In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.
Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field. Tell him, ‘Be careful, and keep calm. Don’t be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying, “Let’s go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves, and set up a king within it, even the son of Tabeel.” This is what the Lord Yahweh says: “It shall not stand, neither shall it happen.” For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’ ”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 Or, Syria.
Or, Syria.
To wit, the second time: for in the first battle Ahaz was overcome.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–9 Isa 7:1 And it came to pass in the…
Isa 7:1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, [that] Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
Ver. 1. And it came to pass.] This is not a superfluous transition, as Augustine {a} maketh it, but importeth that the following discourse is no less to be regarded than the foregoing.
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In the days of Ahaz.] That sturdy stigmatic, under whom Isaiah was as Elijah under Ahab; and for the comfort of the godly, prophesied them most sweetly concerning Christ and his kingdom.
The son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah.] For whose sake, say the Rabbis, this wretch was thus relieved.
King of Judah.] Titularis, sed non tutelaris, titled but not titled, as it was once said of Culperic, King of France, utpote qui Reip. defuit, non praefuit.
That Rezin the King of Syria.] He is first named as being generalissimo; see of him 2Ki 15:37. He was King of Damascene and Coelesyria.
And Pekah King of Israel.] These two kings had each invaded Judah before with great success. {2Ch 28:5; 2Ch 28:8} And heartened thereby, now they join their forces, thinking to make a full conquest, but were as much deceived and disappointed as were the Pope and Spaniard here in 1588; and more than once in Ireland, where Don Aquila with his Spaniards being beaten out, said in open treaty, that when the devil upon the mount showed Christ all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them, he did not doubt but he left out Ireland and kept it for himself.
Went up.] But not in God’s name, Non Dei missu et nutu ut ante, sed proprio motu et ambitione.
But could not prevail against it.] Heb., Could not war - sc., with any good success. They came into the country like thunder and lightning, as duo fulmina belli, two thunderbolts of war, but went out like a snuff.
{a} In Pentat.
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Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 In the days of Ahaz, a most wicked king;…
In the days of Ahaz, a most wicked king; yet no prophecies are more comfortable than those which were delivered in his time; God so ordering it, partly for the encouragement of the faithful that lived under his tyrannical and impious reign; and partly to manifest the riches and freeness of his grace, in conferring such favours upon a most worthless generation.
To war against it; which they attempted before in Jotham’s reign, 2Ki 15:37, but now more seriously undertook, though without success, as is noted here, and 2Ki 16:5.
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Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 The prophet Isaiah had his commission renewed in the…
The prophet Isaiah had his commission renewed in the year that king Uzziah died, Isa 6:1. Jotham his son reigned, and reigned well, sixteen years. All that time, no doubt, Isaiah prophesied as he was commanded, and yet we have not in this book any of his prophecies dated in the reign of Jotham; but this, which is put first, was in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham. Many excellent useful sermons he preached which were not published and left upon record; for, if all that was memorable had been written, the world could not have contained the books, Joh 21:25. Perhaps in the reign of Ahaz, a wicked king, he had not opportunity to preach so much at court as in Jotham's time, and therefore then he wrote the more, for a testimony against them. Here is,
I. A very formidable design laid against Jerusalem by Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel, two neighbouring potentates, who had of late made descents upon Judah severally. At the end of the reign of Jotham, the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin and Pekah, Kg2 15:37. But now, in the second or third year of the reign of Ahaz, encouraged by their former successes, they entered into an alliance against Judah. Because Ahaz, though he found the sword over his head, began his reign with idolatry, God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria and of the king of Israel (Ch2 28:5), and a great slaughter they made in his kingdom, Isa 7:6, Isa 7:7. Flushed with this victory, they went up towards Jerusalem, the royal city, to war against it, to besiege it, and make themselves masters of it; but it proved in the issue that they could not gain their point. Note, The sin of a land brings foreign invasions upon it and betrays the most advantageous posts and passes to the enemy; and God sometimes makes one wicked nation a scourge to another; but judgment, ordinarily, begins at the house of God.
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II. The great distress that Ahaz and his court were in when they received advice of this design: It was told the house of David that Syria and Ephraim had signed a league against Judah, Isa 7:2. This degenerate royal family is called the house of David, to put us in mind of that article of God's covenant with David (Psa 89:30-33), If his children forsake my law, I will chasten their transgression with the rod; but my loving-kindness will I not utterly take away, which is remarkably fulfilled in this chapter. News being brought that the two armies of Syria and Israel were joined, and had taken the field, the court, the city, and the country, were thrown into consternation; The heart of Ahaz was moved with fear, and then no wonder that the heart of his people was so, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. They were tossed and shaken, and put into a great disorder and confusion, were wavering and uncertain in their counsels, hurried hither and thither, and could not fix in any steady resolution. They yielded to the storm, and gave up all for gone, concluding it in vain to make any resistance. Now that which caused this fright was the sense of guilt and the weakness of their faith. They had made God their enemy, and knew not how to make him their friend, and therefore their fears tyrannised over them; while those whose consciences are kept void of offence, and whose hearts are fixed, trusting in God, need not be afraid of evil tidings; though the earth be removed, yet will not they fear; but the wicked flee at the shaking of a leaf, Lev 26:36.
III. The orders and directions given to Isaiah to go and encourage Ahaz in his distress; not for his own sake (he deserved to hear nothing from God but words of terror, which might add affliction to his grief), but because he was a son of David and king of Judah. God had kindness for him for his father's sake, who must not be forgotten, and for his people's sake, who must not be abandoned, but would be encouraged if Ahaz were. Observe,
1. God appointed the prophet to meet Ahaz, though he did not send to the prophet to speak with him, nor desire him to enquire of the Lord for him (Isa 7:3): Go to meet Ahaz. Note, God is often found of those who seek him not, much more will he be found of those who seek him diligently. He speaks comfort to many who not only are not worthy of it, but do not so much as enquire after it.
3. He ordered him to take his little son with him, because he carried a sermon in his name, Shear-jashub - A remnant shall return. The prophets sometimes recorded what they preached in the significant names of their children (as Hos 1:4, Hos 1:6, Hos 1:9); therefore Isaiah's children are said to be for signs, Isa 8:18. This son was so called for the encouragement of those of God's people who were carried captive, assuring them that they should return, at least a remnant of them, which was more than they could pretend to merit; yet at this time God was better than his word; for he took care not only that a remnant should return, but the whole number of those whom the confederate forces of Syria and Israel had taken prisoners, Ch2 28:15.
3. He directed him where he should find Ahaz. He was to meet with him not in the temple, or the synagogue, or royal chapel, but at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, where he was, probably with many of his servants about him, contriving how to order the water-works, so as to secure them to the city, or deprive the enemy of the benefits of them (Isa 22:9-11; Ch2 32:3, Ch2 32:4), or giving some necessary directions for the fortifying of the city as well as they could; and perhaps finding every thing in a bad posture or defence, the conduit out of repair, as well as other things gone to decay, his fears increased, and he was now in greater perplexity than ever; therefore, Go, meet him there. Note, God sometimes sends comforts to his people very seasonably, and, what time they are most afraid, encourages them to trust in him.
4. He put words in his mouth, else the prophet would not have known how to bring a message of good to such a bad man, a sinner in Zion, that ought to be afraid; but God intended it for the support of faithful Israelites.
(1.) The prophet must rebuke their fears, and advise them by no means to yield to them, but keep their temper, and preserve the possession of their own souls (Isa 7:4): Take heed, and be quiet. Note, In order to comfort there is need of caution; that we may be quiet, it is necessary that we take heed and watch against those things that threaten to disquiet us. "Fear not with this amazement, this fear, that weakens, and has torment; neither let thy heart be tender, so as to melt and fail within thee; but pluck up thy spirits, have a good heart on it, and be courageous; let not fear betray the succours which reason and religion offer for thy support." Note, Those who expect God should help them must help themselves, Psa 27:14.
(2.) He must teach them to despise their enemies, not in pride, or security, or incogitancy (nothing more dangerous than so to despise an enemy), but in faith and dependence upon God. Ahaz's fear called them two powerful politic princes, for either of whom he was an unequal match, but, if united, he durst not look them in the face, nor make head against them. "No," says the prophet, "they are two tails of smoking firebrands; they are angry, they are fierce, they are furious, as firebrands, as fireballs; and they make one another worse by being in a confederacy, as sticks of fire put together burn the more violently. But they are only smoking firebrands: and where there is smoke there is some fire, but it may be not so much as was feared. Their threatenings will vanish into smoke. Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise (Jer 46:17), and Rezin king of Syria but a smoke; and such are all the enemies of God's church, smoking flax, that will soon be quenched. Nay, they are but tails of smoking firebrands, in a manner burnt out already; their force is spent; they have consumed themselves with the heat of their own anger; you may put your foot on them, and tread them out." The two kingdoms of Syria and Israel were now near expiring. Note, The more we have an eye to God as a consuming fire the less reason we shall have to fear men, though they are ever so furious, nay, we shall be able to despise them as smoking firebrands.
(3.) He must assure them that the present design of these high allies (so they thought themselves) against Jerusalem should certainly be defeated and come to nothing, Isa 7:5-7. [1.] That very thing which Ahaz thought most formidable is made the ground of their defeat - and that was the depth of their designs and the height of their hopes: "Therefore they shall be baffled and sent back with shame, because they have taken evil counsel against thee, which is an offence to God. These firebrands are a smoke in his nose (Isa 65:5), and therefore must be extinguished." First, They are very spiteful and malicious, and, therefore they shall not prosper. Judah had done them no wrong; they had no pretence to quarrel with Ahaz; but, without any reason, they said, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it. Note, Those that are vexatious cannot expect to be prosperous, those that love to do mischief cannot expect to do well. Secondly, They are very secure, and confident of success. They will vex Judah by going up against it; yet that is not all: they do not doubt but to make a breach in the wall of Jerusalem wide enough for them to march their army in at; or they count upon dissecting or dividing the kingdom into two parts, one for the king of Israel, the other for the king of Syria, who had agreed in one viceroy - a king to be set in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal, some obscure person, it is uncertain whether a Syrian or an Israelite. So sure were they of gaining their point that they divided the prey before they had caught it. Note, Those that are most scornful are commonly least successful, for surely God scorns the scorners. [2.] God himself gives them his word that the attempt should not take effect (Isa 7:7): "Thus saith the Lord God, the sovereign Lord of all, who brings the counsel of the heathen to naught (Psa 33:10), It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass; their measures shall all be broken, and they shall not be able to bring to pass their enterprise." Note, Whatever stands against God, or thinks to stand without him, cannot stand long. Man purposes, but God disposes; and who is he that saith and it cometh to pass if the Lord commands it not or countermands it? Lam 3:37. See Pro 19:21.
(4.) He must give them a prospect of the destruction of these enemies, at last, that were now such a terror to them. [1.] They should neither of them enlarge their dominions, nor push their conquests any further; The head city of Syria is Damascus, and the head man of Damascus is Rezin; this he glories in, and this let him be content with, Isa 7:8. The head city of Ephraim has long been Samaria, and the head man in Samaria is now Pekah the son of Remaliah. These shall be made to know their own, their bounds are fixed, and they shall not pass them, to make themselves masters of the cities of Judah, much less to make Jerusalem their prey. Note, As God has appointed men the bounds of their habitation (Act 17:26), so he has appointed princes the bounds of their dominion, within which they ought to confine themselves, and not encroach upon their neighbours' rights. [2.] Ephraim, which perhaps was the more malicious and forward enemy of the two, should shortly be quite rooted out, and should be so far from seizing other people's lands that they should not be able to hold their own. Interpreters are much at a loss how to compute the sixty-five years within which Ephraim shall cease to be a people; for the captivity of the ten tribes was but eleven years after this: and some make it a mistake of the transcriber, and think it should be read within six and five years, just eleven. But it is hard to allow that. Others make it to be sixty-five years from the time that the prophet Amos first foretold the ruin of the kingdom of the ten tribes; and some late interpreters make it to look as far forward as the last desolation of that country by Esarhaddon, which was about sixty-five years after this; then Ephraim was so broken that it was no more a people. Now it was the greatest folly in the world for those to be ruining their neighbours who were themselves marked for ruin, and so near to it. See what a prophet told them at this time, when they were triumphing over Judah, Ch2 28:10. Are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God?
(5.) He must urge them to mix faith with those assurances which he had given them (Isa 7:9): "If you will not believe what is said to you, surely you shall not be established; your shaken and disordered state shall not be established, your unquiet unsettled spirit shall not; though the things told you are very encouraging, yet they will not be so to you, unless you believe them, and be willing to take God's word." Note, The grace of faith is absolutely necessary to the quieting and composing of the mind in the midst of all the tosses of this present time, Ch2 20:20.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–9 And it came to pass in the days of…
And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah king of Judah,.... Here begins a new prophecy under the reign of another king; who, though a wicked king, had religious ancestors; and who are mentioned, not, as the Jewish writers (u) generally say, because it was owing to their worthiness that the enemies of Ahaz could not prevail against him; but because it was under these kings the prophet had prophesied: what is contained in the first five chapters were delivered in the times of Uzziah; and the vision in the sixth was in the times of Jotham, in the beginning of his reign; and what is said here, and in some following chapters, was in the time of Ahaz; so that this is mentioned to fix and carry on the date of the prophecy:
that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah king of Israel, went up towards Jerusalem to war against it; at the latter end of Jotham's reign, and the beginning of Ahaz's; these two separately came up against Judah, and greatly distressed and afflicted the kingdom, slew many, and carried others captive, Kg2 15:37 but afterwards, in the third (w) or fourth (x) year of Ahaz, as it is said, they joined together to besiege Jerusalem, which this refers to, Kg2 16:5,
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but could not prevail against it; or "he could not"; that is, according to Aben Ezra, the king of Israel, Pekah, the son of Remaliah; but, according to Kimchi, it was Rezin king of Syria, who, he says, was the principal in the war, and brought Pekah along with him; but it may very well be understood of them both, since in Kg2 16:5, the plural number is used; "and they could not"; and so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Oriental versions here.
(u) Jarchi & Kimchi in loc. & Yalkut Simeoni, ex Bereshit Rabba, sect. 63. fol. 54. 4. (w) Yalkut Simeoni in loc. (x) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 23. p. 85. Jarchi in ver. 14.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 Ahaz afraid of Rezin and Pekah, is comforted by…
Ahaz afraid of Rezin and Pekah, is comforted by Isaiah, ver. 1-9. Refusing to chuse a sign, Christ is promised for one, ver. 10- 16. His judgment should come by Assyria, ver. 17-25.
Ahaz - A most wicked king: yet no prophecies are more comfortable than those which were delivered in his time; God so ordering it for the encouragement of the faithful that lived under his impious reign.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 The king of Judah and the royal family being…
CHAPTER VII
The king of Judah and the royal family being in the utmost
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consternation on receiving accounts of the invasion of the
kings of Syria and Israel, the prophet is sent to assure them
that God would make good his promises to David and his house;
so that, although they might be corrected, they could not be
destroyed, while these prophecies remained to be accomplished,
1-9.
The Lord gives Ahaz a sign that the confederacy against Judah
shall be broken, which sign strikingly points out the
miraculous conception of the Messiah, who was to spring from
the tribe of Judah, 10-16.
Prediction of very heavy calamities which the Assyrians would
inflict upon the land of Judea, 17-25.
The confederacy of Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, against the kingdom of Judah, was formed in the time of Jotham; and perhaps the effects of it were felt in the latter part of his reign; see 2Kg 15:37, and note on Isa 1:7-9. However, in the very beginning of the reign of Ahaz, they jointly invaded Judah with a powerful army, and threatened to destroy or to dethrone the house of David. The king and royal family being in the utmost consternation on receiving advises of their designs, Isaiah is sent to them to support and comfort them in their present distress, by assuring them that God would make good his promises to David and his house. This makes the subject of this, and the following, and the beginning of the ninth chapters, in which there are many and great difficulties.
Chap. vii. begins with an historical account of the occasion of this prophecy; and then follows, Isa 7:4-16, a prediction of the ill success of the designs of the Israelites and Syrians against Judah; and from thence to the end of the chapter, a denunciation of the calamities to be brought upon the king and people of Judah by the Assyrians, whom they had now hired to assist them. Chap. viii. has a pretty close connection with the foregoing; it contains a confirmation of the prophecy before given of the approaching destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Syria by the Assyrians, of the denunciation of the invasion of Judah by the same Assyrians. Verses 9, 10, Isa 8:9; Isa 8:10, give a repeated general assurance, that all the designs of the enemies of God's people shall be in the end disappointed and brought to naught; Isa 8:11, &c., admonitions and threatenings, (I do not attempt a more particular explanation of this very difficult part,) concluding with an illustrious prophecy Isa 9:1-6, of the manifestation of Messiah, the transcendent dignity of his character, and the universality and eternal duration of his kingdom.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 Isa 7:1. And it came to pass in the…
Isa 7:1. And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz — Of whose idolatries and abominable wickedness the reader will find a particular account, 2Ch 28:1-4. Rezin and Pekah went up toward Jerusalem — “The confederacy of these two kings against the kingdom of Judah was formed in the time of Jotham; and perhaps the effects of it were felt in the latter part of his reign. See 2Ki 15:37. However, in the very beginning of the reign of Ahaz, they jointly invaded Judah with a powerful army, and threatened to destroy, or to dethrone the house of David. The king and royal family being in the utmost consternation on receiving advices of their designs, Isaiah is sent to them to support and comfort them in their present distress, by assuring them that God would make good his promises to David and his house. This makes the subject of this and the following chapter, and the beginning of the ninth.” But could not prevail against it — That is, against Jerusalem. But yet they carried away a multitude of captives out of Judea, slew a vast number of the people, and Rezin restored Elah to his own dominions. See notes on 2Ki 16:5, and on 2Ch 28:5-6.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 In the days of Ahaz - Ahaz began to…
In the days of Ahaz - Ahaz began to reign about 738 years before Christ. By a comparison of 2Ki 16:5, ..., with 2Ch 28:5, etc., it will be seen that Judea was twice invaded by Rezin and Pekah in the reign of Ahaz; see the Analysis of the chapter.
That Rezin ... - This confederacy was formed in the time of Jotham; 2Ki 15:37. But it was not carried into execution during his reign. It is evident from this place, that it was executed in the early part of the reign of Ahaz; probably in the first or second year of his reign.
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Syria - - ארם 'ărâm, so called from Aram Gen 10:22-23, a son of Shem, and who populated its chief provinces. It comprehended the country lying between the Euphrates east, the Mediterranean west, Cilicia north, and Phenicia, Judea, and Arabia south; see the notes at Isa 17:1-14. Syria of the two rivers is Mesopotamia. Syria of Damascus, so called because Damascus was its capital, extended eastward along Mount Libanus, but its limits varied according to the power of the princes of Damascus. After the reign of the Seleucidae, Syria came to denote the kingdom or region of which Antioch was the capital. Here it denotes the Syria lying around Damascus, and of which Damascus was the capital. - “Calmet.”
King of Israel - Of the ten tribes, called the kingdom of Israel, or Samaria; Note, Isa 1:1.
Went up - Jerusalem was situated on hills, and on the highest part of the land. But it is possible that this language is derived from the fact that it was the capital. The language is used even when the region from which the traveler comes does not lie lower than the city. Thus it is not uncommon to speak of “going up” to London, Paris, etc.
