The carrying away of the covenant-people into exile had been actually prophesied by the fact, that the land had spued out its former inhabitants on account of their sins. The threatening of the exile pervades the whole Pentateuch from [Pg 190] beginning to end; compare _Genuineness of the Pentateuch_, _p._ 270 _ff._ It is found in the Decalogue also: "That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." David shows a clear knowledge of the sufferings impending over his family, and hence also over the people of God; comp. my Commentary on Song of Sol. S. 243. Solomon points to the future carrying away in his prayer at the consecration of the temple. Amos, the predecessor of Isaiah, foresees with absolute clearness, that, before the salvation comes, all that is glorious, not only in Israel, but in Judah also, must be given over to destruction, compare Vol. i. p. 357. In like manner, too, Hosea prophesies not only the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, but also that Judah shall be carried away into exile, comp. Vol. i. p. 176. In Isaiah, the foreknowledge of the entire devastation of the city and land, and the carrying away into captivity of its inhabitants--a foreknowledge which stands in close connection with the energy of the knowledge of sin with the Prophets--meets us from the very beginning of his ministry, and also in those prophecies, the genuineness of which no one ventures to assail, as, _e.g._, in chap. i.-vi. After the severity of God had been manifested before the bodily eyes of the Prophet in the carrying away of the ten tribes, it could not, even from human considerations, be doubtful to him, what was the fate in store for Judah.
The knowledge, that the impending carrying away of Judah would take place by the Chaldeans, and that Babylon would be the place of their banishment, was not destitute of a certain natural foundation. In the germ, the Chaldean power actually existed even at that time. Decidedly erroneous is the view of _Hitzig_, that a Chaldean power in Babylon could be spoken of only since the time of Nabopolassar. This power, on the contrary, was very old; compare the proofs in _Delitzsch's_ Commentary on Habakkuk, S. 21. The Assyrian power, although, when outwardly considered, at its height, when more closely examined, began, even at that time, already to sink. A weakening of the Assyrian power is intimated also by the circumstance, that Hezekiah ventured to rebel against the Assyrians, and the embassy of the Chaldean Merodach Baladan to Hezekiah, implies that, even at that time, many things gave a title to expect the speedy downfal of the Assyrian [Pg 191] Empire. But the fact that Isaiah possessed the clear knowledge that, in some future period, the dominion of the world would pass over to Babylon and the Chaldeans,--that they would be the executors of the judgment upon Judah, we have already proved, in our remarks on chaps. xiii., xiv., from the prophecies of the first part,--from chap. xxiii. 13, where the Chaldeans are mentioned as the executors of the judgment upon the neighbouring people, the Tyrians, and as the destroyers of the Assyrian dominion,--and from chap. xxxix. The attempt of dispossessing him of this knowledge is so much the more futile, that his contemporary Micah undeniably possesses it; comp. Vol. i. p. 464. So also does Habakkuk, between whose time and that of Isaiah, circumstances had not essentially changed, and who likewise still prophesied before the Chaldean monarchy had been established.