Isaiah 14:1-2

2. THE DELIVERANCE OF ISRAEL

Isaiah 14:1-2

1          For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob,

And will yet choose Israel,And set them in their own land:And the strangers shall be joined with them,And they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

2     And 1the people shall take them, and bring them to their place:

And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LordFor servants and handmaids:And 2they shall take them captives, 3whose captives they were;

And they shall rule over their oppressors.

GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL

Isaiah 14:1. הִנִּיחַ. comp. Isaiah 28:2; Isaiah 46:7. נלוה as to sense and construction like Isaiah 56:3; Isaiah 56:6, where alone the word occurs again in this sense.—Niph. נספח only here. Comp. Hithp. 1 Samuel 26:19 and on Isaiah 37:30.

Isaiah 14:2. Hithp. התנחל in Isa. only here.—The accusative depends on the transitive notion that is latent in the reflexive form. Comp. Numbers 33:54 and often. The expression אדמת י׳ occurs only here. But comp. Isaiah 14:25; Joel 1:6; 4:2; Jeremiah 2:7, etc.—שׁבים. Comp. 1 Kings 8:46-50.—רָדָה in Isa. only here, Isaiah 14:6; Isaiah 41:2 (Hiph.).—נֹגְשִׂים. Comp. Isaiah 3:12; Isaiah 9:3; Isaiah 60:17.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The reason for the destruction of Babylon described in Isaiah 13:14-22 is here indicated by the Prophet to be the intention of Jehovah to have mercy again on His people, and bring them back into their land. That shall take place by the glad consent and even active co-operation of the heathen nations. These will join themselves to Israel—in fact lead Israel into their own land (Isaiah 14:1). Israel will then have them for servants and maids, and will hold those in prison who before devoted them to such a fate (Isaiah 14:2).

2. For the Lord—their oppressors.

Isaiah 14:1-2. Though Israel’s deliverance is not the sole motive of the Lord in destroying Babylon, it is yet a chief motive. Isaiah in the second part, and Jeremiah in the denunciations of judgments (Jeremiah 50, 51) that connect so closely with the present and the later prophecies of Isaiah on this subject, frequently declare that Babylon’s fall is to be Israel’s deliverance (e.g., Jeremiah 50:4 sqq., Jeremiah 50:8 sqq., Jeremiah 50:28; Jeremiah 51:6, Jeremiah 50:36 sqq., Jeremiah 50:45 sqq.). The adhesion of strangers, who would be witnesses of the mighty deeds of Jehovah in judging and delivering, is a trait that the second return from bondage will have in common with the first (Exodus 12:19; Exodus 12:38; Numbers 11:4, etc.). And the people shall take them, etc.—It is more exactly explained that this adhesion of strangers will not be to seek protection, but to form an honorable and serviceable attendance as friends and admirers. This is a thought that often recurs in the second part of Isaiah 44:5; Isaiah 49:22 sq.; Isaiah 55:5; Isaiah 60:4-9 sq., This notion that strangers should amicably attend Israel and then be enslaved for it occasions offence. But the heathen will only display this friendliness constrained thereto by the mighty deeds of Jehovah. And even if the Old Testament knows of a conversion of the heathen to Jehovah (Hosea 2:23; Isaiah 65:1; comp. Romans 9:24 sqq.; Isaiah 10:18 sqq.)—yet, from the Old Testament view-point, there remains ever such a chasm between Israel and even the converted heathen that for the latter no other position was conceivable than that of those strangers who went along to Canaan out of Egypt or the desert, or of the Canaanites that remained (1 Kings 9:20 sq). This is a consequence of that fleshly consciousness of nobility of which Israel was full. Only by Christ could that chasm be bridged over, in whom there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision (Galatians 5:6; Galatians 3:28; Romans 10:12). [“The simple meaning of this promise seems to be that the church or chosen people and the other nations should change places, the oppressed becoming the oppressor, and the slave the master. This of course admits both an external and internal fulfilment. In a lower sense and on a smaller scale it was accomplished in the restoration of the Jews from exile; but its full accomplishment is yet to come, not with respect to the Jews as a people, for their pre-eminence has ceased forever, but with respect to the church, including Jews and Gentiles, which has succeeded to the rights and privileges, promises and actual possessions of God’s ancient people. The true principle of exposition is adopted even by the Rabbins. Jarchi refers the promise to the future, to the period of complete redemption. Kimchi more explicitly declares that its fulfilment is to be sought partly in the restoration from Babylon, and partly in the days of the Messiah.” J. A. Alex.in loc.]

Footnotes:

[1]Or, nations.

[2]Or, they shall be captors of their captors.

[3]Heb. that had taken them captives.