Background of Isa 2-5: the reign of Uzziah, a period marked by
great prosperity (2Ch 26). The ships of Isa 2:16 // the development of port of
Elath in 2Ki 14:22. (And Isa 6:1 occurs in the year when Uzziah died.)
CONCERNING... JERUSALEM: "We do not know anything of
Isaiah's family or of the details of his upbringing. He was a member of some
family of Jerusalem, and in intimate relations with the Court. It has been
believed that he was of royal blood, but it matters little whether this be true
or not. A spirit so wise and masterful as his did not need social rank to fit it
for that intimacy with princes which has doubtless suggested the legend of his
royal descent. What does matter is Isaiah's citizenship in Jerusalem, for this
colours all his prophecy. More than Athens to Demosthenes, Rome to Juvenal,
Florence to Dante, is Jerusalem to Isaiah. She is his immediate and ultimate
regard, the centre and return of all his thoughts, the hinge of the history of
his time, the one thing worth preserving amidst its disasters, the summit of
those brilliant hopes with which he fills the future. He has traced for us the
main features of her position and some of the lines of her construction, many of
the great figures of her streets, the fashions of her women, the arrival of
embassies, the effect of rumours. He has painted her aspect in triumph, in
siege, in famine, and in earthquake; war filling her valleys with chariots, and
again nature rolling tides of fruitfulness up to her gates; her moods of worship
and panic and profligacy -- till we see them all as clearly as the shadow
following the sunshine, and the breeze the breeze, across the cornfields of our
own summers.
"If he takes wider observation of mankind, Jerusalem is his
watch-tower. It is for her defence he battles through fifty years of
statesmanship, and all his prophecy may be said to travail in anguish for her
new birth. He was never away from her walls, but not even the psalms of the
captives by the rivers of Babylon, with the desire of exile upon them, exhibit
more beauty and pathos than the lamentations which Isaiah poured upon
Jerusalem's sufferings or the visions in which he described her future solemnity
and peace.
"It is not with surprise, therefore, that we find the first
prophecies of Isaiah directed upon his mother city" (GA Smith,
"Isaiah").
Isa 2:2
MOUNTAIN: That is, the "kingdom": cp Dan 2:35,44; Zec
14:10.
MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD'S TEMPLE: The vast court of the
Gentiles in Solomon's Temple (Temple 25).
AMONG THE MOUNTAINS: That is, other earthly powers: Jer
51:24,25; Zec 4:7.
ALL NATIONS WILL STREAM TO IT: Jer 31:12.
Isa 2:3
COME, LET US GO UP: A winning appeal taken up also by
later prophets: Jer 31:12; 50:5; Zec 8:21,22.
HE WILL TEACH US HIS WAYS, SO THAT WE MAY WALK IN HIS
PATHS: See Zec 8:20-22; 14:16-19. The eagerness to learn expressed here is
an almost incredible ct with Isaiah's indignant accusations of Isa 1:10,
etc.
JERUSALEM: The capital of God's Kingdom: Jer 3:17; Mic
4:2; Isa 52:1,2; 62:1-7.
Isa 2:4
HE WILL JUDGE... SETTLE DISPUTES: Cp Isa 11:4. Christ
will rebuke the nations afar off: Mic 4:3. He will first "break in pieces" (Dan
2:45; Psa 2:9; Rev 2:27), and then rule with a rod of iron (Psa 110:2; Rev
19:15).
THEY WILL BEAT THEIR SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES AND THEIR
SPEARS INTO PRUNING HOOKS: This would have happened quite literally with the
weapons gathered from the devastated Assyrian camp outside Jerusalem, after the
destruction of Sennacherib's host.
NOR WILL THEY TRAIN FOR WAR ANYMORE: In short, wars
will cease: Psa 46:9; Hos 2:18.
Isa 2:7
SILVER... GOLD... TREASURES: Tribute to Uzziah: 2Ch
26:8.
HORSES... CHARIOTS: Uzziah's wholesale preparation for
warfare: 2Ch 26:11-15. Judah's royal bureaucracy had accumulated great wealth
and military might, in violation of Deu 17:16,17.
Isa 2:8
THEIR LAND IS FULL OF IDOLS: As those of Syria and
Babylon, imported by Ahaz (2Ki 16:10-12).
THE WORK OF THEIR HANDS: Ref to idols, but also to
armaments (v 7), in which men trust also!
Isa 2:10
Poss ref to Uzziah's being stricken with leprosy for the
arrogance (vv 11,12) of attempting to act as a priest. According to Josephus,
his smiting was accompanied by a great earthquake (cp v 19 here), and a great
beam of light (the Shekinah glory?) revealing his smitten flesh.
HIDE IN THE GROUND: Death, hiding in the
dust?
Isa 2:13
CEDARS OF LEBANON: The house of the forest of Lebanon
(1Ki 7:2,3; 10:17; Zec 11:1,2), the mighty armory built by Solomon. Cp also Jer
22:6,7,23; Isa 10:34; Eze 17:3.
OAKS OF BASHAN: Perhaps a similar allusion (see Zec
11:1,2 again), but perhaps also sym of the "mighty men" of Judah (2Ki
24:15).
Isa 2:15
TOWERS... WALLS: The elaborate defenses of Jerusalem
(2Ch 26:9,10; 27:3,4; Hos 8:14; Mic 5:11) -- which crashed to ruins in the great
earthquake of Uzziah's day (Jos Ant 9,10,4).
Isa 2:16
TRADING SHIP: Heb "ship of Tarshish". See Lesson,
Tarshish.
SHIP... VESSEL: Solomon, Jehoshaphat, and Uzziah (1Ki
9:26; 22:48; 2Ki 14:22) had all attempted to boost the nation's prosperity with
a fleet of merchantmen sailing east from their port of Elath. Perhaps the great
earthquake also loosed a tidal wave which destroyed the fleet at anchor (WIsa
107).
EVERY STATELY VESSEL: "All pleasant pictures" (AV);
"images of desire"; "goddesses" (LXX). Context suggests elaborate carved or
painted mastheads installed on the fleet -- worshiping gods of sea?
Isa 2:18
// Zec 13:2; Rev 6:6; 13:15; 19:20. An obvious LD application
as well.
Isa 2:19
WHEN HE RISES TO SHAKE THE EARTH: Earthquakes accompany
awesome manifestations of God: Exo 19:18; Jdg 5:4; Psa 77:18; 114:4; Isa
2:10-22; Jer 4:24; Eze 38:20; Joe 3:16; Amo 9:1,5; Hag 2:6; Zec 14:4; Heb
12:26-28; Rev 6:12; 11:19; 16:18. Such an earthquake that, many years later, was
still talked about (Zec 14:4,5).