Isaiah 8:6

the waters of Shiloah According to Delitzsch the older and correct pronunciation is Shillôaḥ. The poolof Siloam (Nehemiah 3:15; John 9:7, now called -Ain Silwân) was situated on the south-west side of the Temple Mount, at the lower end of the Tyropœon valley. From a very ancient time it has been connected, by a rock-hewn tunnel, with an intermittent spring (St Mary's well) on the opposite (eastern) side of the hill, outside the wall. If this work had been executed before Isaiah's day there could be no reasonable doubt that it is referred to here. The name (from a verb meaning "send" John 9:7) suggests an artificial channel, and the expression "that go softly" exactly describes the flow of the water along the easy gradient of the tunnel. Its execution, however, is very generally assigned to Hezekiah, on the ground of 2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:30; Sir 48:17. Whether this or some still more ancient aqueduct be intended, the point of the metaphor is that the waters, flowing "fast by the oracle of God," are a type (not of the Davidic dynasty, but) of the silent unobtrusive presence and majesty of Jehovah, who "dwells in mount Zion" (Isaiah 8:18: cf. Psalms 46:4).

and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son If the text and translation be right, we must assume either (a) that "this people" does not refer to Judah, but to Ephraim or Ephraim and Syria together; or (b) that the people of Judah were secretly disaffected towards the house of David and sympathised with the design of the allied kings. But (a) "this people" most naturally means those who had refused the waters of Shiloah, the people amongst whom the prophet was living (as in Isaiah 8:11), i.e. the inhabitants of Judah; while (b) is a supposition not probable in itself, and at variance with Isaiah 7:2; Isaiah 8:12. We might retain the present text and translate "rejoice withRezin, &c.," i.e. rejoice in the same kind of things as Rezin, &c. rejoice in; but this is extremely forced. The most likely explanation is that there has been a confusion between two words of similar sound; and that what the prophet really wrote was not "rejoice in" but "faint before" (mṣôṣinstead of msôs). This presents itself as the easiest solution, although it may possibly require a change of the following preposition (perhaps mippnêinstead of "çth). Render, therefore, and faint before Rezin, &c. (cf. Isaiah 8:12 and ch. Isaiah 7:2).