Could not prevail - Hebrew, ‘Could not fight against it,’ that is, with happy result, or with success. He was not able to take it. That the allied kings really besieged Ahaz, is evident from 2Ki 16:5 : They ‘came up to Jerusalem to war, and they besieged Ahaz, but they could not overcome him.’ The reason why they could not take Jerusalem was, probably, not only because it was a strong place and well defended, but because there was intelligence that their own dominions were threatened with an invasion by the Assyrians, and they could not protract their siege of Jerusalem long enough to take it.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 Achaz. This must be seventeen years later than the…
Achaz. This must be seventeen years later than the former prediction, 4 Kings xv. 37. The kings of Syria and Israel jointly attacked Juda, but were forced to raise the siege of Jerusalem. The next year they came separately, and committed the following ravages. The news of their junction threw all into confusion, ver. 2. Isaias was then sent to inform the king, that the designs of his enemies should not take effect. Yet the two kings obtained each a victory. But they could not dethrone Achaz, as they intended. (Calmet) --- Paine traduces this prophecy as a lie, asserting that they succeeded. What! did they make Tabeel king? ver. 6. The Israelites would not even keep the captives who had been taken, 2 Chronicles xxviii. 15. (Watson, let. 5.) --- Achaz had been made captive before. But now the Lord defeated the projects of his enemies, as he will the conspiracy of heretics against his Church. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Isa_7:1 to Isa_8:4
I.—THE TWO CHIEF PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN’S SON AND OF THE PROPHETS SON
Isa_7:1 to Isa_8:4
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I.—THE PROPHECY OF THE VIRGIN’S SON IMMANUEL
Isa_7:1-25
a) Isaiah and Ahaz at the conduit of the upper pool
Isa_7:1-9
1And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not 27prevail against it.
2And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria 28is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. 3Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and 29Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the 30highway of the fuller’s field; and say unto him,
4Take heed, and be quiet;
Fear not, 31neither be faint hearted
32For the two tails of these smoking fire-brands,
For the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
5Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah,
Have 33taken evil counsel against thee, saying,
6Let us go up against Judah, and 34 35vex it,
And let us make a breach therein for us,
And set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:
7Thus saith the 36Lord God,
It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.
8For the head of Syria is Damascus,
And the head of Damascus is Rezin;
And within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, 37that it be not a people.
9And the head of Ephraim is Samaria.
And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.
38 39If ye will not believe, surely, ye shall not be established.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Chap. 7 Isa_7:1. עָלָה is used not only of motion towards a place that is conceived of as higher (e. g., 1Ki_12:27 sqq.; 2Ki_24:1, and יָרַד of the opposite, e. g. 1Ki_22:2; 2Ki_8:29) but also of any hostile proceeding, entering on a plan (1Sa_17:23; 1Sa_17:25; Mic_2:13; Neh_2:2, etc).—יָכֹל changed 2Ki_16:5 to יָכְלוּ comes from the preceding עָלָה, and from the additional idea, perhaps, that Rezin was the chief person.
Isa_7:2. נוּחַ is never used in the sense of niti, confidere. But it is used of swarms of birds, grasshoppers and flies, that settle down somewhere (Isa_7:19; Exo_10:14; 2Sa_21:10). Such is its meaning here: the army of Syria has settled down like a swarm of grasshoppers on the spot where the army of Ephraim was encamped. Comp. 2Sa_17:12. On the fem. נָחָה after אֲרָם comp. 2Sa_8:5; 2Sa_10:10; coll. Isa_14:15; Isa_14:18.
Isa_7:3. תְּעָלָה occurs again in Isaiah only Isa_36:2. מִסְלָּה Isaiah used often beside here: Isa_36:2; Isa_11:16; Isa_19:23; Isa_33:8; Isa_40:3; Isa_49:11; Isa_59:7; Isa_62:10. כּוֹבֵם only here and Isa_36:2, in Isaiah.
Isa_7:4. After הִשָּׁמֵר should follow properly a negative notion, whence the word always has after it the conjunctions פֶּן or אַל or the preposition מִן (as solitary exceptions, comp. Exo_19:12; Exo_23:13). Therefore a negation must be supplied out of the following השׁקט, “take heed of (unbelieving, thus sinful) disquietude, but rather be quiet.” The direct causative Hiphil הַשְׁקֵט has evidently the meaning that Ahaz must control his anxiety, quiet himself. The word occurs in Isaiah again Isa_30:15; Isa_32:17; Isa_57:20, whereas the Niph. נִשְׁמַר occurs in Isaiah only here. יֵרַךְ Niph. of רָכַךְ; with the exception of Psa_55:22, it always occurs in connection with לֵבָב or לֵב in the sense of becoming weak, timorous (Deu_20:3; Jer_51:46; 2Ki_22:19; Job_33:16); it does not occur again in Isa. Only once he uses the Pual Isa_1:6. זָנָב (according to Isa_9:13-14; Isa_19:15) “the tail, the end piece.” אוּד (found beside only Amo_4:11; Zec_3:2) is the charred stick of wood that may have been used to stir the fire. עָשֵׁן “smoking,” only here in Isaiah, and Exo_20:18. בחרי אף וגו, to understand the prefix בְּ to be of time–“while glowing” (Drechsler, Delitzsch, Knobel, Gesenius ) seems to me unsuitable. מִן marks the object of fear. בְּ following rather distributes the common notion “smoking firebrands” to the two so-named, as בְּ often stands after general expressions of number, (especially after כֹּל). Comp. Exo_12:19, “whosoever eateth leaven shall be cut off בַּגֵּר וּבְאֶזְרַח הָאָֽרֶץ.” Gen_7:21; Gen_9:2; Gen_9:10. Comp. Ewald, § 217 sq. The LXX. translates singularly ὅταν γὰρ ὀργὴ τοῦ θυμοῦ μου γένηται, πάλιν ἰάσομαι. Καὶ ὁ υίὸς τοῦ Ἀρἀμ καὶ ὁ υιὸς τοῦ P̔ομελίου, etc. Gesenius correctly conjectures that the translator instead of אפרצין reads ארפאכן, or rather ארפאובן.
Isa_7:6. הֵקִיץ is Hiph. from קָץ. The fundamental meaning is: “to experience a shaking, a shock.” From this are derived the meanings a) timere, “trembling, quaking,” (Isa_7:16, Exo_1:12; Num_22:3); b) taedere, fastidire. Disgust brings about a shock (comp. “es schüttelt mich”) which, when it is powerful, occasions vomiting (קוֹא) (comp. e.g. Gen_27:46; Num_21:5); c) in the Hiphil: “to wake up;” for waking up is the effect of a shock that the sleeper experiences from without or within. In this sense, however, the Hiphil is evidently a direct causative, since it properly means “to make a shaking, a shaker.” Wherever else this Hiph. הקיץ occurs, except our verse, it means “to awake.” Our verse is therefore the only one where the word occurs as the causative of the notion קָץ = timere (verse 16). Many expositors therefore have hesitated to take the word in this sense. Thus Fuerst (Concord., p. 988) would give our הֵקִיץ the meaning incidere, impungere, or abscindere, in that he combines it with קוֹץ “thorn,” or with קַיִץ tempus abscissionis, “harvest.” Gesenius, (Thes. p. 1208) proposes to read נְצִיקֶנְָה coarctemus, urgeamus, (Isa_29:2; Isa_29:7). However, as this Hiphil is in any case unusual, it seems better to take it in a sense that is suggested by something near at hand, Isa_7:16. The feminine suffix here and afterwards in נבקענה and בתוכה relates plainly to Judah as land. The meaning of the Hiph. הבקיע is not quite clear. The fundamental meaning of the word is: “to split.” It is used of splitting wood (Ecc_10:9, coll. Gen_22:3) of eggshells (Isa_59:5) of the earth from which springs forth the fountain (Ps. 124:15) of the waters of the Red Sea (Psa_78:13); it is said that a besieged city is split when it is taken, that is, a breach is made in its walls (2Ki_25:4; Jer_39:2; Jer_52:7; Eze_26:10). In the last-named sense it is used 2Ch_32:1, where it is said of Sennacherib: “He encamped against the fenced cities and thought לְבִקְעָם אֵלָיו,” where the constructio praegnans is important to the exposition of our passage. The word however is also used of a land. 2Ch_21:17 we read of the Philistines and Arabians: “they came up into Judah, וַיִבְקָעוּהָ, and carried away all the substance,” etc. Beside the present place, the Hiph. occurs only 2Ki_3:26, where it is used of an intended breaking forth on the part of an enclosed army. According to all this, the use of the word for breaking through, forcing a fortified city, seems to me to settle the meaning. A land is forced, broken through, as well as a city, when the living wall that defends it, the defensive army is broken through. Thus the sense of our passage will be: let us break through it (the land of Judah) i. e., take it by breaking through the protecting army, and thereby take it to ourselves. There lies in the expression, beside the pregnant construction, at the same time a metonomy.
It is not known who “the son of Tabeal” was. טָב is the Hebrew טוֹכ (comp. טַבְרִמּוֹן 1Ki_15:18); the ending אַל changed in the pause from אֵל, whereby, perhaps intentionally, arises the meaning “not good” (good for nothing). If the name was of Israelitish origin (comp. טוּבָיִּה) then likely that Tabeal or his son was a fugitive of Judea of note. The name is found again Ezr_4:7. On the Assyrian monuments of the time of Tiglath-Pileser is mentioned however an I-ti-bi’-i-lu, or Ti-bi’-i-lu, with the addition “mat A-ru-mu” i. e., from the land of Aram.
Isa_7:8 b. The position of these words is surprising. Why do they not stand after Isa_7:9 a? And how is the ו at the beginning of Isa_7:8 to be construed? Is it that paratactic Vav, that is determined only by the connection? And what is it that so determines it? Shall we regard it as causal, which were quite grammatical? (Comp. Gen_24:50; Deu_17:16; Psa_7:10, etc. Ewald’s Gram., § 353 a; Gesen. § 155, 1 c). Or shall we, like Chrysostom and Calvin, with whom Tholuck agrees, take it in the sense of νῦν or. interea? Take one or the other and it is not satisfactory. It seems to me to answer best, to assume that the words are a sample of the oracle-like, lapidary style (Lapidarstils) and thence no grammatically correct construction is to be looked for. Did the words in question stand after 9 b, whither Lowth has transposed them, then indeed the disposition of the sentence would be more correct, but the construction would be monotonous. ראשׁ occurring four times in succession would sound bad. By the interposition of Isa_7:8 b, this evil is avoided. Thus manifoldness is combined with equilibrium. And thus, without ignoring the difficulties, we will still recognize the possibility of the passage being genuine as it is, against which there is grammatically nothing to oppose (comp. Tholuck, Die Propheten und ihre Weissagungen, and Ewald). Examples of the construction ובעוד שׁשׁים ו׳ Gen_40:13; Gen_40:19; Jos_1:11; 2Sa_12:22; Isa_21:16; Jer_28:3; Jer_28:11; Amo_4:7. יֵחַת is imp. Kal. from חָתַת fractus est. Isa_30:31; Isa_31:4; Isa_51:6, etc.—מֵעַם = מִחְיוֹת עַם, comp. Isa_17:1; Isa_23:1; Isa_62:10.
Isa_7:9. Niph. נֶֽאְמֲן is firmum, stabilem, perennem esse (Isa_22:23; Isa_22:25; Isa_33:16; Isa_49:7; Isa_55:3; Isa_60:4). כִּי is pleonastic, but very expressive, and is to be treated as dependent on an ideal verbum dicendi (Num_22:29; Num_22:33; Psa_128:4).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. And it came to pass——with the wind.—
Isa_7:1-2. This war expedition of the united Syrians and Ephraimites is mentioned 2Ki_15:37; 2Ki_16:5 sq. and 2Ch_28:5 sq. Were one to follow the statement of 2Ki_15:30, then Pekah did not at all live to see Ahaz. For there it reads: “And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah, and smote him and slew him, and reigned in his stead in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.” If Pekah was killed after Jotham’s death under Ahaz, it must any way read “in the first year of Ahaz.” But according to all other data, Pekah must undoubtedly have lived to see Ahaz. For 2Ki_15:1 it reads that Ahaz became king in the seventeenth year of Pekah, who, according to 2Ki_15:27, reigned twenty years. How otherwise could Pekah, according to Isa_7:1, wage war against Ahaz? How could Tiglath-Pileser, according to 2Ki_15:29, whom Ahaz summoned (2Ki_16:7), in Pekah’s day, still occupy the region of Ephraim and carry the people away? But the statement of 2Ki_15:30 b proves itself false in other ways. For, 2Ki_15:32-33, we read that Jotham became king in the second year of Pekah, and reigned sixteen years. Accordingly Jotham must have died in the eighteenth year of Pekah. Therefore Pekah survived Jotham, and not Jotham Pekah, as 2Ki_15:30 gives the impression. Hitzig (Gesch. d. Volkes Isr. I. p. 212) makes the original form of the statement to be: “And he killed him in the twentieth year of his reign, and became king in his stead;” but the following “of Jotham the son of Uzziah,” etc., are the superscription of 2Ki_15:32 sqq.
However this may be, the statement of 2Ki_15:30 b is in any case incorrect. Therefore we have here a plain example of the corruption of the text, unless we assume an inexact or erroneous use of original sources.
Pekah not only survived Jotham, but he lived during three years of Ahaz, because, according to 2Ki_15:27, Pekah reigned twenty years, and in his seventeenth year Ahaz became king. Therefore in these three years must occur the events related in Isaiah 7, 8. Drechsler says correctly, the spoiling of Ephraim, spoken of 2Ki_15:29, presupposes the conception, birth, and learning to talk of “Hasten-spoil, Quick-prey” (Isa_8:3 sqq.); consequently one must say that the attack of Rezin and Pekah must be located in the first half of the three years that the latter lived in common with Ahaz.
Rezin was the last king of independent Syria—for by his overthrow it became an Assyrian province. The founder of the kingdom of Syria of Damascus was Rezin (רְזוֹן), who, having run away from his lord Hadadeser, king of Syria of Zobah, gathered a horde of fighting men, and settled with them in Damascus (1Ki_11:23 sqq.). From that period we find the Syrian power, hitherto divided into many small kingdoms, concentrated under the king of Damascus. Rezin is followed by Hezion (חֶזְיוֹן, if he is not identical with רְזוֹן as Ewald,Gesch. d. V. Isr. III. 151, and Thenius, on 1Ki_15:19, conjecture); he by his son Tabrimon, who, according to 1Ki_15:19, appears to have made a league with Abijam the king of Judah, which Benhadad, son and successor of Tabrimon, renewed with king Asa; an un-theocratic proceeding, which, according to 2Ch_16:7, provoked the sharp censure of the prophet Hanani. We have, then, here the example of a league that a king of Judah made with the heathen king of Syria in order to war upon Baasha, king of Israel, to which in addition must be observed the grave fact that Benhadad at the very time was in league with Baasha, and consequently must have been solicited to break an existing alliance.
Thus the league between Pekah and Rezin against Ahaz appears as a retribution for the league that Asa had made with Benhadad against Baasha. That Benhadad, whom we may call Benhadad I., was suceeeded by Benhadad II., of whom we read that he combined thirty-two kings under his supreme command against Israel (1Ki_20:1 sqq.). Benhadad II. was succeeded by Hazael, who murdered his master (1Ki_19:15; 2Ki_8:7 sqq.). Hazael was succeeded by Benhadad III., his son (2Ki_13:24); finally Rezin succeeded him; his name possibly is identical with that of Rezin, the founder of the dynasty, as Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1307) and Baihinger (Herzog’sReal-Encyclop. VII. p. 44) conjecture. The sounds ז and צ, as is well known, being nearly related (ds and ts; comp. צָעַקִ and צָהַר ,זָעַק, and עָלַץ ,זָהַר and צָעַר ,עָלַז and Aram. זְעַר, etc.). But if רְזוֹן and רָזוֹן (Pro_14:28, where the word is parallel with מֶלֶךְ) and רֹזֵן (Jdg_5:3; Psa_2:2, gravis, augustus, princeps, stand related in root and meaning, we would then see this kingdom of Damascus also begin and end with an Augustus.
Pekah, son of Remaliah, an otherwise unknown name, was שָׁלִישׁ of the king Pekahiah. Luther translates the word by Ritter = “knight,” but it means properly “chariot warrior,” because three always stood on a chariot (comp. Exo_14:7; Exo_15:4). It signifies a follower generally (2Ki_10:25), as well as particularly a favored follower, on whose hand the king leaned (2Ki_7:2; 2Ki_7:17; 2Ki_7:19). Pekah killed his master after a reign of two years (2Ki_15:23 sqq.). Like all other rulers of the kingdom of Israel, “he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,” 2Ki_15:28. Our passage is explained by the parallel passages, 2Ki_16:5 sqq. and 2Ch_28:5 sqq.
The words of 2Ki_16:5 sqq. correspond almost verbatim with Isa_7:1. Such difference as there is indicates that the author of 2 Kings meant, not that Jerusalem itself, but only the king, was hard pressed,—meaning, of course, the king as representative of the land. Moreover that the author of 2 Kings drew from Isaiah, and not the reverse, appears to me beyond doubt. For 2 Kings is without doubt a much more recent book than Isaiah. At most, Isaiah could only have used one of the sources used by the writer of 2 Kings. But why need the Prophet look into the archives of the kingdom for a summary notice of an event of his own times, and known to all his contemporaries? Combining then the accounts of 2 Kings and 2 Chron. we obtain the following facts: 1, the hostile incursion of Rezin and Pekah into Judah; 2, a defeat of Ahaz by Rezin (2Ch_28:5); 3, a defeat of Ahaz by Pekah (Isa_7:6-15); 4, the taking of Elath by the Syrians (2Ki_16:6); 5, an expedition of Rezin and Pekah against Jerusalem (Isa_7:1), with which also the notice Isa_7:2 of the fact that “Syria has settled upon Ephraim” has more or less connection.
The question arises: Is the expedition referred to in our passage identical with that related 2 Kings and 2 Chron.? or if not, did it occur before or after the latter? At the first glance, indeed, one is liable to regard Isa_6:1 as a brief, summary notice of all the transactions of that war. But then it is surprising that this notice—with the promises that follow it in close connection—gives the impression that the war progressed in a way wholly favorable for Judah; whereas we know from the parallel passages that Judah suffered severe defeats and prodigious loss. Therefore we cannot take our verse as such a parallel and summary account. But it is impossible also that what our passage recounts preceded the defeats of which we have account in the parallel passage. For then the statements of our passages would equally disagree with the event. They would announce only good, whereas in reality great misfortunes occurred. We must therefore assume that our passage refers to an expedition that occurred after the events of 2Ki_16:5 sqq., and 2 Isa_28:5 sqq.; and we must conceive of the matter as follows: Rezin and Pekah operated at first separately, as is expressly indicated, 2Ch_28:5. The former, likely, traversed the East of Judah’s territory and proceeded at once south toward Elath. But Pekah engaged in battle with Ahaz to the north of Jerusalem, with the bad result for Ahaz, related 2Ch_28:5 b sqq. After these preliminary successes, Rezin and Pekah united their armies and marched against Jerusalem itself. This is the expedition of which our passage informs us, and this is the meaning of נחה Isa_7:2. The expedition, however, did not succeed. For Ahaz had applied to the King of Assyria, and the news that the latter was in motion in response to the request of Ahaz, moved the allied kings to hasten home into their countries. Thus is explained why Isa_7:1 speaks only of an intended war against the city of Jerusalem, and why the author of 2 Kings who mistook our passage for a general notice, and used it as such, resorted to the alterations we have noticed (viz., the omission of “against it,” and “they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him” 2Ki_16:5). This is essentially the view of Caspari too (in the Universitäts-Programm über den syrisch-ephraimitischen Krieg, Christiani, 1849), with which Delitzsch agrees (in his review of the foregoing writing in Reuter’sReport., April, 1851, reprinted in his commentary).
