Selected quad for the lemma: life_n
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A37290
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An exposition of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah by the endeavours of W. Day ...
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Day, William, ca. 1605-1684.
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1654
(1654)
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Wing D472; ESTC R6604
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788,151
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544
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wonted place it knowes not whether So Babylon being pursued by the Medes shall flie from her owne home into forreigne Lands which she knowes not that there she may save her life Here is a Relative without an Antecedent expressed The Relative It without an Antecedent but the Antecedent is easie to be understood for the Antecedent is Babylon of whom he speakes as of a woman by a Prosopopoeia This person is given here to Babylon to shew how her Inhabitants shall be forced to fly at that day And as a sheep that no man taketh up i. e. And as a wandering sheep that no man taketh up or hath care of when he seeth it wandering but lets it wander on For as such a sheep wandereth in unknown wayes untill it falls into some pit or other or into the jawes of the Wolfe or some other ravenous beast So shall Babylon wander untill shee falls into some destruction or other They shall turne every man to his own people i. e. They which came as Auxiliaries or were hired by the Babylonians to help them to serve them in their warres shall upon the comming of the Medes in the day of the Lord fly every one to his own home and leave the Babylonians destitute Here is a Relative againe viz. they put without an Antecedent after the manner of the Hebrews 15. Every one that is found i. e. Every Babylonian which the Medes find either remaining in Babylon or flying out of it Shall be thrust thorow Supple with a sword i. e. Shall be slaine And every one that is ioyned to them i. e. And every stranger or out-landish man that joyned himself to the Babylonians to help them By the sword Supple Of the Medes 16. Their Children also i. e. The Children also of the Babylonians Shall be dashed in pieces Supple By the Medes who shall take their Children and dash them against the stones as Psal 137. v. 9. Their houses shall be spoiled i. e. Their houses shall be plundered of all their goods 17. Behold I will stirre up the Medes against them i. e. For behold I will stir up the Medes against them Here he sheweth by whom he will execute his judgements upon the Babylonians he will execute them by the Medes Which shall not regard silver And therefore shall not call to the Babylonians to ransome their lives when they have got them into their power Nor accept of a ransome if the Babylonians should offer them a ransome to save their lives but shall kill every one which they take and meet with 18. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces i. e. They shall also dash out the brains of the young men with the stocks of their Bows This is a sign of extream fury and hatred On the fruit of the womb i. e. On Children For Children are the fruit of the womb Psal 127. v. 3. Their eyes shall not spare Children i. e This is a repetition of the fore-going sentence It is a sign of extream cruelty thus to use Children whose weak age used to priviledge them from the sword as Deut. 20. v. 13 14. Their eyes That is They. The eye which is but a part is put here by a Synechdoche for the whole man And therefore the eye rather than any other part because we are more ready to pitty a miserable object when we see it than when we hear of it c. 19. And Babylon the glory of Kingdomes The Assyrian had many Kingdomes subject to him in which there was no City more famous than Babylon Hence he calls it The glory of Kingdomes The beauty of the Chaldees excellencie i. e. The prime and chief and most beautiful of all those excellent Cities which the Chaldees had He puts beauty and excellencie here by a Metonymie for beautifull and excellent Cities Or by the Chaldees excellencie may be meant the Chaldees themselves by a Periphrasis So when we say of a General the Generals Excellencie we mean the General himself Babylon that famous City was scituate in Chaldea and therefore is it called the beauty of the Chaldees excellencie Shall be as when God overthrew Sodome and Gomorrah i. e. Shall be utterly overthrown Note here that by the overthrow of Sodome and Gomorrah is usually signified an utter destruction of a City and such a destruction as is never repaired again as appeares by this place and by Jerem. 49. v. 18. 20 It shall never be inhabited neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation An utter desolation is here prophesied of Babylon and that it should never be inhabited again But how could this Prophesie be fulfilled when the Medes broke to pieces the Assyrians Empire whereas Babylon was so farre from being overthrown like to the overthrow of Sodome and Gomorrah and from being never inhabited from that time as that it remaines in some renown even to this day for at this day it is a Town of great â—raffique if we believe reports Answer That Babylon when the Medes invaded the Assyrian Empire was grievously ruined is more than probable For at that time Babylon was not not so strongly fortified as it had been in former and was in after times For Eusebius reporteth in the end of the ninth book of his Evangelicall preparation out of Abydenus that Belus had fortified Babylon with a wall but that that wall was in processe of time abolished untill Nebuchadnezar fortified it again with a new wall So that it was no hard matter for the Medes to take Babylon by force and storm in that interim And by force and storm it is likely that they took it and having so taken it that they did fire it and grievously ruinate it For as though it had been utterly ruinated at that time Nebuchadnezar saith of what he built afterwards is not this great Babylon which I have built Dan. 4. v. 30. So then when the Medes did destroy the Assyrian Empire Babylon in all likelihood was grievously ruined besides that that the power of the Assyrians which ruled there was quite destroyed yet some part of it without doubt was left remaining as may be gathered from 2 Kings chap. 20. vers 12. where mention is made of Baladon King of Babylon though we know that men oftentimes bear titles from places which have been but now are not therefore it is said here that Babylon shall be as when God overthrew Sodome and Gomorrah I conceive that Babylon is to be taken per Synechdochen integri for the greatest part of Babylon And in all likelihood the greatest part of Babylon was utterly destroyed at this time I conceive moreover that though Nebuchadnezar did build Babylon yet that part of Babylon which was so ruinated by the Medes was never built or inhabited again and that Nebuchadnezar built not upon the old ruines but upon new ground as Rome which was built after the inundation of the Gothes was not built upon the old ruines but lower on the bank of Tiber upon
