The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 239

eince hie time had boon unmentioned by any m~ldi appenr to have been !'rigin1tlly one or BRCl'<"O writer; nnd, RB II. limng nation, he.a the Tl)any tribes by whioh Dabylonio. W0,8 only just eome within the range of Israelite peopled at an early dCLte. From the ex• vision, by the f11.ct that, when Sargon de- pression, " Ur of the Clnildees," whioh ocoura ported the Samaritans from Se.maria., he more than once in Genesis (xi. 28, 31), we 1ilnced some of them "in the cities of the may gather that they were iulmbitnnts of Medes" (2 Kings xvii. 6). The Assyrians the more southern part of the ccuntry, near hod become n~quaiuted with them some• the const. The same conclusion may be what more than a century enrlier, and drawn from the Aesydan inscriptions, eepe, had made frequent inomsions into their cially those of Shalullllleser II.-the Bla.ok oouniry, finding them a weak and divided Obelisk king. The term never bocnme 11, people, under the government of a large general nnmo for the Babylonian people number of petty chiefs. Sargon had oon- e.mong themselves or among the Assyriitns; quered e. portion of the tribes, and placed but, somehow or other, it wo.s o.ccepted in prefects in the cities; nt the same time that sense by the Jews, and is so used, not vlanting colonists in them from -0ther parts only by Isaiah, but also by the. writers of or the empire. That, when the weakness of Kings and Chronicles, by Jeremie.l.J, Ezekiel, Media was being thns me.de applll"ent, Isaiah Da.uiel, e.nd Hnbakkuk. As when God over- should have foreseen its coming greatness threw Sodom. Eque.lly sudden and COJDplete can only be acc0unted for by his having re- ns that destruction. . ceived u Di.ine communication on the snb- Ver. 20.-It shall never be inhabited. Ject. Subsequently, he had a :still more This part of the prophecy did not receive exact and complete communication (eh. xxi. its fulfilment till mo.ny centuries had gone 2). Which aha.11 not regard silver. The by. From the time of Cyrus to that of Medes were not n particularly disinterested Alexander the Great, Be.bylon was one of people; but in the attack on Babylon, me.de the ohief cities of the Persian empire. by Cyrus, tl.Je object was not plunder, but Alexander was so struck with it, and with conquest and the ei:lension of dominion. the excellence of, its situation, that he de- The main treasures of Babylon-those in signed to make it his capital. It first bege,n thE great temple of Belns-were not carried seriously to decline under the Seleucidm, off by Cyrus, us appears both from his own who built Seleucia. on the Tigiis as a. rival inscriptions, e.nd from Herodotus (i. 181- to it, and still further injured it by fixing 183). the seat of government at Antioch. J3ut it had Ver. 18.-Their bows (comp. Jer. I. 9, still a large population in the first century 14). Both the Medes :i.nd the Persians were after our era (Josephus, 'Ant. Jud.; xviii Ekilled archers. Herodotus tells us that 9, § 8); and is mentioned as a. place of some <·very Persian youth was taught three things consequence in the time of Trajo.n (Dio -" to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the Cass., lxviii. 27), and even in that of Seve- truth" (i. 136). At Persep'llis, Medes and rns (Dio Cass., Inv. 9). · But after this it }>ersians are alike represented as carrying went rapidly to decay. • Under the So.s- bowf ,md quivers. lEsc.hylus regards the se.nians .it disappeo.rs from sight; and when contest between the Persians and tile Greeks Benjamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century, llf one between the arro.v and the spear visited the spot, there was nothing to be (' Persm,' 11135, 136). seen of t)le mighty city but those ruins of Ver. 19.-Babylon, the glory of kingdoms. the Kaer,. or palo.ce, which still arrest the 'fl:,e "glory" of Babylon consisted: 1. In traveller's attention. The site he.d become, 1,e1 antiquity. She hRd been the head of 11, and he.a ever since remained. "without in- great empire long before Assyria. l'OSe to habitant." Neither shall the Arabian pitoh power. ~- In her orib-ination of literature, tant there.· A superstitious feeling prevents urchiteeture, and the other arts, which all the Arabs from encamping on the mounds pnssed from her to Assyria., and thence to of Babylon, which are believed to be the the other nations of Asia.. 3. In her mag- haunts of evil spirits (Rich, 'First Memoi,r nificence a.nd the magnificence of her kings, on Babylon,' p. 67; Ker Porter, • 'fravels,' wl,ich provoked the admiration of the As- vol. H. p. 371). Neither shall the shepherds ~yrians themselves (' Records of the Pa,,t,' make their fold there. The nitrous soil of vol. ix. p. 15). .AB time went on, she grew tho Babylouian mounds allows them to pro• in wealth and splendour. Perhaps it was duce nothing but the coarsest and most granted to Iaaiah to see her in ecstatic vision, unpalatable vegetation. The shepherds 0011- not merely such as she was in the time of sequently do not feed their flocks on them. Sargon under Merodach-Baladan, I.Jut such Ver. 21.-Wild beasts of the desert shall o.e she became under Nebuchadnezzar, the lie there. It is not quite clear what par- gree.tellt of her kings, who raised ber to ticular wild beasts a.re intended. Thoss the highest pitch of glory and eminence. o.ctue.Jly noted on the site of Babylon o.re The beauty of the Chalcleee' eitoellenoy, The lions, jackals, e.nd porcupines. These some• CII, XIII, 1-22.] 'l'IIE BOOK OF 'l'HE l' fiOPHET ISAIAH. 231