ns which are round about Jerusalem and to this day are clad with
vines and olive trees. They are in captivity and are the abject slaves
of the enemies of God. Isaiah's heart is well-nigh crushed, but in the
midst of the despair he has a vision of the chariots coming and hears a
cry which rejoices his soul, "Babylon is fallen." It is because of
these tidings that he cries out in the words of the text.

What a night they had had of it! They had been in darkness that was
ever increasing, and the song of thanksgiving which used to fill their
souls because of the nearness of Jehovah had entirely departed from
them.

The figure of the watchman is often used in the Bible, as for example
when he stands upon the city walls and is told that if he sounds the
trumpet telling of the approach of the enemy and the people hear and do
not take warning their blood is upon their own heads, while if he fails
to sound the trumpet and the people are cut off, their blood is
required at the watchman's hand. And again in the first chapter of
Zechariah the eighth to the eleventh verses, "I saw by night, and
behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle
trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses,
speckled and white. Then said I, O my Lord, what are these? And the
angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be.
And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These
are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle
trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and
behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest." For here the man
standing in the midst of the myrtle trees is him of whom the prophets
did speak, while the messengers are those who bring him tidings of the
progress of his kingdom. But again where David comes to the watch
tower and sees the two messengers running, the second one bringing him
tidings of the death of his son, and from this watch tower he staggers
back again to his room crying out, "O Absalom, my son, would God I had
died for thee!"

The poet usually sings of the night as a time of beauty. He sings of
the moon and the stars; but in the Bible night always stands for that
which is dark, foul, loathsome, sinful, cold and deadly. There are
different nights mentioned in the Scripture, for the most part in the
Old Testament.