14  Israel shall be delivered from the Babylonish captivity, their triumph over Babylon, Isa 14:1-13.
God's purpose against Assyria, Isa 14:14-27.
Palestina threatened, Isa 14:28-32.

14:24 Saying - This verse does not only concern Babylon's destruction, but also the overthrow of Sennacherib and the Assyrian host, which was a pledge of the destruction of the city and empire of Babylon.

14:25 My land - In Judea, which is my land in a peculiar manner.Mountains - In my mountainous country, for such Judea was, especially about Jerusalem.

14:26 The earth - Upon this vast empire, now in the hands of the Assyrians, and shortly to come into the hands of the Babylonians.The hand - The providence of God executing his purpose.

14:28 This burden - This following burdensome prophecy concerning the Philistines, who in Ahaz's time, made an inroad into Judah, and took divers of their cities.

14:29 Of him - Most understand this of Uzziah, who did then much mischief, Ch2 26:3-6. But he was dead thirty - two years before this time, and therefore their joy for his death was long since past. Others understand it of Ahaz: but he was so far from smiting them, that he was smitten by them. We may understand this of the royal race of Judah, who had been a terrible scourge to them, whose rod might be said to be broken, because that scepter was come into the hands of slothful princes.A serpent - From the root of David shall come Hezekiah, who, like a serpent, shall sting thee to death, as he did, Ki2 18:8.

14:30 The poor - The people of the Jews, who are brought to extreme poverty. The title of first - born is given to persons or things which are most eminent in their kinds, as to the people of Israel, Exo 4:22,to David, Psa 89:27 Isa 14, Job 18:13, and here to persons eminently poor. Feed - Shall have plenty of provisions. Kill - I will utterly destroy thee both root and branch.

14:31 Gate - The gate is put for the city. City - City is here put collectively for their cities. The north - From Chaldea.A smoak - A grievous judgment and calamity. Times - When God's appointed time shall come, not one of all that numerous army shall desert his colours, or lag behind the rest.

14:32 What - What shall a Jew say to the people of other nations, who shall enquire concerning the state of Zion, when not only the Philistines, but even the Jews themselves, shall fall by the hands of the same enemy? That - They shall give them this answer, That although Zion at present be in a very distressed condition, yet she stands upon a firm foundation, and God who first founded her, will restore her, and his poor despised people shall resort to her, as to a strong refuge.

8 We have here,

1. The earth made anew, by the recess of waters, and the appearing of the dry land a second time.
   1. The increase of the waters is stayed, Gen 8:1-2.
      
   2. They begin sensibly to abate, Gen 8:3.
      
   3. After fifteen days ebbing the ark rests, Gen 8:4.
      
   4. After sixty days ebbing the tops of the mountains appear, Gen 8:5.
      
   5. After forty days ebbing, and twenty days before the mountains appeared, Noah begins to send out his spies, a raven and a dove to gain intelligence, Gen 8:6-12.
      
   6. Two months after the appearing of the tops of the mountains the waters were gone, and the face of the earth was dry, Gen 8:13.
      tho' not dried so as to be fit for man 'till almost two months after, Gen 8:14.
      
2. Man placed anew upon the earth. In which,
   1. Noah's discharge and departure out of the ark, Gen 8:15-19.
      
   2. His sacrifice of praise which he offered to God upon his enlargement, Gen 8:20.
      
3. God's acceptance of his sacrifice; and the promise he made thereupon not to drown the world again, Gen 8:21-22.
   And thus at length mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

