Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 22:18

Albert Barnes Commentary

Isaiah 22:18

1798–1870
Presbyterian
Albert Barnes
Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes Commentary

Isaiah 22:18

1798–1870
Presbyterian
SCRIPTURE

"He will surely wind thee round and round, [and toss thee] like a ball into a large country; there shalt thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of thy lord`s house." — Isaiah 22:18 (ASV)

He will surely violently turn - Lowth has well expressed the sense of this:

He will whirl you round and round, and cast you away.

Thus it refers to the action of throwing a stone with a sling, when the sling is whirled round and round several times before the string is let go, in order to increase the velocity of the stone.

The idea here is that God designed to cast him into a distant land, and that He would give such an impulse to him that he would be sent far away, so far that he would not be able to return again.

Like a ball - A stone, ball, or other projectile that is cast from a sling.

Into a large country - Probably Assyria. We have no means of determining when this was done.

And there the chariots of glory shall be the shame of your lord’s house - Lowth renders this,

- And there shall your glorious chariots
Become the shame of the house of your lord.

Noyes renders it:
There shall your splendid chariots perish,
You disgrace of the house of your lord.

The Chaldee renders it, And there the chariots of your glory shall be converted into ignominy, because you did not preserve the glory of the house of your lord.

Probably the correct interpretation is that which regards the latter part of the verse, the shame of your lord’s house, as an address to him as the shame or disgrace of Ahaz, who had appointed him to that office, and of Hezekiah, who had continued him in it.

The phrase the chariots of your glory, means splendid or magnificent chariots. It doubtless refers to the fact that in Jerusalem he had affected great pride and display, and had, like many weak minds, sought distinction by the splendor of his equipage.

The idea here is that the chariot of his glory,—that is, the vehicle in which he would ride—would be in a distant land. This does not mean that in that land he would ride in chariots as magnificent as those he had in Jerusalem, but that he would be conveyed there, and probably be carried in an ignominious manner, instead of the splendid way in which he was carried in Jerusalem.

The Jews say that when he left Jerusalem to deliver it into the hands of the enemy, they asked him where his army was. When he said that they had turned back, they said, You have mocked us; thereupon, they bored his heels, tied him to the tails of horses, and in this way he died.