The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 539

the Xing in hi1 beauty, The Meeeianio should not take eft'ect. 1'ot one of tha King. whoever he might be, and whenever stakes thereof she.U ever be temo"fed. Br, he might me.ke his e.ppearance. It has " t.he stnkes" aro meant " the tent-pegs, • been said that hee.uty is not predioated of to which the ropes are fnstened which keep the heavenly King (Cheyne); but Zech. the tent firm (comp. Exod, xxvii. 10 : ix. 17; Ps. xiv. 2; anrl Canticles, pa.8Bim, xll.xviii. 18, 31; Judg, iv. 21). Tho promise contradict this assertion. "How great is that they shall O never" be removed must his beauty;" " Thou art fairer than the be umlerstood either 1\8 condition&! on the children of men ; " "His mouth is most people's walking up1ightly (ver. 15), or as sweet; yen., he is altogether lovely." The a promise of a long continuance merely.. l&nd th&t is very far oft'; literally, the land Ver. 21.-But there the glorious Lord of far distances. Bishop Lowth renders, will he unto ns a Pl&oe of broad rivers ;- "Thiue own land far extcndc,d," and so rather, there in majesty the Lord iB ours; Delitzsch an,l l\lr. Cheyne. But if "the [fl1e Lord to/10 is] a Pl,ace of broad rivers, etc. King" is l\Iessianio, so doubtless is "the Some critics think that "a place of broad land "-the world-wide tract over which rivers" may be exegetical of sham, " there," Messiah will reign (Rev. xxi. 1). and so apply it to Jerusulem ;· but -the Ver. 18.-Thine hea.rt shall meditate majority regard the phrase as applied terror; i.e. "thou she.It look back upon directly to Jehovah. As . he is "'a Pl,a,cei the past time of terror, the dreadful period to hide in" (Ps. xxxii. 7: oxix. 114), so of the siege, a.nd oontr&St it with thy present he may be "a Place of broad rivers," full, happiness." Mr. Cheyne quotes &S .an i.e. of refreshment and spiritual blessing. illustration, appositely enough, Virgil's Wherein shall go no galley, The river of "Et ham olim meminisse juvabit." Where God's grace, which "makes glad the city is the scribe 1 ... the receiver 1 . . . he that of God," shall bear no enemy on its surface, ooUILted the towers 1 Where now are the allow no invader to cross it. Assyrian officials-the scribe, who regis- Ver. 23.-Thy taoklings are loosed. The tered the amount of the tribute and booty comparing of God to a river has led to the (' Ancient Monarchies,' voL i. p. 476); the representation of Judah's· enemies as war~ receiver, who weighed the gold and silver ships (ver. 21). This causes Judah herself. carefully in a balance (Le.yard, 'Nineveh to be viewed as ·o. ship-n badly appointed and its Remains,' voL ii. p. 377); and the ship, which has to contend with one .whose engineer officer who surveyed the place to equipment is perfect. The prophet's be besieged, estimated its strength, and thoughts have travelled back to the exist-. O(lllnted its towers? All have perished or ing sto.te of things. They oonld not well have :fled away in dismay. strengthen their mast; rather, they cannot Ver. 19.-Thou &halt not see a fl.eroe hold firm the loweT part of their mast. The people, etc.; rather, thou shalt see no more mast had its loWt·r extremity insertecl into tJ,at barbarous people-the Assyrians-a a hole in a cross-beam, aud required to be people gruff of spe~h tl,at thou canst not kept in place by the ropes. If they were hear fl,em, stammering of tongue that thou loose, it might slip out of the hole nml fa..U eanst not understand them (comp. eh. x.xviii. overboard. They could not spread the sail ; 11). The generation which witnessed the rather, they cannot spread the ensign. . The destruction of Sennacherib's army probably ensign would seem to have been a.ttached did not see the Assyrians again. It was to the top of the mast. . If the i:nast fell, not till about 11.c. 670 that Manasseh was it would no longer be spree.cl out, so as to "taken with hooks by the captains of the be seen. Then is the prey of a great spoil King of .Assyria, and carried to :Babylon" divided, The word "then" is emphatic. (2 Chron. x.u.iii. 11). Now tho disabled ship seems inco.pable of Ver. 20.-Look upon Zion, etc.; i.e. tum coping with itB enemy. Then (after Assyria's thy thoqghts, 0 Judah, from the past to overthrow) Juda.h will obtain an immenso the pr~ent--from the time of the siege to spoil (see ver. 4). Eveu the lame shall the time after the siege terminated. The have their portion. l!ity of our 1olemnitie1; or, of our feataZ Ver. 24.-And the inhabitant shall not meetings; the city where we celebrate our say, I am Biok. There shall be no sickness Passovers, our Fea:1ts of Weeks, our Feasts in the restored Jerusalem - at least, no of Ingathering, and the like. A tent that "sickness unto death." The •people that sh&ll not be taken.down. There is, perhaps, dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniq"tli.ty, a reference to Sennacherib's threat to remove Once more the prophet iloata olf 4lto the entire population from Jerusalem to a MeSBianic anticipatioDS. far countr, (eh. uxvi. 19), This threai OH, xixilr. 1-24.,) THE BOOK OF '£HE PROPHE'f ISAIAH. 643