Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 22

The burden of the valley of vision. —The “valley of vision” is Jerusalem, lying as it did (Jeremiah 21:13) in a valley, as compared with the hills round about it (Psalms 125:2). If we think of the prophet’s dwelling as being in the lower city, in the valley of Tyropœon, the epithet becomes still more appropriate. That valley would be to him truly a “valley of vision,” where he saw things present and to come. Possibly the name became more characteristic from the impulse given to the prophetic dreams of all who claimed to be seers.

The prophet looks out, and sees the people in a state of excitement, caused probably by the near approach of the Assyrian armies. They are “on the house-tops,” the flat roofs of which were a customary place of concourse (Judges 16:27; Nehemiah 8:16), keeping their revels, as those do who meet the approach of danger with a reckless despair (Isaiah 22:13). By some commentators (Birks, Kay) the “valley of vision” has been identified with Samaria.

A joyous city ... —It would seem from Isaiah 32:13 that this was the characteristic on which Jerusalem, like Athens afterwards (Thucydides 2.40), especially prided itself.

Your slain men are not slain with the sword ... —The words imply something like a reproach of cowardice. Those who had perished had not died fighting bravely in battle, but by the pestilence which then, as at all times, was prevalent in the crowded streets of a besieged city.

They are bound by the archers. —Better, fettered without the bow. The taunting charge of cowardice is carried further. The rulers had ventured on a sortie, and had been captured without a struggle, not even drawing their bows in their defence.

Therefore said I, Look away from me. —The tone is that of one who wishes to be alone in his sorrow. It is too deep for visits of consolation. He “refuses to be comforted.” Isaiah bewails the destruction of “the daughter of his people” in much the same manner as Jeremiah over a later catastrophe (Lamentations 3:48).

For it is a day of trouble. —The earlier clauses paint the mental emotions of the coming day of judgment. In the latter, we hear the actual crash of the battering-rams across the walls. The cry of the panic-stricken people will rise to the surrounding mountains, possibly towards the hills from where they expected help—either as true worshippers looking to Mount Zion (Psalms 121:1), or to the high places which were so long the objects of their worship, and which led their enemies to say that their gods were gods of the hills, and not of the valleys (1 Kings 20:23).