ther Jerusalem itself is
to be thought of as the object of the divine punishment, or whether it
will be spared, the following reasons show that the former will be the
case. Even ver. 5 does not admit of our expecting anything else.
Jerusalem is there marked out as the chief seat and source of
corruption in the kingdom of Judah, just as is Samaria in the kingdom
of Israel. The declaration which is there made forms the foundation of
the subsequent threatening. How is it possible, then, that, while in
the kingdom of Israel it is concentrated upon Samaria, in the kingdom
of Judah the seducer should be altogether passed over, and punishment
announced to the seduced only? That such is not the intention of the
prophet, is clearly seen from ver. 12: "_For evil cometh down from the
Lord upon the gate of Jerusalem._" The [Hebrew: ki] alone is sufficient
to prevent our limiting the sense of these words, so that they mean
only that evil will come no farther than to the gate of Jerusalem, and
will stop there. The _Particula causalis_ proves that they are the
ground of the declaration in ver. 11, and that the mourning will not
cease at Beth-Haezel, "the house of stopping;" compare the remarks on
Zech. xiv. 5. But, altogether apart from this connection, the words
themselves furnish a proof. They contain a verbal reference to the
description of the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrha, Gen. xix. 24.
Jerusalem is marked out by them as a second Sodom (compare Is. i. 10),
upon which the divine judgments would discharge themselves. As a second
mark of this extension to Jerusalem, the carrying away of the people
into captivity is added (compare vers. 11, 15, 16), which, in the
promise in chap. ii. 12, 13, is supposed to have taken place. It is not
Israel alone, but the whole Covenant-people, who are in a state of
dispersion, and are gathered from it by the Lord.

Now, both of these marks are not applicable to the Assyrian invasion;
and if once we suppose the divine illumination of the prophet, it
cannot be regarded as the real object of his threatenings. This, too,
is equally inadmissible, if we consider the matter from a merely human
point of view. The predictions [Pg 433] of the prophets with regard to
Assyria are, from the very outset, rather encouraging. It is true that
they are to be, in the hand of the Lord, a rod of chastisement for His
people, but these are never to be altogether given up to them for
destruction. By an immediate divine