Isaiah 30

The grand, all-regenerating force is already entered into the world, and is working steadily on through all retrocessions and advances alike. Lift up your heads, O ye drooping ones! Christ is in the world! Jesus, Son of God, and word of God’s eternity—He is about us, within us, going through all things, moving onward in all. Leaven does not make a noise when it works, and yet it works! And so the Gospel works, the progress goes on, a grand, mighty progress, and there is really no retrocession. No river runs to the sea more certainly or steadily than the great salvation for man runs to conquest and a kingdom. Bushnell.

30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; 2 and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the 3 strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of 4 Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For his 5 princes are at Zoan, and his ambassadors are come to Hanes. They shall all be ashamed of a people that cannot profit them, that are not an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. 6 The burden of the beasts of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and 7 their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. For Egypt 8 helpeth in vain, and to no purpose: there have I called her Rahab that sitteth still. Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to 9 come for ever and ever. For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not 10 hear the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy 11 not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. 12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in 13 oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon; therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an 14 instant. And he shall break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing; so that there shall not be found among the pieces thereof a sherd to take fire from 15 the hearth, or to take water withal out of the cistern. For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be 16 your strength: and ye would not. But ye said, No, for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be 17 swift. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till 18 ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill. And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement; blessed are all they that wait for him. 19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more; he will surely 20 be gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear, he will answer thee. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy 21 teachers be hidden any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it; when ye turn to the right hand,

22 and when ye turn to the left. And ye shall defile the overlaying of thy graven images of silver, and the plating of thy molten images of gold : thou shalt cast them away as an unclean 23 thing ; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. And he shall give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal ; and bread of the increase of the ground, and it shall be fat 24 and plenteous : in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young asses that till the ground shall eat savoury provender, which hath been winnowed 25 with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be upon every lofty mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the 26 towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the hurt of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. 27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising 28 smoke : his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire : and his breath is as an overflowing stream, that reacheth even unto the neck, to sift the nations with the 29 sieve of vanity : and a bridle that causeth to err shall be in the jaws of the peoples. Ye shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept ; and gladness of heart, as when one 30 goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, 31 and hailstones. For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be broken in pieces, 32 which smote with a rod. And every stroke of the appointed staff, which the LORD shall lay upon him, shall be with tabrets and harps : and in battles of shaking will he fight with them. 33 For a Topheth is prepared of old ; yea, for the king it is made ready ; he hath made it deep and large : the pile thereof is fire and much wood ; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

31 : 1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses ; and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong ; but they look 2 not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD ! Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words : but will arise against the house of the evil-doers, and 3 against the help of them that work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God ; and their horses flesh, and not spirit : and when the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is holpen shall fall, and they all shall fail together. 4 For thus saith the LORD unto me, Like as when the lion growleth and the young lion over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds be called forth against him, he will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them : so shall the LORD of hosts come down to 5 fight upon mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts 6 protect Jerusalem ; he will protect and deliver it, he will pass over and preserve it. Turn 7 ye unto him from whom ye have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. For in that day they shall cast away every man his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands 8 have made unto you for a sin. Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of man ; and the sword, not of men, shall devour him : and he shall flee from the sword, and his young 9 men shall become tributary. And his rock shall pass away by reason of terror, and his princes shall be dismayed at the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

Chap. 30. This chapter contains an exposure of the sin and folly of ancient Israel in seeking foreign aid against their enemies, to the neglect of God, their rightful sovereign and their only strong protector. The costume of the prophecy is borrowed from the circumstances and events of Isaiah’s own times. Thus Egypt is mentioned in the first part of the chapter as the chosen ally of the people, and Assyria in the last part as the dreaded enemy.

There is no need, however, of restricting what it said to that period exclusively. The presumption, as in all such cases, is that the description was designed to be more general, although it may contain allusions to particular emergencies. Reliance upon human aid, involving a distrust of the Divine promises, was a crying sin of the ancient Church, not at one time only, but throughout her history. To denounce such sins and threaten them with condign punishment was no small part of the prophetic office. A.

