15 Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Every one that is found shall be thrust through. Here he confirms what he had formerly said, that none shall escape from Babylon, and that all who shall be there shall perish. Xenophon also relates that, by the command of Cyrus, they slew every one that they met in the beginning of the night, and next day all that had not laid down their arms. [1] But we have already said that the prediction extends farther; for that slaughter was only the forerunner of others, for which Babylon was purposely preserved, that it might frequently be ruined. And every one that is joined to them shall fall by the sword. Some translators render this clause differently from what I have done; because the Hebrew verb sphh (saphah) signifies to destroy or consume, they read it, Whosoever shall be destroyed, and explain it as relating to the old men, who were already worn out with age, and could not otherwise live longer; as if he had said, "Not even the men of advanced age, who are sinking into the grave, shall be spared, even though they are half-dead, and appear to be already giving up the ghost." But because that is a feeble interpretation, and the verb sphh (saphah) signifies likewise to add, I rather agree with Jonathan [2] and others, who think that it denotes companies of soldiers, as in taking a city the soldiers are collected together in the form of a wedge, to ward off the attacks of the enemy. But it will perhaps be thought better to understand by it the confederates or allies who were joined to Babylon, and might be said to be united in the same body, in order to show more fully the shocking nature of this calamity.
1 - See Xen. Cyr., book 7, chapter 5.
2 - Jarchi quotes the words, to add the drunken to the thirsty, (Deuteronomy 29:19,) add year to year, (Isaiah 29:1,) and add burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, (Jeremiah 7:21,) and his annotator Breithaupt translates the verb sphh (saphah) by a word in his native French, accueillir, which means to gather, or flock together. -- Ed
Every one that is found - In Babylon, or that is overtaken in fleeing from it. This is a description of the capture of the city, and of the slaughter that would ensue, when the invaders would spare neither age nor sex.
Every one that is joined unto them - Their allies and friends. There shall be a vast, indiscriminate slaughter of all that are found in the city, and of those that attempt to flee from it. Lowth renders this, 'And all that are collected in a body;' but the true sense is given in our translation. The Chaldee renders it, 'And every one who enters into fortified cities shall be slain with the sword.'
Every one that is found "Every one that is overtaken" - That is, none shall escape from the slaughter; neither they who flee singly, dispersed and in confusion; nor they who endeavor to make their retreat in a more regular manner, by forming compact bodies: they shall all be equally cut off by the sword of the enemy. The Septuagint have understood it in this sense, which they have well expressed: -
Ὁς γαρ αν ἁλῳ ἡττηθησεται,
Και οἱτινες συνηγμενοι εισι πεσουνται μαχαιρα.
"Whosoever is caught shall be overthrown,
And all that are collected together shall fall by the sword."
Where, for ἡττηθησεται, MS. Pachom has εκκενθησεται, et οἱ Γ Cod. Marchal. in margine, et MS. 1. D. 2: εκκεντηθησεται, which seems to be right, being properly expressive of the Hebrew.
Every one that is found shall be thrust through,.... With a sword, spear, or lance, and be slain; that is, everyone that is found in the city of Babylon; and so the Targum adds,
"and everyone that is found in it shall be slain;''
so Kimchi, in the midst of it, or without; in the street, as Jarchi. The orders of Cyrus (h) were, that those that were found without (in the streets) should be slain; and to proclaim in the Syriac language, that those that were within doors should continue there, but, if they were found without, they should be put to death; which orders were executed, and well agrees with this prophecy:
and everyone that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword; or "added" unto them; any of other nations that joined them as auxiliaries, see Revelation 18:4 or "that is gathered"; so the Septuagint, "they that are gathered"; that are gathered together in a body to resist the enemy, and defend themselves. Some render the word, "every one that is consumed", with age; neither old nor young, as follows, should be spared. The Targum is,
"everyone that enters into the fortified cities,''
flees there for safety and protection.
(h) Xenophon. Cyropaedia, l. 7. sect. 23.
found--in the city.
joined--"intercepted" [MAURER]. "Every one that has withdrawn himself," namely, to hide in the houses [GESENIUS].
"Every one that is found is pierced through, and every one that is caught falls by the sword." By "every one that is found," we understand those that are taken in the city by the invading conquerors; and by "every one that is caught," those that are overtaken in their flight (sâphâh, abripere, Isaiah 7:20). All are put to the sword. - The third and fourth disasters are plunder and ravage. Isaiah 13:16 "And their infants are dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses plundered, and their wives ravished." Instead of tisshâgalnâh, the keri has the euphemistic term tisshâcabnâh (concubitum patientur), a passive which never occurs in the Old Testament text itself. The keri readings shuccabt in Jeremiah 3:2, and yishcâbennâh in Deuteronomy 28:30, also do violence to the language, which required עם שכב and את (the latter as a preposition in Genesis 19:34) for the sake of euphemism; or rather they introduce a later (talmudic) usage of speech into the Scriptures (see Geiger, Urschrift, pp. 407-8). The prophet himself intentionally selects the base term shâgal, though, as the queen's name Shegal shows, it must have been regarded in northern Palestine and Aramaean as by no means a disreputable word. In this and other passages of the prophecy Knobel scents a fanaticism which is altogether strange to Isaiah.
Found - In Babylon, at the taking of it.
*More commentary available at chapter level.