the class of guardians of thresholds that part of the
dwelling with which so much religious or superstitious awe has been widely
associated (H. Clay Trumbull, The Threshold Covenant, 1890) who repel
intruders, or, as rather here (v. M< ), admit under fit conditions to the presence
of, or communication with, the deity. Some analogy both to the name and
to this function of the seraphim has often been sought in the Egyptian Sefr
(demotic Serref), a winged griffin guarding an Egyptian tomb ; see, further,
BDB, Ges-B., EBi., and DB, s.v. On the other hand, the connection
sought by some Assyriologists (Del., Hommel) between D'Sit? and Sarrabu (or
Sarrapu), a name said to have been borne by the god Lugalgira (? Nergal)
in the westland, is denied by Zimmern (KAT* 415). The number of
seraphs that attend Yahweh in Isaiah's vision is uncertain ; the phrase
nrVil nt (v. 8 ) rather suggests two (see phil. n.), the plural D'STif (not D'Bif *w)
in v. 2 , on the other hand, rather suggests many. Early Christian interpreters
I0'6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
commonly thought of two, and allegorised : the two seraphim were the Son
and the Holy Spirit attending the Father a view not unnaturally rejected
by Jerome as "impious." The view that the two seraphim represented the
Old and New Testament found more favour. Jewish interpreters differed as
to the number D'an paam D'3? D^ON v (Ibn Ezra).
3. The constantly repeated (fcOpl) refrain of the seraphim
sung antiphonally (nt *?$ rtt). For other allusions to songs sung
by heavenly beings, see Ps 29*- 2 - 9 , Job 38 7 , Rev 5 8ff - 7 llff \ Holy]
thrice repeated for the sake of emphasis: cp. Jer 7* 22 29 , Ezk
2 1 82 . One of the main tasks of the prophets was to transform,
and especially to ethicise, current religious terms : so Amos
dealt with the " Day of Yahweh," so Hosea with " the marriage
of Yahweh," and so Isaiah ethicises the word " Holy." Originally
a term without, in Isaiah's hands it became charged with, moral
import, so that when he speaks of the " Holy One of Israel " he
thinks of a power that executes justice and demands just dealing
of His worshippers. How unethical a term the prophets found it
may be most briefly suggested by the fact that the religious
prostitution which Hosea denounced was carried on by " holy "
men and women (see, further, Numbers, pp. 209-2 1 1). In Isaiah's
conception we see points of contact with the popular thought;
with him, too, it is dangerous to approach that which is Holy
(v. 5 ) ; with him, too, a common quality is needed in the Holy
Being and those who approach Him ; but with Isaiah this common
quality is freedom from sin (DXDn) : what this in turn is may be
seen by noting such passages as i 16f * ; it is moral, not ceremonial ;
it is acquired not by expiatory sacrifices, but by turning from evil
to good, by executing justice and cultivating mercy (cp. also
5 7 < 16 )). One of a sinful nation whose lips are rendered unclean,
unfit to speak to Yahweh, Isaiah is himself sinful, unable to
address Yahweh ; he does not even, like the publican of the
parable (Lk i8 13 ), cry to God for forgiveness; his lips open, but
in self-address " Wretched man that I am." But freed from
sin (v. 7 ), Isaiah is fitted to be entrusted with the secret of
Yahweh (cp. Am 3 7 ), or, as we might express it, for communion
with God. This holy, moral power which is revealed to Isaiah
in his vision is Lord of the (heavenly) hosts, and the whole world
reflects the lustre of His righteousness. History, human life is
under the government of a righteous power that rules the world,
and is not devoted merely to satisfying the unethical desires of
VI. 3, 4 107
a petty nation or tolerating its sins. Isaiah is no exponent, like
the author of chs. 40-55, of an intellectual monotheism, but he is
possessed by the moral thought that in due time demanded an
explicit monotheistic statement. His glory] here, as in Nu i4 21 ,
Ps 72 19 968, of Yah wen's self-revelation in His dealing with men.
4. The Temple quakes to its foundations (?) with the sound of
the song of the seraphim, just as mountains tremble when
Yahweh appears (Ex iQ 18 , Jg 5*); whether a heavenly temple
would have quaked at what in a heavenly temple should have
been an ordinary occurrence, may be doubted. The foundations
of the thresholds] the exact sense of the Hebrew phrase is
uncertain : see phil. n. Them that called"] i.e. the seraphim,*
who alone as yet have called (v. 8 ) : the sing. part. (&mpn) is used
collectively as are other sing, participles elsewhere ; see, e.g., Jos
6 7 - 9 , Gn 4 20 ; G-K. 12602; Kon. iii. 256. Others have given to
the part, a sing, sense and referred it, inappropriately, to Yahweh
thundering out "welcome" to Isaiah (Ew.), or expressing anger
at the sin of the people (Di.). The house] the Temple : cp.
i K 6*- 6 etc. Began to fill with smoke] in spite of " cloud "
rather than smoke being mentioned there, Ezk io 4 seems the
nearest parallel, and to suggest that the smoke here is the cloud
that so commonly accompanied theophanies Ex i4 19 4o 34 ,
i K 8^-, Is 4 6 (cp. EBL, Pillar of cloud, Theophany). Only for
a moment does Isaiah see the unveiled glory of Yahweh. Others
explain the smoke as the breath of the seraphim (cp. Ps i8 9 :
so Du.), or as the smoke of Yahweh's anger (Ps 74 1 8o 5 ( 4 >, Dt
29 19 ; Di.).
I. nn0 . . . rueo] Dr. Tenses, 127^. <8r begins with *rai tyevero to
establish a connection, which did not originally exist, with ch. 5. "JIN] here
and in v. 8 many MSS read m.r : so in 3 17 - 18 . KtMl en] not grammatically
parallel to 38", and, as in 57 15 , directly descriptive of Yahweh, but (as in <5r
clearly) attributives of KD3. 2. i 1 ? *?yDD] above him, cp. 14", Dn I2 6f *, Gn
22 9 ; ^ *?J?DD noy is not merely the same as *?y noy, to stand in attendance on
Jg 3 19 , Jer 36 21 (reading hy for Vyo). HOD'] this and the following imperfects
describe what is liable to occur (Dr. 33/3), really therefore the purpose of the
wings, rather than what Isaiah actually saw frequently occur (Dr. Tenses,
30 a). 3. TDNI . . . Kipi] frequentatives : Dr. 120, G-K. 1 i2/. nt *?K ni] the
one to the other: cp. Ex I4 20 . In similar correlative usages m refers definitely
to one of two (Gn 29 37 , Ex I4 20 , I K 3 s3 ), or to a single individual of a series
(i K 22 20 , Is 44 5 ). In Ps 75 8 ni appears to correspond to the English
* So (5, Ges., Del., Du., Marti.
108 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
indefinite one . . . another: cp. the second HT in Job i 16 - 18 , but to the
Hebrew mind the nr was probably vivid and definite. Certainly m W m is
not the normal Hebrew for "to one another," which is expressed by the
plural vb. with injn SK tf-K (G-K. I39<?). Nor again would it normally express
" the one group to the other group " : this should be n"?K *?N nW (cp. Dt 27 12f -,
2 S 2 13 , i K 2O 29 , Dn I2 2 ). Unless nj SN ni here implies /w0 seraphs only,
we can only find a somewhat inadequate parallel in EC 3 19 where one m refers
to a pi. (Din ':3) and the other to a collective (nom). vnaa pxn *?3 N"?D]
cp. 8 8 , and for the cstr., Driver, 189. Possibly nxta should be read : cp.
(Sr&E, and see Nestle in ZATW, 1905, 218 ff. 4. D'son IYIDN] HDM (apart from
'* = cubit and, in 2 S 8 1 , mother-city} here only. It has been explained as a
metaphorical development from D, mother, and hence foundations ; uncertain ;
but cp. Assyr. ammatu. ID regularly means threshold, though |g*>Pft has also
the meaning porch, doorpost. (Hr renders the two words by the single word
virepdvpov, lintel (cp. CU.S). Gra. suggests m[a]DK, supporters, i.e. pillars
(2 K i8 16 ), which brings us back, so far as the meaning goes, very nearly to the
posts of the doors of AV, which rests on a philologically questionable Jewish
exegesis ; cp. Rashi. K^D'] impf. of incipient action : Dr. 26, 27.
5-8. The effect of the vision on Isaiah. 5. Having
in vv. 1 " 4 described what he saw, the vision proper, Isaiah passes
on to speak of the effect on himself ; the alarm which he felt was
the effect of the whole of what he saw, not merely of the last or
any other single detail. He is a sinful man, member of a sinful
nation, and yet he has seen God! cp. Lk 5 8 , Ex 33 20 , Jg i3 22 .
He is in the presence of God, but has not that cleanness of lips
which they need who would call upon God (Zeph 3 9 ). He
cannot pray for himself, or his sinful folk. For I am undone]
for the vb. see, e.g., 15*, Hos io 7 . An ancient theory that Isaiah
was struck dumb for not rebuking Uzziah's presumption (2 Ch
26 16ff -) was based on the confusion of the roots ncn and DOT (to
be silent} : hence U quia tacui^ Aq. ecriojTnyo-a, cp. 5T and possibly
(Sir's /caravevvy/xai. 6, 7* ^ ut Isaiah does not find himself driven
forth on account of his sinfulness : on the other hand, the same
vision which had intensified his consciousness of sin is, before it
vanishes, to assure him of the removal of his sin. One of the
seraphim, leaving his fellow(s) at the threshold, flew to the altar
which stood just in front of the porch of the Temple, and, taking
off the altar a glowing coal, or stone, continued his flight across
the court of the Temple to the place where Isaiah stood, perhaps
near its entrance, and touched his unclean lips with it, purging
them with fire (cp. Mai 3 2f -, Lk 3 16 ) and making them clean ; his
lips being cleansed he can address Yahweh (v. 8 ). Thy iniquity
VI. 4-9 109
will depart] the sense of the pf. with waw Conv. must be future
here (Dr. 1 19 a) : EV is taken away, is wrong both in respect of
the tense and the passive vb. ; "ID in Heb. is intrans. to remove,
depart, pass away. For such quasi-personification of sin as the
expression implies, cp. 2 K y 9 , Iniquity (punishment) will find,
overtake, us (UKtfDl) ; cp. (with nxton as subj.) Nu 32 28 . 8. The
sense of forgiveness in Isaiah is immediately accompanied by the
desire for service; cp. the prayer of Ps 5 1 is-ift (IMS) . purification
from sin has set him free to understand Yahweh's will; he now
hears Him consulting the members of His court (i K 22 19ff> ) and
asking who shall be His messenger ; Isaiah offers himself. The
passage is important for the light it throws on the nature of the
prophetic consciousness and inspiration. Isaiah becomes a
prophet owing to no physical compulsion, but by a perfectly
free choice, or at least all that compels him is his sympathy with
the purposes of Yahweh ; cp. Am 3 7f *.
5. vrcru] Houtsma in ZATW, 1907, p. 57, conjectures 'JTpip}
6. nsrai] also I K 19 D'sn (nay), (bread baked on) hot stones; cp. Syr.
^2LL>, bread baked on ashes ; Ar. ,Le ., a hot stone, nsjn, pavement
(Ezk4<D 17 ), is from a different root, /*> t, ^2>t5; see BDB. (ffi rightly
avdpa. 7. y:n] MT rightly points as Hiphil ; the unemphatic object is
omitted. m] neuter ; see Kon. iii. 45. 8. uVj <3r, perhaps to avoid the
question raised by | (see above), substitutes irpbs rbv \a6v TOVTOV : cp. v. 9 .
9-13. The message entrusted to Isaiah by Yahweh.
The doom of the people is inevitably fixed : there is to be no
further healing of their sick state (cp. i 6fc ) ; let them now persist
in their insensitivity (cp. i 8 ) to the voice and will of God : even
the prophet's preaching is but to render them blinder, deafer,
and more insensitive. The gradual hardening and ultimately
fatal effect on character of continued disobedience to the voice
of God is here stated in the bold, direct, dramatic speech of
prophecy. The doings of God will still be before the people,
the voice of God will still speak through the prophets and in the
events of the time, but they will not understand ! This people]
so also 8 6 12 9 15 28 11 - u 29 13 - 14 , contemptuously, and always,
except in 9 16 , of the unbelief or superstitions of the people (Du.).
The phrase is ambiguous, and raises the question whether at his
call Isaiah was charged with a mission to Judah only or to the
Northern kingdom only, or to both kingdoms. Against limiting
IIO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the phrase to Judah is the fact that much of Isaiah's earlier
prophecies was actually addressed in whole or in part to the
Northern kingdom (9 7ff - i7 lff - 28 1 - 4 ). Hackmann (pp. 52-54,
70-76) has argued strongly that the phrase here refers to Israel
only ; he points out that the prophecies clearly belonging to
Isaiah's early life are mainly devoted to Israel, that the fate of
Israel predicted in them is along the lines of the preaching of
Amos and Hosea, and agrees with the terms of the commission
here total destruction ; that, on the other hand, Isaiah's attitude
towards Judah as depicted in ch. 7 f. does not correspond to the
commission. The fatal objection to this otherwise attractive
theory, which is insufficiently criticised by Cheyne (Introd.
p. 28), is that the people in v. 9 cannot well be an entirely
different body from the people of v. 5 , and that in v. 5 the people
must at least include Judah. But if we must conclude that
"this people" includes Judah as well as Israel, or even, as surely
v. 6 suggests, refers particularly to Judah, how is the unrelieved
pessimism as to the national future to be accounted for in view
of ch. 7 ? And how on any interpretation is the absence of
any reference to Isaiah's fundamental (7 s n.) doctrine of the
remnant to be explained? Cheyne (p. 29) finds it sufficient to
assume that ch. 6 was originally intended as a prologue to 7 1 -8 18
(in the course of which the doctrine of the remnant is developed) ;
others, following Ew., think that this record of Isaiah's call having
been written long after his call, was influenced by the darker
outlook of a later time. The difficulty is not completely over-
come, but escape is least of all to be found by retaining, against
the evidence of (5r, the last clause of v. 13 . Dull the heart]
Heb. make fat, i.e. insensitive; cp. Ps iiQ 70 . Plaster over its
eyes] as with the sticky secretion that exudes from diseased eyes.
And it be healed once more'] as it had been wont to be healed
by Yahweh (Hos 6 1 ). ffi replaces the indefinite subj. of ^ by
the ist pers., And I heal them. EV, " and turn again [i.e. to God]
and be healed," follows the erroneous punctuation of MT.
11-13. How long, asks Isaiah, is this hardening process to
proceed ? The answer comes clearly : till the nation be no
more, till it be destroyed root and branch, and the country which
it now inhabits be left full of uninhabited ruins and unfilled : cp.
22 U . Be left a desolation] so r; Jfy be wasted into a desolation.
12. And Yahweh remove men] Yahweh will not Himself be
VI. 9-13 I* *
destroyed, as the people supposed, in the destruction of His
people ; He is Himself the cause of it. Israel will vanish ;
Yahweh will remain. The land of Israel will become a desola-
tion, but the whole earth (v. 8 ) will still reflect Yahweh's righteous-
ness ; the very desolation of Yahweh's country will speak of His
righteous anger, which will not tolerate the sins of those whom
He had chosen to be peculiarly His own (cp. 5 1 ' 7 , Am 3 2 ). This
thought remains implicit in the entire suggestion of the vision
(cp. especially v. 8 ), even if with Marti we were to consider v. 12f -
a post-exilic explanatory addition to v. 11 ; but his arguments are
hardly quite conclusive ; for it is perhaps hypercritical to claim
that men cannot be removed (v. 12 ) from an already (v. 11 )
desolated country ; and the use of Yahweh in words attributed
to Yahweh particularly at some little distance from the
beginning of the speech, is hardly sufficient by itself to prove
that v. 12 was not the original continuation of v. 11 . 13. Even
though a fraction of the population, a tenth, is left behind in
Judah when Yahweh exiles the rest (v. 12a ), it will not escape, but
it too must be exterminated, as when a tree is cut down, the
stump which remains is also destroyed such seems the intention
of the text. If the last clause of the v. were really original and
not a late gloss added to %fy after the time of (Jr, it would be
necessary to suppose that the announcement of judgment closes
with the word exterminated ("UO) ; and that then a figure of hope
is abruptly introduced As an oak or a terebinth wherein at
felling is a stump, so the holy seed is its stump, from which a new
and holy Israel will spring ; such in any case is the meaning of
the annotator who added the last clause. With the phrase holy
seed, cp. the post-exilic BHpn jnt of Ezr 9 2 and D\-6tf JDT, Mai 2 15 .
9. jfiD* iyo] G-K. uy. 10. a?)] point so, connecting closely with
what follows (cp. v. 18 ), not atfj (MT). Nfl-ii] and one heal ; indef. subj.
G-K. 144^. II. nNtfn] (ffir /taTa\et00^<reTcu=nN9>JFi. f^ is a poor repetition
of the vb. in the first line ; MT attempts to create a difference by pointing
this form Niphal; but note the different sense of Niphal in I7 12 . 13. nrrm
nyaVj cstr. as in 5 5 , but the meaning of njn is different : here to exterminate
(cp. 4 4 , 2 S 4 11 , Dt I3 16 etc. ), there to depasture. Budde, indeed (New World,
1895, p. 12), adopts the latter meaning here it shall be for (cattle] to feed on,
and sees in the words a promise that Judah will return to pastoral life and
the divine favour. 13. p^Nai nVto] probably neither term denotes a distinct
species of tree (i 29 n.): the combination of the two terms is curious: Kit.
tentatively proposes the omission of pWcn : note that about 100 Hebrew MSS
(and ? dJr) read ra, not an, in the next clause.
112 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
VII. i-VIII. 1 8. Incidents and Prophecies at the time of the
Syro-Epraimitish War (735-734 B.C.).
Special Literature: F. Giesebrecht, "Die Immannel Weissagung," in
TSK, 1888, pp. 217-264 (in the main a detailed discussion of ch. 8) ; A. B.
Davidson, "Immanuel" (in DB) ; A. S. Peake, "Immanuel" (in Diet, of
Christ and the Gospels). See, further, pp. I35f.
This section consists of (a) narratives in prose relating
Isaiah's interview with Ahaz 7 1 ' 16 , his use of the name Maher-
shalal-hash-baz, 8 1-4 , and his use of his disciples and his children,
8 16 ' 18 ; (b) poems, 7 17 ' 25 S 5 * 10 - 11 ' 15 ; (c) prose notes (8 5 - n )
prefixed by Isaiah to the last two of these poems.
In 8 1 ' 18 both the prose style and the autobiographical
character of ch. 6 re-appear, see 8 1 ' 3 - 6 - 1L 16 ' 18 ; but the narrative
parts of ch. 7 speak of Isaiah in the 3rd person. That Isaiah
spoke of himself in immediately consecutive passages, now in the
ist, now in the 3rd pers. (Di.), is not very likely. More probably
the use of the 3rd pers. indicates either (a) that the author of
7 1 * 16 was not Isaiah himself, but that the passage like chs. 20 and
36-39 is biographical ; or (b) that 7 1 ' 16 , originally like chs. 6, 8
autobiographical, was modified by an editor who added v. 1 , and
for reasons no longer obvious substituted the 3rd for the ist
person. Of these alternatives the second is favoured by a usage
("D jy) characteristic of Isaiah in 7 6 and by the general similarity
of style throughout the narratives of chs. 7 f. ; cp. 7 5 and 8 6 , 7 7
and 8 10 , 7 10 and 8 5 , 7 14 - 16 and 8 3f \ Isaiah's memoirs must then
have suffered a similar fortune to those of Ezra, surviving in
part intact (cp. e.g. Ezr 9), in part modified by an editor who
substituted the 3rd pers. for the ist (cp. e.g. Ezr 10).
The prophecy in 8 19 ' 23 is scarcely derived from Isaiah's
memoirs, still less 9 1 " 6 ; nor again within 6 1 -8 18 is 7 17 ' 26 so
derived ; see below on the several passages.
VII. I. A summary statement of the ill-success of
the operations of Syria and Israel against Judah. The
v. is logically out of place, the hostile approach of the Syro-
Ephraimitish army to Jerusalem and the failure of the attack
are events which occurred after what is related in vv. 2 ' 12 . The
verse with some verbal variations not affecting the sense occurs
also in 2 K i6 6 . It was probably derived from Kings (cp. chs.
36-39) by the editor of the present passage ; ct. the genealogical
description of Ahaz with Isaiah's simple reference to Uzziah in 6 1 .
VII. I -VIII. 1 8 113
The priority of Is 7 1 , at one time commonly assumed or maintained, is
now generally .abandoned, hut Di. still defended it on these grounds: (i)
2 K i6 8 stands very isolated ; (2) Is 7 2 requires some introduction ; (3) the
omission of nSy at the end of the v. in Kings is less correct ; iSa* (Ki.) is easier
than *?3' (Is.), and therefore presumably secondary. Of these arguments the
second is the weightiest, and indeed it should be recognised that something
once preceded and introduced v. 2 . Either that introduction was lost through
mutilation before the passage came into the hands of the editor, or for
some reason unknown he preferred to substitute for it 2 K i6 8 . The first
argument is of little weight ; 2 K i6 5 may stand isolated, but Is 7 1 is logically
out of place (see above). As to the 3rd argument, the reading ^O' in Is. is
uncertain : <& has the //. The additional clause trw *?y vwn of Ki. is not
strikingly like an editorial expansion to improve the bad style of Is. ; the
awkwardness of Is. is rather due to abbreviation.
And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz . . . king of Judah\
this rather vague time definition was correctly inferred by the
editor from what immediately precedes 2 K i6 5 ; the phrase-
ology is not that of a contemporary, who would have said "At
the beginning of the reign of Ahaz," or " In the first year of
Ahaz." Re$on\ EV Rezin (see phil. n.). Reson was king of
Damascus as early as 738, for he is mentioned by Tiglath-pileser
in his annals of that year ; but Pefcah's accession must be placed
later, for the king of Israel who paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser in
738 was Menahem, and between Menahem and Pefcah intervened
the reign of Pekahiah. Went up\ so regularly of motion towards
Jerusalem (cp. e.g. 2 8 , Ezr 7 7 , Jn 2 18 , ct. Lk 9 53 ), departure from
Jerusalem being expressed by to go down (i K 22 2 , Ac 8 6 ).
Reson went up ... to Jerusalem to attack it, but could not attack
it] 2 K i6 5 runs: "Reson . . . went up to Jerusalem to attack
(it), and laid siege to Ahaz (j$ ' to it '), but could not attack it."
The meaning of Kings is clear : Reson and Pel^ati reached
Jerusalem and invested it, but were unable to proceed to actual
assaults on the city : no sooner was the investment complete
than the besiegers were called away. The meaning of Is. is the
same, though it is more awkwardly expressed : the last clause
is more specific than "they could not prevail against it" (RV),
which might imply failure after a long siege ; it means that they
were not even able to make any active assault on the city. The
speedy withdrawal from Jerusalem may be attributed to news
having reached the besiegers that the Assyrians were advancing
westwards. In 735, as in the two previous years, Tiglath-pileser
had been campaigning to the S.E. and N. of Assyria, i.e. in parts
VOL. i. 8
114 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
remote from Syria ; to this period we may attribute the raid on
Judah in the last year(s) of Jotham (2 K i5 37 ). In the early
spring of 734 we may suppose that the allied armies marched
on Jerusalem, but had scarcely laid siege to the city when news
reached them that Tiglath-pileser was moving westward; his
objective in this year was, as we know from the Eponym
Canon, Philistia. Starting about the same time (cp. 2 S n 1 ),
Reson might well traverse the distance (about 140 miles) from
Damascus to Jerusalem, and prepare to lay siege to the latter
city, before he received news that this year the Assyrian king
was marching from Nineveh on his own capital; the military
route from Nineveh to Damascus would be about 550 miles (cp.
EBi. 5167).
Sa N 1 ?! . . . npsi . . . pn nVy] if *?y is correct, the waw before nps is waw
concomitantiae, which in Arabic requires the ace. after it Re$6n with Pekah
went up and was unable ; the instances in Heb. are at best few ; see G-K.
1 540 footnote ; BDB 2530. In this case Reson appears as the principal
person. More probably ^ should be read ^9; with 2 KL, f^ and (Hr, and (Or
here : then r6y is sing, as preceding the subj. ; G-K. 1467". pm] J^ 1 jsn was
erroneously amplified in |^ 2 to pm instead of pjn ; (Hr, 'Paaauv, 'Paffffuv (with
late variants 'Pacreti' accommodated to $? 2 ), and the Assyrian Ra-sun-nu alike
indicate that the final vowel was o. rrSy nonSob] 2 Ki., n hy run non^D^,
where in Vy is perhaps an erroneous specification of an original n'Vy (Stade) ;
whether the omission of ns'i in Is. was editorial or transcriptional is uncertain.
The actual investment of a city is expressed by *?y mx, the more active
operations, such as assaults on the walls, carried on during the investment in
order to reduce the city, or as the immediate prelude to its capture (12^), by
Vy Drtan (Dt 2O 19 , 2 K I2 18 , Jos lo 34 ), or a nn^rr (i K 2O 1 , Jg 9 45 , 2 S
I2 26. 27. 2 ? j s 2O i) or s i m piy on^n (2 S H 1<2 ). The purpose of a hostile
approach to a city may, of course, be described either as "to besiege it," or
"to attack it" (n^y onSt 1 ?, Dt 2O 10 and here, with the noun instead of the
infin. .T^y nonSn 1 ?). onSn does not mean " to continue the fight " (Box), or
"to be successful in fighting" "to prevail," not even in Nu 22 11 cited for
this sense by BDB ; success is there implied by the following verb vnsrui.
2-16. Isaiah's interview with Ahaz. "Immanuel.
At a time when news has reached Jerusalem of the union
of the Syrian with the Ephraimite army at two or three days'
distance from Jerusalem, and the court and people are in
great alarm, Isaiah is commanded by Yahweh to take with him
his son Shear-jashub, whose name signified " A Remnant shall
return," and to meet Ahaz outside the city in the " Fuller's Field
Road " ; he is to exhort the king to keep calm, and to assure him
VII. i-i6 115
that Syria and Ephraim possess no power to do Judah serious
mischief, or to carry out their plan of taking Jerusalem and
overthrowing the Davidic dynasty in favour of an outsider
(probably a Syrian). Lack of trust in Yahweh can alone, but
would surely, lead to Judah's undoing. In a further appeal,
Ahaz is offered any sign (of Yahweh's sufficiency) that he likes
to choose, but he declines the offer. Thereupon Isaiah
announces that Yahweh nevertheless will (hereafter) give a sign
of His own choosing : the nature and purpose of this sign has
been much discussed, and no general agreement has been
reached (see below); but Isaiah goes on to predict (v. 16 ) that
within two or three years Ephraim and Syria will be a land of
ruins. In vv. 17ff -, which probably do not belong to the original
account of the interview, the desolation of Judah also is
predicted.
In this passage much is obscure ; two things are clear :
Isaiah's contemptuous disbelief in the power of the allied armies
of Syria and Israel, and his profound belief in Yahweh : in both
respects he differs from king and people, who fear the foe and
have no sustaining confidence in Yahweh.
Isaiah's attitude to Assyria is not definitely stated in w. 1 ' 16 ;
and it must be a matter of inference only whether Ahaz had
already paid tribute to Assyria, or was at the time contemplating
doing so. Isaiah may have judged the allied armies as he did,
because he was convinced that an immediate advance of Assyria
to the West would force them to turn back before they could
inflict serious injury on Judah ; but even if so, this was but the
form which his belief in Yahweh took, for with him Yahweh
directed the movements of Assyria.
The date of this interview is the early part of 734. It fell
some few years later than Isaiah's call (ch. 6) : see on v. 1 .
2. News comes to the court in Jerusalem that the plans of
Syria and Ephraim (v. 6 ) for attacking Jerusalem and over-
throwing the Davidic dynasty (w. 8 - 6 ) are now taking practical
and menacing effect. The entire might of Syria has settled for
the moment in the country of its allies, the Ephraimites; the
Syrian army has covered more than half the distance between
Damascus and Jerusalem, and is within two or three days' march
of its goal. King and people quail at the news, like trees bending
before the wind (cp. Mt n 7 ). The house of David] so w. 18 * 17 .
Il6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
The substitution of an alien for the reigning king (v. 6 ) would
involve loss of place and power for the entire house or entourage
(cp. e.g. 2 S 9) of the king. They therefore, and not Ahaz
alone, are described as recipients of the news, and active
promoters of the policy directed against Syria and Ephraim
(v. 13 ) ; but it is unnecessary to conclude that on account of the
youth of the king, who may have been barely twenty-one (2 K
i6 2 ; but see 2 Ch 28 1 , Kit.), other members of the royal house
took at this time a more than ordinary part in government.
Syria hath settled down upon Ephraini\ the phrase to settle upon
(i>y ni3) is used (n 2 ) of the spirit taking possession of men, of
the ark grounding on Mt. Ararat (Gn 8 4 ), of carrion birds
lighting on dead bodies (28 2i 10 ); construed with 3 the verb is
also used of insects, such as locusts (Ex io 14 ), settling on a
tract of country (v. 19 ). None of these uses quite corresponds
to what the context here seems to require, the friendly and
temporary halt of an army in the country of allies ; the nearest
parallel for the temporary halt is the absolute use of the vb. in
Nu io 36 . It is doubtful whether the verb was so associated with
swarms of insects as to suggest by itself that the army of Syria
was large (Di.). The unjustifiable rendering is confederate with
(EV), or conjectural emendations to obtain such a sense, increase,
if they do not create, difficulty ; the hostile alliance in itself was
no new thing needing to be announced : it already existed before
Ahaz became king, 2 K i5 87 .
3-9. Yahweh commands Isaiah to interview Ahaz outside
the city, and to assure him that he has no cause for fear ; for
the plans of the allied powers will be frustrated. The carrying
out of the command is not directly recorded ; it is merely
implied by the fact that in w. loff - the actual interview is in
progress; so the fulfilment of Jer i9 lft is implied in iQ 14 but not
directly recorded.
3. Shear-jashub~\ unless with Che. (Crit. Bib.} we substitute
for HIES* ~\\S& of Jif nit? 11 "it?K, a name of purely sinister meaning
"Asshur shall return," the name of the son whom Isaiah is
bidden to take with him, is at once a warning and a promise : a
large part of the whole will perish and not return, but the
remnant will return and be saved. Isaiah may at different
times have explained the whole and the remnant differently ;
but on this occasion he would explain it as meaning that the
VII. 2, 3 II7
larger part of " the whole house of Israel," the northern kingdom,
will certainly perish; but the remnant, Judah, may return to
Yahweh and be saved (cp. vv. 14-16 ). In any case we must
assume that Isaiah takes his son, whose name was a sign (8 18 ),
because he knows that King Ahaz when he sees the boy will
recall his name and its significance. Before this time Isaiah had
probably drawn public attention to his elder son's name, as later
he did to the name of the younger (8 3f -), and an account of this
may have stood originally in the memoirs. There is no
suggestion that Isaiah was to carry Shear-jashub : the child
therefore must have been old enough to go for a walk. The
name with its prophetic significance must have been given after
the call (ch. 6) : therefore this incident falls at least two or three,
perhaps several years, after that event. Go out . . . to the end of
the channel of the upper pool, to the Fuller's Field Road\ we may
assume that Ahaz was engaged at the time in inspecting the
water supply of the city against the siege which might now be
expected within a day or two. The city of Jerusalem contains
no springs, but is and must always have been entirely dependent
for its water supply * on cisterns filled by (i) the rain of winter,
or (2) by aqueducts from springs, or reservoirs, outside the city.
The only perennial supply of water in the immediate vicinity of
Jerusalem is the Virgin's Spring, "'Ain Sitti Maryam": this was
connected, perhaps later than the time of Ahaz (cp. 2 K 2o 20 ,
2 Ch 32 30 ), by an underground passage, 586 yards long, with
the pool of Siloam within the city, and so made available
for the inhabitants in time of siege. An external conduit had
previously connected these points (Benzinger, Kon. 187), but
this was liable to be cut by an enemy. The place of the
interview, in spite of the full definition, cannot be identified ;
perhaps it lay to the north of the city, for the Assyrian army is
said to have encamped there (36 2 ), and the north is the natural
side from which to attack Jerusalem, as the Romans also later
perceived. Others f put it to the S.E., below the city "at the
mouth of the Tyropoeon valley." The Fuller's Field may
indeed have lain there, " where alone water abounded " ; but was
the entire course of the Fuller's Field Road below the city? The
* G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, i. 15 and ch. v.
t Sta. Gesch. i. 592 f. (with plan) ; G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, i. 105,
ii. 127.
Il8 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
verb Go out does not suggest descent into the valley. 4. Isaiah
is to say to Ahaz : See to it that you keep quiet , free from agitation,
not like trees trembling in the wind (v. 2 ) ; have no fear of Syria
and Ephraim, who, worn out with their previous internecine
warfare, have little power of mischief left, but are like the stumps
of fire brands now smouldering before they finally grow cold and
harmless. Smoke, not fire, is all that the latest news means.
Isaiah condemns two things in Ahaz : his fear, for it is needless ;
his faith in material resources here typified by a secure water
supply in time of siege ; the only faith that will secure the real
solidity of the state is faith in Yahweh (v. 9 ). He demands of
Ahaz, directly by his words, confidence and, by the presence of
his son Shear-jashub, " return " to Yahweh. The point of view
is essentially the same years later, and expressed in part by the
same terms: "in returning (shubah) and resting shall ye find
support, in keeping quiet (ttp>n, as here and 32 17 , cp. i8 4 ) and
confidence shall your strength lie " (so 15 ), not in cavalry or the
power of Egypt (so 16 ). At the heat of the anger of Reson and
Syria, and RemaliaKs sori\ an explanation, supplied perhaps by
the editor, of the figure of the smouldering stumps in the
previous clause. The combination of the terms Re$on, Syria,
RemaliaKs son is curious. RemaliaKs son appears to be a
contemptuous mode of reference to Pekah : cp. i S 2o 27 and,
below, " the son of Tabeel." 5, 6. The plan of the allies, which
has alarmed Ahaz, but appears to Isaiah certain of frustration
(v. 7 ), is to take Jerusalem by storm and then dethrone Ahaz,
overturn the house of David, and set up as king of Judah a
creature of their own, called contemptuously not by his own
name, but merely the son of Tabeel. If ffir preserve the correct
pronunciation, Ta/?o}\, the name (cp. Ezr 4 7 ) of the father is
Aramaic and the man, presumably, an Aramaean. If this be
so, then, whether Winckler be right or not in identifying the son
of Tabeel with Reson,* we have here an indication that Syria is
the dominant power in the alliance. Let us go up into Judah and
cause her to be in dread*] or, more probably, reading PHp^M for
rttVpS, and let us bring her into straits^ cp. 2Q 7 . And let us break
into her\ here, if not in the previous clause, the suffix refers to
Jerusalem rather than to Judah as a whole ; it can scarcely be
"let us force a passage into her territory" (Box), for the first
* ATUntersuchungen, 74 ; KAT* 135.
VII. 4-8 U9
clause of the v. already expresses invasion of the territory. For
the vb. (j?p3, Kal, Niph.) of breaking into cities, see 2 Ch 32 1 ,
2 K 25 4 , Ezk 3o 16 , Jer 392. Even in 2 Ch 2i 17 niypn^ is prob-
ably a breviloquence for "and broke into the cities thereof."
For us] let us break in it so as to bring it unto us (wta, cp.
2 Ch 32 1 ), i.e. into our hands.
7-9. Over against the fears of Ahaz and the plans of Syria
and Ephraim is now set the sentence of Yahweh. The evil plan
(njn, v. 6 ) will not be carried out. Reon is head of Damascus,
Damascus capital of Syria, Peljah head of Samaria, and Samaria
capital of Ephraim, and they will never be anything more ; not to
them belongs, or ever will belong, the headship of Judah. So
far as they are concerned, Judah is safe. But its ultimate safety
and continuance rest on its relation to Yahweh. It is not really
threatened by the evil plans of its foes ; it is not rendered safe
because their plans are foiled. Safety will be secured by a
practical and personal belief in and understanding of Yahweh,
which will lead to a quiet confidence in His sufficiency (v. 4 3o 15f -),
and to righteousness of life (cp. Gn i5 6 ); but if ye believe not, ye
shall not be established', an early and correct interpretation of
this great saying is found in 2 Ch 2o 20 ; the positive alternative,
here left to be understood, is expressed by Isaiah in 28 16 . Note
the paronomasia 'tm lo tctaminu ki lo t?amenu y cp. i 23 5 7 etc.
This passage or Gn i5 6 is the earliest extant containing the
expression to believe.
8b. Sixty-five years hence Ephraim shall be broken in pieces^
that it be no more a people. Eich. and Ges. pointed out, and
later scholars have very generally recognised, that these words are
an annotation by a later writer. Like the Aramaic gloss in
Jer lo 11 , they spoil a sentence by intruding into the middle of it.
Moreover, the note in its present position anticipates the allusion
to Ephraim (v. 9 *) which it attempts to explain. The origin and
nature of the clause are sufficiently indicated by its position ;
but it may be observed further that it could afford Ahaz little
assurance that the present peril was unreal, to know that long
after he was dead Ephraim would be destroyed. The precise dat-
ing of a prediction, too, would be without analogy in Hebrew pro-
phecy, round numbers occur, i6 14 2O 3 2i 16 , Jer 25 llf -. The writer
of the note refers to some event in the history of Ephraim that
occurred 65 years after 735 B.C., i.e. in 670-669 B.C. The Book
I2O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of Kings appears to know nothing of any kingdom of Ephraim
after its conquest by Sargon in 722 B.C. (2 K 17). On the other
hand, Ezr 4 2 - 10 speaks of settlements of Babylonian peoples in
Samaria in the time of Esar-haddon (681-668) and Osnappar =
Asshurbanipal (668-626). Since there is no obvious reason why
a late annotator should invent the number 65, it is probable that
the gloss is the note of a seventh century scribe, and records
some deportation of the inhabitants of Ephraim by Esar-haddon
or Asshurbanipal. Cp. Winckler, ATUntersuchungen, 97 ff.
2. nm] Fern., in reference to the whole people of Aram : cp. 2i a 42",
Ex 1 2 s3 , and see G-K., 122^, i. Houb. emended to ni"?J, Lag. to nrwo, a
verbal form assumed from riN, brother. If emendation were necessary, run (cp.
Sebastian MUnster) would be easy, but the prep. *?y would give it an inap-
propriate hostile force. <& renders cvveQ&vrjaev (=mn, Gn I4 3 ; rm(Niph.),
2 K I2 8 ), & inn, & _oA*]. 4. Ttl Kal impf. in a, G-K. 6;/. *\K nna
'ui J'jn] loosely attached to the foregoing. For this clause and the whole of
the next v. (Sr has 8rav y&p dpyfy TOV dvpov pov ytv-qrat, irdXiv id<rofjiai' teal 6
vlos TOV 'Apafi Kal 6 vlbs TOV 'Po/j.e\lov OTL 4pov\ev<ravTo pov\T)v irovrjpdv. This
is obviously not the original sense ; nor is an original text to be obtained by
mere retranslation. 1 But possibly the difference between |^ and (Hr is in part
due to a short original text having been expanded by glosses which did not
find quite the same place in ^ and the original of (5r. Perhaps the original
of vv. 4b (from nm) and 5 consisted simply of njn f^y xy ^y ; all beyond
this adds words, but nothing to the sense. 5. o |y] rather characteristic of
Isaiah: 3 16 n. 6. m.V3 n"?yj] 3 nSy implies actual entrance into the city or
district concerned, not mere approach to it : see 2 S 2 1 , Jg I 3 , I Ch I4 U ,
2 Ch 2i 17 , and even in Jer 48 18 , where the object is the personified people (cp.
Jos 9 7 ). rm'pj] Hiph. (here only) of pp in the sense found in v. 16 , Ex I 12 ,
Nu 22*. Read rather (with Ges. Thes. al.) nj,r?} a better transition to
najrpaj. (& <rvv\a\ri<ravTes avrois, doubtful. *?N3] if Aramaic, cp. pDi3B,
Ta/Sepe/td (i K I5 18 ), the name of Ben-hadad's father. If the name was
Hebrew, it was pronounced ^ipb, and would then have been transliterated by
(5r Twt^\ : cp. n'aiB, Twj8/as. MT (VN30) in the first syllable preserves the
tradition that the name is Aramaic ; in the second the pathah is hardly pausal for
sere, but rather a punctuator's witticism, who would have the name mean " No-
good." 7. m.T 'riK] (5 Kii/uos ffa.pa.68. 9. '3j surely\ as in nny '3, etc. : BDB
472/5 ; G-K. 1 59^ "But '3 may be an error for '3 ; on this and on ( (2L5)
(TvvrjTe intcllegatis = 3Pi for i3D(N)n ; see Nestle in ZA 7'W, 1905, pp. 215 ff.
8. nrr] for the less usual sense of vnnn, to be shattered, cp. the use of the Hiph.
in 9 3 , of D'nn (pi.) in i S 2 4 , and of nnnn (? Piel) in Jer 5i 56 . The use of the
Kal in 3O 31 , often cited as parallel, is ambiguous. For the more usual sense
to be dismayed, cp. 8 9 n.
10-13. Isaiah offers, and Ahaz provokes his indigna-
tion by refusing, a sign. lOf. Isaiah offers then and there
VII. 2-9, io-i3
to Ahaz any sign he may like to demand, in Heaven above or
Sheol below, in proof that Yahweh determines what shall come
to pass, and that it is His present will that Jerusalem shall suffer
nothing from the advancing armies of Ephraim and Syria, but
that these armies will within a short time retire and leave Judah
unmolested.
Obviously we have no full account of the interview. We
must, therefore, infer what definite statements by Isaiah preceded
this offer of a sign, and what that sign was to prove.
And Yahweh again spake] Yahweh spoke through His
prophet, Isaiah : cp. 3 16 . In the original form of the narrative,
if autobiographical, the clause must have run, " I spake again."
II. A sign] a sign (mtf) is an event which is the pledge for the
fulfilment of a prophecy, the genuineness of a promise, the
reality of an experience, and the like. It may be given as a token
that something really will happen in the future, or as a reminder
that something predicted previously has now actually happened.
The sign may be a quite ordinary event, especially if it is itself
a matter of prophecy (as in v. 14 ), or it may be of an extraordinary,
miraculous nature, in which case it is also a " wonder '' (naiD).
An example of the first kind is afforded by i S 2 27 ' 86 , where the
removal of the priesthood from the house of Eli is predicted ; and
the sign that this prediction will come true is that, in the nearer
future, Eli's two sons will die on a single day a striking, but by
no means a miraculous, occurrence. Again the sign, or reminder
(Ex 3 12 ), that it really was Yahweh that spoke to and commis-
sioned Moses, will be the fact that in Sinai the Hebrews will
worship God, i.e. the later event confirms the reality of a previous
experience. Jeremiah confirms his prediction of the annihilation
of the Jews in Egypt by the prediction that (in the nearer future)
the king of Egypt will fall into the hand of his enemies (Jer
44 29f> ). For signs which are also wonders, see 38 7 - 22 , Jg 6 17 .
Here Isaiah first offers Ahaz a miraculous sign to take place at
the present moment in proof that things will happen as he has
said. But (v. 12 ) Ahaz declines the offer, asserting that he is
unwilling to tempt Yahweh by making Him prove His power
(cp. Ex i7 7 ). Isaiah is not deceived by this show of piety, but
interprets the king's refusal of a sign as an indication of his
unwillingness to accept the guidance of Yahweh, and his
determination to pursue his own policy. With the king and
122 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(v. 13 ) court in this mood a miraculous sign at the present moment
becomes useless ; on the other hand, Yahweh insists that whether
Ahaz and his court will it or not, a sign they shall have, not now
but after the event, which will recall the correctness of the
prophet's prediction, and refer the relief from the siege not to the
human efforts of Ahaz, but to the will of Yahweh. This sign will
be not of Ahaz', but of Yahweh's choosing, and, its purpose being
different, it will not need to be miraculous like that offered to and
rejected by Ahaz. Ask a sign from Yahweh . . . deep down in
Sheol or high up above] Yahweh's power extends to Sheol below,
as well as to the heights above, Am g 2 ; alike in Sheol and in
heaven, He can work wonders. Isaiah's willingness that Ahaz
shall choose the sign, indicates that he had already proved by
experience his power to work wonders, unless we should detect
here the result of an enthusiastic disciple's exaggerated conception
of the prophet's powers (cp. Che. EBi. 3859). There is, of
course, no question of necromancy : the sign is to be a sign from
Yahweh. But to avoid misunderstanding, 5 paraphrased Ask
of thee a sign from the Lord : ask that a miracle may be done on
earth, or that a sign may appear in heaven. But to interpret J^
Ask it either in the depth (MT, EV), instead of deep down in Sheol,
though idiomatically possible, is certainly wrong: it involves a
weak repetition of ask and a mutilation of the parallelism in the
last clauses of the v. Yahweh thy God\ Isaiah addresses Ahaz,
and Ahaz replies (v. 12 ), as a servant of Yahweh : after Ahaz'
answer, interpreted by Isaiah as contumacious, Isaiah significantly
varies the phrase and says " my God " (v. 13 ). 12. See n. on sign,
v. 11 . 13. And he said] sc. Isaiah ; originally perhaps and I said:
see v. 10 n. Let Ahaz and his courtiers know that it is not only
men, prophets like and including himself, whose patience they
exhaust : they weary (cp. i 14 ) out Yahweh Himself by their per-
sistent disregard of what He really requires.
14-16. Immanuel. Christian interpreters, dominated by
the use in Mt i 23 of v. 14 , for many centuries saw in these verses
an assertion that our Lord was " conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary." Jewish interpreters have throughout
insisted that what Isaiah here predicts is a birth due to ordinary
human intercourse, and about to take place in the normal manner.
Modern interpreters, whether Jews or Christians, are much
divided, and in particular on these points : (i) Who is the mother
VII. 13-16 123
and who the son referred to in v. 14 ? (2) What is the sign given
by Yahweh Himself, and what does it signify ? Is it miraculous ?
Wherein precisely does it consist ? Does it signify (a) that Judah
will be delivered, or (b) that it will be destroyed, or (c) that it will
be first delivered and then destroyed? The ambiguities and
awkwardnesses of the passage are so numerous as to give little
hope of reaching an interpretation that will command general
assent; and under these circumstances even the dogmatic or
traditional Christian interpretation will doubtless continue to
find defenders, while others may infer that the text has been
deeply corrupted and must be reconstructed by bold and exten-
sive conjectures : see Che., most recently in the Two Religions,
309 ff. It will be convenient to summarise here before passing
on to the discussion of details, pp. 123-133, and the history of
the interpretation, pp. 133-136, what appears on the whole to be
the most probable interpretation of two disputed particulars, and
the general meaning of the verses on the supposition that J^ is
not hopelessly corrupt : (i) the predicted birth will be in no way
abnormal ; but a child (or children) conceived and born in the
ordinary course of nature will be named Immanuel, God with
us ; (2) v. 15 predicts plenty and not starvation. The general
meaning of the whole is this : Judah will not suffer harm from
Ephraim and Syria (cp. v. 4 ) ; on the other hand (v. 16 ), Ephraim
and Syria will within two or three years be in ruins. If this
interpretation is correct, Isaiah concludes his interview with Ahaz
by reiterating what he was sent to tell him (v. 4 ). Such a con-
clusion would be altogether natural, and the interpretation just
suggested might be regarded as certain, but for v. 13 , in which
Isaiah expresses his indignation at the unbelief of Ahaz and the
court. Some interpreters out of regard to v. 13 interpret vv. 14 ' 16 as
wholly or in part a threat : v. 14 can be ingeniously interpreted in this
sense ; v. 16 is commonly, but mistakenly, construed as a threat by
modern scholars : v. 16 can be turned into a threat only by omitting
the last part of it, or by an illegitimate view of the construction.
14. Ahaz refused (v. 12 ) to accept Yahweh's offer (v. 11 ) that he
might choose any sign he liked to be wrought at once ; there-
fore Yahweh Himself chooses the sign, and will see that it takes
place not at once, indeed, but in the near future. It has been
repeatedly argued by Christian scholars from Justin Martyr down-
wards that the sign which Yahweh is Himself to choose and give
124 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
must be a miracle : " Signum autem a Deo, nisi novitas aliqua
monstruosa fuisset, signum non videretur " (Tert. Adv. Jud. 9) ;
but the argument rests on a misconception of what the term JTIN,
sign, necessarily implies, and of the purpose of the particular sign
here contemplated \ Yahweh had been willing to do a miracle to
convince Ahaz, but a very ordinary event may serve to remind
him, when the time comes, that what His prophet predicted
has come true. The miracle here, so far as there is a miracle,
may lie solely in the prediction. Neither the term niN, sign (see
v. 11 n.), nor the circumstances compel us to seek a miracle in the
event predicted. This being so, we shall be safest in understanding
the statement of vv. 14 ' 16 as follows : within a few months at most,
and perhaps immediately, a child (or children) now in the womb
will be receiving the name Immanud, God is with us : for the
present popular tension will be relieved; and mothers will
express the general feeling of relief at the favourable turn in
public events (ct. i S 4 21 ) when they name their children. Such
children with their names will be a reminder that the terror
of the king and the people (v. 2 ) was groundless, and the con-
fidence of the prophet justified. Moreover, the withdrawal of
Syria and Ephraim will not be merely temporary ; the child(ren)
to be born will neither starve as they grow up in a beleaguered
city, nor in a devastated country side : they will feed on curds
and honey (v. 15 ) the highly prized products of the land of
promise. For within two or three years, Ephraim and Syria
will have perished, their land will be a land of ruins (v. 16 ). The
sign lies not, as the traditional Christian and some recent
theories assume, in the circumstances of the birth, but in the
chain of events now predicted, and their association with the
birth and naming of a child, and in the time and order of their
occurrence being determined by reference to the child's growth,
as in S 3 *- This interpretation is by no means beyond criticism
or without difficulty; but it is at least less improbable than
others that have been offered. Therefore] p? often introduces a
threat, as in i 24 5 13 - 24 ; but it does not always do so (cp. Jer i6 14 ),
and it is therefore precarious to argue, as Di. does, that the sign
so introduced must be a threat of punishment. Again, it would
not have been surprising to find that Isaiah, driven by the king's
contumacy, substituted a threat (cp. i 19f -) for the promise which
he came to bring : still the v. does not as a matter of fact
VII. 14 125
refer to any such change ; the v. does draw attention to a
change ; but, as the emphasis shows, it is a change of the person
who chooses the sign, and indeed of the sign, but not of the
future to which that sign is to refer : the Lord (v.l. Yahweh)
himself will now choose and give a sign. V. 16 clearly con-
templates the same view of the future as vv. 4 * 9 , and these con-
template nothing that would justify fear in Judah. Certainly the
presence of God of which the sign speaks might mean a great
deal more than relief from the threatened invasion if Ahaz and
his court continued contumacious, but it is not clear that it was
Isaiah's purpose at this interview to dwell on this side of the
matter. Behold, a damsel is with child, and shall bring forth a
son, and call his name Immanuet\ the Hebrew article is ambiguous
(see phil. n.) : HD^yn may mean either the damsel, or a damsel, or
even damsels. That it has here one of the two latter meanings
is the view advocated above ; among earlier advocates of this
view are J. D. Mich., Eich., Kuen., Du., W. R. Smith, Budde,
Sta., Marti. It falls to the ground if, as is possible, though not
necessary, in J^, and impossible in (5r, Immanuel is addressed
in the vocative in 8 8 . If a particular definite individual is
intended, it is curious that she is not more precisely
specified. The damsel would be a strange mode of reference
either to the wife (or a concubine) of the king,* to the prophet's
own wife,t or to some pregnant woman present at the interview
and singled out by the prophet for his purpose ; \ but for this
much might be said for identifying the damsel with Isaiah's wife,
who is, however, called " the prophetess " in 8 8 : knowing that she
was near child-birth, Isaiah would be thinking of a sign that he
could be certain of bringing about, except so far as the sex of
the child is concerned, and that is immaterial to the sign. The
sign, moreover, would be of the same kind as the signs that he
(8 3f * : cp. 8 18 7 3 ) and other prophets (Hos i) employed. The
mode of reference would be better satisfied by a theory of
Rosenmiiller's which has been recently revived in a modified form
by Gressmann and others. Gressmann postulates the existence
* Early Jewish Exegesis (see Jer.), Ki., and, recently, C. M. Brown in_
JBLit., 1890, 118-127; Maspefb, Histotre'Ancunne,n\. 184,
fRashi, Ibn Ezra, Grotius, Ges., rfitz. Isenbiehl.
\Eschatotogic, pp. 276 f., cp. 270 fif., 284; cp. Burney (independently) in
. 580-584 ; Jeremias, ATAO 556 f. ; Box.
126 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
in Judah before and at the time of Isaiah of a well-known
prophecy that a wonderful child was to be born and was to be
called Immanuel, was to eat milk and honey in his infancy, and
before he was five years old deliver his people. All that Isaiah
does, according to this theory, is to assert that this (hypo-
thetically) well-known prophecy is on the point of fulfilment,
the damsel familiar to every one in the current prophecy is about
to bear her child, the divine mother is to give birth to a divine
child. Difficulties arise, as Gressmann admits, if we begin to
press the words of the text : e.g. the words taken strictly mean
that the delivery of Judah is to be delayed for the child to
accomplish, i.e. five years. Gressmann accounts for these diffi-
culties, which he does not eliminate, by the assumption that in
reproducing traditional material Isaiah retains irrelevances. This
theory and all theories that detect the influence of mythology
here start from an alleged but unreal necessity for satisfying two
conditions of which the text says nothing : it is assumed that
there must be something miraculous here, though the text speaks
merely of a sign, and that the child must be a deliverer, whereas
the text neither says nor implies anything of the kind; and,
indeed, the passive tense in v. 16 is altogether unfavourable to the
assumption that Judah will be delivered by Immanuel. There
is just as little suggestion here that Immanuel will deliver Judah
as there is in Hos i that Hosea's son Jezreel would exact
vengeance on the house of Jehu. Damsel] (Sir 7rap#eVos, EV
virgin ; but this rendering is unquestionably, and is now gener-
ally admitted to be, unjustifiable. The word nD^y is fern, of
thy, youth, which is used in i S i7 56 2o 22 and corresponds to
*Li, a derivative not from the root D^y, to conceal, which seems
to be unknown in Arabic, but from D^V, Jui, to be lustful; r\vby
means a girl, or young woman, above the age of childhood and
sexual immaturity (in this being more specific than the
synonymous mjtt), a person of the age at which sexual emotion
awakens and becomes potent ; it asserts neither virginity nor the
lack of it ; it is naturally in actual usage often applied to women
who were as a matter of fact certainly (Gn 24 43 , Ex 2 8 ), or
probably (Ca i 8 6 8 , Ps 68 26 ), virgins. On the other hand, it is
also used in Pr 3o 19 where the marvels of procreation and
embryology (cp. Ps i39 13 ' 16 , EC n 5 ) seem to be alluded to, and
VII. 14 I27
the corresponding term (or terms) is used in Aramaic of persons
certainly not virgin, as, e.g., in QL Jg 19^ of a concubine who
had proved unfaithful ; in Palmyrene it is used of harlots, and
in a bi-lingual inscription ttflDvy apparently corresponds to
[e]Taipu>[V] : see Cooke, North- Semitic Inscriptions, pp. 330, 335,
340. The Hebrew word for virgin is niflm (Ex 22 15 , Lv 2i 14 ),
and corresponding to the difference between r6im and riD^y are
the different abstract nouns D*Qw, youth and youthful vigour,
naturally including sexual maturity (Job 20 11 33 28 , Ps 89^, Is
54*), and D^ra, virginity (Jg 1 1 37 , Dt 22 16 ). Where stress needed
to be laid on a woman's virginity even more unambiguous
phraseology was employed ; see Nu 3i 35 . All this serves to
show how the prophet would have expressed himself if he had
had to announce the miracle of birth without loss of virginity.
Why the term 7uJ?y in preference, say, to riB>N or myj was chosen,
no theory yet propounded explains, but least of all the theories
that require the passage to express the fact that the woman con-
ceives and bears without ceasing to be a virgin. Is with child,
and shall bear] this rendering is justified by Gn i6 n where the
same phraseology is used of a woman who has already conceived
(cp. w. 4 *-) and is near giving birth. If this is intended here, the
promise is that within a few weeks, or days even, God's act of
deliverance will be in every one's mouth. The alternative
rendering, shall be with child and bring forth, would postpone the
deliverance for the best part of a year, whereas the narrative
seems to suggest that Isaiah expected it at once. And shall call
his name] MT rightly punctuates J"l&nj5 an unusual form of the
3rd pers. fern. : the child is to receive his name in the ordinary
way, viz. from his mother : see Hastings, DB iii. 48o b ; prophets
who wished to use their children's names as signs naturally
availed themselves of the less usual naming by the father ; see
8 3 , Hos i. % can indeed, and would most obviously, be pointed
ri&TijJ, thou shalt call; so ffi AB , Aq., Symm., Theod., cp. H
vocabitis ; 5T is ambiguous, but &U render by the passive ; cp. the
3rd pi. of (5r r and of Mt i 18 . Thou shalt call would, of course,
imply that the child was to be a son of Ahaz. Immanuet\ this
name, God is with us, no more implies that the child will be
God, as Christian exegetical tradition kept affirming, or that he
will in any other way be remarkable, than do other names,
128 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
which predicate something of God or Yahweh, assert anything in
reference to those who bore them. The name in 9 5 is different
in character. The name Immanuel asserts that God will be
present with the Jews, that they will experience success, deliver-
ance, freedom from danger and anxiety ; the meaning and result
of God's presence can be gathered from such sayings as " I fear
no evil, because thou art with me," Ps 23* ; "I will be with thee,
and bless thee," Gn 26 s ; "Yahweh of Hosts is with us" the
refrain in the confident lines of Ps 46 ; cp. also Jg 6 12f< 16 and
Am 5 1 *, where the synonymous prep, (nx) is used, " Seek ye good
. . . that ye may live, and that Yahweh God of Hosts may
be with you, as ye say." Porter in JBLit., 1895, pp. 19-35,
has argued that such a prediction of the beneficent presence
of God with Judah, is inconsistent with the standpoint of the
pre-exilic prophets, including Isaiah. He suggests, therefore,
that " the name Immanuel expresses not the prophet's faith, but
the false faith, the ungrounded confidence, of the king and the
people. It is a name which a Jewish woman, soon to give
birth, might naturally give to her son, but which the experiences
of such a son, even in his earliest infancy, would contradict.
The sign consists, then, not in the name, nor in the lot, of the
boy, but in the relation of the two, in the contradiction of the
name by the lot." But this is really difficult and unsatisfactory ;
it is also inconsistent with the rest of the narrative, according to
which Isaiah did expect immediate relief for Judah, and so far
at least such a beneficent presence of God as to justify the name.
If Porter's objection to the common interpretation of the name
holds good, the genuineness of the whole passage would have to
be questioned, or with Che. (The Two Religions, p. 316) we
should have to suppose that a name implying a threat has been
altered so as to convey a consolatory sense by an editor who
modified this ancient prophecy in the interests of a Messianic
interpretation. 15, l6. After the name, the reason might be
expected, as, e.g., in Gn i6 n "Thou shalt call his name Ishmael
(God hears), because God hath heard " ; but these verses at best
imply a reason. V. 16 , indeed, opens with 'a, because, but it refers
to what is to happen some years after the birth of the child, not
to anything which happening at the birth might account for the
name ; for the explanation of the name we must turn back to
what precedes v. 14 and infer that the presence of God with Judah
VII. 15, i6 129
at the time when the child is born will be manifested in the
withdrawal just at that time of the Syro-Ephraimitish army. A
considerable degree of awkwardness in the composition at this
point is not to be overlooked ; it may, like other features in the
narrative, be due to abbreviation and alteration of the original
memoirs. This awkwardness is not eliminated, nor even
diminished, by omitting either v. 15 ,* or v. 16 .f On the other
hand, the omission of both verses would allow the narrative to
conclude appropriately and clearly ; yet it would be difficult to
give any reason for the subsequent addition of the two verses.
Curds and honey shall he eat] " Victus ei affluet " is Grotius*
terse and pertinent comment: he rightly sees in these words a
promise ; J for milk and honey were highly esteemed. Neverthe-
less, since J. D. Mich, most modern interpreters, including Koppe,
Ges,, Ew., Del., Di., Che., Du., Marti, Skinner, Peake treat the
v. as a threat ; see below. Curds (nNEn) are milk (ni>n) that has
thickened : in several passages of the OT, including the present,
it seems to answer to leben, or sour milk, which is used, not by
any means alone by nomads, in Syria to-day : it is a valued and
refreshing article of diet : see, e.g., EBi. 3089. This form of milk
was offered by Abraham to the three men who came to him in
the heat of the day (Gn i8 8 ), by Jael to the weary Sisera (Jg 5 25 ),
to David and his thirsty company (2 S ly 27 ' 29 ). The value set
on it is also attested by the part it plays in descriptions of
abundance, and that not only in the OT (Job 2o 17 29); an
Assyrian prayer has been cited (EBi. 2104), which in invoking a
blessing on a king begs that God may cause to flow into his
channels " honey and curds " (dispa himeta). Honey and
curds, moreover, play an important part in Babylonian cultus ;
see KAT* 526. Since nNEn is a valued form of milk, it is
extremely difficult to believe that, though " milk and honey shall
he eat " would have been a promise, " curds and honey shall he
eat " was a threat : we may rather with safety cite as further
illustrations of the promise here made, the fact that " milk and
honey " are the two things singled out to indicate the abundance
*Hitz., Du., Che., Marti, Peake.
f Budde, cited and supported by Kuen. Onderzoek, ii. 43 f.
JCp. Rashi, Lowth, and recently Y. Wilke, Jesaja u. Assur> 1905, pp.
37-39-
See at length Bochart, Hzerozoicon, iv. 12.
VOL. I. 9
I3O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of the land of promise ; the land in which the Hebrews were to
exchange their nomadic for a settled life was in the oft-recurring
phrase " a land flowing with milk and honey " ; in a longer
description of the land of promise both forms of milk are
mentioned "curds of kine and new milk of sheep," Dt 32 13ff> ,
cp. Gn i8 8 : and much later Ben Sirach defines the staple of
food as consisting of "flour of wheat, and honey, and milk, the
blood of the grape, and oil" (Sir 39 26 ). It should be clear
then what " curds and honey " meant to Hebrews of the time of
Isaiah, whether we feel free or not to accept an attractive theory
that has recently been advanced, according to which the phrase
"curds (milk) and honey," describing in the first instance the
food of the gods, had its Origin in mythology and, in particular
perhaps in Iranian mythology, which knew of heavenly honey
and holy cows ; whence the phrase descended through Babylonia
to the Hebrews and by another line to the Greeks, who described
the food of the infant Zeus on Crete as curds and honey.* A
phrase with such associations cannot either here or in v. 22 imply
hardship ; and to make v. 15 mean he shall eat (nothing but) honey
and curds, because these will be the only products of a land
devastated by war, is much as if we were to say in English it
will be all butter and honey then, so reduced will they have
become ! or as if we were to justify calling a painful career " a
path of roses," by remarking that roses have thorns ! And not
only do the associations of the phrase suggest the very reverse of
a threat : so too does the context ; v. 14 says God will be with
Judah at the time of the child's birth, and v. 16 that before the
child is two or three years old, Ephraim and Syria, which now
threaten Judah, will be destroyed. V. 16 gives the ground for v. 16 ,
and a promise cannot be the reason for a threat. Nor again is
the v. a veiled promise and the meaning that Immanuel shall be
brought up on the fare of nomads and Judah in his childhood
return to nomadic life for its moral warfare (cp. Hos 2) : f for
" eating curds and honey " cannot have meant living the nomadic
life to a people who called the land in which they had abandoned
the nomadic life "a land of milk and honey," and centuries
after they had outlived the nomadic stage of their history held
* See H. Usener in Rhein. Museum fur Phil., 1902, pp. 177-195 ;
Eichhorn as cited in Gressmann, p. 291.
t Budcle.
