PROPHET ISAIAH
Verse 29. For they shall be ashamed “For ye shall be ashamed”—
wçwbt teboshu, in the second person, Vulgate, Chaldee, three MSS., one of my own, ancient, and one edition; and in agreement with the rest of the sentence.
Verse 30. Whose leaf “Whose leaves”— Twenty-six of Kennicott’s, twenty-four of De Rossi’s, one ancient, of my own, and seven editions, read hyla aleyha, in its full and regular form. This is worth remarking, as it accounts for a great number of anomalies of the like kind, which want only the same authority to rectify them.
As a garden that hath no water “A garden wherein is no water.”— In the hotter parts of the Eastern countries, a constant supply of water is so absolutely necessary for the cultivation and even for the preservation and
existence of a garden, that should it want water but for a few days, every thing in it would be burnt up with the heat, and totally destroyed. There is therefore no garden whatever in those countries but what has such a certain supply, either from some neighboring river, or from a reservoir of water collected from springs, or filled with rain water in the proper season, in sufficient quantity to afford ample provision for the rest of the year.
Moses, having described the habitation of man newly created as a garden planted with every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, adds, as a circumstance necessary to complete the idea of a garden, that it was well supplied with water, “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden;”
Genesis 2:10: see also 13:10.
That the reader may have a clear notion of this matter, it will be necessary to give some account of the management of their gardens in this respect.
“Damascus,” says Maundrell, p. 122, “is encompassed with gardens, extending no less, recording to common estimation, than thirty miles round; which makes it look like a city in a vast wood. The gardens are thick set with fruit trees of all kinds, kept fresh and verdant by the waters of the Barrady, (the Chrysorrhoas of the ancients,) which supply both the gardens and city in great abundance. This river, as soon as it issues out from between the cleft of the mountain before mentioned into the plain, is immediately divided into three streams; of which the middlemost and biggest runs directly to Damascus, and is distributed to all the cisterns and fountains of the city. The other two (which I take to be the work of art) are drawn round, one to the right hand, and the other to the left, on the borders of the gardens, into which they are let as they pass, by little currents, and so dispersed all over the vast wood, insomuch that there is not a garden but has a fine quick stream running through it. The Barrady is almost wholly drunk up by the city and gardens. What small part of it escapes is united, as I was informed, in one channel again on the southeast side of the city; and, after about three or four hours’ course finally loses itself in a bog there, without ever arriving at the sea.” This was likewise the case in former times, as Strabo, lib. xvi., Pliny, lib. 5:18, testify; who say, “that this river was expended in canals, and drunk up by watering the place.”
“The best sight,” says the same Maundrell, p. 39, “that the palace of the emir of Beroot, anciently Berytus, affords, and the worthiest to be remembered, is the orange garden. It contains a large quadrangular plat of ground, divided into sixteen lesser squares, four in a row, with walks between them. The walks are shaded with orange trees of a large spreading size. Every one of these sixteen lesser squares in the garden was bordered with stone; and in the stone work were troughs, very artificially contrived, for conveying the water all over the garden; there being little outlets cut at every tree for the stream as it passed by to flow out and water it.” The royal gardens at Ispahan are watered just in the same manner, according to Kempfer’s description, Amoen. Exot., p. 193.
This gives us a clear idea of the µym yglp palgey mayim, mentioned in the first Psalm, and other places of Scripture, “the divisions of waiters,”
the waters distributed in artificial canals; for so the phrase properly signifies. The prophet Jeremith, chap. 17:8, has imitated, and elegantly amplified, the passage of the psalmist above referred to:—
“He shall be like a tree planted by the water side, And which sendeth forth her roots to the aqueduct.
She shall not fear, when the heat cometh;
But her leaf shall be green;
And in the year of drought she shall not be anxious, Neither shall she cease from bearing fruit.”
From this image the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 24:30, 31, has most beautifully illustrated the influence and the increase of religious wisdom in a well prepared heart.
“I also come forth as a canal from a river, And as a conduit flowing into a paradise.
I said, I will water my garden,
And I will abundantly moisten my border:
And, lo! my canal became a river, And my river became a sea.”
This gives us the true meaning of the following elegant proverb, Proverbs 21:1:—
“The heart of the king is like the canals of waters in the hand of JEHOVAH; Whithersoever it pleaseth him, he inclineth it.”
The direction of it is in the hand of JEHOVAH, as the distribution of the water of the reservoir through the garden by different canals is at the will of the gardener.
“Et, cum exustus ager morientibus aestuat herbis, Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam
Elicit: illa cadens raucum per levia murmur Saxa ciet, scatebrisque arentia temperat arva.”
Virg., Georg. 1:107.
