There now follows a cycle of ten prophecies, which, in the inscriptions, have the name משא "burden," and in which the Prophet exhibits the disclosures into the destinies of the nations which he had received on the occasion of the threatening Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib. For, from the prophecy against Asshur in chap. xiv. 24, 25, which is contained in the very first burden, it clearly appears that the cycle which, by the equality of the inscriptions, is connected into one well arranged and congenial whole, belongs to this period. This prophecy against Asshur forms one whole with that against Babel, and by it the latter was suggested and called forth. In that prophecy, the defeat of Asshur, which took place in the 14th year of Hezekiah, is announced as future. It is true that the second burden, directed against the Philistines, in chap. xiv. 28-32, seems to suggest another time. Of this burden it is said, in ver. 28, that it was given in the year that king Ahaz died; not in the year in which his death was impending, but in that in which he died, comp. chap. vi. 1. The distressed circumstances of the new king raised the hopes of the Philistines, who, under Ahaz, had rebelled against the Jewish dominion. But the Prophet beholds in the Spirit that, just under this king, the heavenly King of Zion would destroy these hopes, and would thrust down Philistia from its imaginary height. But from the time of the original composition of the prophecy, that of its _repetition_ must be distinguished. That took place, as is just shewn by the prophecy's being received in the cycle of the _burdens_, at the time when the invasion of Sennacherib was immediately impending. The Assyrians were the power from the _North_, [Pg 135] by whom the threatened destruction would break in upon the Philistines; and the truth of the word should be verified upon them, that prosperity is only the forerunner of the fall. In the view of the fulfilment, Isaiah repeated the prophecy. From the series of these _burdens_, we shall very briefly comment upon those which are of importance for our purpose. First, CHAPTERS XIII. l.-XIV. 27. This prophecy does not contain any characteristically expressed Messianic element; but it is of no small consequence for bringing out the whole picture of the future, as it was before the mind of the Prophet. It is in it that Babel meets us distinctly and definitely as the threatening world's power of the future, by which Judah is to be carried away into captivity.