Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 46

Verses 1-22

XX

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 12

Isaiah 46-48

The general theme of these chapters is the victory over idolatry; the fall of Babylon and its idols. The special theme of Isaiah 46 is "The Overthrow of the Gods of Babylon."

There are two of the Babylonian deities named in Isaiah 46:1-2, Bel and Nebo. Bel, the local representation of Baal, the Phoenician sun-god, is identified with Merodach and, in the BabyIonian astrology, he is connected with the planet, Jupiter. Bel appears in several names of the Babylonian princes, as in Belshazzar and Belteshazzar. Nebo, the Babylonian god of learning, the son of Merodach, was the messenger of their gods to men. He is thought by some to have been connected with the planet, Mercury. Nebo, appears, also, in the names of their princes, as in Nebopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuzaradan. According to Herodotus there was a golden statue of Bel in the temple of Belus, twelve cubits high, which was carried away by Xerxes.

The picture here in these two verses is that of the conquered gods bowing to their victors. Now instead of being borne lightly along in the procession they are borne away on beasts of burden. These gods and their subjects together go into captivity.

In Isaiah 46:3-7 we have a contrast with the preceding picture of the captives of Babylon bearing their gods away on beasts of burden. Here Jehovah pictures himself bearing his people. They have been borne by him from their birth, and will be borne by him down to old age and to hoary hairs. This reminds us of the stanza in "How Firm a Foundation," which embodies this truth and the sentiment of which was taken from this passage. Then the prophet follows with another description of the process of making a god. This time it is the process of molding it rather than shaping it out of wood. But the results are the same. They fall down and worship it. They pray unto it but it cannot answer, nor save them out of trouble. So the contrast between Jehovah and idols is this: Jehovah bears his people, but the idols have to be borne by their people; Jehovah saves his people out of their troubles, but the idols cannot save out of trouble.

The exhortation to the transgressors of Israel found in Isaiah 46:8-10 is an exhortation to remember. The first thing to remember is "this," which refers to the contrast between Jehovah and idols. Since Jehovah bears Israel, then let Israel show themselves men. The marginal reading here is "stand firm." This reminds us of the conflict on Mount Carmel between Jehovah and Baal. Elijah said, "Why go limping between two opinions? If Jehovah is God serve him; if Baal, then serve him." The people here were weak in their conviction and, doubtless, needed Just such an exhortation as this: "Stand firm for Jehovah, for he is the only God." The prophet here also intimates that to waver between Jehovah and idols was transgression.

Remember the First and Second Commandments: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shall not make unto thee a graven image and bow thyself down to it." Remember this is transgression. Then remember "the former things of old": that Jehovah is God, and there is none else: that there is none like him; that he declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. Remember that he is a God who foreknows all things and tells them beforehand, even things that are yet unfulfilled, O ye Radical Critics. Remember your former experiences, O House of Israel. How ye saw that Jehovah was the great and terrible God. It sounds like the war cry, “O ye Mexicans, Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" or Abraham’s voice across the impassable gulf, "Remember, son, remember that thou in thy lifetime hadst thy good things, and Lazarus, his evil things." Remember, O remember. If God’s people and the world would only remember! "Remember, too, O Israel, that my counsel never fails and that I will do my pleasure; that I have already told you that I will call that ravenous bird, Cyrus, from the East, to do my counsel, and remember that what I have purposed I will do."

The prophet closes this chapter with an exhortation to the stubborn in Israel, who were far from righteousness. Jehovah then announces the speedy approach of his righteous judgments upon the godless and his salvation in Zion for Israel.

The special theme of Isaiah 47 is "the overthrow of Babylon, the mistress of kingdoms." This chapter is a song of triumph and divides itself into four stanzas, as follows: (1) Isaiah 47:1-4; (2) Isaiah 47:5-7; (3) Isaiah 47:8-11; (4) Isaiah 47:12-15 the first two commencing with a double imperative and the last two, with a single imperative.

Jehovah is the speaker all the way through except in Isaiah 47:4 which is a kind of parenthetical ejaculation by Isaiah and his God-given children, or, maybe a chorus in Israel.

