Ibn Ezra on Isaiah

And he could not. Pekah ben Remaliahu is meant; comp. Aram is confederate with Ephraim, in the next verse.

Ephraim. The kingdom of the ten tribes is called Ephraim, because their first king Jeroboam was of that tribe (1 Kings 2:26). עם=על With; comp. האנשים על הנשים The men with the women (Exod. 35:22)

נא Now. Shear Yashub. The name of the prophet’s son, as I shall explain (ver. 14). בנך Thy son. Those that derive בנך from בינה understanding understand nothing of grammar. תעלת Ditch (comp. 1 Kings 18:38), where the water is running; while בְרֵכָה pool signifies a gathering of rain water; many derive בְּרֵכָה from בְּרָכָה blessing, its water coming from a blessed place, from heaven.

חִשָּׁמֵ֨ר Accent on the last syllable. This word is to be compared with שמרים dregs, lees (25:6.), שמריו ושקם הוא על He has settled on his lees (Jerem. 48:11), and explained, Remain on thy lees (that is remain quiet), for הִשָּֽׁמֶר Take heed has the accent on the last syllable but one; and besides, the following Fear not proves the correctness of this explanation. והשקט Transitive verb Make quiet; supply נפשך thyself or עמך thy people. Tails of smoking firebrands. The prophet compares these kings to the tails of firebrands—אודים firebrands comp. Zach. 3:2—because they are like the remnant of a firebrand that smokes, but cannot burn; and adds. In the fierce anger because it is by their fierce anger that they are like tails of firebrands.

יען Because. י is perhaps the preformative of the future.

ונקיצנה Transitive verb, let us cause her to be distressed because of us; the suffix נה her, refers to Jerusalem; the following, Let us make a breach therein, proves the correctness of this interpretation. The son of Tobel. According to some טבאל is by a certain interchange of letters the same as רמלא, and בן טבאל therefore the same as בן רמליהו; this is nonsense, because Ben Remaliahu is mentioned before, and he says with Aram, Let us set a king in the midst of it, the son of Tobel. Others say that טָבְאַל means טׂב אֵלֵינוּ good for us, but אַל can only be taken as equal to לא, and בן טבאל would then be בן טבלא = good for nothing; but I conclude that it is the name of some famous prince in Israel or Aram.

תקום Shall stand. Supply זאת העצה this counsel; for יעץ he has taken counsel is mentioned above (ver. 5), and I stated already (5:2) that the verb contains implicitly a verbal noun, when it is not directly mentioned.

כי Although, Comp. כי עם קשה ערף הוא Although they be a stiffnecked people. (Exod. 34:9.) This plan will not be realised, although Rezin and Pekah besiege Jerusalem. And yet threescore, etc. Comp. the common phrase so and so many years are still left before such and such an event will take place. ב in בעוד is superfluous as in (טרם=)בטרם before. These sixty-five years begin with the year of the earthquake, that happened in the days of Uzziah, when Amos prophesied And Israel will surely go into exile (Amos 7:11). Comp. And it was at the end of forty years (2 Sam. 15:7.) יֵחַת Shall be broken; comp. החתות Thou hast broken (9:3); it is Niphal, like יִמַּס (13:7) Will be melted מֵעָם By a people. Evil shall befall them by means of a people that will come against them. יֵחַת can also be Kal of a verb נחת ,פ״נ to go down, (like יִגַּשׁ he will approach; comp. תֵּחַת It comes down) (Prov. 17:9); הנחת Cause to come down (Joel 3:11), where the נ is not omitted. The meaning of יֵחַת מֵעָם is accordingly: They will go down and be no more considered as a nation.

And the head of, etc. As I explained. If you will not believe. Supply speak, or ask for a sign; wherefore immediately succeeds, And the Lord, etc., Ask thee a sign. But it appears that when the prophet said, If ye will not believe, etc., Ahaz did not answer. כי לא תאמנו Because there is no truth in you; comp. ויאמנו דבריכם So shall your words be verified (Gen. 42:20)

Unto Ahaz. Through Isaiah; comp. And the Lord spake unto Manasseh and unto his people (2 Chr. 33:10).

העמק שאלה. Two consecutive imperatives without the conjunctive ו; comp. התאחדי הימיני Go thee one way, go on the right hand (Ez. 21:16). שְׁאָלָה Imperative, like שְׁמָעָה hear (Dan. 9:19). Ask, and touch the depth with the question, or ask on high above. Many take both העמק and הגבה as infinitives.

I will not ask, etc. From the answer of the prophet we conclude that the words of Ahaz must be taken in a bad sense: I shall not ask nor shall I try Him, for I know that He cannot do what I should ask Him.

To weary men. To make them tired of a thing which they have tried to accomplish, so that they become unable to continue their efforts. Because you are kings, and people cannot resist you, you think the same about the ways of God.

