Isaiah 23

Isaiah 23:17-25

1. This formidable invasion put the king and his subjects into great form, is now the messenger of mercy, little as they deserve it, to prove them whether the goodness of God might lead them to repentance. He is commanded to go with his son, whole significant name, these—Joshua, a common shall return, carried in it a token for good, and meet Abaz at the conduit of the upper part, in the highway of the father’s field, where probably he was making some preparations for the approaching siege, by fortifying his capital, introducing plenty of water into the city, or cutting it off from supplying the foregers. Note, (1.) God is thinking of sinners, and preventing them with the blessings of his grace, when he is not in all their thoughts. (2.) Automobile relist in time of helpless distress, is double welcome. The message with which the prophet is sent, is most encouraging.

(1.) He bids them not fear foes so despicable. Though to human view so potent, in God’s regard they were but as the tails of husbands when they are burnt out, and their wrath no

VOL. II. E diate Before Christ 744.

Before Christ it is added, Before this child, probably pointing to Shear-jalhub his little son, or before the child, any child that is born, shall know to refuse the evil, and chuse the good, shall come to the exercise of reason, the land thou abhorred, of Syria and Israel, now confederate, shall be forsaken of both her kings, Pukah and Rezin; which was quickly fulfilled in the death of Rezin, slain by the king of Affyria, 2 Kings, xvi. 9. and Pekah by Iloha, 2 Kings xv. 30. Note, (1.) Iofults cast on God’s prophets, is insidious against himself, and will be highly resisted by him. (2.) The great comfort in every difterth, is not so much the hope of present deliverance, as the prologue of eternal bleshedness in our Immanuel. (3.) The more we examine the word of prophecy, the more confirmed shall we be in the faith of Jefus, in whom it is so perfectly fulfilled.

2 Kings xii. 10. 1 Chap. v. 26. 9 Or, nonmerchable tions. 2 Kings xvi. 7, 8. 1 Jer. xxii. 10. 7 Chap. v. 6. 1 Jud. xxii. 11. 2 Or, none shall come hither for fear.

17. ¶ The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Affyria. 18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hils for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Affyria. 19. And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. 20. In the same day shall the LORD shave with a razor that is hired, namely by them beyond the river, by the king of Affyria, the head and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard. 21. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep: 22. And it shall come to pass for the abundance of milk that they shall give, he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. 23. And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. 24. With arrows and with bows shall turn come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. 25. And as all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the tear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the fending forth of oxen, and for the treading of leifer cattle.

Though God will now appear for Zion’s sake, let not Ahaz think his unbelief shall go unpunished.

1. A fine judgment is threatened, such as before the land of Judah never knew, since the grand vomit of the ten tribes, v. 17. Note, Though God may have long patience, the impenitates must not promise themselves impunity.

2. The instrument to be employed, was chiefly the king of Afyria Nebuchadnezzar; and Pharaoh-Nechah, the king of Egypt, helped forward their defractions, 2 Kings xviii. 29—35. As readily as the shepherd’s dog obeyed the whistle, would their armies come up at God’s call, think as fearens of heat and fires, v. 18. resting in the desolate valleys like flights of locuits: not a green leaf should be left, so thoroughly would they devour the land, and climb every fortress, though feared on the craggy rocks, v. 19. As a sharp razor, passing from head to face, shaves off the hair, so should the king of Affyria make an entire conquest of Judea, receiving the spoil as his hire: or alluding to the present Ahaz sent him, to engage his assistance, 2 Kings xvi. 7—9, which in the end turned to his own damage, and brought upon him the continual inroads of the Affyrians, till the fatal captivity arrived. Note, (1.) When God will chastise a guilty nation, he will not want a scourge. (2.) It is just in God to make that creature the indictment of our vexation, we have made the object of our confidence, and to let men see thereby the misery as well as folly of changing a rock for a reed.

3. Terrible would be the consequence of these invasions: instead of lowing birds and grazing flocks, a man would think himself happy if he had one young cow, and two poor sheep remaining, v. 21. So desolate would every family be, and such plenty of pallure in the depopulated country, that this small flock of cattle would yield milk sufficient: butter and honey would be their only duty, for meat could not be allotted in the scarcity of beasts that remained, v. 22. and vineyards and tillage would be utterly neglected: the spot that paid a yearly rent of a thousand silverings (about the value of half a crown) for a thousand vines, so fruitful were they, now overgrown with brims and thorns, yielded no revenue, v. 23. Instead of gathering their vintage, men must now go armed to protect them from the wild beasts, or rubbers that lodged in those thickets, where fruitful vineyards grew, v. 24. and the hills and fields untitled, where once the rising harvest stood, now, no longer fenced with hedges of thorns, are laid quite open as a wild waste, where the cattle roamed without control, v. 25. How

terrible are the desulations which sin, and war, the effects of it, makes in the earth? What sinful nation need not tremble on beholding Judea’s wretched face, and read an alarming call to repentance in her overthrop?