The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 354

the e,~ning (Shaw,' Travels,' p. 211; Char- vision of the fight. Bree.king down the din, • Yoya~ee en Perse,' vol. iv. p. 116; walls; rather, undermining. 'l'he Assyri11n Layard, 'Nineveh,' vol. i. p. 177, etc.). sculptures show numerous exe.mples of this Ver. 2.-A joyo11B oity (comp. ver. 13). practice. Sometimes swords or spears are Thy Blain men are not slain with the sword. used to dislodge the stones of the wnll, some• It ill B blockade rather th&n a siege. Men times orow-bars or axes (see ' Ancient die, not of wounds, but of privations (Lam. Monarchies,' vol. ii. p. 82), Crying. Some iv. 9). Scnnecberib himself says," Hezekiah, regard this word, and also that translated like a caged bird, within Jerusalem, hie "the walls" in the preceding ol11use, ns royal oity, I confined; towers round about proper names, and render the passage, " K.ir him I raised; &nd the exit of the great gate underminetb, and Shoe. is at the mount" of bis city I shut" (G. Smith, • Eponym (Ewald, Cheyne, Luzzatto). But it seems Canon,' p. 135, II. 15-18). unlikely that "Kir" would be mentioned Ver. 8.-All thy rulers are fled together; twice. rnther, all thy chief men. We must m&ke Ver. 6.-Elam bare the quiver. Elam, the allowance for Orient.al hyperbole. The country extending from the Zagroa range to meaning is that nnmbers of the principal the Lower Tigris, and watered by the men, regarding resistance as vain, had en- Choaspes, Euheus, Pasitigris, and other deavoured to make their escape from the rivers, was an independent kingdom from e. doomed town, but had been captured and very early date (Gen. xiv. l, 9), and in bound by the enemies' archers. All that are Isaiah's time was generally .hostile to found in thee; rather, belonging t,o thee. The Assyria. Sargon, however, relates that he rererenoe is to those who had made their conquered a portion of the country, planted escape and were fleeing far away. The colonies in it from the more western parts arohen; seize them, and bind them all t,ogether. of his empire, and pfoced both colonists and We often see a number of captives bound natives under the governor of Babylon(' Re- together by a single rope in the Egyptian cords of the Past,' vol. ix. p. 16). It is thus bas-reliefs. Which have fled from far; quite possible that both Sargon and Sen- rather, which tDereftying far away. nacherib may have had a contingent of Ver. 4.-Therefore said I. The prophet Elo.mites in their armies. With ohariots of turns from the description of the scene before men and horsemen ; rather, with troops of him to e.n e.coount of his own feelings. Look men (who were) horsemen (comp. eh. xx.i. 7). away from me, he says; "leave me froo to Xir unoovered the shield, " Kir " is men- vent my sorrow without restraint; I wish tioned in 2 Kings as the place to which for no consol.e.tion--only leave me to myself." Tiglath-Pileser transported the inhe.bitants Beoa11Be of the spoiling. The word used of Damascus (xvi 9), and by Amoa (ix. 7) sometimes means "destruction;" but" spoil- as the original country from which the ing " is a better rendering here. Sennacherib Syrians were derived. It has been recently describes his "spoiling" of Jerusalem on identined with Kirkhi, near Diarbekr, or with thifl occasion as follows: " Thirty talents of Kirruri, in the Urnmiyab country (Cheyne); gold, eight hundred talents of silver, precious but neither identification is more than pos- carbuncles, grent . . . stones. couches of sible. (On uncovering shields as a prelimi• ivory, lofty thrones of ivory, skins of buffa- nary to engaging in battle, see Cmsar, ' De loes, horns of buffaloes, weapons, everything, Bell. Gall.,' ii. 21.) a great treasure, and his daughters, the Ver. 7.-And it shall oome to pa.as, eto. eunuchs of his palace, male musicians, and This verse and the next are closely con- female musicia.DB, to Nineveh, the city of nected, and introduce the new subject of my dominion, did Hezekiah send after me" the preparations which the Jews made for (G. Smith, • Eponym Ca.non,' p. 135, 11. 29- their defence. Translate, And it came to 37). To what straits Hezekiah was reduced pas,, when thy clwicest valleys were full of in order to collect a sufficient amount of the chariotii (or, troops),and the horsemen had sei precious metals we learn from 2 Kings xviii. themselves in array f,oward the gate, that then 15, 16. did he draw off tlle covering of Judah, eto. Ver. 5.-It is a day . . . by the Lord; Ver. 8.-The oovering of Judah wBB that rather, tluire u a day to the Lord; or, the Lord which hid their weakness either from them- IUUl a day. God bas in reserve such a day; selves or from the enemy-probably the and it will assnredly anive in due course. former. God drew this u.side, nnd they Hence the prophet's grief. In the valley of suddenly saw their dauger, and began to vision. We may suppose that Hezekiah, think how they could best defend tliem- before he made the submission recorded in sel ves. Arms were the first things needed, 2 Kings xviii. 14 and in the• Cylinder of The armonr of the house of the forest. " The Sennacherib,' col. iv. ll. 28, 29, tried the house of the forest" was probably that por- chances of battle against the Assyrians in tion of the palace of Solomon which he had tide -valley, and that Isaiah had a prophetic called " the house of the foreet of Lebanon" OH, llll, 1-26.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 353