This chapter opens with rebuke of the Jews for seeking help from Egypt against Assyria, accounting it rebellion against God and declaring that it should avail them nothing (verses 1-7); and closes with predictions of the overthrow of the Assyrians by the high hand of Jehovah Himself (verses 27-33). The connection between these extremes of the chapter is made by dwelling at some length upon the sins of the people, from which their seeking help from Egypt was a natural outgrowth (verses 8-17), and then turning in Divine mercy to great promises of spiritual renovation, followed legitimately with promises of temporal deliverance from their enemies, from which the prophet passes to the special case of Assyria as happily illustrating the general principle of help from God to His believing people in their need (verses 18-26). It is more than legitimate to give the doctrines of this chapter a universal application to the sin of seeking help from man and to the duty of seeking help from God, for it was plainly the Divine purpose to illustrate and impress these general principles—practically good for every age—rather than merely to give the world certain facts of Jewish history in respect to their relations to Egypt and Assyria. What is said here of God’s visitations of judgment upon wicked nations has an air of grandeur and magnificence rarely equalled by any other writer and rarely surpassed by Isaiah.

1,2. The Lord does not say, “My children,” for they had practically disowned this relation by their rebellion against His authority. They were active and earnest in taking counsel, but not of God; in framing profound plans, but not in sympathy with God’s Spirit. They were bent on making a league with Egypt against Assyria. So doing, they would add to the sin of heart apostasy from God the farther sin of a foreign alliance which would be at once insulting to God and ensnaring to themselves. No step of such importance should under any circumstance be taken without first seeking counsel from God. But in this case the people knew they were going against His revealed will. Egypt is more precisely seeking shelter under her shadow, in the shade of her protection.

4. Manifestly these princes and ambassadors are those of the Jews, now seen in Egypt, to carry into effect the schemes of their king and his counsellors in a league with the king of Egypt. “Zoan” is referred to (19:11) as the residence of the king and his court. It was a very ancient city (Num. 13:22) and one of national importance (Ps. 78:43).

6. The prophet sees and describes the caravan of Jewish ambassadors as they cross the Arabian desert on their way to Egypt, bearing ample presents to ingratiate the good will of Egypt’s king. Lo! see the burden of those beasts going south, through a land of trouble and discomfort (to all travellers) whence come the lion and the lioness (Heb.), etc. H. C.

7. The historical chapters of Isaiah, especially chaps. 36 and 37, show that Hezekiah received no help at all from the subordinate Pharaoh, who was probably Shabatok, and that though Tirhakah did move on his behalf (37:9), yet that he neither engaged the forces of Sennacherib nor seriously troubled him. The relief of Hezekiah and the relief of Egypt itself—whose subjection to Assyria was thereby deferred for a generation—came from another quarter. When Hezekiah gave up his trust in any arm of flesh and made his appeal to God, spreading before Him the blasphemous letter of Sennacherib, then Isaiah was commissioned to assure him of a miraculous deliverance (37:36). The deliverance itself and its marvellous character was acknowledged by the Egyptians no less than by the Israelites. G. R.

The Jewish party, which sought for an alliance with Egypt, was pursuing a policy which on human as well as on Divine grounds was utterly fatal. The party was in high favor in the time of Hezekiah; it seemed to advocate the only line of policy by which the independence of the Jewish state could be secured, and Isaiah’s opposition and words of warning were disregarded. But events showed that he was right. The alliance with Egypt, which had been purchased with the treasures of Jerusalem, and the toilsome journey of the Jewish ambassadors into the heart of Ethiopia was shattered by the battle of Eltekh, while the overthrow of the army of Sennacherib before Jerusalem proved that trust in their God was the only defence the rulers of Judah needed, and that their strength was, as Isaiah, had declared, “to sit still.” From that time onward, to the death of Hezekiah, there was no more straining after an Egyptian alliance, and Isaiah’s later years were cheered by the consciousness that the policy he had preached and struggled for was at last triumphant. For nearly a century Egypt disappeared from the political horizon of the Jews. Sayee.

