Isaiah 8:8 Maoni

This chapter, and the four next that follow it (to chap. 13) are all one continued discourse or sermon, the scope of which is to show the great destruction that should now shortly be brought upon the kingdom of Israel, and the great disturbance that should be given to the kingdom of Judah by the king of Assyria, and that both were for their sins; but rich provision is made of comfort for those that feared God in those dark times, referring especially to the days of the Messiah. In this chapter we have, I. A prophecy of the destruction of the confederate kingdoms of Syria and Israel by the king of Assyria (Isa 8:1-4). II. Of the desolations that should be made by that proud victorious prince in the land of Israel and Judah (Isa 8:5-8). III. Great encouragement given to the people of God in the midst of those distractions; they are assured, 1. That the enemies shall not gain their point against them (Isa 8:9, Isa 8:10). 2. That if they kept up the fear of God, and kept down the fear of man, they should find God their refuge (Isa 8:11-14), and while others stumbled, and fell into despair, they should be enabled to wait on God, and should see themselves reserved for better times (Isa 8:15-18). Lastly, He gives a necessary caution to all, at their peril, not to consult with familiar spirits, for they would thereby throw themselves into despair, but to keep close to the word of God (Isa 8:19-22). And these counsels and these comforts will still be of use to us in time of trouble.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 8 This chapter contains a confirmation of the sudden destruction of the kingdoms of Syria and Israel, by another sign; a threatening to those that gloried in the kings of those nations, with an invasion of their land by the Assyrian monarch; a sarcastic address to those that joined in confederacy against Judah; some directions and instructions to the people of God; and some prophecies concerning the Messiah, and the miserable estate of the Jews, that should reject him and his Gospel. The sign given is a son of the Prophet Isaiah, whom his wife conceived and bore, and whose name was written with a man's pen, Mahershalalhashbaz, of which there were witnesses, whose names are mentioned; and it is predicted, that before this child should have knowledge to call his father and mother, Damascus and Samaria, the chief cities of Syria and Israel, would be taken and spoiled by the king of Assyria, Isa 8:1 who would invade, the land of Israel, and even pass through the land of Judah, as a chastisement not only of the Israelites that rejoiced in Rezin and Remaliah's son, the kings of Syria and Israel; but also of those Jews who chose to be under them, or neglected the promise of God, and applied to Assyria for help, Isa 8:5 and then both the people of Israel and of Syria are addressed, in a sarcastic way, to associate and take counsel together, when they should be broke to pieces, and their counsel come to nought, Isa 8:9 and the prophet being instructed by the Lord how to behave among the people of the Jews, advises them not to join with them whose cry was a confederacy with Assyria, nor to be afraid of the two kings that were come up against them, but to sanctify the Lord of hosts, and trust in him, and make him the object of their fear and dread, Isa 8:11 which is enforced from the consideration of what the Lord, who is no other than the Messiah, would be, both to his own people, and to his enemies; to the one a sanctuary, and to the other a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence, a trap, and a snare, Isa 8:14 then follows an instruction to the prophet to take care of the Gospel of Christ, and communicate it to his disciples, Isa 8:16 upon which the prophet determines to keep waiting and looking for his coming, who at present was hidden from the people of God, Isa 8:17 wherefore the Messiah is introduced, as presenting himself and his children to the prophet's view, which would be for signs and wonders in Israel, gazed at and reproached, Isa 8:18 and then the folly and vanity of seeking counsel of the Scribes and Pharisees, when Christ should be come in the flesh, is exposed; whose Gospel should be attended to, and not those dark and blind guides, Isa 8:19 and the chapter is concluded with the wretched condition of the Jews that called Jesus accursed; they should pass through the land, and find no food; and look into it, and see nothing but darkness and misery, Isa 8:21.

And he shall pass through Judah,.... That is, the king of Assyria, compared to a river of mighty waters; who should not only run over and possess the land of Israel, or the ten tribes, but should enter into Judea, and pass through it, as a chastisement for not trusting in the Lord, but sending to Assyria for help; who instead of helping, distressed them in the times of Ahaz, even Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, Ch2 28:20, he shall overflow, and go over; the whole land of Judea, as Sennacherib king of Assyria did in Hezekiah's time: he shall reach even to the neck; that is, to Jerusalem: the whole land is compared to a body, of which Jerusalem was the head; the Assyrian army, comparable to the waters of a great river, overflowed the whole land, took all the fenced cities of Judah, and came up even to Jerusalem, so that the whole was in great danger of being drowned and destroyed; as a man is, when the waters are come up to his neck; see Kg2 18:13, and the stretching out of his wings, the wings of the Assyrian army, shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel; Judea, called Immanuel's land, because he was to be born there, and converse and die there; and this is particularly mentioned, to show that, though this land should be overrun by the Assyrians, yet not destroyed, until Immanuel, the son of the virgin, was born here. The Targum is, "and he shall pass through the land of the house of Judah as an overflowing torrent, unto Jerusalem shall he come; and the people of his army shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.''

