Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 8:5
The LORD spoke also unto me again, saying,
5 8. The Assyrian invasion of Judah threatened.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Isa 8:5-8
This people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly
Consolation amidst predictions of judgment
Isaiah does not find himself surrounded merely by the very wide circle of an incorrigible people ripe for judgment.
He does not stand alone, but is surrounded by a small band of believing disciples who need consolation and are worthy of it. It is to these that the promising other side of the prophecy of Immanuel belongs. Maher-shalal cannot comfort or console them; for they know that when Assyria has done with Damascus and Samaria the troubles of Judah are not over, but are only really about to begin. The prophecy of Immanuel is destined to be the stronghold of the believers in the terrible judgment time of the worldly power which was then commencing; and to turn into the light and unfold the consolation it contained for the believers, is the purpose of the discourses which now follow (Isa 8:5-12). (F. Delitzsch.)
Judgment and salvation
1. Vision of a terrible devastation of the country, north and south, by the Assyrian.
2. The salvation and Saviour that rise to view behind the desolation Isa 9:1-7). (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)
The waters of Shiloah
The waters of Shiloah took their rise on Mount Moriah, the hill of the Lord, the hill on which the temple was built. Indeed, the spring is said to have risen within the very precincts of the temple, and to have supplied its courts and cisterns with the abundant water required for its innumerable washings and sacrifices. From the summit of the hill it now flows gently to its base, not along any external channel however, but through a secret tunnel which it seems to have worn for itself through the solid rock. Its waters, therefore, flow underground, running fax before they meet the light of day. And, when they re-emerge, they rise and flow without noise or turbulence. They form no brawling torrent, no swift and angry stream, sweeping away its banks and carrying havoc before it. Softly and gently they rise and fill the pool. Softly and gently they overflow into a placid stream, a stream that does not fail even in times of drought; a stream that quickens all it touches into life, and reveals its presence only by the beauty and fertility which mark its course. This is no imaginary description adapted to the requirements of the passage before us, but a description given by a traveller who stood on its margin and tracked its course only a few years since. And yet how admirably it illustrates the prophets words–The waters of Shiloah that go softly; or, as the Hebrew word also means, secretly. They do go both secretly and softly. They flow unseen for a while; and when they emerge from their rocky tunnel, they do not rush and fret and whiten in their course as most hill streams do, but lapse gently on, carrying with them a belt of verdure to the very margin of the Dead Sea. The words of Isaiah describe the waters of Shiloah as they remain to this day. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Shiloah and the Euphrates, or mercy and judgment
The history of the Jewish nation mirrors the life of the individual man.
I. THAT THE MERCIES OF OUR PRESENT LIFE FLOW SOFTLY BY AS A GENTLE STREAM.
1. They flow vivifyingly. The waters of Shiloah were the life of Jerusalem. The stream of mercy here is our life.
2. They flow constantly. The streams of Shiloah are flowing now. The stream of mercy is constantly rolling by us from infancy to our mortal gasp.
3. They flow softly. It rolls by us almost unheard.
II. THAT THE ABUSE OF THIS STREAM OF MIRACLES IS AN IMMENSE CRIME. The text teaches that the crime of the Jew in relation to his privileges was two fold:
1. Rejection. They refused the waters of Shiloah, which means, they refused to avail themselves of those means of national improvement and defence which the munificent reign of Jehovah under which they lived afforded. They refused to trust Him in their dangers.
2. Presumption. These people rejoiced in Rezin and Remaliahs son. Their minds ever occupied by the failures and successes of wicked men, their hope of safety rested on the confidence they had in mere worldly alliances; they trusted in an arm of flesh. We abuse Gods mercy when we allow it not to inspire us with unshaken confidence in His protecting love and power.
III. THAT THIS CRIME WILL BRING ON THE TUMULTUOUS RIVER OF RETRIBUTION. Behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, etc.
1. The abuse of mercy leads to retributive misery.
2. The streams of retributive misery stand in awful contrast with them of mercy. (Homilist.)
Shiloah a type of Gospel grace
There are more reasons than one why Siloam, rather than the other waters of Jerusalem, is selected by the prophet as a type of Gospel influences and Gospel grace. It filtered clear from the temple rock,–emblem of grace in its source,–and for a time ran its unseen course underground,–emblem of grace in its secrecy. Then it sparkled out and along a broad band of silver, till it reached the gardens and the vineyards, beyond, where it divided into a hundred tiny courses that covered the sward with their shining network, and filled the air with their gentle music,–emblem of grace in its power to refresh and fertilise. Add to this the fact that Siloam played a part in Jewish religion, and entered once and again into Jewish story. It was there that the temple vessels were cleansed. There, once a year, at the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests went in solemn procession, and fetched water in golden goblets, to pour as an offering to the Lord. There, in later times, dwelt virtue to heal. It was by the brink of Siloam that the impotent man lay till He of whom Siloam testified wrought the cure he had waited so long for in vain. It was in the waters of Siloam that the blind man washed and received his sight. And it was close to Siloam that our Saviour most probably stood, when He spoke of a better store than gushed from its mossy fountain, or rippled in its pebbly bed, and uttered that greatest of all Gospel invitations, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. The figure is fruitful in striking analogies, suggesting, much as to the nature and progress of Christs kingdom of grace beyond the main fact of its gentleness. The Gospel of Christ as a matter that comes not by observation,–the prime and outstanding illustration of that gentleness of God which makes great,–an agency which pursues its peaceful process and accomplishes itspeaceful results, not by might nor by power, but by Gods own Spirit whose operations are generally noiseless and often unseen,–is the subject before us.
1. When we speak of the gentleness of the Gospel, it is not denied that there may be a great deal of stir in the means and the circumstances that precede and prepare for the Gospel. That, however, does not interfere with the truthfulness of the figure; the figure, on the contrary, suggests it. When you wish to dig a bed for a stream, and lead its waters through a region hitherto dry, you must be prepared for a certain disturbance. Rocks may have to be blasted, trees to be torn up, long accumulations to be removed, as rough places are made smooth and crooked places plain, and a channel prepared for the fertilising current. But the stream when it comes may flow softly all the same, gurgling gently past the seams, of the pickaxe and the stones that the powder has stained. The fact is, all Gods saving work is gentle. He may smite like the hammer, but He heals like the dew; His severities may crush, but it is the gentleness that comes after that makes great.
2. Nor, in speaking of the gentleness of the Gospel, do we forget that a great deal of stir may follow it. Most true it is that the Gospel fits a life for outward processes of activity, expenditures of effort and of energy, feats of work and of warfare, which may be far from being secret or noiseless. Just so with a stream. You may have the industry and stir of the mill on its banks, when the wheels whirl and the looms hum, as corn is bruised for mans food, or cloth is prepared for his raiment; and you may have at the same time the quiet of the stream that turns it, whose current flows softly, and whose ripple is all but unheard as it steals brimming through the lush, level meadows, or hides beneath the overarching elms. Yes, the outcome of the Gospel may mean stir. But the Gospel itself, the secret and spring of it, that is always as the waters of Shiloah that flow softly.
3. Nor, once more, when we speak of the gentleness and equality of the grace and influences of the Gospel, do we fail to remember that even the Gospel itself has its periods of quickening and enlargement. Every now and then the stream of its influences is more copious, and the evidence of its existence more visible and obtrusive. Again the figure fits in at this point,–for Siloam was intermittent. Every few hours or so the calmness of its surface was broken, the speed of its current was hastened, by a richer jet of water from its spring. But no perception of the good to be gained at such epochs is to blind our eyes to the fact that the blessing may exist, and exist to fertilise and enrich at other times, when the course of Gods dealings is more ordinary, and their effects more regular and unseen. After all, the waters of Shiloah flow softly, and, even when stillest and most secret, they are visible enough for thirsty souls to discover their existence, abundant enough for them to dip their pitchers, and drink. (W. A. Gray.)
The choices of life
Are we not all more or less in the position of the Jews whom Isaiah addresses, with perils surrounding us, and with the need of protection and assistance pressed home on us? Have we not all, too, an alternative of the same kind presented us,–between Gospel grace and Gospel influences on the one hand, and worldly advantages and alliances on the other,–between the waters of. Shiloah that go softly, whose very silence and secrecy may offend us, and the noisier rapids of earth, which attract, like the Euphrates in the prophets figure, only to disappoint or betray? Every mans life yields an opportunity for choosing, and every mans life is shaped and conditioned by the choice which he makes.
