Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 7:17
The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; [even] the king of Assyria.
The Lord shall bring … – The prophet having assured Ahaz that his kingdom should be free from the invasion that then threatened it, proceeds, however, to state to him that it would be endangered from another source.
Thy fathers house – The royal family – the princes and nobles.
Days that have not come – Times of calamity that have not been equalled.
From the day that Ephraim departed from Judah – From the time of the separation of the ten tribes from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
Even the king of Assyria – This was done in the following manner. Though the siege which Rezin and Pekah had undertaken was not at this time successful, yet they returned the year after with stronger forces, and with counsels better concerted, and again besieged the city. This was in consequence of the continued and increasing wickedness of Ahaz; 2Ch 28:1-5. In this expedition, a great multitude were taken captives, and carried to Damascus; 2Ch 28:5. Pekah at this time also killed 120,000 of the Jews in one day 2Ch 28:6; and Zichri, a valiant man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the son of Ahaz. At this time, also, Pekah took no less than 200,000 of the kingdom of Judah, proposing to take them to Samaria, but was prevented by the influence of the prophet Oded; 2Ch 28:8-15. In this calamity, Ahaz stripped the temple of its treasures and ornaments, and sent them to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, to induce him to come and defend him from the united arms of Syria and Ephraim. The consequence was, as might have been foreseen, that the king of Assyria took occasion, from this, to bring increasing calamities upon the kingdom of Ahaz. He first, indeed, killed Rezin, and took Damascus; 2Ki 16:7.
Having subdued the kingdoms of Damascus and Ephraim, Tiglath-pileser became a more formidable enemy to Ahaz than both of them. His object was not to aid Ahaz, but to distress him 2Ch 28:20; and his coming professedly and at the request of Ahaz, to his help, was a more formidable calamity than the threatened invasion of both Rezin and Pekah. God has power to punish a wicked nation in his own way. When they seek human aid, he can make this a scourge. He has kings and nations under his control; and though a wicked prince may seek earthly alliance, yet it is easy for God to allow such allies to indulge their ambition and love of rapine, and make them the very instruments of punishing the nation which they were called to defend. It should be observed that this phrase, even the king of Assyria, is by many critics thought to be spurious, or a marginal reading, or gloss, that has by some means crept into the text. The ground of this opinion is, that it does not harmonize entirely with the following verse, where Egypt is mentioned as well as Assyria, and that it does not agree with the poetical form of the passage.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 7:17-25
The Lord shall bring upon thee . . . even the king of Assyria
The prophecy fulfilled
The calling in of Assur laid the foundation for the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah not less than for that of the kingdom of Israel Ahaz thereby became a tributary vassal of the Assyrian king, and although Hezekiah again became free from Assyria through the miraculous help of Jehovah, nevertheless what Nebuchadnezzar did was only the accomplishment of the frustrated undertaking of Sennacherib.
(F. Delitzsch.)
Assyria and the Jews
If Isaiah here, in chaps, 7-12, looks upon Assyria absolutely as the universal empire (2Ki 23:29; Ezr 6:22), this is so far true, seeing that the four empires from the Babylonian to the Roman are really only the unfolding of the beginning which had its beginning in Assyria. And if, here in chap. 7, he thinks of the son of the virgin as growing up under the Assyrian oppressions, this is also so far true, since Jesus was actually born in a time in which the Holy Land, deprived of its earliest fulness of blessing, found itself under the supremacy of the universal empire, and in a condition which went back to the unbelief of Ahaz as its ultimate cause. Besides He, who in the fulness of time became flesh, does truly lead an ideal life in the Old Testament history. The fact that the house and people of David did not perish in the Assyrian calamities is really, as chap. 8 presupposes, to be ascribed to His presence, which, although not yet in bodily form, was nevertheless active. Thus is solved the contradiction between the prophecy and the history of its fulfilment. (F. Delitzsch.)
Judahs loss of national independence
From this application of Ahaz to Tiglath-Pileser was to date the transition of Judah to a servile state from which it was never permanently freed, the domination of Assyria being soon succeeded by that of Egypt, and this by that of Babylon, Persia, Syria, and Rome, the last ending only in the downfall of the State, and that general dispersion which continues to this day. The revolt of Hezekiah, and even longer intervals of liberty in later times, are mere interruptions of the customary and prevailing bondage. (J. A. Alexander.)
