Isaiah 14

Isaiah 14:1-8

For Zion’s comfort, and her enemies confusion, we have here, 1. Israel’s deliverance from captivity, ver. 1—3. 2. Babylon and her king fallen and inflicted ever, ver. 4—20. 3. The whole people destroyed, ver. 21—23. 4. It is fixed by divine desire, ver. 24—27. 5. Philip’s fate and Judah’s triumphs are recorded, ver. 28—32.

1. For ’ the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, ’ and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and ’ the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. 2. And the people shall take them, ’ and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD, ’ for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were, and ’ they shall rule over their oppressors. 3. And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

2. FOR ’ the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, ’ and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and ’ the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. 2. And the people shall take them, ’ and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD, ’ for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were, and ’ they shall rule over their oppressors. 3. And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

It was for Zion’s sake that God visited her oppressors, both to avenge her quarrel, and by their ruin to procure the liberty of his people, which Cyrus, on his conquest of Babylon, sent back to their own land.

1. God encourages his people with promises of mercy in general, that they might not think, because of their sufferings, they were utterly rejected. No; it was his eternal purpose to chuse Israel, and he will now make it manifest in their restoration. Note, (1.) All our salvation must be ascribed to the evils and sovereign mercy of God. (2.) It is God’s election of grace, not any free-will and power in man, which can bring the soul to the inheritance among the foions. (3.) Whenever discouragements they may meet with, or however shaken their faith may be, God will not cast away his people.

2. He engages in particular, to bring them once more into their own land; to increase their number by faithful prodefytes, v. 1. to open the hearts of Cyrus and his subjects to help them on their journey, See Eura 1. 4. to give them servants and handmaids out of the land of their captivity, and to make them their captives, whose captives they were; and they were either the prodefytes from Babylon, who chose rather to serve in the meanest offices of the Lord’s land, where his worship was established, than they behind: or such as the Modes might have sold for dares to the Israelites, when Babylon was taken, v. 2. Thus God having restored them with honour, and replenished them, they would no longer be under servitude, distressed and sorrowful, but enjoy a happy rest in Canaan’s fertile land, v. 3. And this seems to look forward to the times of the gospel, when, through the preaching of Jesus and his apostles, multitudes of Jews and Gentiles should be converted and brought home to the church, the land of the Lord, and lead their captivity captive; no more the servants of corruption, nor distressed with terrifying and guilty fears; but entering into pardon, peace, and rest, through Jesus, here below, as an earnest of that eternal rest which remaineth for them above.

3. ¶ That thou ’ shall take up this ’ proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased? the ’ golden city ceased! 5. ’ The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the serpent of the rulers. 6. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke; he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. 7. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet: ’ they break forth into singing. 8. ’ Yea, the fit-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no seller is come up against us. 9. ’ Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nation. 10. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? ’ art thou become like unto us? 11. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, ’ and the noise of thy vices: the worm is spread under thee, ’ and the worms cover thee. 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O ’ Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which dudit weaken the nations! 13. For thou hast said in thine heart, ’ I will ascend into heaven, ’ I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, ’ in the fides of the north. 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, ’ I will be like the most High. 15. Yet ’ thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the fides of the pit. 16. They that are thee, shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, ’ Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms? 17. That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, ’ that opened not the house of his prisoners? 18. All the kings of the nations, even all of them lie in glory, every one in his own house. 19. But thou art cast out of thy grave, like an abominable branch: and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrush through with a sword, that go down to the thorns of the pit, as a carcase trodden under feet. 20. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: ’ the seed of evil does shall never be renowned. 21. Prepare slaughter for his children: for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. 22. For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon ’ the name, and remnant, ’ and son, and nephew, saith the LORD. 23. ’ I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the bestow of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

Jer. xvi. Before Christ 212. 1 Jer. cit. 2. Mal. 1. 3. 3 Chap. Ibid. 4. Zeph. 1. 5. Zeph. 1. 6. Chanc. crem. 7 Chap. extr. 4. 6. Ire. 18.

bathed in heaven: behold, ‘it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curle to judgment. 6. The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Boarah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. 7. And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls, and their land shall be foked with blood, and their duft made fat with fatness. 8. For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion.

