The golden city. Babylon. The word used here (מַדְהֵבָה)
occurs nowhere else in the Bible. According to the Jewish Commentators, it
means an exactress of gold, as if
derived from דְּהַב (dĕhăbh),
used for זְהַב (zĕhăbh),
gold. Gesenius and Michaelis prefer another reading (מַרְהֵבָה mărhēbhâ, from
רָהַב râhăbh), and suppose that it means oppression. The Vulgate renders
it tribute—‘The tribute hath ceased.’
The LXX. Ἐπισπουδαστής—‘Solicitor,
or exactor (of gold).’ Vitringa supposes that the word means gold, and that it refers to the golden
sceptre of its kings that had now ceased to be swayed over the prostrate
nations. The most probable sense is, that it means the exactress of gold, or of
tribute. This best expresses the force of the word, and best agrees with the
parallelism. In this sense it does not refer to the magnificence of the city,
but to its oppressive acts in demanding tribute of gold from its dependent
provinces. (Albert
Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament: Isaiah, 2 vols. [London: Blackie
& Son, 1851], 1:266)
The golden city ceased] מדהבה madhebah,
which is here translated golden city,
is a Chaldee word. Probably it means that golden
coin or ingot which was given to
the Babylonians by way of tribute. So the word is understood by the Vulgate, where it is rendered tributum; and by Montanus, who
translates it aurea pensio, the
golden pension. Kimchi seems to have
understood the word in the same sense. De
Rossi translates it auri dives,
rich in gold, or auri exactrix, the
exactor of gold; the same as the exactor of tribute. (Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with
a Commentary and Critical Notes, 5 vols. [Bellingham, Wash.: Faithlife
Corporation, 2014], 4:83)
V. 4. Golden city—As they used to call themselves; which therefore he
expresses here in a word of their own language. (John Wesley, Explanatory
Notes upon the Old Testament, 3 vols. [Bristol: William Pine, 1765],
3:1988)
. . . the golden city ceased!
the city of Babylon, full of gold, drawn thither from the several parts of the
world, called a golden cup, Jer. 51:7 and the Babylonish monarchy, in the times
of Nebuchadnezzar, was signified by a golden head, Dan. 2:32, 38 so mystical
Babylon, or the Romish antichrist, is represented as decked with gold, and
having a golden cup in her hand, and as a city abounding with gold, Rev. 17:4
and 18:16. The word here used is a Chaldee or Syriac word, and perhaps is what
was used by themselves, and is the name by which they called this city, and is
now tauntingly returned; the word city
is not in the text, but supplied. Some render it tribute, a golden pension, a tribute of gold, which was exacted of
the nations in subjection, but now ceased; and when that tyrant and oppressor,
the Romish antichrist, shall cease, that tribute which he exacts of the nations
of the earth will cease also, as tithes, first-fruits, annates, Peter’s pence, &c. (John Gill, An
Exposition of the Old Testament, 6 vols. [The Baptist Commentary Series;
London: Mathews and Leigh, 1801], 5:84-85)
Not one of the early translators
ever thought of deriving the hap. leg.
madhebâh from the Aramaean dehab
(gold), as Vitringa, Aurivillius, and Rosenmüller have done. The former have
all translated the word as if it were marhēbâh
(haughty, violent treatment), as corrected by J. D. Michaelis, Doederlein,
Knobel, and others. But we may arrive at the same result without altering a
single letter, if we take דָּאַב as equivalent to דָּהַב, דּוּב, to melt or pine away, whether we go back
to the kal or to the hiphil of the verb, and regard the Mem as used in a material or local
sense. We understand it, according to madmenah
(dunghill) in Isa. 25:10, as denoting the place where they were reduced to
pining away, i.e., as applied to Babylon as the house of servitude where Israel
had been wearied to death. The tyrant’s sceptre, mentioned in v. 5, is the
Chaldean world-power regarded as concentrated in the king of Babel (cf., shēbĕt in Num. 24:17). This tyrant’s
sceptre smote nations with incessant blows and hunting: maccath is construed with macceh,
the derivative of the same verb; and murdâph,
a hophal noun (as in Isa. 8:23;
29:3), with rodeh, which is kindred
in meaning. Doederlein’s conjecture (mirdath),
which has been adopted by most modern commentators, is quite unnecessary.
Unceasing continuance is expressed first of all with bilti, which is used as a preposition, and followed by sârâh, a participial noun like câlâh, and then with b’li, which is construed with the finite
verb as in Gen. 31:20, Job 41:18; for b’li
châsâk is an attributive clause: with a hunting which did not restrain
itself, did not stop, and therefore did not spare. Nor is it only Israel and
other subjugated nations that now breathe again. (Carl Friedrich
Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, 10 vols.
[Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1996], 7:200)
Further Reading:
Seth
Erlandsson on מדהבה meaning "golden city" in Isaiah 14:4