8:21 And God smelled a sweet savour - Or a savour of rest from it, as it is in the Hebrew. He was well pleased with Noah's pious zeal, and these hopeful beginnings of the new world, as men are with fragrant and agreeable smells. I will not again curse the ground, Heb. I will not add to curse the ground any more - God had cursed the ground upon the first entrance of sin, Gen 3:17, when he drowned it he added to that curse: but now he determines not to add to it any more. Neither will I again smite any more every living thing - That is, it was determined that whatever ruin God might bring upon particular persons, families or countries, he would never again destroy the whole world, 'till the day when time shall be no more. But the reason of this resolve is surprising; for it seems the same with the reason given for the destruction of the world, Gen 6:5.Because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. But there is this difference: there it is said, the imagination of man's heart is evil continually, that is, his actual transgressions continually cry against him; here it is said, that it is evil from his youth or childhood; he brought it into the world with him, he was shapen and conceived in it. Now one would think it should follow, therefore that guilty race shall be wholly extinguished: No; therefore I will no more take this severe method; for he is rather to be pitied: and it is but what might be expected from such a degenerate race. So that if he be dealt with according to his deserts, one flood must succeed another 'till all be destroyed. God also promises, that the course of nature should never be discontinued. While the earth remaineth, and man upon it, there shall be summer and winter, not all winter, as had been this last year; day and night, not all night, as probably it was while the rain was descending. Here it is plainly intimated that this earth is not to remain always; it and all the works therein must shortly be burnt up.But as long as it doth remain, God's providence will carefully preserve the regular succession of times and seasons. To this we owe it, that the world stands, and the wheel of nature keeps its tack. See here how changeable the times are, and yet how unchangeable! 1. The course of nature always changing. As it is with the times, so it is with the events of time, they are subject to vicissitudes, day and night, summer and winter counterchanged. In heaven and hell it is not so; but on earth God hath set the one over against the other. 2. Yet never changed; it is constant in this inconstancy; these seasons have never ceased, nor shall cease while the sun continues such a steady measurer of time, and the moon such a faithful witness in heaven. This is God's covenant of the day and of the night, the stability of which is mentioned for the confirming our faith in the covenant of grace, which is no less inviolable, Jer 33:20. We see God's promises to the creatures made good, andthence may infer that his promises to believers shall be so.

9 In this chapter is,

1. The covenant of providence settled with Noah and his sons, Gen 9:1-11.
   In this covenant,
   1. God promiseth them to take care of their lives; so that,
      1. They should replenish the earth, Gen 9:1-7.
         
      2. They should be safe from the insults of the brute creatures, which should stand in awe of them, Gen 9:2.
         
      3. They should be allowed to eat flesh for the support of their lives, only they must not eat blood, Gen 9:3-4.
         
      4. The world should never be drowned again, Gen 9:8-11.
         
   2. God requires of them to take care of one another's lives, and of their own, Gen 9:5-6.
      
2. The seal of that covenant, viz. the rainbow, Gen 9:12-17.
   
3. A particular passage concerning Noah and his sons, which occasioned some prophecies that related to after - times.
   1. Noah's sin and shame, Gen 9:20-21.
      
   2. Ham's impudence and impiety, Gen 9:22.
      
   3. The pious modesty of Shem and Japheth, Gen 9:23.
      
   4. The curse of Canaan and the blessing of Shem and Japheth, Gen 9:24-27.
      
4. The age and death of Noah, Gen 9:28-29.
   

9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons - He assured them of his good - will to them, and his gracious intentions concerning them. The first blessing is here renewed, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and repeated, Gen 9:7; for the race of mankind was as it were to begin again. By virtue of this blessing mankind was to be both multiplied and perpetuated upon earth; so that in a little time all the habitable parts of the earth should be more or less inhabited; and tho' one generation should pass away, yet another generation should come, so that the stream of the human race should be supplied with a constant succession, and run parallel with the current of time, 'till both be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity.

9:2 He grants them power over the inferior creatures. He grants, 1. A title to them; into your hands they are delivered - For your use and benefit. 2. A dominion over them, without which the title would avail little; The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast - This revives a former grant, Gen 1:28, only with this difference,that man in innocency ruled by love, fallen man rules by fear. And thus far we have still the benefit of it, 1. That those creatures which are any way useful to us are reclaimed, and we use them either for service or food, or both, as they are capable. 2. Those creatures that are any way hurtful to us are restrained; so that tho' now and then man may be hurt by some of them, yet they do not combine together to rise up in rebellion against man.

