Isaiah 7:18

18. It is not necessary to suppose that the piece of prophecy commencing here was delivered at the same time with the preceding, but it is on the same subject and in a similar strain. It is the more complete unfolding of the previously predicted calamities. That is, herein is explained what is said in Isaiah 7:15. God himself is represented as entering into the action.

In that day In the days just threatened.

Shall hiss Isaiah 5:26. The word signifies a kind of whistling. For (or to) the fly See note on Isaiah 5:26.

Uttermost part of the rivers The Nile branches and canals in the Delta. Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, it is supposed, mustered armies, mentioned here tropically by flies. The fly is an abundant nuisance in Egypt. Any traveller in Egypt, at this time, even in the winter season, may observe the fly carrying the ophthalmic virus from the eyes of one to another, among the children especially of the fellahs; and scarcely half the population are unaffected by the ophthalmic scourge.

The bee… of Assyria The bee, because of its number in Assyria, or because of the keenness of its sting, is here taken as the symbol of the Assyrian armies. The scope of time covered by the fulfilment of Isaiah 7:18 is from Isaiah’s day to the end of Israel and Judah as nations: and the armies were headed by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt, and by Shalmanezer, Esarhaddon, and Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria and Babylon.