In regard to Isa_7:1 b, a double matter is to be noticed: 1. that it does not say “he could not take it, or make a conquest of it” or the like; but he could not make war upon it. That must plainly mean that Rezin and Pekah could not find even time to begin the siege. 2. The clause “he could not,” etc., must be construed as anticipation of the result, which the Prophet, after the well-known Hebrew manner of writing history, joins on to the account of the beginning. What follows then Isa_7:2, and after, is thus, as to time, to be thought of as coming between Isa_7:1 a and b.
To the house of David.
Isa_7:2. This expression (found again in Isaiah only, Isa_7:13; Isa_22:22) can, indeed, mean the race of David, (comp. 1Sa_20:16; 1Ki_12:16; 1Ki_12:20; 1Ki_12:26, etc.); and Isa_7:13 the plural שִׁמְעוּ, “hear ye,” seems really to commend this meaning. But the singular suffix in לְבָבוֹ and עַמּוֹ “his heart,” “his people,” proves that the meaning is not just the same. Therefore it seems to me that “house of David” here means the palace, the royal residence. There was the seat of government, the king’s cabinet; thither was the intelligence brought. It is as when one says: it was told the cabinet of St. James, or the Sublime Porte. Of course the expression involves reference to the living possessor of the government building, and the governing power, the king. Hence the language proceeds with pronouns (suffixes) in the singular.
2. Then said the Lord—the son of Remaliah.
Isa_7:3-4. The Prophet receives command to go and meet the king, who had gone out, and thus whose return was to be looked for. But he must not go alone, but in company with his son, Shear-jashub. The son is no where else mentioned. The name signifies the chief contents of all prophecy, according to its two aspects. In the notion שְׁאָרShear, is indicated the entire fulness of the divine judgments, that the Prophets had to announce: whereas יָשׁוּבJashub opens up the glorious prospect of the final deliverance. [The name means a remnant may return.—Tr.] Comp. Isa_1:8-9; Isa_4:3; Isa_6:13; Isa_10:20 sqq. (especially Isa_7:21 where the words שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב expressly recur). We have shown in commenting on Jeremiah 3 sqq.; Jer_31:16-22 what an important part the notion שׁוּב “to return,” plays in Jeremiah’s prophecy. The significance of Shear-jashub’s name, however, makes us notice, too, that the Prophet himself bears a significant name. יְשַׁעְיָהוּ means “salvation of Jehovah.” And that the proclamation of salvation, comfort is the chief contents of His prophecies Israel has long known, and acknowledged. An old rabbinical saying, quoted by Abarb. reads בפר יאעיהו כלוּ נהמתא comp. Introduction. Threatening and consolation therefore go to meet Ahaz embodied in the persons of Isaiah and his son, yet so that consolation predominates, as also the words that Isaiah has to speak are for the most part consolatory. Had Israel only been susceptible of this consolation!
The locality where Isaiah was to meet the king is mentioned Isa_36:2, and in the same words. There, Rabshakeh, the envoy of Sennacherib, according to that passage, held his interview with the men that Hezekiah sent out to him. It must, therefore, have been an open, roomy spot, suited for conferences. According to the researches of Robinson, against which the results of Krafft, Williams and Hitzig prove not to be tenable, (comp. Arnold in Herzog’sR. Encycl. XVIII. p. 632 sq.), the upper-pool is identical with the Birket-el Mamilla, which in the west of Jerusalem his in the basin that forms the beginning of the Vale of Hinnom, about 2100 feet from the Jaffa Gate. Moreover this pool is identical with “the old pool” mentioned Isa_22:11. Hezekiah, when he saw that Sennacherib was coming (2Ch_32:2 sqq.), stopped up the fountains outside of the city, and conducted the water of the fountain of Gihon and that of the upper-pool in a new conduit between the two walls (Isa_22:11 coll.2Ki_20:20; 2Ch_32:30), in contrast with which it was that the upper-pool was called the older. The fuller’s field, the place where the fullers washed, fulled and dried their stuffs, must have been in the neighborhood of a pool. Now Josephus (Bell. Jud. V. 4, 2) speaks of a μνῆμα γναφέως, “fuller’s monument,” that must have had its position north of the city. For this reason many (Williams, Krafft, Hitzig) look for the fuller’s field in the neighborhood of the fuller’s monument. But fuller’s field and fuller’s monument need not necessarily be near one another. For the latter does not necessarily concern the place of the fullers as such, but may have been erected on that spot to a fuller or by a fuller for any particular reason unknown to us. And anyway the existence of a pool in ancient times north of Jerusalem cannot be proved. Therefore the fuller’s field lay probably in the neighborhood of the upper-pool west of the city.
Ahaz had probably a similar end in view at the upper pool to Hezehiah’s, according to 2Ch_32:2 sqq. It was to deprive the enemy of all fountains, brooks and pools, and yet preserve them for the use of the city. The end was obtained by covering them over above and conducting them into the city. Perhaps in this respect Ahaz did preparatory work for Hezekiah (comp. Arnold,l. c.). The Prophet warned the king against sinning through unbelieving despondency. The expression “fear not, neither be fainthearted,” is here and Jer_51:46, borrowed from Deu_20:3, where it is said to the people how they must conduct themselves when they stand opposed in fight to superior forces of the enemy. The expression occurs only in the three places named. Why Ahaz should not fear is expressed in this, that the enemy that threatened him are compared to quenched firebrands and stumps of torches. Two firebrands are mentioned in the first clause, and yet the idea is distributed over three bearers, Rezin, Syria and the son of Remaliah. We see that the Prophet takes prince and people as one; and here he names the two halves of the whole, as instantly afterwards Isa_7:5, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, bat the second time he does not mention Rezin at all, but only opposes Syria to Ephraim and its king. There appears to me to lie in this an expression of contempt for Rezin, who first is named in connection with his nation and the second time, not at all, so that he plainly appears as a secondary person. On the other hand contempt was expressed for Pekah by calling him only the son of Remaliah. But what is the son of Remaliah, a man utterly unknown, opposed to the son of David!
3. Because Syria—shall not be established.
Isa_7:5-9. The conclusion of the premise “because Syria, etc., have taken evil counsel,” etc., begins Isa_7:7, “thus saith the Lord.” The evil counsel is set forth Isa_7:6. “It shall not come to pass,” says literally, what is expressed figuratively by לִא תקום = it shall not stand. For there underlies the latter expression the figure of a prostrate body that attains to standing, therefore gets to its feet and to life. Comp. Isa_14:24; Isa_28:18; Isa_46:10; Pro_19:21. Had this promise been given at the first beginning of the Syro-Ephraimite war, it would have found no complete, corresponding fulfilment. For, as shown above, the counsel did not remain quite unaccomplished. Precisely the הַכְקִעַ (Isa_7:6), “the forcing a breach,” succeeded, according to 2Ch_28:5. Hence we must, in accordance too with נָחָה Isa_7:2, assume, that Isaiah addressed this prophecy to Ahaz after the beginning of the second act of that war.
For the head of Syria,etc.
Isa_7:8. These words are very difficult. Especially has the second clause of Isa_7:8, given great offense both by its contents and by its position. Many expositors therefore attempt, either to alter the text, or to reject the words וכעוד to מעם as a gloss. These, in some instances very ingenious, attempts may be found recapitulated in Gesenius. The Prophet had said, Isa_7:6, that Syria and Ephraim had the purpose of making the son of Tabeal king in Judah. That shall not come to pass, says Isa_7:7. This assertion is established by the double statement Isa_7:8-9. The latter consist of two members each, of which the first corresponds to the third, and the second to the fourth. The first and third member are constructed in pyramidal form: Syria, Damascus, Rezin,—Ephraim, Samaria, Pekah. But the third member is quite conformed to the first in reference to what is affirmed of the subjects. Thus it says: the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And likewise; the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Pekah. Saying that Damascus had dominion over Syria and Rezin over Damascus, accurately designates the limits of the power of Rezin and Damascus. They may command within these limits and no more. Therefore they have not the power to set a king over Judah according to their pleasure. Moreover, if Damascus is head of Syria and Rezin the head of Damascus, the question arises, too: what sort of a head is it? Is it a strong, mighty head to which no other is equal, that is therefore safe in its sphere of power, and unassailable in it? This question must be negatived. For how can it be said of Damascus, the great, beautiful, and rich city, but still the profane and heathen city, that she enjoys the privilege of being unassailable; that she is able under all circumstances to protect and maintain her dominion? And what of Rezin? Is he an elect? Can his name give a guaranty of the permanence of the region he rules? Not at all. Quite otherwise is it in Judah, where Jerusalem, the city of God, stands opposed to the city of Damascus, and the theocratic king of David’s line to the profane, heathen ruler. Behind Jerusalem and the house of David, stands the Lord as the true head in chief of Israel. What is then the head of Syria, and Damascus compared with the head of Judah and Jerusalem? Thus is explained why Judah has nothing to fear from Rezin and Syria. But of Ephraim Isa_7:9, the same thing is affirmed. Plainly the Prophet would intimate that Pekah and Samaria, too, have only a sphere of power limited to Ephraim, and that Samaria is not to be brought into comparison with Jerusalem, nor the son of Remaliah with the son of David, that consequently, Ephraim is essentially the same as the heathen nation Syria, and just as little to be dreaded by Judah. Thus the meaning of Isa_7:8 a, and 9a, as also their relation to one another is perfectly clear. But what of the two other members Isa_7:8 b, 9b? If we had only to do with 9b, it would be an easy affair; for it contains a very appropriate conclusion to 8a, 9a. It is, if I may so speak, double-edged. Judah is not to appropriate unconditionally the comfort of the promise given to it. Only if it believes and obeys its Lord, need it have nothing to fear from Syria and Ephraim. But if it does not believe in the Lord, it shall itself fall to pieces as the others. It cannot be said that anything essential would be wanting if Isa_7:8 b were not there. Neither can it be said, that in that case an essential member would be abstracted from the outward structure. For 8a and 9a correspond; but 9b is the one conclusion that corresponds to both these members in common. Only if 9b, were wanting, would there be an essential member missing. For then it would appear strange that 9a, should have no conclusion like 8a, and an appropriate termination to the whole address would be wanting. But even if 8b appear unnecessary in the context, that is not saying that it is generally out of place. Many have affirmed this, because it contradicts Isa_7:16, because it does not suit the cheering character of the address, and because the Prophets anyway never have such exact figures. As regards the relation to Isa_7:16, it was long ago pointed out that to the desertion of the land, that was the consequence of the Syro-Ephraimite war (2Ki_15:29), in fact to the deportation by Salmanassar, not sixty-five years, but a much less number of years elapsed. Hence, after the example of Piscator, Jacob Cappellus and others, Usher (Ann. V. T., at the year 3,327) proposed to take as the concluding point of the sixty-five years, the planting of Assyrian subjects in the deserted region of Ephraim (2Ki_17:24) which, according to Ezr_4:2, took place under Esar-haddon. This fact, which indeed may be regarded as the sealing of the doom of Ephraim in regard to its existence as a state, must coincide with the time of Manasseh, and can with the carrying away this king, which according to the assumption of the Jewish chronology in Seder Olam. p. 67, took place in the twenty-second year of his reign. This would of course bring out the sixty-five years.
14 years of Ahaz.
29 years of Hezekiah.
22 years of Manasseh.
65 years.
This reckoning, indeed, rests on no sure data, but it is still possible, and we can meanwhile quiet ourselves and say: if the Prophet meant the sixty-five years so, there exists no contradiction of Isa_7:16, and תעזב, shall be forsaken, is not to be taken in an absolute sense. And the comfort that Ahaz was to find in the ruin of Ephraim that was to happen only after sixty-five years, was this, that he could say: a city devoted to remediless ruin, even though not in a very short time, is not to be feared. But as for the exact data of figures, Tholuck (D. Proph. u. ihre Weiss., 1861, p. 116 sqq.), has proved the existence of such in the Old Testament (Isa_16:14; Isa_20:3; Isa_21:16; Isa_38:5; comp. Eze_4:5 sqq.; etc.). Whatever may be thought of the reason of the matter, the fact itself cannot be denied; and I do not comprehend how Diestel (in Knobel’sKomm. 4 Aufl. p. 66) can contend against this reality, on which everything here depends.
In order that Judah may partake of the blessing of this promise, it must itself fulfil a condition; the condition especially on which depends the blessed fulfilment of all promises: it must believe. If it believes not, which, alas, was the actual case, then it will not continue to exist itself.
[J. A. Alexander on Isa_7:4. The comparison of Rezin and Pekah to the tails or ends of firebrands, instead of firebrands themselves, is not a mere expression of contempt, nor a mere intimation of their approaching late, as Barnes and Henderson explain it, but a distinct allusion to the evil which they had already done, and which should never be repeated. If the emphasis were only on the use of the word tails, the tail of anything else would have been qually appropriate. The smoking remnant of a firebrand implies a previous flame, if not a conflagration. This confirms the conclusion before drawn, that Judah had already been ravaged.
Pekah being termed simply the son of Remaliah, is supposed by some to be intended to express contempt for him, though the difference may after all, be accidental, or have only a rhythmical design. The patronymic, like our English surname, can be used contemptuously only when it indicates ignoble origin, in which sense it may be applied to Pekah, who was a usurper
On Isa_7:5. The suppression of Pekah’s proper name in this clause, and of Rezin’s altogether in the first, has given rise to various far-fetched explanations, though it seems in fact, to show that the use of names in the whole passage is rather euphonic or rhythmical than significant.
On Isa_7:9. Another rendering equally natural to that of Luther (viz.: if ye believe not, then ye abide not) is; “if ye do not believe (it is) because ye are not to be established.”]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_7:1. “Hierosolyma oppugnatur, etc. Jerusalem is assaulted but not conquered. The church is pressed but not oppressed.”—Foerster.
2. On Isa_7:2. “Quando ecclesia, etc. When the Church is assaulted and Christ crucified over again in His elect, Rezin and Pekah, Herod and Pilate are wont to form alliance and enter into friendly relations. There are, so to speak, the foxes of Samson, joined indeed by the tails, but their heads are disconnected.”—Foerster.—“He that believes flees not (Isa_28:16). ‘The righteous is bold as a lion’ (Pro_28:1). Hypocrites and those that trust in works (work-saints) have neither reason nor faith. Therefore they cannot by any means quiet their heart. In prosperity they are, indeed, overweening, but in adversity they fall away (Jer_17:9).” Cramer.
3. On Isa_7:9. (“If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.”) “Insignis sententia, etc. A striking sentiment that may be adapted generally to all temptation, because all earnest endeavor after anything, as you know, beguiles us in temptation. But only faith in the word of promise makes us abide and makes sure whatever we would execute. He warns Ahaz, therefore, as if he said: I now promise you by the word, it shall be that those two kings shall not hurt you. Believe this word! For if you do not, whatever you afterwards devise will deceive you: because all confidence is vain which is not supported by the word of God.”—Luther.
4. On Isa_7:10-12. “Wicked Ahaz pretends to great sanctity in abstaining from asking a sign through fear of God. Thus hypocrites are most conscientious where there is no need for it: on the other hand, when they ought to be humble, they are the most insolent. But where God commands to be bold, one must be bold. For to be obedient to the word is not tempting God. That is rather tempting God when one proposes something without having the word for it. It is, indeed, the greatest virtue to rest only in the word, and desire nothing more. But where God would add something more than the word, then it must not be thought a virtue to reject it as superfluous. We must therefore exercise such a faith in the word of God that we will not despise the helps that are given in addition to it as aids to faith. For example the Lord offers us in the gospel all that is necessary to salvation. Why then Baptism and the Lord’s Supper? Are they to be treated as superfluous? By no means. For if one believes the word he will at the same time exhibit an entire obedience toward God. We ought therefore to learn to join the sign with the word, for no man has the power to sever the two.
But do you ask: is it permitted to ask God for a sign? We have an example of this in Gideon. Answer: Although Gideon was not told of God to ask a sign, yet he did it by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, and not according to his own fancy. We must not therefore abuse his example, and must be content with the sign that is offered by the Lord. But there are extraordinary signs or miracles, like that of the text, and ordinary ones like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Yet both have the same object and use. For as Gideon was strengthened by that miraculous event, so, too, are we strengthened by Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, although no miracle appears before our eyes.” Heim and Hoffmann after Luther. Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, also asked the Lord to show him the right wife for Isaac by means of a sign of His own choosing, (Gen_24:14).
It ought to be said that this asking a sign (opening the Bible at a venture, or any other book) does not suit Christian perfection (Heb_6:1). A Christian ought to be inwardly sensible of the divine will. He ought to content himself with the guarantees that God Himself offers. Only one must have open eyes and ears for them. This thing of demanding a sign, if it is not directly an effect of superstition (Mat_12:39; Mat_16:4; 1Co_1:22), is certainly childish, and, because it easily leads to superstitious abuses, it is dangerous.
5. On Isa_7:13. “Non caret, etc. That the Prophet calls God his God is not without a peculiar emphasis. In Zec_2:12 it is said, that whoever touches the servants of God touches the pupil of God’s eye. Whoever opposes teacher and preacher will have to deal with God in heaven or with the Lord who has put them into office.”—Foerster.
6. On Isa_7:14. “The name Immanuel is one of the most beautiful and richest in contents of all the Holy Scripture. ‘God with us’ comprises God’s entire plan of salvation with sinful humanity. In a narrower sense it means ‘God-man’ (Mat_1:23), and points to the personal union of divinity and humanity, in the double nature of the Son of God become man. Jesus Christ was a God-with-us, however, in this, that for about 33 years He dwelt among us sinners (Joh_1:11; Joh_1:14). In a deeper and wider sense still He was such by the Immanuel’s work of the atonement (2Co_5:19; 1Ti_2:3). He will also be such to every one that believes on Him by the work of regeneration and sanctification and the daily renewal of His holy and divine communion of the Spirit (Joh_17:23; Joh_17:26; Joh_14:19-21; Joh_14:23). He is such now by His high-priestly and royal administration and government for His whole Church (Mat_28:20; Heb_7:25). He will be snch in the present time of the Church in a still more glorious fashion (Joh_10:16). The entire and complete meaning of the name Immanuel, however, will only come to light in the new earth, and in the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev_21:3; Rev_21:23; Rev_22:5).”—Wilh. Fried. Roos.
Isa_8:7. On Isa_8:5 sqq. “Like boastful swimmers despise small and quiet waters, and on the other hand, for the better display of their skill, boast of the great sea and master it, but often are lost in it,—thus, too, did the hypocrites that despised the small kingdom of Judah, and bragged much and great things of the power and splendor of the kingdom of Israel and of the Syrians; such hypocrites are still to be found now-a-days—such that bear in their eye the admiranda Romae, the splendor, riches, power, ceremonies and pomp of the Romish church, and thereupon ‘set their bushel by the bigger-heap.’ It is but the devil’s temptation over again: ‘I will give all this to thee.’ ”—Cramer.—“Fons Siloa,” etc. “The fountain of Siloam, near the temple, daily reminded the Jews that Christ was coming.”—Calvin on Joh_9:7.
