Chapter 1
Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah (who is made a leper when his pride pushes him to try and burn incense restricted to the Aaronic priesthood), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, Kings of Judah.  According to MSB, this would be 739-686 BC.  The oldest copy of the whole book was found in Qumran, and has been dated as long ago as 356 BC.  This scroll, when found, was 1000 years older than any other copies.  It is the same as the later copies.  This link, http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/chapters_pg, compares the Qumran scroll with the Masoretic Text which is a fundamental source of our modern English Bibles.    This would be worth a line by line comparison.  One could determine for himself whether there have been changes in the Bible.  The Masoretic Text dates from the 10th century, though there are sections of it that go back to the 7th century.  This would all be OT.

Says this is about Judah and Jerusalem in vs 1.  Northern kingdom is not mentioned.

Starts with an indictment of the people of Judah.  This verse:
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. [Isa 1:6 ESV]
Not many good people in Judah at this time.  They had abandoned God almost entirely.  They were wounded, but leaving the wounds open, untreated, untended.  Infection and death is imminent.  They no longer "feel" their wounds.  As Jonah, they are so "comfortable" with their sins that they do not realize the impending consequences of it.

vss 7, 8 imply that Judah was at least partially occupied, and many cities were damaged from wars, and left in ruins.

But God hangs on to His promises:
9 If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah. [Isa 1:9 ESV]
Sodom and Gomorrah would have been spared for 10 good men, but they could not be found.  This verse implies that even at this dire time, there were still some good men, preserved by God to receive His promise, alive and well in Judah.

2021-The first 9 verses are all indictment of the people Isaiah speaks to.  You don't hear preachers talk this way today.  He is comparing them to rebellious, wayward children.  Children gone completely off the good path.  And they know they have done it, and they choose to continue doing it.  Also, I need to speed up because it is Sunday morning.

They still worship, but not with any sincerity.  It is empty worship, it is ritual, it is habit.  This very long verse:
11 "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. [Isa 1:11 ESV]

2021, This is an interesting phrase:
[Isa 1:13b ESV] ...I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
God particularly despises hypocrisy in worship.  

What needs to be done to regain God's favor?  These verses:
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. [Isa 1:16-17 ESV]
Here is another picture of baptism.  It is ritual, it makes us clean for service to God.  It symbolizes preparation, the washing off of old dirt, that as clean we can begin to serve him.  Judah needed to be re-baptized, and start again.  
This is a formula for revival.  This is how we turn it around.

This whole first chapter is indictment, warning, and promise of deliverance if they will change their ways.  It is ultimatum, but with an escape clause.  Yet there is no doubt from the language that God is just about out of patience.  Jerusalem has become as bad - maybe worse - than Sodom and Gomorrah.  Note also that there are many verses that describe a nation that has become corrupt from the inside out.
Starts in vs 4, sinful nation, God is forsaken by the children.  Then vs 6 about untreated wounds - they don't recognize their danger.  The country is desolate, cities burned by fire in vs 7, 8.  Oh how that rings true!  Then vs 9, where at least there was more to save than in Sodom and Gomorrah.  What is left of "religion" is ritual and rote, not from the heart in vvs10-17.  Vss 21-23, murderers in the capitol city, known, and open.  Princes - that is the leaders of government - are the companions of thieves.  "Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts".  

2021 - Corrupt, full of open evil.  That seems to be the key.  From top to bottom, there is corruption, and it is so common and acceptable that no one even tries to hide it.  That is what we have going on here in so many ways.  Abortion particularly.  People shout right out that they support killing unborn children, as if they are proud of what was once a supremely shameful practice.  Here are the verses:
[Isa 1:21 ESV] How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
[Isa 1:22 ESV] Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water.
[Isa 1:23 ESV] Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them.

2021 - Look how far this goes!  God has declared Judah and His city Jerusalem to be His enemies.  His children have become His enemies.  Think of how that would affect you!  Here is the reason for the patience of God toward Jerusalem.  They are His children!
[Isa 1:24 ESV] Therefore the Lord declares, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: "Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.
I wold go so far as to say vss 21-31 are prophecy of the Millennial.  I think that, because nothing that happened between Isaiah and the Millennial has made these statements come to pass.  But they will be true in that day.  

Beginning in vs 24, God reveals His plan to clean up the mess:  He will "smelt away" their dross.  That is fire.  That is melting down, removing the dross, and congealing purity.  This is correction by fire, not by gentle persuasion.  This will be violent and wrenching.  

Chapter 2
2021 - Just reading straight through this.  Running out of time.
but...look at vss 2-4!  The Millennial again!  Even uses the term "latter days".

2023 - In light of Grudem's Section 6, about the church, how can "the church" fulfil Isa 2:1-4?  Don't you have to get into that "gradually better as time goes on" for their to be any hope of fruition to this prophecy?  World peace is in here, and so is one world government!  "Out of Zion" shall go the law.  Is the world church going to have it's world HQ in Israel?  Or is this about Israel in the end times?  I think the earthly promises to Israel will be fulfilled ON EARTH in the Millennial.  The Church will not be a part of that, but be raptured to heaven before it starts. 

The intro to this chapter seems to separate it from Chapter 1 as a separate prophesy, or vision.  MSB says this second vision runs from 2:1 to 5:30.

In the second verse we are told this prophesy is of the latter days.  I am not quite sure when those are.

MSB is a help:
OT prophets had no knowledge really of the time between the first and second advents, and saw the latter days as the time when the Millenial Kingdom would be set up.  However, the NT consistently calls the time from Jesus first advent the latter days.  What the expression "last days" or "latter days" really references is the messianic era, whether you start that as OT prophets did with the millennial kingdom, or as NT writers did, with the first advent.  

Through vs 5 we can recognize the Jerusalem of the Millennial Reign.  I say this because the description of Jerusalem as a counselor to the nations was not the role she had in the 1st century, when Jesus was here.  Jerusalem was under the thumb of Rome at the time.  So these first verses describe Jerusalem in the Millennial - Latter days here refers to the time in Revelation, not the time in the gospels.  So the term "latter days" can surely mean both, and we must use context to determine exactly what is meant.  

10-22 are about the Day of the Lord, which ties in to the tribulation and great tribulation.  To the vengeance of God on mankind.  Per MSB, Day of the Lord, or Day of Reckoning, appears 19 times in the OT and 4 times in the NT .  They are all listed in the MSB footnote for Isa 2:12.  This would be a good study.  There is a lot more in this particular footnote.  Much to study.  BUT, the thing to note is that Day of the Lord can refer to near or far judgement, it can refer to providential  or God-sent judgement.  It must be interpreted based on the context, and I am sure there are endless arguments on each usage of the phrase.  Per MSB, there are two judgements yet to be fulfilled:  One at the end of Daniel's 70th week, and one at the end of the Millennial.
(2021 - Vs 20 connects with 17:8 and 30:22.  See especially notes at 30:22)

vss 6-22 seem to me to be about the tribulation.  Actually, they seem to tie more to Great Tribulation.  They tie to "wrath".  It would be a good study to tie these verses to specific verses in Revelation.  Caves of rocks, cleft of rocks, men hiding themselves...things like that.
2021 - Vs. 12 says "a day", vs 17 "in that day".  We are talking about a much shorter period of time when all this will be poured out than what the latter days are about.  

Chapter 3
1-5 shown as a section.  God is removing his support (his blessing?) from Jerusalem, and the people will all turn against each other.  6-8, None will want to be in authority as this just makes them a target.  These verses seem less about Trib and more about the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon.  The leaders were often carried away in the waves of conquest.  Who would want to be a ruler at such a time?  BUT, I do not want to get bogged down trying to "divide" each verse of Isaiah as it switches from near to far prophecy.  I think it can sometimes change from verse to verse, and you'd still never be sure.  It would, I think, reduce the impact of what is being said.  So I'm going to try and avoid that.  9 - Woe to them.  They proclaim and brag about their sin, as Sodom did.  They are so jaded, so fearless of the Lord, that they don't even try to hide their sins.  They brag about their sins!  I have seen that before.  Democratic National Convention 2016.

2022 - Isa 1:1-5 might be seen as a description of what happens to a nation when God stops protecting that nation.  I think these verses should be seen as God's withdrawal from a nation, rather than from a person.  The food and water supply is "on its own".  God no longer promises rain in season and in plenty,  There might be bread, there might not.  You better prepare for both possibilities.  This might be seen as a "prepper" verse.  Next, those in authority and power.  Those who defend the nation are taken away, honest judges, elders as examples of the right way, the people who are looked to for decisions and examples.  Responsible people no longer want to be in charge!!!!  So boys - the unqualified, who because of lack of age and/or training, have no clue how to be in charge - are put into places of responsibility.  Everyone turns against everyone.  Neighbor against neighbor, old against young, oppressed against oppressor.  Holy cow, this is our country right now!  And WE cannot fix it.  This is people behaving as people always behave when God withdraws His support.  The only cure for this is to convince God to change his mind, and restore His support.  
Can I find any example at all of a nation recovering from this situation?  Or does God not withdraw His support in the first place if there is any chance of reconciliation?  Should we see Isaiah's words here as addressed to a nation that is beyond turning?  This is not about chastening a nation, this is about a nation with no future.
Possible FB post.  Depressing post!

2021 - This verse:
[Isa 3:6 ESV] For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: "You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule";
Know why the choices we have for President are getting worse and worse?  Because only a fool would want the job as things crumble all around us.  The job is only forced upon people.  How far back did the tide turn, from qualified and capable men, Godly leaders, to those who had other goals in mind?  Those who only served because of what the job could do for them?
Part of a FB series of posts?

First woe:
9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. [Isa 3:9 ESV]
2021 - Vs 9 is becoming more and more widespread.  Sin is heralded as a successful strategy.  Homosexuality, transvestites, abortions.  All touted as wonderful, successful, enlightened, fulfilling.  And surely the similarity to Sodom cannot be missed.  
More for the series?

I find these two verses very telling, very un-PC, and a good way to get banned from FB:
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him. 12 My people--infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths. [Isa 3:11-12 ESV]
This just looks like the US over the last 10 or 20 years.  Our leaders get younger and younger, and men are being harangued, heckled, and replaced by women, because they are women.  Being male is tantamount to disqualification from public office.  I know Isaiah is not about us, but I still see us in this passage.

vss 16, 17 seem to prophesy a judgement on women in particular, baldness maybe, and nakedness.  Not sure about this one.  It looks like the finery and exaltation of women will be brought low.  How?  vs. 25, 26:  
25 Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle. 26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground. [Isa 3:25-26 ESV]
Without the protection, without the "consent" of men, women lose the battle.  All falls apart.
2021 - 16, 17, This could be interpreted as the ultimate failure of feminism.  Female leadership is not in view.  Women are fully capable of leading, and at times the best leaders.  The Bible has examples of female leadership in tune with God's will.  Dinah, Rahab, there was a female judge in that book, Lydia, many others.   But feminism is a different thing.  It presumes the created order to be in error.  Its aim is to turn everything upside down.  To make men slaves to women.  These verses may be saying that a system built on the opposite of the created order is destined to a spectacular failure.  It will fall so hard that it will be like stripping the women who created it naked in public.  Exposing their most private thoughts, embarrassingly.

I believe this says that leadership is not the optimum role for women.  I believe it says that when women begin to fill these roles in great numbers, it is a sign of decline in that nation.  It is not a sign of "enlightenment" but of ignoring the light.  It is a sign that the system is breaking down from the foundation.

2021 - Maybe the fundamental problem is not that women fill more leadership roles but more that the stronger sex is denigrated and pushed out and disrespected.  What happens when you alienate your strongest players?  There is a vacuum, and it can only be filled with weaker players, once the strong are pushed out.  And that is what is happening with the whole patriarchal, CRT, socialist agenda.  The most able, the most successful, the strongest - are being labelled as criminals, thieves, greedy bastards, and most of all, oppressors.  These are not successful because they word, because they're smarter, because they are better organized, but because they have built a whole system that funnels success and wealth only to them, and at other's expense.  Now here is the interesting part.  In Isaiah, when these cultural changes were taking place, it was because God was taking away their support and supply.  God was taking away "plenty" and leaving "want".  Further, the removal of the strongest was also God's doing, as punishment sent on a sinful nation.  When God stops enforcing His created order of leadership, it is because He is done with that nation.  This is surely a scary development.
Previous four paragraphs distilled as a third series post?

[[[Possible series:  Vs 1-6 are God's proactive judgments:  vs 1 Take away support and supply, food and water are sought after, not taken for granted. vs 2, The rank and file military deteriorates.  The justice system deteriorates.  The religious system collapses.  (def of diviner?)  vs 3, Military leadership declines.  Perhaps becomes political instead of nationalistic.  Then these "magical" things collapse?  Does this mean once organized religion collapses people will turn to charms and witches, and then they too will be ineffective?    Vs 4, Lack of experienced leadership.  Younger, but more importantly, unqualified leadership.  Put in a picture of the cross dresser in charge of HUD. vs 5, all will turn on each other.  So polarized that we are each surrounded by enemies no matter where we live.  It will be ok to cheat your neighbor, because you are enemies along some dimension.  Is the last part of the verse about millennials?  A whole generation that shouldn't have to wait for experience and success, because they are already smarter than all who came before, and the old have nothing to teach them?  And maybe a disease begins to deplete the elderly, to wipe out the experience of lifetimes?  Despised to honorable - criminals defunding the police.  Murderers, rapists, child molesters and drug addicts held up as fallen heroes, as martyrs in the battle AGAINST justice.  Wow.  How many posts is that?  And they just keep going!]]]

Chapter 4
Vs 1 seems to belong in chapter 3.  Women will need husbands, but too many men will have died.  There is implication that unmarried women will be looked upon very negatively. What a turn around.  From being at the top of the food chain to being food for those they displaced.  From being independent and haughty to being willing to share a man with other wives.  To be just one of the wives of a man, of any man, just so they can say they are married.

2021 - Not sure I'm right about this belonging in Chapt 3.  It is really a new thought.  It is about the aftermath of 16-26.  Once the upside down system falls.  I wonder if this could be tied to the fall of Babylon in Revelation.  Is this the worldwide system that will break down?  Hmm...unlikely.  Revelation is pretty clear that men will be in charge.  Even so, this is about women desperate to be under the protection of men.  This is not about today - except in Afghanistan, when the Taliban came in.  Independent women likely scrambled to change their status.  Perhaps also in Jerusalem, when Babylon came in.  In Babylon, I doubt women were parading up and down in high status.  More likely, that culture was fully male dominated, as were most in that time.  But in Jerusalem, they'd turned that upside down.  And Babylon would have been ambitious to slap that down in a hurry.  Just like the Taliban did.  Wow.  This makes sense.  Look at what is going on here right now.  ESPN has more female talkers than male.  NASCAR has female reporters.  Look at the percentage of legislators - state and federal - who are female now.  Look at the trend.  Tell me this is not happening.  Tell me this is not where it's going.  Oh!!!  Having the wrong gender in leadership inevitably results in a weakening of the whole system, and ultimately to the fall of that system to a conquering power.  An external power of some sort.  The US is going to fall if we keep this up.  And it won't be the fall from within that Khrushchev prophesied, it will be a conquest from without.  This is surely a possible conclusion from these verses.   

I don't know that this one has been fulfilled.  Maybe after Jerusalem falls and the captives are taken off the women who remained - in a survival scenario - would have come to this point.

But enough about the women...

Vss 2-6 seem to take us back to a vision of the Millennial Kingdom.  It refers to the branch (lower case in ESV).  Zion will be exalted.  Jerusalem a beacon to all nations.  

2021 - [Isa 4:2 ESV] In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.
The use of survivors here could refer to those left alive after the Babylonian captivity.  But it seems like it could also be about the survivors of Great Tribulation.  There is much in Revelation about surviving to the end.  In Matthew 24 also.

2021 - What is this about?
[Isa 4:5 ESV] Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy.
A protective dome over Jerusalem during the Millennial reign?  MSB sort of says that's what it is, and mentions the return of the Shekinah glory mentioned in Eze 43.  Read a few other MSB notes on this chapter, and it does seem to be about the Millennial Kingdom.  Perhaps this protection will be necessary, since we know enough evil will remain on the earth to lead to one final conflict between the followers of Satan and those of Christ, even after 1000 years of glory.

2023 - Vss 2-6 seem pretty certainly about the Millennial.  I just don't think we can point to any time since Isaiah when these things have been true of Israel.  When they came back from Babylon they didn't even have a wall.  They got that together and then built a Temple that was such a far cry from the original that the old men still living who had seen the original just cried that they 'd come to this.  Israel has never had a King rule them since the return from Babylon.  Since 70 AD they haven't had a High Priest either.  They have never been the envy of the whole world.  So I think this part of the prophecy is still future.

Chapter 4 is pretty short after those first three...

Chapter 5
This whole chapter is set off in prose format.  
The vineyard on the hill, with choice vines, a watchtower, and a wine vat in the middle.  But it yielded wild grapes.  Israel.  A nation called out, special to God, His holy nation.  And look what they have become, their unfaithfulness, their whoring with other gods, their haughty and arrogant bearing, their disdain of consequences.  This is possibly the first use of the analogy of Israel as a vineyard.  God asks Jerusalem and Judah what else He could have done, what did they lack, that caused the grapes to be wild.  So God will break down the hedge and the wall, and the vineyard will be overrun.

2023 - Think of the parallel between this in Isaiah, and the parable of the vineyard in Luke 20.  Also called the parable of the wicked tenants.  Surely Jesus is expanding on Isaiah in Luke.  I included a longer note in Luke 20 that is worth reading, shown as a 2023 addendum.  The two are just two parallel to deny.

Vss 5-7 give us God's plan for this vineyard that he so carefully planted, protected, tended.  At this point, it does not say that He will directly destroy the vineyard.  That's not what He does at all.  Instead, he removes its hedge - which protects it from wild animals that will eat the fruit, attack the roots, and so on.  Then he will break down the wall, so that large animals, foot traffic, evil men who have no respect for it - even hate it because of the one who owns it - will trample it down.  They will abuse it, burn parts, throw bricks and break windows.  Like that.  God will no longer tend it, no longer "corral it" towards the ends that he has in mind for it.  He will no longer keep the truly harmful out of it - the briars and the thorns will be allowed to grow and thrive within the cultured vineyard.  And there will be no water.  The vineyard will be weakened systemically as it thirsts for water.  The essentials will be gone.  
This is how God deals with nations.  It is different than with people.  He chastises people, but a nation gone wrong He just steps away from, and lets the corrupt nature of man take over, lets the destructive have their way.
What a post for FB...If anyone would even read it....
Verse 7 leaves no doubt that Israel is the vineyard, and that Israel has failed miserably in God's sight.  It is not the righteous seat of justice that God wants it to be.

Now start some woes.  There were two of them in chapter 3 (vss 9, 11).  This chapter has 6 in the ESV.  There are 7 in the NKJV, since there are two in verse 22 in that translation.  Seven seems better...and I don't read the underlying language, so maybe there are only six, and the seventh woe is yet to come?  MSB note in NASB comments on the sixth woe, mentions nothing about a seventh.

First woe is those who are accumulators, who have far more than they need leaving nothing available to others.  This is about pies that are limited in size.  If someone gets more, another must get less.

Second woe is about those who drink early and late, who feast and party, and never consider God.
Vss 13-17 foretell a disaster where people will be taken into exile, high and haughty men, will be brought low.  Honorable men will starve and thirst.  The whole land is to be devastated.  The picture is of a land that is falling to its enemies, falling into chaos, where it seems that even nature itself has turned against it so that it can no longer support its people.

Third woe, to those who promote wickedness, who advance injustice, while "daring" God to do something about it.  Arrogant and haughty, laughing at God's warnings.  Vs 19 is about those who sarcastically ask to see God's work.  They don't believe in Him, or that He controls events.

Fourth woe is to those who call evil good and good evil.  Who put darkness for light, bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.  These are those who pervert obvious truth, and by saying it enough, attempt to make it so.  This needs to be posted.  Isa. 5:20.
Like breaking the law yourself and then demanding an apology from those you coerced to break the law with you, because they let you do it.  Pelosi's haircut.

Fifth woe, to those wise in their own eyes, shrewd in their own sight.  
Sixth woe, to those who are "heroes at drinking wine".

God is angry and has "stretched out his hand against them".  Corpses are as refuse in the streets, yet He is still not satisfied.  This is the verse:
25 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. [Isa 5:25 ESV]
Look at that last phrase.  For all this...  So despite the devastation that God is bringing on Israel, it will not be enough, their crime deserves more punishment and He is a just God.  This verse is well before we see the prediction of double punishment, but surely it is a precursor - it is the explanation for exactly why the punishment of Israel is ongoing to this day.

God will call other nations to descend on Judah, to attack and overrun.  The invaders will be an unstoppable force.  Is this what comes next for us?  Is this going to be the fate of the US?  Russia or China will invade, and we'll be helpless to resist?  For all I know Pelosi and crew will "invite" them to come in and keep the peace!  The Dems could make it "legal" for us to be invaded!

Chapter 6
Isaiah's vision of heaven, in the year Uzziah (Amaziah) died.  The vision is of God on His throne in heaven, high and lifted up.  And smoke fills the house - as it did the Tent of Meeting, and later the Temple of Solomon.  God gives Isaiah a direct message for the people in vss 9b-13.  It seems to say that God will wait no more.  He will harden their hearts so that they do not repent.  They will refuse to hear - more than that, He will make them blind and deaf so that they cannot hear, and then God will lay waste the land.  Their time of repentance has passed.  Judgement is here pronounced on them, and God's hand can no longer be turned.  How do we know when it gets to this point?

A relatively short chapter.

2021 - Vs 2 describes the seraphim, with six wings each.  And their song:
[Isa 6:3 ESV] And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"  This for comparison:
[Rev 4:8 ESV] And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"
The voice of one of the seraphim is so powerful that the foundations even of heaven are shaken, and then the house fills with smoke.  This happened at the dedication of the tent of meeting, and the dedication of the temple.  It showed the presence of God - a physical presence I think you would have to say, because the priests could not go in while the smoke was there.  The smoke gave "thick darkness", and God is in the thick darkness.  Isaiah is humbled to the point of believing his life forfeit for seeing what is so pure and perfect with the eyes of sinful man.  We can't even imagine being so humbled.  Americans are just not made to be humble.  Our culture was about the sovereignty of the individual, about how anyone can do anything, rise to any position, don't tell us about your blue blood.  Now we're about our rights and what we ought to have, and about how all are equal.  Never ever have we been about "serving others", not really, not as a culture.  

2021, Then this -
[Isa 6:6 ESV] Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
[Isa 6:7 ESV] And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."
God, through a messenger, removes Isaiah's sin, that he may stand in the presence of the Holy One.  Surely God's power and benevolence was the cause of the action, but the action was carried out by an angel.  A coal from the altar, so hot even the angel had to use tongs.  This searing purifying fire was required to remove sin.

2023 - It was the burning coal that removed guilt and atoned for sin.  The coal is Christ.  The coal was on the altar.  I don't know that I have ever heard this preached as either type or metaphor of Christ.  Surely there are things to discern about this scene.  A coal from the altar, when it touched Isaiah's lips, took away guilt and atoned for sin.  The coal is what remains after the offering is burned?  Or the coal is underneath - part of the fire?  

2021 - God speaks directly to Isaiah.  This is a rare thing.  Hasn't happened to many, not since Moses.  Solomon once, David perhaps, and the high priests in some manner.  But this is with a voice, directly.  "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"  
The interlinear is interesting here.  14 Hebrew words, but really , only four have direct translations, and those into multiple words.  I'm not sure what this means exactly.  Maybe it means that there are things here with no real English equivalents.  So despite preferring word for word translation, sometimes it just isn't possible.  The words of God, directly from His mouth, cannot be spoken in English, but only in Hebrew?  This is what happens using the forward interlinear.  In the reverse, only 8 words are listed.  In this presentation, English phrases or words correspond to each of the eight, and there is one English word with no Hebrew word.  I need to learn the differences between the reverse and the forward.  It is almost like the forward presents the Hebrew text, and tries to connect English to it, and then the reverse takes the English, and points it backward to the words it derived from.
One additional note from looking at the interlinear is that Lord is the translation here of Adonai.  Same back in vs 1.  Is Lord always and exclusively the translation of Adonai?

2023 - These words:
9 And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' [Isa 6:9 ESV].  The following verses are more of the same.  God is telling them that the line is crossed, and that they will not comprehend from this point forward.  Vs 10 starts with making hearts dull, ears heavy, eyes blind.  Jesus quotes this verse in the NT in a way that says this "curse" has continued to that day.  How can we view it as anything but continuing to THIS day.  They still do not see their Messiah.  Isaiah asks when this will end, and he gets an answer.  When things are desolate, and similar language.  We might make a pretty good case that Israel looked like that after 135 AD.  The Romans devastated the whole area and Jews for not allowed even to be there.  We could also say it looked like that after the Babylonian's last conquest of Jerusalem.  And then there is vs 13:
13 And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump. [Isa 6:13 ESV].  It will be burned yet again.  So...technically, there is no end to this.  Even though things are repeatedly desolated, it will be burned again. What does the reference to stump burning tell us?  Maybe it means that even if you cut the tree down, it will try to regrow from the stump.  This "new growth" would need to be burned again and again to keep the tree from regrowing.  So 70 AD, 135 AD, the Holocaust, and now today?  Or things worse than today, are all about making sure the oak does not regrow as before...though some growth will always be there.  Connect this back to 5:25b:  25 ...For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. [Isa 5:25 ESV].  We need to watch carefully for verses that tell us what to look for at the end of his wrath.  If we take the position that Israel will receive the promises at the end, then God's wrath as described here must some day be turned away.  What will that look like, and when will that be.  Perhaps Isaiah will explain it to us as we go along.  
But we ought not be surprised at the "burning", the repeated burning of the people of Israel.  This curse that started in Isaiah's day will not end until God's wrath turns away.  

2021 - The message is that the time for repentance and help is past.  What is coming cannot be turned or averted.  Things are going to get really bad, and then they are going to get worse yet.  The literal words say that the population will be reduced to a 10th, and then burned again.  Looking ahead, we know that Isaiah's prophecy is pre-Assyria in the north, and certainly pre-Babylon in the south, since that conquest does not come until Jeremiah's time.  But even here, at the very day 1 of Isaiah's ministry, it is all over.  The people are going to be purposely prevented from comprehending and acting on Isaiah's message.  His preaching is doomed to fall on - not deaf ears - but on ears sealed shut.  Pretty sure this passage is quoted in the NT also, as still being in effect at that time.  This is the current situation with the Jews too, it is still going on.  There is a remnant, but for the most part, the Jews will not hear about Jesus.  Reminds me of the Ben Shapiro interview of John MacArthur.  Any time MacArthur mentioned Jesus, Shapiro would get this condescending look that said, you poor ignorant little kid.  You believe that Jesus stuff?  This "curse" if I can call it that of dull hearts, heavy ears, and blind eyes continues because of what had happened up to Isaiah's time, and compounded by what happened in Jesus' time.

Further, one could go through every verse, 9b-13, using the interlinear, and see just how much trouble the translators had with the direct words of God.

Chapter 7
In the days of Ahaz, Rezin of Syria and Pekah in Israel, team up and attack Judah, but are not completely successful.  Ahaz, whom I have not yet read about, is very afraid of this prospect.  God sends Ahaz a message through Isaiah that Ahaz and Rezin will be defeated, and that in fact within 65 years the northern kingdom will no longer be a kingdom.  It will be gone.  

Then there is a prophesy.  Immanuel is mentioned, born of a virgin.  This will be a sign from God.  Seems to be a far prophecy of course.  Then it goes into a long discourse about curds and honey.  And about desolate land.  So there is a "far" portion, foretelling the birth of Christ, and the near portion, where the only edible food there will be is curds, from milk, not from farming, and honey, which is found out in the wild.  All will be devastated.

2021 - However, there is a lot more to this prophesy.  Vss 14 through the end of the chapter is one long set of prophecies.  I will put them below and discuss them as I can make sense of them:
[Isa 7:14 ESV] Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Surely this is universally accepted as a prophecy of the birth of Jesus.  Here is the bigger thing, that you don't hear discussed.  God used this sign of virgin birth because Ahaz refused to come up with his own sign.  The virgin birth was to be proof of God's statement that the coalition of Syria and Ephraim - Israel in the north - would fail in its aims to overthrow Judah.  So if we look at this virgin birth in context, it just about had to be a near prophecy - at least "also".  It seems like there had to be TWO virgin births.  There had to be a virgin birth in the days of Isaiah, too, and I've never heard that discussed, and even MSB does NOT discuss it.  As we read on, we can make a really good case that it is ONLY THAT virgin birth that this prophecy is about.  So many of the associated prophecies here just don't seem to apply to Jesus at all.  There is nothing at all in MSB about who this child would have been in Isaiah's time.  The only "door" he leaves open is that the term "refers to an unmarried woman and means "virgin"".  This is quoted exactly from MSB.  It could be that MacArthur is saying there was a birth in Isaiah's time that was to an unmarried woman, but not to a virgin.  He doesn't come right out and say that, he says nothing at all.  Surely this would make this little passage a huge problem.  
MSB goes on to say that this could not have referred to Isaiah's own son, who was with him when he went and talked to Ahaz here.  So  he eliminates the most obvious candidate for the job, without giving us anyone else, any other possibility even, for who this might have been about.  MSB, so far, has said not one word about the "near" fulfillment of this prophecy of Isaiah.  Another way to look at it - one that I don't like, but one that seems to be the only possibility left to us here - indeed seems to be the only way for us to understand these verses at all - is to divide the prophecies in such a way as to say that each verse is stand alone in the time it references and the fulfillment that occurs.  SO, looking at it that way, we would pull vs 14 out all by itself and say that God is talking about the future birth of Jesus only, and not at all about Isaiah's time.  This "fact" could only have been recognized at the birth of Christ.  Only then would they stop looking for it in Isaiah's time.  So unsatisfactory...but what else is there?  
2022 - Could be that since Ahaz wouldn't name a sign, that God decided the sign would not be presented to him at all.  And instead of foretelling the doom of Israel, the sign would foretell the light of the whole world.  I think this makes really good sense.
(((2022 - See 2022 note at the end of Chapter 8 for what I think is the best explanation.)))

2023 - God speaks directly to Ahaz, and Ahaz refuses to do what God asked.  We need to note that vs 10 starts with "again".  Isaiah has just finished delivering the prophecy that Ahaz need not fear Rezin and Pekah.  But God continues, and either speaks directly to Ahaz, or Isaiah is inspired to ask Ahaz for a sign.  NOT JUST ANY SIGN, NOT JUST A SIGN that Rezin and Pekah won't be a problem, but a sign deep as Sheol or high as heaven.  This is asking for a sign that shows God's majesty, power, and sovereignty in all the earth.   Ahaz is to ask for a huge, impossible to be mistaken for coincidence sign of the power of God.  IF Ahaz had named one, I think it would have happened right then and there.  But Ahaz does not have the kind of mind that can conceive of such a sign.  To save face, he comes up with this excuse that he does not want to test God.  Isaiah probably rolled his eyes.  Isaiah is a little perturbed at Ahaz feigning arrogance to cover his ignorance.  So Isaiah looks Ahaz in the eye, and accuses him of wearying God also.  And then Isaiah says "Here, I will tell you what the unmistakable sign that THIS event is from God because ONLY God could bring such a thing about, is going to be!"  And then vs 14.  A virgin shall conceive.  A unique, singular sign, not a "two time sign", once for Ahaz and once for the birth of Christ.  This event, a virgin birth, that cannot occur except by supernatural means, so a sign that can only come from God, is promised to the world.  It means exactly what we have always thought it means.  And then, Isaiah looks back at the son HE brought to this meeting, who's name means "A remnant shall return", and says that THIS son of his is going to eat curds and wild honey, and so on through the end of the chapter.  God names his own irrefutable sign, and then Isaiah goes on with the prophecy to Ahaz concerning Rezin and Pekah, using his son as the "solid" in the prophecy.  

Then the next verse:
[Isa 7:15 ESV] He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.  John the Baptist ate locust and wild honey.  That's about as close as the NT gets to this prophecy.  We have nothing at all in the NT saying Jesus was out eating curds and honey before he reached 14 years old, which would have been his bar-mitzvah, which is, I believe when young Jewish boys are considered to be "of age" to recognize good from evil.  We just don't have that.  But doesn't the NT quote this verse from Isaiah in reference to Jesus?  Who does it exactly?   Only in Matthew, here.  And I note also that the word virgin only appears six times in the NT, ESV, and only this one is about Jesus' birth.  I note also that an angel had appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him that Mary's child was conceived of the Holy Spirit, so he should go ahead and marry  her.  Then these next two quoted verses are Matthew's commentary on that story of the angel appearing to Joseph.  Matthew says it is to fulfill Isaiah's prophecy.  But Matthew ONLY mentions the virgin birth portion of the prophecy.  Look below at how much more there was...
[Mat 1:22 ESV] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
[Mat 1:23 ESV] "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).
Continuing with the "each verse is its own" strategy of interpretation, this make vs 15 ONLY a near prophecy, and again that can only be recognized after the fact - 700 years after!  All MSB tells us here is what curds are, and that they were eaten in desperate times, after invasion of your country, because the war had wiped out all the agricultural crops, and all that was left was curds - made from milk instead of grown - and honey, scattered here and there.  

[Isa 7:16 ESV] For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
This part can ONLY be associated with the near prophecy.  Jesus lived and walked in Ephraim during much/most of his life.  It was not deserted.   Syria wasn't deserted either at that time, as Paul was converted on the way to Damascus, a teeming bustling city of the time.  So this verse should be interpreted as a near prophecy only.  (So what was the virgin birth of Isaiah's time?  This vs 16 restricts it factually to that time, in that it is NOT true of Jesus' time.  So now two verses in a row refer only to Isaiah's time.  MSB says that this verse is about Isaiah's yet unborn son - doesn't give a name[[[Maher-shalal-hash-baz, and his story begins in Chapter 8.  This is the son of Isaiah that MSB makes sure to disqualify from being born of a virgin.  That prophecy is only about Jesus.]]] - and says that before this son was able to make moral choices, Syria and Ephraim would meet their doom at the hands of Assyria.  
So the sign God chose was the virgin birth 7 centuries in the future.  Note that when God tells Ahaz He will give him a sign, he tells him to make it "deep as Sheol or high as heaven".  God says make it a spectacular sign that cannot ever be mistaken.  It doesn't really even say that the sign should occur immediately to prove that God is going to save Judah from Rezin and Uzziah.  In hindsight, we see that the promise of God to Ahaz was confirmed by a great sign, 700 years after that sign was predicted.  Since Ahaz had angered God by refusing to ask for a sign, as evidenced by these words:    [Isa 7:13 ESV] And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?"  So God decides to give the sign Himself, but disdains to show the sign to Ahaz.  Instead, God shows it 700 years later, a greater sign indeed.  SO IF we understand it this way, which is a lot easier to accept than the whole this verse/that verse way I have been looking at it up to now, then it would make sense that the single vs about the sign, vs 14, DOES stand a lone, and then 15 on bring everything back to Isaiah's time and the things that are going to occur in the next few decades rather than centuries.  So continue these verses, and see if this analysis holds up.
2022 - Continuing with the "if you won't name a sign then I'll name one" idea, we could see that the sign God gave was "far" and about something else entirely and the rest were near prophecies.  But that still leaves us with a problem on the "curds and honey" part.  I wonder if we ought to make something of the similarity between curds and honey and milk and honey.  After all, the promised land was flowing with milk and honey and in that case these were not signs of desolation but of plenty.  Curds are not just a whole lot different.  Maybe this is how we tied the virgin birth predicted not only to Jesus 1st appearance, but also to his second, when he sets up his earthly kingdom for the Millennial Reign.  He will be in the promised land, he could very well prefer curds and honey, and as King, he will determine both good and evil.  Kind of starting to feel a little bit stretched here, but I still like this better than any other interpretation I've been able to come up with.

[Isa 7:17 ESV] The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah--the king of Assyria!"
Surely this is about near fulfillment when first Syria and then Israel fall to Assyria.  Pretty specific, pretty local, wholly verifiable, wholly fulfilled.  We need not look for still future aspects of this.  MSB says that this verse also indicates that Assyria will invade the land Ahaz rules, and we know that this was the beginning of the end for Judah also, which was ultimately conquered by Babylon.  But the weakening of Judah militarily began with the invasion of Assyria.

[Isa 7:18 ESV] In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
Hmmm...Egypt was known for flies, Assyria for bees.  MSB says Isaiah is using these insects to represent the armies of these nations that come upon Israel and Judah and take the people captive.  This would continue the idea that vs 14 was the sign, and all the verses following were near prophecies.  It is really working well looking at it that way, and it makes sense to look at it that way.

[Isa 7:19 ESV] And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.
The invaders will be everywhere - covering even the remote portions of the land - as flies and bees tend to do.

[Isa 7:20 ESV] In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River--with the king of Assyria--the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.
Complete conquest is coming.  Even the hair and beards of Israel and Damascus will be taken as spoil.  The invaders will make Israel naked, even of the hair that covers their bodies.  Complete andtotal conquest.  And still, all these are near fulfillments.

[Isa 7:21 ESV] In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep,
Only these possessions will be allowed.  No land to farm.  Live off livestock.

[Isa 7:22 ESV] and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.
More of the same.   No crops.  Nomadic, living off the produce of animals.  Bedouins would be a good example.  Or the people on the steppes of Mongolia.  They don't stay in one place, they don't grow anything.  They survive off their animals only.   A wandering existence is coming to Israel and Judah, like the wandering in the wilderness but without the manna!  Wow!
2022 - Could there be a "far" portion of this that is about the time of Jacob's trouble?  About the Jews hiding from the Antichrist during tgt and having only this meager resource to keep them alive?  It is during this time that Jesus will arrive.  It still seems overly difficult to resolve all these prophecies...or is it?  Perhaps what we really need to do is separate the "sign", which is the far future virgin birth, from the prophecies of what is going to happen near term.  God changed the implication of the sign from near to far because evil Ahaz would not choose.  But that did NOT change what was about to happen.  So there is no need to make everything in the chapter near/far, we just have to divide things correctly.

[Isa 7:23 ESV] In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.
[Isa 7:24 ESV] With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns.
[Isa 7:25 ESV] And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.
These last three verses continue the near fulfillment of the prophecy.  Makes perfect sense now.  There was no virgin birth in Isaiah's time, there's no need to substitute "unmarried" for "virgin".  That is not what was going on at all, and the uniqueness of the virgin birth of Christ remains, and is even more spectacular now that the background is understood.  I call that a good morning's reading!

NOTE:  There is a table of the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecies of Christ during his first advent on p. 946 of the MSB, which is where Chapter 7 is.  It has two columns.  The left says "Fulfilled Literally", and the right says "Fulfilled Typically".  It is an interesting and very helpful chart.  But I note also that the difficult verse above - Vs 15, is not in the chart, in either column. BUT...see 8:1-3 comment below!
 

Chapter 8
2021 - Just reading through - or doing so as much as I can, because I spent so much time on 7.  Slow down on 8 next year.
Vss 1-3 are about the newly born son of Isaiah and the prophetess, whose life events are the calendar of the Assyrian invasion.

2023 - Chapter 7:10-25 are about Judah.  They are a longer term prophecy of the future of Ahaz's kingdom.  In contrast, in 8:1-10, as shown through the prophesied experience of the Prophetess' son, we see what the shorter term future of Israel and Syria will be.  That is the context to keep in mind.  And then in 8:11, we move far ahead, to the ministry of Christ.

The time of the Assyrian invasion is set.  It will happen before Isaiah's newborn son is old enough to speak.  That will be pretty soon.  

2021-Vss 5-8 speak of how Assyria will overflow like the Euphrates.  They are about to invade everything around them, including Judah.  It reads as if Judah, too, will fall.  Perhaps everything falls but Jerusalem, and it survives and rebuilds until 586 BC.  Maybe it means that.

