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THE FADING FLOWER OF EPHRAIM

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CHAPTER IV

ISAIAH XXVIII-XXXIII (with XXII. 1-14)

§1. The fall of Samaria.-The second group of consecutive prophecies from the Book of Isaiah' which I propose to quote is formed by chapters xxviii to xxxiii. This group appears to have existed at one time as a separate collection, the Isaianic portion of which may have been put together by Isaiah himself. It is now divided more or less accurately into six divisions, of which each begins with the interjection Hôi,' which is commonly translated 'woe.' The Isaianic passages seem mainly to date from the later period of the prophet's career, after the accession of Sennacherib (704 B.C.).

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The first short section of the group was written originally many years before. It was a prophecy of the imminent fall of Samaria, and was prefixed by Isaiah to his later prophecies dealing with the subsequent Assyrian invasion of Judah. To understand the metaphor one must remember that Samaria 'crowned the summit of a low hill, that rises in the middle of a fertile valley.' The mighty and strong one' is Assyria. The words in brackets are a post-exilic consolation.

Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
And to the fading flower of his glorious beauty

On the head of the fat valley of them that are smitten with wine!

Behold the Lord hath a mighty and a strong one,
Like a tempest of hail, a destroying storm;

Like a flood of mighty waters overflowing,

Which casteth down to the earth with violence. With the feet shall be trodden down

The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,

And the fading flower of his glorious beauty

On the head of the fat valley!

And it shall be like the early fig before the fruit harvest, Which as soon as a man seeth it, while it is yet in his hand, he eateth it up.

[In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, And for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, And for a spirit of judgement to him that sitteth in judgement,

And for valour to them that drive back the battle at the gate.]

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§ 2. The mocked-at prophet and his retort.-The next section refers to Jerusalem. The revolt from Assyria (Part I, p. 378) is being prepared amid revels and debauchery. The magnates of Jerusalem and even the spiritual leaders of the people were following the lead of Samaria, both in their dissolute habits and in their foolish trust in an Egyptian alliance; Samaria is a mirror in which they may read their own character and their own doom.' 'The topers mock the excited utterance and wearisome iterations of the prophet's teaching.' 'The stammering lips and strange tongue' refer to the Assyrian invaders.

And these too reel with wine and stagger through strong drink;

Priest and prophet reel with strong drink,

They are confused by wine, they stagger through strong drink; They reel in the vision, they stumble in judgement.

For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. Whom,' say they, would he teach knowledge? to whom would he interpret oracles? to them that are weaned from the milk and removed from the breast? For it is ever precept upon precept, rule upon rule; here a little, and there a little.'

Yea, indeed; for with stammering lips and a strange tongue will he speak to this people; he who said unto them, This is the (true) rest, give rest to the weary; this is the (true) refreshment'; yet they would not hear. Therefore the word of the Lord shall be unto them 'precept upon precept, and rule upon rule; here a little, there a little,' that they may go and stumble backwards and be broken and snared and taken.

RIGHTEOUSNESS THE PLUMMET '

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§3. The covenant with death and its destruction.—The third section is of the same date as the second, but though there is also a close literary' connexion, the passage itself is probably a summary of an independent discourse.' It refers especially to the secret plottings and negotiations with Egypt, which had apparently been ratified by a superstitious 'compact with the dreaded powers of the under-world.' "The foundation stone represents the one element in human history which is indestructible, the purpose of God, and that purpose as historically realized in the relation which he has established between himself and the people of Israel' (Skinner).

Therefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scoffing men,

Who rule this people which is in Jerusalem.

Because ye have said, 'We have concluded a treaty with Death,

And we have made a compact with Sheol;

When the overflowing scourge shall pass by, it shall not come unto us;

For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: '

Therefore thus saith the Lord God,

Behold, I have laid in Zion a stone, a tried stone,

A precious corner stone of sure foundation:

He that believeth shall not be moved.

