A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 22: The Justice in Judgment

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 22: The Justice in Judgment

With our last presentation here, The Burden of Tyre, concluding Isaiah chapter 23 the prophet seems to have finally come to the end of his long list of burdens concerning certain of the people of the ancient world of Israel. So, as we hope to have explained, the burdens of Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, the Desert of the Sea, Dumah – which much more likely should have been Edom, the burden of Arabia and the burden of Jerusalem in the Valley of Vision, and finally, the burden of Tyre, had all actually been directed at Israelites who had been in the process of being taken into captivity, or in the process of trying to avoid captivity. So even where statements are made concerning Babylonians, Egyptians or Arabians, they were made for the sake of the children of Israel, and not for the sake of those others. The entire Bible was written for the sake of the children of Israel, and the others are of no consequence unless Yahweh uses them to punish Israel. So each of the burdens were ominous warnings for Israel, but Israel was also granted some degree of hope or mercy throughout.

As we closed Isaiah chapter 23, concerning the Tyrians the promise of mercy was quite subtle, where, speaking of the merchandise of ancient Tyre, the Word of Yahweh declared that it would be “for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.” This message of hope for the Israelites of Tyre, those of the Tyrians who dwell before Yahweh, evokes the words of Christ in Luke chapter 12 where He told His disciples, in part: “27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.” Having food and raiment is enough of a blessing, and it is also probably better than one may expect in a time of judgment. The word for durable is עתיק or athiq (# 6266) and Strong’s defined it as “probably antique, i.e. venerable or splendid” so it is evident that Yahweh would even clothe them well. Likewise, He would also feed them well, as the word for sufficiently is שׂבעה or sobah (# 7654) which is defined as satiety, so that they would be satisfied with their victuals. 

However we are not finished discussing Tyre, or any of these burdens, as the prophet now begins lamenting the judgment of Yahweh, and having the advantage of hindsight, we can know how this judgment was executed. So we should consider the justice in that judgment, as we may see the world around us today, and the degree to which Christians have once again accepted transgression of the law, and realize that we also may be liable to that same judgment. The books of the prophets were not preserved as mere curiosities, but as Paul of Tarsus had explained in Romans chapter 15, “4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Otherwise, we may look at the world around us, as we can see that it is indeed being judged, and we would have no hope. 

So as we proceed with Isaiah chapter 24, we are not quite finished with Tyre, as the context has not changed from the previous chapter, and the prophet is actually lamenting what would become of Tyre, and of all Israel including Jerusalem. So some of the language employed here had later been evoked in the words of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, in reference to both Jerusalem and Tyre. The statements made here in the context of the burden of Tyre further demonstrate that the Tyrians were of Israel, and with that we shall proceed with Isaiah chapter 24: 

1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. 

There are many references to the earth here, as the King James Version has often translated a word that means land, and not the entire planet. The word translated as earth, ארץ or erets (# 776) would better have been rendered as land, since here it refers specifically to the land of Israel. Although it is also evident in Strong’s Concordance, according to a certain Bible software program, that this word was translated as land approximately 1,543 times, as earth 712 times, country 140 times, ground 98 times, and a handful of times it was translated in various other ways in the King James Version. It rarely refers to the entire planet. Here, where Yahweh is said to make the earth empty, and turn it upside down, these are allegories for the degree of destruction which the particular land or country shall suffer, which should not necessarily be taken literally by the reader, although they should be translated literally to maintain the sense of the original allegories. Here, the word פנים or panim, (# 6440) in its feminine form פניה or paniah, which literally means face, is used with a verb עוה or avath (# 5791) which is defined by Strong’s as wrest, or as it is in Brown, Driver, Briggs, in its active form to bend or make crooked [1]. So the phrase does not necessarily mean turn upside down, but rather, it is an idiomatic expression reflecting the degree of disorder which shall come upon the land on account of its coming judgment. 

Here I feel it is necessary to elaborate on this because there are certain heretics who insist such passages must be accepted literally, as they appear in particular translations. So there are people who await some spectacular geological or astronomical event, and that is a permanent distraction which keeps them from considering the actual judgment which is taking place all around them, and more importantly, why the world suffers the disorders and upheavals which are evident even in recent history. (Many people today would rather argue about the shape of the earth, than to consider the consequences of sin and the justice in judgment. A flat earth is not going to save anyone, but rather, repentance and a return to the commandments of Yahweh our God.) 