The perspective of prophecy
God makes what was announced by prophecy separate itself in reality into different stages. (E. Konig.)
History and prophecy
Prophecy never seems to forsake the ground of history. However extended the vista which stretches before him, that vista begins at the prophets feet. (Bishop Perowne.)
Bees and flies
Bees and swarms of flies are used as a Homeric image for swarms of peoples (Il. 2.87)
. Here the images are likewise emblematic. The Egyptian people, being unusually numerous, is compared to the swarming fly; and the Assyrian people, being warlike and eager for conquest, is compared to the stinging bee, which is so difficult to turn sway Deu 1:44; Psa 118:12). The emblems also correspond to the nature of the two countries; the fly to slimy Egypt, which, from being such, abounds in insects (chap. 18:1), and the bee to the more mountainous and woody Assyria, where bee-culture still constitutes one of the principal branches of trade in the present day. (F. Delitzsch.)
Hissing for the fly and the bee
To hiss for them, is to call or summon them, derived from the practice of the bee keepers, who, with a whistle, summoned them from the hives to the open fields, and, by the same means, conducted them home again We are assured by St. Cyril that [the practice] subsisted in Asia down to the fourth and fifth centuries. (J. Kitto, D. D.)
A sentence of doom
I. GOD IS SOVEREIGN IN THE WHOLE EARTH. All governments are but instruments which He uses when and as He pleases (Isa 7:17-21). A thought full of comfort for the righteous, of horror for the unrighteous.
II. THE CONSEQUENT INSECURITY OF ALL PROSPERITY THAT IS NOT BASED UPON, AND PROMOTIVE OF, RIGHTEOUSNESS (Isa 7:23). Britain will be Great Britain only so long as God pleases.
III. WHATEVER CHASTISEMENTS GOD MAY HAVE INFLICTED, HE HAS ALWAYS A MORE TERRIBLE ONE BEHIND (Isa 7:17).
IV. Seeing that all these things were threatened against and inflicted upon Gods chosen people, learn that NO MERCY THAT GOD HAS SHOWN US WILL FURNISH ANY IMMUNITY FOR US, IF NOTWITHSTANDING THAT MERCY, WE SIN AGAINST HIM. There is a tendency in our evil hearts to think that because God has been specially good to us, we may sin with less risk than others; but the teaching of the Bible is, that those who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness shall be visited with a sorer doom than others. (R. A. Bertram.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. The Lord shall bring – “But JEHOVAH will bring”] Houbigant reads vaiyabi, from the Septuagint, , to mark the transition to a new subject.
Even the king of Assyria.] Houbigant supposes these words to have been a marginal gloss, brought into the text by mistake; and so likewise Archbishop Secker. Besides their having no force or effect here, they do not join well in construction with the words preceding, as may be seen by the strange manner in which the ancient interpreters have taken them; and they very inelegantly forestall the mention of the king of Assyria, which comes in with great propriety in the 20th verse. I have therefore taken the liberty of omitting them in the translation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord shall bring; but although God will deliver you at this time for his own names sake, yet he will remember and requite all your present and following wickedness, and hath a dreadful judgment in store for you.
Upon thee; for part of this Assyrian storm fell in Ahazs reign, 2Ch 28:20.
Upon thy fathers house; upon thy sons and successors, the kings of Judah; the accomplishment whereof is recorded in their history.
Days, to wit, evil days, by a synecdoche; or calamities; for days are oft put for the events which happen in them, and especially for judgments or tribulations, as Job 18:20; Psa 137:7; Isa 9:4; Oba 1:12.
The day that Ephraim departed from Judah; when ten tribes revolted from thy fathers house, and set up another opposite kingdom.