VII. is, i6 131
" curds (milk) and honey " in the esteem indicated by the passages
mentioned above, especially Sir 39 26 , Dt 32 13ft . At the time
that he knows] at about three years of age : see next n. The
alternative rendering, that he may know, is grammatically
legitimate, but this translation stands or falls with the interpreta-
tion rejected at the end of the last n. To reject the bad and
choose the good] this most probably refers to the power to distinguish
between good and bad, palatable or unpalatable, food ; a child
without this power (Dt i 39 ) is a child as yet unweaned, or but
lately weaned, i.e. of two or three years of age (cp. 2 Mac y 27 ).
The point is illustrated by a modern Syrian popular tale : " It is said of
Moses that when he was three years of age, Pharaoh set him on his lap ; and
Moses stretched out his hand to Pharaoh's beard, and pulled some hairs from
it. And Pharaoh was angry, and said : This is my enemy : he must be killed.
And Asian, Pharaoh's wife, said to him : It is the nature of small children :
they have no knowledge ; and I will show thee a thing that will prove it to
thee. And she went and brought two vessels, in one a stone, in the other
fruit, and put them before Moses, that Pharaoh might know the nature of
small children. And Moses chose the vessel in which was the stone, and
Pharaoh ceased from his wrath against Moses, when he saw that he knew not
to distinguish between them" (PEF Qu St., 1909, p. 37).
Some * interpret the phrase " knowledge to reject the evil
and choose the good " of moral perception, and place the age
here implied much later than the 3rd year (e.g. 10 or 20; DL).
But the analogy of 8 4 and the proof thereby afforded that Isaiah
a little later certainly expected the desolation of Ephraim and
Syria within a year or two, favour an interpretation of the phrase
that implies a brief period in the life of the child. 16. Within
two or three years (see last note) from the present time and the
immediately expected birth of Immanuel, Ephraim and Syria will
be depopulated. With this final stage in the future of Ephraim
and Syria, the word of Yahweh (v. 8 ), with which Isaiah was
sent to Ahaz, reaches its natural conclusion. It is improbable
that vv. 17ff - predicting the desolation of Judah formed any part
of Isaiah's speech on this occasion. The v. does not, as the
introductory for might suggest, give the reason for the name
Immanuel; the name will be given in consequence of the with-
drawal of Ephraim and Syria from Judah; but this v. looks
forward to a later stage of events : the Assyrians will first by their
advance recall the Syrians and Ephraimites to their own
* Ew., Di.
132 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
territory, and then after defeating them devastate their country.
Isaiah expected the subjection of Ephraim and Syria to take
some little time : and his forecast was substantially justified by
events. We may place the interview with Ahaz early in 734.
Damascus was reduced in 732. The captivity of Galilee
(2 K i5 29 ) may be placed in 734. The child] The term (-ijtt) is
used of any age from infancy (Ex 2 6 , i S i 22 ) up to early man-
hood (Gn 34 19 , Jer i 6 - 7 ). The land of Ephraim and Syria, o
whose two kings, Reson and Pekah thou art in dread (pp, see
BDB), shall be left by (3TVD), and so be empty of, its inhabitants ;
cp. Jer. 4 29 , Zeph. 2*, and mw in 6 12 ij 9 . The singular nonxn,
land, for the two countries of Syria and Ephraim is curious ; if
Isaiah's sign was a threat, and if v. 17 was the direct continuation
of v. 16 , it would be reasonable to suspect that the last clause of
the v. is intrusive and that the original text ran: For before the
child knows, etc., the land (viz. of Judah) shall be abandoned;
17 Yahweh shall bring upon thee (viz. Ahaz) and upon thy people,
etc. Cond. has revived the attempt to gain the same sense by
following (Sc but retaining the last clause : the land (viz. of Judah)
for which thou art in dread because of two kings : but see phil. n.
II. n^Ns? poyn] the construction implied by MT n^N^ is, of course, in
itself possible and thoroughly idiomatic go deep, ask, i.e. ask in the depth,
the first verb having an adverbial force (G-K. H4): cp. Ps Si 4 . For
the emphatic form of the imperative thus presupposed, cp. nyp^, nn^p,
and cp. G-K. 48?'. The construction was so understood by & (and ?C),
but wrongly. 3J in profundum inferni, Aq., Symm., Theod. (eJs ddrjv),
and perhaps (Hr with its brief rendering of the two clauses es fidOos % els tf^os,
correctly read n'jKy, to Sheol. It is unlikely that MT meant " to Sheol" and
yet pointed rhw$, to gain an assonance with rhyzb (Kon. i. p. 262). 14. \TIN]
some 40 MSS read m.T. Kin] G-K. 1350;, c. rmnpi p mS'i mn no^yn run]
"the part, is used, lastly, of future time, which it represents as already
beginning : hence, if the event designated can only in fact occur after an
interval, it asserts forcibly and suggestively the certainty of its approach."
" The part., after n:n does not necessarily refer to the future ... it may
describe an occurrence in the present, Jg 9 s6 , I S I4 33 " (Driver, 135 (3) and
Obs. i). In Gn i6 u the first part, after the ?wn refers to the present, the
second to the fut. : and so probably here. Similar combinations of the vbs.
mn, 1^% Kip occur in Jg I3 5 ' 7 . noblPi] this may, of course, according to the
commonest use of the art. in Hebrew as in other languages, mean " the (well-
known) young woman " some one so known already to Isaiah and his
audience that it was unnecessary to define her further. But the art. may also
"indicate a particular itnknown person or thing which under the given
circumstances is to be thought of as being concerned " (G-K. 126^; Dav.
VII. n-i6 133
Syntax, 21 (e) : see, e.g., Am 3 12 5 19 , I K 2O 86 ). In Am 3 12 the circumstances
are such as may affect many members of the class defined, and nyin becomes
equivalent to shepherds. So here the future circumstances 'may similarly
affect more than one young woman: no^i'rt may therefore mean "a young
woman" as yet unknown, but whom future circumstances may define, or since
the circumstances may similarly affect an indefinite number, "young women."
Which of these grammatical possibilities was intended must be determined
(if possible) by the entire context. rwnp if 3rd sing. fern, pf., as in MT
n *ni?> it stands for fiJop, a form retaining like nSm the orig. n of the fem. Cp.
the forms rrnVsj, Ps nS 23 ; nton, Gn 33"; G-K. 74^. The form can be
pointed nwijj ; but had the writer intended to change the subject and to make
the point that Ahaz himself would give the name that was to convict him of
ungrounded lack of faith, he would almost certainly have expressed the subject
N-ipn nrwi. 15. injn 1 ?] at the time that he knows ^ of the point (rather than the
period} of time, as in Gn 3 s ovn mi 1 ?, 8 11 my ny 1 ?, 2 S 1 1 1 , Ps 30, and, with an
infin. as here, npn, my nuB 1 ?, Gn 24 s3 , Ps 46 6 . The use of *?, meaning up to, till
(for which ny is normally used), is rarer ; but see Ex 34 26 , Am 4 7 (not infinitives) ;
( 7, with the infin. meaning in order that, Is, of course, common (G-K. H4/, g ;
BDB 5170:). (Sr renders irplv f) yv&vai influenced by v. 16 rather than by a
variant inyi vsb. DIND] inf. abs., direct obj. of inyT : G-K. 1130?. noixn
-TD^D "iv USD fp nn IJ^K] Cond., after Ephraem Syrus ^ \ l5) |5O1 p5|
CTLx^lk <pAj f, renders la terre pour laquelle tu redoutes les deux rois ; but
this would require in $? no less than in Syriac the addition of rrSy. Moreover,
the indef. D'D^D which Cond. substitutes for .TD^D would be unsuitable, and
D'D^on which his translation (les. . . . rois) really implies is less like $?.
History of the interpretation of z^. 12 " 14 ( 16 >. The earliest interpretation is
to be found in Mic 5 2 , if, as is commonly assumed, the words m^' m*?r ny ny
refer to Is 7 14 (but see Exp., April 1911, p. 209 f.). The writer, whatever his
date, then identifies the child to be born with the coming deliverer of Israel,
synchronises with his birth the restoration of Israel to Yahweh's favour, and
probably (see v. 1 ) regards the coming deliverer as a scion of the House of
David, though some infer from the last words of v. 1 that the child will be of
divine lineage. The term triTV used in Micah is far more colourless than
noSy, and does not even remotely suggest that the mother must necessarily be
young or unmarried, still less that she must be virgin. Indeed, the use of
this colourless word is to be explained by G-K. 144*, so that the sentence
means until his mother, whoever she may be, shall have borne him, i.e. until
he is born.
Apart from Mic 5 2 , the earliest interpretation of Is 7 14 - 1 * is (. Here we
note the following as the main points : ( I ) mn is rendered tv yavrpl X^/t^eTat,
i.e. the conception as well as the birth of the child is still future ; (2) if
(BA, cp. Mt I 23d ) be the true text of (5r and not /caXtfcrei (N), or
(Q*), or /caX&rowru/ (T, Mt I 23 ), the child is to receive its name from
Ahaz, and is therefore presumably to be the child of Ahaz ; the variants in (K
may be due to a change of interpretation of this point ; (3) here as in
Gn 24 43 , (Hi renders noVyn by 77 irapQevos ; this should imply at least that (K
understood and wished to make clear that at the time the sign was %iven the
134 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
future mother was a virgin and that Immanuel would be her first-born. But
it is very far from certain that the translators held that the mother would still
be virgin when the child was born. On the other hand, their rendering
would be entirely explained and in harmony with the reading /caX^<reij and
the future rendering of mrr, if (Hr, anticipating the later Jewish interpretation,
saw in the child to be born Hezekiah the first-born of Ahaz, and conceived
the interview as taking place in immediate prospect of the marriage of Ahaz.
It is then very doubtful whether, and, if KdXfoeis be the true text in
Is 7 14 <&, exceedingly improbable that, <5r gave to Is 7 12 - 14 any Messianic
significance. It is certainly worthy of note that in 8 8 (Or does not, like many
modern interpreters, who thereby support the Messianic interpretation of
7 14 , treat *?K uoy as a proper name in the vocative, but (like ^>N uoy a in 8 10 )
as a sentence. For a fuller discussion of the place of (5r in the history of the
interpretation of Is 7 14 * 16 , see JSxp., April 1911, pp. 300 ff.
The first clear and unmistakable Messianic interpretation of the passage
is to be found in Mt i 18 ' 28 . It is an interesting question whether the
quotation goes back to the Aramaic original of the Gospel, or first appears in
the existing Greek version ; unlike irapdtvos, risky would not suggest to the
Aramaic writer virginity ; and if the quotation goes back to the Aramaic, it
was introduced without any intention of specifically matching the virginity of
Mary with the prediction : the primary point was the identification of Jesus
and Immanuel (cp. Tertullian, Adv. Marc. iii. 12). But once the Gospel
was current in Greek form, Christian interpreters of Is 7 14 were compelled to
recognise in it the prediction not only of the incarnation and redeeming work
of Jesus, but also of the virginity of His mother.
Henceforward down to the i6th century, and in the main for yet another
two centuries, Jewish and Christian exegesis remained totally opposed ; Chris-
tians affirmed and Jews denied that Isaiah spoke of the birth of the Messiah
from a virgin mother ; Jews affirmed and Christians denied that Isaiah spoke
of a birth which was to take place in his own age of the son of a human
father and a woman not virgin. The influence of this opposition is seen in
the substitution of the more correct veavis for the irapQtvos of (5r in the
versions of Aq., Symm., Theod. (2nd cent. A.D. ), for which these translators
were very naturally, though most unjustifiably, upbraided by Christian
scholars ; and, on the other hand, of the translation of ncby by |A-^,oAo
in the (probably) Christian version & ; 3L, of course, and U render virgo.
In greater detail we can watch the conflict of interpretation in the
writings of many of the Fathers, and first in Justin Martyr (Dial. 43, 48, 66,
67-71, 77 f., 84). In Justin's dialogue, Trypho the Jew maintains that
noSy means veavu and not irapQtvos, and that the child to be born &vdpwrros
t% avQp&Trov was Hezekiah, the first-born (cp. c. 84) son of Ahaz. Justin
uses but a single argument against this, viz. that the birth of a first-born after
ordinary human intercourse would be no sign ; 7 10 ' 16 8 4 7 17 thus combined
(though 8 4 refers to Isaiah's son !) explains to believers what is, and what Is.
elsewhere (53 8 ) implies to be, inexplicable to men in general, viz. that the
birth of Jesus the Messiah will take place without loss of virginity by His
mother : Justin does not reject Trypho's statement that such an interpretation
makes the prophecy as silly as the Greek fable of the birth of Perseus from
vii. 12-16 135
the union of Zeus with the virgin Danae, but argues that the Greek fable is a
devilish imitation of the prophecy, which is a prediction of actual fact.
Very different from the rhetoric of Justin is the refutation of the Jewish
theory by Jerome. Following Eusebius (Dem. Ev. vii. i), he shows that
Hezekiah was already born before the sign was given (2 K I6 2 i8 3 , 2 Ch. 28 1 ),
and by a philological argument defensible then, though so no longer, argues
that noSy meant " virgo absconditaet secreta, quae nunquam virorum patuerit
aspectibus." The child to be born so long afterwards will yet be able to save
immediately, for he is identical with Him who appeared to Abraham and
spoke to Moses ; and, a point already made by Irenaeus (iii. 21. 4), he will
be no phantasm, but will eat butyrum et tnel in proof of his humanity. For
further patristic interpretations, see Iren. Haer. iii. 2I 1 "*; Tert. Adv. Marc,
iii. 13, iv. 10, Adv. Jud. 9 ; Origen, Contra Celsum, i. 34 f. ; Eus. Dem.
Ev. vii. i ; Cyril. Hier. Cat. xii. ; Basil. Comm. in Is. ; Cyril. Alex. In Is.
The patristic criticisms of the early Jewish theory, that the child to
be born was Hezekiah, had its effect ; when we come to mediaeval Jewish
scholars we find them identifying the no^y either (i) with the wife of Isaiah
a view already mentioned as that of some Christians (quidam de nostris)
by Jer. ; so Rashi, Ibn Ezra ; or (2) with another wife of Ahaz, Ii.
Protestant scholars in the i6th cent, follow in the main the traditional
Catholic tradition, though Luther (cited by Del.) and Calvin, for example, are
willing to grant that nchy need not necessarily mean, though here, as often,
it actually does refer to, a woman still virgin. Pellicanus attributed to the
passage a double meaning the current Christian interpretation and, for
Ahaz who could not appreciate this, the meaning that "quae hodie virgo est
propediem conceptura sit et filium paritura qui et nomen habiturus sit Im-
manuel in signum proxime ingruentis redemptionis vestrae." Later, Grotius
abandoned the traditional Christian interpretation. The Catholic J. L.
Isenbiehl in 1778 published a monograph, Neuer versuch iiber die Weissa-
gung vom Immanuel, in which he argued at length that the prophecy related
to the time of Isaiah ; he also argued that the noVy was some woman present
at the interview, and that the article was used deiKTiK&s. Isenbiehl
suffered heavy pains and penalties for his temerity (see Ges. p. 309) ; but
from this time onward an exclusive Messianic interpretation became increas-
ingly less frequent, and an increasing number, especially of Protestant scholars
(see Che.'s article "Immanuel," in EBi.\ denied that the prophet intended
to make any reference to the birth of Jesus.
But no sooner had Christian scholars begun in numbers to accept the
fundamentally more defensible interpretation of the Jews than Rosenmiiller
gave a new turn to the Messianic interpretation, substantially anticipating
an exegetical theory which has recently been expounded and defended by a
number of scholars Gressmann, Jeremias, Box, Burney. Rosenmiiller in
a monograph published in Gamer's Journal f. auserlesene theol. Lit. 1806, and
in the 2nd edit, of his Scholia, argued that Isaiah did definitely intend to
speak of the virgin-birth of the Messiah, and in defence of this view appealed
to numerous ancient myths which speak of great men born of virgins or in
other marvellous ways. Rosenmiiller cites many of these ; and it is now
possible to survey them conveniently in E. S. Hartland, The Legend of
136 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Perseus^ vol. i. ; but Ges. rightly disputes the relevance of them to the passage
in Isaiah. Recent exponents of this theory lay stress, in particular, on what
is claimed to have been a belief dominating the entire Orient (Jeremias) ;
Burney recalls the remarkable circumstances attending the birth of many
Hebrew heroes (Gn u 30 i8 9ff - 25 21ff - 3O 1 , Jg 13, I S i), and the birth and
infancy of Sargon of Agade ; he appeals to Mic 5 2 to show that in the age
of Isaiah the birth of a great deliverer was expected, and he argues that
Isaiah's sign consists in setting a time in the immediate future when the
damsel, well known to every one from the part assigned to her in the current
expectation, would bring forth the Deliverer in marvellous circumstances
befitting his high destiny : seeJTAS x. 580-584. All such theories are vitiated
by the fact that Is 7 14 ' 16 speaks clearly of a Deliverance, but is silent as to a
Deliverer: it is not said that Immanuel will deliver, and the passive in v. 16
rather clearly implies that he will not. Different forms of another improbable
theory, noted in EBi. (Lc. ), and recently favoured by Whitehouse, treat nD^yn
as a personification (cp. n^ira, Am 5 2 ) of the house of David, or the com-
munity of $ion, Immanuel as the new generation, or the ideal ruler.
17-25. A prophecy, or a collection of prophetic frag-
ments, predicting ruin and especially depopulation of a
country which, according to v. 17 , is unmistakably Judah.
Attempts have been made to discover a connection, either
between vv. 1 ' 16 and 17 ' 25 or, v. 17 being omitted as a gloss, between
M6 and 18 ' 25 . If v. 17 (with its reference to Judah) be omitted,
18 ' 25 can be treated (Hackm. p. 66) as an amplification in detail
of what is stated summarily, but sufficiently, in v. 16b , the ruin of
Ephraim and Syria. But the theory of Du., Che., Marti, that
v. 17 is a gloss written to connect vv. 1 ' 16 and vv. 18 ^ 25 founders on
the fact that it is particularly between v. 16 and v. 17 that the lack
of connection is most conspicuous ; & feeling this supplied dAXa
at the beginning of v. 17 . To attribute v. 17 to a glossator who
wished to create a connection between 1-16 and 18 ' 25 is at the
same time to accuse him of failing in his attempt. The entire
tenor of l ' 16 as interpreted above is that Judah has nothing
to fear, is not to suffer ruin ; the entire tenor of vv. 17 ' 25 is that a
most complete ruin is impending over the country : of course
either Isaiah himself or a glossator may very well have held
that these two contrary fortunes were to be successive stages in
the future, but v. 17 fails to mark a transition from one stage to
another. Or again, Isaiah's promise of (lasting) safety for Judah
may have been and indeed was (cp. v. y ) conditional, so that
vv 17-25 W ould have been intelligible if they had immediately
followed v. 13 ; we could have understood Isaiah illustrating his
vii. 17-25 137
general principle enunciated in v. 9 by saying to Ahaz, You have
refused to believe, therefore Judah shall not stand but come to
ruin. He does not do this, but makes the promise of vv. 14 * 16 .
After that, to such a threat as is contained in w. 17 ' 25 some clearly
marked transition would be required. Even if it were correct
to see in v. 15 a threat, it would still remain altogether forced and
artificial to treat vv. 16 and 17 together as the ground of vv. 14 and
15 taken together, v. 16 justifying the promise of v. 14 and v. 17 the
threat of v. 16 ; and yet this is the best that can be done to
connect the two passages a significant indication that there
is no organic connection. Vv. 1 - 16 and 17 * 25 are of independent
origin. They were placed in juxtaposition by an editor, possibly
on account of the similarity of vv. 16f - and v. 22 .
Some early annotations have crept into the text : such are
the words " the king of Assyria " (vv. 17 and 20 ) at least, as most
scholars since Houb. and Lowth have recognised, perhaps also
(Du., Mar.) "at the end of the streams of Egypt" and "which
is in the land of Assyria" (v. 18 ). Even what is left after the
removal of these notes looks more like an editor's collection
and restoration of fragments than a prophetic poem in its original
form : note the recurrent " And it shall come to pass in that
day " (vv. 18 - 20 - 21 - 23 ), the awkward fourfold occurrence of rvn in
v. 23 , and the apparent mixture of rhythmical and unrhythmical
elements. To what part of Isaiah's lifetime the groundwork
belonged, and what precisely are the limits of Isaiah's work,
cannot be determined with certainty.
17. Yahiveh will bring upon thee\ the words are addressed to
a king of Judah possibly Ahaz in any case, and certainly if
v. 17 is the continuation of v. 18 . Days such as have not come] the
loss of the ten tribes was as nothing to the loss of population
that now awaits Judah such is probably the thought of the
writer ; but an early annotator explained these words as mean-
ing the king of Assyria. Since Ephraim withdrew from union
with Judati\ Ephraim is used for the entire Northern kingdom,
as in 9 8 and Hos. The standpoint is obviously that of Judah.
18 f. Under the figure of swarming and ferocious insects the
writer predicts that Yahweh is about to bring on Judah (v. 17 ) an
overwhelming invasion. If his verses have reached us in their
original form, he expected invasion from both Assyria and
Egypt a point of view which finds an incomplete parallel in
138 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Hos 9 3 , and none at all in Isaiah. Elsewhere Isaiah feared
alliance with (chs. 29-30), not invasion from, Egypt. Moreover,
previous to Sabako's accession, <:. 712 B.C., Egypt was too weak
to cause much fear in her neighbours. If which is in the end
of the streams of Egypt and which is in the land of Assyria
are notes added to the text by an annotator who mistakenly
inferred that two insects must imply two nations,* Isaiah was
predicting here, as elsewhere, an Assyrian invasion. The
omission of the prosaic annotations leaves two almost perfect
distichs 4 : 4
Yahweh will whistle for the fly and the bee,
And they will come . . . and settle all of them,
In inaccessible wadys and clefts of the rocks,
And on all the thorn-bushes and all the pastures.
Will whistle] cp. 5 26 , Zee io 8 , with men as obj. ; here perhaps the
word is used in strict keeping with the figure. Bochart (Hteroz.
Lib. iv. c. x.) has collected a number of ancient testimonies to
the custom of summoning bees by various noises, such as the
clanging of brass instruments (Verg. Georgics, iv. 64), of which the
most pertinent, if it is not merely educed from the biblical
passages, is Cyril's comment on this v. : "Bee-keepers are ac-
customed to whistle (o-vpi&iv, as ffir here) to the bees, and so
entice them out of their hives to the flowers and herbs, or get
them in from the fields and make them stop at home." Thefly\
Flies abounded in Egypt, but were, of course, frequent elsewhere,
though, curiously enough, allusions to the fly in the OT are con-
fined to this passage and EC io 1 and the divine name Baal-zebub.
A further allusion to the flies of Egypt has been often but mis-
takenly discovered in iS 1 . Apart from the following clause the
fly would not suggest Egypt ; it suggests number (cp. Horn. //.
ii. 469) and noisomeness, not locality. In the end of the streams
of Egypt] in far-distant Upper Egypt. The plural streams (D'-iiO)
is also used of Upper Egypt in Nah 3* : ffi here has the sing.
The bee\ a figure for persistent, numerous and ferocious enemies ;
see Dt i 44 , Ps n8 12 , also Homer, //. ii. 87 ff. ; the bees of the
East are a far more aggressive race than those of England (EBL,
s.v. Bee\ And settle] v. 2 n. The figure is maintained: the
invading insects settle in such places as they are wont to settle
*Du., Che., Marti.
vn. 18-22 139
in, where they can find food and shelter; but there is also
probably an implicit resolution of the figure; the Jews will find
no escape from the Assyrians even in inaccessible wadys and in
clefts of the rocks (cp. Dt 7 20 ). Thorn- (?) bushes and pastures (?)]
Or caves and clefts. But although the 2nd term (o^ru) occurs
nowhere else and the first (D^nvjtt) only once (55 1S sing.), it is
probable that both refer to feeding-places of insects : see, further,
phil. n. 20. A new figure of devastation and depopulation :
here, whatever may be the case in v. 18 , Yah wen's agent (cp. io 5 )
is Assyria only. In i 5f * Judah is personified as a man with no
sound spot left in his body ; here, as a man who is to be subjected
to the extreme ignominy of being shorn of his hair from head to
foot (cp. 2 S io 4 ). With a razor] correctly, but unnecessarily
for Assyria is sufficiently indicated by the phrase (in the parts)
beyond the River, i.e. the Euphrates (cp. Jos 242 and often) an
annotator added, with the king of Assyria. The razor is said
to be hired, because Yahweh pays for services rendered: cp.
Ezk 29 19f -. Others see in the expression an allusion to Assyria
hired by Ahaz's tribute (2 K i6 7f -). The hair of the feet] euphe-
mistic : cp. " water of the feet," 36 12 ; cp. also 6 2 . 21, 22. These
verses no doubt contained a further picture of the ruin and de-
population of the country; but as they now stand in J^ they
seem to speak, in the main, of abundance there is to be an
abundant yield of milk, and every one is to find good food (curds
and honey) to eat. It is true that here as in v. 15 (see n. there)
most modern interpreters have endeavoured, contrary to the
regular force of the phrase, to make eating curds and honey
mean privation; Del., for example, writes, "Whoever has
escaped . . . eats curds and honey : this, and nothing but this,
without change ad nauseam" Others make the expression
typical of nomadic fare, and so indirectly of (relative) privation.
But the earlier interpreters, like 5T, which paraphrases " on curds
and honey shall all the righteous live," and the mediaeval Jewish
commentators, Rashi, Ki., Ibn Ezra, were certainly right in re-
taining here the well established meaning of the expression.
Yet though the allusions in the v. to abundance must not be
explained away, there are also suggestions of privation : for a
man to succeed in keeping alive a young cow and two female
(TIP), i.e. milch, sheep, or goats (}N), is not a sign of wealth, and
the phrase all that are left in the midst of the land suggests that
140 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the people are not only poor but few. Justice can be done both
to the suggestions of privation and to those of abundance if it be
assumed that f^ has been (accidentally) amplified and that (2r is
the better reading ; read : and it shall come to pass in that day, (if}
a man shall preserve alive a young cow and two (milch} sheep, then
it shall come to pass that owing to the abundance of the yield of
milk, every one that is left in the midst of the land shall eat curds
and honey \ this is an effective picture of depopulation : two or
three cattle will yield more than enough for the handful of
survivors, and enable them to enjoy the best of fare. The
difficulties of the vv. are insufficiently met by simply eliminating
from fif because of the abundance of milk, he shall eat curds, as "an
eschatological fragment describing the happy lot of those who
live on into the New Era" (Box). Nor do these words in
themselves ring true to the custom of the country where the
milk is likely to be consumed by preference in the form of curds
(nKDH), whether it be abundant or not. 23-25. The whole
country will go out of cultivation, even the land where the
richest vines were trained will, like the rest, yield only thorns
and briafs, or (v. 25 ) at best serve for grazing : cp. 5 6f - 32 12f -. A
thousand vines at a thousand of silver shekels, i.e. vines worth a
shekel (about 25. 6d.) a piece a high price (cp. Ca. 8 11 ),
greatly in excess of the normal value of a vine in modern Syria,
which, acccording to Del., is a piasta, i.e. about twopence.
Shall be for] shall belong to (f> n"n\ as iy 2 ) thorns and briars. 24.
Through fear of wild animals, which will house there, or to gain
food from the chase, men will not go into this thicket covered
country without bows and arrows. 25. And all the hills which
used to be hoed with the hoe, thou shalt not come thither out of fear
of thorns and briars ; this is partly a repetition of v. 24 , and the
change to the 2nd sing, is without apparent reason. Probably
the text has suffered more or less : see phil. n.
17. mrr] <5r 6 0e6$. T 1 ?? . . N'^] ^ ma, ^V '3^, rarely used of
bringing good fortune (Jos 23 15 , cp. Gn 27 12 ), is commonly used of mis-
fortune (e.g. 47 9 , Dt 29 20 , i K 9 9 ). -WK] such, as: cp. e.g. Ex io 6 34 10 .
DVD 1 ?] the double prep, as Jg IQ 30 , 2 S 7 6 : see BDB 583^. Vyo . . . 110]
to withdraw from union with ; for the force of the compound prep. cp.
Jer 32 40 (same phrase), 2 K i; 21 , Is 56 3 ; BDB 759<*- 18. mmn] cp. 5 6 n. ;
apparently ninan ^na means ivadys of the cut off places, i.e. ravines of the
precipices (BDB), inaccessible ravines. The Versions seem to have guessed at
the meaning. D'suya] in Is 55 18 p*yj is clearly a plant or bush of some kind :
vii. 17-25, vni. 1-4 141
(Hr there renders by <TToifi-f) ; and this, according to Pliny, 21. 15, 54 was a
plant with a prickly stalk. U herefruMis. In favour of the meaning a prickly
shrub or /&v bush in particular it is customary to refer to the New Hebrew
pyj ; but though this certainly means to thrust or wedge in, it much less
certainly means to prick (cp. Levy, s.v.). The Arabic dictionaries (Freytag),
however, cite ,*axj as the name of a prickly shrub frequently found in the
Hejaz. D'^na] Not, of course, from >/9?n, as C takes it (Nnnaenn via, cp.
"commendable trees," RV marg.), but from W (Earth, NB, 142), the
primary meaning of which appears to have been to lead to a watering place ;
like jJb^Jl*, therefore, SVna may have meant watering place ', or perhaps
more generally pastures. AV bushes goes back on an etymologically
unsupported guess of Jewish scholars (Saad., Abul-Walid). 2O. nYarn nyna]
MT assumes that iyn is cstr. ; but though in Ps 52* nyn is masc., it is
shown by nson below to be fern. here. Point, therefore, nrarn nynj ;
cp. (Br T< v/>< T nffiurdufitvy (or pe/Mfar/NlrytsnTaf)) H novacula con-
ducta. "inj naya] the pi. nay might mean the parts beyond (Ges. 124^),
and TU (without the art.) Euphrates: cp. Jer 2 18 . But read nnan naya (ffi
trtpav TOV Trora/toD). 22. '3 nDn SDK'] (5r om. If the omission from (Sr is
not accidental, but represents the original text (see above), the addition of
the words in ft may be due to the incorporation of a Hebrew variant in
which Sax' preceded instead of following earn nDn. 23. JT.T (2)] like jmy
of what used to recur (Driver, 30). ]oa l^a] ^/A pretii: G-K. no,/.
For the omission of Spff (supplied by <5r), see G-K. 134^. 24. Na] for the
indef. subj., see G-K. 144^; the expression of the indef. subj. by the 2nd
sing, (wan v. 25 ) is rarer ; G-K. 144^. 25. ni TD7 nT not? Kian-x^J may
well be intrusive (cp. Box), and is perhaps a variant (slightly corrupt) of
rrn . . . rcovf ia' in v. 24 . Nian is probably wrong, and perhaps <&. (^/cft 0<Jos
OTCU 7<i/> dir6 T^S x^P ffOV Ka ^ &K<iv6r]s et$ p6ffKi)tJi.a) may point to further
corruption. For the ace. of cause net? nxr, which is common in Arabic
(Wright, Arabic Grammar, 44d = 2 ii. p. 132), see G-K. n8/; Kon. iii.
332^ ; for nxr, terror, dread, cp. Dt 2 s5 , Ps 55 6 . It is altogether improbable
that rwY is subj. of Nian (AV). Nor is Kennedy's suggestion, If (N^>) thou
wert to go thither, then thou shouldest see (HNII for HKT), convincing ; but he
has good reason to suspect the text and existing interpretations of it (Exp.
Times, viii. 477 f.).
VIII. 1-4. Maher-shalal-hash-baz. A further extract
from Isaiah's autobiography (Introd. 34, 38). Some time
before the fall of Damascus (732 B.C.), Isaiah, at the command of
Yahweh, records in two different ways and at different times his
conviction of the approaching fate of both Damascus and Samaria :
(i) he writes down, or engraves, in the presence of witnesses, the
legend, " Belonging to Maher-shalal-frash-baz (spoil is speedy
plunder hasteneth)"; (2) nearly a year later he names his new-
born son Maher-shalal-bash-baz, in the expectation that Assyria
142 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
will have despoiled both Damascus and Samaria before the child
is more than about a year old.
The point of view is the same as in 7 1 ' 16 ; only the security
of Judah against Ephraim and Syria is there explicitly, is here
implicitly, asserted. In 7 1 ' 16 Isaiah addresses the king, here he
makes his outlook on affairs known to the people at large.
It is probable that Isaiah crystallised his teaching into the
phrase Maher-shalal-hash-haz before Ahaz, by appealing to
Assyria, gave the people of Judah reason, beyond or apart from
the prophet's word, to hope that Samaria and Damascus would
be spoiled. The inscription may have been engraved in 735 B.C.,
the child born and named in 734.
In 7 1(M6 8 1 ' 4 Isaiah predicts three features, or stages, in the immediate
future: (i) the relief of Judah, 7 14 ; (2) the desolation of Ephraim and
Syria, 7 16 ; (3) the spoiling of Samaria and Damascus, 8 4 ; according to a
frequent but improbable interpretation (see on 7 14 * 16 ) he also predicted
(7 15 ' 17ff ') (4) the desolation of Judah.
The first stage he expected within nine or ten months at most of his
interview with Ahaz (7 14 ) ; the second within two or three years after the
first (7 16 ). The fourth, if really referred to in 7 18 - 17ff -, would fall after (2).
Possibly Isaiah placed (3) between (i) and (2); for the stage in child life
defined in 8 4 is somewhat earlier than that defined in 7 16 ; on the other hand,
Maher-shalal-hash-baz may not have been born till some months after Isaiah
expected the birth of Immanuel ; and, moreover, Isaiah may never have
sharply defined the chronological relation of (2) and (3).
On the main issue Isaiah's prophecies were justified. Judah was quickly
relieved, much of Ephraim and Syria desolated, and Damascus captured and
spoiled, within three years of the interview with Ahaz. The destruction of
Samaria was deferred another ten or eleven years rather longer than Isaiah
anticipated.
I. A large tablet] In 3 23 f jvStt is some ornament or article
of toilet, and possibly a hand mirror of polished metal, which
reflects and so reveals (nitt) the beholder. So some under-
stand p^a to be here a polished tablet of wood (Ezk 37 16 ),
or stone (Ex 34 1 ), or metal (Job iQ 24 ?) for receiving writing.
But the Mishnah use of the word for the margin, i.e. the still
blank part of a page, suggests that p^J may have been widely
applicable to any blank surface intended for writing, whether
tablets, parchment, or papyrus ; (8* TO^OV (xa-prov) KCUI/OU, Aq.
Ke^aXtiSa, Symm. revxo? ; 3 FTC* Whatever it was, the object
being large would be conspicuous and attract attention. Write
upon it in common characters (?)1 The exact force of JPON D"in is
VIII. I, 2 143
uncertain, but the general sense seems to be, write so that every
one who sees this conspicuous tablet may be able to read it ; cp.
Hab 2 2 . tnn (Ex 32* f ?) is, apparently, a synonym for By (Jer
I 7 1 > Job i9 24 ), and means a stylus \ S?UK is a poetical synonym
for B*K, so that on the analogy of B*N MDK, an ordinary cubit
(Dt 3 11 ), tPIJK Bin should mean an ordinary stylus. 2T (cp. Di.)
paraphrases write clearly ; but it would presumably be as easy to
write illegibly with an ordinary as with an extraordinary stylus.
Perhaps Din also meant written character \ cp. "style," from
"stylus," "to write round hand" ; then the command is to use
the ordinary alphabet with which every one was familiar
Benzinger (Arch? iy6ff.) thinks that the implied contrast is
between the human, i.e. the Phoenician, and the divine (Ex 31
32 16 ), i.e. the cuneiform, characters, both of which he infers
were concurrently in use as late as the 7th century ; two cunei-
form contract tablets discovered at Gezer were drawn up in
649 and 647 B.C. respectively, and in one of these one of the
parties is a Jew. Sta. (ZATW, 1906, pp. 135 f.) also argues that
the implied antithesis is human and divine, but that what is
referred to is the substance of the inscription, not the character
in which it is written. Belonging to Maher-shalal-bash-baz\ the
legend is in form like that inscribed by Ezekiel on two sticks
(Ezk 37 16 ), or those which occur on old Hebrew or Canaanite
seals ; cp. e.g. " Belonging to Shama* the servant of Jeroboam "
(DJDV 13J? VD&6), the legend on a seal of about the 9th cent.
B.C. discovered at Megiddo, and reproduced in Steuernagel, Tell
el Mutesellim, 117: also in Driver, Modern Research as illustrat-
ing the Bible, p. 91 ; for other examples, see Cooke, North-Sem.
Inscriptions^ 360 f.; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, ii. 1401!. The name
means, swift is the spoil to come, speedy is the prey, and
portends the imminent destruction of Samaria and Damascus
(v. 4 ). 2. The inscription is to be witnessed by credible witnesses.
In (Sr, v. 2 continues the command of v. 1 and cause trustworthy
witnesses to attest the writing for me (Yahweh). This is probably
right. ^ may be rendered, and I caused^ etc. ; or and I will cause
(MT, EV) ; in the former case the first person refers to Isaiah, in
the latter to Yahweh. Of the two witnesses, Uriah the priest was
certainly a person of importance (2 K 1 6 1<M6 ) ; Zechariah was
probably of similar standing. Neither was necessarily a close
friend of the prophet ; their testimony would be more effective
144 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
if they were not. It is generally inferred (i) that Isaiah put up
his inscription in some public place for all to read, and (2) that
he had it witnessed, so that when events proved his forecast
correct, the prophet might be believed to have spoken the word
of Yahweh; (i) is a reasonable inference from the size of the
tablet and from PHK Dim, if the interpretation given above is
correct ; (2) is the only reasonable inference from v. 2 . Yet it is
not entirely clear why an inscription publicly exposed long before
it was verified by events required witnesses ; they would be more
necessary for a document sealed and put away for a time (cp.
v. 16 ). 3. Then I drew near] Not Now I had drawn near : the
tense cannot be pluperfect (Driver, Tenses, 76 Obs.). It would
be better to assume a misplacement (cp. 3& 21 ) of vv. 3f - than
a plupf. sense for 3lp&0. If vv. 8f - stood before vv. lf -, the tablet
of v. 1 would have a clear destination ; it would be for Isaiah's
son. As the text stands, the tablet is inscribed with a name that
attaches to no one. The prophetess} iiKUS here means the wife of
a prophet, as nate commonly means the wife of a king. Isaiah,
unlike Amos (7 14 ), did not repudiate the title prophet.
I. inn] is a verbal adj. quick to come (cp. Zeph I 14 , unless ino should be
read irtDD), and em a part. It would, however, be equally possible to point nnp
and take both verbs as prophetic perfects. 2. mTNi] MT nrj,'K], but point
preferably, if f be retained, nryxi, and 1 took ; Sta. ZATW, 1906, p. 136.
(fix KO! fjLdprvpds /xoi irolriaov, i.e. nrjMi, of which it is just possible that %\ is
merely an Aramaic scribe's orthography. Cp. (Ibn Ezra) q"tan '0 crnDN v
"n nnn. Ntr] G-K. 144^: cp. NT, 7 24 (n.).
5-10. The Extreme Peril and Complete Security of
Judah.
The prevailing rhythm, though, in the present text, at all events, it is not
maintained unbroken, is 4 : 4 in vv. 6 ' 8 ; 3 : 3 in vv. 8 ' 10 .
Judah! s Peril.
6 Because this people have rejected
The gently flowing waters of Shiloah, A A
7 Therefore behold the Lord is causing to rise A
The mighty and many waters of the River, A A
And it shall rise over all its channels,
And go over all its banks,
8 And it shall sweep on into Judah, an over-flowing flood,
. . . reaching even to the neck.
VIII. I-IO 145
Judatts Safety.
80 And his outstretched wings will cover
The entire width of the land
For God is with us.
9 Take knowledge ye peoples and be dismayed,
Give ear all ye distant parts of the earth, A
10 Plan plans, and they shall come to nought,
Scheme schemes, and they shall not be carried out :
For God is with us.
Textual corruption, the intrusion of glosses, omitted in
the preceding translation, and, probably, the juxtaposition of
passages of different origin, have obscured the meaning of these
verses.
y v 6-sb predict^ under the figure of a vast flood, due to the
rise of the Euphrates, which is to inundate the land of Judah to
a dangerous depth, the devastation of Judah by Assyria ; vv. 80 ' 10
the complete security of Judah owing to the presence of God,
which frustrates the hostile plans of the nations of the world.
There is no transition from the one theme to the other, but
there is probably a change of rhythm, facts which point to
VV0 6-sb an( j sc-io being of different origin.
y v> e-8b are ra ther later than the interview with Ahaz (y 1 ' 16 ),
if the conclusion is right that Isaiah's object at that time was to
enforce the security of Judah from the Syro-Ephraimitish attack.
y v 8c-io are probably post-exilic (see below), and contain
a fragment of a poem which consisted of short stanzas closing
with the refrain, "For God is with us." On account of the
refrain the poem was given a place near y 14 .
5. Cp. 7 10 . 6-8b. Because Judah has rejected Yahweh,
therefore Yahweh will subject Judah to a devastating Assyrian
invasion. This people] 6 9 n. Here the phrase clearly means the
Jews, see v. 8a . The entire people, and not only the king's court
(7 13 ) are here condemned. The gently flowing waters of Shiloah~\
the waters of Shiloah are the waters flowing from the one
spring in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the modern 'Ain sitti
Maryam, which rises in a cave on the eastern declivity of the
eastern hill of Jerusalem, that is the ancient Mount Sion, about
VOL. i. 10
146 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
353 yards south of the south-east angle of the Temple area : on
the opposite side of the ravine lies the modern village of Silwan
( = Shiloah), and lower down on the same side, at a distance in a
direct line of 1090 feet, the Birket, or Ain, Silwan, probably
identical with the n^n rD"U of Neh 3 15 . The words, the gently
flowing waters of Shiloah, suggest waters whose flow could be
watched; they are not the waters of the tunnel in which the
Siloam inscription was found, even if that were as ancient as the
time of Ahaz (cp. y 3 n.), but they are either the water conveyed
by the open conduit, which existed before the tunnel, or more
probably the waters flowing down the valley (cp. G. A. Smith,
Jerusalem, i. 90). From the nature of their source, these waters
must have flowed gently, and, like the artificially controlled water
of to-day, they doubtless served to irrigate the gardens of the
valley. These waters, then, were closely associated with Sion,
the site of Yahweh's temple and the royal palace ; and they were
the " living " waters of Jerusalem, as contrasted with the waters
stored in cisterns (cp. 7 3 n.). Isaiah is obviously speaking in
metaphor ; the most probable explanation of the metaphor seems
to be that the living waters of Shiloah rising under Sion stand
for Yahweh, who in Jeremiah (2 13 ) is compared to a " fountain
of living waters." The waters of Shiloah, " however beneficent,
are to outward appearance insignificant " (Che.) ; so the power
of Yahweh, wtu'ch had been the source of Judah's welfare (e.g.
5 lff< ), and to Isaiah seemed an all-sufficient ground for quiet
confidence (7* 30 15 ), was in the eyes of the people insignificant,
not to be trusted, but forsaken for other sources of strength (cp.
2. 12. 16 3 1 1 - 8 ). For the " gentleness " of Yahweh's activity, cp.
Job is 11 . The explanations of "the waters of Shiloah" as the
house of David,* or as the Syro-Ephraimitish invasion,! or as an
allusion to some lost poem or some now unknown popular
idea,! may be dismissed. The last words of v. 6 , omitted from
the above translation, are awkward and difficult ; if they have
any meaning (see phil. n.), the meaning is and a rejoicing (or,
and because they rejoice} with Reson and the son of Remaliah ;
which is inconsistent with the context, for the Jews, so far from
rejoicing with Reson and the son of Remaliah, stood in dread of
them (7 3ff -X An emended text (see phil. n.) may be rendered,
* Ibn Ezra. t F. C. Burkitt, in/725 xii. 294.
% Gressmann, p. 68.
VIII. 6-8
And have melted with fear because of Reson, etc. But (i) the
emendation is not free from serious objection ; (2) the immediate
transition which takes place, if the words be omitted, from the
figure of Shiloah with its gentle flow to the Euphrates in
desolating flood, is very effective ; and (3) the words, like those
generally recognised to be a gloss in v. 7 , form an isolated stichos.
Probably, therefore, Reson and the son of Remaliah are an early
annotator's erroneous explanation of "the waters of Shiloah,"
and the first word of the v. (BnBto) a corrupt variant of DND
above, or an isolated fragment, or possibly, as Bredenkamp,
Giesebrecht, and Burkitt have suggested, though on rhythmical
grounds this is not very probable, 6PIGCTD is a synonym (oozing,
trickling ?) of D&6 : note the two synonyms in v. 71 *. 7. Yahweh
will punish His disloyal people by causing a fateful rise of the
Euphrates, i.e. by an Assyrian invasion : so the destruction of
Philistia by the Chaldaeans is predicted under the figure of a
fateful rise of the waters from the north (Jer 47 2 ). The figure
here is blurred even in J^ and still more in EV, which makes
the king of Assyria overflow his banks and reach even to the
neck ! An early annotator explained the River (y 20 n.) as the
king of Assyria and all his glory, and also perhaps added DIT^y,
against them, which explain rather unnecessarily the destination
of the flood. 8. And it shall sweep on\ for *n, cp. 2I 1 . Into
JudaK\ this is the destination of the desolating flow of waters :
nothing is said of the flood affecting Ephraim on the way, for
Ephraim is not in the poet's thoughts. An overflowing flood\
more literally, having flooded and overflowed, unless, omitting the
waw, we restore the phrase used in Nah i 8 . Reaching even to
the neck~\ of dangerous depth. Cp. "an overflowing torrent
reaching (HOT, synonymous with jpy here) up to the neck," 3o 28 .
The swelling stream described in Ezk 47 8 ' 6 rose gradually from
being ankle-deep to being knee-deep and deep as the loins, after
which it became too deep to be passed through, and required to
be swum if the passage of it was to be safely made.
6. "3 |jr] 3 16 n. psn nx rnrgi] Di. explains MT thus : bibo is the constr.
case of riffD (32 13 ) before the prep, nN, and dependent on JJP on account of
the rejoicing with Res&n. Ges. similarly, except that he takes HK as the nota
ace. and cites 35 1 (corrupt) as justifying tnv with the ace. But n* bibzp is
very doubtful, and but partially paralleled by 5 n or 9 2 . G-K. 1300; cites no
case of the cstr. before the prep. MK and only one before n, the sign of the
ace. Jer 33 32 (text very doubtful ; cp. v. 21 ). Kon. (iii. p. 115 n. 3) suggests
148 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
that cfisflDi may be inf. abs. (vw\) with D prefixed to gain alliteration with
DND ; but it is doubtful wisdom to seek forced explanations of a text which is
exegetically condemned (see above). The emendation of the text adopted by
Du., Marti, and others goes back to a suggestion of Hitzig's, that two is a
mis written form of the like sounding DIDD, to melt away (in fear ; not used by
Is., but see I3 7 ) ; then, inasmuch as ODD is not followed by the ace., it becomes
necessary to emend further by reading 'JSD for n ; that n was substituted by a
scribe for ':SD after the hypothetical DIDD (inf. abs.) had become envn is improb-
able, inasmuch as 'JSD nt? could not have seemed so strange as to demand
alteration. Du. further omits '3 at the beginning of the v. in order that jy
may govern DIDD. (JR apparently paraphrased the present text of |^, dXXd
J3oti\<r6ai Zx eiv '~P<w<r&v Kal rbv vlbv 'Pofj.e\lov jSacrtX^a <fj v^Cbv. 7- P^ 1 ] Waw
before p 1 ? is quite unusual ; (Hr om. : it is probably dittographic. D.T^y] omit
(see above), and so restore a line of four accents. vrru ^3 hy "pni] cp. K^D
vnna *?3 Vy (of Jordan), Jos 3 15 . *]&?] pf. in a description of the fut. to give
variety to the scene or confer emphasis on individual isolated traits in it (Dr.
14 7) : najn is co-ordinated with qot? (Dr. 131, 132). But the writer may
have intended niijji *]btf (G-K. 113^), if he did not actually write nay
8a-iO. The safety of Judah. The last words of v. 8 are
obscure. If they are, as till Du. commentators always took
them to be, the direct continuation of v. 8 *- b the pronouns in his
(or its) outstretched wings must refer to the River, or, possibly, to
that of which the River is a figure, viz. Assyria or the king
of Assyria. The wings have been explained as " masses of water
branching off like wings from the main current" (Che. PI \. 53),
or as the cavalry of the Assyrian army (Ges.) ; then cp. the Lat.
alae, the Arabic Jj^sH IX^, wings of the cavalry ', and possibly
Li-
the Hebrew D'BJK ; cp. K "the people of his army." Others
see in the words the introduction of an entirely fresh figure. In
this case, if 8c - d goes with 6 * 8b the figure must be that of a hostile
bird of prey hovering over Judah (cp. Hos 8 1 , Ezk i; 1 ' 10 , Jer
48 40 ). But " the outstretched wings " far more naturally imply
protection; cp. Ru 2 12 , Ps i; 8 36 8 57 2 6i 5 63 8 91*, Mt 23 37 =
Lk i3 84 ; if that is implied here also, the point of the figure is that
the entire land of Judah will dwell in safety under the protecting
wings of the Almighty, undisturbed by any futile raging of the
nations, vv. 9f \ The land. For God is with us] this way of
reading the Hebrew consonants * is favoured by the recurrence
of the last clause, which may well have been a refrain (cp. Ps
46), in v. 10 . The consonants may also be divided as in J^, and
rendered either (i) thy land. God is with us ; so 6r and Abarbanel
*Du., Che., Marti.
VIII. 8-io 149
(cited by Vitr. p. 186); or (2) thy land, O Immanuel; so 3T&F,
Rashi, EV, and most interpreters. The last-mentioned inter-
pretation has to contend with the difficulty, never satisfactorily
met, of explaining an appeal to Immanuel, and the description of
Judah as his land ; even if Immanuel was some single definite
child, whose birth Isaiah expected (see on 7 14 ), he was not yet
born if this passage is continuous with 8 1-4 ; and, if the passage be
later, and Immanuel the name of an actually existing person, it is
strange that no more is heard of him. To base a far-reaching
construction of Messianic belief on so ambiguous a passage is
a mistake. 9 f. God's presence (in ion) ensures the futility of
all schemes of the nations directed against the people of God.
The outlook resembles that of Pss 2 and 46, Ezk 38 f., Is 54 14 ' 17
and perhaps io 12 (see note there), and the passage is probably no
earlier than these : in that case it owes its position here to one
of the post-exilic editors of the prophecies of Isaiah, and was
intended to alleviate the minatory tone of the preceding verses.
The argument against Isaiah's authorship of vv. 9> 10 is well stated by
Marti: "If the 'peoples' of v. 9 could be Ephraim and Syria, the verses
might refer to the protection of Judah in the Syro-Ephraimitish war. But
the peoples absolutely are addressed, and the Syrians and Ephraimites do not
dwell at the end of the earth. If it is urged that Isaiah immediately extends
his horizon from these neighbours to all peoples and all times, this is irrecon-
cilable with Isaiah's attitude to Assyria, whose plans against Judah he did
not expect to fail (vv. 7t to ) ; finally, to limit the plans of the nations which
were to fail to the ' bad ' plans and so to make an exception of Assyria, who
came commissioned by Yahweh, lays an emphasis on ijn which it cannot bear,
even if that word were textually more certain than it is."
9. Take 'knowledge} a suitable parallel to give ear in the next
line : so <5 ( = Heb. lyi). Cp. Ps 46" < 10 >. Less probable is the
reading of f^ Ijn, rendered associate yourselves in AV, or make
an uproar, RV : see phil. n. Be dismayed] this is the regular
meaning conveyed by the root nnn in Heb. ; see, e.g., 2o 5 3i 4 ' 9
37 27 5 1 7 , and note the frequent parallelism with &O\ to fear (e.g.
Dt i 21 ). Cp. Assyr. hattu, terror. Some render be shattered, see
phil. n. on 7 8 ; in this case, if f^ be followed in the previous
clause, the two imperatives constitute a virtual conditional
sentence (G-K. no/) though ye make an uproar (?), ye shall
be shattered. AH ye far parts of the eartH\ || to peoples used
absolutely, as is D'pmc in Zee io 9 . f^, which is paraphrased
by (, adds the words Gird yourselves (cp. Job 38 3 ) and be
ISO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
dismayed (or shattered) (repeated twice) ; but see phil. n.
10. Cp. 7 5 ' 7 .
8. WuDy ISIK] in f^ 1 this could have been read equally well VNIJDJ? 3 p ;
'3 is written plene in the Siloam inscription and on the Moabite Stone ; but
the Phoenician inscriptions afford many examples of the form 3 ; e.g. -pKni
KH pis i^D 3 warn ID', Byblus Inscr. 1. 9; Cooke, N-Sem. Inscr. p. 18 ;
Lidzbarski, Nord. Sem. Ep. p. 295.
9. ijn] The form cannot be satisfactorily explained. Explanations that
have been offered are that it is the impr. of (i) yy~\, and means be wicked ;
or (2) of J7JH, the Aramaic equivalent of fin, and means break, or more doubt-
fully still, be broken ; or (3) of jm, whence comes nynn, war-cry ', and means
watf aw uproar ; but it is the Hiph. of this vb. that is used elsewhere ; or (4)
of njn (whence JH), and means associate yourselves (RV 2nd marg.) ; but this
would require a reflexive conjugation. irmm] the i is probably dittographic :
(5r tirdKo6ffa.Te. (bis) mm nmnn] perhaps these rather curious clauses of two
accents, which do not agree with the prevailing 3 : 3 rhythm, are due to a
miswriting of iriNm inn.
11-15. The way of the prophet and his disciples and
the way of the people. In an autobiographical note, Isaiah
records that Yahweh made a communication to him warning
him not to share the standpoint of his fellow-countrymen. The
lines that follow are not addressed to Isaiah only, for the 2nd
pers. plural is used throughout ; nor to the people at large (note
v. 12a ), but to Isaiah and his disciples (cp. v. 16 ) ; these are not to
fear what the people at large fear, for danger does not lie where
the people fear it, but in Yahweh, whom they have ceased to fear
(cp. 3 1 1 " 3 ) : He will destroy "many " of the two houses of Israel
and of Jerusalem, but, so it is implied, will save those who fear
Him.
It is commonly assumed that this section refers to the same period as 7 1 -
8 10 , i.e. the period of the Syro-Ephraimitish war " parallel to vv. 5 ' 8 , but of
slightly earlier date " (Che. Introd. p. 40). Beyond the mere position of the
passage the positive grounds for this are two : ( I ) the '3 with which the
section opens ; precarious, for the word is absent from && ; (2) the allusion
to the alliance of Pekah and Reson supposed to occur in v. 12a . This rests on
a text that is doubtful and, if correct, ambiguous. In any case the passage is
earlier than the fall of Samaria in 722 (v. 14 ).
V. 11 is prose ; in vv. 12 * 15 the rhythm is irregular and uncertain. Vv. 12b -
13 and (more doubtfully) 14 are lines of 4 accents ; 15 is ambiguous : v. 12 falls
into no scheme, whether treated as one line (Du.) or two (Cond.).
11 For thus Yahweh said unto me when the Hand grasped
(me) that he might warn me not to go in the way of this people,
saying,
VIII. 8-15 I S l
12 Ye shall not call ... all that this people calls . .
And their fear ye shall not fear nor dread;
18 Yahweh of Hosts him shall ye ...
And he shall be your fear, and he your dread.
14 And he shall become a ... and a stone to strike
against,
And a rock of stumbling to both Houses of Israel;
A trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
16 And many of them shall stumble and fall, and be broken
And snared and captured.
11. When the hand grasped (me)] lit. with strength, or
pressure, of the hand of God ; with TPI npTra, cp. ^y mn' T1
nprn, Ezk 3 14 . The sense of prophetic inspiration was traced not
only to the invasion of the personality by the spirit of God, but
also to the hand of God, which, grasping and sometimes throwing
down (cp. ? Nu 24 4 i>Qi) the recipient, induced the prophetic
trance or ecstasy (2 K 3 15 ). Ezek. has several allusions to the
hand of Yahweh as accompanying inspiration, see Ezk i 8 3 22 37 1
fa nrvn), 8 1 fy bani); cp. also Jer i5 17 , "because of thy hand
I have sat alone : for thou hast filled me with indignation."
That the communication which follows must be of an extra-
ordinary and special nature (Du.), is a precarious inference.
That he might warn me not to go\ ^ may also be read ^D^l
(cp. Dt 7 4 ), and withdrew me from going. Isaiah, like Jeremiah
( I 5 17 " 21 )> may have had inward conflict in order to refrain from
following the easier path of acquiescence.
12, 13. The two verses are negative and positive comple-
ments of one another. Not the way of the people (v. 12 ), but of
Yahweh (v. 13 ), are Isaiah and his disciples to follow. Not the
baseless objects of the people's fear, but Yahweh, who alone has
power to destroy (vv. 14f -), are they to fear : cp. the antithesis in
Luke 1 2 4f \ V. 12b and v. 13b correspond to one another in the use
of terms ; but at present vv. 12a and 13a do not : the words left
untranslated above are 12a (twice) Y^p, a conspiracy, but in 1Sa
1B"1pn, ye shall sanctify. It is not surprising, therefore, that it
has been proposed that enp, holy, should be read in v. 12a ,* or
shall ye count a conspirator in v. 13 *.! Still there are
* Seeker, Lowth, Lag., Sta. (ZAT1V, 1906, p. 137).
t Du., Hackm., Buhl (in Ges-B.).
152 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
difficulties in both suggestions and also in f^. Even 12b and 13b
are ambiguous. So far as usage goes, their fear (1SO1D), viz. the
object of the people's fear, in v. 12a may be human beings, their
enemies Reson and Pekah, of whom, if vv. 11 ' 15 are a direct
continuation of 7 1 -8 10 , It is natural to think ; cp. the use of NTIID
in Gn 9 2 , Dt n 25 . In this case the warning here addressed to
Isaiah and his disciples is substantially identical with the warning
addressed by Isaiah himself to Ahaz in 7*. On the other hand,
their fear, if the passage stood by itself, would in view of v. 13a
most certainly suggest supernatural objects of fear : Fear not the
gods of this people (cp. v. 19 ) : cp. the constant use of XT of
fearing, i.e. worshipping, God, and the use of the synonymous
noun 1HB in the expression "fear of Isaac" (|| "God of Abraham")
in Gn 3i 42 . If the text of v. 12a be sound, it would decide in favour
of the former of these interpretations. Keeping the text we may
render v. 12a , Call not everything a conspiracy which this people
calls a conspiracy, in defence of which Che. (Introd. 40) argues
that it?p (noun and verb) is " used of those leagues which have a
destructive object' leagues of subjects against a king (i S 22 8 - 13 ,
2 S i5 12 - 81 , 2 K ii 14 , Am 7 10 ), of men banded together for
immoral or heathenish ends (Jer n 9 , Ezk 22 25 ), or of the
confederated enemies of a single nation (Neh 4 2 ). This last
application of the term is suitable here. On the first news of
the Syro-Ephraimitish invasion there was a cry, IK^p, i.e. the
enemies of Judah are confederated against it. But Isaiah is
warned by a strong impulse from above that this is an abuse of
terms. Syria and Israel are but " two stumps of smoking fire-
brands " : how can such feeble powers be said to have formed a
-iPp ? (Binding implies strength : cp. D'l^p, Gn 3o 42 ). The
warning is expressed in general terms, nsPK W, because the same
circumstances may arise again. To Isaiah a "ifc?p only becomes
worthy of its name when Yahweh is the chief member of the
league, as when he " sends " Assyria " against the people of his
wrath" (io 6 ). But the true fear of Yahweh, which shows itself
equally in obedience to His tora (see T 10 ' 17 ) and in perfect reliance
on His word of promise (y 9 ), binds him to the side of his people."
Che., though agreeing substantially in interpretation with Du.,
prefers not to follow him in substituting for l^lpn, ye shall
sanctify, the unique Hiphil IWpn Yahweh of Hosts, him shall ye
make your conspirator. " Those who sanctify him," he adds. " by
VIII. i 3 -i4 153
fearing Yahweh in the right way . . . make Yahweh their ally."
The very elaboration of this interpretation makes it doubtful ; it
also fails effectually to parry Di.'s criticisms. The combination
of Syria and Ephraim was a fact-, it was no part of Isaiah's work
to quibble over the use of terms, whether to call this combination
a conspiracy or something else ; he differed from the people not
as to the fact, nor as to the name by which it should be called,
but as to the interpretation of it : to them it was dangerous, in
Isaiah's judgment it was not. They feared that the " destructive
object " of the league would be attained : Isaiah, without denying
that the league had a destructive object, was convinced that it
would fail. Di. himself interprets the term conspiracy of the
understandings which the people imagined to exist between
Isaiah and the enemy (cp. the suspicions that fell upon
Jeremiah), but which did not exist in fact : he further suggests
that these popular suspicions had made Isaiah's disciples begin
to doubt whether Isaiah's principles were sound. This interpre-
tation also is unconvincing and fails more than the other to
account for the antithetical line, v. 18a . The narrower context of
VVi i2-i5 strongly favours the emendation BHp in v. 12a suggested by
1B>npn (v. 18a ) : Ye shall not call everything holy that this people call
holy . . . Yahweh of Hosts, him shall ye halloiu (cp. 2Q 22f ' ? late);
but if vv. 11 ' 15 be the continuation of yMJ 10 , the wider context is
against it. Either vv. 11 ' 16 were not originally the direct continua-
tion of what precedes, or they call for a more satisfactory inter-
pretation than they have yet received. 14. And he shall become
a sanctuary^ if the text is correct, which is very doubtful, this
means He will become a holy object, which no man touches or
injures unpunished cp. 5 lfl (Di.). To interpret * He shall be
an asylum (cp. Ezk n 16 , also Ex 2i 14 , i K i 60 ) for those who
hallow Him, but to others a cause of ruin, is to create an anti-
thesis which does not exist in the text. Not improbably G5Hprf>
is a corruption of t?p1Di>, which was itself erroneously substituted
from the following distich for the term which stood in the original
text. The two Houses of Israel] the Northern and Southern
kingdoms. Marti suspects that the phrase is a generalising sub-
stitution for " men of Judah." A trap and a lure] the figure is
resumed in v. 15b . The PIS (mod. bx.fakh; PEF Qu. St., 1905,
p. 38) is a trap kept open till the bird, alighting on a trigger,
* MT accents, U, RV.
154 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
causes the trap to close and itself to be caught. Whether
was the name for such a (baited) trigger (cp. Am 3 5 J^ ; but see
ffi), or for a snare, or noose (Kennedy, EBi. 1561), or (if A y^p' =
K>p3, to strike] for a clap-board (cp. *.), which strikes the enticed
bird down, is not clear. But in certain passages K>p1O seems to
have the meaning, whether original or derived, of lure (cp. e.g. i S
i8 21 , Ps io6 36 ) ; so, too, both here and in Jer 5o 24 (fff) the vb. B>p'
expresses what precedes the act of capture (T3/ 5 ), presumably the
act of alluring or enticing, though in Pr 6 2 , it is true, E>p' seems
to be more exactly synonymous with 1?b, and in EC 9 12 with
Be broken] of broken limbs, as Ex 22 9 - 13 , La 1 1 16 .
II. '3] (EJ5 om. npim] some MSS nptro. 'run] Not pf. Piel of TO',
for the waw conv. with the impf. would be the correct cstr. to express and he
instructed me (RV). It may be either the impf. Kal with simple waw (Dr.
