PROPHET ISAIAH
Verse 29. They are gone over the passage “They have passed the strait”—
The strait here mentioned is that of Michmas, a very narrow passage between two sharp hills or rocks, (see 1 Samuel 14:4, 5,) where a great army might have been opposed with advantage by a very inferior force.
The author of the Book of Judith might perhaps mean this pass, at least among others: “Charging them to keep the passages of the hill country, for by them there was an entrance into Judea; and it was easy to stop them
that would come up, because the passage was strait for two men at the most,” Judith 4:7. The enemies having passed the strait without
opposition, shows that all thoughts of making a stand in the open country were given up, and that their only resource was in the strength of the city.
Their lodging— The sense seems necessarily to require that we read wml lamo, to them, instead of wnl lanu, to us. These two words are in other places mistaken one for the other.
Thus chap. 44:7, for wml lamo, read wnl lanu, with the Chaldee; and in the same manner Psalm 64:6, with the Syriac, and Psalm 80:7, on the
authority of the Septuagint and Syriac, besides the necessity of the sense.
Verse 30. Cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anothoth “Hearken unto her, O Laish; answer her, O Anathoth!”— I follow in this the Syriac Version. The prophet plainly alludes to the name of the place, and with a peculiar propriety, if it had its name frown its remarkable echo. “twtn[
anathoth, responsiones: eadem ratio nominis, quae in tn[ tyb beith anath, locus echus; nam hodienum ejus rudera ostenduntur in valle, scil. in medio montium, ut referent Robertus in Itiner. p. 70, et Monconnysius, p.
301.” Simonis Onomasticon Vet. Test. — L. Anathoth-Answers, replies;
for the same reason that Bethany, tn[ tyb berth anath, had its name, the house of echo; the remains of which are still shown in the valley, i.e., among the mountains.
Verse 33. Shall lop the bough with terror— hrap purah; but hrwp purah, wine-press, is the reading of twenty-six of Kennicott’s and
twenty-three of De Rossi’s MSS., four ancient editions, with Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Chaldee.
Verse 34. Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one— rydab beaddir, the angel of the Lord, who smote them, Kimchi. And so Vitringa understandls it. Others translate, “The high cedars of Lebanon shall fall:” but the king of Assyria is the person who shall be overthrown.
CHAPTER 11
The Messiah represented as a slender twig shooting up from the root of an old withered stem, which temder plant, so extremely weak in its first appearance, should nevertheless become fruitful and mighty, 1-4. Great equity of the Messiah’s government, 5. Beautiful assemblages of images by which the great peace and happiness of his kingdom are set forth, 6-8.
The extent of his dominion shall be ultimately that of the whole
habitable globe, 9. The prophet, borrowing his imagery from the exodus from Egypt, predicts, with great majesty of language, the future
restoration of the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah, (viz., the whole of the twelve tribes of Israel,) from their several dispersions, and also that blessed period when both Jews and Gentiles shall assemble under the banner of Jesus, and zealously unite in extending the limits of his kingdom, 10-16.
NOTES ON CHAP. 11
The prophet had described the destruction of the Assyrian army under the image of a mighty forest, consisting of flourishing trees growing thick together, and of a great height; of Lebanon itself crowned with lofty cedars, but cut down and laid level with the ground by the axe wielded by the hand of some powerful and illustrious agent. In opposition to this image he represents the great Person who makes the subject of this chapter as a slender twig shooting out from the trunk of an old tree, cut down, lopped to the very root, and decayed; which tender plant, so weak in appearance, should nevertheless become fruitful and prosper. This contrast shows plainly the connection between this and the preceding chapter, which is moreover expressed by the connecting particle; and we have here a remarkable instance of that method so common with the prophets, and particularly with Isaiah, of taking occasion, from the
mention of some great temporal deliverance, to launch out into the display of the spiritual deliverance of God’s people by the Messiah; for that this prophecy relates to the Messiah we have the express authority of St. Paul,
Romans 15:12. ‘He joins this paragraph, with respect to the days of the Messiah, with the fidelity that was in the days of Hezekiah.”-Kimchi, in ver. 1. Thus in the latter part of Isaiah’s prophecies the subject of the great redemption, and of the glories of the Messiah’s kingdom, arises out of the restoration of Judah by the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, and is all along conected and intermixed with it.
Verse 4. With the rod of his mouth “By the blast of his mouth”— For