Even the king of Assyria; who may well be called their plague or calamity, as he is called the rod of Gods anger, Isa 10:5. Or, with (as this Hebrew particle oft signifies) the king, &c.; or, by the king, &c. And king is here put for kings, as Dan 2:37; 8:21.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The Lord shall bring upon thee,…. These words are directed to Ahaz; and show, that though he and his kingdom would be safe from the two kings that conspired against him, yet evils should come upon him from another quarter, even from the Assyrians he sent to for help, and in whom he trusted; in which the Lord himself would have a hand, and permit them in his providence, in order to chastise him for his unbelief, stubbornness, and ingratitude in refusing the sign offered him, and for his other sins; and the calamities threatened began in his time; and therefore it is said, “upon thee”; for Tilgathpilneser, king of Assyria, to whom he sent for help, instead of helping and strengthening him, distressed him, 2Ch 28:20:
and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house; so in the reign of his son Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invaded the land of Judah, took all its fenced cities, excepting Jerusalem, and came up even to that, 2Ki 18:13 and in the times of Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against Jerusalem, and destroyed it, and carried the people of Judah captive, 2Ki 25:1 and these are the evil days, the days of affliction and adversity, here threatened:
days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah: meaning the revolt of the ten tribes from the house of David, in the times of Rehoboam, 1Ki 12:16 which was a day of great adversity, a great affliction to the house of Judah; and there had been several evil days since, and that very lately; as when the king of Syria came into the land, and carried away great multitudes captives to Damascus; and when Pekah, king of Israel, slew in Judah, on one day, a hundred and twenty thousand valiant men, and carried captive two hundred thousand women, sons and daughters, with a great spoil,
2Ch 28:5 and yet these were not to be compared with the calamitous times yet to come:
[even] the king of Assyria; or “with the king of Assyria”, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; rather the meaning is, that those days of trouble should come by the king of Assyria i, as they did. The Septuagint version renders it, “from the day that Ephraim took away from Judah the king of the Assyrians”; and the Syriac and Arabic versions, just the reverse, “from the day that the king of the Assyrians”, or “Assyria, carried away Ephraim from Judea”; neither of them right.
i “per regem Assyriae”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator and which is preferred by Noldius, Ebr. Concord. Part. p. 120, No. 616.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Judgments Announced. | B. C. 740. |
17 The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. 18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. 20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; 22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. 23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. 24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. 25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.
After the comfortable promises made to Ahaz as a branch of the house of David, here follow terrible threatenings against him, as a degenerate branch of that house; for though the loving-kindness of God shall not be utterly taken away, for the sake of David and the covenant made with him, yet his iniquity shall be chastened with the rod, and his sin with stripes. Let those that will not mix faith with the promises of God expect to hear the alarms of his threatenings.
I. The judgment threatened is very great, v. 17. It is very great, for it is general; it shall be brought upon the prince himself (high as he is, he shall not be out of the reach of it), and upon the people, the whole body of the nation, and upon the royal family, upon all thy father’s house; it shall be a judgment entailed on posterity, and shall go along with the royal blood. It is very great, for it shall be unprecedented–days that have not come; so dark, so gloomy, so melancholy, as never were the like since the revolt of the ten tribes, when Ephraim departed from Judah, which was indeed a sad time to the house of David. Note, The longer men continue in sin the sorer punishments they have reason to expect. It is the Lord that will bring these days upon them, for our times are in his hand, and who can resist or escape the judgments he brings?
II. The enemy that should be employed as the instrument of this judgment is the king of Assyria. Ahaz reposed great confidence in that prince for help against the confederate powers of Israel and Syria, and minded the less what God said to him by his prophet for his encouragement because he built much upon his interest in the king of Assyria, and had meanly promised to be his servant if he would send him some succours; he had also, made him a present of gold and silver, for which he drained the treasures both of church and state, 2Ki 16:7; 2Ki 16:8. Now God threatens that that king of Assyria whom he made his stay instead of God should become a scourge to him. He was so speedily; for, when he came to him, he distressed him, but strengthened him not (2 Chron. xxviii. 