Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
Thou that art - rather, wast, for it could not now be said to be "a joyous city" (Isaiah 32:13). The cause of their joy (Isaiah 22:13) may have been because Sennacherib had accepted Hezekiah's offer to renew the payment of tribute, and they were glad to have peace on any terms however humiliating (2 Kings 18:14-16), or on account of the alliance with Egypt. If the reference be to Zedekiah's time, the joy and feasting are not inapplicable, because this recklessness was a general characteristic of the unbelieving Jews (Isaiah 56:12).
Thy slain (men are) not slain with the sword - but with the famine and pestilence about to be caused by the coming siege (Lamentations 4:9). Maurer refers this to the plague by which he thinks Sennacherib's army was destroyed, and Hezekiah was made sick (Isaiah 37:36; Isaiah 38:1). But there is no authority for supposing that the Jews in the city suffered such extremities of plague at that time, when God destroyed their foes. The prophecy therefore stretches on to the siege of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah 14:18; Jeremiah 38:2, states that famine and pestilence were the main cause of deaths in the city. The antithetical contrast to the previous joyousness may imply also that overwhelming fear and anxiety slew many-the same cause which led their "rulers" to "flee" (Isaiah 22:3).