59 flf. ) of TO', that he might admonish me, which is a little unnatural, or
impf. Hiph. with waw conv. of "no. (ffi arreidovffiv probably connected the
form with no. 12. wp] <5r, both times, o-K\ijp6v, i.e. Jwp. If enp was the
original reading, the transposition of the last two letters which produces ^
n?p had taken place earlier than (5r. 13. mo*] (& om. ODKTID] (ffi 2nd sing.
suf. Dsxnyn] Hiph. part. ; but with a different sense from the Hiphil in v. 12
and 29 23 : hence Gra., Du. suggest D3Jnyo, a noun parallel to DSNTID. 14. "vo\
<5i B om. 3r] some MSS and the VV 3v note ' following. 15. D3] among
them : cp. Ex. I4 28 , Lv 26 s6 . Others give 3 its instrumental sense by means
of them, i.e. the rocks just mentioned.
16-18. The Epilogue to Isaiah's Memoir. (I wilt)
tie up the testimony (and) seal the teaching in (?) my disciples.
17 And I will wait for Yahweh who hideth his face from the
House of Jacob, and I will look for him. 18 Behold, I and the
children whom Yahweh hath given to me are for signs and
portents in Israel from Yahweh of Hosts who dwelleth in
Mount ion.
In spite of some ambiguity in v. 16 , these words read like
the conclusion of the autobiographical memoir which recorded
Isaiah's teaching during the Syro-Ephraimitish war by word and
symbol and the significant names of his children, Shear-Jashub
and Maher-shalal-hash-baz. They also give the impression that
Isaiah realised that a stage in his ministry was closed ; that for
an indefinite time to come he might speak to his people no
more as he had been speaking ; a time of waiting for Yahweh
of waiting in perfect confidence lay before him ; and during
this time his teaching would be with (? incorporated in) his
VIII. ii-is, i6-i8 155
disciples, and perpetually eloquent in himself and the names of
his children. The words received of Yahweh at the time of his
call have come true : the people have not listened, and Yahweh
is alienated from them. True, too, has proved the conviction
that led him to name his child " A Remnant shall return " : he
has not indeed led Judah to repentance; but he has made
disciples. If the doubtful and ambiguous v. 16 will bear the
weight of the conclusion, those are not wrong who see here an
important epoch in the history of religion the emergence of a
spiritual, as distinct from a national, religious society; Isaiah,
unlike Amos and Hosea, is not a voice crying unheeded; his
distinction lies less in a doctrine of the remnant than in the
practical step of creating the remnant in which he believed.
l6. (I wilt) tie up . . . seal] the verbal forms are ambiguous
(see phil. n.) : they may be assertive, in which case Ki. correctly
expresses the nuance nothing remains for me but to tie up,
etc. ; or they may be imperative, tie up. V. 17 favours the former
view. If the words were a command, Yahweh would be the
speaker ; my disciples (J^ ; (&<& otherwise) would then mean
" those taught by my prophet," i.e. Isaiah's disciples ; and this
meaning would even more directly attach to the words on the
other view. To the sealing of documents there are several
allusions in the OT: see 29", Jer 32 lof> , i K 2i 8 , Dn 12*.
The Jewish Aramaic papyri of Assouan (5th cent. B.C.) were
found tied with string and sealed : see illustrations on the title
page of Cowley and Sayce's edition. The testimony . . . the
instruction} the two terms cover the contents of a single
document which is both tied up and sealed. The testimony
(miyn, v. 20 , Ru 4 7 f in a different sense) more particularly refers
to such sides of Isaiah's public utterances as his assertions that
Ephraim and Syria would do Judah no harm, but would be
speedily destroyed : cp. the attesting of the name Maher-shalal-
hash-baz in 8 lf - : the teaching (mm, i 10 n.) is more particularly
his insistence on the need for quiet confidence and faith in
Yahweh. In my disciples} the preposition (3), read differently by
(3r, is difficult, and has called forth many interpretations : ( i )
deposited in the custody of\* but this would probably have
required T *?$ or 1*3, and in any case why should Isaiah
deliver his teaching to his disciples in a sealed book which they
* i., Dr. (Isaiah: his Lift and Times ; p. 35), Che. (SBOT).
156 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
could not read (cp. 29)? (2) with* i.e. having my disciples pre-
sent ; cp. Di., " in the presence of and witnessed by " ; but this
also is pointless and strains the meaning of 3; (3) by means of
(Ew.), which would rather require T3. Least objection seems
to beset an interpretation which goes back to Rashi, who equates
3 with ^b *?y t and has been developed by Del., Du., Marti. This
interpretation gives 3 its common force in (of place); the
question (cp. Di.) is whether it sufficiently accounts for the
nature of the figure, for it makes the tying and sealing of the
law figurative ; Isaiah on this view determines to place his
teaching in the hearts of his disciples and to make of them
" living oracles " : cp. Jeremiah's " law written upon the heart "
(Jer 3 1 33 ), and St. Paul's figure, "Ye are an epistle of Christ . . .
written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God " (2 Co
3 2 ). 17. Isaiah will rest firm in his belief in Yahweh, though
troubled for his people who have caused Yahweh to hide hisface^
i.e. withdraw His favour, from them, and have thereby exposed
themselves to destruction. 18. Isaiah's children are signs and
portents in virtue of their names ; he himself as the prophet and
representative of Yahweh. Whether Isaiah made his own name
Yahweh hath saved (i 1 n.) a text on which to base his doctrine
that Yahweh was the only true ground of confidence, we do not
know. In any case he is scarcely thinking merely of his name
here. Yahweh of Hosts who dwelleth in Mt. ion\ the last clause
need not be omitted as the addition of a late scribe to whom it
was a standing epithet of Yahweh ; it is a natural expression of
personal experience. Isaiah closes his memoir with words which
recall the great experience recorded at the outset (ch. 6).
16. As the equivalent or substitute for the words which in f^ lie between
n3*73i at the end of v. 15 and warn at the beginning of v. 17 , (& has &v6puiroi iv
d<r0aXet. T6re <f>avepol foovrat ol <r(f>payi'(>/J.evoi rbv vopov TOV fj,rj nadeiv *cal
tpet That the translators read (and read wrongly) ['JiD^a rnin oinn as Dfin
noVo mm is clear : how they read the rest is very doubtful. Neither C nor
j& recognises any reference to disciples mnn . . . iis] the scriptio plena of
the 2nd word is not ancient ; cp. (5r. The present orthography is probably
due to interpreters who read the verbs as infinitives absolute nhn ix, and
inserted the i to distinguish the originally long vowel of the inf. abs. from
the merely tone-long vowel of inf. cstr. and imperative (G-K. 67). Cp.
the usual (though not invariable) orthography of the strong vb. in $fy
inf. cstr. Sap, but inf. abs. Slop (G-K. 450). For is as the inf. abs. instead
* Dr. in BDB 89*.
VIII. 1 6-i 8, 19-23 157
, cp. a>, Nu 23 2S ; hV t Ru 2 16 : for the syntax, G-K. ii$bb; apart from
<& and the authors of the scriptio pie na, early interpreters took the forms as
imperatives ; so & (deriving m* from nnj), & (plurals), U. The sequence of
vram, v. 17 , is normal (Dr. 113, p. 126) if the vbs. be inf. abs.: cp. especially
Jer 7 M< The exact process implied by -m is to tie up rather than to bind
together ; so the n*n^ is the pouch (i S 25 29 ) or purse (Gn 42 M ) which is closed
by having string tied round its mouth.
VIII. 19-23. Three Fragments.
These are (a) a warning against necromancy and magic,
w. 19f - ; (b) a picture of some person, or people, starved and
encompassed by darkness, vv. 21f - and probably the last words of
v. 20 ; (c) a promise of a better day for Galilee, v. 23 .
Of these fragments, (a) and (c) are prose ; (b) consists of
distichs of balanced (3 : 3 or 2 : 2) and parallel lines.
This difference of style at once suggests, as Du. has clearly
perceived, that w. 18 ' 23 are not all of a piece. And this is still
more strongly suggested by the inability of interpreters, who
assume their unity, to establish a probable as distinct from an
ingenious connection between the verses themselves, or between
the verses and what precedes or follows them. Note provision-
ally that vv. 16 ^ 18 do not supply any natural explanation of the
subject in they say, v. 19 , or the pronoun you ; in v. 21 through it
refers to nothing in vv. ief *, nor does the singular pronoun
throughout the last clause of v. 20 and w. 21t find any satisfactory
explanation in vv. 19f *
The verses are in several respects ambiguous, and probably
contain more than one corruption. Under the circumstances it
cannot be expected that the Isaianic authorship or the date of
any or all of them can be either maintained or denied with
certainty. It is inconclusive to say, for example, that vv. 19f - are
too didactic for Isaiah.
19 f. A warning against necromancy and magic.
Such a warning would have been timely at most periods of
Hebrew history ; see Dt iS 9 ' 18 , i S 28, Lv i9 81 , 2 K 2i 6 , Is 65*.
When they say] the subj. is indef. (G-K. I44/) ; it is not
resumptive of a plural in vv. 16 ' 18 , since, for various reasons, the
several plurals in those verses are obviously unsuitable. Unto
you] it is improbable that this belongs to 8 12 ' 16 : if it did it would
naturally have stood before vv. 16 ' 18 . The run, behold, of v. 18 does
158 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
not suggest you (Di.). The persons addressed may be the
disciples of the person who is speaking, and this may be Isaiah.
How far the invitation to necromancy extends and where the
rejection of the. invitation begins is uncertain (see phil. n.). The
chief views that have been taken have been these : (i) When they
say unto you, " Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp
and that murmur? (Ye shall say unto them,) "Should not a
people consult its god? on behalf of the living (should they consult)
the dead f " This may represent substantially the meaning of the
original text, but as the text now runs it is open to serious
objections : (a) the first assumed ellipsis is very harsh and but very
partially paralleled by Ps 8 4f - ; (b) the second ellipsis is question-
able in that it carries forward the influence of the interrogative
part of the particle (*6n) without the negative should they not
consult the dead would be the natural way of supplying the
ellipsis. (2) The other view, which admits of many variations,
regards the speech as extending to the end of v. 19 and the reply
to it as beginning with v. 20 , When they say unto you, " Consult
the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp and that mutter.
Should not a people consult its gods ? on behalf of the living (should
they not consult) the dead?" 20 Nay, but to the law and to the
testimony unless they speak according to this word (viz. " to the
law and the testimony "). In brief, Do not consult ghosts, but
the scriptures, or, according to another interpretation, the
prophetic teaching. On the whole, the argumentative " should
not a people," etc., seems improbable in the invitation ; and yet
these sentences probably were argumentative in their original
form. The ghosts and the familiar spirits} the terms (ni)aN and
(D)^JTP together as frequently, Lv ip 31 2o 6 - 27 , i S 28 8 - 9 , 2 K 21*
( = 2 Ch 33 6 ) 23 24 , Is 1 9 s . The distinction between them seems
to be that a person who divined by the ri13K claimed to have power
to summon any ghost (i S 28 11 ), whereas the person who divined
by a '3JTP consulted his own particular or familiar spirit (Ac i6 16 ),
which was at his beck or call ; see Dr. on Dt 1 8 11 . The dead at the
end of the v. covers both sets of spirits, and on the 2nd interpreta-
tion noted above so also does vn^, its gods ; cp. the use of DTita,
god, for the manes of Samuel in i S 28 13 . That chirp and that
murmur] for the squeaking and gibbering of the spirits, cp. 29* n. ;
to chirp (5]VBV), used of the thin notes of birds, see io u ; and
murmur (run) of doves, see 38 14 59". 20. According to one way
VIII. 19, 20 159
of regarding this v., it completes the sentence begun in v. 19 : see
on v. 19 . According to another, it is complete in itself: when
things have grown desperate and a man is without hope, he will,
but too late, penitently exclaim, To the Law and the Testimony,
i.e. the Scriptures (Du.). Men will at last seek for the word of
Yahweh and not find it (cp. Ezk y 26 , Am 8 llf - : and see Che.
Introd. p. 42). Most improbable of all is the view that v. 20 is a
protasis of which v. 21 is the apodosis improbable in itself, and
condemned too by the fact that v. 20 is prose and v. 21 poetry.
It is impossible to interpret the v. satisfactorily : probably the
last clause is not the original continuation of the first part. To
the Law and to the Testimony] the same terms in inverse order
occur in v. 16 of Isaiah's teaching. If w. 19 ' 28 are not the con-
tinuation of vv. 1 ' 18 , the terms may not have the same meaning as
in v. 16 . If v. 20 is late, Torah, Law, may mean written law, the
Scriptures, and miyn, Testimony, like nny in Ps 19, may be
a synonym of Torah in this sense. If they speak not] possible
also is surely they shall speak : see phil. n. But in either case
this clause is very awkward if joined with the next : examples of
the improbable sentences thus produced are : if they speak not
thus, he (note change of number) shall have no dawning, or
surely they shall speak thus who (lit. he who) has no dawning. It
is more probable that the last three or four words (from lt?N or
ptf) belong to the poem of which another and larger fragment is
contained in v. 21f *. For whom there is no dawn\ whose state is
desperate, because no morning will ever break on his present
night of distress; cp. 2i llf> (n.) 58 8 , Ps 30.
BHT vn^K ^K ojTKi^n] commentators assign no reason for the emphatic
position of the subj. oy. Not improbably BHT goes with the following words,
and vrrVx SK oy tnSn is a corrupt fragment ; the corruption in this case is the
cause of the ambiguity of the v. (see above). It is one reason against Ruben's
elaborate reconstruction of vv. 19 " 28 that he allows this difficulty to remain.
'ui D"n.f 1J73] (5lr prefixes rl tKfrrovffiv, supplying, like modern translators,
something where something, though not obviously this, is needed in the
present probably corrupt text : see last n. 2O. <Br is paraphrastic, but read
inr for wff.inv i 1 ? px i7K run nana non' x^ OK] the best proof that these
words were not originally connected is the mere statement of the devices
which have been resorted to in order to construe them. (l) A has been
explained as a sing, distributing the pi. in riDK', in support of which 2 20 5 a
(themselves probably corrupt) have been cited (Kon. 348^). Du. reads TDK'.
Grammatically the most straightforward course is to make nai the antecedent
of W (Cr, Ruben) ; but exegetically this is improbable. (2) The relation of the
I6O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
two parts of the sentence has been variously, but always unsatisfactorily,
explained, (a) If they speak not thus, (surely) he shall have no dawning: cp.
RV. But (BDB S^a) there is a complete absence of evidence that it^K was
ever used (like i) as the simple introducer of the apodosis (Ges., cp. Kon.
4i5), or, like O, as an affirmative, (b) Surely they will speak thus, when he
has no dawning; this translation might pass if when were temporal, but
usage only admits of its being conditional (cp. e.g. Dt II 27 , Jos 4 21 ), on con-
dition that ; and this sense is incompatible with the tenor of the passage, for if
it is a unity, the writer regards calamity as a certainty, (c) Surely they will
speak thus who (really he who} have no dawning; but ~m and not the subj. of
inDN', both on account of its neighbourhood to ns?K and agreement in number
with 1^, is the natural antecedent to nt?x. It is, no doubt, tempting in view of
Jer 8 17 to take "int? in the sense of witchcraft ', counter-spell (cp. 47 11 n.), and
render, (d) This word against which there is no counter-spell. But Ruben,
who has revived the suggestion, is compelled to resort to violent textual
correction to make the meaning harmonise with the context : he reads UDN'
n:m for nma now, and places D'non ^tt 0"nn -ijn after D'jjrP. Those who
infer that the real cause of these difficulties lies in the fact that ins? iS p ~\VK
and 'ui TON' N^DN belonged originally to different contexts, generally consider
that int? b iN -\vx formed a fragment of the poem to which vv. 21f ' belonged :
Cond. thinks they form the direct continuation of 5 30 .
21, 22. The poetic fragment which appears to begin in
the middle of a distich ; the last words of v. 20 , if they belonged
to the poem, are scarcely the first lines of the distich of which
v. 21a is the second, for the lines would not be parallel, nor would
the last clause of v. 20 contain the antecedent of na, through
it. The fragment appears to picture a man whether Jew or
Ephraimite or even foreigner, cannot, of course, be determined
passing through a country, probably his own (? in search of food,
cp. i K i8 5f> , Am 4 8 8 llf -), distressed and famishing ; angry at his
plight, he curses his king and his God, from whom he can gain
no help ; whether he looks up or down there is no ray of light
to be seen : he is surrounded by impenetrable gloom.
In the following translation, to heaven (v. 2id ) and beneath
(v. 22a ) are taken from (&. The distich is then 3 : 3, which appears
to have been the rhythm of the poem.
21 And he shall pass through it hard pressed and hungry ;
And being hungry he will become enraged,
And curse his king and his God.
And he will turn (his eyes) ' to heaven ' above,
22 And he will look to the earth ' beneath ' ;
And behold distress and darkness,
Thick impenetrable (?) gloom.
VIII. 21-23 l6l
21. And curse his king] Finding no help from king and God,
from whom he might have expected it (cp. 2 K 6 26ff -), and
smarting under his grievances, the man grows reckless and
commits the mortal (i K 2i 10 , Lv 24 llff -, cp. Ex 22 27 < 28 >) offence
of cursing king and God. Cp. Rev i6 n , "And they blasphemed
the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores."
Elsewhere the obj. of W>p is in the ace., and in i S 1 7 48 , 2 K 2 24
3, which introduces both 137D and Vnitf here, is used of the person
in whose name the curse is pronounced. We might therefore
render curse by his king and by his god j but this would leave the
object cursed unnamed ; and, seeing that the prep, is repeated, it
would give us an altogether unusual case of cursing in the name
of a king. His God\ possible also is the rendering his gods
(v. 19 n.) : then cp. 2 20 . But cp. i K 2 1 10 - 13 . Thick impenetrable (?)
gloom] this translation merely represents what was, as suggested
by the previous line, the general sense of this one. The text of
J^ is most questionable, and (8x is probably paraphrastic. The
attempt to gain a transition from the gloom of v. 21f - to the
bright hopes of v. 23 and 9 1 ' 6 by rendering and thick darkness
shall be driven away : 23 for there shall be no gloom to her
that was in anguish (RVmarg.), involves a number of improb-
abilities, disregards the parallelism and rhythm of the poem,
and assumes a transition from the poetic fragment to the prose
of v. 23 .
23 (9 1 ). Apart from the opening sentence (see last n.), this v.
is a prose note explaining that the darkened land of the poetical
fragment (8 21f> ), to wit, the northern and north-eastern territory
of Israel (cp. Zee io 10 , Mic 7 14 ) will be compensated for its
former distress by a corresponding glory (g 1 * 6 ( 2-7 )). If either
g2if. or ^1-6 is not the work of Isaiah, neither is this note; if
both are, this note may have been added by him when he
combined two poems of different periods. In this case he looks
back on the humiliation of Naphtali t which took place in 734 B.C.
as long past ; it belongs to the former time. The land of Zebulon
and the land of Naphtalt\ northern and north-eastern Palestine ;
cp. Ps 68 28 < 27 >. Naphtali is explicitly mentioned in 2 K i5 29 .
The terms in the antithetical clause are all direct objects he
hath made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond Jordan^
Galilee of the nations. These terms are more extensive than
those in the previous clause, for they include the country East of
VOL. i. ii
1 62 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Jordan ( = Gilead, 2 K is 29 ). Cp. EBi. 1629. The way of the
sea] according to Jer., Rashi, #/., the sea meant is the Lake of
Galilee (cp. Dt 33 25 ). More frequently D N n means the Medi-
terranean ; and so here the way of (i.e. leading to : cp. Gn 3 24 )
the sea probably is, like the ' Via Maris ' of the Crusaders, the
caravan route which ran from Damascus to the Mediterranean
sea at Acre. The land beyond Jordan] pTH "ay, as frequently
of the country E. of Jordan (BDB 719). The Galil of the
nations] cp. Jos i2 23 , "the nations of the Galil," if as against
fif ("of Gilgal ") this reading of < B be correct ; also TaAiAcua
dXAo^vA-wv, i Mac 5 15 ; elsewhere in OT the * Galil,' Win (Jos
2o 7 2 1 32 , i K 9 11 i Ch 6 61 f) or nMan (2 K i5 29 ), is undefined.
The term means circuit, but is always used specifically of a
district in Northern Palestine; cp. the different specific refer-
ence of "O3H, "The Round" (Gn ig 17 ). But the district
covered by the term was not always, nor need it be here, as
extensive as the later Galilee : Ges. suggested that at one time
it defined a relatively small district round Kedesh (Jos 2o 7
2i 82 =i Ch 6 61 , To r 2 , i Mac n 63 ): in i K i5 29 it appears
less extensive than Naphtali, which it subsequently included :
see, further, EEL, s.v. Galilee. The definition given here and
in i Mac 5 15 (cp. Jos i2 23 (5t B ) reflects the mixed population
which was at all periods more or less characteristic of this
northern territory.
21. ayn ntrpa na
3jn, which is obviously corrupt. |^ is quite possible, since the absence of an
antecedent to na may be due to these words being the beginning of a
fragment. n^yo 1 ?] (& e/s rbv otpavbv &vw. 22. p VNI] ( Kal ei's r^v yfy
Kara. imD nSatn npis ^yo] signs of corruption here are : (i) these four words
overbalance, or if 'D nSsNi be separated (Du., Cond.) then nps *]iyo is too
short for, the parallel line notrm m* nam ; (2) however construed, mjo H^DNI
destroys the parallelism with the first line ; (3) for mao, fflr read niiqp ; (4)
npi* is detached from mx with which it is coupled in 3O 6 , Pr i 27 , cp. mn or
npixDi, Zeph i 15 ; (5) the difficulty of construing mao nVsw. The conclusions
that appear probable are: (i) one word between mao . . . nam is superfluous:
(2) mao is a corruption of some qualification of nV&M, cp. Am 5 20 naa K*?I ^DK
S. Possibly npis qiyn is a misplaced corruption of npixo (Zeph i 15 ), and just
possibly (Hit's nmD is correct a poetic breviloquence to express what Ex lo 221 *
expresses more fully in prose, vrm rw e"x INT xV . . . ntac i^n \T). Then
we may restore
nam
VIII: 21-23 163
narn] Mic 3* (fc, not MT), Gn 15" (JE?), Ps i8 ia (not 2 S 22") 82 139" ;
pi. Is 5O 10 t. TWO] the existence of a root ]iy, /<? ^ *&r, is well secured ;
but this form is doubtful, for (i) there also exist from the same root as nouns
meaning darkness ns'y and ntnyn ; (2) masc. nouns of the form makt&l from
t"y roots are exceedingly rare (St. 2750), while, if against MT we treat
]iyo as a form like DipD, it would more probably mean place of darkness,
especially in view of the existence of ne'y, nsiyn. The term is perhaps due to
an early corruption (see above). niJD nSsio] The rendering and into darkness
he is driven, or banished (cp. Jer 23 12 ), is the only one that continues or
completes the thought of the distich ; but n^ for nVox SK is exceedingly harsh
(this might be partially met by pointing rtak with he locative), the suppression
of the new and different subj. is awkward, and the clause is somewhat of a
hysteron-proteron, for the man is depicted as already encompassed by darkness.
The alternative rendering, and darkness is driven away, banished, may be
justified grammatically, for n'-SN (fern.} might be the obj., not the subj., of the
masc. pass. part. (17^., Ps 87 s ) ; but it is very improbable : ma is not a suit-
able word for the dispersal of darkness ; a fresh synonym for darkness, if the
thought of the preceding words is continued, would be suitable, but quite the
reverse if the sentence is a strong antithesis. As part of the same distich, too,
the clause, had it this meaning, would be intolerable. That these two obscure
and ambiguous words are " the turning point to which v.^-o, 6 attaches
itself" (Di.) is anything but " natural. "23. nS p*iD -wvb i)jno H 1 ? '3] the
attempt is made by those who treat 8 19 -9 6 as a unity and as free from
corruption, to make this the reason for the last clause of v. 22 (second transla-
tion) thus -for (there shall) not (be) gloom (to the land) to which there (was)
distress ; but again the change of words (from nVs to *]yiD, from ^yiD to p*>D)
is most improbable, and the change of tense which is all-important is in no
way indicated in the text. At least more probable than this is Du.'s
suggestion that the sentence is a gloss on fjiyo in v. 22 , explaining that that
word is used metaphorically : for is not f]yiD used (metaphorically) of a person
who is said to be in distress ? nya] at the former time, 3 of point of time :
BDB 453^. JiffNtn nys] the fern, n being regarded as radical was treated by
some writers from the time of Ezek. (7 7< 12 ) onwards as masc. : cp. Kon. iii.
25 1/. T33n . . . *?pn] are antithetical literally, to make light and to make
heavy, and then in accordance with common metaphorical usage to render
inglorious and to render glorious : cp. the antithesis of the Niphals of the
two vbs. in 2 S 6 22 . The subj. in each case is perhaps best treated as
undefined (G-K. 144^); others consider it to be Yahweh unnamed, "after
the well-known later custom" (Du.). Jewish commentators (e.g. Rashi)
make Tiglath-pileser subj. of *?pr and Sennacherib of T33.n, with, of course,
a very different and an illegitimate interpretation of the whole sentence.
V33n is proph. pf. HX-IN] pn + old ace. ending ; it is by accident rather than
design that the noun actually is in the ace. here : G-K. 90. In view of the
absence of the n in the next sentence it is hardly likely that nsnn is ace. of
direction he brought shame towards the land . . . he brought honour towards
the way (Du., Marti). jnnKm] ace. temporis (G-K. Ii8/), and in the latter
(time).
1 64 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
IX. 1-6 (2-7). The glorious Future of YahweKs now
enslaved People.
The poem consists of distichs, except perhaps in the last four lines. The
lines of the distichs balance one another, except perhaps in vv. 4a - b< 5c - d ; the
last line also is longer than the three which precede. These irregularities may
possibly be due to corruption, but independent signs of this are slight.
Although the lines within the several distichs balance one another, the length
of line in different distichs varies from clearly 2 in vv. 28 - b< ^ d to clearly 3
in v. 1 , and 4 in 2c> d . In v. some (Du., cp. Lowth) make * rhythmically
equivalent to 5a - b and divide M ' f> * h at Wonderful Counsellor into two
rhythmically equal halves, the whole being rhythmically equivalent to 6a - b .
Certainly * * * h might easily be read as a single distich 4 : 4 instead of two
distichs 2:2; but in any case it is probable that the significance of the name
was heightened by being thrown into an independent distich.
Parallelism of lines is prominent : in v. 1 , the parallelism extends over the
entire distichs, though a subordinate parallelism of antithesis marks the lines
within each distich.
1 The people that were walking in darkness
Have seen a great light;
They that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Light hath shone upon them.
2 Thou hast multiplied ' the rejoicing,'
Thou hast made great the joy ;
They have joyed before thee as men joy at harvest,
As they rejoice when they divide the spoil.
8 For the yoke of his burden,
And the 'bars' about his shoulder,
The stick of his driver
Hast thou shattered as in the day of Midian.
4 For every shoe worn in tumult (of battle) (?),
And (every) garment 'stained' (?) with blood,
Shall be for burning,
For fuel of the fire.
5 For a child has been born to us,
A son has been given to us ;
And dominion is upon his shoulder ;
And his name has been called
IX. 1-6 l6s
Wonderful Counsellor,
Mighty God,
A Father for ever,
Prince of Peace.
c Great is the dominion,
And endless is the peace,
Upon the throne of David,
And throughout his dominion;
To establish it and to support it
In justice and righteousness
From henceforth and for ever,
The jealousy of Yahweh of Hosts will do this.
Light now shines on the people that have been (long) in
darkness (v. 1 ), and they rejoice before Yahweh with great joy
(v. 2 ). For (i) Yahweh has delivered the people from the yoke
of a foreign oppressor (v. 8 ) ; (2) He has also made an end of
war (v. 4 *) ; moreover, (3) a child has been born, who, as a native
ruler in contrast to the (foreign) oppressor of v. 8 , will exercise
dominion, and is marked out as exceptional by the name which
he receives, v. 8 . He will rule justly and righteously from the
throne of David over a vast dominion undisturbed to its furthest
bound by any breach of peace ; this righteous government by the
will and act of Yahweh is to be endless (v. 6 ).
Except in vv. 4 * 6 the tenses used throughout the poem are
perfects and imperfects with waw conversive, i.e. tenses naturally
used in historical narrative. But the situation described in
vv. 1 ' 3 - 5 in no way corresponds to any known circumstances, and
the name in v. 6 has no appearance of being one borne by an
actual person. It has therefore been widely and correctly held
that the poem is, at least in part, prophetic.
It is, of course, possible that the perfects are in part prophetic,
in part historical ; if this were actually so, the question would
arise, how much is prophetic, how much historical? Has the
great deliverance from foreign oppression actually taken place ?
Has some birth awakened the poet's hopes, but the actual
present not yet fulfilled them by bringing the child born to the
throne of David ? Many have held that the birth is historic, and
1 66 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
that the poet refers in particular to the birth of Hezekiah ; but
this view is now generally and rightly abandoned.
It is more probable that the poem is prophetic throughout in
all its direct statements the light has not yet actually shone, the
people have not yet actually rejoiced, the child has not yet
actually been born ; all these things are past, not in reality, but
only in the hopeful vision of the poet. The circumstances under
which the poem was written can only, but may probably, be
detected in the implicit statements ; from these we may infer two
things : (i) the people were at the time in " darkness," i.e. distress ;
and (2) under a foreign yoke. On one interpretation of v. 5 , if
not also from v. 8 , it would also follow that (3) the throne of
David was at the time vacant ; another interpretation would still
admit, but no longer require, such a situation (see note on v. 6 ).
If all we can infer are the two circumstances first mentioned,
the historical situation presupposed is obviously one that
occurred even in Isaiah's lifetime, for Judah felt the pressure
of Assyria and paid tribute; but it also frequently recurred
later, when the yoke of Babylon, Persia, the Ptolemies or the
Seleucids rested on the Jews.
The determination of the date and authorship of the poem
must therefore turn on other considerations ; but these, too, are
unfortunately less decisive than could be desired.
1. Language. Cp. Cheyne, Introd. p. 44 ; Hackmann, p. 148. This
is indecisive. On the one hand, the only occurrences of S^b (as distinct
from *?3P) are in v. 8 IO 27 I4 25 , passages commonly, though not unanimously,
attributed to Isaiah ; on the other, iy, perpettiity, and m,r6*, both frequent
later, occur in no passage certainly as early as the 81 h cent, (see phil. notes).
It is the idea rather than the word ntop that is significant. For the rest, the
language is such that it might equally well, so far as we know, have been
employed in the 8th century or much later, though po, if loaned from
Aramaic rather than Assyrian (cp. v. 4 n.), would more easily be explained
by a date later than the 8th century.
2. It is urged that no echo of the passage is found in Jer., Ezek., Is 40-66.
This is correct, but inconclusive. It is, of course, at once explained if the
passage was written later than these writers ; but unless we place it as late as
the 2nd cent. B.C. (Kennett), why does it also find no echo in still later
writers, Zech., Hag., Mai., the Psalms? or should we possibly find echoes
of it in Ps 72 ? The connection with Is 1 1 does indeed seem probable, and
if that connection is due to unity of authorship, the exilic or post-exilic date
to which that passage is probably to be referred is the date also of this.
3. Ideas. The conception of Yahweh's "zeal" (v. 6 ) is probably enough
that which is characteristic of Ezekiel and of subsequent writers, yet mop may
IX. 1-6 i6;
be so interpreted as not to be absolutely incompatible with Isaiah's thought
(see n. on v. 6 ). Several writers (see especially Volz, Die vorexilische Jahwe-
prophetie, pp. 3 and 6fF.) treat the reference to the Messianic king as in itself
conclusive proof of post-exilic origin ; this is unsafe. At the same time two
facts remain : ( I ) the Messianic king does figure in later writers ; (2) we lack
positive proof that the prophets of the 8th cent, were acquainted with the
idea, or, if acquainted with it, also made use of it. Marti rather overstates
the case when he says that the Messiah here is " throughout a political figure
(Grosse) which has no direct significance for Religion " at least the remark
would equally apply to the judges and counsellors to whom Isaiah looks
forward in I 26 . If Isaiah did look forward to a king in the future and had
wished to describe him, he must have described him much as he is here
described righteous, just, mighty in defence of the weak (see notes on vv. B - 6 ).
The ideal certainly has its national limitations : the king will be a Jew and yet
have a wide, a universal dominion, but no stress is laid on the servitude of
the nations to Israel. Certainly, too, the ideal falls below that of the ' ' servant
of Yahweh " ; but at the same time this ideal of the kingdom established in
righteousness and of the peace-loving, justice-securing king is anything but
ignoble.
The best complete vindication of Isaianic authorship would be to establish
a clear connection with some period of the prophet's activity ; but, unfortun-
ately, those who agree in rejecting the view that the passage is post- Isaianic,
differ as to the period of Isaiah's activity to which it belongs. It must
suffice to refer to two or three theories of date.
Kit. argues that the passage fits into the range of ideas found in chs. 6-8
and other passages of the period to which these chapters belong. Isaiah then
expected the conquest of the country and the city, and the overthrow of the
monarchy (2 12ff< 3 lff ' 5 8ff *) ; but also that a remnant would survive (7 s 6 13 ) ;
from the remnant would arise a deliverer, Immanuel, representative of the
new generation, who would grow up in affliction. Judah must drink the cup
of affliction at the hand of Assyria (7 17ff - 8 Sf - 5ff - 20ff -)- Then the hope
represented in Immanuel is realised, 8 16ff> . It increases, 8 9f> , and reaches its
climax, 9 lflr< Assyria must fall. The climax was not clearly perceived at first,
but may have been so after 722, when the section 8-9* may have been written
down. The sequence of thought and, perhaps, the original sequence of the
sections is 8 12 - u W- 21 S Disaster ; S 16 ' 18 - 2, Hope ; 8 9f - 9 lff -, Fulfilment.
This elaborate construction rests on details, such as the identification of
Immanuel and the prince of 9 4 , which, according to the view taken in this
commentary, are insecure, or definitely unsound. It certainly mitigates to
some extent the difficulties attached to the view that 9 1 " 8 was the direct
sequence of ch. 7, and written at the time of the Syro-Ephraimitish war.
Would Isaiah have described the people as walking in darkness, because they
were threatened, in his own phrase, by two fag-ends of smoked out fire-brands ?
Du. holds that the "driver" of v. 3 must be Assyria, and the "soldier" of
v. 4 Sennacherib's army.
The Isaianic authorship seems to have been first questioned by Stade,
Gesch. i. 596, ii. 209 f., ZATW vi. 161 ; then by H. Hackmann, Die
Zukunftserwartung des Jesaia, 130-136, 143 ff. ; Cheyne, Introd. pp. 44 f. ;
1 68 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Marti, Comm. ; Volz, Die vorexilischc Jahweprophetie, pp. 57-60 ; R. H.
Kennett, JThS vii. (1906), 321-342. Sta., Che., Hack, suggest a post-exilic
date not closely defined. Kennett, who treats the passage as historical^
refers it to about 140 B.C., when "the yoke of the heathen was taken away
from Israel" (i Mac I3 41 ), and Simon held a rejoicing "because a great
enemy was destroyed out of Israel " (i Mac I3 81 ). In addition to the general
objection to assuming a Maccabaean origin for any parts of the Book of Isaiah
(see Introd. 26 f. ), this theory rests on several very questionable assumptions :
(i) that S 23 (9 1 ) is part of the poem; (2) that the name given to the prince
implies a warrior ; (3) that the boots of v. 4 must be boots of Greek soldiery ;
(4) that the child of v. 5 is not a child t as such, but the offspring given to
the nation, to wit, Simon. Marti with far more probability places the
prophecy between 540 and 440 B.C., roughly about 500, not far remote in
time from Haggai and Zechariah, both of whom expected a Messiah of the
Davidic house.
On the whole, if the passage was not written by Isaiah, it
may be best regarded as a lyrical counterpart of chs. 40-55,
though the work of an author with different ideals, written
towards the close of the Exile, when the people had long been
walking in the darkness of captivity, long dwelling in the land
of the shadow of death Babylon. Like Ezekiel, the writer
was convinced that the jealousy of Yahweh must bring about
the restoration and exaltation of his people : like Haggai and
Zechariah, he looked for a Davidic Messiah ; unlike Ezekiel, he
gives to his prince a supreme place in the restored community ;
though, like the Deutero-Isaiah, he expects the restoration itself
to be the direct act of Yahweh without the mediation of the
Messiah : this is a possible, even a probable, but at the same
time not a certain theory of the origin of the poem. If it
should be correct, we have three great ideals represented in the
literature of the Exile Ezekiel's, of the Holy Community
devoted to ritual and sanctified by the presence of God in
its midst; the Deutero-Isaiah^, of the Prophetic People preach-
ing true religion to the nations ; and this writer's, of the Righteous
Kingdom with its king righteously ruling from Jerusalem over an
unlimited empire.
I (2). The people] the entire people of Israel, descendants of
those who had constituted the kingdom of David (v. 6 ); the subject
is not the same as in 8 23 (9*), nor as in 8 21f - (note the consistent
use of sing, there and pi. here); it is rather the new subject
of an entirely independent poem. Darkness . . . light] for these
figures of calamities of various kinds and prosperity or deliver-
IX. i-3 1 69
ance from calamity respectively, cp. e.g. 58 8 - 10 59 6o 20 , La 3 2 ,
Job i5 22f \ Darkness signifies, in particular, captivity. Cp.,
either for this last point or for the phrases used in this v., 42 7
IPK || DniDN), Mic 7 8f -
rw), Ps icy 10 - 14
pro" 1 Drvnnmoi niDyi i^no DNW . .
shadow of death] or, <?/" gloom (see phil. n.) ; the phrase
occurs here only ; but cp. " the land of darkness and the
shadow of death" (Job io 21 , cp. 3& 17 ), i.e. Sheol: this meaning
can scarcely be intended here ; what is meant is either the land
of Israel temporarily obscured by calamity, or Babylon, the
land of captivity. 2T avoids both these applications by para-
phrase " The people of the house of Israel who were walking
in Egypt as in darkness came forth to see a great light ; they
that dwelt in the shadow of death, light hath shone upon them."
2 (3). Thou hast multiplied the rejoicing, etc.] the translation rests
on a very slight conjectural emendation ; see phil. n. J^ reads
thou hast multiplied the nation : thou hast not increased the joy,
which is obviously unsuitable ; the K^e (RV) is probably an early
conjectural emendation which restores sense at the expense of
style and without restoring the parallelism (see phil. n.). The
two figures which enforce the greatness of the joy both recur;
see Ps 4 8 126 (joy in harvest), Ps iiQ 162 (joy over spoil). It
no more follows that the poet expected the new era to open
after a victorious battle, than that he expected it to begin at
the end of harvest. 3 (4). The great joy is on account of the
end of Israel's servitude. The people referred to in the pi. in
vv. lf - are here collectively represented by singular suffixes ; the
change is occasioned by the introduction of a figure (cp. i 6ft
after i 4 ). Israel is compared to an animal with a burdensome
yoke resting on its neck and compelled to work by its driver,
who uses his stick upon it. In the terms of the figure, Yahweh
(not the Messiah) brings Israel's servitude to an end by breaking
in pieces both the yoke and the driver's stick : burden and
blows are alike done away. The figure of the yoke is a favour-
ite one with Hebrew writers, and is used of the oppressive
government of native rulers (i K i2 4 ' 9ff -), of the hard treat-
ment by foreigners (Assyrians, i4 25 io 27 , Jer 27 8 - llf - ; cp. Dt 28 48 )
of Israel in its own land, or in a land not theirs (Lv 26 13 ).
The yoke of his burden] the yoke that is his burden, his burden-
I/O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
some yoke: cp. io 27 i4 25 where yoke and burden stand in
synonymous parallelism. The yoke (^y) is specifically the heavy
cross-beam that rested on the neck of the animal; through
holes in this passed wooden pegs or bars (nt3C>), which, being
tied below, enclosed the animal's neck ; see the illustration in
PEFQu. St., 1891, p. 113, reproduced in EBi. 78. MT and
probably ^ (though cp. Nah i 13 ) means the rod (ntSB) of his
shoulder \ or neck, i.e. the rod with which his neck was beaten ;
but (i) this would anticipate the driver of the next distich, and
(2) the neck protected by the yoke was not the special recipient
of blows. The stick of his driver} it is unnecessary to follow
RV and introduce a new figure by rendering of his taskmaster :
for driver, cp. Job 39 7 . Nor, in view of the reference to the
stick (B2>) for beating (cp. e.g. Ex 2i 20 , Pr io 13 ), is the render-
ing oppressor (14* n.) suitable. As in the day of Midian\ an
allusion to the ending of another foreign oppression (Jg 6-8).
With the phrase day of Midian, cp. " day of Jezreel," Hos 2 2
(i 11 ); "day of Egypt," Ezk 3o 9 ; "day of Jerusalem," Ps 1371
Why does the poet refer in particular to the deliverance from
Midian? Is it because the story told then, as it is read now
(Jg 7 2 ), illustrated the prophetic doctrine that deliverance is
wrought not by the size and equipment of human armies, but
by Yahweh ? In any case the poet does not say that the " light "
will shine, the change of fortunes come, after a great battle. 4 (5).
For] this v. does not give the reason for v. 3 , but a further reason
for the joy of v. 2 ; men will rejoice because the age of universal
and unbroken peace (2*) has begun. War is already abolished,
and everything that pertains to it, typically illustrated by the
soldier's dress, will be destroyed by fire. Cp. especially Ezk
39 9 , also Is 2 4 , Hos 2 20 < 18 >, Zee 9 10 , Ps 46 10 < 9 > 76 4 < 3 >. It is curious
that the writer selects the soldier's dress rather than the imple-
ments of war for destruction ; Che. (SBOT p. 89) reconstructs
the text on the basis of the references just given, so that shields,
bows, arrows, and quivers may be consumed by the flames
instead. Every shoe worn in tumult (of battle}\ the last part of
this translation in particular is uncertain ; pKDf is not battle
(AV), nor armour (RV), but foot-gear. It has been claimed
that the word means in particular the heavy military boot ; and
Ges. referred to Josephus' description (Bell. Jud. vi. i. 8) of the
" shoes all full of thick and sharp nails " of the Roman soldiers
ix. 4
in illustration of its character; but neither the Assyr. senu nor
the Aram. WD, (jolco, from either of which Heb. may have
borrowed the word, has any such specific sense ; WD is used,
e.g., in ft Ex 3 6 , Dt 25, Jos 5 15 , JJO]TD (for which the Peshijta
prefers ]i]rr>Vo) i n the Harklensian version of Mt 3 11 , Lk io 4 i5 22 .
Abimilki of Tyre in his letters to the king of Egypt describes him-
self as " the dust under the shoe (senu) of my lord the king (Tell
el-Amarna Tablets, 152*, and elsewhere). Yet though the word
pXD is not specifically a heavy military boot, the writer would
probably have had such in mind if the following words really
mean " of him that is heavily booted " (Kennett), or " of him
that makes an earthquake as he treads " (cp. BDB under both
words); but both these renderings are very questionable, the
denominative vb. (JND) should, as in Assyr. and Aram., mean no
more than to draw on, to wear a shoe. If the text is right, which
is doubtful, worn in the tumult of battle is the safest rendering
of f^, which should be pointed JNp not JKD (MT). This gives
the best parallelism, adopts the most probable meaning of the
denominative, and for the rendering of tpjn by tumult (of battle)
has the close, though not exact, parallel of Jer io 22 ; cp. also
Is 2Q 6 . Elsewhere the noun t^jn means a trembling or quaking,
an actual earthquake, or, by hyperbole, the shaking of the earth
attributed to war-chariots (Jer 47 8 , Nah 3 2 ). The poet then
has no special type of boot in mind; it is the fact that shoe
(jlKD) and garment (rD&B>), of whatever nature, have been worn
in battle, that condemns them to the flames. In the golden
age of peace, war and all that pertains to war will be taboo,
and must, as things unclean, be destroyed. Consequently
that part of Kennett's ingenious argument* for the late date
of the poem, which rests on the conclusion that pND must refer
to the heavy nailed boots which were characteristic of the Syro-
Greek soldiery, falls to the ground. It remains noticeable,
however, that in Is 5 27 Isaiah calls the foot-gear of the
Assyrians 7JJ3, sandals. Stained with blood*] reading by con-
jecture !"6^p ; n?7lJ, J^, rolled, or weltering, in blood, seems to
* Jotirnal of Theol. Studies, vii. 327-331 f., 338: criticised by C. F.
Burney, ib. xi. 438-441, to whom Kennett replies, ib. xii. H4f. My own
note above stands as it was written before the appearance of Dr. Burney's
note.
1/2 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
say too much ; Amasa is fitly described as " weltering "
in his blood (2 S 2o 12 ), but the garments to be consigned to
the flames are scarcely limited to those which had " weltered "
in blood ; enough that they had met the usual fate of soldiers'
garments, and had become blood-stained (cp. Is 63 3 ). 5 (6). The
third cause of the people's joy is the birth of a prince of their
own race (to us), who receives (at once) the dominion and power
over them that had been exercised in the days of darkness (v. 1 )
by an alien ruler (v. 3 ), and who is (v. 6 ) to extend his dominion
widely but peacefully. This child is Hezekiah according to
mediaeval Jewish interpreters (Rashi, Ki., Ibn Ezra), Simon the
Maccabee according to Kennett, the Messiah according to most
(cp. 5T). The ideal standpoint of the poet seems to be (shortly)
after the birth of the prince, after he has been recognised as
prince of Israel, but before the wide extension of his kingdom
has begun. Child . . . son] placed first in their respective
sentences for emphasis; l!) 1 is applicable to an infant as yet
unweaned (Gn 2i 8 ) as well as to older children. To us] the
poet who has hitherto spoken of his people in the 3rd pers. here
associates himself with them. And the dominion is upon his
shoulder] is this fact mentioned between the birth and the nam-
ing because the name was given after the prince had grown up
and earned it by his exploits (Du.)? or is the meaning that the
name is given as usual a few days after birth, and that the
child is "born in the purple" (Grotius), because, though the
house of David survived (v. 6 ), it had at the time no reigning
prince (Marti)? or is the position of the clause without signifi-
cance ? ms?D, dominion, appears to mean here the royal dignity,
in v. 6 f the royal authority ; the entire phrase here refers to
entering on a reign rather than to the burden of governing;
it may possibly have originated in a practice of wearing a royal
robe on the shoulder-, cp. 22 22 . His name has been called} cp.
X 26 n< The eight words of the name fall into four clauses, each
containing two words closely connected: less probable views
are that the first four (Jer.), or the first two (EV, Ges.), words
should be taken singly ; some Jewish interpreters distribute the
names among God and the child, e.g. " God who is marvellous
in counsel, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, gave him the name
Prince of Peace (Rashi, Ki. : cp. 3T) ; but Ibn Ezra rightly
insisted that the whole eight words belonged to the child's
ix. 5 173
name. Luzzatto treated the names as a sentence, predicating
(like Immanuel, y 14 n.) something of God, and therefore imply-
ing nothing as to the child. Some of the names singly, and
even more in combination, are as applied to men unparalleled
in the OT, and on this account are regarded by Gressmann
(p. 280 flf.) as mythological and traditional : cp. also Rosenmiiller's
Scholia. Wonderful Counsellor] Like God Himself (28 29 25 1 ),
the Messiah will give counsel that will be exceptional, exceeding
what has hitherto been known or heard. Mighty God] cp. io 21 ;
"the great (and) the mighty God," Dt io 17 , Neh 9 82 , Jer
32 18 . The ambiguous D^na ^$ of Ezk 32 21 , the application
of D'U !>N to Nebuchadnezzar in Ezk 3i n , and the fact, if it be
such, that in the remaining three clauses of the name here the
words are cstr. and gen., scarcely justify a departure from the
obvious rendering mighty God in favour of god of a hero, and still
less a whittling down of the meaning of 7K to hero> so that the
clause means no more than mighty hero. The child is to be more
than mighty (^pn, Ibn Ezra), more than a mighty man (113J ITN,
i S i4 52 ), more than a mighty king (TI3J I^D, Dn u 8 ): he is to
be a mighty ta, god. This attribution of divinity, implying that
the Messiah is to be a kind of demi-god, is without clear analogy
in the OT, for Ps 45 7 < 6 > is ambiguous. Not only i>N but "1133 has
been differently interpreted : 1133 is often used of warriors, and
many understand it to refer here to the military success of the
Messiah. But if the writer had wished to summon up the
thought of one who gained renown in war before he became
prince of peace, he might better have chosen an unambiguous
term, such, for example, as nonta "IUJ, mighty in battle (Ps 24 8 ).
At all events 1133 is also used of might manifested in other
ways than those of war (cp. e.g. Gn io 9 ). As the lion is
mightiest of beasts because he quails before no other (Pr 3o 30 ),
so Yahweh is mighty as one who cannot be browbeaten or
bribed into abandoning the defence and care of the helpless
and the poor(Dt io 17 ). In Jer 32 18 the idea of Yahweh's might,
conveyed in the epithets "great, mighty," "terrible," is particular-
ised in what follows as greatness in counsel (nvy) and action, in
the signs wrought in Egypt, and in finding nothing beyond his
power (K^B* IOD). Mighty is to be taken here with this wider
reference. Yahweh Himself will bring war to an end and so bring
in the Messianic age of peace : the Messiah endued with the
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Spirit of God, " a spirit of counsel and might " (nTQil nvy rm),
will like the mighty God Himself fearlessly defend the rights
of the weak and poor, and, after judicial process, have the
violent and guilty disturbers of civic peace slain (n 2 * 4 ). Father
forever] the benevolent guardian of His people so long as He and
they endure. For the cstr. and force of iy here, cp., on one
view of the construction there, iy m:u, a lady for ever, 47 7 , and
the phrase with the synonymous DTiy, D^y "TO, a slave for ever,
Dt i5 17 , i S 27 12 , Job 4o 28 . For ny predicated of the (Messianic ?)
king, see, e.g., Ps 2i 5 ' 7 ; in view of these and other references it
is unnecessary to take the phrase as equivalent to Eternal father
(cp. D^iy *r6K, 4o 28 ). For father used figuratively of a protector
or benefactor, see Job 2Q 16 , Is 22 21 . Two alternative interpreta-
tions, Eternal One, and Father, i.e. acquirer or distributor, of
booty, are both open to the serious objection that they pre-
suppose an Arabic use of 2K, father, which has no parallel in
Hebrew, not even as has sometimes been assumed in proper
names like Abihud, Abihail ; see HPN p. 7 7 ff. 6 (7). The zeal
of Yahweh will secure the endurance of the wide and peaceful
dominion of the new Davidic dynasty, will secure also that it is
both established and maintained in justice and righteousness.
To support it in justice and righteousness] cp. i6 5 , and Pr 2O 28
" his throne shall be supported in mercy ((3r righteousness)."
The jealousy of Yahweh of Hosts will do this] the same phrase in
37 32 . The term HKJp, used of passionate emotion in man (e.g.
Ca 8 6 ), here refers to Yahweh's emotion : so, with other terms of
emotion, in 63 15 . This jealousy, or ardour, or passion, of Yahweh,
which will not suffer Him to be deprived of His due, especially
of the proper regard for His power and honour, is frequently
referred to by Ezekiel and later writers ; it led to the punish-
ment by captivity of His people who had been disloyal to Him,
but it subsequently necessitated the restoration of Israel, lest the
nations should think Yahweh weak; cp. Ezk 39 25 - 29 also 5 13 i6 ?j8
2
25
j Is 42 is 59 i7 ? z ec !i4f. g2f. f ji 2 \ss. t Nah i 2 . The phrase
and the idea expressed by it would be entirely in place if this
prophecy is exilic or post-exilic; and it would be difficult to
think it earlier, if the main thought is that the jealousy of Yahweh
will restore the Jewish monarchy. But if the main thought is
that Yahweh will establish and maintain a righteous government,
it may be merely a more passionate expression of Isaiah's ideal
IX. 6, 1-4 175
in i 26 . The attribution of HN3p, jealousy, to Yahweh would still
remain unique so far as Isaiah's extant writings are concerned.
Cp. Kiichler, Der Gedanke des Eifers Jahwes im AT t in ZATW,
1908, pp. 42-52.
IX. X. un] <5r treats this as impv. with oyn vocative, renders ruj by
impf. and reads 03'Sy scarcely real variants. On the text of the quotation
in Mt 4 16 , see Swete, OT in Greek, 396 f. pio '3tf'] 5 n n. The clause is a
c a sus penden s, the cstr. being doubtless chosen for purposes both of rhythm
and emphasis : Dr. 197. I. mo 1 ?*] Am 5 8 being probably later than the
8th cent., the earliest occurrences of niD^x elsewhere are Jer 2 6 13" : it occurs
besides four times in Psalms (23* 442 io7 10 ' 14 ) and ten times in Job. The
traditional view (<SC(8r) that nioS* is = 1? + '?*, rather generally abandoned
for a time in favour of Ew.'s suggestion that it is =rn + D l ?s J rHoVy, has perhaps
rightly been revived by No. (ZATW, 1897, pp. 183 ff.); the root JJ0,
Assyr. saldtnu, is not otherwise represented in Hebrew. njj] Kal as Job 18
22 28 ; Hiph. I3 10 , 2 S 22 s9 = Ps i8 29 t ; but the noun occurs early, e.g. Am 5 20 :
cp. Assyr. nagA, to shine. Possibly the writer intended the noun here, TIK in
that case being 3rd pf. : note the order and cp. Pr 4 18 ; but <Hr = MT. 2.
nnotfn n'run N 1 ? "un rrain] so K e tib : K e re reads ^ for K 1 ?, cp. the same
variants in Ps ioo 8 , Job 13"; & OT-X C pnS agree with the K e re, F,
Symm. with the K e tib. (Hr is paraphrastic and ambiguous. In favour of the
emendation *?'jn (e.g. i6 10 ) or nV'jn (65 18 probably also 35 2 t)> note that lines
a. b thus show the parallelism nV'an, nnorn as c. d show iS'V, inor. The
conjecture, now commonly accepted, is due to W. Selwyn, Horae Hebraicae,
Camb. 1848. For a defence of the K e re, see Del. ; but he fails to justify the
emphatic position given by it to tf> ; in the passages he cites (4S 24 , Lv 7 7 " 9 ,
I S 2 3 , Job 29 21 , Ps 7 14 I39 17 ) b is either really emphatic (so pre-eminently in
Lv 7 7 ' 9 ), or textually questionable. 3. ^D] for ^29 ; G-K. 93?. For the
noun, see lo 27 I4 36 f ; the root was in use at all peiiods. nnnn] 7 8 n.
4. pND] air. Xc7. : see above. If Isaianic, the word is probably loaned from
Assyr. ; for D= Assyr. in such loan words, cp. \\rvo = Sarrukin ; ]io = ^nu.
For the vowel change \iKQ = s2nu, Haupt in SBOT compares min = /^r/w,
JNX =/(?##. For Pirn JND pND, (5 has aroK^v ^Triffvvrjy^vijv 56Xy, probably
following much the same text as f^, but perhaps reading J?en for rjn. The
length of the line and the difficulty of finding a translation in all respects
beyond criticism create some suspicion of |^, but we are in no position to
emend. nrrm] the waw introducing the direct pred. is uncommon, but not
unparalleled (Dr. 1230) ; so also is the agreement with the immediately
preceding part (nSfiv) of the compound subj. (G-K. 146* ; Kon. 349/), cp.
Jer 7 20 . The combination of the unusual together with the shortness of this
and the next line (yet cp. 2 a - b ), and the fact that r nSsKD in idea echoes
rather than balances nsity 1 ? nrrni, may reasonably raise the question whether
the text is sound at this point. new] perhaps, in view of the parallel, that
which is burnt ; see Numbers, p. 208. This meaning is also possible in Gn
ii 3 (2T). nSnND] the word is no indication of date ; it is true it occurs again
1/6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
only in v. 18 , where the text is doubtful, and in the form rh'so in I K 5 13 ;
but the root is one of the commonest at all periods, the noun form is paralleled
by mjnD, njDno, npVno, mako, all occurring in early literature, and the corre-
spending forms occur in both Syr. and Arabic
5. mron] v.^t. <5r renders dpx^, & OU-^-^QL, U in v. 5 principatus, in
v. 6 imperium, HE- NmiK, law, which is obviously wrong, and due to connect-
ing the word with ~\D" (cp. Symm., Theod. TJ iraideia). MT fnipo presupposes a
meaning to rule for the root nits', t^-, of which there is no evidence. Point
rather .TjipD or TIB'D, from -\v, a prince, denom. nt?, to rule (e.g. Jg g 22 ). The
punctuation of MT can be traced as early as Jerome (MESRA) and perhaps
Aquila, who renders rb [ifrpov, being deceived by the similar sound of the
Latin mensura (Lagarde, Sent. i. 15).
MSB *n,Ti] either (i) Kal irjjpn (MT) with indef. subj. (Kon. iii. 324*:), as
certainly in Gn 25 26 , and possibly in some of the apparent cases of naming
by the father (see Hastings, DB iii. 48o b ). This would be the common
idiom for naming a child at birth (see, e.g., 7 14 8 3 ). Since the important
matter here is the name, and the person who gives it unessential, the in-
definite idiom cannot be considered improbable ; less probable views of the
cstr. with the same punctuation is that God unnamed, or named in part of
the names that follow (C), is the subj. ; or (2) Niphal Nij?'i : this idiom
is used of names given in later life ; see Dt 25 10 , Dn io l , cp. Gn 35 10 .
fyv N^>s] commonly explained on the analogy of mx *ns, a wild ass of a man,
DIK ^tt, fool of a man (cp. G-K. 128/5 Kon. iii. 337^) as meaning literally
a wonder of a counsellor, or rather taking fyv like DIN as collect. , a wonder
among counsellors, most wonderful of cotmsellors. Possible also is it that N^S
is the ace. prefixed (cp. 22 2 ), giver of wonderful counsel. On the differing
traditions as to the punctuation vhs, K^s-(the second being intended to mark
the status constructus], see Kon. ii. p. 66. ~iy '3] ~\y, booty, is an early word,
Gn 49^ ; but it is not intended here (see above), and consequently the pro-
posed substitution of VW' for Di^s? below (Neubauer, Margolis, cited by
Cheyne in SBOT} falls to the ground. iy, perpetuity, is predominantly, if
not exclusively, late ; no indisputable instance can be found earlier than the
Exile : frequent in the Psalms, it occurs also in such passages of doubtful age
as Am i 11 , Mic 4 5 , Pr I2 19 , Ex I5 18 . 6. rmo 1 ?] the final D in the middle of the
word (K e tib), which is corrected in the K e re, points to an early corruption
or ambiguity of the text. In the translation above Gratz's suggestion ( Gesch.
ii. I, p. 223) has been adopted, viz. that D 1 ? is a dittograph of C I ?[B'], a
relatively late dittograph, for it presupposes the use of the final letters.
(3r at the end of 5 and beginning of 6 has #w y&p elp^vrjv e?rt roi)s &PXOVTO.S
Kal fryeiav aury ' fj.eyd\-rj ij apx^ atfroO : the overlined words seem to represent
a conflate text rm nno 1 ?, the first of these two words being wrongly read by
NSIO '^ (Cheyne in SHOT). The parallelism and independence of the
short two-accented lines is best preserved by reading nm. The word nmo,
presupposed by the other reading, occurs again in SS^f- See, further, on the
text, Cheyne in SBOT; Lagarde, Semitica, i. 17. If the reading nniD^ be
retained, Gressmann's (p. 279) suggestion to read iff'Dn (cp. n 4 , Mai 2 6 ,
IX. 7-X. 4, V. 26-29 177
l\s 45 7 67) for mron is worth considering. nunx] possibly an addition, sec
2 K I9 31 K e tib ( without) = Is 37 W (with).
IX. 7 (8)-X. 4, V. 26-29. The Doom of Ephraim.
The five strophes of the following poem, even in the present text, are of
very nearly equal length : in the original poem each strophe probably con-
tained exactly 14 lines. The third strophe still contains this number, and so
do the second and the fourth ; but the genuineness of two, or four, lines of
the second, and the whole of the fourth, has been suspected. The first
strophe now contains 13 lines, but there are strong grounds for suspecting
that a line has fallen out after v. 8 < 9 > b . The fifth strophe contains 15 lines,
but one of these (S 271 ') rests under suspicion as being a monostich.
The regular succession of distichs is broken in the present text by four
monostichs; but one of these is (in v. 8 ) probably due to the loss of its
parallel, and two others, 9 18c- 19c < 19c * 20c >, are probably two parts of a distich
which have been accidentally separated from one another (see Comm.): in
the following translation they are restored to fellowship. The remaining
monostich is s 271 * ; it is probably intrusive, for the fifth strophe is at present
a line too long.
We may conclude that the poem originally contained four or five equal
strophes, and each strophe seven distichs.
The lines of the distichs are for the most part parallel in sense and
balanced. Of the 35 dislichs, 19 are clearly 3:3; so, too, probably are
9 16a. b ( om i t , nK ) f I0 2a. b ( fea( J Q Mjy f or D y Mjy^ 5880. d ( rea ding vfcfo for
vS;tan), perhaps also lo 4 *- b (yh?-'J^?V) and s 260 - w (iwSp). There is at least
one distich 4 : 4, viz. 9" ; other probable, or possible, examples are 9 18a - b (ffir
4 : 4> ?? 5:4). 9 13a ' b (omit m,v), 9 11 *- b (omit makkeph in ns San). The
gloss in 9 14 is also 4 : 4. The opening distich (9') is exceptionally 4 : 2,
and 9 10 also may originally have been 4 : 2. On the other hand, ^ Kc ' d was
probably 3 : 3, and has been turned in transcription into 4:2. On 9 20 and
5 s9 , see notes.
Note. The prophetic past tenses of the original are retained in the
translation ; but the whole poem is a forecast of the future, not a survey of
the actual past : see below.
I.
9 7 The Lord hath sent a word against Jacob,
And it shall fall upon Israel.
8 And all the people shall recognise (it),
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria.
[For they said . . .]
Proudly and greatly daring,
f " Bricks have fallen, but with hewn stone we will rebuild :
Sycomores have been cut down, but with cedars will
we replace them."
VOL. i. 12
178
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
10 And (so) Yahweh exalted (?) * his ' adversaries against him,
And will spur on his enemies
11 Syria on the East and the Philistines on the West,
And they devoured Israel with full mouth.
In spite of all this his anger turned not back,
But his hand is stretched out still.
2.
12 Yet the people returned not to him that smote them,
Nor inquired of Yahweh of Hosts ;
13 So he Yahweh cut off from Israel head and tail,
Palm-branch and reed in a single day.
14 The elder and the person held in respect, that is " the head,"
And the prophet who delivers false oracles, that is "the tail."
15 And those who should have led this people aright led them astray,
And those who should have been led aright were swallowed up.
16 Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over his young men,
Nor show compassion to his orphans and widows,
Because he is wholly profane and given to evil,
And every mouth is speaking impiety.
In spite of all this his anger turned not back,
But his hand is stretched out still.
17 For unrighteousness burnt like a fire :
It (first) consumed thorns and briars,
And (then) it kindled the thickets of the forest,
And they twisted about in a (rising) column of smoke.
18 Through the overflowing anger of Yahweh the land ...
And the people became like ' devourers ' of men ;
19 They carved (slices) on the right hand and were hungry,
And they ate on the left hand and were not satisfied.
180 None will show any pity to his brother,
19(5 But each shall devour 'his 'neighbour's' flesh
20 Manasseh (devouring) Ephraim and Ephraim, Manasseh,
Together (will) they (be) against Judah.
In spite of all this his anger turned not back,
But his hand is stretched out still.
to 1 Ah ! they that decree mischievous decrees,
And that, busily writing, write nought but trouble,
IX. io-X. 4, V. 26-29 1 79
2 That they may turn aside the needy from judgment,
And make plunder of the right of the poor, A
That widows may become their spoil,
And that they may make a prey of orphans.
8 What then will ye do in the day of visitation,
And at (the time of) the storm that cometh from afar ?
And to whom will ye flee for help,
And whither will ye abandon your glory,
4 'To avoid' .crouching under (?) the prisoners,
And falling under the slain?
In spite of all this his anger turned not back,
But his hand is stretched out still.