9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you - Hitherto man had been confined to feed only upon the products of the earth, fruits, herbs and roots, and all sorts of corn and milk; so was the first grant, Gen 1:29. But the flood having perhaps washed away much of the virtueof the earth, and so rendered its fruits less pleasing, and less nourishing, God now enlarged the grant, and allowed man to eat flesh, which perhaps man himself never thought of 'till now. The precepts and provisos of this charter are no less kind and gracious, and instances of God's good - will to man. The Jewish doctors speak so often of the seven precepts of Noah, or of the sons of Noah, which they say were to be observed by all nations, that it may not be amiss to set them down. The first against the worship of idols. The second against blasphemy, and requiring to bless the name of God. The third against murder. The fourth against incest and all uncleanness. The fifth against theft and rapine. The sixth requiring the administration of justice. The seventh against eating flesh with the life. These the Jews required the observation of, from the proselytes of the gate. But the precepts here given, all concern the life of man.Man must not prejudice his own life by eating that food which is unwholsome, and prejudicial to his health.

9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat - Blood made atonement for the soul, Lev 17:11.The life of the sacrifice was accepted for the life of the sinner. Blood must not be looked upon as a common thing, but must be poured out before the Lord, Gen 23:16.Mr. Henry indeed has a strange conceit, That this is only a prohibition to eat flesh. This does such apparent violence to the text, that to mention it, is sufficient.

9:5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require - Our own lives are not so our own, that we may quit them at our own pleasure; but they are God's, and we must resign them at his pleasure. If we any way hasten our own deaths, we are accountable to God for it. Yea, At the hand of every beast will I require it - To shew how tender God was of the life of man, he will have the beast put to death that kills a man. This was confirmed by the law of Moses, Exo 21:28, and it would not be unsafe to observe it still. And at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of a man - I will avenge the blood of the murdered upon the murderer. When God requires the life of a man at the hand of him that took it away unjustly, he cannot render that, and therefore must render his own in lieu of it, which is the only way left of making restitution.

9:6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood - Whether upon a sudden provocation, or premeditated, (for rash anger is heart - murder as well as malice prepense, Mat 5:21-22), by man shall his blood be shed - That is, by the magistrate, or whoever is appointed to be the avenger of blood. Before the flood, as it should seem by the story of Cain, God took the punishment of murder into his own hands; but now he committed this judgment to men, to masters of families at first, and afterwards to the heads of countries. For in the image of God made he man - Man is a creature dear to his Creator, and therefore ought to be so to us; God put honour upon him, let us not then put contempt upon him.Such remains of God's image are still even upon fallen man, that he who unjustly kills a man, defaceth the image of God, and doth dishonour to him.

11 

11:21 Though hand join - Though they are fortified against God's judgments by a numerous issue and kindred, and friends, and by mutual and strong combinations. The seed - Not only their persons, but their children.

11:22 So is a fair woman without discretion - "Of beauty vain, of virtue void, What art thou in the sight of God? A slave to every base desire, A creature wallowing in the mire. Go, gaudy pageant of a day, Thy folly, with thy face display: Set all thy charms and graces out, And shew - the Jewel in thy snout!"

11:23 The desire - The desires and expectations of the righteous shall end in their happiness, but the desires and expectations of the wicked men shall be disappointed, and end in the wrath of God.

11:24 Scattereth - That gives liberally. Increaseth - Through God's blessing upon his estate. Poverty - By God's providence secretly blasting his estate.

11:25 Fat - Shall be enriched both with temporal and spiritual blessings.

11:26 With - holdeth corn - In a time of scarcity. Selleth - Upon reasonable terms.

11:27 Seeketh - To do good to all men. Favour - With God and men.

11:29 Troubleth - He who brings trouble upon himself and children, either by prodigality, or by restless endeavours to heap up riches.Wind - Shall be as unable to keep what he gets as a man is to hold the wind in his hand.

11:30 The fruit - His discourses and his whole conversation, is like the fruit of the tree of life. Winneth - That gains souls to God.

11:31 Recompensed - Punished for his sins.

12 

12:6 Lie in wait - Are designed to entrap others, and to destroy them.Deliver them - From those that lie in wait for them.