The noise - Which the angel shall make in destroying the army. The people - Those of the army, who escaped that stroke. The nations - The people of divers nations, which made up this army.
Your spoil - That treasure which you have raked together, by spoiling divers people. Gathered - By the Jews at Jerusalem, when you flee away. Like the caterpillar - As caterpillars gather and devour the fruits of the earth. As locusts - As locusts, especially when they are armed by commission from God, come with great force, and run hither and thither.
Exalted - By the destruction of so potent an army; and by the defence of this people.
Thy times - He turns his speech to Hezekiah. Thy throne shall be established upon the sure foundations of wisdom and justice. And strength - Thy strong salvation. The fear - Thy chief treasure is in promoting the fear and worship of God.
Behold - That the mercy promised might be duly magnified, he makes a lively representation of their great danger and distress. The ambassadors - Whom he shall send to beg peace of the Assyrian. Shall weep - Because they cannot obtain their desires.
The covenant - Sennacherib broke his faith, given to Hezekiah, of departing for a sum of money, 2Kings 18:14,17. Cities - The defenced cities of Judah, which he contemned, and easily took.
Mourneth - Being desolate and neglected. Hewn - By the Assyrians. Bashan - Two places eminent for fertility, are spoiled of their fruits.
Stubble - Instead of solid corn. Your great hopes and designs, shall be utterly disappointed. Your breath - Your rage against my people shall bring ruin upon yourselves.
The people - Shall be burnt as easily and effectually as chalk is burned to lime.
The sinners - This is spoken of the Jews. The prophet having foretold the deliverance of God's people, and the destruction of their enemies, gives a lively representation of the unbelieving condition, in which the Jews were, before their deliverance came. Who - How shall we be able to endure, or avoid the wrath of that God, who is a consuming fire; who is now about to destroy us utterly by the Assyrians, and will afterwards burn us with unquenchable fire?
He - Who is just in all his dealings. From hearing - Who will not hearken to any counsels, tending to shed innocent blood. From seeing - That abhors the very sight of sin committed by others, and guards his eyes from beholding occasions of sin.
On high - Out of the reach of danger. His waters - God will furnish him with all necessaries.
The king - First Hezekiah, and then Christ, triumphing over all enemies, and ruling his own people with righteousness. Very far - Thou shalt not be shut up in Jerusalem, but shalt have free liberty to go abroad with honour and safety.
Thine heart - This is a thankful acknowledgment of deliverance from their former terrors and miseries. Where - These words they spoke in the time of their distress. The scribe, whom we call muster - master, was to make and keep a list of the soldiers, and to call them together as occasion required: the receiver, received and laid out the money for the charges of the war; and he that counted the towers, surveyed all the parts of the city, and considered what towers or fortifications were to be made or repaired. And unto these several officers the people resorted, with great distraction and confusion.
A fierce - That fierce and warlike people, whom thou hast seen with terror, near the walls of Jerusalem, thou shalt see no more. A people - A foreign nation, whose language is unknown to thee.
Look upon - Contemplate Zion's glorious and peculiar privileges. Solemnities - This was the chief part of Zion's glory, that God was solemnly worshipped, and the solemn assemblies and feasts kept in her. Quiet - This was but imperfectly fulfilled in the literal Zion; but clearly and fully in the mystical Zion, the church of God, in the times of the gospel.
There - In and about Zion. Rivers - Tho' we have nothing but a small and contemptible brook to defend us; yet God will be as sure a defence to us, as if we were surrounded with great rivers. No galley - No ships of the enemies shall be able to come into this river to annoy them.
Is judge - To plead our cause against our enemies. Lawgiver - Our chief governor, to whom it belongs, to give laws, and to defend his people.
Tacklings - He directs his speech to the Assyrians; and having designed their army under the notion of a gallant ship, ver.21, he here represents their undone condition, by the metaphor of a ship, tossed in a tempestuous sea, having her cables broke, and all her tacklings loose, so that she could have no benefit of her masts and sails; and therefore is quickly swallowed up. The lame - They shall leave so many spoils behind them, that there shall be enough left for the lame, who come last to the spoil.
The inhabitant - Of Jerusalem. Sick - Shall have no cause to complain of any sickness or calamity. Forgiven - They shall not only receive from me a glorious temporal deliverance; but, which is infinitely better, the pardon of all their sins, and all those spiritual and everlasting blessings, which attend upon that mercy.