8,9. What needed so lasting a record was rather the engrained perverseness of the people, out of which all their acts of sin arose, than the details of this Egyptian embassy. Its failure was rather a lesson for the moment; but the perverseness of the Jewish people in despising God’s word and rejecting His prophets was a weighty and solemn lesson for every age. They continually urged the prophets to give answers that would encourage them in their worldly schemes instead of reporting truly the messages of God. Birks.

10. Smooth things or words is a common figurative term for flatteries. Luther’s expressive version is, preach soft to us. A.

10,11. So deeply infatuated in sin were this people that they even sought to seduce the Lord’s prophets, exhorting them (so the Hebrew states and repeats it) not to see the truth for them, but to speak to them only smooth and delusive words. They chose pleasing lies rather than unwelcome truth. They could not bear to be annoyed in their sinful pursuits and pleasures, and were therefore ready to grasp the good of sinning recklessly and risk all the bad consequences! “Get ye out of the way” does not mean precisely get out of our way so that we may have a clear field for sinning with no obstructions; but this: Turn ye out of the right way; do not hesitate to turn aside never so much from the path of duty and right; run the risks of disobeying God even as we have resolved to do. Dare to sin on at all hazards and fear nothing! And especially bring before us no more “The Holy One of Israel.” H. C.

Here are some so much in love with their own ruin as to own plainly and roundly what they would be at; “Prophesy not unto us,” they say, “right things, but smooth things.” As if they had said, “Do but oil the razor for us, and let us alone to cut our own throats.” South.—It is not pleasant to tell people what they don’t want to hear. It is a great deal nicer to prophesy smooth things than to cry, “Repent or perish.” And there are a great many beautiful things in the Bible. The preacher can if he will find texts to last a lifetime that will not offend the most fastidious. He can be Sabbath after Sabbath and year after year “as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument.” No wonder that many yield to this temptation, and that ever and anon there is a new theology to meet the demand of those to whom the cross is an offence. But some one may ask, If we are to preach a gospel that offends men how are we going to save them? The answer is, we don’t expect to save them.

No preacher ever was or ever will be so attractive as to be able in and of himself to draw one sinner to Christ. It is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” Interior.

In dealing with ourselves or with one another, if we aim at deep work or thorough results we must go bravely and honestly at this mark. Pre-eminently it is the prophet’s business. Men in earnest will not shrink from the awful office—stern, searching, incisive, painful, and therefore very often unwelcome, but merciful with the far-sighted mercy which regards the true peace beyond the transient pain. F. D. H.

15. These titles of God have here a special force. Their resorting to Egypt for help was a direct affront to the unchangeable Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel. It was a denial of every lesson taught by the plagues of Egypt, the passover and Exodus, when that name was more fully revealed. Distrust of God had caused a feverish restlessness. Their punishment would resemble their sin. By rejecting the prophet’s warning they virtually claimed to be wiser than God, and they would now be filled with their own devices. Birks.

In returning to Me and in resting upon Me ye shall have salvation; in quietness as opposed to agitation and anxiety; in confidence as opposed to distrust and unbelief, shall be your strength—said with an eye to their national danger from the Assyrians when they were disowning God and looking to Egypt instead. The sentiments are good for all circumstances of human want and trial. God would have His teaching in this case apply to every possible case which involves like principles. H. C.

Would we be saved from the evil of every calamity, guarded against the temptation of it, and secured from the curse of it, which are the only evil things in it? It must be in returning and rest; in returning to God and reposing in Him as our rest. In returning, in the thorough reformation of your hearts and lives; and in rest, in an entire submission of your souls to God, and a complacency in Him, “you shall be saved.” Would we be strengthened to do what is required of us and to bear what is laid upon us? It must be in quietness and in confidence; we must keep our spirits calm and sedate by a continual dependence upon God and His power and goodness; we must retire into ourselves with a holy quietness, suppressing all turbulent and tumultuous passions, and keeping the peace in our own minds. And we must rely upon God with a holy confidence that He can do what He will, and will do what is best for His people. And this will be our strength; it will inspire us with such a holy fortitude as will carry us with ease and courage through all the difficulties we may meet with. H.