Thus far here in Isaiah, the prophet has already condemned Jerusalem, as early as the very start of his ministry, for example where in chapter 3 he wrote that “8 … Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen”, and again in the parable of the vineyard in Isaiah chapter 5. Now here in Isaiah chapter 24 it is probably at least twenty years later, and Jerusalem has not yet been destroyed, at least in the eyes of men. So the judgment forewarned in the words of the prophets is an ongoing process, and generations of men may not see it until after it has happened, although they may suffer its consequences as it is happening. The men of the time of Hezekiah had never experienced the glory of Jerusalem as it was in the time of David and Solomon, so they would not even have realized how far it had already fallen. This prolonged process of punishment for sin is also an element of the justice in judgment, that many generations may experience the consequences of sin and the inevitable decay. (Today we have little excuse, since we have films and photographs of a world that was not yet overrun with beasts.) So in the time of Jeremiah, perhaps a hundred or so years later, both he and Ezekiel, as well as other prophets, had continued foreboding the destruction of Jerusalem, which by that time had evidently sunk much further into the depths of depravity, and in spite of the attempted reforms of Josiah.

In the opening chapters of Jeremiah the prophet had announced the punishment which would fall upon Jerusalem for the people of his own time, and then in chapter 4 we read in part “20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. 21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? 22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. 23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. 24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. 25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. 26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.” While some of the language is similar to what we see here and in subsequent verses of Isaiah, Jeremiah had even borrowed phrases from Genesis chapter 1, using certain concepts from the creation account as a rhetorical device. But now, before Isaiah continues to describe the land, or perhaps country would be and even better way to translate the word in this context, he speaks in reference to the people:

2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. 

This is not an indictment of any particular sin, since the only sin specified here is usury, and there were evidently far worse sins than usury in ancient Israel. Here we are only informed that all of the people would suffer equally in this judgment, regardless of their status or stature in the community. That is the meaning of the phrase respect of persons, as it had first been described in Deuteronomy chapter 1, in words attributed to Moses: “16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. 17 Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.” So it is with Yahweh, that judging the people here, He would judge them as equally as He had demanded in His Own law, which is also an aspect of the justice in His judgment.. 

But there is another aspect of the terminology which Isaiah had used here, where he sets a priest in juxtaposition to the people, a servant to a master, a maid to a mistress, a buyer to seller, and that is descriptive of the ordering of people which we call society. Likewise, the references to the fate of the earth here are actually descriptive of the fate of the society upon the land, which in our modern English is somewhat reflected in the manner in which we use the term country. In this context, one of several possible uses of the term country is defined in the Oxford Languages dictionary as “a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory” [2], which we may consider the society of a nation or people, since a society is defined in that same dictionary as the ordering of people in a community [3]. 

In Deuteronomy chapter 16 we read: “18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. 19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. 20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” However the people failed to judge equitably, and we read in Isaiah chapter 5: “7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” So once again, where Yahweh had promised to maintain at least some of the people of Tyre, those who “dwell before Yahweh”, even that is better than an unjust people may have expected in a time of judgment. 

Now returning to Isaiah’s descriptions of the land, there is language quite similar to the words which we have just seen from Jeremiah concerning Judah:

3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word. 4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. 

In our writings and translations of the New Testament, we generally render the Greek word κόσμος as society, even capitalizing it where it describes a particular Society, because the Greek word κόσμος generally means order, or of things, it describes their natural order or the ornament or decoration or arrangement of things, as it is defined by Liddell and Scott [4]. This is how we would also frequently interpret the Hebrew word תבל or tebel (# 8398) which Strong’s relates to a verb meaning to flow or bring, יבל or yabal (# 2986) and Brown, Driver, Briggs agrees, but they had added a relationship to another similar word, יבול or yowbal (# 3105) which is a stream, as being productive. So in their definition of the word they also state that it is “perhaps a poetic synonym of the word erets” which means land. We would not ever insist that such a word must refer to what we now know as the entire planet, sometimes called the world. So here, and often elsewhere, we would also translate this word for world as society [5].

Now Isaiah explicitly describes the reason for judgment:

5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. 

