Isaiah 2:16

_ _ Tarshish — Tartessus in southwest Spain, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, near Gibraltar. It includes the adjoining region: a Phoenician colony; hence its connection with Palestine and the Bible (2 Chronicles 9:21). The name was also used in a wide sense for the farthest west, as our West Indies (Isaiah 66:19; Psalms 48:7; Psalms 72:10). “Ships of Tarshish” became a phrase for richly laden and far-voyaging vessels. The judgment shall be on all that minister to man’s luxury (compare Revelation 18:17-19).

_ _ pictures — ordered to be destroyed (Numbers 33:52). Still to be seen on the walls of Nineveh’s palaces. It is remarkable that whereas all other ancient civilized nations, Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, have left monuments in the fine arts, Judea, while rising immeasurably above them in the possession of “the living oracles,” has left none of the former. The fine arts, as in modern Rome, were so often associated with polytheism, that God required His people in this, as in other respects, to be separate from the nations (Deuteronomy 4:15-18). But Vulgate translation is perhaps better, “All that is beautiful to the sight”; not only paintings, but all luxurious ornaments. One comprehensive word for all that goes before (compare Revelation 18:12, Revelation 18:14, Revelation 18:16).