8. On Isa_8:10. “When the great Superlatives sit in their council chambers and have determined everything, how it ought to be, and especially how they will extinguish the gospel, then God sends the angel Gabriel to them, who must look through the window and say: nothing will come of it.”—Luther.—“Christ, who is our Immanuel, is with us by His becoming man, for us by His office of Mediator, in us by the work of His sanctification, by us by His personal, gracious presence.”—Cramer.
9. On Isa_8:14-15. Christ alone is set by God to be a stone by which we are raised up. That He is, however, an occasion of offence to many is because of their purpose, petulance and contempt (1Pe_2:8). Therefore we ought to fear lest we take offence at Him. For whoever falls on this stone will shatter to pieces (Mat_21:44).” Cramer.
10. On Isa_8:16 sqq. He warns His disciples against heathenish superstition, and exhorts them to show respect themselves always to law and testimony. “They must not think that God must answer them by visions and signs, therefore He refers them to the written word, that they may not become altogether too spiritual, like those now-a-days who cry: spirit! spirit! … Christ says, Luke 16 : They have Moses and the prophets, and again Joh_5:39 : Search the Scriptures. So Paul says, 2Ti_3:16 : The Scripture is profitable for doctrine. So says Peter, 2Pe_1:9 : We have a sure word of prophecy. It is the word that changes hearts and moves them. But revelations puff people up and make them insolent.” Heim and Hoffmann after Luther.
Chap. 9–11. On Isa_9:1 sqq. (2). “Postrema pars, etc. The latter part of chap. 8 was νομικὴ καὶ ἀπειλητική (legal and threatening) so, on the other hand, the first and best part of chap. 9 is εὐαγγελικὴ καὶ παραμυθητική, (evangelical and comforting). Thus must ever law and gospel, preaching wrath and grace, words of reproof and words of comfort, a voice of alarm and a voice of peace follow one another in the church.” Foerster.
12. On Isa_9:1 (2). Both in the Old Testament and New Testament Christ is often called light. Thus Isaiah calls Him “a light to the gentiles,” Isa_42:6; Isa_49:6. The same Prophet says: “Arise, shine (make thyself light), for thy light is come,” Isa_60:1. And again Isa_9:19 : “The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light.” In the New Testament it is principally John that makes use of this expression: “The life was the light of men,” Joh_1:4, “and the light shined in the darkness,” Joh_9:5. John was not that light, but bore testimony to the light, Joh_9:8. “That was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” Joh_9:9. And further: “And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,” Joh_3:19. “I am the light of the world,” (Joh_8:12; Joh_9:5; comp. Joh_12:35).
13. On Isa_9:1 (2). The people that sit in darkness may be understood to comprise three grades. First, the inhabitants of Zebulon and Naphtali are called so (Isaiah 8:23), for the Prophet’s gaze is fixed first on that region lying in the extreme end of Palestine, which was neighbor to the heathen and mixed with them, and on this account was held in low esteem by the dwellers in Judah. The night that spreads over Israel in general is darkest there. But all Israel partakes of this night, therefore all Israel, too, may be understood, as among the people sitting in darkness. Finally, no one can deny that this night extends over the borders of Israel to the whole human race. For far as men dwell extends the night which Christ, as light of the world, came to dispel, Luk_1:76 sqq.
14. On Isa_9:5 (6). Many lay stress on the notion “child,” inasmuch as they see in that the reason for the reign of peace spoken of afterwards. It is not said a man, a king, a giant is given to us. But this is erroneous. For the child does not remain a child. He becomes a man: and the six names that are ascribed to Him and also the things predicted of His kingdom apply to Him, not as a child, but as a man. That His birth as a child is made prominent, has its reason in this, that thereby His relation to human kind should be designated as an organic one. He does not enter into humanity as a man, i.e. as one whose origin was outside of it, but He was born from it, and especially from the race of David. He is Son of man and Son of David. He is a natural offshoot, but also the crowning bloom of both. Precisely because He was to be conceived, carried and born of a human mother, and indeed of a virgin, this prophecy belongs here as the completion and definition of the two prophetic pictures Isa_7:10 sqq.; Isa_8:1 sqq.—“He came down from heaven for the sake of us men, and for our bliss (1Ti_1:15; Luk_2:7). For our advantage: for He undertook not for the seed of angels, but for the seed of Abraham (Heb_2:16). Not sold to us by God out of great love, but given (Rom_5:15; Joh_3:16). Therefore every one ought to make an application of the word ‘to us’ to himself, and to learn to say: this child was given to me, conceived for me, born to me.”—Cramer.—“Cur oportuit, etc. Why did it become the Redeemer of human kind to be not merely man nor merely God, but God and man conjoined or θεάνθρωπον? Anselm replies briefly, indeed, but pithily: Deum qui posset, hominem, qui deberet.” Foerster.
15. On Isa_9:5 (6). “You must not suppose here that He is to be named and called according to His person, as one usually calls another by his name; but these are names that one must preach, praise and celebrate on account of His act, works and office.” Luther.
16. On Isa_9:6. “Verba pauca, etc. A few words, but to be esteemed great, not for their number but for their weight.” Augustine. “Admirabilis in, etc. Wonderful in birth, counsellor in what He preaches, God in working, strong in suffering, father of the world to come in resurrection, Prince of peace in bliss perpetual.” Bernard of Clairvaux. In reference to “a child is born,” and “a son is given,” Joh. Cocceius remarks in his Heb. Lex. s. v. יֶלֶד: “respectu, etc., in respect to His human nature He is said to be born, and in respect to His divine nature and eternal generation not indeed born, but given, as, Joh_3:16, it reads God gave His only begotten Son.”
“In the application of this language all depends on the words is born to us, is given to us.” The angels are, in this matter, far from being as blessed as we are. They do not say: To us a Saviour is born this day, but; to you. As long as we do not regard Christ as ours, so long we shall have little joy in Him. But when we know Him as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, as a gift that our heavenly Father designed for us, we will appropriate Him to ourselves in humble faith, and take possession of all His redeeming effects that He has acquired. For giving and taking go together. The Son is given to us; we must in faith receive Him.” J. J. Rambach, Betracht. über das Ev. Esaj., Halle, 1724.
On Isa_9:6 (7). “The government is on His shoulders.” “It is further shown how Christ differs in this respect from worldly kings. They remove from themselves the burden of government and lay it on the shoulders of the privy counsellors. But He does not lay His dominion as a burden on any other; He needs no prime minister and vicegerent to help Him bear the burden of administration, but He bears all by the word of His power as He to whom all things are given of the Father. Therefore He says to the house of Jacob (Isa_46:3 sq.): Hearken unto me ye who were laid on my shoulders from your mothers’ womb. I will carry you to old age. I will do it, I will lift, and carry and deliver,—on the contrary the heathen must bear and lift up their idols, (Isa_46:1; Isa_46:7).”—Rambach. “In the first place we must keep in mind His first name: He is called Wonderful. This name affects all the following.” “All is wonderful that belongs to this king: wonderfully does He counsel and comfort; wonderfully He helps to acquire and conquer, and all this in suffering and want of strength. (Luther, Jen. germ. Tom. III. Fol. 184 b.). ” “He uses weakness as a means of subduing all things to Himself. A wretched reed, a crown of thorns and an infamous cross, are the weapons of this almighty God, by means of which He achieves such great things. In the second place, He was a hero and conqueror in that just by death, He robbed him of his might who had the power of death, i.e., the devil (Heb_2:14); in that He, like Samson, buried His enemies with Himself, yea, became poison to death itself, and a plague to hell (Hos_13:14) and more gloriously resumed His life so freely laid down, which none of the greatest heroes can emulate.”—Rambach.
17. On Isa_9:18 (19) sqq. True friendship can never exist among the wicked. For every one loves only himself. Therefore they are enemies one of another; and they are in any case friends to each other, only as long as it concerns making war on a third party.
Isaiah 10-18. On Isa_10:4. (Comp. the same expression in chap. 10). God’s quiver is well filled. If one arrow does not attain His object, He takes another, and so on, until the rights of God, and justice have conquered.
19. On Isa_10:5-7. “God works through men in a threefold way. First, we all live, move and have our being in Him, in that all activity is an outflow of His power. Then, He uses the services of the wicked so that they mutually destroy each other, or He chastises His people by their hand. Of this sort the Prophet speaks here. In the third place, by governing His people by the Spirit of sanctification: and this takes place only in the elect.”—Heim and Hoffmann.
20. On Isa_10:5 sqq. “Ad hunc, etc. Such places are to be turned to uses of comfort. Although the objects of temptation vary and enemies differ, yet the effects are the same, and the same spirit works in the pious. We are therefore to learn not to regard the power of the enemy nor our own weakness, but to look steadily and simply into the word, that will assuredly establish our minds that they despair not, but expect help of God. For God will not subdue our enemies, either spiritual or corporal, by might and power, but by weakness, as says the text: my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2Co_12:9).—Luther.
21. On Isa_10:15. “Efficacia agendi penes Deum est, homines ministerium tantum praebent. Quare nunc sibilo suo se illos evocaturum minabatur (cap. Isa_5:26; Isa_7:18); nunc instar sagenae sibi fore ad irretiendos, nunc mallei instar ad feriendos Israelitas. Sed praecipue tum declaravit, quod non sit otiosus in illis, dum Sennacherib securim vocat, quae ad secandum manu sua et destinata fuit et impacta. Non male alicubi Augustinus ita definit, quod ipsi peccant, eorum esse; quod peccando hoc vel illud agant, ex virtute Dei esse, tenebras prout visum est dividentis (De praedest Sanctt.).”—Calvin Inst. II. 4, 4.
22. On Isa_10:20-27. “In time of need one ought to look back to the earlier great deliverances of the children of God, as to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, or later, from the hand of the Midianites. Israel shall again grow out of the yoke.”—Diedrich.
Isaiah 11-23. On Isa_11:4. “The staff of His mouth.” “Evidence that the kingdom of Christ will not be like an earthly kingdom, but consist in the power of the word and of the sacraments; not in leathern, golden or silver girdles, but in girdles of righteousness and faith.”—Cramer.
24. On Isa_11:10 sqq. If the Prophet honors the heathen in saying that they will come to Christ before Israel, he may be the more readily believed, when Isa_11:11 sqq., he gives the assurance that the return out of the first, the Egyptian exile, shall be succeeded by a return out of the second, the Assyrian exile, (taking this word in the wider sense of Isaiah). It is manifest that the return that took place under Zerubbabel and Ezra was only an imperfect beginning of that promised return. For according to our passage this second return can only take place after the Messiah has appeared. Farthermore, all Israelites that belong to “the remnant of Israel,” in whatever land they may dwell, shall take part in it. It will be, therefore, a universal, not a partial return. If now the Prophet paints this return too with the colors of the present (Isa_11:13 sqq.), still that is no reason for questioning the reality of the matter. Israel will certainly not disappear, but arise to view in the church of the new covenant. But if the nation is to be known among the nations as a whole, though no more as a hostile contrast, but in fraternal harmony, why then shall not the land, too, assume a like position among the lands? But the nation can neither assume its place among nations, nor the land its place among lands, if they are not both united: the people Israel in the land of their fathers.
25. On Isaiah 11 “We may here recall briefly the older, so-called spiritual interpretation. Isa_11:1-5 were understood of Christ’s prophetic office that He exercised in the days of His flesh, then of the overthrow of the Roman Empire and of Antichrist, who was taken to be the Pope. But the most thorough-going of those old expositors must acknowledge, at Isa_11:4, that the Antichrist is not yet enough overthrown, and must be yet more overthrown. If such is the state of the case, then this interpretation is certainly false, for Isa_11:4 describes not a gradual judgment, but one accomplished at once. There have been many Antichrists, and among the Popes too, but the genuine Antichrist described 2 Thessalonians 2, is yet to be expected, and also the fulfillment of Isa_11:4 of our chapter. Thereby is proved at the same time that the peaceful state of things in the brute world and the return of the Jews to their native land are still things of the future, for they must happen in that period when the Antichristian world, and its head shall be judged by Christ. But then, too, the dwelling together of tame and wild beasts is not the entrance of the heathen into the church, to which they were heretofore hostile, and the return of the Jews is not the conversion of a small part of Israel that took place at Pentecost and after. The miracles and signs too, contained in Isa_11:15-16 did not take place then. We see just here how one must do violence to the word if he will not take it as it stands. But if we take it as we have done, then the whole chapter belongs to the doctrine of hope (Hoffnungslehre) of the Scripture, and constitutes an important member of it. The Lord procures right and room for His church. He overthrows the world-kingdom, together with Antichrist. He makes of the remnant of Israel a congregation of believers filled with the Spirit, to whom He is near in an unusual way, and from it causes His knowledge to go out into all the world. He creates peace in the restless creatures, and shows us here in advance what more glorious things we may look for in the new earth. He presents to the world a church which, united in itself, unmolested by neighbors, stands under God’s mighty protection. All these facts are parts of a chain of hope that must be valuable and dear to our hearts. The light of this future illumines the obscurity of the present; the comfort of that day makes the heart fresh.” Weber, der Prophet Jesaja, 1875.
Chap. 12–26. On Isa_12:4 sq. “These will not be the works of the New Testament: sacrificing and slaying, and make pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to the Holy Sepulchre, but praising God and giving thanks, preaching and hearing, believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth. For to praise our God is good; such praise is pleasant and lovely” (Psa_147:1). Cramer.
27. On Chap. 12 “With these words conclude the prophetic discourses on Immanuel. Through what obscurity of history have we not had to go, until we came to the bright light of the kingdom of Christ! How Israel and the nations had to pass through the fire of judgment before the sun arises in Israel and the entire gentile world is illumined! It is the, same way that every Christian has to travel. In and through the fire we become blessed. Much must be burnt up in us, before we press to the full knowledge of God and of His Son, before we become entirely one with Him, entirely glad and joyful in Him. Israel was brought up and is still brought up for glory, and we too. O that our end too were such a psalm of praise as this psalm!” Weber, Der Pr. Jes. 1875.
Footnotes:
[28]Heb. resteth on Ephraim.
[29]That is, The remnant shall return.
[30]Or, causeway.
[31]Heb. let not thy heart be tender.
[32]Before these two smoking torch-ends.
[33]devised evil.
[34]Or, waken.
[35]shake it.
[36]the Lord Jehovah.
[37]Heb. from a people.
[38]Or, Do ye not believe? it is because ye are not stable.
[39]If ye believe not, then ye continue not.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 is confederate with--rather, is encamped upon the territory of…
is confederate with--rather, is encamped upon the territory of Ephraim [MAURER], or better, as Rezin was encamped against Jerusalem, "is supported by" [LOWTH] Ephraim, whose land lay between Syria and Judah. The mention of "David" alludes, in sad contrast with the present, to the time when David made Syria subject to him (Sa2 8:6).
Ephraim--the ten tribes.
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as . . . trees of . . . wood--a simultaneous agitation.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 Afflictions from Assyrian oppressions are assuaged by consolations from…
PART 2.
Afflictions from Assyrian oppressions are assuaged by consolations from Immanuel, chapters 7-12.
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THE DIVINE SIGN.
Apart from historical circumstances, the following prophecies cannot be understood.
1. And it came to pass — Isaiah’s recorded prophecies under the reigns of Uzziah and Jotham have closed, and those under Ahaz here begin. Jotham and his father were good kings, and their reigns were the most prosperous in the annals of Judah. One element of idolatry, however, was not discouraged — the high places were not destroyed. (See note on Isa_2:6; and for a full discussion on “High Places,” see Smith’s Dict. of the Bible.) This, of course, emboldened the people in some practices hostile to the religion of Jehovah, and the long term of national prosperity led to indulgence among the younger generation in many fascinating forms of idolatry. In consequence, Judah showed to the searching thought of the envious rulers of adjacent kingdoms such signs of national degeneracy and weakness as encouraged them to form schemes of aggression. But they delayed their assault till Jotham’s death and the accession of his son — B.C. 742 — when the first great attack was made, and the army of Ahaz was destroyed, and two hundred thousand captives, (see 2Ch_28:5-15,) which, at the instance of a prophet at Samaria, Oded by name, were returned to Judah. It seems to be at a point of time between this great first success of the enemy and his final retreat that the narrative here begins, and the word “and” in the text connects the two events.
In the days of Ahaz — The true age of Ahaz when he began to reign was probably twenty-five; (see Septuagint at 2Ch_28:1;) otherwise he became the father of Hezekiah at ten years of age. Ahaz seems to have been trained (probably through maternal influence and direction) in an atmosphere of idolatry. He erected statues of Baal, and joined in the rites of Moloch, 2Ch_28:1-5. His kingdom began early to suffer retribution. Patriotism wanes when God is dishonoured. So at this time. In the course of his reign trouble arose all around the horizon. Ammonites broke from their vassalage. Edomites, becoming free, assaulted the southern, and Philistines the western, borders. This state of things came from complications in the last of Jotham’s reign. Egypt, in the southwest, and Assyria, in the northeast, were the great powers that alternately kept the intervening small kingdoms in a state of semi-subjection. They used these lesser kingdoms at convenience in their hostile operations on each other. At this time Assyria seems to be in the ascendant. Damascus chafes at being tributary to Assyria, and Rezin, her king, readily consents to confederate with Pekah, the usurper, king over Israel, (2Ki_15:25,) who wants to humble the hitherto prosperous Judah. Egypt favours any confederation that will protect her frontier against her formidable rival, Assyria.
This appears to be the situation in the last of Jotham’s reign. The history in 2Ki_15:37 to 2Ki_16:9, is fragmentary, but it hints, and the Assyrian inscriptions confirm, that the leaguers Pekah and Rezin made an unsuccessful raid against Judah under Jotham, who unfortunately died while yet in his vigour, and left the wicked and weak Ahaz an easier prey to their designs. A second inroad was made on Judah with the results above mentioned, namely, an immense slaughter of troops and a great capture of women and children from among the villages. But Jerusalem was yet too well fortified to be taken. And this explains the last words of this verse, could not prevail against it. The geographical positions are thus: Syria, of which Damascus is the capital and Rezin the king, is northeast, and between Israel and Assyria; and Ephraim, or Israel, is north of Judah, and between that kingdom and that of Syria.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 1. The genealogy of Ahaz seems unnecessary for the…
1. The genealogy of Ahaz seems unnecessary for the contemporaries of Isaiah, although it might be given to connect the passage with ch. Isa_6:1. The latter part of the verse closely resembles 2Ki_16:5; and it is not improbable that the data were supplied by an editor from the historical book, in order to make the circumstances intelligible to later generations of readers. Originally the introduction may have run: “And in the days of Ahaz it was reported to the house of David,” &c.
to war against it, but could not prevail against it] lit. to fight against it but were unable to fight against it. From 2Ki_16:5 we learn that the city was blockaded. It was the object of the allies to take it by assault, but in this they were baffled, either by reason of the strength of the place, or because they were compelled to raise the siege. “Fight” means “fight at close quarters” as 2Sa_11:20 compared with Isa_7:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 (1) It came to pass in the days of…
VII.