The covenants with Abraham were based on promises that are unconditional, and everlasting. But the Sinai covenant, while it was described as everlasting, was based on conditions, as they are described from Exodus chapter 20. So after the conditions of the covenant were given, we read in Exodus chapter 24: “3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do. 4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. 8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.” So in order to assure the Sinai covenant, the people had to agree that “All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.”

When they failed to do all of those words, because they continually transgressed the law, then on their account the covenant is broken, and here they are in the midst of suffering judgment for the breaking, which is the loss of the society that Yahweh had provided to them under the terms of that covenant. There is justice in that judgment, because Yahweh God had promised to preserve and provide for them them so long as they kept His law. So as Luke had recorded in the words of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, in Luke chapter 1, the purpose of Christ was “72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 74 That he would grant unto us…” The New Covenant is based on the promises to Abraham, but not the broken Sinai covenant. That is why Paul had explained, in Galatians chapter 3, that the laws at Sinai, which came four hundred and thirty years later, cannot nullify the promises to Abraham, which Christ had come to keep.

In the 127th Psalm we read: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” Abraham was an apparently wealthy man, and he had no house and no city, rather having lived in the open fields in tents. In Genesis chapter 13 we read “2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” There were no police to call in those days, no society with just laws which would protect him, yet he had maintained his wealth even while sojourning in the wilderness. Having lived blamelessly, and having sought to please God, he had suffered little harm outside of the expected trials of life, such as the death of Sarah in her old age, or the necessary separation of Ishmael for the sake of Isaac. The only explanation for this is found in Genesis chapter 15 where we read: “1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Therefore as long as there is obedience to Yahweh, men should have no fear of evil – unless they are evil men.

Yet from the time of Isaiah, the sins of Israel progressed, and warnings of judgment became even more graphic than what Isaiah offers here, as we read in Jeremiah chapter 19: “3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: 6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.”

While Jeremiah was indeed more graphic, here, speaking of Tyre, Isaiah continues to forewarn of this same judgment:

6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. 

This also seems to have been a just judgment, but we may understand the historical circumstances which justify such a horrible punishment. While Isaiah had given his oracles against Jerusalem much earlier, and again here in the burden of the Valley of Vision, and while we cited Jeremiah where he had spoken of Jerusalem, the context of this prophecy here is still in reference to what would become of Tyre. However there is a connection, because Jerusalem would later suffer the same fate, for what are ostensibly the same sins. So according to what we may see in Scripture, it seems that the first king of Judah to do something so horrible as to sacrifice a son to Moloch was Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, where we read in 2 Kings chapter 15: “1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. 2 Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father. 3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.”

The prophet Amos had mentioned the worship of Moloch in regard to Israel, in Amos chapters 5 and 7, but while he made no explicit references to the sacrifice of children, the passage from 2 Kings certainly informs us that they had been making such sacrifices, at least in Israel, up to the time of Ahaz. In a later passage from 2 Kings chapter 17 we read where the people of Judah engaged in the practice which seems to have started in Judah with Ahaz, because it is not mentioned in Judah before his time: “13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. 14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God. 15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them. 16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.” While the two calves are a reference to Israel, and not Judah, it is certainly evident in Jeremiah and in the historical books that the practice had spread to Judah after the time of Ahaz.

