Dismay at Calamity

This prophecy moves Isaiah deeply. He says:  "Turn your gaze away from me. I will show bitterness in weeping.  Do not you people insist on comforting me over the despoiling of the daughter of my people."  (Isaiah 22:4)  Isaiah grieved  over the prophesied fate of Moab and Babylon.  (Isaiah 16:11; 21:3)  Now his dismay and lamentation are even more intense as he contemplates  the disaster coming upon his own people.  He is inconsolable. Why?   "For it is the day of confusion and of down treading and of confounding  that the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, has in the valley of the vision.  There is the demolisher of the wall, and the cry to the mountain."  (Isaiah 22:5)   Jerusalem will be filled with wild confusion.  People will wander about panic-stricken, without purpose. As the enemy begins to break through the city walls, there will be a "cry to the mountain."  Does this mean  that the city's inhabitants  will cry out to God in his holy temple on Mount Moriah?  Perhaps.  In view of their unfaithfulness, however, it probably means not more than that their cities of terror will echo in the surrounding mountains.

What sort of enemy is threatening Jerusalem?  Isaiah tells us:  "Elam itself has taken up the quiver, in the war chariot of earthling man, with steeds; and Kir itself has uncovered the shield."  (Isaiah 22:6) The foes are fully armed.  They have archers who quivers are filled with arrows.  Warriors are readying their shields for battle.  There are chariots and battle-trained horses.  The army includes soldiers from Elam, located north of what is now the Persian Gulf, and from Kir, probably located close to Elam.  Mention of those lands indicates the great distance from which the invaders come.  It also indicates that Elamite archers may have been in the army threatening Jerusalem in Hezekiah's day.

Next time: Attempts at Defense

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, 2000