(1) It came to pass in the days of Ahaz.—The whole reign of Jotham comes between Isaiah 6, 7. On Isaiah’s life during that period, see Introduction. The work of the prophet now carries him into the main current of history, as recorded in 2 Kings 15, 16; 2 Chronicles 28, and in Assyrian inscriptions. The facts to be borne in mind are—(1) that the kingdom of Israel under Menahem had already become tributary to Assyria (2Ki_15:19-20); (2) that the object of the alliance between Pekah, a bold and ambitious usurper, and Rezin, was to organise a resistance against Assyria, such as that in which Uzziah had taken part (Schrader, Keil-Inschriften, pp. 395-421, quoted by Cheyne), that first Jotham (2Ki_15:37), and then Ahaz, apparently refused to join the confederacy, and that the object of the attack of the allied kings was either to force Ahaz to join, or else to depose him, bring the dynasty of David to a close, and set a follower of their own, probably a Syrian, on the throne of Judah.
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But could not prevail against it.—The words obviously refer to a special stage in the campaign. The king of Syria seems to have been the leading spirit of the confederacy. 2Ch_28:5-15 represents Judah as having sustained a great and almost overwhelming defeat. Jerusalem, however, though besieged (2Ki_16:5) was not absolutely taken (2Ki_16:5); 2Ki_16:6 records the capture of the port of Elath, on the Gulf of Akaba, by Rezin.
(1) We may deal with it as though the Gospel of St. Matthew had never been written, as though the facts which it records had no place in the history of mankind. From this point of view we get what seems at first a comparatively simple exposition. The prophet offers a sign to the faithless king, and the sign is this: he points to some young bride in either sense of that word, and says that she shall conceive and bear a son. The fulfilment of that prediction in a matter which lay outside the range of human knowledge was to be the sign for Ahaz and his court, and she should give that son a name which would rebuke the faithlessness of the king. Immanuel, “God with us,” would be a nomen et omen, witnessing, not of an incarnate Deity, but of His living and abiding presence. Who was the mother of the child on this theory we have no data for deciding. As the two other children of the prophet bore, like Hosea’s (Isa_7:3; Isa_8:3), mysterious and prophetic names, the most probable conjecture seems to be that it was Isaiah’s own wife, still young, and, as it were, still a bride, or possibly a second wife whom he had married, or was about to marry, after the death of his first. Other guesses have pointed to one of the women of the harem of Ahaz who may have been with him when Isaiah spoke. The hypothesis of some critics that such a one became the mother of Hezekiah, and that he was the Immanuel of the prophet’s thoughts, breaks down under the test of dates. Hezekiah, at the time the prophecy was uttered, was a boy of at least nine years of age (2Ki_16:2; 2Ki_18:2). Of this child so born Isaiah predicts that he shall grow up in a time of suffering and privation (Isa_7:15), and that before he has attained to manhood the confederacy of Rezin and Remaliah shall come to a disastrous end. So far all is at least coherent. Immanuel, as a person, stands on the same level as Shear-jashub, representing a great idea to which Isaiah again appeals in Isa_8:8; Isa_8:10, but not identified with the Christ, or even with any expectations of the Christ. On the other hand, there are phenomena in Isaiah’s prophetic work at large which this explanation does not adequately include. The land of Israel at least appears to be described as in some peculiar sense the land of Immanuel (Isa_8:10). Isaiah is clearly expecting, even in the first volume that bears his name, not to speak of Isaiah 40-66, the arrival, at some undefined point in the future, of one whose nature, work and character, shall be represented by the marvellous series of names of Isa_9:6, in whom the spirit of Jehovah, the fear of Jehovah, shall dwell in their fulness—who shall be of the stem of Jesse, and whose reign shall be as the realised ideal of a golden age (Isa_11:1-10). That expectation connects itself with a like prophecy, associated as this is with the childbirth of a travailing woman, in Mic_5:3-5. In what relation, we ask, did Immanuel stand to these confessedly Messianic predictions?
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 Vers. 1-9. THE PROPHECY GIVEN TO AHAZ AT THE…
Vers. 1-9. THE PROPHECY GIVEN TO AHAZ AT THE TIME OF THE SYRO-ISRAELITISH WAR. The Syro-Israelitish war is touched on both in Kings and Chronicles. In Kings the alliance between Rezin and Pekah is distinctly declared, as also the fact that they conjointly besieged Jerusalem. (2Ki_16:5) From Chronicles we learn that, before the siege, Ahaz was twice defeated with great loss, once by the Syrians, (2Ch_28:5) and once by the Israelites. (2Ch_28:6) He was probably, therefore, reduced to great straits at the time when Isaiah received directions to seek an interview with him, and communicate to him a comforting message from Jehovah.
In the days of Ahaz. The reign of Ahaz covered, probably, the space between B.C. 743 and in B.C. 727. The march on Jerusalem appears to have fallen somewhat late in his reign (about B.C. 733). Rezin the King of Syria. Rezin is mentioned as King of Damascus by Tiglath-Pfieser II in several of his inscriptions. In one, which seems to belong to B.C. 732 or 731, he states that he defeated Rezin and slew him. Pekah the son of Remaliah. (see 2Ki_15:25) Pekah had been an officer under Pekahiah, the son and successor of Menahem; but had revolted, put Pekahiah to death in his palace, and seized the crown. It is probable that he and Rezin were anxious to form a confederacy for the purpose of resisting the advance of the Assyrian power, and, distrusting Ahaz, desired to place on the throne of Judah a person on whom they could thoroughly depend (see ver. 6). It was not their design to conquer the Jewish kingdom, but only to change the sovereign. Toward Jerusalem; rather, to Jerusalem. The allies reached the city and commenced the siege. (2Ki_16:5) Could not prevail against it; literally, prevailed not in fighting against it.
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Vers. 1-7. The designs of the wicked, however well laid, easily brought to naught by God.
It would be difficult to find a scheme, humanly speaking, more prudent and promising than that now formed by Rezin and Pekah. They had each measured their strength against that of Ahaz singly, and had come off decided victors from the encounter. What doubt could there be of success when their arms were united? And success would be a matter of the greatest importance to them. It would enable them to form a compact alliance of three considerable warlike nations against the aggressive power which was threatening all Western Asia with subjugation. It would put an end to the perpetual little wars in which they had been for centuries wasting their strength, and weakening themselves for resistance against an alien conqueror. But God speaks the word: "It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass;" and the promising scheme drops through, ends in disaster. Rezin, its framer, instead of triumphing over Ahaz, is himself attacked by Tiglath-Pileser; his territories are invaded, his capital besieged and taken, his people carried away captive, and himself slain. (2Ki_16:9) Pekah, Rezin"s aider and abettor, is then exposed to the full brunt of Assyrian invasion, is attacked, defeated, loses cities and provinces, and, though not slain by the Assyrians, is left so weak and so disgraced, that he is shortly dethroned by a new usurper, Hoshea, who murders him for his own security. (2Ki_15:29, 2Ki_15:30) The "house of David," threatened with removal by the confederates, escapes the crisis unhurt, and continues to occupy the throne of Judah for another century and a half, while the kingdoms of Syria and Israel fall within a few years, and their inhabitants are deported to far-distant regions. (2Ki_16:9 2Ki_17:6 1Ch_15:26) We may learn from this
I. THE MADNESS OF OPPOSING GOD. Syria and Ephraim were confederate against Judah. They knew that Judah was in an especial way God"s people. They designed to set aside the house of David. They knew, or at any rate Ephraim knew, that the throne belonged to the descendants of David by God"s promise. Thus they set themselves against God knowingly. They thought their wisdom would be greater or their strength superior to his. But thus to think is utter madness. The "foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men". (1Co_1:24) In vain do "the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision". (Psa_2:2-4) God had only to put it into the heart of the King of Assyria to make an immediate expedition, and all the fine schemes of the confederates, which needed time for their execution, came at once to naught, and were confounded. The would-be allies were crushed separately; their victim escaped them; and "the house of David" outlasted both their own.
II THE WISDOM OF FULL TRUST IN GOD. When once God had sent him the message, "It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass," Ahaz might have rested securely on the promise, and have been content simply to "stand still and see the salvation of God." But he can only have had a weak and imperfect trust in Isaiah"s words. He must bethink himself how he may escape his foes; he must bring in another to help him besides God. Accordingly, he "goes to Assyria." He takes the silver and gold out of the royal palace and out of the temple treasury, and sends them to Tiglath-Pileser, with the offer of becoming his servant, (2Ki_16:7, 2Ki_16:8) and he probably flatters himself that he has done well, and owes his escape from Rezin and Pekah to himself. But he has really taken a step on the downward path which will conduct the house of David and the people of Judah to ruin. He has placed himself under an idolater, and paved the way for new idolatries. (2Ki_16:10-16) He has helped to sweep away two states, which, while they continued, served as a breakwater to keep the waves of invasion off his own kingdom. He has called in one, who, from the true point of view, has really "distressed him, and strengthened him. (2Ch_28:20) How much wiser would he have been to have accepted God"s promise in full faith, and not supplemented it by his own "inventions" (Ecc_7:29) God would have found a way to help him and save him, which would have involved no such evil consequences as those which flowed from his own self-willed action.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-9. The prophet comforts the king.
I THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK. The kings and chieftains of Palestine were in dread of the great Assyrian power. Under the weak rule of Ahaz Judah had sunk very low, and the King of Damascus, with the King of Ephraim, think it a favorable opportunity to attack the little kingdom, and so strengthen themselves against the Assyrians. "Far down to the gulf of Akaba the shock of invasion was felt. Elath, the favorite seaport of Jehoshaphat and Uzziah, was made over to the Edomites". (2Ki_16:6 2Ki_15:37) Jerusalem was now threatened, and a usurper was to be placed on David"s throne (ver. 6).
II THE ALARM OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. (Ver. 2.) News is brought to the palace "Aram encampeth in Ephraim;" the junction of the forces of Syria and Israel had taken place. A shivering fear, like the wind swaying the trees of the forest, passed over their hearts. The court went forth to inspect the fortifications and the waterworks, and came to "the end of the conduit of the upper reservoir, upon the path to the fuller"s field a well-known spot. (cf. Isa_36:2 2Ki 18)
III THE MEETING WITH ISAIAH. At this spot the prophet, with his son, stood before them. It seems that by Divine intimation the prophet had called the boy Shear-Jashub, which means Remnant-shall-be-converted ," reminding us of the hope of his calling. (Isa 6) He would look upon the boy as a living pledge, not only of conjugal affection, but of Divine promise for a nobler Israel. See how he dwells upon the thought in Isa_10:20-22. Inspired by this confidence, he now addresses the king.
IV COMFORT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED. "Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, and be not faint-hearted." A calm, collected mind is a match for any danger. Agitation and fear magnify the ill; stout resolve reduces it to its true proportions. The worst is ever in our own fancy. "Some of your hurts you have cured, And the sharpest you still have survived; But what torments of grief you endured From evils which never arrived!
The timid king sees a fiery mass of war rolling towards him; the stout heart of the prophet contemptuously defies the two kings as "two stumps of smoking firebrands." If we would comfort men, we must, like the prophet, tell them to draw upon the resources God has placed in the soul: intelligence, prudence, self-reliance, and self-help. There is no true self-trust which is not at the same time a trust in God.
V THE DEEPEST SOURCE OF STRENGTH AND COMFORT. What are the heads of the Syrian power and of Israel"s power against Judah"s Head, the Lord? Damascus and Samaria will rear their fronts in vain against Jerusalem, if Jerusalem only trust in Jehovah. (Ewald supposes that the words," Judah"s head is Jerusalem, and Jerusalem"s head is Jehovah," have fallen out of the text, ver. 9.) Only have confidence. There is a play upon words in the original which we might represent in English by: "Fear not, fail not;" or, "Firm in faith is free from scathe; "or," If ye confide not, abide ye shall not.
1. Confidence, presence of mind, is a duty in times of danger.
2. It may be gained, if we will fall back upon God as our Leader and Defense. "The Lord is on my side: I will not fear what men shall do unto me. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-9. The establishing power of faith.
The practical force of this prophetic utterance is found in the final words of it: "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established" (ver. 9). We may see in them a declaration expressly personal. They intimate to Ahaz that if he, the present King of Judah, does not put his faith in the minister and in the message of the Lord, his kingdom and his power will suffer loss.
1. His faith was sorely tried. "His heart was moved as the trees of the wood by the wind" when he heard that two powerful monarchs were confederate against him (vers. 1, 2). It required no little faith to accept, without reserve, the assurances of Isaiah (vers. 4-9).
2. But he had solid ground on which to build his hope. The history of his country should have made it perfectly practicable to believe that, whatever the Lord had decided upon, all the hosts of heathendom would be unable to withstand.
3. His human fears proved too strong for his religious convictions.
4. The prophet warned him that with the failure of his faith would come material loss. This minatory prediction was only too painfully fulfilled. Elath, a port on the Red Sea, was lost to the kingdom; (2Ki_16:6) great numbers of the people were slaughtered; (2Ch_28:6) many captives were carried away; (2Ch_28:8) Judah became tributary to Assyria. (2Ki_16:8, 2Ki_16:9) "The Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz". (2Ch_28:19) He was not established; he was enfeebled and humiliated.
The lesson which the passage, particularly these final words, conveys to us is this, that WHEN FAITH FAILS, POWER DEPARTS; that faith is the one sustaining power which will establish us in the spiritual position to which we have attained. We look, therefore, at this broad principle applicable to every one.
1. As Christian men we enjoy an excellent estate. We are "kings and priests unto God;" we are made to "sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." "Now are we the sons of God," and all the joys and privileges of sonship are ours.
2. But our position is threatened by powerful adversaries. There come up against us the foes of our race worldly allurements, fleshly indulgences, incitements to spiritual pride and unbelief, temptations to fall into selfishness or into untruthfulness, etc.
3. Only a living faith will uphold us in our integrity. We must have the faith which
(1) enables us to realize the nearness of the living God;
(2) makes spiritual realities and successes seem to our souls the great things they are;
(3) brings near to our hearts the future world, with its judgment and its reward;
(4) calls down from above, by believing prayer, Divine direction and support. Without this living faith, we may expect the enemy to overcome us; with it, we may hope to be established in our high and blest estate. C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Vers. 1, 2. National calamity with God and without God.
The historical circumstances connected with this and the following two chapters throw light on the object and meaning of the prophecy. At the close of Jotham"s reign, both the neighboring nations of Israel and of Syria invaded the country of Judah, wasting and desolating it. Now, in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, they agreed to unite their forces, and so they hoped to take even the chief city, dethrone the reigning king, and partition the land between them. News of this confederacy reached Ahaz, and produced the utmost consternation and bewilderment both in him and in the people of Jerusalem. Hurried efforts were made to fortify the city, and especially to secure the water-stores, on which their ability to stand a siege so directly depended. Plans were also formed to secure the help of the King of Assyria, though the price of such help would too surely be the loss of national independence, and the payment of tribute to Assyria. In those degenerate days few people even thought of seeking help from Jehovah, the mighty God of their fathers. While busy, inspecting the waterworks, and probably filled with new anxiety on finding them neglected and out of repair, Ahaz sees the prophet of Jehovah approach. Isaiah"s message is full of mercy and encouragement. He would quiet the unreasoning and unreasonable fears of the king; he speaks slightingly of Rezin and Pekah, as only two tails of smoking firebrands, whose strength is almost spent; they can only smoke, not blaze, and their kingdoms are hasting to decay. He bids the king not to think for a moment of leaning on Assyria, but to trust in the living God. He graciously offers, in God"s Name, a sign for the confirming of his faith, bidding Ahaz even choose such a one as he felt would convince him. The king stubbornly refuses; and then Isaiah gives one, after sternly rebuking the false humility of the king. The sign is a figurative and poetical assurance that, within some three or four years, the power of his present enemies would be utterly broken. And then mercy passes into judgment, and the prophet sternly reveals the consequences that will follow any leaning upon Assyria. In the text we have a state of public affairs that might well cause alarm, and we dwell on the spirit in which times of national peril may and should be met.
I NATIONAL CALAMITY WITHOUT THOUGHT OF GOD THE OVERRULER. Just this we have in the historical connection of the text. Viewed politically, there were grave and perilous complications. Assyria was pushing its way towards the Mediterranean. Syria and Israel were in its way. Instead of resisting their more serious Eastern foe, they confederated to injure the small country of Judah, which blocked their way southwards towards Egypt. Rezin had seized Elath, Judah"s great commercial port on the Red Sea, and Pekah had overrun the territory of Judah. There was a general panic. King and people alike asked How could they resist this combination of the neighboring countries against them? A great fear possessed the king, and drove him to the most impolitic action he could possibly take. Having no sense of reliance on God, consciously severed by his willfulness from God, he sought alliance with Assyria, and brought ruin on himself and his neighbor-foes. The figure of the trees waving to and fro confusedly in the wind, is expressive of the man who is not stayed on God, but left to the uncertainties of a judgment based only on circumstances.
II NATIONAL CALAMITY WITH THE THOUGHT OF GOD THE OVERRULER. This is the contrast suggested in the passage, If Ahaz had been a God-fearing man, how differently he would have locked on these circumstances! If he had been a David, or a Jehoshaphat, or a Hezekiah, a man with the fear of God before his eyes, he would have met the perilous conditions with calmness, and seen in them an occasion for
(1) special prayer;
(2) renewed dependence;
(3) and the testing of the sincerity of his trust;
(4) also a call to watching for the Divine will;
(5) and the requirement to set himself in an attitude of obedience, ready at once, and heartily, to follow the Divine lead.
Apply to modern complexities of party politics and international complications, as well as to times of national calamity, by disease, or by depressed trade. Show what a vantage-ground he occupies who believes in God as the God of nations, looks for his providential rulings and overrulings, and knows that he "makes the wrath of man praise him, and restrains the remainder of that wrath." Show how quiet a nation may be when it knows that national polity is directed in the fear of him who must be called the "God of the whole earth. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 9 Rezin . . . and Pekah . . .…
Isa_7:1-9
Rezin . . . and Pekah . . . went up toward Jerusalem to war against it
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The confederacy against Jerusalem
The reason of this war is not stated: but from the desire of those kings to dethrone Ahaz, and place on the throne in Jerusalem another, even Ben Tabeal, it may be inferred that
Ahaz refused to join these two powers in a general rising against Assyria.
Obviously, Ahaz was well advised in not taking a step of such decided opposition to Nineveh: for had he done so, the legions of that empire would only have spread desolation in Judah twenty or thirty years earlier than they did. To a certain extent, the policy commended by Isaiah was adopted: Ahaz did not take up his stand against Assyria. The prophet, of course, wanted more. For he urged an absolute and complete neutrality, in which Ahaz would have nothing at all to do with this power. So far as
Ahaz acted on the prophets advice, he was successful: for this confederacy against Jerusalem proved a failure. (B. Blake, B. D.)
Ahaz and Isaiah, a contrast
Ahaz is timid and helpless, takes no position, and displays no promptitude or courage. Isaiah, on the contrary, steps forward with assurance: he is collected and calm: and his complete control of the political situation impresses us forcibly. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Isaiahs interview with Ahaz
At the date of Isaiahs interview with
Ahaz the application to Assyria was meditated, but not actually carried into effect. To understand this interview two things must be borne in mind.
Firstly, Isaiah is aware of the kings intention to solicit aid from Assyria, but it is not openly admitted between them. Secondly, the power and resources of the allied kings, especially of Rezin, so impressed the popular imagination that they were held to be practically invincible; Isaiah views both differently; describes them as smoked out firebrands, and intimates that he considers the terror of the people to be unreasonable. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The prophet and the king
God speaks comfort to many who not only are not worthy of it, but do not so much as inquire after it. (M. Henry.)
