Commentary on Isaiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
spoken it
17. Et residuum arcus, quod numerabitur fortium filiorum Cedar, imminuetur; quoniam Iehova Deus Israel loquutus est.
1. The burden of the desert of the sea. The Prophet, after having taught that their hope ought to be placed, not on the Egyptians, but on the mercy of God alone, and after having foretold that calamities would come on the nations on whose favor they relied, adds a consolation in order to encourage the hearts of the godly. He declares, that for the Chaldeans, to whom they will be captives, a reward is prepared; from which it follows, that God takes account of the injuries which they endure. By the desert 330 he means Chaldea, not that it was deserted or thinly inhabited, but because the Jews had a desert on that side of them; just as if, instead of Italy, we should name "the Alps," because they are nearer to us, and because we must cross them on our road to Italy. This reason ought to be kept in view; for he does not describe the nature of the country, but forewarns the Jews that the destruction of the enemies, which he foretells, is near at hand, and is as certain as if the event had been before their eyes, as that desert was. Besides, the prophets sometimes spoke ambiguously about Babylon, that believers alone might understand the hidden mysteries, as Jeremiah changes the king's name. 331
As storms from the south. He says from the south, because that wind is tempestuous, and produces storms and whirlwinds. 332 When he adds that "it cometh from the desert," this tends to heighten the picture; for if any storm arise in a habitable and populous region, it excites less terror than those which spring up in deserts. In order to express the shocking nature of this calamity, he compares it to storms, which begin in the desert, and afterwards take a more impetuous course, and rush with greater violence.
Yet the Prophet appears to mean something else, namely, that as they burst forth like storms from that direction to lay Judea desolate, so another storm would soon afterwards arise to destroy them; and therefore he says that this burden will come from a terrible land. By this designation I understand Judea to be meant, for it was not enough to speak of the ruin of Babylon, if the Jews did not likewise understand that it came from God. Why he calls it "a terrible land" we have seen in our exposition of the eighteenth chapter. 333 It was because, in consequence of so many displays of the
330"This plainly means Babylon, which is the subject of the prophecy. The country about Babylon, and especially below it towards the sea, was a great flat morass, often overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. It became habitable by being drained by the many canals that were made in it." — Lowth.
331The allusion appears to be to the use of the name "Coniah" instead of "Jehoiachin." "Though Coniah … were the signet upon my right hand. Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol?" (Jeremiah 22:24, 28.) — Ed
332Lowth remarks, and quotes Job 1:19, and 37:9, and Zechariah 9:14, in support of the statement, that "the most vehement storms to which Judea was subject came from the great desert country to the south of it." — Ed