There is here a call by Jehovah to Babylon, who boasted that she had never been captured, to come down from her lofty throne and sit in the dust. Babylon had hitherto been one of the chief seats of Oriental luxury, the glory of kingdoms and the beauty of the Chaldean excellency, the golden city. She was given to revelry and feasting, to mirth and drunkenness, to shameless licensed debauchery. All this must now be changed (Isaiah 47:1).

She was now to sit at the mill and grind like a slave. She must remove the veil, strip off the train, and uncover the leg to cross the streams, etc. This, of course, is taken from the figure of the female who had been taken captive, and represents the great humiliation that must come to the proud and luxurious Babylon, in which also no man shall be spared.

Isaiah 47:4 in this song, which is so different from the rest of it, is thought by some to be a marginal note of a sympathetic scribe, which has made its way by accident into the text. It is admittedly different from the rest of the song and its removal would artistically improve it. But it may be consistently retained as an outburst of the chorus upon recognizing their Redeemer, when they exclaim: "Our Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts, the Holy One of Israel."

The first part of Isaiah 47:5 is an entreaty to the fallen people to hide their shame in silence and darkness, as disgraced persons do who shrink from being seen by their fellows.

Babylon was not mistress of the kingdoms in Isaiah’s time, or at any earlier period, unless at a very remote one. She had been subject to Assyria for centuries when Isaiah wrote, and it was ruled under Sennacherib by viceroys of his own appointment. The explanation then is that inspiration and prophetic foresight enabled Isaiah to see Babylon at the height of her glory, as in the days of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar, when she had taken to herself the greatness of Assyria and ruled a large part of Western Asia.

The reason assigned for letting Israel go into captivity is that he was wroth with them, and therefore profaned them. They did not receive any mercy at the hand of the Chaldeans but they laid a heavy yoke upon the aged. This God will not tolerate and with man it is a mark of the crudest barbarism. The attitude of Christianity toward the aged is, Be kind to each other The night’s coming on, When friend and when brother Perchance will be gone.

An additional cause cited (Isaiah 47:7) is her pride and boastfulness. Without due consideration she said, "I shall be mistress forever." This is true to the primary instincts of human nature. We confidently expect the sun to rise tomorrow because it has never failed yet to rise on a single day. Peter tells us that in the last days mockers will come, saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." And so the world goes on. Perhaps Babylon had more excuse for making such a boast than other nations. Her capital was one of the most ancient cities in the world. For two thousands years or more she had maintained a prominent position among the chief peoples of the earth, and had finally risen to a very proud eminence. But she ought to have remembered that all things come to an end, and to have so deported herself as not to have provoked God to anger. If the management and passengers of the Titanic had remembered this, one of the greatest disasters in the world, perhaps, would have been averted. But the boast of the "unsinkable" and the vainglory of the "world-beater" came to nought. "And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt be brought down to hell."

The characteristics of Babylon are set forth in Isaiah 47:8-11 as follows:

1. She was given to pleasures. Herodotus says that when. Cyrus invested the city the inhabitants made light of his siege and occupied their time in dancing and revelry.

2. She was self-confident. The evidence goes that, when Cyrus captured the city, very slight and insufficient preparations had been made for the defense of the city.

3. She was boastful. "I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children."

4. She was conceited. "None seeth me."

Jehovah made reply to these characteristics of the boastful city, thus:

1. Jehovah warns her that loss of children and widowhood should come upon her in a moment in one day, notwithstanding her multiplied sorceries and enchantments. This was fulfilled when Cyrus took the city 539 B.C. Then "in a moment" Babylon lost the whole of her prestige, ceased to reign, ceased to be an independent power, became a "widow," had a portion of her population taken away from her, and was brought down in the dust.

2. Jehovah warns her that her wisdom and knowledge had perverted her, and that evil should come upon her unawares; that mischief should fall upon her that she should not be able to put away and that sudden desolation would overtake her unexpectedly.

The import of Isaiah 47:12-15 is "sorcery cannot remove the impending calamity" and the contest between their sorcery and Jehovah is precipitated by Jehovah’s challenge to the soothsayers and enchanters to the conflict pretty much in the same way that Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. There is a touch of irony in Isaiah 47:12-13, which would paraphrase thus: "If Babylon uses all the resources of her magical art, perhaps she may succeed, who knows? Perhaps she may strike terror into the hearts of her assailants."

