XXXIX. (1) MERODACH-BALADAN. — The name is conspicuous in the Assyrian inscriptions of Sargon (_Records of the Past, ix._ 13), as having rebelled against him and set up an independent monarchy. He is described in them as _son of Yakin,_ but this is, probably, a dynastic appellative, just as Jehu is... [ Continue Reading ]
SHEWED THEM THE HOUSE OF HIS PRECIOUS THINGS. — This fixes the date of the embassy at a time prior to the payment to Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:15), unless we were to assume that the treasury had been replenished by the gifts that followed on the destruction of Sennacherib’s army; but this, as we have... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN CAME ISAIAH... — The words that follow, like those in Isaiah 7:3, are spoken with the authority at once of age and of a Divine mission, perhaps also of a master speaking to one who had been his pupil. No sooner does the arrival of the embassy from Babylon reach his ear than he goes straight to... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT HAVE THEY SEEN IN THINE HOUSE? — The question was pressed home. Had the king contented himself with such hospitality as would have satisfied the demands of the code of Eastern ethics? or had he, as the prophet rightly suspected, done more than that, in his vain-glorious hope of figuring among t... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THE DAYS COME... — The words, it may be noted, received a two-fold fulfilment, under widely different conditions. Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, at the time when Isaiah spoke unborn, was carried as a prisoner to Babylon by Esar-haddon, king of Assyria (2 Chronicles 33:11). The last lineal heir of... [ Continue Reading ]
GOOD IS THE WORD OF THE LORD... — The words have the appearance of a pious resignation, but we feel that they are less true and noble than those of David on a like occasion: “I have sinned and done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against... [ Continue Reading ]