2021 - Then there is this poem in vss 8, 9, which seem to point us far into the future.  All these things are going to happen to Israel and Judah near term, but when Immanuel comes, when God is with us - the second advent is in view here - then Israel will stand untouched and untouchable, no matter who would come against it.  This poem is like the other bookend of the "Immanuel bookends" that open in 7:14 and end here in 8:10.  How spectacular is that!

This verse comes right after the prophecy about Assyria:
12 "Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. [Isa 8:12, 13 ESV]
A good warning to the conspiracy buffs in the US right now.  They are looking to the wrong place, the wrong source!
Or even more, the conspiracy that is world ending global warming.  Don't fear what they fear.
Possible FB post.
2021 - The above is a good FB post but there is so much more to it.  The fears are about Judah's fears, Jerusalem's fears, but I think there is a clear analogy to be made to our fears today.  To the ideas and philosophy's whipped up by the people that require such urgent attention. Racism, environmentalism, feminism, and so on.  These are elevated to the most pressing, most required, most resource deserving problems (fears) that have to be addressed.  But Isaiah says nope,  those do not matter.  What you better worry about is that Jesus Christ is coming, and he will upset you by his presence - he will be a stone of offense - because you won't like what he says and you won't care to bow to his power.  You will want to continue in your own brilliance and not recognize that you are outclassed.  In Jesus' own day, it was the religious elite, the Pharisees, who denigrated and demeaned Jesus' person and his message of salvation.  Today, it is the intellectual elite, the master of scientific study, and the politicians in the halls of power that say we don't have time for the message of Christ, there are far more important considerations to be be dealt with.  History is repeating, as it has repeated before.  For those who listen to the world "They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.", Isa 8:15b.


I don't really get the rest of the chapter, except that it seems to be talking about what is coming - conquest, devastation, and so on.  It also seems to say that the magicians and necromancers and such that are now routinely consulted about the future - instead of God - will be out of work and starving like everyone else.  And people will be angry, not at the sorcerers, but at God.  They will still not see that they brought this on themselves.  Reminds me of the last chapters of Revelation.  
2021 - Yes I do get it.  It is what is coming to Jerusalem.  They are all caught up in their own ways of forecasting, understanding, predicting, and assimilating what is going on.  In that time they were listening to necromancers, diviners, all sorts of occult practicing "smart people".  The predictions and explanations of these people were about to start failing spectacularly.  When they did, people were going to panic.  They were going to start blaming those they depended on for explanation and calm and peace.  They were also going to turn on the government that could not protect or feed them.  They were also going to rage against their God for their predicament.  All to no avail.  Israel and Judah are going to fall in on them, while they scream and rage against those who lied to them.  Times will get very dark indeed.  Their way of life is going to change to survival mode, where before they were fat cats.  
This is exactly what is happening now to this country.  People rage against the other side because the "masters of what should be" in our society are so in disagreement.  We've let God go, and we are trying desperately to replace Him, but nothing is working.  Everything is 50/50, and each half sees the other as moral enemies.  It is all falling down.  That FB post above is so very on target for our times.  I hope I can get it into shape.

2022 - This verse, which may unlock a lot of the problems above:
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. [Isa 8:18 ESV].  Isaiah is calling his own children, their lives, signs and portents.  Previously, he said this about one of them in vss 3, 4:
3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for before the boy knows how to cry 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria." [Isa 8:3-4 ESV].  We see here that this son is a sign that Israel and Syria will fall to Assyria before this child can talk...might even say it will be before his first words. My guess is that this son was born quite a while after the meeting with Ahaz.  Isaiah had a different son with him at that time.  Imagine the possibility that as Isaiah begins to deliver the words of God as to the signs, that Isaiah speaks vs 14 as he looks Ahaz in the eye, and then Isaiah turns to look at his own son, perhaps pointing at this son, and continues with vs 15...He shall eat curds and honey when....  By the time this young son is 14, Israel and Syria will have fallen, and the Assyrian army will be running amok throughout all the land of Judah also.  So much so that agriculture cannot be continued, but a cow and two sheep can be kept out of sight enough for survival food.  Vs 17 confirms that the curd and honey thing is NOT about Israel and Syria but about Judah.  You you you!  This is the best interpretation so far.  Vs 14 is far only.  That has only happened once.  It could not be mistaken for anything but this sign from God.  And all the rest is about the young son of Isaiah accompanying his father to meet with King Ahaz.  Perfect sense.  I think we see this kind of thing in one other place also, but I cannot place it right now.

2023 - This verse:  18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. [Isa 8:18 ESV].  Remember the names of these children!  Back in 7:3, Isaiah's son went with him to see Ahaz, and his name was "A remnant shall return", and it was in telling Ahaz what this son would go through in his life that God drove home the prophecy of the future fall of ALL the promised land, including Judah falling to Babylon...but A REMNANT SHALL RETURN FROM THERE!!!.  Then in 8, the son's name is "The spoil speeds, the prey hastens", to indicate the very soon demise of Israel and Syria.  And as if those two are not fantastic enough, in 8:14-15, Isaiah returns to the very far future fulfillment of God's own sign - of God's own Son - as given by God himself in 7:14.   Isaiah realizes that HIS sons are given as signs in the same way the one born of a virgin is a sign.  How impossible it would be for man to come up with such a sequence!  This is God, all God, only God, speaking to us from the book of Isaiah!

2023 - Are vss 21-22 a prophecy of the wrath of God in the Great Tribulation?  It is surely not all that difficult to overlay these verses with the last of the 7's in Revelation.  "thrust into thick darkness" sounds a lot like

Isaiah Chapter 9
2021 - Isaiah 8 had the one verse about a virgin birth, followed by all the near-term prophecies of the invasions of Assyria and Babylon.  It was a pretty involved chapter that finally came together for me so I could  understand it.  That chapter ended with the collapse of the "information culture" of the time and deterioration into rage and criticism of the government, the card readers, the necromancers, and so on who had been telling everyone that all was going to be well.

1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. [Isa 9:1 ESV]
A prophesy of Jesus?  He will live in Capernaum, in the north, and spend much of his ministry in and around the sea of Galilee.  Naphtali and Zebulun were northwest of the Sea of Galilee, toward the ocean.  This is also the first area to fall to the invading Assyrians.
2021 - A spectacularly accurate prophecy, unmistakable in its object.  Assyria will obliterate Zebulun and Naphtali, taking them all prisoner, and then settling "foreigners" in their lands.  This is why the land was contemptible.  It was settled by non-Jews.  This is why they were "dark places".  But Jesus is coming to that exact geography.  

Format changes after verse 1, from paragraph style to center justified, more like prose.  I wish I knew why the change.  Is it that way in the original - that is, in the source for the ESV?  Did the scribes do this because Isaiah did it, and it got passed down?  Why the change?  Verse 1 introduces what will happen in "the latter time", so we are notified that the future is about to be discussed.  

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. [Isa 9:2 ESV]
I never understood that the darkness in this verse was the Assyrian invasion, and then the continued captivity and oppression of this area through the years.  Surely they were taken away because of their sin, and because of the two calves, but then Jesus shows up here.

2023 - Note also that we were told in vs 1 that we are about to here about "the latter time", and then the latter time turns out to be time when the Messiah arrives.  I wonder if "latter time" and "latter days" are the same words  in Hebrew, just with a different translation?  Did a word search in ESV using BLB for "latter time", and this verse in Isaiah is the only place it is used.  Looking at the Hebrew, it doesn't appear to me that "latter days" is even in there.  It is "supplied" by the translators.  The Hebrew does say "in earlier time" this happened, but better things.  There is only the conjunction "but", so the translators in order to make clear that a contrast based on time was being presented, added "in latter times".  So but [in latter times] Zebulon and Naphtali will be made glorious.  So, a wild goose chase after a distinction that is not there at all.

Vss 3, 4 seem to be about the coming Millennial reign, when the Jews return home and serve their true King on David's throne.  "...the rod of his oppressor, you have broken..."  Is this about Jesus taking the throne and Israel being at the top of the hierarchy of nations?  Depends on who the "you" first invoked in vs 3 "You have multiplied the nation..."

vs 5 seems to be more about a decisive future battle.  These words:
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. [Isa 9:5 ESV]  I am sure I've seen a similar reference.  A battle where it takes months to clean up the bodies afterward, and the spears are burnt for fuel.  This description and that seem very similar...but I cannot find that one in Revelation.  Not sure where it is exactly.  I want to come back and find it.  It seems important.
2021 - I think this passage is in Ezekiel.  Yes, here is what I was thinking about:
[Eze 39:9 ESV] "Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, clubs and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years,
[Eze 39:10 ESV] so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons. They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord GOD.
It doesn't specifically talk about burning the blood.  But it fits.  I also don't know what battle is being described in Ezekiel.  It is about Gog and Magog, but I don't know if it is the end of Trib/Great Trib or the end of the Millennial.  7 months of body burying though...

2023 - Well...it turns out that this stuff about "every garment rolled in blood will be burned" in vs 5, and it is in vs 6 that "a child is born".  That makes it pretty certain that 5 is not a reference to Armageddon or anything else that far out, but to something more immediately PRIOR to the birth of Christ.  Or...it says the garments "will be burned", as in future tense.  There was no mass liberation of Zebulon and Naphtali just before Christ came.  The Romans were not defeated in a great battle there  So...the best way to read this may indeed be the way I have done so up to now.  This is about a battle that the Messiah born in vs 6 will carry out when he is on the throne.
2023 - One more little trivial thing I notice.  The government will be on his shoulder, NOT his shoulders.  The word is singular.  It depends on the version actually.  NLT, NIV, NASB all make it plural.  KJV, NKJV, ESV, and most others all the way back to Darby use the singular.  So my guess, my bet, is that the texts available are ALL singular, and the "make it easy for the stupid people" versions make it shoulders because that's how we'd say it today.  Maybe not all wrong...but not a correct translation, it is an interpretation.

2022 - There is an MSB note saying this is likely about Armageddon, at the end of tgt, and in Rev 16:16, 19:19-21.  The note in MSB is on Eze 39:9.   The passages quoted in Revelation don't say anything about burning spears as fuel.

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [Isa 9:6 ESV]
2022 - I had not noticed before that vs 6 is chronologically correct after vs 5.  After Armageddon, Jesus assumes his earthly throne and establishes the Millennial kingdom.  Surely this "order" helps cement the time that is in view.  Spectacular!

In vs 7 is the phrase "...from this time forth and forevermore...".  So this is all the way  out to the new Jerusalem, this is post-Millennial I think...but maybe not.  Jesus' reign begins during Tribulation, and he is never unseated.
2021 - It seems definitely about one of those last two battles.  This is second advent stuff, and that probably makes this the end of Great Tribulation.  So this places this prophecy, and Ezekiel 39.  

Lots of good verses in Isaiah 9.  This would be the far prophecy of the second advent where verse 2 was about the first one.

Vs 8 introduces a new section.  There is a definite change here, beginning with this verse:
8 The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will fall on Israel; [Isa 9:8 ESV]  The phrasing implies that judgement is on both kingdoms - on ALL of original Israel, but it will fall first on the Northern Kingdom.
MSB note says that the poem from 9:8-10:4 is about warnings God has sent to Israel that have gone unheeded.  It says the repeated phrase divides these accounts into 4 strophes.  Whatever strophes are...maybe paragraph stanzas?

8-12 talk about how Israel is having trouble with the enemies of Rezin in Syria.  This is an oblique reference to Assyria.  Yet this is not the end of it.  Verse 12 has a refrain that will be repeated four times:
12 ....For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. [Isa 9:12b ESV]
2021 - The attitude of the Samarians is brought up here.  It looks like they may be invaded several times, and they rebuild every time, and begin to think that they can always do this.  This is their land, and God will always bring them back.  But these verses say that is not the case.  That's all over with, and a permanent destruction is coming.  This time, even though they are conquered and their walls are broken down, they will not rebuild because this is not a correction, this is not another chance, this is punishment and permanent.  God will still be angry with them even in captivity, and they will never return.

13-17, A statement of the condition - the current culture - of Israel.  

2021 - This verse:
[Isa 9:16 ESV] for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.
I don't see any indication that God holds those who are led responsible for their poor leadership.  In those days, the led did not choose their leaders.  But they did decide whether to follow the leader's ways or not, and it is clear from that very long 17th verse that the people chose to be evil also.  Even their widows were evil.

Then there's this in 17:
17 Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. [Isa 9:17 ESV]
Interesting that because the leadership is so bad, the Lord has little sympathy for the weak, the children, the downtrodden.  The leadership is so bad that all must suffer.  In fact, this verse says the corruption is so complete in Israel that even those abused and mistreated by the corrupt are themselves corrupt.  Even the widows and fatherless are corrupt.  There are no good men left.  And then the refrain for the second time.
2021 - These verses show that the people of Israel have not taken these conquests as lessons, and so they have not repented or reformed because of them.  So God has made an end of correction, and will destroy them, and in His continuing anger toward them, they will never resettle.

2021 - It is interesting that the beginning of 9 talks about the first advent, and then carries on through to the time after Great Trib, maybe even the time after the Millennial.  So we went from "a virgin shall conceive", then to more immediate prophecy of the fall of Israel and Judah, then to the time of Jesus on earth at the beginning of 9 and surely in the names he will have we get to the Millennial and beyond, into His eternal kingdom.  Then in 9:8 we come back to more immediate things again.  Isaiah doesn't have to be picked apart down to the "half verse" in order to get a coherent picture of what time period is being talked about, but it does change sometimes within chapters.  

18-21, Israel is turning against itself, they do evil to each other, but they are never satisfied.  Things never stabilize, they never realize that they are destroying themselves form within.  Just like we are today!  The third repeat of the refrain is at the end of 21.  I think that's what it means...

Chapter 10
2021 - 10:1 starts with "Woe to those..."  We haven't seen a woe like this since 5:22.

1-4, Who will these evil oppressors run to "in the ruin that will come from afar"?  And this:
4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain...[Isa 10:4a ESV]  At the end, all are the same, crouching among the prisoners, awaiting a fate over which they have no control at all.  And then the fourth refrain at the end of vs 4.
2021 - So even though the "woe" is a change, that refrain continues, and ties this chapter back to 9.

2022 - Just occurred to me...this verse seems very appropriate to the Holocaust.  The Jews were rounded up, relieved of any difference in status between the captors, and completely powerless to change events.  No help came to them from outside or inside.  The whole world looked away as it happened.  Put this together with the repeating phrase "...for all this, his anger was not turned away...", and you finally have the reason for the holocaust.  It is not specifically prophesied because the OT prophets couldn't see the church age.  But we may understand it as the continuing anger of God that began with Manasseh, broke over into direct retribution from God when Assyria came, continued into the Babylonian conquests, and STILL continues to this day.  It will go on until this:  4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: [Rev 7:4 ESV].  At this point, the blindness will be removed, the anger of God toward Israel will be spent, and they will be welcomed back as God's anger turns instead toward the Gentiles who have spurned almost completely the special provision of God that includes them with the children of Abraham in an eternity in heaven.  I will try to keep this in mind, now, as I read Isaiah, and consider whether the prophecies of that time can also be seen to apply to the experience of Israel during the church age.

5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! [Isa 10:5 ESV]
So even though God is using Assyria to accomplish His wrath towards Israel, - they are the chastening rod in His hands - it isn't because He thinks they are good people.  They are just his rod.  But they don't see that.  The Assyrians believe in their own greatness, and give no credit to God.  They are unaware that they are merely playing a role.  

2021 - This verse:
[Isa 10:7 ESV] But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;
The King of Assyria does not see himself as God's avenger, in God's control, doing God's will.  This King wants only to conquer and take, and colonize and expand.  This King wants only to make himself greater.  God's will is nowhere in his thinking, though it is God that is orchestrating his success.  This verse also:
[Isa 10:11 ESV] shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?"
So the point of this verse is that the King of Assyria does not see the conquest of Syria and then Samaria/Israel as the end.  He plans to go on into Jerusalem and take that too.  Why wouldn't he?  And he will invade all the way into Judah, we've already seen that in the fears of King Ahaz.  But he does not conquer Jerusalem.  Think of just how concise these prophecies are, in that they know Assyria will conquer many places, but will be stopped short of conquering Jerusalem.  That is still 100 years in the future, and Babylon will be the invader.  Isaiah knew this.

And once they have done God's bidding, this:
12 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. [Isa 10:12 ESV]

This is the true "greatness" of the King of Assyria:
15 Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! [Isa 10:15 ESV]
He is just a tool used by God to accomplish His will.  We should make sure that's not all we are!

In vs 16 we see how God will bring Assyria low:
16 Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire. [Isa 10:16 ESV]
It won't be a battle.  They won't be conquered, but they will die of sickness.  I believe this happens when he comes against Jerusalem.  Thousands die overnight (2021 - not so sure this is right.  Sennacherib I believe is the leader of the army that a sickness wipes out overnight.  Is that what is in view here?  Because if it is, this is another irrefutable proof of the accuracy of Isaiah's prophecies.  Really need to see if this is so.   Wikipedia - Sennacherib was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sargon II in 705 BC to his own death in 681 BC.  So yes, Isaiah not only prophesied the fall of Assyria, but prophesied the means of their destruction, on the outskirts of Jerusalem.  Wow.  Just wow.), he abandons his siege and goes home, and his own sons kill him as he worships his gods back in Assyria.  I think I have that right...another good one to track down.  MSB does not reference that story...so maybe I have it wrong.

Beginning in 20 there is a prophesy that Israel will return.  To their land and to their God.  This is likely the Millennial, though they are returning in droves in the present day.
2021 - I agree with the sentence above, but I am really worn out this morning.  Just reading through the rest.

22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. [Isa 10:22 ESV]
This last sentence...is that what Hitler was about?  The refrain says despite all that God was doing to Israel by Assyria would still not quench his anger for all they'd done.  Maybe it was to continue - IS to continue, until they begin to return at the Millennial?
Or...these verses are addressed to Judah, telling Judah that Assyria will not conquer it, and they should not fear because of what happens to Israel.  Only a small remnant of the Northern Kingdom will ever return, because their destruction is decreed.  So far, Judah is not in the same boat.  This seems a better way to read it in my opinion.
2022 - I think now that this may be a reference to the return after the Babylonian captivity.  There were a lot more Jews living in Babylon than chose to return to Israel under Cyrus.  They had integrated into Babylonian society, the whole Esther story  had taken place.  Jews were more or less accepted - or at least fearfully tolerated - at that time.  So they would have been flourishing.  But only a remnant came home.  That is probably what this is about rather than a reference to the 144,000.

2022 - These two verses, which put a giant hole in what I have been thinking:
24 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: "O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. 25 For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. [Isa 10:24-25 ESV].  This would imply that the four times in the poem where it says his anger was not turned away, do in fact come to an end "in a very little while".  It seems clear that when Assyria is destroyed, God's anger will be at an end, so the whole Hitler idea above may not be quite right.  May not be at all correct...So...if we look at it that way, then the Babylonian invasion and captivity would be about a different episode of God's anger reaching a breakover point.  It would be related to the actions of the southern kingdom and concern only them.  It would also mean that the little remnant that returns is about some of the northern kingdom - a very small remnant - returning to the northern lands.  And...that might mean that the double punishment is strictly and only about the southern kingdom, abut Babylon's destruction of the kingship, and Rome's destruction of the priesthood.  Hmmm....


28-34,  These read like they were specific to the invasion as it happened.  Maybe if one knew all the places that are referred to it would make good sense.  It reads like prophecy.  This would be a good study.

Chapter 11
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. [Isa 11:1-2 ESV]
Prophecy of Jesus again, all in association with this great purging and this chastising of God.  
2021 - Through the first five verses, Isaiah is looking well out past the specific near term prophecies of Chapter 10 to a restoration that will come with Jesus first advent.  Then in vs 6, he seems to skip still further ahead to the Millennial.  The OT prophets just didn't "see" the age of the Gentiles separating the two advents by, so far, thousands of years.  They see the first and second advents as one continuous time.

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. [Isa 11:6 ESV]
This verse surely refers to Christ's second advent.

11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. [Isa 11:11 ESV]
The first time was from Egypt.  This will be like that.  A migration of the whole nation, not just 30,000 per year.  (Israel's return)
2021 - Will this be during t/gt or during the Millennial?  MSB says the first return was from Egypt, under Moses.  The second will be a return from worldwide dispersion.  So per MSB, this return is still future, but he doesn't narrow it down at all.  There are many many verses about Israel's return.  I will start tagging them, starting with this verse. (Found a footnote in MSB about this return, and it gives these references in Isaiah: 35:8,9; 42:16; 43:19;, 48:21; 49:11; 57:14; 62:10.  That saves me a lot of tagging Israel's return.)
2023 - We have to consider that this would not be distinguishable as "a second time" unless it was of the same order of magnitude as the return from Egypt (though I see no reason for us not to be talking about the return from Babylon.)  If similar to Egypt, then we would have essentially the entire population of Jews on the planet at that time returning to Israel.  This would meant that the 144.000 are not the ONLY Jews converted at the end, but in fact substantially all of them would be.  This is the way I prefer to think about it.  BUT, it does NOT say they will all be recovered but that the remnant that remains will be recovered.  There is also a geographical limitation to the recovery area.  The US is not included.  Though I prefer the other way, I suspect that only a few will return - in which case those returning today may be argued to represent those about whom this prophecy is written.  A remnant returns for the second time.  I just do not believe this is about a return on par with Egypt.
2023 - But vs 12 says from the four corners...but still does not say how many.  Don't forget vs 16 either which mentions the return from Egypt, and compares this future return to that one.  So maybe the way I prefer it to be is what this really means.
2023 - How do you reconcile this return of Israel to the idea that the church is now Israel?  You either have to say these things have all happened already before the church comes OR that it will be the Christian church that returns to the land?  I have a hard time with making that apply to the last section of this chapter.

2022 -Could this also be about the return from Babylon, which has already happened as the first return, and the second the return from Rome, and the scattering that Rome caused from 70 AD onward?  If you say the first was Egypt, they came back, but they were not scattered.  I guess Babylon didn't really scatter them very much either did they...?  But...God never took his hand away from them in Egypt.  They were there voluntarily.  They cried out for deliverance.  But God's hand was always extended.  In Babylon, not so.  God had withdrawn his hand, his protection, his benevolence.  But we all knew that they would come home, and he extended his hand to them again under Cyrus.  Surely we can see Rome as the second withdrawal of his hand.  They rejected his son, of course he withdrew his hand.  But in tgt, he will extend it again and bring them home.  I think this is what is in view.

vss 12-16 talk about Israel's return.  Looks like there will be seven routes through the Nile delta for those returning from Egypt in that day.  (2021 - No.  Not the Nile, they've already come home from there once.  The river here is the Euphrates, so a return from "Babylon", and then vs 16 specifically mentions Assyria.)  So they come from the west also, and those will pass through Philistia and loot it as they come.  (MSB notes say the River in vs. 15 is the Euphrates - so these people would be coming from the east.  Probably so...but it reads better if the river referenced is the Nile.  I should remember that Babylon took many captives from Judah into exile, and these also went towards the north and a bit east, rather than toward Egypt.  So we'd expect them to return from the north, possibly from the east, but we have no great "re-migration" to Egypt.)  Also, it says there will be a "highway" from Assyria, and that they will come in sandals - as if the highway is smooth and straight.  These will be the remnant of the Northern Kingdom, finally coming home.
I think this return will be very recognizable when it happens!
2021 - Yes.  This is not about 30,000 Jews a year migrating to Israel, almost all of them secular.  This will be a migration that is not just about geography but a return to the God of the Bible.  This will be unmistakable when it comes.  Possibly Rev. 16:12 is connected to Isa. 11:15?  If so, that puts Israel's massive homecoming in progress at the 6th Bowl judgment.  That is still future, certainly.

Chapter 12
Only 6 verses in this chapter.
These are the prayers that will be prayed, the thanksgivings that the returning people will offer to the Lord.
2021 - Ultimately, God's anger toward His people Israel will run its course.  He is merciful, and his grace will ultimately overcome his anger.  We see that in this verse:
[Isa 12:1 ESV] You will say in that day: "I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.
It would make sense that once God's anger toward Israel is spent, then he will remove the blindness from their eye and the plugs from their ears.  They will once again be "allowed" to recognize both God and His Christ, and when they do, they will urgently desire a return to the Promised Land.  So we might say that what t/gt is waiting on, really, is for God's anger toward Israel to be spent.  That's why Jesus says only the Father knows when these things will be.

Chapter 13
This chapter is labeled "The Oracle Concerning Babylon that Isaiah saw".  It is interesting to me that Isaiah lived 150 years before Babylon conquered Jerusalem, yet he goes into detail about Babylon's ultimate fate here.  In Isaiah's time, Assyria was the dominant nation, and Israel was going to fall to them well before Babylon really rose to power.  Yet here we are, reading about Babylon first.

Vss 1-5 talk about mighty men summoned to execute the anger of God.  A host mustered for battle.  To destroy the "whole land" in ESV, footnote says whole earth.  It says a multitude of nations will gather together.  Babylon doesn't seem to be coming alone, but with allies from many nations.

All hands will be feeble.  God will put fear in people.  Vss 6-8 seem to say that God will put panic into the defenders, rendering them nearly helpless before the coming invasion.  We saw several examples of this when Israel entered Canaan, particularly in Rahab's explanation of why she helped Israel.  All of Canaan was in a panic.  This is how Canaan was defeated with so few losses to the army of Israel.  The defenders turned and ran.

2022 - The phrase "the day of the Lord" is always coming up.  It goes hand and hand with another phrase, which escapes me right now.  One of them is more of a generic term, and is applied in the Bible to several (many) different events.  The other always refers to the final wrath of God.  I need to get these nailed down in my mind so that I don't get confused, every time I see one of these phrases, and have to figure out which one it is.  In this verse, we can see - I think  - that the day of the Lord refers to the coming of Babylon and not to the final judgment of God in Revelation.  So...day of the Lord is the generic phrase I think?
Well...maybe I have it reversed again!  Vs 9 includes wrath.  To destroy sinners from the land sounds like the final wrath.  Stars and sun dark?  Well that has to be the wrath of God in Revelation!  Ties with Joel 2 also.  11 says he'll punish - NOT JUST ISRAEL, but - the whole world.
The further it goes the more certain I am that this is about Revelations.  Man will be more rare than fine gold?  Doesn't that go with "except those days were shortened...".  

Vs 9 says
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
Isaiah 13:9 ESV
This sounds like end times but verse 1 clearly says Babylon.  9-16 sure seem like apocalyptic language.  The sun dark as it rises, no moonlight, infants dashed to pieces, houses plundered, wives ravished.  These last three I have not seen in Revelation.  However...they might be there when the fall of Babylon the great is described.  The language here, and the language about Babylon in Revelation have similarities.  It would be good to read them together and do a comparison.  That would make a nice little study.  Perhaps that is what is going on here with Isaiah.  There is a near fulfillment in the fall of Babylon after they have completed God's punishment of Judah, and there is a far judgement on Babylon because of the world system it represents.  I think the heavenly signs must be interpreted as end times events.  This verse also indicates a still future fulfillment of these verses:
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. [Isa 13:12 ESV]  In Revelation a significant portion of the people remaining on earth are killed by war, famine, disease, and the armies of Satan.  This sure seems to be pointing to that.

2023 - Doesn't this verse compare to Joel and Revelation?  Surely we need to make that tie also - and with Matthew 24:
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. [Isa 13:10-11 ESV].  Pretty easy to make this pre-wrath also.
2023 - Then this one:
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. [Isa 13:13 ESV].  This ought to tie into Revelation also.

Vs 17 clearly says the Medes will be doing this, and brings us back to the near fulfillment.  This one is talking about the Babylon of Isaiah's time, and events then, and indeed it was the Medo-Persians who ultimately defeated Babylon.  Just as Daniel's prophecies predicted.  We haven't gotten to Daniel yet...

2021 - Vs 19 though...
[Isa 13:19 ESV] And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
This sounds like the fall of Babylon in Revelation.  I wonder if there is a knot here that I haven't yet untied that makes this prophecy separate into a near and a far, as there turned out to be in Isa 7?  
2023 - Sure seems to be.  It WAS the Medes who conquered Babylon, so there is little doubt of the near fulfillment here.   Is it reading in too much to make it also tie to the fall of Babylon in Revelation?

Babylon to fall and never be inhabited again.  As today.  Hmm...given the verse below, the Babylon in Revelation cannot be taken as the actual city of Babylon.  It must be looked at as a symbol of a world system - a corrupt world system - and not as a specific place.  Here is the key verse:
20 It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. [Isa 13:20 ESV]

Vs 22 says the time is close and will not be prolonged.  This verse also ties this part of the oracle to the near term and not to end times.
(2021, 11/27, See the intro remarks to 14 below.  As I started reading 14, I had to come back to 13 and revisit because I was just still too unclear on 13.  After all the notes below, between the []'s, I don't say that I understand 13 precisely, but I am closer.  I do get it a little better.  I was going to copy all that up here into chapter 13, but that is not when I really studied it, so leaving it below and referencing it here.  And moving on to 14.

2022 - This section inserted subsequent to a pretty in-depth look at Mark 13, which necessitated looking at Matt 24 and Luke 21 also.  I am pasting this into Isa 13 and Joel 2...because they are about the same thing:
2022 - We still have to deal with Isa 13 also.  I had not found it when made the notes above.  Isa 13 is about the destruction of Babylon, in one sense, but also must be about the time in Revelation when Babylon is destroyed.  That is in Rev 18,19.  IF, as I think right now, the verses above about the signs in heaven portend the rapture, and NOT the final battle after Christ's return, then the verses below need to be explained in that context:
"9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
This does not sound like the joyous day of the rapture.  This phrase "the day of the Lord" has to be pinned down.  I think it refers to the second  coming and the final battle.  I think it is a particular, specific, identifiable day.  I don't think the day of the Lord is the day of the rapture, so vs 9 is not about the rapture, not about Rev. 6.

10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.
But THIS is the very next verse.  This matches Joel, the three gospels, and Rev 6.  So...does this tie all that is being said in Isaiah to Rev 6 and so to the rapture - as I understand its timing - or can I "explain this away"?  Look at the next verse:

"11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless." [Isa 13:11 ESV].  Does this sound like the rapture?  No, I don't think it does.  So we have the signs in the heavens, the very familiar signs from Mark 13, Matt 24, and Lk 21, bracketed by descriptions of what seems necessarily to be Armageddon.  And just look at the next verse:

12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger." [Isa 13:9-10, 12-13 ESV]
This description goes right along with Jesus saying these things:
"28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." [Mat 24:28 ESV]
"37 And they said to him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather."" [Luk 17:37 ESV]
At that battle, when Jesus comes, a very huge portion of the people who have managed to stay alive to that point will be fighting on the side of the Antichrist.  They will ALL be killed.  Revelation is very clear.  The language about the number of dead from that battle leaves little doubt that most of mankind -  other than the converted Jews - will be wiped out.

Looking again at the passages in Matt, Mk, and Lk, that phrase "after that time of tribulation" precedes the signs in heaven.  Revelation only mentions these signs at the 6th seal, NOT at the second coming in Rev. 19.  BUT, is it ok to say that according to Isaiah, those same signs will appear again just before the day of the Lord?  To make the case that I am making, at this point, that is what I am forced to say.  I think those vss in Isaiah 13 end as to the day of the Lord at vs 13:13.  In vs 14 we return to the prophecy of the fall of old Babylon to the Medes.

Isa 13:1-10 seem to correspond to Joel 2:1-11.  The pictures painted, the very words seem certainly to be talking about the same day.  The day of the Lord is in view.  I think both of these are about Rev 19, the second coming.  
Here are some interesting verses for direct comparison:
"6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!" [Isa 13:6 ESV]
"1 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near," [Joe 2:1 ESV]

"7 Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. 8 They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame." [Isa 13:7-8 ESV]
"6 Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale." [Joe 2:6 ESV]

"10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light." [Isa 13:10 ESV]
"10 The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining." [Joe 2:10 ESV]

So.  As clear as it is that these signs will appear in Rev 6, and as it is very clear that Rev 6 is NOT about the second coming, and all this destruction and desolation and fire and armies of the Lord DO NOT appear in Rev 6 or following, it is equally clear that these signs will precede the appearance of Christ in Rev 19, when he does come to destroy his enemies and assume the rule of the planet.  These signs precede the appearance of Christ - at both the rapture and at the second coming.  Why would they not.  I don't know why these things are not mentioned in Rev 19, perhaps because they don't need to be.  Both Isaiah and Joel - two witnesses to the events of the Day of the Lord - make it clear that they will appear then.  Isaiah and Joel didn't know about the church age - or the rapture that ends it, so they wouldn't talk about it.  Jesus discourse, recorded in Matt 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, was about the church age, and since the end of that had not been previously described with the signs in heaven, is described in some detail there.  We must not mix the events of the rapture with the events of the second advent.  They are truly different.  AND, it may be that the best way to reconcile all this is to apply the parable of the tares being gathered and burned first, and then the wheat gathered in, to the second coming.  The burning is about that Satanic army.  They will first be destroyed, burned, and then the faithful Jews will be gathered for the Millennial Reign.  Perhaps this is why that parable about wheat and tares is found only in Matt 13:24-30, and nowhere near Matt 24.  Because they are about different times.  

Here is the tie to Joel, chapter 3, not chapter 2:  "13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. 14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision." [Joe 3:13-14 ESV].  Joel 3 is about Armageddon.  And this comes right after:  "15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining." [Joe 3:15 ESV].  Joel tells us twice that these signs in heaven will precede the second coming.  

2022 - I think there is a lot of confusion in my previous interpretations of these verses.  All of them.  Neither Isaiah nor Joel are talking about the second advent.  They are both talking about the wrath of the Lord, which begins after the rapture, and can be seen in Rev. 6/7.  All these signs occur in that chapter.  They do not occur in 19, when Christ descends to earth for Armageddon, because these signs will not appear then.  Both here and in Joel, it is the beginning of the wrath of God that is in view.  I probably have this wrong in many places, but in 2022, this prophecy is about wrath.  Even so, it seems to also be about Babylon...but is it the 150 year out Babylon, or is the fall of Babylon in Revelation?

Chapter 14
{2021 - 13 closed with what appears to be a "near" prophecy of the defeat of ancient Babylon, but before they come to power in place of the Assyrians.  The whole section does sort of intermingle near and far though, to my sense anyway.  But the last verse of 13 says that the time is close, and will not be prolonged.  If we take that as literally as we can - and we can take it very literally - then we could make a case that all of 13 is about ancient Babylon, and NOT the Babylon of Revelation.  I went and looked up the fall of Ancient Babylon in Wikipedia and found this:
"In 539 BCE, Cyrus invaded Babylonia. Historical reconstruction of the fall of Babylon to Persia has been problematic due to the inconsistencies between the various source documents. Both the Babylonian Chronicles and the Cyrus Cylinder describe Babylon being taken "without battle", whereas the Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon[6] report that the city was besieged. The biblical Book of Daniel notes that the king was killed.

According to Xenophon, Belshazzar was killed in this conflict, but his account is not widely accepted.[7] Nabonidus surrendered and was deported. Gutian guards were placed at the gates of the great temple of Bel, where the services continued without interruption. Cyrus did not arrive until 28/29 October, with Gobryas having acted for him in his absence. Gobryas was then made governor of the province of Babylon.

Babylon, like Assyria, became a colony of Achaemenid Persia in 539 BCE."
So historically, the fall of Babylon wasn't much.  Kind of went out in a whimper, and in a single night according to Daniel.  So with that in mind, I'm reading 13 again, to see how well it matches up.
Referring back to 13....Look at vs 2:
[Isa 13:2 ESV] On a bare hill raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles.  Just give the invaders a wave and have them come on in.  Surely Cyrus brought an army with him when he came.  There is that story elsewhere about them damming up part of the river, lowering the water level enough to swim into the center of the city through a waterway - or maybe it was so shallow they could walk in.  But the invaders very likely had already killed Belshazzar and any loyal to him by the time the sun rose on invasion day.  And the gates were just opened and in they came.  So that story fits with Wikipedia and with this 2nd vs of 13.  Vs 3 could therefore be taken to mean that that angels closed the eyes of the guards in the city, struck fear into any that maybe noticed what was afoot, and corralled any resistance to the Persian invasion.  God saw to it that all this just changed over peaceably.  After all, there were still many Jews living in Babylon at that time, remnants of the captivity, and these would mostly have been killed had there been a siege of any duration.  One can even see the Bel worshipers and such blaming any Jews still in the city for the whole thing.  God's purpose was to bring down Babylon, as prophesied, and to restore the Jews to their land.  A quiet takeover ought to be seen as evidence of His plan working, and makes sense of the conflicting reports Wiki talks about.
Beginning in 13:4 though, we seem to shift to the future.  Vs 6 especially indicates this with its reference to "the day of the Lord".  I found this discussion of that phrase in my notes on Isaiah 2:
"10-22 are about the Day of the Lord, which ties in to the tribulation and great tribulation.  To the vengeance of God on mankind.  Per MSB, Day of the Lord, or Day of Reckoning, appears 19 times in the OT and 4 times in the NT .  They are all listed in the MSB footnote for Isa 2:12.  This would be a good study.  There is a lot more in this particular footnote.  Much to study.  BUT, the thing to note is that Day of the Lord can refer to near or far judgement, it can refer to providential  or God-sent judgement.  It must be interpreted based on the context, and I am sure there are endless arguments on each usage of the phrase.  Per MSB, there are two judgements yet to be fulfilled:  One at the end of Daniel's 70th week, and one at the end of the Millennial."
So that means the phrase here does not necessarily signal a shift to a far prophecy of the fall of Babylon, but it might be signalling that. So...context.
Vss 6-8 seem to correspond with Revelation.  Here are some verses from that that might be the tie-in:
[Rev 18:6 ESV] Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
[Rev 18:9 ESV] And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.
[Rev 18:10 ESV] They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, "Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come."
[Rev 18:11 ESV] And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore,
[Rev 18:14 ESV] "The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!"
The pictures here, and indeed many of the same words, remind me of the verses in Isa 13.  13:6-8 correspond to the fear, the woe that merchants will feel, they will be aghast.  Rev 18:14 corresponds pretty well with Isa 13:9, where Babylon will be a desolation, then 13:10 talks about the signs in the heavens that will accompany the destruction.  Babylon was not destroyed at all in Ancient times, it just fell.  But in Rev 18 you get the situation that the rest of 13 describes.  So yes, I think perhaps I finally found that key that unlocks the meaning of Isaiah 13.  I am going to cut these notes from 14, where I first put them, and stick them back in 13 where they belong.  I didn't see all these yesterday, and that was my own fault.
One other point...I had never noticed the use of "double portion" here in Revelation.  I have seen that phrase applied to Jerusalem, and interpreted it to be about 586 BC and 70 AD.  But what if, just what if, the Babylon of Revelation and Jerusalem are the same place.  What if the beast of Revelation makes his headquarters in Jerusalem, rebuilds a false temple there and then requires the world to worship him there.  And since he will be extraordinarily powerful, unlike any kingdom that ever was before - per Daniel - he can distribute untold wealth and power to others.  And that system, that corrupt system over which he presides, might be what God destroys in Rev 18.  And the double destruction is of Jerusalem in 70 AD, which was truly a complete destruction, and this still future destruction in Great Trib.  Heaven will rejoice over this destruction, the martyrs are avenged by this destruction.  What if that is referring specifically to the martyrs of t/gt?  
All this is interesting, but this thought just occurred to me:  Babylon is desolate today, already, now.  Perhaps that prophecy of desolation didn't refer to the the nation, but actually to the city itself and all that it represented?  Maybe the Medo-Persians just continued the status quo when they took over.  When did the actual city get destroyed???
This article:  "Most of the great walls of Babylon and their foundational structures  still stand. They were excavated in the early 20th century by Robert  Koldeway along with the rest of the city of Babylon.
In 1983 the leader of Iraq Saddam Hussein began a reconstruction project to restore  the Walls of Babylon and recreate the Ishtar Gate. Despite the ongoing  military conflict and civil war in Iraq, at some point they hope to  recreate this magnificent ancient city in all its splendor." - https://ancientmesopotamia.org/structures/walls-of-babylon.php
So the walls still stand, but no one at all lives there anymore.  Sure makes things difficult.  Ahh...unless Isa 13 is truly a combined near/far prophecy, with any one phrase impossible to fix in time.  Like 16 - infants dashed, houses plundered, wives ravished.  There is no indication that Cyrus' army did any of this.  But given the way war and conquest was conducted back then, it seems quite possible that to some extent, these things would have happened, even with a relatively quiet conquest.  And somehow, over time, that city was just abandoned, gradually falling into disrepair, and gradually abandoned.  Look at Isa 13:17 though...The Medes are coming.  That has to be a near prophecy because that is what happened!  
Ok.  Enough of looking at 13 on the day I'm to read 14-16.  But I needed to go back and get some kind of clarity on this chapter.]
2023 - Still on 13...I believe Israel - Judah to be specific - was to/is to receive double punishment because their sin became so very deserving of a double portion of punishment.  God is very consistent, very fair, very equitable.  If Jerusalem received double for her sins, why would the Age of the Gentiles not end the same way?  Perhaps these verses in Revelation 18 about Babylon are about the capital of the Gentile world.  Think how different are our governments today when compared with the theocracy that was Israel.  And yet...also so similar.  Capitalism ruled over theology both in Israel and in the world today.  It was greed that fed the fires of rebellion against God back then, and it is the love of money today.  Power is indeed coupled to money.  Both in Isaiah and in Revelation it is the merchants, the shipping magnates, the "commercial businesses", the super wealthy who lived for money and power that mourn the passing of Babylon.  If Babylon were Jerusalem, wouldn't it be the faithful Jews who mourned its passing, yet again?  This sure has me leaning toward Babylon in Revelation being a commercial center, or a commercial system, and NOT Jerusalem, NOT a religious center of any kind as in Rome or Mecca.  At least not as they function today.

