Verse 30. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant; so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.
The prophetic narrative still has reference to the power which has been the subject of the prophecy from the sixteenth verse, namely, Rome. What were the ships of Chittim that came against this power, and when was this movement made? What country or power is meant by Chittim? Dr. A. Clarke, on Isa. 23:1, has this note: "From the land of Chittim it is revealed to them. The news of the destruction of Tyre, by Nebuchadnezzar, is said to be brought to them from Chittim, the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean; for the Tyrians, says Jerome, on verse six, when they saw they had no other means of escape, fled in their ships, and took refuge in Carthage, and in the islands of the Ionian and Ægean sea." So also Jochri on the same place. Kitto gives the same locality to Chittim, namely, the coast and islands of the Mediterranean; and the mind is carried by the testimony of Jerome to a definite and celebrated city as situated in that land, namely, Carthage.
Was ever a naval warfare, with Carthage as a base of operations, waged against the Roman Empire? Those who have read the terrible onslaught of the Vandals upon Rome under the fierce Genseric, can readily answer in the affirmative. Sallying every spring from the port of Carthage, at the head of his numerous and well-disciplined naval force, he spread consternation through all the maritime provinces of the empire. That this is the work brought to view is further evident when we consider that we are brought down in the prophecy to this very time. In verse twenty-nine, the transfer of empire to Constantinople we understand to be mentioned. Following in due course of time as the next remarkable revolution, came the irruptions of the barbarians of the North, prominent among which was the Vandal war already mentioned. The years A. D. 428-468 mark the career of Genseric.
"He shall be grieved, and return." This may have reference to the desperate efforts which were made to dispossess Genseric of the sovereignty of the seas, the first by Majorian, the second by Leo, both of which proved to be utter failures; and Rome was obliged to submit to the humiliation of seeing its provinces ravaged, and its "eternal city" pillaged by the enemy.
"Indignation against the covenant;" that is the Holy Scriptures, the book of the covenant. A revolution of this nature was accomplished in Rome. The Goths, Huns, and Vandals, who conquered Rome, embraced the Arian faith, and became enemies of the Catholic church. It was especially for the purpose of exterminating this heresy that Justinian decreed the pope to be the head of the church, and the corrector of heretics. Then it was decreed that the Bible was a dangerous book, and should not be read by the common people, but all questions in dispute should be submitted to the pope. Thus was indignity heaped upon God's word. And the emperors of Rome, the eastern division of which still continued, had intelligence or connived with the church of Rome which had forsaken the covenant, and constituted the great apostasy, for the purpose of putting down heresy. The man of sin was established by the defeat of the Arian Goths, who then held possession of Rome, in A. D. 538.