mh_parser/vol_split/23 - Isaiah/Chapter 17.xml

<div2 id="Is.xviii" n="xviii" next="Is.xix" prev="Is.xvii" progress="6.95%" title="Chapter XVII">
<h2 id="Is.xviii-p0.1">I S A I A H.</h2>
<h3 id="Is.xviii-p0.2">CHAP. XVII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Is.xviii-p1" shownumber="no">Syria and Ephraim were confederate against Judah
(<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.7.1-Isa.7.2" parsed="|Isa|7|1|7|2" passage="Isa 7:1,2"><i>ch.</i> vii. 1, 2</scripRef>),
and, they being so closely linked together in their counsels, this
chapter, though it be entitled "the burden of Damascus" (which was
the head city of Syria), reads the doom of Israel too. I. The
destruction of the strong cities both of Syria and Israel is here
foretold, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.1-Isa.17.5 Bible:Isa.17.9-Isa.17.11" parsed="|Isa|17|1|17|5;|Isa|17|9|17|11" passage="Isa 17:1-5,9-11">ver. 1-5 and ver.
9-11</scripRef>. II. In the midst of judgment mercy is remembered
to Israel, and a gracious promise made that a remnant should be
preserved from the calamities and should get good by them,
<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.6-Isa.17.8" parsed="|Isa|17|6|17|8" passage="Isa 17:6-8">ver. 6-8</scripRef>. III. The
overthrow of the Assyrian army before Jerusalem is pointed at,
<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.12-Isa.17.14" parsed="|Isa|17|12|17|14" passage="Isa 17:12-14">ver. 12-14</scripRef>. In order of
time this chapter should be placed next after <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.19.1-Isa.19.25" parsed="|Isa|19|1|19|25" passage="Isa 19:1-25"><i>ch.</i> ix.</scripRef>, for the destruction of
Damascus, here foretold, happened in the reign of Ahaz, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:2Kgs.16.9" parsed="|2Kgs|16|9|0|0" passage="2Ki 16:9">2 Kings xvi. 9</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Is.xviii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17" parsed="|Isa|17|0|0|0" passage="Isa 17" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Is.xviii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.1-Isa.17.5" parsed="|Isa|17|1|17|5" passage="Isa 17:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xviii-p1.9">
<h4 id="Is.xviii-p1.10">The Doom of Syria and
Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xviii-p1.11">b. c.</span> 712.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xviii-p2" shownumber="no">1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is
taken away from <i>being</i> a city, and it shall be a ruinous
heap.   2 The cities of Aroer <i>are</i> forsaken: they shall
be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make
<i>them</i> afraid.   3 The fortress also shall cease from
Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria:
they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the
<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xviii-p2.1">Lord</span> of hosts.   4 And in that
day it shall come to pass, <i>that</i> the glory of Jacob shall be
made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.   5
And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and
reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth
ears in the valley of Rephaim.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xviii-p3" shownumber="no">We have here the burden of Damascus; the
Chaldee paraphrase reads it, <i>The burden of the cup of the curse
to drink to Damascus in;</i> and, the ten tribes being in alliance,
they must expect to pledge Damascus in this cup of trembling that
is to go round. 1. Damascus itself, the head city of Syria, must be
destroyed; the houses, it is likely, will be burnt, as least the
walls, and gates, and fortifications demolished, and the
inhabitants carried away captive, so that for the present it is
<i>taken away from being a city,</i> and is reduced not only to a
village, but to <i>a ruinous heap,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.1" parsed="|Isa|17|1|0|0" passage="Isa 17:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>. Such desolating work as this
does sin make with cities. 2. The country towns are abandoned by
their inhabitants, frightened or forced away by the invaders:
