The prophet now gives the reason of the vanity of these human undertakings. For the earth shall be filled, etc. The words are from Isaiah 11:9, with some little alterations (comp. Numbers 14:21). This is cue of the passages which attests "the community of testimony," as it is called, among the prophets.
To take a few out of many cases that offer, Isaiah 2:2-4 compared with Micah 4:1-4; Isaiah 13:19-22 with Jeremiah 1:1-19:39, etc.; Isaiah 52:7 with Nahum 1:15; Jeremiah 49:7-22 with Obadiah 1:1-4; Amos 9:13 with Joel 3:18 (Lodd, 'Doctrine of Scripture,' 1:145).
All the earth is to be filled with, and to recognize, the glory of God as manifested in the overthrow of ungodliness; and therefore Babylon, and the world power of which she is a type, must be subdued and perish.
This announcement looks forward to the establishment of Messiah's kingdom, which "shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and shall stand forever" (Daniel 2:44). We must remember how intimately in the minds of Eastern heathens the prosperity of a nation was connected with its local deities.
Nothing in their eyes could show more perfectly the impotence of a god than his failing to protect his worshippers from destruction. The glory of Jehovah and his sovereignty over the earth would be seen and acknowledged in the overthrow of Babylon, the powerful, victorious nation.
As the waters cover the sea. As the waters fill the basin of the sea (Genesis 1:22; 1 Kings 7:23, where the great vessel of ablution is called "the sea").