Isaiah 22 Footnotes

22:12-14 Why would the people of Jerusalem celebrate (vv. 2,13) when the city of Jerusalem was in danger of being destroyed? Isaiah’s description fits the events connected with Sennacherib’s attack on Judah in 701 BC, not the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. The people in Jerusalem had prepared their weapons, repaired the walls, and dug a tunnel from the Gihon spring, outside the wall, to the pool of Siloam within (vv. 8-11; 2Ch 32:3-4). Now they were celebrating the completion of their preparations for siege (Is 22:2,13). Instead of trusting in God their Creator (v. 11), they were depending on their own efforts to save them. Isaiah found this false confidence appalling. Many people outside Jerusalem had already died, fled, or been taken captive (v. 3) and the land was still occupied by foreign troops (vv. 6-7). Isaiah wept in despair over those who had already lost their lives (v. 4), and those who would soon lose their lives on the day of the Lord (v. 12). If there were no change in the people’s trust, God would hold them accountable. Their sin would not be “wiped out” (v. 14), but they would be.