He is terrified.

Before
CHRIST

moved at the voice of him that cried, about 758. and the house was filled with smoke.

5 Then said I, Woe is me! for Heb. cut of. I am † undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

6 Then flew one of the seraphims + Heb. and in unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

his hand a

live coal.

† Heb. caused it to touch.

7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

8 Also I heard the voice of the LORD, saying, Whom shall I send,

a throne;" and at ver. 5, that "his eyes had seen the King the Lord of hosts." Now if there be any phrase in the Bible to distinguish the true God, it is this of "the Lord of hosts." That in this "Lord of hosts, sitting upon His throne," there was the presence of GOD the FATHER, no one will deny. That there was also the presence of God the Son, appears from John xii. 41: "These things said Esaias, when he saw His (Christ's) glory, and spake of Him." And that there was the presence of GoD the HOLY GHOST, is determined by Acts xxviii. 25; "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying," &c. then follow the words which the Prophet affirms to have been spoken by "the Lord of hosts." Jones of Nayland.

The former part of that noble and sublime hymn, called the Te Deum, which is commonly used after the first lesson at morning service, is an act of adoration to the ever blessed Trinity, being a paraphrase on the song of the heavenly host, recorded here by Isaiah, and by St. John in the Revelation, chap. iv. 8. The same is likewise adopted by our Church into her office for the Communion. Waldo.

4. — and the house was filled with smoke.] Or, a thick cloud; the sign of God's presence, which filled the temple on extraordinary occasions, 1 Kings viii. 10. W. Lowth. 5.- the King, the Lord of hosts.] The same Spirit, which displayed this glorious vision to Isaiah, has given the interpretation of it by the Evangelist St. John. St. John tells us, that Christ was that Jehovah, whom the entranced Prophet saw upon His throne; whose train filled the temple; whose praises were the theme of the seraphick song; whose glory fills the universe. According to the Evangelist, it was Christ's glory that Isaiah saw and to Him, whose glory he saw, the Prophet gives the name of Jehovah, and the worshipping angels gave the name of Jehovah God of Sabaoth. Bp. Horsley. 6.- having a live coal in his hand, from off the altar:] Signifying the gift of utterance, represented by fiery tongues, (Acts ii. 3,) and the efficacy of God's word in the mouth of the Prophets, compared to fire, Jer. v. 14; xxiii. 29. The use of fire likewise is to cleanse and purify: see the following verse. W. Lowth. 8.- who will go for us?] God speaks here in the plural number, as in the passage from Genesis referred to in the margin; which is justly thought to imply a plurality of Divine persons. W. Lowth. See notes on Gen. i. 26.

9. And he said, Go, and tell this people, &c.] St. Paul (Acts xxviii. 25, 26.) saith expressly, that it was the

He sheweth the people's obstinacy.

and who will go for us? Then said I, † Here am Ï; send me.

Before CHRIST about 758.

c Gen. 1. 26. Behold me.

9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, d Hear ye || † indeed, but un- + Heb. derstand not; and see ye indeed, but a Matth. 13. perceive not.

14. Mark 4. 12.

10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, shut their eyes; lest they see their eyes, and hear with their and understand with their heart, and ye in hearing, convert, and be healed.

11 Then said I, LORD, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

+ Heb. hear

&c.

+ Heb. desolate with

12 And the LORD have removed desolation.

Holy Ghost who said this; which shews the personality of the Holy Ghost, in words as plain as can be expressed. Bp. Wilson.

10. Make the heart of this people fat, &c.] The Prophet speaks of the event, the fact as it would actually happen; not of God's purpose and act by his ministry. The Prophets are in other places said to perform the thing which they only foretell, Jer. i. 10; Ezek. xliii. 3. Bp. Lowth. Even a blessing foretold is said to come from the foreteller. Rosenmüller, Bp. Stock. All the expressions here used signify no more, than that God, for the former provocations and impenitency of this people, did leave them to their own hardness and blindness, so that they did not desire to understand, and make use of the means of their recovery.

Thus God often punishes great and notorious offenders, by permitting them to fall into temptations; which, meeting with a vicious disposition, are likely to be too hard for them, considering how by a long habit of wickedness, and wilful commission of sin, they have made themselves an easy prey to every temptation, and have driven the Spirit of God from them, and deprived themselves of those aids and restraints of His grace, which He ordinarily affords, not only to good men, but likewise to those who are not very bad. Abp. Tillotson.

This prophecy might relate in some measure to the state of the Jews before the Babylonish captivity; but it did not receive its full completion till the days of our Saviour; and in this sense it is understood and applied by the writers of the New Testament, (John xii. 40; Acts xxviii. 27;) and by our Saviour Himself, Matt. xiii. 14, 15. Bp. Newton.