<i>The cities of Aroer</i> (a province of Syria so called) <i>are
forsaken</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.2" parsed="|Isa|17|2|0|0" passage="Isa 17:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>);
the conquered dare not dwell in them, and the conquerors have no
occasion for them, nor did they seize them for want, but
wantonness; so that the places which should be for men to live in
are for <i>flocks to lie down in,</i> which they may do, and none
will disturb nor dislodge them. Stately houses are converted into
sheep-cotes. It is strange that great conquerors should pride
themselves in being common enemies to mankind. But, how unrighteous
soever they are, God is righteous in causing those cities to spue
out their inhabitants, who by their wickedness had made themselves
vile; it is better that <i>flocks should lie down there</i> than
that they should harbour such as are in open rebellion against God
and virtue. 3. The strongholds of Israel, the kingdom of the ten
tribes, will be brought to ruin: <i>The fortress shall cease from
Ephraim</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.3" parsed="|Isa|17|3|0|0" passage="Isa 17:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>),
that in Samaria, and all the rest. They had joined with Syria in
invading Judah very unnaturally; and now those that had been
partakers in sin should be made partakers in ruin, and justly. When
<i>the fortress shall cease from Ephraim,</i> by which Israel will
be weakened, the kingdom will cease from Damascus, by which Syria
will be ruined. The Syrians were the ring-leaders in that
confederacy against Judah, and therefore they are punished first
and sorest; and, because they boasted of their alliance with
Israel, now that Israel is weakened they are upbraided with those
boasts: "<i>The remnant of Syria shall be as the glory of the
children of Israel;</i> those few that remain of the Syrians shall
be in as mean and despicable a condition as the children of Israel
are, and the glory of Israel shall be no relief or reputation to
them." Sinful confederacies will be no strength, no stay, to the
confederates, when God's judgments come upon them. See here what
the glory of Jacob is when God contends with him, and what little
reason Syria will have to be proud of resembling the glory of
Jacob. (1.) It is wasted like a man in a consumption, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p3.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.4" parsed="|Isa|17|4|0|0" passage="Isa 17:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. <i>The glory of
Jacob</i> was their numbers, that they were as the sand of the sea
for multitude; but this glory <i>shall be made thin,</i> when many
are cut off, and few left. Then the <i>fatness of their flesh,</i>
which was their pride and security, <i>shall wax lean,</i> and the
body of the people shall become a perfect skeleton, nothing but
skin and bones. Israel died of a lingering disease; the kingdom of
the ten tribes wasted gradually; God was to them <i>as a moth,</i>
<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p3.5" osisRef="Bible:Hos.5.12" parsed="|Hos|5|12|0|0" passage="Ho 5:12">Hos. v. 12</scripRef>. Such is all the
glory of this world: it soon withers, and is made thin; but thee is
a far more exceeding and external weight of glory designed for the
spiritual seed of Jacob, which is not subject to any such
decay—fatness of God's house, which will not <i>wax lean.</i> (2.)
It is all gathered and carried away by the Assyrian army, as the
corn is carried out of the field by the husbandmen, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p3.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.5" parsed="|Isa|17|5|0|0" passage="Isa 17:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>. The corn is the glory of
the fields (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p3.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.65.13" parsed="|Ps|65|13|0|0" passage="Ps 65:13">Ps. lxv. 13</scripRef>);
but, when it is reaped and gone, where is the glory? The people had
by their sins made themselves ripe for ruin, and their glory was as
quickly, as easily, as justly, and as irresistibly, cut down and
taken away, as the corn is out of the field by the husbandman.
