The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 360

HOMILIES DY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-14.-Ju~ment upon Jerusalem. I. THE PROPHET AS. BPECTA,TQB. The valley of visiou seems t;i mean Jerusalem as a whole, round about which are mountains (Ps. ex.xv. 2); the city is spoken of, when compared with the surrounding mountains as the" inhabitant of the valley," otherwise as the" rock of the pfain" (Jer. xxi. 1_3 ~ comp. xvii. 3). If Isaiah is gazing from his house in the lower town, the city would appear as in a valley in relation to the mountafos inside as much as those outside (Delitzsch). He sees the whole population crowded together on the house-tops, and the air is filled with the uproar of merriment. The house-tops were places of resort at festival-time (Judg. u-i. 27; Neh. viii. 16). Il. THE MIBTH OF. DESP.AIB. It was famine and pestilence which, forcing the people into despair, had brought about this mad rebound of hollow merriment. 'l'he slain of the city had not been slain upon the field; but the crowding in of fugitives from the country had occasioned the plague. The description reminds us of Zephaniah's picture of Nineveh: "This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me " (ii. 15). And again we think of scenes in connection with the pl.a,,crues in the ItAlian cities of the Middle Ages, when revelry and story-telling are said to have gone on amongst groups who had withdrawn themselves from the horrors a.round them. How ,terrible the contrast between the dark . background, of calamity and this hollow feverish exhibition of merriment in the foreground I "l sa.id of laughter, What is it?" Let us thank God for the precious gift. of.humour. Its light, lambently playing upon the sternest and most awful scenes and imagery of the mind, was given to relieve the tragedy of life. In melancholy minds :the so1Jrce of humour is deeply seated. But how different the cheerfulness which. springs from the sense that the scheme of things js sound and right, that "God's in bis heaven, all'H right with the world," and that which confronts a hopeless future with mad defiance! There is somethlug lurid, ominous, in the latter, full of foreboding; and the scene in Jerusalem may be dwelt upon as typical of the ill-timed mirth of the sinner when danger is impending, soon to be quenched in sileuce and night. The rulers have fled away from the devoted city; in the face of the enemy they have flung down their.bowl! and yielded themselves prisoners. All is lost. Ill. THE FORECAST OF DOOM. L -The grief of the prophet, In warm patriotism he identifies himself with his city o.nd his people, and gives way to bitter tears; a proto~ type of Jesus in later days, looking 011 the doomed city, perhaps, from some similar point of view. We are reminded also of Jeremiah, whose heart" fainted" under a similar sense of the miseries of the people, and who exclaims, "Oh that my head were. full of waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might bewail the slain of my people I'r (iv. 31; u. 1). These are living examples of compassion, a11d of true. po.tri~tic feeling, including a true Chur&i feeling. ",ve are altogether unw9rtby of bemg reckoned in the number of the children of God, and added to the holy Ch11rch, if we do not dedicate ourselves and all that we have to the Church in such a manner that we are not separate from it in any respect. Especially the ministers of the Word ought '-', be 1D0vcd by this fe~ling of grief, because, being appointed to keep watch and to look 011. xxu. 1-26.J •~HE BOOK OF THE PROPH)J:'J' ISAlAH. 359