The three terms, "astrologers," "star-gazers," and "prognosticators" in Isaiah 47:13, do not mean three classes of persons, but rather the same class under three designations. "Astrologers" were dividers of the heavens; "star-gazers" were observers of the stars; and "monthly prognosticators" were almanac-makers. The astronomy of the Babylonians consisted (1) of dividing the heavens into constellations for purposes of study and comprehension; (2) of observing the sun, moon, and planets, noting eclipses, occultations, conjunctions, and the like, all of which was legitimate science; (3) of prognostication of events from the changing phenomena of the heavens. Almanacs were prepared and put forth in which these predictions were made and on these much dependence was placed. This phase of their work is called astrology, and is that which the prophet here ridicules.

The result of this contest here as foretold by the prophet is that these men and their means shall be as stubble, i.e., they will offer no more resistance to Jehovah than dry stubble offers to fire. It burns up so clean that there is not left a coal to warm at or sit before. This shall be such a complete desolation that the traders shall flee to their own countries and the commerce of the great and flourishing city shall be destroyed forever. The special theme of Isaiah 48 is the expostulations with, and exhortations to Israel in view of its stubbornness and impenitence. Its profession is indicated in Isaiah 48:1-2 by the expressions, "called by the name of Israel," "swear by the name of Jehovah," "make mention of the God of Israel," "call themselves of the holy city," and "stay themselves upon the God of Israel," all of which indicate their adherence to the names and formalities of their religion. Their professions were loud but they were "not in truth, nor in righteousness."

Jehovah here (Isaiah 48:3-11) reveals Israel’s characteristics, as obstinacy, stiff-neckedness, brazen-faced, dull of hearing, treacherous, and transgressing. These characteristics Jehovah endeavored to offset by revelations beforehand, in two cycles of predictions, the earlier and the later being reserved for the emergency of the occasion such as the present crisis in their history.

All these were not sufficient to save Israel, therefore, he, for his name’s sake, deferred the just punishment of destruction and put them in the furnace of affliction that he might purify them, at the same time save his own name from profanation and reserve the glory to himself.

The meaning and application of Isaiah 46:11 is that God had selected Israel out of all the nations of the earth to be his "peculiar" people, and having declared this he supported them by miracles in their struggles with other nations and peoples. Thus he was committed to protect and defend Israel "for his name’s sake," lest his name should be blasphemed among the Gentiles. He had rolled away the reproach of Egypt when he landed them safe in Canaan, so that Egypt could never say that he had failed in his promise to Israel to carry them into their Promised Land. So now he must save his name from profanation by deferring his anger and chastising Israel. A great lesson is this. God’s people will not be utterly destroyed nor forsaken, but they cannot escape the Lord’s chastisements if they sin. He takes care of his name and his people at the same time. This is far-reaching in its application. All Jehovah’s promises to Israel, and the world through Israel) were at stake. Israel occupied an important position with respect to the scheme of salvation in its relation to the whole world, and therefore Jehovah could not let Israel go. He must refrain his anger, and preserve Israel through the furnace of affliction or the plan of redemption for the world fails and the name of Jehovah is profaned and his glory given over to another.

The appeal to Israel in Isaiah 48:12-16 is an appeal to profit from the work of Cyrus. Jehovah asserts his eternity of being and his creative work, and then challenges the nations to match it if they can. Then he introduces Cyrus as the instrument of his pleasure on Babylon and invites them to take notice that this is by the authority of Jehovah, who had sent the prophet, and his Spirit.

The possibilities for Israel here (Isaiah 48:17-19) pointed out are the possibilities of peace, like a river; righteousness, like the waves of the sea; their offspring, like the grains of sand on the shore; and a perpetual name before Jehovah; all this on the one condition that Israel hearken to his commandments. His purpose throughout their existence was to teach them for their profit. Thus he had led them through the many dark valleys of affliction and brought them to their own good land where they had enjoyed his loving favor and protection, with a bright hope for their future. But they sinned and forfeited the divine favor, and now they must hear the sad refrain, "Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea; thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the grains thereof; his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me," which is much like the saying of the poet: Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been."

