Isaiah 10:9

For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? -Vauntings of the Assyrians. Illustrated by the self-laudatory inscriptions of Assyria deciphered by Hincks. Verse 8. (ARE) NOT MY PRINCES ALTOGETHER KINGS? Eastern satraps and governors of provinces often had the title and diadem of kings. Hence, the title "King of kings," implying the greatness of Him who was over them (; ). Verse 9. (IS) NOT CALNO AS CARCHEMISH? - Was there any one of these cities able to withstand me? Not one! So Rabshakeh vaunts (). CALNO - Calneh, built by Nimrod (, "Calneh, in the laud of Shiner"), once his ca...

9._Is not Calno as Carchemish? _Here he mentions by name certain cities, though others think that they were countries; but it is more probable that they were cities, or some fortified places. “Shall it not happen,” says he, “to those places which I have not yet subdued as it has happened to others that opposed me?” He therefore compares _Calno_, _Arpad_, and _Samaria_, which he afterwards subdued, to _Carchemish_, _Hamath_, and _Damascus_, which he had formerly subdued, and says that those will not be stronger than these. Thus wicked men are wont to boast and talk proudly of their former actions, so as to imagine that they will break through every obstruction, and that nothing can stand in the way of their plans and exertions, and even think that they will accomplish everything without the will or knowledge of God. When we read this history, let us learn that we ought not to be proud of...

5-19 See what a change sin made. The king of Assyria, in his pride, thought to act by his own will. The tyrants of the world are tools of Providence. God designs to correct his people for their hypocrisy, and bring them nearer to him; but is that Sennacherib's design? No; he designs to gratify his own covetousness and ambition. The Assyrian boasts what great things he has done to other nations, by his own policy and power. He knows not that it is God who makes him what he is, and puts the staff into his hand. He had done all this with ease; none moved the wing, or cried as birds do when their nests are rifled. Because he conquered Samaria, he thinks Jerusalem would fall of course. It was lamentable that Jerusalem should have set up graven images, and we cannot wonder that she was excelled in them by the heathen. But is it not equally foolish for Christians to emulate the people of the w...

IS NOT CALNO AS CARCHEMISH? - The meaning of this confident boasting is, that none of the cities and nations against which be had directed his arms, had been able to resist him. All had fallen before him; and all were alike prostrate at his feet. Carchemish had been unable to resist him, and Calno had shared the same fate. Arpad had fallen before him, and Hamath in like manner had been subdued. The words which are used here are the same nearly that Rabshakeh used when he was sent by Sennacherib to insult Hezekiah and the Jews; Isaiah 36:19; 2 Kings 18:34. “Calno” was a city in the land of Shinar, and was probably the city built by Nimrod, called in Genesis 10:10, “Calneh,” and at one time t

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 10:1 The prophecy begun in Isaiah 9:8 terminates with this stanza, which contains a warning against injustice and oppression, addressed to Israel and Judah equally, and accompanied by the threat of a "day of desolation," when those who have refused to make God their Refuge will have no resource, but to go into captivity with the "prisoners," or to perish with the "slain." A foreign conquest, accompanied by slaughter, and the deportation of captives, is not obscurely intimated. ISAIAH 10:1 WOE UNTO THEM THAT DECREE UNRIGHTEOUS DECREES (comp. Isaiah 1:17

[IS] NOT CALNO AS CARCHEMISH?.... Jarchi's note is, "as the children of Carchemish are princes and rulers, so are the children of Calno;'' as if this was giving an instance of the grandeur of his subjects; but much better is the Targum, "as Carchemish is subdued before me, shall not Calno be so?'' as I or my ancestors have conquered the one, it is as easy for me to conquer the other; or as sure as the one is subject to me, so sure shall the other be; for Carchemish was a city belonging to the Assyrians, situated upon the river Euphrates, 2 Chronicles 35:20 called by Ammianus k Circusium; the Syriac version calls it Barchemosh; and Calno is the same with Calneh in the land of Shinar, a city built by Nimrod, Genesis 10:10 in the Septuagint versi

CHAPTER 10 The Assyrian, His invasion of Immanuel's land, and His end 1. _The first four verses belong to the preceding chapter. A description of the Assyrian enemy (Isaiah 10:5)_ 2. _The overthrow of his army announced (Isaiah 10:12)_ 3. _The punishment (Isaiah 10:16)_ 4. _The return of the remnant (Isaiah 10:20)_ 5. _The faithful remnant comforted (Isaiah 10:24)_ 6. The Assyrians march against Jerusalem (Isaiah 10:28

ASSYRIA'S BOASTFULNESS AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This prophecy, so far as it is Isaiah's, must be later than the capture of Carchemish in 717 and before Sennacherib's invasion in 701. Narrower limits cannot be fixed. Non-Isaianic material appears to be present in it. ISAIAH 10:5. Assyria is Yahweh's rod to smite any nation that has aroused His anger, but, inspired by lust of blood, plans to exterminate many peoples, and boastfully thinks to destroy Jerusalem with her divine nonentities, less powerful than those of cities she has seized. So, when she has served His purpose, He will punish her boastfulness in ascribing her conquests to her own wisdom and might. She has abolished the boundaries of subject peoples, merging them in her empire; plundered their treasures and abased their rulers, robbing the nations as a man takes the eggs from a nest abandoned by the panic-stricken birds, n

The first speech of the Assyrian....

HOWBEIT, HE MEANETH NOT SO, &C.— The prophet had taught the pious in what light they should consider the Assyrian, leading a large army with a splendid apparatus, and bringing under his power the people of God, so called, in the same manner as other nations; he shews that, though a great prince, he is only the minister of the divine providence and indignation; the executor of the counsels and decrees of the supreme ruler, Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, without whom he could do nothing: and that in those very expeditions which he undertook against the Ephraimites and Syrians, he was to obey the secret rule of the divine providence. "Yet this prevents not, says the prophet, his becoming guilty of great crimes before God, in the execution of these secret decrees; for, ignorant of the divine counsels, he had far different thoughts in his mind; sacrificing only to his ambition and lust by this w...