Isaiah charges that the people of Judah are “filled from the east” (2:6). What does that mean?
As the passage goes on, Isaiah condemns Judah’s “filling” with silver and gold, horses and chariots; these are the things that Judah is bringing from the east.
There might be another aspect to this. The filling from the east is paired with a reference to the Philistines, who lived to the west of Judah, and in other passages of Isaiah the Philistines are paired with the Arameans as the representative eastern peoples (9:12). During Isaiah’s time, Ahaz of Judah brought an altar design back from Damascus, in Aram, and began worshiping in the temple at that altar. That too is a filling from the east, and eventually the peoples of east and west will close their mouths on Judah (9:12).
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