20), the reed not only broke under him, but ran into his hand, and pierced it, and thenceforward the kings of Assyria were, for a long time, grieving thorns to Judah, and gave them a great deal of trouble. Note, The creature that we make our hope commonly proves our hurt. The king of Assyria, not long after this, made himself master of the ten tribes, carried them captive, and laid their country waste, so as fully to answer the prediction here; and perhaps it may refer to that, as an explication of v. 8, where it is foretold that Ephraim shall be broken, that it shall not be a people; and it is easy to suppose that the prophet (at v. 17) turns his speech to the king of Israel, denouncing God’s judgments against him for invading Judah. But the expositors universally understand it of Ahaz and his kingdom. Now observe, 1. Summons given to the invaders (v. 18): The Lord shall whistle for the fly and the bee. See ch. v. 26. Enemies that seem as contemptible as a fly or a bee, and are as easily crushed, shall yet, when God pleases, do his work as effectually as lions and young lions. Though they are as far distant from one another as the rivers of Egypt and the land of Assyria, yet they shall punctually meet to join in this work when God commands their attendance; for, when God has work to do, he will not be at a loss for instruments to do it with. 2. Possession taken by them, v. 19. It should seem as if the country were in no condition to make resistance. They find no difficulties in forcing their way, but come and rest all of them in the desolate valleys, which the inhabitants had deserted upon the first alarm, and left them a cheap and easy prey to the invaders. They shall come and rest in the low grounds like swarms of flies and bees, and shall render themselves impregnable by taking shelter in the holes of the rocks, as bees often do, and showing themselves formidable by appearing openly upon all thorns and all bushes; so generally shall the land be overspread with them. These bees shall knit upon the thorns and bushes, and there rest undisturbed. 3. Great desolations made, and the country generally depopulated (v. 20): The Lord shall shave the hair of the head, and beard, and feet; he shall sweep all away, as the leper, when he was cleansed, shaved off all his hair,Lev 14:8; Lev 14:9. This is done with a razor which is hired, either which God has hired (as if he had none of his own; but what he hires, and whom he employs in any service for him, he will pay for. See Eze 29:18; Eze 29:19), or which Ahaz has hired for his assistance. God will make that to be an instrument of his destruction which he hired into his service. Note, Many are beaten with that arm of flesh which they trusted to rather than to the arm of the Lord, and which they were at a great expense upon, when by faith and prayer they might have found cheap and easy succour in God. 4. The consequences of this general depopulation. (1.) The flocks of cattle shall be all destroyed, so that a man who had herds and flocks in abundance shall be stripped of them all by the enemy, and shall with much ado save for his own use a young cow and two sheep–a poor stock (v. 21), yet he shall think himself happy in having any left. (2.) The few cattle that are left shall have such a large compass of ground to feed in that they shall give abundance of milk, and very good milk, such as shall produce butter enough, v. 22. There shall also be such want of men that the milk of one cow and two sheep shall serve a whole family, which used to keep abundance of servants and consume a great deal, but is now reduced. (3.) The breed of cattle shall be destroyed; so that those who used to eat flesh ( as the Jews commonly did) shall be necessitated to confine themselves to butter and honey, for there shall be no flesh for them; and the country shall be so depopulated that there shall be butter and honey enough for the few that are left in it. (4.) Good land, that used to be let well, shall be all overrun with briers and thorns (v. 23); where there used to be a thousand vines planted, for which the tenants used to pay a thousand shekels, or pieces of silver, yearly rent, there shall be nothing now but briers and thorns, no profit either for landlord or tenant, all being laid waste by the army of the invaders. Note, God can soon turn a fruitful land into barrenness; and it is just with him to turn vines into briers if we, instead of bringing forth grapes to him, bring forth wild grapes, ch. v. 4. (5.) The implements of husbandry shall be turned into instruments of war, v. 24. The whole land having become briers and thorns, the grounds that men used to come to with sickles and pruning-hooks to gather in the fruits they shall now come to with arrows and bows, to hunt for wild beasts in the thickets, or to defend themselves from the robbers that lurk in the bushes, seeking for prey, or to kill the serpents and venomous beasts that are hid there. This denotes a very sad change of the face of that pleasant land. But what melancholy change is there which sin will not make with a people? (6.) Where briers and thorns were wont to be of use and to do good service, even in the hedges, for the defence of the enclosed grounds, they shall be plucked up, and all laid in common. There shall be briers and thorns in abundance where they should not be, but none where they should be, v. 25. The hills that shall be digged with the mattock, for special use, from which the cattle used to be kept off with the fear of briers and thorns, shall now be thrown open, the hedges broken down for the boar out of the wood to waste it, Psa 80:12; Psa 80:13. It shall be left at large for oxen to run in and less cattle. See the effect of sin and the curse; it has made the earth a forest of thorns and thistles, except as it is forced into some order by the constant care and labour of man. And see what folly it is to set our hearts upon possessions of lands, be they every so fruitful, ever so pleasant; if they lie ever so little neglected and uncultivated, or if they be abused by a wasteful careless heir or tenant, or the country be laid waste by war, they will soon become frightful deserts. Heaven is a paradise not subject to such changes.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verse 17-25: ISRAEL SOON TO BE INVADED BY ASSYRIA
1. Contrary to Scofield’s notes, the prophet here turns his face (not toward Judah, but) toward the northern kingdom of Israel and announces such trouble’ as Ephraim has not experienced since departing from Judah, (1Ki 12:16).