More progress is to be made by waiting than by working; there may be a greater power in silent, patient looking for than in the restless exertion of all the forces of the mind and of the body. It was Israel that so frequently, against God’s will, in the pressure of the moment said, “We will flee upon horses, we will ride upon the swift” (verse 16); and the path they had chosen in self-will as conducting to sure victory led to destruction. Have we also something of that rash temper which prefers to cut the knot of difficulty rather than wait till the time comes, when higher wisdom shall unravel it? Then stands before us, as inscribed in capitals, this passage, “In quietness and in confidence shall be your rest.” It is not stated that this way to real strength and rest is the most easy, a smooth path for all feet. To wait is often harder than to work; drudgery not seldom easier than doing nothing, except when carried beyond all bounds. And yet this last, most difficult requirement is in a thousand circumstances that which is asked of us; and at every turn God shows us that the strength born of still trust is not alone our highest, but, in fine, our only power. Van O.—Much of Christian duty is not active, bustling work, but quiet, patient waiting. There come many times in the experience of every life when victory can be gained in no other way. We must stand still and wait for God. Immeasurable harm is wrought in personal lives and in the work of God by the impatience that cannot wait for the Divine bidding to go forward. J. R. M.

An active social life, with its sympathies, its friendships and its close contact of mind with mind, interspersed with hours of solitude for quiet thought and serious meditation, seems to be the Divine order for man’s best growth. We acquire most rapidly in society; we ripen best in solitude. We receive new ideas, devise new plans, welcome new impulses most readily when under the influence of other minds; we mature all these and render them effective in our lives in the quiet meditation of the still hour. There is therefore a sense in which we ought to be never less alone than when alone. And in view of this truth, we should learn to be company for ourselves, and good company, too. S. S. T.—Solitude is no word for a true, God-loving heart. We are least alone when we are most alone, for then, if we are His, we may most fully realize His presence. So if any of you are disposed sometimes to say the road is dark and long and rough, and I have to tread it unaccompanied, “set the Lord always before” you, and, with Him at your “right hand,” He and you will be—I was going to say, enough for one another, and, at any rate, will be too many for all opposition. “I was left alone, and I saw this great vision.” I was left alone, and God came to keep me company. That may be the experience of every soul. . . . The secret of a quiet heart—which is a very different thing from a stagnant one—is to keep ever near God. Leaning upon Him, we shall not be shaken as we otherwise would, and shall be masters of ourselves; and if we are masters of ourselves nothing outside of us will much move us. “His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” In everything, by prayer and thanksgiving, make God present to yourselves, and yourselves present to God, and “the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds.” A. M.

Peace comes swiftest when you seek it as an end least. Seek purity, seek renewal of heart and life, seek harmony with God, seek the society of Christ as a Saviour and Intercessor for you, and peace, in God’s good time, will come of itself. How many really earnest souls of us are spoiling our work because we will invert God’s order, and instead of seeking faith supremely, leaving comfort for an incident, go about to get comfort first, and thus miss faith and comfort both! Let us be patient. Stillness is our needed sacrifice. Baffled and broken the soul must often be before its immortal strength comes. Humiliation of pride, an utter consciousness of infirmity, to be kept painfully out of our inheritance, fasting and mortified ambition, forty days in the wilderness, three years in Arabia—all these are the price of conquest. Do not pray for exemption from them, but for victory by them. F. D. H.

Must life be a failure for one compelled to stand still in enforced inaction and see the great throbbing tides of life go by? No; victory is then to be gotten by standing still, by quiet waiting. It is a thousand times harder to do this than it was in the active days to rush on in the columns of stirring life. It requires a grander heroism to stand and wait and not lose heart and hope, to submit to the will of God, to give up work and honors to others, to be quiet, confident and rejoicing, while the happy, busy multitude goes on and away. It is the grandest life “having done all, to stand.” J. R. M.

