Commentary on Isaiah Volume 1 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
his vengeance.
6. Howl ye. He continues the same argument, and bids the inhabitants of Babylon howl. Not that he directs instruction to them, as if he hoped that it would be of any advantage, but, in foretelling what shall be their condition, he emphatically employs this form of direct address.
For the day of the Lord is at hand. He calls it the day of the Lord, according to the usual custom of Scripture, because when the Lord delays his judgment, he appears to cease from the discharge of his office, like judges when they do not ascend the judgment-seat. This mode of expression deserves notice, for we would gladly subject God to our disposal, that he might immediately pass sentence against the wicked. But he has his own appointed time, and knows the seasons when it is proper both to punish the bad and to assist the good.
It shall come as destruction from the Strong One. 203 He threatens that the severity of judgment will be such that the inhabitants of Babylon will have good reason not only to cry but to howl; because God displays his power to waste and destroy them.( שדדshadad) signifies to lay waste and plunder. From this verb is derived( ,שדיShaddai,) one of the names of God, which some render Almighty. There is therefore an elegant allusion to the derivation of the word; as if he had said, that the inhabitants of Babylon shall learn by their own destruction how appropriately God is called,שדי (Shaddai,) that is, strong and powerful to destroy. 204
7. Therefore all hands shall be weakened. He shows that the power of the Lord to destroy the inhabitants of Babylon will be so great, that they shall have no means of withstanding his anger. Though they stood high in wealth and in power, yet their hearts would be so faint, and their hands so weak, that they would have neither disposition nor ability to resist. And thus he indirectly ridicules the cruelty which boiled in the hearts of the Babylonians; for it is in the power of God to soften hearts, and to crush, loosen, or enfeeble hands or arms, so that suddenly all their courage shall fall down, and all their strength shall vanish away. When the heart quakes, what will be the use of fortifications, or armies, or wealth, or bulwarks? What avails a well-stocked workshop without a workman? We see this every day exemplified in those to whom in other respects the Lord had communicated large resources. Hence we see how vain is that confidence which we place in outward resources; for they would be of no use to us, if the Lord should strike our hearts with any alarm.
8. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. The word( ציריםtzirim) being ambiguous, the Greek translators render it ambassadors. But the comparison of a woman that travaileth, which is added immediately afterwards,
משדיshod mishshaddai). This title of God is here employed for the sake of the alliteration, destruction from the destroyer, from him who is all-powerful to destroy (( )שדדshadad) as well as to save.'' --- Rosenmuller
204By a happy coincidence, the English word panic conveys exactly the meaning of the Latin adjective Panicus, which is here said to be derived from the name of the heathen God Pan, the god of the mountains, cattle, &c. — Ed