2. This judgment the Lord will bring upon the northern kingdom through the instrumentality of the king of Assyria, (Isa 8:7-8; Isa 10:5-6; 2Ch 28:20).
3. Hordes of Egyptians and Assyrians, comparable to flies and bees, will settle down so thickly that the whole land will be covered, (Verse 18-19).
4. With a razor that is hired (the king of Assyria) the Lord will shave: the head, hair of the feet, and beard of Israel – involving great indignity and insufferable humiliation, (Verse 20).
5. “A young cow and two sheep” appear to suggest poverty, (Verse 21; comp. Isa 14:30; Isa 27:10).
6. Cultivated fields, which have brought them wealth, will be over-run by thorns and briars – sustaining only sheep and oxen, (Verse 23-25; comp. Isa 5:10; Isa 32:13-14); forgetfullness of the Lord always brings men to ruin!
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
17. The Lord shall bring upon thee. Here the Prophet, on the other hand, threatens the wicked hypocrite, who pretended that he was unwilling to tempt God, and yet called for those whom the Lord had forbidden him to call to his aid. (Exo 23:32.) That he might not indulge in undue exultation and insolence on account of the former promise, he likewise threatens his destruction, and declares that what he hopes to be his preservation, that is, the aid of the Assyrians, will be utterly destructive to him. (2Kg 16:7; 2Ch 28:16.) As if he had said, “Thou promisest everything to thyself from the king of Assyria, and thinkest that he will be faithful to thee, because thou hast entered into a league and covenant with him, which God had forbidden; but thou shalt quickly understand of what advantage it will be to thee to have tempted God. Thou mightest have remained at home and at ease, and mightest have received the assistance of God; but thou choosest rather to call in the Assyrians. Thou shalt find them to be worse than thine own enemies;”
This discourse, therefore, agrees with what goes before; for he presses more closely the treachery and ingratitude of the king, who had rejected both the word of God and the sign, and had rendered himself unworthy of every promise. And as it is customary with hypocrites, when they have escaped from any danger and fear, immediately to return to their natural disposition, he affirms that nothing shall protect the Jews from being likewise involved in just punishments. He expressly declares that the family of David, which might have claimed exemption on the ground of its peculiar privilege, will be exposed to the same kind of calamities; for God regulates his judgments in such a manner, that while he spares his Church and provides for her permanent existence, he does not permit the wicked, who are mingled with the good, to escape unpunished.
From the day that Ephraim departed from Judah. In this manner does Scripture speak when it describes any serious calamity; for the Jews could not have received a severer chastisement than when, by the withdrawing of the ten tribes, (1Kg 12:16,) not only was the kingdom wretchedly divided, but the body of the nation was rent and torn. The revolt of Ephraim from Judah was, therefore, an indication of the worst kind of calamity; for the resources of the kingdom of Judah being more seriously affected by that division than it could have been by any defeat by a foreign enemy, he says that since that time the Jews had not sustained a greater calamity.
Hence, as I have already said, we see how God, while he punishes hypocrites, at the same time remembers believers, and opens the way for his mercy. We ought to observe this wonderful arrangement, that amidst the most dreadful deaths still the Church remains safe. Who would ever have thought that Jerusalem would be delivered from the vast army of the two kings? Or, that the kingdom of Syria, which was then in a flourishing condition, would quickly be overturned? Or, that Samaria was not far from destruction? And in the mean time, that the Assyrians, on whom the Jews relied, would do them more injury than the Israelites and Syrians had ever done? All these things the Lord did for the sake of preserving his Church, but at the same time in such a manner that he likewise took vengeance on the wickedness of King Ahaz.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
A SENTENCE OF DOOM
Isa. 7:17-25. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, &c.
I. God is sovereign in the whole earth. He is the great controller of all nations. All governments are but instruments which He uses when and as He pleases (Isa. 7:17-21). A thought full of comfort for the righteous, of terror for the unrighteous.
II. The consequent insecurity of all prosperity that is not based upon, and promotive of, righteousness (Isa. 7:23). True of nations: Britain will be Great Britain only so long as God pleases. True of individuals: (H. E. I. 3991, 44034406).
