eth from the desert, from a terrible land.

a wilderness, or to a comparatively barren and uncultivated country-a place for flocks and herds (Ps. lxv. 13. Jer. ix. 9, &c.); to an actual waste, a sandy desert (Isa. xxxii. 15, xxxv. 1); and particularly to the deserts of Arabia, Gen. xiv. 6, xvi. 7, Deut. xi. 24. It may here be applied to Babylon either historically, as having been once an unreclaimed desert; or by anticipation as descriptive of what it would be after it should be destroyed by Cyrus, or possibly both these ideas may have been combined. That it was once a desert before it was reclaimed by Semiramis is the testimony of all history; that it is now a vast waste is the united testimony of all travellers. There is every reason to think that a large part of the country about Babylon was formerly overflowed with water before it was reclaimed by dykes; and as it was naturally a waste, when the artificial dykes and dams should be removed, it would again be a desert. Of the There has been also much difference of opinion in regard to this word. But there can be no doubt that it refers to the Euphrates, and to the extensive region of marsh that was covered by its waters. The name sea,

sea.

, is not unfrequently given to a large river, to the Nile, and to the Euphrates. See Note ch. xi. 15. Comp. ch. xix. 5. Herodotus i. 184, says, that "Semiramis confined the Euphrates within its channel by raising great dams against it; for before, it overflowed the whole country like a sea." And Abydenus in Eusebius (Prepara. Evang. B. ix. p. 457) says, respecting the building of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, that "it is reported that all this was covered with water, and was called a sea-λέγεται δὲ πάντα μεν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὕδωρ εἶναι, θαλασσων καλουμένην.” Comp. Strabo Geog. B. xvi. § 9, 10, and Arrianus de Expedit. Alexandri, L. vii. c. xxi. Cyrus removed these dykes, re-opened the canals, and the

2 A grievous vision is de clared unto me; the treacherous

4 hard.

waters were suffered to remain, and
again converted the whole country into
a vast marsh. See Notes on ch. xiii.,
xiv.
As whirlwinds. That is, the
army comes with the rapidity of a
whirlwind. In ch. viii. 8 (comp. Hab.
i. 11) an army is compared to an over-
flowing and rapid river. ¶ In the
south. Whirlwinds or tempests are
often in the Scriptures represented as
coming from the south. Zech. ix. 14.
Job xxxvii. 9:

Out of the south cometh the whirlwind,
And cold out of the north.

The deserts of Arabia were situated to the south of Babylon, and the south winds are described as the winds of the desert. Those winds are represented as being so violent as to tear away the tents occupied by a caravan. Pietro della Valle, Travels, iv. pp. 183, 191. In Job i. 19, the whirlwind is represented as coming "from the wilderness;" that is, from the desert of Arabia. Comp. Jer. xiii. 24. Hos. xiii. 15. So it cometh from the desert. See ch. xiii. 4, and the Note on that place. God is there represented as collecting the army for the destruction of Babylon "on the mountains," and by mountains are probably denoted the same as is here denoted by the desert. The country of the Medes is doubtless intended, which, in the view of civilized and refined Babylon, was an uncultivated region, or a vast waste or wilderness. From a terrible land. A country rough and uncultivated, abounding in forests or wastes.

2. A grievous vision. Margin as in Heb. hard. On the word vision see Note ch. i. 1. The sense here is, that the vision which the prophet saw was one that indicated great calamity. Vs. 3, 4. T Is declared unto me. That is, is caused to pass before me, and its meaning is made known to me.

