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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 7:17-25

After the comfortable promises made to Ahaz as a branch of the house of David, here follow terrible threatenings against him, as a degenerate branch of that house; for though the loving-kindness of God shall not be utterly taken away, for the sake of David and the covenant made with him, yet his iniquity shall be chastened with the rod, and his sin with stripes. Let those that will not mix faith with the promises of God expect to hear the alarms of his threatenings. I. The judgment threatened... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 7:18

And it shall come to pass in that day ,.... the time when those evil days before spoken of should take place: that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt ; or flies, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it; the Egyptians, so called because their country abounded with flies; and because of the multitude of their armies, and the swiftness of their march; this seems to have had its accomplishment when Pharaohnechoh king of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 7:19

And they shall come ,.... The Egyptian and Assyrian armies, when the Lord calls for them in his providence, and his time is come to make use of them as a scourge to his people: and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys : made so by war; this is said in allusion to flies and bees resting on trees and flowers; and signifies that these armies, after long and tedious marches, should all of them, without being diminished by the way, enter the land of Judea, fill all places, and take... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 7:20

In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired ,.... Meaning the Assyrian monarch, whom he would use as an instrument in his hand to spoil and cut off the people of the Jews; who is compared to a "razor" for sharpness; and for the thorough work, and utter ruin and destruction, he should be the means of; and called a "hired" one, either in reference to the present Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria, by which he prevailed upon him to come and help him against the kings of Syria... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 7:18

Hiss for the fly "Hist the fly" - See note on Isaiah 5:26 . Egypt, and - Assyria - Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Pharaoh-necho, and Nebuchadnezzar, who one after another desolated Judea. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 7:19

Holes of the rocks "Caverns" - So the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, whence Houbigant supposes the true reading to be הנחללים hannachalolim . One of my oldest MSS. reads הנחלולים hannochalolim . read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 7:20

The river - That is, the Euphrates: הנהר hanahar . So read the Septuagint and two MSS. Shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired "Jehovah shall shave by the hired razor" - To shave with the hired razor the head, the feet, and the beard, is an expression highly parabolical, to denote the utter devastation of the country from one end to the other; and the plundering of the people, from the highest to the lowest, by the Assyrians, whom God employed as his instrument to punish the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 7:17-20

Our pleasant vices whips for our own backs. Ahaz has made up his mind to "hire" the keen razor that lies beyond the far waters of the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia and Assyria Proper. He means to meet the danger which he sees to be impending, by his own wisdom and in his own strength. His ally, Tigiath-Pileser, "the great king, the King of Assyria" ( 2 Kings 18:28 ), shall crush the hosts of Pekah and Rezin, save Judah and Jerusalem from harm, nay, perhaps exalt Judah to the position which was... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 7:17-25

THE DANGER TO JUDAH FROM ASSYRIA . The perversity of Ahaz, already rebuked in Isaiah 7:13 , is further punished by a threat, that upon him, and upon his people, and upon his father's house, shall come shortly a dire calamity. The very power whose aid he is himself bent on invoking shall be the scourge to chastise both king and people ( Isaiah 7:17-20 ). The land shall be made bare as by a razor ( Isaiah 7:20 ). Cultivation shall cease; its scant inhabitants will support... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 7:17-25

Divine retribution. The reference of these verses is clearly national; nevertheless they may be pointed so as to bear upon individual men; for we may be sure that it is on the same principles on which God governs communities that he rules the heart and life of each one of his subjects. We gather concerning Divine retribution— I. THAT IT MAY BE WROUGHT BY VARIOUS INSTRUMENTALITIES . 1. Sometimes by unconscious instruments . 2. Sometimes by conscious agents . ... read more

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