15. forgotten--Having lost its former renown, Tyre shall be in obscurity.
seventy years--(so [Jr 25:11], ; ).
days of one king--that is, a dynasty. The Babylonian monarchy lasted properly but seventy years. From the first year of Nebuchadnezzar to the taking of Babylon, by Cyrus, was seventy years; then the subjected nations would be restored to liberty. Tyre was taken in the middle of that period, but it is classed in common with the rest, some conquered sooner and others later, all, however, alike to be delivered at the end of the period. So "king" is used for dynasty ([Da 7:17]; ): Nebuchadnezzar, his son Evil-merodach, and his grandson, Belshazzar, formed the whole dynasty ([Jr 25:11], ; ; ).
shall Tyre sing as ... harlot--It shall be to Tyre as the song of the harlot, namely, a harlot that has been forgotten, but who attracts notice again by her song. Large marts of commerce are often compared to harlots seeking many lovers, that is, they court merchants of all nations, and admit any one for the sake of gain ([Na 3:4]; [Re 18:3]). Covetousness is closely akin to idolatry and licentiousness, as the connection ([Ep 5:5]; [Col 3:5]) proves (compare Is 2:6-8, 16).
16. Same figure [Is 23:15] to express that Tyre would again prosper and attract commercial intercourse of nations to her, and be the same joyous, self-indulging city as before.
17. visit--not in wrath, but mercy.
hire--image from a harlot: her gains by commerce. After the Babylonian dynasty was ended, Tyre was rebuilt; also, again, after the destruction under Alexander.
18. merchandise ... holiness--Her traffic and gains shall at last (long after the restoration mentioned in [Is 23:17]) be consecrated to Jehovah. Jesus Christ visited the neighborhood of Tyre ([Mt 15:21]); Paul found disciples there ([Ac 21:3-6]); it early became a Christian bishopric, but the full evangelization of that whole race, as of the Ethiopians ([Is 18:1-7]), of the Egyptians and Assyrians ([Is 19:1-25]), is yet to come ([Is 60:5]).
not treasured--but freely expended in His service.
them that dwell before the Lord--the ministers of religion. But Horsley translates, "them that sit before Jehovah" as disciples.
durable clothing--Changes of raiment constituted much of the wealth of former days.
Chapter 24
Is 24:1-23. The Last Times of the World in General, and of Judah and the Church in Particular
The four chapters (the twenty-fourth through the twenty-seventh) form one continuous poetical prophecy: descriptive of the dispersion and successive calamities of the Jews ([Is 24:1-12]); the preaching of the Gospel by the first Hebrew converts throughout the world ([Is 24:13-16]); the judgments on the adversaries of the Church and its final triumph ([Is 24:16-23]); thanksgiving for the overthrow of the apostate faction ([Is 25:1-12]), and establishment of the righteous in lasting peace ([Is 26:1-21]); judgment on leviathan and entire purgation of the Church ([Is 27:1-13]). Having treated of the several nations in particular--Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Edom, and Tyre (the miniature representative of all, as all kingdoms flocked into it)--he passes to the last times of the world at large and of Judah the representative and future head of the churches.
1. the earth--rather, "the land" of Judah (so in [Is 24:3], [5, 6]; [Joe 1:2]). The desolation under Nebuchadnezzar prefigured that under Titus.
2. as with the people, so with the priest--All alike shall share the same calamity: no favored class shall escape (compare [Eze 7:12], ; [Ho 4:9]; [Re 6:15]).
4. world--the kingdom of Israel; as in [Is 13:11], Babylon.
haughty--literally, "the height" of the people: abstract for concrete, that is, the high people; even the nobles share the general distress.
5. earth--rather, "the land."
defiled under ... inhabitants--namely, with innocent blood ([Ge 4:11]; [Nu 35:33]; [Psa 106:38]).
laws ... ordinance ... everlasting covenant--The moral laws, positive statutes, and national covenant designed to be for ever between God and them.
6. earth--the land.
burned--namely, with the consuming wrath of heaven: either internally, as in [Job 30:30] [Rosenmuller]; or externally, the prophet has before his eyes the people being consumed with the withering dryness of their doomed land (so [Joe 1:10], ), [Maurer].
7. mourneth--because there are none to drink it [Barnes]. Rather, "is become vapid" [Horsley].
languisheth--because there are none to cultivate it now.
8. ([Re 18:22]).
9. with a song--the usual accompaniment of feasts.
strong drink--(See on [Is 5:11]). "Date wine" [Horsley].
bitter--in consequence of the national calamities.
10. city of confusion--rather, "desolation." What Jerusalem would be; by anticipation it is called so. Horsley translates, "The city is broken down; it is a ruin."
shut up--through fear; or rather, "choked up by ruins."
11. crying for wine--to drown their sorrows in drink ([Is 16:9]); [Joe 1:5], written about the same time, resembles this.
12. with destruction--rather "crash" [Gesenius]. "With a great tumult the gate is battered down" [Horsley].
13. the land--Judea. Put the comma after "land," not after "people." "There shall be among the people (a remnant left), as the shaking (the after-picking) of an olive tree"; as in gathering olives, a few remain on the highest boughs ([Is 17:5], ).
14. They--those who are left: the remnant.
sing for the majesty of the Lord--sing a thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord, who has so mercifully preserved them.
from the sea--from the distant lands beyond the sea, whither they have escaped.
15. in the fires--Vitringa translates, "in the caves." Could it mean the fires of affliction ([1Pe 1:7])? They were exiles at the time. The fires only loose the carnal bonds off the soul, without injuring a hair, as in the case of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Lowth reads, in the islands ([Eze 26:18]). Rather translate for "fires," "in the regions of morning light," that is, the east, in antithesis to the "isles of the sea," that is, the west [Maurer]. Wheresoever ye be scattered, east or west, still glorify the Lord (Mal 1:11).
16. Songs to God come in together to Palestine from distant lands, as a grand chorus.
glory to the righteous--the burden of the songs ([Is 26:2], ). Amidst exile, the loss of their temple, and all that is dear to man, their confidence in God is unshaken. These songs recall the joy of other times and draw from Jerusalem in her present calamities, the cry, "My leanness." Horsley translates, "glory to the Just One"; then My leanness expresses his sense of man's corruption, which led the Jews, "the treacherous dealers" ([Jr 5:11]), to crucify the Just One; and his deficiency of righteousness which made him need to be clothed with the righteousness of the Just One ([Psa 106:15]).
treacherous dealers--the foreign nations that oppress Jerusalem, and overcome it by stratagem (so in [Is 21:2]) [Barnes].
17. This verse explains the wretchedness spoken of in [Is 24:16]. Jeremiah ([Jr 48:43], ) uses the same words. They are proverbial; [Is 24:18] expressing that the inhabitants were nowhere safe; if they escaped one danger, they fell into another, and worse, on the opposite side ([Am 5:19]). "Fear" is the term applied to the cords with feathers of all colors which, when fluttered in the air, scare beasts into the pitfall, or birds into the snare. Horsley makes the connection. Indignant at the treatment which the Just One received, the prophet threatens the guilty land with instant vengeance.
18. noise of ... fear--the shout designed to rouse the game and drive it into the pitfall.
windows ... open--taken from the account of the deluge ([Ge 7:11]); the flood-gates. So the final judgments of fire on the apostate world are compared to the deluge ([2Pe 3:5-7]).
19. earth--the land: image from an earthquake.