26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from far, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And he will lift up an ensign to the nations. In this and the following verses he describes the nature of the punishment which the Lord would inflict on his people; namely, that they were about to suffer from the Assyrians a similar, or even a heavier calamity, than that which their brethren the Israelites had lately endured. Many distresses had indeed been suffered by themselves from the Assyrians, though the kingdom of Judah was not yet overturned. Besides, what had befallen the kingdom of Israel might be viewed as a mirror in which they could behold God's wrath and righteous chastisement. And yet this prediction, though it was accompanied by clear proofs, must undoubtedly have appeared to be incredible; for at that time they enjoyed repose, and the slightest truce of any kind easily laid them asleep. He says, therefore, that this calamity will come to them from distant nations, from whom nothing of this kind was expected; and he sounds an alarm as if the enemy were already at hand. It is not for the sake of soothing their fear that he uses those words, from afar, and from the end of the earth; but, on the contrary, he speaks in this manner for the express purpose of informing them that they ought not to judge of the anger of God from what meets the eye, for we are wont to judge of dangers from the outward appearance of things. Now, if the enemies are not so near, or if other circumstances hinder them from giving us immediate annoyance, we give ourselves no concern. Thus the people were lulled into a profound sleep, as if there were no danger to be dreaded. But Isaiah says that this will not hinder the Lord from erecting a banner, and instantly commissioning the Assyrians to slaughter them. The expression is metaphorical; for when a banner is displayed it is customary for soldiers, at the bidding of their general, to advance in hostile array and rush into the battle. He will hiss to it. [1] Though a change of number frequently occurs in Scripture, yet it is on solid grounds that the Prophet, by changing the number, makes many nations to be but one nation. The meaning is, that when it shall please God to assemble various nations, and form them into one body, it will not be a confused multitude, but will resemble a body which has a visible head that rules and guides. He chose to employ the word hiss rather than a word of weightier import, such as sound a trumpet, or anything of that sort; in order to show that God does not need to sound a trumpet in order to call the enemies to battle, and that he has no difficulty in inflicting punishment when the time for taking vengeance is fully at hand, for by a mere nod he can accomplish the whole. [2] And lo, it will come speedy and swift. This confirms still more what I have already observed, that we ought not to judge of the anger of the Lord from the present appearance of things; for although everything appears to give assurances of peace, yet suddenly war will break out from a quarter from which we do not expect it. Even though we think that we are defended on all sides by friends, yet God will stir up enemies from the farthest corners of the earth, who will break through every obstruction, and overtake us with ease, as if the way were plain and smooth. This ought to be carefully observed, that we may not suffer ourselves to be blinded by vain presumption and foolish confidence. We ought also to observe that wars are not kindled accidentally, or by an arrangement of men, but by the command of God, as if he assembled the soldiers by the sound of a trumpet. Whether, therefore, we are afflicted by battle, or by famine, or by pestilence, let us know that all this comes from the hand of God, for all things obey him and follow his direction. And yet it was not the intention of the Chaldeans to obey God, for they were hurried on by their eagerness to obtain wealth and power, while he has quite another object in view: but God employs their agency for executing his judgments. Hence arises a remarkable and illustrious display of the power of God, which is not limited by the will of men, or dependent on their decisions, but leads them, though contrary to their wish, or without their knowledge, to obey him. And yet it is no excuse for the ungodly that they are drawn contrary to the disposition of their mind, and do not willingly serve God, for they aim at nothing else than fraud, cruelty, and violence; and by their cruelty God punishes the transgressions and crimes of his people.
1 - Sibilabit ad eam. In the [11]version prefixed to the Commentary on this chapter, our Author has likewise observed here the singular number, sibilabit genti, he will hiss to the nation. Bishop Stock, following Bishop Lowth, renders vsqr lv, (veshakar lo,) he will hiss to every one of them. -- Ed
2 - "The metaphor is taken from the practice of those that keep bees, who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, surismasi, by a hiss or a whistle;" Cyril on the place: and to the same purpose Theodoret, ibid. In Isaiah 7:18, the metaphor is more apparent by being carried further, where the hostile armies are expressed by the fly and the bee: -- "Jehovah shall hist the fly, That is in the utmost parts of Egypt; And the bee, that is in the land of Assyria." On which place see Deuteronomy 1:44; Psalm 118:12. -- Lowth.
