Isaiah 8:5-10

Judah Having Made Their Final Choice Even Immanuel's Land Will Suffer. Nevertheless Final Triumph Is Certain Because It Is Immanuel's Land (Isaiah 8:5).

Two facts emerge from the words that follow. The first is that Immanuel's coming cannot be too near, for the land is first to be possessed by Assyria. And the second is that when Immanuel does come none will be able to resist him.

a And Yahweh spoke to me yet again, saying, “Forasmuch as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah which go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son (Isaiah 8:5).

b Now therefore, behold, Yahweh brings up on them the waters of the River, strong and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory (Isaiah 8:7 a).

c And he will come up over all his channels, and go up over all his banks, and he will sweep on into Judah, he will overflow and pass through (Isaiah 8:7 a).

c He will reach even to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel” (Isaiah 8:8 b).

b Make an uproar, O you peoples, and you will be broken in pieces, and give ear all you of far off countries, gird yourselves, and you will be broken in pieces, gird yourselves and you will be broken in pieces (Isaiah 8:9).

a Take counsel together and it will be brought to nought, speak the word and it will not stand. For God is with us (or ‘because of Immanu-el') (Isaiah 8:10).

In ‘a' the northern kingdom of Israel have rejected the house of David and sought to other kings, while in the parallel His true people will finally look to the true son of David, Immanuel. In ‘b' Israel will be swamped by the waters of The River, by the Assyrian might, but in the parallel the final result can only be that all peoples will be broken in pieces (by Immanuel). In ‘c' and parallel both Israel and Judah will be swamped by the king of Assyria.

Isaiah 8:5

‘And Yahweh spoke to me yet again, saying, “Forasmuch as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah which go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son, now therefore, behold, Yahweh brings up on them the waters of the River, strong and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And he will come up over all his channels, and go up over all his banks, and he will sweep on into Judah, he will overflow and pass through. He will reach even to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.” '

The choice that Israel, the northern kingdom, have made is now clearly outlined. (For ‘this people' as referring to Israel see Isaiah 9:16. Right from the beginning Isaiah has been concerned for Israel as well as Judah. All the prophets considered them to be one kingdom. See on Isaiah 1:3). They have refused the gentle waters of Shiloah, Jerusalem and the son of David, and have chosen Rezin and the son of Remaliah.

The waters of Shiloah (Siloam) ran from the spring Gihon into Jerusalem. They represented the lifeblood of Jerusalem, especially in time of siege, and were the place of coronation for the Davidic house (1 Kings 1:33; 1 Kings 1:38; 1 Kings 1:45). Furthermore the continual reference to ‘Remaliah's son' without giving a name is drawing attention to the fact that they have rejected ‘David's son'. They have continually turned from Jerusalem, the place of God's earthly dwelling, and from Yahweh's anointed, the Davidic king, to a stranger to that house.

But instead of the gentle waters of Shiloah, which could have been theirs and which they have refused, their choice will bring on them the raging torrent of Assyria. ‘The River' is the Euphrates, and symbolises the king of Assyria with his mighty and splendid forces, his ‘glory'. He will come like a great river overflowing its channels and banks, sweeping away Syria and Israel, and then continuing on into Judah, overflowing and passing through at such depth that it reaches to the neck. So in spite of Ahaz's hopes Judah will not escape. He will discover just what it means to be a tributary of Assyria.

The reference to ‘even to the neck' may be intended to indicate a deep flood (see Ezekiel 47:3), or it may suggest that it would not quite drown Judah as it would Israel. Or indeed it may indicate both of these (compare Isaiah 30:28). Although Judah may be caught up to the neck, it will not overwhelm them. They will finally survive. This may refer to the effects of the large Assyrian army as it stations itself in Judah as its tributary, as a warning of its presence to nations round about, or it may more likely have in mind the future when inevitably Judah will seek to withhold tribute and will become the objects of Assyrian anger. It could be seen as a fair picture of the later situation when the whole of Judah was subdued, Lachish was taken and Jerusalem stood alone (Isaiah 36:2). It was then certainly in it up to the neck. But either way Judah will not be swept away, because it is the land promised to Immanuel.

What now follows takes up what has been said, and will shortly be said (Isaiah 9:5), about the coming Immanuel. The point being made is that the coming of Immanuel is not to be seen as so near that it will prevent the consequences of Ahaz's disobedience, and this is expressed for his hearer's sake in terms of prophetic words spoken to the future Immanuel.

‘And the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.' Let the coming Immanuel be aware of what will happen before he comes. We must most probably see this as depicting Yahweh as speaking warningly through Isaiah into the future, as though speaking to the coming child, the coming Immanuel. The coming child of the house of David must ‘recognise' the true situation (although the intention is really that his listeners, and those who follow them, will recognise the situation). None must think that because Immanuel is coming they will escape the consequences of Ahaz's behaviour (and subsequently of Hezekiah's behaviour - Isaiah 39:3). While the land will still belong to Judah when he comes, nevertheless when he does come he must not expect to come to a powerful throne. He must expect rather to find that he comes in a time of need when his land has been possessed by the enemies of Judah, with enemy forces everywhere.