Unsuccessful attacks upon the Christian stronghold
We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth: clever arguments, witty retorts, brilliant repartees, criticisms that dazzle by their brightness and exasperate by their acerbity, come and go, and Jerusalem stands, sunlit, fair, invincible. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER VI
KING AND MESSIAH; PEOPLE AND CHURCH
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735-732 B.C.
Isaiah 7, 8, 9:1-8
THIS section of the book of Isaiah (chapters 7-9:7) consists of a number of separate prophecies uttered during a period of at least three years: 735-732 B.C. By 735 Ahaz had ascended the throne; Tiglath-pileser had been occupied in the far east for two years. Taking advantage of the weakness of the former and the distance of the later, Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Samaria, planned an invasion of Judah. It was a venture they would not have dared had Uzziah been alive. While Rezin marched down the east of the Jordan and overturned the Jewish supremacy in Edom, Pekah threw himself into Judah, defeated the armies of Ahaz in one great battle, and besieged Jerusalem, with the object of deposing Ahaz and setting a Syrian, Ben-Tabeel, in his stead. Simultaneously the Philistines attacked Judah from the southwest. The motive of the confederates was in all probability anger with Ahaz for refusing to enter with them into a Pan-Syrian alliance against Assyria. In his distress Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-pileser, and the Assyrian swiftly responded. In 734-it must have been less than a year since Ahaz was attacked-the hosts of the north had overrun Samaria and swept as far south as the cities of the Philistines. Then, withdrawing his troops again, Tiglath-pileser left Hoshea as his vassal on Pekahs throne, and sending the population of Israel east of the Jordan into distant captivity, completed a two years siege of Damascus (734-732) by its capture. At Damascus Ahaz met the conqueror, and having paid him tribute, took out a further policy of insurance in the altar-pattern, which he brought back with him to Jerusalem. Such were the three years, whose rapid changes unfolded themselves in parallel with these prophecies of Isaiah. The details are not given by the prophet, but we must keep in touch with them while we listen to him. Especially must we remember their central point, the decision of Ahaz to call in the help of Assyria, a decision which affected the whole course of politics for the next thirty years. Some of the oracles of this section were plainly delivered by Isaiah before that event, and simply seek to inspire Ahaz with a courage which should feel Assyrian help to be needless; others, again, imply that Ahaz has already called in the Assyrian: they taunt him with hankering after foreign strength, and depict the woes which the Assyrian will bring upon the land; while others {for example, the passage Isa_9:1-7} mean that the Assyrian has already come, and that the Galilean provinces of Israel have been depopulated, and promise a Deliverer. If we do not keep in mind the decision of Ahaz, we shall not understand these seemingly contradictory utterances, which it thoroughly explains. Let us now begin at the beginning of chapter 7. It opens with a bare statement, by way of title, of the invasion of Judah and the futile result; and then proceeds to tell us how Isaiah acted from the first rumour of the confederacy onward.
I. THE KING
(chapter 7)
"And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it." This is a summary of the whole adventure and issue of the war, given by way of introduction. The narrative proper begins in Isa_7:2, with the effect of the first news of the league upon Ahaz and his people. Their hearts were moved like the trees of the forest before the wind. The league was aimed so evidently against the two things most essential to the national existence and the honour of Jehovah; the dynasty of David, namely, and the inviolability of Jerusalem. Judah had frequently before suffered the loss of her territory; never till now were the throne and city of David in actual peril. But that, which bent both king and people by its novel terror, was the test Isaiah expected for the prophecies he had already uttered. Taking with him, as a summary of them, his boy with the name Shear-Jashub-"A-remnant-shall-return"-Isaiah faced Ahaz and his court in the midst of their preparation for the siege. They were examining-but more in panic than in prudence-the water supply of the city, when Isaiah delivered to them a message from the Lord, which may be paraphrased as follows: "Take heed and be quiet," keep your eyes open and your heart still; "fear not, neither be fainthearted, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Remaliahs son." They have no power to set you on fire. They are "but stumps of expiring firebrands," almost burnt out. While you wisely look after your water supply, do so in hope. This purpose of deposing, you is vain. "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass." Of whom are you afraid? Look those foes of yours in the face. "The head of Syria is Damascus, and Damascus head is Rezin": is he worth fearing? "The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and Samarias head is Reinallahs son": is he worth fearing? Within a few years they will certainly be destroyed. But whatever estimate you make of your foes, whatever their future may be, for yourself have faith in God; for you that is the essential thing. "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established."
This paraphrase seeks to bring out the meaning of a passage confessedly obscure. It seems as if we had only bits of Isaiahs speech to Ahaz and must supply the gaps. No one need hesitate, however, to recognise the conspicuous personal qualities-the combination of political sagacity with religious fear, of common-sense and courage rooted in faith. In a word, this is what Isaiah will say to the king, clever in his alliances, religious and secular, and busy about his material defences: "Take unto you the shield of faith. You have lost your head among all these things. Hold it up like a man behind that shield; take a rational view of affairs. Rate your enemies at their proper value. But for this you must believe in God. Faith in Him is the essential condition of a calm mind and a rational appreciation of affairs."
It is, no doubt, difficult for us to realise that the truth which Isaiah thus enforced, on King Ahaz-the government of the world and human history by one supreme God-was ever a truth of which the race stood in ignorance. A generation like ours cannot be expected to put its mind in the attitude of those of Isaiahs contemporaries who believed in the real existence of many gods with limited sovereignties. To us, who are full of the instincts of Divine Providence and of the presence in history of law and progress, it is extremely hard even to admit the fact-far less fully to realise what it means-that our race had ever to receive these truths as fresh additions to their stock of intellectual ideas. Yet, without prejudice to the claims of earlier prophets, this may be confidently affirmed: that Isaiah where we now meet him stood on one side believing in one supreme God, Lord of heaven and earth, and his generation stood on the other side, believing that there were many gods. Isaiah, however, does not pose as the discoverer of the truth he preaches; he does not present it as a new revelation, nor put it in a formula. He takes it for granted, and proceeds to bring its moral influence to bear. He will infect men with his own utter conviction of it, in order that he may strengthen their character and guide them by paths of safety. His speech to Ahaz is an exhibition of the moral and rational effects of believing in Providence. Ahaz is a sample of the character polytheism produced; the state of mind and heart to which Isaiah exhorts him is that induced by belief in one righteous and almighty God. We can make the contrast clear to ourselves by a very definite figure.
The difference, which is made to the character and habits of men if the country they live in has a powerful government or not, is well-known. If there be no such central authority, it is a case of every mans hand against his neighbour. Men walk armed to the teeth. A constant attitude of fear and suspicion warps the whole nature. The passions are excited and magnified; the intelligence and judgment are dwarfed. Just the same after its kind is life to the man or tribe, who believe that the world in which they dwell and the life they share with others have no central authority. They walk armed with prejudices, superstitions, and selfishnesses. They create, like Ahaz, their own providences, and still, like him, feel insecure. Everything is exaggerated by them; in each evil there lurks to their imagination unlimited hostility. They are without breadth of view or length of patience. But let men believe that life has a central authority, that God is supreme, and they will fling their prejudices and superstitions to the winds, now no more needed than the antiquated fortresses and weapons by which our forefathers, in days when the government was weak, were forced to defend their private interests. When we know that God reigns, how quiet and free it makes us! When things and men are part of His scheme and working out His ends, when we understand that they are not monsters but ministers, how reasonably we can look at them! Were we afraid of Syria and Ephraim? Why, the head of Syria is this fellow Rezin, the head of Ephraim this son of Remaliah! They cannot last long; Gods engine stands behind to smite them. By the reasonable government of God, let us be reasonable! Let us take heed and be quiet. Have faith in God, and to faith will come her proper consequent of common sense.
For the higher a man looks, the farther he sees: to us that is the practical lesson of these first nine verses of the seventh chapter. The very gesture of faith bestows upon the mind a breadth of view. The man, who lifts his face to God in heaven, is he whose eyes sweep simultaneously the farthest prospect of earth, and bring to him a sense of the proportion of things. Ahaz, facing his nearest enemies, does not see over their heads, and in his consternation at their appearance prepares to embark upon any policy that suggests itself, even though it be so rash as the summoning of the Assyrian. Isaiah, on the other hand, with his vision fixed on God as the Governor of the world, is enabled to overlook the dust that darkens Judahs frontier, to see behind it the inevitable advance of the Assyrians, and to be assured that, whether Ahaz calls them to his quarrel or no, they will very soon of their own motion overwhelm both of his enemies. From these "two smoking firebrands" there is then no real danger. But from the Assyrian, if once Judah entangle herself in his toils, there is the most extreme danger.
Isaiahs advice is therefore not mere religious quietism; it is prudent policy. It is the best political advice that could have been offered at that crisis, as we have already been able to gather from a survey of the geographical and political dispositions of Western Asia, apart altogether from religious considerations. But to Isaiah the calmness requisite for this sagacity sprang from his faith. Mr. Bagehot might have appealed to Isaiahs whole policy in illustration of what he has so well described as the military and political benefits of religion. Monotheism is of advantage to men not only by reason of "the high concentration of steady feeling" which it produces, but also for the mental calmness and sagacity which surely spring from a pure and vivid conviction that the Lord reigneth.
One other thing it is well we should emphasise, before we pass from Isaiahs speech to Ahaz. Nothing can be plainer than that Isaiah, though advocating so absolutely a quiescent belief in God, is no fatalist. Now other prophets there have been, insisting just as absolutely as Isaiah upon resignation to God the supreme, and the evident practical effect of their doctrine of the Divine sovereignty has been to make their followers, not shrewd political observers, but blind and apathetic fatalists. The difference between them and Isaiah has lain in the kind of character, which they and he have respectively attributed to the Deity, before exalting Him to the throne of absolute power and resigning themselves to His will. Isaiah, though as disciplined a believer in Gods sovereignty and mans duty of obedience as any prophet that ever preached these doctrines, was preserved from the fatalism to which they so often lead by the conviction he had previously received of Gods righteousness. Fatalism means resignation to fate, and fate means an omnipotence either without character, or (which is the same thing) of whose character we are ignorant. Fate is God minus character, and fatalism is the characterless condition to which belief in such a God reduces man. History presents it to our view amid the most diverse surroundings. The Greek mind, so free and sunny, was bewildered and benumbed by belief in an inscrutable Nemesis: In the East how frequently is a temper of apathy or despair bred in men, to whom God is nothing but a despot! Even within Christianity we have had fanatics, so inordinately possessed with belief in Gods sovereignty of election, to the exclusion of all other Divine truths, as to profess themselves, with impious audacity, willing to be damned for His glory. Such instances are enough to prove to us the extreme danger of making the sovereignty of God the first article of our creed. It is not safe for men to exalt a deity to the throne of the supreme providence, till they are certified of his character. The vision of mere power intoxicates and brutalises, no less when it is hallowed by the name of religion, than when, as in modern materialism, it is blindly interpreted as physical force. Only the people who have first learned to know their Deity intimately in the private matters of life, where heart touches heart, and the delicate arguments of conscience are not overborne by the presence of vast natural forces or the intricate movements of the worlds history, can be trusted afterwards to enter these larger theatres of religion, without risk of losing their faith, their sensibility, or their conscience.
The whole course of revelation has been bent upon this: to render men familiarly and experimentally acquainted with the character of God, before laying upon them the duty of homage to His creative power or submission to His will. In the Old Testament God is the Friend, the Guide, the Redeemer of men, or ever He is their Monarch and Lawgiver. The Divine name which the Hebrew sees "excellent through all the earth" is the name that he has learned to know at home as "Jehovah, our Lord". {Psalms 8} Jehovah trains His people to trust His personal truth and lovingkindness within their own courts, before He tests their allegiance and discipline upon the high places of the world. And when, amid the strange terrors of these and the novel magnitudes with which Israel, facing the world, had to reckon, the people lost their presence Of mind, His elegy over them was, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Even when their temple is full and their sacrifices of homage to His power most frequent, it is still their want of moral acquaintance with Himself of which He complains: "Israel doth not know; My people doth not consider." What else was the tragedy in which Jewish history closed, than just the failure to perceive this lesson: that to have and to communicate the knowledge of the Almightys character is of infinitely more value than the attempt to vindicate in any outward fashion Jehovahs supremacy over the world? This latter, this forlorn, hope was what Israel exhausted the evening of their day in attempting. The former-to communicate to the lives and philosophies of mankind a knowledge of the Divine heart and will, gained throughout a history of unique grace and miracle-was the destiny which they resigned to the followers of the crucified Messiah.
For under the New Testament this also is the method of revelation. What our King desires before He ascends the throne of the world is that the world should know Him; and so He comes down among us, to be heard, and seen, and handled of us, that our hearts may learn His heart and know His love, unbewildered by His majesty. And for our part, when we ascribe to our King the glory and the dominion, it is as unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His blood. For the chief thing for individuals, as for nations, is not to believe that God reigneth so much as to know what kind of God He is who reigneth.
But Ahaz would not be persuaded. He had a policy of his own, and was determined to pursue it. He insisted on appealing to Assyria. Before he did so, Isaiah made one more attempt on his obduracy. With a vehemence, which reveals how critical he felt the kings decision to be, the prophet returned as if this time the very voice of Jehovah. "And Jehovah spake to Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God; ask it either in Sheol below or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord."
Isaiahs offer of a sign was one which the prophets of Israel used to make when some crisis demanded the immediate acceptance of. their word by men, and men were more than usually hard to convince-a miracle such as the thunder that Samuel called out of a clear sky to impress Israel with Gods opinion of their folly in asking for a king; {1Sa_12:17} or as the rending of the altar which the man of God brought to pass to convict the sullen Jeroboam; {1Ki_13:3} or as the regress of the shadow on the sun-dial, which Isaiah himself gave in assurance of recovery to the sick Hezekiah. (chapter 38) Such signs are offered only to weak or prejudiced persons. The most real faith, as Isaiah himself tells us, is unforced, the purest natures those which need no signs and wonders. But there are certain crises at which faith must be immediately forced, and Ahaz stood now at such a crisis; and there are certain characters who, unable to read a writ from the court of conscience and reason, must be served with one from a court-even though it be inferior-whose language they understand; and Ahaz was such a character. Isaiah knew his man, and prepared a pretty dilemma for him. By offering him whatever sign he chose to ask, Isaiah knew that the king would be committed before his own honour and the public conscience to refrain from calling in the Assyrians, and so Judah would be saved; or if the king refused the sign, the refusal would unmask him. Ahaz refused, and at once Isaiah denounced him and all his house. They were mere shufflers, playing fast and loose with God as well as men. "Hear ye now, O house of David. Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that ye must weary my God also?" You have evaded God; therefore God Himself will take you in hand: "the Lord Himself shall give you a sign." In order to follow intelligently the rest of Isaiahs address, we must clearly understand how the sign which he now promises differs in nature from the sign he had implored Ahaz to select, of whatever sort he may have expected that selection to be. The kings determination to call in Assyria has come between. Therefore, while the sign Isaiah first offered upon the spot was intended for an immediate pledge that God would establish Ahaz, if only he did not appeal to the foreigner, the sign Isaiah now offers shall come as a future proof of how criminal and disastrous the appeal to the foreigner has been. The first sign would have been an earnest of salvation; the second is to be an exposure of the fatal evil of Ahazs choice. The first would have given some assurance of the swift overthrow of Ephraim and Syria; the second shall be some painful illustration of the fact that not only Syria and Ephraim, but Judah herself, shall be overwhelmed by the advance of the northern power. This second sign is one, therefore, which only time can bring round. Isaiah identifies it with a life not yet born.
A Child, he says, shall shortly be born to whom his mother shall give the name Immanu-El-"God-with-us." By the time this Child comes to years of discretion, "he shall eat butter and honey." Isaiah then explains the riddle. He does not, however, explain who the mother is, having described her vaguely as "a"-or "the young woman of marriageable age"; for that is not necessary to the sign, which is to consist in the Childs own experience. To this latter he limits his explanation. Butter and honey are the food of privation, the food of a people, whose land, depopulated by the enemy, has been turned into pasture. Before this Child shall arrive at years of discretion not only shall Syria and Ephraim be laid waste, but the Lord Himself will have laid waste Judah. "Jehovah shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people and upon thy fathers house days, that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria." Nothing more is said of Immanuel, but the rest of the chapter is taken up with the details of Judahs devastation.
Now this sign and its explanation would have presented little difficulty but for the name of the Child-Immanuel. Erase that, and the passage reads forcibly enough. Before a certain Child, whose birth is vaguely but solemnly intimated in the near future, shall have come to years of discretion, the results of the choice of Ahaz shall be manifest. Judah shall be devastated, and her people have sunk to the most rudimentary means of living. All this is plain. It is a form which Isaiah used more than once to measure the near future. And in other literatures, too, we have felt the pathos of realising the future results of crime and the length to which disaster lingers, by their effect upon the lives of another generation:-
"The child that is unborn shall rue
The hunting of that day!"
But why call the Child Immanuel? The name is evidently part of the sign, and has to be explained in connection with it. Why call a Child "God-with-us" who is not going to act greatly or to be highly honoured, who is only going to suffer, for whom to come to years of intelligence shall only be to come to a sense of his countrys disaster and his peoples poverty. This Child who is used so pathetically to measure the flow of time and the return of its revenges, about whom we are told neither how he shall behave himself in the period of privation, nor whether he shall survive it-why is he called Immanuel? or why, being called Immanuel, has he so sordid a fate to contrast with so splendid a name?
It seems to the present expositor quite impossible to dissociate so solemn an announcement by Jehovah to the house of David of the birth of a Child, so highly named, from that expectation of the coming of a glorious Prince which was current in this royal family since the days of its founder. Mysterious and abrupt as the intimation of Immanuels birth may seem to us at this juncture, we cannot forget that it fell from Isaiahs lips on hearts which cherished as their dearest hope the appearance of a glorious descendant of David, and were just now the more sensitive to this hope that both Davids city and Davids dynasty were in peril. Could Ahaz possibly understand by Immanuel any other child than that Prince whose coming was the inalienable hope of his house? But if we are right in supposing that Ahaz made this identification, or had even the dimmest presage of it, then we understand the full force of the sign. Ahaz by his unbelief had not only disestablished himself (Isa_7:9): he had mortgaged the hope of Israel. In the flood of disaster, which his fatal resolution would bring upon the land, it mattered little what was to happen to himself. Isaiah does not trouble now to mention any penalty for Ahaz. But his resolves exceeding pregnancy of peril is borne home to the king by the assurance that it will devastate all the golden future, and must disinherit the promised King. The Child, who is Israels hope, is born; he receives the Divine name, and that is all of salvation or glory suggested. He grows up not to a throne or the majesty which the seventy-second Psalm pictures the offerings of Shebas and Sebas kings, the corn of his land shaking like the fruit of Lebanon, while they of the city flourish like the grass of the earth-but to the food of privation, to the sight of his country razed by his enemies into one vast common fit only for pasture, to loneliness and suffering. Amid the general desolation his figure vanishes from our sight, and only his name remains to haunt, with its infinite melancholy of what might have been, the thorn-choked vineyards and grass-grown courts of Judah.
