1. For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob. The particle כי(ki) having various significations, we might take it as signifying But, and might connect this verse with the former verse in the following manner: But (or, yet) the Lord will have compassion on Jacob.

2. And the peoples shall take them. He means that the foreign nations will be willing to become their companions, and in such a manner that they will not scruple to discharge the duties of servants.

3. And it shall be in that day. He adds a confirmation of the former promises. In this way the Lord provides for our weakness; for we find it difficult to render a full belief to his word, especially when the state of our affairs appears to contradict it.

4. Then thou shalt take up this saying. By the term witty saying, or parable, (for the Hebrew word משל (mashal) denotes “sayings that are weighty and remarkable, and worthy of being observed,”) he shows that the ruin of Babylon will be so great that it will even become a proverb, which usually…

5. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked. He answers the question which has just been put; for he did not intend that believers should doubt that it would happen, but rather that they should be amazed at such wonderful works of God; for the question had a tendency to arouse their minds to…

7. and 8. They break forth into singing. Here he shows how greatly tyrants are hated by the whole world. When they are dead or ruined, all men break forth into joy, and express the feelings which they formerly entertained towards the tyrants, and which they dissembled through fear.

9. Hell from beneath is moved for thee. As he had formerly attributed gladness to the trees, so now, by a similar figure, he attributes speech to the dead He arouses them, as it were, from their graves, to mock at the pride of this tyrant. The whole passage is ironical, and full of keen sarcasm.

10. All shall speak and say to thee. These are taunts with which the dead jeer the tyrant who has joined them, as if they asked him what is the reason why he too is dead like other men.

11. Thy pomp is laid down in the grave. He mentions royal pomp, that this change may be more attentively considered by comparing the latter with the former; and he shows that that pomp could not prevent him from being reduced to the same level with other men.

12. How art thou fallen from heaven! Isaiah proceeds with the discourse which he had formerly begun as personating the dead, and concludes that the tyrant differs in no respect from other men, though his object was to lead men to believe that he was some god.

13. Yet thou saidst in thy heart. These words must be connected with what goes before. To say means here, according to the custom of the Hebrew language, to resolve in one’s own mind.

14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. It might certainly be thought strange that the Prophet thus accuses the Babylonian monarch, as if he wished to make himself equal to God, since, as we have said, this thought could scarcely enter into the mind of a man without making him absolutely…

15. But thou shalt be brought down to the grave. He formerly explained the intention of the king of Babylon, which was, that he should place his throne above the clouds; but he now contrasts with it an opposite event, namely, the sides of the pit or ditch, that is, some corner of a sepulcher into…

16. They that see thee. The Prophet again, personating the dead, mocks at that wicked king. It might also be viewed as relating to the living; but it is better to apply the whole of this discourse to the dead, if we would not rather refer it to the grave itself, which amounts nearly to the same…

17. He made the world as a wilderness. He expresses the cruel and savage disposition of the tyrant, by saying that he brought desolation on the world, that he overthrew cities, that he did not release prisoners.

18. All the kings of the nations. He contrasts the king of Babylon with other kings, in order to show that, after his death, he will be more wretched than all the rest.

19. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch. He shows that the kings of Babylon will be loaded with such disgrace, that they will even be cast out of the sepulcher which they possessed by inheritance, and will exhibit a disgraceful spectacle.

20. For thou hast laid thy land desolate. This is the reason why he says that the king of Babylon did not deserve burial. He who has laid the earth desolate does not deserve that the earth shall receive him into its bosom and cover him.

21. Prepare slaughter for his children. Here Isaiah prophesies more plainly than before against the king of Babylon. He speaks of the whole of his descendants, to whom he intimates that this destruction extends.

22. For I will rise up against them. The Lord now declares that he will do what he had formerly, by the Prophet, commanded others to do. Both statements ought to be observed, that it is the work of God, when wicked men are ruined, though he may employ the agency of men in executing his judgments.

23. And I will make it to be a possession of the hedgehog. He again confirms the same things which he formerly predicted, namely, that henceforth it will not be a habitation of men, but will resemble a hideous cavern, in which wild beasts shall lurk.

24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn. For more full confirmation an oath was necessary. There is nothing of which it is more difficult to convince us than that wicked men will immediately be ruined, when we see them flourishing, and furnished with all means of defense, and seemingly placed out of…

25. That I may bruise the Assyrian in my land. Some think that this relates to Sennacherib’s army, which the hand of God destroyed by means of an angel, when he besieged Jerusalem. (2 Kings 19:35 ; Isa.

26. This purpose which is purposed upon the whole earth. The Lord is not satisfied with one or two confirmations, and can scarcely refrain from proclaiming it more and more abundantly, because he knows well that our minds are naturally prone to distrust.

27. For the Lord of hosts hath decreed. Isaiah here employs what may be regarded as a concluding exclamation, to confirm more fully the preceding statement.

28. In the year that King Ahaz died. Here the fifteenth chapter ought to have begun, for the Prophet enters on a new subject; and this plainly shows how absurdly the chapters are divided, or rather torn asunder.

29. Rejoice not, thou whole Philistia. He begins by checking the vain and groundless confidence with which the Philistines were puffed up, and, by adding Thou whole, he intimates that all of them would feel a portion of this calamity; as if he had said that not only would that country be laid waste…

30. And the first-born of the poor shall feed. The Prophet, as has been already said, has not so much in view the Philistines, to whom his threatenings were of no avail, as the Jews, whom he wished to comfort in their affliction; for they were so grievously afflicted that they were not far from…

31. Howl, O gate. Here the Prophet makes use of amplifications, that by means of them he may seal his predictions on the hearts of the godly, and may press with greater earnestness those things of which they might otherwise have entertained doubts.

32. And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nation? I choose to interpret this of any nations whatever, and not of a single nation; for strangers, as soon as they enter into any city, are wont to ask what is done, that they may hear some news.