“Then, when the fiery suns too fiercely play, And shrivelled herbs on withering stems decay, The wary ploughman on the mountain’s brow Undams his watery stores; huge torrents flow;
And, rattling down the rocks, large moisture yield, Tempering the thirsty fever of the field.”
DRYDEN.
Solomon, Ecclesiastes 2:1, 6, mentions his own works of this kind:—
“I made me gardens, and paradises;
And I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.
I made me pools of water,
To water with them the grove flourishing with trees.”
Maundrell, p. 88, has given a description of the remains, as they are said to be, of these very pools made by Solomon, for the reception and
preservation of the waters of a spring, rising at a little distance from them;
which will give us a perfect notion of the contrivance and design of such
reservoirs. “As for the pools, they are three in number, lying in a row above each other; being so disposed that the waters of the uppermost may descend into the second, and those of the second into the third. Their figure is quadrangular, the breadth is the same in all, amounting to about ninety paces. In their length there is some difference between them; the first being about one hundred and sixty paces long, the second, two hundred, and the third, two hundred and twenty. They are all lined with wall and plastered; and contain a great depth of water.”
The immense works which were made by the ancient kings of Egypt for recovering the waters of the Nile, when it overflowed, for such uses, are well known. But there never was a more stupendous work of this kind than the reservoir of Saba, or Merab, in Arabia Felix. According to the tradition of the country, it was the work of Balkis, that queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. It was a vast lake formed by the collection of the waters of a torrent in a valley, where, at a narrow pass between two mountains, a very high mole or dam was built. The water of the lake so formed had near twenty fathoms depth; and there were three sluices at different heights, by which, at whatever height the lake stood, the plain below might be watered. By conduits and canals from these sluices the water was constantly distributed in due proportion to the several lands; so that the whole country for many miles became a perfect paradise. The city of Saba, or Merab, was situated immediately below the great dam; a great flood came, and raised the lake above its usual height; the dam gave way in the middle of the night; the waters burst forth at once, and overwhelmed the whole city, with the neighboring towns and people. The remains of eight tribes were forced to abandon their dwellings, and the beautiful valley became a morass and a desert. This fatal catastrophe happened long before the time of Mohammed, who mentions it in the Koran, chap. 34: ver. 15.
See also Sale, Prelim. s. 1:p. 10, and Michaelis, Quest. aux Voyag. Daniel No. 94. Niebuhr, Descrip. de l’Arabie. p. 240. — L.
CHAPTER 2
Prophecy concerning the kingdom of the Messiah, and the conversion of the Gentile world, 1-5. Great wickedness and idolatry of the unbelieving Jews, 6-9. Terrible consternation that will seize the wicked, who shall in vain seek for rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of God in the day of his judgments, 10-17. Total destruction of idolatry in
consequence of the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom, 18-21. An exhortation to put no confidence in man, 22.
The prophecy contained in the second, third, and fourth chapters, makes one continued discourse. The first five verses of chap. 2:foretell the kingdom of Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and their admission into it. From the sixth verse to the end of the second chapter is foretold the punishment of the unbelieving Jews for their idolatrous practices, their confidence in their own strength, and distrust of God’s protection; and moreover the destruction of idolatry, in consequence of the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom. The whole of the third chapter, with the first verse of the fourth, is a prophecy of the calamities of the Babylonian invasion and captivity; with a particular amplification of the distress of the proud and luxurious daughters of Sion; chap. 4:2-6 promises to the remnant, which shall have escaped this severe purgation, a future restoration to the favor and protection of God.
This prophecy was probably delivered in the time of Jotham, or perhaps in that of Uzziah, as Isaiah is said to have prophesied in his reign; to which time not any of his prophecies is so applicable as that of these chapters. The seventh verse of the second, and the latter part of the third chapter, plainly point out times in which riches abounded, and luxury and delicacy prevailed. Plenty of silver and gold could only arise from their commerce; particularly from that part of it which was carried on by the Red Sea. This circumstance seems to confine the prophecy within the limits above mentioned, while the port of Elath was in their hands; it was lost under Ahaz, and never recovered.
NOTES ON CHAP. 2
Verse 2. In the last days “In the latter days”— “Wherever the latter times are mentioned in Scripture, the days of the Messiah are always meant,”
says Kimchi on this place: and, in regard to this place, nothing can be more clear and certain. And the mountain of the Lord’s house, says the same author, is Mount Moriah, on which the temple was built. The prophet Micah, chap. 4:1-4, has repeated this prophecy of the establishment of the kingdom of Christ, and of its progress to universality and perfection, in the same words, with little and hardly any material variation: for as he did not begin to prophesy till Jotham’s time, and this seems to be one of the first of Isaiah’s prophecies, I suppose Micah to have taken it from hence.