But even if it were to prove too fine a point, to identify Immanuel with the promised Messiah of Davids house, and we had to fall back on some vaguer theory of him, finding him to be a personification, -either a representative of the coming generation of Gods people, or a type of the promised tomorrow, -the moral effect of the sign would remain the same; and it is with this alone that we have here to do. Be this an individual, or a generation, or an age, -by the Name bestowed upon it, it was to have been a glorious, God-inhabited age, generation, or individual, and Ahaz has prematurely spoiled everything about it but the Name. The future shall be like a boy cursed by his fathers, brought into the world with glorious rights that are stamped in his title, but only to find his kingdom and estates no longer in existence, and all the circumstances dissipated in which he might have realised the glorious meaning of his name. Type of innocent suffering, he is born to an empty title, his name the vestige of a great opportunity, the ironical monument of an irreparable crime.
If Ahaz had any conscience left, we can imagine the effect of this upon him. To be punished for sin in ones own body and fortune, this is sore enough; but to see heaven itself blackened and all the gracious future frustrate, this is unspeakably terrible.
Ahaz is thus the Judas of the Old Testament, if that conception of Judas character be the right one which makes his wilful desire to bring about the kingdom of God in his own violent fashion the motive of his betrayal of Jesus. Of his own obduracy Ahaz has betrayed the Messiah and Deliverer of his people. The assurance of this betrayal is the sign of his obduracy, a signal and terrible proof of his irretrievable sin in calling upon the Assyrians. The king has been found wanting.
II. THE PEOPLE
(chapter 8)
The king has been found wanting; but Isaiah will appeal to the people. Chapter 8 is a collection of addresses to them, as chapter 7 was an expostulation with their sovereign. The two chapters are contemporary. In Isa_8:1, the narrative goes back upon itself, and returns to thesituation as it was before Ahaz made his final resolution of reliance on Assyria. Isa_8:1-4 imply that the Assyrian has not yet been summoned by Ahaz to his assistance, and therefore run parallel to Isa_7:3-9; but Isa_8:5 and following verses sketch the evils that are to come upon Judah and Israel, consequent upon the arrival of the Assyrians in Palestine, in answer to the appeal of Ahaz. These evils for land and nation are threatened as absolutely to the people as they had been to the king. And then the people are thrown over, {Isa_8:14} as the king had been; and Isaiah limits himself to his disciples (Isa_8:16)-the remnant that was foretold in chapter 6.
This appeal from monarch to people is one of the most characteristic features of Isaiahs ministry. Whatever be the matter committed to him, Isaiah is not allowed to rest till he has brought it home to the popular conscience; and however much he may be able to charge national disaster upon the folly of politicians or the obduracy of a king, it is the people whom he holds ultimately responsible. The statesman, according to Isaiah, cannot rise far above the level of his generation; the people set the fashion to their most autocratic rulers. This instinct for the popular conscience, this belief in the moral solidarity of a nation and their governors, was the motive of the most picturesque passages in Isaiahs career, and inspired some of the keenest epigrams in which he conveyed the Divine truth. We have here a case in illustration. Isaiah had met Ahaz and his court "at the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fullers field," preparing for the expected siege of the city, and had delivered to them the Lords message not to fear, for that Syria-Ephraim would certainly be destroyed. But that was not enough. It was now laid upon the prophet to make public and popular advertisement of the same truth.
Isaiah was told to take a large, smooth board, and write thereon in the character used by the common people-"with the pen of a man"-as if it were the title to a prophecy, the compound word "Maher-shalal-hash-baz." This was not only an intelligibly written, but a significantly sonorous, word-one of those popular cries in which the liveliest sensations are struck forth by the crowded, clashing letters, full to the dullest ears of rumours of war: "speed-spoil-hurry-prey." The interpretation of it was postponed, the prophet meantime taking two faithful witnesses to its publication. In a little a son was born to Isaiah, and to this child he transferred the noisy name. Then its explanation was given. The double word was the alarm of a couple of invasions. "Before the boy shall have knowledge to cry, My father, my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria." So far nothing was told the people that had not been told their king; only the time of the overthrow of their two enemies was fixed with greater precision. At the most in a year, Damascus and Samaria would have fallen. The ground was already vibrating to the footfall of the northern hosts.
The rapid political changes, which ensued in Palestine, are reflected on the broken surface of this eighth chapter. We shall not understand these abrupt and dislocated oracles, uttered at short intervals during the two years of the Assyrian campaign, unless we realise that northern shadow passing and repassing over Judah and Israel, and the quick alternations of pride and penitence in the peoples beneath it. We need not try to thread the verses on any line of thought. Logical connection among them there is none. Let us at once get down into the currents of popular feeling, in which Isaiah, having left Ahaz, is now labouring, and casting forth these cries.
It is a period of powerful currents, a people wholly in drift, and the strongest man of them arrested only by a firm pressure of the Lords hand. "For Jehovah spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me, that I should not walk in the way of this people." The character of the popular movement, "the way of this people," which nearly lifted Isaiah off his feet, is evident. It is that into which every nation drifts, who have just been loosened from a primitive faith in God, and by fear or ambition have been brought under the fascination of the great world. On the one hand, such a generation is apt to seek the security of its outward life in things materially large and splendid, to despise as paltry its old religious forms, national aspirations and achievements, and be very desirous to follow foreign fashion and rival foreign wealth. On the other hand, the religious spirit of such an age, withdrawn from its legitimate objects, seeks satisfaction in petty and puerile practices, demeaning itself spiritually, in a way that absurdly contrasts with the grandeur of its material ambitions. Such a stage in the life of a people has its analogy in the growth of the individual, when the boy, new to the world, by affecting the grandest companions and models, assumes an ambitious manner, with contempt for his former circumstances, yet inwardly remains credulous, timid, and liable to panic. Isaiah reveals that it was such a stage which both the kingdoms of Israel had now reached. "This people hath refused the waters of Shiloah, that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliahs son."
It was natural, that when the people of Judah contrasted their own estate with that of Assyria, or even of Damascus, they should despise themselves. For what was Judah? A petty principality, no larger than three of our own counties. And what was Jerusalem? A mere mountain village, some sixty or seventy acres of barren rock, cut into tongues by three insignificant valleys, down which there sometimes struggled tiny threads of water, though the beds were oftener dry, giving the town a withered and squalid look-no great river to nourish, ennoble, or protect. What were such a country and capital to compare with the empire of Assyria?-the empire of the two rivers, whose powerful streams washed the ramparts, wharves, and palace stairs of mighty cities! What was Jerusalem even to the capital of Rezin? Were not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, let alone these waterless wadys, whose bleached beds made the Jewish capital so squalid? It was the Assyrians vast water system - canals, embankments, sluices, and the wealth of water moving throughthem-that most impressed the poor Jew, whose streams failed him in summer, and who had to treasure up his scanty stores of rainwater in the cisterns, with which the rocky surface of his territory is still so thickly indented. There had, indeed, been at Jerusalem some attempt to conduct water. It was called "The Shiloah-conduit or aqueduct," or literally "emissary" in the old sense of the word-a rough, narrow tunnel of some thousand feet in length, hewn through the living rock from the only considerable spring on the east side of Jerusalem, to a reservoir within the walls. To this day "The Shiloah" presents itself as not by any means a first-class piece of engineering. Ahaz had either just made the tunnel or repaired it; but if the water went no faster than it travels now, the results were indeed ridiculous. Well might "this people despise the waters of the Shiloah, that go trickling," when they thought upon the rivers of Damascus or the broad streams of Mesopotamia. Certainly it was enough to dry up the patriotism of the Judean, if he was capable of appreciating only material value, to look upon this bare, riverless capital, with its bungled aqueduct and trickling water supply. On merely material grounds, Judah was about the last country at that time in which her inhabitants might be expected to show pride or confidence.
But woe to the people whose attachment to their land is based upon its material advantages, who have lost their sense for those spiritual presences, from an appreciation of which springs all true love of country, with warriors courage in her defence and statesmans faith in her destiny!, The greatest calamity, which can befall any people, is to forfeit their enthusiasm for the soil, on which their history has been achieved and their hearths and altars lie, by suffering their faith in the presence of God, of which these are but the tokens, to pass away. With this loss Isaiah now reproaches Judah. The people are utterly materialised; their delights have been in gold and silver, chariots and horses, fenced cities and broad streams, and their faith has now followed their delights. But these things to which they flee will only prove their destruction. The great foreign river, whose waters they covet, will overflow them: "even the king of Assyria and all his glory, and he shall come up over all his channels and go over all his banks; and he shall sweep onward into Judah; he shall overflow and pass through; he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel," thou who art "God-with-us." At the sound of the Name, which floats in upon the floods of invasion like the Ark on the waters of old, Isaiah pulls together his distraught faith in his country, and forgetting her faults, flings defiance at her foes. "Associate yourselves, ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far-off countries, gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, it shall be brought to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for Immanu-El"-"With us is God." The challenge was made good. The prophets faith prevailed over the peoples materialism, and Jerusalem remained inviolable till Isaiahs death.
Meantime the Assyrian came on. But the infatuated people of Judah continued to tremble rather before the doomed conspirators, Rezin and Pekah. It must have been a time of huge excitement. The prophet tells us how he was steadied by the pressure of the Lords hand, and how, being steadied, the meaning of the word "Immanuel" was opened out to him. "God-with-us" is the one great fact of life. Amid all the possible alliances and all the possible fears of a complex political situation, He remains the one certain alliance, the one real fear: "Say ye not, A conspiracy, concerning all whereof this people say, A conspiracy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be in dread thereof. Jehovah of hosts, Him shall ye sanctify; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread." God is the one great fact of life, but what a double-edged fact-"a sanctuary to all who put their trust in Him, but a rock of offence to both houses of Israel!" The figure is very picturesque. An altar, a common stone on steps, one of those which covered the land in large numbers-it is easy to see what a double purpose that might serve. What a joy the sight would be to the weary wanderer or refugee who sought it, what a comfort as he leant his weariness upon it, and knew he was safe! But those who were flying over the land, not seeking Jehovah, not knowing indeed what they sought, blind and panic-stricken-for them what could that altar do but trip them up like any other common rock in their way? "In fact, Divine justice is something which is either, observed, desired, or attained, and is then mens weal, or, on the other hand, is overlooked. rejected, or sought after in a wild, unintelligent spirit, and only in the hour of need, and is then their lasting ruin."
The Assyrian came on, and the temper of the Jews grew worse. Samaria was indeed doomed from the first, but for some time Isaiah had been excepting Judah from a judgment for which the guilt of Northern Israel was certainly riper. He foresaw, of course, that the impetus of invasion might sweep the Assyrians into Judah, but he had triumphed in this: that Judah was Immanuels land, and that all who arrayed themselves against her must certainly come to naught. But now his ideas have changed, as Judah has persisted in evil. He knows now that God is for a stumbling-block to both houses of Israel; nay, that upon Jerusalem herself He will fall as a gin and a snare. Only for a little group of individuals, separate from both States, and gathered round the prophet and the word of God given to him, is salvation certain. People, as well as king, have been found wanting. There remains only this remnant.
Isaiah then at last sees his remnant. But the point we have reached is significant for more than the fulfilment of his expectations. This is the first appearance in history of a religious community, apart from the forms of domestic or national life. "Till then no one had dreamed of a fellowship of faith dissociated from all national forms, bound together by faith in the Divine word alone. It was the birth of a new era in religion, for it was the birth of the conception of the Church, the first step in the emancipation of spiritual religion from the forms of political life."
The plan of the seventh and eighth chapters is now fully disclosed. As the king for his unworthiness has to give place to the Messiah, so the nation for theirs have to give place to the Church. In the seventh chapter the king was found wanting, and the Messiah promised. In the eighth chapter the people are found wanting; and the prophet, turning from them, proceeds to form the Church among those who accept the Word, which king and people have refused. "Bind thou up the testimony, and seal the teaching among my disciples. And I will wait on Jehovah, who hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him. Behold, I and the children Jehovah hath given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, Him that dwelleth in Mount Zion."
This, then, is the situation: revelation concluded, the Church formed upon it, and the nation abandoned. But is that situation final? The words just quoted betray the prophets hope that it is not. He says: "I will wait." He says again: The Lord is only "hiding His face from the house of Jacob." I will expect again the shining of His countenance. I will hope for Divine grace and the nation being once more conterminous. The rest of the section {to Isa_9:7} is the development of this hope, which stirs in the prophets heart after he has closed the record of revelation.
The darkness deepened across Israel. The Assyrian had come. The northern floods kept surging among the little states of Palestine, and none knew what might be left standing. We can well understand Isaiah pausing, as he did, in face of such rapid and incontrollable movements. When Tiglath-pileser swept over the plain of Esdraelon, casting down the king of Samaria and the Philistine cities, and then swept back again, carrying off upon his ebb the populations east of the Jordan, it looked very like as if both the houses of Israel should fall. In their panic, the people betook themselves to morbid forms of religion; and at first Isaiah was obliged to quench the hope and pity he had betrayed for them in indignation at the utter contrariety of their religious practices to the word of God. There can be no Divine grace for the people as long as they "seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto the wizards that chirp and that mutter." For such a disposition the prophet has nothing but scorn, "Should not a people seek unto their God? On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead?" They must come back to the prophets own word before hope may dawn. "To the revelation and the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them."
The night, however, grew too awful for scorn. There had been no part of the land so given to the idolatrous practices, which the prophet scathed, as "the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, by the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles." But all the horrors of captivity had now fallen upon it, and it had received at the Lords hand double for all its sins. The night had been torn enough by lightning; was there no dawn? The darkness of these provinces fills the prophets silenced thoughts. He sees a people "hardly bestead and hungry, fretting themselves, cursing their king," who had betrayed them, "and their God," who had abandoned them, "turning their faces upwards" to heaven and "downwards" to the sacred soil from which they were being dragged, "but, behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness they are driven away." It is a murky picture, yet through the smoke of it we are able to discern a weird procession of Israelites departing into captivity. We date it, therefore, about 732 B.C., the night of Israels first great captivity. The shock and the pity of this rouse the prophets great heart. He cannot continue to say that there is no morning for those benighted provinces. He will venture a great hope for their people.
Over how many months the crowded verses, Isa_8:21-22; Isa_9:1-7, must be spread, it is useless now to inquire-whether the revulsion they mark arose all at once in the prophets mind, or hope grew gradually brighter as the smoke of war died away on Israels northern frontier during 731 B.C. It is enough that we can mark the change. The prophets tones pass from sarcasm to pity; {Isa_8:20-21} from pity to hope; {Isa_8:22; Isa_9:1} from hope to triumph in the vision of salvation actually achieved. {Isa_9:2} "The people that walked in darkness have seen a greatlight; they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them hath the light shined." For a mutilated, we see a multiplied, nation; for the fret of hunger and the curses of defeat, we hear the joy of harvest and of spoil after victory. "For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, Thou hast broken as in the day of Midian." War has rolled away forever over that northern horizon, and all the relies of war in the land are swept together into the fire. "For all the armour of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall even be for burning, and for fuel of fire." In the midday splendour of this peace, which, after the fashion of Hebrew prophecy, is described as already realised, Isaiah hails the Author of it all in that gracious and marvellous Child whose birth he had already intimated, Heir to the throne of David, but entitled by a fourfold name, too generous, perhaps, for a mere mortal, "Wonderful-Counsellor, Hero-God, Father-Everlasting, Prince-of-peace," who shall redeem the realms of his great forerunner and maintain "Israel with justice and righteousness from henceforth, even forever."
When, finally, the prophet inquires what has led his thoughts through this rapid change from satisfaction {Isa_8:16} with the salvation of asmall "remnant" of believers in the word of God-a little kernel of patience in the midst of a godless and abandoned people-to the daring vision of a whole nation redeemed and established in peace under a Godlike King, he says: "The zeal of the Lord of hosts hath performed this."
"The zeal," translates our English version, but no one English word will give it. It is that mixture of hot honour and affection to which "jealousy" in its good sense comes near. It is that overflow of the love that cannot keep still, which, when men think God has surely done all He will or can do for an ungrateful race, visits "them in their distress, and carries them forward into unconceived dispensations of grace and glory. It is the Spirit of God, which yearns after the lost, speaks to the self-despairing of hope, and surprises rebel and prophet alike with new revelations of love. We have our systems representing Gods work up to the limits of our experience, and we settle upon them; but the Almighty is ever greater than His promise or than His revelation of Himself."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 9 Isa_7:1-2. And it came to pass, in the days…
PURPOSES AND PANICS
Isa_7:1-2. And it came to pass, in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, &c.
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In this brief record of events [781] that occurred so long ago, we may find suggestions of truths which it will be well for us to lay to heart to-day.
[781] For a statement of these events, see following paper: THE VIRGIN’S SON.
I. Men often confidently form purposes which they find it impossible to fulfil (Isa_7:1). Rezin and Pekah no doubt were sure their project would be successful; they left no means untried to make it a success; they had many things to encourage them (2Ch_28:5-7); success seemed certain, yet they failed! In Isa_7:6 we have another statement of their purpose, and in Isa_7:7 we are told the real reason why it failed: GOD determined that it should not stand. This is an illustration of much that takes place in our own day, in our own life. Purposes daringly conceived, and wisely and energetically prosecuted, come to nothing; and in such cases GOD is often the real hindrance. He hinders, not because He has any capricious delight in frustrating our plans, but because in them we intend only our own self-aggrandisement. It is with our purposes as with our prayers (Jas_4:3). If He hinders, no alliance formed with men can profit us; even Rezin will help in vain.
1. In forming our plans, let us remember and acknowledge our dependence on the permission and help of God (Jas_4:13-15; Psa_127:1). If plans should be formed for our hurt or overthrow, let us comfort ourselves by remembering that all men are under God’s control. The confederacy may be very powerful: most elaborate preparations may be made for the accomplishment of its purpose; but there can be no success unless the Lord will (Dan_3:16-18).
II. Men often give way to unreasonable panics (Isa_7:2). Panics are very common, very painful, very dangerous and hurtful. Their cause: lack of faith in God. Without faith in the controlling providence of God, men are naturally as liable to alarm as is a wealthy man who on a foggy night has to make his way through a dangerous quarter of a strange city; he knows not whether the footsteps he hears behind him are those of a policeman or of a garotter! Firmness is the reward of faith—of intelligent confidence exercised by righteous men in a righteous God (Psa_3:6; Psa_56:11; Psa_91:5; Psa_112:7-8, &c.). Deliverance from fear is one of the respects in which “godliness has the promise of the life that now is.” This blessing may be yours, if you will; yours in times of domestic, of commercial, of national alarm. You may be delivered, if you will, from the supreme fear—fear of death. Christ came into the world for the purpose of delivering you from it (Heb_2:14-15). Yield yourself to be really His, and your end shall be peace (Psa_23:4; Psa_73:26).
FEARS AND COMFORTS
Isa_7:1-9. And it came to pass, in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, &c.
The historical statements [778] in these verses afford illustrations of spiritual truths.
[778] For a statement of these circumstances see following paper: THE VIRGIN’S SON.
I. The powers of evil are confederate against the Lord’s people (Isa_7:1-2; Isa_7:6). By the combined forces of evil, God’s chosen ones have always been assailed. The conflict began in Eden, and has continued ever since. These combined forces attacked our Lord, and appeared for a time, outwardly at least, to conquer. We must expect similar assaults (Joh_16:33). The ultimate object of these foes is to destroy our spiritual life.
II. The Lord’s people are often terrified by the action of their foes. Two things may contribute to this.
1. A sense of personal guilt. Conscience often slumbers in prosperity, but awakens and alarms us when danger threatens. No doubt Ahaz remembered his sin, when he saw his foes were coming.