I. Let me exemplify the alternative before us by a reference to THE EXAMPLE WE FOLLOW. Our example has been given us. It is the example of one whose existence while here was a living embodiment of the figure of the text It ran its course through this earth of ours like the waters of Shiloah that go softly. The stream of Shiloah was a picture and a prophecy of Christ. The mystery lies wrapped in the very name, and John, the evangelist, who was ever quick in discerning such references, and ever ready in expressing them, intends the analogy to be marked when he says: The pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, Sent. And was not the sending of Christ, to begin with, and His life all throughout, characterised by the aspect of the text! What of His youth? For thirty long years, His life ran its hidden course,–through a self-restraint that may well be called marvellous, making music and greenness, no doubt, in the mountain retreat where it flowed, but known nowhere besides; scarcely recognised, as it seems, even there. And when solitude and secrecy had accomplished their work, and His hour for disclosure had come, and the stream that had hitherto hid itself took its way through the glare of publicity, as He wrought and spoke among men, was it otherwise? Still, as before, His life, like the waters of Shiloah, flowed softly. Take His mien and bearing among men. Popularity did not elate Him; difficulty did not bewilder Him; insult did not ruffle Him. He was never unquiet; He never made haste; He was never surprised. Or take the nature of His kingdom and His sway. It was a powerful sway that He exercised even while on earth, but how was it manifested, and to what did it owe its might? No flaunt of banner nor beat of drum accompanied His progress. Victor and King though He was, He did not cry nor lift up His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He did not break; the smoking flax He did not quench. Whatever of tumult and confusion He experienced, it was in His circumstances and not in His life. Have you found your ideal of life in a picture of purity, of charity, of self-restraint and self-sacrifice such as this? If your hearts real creed is, Blessed are the rich, blessed are the joyful, blessed are the self-aggrandising, blessed are they of whom all men speak well,–your choice is the choice of the Jews; you have pitched by the rivers of Assyria, with their treacherous waves for protection, and their turbid stores for supply.
II. We pass from the examples men follow, to THE PRINCIPLES AND THE AGENCIES THEY RELY ON, and try to illustrate how the alternative holds there. And the choice is just as before, between such agencies as are unobtrusive and gracious, and those that are pretentious and human; between the aids of religion and the aids of the world. Most men have an eye to success; especially have the young; and how often do they, in the choice of the agencies they depend on and the means they adopt, choose wrong. The thought applies to communities and to Churches as well as to individuals.
III. Let us apply the principle of the text to THE MODES OF RELIGION WE ADOPT. There, too, there is the difference between what is unobtrusive on the one hand and what is ostentatious on the other; between what is satisfying and secure and what is disappointing and unsafe; between what is true and what is false. The waters of Shiloah that go softly; does not the phrase remind us–
1. Of the Gospels simplicity.
2. Of its secrecy and noiselessness?
Phases of religion may come and go, and those who imagine that religion is real only where its instrumentalities are special, and its outward manifestations demonstrative, may have their hopes dashed and their faith staggered, as they watch these manifestations disappear. But religion itself, the kingdom which cometh not by observation, may be pursuing its quiet course, and extending its beneficent influences notwithstanding, and that in ways and in quarters which are unseen and unguessed of now, but which the last great day will in due time declare. (W. A. Gray.)
By cool Siloams shady rill
Not only because of their usefulness had the waters of Shiloah endeared themselves to the heart of Israel. There were other and more hallowed associations which they suggested.
I. The waters of Shiloah represented to the Jew the idea of FATHERLAND. Both Israel and Judah were in danger of forgetting the true ideal of patriotism which David had fostered, and were fast degenerating into a spurious imitation of it, a mere feverish militarism. How are we to translate this message into the English of the twentieth century? Does it not mean that the springs of our national greatness are not the matters which bulk most largely in our newspapers, are not the doings of courts and kings, of diplomatists and statesmen, of generals and armies, though these have an influence on a nations destiny, and often one not to be despised? But far more important are the more unobtrusive factors of a nations greatness; its care for the moral nurture and intellectual equipment of its children, its fostering of the arts and sciences and industrial training, the quality of its manufactures and the honesty of its commerce, its care for the moral and material condition of the workmen who produce its wealth, the freedom of its subjects, the equity of its laws, the purity and loftiness of its literature, the respect for religion, for home, for marriage bonds,–these are the things that make a nation great, though they are as the waters of Shiloah that go softly little seen and regarded The penalty for refusing these softly flowing waters of Shiloah is obvious to Isaiahs mind. The instinct of the statesman in him, apart from any predictive faculty, would be quite sufficient to show him the inevitable end of such fatuity. The king of Assyria, at first invited to interfere in Judahs interest, would be sure finally to interfere in his own, and both Israel and Judah, weakened by mutual jealousy and strife, and by internal dissensions, would fall an easy prey. So do Gods retributive providences ever fall on the nation which forgets the true sources of its greatness, relies on the arm of flesh while inward corruption is working unheeded at its vitals, forsakes an enlightened patriotism which strives to be great for a spurious one which labours to appear so.
II. These waters of Shiloah suggested to the Jew, not only his Fatherland, but his RELIGION. It was a sacred stream, for it rose in a spur of Mount Zion, near the temple. And at the Feast of Tabernacles, on the last great day of the feast, a priest brought water from the Pool of Siloam in a golden vessel, and poured it on the altar amid the rejoicings of the people. It was on this annual occasion that the Immanuel prophesied by Isaiah stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. Judah, in Isaiahs time, was fast deserting the religion so closely associated with this stream. Such apostasy from God brings its own retribution before long, whether on the nation or the individual that practises it. Some such loosening of moral fibre is often seen, not only in the man who loses his hold on religion itself, but who loses his loyalty to the Church which nurtured him.
III. The waters of Shiloah also represented to the Jew the sanctities of HOME, and the prophet here reproves him because he had rejected these sanctities and beauties of religious family life for polygamy and foul idolatry, which broke up the family, and embittered and destroyed its hallowed relationships. The word home is one in which we English have a special heritage. Be careful where you go outside the home for your enjoyments. Do not cast aside the healthful restraints of home, and reject those quiet waters, lest there rise upon you the waters of the river, strong and many, remorse and unavailing repentance, self-contempt, lost character, and a hopeless future. (C. A. Healing, B. A.)
Gods gentle care
The brook which flowed by the base of Mount Zion, and down by the side of the temple-covered Moriah, was an emblem of the help and defence which the God of Zion and of the temple supplied to His people in Jerusalem. And it was no angry or noisy torrent, but water that flowed softly. So for communities and individuals now who trust in Him, there is a quiet but most potent protection from the Lord. Let us show this in the case of an individual.
I. TROUBLE WITHOUT. Say that gloom or pain, or both together, fall upon you. Your heart, like that of the king and people referred to by the prophet Isaiah, is agitated as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. You seek God in your affliction: you hearken to His prophets; you look to Him for deliverance. And from some unexpected quarter help arises. Your burden is lightened; your disaster is retrieved. Do not call it good fortune. You do well to seize what helps and remedies are brought within your reach; but give the glory to God. It is His secret will, His noiseless care that has been your true defence. You are not hurt because of the waters of Shiloah that go softly.
II. TROUBLE WITHIN. The spiritual life is invaded and endangered by unseen foes and spiritual wickednesses; and against such adversaries the appeal to God may still be made–Strive Thou, O Lord, with those that strive with me: fight Thou against them that fight against me. In such cases of spiritual temptation, God knows how to help. But do not look for any mere show of power. It is the enemy that comes in like a flood. Yet far greater than the power of the enemy is the power of Him who is to His people as cool Siloams shady rill. Fussy Christians are feeble. The calm and strong are they who trust God simply and fully, and are content with the waters that go softly. The Lord will beautify the meek with salvation. In new covenant faith and privilege we are come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem. It becomes us to be calm, because that Living One is our defence. (D. Fraser, D. D.)
The Jewish temptation to a false trust
All the Hebrew prophets, and Isaiah among them, use the kingdoms of Syria and of Assyria as types of the great world power, of those external forces of every kind in which it is our constant temptation to trust rather than in the Maker of heaven and earth. To the Jewish people, dwelling in their scattered village communities, with their self-elected judges and leaders–to this people, who were held together by religious rather than by political ties, the vast organised despotisms beyond their borders were a strangely impressive and terrible spectacle. It is impossible to read the inspired prophecies and chronicles without perceiving that the national imagination was dominated, that it was now attracted and now daunted, by the immense power of these great instruments of conquest and oppression; without perceiving that in the minds both of prophets and of the people these despotisms came to stand for all the hostile and seductive forces of that world which is without God and even opposes itself against Him. (S. Cox, D. D.)
