Isaiah 33:7-12

3. WHERE NEED IS GREATEST HELP IS NEAREST

Isaiah 33:7-12

7          Behold, their 7valiant ones shall cry without:

The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.

8     The highways lie waste,

The wayfaring man ceaseth:He hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities,He regardeth no man.

9     The earth mourneth and languisheth:

Lebanon is ashamed and 8 hewn down:

Sharon is like a wilderness;And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

10     Now will I rise, saith the Lord;

Now will I be exalted;Now will I lift up myself.

11     Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble:

Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.

12     And the people shall be as the burnings of lime:

As thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 33:7. The LXX. have somehow derived אראלם from יָרֵא “to be afraid,” for they translate: “ἔν τᾡ φοβῳ ὑμῶν αὐτοὶ φοβηθήσονται” The other ancient versions refer the word to ראה. Thus the Vulg. ecce videntes clamabunt foris. Symm. and Theod. “ὀφθήσομαι αὐτοῖς” Aquila:ὁραθήσομαι. It appears that they read אֶרְאֶלָּם as if it were אֵרָאֶלָּם (syncopated from אֵרָאֶה לָּהֶם, like מַלַּכֶם from מַה לָּכֶם). Similarly the Chald. and Syr. (comp. Gesen. in loc). But these derivations and explanations are ungrammatical and do not suit the context. In 2 Samuel 23:30 אֲרִיאֵל seems to serve as designation for heroes, and in fact as nom. propr. though still retaining its fundamental appellative meaning, since it reads there שְׁנֵי אֲרִיאֵל and not אֲרִיאֵלִים or אֲרְיִיִ אֵל. But from אֲרִיאֵל may be derived either אַרְאֵל (like אַבְנֵר from אֲבִינֵר 1 Samuel 14:50), and this form underlies the patronymic אַרְאֵלִי (Genesis 4:16; Numbers 26:17); or אֶרְאֵל like e.g., אֶבְיָסָף (1 Chronicles 6:8; 1 Chronicles 6:22) from אֲבִיאָסָף (Exodus 6:24), אֶבְיָתָר from אֲבִי יָתָר (1 Samuel 22:20 sq., etc.). From אֶרְאֵל comes our present word. אֲרִיאֵל=“God’s lion,” i.e., hero, a designation that occurs also in the Arabic and Persian (comp. asadallah and schir-choda. Bochart Hieroz. II., p. 7, ed. Rosenmueller, and Gesen. Thes., p.147). But this does not explain the daghesh forte in the ל. I would side with those that read אַרְאֵלִם or אַרְאֵלִם or אַרְאֵלָם, as eight codices actually have אַרְאֵלִים. Taking אֶרְאֵלָם as the mean between the Masoretic reading and what is otherwise demanded, we must in addition construe it as collective (ihre Heldenschaft).—מַר (comp. Isaiah 5:20; Isaiah 38:15; Isaiah 38:17) is as accusative to be regarded as dependent on יבכיון: “they weep bitterness,” i.e., bitter tears (comp. Zephaniah 1:14).—The form יבְכָּיוּן occurs again only Job 31:38; comp. Isaiah 21:12; Isaiah 31:3.

Isaiah 33:8. מָאַם with following accusative Job 9:21; with בְּ, Judges 9:38; Job 19:18. Comp. Psalms 89:39, where מָאַם is used in the same sense as זָנַח.

Isaiah 33:9. אָבַל in the masculine as a prepositive and remote predicate. Comp. Isaiah 24:4; Isaiah 24:7; Isaiah 26:8; Isaiah 19:8.—החפיר, direct causative Hiphil=pudorem producit. Isaiah 54:4.—קָמַל only again Isaiah 19:6. Pattahh in pause, Gr. § 65 a.

Isaiah 33:10. אֵרוֹמָם stands for אֶתְרוֹמָם, see Green’s Gr., § 82,5 a.

Isaiah 33:11. הָרָה with the accusative of fulness: comp. Isaiah 59:4; Psalms 7:15.—חֲשַׁשׁ see Isaiah 5:24.—קַשׁ see Isaiah 5:24;Isaiah 41:2; Isaiah 47:14.

