Isaiah 43:14

14 Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.

Isaiah 43:14 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 43:14

Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer
That redeemed Israel out of Egypt, and would redeem the Jews from Babylon in a short time, and be the author of a greater redemption to his people than either of these, even a spiritual and eternal one: the Holy One of Israel;
see ( Isaiah 43:3 ) , holy in himself, holiness to Israel, and faithful to his promises: for your sake I have sent to Babylon:
Cyrus and his army to take it, in order to deliver the Jews from their captivity in it. The Targum wrongly paraphrases it to the sense quite contrary,

``for your sins have I carried you captive unto Babylon:''

and have brought down all their nobles;
from their seats of honour and glory, stripped them of all their grandeur and dignity, and reduced them to a low and mean estate. This is to be understood of the princes and nobles of Babylon, who fell with the city, as their king did: or, "their bars" ^F12; for what bars are to houses and cities, that princes should be to the people, the defence and protection of them. Though some think this refers to the gates of Babylon, and the strong bars of them now broken; see ( Isaiah 45:2 ) . The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it "fugitives"; and which some understand of the Jews, who were as such in Babylon, but now should be brought out of it; which sense is countenanced by the above versions, which render it, I will raise up, bring, or bring back, "all the fugitives" ^F13; others of the Chaldeans, who should be forced to fly upon the taking of their city; but the first sense seems best, which distinguishes them from the common people in the next clause: and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in their ships;
who used to glory in their shipping they had in the river Euphrates, as the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions render it; and so the Targum calls their ships, "ships of their praise"; where, and of which, they used to make their ovations and triumphs; and the word ^F14 used has the signification of shouting for joy: or rather, "whose cry is to the ships" ^F15; as it might be, when they found Cyrus and his army had got into the city, then their cry was, to the ships, to the ships, that lay in the river hard by, in order to make their escape; or their cry was, when they were "in" the ships, even in a way of lamentation and distress, because they could not get them off, Cyrus having drained the river; or it refers to their cry, when put aboard the ships that belonged to the Medes and Persians, in order to the transporting them into other countries. Such a howling there will be when mystical Babylon is destroyed, ( Revelation 18:17-19 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 (Mlk Myxyrb) "vectes omnes", Julius & Tremellius; "vectes universos", Piscator.
F13 "Fugitivos universos", Vatablus, Paginus, Montanus; "fugientes omnes", Vitringa
F14 (Mtnr twynab) "in navibus ovatio eorum", Forerius; "cumu avibus ob quas jubilant", Piscator; "in naves ovationis ipsorum", Vitringa.
F15 "Ad naves clamor eorum", Grotius, Gataker.

Isaiah 43:14 In-Context

12 I have declared, and I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange [god] among you: therefore you are my witnesses, says Yahweh, and I am God.

13 Yes, since the day was I am he; and there is none who can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who can hinder it?

14 Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.

15 I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

16 Thus says Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;