A virtual renunciation of the Consolation of Israel
In preferring the alliance of Syria and Assyria to the help of God, these men were virtually renouncing their special prerogative, the peculiar hope and consolation of Israel For just as those ancient despotisms were prophetic types of the forces of the outward world, so the son of Isaiah was a type of the true Immanuel, and the waters of Shiloah a type of the quickening and cleansing ministry of Him who was sent of God to take away the sin of the world. To refuse the waters of Shiloah for the sake of Rezin and Remaliahs son, to pay so little heed to the promises and significance of the birth of Immanuel, was virtually, therefore, to reject the God whom they professed to worship, and to renounce the hope to which they had been called. It was to prefer man to God. It was to be conformed to the world, and alienated from the Christ. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Choice and its consequences
If we refuse gracious ministries we must encounter judicial judgment. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Wise and unwise choices
Let us be vest pleased with the waters of Shiloah, that go softly, for rapid streams are dangerous. (M. Henry.)
Christ the true Shiloah
No sooner has St. John told us (Joh 9:1-41) that Jesus declared Himself to be sent of the Father, than he also tells us that Siloam means sent; the implication being that just as Christ was sent, so also the waters of Siloam were sent by God, and were His gift to the world. The commentators are agreed that the apostle adds this parenthesis in order to teach us that the cleansing, healing spring, which gave sight to the blind and kept the temple pure, was a symbol of the Messiah and of His cleansing and enlightening ministry. He tells us that Siloam meant sent of God in order that we may recognise in Christ the true Siloam – Him by whose virtue the sick are healed and the service of God is sanctified. So that, in fine, to refuse the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and to dread or to glory in Rezin and Remaliahs son, is, in the last resort, to put our trust in the forces of this visible and passing world, instead of trusting in Christ, the Sent One of God and the Saviour of the world. A very beautiful and suggestive meaning is thus reached. For the passage, so obscure at first, sets Christ before us–
I. AS THE SENT ONE OF GOD, the true Siloam. He is the Fountain of Life in the spiritual temple.
II. IN THE MIGHT OF HIS GENTLENESS. The waters of Shiloah go softly, secretly. In like manner, Jesus did not strive nor cry, nor make a home in the streets. His course through life, like that of the sacred hill stream, was to be traced by the blessings He shed around Him, the added life and fruitfulness He carried to prepared and fertile hearts, the new life and fruitfulness He carried to barren hearts.
III. AS REJECTED BY HIS OWN. They refused the waters of Shiloah–refused them precisely because they ran softly. Had Jesus come to reveal His power instead of to display His mercy, blazing fierce wrath upon His enemies and smiting hostile nations to the earth, the Jews would probably have received Him and rejoiced in Him. But He came not with observation. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The Lord spake also unto me again,…. In the same prophecy, or in another; the Targum is,
“the Word of the Lord added to speak with me again;”
but rather Jehovah the Father, or the Spirit of the Lord, is meant, since the Person speaking is distinguished from Immanuel, Isa 8:8:
saying; as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The heading or introduction, “And Jehovah proceeded still further to speak to me, as follows,” extends to all the following addresses as far as Isa 12:1-6. They all finish with consolation. But consolation presupposes the need of consolation. Consequently, even in this instance the prophet is obliged to commence with a threatening of judgment. “Forasmuch as this people despiseth the waters of Siloah that go softly, and regardeth as a delight the alliance with Rezin and the son of Remalyahu, therefore, behold! the Lord of all bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, the mighty and the great, the king of Asshur and all his military power; and he riseth over all his channels, and goeth over all his banks.” The Siloah had its name ( Shiloach, or, according to the reading of this passage contained in very good MSS, Shilloach), ab emittendo , either in an infinitive sense, “shooting forth,” or in a participial sense, with a passive colouring, emissus, sent forth, spirted out (vid., Joh 9:7; and on the variations in meaning of this substantive form, Concord. p. 1349, s.). Josephus places the fountain and pool of Siloah at the opening of the Tyropoeon, on the south-eastern side of the ancient city, where we still find it at the present day (vid., Jos. Wars of the Jews, v. 4, 1; also Robinson, Pal. i. 504). The clear little brook – a pleasant sight to the eye as it issues from the ravine which runs between the south-western slope of Moriah and the south-eastern slope of Mount Zion
(Note: It is with perfect propriety, therefore, that Jerome sometimes speaks in the fons Siloe as flowing ad radices Montis Zion , and at other times as flowing in radicibus Montis Moria .)
(V. Schulbert, Reise, ii. 573) – is used here as a symbol of the Davidic monarchy enthroned upon Zion, which had the promise of God, who was enthroned upon Moriah, in contrast with the imperial or world kingdom, which is compared to the overflowing waters of the Euphrates. The reproach of despising the waters of Siloah applied to Judah as well as Ephraim: to the former because it trusted in Asshur, and despised the less tangible but more certain help which the house of David, if it were but believing, had to expect from the God of promise; to the latter, because it had entered into alliance with Aram to overthrow the house of David; and yet the house of David, although degenerate and deformed, was the divinely appointed source of that salvation, which is ever realized through quiet, secret ways. The second reproach applied more especially to Ephraim. The ‘eth is not to be taken as the sign of the accusative, for sus never occurs with the accusative of the object (not even in Isa 35:1), and could not well be so used. It is to be construed as a preposition in the sense of “ and (or because) delight (is felt) with (i.e., in) the alliance with Rezin and Pekah.” (On the constructive before a preposition, see Ges. 116, 1: sus ‘eth , like ratzah im .) Luzzatto compares, for the construction, Gen 41:43, v’nathon ; but only the inf. abs. is used in this way as a continuation of the finite verb (see Ges. 131, 4, a). Moreover, is not an Aramaic infinitive, but a substantive used in such a way as to retain the power of the verb (like in Num 10:2, and in Num 23:10, unless, indeed, the reading here should be ). The substantive clause is preferred to the verbal clause , for the sake of the antithetical consonance of with . It is also quite in accordance with Hebrew syntax, that an address which commences with should here lose itself in the second sentence “in the twilight,” as Ewald expresses it (351, c), of a substantive clause. Knobel and others suppose the reproof to relate to dissatisfied Judaeans, who were secretly favourable to the enterprise of the two allied kings. But there is no further evidence that there were such persons; and Isa 8:8 is opposed to this interpretation. The overflowing of the Assyrian forces would fall first of all upon Ephraim. The threat of punishment is introduced with , the Vav being the sign of sequence (Ewald, 348, b). The words “the king of Asshur” are the prophet’s own gloss, as in Isa 7:17, Isa 7:20.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Verse 5-8: AN OVERFLOWING RIVER: JUDGMENT AND MERCY
1. Israel has despised and rejected the soft-flowing waters of Shiloah (Joh 9:7; Joh 9:11) – used figuratively, of the benevolent theocratic order as reposed in the “House of David”, (Verse 5-6; Isa 5:20; Isa 5:24; Isa 30:12-13).
2. They have rejoiced in (or with) “Rezin and Remaliah’s son” -‘ seeking the ruin of their brethren, whom the Lord has not yet wholly rejected, (Verse 6b; cf. Isa 7:1).
3. Because of this, the Lord will send against them a violent and overflowing river – even “the king of Assyria in all his glory”, (Verse 7; Isa 7:17; Isa 10:5-6).
a. An overflowing river is used, symbolically, of a conquering army.
b. The king of Assyria is the Lord’s instrument of judgment upon the people who have rebelled against the house and throne of David.
4. But, Ahaz is to find no joy in the prophetic announcement; the conquering Assyrian (with whom he has forged an alliance) will not stop with the over-flowing of Syria and Samaria; he will also “sweep onward into Judah”, (Verse 8a; 10b).
a. Yet, this will not be a complete overthrow of Judah; the waters will reach only “to the neck”, (Verse 8b; comp. Isa 30:28).
b. The outstretched “wings” suggest the vast breadth of the Assyrian army, (Verse 8c; Isa 36:1; Isa 37:25).