11. Then said I, Lord, how long?] Namely, How long shall this obstinacy, and the punishment it will bring upon this people, continue? W. Lowth.

66

And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, &c.] And hath not the world seen all the particulars here set down exactly fulfilled? Have not the Jews laboured under a spiritual blindness and infatuation, in “ hearing but not understanding," in seeing but not perceiving" the Messiah, after the accomplishment of so many prophecies, after the performance of so many miracles? And in consequence of their refusing to "convert and be healed," have not "their cities been wasted without inhabitant?" &c. Have they not been "removed far away" into the most distant parts of the earth? and hath not their removal or banishment been of now 1700 years' duration? and do they not still continue deaf and blind, obstinate and

A remnant shall be saved.

Before CHRIST

about 758.

Or, when it and hath been

is returned,

broused.
|| Or, stock,
or, slem.

about 742.

a 2 Kings 16.

5.

13 ¶ But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose || substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

CHAP. VII.

1 Ahaz, being troubled with fear of Rezin and Pekah, is comforted by Isaiah. 10 Ahaz, having liberty to choose a sign, and refusing it, hath for a sign, Christ promised. 17 His judgment is prophesied to come by Assyria.

AND it came to pass in the days

of a Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah

unbelieving? oppressed by men, and forsaken by God? Bp. Newton.

:

13. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten &c.] The Hebrew may be translated thus, "But yet in it shall be" left "a tenth, after it is" (or although it is) "again eaten and devoured," &c.; implying, that, notwithstanding the repeated judgments God should bring upon the Jews, still a remnant should be preserved; and the nation, as a tree, sprout out and flourish again from the old stock. "The holy seed" is called here "a tenth," in allusion probably to the tithe under the law, set apart for, and consecrated to, God's service. W. Lowth, Bp. Lowth.

a teil tree,] Is the same with the linden or lime tree. Dr. Johnson's Dictionary.

so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.] So shall the remainder of the holy seed, which for the time seemed to lie dead, sprout forth into an abundant increase. Bp. Hall. This verse, though somewhat obscure, has been made elear by the accomplishment of the prophecy. When Nebuchadnezzar had carried away the greater and better part of the people into captivity, there was yet a tenth remaining in the land; the poorer sort, left to be vinedressers and husbandmen under Gedaliah, 2 Kings xxv. 12, 22; and the dispersed Jews gathered themselves together, and returned to him, Jer. xl. 12: yet even these, fleeing into Egypt after the death of Gedaliah, contrary to the warning of God given by the prophet Jeremiah, miserably perished there. Again, in the subsequent and more remarkable completion of the prophecy in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dissolution of the commonwealth by the Romans, when the Jews, after the loss of above a million of men, had increased from the scanty residue that was left of them, and had become very numerous again in their country; Hadrian, provoked by their rebellious behaviour, slew above half a million more of them, and a second time almost extirpated the nation. Yet after these signal and almost universal destructions of that nation, and after so many other repeated exterminations and massacres of them in different times and on various occasions since, we yet see with astonishment, that the stock still remains, from which God, according to His promise frequently given by His prophets, will cause the people to shoot forth again, and to flourish. Bp. Lowth. See the notes on Deut. xxx. 1.

Before CHRIST

about 742.

resteth on

2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria + is confederate Heb. with Ephraim. And his heart was Ephraim. moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

utmost consternation on receiving intelligence of the designs of Rezin and Pekah, Isaiah is sent to comfort them, by assuring them, that God would make good His promises to the house of David. This makes the subject of this, the following, and the beginning of the ninth chapter. Chapter vii. begins with an account of the occasion of the prophecy; then follows, ver. 4—16, a prediction of the ill success of the designs of the Israelites and Syrians against Judah and from thence to the end of the chapter, a denunciation of the calamities to be brought upon the king and people of Judah by the Assyrians, whom they had now hired to assist them. Chapter viii. has a pretty close connexion with the foregoing: it contains a confirmation of the prophecy before given of the approaching destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Syria by the Assyrians; of the denunciation of the invasion of Judah by the same Assyrians: ver. 9, 10, give a repeated general assurance, that all the designs of the enemies of God's people shall be in the end disappointed, and brought to nought: ver. 11, &c. contain admonitions and threatenings, concluding with an illustrious prophecy (chap. ix. 1--6.) of the manifestation of Messiah, the transcendent dignity of His character, and the universality and eternal duration of His kingdom. Bp. Lowth.