2022 - Same thing this year...Hard to know what 13 is really about.  In comparing the Babylon of Isaiah 13 with Revelation 18, this year, Revelation seems to be about a very violent fall, brought about not by invaders but by God's power.  And that whole idea, in Revelation, where it says "come out of her, my people". That doesn't sound like the fall in the old days.  And yet still...starting in 13:9, you  have the signs in the heavens.  I have no reason - yet - to discount those signs as end times, tgt, 70th week signs, exclusively.  So I can make a case that 13:1-8 are about near, 13:9-16 are about end times, and then 13:17 brings us back to the Medes and Cyrus.  Going to go with that for now, and read 14.

This chapter starts off looking beyond the destruction of Israel - maybe combining Israel and Judah and looking out to the Millennial?  I think this applies at least to the first two verses.

2021 - It could be that vss 1,2 go with Chapter 13.  When the Medes took Babylon, Cyrus released the Jews and they went home.  But still, it is a stretch to say that they went home with slaves and ruled over their oppressors.  Maybe over a few, but mostly not.  So mostly, these 1st two verses are far, perhaps referring to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem during the sixth bowl, as we looked at recently in Rev. 16:12 in connection to the highway in the desert that Isaiah talks about.

These verses:
3 When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: "How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! [Isa 14:3-4 ESV]
This did not happen in Isaiah's time, or indeed any time since then.  Israel was not restored at the time of ancient Babylon's fall, and would not have taunted that nation.  This is a Millennial prophecy, and it is not talking about a literal place.

3-21 are a taunt to the King of Babylon after his fall.  He is just a man, with a bed of maggots and worms for covers.  What a way to describe a buried body!
Next verses close the book on Babylon.

2022 - 3-21 could be about Satan - and his 7 rulers - getting thrown out of heaven in Revelation.  He falls to earth and begins the horrendous persecution of the Jews, trying to kill every last one that is still on earth.  But he fails.  He is defeated at Armageddon, and confined to the pit - a specially prepared, "worse than hell" place within hell, where he is on display to the rest of hell's inhabitants?  Can those in hell really "see" what's going on...hmm.  In a body specifically designed for eternity in hell, they might experience intense never-ending fire, yet their minds still work just fine.  They will know, forever, that they are separated from God, and that their pain will never end. Or perhaps it is the demonic "captains" of previous strategies that are in hell staring at Satan and the current crew as they fall at the end of Armageddon and are all locked up.  Also, it could be about the man, the antichrist.  Isn't he thrown "alive" into Sheol?  Yes, here it is:  20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. [Rev 19:20 ESV].  For this to work, Sheol an the Lake of sulfur have to be either the same, or visible to each other.  Those in Sheol "see", in Isa 14:16, those thrown into hell.  And also in vs 16, the one referred to is a "man".  Yet in vs 12 we have to be talking about Satan.  Isaiah is kind of wrapping Satan and the MoL together in these verses.  Perhaps that is the way to see it.  A prophecy about the actors in that time, as a whole, rather than about specific actors.  And then 20b-22 seem to fall back to the Babylon of Isaiah's time.

2023 - I don't think vss 3-21 are about Satan at all.  I think they are about a thoroughly defeated ruler who claimed this title - Day Star, son of Dawn, which certainly sounds like a pagan title - back in that day.  It could be about Belshazzar in Daniel, who died in a night.  He was truly arrogant and likely attained to all the things mentioned in this chapter.  If we let this be the fallen King of Babylon then the taunts would have been after Cyrus - who was friendly to the Jews - took over.  Such taunts might well have pleased Cyrus and his officials.  We have seen above that Cyrus' conquest of Babylon might well have been of limited violence.  Further, I really don't see any reason at all to try and connect this with Revelation, and I do not see any reason to see the Day Star as Satan.  MSB describes what is going on here as addressing the King of Babylon - and the devil who was operating behind him and through him - in the same way that the serpent in Genesis is addressed along with Satan's influence behind him.  We see this very same kind of language in Eze 28:12-17 when the King of Tyre - and Satan behind him - are addressed.

2023 - It seems that in the past I was just way too intent on tying all Isaiah's prophecies to the end times.  As I read this now, I don't find any real reason to do that, and in fact, trying to do so seems to be reading way too much into a lot of these passages.  Some, yes, like 7:14 and 9:6, are about the future, and are easily recognized as such.  Look at where this goes from here...Oracles about Assyria, Philistia and so on.  Those don't look out to Revelation.  Those were prophecies of the reasonably foreseeable future.  So the lesson is, don't try to "push" more into these prophesies than is really there in an effort to gain insight into the end times.  There are plenty of obvious passages about that already that are hard to put into place with trying to make everything Isaiah says about the end, without trying to make every prophecy ever have both a new and a far fulfilment.  They might have that...but I don't think we'll see that until we're looking backward at them!

2021 - Vss 9-11, Are these the kings of the kingdoms that Daniel references?  The lion, the leopard, and so on?  The last kingdom, under "Anti-Christ"/ the beast is supposed to surpass all its predecessors for fury, destruction, and persecution.  So these kings in Sheol that are rising up are saying that, like us, you too have now fallen.  Surely this is about the son of perdition.  And that rolls right into 12, about Satan himself, who inhabited, who supported, who lent his power to that last "King", is also fallen at this time, as Christ defeats him and sets up the Millennial kingdom.  Wow.  I really think you can put Isa 13, 14, and maybe more right into the slot with Rev 18 and the end of the power of Satan on earth.

2021 - Vss 12-20 seem to be about the 1000 years that Satan will be locked away in the pit, recognized for who he is, no longer so powerful that he, through the son of perdition, ruled the entire world ruthlessly.  This greatest of all the kings who ever were has fallen to the final King.  Ok, I'm convinced this is what is going on in 14.  This is what it's about - the end of t/gt.  Defeat of Satan before the Millennial.

2021 - In vs 24 we switch from Babylon - projected through to the end of tgt, back to the near term and Assyria, which will actually  be in play long before Babylon arises.  This is just a short 2 vs prophecy about Assyria, and then vss 26, 27 tie it all together - Assyria, Babylon, the end of time - as the will and purpose and determination of God which cannot be opposed.

Third reading, 9/10/20....So many of these verses are about the defeat of Satan.  Look at vss 12, 13:
12 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; [Isa 14:12-13 ESV]
Who else can this be about?  The taunt is against Babylon, but the symbolic Babylon of Revelation is a system ruled by Satan.  He manipulates, he controls, he plots and plans against God in order to advance himself.  Through all of history he has planted and watered and advanced his evil plans.  He's made progress, he's come near success even, yet always God wins.  These verses, this taunt, is about the ultimate defeat of Satan, and the overcoming and total destruction of the evil that Satan has built.  This goes on through vs 23.
Later...this also says that Satan was thrown out of heaven long ago to walk to and fro in the earth.  Might make a case that he has access to heaven, but is no longer resident.

2023 - Vss 22-23 surely predict in summary form the current state of the Babylon of that day.  It just wasted away to nothing, and was abandoned.  

Then we have a prophecy of Assyria's fall, shifting away from Satan and symbolic Babylon to the near term of Isaiah's own time.  Note that this oracle says Assyria will fall "in my land, and on my mountains".  Recall that the Assyrian army loses 185,000 men overnight to a disease sent by God as they are encamped outside Jerusalem.  That is, "in my land, and on my mountains".  Wow.

Then another prophecy, this one about the Philistines.  This oracle is time stamped.  Isaiah said these things the year Ahaz died.  Philistia is told not to be happy about the death of Ahaz.  I believe Ahaz had attacked them...didn't we see that in Amos, when he made his specific predictions?  It would take some time to look up....But I think the Philistines would have had reason to celebrate the death of Ahaz.  Look at the imagery though of the fall of Philistia:  From the serpent's root comes an adder.  A flying fiery serpent.  I checked the internet to see what banner the ancient Assyrians marched under.  Didn't really find anything that billed itself as a copy of their war banners.  I did find some pictures of very large artifacts depicting Assyrians as four legged with wings.  I wouldn't call them dragons really, they look more like lions or horses bodies with men's arms and torsos and faces.  Did not really see fire.

2021 - I think vss 28-32 are saying that Assyria, in Isaiah's time, is going to destroy Philistia once and for all.  They are on their last legs, and though they think with the death of Ahaz that they are about to rise again, the truth is just the opposite.  It isn't Israel they need worry about.  They will be helpless before Assyria.

Chapter 15
Prophecy about Moab.  It will be destroyed in a night, the people will wail as survivors flee.  But they will be taken also.
This first verse:
1 An oracle concerning Moab. Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone; because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone. [Isa 15:1 ESV]
Here is that word Kir again.  The captives of Damascus were taken to Kir, and now this reference seems as if Kir is in Moab, south of Damascus.  Did the Assyrians move on from the destruction of Damascus and continue south into Moab?  It might well have been next on their list!

Chapter 16
Mostly just read right through 16 and 17 in 2020.  Will spend more on them, and less on 13-15 next time.

Moab still in flight.  Zion told to shelter her.  Vs 13 says the fulfillment of this prophecy was only three years away.  Very specific.  This would be a proof of Isaiah as a true prophet.

Chapter 17
Prophecy about Damascus.
It will cease to be a city and become a heap of ruins.  What remains of it will be like the leftover gleanings of olive and fruit trees.  Just a few fruits.  When it happens, they will look to the God of Israel, not to the idols they made for themselves.
2021 - It looks like both Damascus and Jacob will be "brought low".  This could well be about the Assyrians, who took Damascus before they took Samaria.  The gleaned fields, and the picked over fruit trees indicate that the land is going to be very nearly empty of people.  Or at least of its original population.  Vs 9 I think is what ties the fate of Damascus and Samaria together:
[Isa 17:9 ESV] In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.  The word "their" means both Damascus and Jacob.
2022 - For the record, Damascus is still there, still a city.  To be sure, it is not a very good city.  But I cannot, yet, describe Damascus as a "heap of ruins".  What I do not know is whether or not Assyria reduced it to such and it was rebuilt.  After all, Jerusalem was left with not one stone upon another at one point, but today it is a thriving city.  I would need to know more history to know whether...no I don't.  The Bible says it will be a heap of ruins.  So at some point it was, or at some point it will be.  I already know that.

This is, I think, the second time we've seen this description of what is coming:
[Isa 17:12 ESV] Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
The invasion force is huge, beyond number, un-opposable.  Just by moving they can be heard far off.  A fearful prospect back in that day.  But it goes on to say that the invaders too are going to fall.  Vs 14 makes this pretty clear:
[Isa 17:14 ESV] At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us.

(2021 - 17:8 connects with 2:20 and 30:22.  See especially notes at 30:22)

Chapter 18
This chapter starts with the word "Ah".  I thought I had recently seen that, so I looked it up.  Isaiah uses this word 10 times...or at least someone translated something as "Ah" 10 times.  Interlinear translates it "Alas".  It can also be translated Woe, Ho, and O.  It is just an interjection.  No deeper meaning.

Prophecy about the "...land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Cush".  Note in TCR says this is probably Nubia.  MSB says Cush is the Hebrew word for Ethiopia and referred to the lands S of Egypt, some of which is modern day Ethiopia.  The ancient Kingdom of Nubia was also in this place, but Nubia had fallen to Egypt by 1500 BC, though the area may well have still had that name by the time Isaiah wrote.  Current day Ethiopia is well south of where ancient Nubia was located.  Ethiopia today is South of Sudan, which is a pretty large country south of Egypt.  Says they travel on the waters in vessels of papyrus.  Paper boats?  Calls them a people tall and smooth, feared near and far.  Does not say they will be destroyed, as it said in previous oracles of other places.  More like they will be a prey for others, or maybe just that they will not be a strong power at all, and so impoverished that only birds of prey find anything there worth bothering with.  Ultimately, they will send tribute to Zion.  I have no idea what time this is about.  A good history lesson.

2021 - Seems to me this country was going to grow in power until it was just almost a crop, and then it would crash into meanness, poverty, subsistence.  It won't be wiped out, it will still be there when Zion is a powerful nation again - the Millennial - but it will never be a great nation.  Thinking of that part of the world today, the area south of Ethiopia.  Looked up some maps.  Cush would be modern day Sudan for the most part, and Ethiopia is south of there.  It is at the south end of the Red Sea.  Somalia is to the East, on the coast, and Ethiopia is just inland.  This is not at all a part of the world you want to be from.  Truly an armpit of civilization, just as this prophecy foretells.

Chapter 19
Prophecy about Egypt.
2021 - They first fight internally.  Civil war type fighting maybe.  Says neighbor against neighbor.  They will turn to all sorts of divination, sorcery, necromancy and so on for counsel, but God will confound that.  After their idols and counselors fail them they will be given to a hard master, "a fierce king" who will rule over them.  Perhaps this refers to Assyria...the MSB note here says Assyria conquered them in the mid-7th century BC.  (But isn't that before Isaiah wrote?  739-686 BC was Isaiah's time.  Mid-7th BC is 650 BC.  So that could be the reference.  Would be interesting to see if there is evidence of severe unrest within Egypt before Assyria came.
2021-Vss 5-10 seem to prophecy an extended drought in the region.  The Nile itself will dry up - or at least run very low, and have large stagnant areas.  Perhaps it went without its annual flooding for a long time, ruining crops - or causing crops to fail.  Neither cultivation nor natural vegetation - which likely also depends on those floods to mature - produced crops.  Can this be historically verified?  It sure seems like there are a lot of opportunities to "verify" what the Bible says - to place it in a position of respect as to the history it reports/predicts.  The way these verses are worded make it look like the drought comes after the conquest.  

Then the prophecy says the Nile and some of it's tributaries will dry up the crops will fail.  No fish, no textiles, no resources produced by the land.  Poverty, even among their rulers.  They will be a confused nation with no wisdom to rule and grow and react to these events.  They will be as a "drunkard, stumbling in his vomit".  I read this as their leaders have no wisdom, nor any wise counselors to confer with.  They will be directionless, poor, without purpose or goal.  They will just exist  from day to day.
2021 - This verse:
[Isa 19:14 ESV] The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
Egypt becomes a nation lacking wisdom, foresight, planning.  It will be a nation that just sort of stumbles around and goes nowhere.  It is still mostly like that.  A nation that follows others, never a leader.

Then in the last 6 verses of the chapter, blessings on Egypt, Assyria, and Israel.  
16 starts with "in that day".  Egyptians will be like women.  Israel will be a terror to them.  Five Egyptian cities that speak the language of Canaan will swear allegiance to God.  One will be called The City of Destruction.
There will be an altar in Egypt, and a pillar.  They will sacrifice to God, make vows to Him and keep them.  The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians and they will know Him.  God will "strike them and heal them".  There will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and they will freely go back and fourth.  These verses summarize:
23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance." [Isa 19:23-25 ESV]
This certainly seems very different than anything we have read about Assyria before.  Assyrian is gone now.  Isaiah has already told us that Assyria will fall.  But somehow, it is hard to say that they aren't going to rise again, be allies with Israel and with Egypt, and the three of them will be blessed by God.  The places will worship God.  This could only be during end times or the Millennial - or the time leading up to these things.  There has certainly not yet been a time like this.  Except...Egypt and Israel have been allied in some Middle East conflicts.  Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin won the Nobel Peace prize in 1978 and made peace - a treaty? - in 1979.  Ancient Assyria occupied the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates all the way down through what was later Babylon to the Persian Gulf.  This is modern-day Iraq, parts of northern Syria, and southern Turkey.  Hmm...These are Muslim areas today.  So...that's a big change.  A change like that might not occur until the Millennial.  Hard to say.  

2021 - Israel will be third of the three.  So this does not sound like the Millennial when Christ will rule, and Israel will lead the whole world.  Wouldn't that make this part of the prophecy be in t/gt?  Some of that consolidation and the 10 horns, and 3 fall and a new one rises?  Perhaps this whole area of Assyria through Israel to Egypt will be three allied nations as the Tribulation period opens.  Then the stresses of the 7 trumpets begin, and there is turmoil, and ultimately the beast arises in this place, rebuilding the temple and making peace  between these ancient enemies, appeasing both Islam and Judaism with some compromise.  But does that make any kind of sense?  It says these areas will be worshiping God, they will all be His people.  So you'd  have to have had some kind of "revival" through that whole area.  Either toward Judaism, or a Christian revival.  Doesn't really seem to hold up, now that I've written it down.  But an interesting possibility just the same.  Just because it doesn't make sense today doesn't mean it won't tomorrow.

2023 - I don't think there has been a time when Egypt, Israel, and Assyria (which is mostly Turkey nowadays) have all worshiped God.  Ethiopia has...and we have to remember that Isaiah would have been seeing this worship of Jehovah as it was practiced in his day.  He talks about an altar in Egypt.  Actually, as I read the maps, Assyria itself went from Upper Egypt, up the Mediterranean coast through Israel, and then included Lebanon, Syria, southern Turkey, and most of Iraq all the way down to where the Tigris and Euphrates empty into the Persian Gulf.  I think Alexander the Great also controlled all that area and more in his day.  It was broken up after that, with the portion in Egypt going to Ptolemy.  But I don't see any way that they were worshiping Jehovah throughout this whole area when Alexander was in charge.  I think that's the intertestamentary period also, so we have very little - as in none - biblical information about that time.  So my opinion would be that this alignment of nations is yet future.  And...I think the possibility that these are the three of the horns from which one rises is worth exploring.  Certainly this would be an alliance that the MoL would need to break up as soon as possible and put under his heel if he could.  What a "sign" to watch for.  Assyria, Egypt and Israel united under Yahweh.  That would be a pretty obvious sign to look for, and there is no indication of it right now...There is peace between Israel and Egypt, but they are still far apart religiously.  And southern Turkey under Erdogan is strictly Muslim.

Chapter 20
At the time Sargon sends an invasion to Ashdod - a major Philistine city - under his military commander instead of going himself, Isaiah is instructed by God to walk barefoot and naked as a portent of the coming destruction of Cush and Egypt.  He walked around this way for three years!  The footnotes say probably Nubia.  Assyria will conquer them, and march home the captives, naked and barefoot.  Then the northern kingdom, which has appealed to, or at least counted on and hoped that Egypt and Cush will help them and deliver them from the Assyrian invasion will understand that ho help will come from there.  And for Israel, their hope of avoiding Assyrian invasion will be gone.  So it is safe to say that the events in Chapter 20 happened leading up to the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom.  This part must be past.  So that alliance spoken of is yet future.

Chapter 21
Prophecy about the "wilderness of the sea".  MSB says this refers to an area of southern Babylon near the Persian Gulf know for its fertility.  TCR does not comment.  Vss 1-7 make it pretty clear that this place is going to fall, perhaps by invasion from Elam and Media.  Elam is on the East side of the Persian Gulf, southeast of Ancient Babylon, and Media is straight east of Babylon, and north of Elam.  So these two countries are in a position to invade Babylons eastern and southern flanks.

2022 - The first five verses seem to give an overall picture of what is about to happen in this wilderness.  There must have been people there, despite it being called wilderness.  It seems to have been suddenly and devastatingly overrun - as when whirlwinds go by.  Look at these phrases in 3-5...anguish, pangs like labor, bowed down with pain, heart staggers, appalling horror.  Something truly bad happened to the people in the "wilderness of the sea".  I found this:  "Of the desert - There have been almost as many interpretations of this expression, as there have been interpreters. That it means Babylon, or the country about Babylon, there can be no doubt; but the question why this phrase was applied, has given rise to a great diversity of opinions."  It was on this page:  https://biblehub.com/commentaries/isaiah/21-1.htm  This would be good to bookmark because it puts together numerous commentaries on each of these passages.  It would be a GREAT HELP when reading the OT major and minor prophets.  I will be keeping it open from here on in Isaiah.

2023 - Read the "Pulpit Commentary" on this chapter today.  That's a different section of the Biblehub entry.  What I learned is that nobody agrees at all on what this chapter is about.  Therefore, it is best to read it, think about it, and move on.  I wouldn't expect to be able to make sense of the historical time or place this chapter is about with any real certainty.  Any conclusion I would come to would be opinion, and pretty much uninformed opinion at that!  This one thing though...I think Isaiah is giving us a prophecy, not a history lesson.  So I think it is fair to say that when Isaiah talks about this stern vision concerning the "wilderness of the sea", it had not yet happened.  I found this link:  https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/assyria/ and it says here that Assyria, in 1225 BC more or less, sacked Babylon under King Tukulti-Ninerta.  Apparently, Babylon regained its independence, because later, in 729 BC, it is again conquered/occupied by Assyria.  This was under Tiglath-Pilesar III.  Israel was conquered by Assyria in 722 BC and I don't think it has been conquered as Isaiah writes Chapter 21.  So the 729 BC occupation may be what he is predicting.  But...It seems a lot more likely to me that Isaiah is talking about the fall of Babylon in Belshazzar's time, as found in Daniel.  I don't think Isa 21 is about Assyria at all.  Elam and Media are the besiegers, and THAT is who conquered Babylon in Daniel.

At any rate, a number of commentaries  say that "the wilderness of the sea" refers to Babylon and the area around it.  The Euphrates regularly flooded, covering all the surrounding desert into something that looked for all the world like a "sea".  So the phrases noted above are about the sudden and devastating fall of the great city Babylon.  We know from Daniel that it fell in a night.  It was overrun by the Medes and the Persians, who came out of the deserts of Arabia to the south.  I wonder if vs 2 tells us how Babylon fell?  A traitor perhaps showed the invaders how to access the city without a siege.  And the invaders - the destroyers - came in and raised havoc.
This is so absolutely compelling in its similarity to the fall of Babylon in Revelation.  There has to be something more we are supposed to see here.  This passage of Isaiah, in real time, is before Assyria fell and we are also seeing prophecy about Babylon.  Babylon must have been a truly awful, evil place to deserve these things - just as the Babylon in Revelation.  So what is this "evil" that ancient and future Babylon have in common that provokes God to bring about this kind of destruction?  Can they somehow represent the depths of cruelty that man sinks to apart from God?  Neb was chosen by God, God put the power into his hands, and Neb instead patted himself on the back instead of God.  But Neb was long gone when Babylon finally fell.  What was done in that city?  I think I need to do a whole "history search" of what has come down to us about that empire and its fall.  Maybe in secular literature we can find some indication of what Revelation is talking about?

Isaiah's oracle is symbolized by a watchman, on the wall, watching for mounted riders coming toward him.  

A watchman sees horses coming two by two in vs 9:
And behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!" And he answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground."
Isaiah 21:9 ESV
This language is much like that in Revelation.  Has this prophecy jumped so far ahead and into the tribulation?  MSB says Babylon fell to the Assyrians first, then to the Medes, and that John in Revelation quotes this verse in Rev 14 and18.  The prophecy about Babylon earlier seemed to have both near and far implications.  So MSB may be talking about an early conquest of Babylon - before she was really a "world power" and before Assyria fell to the Medes.  My "timeline" is that Assyria took Israel, then besieged Jerusalem.  185,000 Assyrians died of disease outside Jerusalem, so the Assyrians went home and their ruler was assassinated by his sons.  Sometime after that the Medes conquer what is left of Assyria.  Then Babylon rises to power - pushing back the Medes in the process and conquering all that area previously occupied by the Assyrians.  Babylon carries away the Southern Kingdom, then they are conquered by the Medes and Persians in Daniel's time.  The Medes let Israel go home.  So...if my timeline is right, to when exactly does "Fallen, fallen is Babylon..." in vs 9 refer?  Either to its early conquest by the Assyrians, which I doubt because it wasn't much of a power then and it's fall would be no big deal - except that the Assyrians were now in charge of the local "food belt".  It could be the conquest in Daniel's time.  That would be a pretty big deal.  Or it could be symbolic, not about geography at all but about the world economic system represented by the name Babylon, as talked about in Revelation.  I don't know.  I doubt anyone else really "knows" either, except for maybe Isaiah.

2023 - These verses:
8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality." [Rev 14:8 ESV]
2 And he called out with a mighty voice, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. [Rev 18:2 ESV]
It is pretty difficult to make a case that John isn't quoting Isaiah when he writes these verses in Revelation.  So...either another Babylon will rise, and also fall, as did the Babylon of Daniel's time...or John is using this reference to the fall of "old Babylon" to more clearly express the fall of the Kingdom of the MoL.  It may not be a reference to a real place at all.  Surely all that is said about that future Babylon applies to the kind of kingdom the MoL would set up!  That's why we cannot figure out what that future Babylon might be.  It is not a place, it is a government that must fall.  It is the future one world government, where favoritism and corruption and enrichment of evil men finally falls before the coming of the Millennial reign.  WHEN does future Babylon fall?  At some point during great trib?

2022 - In vs 7, Donkeys might well have been the symbol of the Medes, camels the symbol of the Persians.  So the watchman sees these two coming.

Prophecy of Dumah, which is Edom.  Esau's land.  This section is only 2 verses.  MSB interprets the question "what time of the night" as asking how long the Assyrian oppression will last.  The answer to that question - "Morning comes, and also the night" means the Assyrians won't be there long, but that the Babylonian invasion will come soon after the Assyrians fall.  And this is about Edom.  Isaiah takes time to talk about how Esau's land will fare during this time.

Prophecy of Arabia.  Says that within the year, Arabia will be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  So already fulfilled, per MSB.  Actually, what it says is a lot more complex than that.  It seems that those fleeing the Assyrians and later the Babylonians will make their way to the desolate areas of Arabia - and the desert.  They will be thirsty and hungry, and these Dedanites will send caravans of supplies there.  Probably in secret lest they incur the wrath of Assyria.  But...apparently the Assyrians do figure out what is going on, and the result is that they invade and destroy the areas around the desert, so that supplies can no longer come in, and preventing some leader from raising an army against them with those forced out of their homelands.  This would be good strategy for Assyria.
2022 - Kedar is the name given generically to the nomadic tribes that inhabited Arabia, one of which was Dedan.  It says these would be brought low.  Apparently the Assyrians were ruthless in "disarming" any who might rise up - or accompany those who might rise up - against them.  They even wiped out nomadic tribesman said to be good with bows.

2022 - So I've learned today that there is a LOT of material that will fill in the details of these prophecies.  I don't need to be speculating nearly so much as to what they are about.  BibleHub will need to play a bigger part from here on.

Chapter 22
Prophecy of the valley of vision, meaning Jerusalem.

2023 - Perhaps this is some kind of contrast between the "wilderness of the sea" that started the last chapter about Babylon, and now the "valley of vision".  All the commentaries agree that this is about Jerusalem, and on a larger scale, about Judah.

The leaders won't fight in battle, won't try to make a stand, but instead will flee from invaders.  They will flee but they will still be captured.  Cowards?  Many specifics are here, but obscure to me.  Elam and Kir are both mentioned.  I'm staring to think Kir must have been a reference to a specific place, even if not the name of a specific city.  It just comes up too often.
2022 - Doesn't that final King in Jerusalem escape from the walls and run for the hills but gets captured by Babylon anyway?  And isn't it interesting that Isaiah started to prophesy even before the northern kingdom fell, and includes prophecy about the southern kingdom also falling.
2023 - The King was Zedekiah, in 2Kgs 25.  These verses:  4 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king's garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. ... 6 Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. 7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon. [2Ki 25:4, 6-7 ESV]

Walls broken and then rebuilt out of destroyed houses, water sources protected... Sounds like Isaiah foresaw the siege of Jerusalem by Babylon, still far in the future.  Or even further to the return under Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the entire wall?
2022 - Babylon laid siege to the city.  They would have been "shelling" the walls, battering them with rams and so on.  To try and repair the breaches as quickly as possible, before they could be exploited, they tore down nearby houses and used the material to shore up the breaches.

2022 - These verses:
12 In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; 13 and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." [Isa 22:12-13 ESV].
As the day of Jerusalem's fall gets closer, God wants them to mourn and decry their sins that led to this awful consequence.  Surely the city would be somber and reserved and repentant.  But no!  They took the position that if they were going to die tomorrow, they ought to just party hardy today!  What complete insolence.  What further proof that God's judgment on them was appropriate.  Could any horror that Babylon might perpetrate on them be more than such people deserved?  Hard for us to even imagine.  They had truly grown worse than the Canaanite heathens they'd displaced.  

A long prophecy about Shebna, the Kings second, being deposed.  Hilkiah to take his place.  He will open and no one will close and he will close and none will open.  I have seen this phrase elsewhere.  In the Revelation I think.  Per MSB Jesus says this of himself in Revelation 3. So...you have to believe there was a Shebna and a Hilkiah in Isaiah's day.  Shebna was either unwise or disloyal and was depending much on the chariots and/or other means he had collected to fend off the Babylonian invasion.  Whatever he's doing, he's doing it wrong, and is working against God's plans, and Isaiah says that he will be deposed and Hilkiah will take his place.  

But someone, this also looks all the way to Revelation 3.  Reading vss 22-25, you get some sense that these are about Jesus stepping up to the throne of David, but then in vs 25 it says "the peg in a secure place will give way".  This is certainly  not a reference to Jesus.  
MSB has many notes on the story of Shebna and Hilkiah.  As it reads, these most certainly were both real people in Isaiah's time.  Shebna had a very high opinion of himself, and went around looking after Shebna with no real regard for his duties to the people.  Eventually, he is demoted, and then ends up dying in a foreign country, never to be buried in the "kingly tomb" he had dug for himself.  There is mention that Shebna may have been from Egypt - so the bigger the tomb the bigger the man would have been how he saw things.  (2022 - If from Egypt, this man in high position likely worshiped Egyptian gods and practiced all kinds of divining as part of his decision making.  He would not have been a man of God in any sense.  My guess is that Eliakim was a man of God.  Even so, his rise only forestalls the fall, it does not prevent it.  Why?  Because Jerusalem has already passed the tipping point.  God was done with them.  And for good reason when you read vss 12-15.  There was no "fixing them".  They had to die.)  Hilkiah is the peg, and much of the responsibility for the kingdom "hangs on him" once Shebna is deposed.  He controls access to the king in Isaiah's time, as Jesus will control access to his kingdom in the Millennial.  This is as far as that analogy goes.  In the end, Hilkiah also falters, makes mistakes, and as he goes so go the people.  Far as I know, we have not yet seen either of these people, but MSB indicates that we know the details of how this prophecy played out from other scriptures.  One to watch for.

Chapter 23
The oracle concerning Tyre:
Isaiah 23
The wording for the first 12 verses seems more about how those who traded and grew rich on trade with Tyre will react when they here it has fallen.  These verses also make clear that what has happened is from God, and that His purpose is to bring down the haughty.
2021-Here is a key verse:
[Isa 23:9 ESV] The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
It almost seems that any place on the planet that grows to believe itself the top of the hierarchy becomes a target of God's wrath.  He will not be usurped on the earth.  He will bring about destruction as proof of His power over even the strongest or richest.  The phrasing here reminds me a little of the phrasing about Babylon in Revelation, too.  The POV is of those who were enriched by the doings of the city, rather than from the city as it was destroyed.  The inhabitants of Tyre, or Babylon, are receiving the justice they deserve.  Their terror, their demise, their sense of loss is not relevant.  What does matter is that they ignored God, or maybe they shook their fist at His rules, and they receive, ultimately, the justice this requires.

2021 - This verse is interesting:
[Isa 23:11 ESV] He has stretched out his hand over the sea; he has shaken the kingdoms; the LORD has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds.
So Tyre and Sidon, being cities and not nations, are being discussed as subsets of the true object of God's wrath here.  It is Canaan that is going to fall.  Israel and Judah, or Ephraim and Judah.  This is just a small part of that larger purpose of God.

I think vs 13 says it will be Assyria or the Chaldeans that bring it down.  I think Assyria is in view.

Prophecy about Tyre.  Says that Tyre will fall, but after seventy years it will rise again.  MSB says that with God's  help, the city would return after 70 years.  When it returns though, it will no longer store and hoard waiting for exorbitant prices, but will distribute - as a hub - the merchandise shipped through her to those "who dwell before the Lord".  Sure don't know what this might mean.  I have done some research on Tyre.  70 years is also the length of the exile of Judah.  I know that some king destroyed the part of Tyre that is on the mainland, but it wasn't until Alexander the Great that the offshore island also fell, and great was the fall of it.  There was massacre of those still living there when Alexander took it.  MSB says the 70 year reference is "obscure", meaning he doesn't know what it refers to either.  So we don't know when Tyre is to return to power.  A good guess for me would be that it will happen when the Jews return to Zion.  The rapid population increase, and the riches bestowed by God, will require a huge port to supply the needs of the new Israel.  So I would think it is at that time that Tyre will return to power as a port.  Other ideas - 70 nations in Genesis, 70 weeks of Daniel.  Maybe the 70 years of Tyre refer also to the same 70 weeks in Daniel, meaning that Tyre come back pretty much at the end of the Millenial?  Or maybe at the end of the 7 years of Tribulation.  So here is another prophecy that could be studied in far greater detail.

2021 - If the 70 years does refer to the time of the Millennial, when the Jews rule over the earth, perhaps Tyre will become a clearinghouse, a distribution center for food and goods to the entire world, not for profit but for justice.  None will starve because they can't pay the price - Tyre will supply, via Canaan, which is Israel.  But still, there is that 70 there.  That's pretty specific.

Chapter 24
This chapter is about the destruction of the planet.  It is a prophecy that encompasses the whole earth.  In that sense, it is like Revelation.  Not complete destruction though because some will survive.  It starts like this:
Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.  Isaiah 24:1 ESV.  It is hard to NOT see the judgements of Revelation in these words.  There will be earthquakes, upheavals, mountains moved from their places.  It goes on like this for three verses, and it says that none will escape these events.  Not rich or poor, master or slave, and so on.  No one will be safe from this "emptying of the land".

This verse:
5 The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. [Isa 24:5 ESV].  I believe this is given as the reason the earth is to be laid waste.  It has been defiled by the people who live on it.  It is not the perfect original creation that God meant for it to remain, but it has been polluted, abused, and defiled by generations of fallen human habitation.  The next verse confirms this a a reason and then:
Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.
Isaiah 24:6 ESV
MSB says 24:1-27:13 are about God's ultimate victory over His enemies in "that day".  It says the judgements in this chapter look forward to the events in Revelation 6ff.  Might be a one to one correspondence to those events, but MSB doesn't have a chart or anything that ties them together.

A few more verses describing the state of things when this comes to pass:
There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished.
Isaiah 24:11 ESV
2021 - So much of this is reminiscent of the trumpets, and even more the bowl judgments.  So many will die, vegetation wiped out, oceans devoid of fish, no crops, and so on.  Isaiah doesn't seem to be talking about these individual aspects, but certainly could be about the combined effects on the earth of all these judgments.  Add to that the rapture, which has taken out all the saved.  None of God's people are left on earth.  So 24:5a is very true - the earth is defiled under its inhabitants.  Even those converted by the preaching of the 144,000 will have to suffer through this - the time of Jacob's trouble.  This is the crucible that the Jews of that time must go through in order to dissipate the last of God's great wrath toward them.
Hmm...Are vs 14-16 the voices of the converted Jews, as they recognize what is happening and realize that God is fulfilling His promises to them?  They seem like they'd be about the only ones rejoicing in such a time!
The last part of verse 16 is interesting:
[Isa 24:16b ESV] ...But I say, "I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed."  I wanted to see what this looked like in Hebrew.  Here are the transliterated words from BLB Interlinear:
amar razi ani razi ani oy   (meaning but I say I waste away I waste away)  You can see it!  I say "waste away waste away I"
ani bagad bagad baged bagad bagad (meaning Woe is me, traitors traitors betraying traitors traitors)  A world reeking with traitorous people intent on betraying, looking for ways to betray, hoping to promote themselves by betraying.  A world where no one can be trusted, because the WILL betray you.  What a horrible awful world to live in!  
And just look at the rhythm and rhyme in these phrases!  Reading them phonetically, they are hugely memorable, easily memorized!  Such a lament, so easily sung by the Jews who, though they see the work of "the righteous one" in all that is happening, it is still an awful, terrible time for them, as the forces of the Antichrist seek them out, spy on them, infiltrate them intending to promote themselves by betraying the faithful.  This is not a time you want to experience!

The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken.
Isaiah 24:19 ESV
I have no idea what time this refers to.  Possibly during great trib.  (Yes, I think this is great trib.)  Many will die during that time, and the earth and the water also.  It will stink of dead bodies, both man and beast.
2021 - You just have to look at all three of these verses:
[Isa 24:17 ESV] Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
[Isa 24:18 ESV] He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.
[Isa 24:19 ESV] The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken.
[Isa 24:20 ESV] The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.
How could I not know last time what this was contemplating?  This is wrath of God stuff.  Nowhere to run, hiding in the clefts of the rock, begging the mountains to fall on them.  Moon turns to blood, sun black as sackcloth.  Talk about terror!  And then the wording of vs 18. no matter how you try to escape, no matter where you run, it will just get worse!  And as unspeakable awful as this will be?  The Lake of Fire is next.  The only escape from Great Tribulation is hell itself, prepared to be the worst place that can possibly exist.
This chapter absolute goes with the Book of Revelation, and I think is about Great Tribulation.  What else could it possibly be???

But then there is this verse:
On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
Isaiah 24:21 ESV
MSB says this is about the climax of the Day of the Lord.  References Eph. 6:12 where it talks about cosmic forces ruling and about spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.  He does not reference anything in the Revelation.  However, isn't it during this time that Satan is thrown out of heaven once and for all, and no longer allowed to accuse mankind before God?  This verse indicates that he still has followers in heaven also - that the spiritual battles ongoing are not confined to earth, but are going on in heaven also.  I see no way that this chapter does not tie in with Revelation.  This verse:
22 They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. [Isa 24:22 ESV]  There is the place in Revelation where that angel opens the pit, and lets the demons run free on the earth.  But they will eventually - after many days - be confined back there, and Satan with them, to receive eternal punishment.  This is saying that same thing.
2021- I think vss 21-23 are about what happens after t/gt.  The fallen angels will be confined for the thousand years.  Satan too will be confined.  Those unsaved who die during t/gt will be confined in Sheol, or Hades, whichever term you prefer, and will burn there until the GWT judgment at the end of the Millennial.  This seems too plainly correct an interpretation to even argue about.

