Isaiah 28:6

Jehovah is not only the beauty of the redeemed nation, but the source of all civic and martial virtues.

a spirit of judgment The same phrase (but with a different meaning) occurs in ch. Isaiah 4:4. "Spirit" is used here as in ch. Isaiah 11:2. to him that sitteth in judgment (or "over the judgment[-seat]") the king or the judge (cf. ch. Isaiah 32:1).

for strength(or, valour) to them that … gate Better, at the gate, not the gate of the enemy, but of the city or land (Nahum 3:13) into which the enemy have penetrated. The promise is somewhat remarkable for Isaiah (cf. Micah 5:5 ff.).

7, 8 form the literary introduction to the dramatic incident represented in Isaiah 28:9; they are not part of Isaiah's spoken discourse on that occasion. The opening words But these also (R.V.) connect this section with the preceding, but the connexion is due to similarity of subject, and not to coincidence of date. There are obvious reasons why the prediction of the fall of Samaria should be republished in the time of Sennacherib. The magnates of Jerusalem were following the lead of Samaria, both in their dissolute habits and in their foolish trust in an Egyptian alliance; Samaria is a mirror in which they may read their own character and their own doom. On intemperance among the Judæan nobility see ch. Isaiah 5:11 f., Isaiah 5:22.