Isaiah 14:26

This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) This is the hand that is stretched out . . .—The words point, as it were, to the idea of a universal history. The fall of the Assyrian power and of Babylon does not stand alone, but forms part of a scheme embracing all nations and all ages (Isaiah 9:12).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:24-27 Let those that make themselves a yoke and a burden to God's people, see what they are to expect. Let those that are the called according to God's purpose, comfort themselves, that whatever God has purposed, it shall stand. The Lord of hosts has purposed to break the Assyrian's yoke; his hand is stretched out to execute this purpose; who has power to turn it back? By such dispensations of providence, the Almighty shows in the most convincing manner, that sin is hateful in his sight.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This is the purpose - This is the sum of the whole design - a design that embraces the destruction both of the king of Assyria, and of Babylon.

Upon the whole earth - The successive kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia embraced the whole earth, and to destroy them would in fact affect all the nations.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. This is … purpose … whole earth—A hint that the prophecy embraces the present world of all ages in its scope, of which the purpose concerning Babylon and Assyria, the then representatives of the world power, is but a part.

hand … stretched out upon—namely, in punishment (Isa 5:25).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Upon the whole earth; upon this vast empire, now in the hands of the Assyrians, and shortly to come into the hands of the Babylonians.

The whole earth is put synecdochically for a great part of it. The hand; the providence of God executing his purpose.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, &c. Or, "counsel that is counselled". The Targum is,

"all the inhabitants of the earth;''

and the Septuagint version, "the whole world", meaning the Assyrian empire, and all states depending on it; as the Roman empire is called, Luke 2:1 for this purpose respects not the end of the world, and the judgment of it at the last day, as some have thought; but the preceding prophecy, purpose, or counsel, concerning breaking and trampling under foot the Assyrians, and delivering the Jews from subjection to them:

and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations; of which the Assyrian army consisted, or which made up the Assyrian monarchy, or depended on it, and fell with it. "Purpose" denotes the counsel, will, and decree of God, about this business; and "hand" the execution of it. The Targum renders it "power"; so "hand" and "counsel" go together in Acts 4:28. The Targum is

"on all kingdoms.''

Geneva Study Bible

This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26, 27. This plan of Jehovah embraces the destinies of all nations (see ch. Isaiah 28:22, Isaiah 10:23, Isaiah 8:9). The expression “the whole earth” is not to be restricted to the Assyrian Empire, nor on the other hand is the meaning that all other peoples shall suffer the same fate as Assyria; it is simply that the event announced is of world-wide importance, and affects the interests of humanity at large. This indeed followed from the ambitious designs of Assyria, which could not stop short of universal empire. But Isaiah no doubt looked deeper than this, and thought of its bearings on the religious future of mankind. The two verses are a striking testimony to the grandeur of Isaiah’s conception of the Divine government.

this is the hand that is stretched out] cf. Isaiah 14:26, ch. Isaiah 5:25, Isaiah 9:12, &c.

ii. Isaiah 14:28-32. An oracle on Philistia. The Philistines, who are rejoicing at the fall of some cruel oppressor, are warned that the dreaded power will soon be re-established in a more terrible form than ever (Isaiah 14:29). A contrast is then drawn between the miserable fate of the Philistines and the peace and security in store for Israel (Isaiah 14:30). In Isaiah 14:31 the warning is repeated, and it is indicated that the formidable enemy is one who comes from the north. Meanwhile ambassadors from a foreign people (no doubt the Philistines) are in Jerusalem awaiting an answer to their proposals; and the prophet gives the answer in the name of Jehovah, as he does in the case of the Ethiopian envoys in ch. 18.

The situation which best combines the various allusions of the prophecy would seem to be the death of some Assyrian monarch, which in Isaiah’s time was invariably the signal for active conspiracy among the states of Palestine (General Introd., pp. xiv f.). That the broken rod is Ahaz and the future oppressor Hezekiah, although suggested by the title, appears to be excluded by Isaiah 14:31, where the invasion is said to come from the north. It is still less natural to suppose that the rod is a Jewish dominion, and the threatened danger an Assyrian supremacy, because Isaiah 14:29 seems to imply that the new tyranny springs from the same root as the old. Assuming, then, that two successive Assyrian kings are meant, there are three occasions within the lifetime of Isaiah which satisfy the conditions required by the prophecy: the death of Tiglath-pileser III. in 727; of Shalmaneser IV. in 722; and of Sargon in 705. It is hardly possible with the data at our disposal to decide between these periods. Each of the monarchs named had ravaged the Philistine territory; the death of each was followed by an outbreak of disaffection in which the Philistines took a leading part, and at any time Isaiah would have given the advice to his countrymen which he virtually gives here. On the last occasion we might perhaps have expected a reference to the overthrow of Assyria, as in the answer to the Ethiopians about the same time (ch. 18). The first event mentioned corresponds approximately with one of the dates assigned for the death of Ahaz (727), and would therefore go far to vindicate the accuracy of the superscription.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 26. - The whole earth... all the nations. Blows struck against Assyria or Babylonia affected all the then known nations Each, in its turn, was "the hammer of the whole earth" (Jeremiah 1:23), and a check received by either caused world-wide disturbance. No sooner did one subject nation recover her freedom, than an electric shock ran through all the rest - plots were laid, confederacies formed, revolts planned, embassies sent hither and thither. The complete destruction of Assyria involved a complete change in the relations, not only of the principal powers - Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, Elam, but even of the minor ones - Philistia, Edom, Moab, Syria, Phoenicia, Ammon. Isaiah 14:26

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

There now follows, apparently out of all connection, another prophecy against Asshur. It is introduced here quite abruptly, like a fragment; and it is an enigma how it got here, and what it means here, though not an enigma without solution. This short Assyrian passage reads as follows. "Jehovah of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, that takes place; to break Asshur to pieces in my land, and upon my mountain will I tread him under foot: then his yoke departs from them, and his burden will depart from their neck. This is the purpose that is purposed over the whole earth; and this the hand that is stretched out over all nations. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who could bring it to nought? And His hand that is stretched out, who can turn it back?" It is evidently a totally different judicial catastrophe which is predicted here, inasmuch as the world-power upon which it falls is not called Babel or Chasdim, but Asshur, which cannot possibly be taken as a name for Babylon (Abravanel, Lowth, etc.). Babylon is destroyed by the Medes, whereas Asshur falls to ruin in the mountain-land of Jehovah, which it is seeking to subjugate - a prediction which was literally fulfilled. And only when this had taken place did a fitting occasion present itself for a prophecy against Babel, the heiress of the ruined Assyrian power. Consequently the two prophecies against Babel and Asshur form a hysteron-proteron as they stand here. The thought which occasioned this arrangement, and which it is intended to set forth, is expressed by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 50:18-19, "Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria." The one event was a pledge of the other. At a time when the prophecy against Assyria had actually been fulfilled, the prophet attached it to the still unfulfilled prophecy against Babylon, to give a pledge of the fulfilment of the latter. This was the pedestal upon which the Massâh Bâbel was raised. And it was doubly suited for this, on account of its purely epilogical tone from Isaiah 14:26 onwards.