Isaiah 22 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Isaiah 22

An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem

22:1 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.

  What do you mean that you have gone up,
    all of you, to the housetops,
2   you who are full of shoutings,
    tumultuous city, exultant town?
  Your slain are not slain with the sword
    or dead in battle.
3   All your leaders have fled together;
    without the bow they were captured.
  All of you who were found were captured,
    though they had fled far away.
4   Therefore I said:
  “Look away from me;
    let me weep bitter tears;
  do not labor to comfort me
    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day
    of tumult and trampling and confusion
    in the valley of vision,
  a battering down of walls
    and a shouting to the mountains.
6   And Elam bore the quiver
    with chariots and horsemen,
    and Kir uncovered the shield.
7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
8   He has taken away the covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts
    called for weeping and mourning,
    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
13   and behold, joy and gladness,
    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
    eating flesh and drinking wine.
  “Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we die.”
14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:
  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”
    says the Lord GOD of hosts.

15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”

Commentary

v1-3: Jerusalem, the valley of vision, upon which disaster had come. The people had remained complacent in the first instance, the joyous city (compare Amos 6.1); although disaster inevitably followed. Many people fled while the enemy was far away, and many were captured, and it seems many were then put to death, "your slain were not killed by the sword, nor dead in battle."

v4: Isaiah wept for his people, and was not comforted. Usually, sorrow was a corporate experience; such is Isaiah's sorrow that he remained alone; his sorrow reflects that of God Himself.

v5-7: The day of trouble; tumult, trampling, and terror, as the people fled in panic. Persia (Elam) and Media (Kir) came upon Jerusalem; and there was no escape.

v8-11: Palace of the Forest, see 1 Kings 7.12. The people saw the situation, that the city was surrounded (v7), their defences were gone, the city of David was damaged. They responded by building a reservoir, to provide water for the defenders, knocking down houses to strengthen the walls. But they lacked faith in God, neglecting the real problem, their own spiritual poverty; see 17.10-11.

v12-13: They actually rejected divine counsel, the call for weeping and wailing, for repentance; there was feasting instead of fasting, Joel 1.13-14.

v14: God's answer; no atonement for their rebellion.

v15-19: Shebna the steward, 2 Kings 18.18, a man of some authority. But he was proud, having carved a tomb for himself, and enjoying glorious chariots. When judged by God, he was taken from Judah, deposed and disgraced.

v20-24: Eliakim, "my servant," replacing Shebna, a faithful man over the household, 2 Kings 18.18; Heb 3.2-6; and therefore pointing us to Christ.

He had a robe and belt of honour; God-given responsibility; a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah; having the key of David; fastened securely; yet as a peg perhaps despised by others. The promise clearly refers to Christ, as these words are included in the prophecy to the church at Philadelphia in Rev 3.7.

We see that God uses people, raising some, and putting down others; but not capriciously, but honouring faith and obedience.

v25-26: Later, even Eliakim would be removed, and those who came to depend on him would fall.