III. Whatever chastisements God may have inflicted, He has always a more terrible one behind (Isa. 7:17).
IV. Seeing that all these things were threatened against and inflicted upon Gods chosen people, learn that no mercy that God has shown us will furnish any immunity for us, if, notwithstanding that mercy, we sin against Him. There is a tendency in our evil hearts to think, that because God has been specially good to us, we may sin with less risk than others; but the teaching of the Bible is, that those who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness shall be visited with a sorer doom than others (H. E. I. 4564, 4568, 4570).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
3.
CALAMITY
TEXT: Isa. 7:17-25
17
Jehovah will 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.
18
And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19
And they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the clefts of the rocks, and upon all thorn-hedges, and upon all pastures.
20
In that day will the Lord shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.
21
And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep;
22
and it shall come to pass, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the midst of the land.
23
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, shall be for briers and thorns.
24
With arrows and with bow shall one come thither, because all the land shall be briers and thorns.
25
And all the hills that were digged with the mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.
QUERIES
a.
Why is Jehovah to bring judgment upon Judah?
b.
What part do flies and bees play in this judgment?
c.
Who is the hired razor?
PARAPHRASE
But later on the Lord will bring a terrible curse on you and on your nation and your family. There will be terror, such as has not been known since the division of Solomons empire into Israel and Judah . . . the mighty king of Assyria will come with his great army! At that time the Lord will whistle for the army of Upper Egypt, and of Assyria too, to swarm down upon you like flies and destroy you, like bees to sting and to kill. They will come in vast hordes, spreading across the whole land, even into the desolate valleys and caves and thorny parts, as well as to all your fertile acres. In that day the Lord will take this razor . . . these Assyrians you have hired to save you . . . and use it on you to shave off everything you have: your land, your crops, your people. When they finally stop plundering, the whole nation will be a pastureland; whole flocks and herds will be destroyed, and a farmer will be fortunate to have a cow and two sheep left. But the abundant pastureland will yield plenty of milk, and everyone left will live on curds and wild honey. At that time the lush vineyards will become patches of briers. All the land will be one vast thornfield, a hunting ground overrun by wildlife. No one will go to the fertile hillsides where once the gardens grew, for thorns will cover them; cattle, sheep and goats will graze there.
COMMENTS
Isa. 7:17-20 GODS TOOL FOR JUDGMENT: Ahaz did not believe Gods promise and he did not heed Gods prophet. Ahaz turned to the Assyrian emperor for help. He so thoroughly submitted himself to the Assyrian he became a vassal of that pagan empire (Cf. 2Ki. 16:7-8). He also adopted much of Assyrias pagan idolatry (Cf. 2Ki. 16:10-16). So the prophet Isaiah goes from promises to threats. Days are coming upon Judah unequaled since the shame and humiliation of the revolt of the ten tribes. This judgment will be executed when Jehovah God calls, pssst (hisses) for the hordes of Assyrian soldiers to swarm into Palestine, overrun Israel and invade Judah. They will come in swarms like flies and bees. During the same time the Egyptians will swarm over the land of Palestine as these two great empires, Assyria and Egypt, struggle for domination of that territory. The hired razor will be the king of Assyria, Gods instrument of shame and humiliation upon Judah. To shave the head and the beard completely off was a sign of deep humiliation and shame. Just how the Lord arranged for the king of Assyria to do His bidding we do not know. We know that the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to return the Hebrews to their land (2Ch. 36:22; Ezr. 1:1) and that He sent a messenger among the nations to stir them up against Edom (Oba. 1:1) and that in the book of Daniel the Lord deposed and enthroned pagan kings at His discretion.
Isa. 7:21-25 GODS WAY OF JUDGMENT: The swarming armies of Assyria and Egypt tramping through the land and encamping upon it would completely devastate the lands agricultural potentialities. The massive armies of antiquity fed and supplied themselves almost entirely from foraging upon the countryside where they camped. To feed, clothe and supply other necessities for armies in the hundreds of thousands took incredible amounts of agricultural and building commodities. The devastation would be so thorough that the only thing left to eat for the local residents would be milk, butter and honey (Isa. 7:22); the vineyards would be all stripped and weeds would grow in their place (Isa. 7:23); only the hunter hunting the wild things of the thicket will be there, and tillable land will be so full of thorns and briers that tear clothes and flesh, no one will ever go there except animals to graze.
Precisely what Ahaz hoped to avert by becoming a vassal of the king of Assyria was what happened to the land because he refused to trust God and trusted in man.