We have here,

1. The awful summons sent forth to the nations of the world, and the earth, and things therein called upon to forsaken, as if the irrational, or insomniate creatures, were more attentive than hardened sinners, v. 1.

2. The universality of the approaching judgments of God is declared, v. 2. against all the nations and their armies, who have committed fornication with the great whom, for Rev. xviii. 3. and therefore are doomed to utter destruction, Rev. xix. 21.

3. The execution of this terrible doom is displayed in the most awful colours. The carcasses of the Sain will be unburied, and dead forth pestilential vapours; the very mountains are melted with blood, like rivers running down, v. 3. The hosts of heaven, sun, moon, and stars, dropping as eminently fags, and the firmament wrapped up as a scroll, representing the utter ruin of the flats and kingdoms of the followers of the man of sin, with their princes and mighty men, v. 4. (compare Rev. xix. 17, 18. Rev. xix. 20. Rev. vi. 13, 14.) and this is effected by the found of the Lord, bathed in heaven, well-tempered, drawn according to his eternal decree, and descending with fury irresistible on Idumea, probably the Romith state, the unpletable enemies of the church of Christ, as the Idumites were of the Jews, and therefore called the people of my curle, lying under it, and doomed to this dire judgment, v. 5. Before this found the armies of Antichrist, the common soldiers, as lambs and goats, like heaviombs at the altar, fall sacrifices to divine justice at Boarah, a city of Idumea, representing Rome, the capital of the antichristian powers, v. 6. And their chief captains, fierce as bulls and strong as unicorns, shall perish together, and the land be foked with their blood and fattened, or made drunk, as with showers of rain, such vast quantities should be shed. See Rev. xvi. 6. xvii. 6. xix. 20. Note, (1.) Miserable, eternally miserable are they, who by their sins provoking God’s curle, awaken his sword of judgment. (2.) If it be terrible but to hear the report, sinner, how wilt thou endure when this great day of his wrath is come? (3.) The sinners in hell are eternal sacrifices to God’s justice, and therefore, when the smoke of their torment ascends, his faints adore him. (4.) However long triumphant, and cruelly oppressive, the enemies of God’s people may have been, their doom is determined, and God will give them blood to drink.

4. The equity of the procedure is remarked; this day of vengeance is the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion, and the time is fixed in the eternal councils to do her justice; when the church of God, and every perfected member of it, will find a righteous judge opposing their quarrel, and recompening to the full the injuries they have endured. See Rev. xvi. 10. xi. 18. Note. When we are suffering for the testimony of the truth, and a good conscience, we should be comforted in patient hope, that the year of recompense is at hand, for Zion’s friends and Zion’s enemies.

5. And the firearms thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the duft thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. 10. It shall not be quenched night nor day, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie walle, none shall pass through it for ever and ever. 11. ¶ But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it, the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it, and the shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. 12. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. 13. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the forerees thereof, and and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. 14. The wild beaths of the desert shall also meet with the wild beaths of the island, and the farry shall cry to his fellow, the finish-owl also shall sett there, and shall not herfelf a place of rest. 15. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the widowmen also be gathered every one with her mate. 16. ¶ Seek ye out of the book of

the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. 17. And he hath call the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

Isaiah 14:4-23

The triumphs of God’s people, and the wretchedness to which their proud conquerors shall be reduced, are here most elegantly displayed. The description is called a proverb, a taunting speech, full of fantasies and irony.

1. With admiration and exaltation the people of God behold the fall of Babylon, the golden city, full of splendor, and her oppressive king, v. 4. For his wickedness, cruelty, and tyranny, God hath broken his serpent, and hurled him from his throne, overtaken by just judgment, and none either able or willing to deliver him, v. 5, 6. Note, (1.) Riches profit not in a day of wrath. (2.) When kings turn tyrants, the King

The following things justify breaks also itself of their government, and by their fall makes them know he suspects. (3.) When God in wrath feizes the sinner, none can fly his vengeance, or deliver out of his hand.

2. The full of this oppressive power would be the peace and joy of the nations of the earth. Their troubler removed, quieters would be restored, and with gladness the people would celebrate their deliverance, v. 7. The very fits and cedars are represented as rejoicing, since now no feller would hew them down, to build gorgeous palaces for their proud monarchs. Of rather, the kings and princes of the earth, hereby represented, are happy to be delivered from the bondage and享受 under which they groaned during the tyrannic sway of Babylon’s monarchs. Note, (1.) The fall of tyrants is the joy of the oppressed people. (2.) Peace and quietness in a nation is matter of great thankfulness.