5. In the mercy that Jehovah shows toward Judah, the prophet rejoices: “O IMMANUEL!” – meaning “God is with us!” There is still a faithful remnant of the preserving “salt of the earth”, (Verse 8d; Mat 5:13).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE STREAM REJECTED FOR THE RIVER
Isa. 8:5-8. Forasmuch as this people refuseth, &c.
For rejoice in Rezim and Remaliahs son, read rejoice concerning Rezim and Remaliahs son, i.e., rejoice in the disaster which had befallen the allied powers who had inflicted such disasters upon Judah, and had threatened it with utter destruction.
We have here a prophecy given in symbols. One of them is explained by the prophet himself. He explains that by the river he means the King of Assyria. Commentators are generally of opinion that by the waters of Shiloah is meant the Davidic dynasty, which God, on certain conditions, had pledged Himself to maintain. But this put them to hard shifts to explain the rejoicing of the people. It is better to regard the waters of Shiloah as symbolical of the help which God offered His people. The contrast then becomes intelligible. Because that help was unseenapprehensible only by faithit seemed to the multitudes, when compared with that which the King of Assyria was visibly rendering them, in the overthrow of Syria and Israel, to be as little worthy of consideration as is the little stream of Shiloah [838] in comparison with that mighty river, the Euphrates [841] We have, then, here the case of men who are rejoicing in a success that is godless, that has been obtained by the rejection of God; and we are here told what the end of that success must be. Thus we find a theme that bears upon our life to-day.
[838] All accounts combine in asserting that the waters of the two pools of Siloam, as well as that of the many fountains of the Mosque of Omar, proceed from a spring or reservoir of water beneath the Temple vaults. There was no period of its history when such a provision would not have been important to the Temple for the ablutions of the Jewish, no less than of the Mussulman, worship; or to the city, which else was dry even to a proverb. It was the treasure of Jerusalem, its support through all its numerous sieges, the fons perennis aqu of Tacitus, the source of Miltons
[841] The Euphrates, i.e., the good and abounding river. The Euphrates is the largest, the longest, and by far the most important of the rivers of Western Asia. It rises from two chief sources in the Armenian mountains they meet at Kebben-Maden, nearly in the long. 39 E. from Greenwich, having run respectively 400 and 270 miles. Here the stream formed by their combined waters is 120 yards wide, rapid, and very deep. The entire course is calculated at 1780 miles, nearly 650 more than that of the Tigris, and only 200 short of that of the Indus; and of this distance more than two-thirds (1200 miles) is navigable for boats, and even, as the expedition of Colonel Chesney proved, for small steamers. The width of the river is greatest at the distance of 700 or 800 miles from its mouth, that is to say, from its junction with the Khabour to the village of Werai It there averages 400 yards. The annual inundation of the Euphrates is caused by the melting of the snows in the Armenian highlands. It occurs in the month of May. The Tigris scarcely ever overflows, but the Euphrates inundates large tracts on both sides its course from Hit downwards.Rawlinson.
Considered in a commercial respect, as well as with regard to its uses in agriculture, the Euphrates manifestly stood in the same relation to Babylon and the surrounding region that the Nile did to Egypt; it was the source, to a large extent, of its prosperity, and the most important element of its greatness. It is in this relation that the symbolical use of the Euphrates in Scripture proceeds, and by keeping it in view the several passages will be found to admit of an easy explanation. Contributing so materially to the resources and wealth of Babylon, the river was naturally taken for an emblem or representative of the city itself, and of the empire of which it was the capital. In this respect a striking application is made of it by the prophet Isaiah (chap. Isa. 8:5-8), where the little kingdom of Judah, with its circumscribed territory and its few earthly resources, on the one hand, is seen imaged in the tiny brooklet of Shiloah; while, on the other, the rising power of Babylon is spoken of under the emblem of the waters of the river, strong and many, even the King of Assyria and all his glory. And he goes on to expose the folly of Israels[Judahs] trusting in this foreign power on account of its material greatness, by declaring that in consequence of this mistaken trust, and in chastisement of it, the mighty stream would, as it were, desert its proper channel, and turn its waters in a sweeping and desolating flood over the Holy Land.Fairbairn.
Brook that flowed
Hard by the oracle of God.
But, more than this, it was the image which entered into the very heart of the prophetical idea of Jerusalem (Psa. 46:4; Psa. 87:7; Isa. 12:3). It is the source of all the freshness and verdure of the vale of Hinnom. In Ezekiels vision the thought is expanded into a vast cataract flowing out through the Temple rock eastward and westward into the ravines of Hinnom and Kedron, till they swell into a mighty river, fertilising the desert of the Dead Sea. And with still greater distinctness the thought appears again, and for the last time, in the discourse, when in the courts of the Temple, in the last day, that great day of the feast[of Tabernacles], Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.Stanley.
The expression in Isaiah, waters of Shiloah that go softly, seems to point to the slender rivulet, flowing gently, though once very profusely, out of Siloam into the lower breadth of level, where the kings gardens, or royal paradise, stood, and which is still the greenest spot about the Holy City, reclaimed from sterility into a fair oasis of olive groves, fig-trees, pomegranates, &c., by the tiny rill that flows out of Siloam. A winter-torrent, like the Kedron, or a swelling river like the Euphrates, carries havoc with it by sweeping off soil, trees, and terraces; but this Siloam-fed rill flows softly, fertilising and beautifying the region through which it passes.Bonar.
1. Whatever be our life-work, there are two ways of seeking success in itwith God, or without God.
2. If we take God to be our ally, we must do our work on His terms and plans. But these are frequently contrary to our natural expectations, and opposed to what the world calls common sense. As helps to a speedy and great success, they seem to most men as despicable as the little stream of Shiloah in comparison with the broad river Euphrates.
3. Consequently the vast majority of men reject them, and seek for success without God, and contrary to His methods (H. E. I. 4198).
4. In this way, they frequently speedily attain to a success which appears to be a complete justification of the wisdom of their policy. When the prophecy contained in our text was uttered, the forces of Syria and Israel were being swept away by the triumphant Assyrian host, and no doubt Ahaz and His court felt they could afford to laugh at Isaiah, who had steadily opposed the alliance which appeared to have been so advantageous.
5. But the triumph of the wicked is short. The unholy success in which bad men rejoice contains within itself the seeds of peril and pain, of retribution and ruin (H. E. I. 4609, 4612). The ally in whom Ahaz had trusted presently became his oppressor; it was a verification in actual life of the fable of the horse that took a man for its ally. So is it to-day with all who prosper without God and against God. Their prosperity is, strictly speaking, unnatural, and everything that is unnatural speedily brings on disorder. For example, a family has been enriched by godless plans; to those who have no fear of God in their hearts, there is nothing so perilous as wealth; it is used for the gratification of the baser passions; by this gratification health is broken down; when the physical frame is shattered, conscience, that has been suppressed, breaks forth into freedom and activity, and remorse turns the gilded palace into a hell. The illustrations of the working of this great law are endless.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS.
1. In the conduct of daily life, as well as in our spiritual concerns, let us walk by faith, not by sight. Gods help, though it may seem inconsiderable as Shiloahs stream, is yet, like that stream, constant. Our reliance upon it will never issue in disappointment. By means of it we shall certainly attain to all the prosperity that would be for our real welfare (H. E. I. 39843986, 5059, 5060).
2. Let us not envy the prosperity of the wicked (H. E. I. 49434948, 49614966). It is short-lived, like the mighty flood of Euphrates itself. Out of that very prosperity heart-aches innumerable will spring. The rejoicing that is so exultant and scornful to-day, to-morrow will be turned into lamentation and woe. Then those who triumphed without God will find that in defeat they are without Him: this will be their description, Without God, and without hope in the world.
3. When Jesus of Nazareth was called to choose between the stream and the river, His decision was prompt and unhesitating (Mat. 4:8-10). Up to the very end of His life His choice seemed to have been a foolish one (Mat. 8:20); on Calvary it seemed to have been madness: but all history since has been a vindication of its wisdom (Php. 2:9-10).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Judah Having Made Their Final Choice Even Immanuel’s Land Will Suffer. Nevertheless Final Triumph Is Certain Because It Is Immanuel’s Land ( Isa 8:5-10 ).