5-
5 26 Then will he raise a signal for a * nation ' afar off,
And whistle for it from the end of the earth :
And, lo ! speedily, quickly will it come,
27 With none of it(s number) growing faint or stumbling ;
It slumbers not nor sleeps
The waistcloth about its loins has not been untied,
The thong of its sandals has not snapped;
K Its arrows are sharpened,
And all its bows bent (ready) ;
Its horses' hoofs are like flint,
Its wheels are accounted like the whirlwind;
29 Its roaring is like that of a lioness,
And it will roar (?) like young lions:
And it will growl and seize the prey
And carry it off, with none to rescue.
The grounds for believing that 5 26 ' 29 originally formed the
close of the poem in 9 7 -io 4 are these : (i) the refrain that marks
the close of the several strophes and, in consequence, immedi-
ately precedes the commencement of each strophe but the first
in 9 7 -io 4 , also immediately precedes 5 26 - 29 ; (2) the burden of
this refrain is that yet more of the divine chastisement is to
descend on Ephraim : admirably adapted, therefore, as it is for
the close of each of the earlier strophes, it is not adapted to
close the entire poem : consequently io 4 is not the close of the
poem, and the final strophe of the original poem lacked the
refrain ; so in Am 4 6 ' 12 , a poem which not improbably influenced
180 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Isaiah in the composition of his own, a four times repeated
refrain (nirp DfcO *iy DrQK> &6l) was unsuitable to close the poem.
(3) At the close of a strophe almost, or (if we omit 5 27b as
intrusive) exactly, equal in length to the (second), third (and
fourth) strophes, and to what, as it would seem, was the original
length of the first strophe in 9 7 -io 4 , occurs a suitable climax to
the whole poem the utter destruction of the threatened people
of whom none escapes ; (4) not only the climax, but also the
general tenor of the 14 lines of 5 26 ' 29 , form a suitable sequence
in thought to 9 7 -io 4 ; (5) the structure (a succession of distichs)
and the rhythm (mainly 3 : 3) of 5 26 - 29 is the same as that of
9 7 -io 4 ; (6) the conclusion of 9 7 -io 4 is not in io 5ff> , for this deals
with a totally different subject; nor (7) is the introduction to
5 25 ' 29 to be found in 5 1 ' 24 (see notes thereon).
That 5 25 " 30 , in whole or in part, formed a part of the same poem as 9 7 -io 4
has been very generally recognised. Ew. reconstructed thus : S^ + Q 7 to io 4
+ 5 26 ' 30 , seeing in 9 7 a new start in a great speech which included 2 2 ~5 30 and
9 7 -io 4 . Giesebrecht introduced an important modification of this view by
insisting that 9 7 is the beginning of an altogether independent poem.
According to him, 9 7 " 20 closed with ij 26 - 30 : jo 1 ' 8 is a misplaced fragment to
which the refrain was added after it had become attached to 9 7 ' 20 ; 5 25a is a
gloss. Di., Du., Hackmann, Che. (Introd.), Marti closely follow Giesebrecht,
except that Du., Che., Marii find the close of the poem in 5 s9 (not 5 30 ) and
Du., Che. do not delete lo 1 ' 4 ; Di. and Du. consider 5 25 the fragment of
one or more lost strophes (on Judah, Di.), and Hackmann treats io 4 as an
original part of the poem. The contents (see below), the marked change of
rhythm in 5 30 , the length of the strophe, all point to S 29 , not 5 30 , being the
real close of the poem. The arguments against io 1 ' 4 are strong (see below),
but not absolutely conclusive. In addition to the commentaries, see especi-
ally Giesebrecht, Beitrdge (1890), 3-24; Hackmann, 54 ff. ; Cheyne, Introd.
24 f., 46 f.
Two different views have been widely held with regard to the
purpose and general character of the poem. According to one,
the entire poem is prophetic, predicting a succession of
calamities that are to fall on Israel;* according to the other,
it is for the most part an historical survey of past calamities
(9 9 " 20 )j closing (s 26 ' 29 ) with the prediction of a yet more complete
calamity which is still to come.f
* Ges., Driver (Isaiah, 37 f., LOT], Du., Marti, Whitehouse, Gressmann
(P. I7i).
t Ew., Giesebrecht, Di., Kue., Che. (fntrod.), Kon. (369^, 368^), Sta.
(ZATW y 1895, p. 138 f.), Skinner, F. Wilke (Jesaja und Assur, p. 25).
IX. 7-X. 4, V. 26-29 181
It is generally agreed that the tenses in 9 7 - 8 and 5 s8 - 29 have a future force,
and also that the perfects in the words spoken by the Ephraimites in 9 refer
to the past. But Sta. treats vv. 7f - also as historic, and therefore points T^ (<S)
in v. 7a , reads VflJ *?bji in v. 7b , and points ijn.".l in v. 8 *. It is, however, the force
of the tenses in 9 10 " 20 that is most disputed. If the section is a survey of the
past, perfects and imperfect consecutive tenses are normal and require no
explanation, but perfect consecutives and simple imperfects must be explained ;
whereas, if the section is predictive, it is the perfects and imperfect consecutives
alone that require explanation. The consonantal text distinguishes the impf.
consec. from the impf. with simple waw in one case only (vn, v. 18 ) ; for the
rest we must be guided by the sense in determining whether the waw before
an impf. or a pf. is simple or consecutive.
The tenses used in 9 10 ' 20 are 5 perfects (iv 12 , urn 12 , mjn 17 , Dnju 18 , ijnr 19 )
in addition to 3? in the thrice repeated refrain, 9 impf. with waw (3n 10 ,
tam 11 , ma'i 13 , v.Ti 15 , n*ni 17 , iDnNm 17 , vn 18 , nun 19 , V:>n 19 ), 5 imperfects
(1020* 10 , nnv, DHT 16 , iSnrr 18 , i^K' 19 ), and i pf. with waw (njni 19 ).
If 910-20 be narrative, the most difficult imperfects to explain are those
in 10 and 18 . Of IDDD', Di. says that it expresses duration in the past ; but
mere continuance, in the sense of duration without progress, is never expressed
by the impf. (Dr. 31). Giesebrecht treats it (apparently) as a " picturesque "
impf. or, hazardously (cp. Dr. 83-85, 170-173), as a case of the impf.
consec. separated from its waw ; Sta. substitutes the pf. ^jp^p for the impf. of
J. On v. 16 , Di. says, "The Impff. . . . express the principle according to
which God always acts in such cases and so has also (v. 13 ) acted with them " ;
but this is surely a counsel of despair : the jr*?y and the suffixes both render
it improbable : had the writer wished to express what Di. suggests, he would
rather have written something as follows: 'ui not!" N 1 ? D'yen mm ^y mm.
Giesebrecht apparently would attribute the use of the impff. here to the fact
that they describe circumstances lasting up to the present.
jf gio-2o De prophetic, the difficulty of the perfects and imperfect consecutives
does not lie in any particular instance ; for it is a well-known prophetic usage
to employ either tense or both tenses in describing the future (Dr. 14, 81 f.) ;
it lies rather in the multiplication of the instances in a short passage ; and even
this multiplication of narrative tenses can be paralleled ; see 9 1 " 6 where we find
ten narrative tenses, and two only (nnvn, v. 4 ; n?yn, v. 6 ) that immediately
suggest the future ; cf., further, lo 28 ' 32 . But between 9 T ' 6 and 9 9 ' 20 Giesebrecht
draws a real distinction : in 9 1 " 6 future events are described which will all fall
at pretty much the same time, but g 10 ' 20 , brings before us a chain of events as
they follow one on another. If predictive, 9 10 - 20 is in some respects a unique
example of the sustained use of the prophetic past in describing an unfolding
future. But apart from 9 10 ' 20 , 9 1 " 6 (generally though not unanimously admitted
to be prophetic) would be a unique example of the sustained use of the
prophetic past ; it would scarcely be safe therefore to deny the prophetic
character of 9 10 - 20 on the ground that it is unique. Moreover, if 9 7 ' lla with
the introductory lines clearly pointing forward would naturally suggest the
future to a reader, the refrain would mark a stage after which the reader may
naturally expect another future event.
In a further distinction which Giesebrecht seeks to draw, he is even less
1 82 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
successful : he says that in 9 1 ' 6 "the ideal" standpoint is clearly indicated in
the first verse. Allowing that this is so (and it would scarcely hold of lo 28 ),
it is not to the point ; for the same is true of 9 7 " 20 . It is indeed precisely
because in the solemn opening of the poem the poet carries us forward into
the future, that it is difficult to believe that the greater part of it is a mere
survey of the past. The first verb of the poem may be pf. of past fact
or prophetic pf. : it makes but little difference whether the poet represents
the divine decision as already taken or immediately to be taken ; the essential
point is that the action of the self-fulfilling word of God, according to $| at
least, has not yet begun : the " word " has yet to fall (Vsii) into Israel, and then
disaster will happen and become apparent (9 7b - **). After such an opening
we naturally expect to see not a panorama of the past, but of the future (cp.
the perfects in I4 6 ' 9 after the opening in I4 4 *) ; and the first scene in the
future as it unfolds itself before the prophet's eyes is given in 9 10< u after he
has briefly indicated its cause in the self-confident temper of the people who
have not profited by calamities already past ( 8bt 9 ). It is surely artificial in
the extreme to make the words, "And Yahweh hath exalted his enemies over
him" (v. 10 ), explicative of "Bricks have fallen down" (in v. 9 : so Kon.).
The impf. consec. is impressive and effective if it is the equivalent of a proph.
pf. (Dr. 82) ; for in this case it represents the coming calamity " not merely
with the certainty of the prophetic pf. , but as flowing naturally out of, being
an immediate consequence of" Israel's self-confident speech ( 8f> ), just as the
future humiliation of man is prophetically conceived as the certain and
immediate sequence to the present custom of idolatry in 2 8 ~ 9 (nB>'i . . . nnw).
On this ground it is not advisable (with Du., Box) to turn the impf. consec.
(aa^l) into the impf. with simple waw (32'BH). In the parallel clause the
simple impf. alternates, as often (Dr. 14), with the prophetic past.
If lo 1 " 3 be an original part of the poem, which is doubtful, then, since the
tacit threat of v. 3 obviously and admittedly refers to the future, the refrain in
one instance (io 4 ) certainly comes after a strophe which has the future in
view.
7-11. Ephraim's pride to be humbled by the Philis-
tines and Syrians. The opening lines announce that
Yahweh has determined the doom of the Northern kingdom ;
this will now work itself out in such a way that the people
must recognise what is happening. The fifth line of the poem
(now lost) appears to have given the reason for this decisive
judgment; or to have suggested the difference between the
judgment yet to come, the significance of which men will be
compelled to see, and the past calamities which they have light-
heartedly minimised (v. 9 ). In vv. 10 - lla - b the first stage of the
coming judgment is then described; it will consist of devas-
tating attacks by external foes, the Syrians and the Philistines
being definitely named.
7. The word of God once sent forth (Ps lo; 20 I47 15 - 18 ),
IX. 7-1 i 183
whether its purpose be the destruction or the well-being of men,
cannot return to God till it has wrought His purpose (Is 55 lof ' ;
cp. ua'SPK tit?, Am i 3 etc.). Even the solemnly uttered word of
men, especially the blessing or the curse, was conceived as
acquiring after utterance an existence of its own independent of
the speaker: cp. Nu 22 6 n. This destructive word dispatched
by Yahweh will find its mark : it m\\/at/ into Israel. Israel and
Jacob are synonymous, and here mean specifically the Northern
kingdom ; for a third synonym is (8) all the people ; and this phrase
in turn is unmistakably explained in the parallel line as
Ephraim, the leading tribe, and the inhabitants of Samaria, the
capital, of the Northern kingdom. All the people shall recognise
(//)] when the destructive word of Yahweh has reached its goal
and begun to work, the people will learn by actual experience of
its effects how overwhelming the coming calamity is to be : for
to know or to recognise, cp. 5 19 , Hos 9 7 . For they said . . .] the
Hebrew text is mutilated at this point (see phil. n.); RV "that
say in pride," etc., rests on a (tacitly) emended text. Greatly
daring] lit. in greatness of heart', but "the heart " was the seat
of courage, cp. 2 S i; 10 , Ps 76 6 , Dn n 25 . A day of Yahweh is
coming that will abase pride (2 llff< ), and prove the insecurity of
all confidence which, instead of resting on Yahweh (y 9 ), rests on
self (cp. Am 6 13 ), or any other human power (30 1 ' 5 3I 1 " 8 ). 9.
These words, perhaps a popular proverb, reveal the self-reliant,
God-forgetful temper that makes the coming doom inevitable :
the people are confident that they can themselves much more
than make good the losses that they have suffered. Common
houses were made of bricks of sun-dried clay which easily fell to
pieces (Job 4 19 ) ; the houses of the wealthy of hewn stone (Am
5 11 ). Sycomores were common, and stood to the highly-prized
cedars as stone to silver (i K io 27 ). What are the losses of
which the Ephraimites make so light? Not, if the poem is
prophetic, those caused by the Assyrian invasion in 734-732,
but rather those due to Tiglath-pileser's exaction of tribute in
738, and (or perhaps even only*) those that resulted from the
anarchic period that followed the death of Jeroboam n., c. 746
B.C. The entire situation suggested in this v. closely resembles
that described by Hosea (7 9f -) : Hosea and Isaiah alike see the
gravity of what the people treat so lightly ; old age bringing with
*Di.
1 84 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
it the loss of the strength of youth has, as Hosea puts it, crept
on the nation unawares. The connection between Hosea and
Isaiah is even closer, amounting to the verbal dependence of
one on the other, if Hos 7 10 (intJ'pn fc6l D3'r6tf mrv *?$ U> &6i
JIN? 7D3) be original, and not, as some suppose, a gloss. His
adversaries . . . his enemies~\ the singular pronoun refers to
Israel, the Northern kingdom, cp. vv. 16 19 . The general terms
adversaries, enemies, are explained in v. 11 to be the Philistines
and Syria ; so the special follow and explain the general
terms in vv. 8 *- b - 19c - 20a . His adversaries is a conjectural, but
fairly certain, reading; J^ has suffered from the invasion of a
misleading gloss ; it reads the adversaries of Resin, king of Syria
(7 1 n.), which has been understood to mean the Assyrians ; but
this would be inconsistent with v. 11 Several Hebrew MSS read
princes of Resin, but this is either a transcriptional error (ni? for
*i) or a conjecture; see, further, phil. n. II. If prophetic, the
meaning of this v. taken together with the preceding is clear :
Israel is to become the prey of foes who will fall on it from
all sides, East and West being specified, and Syria and the
Philistines being named as typical of neighbouring peoples from
whom, as having been frequently hostile in the past, hostility
might be expected. In this case the prophecy was probably
delivered before Ephraim and Syria became allies, i.e. before
c. 736 B.C. If the verses are a survey of recent history, they
refer to events of which we have no other knowledge ; for the
Philistines' attack onjudah in the time of Ahaz (2 Ch 28 18 ) is no
evidence of an attack on Ephraim, which is the sole subject of
this strophe at least (v. 8 ), and Am i 6 is ambiguous. nc. d.
Cp. s.
7. "ai] (& Qdvarov (cp. Am 4 10 ) vocalising "93, which is adopted as
correct by Sta. (ZATW, 1905, p. 140) ; MT -Q? is right (so 5F and the
later text of (& 8 * r ). Vs n] pf. with waw conv. after a prophetic pf. : Dr.
113 (i). Du., Marti think v. 7b over-short, and Marti suggests reading
*?DJ *?23i. But even this would not balance the lines : apparently here, as in
9 15 and probably in 9 10 , the full unit of six accents is divided into 4 + 2 instead
of the prevailing 3 + 3. 8. I*?D ayn] more emphatic and rhythmically more
suitable than oy.T^a : cp. I4 29 - S1 , and see Driver, Samuel, p. 187 (on 2 S 2 9 ).
TDK 1 ? . . . niNja] (Hi had the same text, but it is now generally admitted
that the clause is corrupt. ION"? can only be a gerundial continuation of ijm,
they shall know (if) . . . saying, and this gives no satisfactory sense. The
clause is, to judge from the well marked structure of the poem, the
IX. 7-1 1, 12-16 185
remnant of six words : I suspect that three words, in part parallel to
33^ V"U3i, have dropped out before mKJ3, and that TDK? was added after this
loss. Emendations have mostly proceeded from the supposition that two
words have been lost before niKJ3 : Bick. supplies Mnnn TTK, Che. (SBOT^
OB-iy oe>pon, Marti im TTK, Cond. and RV tacitly DDK nrx. 10. 3ien] the
idea of inaccessibility as well as that of height, seems frequently to be ex-
pressed by the root 3Jr ; so the Piel may mean to render (inaccessibly) high,
and hence secure ; see Ps 2O 2 59 2 91" (|| eVs) and cp. the force of Kal, Dt 2* :
see also Is 2 11 . But this would obviously give no suitable sense here ; for
the clause would mean that the enemies would be placed beyond attack. It
is usual (see BDB) therefore to assume a unique nuance for 3ir in the pre-
sent passage, viz. to exalt (in effective hostility) ; but even so the sentence
is not altogether satisfactory. Versions earlier than U (elevavit) do not
recognise any such sense here ; C Tpm and & ^ m M, both meaning to make
'strong. It is not clear that (K's text had 3n: j>do-<reu>, which stands for
it here, represents ran in I3 18 , ru) in Jer 23 s8 , but never uv. And yet 3jr
and its derivatives were understood by the Greek translator of Isaiah :
for though he uses different words (dxvpfc, 26 and probably 30**, 710*,
33 5 , and ti^w07j<rer<u in 2 U * 17 ), all of them are true to the sense of inac-
cessibility or height. The reading 3 Jen thus rests under suspicion. "ix rot
v<?y p<n] The overlined letters obviously stood in <8r as well as in fl? j for ffi
renders rote tiraviffTafitvov* 4irl 6pos Sett!)? tir airr6v of which the last four
words are certainly =v^y px vi. Du. claims that <8r read in full px nn ny,
and that this was an incorrect division of a stage in f^, psn ?TO, due to the
intrusion of pxn which had been a gloss on rm (=nx, G-K. gie). It is not
certain that (Sr read (')ix ; but that pan should be rejected as a gloss is fairly
certain, and that we should read vnx (Bredenkamp, al.) not improbable ;
the presence of psn disturbs the reference of the pronoun in the next line and
makes its own line overlong and the whole difficult of interpretation. The
omission of pjn gives for the whole v. the same rhythm as in v. 7 , viz. 4 + 2.
1D3D'] and V1DD3D, I9 2 f, are now generally regarded as forms with substitution
of for b of isb, whence T#, a thorn : cp. Ar. CJwi, to pierce ; hence 1030, to
spur on. Rather less vividly K my, and in 19* nan : <& in I9 2 ^reyep-
pf. ; &H future ; MT impf. with waw conv. ; <5r rotfc
i. ns ^3] cp. I B n.
12-16. A day of overwhelming disaster. The first
judgment leads to no greater regard for Yahweh (v. 12 ), complete
depravity continues (v. 16c * d ). Consequently Yahweh will bring
about a single day of overwhelming disaster when high and low
will perish (v. 13 ). The flower of Israel's youth, its widows and
orphans, no longer enjoy Yahweh's care (v. 18 ). The vagueness of
the description points to the strophe being prophetic, not
historical. Even Di., who would interpret historically, doubts
whether the " day " is a day of battle (cp. v. 8 ), or of revolution, as
1 86 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
when Pekah with fifty companions slew Pel^ahiah (2 K i5 25 ).
In any case the strophe does not refer to any known event,
much less to any event known to have occurred between what is
described in the preceding and following strophes,
12. The people returned not] Hos 7 10 , Am 4 6 etc. Him that
smote theni] i.e. Yahweh : cp. Hos 6 1 , and ct. the entirely different
use of the phrase in i o 20 . I2b. Cp. 3I 1 . Head and tail, palm-
branch and reed] the high and the low, or the leaders and the
rank-and-file. Cp. iQ 15 , Dt 28 13 - 44 . Ges. cites from the Arabic,
"Some are the nose and the rest the tail." 14. An annotation,*
interpreting " the head " and " the tail " of v. 13 . Note the charac-
teristic Kin, used alike by Jewish and Arabic annotators, the
borrowed phraseology (cp. 3 2f -), and the fact that the interpretation
agrees neither with the context nor with ig 15 . 15. A variation
of 3 12c> d . This v., too, may be a gloss ; it neither makes a good
sequence to v. 13 , nor gives ground for the therefore of v. 16 . 16.
He will not rejoice over] the phrase (39 2 ) is perhaps too weak for
the context, see phil. n. Young men] Am 4 10 . Because he is
wholly profane] the pron. refers to the personified nation.
Impiety] cp. 32 6 n.
12. inson] Originally, perhaps, naon (so one MS) ; but iroon (with both
art. and suffix), called in question by Lag., is defended by No. (ZDMG,
1878, p. 402); the suf. is ace. : G-K. n6/. nno*] <& omits. 13. m.r] is
unnecessary, and apparently disturbs the rhythm. 15. DJ^D] 3 12 n. 16.
nofc"] Lag. ne>S' = nDQ', 31*: cp. Ex I2* ^ a . JIN] possibly an addition
after the intrusion of w. 14> (").
17-20. Civil War is the fresh element in this third picture
of coming jndgment : Israelite relentlessly pursues Israelite, tribe
is ranged against tribe. 17. More punishment must come, for
unrighteousness will still pervade the State like a destructive fire
which, kindling in inflammable briars of the steppes, spreads to
and destroys the forest. 18. This land, whose people are wholly
unrighteous (v. 17 ), will suffer from the overflow of Yahwetts anger
(mrp miy). So in io 6 the "profane nation" of Judah is "the
people of, i.e. who provoke, my overflowing anger " ('may Dy).
The meaning of the vb. in v. 18a , left untranslated above, is
altogether uncertain ; see phil. n. l8b. And the people became
like'] the point of comparison is ambiguously expressed : $fy may
* So Koppe, Ges., and with few exceptions (e.g. Del., Cond.) all writers
since.
IX. 12-20 l8/
mean food for fire, as in v. 4 , or food for men, or with the alteration
of a single letter, devourers of men, cp. Ezk 36 (see phil. n.) ; if
the last be correct, v. 18b forms a suitable introduction to the
description that follows of the cannibal-like hostility of the
Israelites towards one another. On the other hand, f^, however
interpreted, forms no suitable introduction to vv. 10 - 2 ; in MT,
RV, the line recurs to the figure of a fire, though that figure
appears to be complete in v. 17 ; and the people as a whole
are represented as consumed by fire before they fall on one
another. l8c is out of place in J^ : it should follow 19b : see
phil. n. ipa. b. The inappeasable hostility of the people is
compared to a hunger which is constantly and largely fed but
never satisfied. ipc. His neighbour's flesh~\ see phil. n. $% has
the flesh of his own arm. 20. As participants in the Civil War,
Ephraim and Manasseh are singled out for mention, partly
because these tribes were the two chief constituents of the
Northern kingdom, partly because, as sons of Joseph, they were
the most closely related. In prophecy this would be perfectly
natural and effective, and in a poetical retrospect of the past
scarcely impossible, even though the actual feuds of recent
years had not been limited to the two tribes that are named.
Winckler, however, thinks that the references to the past are
specific and precise; he argues that the characteristic of the
period between the death of Jeroboam n. and the reorganisation
of Israel by Assyria was strife between the people E. and W. of
Jordan, i.e. Ephraim and Manasseh; he sees in Shallum ben
fabesh who overthrew Zechariah (2 K i5 10 ) a citizen of Jabesh-
Gilead in Manasseh (KAT* 263). However that may be, in
v \M6-20a i sa i a h certainly is describing, whether historically or
(as is more probable) prophetically, a state of affairs similar to
what he actually witnessed in the Northern kingdom. Within
a single year Jeroboam n. died, and his successor Zechariah was
overthrown by Shallum, and Shallum in his turn by Menahem
b. Gadi (2 K I5 18f -). Together . . . against Judah~\ not al-
together easy to explain either historically or prophetically if
the words are a part of the original poem. It would be curious
in a historical reference to the Syro-Ephraimitish war not even
to mention Syria, the chief opponent of Judah. On the other
hand, if it is prophecy, the point of this strophe, which is that
the Northern kingdom will be punished by civil discord, is
1 88 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
blunted by being made to close with the announcement that the
civil discord will give place to union, even though that union be
utilised for an attack on Judah. Possibly Eichhorn was right,
even though his reasons were wrong, in treating these words as
a gloss. They may be the comment of a scribe who had in
mind the Syro-Ephraimitish war, and the original text may have
brought the strophe to an effective close on the note of civil
discord within the Northern kingdom. The distich in the
present text is rhythmically peculiar (4 + 3 : see above) ; at need
it could be read differently (3 + 3 -f 3) ; then Manasseh, Ephraim^
and Ephraim, Manasseh, instead of being a single line, makes
two parallel lines in the normal rhythm of the poem. If the
next strophe is intrusive (see below), this description of civil war
was immediately followed by the description of the Assyrian
invasion which is to subdue all these tribes now set against one
another. The sequence in this case, and the phraseology at the
close of this strophe, may be paralleled by the prediction in the
legend of Dibbarra of the wars which are to involve all creation :
And thus the warrior Dibbarra spoke : Sea-coast (against) sea-
coast, Subartu against Subartu, Assyrian against Assyrian, . . .
country against country, house against house, man against man.
Brother is to show no mercy towards brother ; they shall kill one
another. . . . After a time the Akkadian will come, overthrow
all and conquer all of them ; cited by M. Jastrow, Bab. Ass.
Rel. 532 : cp. KB vi. 67.
17. waum] <8r ffvyKa.Ta<t>dyeTat='b3Km. |^ is a &r. \ey., but cp. Assyr.
abdku (see Haupt in SBOT). -pNna, if akin to Tflnnn, should mean to twist
about ; cp. the similar nuances of isnnn in Gn 3 24 , Job 37 12 , Jg 7 18 . ]&]) n\xi]
modal ace. (cp. G-K. Ii8y), or ace. of the product (G-K. 117/0. mw of
physical uplifting is rare ; but see Ps 89. 18. mK3s] (5r om. : in f^ rhyth-
mically suspicious. pK Dnyj] Doubtful. Note (l) dfr ffvy^Kavrai ij yij 8\ij ;
(2) px is indef., but the || nyn defined ; (3) px is fern., onyj masc. ; yet
see G-K. 1450 ; (4) onyj is from a root otherwise unknown in Heb. or Aram.
c /
Arabic has (a) ,*A, to be late ; (6) /*xc, to be clogged in speech ; ,JLc> suffocating
heat i whence onp has been siipposed to mean either (i) to be dark, or (2) to
be burnt up ; but see W. R. Smith \nJPh., 1885, p. 61. We are reduced to
guessing either the meaning of onjtt or the word of which cnjn is a corruption.
(& avyK^Kavraiy 4E ronn (v.l. mim), & AjLI (=J>u, 24 20 ) ; U conturbata est.
Kroch., Kit., Che. propose nmu, which would be a feeble repetition ofthevb.
in v. 17c ; Marti nyni (reels); but whether this or nyj (5) is the right word to
introduce the next line is doubtful. PN n^3KD3] MT E>N, as in v. 4 ; but N
IX. 17-20, X. 1-4 I 89
is possible ; r'x is always written rn in the Siloam Inscr. Then reading
'i??k bs for nVaxDS, Du. obtains like devowers of men. 19. -uri] subj. DJ?n
in v. 18b , from which v. 18 * is now separated by the misplacement of v. 180 (see
above). niJ means to cut t particularly to cut in two, or like j\y>- t tocut off.
iyar] read yar ; note (Sr and the three preceding vbs. ijnt] read with Seeker,
al. tyn : (K A has /Spax^ovos TOU dSe\<f>ov a doublet in which the first word is
secondary ; E n'anp.
X. 1-4. The Doom of unjust Judges. This strophe
is curiously unlike those that precede : in each of those, judgment
is categorically announced, and the cause for it directly stated ;
here the coming of " a day of visitation " is assumed in a question
put to those whom it will overtake, and the ground of judgment
is implied in the description of those to whom the opening inter-
jection of calamity refers. The subject of the first three strophes
is an entire people or country, which is throughout referred to in
the third person : the subject of this strophe is a particular class
the judges that take bribes and wrong the poorer litigants ; and
these people are here addressed in the second person.
Largely on the ground of this change some scholars treat lo 1 * 41 *, or lo 1 ' 8
(Marti), as intrusive (see above, p. 180). Other reasons urged are that if 10*
be original, j 26 ' 80 would describe a catastrophe after the catastrophe, that the
opening in connects lo 1 " 4 with 5 s " 24 , that lo 1 ' 8 forms no advance in the ascending
series of punishments, that the care for the widow expressed in io 3 represents
rather a less severe attitude than that of 9 16 . A further argument urged by
some is that this strophe refers to Judah, and is therefore out of place in a
poem directed against Israel. Apart from the last (on which see below), some
of these arguments taken singly and still more when taken together are weighty.
On the other hand, it may be urged, though perhaps with scarcely equivalent
force, that it would be curious for an intrusive section to be of the exact
length of the other strophes. Even if intrusive, the section is probably
Isaianic, and possibly it once formed part of the collection of " Ah's" in 5 s ' 24 :
it is slightly longer than S 22 " 24 , somewhat shorter than 5 11 " 17 ; but the question
and the address in io 8 differentiates this section no less from the "Ah's" of
5 s " 24 than from the other strophes of the poem. See in addition to the
Commentaries, Giesebrecht, io ff. ; Hackmann, 54.
It has been supposed by many * that this strophe refers to
Judah. That it could refer to Judah, if it stood by itself, is
obvious ; but that it must refer to Judah, because it could not
refer to the Northern kingdom, holds only, if even then, provided
the reading " the poor of my people " in v. 2 be retained. Other
arguments prove no more than that the section, if it stood by
itself, might refer to Judah : thus it is true that the interjection
*Ew., Che., Di.
190 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
MH is common to the several sections of 5 8 ' 24 and to this ; but
while it is not certain that the whole of 5 8 ' 24 refers to Judah, it is
certain that ""in also introduces Isaiah's denunciations of Ephraim
in 28 1 ' 4 . Charges against the rulers of greed and unrighteousness
do indeed " run like a red thread through Isaiah's speeches
against Judah " (3 uf - 5 7f - 23 i 17 - 26 ) ; but the same disorder pre-
vailed in the Northern kingdom (cp. e.g. Am 5 12 ). Finally, Di.
urges that 9 20 forms the transition to Judah ; but the allusion
to Judah in 9 20 is perhaps secondary (see above), and in any
case, though 9 20 may mention, it forms no transition to, Judah ;
it contains no indication that the poet having spoken of Ephraim
hitherto, is now going to limit himself to Judah. On the other
hand, if lo 1 ' 4 refers to Judah, it is not both the immediate sequel
to 9 20 and the immediate prelude to 5 26 ' 29 ; it is either intrusive,
or the transition has been lost. For, on the supposition that
lo 1 " 4 refers to Judah, and that with 9 7 - 20 and s 26 ' 29 it forms a
complete poem, we should have this highly improbable result :
in three strophes condemnation of the entire people of the
Northern kingdom, in one strophe condemnation of a very
limited class in the Southern kingdom, in a final strophe the same
complete judgment for the two kingdoms, whose cup of iniquity
(as described) is so unequally filled.
We must conclude, then, that this strophe, if it formed the
fourth of a poem complete in five strophes, referred like the rest
to Ephraim ; but that if it is not an original part of the poem, it
may have referred to either Judah or Ephraim (or both) if " my
people" in io 2 be rejected, but in all probability to Judah only
if " my people " be retained.
I, 2. One class of persons, not two (RV), are here denounced,
and their evil activity is described by two parallel and synonymous
expressions (see phil. n.). The persons referred to are not the
makers of laws (Di.) for new laws, whether good or bad, were
not an annual production as in modern states but the admin-
istrators of the laws, the judges or arbitrators; these, being
bribed, assigned property in dispute, or determined penalties
without regard to the rights of the question, but merely according
to the price paid for their decision, so that the poor lost their
cases, or the substance of widows and orphans was wasted in
trying to pay a high enough price for what was theirs by right.
Thus the decrees, or decisions , of these judges are mischievous, or
X. 1-3 I9i
hurtful to, and entail suffering on, the weaker parties. The force
of fiN, hurt, or mischief, may be illustrated by Pr i2 21 22 8 , Jer
4 16 , cp. also Nu 23 21 n. ; and of the synonymous tay, which is not
peruerseness (RV), by 59*, Ps y 17 , and especially 942. When the
judges are said to inscribe and write the decrees, it is not, of
course, meant that they necessarily did the actual writing, but
that they were the authors of the decisions and had them written
down : this use of the vb. to write, not uncommon in other
languages, occurs clearly in Jer 36 28 (cp. v, 82 ), Est 8 8 * 10 , and
doubtless often elsewhere, e.g. Dt 24 1 iy 18 ; but cp. especially
Job i3 26 "Thou writest (or registerest) (a bitter decision) against
me, and causest me to inherit the iniquities of my youth," where
the Kal (nron) seems to be used with the same technical, legal
sense as the Piel DUrOD here.
A very large number of the written records of decisions of the Assyrian
and Babylonian law-courts have been preserved ; these deal with a great
variety of disputes touching inheritance, deposits, partnerships, lands, houses,
and other property (see Johns, Bab. and Ass. Laws, Contracts, and Letters,
ch. vi.); the procedure in some cases is described, e.g. "two parties dispute
as to the possession of a sum which is actually in the hands of a banker. The
banker accordingly undertakes to produce the sum and its interest in court,
and to pay it over to the successful party in the suit. The decision was
written down and the notary of the court gave a copy to the plaintiff, if not
also to the defendant, and kept one copy for the archives" (ib. p. 109).
Similar Jewish documents of the 5th cent. B.C. have been found; for some
of the Assouan papyri are agreements with regard to property drawn up after
an appeal to the tribunal. In Jer 32 6 * 1 * we have a precise account of the
writing of a deed of sale.
2. See under I. The poor} Pf( + of my people. But the
addition has probably resulted from dittography : it overloads
the line, has nothing corresponding to it in the parallel line, and
it suddenly introduces the first person, which appears nowhere
else in the poem. If my people be original, or an intentional
addition to the text, the pronoun refers either (i), least unnatur-
ally, to the prophet: cp. 22* and perhaps 3 12 32 18 - 18 ; or (2) to
Yahweh, as in 3 16 lo 24 and perhaps 3 12 (cp. 3 4 - 16 ). If (i) be
right, the people must be Judah ; if (2) either Judah, or Israel,
or both, though perhaps more probably Judah. 3. What will
ye do (cp. Hos 9 6 ), ye judges, who have provoked Yahweh by
your unrighteous abuse of your office (cp. i 17 5 7 ), when His day
comes? The day of visitation] i.e. of punishment; cp. Hos 9 7
192 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the days of visitation, the sing, and pi. interchanging as in the
phrases " that day," or " those days," applied to the great
future day when Yahweh will appear. The storm~\ tempestuous
weather is one of the accompaniments of a theophany, or the
means whereby Yahweh executes judgment ; see 2 llff - 3o 30 , Nah i 8 .
Ps 5o 8 , Zee 9 14 , Am i 14 , Job g 17 38* 4o 6 , i K 19". So here
the day of visitation of Yahweh is thought of as a desolating
storm already brewing in the distance, noisy with thunder and
hail : men would fain flee from it (cp. Ex 9 18ff< ) to some place of
refuge for themselves and their glory, i.e. valuable possessions
(6 1 6 , Gn 3 1 1 , Ps 49 18 ) ; but Yahweh, the true refuge (e.g. 25*,
Ps 46 2 ), is Himself the cause of this storm, and consequently for
the unjust judges here addressed there will be no refuge to flee to.
That cometh from afar]cp. 5 26 3o 27 "the conception of distance
had a peculiar fascination for the early prophets. For the
common Numina were gods ' near at hand ' : Yahweh alone sees
and works in the distance ; cp. especially Jer 23 23f % a passage
which clearly shows how the conception of a distant god formed
the bridge to the idea of the all-present God" (Du.); cp. also
Ps I38 6 . 4. The text of the first line must be wrong (see phil. n.) :
the translation above presupposes that % has suffered through the
loss of a single letter ; possibly the corruption may be deeper ;
if not, there appears to be a rapid transition from the picture of
the storm to that of a battle, in which many fall prisoners to
Yahweh and the rest are slain. Lagarde, by a re-division of the
words in J^, obtained the meaning Beltis is crouching, Osiris is
broken in pieces (cp. 46 1 , Jer so 2 ), and therefore cannot be your
refuge. But there is no independent proof that the Hebrews
worshipped Beltis ( = Isis) at all, nor evidence of any prevalence
of the worship of Osiris ; yet it must be obvious that Isaiah
could only have closed his strophe thus, if these two deities were
among those most widely worshipped at that time by Israelites
disloyal to Yahweh. At a later date, Plutarch (Isis et Osiris, 15,
1 6) refers to the worship of Osiris at Byblus ; and some, though
comparatively few, images of Osiris have been found at Gezer ;
see Exp., May 1909, p. 440.
I. D'nnao . . . O'ppnn] D'amo without the art. ((5r as well as |^) is probably
not parallel to D'ppnn with the art. ; nor is 13ns "?Dy a rel. sent., but 13H3 is
the finite vb. carrying on what was begun with the part. D'ppnn (Dr. 117 ;
G-K. 1 16.*), and it is strengthened by D'aroD, which, being in the ace., is
X. i-4 193
therefore undefined, as, e.g., in Ps 56 3 92" (G-K. iify). The Piel (inten-
sive) of ana occurs here only. 'ppn] G-K. 93^. C'oirv mo] nx with an
undefined noun rare: G-K. 1170"; BDB 8$a. I?T] G-K. ny. 3.
nKirSi] S resumes DI*^ of v.**, though even by itself it means at the time of
(7 1B n.). niff] storm (as Pr i 27 , Ezk 38", Zeph i 10 ), is from \/KIP, which is
parallel to N/JTNP : derivatives from both roots seem to point to the meanings
of noisiness and wasteness ; prob. that of noisiness (whence the meaning
storm) is the original ; see especially \wo (from nrr) used of various noises,
.1KB' (Is I7 12f *) niKOT (Is 22 2 ). 'D Sy] prob. pregnant to whom will ye flee
and rely on them? 4. TDK nnn jro vta] impossible. Most attempted
translations assume for 'nSa a meaning, or usage, which cannot be justified.
The actual Hebrew usage of 'nVa is as follows : I. it may be = nVa + ist pers.
sing, suffix, and mean except me (Hos 13*, I S 2 2 f) ; but this does not justify
without me RVmarg., and some earlier interpreters (cp. Ges.); or 2. it
may be = rta + a binding vowel. In this case it is used (a) as an adv. meaning
not before adjectives (e.g. 14', I S 2O 26 ) obviously inapplicable here : or (b)
as an adv., but always after a negative expressed or implied, meaning except
(e.g. Gn 2 1 28 , Nu 32 12 ) : cp. usage I ; or (c) as a conj., but always after a
negative expressed or implied : cp. Gn 43*, Nu 1 1', and with the addition of
DK, Am 3 8< 4 . BDB bring the present passage under the last usage, explaining
" (And where will ye leave your glory ?) save that they bow down under the
prisoners, and fall under the slain, i.e. (iron.) their only refuge will be among
the corpses of a battle-field." Grammatically this might do, if the verbs in
the exceptive sentence were in the same person as that in the principal ; as a
matter of fact the 2nd pi. (latyn) of the principal sentence is followed in the
exceptive sentence by one vb. in the 3rd sing. pf. (jna) and one in the 3rd pi.
impf. (iVfi'). This really separates the present passage sharply from Nu 1 1 8 ,
its nearest parallel. RV They shall only bow down, etc., might find some
support in Phoenician usage, for the Tabnith Inscription (Cooke, NSI t p. 26)
contains this sentence : T pK3 av ^K n^a . . . pn jVm "K, / have no gold,
I am only lying in this coffin ; but the use of the binding vowel with such a
meaning would be strange, and Hebrew has its own particle to express only,
viz. IK. From this surely it will be seen that it is only by assuming an
unparalleled usage of 'n^a that it is possible to obtain even such highly im-
probable translations as unless one stoops under a prisoner they must fall under
the slain (Di.). The corruption of the text is probably as old as (Br : the
whole v. runs in B roO ^ tuireafiv eis airayary/iv, with the addition in KA of /cal
inroKdrta dv-gprj^vuv TreaovvTai ; TOU /XT; points to 7>Va ; with tfitrevfiv cp. the
simple veaeiv as a rendering of jna in 46 1 65 12 , and with dirayujy^ the use of
the vb. airdyetv in Gn 39^ 40* 42 ; the noun avaywyj occurs only in I Es
S 24 and Sir 38 19 . <5r may have read vtaS ; but whether it did so or not the
restoration of 'nSa^ and the substitution of iSfln for iVs' in the next line gives
an excellent Hebrew construction i^sn . . . y 1 ^ viSa 1 ? : cp. in* . . . JivnV,
v. $ n. ; or as an alternative, epigraphically somewhat likelier, we might read
'n^ao, assuming that D was lost through haplography. But is to crouth under
the prisoners (TDK coll.) a probable idiom? Lagarde (Academy, 15 Dec.
i. 105) proposed TDK nn njna 'nVa, Bcltis is crouching,
VOL. I* 13
194 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Osiris is shattered; cp. 46*, Jer 5<D 2 ; nyo being a part., the subj. vta would
precede it according to rule (Dr. 135 (4)) ; for ION (of which TDK would be
merely a later scriptio plena), Osiris, cp., in Phoenician, e.g. TDenoN, nDNiay
(CISi. 122 : Malta, 2nd cent. B.C.), and the same form in other Phoenician
names.
X. 5-34. Three Poems, together with annotations and addenda.
The poems, or poetical fragments, are (a) vv. 5 - 9 ' 13 ' 14 < 15 > ;
prevailing rhythm 3 : 3 (: 3) : to this vv. 16 ' 18 may also belong ;
(Z>) vv. 27c ' 32 j prevailing rhythm 2 : 2 ; (c) vv. 83f - ; rhythm probably
3 : 3. Prose notes and addenda are vv. 12 - 19 - 20 ' 23 ' 24 * 26 : other
addenda are the distich in v. 27 and vv. 10 ' n (prose ?).
Isaiah's authorship of (a), at least of vv. 6 ' 7 * 13f -, is probable :
there are no conclusive positive arguments either for or against
his authorship of (b) and (c). The dates of the poems cannot be
very closely determined : the prose addenda are late.
A close and detailed interpretation of the passage is the best proof that
it lacks the unity of a speech or prophecy written on or for a single particular
occasion. Two views that its heterogeneous elements have been welded into
a literary unity may be referred to. (i) Di., who extends this literary unity
down to II 1 *, remarks, "The passage is, to be sure, a literary, but not
a rhetorical unity. . . . The double description of the punishment of Assyria
with the result therefrom ensuing for Israel (lo 16 ' 23 - 24 ' 34 ) does not leave the
impression of having been spoken at the same time ; n 11 - 16 though cleverly
united by v. 10 with w. 1 " 9 is yet too dissimilar to vv. 1 " 9 to have been announced
in one and the same discourse with it, and II 1 ' 9 again can scarcely have been
originally attached to lo 24 " 84 , since there is no indication there of the setting
aside, or previous abdication, of the reigning king. The entire passage seems
rather to be an artistic collection of the leading thoughts of Isaiah's speeches
between 732 and 716 (at latest 711), possibly made for the purpose of serving
as a conclusion to chs. 7ff. (or iff.)." This theory breaks down if the view
taken below of vv. 80 ' 27 (see also on v. lof- ) be correct ; on the other hand, it
would still be possible to hold (2) Marti's theory, according to which lo 5 " 34 is
a skilful arrangement of fragments made by an editor so as to produce a small
picture depicting the pangs of the Last Days, and the assembling of the
world power of Antichrist before the Gates of Jerusalem, and of its destruction
there.
X. 5-17. The fatal arrogance of Assyria.
After the removal of IDN(') '3 (vv. 8 ' 13 ), which is doubtless an editorial
addition, the prevailing rhythm in vv. c * 9< 13f< is the line of three accents
arranged in distichs or tristichs. Lines of doubtful or different length are
VVi 5b. 6c. d. 8. 14b e I n v> 5a ,, n may stan( J ty fe&i ( cp . 58-24. see p gg) . ^
v. 13d orrnTny is two accents. The r hythm 3 : 3 also appears in v. M , and by
X. 5-34 195
emendation, partly after ffi, in w. 17 - 18 * ; but in v. lf it is 6 : 6. Vv. 10 " 12 are
mostly or entirely prose, and are omitted from the translation.
5 Ah!
Assyria the rod of my anger,
And . . . the staff of my indignation.
6 Against a profane nation I send him,
And against the people with whom I am wroth I com-
mand him,
To take spoil and acquire plunder,
And to make them trampled upon like mire of the
streets.
7 But he thinketh not so,
Nor thus doth his heart devise;
But to destroy is in his heart,
And to cut off nations not a few :
8 "Are not my rulers one and all kings?
9 Is not Calno like Carchemish ?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
/
18 By the strength of my hand have I wrought,
And by my wisdom, for I have discernment.
I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
And I have plundered their stores (?),
And I have brought down 'in the dust' the enthroned.
14 And my hand hath reached as to a nest
To the wealth of the peoples ;
And as one gathereth eggs
I have gathered the whole earth :
And there was none that fluttered wing,
Or opened mouth or chirped."
16 Should the axe vaunt itself against him that heweth there-
with?
Or the saw magnify itself against him that draweth it to
and fro?
(Nay, that would be) like the rod swinging him that
raiseth it,
Like the staff raising (him that is) not wood.
196 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
16 Therefore Yahweh of Hosts will send leanness into his fat,
And under his glory hath he kindled a kindling as a
kindling of fire;
18c And it shall be ... 18b consuming soul and body.
17 And the light of Israel shall become a fire,
And his Holy One a 'burning' flame;
And it shall devour his thorns and briars A,
18 And the glory of his forest and his garden land.
Assyria, who was being used by Yahweh to punish His
disobedient people (cp. 9 7 -io 4 + 5 26 ' 29 ), had arrogantly attributed
all its success to its own power, not discerning that it was a mere
instrument in Yahweh's hands : therefore it must be destroyed
(cp. vv. 16f -).
The allusions in v. 9 show that this poem was written after
717 B.C. Further than that nothing conclusive can be said.
Some think that it was written in 711 B.C. ; others in 701. Che.
(Introd. pp. 50 f.) gives a survey of theories and arguments. If
v. 9 forms no part of the poem (Marti, Comm. p. 104 f.), the date
becomes so much the more undefined ; and Konig (Einleitung*
p. 315), though he retains v. 9 , attempts to assign io 6 -u 10 to the
years 724-722 B.C.
5 f. Assyria is the rod (Pr 23 18f> ) with which Yahweh whips
His rebellious children (i 2 ) for their good; in order to satisfy
His righteous anger with His people, He suffers Assyria to plunder
Judah and trample it down. The staff of my indignation} the
two parts of the phrase (cp. the parallel phrase) are interrupted
in 5^ by the words it is in their hand\ these are probably the
note of a reader who had remarked that in v. 24 Assyria wields
the rod. RV by straining the Hebrew obtains the bizarre figure
of a staff holding indignation in its hand. 6. A profane nation]
cp. 9 16 . / send hint] the tense may be frequentative, am 1
wont to send him. Yahweh's will is that His people shall be
plundered (cp. 8 4 of Ephraim) and downtrodden (cp. 28 18 5 5
7 25 ) ; but 7. Assyria thinks otherwise ; it is in his heart (63 4 , i S
i4 7 , 2 K io 80 ), i.e. he intends, (a) to destroy and not only to
plunder and trample down ; (b) to exterminate many nations
irrespective of their having provoked Yahweh's anger. Such is
the thought suggested by the present connection ; it may be
summed up in this Assyria is guided not by the will of Yahweh,
x. 5-17 197
but by its own cruel lust ; consequently it exceeds its commission.
Assyria's other thoughts are also expressed in vv. 8flr - lsff -, but there
the emphasis falls rather on the pride and self-confidence of the
nation or its king. 9. All cities are alike before it, is the boast
of Assyria. The six capitals of states here mentioned represent
the ominous extension of Assyria's conquest towards Jerusalem :
Carchemesh, the most remote, begins the list ; each following
name is nearer Jerusalem than that which precedes, and the list
ends with Samaria nearest both geographically and by the tie of
kinship of its inhabitants. The order is clearly geographical;
it is not chronological. Carchemish^ mod. Jerabis on the
Euphrates, is about 360 miles in a direct line from Jerusalem,
and further by the military and trade route. Calno is in all
probability the Kullani of the Assyrian inscriptions (see phil. n.),
which was in Northern Syria: the name perhaps survives in
Kullanhou, about 6 miles from Tell Arfad (Arpad); see KAT*
55, 1 86, and S. R. Driver's note on Am 6 2 , where other less
probable views are also mentioned. Kullani lay about 50 miles
S.W. of Carchemish, Arpad lies 13 miles N.W. of Aleppo,
Hamath on the Orontes is about 100 miles S. of Arpad and
rather more than that distance N. of Damascus, Damascus being
again about 100 miles N.E. of Samaria. Some of these places
were frequently made tributary and even captured by Assyria ;
but it is difficult to believe that the mention of Damascus and
Samaria refer to anything but the capture of the former in 734
by Tiglath-pileser, and of the latter in 722 by Sargon. Conse-
quently we have here the conquests of Assyria (cp. v. 6 ; ct. v. 12 ),
not of a single Assyrian king. The references are probably to
the captures of Carchemish in 717 B.C., Kullani in 738, the event
of that year in the Eponym list, Arpad in 740, IJamath in 720,
Damascus in 734, Samaria in 722.
10 f. Since the great cities mentioned in v. 9 have fallen,
Jerusalem need not expect to stand; cp. 36 18f> 37 11 ' 13 , also
Am 6 2 . The argument is sufficiently suggested by the order in.
which the towns are mentioned in v. 9 , and not improbably the
original poem adopted the rhetorically effective device of leaving
the ominous conclusion to be drawn (cp. 5 7 n.) : for w. lof> , which
indicate the conclusion explicitly, may be an addition : v. 10 seems
to be prose, and though v. 11 may be a distich, yet the lines
would be longer than those which prevail in the poem. 10. Jfy
198 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idol(s) (2* n.)
and their graven images than (or from) Jerusalem and Samaria, is
mutilated (see phil. n.), but the general' sense is clear. n. Shall
I not, as I have done to Samaria and its idols, so do to Jerusalem
and its images ?] In another context these might well be words of
Yahweh. In the mouth of Assyria they are blasphemy against
Yahweh, for they imply that He is but one of the not-gods. V. 10
appears to contrast the cities which are said to have fallen (v. 9 )
with Jerusalem and Samaria as still standing, but in v. 9 Samaria
is one of those that had fallen ; v. 11 reverts to the standpoint of
v. 9 and expresses the conclusion, which v. 9 suggests, that after
Samaria comes the turn of Jerusalem.
12. Yahweh, having punished Jerusalem by means of Assyria
(v. 5 ), will round off His work in Mt. Sion by punishing the king
of Assyria for his arrogance : in w. 13f - this arrogance appears to
consist in attributing success to his own power. And it shall
come to pass when the Lord finishes off all his work in Mt. Sion\
for the expressive vb. JTC3, cp. Zee 4 9 , " the hands of Zerubbabel
have laid the foundations of this house ; his hands shall also give
it the finishing touch." The punishment of Assyria in Jerusalem
will be the finishing touch in the work that Yahweh has to do
there. The v. is prose : of its origin two views may be taken :
(i) it is a prose note added by Isaiah or an early editor at the
time when the present chapter was pieced together (cp. Cond.
p. 95) ; or (2) it is the note of a late editor or scribe. If (i) be
correct, the v. may be the literary germ of the eschatological idea
subsequently elaborated, that a great judgment on the nations
that had attacked Israel would take place in or about Jerusalem :
see Ezk chs. 38 f., Jl 4 (s) 12 ' 17 , Zee I2 1 ' 9 , Dn n 45 . If (2) be
correct, it is a summary statement of this idea, or a deduction
from it, applied to the specific case of Assyria. Gressmann
(pp. 177-179) cites as rare references to this idea in pre-exilic
prophecy, Is 8 9f - i7 4ff - 12ff -, Mic 4; but in the case of each of
these passages either the proposed date or interpretation is
questionable : see above on 8 9ff> . He will punish~\ so (5r ; J^
I will punish. Greatness of heart] i.e. audacity, 9 8 n. ; the fruit
of audacity is perhaps audacious speech (cp. BDB 826^). King
of Assyria] in the poem, Assyria is the subject : the singular
referring to Assyria being taken individually instead of collect-
ively, suggested the king to the annotator. The height of his
X. u-19 199
eyes] i.e. his pride: the phrase occurs in Pr 2i 4 , the idea in
Is 2 11 .
13 f. Assyria attributes its conquests, so easily and completely
obtained (v. 14 ), to its own power and wisdom (v. 18 ). Their stores
I plundered] the text is anything but certain, for why should the
conqueror plunder only things laid up in store? In Dt 32 s8 the
word rendered stores seems to mean "the destined future"
(Driver, ad loc?) : elsewhere it is used of persons ready or pre-
pared to do something (Job is 24 , Est 3 14 8 13 , Job 3 8 ). In the
dust] for the conjecture, see phil. n. Jif like a mighty one
(Job 34 20 La i 15 ), or, by a more questionable translation (Di.),
like a bull (cp. Ps 22 18 5o 13 ); r cities. The enthroned] for 3B>\
to sit (enthroned), see Ps 2 4 29, and perhaps Am i 5 * 8 . If the
wider sense inhabitants is meant, cp. " Bring down peoples,"
Ps 56 8 W. 14. In vivid figures the speaker enforces v. 13 ; he
has robbed, captured, and silenced the whole earth.
15. In attributing all its success to its own power (v. 18f *),
Assyria had vaunted itself against Yahweh (cp. Jg 7*), or, being in
the terms of v. 6 a rod and stick in the hand of Yahweh, had
vaunted itself of guiding the hand that used it. Yet this was a
vain boast: as a matter of fact, and as everyday life proves,
implements such as the axe or the saw have no power of them-
selves, everything depends on the purpose and power of the man
who uses them. So the boast of Assyria is vain : history is the
revelation of Yahweh's purpose, not of Assyria's might. Such
seems to be the thought, but it is awkwardly expressed, for
which reason Du. considers it to be a late addition, and Cond.
places it after v. 7 .
16-19. The punishment of Assyria. Something like
the substance of these verses is certainly required at this point
to carry out the threat suggested by the previous w. ; but a
number of scholars have agreed with Du. that this section
cannot in its present form be the work of Isaiah ; the conclusion
is correct, but it might be more widely stated, viz. that in their
present form these verses do not represent the work of any
writer, but that they have suffered from some transposition of
lines and other corruption. For it seems incredible that even a
bungling imitator of Isaiah would have made quite such a
muddle of borrowed material as is found in the present text.
Du. holds that v. 16a - b is borrowed from i; 4 , 16c>d suggested by 9 4 ,
2OO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
ira ty 3I ^ iTb ( fire an( j fl ame ) by 3o 30 , that 17c - d = 9" + (in one
day) 9 13 , and that v. 18f - (wood and garden land) comes from 32 15 ,
and "the child" in v. 19 from n 6 . If all this is really borrowed
material, the passage is doubtless the work of a late supple-
menter. In that case the conclusion of the poem in vv. 6 - 9 - 13 * 16
has been lost: it is not to be sought with Che. in i4 24 * 27 .
Even if the verses belong to the same poem, they may not
be the immediate continuation of v. 15 ( 14 >; the suffixes in v. 16
suggest a more recent direct mention of Assyria. The
coming destruction is expressed by means of two figures the
one of fatal disease attacking a healthy body, the other of a
destructive fire, consuming everything before it save for a few
trees that escape. At present the clauses referring to illness,
V> i8b. o^ s tand in the middle of the description of the forest fire :
it is reasonable to suppose they are misplaced.
l6. Assyria, like Israel in i 5 , is compared to a human body ;
at present it is in lusty health, fat and flourishing. But into this
body Yahweh dispatches leanness that it may waste the man
away. The figure is paralleled by 17*, the phraseology by
Ps io6 15 (if the text there be correct). But in spite of this the idea
is independently expressed, and with freshness and vigour which
by no means suggest a mere imitator. His fat] D^O^D are the
fat parts of the body, cp. 17* (sing.), and, figuratively, Dn n 24 ;
less probably his fat ones (RV), i.e. the warriors, cp. Ps 78 31 .
Fat to the Hebrews was a sign of health and strength ; cp.
Jg 3 29 - Like the kindling of fire] this clause, if the kindling is an
actual fire, as is generally assumed, is a mere multiplication of
sound and words which may be attributed to the incompetent
imitator (Du.), or (? cp. <&) to textual accretion (Kit., Mar.). But
the kindling need not be a literal fire ; it may refer to fever : cp.
"like a burning fire shut up within my bones" (Jer 2o 9 ). Then
Assyria is conceived as a man not only fat and strong, but
gloriously apparelled ; under the outward glory, i.e. the splendid
raiment (cp. Ex 28 2 - 40 , Ps 45 14 (?), Mt 6 29 ), the body burns with
fever which consumes both soul and body (v. 18c ) ; cp. " consumption
and fever which consume the eyes and make the soul pine away "
(Lv 26 16 ). V. 16 indicates that Assyria will rapidly decay; the
figure of fire (v. 17 ) suggests even more sudden destruction,
particuarly if in that day be original. Other explanations of glory
are (i) that it refers to the imposing military might of Assyria
X. 16-19, 5~9 2OI
regarded as a mass of inflammable material; so Di., and very
similarly Du., who compares 9* ; (2) that, as in 5 18 , it means the
nobility, the nobles of Assyria (Ges.), who are to be burnt up with
the fire of war. In no case are both the significance of "JIM and
the figure the same as in 1 7*. 17. A fresh figure : Yahweh the
light of Israel (vp. Ps 27 1 ), illuminating the way along which His
people should walk (2 6 ), is also a destructive fire, destroying
their enemies (Dt 9 8 ) ; the Assyrians (cp. 3o 27 * 83 ), who if the v.
occupies its original position must be referred to here, are by
the requirements of the figure, the thorns and thistles, in which a
fire kindles, forest and garden-land, or orchard, too, to which
such a fire may spread. In a single day] <3r in that day. The
clause is out of place between the two sets of vegetation which
the flame consumes. With its omission 17a - 18a becomes, like
the preceding, a 3 : 3 distich. Consuming soul and flesh~\ the
clause, being inapplicable to trees ( 18a ), is out of place ; see above.
And it shall be . . .] the words that follow are doubtful (phil. n.) ;
neither as when a standard-bearer fainteth, nor as when a sick man
pineth away, would be in place here; this clause, too, may be
misplaced as well as corrupt. Ip. The destruction is not quite
complete ; trees so few that they can easily be counted, or that
a child can make a list of them, survive. Possibly the v. comes
from a description of Yahweh's consuming fire destroying Israel
(Dt 4 24 ), but sparing an exiguous remnant (i7 6 ). The rhythm
is not that of vv. 17 - 18a .
5. ova Kin] a gloss (Hitz., al. : see Che. SBOT) ; note (a) the 3rd//. suffix
in reference to TUfK contrasts with the 3rd sing, in the poem ; (6) the words
divide 'oyi ntso, the synonymous parallel to 'BK B3t7 (v. 5 *) ; (c ) their presence
creates bad sense and poor parallelism. Probably some word either before
(cp. Che. SBOT, p. 195) or after 'Dyi neo has dropped out; in in the first
line is outside the rhythm of the distich : see note introductory to 5 s ' 24 (p. 89).
For Kin TOD some MSS have ITOD. 6. 13 ia^i \hv SWVjcp. Ezk 29 38 12f> .
This and the next line read naturally as a 4 : 4 distich. Are the lines an
original part of the poem ? If they stand, v. 7o< d seems to express the excess
of Assyria's action over Yahweh's commission ; yet is there much difference
between trampling a people to mire and destroying it? TDK' '3] an error,
through dittography, for TDK '3 (cp. v. 1 *)? 9. 13*?3] MT points \^3, in Am
6 2 , where the association with Hamath makes it fairly certain that the same
place is intended, n^? : probably the name was "^ ; cp. (K 'Ka.Xavvij, Assyr.
Ep. list Kul-la-ni-i. But <8r wrongly identifies this "KaXavvi) with the
Xa\avvi} of Gn io 10 and adds the note, inferred from Gn IO 10 II 2 ' 4 , o5 6ir6pyos
; the tower of Babel seems to have been a favourite thought with
202 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(&, cp. 9 10 . (Si further substitutes Arabia for Arpad and Hamath, and in
other respects renders vv. 8 " 13 very freely. IO. It is very doubtful whether
this v. ought to be made a little more tolerable in its context by reading flktm
for ^n and omitting jnosyni (Che. in SBOT, following suggestions of Gratz,
Hackm., Giesebrecht) : Marti rightly argues that (ffir's <JXoAi5are (=iV'^'n) is
nearer ^xn than .Y?xn : certainly (Hr's Tatfras, in view of its position and the
paraphrase in (&, is no evidence that rbttn stood after m^DD 1 ?. nrr^DDi
D^BTVD] commonly explained to be a circumstantial clause and an ellipsis for
cberrv '^DSD ian O.T^DSI, Kon. 3O&-; G-K. 133*? : but in the alleged parallels
the text (Mic 7 4 , Pr i8 19 ), or the interpretation (Koh 4" 9 17 , Is 4I 24 > Ps 62 10 )
is doubtful, or the cast of the sentence is different; in Job u 17 a vb. is
expressed, and in Ezk I5 2 , Ca 5 9 no. 13. TIINI . . . YDKI] 05 consistently
renders all the vbs. of vv. 18 * 14 by futures, understanding that what Assyria
intends, Yahweh does not allow him to do. This interpretation also under-
lies the scriptio plena TDK, TIIK. MT is inconsistent Tpxi, TIIXI, but
KyDJ-n. The pf. tenses show that the writer intended np*o, TVIKI, 'oni : the
scriptio plena and (5r are wrong. Dnvrrnyi] The K e re 'iinyi differentiates the
word here from 'inyi in Dt 32 s5 . On the Aramaic colouring of the word,
see Driver, Deut. pp. 374 f. It would be easy to restore onmnyi ; cp. U
principes, and see 14. 'nans?] = 'nois? (cp. 42^; see G-K. 6); vrois? is
read by some MSS. Taxa T-IIXI] K e tib Taxa, K e r6 T?g (i? 12 28 3 ), (K *cU
7r6Xeis. Du., combining f and C5, conjecturally restores any TIINI
(or 1SN3) ; if nsyn is rightly conjectured, nsya nmw was probably the
source of both into TIKI (f^ 1 ) and any mi ((3r). 14. ffi abbreviates lines a-d,
paraphrases e-f ; b is short in J^. 15. *pn3] w#A M<f //^ (/ a staff's
shaking : see BDB, j.w. 3, p. 454b ; cp. Wright, Arabic Gram. ii. 63 : or
perhaps a represents a whole sentence. For instruments to boast them-
selves against the agent ( 16a< b ) is like claiming to be themselves actually
agents. noo . . . ant?] without the art. : ct. jnjn, iiPDn : this difference
is the stranger if uns? refers back to v. 5 . VD'TD'nx] some MSS read 'DTINI.
The pi. is an attempt by means of the pluralis majestatis to make the
reference to Yahweh clear: some MSS more correctly read tonzD. \y vb]
cp. trio* 1 ?, 3i8._!6. p-iN,i] 3 MSS and <& omit. nnm] (& Kol els. 17. iempi
myai nan 1 ? 1 ?] <& Kal ayidcrei avrbv v irvpl /caio/i^y = mya nan^a i^p] ; read
mya nan 1 ? 1 ? iBnp.i, which is rhythmically equal, and parallel in sense, to >"V.T
VX*? 'B^'TiN. 18. DD3 DDDD] (Ex 6 <f>e6y(i}v ws 6 fairyuv airb <j>\oyfc Katofdvys ; ^
pnyi Tan ; J5 JOO1 ]^J y] JOOTJO ; U terrore profugus. These guesses
are significant. Later, DD3 suggested to Rashi DD, a worm, and to Ki. 03, a
standard (cp. AV, RVmarg.). The similar ending of the two words is sus-
picious. Like a sick man's melting away, as when a sick man, etc., are very
questionable renderings ; for DD3, to be sick, is without parallel in Heb., and
Syr. *CDJ, to be sick, may be derived from vfoos ! see Che. in SBOT. The
text is corrupt.
