A drought is upon all her waters Our translators, after the example of the Vulgate and others, have rendered חרב, a drought, here, whereas they have translated it a sword in the preceding verses, as supposing, it seems, that a sword has nothing to do with waters. But they might very properly have rendered it a sword here also: for this term is used metaphorically, to denote either the instrument of divine vengeance generally, or the operations and effects of war in particular; in either of which senses it may be applied to waters as well as to treasures. And the allusion here is evidently to the stratagem of Cyrus, who drained off the waters of the Euphrates, which ran through the city of Babylon, by means of which his troops, by night, marched along the bed of the river into the heart of the city, and surprised it. For it is the land of graven images, &c. This vengeance comes upon them, because they have been the great encouragers and supporters of idolatry. It may be remarked, that the executioners of the divine judgments were the Persians, who, in opposition to the Sabians, (whose notions the Chaldeans embraced,) followed the ancient discipline of the magi, or wise men among them, and had neither altars nor images; as is attested by Strabo and Herodotus: see Prideaux's Connections, p. 177, and Lowth. And they are mad upon their idols
See note on Isaiah 57:5. They may well be termed mad who make a god of any creature, and especially those who worship images which their own hands have made. Therefore the wild beasts of the desert, &c. Blaney renders this clause, Therefore shall wild cats, with jackals dwell, the daughters of the ostrich also shall dwell in her; and refers to Bochart in justification of the propriety of his translation. Compare this passage with the parallel one, Isaiah 13:19-22, where see the notes.