The

but the authority for so rendering it is doubtful. He seems to suppose that it refers to Babylon. The Hebrew evidently means, that there is to be plundering and devastation, and that this is to be accomplished by a nation accustomed to it, and which is immediately specified; that is, the united kingdom of Media and Persia. The Chaldee renders it, 66 They who bring violence, suffer violence; and the plunderers are plundered." Jarchi says, that the sense of the Hebrew text according to the Chaldee is, "Ah! thou who art violent! there comes another who will use thee

with violence; and thou plunderer, another comes who will plunder thee, even the Medes and Persians, who will destroy and lay waste Babylon." But

3 Therefore are my loins fill

h ch. 15. 5.

viii. 2. It is here put for Persia in general, and the call on Elam and Media to go up, was a call on the united kingdom of the Medes and Persians. ¶ Besiege. That is, besiege Babylon. O Media. See Note ch. xiii. 17. All the sighing thereof have I made to cease. This has been very differently interpreted by expositors.

Some understand it (as Rosenmüller, Jerome, and Lowth,) as designed to be taken in an active sense; that is, all the groaning caused by Babylon in her oppressions of others, and particularly of God's people, would cease. Others refer it to the army of the Medes and Persians, as if their sighing should be over; i. e. their fatigues and labours in the conquest of Babylon. Calvin supposes that it means that the Lord would be deaf to the sighs of Babylon; that is, he would disregard them and would bring upon

them the threatened certain destruction. The probable meaning is that suggested by Jerome, that God would bring to an end all the sighs and groans which Babylon had caused in a world suffering under her oppressions. Comp. ch. xiv. 7, 8.

3. Therefore. In this verse, and the following, the prophet represents himself as in Babylon, and as a witness of the calamities which would come upon the city. He describes the sympathy which he feels in her sorrows, and represents himself as deeply affected by her calamities. A similar description occurred in the pain which the prophet represents himself as enduring on account of the calamities of Moab. See Note ch. xv. 5, xvi. 11. My loins. See Note ch. xvi.

¶ With pain. The word here used, denotes properly the pains of parturition, and the whole figure is taken from that. The sense is, that the prophet was filled with the most acute sorrow and anguish, in view

ed with pains; 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, fearfulof the calamities which were coming on Babylon. That is, the sufferings of Babylon would be indescribably great and dreadful. See Nah. ii. 11. Ezek. Xxx. 4,9. I was bowed down. Under the grief and sorrow produced by these calamities. At the hearing of it. The Hebrew may have this sense, and mean that these things were made to pass before the eye of the prophet, and that the sight oppressed him, and bowed him down. But more probably the in the word is to be taken privatively, and means, I was so bowed down or oppressed that I could not see, I was so dismayed that I could not hear; that is, all his senses were taken away by the greatness of the calamity, and by his sympathetic sufferings. A similar construction occurs in Ps. lxix. 23: "Let their eyes be

darkened that they see not," is i. e. from seeing.

4. My heart panted. Margin," My mind wandered." The Hebrew word rendered panted () means to wander about; to stagger; to be giddy; and is applied often to one that staggers by being intoxicated. Applied to the heart it means that it is disquieted or troubled. The Hebrew word heart here is to be taken in the sense of mind. The night of my pleasure. There can be no doubt that the prophet here refers to the night of revelry and riot in which Babylon was taken. The prophet calls it the night of his pleasure, because he represents himself as being in Babylon when it should be taken, and therefore uses such language as an inhabitant of Babylon would use. They - would call it the night of their pleasure because it was set apart to feasting and revelry. Hath he turned into fear. God has made it a night of consterna

ness affrighted me: the night 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. 8 or, my mind wandered. i Dan. 5. 5, &c. 9 pest. tion and alarm. The prophet here refers to the fact that Babylon would be taken by Cyrus during that night, and that consternation and alarm would suddenly pervade the affrighted and guilty city. See Dan. v.

