770 BC to 750 BC, Psalm 9: Isaiah.

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    Summary

This generation is from the years 770 BC to 750 BC

According to our count, this generation is the 9th generation associated with Psalm 9. It is in this Psalm 9 that we therefore find an illustration of the facts of this generation.

The ninth generation concerns the central part of the reigns of King Azariah for the kingdom of Judah and Jeroboam for the kingdom of Israel. Although the book of kings indicates a reign of fifty-two years for King Amacia, we will consider that his reign lasted indeed forty-two years (a priori period retained by historians).

These reigns were beneficial to both kingdoms with regard to their respective enemies. In fact, if the enemies of yesterday give up, the enemies of tomorrow point far away. This generation therefore sees the emergence of prophets who, in turn, will warn the people of Israel. The first of these prophets is the prophet Isaiah.

Talk

Azariah

The ninth generation concerns the central part of the reigns of King Azariah for the kingdom of Judah and Jeroboam for the kingdom of Israel. Although the book of kings indicates a reign of fifty-two years for King Amacia, we will consider that his reign lasted indeed forty-two years (a priori period retained by historians).

These reigns were beneficial to both kingdoms with regard to their respective enemies. For the Kingdom of Israel:

  • He[1] (Jeroboam) restored the boundary of Israel from the approach to Hamath until the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel which He spoke through his servant Jonah the son of Amittai the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.

Regarding the kingdom of Judah:

  • And[2] [it was his custom] to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who understood the visions of God, and when he sought the Lord, God caused him to prosper.
  • And he went forth and waged war with the Philistines, and he breached the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in Ashdod and among the Philistines.
  • And God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabs who dwelt in Gur-Baal and the Meunites.
  • And the Ammonites gave Uzziah a gift, and his name went until the approach to Egypt, for he had become exceedingly strong.
  • And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the corner, and he strengthened them.

These military successes illustrate the beginning of the psalm of this generation:

  1. To the conductor, to brighten the youth, a song of David.
  2. I will thank the Lord with all my heart; I will tell all Your wonders.
  3. I will rejoice and exult with You; I will sing praises to Your most high name
  4. When my enemies draw backward, they stumble and are destroyed from before You.

Dark future

In fact if the enemies of yesterday let go, the enemies of tomorrow are pointing off. The success of the kingdom of Israel is not due to his faithfulness to the Lord but to the temporary benevolence of him:

  • For[3] the Lord saw the affliction of Israel becoming increasingly severe, with neither stored property nor free property, and no one to help Israel.
  • And the Lord did not speak to eradicate the name of Israel from under the heavens, and He saved them through Jeroboam the son of Joash.

But the survival granted to the kingdom of Israel is limited, his time is running out. It will disappear soon. The kingdom of Judah is not better off, because soon less scrupulous kings than Azaria will succeed to the throne. This will bring the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon of the inhabitants of the kingdom.

Isaiah’s prophecies

This generation, therefore, sees the prophets appear, each of whom, in their turn, will warn the people of Israel. Warn him without forgetting to reassure him about God’s love for his people. The first of these prophets is the prophet Isaiah:

  • And[4] the rest of the events of Uzziah, both the earlier ones and the later ones, Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet inscribed.

Isaiah’s prophecies will prepare the people of Israel for exile. For this, internal struggles must disappear so that the people remain united in the face of adversity. This is in order to achieve final redemption together.

Indeed, Isaiah’s prophecies begin with a grim record for the people of Israel:

  • The vision[5] of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
  • Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken; Children I have raised and exalted, yet they have rebelled against Me.
  • An ox knows his owner and a donkey his master’s crib; Israel does not know, my people does not consider.
  • Woe to a sinful nation, a people heavy with iniquity, evildoing seed, corrupt children. They forsook the Lord; they provoked the Holy One of Israel; they drew backwards.
  • Why are you beaten when you still continue to rebel? Every head is [afflicted] with illness and every heart with malaise.
  • From the sole of the foot until the head there is no soundness-wounds and contusions and lacerated sores; they have not sprinkled, neither have they been bandaged, nor was it softened with oil.
  • Your land is desolate; your cities burnt with fire. Your land-in your presence, strangers devour it; and it is desolate as that turned over to strangers.
  • And the daughter of Zion shall be left like a hut in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.
  • « Had not the Lord of Hosts left us a remnant, we would soon be like Sodom; we would resemble Gomorrah.