So the question is whether to put this chapter with the "prophecy" notes, or put it with the "end times" notes.  I am leaning strongly to end times.

Finishes with this verse:
23 Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the LORD of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders. [Isa 24:23 ESV]
The consummate clue to when this is.  Signs in the heavens come only from God, and mark work that is His.  These signs are so we know that the events are being orchestrated by God according to His word and prophecy, and NOT fake events meant to deceive us, as those performed by the Beast and the False Prophet will be.  Their signs will not be signs in heaven.  This chapter goes with end times.

2021- One more thought...What John tells us in Revelation is simply an expansion, an amplification, the details of what Isaiah is telling us here in Chapter 24.  What a truly remarkable chapter this is.  What a truly remarkable book the Bible is.

Chapter 25
1 O LORD, thou [art] my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful [things; thy] counsels of old [are] faithfulness [and] truth. [Isa 25:1 KJV]
A favorite verse of mine, best expressed by the KJV - in my opinion.

These two verses speak of a time when peace will reign, even though evil will still exist.  The Millennial will be like that:
4 For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, 5 like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the foreigners; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is put down. [Isa 25:4-5 ESV]
2021 - Vss 1-5 are perhaps a look back  - in more detail - to 23:18, which I think was about the Millennial.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
Isaiah 25:6 ESV
Pretty good wine I'd say...
2021 - Surely a reference to the Millennial.

And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
Isaiah 25:7 ESV
Next verse talks about swallowing up death.  So this must be about end times... then this verse to confirm:
9 It will be said on that day, "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." [Isa 25:9 ESV].  This seems to speak of Jesus, on the throne of David, ruling over the Jews who have finally recognized him, and come home to him.

Then there is a prophecy about the fall of Moab.  It seems to be something that Jesus will do in that time.  Not sure how this fits in.  I don't recall Moab being mentioned in Revelation, or being part of any of those last great battles.  Review Isaiah's prophecy about Moab.  It had survivors I think....In Isa 16 Zion is told to shelter those fleeing from Moab's destruction.  So presumably some survived to return.  All of Moab is within present day Jordan.  Here are the verses:
10 For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down in his place, as straw is trampled down in a dunghill. 11 And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim, but the LORD will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill of his hands. 12 And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust. [Isa 25:10-12 ESV]
MSB says Moab represents "the rest of the nations" as Edom does elsewhere.  So just a placeholder, not a specific prophecy?  That doesn't seem right...

Chapter 26
This chapter starts with a song that will be sung "in that day".  A song of praise by those under God's protection at that time.

An interesting principal.  Possibly for FB.
If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord .
Isaiah 26:10 ESV
Surely this is representative of how we are letting looters and rioters run rampant while telling them we won't prosecute them for their crimes.  This ensures that what is happening will continue to happen.
2022 - Surely this anticipates the expansion of Title 9 protections - favor to the wicked - to homosexuals, transvestites, transgenders....all of those perversions, all of that wickedness not just tolerated, but given special protection under the law.  This negates any possibility of such people turning to God and gives running room to the corruption of mind that go them to the state they are in.  Goes to Romans 1, Proverbs 1.  Their minds to not function correctly - and for that, they get favorable treatment under the law.  Same thing with DA's not prosecuting shop lifting if they steal less than $150.  Will that stop shoplifting or encourage it?  No charges for rioters who burn down private property.  Will that prevent rioting, or encourage it?  We all understand this principle at a gut level.  Here it is in Isaiah, stated concisely somewhere around 700 BC.
Possible FB post...if I haven't posted it before.

I have never noticed this before.  Bodily resurrection, the rapture, talked about in the OT.  Another for FB:  
Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.
Isaiah 26:19 ESV
2022 - Barnes links this verse with vs 14:  14 They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them. [Isa 26:14 ESV].  Barnes sees this verse about living again being about the "death" of the nation of Israel while they were in captivity, having not civil protections or rights, no self-government, no priests and no rulers of their own.  The contrast is between the demise of the nation that subjugated Israel and the "resurrection" of the Jews at the homecoming from Babylon.  Barnes says this is not about the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.  

And this one!!!  What a reference to ultimate justice.  The earth itself will testify.
For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.  FB also.

Vss 16-21 are just amazing.  They speak of the time of blindness for Israel - I think that's what this is about.  The Jews, for centuries have been abused, downtrodden, fodder for tyrants and murderers, despised by the world without cause, and so on.  This is their state during the Age of the Gentiles.  These verses say that they cry out to God for deliverance like a woman in labor - and yet they do not recognize that their Messiah has already come, that they are in the state they are in because of their OT rejection of God's ways and for their NT rejection of God's own son.  They don't see this connection at all.  But then in 19, as above, the dead will rise.  The rapture will happen as a sign that the time has come to redeem Israel, to redeem the sons of Abraham, as promised so long ago.  This will be the beginning, the sign that they will recognize.  

Vss 20 and 21 tell the Jews to wait, to be patient, to hold on, "For behold the Lord is coming out from his place..."  vs 21.  He WILL redeem them, He will unblind them, He will bring them back to Him.  Isaiah saw all this in his day.

2021 - Reading this (Isa 26) now, I think I was onto something above, but did not take it far enough.  Vss 16-18, I think, are about the age of the Gentiles.  There are still Jews who worship God, who pray at the wailing wall for deliverance, who pray and pray for the promised Messiah.  They prayed for deliverance from the Nazis, they prayed for relief from world-wide antisemitism.  But all this is to no avail, as we see in vs 18:
[Isa 26:18 ESV] we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
For all their efforts, for all their prayers, they have nothing to show.  They birthed only the wind.  They are still - even in our day - oppressed, downtrodden, abused wherever and whenever possible.  Not only that, but their oppressors remain in power, still control them, still prevent their freedom.  Is this not still what is going on?
But look at 19.  It switches from "we this and we that" to "Your dead..."  I believe the "you" in this verse is God, though it might well be Christ.  If we believe that at the rapture only the saved in Christ, only those indwelt with the Holy Spirit, only those from Pentecost on (I STILL need to find out why I think there is a division of the saved at the point of Pentecost!  Where is the verse for that???), and we also decide that the rapture will be far from a secret event, an event that will be recognized worldwide, or at least will be recognized by the Jews, then the rapture is the "sign" that they have always awaited.  It will not only be the rapture, but it will open the eyes of the Jews, ending the blindness imposed on them for their rebellion in the OT and their rejection of Jesus in the NT.  This even will shock them into the reality that their own day of restoration and redemption is at hand.  I had another note, recently, that the rapture and the selection of the 144,000 might be essentially simultaneous.  (No, it wasn't another verse, it was speculation in the note titled "How many judgments", under the Matthew 25 heading, when I was thinking about who would be left on earth after the rapture, and noted that there wouldn't be a single saved person there...unless this was when the 144,000 are sealed.  It still fits though, same idea.  Perhaps these verses in Isa 26 are adding credibility to that speculation, and not the other way around.)  And here is yet another passage that adds credibility to that idea.  Their "dew is a dew of light", perhaps in the sense of the dawn of understanding.  Dew comes only in the morning, at the beginning of the day, as darkness ends. OHHHH!!!!  The rapture is the dew that signals the beginning of the Day of the Lord!!!!!!!

2021 - And then it goes on.  Two VERY long verses, 20, 21.  These may be addressed to the remnant, to the saved God keeps to preserve his promise.  For them, there is only marking time.  God's wrath against Israel must be spent, and no prayer - not even of Moses, Daniel, or Job - can turn it away.  All they can do for now, during this Gentile Age, this church age, is hide.  Lay low, try to stay out of sight, and wait for God's fury to pass.  Then vs 21 speaks of the second advent I think.  At the end of t/gt, a time when the Jews most certainly will need to stay hidden.  Jesus will judge the inhabitants of the earth.  Sheep and goats perhaps.  I need to include these scriptures in my judgment study.

It all fits!  The 144,000 are sealed at the beginning of Rev. 7.  
[Rev 7:1 ESV] After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
[Rev 7:2 ESV] Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea,
[Rev 7:3 ESV] saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads."
[Rev 7:4 ESV] And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
The four angels are held back, not allowed to begin their destruction until after the 144,000 are sealed.  Look at vs 1, "After this...."  After what?  What happened at the end of Chapter 6?  
[Rev 6:12 ESV] When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood,
[Rev 6:17 ESV] for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
The wrath of God is come at the opening of the 6th seal.  "Save from wrath and make me pure".  I believe that the rapture will immediately precede this wrath.  (But...when is the abomination of desolation?  It has to come before the rapture also....???)
So, if I have this right, tribulation will start, and run through the first five seals with Christians still in place on the earth, and the Jews will be starting to understand what is going on.  Then that sixth seal, and the rapture occurs, and the Jews the world over tie the disappearance of all these Christians - these "Jesus worshipers" - to the prophecy in Isa 26, and they realize that Jesus was the Christ!  They become fertile soil for the preaching of the gospel, but there are no saved people left on earth to preach it.  God provides, revealing the truth through the NT, and granting saving faith to 144,000 evangelists, who are immune to the attacks of the beast, and they begin the work or preaching, and sending the Jews home on the highways from Assyria and Egypt!

I am overwhelmed with all this.  I am amazed at all this.  It all rings like truth.

Chapter 27
2021 - I did not notice that I was supposed to skip the above and just move on to here.  Changing from the chronological Bible to this NT/OT mix has meant that I covered these chapters in Isaiah over several days, giving me more time with each chapter - AND more time with the NT chapters.  The results of this have been amazing for me.  I am learning much, surmising much.  
Note that chapter 27 begins with "In that day....", which I believe ties it back to what was going on at the end of 26.  I think Isaiah is speaking of the rapture, and he will now move on to tell us about the salvation of the Jews during the Great Tribulation.  (And I think it is now obvious for whom Revelation is written.  It will be a road map for the Jews during this terrible time.)  

2021 - This opening verse:
[Isa 27:1 ESV] In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
A fleeing and twisting serpent and a dragon.  Separate creatures?  The same?  From Job we know Leviathan lives in the ocean, and this says dragon in the sea, so could be the same creature.  Satan is referred to as a dragon.  I heard somewhere that the "sea" refers to the Gentiles.  Is this about clearing Jerusalem of the beast and his followers?  But why rename them Leviathan?  I suppose it is possible that we have skipped ahead all the way to the Millennial.  Satan - the dragon - will be thrown into the pit during this time.  But I still don't get the reference to Leviathan, nor to the sea.  Maybe that is where Satan runs - he is earthbound at this point, as he has been cast forever out of heaven - to escape once he loses the battle at the end of gt.  Maybe he will hide under the water, unsuccessfully?

2022 - So here is what Barnes says about Leviathan:
"Leviathan - לויתן  livyâthân. The Septuagint renders this, Τὴν  δράκοντα  Tēn drakonta - 'The dragon.' The word 'leviathan' is  probably derived from לוה  lâvâh in Arabic, to weave, to twist  (Gesenius); and literally means, "the twisted animal." The word occurs  in six places in the Old Testament, and is translated in Job 3:8, 'mourning,' Margin, 'leviathan;' in Job 41:1, 'leviathan' - in which chapter is an extended description of the animal; in Psalm 74:14, it is rendered 'leviathan,' and seems to be applied to Pharaoh; and in Psalm 104:26,  and in the passage before us, where it is twice also rendered  'leviathan.' Bochart (Hierez. ii. 5. 16-18) has gone into an extended  argument to show that by the leviathan the crocodile is intended; and  his argument is in my view conclusive. On this subject, Bochart, Dr.  Good (on Job 41), and Robinson's Calmet, may be consulted.
The  crocodile is a natural inhabitant of the Nile and of other Asiatic and  African rivers; is of enormous voracity and strength, as well as of  fleetness in swimming; attacks mankind and all animals with prodigious  impetuosity; and is furnished with a coat of mail so scaly and callous  that it will resist the force of a musket ball in every part except  under the belly. It is, therefore, an appropriate image by which to  represent a fierce and cruel tyrant. The sacred writers were accustomed  to describe kings and tyrants by an allusion to strong and fierce  animals. Thus, in Ezekiel 29:3-5, the dragon, or the crocodile of the Nile, represents Pharaoh; in Ezekiel 22:2, Pharaoh is compared to a young lion, and to a whale in the seas; in Psalm 74:13-14, Pharaoh is compared to the dragon, and to the leviathan. In Daniel 7, the four monarchs that should arise are likened to four great beasts. In Revelation 12, Rome, the new Babylon, is compared to a great red dragon."  So...a crocodile, symbolic of the leader of the nation that takes Judah captive.  
2022 - It occurs to me, reading Barnes, that I have perhaps tried to read way too much about end times into Isaiah's prophecies.  Perhaps they are mostly about the impending situation in that part of the world over the next couple hundred years or so, but do not in fact point to the events of Revelation.  I don't think looking at the book this way precludes some near/far interpretations, but I think I need to be a lot more careful about that.  It seems that if you don't know the history of the time Isaiah is writing about very well, the tendency, at least for me, is to "push" it all into Revelation.  Barnes is showing that a majority (I think that is a fair word to use) of the prophecies have already come to pass, are done and over with.  They are still beyond remarkable in all their detail and historic accuracy...and maybe, as the end gets nearer, we will see that there is definitely a far component to what Isaiah says. But from here on, I will be a lot more careful about trying to assign an end times interpretation to everything Isaiah says.

2021 - This verse convinces me that we are indeed into the Millennial at this point:
[Isa 27:6 ESV] In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.
During the Millennial, the world will be governed from Israel.  Justice will flow from there.  All will seek the counsel of Israel.  The whole world will be at peace, and have plenty during the Millennial.  That must be where we are in this prophecy.
2022 - Even after the 2022 paragraph just preceding this, how can you not connect this verse with the Millennial reign?  Isaiah seems to always be talking about two "times" at the same time!

Most of these notes are from 2019.  Just read straight through it in 2020.  Next year, I'll take time on this chapter.
I need to figure out what Leviathan represents for one thing next year!  MSB note goes back to Job 41:1...but surely it means more than that?

Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
Isaiah 27:9 ESV
2021 - At the end of gt, Israel will receive the promises God made to them.  By persevering through the fire of t/gt, they see the end of the wrath of God against them, and he welcomes them back as the faithful they now are, and do not worship the idols that so incensed Him in the days of Manasseh.  I also note that once Israel returned from Babylon, idol worship was really never a problem again.  So there is both a near and far aspect of this verse.  This is another VERY long verse.

This chapter is about the restoration of Jacob.  There are some verses in 1-11 that seem clear.  Others I just have no idea about.  There are things about restoration, but there is also this, especially the last half of it:
When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them; he who formed them will show them no favor.
Isaiah 27:11 ESV
This doesn't seem like restoration.
2021 - We know that at the end of the Millennium there will be one more final battle.  There will be people who still insist on rebellion despite the throne of God on earth.  Maybe these verses are about them?  Those who will not believe, will not submit even with Christ present on earth in all his glory.  For these, there is no more gospel, no more compassion, no more calling.  Those who rebel during this time in history receive no grace, no mercy.  Those days are past.

Last verse of the chapter:
And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Isaiah 27:13 ESV
2021 - Look how well this verse fits with my notes at the end of chapter 26!  It may be that many converted Jews will still be scattered over the world at the beginning of the Millennial.  This trumpet will sound at the Millennial to call them ALL home to the promised land, and even more, to the fulfillment of all that was ever promised.  Jerusalem will likely "fill up" during this thousand years, and very possibly Jerusalem will contain all the saved left on earth.  All will migrate there over the thousand years, leading to that final battle at the end of the Millennial when the entire unsaved world surrounds Jerusalem to battle with the Lord.  He will destroy them with his breath, and then will begin the GWT judgment, the last and final judgment of all.

Wow.   A trumpet to call the Jews home.  In "that day".  This has to tie in to something in Revelation!  This will precede all those verses - in Revelation and elsewhere, about the Jews coming home.  The highway from Assyria has already been mentioned.  This trumpet will start that movement.  How could anyone believe this prophecy so clearly and specifically about Israel when it was pronounced, is now to be fulfilled by the church?

I have previously just tried to slog through this book.  There is so much here!

2022 - So...Barnes can make it all about the "present" in Isaiah's time, but these last few verses of 27, to me, make it very sure and certain that the end times - the ultimate fate of Israel and Judah - are ALSO in view!

Chapter 28
2021 - I note that in the ESV, all of 28, and practically all of 29 are in what I've been calling "prose format".  These are not block paragraphs, but look more like verse.  I do not know the source of this formatting.  27 ended with the restoration of Jacob, with the atonement of the guilt of Jacob.  There are those verses about "people without discernment".  Didn't know who they were yesterday, today I wonder if they are the few remaining Jews who are not converted during t/gt?  But if so, wouldn't they be judged in the sheep and goat judgment?  Anyway, 27 ended with Jacob restored, and, I believe, the return of the Jews to Israel in massive numbers.  So, moving on to 28.

Back to Isaiah - the backbone of the chronology at this point in the Bible - from Hosea, which focused mainly on the coming judgement of Israel in the north.  So since starting Isaiah, I've also read Amos, some of 2Ch, Micah, some of 2Kgs, a Psalm, and Hosea.  Obadiah and Jonah came just before.  All these books are contemporary with each other.  All these prophets delivering the same message at the same time...and no one listening.

Judgement is coming on Ephraim.  Several references to the crown of Ephraim.  Also several to the drunkards of Ephraim.  Alcohol abuse may have been pervasive in Ephraim.  Imagine a whole country where alcohol is the rule of the day, all day, every day.  A nation always drunk.  This section starts with this verse:
1 Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine! [Isa 28:1 ESV]

MSB says that the walls of Samaria were the "crown" on a hill overlooking a valley that led down to the Mediterranean Sea.  (2021 - I found quite a few pictures of the ancient city of Samaria.  It is too far from the Med to actually see the water, but that long valley is apparent.)  It says that by this time in Isaiah the Northern Kingdom had fallen to Assyria.  Perhaps Ephraim was next on the list - next in line of march for Assyria.  Wasn't it Ephraim that was going to be "great"?  Wasn't Ephraim going to be synonymous with "all Israel, north and south"?  So at this point is the name being used inclusively of what was left of the north and all of the south?  Or does it literally mean just the land occupied by the tribe of Ephraim?  The city of Samaria was only about 10 miles north of the border of Ephraim.
2021 - So if the northern kingdom had already fallen and been carried off, then the city of Samaria would have been abandoned more or less, and be falling into disrepair.  That makes this phrasing a bit sarcastic.  The place is not really proud at all.  One still must wonder though if alcoholism had become rampant in Samaria leading up to the conquest by Assyria.

2021 - This verse:
[Isa 28:2 ESV] Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, he casts down to the earth with his hand.  This is about Assyria, about its ruler, that is as unstoppable as a flood coming your way.  Isaiah is warning Jerusalem of what is coming...though Assyria doesn't in fact conquer Jerusalem.  But they do conquer most of the surrounding territory, and then Jerusalem is given a reprieve, which they squander, and are ultimately overrun by Babylon.

2021, Vss 1-4 sure seem to me to refer to Samaria before its fall.  Why does MSB think this is after?  Vs 3 says it "will be" trodden underfoot.  Looked it up in the interlinear, and the word translated "will be" is an imperfect verb.  Here is what that means:
   Generally designates an action which is continuous, incomplete, or open-ended. Rather than depicting an action as a single event, the imperfect depicts it as a continuing process. It is therefore typically translated as a present “He is running” or a future “He will be running,” although it can sometimes be translated as a continuous past “He was running.” The meaning of the imperfect therefore has more to do with how an action took place than with when it took place. The imperfect is most often treated as a present or future because it is easier to think of present or future events as incomplete and open-ended than it is to think of past actions that way
So, in this case, it can very well mean that the trampling began in the past, is going on now, and will continue into the future.  That would have been understood in Hebrew, but lacks a true counterpart in English.  In vs 4, which continues this thought, the word translated "he swallows it" is also an imperfect verb.  So somehow, from some other source perhaps, MSB knows when Isaiah 28 was written, OR, assumes that it was written after the fall of Samaria BECAUSE OF these imperfect verbs.  In English, we would never see this or understand it.

Then vs 5 starts with "In that day...", referring to the coming judgement.  And the Lord of hosts will be a crown and a diadem to the remnant of the people.  The Lord will also be a spirit of justice to judges, strength to those battling at the gate.  But then it says "These also reel with wine and strong drink...".  Not quite understanding what this is saying.  In the outline of Isaiah in MSB, chapter 28 starts a new section, running through 35:10, warning against an alliance with Egypt.  Chapter 28 is a warning to drunken politicians.  Chapter 29 is a warning to religious formalists, and 30 is a warning to pro-Egyptians.  Also says that "in that day" refers to the time when Christ will reign.
2021 - Again, the imperfect verbs, as described above, continue into verse 5.  So the phrase "in that day" in this case, does not necessarily mean future.  It can mean that this is something that happened in the past and still continues.  If we look at it that way, then what Isaiah is doing is contrasting the crumbling walls of Samaria at the time of his writing with the glory it once was when at least some of its people still looked to Holy God for direction in judgment and prophesy, when their military was strong enough to discourage attackers.
But in vs 7, all the verbs are perfect tense, and here is what that means:
   Generally designates a completed action or a situation that is viewed as a single event. Perfects are generally translated as simple pasts “He ran” or as past perfects “He has run”, but they may also be translated as presents or futures. The meaning of the perfect therefore has more to do with how an action took place than with when it took place. The perfect is most often treated as a past because it is easier to think of a past event as complete than it is to think of a present or future one as complete.
So both perfect and imperfect tenses are more about who than when.  But perfect tells us that the action is complete, though we don't know if it was completed in the past or "completed in the future".  In English, we would think of actions that are complete in the future as "a done deal".  We could refer to the second coming of Christ in the perfect tense, because it is completed already in the plan of God, though still future for us.  By contrast, the imperfect means the action  is continuous (we might use this tense to say the "wind blows in Oklahoma" to indicate that it is continuous, ongoing, not complete).
So, with that in mind, vs 7 is saying that those who were drunkards drinking, intoxicated judges judging - are all done with doing those things.  They are complete, but we don't know "what calendar day" they were done.  I think the implication is that their drunken carousing and irresponsible actions as to justice are completed.

(2021 - Enclosing this interpretation from 2020 in parentheses, because it was entirely wrong and mistaken.  Understanding the verb tenses makes things more clear.  2020 - So the transition from far future when Christ reigns to the drunken politicians making deals with Egypt of Isaiah's day is not a very smooth transition.  Perhaps no transition is intended, but stark contrast between the coming justice and power of Christ with the weak, drunken, directionless leadership of the politicians of Isaiah's time.  Yes...that seems to be a better way to look at this.  I have complained before about how Isaiah seems to jump around so much in time with his prophesies.  Maybe he doesn't.  Maybe contrast is always his intent, and is a device he is using to show how far they are from the Millennial standard of justice and right.  This really makes sense as a tool for studying this book....The next paragraph is from 2019.)

It seems there should be a break between vs 6 and 7, which moves from the prophecy of Christ coming reign of justice and strength back to the present of Isaiah's time.  Thus, vs 7 refers again to the drunkards in Ephraim.  The imagery is of ugliness and filth.  Reference here is to priest and prophet being drunk also, not just politicians.  Then this verse:
8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left. [Isa 28:8 ESV]
The injustice must have been rampant with leaders like these.  It can be so much worse than we have it right now.  There is still some hope of justice, and the good news is that we are not beyond help - not to the point that these were - so prayer can still do much to preserve our country.

vss 9,10, per MSB, are the drunkards response to Isaiah's admonitions.  They are making fun of him and his prophecy.  In the Hebrew, their words are a sort of monosyllabic chant.  It can be found in the MSB footnote to these verses.  They are making Isaiah's words sound like the babbling of a child.

Isaiah responds in kind beginning in vs 11, telling them that their new taskmasters, the Assyrians, will give them instructions also, in a language they cannot understand.  Isaiah uses the same "gibberish" as the drunkards used about him to tell them they won't understand God's words to them.

2021 - Through vs 10 at least, we are still looking at what has already happened or is currently in progress.  The inhabitants of Samaria made fun of the warning they received, and have been conquered.  This chapter is really more of an "I told you so" chapter, at least to vs 10 than it is a prophecy of any kind!  YES!  This is the way to look at this chapter!

2021 - Verse 14 begins with "Therefore hear".  It is an imperative, a command.  So I believe in vs 14 we are done with the object lesson of the first 13 verses relating the fate of Samaria, and Isaiah is turning to a stern warning to Jerusalem that the same is coming their way if they do not make some changes.

The next long paragraph is written kind of as a speech - or sermon - from Isaiah.  He says that the rulers/judges/priests have made themselves a new covenant with death and Sheol, and a hiding place in the lies they tell, (2023 - What a phrase this is!  They are hiding from what they know is right by hiding in the lies they construct!) and expect to be protected by this.  This refers to them making a covenant for protection with Egypt (per MSB), instead of relying on God, and then they lie to themselves about their security.  They deceive themselves with the lies they tell themselves.

But God has laid a stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.  Jesus is predicted as overcoming this refuge built of lies, and showing it for what it is.  And when those who have trusted the covenant of Sheol realize that they have made a huge mistake, then they will be in terror.  (It is no wonder I couldn't understand this the first time.  Really need some MSB help.  I wonder how much I've already missed in this book by not recognizing that Isaiah writes in dialogue, rather than just in prose?  Maybe I'll catch more of that next time...)  The only real, true, final refuge for anyone is the cornerstone that is Jesus Christ.  He was still to come, but God's plan was moving things in that direction.  
2021 - Not sure I understood it last time either!  Reading the MSB notes again, I think the point of vs 16 is that God is the one with the plan, that God is the only one who can save, that Israel is the foundation of His plan, and that only in God is there any help for these people.  In the long view, the cornerstone of God's plan is the Messiah, is Jesus Christ, who is coming as savior.  Appealing to Egypt for defense against Assyrian (or Babylon) is a very distant second to appealing to the God who is bringing salvation through Christ to all the world.  They aren't even really barking up the wrong tree, but their efforts are so misdirected that they are only barking at the air!

This verse:
18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it. [Isa 28:18 ESV]
This covenant with death is about the treaty with Egypt in one sense, but is also about the Mosaic Law in another.  Paul calls the Law the law of sin and death in his members.  That covenant - the Mosaic - is going to be annulled when Christ appears.  That old Law can never say - because it depends on bulls and goats.  This leads only to Sheol.  Sheol was both hell and a "waiting place".  Hell for those before Christ's resurrection who died in sin, and a "waiting place" which was the "good place" of that day, where souls awaited the completion of Christ's work before going into the very presence of God, their sins covered by Jesus' blood.  Jesus destroyed the religious infrastructure built on the Mosaic Law.  He was the overwhelming scourge, and the double punishment, and the end of the Mosaic Law.  He destroyed all that.  And Isaiah foretells it here.

2021 - Vss 20-22 seem to be saying that the efforts of these people to protect themselves by alliance with Egypt are going to be too little too late, and that repeatedly.  God is in charge, and if they continue in relying on men, their "bonds will be made strong", that is, their captivity will last still longer.  Perhaps it might even mean that Jesus' arrival will be delayed?

Isaiah talks about farming, and how the farmer prepares the ground, sows, and harvests appropriately.  He doesn't treat dill as he treats cumin, or as wheat.  They are harvested differently, and this is how God ordains that things should be, and this is understood by those who farm.  They see and understand and respond appropriately to the way that God has ordained things to work.  Why then can the leaders of Jerusalem not see that God ordains the proper course for them also?  To each what is appropriate.  MSB confirms that this is a parable showing that God works according to what is best for the crop.


Chapter 29
2021 - I am quite drained from all the work on 28, but will try to stick with it a while longer.

Speaks to the siege of "Ariel".  I think this must mean Jerusalem. (2021 - Looked up Ariel in an online Bible dictionary and it says this is a symbolic name for Jerusalem.)  TCR footnote says it could mean lion of God, or hero, or altar hearth.  MSB says we'll see in later verses that Jerusalem is in mind here.  

2021 - Look at how Ariel is used in vs 2:
[Isa 29:2 ESV] Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.
Surely here, Ariel has the sense of altar, where sacrifices are made to appease God.  Jerusalem, the city on which God puts His own Name, has so rebelled that sacrifice is required to turn back God's wrath.  Therefore the City of God becomes the altar of sacrifice.  Blood will be shed on this altar.

Jerusalem is to be beaten into dust by her enemies.  
Vss 1-4 seem to be near future prophecies.  Isaiah is saying that Jerusalem is going to fall.  She will be surrounded, besieged, attacked.  Assyria is going to surround them quite soon.  Babylon will surround them at a later time.  The siege in Babylon's time will be horrific for those inside the city.  And the siege will be successful, reducing the city of Jerusalem to nothing.  This is not what happens at the end of the Millennial when Jerusalem is surrounded, so that too indicates a short term prophecy.

Then there is a reference to thunder, earthquake, great noise - like what we see in Revelation.  And the nations that were against Jerusalem/Judah/Israel will be judged.  They will be judged so completely that the harm they did will seem like it was only a dream.  
2021 - Vss 5-8 seem to have jumped far into the future.  This looks like the final battle when Jerusalem is surrounded and Jesus defeats them with his breath.  How to resolve this?
I note that all the verbs in vs 2 are "sequential perfect".  Same with vs 4.  Here is what that means:
   A Sequential Perfect verb often expresses the same kinds of action as the Imperfect conjugation, but it also connects to an earlier verb to form either a sequence of time or a sequence of thought. However, in Biblical Hebrew a Sequential Perfect verb has an additional and unique potential to express the same kind of action as the verb immediately preceding it.
This is not all that clear to me, but I think it is notable that it is much like the imperfect.  We have already seen that the imperfect means there is continuous, ongoing, but possibly incomplete action going on, and we don't have a "fix" on the time of the action.  We only know that it is not "done".  SO, vss 1-4 are expressing a time - a long, ongoing time - during which Israel will be brought low.  So this could be about Assyria, about Babylon, and even go on into the blindness and deafness of the Jews.  Surely the Jews are still "speaking from the dust", demeaned and looked down on by the nations.
But here is what happens in vss 5-8:  Verse 5 continues in the sequential perfect, but 6 switches from that to the imperfect tense.  Remember that we cannot know the actual time that the action of this verb takes place.  Given that it speaks of signs - thunder, earthquake, whirlwinds and so on, and that these are the kinds of things that take place in Revelation, in the last days, I think the verb tense alerts us that the prophecy has moved to a different "time" than those first 5 verses were about.  Looking on through vs 8 I think we get a picture of that last battle at the end of the Millenial reign.  Jerusalem will be surrounded and the number of enemies will be staggering, and with a breath, they will just not be there anymore.

Here is a thought for interpreting Isaiah - As previously noted, I have always had a very difficult time trying to decipher "when" Isaiah was talking about.  Turns out that his frequent use of the perfect and imperfect and now the sequential perfect is the key to understanding, not the time he means, but understanding when he "switches" from one time to another time.  Or from ongoing to "completed" actions.  It is confusing to us because English DOES NOT HAVE these tenses!  We cannot be alerted to these changes in English, because there is no English counterpart to make them clear.  So it is NO WONDER Isaiah can be so confusing to English readers.  The key to figuring out Isaiah is to dig into the tenses in the Hebrew language.  This is something that previous generations weren't really able to do, but with our computers and Bible apps, and all those resources, this door to better understanding is now open to many more people than it was before.  A result of this, a very positive result of this, should be that our understanding of prophecy and of which prophecies we are seeing fulfilled in the present day, should be far more nearly accurate than in previous generations.

9, 10 says that God has made it difficult, if not impossible, for Jerusalem to realize what is going on.  Their prophets aren't even seeing the truth.  Here is 10:
10 For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers). [Isa 29:10 ESV]
So this curse on the Jews does not originate in the NT when they reject Christ.  It actually begins way back here in Isaiah.  God has ordained earthy justice for the nation of Israel - both north and south - and they are kept from seeing what is coming.  Because it is done.  They have passed the last turnaround, and from here forward they are doomed to destruction.  Is this where the US is?  I saw John MacArthur talking about something like this.  He said we've passed the point where we can go back.  He says we've let evil come too far and we cannot reverse it.  He may be right...but God can reverse anything.

2021 - What an odd way ESV chooses to translate vs 10?  I note that "has poured out" is in perfect tense.  This is a done deal - at some time.  We must think of it as a completed action, without fixing the time of the action.  However, as my previous note indicated, I think God blinded the Jews when he pronounced the curse in Manasseh's time.  So I think the actual time of the action indicated by this perfect tense, is in the past.  So the translation using the past tense in English sort of "fits" in this case.  Here is how some other translations render the verse:
[Isa 29:10 KJV] For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
[Isa 29:10 NASB95] For the LORD has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep, He has shut your eyes, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, the seers.
[Isa 29:10 HNV] For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and your heads, the seers, has he covered.
These wide differences make it obvious that this is a difficult verse to translate.  So what does it really mean? Perhaps that the prophets are the eyes of the people, and the seers are the head of the "body of the people".  So the prophet's ability to foretell future events will soon go away - a prediction of the 400 years of silence at the end of the OT?  And the seers - also predictors of what is to come, have covered their heads, indicating that they are "off duty" perhaps?  Maybe they only uncovered their heads, these seers, when they were making predictions?  There is one more possibility for that last little phrase.  Looking at the interlinear, there is another word in that phrase that none of the translation seem to bring over.  It is a Hebrew word for rules.  Makes me wonder if the idea is that the "head of the people", that is, their rulers, who are responsible for guiding the nation forward with their ability to anticipate problems, are not wearing crowns anymore, but have covered their heads.  That is, the leaders are no longer able to lead?  This is really a difficult verse.

2021 - I am just going to read on through the end of the chapter at vs. 24.  Each verse is LONG, each is full of stuff.  Maybe next year I can get to the rest.

These verses:
11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed." 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I cannot read." [Isa 29:11-12 ESV]
This says they are all making excuses, claiming not to understand what is going on.  They are capable of understanding the warnings, but they refuse to do so.
Interesting, Islam claims that these verses are a reference to Mohammad, who could not read or write when the Quran was revealed to him.  He balked, because he was illiterate.  Yet Gabriel persisted in giving him the Quran.  Seems a very odd place, in context, to insert a reference to an illiterate prophet coming 1000 years later.
I think the real point of the passage is that the people of Isaiah's time were in denial about God's impending wrath.  I think the sealed up book that the illiterate cannot read is about the blindness on Israel that is their punishment for rejecting God in Isaiah's time and rejecting Jesus in his time.  The double rejection gets double punishment, and the curse is that the Jews CANNOT recognize what is coming because they WOULD NOT recognize what is coming.

13-16, indictment of the shallowness of the worship being practiced at this time, and a promise that God will show them wonders again to remind them that He is God.  But they still balk.  They make themselves the masters, put themselves above God, by asking the potter why He made them thus, and questioning the way that God does the things He does.  They try and tell God that He is doing things wrong.  I like the wording here in the ESV:
16 You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, "He did not make me"; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding"? [Isa 29:16 ESV]  compared to the NKJV, which says:
16 Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, "He did not make me"? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding"? [Isa 29:16 NKJV]

17-19 seem to prophesy the coming of Jesus to Lebanon - to the Gentiles?  Or it may be more a reference to the geographical location.  Or maybe not.  Lebanon was never Galilee.  Still, it talks about healing and about the poor exulting in the Hole One of Israel.  This text is about the coming Messiah, and his preaching that the poor and downtrodden are his people, not the rich and powerful.  Last few verses of the chapter speak to a future time when Israel will recognize and return to God through the Messiah.

Chapter 30
2021 - The first 18 verses are in prose format, then it goes to block.

A lament that Judah/Jerusalem has determined on its own, apart from God, to appeal to Egypt for help.  Goes on to say this strategy will fail miserably.

2021 - Vss 1-3 detail what God dislikes about the conduct of the nation of Israel.  Israel has made a plan - but not God's plan, they've entered into an alliance but not one inspired by God, and they have chosen a destination but asked for no directions.  God has been left out at every critical point.  Vs 3 is the predictable, inevitable result:
[Isa 30:3 ESV] Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.

2021 - Next, in vss 6, 7, there is an added (stacked might be a better word) prophecy of how this "man made" strategy will fail.  It says that Israel is going to carry their goods on donkeys and camels through the Negeb.  I found it interesting that several creatures that live in that desert are named, and this one really caught my eye:  
[Isa 30:6 ESV] An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.
I have seen other references to this flying fiery serpent - here is another, also in Isaiah:  [Isa 14:29 ESV] Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent's root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.  The suggestion in the BLB Interlinear is that the"fiery" part refers to the burning that accompanies the poisonous bite.  So a poisonous snake is in view.  But what about flying?  It is interesting that the same word translated fiery serpent can also be translated Seraphim, the angel with six wings.  Which certainly do fly.  I read most all of what BLB Interlinear says about the word translated fly.  If we are going to say "fiery" is a reference to poison - a characteristic of the snake, then perhaps instead "fly", we should go with "cause to fly", as in when you see this poisonous snake, it causes you to run away from it.  Interesting that the creatures of the Negeb listed are lions, adders, and this serpent.  Maybe it was some kind of a poisonous "mountain boomer", with wings, though it doesn't actually fly?  Here is another verse:  [Num 21:8 ESV] And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live."  Same word used for fiery in this verse as in the other two...but bronze serpents are not poisonous, so they have no burning sensation from a bite.  

2022 - Fiery may be that its scales are highly reflective, red or orange, like that rufous hummingbird I saw at Vallecita lake.  It looked like a fire sitting on a branch deep inside that bush.  Hmm...I am not aware of any snake like this today, but there could have been one.  But flying?  In the dessert that did not mean it falls out of trees on you.  Maybe it chases you, and is VERY fast?  Here is what Barnes says, and I have to say I feel pretty good about my own speculations.  This is long, but it is interesting:
"And fiery flying serpent - (מעופף שׂרף s'ârâph me‛ôpēp). Septuagint, Ἔκγονα ἀσπίδων περομένων Ekgona aspidōn petomenōn. This is the flying serpent so often referred to in the Scriptures. See a description of it in the notes at Isaiah 14:29. It is known to have abounded in the Arabian deserts, and was doubtless found also in Egypt as being in the same latitude, and infested with similar reptiles. Niebuhr thus describes a species of serpent which answers to this account. 'There is at Bakra a sort of serpents which they call Heie Sursurie, or Heie Thiare. They commonly keep upon the date trees; and as it would be laborious for them to come down from a very high tree in order to ascend another, they twist themselves by the tail to a branch of the former, which, making a spring, by the motion they give it, throw themselves to the second. Hence, it is that the modern Arabs call them the flying serpents - Heie Thiare. Lord Anson, as quoted by Niebuhr, also speaks of them as follows: 'The Spaniards informed us that there was often found in the woods a most mischievous serpent, called the flying snake, which, they said, darted itself from the boughs of trees on either man or beast that came within its reach, and whose sting they took to be inevitable death.' There was a species of serpent which the Greeks called Αξοντίας Acontias, and the Roman Jaculus, from their swift darting motion, and perhaps the same species is here referred to which Lucan calls Jaculique volucres. That these venomous reptiles abounded in Egypt is expressly testified by profane writers. Thus Ammianus says (xxii. 15), that 'Egypt nourishes innumerable serpents, basilisks, and twoheaded serpents (amphisbaenas), and the seytalus (a serpent of a glistening color), and the acontias (Latin, Jaculus), and adders, and vipers, and many others.'"