17. The thought seems to be, Ye shall flee in all directions till two are nowhere left together. Ye may be seen winding your way over the distant hill-tops, or standing there in dismay; but every man alone, so utter is your dispersion and so completely is your military power broken. The threatening of calamity closes here; indeed how could it farther go? The people are utterly broken down. Hence this extremity becomes God’s opportunity for signal mercy; as we shall see. H. C.

18-26. These verses refer to the Assyrian deliverance. The connection is direct and forcible. However severe God’s discipline, its design was gracious. His dealings are full of wisdom. There is, on His part, no slackness or indifference, but the calm waiting of an ever-patient love. Even in the hour of judgment God will be exalted, not to crush His people with the terrors of His majesty, but only “that He may have mercy” upon them. He knows how to temper their afflictions, that they may yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Since He waits in patient love, to show them favor at the last, they also are bound to wait, in faith and patience, until the blessing shall come. Birks.—He waits that He may be gracious. Goodness sets God upon the exercise of patience, and patience sets many a sinner on running into the arms of mercy. That mercy which makes God ready to embrace returning sinners makes Him willing to bear with them in their sins, and wait their return. Charnock.

20. The restored and forgiven people are not placed instantly in the height of prosperity. As in the case of those who returned from captivity in Babylon, serious hardships were the first lessons; but God gave them a precious faith and a rich renewal of Divine light, instruction and consequent spiritual comfort. Such is the course of thought here. We may expect some straitness for earthly bread; but ye shall have an abundance of the bread of Divine light, the bread of heaven. Thy teachers shall not hide themselves away in corners any more, as men driven from their homes by persecution; but thine eyes shall see them at all points present and ready to teach thee the word and will of God. H. C.

21. This idea of a road as the highway of God’s kingdom shows itself all along in the Bible record. Again and again, fidelity to God’s service is spoken of as continuing in “the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in.” (See, for example, De. 13:5; 31:29; Judges 2:22; 2 K. 21:22; Jer. 5:4, 5.) And because there are roads which are not the king’s highway, frequent mention is made in the Bible of ways of evil, as well as ways of good—roads within the kingdom which are not roads of the kingdom. “Thus saith the Lord, Behold I set before you the way of life, and the way of death” (Jer. 21:8). And this view of the possibility of being out of the way while in a way, gives added force to the cry of the psalmist: “Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path” (Ps. 27:11). It also gives added preciousness to the Lord’s assurance to those who trust in Him: “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” H. C. T.

23-26. In this passage some expressions are manifestly figurative. But whatever doubt may rest on any clause as between the literal and the figurative sense, of this we may be sure: it testifies to the loving-kindness of God—always the main and vital thing.

25,26. Rivers and streams run usually in valleys and not on the hill or mountain tops. Hence the thing affirmed of them here must denote very rich blessings; as, on the other hand, great slaughter and falling towers indicate fearful calamities. The same sense is given under other figures in the next verse. In the day when God bindeth up the breach of His people, the augmentation of light from the heavenly bodies shall be great, even sevenfold and more. The light of seven days compressed into one; the light of the moon becoming as that of the sun; these are magnificent figures and must be freighted with a wealth of precious significance. It has been fitly said that these must be figures, for the literal fulfilment would be a calamity and not a blessing. These mortal eyes could not bear such outbursting, dazzling, perpetual effulgence. But Zion’s spiritual light can never be in excess. H. C.

27-34. The fall of the Assyrian is here foretold in words most impressive and sublime. They strongly confirm the view of Vitringa, that a violent thunderstorm was the chief agency by which the commission of the destroying angel was fulfilled. Birks.—Verse 31 makes it certain that this entire passage has a somewhat special reference to the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. Yet this case is referred to here, in part at least, as an illustration of the general law of Divine interposition for the deliverance of His prayerful, trusting people. What God did for Hezekiah and his people He will do in like circumstances for any and every other generation of His chosen. The “name of the Lord” means His manifestations, God Himself as seen in the special revelations of His glory. The whole description is grand, not to say awful. Jehovah, awakening the energies of His being to intense activity, is seen coming from afar, burning with anger (speaking after the manner of men), and heavy are the columns of rising smoke (the probable sense of the Hebrew); His lips full of indignation; His tongue like a devouring fire; who could stand before such consuming wrath? He comes forth to lay low in death that great Assyrian host. All the agencies of fire, coupled with accumulated declarations of burning wrath, set forth His earnest zeal in this work and the fearfulness of His manifestations to effect it. H. C.