Two facts emerge from the words that follow. The first is that Immanuel’s coming cannot be too near, for the land is first to be possessed by Assyria. And the second is that when Immanuel does come none will be able to resist him.
a And Yahweh spoke to me yet again, saying, “Forasmuch as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah which go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son (Isa 8:5-6).
b Now therefore, behold, Yahweh brings up on them the waters of the River, strong and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory (Isa 8:7 a).
c And he will come up over all his channels, and go up over all his banks, and he will sweep on into Judah, he will overflow and pass through (Isa 8:7-8 a).
c He will reach even to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel” (Isa 8:8 b).
b Make an uproar, O you peoples, and you will be broken in pieces, and give ear all you of far off countries, gird yourselves, and you will be broken in pieces, gird yourselves and you will be broken in pieces (Isa 8:9).
a Take counsel together and it will be brought to nought, speak the word and it will not stand. For God is with us (or ‘because of Immanu-el’) (Isa 8:10).
In ‘a’ the northern kingdom of Israel have rejected the house of David and sought to other kings, while in the parallel His true people will finally look to the true son of David, Immanuel. In ‘b’ Israel will be swamped by the waters of The River, by the Assyrian might, but in the parallel the final result can only be that all peoples will be broken in pieces (by Immanuel). In ‘c’ and parallel both Israel and Judah will be swamped by the king of Assyria.
Isa 8:5-8
‘And Yahweh spoke to me yet again, saying, “Forasmuch as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah which go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son, now therefore, behold, Yahweh brings up on them the waters of the River, strong and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And he will come up over all his channels, and go up over all his banks, and he will sweep on into Judah, he will overflow and pass through. He will reach even to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.” ’
The choice that Israel, the northern kingdom, have made is now clearly outlined. (For ‘this people’ as referring to Israel see Isa 9:16. Right from the beginning Isaiah has been concerned for Israel as well as Judah. All the prophets considered them to be one kingdom. See on Isa 1:3). They have refused the gentle waters of Shiloah, Jerusalem and the son of David, and have chosen Rezin and the son of Remaliah.
The waters of Shiloah (Siloam) ran from the spring Gihon into Jerusalem. They represented the lifeblood of Jerusalem, especially in time of siege, and were the place of coronation for the Davidic house (1Ki 1:33; 1Ki 1:38; 1Ki 1:45). Furthermore the continual reference to ‘Remaliah’s son’ without giving a name is drawing attention to the fact that they have rejected ‘David’s son’. They have continually turned from Jerusalem, the place of God’s earthly dwelling, and from Yahweh’s anointed, the Davidic king, to a stranger to that house.
But instead of the gentle waters of Shiloah, which could have been theirs and which they have refused, their choice will bring on them the raging torrent of Assyria. ‘The River’ is the Euphrates, and symbolises the king of Assyria with his mighty and splendid forces, his ‘glory’. He will come like a great river overflowing its channels and banks, sweeping away Syria and Israel, and then continuing on into Judah, overflowing and passing through at such depth that it reaches to the neck. So in spite of Ahaz’s hopes Judah will not escape. He will discover just what it means to be a tributary of Assyria.
The reference to ‘even to the neck’ may be intended to indicate a deep flood (see Eze 47:3-5), or it may suggest that it would not quite drown Judah as it would Israel. Or indeed it may indicate both of these (compare Isa 30:28). Although Judah may be caught up to the neck, it will not overwhelm them. They will finally survive. This may refer to the effects of the large Assyrian army as it stations itself in Judah as its tributary, as a warning of its presence to nations round about, or it may more likely have in mind the future when inevitably Judah will seek to withhold tribute and will become the objects of Assyrian anger. It could be seen as a fair picture of the later situation when the whole of Judah was subdued, Lachish was taken and Jerusalem stood alone (Isa 36:2). It was then certainly in it up to the neck. But either way Judah will not be swept away, because it is the land promised to Immanuel.
What now follows takes up what has been said, and will shortly be said (Isa 9:5-6), about the coming Immanuel. The point being made is that the coming of Immanuel is not to be seen as so near that it will prevent the consequences of Ahaz’s disobedience, and this is expressed for his hearer’s sake in terms of prophetic words spoken to the future Immanuel.
‘And the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.’ Let the coming Immanuel be aware of what will happen before he comes. We must most probably see this as depicting Yahweh as speaking warningly through Isaiah into the future, as though speaking to the coming child, the coming Immanuel. The coming child of the house of David must ‘recognise’ the true situation (although the intention is really that his listeners, and those who follow them, will recognise the situation). None must think that because Immanuel is coming they will escape the consequences of Ahaz’s behaviour (and subsequently of Hezekiah’s behaviour – Isa 39:3-5). While the land will still belong to Judah when he comes, nevertheless when he does come he must not expect to come to a powerful throne. He must expect rather to find that he comes in a time of need when his land has been possessed by the enemies of Judah, with enemy forces everywhere.
And this process of occupation will begin shortly with the descent of Assyria like a bird outstretching its wings, who will fill the whole land (compare Isa 36:1). Those who have travelled in the wilderness and been aware of vultures hovering overhead when they sense the possibility of a dead carcase, casting the shadow of their wings over what is below, will best appreciate these words. But the shadow of Assyria’s outstretched wings will be so threatening that it will darken the whole land.
This was thus a portent, a portent of the fact that, as a result of disobedience and folly, the land would continue thus to be overshadowed until Immanuel came to deliver it. And as we now know, the Assyrian shadow would continue on through their successors. There would come the Babylonian shadow, and then the Persian shadow, and then the Greek shadow, and then the Roman shadow, and all as a result of disobedience. Judah would never again be truly free from such shadows for long, and there will rarely be any relief from them, until Immanuel comes, so that Immanuel must recognise that He will inevitably come to a war torn country suffering under a continuing powerful threat, because as a result of God’s rejection of the seed of Ahaz, Jerusalem’s continual independence is over until He comes.
‘O Immanuel (‘God is with us’).’ This cryptic reference, coming here following the prophetic declaration in Isa 7:14, must be seen as confirming the centrality of the Immanuel idea to the whole passage from Isa 7:1 onwards up to Isa 9:6. All has in mind that Immanuel is coming. Ahaz, having been rejected, will fail. The king of Assyria will come, and Syria and Israel will be desolated. Then Assyria will descend on Judah, who up to this point had been free, and will take it all under his threatening wing. All this must precede his coming. But at last, once man has done his worst Immanuel will eventually come. For he will come in the midst of disaster, as a result of God’s miraculous intervention, with the guarantee that after disaster hope will spring up, even in the midst of that disaster. (It is a kind of pre-run in respect of His first coming of the second coming teaching of imminence connected with delay).
Alternately some see the ‘He’ here as referring to God. Then it is saying ‘the stretching out of His wings will fill the breadth of your land, (but) God is with us’, indicating that while God will allow them to be submerged to the neck He will not finally allow Judah and Jerusalem to fall. His outstretched wings would protect them because ‘God is with us’. For in Scripture outstretched wings regularly indicate protection (Psa 17:8; Psa 36:7; Psa 57:1; Psa 63:7; Psa 91:4).
A third possible alternative, although Isa 8:10 might be seen as against it, is that here Ahaz is sarcastically being referred to as considering himself to be Immanuel. The people saw him as the Davidic representative, ‘the breath of their nostrils’ (Lam 4:20), the proof that God was with them, and he may possibly have thought in that way of himself. But what is to happen will prove otherwise. So in terms of this interpretation Isaiah is saying in a sarcastic tone, ‘O Immanuel’, in other words ‘you think you are Immanuel but you are not’. The first interpretation seems to us the most likely as it takes the term in its plain meaning, and is in keeping with the idea of hope for the future, which is a constant Isaianic theme (Isa 1:24-27; Isa 2:2-4; Isa 4:2-6).
Isa 8:9-10
‘Make an uproar, O you peoples, and you will be broken in pieces, and give ear all you of far off countries, gird yourselves, and you will be broken in pieces, gird yourselves and you will be broken in pieces. Take counsel together and it will be brought to nought, speak the word and it will not stand. For God is with us (or ‘because of Immanu-el’).’
Once Immanuel Does Come All Will Be Broken Before Him.