Some translations (not word for word translations, but idea translations) call this a "replica of a poisonous snake".  This is a goose chase I guess.  I though there was another place this was used of end times, but I have not found it.  NASB95 leaves out "fiery" altogether, but leaves in flying.  MSB says it is all just a picture of a rich caravan plodding through a land fraught with dangers.  Even so - the adder and the serpent are two different creatures, and the choice of adjectives sure makes you think there is something fearsome about the serpent.  Perhaps it hides in trees and "jumps" on passersby?  Looked up an article on snakes in Israel.  These days, only the viper is a poisonous snake of concern.  And it warns you it's there, and it never chases you.  So just get away from it when/if you see it.  In the south, rarely, there are adders, black cobras, ringed snakes...and others.  When a cobra spreads, it has the appearance of wings on both sides of its head.  Maybe that's what "flying" is referencing?  Later in the day I tried to Google whether or not a cobra bite causes painful burning. I couldn't find that.  What I did find was a statement that said most people who have been bitten by cobras are no longer available for comment.  I'm sure the information is out there, but I wasn't able to find it.

2022 - This verse:
7 Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her "Rahab who sits still." [Isa 30:7 ESV].  This name, Rahab, shows up many times in the Bible.  Usually, it is about Rahab the harlot who lived in Jericho.  But that is not at all what it means here.  Wow...I kind of opened myself a can of worms here...Let's start with Barnes:
"In this passage there can be no doubt that it refers to Egypt. So in Psalm 87:4; Psalm 89:10 (see the margin). Why it was given to Egypt is unknown, and can only be conjectured."  The passages in Psalms are just the ones I was thinking of - though I had no idea where they were - when I said Rahab shows up a lot.  Rahab is Egypt, for some unknown reason.  It is apparently also a difficult translation.  Look at how other versions put it:
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength [is] to sit still. [Isa 30:7 KJV]
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore I have called her Rahab-Hem-Shebeth. [Isa 30:7 NKJV]
7 Egypt's promises are worthless! Therefore, I call her Rahab--the Harmless Dragon. [Isa 30:7 NLT]
7 to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing. [Isa 30:7 NIV]
7 Even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty. Therefore, I have called her "Rahab who has been exterminated." [Isa 30:7 NASB95]
7 Egypt is totally incapable of helping. For this reason I call her 'Proud one who is silenced.'" [Isa 30:7 NET]....and so on.  What a huge variation, telling you just how difficult this passage is.  What does seem to be certain is that Rahab is Egypt.  That is the foundational truth here.  The "addendum" is what they can't seem to agree about.
Lastly, I had thought this name showed up in Revelation, but in the ESV, at least, it does not.  Here is what BLB gives as the definition of the word rahab, a masculine noun:
1. pride, blusterer
   1. storm, arrogance (but only as names)
       1. mythical sea monster
       2. emblematic name of Egypt
Why would a prostitute in Jericho have a masculine noun as her name?  Oh my...are we sure Rahab in Jericho was a woman?  Well...yes we are.  In Joshua, the name is shown as a proper feminine noun.  Further, we know this particular Rahab was female because this:
5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, [Mat 1:5 ESV].  Looking at this would make it four generations from the fall of Jericho to David.  Is that enough time to fit in all of Judges and Samuel and all that, or could this be a different Rahab?  Here are two other NT references to Rahab:
31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. [Heb 11:31 ESV]
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? [Jas 2:25 ESV].  No mistaking to whom these refer.  
This final verse in a goose chase that has lasted a long time:
25 But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. [Jos 6:25 ESV].  Look at all the pronouns.  her, her, she, she.  Looking at the BLB forward inline, all those pronouns are feminine.
What I still do not know for certain is whether or not this is the very same Rahab that is in Jesus' genealogy in Matthew 1.  I am still not certain of that.  I do know that I have heard over and over through the years that Rahab was in the genealogy of Jesus...but...how exactly do I know that???
One more...25 But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. [Jos 6:25 ESV].  But...is this the same Rahab as in Matt 1???  I also Googled "is Rahab in Jesus' lineage" and tons of references show up saying that she was.  So instead of adjusting my thinking to see the Rahab in Matthew as just some random woman in the lineage of David, but not THE Rahab, I need to adjust my understanding of just how quickly we got from Joshua to Ruth through Judges and 1,2 Samuel to David.  I would like to figure out exactly how many years those books all cover.  And come back and put it in here.  I would really like to do that.

2022 - Later - The book of Joshua starts in about 1405 BC.  Jericho was conquered very early in the book. (Chapter 6).  David was born in about 1040 BC.  So 350 years later.  So it goes Salmon and Rahab, son Boaz (who married Ruth, tying to that book), grandson Obed, Great grandson Jesse, father of David.  So David is the fourth generation from Salmon and Rahab.  That makes her certainly the Rahab in the genealogy of Jesus.  So Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and 1Sam cover 350 years or so, only, of Jewish history.  I thought it was a LOT more than that! Furthermore, the chronological Bible puts those 4 books in the same order as the canon. They are sequential. So...that all fits, and it is my understanding of the timeline that needs adjusting, not the person of Ruth.

But for spending all this time on vs 7, I now have to just read through chapter 31, with no pauses.  I am out of time in 2022.

2023 - Perhaps Egypt is called Rahab because Egypt is a place you go for refuge and escape but a place that does not always - or even usually - supply those things.  Egypt might seem like a good idea when you're dissatisfied with your situation, but in the long run only does more harm than good.  Egypt talks a good game, but rarely gets off the bench and onto the field.  That might make a little sense.

Isaiah is instructed to write these things down, and pass them on to the future, so it can be seen that Israel was rebellious, and that God warned them what would happen.  That the people refused to hear what the prophets declared, would not heed the warning, and in fact actively tried to silence those proclaiming the truth to them.  Because of this, a sort of "bulging weakness in the wall" arose, and at some point, that was going to break suddenly, catastrophically, disastrously for Jerusalem.  Things will build and build, until finally the weak spot gives, and it is all over in an instant.  
2021 - Perhaps the idea is also that there is not going to be a warning when the nation falls.  They won't have time to pack up and move off to Egypt with all their goods.  Their destruction will be sudden, catastrophic, and unexpected.  This is probably what is in view.

Here are the verses:
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, 13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant; 14 and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern." [Isa 30:12-14 ESV]

This is about the final stages of God's patience with those who rebel against him, who refuse to hear the warnings, who trust in man's wisdom.  The progression to this point has been that as we turn away, He begins to warn.  The way that was smooth begins to get bumpy.  Slowly at first, but increasingly difficult.  Signs begin to appear - indicators really - that we are no longer being blessed.  God's hand is no longer on us, making even our enemies to be at peace with us.  More and more the randomness of sin becomes prevalent.  Injustice, corruption, the lack of personal restraint - all these become more and more prevalent.  They are everywhere we look.  As this continues, a critical weakness appears, though we are unlikely to recognize it as such at this advanced stage.  But it is there.  A sign of this stage is that we do not want to even hear the truth anymore.  We don't want to be reminded of our accountability.  And then the "dam breaks", or the "wall collapses", and we are suddenly overwhelmed, our "world" destroyed, our confidence put to flight, and that without remedy.  It is just too late.  This is truth I think.  This sequence is repeated over and over in the Bible.  This could be summarized for FB, using 12-14 maybe?  (2021 - Used verses 12-15 in Oct 2020.  It doesn't look much like this though.  Could probably use it again as the progression of God's warning to God's wrath against nations.)

Something else occurs to me.  God is longsuffering only in human terms.  God is eternal,  There is no long and short with Him.  So when the evil seem to get away with things forever, it is only forever to us.  A human lifetime is a blink of the eye to God.  So to Him, the evil doings of an individual don't last very long at all, and in the grand scheme of eternity, are of little consequence.  We see that in many places in scripture that describe the transience of a human lifetime.  Like dew on the grass, or a shoot until the sun hits it.  In eternal terms, how much harm can really be done in a human lifetime, when viewed through the lens of eternity?  Even Hitler's evil becomes unimpressive when looked at this way.  This too would be a good one for FB, with a few scriptures on human lifespan.  

2021 - The remedy for the looming catastrophe is in this verse:
[Isa 30:15 ESV] For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." But you were unwilling,  A footnote in TCR says that "returning" could equally be translated as repentance.  In fact, NASB95 and NIV do translate it that way.  They don't like for you to have to puzzle out what "returning" might really be about.  ESV and KJV expect you to take a little time, and think about what is meant by "returning".  It's not all that hard really.  But the NASB95 and NIV don't think we're smart enough to extract the "intent" of the passage, so they do it for us, cutting off a lot of nuances that we might otherwise consider.  Repentance is pretty much a one off idea.  Returning...implies a journey, not a moment.

2021 -Vss 15-17 give me the impression that when the destruction comes, people will flee in all directions, irrationally, even when there is no real threat.  And in their unplanned and panicked rush, they will in fact "stand out" and so be easily tracked down and captured by their enemies, as if they were sending them a signal as to where they can be found.  Disaster on disaster, humiliation for those captured so easily.  Can you hear the soldiers jeering and laughing at their stupidity?

2021 - Vs 18 makes use of the imperfect tense:
[Isa 30:18 ESV] Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.  I think this translation might be a better one in this case:
[Isa 30:18 NASB95] Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.  But it might just be that I prefer to think of God in this way.  Longing to be good to us, instead of waiting.
The use of the imperfect tense means the time of the action is not really certain - the action is in progress, or was, or will be - but the fact is, God magnifies himself when He is gracious to us.  But His justice will not allow the rewarding of disobedience.

Starting with vs 19, the time of Israel's return to following God is prophesied.  This looks to me to be about Trib and Great Trib as the Jews embrace Christ and return to Israel in great numbers, then on into the Millennial.  He is just, and will respond as soon as they turn to Him, call upon Him.  
2021 - [Isa 30:19 ESV] For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.
"Shall dwell..." is imperfect, meaning time is not conveyed to us by the verb.  At the end of the verse, "he answers you" is in perfect tense, meaning it is a completed action,whether past, present, or future.  I think the idea is that we cry, God hears, and once He hears, there was, there is, or there will be an answer.  But God always responds to our cries.

(tgt, wrath, 6th seal)
2021 - Vss 19-22 could be a reference to the return from Babylon, because Israel really gave up idol worship once they came back from there.  
Here is in interesting verse:
[Isa 30:22 ESV] Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, "Be gone!"
We saw this very similar passage before:
[Isa 2:20 ESV] In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,
[Isa 2:21 ESV] to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.
Back in Isaiah 2, it seemed to me that it was the unsaved, during Great Trib, who were being talked about in this verse.  But in 30, the very similar language seems just as certain to be about the Jews in Zion.  So maybe, in both passages, we are seeing the repentance of Israel world wide during t/gt, and as many as can find a way return to Jerusalem during that time, and abandon their idols - or their secularism, or their disbelief in Christ - and turn to God once again.  
And we see it here too:
[Isa 17:7 ESV] In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel.
[Isa 17:8 ESV] He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.
It is interesting, and perhaps key, that both 2:20 and 17:7 refer to mankind in a universal sense, not distinguishing between Jew and Gentile, nor saved and unsaved.  In 17:7, the word is "adam", and a note says that in the OT, this word means "mankind" far more frequently than it means "a man".  That very same word is used in 2:20.  So if we tie these three passages all together in time, and we say they are all talking about the same circumstances, then we see from Isa 2 and 17 what is going on with the planet during Great Trib, and we see the corresponding events in Zion at the same time.  Mankind, in the worldwide sense, has realized at this point that there is a God in heaven and that His wrath is playing out in a supernatural way.  No one at that time will be trying to say what is happening to the planet is just "nature" doing its thing.  Recognizing that there is a God, mankind is going to try and rid himself of any association with idols, possessions, material things, and will abandon all those things to run and hide from the wrath of God.  At the same time, the Jews in Zion, and indeed in all the word, will be opening their eyes and ears and recognizing the Lord God, and putting away anything that distracts them from him.  
So.  I do think all three of these passages are connected, and so I need to go back to those other two - sometime - and make sure that my interpretations are consistent.  I believe these three passages are about Great Tribulation, and about the time the Wrath of God is pouring out on the earth.
I found yet another one!  
2021 - Here is that same language for the fourth time!
[Isa 31:7 ESV] For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.  I am convinced that the previous three times we saw this language, we were talking about the wrath of God during Great Trib.  I am just going to fiat that it means the same here.

(2021 - I have to speed up.  Almost two hours on 22 verses.)

But vss 23-25 speak of a more peaceful time.  This does not look like t/gt at all.  The verb tenses are imperfect and sequential perfect.  Perhaps that sequential part is the key, as it looks back to a different verb...not sure which one.  I don't know how Hebrew works, but this explanation of the sequential perfect makes me think I'm on the right track:
A Sequential Perfect verb often expresses the same kinds of action as the Imperfect conjugation, but it also connects to an earlier verb to form either a sequence of time or a sequence of thought. However, in Biblical Hebrew a Sequential Perfect verb has an additional and unique potential to express the same kind of action as the verb immediately preceding it.
So in this case, perhaps it is sequential in time, and this is about what will go on in Jerusalem AFTER the Great Tribulation.  Peace will reign, crops will be planted and Israel will enjoy the milk and honey they were promised so long ago.  I think that's the way to read this.  

What is this verse about?
26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. [Isa 30:26 ESV]
No darkness in the Millennial kingdom?  MSB says it means the "benefits" of these natural bodies will be increased during this time, benefiting and not detrimental as you might think.  He references Rev 16:8, 9 as what this is NOT about:
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory. [Rev 16:8-9 ESV]
But I don't remember anywhere else that talks about the sun and moon being brighter.

2022 - There IS a verse in Revelation that talks about both sun and moon getting dimmer.  I have interpreted that to mean that crops won't have enough light for photosynthesis, and that will lead to worldwide starvation.  In context with this verse, perhaps it means that though they have the same "apparent" brightness, the light just won't support plants anymore.  And then in the Millennial, it will be the same brightness, but amplify the effect of light on photosynthesis to produce massive crops.  Eden-like crops!
Here is the verse:  4th Trumpet:  12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night. [Rev 8:12 ESV]

2021 - based on previous paragraphs, I do think this is about the Millennial and how things will work then.  Remember that a LOT of the inhabitants of that 1000 years are the dead come back to life - surely in resurrected bodies.  These bodies won't have problems with extra bright sunlight.  Look at the last phrase in vs 25 also, "...in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall."  Sure seems like a reference BACKWARD to the battle when Christ comes with his heavenly armies just before the Millennial begins.  It all fits.  (2022...don't quite remember what I was thinking here.  Dead back to life during the Millennial?)

2021 - I read quickly through 27-33.  I think we are still talking about that last battle, which I think is what we were talking about in vs. 25.  God is going to bring the future Assyria to that battle at his Second Advent, destroy them, and send them to the place prepared for them.  Vs 33:
[Isa 30:33 ESV] For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
This looks like it ought to be included in my judgment study.  Doesn't Matt 25 say that the condemned at the Sheep and Goat go into everlasting torment?  When the bottomless pit is opened, black smoke comes out.  Maybe this is connected directly to that.
2022 - Look at that picture!  A fire laid into which the King of Assyria and his men are to be thrown.  When it is time to light that fire, to kindle it, the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, makes it burst into flames.  What a picture that is!

2021 - I just cannot get over the way it all meshes together, from Isaiah, to Daniel, to Matthew, to Revelation.  How can anyone believe that God is not the ultimate writer of the Bible?  No man could ever make these passages that are seemingly nebulous, independent, and undecipherable, all come together consistently and with increasing certainty of interpretation and connection. 

2020 Copying this little explanation from the notes on Isa 28, just as a way of trying to stay on track through these chapters:
In the outline of Isaiah in MSB, chapter 28 starts a new section, running through 35:10, warning against an alliance with Egypt.  Chapter 28 is a warning to drunken politicians.  Chapter 29 is a warning to religious formalists, and 30 is a warning to pro-Egyptians.  Also says that "in that day" refers to the time when Christ will reign.

The outline lists today's chapters this way:
31:1-32:20, Woe to to those who trust in horses and chariots
33:1-24 Woe to the Assyrian destroyer
31:1-35:10 A cry for justice against the nations, particularly Edom.
The two woes are actually 5th and 6th of 6 woes that started in 28:1 with "Woe to drunken politicians..."  I should have incorporated that part of the outline into yesterday's study.  It might have made more sense to me that way.  In any case, today finishes up the woes, and the outline above gives me at least some way to hang on to continuity in this prophecy.

Chapter 31
2021 - It's been a long morning.  I am going to try and just read on through 31 this year, especially in light of the above insert, saying this is about horses and chariots.
I note, though, that vs 1 ties this to the "near" prophecy and don't believe we are looking far into the future.  

Starts off with a woe to those who go to Egypt without consulting God about it.  This theme is continuing since the beginning of 28.  Says both the helpers (Egypt) and the helped (those who flee to Egypt) will perish together.  Those fleeing know that Egypt has a large army with horses and chariots, and their evaluation is that Egypt can stand against Assyria.  This is a human evaluation, with no consultation with God, and no seeking of His will for them.  Their expertise turns out to be mistaken.

God will come down to Zion and stand over it, fight over it, like a young lion over its prey.  Shouting and noise will not frighten Him.
2021 - I can't help it.  The word picture in vs 4 is too incredible not to put in here:
[Isa 31:4 ESV] For thus the LORD said to me, "As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
A lion, fighting on Mt. Zion, unfrightened and unfazed by the noise, racket and posturing of his enemies.  He will not turn and flee, not ever!

5 Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it." [Isa 31:5 ESV]
Does this indicate that the Assyrians will bypass Jerusalem, and destroy Egypt, and then ultimately be wiped out (the 185000 dead) as they besiege Jerusalem?  MSB doesn't say.  MSB explains the image of a mother bird protecting her young.  He more or less goes to allegory instead of trying to make this a specific instance.  I suppose that is the right way, since the verse starts with "Like..."  It is telling you that it is making an allegorical statement.  In vs 4 we saw "As a young lion..."  This might be a good thing to remember when looking at prophecy.  If the wording tells you it is allegory, don't sweat trying to make it apply to a single, specific, definable event.  The opening words are guidance as to how to look at what follows.

2021 - Here is that same language for the fourth time!
[Isa 31:7 ESV] For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.  I am convinced that the previous three times we saw this language, we were talking about the wrath of God during Great Trib.  I am just going to fiat that it means the same here.

vs. 6 refers to "that day", when all will throw away their idols.  Assyria will flee from the sword, not man's sword, but God's.  They will abandon their army, they will go into forced labor.  They will run away in a panic.  "That day" here does not seem to be referring to the far future, but to something closer.  Assyria being mentioned by name brings "that day" into Isaiah's time.  Assyria is an instrument of God's wrath against Israel, and so "that day" applies.
(2021 - I now disagree with the vs. 6 analysis.  This is about Jesus' victory that ushers in the Millennium.  Here is a new, and interesting thought though.  Look at this verse:
[Isa 31:8 ESV] "And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
If some young men will be put to forced labor, cleaning up the aftermath of the battle perhaps, then they will still be alive, but they aren't going to be thrown immediately into the bottomless pit.  Jesus, as judge, will decide who works, and who goes on into eternity.  What a different picture this paints of the composition of the planet during the Millennial!)

Chapter 32
In vss 1-8, Isaiah sees a better time coming.  A time when a King will reign in righteousness.  And princes.  Seems to be saying that an honest government will be set up, and the fools and scoundrels previously in positions of power will be turned out.  Justice will reign and be like water in the desert.  This would seem to be a reference to the Millennial, and Jesus would be the King it references.  Possibly.  In many cases the OT prophets looked right over the church age, and in their visions the Millennial follows immediately after the destruction of Israel and Judah.  I think sometimes there are bits and pieces of Trib and Great Trib in their visions, but they seem to all end up in the Millennial reign of Christ.  Another good "tool" for interpreting prophecy.  Don't look for the church age - the present age, today, now, the US, and so on.  Prophecy didn't address it.  Prophecy only applies to us in the sense of how God works, how He deals with sin, His methods of chastening and so on.
2021 - I think vss 1-8 are continuing where 31 left off.  Abandoning those idols is the "near" of the return from Babylon, but in much greater measure is the far of the Millenial Kingdom.
2023 - If we look at OT prophecy this way, then when Isaiah and Jeremiah talk about highways in the desert as the Jews return home, as they finally recognize their Messiah and go back to Israel to worship him, then we would have to see the return as occurring AFTER the tribulation has started wouldn't we?  Because we know from Daniel that the OT prophets could see that 70th week, but could NOT see the church age.  They see Jesus offering salvation to the Gentiles, which he did BEFORE the church started on Pentecost, but they do not see anything from Pentecost to Week 70.  I hadn't thought of it as exactly this "confining" the possible interpretations of these prophecies, but it seems that we have to do exactly that.  In the same way I restrict 1Chr 7:14 to Israel, and so embrace it as principle instead of promise, I also need to see the return of the Jews to Israel as principle instead of promise.  Some are coming back to be sure, but they are not doing so to worship Christ, but to escape persecution in the church age.  Looked at this way, prophecy is never about the church, it is either about pre-Pentecost, or Monday of Week 70 and later.  I will be trying to apply this from here on.
2023 - I believe 1-8 are about the establishment of the Jesus' government on planet earth at his second advent.  He will not appoint any corrupt princes - nor any fools - and such a government will be like all the metaphors in vs 2.  I think these first 8 go together, and then 9 is something different.  1-8 are about a future time of peace, contentment, and perfect justice - out there somewhere in the future.  But vs 9 begins a warning, and in English at least, is in present tense.  We ought first to try and interpret this as a warning to those of Isaiah's own time of an imminent disaster.  Vs 10 tells us we're on the right track, because Isaiah puts a time stamp on fulfilment of this one.  
2023 - So in vss 9, 10 there is a warning that disaster is to strike inside a year, and will be characterized by failure of the grape and fruit harvests.  Hmm...Israel lived on goats, sheep, and figs washed down with wine - to be very hyperbolic about it.  This prophesy says all but one of those will fail.  So the future holds hardship as to food, preparation of which was the responsibility of women at that time, and which is being taken for granted at the time Isaiah is writing.  Are we to understand this as crop failure on top of invasion by Assyria or Babylon, or crop failure because the invaders trample down or steal all that is produced?  
2023 - 11-13 are the lament the women should sing when this happens.

A warning addressed to complacent women, women who are at ease.  Says that in about a year, the grape harvest is going to fail.  Isaiah doesn't seem to be a big fan of women in general, and per chapter 3, sees them as a big part of the problem, or at least as an obvious marker that things are very far removed from God's plans.  

2020 I think I'm right here.  MSB doesn't make a big deal of it, but why would Isaiah address women directly?  Because they represent domestic tranquility which is about to be turned upside down?  Because they are used to a life of ease, buying groceries, preparing meals, and giving no thought to depending on imports from Egypt instead of looking to God for local supply?  Or...maybe he just doesn't care for women much...

2021 - This prophecy seems to have pulled back to the immediate future, and Isaiah specifically says he is talking about a year from now.  I do think it ties back to chapter 3.  Isaiah sees the way women are behaving - completely out of step with God's chosen role for them - as symptomatic of advanced decay in their society.  I think it is saying that once this imminent desolation takes place, Israel will remain "secondary", downtrodden, and oppressed until vs. 15:
[Isa 32:15 ESV] until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
Until the Second Advent, until the Millennial.  Israel has never risen to prominence as a nation in all the years since the Babylonian captivity.  Isaiah says they are not going to, either, until after t/gt.

2023 -14 tells us that this land in view will be abandoned, left desolate, become a wild place until vs 15.  This makes me think Isaiah is speaking about Samaria/Israel, in the north, and so this is written the year before Assyria invades.  Maybe.  Vs 15 adds to this idea by saying the land is going to stay this way until "the Spirit is poured upon us from on high".  Well when is that?  Either at the coming of Christ the first time...or the coming of Christ the second time.  Thing is, Israel was never again the same after Assyria conquered it and deported its inhabitants as slaves.  Judah was a bit different until AD 70/135.  And while you may say that both Israel and Judah were restored in 1948, both are still pretty desolate, especially with respect to "the Spirit".  I would say then that Isaiah's prophecy of long term desolation may still be in effect, and if it is, then it is only at the second coming that peace and prosperity will return - at least in the magnitude that Isaiah seems to intend.  
2023 - Look how all the land gets "promoted" in vs 15.  Wilderness becomes suitable for agriculture, agricultural land becomes woods and forest.  Every thing gets better.

2023 - Look at vss 17-18 and contrast them with what we see in Israel today:
17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. 18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. [Isa 32:17-18 ESV].
This is still future.  And if this is still future, why do we want to try and make other current characteristics that we see in Israel a fulfilment of Isaiah?  Are some businesses thriving in Israel today?  Of course, and these are the fruitful field that will become a forest.  Are those in the kibbutz's struggling for survival?  Of course, and these will become the fruitful fields.  Israel currently exists in the way that Isaiah warned of in vss 9, 10.  That happened, and the criteria that will show it's end - as stated in vs 15 - must have not yet appeared.  THEREFORE, the good days spoken of in these verses are yet future, and will occur at the second advent.  FURTHERMORE, we might also use this to establish that Jeremiah's prophecy in Jer 31:33-34 is also yet future:
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." [Jer 31:33-34 ESV].  We have the indwelling Holy Spirit now today, but not in the measure that we will ALL know HIM in this time.  I would even argue that only the Jews, returning to Israel post-rapture AFTER the church is gone - will experience this on earth.

Seems to say though, that after the land is made desolate, a time of restoration will come, and when it does it will be forever.  So again looking past the immediate troubles all the way to the Millennial.  No church age in sight.  Jerusalem's second round of problems, when they reject Christ and then get destroyed in 70 AD - plus all the war and infighting and conquests of the intertestamentary period don't seem to be in view either.  Isaiah has not mentioned the double punishment, so perhaps the near destruction of Jerusalem is all he was given.

2021 - But what are vss 19,20 about, seemingly coming after the time of peace and quiet, after the Millennial:
[Isa 32:19 ESV] And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low.
[Isa 32:20 ESV] Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.
Perhaps these two verses go back right after vs 14?  More about what is coming immediately, and before this "insertion" of what will come later.  That sort of works, though vs 20 is still pretty nebulous to me.
OR, maybe these two verses go forward into Chapter 33, and are the first two verses in another prophecy of the distant future.  To vs 14, most of the verbs are "perfect".  Then in 15 they change to imperfect tense, and through the next few verses we stick with that and some sequential perfects, which probably refer back to the imperfect verbs.  So through 14, we were talking about "done deal" action, though it was a year away.  Beginning in 15 we have this peaceful restoration that I think we should think of as future, but continuous at that time.  Then what happens in 19?  Do the verb tenses give us a clue as to the time of this verse?  "It will hail" is sequential perfect, just as 15-18 were.  20 is imperfect again.  So.  No clues really from the verbs.
So, the first idea works best.  This is a continuation of vs. 14 after an aside into the future restoration.  Jerusalem was indeed laid low - though maybe, since this is Isaiah's time, we are talking about Samaria and not Jerusalem.  Samaria is much closer to the forests of Lebanon also.  City dwellers will be captured and scattered, but subsistence farmers and their livestock in outlying ares will be the lucky ones.  They will survive.  They "free range" their animals, so they are unlikely to be stolen by the invaders.  If these animals were in corrals, the invaders would just take them and move on.  So those looked down upon for their poverty at that time will end up being far more "wealthy" after the invaders depart than the rich city dwellers.
2023 - In 19-20 Isaiah has come back from the coming restoration and is continuing what he began in 9-10.  Things will get really bad.  I looked these verses up on Biblehub.  It is very clear that the smartest Bible scholars there are have failed to reach a consensus on these two verses.  They are all over the place.  The main three possibilities are that these verses are about Assyria, and the city of Ninevah, Babylon and its capitol city, or Israel and Jerusalem.  The idea is that God is going to "beat down" in a very thorough way such that those who depend on the meanest of resources will actually be the least affected.  The prosperous, the "at ease" and "complacent" from vs 9 will be devastated.  To me, if we tie this to the promises in the immediately preceding vss, then this has to be about the coming devastation of Samaria in Isaiah's day.  Why do none of them think this is Samaria?  Surely it was emptied and torn down by Assyria, and the ONLY ones who were not taken into captivity were the farmers far from the cities.  Ahhh!!!  And if we take this as being about Samaria, then the coming of the Spirit is indeed about the first advent, and ties right in with "the people who dwelled in darkness seeing a great light"!!!!  That time was the kingdom offered, yet again, and Isaiah did not see that it would be rejected, leading to the church age, such that this prophecy is not ultimately fulfilled UNTIL the SECOND advent.  My goodness, doesn't that make sense?  The verse about the great light is ALSO FROM ISAIAH!  Why wouldn't he still have that in mind???  2  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. [Isa 9:2 ESV].  Makes me want to go back to Isaiah 1 and just start over!  AND, this also brings Jeremiah's "put my Spirit within you" covenant back to Jesus' time...though I would still maintain an even more profound fulfilment of that prophecy at the second advent.

Chapter 33
2021 - Not really any new notes this time.  This seems to be mixing together the coming invasion - I think the Assyrians, though it could be Babylon - the downfall of those invaders at some further future point, and also the Millennial, when all the invaders will be gone and Israel will be restored and elevated to world prominence.  It also seems to be written in the form of a prayer that Isaiah is praying, perhaps encouraging the people to pray.  

Starts with a little paragraph about traitors being betrayed and destroyers being destroyed.  I suppose this could be referring to the Assyrians.  These chapters, starting with 30 or so, have gotten increasingly difficult to peg to a specific time.  They seem to jump around more.  Or I am losing touch with the narration?  In any case, I'm not very sure about what is being said here.  MSB says near is about Assyria, but looks out to any power that opposes Zion, and the ultimate price of doing so.

2-4 seem to be a prayer for deliverance from times to come, the time when the people flee God's wrath.  These, and the verses following could well be about trib and great trib, about God's ultimate pouring out of His wrath, and the destruction of the corruption man has caused, and starting fresh with a new heaven and a new earth.  

7,8, The Lord will fill Zion, stabilize it.  I like this phrase:
"...the fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure." Isa 33:6b.
Also 8b - "...there is no regard for man."
12a "...peoples will be as if burned to lime."
All these speak of widespread death and destruction, of men dying by the thousands, maybe millions, yet no one cares.  So much death makes death "normal".

7-9 speak of a really bad time, after the cities are laid low, covenants broken, and so on.  The land mourns, it says.  This must be the time after the Assyrians have destroyed the northern kingdom?  Or maybe it is about Jerusalem.  True...but doesn't it also speak to Antichrist breaking his covenant with Israel?  To the sudden shock and dismay of the Jews when this happens?
2023 - Or to the wrath of God being poured out on earth after the rapture.  Widespread, unprecedented, worldwide destruction.

In 10-12, the Lord is speaking.  Says he will arise.  As be pours out his wrath during the time of Antichrist, he "takes over" the events of the world, and marches them forward according to His final plan.  Is this Isaiah's version of Trib and Great Trib?  Sure seems to fit.

2023 - Look at this verse more closely:  
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire." [Isa 33:12 ESV].  Is this insight into the wheat and tares judgment?  Is that in fact NOT a single event but a period of time, when the Jews are pulled aside and protected as never before from the wrath of God poured out through events natural and super-natural on the earth?  30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. [Mat 13:30 KJV].  Maybe not...Isaiah is about thorns, Matthew is about tares.  There are also these:  
40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. [Mat 13:40 ESV]
6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. [Jhn 15:6 ESV]
8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. [Heb 6:8 ESV]
In light of all these, it seems pretty difficult to NOT connect this verse in Isaiah with the end time wrath of God.  And it may well mean that trying to isolate the wheat and tares to an event, rather than a time, is an error.  BUT, I think the Sheep and Goat judgment still stands as a single event.

2023 - What if we see the entire span of history from the invasion if Israel by Assyria to the return of Israel post rapture as a single "time", or even a single "dispensation", during which Israel is and remains cursed and beaten down and despised - an epoch of enduring anti-Semitism in the world - and the cursed age to which Isaiah and Jeremiah so often refer?  What if we stop trying to do the whole near/far breakout thing and understand these horrible prophecies as lasting for millennia instead of just 70 years?  Then all the horror that has befallen Israel from the the Assyrian invasion and continuing until at least today - including the holocaust, the pogroms, and October 7, 2023, are all the continuing but as yet unspent wrath of God toward Israel?  And when his wrath toward them ends, it will be superseded by his wrath against the Gentiles of the world, upon whom he will pour out his final wrath, both on them and the planet, while restoring his chosen people, and combining them from the GWT onward.  Wow.  What a great lens through which to view 1500 BC to the end of time!

He  continues speaking in 13...Those far off should hear that in Zion, the  sinners are afraid and tremble, and those who love righteousness will be  protected.  This seems likely to be about the Millennial.  MSB  confirms.  (2020 - MSB does not say Millennial.  It says "final enemies of Israel".  I think that while the Millennial is in view, so are the seven years leading up to it, and Trib and Great Trib may be more the main topic than the Millennial.  I have never before seen "Revelations" in Isaiah, but I surely do this year.)  This is about the time when Zion's enemies worldwide are  finally defeated.  This verse also seems to confirm.  Jesus, as King,  will be visible on earth.  Millennial.  

But the righteous will be preserved in this time.  Does this speak of the repentance and homecoming of the Jews?  Of their protection in the rocks and hills as the persecution of Antichrist intensifies?  This verse about the righteous in the middle of all this death:
16 he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure. [Isa 33:16 ESV]  Revelation says "the woman" will be driven into the wilderness and provided for there.  Here is that verse:
14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. [Rev 12:14 ESV]

17 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar. [Isa 33:17 ESV]  This may be the verse that signals the vision is moving on from Trib and Great Trib into the characteristics of the Millennial reign.  Israel will be immune from the troubles the rest of the world has at this time.  This description of the Millennial kingdom continues through this verse:
22 For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us. [Isa 33:22 ESV]...and on to the end of the chapter.


Chapter 34
This seems to be a prophecy of the final judgement of God on nations just prior to the Millennial.  This verse though, makes the prophecy a worldwide thing, not one confined to Judah or Israel:
2 For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter. [Isa 34:2 ESV]
All the  nations of the world given over to slaughter.  This can only be Trib and Great Trib.  In fact...I think this can only be about the "wrath of God" that begins at the sixth seal.

vs 4 pins it down a little more I think:
4 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. [Isa 34:4 ESV].  
Skies rolling up is also mentioned in Revelation at the end of time, at the beginning of God's wrath.  Here are some pertinent vss from Revelation:
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. [Rev 6:12-14 ESV]
I mean, you don't have to be a Bible scholar to see that these two verses are essentially one and the same.  Yep.  MSB says Rev 6:14 is the same as this verse.  John must have been thinking of exactly this verse in Isaiah when he wrote Rev 6.  John was expanding on the events of those times, but he quotes Isaiah to give us a reference point.
2021 - This is the sixth seal again, which I believe more and more signals the rapture.  This is what makes it "justice" for God to pour out all that he does on the earth.  There are no saved people left, and the only ones who will be saved are those to whom the 144,000 preach (or...maybe just the 144,000?).  We know that millions upon millions will die as the trumpets, thunders, and bowls come to pass.  So this ties Isa 34 to the sixth seal and beyond.  To Great Tribulation.

Here is a verse:
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. [Isa 34:5 ESV]
There was that earlier verse about a purge in heaven...and now this reference to a sword being used in heaven.  God will purge the demons, Satan himself and all his followers out of heaven just prior to these events, and once heaven is cleaned up, then God will turn His wrath toward men.  Here is the earlier verse:
21 On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. [Isa 24:21 ESV]  These corresponding vss from Revelation:
15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" [Rev 6:15-17 ESV]
And here also is Edom again.  As noted below, perhaps this is a placeholder for a corrupt and careless earth, rather than just about that one country.  Edom was about Esau, who sold his birthright for a bowl of soup.  That is a huge event, when seen in this context.  That event separated the chosen of God from those who would disdain the promises, disdain the rules, disdain any kind of vision as to eternal things, and instead devote themselves to right now, today, and that soup over there.  Jacob and Esau.  Israel, and not Israel.  Perhaps the greatest division of mankind in the history of the planet when seen in context, and revealed as a story about two brothers and a bowl of soup.  Oh my...
2021 - Yes, I think I had this right.  Edom is all those who disdain the eternal and live for the now.  They are still with us, and they will be the ones left after the rapture.

This verse:
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. [Isa 34:8 ESV]
God is keeping a record of those who oppose Zion, who undermine her, and so on.  Those who do will have a vengeance carried out on them by the Lord Himself.  A judgement against peoples and nations, this is not about individuals.

Edom, and Bozrah, are mentioned more than once, but it seems to me they are just placeholders in this text for the enemies of Zion.  (MSB confirms.)  Bozrah...in Iraq?  Same place Ninevah was?  NO!  Bozrah is Busseireh, in the mountains near Petra.

13, 14 though, seem once again to be a specific reference to Edom, which is to be wiped out, never to rise again.  It will be desolation, fit only for wild animals.  No kingdom will exist there.  This language goes on to the end of the chapter in fact.  Sure reads like it is specific to physical Edom.

2021 - Here is Edom:

This is the Negev today.  Almost no one lives there.  It is terrible desert, uninhabited, only animals live there.  So what we have is a near fulfilment of this prophecy about Edom.  It has been uninhabited for generations, and from that prophecy, that won't ever change.  But I think it also looks ahead to the whole idea of Jacob and Esau also, and those who disdain eternal things.

2022 - BUT, if we say - and how can we deny - that vss 1-4 tie us to the Sixth Seal, and we see from the description of this sword in vss 4-7 that has had enough of animal sacrifices and will now be used to fill the land with blood, don't we have to see this prophecy against Edom as what will happen to that place during the wrath of God?  And since it says "forever", does that mean that in the new heaven and earth it will remain a wasteland?  If not, then "forever" doesn't last very long!  So...it must not mean  that.  It must be about a time more contemporary with Isaiah.  The link below is what Bozrah, Jordan looks like today.  It's not great...but it doesn't seem as bad as what Isaiah describes.  So perhaps we need to see it as being a desolate place until Wrath, and then a place without human habitation of any kind.  This area today is in the Kingdom of Jordan.  Truly not many would think of such a place as a kingdom.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.730089,35.6252014,3a,75y,237.52h,78.14t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swlUaU7KdW9FZIQqOjUiB7Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

2023 - And in those last verses, it sounds like the place is an owl and hawk sanctuary.  16 Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. 17 He has cast the lot for them; his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it. [Isa 34:16-17 ESV].  It will be interesting to see this fulfilled.  Did a quick search and found that Israel is along a bird migration route and that something like 500 million birds pass through there every year.  I did not find a word about any owls in my quick search, but I was paranoid about looking on unrecognized sites.

​

Chapter 35
I think 34 ended with prophecy about the wrath of God as it unfolds at about the sixth seal of Revelation.  It ended with prophecy about the fall of Edom, the final fall.  Edom is "code" for non-Israel.

2022 - Ok, I will readily admit that these prophecies are just beyond me to try and pin down.  The only way to have any peace about these at all is to study them out using references from someone who has taken the time, and learned enough of the history of the region, to be able to place them more precisely on the calendar.  I would like to know, but this is not what I'm drawn to.  This year, as last, I am focusing on the NT readings each day, not these OT chapters.  Perhaps, sometime in the future, I will be able to slow down and look at what Barnes has to say, line by line.  But that is not the case this year.  I'm just going to get it read.
Hmmm...Couldn't help but take a quick look at Barnes' notes on 34.  He does not mention wrath, does not mention Revelation, but calls the hosts falling as leaves the kings and nobles of enemies enemies being deposed.  The heavens rolling together as a scroll he says is those high in office being "rolled away", passing from view.  I think that's a big miss...but it certainly is a more "peaceful" way to look at things.  Back to my reading...

This chapter opens with the blossoming of the land, with restoration in Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon.  This verse:
2 it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God. [Isa 35:2 ESV]
So if we continue with the interpretation that 34 was about the sixth seal, then we are moving now into the Millennial.  The land becomes productive again, and the rains come, and the seed yields abundantly - all of these are Millennial blessings.
2021 - I think first, the near fulfilment would have been about the return from Babylon, and all the people that came back then.  They weren't attacked or bothered as they came home, and eventually they did start to grow crops again and because a nation again.  But that fulfilment was just a twinkling of what will happen as Great Tribulation comes to a close and the Millennial begins.  Then there will be a truly miraculous blooming of the land of Israel, and Jews who survived t/gt will come from all over the world - unmolested, unbothered, unhindered - back to the land of Zion, along a road called "The Way of Holiness".  

