Isaiah 20

— Watchman.] The Prophets are often compared to watchmen; as foreseeing evils at a distance, and warning the people: compare chap. lii. 8; lxii. 6; Ezek. in. 17. W. Lowth. This prophecy, from the uncertainty of the occasion on which it was uttered, and from the brevity of the expression, is extremely obscure. The Edomites, as well as the Jews, were subdued by the Babylonians. They enquire of the Prophet how long their subjection is to last: he seems to intimate that the Jews should be delivered from their captivity; not so the Edomites: (Bp. Lowth.) that a morning should arise to the one after their night of calamity, and not to the other; see note on chap. xxvii. 7. We may suppose this night of the Idumeans to have begun the same year that, according to Josephus, Nebuchadnezzar executed the Divine judgments against the Ammonites, Moshees, &c.; the fifth after the destruction of Jerusalem. Vitringa.

ling.] A common year. Dr. Wells. This description of it seems to be used to distinguish from a prophetic year, (see Numb. xiv. 34; Ezek. iv. 6;) or from some remarkable time in general; as we read of the “acceptable year of the Lord,” chap. lxi. 2, the “year of recompences,” chap. xxxiv. 8. W. Lowth. Chap. XXII. This prophecy foretels the invasion by the Assyrians under Sennacherib, or by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar: the prophet may have had both in view. The third verse seems to relate to the flight of Zelekiah, 2 Kings xxv. 4, 5, from the Chaldeans; ver. 6, and ver. 9-11, rather to the siege by Sennacherib. Bp. Lowth, Vitringa. See notes on those verses. Ver. 1. — valley of vision.] Jerusalem, according to Josephus, was built on two opposite hills, Sion and Acris, separated by a valley; and it is thus called, as being the seat of Divine revelation. Bp. Lowth. — that thou art wholly gone up] The people’s running all to the top of their houses gives a lively image of a sudden general alarm. Bp. Lowth. See the notes on chap. xv. 3; and Deut. xxii. 8.

Isaiah 20:2

2. — the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, &c.] The words may be rather rendered passively, “The plunderer is plundered, and the destroyer is destroyed.” Bp. Lowth.

— Elam:] By this, taking the word with some latitude, we may rightly understand Persia. Vitringa. We do not find this last term (which signifies horsemen) in the early books of Scripture. Cyrus taught his people the art of managing horses: Ezekiel is the first who mentions them by the name of Persians; before that period, it is probable that the names Cush and Elam included most of Persia. Bochart. If however by Elam we understand here the province strictly so called, it is true that this also, though subject to Babylon, rose up against it. Bp. Newton.

— all the sinking thereof have I made to cease.] That is, the sighing caused by it: namely, of those who have been oppressed by the Babylonian tyranny. Compare chap. xiv. 3. Bp. Lowth, W. Lowth.

Isaiah 20:4

4. — the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear] The night, when I thought to have some respite, and he at ease; see Job vii. 13, 14. Or, some understand the words of that festival night when Babylon was surprised, (Dan. v.) the following verse favours this sense. W. Lowth.

Isaiah 20:5

5—9. Prepare the table, &c.] The Prophet describes the carelessness of the Babylonians, and in the midst of their feasting the sudden alarm of war. The event is then declared in a very singular manner: God orders the Prophet to set a watchman to look out, and to report what he sees; and though the passage, which relates what he sees, is extremely obscure, (owing to the ambiguity of a word which occurs three times, and may

signify a chariot or the rider in it; or a rider on a horse or other animal; or a company of chariots or riders; it is pretty clear, that Darius and Cyrus, the Medes and the Persians, are intended to be distinguished by the two riders, or two sorts of cattle. Bp. Lowth.

Isaiah 20:8

8. And he cried, A lion:] The marginal reading, “as a lion,” gives an easier sense; with a strong voice, like a lion: the particle as is frequently understood; see chap. xv. 5. W. Lowth, Bp. Hall.

Isaiah 20:9

9. — answered] That is, continued his discourse; for similar use of the word “answer,” see particularly Matt. xi. 25, and the Gospels elsewhere. W. Lowth.

— all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.] Xerxes, on his return from Greece, passing through Babylon, pillaged the temples, and pulled down all the images, thus completing this and other prophecies; see Jer. 1. 2; li. 44. 47. 52. Dean Prideaux.

Isaiah 20:10

10. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor:] The application, the end, and design of the prophecy are here admirably given in a short expressive address to the Jews: O my people, whom I shall make subject for your punishment to the Babylonians, to try and prove you, to separate the chaff from the corn, the bad from the good among you, hear this for your consolation; your slavery and oppression will have an end in the destruction of your oppressors. The Prophet abruptly breaks off, and, instead of continuing the speech in the person of God, adds in his own, This I declare unto you from God. Bp. Lowth. It constantly occurs in the prophecies that the persons speaking are changed, and that God’s discourse is intertwined with that of the Prophet. Vitringa.

The word threshing is used here to express the object or matter that is threshed: for “corn of my floor,” in the original it is, as the margin gives, son. It is an idiom of the Hebrew language to call the effect, the object, any thing that belongs in almost any way to another, the son of it. Bp. Lowth. See chap. v. 1, and margin there.

Isaiah 20:11

11. The burden of Dumah.] That this is to be understood of Edom or Idumea, may be inferred from the mention of Seir; this last being a name by which Edom is commonly denoted in Scripture. Dr. Wells.

The set time of Arabia’s calamity. CHAP. XXI, XXII. The invasion of Jewry lamented.

Before CHRIST about 714. calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

Isaiah 20:13

13. The burden upon Arabia.] This prophecy was to be fulfilled within a year of the time of its delivery, ver. 16; and was probably delivered about the same time with the rest in this part of the book, soon after or before the fourteenth of Hezekiah, the year of Sennacherib’s invasion. In his first march into Judea, or in his return from the Egyptian expedition, he might overrun the several clans of Arabians mentioned here: their distress on some such occasion is the subject of the prophecy. Bp. Lowth. — travelling companies] See the notes on Gen. xvi. 12; xxxvii. 25; Job xli. 6. Those of Dedanim were the posterity of Dedan, Abraham’s grandson; those of Tema and Kedar, descended from two of Ishmael’s sons, Gen. xxv. 3. 13. 15. These people were famous for the use of the bow, (ver. 17.) like their ancestor Ishmael, Gen. xxi. 20. W. Lowth.

Isaiah 20:14

14. — brought water &c.] Pitying their chased neighhuman wisdom and worldly joy. 15 He prophesieth Shebna’s deprivation, 20 and Elinkim, prefiguring the kingdom of Christ, his substitution. Before CHRIST about 712. THE burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?