Ver. 1.- could not prevail against it,] Yet they slew many of the people, and carried away many captives out of Judea, 2 Chron. xxviii. 5. W. Lowth. 2.- Ephraim.] This being the chief of the ten tribes, is often put for the whole of them. Bp. Newton. his heart was moved,] The word translated “his” relates to the house of David. W. Lowth.

3.-Shear-jashub] This name, signifying as it is explained in the margin, may allude to the promise made, chap. vi. 13; it imports that God will never wholly cut off His people. W. Lowth.

The captives taken by the king of Israel (see note on ver. 1.) were accordingly very speedily sent home: from policy indeed more than compassion, to make friends among the Jews. Bp. Chandler.

of the conduit of the upper pool] There were two pools which supplied Jerusalem with water: "the upper pool," mentioned here and chap. xxxvi. 2; and “the lower pool," chap. xxii. 9. W. Lowth.

-for the two tails of these smoking firebrands,] Which are so far from being able to consume any thing else, that they are almost extinguished themselves. W.

is comforted by Isaiah.

Before

CHRIST anger of Rezin with Syria, and of about 742. the son of Remaliah.

5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,

6 Let us go up against Judah, and || Or, waken. || vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:

7 Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.

8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, + Heb. from that it be not a people.

a people.

9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is

6.- the son of Tabeal:] Who this person was is no where said in Scripture; he may have been some potent and factious Jew, who had revolted from his master, the king of Judah, and stirred up this war against him. Dean Prideaux.

Some have thought a Syrian, set up by Rezin, whose interest and authority was chief in this matter. Vitringa. 8, 9. For the head of Syria is Damascus, &c.] The purport of this prophecy was to assure Ahaz and the house of David, that the kings of Syria and Israel should remain only the heads of their respective cities, they should not prevail against Jerusalem, and within sixty and five years Israel should be broken so as to be no more a people. This prophecy, respecting the utter ruin of the ten tribes, was completed, not in the first deportation by Shalmaneser, (2 Kings xvii. 6,) when the kingdom was abolished; but when the small remnant were overpowered by the numbers brought by Esar-haddon from Cuthah, &c. 2 Kings xvii. 24, compared with Ezra iv. 2: and Ephraim, who had been broken from being a kingdom before, was then broken from being a people. Abp. Usher, Bp. Newton.

9.If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.] That is, Unless ye believe this prophecy of the destruction of Israel, ye Jews also, as well as the people of Israel, shall not remain established as a kingdom and people; ye also shall be visited with punishment at the same time. This clause is much illustrated by considering the captivity of Manasseh as happening at the same time with this predicted final ruin of Ephraim as a people. The near connexion of the two facts makes the prediction of the one naturally cohere with the prediction of the other. The views of the prophet might also extend to the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, according to that saying of our Saviour," Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," Luke xiii. 3. Dr. Jubb.

12. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.] The words of Ahaz, though they have a shew of piety, (see Deut. vi. 16; Matt. iv. 7,) proceeded really from despair and unbelief, as appears from the Prophet's answer, ver. 13. W. Lowth. He refused to make trial of the indulgence proffered, not because he believed without it; but because he had no confidence in it, nor value for it. Dean Stanhope. Perhaps the solemn offer (ver. 11.) staggered the doubting king; and even the presumptuous incredulity of Ahaz shrunk back at the thought of requiring from God Himself that ex

Remaliah's son.

Christ promised.

If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

10+ Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; || ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

с

14 Therefore the LORD himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a e Matt. 1. 23. virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, shall call his name Immanuel. Or, thou, O 15 Butter and honey shall he eat, call.

and

Virgin, shalt

treme test of His veracity. Dr. Postlethwaite. To do what God commands is not to tempt Him; but Ahaz was tampering with the Assyrian for help, and depended on him, and not on the Lord, and for that reason declines doing what he is bid. Bp. Wilson.

13. It is a small thing for you to weary men, &c.] It is a small thing for you to reject and condemn me, that am a man like yourselves; but will ye, with your hypocrisy and disobedience, provoke and abuse my God also, whose message I bear? Are ye not ashamed and afraid, under a pretence of piety, to refuse the gracious offer and command of God that sent me? Bp. Hall.