Prophesy that God will come with vengeance, and with recompense.  This is the battle that ushers in the Millennial - maybe.  All nations will turn to Israel at this time, they will be the leader of the world.  The evil will have been put down before the Millennial starts when Jesus comes with his army.  

5-7 seem to prophesy a restoration of the very land itself.  The geography will change.  Deserts will become lakes and so on.  Also, the people will be cured of their infirmities - of blindness and deafness.  This must be about the Millennial reign, though much healing occurred at the first advent.
2023 - Here are the verses:
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7 the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. [Isa 35:5-7 ESV].
IF we remember the idea that Isaiah is "blind" to the church age, then we can see in these verses the coming of the Messiah in the NT, as he cures the blind, deaf, and lame and mute.  But the waters did not break forth in the wilderness during that time, nor streams flow in the desert.  So what you have here the arrival of Messiah and his rejection by Israel.  The spiritual kingdom is set up, including the church, and we are now in the church age.  At the end of the church age we will get the 70th week of Daniel, and then the Millennial will bring about fulfilment of the remainder of this prophecy.  So these prophecies "wrap around" the church age.  Thinking of them as near and far is probably not the best idea, but thinking of their fulfilment as "beginning" in the NT with the arrival of Christ and then "completing" during the Millennial or even later, seems to unravel things pretty well.  AND, I also like the way this methodology accounts for the arrival of Messiah, predicts his ministry, his miracles, the geography of his life, his crucifixion and resurrection and ascension, and then GOES SILENT from Pentecost to rapture.  The church age has a very specific beginning and ending.

8-10 prophesy safety from man and nature for those who are righteous.  They will return to Zion, and neither man nor beast will hinder them.  It will be a free, open road.  This verse:
8 And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. [Isa 35:8 ESV]
Seems to be about the return of Israel to Zion.  Apparently, they won't all be geniuses but they will all come home.  This too seems to be about the Millennial.    (Checked MSB.  His notes indicate that all of this in 35 is the Millennial (or the Messianic) age, with Christ on the thrown and the Jews returning to Jerusalem, and leading the whole world.  
2023 - This is an excellent proof text that the return to Zion, the change of heart of the Jewish people, begins AFTER the church age.  It is not going on now.  We have remnant stuff going on, but not return.  This verse:
8 And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. [Isa 35:8 ESV].  This reads sequentially from the prophecy of the Millennial.  The verb "shall" in this verse is a sequential imperfect, specifically tying it back to what came before.  This is continuation, not a break from what was said before.
2023 - How enlightening would it be to go back through Isaiah and look for "imperfect verb" followed by one or many "sequential imperfects", and then another imperfect.  The imperfect - sequential groups might be gathered together as a single prophecy, and then the next imperfect begins another, possibly signalling that a different time from that of the previous group is in view.  Would that unravel huge "swaths" of Isaiah's prophecies?  Next year is going to be a lot more intense as I try that, in conjunction with the "wrapped around the church age" idea.

Chapter 36
This chapter changes from prophecy back to history.  Per MSB outline, we will be doing history from 36:1-39:8.  Sennacherib of Assyria attacks Judah, sacking the cities as he will, in the 14th year of Hezekiah.  Per MSB this was in 701 BC.  It also points out that the discovery of "The Annals of Sennacherib" show exactly what cities he conquered.  
MSB says 36:1-39:8 are almost verbatim the words in 2K18:13-20:19.  Says it is most likely that the author of 2K's incorporated Isaiah's writings into it, and not the other way around.  Much more could be studied on that.  Presumably this is MSB's argument to the exclusive authorship of the Book of Isaiah by Isaiah.  One more thing...chapters 36 and 37, per MSB, are the culmination of chapters 1-35.  They sort of conclude this major division of Isaiah.  Then the rest of the book previews the coming Babylonian captivity. So...

Starts with Sennacherib's Ramshakeh and his entourage going to Jerusalem and goes through the Ramshakeh addressing those on the wall, and them answering him not a word.  It does read almost exactly like the account in 2 Kings.  Not saying that God could not have revealed it word for word to two different writers, but that it sure looks like one copied the other.  MSB notes that 2Chron 32:32 says Isaiah was one of the chroniclers of Hezekiah's deeds, possibly referring to this very passage that is incorporated into 2Kings.

2021- [Isa 36:6 ESV] Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.  Apparently Sennacherib knew that some sort of alliance had been made between Judah and Egypt.  He is telling them it will not work.  This fits right in with the prophecies we've seen.  Isaiah had also said it wouldn't work.
Then this:  [Isa 36:7 ESV] But if you say to me, "We trust in the LORD our God," is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship before this altar"?  Sennacherib actually makes himself look dumb with this statement.  He does not realize at all that the high places were about false gods, and that tearing them down was not an insult to the God of Israel but a return to His commandments.  Here at least, Hezekiah had a leg to stand on in encouraging the people to resist this "not so brilliant after all" King.
And this: [Isa 36:10 ESV] Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, "Go up against this land and destroy it."'"  Partly true, but not completely.  God had sent Assyria against Ephraim, but has no intentions of letting him conquer Jerusalem.  It is at the gates of Jerusalem that God begins to destroy those who destroyed Samaria.  They cannot be held innocent for attacking God's people, even on God's orders.

Two pretty short chapters, after many days of long mornings.

2021 - Note that Israel fell to Assyria years before this, and now Sennacherib is approaching Jerusalem.  He has ransacked much of Judah, but has not captured the capital city.  This is his attack on Jerusalem. 

Chapter 37
Narration continues.  Hezekiah is very frightened of the word from the Assyrian King, and sends to Isaiah.  He tells Isaiah that the Assyrian King has downplayed his God, and perhaps Isaiah would like to do something about it?
Isaiah says God is going to intervene, that Sennacherib will leave, and that he will die in his own land.
Sennacherib hears a rumor that Cush is coming against him.  He sends another message to Hezekiah telling him not to get cocky  just because Sennacherib is leaving without conquering him.  That Assyria is still the strongest. and that God cannot save Judah.

vss 14-20 are Hezekiah's prayer, direct to God, for deliverance from Sennacherib.  He does not go through Isaiah this time.  He takes the letter insulting God into the Temple and lays it out before God, then prays.

In vs 21, Isaiah sends a message to Hezekiah where God acknowledges that He has heard Hezekiah's prayer.  The message is that God had planned all these events from of old, and that now it is time for Him to lead Sennacherib around as a horse - with a bit in his mouth.  God says he will save Jerusalem, and that Sennacherib will not so much as shoot an arrow at it.

This verse in God's answer to Hezekiah's prayer through Isaiah:
30  "And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows  of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the  third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. [Isa  37:30 ESV]  It seems that even after Sennacherib withdraws, things will  still be in such a mess that normal agriculture cannot resume.  But God  will produce enough food to get them by just from "volunteer" growth.   Then in the third year, they can plant again.  But MSB says the two  volunteer years were the ones when Sennacherib's  armies ravaged their  land, and the third is the season immediately after he went home.  So  not only did the invaders leave suddenly - in just one night - but all  that was "normal" also returned immediately.  Prayer brought this  about.  Hezekiah prayed one prayer for God to avenge himself on the  arrogant of Assyria, and everything changed in a heartbeat.  If all  these bad things happening to Israel can be taken as lessons for us in  how to discern His work in our own day, then the power of prayer to  return to a normal situation can also be taken as a lesson for us.   Prayer is what will work here.
Good post for FB after all those harsh ones!

God's angel kills 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight, quietly, so that it is in the morning before it is even noticed.  Sennacherib lives, and departs, and goes and lives in Ninevah.  He is worshiping his false gods there, and two of his sons come in and kill him.  While he is worshiping.  And Esarhaddon, another of his sons, becomes King in his place.  Surely history would recount such a "defeat" of Sennacherib.  A good research project to find secular corroboration of this event.

Chapter 38
Hezekiah gets sick, and Isaiah tells him it is unto death.  Hezekiah prays for more time.  God grants him another 15 years.  The sign of His promise is that the sun will go backwards 10 degrees on the sundial of Ahaz.
These verses in Hezekiah's recounting of God giving him more life:
18 For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness. 19 The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness. [Isa 38:18-19 ESV]

David prayed a very similar prayer.  Let me live so I can praise you more.  The dead in Sheol do not do so.  That is not really the case any more.  The saved go to Paradise now, and can praise God.  But do they?  Or does it wait for the second coming?

Chapter 39
Visitors come from Babylon.  Merodach-baladan, son of Baladan, King of Babylon, is the one who sends them.  Strange that it is the son of the King of Babylon, and not the King himself, who sends emissaries and gifts.  Hezekiah unwisely shows off all his treasures and his armory to emissaries from Merodach-baladan.  God is angry, and says that because of this, Babylon will steal all that stuff and take it back to Babylon.  Further, some of Hezekiah's sons will be eunuchs in the palace of the Babylonian King.  Hezekiah is glad that this will not happen while he is King.  Seems so wrong...

2021 - God had already decided, I think, that Jerusalem would fall to Babylon.  I think we've been told that through some of these prophecies.  So why was God angry and why did he make it seem as though Hezekiah's showing off was the reason for what was coming?  God had just added 15 years to Hezekiah's life.  So there was that.  Maybe the problem was that these emissaries weren't even from the King of Babylon?  Hezekiah maybe shouldn't even have met with them, because they were "below him" in status?  Yet he not only met with them, but tried to raise his status with them by showing them his riches.  He showed them his worldly status, when he had just recently been given something far more valuable.  15 years of life, and this from the one God of Israel.  Why didn't he tell them about that instead of showing off his gold and silver?
I still don't get that last verse though.  At least it will be peaceful for my 15 years, too bad for the boys though.  Too bad for Judah.  Too bad for Jerusalem.  Had Hezekiah snapped? 

Chapter 40
Per MSB outline, this chapter begins the third major section of Isaiah.  Section 1 was 1.1 to 35.10, and was judgement.  Section 2 was 36.1-39.8, and was an historical interlude.  So it was a simple narration of history, inserted among the prophetic portions.  Section 3 here begins, and goes through the end of the book.  It is titled "salvation".  This section has three divisions, 40.1-48.22 are about deliverance from captivity.  I believe also, though MSB didn't say it right in the outline, that we have now switched from the fate of Israel to the fate of Judah.  I guess since Israel fell to Assyria, and the decimation of the Assyrian army was consummated at Jerusalem, the story breaks there, and switches to Judah.  It is interesting that the Assyrians were used to end the nation of Israel, but were so evil themselves that it was their final act.  God had made them great and powerful in the world so that He could use them for His own purpose, and once that was done, the Assyrians received justice for the kind of idolatrous, arrogant people that they were.

So, on to chapter 40.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. [Isa 40:2 ESV]
There was an earlier verse where God said Israel would receive double for her sins.  I was thinking that in that verse, I decided that had not been accomplished.  This verse surely implies that by this time, she had.
Hmm...We know that we are looking at the future at this point.  The next verse is about John the Baptist.  The double punishment is finally accomplished in that future time, with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.  But is that a "forced fit" with this verse because that's what I think the double punishment is, or is this chapter truly about that future time?  The MSB note is phrased this way:  "Cruel slaughter and captivity at the hands of the Babylonians were sufficient payment for past sins:..."  So MSB sees the punishment accomplished as referring  to the Babylonian conquest, which had not yet happened at this time.  This was written after the Assyrians went home.  MSB sees the point of view of this "prophecy" as still future, looking back on the first of the double punishments, I see it more future than that - all the way past the first advent, to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and their finally recognized Messiah.

[[[[[[[2021 - A little more depth on the idea of double punishment.  I have always seen the double as meaning twice, rather than meaning doubly awful.  Is there a clue in the words that might indicate that?  Here are some verses, though not as many as I thought there were:
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. [Isa 40:2 ESV]
כֶּפֶל kephel, keh'-fel; from H3717; a duplicate:—double.  This is the word in Isa 40:2.  I guess if you really want it to mean twice, you would go with duplicate, then there would have to be two.  Interestingly, though the English word "double" is used many times in the OT, this word kephel is used only three times.  Only three.  Here are the other two:
6 and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves. [Job 11:6 ESV]  The word "manifold" in this verse is the translation of kephel.  Here is the same verse in KJV:
6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that [they are] double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee [less] than thine iniquity [deserveth]. [Job 11:6 KJV]
I think in this verse, double is an intensifier.  It says there is a lot more to the secrets of wisdom than you think.  It does not say there are twice as many secrets as you think.  Maybe...but here is NASB95:
6 And show you the secrets of wisdom! For sound wisdom has two sides. Know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity. [Job 11:6 NASB95]  In this translation, they are holding fast to the idea of two.  One and another, not at all an intensifier.  A number of other translations, less well known, also use "double" in translating this verse.

13 Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle? [Job 41:13 ESV].   ESV ignores the word kephel altogether.  They just don't put it in.
Here is KJV.  I don't know what a double bridle would be, especially back in the days of Job.  This passage is about Leviathan, a sea creature of some sort, and I think it was previously mentioned in Isaiah, also.  We obviously don't know to what it really refers.
13 Who can discover the face of his garment? [or] who can come [to him] with his double bridle? [Job 41:13 KJV]
Here is NASB95, again holding strongly to the idea that kephel means two (2).
13 "Who can strip off his outer armor? Who can come within his double mail? [Job 41:13 NASB95]
Again, as in Job 11:6, a number of translations translate this as "two layers" of armor or scales.  But it is strictly two of them.  The number.  None use the idea of "doubly strong".  Not an intensifier, a number.

There is one more use of this word, in reference to this same creature, though I am not sure what the underlying text might be.  It is in the Strong's definition of the word kephel, and they put It in Job 41:5.  In my ESV, it doesn't read anything close to that.  Here is the definition:
† כֶּ֫פֶלnoun [masculine] the double: — כ׳ construct: בְּכ׳רִסְנוֺJob 41:5within the double of his jaw (i.e. his double jaws) who can come ? elsewhere dual כִּפְלַיִם (compare Arabic

), לְתוּשִׁיָּהJob 11:6double in sound wisdom (beyond what Job imagines), of retribution Isaiah 40:2.
So here is the verse in ESV:
5 Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls? [Job 41:5 ESV]  The BLB interlinear does not show that word kephel anywhere near this verse.  But...there is also this reference to Job 41:5, but it is an image in BLB Interlinear of Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon.  It says that in Job 41:5 it talks about Leviathan's jaw, and says it has a double row of teeth.  I wonder if this is some other non-biblical text , or a text that most translations do not depend on.  Whatever it is, it is a very old translation, and again it shows the idea of "double", rather than "more intense".  There is also a second place on the BLB Interlinear page for kephel that references Job 41:5.  I don't  understand this at all, since the BLB interlinear does not show this word in that verse, nor is that verse about Leviathan's teeth in any way.

I thought there was more than one verse in the Bible that talked about Israel's double punishment.  Today I only found this one.  I don't like basing a whole interpretation on just one verse, especially as many things as I hang on this one verse.  I need to find those others...if I didn't imagine them.  I also believe I have a whole note just on "double punishment".  I am copying all these notes from today onto the bottom of that previous note.

Here are the other two places.  See note below.
18 Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction! [Jer 17:18 ESV]
10 When I please, I will discipline them, and nations shall be gathered against them when they are bound up for their double iniquity. [Hos 10:10 ESV]

Have to put this here before I copy:  18 But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations." [Jer 16:18 ESV]
BLB says the word for double here is "mish-neh".  Here is what it means in Strong's dictionary:
  mishneh, mish-neh'; from H8138; properly, a repetition, i.e. a duplicate (copy of a document), or a double (in amount); by implication, a second (in order, rank, age, quality or location):—college, copy, double, fatlings, next, second (order), twice as much.
Yeah.  I am not wrong about what is meant by the double punishment of Jerusalem.  The first was Babylon in 586 BC, the second was Rome, in 70 AD.  And now, during the age of the Gentiles, God's great wrath against His people is spending on out, dissipating, until full justice is done.  Then, and only then will her warfare be ended and her iniquity pardoned.  I have this right.

So here is my bottom line after this little study of the word kephel, used here in Isaiah in reference to what Jerusalem "has received" from God.  I think I am on pretty reasonably safe ground in understanding this as two times instead of twice as much.]]]]]]]

2021-2, So when are we talking about in vss 1, 2?  The time when Jerusalem's warfare is ended.  That actually only happens at the END of the Millennial.  Because Jerusalem gets surrounded again, at the end of the 1000  years, and Christ destroys all those enemies with his breath.  No one has to fight.  I think though, that I would make the case that the last participatory war that Israel is a part of is the pre-Millennial battle.  After that, the 1000 years of peace is ushered in, with Zion in her place at the head of all nations.

vs 3 is the one quoted in the NT as the prophecy of John the Baptist.  A voice crying in the wilderness.  As the prophecy goes on, it implies that Israel will understand this voice, and react properly to it, which they did not do in John's day.  So the implication is that "this Elijah", that is John, prepared the way for the first advent, but there will be another "Elijah" to prepare the way for the second advent.  Would this be before tribulation starts or after?  Before or after the rapture?  And if this is a prophecy of the end, when the Jews finally recognize Christ and come home to Jerusalem, then the double punishment of vs 2 could very easily be referring to 70 AD and Babylon as over and done with.

2021 -2, Why do we go from the beginning of the Millennial in vs 2 all the way "backwards" to John the Baptist in vs 3?  Perhaps because BEFORE we have the Millennial, we have the first advent, the church/Gentile Age, and all of that.  Perhaps here in Isaiah is the clue that BEFORE Israel is restored, you have this other advent, this other whole period of history where, as God's wrath on Israel plays out, Gentiles are saved right and left - INSTEAD OF THEM.  That is part of the wrath.
2021-2, I note also this time that we usually quote vs 3 wrongly, as I did above.  Now, how we know where the commas go I am not certain, but here is where the ESV puts them:
3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. [Isa 40:3 ESV]
I suspect that it is grammar that tells us it is not the voice that is in the wilderness, but the way of the Lord that is there.  After all, most of Jesus ministry ends up being in desolate places to avoid the crowds and the Jewish authorities.   King James puts it this way, however:
3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. [Isa 40:3 KJV]  The voice is in the wilderness.
I am not a linguist, but I don't see the clues in the interlinear that tell me which it should be.  So perhaps there is some interpretation in ESV's version of this, but since there are no commas in Hebrew, it might be that either interpretation works, and it certainly doesn't change the underlying message.

2022 - Compare these verses to Isaiah 40:4,5:
17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" 18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. [Rev 16:17-20 ESV].
Revelation says there will be no mountains.  Isaiah says valleys lifted, mountains low, uneven ground becomes level.  This is about the seventh bowl judgment.  Then in Rev 17, 18 you get all the Babylon stuff, followed by the marriage supper, followed by the second advent.  The connection between Isa 40 and Rev 16-18 is quite clear.  Vss 6-11 seem to be about the appearance of Christ on earth, and his earthly reign during the Millennial.  I think it is also quite clear that there will be a second prophet crying out to prepare the way.  Perhaps the real Elijah - that is the original Elijah.  He's not dead you know.

As you read on through vs 5, you get the "highway to Jerusalem" language again, very recognizable at this point.  This is about the return of Jesus as King.  The point of view is Millennial looking back, not between Babylon and 70 AD.

2023 - We might also consider a connection here in the Isaiah 40/Rev 16-18 verses with the assignment of land to the 12 tribes in Ezekiel 48.  Much is made of the fact that the dimensions of these parcels does not fit physically into modern day Israel's borders.  But if you get rid of valleys, and mountains, and shake thing up with the mightiest earthquake that there has ever been, as seen here, it make make a little more room!
2023 - I also note  this year that if we count vss 3-5 as all one prophecy, which it seems to be, then nothing in vss 4-5 came true during the appearance of John the Baptist.  So at some future point, these must be filled in.

2021-2, I am just reading on through from here.  Been over two hours on this now.

10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. [Isa 40:10-11 ESV]
This is a big change from what has gone before.  This is telling Israel to look forward to the day when God Himself will make His power known.  He brings his reward with Him - the Millennial perhaps, or is this about final judgement? - and His recompense before Him.  Does "before" mean before in time, such that it means rewards will come after trib and great trib, or is "before" geographical, in that God will see and observe, even oversee, the just recompense on all mankind?  In 2020 I think the reward is the setting up of the Millennial kingdom under Christ, and the recompense is Trib and Great Trib.  All this is still about the Millennial.  There is no break at vs 10.  Point of view is Millennial.

12-17 are about the greatness of God, who created everything, and who therefore understands the measure of everything.  His understanding is perfect and complete so He need ask no one for advice or counsel.  God does not ask what is best!
2021-2, These verses parallel Pro 8.

2022 - 12-17, in context, are about the one who will appear in 6-11.  I think we can see clearly that 6-11 are about the second advent.  Jesus is in view.  And then all the creation questions are asked ABOUT him.  This would seem to be a pretty good proof text of Jesus as creator in the OT.  It is indirect, to be sure, but I think it is certainly there!

18-20, God's "aliveness" contrasted with silver and wooden idols.  The greatness of God is describe on through vs 26.  This verse kind of summarizes the language:
25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. [Isa 40:25 ESV]

Only one God.  Nothing like him, nothing even to put on the balance with him.  It is not a competition for "which" god to worship because the answer is obvious.  There is only One.

Beginning in 27, there are still more attributes of God that make Him unique.  Chapter ends this way:
31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. [Isa 40:31 ESV]
This verse is quoted and sung as being about us, if we wait.  In fact, this verse is about the mighty power of God, and about His place above all things.

Chapter 41
Continues recounting the greatness of God, his unsearchableness.  We don't even know how to question Him.  He is great beyond what we can even consider.  Unknowable perfection is what He is.
2021 - Vs 1, God is the speaker.  He says "LISTEN".  He says come near, and together we will judge.  So this first verse is mainly to announce that God is about to speak and that all would do well to hear what he has to say, and to agree with Him in judgment.

Vs 2-4, God has "planned" history from beginning to end.  He was there at the beginning and will be there at the end.
vs 8-10 are God promising the descendants of Abraham that He has not forgotten them, that He will gather them again.  This verse:
10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. [Isa 41:10 ESV]
2021 - I would divide this up differently than before.  Vss 2-4 are speaking of a military leader, an invader, a conqueror, whom God has selected and chosen and sent out on an "errand".  This conqueror is coming from the east, and Kings fall before him like chaff.  God says that HE is the power behind this conqueror.  And that from the beginning, his coming was planned.  MSB says this reference is to Cyrus the Great, who conquered Babylon and allowed some of Israel to return to their homeland.
Then, vss 5-7 say that all the people are cooperating with each other out of fear of this coming invader.  All of a sudden, realizing the danger, people are getting along - because they may need each other.
In vss 8-10, God promises Israel that he is going to protect them from this invader, because of Abraham, and because of the promises to him, and because he has chosen Israel for himself.
So we must be looking at a near/far here.  God did not protect Israel from Babylon.  They were over run, besieged, starved, and conquered in that day.  But in one of those future battles - pre- or post- , an enemy is going to come against them and they will be protected.  Since it says He called them from everywhere, I think this far reference is to the post-Millennial Battle that Christ will fight with his breath.  The last battle of all.  Vss 11-13 continue this thought.  Those God fights will be so utterly wiped out that they cannot be found again.
Vss 14-16 though...Says Israel will overcome the enemies.  This could be referring to Israel in the Millennial Kingdom, and God's restoration of the abundance and productivity of the land.

2023 - Note vs 9:  9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off"; [Isa 41:9 ESV].  What time is this referencing? The Jews were captive in Babylon when Cyrus came from the east.  God did not call the Jews "home" to Babylon at that time.  So either this is a reference to God gathering them in the past to Israel, or this is something yet future.  Isaiah speaks many many times about the Jews coming home, and they certainly did after 70 years in Babylon.  So...we could be seeing both a near and a 70th week fulfilment here.  Also, contrast this statement that that they are "not cast off" with the New Testament passages that they are blind and deaf to the word.  In the OT, they were captive in Babylon but not forgotten by God.  When they rejected Jesus, they were sent into a sort of "deaf and blind" darkness, metaphorically a silent and dark dungeon, but they are NOT cast off, even now.  They are not replaced by the church.  Israel is still chosen.

vs 11-13 say that Israel need not fight for itself.  God will confound Israel's enemies, and when Israel searches for them, they won't be found because God has already eliminated them.
14-16, Israel shall be the greatest nation, dominant over all.  Prophesies the return of Israel to God.  I think the Millennial kingdom is still what is in view.

2023 - This, from 11-13 also:
11 Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. [Isa 41:11 ESV].  Does this not sound a bit like worldwide antisemitism?  Now I suppose the world could turn against the church during the 70th week...but only if they are still here!  I have a really hard time seeing 11-13 as having been already fulfilled.  If they are still future, they have to be about the Jews, about Israel, about Zion, as distinguished from the church.

How can you think that in the NT, Israel becomes God's church, and the promises to Israel, predictions of Israel, become promises to the church.  The church won't need to be recalled from all over everywhere.  It is Israel that is scattered from the land promised to it.
2023 - I am on this Dispensational page more than ever.  I do not see how these "wraparound" prophecies can be interpreted to apply to national Israel in the OT, and to the church in the NT.   To me, they cannot be resolved in a consistent manner if interpreted that way.

2023 - Beginning in vs 21 we seem to get a complete break with what went on.  Idols are attacked as useless.  First commandment stuff.  I don't see that being a still future problem.  So I would say this part of the chapter is strictly OT stuff.

21-24, idols challenged to prove they are gods.  To predict, to cause, to fulfill.  They are nothing.  Only God predicts the future, and makes it happen.  Only God can explain the "why" of the past.  Idols...so ridiculous to pray to wood, stone, and metal.
2021 - These verses seem to sort of go off on their own to refute idol worship.  It is being contrasted I think with all that God has just promised.  He has told them the past, He has told them Cyrus is coming, and He is telling them that in the Millennium they will have peace and plenty.  He, God, is telling them all these things.  By contrast, what do the idols say?  What have they revealed of the past, what signs can they do today to demonstrate their power, or can they not at least say what is to come in the future?  Only a god could do that.

More arguments made against idols, and their complete total unmitigated uselessness.

2021 - vs 25, again about Cyrus, who, per MSB, attacked Babylon from the north, after subduing Media.  This is God still further demonstrating his sovereignty by giving details not only that Babylon will fall, and about who will do it, but from what direction he will come!  Can your idols do that?  God's point is that he is telling them before it happens.

Chapter 42
2023 - I have this labeled "First Servant Song".  It is messianic, certainly, and about the first advent particularly.

1-4 speak of Jesus.  He will not be overbearing when He comes, He will be gentle, and have the Spirit of the Lord.  Yet he will establish justice, ultimately.  This can easily be seen as a near and a far.  A "combination" of the work of Jesus in his two coming advents.
2021 - There are surely clues as to the first advent here.  Thinking of the Chosen, where the Jews were looking for a Messiah to throw off the rule of the Romans, they never read this at all, they never tried to make this fit their understanding.  We have to be careful of that too, as we try to fit prophecy to current events.  It ALL has to fit, not just the parts we want!  Those first three verses we can surely tie to the first advent.  And that last is there to tell us that he was not done after the first advent.  We cannot say the whole earth is in submission to him and to his justice.  That is still future.

Vss 5-9 I think this is still talking about Jesus, and what He is in God's plan and purpose.  This verse, that I have not noticed before:
6 "I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, [Isa 42:6 ESV]  This seems to be God addressing Jesus.  God will keep Him - while He is a man, so that Jesus does not have to exercise this kind of power.  God is protecting Jesus while He is here.  And Jesus will be a covenant, the NEW COVENANT, for the people.  For "nations", that is, not just for the Jews.  Then some of the miracles Jesus will do - things never before done.  These are the signs that were predicted.  So it was not just that Jesus did miracles that should have made him recognizable, but that the miracles he did were the ones Isaiah had said he would do.  There is a footnote on vs 6 in TCR that says the "you" in this verse is singular.  It is therefore not about the people of Israel, but about the ONE coming to be a covenant for all.
2021 - This saying, that Jesus told the followers of John the Baptist to take back to him:
5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. [Mat 11:5 ESV].  And here:
22 And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. [Luk 7:22 ESV]
Is there a verse in the NT about 7b?  About prisoners being released from dungeons?  Perhaps that part is still future, part of bringing justice at the end?

2023 - Or did Jesus leave out the dungeons part because that is where John was at the time.  Jesus left it out to send the message to John that he would not be freed.  Jesus wasn't there to free him.  Hmm...That is an amazing thing if that's why it is left out...
There is a parallel passage in Luke about this message sent to John:  
22 And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. [Luk 7:22 ESV], where again, the prisoners to be freed are not mentioned.
Here is the verse from Isaiah 42:
7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. [Isa 42:7 ESV].  It mentions the blind and the prisoners.  Nothing in this verse about the lame, the lepers, the deaf or the dead, or the poor.  My Harmony of the gospels mentions these other passages:
18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. 19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. [Isa 29:18-19 ESV]
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; [Isa 35:5-6 ESV]
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; [Isa 61:1 ESV].
Another point...each of these passages is a prophecy of the coming Messiah.  Signs foretold of the unique and never before seen miracles he would do.  These should have been flashing red neon that Jesus was the Messiah, no matter what else they had come up with that he would do.  These were exact and unmistakable, and John, proclaiming the kingdom, and baptizing so he would recognize the Lamb, would have been 100% familiar with all these verses.  So the message sent back to John was unmistakable.  But the freeing of the prisoners, mentioned in two different verses, Jesus did not quote.  Its absence was a message to John that he would not be freed.  And now, seeing just how significant this omission really was, we have to believe that it WILL be fulfilled, by the Messiah, in the future.  Will the prisoners be church prisoners or Jewish prisoners at the second coming?  If the rapture is pre-trib, this can ONLY be about the Jews!

Vs 9 caps it all off.  Makes the challenge to other "gods" about predicting the future make sense in context.  This is what it says:
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them." [Isa 42:9 ESV]
The reason God recounted His greatness, the reason these verses talk about how only God knows the reasons for what is past and what is to come, is to establish that what He is saying here about the One that is to come, Jesus, the New Covenant, is all being predicted here, hundreds of years before it is to happen.
2021 - New things I now declare!  All those quotes from Jesus in the NT about old wineskins, and new patches on old clothes.  This is what it was about.  A new thing was coming, from the time of Isaiah He said it.  He said it SO THEY WOULD KNOW when it happened that it was coming from God!  That is why Jesus kept saying if you don't believe me believe the miracles!  They were the predicted sign of the coming of His "light for the nations"!  This is where all that stuff Jesus said originates.  This section of Isaiah 42 was Jesus' own "proof text" as to who he was!

2022 - I have a pencil note in my Bible at the beginning of 42 that says this is the first "servant song".  No further explanation.  But I think it probably points to this being a prediction of Jesus, not as conquering king, but as the one who will not break a bruised reed.  A gentle, kind, man.  I think God is saying that Jesus is to live AS A MAN, but that God will protect him, so that he does not use his own divine power to bring about the prophecies.  Perhaps, in the temptation of Christ, vs. 6 is another one Satan had in mind when he challenged Jesus to "throw himself down".  God had promised to protect him.  Surely God would even if he threw himself down.  

vss 10-16 seems to start a new section.  A song of praise to God, a worship of God over all.
2021 - 10-13, I think, are to be a celebration of the "new things" God has just declared.  He is to be praised and have songs sung to Him for His greatness and power.

vss 11-17 seem to be God's answer to the praise.  A promise that He will put idol worshipers to total shame.
2021 - No...I think this is now God restating the purpose of this new thing that is coming.  He will stay with the Mosaic a long time.  He will leave them be, and let them push on with that.  But eventually, it will fall, they will in fact so pervert it as to make it unrecognizable.  And at that time, this:
16 And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. [Isa 42:16 ESV]
Oh my!  Why have I not seen this one before.  This is God's Old Testament description of the gospel that is to come!
This ought to go on FB.

vss 18-25 are charges against Israel because they would not see God all around them.  Would not accept God's chastening as being sourced from God.  They refused to see, to repent, to even acknowledge their God.  So God, having reached the end of His patience:
25 So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. [Isa 42:25 ESV]

2023- 18-25 seem to be Isaiah's "sermon" preached following all these prophecies.  He is telling them that despite all these warnings they have not listened.  Despite the prophecies already played out in Israel as predicted, Judah is still blind and dumb to the glory of the Lord.  Remember that this is being spoken after Assyria and before Babylon.  How can they not listen?  But Isaiah is very clear that they are in fact NOT listenting.

This is about the fall of Jerusalem (2020, no, not really.  This is about Babylon, yes, and AD 70, but more than that, it is about the Jews rejecting Christ, not seeing him for who he was.  It does not say double, but it is about the punishment of the Jews and about how they do not understand their defeat by Babylon and then Rome to be chastisement for first rejecting God, and then rejecting the New Covenant.  They rejected both!  Oh my.  One punishment for rejecting the Mosaic, and another for rejecting the New.  How absolutely clear this seems to be.

Chapter 43
2021 - A little aside.  Here are the verses they use in "The Chosen" series in reference to Mary of Magdala:
1 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. [Isa 43:1 ESV]
It also goes on, with much comfort.
(((2021 - See the note at Isa 45:4 in reference to this.)))

2023 - Am I really to believe this verse changes over to "O church" under the New Covenant?  "I have called you by name" means "the church" now.  I can't get there.  By name applies to a person and the family that proceeds from that person.  Jacob, because he fathered the 12 tribes.  What a stretch to try and say something as physical as that ought to be interpreted to mean Israel then and the church - which is a spiritual entity - now.  I cannot get there.  Color me a Dispensationalist.

The promise of restoration on the other end of this chastening.  These verses:
4 Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. [Isa 43:4 ESV]
No nation comes before Israel.  God will "trample" all others to keep His promise to Israel.

These verses, repeating the theme of the ultimate return of Israel to God:
6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." [Isa 43:6-7 ESV]

2023 - This one:
8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! [Isa 43:8 ESV].  When has this ever been true of the church?  The church has never been "blinded" so that they cannot see, nor deafened that they cannot hear.  This is strictly, uniquely, and ONLY about Israel.  What we ought to ask is when this started, and when did it end?  We know it started way back here, because Jesus says something in reference to those who have eyes and cannot see, referencing this verse. The curse perhaps started all the way back here, and that is a big reason for them not recognizing Jesus when he came.  They were blinded for pushing God out of their lives - really beginning with King Manassah, and continuing, I think,  until the rapture of the church at the sixth seal.

God addresses his servant(s).  Not too sure about this part.  He also declares that there is none, neither god nor man, who can stop His hand.

Are these next verses a reference to the gospel?  Probably not, though the gospel was offered to the Jews by Jesus, and they rejected it.  Only after this rejection was the gospel offered to the dogs.  This surely seems to be a "light shined" on what was to come with the appearance of Jesus.  The old was to pass away - the sacrificial system, dietary laws, and so on.  Something new, completely new, was to come.

18 "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. [Isa 43:18-21 ESV]

2023 - Until today, I have thought this part of the prophecies were as yet unfulfilled.  When Jesus came, there wasn't a sudden breaking out of springs and rivers anywhere.  But if we look at what Jesus said, at his words, they were surely the water of life.  And where was he?  He was always in the wilderness, in the out of the way places.  And yet "if you drink the water I shall give, you will have everlasting life".  Maybe that is what all of these like vs 20 are really about.  I prefer a literal interpretation when it is possible - and if I go that way then this part has not been fulfilled, but maybe sometimes, literal just isn't what is meant.  After all, we come up with those rules of interpretation for ourselves.  What makes us think Isaiah was operating under those same rules?

2021 - I think vss 16-21 are a far and further prophecy.  It seems pretty clearly to be looking at John the Baptist, and the coming of Messiah.  But vss 20, 21 don't really seem to be true yet.  Those verses seem to be looking at the Millennial.  It seems like much of the "jumping around" in Isaiah's prophecies comes right back to this same thing.  It is like time was folded from Isaiah's point of view so that the church age is sort of out there in a closed loop - a cut off oxbow in the river - and he does not know it is even there.  So as he unfolds his prophecy it goes straight from one crying in the wilderness to the greening of the Promised Land, back to what it was when it was first given to Israel.  It would be like having a tape of a football game, and someone had cut out the middle two quarters, during which the "home team" was thoroughly trounced and all hope given up.  Then in the fourth quarter, we have the tape back, and we hear about this unbelievable comeback from 48 points down, to the biggest win in the history of the game.  Turns out that a lot of second stringers played in the 2, 3rd quarter, and they all earned their letters, but they are an aside, not the main thrust of the game.  We Gentiles are so full of ourselves, thinking we're all that, when everywhere the Bible talks about us, we are barely more than just lucky.  
2023 - And in light of this paragraph, looking back at the previous 2023 note, if we're going to say vs 20 is metaphor, then we have to explain why vss 16-21 are not...or we have to make them metaphor also.  I don't think it is ok to jump back and forth like that just to say we understand it all.  

Another indictment.  Reason for God to let them go into captivity.  The old way was considered a "burden" to Israel, and they stopped doing it.  Stopped worshiping God according to His statutes and commandments given to Moses.  God says that they were burdened by the sacrificial requirements, and in return they burdened Him with their sins.  How totally clear this is!!!  This precisely describes the NT times into which Jesus was born!
24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. [Isa 43:24 ESV]

2021 - 22-24 give us the reason for the big "insertion" between vss 19 and 20.  Israel has just gone too far for a just God to overlook.  Their sins are many, their attitudes self-absorbed, their submission non-existent.  They have just cut out everything about God from their hearts and they retain only the ritual.

Despite all this, look at God's response to their rejection of Him:
25 "I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. [Isa 43:25 ESV]
He does it for Himself, because He set them apart, and the promises will be fulfilled.  The verses refer back to Jacob - not to Moses.  God's protection and preservation of Israel stem from that time, and in order to preserve them, He offered first the Mosaic and then the New, and they have rejected both.  Doesn't matter.  He is God, He does what He promised and does it for His own sake, not for man's.

2023 - Hard to make this one apply to the church as the designated heir of Israel.  Hard to say that this reference to Israel needing her sins blotted out has now become applicable to the church rather than to Israel.  The only way this works is if it is about the Babylonian captivity, when God brings Israel back home.  But these water in the desert prophecies are going to take a lot of imagination to explain if they are about the return from Babylon.  Israel never was anything but subsistence farmers in that day, and they did not "rule the nations", and still do not, to this very day.  That's how I would argue these prophecies.

And this verse?  Is this the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD?  (I think it is that and more.  It is the blindness put upon them.  Not just destruction but scattering and staying away.  I think it is "utter destruction" because they had no land to live in, no homes, no fields, and they were and still are reviled by the whole world.  Because they are "the teacher's pet".  They were wiped out as a nation for refusing to accept the new covenant offered through Jesus.  They were no longer a nation.  They were leveled, everything torn down, Josephus says over a million Jews died in the siege of Jerusalem.  Utter destruction would surely be an applicable phrase!
28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling. [Isa 43:28 ESV]
2023 - Vs 28 foretells the end of the priesthood.

2021 - Vss 25-28 surely do look forward to 70 AD.  Babylon may be in the fore-time, but even Babylon did not do this kind of damage to the city.  Only the Romans leveled it to the ground, not one stone upon another.  There is some amazing stuff here:
27 Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. [Isa 43:27 ESV]  This is about Adam, first, and the mediators...I think of Moses, even Moses, who rebelled to the point he couldn't enter the land, of the corrupt High Priests that came along, Hophni and Phinehas, and others.  Of the Judges, several of whom were not saints at all.  Then Saul, and then later the horrible kings in both Judah and Ephraim.  The mediators most certainly did transgress!  And for all this, God will "...deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling."  Guess why there is Antisemitism in the world!?  God put it there.  It is part of the price of national sin.

