The Prophet and His Day: Isaiah 1-39 - Free Bible Commentary

4. breaking down of walls, 998, BDB 903 II, KB 1148, Pilpel PARTICIPLE (only here; somescholars think the root is an Arabic or Ugaritic root meaning, “shout,” “crackle,” or “makenoise” (KB 1128 I, 98)5. crying to the mountain (no VERBAL)} “to the mountain” The NOUN (BDB 249) is SINGULAR and may refer to the temple mount (i.e., cryout to YHWH).22:6-7 These verses describe the military aspects of the invasion. Elam and Kir (possibly Media, cf.21:2; II Kgs. 16:9) were northern areas of Mesopotamia. They became mercenaries in the Assyrianarmy to keep from being invaded.22:6NASB “infantry”NKJV “men”REB “Aram”The MT has “men” (.$!, BDB 9, see 31:8, where “adam” is also used in a military sense), but forparallelism some change it to “Aram,” .9!. This $ vs. 9 is a common confusion in Hebrew.22:8 “He removed the defense of Judah” “Defense” in this verse means “covering” (BDB 697). Theydid not trust in Him (cf. v. 11c,d) so He removed His protective presence (i.e., a cloud, cf. 4:5; Ps.105:39). This has been the problem through all of Israel’s history. God’s people do not trust and obeyHim and there are consequences! The cursings and blessings of Deuteronomy 27-29 show them clearly.“The defense” may have literally referred to the fortress Azekah (Jewish Study Bible, footnote, p.825).} “In that day” This is a common idiom in the Prophets for the day of God’s visitation (i.e., 19:16,18,19,21,23,24).}NASB “you depended on”NKJV, NRSV “you looked to”NJB “you turned your gaze to”The VERB (BDB 613, KB 661, Hiphil IMPERFECT) denotes that they trusted in their weaponry, notYHWH.} “of the house of the forest” This was the name of the armory in Jerusalem (cf. I Kgs. 7:2; 10:17).22:9 The historical setting appears to be the time of Hezekiah. He built (II Kgs. 20:20) pools for thecollection of water during sieges (cf. v. 11; 7:3; Neh. 3:16). Apparently Hezekiah did a lot of physicalpreparation to the defenses of Jerusalem just before Sennacherib came in 701 B.C., but they are not whatsaved the city of Jerusalem; it was YHWH and His greater purpose (v. 11).22:10 This verse seems to describe the walls of Jerusalem as double walls (which has no archaeologicalconfirmation). Many people moving into the city for refuge had built temporary houses in the spacebetween the two walls. But these houses had to be removed (see IVP, Bible Background Commentary,p. 614).Another possible way to understand the text was that some houses were destroyed to fill up thespace between walls. This made it more difficult for siege machines to knock a hole in the city’s wall.218