20-27. An Appendix to the preceding poem,
explaining that Yahweh's anger against His people is all but
spent ; that immediately those of them who have escaped and
X. io- i 8, 20-27 2O 3
remain, will be set free from the bondage of " Assyria," which
will in turn become the object of Yahweh's anger.
Two things are clear: (i) vv. 20 ' 27 are connected with w. 6ff -,
for his smiter, v. 20 , the rod, v. 24 , and the stick, v. 26 , are obvious
references back to v.*: (2) these verses are prose, except that
v. 27 closes with a distich.
Isaiah wrote prose as well as poetry, but there is no reason
to believe that he allowed fine poems to dribble out in prose
conclusions. Either (a) vv. 20 ' 27 are due to some disciple of
Isaiah, who recalled the substance, but no longer the form, of the
conclusion of the poem preserved fragmentarily in vv. 6 ^ 19 ; or,
more probably, (b) the verses are the work of some late student
of Scripture, who sought, mainly by compiling a cento of Scrip-
ture texts and phrases (see references in the notes that follow),
to give the old poem greater suitability in an age which required
positive comfort for itself as well as a promise that Assyria should
be destroyed
20. And it shall come to pass in that day] 7 18 and often.
The remnant (nNK>) of Israef] so the remnant of Jacob, v. 21 . Cp.
"The remnant (mNB>) of Israel," Jer 3i 7 , Mic 2 12 , Ezk n 18 ;
"of Jacob," Mic 5 6t . Cp. also "the remnant (iNt?) of his
people," 1 1 11 - 1<J 28* ; " of Syria," i; 8 n.And the escaped] 4* n.
Of the House of Jacob] 2* n. (3r here omits the House of. Shall
no more lean for support upon him that smote it] the remnant will
no more trust in foreign powers as the nation had done in days
of old, as when Ahaz in 734 B.C. relied on Assyria (ch. 7), which
smote Judah in 701 B.C. Du.'s epigram, "Ahaz leant for support
on Assyria (2 K 16), but was not smitten ; Hezekiah was smitten,
but did not lean for support on Assyria," is true, for it would be
too odd to describe Assyria as smiting Ahaz when, though at
a ruinous cost, they gave him the support for which he appealed
(Kon. Einleitung, p. 305). The writer is oblivious of the
chronology of Isaiah's age : whether Du.'s detailed explanation
is correct is more doubtful (see Introd. 26 f.) : according to him,
the writer is applying the old threat against the Assyria of Isaiah's
day to the New Assyria (cp. Ezr 6 22 , Ps 83?), the Seleucid
Empire, which prevailed in his own ; under Alkimus and, later,
John Hyrcanus, the Jewish community, willingly or unwillingly,
rested on the Seleucids and were smitten by them ; freedom
was expected by the pious as soon as Israel rested solely on
204 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Yahweh. Him that smote it] cp. and ct. g 12 . But shall lean
for support upon} 3o 12 3i l , 2 Ch i3 18 i4 10 i6 7f< : differently
Mic 3 11 . The Holy One of Israel} i 4 n. In truth} i6 5 38 3 48 1
6 1 8 : cp. also Jg 9 16 , i S i2 24 . 21. The remnant shall return}
7 3 n. Unto the Mighty God} 9 5 n. The v. is a proof of what
has been asserted in v. 20 , drawn not by Isaiah from his own
prophecies, but by a late student from Scripture. Whether
to this student the Mighty God meant the Messiah as in 9 6 , or
God Himself, is not quite clear. 22. Here the writer seems to
reflect on two prophecies, one foretelling that the people of Israel
shall be as the sand of the sea (Hos 2 1 (i 10 ), cp. Gn 22 17 32 18 ), the
other that only a remnant of them will return. In the 2nd cent.
B.C., and even a century or two earlier, the Jews, including the
millions living in Egypt and Mesopotamia, had become, what
they were not in Isaiah's day, very numerous ; but there were
among them " many apostates, still more indifferentists : those
loyal to the law, the IJasidim, the little band who fought for
freedom, were only a little band" (Du.). 22b, 23. This double
aspect of the future will certainly be realised, for Yahweh has
irrevocably determined a judgment which, taking place in the
midst of the earth, will be universal in its scope ; it will give over-
flowing proof of Yahweh's righteousness (cp. i 27 5 16 ) by working
deliverance of the elect, and accomplishing "the annihilation
already decisively determined" (2S 22 ), of the wicked, whether
Israelite or heathen (cp. 59 15f *~ 21 ).
24-27. Sion has nothing to fear from Yahweh's anger a
point of view radically unlike that commonly taken by Isaiah,
but resembling that of, e.g., 40 lf \ Therefore thus saith} 3o 12 .
The Lord Yahweh of Hosts} .Fear not] 7* 35 4 4i 10 - 18f - 43 1 - 6
44 2 . My people} i 3 4 1 and often. Who dwell in Sion} cp. 3o 19 .
Because of Assyria} see v. 20 n. When he smites with the rod}
v. 5 3<D 31 . And lifts up his stick} v. 5 . After the manner of Egypt}
Am 4 10 : here Assyria whips the Jews, as the Egyptians whipped
Israel in Egypt (Ex 5 14 ' 16 ); in v. 26 the stick is used against
Assyria, as it was used against Egypt. 25. There is no need
for Yahweh's people to fear (v?*\for within a very little time
(29 17 ) Yahweh's wrath (DVT, v. 5 , Dn 8 19 ) against them will be spent
(Dn ii 36 , cp. Is 26 20 ): the last blows which His righteous anger
against their sin compelled Him to inflict on them with His rod,
"Assyria" (v. 6 ), are now falling; He is about to scourge Assyria
X. 21-27 2O5
instead (v. 26 ). The last clause of v. 25 is commonly supposed to
mark the transition from v. 25a to v. 26 : assuming a rather harsh
and improbable ellipsis, J^ may be rendered and my anger (shall
turn) to their destruction ; but the style is most awkward, and the
use of *?y and of the 3rd pi. in reference to Assyria very sus-
picious. 3fy, if the consonants were differently divided, might
also mean, and my anger against the world shall be at an end :
but this, too, would be awkward ; for " the world " in that case
must exclude Assyria and refer only to that part which is en-
slaved by Assyria (cp. i4 17 ). But if we omit i>3n fy, against the
world, as a gloss, what remains is an excellent parallel to the
previous clause ; for the two vbs. nfo and ODD in parallelism, cp.
i6 4 and (reading ion) La 3 22 . 26. And Yahweh of Hosts will
brandish over him~\ i.e. over Assyria : Tny, brandish, as 2 S 23 18 .
A scourge] 28 15 . As when Midian was smitten] g s n., Ps 83 10 ( 9 ).
At the rock of'Oreb] Jg 7 25 , cp. Ps 83 12 < n >. And his stick over
the sea he will raise it after the manner of Egypt] Ex i4 16 : see
above, v. 2 * n. 27. After the opening formula (cp. v. 20 ), if (niT
be read for 5>3!TI, an excellent distich (4 : 4), a variation of i4 25
(cp. 9 3 n.), is recovered
His burden shall depart from upon thy shoulder,
And his yoke shall cease from (resting) upon thy neck.
The remaining words of the v. (fDC> *3BD ]3) have been slightly
mutilated and wrongly detached from v. 28 . The attempts to
interpret J^ as it stands are the best proof that it is corrupt : the
last sentence can, of course, be translated and a yoke will be
ruined because of oil, or fat (5* n.) ; these words, it is said, con-
tain a comparison of Judah to an animal grown so fat that the
yoke is broken by the counter pressure of its fat neck, the pur-
pose of the comparison being to indicate that deliverance is to
come from within as well as from without (Del.). For other
explanations neither better nor worse, see Ges. and Di.
22. nw . . . n.v DK] Dr. 136, 143. loy] < oy.u . . . nxr] cp.
Din Twin, Lv 5* : see BDB 88a (bottom). pfca] Dt 28 M f (in a different
sense). p*n] the Kal meaning, to determine, occurs again only in Job 14" ;
but cp. the Niphal in v. 28 ; and see Dn Q 26 '- 1 1 88 , which are, in other respects
also, phraseologically connected with this passage. npn* *]?] ace. after verba
copiae-. G-K. 1172;. 23. rwox nirr] ( om. 24. 'm] (5r B om. naD'] G-K.
58^, *. 25. W] i6 14 24 29 17 t. DJN] Che. proposes 'DiN ; cp. the parallel 'fi* :
but perhaps 'SN arose by dittography from on' ] : see next n. on^an hy 'flt]
2O6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
a few MSS read on'^on, which would be synonymous with on^nn f ; for n'^an
from vr6a would mean a wearing out, destruction. *?y is used to express
direction towards, " not common except in the sense against " (BDB 7570) ; but
examples of the use of *?y such as Ca 7 11 , 2 Ch 2O 12 , cited in BDB 757^ (under
7c(f)), are really very different from that commonly assumed here. The
obvious meaning if it were suitable in the context would be my anger at
(roused by) their destruction." Luzzatto proposed Din: Van ^>H 9*t ; this is
improbable (see above) : on the other hand, on' 'SKI nyi rtai gives all that
seems to be wanted ; ^>3n *?y was perhaps the note of some reader who took the
verbs rhi and Don in their other sense to be fulfilled, and explained the wrath
as that which would affect the whole world in the last judgment. 26. Bitf]
possibly, through similarity of sound, for 3 (v. 24 ). <$r omits. D'n by inaoi
INSWI] rather poor Hebrew. Winckler (ATUntersuchungen, 177) suggests
KW arp^y but this introduces the suspicious i>l. suffix : Marti, *w vVy.
Perhaps the corruption goes deeper. QSc renders Kal 6 6vfj,bs avrov TV 68$ TJJ
Kara 0a.\a<r<rav. 27. ^3m] this is an early error for ^in% which is parallel to
TiD' and completes the rhythm of the distich 4 : 4. The emendation is due to
W. R. Smith (Journal of Philology, xiii. 62 f.). pv 'JBD *?y] yields no sense :
see above and phil. n. on p. 209.
X. 270-32. A Dramatic Idyll.
The prevailing rhythm in vv. 27 " 81 * is 2 : 2 ; in vv. 81b ' 82 the rhythm becomes
more uncertain, and the text at the same time shows signs of corruption (see
phil. n.). The poem is probably defective : perhaps two lines at the begin*
ning and four of the last strophe have been lost.
27c He hath gone up from Pene * Rimmon,'
28 He hath fallen on 'Ayyath ;
He hath passed through Migron,
At Michmas he depositeth his baggage;
29 * He hath ' passed over the ravine,
(In) Geba is 'his' night quarters.
Ramah hath trembled,
Gibeah of Saul hath fled.
80 Give a shrill cry, . . . . !
, daughter of Gallim I
Give heed, Laishah !
Answer her, Anathoth !
81 Madmenah hath run away,
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.
82 To-day
He will swing his hand,
Towards the Mount of the daughter of ion,
The hill of Jerusalem.
X. 26-32 207
The poet assumes the standpoint of one who is in Jerusalem
on the morrow after an invader, marching from the north, has
entered Judaean territory and encamped within a few miles of the
capital, ready to strike at it the next day.
First, the invader's march is described in a succession of short
telling clauses, w. 27 ' 29 : from Pene Rimmon, some ten miles
north of Jerusalem, he has advanced through 'Ai and Migron to
Michmas ; leaving his heavy baggage there, he has without delay
descended into the deep Wady Suwenit below Michmas, crossed
its bottom and made the steep ascent to Geba', where at less
than six miles from Jerusalem he has encamped for the night.
This concludes the description of the march, for in vv. 29c - 81 the
subject of the verb is no longer the invader, and the towns
mentioned do not lie on any single route from Geba' to
Jerusalem. The object of w. 29c ' 31 is to indicate, partly by
descriptive tenses, partly by imperatives addressed to the
terrified towns, the terror of the country between Geba' and
Jerusalem as news reaches them the same evening of the near
presence of the hostile army. The poem closes with the
inevitable yet ominous inference. To-day the invader will fall
on Jerusalem itself, v. 8 *.
Many have supposed that the poem ends not at v. 82 , but at v. 84 ; in that
case Isaiah's purpose in the whole would be to describe the invading army,
whether Syro-Ephraimitish or, more probably, Assyrian, advancing right up
to Jerusalem, only to fall there before the unseen power of Yahweh. But
this is improbable : for (i) the rhythm in w. 83 '- is different ; (2) the figurative
language of vv. 83 '- has no natural connection with the simple and sustained
literalism of w. 27 * 82 ; cp. Cheyne, Introd. p. 56.
If the poem concludes with v. 82 , it threatens Jerusalem
without any alleviating promise, and is therefore inconsistent
with Isaiah's attitude at the time of the Syro-Ephraimitish war
(c. 7) ; but it may have been written by him later, in expectation
of some assault by Assyria, though it is improbable that Assyria
would ever have followed the line of march indicated.
Isaiah's authorship has been questioned (Du., Marti) on the grounds of
(i) the numerous paronomasias: cp. Mic I 1(MS ; (2) the special emphasis
on Jerusalem ; (3) the objective character of the description which scarcely
suggests a prophet living in the midst of the circumstances. Against (2), cp.
i 1 n., and note that vv. 29 ' 31 show feeling for the country as well as the city.
The number of plays on words, or paronomasias, has been exaggerated ; the
208 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
supposed play on the name of Michmas, for example, rests on a very question-
able etymology.
27c-2pb. The Invader's March. He hath gone up\ ^
a yoke', see phil. n., and above on v. 27b . Pene Rimmon\ Du.'s
conjecture for pene shemen (J^). The name means Face of
Rimmon\ cp. Peniel, Face of God\ the deity Rimmon is
mentioned in 2 K 5 18 . The modern Rammon lies about 3
miles N.N.E. of Michmas. 28. *AyyatX\ probably the same as
Ai, which lay to the E. of and near Bethel (Gn i2 8 , Jos 7 2 ), and
consequently a little to the N. of Michmas. It is identified by
some with Der Diwan, about 3 miles N. of Michmas. Migron~\
obviously lay N. of Michmas, perhaps on the site of the modern
Makrun. W. R. Smith,* indeed, argued that the Migron
mentioned in i S i4 2 , which must have lain South of Michmas,
was intended here \ and that a detachment of the invaders fell
upon it and secured it before the main body attempted the
difficult passage of the Wady es-Suwenit : but the rendering of
a "lay by to fall upon is not justified. At Michmas] mod.
Muhmas, 7| miles N. of Jerusalem. It lies at an elevation of
1990 feet, distant about 2 miles, and separated by the deep Wady
es-Suwenit, from Geba* (2220 feet), which stands on the top of
the opposite slope. To avoid the difficulty of transport over this
troublesome piece of country, the invader deposits his heavy
baggage at Michmas. 2p. He] so (fr ; J^ they, but note the 3rd
sing, in other sentences in f^. Has crossed the ravine] lit. has
passed the passage (mayc), or crossed the crossing^ viz. of the wady
between Michmas and Geba'; this crossing in i S I3 23 is called
" the/ottdgg, or crossing ("OJJD), of Michmas." The passage ("iay)
of Jabbok (Gn 32 23 ) was a real ford ; but the Wady es-Suwenit is
often dry: the present writer found it so on Feb. 25, 1904: cp.
Dalman in ZDPV-xxvm. 163 f. Ravine is not a strict equivalent
of mayo, but it is used here in order to summon up the picture
which the phrase would recall to a Hebrew familiar with trie
district : ffir TrapeAevcrcTat <a/myya retains the picture ; but RV,
they are gone over the pass, suggests an ascent, a passage of the
top, and a descent, whereas what is actually described is a steep
descent, a passage of the bottom, and a steep ascent. (In) Geba
are his night-quarters] see phil. n. J^ might best be rendered
Geba be our night-quarters^ a dramatic cry of the army as it
* JPh., 1884, p. 63: cp. Driver, Isaiah, p. 72; Stenning, in DB ii. 169.
X. 27-32 209
climbs the southern slope of the valley to Geba", which lies
within six miles of Jerusalem.
290-31. The alarm of the country-side. Ramah~\ is
er-Ram, 35 minutes along the crest of the hill W.S.W. from
Geba (Baed. Pal 248). Gibe l ah of Saul] probably Tell el-Ful,
the site of which satisfies the requirements of Jg i9 12-16 , i S io 2 ' 7 '
10 - 18 : see EBi. and DB, s.v. Gibeah.Te\\ el-Ffil lies about 2\
miles S.S.E. of er-Ram, about 3 miles S.S.W. of Geba 1 , and
about ij miles N.W. of 'Anata (Anathoth). 30. Three or four
towns between Geba' and Jerusalem are dramatically invited to
participate in the lamentation which the approach of the invaders
occasions. Gallim and Laishah (which is scarcely el-'Isawiyyeh,
between 'Anata and Jerusalem) are not identified : but cp.
"Palti, the son of Laish, which was of Gallim," i S 25 44 . Answer
her^ 'Anathoth'] or, less probably, O poor one, * Anathoth; in
either case there is a paronomasia 'aniah 'andthoth, or 'aniyyah
'anathoth. 'Anathoth is the mod! 'Anata", 2 \ miles from Jerusalem
and on the road that runs from Geba' to Jerusalem through
JJizmeh ; another road from Geba' to Jerusalem ran through er-
R&m (Ramah). 31. Madmenah and Gebim are both unknown
cities. Have sought refuge] for themselves and their belongings ;
cp. Ex 9 19 , where the obj. of pyn is expressed, and Jer 4 6 1 ,
where, as here, it is omitted : cp. also the use of Kal in 3<D 2 , and
the noun TTO in 17*.
32. Assault on Jerusalem is imminent. The text is in
several respects uncertain : see phil. n. To-day is the morning
after the night spent by the invaders at Geba' (v. 29 ) ; speaking
dramatically, as one risen early on that day and in receipt of the
news which has already thrown the places between Geba' and
Jerusalem into alarm, the poet draws the conclusion : To-day the
foe will take up its position before the walls of Jerusalem. In
Nob] the text is doubtful, and the site of Nob uncertain. Neh
1 1 82 mentions this place next to 'Anathoth, and as occupied by
Benjamites: i S 2i 2 W 22- 19 f fails, even if the text be correct,
to define the site more closely. Mainly on the ground of the
present passage, it has been located at some point on the high
ground to the N. of, and over-looking, Jerusalem. See, further,
Nob, in DB.
27. jot? '3BD ^V] |^ yields no sense : see p. 206. "?j?=n l ?y; cp. J3 = nj2 in
Phoenician inscriptions, e.g. CIS i. 4 8 = Cooke, NSI 6 3 : cp. ib. 33 3 . For *JD
VOL. I. 14
2IO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
]ov, W. R. Smith (JPh. xiii. 63 ff.) proposed ~nv |3<$D, the waster (i.e. Assyria)
from the North ; Du. JBT 'JSD, which is easier and preferable (see above). (&
dirb r&v &[juav bfji&v. 28. *?]! *a] of hostile approach : so Gn 34 s7 , i S I2 12 ,
Jg iS 27 (v./. ny). n'y] = *ry, rry (Neh ii 31 , i Ch 7 28 ) with retention of the old
fern. n. The position of ivy between Michmas and Bethel points to identifica-
tion also with yn. <5r els rfv ir6\iv J A.yy<n (of which /cal ijt-et e/s 'A-y7<u in v. 29
may be a variant) should represent 'yn nyn, which might be a text conflate of
two variants of rvy. Tpa' bDDD 1 ?] many editions have B>DDD^, which is incorrect.
It is very questionable whether BTOD means store-place ; ODD in Dt 32 M is
probably an error for wa. In Jer 36 20 37 21 vpsn, to deposit, is followed by 3 ;
with V the vb. may mean to the town of Michmas he entrusts his baggage
(Ges.), though the person to whom a deposit is entrusted is elsewhere intro-
duced by v Vy (i K I4 27 ), or ra (Ps 3i 6 ), or rot (Jer 40'). 29. viny] (
7ra/>e\ei5<rer(u = n3y, or perhaps rather iny (note 1^0 preceding). The 3rd
sing. pf. is right. 1^ pta jnj] u^> if correct is either (i) for us: the pi. in
such a dramatic cry would not be impossible in spite of the prevalent singu-
lars ; or (2) 3rd pi. pf. of |'V, (the night -quarters where) they have spent the
night ; but this would give a pointless redundance, and a 3rd pi. instead of
the 3rd sing., which is used of the invader throughout the poem. More
probably uk p^>D=U^D has arisen through dittography from to^p. 30. ^>n*
l*?ip] double subj. : G-K. 1440*. (ffir omits the words ; but possibly even f^
is incomplete, the present line of three accents being a mutilation of a distich
2 : 2. D'^rna] perhaps na=rra, then for the equivalence of names with and
without n3, see HPN 127 32. nrh my] this very day (RV) would be a
suitable, if it were a less questionable, rendering : Tiy is nowhere else used
with the sense presupposed in it. Dr. in BDB 728^ renders " still to-day
(such is his haste) will he tarry in Nob." But what day is intended ? If the
day on which the invaders reach Geba', the clause seems inconsistent with
Geba' being the night-quarters ; but if the morrow is intended, the clause
becomes rather feeble, for Jerusalem is but a couple of hours' march from
Geba'. Other established meanings of iiy seem equally unsuitable here : for
example, still t as he has been doing, will he tarry ; again will he tarry ; in
Nob, moreover (as well as in other places), will he tarry. Probably ny is a
corruption : it is absent from (, and ny may have been a dittograph of iyn=
iryn at the end of v. 81 . 333] perhaps corrupt : see above and Che. EBi. 3430.
(Br tv 68$. noy 1 ?] he must tarry : Dr. 204. But perhaps noy should be
restored, unless the corruption of the text goes deeper. n' f]Sir] the Polel of
p occurs here only; the Hiphil used more or less similarly occurs in n 15
I9 16 , Zee 2 13 , Job 3i 21 , Sir I2 18 . in] is commonly explained as the ace. of
direction (cp. G-K. liBf); but the omission of Vy (cp. references in last n.)
is suspicious. p's n'3 nn] the K e tib gives an unparalleled phrase : K e re
'K rn vt as I6 1 . ny.33] ffir ol powol=riy3). The phrase D^BTP 'a does not
occur again. The accumulation of unusual, and in some cases suspicious,
phenomena render it probable that the text of v. 82 has suffered. It is unsafe,
therefore, to assume a change of rhythm (cp. Di. ) ; the last two clauses are
2 : 2, the dominant rhythm of the poem.
X. 28-34 AND XI. 1-8 211
X. 33, 34. The fall of tfo Sores f.
V. 8 * 1 is of two accents ; 88a> M * of four, but perhaps pun (cp. v. lf ) in the
one and Snna (see phil. n.) in the other should be omitted. The original
rhythm was then 3 : 3 with the variant 3 : 2 in v.** - d .
83 Behold the Lord Yahweh of Hosts
Is lopping off the branches with a terrible crash ;
And those that have grown high will be hewn down,
And the lofty will be brought low.
84 And he will strike away the thickets of the forest with iron,
And Lebanon with 'its' majestic (cedars) shall fall.
Under the figure of a forest of lofty trees felled by the woodman,
this brief fragment describes the approaching destruction of some
people that have provoked Yahweh s majesty by their pride (cp.
2 nff.).
The fragment, though not the original conclusion of w. 27 " 82
(see p. 207), may have been placed here by the compiler in
order to suggest that any enemy approaching the sacred city
would perish. The figure of a forest occurs in w. 17 ' 18a ; but
there destruction is by fire; for destruction by felling, cp. Dn
4 11 - ( 14 ) ff -, Zee ii 2 , and especially the elaborate description of
Assyria under the figure of a cedar in Ezk 31.
34. Thickets of the forest] 9 17 . With 'its' majestic (cedar s)\
cp. 2 13 , Zee ii 2 , and see phil. n. ; f is commonly understood to
mean by a Majestic one, viz. Yahweh.
33. ,TIKB] $ e r6 .ms: with the K e tib, cp. mo, Ezk 17* 31** * "'.
nmyoa] this derivative from py (2 19< 2l ) occurs here only : Du. conjectures
rayon, with an axe. 34. *]p3i] Piel, the subj. being Yahweh, or Niph., the
pi. subj. following the pred. (G-K. 1450). vms . . . ^naa] these should
be parallel terms, but they are not : hence some substitute for TIK the name
of an implement such as onp or Wa (Ges.). It is better to read vyjfc (cp.
(8r ffitv rots ti^Xots) and omit Vnaa as a gloss (note the rhythm). So Che.,
Marti.
XI. 1-8. The Righteous Ruler of the Stock of Jesse, and the
Return of the Golden Age.
Apart from the first three words of v. 8 , which are a dittograph, f^ contains
23 lines. It is argued in the n. on v. 60 that one of these (v. M ) is intrusive
and one (v. 7c ) misplaced ; the 22 lines that remain fall into eleven distichs.
An alternative theory retains v. 7c and inserts from 65 20 a line which there
accompanies v. 7 : this would bring up the number of lines to 24.
212 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
The distichs (3:3, or 4 : 4) are mostly well-balanced and marked by
great regularity of parallelism. Some apparent exceptions are probably due
to textual corruption: see notes on vv. 4b>8b ; in v. M read n*nn (see n.) or
makkeph mrr-ntcY, the two words forming a single idea. But vv. 1 *- b and 5
are two distichs 4 : 3.
Whether we reduce the number of lines to 22, or raise them to 24, or
keep them at 23, the main divisions of sense do not give strophes of exactly
equal lengths. The first strophe contains 6, the second 8, the third 8, 9, or 10
lines according to the view taken of vv. 60 and 7o . If the poem once possessed
complete strophic regularity, it most probably consisted of three strophes each
containing four distichs. In that case it is probably the opening distich of
the poem that has been lost. At present the poem opens with Waw Conv.
and the pf. : yet so also does 2 a .
Du. obtains strophic regularity in another way : he finds four strophes,
each of six lines, ending with vv. 2 - 4 - 6 and 8 respectively. But this division
involves several improbabilities : (i) v. 8 is torn away from the description of
the king, of which it forms a part, to be coupled with the first half of the
description of the beasts ; (2) the description of the beasts is divided into two
strophes ; and (3) in order to eke out vv. 7f - into six lines, v. 8b is very mistakenly
(see phil. n. ) divided into two, with the result that the suckling playing about
the serpent's hole shares a distich with the lion eating straw, while his true
mate, the weaned child, stands apart in a separate distich examining the
basilisk's eye.
1 And there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of
Jesse,
And a scion from his roots shall bear fruit;
2 And there shall rest upon him the spirit of Yahweh,
The spirit of wisdom and discernment,
The spirit of counsel and might,
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.
8 He will not judge by that which his eyes see,
Nor by that which his ears hear will he decide;
4 But he will judge the needy with righteousness,
And decide with equity for the poor of the earth,
And he will smite the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips will he slay the wicked.
6 And righteousness will be the ' girdle ' about his waist,
And faithfulness the waist-cloth around his loins.
6 And the wolf shall dwell as a guest with the lamb,
And the leopard shall have the same lair with the kid;
7c And the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
6c And the calf and the young lion ' will graze ' together ;
With a little child acting as their driver.
XI. i-8 213
7 * And the cow and the bear shall be 'companions to one
another/
Together shall their young make their lair;
8 And the suckling shall play over the hole of the asp,
And over the dwelling (?) of the viper shall the weaned
child ' trip about ' (?).
The poem predicts the restoration of the Jewish monarchy in
the person of a king sprung from the family of Jesse, the father
of David, who will be equipped by Yahweh's spirit for all the
duties of a righteous ruler, w. lf> . Thus equipped, he will in
virtue of his wisdom discern what is right, and in virtue of
his might achieve it, securing for the weak what is due to them,
and smiting down the powerful who do wrong. All that he does
will be done in righteousness and faithfulness, vv. 8 * 5 . In his
days the conditions of Paradise will return ; the beasts will no
longer be at enmity with one another and with men, but all will
live together in peace and friendship, w. 6 * 8 .
The thought of the poet is concentrated on the future of the
Jews, though he sees it in the light of conditions (vv. 6 * 8 ) which
will presumably be universal and not limited to Palestine. The
larger thought, too, of the world-wide government of the king
breaks through in v. 4 , if the words of the earth be original.
Of the conditions which immediately precede the reign of
this king he says nothing directly, nor gives any indication how
soon the future which he predicts may be expected. It is
possible that an opening distich has been lost (see above, p. 212)
which may have resembled 9 1 W> in its tenor.
The editor, whether Isaiah himself (Di. p. 104), or another (e.g. Marti),
who is responsible for the present arrangement of Isaiah chs. IO B -I2, may
indeed have intended that this reign was to begin when the world-power has
been destroyed and the destruction of everything opposed to God within
Israel and without (io 2af> ) has been accomplished. But Di., no less than
Du., argued that n lff> is not the immediate continuation of IO 6 " 84 ; and in
spite of Kit.'s attempt to prove the contrary, this remains clear (see above on
id 5 ' 84 ). It is not even probable that lo 83 *', which is certainly not the original
continuation of lo 27 ' 32 , contains the opening distich, or distichs, of n lff - :
lo 34 , indeed, if we omit "with iron," is a distich similar in rhythm and
parallelistic structure to II 1 " 8 , but by itself it forms a less probable beginning
than ii 1 . On the other hand, lo 83 is less similar to n 1 " 8 and is still no good
opening ; moreover, the elaborate metaphors of lo 881 - contrast with the
general literalness of n 1 ' 8 : the figure in u 1 is simple, and II 6 " 8 is, of course,
214 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
intended literally, not metaphorically. Finally, the antithesis sought between
I033f. an( j jji the Assyrian cedar forest is smitten down, the tree of Jesse is
rejuvenated is anything but inevitable ("unverkennbar," Di.), and is
certainly not suggested by the order of the words. Had the writer of n 1
been the author also of the antithesis attributed to him by those who make
n 1 the immediate continuation of IO 84 , it is probable that he would have
written KV ipn n? jnaoi.
It follows that II 1 " 8 must be judged by itself and not in connection
with
If the most obvious is the correct interpretation of v. 1 , the
poem was written after 586 B.C. (see on v. 1 ). A downward limit
of date is fixed by the quotation in 65 25 . Like 9 1 ' 6 the poem might
well have been written towards the end of the Exile when men's
minds were turning towards Restoration, and when some may
have been setting high hopes on Zerubbabel, of the stock of
Jesse, who immediately after the Return certainly focussed such
hopes upon himself (Hag., Zech.).
Apart from the historical presuppositions of v. 1 , which point more
decisively than those of 9 1 " 8 to an exilic or post-exilic date, the evidence is
no more conclusive than in the case of 9 1 * 8 . The language is certainly
compatible with a post-exilic date, and the occurrence of the three words J?n,
nan, i!H in v. 1 is even better explained by it than by an earlier date. For
the significance of the ideas, reference must be made to the commentary.
Among those who assign the poem to Isaiah, much difference of opinion
prevails as to the period of his life to which it belongs. For the most part it
is connected with io 6 ' 84 , and simply on the ground of that supposed connection
assigned to the same period: see, e.g., Dr. LOT* 210 f., where the date
701 B.C. is suggested, and allusion is made (with references) to other theories
placing the prophecy early in Sargon's reign (W. R. Smith, Prophets*, 296 ff. ),
or at the end of Sargon's reign. Earlier writers thought of the reign of Ahaz
(Vitringa). Finally, Du. groups II 1 " 8 with 2 2 ~* 32 1 ' 3 as one of Isaiah's
"swan-songs" written in extreme old age, in the reign of Manasseh, for the
private use of his disciples and not for publication.
i, 2. The origin and endowments of the Future
King". I. The poem opens with a prediction of the restoration
of the Davidic monarchy. This is expressed figuratively. Jesse,
the father of David, is compared to a root from which there
had grown a tree the line of Jewish monarchs descended from
David ; this tree has been cut down ; but the roots remain in
the earth and a mere stump above ground, /.*. the throne of
David has fallen, but the family of David survives ; as from the
stump of a tree that has been felled there may shoot forth new
growth (Job i4 7 " 9 , cp. Is 6 18 ), so while the family of David sur-
XI. i, a 215
vives, hope remains that some member of it may re-establish
the monarchy, and thus, in the terms of the figure, become the
new shoot and green growth from the old roots. What the
opening distich of the poem asserts is that this hope will be
actually realised. The revival, and not the fall of the tree, is
the subject of prediction. The fall of the tree belongs to the
past ; the stump is an existing fact familiar to the poet and his
audience. Thus this v. presupposes a period when no Davidic
king was reigning. The necessary inference is that the poem
was written some time after 586 B.C. This inference can only
be avoided by adopting less natural and obvious interpreta-
tions : thus (i) Di. considers that the implication of the figure
is that each successive king from David downwards was a tree
sprung from the root and stump of Jesse; by means of an
improbable figure Isaiah would then be expressing the rather
jejune idea that as there had already been a dozen kings or
more descended from Jesse, one of whom was reigning at the
present moment, so there would be another; (2) Du. sees in
the passage a prediction that the Messiah will not spring from
David, but as being himself a new David will spring from
another branch of the house of Jesse, in the terms of the figure
from another of the roots (plural} an unparalleled and most
improbable idea ; moreover, this interpretation does not explain
the assumption that the tree of David has already fallen. On
this Du. says that the expression yw, stock, indicates that before
the Messianic age the Dynasty will suffer ill. A shoot] "ittn, Pr
i4 8 f. In Aramaic, early and late, and Assyrian the word meant
sceptre (see phil. n.). The stump] 4o 24 , Job i4 8 f. The word
yM is derived from a root meaning to cut, (so c >- commonly) ;
in view of this, of the parallel here, and of the parallel and the
context in Job, the word probably meant primarily the part
(above ground) left after felling. In 4O 24 it seems rather to be
used of the bole of a growing, newly planted tree; cp. the
New Hebrew usage : see Levy, NHB, s.v. The stump of Jesse]
this phrase well reflects the fact that the Jewish monarchy is no
more, though the family, from which it sprang, survives; "the
stump of David" would have reflected this less clearly and
might more appropriately have been used if the monarchy had
merely lost power and glory as at the Disruption. A scion]
2l6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
i4 19 (?) 6o 21 , Dn ii 7 , Sir 4o 15 (margin). The word "IV3 comes
probably from the root which in Arabic (,*dj) means to be
fresh and beautiful^ and, of the foliage of a tree, to become green \
it was presumably applied to vigorous growth from a tree,
whether as here and in 6o 21 directly from the root, or from some
other part; it is used in NH of withies ; cp. "iJ !>in, a rope of
withies \ D^V3 ^D, a basket made of withies (Levy, NHB iii. 43 1)-
Shall bear fruit] if the text is right, the 2nd line of the distich
goes beyond the first not only will a new tree grow from the
old root, but it will yield fruit ; not only will the Davidic monarchy
be restored, but the new king will prosper (cp. Ps i 8 ). But
ma 1 may be an error for ma 1 *, shall sprout forth (cp. Job 14),
and the two lines throughout synonymously parallel. 2. The
king will be a man on whom the spirit of Yahweh rests
(Nu ii 25 *-, cp. 2 K 2 16 , Nu ii 17 n.), and therefore fit for ex-
ceptional achievements ; as the spirit gives the exceptional
craftsman (Ex 3i 8 35 81 ), or the warrior (Jg 6 s4 ii 29 i3 25
i4 6 - 19 ), or the prophet (Nu n 25f ', Is 6I 1 ), or the interpreter of
dreams (Gn 4i 88 ), the power to do or be something beyond the
ordinary (cp. 2 K 2 15 ), so it gives kingliness to the king
(i S i6 18f '). King and people often seemed to the prophets to
forget this, and in consequence to trust in " flesh " rather than
in "spirit" (3i 3 ); but the Messianic age will be distinguished
by the outpouring of the spirit (32 16 , Jl 3 lf> (2 26f *)) on all men,
and, in particular, the point with which alone the present passage
is concerned, on the Messiah. The spirit of Yahweh settles
upon the king as a spirit of, or, as we should say, imparting,
wisdom and discernment (cp. Ex 3i 3 ), a capacity to discern what
rightly belongs to the king's office and to the right discharge
of it, and to detect the right in difficult circumstances (v. 8 , cp.
i K 3 9 - 12 - 28 ). The spirit is also one of counsel and might, i.e.
the king receives power not only to discern the right, but to
execute it, to secure for the weak their due, and to punish and
put to death the guilty, however powerful (v. 4 ). By the spirit
of Yahweh the king becomes a wonderful, or exceptional,
Counsellor and Mighty One (9*). In spite of 36 5 , it is very
questionable whether the king is here represented as a great
soldier. Finally, the spirit makes him careful for the will of
God and a true worshipper of Yahweh, and consequently
xi. 2-5 2i;
righteous, v. 5 , cp. Jer 23 8f - : he is possessed of knowledge and
fear of Yahweh : knowledge is here not knowledge of his craft,
as in Ex 31, an idea sufficiently covered by v. 2b , but knowledge
of God which shows itself in care for the poor and weak : cp.
Jer 22 18 . ( gives to the spirit of Yahweh the specialised sense
of the spirit of prophecy an interpretation which made the
passage a convenient proof, though it is certainly not the
ultimate source of the idea, of "the seven spirits which are
before the throne of God " (Rev i 4 ) ; for the idea, see Schottgen
Horae Talmudicae ; for its origin, cp. Gunkel, Schopfung u. Chaos,
pp. 294-302; KAT* 624 f. The opening words of 3 J^ are
obviously the result of dittography, or of the intrusion into
the text of variants (see phil. n.). As they stand they are
meaningless : literally translated they read, and his enjoyment of
the scent of the fear of Yahweh^ or, assuming an awkward sup-
pression of the copula, and the scent that he enjoys is the fear
of Yahweh) which is paraphrased by RV into " and his delight
shall be in the fear of the Lord " ; i.e. himself God-fearing,
he will delight to find the fear of God in others. The real
sense of the phrase used in flf is clear in Ex 30 88 , " Whosoever
makes anything like it (this sweet incense), to enjoy the scent of if,
shall be cut off from his people"; cp. Lv 26 81 . Since the
feasts and solemn assemblies of the Hebrews were thick with
the fumes of sacrificial victims, it was quite appropriate to say,
" I will not enjoy the scent of them (Am 5 21 ) " ; but " the fear
of Yahweh," which is here made the object of the vb., was not
a smell. Another meaning that has frequently been tortured
out of the words is this, He will scent out the fear of God, re-
cognise at once the God-fearing; but in this sense mn takes
the simple ace. (Job 39 26 ).
3-5. The character of the king and his method of
government, which will spring from his spiritual endowments
(v. 2 ). Here there is certainly no hint that the king will be a
warrior : he reigns after war has been abolished (cp. 9 4t ). The
king will possess something of the wisdom of God; he will
know all that goes on in his country (cp. 2 S i4 20 ), and will be
able like God (i S i6 7 ), or a prophet of God (i S 9 19 ), to probe
things to the bottom (cp. Pr 25 2 ), not being misled by deceitful
appearances or lying words, but reading men's hearts. En
49 4 , which may be a paraphrase of the v., gets near to the
21 8 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
meaning "He will judge the secret things, and no one will
be able to utter a lying word before him." 4. As the perversion
of justice by which the poor and weak suffered was a constant
feature in actual life (i 17 - 23 io 2 ), so it is natural that the
securing of the rights of these classes becomes a permanent
feature of the ideal ruler, cp. Ps 72. The needy. . . the poor] io 2 .
^ here has ^y, the humble-minded, meek; but the parallel
suggests that this is an error for "M ; the two forms were liable
to be confused: see Dr. DB iv. 20. Of the earth} not required
by the parallelism and perhaps an addition. It indicates the world-
wide sway of the king (cp. 9 6 ); for the rendering of the land*
is improbable. 40. d. The Messianic age is not to be an age
free from sin (cp. 65 20 32 5 ); the conception is thus entirely
different from the later conception of heaven. But the wicked
will not as now sin on with impunity: the king will make
use of the divine power given to him, to smite such sin-
ners dead with a word; cp. g 7 n., Ac 5 1 ' 10 . The ruthless]
reading py (13" n.) for pK (^<3r), earth or land. Earth
cannot by itself mean the godless world (Del.). A real parallel
to yB>"), the wicked^ of the next line is required, and such is py ;
cp. Job i5 20 27 13 : note also the connections in which py is
used in 2Q 20 , Ps 37 s5 , Jer i5 21 . The rod of his mouth~\ i.e. by a
mere word: see above. Cp. the two-edged sword proceeding
from the mouth in Rev i 16 . More remote parallels to the idea
of speech as a deadly, cutting instrument may be found in
Jer i8 18 , Ps 57 5 < 4 >. The breath of his lips] this also means
speech; cp. Ps 33 6 "the word of the Lord . . . the breath
of his mouth." The wicked] the Hebrew term is sing., but, of
course, generic in meaning. Nevertheless it is interpreted indi-
vidually of Antichrist by 2T, " He will kill the wicked Armillos,"
and by Paul in 2 Th 2 8 . 5* The description of the king's char-
acter closes with a figure derived from the custom of girding up
the clothes before undertaking any active work : whatever he
undertakes is undertaken in righteousness and faithfulness : cp.
pnv and roiEK of man, Hab 2 4 , i S 26 23 , and of Yahweh as
King, Ps 96 18 . It corresponds closely to the justice and right-
eousness of 9 6 .
6-8. The return of the golden age. Nature will be
* Du., Che., Box.
XI. 4-6 219
transformed in the days of this king ; the golden age of the past
will return ; wild beasts will no longer prey on one another, or
be hurtful to men. The harmlessness of the wild beasts is
clearly connected in v. 7c with the expectation that in the
age to come they will cease to be carnivorous and become
graminivorous, as they, like man (ct. after the Flood, Gn 9 s ), were
first created (Gn i 80 ); the same idea may be, but is much less
clearly suggested by v. 6 , in a passage that depends on the
present (65 25 ) ; this harmlessness of the beasts is rather ineptly
heightened by making the serpent continue to eat dust, which
was not a feature of the golden age, but part of the curse that fell
on the serpent. For security from the present hurtful habits of
wild beasts in pictures of the future, see Hos 2 20 < 18 > ; less genially
expressed, Ezk 34 25 ' 28 , cp. Lv 26 6 . The idea was wide-spread;
Virgil's use of it (Eel iv. 2 1 f., v. 60) is famous, and many other
parallels are cited by Ges. i. 425 f. It is far less probable that
Virgil is dependent on Isaiah than that both Hebrew prophet and
Latin poet are common users of an ancient oriental idea; cp.
Gressmann, 193 ff., and Con way's Essay in Mayor, Fowler and
Conway's VirgiFs Messianic Eclogue.
6a. b. Wolves will no longer devour lambs, nor leopards kids,
but these strong and ferocious beasts will dwell together with the
others and under their protection ! They will begerim (14* n. :
cp. Numbers^ p. 175) of these domestic animals. 6c. The calf
and the young lion\ against the analogy of * b> 7a * c (cp. v. 8 ** b ), ^
adds a second domestic beast, the failing (i 11 n.); apart from &
it would be fairly obvious that this third term has driven out, or
is a corruption of, a verb : the young of oxen and lions will graze
on the same pastures. Probably v. 7c once formed the first line
of this distich, which then resembled the next (v. 7a> b ) in mention-
ing the two kinds the wild and the domestic in the first line,
their young in the second. In this case v. 6 * 1 , which introduces
the little child fearlessly driving young lions as well as calves, was
supplied by some annotator, probably from a parallel poem. If
these suppositions are correct, the marked parallelism of terms in
the two lines of each distich, which characterises most of the
poem in any case, would be maintained without break ; the one
monostich (v. 7c ) which at present stands isolated among the
distichs would disappear ; and the poet would complete at once
what he had to say of lions, instead of introducing the bears
22O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
between the young lion and the lion. 7. After the males (v. 6 and
perhaps 7c , see last n.), the females cow and she-bear (ni, fern.,
as 2 K 2 24 ). Shall be companions to one another] as Lagarde per-
ceived, one of the two D's at the beginning of rw^jnnn (cp. Pr
22 24 ) has accidentally dropped out, leaving in flf nrjnn, shall feed,
which by itself is pointless ; for, since the cow as well as the bear
is mentioned, the point cannot be that the bear will graze instead
of continuing to hunt (Di.). 70 = 65 25 ; this line should precede
v. 6a : see above. Like stalled animals such as the ox (i 8 ), the
lion will eat chopped straw (Gn 24 25 - 32 , Jg 19, i K 5 8 ). 8.
Not only with one another, but with man will animals, now hurt-
ful, be friends: the point is expressed by picturing the safety
with which the weakest members of the human race, babies
under two or three years of age, will approach with safety the
most malignant of beasts (Gn 3 15 ), the serpent, and make its
haunts their favourite playground. The weaned child] is the child
just weaned (cp. 28 9 , Ps 13 i 2 ), i.e. two or three years old (2 Mac
7 27 ). Shall play about] or take its delight : in any case the vb.
suggests more than the mere fact of playing with immunity,
it implies delight. Cp. the use of the vb. (VKW), or noun
(DWVP), in 5 7 6612 > J er 3 l20 > Pr 880f * : in Syriac the vb. is used
of diverting oneself with hounds, with a ball, etc. The hole] "in
occurs in the pi. in 42 22 , and (differently punctuated) in i S 14" of
holes in the ground; in Zee i4 12 it is used of the socket of the
eye. To infer from the last usage a reference here to the eye of
the snake is precarious. Asp . . . viper] it is impossible and, for
the appreciation of this passage, unimportant to determine the
precise species of serpents intended : see EBi. and DB, s.v.
Serpent. The dwelling] a term with such a meaning as this is
required by the parallel, but it is very questionable whether
miND, f^, which means place of light, meant also specifically
lighthole (BDB), den (RV); Di., Du. take the word to mean
the shining (thing), i.e. the serpent's shining, glistening eye;
unfortunately, if this meaning of miND could be admitted, the
parallel would still make it improbable that the poet is here
making use of the observation that babies " readily stretch out
their hands to shining objects." We should perhaps read myft,
hole (Che.), or nmjJB, lair (Beer). Trip about] the translation
rests on a conjectural emendation ; RV put for mn is a con-
jectural rendering of the very questionable text of f^.
XI. 1-8 221
I. Ten, yn, -IJM] all three words "are first found in the later [OT] litera-
ture" (Hack mann, p. 149); this is correct and not altogether insignificant,
nun was in use in the Aramaic dialect of N. Syria before the age of Isaiah :
cp. n33*?n nen . . . Tin 'V3 jm, Zinjerli Inscriptions (Hadad), 1. 3 = Cooke,
NSI 6i 8 ; and it is frequent in later Aramaic, main renders oar, sceptre (Ps
45' &), or noo, staff (Nu i; ai HV) ; in Gn 30" C it is used of fresh cut poplar
wands, and in Nu i; 17 GT of the rod that was to bud. In Syriac |^Q^j
c
means staff, rod, sceptre ; in Assyr. hutartu means staff \ and .lar*- has, as
* /
one of its meanings according to the I^arntis as cited by Lane, a branch of a
tree, ion (Pr I4 8 1) may have been more frequently in use with the Hebrews
than the two occurrences suggest. n] possibly late (see last n.), but not due
to Aramaic influence, for v /ij;3 = ns3=^i> (cp. Dr. 178) does not appear
to occur in Aramaic. 2. m.T nm njn] one of the rare instances of two
co-ordinated construct cases depending on the same gen. (G-K. 1280; Kon.
iii. 275^). But possibly even this is the result of textual error. V. M is at
present longer than ^ and <5r renders nvr nm by ewre/3e/as without the
addition of irpbs TOV Ktpiov (33 6 ). The original text may have had HKY, and this
may have been replaced by a correct marginal note explaining nKT to be rmv
ni.r. 3. m.T nKT3 imm] a corrupt dittograph of mrr rmvi njn nn, not (Beer)
an error for ** wo* 13 mm (cp. Ezk 24 18 ). Note that <3r renders m.T nKT
by 0<5j3ou 0eoD in v. 8 , by tfotpcia in v. a ; v. 8 * <Br may be the addition of a
later hand. 5. mix . . man] so read instead of INK . . mm ^ (cp. i6 7 n.).
The evidence of <5r in favour of two different words is strong, for favvfaiv,
&vil are frequently used for both *un, mit (and derivatives) ; here, where both
words occur together, elXTj/i^os, which nowhere else renders either word, is
adopted in order to preserve the difference. 6. N'IDI] read WV : the strongest
evidence is given above. After KO.I X^wj>=TB3i, <5r continues Afw, ftoffKirjd^ffov-
rai ; ffir also inserts between Kal ftoffx&piov ( = ^ayi) and ical \tuv the words
Kai ravpos ( = ? K'TDi in a different position from f^). D3 JH3] ffi dfei adroi/'y.
Di. draws attention to the cstr. with 3 instead of the normal ace., and
therefore renders a driver among them. 8. mn TV] Doubtful, for note (a)
Tin would be the only occurrence in the poem of a pf. tense, and this
remains suspicious in spite of Driver, 147 ; (b) the length of the line ; (c )
apart from the possibility of its being found in the proper name "I.T, nn, the
root is unknown in Hebrew: in Arabic and Syriac (^J^Jb, |5O"l) it is
frequent, and means to lead, direct ; yet no trace is to be found in either of
these languages of the meaning to stretch out commonly attributed to it in
this passage. The second of these objections is merely brought into relief, but
not removed, by chopping v. 8b into two lines at 'Jiyi, for the whole of 8b is
parallel to * : the halves are parallel neither to one another, nor to v. 8 *.
mnrv is an early error, and conceals a single word which was the imperfect
tense of a verb parallel in sense to yvytrt in v. 8 *, possibly min' (38** n.), shall
trip about, with the movements natural to a child learning to walk.
222 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
XL 9-16. The Return of the Dispersion to the Holy Land.
This passage is not entirely poetical (Lowth. ), nor even with the excep-
tion of v. 11 from onnBD to the end (Du., Cond. ) but in part prose, as shown
below. Che. treats vv. 9 ' 11 - 16 , Box 10f - 16 , Marti 9 - n , as prose. In vv. 12 ' 14 the
dominant rhythm in 3 : 3 ; this is probably not continued in v. 15 , though the
v. has almost certainly suffered some textual corruption, leaving the exact
nature of the rhythm an open question. Marti treats vv. 12 ' 16 as a poem of
four strophes each containing two distichs : if this were right, the poem con-
tained ahysteron proteron, see on v. 15 .
9 No harm nor destruction shall be wrought throughout all
my holy mountain : for the land will have become full of the
knowledge of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea. 10 And it
shall come to pass in that day the root of Jesse which will be
standing for a signal to the peoples
Him shall the nations consult,
And his resting-place shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day the Lord shall again
'raise' his hand to acquire the remnant of his people, which
remains over, from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and
from Cush and from 'Elam and from Shin'ar and from Hamath
and from the isles of the sea.
12 And he will raise a signal to the nations ;
And he will gather the outcasts of Israel,
And collect the dispersed (fern.) of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
13 And jealousy of Ephraim shall cease,
And the vexers of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
Nor shall Judah vex Ephraim.
14 And they shall swoop down upon the shoulder of the
Philistines, westward,
Together shall they plunder the sons of the East ;
Edom and Moab shall be brought under their dominion,
And the children of Ammon shall be obedient to
them.
XI. 9-16 223
16 And Yahweh will ' dry up * the tongue of the sea of
Egypt.
And he will swing his hand over the River . . .
And he will smite it into seven wadys,
And make it (a way) to be trodden with sandals.
16 And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people
who remain over from Assyria, as there was for Israel in the day
that it came up from the land of Egypt.
The well-marked and sustained rhythm and parallelism, which
is so conspicuous in vv. 1 * 8 , is not continued in vv. 9 ' 11 . In
vv 12-14 something similar reappears, and but for the fact that
the tenor and spirit of these verses is different, and vv. 1 ' 8
sufficiently complete in themselves, w. 1 * 12-14 might be regarded
as a single poem which has been interpolated (vv. 9 * 11 ) and added
to (vv. 15f -)
Vv. 9 - 16 appear to be a collection of brief pieces, in part prose,
in part poetry (see above). They are arranged in no very obvious
order, but they deal with related subjects, viz. the future glory of
Sion, and its attractiveness, as the home of true Religion, for
the Gentiles, w. 8f - ; the restoration of the Jews at present dis-
persed throughout the world, vv. llf - 15f ' ; the freedom of the future
community from attack and internal dissensions (v. 13 ), and its
success in establishing its authority over its neighbours, v. 14 .
It is very doubtful whether any part of this section is the work
of Isaiah : most of it is clearly post-exilic, since it presupposes
the Exile and the Dispersion of the Jews as existing facts. The
argument for post-exilic date is well and fully stated by Che. in
Introd. pp. 59-62.
9 = 65 25b + Hab 2 14 . In 65 25 the subject of the vbs. are
clearly the harmful beasts, and the fact that 65 18 * 25 is a speech of
Yahweh's immediately accounts for the first person in the phrase
my holy mountain : in Hab. pNIl clearly means the earth, and
not merely the land of Judah. Here the first person is not
accounted for by the context, and both the subject of the vbs.
and the meaning of ptfn are ambiguous. This closer cohesion
of the two parts of the v. with their respective contexts in 6f b
and Hab 2 14 is good reason for holding that their original homes
are there, and that here they are quotations carrying out the
general thought of what proceeds, viz. that there will be no more
224 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
harm and destruction, but not harmonising closely either with the
thought or structure of the passage. If, now, v. 9 is the original
continuation of vv. 1 ' 8 , those verses must be later than Hab. and
65 25 ; so, e.g., Hackm. pp. 136-138, 146; but v. 9 is rhythmically
distinguished, and should be separated from vv. 1 ' 8 . So long as
ch. ii in its entirety was referred to Isaiah, it was naturally
assumed, rather than critically maintained, that v. 9 was the source
whence two later writers derived their words.
Owing to the ambiguities referred to above, the exact point
which the annotator, who combined two quotations and inserted
them here, wished to make is not clear : possibly that Yahweh's
territory will no longer suffer from the nations of the world, for the
whole earth will have come to know that Yahweh is Yahweh, and
that His people are not to be molested with impunity, a line of
thought found in Ezk 39 17 ' 29 ; but the modification of Habakkuk's
phrase, u the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh " (cp. Is 66 18f -) to
the knowledge of Yahweh, does not favour this. More probably we
should abandon the meaning earth, which pNH has in Hab., and
seek another interpretation of the subjects of the vbs. They shall
not hurt, etc., obviously cannot refer to the weaned child and the
suckling, the last mentioned subjects in vv. 1 ' 8 , nor, since they
are incapable of the knowledge of Yahweh, to the wild beasts of
vv. 6 ' 8 . That the thought passes far back to attach itself only to
the ruthless and the wicked men of v. 4 is altogether improbable :
the subjects are best taken in the most indefinite way no one
shall hurt, no hurt shall be done by man, for the knowledge of
Yahweh, which restrains from such conduct, will prevail throughout
the land. All my holy mountain] this may mean here the entire
Holy Land, for this was a mountain country, and, as belonging to
Yahweh, holy ; all is then explained, and the phrase is co-extensive
with the land in the next sentence. Naturally, of course,
Yahweh's "holy mountain," a phrase never used by Isaiah, is
Mount Sion. As the waters cover the sea] the comparison would
most naturally suggest itself to one who was thinking of the whole
earth (Hab.). 10. The capital of the monarchy of the restored
Jewish community will be famous, and the nations of the world
will come and consult the king as an organ of the revelation of
the one true God ; cp. 2 iM : but here prominence is given to the
vehicle of Yahweh's Revelation ; there the nations are said to
obtain instruction from Yahweh Himself. The root of Jesse]
XI. 10, II 225
i.e. the new shoot from the old root (cp. v. 1 ), root being used in
the same sense as in 53 2 . Which will be standing] the part, here
is in any case awkward, but the future sense (3T) is preferable to
the present (U, RV). The pf. tense would be stylistically prefer-
able, but unsuitable in the context. As a signal to the peoples']
cp. 5 26 (n.) : also 49 82 . That a root should stand as a signal, or
banner, is an extraordinary combination of figures; root no
doubt, as a technical term, might at once suggest a person,
the Messianic king ; cp. " my servant the Shoot," Zee 3 8 ; but
it remains extraordinary that a person stands like a signal or
banner (ct. v. 12 ). Possibly here, as in v. 9 , the writer is citing
phrases from different places without welding them well together.
Him shall the nations consult] so as to obtain oracles (8 19 ), or
religious instruction (cp. 2 3 ), from him. And his resting-place
shall be glorious"] glorious things will be spoken of Sion, the city
of Yahweh, the resting-place (cp. e.g. Dt 1 2 9 , i K 8 56 ) of His
Messiah and the birthplace of the nations into a new life (cp.
Ps 87) ; or, perhaps, we might compare 4*. nnuo is used also
of Yahweh's abode in the midst of His people (Ps 95" i32 14 ).
U renders " his sepulchre " ; this reflects an exegesis which saw in
the " signal " of the first part of the v. the Cross ; it is not due
to an etymology based on the use of the vb. ma in 57*.
II. The Lord will re-possess himself of the survivors of his
people now scattered over the known world. The style is
awkward and some details are ambiguous; but the general
impression of a wide dispersion of the Jews as an existing fact is
too strongly and clearly conveyed for the passage to be pre-exilic :
cp. Zee jo 5 ' 12 . The Lord shall again 'raise' his hand to acquire
the remnant of his people] taken strictly, this should mean that the
remnant has already once been acquired, to wit, when Yahweh
brought back some of the exiled Jews from Babylon. But
possibly the style is loose, and all that the writer means is that
there will be a second acquisition : at the Exodus, Yahweh
acquired (Ex i5 16 , cp. Ps 74 2 ) a whole people; He is now going
to acquire what remains of His people by gathering the exiled
Jews from all quarters of the earth. From Assyria^ etc.] either
the clauses define from whom the acquisition is to be made, in
which case the clause which remains over is otiose ; or there
is an awkward breviloquence the remnant . . . which remains
over of (those who were in) Assyria, etc. Assyria, which as in
VOL. i. 15
226 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Ezr 6 22 (cp. io 20 n.) may refer to the Persian Empire as the
contemporary occupant of the Tigris-Euphrates valley which
formerly belonged to Assyria, and Egypt are mentioned first as
being the centres of the two great civilisations of the Ancient
World. After these two wide terms follow (i) two specific districts
of the Nile valley, Pathros and Cush : Pathros is upper Egypt :
the Egyptian P-to-re"s meant South Land, and more particularly,
perhaps, the country extending from a few miles S. of Memphis
to Syene (Assouan) at the First Cataract;* Cush (cp. iS 1 n.) is
Ethiopia, and extended southwards from the First Cataract; (2)
two specific districts of the Tigris-Euphrates basins, Elam, lying
to the E. of the lower Tigris (2i 2 n.), and Shinar (Gn n 2 , Jos
7 21 , Zee 5 11 , Dn i 2 ), i.e. Babylonia, the district in which the
city of Babylon and also Erech, Accad, and Calneh were situated
(Gn io 10 ) ; (3) Hamath on the Orontes (io 9 n.), for which Lag.,
deeming the reference to a city so relatively near Judah improb-
able, proposed to substitute a more remote district, and the isles,
or coastlands, of the Mediterranean sea. The last term, never
used by Isaiah, is a favourite with the Deutero-Isaiah, who thereby
indicates his far western horizon. W. Max Miiller (DB
Pathros) takes a different view of the relation of the terms
Egypt, Pathros, and Cush : he would give to Egypt here the
limited sense of lower Egypt ; then the three terms together
cover the Nile valley. So Esar-haddon describes himself as king
of the kings of Musur, Paturisi, and Ku-si. Some t hold that
from Pathros to the end of the v. is a subsequent addition. (Si
has a rather different list.
12. The thought that Yahweh will gather home His widely
scattered people, expressed in prose and with geographical partic-
ularity in v. 11 , is here expressed in poetry with poetical brevity
and expressiveness. The Dispersion will be brought back/ww
the four corners of the earth (Ezk 7 2 , Job 37 3 ); Yahweh will raise
a signal (5 26 n.), in response to which the nations will bring home
the exiled people (49 22 66 20 ), and indeed the whole of it, Israel
as well as Judah, males (TVH) and females (niB3) alike (cp. 49 22
6o 4 ). 13. Israel, now called Ephraim (cp. 9 8 ), and Judah, thus
restored (v. 12 ), will no more be subject to the envy and opposi-
tion of the nations, nor will the internal feuds which marked
* W. Max Muller, in DB iii. 693.
t Sta., Du., Cond. ; but not Di., Che., Marti.
XL 12-16 227
the actual history of Yahweh's people (cp. 9 20 < 21 )), be renewed in
the age to come. For the future unity of Israel and Judah, see
Ezk 37 16ff - and Hos 2 2 (i 11 ); cp. "unto David their king" in
Hos 3 3 ; for the cessation of outward hostilities, cp. e.g. g 8 - 6f -.
Jealousy of Ephraim . . . the vexers of Judah~\ D^lBN ntp
may, of course, mean (G-K. 128^, 135 m) either the jealousy
which Ephraim feels, or the jealousy of which Ephraim is the
object (cp. Ezk 35 11 ) ; and mirp "nitf either those who had op-
posed or oppressed Judah, or those in and of Judah who are
at enmity with another country (RV marg.). But to treat the
genitives as subjective gives an unsatisfactory antithesis :
Ephraimite sentiment will change, but in Judah opposition to
Ephraim will only be brought to an end by an annihilation of
those who will still cherish enmity towards Ephraim. The two
distichs of v. 18 speak of different things ; consequently the second
is not superfluous, and there is no reason for omitting it with
Du., Che., al. 14. Re-united (v. 18 ), Yahweh's people will, as of
old under David, exercise dominion over the whole of Palestine,
East and West of Jordan; cp. Am 9 ll -, also Ps 6o 8 ' 10 < 9 - n >.
They shall swoop] cp. Hab i 8 (cpy). The shoulder of the
Philistines'] the hills between the maritime plain and the Judaean
highlands which formed a debatable ground between Judah and
Philistia. For the idiom, cp. "the shoulder of the sea of
Chinnereth"(Nu 34"), "the shoulder of Moab" (Ezk 250).
The sons of the East] the nomadic tribes of the desert to the E.
of trans-Jordanic Palestine; cp. Jer 49 28ff -, Jg 6 s . Shall be
brought under their dominion] lit. are the outstretching of their
hand, i.e. that which their hand stretches out to take possession
of: cp. Ex 22 7 - 10 ( 8 - n >. 15, 16. Cp. Zee io lof -. The second
Exodus (v. 16 ), in which the Remnant will depart as easily from
Assyria as Israel of old from Egypt (v. 16 ), would in reality be the
prelude to the unmolested life and victorious undertakings of the
restored exiles (v. 18f -). The present connection, or the order, of
vv. 18 ' 16 is perhaps not the original. Will dry up] so (Si ( = annrn,
cp. 5o 2 ) : }^ D'nnni, will ban, devote. The tongue of the sea of
Egypt] the Red Sea; tongue is also used for a tongue-shaped
piece of water in Jos i5 2 ' 5 i8 19 . He will swing his hand] io 82 n,,
i9 16 . The River] probably the Euphrates (y 20 n.); possibly the
Nile (cp. "iru without the art. in i9 5 ). With the glowing heat of
his breath] or wind (see phil. n.). The clause, if the rendering
228 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
at all represents its meaning, goes oddly with he shall swing his
hand: perhaps it is a gloss on the previous line (Du., al.).
The last part of the v. also is inadequately explained : it is
supposed to mean that the Euphrates will be smitten into
" seven (shallow) streams " (Che. SBOT\ so that the returning
exiles may easily wade over. But why wear sandals to wade ?
Why seven streams? And would not this miracle be anti-
climactic after the complete drying up of the Egyptian sea?