Today is the 21st, and the first verse of Prov 21 says:  "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord: he turns it wherever He will".  This surely goes well with these chapters in Isaiah, and is it really a coincidence that they come up together in my reading?

All these chapters repeat and hammer home and make absolutely clear the unique nature of God.  He is the one One.  The theme just repeats and repeats and builds and builds through all these chapters - 40-43.

Chapter 44
2021 - Vss 1-8 are in prose format, then we change to block from 9-20, back to prose from 21-28 at the end of the chapter.  That's a lot going on.
It seems like vss 1-5 are a single statement by Go of his covenant with Israel.  Vss 6-8 are a second, independent statement.  In the first, God calls Jacob his servant - so addressing Jacob.  In the second, God refers to Himself as King of Israel and his Redeemer.  God names himself the redeemer, though this work was accomplished in the person of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  The second part is God's declaration of His unique ability to fulfil His covenant with them.  First he tells reminds them he promised, then he reminds them that he, and only he, can and will accomplish it.

God promises to look after Israel, to continually bless those who call themselves Jacob.  This is in vss 1-5.  The promises are about water in the desert again, and about the Jews naming God as their Lord, writing His name on their hands.

This verse:
6 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. [Isa 44:6 ESV]
The King of Israel AND His redeemer, the Lord of hosts.  Two persons of the Trinity, named together in a single OT verse?  MSB points out He also calls Himself the first and the last.  And Jesus referred to Himself as the first and the last, confirming His deity, in Rev. 1:17, 2:8, 22:13.  MSB does not indicate that this verse refers to part of the Trinity, but at the same time, Jesus puts Himself in this verse.

God challenges any to do what He does.  God says that only he can declare what is to come, and make it happen.  Only He can be right about these things.  This is proof that only He is God.  He has said this before in Isaiah.  This is the standard we should apply to all other "gods".  If they cannot show that they know the future, and if they cannot explain the past, they are not in God's league, they are no gods, they are fakes and charlatans.  This is the ultimate standard.  Worship nothing that does not at least accurately predict the future.

Those who work with iron over a fire get hungry, and thirsty, and faint.  Carpenters cut trees, use half for fuel and with the rest make themselves a god.  They roast meat over part, they worship part.  They pray to the wood that they burn in the fire.  It is right before them that the wood does not last.  How can you burn up a god?  Yet still they pray to the wooden god they made with their own hands.  Here are the verses:
15 Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. ... 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" 18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. ... 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" [Isa 44:15, 17-18, 20 ESV]

Vss 9-17 are a sort of sarcastic harangue of those who worship idols.  The irrationality of being able to burn the wood that your god is made from is brought home.  It burns?  But can save you from fire?  How can this kind of argument be applied today, though people no longer worship such idols?  Does this kind of approach even work?  I don't think people worship materialism as a God.  I just don't think that is the draw.  Today, people have thrown out gods and God altogether, and worship nothing at all.  Self maybe.  There is nothing higher than personal desires, wishes, wants.  Or it was that way for a while.  Keeping up with the Jones' was maybe the biggest driver.  But look now.  People are attaching themselves to these massive causes - global warming, CRT, historical revisionism.  They are subsuming themselves as slaves to these gigantic causes and they are "congratulating" themselves on their accomplishment.  They have taken this nebulous, vaguely describable opponent, made a sign protesting it, and then declared themselves giant slayers for their great work.  They made a god, and then they themselves knocked that god down.  That's where we are now.  We are still making our own gods, but now instead of worshiping them we are more powerful than them.  We set them up, and WE knock them down.  
Can I get a FB post from this?
Wait...the post will have to include this final verse:
20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" [Isa 44:20 ESV].  There are verses where it says God has shut their eyes, ears, hearts so that they cannot see the ridiculous irrationality of making idols to worship from the wood that you cooked your supper over.  The brains of people like this just don't have the "connections" to dig out the illogic of it all.  God "gummed up" their brains because of their ongoing sin, because of their rejection of Him, because of they lost their fear of Him.  And what God did was make them too stupid to see the truth.  Surely we can see that same abysmal ignorance in what is going on today.  
There's a post here, or a paper...but it is going to take some work to condense it down.

Question I have is whether the shutting of eyes and hearts in vs 18 was put into place in Isaiah's time, or if it comes after the Jews reject Christ in his time?  The point of view of the first few verses was the Millennial restoration.  Then a picture of God as redeemer, with Jesus as first and last.  So it makes it a bit problematic about which rejection led to the blindness that keeps Israel from seeing that idols are just wood.  By the time Jesus came, idols were not really a problem anymore in Jerusalem.  There were none in the temple or anything, none in the streets of Jerusalem.  So that would tend to make one think the blindness that let's men believe they can worship idols of wood and gain anything is about Isaiah's time.
MSB applies these verses not to Israel in general, but to those who make idols. Who do the carving.  The best they can do is produce the image of a man.  And they cannot see that burning the food in the fire is what warms them, that cooking over the fire will feed them, but praying to a block of wood will do nothing.  Surely this should be obvious.  This would seem to also apply to anyone buying and then worshiping the idol.  I think the curse of blindness about this was already on all of Israel in Isaiah's time.  I think God was also about fed up with Jerusalem, even though he sent the Assyrians away.

God has redeemed Israel, He has "blotted out your transgressions".  Restating the first part of the chapter.  This verse:
22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. [Isa 44:22 ESV]
So...redeemed so that whether they return or not, they are still God's?  Return BECAUSE I have redeemed you, not return and I WILL redeem you.  It is accomplished fact.  So unlimited atonement would seem to be in view.  They must still return, must confess, must believe and devote themselves to God, but their redemption, along with ours, is done - from the point of view of the writer.  In vs 23, it says he has redeemed Jacob - which is just Israel.  But I don't think we can limit it to only Israel in light of other passages about the church age.

In 24-28, God declares Himself God.  He recounts His creation, He notes that it is He who frustrates those who "read the signs (tea leaves, entrails, bones, and so on) and makes liars of diviners.  Only God can predict the future.  This is THE test.  Does the Qur'an make predictions?  Is it always right?  This is the test, let the Qur'an step up and prove itself!

28 who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose'; saying of Jerusalem, 'She shall be built,' and of the temple, 'Your foundation shall be laid.'" [Isa 44:22, 28 ESV]  First mention of Cyrus.  Cyrus of Persia.  MSB says this prophecy was given a century and a half before Cyrus performed it.  I believe this is the king who will send Nehemiah back to Jerusalem to rebuilt the Temple after he conquers Nebuchadnezzar after he conquers Jerusalem.  MSB note talks about the title here of Shepherd, as was given to Jesus.  Cyrus obeyed God and prefigured Jesus.  But 150 years in advance Isaiah knew his name.

Chapter 45
Then 45 is titled "God uses Cyrus".  Maybe 44:28 really should be 45:1.
Look at this first verse:
1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: [Isa 45:1 ESV]
Cyrus is now God's anointed.  God did the same with the Assyrians - used them to accomplish his purpose, but this seems somehow different.  With the Assyrians, it was a nation that God empowered.  Here, it is a man.  This is a different kind of work.  In vs 2, God goes before Cyrus and does the work for him.  Not what God did with the Assyrians.  

4 For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. [Isa 45:4 ESV]
This verse says God "controls" Cyrus, though Cyrus does not even know who God is.  God does not need our permission to be used by Him to accomplish His purpose.  But what awaits on  the other end is certainly different for those who knowingly obey as contrasted with those who are more like "pawns".
2021, Remember 43:1?  This term "I call you by name" in that verse applied to...whom? It was to "Jacob", a name, but it meant a nation.  That call in 43 was to a people, to God's chosen.  Here, it is to one single man.  But the language appears to be the same.  Hmm...Even so, the number is singular rather than plural in 43:1.  I would have expected plural there.  It is all singular in 45:4 also.  
2021 - It is interesting to look at how the KJV translated this verse:
4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. [Isa 45:4 KJV].  Cyrus "surnamed" into God's family?  NASB95 gives a nod to this "intensification" but instead of surname translates it "title of honor".  Here is some info from the BLB Interlinear, that seems to make either translation "correct":
kânâh, kaw-naw'; a primitive root; to address by an additional name; hence, to eulogize:—give flattering titles, surname (himself).

God says that He has empowered Cyrus to conquer nations, to take captives and spoil the defeated.  It is God "who calls you by name".  This verse:
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, [Isa 45:5 ESV]

This verse:
7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things. [Isa 45:7 ESV]...
2021 - This verse goes well with the FB post of 12/9/21 on Ecc 7:"In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.  [Ecc 7:14 ESV]:
God makes all these things.  Light and darkness, well-being and calamity, joy and adversity.  We need to stop behaving as if all the things we don't like come from Satan, and all the things we do like come from God.  How arrogant of us to think we can put God in any kind of box, even such a "good" kind of box!  Do children think their parents are doing a good thing when they get a spanking?  When they don't get dessert because they didn't eat their veggies?  Parents to "bad" things all the time, but a little understanding tells us the intent is only positive and we agree that this is good parenting.  Why won't we allow God the same kind of latitude, but commensurate with who He is!  
This is a FB post, right after the third one on Ecc.  So it goes on Thursday, 12/16.

2023 - Remember, Isaiah is making this prophecy using a specific name about a yet unborn person who will rise to be a great leader of the Medes, will conquer Babylon, and then free the captives of Jerusalem after their 70 years in captivity.  If you do not believe the Bible, you have to explain this, and the only "natural" explanation is that it was inserted many years later, after it all happened.  Good luck actually showing manuscript evidence of that magnitude of tampering.  You also have to explain, though, how it is only coincidence that there are so many "speeches" by God about how only He can tell what the future will be, and that the idols can never do it.  If you were going to "insert at a later time" all this stuff about Cyrus, would you think to go back and also alter all those other chapters out in the middle of the scroll and add the parts about only God being able to do this?  Or does it read better that God is making a point, and is being clear about that point, and is proving that he IS God and the idols are not gods by predicting what idols can never predict?  If you go changing scrolls, you have to find and change them all, and you have to make sure that none of the old scrolls survive to get copied, because is some of the scrolls fail to mention Cyrus at all, and also lack the "idols cannot tell the future" verses scattered all through it, then your forgery will be found out.  How many references back to Isaiah are there in the Bible?  Who first mentions his writing?  Can we find any information - any verses - that imply that there wee many scrolls of Isaiah, prior to the Babylonian captivity?  We know that Daniel had one, don't we?  Daniel figured out that the captivity would be for 70 years by reading Isaiah...NOPE.  That was a good idea, but Daniel got it from Jeremiah.  Isaiah associates seventy years with the fall of Tyre.  So...I am not aware of when Isaiah's writings proliferated to the point where successfully "improving" it would have become nearly impossible.  But I do believe that is what happened, and I believe it is supernaturally inspired, and that is why it so accurately predicts the future.  Because that was the point of the book.

9 "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'? [Isa 45:9 ESV]
Why can God do as He wants to nations in rebellion against them?  Because He is God!
Good one for FB. (Did I ever use it?  Check before doing the longer one below!!!)

And these might go right after it, the next week:
9 "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'? 10 Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'With what are you in labor?'" [Isa 45:9-10 ESV]
You don't ever argue with the one in authority.  You don't know enough to question the one in charge.  Will you really tell a father he's raising his son wrong?  Will you tell a mother she's not "growing" her child correctly?  Of course not!  Because potters are sovereign over their pottery, and parents over their young children.  We all know this.  And yet we think we can critique what God chooses for us!
Possible, but not sure, on 12/20, after going back to Isa 45 and checking that previous possible to see if it was ever posted.

2022 - This verse:
11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: "Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? [Isa 45:11 ESV].  Look at that first phrase.  It seems to say there are two "speakers"  One is "...the Lord, the Holy One of Israel..." and the other is "the one who formed him...".  There isn't even a nod to this reading in MSB.  So....that indicates that I am reading it entirely wrong.  It must not be about two speakers, but only one.  The speaker is the Lord, who is both the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed Cyrus, to whom this whole chapter seems to be addressed.  For me, this translation pulled me up short.  Here is the KJV:
11 Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. [Isa 45:11 KJV].  Capitalization of "Maker" indicates two speakers, the second of which formed the first.  ESV did move away from the capitalization, most likely to preclude interpreting it to mean there are two speakers...and here is the NLT:
11 This is what the LORD says--the Holy One of Israel and your Creator: "Do you question what I do for my children? Do you give me orders about the work of my hands? [Isa 45:11 NLT].  They have used punctuation to make the point - an interpreted point to be sure - that there is only one speaker.  That second phrase is more or less a parenthetical phrase, giving additional information about the Lord, NOT describing the second speaker.  In context, this chapter is not about the Father and the Son, so we should not interpret it as addressing that relationship, and we especially ought not use it out of context to say that the Father created the Son.  It cannot mean that.
If I were a Greek philosopher, claiming that Jesus could not be God, but had to be "removed" by several layers of created perfection, I might be tempted to use this verse to make that point.  I hope now that I am better prepared to rebut such an interpretation.
2023 - It is the LORD, who is both the Holy One of Israel, and the one who created Israel.  It might be the pronoun that is causing the problem.  If we read it "The Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed "it", we wouldn't have any problems.  But in this chapter, the relationship is between God and a person, not God and a nation.  God and Cyrus, not God and Jacob (as representative for Israel), so I think this is a better way to explain it.  We might also read it "The Holy One of Israel and his Maker.

2022 - Here it is again:
12 I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. [Isa 45:12 ESV].  If we just read this, we would say that it was ho Theos who created the world.  But remember, again, who is speaking here.  Vs 11 says the speaker is the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.  The word translated LORD is Jehovah.  Who is the Holy One of Israel?  Don't we see that in the NT?  
24 "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God." [Mar 1:24 ESV]
34 "Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God." [Luk 4:34 ESV]
69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." [Jhn 6:69 ESV]
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. [Act 2:27 ESV]
35 Therefore he says also in another psalm, "'You will not let your Holy One see corruption.' [Act 13:35 ESV]
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. [1Jo 2:20 ESV]
7 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: 'The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. [Rev 3:7 ESV]
5 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, "Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. [Rev 16:5 ESV]
In each of these cases, the title "Holy One" is used of Jesus.  The last part has been changed to "of God" rather than "of Israel".  The NT is presentation of the gospel to the whole world.  Not just to Israel.  So there's that argument.  As before in Isaiah, when the work of creation is talked about, it has been a simple matter to show that the one who created was the Son, and not the Father.  So in the NT, in Colossians when Paul talks about Jesus as creating through the Father, we have now found TWO OT references that corroborate that idea.

God has set forth His ability, His exclusive ability to order the universe, to foretell events, and to see His will come always to pass, just as He said.  Now, in vss 9, 10 He asserts His right, as creator of all things, to do as He sees best without any questions from those created.  The clay does not question the potter, nor does it critique its design.  We cannot question what God does, nor can we say He did it wrong.  What arrogance!  Good one for FB.

Then starting in vs 14 God talks about the place Israel will hold in the Millennial, when all will know that God dwells with them.  

This verse, that I never noticed before:
18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other. [Isa 45:18 ESV]
God made the earth to support life.  To be inhabited.  He made it to show to the life there that it must have been created especially, exclusively for the life that He put there.  It is not chance, it is not luck.  He made it for US!!!  Another for FB.
2021 - Why the parentheses?  Were these words inserted later, or are they parenthetical in the original text?  Took a look at BLB Interlinear.  The words are all there.  The words that mean "intentionally created FOR habitation".  But it is an old and complex word.  And this is another of those verses where a lot of Hebrew words do not come over with one to one correspondence.  Many of the Hebrew words have no corresponding direct word in English.  This is a complex verse.
2022 - Note also that if you refer back to 14, we seem to be talking about the Millennial.  It is during that time that all nations look to Israel.  I do not see this "bowing down to Israel" on the part of Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and so on anywhere in history since Isaiah's time.  So I would say this is yet to come, and is about Jesus on the throne.  So a third time, and the second in Chapter 45, where the Son is seen as creator of all there is.  It is amazing to me that I had the question just a few days ago, and now I have seen three OT passages that point directly to Christ as the creator in Genesis.  In addition to looking back to 14 to show that this passage is about the Son, look also forward to vs 23, which is quoted in Phil 2:10, where it most certainly references Jesus.  The tags are "Jesus NOT created" and "creation".  Not really very good tags for the point I'm trying to make.  So later in 2022, while reading Hebrews 1, I added "Jesus as creator" to the tags.

2021 - I just had a thought about "One God", prompted by these two verses:
20 "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. 21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. [Isa 45:20-21 ESV]
Since we hit Isa 40 there have been many of these...sort of like soliloquies...from God contrasting Himself with all sorts of idols and false gods of wood, gold and silver.  In the 10, He says no graven images.  The Lord our God the Lord is One.  Is the point that the God of Israel, the creator of all that is, the unique and only creator God who knows the future because he made it so, who knows the reasons the past went as it did, and who has power on earth unlimited by the natural laws of physics - and nothing more?  Islam says this god of theirs is only one.  One person.  They say that their god cannot be three in one, nor can he take on physical form, nor can he create life in the womb of a human woman.  Maybe it is more that they say he won't do these things, but the idea is the same.  They put a limit on the ways and methods that their god is allowed to employ to accomplish his will.  Our God has no such limits.  Our God can make himself known to us in three persons/guises/personalities/representations.  Our God can do that if He chooses to do so.  The only limit on our God is what He says He will not do.  He does not break promises.  He does not "lose" His own.  If our God decides to use a harlot like Rahab to save his people, our God can do that.  If our God decides to use a scoundrel like Jephthah to  throw oppression off His people, He can do that.  If our God wants to be born as an infant human child and live a human lifetime on earth and die a human death on a cross, then our God, the God of the Bible can do that.  A god that has limits imposed on him based on the understanding of man as to his capabilities is no god of mine.  My God does what He wants!
A risky/brave possible FB post.

This verse, offering universal salvation, in the OT:
22 "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. [Isa 45:22 ESV]
These last chapters have been a rolling, continuous wave of God proclaiming Himself as the one and only true God.  He repeats it over and over, He dares any to compete, to try, to say, to predict, or to turn aside His purpose.  If ever we think our God is shrinking, these are the chapters to read!
This verse:
23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.' [Isa 45:23 ESV]
Used by Paul to describe Jesus in the NT, and here by Isaiah to describe God in the OT.  They are the SAME!  Need to see what the underlying word for "Me" is in this verse.  Is it Yahweh?

Chapter 46
2021 - Only two sentences of notes on this chapter prior to today.  And I am pretty worn out today, so there may only be two when I am finished!

2021 - First four verses contrast God with the gods of Babylon.  Those gods must be "carried" on oxen, they do not transport themselves.  If Babylon is captured, her gods are captured also and taken into captivity.  Not so with God.
Vss 5-7 are similar, but talk about gods that a goldsmith makes with his hands, and then he falls down and worship what he has himself made.  And it stays where he puts it.

2021 - Here is more to go with the thoughts of chapter 45:
9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, [Isa 46:9 ESV]
All God is saying here is that He is the ONLY God, and there are NONE like Him.  He is NOT saying what He is like, nor what limits He has.  Oh my...over and over I see it now.  This God we worship is the only God there is, but that in no way limits how He can present Himself to us!  Does Islam believe it was truly God in the burning bush?  Do they allow Him to show Himself that way?  Was it God in the fire on Mt. Sinai?  Can God "show" Himself in this way?  Then why not as an infant child?

The gods, the idols of Babylon, have to be carried on the backs of pack animals.  They cannot even move themselves.  vs 3, in contrast says it is God who carries Israel.  God carries His people, they do not carry Him!!!  What a contrast!

Again, God points out that only He can predict "the end from the beginning".  This is the ultimate test of deity.  This is why fortune tellers and such are so hated by God.  They pretend to stand on ground that is exclusively His.  Only He can do this.

2022 - In this chapter - and several other places - God's primary proof of his existence, of the FACT that he is God and there are no other Gods, is his ability to say what is going to happen - days in advance, years in advance, millennia in advance - and then it actually does happen, and so far without exception.  If being able to accurately, errorlessly predict the future in this way is NOT a God thing, then why can no one else do it successfully?  The Bible is full of God's predictions of future events.  The only way to argue against this "proof" of deity is say the Bible is a retroactive document.  You have to say that after things happened, someone went back and inserted it as a prophecy - in every copy of every scroll and book and chapter in existence at the time so that no contradictory  copies that did NOT contain that prophecy can exist.  You would need - and I am willing to bet that Josh McDowell has - a list of verifiable fulfilled and secularly verified historical events that were predicted in the Bible and actually happened.  Such as the Babylonian captivity, and the 70 year time span and the end of it overseen by Cyrus.  This is a huge point.  Only God - a real, existing, true to life God - could do this without error.  If you want to disprove God to me, show me a prediction that did not come true.

Chapter 47
2021 - Reading straight through 47-49 today.  Even at that it is a very long read.  1Th4 burned me out.  
Seems to me to predict the ultimate fate of Babylon.  She will be brought low, made common, and shamed.  She will not remain great.  This verse:
6 I was angry with my people; I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand; you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy. [Isa 47:6 ESV]
So Babylon was used by God to chastise His people.  To t;urn their hearts to Him.  Great Babylon was only a tool, raised up by God, to carry out His will.  
Beginning in vs 8, we see Babylon declaring her own glory, her own exemption from trouble.  But God says, not so.  vs 9 says Babylon is all about sorcery and enchantment.  A home for these things.  They do not recognize the One True God of Israel.  Babylon pretends at being a god.  vs 13 says astrology is hogwash.  It cannot predict.  It cannot do what God does.

11 But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing. [Isa 47:11 ESV]
In an instant.  In Daniel, doesn't Babylon fall in a single night?

2021 - There is much in here about enchantment, sorcery, prognostication of all kinds.  The prophecy is that none of those things, on which Babylon depends for direction, help, and defense, will be of any use whatever when the Lord sends what he is going to send toward them.  I like this verse:
14 Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! [Isa 47:14 ESV]
God says this fire is going to be hot!

2023 - We see here again that God contrasts his power not to foretell the future, but to cause it.  He tells us that these things that are coming - the fall of Babylon, the rise of Cyrus - are his doing because he planned it that way.  So once again, we see that IF we say the prophecies were inserted into Isaiah's text after the fact, then the sections where God uses the prophecies as proof that HE is God and there is no other, all have to be planted also.  They simply wouldn't be there - they'd have no context - if the prophecies weren't there also.  Started tagging these as ""God causes the future" today.  As I go through Isaiah next time, I will try and tag them all so we can see what a massive point is being made.

Chapter 48
The nation of Israel is addressed.  Their position as God's people is stated, but also the way they confess God is "not in truth or right".

2021 - This verse:
3 "The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. [Isa 48:3 ESV]
A description of how prophecy works in the Bible.  The future is declared, but then it might sit there for decades, centuries, millennia.  And then it slams down all at once, over and done.  So taking the position that if it hasn't happened yet, it is unlikely to happen, flies right in the face of how God says He does things.  This is why things in Revelation let's say, are inexplicable, and remain so, possibly right up until the day before they happen.  God doesn't say that he brings events about slowly, predictably, inexorably.  He says they are going to happen, and "on that day", they do so.  This is significant.  We need to keep this in mind any time we are dealing with prophecy.  What a good study to go back and look at some of the OT prophecies that have come to pass and see just how suddenly they "appeared".

God's word makes predictions far in advance, lest the people of that time claim their own idols brought these things about.  God tells what is to come before these false gods are even fabricated from metal or wood.  This is why prophecy is here.  

2021 - But look at vss 6-8!?  They say some new things are about to be announced.  Not old prophecies repeated, but brand new ones, never before stated.  Almost like these were done to put the lie to the enchanters in Babylon.  

Thank God for this verse:
9 "For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. [Isa 48:9 ESV]
He is not patient for our sake, but for His own name's sake.  Only he deserves patience in what He does.  All others deserve instant justice, but he forbears.

Isn't this verse interesting:
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. [Isa 48:10 ESV]
Is this what Hitler was about?  God still refining His people into the purity of heart he requires?

2022 - These verses:
12 "Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. 13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together. [Isa 48:12-13 ESV].  Third time we have seen the one calling himself the first and the last also say he is the creator of the world.  This is Jesus talking, this is Jesus as creator in the OT.  Four total times now, all in the 40's of Isaiah.  This is confirmed in vs 6 where it says "From this time forth I announce to you new things".  Isn't that what Jesus' entire ministry was about.  New wine.  And reading these verses , the whole point seems to be that God is going to go in a completely unanticipated direction.  Jesus as suffering servant was unexpected in the first century.  No one was looking for that.  So...will the end be like that also?  Will it come about in a way tat absolutely no one anticipated?  That's what Dwight thinks will happen.

God pleads with Israel, that they may recognize Him for who He is.  The one who created all, who sees all, and who knows what will come about, because He has made it so.  God laments their disobedience.  Then there is this verse:
18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; [Isa 48:18 ESV]

Chapter 49
1 Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. [Isa 49:1 ESV]
Seems to me pretty important to know what name we are talking about here.  My old NKJV does not have a star by this verse.  Still, it is obvious that this is about Jesus.  MSB says 49:1-57:21 define the Messiah/Servant's prophetic and priestly functions.  The outline switches now from the deliverance from Babylonian captivity to the sufferings of the Servant of the Lord.
As to 49:1 specifically, MSB says it this way:  The whole world, including Gentiles...are called to recognize two significant points:
1) The Messiah/Servant will be a human being, born as others are of a woman, yet virgin born, and
2) He will be an individual as distinct from a personified group such as the nation of Israel, which has also been called the Lord's servant.
Also, MSB says 1-13 is the second of four "Servant Songs".  The first was 42:1-9, next will be 50:4-11, and then 52:13-53:12.  So three of them will be covered today.

(((2021 - I am just too tired to absorb all this.  I can see what an unbelievable remarkable chapter this is.  This verse in particular:
6 he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." [Isa 49:6 ESV]
God could  have sent Jesus just to save Jacob.  This would have fulfilled all the promises He had made.  But this was not enough for such a sacrifice.  Something so unprecedented and so encompassing had to do more than save just one small tribe on planet earth.  So God made it a bigger thing.  He opened the nations, not just the nation of Israel, to redemption by this sacrifice.  Looking at the notes below, I had seen this before, and understood it this way, but I had forgotten.  How can you forget something like this???)))
Possible FB Post for Christmas!  He was born for the whole world!

So for many chapters we will see a prophecy of the characteristics, actions, and purposes of the incarnation of God.  Every verse of the first four is "notable".  
In 2, we see the sharp sword- the word that Jesus brought was clear, new, concise, direct from God.  It was provocatively direct in its accusation of the practices of the time.  (Again, this was written around 750 BC, long before Jesus appeared, yet the NT descriptions of Jesus and His life tie right back to these verses in Isaiah.)
vs 4, many will say that the life of this Servant was a failure.  But the Servant knows He accomplished what He was sent for.  This is what Islam denies.  They are ashamed of the cross, and they say that "story" is a lie, because God would not let such a Servant die in so ignominious a way.  Yet Isaiah says that is what will happen.
vss 5, 6, God says that for Jesus to have come ONLY for Jacob, and ONLY to bring back Israel, is just not enough.  God will make him a light for the nations, that salvation may reach the ends of the earth.  
In vs 7 we see the contrast between Jesus' coming in the first century and His second coming.  The first time, he was deeply despised, the next time, Kings and princes will prostrate themselves before him.  
vss 8-13 tell of Israel's return.  The image of them coming on highways back to Canaan is repeated yet again.  Many references to it in Isaiah.  They will come, and God will provide as they come, so that they neither hunger nor thirst, nor is the sun too hot or the wind too bitter as they come.  All nations will see this and know that there is a God in Israel.  Exactly when is this?  Is this during the entire 7 year tribulation period that they make their way back to Jerusalem?  Or is it a migration that begins when Jesus takes the throne in Jerusalem?  It would be a good study to tie this passage - and the others about the "highways" back to Jerusalem - to a specific point in the future.  This is a good marker for end times, and it would be good to know if it marks the beginning, or is dispersed through the whole 7, or does not really occur until Trib is over.
Also, in vs 8, in this second servant song, Jesus is again called a covenant to the people.  (As he was in 42:6, within the first servant song.)  The New Covenant in Christ's blood is foretold here, almost in so many words.  How did they not see it.  The phrases about prisoners being freed and those in darkness shown the light is here for the second time...But my memory is too poor to remind me whether the first time was in Isaiah or one of the prophets contemporary with him.  "The people in darkness have seen a great light..." is one verse - I could find that.  The answer Jesus gives to John the Baptist's disciples - the blind see, the lame walk...that verse also talks about prisoners and darkness - so I could find that one also.  So my memory does not completely fail me...I could get there.  (Actually no.  Jesus does not mention the prisoners being set free in either Matthew or Luke.  Because John was not going to be set free.  Jesus left that out because THAT part is yet future.)

New section starts in 14.  Zion claims God has forsaken them.  Maybe this is what they were thinking when they heard the stories about Jesus, and the claims He was Messiah.  He did not do as they expected, He did not throw off Roman rule.  So they saw it as God forsaking them, and leaving them in bondage and captivity to Rome, as they had been to Egypt.
Beginning in 15, we have God's answer to that charge:
15 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. [Isa 49:15 ESV]
Next several verses imply that when the Jews come home, there will be so many that the land will barely contain them.  The Jews themselves will be shocked at the numbers.  The lost 10 could be a lot of "uncounted" Jews.  Maybe even they don't know they are Jews.

2023 - These two verses:
19 "Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land-- surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. 20 The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: 'The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.' [Isa 49:19-20 ESV].  Does this not imply that God knows the layout of the land in Ezekiel, when Israel is apportioned again to the 12 tribes, won't really fit into present day geography?  Don't these verses acknowledge that God knows about this, and has a plan to "make it fit"?  Vss 22-23 imply that all the land Israel needs will be "donated" at that time?  
2023 - Note that this same passage tells us that when the Jews return to Israel, it is not going to be a trickle.  It is not going to be any 30,000 a year, or even a month.  It will be a flood.

23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame." [Isa 49:23 ESV]
So this is talking about a future time when Israel will be exalted by all nations.  Israel will be honored, and all will submit to her.
Those who oppose Israel in that time will be dealt with by God Himself:
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." [Isa 49:26 ESV]  Seems to be a description of Tribulation.  That would tie the return to the 7 year period as a whole, rather than to one of the endpoints I think. 2022 - Or directly to the fall of Babylon in Revelation.  Perhaps this is a clue to how that will happen.  Looks like insanity - but possibly the world will just no longer be able to support its population by the time things get to the fall of Babylon.  Maybe the whole economic/trade/greed system comes crashing down when all anyone really wants is a loaf of bread.

Chapter 50
1 Thus says the LORD: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away. [Isa 50:1 ESV]
Here, God says that the separation of Judah was not permanent.  Though they feel "divorced" and "sold" because of the suffering that they are enduring - the result of their iniquity and rebellion against God - there is no divorce, there is no bill of sale.  MSB says that in Jeremiah, speaking of the northern kingdom, God does divorce them.  But the Davidic covenant means that Judah, that the House of David, be forever preserved.  So wouldn't this mean the Northern Kingdom will never come back???  Why is the land divided among all 11 tribes in Ezekiel's vision if only Judah - or maybe Judah and Benjamin - are still covenant children?  Hmm...because the promise to Abraham continues despite the failure of the northern 10 to keep the Mosaic?  They don't get Mosaic promises but they do still participate in the Millennial as sons of Abraham?
2021 - That last part of the verse does not read as if there is no certificate, but as if there is one.  I know what Jeremiah says.  It seems like it might be more accurate to apply this verse, and those around it, to the northern kingdom?  If we do that though, we change subjects from the end of 49 to 50:1.  

2022 - The first two verses are extremely long.  Vs 4 is also very long, as are 10 and 11.

2021 - Here's the thing.  I got through Isaiah to about chapter 40 this time and was able to keep up.  Once I hit Colossians though, which I had never studied much, I found so much information there that I had no "brain cells" left to study Isaiah.  This continued into 1 Thessalonians.  Yesterday, when I got to 49, I just got lost, and now today, looking at 50, I don't know what's going on.  So I'm going to read this on out - Isaiah that is - and maybe next year I can read these Isaiah chapters first, and then do Col and Thess.  That's why I picked this reading plan this year, because I think the other plan I've used rushes too quickly through the NT.  With this plan, I read 1 chapter in the NT most days, so there is time to really look at it.  With the old plan, I read 1 and 2 Thessalonians - the entire books - both on the same day.  So I will not feel bad that Isaiah is losing a little this year.  I had time to read it first the last three years.
2022 - Same this year.  I actually didn't make it all the way to Isaiah 40 before I got lost this time, and I really feel like I am just reading to satisfy the plan at this point.  The Servant Songs are so very important, and there is just no telling how much is there, if I weren't used up from 1 Thessalonians. I got SO VERY MUCH out of 1 Thess today though!  I would hate to give that up!  And Colossians 3 and 4?  There's a month of material there!  Even so, I am making notes above, and at the beginning of Col and 1 Thess to read my Isaiah stuff FIRST next year.  It is time to buckle down here.
2023 - Once I finally noticed the notes that said to read Isaiah first this year, and switched over to doing so, I got a lot out of Isaiah.  I don't think you could ever get "all there is" from Isaiah, but I've gotten more this year than I have in a good long time.  I am starting 50 today and don't feel just completely lost.  Probably will do the Isaiah chapters first again next year.

Then in vs 4, the third "Servant Song" begins.  In this one, it is the Servant who is talking.  Jesus says he listened to God, each morning, as to a teacher, and so he did God's will perfectly.  Then this in vs 6:
6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. [Isa 50:6 ESV]
Obedience to the point of suffering bodily, physical harm.  Jesus did this, how can we not???  Jesus says that though the world sees this as a disgrace, God does not.  God sees it as obedience, and will be Jesus' help.  

2023 - This is the OT, the book, that Mohammad told his followers to believe.  In this book it says that Jesus would suffer ignominy during his life, and it makes this a good thing, an example for us all.  For Islam to deny Jesus as servant, as suffering disgrace, is not only unbiblical, but to do so they must also ignore the Quran.

2021 - So vss 4-9 are almost like Jesus in the past, before His incarnation, looking "back" on the life he had on earth as if it is already done.  This is God unrestricted by time.  Then in vss 10, 11, a couple of long verses, we get the warning and the sermon.  If you try to do this yourself, you will burn.  It is an interesting couple of verses, almost saying that we are better to continue in darkness than to light a fire of our own.  Trust Him in the dark.  
It is interesting that 4-9 were just ignored as to a possible application to the Messiah.  Whom did they think these were about?  The Pharisees had this book.  Who did they think these verses were about?  Because if you really read these verses, they can only be about the Messiah, and about him being spat upon, and so forth.  You would have seen the suffering, abused, murdered servant.  But then, I have the benefit of hindsight.  Still, I would like to know what they taught about these verses.

Then these two verses, spoken by Jesus.  Phrased to show that all is given into His hands, because of his obedience and suffering:
10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. 11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment. [Isa 50:10-11 ESV]
This says our faith, our trust, even in the darkest of times, is to be in the LORD.  We are NOT to try and find our own way, NOT to light our own torch so that we can see the way, but to exclusively trust and rely on our God.  This refers to man-made religions, to "works righteousness", to earning our way into heaven by our own power and effort.  This refers also to man-made philosophies for coping with the world - Stoicism, existentialism, Marxism, and our modern day "torches" like intersectionality, and whatever we substituted for Marxism.  Those who rely on either of these - false religion or man made enlightenment, have the same end - they will "lie down in torment".  They won't make it.  They won't get close to making it.  These words are the words of Christ, given by God to Isaiah.  This is the ONE WAY foretold in Isaiah.  Jesus' appearance as the New Covenant should not have been a mystery at all.
Possible FB post after that other one about Islam?

Chapter 51
This starts with three commands from God to Israel:
The first is translated in ESV as "Listen to me..."
God says that He will take care of Abraham's descendants, and of the land in which they dwell.  At least, he will take care of those who "pursue righteousness".
The second is in vs 4 and is translated "Give attention to me..."
Heaven and earth will be no more, and ONLY those that follow God will survive it.  His salvation is forever:
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed. [Isa 51:6 ESV]

Then, a third in vs 7, translated "Listen to me...": that we are not to worry about being reviled by man, nor to fear man.  Such men will pass away, but God's salvation will be forever.

Then the people answer, they pray, they request.  They cry "Awake, awake...."; this is an appeal to God to preserve and protect Israel as in the days of old.  Reference to the crossing of the Red Sea.  Puts the lie to the "shallow part of the Red Sea theory".  
Don't quite get this verse:
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? [Isa 51:9 ESV]
What Rahab does this refer to?  I thought Rahab helped, and even appears in the genealogy of Jesus?  I think I get the dragon ok, but Rahab?  Is she here a stand-in for Babylon?  MSB note says this:  "This prayer of deliverance in the future was based on times past when the Lord overcame Rahab, which was a term widely used to refer to things that wreak havoc, often, as in this case, Egypt. (See Ps 87:4.)"  That verse says this:  4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush-- "This one was born there," they say. [Psa 87:4 ESV]  Ok, it does use the word Rahab...Still a confusing term to me.

vs 12 is God's answer to the prayer:  "I, I am He who comforts you...".  Don't fear men, men die.  God is forever.  God declares that in His great power, He has declared Israel His people:
16 And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, 'You are my people.'" [Isa 51:16 ESV]

vs 17, God continues.  He says to those who have "drunk to the dregs of the bowl, the cup of staggering", referring to their captivity and slavery at the hands of Babylon, that there are no sons of Israel that can help them in this time of trouble.  She has no "sons" of her own capable of delivering her.

This verse, yet again speaking of double punishment:
19 These two things have happened to you-- who will console you?-- devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you? [Isa 51:19 ESV]
Israel had to suffer twice before vs 22 comes to pass.

God says He has done this:
22 Thus says your Lord, the LORD, your God who pleads the cause of his people: "Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more; [Isa 51:22 ESV]
Seems to foretell the end of the "blindness in part" that came on Israel.  The end of the double punishment.  This comes in Revelation.  The Jews come back to God in droves, recognizing Christ as Messiah, in the end times.  It is all laid out here.
2022 - It is likely also about the return from Babylon.  They were in captivity for 70 years, and then came home.  Their oppressors were overtaken in a day by Cyrus.

2021 - No new notes this year.

Chapter 52
First two verses are sort of a poem, or a refrain, exhorting Zion to dress up, to raise her head, to loose her bonds.  The implication is that their freedom is coming, their return to Zion is coming.
vs 3 is very interesting:
3 For thus says the LORD: "You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money." [Isa 52:3 ESV]
Seems to imply that no permanent contract of their captivity was made.  Possibly referring to the earlier idea that there was no divorce, and there was no sale into slavery.  If no money changes hands, there is no contract.  In the same way as the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our salvation.  Something of value changes hands when we are saved.  That is a permanent contract between God and those He saves.  His promise to fulfill or forfeit.

vs 7 starts with "How beautiful upon the mountains..."  MSB says this is about the Millennial, when the Jews return to Zion.
vs 10 says all nations will see the salvation of Israel.
When Israel returns to Zion, she will not be running in fear, she will not be in a moving skirmish.  God will go before, and God will be her rear guard.  Israel will go home in peace and assurance, calmly, and without fear.

Then we come to the next "Servant Song".  It starts like this:
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. [Isa 52:13 ESV]  Prophesies the cross before crucifixion was invented.
2023 - I think you could say just as easily that this verse is about the throne of Christ in the Millennial kingdom.  MSB points out that 52:13-15 are a summary and preview of teh humiliation and exaltation of the Servant...As to vs 13 specifically, he says "Ultimately, when the Servant rules over His kingdom, He will receive international recognition for the effectiveness of His reign."  So MSB says vs 13 is about the Millennial.  It is more internally consistent if applied there.