14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; &c.] Upon occasion of the terrible fear of the house of David, and the perverseness of Ahaz, refusing to ask a sign, though invited, it pleased God to afford the greatest and most comfortable sign of His mercy to the house of David in particular, and to all mankind in general: a sign, (not indeed exactly in the sense of that which was offered and refused, ver. 11, an emblem, or proof of something to follow,) but, as the world is taken to signify in both Old and New Testaments, (Dean Stanhope,) a wonder, namely, the miraculous birth of Him, in whom all God's mercies were to be summed up. The ancient promise made on the fall of man is here repeated, the Messiah is promised to come in due time of the house of David; and it is here added, that He should be born of a pure virgin, and called "Immanuel,” that is, "God with us," God and Man in one person; or, a Divine Being made flesh, and dwelling among mankind. The word translated "virgin" is so rendered by the Seventy, and admits of no other signification. Bp. Chandler, Dr. Lightfoot.

The whole passage, ver. 14-16, seems to consist of two distinct parts; the fourteenth and fifteenth verses appear to contain an express and literal prediction of the birth and character of Christ, "Butter and honey shall He eat," &c. signifying that His infancy should require the same tender care as that of the frail offspring of man. The sixteenth, to hold out a prophetick sign, the completion of which, so soon to take place, should give full assurance to Ahaz, and the house of David, that the preceding prophecy concerning the Messiah should in due time be punctually fulfilled. The Prophet plainly expresses himself in this order; Immanuel shall be born of a virgin, for the confederate kings shall be speedily destroyed. Dr. Postlethwaite.

15. Butter and honey shall he eat, &c.] He shall have

Ahaz's judgment prophesied

Before CHRIST

Before

about 742.

|| Or, commendable

trees.

16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

17 ¶ The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.

18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.

20 In the same day shall the LORD d 2 Kings 19. shave with a d razor that is hired,

35.

a true human body; and shall be sustained with that ordinary nourishment wherewith children are wont to be fed; and shall grow up in experimental knowledge, as well as in stature; and shall thus enable Himself, like us, "to refuse the evil, and choose the good." Bp. Hall. See the note from fragments to Calmet on Job xx. 17.

that he may know to refuse] Rather, till He know.

W. Lowth.

16. For before the child shall know &c.] Some suppose the Prophet here to point to Shear-jashub, whom he is directed, ver. 3, to take with him; some think "the child" refers to Maher-shalal-hash-baz, (chap. viii. 3) others to any child of that age. To express the shortness of the time, in which destruction should come upon the two kings, is Isaiah's object here; and, as he has in the preceding verses been mentioning Immanuel, and has Him in a manner before his eyes, he may be understood to say, "In so short a time as it shall take Him to reach years of distinguishing, shall the kings be overthrown." Vitringa.

18. The Lord shall hiss for the fly &c.] See note from Bp. Lowth, chap. v. 26. Armies are often compared to flies, bees, and other insects, (Deut. i. 44; Judg. vi. 5; Ps. cxviii. 12; Joel ii. 25;) both for their number, and the destruction they make. The Prophet joins here Egypt and Assyria, the two great oppressors of God's people. W. Lowth. Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, Pharaoh-necho, and Nebuchadnezzar, one after another, desolated Judea. Bp. Lowth. As the conquest of Egypt by Sennacherib, foretold ch. xx, took place before his siege of Jerusalem, a great many Egyptians might be his auxiliaries. Abp. Usher.

19. And they shall come, and shall rest &c.] The Prophet pursues the same metaphor, and represents the foreign army as so many flies that lie in shoals in lower grounds, and as bees whose custom is to get into rocks; see Deut. xxxii. 13; Ps. lxxxi. 16; implying that no place should be free from the enemy. W. Lowth.

20. — shall —shave with a razor that is hired,] The Assyrian is called a "hired razor," because God often rewards those whom He makes instruments of His

21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;

22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give that he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.

+ Heb. in the midst of the

23 And it shall come to pass in land. that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.

25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the

vengeance upon sinners, which is expressed by giving them their "wages," Ezek. xxix. 18-20; see also 2 Kings x. 30. And Ahaz had hired the king of Assyria to assist him, 2 Kings xvi. 7, 8; 2 Chron. xxviii. 21. W. Lowth. By way of eminence, 12; Jer. ii. 18. W.

by them beyond the river,] the Euphrates. See chap. xxvii. Lowth.

the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.] The hairs of the head are those of the highest order in the state; those of the feet, or lower parts, are the common people; the beard, the king, the high priest, the very supreme in dignity and majesty. The Eastern people have always held the beard in the highest veneration, and have been extremely jealous of its honour; to pluck a man's beard is an instance of the greatest indignity that can be offered. See 2 Sam. x. 4, 5. Modern travellers give instances to the same purpose. Bp. Lowth.