And he will lift up an ensign - The idea here is, that the nations of the earth are under his control, and that he can call whom he pleases to execute his purposes. This power over the nations he often claims; compare Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1-7; Isaiah 10:5-7; Isaiah 9:11; Isaiah 8:18. An "ensign" is the "standard," or "flag" used in an army. The elevation of the standard was a signal for assembling for war. God represents himself here as simply raising the standard, expecting that the nations would come at once.
And will hiss unto them - This means that he would "collect" them together to accomplish his purposes. The expression is probably taken from the manner in which bees were hived. Theodoret and Cyril, on this place, say, that in Syria and Palestine, they who kept bees were able to draw them out of their hives, and conduct them into fields, and bring them back again, with the sound of a flute or the noise of hissing. It is certain also that the ancients had this idea respecting bees. Pliny (lib. xi. ch. 20) says: Gaudent plausu, atque tinnitu aeris, coque convocantur. 'They rejoice in a sound, and in the tinkling of brass, and are thus called together.' AElian (lib. v. ch. 13) says, that when they are disposed to fly away, their keepers make a musical and harmonious sound, and that they are thus brought back as by a siren, and restored to their hives. So Virgin says, when speaking of bees:
Tinnitusque cie, et Matris quate cymbala circum.
Georg. iv. 64.
'On brazen vessels beat a tinkling sound,
And shake the cymbals of the goddess round;
Then all will hastily retreat, and fill
The warm resounding hollow of their cell.'
Addison
So Ovid:
Jamque erat ad Rhodopen Pangaeaque flumina ventum,
Aeriferae comitum cum crepuere manus.
Ecce! novae coeunt volucres tinnitibus actae
Quosque movent sonitus aera sequuntur apes.
Fastor, lib. iii., 739.
See also Columella, lib. x. ch. 7; Lucan, lib. ix. ver. 288; and Claudian, "Panegyric. in sextum consul. Honorii," ver. 259; compare Bochart, "Hieroz." P. ii. lib. iv. ch. x. pp. 506, 507. The prophets refer to that fact in several places, Isaiah 8:18; Zac 10:8. The simple meaning is, that God, at his pleasure; would collect the nations around Judea like bees, that is, in great numbers.
The end of the earth - That is, the remotest parts of the world. The most eastern nations known to them were probably the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, and perhaps the inhabitants of India. The general idea is, that he would call in the distant nations to destroy them. In Isaiah 7:18, Egypt and Assyria are particularly specified. This was in accordance with the prediction in Deuteronomy 28:49.
He will - hiss "He will hist" - "The metaphor is taken from the practice of those that keep bees, who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, συρισμασι, by a hiss or a whistle." - Cyril, on this place; and to the same purpose Theodoret, ib. In Isaiah 7:18, the metaphor is more apparent, by being carried farther, where the hostile armies are expressed by the fly and the bee: -
"Jehovah shall hist the fly That is in the utmost parts of Egypt; And the bee, that is in the land of Assyria."
On which place see Deuteronomy 1:44; Psalm 118:12; and God calls the locusts his great army, Joel 2:25; Exodus 23:28. See Huet, Quest. Alnet. 2:12. שרק sharak or shrak, he shall whistle for them, call loud and shrill; he shall shriek, and they (their enemies) shall come at his call.
With speed - This refers to the Isaiah 5:19. As the scoffers had challenged God to make speed, and to hasten his work of vengeance, so now God assures them that with speed and swiftly it shall come.
And he will lift up an ensign (f) to the nations from afar, and will hiss to them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
(f) He will make the Babylonians come against them at his beck, and to fight under his standard.
And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far,.... Not to the Chaldeans or Babylonians, for they were not nations, but one nation, and were a people near; but to the Romans, who consisted of many nations, and were afar off, and extended their empire to the ends of the earth; these, by one providence or another, were stirred up to make an expedition into the land of Judea, and besiege Jerusalem: and this lifting up of an ensign is not, as sometimes, for the gathering and enlisting of soldiers, or to prepare them for the battle, or to give them the signal when to begin the fight; but as a direction to decamp and proceed on a journey, on some expedition:
and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth, or "to him" (i); the king, or general of them, wherever he is, even though at the end of the earth: and the phrase denotes the secret and powerful influence of divine Providence, in moving upon the hearts of the Romans, and their general, to enter upon such a design against the Jews; and which was as easily done as for one man to hiss or call to another; or as for a shepherd to whistle for his sheep; to which the allusion seems to be; the Lord having the hearts of all in his hands, and can turn them as he pleases, to do his will:
and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; or "he shall come"; the king with his army; and so the Targum paraphrases it;
"and behold, a king with his army shall come swiftly, as light clouds;''
this shows the swift and sudden destruction that should come upon the Jews; and is an answer to their scoffs, Isaiah 5:19.