3. Whilst earth rejoices in being rid of such a burden, those who are in hell, or the state of the dead, are represented as welcoming the king of Babylon with facsimile counts to their dark shade. They are all in motion, halting, to congratulate him on his arrival. It fliereth up the dead, Rephaim, the giants, the chief ones of the earth: their, informed of his approach, are represented as going to meet him; and the kings of the nations, as riding from their throne, to derision to pay him that homage that in his life-time they had been obliged to render, v. 9. Their all with affected wonder shall say, let thou hewn: aye need to the poor be boasted god, but found, like not a dying worm, v. 10. How short-lived is thy glory! how despicable thy end! Thy pomp is faded in the dust, thy music left in groans, and that gorgeous body, which glistened on a throne, clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring humptuously every day, is now inathsome in corruption, and meet for worms, v. 11. How wondrous the change! How art this fallen from heaven, O Lwofer, for of the morning! proud as the prince of darkness, like him once shining as the morning flat, and in glory exalted high as heaven, but now cut down even to the ground, low as the nations thou had wafted, v. 12. How vain thy former pride and boast! nothing once seemed too high for thy slaying ambition: thou hast laid, I will establish a monarchs as wide as the heavens, bring suppliant kings to the foots, and to be a conqueror on Zion’s holy mount, v. 13. You, not causate with earthly dignity, affording divine honour, as if thou couldst ascend above the clouds, and rival the Most High, v. 14. But how different thy earthquake? brought down to hell, and numbered among the dead. Note, (1.) Pride is the bottom-fix of fallen man: since firth our passers, affording God-like wisdom, were undone, we have inherited their guilty ambition. (2.) It seems intimated here, that there is an innumerable and knowledge among departed spirits in the unseen world. (3.) They who go down to the pit in their iniquities, will be thrust down into hell as their eternal punishment.

4. The living can scarce believe their own eyes, when they behold him fallen from his high effare, and wistering in his blood. So different his ghastly countenance, deformed with wounds, and pale in death, from what he once appeared; and therefore inflicting over him they shall say, Is this the man, the mighty conqueror that shook the thrones, and humbled the monarchs of the earth, v. 16. that by his ravages depopulated the nations, destroyed their cities, and made the world a wilderness, and whose caprices groaned under a heavy yoke, without hope of being ever looted? v. 17. Yes; this is he, once higher than the highest, now more despicable than ever he was dignified. Whilst other kings in pomp are carried to the tomb, the chiefs of the valley make sweet unto them, and flately monuments erected over them to perpetuate their memory; obituate even of a grave, thy corpse is cast out as an abominable branch, and, like the raiment of those who are slain with the sword, clotted with blood, which none cared to touch as ceremonially unclean; trodden under foot as mine by men and horses in the battle, and afterwards cast into the pit, and covered with a heap of thorns, v. 19. Such shall be thy vile end, denied a place among the tombs of thy ancestors, because of thy wanton cruelty, murders, and arbitrary oppression; for this is God’s righteous decree, that the find of evil does shall never be revivated, or not for ever, their momentary blaze of glory being quickly extinguished, and their honour laid in the dust. Note, (1.) In the blaze of conquest we admire the hero, and are apt to overlook the murderer, the robber, and the scourge of mankind. (2.) The pomp of a gorgeous sepulchre is a poor distinction; yet, for the punishment of iniquity to be denied a grave, is a brand of real infamy. (3.) Strange changes are soon brought about when God will work; and it is a wretched greatness to be proud of, which stands in so slippery a place, and may so quickly be dashed in pieces.

5. The utter ruin of the royal family, and Babylon the seat of their majesty, is declared. The Medes and Persians are commanded to prepare daughters for them, to visit on them the fins of their fathers, and not spare the most defiant branch, but utterly extirpate the name of the Babylonish monarchs, that they might no more succeed to the throne of their ancestors, or

fill the world with cities, to perpetuate their fame, or extend their grandeur; and their metropolis, utterly ruined, should become a march, and the abode of bitterns, swept with the bosom of destruction, and scarce a Boue left upon another; all which was literally accomplished.