Isaiah 33:12. קוצים comp. on Isaiah 32:13.—כָּסַח is desecare, abscindere: the word only here in Isaiah. Comp. Psalms 80:17.—יצַּתּוּ, comp. Isaiah 9:17; Jer. 41:58; Jeremiah 49:2, Green’s Gram., § 24, c, 149, 1.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The second wave-circle. It is broader as to I extent than the foregoing, but as regards intensity it is narrower. For it issues from the same point as the first, but extends only to the eve of the saving act. The distress occasioned by the hostile Assyrian is portrayed concretely and visibly, and just as visibly then do we see the Lord, as it were provoked by the intolerable distress, come to the rescue. A respectable embassy that Hezekiah had sent with a ransom had returned without accomplishing anything (Isaiah 33:7). They could only say that the Assyrian had indeed accepted the ransom, but spite of that ravaged the land (Isaiah 33:8-9). This is the overweening בָּגַד spoken of in Isaiah 33:1. Then Jehovah declares that now He will arise against the enemy (Isaiah 33:10). He threatens them that their plan shall come to naught, yea that it shall turn to their own destruction (Isaiah 33:11), and that they shall burn up like limestone, yea like dry brushwood (Isaiah 33:12).

2. Behold their valiant ones—burned with fire.

Isaiah 33:7-12. By צעקו and יבכיון the Prophet intends to express contrasts. Heroes raise a loud cry of lament; messengers of peace, that should bring and feel joy, weep. Almost all commentators agree that the Prophet means by these heroes and messengers of peace the ambassadors that Hezekiah sent to the Assyrian king to Lacish (2 Kings 18:14). They were to purchase the withdrawal of the Assyrians at the cost of subjection and a heavy ransom. Both were accepted. But after the prodigious sum of 300 talents in silver and 30 talents in gold was paid, the Assyrians still would not retire, but demanded beside the surrender of the capital. The ambassadors came back with this sad news, that was afterwards confirmed by the message of Rabshakeh, and with news of all the ruin that the Assyrians had wrought in the land. In verses 8, 9 they give information of the condition of the land as they had found it in consequence of these desolations. The roads lay desolate (comp. Judges 5:20;) passengers along them had ceased (Psalms 8:9; Isaiah 23:2; Lamentations 1:12; Lamentations 2:15); there was no commerce over them. He, i.e., the king of Assyria had broken covenant, in that, spite of the ransom he had accepted, he still did not retire, but made further demands. He treated the cities lightly, that is, not he despised them, but he captured them by his superior force that enabled him to make little account of their resistance. The words contain an intimation of the capture of the cities of Judah of which Isa 36:1; 1 Kings 18:13; 2 Chronicles 32:1, speak. Moreover he does not regard man; i.e., he sacrifices human life unsparingly (comp. Isaiah 2:22; Isaiah 13:17).

To this point the discourse is prose. Now it becomes poetry. For Isaiah 33:9 the Prophet personifies things of nature. The general notion earth is specified by naming the particular parts distinguished by their vegetation. First Lebanon, to the north of the Holy Land, is named. It is ashamed, withered. Sharon, rich in flowers, the plain between Cæsarea and Joppa, has become like a steppe (Isaiah 65:10). The two fruitful elevations east and west, Bashan and Carmel, especially noted for their forests (Isaiah 2:13) autumnlike shake off their leaves (Isaiah 52:2, comp. Exodus 14:27; Psalms 136:15). The sad news of the embassy is at an end. It bows the hearts of the Israelites down deep, but for the Lord it is the signal that now has come the moment to interfere. But with Him the interference is bitter earnest. This appears in the three-membered sentence with its thrice repeated self-summons, Isaiah 33:10. The Lord announces to the Assyrians the vanity of their purpose, yea its ruin to themselves. “Ye shall conceive hay,” i.e., your plans shall be like hay; not fresh, full of life, but utterly dry, without strength or sap; and hence when they come to the light they shall prove to be dry, dead stubble. That they shall prove their own destruction the Prophet expresses by saying: your puffing (comp. Isaiah 45:4; Isaiah 30:28) shall be a fire to devour you (Isaiah 1:31; Isaiah 9:17). This is characterized by a two-fold image (Isaiah 33:12). The first is burning lime. Water poured on lime causes it to sink away without flame (comp. Jeremiah 34:5; Deuteronomy 27:2; Deuteronomy 27:4; Amos 2:1). But thorns burn with a bright flame, a loud crackling and much smoke. It seems to me the Prophet would say that, in the overthrow of the Assyrians, many nations would disappear in the great conflagration unnoticed and leaving no trace, whereas the fall of others (he means, doubtless, the greater and better known) will make the world wonder at the grand spectacle they present.

Footnotes:

[7]Or, messengers.

[8]Or, withered away.