(i) "ei", Vatablus; Montanus; "illi", Cocceius; "ad se", Junius & Tremellius.
lift . . . ensign--to call together the hostile nations to execute His judgments on Judea (Isaiah 10:5-7; Isaiah 45:1). But for mercy to it, in Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 18:3.
hiss-- (Isaiah 7:18). Bees were drawn out of their hives by the sound of a flute, or hissing, or whistling (Zac 10:8). God will collect the nations round Judea like bees (Deuteronomy 1:44; Psalm 118:12).
end of the earth--the widely distant subject races of which the Assyrian army was made up (Isaiah 22:6). The ulterior fulfilment took place in the siege under Roman Titus. Compare "end of the earth" (Deuteronomy 28:49, &c.). So the pronoun is singular in the Hebrew, for "them," "their," "whose" (him, his, &c.), Isaiah 5:26-29; referring to some particular nation and person [HORSLEY].
Jehovah finds the human instruments of His further strokes, not in Israel and the neighbouring nations, but in the people of distant lands. "And lifts up a banner to the distant nations, and hisses to it from the end of the earth; and, behold, it comes with haste swiftly." What the prophet here foretold began to be fulfilled in the time of Ahaz. But the prophecy, which commences with this verse, has every possible mark of the very opposite of a vaticinium post eventum. It is, strictly speaking, only what had already been threatened in Deuteronomy 28:49. (cf., Deuteronomy 32:21.), though here it assumes a more plastic form, and is here presented for the first time to the view of the prophet as though coming out of a mist. Jehovah summons the nations afar off: haggōyim mērâchok signifies, as we have rendered it, the "distant nations," for mērâc is virtually an adjective both here and Isaiah 49:1, just as in Jeremiah 23:23 it is virtually a substantive. The visible working of Jehovah presents itself to the prophet in two figures. Jehovah plants a banner or standard, which, like an optical telegraph, announces to the nations at a more remote distance than the horn of battle (shophâr) could possibly reach, that they are to gather together to war. A "banner" (nês): i.e., a lofty staff with flying colours (Isaiah 33:23) planted upon a bare mountain-top (Isaiah 13:2). נשׂא alternates with הרים in this favourite figure of Isaiah. The nations through whom this was primarily fulfilled were the nations of the Assyrian empire. According to the Old Testament view, these nations were regarded as far off, and dwelling at the end of the earth (Isaiah 39:3), not only inasmuch as the Euphrates formed the boundary towards the north-east between what was geographically known and unknown to the Israelites (Psalm 72:8; Zac 9:10), but also inasmuch as the prophet had in his mind a complex body of nations stretching far away into further Asia. The second figure is taken from a bee-master, who entices the bees, by hissing or whistling, to come out of their hives and settle on the ground. Thus Virgil says to the bee-master who wants to make the bees settle, "Raise a ringing, and beat the cymbals of Cybele all around" (Georgics, iv 54). Thus does Jehovah entice the hosts of nations like swarms of bees (Isaiah 7:18), and they swarm together with haste and swiftness. The plural changes into the singular, because those who are approaching have all the appearance at first of a compact and indivisible mass; it is also possible that the ruling nation among the many is singled out. The thought and expression are both misty, and this is perfectly characteristic. With the word "behold" (hinnēh) the prophet points to them; they are approaching mehērâh kal, i.e., in the shortest time with swift feet, and the nearer they come to his view the more clearly he can describe them.
An ensign - To call them together for his service. From far - To the Chaldeans; for even Babylon is called a far country, Isaiah 39:3. And he saith nations, because the Chaldean army was made up of several nations. Will hiss - Or, will whistle unto, or for them: will gather them together by his word. as shepherds gather their sheep. He intimates how easily and speedily God can do this work. From the ends - Which is not to be understood strictly, but with a latitude, from very remote places.
*More commentary available at chapter level.