For Jerusalem is ruined,' and Judah is fallen:

Because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, 20 To provoke the eyes of his glory.

Their respecting of persons doth witness against them;
And they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.2

Woe unto their soul! For they have done evil unto them-
selves.

Happy is the righteous, for it is well with him:

25 For they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

Woe unto the wicked! it is ill with him:

For what his hands have done shall be done unto him.

As for my people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.

30 O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err,
And destroy the way of thy paths.

Jehovah standeth up to contend,
And standeth to judge the people,
Jehovah will enter into judgment

35 With the elders of his people, and the princes thereof:

"It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard;

The spoil of the poor is in your houses:
What mean ye that ye crush my people,
And grind the face of the poor ?"

Isaiah Pronounces the Doom of Israel

Isaiah tells us that he undertook his work in the year that King Uzziah died. Jotham,3 Uzziah's son, succeeded to the throne. Perhaps in his reign, but certainly in the early years of that of his son Ahaz, the combined armies of Northern Israel and Syria

1 For Jerusalem is ruined: This is not a lament over a city already fallen, but a picture of disaster so imminent as to make the prophet's words bring trembling to the hearts of his hearers.

2 Lines 21, 22: "Anyone who looks can see their sin." It can no longer be hidden. The leaders are the most conspicuous sinners of all. Upon them rests the responsibility of having led the nation astray.

38.

3 Jotham (739-735 B.C.): For the biblical account of his reign see II Kings 15:32–

4 Ahaz (735-715 B.C.): For the biblical account of his reign see II Kings 16:1–20.

invaded Judah, carrying dismay to the hearts of king and people. The prophet seized upon this opportunity to impress his message of moral and social reform, proclaiming that the wickedness of both Israel and Judah was the cause of their misfortunes. War he declared to be but the expression of Jehovah's chastening anger.

The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
And it hath lighted upon Israel.
And all the people shall know,

Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,

5 That say in pride and in stoutness of heart,2

"The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stone:
The sycamores are cut down, but we will put cedars in their
place."

Therefore Jehovah will raise up enemies against him,
And will goad on his foes;

10 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind;

And they shall devour Israel with open mouth.
For all this his anger is not turned away,

But his hand is stretched out still.3

Yet the people turn not unto him that smiteth them,

15 Neither seek they Jehovah of hosts.

Therefore Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail,
Palm-branch and rush, in one day.

For they that lead this people cause them to err;
And they that are led of them are destroyed.

20 Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, Neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows:

For every one is profane and an evil-doer,

And every mouth speaketh folly.

For all this his anger is not turned away,

25 But his hand is stretched out still.4

1 Isa. 9:8-10:4; 5:26-30.

2 Lines 1-5: Samaria had already suffered greatly, having been compelled to pour her treasure into the coffers of Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria. The words "stoutness of heart" well expressed the persistence with which these Palestinian cities held to their hope of renewed prosperity.

3 Lines 13, 25: Note the impressive sternness of these lines which constitute a refrain appearing at the end of each strophe.

4 Strophe 2: As it was in Judah, so in Samaria, it is the leaders whom the prophet arraigns.

For wickedness burneth as the fire;

It devoureth the briers and thorns;

Yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest,

And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

30 Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts is the land.

burnt up:

The people are as the fuel of fire.

No man spareth his brother;1

And one shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry;

And he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satis-
fied:

35 They shall eat every man the flesh of his neighbor;
Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh:
And they together shall be against Judah.
For all this his anger is not turned away,

But his hand is stretched out still.

40 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, And to the writers that write perverseness:

To turn aside the needy from justice,

And to rob the poor of my people of their right;
That widows may be their spoil,

45 And that they may plunder orphans!

And what will ye do in the day of visitation,

And in the desolation which shall come from far?
To whom will ye flee for help!

And where will ye leave your possessions? 50 So as not to bow down under the prisoners, And fall under the slain.

