Isaiah 7:1

As the following prophecies could not be understood apart from the historical circumstances to which they refer, the prophet commences with a historical announcement."It came to pass, in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah (Uziyhu), king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aramaea, and Pekah (Pekach) the son of Remaliah (Remalyhu), king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, and (he) could not make war upon it." We have the same words, with only slight variations, in the history of the reign of Ahaz in Kg2 16:5. That the author of the book of Kings copied them from the book of Isaiah, will be very apparent when we come to examine the historical chapters (36-39) in their relation to the parallel sections of the book of Kings. In the passage before us, the want of independence on the part of the author of the book of Kings is confirmed by the fact that he not only repeats, but also interprets, the words of Isaiah. Instead of saying, "And (he) could not make war upon it," he says, "And they besieged Ahaz, and could not make war." The singular yâcol (he could) of Isaiah is changed into the simpler plural, whilst the statement that the two allies could not assault or storm Jerusalem (which must be the meaning of nilcham ‛al in the passage before us), is more clearly defined by the additional information that they did besiege Ahaz, but to no purpose (tzur ‛al, the usual expression for obsidione claudere; cf., Deu 20:19). The statement that "they besieged Ahaz" cannot merely signify that "they attempted to besiege him," although nothing further is known about this siege. But happily we have two accounts of the Syro-Ephraimitish war (2 Kings 16 and 2 Chron 28). The two historical books complete one another. The book of Kings relates that the inva…

The prophet Isaiah had his commission renewed in the year that king Uzziah died, Isa 6:1. Jotham his son reigned, and reigned well, sixteen years. All that time, no doubt, Isaiah prophesied as he was commanded, and yet we have not in this book any of his prophecies dated in the reign of Jotham; but this, which is put first, was in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham. Many excellent useful sermons he preached which were not published and left upon record; for, if all that was memorable had been written, the world could not have contained the books, Joh 21:25. Perhaps in the reign of Ahaz, a wicked king, he had not opportunity to preach so much at court as in Jotham's time, and therefore then he wrote the more, for a testimony against them. Here is, I. A very formidable design laid against Jerusalem by Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel, two neighbouring potentates, who had of late made descents upon Judah severally. At the end of the reign of Jotham, the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin and Pekah, Kg2 15:37. But now, in the second or third year of the reign of Ahaz, encouraged by their former successes, they entered into an alliance against Judah. Because Ahaz, though he found the sword over his head, began his reign with idolatry, God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria and of the king of Israel (Ch2 28:5), and a great slaughter they made in his kingdom, Isa 7:6, Isa 7:7. Flushed with this victory, they went up towards Jerusalem, the royal city, to war against it, to besiege it, and make themselves masters of it; but it proved in the issue that they could not gain their point. Note, The sin of a land brings foreign invasions upon it and betrays the most advantageous posts and passes to the enemy; and God sometimes makes one wicked nation a sc…

7:1–12:6 The historical context of these prophecies involved Assyria’s rise to power and the alliance between Syria and Israel as enemies of Judah (7:1-2; see 2 Kgs 16:5). Assyria became God’s rod to punish Syria, Israel, and Judah (Isa 7–10). 7:1-25 At one point in his reign, Ahaz found himself in a crisis. The leaders of Syria and Israel attacked Judah. They planned to replace Ahaz and force Judah to join them in their resistance against Assyria. Ahaz responded by calling Assyria in to help him (2 Kgs 16:7-10), thus refusing Isaiah’s challenge to trust the Lord instead (Isa 7:12). Although the Assyrians squelched the alliance of Syria and Israel, leading to the eventual downfall of both those nations, they also soon set their sights on total domination of Judah. 7:1 Rezin was king of Syria. Damascus was Syria’s capital city. • Pekah was king of Israel 740–732 BC. He was a renowned warrior (2 Chr 28:5-8). • Pekah and Rezin began to attack Jerusalem while Jotham was king (750–732 BC), and they intensified their efforts during the early years of young King Ahaz (2 Kgs 15:37; 16:5).