And this process of occupation will begin shortly with the descent of Assyria like a bird outstretching its wings, who will fill the whole land (compare Isaiah 36:1). Those who have travelled in the wilderness and been aware of vultures hovering overhead when they sense the possibility of a dead carcase, casting the shadow of their wings over what is below, will best appreciate these words. But the shadow of Assyria's outstretched wings will be so threatening that it will darken the whole land.

This was thus a portent, a portent of the fact that, as a result of disobedience and folly, the land would continue thus to be overshadowed until Immanuel came to deliver it. And as we now know, the Assyrian shadow would continue on through their successors. There would come the Babylonian shadow, and then the Persian shadow, and then the Greek shadow, and then the Roman shadow, and all as a result of disobedience. Judah would never again be truly free from such shadows for long, and there will rarely be any relief from them, until Immanuel comes, so that Immanuel must recognise that He will inevitably come to a war torn country suffering under a continuing powerful threat, because as a result of God's rejection of the seed of Ahaz, Jerusalem's continual independence is over until He comes.

‘O Immanuel (‘God is with us').' This cryptic reference, coming here following the prophetic declaration in Isaiah 7:14, must be seen as confirming the centrality of the Immanuel idea to the whole passage from Isaiah 7:1 onwards up to Isaiah 9:6. All has in mind that Immanuel is coming. Ahaz, having been rejected, will fail. The king of Assyria will come, and Syria and Israel will be desolated. Then Assyria will descend on Judah, who up to this point had been free, and will take it all under his threatening wing. All this must precede his coming. But at last, once man has done his worst Immanuel will eventually come. For he will come in the midst of disaster, as a result of God's miraculous intervention, with the guarantee that after disaster hope will spring up, even in the midst of that disaster. (It is a kind of pre-run in respect of His first coming of the second coming teaching of imminence connected with delay).

Alternately some see the ‘He' here as referring to God. Then it is saying ‘the stretching out of His wings will fill the breadth of your land, (but) God is with us', indicating that while God will allow them to be submerged to the neck He will not finally allow Judah and Jerusalem to fall. His outstretched wings would protect them because ‘God is with us'. For in Scripture outstretched wings regularly indicate protection (Psalms 17:8; Psalms 36:7; Psalms 57:1; Psalms 63:7; Psalms 91:4).

A third possible alternative, although Isaiah 8:10 might be seen as against it, is that here Ahaz is sarcastically being referred to as considering himself to be Immanuel. The people saw him as the Davidic representative, ‘the breath of their nostrils' (Lamentations 4:20), the proof that God was with them, and he may possibly have thought in that way of himself. But what is to happen will prove otherwise. So in terms of this interpretation Isaiah is saying in a sarcastic tone, ‘O Immanuel', in other words ‘you think you are Immanuel but you are not'. The first interpretation seems to us the most likely as it takes the term in its plain meaning, and is in keeping with the idea of hope for the future, which is a constant Isaianic theme (Isaiah 1:24; Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 4:2).

Isaiah 8:9

‘Make an uproar, O you peoples, and you will be broken in pieces, and give ear all you of far off countries, gird yourselves, and you will be broken in pieces, gird yourselves and you will be broken in pieces. Take counsel together and it will be brought to nought, speak the word and it will not stand. For God is with us (or ‘because of Immanu-el').'

Once Immanuel Does Come All Will Be Broken Before Him.

Isaiah now challenges the nations about their dealings with Immanuel's people. Let them beware, for while God may allow them to be downtrodden in the short term, resistance against Immanuel when he comes will be futile. Whoever then comes against his people will be confounded. For whatever may happen at the present time, they can be confident of one thing, that once Immanuel comes all will be well. None will be able to stand against him, because God will be with him. So let all nations who have their eyes on Judah beware and take note that on the coming of the anticipated triumphant son of David all who oppose him will in the end face disaster. If the people make an uproar against him they will be broken in pieces, if they hear the call to go against him and prepare themselves, they will be broken in pieces, Yes, if they prepare themselves for battle against him they will be broken in pieces. Note the threefold repetition (typical of Isaiah, compare Isaiah 7:23) of ‘broken in pieces'. For to fight against the coming Immanuel will, to use a modern illustration, be like battering their heads against a brick wall. Even if they take counsel together it will be brought to nothing (see Psalms 2:1; Acts 4:24), if they speak the word to move against him it will only result in disaster. For in the end whatever happens Immanuel will triumph. (For the whole of this idea compare Psalms 2:1). And this is because Immanuel is destined to rule. It will be because for his sake ‘immanu El', ‘God will be with us'. The deliberate use of El here (rather than Elohim) stresses the specific connection with the name of Immanuel.