Isaiah now challenges the nations about their dealings with Immanuel’s people. Let them beware, for while God may allow them to be downtrodden in the short term, resistance against Immanuel when he comes will be futile. Whoever then comes against his people will be confounded. For whatever may happen at the present time, they can be confident of one thing, that once Immanuel comes all will be well. None will be able to stand against him, because God will be with him. So let all nations who have their eyes on Judah beware and take note that on the coming of the anticipated triumphant son of David all who oppose him will in the end face disaster. If the people make an uproar against him they will be broken in pieces, if they hear the call to go against him and prepare themselves, they will be broken in pieces, Yes, if they prepare themselves for battle against him they will be broken in pieces. Note the threefold repetition (typical of Isaiah, compare Isa 7:23-25) of ‘broken in pieces’. For to fight against the coming Immanuel will, to use a modern illustration, be like battering their heads against a brick wall. Even if they take counsel together it will be brought to nothing (see Psa 2:1-2; Act 4:24-27), if they speak the word to move against him it will only result in disaster. For in the end whatever happens Immanuel will triumph. (For the whole of this idea compare Psa 2:1-6). And this is because Immanuel is destined to rule. It will be because for his sake ‘immanu El’, ‘God will be with us’. The deliberate use of El here (rather than Elohim) stresses the specific connection with the name of Immanuel.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
A Rebuke and an Exhortation
v. 5. The Lord spake also unto me again, v. 6. Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah, v. 7. now, therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, v. 8. and, he shall pass through Judah, v. 9. Associate yourselves, O ye people, rather, v. 10. Take counsel together, v. 11. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, v. 12. Say ye not, “A confederacy,” to all them to whom this people shall say, “A confederacy,” v. 13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, v. 14. And He shall be for a sanctuary, v. 15. And many among them,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Isa 8:5. The Lord spake also After having delivered the promise concerning the deliverance of the people from the fear of the two adverse kingdoms, God, by a new, or a continued revelation, (for it was not very distant in time from the former) more distinctly unfolds his purpose concerning the fate not only of Israel, but of Judah, and confirms what in the former prophesy he had advised the prophet concerning them. See ch. Isa 7:17, &c. For this is of nearly the same argument, except that it is more extensive, and involves many more mysteries: the first part is entirely prophetical, from this to the 11th verse, and contains a declaration of the events of the subsequent period, immediately leading to the time of fulfilling the promise respecting Immanuel: of these events the first is the subversion of Ephraim, Isa 8:6-7.; the second, the affliction of Judah by the Assyrians also; Isa 8:8.; the third, the destruction of the hostile counsels and attempts of future times, which seemed to threaten a total excision of the church of God, Isa 8:9-10. To this prediction the reason is added which moved God not only to punish the Ephraimites, but also the Jews, by the Assyrians, Isa 8:6. The waters of Shiloah, according to some, mean the kingdom of David; but Vitringa is of opinion, that the expression here means the kingdom of God among the people of the Jews, as it was manifest in the kingdom of the house of David, as in the next verse the kingdom of Assyria is signified by the river Euphrates. For the waters of Shiloah, flowing from the bottom of mount Sion, which was sacred to God, and the seat of his kingdom hereby represented the kingdom of God. They flowed too from a perennial fountain, and hereby well denoted that eternal kingdom which was promised to David and his seed; and they are said to flow softly, gently, silently; hereby properly denoting that kingdom which is internal and spiritual, and which cometh not with observation. On account of this kingdom, Judah was chosen and established a people; and it was singly from the want of faith in this kingdom, that they ever sought for support and assistance from the kings of the earth, who were always to them like the staff of a broken reed; for God alone was their king, and in him alone, and his sure promise, was their true confidence.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
II.THE SUPPLEMENTS
1. THOSE THAT DESPISE SHILOAH SHALL BE PUNISHED BY THE WATERS OF THE EUPHRATES
Isa 8:5-8
5
THE LORD spake also unto me again, saying,
6
For as much as this people refuseth
The waters of Shiloah that go softy,
And rejoice in Rezin and Remaliahs son;
7
Now therefore, behold, the LORD bringeth up upon them
The waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory; And he shall come up over all his channels,
And go over all his banks;
8
And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over,
He shall reach even to the neck;
And d the stretching out of his wings shall fill
The breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
On Isa 9:6. comp. at Isa 7:10. is compounded of (1Ki 21:27) lenitas and the prefix. The prefix is used like in , (EWALD, 217 d); comp. Gen 33:14; 2Sa 18:5; Job 15:11.Corrections of the reading like (MEIER = fainting away before Rezin, Isa 10:18) and (and blind groping seized, BOETTCHER Aehrenl. p. 30, comp. Job 5:14 are unnecessary. Isaiah often uses the verb (Isa 35:1; Isa 61:10; Isa 62:5; Isa 64:4; Isa 65:18 sq; Isa 66:10; Isa 66:14) and the substantive (Isa 12:3; Isa 22:13; Isa 35:10; Isa 51:3; Isa 51:11; Isa 61:3) and (Isa 24:8; Isa 24:11; Isa 32:13 sq.; Isa 60:15; Isa 62:5; Isa 65:18; Isa 66:10). Here seems chosen for the sake of a paranomasia with . The following cannot be the sign of the accusative, because the subject of joy is never so designated. It resembles the proposition like Isa 66:10 ( ). Joy with Rezin and Pekah is the rejoicing that is felt in communion, in connection with these rulers. Moreover the substantive is dependent on , which accordingly governs two clauses, a verbal and a nominal clause. Thus, too, DRECHSLER. There is then no need for regarding as the status absol. according to EWALD, 351, 6. According to a usage especially common with Isaiah, the status constr. stands before the preposition.
On Isa 9:7. combined like Exo 1:9; Deu 7:1; Deu 9:14; Deu 26:5; Joe 2:2; Joe 2:5; Mic 4:3; Zec 8:22; signifying rather the intensive, the extensive greatness. here involves the secondary notion of might, as elsewhere that of riches (Isa 10:3; Isa 61:6; Isa 66:12, the last citation seeming to stand in intentional contrast with our passage. Comp. the Latin opes). KNOBEL regards to as a gloss, because good poets do not add explanatory notes to their metaphors. As if Isaiah were only a poet, and had not, too, a very practical interest! Comp. Isa 7:17; Isa 7:20. (not again in Isaiah) is the bed of a torrens, synonymous with (Josh. 1:20; 4:18); , plur. tantum, in Isa only here; besides Joel 3:15; 4:18; 1Ch 12:15 Kri (beside Kthib ), is from , kindred to incidit, secuit, is the indentation, the shore-line, the shore.
On Isa 9:8. (comp. on Isa 2:18) is originally to change thence transire (to change place, whence to change in hunters language said of wild game). Comp. Isa 21:1; Isa 24:5. means the spreading out, the pressing forward (both notions joined as in Isa 28:15; Isa 28:18), the height of the water. from to spread out, are the out-spreadings, expansiones; . .The sing. is in consequence of the verb coming first. is to be construed in an active sense (comp. Isa 6:3; Isa 31:4; Isa 34:1; Isa 42:10). not again in Isaiah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. This section has the external mark of a supplement in the transition formula the LORD spake also again, which occurs again only Isa 7:10, and which here as well as there intimates that an interval occurred between these words and what goes before. But the contents, too, show that we have no immediate and necessary amplification of the foregoing words and deeds before us. Nothing more is said of the son of the Prophet. Rather the language turns suddenly against the Ephraimites who contemned the quiet fountain of Shiloah, i. e. Davids kingdom, and rejoiced in communion with Rezin and the son of Remaliah (Isa 9:6). Therefore the floods of the Euphrates, which the Prophet himself explains as meaning the king of Assyria, shall overflow Ephraim (Isa 9:7), but of course Judah also, the land of Immanuel (Isa 9:8). The mention of Rezin and Pekah, the calling Judah land of Immanuel, and the threatening of overflow by Assyria, prove that these words belong to the same period as the preceding chief prophecies. And as the expression Immanuel presupposes the transactions narrated Isa 7:10, the insertion of this section at this place is completely explained.
2. The LordRemaliahs son.
Isa 9:5-6. Most authorities agree that the fountain of Shiloah or Siloam is on the south side of Jerusalem; vid.ROBINSONSPalestine, Vol. I. p. 501505. The name (written , and ) means emissio, or emissus (comp. , He sendeth the springs, Psa 104:10; hence sent Joh 9:7; comp. EWALD 156 a). It occurs only here, Joh 9:7 and Luk 13:4, in which last place is told of the tower of Siloam (so LXX and New Testament, AQU. and SYMM., THEOD. spell the name : VULG.:Siloe). Yet the name which the pool of Siloah, Neh 3:15, bears is very probably identical with our Shiloah. The descent between the fountain of Mary above and the fountain of Siloam is very little, therefore the flow is very gentle and soft.
