Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 43:14

"Thus saith Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing." — Isaiah 43:14 (ASV)

Thus says the Lord your Redeemer - This verse begins another argument for the safety of His people. It is the assurance to the Jews in Babylon that He had sent them a deliverer and would bring down the pride of the Chaldeans and demolish their city.

Your Redeemer - (See the note at Isaiah 43:1).

I have sent to Babylon - That is, the Persians and Medes, under the command of Cyrus (compare the note at Isaiah 13:3). This implies that God had command over all their armies and had the power of sending them where He pleased (compare the notes at Isaiah 10:5-6). This is to be understood as seen by the prophet in vision. He sees the armies of Cyrus encompass Babylon and the haughty city fall, and then says that God had sent or directed them there.

And have brought down all their nobles - Margin, ‘Bars.’ But the word in this place probably means neither of these, but rather fugitives (compare the notes at Isaiah 27:1). The word used (בריח bârı̂yach) sometimes means a bar or cross-bar (such as the one that passed from one side of the tabernacle to the other through rings in order to carry it), though it can also mean a harbor bolt of any kind (Judges 16:3; Nehemiah 3:3).

However, the word may also denote one who flies—a fugitive—and it is properly used in that sense here. The verb ברח bârach, from which the word is derived, often means to break away or to flee (Genesis 16:8; Genesis 35:1; Genesis 35:7; 1 Samuel 19:12; Job 27:22; Jonah 1:3). In this context, it refers to those who tried to escape from the impending calamity and destruction.

Alternatively, it may refer to those who had taken refuge in Babylon from other lands, as Babylon was undoubtedly composed in part of those who had sought refuge there from other nations—a conflux of strangers. But the former interpretation (as fugitives) is more probable. The idea seems to be that Yahweh had brought them down to their ships, or had led them to take refuge in their ships from the impending judgments. Jerome, however, understands it as removing the strong bars that protected the exiled Jewish prisoners, so that they would be permitted to go out in peace and safety.

Lowth translates it, “I will bring down all her strong bars.” The Septuagint translates it, φεύγοντες πάντας pheugontes pantas - “All that fly.” The Syriac translates it similarly.

And the Chaldeans - The inhabitants of Babylon.

Whose cry is in the ships - Lowth translates this, “Exulting in their ships.” Noyes translates it, “Ships of their delight.” The Vulgate, “Glorying in their ships.” The Septuagint, “The Chaldeans shall be bound (δεθήσονται dethēsontai) in ships.” The Syriac, “Who glory in their ships.”

The meaning is probably that the Chaldeans, when their city was taken, would seek to take refuge in their ships, in which they would raise a shout (Rosenmuller). Alternatively, as Lowth supposes, it may be that one of the characteristics of the Chaldeans was that they boasted of their ships and their commerce.

Babylon was, as he remarks, favorably situated to be a commercial and naval power. It was on the large Euphrates River and therefore had access to the Persian Gulf and the ocean. There can be no doubt that, at the height of its power, it was engaged in commercial enterprises.

On the north of the city, the Euphrates was united to the Tigris by the canal called Nahar Malca, or the Royal River. Thus, a large part of the produce of the northern countries, as far as the Euxine and Caspian seas, naturally descended to Babylon (Herod. i. 194).

Semiramis, the founder of Babylon, is said to have had a fleet of three thousand galleys. After Cyrus took the city, we indeed hear little of Babylon’s commerce.

The Euphrates was diverted from its course and spread over the adjacent country. The Persian monarchs, to prevent the danger of invasion from that quarter, purposely obstructed navigation by building dams across both the Tigris and the Euphrates (Strabo xvi). It is not, therefore, to be considered remarkable that, in the times of its prosperity, the city of Babylon should be noted for its commerce, or as a city exulting in its shipping, or raising the sailor’s cry—a cry such as is heard in any port now where shipping abounds.

The word translated ‘cry’ (רנה rinnâh) properly denotes a shout of rejoicing or joy (1 Kings 22:36; Psalms 31:6; Psalms 42:5), and then also a mournful cry, an outcry, or wailing (Psalms 17:1; Psalms 61:2).

Here it may mean the joyful cry of commerce: the shout of the mariner as he leaves the port or as he returns to his home—the shout, the clamor, which is heard at the wharves of a commercial city. Such a cry is alluded to by Virgil in the naval games which Aeneas celebrated:

—ferit athera clamor
Nauticus.

Aeneid, v. 140, 1.

The meaning here is that God had sent to bring down that exulting city and to destroy all the indications of its commercial importance and prosperity.