The exhortation of Isaiah 48:20-22 was to "go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans." At first thought such an exhortation would seem superfluous. It might be reasonably expected that, when the prison doors should fly open, there would be a mighty rush from Babylon back to their native land, but not so. The history of the return shows how poor was the response to the exhortation. So this exhortation, to "go forth from Babylon, and flee from the Chaldeans," was far from being superfluous.

They were to go in the spirit of joy, singing the song of their redemption, as at the deliverance from the land of Egypt. With a voice of singing they were to recite the history of Jehovah’s gracious dealings with them in the wilderness, which were paralleled here in their deliverance from Babylon.

There was a distinct advance here. The subject of the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah is not merely the return of Judah from Babylon to Jerusalem. Higher themes engage the prophet’s mind, viz: That preparation of the way of Jehovah, and the manifestation of his glory, for all flesh to see it together. All this was in the mind of the prophet, and the deliverance from Babylon was only a prefiguring of the far greater deliverance of the world from the thraldom of sin. As the exodus from Egypt was the high-water mark of God’s grace to his people of the Old Testament dispensation, so is this last mention by Isaiah of the struggle with Babylon. There is joyous victory here like that which it typifies in Revelation where the mystical Babylon falls and God’s people shout their everlasting praises to him who rules over the kingdoms of the earth.

There is a connection between Isaiah 48:22, "There is no peace, saith Jehovah to the wicked," and the fall of Babylon. God’s judgments fell heavily on Egypt at the deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea and his judgments are heavier on Babylon at the deliverance of his people from the captivity. But Egypt and Babylon are types of the great spiritual enemies of God’s kingdom. So when the Babylon of Revelation falls there is fear and trembling because of the judgments on her from Jehovah. When God stretches forth his hand in judgments, there is no peace to the wicked.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the general theme of these three chapters?

2. What is the special theme of Isaiah 46?

3. What is the principal gods of Babylon and what the prophetic picture of Isaiah 46:1-2?

4. What is the contrast found in Isaiah 46:3-7?

5. What is the exhortation to the transgressors of Israel found in Isaiah 46:8-10?

6. How does the prophet close this chapter?

7. What is the special theme of Isaiah 47?

8. What is the nature of the composition and what the divisions of it?

9. Who is the speaker of this song?

10. What is the great change in the position of Babylon to be brought about by its capture?

11. What was to be her new occupation and what the shame of her new condition?

12. How do you account for Isaiah 47:4 in this song, which is so different from the rest of it?

13. What is the import of Isaiah 47:5 and how is it that Isaiah saw Babylon as the mistress of kingdoms?

14. What is the reason assigned here for Babylon’s having Israel in captivity and how are they said to have been treated while in captivity?

15. What is the added cause of Babylon’s downfall given in Isaiah 47:1?

16. What are the characteristics of Babylon as set forth in Isaiah 47:8-11?

17. What reply does Jehovah make to these characteristics of the boastful city?

18. What is the import of Isaiah 47:12-15?

19. How is the contest between their sorcery and Jehovah precipitated and what the irony of their passage?

20. What is the meaning of "astrologers," "star-gazers," and "prognosticators" in Isaiah 47:13, and what the value of the work of these men?

21. What is the result of this contest here as foretold by the prophet?

22. What is the special theme of Isaiah 48?

23. How is Israel’s profession here set forth (Isaiah 48:1-2)?

24. What arethe characteristics of Israel herein set forth and what Jehovah’s efforts to counteract this disposition?

25. What is the result of these favors from Jehovah and in view of such result what course did Jehovah take with them?

26. What is the meaning and application of Isaiah 48:11?

27. What is the appeal to Israel in Isaiah 48:12-16?

28. What are the possibilities for Israel here (Isaiah 48:17-19) pointed out and why had it not realized them?

29. What is the exhortation of Isaiah 48:20-22 and what the special need for such exhortation?

30. In what spirit were they to go from Babylon?

31. How does the exodus here compare with the exodus from Egypt i.e., was there any advance to something greater and higher as one might expect in the work of God?

32. What is the connection between Isaiah 48:22, “There is no peace, saith Jehovah to the wicked,” and the fall of Babylon?