The variations, as I said, are of no great importance. Ver. 2. awh hu, after açnw venissa, a word of some emphasis, may be supplied from Micah, if dropped in Isaiah. An ancient MS. has it here in the margin. It has in like manner been lost in chap. 53:4, (see note on the place,) and in Psalm 22:29, where it is supplied by the Syriac, and Septuagint. Instead of µywgh lk col haggoyim, all the nations, Micah has only µym[ ammim, peoples; where the Syriac has µym[ lk col ammim, all peoples, as probably it ought to be. Ver. 3. For the second la el, read law veel, seventeen MSS., one of my own, ancient, two editions, the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, Chaldee, and so Micah, 4:2. Ver. 4. Micah adds qjr d[
ad rachok, afar off, which the Syriac also reads in this parallel place of Isaiah. It is also to be observed that Micah has improved the passage by adding a verse, or sentence, for imagery and expression worthy even of the elegance of Isaiah:—
“And they shall sit every man under his vine,
And under his fig tree, and none shall affright them:
For the mouth of JEHOVAH, God of hosts, hath spoken it.”
The description of well established peace, by the image of “beating their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,” is very poetical. The Roman poets have employed the same image, Martial, 14:34.
“Falx ex ense.”
“Pax me certa ducis placidos curvavit in usus:
Agricolae nunc sum; militis ante fui.”
“Sweet peace has transformed me. I was once the property of the soldier, and am now the property of the husbandman.”
The prophet Joel, chap. 3:10, hath reversed it, and applied it to war prevailing over peace:—
“Beat your ploughshares into swords, And your pruning-hooks into spears.”
And so likewise the Roman poets:—
— Non ullus aratro
Dignus honos: squalent abductis arva colonis, Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
Virg., Georg. 1:506.
“Agriculture has now no honor: the husbandmen being taken away to the wars, the fields are overgrown with weeds, and the crooked sickles are straightened into swords.”
Bella diu tenuere viros: erat aptior ensis Vomere: cedebat taurus arator equo
Sarcula cessabant; versique in pila ligones;
Factaque de rastri pondere cassis erat.
Ovid, Fast. 1:697.
“War has lasted long, and the sword is preferred to the plough. The bull has given place to the war-horse; the weeding-hooks to pikes; and the harrow-pins have been manufactured into helmets.”
The prophet Ezekiel, chap. 17:22-24, has presignified the same great event
with equal clearness, though in a more abstruse form, in an allegory; from an image, suggested by the former part of the prophecy, happily
introduced, and well pursued:—
“Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH:
I myself will take from the shoot of the lofty cedar,
Even a tender scion from the top of his scions will I pluck off:
And I myself will plant it on a mountain high and eminent.
On the lofty mountain of Israel will I plant it;
And it shall exalt its branch, and bring forth fruit, And it shall become a majestic cedar:
And under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing;
In the shadow of its branches shall they dwell:
And all the trees of the field shall know,
That I JEHOVAH have brought low the high tree;
Have exalted the low tree;
Have dried up the green tree;
And have made the dry tree to flourish:
I JEHOVAH have spoken it, and will do it.”
The word yttnw venathatti, in this passage, ver. 22, as the sentence now stands, appears incapable of being reduced to any proper construction or sense. None of the ancient versions acknowledge it, except Theodotion, and the Vulgate; and all but the latter vary very much from the present reading of this clause. Houbigant’s correction of the passage, by reading instead of yttnw venathatti, tqnwyw veyoneketh, and a tender scion which is not very unlike it, perhaps better qnwyw veyonek, with which the
adjective ˚r rach will agree without alteration-is ingenious and probable;
and I have adopted it in the above translation. — L.
Verse 3. To the house— The conjunction w vau is added by nineteen of Kennicott’s, thirteen of De Rossi’s MSS., one of my own, and two
editions, the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Arabic, and some copies of the Targum; AND to the house. It makes the sentence more emphatic.
He will teach us of his ways— Unless God grant a revelation of his will, what can we know?
We will walk in his paths— Unless we purpose to walk in the light, of what use can that light be to us?
For out of Zion shall go forth the law— In the house of God, and in his ordinances only can we expect to hear the pure doctrines of revelation preached. 1. God alone can give a revelation of his own will. 2. We must use the proper means in order to know this will. 3. We should know it in order to do it. 4. We should do it in order to profit by it. 5. He who will not walk in the light when God vouchsafes it, shall be shut up in
everlasting darkness. 6. Every man should help his neighbor to attain that light, life, and felicity: “Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.”
Verse 4. Neither shall they learn war any more.— If wars are necessary,