Therefore the Lord himself etc. Though you do not ask a sign, He will give it you. It is to me a matter of surprise that there are those who say the prophet here refers to Jesus, since the sign was given to Ahaz, and Jesus was born many years afterwards; besides, the prophet says, For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land shall be forsaken; but the countries of Ephraim and Syria were wasted in the sixth year of Hezekiah, and it is distinctly said of whose two kings, etc. Many make the mistake of identifying Immanuel with Hezekiah; they cannot be the same, granting even this prophecy to have been uttered at the beginning of the reign of Ahaz; he reigned only sixteen years, and Hezekiah was at the death of Ahaz twenty-five years old. According to others, Immanuel is another son of Ahaz, and others again take the names (Immanuel, Maher Shalal and Shear Yashub) as symbolical of the kingdom; but if so, what meaning would be in the child’s knowing good and evil and in Maher Shalal calling father and mother? (8:4). I think that Immanuel is the son of Isaiah, as well as Maher Shalal; the latter is proved by And I went unto the prophetess, etc. (8:3). Shear Yashub is similarly related to the prophet (ver. 3); each of the three sons received a name that contained some hint at future events; Immanuel implied that God would help them and be with them during the troubles caused by the two kings; Maher Shalal, that the time for the exile of Samaria had arrived; and Shear Yashub, that the remnant of Israel would repent; this explanation is well borne out by the words, Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and for wonders. Comp. The children which the Lord hath graciously given to thy servant (Gen. 33:5). Those that in the former passage regard children as equivalent to pupils must produce us some analogy from Scripture. Isaiah himself was a sign and an example concerning Egypt (20:3).—The Gaon says that the sign consisted in the child being a male child; but in my opinion the sign was that the child was to eat butter and honey; for it is not usual that children eat these things immediately after their birth. after its birth. We know that a male child is called נער, a female child נערה or עלמה—the feminine of עֶלֶם—whether she be a virgin or not; for עלמה signifies a person of a certain age, like the masculine עלם; and in דרך גבר בעלמה the way of a man with a young woman (Prov. 30:19) עלמה is certainly not a virgin; because at the beginning of that passage it is said, which I know not (ibid. 18). וקראת And shall call. Subject is, העלמה; comp. וחטאת And it sinneth (Ex. 5:16).

ברע The bad. The bad food; as הטוב the good means the good food.

For before the child shall know, etc. Some assume that such is the case at the age of twenty years, because of the words of Moses, From twenty years old, etc. (Exod. 30:14); if so, this prophecy must have been delivered after the second year of the reign of Ahaz. But it is possible that an earlier age than twenty is meant.

The Lord shall bring unto thee, etc. When Samaria and Damascus will be exiled, then Sennacherib shall come against Judah.

The fly. The host is compared to a fly. The rivers of Egypt. The king of Assyria conquered Egypt; therefore the Egyptians had to come to assist him.

וְנָחֽוּ And shall rest. Accent on the last syllable; comp. שָֽׂמוּ (Gen. 40:15), וְשָׂמֽוּ (Num. 6:27). בתות Desolate places. Comp. בתה desolate (5:6). ובנקיקי And in the holes of. Hapax legomenon; its meaning is found by the context. נעצוצים Thorns Trees that bear no fruit. Comp. נעצוץ (55:13) thorn. נהלולים Bushes. Hap. leg.—They will be so many that they will encamp even in uninhabited and desolate places.

Shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired. This refers to the angel of the Lord coming forth and destroying the camp of Assyria (37:36). Some take השכירה in the meaning of great; comp. שכיריה (Jer. 46:21) her great ones. I think that שכירה is a noun like אכילה the eating (1 Kings 19:8), derived from שכר hire, which the owner of the razor receives; for this instrument, the hired razor, is very sharp; it is his profession. The head, the hair of the feet, the beard. Every mighty one, all princes and noblemen; it is said so distinctly (9:14)

ושתי צאן And two sheep. Elliptical expression for ושתי שיות צאן And two lambs of the flock. A man. Every one that will be in Jerusalem.

And it shall come, etc. God will send a blessing, so that plenty will spring out of little; therefore the sign was given, He will eat butter and honey.

היה=יהיה Was; comp. ישיר (Exod. 15:1) sang, יעשו They made (Ps. 106:19). שמיר ושית Two kinds of thorns. This figure refers to the hosts of Assyria that destroyed the land year after year.

With arrows, etc. One will not be able to enter the vineyards of former days, unless armed with arrows, from fear, they might harbour robbers or wild beasts in the thickets.

And on all hills, etc. And all the hills, where vineyards have formerly been carefully dressed, will now again be prepared; for there will be no thorns, and God will give such a blessing on the vineyards of the mountains, that people will send the cattle there; comp. He bindeth his foal to the vine (Gen. 49:4). The prophet says that from one cow and two sheep there will be obtained a plentiful supply of milk; and the vineyards of the mountains, that will alone remain undamaged, will enjoy a boundless blessing from the Almighty.