The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 557

Jerusalem WA@ destroved, Rnd the people oontmsted with the "yenr" of hie reoom- led nway captive hy NebuchRdnezzar (Pa. 11enso, to show how infinite ia hie moroy, cxn:vii. 7; Obnd. 10-14; Le.in. iv. 21, 22; how short-lived, compa.rl\tively speaking, Ezek. xxxv. 10-13). In the present passage his anger. Mr. Oheyne well compares the we must regard the Edomites e.s representa- concluding clauses of the second com, t;ve of tlte enemies of God's people generally mRndmont, where "retribution is deolo.red (see the introductory para.graph). The to descend to the third and fourth genera- people of my onrse; ,".e. "the people on tion, but mercy to the thouso.ndtb." Beoom- whom I have litid a curse "-the Edomites. peneea for the oontroversy of Zion; rather, Esau W&S to "serve" Jacob (Gen. xxv. 23; for the tJilldication of Zion ; i.e. for the xxvii. 40), Edom to be " a possession" for mnintenanco of her right in the quarrel Judah (Nnmb. xxiv. 18). God had sMd of between her and her enemies. Edom, probltbly before Isa.iah uttered the Ver. 9.-And the streams thereof; i.e. present prophecy, "For three trnnsgre.ssions "the streRms of the land of Edom." Though of Edom, e.nd for four, I will not turn awny Edom he.a no perennio.l rivers,ithas numerous the pnnishmcnt thereof ... but I ,viii send torrent-courses to carry off the winter mins R fire upon Teman, which she.II devour the (sco 2 Kings iiL 20-22). These should palaces of Bozrah" (Amos i. 11, 12). Thus run with pitch, instead of water. The E<lom was under a curse. general idea is that Edom should be Ver. 6.-The sword of the Lord is filled; visited with a destruction like that of or, glutted (Lowtb). The tense is " the Sodom e.nd Gomorrah (Gen. xi.x. 24; comp. perfect of prophetic certainty." It is made Jer. xli.x. 18). But the prophet scarcely fat with fatness. " Fed, 88 it were, ou the intends his words to be taken literally; he fat of sacrifices" (see Lev. iii 3, 4, 9, 10, is me.king Edom a type or representation of 15; vii. 3, etc.). Lambs . . . goats .. , God's enemies, and the gist of his teaching rama. The lesser cattle represent the lower is that a dreadful vengeance, an utter classes of those nbout to be slain, while the destruction, will come upon all who set .. unicorns" and "bullocks" of ver. 7 repre- themselves np against the Most High. In sent the upper classes-the great men and the next verse he declares that the vengeance leaders. The Lord hath a se.crifioe in Bozrah. will be eternal (comp. eh. lxvi. 24). This Bozrah, one of the principal cities of Ver. 10.-None shall pBBS through it for ldumma, is to be distinguished Crom "Bozmh ever and ever. There was a literal fulfil- of Moab," which W88 known to the Romans ment of the prophecies age.inst Edom to a as "Bostrn." It lay in the hilly country considerable extent. l\Iala.chi, writing three to the south-east of the Dead Sea, about hundred years after Isaiah, says that the thirty-five miles north of Petra, e.nd was one "mountains and the heritage of Esau of the earliest settlements of the descendants were laid waste for the dragons of the of Esau, being mentioned o.s a well-known wilderness" (i. 3) ; and he makes the place in Genesis (mvi. 33). The threats Edomites themselves exole.im, "We are here uttered against it are repeated by impoverished, but we will return e.nd build Jeremiah (xliL 13), who says that" Bozrah the desolaui places" (L 4). A certain shall become a desolation, a reproach. a amount of recovery must have followed: waste, e.nd a curse ; all the cities thereof and in the Maccabee period Edom appears [i.e. the dependent cities] shall be perpetual once more 88 an adversary of Israel, and an wastes." Bozrah is probably identified with adversary of some importance (1 Maco. v. 3, the modern El-Bll,8aireh, a village of about 65). Gradually, however, she had to yield fifty housl'S, occupying a site in the position to the superior power of J ndma, 11nd we.s abo,•e indicated, amid rnins which seem to even ruled by viceroys, whom the Maccabee be thoae of a considerable city (Burckhardt, princes nominated. One of these, Antipater, ' Syria,' p. 407; Robinson, 'Reseo.rches in was the father of Herod the Great. From Palestine,' vol iL pp. 570, 571). his time Idumea languished until, in the Ver. 7.-The unioorns. Bishop Lowth seventh century after Christ, it was over~ renders reem by " wild goats ; " Mr. Cheyne run and conquered by the Mohammedan by"buffe.loes." Probably the wild ox, a native Arabs, who completed its ruin. H is now, of the tr.ms-Jordanic region, is intended and has been for above a thousand years, (see Mr. Houghton's pa.per on the animals one of the most desolate tracts upon the of the Assyrian bas-reliefs, in the 'Transac- earth's surface. tions of the Society of Bibi. Archmology,' Ver. 11.-The cormorant and the bittern vol. v. p. 336). Shall oome down; rather, shall possess it, Compare the prophecy if.all go down ; i.e. shall fall and perish against Babylon in eh. xiv. 23. The (comp. Jer. 1. 27). Hebrew word translated "cormorant," is Yer. 8.-The day of the Lord'• vengeance now generally regarded aa designating the (comp. eh. lx.i. 2 and I.xiii. 4)., In all three "pelican," while the one rendered "bittem" places the " day " of God s vengeance is is thought by some to mean "hedgehog", ClH, xxx1v. 1-17,) THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 561