Others think of waterless wadys over which the exiles pass in
sandals, i.e. dry-shod (Rashi, Ki.). The fH3, wady> is not speci-
fically a shallow stream ; it may be deep and strong enough to
carry away those who attempt to cross it (Jg 5 21 , cp. Ezk 47 5 ),
and at other times it dried up completely (i K 17*). 16. A
highway] for the returning exiles : cp. 4o 3 , the source (Du.)
rather than an echo (Di.) of this v.
9. njn] cp. 28", Ex 2 4 ; ct. njn, n a . On the ace. * nt, see G-K. u$d.
{ renders -Tin' rm njn by **n xnSm iv jno^='"' na:) nt< njnS, Hab 2 14 .
Houb.,Cond. read * rum njn (cp. v. 2 ). D'DDD D'^> D'on] "a unique form of
expression " with more analogy in Arabic than Hebrew : the nearest parallel
in Hebrew is Nu lo 25 (P) ; remote parallels are I4 2 , Nu 25 18 (P), Dt 4^; Dr.
J 35 (7) Obs. II. 3-i] many MSS read nvr. irar] <& TOV 5cu; read
nNip (Marti). If f^ be retained, it is necessary to assume an ellipse of an
infinitive dependent on i\*o\' and governing TV. 12. 'nnj] for the omission
of daghesh in the i, see G-K. 2om. The Niph. part, of mj is also used of
banished, exiled Hebrews in 2; 18 56 8 , Mic 4* (Zeph 3 19 ), Dt 30* (Neh I 9 ).
14. ^HI] MT is due to erroneous interpretation : cp. H, and see Dr. 190,
Obs. ; the cstr. is f]n|, which should be read here. 15. The four lines are
unequal. The text may have suffered considerably. inn D'jn] n'y is a &ir. \ey.
In Arabic /lc means to be cloudy, to become thirsty^ to be affected with
internal heat (see Lane) ; but this does not make it very probable that D'jn
inn is a rare synonym for ISN pina, and means in the heat of his spirit, still
less that it means in the glowing heat of his wind. Ges. (Thes.), al. read
inn DJJJD (cp. Ex I4 21 ) ; whether <5r irvetftaTi /Sia/y (cp. TS in fortitudine
spiritus sui) read this, or guesed at the meaning of |, is uncertain 16.
ntrto mt^ND INB" nt^K . . . -IKS?] this persistent alliteration may have been
intended : there is nothing like it in Isa. nwND] (& tv
XII. Songs of Deliverance : to be sung on the occasion of the New
Exodus (\\K*).
The chapter consists of two songs, (a) vv. lf> , (ft) vv. 4 ' 6 , each
of which is provided with an introductory formula, resembling
XI. 9-16 AND XII. 229
those which introduce similar songs (25* 26 1 272, cp. i4 8t ) in
chs. 24-27 ; and (c) a prophetic promise (v. 8 ).
Each song written for the New Exodus (n 11 - 16 ) is suitably
enough reminiscent of the song (Ex I5 1 ' 18 ) which, according to
the tradition already current in the writer's age, had been sung
by Moses and the children of Israel on the occasion of the First
Exodus; with v. 2c - d cp. Ex is 8 *- 11 ; with v. 8 *, Ex 15*.
The first song expresses Israel's gratitude that though
Yahweh had been angry (cp. io 6 ), His anger had turned away
(io 26 ), and He had comforted His people (cp. 4o lf -), delivering
them and restoring them to their land, and to an unmolested (v. 2b )
and glorious life there (ch. n). The second song calls for the
proclamation to the nations of the might of Yahweh displayed
in the restoration of His people, and (v. 6 ) for ion to cry out
joyously at the presence in her midst of her great and Holy God.
It thus seems obvious that the chapter was written to occupy
its present position after a collection of prophecies that spoke of
Yahweh's anger with His people, but concluded with an account
of the New Exodus. Whether this collection of prophecies was
io 6 -u 16 only or chs. i-n, ch. 12, being the sequel to n 1(M6 , is
no earlier than that passage, and, therefore, post-exilic.
The argument as to date just stated is the briefest, and it is sufficient.
But the chapter, even if it be regarded by itself and independently of its
relation to what precedes, is clearly post-exilic. Ew. in 1840 was the first to
detect that it was not Isaiah's: "Words, figures, terms of expression, yes,
and the entire contents and spirit, are not Isaiah's : and this is so clear that
further proof would be superfluous. . . . The colour and character of the
passage clearly refer it to the times soon after chs. 40-66 ; and an old scribe or
reader who found with great delight a fulfilment of the words of II IH * in the
release from the Babylonian exile may at that time have enlarged Isaiah's
oracle with these exultant words" (Propheten des AB*, i. 459, cp. pp. 77 f.).
Ew.'s discovery remained for some time unfruitful ; but his conclusion was
emphatically endorsed by Lag. in 1878 (Semitica, i.), and has since then been
widely admitted: see Stade (ZATW> 1883, p. 16), Kuenen (Ond?\\. 57),
Francis Brown (JBLtt., 1890, pp. 128, 131), Di., Du., Kon. (Einleitung,
319), Che. (Introd. 57-59), G. A. Smith (in Hastings' DB), Marti; cp., less
decisively, Dr. in LOT 9 ; and for a defence of Isaiah's authorship, see W. H.
Cobb, vn.JBL.it., 1891, pp. 131-143. A date very considerably later than the
Exile seems more probable than that suggested by Ew. in view of the relation
of the poem to late Psalms. " In scope and expression, in its conceptions
and its hopes, it is closely allied to the late Psalms, such as 118, 138, 145 :
cp. also 91-1 oo, 107, in" (Brown).
Rhythm. In vv. lf> , balanced dislichs 3 : 3 ; in 4 ' 8 the distichs are all
230 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
balanced, but of different length : the first distich in v. 4 is 2 : 2, the second
3:3; those in vv. H - are 4 : 4, each line being divided by a caesura into 2 : 2.
1 And thou shalt say in that day :
1 I give thanks to thee, Yahweh, for thou wast angry with
me,
'And* thine anger turned away and thou comfortedst
me.
2 Behold, God is my salvation,
I trust and dread not ;
For my strength and 'my' song is Yah,
And he has become my salvation.
3 And ye shall draw water with joy out of the fountains of
salvation, 4 and ye shall say in that day :
Give thanks to Yahweh,
Invoke his name;
Make known among the people his deeds,
Make mention that his name is exalted.
5 Make melody to Yahweh, for he hath wrought proudly ;
Let this be known throughout the whole earth.
6 Give a shrill cry, give a ringing cry, O inhabitress of Sion ;
For great in thy midst is the Holy One of Israel.
I. Thou shalt say] Israel, who speaks in the first pers. sing.
in the following poem, as so often in the Psalter, is here addressed.
Ct. the distributive pi. of v. 4 (|^). I give thee thanks] the word
(min) occurs also in v. 4 25* 38 18 - 19 and nowhere else in the Book of
Isaiah: it occurs in Gn 29 35 , very frequently in the Psalter, and
elsewhere most frequently in Chron. ; cp. Driver, Parallel Psalter,
pp. 46 if. Israel gives thanks because Yahweh's anger had not
been drawn out to all generations (cp. Ps 85 6 ), but had turned
away (ct. 9 11 etc.). The vb. *pK is used here only in the Book of
Isaiah ; other occurrences of it are worth comparing in illustra-
tion of the similarity in tone and temper of this Psalm and late
liturgical pieces : see Ps 6o 3 jg 5 856, i K 8 46 (with the following
verses). And thine anger turned away] it is best to assume a
slight mutilation of the text (see phil. n.) : let thine anger turn
away (RVmarg.) is a correct rendering of f^, but leaves Yahweh's
anger as the sole ground for giving thanks, which is highly
improbable.-4GW] ?N without the art. absolutely of the one
XII. i-6 231
true God, as in Deutero-Isaiah (4o 18 45 14 ) and Psalms (e.g.
I6 1 17* io6 14 ). Cp. "with us is God" (El) in 8 8 - 10 , and perhaps
"the stars of God (El)" in i4 18 ; but the predicative use in 3i 8
is, of course, different, as also are the remaining occurrences of
!>K in 1-39, viz - 9 5 = Io21 ( E1 Gibbor) and 5 16 (with the art).
2C. d = Ex 1 5 2 , which is also used in Ps 1 1 8 14 : see above. And
dread not] i9 10 n. Yahweh~\ is inserted in J^ after Yah (cp. 26 4 ),
but it is absent from ffi and from Ex i5 2 , and it overloads the
line. 3. The restored Israelites will rejoice as they draw on the
unfailing fountain of Yahweh's grace ; cp. 55 1 , Jer 33 lof - ; for the
figure of Yahweh as a fountain or cistern, see Jer 2 13 iy 18 , cp. Ps
3 6 10 8; 7 . 4. And ye] <8x Andthou ; cf. v. 1 . 4a. b. C = Ps 105*.
4d. Cp. Ps I48 18 : ct. "Yahweh (not his name, as here) is exalted,"
2 17 . 5. Cp. Ex. is lb . Make melody to\ this word (iDT) is very
characteristic of the Psalter, and occurs outside it only here
and in Jg 5 8 . He hath wrought proudly] m&O HBty: in Ex
I5 1 nfiC} riW: cf. Ps 93 1 &A m&O . . . mPP; JTKO is similarly
used in 26, but with different nuances by Isaiah (9" 28 1 ).
Let this be known] this with backward reference to the fact of
God's proud and majestic achievements. 6. Give a shrill cry]
so 24 14 54 1 , Jer 3i 7 all, as here, synonymous with pi: in io 80
i>n has a different force. Inhabitress of Sion~\ Jer 5i 85 f: cp.
"inhabitress of Shaphir," "of Maroth," "of Lachish," Mic i 11 .
What is meant is the entire population of the city. For great in
thy midst] cp. " Great is Yahweh ... in the city of our God,"
Ps 48 2 0) ; cp. Ps v<j*.The Holy One of Israef] this favourite
term of Isaiah's and the Deutero-Isaiah's is used by this Psalmist
in common with two or three other Psalmists: see Ps yi 22
89".
I. 'jon^n ISK 3tf;] MT clearly takes the vbs. as jussives : cp. the fut. of
d, "When I shall have returned to thy Law thy anger will turn away from
me and thou wilt have pity on me " ; but (& (KO.\ &Tr<rTp\l/as rbv 0v/jL6v <rov
Kal ^X^trds Aie), &= 3?l?l (Hiph. ; cp. Ps yS 38 , Job 9 1 - *). Read, 'jonjrn -JBN 3^1.
Marti prefers to read at?, assuming a dittography of in f ; but the coupling .
of the vbs. ((5r) is far more probable, since the real reason ('3) of TTIK is first
reached in the last two (cp. 5 4 ). This point also weighs against the theory
that the text is sound and w a " poetically shortened " form for 3^n, a theory
that is precariously supported by reference to Hos 6 1 (note preceding i) and
Ps iS 12 (ct. 2 S 22 12 ) : cp. Dr. 174. 2. n mon] mon has suffered the loss
of before n. 3. 'j;a59 for the two pathahs, cp. n^u: from ibj^: ; in i K i8 6
the alternative form '^yi? occurs. 5. nyn;p] K e tib, Pual part. ; K're*
232 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Hoph. part. The Pual part, elsewhere means acquaintance. The IC e re (Lv
4 23 - ^f) is preferable, the part, being gerundial (G-K. Ii6e); but perhaps
((3r) was the original reading ; cp. the || noi and v. 4 .
XIII.-XXIII. Prophecies mainly devoted to Foreign Nations.
This main section of the Book of Isaiah falls into the follow-
ing subsections : The Oracle of Babylon, I3 1 -i4 28 ; The Fall of
Assyria, i4 24 ' 27 ; of Philistia, I4 29 ' 32 ; The Oracle of Moab, isf. ;
The Oracle of Damascus (and Ephraim), 1 7 1 ' 11 ; The Tumult of
many Nations, i; 12 ' 14 ; The Land beyond the rivers of Cush, 18;
The Oracle of Egypt, 19; Isaiah a sign against Egypt and
Ethiopia, 20 ; The Oracle of " the Wilderness of the Sea," 2i MO ;
The Oracle of Dumah, 2i llf -; The Oracle "In Arabia," 2i 18 - 16 ;
The Oracle of the Valley of Vision, 22 1 ' 14 ; The Fate of Shebna,
22 i6-25. The Oracle of Tyre, 23.
The nine, or (including i4 29 ' 32 ) ten, "oracles," either in whole
or in part, not improbably at one time formed by themselves an
anonymous " Book of Oracles " \ to these the sections not defined
as oracles were in that case subsequently added ; the addition of
the words " which Isaiah the son of 'Amos saw " to the title of
the first section (I3 1 ), may indicate that the whole of the enlarged
work came to be attributed to Isaiah : see, further, Introduction,
XIII. i-XIV. 23. Babylon.
The " Oracle of Babylon " consists of (a) a poem predicting
the capture of Babylon, " the beauty of kingdoms," by the Medes,
and the complete and permanent desolation of the site of the
city, i3 2 - 22 ; () a section, part poetry, part prose, explaining that
the Fall of Babylon will be the prelude to Yahweh's restoration
of the Israelites to their land, and the subjection to them there
of those who at present exact from them the hard service of
captives, I4 1 ' 4 *; possibly 13220. d belongs to this section: see
Geiger, Urschrift, p. 353 ; (c) a song of triumph over a cruel and
arrogant tyrant who had conquered and held in subjection the
entire world, i4 4b ' 21 ; according to section (b) this king was a
king of Babylon (i4 4a ); (d} a prose re-statement of the theme
of (a) Yahweh is about to exterminate the Babylonians and
make the site of the city desolate ; (d) also appears to refer to (c).
XIIL i-xiv. 23 233
Whoever is answerable for the final form of the oracle quite
clearly, whether correctly or not, understood the whole to refer
to Babylon. The poem in ch. 13 was written at a time when
Babylon was the commanding city of the entire world (i3 19 ), and
when it was natural to expect that her supremacy, if wrested
from her at all, would be wrested by the Medes (i3 17 ); i.e. it
was written at some time after the Fall of Nineveh in c. 606 B.C.,
but before the actual Fall of Babylon in 538 B.C. ; not later than
538, for the fate of Babylon is described in i3 19 - 22 prophetically,
not ex eventu ; the desolation of the site of the city was by no
means what the writer depicts. A date about, or a little before,
550 B.C. best meets the case (see below on i3 17 ).
Clearly, then, the oracle of Babylon is no earlier than the
Exile: it is probably later, for i^-^^f.) j s post-exilic rather
than exilic; Babylon to the writer of these verses may be a
symbolic name for all those that oppress Israel; the Israelites
who are to be restored are to come from many quarters (see
I4 1 - 4 *). The song of triumph (i4 4 ' 21 ) judged by itself less clearly
reveals its date (see below) ; but it is fairly safe to infer, if merely
from the striking difference in style, that it is not the work of the
author of i4 1 ~ te .
We may then attribute the oracle in its present form to a
post-exilic editor who wrote I4 1 " 4 * to connect two poems (132-22
and i4 4b * 21 ) which he understood, and in the case of the first at
least correctly, to refer to the Fall of Babylon. He, too, may
have added i4 22f> , and perhaps have introduced some modifica-
tions into 132-22.
For some two thousand years and more the singularly unfortunate guess
of some editor who thought that the entire oracle was a prophecy of Isaiah's
(i3 1 )led to the unquestioning acceptance of Isaiah's authorship of I3 1 -I4 23 .
The impossibility of this was perceived by Eichhorn, who, however, though
he correctly perceived the terminus a qu, failed to see that ch. 13 at least
was written before the end of the Exile. He treated the entire oracle as
post-exilic. Ges. correctly dated ch. 13 in the Exile, and with him, as with
most succeeding scholars till Du., this was allowed to determine the date
of the entire section. Bredenkamp, who maintained Isaiah's authorship of
ch. 13, but saw in I4 4b "2 a poem on the fall of Nebuchadnezzar, assigned
14"* to a third hand. Rejected by Di. as " apologetische Halbheit," this
correct perception of difference was utilised by Du., who treated I4 1-4a as a
post-exilic editor's link connecting I3 2 ' 22 (to jvhich he thought I4 22f - might
also belong) and I4 4b ' 21 , the two poems being possibly, but not necessarily, the
work of the same author. The analysis has been accepted by Che,, Marti,
234 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
and others ; but with less readiness to admit that the two poems may be the
work of the same hand, or that i^ 22 *' may belong to I3 2 ' 22 . "There are such
differences in the imaginative pictures of the judgment in the two works, and
there is so much more poetic heat in the ode than in the prophecy, that the
conjecture (already offered in PI'\. 21) of a twofold authorship is a reason-
able one" (Che. Introd. p. 75).
But once I4 4b ' 21 is isolated, the date of it cannot be determined so clearly
or so closely as the date of I3 2 - 22 ; and there have been attempts of late to
show that it is earlier and, indeed, the work of Isaiah ; see below, pp. 251 f.
That the section I3 1 -I4 23 cannot in its entirety be the work of Isaiah
follows so obviously from the historical situation presupposed in I3 2 ' 22 , that
it need not be more elaborately proved here. For such proof, see, e.g., Ges.,
Di. , Che. Introd. 67 ff. For defences of Isaiah's authorship, see Uhland,
Vat. Jes. cap. xiii. . . . prophet ae, Jesaiae vindicatum (Tubingen, 1798), the
commentary of Or. , and earlier editions of Del.
XIII. I. Title. The oracle of] i.e. concerning Babylon ;
cp. I5 1 ly 1 I9 1 2 1 1 - 11 22 1 23 1 , Nah i 1 . NB>, oracle, or utterance^
is a noun derived from the vb. K5?3 used as in 3 7 (n.) 42 2 .
Which Isaiah saw] i.e. received by revelation : cp. i 1 n., 2 1 . See
further on this title, Introduction, 28 ff.
XIII. 2-22. The coming Destruction of Babylon.
The dominant rhythm in vv. 2-8 {53:2, in vv. 9 ' 22 it is 3 : 3. In vv. 1 " 8
there are 12 to 14 distichs, most of which are obviously 3:2; at most two are
3 : 3, and even these were probably 3 : 2, for in v. 2b makkeph Sp'iDnn (cp.
I! oriNB>) ; and in v. 7b enaN may be intrusive (see n. below). Of some 25
dislichs in vv. 9 ' 22 most are clearly 3:3; in MT only one (v. lla< b ) is 3 : 2,
though by makkephing N 1 ? with the vb. in vv. 10b> 22d two further 3 : 2 distichs
could be obtained. On the other hand, if the makkeph be omitted after *?jn,
even v. lla - b is 3 : 3, not 3 : 2.
By omitting a word from the second line of several distichs (viz. in
vv 9d. lid. i2b. i4d^ ^y assuming the loss of two words after v. 21a and also after
v. 21b , by treating v. 16 as two distichs (" Langverse "), and by other hazardous
treatments of the text and improbable line divisions, Du. nearly succeeds in
reducing the whole of vv. 2 ' 22 to what he, and after him Marti, Box, and
Whitehouse, claim that it was 42 distichs 3 : 2. Box is less consistent than
Du. in his reconstruction, but still boldly claims that the whole is in the
rhythm of the Hebrew dirge. But if the 5 successive distichs in vv. 4f ' and
the 6 successive distichs in vv. llc ' 14 are, as they stand in $f (and Box does not
emend), in the same rhythm, then there is no such thing as distinction of
rhythm in Hebrew. Vv. 4f - are in echoing, vv. llc ' 14 in balanced rhythm.
In both parts of the chapter there are irregularities, i.e. distichs neither
3 : 2 nor 3:3; but at least some of these are due to textual corruption ; see
notes on vv. 8> ' 8 - 9 - 16> 18 . Note, further, that vv. 15 - 20a - b were 2 : 3 unless a
XIII. 2-22 235
word || 3-in has dropped out after ipr in v. 15 and iiy in v. 20 * (see n.) ; v. 17 *- b
contains in all only 4 accents ; 19 - d is 2 : 2 (balanced, not echoing).
The strophic structure, if such was intended, is not clear, or, if clear,
irregular. In the translation, spaces are left where there seems to be a larger
pause in the sense. Du., followed by Box, distributes his hypothetical 42
long lines into six strophes each containing exactly seven lines, and ending
respectively with w. 4 ' * 12 ' 16- 20< M .
2 " On a bare hill raise the signal,
Cry aloud to them ;
Wave the hand that they may enter
Through the gates of the nobles.
8 (For) 'tis I have charged ' to (execute) my anger '
[The host of] my consecrated ones,
Yea, I have summoned my warriors,
My proudly exultant ones."
* Hark ! a tumult on the mountains
As of much people ;
Hark ! the din of kingdoms,
Of nations assembled.
Yahweh of Hosts is mustering
The host of battle.
6 They are coming from a land afar off,
From the end of heaven
Yahweh and the instruments of his indignation,
To ruin all the earth.
* Howl ! for the day of Yahweh is near,
As devastation from the Almighty it cometh.
7 Therefore all hands will hang slack,
And every heart of man faint.
8 And . . . will be dismayed . . .
They shall be seized with pangs and pains,
As a travailing woman shall they writhe;
They shall look at one another in amazement,
Their faces will be aflame.
9 Behold the day of Yahweh cometh,
Cruel with wrath and heat of anger,
To make the earth a desolation,
And to destroy the sinners thereof from it.
236 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
10 For the stars of heaven and its Orions
Shall not give their light;
The sun is dark when it rises,
And the moon shall not let its light shine.
11 "And I will punish the world for 'its' evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity ;
And I will make the pride of the presumptuous cease,
And the haughtiness of the awe-inspiring will I bring
low.
12 I will make mortals more rare than fine gold,
And men than gold of Ophir."
13 Therefore the heavens ' will tremble,'
And the earth quake out of its place,
Through the wrath of Yahweh of Hosts,
And in the day of the heat of his anger.
14 And it shall come to pass, as a hunted gazelle,
And as a flock with none to gather it,
They shall turn every one to his people,
And they shall flee every one to his land.
15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through,
And every one that is caught shall fall by the sword.
16 Their children shall be dashed in pieces in their sight,
Their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished
17 " Behold I am stirring up
Against them the Medes,
Who take no account of silver,
And in gold find no delight.
18
They have no compassion on the fruit of the womb,
Nor doth their eye look pityingly on children.
19 And Babylon the beauty of kingdoms,
The glorious pride of the Chaldaeans,
Shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah.
xin. 2-22 237
20 It shall be uninhabited for ever,
It shall be undwelt in to all generations :
The Arab shall not pitch tent there,
Nor shepherds fold (their flocks) there.
21 But yelpers (?) shall make their lair there,
And their houses shall be full of shriekers ;
And there shall ostriches dwell,
And satyrs shall dance there.
22 And howling beasts shall sing in the mansions thereof,
And jackals in the delightful palaces.
Its time is nearly come,
And its days shall not be prolonged.
The poem describes the summoning of Yahweh's warriors,
vv. 2 *-, their assembling and advance, vv. 4f -, and the terror
of the people against whom they march, vv. 6 ^ 8 ; the effect
on Heaven and earth, vv. 9 ' 18 ; the flight of the foreign people
in the threatened city to their own lands and the slaughter
of those that remain, w. 14-16 . In v. 17 it is first stated that it
is the Medes who are to be Yahweh's warriors, and in v. 19 that
Babylon is the threatened city. The poem closes with a
description of the complete and eternal desolation of the site of
Babylon.
The poem is itself, substantially as it stands, or it rests upon
a poem which was, the work of a Jew living during the Exile,
watching the movements of the Medes, and anticipating that the
proud city and empire of Babylon would be overthrown by them ;
it must have been written about 550 B.C. ; see above, p. 233, and
on v. 17 .
Two characteristics of the section, one of its form and one
of its substance, suggest that the original poem may have
received additions and been subject to modifications beyond
those (of which there are many) that are due to ordinary
processes of textual corruption. Firstly, there is a clearly-
marked change in the dominant rhythm which formally
distinguishes vv. 1 ' 8 from w. 9-22 (see above). Secondly, whereas
in vv. 17 ' 19 the poem is quite clearly concerned with actual
conditions, and possibilities closely related to them, in other
places there appears the vagueness of an eschatological poem ;
the opening verses might well refer to superhuman armies of
238 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Yahweh,* and by no means obviously suggest a single specific
nation the Medes : so again the darkness (v. 10 ) and the uni-
versal commotion are eschatological features, and in v. 11 it is
not Babylon, but the whole world, that is to be punished. If
these eschatological features were limited to the 3 : 2 distichs
(vv. 1 ' 8 ), we might suppose that an eschatological fragment has
been prefixed to a poem predicting the Fall of Babylon ; but they
are not ; they appear also in vv. 9-13 .
2-4. Yahweh's warriors summoned and assembled.
Let those whose duty it is to do so make signals to the Medes
(v. 17 ) to enter Babylon (v. 19 ) as the executants of Yahweh's
anger. On a bare hill] where the signal will be conspicuous.
With HD^J in f, cp. D"BP, bare hills, e.g. 4i 18 , Jer f 4 11 .
Raise the signaf] Jer 5i 27 , see 5 26 n. Wave the hand] clearly
as a third way of giving a signal : but this meaning of T spn
(n 15 i9 16 ) does not occur again. The gates of the nobles]
apparently the Babylonians are treated as nobles in relation to
the other inhabitants of the world (cp. 47 7 ). The term D'llHi is
applied to men of rank and position on whom society and
government rest ; it is parallel to " king " in Job 34 18 , to
"princes" (ant?) in Nu 2i 18 and Pr 8 16 ; cp. also, "It is better
to take refuge in Yahweh than to trust in nobles," Ps n8 9 .
3. On the conjectural emendations underlying the translation,
see phil. n. /] Yahweh. Consecrated ones] i.e. soldiers; see
next line. Cp. "consecrate nations against her," Jer 5i 27 ;
" consecrate war, rouse up the warriors," Jl 4 (3). War was a
sacred institution, and therefore those who fought were conse-
crated and subject to strict laws of purity and taboo : see Dt
23 10 - 15 , 2 S ii 11 , also Jer 6 4 22 7 , Mic 3 5 ; F. Schwally, Semitische
Kriegsalterthumer. My proudly exultant ones] Zeph 3 11 ; cp.
22 2 n. 4. The mountains] of Media. Kingdoms . . . nations]
under the sway of the king of Media; cp. Jer 5i 27f> , "Call
together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and
Ashkenaz . . . consecrate against her the nations, the king
* They were so understood by Eus. , who, if the poem has come down in
its original form, is rightly criticised by Jer. in his comment on v. 3 . " Principes
et gigantes juxta LXX Translatores Eusebius virtutes Angelicas interpre-
tatur, et pessimos daemones, qui ad eversionem Babylonis missi sunt," and on
v. 17 " Apertum est quod latebat : quod nequaquam fortes et gigantes, Angeli
intelligendi sunt et daemones, sed Medorum gens.
XIII. 2-6 239
of Media, his governors and all his viceroys, and all the
land of his dominion."
2. iK3'i] followed by the ace. as in Ps ioo 4 . 3. 'npo^ 'm* JK] for J of
the obj. of m*, see Ex i 22 , Jer 32 2S . But the words are probably a mutilated
distich : one of the lost words ('SK 1 ?), perhaps shifted down to the next line
which is over long. By a further conjecture Marti obtains two good 3 : 2
distichs :
DJ
4. mm] for ?: rare; see BDB 1980. JVos] to be so pointed (E), not
nb^Di? (MT), which destroys both rhythm and parallelism.
5-8. Terror at the approach of Yahweh and His
warriors. 5a. b. Cp. 5 26 46 11 . The instruments of his indig-
nation} Jer 5<D 26 ; cp. " instruments of war " as applied to Saul
and Jonathan, 2 S i 27 . All the earth~\ rhetorical for the entire
Babylonian empire (Jer. al.), or eschatological ? See above,
p. 237 f. 6. Howf\ Jl i 5 - 13 : and the remainder of v. 6 = Jl i 15b ;
other similarities to Joel occur in vv. 8< 10> 18 . Joel is imitative
(Exp. 1893, Sept., pp. 208-225), and may be the borrower, or
second user, of most of these common phrases or ideas ; but this
v. is rhythmically peculiar in its present setting ; it is a distich
4 : 3, or, apart from howl y 3:3; in the latter case the rhythm
is that of vv. 9 " 22 , but not of w. 1-8 (3:2); in the former it re-
sembles the rhythm of neither part of ch. 13. Possibly the v.
was interpolated so as to generalise a prophecy of the overthrow
of Babylon by the Medes into a prophecy of the final and
universal judgment. If original in its present position, the
imperative wail must be addressed to the Babylonians ; but it
breaks in awkwardly and forms a less satisfactory antecedent
than v. 6 to the therefore of v. 7 . Nothing is gained by putting
w. 6 ' 8 after vv. 9 ' 18 (Cond. ). As devastation from the Almighty]
or, reproducing the assonance in 'HE'D 1EO, as an overpowering
from the overpowerer (Dr., Joel and Amos, p. 45). The coiner
of the present phrase associated the divine name Hfi? with
the root TIB* (2i 2 33 1 etc.), and must have understood it to mean
the Waster, or Devastator. The actual etymology and original
meaning of the term is altogether obscure ; fir frequently renders
by TravTo/cpaTwp, whence EV Almighty ; the later Greek versions
by iKavos, which is probably also intended by the MT punctua-
tion 'W, he that is sufficient. By modern scholars it has been
240 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
explained as ^K>, my lord? (cp. ^"IK), or compared with the
Babylonian epithet of Bel, sadu rabbu= great mountain (cp. liv
as an epithet of God). The term occurs nowhere else in the
Book of Isaiah. Frequent as an archaism in Job and P, it
occurs rarely elsewhere : Gn 49 25 , Nu 24^ 16 are, presumably,
early, and Ezk i 24 io 5 , Ps 68 15 91*, Ruth i 20f -, late instances of its
use. See, further, on the usage, etymology, and meaning of the
name, HPN 196 if. ; Dr., Joel and Amos, 8 if.; EBi. 3326;
Ges-B. s.v. 7 The sequence to v. 5 ; v. 6 being parenthetic, if not
interpolated. The Babylonians become paralysed with fear.
All hands] The seat of power, cp. Jos 8 20 , Ps y6 6 . Hang down]
helpless: cp. Jer 5o 43 ; also 2 S 4 1 , Jer 6 24 , Ezk 7 17 2i 12 , Zeph
3 16 , Job 4 s . Every heart of man] the heart of man without every
is quite a general expression : cp. Ps T04 15 ; every heart is a more
exact parallel to all hands. Of man is perhaps a misplaced
fragment of the mutilated line that follows, or an interpolation
intended to modify every (Babylonian) heart into every heart of
mankind. In f^ the distich is 3:3, with the omission, like the
neighbouring distichs, 3 : 2. 8. And they will be dismayed]
according to Di. the subj. is the owners of the hearts and hands
just mentioned in v. 7 : very improbable ; the word i^naa is the
fragment of a lost distich. a. d. For the figure of birth-pangs,
never found in the prophecies of Isaiah, see 2i 3 , Jl 2 6 , Jer 5o 48
49 24 , Ps 48 7 . Their faces are a/lame] in feverish excitement;
cp. Nah 2 11 , Jl 2 6 .
7. The obvious parallelism of nrsnn D'V Sa and DO' 33^ Va, and the
prevalent parallelism within the distichs, makes the theory that 'in DT p^y
is one mutilated distich and i^mn DO' V\M 33 1 ? *?3 (Du., Che. , Box) is another, far
less probable than the theory of mutilation stated above. 8. pinr] either the
obj. them is omitted, or D^3ffl D"VX is the obj. ; for THN with similar objects,
cp. Job i8 20 (f^ not (5r) 2i 6 (construction ambiguous).
9-13. Darkness and universal commotion ac-
companying Yahweh's judgment of the world for its
wickedness. pa. b. On the text, see phil. n. io. Darkness :
cp. 5 80 8 22 , Am 8 9 , Ezk 3o 18 32*-, Zeph i 15 , Jl 2 10 3 4 4 15 Jer 4 23 :
see, further, KAT*> p. 393. ioa. b. Possibly a variant of c. (d.).
Note the absence of parallelism. Its Orions\ "Orion and other
constellations of the same brilliancy" (BDB). But the plural
is strange, and was perhaps not read by 6r : see phil. n. Other
allusions to Orion are Am 5 8 , Job 9 9 38 31 f. The identification
XIII. 7-14 241
of ^D3 with Orion goes back to (5 and is probably correct ; if
so, the name meaning fool goes back to a myth of " some fool-
hardy, heaven-daring rebel, who was chained to the sky for
his impiety" (Dr., Joel and Amos, 179); for etymological
speculations, see Harper's note on Am 5 8 . II f. Yahweh speaks.
The world~\ i>3Jl is never, like pK, limited to a single country.
The entire world is to be punished for its wickedness and
violence; in i4 17 it is the object of the wickedness and violence
for which the king of Babylon is to be punished. The following
terms, the wicked, the presumptuous, the awe-inspiring (2 cf), may
be as wide and universal as the world; but they might also apply
specifically to the Babylonians : cp. i4 6 (Hab i 4 - 1S ) for the first;
and note that "the most awe-inspiring of the nations" is a
standing epithet with Ezekiel for the Babylonians : see Ezk 3o lof -
32 i2f. 2 g7 3 ii2._ I2 . Gold of Ophir] Cp. Ps 45 10 , Job 28, i Ch
29 4 , Job 22 24 . This specially prized gold was brought from
Ophir, a district reached by ships sailing from 'Esion-geber at
the head of the Gulf of 'Akabah (i K 9 6 ' 8 ). For the understand-
ing of the present passage it is unnecessary to discuss the exact
situation of Ophir : for theories, see DB and EBi. s.v. ; also
Skinner, Genesis, p. 222. 133. b. Cp. Jl 2 10 . The heavens will
tremble'] so (5 : fif, awkwardly continuing the speech of Yahweh
(vY. 11 *-), half-way but only half-way through v. 18 , / will make the
heavens tremble.
9. qK pirn rrnjn ni3K MS m,v DV nan] the distich is scarcely 3 : 3, still
less 3:2; nor is the cast of it quite like that of the other distichs. If the
text is correct, '"in* is best taken as in apposition to m.v DV and rroyi as
a case of waw concomitantiae (7 1 n.). Possibly ffi read may ni3K (ace. of
respect : G-K. 131^, q). Du. omits nvr ov ; but an expressed subject of K3
seems to be required. Possibly, however, DV has been inserted (cp. v. 13 ) ;
ni3 would go better with m.v than with DV : cp. Job 3o 21 (IIDK). 10. '3313 '3
DivS'DDi D'DJfn] dR ol y&p dor^pes TOU ovpavov xal 6 '&peld)i> Kal TTOJ 6 /c<$<r/xos TOV
ovpavov: are the last two clauses a paraphrase of DR*^*09I? or did (Sr read
*?'03i, and is the last clause in (K a doublet of the first ? Du. omits '3313.
II. nyn] read apin* cp. the parallel any. (ffi /ca/cd probably = njn inter-
mediate between f^ and the original text. 13. TJIK] ^ is an error for nrv
: cp. 37 M ).
14-16. Flight from Slaughter and Violation. All
foreigners in Babylon (cp. 47 15 , Jer 5I 44 ) will attempt to flee
(v. 14 ), but if found there will share the fate of the Babylonians,
who will perish one and all. 14. A flocK\ (Ex a wandering (13K,
VOL. i. 1 6
242 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
as i S 9 3 ' 20 , Ezk 34*) flock. For the figure, cp. i K 22 17 , Ezk
34 5 . 15 f. The Jewish aspiration for vengeance lies behind the
description : may the Babylonians be served as they served us !
Cp. Ps i37 8f -. Strictly speaking, people who have fallen by the
sword (v. 15 ) cannot subsequently (v. 16 ) see their children dashed
in pieces (Marti); but it would be precarious to deny the
possibility that the present sequence of the vv. is original.
l6b. Cp. Zee i4 2 . But the spoiling of the houses stands
curiously between the fate of the children and of the women.
The text may be in some disorder. Haupt attempts a recon-
struction (SBOT, p. 124).
17 f. The Medes. Yahweh speaks again, revealing the
instruments of His indignation the Medes and (v. 19 ) the
object of it, Babylon. Whether the divine speech extends to
the end of the poem, and if not how far, is uncertain.
17. Behold I am about to stir up against them the Medes] cp.
Jer 57 11 "Yahweh hath stirred up the spirit of the king (<& ; ?^
kings) of Media, because his device is against Babylon to destroy
it : for it is Yahweh's vengeance, the vengeance for [what was
done in 586 B.C. to (cp. 5i 24 )] his temple." The historical situa-
tion in both passages is the same; Babylon still occupies a
supreme position in the eyes of the world ; but the Medes are
threatening that supremacy. This historical situation can be
closely defined : it existed not earlier than 561 B.C., and it ceased
to exist with the capture of Babylon by Cyrus in 538 B.C. The
Medes (HD, Assyr. Madai: in Persian inscriptions Mdda) are
first mentioned by Shalmaneser n. in the Qth cent. B.C. ; and in
the 8th century raids against Median chieftains are recorded by
the Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser and Sargon. Increasing in
power through the 7th cent., the Medes, or Umman (i.e. hordes of)
Manda,* at the end of that century, in alliance with, but without
the active support of, the Babylonians destroyed Nineveh, and
subsequently divided the spoils with the Babylonians. Down to
the end of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar friendly relations existed
* M^Sot (Herod, i. 106, 185 ; cp. no, Jer 5I 28 ) ; Umman-Manda (stele of
Nabuna'id ; ed. Messerschmidt). For some different explanations of the exact
relation of the terms Medes, Madai, and (Umman-) Manda to one another,
and for fuller discussion of the points summarised above, see KAT* 177,
100-105 ; S. Langdon, Neubabyl. Konigsinschriften t 3 ff. ; Jeremias, PRE?yi\\.
491 ; Sayce, DB, s.v. Medes ; Rogers, Hist, of Bab. and Ass. ii. 288 ff., 368 ff.
XIII. i5-2i 243
between the Babylonians and the Medes (or Manda) ; but these
ceased with his death in 561 B.C. From the mention of the Medes
only without reference either to the Persians or Cyrus, some infer
that the prophecy was written before 549, in which year Cyrus
overthrew the Median empire of Astyages (Dr. LOT 6 2 1 2). Who
regard not silver, etc.] their attack is not to be turned aside by
money payments. 18. The opening words of the v. can be ren-
dered and bows shall dash youths in pieces, but the text is certainly
corrupt : see phil. n. The fruit of the womb] parallel to, and
synonymous with, children (or, sons', i 2 n.); cp. Ps lay 8 , Mic 6 7 .
18. naffBin nnyj mntrpi] fflr ro^ei'^aTa veavlanwv (rwrpfyovo-iv. The order
subj., obj., vb. is unusual, but not unknown: Dr. 208(3). The vb.
being yd fern. pi. D'nya cannot be the subj., nor can the subj. be either indef.,
or the Medes ; cp. (5ir, and U sed sagittis parvulos interficient. mnpp must be
the subj., if the text be correct; yet it is very doubtful whether bows meant
bowmen, or ron could be predicated of bows : in 2 K 8 13 , Ps I37 9 t the subj.
of rT is personal. The three words of f^ occupy the place of a whole distich,
i.e. they are the (corrupt) fragment of six words. Du. constructs two distichs
out of the three words on the basis of Jer 5o 42 5I 20 " 24 ; but his distichs are
3 : 2, and therefore not in the rhythm prevailing in w. 9 ' 22 .
19-22. The eternal desolation of Babylon. Babylon,
still as yet glorious and supreme, will be overthrown as
completely as Sodom and Gomorrah : its site will be for ever
uninhabited ; even nomads will avoid it ; it will be given up
to solitude-loving and demonic beasts. 19. The beauty] or
ornament of the many kingdoms that constituted the Babylonian
empire, or perhaps the phrase was intended even more widely.
As when God overthrew] Jer 5o 40 (49 18 ) : cp. i 7 n. 20a. b =
Jer 5<D 39b . The Arab] the Arabs are first mentioned in Jer 3 2 :
the word means dweller in the steppes^ and is applied to the
Bedawin of the Syro-Arabian desert. 21. Cp. Jer 5o 39 . Yelpers]
the D", whatever the name precisely means (see phil. n.),
appear in other descriptions of desolation, 23 13 34 14 , Jer 5o 39 .
Shriekers] DVlKf ; precise meaning uncertain : cp. -J, to cough ;
_UJ, a shriek: the Assyr. ahu may mean /oi&z/ (Del.), but this
beast is probably mentioned just below in v. 22 : (& echo!
Ostriches'] cp. 34 13 43 20 , Mic i 8 , Job 3O 29 . Satyrs} D'lW is
commonly used of he-goats, though usually in the phrase D'W "TW,
lit. a hairy one of the goats. RV renders he-goats here, but the in-
244 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
troduction of domestic animals is improbable. Here as in 34 14 ,
Lv i7 7 , 2 Ch ii 15 , 2 K 23 8 (point D S- W), we must think of
demonic animals, howling after the wont of demons and jinn
in unfrequented places, of a hairy nature and perhaps goat-like
in form ; see EBi. s.v. Satyr. 22. Howling beasts] D"K (34 14 ,
Jer 5o 89 f) are perhaps wolves, perhaps jackals, DB i. 620.
Jackals} D^n (or wolves, DB i. 620) made mournful noises
(Mic i 8 ), and frequented desolate spots (34 13 , Jer 9 10 io 32 ).
19. roBno] nomen verbi (cp. G-K. 45*) with nx ; cp. H 9 n. 20.
Jer 5o 39 + Tiy; if iiy is inserted here, then v. 20 *- b is 3 : 3, at present it is
exceptionally 2 : 3. V.v] = Vn&r: cp. G-K. 68. <Br ^Sq:. 21. D"x] if the
text be correct in 23 18 , Ps 72 9 , the word may be used of human beings : some
therefore derive from the root nix, ^^e, to be parched, and give it the meaning
desert dweller. Another possible derivation is from the root ^$^a, to yelp
(Dozy). Desert dweller, or yelper, would be applicable to many animals.
Wild cats (Bochart, Hieroz. iii. c. 14) is badly supported by .j^, which is
from another root. The meaning was already obscure to the early translators :
(5rUJ5 here render by a general term for wild beasts, ^L here and in 34 14 ,
Jer 5O 89 by pon, which by no means necessarily means monkeys (Walton) :
in 34 14 (& has 5aifji.6via, in Jer 5O 39 lvSd\/j,aTa, U dracones. 22. rujn] sing.
pred., pi. subj. following (G-K. 1450) : yet it is suspicious that this cstr.
should occur in just one of several similar sentences. Whether (5r's /carowc?;-
ffovffiv implies a reading nan is doubtful. vnuo 1 ?**] its widows, i.e. deserted
palaces ! (Ki.). But read .TJIUDIK. nny . . . anp] since the pred. precedes,
ny was not necessarily meant to be masc. (S 22 n.).
XIV. i-4a. The restoration of Israel. Babylon must
fall (ch. 13), and that immediately (i3 22c - d ); for (14!) it is
Yahweh's gracious purpose to set free the Jews from their
present captivity, and to re-establish them in Canaan (vv. lf -) :
restored to Canaan, the Jews will sing a paean (i4 4b - 21 ) over the
fall of the king of Babylon. These verses are probably an edi-
torial link (see above, p. 233); even the distichs in vv. lf - hardly
formed the original conclusion of the poem in ch. 13, which is
rather to be found at i3 22 < b or d > ; and vv. 2a - 3f -, which are prose, are
marked off from both the poem that precedes and that which
follows. Whether the editor composed the distichs in vv. lf ' or
derived them from elsewhere (e.g. Zee i 7 ) is uncertain.
Du., al. treat I4 1 ' 4a as prose, Cond. as poetry, throughout. It requires
some audacity to detect poetry in vv. 3t to ; and v. 2 * would yield but a poor
distich 4 : 4, even if the last clause were omitted. But v. la ' b<d< e are as a
XIII. 20-XIV. 4 245
matter of fact two distichs (3 : 3) of lines parallel in sense, and lc a monostich
of 3 accents : v. 3bt is 3 : 3 or 3 : 2, according as on'B'J33 be read as one or
two accents.
1 For Yahweh will have pity on Jacob,
And will again choose Israel;
And he will settle them on their ground.
And the ger will join himself unto them,
And they will become members of the House of Jacob.
2 And peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and
the House of Israel will possess themselves of them on the
ground of Yahweh for slaves and slave-girls,
2b And they will be captors to their captors,
And the lords of their (former) task-masters.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day that Yahweh giveth
thee rest from thy toil and turmoil, and from the hard service
which thou wast made to serve, 4 thou shalt utter this taunt-song
against the king of Babylon, and say
ia. b. Cp. Zee i 17 2 16 . I. For Yahweh] < and Yahweh.
Will again choose] the first choice was at the beginning of
the nation's history : Dt 7 6f -, Ezk 2o 5f *. Yahweh's choice of Israel
is a favourite idea of the Deutero-Isaiah's : see 4i 8f - 43 44 lft ,
and Dr. LOT 6 , p. 238. ic. Cp. Zee 2 16 and Ezk 37 12 - 14 " I will
bring you into the land of Israel . . . and I will settle you upon
your ground." n^n is generally used of placing a person in a
particular place after his removal from another; cp. 46 7 , Gn 19,
Jos 6 23 , Lv 24 12 , Nu i5 84 . The ger] the term originally denoted
a person not of the same tribe or people as those among whom
he lived, but enjoying at their hands certain conceded (as
distinct from inherited) social rights and privileges. Such rights
and privileges naturally carried with them some accommodation
on the part of the ger to Jewish religious practices ; for example,
it was incumbent on the Jews to concede the privileges, and on
the ger to observe the laws, of the Sabbath (Ex 2o 10 23 12 ) ; yet as
late as the Deuteronomic code the ger was no full member of
the holy nation : he might eat unclean food (Dt i4 21 ). In P
the term has become purely religious ; persons not Israelite by
descent may by accepting the rite of circumcision become as full
members of the community as those born Jews, and subject to
the same rights and duties (see, e.g., Nu i5 13 n.). P seems to
246 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
contemplate such persons as were united geographically with the
Jewish community in Palestine. Later even this limitation
disappears from the word : the ger is any person not of Jewish
descent who becomes a convert to the Jewish religion, a proselyte ;
it is this last sense that the word bore to some of the Greek
translators, for in some books "0 is rendered by TrpotnjAvros, and
with this sense it is used in the Mishna (Levy, NHB, s.v.). In
the present passage the term probably has much the same sense
as in P, and is very nearly equal to convert or proselyte. The
restored Jewish community will be enlarged by the inclusion of
men of other nations, who, seeing what Yahweh has done for
His people (cp. Ps I26 2 ), will seek to be united with them.
Foreigners who do not become converts will pass into the
possession of the restored people, as slaves and slave-girls.
The writer contemplates for the world at large two alternatives-
conversion to Judaism, or enslavement to the Jews : cp. the
alternative presented elsewhere (6o 10 ' 12 ) conversion or sub-
mission. -Join himself} frta is used of the close relationship of
husband and wife (Gn 29 34 ), of Levites and priests (Nu i8 2 ), and
also of religious union which is elsewhere defined as union with
Yahweh ; see 56 3 - 6 , Jer 5o 5 , and especially, as parallel to the
present usage, Zee 2 15 "and many nations shall join themselves
unto Yahweh . . . and shall become his (&) people, and they
(ffif) shall dwell in thy midst." And they] the plural pronoun carries
on the sing, collective term ger. Will become members of] HSD3,
too, denotes close attachment : see i S 2 86 (Kal), Job 3o 7 (in
MT Pual), and especially i S 26 (Hithp.) ; Hab 2 15 f is probably
corrupt. 2. And peoples shall take them and bring them] cp.
49 22 . To their place] their country or home ; cp. e.g. Nu 24 25 .
The ground of Yahweh] Canaan. Cp. " the land of Yahweh,"
Hos g 3 ; "the holy ground," Zee 2 16 . Restored to their land,
the Jews will need slaves, which the later law forbade them to
seek from those of their own race (Lv 25 44ff> ) ; they will therefore
subject to slavery those of the nations who do not seek and
obtain incorporation in the Jewish community as gerim (v. 1 n.).
The tables will be turned : those who had enslaved the Jews will
now become their slaves. Babylon for the moment seems to be
lost sight of, or rather has become a generic term for all
oppressors of the Jews : the writer lives at a time when many
nations at one time or another had enslaved the Jews. The
xiv. 2-21 247
phrase slaves and slave-girls (ninDEn DH3y) is frequent (e.g. Gn
1 2 16 20 U 3o 43 Jer 34*-) ; as compared with the synonymous nox,
nnst? rather points to more servile conditions, or the more
menial nature of the tasks exacted (BDB, s.w.). Not only
the thought, but the phraseology in v. 2 seems to be affected
by Lv 25 44ffip ; !>njnn is confined to this passage, P (Lv 25^, Nu
32 18 33 54 34 13 )> and Ezk 47"; here and in Lv 25* the objects
possessed are slaves, in the other passages land. So the vb.
mi probably echoes Lv 25 43 - 46 - 53 and refers to domestic rule, not
to political dominion, which RV suggests; Etta, task-master, is
used as in Ex 3 7 5 6 , Job 3 18 ; below in v. 4 rather differently.
Captors to their captors'] Jg 5 12 .
3. The exiled nation is now addressed : ct. vv. lf -. Giveth
thee rest] releases thee from servitude ; with this use of iron, cp.
that of ma in Ex 2 3 12 , Dt 5 14 , Job 3 17 . In Dt. (e.g. 25) the
Hiphil is rather differently used : see Che. Introd. 71. Toil] cp.
88 3 , Ps I27 2 . Turmoif\ \T\ denotes strong mental agitation pro-
ceeding from various causes, here the disquiet of the slave who
lives in fear of " the voice of the taskmaster " (Job 3 18 , cp. 26 ).
The hard service} Dt 26, Ex i 14 6 9 (P). In ~\1 lay -IB>K, lit.
wherewith it was worked with thee, the Pual (Dt 2 i 3 t) is the passive
of '3 "Qy, lit. to work by means of, Lv 25 48 , Ex i 14 , Ezk 34 27 etc.
4. Thou shalt take up~] on the lips, and so utter ; cp. i K 8 81 ,
Jer 7 29 , and the noun NG?D, 13 1 n. Taunt-song] so may i>K>O be
rendered here and in Hab 2 6 , Mic 2 4 ; on other meanings, see
Numbers, pp. 299 f., 344 f., xiii f., where it is suggested that the
following poem may have been modelled on the ancient
nfshalim which used to be actually recited (Nu 2i 27 ), and of
which many probably still existed in and after the Exile.
XIV. 4b-2i. The Fall of the Tyrant.
The dominant rhythm is clearly 3:2; parallelism is occasionally between
entire periods of 5 accents (see w. 8 ' 9 - ia ) ; but far more frequently it is
between the period of 3 and the period of 2 accents. The translation is
arranged to bring into relief the more frequent form of parallelism.
Down to v. 17b and in 18b - c - 19a - b - aob - e - 21a - b , the rhythm is for the most
part obviously 3 : 2. But vv. 5 - 16c - d are 4 : 2, unless we omit mrr in the one
case and e>'n in the other ; and * * 10a> b are 2 : 2, and so also is 12c * d in $|,
but prefix TK. V. 21c - d would be 3 : 3 if any is part of the line (but see n.).
On the obviously mutilated text of v. 170 ' 20 * see notes.
The first twenty-one distichs (vv. 4b ' ]S ) are clearly marked off, as Ew.
248 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
already perceived, into three equal strophes of 7 distichs each. It is probable
that this equality of strophes was maintained throughout, but the mutilated
text in vv. 17 ' 20 prevents certainty on this point, f^ contains slightly less than
fourteen distichs between vv. 16 and 21 : but with the addition of vv. 22 ' ^ it
would contain considerably more.
On the structure of the poem see especially Budde in ZATW, 1882, pp.
12-15, where some earlier theories of strophic division are noticed : Bickell,
Carmina Vet. Test. (1882) p. 202 f., and Wiener Zeitschr. fur die Kunde des
Morgcnlandcs, viii. 101 f. ; W. H. Cobb, v\JBLit. xv. i8ff.
I.
4b How hath the Tyrant ceased,
The Terror (?) ceased !
8 Yahweh hath broken the staff of the wicked,
The rod of the rulers;
6 Which smote the peoples in wrath,
With smiting unceasing.
Which angrily trampled (?) on nations,
With * trampling ' (?) unrestrained.
7 All the earth is at rest, is quiet,
They have broken forth into a ringing cry;
8 The fir-trees, too, have rejoiced at thee,
The cedars of Lebanon
"Since thou hast lain down, there cometh not up
The feller against us."
2.
9 Sheol beneath is thrilled at thee,
Meeting thine advent ;
Arousing for thee the shades,
All the bell-wethers of Earth,
Making rise up from their thrones
All the kings of the nations.
10 They shall all of them answer
And say to thee,
" Thou, too, art made weak as we,
Unto us art made like."
11 Brought down unto Sheol is thy pomp,
The music of thy lutes ;
Beneath thee maggots are spread,
And (of) worms is thy coverlet.
XIV. 4-21 249
lf How art thou fallen from Heaven,
O Shining One, son of the dawn !
'How' art thou hewn down to the earth,
. . . of * all ' nations !
13 Thou that hadst said in thine heart,
"Heaven will I scale;
Above the stars of God
Will I set on high my throne,
That I may sit (enthroned) in the Mount of
Assembly,
In the recesses of the North :
14 I will ascend over the summits of the clouds,
Will be like the Most High."
16 Yet to Sheol shall thou be brought down,
To the recesses of the Pit
16 They that see thee look narrowly at thee,
To thee give attention
"Is this the man that caused earth to thrill,
That caused kingdoms to quake;
17 That made the world like a wilderness,
And overthrew its cities?"
18 All the kings of the nations,
They all have lain down in glory,
Each one in his house;
19 But thou art cast forth ' tombless,'
Like an abhorred * untimely birth ' (?)
........ the slain,
That are thrust through with the sword,
That go down to the stones of the Pit,
As a corpse trodden under foot.
20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial,
250 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
5-
20b YOT tnv ] an( j hast thou ruined,
Thy people hast thou slain.
Never more shall it be named,
The seed of evil-doers.
21 Prepare a butchery for his sons,
For the iniquity of their fathers,
That they rise not and possess the earth,
And fill the face of the world.
The poem expresses the exultation over the fall of a Tyrant
who had treated the peoples of the world with unsparing and
unremitting severity : in the first strophe the world-wide terror,
which his career had inspired, and the world-wide relief and joy
at his fall, are effectively contrasted. The second strophe
illustrates in another way the supreme position of the Tyrant in
the world of his time : his entrance to Sheol is depicted : he is
greeted by all the kings of the earth, who are amazed that one
who had been so much greater and more powerful than they, is
now weak as one of themselves. In the third strophe the over-
weening pride and ambition of the Tyrant is pictured : not
content with conquering earth, he would have conquered heaven
and dethroned the supreme God and King ; actually he attains
to the lowest depths of Sheol. Such is the fate of his spirit : the
fourth strophe dwells on the fate of his dead body : it receives
no royal burial in the mausoleum which he had built for himself,
but lies unburied, one of a heap of carcases on the battlefield
where he fell. The final lines, or strophe (vv. 20b ' 21 ), are more
miscellaneous ; first, they find reason for the Tyrant's fate in the
fact that he had ruined his own land and people as well as others,
and then assert that he and his race shall pass out of memory ;
and finally they call for the slaughter of his children that no
future member of his line may repeat his career.
How far does this poem depict the actual career of a single
definite historical individual ? How much of it was determined
by certain definite events, how much by the imagination of the
poet ? Of course the speeches of the cedars in v. 8 , of the shades
in v. 10 , of the Tyrant himself in vv. 13f> , and of the people on the
battlefield after the battle, v. 16 , all of which betray a keen
XIV. 4-21 2SI
dramatic sympathy and power of expression, are due to the
poet's imagination. But how much more? Had the Tyrant
actually fallen when the poem was written ? Or does the poet
merely throw himself forward in imagination to the day and the
scene which he feels would be the fitting conclusion to the career
of the cruel and arrogant conqueror under whose government he
has lived and suffered ?
If v. 19 be imaginative prophecy, then it is simplest to see in
the entire poem a paean over Assyria, or Babylon, personified (cp.
io 5 ' 13 ), or " totum corpus Regum Assyriorum et Babylonicorum "
(Vitr.), rather than over a particular Assyrian or Babylonian king.
So it is of the character and achievements of a people rather than
of a single definite monarch that Ezekiel thinks, even when he
uses the term " king of Tyre," " king of Egypt," in prophecies
that have several points of contact with this poem : see Ezk
28-32. For a briefer example of a lament written to suit merely
anticipated and not actual conditions, see Am 5^
But if v. 19 refers to an actual historical event, it refers to
details of which nothing is otherwise known, whether the king
in question be Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar (Jer., li.), or
Nabonidus (Hitz., Du.). It is indeed recorded that Sargon was
" not buried in his house " (cp. v. 18 ) ; but this does not necessarily
imply that he died a violent death, and lay unburied (cp. v. 19 ) :
moreover, Sargon certainly did not involve his country and people
in ruin (v. 20 ) : within twelve days of his death his son Senna-
cherib was recognised as king, and Assyria suffered no serious
check for half a century after Sargon's death.
In Alter. Forschungen> i. 193 f., Winckler attempted to explain v. 19 as an
allusion to the murder of Sennacherib in 682 B.C. ; this obviously inadequate
explanation with the claim that the poem was written by Isaiah (some sixty
years after his Call !) was adopted by W. H. Cobb in JBLit. xv. i8ff.
Later, Winckler (ib. pp. 410 ff., KAT* t pp. 74 f.) advanced the far more
satisfactory theory that the allusion is to the death of Sargon ; an ominous, but
through mutilation obscure, reference in the Eponym canon for the year 705
B.C. is illumined by K 4730, an inscription of Sennacherib (also mutilated) in
which he says, " the death of Sargon ... in his house he was not buried . . .
(ina bitfiu la ktb-ru), the transgression of Sargon, my father by expiation will
I expiate : I will [blot out] the transgression which they (? he) committed against
a god . . . against the gods of Akkad ; because he the curse of the king of the
gods up [on himself] brought, in his house he was not bfuried] ina btti-
su la tfi-bir]." Recognising that vv. 20b ' 21 were unsuitable to Sargon, Wi.
held that the ode written in 705 B.C. extended from v. 4b to v. 30 * only. It is
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
not impossible that an editor may have found in a collection of m e shalim
(v. 4 n. ; Numbers, pp. xiii f. ) a paean over Sargon and, adding a strophe
(vv. 201 *" 21 ) suitable to the Fall of Babylon, have given it here as a song to be
sung when " Babylonian " tyranny was ended. It would not necessarily
follow that Isaiah was the author of the song : his attitude towards Assyria
(not the king) in io 5 ' 15 is, in spite of some resemblances, different. There
are, however, some linguistic usages and some ideas in the poem which would
perhaps find a more easy explanation if even vv. 415 " 20 * were written later than
the age of Sargon. See notes below on J, v. 4 ; D^tfD, v. 5 ; mo, v. 6 ; run nss,
v. 7 ; jvSy, Most High, v. 14 ; ma ( = Sheol), v. 15 ; rwrn, v. 16 ; ^>3, v. 21 . Are the
resemblances between this poem and Ezekiel, especially chs. 28-32 (see
Comm. on vv. 12 " 15 ' 16 ), due to the dependence of Ezekiel on this poem, or of
this poem on Ezekiel, or to the fact that both belong to the same century ?
Certainly this poem far excels Ezek. in poetical and dramatic power, but
that is precarious proof of priority. The same questions arise with regard
to ^y 22 - 29 ; but there is not the same difference in poetic quality ; Is I4 4b " 21
and 37 22 " 29 might be the work of the same hand. Some of the conceptions
of Sheol and life after death found here have no earlier parallels in the OT
than Ezekiel : but are they such as to demand that the author of this ode must
have lived as late as the Exile? see, on the one hand, Che. Introd. 69 f., on
the other, Gunkel, Schopfung u. Chaos.
4b-8. The Relief of the World at the Fall of the
Tyrant. How] so v. 12 : cp. p. 32. The tyrant] cp. Zee 9 8 ; but
in v. 2 (n.), 9 3 WH has a different meaning. The Terror] uncertain.
| rnmD, has been rendered the golden city (EV), the exactress
of gold (AVmarg.), the exactress (RVmarg.), tribute (U) ; but all
these renderings rest on the illegitimate assumption (cp. Ki., Ibn
Ezra) that a Hebrew noun would be derived from an Aramaic
form (arn, gold) of which the Hebrew form (ant) was in constant
use. If 1 is, as often, a mis-written "I, the root is 3m which is
used in 3 6 , in close connection with Wtt, of the vulgar bluster of
the inferior when social restraint is withdrawn ; here, where the
attitude of the superior, or stronger, is in question, the nuance
would be different : Che. renders raging. Box insolent raging. But
since in Ca. 6 5 ITnn means something like to terrify and Ar.
V_^AJ certainly and often means to fear, namo may rather mean
Terror, this idea being associated with tyranny or oppression as
in 5 1 13 . 5. Yahweh has broken] perhaps originally Broken has
been : see note on rhythm. The staff . . . the rod] cp. io 5 9 3 .
The genitives that follow each term may be appositional (Kon.
iii. 337^. d), so that the phrases mean the wicked staff, the imperious
rod\ the second phrase is rather differently used in Ezk 19".
The king, or nation, which should have corrected the wicked, has
XIV. 4-1 I 253
itself proved wicked: cp. io 5 ' 15 . But if this view of the con-
struction be correct, since the terms OW"1 (i3 n ) D^B (49 7 52 5 )
are plural, the writer has not in view merely a single individual.
6. Which smote] the sing. mo refers back to rod and staff-.
cp. v. 29 . Trampling] f^ persecution : but see phil. n. 7. All
the earth is . . . quiet] Bp{? occurs in i8 4 , the Hiph. in 7*
3o 16 32 17 . It is the vb. used in Judges (e.g. 3 33 ) of the quiet
enjoyed after one of the Judges had delivered Israel from a foreign
lord: it is also used of the relief of slaves in Sheol in being quit
of their taskmasters (Job 3 17f - 26 ). 8. Cp. 37 24 , Hab 2 17 . On a
rock-relief in the Wady Brissa in Lebanon, Nebuchadnezzar is
represented " breaking the cedars with bare hands." But cedars
were felled to satisfy the needs of most Mesopotamian monarchs
and of Egyptian monarchs too : see Jeremias, ATAO, p. 494 ;
KAT*, p. 190. Hebrew poets often represent inanimate objects
participating in the joys of others : see, e.g., 55 12 , Ps 96 llf - : more
rarely is the emotion represented as due to a cause peculiarly
affecting them alone. See Koberle, Natur u. Geist, p. 105.
Since thou hast lain down] in death ; v. 18 43 17 , Job i4 12 .
4. name] Del. suggested place where they are made to pine away, from an
otherwise unknown am = an, or an. Very improbable. It is commonly
supposed that fir's tiriffirov5a<rT-/is (whence also &) implies name ; but 'ID is
an abstract, tiriatrovS. a personal noun meaning one who presses hard upon
another : this would indeed form an admirable parallel to rJJ, but it would
require nat? instead of nnnr. Perhaps (Hi read amon na7, but in view of the
anarthrous PJJ this is not likely to have been the original text. Che. (SBOT,
p. 199) conjectures rna^i? ?9} : cp. v. 8 . 6. roo] G-K. 1300. mo'ViSa] of
non-cessation : a rare use of 'n^a : BDB, p. 1 1 66. With mo, cessation, cp. the
use of the vb. in ii u , Am 6 7 . In I 6 31" the noun has a different meaning
apostasy. )TiD . . . rrn] the noun should doubtless be cognate with the vb.
as in the previous line nan . . . HDD. If nn is correct, the noun (cstr.) was
jvnp ; but .m to rule, though sometimes used of hard or strict rule, does not
seem strong enough in the context. Either .m has here exceptionally the sense
to trample, like ^^j, or to chastise, like |>5 ; or we may restore rnnzp rn :
cp. Tn in 41*, Ps I44 2 , and in NH to beat, stamp down. ij'pij ^a] MT
assumes a rare use of 'Sa with the finite vb. ; see BDB 115^. Probably ~\vn
was intended to be an infin. or a noun. 7. nn inss] 44 s3 49 13 54! 55 12 } and,
without nji, 52', Ps 98*. The only other occurrence of the root nss is the
Piel, meaning to break in pieces, in Mic 3*. There is no secure pre-exilic
instance of nji meaning ioyous cry : cp. Che. Introd. p. 268.