21.- a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep: &c.] The remainder of the chapter is an elegant and expressive description of a country depopulated, and left to run wild; the vineyards and cornfields, before well cultivated, now overrun with briers and thorns; much grass, so that the few cattle that are left have their full range and abundant pasture; so as to yield milk in plenty to the scanty family of the owner; the thinly scattered people living, not on corn, wine, oil, the produce of cultivation, but on milk and honey, the gifts of nature; and the whole land given up to the wild beasts; so that the miserable inhabitants are forced to go out armed with bows and arrows, either to defend themselves against the wild beasts, or to supply themselves with necessary food by hunting. Bp. Lowth.

23.—a thousand silverlings,] Or shekels, as the word is translated in Jer. xxxii. 9, and elsewhere.

25.— on all hills that shall be digged &c.] The sense will run better if we translate here, "All the hills that are (or used to be) digged with a mattock, that the fear of briers and thorns may not come thither;" (that is, to clear them from briers and thorns ;)-" shall be for the sending forth of oxen," &c. Ground untilled na

+ Heb.

in making speed to the spoil he

CHAP. VIII.

Israel and Judah.

5¶ The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,

6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;

MORE

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;

speed, &c.

+ Heb. approached

unto.

Heb. the O breadth of thy

king of Assyria shall take away the riches, &c.

turally turns to pasture; therefore these and similar descriptions signify great desolation. Compare chap. xvii. 2; xxvii. 10; xxxii. 14. W. Lowth.

the mattock,] Hasselquist observes, that the inhabitants of Nazareth in Galilee "had no spades, but a kind of hoe or ground-ax." And Niebuhr says, that "instead of a spade the Arabs of Yemen make use of an iron mattock to cultivate their gardens and the lands in the mountains, which are too narrow to admit the plough." Parkhurst.

Chap. VIII. ver. 1.—Take thee a great roll,] The Eastern people roll their papers, and do not fold them, because their paper is apt to fret. Sir J. Chardin. The Egyptian papyrus was formerly much used; the brittle nature of it made it proper to roll what they wrote; and the practice may have been continued even with materials, which might safely have been treated in another manner. Harmer. It is directed to be a great roll, probably that the writing of the prophecy might be in large characters, obvious to all; and so most interpreters have understood the term, "a man's pen," to imply such characters as are in ordinary use. Vitringa.

and write &c.] The Prophet is commanded to record the prophecy of the destruction of Damascus and Samaria by the Assyrians; the subject and sum of which is here expressed with great brevity in four words, (explained in the margin,) which are afterwards applied as the name of the Prophet's son, who was made a sign of the speedy completion of it. And, that it might be done with the greater solemnity, and to preclude all doubt of the real delivery of the prophecy before the event, he calls witnesses to attest the recording of it, ver. 2. Bp. Lowth.

3.—the prophetess ;] The wife of Isaiah is styled a prophetess, and the Rabbies maintain that she had the gift of prophecy. Dr. Gray.

4.-the riches of Damascus &c.] The completion of

10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word,

fulness of the

land shall be the stretchings

out of his Or, yet.

wings.

what is prophesied here, and above, chap. vii. 16, is recorded 2 Kings xv. 29, 30; xvi. 9. W. Lowth.

6.- this people &c.] Though some refer this to Judah, it may be better understood of Israel. The gentle waters of Siloah, or Shiloah, as in the text, a small fountain and brook just without Jerusalem, which supplied a pool within the city, for the use of the inhabitants, is an apt emblem of the state of the kingdom and house of David, much reduced in its apparent strength, yet supported by the blessing of God; and is finely contrasted with the waters of the Euphrates, great, rapid, and impetuous; the image of the vast and mighty empire, which God threatens to bring down upon all the apostates of both kingdoms; to overwhelm Israel, and to bring Judah into such imminent danger, as is represented (ver. 8.) by that of a man who can but just keep his head above water. The Chaldee renders "reaching to the neck," by "reaching to Jerusalem." Bp. Lowth.

8.- of thy land, O Immanuel.] That is, even over that holy land, which is consecrated to thy name, O thou Saviour of Thy Church, God and Man. Bp. Hall. A nobler difference could not have been put between Israel and Judah, than at the time that final and speedy ruin is denounced against the one, to give the other a solemn assurance of the birth of Immanuel. Dean Stanhope.

9. Associate yourselves, O ye people, — give ear, all ye of far countries:] The Prophet insults over the confederacy of Israel and Syria against Judah : he addresses perhaps all the enemies of God's people, assuring them that their attempts shall be fruitless, on account of the defence of the promised Immanuel, to whom he alludes, by using His name to express the signification of it, (ver. 10,) "for God is with us :" the most distant times and countries may be fitly said to be concerned in the admonitions here given; the import of which is, that the kingdom of the Messiah will prosper, though all nations combine against it. W. Lowth, Bp. Lowth.