The whole of this awful and terrible destruction also looks forward to the ruin of Babylon mythical, whole pride, impiety, tyranny, and cruelty, will meet with as cundign punishment, and be matter of the like joy to the founts of God, as fully appears from the book of Revelations. Compare v. 7, 8. with Rev. xv. 2, 3. xix. 2, 3, 20. v. 9, 10. with 2 Vief. xi. 4, 8. Rev. xiii. 4, xx. 10. v. 11. with Rev. xviii. 22. v. 12. with Rev. xi. 7. xiii. 7, 15. xviii. 21. v. 13, 14. with Rev. xviii. 7, 8. 2 Vief. xi. 4. v. 16. with Rev. xix. 20. v. 20. with Rev. xiii. 10, 15. xix. 2. v. 21. with Rev. ii. 23. v. 23. with Rev. xviii. 21.

Babes Child 716.

24. ¶ The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: 25. That I will break the Alfarian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. 26. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. 27. For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? 28. In the year that king Ahaz died, was this burden. 29. ¶ Rejoice not thou whole Palestias, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. 30. And the firth-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall flay thy sergeant. 31. Now, O gave a cry, O city; thou whole Palestias art disloved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. 32. What shall one then answer the mefengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

Chap. xxviii. 36.

Isaiah 14:9-17

Awful and most awakening are the images here used to display the utter ruin and desolations of the enemies of Christ and his people; and which seem to look forward to the fall of Antichrist, and may also be applied to that great and terrible day of the Lord, when the sinner’s torment in body and soul will be compleated.

1. Their land is described as the land of Sodom. Since sin hath rendered it as foal for the flames, the wrath of God shall kindle the incantagillable burnings, v. 9. 10. and their cities deserted, desolate, ruinous, shall become the abode of every unclean bird and ravenous beast, v. 11—15. the elegance and dignity of which description cannot be equalled, and which every comment must debate. Only we may observe, (1.) The dreadful evil of sin, the cause of all these desolations. (2.) The folly and madness of attempting to its our abode on earth, doomed to shortly, with all the works on it, to be burnt up. (3.) The terrible end of the ungodly, when wrath to the utter-most is poured out upon them, and they are call into the lake of brimstone and fire which burneth for ever and ever.

2. An assurance is given of the most minute fulfilment of the prophecy, v. 16, 17. And when the destruction of the prophecy, v. 16, 17. And when the destruction of the prophecy, v. 16, 17. And when the destruction of the prophecy, v. 16, 17. And when the destruction of the prophecy, v. 16, 17. And when the destruction of the prophecy, v. 16, 17. And when the destruction of the prophecy, v. 16, 17.

Isaiah 14:19-22

10. ¶ And ’ Babylon the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, shall be ’ as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 10. ’ It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the Shepherds make their fold there. 21. ’ But wild beafts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and ’ s owls shall dwell there, and fatyrs shall dance there. 22. And the wild beafts of the islands shall cry in their defolate houses, and dragons in their pheasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

The inimitably lively and striking images of the utter defoliation of Babylon here displayed, cannot be read without admiration.

1. Her former towering height of glory serves to strengthen the comfort of misery into which Babylon, the beauty of Chaldea, must fall. Utter destruction, like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, approached; infreated of crouded fireers, not an inhabitant should remain among the dreary ruins for ever: infreated of a fertile soil, such barrennefs should succeed, that not even an Arab’s tent, nor a Shepherd’s fold, should be seen, v. 20. Those late proud palaces, where riot, mirth, and pleasure reigned, abandoned, ruinous, are become the dens of ravishing beasts; and owls, dragons, fatyrs, and every doleful creature, occupy the defolate mansions, v. 21, 22. And this prophesy the relations of travellers verify, who report, that the obnoxious creatures which lodge there, made it highly dangerous even to approach the ruins.

2. The nearness of this heavy judgment is intimated, v. 22. for the comfort of God’s Israel when in their captivity. It was more than two hundred years from the time of the prophesy, but that with God is but a moment; it would be quickly at hand, for her days shall not be prolonged, but a final period put to her prosperity and power; yea, to her very being. And thus shall mythical Babylon also perish, when the day of her recompense, appointed in the eternal counsels, shall arrive, Rev. xviii. 2, 4, 21.