Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.

“A warning to the party among the Jews, who, though Judah was then the subordinate ally of Assyria, were looking to Egypt as a preferable ally (Isa 30:7). Ethiopia was their "expectation"; for Palestine had not yet obtained, but hoped for alliance with it.”

A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media!

“Go up--Isaiah abruptly recites the order which he hears God giving to the Persians, the instruments of His vengeance (Isa 13:3, 17). Elam--a province of Persia, the original place of their settlement (Ge 10:22), east of the Euphrates.”

Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.

“16:11). pain--(Compare Isa 13:8; Na 2:10). at the hearing--The Hebrew may mean, "I was so bowed down that I could not hear; I was so dismayed that I could not see" (Ge 16:2;”

They prepare a table, they lay out a carpet, they eat, they drink! Rise up, O princes, oil the shields!

“Babylon had many watchtowers on its walls. anoint . . . shield--This was done to prevent the leather of the shield becoming hard and liable to crack.”

For this is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.

“Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth--God's direction to Isaiah to set a watchman to "declare" what he sees. But as in Isa 21:10, Isaiah himself is represented as the one who "declared."”

When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, fully alert.”

“"Chariot" is not appropriate to be joined, as English Version translates, with "asses"; the Hebrew means plainly in Isa 21:7, as in Isa 21:9, "a body of men riding." The Persians used asses and camels for war [MAURER].”

Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

“But HORSLEY, "The man drawn in a car with a pair of riders." The first half of this verse describes what the watchman sees; the second half, what the watchman says, in consequence of what he sees.”

This is the burden against Dumah: One calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?”

“VITRINGA thinks "Dumah," Hebrew, "silence," is here used for Idumea, to imply that it was soon to be reduced to silence or destruction. Seir--the principal mountain in Idumea, south of the Dead Sea, in Arabia-Petræa.”

The watchman replies, “Morning has come, but also the night. If you would inquire, then inquire. Come back yet again.”

“This view is favored by Ob 10-21. if ye will inquire, inquire--If ye choose to consult me again, do so (similar phrases occur in Ge 43:14; Es 4:16). return, come--"Be converted to God (and then), come" [GESENIUS]; you will then receive a more favorable answer.”

The watchman replies, “Morning has come, but also the night. If you would inquire, then inquire. Come back yet again.”

“Is there a hope of the dawn of deliverance? Isaiah replies, The morning is beginning to dawn (to us); but night is also coming (to you). The Hebrew captives would be delivered, and taunting Edom punished.”

For the Lord GOD of Hosts has set a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision—of breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains.

“Some think a valley near Ophel is meant as about to be the scene of devastation (compare see on Isa 32:13,14). breaking . . . walls--that is, "a day of breaking the walls" of the city.”

You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool.

“Ye shall bring together into the city by subterranean passages cut in the rock of Zion, the fountain from which the lower pool (only mentioned here) is supplied. 2Ch 32:3-5, represent Hezekiah as having stopped the fountains to prevent the Assyrians getting water.”

But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

“Shebna is singled out as the subject of prophecy (the only instance of an individual being so in Isaiah), as being one of the irreligious faction that set at naught the prophet's warnings (Isa 28:1-33:24); perhaps it was he who advised the temporary ignominious submission…”

This is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace:

“Rather, "the king's friend," or "principal officer of the court" (1Ki 4:5; 1Ch 27:33, "the king's counsellor") [MAURER]. "This" is prefixed contemptuously (Ex 32:1). unto Shebna--The Hebrew for "unto" indicates an accosting of Shebna with an unwelcome message.”

I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

“But the phrase is rather figurative for sustaining the government on one's shoulders. Eliakim, as his name implies, is here plainly a type of the God-man Christ, the son of "David," of whom Isaiah (Isa 9:6) uses the same language as the former clause of…”

I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.

“The sense is: all that is valuable to the nation shall rest securely on him. In Ezr 9:8 "nail" is used of the large spike driven into the ground to fasten the cords of the tent to.”

So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the lesser vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar.

“Same image as in Isa 22:23. It was customary to "hang" the valuables of a house on nails (1Ki 10:16, 17, 21; So 4:4). offspring and the issue--rather, "the offshoots of the family, high and low" [VITRINGA].”

Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whose traders have crossed the sea.

“Zidon--of which Tyre was a colony, planted when Zidon was conquered by the Philistines of Ascalon. Zidon means a "fishing station"; this was its beginning. replenished--with wealth and an industrious population (Eze 27:3, 8, 23).”

When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.

“As, &c.--rather, "When the report (shall reach) the people of Egypt, they shall be sorely pained at the report concerning Tyre" (namely, its overthrow).”

Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away?

“Is this silent ruin all that is left of your once joyous city (Isa 23:12)? antiquity--The Tyrian priests boasted in HERODOTUS' time that their city had already existed 2300 years: an exaggeration, but still implying that it was ancient even then.”

Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

“Who--answered in Isa 23:9, "The Lord of hosts." crowning--crown-giving; that is, the city from which dependent kingdoms had arisen, as Tartessus in Spain, Citium in Cyprus, and Carthage in Africa (Eze 27:33). traffickers--literally, "Canaanites," who were famed for commerce (compare Ho 12:7, Margin).”

Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor.

“Rather, Tarshish, or Tartessus and its inhabitants, as the phrase usually means: they had been kept in hard bondage, working in silver and lead mines near Tarshish, by the parent city (Eze 26:17): but now "the bond of restraint" (for so "strength," Margin, "girdle," that…”

Look at the land of the Chaldeans—a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces.

“But most of the people had been transferred only a little before the time of this prophecy from their original seats in the north to Mesopotamia, and soon afterwards to South Babylonia.”

At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years—the span of a king’s life.

“29:10). shall Tyre sing as . . . harlot--It shall be to Tyre as the song of the harlot, namely, a harlot that has been forgotten, but who attracts notice again by her song.”

They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they proclaim the majesty of the LORD.

“They--those who are left: the remnant. sing for the majesty of the Lord--sing a thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord, who has so mercifully preserved them. from the sea--from the distant lands beyond the sea, whither they have escaped.”