(Verse 5, et seq.) And the Lord added, speaking to me again, saying: Because this people has rejected the waters of Siloam that flow gently, and has preferred Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore behold, the Lord will bring upon them the mighty and abundant waters of the river, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise above all its channels, and overflow over all its banks. And it will pass through Judah, flooding and reaching up to the neck. And the spreading of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel. He had said before that the strength of Damascus should be taken away, and the spoils of Samaria should be seen by the king of the Assyrians, and that two kings should be captured while the Assyrian was fighting: now God speaks to the Prophet in the usual style of the Scriptures, through the translation of the Siloam spring in Jerusalem, and the very violent river of the Assyrians, that the whole land of Israel will be flooded by its waters, and it will overflow its riverbanks with such force that after it has occupied the land of the ten tribes, it will reach Judah and, passing through, it will reach the neck: by which it signifies the nearby captivity. For Judas was not captured at that time, but after all the cities of the two tribes were conquered, only Jerusalem remained, which was liberated by the incredible mercy of God. Therefore, the power of the Assyrians and their countless army, which he had described as being under the flood of the river, now shows through another translation, namely, that he has covered the land of Emmanuel, that is, the land defended by God, with his other wings, that is, his leaders, and an infinite multitude. However, he did not possess it, although Emmanuel is connected in the following chapter to the seventy, not by his own name as he is called among the Hebrews, but by an interpretation, that is, "God with us. But we cannot doubt that Silo is a fountain at the foot of Mount Zion, which does not flow continuously, but only at certain times and days, and comes through the underground caves and dens of the hardest rock with a great noise. Especially we who dwell in this province. The meaning is that the people of the ten tribes preferred to be subject to Rezin and the son of Romelia, that is, the kings of Damascus and Samaria, rather than to the lineage of David, who began to reign by my judgment. I will make him not serve these kings whom he took, but serve the Assyrian king, whose power is compared to the flooding of the river that covers the land of Samaria. And an apostrophe is made to Emmanuel, that is, to the present God, that the Assyrian has exalted himself to such an extent that he has even tried to possess his own land, Judah. According to the spiritual sense, every heretic who joins his secular wisdom and desires to attack Jerusalem, that is, the Church, abandoning the waters of the Siloam fountain (John 9), which is interpreted as 'sent', and who ascends to eternal life, will be handed over to the prince of Assyria (which sense we will read later), and by the power of the one to whom he is handed over, he will come into the depth of sins. Such is the arrogance, that he dared to show to the Savior all the kingdoms of the earth and say: 'All these have been given to me' (Matthew and Luke IV). He will also try to enter into Judah, that is, the house of confession, and he will often come up to the neck through those who are negligent in the Church, wishing to suffocate those who believe in Christ, and he will spread his wings, filling the whole region of Emmanuel; but he will not be able to prevail, because Judas has the presence of God. We read in the Gospel according to John (John 9) that a blind man from birth, whose eyes the Lord had anointed with clay made from his own saliva, was sent to the pool of Siloam, and when the blind man washed the clay away, his blindness was removed and he received clear vision. This miracle signifies that the blindness of the Jews and all unbelievers can only be healed by the teachings of Christ's waters, which flow gently without noise or clamor, dispelling the darkness of previous error. What is read in the Septuagint: And he shall walk over all your walls, and he shall take away from Judah the man who can lift up his head, or perhaps do anything: in Hebrew it is not found, and in the Greek manuscripts ÷ it is cut off by the true killer.