14 As many were astonished at you-- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind-- [Isa 52:14 ESV]  Prophesies the scourging, the beating, the abuse.  So bruised and beaten he didn't even look human anymore.  What they did to Jesus would have killed anyone else way before they put him on the cross.  Only a man perfect in every way - not just sinless, but with the physical perfection that only God can create - would have been able to withstand the cruelty that Jesus endured.

2023 - Here is the last verse:
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. [Isa 52:15 ESV].  TCR footnote says "sprinkle" can also be translated "startle".   Imagine the shock of seeing Jesus carrying that cross with his skin in tatters, blood everywhere, a walking dead man.  Horror mixed with shock and incredulity that this man was still alive.  The powers of this world will feel those same emotions when Jesus appears again, this time with an uncountable army, coming to take over the whole planet and rule it from Jerusalem.  They won't want to believe what their own eyes tell them.

2021 - No new notes.

Chapter 53
Song continues:
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. [Isa 53:2 ESV]
Jesus was not a "standout" personality.  Not tall and handsome like Solomon.  He was as common as dirt in appearance.  He was from the poor, not from the rich.  He was not a Pharisee - a member of the elite.  It goes on with this verse:
3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. [Isa 53:3 ESV]
The life of Christ.  So despised, so low, so shamed by man that people won't even look at him.  Made me think of all those beggars on the side of the road.  We avoid eye contact with them.  We won't even look at them.  No one wanted to make His acquaintance as he was marched to Golgotha.  Most looked away.  All this written 750 years before it happened.  Islam falls on these verses.  They say they believe in the OT, and yet here are these verses foretelling the life and death of Jesus, a life despised by those in power, too lowly even for them to take notice of, along with a death suitable only to the worst criminals, and they deny all of these facts!

2023 - Reminds me yet again of just how similar Judaism and Islam are in their evaluations of the life of Jesus.  They both, still, prefer to rely on their own merit for a place in eternity than to rely on Jesus.  In this they are the same.  The spirit of the Pharisees is alive and well in the 21st century!

Then two of the fundamental verses establishing the cross as a substitutionary death for all of us, undeniable unless you refuse, obstinately, to acknowledge them:
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [Isa 53:5-6 ESV]

On through 9, we see prophecy after prophecy that was literally fulfilled by Jesus in the manner of his trial and death.  This could not be coincidence, could not be staged, could not be orchestrated by man.  Too many factors, too many players, too much complexity.  Only God could do this, and only a very stubborn person could deny it.  That is why rejection of Christ has such a severe penalty.  
2021 - Charlie is always talking about how current day Jews ignore this whole chapter.  They have to, because it is so undeniable in its subject.  This is about the suffering servant, and even the Jews in Jesus' day would not read it as such.  Or if they did, surely they made it about "some other man".  Islam has the same problem.  They call Jesus a prophet and nothing more, and yet his role in the salvation of the whole world is spelled out in this chapter.  These prophecies are just beyond the possibility of chance.
2022 - The only way that a chapter like this can exist is if it was inspired by God, who had causative foreknowledge of what was to come, and which He has challenged idol worshipers to disprove or match in accuracy many times in this book, OR, this chapter had to be inserted into the middle of  Isaiah after the lifetime of Jesus.  Those are the only possible ways that this chapter can even be here.  Keep in mind that inserting a whole chapter in the middle of a scroll is a lot different than inserting an additional page in a book at its next reprinting.  You have to be deliberately dense to not see this.
2023 - This is not the only chapter that would have to be rewritten.  There are also many passages within chapters.  And then you have to explain the repeated challenges to idols to do the same.  You can call it conspiracy, but then you have to tell me  how it was done.  And tell me why the complete scroll of Isaiah, found in Qumran, looks just like the one in my Bible, even though that specific scroll, the oldest complete copy we have of Isaiah, is dated anywhere from 350 BC down to 100 BC.  This puts the lie to any possibility of insertion at a later time.  At the VERY LEAST, the version of Isaiah that we have today pre-dated the birth of Christ by 100 years.  So how can it be so accurate?  I guess the fallback position for disbelievers would be to say the NT writers must have collaborated to "insert" things that didn't really happen in order to make Jesus seem like the one of whom the prophecies are written.  Perhaps they inserted the part about casting lots at the foot of the cross.  Maybe they're all lying about the spear in his side, and so on.  You would have to start in Isaiah, find the corresponding fulfilment story in the NT, and  make each and every one of them a fabricated insertion.  Then you'd have to make sure ALL the copies matched.  Now tell me, what advantage would there be, what motivation would be sufficient, to lead to all that effort, when all they had to do really was be good Jews, and continue in the Jewish tradition.  Note that the Quran was put together post-Mohammad in just this way.  All the copies from before the current version were gathered and burned.  What motivated them to do that with the Quran?  And remember, we KNOW they did it, we know they revised it, compiled it, arranged it, published it, and made having any other version punishable by death.  There isn't even a rumor of such a thing happening with the NT books.

I have never "seen" vs 11 before:
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. [Isa 53:11 ESV]
So many things here...
1)  Jesus' passion satisfied God's requirements for sin - death.  Horrible, suffering, death.
2)  By his knowledge - Jesus knows, because God lets him know, who is to be saved.
3)  My servant - refers back to the beginning of this section in Chapter 49.  We know who the servant is.  
4)  Doesn't say Jesus makes us righteous - we are not and can never be.  It says we are accounted righteous, because of what Christ has done.
5)  Jesus bears our iniquities.  He carries them.  They are taken off of us and put squarely on his back.  And because of his perfect life, God accepts the death of Christ as payment for all those iniquities that he carries.
This has to go on FB!
Later, 2023 - Tried putting it on FB.  Too many pronouns.  Hard to understand when "he" is the Lord, and when "he" is Jesus.  I couldn't unravel it, so not going to post it at this time.

vs 12b is an excellent proof text for limited atonement:
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. [Isa 53:12 ESV]
Many, but not all.  Only those who were to be saved.

Chapter 54
This chapter comes right after the fourth of four "Servant Songs", all Messianic.  

vss 1-4, Encouragement to the barren, the downtrodden, the lowly.  One day they will be so taken care of that they won't recall the bad times at all.  The wording seems to be addressed specifically to women, and then this in vs 5 seems to confirm that:
5 For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. [Isa 54:5 ESV]
No, that's not what it means.  Israel as a nation is the "woman" and these words about how Israel has been laid low for so long, but will rise and repopulate following the destruction of the Tribulation period.  

2021, These verses:
6 For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. 7 For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. [Isa 54:6-7 ESV]
Here is the distinction between the "bill of divorcement" that God gives to Ephraim, and the "temporary putting off" of Judah.  God "deserted" - that is the word - His people Israel because of their transgressions, but he did not divorce them.  The contract is still in effect.  

This verse is an encouragement also.  A good verse for when we sin, and are in repentance, and are suffering through the consequences of that sin:
8 In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the LORD, your Redeemer. [Isa 54:8 ESV]  I think the "moment" is the church age.  Brief from God's point of view, but very long in human terms.  This would indicate that this chapter is talking about the time after the church age, and is likely referring to the Millennial as the verses above did.

vs 9 is pretty interesting, and another that I never really noticed before:
9 "This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you. [Isa 54:9 ESV]
This seems to promise that Israel will never be conquered and taken into captivity again as punishment from God.  Yet there is WWII and the holocaust. Surely that time in Israel's history was as bad as the Babylonian captivity?  Not to mention 70 AD and following, and God's anger with them at that time.  WWII could all have been Satan attacking them, trying to wipe them out, as in Daniel, so not a result of God's anger.  But surely 70 AD was about God's anger? Ahh...MSB says this promise not to be angry will be fulfilled after their final restoration.  The Millennial.  So it would be saying that the blinding and deafening and the double punishment that has lasted 2000 years so far will not come to Israel again.  That was a one time thing.  Or...could be referring to Trib and Great Trib and all that Israel must endure while that is in progress....but church age seems more likely.

The promises of peace and righteousness and God's benevolent presence continue.  vs 15:
15 If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. [Isa 54:15 ESV]  Hitler did...but if we stick with these prophecies being of the Millennial, then this is not about him.

This last part of the last verse of 54:
17 ...This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD." [Isa 54:17b ESV]  Israel finally vindicated before the entire world, set in the top place, ruler of all nations.  That is vindication indeed.

2023 - Adding more the passage that ends with vs 17:
16 Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; 17 no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD." [Isa 54:16-17 ESV].  Read this verse in light of events in Israel beginning October 7, 2023.  The ravager brought his weapons and came to destroy all that he could.  But they didn't win.  Every tongue - every word - spoken against Israel will be refuted.  Thing U Penn, MIT, Harvard presidents.  Think demonstrators on campuses.  Think Taylor Swift.  All these who rise against Israel will one day be refuted.  Vindication of Israel will, adn it will come directly from God.  I don't want to be one of them.  I will pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Chapter 55
A call to those who thirst and hunger to come to God for everlasting food and drink, at no cost.  This verse:
1 "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. [Isa 55:1 ESV]
The woman at the well.  Never thirst.  Jesus was connecting himself to these Messianic prophecies in Isaiah.  He was telling them that he was the Messiah, and doing it in  unmistakable ways.  Yet they would not believe.

This, in vs 3, summarizes the section:
3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. [Isa 55:3 ESV]

Next section starts this way:
6 "Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. [Isa 55:6-7 ESV]
To whom is this addressed?  To Israel in captivity in Babylon?  To us today?  Is there a third possibility?  It sure reads like a universal invitation.
MSB says this is an excellent example of how people were saved in the OT.  So he is saying this is addressed not to us today exactly - because our salvation is in the Christ that we know and in his substitutionary death.  But in the OT, before Christ, MSB says they had to 1)seek the Lord (many references given) and 2) call on Him while He is still available.  Lots more references given.  A good study here.  The note continues in some detail.  I would really like to look further into this difference in OT and NT salvation, since they are said to be different covenants.  The way the MSB explains it, there is not much difference at all...not enough to call it a different covenant entirely.

Rest of the chapter talks about how God's Word will go forth, and not return empty.  Comparison to rain and snow falling, watering the ground, producing growth, and then seed, so that it reproduces forever, and never fails.

Chapter 56

2021-Reading straight through 56-58.  It is fair, because I've had more time for them before, and always short changed the NT when I got there.  This morning, I spent a wholly inadequate 90 minutes on 2Thess2.  That's a lot of concentration for me.  So I will just read these next three chapters in Isaiah, and be happy with my morning.

This chapter starts with what reads like a universal invitation, even to those who are foreigners and eunuchs.  The section title in ESV is "Salvation for Foreigners", so that confirms.  Then there are these verses:
6 "And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant-- 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." [Isa 56:6-7 ESV]
If I wanted to show that the church and Israel are combined ultimately and that the promises to Israel are fulfilled to the church, this would be one of my proof texts.  This verse also, maybe even more so:
8 The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, "I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered." [Isa 56:8 ESV]
Hmm...need to remember that 54 and 55 were about the Millennial kingdom.  We are talking here about that future time.  I think.  The fact that it is talking about Sabbaths and Sacrifices implies the Millennial age, not the church age.  The church is not required to keep the Mosaic law.  Perhaps this means that some Gentiles will indeed be saved during the Tribulation period.  I had wondered a couple of times if there would be any at all or if only Jews would come to Christ during that time.  These verses imply that Gentiles will also be present in the New Temple, and observe the Mosaic Law.

vss 9-12 are a sharp break from what went before.  The section title in MSB is "Israel's Irresponsible Leaders".  But it doesn't read that way to me.  It is really hard to tell who is being indicted here.  Not clear to me anyway.  MSB agrees with the section title.  2020-It seems that Isaiah has come back to the present from the prophecy of the Millennial age that is coming.  It is like his vision of the future ends with vs. 8, and he begins to address the Israel of his own time in vs 9.  

Chapter 57
The righteous are at peace.  They rest in God.  These verses:
1 The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity; 2 he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness. [Isa 57:1-2 ESV]
Perishes.  Taken away from calamity.  Do these two go together?  Seems to say that God saves the righteous from wrath and punishment sent upon the unrighteous by bringing them home to Him.  MSB puts it this way:  "In contrast to the evil leaders, who were engaged in debauchery and self-indulgence, were the righteous  who were removed from impending divine judgements.  The righteous do suffer by oppression and distress at what is going on around them, but they die in faith and enjoy their eternal reward."
Wow.  Wonder if I could word this properly for a FB post to calm the fears of saved people who are experiencing earthly misgivings?  People like me!

In contrast, the unrighteous - idolators, sorcerers, worshipers on the high places - these are not in God's favor.  These verses:
4 Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit, 5 you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? [Isa 57:4-5 ESV]
Two ideas here:
First, this would be a great FB post linked to one of those articles I've seen lately about people holding up signs saying Jesus should stay dead, or some other outrageously impudent statement about the living God.  This addresses them so directly.  They are evil and descended from evil.  They are killers of children.  That are immoral and unrighteous.    But the verse with their fate needs to be included also.  Bring it here when you find it....Best possibility within the chapter is this:
13 When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them all off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. [Isa 57:13 ESV]  Could use 13a only.  Says God will not be there for such people when they ultimately face their doom.  No compassion for them at all.

Second, this phrase "cleft of the rock" shows up so often.  In this verse, it is where children are sacrificed.  In the Revelation it is where men hide themselves to escape final destruction.  In the song, it is where Jesus hides the soul of the righteous.  A very different place than what I picture.  Must be another verse that uses this phrase in a positive way.  Hmm...the song is written by Guy Penrod, in the Gaither Vocal Band.  The one with the really long gray hair.

2023 - Perhaps, also, we are to notice the irony of people trying to hide from God at the end in the same places they used to provoke him by murdering the innocent in the Old Testament.  Do they not see that he already knows about those places they've chosen to hide from him?  But I did a little research on it, and while it is an interesting thought, I don't believe it really holds up very well.  I think I am trying to make a connection that does not exist.  Closest I could get was this one:  15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" [Rev 6:15-17 ESV].  You might make a case that "among the rocks" is "cleft", but I think it's a stretch. 

The summary verse for the indictment of idol worshipers, for those who don't fear God:
13 When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them all off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. [Isa 57:13 ESV]

Those of lowly and contrite hearts will dwell with the Holy One of Israel.  Peace is promised to them.  Seems to be addressed to those in captivity who are still worshiping God, who still believe and follow Him and pray to Him.  God encourages them that this will not last forever, that He will forgive, He will bring them home.  Then, there is this last verse, which makes it clear that this rest and peace is still not for just everyone:
21 There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked." [Isa 57:21 ESV]
Reading this in 2020, I would tie it back to the first two verses in this chapter.  The righteous live among the wicked, the righteous in some measure also suffer as God punishes and contends with the wicked and persuades them to return to Him, and also certainly punishes them for their unrighteousness.  These last verses - 14-21, are a reminder to those caught up in the swirl of God's dealing with the unrighteous that He has a place for them.  He knows their names.  He says this is not going to go on forever, they can look forward to a more peaceful time.  God also says here that some, at least, will repent because of His actions.  There will be some who are pulled out of this quagmire, who are saved from hell, by the chastisement and punishment of God.  It is for those that He does these things!!!  Here it is in so many words!!!  But when all is said and done, some will still be in vs 21.  No peace for the wicked.  Wow.  This too would be a good FB post if I could get it into the right words.

Chapter 58
This starts with an exhortation to lift up your voice and declare the transgression of God's people.  It is addressed to no one exactly.  Could be God's word to Isaiah to preach truth, or it could be the message that all God's people are to preach.  Those seeking God insincerely ask why their fasts are not noticed.  God says it is because they do it for themselves and not for Him.  God says they don't humble themselves when they fast, and so they are not doing it as He requires.  Therefore, He does not honor it.

The next section explains the kind of fast God does honor:

6 "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? [Isa 58:6-7 ESV]

Rest of the section, through vs 12, tells the result of proper fasting.  I could copy/paste the whole section.  Some that stand out to me:  1) You shall call and the Lord will answer, 2)the Lord will guide you continually, 3) satisfy your desire, 4) make your bones strong, 5) your ancient ruins will be rebuilt.
Far far better to fast the right way.  This whole section is a lesson in why we should fast and what can be accomplished by fasting.  I never fast.  This surely seems to say that I should - that we all should...No...Not really.  I think this is saying that insincere fasting does us no good.  What God requires - the "fast" that matters to Him - is when we do the things that we should.  When we look out for the poor, when we help the helpless and house the homeless.  In fact, it goes all the way back to vs 6 where we are to stop oppressing others with wicked practices - and so free them from the results of wickedness.  This is all about "love your neighbor"!  This is making the same point about insincere fasting as we have repeatedly seen about sacrifices.  It is not the performance of ritual for the sake of ritual that pleases God.  It is the actions, the thoughts, of a sincere heart that seeks to honor and obey God that he looks on with favor.  It is a pure heart that draws His eyes to us.
Still another FB post in this chapter.

I am just amazed by all the things in this chapter as I read it in 2020.  I thought I got a lot from it in 2019, but this is oh so much more.

The last two verses, rather long verses, speak of the rewards of honoring God's Sabbath, as He intended.  The point here is the same as about fasting.  If  you observe the Sabbath sincerely, as an honor to God and not for yourself, God will see, and God will reward.

Chapter 59
I still very much like verse 2.  God doesn't just go away and stay.  Our sins separate us from Him, and He refuses to hear.  It could be argued, and maybe rightly so, that this verse is about how God deals with nations, rather than individuals.  Surely he hears the prayers of the saved, even when they are far from Him?

2021, Here is what is going on in the US today:
1 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. [Isa 59:1-2 ESV]
These verses are about the nation of Israel, not about a person in Israel.  The nation has moved away from God, abandoned any serious devotion to Him, and goes about their daily lives without no thought of Him at all.  This attitude, and the total disregard of the rules and commands of God, have made a separation.  That is, the sins of that nation are the cause of what is to come.  God did not move away, those people, by their actions, moved away.  Because of this, God will not see, nor will he hear their prayers.  There were still s few good people in Israel at this time, but there were not enough to keep that nation in favorable regard.  God had let the nation go.
This is a FB post, but needs to be smoothed a bit.  Found it on a "short" morning.
These verses go on and on with specifics about what is going on in the nation.  Through vs 8 Isaiah talks indicts them.  Things like frivolous lawsuits aimed at money, not at justice, rampant lies.  Then it says they "hatch adders eggs" and "weave the spider's web".  These two metaphors carry on for many verses.  Perhaps the first is about carefully crafting a plan that will release evil on others...and perhaps backfire on oneself.  Eggs don't hatch unless cared for, but if it is adders that hatch, the results may be destructive even to the one who planned it.  This makes sense.  And the spiders web...about trapping those unaware of the web.  About deceiving the innocent.  No justice in this, just evil.  So...disregard of collateral damage, and random injustice.  Yes.  Those who do these things are a problem.  Like MSM telling lies for political gain.  Like the lies Fauci is telling us.  Evil is all around us.  Are we as far gone as Israel was?  Will God even be as patient with us as He was with them?

The description, or the further accusation of those that are addressed here, is a national indictment.  It is not about an individual but about a culture, as in vs 4:
4 No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. [Isa 59:4 ESV]
So context says verse 2 is about the nation.  Somehow, there is a line that a whole nation can cross, a line of what is and is not an acceptable level of justice, and behavior, and a way that we treat each other, that God - only God - can measure.  And when we cross it as a nation, God removes His hand from that nation and the progression of Romans 1...or of Isaiah 1...begins.  Another good study - comparing these two chapters.
More about the character of such a nation, such a culture:
7 Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. [Isa 59:7 ESV]

vs 9 starts with therefore - so here begin the consequences of such a culture.  Here is how individuals in such a culture live their lives:
10 We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. [Isa 59:10 ESV]
11 We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. [Isa 59:11 ESV]
What descriptive language.  Pictures from words.

2023 - Vss 1-13 are a scathing indictment of the kind of place Jerusalem - Judah - has become.  It is a corrupt place where the law is used to gain advantage rather than for justice.  This verse:
4 No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. [Isa 59:4 ESV].  They do it to tie up resources, to financially drain, to discredit.  It is not about justice or fairness at all.  It is not in these verses, but the judges who permit such things are also corrupt, hiding behind the letter and ignoring the intent.  Playing favorites at every turn, enriching themselves with bribes. Sounds a little too familiar doesn't it, in a time where fender benders turn into multi-million dollar lawsuits, depending on the financial conditions of the one at fault, rather than having much at all to do with injuries actually sustained?  This is characteristic of the kind of "culture" the Lord will not sustain, will not tolerate.  This is how the whole world will be just before the last days.  What nation, today, is NOT like this?  The US is speeding away from the principles on which it was founded.  We are throwing the baby out with the bathwater, condemning everything because of a few things.  And in my opinion, we are the last.  When we are gone the last worldwide restraint will be gone.  You think it's bad now?   We will be like the days of Noah, like this time of which Isaiah is writing, and like Paul tells us in Thessalonians.  The great "falling away" will come.

Then one of my favorites:
15 Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. [Isa 59:15 ESV]
This is on the news almost every day.  It is not allowed to speak the truth, to use facts to make decisions.  Anyone who does is accused of racism, bigotry, sexism, and if none of those apply "You're just a white male".  That alone, the way you were born, makes you evil to them.  It is their feelings, their beliefs, their "view of how things should be" that guides the culture.
You could go on and on about this.  You could find a news story that fit this verse every single day - injustice is the way of this culture.  (The above was written in 2019, before covid, before BLM, before ANTIFA.  Surely we are on a straight-line descent from 2019 to 2020.  Just look at what's happened in a year.)

17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. [Isa 59:17 ESV]  Sure seems like Paul was thinking of this verse when he wrote about putting on the full armor of God.  Had not noticed before that Paul got his idea of what we are to put on from this passage about what God put on.  Would be a good comparison.

God says He will do justice, since none can be found in Judah who will do so.  There is no one to stand up and do what's right so God will do it Himself.  He promises them He will do it.  Summarized in this verse:
20 "And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression," declares the LORD. [Isa 59:20 ESV]  This verse seems to be a Messianic prophecy.  This Redeemer is Jesus.  They have no one in Isaiah's time, and they apparently didn't get a lot better by Jesus' time.

Then God's own covenant with them is stated in so many words:
21 "And as for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD: "My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring," says the LORD, "from this time forth and forevermore." [Isa 59:21 ESV]
This is about the Millennial, when the Jews come home to Zion, and Jesus is on the throne.  When blindness and deafness is removed from Israel.  When they recognize their Messiah.  This is about the indwelling Holy Spirit.  When all nations look to Israel.

2021 - This whole chapter is a description of the state of Israel in Isaiah's time. The parallels with the US are frightening.  This chapter ought to be read in church, regularly, to convict prayers to pray, witnesses to witness, and as in vs 16 - interceders to intercede.  This is all that can turn it back.  There are too many who are comfortable with evil.  There are not enough good people left.  The only way to turn this tide is to change evil people to good people.  Think about it.  We don't pray in school, we don't say grace in public, we don't witness in the workplace lest HR descend on us.  We've let them push God out everywhere, so that none may be converted, and an evil land that cannot be turned back is the result.  In less than 250 years we have ruined a Godly nation.  

Chapter 60
This verse:
2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. [Isa 60:2 ESV]
This could be a reference to the Tribulation that precedes the Millennial, to the testing of the Jews during that time under the direct attack of Satan.  Thick darkness is an interesting phrase.  Up to this point in the Bible it has been associated with God, as in these verses:
22 "These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. [Deu 5:22 ESV]
10 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. [2Sa 22:10 ESV]
12 Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. [1Ki 8:12 ESV]
Then there are a few where thick darkness is not about God:
22 the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness." [Job 10:22 ESV]
22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness. [Isa 8:22 ESV].  Job and Isaiah both seem to use the phrase as a negative, oppressive kind of thing.  Interesting that they are so diffeent.

Then it continues with "Arise, shine, for your light has come..."  This is about the Millennial I believe.  Those who still look to God are being encouraged by this vision of the future Israel.
In vs 4 we have another reference to a great homecoming - of Jews young and old, with their children, returning to Israel.

vs 7b:
7 ...they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house. [Isa 60:7 ESV]
Surely this refers to a reconstructed Temple and to reinstatement of the sacrificial system.  Maybe just for peace offerings and thank offerings.  I don't see that sin offerings will need to be made at all at that time.  Perhaps this is referring to the early days of the Tribulation, after Anti-Christ restores the Temple.

2021 - Vss 1-9 speak of the return of the diaspora to Israel in the Millennial and to the preeminence of Israel among the nations during that time.
2021 - Vss 10 and following are about other nations bringing their wealth to Israel.  Now this is during the Millennial reign.  So if, at the sheep and goat judgment, all those who took the mark were sent to hell, and those who didn't rule with Christ, then who are these people bringing wealth to Israel?  Could there be a third group?  People and nations so remote from the goings on in the Middle East that they neither take the mark, nor are they saved?  Seems unlikely as the destruction will be worldwide...but will the reach of the Man of Lawlessness be that way?  You just have to wonder who these people are.  At the sheep and goat judgment, the lost went away.  There are only saved left.  So who will be around for vs 12 below to even be necessary?  Even if many of the sheep are Gentile and from far away, they are not at all likely to to refuse to serve the one that saved them from hell when those with the mark were sent away, right?  This whole chapter says I have that wrong, about who will be left.  Need to get this into better shape.  

10 Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. [Isa 60:10 ESV]
Perhaps God's wrath following the crucifixion is what is referred to here.  The Jews have not really been a "power" in the world since that time.  They have not even been a nation for much of it, and since 1948, they struggle every day just to remain a nation.  But God's favor will return at the Millennial at least.  Perhaps in the time leading up to Trib they will begin to come home and to be a source of guidance to the world.  They certainly are not right  now.

12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste. [Isa 60:12 ESV]
How can this promise be made to apply to the church???  No.  The promises to Abraham will be fulfilled in Abraham's descendants.  NOT in the church.

13 The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious. [Isa 60:13 ESV]
Another implication of the rebuilding of the Temple.

2021 - All the way through 18 we are still talking about the Millennial, and the way things will be.  

This verse I think refers to the New Jerusalem, even beyond the Millennial reign.  Revelation refers to this also, where sun and moon are not needed because there is no night, and God gives all the light that is needed.
19 The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. [Isa 60:19 ESV]
Maybe the whole chapter is beyond Tribulation.  Isaiah has had a number of chapters that seem clearly to be after the Tribulation and during the Millennial reign.

2023 - In a hurry before a trip, but it seems to me that we really need to know the "when" of this chapter.  If we say Millennial, then we have to say that the Kings bringing tribute are saved but not Israel.  They remained after the sheep and goat, and they know enough to bring tribute.  But...if we say this...who is vs 12 about?  Are these nations going to be present, or going to arise, during the Millennial?  Will the Jews live long lives and non-Jews die as usual such that there is frequent turnover of leadership in the rest of the world, and some of those leaders revolt?  Is this why Jesus will rule with a rod of iron?  He wouldn't need that if only the saved were left.  So we must conclude that if this is Millennial, then a whole new "age" of lost people, the lost of the thousand years, will be there.  How can you be saved during the Millennial?  It won't be by faith, because faith has become sight?  Surely it will still be with the heart, but the Temple will also be back.  A grateful heart perhaps?  And in such a situation, as always, some will not be grateful.  So not all will be saved during the Millennial.  Indeed, given that last battle, perhaps very few non-Jews will be saved.

Chapter 61
This is about Jesus' appearance in the world.  Jesus quotes this passage to John's disciples when they come and ask him who he is.  The ultimate preacher is how MSB puts it.  This will be the beginning of the fulfillment of the previous passage.  But since Jesus time, we have not yet seen the kind of prominence, salvation, and turning to the Lord by the Jews that 60 talks about.

About vs 4, we seem to go into the future, beyond Jesus earthly ministry, to things that are yet future even today.

This verse:
7 Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. [Isa 61:7 ESV]  Following double punishment, Israel will receive a double portion...Had not seen this one before either.

Chapter 62
Prophecy of the ultimate salvation of Zion.  This prophecy may also be about the New Jerusalem, beyond the Millennial.  This verse:
2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. [Isa 62:2 ESV]
A new name for Zion given it directly from God?  I haven't seen this before.  Is this prophecy also in Revelation?

Some Hebrew names for Israel, contrasted in vs 4.
From Azubah (Forsaken) and Shemamah (Desolate) to "My Delight Is in Her" (Hephzibah) and "Married" (Beulah).
11 Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, "Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him." [Isa 62:11 ESV]
The last part of this verse is repeated from Isa 40:10.  It is a memorable phrase.

Chapter 63
We switch from the triumph of Zion to God's vengeance described.

Then we get the passage from which the song "Battle Hymn of the Republic..." comes.  This verse starts it off:
3 "I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. [Isa 63:3-4 ESV]
vs 5 says this was done because there was no one to help.  I believe this is God talking to Jesus in these verses, and it is Jesus alone who wreaks vengeance on the world.  He was, after all, given all things after His resurrection.  In 2020, I still think this is about the Tribulation period.  The storm before the calm.  The restoration of the earth before the Millennial reign.

Then history is recounted.  How God loved Abraham and his descendants, made them His own people.  But they rebelled, and for that they went into bondage.  But he still remembered them, and led them out of Egypt through Moses, and He was in the midst of them as they went through the desert.  The summary verse, the reason behind all this history, is here:
14 Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name. [Isa 63:14 ESV]
God helps Israel to glorify His name.  They are so impossibly stiff-necked that not even a mother could love them for long.  Yet God does, and because He declared them His, he makes this unknown, stubborn, rebellious, impossible nation the source of all the good in the world, forever and ever.  Only God could do something like that.

vss 15-19 are a prayer, as from a nation in captivity, asking God for mercy.  Asking for the judgment to end, and for restoration of the  nation of Israel as God's people, as His children.  vs 17 is representative:
17 O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. [Isa 63:17 ESV]
This implies that God was behind their sin, though they admit their own guilt.  As in Romans 1, because of their sin, their rebellion, their lack of fear, God had let the consequences of sin run free among them.  They were treated as a Godless nation, and He did not help them.  So they were overcome, as a tiny helpless nation with no internal resources, would always be overcome.  They want this to end.  They want God's hand on them once again.  (some of these thoughts from MSB.)

Chapter 64
Starts with a request for God to come down, now, and to show His power to His enemies and to make the mountains shake, as he did of old.  It goes on to acknowledge the sinfulness and rebellion of the then current Judah and Jerusalem.  5b is representative:
5 ...Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? [Isa 64:5b ESV]

This verse:
7 There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. [Isa 64:7 ESV]
Judah and Jerusalem lack much, if any, people committed still to God and His ways.  They are in a virtually complete international rebellion against Him.  And here is the theme again for how God deals with nations that rebel.  He hides His face, He turns away, and lets the natural consequences of our actions run their course.  Human behavior, human beings, corrupt since the fall of Adam, will ALWAYS destroy themselves when left strictly to themselves.  We have neither the knowledge nor the inclination to continue in God's ways in the absence of devotion to Him.  He does not help us unless we acknowledge that our help comes from Him.

The end of the "prayer" is in vs 12:
12 Will you restrain yourself at these things, O LORD? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly? [Isa 64:12 ESV]
This is also like the prayers that David prayed after he had sinned so terribly.  It does not say "I should not be punished like this", it says "How long will this punishment I deserve go on?  When will it be enough?"

Chapter 65
God speaks directly in this chapter
The first 7 verses are God's statement that He must do something.  He will no longer forbear.  
vs 1, MSB confirms that this is about how Israel did not really seek God, though He waited for them to do so.  Then at the end, God makes Himself available to the Gentiles.  
He lists some things that Judah is doing that cannot go unpunished.  He cannot keep silent about these things, and consequences are coming.  Here are a few verses that stood out to me - first the charges, then the sentence:
3 a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; 4 who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; 5 who say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you." These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. ... 7 both your iniquities and your fathers' iniquities together, says the LORD; because they made offerings on the mountains and insulted me on the hills, I will measure into their lap payment for their former deeds." [Isa 65:3-5, 7 ESV]
Really this section starts in vs 2.  The people are rebellious and disdain God's offer to be their God and watch over them supernaturally.  Instead, they invent/craft/mold idols and worship and offer sacrifices to these things they themselves have made.  The sitting in tombs and secret places...could be occult practices.  They seek to communicate with the dead and to find and use secret powers.  And then the references to food.  We could see this as their violation of the dietary laws meant to separate them from those around them, but the wording seems like there is more to it than that.  More along the lines of them polluting themselves with what they eat.  They disregard even their own bodies in their rebellion against God and indulge in self-destructive practices like eating unwholesome foods.

In the second section, starting in vs 8, He says again that though what is coming might be terrible, He will not destroy them all.  He will keep some for Himself.

These verses:
10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me. 11 But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny, 12 I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in." [Isa 65:10-12 ESV]
Those that God keeps are not arbitrarily chosen.  He doesn't take some from the good and some from the bad to preserve through the coming consequences.  He will preserve those who follow Him with all their heart, suffering great punishment with those who have brought this on them all, yet continuing to worship and praise God right through it.  We need to be prepared for this - to be ready to praise God even as we are caught up in the punishment he brings on a nation.  (Just like that verse yesterday I saw about about the good suffering right along with the bad...that was 9/25 third time.  Find it and maybe use it also if this is posted.  I was thinking of these:  1 The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity; 2 he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness. [Isa 57:1-2 ESV])  The ones who won't survive, who's offspring won't survive, and who's heritage will be wiped from the earth in the coming devastation and its aftermath, are ones in vs 12.  They didn't answer the call, they didn't listen, they did the wrong things, and they themselves CHOSE to do evil.  God did not make them do so.  Good verses for FB.

Third section, vs 13, starts with "Therefore..."
First two verses are a series of contrasts between what is coming for those who follow God, vs those who follow evil.  Stark contrasts.  Last two verses are about what things will look like when they come out on the other side.  To the evil He says "...you will leave your name to my chosen for a curse."

vs 17 takes us to very near the end of the Revelation when it says this:
17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. [Isa 65:17 ESV]  Wording is very similar to the first few verses of Rev 21.  The wording here is interesting.  It talks about how things will be during the Millennial Reign of Christ.  Former things will not be remembered.  I suspect this refers not only to the former way of life, but also to the wrath poured out during the immediately preceding Tribulation period.  Further, it likely refers to the people who "did not make it" into the Millennial.  People in the new heaven and earth won't weep for those who are not present.  They will see and understand the justice of God's work through His wrath, and will not despair that justice was done.  It says infants won't die after a few days...but there will be infants.  It says old men will live out their days...and the young men will die 100 years old...but they will die,  they shall build houses and plant vineyards and eat...These things are a lot like what we have now, except with all the bad things gone.  Cause and effect will exist again, as in Eden, but God's people in this time will never do the wrong thing, so all effects will be positive.  Things will work as they are supposed to work.  MSB says these parts refer to the Millennial on the earth, BEFORE that final, eternal kingdom.  Things will be "almost perfect".  

25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain," says the LORD. [Isa 65:25 ESV]
This language is about the Millennial.  The lion will lie down with the lamb.

2021, This is a very detailed description of life in the Millennial.   How could a huge rebellious army willing to follow Satan a d overthrow such a place possibly arise?

Chapter 66
Last chapter of Isaiah...It has really been a journey this time through.  It really opened up. (((Wrote the preceding sentence in 2019.  It is even more true in 2020.  Isaiah has so much, and this year, much more than last year, I could see the organization of the book, the continuity that it has.  It is far more chronological than I have seen previously, but it is a chronology of the future.  Occasionally Isaiah comes back and discusses his own current situation, but mostly this book unfolds the future.  I believe it is very much more about Tribulation through eternity than it is about anything before that.)))
Opens with God still speaking directly, revealing His plans, revealing Himself, telling us what kind of God He is.
First two verses He reminds us of His magnificence.  There is nothing we can offer Him, no way we can "build" something that is more than what He already has.  And those He favors are those of a contrite heart.  God is already so great that no one can come close.  So He looks to the opposite of that, and honors the meek, the humble, and those who fear Him.  This says a lot about who God is, and why He is as He is.

vs 3 is a very long verse, and is about those who, while they are sacrificing, are doing so with the same indifferent uncaring unfearing attitude as a pagan sacrificing a child on the altar.  Very descriptive verse saying that though outwardly some still sacrifice to Him, He sees no difference between them and pig sacrifices when He looks at the heart.  It is the inside that God cares about, NOT the ritual.  Maybe put this verse on Facebook?  Maybe vs 4 also.  Is this talking about sacrifices made during the Millennial?  We know there will be yet one more battle at the end of the Millennial, and the people who are God's enemies at that time have to come from somewhere.  Maybe this is about them.

Some verses about labor and childbirth again.  Second time in Isaiah I believe.  I had to look at MSB for an explanation.  This verse:
9 Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?" says the LORD; "shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?" says your God. [Isa 66:9 ESV]
MSB says the point is that there is no birth without labor pains, and once there are labor pains, there will be birth.  So the suffering that Israel will go through comprise those labor pains, but God promises that there will be birth at the other end - He will fulfill His promises to those who seek Him and keep his commandments.  Prior, in vss 7 and 8, it says a son was delivered without pain.  Then asks how this can be?  Is this about how God chose Israel and brought them out of Egypt without refining them first?  No...Egypt was a bad place for them, as they labored in slavery.  Maybe back to Abraham, who was chosen by God for His own reasons to turn into a nation?  MSB seems to think it is about the punishment of Israel over the last several thousand years being the labor that brings them forth into the Millennial Reign and the New Heaven and New Earth.  One other idea...but I need to put vs 7 in here:
7 "Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son. [Isa 66:7 ESV]  I think I could make an argument that Israel is a woman - as we see pictured in Revelation - about to give birth.  That son is Christ, delivered before 70 AD, before all Israel was scattered to the four corners.  The true, ongoing wrath of God - the true labor pains - started in earnest in 70 AD, after the son was delivered.  This wrath culminates in Trib and Great Trib as the 144,000 do their witnessing, as the Jews eyes are opened and they accept Christ and as they return to their homeland.  Israel is in labor from 70 AD to the start of the Tribulation, and then those last, most intense, most frequent birth pangs bring forth the Millennial Kingdom, the light of the whole world, with pure justice reigning over all the earth.  Why would it not mean this???

vss 10, 11 are like Psa 122:6-9.  They call us to honor God's chosen people, distinct from the church, because:
10 "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; 11 that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance." [Isa 66:10-11 ESV]
She brought us into the world by rejecting Christ, and opening the gospel to the Gentiles.  Israel is our mother.  This continues through vs 14.

Last section of last chapter.  ESV titles it Final Judgment and Glory of the Lord.
vss 15, 16:
15 "For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. 16 For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many. [Isa 66:15-16 ESV]
When the old heaven and earth pass away it will be with fire.  I think this is after the Millennial.

vs 17 - pig eaters shall come to an end.  This would worry me greatly were it not for Peter in the NT being shown that you can eat anything at all.  Even here, vs 18 continues that it is the works and thoughts God judges, not the food we eat.

In the end, all peoples, all nations, all mankind will worship God in the new heaven's and the new earth.  And those who worship will see those who despised God.  The verse says it much more clearly than I can:
24 "And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." [Isa 66:24 ESV]

We will see hell, full of the rebellious.  They will never die, they will be abhorred - as in the way the old world looked on lepers - and never honored, never defended, never even pitied.  We will see hell as God's justice, right beyond question.  And this is the thought that Isaiah ends with...

2021, Because this is eternity.  They are in hell forever, and the saved in heaven, and this will never change.  So the last scene Isaiah paints is of eternity.  Past the end of Revelation and on to eternity.

As I read these verses in 2020 (22-24) I am convinced that they are looking at a post-Millennial time, when only the truly faithful - all the saved in fact - are living eternally in God's presence.  The saved of the whole world and from all times are in His presence.  And the rebellious have been separated and can be seen in their eternal suffering.  What a contrast laid bare for anyone to read in this last verse.
One last thought (2020)...notice that those in heaven won't go out and weep over those in hell.  Those in hell are an abhorrence to those in heaven.  It must be so, or there would be sadness in heaven.