God's judgments are compared to the <i>thrusting in of the sickle
when the harvest is ripe,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p3.8" osisRef="Bible:Rev.14.15" parsed="|Rev|14|15|0|0" passage="Re 14:15">Rev.
xiv. 15</scripRef>. And the victorious army, like the careful
husbandmen in the valley of Rephaim, where the corn was
extraordinary, would not, if they could help it, leave an ear
behind, would lose nothing that they could lay their hands on.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Is.xviii-p3.9" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.6-Isa.17.8" parsed="|Isa|17|6|17|8" passage="Isa 17:6-8" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xviii-p3.10">
<h4 id="Is.xviii-p3.11">The Doom of Syria and
Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xviii-p3.12">b. c.</span> 712.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xviii-p4" shownumber="no">6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as
the shaking of an olive tree, two <i>or</i> three berries in the
top of the uppermost bough, four <i>or</i> five in the outmost
fruitful branches thereof, saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xviii-p4.1">Lord</span> God of Israel.   7 At that day shall a
man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy
One of Israel.   8 And he shall not look to the altars, the
work of his hands, neither shall respect <i>that</i> which his
fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xviii-p5" shownumber="no">Mercy is here reserved, in a parenthesis,
in the midst of judgment, for a remnant that should escape the
common ruin of the kingdom of the ten tribes. Though the Assyrians
took all the care they could that none should slip out of their
net, yet the meek of the earth were hidden in the day of the Lord's
anger, and had their lives given them for a prey and made
comfortable to them by their retirement to the land of Judah, where
they had the liberty of God's courts. 1. They shall be but a small
remnant, a very few, who shall be marked for preservation
(<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.6" parsed="|Isa|17|6|0|0" passage="Isa 17:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>): <i>Gleaning
grapes shall be left in it.</i> The body of the people were carried
into captivity, but here and there one was left behind, perhaps one
of two in a bed when the other was taken, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Luke.17.34" parsed="|Luke|17|34|0|0" passage="Lu 17:34">Luke xvii. 34</scripRef>. The most desolating judgments
in this world are short of the last judgment, which shall be
universal and which none shall escape. In times of the greatest
calamity some are kept safe, as in times of the greatest degeneracy
some are kept pure. But the fewness of those that escape supposes
the captivity of the far greatest part; those that are left are but
like the poor remains of an olive tree when it has been carefully
shaken by the owner; if there be <i>two or three berries in the top
of the uppermost bough</i> (out of the reach of those that shook
it), that is all. Such is the <i>remnant according to the election
of grace,</i> very few in comparison with the multitudes that walk
on in the broad way. 2. They shall be a sanctified remnant,
<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.7-Isa.17.8" parsed="|Isa|17|7|17|8" passage="Isa 17:7,8"><i>v.</i> 7, 8</scripRef>. These few
that are preserved are such as, in the prospect of the judgment
approaching, had repented of their sins and reformed their lives,
and therefore were snatched thus as brands out of the burning, or
such as having escaped, and becoming refugees in strange countries,
were awakened, partly by a sense of the distinguishing mercy of
their deliverance, and partly by the distresses they were still in,
to return to God. (1.) They shall look up to their Creator, shall
enquire, <i>Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the
night,</i> in such a night of affliction as this? <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.10-Job.35.11" parsed="|Job|35|10|35|11" passage="Job 35:10,11">Job xxxv. 10, 11</scripRef>. They shall
acknowledge his hand in all the events concerning them, merciful
and afflictive, and shall submit to his hand. They shall give him
the glory due to his name, and be suitably affected with his
providences. They shall expect relief and succour from him and
depend upon him to help them. Their <i>eyes shall have respect</i>
to him, <i>as the eyes of a servant to the hand of his master,</i>
<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.132.2" parsed="|Ps|132|2|0|0" passage="Ps 132:2">Ps. cxxiii. 2</scripRef>. Observe, It
is our duty at all times to have respect to God, to have our eyes
ever towards him, both as our Maker (the author of our being and
the God of nature) and as the Holy One of Israel, a God in covenant
with us and the God of grace; particularly, when we are in
affliction, our eyes must be towards the Lord, to <i>pluck our feet
out of the net</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p5.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.25.15" parsed="|Ps|25|15|0|0" passage="Ps 25:15">Ps. xxv.
