Isaiah Chapter 22

From The Open Bible Project

22:1 The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

• (a) Meaning, Judea, which was compassed about with mountains, and was called the valley of visions, because of the prophets, who were always there, whom they named Seers.
• (b) He speaks to Jerusalem, whose inhabitants fled up to the housetops for fear of their enemies.

22:2 You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.

• (c) Which was wont to be full of people and joy.
• (d) But for hunger.

22:3 All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away.

• (e) And led into captivity.
• (f) Who have fled from other places to Jerusalem for comfort.

22:4 Therefore I said, "Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don't labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

• (g) He shows what is the duty of the godly, when God’s plagues hang over the Church, and especially of the ministers, (Jeremiah 9:1).

22:5 For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains."

• (h) That is, the shout of the enemies whom God had appointed to destroy the city.

22:6 Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.

• (i) He reminds them how God delivered them once from Sennacherib, who brought the Persians and Syrians with him, that they might by returning to God avoid that great plague which they would suffer by Nebuchadnezzar.

22:7 It happened that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.

22:8 He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.

• (k) The secret place where the armour was: that is, in the house of the forest, (1 Kings 7:2).

22:9 You saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

• (l) You forfeited the ruinous places which were neglected in times of peace: meaning, the whole City, and the City of David, which was within the compass of the other.

22:10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

• (m) Either to pull down such as might hurt, or else to know what men they were able to make.

22:11 You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn't look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who purposed it long ago.

• (n) To provide if need should be of water.
• (o) To God who made Jerusalem: that is, they trusted more in these worldly means than in God.

22:12 In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:

22:13 and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die."

• (p) Instead of repentance you were joyful and made great cheer, contemning the admonitions of the prophets saying Let us eat and drink for our prophets say that we will die tomorrow.

22:14 Yahweh of Armies revealed himself in my ears, "Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die," says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

22:15 Thus says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, "Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,

• (q) Because the Hebrew word also signifies one who nourishes and cherishes, there are those of the scholars who think that this wicked man nourished a secret friendship with the Assyrians and Egyptians to betray the Church and to provide for himself against all dangers: in the mean season he packed craftily, and got of the best offices into his hand under Hezekiah, ever aspiring to the highest.

22:16 'What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?' Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!"

• (r) Meaning, that he was a stranger, and came up of nothing.
• (s) While he thought to make his name immortal by his famous sepulchre, he died most miserably among the Assyrians.

22:17 Behold, Yahweh will overcome you and hurl you away violently. Yes, he will grasp you firmly.

22:18 He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you shame of your lord's house.

• (t) Signifying that whatever dignity the wicked attain to, at length it will turn to the shame of those princes by whom they are preferred.

22:19 I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.

22:20 It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

• (u) To be steward again, out of which office he had been put, by the craft of Shebna.

22:21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

22:22 I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.

• (x) I will commit to him the full charge and government of the king’s house.

22:23 I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father's house.

• (y) I will establish him, and confirm him in his office, of this phrase read (Ezra 9:9).

22:24 They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers.

• (z) Meaning that both small and great who will come from Eliakim, will have praise and glory by his faithful officer.

22:25 "In that day," says Yahweh of Armies, "the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down, and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for Yahweh has spoken it."

• (a) He means Shebna, who in man’s judgment should never have fallen.