All nations - Not only upon the Assyrians, but on all enemies of my people.
Cast out - Into the fields.
Dissolved - The sun, moon, and stars. So great shall be the confusion and consternation of mankind, as if all the frame of the creation were broken into pieces. It is usual for prophetic writers, both in the Old and New Testament, to represent great and general calamities, in such words and phrases, as properly agree to the day of judgment; as on the contrary, the glorious deliverances of God's people, in such expressions, as properly agree to the resurrection from the dead.
Bathed - In the blood of these people. Heaven - Where God dwells; in which this is said to be done, because it was there decreed and appointed. Idumea - Upon the Edomites, who, tho' they were nearly related to the Israelites, yet were their implacable enemies. But these are named for all the enemies of God's church, of whom they were an eminent type. The people - Whom I have cursed, and devoted to utter destruction, as the word properly signifies.
The sword - The metaphor is taken from a great glutton, who is almost insatiable. Rams - By lambs, and goats, and rams, he means people of all ranks and conditions, high and low, rich and poor. Bozrah - A chief city of Edom, and a type of those cities which should be most opposite to God's people.
The unicorns - It is confessed, this was a beast of great strength and fierceness; and it is used in this place to signify their princes and potentates, who shall be humbled and cast down. Them - With the lambs, and goats, and rams. Fatness - With the fat of the slain sacrifices, mingled with it.
For - This is the time which God hath fixed, to avenge the cause of his persecuted people.
The land - Idumea shall be dealt with, as Sodom and Gomorrah were.
For ever - It shall remain as a spectacle of God's vengeance to all succeeding ages.
Dwell - It shall be entirely possessed by those creatures which delight in deserts and waste places. Stretch - He shall use the line, or the stone or plummet joined to it, not to build them, but to mark them out to destruction, as workmen commonly use them to mark what they are to pull down.
None - They shall not find any willing to undertake the government. Nothing - Shall have no courage or strength left in them.
Seek - When this judgment is executed, if you pursue this prophecy, you will find, that all things exactly come to pass, as I have told you. His - My spirit, (such sudden changes of persons being frequent here) hath brought all these creatures together, as he formerly brought the creatures to Adam, and to Noah, by an instinct which he put into them.
Divided - He hath divided the land to them, as it were by lot and line, as Canaan was divided among the Israelites.
The solitary place - Emmanuel's land, or the seat of God's church and people, which formerly was despised like a wilderness, and which the rage of their enemies had brought to desolation, shall flourish exceedingly.
The excellency - The wilderness shall be as pleasant and fruitful as Lebanon, and Carmel, and Sharon. They - The inhabitants of the wilderness aforesaid. The glory - The glorious discoveries of God's power and goodness.
Strengthen - Ye ministers of God, comfort and encourage God's people, who are now ready to faint.
Your God - Tho' he seems to be departed, he will come to you, and abide with you. He will shortly come in the flesh, to execute vengeance upon the enemies of God.
Then - The poor Gentiles, who before were blind and deaf, shall now have the eyes and ears of their minds opened to see God's works, and to hear and receive his word.
Streams - The most dry and barren places shall be made moist and fruitful; which is principally meant of the plentiful effusion of God's grace upon such persons and nations, as had been wholly destitute of it. Rushes - Those dry and parched deserts, in which dragons have their abode, shall yield abundance of grass, and reeds, and rushes, which grow only in moist ground.
A way - The high - way and the way are not to be taken for two different ways, but for one and the same way, even a causey, which is raised ground, and a way. Holiness - The people (walking in it) shall be all righteous. For those - But this way shall be appropriated to those persons above - mentioned; the weak, and blind, and lame, whom God will lead and save. Though fools - The way shall be so plain and strait, that even the most foolish travellers cannot easily mistake it.
I reckon - When I could not rest all the night even 'till morning, my thoughts were presaging that God would instantly break me to pieces, and the like thoughts followed me from morning 'till evening.
By these - By thy promises, and thy performance of them; therefore it is not strange, that one word of God hath brought me back from the jaws of death.
Praise - The dead are not capable of glorifying thy name among men upon earth. They cannot expect nor receive the accomplishment of thy promised goodness in the land of the living.
Was ready - Was a present help.
Ye - Ye prophets and ministers.