We have already established the fact that the Tyrians are of Israel, and this lamentation establishes it as fact even further, because Tyre is still the subject here, and the prophet is describing them as having transgressed the law, and forsaking the covenant. The Tyrians must have also been sacrificing their children in the manner of Israel. While this is difficult to prove from Scripture, in ancient history there were many accusations of the practice in reference to Carthage. So we read, from Diodorus Siculus in reference to the Roman wars against Carthage, where Baal is associated with the Greek idol Cronus: “1 Therefore the Carthaginians, believing that the misfortune had come to them from the gods, betook themselves to every manner of supplication of the divine powers; and, because they believed that Heracles, who was worshipped in their mother city, was exceedingly angry with them, they sent a large sum of money and many of the most expensive offerings to Tyre. 2 Since they had come as colonists from that city, it had been their custom in the earlier period to send to the god a tenth of all that was paid into the public revenue; but later, when they had acquired great wealth and were receiving more considerable revenues, they sent very little indeed, holding the divinity of little account. But turning to repentance because of this misfortune, they bethought them of all the gods of Tyre. 3 They even sent from their temples in supplication the golden shrines with their images, believing that they would better appease the wrath of the god if the offerings were sent for the sake of winning forgiveness. 4 They also alleged that Cronus had turned against them inasmuch as in former times they had been accustomed to sacrifice to this god the noblest of their sons, but more recently, secretly buying and nurturing children, they had sent these to the sacrifice; and when an investigation was made, some of those who had been sacrificed were discovered to have been supposititious [substituted]. 5 When they had given thought to these things and saw their enemy encamped before their walls, they were filled with superstitious dread, for they believed that they had neglected the honours of the gods that had been established by their fathers. In their zeal to make amends for their omission to sacrifice the noblest children, they selected two hundred of the noblest children and sacrificed them publicly; and others who were under suspicion sacrificed themselves voluntarily, in a number not less than three hundred. There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus, extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereupon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire.” [6] (While this is often disputed by academic historians, there is archaeological evidence which supports this statement by Diodorus. See, for example, the academic study titled Phoenician bones of contention by Paolo Xella, Josephine Quinn, et al.)

Evidently the kings of Israel must have been sacrificing their children long before the time of Ahaz, since it is explicitly mentioned in relation to Ahaz in the passage we have cited from 2 Kings. So the Tyrians must have also engaged in the abomination, and perhaps it was from the time of Ahaz that the practice had become popular in Judah, because about ninety years after the death of Ahaz, we read of Josiah in 2 Kings chapter 23 that: “10 … he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.” In spite of that, some decades later, in Jeremiah chapter 32 we read that the people had: “35 … built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. 36 And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

While the Septuagint has verse 6 to read in part that “the dwellers of the earth shall be poor”, as Brenton has it, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible as well as the New American Standard Bible both agree with the King James Version and the literal meaning of the word חרו or charar (# 2787), which is to burn. The people burned their sons and daughters, or they failed to protest when their countrymen, or even their kings had done as much, so if they themselves suffered being burnt, the punishment is just. Of course, at this point the people have not yet burned, but the prophet writes as if they had, because that judgment was sure to come. So the justice in the judgment of Yahweh is fully evident as a proper recompense for such sins. If men burn their children, and escape being burned themselves, it is only because God is merciful.

The prophet continues his lamentation:

7 The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh. 8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. 9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. 

This passage evokes the image of the coming fall of Mystery Babylon as it is prophesied in chapter 18 of the Revelation: “11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: 12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine [citrus] wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, 13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.” Then a little further on in that same chapter: “22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee… ”

Now the destruction of Tyre described in the previous chapter is still the context of this passage, and the chapter break is unfortunate, as they often improperly impress a change in context upon the mind of the reader. So the reference to a city here must be a reference to Tyre:

10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in. 

While the burden of Babylon was the first burden given by the prophet in Isaiah chapter 13, and the Hebrew word for Babylon is simply בבל or babel (# 894), which means confusion. Here Tyre is called the “city of confusion”, but it is not the same Hebrew word. The word here is תהו or tohuw (# 8414), which is desolation or desert, and figuratively something worthless, according to Strong’s.

11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. 12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction. 

Perhaps the houses which are shut up here are the houses that survived the Babylonian destruction of the mainland city. In any event, the city eventually fell into virtual abandonment, but was not entirely destroyed, as this verse indicates. What was left, however, seems to have been entirely destroyed in the time of Alexander, king of Macedon. In Book 17 of Diodorus’ Library of History we read the following, in reference to Alexander:

2 Then he marched on towards Egypt, and as he came into Phoenicia, received the submission of all the other cities, for their inhabitants accepted him willingly. At Tyre, however, when the king wished to sacrifice to the Tyrian Heracles, the people overhastily barred him from entering the city; 3 Alexander became angry and threatened to resort to force, but the Tyrians cheerfully faced the prospect of a siege. They wanted to gratify Dareius and keep unimpaired their loyalty to him, and thought also that they would receive great gifts from the king in return for such a favour. They would draw Alexander into a protracted and difficult siege and give Dareius time for his military preparations, and at the same time they had confidence in the strength of their island and the military forces in it. They also hoped for help from their colonists, the Carthaginians.