QUIZ
1.
How thoroughly did Ahaz subjugate himself to Assyria?
2.
To what extent will the foreign armies come into Palestine because of the sin of Ahaz?
3.
How does God hiss for these foreign armies to do His bidding?
4.
Why was the devastation of the land of Palestine so great?
5.
How did the plan of Ahaz to use the king of Assyria for protection turn out?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(17) The Lord shall bring upon thee . . .The prophets language shows that he reads the secret thoughts of the kings heart. He was bent on calling in the help of the king of Assyria. Isaiah warns him (reserving the name of the king, with all the emphasis of suddenness, for the close of his sentence) that by so doing he is bringing on himself a more formidable invasion than that of Syria and Ephraim, worse than any that had been known since the separation of the two kingdoms (we note the use of the event as a chronological era), than that of Shishak under Rehoboam (2Ch. 12:2), or Zerah (2Ch. 14:9), or of Baasha under Asa (2Ch. 16:1), or of the Moabites and Ammonites under Jehoshaphat (2Ch. 20:1), or of the Philistines and Arabians under Jehoram (2Ch. 21:16). So in 2Ch. 28:19-20, we read that the Lord brought Judah low and made it naked, that Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, came unto Ahaz and distressed him, and this was but the precursor of the great invasions under Sargon and Sennacherib.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. The Lord shall bring upon thee That is, upon the population of Judah.
And upon thy father’s house The royal family.
Days not come Afflictions, the like of which have never yet come.
From the day Ephraim Since the ten tribes of Israel, under Jeroboam, revolted. See 1Ki 12:16. After Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria probably within two years from the time his aid was sought by Ahaz had overthrown Rezin and Pekah in their second attempt upon Judah and Jerusalem, he turned to subdue some small kingdoms in the north, but came again to harass Egypt on the south, and made Judah subject to a worse vassalage than before, causing the whole country to become the battle-field of Assyria and Egypt. For some time agriculture was ruined. A pasturage of shrubs, thorns, and briers covered nearly the whole territory of Judah. Then, as against Assyria, Judah, in process of time, seeks relief from Egypt, which in turn also becomes a fatal ally. During many years afterward deterioration went on, until all things became true which Isaiah had predicted. Finally, Israel first, then Judah, was desolated of people, nationality, and government altogether. The Assyrian annals give us two kings by the name of Tiglath-pileser. The one mentioned in transactions here was the second. He invaded Israel twice; the second invasion is the one here given. See Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. i, p. 377.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 7:17. The Lord shall bring upon thee The Lord [however] will bring, &c. Though the prophet in the name of God gives Ahaz and the people certain assurance of a deliverance from their present evil; yet, as Ahaz chose rather to confide in the king of Assyria than in the Lord of Hosts, the wretched consequences of that confidence are here set forth, from this verse to the end of the chapter; namely, the devastation and ruin which they should bring upon the land of Judah.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
After the Lord had given the unspeakably blessed promise, concerning the coming of Christ, that his people in those degenerate times might have comfort, he proceeds to his solemn threatenings: and most solemn and awful indeed they are. Ahaz, in his impiety, had been looking to Assyria for help; and to purchase it, had robbed the house of the Lord of the silver and gold, 2Ki 16:8 . The Lord therefore tells him, that this very king shall be the instrument of his ruin. And whereas he feared the weapons of men, the Lord will make even the flies of Egypt, and the bee of Assyria, those little feeble insects, the instruments of his misery. Reader! think what a state of ruin the sinner is brought to, whose very comforts turn to sorrows; and in the things wherein he chiefly proposed to himself happiness; the bitterness of all his afflictions abound! Oh! for grace to read these things with a spiritual improvement, that we may learn how dreadful it must be to have God for our foe, who can convert our very blessings into curses, and make that which was intended for good, be unto us an occasion of falling. The ruin by reason of sin, in the representation made in the close of the chapter, of sharing the land of inhabitants, that briers and thorns come up; the brood of cattle restrained, and all the tokens of want and misery take place; if read spiritually, may serve to show how the mind is exposed and laid open to every evil, where Christ is not. Let Ephraim alone, he is joined to his idols; if the Lord saith thus of church or people, there needs no more to the most finished misery. Lord! I would say for myself and Reader, Oh! take not away thine Holy Spirit from us! Hos 4:17 ; Psa 51:11 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 7:17 The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; [even] the king of Assyria.