277. And shall pass through Judah. Here he foretells the tribulation running over into the two tribes. And first, he sets out the running over of the tribulation: and shall pass, namely, the impulse of water, through Judah, that is, through the land of Judea, overflowing; he preserves the metaphor: for when waters overflow, they send out waves beyond their bed into the neighboring fields. And he says, shall pass, because they will not have complete dominion, below: as the violence of many waters overflowing (Isa 28:2); behold there come up waters out of the north, and they shall be as an overflowing torrent, and they shall cover the land, and all that is therein, the city and the inhabitants thereof (Jer 47:2). Second, the overflowing of the persecution: and going over shall reach even to the neck. He speaks metaphorically, as if he were saying: they shall run over in such abundance that if anyone wished to cross the waters, they would come up to his neck, as he would almost be submerged in them: in which it is signified that they will be near captivity, as is shown below (ch. 36). And behold there ran out waters on the right side (Ezek 47:2); the waters were risen so as to make a deep torrent, which could not be passed over (Ezek 47:5). Third, the multitude of the army: and the stretching out of his wings, that is, its princes, shall fill, by its multitude, the breadth of your land, that is, Judea, O Emmanuel, Christ, who came to be born from it; for Sennacherib sent his princes to capture Jerusalem, below (Isa 36:3). Of these wings, Ezekiel 17:3–4 says, a large eagle with great wings, long-limbed, full of feathers, and of variety, came to Libanus, and took away the marrow of the cedar and the top of the twigs thereof: and carried it away into the land of Chanaan, and he set it in a city of merchants.

The judgments threatened in the last chapter are here declared to extend to the very dead, whose tombs should be opened, and the carcasses treated with every mark of indignity, Jer 8:1-3. From this the prophet returns to reprove them for their perseverance in transgression, Jer 8:4-6; and for their thoughtless stupidity, which even the instinct of the brute creation, by a beautiful contrast, is made to upbraid, Jer 8:7-9. This leads to farther threatening expressed in a variety of striking terms, Jer 8:10-13. Upon which a chorus of Jews is introduced, expressing their terror on the news of the invasion, Jer 8:14, Jer 8:15; which is greatly heightened in the neat verse by the prophet's hearing the snorting of Nebuchadnezzar's horses even from Dan, and then seeing the devastation made by his army, Jer 8:16, whose cruelties God himself declares no entreaties will soften, Jer 8:17. On this declaration the prophet laments most bitterly the fate of the daughter of his people, changing the scene unawares to the place of her captivity, where she is introduced answering in mournful responses to the prophet's dirge, Jer 8:18-22. The variety of images and figures used to diversify the same subject is equally pleasing and astonishing. The dress is generally new, always elegant.

He shall reach even to the neck - He compares Jerusalem, says Kimchi, to the head of the human body. As when the waters come up to a man's neck, he is very near drowning, (for a little increase of them would go over his head), so the king of Assyria coming up to Jerusalem was like a flood reaching to the neck - the whole country was overflowed, and the capital was in imminent danger. Accordingly the Chaldee renders reaching to the neck by reaching to Jerusalem.

(Isa. 8:1-9:7) great--suitable, for letters large enough to be read by all. roll--rather, tablet of wood, metal, or stone (Isa 30:8; Hab 2:2); sometimes coated with wax, upon which characters were traced with a pointed instrument, or iron stylus; skins and papyrus were also used (Isa 19:7). man's pen--that is, in ordinary characters which the humblest can read (so Hab 2:2). Hebrew, enosh means a "common man," is contrasted with the upper ranks (Rev 21:17; Rom 3:5). Not in hieroglyphics. The object was that, after the event, all might see that it had been predicted by Isaiah. concerning--the title and subject of the prophecy. Maher-shalal-hash-baz--"They (that is, the Assyrians) hasten to the spoil (namely, to spoil Syria and Samaria), they speed to the prey" [GESENIUS]. Otherwise, "The spoil (that is, spoiler) hastens, the rapine speeds forward" [MAURER].

pass through--The flood shall not stop at Syria and Samaria, but shall penetrate into Judea. the neck--When the waters reach to the neck, a man is near drowning; still the head is not said to be overflowed. Jerusalem, elevated on hills, is the head. The danger shall be so imminent as to reach near it at Sennacherib's invasion in Hezekiah's reign; but it shall be spared (Isa 30:28). wings--the extreme bands of the Assyrian armies, fulfilled (Isa 36:1; Isa 37:25). thy land, O Immanuel--Though temporarily applied to Isaiah's son, in the full sense this is applicable only to Messiah, that Judea is His, was, and still is, a pledge that, however sorely overwhelmed, it shall be saved at last; the "head" is safe even now, waiting for the times of restoration (Act 1:6); at the same time these words imply that, notwithstanding the temporary deliverance from Syria and Israel, implied in "Immanuel," the greatest calamities are to follow to Judah.