4 The king saw that the city could hardly be taken by sea because of the engines mounted along its walls and the fleet that it possessed, while from the land it was almost unassailable because it lay four furlongs away from the coast. Nevertheless he determined to run every risk and make every effort to save the Macedonian army from being held in contempt by a single undistinguished city. 5 Immediately he demolished what was called Old Tyre and set many tens of thousands of men to work carrying stones to construct a mole [or causeway] two plethra in width [about 200 feet]. He drafted into service the entire population of the neighbouring cities and the project advanced rapidly because the workers were numerous. [8]

So whatever the Babylonians left of the mainland city was destroyed by Alexander, But the extent to which Alexander destroyed the walls and other structures of the island city is not entirely evident in the account of Diodorus. Although it is said that while many Tyrians managed to escape to Carthage, where we read later in that same book:

The Tyrians, however, kept up the resistance with mutual cries of encouragement and blocked the alleys with barricades, so that all except a few were cut down fighting, in number more than seven thousand. The king sold the women and children into slavery and crucified all the men of military age. These were not less than two thousand. Although most of the non-combatants had been removed to Carthage, those who remained to become captives were found to be more than thirteen thousand. [9]

Here in the burden of Tyre in chapter 23, Isaiah had also warned all of those who removed to Carthage that they would find no rest, where he addressed those who would flee on the “ships of Tarshish” and said “… pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.” Apparently, very little was left of Tyre until Roman times, when the city was rebuilt.

13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. 

There are always at least a few olives or grapes left on the branches or vines after a harvest, and so it is of people here in Isaiah. Here there is also a Hebrew phrase which is poorly represented in Strong’s Concordance, mostly on account of his purposely scant treatment of particles, which is כי כה יהיה or ki kah iahiah and means “thus it will be”. In verse 2 there is a similar use of the same verb to denote a future event. Therefore it is evident that while the prophet has more frequently used prophetic present or past tenses up to this point, here he is indeed describing things which would take place in his own historical future. In chapter 23, the use of the same verb was found in verses 15 and 17, but that concerned the seventy years during which the destroyed Tyre would be forgotten. Here the futurity of the vision is more certain, and in the next verse the use continues:

14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. 15 Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea. 16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous…. 

Once again it becomes fully evident that the inhabitants of ancient Tyre were primarily of the children of Israel, even those who were in the islands of the sea. Here there is also an indication of ultimate repentance following the suffering of judgment. But where we read the words here, at the end of the first sentence in verse 16, where it says “even glory to the righteous”, where the verse continues it is apparent that not all of the Tyrians were righteous, or at least, many of them were indeed sinners, and Isaiah portrays himself as having made an exclamation in response to the prophetic vision in the second verse 16:

16 … But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. 17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. 18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. 

The wicked and the sinners cannot escape the judgment of Yahweh. If they flee from it in fear, they shall fall regardless, and fall even in their own flight. While the opening of windows in heaven is a promise of rain in a time of famine, as it is in the words of Elisha in 2 Kings chapter 7 (7:2), the idiom is also used to represent the coming of blessings from God, as it is in Malachi chapter 3 where we read “10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” However here, it seems to be used to represent the pouring out of the wrath of Yahweh God upon the wicked, which is evident in Ezekiel chapter 21 (21:31) or in Hosea chapter 5 where we read “10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.”

Likewise, where we read “the foundations of the earth do shake”, the reference may literally be interpreted to refer to earthquakes, but it seems instead to refer to the fear of men who are the pillars of society. This allegory is fully apparent in the 82nd Psalm, and for context we shall present the entire psalm:

A Psalm of Asaph. 1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. 2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. 3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. 5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. 6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. 7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

The actions or sins of men cannot have some mysterious unseen affect the stability of the land. In that psalm, the phrase “the foundations of the earth are out of course” has nothing to do with the land or the physical ground. Rather, it is a description of the men who are the pillars of society, as Paul of Tarsus had used the word pillars to describe the apostles of Christ, in Galatians chapter 2. Going back to the psalm, these men, the foundations of society, were out of course because they were not defending the poor, the fatherless, the needy, nor were they protecting them from the wicked. So they walked in darkness and wandered out of course, but the psalm encourages them to repentance because they are children of God. So likewise, the word earth here is really just a reference to the society:

19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. 20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. 

