The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 358

time the siege bad begun, The enemy was investing the place (ver, 7), But his teal"II flowed on account of the future "spoiling" of his people on that "day of trouble and treading down and perplexity;" when there was to be " breaking down of walls and crying to the mountains" (ver. 5), and Elam was to "bear the quiver," and Kir to "uncover the shield." Jesus wept because the days were coming upon Jerusalem, when " her enemies would ClLSt a trench about her, and compass her round, and keep her in on every side," and at last "lay her even with the ground, and her children within her" (Luke xix. 43, 44). In the one case Rome was the enemy, in the other ABSyria, both equally truculent. In the one case final destruction impeuded; in the other a punishment far short of final destruction, but still a very severe punishment. In both cases grievous sins had provoked the catastrophe, yet the thought of these did not prevent the t.ears from being shed on account of it. Il. BoTH DERIVED THEIR BITTERNESS FROM THE FAOT THAT TilE SUFFERER WAS OF KIN TO THE MOUR1''"ER. "I will weep," sa.id Isaiah, "because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people." The woes of other peoples shocked and distressed him to some extent (eh. xv. 5; xri. 9-11; xxi. 3, 4); but not as those of his own nation, his "kinsmen according to the flesh." And so it was with Jesus. Patriotism moved the spirits of both mourners, and rendered their grief especially poignant. Ill. BoTH WERE AGGRAVATED BY THE THOUGHT '111AT THE BUFFERING WAB UNEX• PECTED. Isaiah tells us that at Sennacherib's siege no preparations had been made t.o resist the foe, until the choice valleys were ful! of troops, and the horsemen set in array at the gates (vers. 7-10). Our Lord gives it as the climax of the horrors at the siege by Titus, that Jerusalem had not "known the day or her visitation" (Luke xix. 44). Jerusalem was at the time expecting the Messiah, who would enable them t.o cast off the Roman yoke. She did not know that her Messiah had come. Just ,,.hen she was looking for a glorious deliverance, there came a crushing disaster. So Hezekiah was probably looking for vict.ory by the help of Egypt, when he had t.o make the most abject submission-to strip the temple in order to satisfy the cravings or the conqueror for "spoil," and to see a large pa.rt of his people carried into captivity (G. Smith, 'Eponym Canon,' p. 134). Vers. 15--24.-Shebna and EUakim: a moral less011. It is a remark of Bishop Butler's, that the moral government of God, though it may be very imperfectly carried out, is at any rate begua, in this world. Many virtues have natural rewards, and many vices na.tnral punishments, attached t.o them. Again, though undoubtedly the righteous do suffer a large share of affliction, and the ungodly a.re often seen in great prosperity, yet, on the other hand, very signal instances from time to time manifest themseh-es, of the punishment of the wicked in this life by a grievous downfall, aud the reward of the righteous by an exaltation to worldly greatness and honour. The most signal instance presented to us in Scripture of the double Nemesis is that of Haman a.nd Mordecai in the Book of Esther. In that most striking tale, the whole history of the two men is set before t111, and the rise of the one and fa.11 of the other are inter- connected in a way that lends peooia.r interest to the narrative. Here we have simply a moral contrast, leading to a contrast of result. I . .A. MORAL CONTRAST. 1. Shebna, selfish, isolated, vain-glorious; noted for his display of cha.riots, like .A.bsalom (2 Sam. xv. 1); no "father" t.o the people under his charge; no good adviser of the king his master; chiefly desirous of handing his name down to posterity by a magnificent t.omb; perhapij not even a worshipper ol Jehovah. 2. Elia.kim, God's "servant;" kind and thoughtful for others; regarded al "a father," not only by the people of Jerusalem, but by the entire "house" or tribe of Judah; looked up to by a large body of relations, of whom many were poor and of low rank, and willingly sharing his prosperity with them; an honest and prudent counsellor to his king; a faithful worshipper of the One God, whose unity his name proclaimed. No two dwellers at the same court, no two servants of the same king, could well be more different in character, in circumstances, in moral desert. II. A CONTRA.BT OF RESULT. 1. Shebna, degraded from his office, is forced for a time to serve in one of very inferior dignity. Then he is either further degraded or ~o dissatisfiecl. with his position that he cannot bear to retain it. He becomes a refugee 1n • distant land, a.n exile, an outcast. 2, Elia.kim, advanced into Shebna's place, has the on. xx.11. 1-25,] TllE BOOK OF THE PROPHiT lSAIAtI. 357