Isaiah 8:6

Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah, that go softly,.... The same with Siloam, John 9:7 and so it is called in the Septuagint version here; and the word here used signifies "sent", as it is there interpreted.

The LORD spake also unto me again, saying, The Lord spake also unto me ... Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly. Their source is on the southeast of Zion and east of Jerusalem.

This people; either, 1. The people of Judah, which are supposed to have grown weary of their present government, and out of distrust of God’ s protection designed to revolt from God, and from the house of David, and to put themselves under the power and protection of the kings of Syria and Israel. But there are no footsteps of any such design or practice of that people. And the following clause of rejoicing in Bezin, &c. cannot with any colour be ascribed to the Jews, whom at this time they sought to destroy. Or rather, 2. The people of Israel, of whom he last spake, , and who are the chief subject of this whole prophecy, contained in this and the foregoing chapter; and who did rejoice not only in their own king Pekah, but also in the assistance of go powerful an ally as Rezin was. Refuseth; or rather, despiseth, as the word properly and most frequently signifies. The waters of Shiloah; that small and contemptible river or brook which ran by that city, which is here secretly opposed to the great rivers of Tigris and Euphrates, by which the Assyrian empire was fortified. Hereby he understands the munitions and strength of the Jews, which their enemies derided and contemned. That go softly; gently, as little rivers do.

Isaiah 8:6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’ s son;Ver. 6. Forasmuch as this people.] The ten revolted tribes, not worth the naming. Refuse the waters of Shiloah.] Slight and contemn the small means and strength of the Church: Humilem et obscurum stature regni Zionis. That run softly] At the foot of Mount Zion, creeping and crooking, slowly and slyly; called therefore, as some think, the dragon’ s well. Caesar saith the like of the river Araris, probably Sone; and the poet Claudian of the Nile, “ Lene fluit Nilus, sed cunctis amnibus extat Utilior, nullas coafessus murmure vires. ” And rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’ s son.] "Rejoice in a thing of nought," as Amos’ s expression is in Amos 6:13. The Hebrew here hath it thus: And joy is to Rezin, &c.; that is, the Syrians and Israelites both are much cheered up to see that Judah is at so great an under, and so easy to be overcome, as they think. De Bell. Gall., lib. i.

(6) Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah . . .—Grammatically, the words “this people” might seem to refer to Judah, and suggest the thought that the tyranny of Ahaz had made him so unpopular that his subjects welcomed the invaders. On this view Ahaz sought the alliance with Tiglath-pilneser as against his own subjects no less than against Syria or Ephraim. He was as a Ferdinand of Naples falling back on Austria to protect him against Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel. What line was the prophet to take? Was he to take the side of the king, or that of his rebellious subjects who were ready to sacrifice their independence? As it is, he sides with neither, and has a warning for each. Each is running blindly into destruction. The prophet could hardly have blamed the people of Syria and Israel for following their own kings; but it was for him a strange and monstrous thing that Judah should follow their example. We must remember, too, that in spite of the weakness and wickedness of Ahaz, the prophet’s hopes rested on the house of David (Isaiah 11:1), and that Hezekiah was already old enough to justify that hope. The “waters of Shiloah that go softly,” issuing from the slope between Moriah and Zion, “fast by the oracles of God” (Psalms 46:4; John 9:7), presenting so striking a contrast to the great rivers, Nile, Euphrates, Hiddekel (Tigris), on which stood the capitals of great empires, or even to the Abana and Pharpar of Syria, and the Jordan of Ephraim, were a natural symbol of the ideal polity and religion of Judah. (Comp. Ezekiel 47:1-5.) In acting as they did the people were practically apostatising as much as “that king Ahaz” of 2 Chronicles 28:22.

Verse 6. Forasmuch as this people refuseth - "Because this people have rejected"] The gentle waters of Shiloah, a small fountain and brook just without Jerusalem, which supplied a pool within the city for the use of the inhabitants, is an apt emblem of the state of the kingdom and house of David, much reduced in its apparent strength, yet supported by the blessing of God; and is finely contrasted with the waters of the Euphrates, great, rapid, and impetuous; the image of the Babylonian empire, which God threatens to bring down like a mighty flood upon all these apostates of both kingdoms, as punishment for their manifold iniquities, and their contemptuous disregard of his promises. The brook and the river are put for the kingdoms to which they belong, and the different states of which respectively they most aptly represent. Juvenal, inveighing against the corruption of Rome by the importation of Asiatic manners, says, with great elegance, that "the Orontes has been long discharging itself into the Tiber:" - Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes. And Virgil, to express the submission of some of the Eastern countries to the Roman arms, says: - Euphrates ibat jam mollior undis. AEn. viii. 726. "The waters of the Euphrates now flowed more humbly and gently." But the happy contrast between the brook and the river gives a peculiar beauty to this passage of the prophet, with which the simple figure in the Roman poets, however beautiful, yet uncontrasted, cannot contend.

6. the waters of Shiloah] According to Delitzsch the older and correct pronunciation is Shillτaḥ ?. The pool of Siloam (Nehemiah 3:15; John 9:7, now called ‘Ain Silwβn) was situated on the south-west side of the Temple Mount, at the lower end of the Tyrop�on 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 8:11-12), 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 with Rezin, &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” (mṣ ?τṣ ? instead of msτs). This presents itself as the easiest solution, although it may possibly require a change of the following preposition (perhaps mippnκ instead of ’ηth). Render, therefore, and faint before Rezin, &c. (cf. Isaiah 8:12 and ch. Isaiah 7:2).

Forasmuch as this people - There has been a considerable difference of opinion among interpreters respecting the ‘people’ to whom the prophet here refers.

6. Forasmuch as this people — Israel is especially meant, though Judah, in a general sense, is included.