The weak brooklet, welling up at the foot of Moriah and Zion, represents the unobservable nature of the kingdom of God in the period of its earthly humility. It recalls the form of a servant which the Lord assumed, and the I am meek and lowly in heart (Mat 11:29). This feature is prominent in all the stages of the history of salvation. Outwardly Israel was the least of all nations (Deu 7:7); Bethlehem was the least of the cities of Judah (Mic 5:1); David was the youngest among his brothers, and his father supposed he must be of no account at the election of a king (1Sa 16:11 sqq.). So, too, at the time of our present history, the kingdom of David was very small and weak amid the world-powers. If now and then it arose to greater power, that makes but one resemblance more to the intermittent fountain of Shiloah.
And rejoice,etc. The passage is easily explained if one only notices that the Prophet does not till Isa 9:8 represent the swelling stream as overflowing also the territory of Judah. Then upon them Isa 9:7 means those whom the Assyrian stream, that comes in from the north, overflows first. That is evidently the Ephraimites. Therefore by the people Isa 9:6, to whom upon them refers back, must, at least primarily, be understood the nation of the Ten Tribes. The nation Israel, then, i. e. Ephraim looks down contemptuously on the kingdom of Judah as on a weak flowing brooklet, and meanwhile with proud self-complacency rejoices in its own king and in the alliance with the Syrian king that added to his strength. This haughtiness shall not escape the avenging Nemesis. From the Euphrates shall mighty floods of water overflow first Ephraim and then Judah. [To understand this it is necessary to remark that the Euphrates annually overflows its banks.BARNES]. That by this is meant the king of Assyria with all his glorious army, Isaiah himself proceeds to explain. It is a proof that the Prophet before this had the territory of Israel in mind, that here he makes so prominent the trespassing of the waters into Judahs territory, the spreading beyond its borders. In Isa 9:8 b, the Prophet by a glorious figure compares the volumes of water to a bird spreading out its wings, to which he is evidently moved by the fact that the floods of water mean army hordes. Accordingly he designates the wings of the army as the wings of the extended flood. Because the space covered by the expanded wings coincides with the breadth of the land, so it may be said that the stretching out of the wings is at the same time the filling up of the land. It is very significant that the Prophet closes his address so emphatically with the word Immanuel. He signifies thus that the land is Immanuels, and that consequently the violence is done to Immanuel. It is plain that Immanuel is written as a proper name, from the suffix in . Yet most editions separate the words, and several versions too, as LXX. and ARAM., translate accordingly. The occasion for this is the, of course, correct notion that in the word there is an intimation of comfort that is to be the stay of Israel in that great tribulation. But evidently the Prophet has immediately in mind a person, whom he addresses. He turns to Him who is predicted in the birth of that child Isa 7:14. Although He is a person of the future, still the Prophet knows Him as one already present. How else could he turn to Him with this lamentation? Herein, then, lies a preparation for what the Prophet says of the promised one in the predicates of Isa 9:5 (6).
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 Lords 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 Lords 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 Lords 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Immanuels 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-dayssuch 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 devils 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. 911. On Isa 9:1 sqq. (2). Postrema pars, etc. The latter part of chap. 8 was (legal and threatening) so, on the other hand, the first and best part of chap. 9 is , (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 Prophets 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 ? 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. : 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. ber 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). Gods 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 Christs 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 Gods 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. 1226. 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.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
In these verses the prophet is led to speak of great things, reaching far and near. Under the figure of waters and rivers, kingdoms and empires are represented. The waters of Shiloah which are said to go softly, mean the Lord’s tender dealings with his people; but sinners are looking to an arm of flesh; great names among men, like Rezin and Remaliah’s son, are what they are seeking after. Hence, saith the Lord, by those very persons shall Judah’s punishment come. And this was fulfilled, when, as we read in the writings of this same prophet Isa 36 ; Isa 37 . Sennacherib besieged Judah. See the corresponding history, 2Ki 18 & 2Ki 19 . But what I more particularly beg the Reader to remark with me, is, that part of this scripture, which hath a reference to Christ. The prophet keeping his eye, as it were, upon the map of the Holy Land, where the Lord Jesus, in after-ages, should set up his standard, beholds, in the mean time, the ravages of the Assyrian army, which the Lord would permit to come up over it, for the punishment of his people; and rapt into future times, he beholds, with the eye of faith, the glorious events to be accomplished by Jesus, and cries out, “The enemy will pass through Judah; yea, he shall fill thy land, O Immanuel!” Reader! pause over this sweet scripture, for it is most sweet; conceive how full of Christ’s glory, must have been Isaiah’s mind! He knew that this was the very sacred spot of the whole earth, where, in the fulness of time, Jesus would be born, and accomplish salvation by his blood and righteousness. And therefore, while under the full influence of the spirit of prophecy, he saw, and was delivering to the then church, the prediction of the ruin and overthrow the enemies of Judah and Israel would accomplish, by the Lord’s appointment, as the punishment of their sins; yet the Prophet’s mind, looking beyond those times, to the days of Christ, breaks out in the midst with an address to Jesus; it is as if he had said; “So great, so overwhelming will be the Lord’s judgments, by the hands of enemies, over his own beloved land and people, that I see thy Zion, O Immanuel, thy beloved Jerusalem, cove red over even to the neck, by the stretching of his wings!” Reader! look at the subject also in a spiritual sense; and behold how the whole nature of man, a s well as his land, hath been overrun by the great enemy of souls, ; and then think of the mercies wrought by our Immanuel, in having bound the strong man armed, even Satan, when subduing our nature, and bringing forth our souls from his captivity! Luk 11:21-22 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 8:5 The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,
Ver. 5. The Lord spake also unto me again, saying. ] Heb., And the Lord further added to speak unto me. Here the Israelites, apart from the Syrians, are specially threatened with destruction, because they abandoned their brethren, the two other tribes, and trusted to confederacies and aids of foreign princes.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 8:5-8
5Again the Lord spoke to me further, saying,
6Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
And rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah;
7Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates,
Even the king of Assyria and all his glory;
And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.
8Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,
It will reach even to the neck;
And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.
Isa 8:5-6 This stanza continues the message of YHWH’s judgment on Syria and Israel by Assyria, but adds the terrible results that will also affect Judah (i.e., Jerusalem spared, cf. Isa 8:8 b). She will not be destroyed, but only barely survive.
Isa 8:6 these people To whom does this refer?
1. Israel
2. Judah
The answer is found in Isa 8:6 b. Judah did not rejoice in Rezin, but Israel (son of Remaliah) made a political and military alliance with him (cf. Isa 7:4-5; Isa 7:8-9). Therefore, Isa 8:7 must refer to the destruction of not only Damascus (cf. Isa 7:20), but Samaria (i.e., Israel). It is possible it refers to a group within Judah who wanted to join the coalition.
Motyer, in Tyndale Old Testament Commentary Series (p. 81), notes that the phrase this people can refer to
1. Judah, Isa 28:14
2. a foreign power, Isa 23:13
3. Israel, Isa 9:16 (and here)
the gently flowing waters of Shiloh This was a small wadi east of Jerusalem which carried the water from the spring Gihon into the city (cf. 2Ki 20:20; 2Ch 32:30). It is a symbol of (1) YHWH’s neglected acts or words (cf. Isa 5:24; Isa 30:12) or (2) YHWH’s provision for Jerusalem, the house of David, Judah, during a siege.
And rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah Syria was a part of the conspiracy to overthrow the throne of David (cf. Isa 7:6). Israel had put her trust in political and military alliances.
rejoice This term (BDB 965) means exult or rejoice, which does not fit the context. It is possible that it was chosen to fit the poetry of the verse, not the dictionary. The VERBS reject, Isa 8:6 and rejoice, Isa 8:6, sound similarly. This prophecy would have been read aloud. There are several theories about who it refers to.
1. Damascus’ joy
2. a group of Judeans who oppose Ahaz’s Assyrian alliance
3. melt in fear, not rejoice (emendation)
4. Judah’s joy at Assyria invading Syria and Israel
Obviously the context is uncertain as to whom it refers.
Isa 8:7 the Lord is about to bring on them YHWH is in control of history (cf. Isa 5:26; Isa 7:7; Isa 7:18; Isa 10:5; Isa 13:2-3). History is not random, but teleological. It has a terminus point. History moves by the consequences of human sin and the purposes of God!
waters of the Euphrates This is one of the two main rivers of Mesopotamia. The Tigris and Euphrates formed a fertile crescent that reached from the Persian Gulf to close to the coast of the Mediterranean in Lebanon. A desert separated the empires of Mesopotamia (i.e., Assyria and Babylon) from Canaan. Therefore, the armies followed the waters of the Euphrates and moved down the coast lands of Lebanon and Canaan. This geographical route became the source of the biblical imagery of the north as the direction of evil.