David adjusts

But David prefers for the present generation to the oracles of Isaiah who will illustrate the next generations the more positive forecasts linked to the end of the night:

  • « Therefore, »[6] says the Master, the Lord of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, « Oh, I will console Myself from My adversaries, and I will avenge Myself of My foes.
  • And I will return My hand upon you and purge away your dross as with lye, and remove all your tin.
  • And I will restore your judges as at first and your counsellors as in the beginning; afterwards you shall be called City of Righteousness, Faithful City.
  • Zion shall be redeemed through justice and her penitent through righteousness.
  • And destruction shall come over rebels and sinners together, and those who forsake the Lord shall perish.

Completed by (this prophecy is almost contiguous to the previous one):

  • The word[7] that Isaiah, son of Amoz, prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
  • And it shall be at the end of the days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be firmly established at the top of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and all the nations shall stream to it.
  • And many peoples shall go, and they shall say, « Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mount, to the house of the God of Jacob, and let Him teach us of His ways, and we will go in His paths, » for out of Zion shall the Torah come forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
  • And he shall judge between the nations and reprove many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

This is the object of the following verses of the psalm of this generation which echoes Isaiah’s conclusions that the peoples of the earth will end up living at the end of time in a world of peace and justice, so of the psalm of this generation:

  1. For You have performed my judgment and my cause; You sat on the throne, O Judge of righteousness.
  2. You rebuked nations, You destroyed a wicked man; You erased their name forever and ever.
  3. The enemy has been destroyed; swords exist forever, and You have uprooted the cities-their remembrance is lost.
  4. But the Lord shall sit forever; He has established His throne for judgment.
  5. But He judges the world with righteousness, kingdoms with equity.
  6. And the Lord shall be a fortress for the crushed, a fortress for times of distress.
  7. And those who know Your name shall trust in You, for You have not forsaken those who seek You, O Lord.
  8. Sing praises to the Lord, Who dwells in Zion; relate His deeds among the peoples.

As for the rest of the psalm:

  1. For He Who avenges blood remembers them; He has not forgotten the cry of the humble.
  2. Be gracious to me, O Lord, see my affliction from my enemies, You Who raise me up from the gates of death,
  3. in order that I tell all Your praises; in the gates of the daughter of Zion I will rejoice in Your salvation.
  4. Nations have sunk in the pit they have made; in this net that they have concealed, their foot has become trapped.
  5. The Lord is known for the judgment that He performed; with the act of His hand, the wicked man stumbles. Let us meditate over this forever.
  6. May the wicked return to the grave, all nations who forget God.

This is also illustrated by the following passage:

  • And[8] they shall say on that day, « Behold, this is our God: we hoped for Him that He would save us; this is the Lord for Whom we hoped; let us rejoice and be happy with His salvation.
  • For the hand of the Lord shall rest on this mount, and Moab shall be trampled in its place as the straw is trampled in the mire.
  • And he shall spread out his hands in his midst as the swimmer spreads out [his hands] to swim and He shall humble his haughtiness [together] with the cunning of His hands.

Nous n’expliquerons pas ici la conclusion du psaume :

  1. For the needy shall not be forgotten forever, neither shall the hope of the poor be lost to eternity.
  2. Arise, O Lord; let man have no power. May the nations be judged for Your anger.
  3. O Lord, place mastery over them; let the nations know that they forever are mortal man.

[1] Melachim II – II Kings – Chapter 14, verse 25

[2] Divrei Hayamim II – II Chronicles – Chapter 26, verses 5 to 9

[3] Melachim II – II Kings – Chapter 14, verses 26 and 27

[4] Divrei Hayamim II – II Chronicles – Chapter 26, verse 22

[5] Yeshayahu – Isaiah – Chapter 1, verses 1 to 9

[6] Yeshayahu – Isaiah – Chapter 1, verses 24 to 28

[7] Yeshayahu – Isaiah – Chapter 2, verses 1 to 4

[8] Yeshayahu – Isaiah – Chapter 25, verses 9 to 11