I have sent to Babylon. — For the first time in 2 Isaiah, the place of exile is named. For “have brought down all their nobles” read, I will bring them all down as fugitives. The marginal “bars” represents a various reading, defences, in the sense of defenders.
The Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. — Better, into the ships of their shouting — i.e., the ships which used to echo with the exulting joy of sailors. The word for “shouting” is purposely chosen to suggest the thought that there will be a shout of another kind, even the wailing cry of despair. The commerce of Babylon, and its position on the Euphrates, made it, as it were, the Venice of the earlier East (Herod., 1:194). The prophet sees the inhabitants of Babylon fleeing in their ships from the presence of their conqueror.