An exposition of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah by the endeavours of W. Day ...

22.

And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, &c.] i. e. And the Inhabitants of Jerusalem (which is the chief City of the Land) shall be ga∣thered and shut up in Jerusalem, as priso∣ners are gathered together and shut up in a prison or in a dungeon: for so soon as they hear of the approach of Sennacheribs Army, they shall run every one to his home, and then as prisoners cannot go out of the prison or dungeon in which they are imprisoned; so shall not they go out of Jerusalem again, because of the Assyri∣ans, who shall encompass them, besiege them, and block them up.

Note, that this Conjunction And doth not relate to the words which went imme∣diately before, but to the twentieth verse. And when he saith, They shall be gathered together, &c. he seemeth to point at the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

In the pit,] i. e. In the prison.

The pit is that part of a prison which they call the dungeon, which is a deep place under ground, and it is here put for the whole prison it self.

And shall be shut up in prison,] i. e. And shall be shut up as it were in prison.

And after many days] i. e. After they have been shut up in prison, that is, after they have been besieged many days.

Shall they be visited.] i. e. The Lord shall visit them in favor and mercy, and deliver them, by sending his Angel to de∣stroy the Assyrians which besieged them, which was fulfilled 2 King. 19.35.

This I do conceive to be the most pro∣bable meaning of this place: and that as the Prophet did prophecy against the men of Judah, vers. 17, 18, 19, 20. and comfort them again with the destruction of their Enemies, vers. 21. So doth he here, in the former part of this verse, prophecy against the men of Jerusalem; and in the latter end thereof, and in the next Verse,

comfort them again.

The onely Objection which can be made against this exposition is, That there is no mention here of the men of Jerusalem, and that there is no Nominative case to these Verbs, but what is in the former verse.

To which I answer; That the Prophet might point as it were with his finger at the men of Jerusalem when he spoke of them, and so he needed not to name them, his pointing at them might be enough to signifie whom he meant.

Again, as he doth often put a Relative without an Antecedent, and leaves the Antecedent to be understood by the cir∣cumstances of the place; so might he leave the Nominative case which should go be∣fore the Verb to be understood: Examples whereof we have Cap. 9.3. and 23.5. Mark 8.22. and 4.36. &c.