And I will make judgement the line and righteousness the plummet:

And the hail shall sweep away the refuge,

And the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.
And your treaty with Death shall be broken,
And your compact with Sheol shall not stand;
When the overflowing scourge shall pass along,
Ye shall be trodden down by it.

As often as it passeth along, it shall take you away;

For morning by morning shall it pass along, by day and by night,

And it shall be pure terror to interpret the oracles. Truly the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it:

And the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

For the Lord will rise up as on mount Perazim,
He shall be wroth as in the vale of Gibeon;

That he may do his work-strange is his work!-

And accomplish his task-strange is his task!

Now therefore be ye not scoffers, lest your bands be made strong;

For consumption and strict decision have I heard from the Lord of hosts.

§4. The parable of the ploughman and the thresher. The fourth section is quite disconnected with the foregoing. Professor Duhm thinks it is of earlier date; between 711 and 705. It is a parable from husbandry, or rather it contains two parables. (1) Ploughing is for the sake of sowing. Hence (it is implied) God's judgements are for an end beyond them. They are disciplinal. (2) Different seeds are variously threshed: the more valuable and tender seed is more delicately treated than the grosser kind. Jerusalem deserves a better treatment than Samaria. Professor Cheyne, for many reasons, regards the whole passage as post-exilic.

Give ye ear, and hear my voice;

Hearken, and hear my speech.

Doth the ploughman plough continually,

Opening and harrowing his ground?

When he hath made smooth the surface thereof,

Doth he not scatter the fitches, and sow the cummin, And plant the wheat, and the barley,

And the spelt as their border?

It is the Lord who hath instructed him rightly,

His God hath trained him.

Fitches are not threshed with a sledge,

And the wagon wheel is not turned over the cummin. But the fitches are beaten out with a staff,

And the cummin with a rod.

Is bread-corn crushed?

Nay, he doth not keep threshing it perpetually;
But when he hath rolled his wagon wheel over it,
He tosseth it about and doth not crush it.
This also cometh from the Lord;

Wonderful is his counsel, great his wisdom.

§ 5. Jerusalem the altar-hearth.—The fifth section contains the opening eight verses of the twenty-ninth chapter. It opens with a threat against Jerusalem, called by the prophet in this

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'WOE TO ARIAL’

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place Arial,' 'altar-hearth.' At present careless amid her festivals, she will ere long be filled with moaning. But with threat there is strangely mixed up a promise of sudden deliverance. Professor Cheyne regards these promises as editorial; they are in form too, he holds, unsuggestive of Isaiah, being unrhythmical and phraseologically doubtful. (Jerusalem will become a veritable altar-hearth,' for her human victims in the war will be many.)

Woe to Arial, Arial, the city where David encamped.
Add ye year to year; let the feasts go round!

And I will distress Arial, and there shall be moaning and bemoaning,

And thou shalt be unto me an altar-hearth indeed! And I will encamp against thee, and enclose thee with mounds,

And raise siege works against thee.

And thou shalt be laid low, and shalt speak from the ground, And thy speech shall come humbly from the dust.

[And the multitude of thy stranger-enemies shall become as small dust, and the multitude of the tyrants as chaff that passeth away.]

And suddenly, full suddenly, thou shalt be visited from the Lord of hosts

With thunder and with earthquake and great noise,

With whirlwind and tempest, and flame of devouring fire. [And like as a dream, a vision of the night, so shall it be with the multitude of all the nations that fight against Arial, even all that fight against her and her ramparts and distress her. And as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul still craveth: so shall it be with the multitude of all the nations that fight against mount Zion.]

§ 6. Spiritual blindness.-The next (sixth) section is still from the same period-the opening of Sennacherib's reign, 703 B.C. It is the spiritual insensibility of the people and its leaders which Isaiah laments and denounces: they understand neither the revelation of God in history nor the oracles of his prophets. The striking simile of the book is in prose. Perhaps a corrupt and defaced poetical passage has been thus rewritten by the editor.

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