15</scripRef>); to bring us to this is the design of his providence
as he is our Maker and the work of his grace as he is the Holy One
of Israel. (2.) They shall look off from their idols, the creatures
of their own fancy, shall no longer worship them, and seek to them,
and expect relief from them. For God will be alone regarded, or he
does not look upon himself as at all regarded. He that looks to his
Maker must not <i>look to the altars, the work of his hands,</i>
but disown them and cast them off, must not retain the least
respect for <i>that which his fingers have made,</i> but break it
to pieces, though it be his own workmanship—<i>the groves and the
images;</i> the word signifies images made in honour of the sun and
by which he was worshipped, the most ancient and most plausible
idolatry, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p5.7" osisRef="Bible:Deut.4.19 Bible:Job.31.26" parsed="|Deut|4|19|0|0;|Job|31|26|0|0" passage="De 4:19,Job 31:26">Deut. iv. 19; Job
xxxi. 26</scripRef>. We have reason to account those happy
afflictions which part between us and our sins, and by sensible
convictions of the vanity of the world, that great idol, cool our
affections to it and lower our expectations from it.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Is.xviii-p5.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.9-Isa.17.11" parsed="|Isa|17|9|17|11" passage="Isa 17:9-11" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xviii-p5.9">
<h4 id="Is.xviii-p5.10">The Doom of Syria and
Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xviii-p5.11">b. c.</span> 712.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xviii-p6" shownumber="no">9 In that day shall his strong cities be as a
forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of
the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.   10
Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not
been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou
plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips:  
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning
shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: <i>but</i> the harvest
<i>shall be</i> a heap in the day of grief and of desperate
sorrow.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xviii-p7" shownumber="no">Here the prophet returns to foretel the
woeful desolations that should be made in the land of Israel by the
army of the Assyrians. 1. That the cities should be deserted. Even
the strong cities, which should have protected the country, shall
not be able to protect themselves: They <i>shall be as a forsaken
bough and an uppermost branch</i> of an old tree, which has gone to
decay, is forsaken of its leaves, and appears on the top of the
tree, bare, and dry, and dead; so shall their strong cities look
when the inhabitants have deserted them and the victorious army of
the enemy pillaged and defaced them, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.9" parsed="|Isa|17|9|0|0" passage="Isa 17:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>. They shall be as the cities (so
it may be supplied) which the Canaanites left, the old inhabitants
of the land, because of the children of Israel, when God brought
them in with a high hand, to take possession of that good land,
cities which they built not. As the Canaanites then fled before
Israel, so Israel should now flee before the Assyrians. And herein
the word of God was fulfilled, that, if they committed the same
abominations, <i>the land</i> should <i>spue them out, as it spued
out the nations that were before them</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Lev.18.28" parsed="|Lev|18|28|0|0" passage="Le 18:28">Lev. xviii. 28</scripRef>), and that as, while they had
God on their side, <i>one of them chased a thousand,</i> so, when
they had made him their enemy, <i>a thousand</i> of them should
<i>flee at the rebuke of one;</i> so that in the cities should be
desolation, according to the threatenings in the law, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Lev.26.31 Bible:Deut.28.51" parsed="|Lev|26|31|0|0;|Deut|28|51|0|0" passage="Le 26:31,De 28:51">Lev. xxvi. 31; Deut. xxviii.