For all this his anger is not turned away,

But his hand is stretched out still.2

And again the prophet says:

55 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far,
And will hiss for them from the end of the earth:
And, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
None shall be weary, nor stumble among them:
None shall slumber nor sleep;

Strophe 3: A picture of anarchy, greed, and blind strife introduced under the imagery of a forest fire. "Neither shall Judah escape in this general turmoil," says the prophet.

2 Strophe 4: "To whom will the unjust legislators turn when the more distant nation comes with its visitation of desolation ?"

60 Neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, Nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

Whose arrows are sharp,

And all their bows bent;

Their horses' hoofs shall be accounted as flint,

65 And their wheels as a whirlwind:

Their roaring shall be like a lioness,

They shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar,
And lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe,

And there shall be none to deliver.

70 And they shall roar over them in that day like the roaring of the sea:

And if one look unto the land, behold darkness and distress,
And the light is darkened in the clouds thereof.1

Isaiah Fighting a Foreign Alliance

The invasion of Northern Israel and Syria, which brought such fear in its train, seems certainly to have been due to the intention of the two northern nations to force Ahaz of Judah into a triple confederacy against Assyria, of whom the northern nations were rebellious vassals. Ahaz was reluctant but frightened. Should he refuse the demand, he was not prepared to maintain war against the combined forces of Israel and Syria. On the other hand, he was too good a statesman to fail to see that even with his aid the trio could not hold back such a formidable foe as Assyria. By an appeal to Assyria herself, however, he might be able to get rid of his neighboring foes, and at the same time forestall any attack from Assyria. This is the situation which confronted the king when Isaiah,2 already a man who commanded the respectful attention of the royal household, assumed a definitely political rôle, seeking to keep the nation free from foreign alliances, and in comparatively safe neutrality.

In the accounts which follow we see the prophet striving to

1 Lines 55–70: Note the wonderful description of the oncoming of an army, swift and sure. The prophet here represents Jehovah as actually calling the foreign army to execute his purpose. He does not merely allow it to come.

2 Isaiah: We have no definite knowledge of the family or position of Isaiah. We may infer, however, from the close relation which he held to the king, even when arrayed against him, that he was of good family and familiar with the life of the court.

reassure Ahaz, to persuade him to rely upon Jehovah alone, and to show him that he has nothing to fear from the fast decaying nations on the north. Isaiah's faith in the truth of his message led him to employ expedients peculiar to himself. He not only spoke words of counsel, but enforced them by illustration. By the very names which he gave to his children he kept before the people a continual reminder of his message. Upon one occasion, we are told, Ahaz was returning from an inspection of the water supply of the city, preparatory to a possible siege. Isaiah, going out to meet him, took with him his son whom he called by the symbolical name "Shear-jashub" (a remnant shall turn). He exhorted Ahaz to take courage, for the record tells us "the heart of Ahaz was moved, and the hearts of his people, as the trees of the forest are moved with the wind." Says Isaiah:

Fear not, neither let thy heart be faint,

Because of these two tails of smoking fire-brands,

For the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of
Remaliah.2

5 Because Syria hath counselled evil against thee,

Ephraim also, and the son of Remaliah, saying,

"Let us go up against Judah and vex it,

And let us make a breach therein for us,

And set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel.'

IO Thus saith the Lord Jehovah,

"It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.
For the head of Syria is Damascus,

And the head of Damascus is Rezin:

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,

15 And the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son."4

But the king was already considering what seemed to him the one open door of safety, an appeal to Assyria, and the attempt of

1 Isa. 7:4–9 (Am. Standard Rev. Ver., by permission).

2* Son of Remaliah: A contemptuous way of naming Pekah, king of Israel. 3* Son of Tabeel: Perhaps a rival of Ahaz, who was willing to be subservient to the will of Rezin and Pekah.

4 Summary: "Do not fear, Ahaz. These two nations whom you so greatly dread will certainly be destroyed. They are already like burnt-out firebrands."