29. The night may be particularly mentioned in the first clause, either because all the Mosaic festivals began in the evening, or with special allusion to the passover, which is described in the law (Ex. 12: 42) as “a night to be much observed unto the Lord, as that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.” This verse gives an interesting glimpse of ancient usage as to the visitation of the Temple at the greater yearly festivals. The Rock of Israel is not Mount Zion or Moriah, but Jehovah Himself, to whose presence they resorted, as appears from 2 Sam. 23: 3. A.

30,31. While His people make their voice heard in songs of praise to God, He makes His voice heard in thunder and the flash of His arms seen in lightning for the overwhelming of His foes. In this verse again the prophet groups boldly and almost rudely together all the grand agencies of lightning and fire, tempest and storm. Before such an inundation of agencies for destruction, the Assyrian is beaten down—falling never to rise.

33. This allusion to Tophet is the earliest which appears in the Scriptures. Additional particulars appear in the history of Josiah’s reformation (2 K. 33: 10; Jer. 7: 31 and 19: 6, 11-14). The prophet here represents Tophet as a place prepared for the burning of the Assyrian king. Made deep and large, with fire and wood in abundance, prepared for the king, and of course, he being thrown upon it, the breath of the Lord kindles it into its fearful conflagration. This is, of course, a figurative description, Tophet being made the central point in the figure because it was a well-known place for the burning of dead bodies, and also of all manner of filth from the city, Jerusalem. H. C.

The whole picture is a most solemn warning of judgments to alight hereafter on the open enemies of the true Church of God. Birks.

Chap. 31. The scope of thought in this short chapter resembles that in chap. 30, save that it omits the detailed account of the sins of Judah which appears in chap. 30: 8-17. This begins with a woe on those who go to Egypt for help; declares this help to be weakness, on which moreover God will bring ruin; but He will Himself deliver His own people. This chapter closes like the one before with the illustrative case of His destroying the Assyrian power. H. C.

Reliance upon Egypt is distrust of God, who will avenge Himself by destroying both the helper and the helped (verses 1-3). His determination and ability to save those who confide in His protection are expressed by two comparisons (verses 4, 5). The people are therefore invited to return to Him, from every false dependence, human or idolatrous, as they will be constrained to do with shame, when they shall witness the destruction of their enemies by the resistless fire of His wrath (verses 6-9).

2. God was as wise as the Egyptians, and ought therefore to have been consulted; He was as wise as the Jews, and could therefore thwart their boasted policy.

3. This verse repeats the contrast between human and Divine aid, and the threatening that the unbelievers and their foreign helpers should be involved in the same destruction. The antithesis of flesh and spirit, like that of God and man, is not metaphysical, but rhetorical, and is intended simply to express extreme dissimilitude or inequality. Reliance upon Egypt is again sarcastically represented as reliance upon horses, and as such opposed to confidence in God. As Egypt here means the Egyptians, it is afterward referred to as a plural. Stumble and fall are here poetical equivalents. A.

As it is good for men to “know themselves to be but men” (Ps. 9: 20), so it is good for us to consider that those we love and trust to are but men. They therefore can do nothing without God, nothing against Him, nothing in comparison with Him. They are men, and therefore fickle and foolish, mutable and mortal, here to-day and gone to-morrow; they are men, and therefore let us not make gods of them, by making them our hope and confidence, and expecting that in them which is to

be found in God only; they are not God, they cannot do that for us which God can do, and will, if we trust in Him. Let us not then neglect Him to seek to them; let us not forsake the rock of ages for broken reeds, nor the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns. H.