2. Distrust of the Lord. It does not appear that Ahaz told the Lord about his trouble, or sought His help. His idolatry had led him into unbelief—a frequent cause of the Christian’s terrors. He looks at his troubles, and sinks, because he does not lay hold on Christ (Mat_14:30).
III. God seeks to allay the fears of His people in the hour of their trouble. This is done in three ways.
1. By exhorting them to keep their minds calm. “Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted.” Picture Ahaz restless, excited, his breast fainting, hope and courage failing. How timely was the prophet’s exhortation! how helpful it might have been to Ahaz! Who of us does not know the blessedness of such an appeal? We have been excited, trembling, fainting, because of temporal dangers or spiritual foes, and in our agitation have been likely to do something foolish. But a voice has said, “Fear not; be calm!” Who says, “Fear not”? The loving, omnipotent Saviour, who is able to deliver us.
2. By showing His people the weakness of their foes. They are only the “two tails of smoking fire-brands.” You think them powerful, but they are really weak (1Jn_4:4).
3. By predicting the failure of the plans of their foes (Isa_7:7-9)—a prediction which was fulfilled sixty-five years afterwards, when Esarhaddon desolated the country, and filled it with foreigners. So God shows to us the weakness of our foes, and predicts their failure.
IV. God shows His people that faith is necessary for the establishment of their peace (Isa_7:9. See also 2Ch_20:20; Isa_26:3).—H. F. Walker.
FAITH’S IMPREGNABLE CITADEL
Isa_7:1-9. And it came to pass, in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, &c.
I. There are many things calculated to fill us with fear—sufferings, losses, temptations, death, &c. Especially alarming are combinations of evil: when they threaten, we are apt to feel as did Ahaz and his people (Isa_7:2). Afflictions seldom come singly: sickness brings poverty in its train, &c.; and the heart is apt to fail before such accumulations of misfortune.
II. But God guarantees the safety of those who trust in Him.
1. He controls all events (Isa_7:7). The Prince of Orange, when he took the field against France and the Emperor, said he had made an alliance with Heaven, and feared not for the result. Much more may the believer be confident in the warfare of life (H. E. I. 200–203, 2372, 2373, 4049, 4055–4058).
2. It is only while we trust in Him that we are thus in alliance with Him. Only by trusting in Him are we kept from trusting in that which cannot deliver us—ourselves or our fellow-men, to the exclusion of God and the rejection of His proffered help. Only by trusting in Him are our hearts kept in peace (chap. Isa_26:3. H. E. I. 1893, 1894, 1911–1919, 1923–1926). Only by trusting in Him do we give Him the glory which is His due, and which He will not give to another (H. E. I. 4054).
III. The guarantee of safety which God offers to all who trust Him extends to the soul as well as the body. Because of our sins, and the enemies they bring against us, we might well fear; but in the Gospel help is offered, or perfect safety is guaranteed to them that believe.
IV. The inevitable result of refusal to accept the help which God mercifully offers us is ruin. Ahaz, refusing the sign offered him, and trusting in Assyria, was overthrown by his ally. There is deadly peril in any other alliance than that which God offers to form with us. Said our Lord to all who are tempted to apostacy, “Remember Lot’s wife,” and in like manner we may say to all who are tempted to disregard and reject God’s offers of help, Remember Ahaz!—John Johnston.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Isa 7:10-14
Isa 7:10-14
I. Isaiah is desired to offer Ahaz a sign either in the depth or the height. That the Jewish economy was in some sense an economy of signs we all admit. The Jewish prophet was to call the attention of his countrymen to these signs, to discover the signification of them. Our Lord laid down the whole doctrine upon this subject when the Pharisees sought a sign from Him. He had given them signs of healing, life-giving power proofs, that a present God was with them. But they wanted a sign from heaven, the token of some distant God in the sky. That, He said, was the craving of an adulterous or sense-bound generation; and He asked them whether there were not signs in the sky at morning and evening by which they determined whether there would be a fine or cloudy day on the morrow, and whether there were not signs of the times which were warning them of evils to come. The new world has been just as rich in these signs as the old. If we do not use these, we may have others; but it will be because we are an adulterous and sinful generation, and need the portents and presages of an approaching downfall.
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II. Ahaz said, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord my God." It was a hypocritical phrase; he did not fear to tempt the Lord his God; he did not believe Him. He feared lest the God of his fathers should do him some injury. "O house of David," said Isaiah, "is it not enough for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?" Do you think you can change His purposes because you are incredulous and heartless? No; the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: "A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."
III. From this time we may observe a continual recurrence of these two ideas,—frequently in direct conjunction, always following close upon each other,—the Assyrian invader, and the Immanuel, God with us. Isaiah speaks of himself and the children whom God has given him; all these were to be living signs, continual testimonies of an impending ruin and of a great Deliverer, of One to whom every Israelite might turn with his heart, and in whom he might find rest and salvation; but whose presence would stir up all the dark and evil and rebellious thoughts of those who would not yield themselves to Him.
F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament, p. 235.
References: Isa 7:10-14.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 139. Isa 7:14.—Ibid., vol. iv., p. 89, and vol. ix., p. 336; Expositor, 1st series, vol. x., p. 331; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 96; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 360; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. ix., p. 91. Isa 7:16.—E. H. Plumptre, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 239. Isa 8:6.—S. Cox, Ibid., 1st series, vol. vi., p. 353. Isa 8:7, Isa 8:8.—E. H. Plumptre, Ibid., 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 240.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Syro-Ephraimite Invasion
The Syro-Ephraimite Invasion
The group of prophecies contained in this section belongs to the reign of Ahaz, when Judah was threatened by the allied forces of Syria and Israel (Isa_7:1; 2Ki_15:37; 2Ki_16:5-9; 2Ch_28:5-15). With the reign of Tiglath-pileser, the Assyrian empire entered on a new epoch, that monarch aiming at bringing the whole of W. Asia under his sway. With a view to resisting the Assyrian advance and preserving their independence, Rezin, of Syria, and Pekah, of Israel, formed an alliance, and their war against Ahaz was apparently undertaken in order to force Judah to join the coalition, the immediate object of the invaders being to dethrone Ahaz and set over the kingdom one who would be willing to favour their projects (Isa_7:6). Isaiah foresaw that Syria and Israel were doomed to fall before the Assyrian power, and, therefore, exhorts to calmness, and confidence in Jehovah (Isa_7:4, Isa_7:8, Isa_7:16; Isa_8:4). Ahaz, on the other hand, was set upon seeking aid from Tiglath-pileser, a policy which Isaiah reprobated as indicating want of trust in Jehovah, and as certain to lay Judah also open to disaster from Assyrian inroads (Isa_7:17-25).
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Isa_7:1-2. The occasion of the prophecies following.
3-9. In view of the panic caused by the Syro-Israelite invasion, Isaiah is sent to the king with a message of encouragement (10-16), which is confirmed by the sign of Immanuel.
17-25. The disastrous consequences of the policy of seeking aid from Assyria foretold.
Isa_8:1-4. The speedy ruin of Syria and Israel foretold by the sign of Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
5-8. The Syrian invasion of Judah foretold.
9-15. The nations' fear in the present crisis contrasted with the assurance that should spring from trust in Jehovah.
16-20. Isaiah's own confidence in his message. 21-Isa_9:7. The coming calamity and the bright future that lies beyond. Those parts of the land which first suffered from the Assyrian shall be correspondingly glorified, for the Messiah shall appear and the kingdom of David shall be established on an indestructible foundation.
1-16. Isaiah assures Ahaz by a sign that Judah will be delivered from Syria and Israel.
1. See prefatory note to the section.
2. Ephraim] the popular name for the northern kingdom (Isa_9:8-9). His heart was moved] i.e. the heart of king Ahaz, because of the formidable confederacy against him. Serious reverses suffered by Judah at this time are recorded in 2Ch_28:5-15.
3. Shear-jashub] i.e. 'a remnant shall return.' Already in the reign of Ahaz the prophet had summed up the characteristic feature of his teaching (see on Isa_6:13) in a symbolic name given to his son. Similarly he called another son Maher-shalal-hash-baz ('spoil speedeth, prey hasteth') that he might impressively indicate the speedy spoliation of Syria and Israel (Isa_8:3-4). Thus the prophet and his family were for signs to the people (Isa_8:18). There is a special significance in the presence of Shear-jashub at this meeting of Isaiah with king Ahaz. The prophet has to foretell invasion and spoliation of Judah by the Assyrians (Isa_7:20), but the presence of Shear-jashub gives assurance that a remnant shall return. The conduit] The king's object doubtless was to stop the waters outside the walls of the city (2Ch_32:3), so that the enemy, in the siege that was imminent, might be without supply of water. Upper pool] probably the same as the upper watercourse of Gihon on the W. of Jerusalem (2Ch_32:30). A lower pool is mentioned in Isa_22:9.
4. Neither be fainthearted, etc.] RV 'let not thine heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking firebrands.' The prophet regards them as no more than expiring torches.
6. Tabeal] the name is Syrian, not Hebrew: see prefatory note.
8. Within threescore, etc.] We should probably regard this prophecy as fulfilled when the power of the northern kingdom was finally broken by the importation of foreigners under Esarhaddon (Ezr_4:2). On account of the manner in which this prediction interrupts the parallelism, some modern scholars regard it as an addition by a later editor.
9. The need of faith is emphasised; without it there is no security.
11. Ask thee a sign] to prove that he may trust in Jehovah's promise. Ahaz's choice should be unlimited, he might ask a sign in heaven or from the nether world.
12. Neither will I tempt, etc.] Ahaz gives utterance to a sound principle (Deu_6:16). But Jehovah had offered a sign, and to refuse it showed distrust of God. Ahaz had already made up his mind to the Assyrian alliance and cloaks his self-will with the language of faith.
13. The prophet's indignation.
14. A virgin] The Hebrew word is not the distinctive one for virginity, but denotes rather one of maturing and marriageable age: cp. e.g. Gen_24:43; Exo_2:8. In the first place, this prophecy must have been intended by Isaiah as a sign of encouragement to Ahaz—before a child, shortly to be born, could arrive at years of observation the enemies of Judah would be brought to nought. At the same time, it is evident that the child is no ordinary one, from the way in which the prophet refers to him as Lord of the land (Isa_8:8), and from the titles given to him in Isa_9:6. The child is, in fact, the Messiah, whose advent Isaiah seems to have expected in the near future in connexion with the Assyrian invasion (Isa_9:1-7; Isa_11:1-9). The prophet's anticipations were realised, but in a manner far surpassing his expectations, in the birth of our Lord.
Immanuel] i.e. 'God is with us' (Isa_8:10). The child whom the prophet has in mind received this symbolic name as being a pledge of God's presence with His people. Christ, the true Son of David, is in the highest conceivable sense Immanuel. The sign given by Isaiah is not concerned with the manner of the child's birth, but rather connected with his name Immanuel. Accordingly in Mat_1:23 the emphasis is upon the name.
15. Butter (RM 'curds') and honey] i.e. simple pastoral products, not bread and meat, because the land has gone out of cultivation: the 'honey' was probably wild honey. That privation is implied is clear from the context (Isa_7:20-22). That he may know] so some ancient versions, but better, 'when he knoweth' (RV), or 'till he know.'
16. Though the child about to be born must in his early years endure privation, yet before he comes to years of discretion Judah's present enemies shall be brought to nought. The land, etc.] RV 'the land whose two kings thou abhorrest' (i.e. 'fearest horribly) 'shall be forsaken.'
17-25. The disastrous consequences of any alliance between Judah and Assyria foretold.
17-19. Isaiah foresees that Judah will be involved in the struggle between Egypt and Assyria and will be invaded by both powers, their armies penetrating everywhere like swarms of insects.
17. Ephraim departed] alluding to the disruption of the kingdom in Rehoboam's reign. Since Ephraim was the most powerful of the seceding tribes the northern kingdom was called by its name (Isa_7:2; Isa_9:8-9).
18. Hiss] see Isa_5:28.
19. Desolate] RV 'rugged.' Bushes] RV 'pastures.'
20. A razor that is hired] The reference is to Ahaz's policy of calling in the aid of Tiglath-pileser. Retribution would come through that very power on which Ahaz relied, and the land would be laid bare.
21-25. A pastoral life will be the only possible one, because the land is laid waste, and where vineyards once flourished men will hunt wild beasts in the thickets, or seek pasturage for their cattle.
22. The v. means there will be curds and wild honey, and nothing else.
23. Every place, etc.] RV 'every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, shall even be for briers and thorns.' Silverlings] i.e. pieces of silver, shekels; 1,000 shekels would be an average price.
25. RV 'And all the hills that were digged with the mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns.' Vines were usually grown on terraces on the hills of Palestine. Lesser cattle] RV 'sheep.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1–3 See "Remnant," (See Scofield "Rom 11:5").
tenth
See "Remnant," (See Scofield "Rom 11:5").
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return
(See Scofield "Isa 8:18")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 The Prophet before King Ahaz
CHAPTER 7
The Prophet before King Ahaz
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1. The king in trouble (Isa 7:1-2) 2. Isaiah sent and his message (Isa 7:3-9) 3. A sign offered and refused (Isa 7:10-12) 4. The sign: The virgin birth (Isa 7:13-16) 5. The advent of the Assyrian (Isa 7:17-25)Study carefully the historic setting of this chapter and2 Chronicles 28:1-277. See lecture on “Messianic Predictions.” In verse 14 the virgin birth of Christ is announced. Much of the controversy is around the word “virgin” (almah), which the critics declare does not mean a virgin but a young married woman. However, they err. In Gen 24:43, Exo 2:8, Psa 68:25, Son 1:3, etc., the same word is used, and it means “virgin” in these and other passages. The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament made some 300 years B.C., translates the Hebrew “almah” with “pardenos,” the Greek for virgin.Mat 1:23 confirms this Messianic prediction.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 God Promises Help Against Syria and Ephraim
God Promises Help Against Syria and Ephraim
v. 1. And it came to pass in the days of Alias, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, 2Ki 15:37; 2Ki 16:5-6; 2Ch 28:5-6, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, who had formed an alliance, 2Ki 15:37, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. According to the historical accounts this war took place about 743-739 B. C. with the preliminary advantage entirely on the side of the allies; for Rezin took the harbor of Elath on the Elanitic Gulf, and Pekah gained a victory over a large army of Judah. Nevertheless, Jerusalem was not taken, very likely because the allies did not even find occasion to lay siege to it; their plans were overthrown.
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v. 2. And it was told the house of David, the reigning monarch of that line, in this case Ahaz, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim, depending upon the northern kingdom as a faithful ally, its armies having joined Israel’s forces to strengthen them, or being supported by them. And his heart was moved and the heart of his people, both King Ahaz and all the people of Judah being frightened by the invasion, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind, their terror being intensified by their feeling of guilt.
v. 3. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Himself taking charge of affairs in this emergency, Go forth now to meet Alias, thou and Shear-jashub ("A remnant returns"), thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, one of the reservoirs where the water of the city was stored, Isa 36:2, in the highway of the fuller’s field, which was also situated west of the city, near the pool, this highway apparently being the main caravan road leading from Jerusalem to Joppa;
v. 4. and say unto him, who was probably engaged in having the fortifications strengthened, Take heed and be quiet, perfectly unconcerned and without worry; fear not, neither be faint-hearted, literally, "and thy heart, not be it soft with despondency," for the two tails of these smoking fire-brands, burned-out and quenched stumps of torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, with his whole great army, and of the son of Remaliah, as Pekah, king of Israel, is contemptuously called. All the enemies of God and of His Church are always helpless before His almighty power.
v. 5. Because Syria, or Aram, with its confederates, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, the northern kingdom and its ruler, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,
v. 6. Let us go up against Judah and vex it, throw it into consternation, fill it with terror, and let us make a breach therein for us, take the capital, and set a king In the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal, an unknown man, to be the vassal king of Judah, for such was the plan of the allies:
v. 7. thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, they would not carry out their plan, neither shall it come to pass, since He Himself had decided to hinder it.
v. 8. For the head of Syria, its capital and metropolis, is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim, the northern kingdom, which had relied upon Syria, be broken that it be not a people, that it would cease to exist as a nation.
v. 9. And the head of Ephraim, its capital and stronghold, is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. The meaning of this somewhat enigmatic saying is evidently this, that both Syria and the kingdom of Israel would be confined to the territory now occupied by them, since their schemes of conquest would utterly fail. Moreover, Ephraim, the northern kingdom, was destroyed within the next sixty-five years, Shalmanezer of Assyria taking the majority of the people into exile in the year 722 B. C. and the downfall of the country being completed with the settling of colonists from Asia, about 675 B. C. 2Ki 17:24; Ezr 4:2. The prophet closes his encouraging message with the words, If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established, that is, if Judah, both its king and its people, would not firmly cling to God’s Word and promise, it would also cease to exist, it would be destroyed. This word has a general application: He who does not believe will not be able to stand before the judgment of God.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7 During the days of Ahaz ... king of Judah
During the days of Ahaz ... king of Judah
"When Ahaz ... was king of Judah" This was when the events happened. (See: Idiom)
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Rezin ... Pekah ... Remaliah
men's names (See: How to Translate Names)
Rezin ... and Pekah ... went up
The author speaks as if the kings were the armies they led. AT: "Rezin ... and Pekah ... led their armies up" (See: Synecdoche)
to war against it
The author speaks as if the city itself were the people who live in it. AT: "to war against the people of Jerusalem" (See: Metonymy)
It was reported to the house of David
This can be stated in active form. AT: "the house of David heard the report" or "someone reported to the house of David" (See: Active or Passive)
the house of David
The word "house" is a metonym for the family living in the house. AT: "King Ahaz and his counselors" (See: Metonymy)
that Aram was allied with Ephraim
Here "Aram" and "Ephraim" refer to their kings. Here "Ephraim" represents the whole northern kingdom of Israel. AT: "that Rezin, the king of Aram was helping Pekah, the king of Israel" (See: Metonymy and Synecdoche)
His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest shake in the wind
The trembling of their hearts at this news is compared to the way trees shake when the wind blows through them. AT: "Ahaz and his people were very afraid" (See: Simile)
translationWords
Ahaz
Jotham
Uzziah
king
Judah
Aram
Israel
Jerusalem
house
David
Ephraim
heart
people group
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 7:1–12:6 The historical context of these prophecies involved Assyria’s…
7:1–12:6 The historical context of these prophecies involved Assyria’s rise to power and the alliance between Syria and Israel as enemies of Judah (7:1-2; see 2 Kgs 16:5). Assyria became God’s rod to punish Syria, Israel, and Judah (Isa 7–10).
7:1-25 At one point in his reign, Ahaz found himself in a crisis. The leaders of Syria and Israel attacked Judah. They planned to replace Ahaz and force Judah to join them in their resistance against Assyria. Ahaz responded by calling Assyria in to help him (2 Kgs 16:7-10), thus refusing Isaiah’s challenge to trust the Lord instead (Isa 7:12). Although the Assyrians squelched the alliance of Syria and Israel, leading to the eventual downfall of both those nations, they also soon set their sights on total domination of Judah.
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7:1 Rezin was king of Syria. Damascus was Syria’s capital city. • Pekah was king of Israel 740–732 BC. He was a renowned warrior (2 Chr 28:5-8). • Pekah and Rezin began to attack Jerusalem while Jotham was king (750–732 BC), and they intensified their efforts during the early years of young King Ahaz (2 Kgs 15:37; 16:5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.