With arrows and with bows shall men come thither ,.... For fear of wild beasts, serpents, and scorpions, as Jarchi; or in order to hunt them, as others; or because of thieves and robbers, as Aben Ezra: because all the land shall become briers and thorns ; among which such creatures, and such sort of men, would hide themselves. read more
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
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
War-pictures. I. INVADING HOSTS . The armies of Egypt and Assyria are compared to swarms of bees. As the bee-master calls to his winged slaves with a peculiar sound, so at the call of Jehovah the swarms of Israel's foes will come on, with swords that sting, and settle down in the low-lying pastures of the land, in the rock-clefts, the hedges of thorn, and the pastures. (For the image of the bees, compare Deuteronomy 1:44 ; Psalms 118:1-29 .) In Joel 2:1-32 . we find a splendid... read more
National judgment for national sins. In this latter part of the chapter we have one of those highly elaborate, intense, and suggestive pictures which are peculiar to the books of the prophets. The mighty Assyrian army sweeps over the land; the people flee before them; they fill every corner; they eat up all the food; they carry away all the flocks and herds; a man can barely save one cow and two sheep; they consume the fruits; they trample down the shrubs; they bear off the people captive;... read more
With arrows and with bows . Only the hunter will go there, armed with his weapons of chase, to kill the wild animals that will haunt the thickets. read more
With arrows and with bows ... - This is a continuation of the description of its desolation. So entirely would it be abandoned, so utterly desolate would it be, that it would become a vast hunting-ground. It would be covered with shrubs and trees that would afford a convenient covert for wild beasts; and would yield to its few inhabitants a subsistence, not by cultivation, but by the bow and the arrow. There can scarcely be a more striking description of utter desolation. But, perhaps, the long... read more
Isaiah 7:21-25. These verses “contain an elegant and very expressive description of a country depopulated, and left to run wild, from its adjuncts and circumstances; the vineyards and corn-fields, before well cultivated, now overrun with briers and thorns; much grass, so that the few cattle that are left, a young cow and two sheep, 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,... read more
7:1-12:6 JUDAH IN THE REIGN OF AHAZChapters 7-12 belong to the reign of Ahaz, when Pekah the king of Israel and Rezin the king of Syria (Aram) joined forces to attack Ahaz, with the aim of forcing Judah into their anti-Assyrian alliance. Before reading these chapters, readers should be familiar with the historical background given in the introduction under the heading ‘Israel and Syria attack Judah’.Isaiah’s message for Ahaz (7:1-25)When the Judean king Ahaz hears of the approach of the... read more
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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