5. Prepare the table. This verse is one of the most striking and remarkable that occurs in this prophecy, or indeed in any part of Isaiah. It is language supposed to be spoken in Babylon. The first direction-perhaps supposed to be that of the king-is to prepare the table for the feast. Then follows a

direction to set a watch-to make the city safe, so that they might revel with

out fear. Then a command to eat and drink and then immediately a sudden order, as if alarmed at an unexpected attack, to arise and anoint the shield, and to prepare for a defence. The table here refers to a feast ;-that im

pious feast mentioned in Dan. v. in the

night in which Babylon was taken, and Belshazzar slain. Herodotus (i. 191), Xenophon (Cyrop. 7, 5), and Daniel (v.) all agree in the account that Babylon was taken in the night in which the king and his nobles were engaged in feasting and revelry. The words of Xenophon are, "But Cyrus, when he heard that there was to be such a feast in Babylon, in which all the Babylonians would drink and revel through the whole night, on that night, as soon as it began to grow dark, taking many men, opened the dams into the river;" that is, he opened the dykes which had been made by Semiramis and her successors to confine the waters of the Euphrates to one channel, and suffered the waters of the Euphrates again to flow over the country so that he could enter Babylon beneath its walls in the channel of the river. Xenophon has also given the address of Cyrus to the

during the night. See Dan. v. ¶ Arise, ye princes. This language indicates sudden alarm. It is the language either of the prophet, or more probably of the king of Babylon, alarmed at the sudden approach of the enemy, and calling upon his nobles to arm themselves and make a defence. The army of Cyrus entered Babylon-by two divisions-one on the north where the waters of the Euphrates entered the city, and the other by the channel of the Euphrates on the south. Knowing that the city was given up to revelry on that night, they had agreed to imitate the sound of the revellers until they should assemble around the royal palace in the centre of the city. They did so. When the king heard the noise, supposing that it was the sound of a drunken mob, he ordered the gates of the palace to be opened to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. When they were thus opened the army of Cyrus rushed in, and made an immediate attack on all who were within. It is to this moment that we may suppose the prophet here refers, when the king, aroused and alarmed, would call on his nobles to arm themselves for battle. See Jahn's History of the Hebrew Commonwealth, D. 153, Ed. Andover, 1828. Anoint the shield. That is, prepare for battle. Gesenius supposes that this means to rub over the shield with oil to make the leather more supple and impenetrable. Comp. 2 Sam. i. 21. The Chaldee renders it," Fit, and polish your arms." The LXX," Prepare shields." Shields were instruments of defence prepared to ward off the spears and arrows of an enemy in battle. They were usually made of a rim of brass or wood, and over this was drawn a covering of the skin of an ox or other animal in the manner of a drum-head with us. Occasionally the hide of a rhinoceros or an elephant was used. Burckhardt (Travels in Nubia) says that the Nubians use the hide of the hippopotamus for the making of shields. But what

ever skin might be used, it was neces sary occasionally to rub it over with oil lest it should become hard and crack, or lest it should become so rigid that an arrow or a sword would easily break through it. Jarchi says, that "shields were made of skin, and that they anointed them with the oil of olive." The sense is, 'Prepare your arms! Make ready for battle!'

6. Go, set a watchman. This was said to Isaiah in the vision. He represents himself as in Babylon, and as hearing God command him to set a watchman on the watch-tower who would announce what was to come to pass. All this is designed merely to bring the manner of the destruction of the city more vividly before the eye.

7. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen. This passage is very obscure from the ambiguity of the word rekhěbh, chariot. Gesenius contends that it should be rendered "cavalry," and that it refers to cavalry two abreast hastening to the destruction of the city. The word denotes properly a chariot, or wagon (Judges v. 28); a collection of wagons (2 Chron. i. 14, viii. 6, ix. 25); and sometimes refers to the horses or men attached to a chariot. "David houghed all the chariots" (2 Sam. viii. 4); that is, all the horses belonging to them. "David killed of the Syrians seven hundred chariots" (2 Sam. x. 18); that is, all the men belonging to seven hundred chariots. According to the present Masoretic pointing, the word does not mean, perhaps, any thing else than a chariot strictly, but other forms of the word with the same letters denote riders or cavalry. Thus the word 2 denotes a horseman, 2 Kings ix. 17; a charioteer or driver of a chariot, 1 Kings xxii. 34. Jer. li. 21. The verb means to ride, and is usually applied to riding on the backs of horses or camels; and the sense here is, that the watch