Commentary upon the Prophecy of Isaiah

Vers. 8. And shall break into Judah, and shall overflow and pass through, and shall come up to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

Vers. 8. And shall breake into Iudah, and shall ouerflow and passe thorow, and shall come vp to the necke; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

This similitude is taken from a man, who entering into a river, goes forward by degrees till at length he come up to the neck. So shall Judah be environed with this boisterous flood; to wit, with the Assyrian: in such sort, as he shall wade into it up to the neck. Now he speaks this of Jerusalem, which was the chief and capital ⟨p. 90⟩City in the kingdom: for when the Assyrian arrived there, it was no hard matter to destroy all Judah. The breadth of thy land. That is to say, over all the parts of it. The Prophet goes on still with the similitude of his prophecy, and she•es how great the violence of the Assyrian will be, and he amplifies his fierceness and turbulency by the same similitude, to wit, of a raging stream, which having broken all ramparts that could be set before it, overflows and spreads every way, overcarries and bears all down before it. For he follows his denunciation against the Jews, as he began to do in the two former verses. And as he had threatened the Israelites and Syrians with destruction, so now he likewise threatens the Jews with the same. For the better understanding whereof, we must consider the context which Isaiah disposeth very §1fitly. He had directed his speech before to others, because Ahaz was unworthy of it. The Lord shall give you a sign, and this we have §2handled in the former Chapter. He therewithal adds the means whereby to preserve Jerusalem, to wit, by the sudden mutations which should happen to Israel and Syria. This was confirmed in the beginning of this Chapter as well by express commandment,