51</scripRef>. 2. That the country should be laid waste, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.10-Isa.17.11" parsed="|Isa|17|10|17|11" passage="Isa 17:10,11"><i>v.</i> 10, 11</scripRef>. Observe here,
(1.) The sin that had provoked God to bring so great a destruction
upon that pleasant land. It was <i>for the iniquity of those that
dwelt therein.</i> "It is <i>because thou hast forgotten the God of
thy salvation</i> and all the great salvations he has wrought for
thee, hast forgotten thy dependence upon him and obligations to
him, and <i>hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength,</i>
not only who is himself a strong rock, but who has been thy
strength many a time, or thou wouldst have been sunk and broken
long since." Note, The God of our salvation is the rock of our
strength; and our forgetfulness and unmindfulness of him are at the
bottom of all sin. <i>Therefore</i> have we <i>perverted our way,
because we have forgotten the Lord our God,</i> and so we undo
ourselves. (2.) The destruction itself, aggravated by the great
care they took to improve their land and to make it yet more
pleasant. [1.] Look upon it at the time of the seedness, and it was
all like a garden and a vineyard; that pleasant land was
replenished with pleasant plants, the choicest of its own growth;
nay, so nice and curious were the inhabitants that, not content
with them, they sent to all the neighbouring countries for strange
slips, the more valuable for being strange, uncommon, far-fetched,
and dear-bought, though perhaps they had of their own not inferior
to them. This was an instance of their pride and vanity, and (that
ruining error) their affection to be <i>like the nations. Wheat,
and honey, and oil</i> were their staple commodities (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.27.17" parsed="|Ezek|27|17|0|0" passage="Eze 27:17">Ezek. xxvii. 17</scripRef>); but, not content
with these, they must have flowers and greens with strange names
imported from other nations, and a great deal of care and pains
must be taken by hot-beds to make these plants to grow; the soil
must be forced, and they must be covered with glasses to shelter
them, and early in the morning the gardeners must be up to make the
seed to flourish, that it may excel those of their neighbours. The
ornaments of nature are not to be altogether slighted, but it is a
folly to be over-fond of them, and to bestow more time, and cost,
and pains about them than they deserve, as many do. But here this
instance seems to be put in general for their great industry in
cultivating their ground, and their expectations from it
accordingly; they doubt not but their plants will grow and
flourish. But, [2.] Look upon the same ground at the time of
harvest, and it is all like a wilderness, a dismal melancholy
place, even to the spectators, much more to the owners; for <i>the
harvest shall be a heap,</i> all in confusion, <i>in the day of
grief and of desperate sorrow.</i> The harvest used to be a time of
joy, of singing and shouting (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p7.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.16.10" parsed="|Isa|16|10|0|0" passage="Isa 16:10"><i>ch.</i> xvi. 10</scripRef>); but this harvest the
hungry eat up (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p7.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.5.5" parsed="|Job|5|5|0|0" passage="Job 5:5">Job v. 5</scripRef>),
which makes it a day of grief, and the more because the plants were
pleasant and costly (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p7.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.10" parsed="|Isa|17|10|0|0" passage="Isa 17:10"><i>v.</i>
10</scripRef>) and their expectations proportionably raised. The
harvest had sometimes been a day of grief, if the crop was thin and
the weather unseasonable; and yet in that case there was hope that
the next would be better. But this shall be desperate sorrow, for
they shall see not only this year's products carried off, but the
property of the ground altered and their conquerors lords of it.
The margin reads it, <i>The harvest shall be removed</i> (into the
enemy's country or camp, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p7.9" osisRef="Bible:Deut.28.33" parsed="|Deut|28|33|0|0" passage="De 28:33">Deut. xxviii.