9-11. The Tyrant's reception in Sheol. This strophe
depicts the excitement and emotions of the inhabitants of Sheol
254 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
at the descent into their midst of a monarch whose fame had
reported him so great that he seemed likely to escape the
common lot that had befallen even monarchs before him.
These kings of earlier days, according to a prevalent belief that
the distinctions of life were in some degree perpetuated in Sheol
(cp. e.g. Ezk 32 21ff -, i S 28 15 ), sit each on his throne : they
respectfully rise to greet the new-comer and address him with
words that reflect at once their sense of his greatness and a
certain satisfaction that he is now made weak as they.
p. Sheot] different conceptions of Sheol mingle in the writer's
mind : it is a realm beneath (cp. 5 Uc ) the earth ; it is a com-
munity of the dead who step forward to meet the newly dead
king at his advent among them ; it is a person who has all the
dead, even the dead kings of the nations, under his control :
with this personification cp. 28 15 - 18 , where Sheol is a monarch
with whom those who would avoid death would fain make
treaties ; commoner is the personification of Sheol as a monster
with an insatiable appetite for (5 14 , Hab 2 5 , Pr i 12 272 3o 16 ), or
a hunter who snares (Ps i8 6 n6 3 ), the living. On these and
other ideas with regard to the dead which appear in this passage,
see, further, EBi. 1338 ff. ; Hastings, DB i. 739 f., v. 668 f. ; F.
Schwally, Das Leben nach dem Tode ; A. Jeremias, Die Bab. Ass.
Vorstellungen vom Leben nach dem Tode . . . mit berucksichtigung
der AT Parallelen ; S. Langdon, Baby. Eschatology, in Essays . . .
presented . . . to C. A. Briggs (1911), pp. 141-161; and C.
Griineisen, Der Ahnenkultus^ pp. 41-60 (with full references to
comparative material). Is thrilled] with excitement at strange
and portentous news : Kn, to quake (of the earth, 5 25 , i S i4 15 ; of
kingdoms, 23"), is also used of various emotions such as fear,
v. 16 64 1 32 lof -, or grief, 2 S iQ 1 .- The shades} the D'KfiH are the
inhabitants of the world of the dead, probably so called as the
weak (cp. fiBI, e.g. i3 7 ), or enfeebled (cp. v. 10 ), continuations of
the strong and lusty living. The term occurs also in 26 14 - 19 ,
Job 26 5 , Pr 2 18 9 18 2 1 16 , Ps 88 n f, and in Phoenician: cp. e.g.
" Mayest thou have no seed among the living under the sun, nor
resting-place with the shades" (D'KBI n 3D^) Tabnith
Inscr. c. 300 B.C. (Cooke, NSI, p. 26). Whether the term
used for the vanished giant race (e.g. Gn i5 20 : cp. "the valley
of Rephaim," 17*) is identical in origin, as well as in form, is not
absolutely certain; but see, further, Schwally, in ZATW> 1898,
XIV. 9-15 255
pp. 127-135. The bell-wethers] Dniny, he-goats, used specifically
of the leaders of the flock (Jer 5o 8 ), and figuratively of human
beings as in 34**, Jer 5i 40 , Ezk 39 18 . II. No throne in Sheol for
the once proud monarch : dethroned and disgraced at the last
in life he has nothing in death but a bed of maggots and a
coverlet of worms : to this has come the pomp (piO as 4 2 23
6o 15 ) and gay music (s 14 ) amid which he lived.
9. D'pn . . . rViy] 3rd pff. : cp. ST iD'pn . . . nTj/x ; but if the vbs. were
pff. the forms should have been fern. Read therefore opn . . . viy infin.
abs. (G-K. 113^). II. J/x'] Pual pf. 3rd masc. ; nm is ace. ; G-K. \2ia. b.
TD3D] many MSS IODD ; .1930, covering, 23, Ezk 27*, Lv 9 19 ; but also
with a mere difference of pointing (nppp), Gn 8 18 (J) and several times in P.
12-15. The Tyrant attains, not to the heaven of his
ambition, but to the lowest hell. 12. The Tyrant is half
compared, half (for the moment) identified, with the radiant
hero of some astral myth. A similar instance of mingled com-
parison and identification of an earthly power with a mythic
figure occurs in Ezk 28 11 ' 19 ; whence the myth came, whether
from Babylon or Phoenicia,* and what was its exact form is
uncertain. The natural phenomenon which gave rise to the
myth, and still affects the phraseology of this passage, may be
the contrast between the brilliance of a star, such as Venus, t at
the seasons when it is apparent, and its total disappearance at
other seasons : or it may be " the overpowering of the temporary
brilliance of the morning star by the rays of the sun" (EBi.
2828) ; for other views, see next n. but one. Shining one] " In
the happy realms of light clothed with transcendant brightness."
^n is to be connected with M>n, to shine (i3 10 , Job 29 8 3i 26 4i 10 ) ;
u
Jjfc, to begin to shine : cp. JJU, new moon, and Ass. ellu, bright.
ffi renders well ewo-^o/aos (cp. <a><r</>opos, 2 P i 19 ) ; U Lucifer (cp.
Lk io 18 ). Cp. the Arabic name for Venus j? j*:, the bright
shining one. Son of the dawn] so called because the luminary
in question shines at dawn : (Gr 6 irpcol avaTe'AAwv (cp. Rev 22 16 ).
It would, of .course, be easy, if necessary, for "ins? to read inK?
(3 18 n.) and render son of the moon, as Winckler has suggested
(Gesch. Isr. ii. 24) : then the shining one might be the new
crescent moon ( JiU) ; or, retaining "int?, we might suppose that
* Cp. Gunkel, Schdpfung u. Chaos, 132-134 ; KAT* 464, 565.
t Cp. Jeremias, ATAO 568, no.
256 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
W^n is the waning crescent moon (KAT 3 565), which is seen
in the morning sky. Hewn down to the earth] so the Tyrian
king is described as cast down from Eden and the mount of God
to the earth, Ezk 28 16 ' 18 . The vb. does not necessarily imply the
figure of a tree: see 22 25 , Jer 5o 23 . . . . of all nations] $y E^n
is not transitive (RV) in spite of Ex ly 13 MT (see Dr. ad loc.) :
it may be corrupt (cp. (5r) and conceal an epithet like " Hammer
of all the earth," Jer 5o 23 : or the line may have depicted the
shining one lying powerless on the corpses (IW13 for D^W*) of those
whom he had led in his warfare against the Most High. 13 f.
The boasting of the tyrant is not merely hyperbolic and figura-
tive; he is identified for the moment with, or represented as
renewing the presumptuous role of, the mythic hero (v. 12 ). The
opening boast (v. 13a - b ) might indeed be mere hyperbole (cp.
Job 20 6 ), but not what follows : the wicked may in his pride act
as though God did not govern the earth (cp. Job 22 12ff -), but he
does not think of dethroning the Most High and taking over the
administration of Heaven : yet this is precisely what the speaker
here means (cp. Ezk 28 2 ) ; he is guided, as Milton very correctly
interprets, by
"Ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God."
The Most High, according to the ancient (Babylonian) concep-
tions which here govern the poet, sat enthroned above the stars
of God in the highest point of Heaven, or, as the next line puts
it, in the Mountain where the gods assembled in the recesses of
the North. The Mountain of Assembly} cp. "the Mountain of
God," Ezk 28 16 ; for Assembly (ljn&), cp. the Tent of Assembly
(IJJUD i>nN), which may originally have meant a tent for the
assembly of the gods, though to the Hebrews it came to bear
quite another meaning (Ex 33 7 " 11 ), and may have had a con-
nection with the Babylonian conception of the World-Mountain
piercing into heaven, where the gods assembled to determine
destinies (KAT* 592, cp. p. 355 with references).' That I may
sit] enthroned; cp. io 13 , Ps 6i 8 , and frequently of Yahweh, e.g.
Ps 2* 9 8 2Q 10 . The recesses] lit. the two flanks ('DDT), but
idiomatically the most distant parts-, see 37 24 , i S 24*, Am 6 10 ,
Jer 6 22 . The recesses of the North, in Ezk 38 6 - 15 39 2 , has not the
* Gunkel, Schopfung, p. 133 ; Che. (SBOT).
XIV. 13-20 257
same sense as in the present passage to which the difficult
passage in Ps 48 3 may be more closely parallel ; here, as the
context clearly shows, it is the seat of the god. Anil, the chief
member of the principal divine triad of the Babylonians, had his
throne in heaven, and, apparently, was particularly localised in
the Northern heaven, at the north pole: see KAT* 35 2 f . ;
ATAO 2 20 f. 14. The Most High] p^y here, as in Nu 24, in
the mouth of a foreigner. Very rare in pre-exilic, but a
favourite term with post-exilic, writers : see Che. Origin of the
Psalter, p. 84. Note also that, according to Philo Byblus, *EXtovi/
was in use among the Phoenicians (Eus. Pr. Ev. i. 10). 15. The
Recesses of the Pit] ct. "the Recesses of the North," v. 18 (n.).
Pit, "113, " poetical and late " (BDB), is a synonym for Sheol
(cp. e.g. Ps 88 5 , Ezk 26 20 32 18-24 ), conceived as resembling a
vast cistern, roomy below but with a narrow mouth or opening
(Ps 69 16 ifcQ).
12. nym] T* may be prefixed for rhythm's sake. VV'n] MT intends the
word to mean howl (15* n. ) : cp. (& howl in the morning. D'li ^y rWi] (&c
6 diroo-rAXwv ir/>ds irdvra TO. tdvi), reading nSir, which must be wrong, for
ffVin, and *?3 before D'ia, which may be right. With ff^n, cp. Job I4 10 , Jl 4.
i6-2oa. The once all-conquering tyrant lies on the
battlefield where he fell, a rotting and unburied
corpse. 16. Cp. the terms in which Yahweh speaks of His
treatment of the proud king of Tyre : " I cast thee out upon the
earth, before kings I set thee for them to feast their eyes upon
thee ... I turned thee into ashes upon the earth in the sight of
all them that saw thee ("pfiO 5>3, as here). All that knew thee
among the peoples were appalled at thee," Ezk 28 17 ' 19 . Look
narrowly] the vb. is also used of peering through a window,
Ca 2 9 ; of the high priest Simon looking out of the Temple,
Sir 5o 5 ; of the intense and hungry look of a (poor) man on
another's (well-laden) table, Sir 4o 29 ; of God's all-seeing gaze
out of heaven over men, Ps 33 : with the last usage, cp. NH
nn3B>n, Providence. l6c. d. The same kind of astonished
question occurs in 23 7 . I7C, 18. It is uncertain, probably owing
to textual corruption at this point, whether all or any of the
words of these lines belonged to the speech that began in v. Wc .
From the resumption of the address to the king (cp. w. 12f -,
lea. b^ we ma y assum e that the speech has ended before v. 19 ,
and v. 18b - c , which is antithetical to v. 19 , should naturally also
VOL. i. 17
258 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
fall outside the speech. V. 17c (J^ : & omits the last word) may
be rendered his prisoners he released not homewards ; if f^ is sub-
stantially correct, then v. 18a all the kings of the nations is best
regarded as the second and shorter line of the distich, and as
an explanatory apposition to his prisoners (Du.) ; this, as com-
pared with the verse division of Jfy, RV, has the merit of
maintaining the rhythm of the poem unbroken through vv. 17f>
while it still leaves the antithesis of vv. 18b ' and 19a - b well
stated : all the kings of the nations died indeed, but received
honourable burial, and now lie each one in his house, i.e. in the
mausoleum which each had built for himself; whereas (v. 19 ) the
king of Babylon is flung forth, dishonoured, one of a mass of
common corpses that lie unburied like his own. But this inter-
pretation of vv. 17 ' 19 is open to two objections, the second of
which lies even more forcibly against J^, RV. (i) Du. himself
perceives, and states, and attempts to meet the first of these
difficulties : " Strictly speaking, the kings of the nations cannot
have been buried each in his house, if they had not been
allowed by Chaldaea to return home. The poet doubtless
means that the kings were released owing to the fall of the
Chaldaean, so that they recovered their kingdoms and died in
peace; and he is guilty of a hysteron proteron in representing
them as already dead before the now - expiring Babylonian.
But the poet may be pardoned for what would not be tolerated
in prose." (2) Unreadiness to release prisoners (ordinary,
common captives, according to J^) is not the greatest of enor-
mities ; and therefore v. 17c comes as a rather violent anti-climax
after the preceding description of the king's creating world-wide
desolation and terror. If the main point were the capture of the
kings, the anti-climax would be less ; and this we could obtain
in a slightly emended text from which nrV3 is omitted as in ffir,
and ?h\ 1DK (fif J ) is read for &6 Yn'DK,
He fettered and released not
All the kings of the nations.
But the hysteron proteron (see above) still remains. Not im-
probably v. 17c is seriously corrupt. Ip-20a. The Tyrant's
corpse, unlike those of other kings, which, retaining something
of royal state, rest each in its own mausoleum (v. 18 ), lies outcast,
trodden under foot, where it fell pierced with the sword in battle.
XIV. 19, ao 259
So much remains clear : hut we have the disjecta membra rather
than the whole of the distichs in which the poet indicated the
contrast to v. 18 . Art cast fortti\ the vb. is used of corpses left
to lie unburied (34 3 , Jer 14 36 30 ), or hurried unceremoniously
into the nearest available tomb (2 K is 21 ), or, like those of
malefactors, thrown down to be covered over with stones
(Jos 8 29 ). The vb. is followed in $ by TOpD, which might be
rendered (i) from thy tomb\ but the passage is clearly speaking
not of disinterment, but of non-interment; or, though much
less naturally after roiw, (2) (far) away from thy tomb ; see
BDB 5780, b. It would be better to treat "j as dittographic and
read 13p, tombless (Dr.) : cp. Ps 52 7 (^nso, tentless\ Job 1 1 16 . (& lv
opecrw (v.l. lQvf.<riv) probably read O'nna, on the mountains : see
phil. n. Like an abhorred . . .] the object of comparison is
1V3, which is rendered by S, Theod., and U commonly shoot
(n 1 n.). But the adjective and noun in that case seem ill-suited
to one another. Di., feeling that abhorred or abominable (cp.
Job i5 16 ; nayin, abomination, e.g. i 13 ) is too strong an epithet
for a useless shoot cut out of a tree and thrown away, suggests
that combined with the idea of a rejected shoot is that of the
scion of a human family expelled and abhorred on account of
his badness : improbable. Other versions either gave a different
meaning to "i3, or read differently : 6r i>e*/Dos, Aq. l\<*>p, Symm.
KTpo>/x.a, 3T erf ; and Jer. alludes to sanies as a rendering.
Schwally (ZATW, 1891, p. 258) conjectured i>B3, untimely birth
(Job 3 16 ); while Nestle (ib. 1904, pp. 127-129) claimed that
-iJ meant something like putrefying matter : cp. NH te, decayed
matter, liquid and coagulated portions of a corpse. The slain]
cp. io 4 . &J? might be a noun (cp. e.g. 63 1 ), but a garment of
the slain is nonsense; better, clothed with the slain, of which
fit with many slain may be merely a paraphrase ; but in spite of
other rather similar metaphorical uses of &J? (Job 7 5 , Ps 65"),
it is doubtful whether the text is sound here. That go down to
the stones of the Pit] MT treats HTP, like the participles that pre-
cede, as a plural ; and this is probably right. That mv is sing.
an instance of yod campaginis (cp. i 21 , Zee n 17 , La i 1 ) thou
that goest down (Du.), is abstractly possible. (& has those that go
down to HadeS) which is probably a correct paraphrase, if not
the literal rendering of an earlier and shorter text containing
the phrase that occurs in 38, Ps 30* etc. If ' ta, to the
26O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
stones of) is not a corrupt fragment that has crept into $% since
6r, ^3K is probably an error for ^N, the bases of the Pit, i.e. of
Sheol (v. 15 n.), with which cp. the bases of the earth (Job 38 6 ),
a synonym with "the recesses of the Pit" (v. 15 ).* Others
understand by the stones of the Pit, the tomb or grave the
stone or rock tomb of the rich (22 16 ; Ges.), or the casual
grave into which an enemy cast a fallen foe, covering him with
stones (2 S i8 17 ; Du.), or the stones which were rolled up to
or placed over the mouth of a grave (Mt 28 2 ; Hitz.). 20.
With them\ with whom? doubtful. Ew., Di. answer, with those
that go down to the stones of the pit (i.e. the graves of the rich,
see last n.), which clause they extract from v. 19 and prefix as a
casus pendens to v. 20 . Du. prefixes by conjecture thy fathers
thou shalt not be joined with them.
l6a. b. (5r renders briefly, and adds (cp. 3TJ5) an explanatory /tat
tpovfftv. i6c. ntn] (5r HT. v-ij?] my would be correct ; *?3n is fern. 17.
nn'3 nns K 1 ? WDK] on the wider question of the text as affected by exegesis,
see above. Note that (!K A omits the preceding clause Din vijn. ( read
D(')n(')DK (without the suffix) or -I(')DN (rendered collectively) instead of VTDK.
The emphatic position of the object VYDK in f& admits of no obvious explana-
tion, and may be a further indication of corruption. Che., Marti recon-
struct vv. 17b ' 18 as follows :
vrs 1 ? B^N | nns K"? VTDK
TI333 133ff D*?3 D'U '^D
But waS 'K is a feeble redundance, whereas in'33 B"K where it stands in
f^ is effective. Kit. al. :
Ksn n'3 | nns N 1 ? i*TD7
But the first of these distichs, though rhythmically tolerable, is still anti-
climactic in sense, and the second distich is rhythmically bad. nns] nns
(MT) if Kit.'s emendation be accepted; otherwise nns : cp. Jer 40*. 18.
0*73 D'U '3*?D SD] it would be unsafe to infer that QSc had one only of the
words ^>3, 0*73. MT takes all four words together (cp. e.g. Nu 16*,
Ezk II 15 ). For the idiom in Kit.'s reconstruction, cp. 9 8 . 3in 'jyooj for
the commoner 'n 'V^n (22 2 ). jys occurs nowhere else in the OT, but ,.*b
and Aram, jyts are common. 19, 20a. After the first five words the
rhythmical scheme of the poem breaks down in f!f . (& differs to some extent,
but yields no satisfactory text. If tv 6pecrt' = Dnn3 represents an original
D'nm (Du., Che.), it is nearer the original text than f^. On KaTa^aiv6vT<av
e*'s"A5ou, see above. For nas3 (Hr read 1J33 and then treated DUID as = noDi3no
(Ezk l6 6 ). Ofa ZffTai Ka.da.pbv OUTWJ ou5^ af> fay Ka6apb$ may represent
something very different from mi3p3 onx nnn N 1 ? ; with '3 ... inn K 1 ?, cp.
* Gunkel, Schbpfung u. Chaos, p. 133 ; Che. (SBOT).
XIV. I6-2I 26l
Gn 49*. Elaborate reconstructions such as Du. and Che., who regard vv. 1 '* 20 *
as the mutilated fragment of five distichs, offer, are of necessity very un-
certain ; but it is unwise to invent mnj TK as a fitting introduction to "noa
while the unfitting epithet ayru is left attached to nxj.
2ob-2i. May no descendant of the Tyrant survive to
repeat his career. Thy land hast thou ruined, thy people hast
thou slain] <& my land . . . my people, doubtless understanding
the words to refer to Nebuchadnezzar's treatment of the Jews
(cp. Jer.). f^ means that the conqueror, who has ruined (cp.
Ezk 30 11 ) other lands by his conquests (v. 6 ), has also ruined his
own. But how? Merely, like all great conquerors, who press
heavily on their land by the drain of war, and expose many of
their subjects to death in their campaigns ? * This rather
inadequate explanation would apply equally well to any of the
great conquering kings of Assyria or Babylon. Or is the
meaning that the career of the conqueror has brought about the
downfall of the state and people, that the people have exchanged
the role of the conqueror for the fate of the conquered ? Then
this particular trait might fit Nabonidus, or the last king of
Assyria, or, perhaps best of all, the personified nation. Seed of
evil-doers] (5r the evil-doer. Even if the plural is correct, the
phrase has not quite the same meaning as in i 4 : here it means
the descendants of the evil and hurtful kings. 21. A butchery]
rQBO t may denote either the act of slaughtering animals, or the
place where they are slaughtered. Fathers] <Sc B father. And
fill the face of the world] Ify + with cities to subserve their
tyranny (Del.) : improbable. Many emendations of D'ny have
been suggested (see below), but the line is rhythmically complete
without it (Du., Marti). Both Dny and ^S, the face of, which is
not expressed by ffi, may be additions ; and the original text
may have had the common parallelism earth and world (see, e.g.,
H 4 34 1 )-
21. iDip'^n] ^a seems to have the force of so that . . . nof; cp.
Ps io 18 yS 44 . With the exception of two not altogether certain occurrences
in Hos 7 2 9 16 , ^3 is confined to the later literature chs. 26. 33. 35, and
40-66, Pr., Job, I Ch., Ps. ony] fflr TroX^uw, which is probably an error
for irbXewv (Aq., Theod., Symm., and some MSS of dK), or iroXefjiluv = any,
taken in its Aramaic sense of enemy (Dn 4 16 ) : cp. Ht. Among emendations
that have been suggested are D"y (Ilitz.), D'*"!V (Ew.), ony nmn (Di.),
to be taken closely with 'nopi in v. 21 (Cobb).
* Cp. Jer.. Ges., Di., al.
262 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
22-23. Yahweh promises to wipe out the Baby-
lonians, and to make of Babylon a desolate city. This
is scarcely either poetry or the original continuation of vv. 4b ' 21 :
see above, p. 233 f. I will arise against] 3i 2 . The response to
v. 21 . Saitti] DN3 thrice in these verses: nowhere else in I3 1 -i4 21 .
I will cut off name and remnant] and so wipe out of existence
and memory : the response to v. 20d - e , cp. Zeph i 5 : similar
phrases occur in i S 24 22 , 2 S 14*. Name and remnant and kith
and kin, or more lite rally progeny and posterity ("D31 pj), are both
alliterative phrases: 133 and p always occur together Gn 2i 23 ,
Job i8 19 , Sir 4i 5 47 22 f : in & of the last passage TUI p is in
synonymous parallelism with JHT, seed. 23. The possession of the
porcupine~\ 34" n. / will sweep it away with the besom of
destruction] the proud city is implicitly compared to filth that
must be swept away : cp. for rather similar vigorous figures,
i K i4 10 , 2 K 2 1 13 .
23. .vrmoNbi] probably Pilpel of NIO, otherwise unknown. For a full
discussion of the form, see Konig, i. 652 f.
XIV. 24-27. Yahwetts plan to destroy Assyria on the
Mountains of Palestine.
The opening words down to N 1 ? OK fall outside the rhythmical scheme, are
absent from (8r, and may be editorial. The ten lines that follow fall into
5 distichs of equal (or approximately equal) lines parallel to one another in
sense. Two, or if mta* be omitted in v. 27a , three, of the distichs are 4:4;
25 *' b is 3 : 3 ; ** d f^ 3 : 4, or, with the omission of mo% 3 : 3.
24 Yahweh of Hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely
As I have thought, so shall it come to pass,
And as I have planned even that shall be realised;
25 That I will break Assyria in my land,
And trample him on my mountains.
And his yoke shall remove from upon them,
And his burden from upon his shoulder shall remove.
2(5 This is the plan that hath been planned against the
whole earth,
And this is the hand that has been stretched out
against all the nations :
27 For Yahweh of Hosts hath planned, who then can annul?
And his hand is the out-stretched (hand) ; who then
can turn it back?
XIV. 22, 23; 24-27 263
This poem or fragment is unconnected with that which
precedes it ; it is separated by a concluding and, in J^, by an
initial formula ; it is also distinguished by difference of rhythm
and subject ; vv. 1-23 deal with the approaching fall of Babylon,
vv 24-27 w fth the approaching destruction of Assyria. It is
separated from what follows by a fresh editorial note (v. 28 ).
Some see in the fragment a misplaced conclusion to io 6 ' 8 - 18-15
(Che.), or to io 82 (Cond.), or to io 84 (Ges.), or to i8 7 (Ew.);
but after any of these passages v. 24 would be necessary to explain
the ist pers. of v. 24b , and v. 24a is not rhythmical.
If the fragment is Isaiah's (cp. e.g. Du., Che. Introd. 79), it
may have been written during the campaign of Sennacherib ;
but the phrase my mountains (v. 25 ), and ideas in v. 25 and v. 26
recalling Ezekiel and later writers, leave room for the suspicion
that it is the work of a post-exilic writer familiar with Isaiah's
prophecies: see Stade in ZATW\\\. 16, and Marti.
24. Yahweh . . . hath sworn] cp. Am 4 2 6 8 8 7 , Gn 22 16 ,
and, probably, Is 5 9 ; also, in later writings, e.g. 45 28 549 62 8 ,
Jer 22 5 , Ps 95 11 . As I have thought] Nu 33 56 : nm occurs also
in io 7 , but it is questionable whether this clause refers back to
io 7 : the subject of the sentence is not emphasised so as to
suggest an antithesis between Yahweh's thought and Assyria's.
As I have planned] This, like all Yahweh's (Ps 33", Pr ip 21 ),
but unlike many human (8 10 ), plans, will be carried out ; for py
or nvy, see also 5 19 i9 12 - 17 23 25 1 46, Jer 49 20 5o 45 . 25.
Yahweh's plan is to destroy Assyria, and in order that it may be
clear that He is the author of this destruction, the destruction is
to take place in His own land (cp. Ezk 38 18 - 22f - 39 21f -), on the
hills of Palestine; cp. io 12 n. Yahweh is conceived as a warrior
(cp. 63 1 * 6 ) mangling ("DP, cp. Jer i4 17 19", Is 3o 26 , Lev 2i 19 ) and
then trampling (Ps 44 6o 14 , Zee io 5 ) on the prostrate corpse
(cp. i4 19 ) of Assyria; for similar personifications of nations, see
i 3 n. io 16 n. Assyria] if the term has its primary sense and .
refers to the Assyrian Empire, this passage was written at all
events before the close of the 7th cent., and anticipates the
elaboration of the idea in Ezk 38 f. If, as in Ezr 6 22 , Assyria is
used of one of the empires that succeeded Assyria proper,
the passage may be late and dependent on Ezk 38. 39. My
mountains'] cp. 65, but probably not Ezk 38 21 . With Ezek. the
264 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
term " mountains of Israel " is a favourite mode of reference to
Palestine: cp. 6 2f - ig 9 , and, in reference to the scene of the
destruction of the world power, 392- * 17 . 250. d. Cp. io 27 .
The lines may be an interpolation ; Judah, to whom the pronouns
in upon them and his shoulder must refer, has not been mentioned.
26. Not only Assyria, strictly speaking, is the object of
Yahweh's plan : all the nations of the world also must assemble
on the mountains of Judah to feel there the destructive power
of Yahweh : cp. Jl 4 (3) 12ff '. Some understand all the earth and
all the nations to be entirely synonymous with Assyria : so Di.,
who appeals to io 14 8 9 i7 12f - 29? 3o 28 , and also i3 5 . The hand
that has been stretched out] 5 25 9". 27. Cp. Nu 23 19 , Is 43 13 ,
Dn4 82 < 35 >, Job9 12 .
24. K^-DK . . ynjfj] < om. Dipn . . . nnvi] for the vbs. and the fern., cp.
7 7 ; for the proph. pf., Dr. 14. 25. nas? 1 ?] is dependent on 'n'Di, 'nxy% in
v. 24 ; in the parallel clause the inf. passes over into the impf.: Dr. 117, 118.
1D3?] some would read DDStf : cp. D.rSyD. -no 1 ] overloads the line and
inelegantly repeats the vb. of the parallel line.
28-32. The Fate of Philistia.
The introductory note, v. 28 , is prose ; w. 29 ' 31 consist of 6 distichs, 82Ct d
is another distich ; the opening words of v. 82 are not, but look like the
fragment of another distich. The distichs consist of balanced lines mostly
parallel in sense : the length of the line is 3 or 4 accents. On a possible
intrusion of t?ru into 29c , which at present overbalances ^ see n. below ;
?' in v. 804 should be read as two accents.
28 In the year that King Ahaz died was this oracle :
29 Rejoice not, O entire Philistia,
Because the rod that smote thee has been broken;
For from the root of the serpent shall issue an asp,
And its fruit shall be a flying fiery serpent.
80 And the poorest of the poor shall feed,
And the needy will lie down in security ;
And 'he' will cause thy root to die of hunger,
And thy remnant will he slay.
81 Howl, (every) town ! cry out, (every) city !
Faint away, entire Philistia !
For out of the north smoke cometh,
And there is no straggler in his ranks.
XIV. 25-27, 28-32 265
And what answer will . . . give
. . . the messengers of the nation (?)?
"That it is Yahweh who hath founded ion,
And in her the afflicted of his people take refuge."
Some event, presumably the death, overthrow, or enfeeble-
ment of some victorious adversary, who had inflicted severe
suffering on the entire Philistine country, has led the Philistines
to rejoice (cp. 2 S i 20 ). The prophet warns them that their
rejoicing will be short-lived, for worse things await them from
the same quarter ; an army descending from the N. will destroy
the Philistines, root and branch.
Appended to (v. 82 ), and at present interwoven with (v. 80 *- b ),
this prediction of the destruction of Philistia are promises that
the poor (v. 30 ), i.e. the Jewish nation, or the afflicted part of that
nation (v. 32 ), will find security in ion.
So much seems clear ; but the identification of the adversary
and the determination of the date of the poem are closely related
problems which cannot be solved with certainty. Some theories
may be ruled out at once as inconsistent with a sound exegesis ;
unless the unity of the poem be abandoned, so that v. 29 is
referred to one and v. 81 to another poem, the " asp " and the
"fiery serpent" and "the smoke from the North" all refer,
directly or indirectly, to the person, or power, that is to destroy
Philistia. But, since the " asp " and " the fiery serpent " are
sprung from the same root as " the rod " that has already inflicted
injury on Philistia, we may infer (i) that the writer has the same
hostile nation in view throughout, and believes that the same
nation that has already smitten Philistia will destroy it ; and (2)
that this nation is not Judah, for Judah would have attacked
Philistia from the East (cp. 9 11 1 1 14 ) ; this power descends from
the North : the writer is doubtless thinking of the great coast
road from the N. by which alike Assyrian, Babylonian, and, later,
Greek invaders came. On the ground, then, of both (i) and (2)
we may rule out the theories that "the rod" was Ahaz (or
Uzziah ; Rashi, Ki.), the " asp " Hezekiah, and the " fiery serpent "
the Messiah (Del.; cp. ft, Jer.); or that "the rod" was the
Jewish, the " asp " the Assyrian, dominion over Philistia (Di.) :
on the ground of (2) we may dismiss the theory that "rod " and
" asp " indicate different periods of Jewish dominion, interrupted
by a period of weakness (Ges.) ; and on the ground of (i) the
266 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
theory that the "rod" was the Persian dominion, and the "asp"
Alexander the Great (Du., Marti).
But various possibilities remain ; though the number is reduced, if we can
prove that the poem dates from the 8th century. According to the introductory
note, it does do so ; but the evidence of this note has been much challenged.
Some hold that it is an editor's inference from the contents of the poem ;
interpreting the rod of Ahaz and the asp of Hezekiah, he inferred, so it is
suggested, that the occasion of the poem must have been the death of Ahaz,
which the poem describes as the breaking of the rod. This is extremely
improbable ; for Ahaz did not smite the Philistines, but was smitten by them
(2 Ch 28 18 ) ; it is one thing for interpreters with the note before them, and
even then in desperation, to identify the rod with Ahaz ; quite another for an
editor uninfluenced by the note to stumble on an interpretation so improbable
that to avoid it the mediaeval Jewish commentators fell into other improb-
abilities by identifying the rod with Uzziah, who died several years before Ahaz.
The possibility remains that a late editor inferred, on grounds no longer
obvious, the date, not the occasion, of the poem, and gave his chronological
note the same form as that in 6 1 . Yet this is not very probable, and were it
not for the suspicious KB'Dri at the end of the note, might be dismissed ; but
K?Dn may be a substitute for "Din, or the whole of the last clause may be a
substitute for a different conclusion more resembling the form of 2O 1 .
There is probability, then, that the chronological note is
genuinely ancient, and not a mere imitation of an old type of
note ; its evidence, therefore, must not be lightly dismissed.
Unfortunately, even if the note be correct, the date remains
uncertain within limits of a dozen years or so. Ahaz was
certainly alive in 728, but some chronological schemes place his
death in 727, i.e. in the 6th year before 722 B.C. (2 K i8 10 ),
others in 715 or 714, i.e. in the i4th year before 701 (36 1 ),
others at some intermediate date such as 720. If 727 be the
correct date, the " rod " would be Tiglath-pileser, who also died in
that year and had treated Philistia with severity ; the event of the
year 734 singled out for reference in the Eponym canon is Tiglath-
pileser's campaign in Philistia, and we have more particular
evidence of his treatment of Gaza and Ashkelon. It can be no
objection to this theory that Tiglath-pileser's immediate successor,
Shalmaneser, inflicted, so far as is known, no defeat on Philistia ;
for while the "rod" is matter of history to the prophet, the
"asp" is subject of prediction: in 727, Isaiah may have anti-
cipated a renewal of Assyrian hostility against Philistia, which as
a matter of fact did not take place till the reign of Sargon, just
xiv. 28-32 26;
as he anticipated the destruction of Samaria a dozen years earlier
than the actual event.
It is possible that the death of Shalmaneser (722) and the
death of Ahaz nearly synchronised ; and some have identified the
" rod " with Shalmaneser. But it does not seem probable that
Shalmaneser ever troubled Philistia, though the lack of inscrip-
tions by him does not admit of a positive statement on this
point.
Rejecting the evidence of the note, many have identified the
"rod" with Sargon, whose death occurred in 705. Sargon's
treatment of Philistia in 720 and again in 71 1 (ch. 20) was severer
even than Tiglath-pileser's.
Accepting the note and placing the death of Ahaz in 720, i.e.
1 6 years (2 K i6 2 ) after c. 735, when Ahaz was already (ch. 7),
though he had probably only just become, king, but abandoning
the interpretation of the broken rod as a reference to the death
of a king, Wi. attributes the joy of Philistia to the effect of the
news of the battle Dur-ilu in 721 : according to Sargon's own
account, he was successful in this battle against the Elamites, the
allies of Merodach-baladan ; but, according to the Babylonian
Chronicle, Sargon was defeated, and subsequent events show that
it was certainly several years before Sargon made good his
position in Babylon. Che. adopted this theory in Introd. p.
8 1, but abandoned it later (SBOT, p. 195) in favour of the
theory that i4 28 - 32 is, like i4 4 ' 21 , a post-exilic poem referring to
Sennacherib's death in 68 1.
Du. and Marti have also argued for a non-Isaianic origin, and indeed for a
post-exilic date on these grounds: (i) v. 82 attributes the foundation of ion
to Yahweh, 29 1 to David ; (2) the application of the terms o^i, D'Ji'3K, D"jy
in vv. 30 *- b - 32 ; (3) mna conjecturally substituted for "1123 in v. 80 *. (i) and (3)
have no great weight : for if David's battles might be called Yahweh's battles
(i S 25 28 ), surely David's foundation might also be called Yahweh's founda-
tion : Isaiah surely conceived Yahweh as working through David ; 'v in v. 80
is anything but certain (see n.). (2) is not without weight : see notes below.
But 30a * bt 32 , the only parts of the poem affected by the argument, might well
be subsequent additions (see especially n. on 80a< b ).
28. Cp. 6 1 ; and on the meaning and probable genuineness of
the note, see above. 29. Philistia] nB^Q occurs in the OT (v. 81 ,
Ex i5 14 , Jl4 4 , Ps6o 10 =io8 10 83 8 87 4 f)only as a poetical synonym
for "the land of the Philistines" (DTU^B ptf); but Palastu,
268 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Pilistu, occurs in Assyr., e.g. ana (matii) Pilista in the Eponym
Canon for 734, and Pilesheth in Egyptian Inscription of the 22nd
Dynasty (c. 945-745 B.C.) : see H. Vincent, Canaan, 454. The
staff that smote thee\ cp. io 5 , or the staff of thy smiter (r) : cp. io 20 ' 24
i4 6 (9 3 ) ; in the latter case the broken stick corresponds directly
to the death of the king at whose hands Philistia has suffered ;
in the former, to the temporary withdrawal from Philistia of the
hostile army, probably in consequence of the death of the king.
If under the dead king the Philistines were smitten with a stick,
under the new king they will be smitten with serpents (cp. i K
i2 14 ). For suggested identifications, see above. For from the
root of the serpent\ rejoice not, for worse is to follow than has yet
come and from the same quarter. At present there is an abrupt
change of figure : serpent takes the place of rod in the previous
line. Possibly serpent (BTtt) is a gloss on the rare word JJQX, asp,
and the original text ran from its root, i.e. the root whence the
rod came. In any case the meaning is that the future greater
mischief will issue from the same quarter as the mischief that is
past ; if asp and fiery serpent refer to Assyrian king(s), so too
does rod\ and if rod referred to a Jewish king or dominion, so
too would asp and fiery serpent. It is quite unsafe to assume
that v. 29c - d refer to successive stages in a future increasing peril
(Di.), and asp andfary serpent to distinct persons, one succeeding
to and proving more dangerous than the other. Certainly, if KTU
be original in v. 29c , it is most natural to explain its fruit as
meaning the fruit of the serpent (T!j) rather than the fruit of the
asp : the two lines are then parallel and synonymous statements
of the same fact or anticipation the future issue and offspring
of the root whence the rod was taken will be dangerous serpents.
Again, there is no sound evidence that three terms pro, yav, and
ejDiyE *pt? refer to reptiles of differing degrees of venomousness.
The first is generic (Gn 3), but is used of dangerous serpents
(Gn 49 17 , Am 5 19 , EC io 8 , Ps 58 5 < 4 >); the second and third refer
to specific types of venomous reptiles, actual or mythical : but
what particular types are intended cannot be determined. The
VBV mentioned here only may be the same as the 'oyBV of n 8
59 5 , Jer 8 17 , Pr 23 32 f ; for the RjDiyio cpp, see 3o 6 ; and for the
meaning of *ptP, cp. 6 2 n., Nu 2i 6 n. 30. The hostile power will
destroy Philistia with famine and the sword of war, but will
leave Judah unmolested : the Jews will live in peace and plenty
XIV. 30, 3 1
(cp. v. 82 ). Such must be the meaning, if v. 30 *- b is original ; yet
the use of the terms poor and needy for Yahweh's people savours
more of the Psalter than of Isaiah : io 2 , of course, being different,
probably also n 4 . Possibly these lines at least are later than
the age of Isaiah. In any case they are probably misplaced :
for the peace and plenty of the poor, v. 80a - b , is no natural sequence
(iJTfl) to the succession to the stick of a serpent (v. 29 ), nor again
is the slaughter of the Philistines (v. 80c - d ) a natural sequence
(Tiom) to the peace and plenty of Judah ; on the other hand,
v soc. d j s t ne sequence of v. 29 ; while 30a - b could find a more
suitable place after v. 82 . The poorest of the poor] lit. the firstborn
of the poor-, the nearest parallels to the idiom are in Job i8 18 ,
Ps 89 28 < 27 >. But the text is open to suspicion ; the superlative
seems pointless (see line b), and parallelism suggests that *"ID2
conceals a term synonymous with nt32? in the next line : 113
(Dt 33 28 , Jer 49 81 : cp. 113^, Nu 23*, Mic ; 14 ) would be suitable,
the poor shall feed by themselves, unmolested by the nations
(cp. Nu 23 9 ). Easier palaeographical emendations (see phil. n.)
give a definition of place ; but this would form a less satisfactory
parallel : the line then reads, And the poor shall feed on my
meadow or on my mountains (v. 25 n.) ; in this case Yahweh is
the speaker. And he will cause to die . . . he will slay] the
rendering rests on the reading IVorn (ffirC) for Wro, I will slay,
the subject is the same as in v. 29c ' d . Many prefer to obtain two
vbs. in the first person by following f^ instead of (5r in the first
line, and reading :nnK for Jirp in the second : in this case Yahweh
is the subj. Thy root] in contrast to the root of v. 29 , which sends
up stronger growth, the root of Philistia will die. But (i) the
parallel line does not maintain the figure of a tree ; ct. 5 24 , Hos
9 16 ; (2) a dead tree is not a good figure of complete destruction
(cp. Job 1 4 8 ) ; (3) trees die for lack of water ; the famine of
which Philistia is to die is probably the famine of beleaguered
cities (cp. 5 13 ), and some term more immediately suggestive of
human beings seems wanted ; consequently ffi's thy seed(cp. e.g.
54 s ) may represent the original text. 31. Town] lit. gate : cp.
the Deuteronomic phrase " within thy gates," i.e. in all thy
towns. From the north~\ cp. Jer i 14 io 22 47 2 . Smoke'] if this is
correct, the enemy is represented as capturing and burning the
country as it moves southward towards Philistia : the next line,
2/0 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
in spite of the uncertainty of the last word (see phil. n.), suggests
that a more personal term may have been used ; the enemy
moves on compactly and rapidly with no straggler, lit. one who
is separated^ in his ranks ; cp. 5 27 . 32. In contrast to Philistia
(vv. 29 " 31 ), Sion, the existing city (ct. 28 16 n.), is safe, for none other
than Yahweh has founded it (cp. 54 11 , Ps 87*) : in Sion, Yahweh's
people will find a secure retreat (cp. v. 30a - b with n.). So much is
clear; but how this idea was introduced and connected with
what proceeds is not clear, for the opening words are a corrupt
fragment of an entire distich (see phil. n.). It is possible that
v. 32 was not the original continuation of v. 31 ; but if it was, then
the odd expression the messengers of (the) nation^ if not itself the
result of corruption, must imply that the Philistines send envoys
to Jerusalem (cp. i8 2 , Jer 27 3 ) to seek aid, and receive in
response the words of 32c - d for them a somewhat irrelevant
answer. The answer would doubtless be more relevant if
addressed to messengers of Assyria demanding the capitulation
of Jerusalem ; but the difficulty is to establish the connection of
an Assyrian embassy to Jerusalem with a threat of the destruction
of Philistia ; the difficulty remains if we read nations ((&). The
afflicted of his people] does this mean that another portion of
Yahweh's people will not find refuge there ? If v. 32b is in agree-
ment with v. 30a - b and the terms poor and needy here mean Judah
as opposed to Philistia, this is improbable. At the same time it
is rather unsatisfactory to take toy "W as an appositional gen.
and render the afflicted^ (even) his people. Possibly "W is an
error (cp. io 2 ) : the term, like those of v. 30a - b , is more easily
explicable by post-exilic circumstances than by those of the 8th
cent.
28. NffOn] <ffi rbpijfjia, as in I5 1 I7 1 22 1 23 1 . 30. "i)33] &U MT '"$13, first-
born of; Lowth 'T33, (the poor shall feed on) my choice first-fridts. Koppe
proposed '133, in my meadows ; and many have adopted this or '133, in my
meadow ; but see 3O 23 n. ; Che. , Marti 'Tin?, on my moimtains ; but ct. "irrSy,
v. 28 . For another suggestion, see above, ffi's equivalent for D'*?i "1133 is
Si a&rov. riq: . . . ViDm] ffi di/eXei . . . (beXet ; . . . A ^n]n
1& *?iBp' . . . n'D'i ; U inter ire faciam . . . inter fidam. On the
choice of readings, see above. lint?] (Z5 r6 <rirep/j.a vov ; $ 133. 31. -\yv *V*VI^
^'t7 is here exceptionally fern. ; Kon. iii. 249;^. JIDJ] inf. abs. Niph. : G-K.
722;, 113^. VIJJID] so pointed, here only; and ly'io nowhere has quite
the sense required here ; the word iljiD is explained as the place appointed
(^') for the soldier, i.e. the ranks of an army. Marti proposes VTIDJ? ; cp.
XIV. 28-32 AND XV. XVI. 271
fry in the previous line. On (JR's rendering of vnjnoa ma J'K by ical OVK
TOV elvai, see Ges. p. 102, and Ottley. 32. % u 'axSo ray noi] certainly, if v. 33
is part of the poem in 29 ~ 31 , these words look like a fragment of a distich.
(8r reading 'aVo for 'SK^D, and (cp. also ST) probably uy for njy, and O'u for
'U, renders Kal r\. diroKptd^ffovrat /3a<riXeij tBv&v. The best that can be done
with ^ is to treat nay as a vb. with an indefinite subject (G-K. 144^), what
then shall one answer (RV) ; cp. V : this is obviously unsatisfactory. j$ reads
njjy, w^a/ answer shall we give also improbable. Very unconvincing
attempts to complete the distich have been made by Bick., Du., and Che.
XV. XVI. The overthrow of Moab.
These chapters, containing the oracle (13! n.) of Moab, in
part describe and lament, in part, as it seems, predict a great
calamity. An appendix, i6 18f -, treats the entire oracle as a
" word of Yahweh," i.e. a prophecy, which was spoken long ago
and has hitherto remained unfulfilled, but is now to be fulfilled
within the term of three years.
The oracle is probably enough not the work of a single
writer. It would be easier to speak with decision on this point
if the text were less corrupt, and the interpretation of many
details less uncertain.
In the first place, it is to be noted that the major part of the
oracle re-appears with many textual variations and much differ-
ence of order in Jer 48.* Thus :
Is i5 1 - 2b absent from Jeremiah; yet cp. 48 15> 18 .
j r2c-7a _ J er 4g37a. 38. 34a. 81 (cp. 86a. b) 84b. 5. 84d. 860^
I5 7b -i6 5 absent from Jeremiah.
! 56-11 _ J er ^g 29 ' 30b - 8Sa ' b ' 82c * k d. 88. 86a. b^
i6 12 absent from Jeremiah.
Even in i^-i* and i6 6 - n there are a few lines, or clauses,
not incorporated in Jer. ; the more important are i5 6b - c i6 8a - b - 9b .
But it remains remarkable that whereas almost the whole of
I5 1 - 7 * I6 6 ' 11 is quoted, or has left its trace, in Jer 48, no trace of
the long intervening section is to be found there. Was then the
compiler of the cento in Jer 48 familiar with Is 15. 16, or did
he and the editor of Is 15. 1 6 alike make use of an elegy over
Moab of which the whole or much of Is I5 7b -i6 5 and i6 12 formed
no part ? The latter alternative seems the more probable ; for
there is a difference of character between A I5 1 ' 7 * I6 6 ' 11 and
* Cp. the translation and notes in Dr. Book of Jer. 280 ff.
272 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
much of B i5 7b -i6 5 i6 12 . A is throughout descriptive, or
expressive, of the emotions which naturally find an outlet
in elegy: the first person, when it is used (Is i5 5 i6 9 - n : also
Jer 48 36 = Is i6 7 ), refers to the poet. On the other hand, in B
the first person (i5 9b ? i6 J fir) refers to Yahweh, and the prophetic
element is conspicuous; note n\11, i6 2 - 12 , and the other clearly
prophetic statements in i5 9b i6 5 . A less significant difference is
the dramatic character, as it appears, of I6 1 * 4 . But this differ-
ence of character in the different sections of Is 15. 16 cannot be
the reason why Jer 48 does not quote from B as well as A ; for
Jer 48 has incorporated the passages from A, the elegy, into a
whole which resembles B in being prophetic, and in introducing
Yahweh as the speaker (cp. e.g. Jer 48*' 12 - 30 - 35 ' 88 ).
If we are right in this conclusion, we have to inquire whether
the extent of the elegy can be more closely determined, (i)
Such parts of I5 7b -i6 5 as are not clearly prophetic may belong
to the elegy and have been omitted by Jer., as are a few lines of
the remainder of Is 15. 16. Not improbably, then, i5 7b -9a
belonged to the elegy ; at all events they scarcely formed part
of the prophecy, though it is possible that they were variants or
parallels not yet incorporated in the elegy when the editor of Jer
48 made use of it. Even i6 2 , if rum be read for HMl, might
have formed part of the elegy; but the awkwardness which is
occasioned by the present position of this v. may be due to the
certainly corrupt state of i6 l . (2) Possibly enough some of the
original elegy has failed of preservation in either Is. or Jer. We
appear to have in i5 4c - d - 5a i6 7 and i6 n a thrice-repeated,
though in each case more or less mutilated, refrain. The
number of rhythmically similar lines at present preceding each
occurrence of the refrain is nearly though not quite equal. If,
however, I5 9b -i6 6 , entire or in large part, were included in the
elegy, great inequality would result ; and this is some confirma-
tion of the conclusion that most at least of that section is really
foreign to the elegy. (3) i6 6 though also found in Jer. is unlike
the rest of the elegy (note the ist plural), and may be a reflection
on it which, at an early period of the text, was incorporated in
the elegy.
To facilitate the study of the section along lines which seem
safest where all is uncertain and many details most uncertain,
a continuous translation in many respects quite tentative of
/ 7 \ 1 K
* f^_X /**
10 TH A 4 !
Y,neJn
IVX .VI
/( *>
to -o* -
35*0
35Vo'
oBosrah(
(usaireh_
MOAB
AND
PART OF JUDAH
to illustrate the Commentary
on Is. X 2 7- 32, XV, XVI
Scale of English Miles
Modern names are in thin typt
35zo'
Long' East 354-0' of Greenwich
WtA.K John*ton L*? Edinburgh t London
xv. xvi. 273
the elegy is given first. The translation of the prophetic section
I5 9b -i6 5 is given below, p. 286, and of i6 12 in its place.
XV. i-ga + XVI. (6) 7-1 1. An Elegy on Moab.
The text is so uncertain, or ambiguous, that it is difficult to speak with
certainty of the rhythm. It is often said to be kinah rhythm ; but if so,
the variation 2 : 2 for 3 : 2 is so frequent as to give the poem a very different
rhythmical character from I4 4 ' 21 . Parallelism occasionally occurs between
periods of 2 accents : see, e.g., 15* and the distich I5 8b - Ot d ; more often the
periods of parallelism are longer 4 : 4; see i6 8 ' 10 with phil. n. The rhythm
of the refrain (see I5 4 " 3 ' d< * l6 7>11 ) in its original form perhaps, and of 15**' b
certainly, was 3 : 3. On the strophic division, see above.
I.
1 Because in a (single) night Ar has been spoiled,
Moab is undone;
Because in a night Kir has been spoiled, Moab is
undone.
2 'The daughter of Dibon hath ascended the high
places to weep;
On Nebo and on Medeba, Moab doth howl.
On every 'head' is baldness, every beard is clipped,
Jer 48 37 [Upon all hands are gashes, and on all loins sack-
cloth.]
8 In his streets they have girded on sackcloth,
On ' his ' roofs and in * his ' squares (Moab), one
and all, howls,
Running down (?) with weeping.
4 Heshbon and Ele'aleh cried out,
As far as Yahas was. their voice heard.
Wherefore the loins of Moab (?) 'quiver 1
His (?) soul quivereth for himself:
681 My heart crieth out for Moab.
2.
A A 5b For the ascent of Luhith he goeth up thereon weeping,
For the way to Horonaim they raise (thereon) the
cry of destruction.
18
274 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
6 For the waters of Nimrim became desolations.
For the grass has dried up,
The young grass is exhausted,
Green things have not grown.
7 Wherefore the abundance he had acquired and their (?) . .
Over the Wady of Willows they carry them away.
8 For the cry hath gone round the border of Moab ;
As far as Eglaim is the howl thereof,
And (as far as) Be'er Elim is the howl thereof.
9a For the waters of Dimon are full of blood,
i6 1G We have heard of the pride of Moab, very proud,
His haughtiness and pride and overbearing not right are his
pratings.
7 Therefore 'I' howl 'for' Moab,
For entire Moab ' I ' cry out,
For the raisin-cakes of Kir-'heres' 'I' moan.
3-
** For the tract of Hcshbon the vine of Sibmah hath languished,
b The lords of nations its red clusters smote down:
d Its tendrils have stretched out, gone over to the sea,
c Unto Ya'zer have they reached, strayed into the
wilderness.
9 Wherefore I weep with the weeping of Ya'zer,
O vine of Sibmah I drench thee with my tears,
Heshbon and Elealeh ;
For upon thy grapes and thy (grape-)harvest shouting
(?) hath fallen,
10 And joy is withdrawn and exultation from ' thy vine-
yards.'
And in the vineyards no ringing cry is given,
The wine 'is not trodden,' in the vats 'none is left';
11 Wherefore my bowels for Moab sound like a harp,
And my inward parts for Kir-freres [sound like a pipe].
The first strophe (is 1 ' 5 *) states the disaster, and its effect,
the destruction of Moab, and then depicts the lamentation
that spreads with the news through Moab. The disaster ap-
pears to have been an attack from the South ; ( Ar and ICir
(sites to the S. of Arnon), taken unawares, fell before the enemy
xv. xvi. 275
almost without a blow (v. 1 ). The news spreads northwards
across Arnon to Dibon and to the extreme northern towns of
Moab Heshbon and Ele'aleh (v. 4 ). The refrain in the present
text records the emotion of both Moab and the poet (vv. 4c - d - 6a ).
The second strophe, i^^-^C 7 ) i6 7 : further scenes of lamenta-
tion and desolation ; the sites mentioned are all uncertain ; but
some at least probably lay in Southern Moab, though not
necessarily, with the exception perhaps of So'ar, in the extreme
south, i.e. on the Edomite border. The refrain in the present
text of Is (emended above) records the emotion of Moab; in
Jer the refrain refers mainly to the poet's emotion.
Many writers find in this strophe a description of the flight
of Moabite refugees into Edom ; this view rests partly on
identifying the Wady of Willows with the Edomite border, partly
on emending i^ 9 * so as to introduce the word Edom, and partly
on a particular explanation of a very obscure v., I6 1 . An allusion
to flight into Edom is anything but certain, even if i5 9b -i6 5
formed an integral part of the poem.
Third strophe, 1 6 8 ' 11 : a special feature in the disaster the
extensive and famous vineyards of Northern Moab are destroyed ;
the enemy have fallen on the country in the time of vintage,
and there will be no joy of the vintage and no wine for Moab.
The refrain records the poet's emotion.
The age of this elegy is very uncertain. It is earlier than
the Appendix (i6 13f -), and earlier than the composition of Jer 48 ;
but the dates of these are unfortunately also uncertain. It
belongs to an age when the territory of Moab stretched far
north of the Arnon. In the time of Omri, Israel held the
country as far south as Arnon ; Mesha, toward the end of the
9th century B.C., recovered this northern territory, at least as far
north as Nebo. Soon after, if we may press 2 K io 82f -, it
passed back to Israel and then into the hands of the Syrians ;
and then, possibly after another period of Moabite occupation
(cp. 2 K i3 20f -)j if we may rely on Am 6 14 , 2 K i4 25 with the
more specific implications of i Ch 5 1 * 17 , it was restored to
Israel by Jeroboam n. in the first half of the 8th century B.C. It
ceased to be Israelite in 722 at latest, and much at least of it
was Moabite at the beginning of the 6th century (Ezk 25 9 ) ;
but there is no definite evidence to show precisely how long
before and how long after the time of Ezekiel the Moabites
276 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
held it. But we may infer with great probability that the dis-
trict both south and north of Arnon was overrun by Arab
nomads, who so completely subjugated the ancient population
that they gave their own name of Nabataeans, or Arabians, to
the population of the country. The chief facts are these: (i)
Ezek. in the early part of the 6th cent, foresees such an invasion ;
(2) Nehemiah (mid. 5th cent. B.C.) couples Arabians and
Ammonites ; and he may well mean by Arabians, inhabitants of
Moab (Neh 4 1 tf>, cp. 2 19 ) ; (3) in the 2nd cent. B.C. the popula-
tion of ancient Moab is certainly Nabataean, and Medeba in
particular belonged to the tribe of Jambri (an Arab name)
i Mac 9 85f - ; so, later, Josephus terms the people of this district
Arabians (Ant. xiv. i. 4), and the district formed part of the
Roman Provincia Arabia; (4) Mai i 2 ' 5 attests the northern or
western movement of nomads from the Syrian wilderness into
the neighbouring country of Edom. (2) and (4) together
suggest the 5th century as the period of the Nabataean con-
quest of Moab of which we have no direct information, but
which fell between c. 570 and 170 B.C. (i) and (2).
Not improbably the elegy actually relates this Nabataean
conquest of the 5th cent. ; if so, subsequent events showed
that the poet was not employing any rhetorical exaggeration
when he declares that the fall of Ar and Kir signified the
extinction of Moab as an independent people. It would accord
with this that the attack described in the poem seems to be
delivered from the south or east; it is possible, too, that the
special emphasis laid on the destruction of the vines reflects
the special animosity displayed by the Nabataeans (Diodorus
i9 94 ) towards vine-culture (so Marti). There is nothing in the
poem, even if it included I5 9b -i6 6 , inconsistent with this theory;
and the strong sympathy with Moab displayed by the poet
would find some parallel in the Book of Ruth, if that book is
rightly attributed to the 5th century.
It is still more difficult to determine, even approximately,
the absolute date of the Appendix or epilogue (i6 13f -), or of
I5 9b -i6 5 , if this section is rightly judged to be an interpolation.
But it will be convenient to say what may be said at this point.
(i) We can hardly simplify the problem by attributing the
interpolations in the elegy to the writer of the epilogue ; for the
epilogue certainly purports to be added to a " word of Yahweh "
xv. xvi. 277
concerning Moab, which i5 1 -i6 12 in its present form is (see
I 5 9b )> b ut which the elegy was not.
(2) The style and language of both epilogue and interpola-
tion is indecisive; due regard being had to the state of the
text, they show little or nothing necessarily late, nor again
anything decisively Isaianic; for the fact that some of the
vocabulary can be paralleled from the prophecies of Isaiah no
more proves the passages to be Isaianic than the fact that in
part it cannot be so paralleled proves by itself that it is non-
Isaianic (cp. Cheyne, Introd. 83-85). With this epilogue, cp.
that in 23 17f -. So long as the Book of Isaiah was regarded as
being primarily a work compiled by Isaiah into which certain
interpolations had crept, it was not unreasonable to argue that
no sufficient case was made out against the Isaianic authorship
of the epilogue ; but once it is recognised that the Book of
Isaiah is a prophetic collection of the 3rd century B.C. (Introd.
27), it becomes a bold and unjustifiable assumption that this
epilogue to a prophecy, which is perhaps not much older than
the 3rd century, was itself written by a particular prophet
five centuries before ; more especially is this so in view of the
fact that other "oracles" in chs. 13-23 are clearly later than the
age of Isaiah.
(3) At the same time it is no easier to select a period in the
age subsequent to Isaiah than in the age of Isaiah itself to which
the epilogue can be confidently assigned.
Brief reference may be made to some other theories. Since the time of
Koppe and Eichhorn the Isaianic authorship of the elegy at least has been
increasingly questioned and is now seldom maintained, though it is not
decisively rejected by Driver (LOT 9 213 f.). This is due to the style and
manner of the piece the unrestrained sympathetic emotion, the absence
of any reference to Yahweh, "the very awkward accumulation of the
particles '3 and p ^y," the excessive use of paronomasia; see more fully
Che. Introd. 85 f., Di. p. 146, where, however, the list of expressions not
found in Isa. includes along with a few which, taken together, have some
weight, some which are textually doubtful. The style, however though this
points decisively away from Isaiah does not point decisively to any par-
ticular age : many, therefore, have attributed the elegy to a writer earlier than
Isaiah, and, in particular, to the period of the (assumed) conquest of Moab by
Jeroboam II. This theory, relying on the supposed reference to a flight
of the Moabites south in 15', assumes, in spite of I5 1 " 5 , that the elegy
describes an attack on Moab from the north by Jeroboam n. of Israel ; then
I6 1 " 6 , treated as part of the elegy, is supposed to refer to Jeroboam's con-
2/8 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
temporary Uzziah (whose friendship was sought by the Ammonites (2 Ch 26 s ),
and therefore, it is inferred, might have been sought by the Moabites also)
as the king whose protection is sought by the Moabite refugees (6 1-3 ). So sub-
stantially, among others, Hitz., Reuss, Wellh. (EBrit.* xvi. 535), W. R. Smith,
Di., Skinner, Whitehouse.
Du. ascribes the elegy to a very recent date : the epilogue only fits a
period when the hope was cherished of thoroughly destroying the Moabites
and the Nabataeans ; such a period is that of Alexander Jannaeus (104-78
B.C.). The elegy itself should not be much earlier, and may refer to a
Nabataean incursion in the 2nd cent. B.C., the ruler in Sion (I6 1 ) being
John Hyrcanus (135-105 B.C.).
Marti suggests that the elegy written in the 5th cent, (see above) may,
not long after it was written, have been turned into a prophecy by the
addition of I5 9b -i6 6 .
Ew. (Propheten*, i. 380 f.) already detected the work of three hands in
chs. 15. 1 6, and assigned (l) 15. i6 7 ' 12 to a prophet who lived East of the
Jordan between the beginning of the 9th cent, and the time of Amos ; (2)
I6 1 ' 6 to a contemporary of Uzziah, who lived perhaps nearly half a century
before Isaiah's appearance as prophet ; (3) i6 13f< to Isaiah.
For modern attempts to defend the Isaianic authorship of the entire
section elegy or prophecy, epilogue and all reference may be made to
Earth, Beitrdge (1885), pp. 20-23, an d the commentaries of Del. (Eng. tr.
1890) and Orelli.
XV. i-5a. First Strophe of the Elegy. i. However
*D be explained and the lines punctuated (see phil. n.), this v.
gives the cause of the alarm described in the following verses.
c Ar (Moab) and Kif (Moab) have been taken by sudden assault ;
the country was hardly aware of danger till the blow had actually
fallen, and its fall had been sealed. In vv. 2 ' 4 follow scenes of
the lamentation called forth by the news as it travels northwards
through Dibon, Nebo, and Medeba, to Heshbon and Ele'aleh.
In a nighi\ The suddenness with which the assault was made
and the rapidity with which all was over seem to be expressed
by this phrase, emphasised as it is by being placed before the vb.
Cp. i7 u "At evening, lo ! terror, before morning it is no more."
Ar (of Moab')'] one of the chief places of Moab ; see Nu 2i 28 ,
where the only (other) occurrence of the name in the form 'Ar
of Moab is found. But the same place is intended by the
abbreviated form l Ar, which on one view of the construction is
the form used here, in Nu 2i 15 , Dt 2 9 - 18 - 29 , and probably by 'Ir
Moab in Nu 22 36 , 'Ir and Ar being indistinguishable, if the text
be written without the vocalic consonants. Ar of Moab appears
to have lain on the upper waters of the Arnon (Numbers^ p.
XV. I, 2 279
286), i.e. E. of Dibon and S. of Nebo, Medeba, Heshbon and
Ele'aleh. ffi gives for Ar of Moab, as for Moab throughout the
section, ^ M<oa/?eiTis : and Buhl (Geog. p. 269) thinks the name
covers a district the region south of Arnon rather than a city.
