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the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from A. C. 713. a terrible land.

2 Agrievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous * Heb. hard. dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go

up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.

3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth : I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

4+My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night tor, My mind of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.

5 Prepare the table, watch in the watch-tower, eat, drink arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.

6 For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

7 And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:

8 And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:

wandered. + Heb. put.

Or, cried as Hab. ii. 1.

a lion.

e

|| Or, every night.

f Jer. li. 8.

9 And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, 'Babylon Rev. xiv. 8. & is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he xviii. 2. hath broken unto the ground.

10 O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that * Heb. son. which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

11 The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

12 The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.

13 The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim.

14 The inhabitants of the land of Tema + brought water +Or, bring ye. to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread

him that fled.

Or, for fear.

the face.

15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, m and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. 16 For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail :

17 And the residue of the number of || archers, the mighty | Heb. bour. men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the

LORD God of Israel hath spoken it.

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A. C. 713.

g 2 Kings

SECTION X.

First Invasion of Sennacherib.

2 CHRONICLES XXXII. VER. 1-9.

1 After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, xviii, 13, &c, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought win them for himself.

Is. xxxvi. 1, &c.

* Heb. to

break them up. + Heb. his face was to war.

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flowed.

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2 And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem,

3 He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city and they did help him.

4 So there was gathered much people together, who Heb. over stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?

5 Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo in the city of David, and Or, swords, made § darts and shields in abundance.

or, weapons.

6 And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the to their heart, city, and || spake comfortably to them, saying,

Il Heb. spake

7 Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him:

h Jer. xvii. 5. 8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the *Heb. leaned. people *rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

i 2 Chron.

xxxii. 1, &c.

Submission of Hezekiah, and Capture of Ashdod.

2 KINGS XVIII. VER. 13-17.

13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Is. xxxvi. 1, + Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.

&c. Ecclus.

xlviii. 18.

+ Heb. Sanhe rib.

14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me : that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

15 And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house.

SAIAH PREFIGURES THE CAPTIVITY OF EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

339

16 At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the A.C.713. doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave

*it to the Heb. them.

king of Assyria.

ISAIAH XX.

A type prefiguring the shameful captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia.

1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod 49, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;

handof Isaiah.

2 At the same time spake the LORD † by Isaiah the son + Heb. by the of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;

captivity of

4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians Heb. the prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked Egypt. and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the § shame of Egypt.

5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

(Heb. naked

ness.

6 And the inhabitant of this | isle shall say in that day, Or, country. Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to

be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?

Ashdod was long in the possession of the Philistines, and formed one of the five governments of that people. It was originally assigned by Joshua to the tribe of Judah, This town was so strongly fortified, that Psammetichus lay before it nine and twenty years, before he effected its reduction. It was afterwards retaken, and added to Judah by Uzziah, (2 Chron. xxvi, 6.), and its conquest was secured by Hezekiah's defeat of the Philistines, (2 Kings xviii. 8.) On this king's consenting to pay tribute to Sennacherib, (2 Kings xviii. 14), the latter marched against Egypt, to punish it for its alliance with Judah; and, the better to open his way into that country, he sent Tartan, one of his generals, (2 Kings xviii. 17.) before him, to take Ashdod, or Azotus. From the capture of this place, the prophet Isaiah dates the beginning of the war, which Sennacherib carried on against the Egyptians, and foretells their captivity and ruin; which was accomplished, according to the prediction, within the space of three years, (ver. 3.)-Prideaux's Connection, p. 31.

A. C. 713.

* Or, O Ariel, that is, the lion of God.

+ Or, of the city.

the heads.

SECTION XI.

Prophetic Appeal to Jerusalem, while Sennacherib's Army was in the Country.

ISAIAH XXIX 50.

1 God's heavy judgment upon Jerusalem. 7 The unsatiableness of her enemies. 9 The senselessness, 13 and deep hypocrisy of the Jews. 18 A promise of sanctification to the godly.

1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, + the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.

50 In the beginning of chap. xxix. the prophet is supposed to describe the Heb. cut off distress and anxiety that would exist during the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, and the miraculous destruction of the Assyrian army. He then proceeds to upbraid the Jews for their hypocrisy, disobedience, and stupidity, in not discerning the signs of the times; and in the two next chapters condemns the people and their king for relying on Egypt, and again predicts the calamities of that country. Bishop Horsley, however, asserts, in opposition to the most able commentators, Lowth, father and son, Lightfoot, Wells, Wogan, and Bishop Wilson, that the Jews did not at this time solicit the assistance of the Egyptians, and that there is nothing in the thirtieth chapter corresponding with the times of Hezekiah; he therefore applies it to the ruinous consequences that followed the alliance of the Jews with the Egyptians, in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. He further remarks, that this chapter ends with denunciations of judgment against the Jews, accompanied, as they always were, with promises of their conversion, and restoration to prosperity; and that it predicts the final vengeance that would be executed on the enemies of the true religion. Although many circumstances detailed in this chapter cannot be ascribed to Sennacherib's invasion, it must be remembered that the prophets often grounded their predictions on the passing events of the day; and that they were enabled by the Spirit of God to avail themselves of important occurrences to predict the fate of nations, and by looking, as it were, through the present, to foresee the future, and so to pass on from "things temporal to things spiritual." Bishop Horsley's opinion, therefore, that these chapters allude to a great contest between the church of God and the enemies of God, may be undoubtedly correct; yet it does not follow, that, because the prophet wished to direct the attention of the people to these sublimer subjects, he would not first endeavour to make an impression on them, by placing before them the circumstances of the time în which they lived; and, by so doing, gradually prepare their minds for the reception of more important and eternal truths. In conformity to the general opinion, I have supposed that this prophecy had its first and proximate completion, in the judgments executed on Sennacherib; and I have assumed, that Hezekiah applied to Egypt for help, when Sennacherib came up with a great army against the fenced cities of Judah, and took several of them, (2 Kings xviii. 13.); and have placed these chapters here, as they upbraid the Jews for

2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness A. C. 713. and sorrow and it shall be unto me as Ariel.

3 And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.

4 And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of Heb. peep, the dust.

5 Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.

6 Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.

7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night

vision.

8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.

9

or, chirp.

pleasure and

Stay yourselves, and wonder; † cry ye out, and cry: +Or, take your they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not riot. with strong drink.

10 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

+ Heb. heads.

11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is Or, letter. learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:

12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

their contempt of God's command, in placing their dependence upon Egypt. I have supposed that the twenty-ninth was uttered, with the other two, on Sennacherib's first attempt to attack Jerusalem, when the prophet foresaw and predicted his treachery, and destruction, with the great overthrow of his army. The Assyrian, being at this time the most powerful foe, and the terror of God's people, stands as the type of the irreligious faction leagued against the Church of Christ.-Lowth; Horsley, Bib. Crit. vol. ii. p. 271.

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