The actual land of Israel has never dissolved, nor has the land, or the planet, ever reeled to and fro like a drunkard. Neither was it removed like a cottage. Neither could the land actually fall, and neither could it be blamed for transgression, as the law was for the people of Israel to keep, and not the land of Israel. So once again, the references to the earth are to the society, to the people and their political, economic and social organization on the land. Collectively, they alone were guilty of transgression. Wandering in their transgressions, which were both serious and numerous, they reeled to and fro as a collectively drunk society.

But there is a strong sense of far vision meaning throughout this lamentation, and perhaps in all of this, Tyre stands for the commerce of Israel throughout the world, as do the ships of Tarshish, and the merchandise of Tyre stands for the intercourse in trade which Israel has had with the pagan and non-Adamic nations throughout the history of their captivity. Such world trade has always led to fornication not only spiritually, but in race-mixing with alien peoples, which is evident throughout history, and for that reason also, the system of world trade is called Mystery Babylon in the Revelation, after the name of ancient Babel, since it is confusion.

In the end, all of those who maintain that system, the wealthy merchants of the earth, are punished, and in ancient Israel they were associated with Tyre, a city of merchants:

21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. 22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. 

Tyre had also been called the “crowning city”, or, as we had explained when we discussed Isaiah 23:8, “the bestower of crowns”. The reason for this appellation is evident in the Revelation, in chapter 13, where we read: “4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” Before the coming of Alexander, the island fortress of ancient Tyre was also reckoned to have been invincible. So Tyre is certainly an example for men today, that Mystery Babylon shall also fall.

The final verse of this chapter is not the end of this vision, which continues into chapter 25:

23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. 

As we have discussed where similar statements appear in the Revelation, and particularly chapter 6, the sun and the moon represent government and its bureaucracy. Ancient kings esteemed themselves to be the light-bearers of their respective societies, and their officers reflected that light by upholding the laws of the king. This we had also discussed in a different context here in Isaiah, in our commentary on Lucifer, Son of the Morning. So the sun here represents the earthly kings of Israel, and the moon the officers in their governments.

This vision actually continues beyond chapter 25, and there is no apparent break in the context until the opening of chapter 36, and the next major event in the history of Israel, which is the invasion of Sennacherib. So there are statements related to this vision throughout the subsequent chapters, and especially in chapters 27 and 28.

First, in chapter 27, we read in part: “1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” The phrase “in that day” refers to the same day of the wrath of Yahweh which was mentioned here in verse 21. But the dragon in the sea is not a sea creature in a literal sea. Rather, as we discussed at length in relation to the burden of The Desert of the Sea, the sea is the mass of the world’s peoples, and the dragon are the children of the serpent, the descendants of the Nephilim and all of those who have mixed with the fallen angels, including the children of Cain. These are the dragon who have perpetually given their power to the beast, so that they can supplant Israel and rule the earth.

Then in chapter 28 we read: “1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!” While Tyre was a city of Asher and Zebulun, as it is in the most ancient copies of Scripture, in some of the other prophets, the name of Ephraim was used to describe all of the ten tribes, as Ephraim was the chief of the tribes and the government belonged to him. So collectively speaking, these drunkards of Ephraim are the pillars or foundations of the Israelite society, who reel to and fro like drunkards because they are in a state of sin.

This concludes our commentary on Isaiah chapter 24.

1 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, p. 736.

2 country, Google search result, https://www.google.com/search?b-1-d&q=country+definition, accessed February 14th, 2025.

3 society, Google search result, https://www.google.com/search?b-1-d&q=society+definition, accessed February 14th, 2025. 

4 A Greek-English Lexicon, Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu /hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:sec,00010:ko/smos, accessed February 14th, 2025. 

5 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, p. 385.

6 Library of History, Diodorus Siculus, translated by Russel M. Geer, https://penelope.uchicago.edu /Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/20A*.html, accessed February 14th, 2025. 

7 Greek/Hebrew Definitions, Bibletools.org, https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/lexicon. show/ID/h894/page/4, accessed February 14th, 2025. 

8 Library of History, Diodorus Siculus, 17.40.2-5, https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/ Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/17C*.html#40, accessed February 14th, 2025. 

9 ibid., 17.46.3-4.