Ver. 17. The Lord shall bring upon thee, &c., ] sc., In case thou believe not. Thou and thine shall perish, notwithstanding this present deliverance. The Lord will “destroy thee after that he hath done thee good.” as Jos 24:20 Et cuius verbis credere noluisti, eius verberibus fidem habebis. Thou shalt soon have enough of the Assyrian, in whom thou wilt needs trust, and not in me. Him thou shalt call in for help against others; but he, having taken a taste of so fertile a soil and wealthy a state, shall at length overrun all, like as afterwards also the old Gauls did Italy, and the Saracens the Greek empire.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the king of Assyria. This was fulfilled in 2Ki 16:7, and 2Ch 28:19, 2Ch 28:20.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
bring upon: Isa 8:7, Isa 8:8, Isa 10:5, Isa 10:6, Isa 36:1 – Isa 37:38, 2Ki 18:1 – 2Ki 19:37, 2Ch 28:19-21, 2Ch 32:1-33, 2Ch 33:11, 2Ch 36:6-20, Neh 9:32
the day: 1Ki 12:16-19, 2Ch 10:16-19
Reciprocal: Gen 48:19 – I know it 1Ki 12:19 – Israel 2Ki 16:8 – to the king 2Ki 17:21 – For he rent 2Ki 18:13 – come up 2Ki 19:17 – the kings 2Ki 24:2 – the Lord 2Ch 28:16 – did king Isa 7:2 – is confederate with Isa 7:18 – bee Isa 24:1 – maketh the Jer 50:17 – first Hos 5:3 – Ephraim Joe 1:2 – Hath Amo 3:11 – General Mic 1:15 – will
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 7:17. The Lord shall bring upon thee But although God will deliver you at this time, for his own names sake, yet he will remember and requite your wickedness, and hath a dreadful judgment in store for you. And upon thy people, and thy fathers house Upon thy subjects, and upon thy sons and successors, the kings of Judah: the accomplishment of which threatening is recorded in their history. Part of the Assyrian storm fell in Ahazs reign, 2Ch 28:20; and he began to reap the bitter fruit of his confiding in the king of Assyria, rather than in the Lord of hosts. Days that have not come Namely, evil days, or calamities; from the day that Ephraim departed, &c. When the ten tribes revolted from thy fathers house, and set up another opposite kingdom. The king of Assyria might well be called their plague or calamity, as he is called the rod of Gods anger, Isa 10:5.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 7:17-25. The Devastation of Judah.Probably an independent prophecy rather than a continuation of Isa 7:2-16; it strikes a very different note. It may belong to the same date, but may quite well be later. Disaster unparalleled since the revolt of the ten tribes (note the Southern point of view) is coming on Judah, an Assyrian invasion. Yahweh will whistle for the enemy, who will penetrate the most inaccessible retreats of the land, and humiliate and spoil the people. The population that will remain will be so scanty that very few cattle will yield an abundance of milk. The land will not be cultivated; the vineyards, where the most valuable vines grew, those worth a shekel apiece, will be overrun with briers. The thorn thickets will be the lurking-place of wild beasts, and cannot therefore be safely approached without weapons.
Isa 7:18. The text apparently means that the swarming tribes of Egypt, numerous but not formidable, and the compact, fierce, and well-marshalled Assyrians, would meet for battle in Judah. If we read simply, the Lord shall hiss for the fly and the bee, omitting the descriptions as glosses, Assyria only is intended.hired: possibly a reference to the purchase by Ahaz of Assyrias help. Shaving is a mark of degradation.
Isa 7:25. The text may be corrupt; the meaning is very uncertain.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
7:17 The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that {p} Ephraim departed from Judah; [even] the king of {q} Assyria.
(p) Since the time that the twelve tribes rebelled under Rehoboam.
(q) In whom you have put your trust.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Yahweh would bring on Judah a worse threat than Judah had faced ever since Israel’s United Kingdom had split in Rehoboam’s day, namely: the king of Assyria. Even though Syria and Israel would disappear as threats to Judah, Ahaz had done the wrong thing in failing to trust God, because Assyria would pose an even worse threat. He had "taken a tiger by the tail." [Note: Motyer, p. 87.]
"Whatever a man trusts in place of God will one day turn to devour him." [Note: Oswalt, p. 214.]