Kir Moab~\ is commonly identified with Iir-heres (i6 7 n.),
and so with the modern Kerak, which is situated in the
extreme south of Moab on a lofty spur between two ravines
whose bottoms lie about 1000 feet below a position almost
impregnable in ancient warfare (Hastings, DB). For fuller
description, with illustrations of Kerak, see A. Musil, Arabia
Petraea, i. 45 ff. But, as Buhl {Geog. 270) rightly observes,
there is no convincing reason for the equation. If it is incorrect,
the site of Kir Moab, which is mentioned here only, is quite
unknown ; from the northward line indicated in vv. 2 * 4 we
might infer that it lay somewhere S. of Dibon. 2. Lamentation
in Dibon, Nebo, and Medeba. On certain views of the wholly
improbable text of ^ (see phil. n.), a fourth place otherwise
unknown, Bayith (EV), is mentioned. The daughter of Dibon
hath ascended] reading by conjecture pn fQ nr6y (Du.) for r6y
p*"N JV2n ; the daughter of Dibon is the personified population of
Dibon (i 8 n.). Dibon, mod. Dhiban, lay about 4 miles N. of
Arnon and 13 E. of the Dead Sea. "Dhiban is usually de-
scribed as lying on two hills ; but there are really three . . .
Probably . . . the ancient city comprised all three hills along
with the col connecting them ; but . . . also spread eastward
over the road and the shallow wady beside it to the slopes beyond,
on which are many scattered ruins." " At one period or another
the town must have been as large as any in Moab : cp. the
epithet Ila^neyeflr/s applied by Eusebius " (G. A. Smith, PEF
Qu St., 1905, p. 41 f.). The high places to weep\ before their
god(s); cp. i6 12 . Nebo\ the modern Jebel Neba, on or near
which the town of the same name presumably lay, is about 18
miles due north of Dibon and 5 S.W. from IJeshbon. It is
about 4 miles N.W. from Medeba (mod. Madeba), which lies
about 15 miles slightly E. of N. from Dibon. The mountain top,
which is 10 miles back from, and 4000 feet above, the Dead
Sea, commands a very extensive view.* Madeba lies on a slight
elevation rising from the Moabite plateau. Both Nebo
(Numbers^ 32 38 n.) and Medeba (tb. 2i 30 n.) are mentioned in
* Expositor, Nov. 1904, pp. 322 ff.
280 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Mesha's inscription and several times in the OT. The remains
of a stone-circle, as probably its name also, is a token of the
sacred character of Nebo. 2C, 3. The description of the
mourning continues, with particular reference to the chief rites
of mourners the tonsure of the head (cp. e.g. Am 8 10 , Jer i6 6 ,
Lev 2 1 5 ), the shorn beard (cp. Jer 4i 5 ), and the girding on of
sackcloth (2o 2 n.). The greater rhythmical regularity of Jer
4337. ssa ma y De due to t he text o f tne p Oem being better
preserved there : in particular, all his, viz. Moab's, heads is
improbable ; read with (& and Jer on every head : cp. next clause.
See, further, phil. n. In his streets] the pronoun (masc.) refers,
rather awkwardly, to Moab (cp. Jer 48 38 ). 40. b. The cry of
distress raised by the news in Heshbon and Ele'aleh, situated
close together in the most northern district of Moab, is heard as
far as Yahas. Heshbon^ mod. Hesban, famous as the city of Sihon
(Nu 2 1 21 ' 27 nn.), lay 5 miles N.E. of Nebo ; Elealeh (Nu 32 37 n.),
mod. El e al, about ij miles N.E. of Heshbon. The site of
Yahas (Nu 2i 2 - 8 n.) is unfortunately uncertain; if Mesha's
statement (1. 20), that he took Yahas "to add it to Dibon,"
really implies, as it would seem to do, that Yahas lay near Dibori,
the point of vv> 4 is that lamentation follows the news of v. 1 as
it travels northward from Arnon to Ele'aleh and echoes back
again through the whole length of this district. 40. The loins of
Moab] so & 17 oo-^vs ( = '^n)> &; C P- J er 3 6 - This 8 ives a
better parallel to his soul than MT ^n, the armed men ; cp. e.g.
Nu 32 27 . As against MT it is to be further observed that the
poet deals throughout with the fate, the actions, the emotions
of an entire people, not of particular classes within it. Yet,
possibly, neither (5r nor J^ is quite correct ; for this distich de-
scribing Moab's emotion at its own fate is followed in v. 5a by an
isolated monostich expressing the poet's emotion at Moab's fate :
cp. i6 n . Not improbably w. 4c - d< to are the expansion, due
mainly to transcriptional accidents, of a distich expressing
throughout the poet's emotion (cp. i6 n ): it may have run some-
what as follows :
4c. d Wherefore my loins quiver,
5a My heart crieth out for Moab.
I. ':>] possibly affirmative (Di.), Surely (7 9 n.), or interjectional (Marti),
Ah ! that ; more probably causal, the causal sentence being prefixed as in 28"
XV. 1-5 28 1
(BDB 473*). The causal sentence may extend over the whole of v. 1 , 3 being
repeated, as is 3 with the infin. rather similarly in Jg 5* ; more probably the
causal sentence ends in each line after 1J7 and rp respectively ; so Jer. Quia in
node vastata est Ar y Moab conticuit / quia in nocte vastatus est Afurus, Moab
conticuit. Editions of U, indeed, commonly place the comma after Moab,
but Jer.'s commentary on the v. implies the punctuation given here (see
Migne). Then, noiJ has a personal subject (cp. 6 4 ), and'Ar occurs, as most
frequently, in its simple form (not 'Ar-Moab); fp is unique, so also would
3K1DTP be; and if Yp=enn Tp below, a simple abbreviation rather than a
different genitival combination is perhaps more likely to occur in the same
poem. Du. makes the main pause after TV ; in that case the unusual post-
ponement of the subj. to the 2nd sentence would be due to rhythmical
considerations: cp. 4I 1U> . ^'!?f] 2I 11 n. Possibly here intended, though
wrongly, to be cstr. (cp. G-K. lyod). Ty TV] Ty is ace. after the pass. ;
G-K. 1210. : or the name of the city is, exceptionally, masc. (Kon. iii. 249x1).
3R1D Tp] E 3N1DT K3TJ=/0r/rM of Moab ; probably identified by E with
mod. Kerak, which in Greek writers appears as Xapax/tw/fo : cp. Musil,
Arabia Petraea, i. 58.
2. pm rvan n^y] the least improbable translation of the text, on the
supposition that flj is correct, is Bayith and Dibon have gone up. Of other
attempts to translate, these examples may suffice : One, viz. Moab, hath gone
up to the (temple} house and Dibon to the high-places (cp. Ki.) : the (royal] house
and Dibon have gone up to the high-places (Jer.). Modern interpreters have
been unable to improve on these obviously improbable interpretations. The
text is at fault. & unfortunately is too obscure to be useful ; & ]A > <^>\
^dOjj > (cp. E) apparently read no } before J3'n and no n before nu ; jm 713
in Jer 48 18 may be a reminiscence of the correct text pn ru nn^y. niD3n]
ace. of direction : G-K. n8/. S'fcj for this instead of S^", see G-K. joe.
vrxh] very precariously explained as a colloquial (Ki.), or dialectic (Di.),
variation of vrtq. Note the sing, fpi in the next clause (cp. Kon. ii. p. 356).
Read tftn with Jer 48" and <Br (brl irdffijs KefaXijs). nynj] the sense to shave
(commonly expressed by n 1 ?:), found only here and in the parallel passage
"
Jer 48 s7 , is common in Aramaic, whence P-f-it. a barber ; (jQA^t, a monk ;
see also Levy, NHW, s.v. jru. Many MSS have here nyru ; but yu, used
of hewing off a limb such as an arm (cp. (5 here), does not occur again in the
present sense. rrrnrm . . . rmuj . . . vnsim] the change of gender is rather
due to textual corruption than to the fact that the masc. refers to the people,
the fern, to the land, of Moab (Di.). After ;rnuj, Du., al. add IBDD (cp. Jer
48 s8 ) precariously, for the original text of w. 30 * 8 , which may have closely
resembled that of Jer, is not to be so lightly restored ; the suggestion is
hardly supported by the fact that ffi reads /cat jr6aTrr0e=nflO before rrnuj Vy ;
ct. /co7rer6j' = nsDD in Jer 6 28 . (Br may be an addition to the text under the
influence of Jer 4 8 49 8 . '333 iv] also doubtful, even if with Che. we substitute
npn (22 4 ) for TY. (ffir has no equivalent for TV. For '333 TV V*S M n^3, Jer $%
has simply nsoD n*?3 and Jer (3r nothing. The idiom to run down in weeping
does not occur again ; elsewhere the eye runs down tears, or (streams of)
282 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
water, Jer 9", Lam I 16 S 48 . 4a. oSip . . . pymi] here the text of Is is
earlier and better than in Jer 48^ ; cp. also Jer 48* npyi ly'D^n. SKID '* ^n]
so QL 3N1D 'mo, U expediti Moab ; but (5r r? 6<r<f>f>s TTJS Mwa/SemSos, and
similarly . Perhaps originally 3N1D was absent and 'y^q was intended (see
above). 4, 5. pyr . . . nyr . . . yrv] ffi |8o . . . -yWcrcTcu . . . /3o; F
ululabunt . . . ululabit . . . clamabit; Sb . . . fvo^ . . . -Q Vo i
\\\ i 1 ; E pnD' . . . pmffl . . . p^'D. If irv was originally written
defectively, both iyv and njn would be most obviously derived from jn\ The
meaning is in any case uncertain. There is no evidence (for Mic 4 9 is corrupt)
that inn, regularly used of the shout of triumph, was also used of the shout of
distress, which would alone be in place here (U). Nor is there any other
occurrence of jn% to quiver, though this meaning may be inferred as the starting-
point of the meanings timidity in certain Arabic derivatives, and curtain in
nyv (an object that easily shakes). "6] dat. of reference; cp., particularly
with $, 2 K 4 s7 , Jer 4 19 . 5. 3K1D 1 ? '3 1 ?] ffi 1) icapSla TT;S M. It would not
be wise to change ^ (&&) into uS to agree with ww in v. 40 ; for probably
the text of v.* 8 - d has suffered : see above.
Sb-pa. Second Strophe of the Elegy. V. 5b is preceded
in % by five words which do not constitute a sentence, appear
to have no relation either to what precedes or to what follows
them, are scarcely intelligible, and are probably corrupt. The
first word nrp"Q, absent from Jer 48 84 and rendered in her by (3r,
has been variously rendered and interpreted : (i) U vectes eius,
her (i.e. Moab's) bars, which is supposed to be a metaphor for
either the defences or the nobles of Moab ; (2) her fleeing
(ones), fugitives (MT, RVmarg.). Together with the next two
words, this is supposed to mean her defences (extend), or her
nobles ', QI fugitives (flee), as far as dar. Sdar\ (5r Sr/ycop, and
in Jer 48 34 Soyop. So'ar is generally supposed to have lain at
the South end of the Dead Sea, and, in particular, in the verdant
Ghor es-Safiye ; a place called by Eusebius Zoopa and Stywp, by
Jer. Zoara or Segor (Onom. 258 49 I59 24 ), and by mediaeval Arabs
Zughar, ughar, Sukar. Some have sought for o c ar to the N.
of the Dead Sea, and identified it with Tell Shaghur; but
Shaghur and So'ar are not philological equivalents. See, further,
Dr. in DB, art. Zoar-, and also Musil, Ar. Petraea,\. 74. Unto
Soar 'Eglath ShelishiyyaH\ ct. from Soar unto Horonaim 'Eglath
'Shelishiyyah, Jer 48 34 . That 'Eglath Shelishiyyah really defined
both So'ar and the apparently distant Horonaim is very improb-
able ; but whether Is or Jer is here nearer to the original is
uncertain. See, further, phil. n. 'Eglath Shelishiyyah appears to
mean the third 'Eglath and to be the name of a place, which
XV. 4, S 283
was perhaps * identical with T\i0uv mentioned by Josephus
(Ant. xin. xv. 4) immediately after 'Qpuvai^fforonaim, in a list
of Alexander Jannaeus' conquests in Moab. On the very
questionable supposition that these words can mean a heifer
of three years old>\ 'Eglath Shelishiyyah has been taken as an
epithet expressing either the beauty and strength of hitherto
unsubdued cities, or as comparing the cry of Moab ((5) to that
of a heifer on the point of being broken in, or as alluding to the
celebrated cattle-rearing in the Ghor es-ifiye (Musil, Ar.
Petraea, i. 74). 5^. C. He goeth up . . . they raise] the subject
is Moab; the change from the sing. (cp. vv. 2b - * i6 6 ) to the pi. is
suspicious. Lufyitti] Onom. (276 43f> ) states that there is between
Areopolis and So'ar a village now called Aov0a. If this
identification be accepted, Luhith lay in Southern Moab.J The
way to Horonaini\ Jer 48 5 the descent to fforonaim : cp. go down
to Jgoronaim (Mesha's Inscrip. 1. 32). IJoronaim (Jer 48 3 - * M J)
clearly lay on, or at the bottom of, some descent from the
Moabite plateau ; the phrase " from $o'ar as far as Horonaim "
(Jer 48 84 ) implies that it was remote from So'ar. It is not
mentioned in lists of Israelite towns, whence it is commonly
inferred, by a precarious argument from silence, that it lay
south of Arnon, south even of the Wady Kerak.|| All the other
conquests of Mesha lay north of Arnon ; but he mentions
Horonaim by itself at the end of the inscription : it may
therefore have lain further south than the rest. From the order
in which Josephus (Ant. xm. xv. 4) mentions the Moabite towns
IJeshbon, Medeba, Lemba, Oronas, Gelithon, Zara, the valley
of the Cilices it would appear that IJoronaim lay south of
Medeba and Lemba (? = Libb, 3 hours S. of Medeba); not
necessarily as far south as Arnon, but possibly somewhere on
the descent from Libb to ez-Zara, which is on a " once much
frequented natural road " running along the E. of the Dead Sea,
and also on an important way striking eastwards up to the
plateau: Musil, Arabia Petraea, i. pp. 20 f. ; cp. pp. 234 ff. The
waters of Nimrim\ the name Nimrim may be traced to-day both
* We., Deiitsche Lit. Zeil., 1890, 31.
t ffi&E (F) Ki., EVmarg., Del. ; but see phil. n.
t See S. R. Driver, Exp. Times, xxi. 495-497 (in a paper on the untrust-
worthiness of current maps of Palestine with regard to many ancient sites).
See, e.g., Buhl, Geog. 273. || See, e.g., Musil (Ar. Fefraea, i. 75).
284 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
at the S. end of the Dead Sea and to the north of it, to the S
in Moyet Numere, and the Wady en-Numere,* and to the N. in
Tell-Nimrin, some 8 or 10 miles N. of the Dead Sea and 13 E.
of Jordan, and in the Wady Nimrin.f Beth-Nimrah (Nu 32 34 n.)
is identical with Tell-Nimrin ; but Eus. and Jer. (Onom. I43 11
284 33 ) connect the waters of Nimrim with Bennamerium, " North
of Zoar." The question must remain open unless on other
grounds it can be shown whether the writer is here referring
to North or South Moab. Desolations] the vb. DK> and its
derivatives are commonly used of the devastation and desolation
of countries, cities, etc. ; its application to water is unusual.
" The waters of Nimrim " may have given their name to a city
situated upon them, though Me-jarkon in Jos iQ 46 , on account
of the state of the text, is a precarious parallel. If the water is
only, or primarily, thought of here, cp. 2 K 3 25 , which speaks of
the stopping up of the springs of the Moabites by their Israelite
adversaries. 6b-d. Absent from Jer. For the grass has dried
up] this cannot, of course, give the reason for the stopping up of
the waters of Nimrim. The lines are rather, if original, further
parallels to the preceding three lines. 7 a = J er 4^ 86 ; 7b-l6 5 is
absent from Jer. The text of the v. is very uncertain (see phil.
n.), and consequently the interpretation. Whether the v. really
related the flight of the Moabites with all their substance across
their southern border (Di.) into Edom (Du.), must remain
altogether doubtful. On this assumption, the Wady of the Arabs,
or of the poplars \ either translation is possible may reasonably
be identified with the Wady el-Ahsa which flows into the Southern
end of the Dead Sea from the S.E., forming the boundary
between Edom and Moab, as it still forms that between the
districts of el-Kerak and Petra (Numbers, p. 283). Apart from
the assumption, the Wady cannot be identified; for on this
assumption also rests the much favoured, but questionable,
identification of the Wady here mentioned and the Wady of the
Arabah (Am 6 14 ). He had acquired . . . their . . . they carry]
all the pronouns refer to Moab ; if the text is sound, which is
very doubtful, cp. for the transition from sing, to pi. v. 5 . 8a.
* Seetzen, Reise, ii. 354 ; Tristram, Moab, 56 f. ; Buhl, Geog. 272.
t Buhl, Geog. 264; Abel in RB, 1910, pp. 341 f.
J Cp. for the latter meaning the mod. Wady afsaf (Tristram, Moab, 35,
58).
XV. 6-9 285
The cry of distress (cp. v. 4 ) has passed through the length and
breadth of Moab, and has reached, in particular, 'Eglaim and
Be'er-Elim. Neither place has yet been identified ; the parallel
line and the context suggest that they lay at opposite extreme
points of Moab : if so, Be'er-Elim is scarcely identical with Be'er
in Nu 2 1 16 , nor 'Eglaim with AiyoAXei/ut, 8 R, miles S. of
Areopolis (Onom. 228 61f -). pa. The waters of Dimon] also not
identified. Dimon may be an error for Dibon, or possibly a
dialectic variation, like Mecca and Becca, adopted to gain an
assonance with dam, blood-, Jerome, indeed, asserts that both
names Dimon and Dibon were in use in his day.
5. PCn?] MT intends this to be plural; cp. G-K. 91^. Du. punctuates
nhn3='im3 (cp. G-K. gie), assuming that the form is sing, with collective
force. Certainly a fern, suffix between the masculines of vv. 40 - d and fc is
strange, nnn, fleeing, occurs in 27*, Job 26 U ; proof of the substantival use
( ^fugitive} rests on this and one other doubtful instance 43. J5 renders
O1-KO;^D, & pit'D 1 ?. There is probably some serious corruption. Was
nn(')T3 a corruption of canno, and nys ny D'onno a variant of D'ann iy nyxo, Jer
48 s4 ? itay] nSjy 103, Ki. : see G-K. So/. Forms with the old fern, ending
n occur in Mesha's Inscr., e.g. 1. 3, TIKI nD3n. rrrVr] third, not three years old
(Versions), which would be nrVro (cp. Gn 15*). nyy] possibly an error for,
or modification (G-K. 12cc) of, njny% Pilpel of my. But the text is uncertain ;
<3r = ryn, &=it?y, and Jer 48* has lyo*. 6. 'D '3] Jer 48" 'D DJ a. ra '3]
was perhaps not read by (5r. 7. ontpfii ivy mn J3 Vy] again very doubtful,
especially the last word. Jer 48 s6 reads VOK nry mn J3 Sy (in another con-
nection). ffi renders here p.$i KO.I OVTUS /xAXei ffwdrjvai. nnn, a AT. Xe7., is
commonly supposed to have the same meaning as in% abundance-, nry, /<?
acquire, cp. Gn I2 5 : for the cstr. of the sentence, see G-K. 155^. ompsi]
(ZR C7rda> 7d/>, which in v. 9 renders nvn '3, here perhaps implies a reading
'mpsi. Jer 48 s6 reads vnx (see last n.). It is precarious to invent the
meaning store for mpD out of regard to this most questionable passage and
Ps IO9 8 (ambiguous). & renders pnoinn, their boundary, T5 visitatio a
common meaning of mpa, but unsuitable here. mw] subj. the Moabites ;
D- (fir afc-ty) refers to ompw rnn' (cp. Dr. 197 (i)). 8. nxai nn^' D'Sjiny
nn^ D'^K] awkward : the fem. suffixes must refer to SKID, but ct. the masc.
suffixes in v. 2 i6 6 . With MT D:^$, ct. & 'A^aXXef/t, F a</ Gallitn. Before
D'"?K n3, jf. ny (G-K. 119^); Perles, Marti suggest that D'^K TK3 is really
one word, In Arielaim (cp. 29 1 n.).
pb-XVI. 5. Further distress is to befall Moab. This
exceedingly difficult and obscure section seems to be mainly, or
entirely, a prophetic interpolation in the elegy on Moab : see
above, pp. 276ff. The rhythm is, perhaps, predominantly, like
the elegy, 4:4; but the text is too corrupt, or at least too
286 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
questionable, to make it worth while to discuss the rhythm in
detail.
9b For I will set ...
For the escaped of Moab a lion,
And for the remnant of ...
I6 1 . . . the ruler (?) of the land,
... to the mountain of the daughter of Sion.
2 And like birds in flight, like nestlings sent forth,
Shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of
Arnon.
8 " Bring counsel, make decision ;
Spread thy shade like the night at very noon,
Conceal the outcasts, disclose not the fugitives.
4 Let the outcasts of Moab find guest-right in thy
midst,
Be to them a concealment from the spoiler."
For the extortioner has come to an end, the
'spoiler' has ceased,
The treader down 'has been* consumed out of
the land ;
6 And a throne shall be established through loving-
kindness,
And one shall sit thereon through fidelity
In the tent of David one who judges,
And both seeks out what is right, and is swift
in justice.
pb. C. The distress described in vv. 1 " 9 * ("the elegy"), which
has already befallen Moab, does not exhaust Yahweh's judg-
ment : further distress is in store : cp. 1 6 13f -. Such appears to
be the meaning of these lines and the general purport of what
follows down to i6 5 ; but the details are most uncertain. I will
set] or put, or lay (cp. e.g. Ex 2i 22 , Nu I2 11 ). This is followed
in 5^ by upon Dimon (v. 9a n.), and then by a word niSDU which
should mean things added, additions : the whole is supposed to
mean, I will place fresh calamities on Moab ; but neither the vb.
nor the object really suggests calamity. Marti has suggested
that the clause is a misplaced rubric directing that i5 9b -i6 5
is to be added to Dimon, i.e. that the passage was to follow
xv. 9-xvi. 5 287
"Dimon" in I5 9 *. (5 is intelligible, For I will bring upon
Dimon Arabs ; but it may be merely a guess : it would be diffi-
cult to derive % from (5. For the escaped] 4* n. Moab has
already suffered severely ; vv. 1-9a . A lion] has been understood
to refer to some pre-exilic king of Judah, or the regent of
Jeroboam n. (Di.), or Alexander Jannaeus (Du.), or the Assyrian
invader (Che.), or lions (cp. 2 K ly 26 , Jer.). In so corrupt and
obscure a passage it would be easier to multiply guesses than to
justify them. The remnant of\ the soil (MT) : J^ might also
mean Admah (ffi 'ASa/^), one of the fellow cities to Sodom
and Gomorrah. It would be easy to read Edom^ if the prophecy
really treats of Edom as well as Moab (i6 x n.).
XVI. I. Text and interpretation continue most uncertain.
In ffi this v. continues the threatening words of Yahweh in
jcj9b. c I will send the likeness of creeping things upon the land.
J^ might be a continuation of the description of Moab in 15 1 * 9 *
they have sent, etc., or an address to some people, presumably
Moabites, send ye (so MT). The obj. of the vb. in f^ is the lamb
of the ruler of the land, which is commonly supposed to refer to
the tribute paid in kind by Moab to the king of Israel (cp. 2 K
3 4 ), or Judah, as overlord of Moab. The words that follow in
f^ might mean (i)from Seta* to Midbar: Sela* is then identified
by many with the great Edomite, or Nabataean, emporium,
Petra, which was famous from the 4th cent. B.C., or with some
place in Edom (? cp. Jg i 86 ) less remote from Moab ; Midbar
may possibly be the proper name of a place in Moab (Nu 2i 18 ):
or (2) from the rocks of the Arnon valley (Wetzstein), or of Moab
generally (Baud, cited by Di.), or of Edom (Di.), to the wilderness^
which is supposed to mean in the direction of Judah, because
Moab and Judah were separated (if an indirect way was taken)
by wilderness : this would be much as though we were to speak
in England of " sending seawards to Italy." It must suffice to
refer to one or two of the interpretations of the whole v. built
up on these uncertain details, on which see, further, phil. notes.
Di. sees in the v. advice tendered by the Edomites, or by leading
Moabites, to the Moabite refugees in Edom ; the refugees are
advised to seek the protection of the king of Sion, backing up
their request by a present of lambs which they are to send, not
by the nearer route north of the Dead Sea and across Jordan,
which must be supposed closed to them, but first south over the
288 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
rocky land of Edom and then N. through the wilderness. Du.
explains similarly, except that he treats ir6{? as pf. and descriptive
rather than imperative and hortatory. Marti, in part following
(&, renders the Edomites will send (the refugees) like a swarm
of insects on the land to Sion. The assumption that Moabite
refugees have fled to Edom is not supported by any clear
indication of such a flight in ch. 15 ; and the following v., if
in its right position, is distinctly unfavourable to it : for there
the Moabites appear at the Arnon, far away from Edom.
2. The v. introduced by rvm is predictive like i5 9b - c , like I6 1
also, if ffir's text for the first word (see above) is correct. But
if J^ in v. 1 is correct, the predictive clauses i5 9b - c i6 2 are
awkwardly separated: Du. therefore places i6 2 immediately
after i5 9 . In flight] from the nest: cp. Pr 27 8 . Nestlings'] \\>,
a nest, has here the transferred meaning brood that inhabited
the nest. Daughters of Moab~\ in Nu 25 1 means the women of
Moab ; but a limited reference to women seems out of place
here. (Sx reads daughter, i.e. population (io 30 , cp. e.g. La i 15 ),
of Moab. Possibly daughters was a rare variant of daughter in
such phrases (cp. ? Ezk i6 27 ): or perhaps daughters of Moab
means the inhabitants of the several towns of Moab : cp. ? Ps
4 8i2(ii). The fords} or passages, cp. io 29 n. Du. gives mnyD
here the unproven meaning of banks, and treats the whole
phrase, the banks of Arnon, as in apposition to daughters of
Moab. Arnon cutting through its lofty canon formed at times
the northern boundary of Moab, but at others, as here (i5 2 - 4 n.),
it roughly bisected the territory occupied and governed by
Moab ; cp. Numbers, p. 2 84. 3 f. The fugitive Moabites, thrust
forth from their country like birds from their nest (v. 2 ), now
arrived in Jerusalem (v. 1 ), supplicate for shelter and protection
against the devastator of their land. Bring counsel, make
decision] these peculiar phrases may be due to corruption of
the text, see phil. n. A request for counsel is a curious open-
ing for refugees, who want rather what they go on to ask for,
protection. It is disputed whether the second clause means
(1) settle (quickly) whether we may remain in your country, or
(2) decide the rights and the wrongs of the case between us
and our enemies ; perhaps the original text expressed something
entirely different and more appropriate. 3b. Be to us a protection
against the hot anger of our foes, like deep shade at high noon-
xvi. 2-5 289
day. 30. Hide us also from them, do not discover us to them.
4. Let us, driven out from Moab, enjoy guest-rights in thy land,
and, among them, the right not to be discovered (cp. Jg 4*) to
those who have already devastated our country and would destroy
us. The outcasts of Moab\ so <&. MT, U (by an obviously
wrong punctuation) distort the sense of J^ ; hence RV my
outcasts: as for Moab> etc. : possible also, but improbable, would
be the rendering my outcast 's, O Moab ; see phil. n. Find guest-
right amongst thee~\ be gerim (i i 6 n.) in thy midst ; the prep, is 3,
in, not DV, with, as in n 6 . For the personifying sing. obj. thee,
cp. Jos 9 7 , a similar sentence. 40. d, 5. The various attempts,
some of which are mentioned below, to explain this passage, as
it stands or is arbitrarily emended, in its present connection
have been so unsatisfactory as to lend considerable probability
to the suggestion that it is an interpolated Messianic passage
which has re-acted on the interpretation of v. 4 *- b , turning what
was an address to ion (v. 1 ) into an address to Moab. Stand-
ing by itself, the passage would suggest familiar features of the
Messianic age : the land of Israel no more troubled by enemies
and war, 2Q 20 , ch. 33, Ps 89 20 ' 24 < 19 - 23 >, the throne of David re-
established through Yahweh's loving-kindness and fidelity (cp.
Ps 89 25> 29f - 37f< ), and occupied by a just and righteous ruler (9 W
1 1 4 ' etc.). The term "pD, king, is not actually applied to this
ruler, but the reference to the throne and the tent of David point
as unmistakably to a king as does the description in g 1 ^, from
which the term I^D is also absent. It is quite unnecessary, and
indeed incorrect, to see here the description of some vassal or
viceroy of the king of Israel stationed in Edom (Kn.) or Moab
(Di.). Through loving-kindness . . . through fidelity] this trans-
lation, which refers the qualities named to God, is favoured by
the analogy of Ps 89 cited above: cp. also Is 55*. Others refer
the loving-kindness to the king (Ges., Di.) who secures his throne
by his humanity (cp. n 4 * 6 , Pr i6 12 2O 28 29"), or to his subjects
(Kn.). The fidelity is also referred to the king by some (Gesr),
while others again render differently in security (cp. 39 8 , Jer i4 18 ),
i.e. uninterruptedly (Di., Marti). Of attempts to interpret the
passage as an integral and original part of the prophecy, two may
be mentioned : (i) Ges. renders the pff. as prophetic pff., For the
oppression will cease, etc., and comments, " so that we (Moabites)
shall be able to return again to our country, and no longer need
VOL. i. 19
2CX> COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
to be a burden to you (Jews)," when the country of Moab is
free from the foe : in v. 5 the suppliants urge as a motive for
favour the blessing which such humanity would bring on the
House of David ; (2) Di., adopting Lagarde's conjecture and
reading '3 "IJJ instead of VD, translates and interprets until the
extortioner shall have ceased . . . out of the land of Moab, and a
throne shall be set up for a vassal or viceroy ruling in Moab
under the protecting shelter of his over-lord in Sion ; i.e. the
passage, together with v. 4 *- b , is an insincere promise of the
Moabites, in return for shelter in their hour of need, to be humble
subjects of the Jews hereafter ; the Jews, detecting this insincerity,
refuse the request of the Moabites (v. 6 ).
9b. C. nB'^flV niDDU] dfr "A/mjSas /cai dpw rd o-jrfy/xa : /cal d/>w=nBDKl.
XVI. I. pN ^tsno 13] (5r w$ tyTrerd tiri TT\V 7^j/ = p8 l ? ffcna. The sing, of 13,
lamb, occurs nowhere else ; it is improbable that it is a collective. Gratz
proposed n^^K. mmo y*?DD] U petra deserti: this is improbable, for note the
n locale ; but f^ may well be a corruption of some single phrase of place, D
denoting the starting-point and VN in }VJf nrt ^K the goal. 2. With the certainly
more or less corrupt text of vv. lf -, cp. the more or less corrupt text of Jer 4S 28 .
piN 1 ? niiayiD] (Or eVi rd5e, 'Apvtiv, which points to nothing satisfactory. |^ is
a little suspicious, for (i) there is no obvious reason for the periphrasis of the
gen. (G-K. 129^) here (&U, Rashi), and, indeed, & (cp. Ki.) does not treat
the S as such, but takes mayo as Hoph. part, and renders brought across to
Arnon ; (2) ace. of place, at the fords (G-K. 118^), is, as Dr. has pointed out
(on I S 2 29 ), all but confined to cases in which the ace. is followed by a
noun in the genitive ; the only case, except the present, cited by Dr. is 2 Ch
33 20 , but ct. (Gr there. The *? would be best accounted for (cp. iS 1 , Dt 30")
if we read V layo, or, assuming that may was a synonym of nay, *? ma;;]?,
beyond Arnon. 3. nsy wan] apparently a synonym for nxy ian (Jg 2O 7 ,
2 S i6 20 ), give counsel (to others) ; but the analogy of the use of tran in Ps
go 12 would rather suggest the meaning, unsuitable here, take counsel. n^D]
#7r. Xe7., apparently meaning the office or duty of a S^s, judge or umpire. It
is not clear that r had the same text ; the words which seem to correspond
to n^B wy nsy wan are irKdova. (in v. 2 ) /SouXey'ou iroierre (o-Ktiryv). For
wy . . . wan, K e tib (&), the K e re (&F) has ry . . . wan 2nd fern. sing.
as in the following clauses, ffir does not support the reading wan. ^'Va]
could be punctuated ^$, entire, complete : cp. fflr 5tA iravrfc. But the anti-
thesis onnst gives probability to MT ^^3 ; on h^ instead of n 1 ?' 1 ?, cp. 2I 11 n.
4. axiD 'ma] rhythmically both words go with "P nw, constituting together
the first line of a 4:4 ( = 2|2:2|2) parallel distich ; the balance is
entirely destroyed, if aniD be taken with 'in 'in (MT, RV). 'in] in OT
nin = ,Tn is mostly late: see Gn 27 29 , Neh 6 6 , EC 2 s2 H 3 (?)t, and cp. *on,
Job 37 6 . But (Ex read v.v, and oaS below instead of S. pon] the following
nouns being anarthrous, this was probably so too ; consequently it is little worth
while to labour the point that fO, a squeezer (cp. f'D, squeezing or wringing,
XVI. I-I2 291
Pr 30**), might mean an extortioner. Du. suggests f'bfl (i 17 n.). An easy
emendation, if fon really possessed the nuance suitable here, (ffir ^ <ru/i/iax^ a 5
& VKKJUW? ; TS pulvis ; & Kp'yo. ir] probably an error, through haplo-
graphy, for TIP : Lowth, al. ; cp. 2T5. Dm ion] pi. before a sing. part, used
collectively : G-K. 145^. But in view of the singulars nSa, OEK, the pi. ion
is suspicious ; for the same reason to read 009*1 for COT is unwise ; the change
in the similar sentence 2Q 20 is not parallel, for it is occasioned by the
introduction of Sa. 5. THDI . . . mil] for 1 ... \-both . . . and, BDB
2530. For BEB'D em, cp. I 17 .
6-12. Conclusion of the second strophe of the
elegy, and the third and concluding strophe. V. 6 ( = Jer
48 29 ) probably formed no part of the elegy; note the ist pi. and
ct. the first sing, used throughout the elegy. It is very question-
able, too, whether v. 6 formed an original part of the interpolated
prediction (9 15b -i6 5 ): unlike the interpolation, it re-appears in
Jer. It is customary, indeed, to see in v. 6 ion's reply to the
Moabite suppliants (see on v. 6 ), and refusal to grant them
protection. This is very doubtful: (i) the words contain no
actual refusal ; (2) the reply is given in the ist pi., whereas
the community is addressed in the 2nd sing, in vv. 8b - *. The v.
is best regarded as an isolated reflection on the pride of Moab.
7. Moab's emotion at her fate; but the original text, like
Jer 48 31 , perhaps expressed the poet's emotion at Moab's fate ;
see phil. n., and cp. v. 11 below, also v. 9 and i5 4b 5 n. The
raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth~\ Jer. the men of gir-hcres ; cp. (3r rots
KOLTOIKOVO-W Ae(T0. Raisin-cakes, i.e. cakes of dried grapes, were
an article of food ; see Hos 3 1 , 2 S 6 19 , Cant 2 5 . Foundations
(,S, Ki., Ges., AV) is an improbable alternative translation of
{WK. If Kir-heres is Kerak (15* n.), and its raisin-cakes rather
than its inhabitants were here mentioned, it is to the point to
observe that there is much vine culture, "for eating only," round
Kerak in modern times (Seetzen, Reisen, i. 415), and interesting
to recall that, as Marti points out, cakes of pressed grapes and
fine meal are still prepared in Cyprus for festivals an inheritance
of the Christian Church from old Phoenician custom. The
allusion, like that in v. 9 , points to autumn as the season when
disaster fell on Moab. / moan] J^ ye moan ; Jer 48 31 he moans ;
by some emended to they moan. Jfy adds utterly stricken, which
being pi. implies, if correct, a plural subject to the vb. ; for it
more naturally forms an attribute to the subj. of the sentence
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
than to raisin-cakes. 8-10. For the famous vines of Northern
Moab the poet now weeps, v. 9 . They have ripened not for
the Moabites to gather with the customary joy of the vintage,
but for the enemy to destroy. Of these verses ^ b and 9b are
absent from Jer 48 ; while 8c - d is found there (v. 82 ) with consider-
able variations. Tracts'] cp. Dt 32 83 : other occurrences of nin^,
the etymology and exact meaning of which are unknown, are in
Hab 3 17 , Jer 3i 40 (K e re), and in two passages where the text is
doubtful, 37 27 , 2 K 23 4 f. Sibmah'] "between I^eshbon and
Sibmah there are scarce five hundred paces " (Jer.). A site 2|
miles W.N.W. of Hesban bearing the name Sumia may give an
echo of the ancient Sibmah. From Nu 32 3 - 88 , Jos i3 19 t we
should infer that the place lay in Northern Moab though not
necessarily so close to Heshbon as Jerome's Subama, or the
modern Sumia. 8b. So famous was this vine that kings lords
of the nations drank and became smitten down (28 1 ), i.e. drunk,
with the wine of it. Less probable is the view that the line gives
the cause of the destruction of the vine; for it is doubtful
whether the vb. would be suitable, the reason for specifying the
lords is not obvious, and the cause of destruction would scarcely
correspond to the suggestion of line a. that the vine dies for lack
of water. Red-clusters'] fTpnt? : cp. p"iE>, 5 2 n. Other suggested
readings here are vine-tendrils ', or choice plants. 8c. d. These
lines, translated above in the better order d. C (cp. Jer 48 32 ), give
a hyperbolical description of the size and ramifications of the
celebrated vine; the site of Ya'zer (Nu 2I 24 n.) is uncertain,*
but according to Eus. it lay 15 (Roman) miles N. of IJeshbon
(Onom. 264 98ff -). Westwards the vine stretched out, i.e. extended
to, or perhaps rather across, the Dead Sea, the N.E. corner of
which lies about 16 miles in a straight line from Qeshbon and
some 4000 feet below it. Eastwards the vine extends till the
cultivated land passes into the vast Syrian desert 9. / weep
with the weeping of Yazer\ the poet joins his tears (cp. 22*n.,
La i 16 ) to those of Ya'zer ; but why he singles out Ya'zer is not
clear, unless, indeed, we could believe that he was himself a man
of Ya'zer (cp. Du.), and therefore a Moabite. Ileshbon and
\Elealeh~] I5 4 n. Thy grapes . . . thy grape-gathering] Khek . . .
%e$\rek ; for the sake of the alliteration the writer appears to use
the wide term &, summer fruits (28*), instead of 'andbim, grapes,
* See S. R. Driver, Exp. Times, xxi. 562 f.
XVI. 8-12 293
and frslrek, cutting, harvest, instead of Iftfrek, vintage: Jer
preserves, or substitutes, b e s\rek. Shouting hath fallen] Yl s n is
the joyous shouting of the grape treaders, Jer 25 80 . Not you,
but the enemy will shout with joy over your grapes, and over
yourselves who will become their vintage ; all this may be
suggested by the context and the predicate. But the reading of
Jer, the spoiler ("W), may be correct, ffi differs from both, but
is wrong. 10. No joy of the vintage, no wine for use: the
general sense is clear : the text is in considerable disorder, see
phil. n. None is left] lit. it has been caused to cease (cp. (5r) ; J^,
/ have caused (ft) to cease, the subj. being Yahweh ; cp. 1 5*, but
between vv. and n , where the first persons cannot refer to
Yahweh, the reading of J^ is most improbable. Even the passive
is doubtful ; mB>, it has ceased, may be the true text. II. = Jer
48 36 the poet's emotion ; here as in v. 9 the first person is certain ;
ct. i5 4b - 6 i6 r . The second line has perhaps lost a clause of two
words, supplied in the translation, comparing the inward emotion
to the resounding of flutes ; cp. Jer. My bowels are sounding]
i.e. my compassion is stirred: cp. 6J 16 , Jer 3I 20 ; for other
instances of bowels as a term for the seat of deep emotions, see
Jer 4 19 , Ca 5* ; and of the vb. non, to sound, murmur, of the
organs of emotion, intelligence, and the like, see Jer 4 19 (ni>), Ps
42 6 (t?S3). 12. No attendance in the sanctuary, no prayer will
avail Moab. The v. is absent from Jer, and introduces a
religious turn not found in the verses common to Is and Jer ;
not improbably it was added to the elegy over Moab by the
same hand that added i5 9b -i6 5 ; note the common use of fWl
here and in i6 2 . In its present form the v. is unrhythmical. It
may be rendered, And it shall come to pass, when Moab shall have
appeared, when he shall have wearied himself on the high place and
shall (or, then he shall) enter into his sanctuary to pray, he shall
not prevail; but either "when he shall have appeared or when he
shall have wearied himself, should probably be omitted as due
to dittography ; in the former case the inconsistency with 15*,
where Moab is depicted as being actually and already on the
high places, which might doubtless be attributed to the careless-
ness of the interpolater, disappears. For the wearisome practices
of the heathen, cp. 47 13 , i K i8 26fr -.
6. IND KJ] looks suspiciously like a dittograph of 3KD }*o. In Jer. the &ir.
Xry. KJ is replaced by nto. vnajn UIKJI ininj] one of the first two words is not
294 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
represented in (ffir : the last was misread 'my:!. Jer 48^ reads
but v. 80 contains irmy (immediately before vna p wVi). p N 1 ?] treated by many
as a compound noun, the untruth (of his prating*) ; but it is questionable
whether such combinations as DIN x 1 ? in 3i 8 (G-K. 1520 footnote) were ever
so completely treated as a single word that they could be used in the con-
struct. p *b is predicative ; cp. (. 7. W" n^ 3N1D 1 ? 3tOD ^" p 1 ?] the re-
peated S'S" (so (Et) is probably an error (cp. H B n., 26 7 n.) : Jer 48" reads p *?y
pyw n*?3 3N1D 1 ?! V'^K 3N1D *?y ; note also that in Jer *r^N governs by means of
"?y, and pym by means of *?, as in Is I5 2 - 5 respectively. On the question of
1st pers. or 3rd (in Jer (5r 2nd pi. imper.), see above. In spite of Dn*D
D'-ixD3 (iQ 2 ), 3N1DV 3*OD V'S" remains awkward, whether we interpret Moab
howls for (over) Moab (Ges., Di.), or Moab howls to Moab, i.e. they howl
to one another (Marti). Nor is it altogether satisfactory to place the caesura
before ntoo 1 ?: for entire Moab he howls. wvvh'} Jer WK S = r here.
ntnn Yp] So 2 K 3 25 % ; but v. 11 , Jer 48 31 - cnn Tp. unn] Jer 48 21 W,T ;
(Hr here ^eXerV^s = njnn : rea< ^ lTinN J others conjecture un (n dittographic
from JiBnn) or u;v. D'N33 ix] not in Jer. (5i /cai oik 6r pair-rjo "y. If the text is
correct, for D'K33, implying K33 = n3J, cp. n33 nn, Pr I5 13 i; 22 , and the Niph. of
the vb. Job 3O 8 f; IK, utterly, as in 19" ; see BDB, s.v. 8-IO. Most of the
ten or eleven lines in these verses are certainly of four accents ; but vv. 8 *- 9b
at present are of six. Possibly parn niDir and n^yWi p3t?n are glosses : note
that the 2nd sing. fern, suffixes in v. 9 refer naturally to the sing, noar JBJ and
not to the pi. n^y^Ki p3t?n. 8. V^DN] the sing, after the fern. pi. nim would
be abnormal in spite of Hab 3" and G-K. 1450 ; on the other hand, if 'n niDir
be omitted (see last n.), the sing. masc. before the fem. \si would be normal
(G-K. 1450) : cp. 2 17 9 18 I4 11 etc. : yet ct. JSJ nSSDK, 24'. ,vprw] (!R ros
&pir\ovs atrfs ; rather red-dusters (cp. p'T^ of the colour of horses in Zee I 8 ),
whence the pit? (5 2 ) vine receives its name. 9. T"W] an error for TIIK with
retention of the final radical ' (G-K. l^dd) ; on the form, see Sta. 634* :
Kon. i. 589 f. ; in (5r the penultimate letter must have been \ '3] Jer 48 32
om. Trn] Jer ~nv : (fix here /cai irAvra. 10. *p*oi] sing, before a com-
pound subj. ; G-K. 1450; Jer naowi ; G-K. 1467, -. taian p] Jer ^nao,
which carries us back half-way to i(')zn3D, the reading of Is ffiKAQr ( K T G>v
a[JiTr(-\&vwv <rou), and probably the original text. The clause is followed in
Jer by aton pKDi, which is a fairly obvious gloss explaining that the whole
country and not only the garden land will grieve. In f^ there follows D'OT33i
pv N^, which looks at first more likely to be original, but the first word is
probably merely a corrupt variant of TDIDD, and pT N*? is an explanation of
the following yyv vb after that corrupt reading had arisen. We thus explain
the absence of 3N1D pwoi from Is and of pv N 1 ? D'maai from Jer. yy,h: . . . }}-r]
cp. Zeph 3 14 ; but the forms are probably no original part of the text : see
preceding and following notes. As they stand they are impersonal passives :
G-K. 144^. <8x may have read uav. 'narn ivn -prin TJV t**? D'ap'a p yyT K 1 ?]
Jer 4S 33 mn t& "ivn nrn TIT N 1 ? 'nairn o'3p'D |"i ; Is ffi ical o^ /t
dlvov els ra viro\rjvia, If^Travrai ydp = mvn D'ap'3 J" 13m 1 N^>, which is probably
the original text or quite close to it : note that it is a line of four accents
equally divided by the caesura. The overlined words in |^ are amplifications,
XVI. 6-14, XVII. i-n 295
partly due to glosses and partly due to dittography. In Is ft, moreover, yyv
is a corruption of 0)3"rr, for (Br's Trdr-fyrowriv corresponds to this and not to
TTV below (note the order in <E). Perhaps D'3p'D (Jer ft) is preferable to
IsftQSc Q'3p'3 ; with D nan, cp. the use of the Niph. in 17' and of the Hiph.
in Lv 26", Jer 36". -pin TIT **?] cstr. as 28 4 - 14 : cp. G-K. 144*. 12. Ew.
treated the whole v. as a protasis, and supplied from Jer 48** as an apodosis
inoDD rD3D 3K1D *3i : so Che. SBOT\ but this is improbable, since v." is
absent from Jer. roan] ffi pi. ; cp. moan, I5 a ft (not ). Vav cV>] he shall
meet with no success : for the absolute use of the vb., cp. Ps 2i la , Jer 5 M 2O 11 .
13, 14. A Prose Appendix (cp. 2i 16f -) to the foregoing
Oracle of Moab, probably by a later hand (see above). In
three brief years all will be fulfilled : Moab, as yet still honoured
and numerous, will become despised and almost exterminated.
13. The word which Yahweh spoke] this description suits the
interpolated section I5 9b -i6 6 ; for the speaker in i5 9b is Yahweh,
but the speaker throughout the parts common to Jer and Is is
not. In time past] the phrase TKD may refer to a past falling
within the speaker's own mature life (2 S is 84 ), or to a more
remote past (Ps 932, Pr 8 22 ). In 44*, as here, it refers to old
prophecies. As the years of a hi re ling] years strictly reckoned; the
hireling works no longer than he must. Du. explains differently :
it will only be necessary to hire the mercenaries (VDS? as in Jer
46 21 ) for the usual period of 3 years, and sees an allusion to the
use by Alexander Jannaeus of mercenary troops. The glory of
Moati\ cp. the glory of Assyria, io 16 ; of Kedar, 2i 16 . 14.
io
25
XVII. i -i i. The coming Destruction of Syria and Ephraim.
The text is faulty ; but there can be little doubt that the poem consisted
mainly if not exclusively of distichs of balanced and, generally, parallel lines.
But the length of line varies in different distichs ; vv. 4b - ' " b are clear
instances of 3 : 3, which was probably the most frequent rhythm, and v.* - d
of a longer distich, probably 4 : 4.
The original poem contains three equal or nearly equal strophes ; the first
and second each consists of 8 lines and an additional line containing a con-
cluding formula ; the second, like the third, strophe contains also an opening
formula : the third strophe contained io lines, unless we reject two as
intrusive.
Vv. 7f - appear to be an addition to the poem (see comm.), and are placed
at the end of, and separated from, the poem itself in the following translation.
296 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
I.
1 Lo ! Damascus is about to be removed from being a city,
And it shall become A a ruin 2 ' forsaken for ever ' ;
Flocks shall possess 'her cities/
And lie down, with none to terrify (them) away.
3 And Ephraim shall lose (her) fortress,
And the sovereignty [shall be taken away] from
Damascus ;
And the remainder of Aram . . .
Like the glory of the sons of Israel shall they be
Is the Oracle of Yahweh of Hosts.
2.
4 And it shall come to pass in that day,
The glory of Jacob shall be diminished,
And the fat of his flesh shall become lean ;
5 And it shall be as when a reaper gathereth standing corn,
And his arm reaps off the ears A A ;
Or 6b as when an olive-tree is struck,
64 And there remains thereon something to glean
6c Two or three berries on the uppermost branch,
Four or five on the boughs of the fruit tree
Is the oracle of Yahweh, God of Israel.
3-
9 In that day
'Thy' cities shall become forsaken (ruins),
Like the forsaken (ruins) of 'the Amorites and Hivites,'
Which they forsook before the children of Israel, and it shall become
a desolation.
10 Because thou forgattest the God of thy salvation,
And didst not remember the Rock, thy Refuge,
Therefore (though) thou plantest plantations of Adonis,
And puttest in (vine-)cuttings of an alien (god),
11 (And though) on the day thou plantest, thou make (it) grow,
And (though) on the morrow thou make thy seed
blossom
The harvest has fled (?) in the day of sickness (?),
And incurable pain . . .
xvii. i-n 297
7 In that day shall man regard his Maker,
And his eyes shall look towards the Holy One of
Israel ;
8 And he shall not regard the A work of his hands
Nor look upon what his fingers have wrought. A A
The first strophe is devoted mainly to the fate of Syria, but
incidentally also to that of Ephraim. Syria is to lose its inde-
pendence : Damascus, the capital, and other cities are to be
reduced to perpetual desolation. The last two strophes are
devoted exclusively to Ephraim, i.e. the Northern kingdom of
Israel : in strophe 2 the almost total depopulation of Ephraim is
depicted under three figures : strophe 3 dwells on the inutility in
the day of disaster of those cults to which Ephraim had devoted
itself. In w. 7f - the point of the last strophe is universalised :
all mankind will be convinced in the coming day of the inutility
of works of men's hands, and will turn instead to the Holy One
of Israel, who is also Maker of mankind.
The poem was composed before the Fall of Damascus
(732 B.C.), and, as we may infer from the coupling of Ephraim
and Damascus, after the formation of the Syro-Ephraimitish
alliance (ch. 7), which took place about 736 B.C.
The predictions were in large part fulfilled : Reson (7 1 n.)
was the last native sovereign of Damascus ; he was slain by
Tiglath-pileser (2 K i6 9 ), who was not in the West after 732 B.C.,
and with him " the sovereignty was taken away from Damascus "
(v. 8 ), which became an Assyrian province (KAT* 135). Though
less complete and lasting than Isaiah expected (for Damascus
never actually became an uninhabited spot), the devastation of
Damascus and the neighbouring country in 732 B.C. was great.
Tiglath-pileser speaks of cutting down numberless gardens and
plantations, carrying off many captives with their property, and
wasting 591 cities of 16 districts of the land of Damascus: see
his Annals, 11. 203-209. The full fate of Ephraim was not
simultaneous, as Isaiah seems to have expected it to be, with
that of Damascus: Samaria survived till 722 B.C. : then the fall
of the city was followed by such extensive deportations of the
Israelite population as go far to justify the terms of w. 4 ** : see
2 K 17 and Sargon's annals.
I, The Oracle of Damascus} \$ n. The title is taken from
298 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the first important word only, and so ignores the main subject
of the piece Ephraim.
1-3. The fate of Damascus. On the emendations
adopted in the translation, see phil. n. I. Is about to be removed}
immediately: not present tense is taken away (EV), nor in v. 2 are
forsaken : those renderings are, indeed, grammatically legitimate
(7 U n.), but unsuitable here. 2. Flocks shall possess] 5 17 n.
Her cities] i.e. the towns of the country dependent on Damascus :
cp. Jer 34 1 49 13 5i 43 . f^ (not (&) reads the cities of *Arder\
this strange phrase, which is really due to corruption of the
text, has been explained, unsatisfactorily, in various ways : (i) the
two cities of the name of 'Aro'er, one on the northern edge
of the defile of the Arnon (i6 2 n. : cp. Nu 32 34 n.), the other
near Rabbath-Ammon (Jos i3 25 ); (2) the cities dependent on
the more northern (which is, however, the less important) of the
two 'Aro'ers; both (i) and (2) are hazardously understood to
mean the country E. of Jordan : both 'Aro'ers are remote from
Damascus; (3) Di. gives Aro c er an appellative force, so that
the phrase means the ruined cities: feeble and improbable.
3. Fortress] perhaps Samaria * the capital, or, giving "W3D a
collective force, all the fortresses f of the Northern kingdom are
intended ; but on either of these interpretations this line anti-
cipates v. 9 . More probably Damascus J is meant ; owing to its
geographical situation, Damascus first invited the attack of the
Assyrians coming E., and so formed a bulwark or fortress of
Ephraim. On this interpretation the line, in common with the
rest of v. 3 , threatens Damascus, while at the same time together
with the following words, like the glory of the children of Israel
(cp. v. 4 ), they form a transition to w. 4 ' 6 - 9 ' 11 which threaten
Ephraim exclusively. The sovereignty} see above.
i. nrrni . . . noio . . . run] fut. instans (Dr. 135 (2)), followed by the
pf. with waw conv. (ib. 113). The change from noiD (Du. mom) to nrrni is
strange, unless psfDT is ace. to noiD (cp. e.g. Ps Sy 3 ; G-K. I2i). TJ?D] a
poetical breviloquence for ry nvnD : cp. 7 8 52 14 ; BDB 5830. I, 2. -J;D nrrm
">y"iy ny DUiy nSsD] (3r Kal &TTCU els TTTWO-IV KaTO\\ifj./j,evir) els rbv cu'wra = nrrrn
ny ny miy n^SD(^). The non-form yo in |^ is a scribal error later than (Or : not,
however, for "y^ (Di.), but through dittography of [n]'yo. For the rest, (5r is
near the original text : read nynjjy. n'?2D( l ?) nn'ni, which balances the preceding
* Ges., Hitz., Che. (SBOT), Whitehouse. t W> Del -
t Jer., Eichh., Ew., Di., Du., Skinner, Marti.
XVII. 1-6 299
parallel line, and then nny as subj. of arvm ; with ny 03^ cp. oSiy mn, Jei
2O 17b , and see Kon. iii. 336^. The detection of nny is due to Lag. and Du.
nj>$?] heref, but n$>99, 23" 2S 2 f. 3. If the poem showed any other trace of
the 3 : 2 rhythm, the text of $? down to prtno need awaken no suspicion ; the
remainder too, could, of course, be construed, OIK nr being casus pcndens
before v,r (RVmarg.) rather than a clause coupled with prono (RV); but
however taken it would be rhythmically quite unlike the rest of the poem, and
also lacking in parallelism. The first and third lines seem to be correct ;
each of the intervening clauses has probably lost a word : after pffDiD perhaps
lijyi, shall pass away, or Kjp! (cp. 8 4 ), has dropped out. (K paraphrases
throughout, and on the whole remarkably well : it is doubtful whether it read
differently except TOD? for TO3 and perhaps vrm for V.T. Du. proposes nair
for 11333 ; but it is hazardous to claim (5r for this, for ov 7&p <ru /SeXr/ow el is
probably a paraphrase of 11333, and icai rijs d6i)s a.irru>v at the end of the v.
a subsequent addition to (5r.
4-6. The fate of Ephraim. 4. The nation is personified
(cp. i 5 n.) as a man whose glory, i.e. reputation among his
neighbours, will become slight (through lack of children : cp.
Hos 9 11 ' 16 ; ct. Ps 127), and whose once well-nourished body will
become lean (cp. io 16 ). Or possibly, with the precarious
support of io 16 , we might render his glory . . . will become
impoverished (cp. adj. ^i), i.e. Jacob will exchange the outward
marks in dress, etc., of a prosperous man for the garb of a pauper.
Glory is not, as in s 18 (n.), dignitaries, the nobility ; for this would
make Jacob the literal nation in v. 4 *, the personified nation in
v. 4b . 5> 6. The point of these verses is clear : compared with
what the population was before, the survivors in the Northern
kingdom will be as few as the ears of corn left uncut, or dropped
by the reapers, or as the olive berries still left on a tree after it
has been beaten (cjpJ, 24 13 , cp. io 34 ; C33H, Dt 24 20 ) with poles to
bring down the crop. But in ^ these comparisons are awkwardly
expressed. V. 5 *- b alone sufficiently suggests the figure from
corn harvest : still it may have been followed by a distich com-
pleting the figure by reference to the few ears left for gleaners :
cp. the completion of the figure of the olive crop. But v. 5c (left
untranslated above), which is rhythmically defective, instead of
completing the figure, starts off as if it were a fresh figure, And
it shall be as a gleaner of ears of corn in the vale of Rephaim,
a fruitful vale in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem (Jos i5 8 ).
These words are probably either a gloss (Marti) or a mutilated
distich. In v. 6 the difficulties are even more serious; rrtty
means the gleaning of grapes, or olives, not the gleaning of grain,
300 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
which is expressed by Dpi? (so v. 5b ) ; consequently v. 6 * is no
proper continuation of v. 5c ; and 13, therein, or thereof, cannot
refer to the vale of Rephaim. RV is thus doubly misleading,
for gleaning in English without any qualification suggests gleaning
of grain. Further, in f^ the figure of the olives, which is the
real parallel to v. 5a - b , can refer directly to Jacob only if Q
meaning of him (i 3 n.), resumes the distant 3pJP of v. 4 ; otherwise
it is a comparison within a comparison. For Marti's emendation
adopted above, which avoids these improbabilities, see phil. n.
Reaps off the ears] in reaping, the stalks of corn were reaped near
the top, so that little more than the ears were cut off: see EBi.,
Agriculture, 7, with illustrations. 6. Two (or) three . . . four
(or) five\ an indefinite but trivial number: cp. 2 K Q 32 , Hos 6 2 ,
Jer 36 23 , and see G-K. 1345. The fruit tree] hap-poriyyah, with
a punning reference to the popular etymology of Ephraim ;
Gn 49 24 , Hos i3 16 .
5. Txp] harvest, would be superfluous before ncp : either Tsp also meant
harvester, or "iyp must be read. isp' . . . ijni] one of the rare instances of
jni being masc. (G-K. I22n ; Kon. 2490?); or an instance of the "double
subject" (G-K. 1447, m). 5, 6. Against the present text, see Comm. BpVoD
D'KST pDjn D'^B' is a gloss or mutilated distich : then by transposition read
nMi? in "iNB'Ji rn P|pj3 rrm. O'KSI] (& (rre/>e : ct. 14 26 19 . Che. rather pre-
cariously reads D'T3K on the authority of (5r. ni 1 ? 1 ?^] possibly, as in NH (see
Levy), this meant not only gleaning, but berries picked after the crop had been
gathered (cp. AV) : then onn: in the next line may be a gloss : its omission
assimilates lines 6b. c and gives a better balance. TDK] v. 9 , Gn 49 21 , both
doubtful : in Gen. the meaning upper branch, crown, would be suitable : for
evidence that the root implied height, see BDB 55^. .Tns .rayon] read
man 'syon : it is not a case of the anticipative suffix (G-K. 131**).
7, 8. Mankind will reject their idols and turn to the
God of Israel, the Maker of all men. The insertion of
this passage, with its universal outlook, between vv. 1-6 and 9 ' 11 ,
which are strictly limited in their outlook to Damascus and
Ephraim, may be due to an interpolator ; as an alternative it
might be held that the verses are a misplaced conclusion to the
poem : they would stand less awkwardly after v. 11 . The ideas
rather suggest a relatively late writer : cp., with the thought of
Yahweh as Maker, 5i 13 54 5 ; of the idols as man made, 44 9 ' 20 .
On the other hand, the wide outlook has its parallel in Is
( 2 io.n. n cp . perhaps 2 20 3o 22 , Hos 8 14 ) ; cp., further, i 29 ; and
note 5>fcnB* BTip (i 4 n. i2 6 n.) and i>J> (22*) rw (3I 1 ).
xvii. s-ii 3 01
8. The work of his hands . . . what his fingers have made\
these parallel and synonymous expressions mean idols : cp.
2 s 3I 7 37^ Hos i4 4 , Mic s 12 , Dt 4. An early annotator,
whose notes have crept into the text, destroying the rhythm
and spoiling the style, erroneously understood by the first term
the (multiplicity of) altars condemned by Dt., and by the second,
less erroneously but too specifically, the Asherim, i.e. the wooden
pillars which stood beside the old Canaanite altars, but which
were forbidden in the worship of Yahweh (cp. Ex 34 18 , Jg
6 26 , Dt i6 21 ), and the hammanim (a; 9 , Lv 26 30 , Ezk 6 4 - 6 ,
2 Ch i4 4 34 4 - 7 t, ct. 2 K 23), which were objects, probably of
stone or metal, associated with heathen altars, and perhaps a
special form of massebah (i9 19 n.). The rendering sun-images
(RV), which suggests that these objects were specially or
exclusively used in the worship of the sun, rests on a question-
able derivation from the late Hebrew word ntsrv sun : see Moore
T - '
in EBi. 2976; G. A. Cooke, NSI, p. 104; Ges-B. s.v.; L. B. Paton,
art "Baal," in Encyc. of Re I. and Ethics, especially pp. 287 f.
8. D'JDnm D"WK.TI] either the first waw is the waw explicativum that is
often found in glosses (Haupt in SBOT), or the two waws = fo/A . . . and
(BDB, 25305). jon] cp. in Palm. rDtf 1 ? . . . m Kn^>jn nn KJDH, this hamman
and this altar . . . to Shamash Cooke, NSI, no. 136 (A.D. 85) : cp. Lidz.
Eph. ii. p. 280 (A.D. 108). In the frequent Punic epithet pnVya, pn may
be attributive (cp. pmay) rather than the cult object in the gen.
9-11. Ephraim in the hour of calamity will get no
help from her heathen cults. 9. Thy cities shall be
abandoned} so (& ; f^ has instead the cities in which he finds
refuge, or asylum ; with nyo, asylum, cp. ipyn, io 81 n. (5r, with
its transition from the 3rd pers. of vv. 4 * 6 to the 2nd pers. of
address at the beginning of the strophe, is preferable to f^, where
the same transition does not take place till v. 10 . Forsaken
(ruins) of the Amorites and the Hivites\ cp. dtr; this may be
correct, though the reference to Hivites, who apparently formed
a rather insignificant part of the old Canaanitish population, is
a little suspicious ; for Amorites, cp. Am 2 9f \ f^ is supposed
to mean, like the forsaken (ruins) of the wood and the mountain
top ; for a defence of this, see Del. <&. supplies, what f^ does
not, a personal antecedent for the following words, which they
forsook (so far J^ only ; (3r om.) from before the children of Israel
prosaic clause, and probably an annotation. And it shall
302 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
become a desolation^ these words, too, are rhythmically suspicious,
and the context does not explain the subject : they may be a
further gloss (Du.), or perhaps a fragment of another distich.
I0a. b. To the ideas and expressions of these lines many
parallels may be found in Deut. and later literature ; see, e.g.,
Dt 8 11 ' 19 32 18 ; and for the God of thy salvation, Ps i8 41 (|| "my
rock") 25 5 27 9 62 7 ; for the Rock thy Refuge, see Ps 3i 3 , and
compare the similar combinations in Ps 62 8 8Q 27 95 1 94 22 . On
account of this late ring about the v., and the generality of the
charge against Ephraim, Marti thinks the lines are a glossator's
attempt to assign the cause for Ephraim's fate. Adonis-planta-
tions . . . (vine-} cuttings of an alien (god)] the adj. ")T, alien (i 8 n.),
appears to be an abbreviation here for the full phrase alien god
(Ps 44 21 8 1 10 ), cp. "ins, another -another god, in Ps 16* This
parallelism suggests that D'ODyj in the previous line refers to
some deity, though direct proof that Tammuz (Ezk 8 14 ), known
to the Greek as Adonis (pltf), was known in Syria by the name or
epithet Na e aman is not forthcoming. But whatever be the
exact explanation of D^DJJU, there is little doubt that the prophet
i 