Isa 8:8 This verse shows the consequences of an Assyrian takeover of Canaan. Judah will survive as a nation, but just barely. Ahaz did not listen to Isaiah, did not believe in YHWH’s promises.
the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land The NASB, NRSV, NJB, REB link this to the destruction caused by Assyria (wing used as a metaphor for end, cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 2, p. 670, thereby denoting the invasion of all the land), but TEV and JPSOA take the change of metaphor (i.e., from a flood to describe an Assyrian invasion) to the spreading of a bird’s wings (BDB 642 CONSTRUCT BDB 489, cf. Isa 8:8; Psa 17:8; Psa 36:7; Psa 57:1; Psa 61:1; Psa 61:4; Psa 63:7; Psa 91:1; Psa 91:4) to relate to God’s promised special child of Isa 7:14; also note Isa 8:9-10!
By noting that the promise was related to a conditional covenant which demanded faith and obedience. Without faith, Jerusalem’s divine protection would send the wrong message (similar to people today seeing the state of Israel as a divine act of restoration, but the problem is she is not a faith-oriented or faithful-living covenant people)! Israel today is secular!
O Immanuel The title here seems as if it refers to the Davidic king at the time (i.e., Ahaz). This may be a textual evidence that the child of Isa 7:14 was Hezekiah. Ultimately, it refers to Jesus, but in Isaiah it had to refer to a contemporary, naturally conceived male child (i.e., Isa 7:15-16)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
again. See note on Isa 7:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fear Gods Power, not Mans
Isa 8:5-18
It seems likely that Syria and Samaria attacked Ahaz because he would not join in a federation against the growing power of Assyria. A strong party seems to have pressed this policy on him, but in all such schemes they repudiated the Divine Protection, Isa 8:6. Compare Psa 46:4. Ahaz and the court party on the other hand, sought to federate with Assyria. But Isaiah never ceased to urge that the true line of defense was to put away whatever was inconsistent with the fear of God. He would be the sanctuary of defense and hiding in the day of trouble, Isa 8:13-14. We learn from Heb 2:13, how absolutely, when speaking thus, the prophet was being prompted by the Holy Spirit. If men will not build on Gods foundation-stone, they fall over it to their hurt. Compare Isa 8:15 and Mat 21:44. Are we not all in danger of substituting human alliances for federation and union with the eternal God? Let our fellowship be with the Father and the Son; and let us wait for Him till the day dawn and the day star shines, 2Pe 1:19.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
am 3263. bc 741.
spake: Isa 7:10
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 8:5. The Lord spake also After having given the promise concerning the deliverance of the people from the fear of the two adverse kingdoms, God, by a new, or a continued revelation, (for it was not very distant in time from the former,) more distinctly unfolds his purpose concerning the fate, not only of Israel, but of Judah, and confirms what he had advised in the former prophecy concerning them. See chap. 7:17, &c. For this is of nearly the same argument, except that it is more extensive, and involves many more mysteries. The first part is entirely prophetical, from this to Isa 8:11, and contains a declaration of the events of the subsequent period, immediately leading to the time of fulfilling the promise respecting Immanuel: of these events, the first is the subversion of Ephraim, Isa 8:6-7; the second, the affliction of Judah, by the Assyrians also, Isa 8:8; the third, the destruction of the hostile counsels and attempts of future times, which seemed to threaten a total excision of the church of God, Isa 8:9-10. Vitringa and Dodd.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 8:5-18. More Extracts on the Crisis from Isaiahs Autobiography.It is not clear how many bits of the autobiography are included here, but the section for the most part probably deals with the coalition of Syria and Ephraim.
Isa 8:5-10. Date of the earlier part about 735. The latter part (from and the stretching) is apparently a late addition. Judah despises the trickling waters of Shiloah, i.e. Yahwehs gentle working; her desire for measures less tame and more heroic shall be satisfied by the waters of the Euphrates, which shall burst their bounds and flood into Judah, reaching to the neck and threatening the existence of the nation. The reference is to the Assyrian armies (cf. Isa 28:9-11). Then with an abrupt transition and a change in metaphor we read of the sheltering wings protecting Judah, and of the futility of the coalition formed by the nations of far countries against her. The situation does not suit Isaiahs time; it has its parallels rather in the later Apocalyptic.
Isa 8:6. rejoice in: Judah did not rejoice in Rezin and Pekah, but was in terror of them. Possibly we should read despond because of (umao mippene).The waters of Shiloah flowed in a channel with a slight fall from the Virgins Fountain, a spring with an intermittent flow, so that the waters went softly.
Isa 8:8. Read at the end the land, for God is with us. We thus get a refrain which recurs at the end of Isa 8:10.
Isa 8:9. Make an uproar: read Know with LXX (deu), which gives a good parallel to give ear. The text has apparently been expanded by mistaken repetition.
Isa 8:11-15. Beyond the fact that this is earlier than the fall of Samaria (cf. Isa 8:14), nothing certain can be said about its date, but probably it belongs to the same period as the earlier part of the chapter. Isaiah had felt the pressure of the Divine hand upon Him, casting Him into the prophetic ecstasy (cf. Jer 15:17; Eze 1:3*, Eze 3:14; Eze 3:22; Eze 8:1; Eze 37:1). In it he had been cautioned against acquiescence in the popular way; he and his associates (note the plural ye) had been forbidden to adopt the popular catchwords, and call the coalition of Syria and Ephraim a conspiracy; it is no serious peril to the State (cf. Isa 7:4); rather let them call Yahweh the conspirator. Well may He be their dread who will overthrow both the houses of Israel! Do the people boast of Yahweh as the Stone of Israel (Gen 49:24), as their strong Rock? They will find Him a stone against which they will stumble, a rock on which they will be wrecked; not only so, but a snare luring them to ruin. As the bird is attracted to it and rests upon it, and by this very act of trust springs the trap upon itself, so Judahs false confidence will seal her doom.
Isa 8:12 f. Very difficult. Isa 8:12 and Isa 8:13 should correspond; we should assimilate one to the other, probably (as above) Isa 8:13 to Isa 8:12, rather than Isa 8:12 to Isa 8:13, by reading a holy thing for conspiracy in Isa 8:12. a truism needing no special revelation. We should also omit the words for a sanctuary but in Isa 8:14 as incorrect repetition of the word rendered snare.
Isa 8:16-18. Isaiah seems in these words to announce the close for a time of his ministry. His protest had been unavailing; Yahweh had hidden His face from His disobedient people. He entrusts his testimony as to the failure of the allies and his teaching (mg.) on faith in God to his disciples. That faith, vainly required from king and people, he will still exhibit, and, while he has to wait in silence, he and his children are a perpetual messagethey by the names they bear (Isa 7:3, Isa 8:3 f.), he by his name, his personality, and his work.
Isa 8:16 f. Render, I will bind up the testimony, seal the teaching. The mention of his disciples suggests that he had formed a religious brotherhood, held together by his prophetic teaching. This was epoch-making. It secured the preservation of his own prophecies, and perhaps those of others. It created a religious organisation to carry out the programme of the prophets, which, when it could no longer work openly, as in the time of Manasseh, could work underground and issue in the Deuteronomic reformation. Recognising that his labours among the people at large had been a failure, he gathered the nucleus of the remnant to which was entrusted the future of spiritual religion.
Isa 8:18. Notice that nothing miraculous is necessarily implied in signs and wonders.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
The danger of Assyria 8:5-10
This section corresponds to Isa 7:18-25. Both of them explain that the name to be given a child would have both a positive and a negative significance.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Yahweh spoke to Isaiah again (cf. Isa 8:1). King Ahaz was not the only person in Judah who had failed to trust in the Lord but had put his confidence in man. The people of Judah had been guilty of the same folly. They had rejected God’s faithful provisions for them, symbolized by the gently flowing Shiloah stream that carried water from the Gihon spring just outside Jerusalem into the city. This water source was unimpressive, but it provided for the people of Jerusalem faithfully. Instead they had rejoiced in the anticipated destruction of the kings of Syria and Ephraim due to Ahaz’s alliance with Assyria.