Isaiah 7:8

For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. THE HEAD OF SYRIA (IS) DAMASCUS, AND THE HEAD OF DAMASCUS (IS) REZIN - i:e., in both Syria and Israel the capital shall remain as it is: they shall not conquer Judah, but each shall possess only his own dominions. WITHIN THREESCORE AND FIVE YEARS SHALL EPHRAIM BE BROKEN, THAT IT BE NOT A PEOPLE. As these words break the symmetry of the parallelism in this verse, either they ought to be place, after "Remaliah's son," in , or else they refer to some older prophecy of Isaiah, or of Amos (as the Jewish writers represent), parenthetically; to which, in the words "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be esta...

8._For the head of Syria is Damascus. _As if he had said, “Those two kings shall have their limits, such as they have them now. They aspire to thy kingdom; but I have set bounds to them which they shall not pass.” _Damascus _was the metropolis of _Syria_, as Paris is of France. He says, therefore, that those kings ought to be satisfied with their possessions, and that their future condition would be the same as it then was. _And Ephraim shall be broken_. After having said that it is now useless to attempt to extend their boundaries, he foretells the calamity of the kingdom of Israel; for by the word _broken _he means that the kingdom of Israel shall be annihilated, so that it shall no longer exist. The Israelites were carried into captivity, and incorporated with another nation, just as in our own time a part of Savoy has passed under the government of France, and has lost its name. This...

1-9 Ungodly men are often punished by others as bad as themselves. Being in great distress and confusion, the Jews gave up all for lost. They had made God their enemy, and knew not how to make him their friend. The prophet must teach them to despise their enemies, in faith and dependence on God. Ahaz, in fear, called them two powerful princes. No, says the prophet, they are but tails of smoking firebrands, burnt out already. The two kingdoms of Syria and Israel were nearly expiring. While God has work for the firebrands of the earth, they consume all before them; but when their work is fulfilled, they will be extinguished in smoke. That which Ahaz thought most formidable, is made the ground of their defeat; because they have taken evil counsel against thee; which is an offence to God. God scorns the scorners, and gives his word that the attempt should not succeed. Man purposes, but God...

Verse Isaiah 7:8. _FOR THE HEAD OF SYRIA, C._] "Though the head of Syria be Damascus, And the head of Damascus Retsin Yet within _threescore_ and _five_ years Ephraim shall be broken, that he be no more a people: And the head of Ephraim be Samaria; And the head of Samaria Remaliah's son. "Here are _six_ lines, or _three_ distichs, the order of which seems to have been disturbed by a transposition, occasioned by three of the lines beginning with the same word וראש _verosh_, "and the head," which three lines ought not to have been separated by any other line intervening; but

FOR THE HEAD OF SYRIA - The “capital.” The “head” is often used in this sense. IS DAMASCUS - For an account of this city, see the notes at Isaiah 17:1; compare the notes at Acts 9:2. The sense of this passage is, ‘Do not be alarmed as if Rezin was about to enlarge his kingdom, by taking Judea and making Jerusalem his capital. The revolution which these kings contemplate cannot be accomplished. The kingdoms of Syria and Israel shall not be enlarged by the conquest of Judah. The center of their power shall remain where it is now, and their dominion shall not be extended by conquest. The capital of Syria is, and shall continue to be, Damascus. The king of Syria shall be confined within his present limits, and Jerusalem, therefore, shall be safe.’...

SECTION IV. PROPHECIES CONNECTED WITH THE SYRO-ISRAELITE WAR (Isaiah 7-10:4). EXPOSITION ISAIAH 7:1 THE PROPHECY GIVEN TO AHAZ AT THE TIME OF THE SYRO-ISRAELITISH WAR. The Syro-Israelitish war is touched on both in Kings and Chronicles. In Kings the alliance between Rezin and Pekah is distinctly declared, as also the fact that they conjointly besieged Jerusalem (2 Kings 16:5). From Chronicles we lear

FOR THE HEAD OF SYRIA [IS] DAMASCUS,.... Damascus was the metropolis of Syria, the chief city in it, where the king had his palace, and kept his court; of which Genesis 15:2 Acts 9:2: AND THE HEAD OF DAMASCUS [IS] REZIN; he was king of it, as of all Syria; the meaning is, that Syria, of which Damascus was the principal city, was the only country that Rezin should govern, his dominion should not be enlarged; and Ahaz, king of Judah, might assure himself that Rezin should never possess his kingdom, or be able to depose him, and set up another; and as for Ephraim or Israel, the ten tribes, they should be so far from succeeding in such a design against him, that it should befall them as follows: AND WITHIN THREESCORE AND FIVE YEARS SHALL EPHRAIM BE BROKEN, THAT IT BE NOT A PEOPLE; wh

Isaiah 7:1. _And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind._ They were tossed to and fro, bent, thrown down, as the trees of a forest in a tornado. They had already felt the power of these two confederate kings, and they were terribly afraid. David himself would have had confidence in God; but «the house of David» had gone far astray. Ahaz had cast off the fear of God, and he had therefore great fear of men. Isaiah 7:3

CHAPTER 7 The Prophet before King Ahaz 1. _The king in trouble (Isaiah 7:1)_ 2. _Isaiah sent and his message (Isaiah 7:3)_ 3. _A sign offered and refused (Isaiah 7:10)_ 4. _The sign: The virgin birth (Isaiah 7:13)_ 5. _The advent of the Assyrian (Isaiah 7:17)_ Study carefully the historic setting of this chapter and2 Chronicles 28:1-27 7. See lecture on “Messianic Predictions.” In verse 14 the virgin birth of Christ is announced. Much of the controversy is around the word “virgin” (almah), which the critics declare does not m

ISAIAH GIVES AHAZ THE ENCOURAGING SIGN OF IMMANUEL WHEN HE IS DISMAYED BY THE ALLIANCE OF SYRIA AND EPHRAIM AGAINST HIM. For the historical circumstances see pp. 59, 70f. Apart from Isaiah 7:1, which is derived from 2 Kings 16:5 and is out of chronological order, this section seems to have been written by an editor on the basis of Isaiah's autobiography (contrast the 1st person of the preceding chapter with the 3rd of this). The alarm, described in the picturesque metaphor of Isaiah 7:2, specially affected the house of David, since its position was menaced by the project of the allies to abolish the Davidic dynasty and install a creature of their own. The news which caused such dismay was that Syria had alighted on Ephraim ...