33</scripRef>) <i>in the day of inheritance</i> (when thou
thoughtest to inherit it), <i>and there shall be deadly sorrow.</i>
This is a good reason why we should not lay up our treasure in
those things which we may so quickly be despoiled of, but in that
good part which shall never be taken away from us.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Is.xviii-p7.10" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.12-Isa.17.14" parsed="|Isa|17|12|17|14" passage="Isa 17:12-14" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xviii-p7.11">
<h4 id="Is.xviii-p7.12">The Doom of Syria and
Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xviii-p7.13">b. c.</span> 712.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xviii-p8" shownumber="no">12 Woe to the multitude of many people,
<i>which</i> make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the
rushing of nations, <i>that</i> make a rushing like the rushing of
mighty waters!   13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of
many waters: but <i>God</i> shall rebuke them, and they shall flee
far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before
the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.   14
And behold at evening tide trouble; <i>and</i> before the morning
he <i>is</i> not. This <i>is</i> the portion of them that spoil us,
and the lot of them that rob us.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xviii-p9" shownumber="no">These verses read the doom of those that
spoil and rob the people of God. If the Assyrians and Israelites
invade and plunder Judah, if the Assyrian army take God's people
captive and lay their country waste, let them know that ruin will
be their lot and portion. They are here brought in, 1. Triumphing
over the people of God. They relied upon their numbers. The
Assyrian army was made up out of divers nations: it was <i>the
multitude of many people</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.12" parsed="|Isa|17|12|0|0" passage="Isa 17:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>), by which weight they hoped to
carry the cause. They were very noisy, like the roaring of the
seas; they talked big, hectored, and threatened, to frighten God's
people from resisting them, and all their allies from sending in to
their aid. Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, in their speeches and
letters, made a mighty noise to strike a terror upon Hezekiah and
his people; the nations that followed them <i>made a rushing like
the rushing of many waters,</i> and those mighty ones, that
threaten to bear down all before them and carry away every thing
that stands in their way. <i>The floods have lifted up their voice,
have lifted up their waves;</i> such is the tumult of the people,
and the heathen, when they rage, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.2.1 Bible:Ps.93.3" parsed="|Ps|2|1|0|0;|Ps|93|3|0|0" passage="Ps 2:1,93:3">Ps. ii. 1; xciii. 3</scripRef>. 2. Triumphed over by
the judgments of God. They thought to carry their point by dint of
noise; but woe to them (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.12" parsed="|Isa|17|12|0|0" passage="Isa 17:12"><i>v.</i>
12</scripRef>), for he <i>shall rebuke them,</i> that is, God
shall, one whom they little think of, have no regard to, stand in
no awe of; he shall give them a check with an invisible hand,
<i>and</i> then <i>they shall flee afar off.</i> Sennacherib, and
Rabshakeh, and the remains of their forces, shall run away in a
fright, and shall be chased by their own terrors, <i>as the chaff
of the mountains</i> which stand bleak <i>before the wind, and like
a rolling thing before the whirlwind,</i> like thistle-down (so the
margin); they make themselves <i>as chaff before the wind</i>
(<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.5" parsed="|Ps|35|5|0|0" passage="Ps 35:5">Ps. xxxv. 5</scripRef>) and then
<i>the angel of the Lord</i> (as it follows there), the same angel
that slew many of them, shall chase the rest. God will make <i>them
like a wheel,</i> or rolling thing, and then <i>persecute them with
his tempest</i> and <i>make them afraid with his storm,</i>
<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p9.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.83.13 Bible:Ps.83.15" parsed="|Ps|83|13|0|0;|Ps|83|15|0|0" passage="Ps 83:13,15">Ps. lxxxiii. 13, 15</scripRef>.
Note, God can dispirit the enemies of his church when they are most
courageous and confident, and dissipate them when they seem most
closely consolidated. This shall be done suddenly (<scripRef id="Is.xviii-p9.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.14" parsed="|Isa|17|14|0|0" passage="Isa 17:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>): <i>At
evening-tide</i> they are very troublesome, and threaten trouble to
the people of God; but <i>before the morning they are not.</i> At
sleeping time they are cast into a deep sleep, <scripRef id="Is.xviii-p9.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.26.5-Ps.26.6" parsed="|Ps|26|5|26|6" passage="Ps 26:5,6">Ps. xxvi. 5, 6</scripRef>. It was in the night that the
angel routed the Assyrian army. God can in a moment break the power
of his church's enemies, even when it appears most formidable; and
this is written for the encouragement of the people of God in all
ages, when they find themselves an unequal match for their enemies;
for <i>this is the portion of those that spoil us,</i> they shall
themselves be spoiled. God will plead his church's cause, and those
that meddle do it to their own hurt.</p>
</div></div2>