the Army of Sennacherib was destroyed yet Hezekiah subdued many people and did prosper wheresoever he went even from the beginning of his Reign so that it might be said that his goverment and prosperity increased all the daies of his life though they were interrupted a while by Sennacherib Kinge of Assyria and what mortall happiness hath not its interruption Vpon the Throne of David Supple shall he fit as the sonne and heire of David And upon his Kingdom the kingdom is put here Metonymice for the Throne of the Kingdome and these are a repetition of the former wordes To order it i. e. To rule and governe that Kingdome of David This relative relateth to the Kingdom but not as it is taken metonymice for the Throne of the Kingdom but as it is taken for the Kingdom it selfe And to establish it with judgment and justice This judgment consisteth in punishing the wicked and this justice in remunerating and rewarding and shewing mercy to the just by which Thrones are established and Kingdomes flourish Proverbs Cap 25. vers 5. and Cap. 29. vers 14. The sence of this place is q. d. he shall sit upon the Throne of David and rule and governe his Kingdom with judgment and justice by which he shall establish the Kingdome and make the Throne to flourish From henceforth even for ever i. e. From the beginning of his Reign even to the end of his life Note that this word henceforth doth not signifie the point of time in which the Prophet spoke this no more doth the like in other places Mat. 23. vers 39. But the time in which Hezekiah should begin his Reign for this word henceforth is a Relative put without an Antecedent and the Antecedent is left to be understood by the circumstance of the place A thing usuall with the Hebrewes as we have often observed And for ever signifieth to the end of his life or so long as he liveth so David saith I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever Psal 89. vers 1. That is I will sing vnto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have my being Psal 104. vers 33. So I will never forget thy precepts saith he againe Psal 119. vers 93. That is I will not forget thy precepts so long as I live The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts will performe this That is q. d. the ardent love which the Lord of Hosts doth bear to the good and godly among his people will performe this That is will give us so good a King and blesse him to us and will for his sake performe what I spoke of ver 4. That is will for his sake break the yoake of our burden and the staffe of our shoulder and the rod of our oppressours as in the day of Midian 8. The Lord sent a word unto Jacob. By this word he meanâ—â—h threatnings per Synechdochen generis and by Jacob. He meaneth the sons of Jacob pâ—â— Meâ—â—nymiam efficientis q. d. The Lord â—â—d threaten all the children of Jacob both those of the kingdome of Judah them of the kingdome of Jsrael that he would bring grievous plagues vpon them if they were not obedient to him and walked not according to his commandements And it hath lighted vpon Jsrael i. e. And these plagues which he threatned against all the Sonnes of Jacob are lighted upon the ten Tribes or Kingdome of Jsrael This Particle It relateth to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word q. d. And that word hath lighted upon Israel And by the word he meaneth the plagues threatened by that word Per Metonymiam Adjuncti The Prophet seemeth to allude to a stone cast or an Arrow shot into a Croud of people whereby some of the Croud are hurt though other scape This is either a new Sermon or else it relateth to the first verse of this Chapter and depend upon that 9. And all the People shall know Who he meaneth by the word people he explaineth in the next words In these words And all the people shall know c. There is a Figure called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where part of the speech is left to be understood the sentence being abruptly broken off in indignation and anger The sentence intire would be this And all the people shall know even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria that the Lord will be avenged of them to the full Even Ephraim By Ephraim he meaneth the ten Tribes of Jsrael See Notes cap. 7. vers 2. And the inhabitant of Samaria The inhabitant is put for the inhabitants Collective Samaria was the Metropolis or cheif City of the ten Tribes 10. The Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen stone i. e. Our housen which were made of bricks are beaten downe by our enemies but we care not for that we will build more sumptuous and stately housen in the roome thereof we will build housen of hewen stone The bricks By bricks he meaneth housen made of bricks per Metonymiam Materiae They say they are fallen not beaten downe to lessen and slight there punishment as though it were an effect of chance not a Punishment of God for there sinnes The Sycomors are cut downe but we will change them into Cedars By Sicomors he meaneth housen built of the wood or timber of Sycomor Trees which was a more base and common wood and by Cedars housen built of the wood of Cedar Trees which were the more pretious trees These two last sentences seem to be two proverbs and to signifie one and the same thing q. d. we men of Israel and Inhabitants of Samaria have suffered losses by our enemies but we boldly and confidently say we care not for it nor regard it a button for we will easily make up these losses and whereas they haue beaten downe our housen we will build up better in their roome It is a great provocation of Gods wrath and it doth mightily Provoke him to afflict us to the uttermost when we regard not his lesser judgments nor are humbled by them but contemne them and this is that that brings greater judgments here upon Israel 11. Therefore i. e. For supple because they say so Therefore is put here for for The Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him i. e. The Lord will set the adversaries of Rezin against Rezin and destroy him The adversaries of Rezin here meant were the Assyrians under Tiglah-Pileser of which 2 Kings 16. vers 9. But what is this to the punishment of Israel Answer Rezin and Israel were nere confederates Cap. 7 vers 1. And Israel did put much trust and confidence in the strength of this his Confederate it must therefore be a great affliction to Israel to bear that his Confederate shall be encombred with warre so that he cannot help him in time of need much more to hear that he shall be subdued and broken to pieces as here And ioyne his Enemies together