The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 116

the greo.t o.nd o.wful day. The event directly Ver. 16.-I will bring the blind by a way in vibW is the destruction of the Babylonian that they knew not. " The blind" here can power by the irresistible o.rms of Cyrus. only be captive Israd, still dim-sighted from Hence the allusion to idolo.ters o.ncl imo.ges thP effect of its old sins against light, and in ver.17. As o. mighty man ... like a man therefore greatly nee,ling God's guidance. of war. (For similo.r o.nthropomorphisms, God promises to "bring them" out of cap- see Exod. xv. 3; Pa. xxiv. 8.) He shall stir tivity" by a wa.y not hitherto known to them" np jee.louey; i.e. his own jeo.lousy. God is -the wa.y of volunt:iry release by the favour "a jeo.lous God " (Exod. xx. 5), so much of a new king (s,:e Llie comment on ver. 9). so tho.t his very" no.me is Jee.Ions" (Exod. I will make darkness light before them ; xxxi v. 14). He is jeo.lous for hie own honour either, I will illuminate with rays of light (supra, ver. 8), and jealous also for his and hope the dark and cheerless life that they people's honour and reputation o.nd ho.ppi- have been leading (Delitzsch), or, I will throw ness. Occasionally he allows his jealousy to light upon that !lark future which has hitherto slumber (comp. Acts xii. 30, "'fhe times stretched before tl,em, and all01D them to pene- of this ignorance God winked at"); and trate its obscurity, and see what is about to this he had now done for some fifty or sixty happen. Crooked things; rather, rough years, since his people were ca1Tied into pl,aces; i.e. difficulties of any and every captivity. But the time of acquiescence kind. Straight; rather, BmOOth, level, plain. has gone by-he is about to waken up his These things will I do unto them, and not "smonldering jealousy, and stir it, till it forsake them. Dr. Kay translates, "These bnrns up into a bright flame" (Delitzsch). things have I done, and have not forsake,, He shall cry, yea, roar; rather, yea, shout; i.e. them;'' Mr. Cheyne, " These a.re the things utter his battle-cry with a clear, loud voice. that I will do, and will not let them slip;" Ver. 14.-I have long time holden my Delitzsch, "These are the things that I peaoe j literally, for an eternity. God's love carry out and do not leave." AccorJing to for hie people is forcibly expressed by his the two latter renderings, the do.use is a saying tho.t he ho.a felt it "an eternity"- mere solemn confirmation of the previou~ though it was but some five or six decades- promises. while he was waiting for his chastisement to Ver. 17.-They shall be turned back, etc. have such due effect as would allow of his While the people of God a.re led by God's bringing it to an end, and showing them ho.nd through new po.the, and are illumined mercy. He has chafed, as it were, under with abundant light, and have their diffi- the necessity of ino.ction. and has with diffi- culties smoothed away from before them, culty refrained himself. Now ho will refrain their idolatrous oppressors will be " turned no longer. A trava.iling woman. A woman ho.ck" or suffer defeat, and be put to silo.me, in her travail, after long endurance, at last finding no help from their idols, whose gives free vent to her natural feelings, and powerlessness will be openly shown, to the utters loud cries ( compare the preceding utter confusion of their votaries. verre). I will destroy and devour at one a Vers. 18 - 25. -ADDRESS TO C.ll'TITE (so Gesenius, Kay, and the ancient versions). IsnA.EL, CAI.LING UPON THEll TO TUB..'f TO But the bulk of modern commentators render, "I will pant and gasp," e.s does a travailing Gon, AND llfilllNDL'IG THEll THAT THEY woman. HAVE DESERVED THEIR AFFLICTIONS. By Ver. 15.-I will make waste mountains some c-ritics the enrlier verses of this and hills. The result of God's "stirring up pas~nge (vers. 19-21) n.re regarded ns his j~o.lousy," o.nd giving a free vent to his hn.ving refvrence to the "Servo.nt of the feelings, will be the destruction of the great Lord" depicted in vers. 1-7, o.rnl o.s call- and mighty ones of the earth ( comp. eh. ii. H). These are probably, in this place, the ing on the co.pli\"e Jews to consider his Do.bylonian king~ and nobles. Dry up all volun(nry humiliation, o.nd the object of it their herbs ; i.e. turn Babylonia., temporarily, But this view seems to be stmiuetl. It re- into a desert. Make the rivers islands, and quires " dcnf" nnd " blind" to be t,ikcn in dry np the pools. Invert the esto.blished completely different senses in the two con- order of things-turn the rivers into dry land, and empty the reservoirs. There is, secutive verses, 18 o.nd 19. Probnbly Da- pnhaps, some o.llnsion to those dealings with litzsch and Mr. Cheyne are right iu taking the river-beds, which tho Greek historians the whole po.ssage of captive Isrn.el, nnd ascribe to Cyrus (Herod., i. 189, 191; Xen., espccin\ly of tl111t "outer circle" which • Cyrop.,' ,·ii. 5, § I O), and which a.re 1_1ot wo.s lcnst <lcserviug of God's fornur o.ncl disproved by tho fact that tho one native account of the capture of Bo.by Ion by Cyrus, most open to rebuke nncl reproach. Theso which has come down to us, makes no men- "blind" o.nd "deo.f" ones a.re warned that tion of them. it is high time for them to unolose their eyca  120 'l'IIE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. (oll. xtu. 1....... 25,