In the midst of the Syro-Ephraimitish war, which was not yet at an end, Isaiah received instructions from God to perform a singular prophetic action. "Then Jehovah said to me, Take a large slab, and write upon it with common strokes, 'In Speed Spoil, Booty hastens;' and I will take to me trustworthy witnesses, Uriyah the priest, and Zecharyahu the son of Yeberechyahu." The slab or table (cf., Isa 3:23, where the same word is used to signify a metal mirror) was to be large, to produce the impression of a monument; and the writing upon it was to be "a man's pen" (Cheret 'enōsh), i.e., written in the vulgar, and, so to speak, popular character, consisting of inartistic strokes that could be easily read (vid., Rev 13:18; Rev 21:17). Philip d'Aquin, in his Lexicon, adopts the explanation, "Enosh-writing, i.e., hieroglyphic writing, so called because it was first introduced in the time of Enosh." Luzzatto renders it, a lettere cubitali; but the reading for this would be b'cheret ammath 'ish. The only true rendering is stylo vulgari (see Ges. Thes. s.v. 'enosh). The words to be written are introduced with Lamed, to indicate dedication (as in Eze 37:16), or the object to which the inscription was dedicated or applied, as if it read, "A table devoted to 'Spoil very quickly, booty hastens;' " unless, indeed, l'mahēr is to be taken as a fut. instans, as it is by Luzzatto - after Gen 15:12; Jos 2:5; Hab 1:17 - in the sense of acceleratura sunt spolia, or (what the position of the words might more naturally suggest) with mahēr in a transitive sense, as in the construction לבערּ היה, and others, accelerationi spolia, i.e., they are ready for hastening. Most of the commentators have confused the matter here by taking the words as a proper name (Ewald, 288, c), which they were not at first, though they became so afterwards. At first they were an oracular announcement of the immediate future, accelerant spolia, festinat praeda (spoil is quick, booty hastens). Spoil; booty; but who would the vanquished be? Jehovah knew, and His prophet knew, although not initiated into the policy of Ahaz. But their knowledge was studiously veiled in enigmas. For the writing was not to disclose anything to the people. It was simply to serve as a public record of the fact, that the course of events was one that Jehovah had foreseen and indicated beforehand. And when what was written upon the table should afterwards take place, they would know that it was the fulfilment of what had already been written, and therefore was an event pre-determined by God. For this reason Jehovah took to Himself witnesses. There is no necessity to read ואעידה (and I had it witnessed), as Knobel and others do; nor והעידה (and have it witnessed), as the Sept., Targum, Syriac, and Hitzig do. Jehovah said what He would do; and the prophet knew, without requiring to be told, that it was to be accomplished instrumentally through him. Uriah was no doubt the priest (Urijah), who afterwards placed himself at the service of Ahaz to gratify his heathenish desires (Kg2 16:10.). Zechariah ben Yeberechyahu (Berechiah) was of course not the prophet of the times after the captivity, but possibly the Asaphite mentioned in Ch2 29:13. He is not further known to us. In good editions, ben is not followed by makkeph, but marked with mercha, according to the Masora at Gen 30:19. These two men were reliable witnesses, being persons of great distinction, and their testimony would weigh with the people. When the time should arrive that the history of their own times solved the riddle of this inscription, these two men were to tell the people how long ago the prophet had written that down in his prophetic capacity.

Not till then would this overflowing reach as far as Judah, but then it would do so most certainly and incessantly."And presses forward into Judah, overflows and pours onward, till it reaches to the neck, and the spreading out of its wings fill the breadth of thy land, Immanuel." The fate of Judah would be different from that of Ephraim. Ephraim would be laid completely under water by the river, i.e., would be utterly destroyed. And in Judah the stream, as it rushed forward, would reach the most dangerous height; but if a deliverer could be found, there was still a possibility of its being saved. Such a deliverer was Immanuel, whom the prophet sees in the light of the Spirit living through all the Assyrian calamities. The prophet appeals complainingly to him that the land, which is his land, is almost swallowed up by the world-power: the spreadings out (muttoth, a hophal noun: for similar substantive forms, see Isa 14:6; Isa 29:3, and more especially Psa 66:11) of the wings of the stream (i.e., of the large bodies of water pouring out on both sides from the main stream, as from the trunk, and covering the land like two broad wings) have filled the whole land. According to Norzi, Immanul is to be written here as one word, as it is in Isa 7:14; but the correct reading is Immân El, with mercha silluk (see note on Isa 7:14), though it does not therefore cease to be a proper name. As Jerome observes, it is nomen proprium, non interpretatum; and so it is rendered in the Sept., Μεθ ̓ ἡμῶν ὁ Θεός.