False Prophets.
Ezekiel tells us that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Son of Man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the desert. * * * They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith; and the Lord hath not sent them.” These prophets were endeavoring to soothe the people, to cover up their sins, to dissipate their fears of retribution. “They have seduced my people, saying, peace, when there is no peace.” Then Ezekiel describes their work. They are like foolish masons who build a wall with mortar that will not hold the stones together,—“untempered mortar!” Can such work last? Can such a structure stand? “Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar that it shall fall. There shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hail-stones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. Lo! when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?” Did ye not boast of your mortar? Did ye not promise the people that it would hold? Alas for you, O prophets! Alas for your work! “The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; to wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord.”
Most contemptuously does Isaiah speak of the false prophets: “The Lord will cut off from Israel, head and tail, branch and root, in one day. The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.”
The King of Assyria.
Isaiah ridicules the high and mighty pretensions of the King of Assyria. That monarch boasts of his achievements. He takes the credit of all to himself. He wears the glory alone. “By the strength of my own hand, I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent; and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.” Falstaff could not proclaim his own prowess, in more bombastic style. “I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have ’scaped by miracle: I am eight times thrust through the doublet; four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a handsaw. I never dealt better since I was a man.” Now let the Assyrian resume his parable: “And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people; and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.” Falstaff will match him again: “There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am thrust upon it. Well, I can not last for ever; but it was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common. * * * I would to God my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it is!”
The prophet, after allowing the Assyrian to sound his brazen trumpet, turns upon him, and sarcastically reminds him that he is simply a tool, a rod, a staff, in the hands of the Lord, and that he has of himself accomplished nothing: “Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift itself up as if it were no wood!”
The King of Babylon.
One of the most powerful passages of invective in any literature is that in which Isaiah pictures the fall of the King of Babylon.
He begins—“How hath the oppressor ceased!” Then he sets forth the joy of the earth itself over the discomfiture of him who “smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke.” All creation is glad. “The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.” This is the state of things on earth.