The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 252

Ver. 18.-And forgettest the Lord thy Vere. 17-23.-AN ADDRESS OF THE Pao- lllaker. It is not so much apostasy as want PllET TO JERUSALEM. The comfort afforded of a lively and practical faith with which captive Israel is here reproached. They did to Israel generally is now concentrated on not deny God-they only left him out of J cruse.lem. Her condition during the long eight, negleoted him, forgot him. That bath period of the Captivity is deplored, and her st~~tohed f~rth the heavena(comp. eh. xl. 22; want of a champion to assert her cause and xlu. 5; xhv. 24; xlv. 12, etc.). And laid raise her out of the dust is lamented (vere. the foundations of the earth ( see eh. xl viiL 17-20). After this, an assurance is given 13; Ps. cii. 25 ; Heh. i. 10). And hast feared continually . . . because of the fury of the her that the miseries which she bas suffered oppressor. (On the sufferings of the Israelites sh11ll pass from her to her great enemy, by under their Babylonian oppressors, see the whom the dregs of the "cup of trembling" comment on eh. xlii. 22, and age.in on eh. shall be drained, and the last drop wrung xlvii. 6.) By the present passage it would out (vers. 21-23). appe11r that life itself was not safe from their cruel fury, when their victims he.d exns- Ver. 17.-Awake, a.wake (comp. ver. 9 pere.ted them. Where is the fury of the and eh. Iii. 1). Isaiah marks the breaks in oppressor 1 All their violence and rage will his ~rophecy, sometir.nes by a repetition of come to nought, when they in their tum termmal clauses, which have the eit'ect of a become subject to the conquering Persians. refrain (rh. v. 25; ix. 12, 17, 21; x. 4 • and Ver. 14.-The captive exile he.steneth that xl~ii!, _22; !vii. 21); sometimes by a repetition he may be loosed; rather, he that is bent of rn1tial clauses or a striking character (eh. v. 8, 11, 20; xiii. I; xv. I; xvii. I; xix. I; down hasteneth to be released ; i.e. such of the :u:i. 1, 11; xxii. 1; xxiii. 1; xxviii. 1; xxix. exiles as were cramped and bent by fetters, 1; xxx. 1; xxxi. I; xxxiii. 1; xlviii. I, 12, or by the stocks, would speedily, on the fall 16; 1. 4, 7, 9, l'tc.). Here we have thrice of Babylon, obtain their release. They over "Awnke, awnke"-not, however au would not "die unto the pit," i.e. so as to exact repetition in the Hebrew, but a ~car belong to the pit and to be cast into it, but would live and have a sufficiency of eus- approach to it-ea.eh summons forming the tennnce. commencement of e. new paragraph or sub- Ver. 15.-But I am the Lord thy God, that section. Which hast drunk at the hand of divided the sea; rather, for I, the Lord thy the Lord the cup of bis fury. The cup of God, am he that divided the sea (comp. ver. God's fury was poured out on Jerusalem 10). The reference is once more to the great when the city ...-as taken by Nebuchadnezzar, mi,a,·le wrought at the Exodus, when the the temple, the royal palace, and the houses Red Seo. was "divided" before the host or of the nobles burnt (2 Kings nv. 9), the Isrnelitcs (Exod. xiv. 21; comp. Ps. Jxxiv. walls broken down (2 Kings xxv. 10), and 13). Whose waves roared (see Exod. xiv. the bulk or the inhabito.nts carried away 27; XY. 10). captive to Bnbylon (2 Kings xxv. 11; comp. Ver. 16.-And I have put my words in thy 2 Chrou. xxxiv. 25; Jer. xiii. 18; xliv. 6; mouth. Some commentators detach this Ezek. xxii. 31, etc.). "The cup of God's verse nltoget?er from the preceding passage, fury" is an expression used by Jereminh and regard 1t as a fragment intruded here (xxv. 15). The dregs of the oup; rather, out of its proper place by some unaccountable perhnps, the goblet-cup (Cheyne), or the acci<lcnt. From the close resemble.nee of out-swollen cup. It is the fulness of the the expressions used to those in eh. xlix. 2, measure of Jerusalem's punishment, not its they consider that the person addressed must character, which is pointed 11t. be "the Servant of Jehovo.h," and hence Ver. 18.-None to guide her. From the conclude tlmt the verse'' originally stood in time that Johnnan, the son of Karenh, o.nd some other context" (Cheyne). It is how- the other "captains of the forces," q uitt0d evn, quite possible to regard Israel a~ still J udam nud. fled into Egypt, tnkin:; witl1 addressed; since Israel too was the recipient them Jerem10.h and Baruch (Jer. xiii i. 5-7), of God's words (see eh. lix. 21), and was there was no one left in the country with protected by God's hand from destrn<ltion any authority or any ability to direct nifairs. and kept in existence until the happy tim~ The _city, no do:nbt, suffered by this state should come when God would orente n new of thmgs, becommg more ruined 1111d more heaven nnd a new earth (eh, !xv. I 7) for desolate than it would have been otherwise. lsro.el's <lwelling-place, an,l say unto Zion- Had Johanan and the Jews under him re- i e. to the "new Jerusalem" (Rev. xxi. 2)- mained in the land, God had promised to Thou nrt my people. This crowning promise "build them, and not pull them down; " to well terminntes the comforting address where- "~)nut them, and not pluck them up" (Jor. with Jehovah at this time saw fit to obeer xln. 10). Thus Jerusalem's extreme desol1\- and encournge his captive people. tion was not wholly the result of the Baby-  262 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oH. LI. 1--11.