Such an attack would be possible because the Lord would remove His defensive screen from around the city. The reason was that the people had relied on physical implements of warfare for their security rather than on Him. Evidently the "house of the forest" of Lebanon was an armory in Isaiah’s day (cf. 1 Kings 7:2-5; 1 Kings 10:17)."The Lord is always the ultimate agent in his people’s experiences . . ." [Note: Motyer, p. 184.] read more
The people would try many forms of defense, but all would fail because they did not depend on the Lord who had made the city what it had become. Strong walls and adequate water would be their hope rather than their God. Hezekiah’s strengthening Jerusalem’s walls and securing her water source were not wrong in themselves. The people’s reliance on these physical securities was their sin."Walled cities usually had two walls with a space between, allowing defenders the open space needed to overcome... read more
Rather, in that day, the people should turn to the Lord in repentance, and reaffirm their trust in Him for their security. He is the sovereign, almighty God who can save. read more
However, they would not repent but rejoice in their apparent security, believing that if they could not save themselves, nothing else could (cf. Revelation 9:20-21). Isaiah saw in the present rejoicing over security (Isaiah 22:1-2 a) the same attitude of self-sufficiency that would doom the Jerusalemites in the future.Normally ancient Near Easterners used cattle and sheep for producing milk and wool; they did not slaughter them to eat very often because these animals produced valuable products.... read more
The Lord had revealed to Isaiah that He would not forgive their unbelief in Himself. As long as they continued to trust in themselves rather than in Him, He would not save them.Unbelief persisted in until death is the only sin that God will not forgive. In the unsaved it results in eternal damnation, and in the saved it results in the loss of some eternal reward plus temporal punishment in some cases. However, as long as people can repent there is hope. Repentance was still possible for... read more
Jerusalem RebukedA severe rebuke of the conduct of the people of Jerusalem in a time of calamity. The crisis refered to cannot be certainly identified. The difficulty in assigning the passage to Sennacherib’s invasion (701 b.c.) is that other prophecies relating to it are marked by encouragement, not, as here, by a tone of rebuke. Perhaps the present prophecy should be dated 711, the time of Sargon’s invasion.1-7. The unworthy behaviour of the people of Jerusalem when attack is imminent.8-11.... read more
(8) And he discovered the covering of Judah—i.e., Jehovah removed the veil which till then had hidden the approaching danger from the eyes of the inhabitants, and laid bare their weakness to those of the invaders. The verbs which in the English version are in the past tense are really in a kind of prophetic present, painting the future as if actually passing before the prophet’s gaze.The armour of the house of the forest.—More fully (as in 1 Kings 7:2; 1 Kings 10:17), “the house of the forest... read more
(9) Ye have seen also the breaches . . .—The prophet paints the hasty preparations for defence. So in 2 Chronicles 32:5 : “Hezekiah built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers,” and added an outer line of defence. The “city of David” is, of course, the fortress of Zion.The waters of the lower pool.—This was the Lower Gihon, now the Birket-es-Sultan. The operation is described more fully in 2 Chronicles 32:3-4. Its object was to stop the outflow of the streams, and... read more
(10) Ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem.—The preparations for defence are continued. The houses were numbered that some might be pulled down and others left, as strategical plans might determine. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 32:5.) So in what was probably a contemporary psalm we have, “Walk about Zion . . . tell the towers thereof . . . mark ye well her bulwarks” (Psalms 48:12). So in the later siege of Jerusalem houses were thrown down by (or, more accurately, on account of) the mounds that were... read more
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Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 22:13
13. Notwithstanding Jehovah's "call to mourning" ( :-), many shall make the desperate state of affairs a reason for reckless revelry (Isaiah 5:11; Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 5:14; Jeremiah 18:12; 1 Corinthians 15:32). 1 Corinthians 15:32- :. PROPHECY THAT SHEBNA SHOULD BE DEPOSED FROM BEING PREFECT OF THE PALACE, AND ELIAKIM PROMOTED TO THE OFFICE. In Isaiah 36:3; Isaiah 36:22; Isaiah 37:2, we find Shebna "a scribe," and no longer prefect of the palace ("over the household"), and Eliakim in that... read more