Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Isaiah 7:8
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Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
For the head of Syria [is] Damascus, &c.] Damascus was the metropolis of Syria, the chief city in it, where the king had his palace, and kept his court; of which (see Gill on “<011502>Genesis 15:2”) (see Gill on “<440902>Acts 9:2”): and the head of Damascus [is] Rezin; he was king of it, as of all Syria; the meaning is, that Syria, of which Damascus was the principal city, was the only country that Rezin should govern, his dominion should not be enlarged; and Ahaz, king of Judah, might assure himself that Rezin should never possess his kingdom, or be able to depose him, and set up another; and as for Ephraim or Israel, the ten tribes, they should be so far from succeeding in such a design against him, that it should befall them as follows: and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people; which is by some reckoned, not from the time of this prophecy, that being in the third or fourth year of Ahaz, who reigned in all but sixteen years; and in the ninth of Hosea king of Israel, and in the sixth of Hezekiah king of Judah, Samaria was taken, and Israel carried captive into Assyria, (<121706>2 Kings 17:6 18:1) which was but about eighteen or nineteen years from this time: some think indeed the time was shortened, because of their sins; but this does not appear, nor is it probable: and others think that it designs any time within that term; but the true meaning undoubtedly is, as the Targum renders it, “at the end of sixty and five years, the kingdom of the house of Israel shall cease.” This is commonly reckoned by the Jewish writersf125 from the prophecy of Amos, who prophesied two years before the earthquake in Uzziah’s time, concerning the captivity both of Syria and Israel, (<300101>Amos 1:1,5) (<300711>Amos 7:11,17) which account may be carried either through the kings of Judah or of Israel; Jarchi goes the former way, reckoning thus, “the prophecy of Amos was two years before Uzziah was smitten with the leprosy, according to (<300101>Amos 1:1). Uzziah was a leper twenty five years, lo, twenty seven. Jotham reigned sixteen years, Ahaz sixteen, and Hezekiah six; as it is said, “in the sixth year of Hezekiah (that is, the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel) Samaria was taken”, (<121810>2 Kings 18:10) lo, sixty five years.” So Abarbinel; but Kimchi goes another way, which comes to the same, reckoning thus, “the prophecy of Amos, according to computation, was in the seventeenth year of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel, how is it? Jeroboam reigned forty one years, Menahem ten, so there are fifty one; Pekahiah the son of Menahem two, so fifty three; and Pekah twenty, so seventy three; and Hoshea the son of Elah nine, and then Israel were carried captive, so there are eighty two: take out of them seventeen (the years of Jeroboam before the prophecy), and there remain sixty five, the number intended; for we do not reckon the six months of Zechariah, and the month of Shallum.” Cocceius reckons from the death of Jeroboam, who died in the forty first year of his reign, and in the fifteenth of Uzziah, so that there remained thirty seven years of Uzziah; in the twentieth of Jotham, that is, in the fourth after his death, Hoshea son of Elah was made king, this was the twelfth of Ahaz, (<121530>2 Kings 15:30 17:1) and in the ninth of Hoshea, Samaria was taken, and Israel carried captive. But Junius and Tremellius are of a different mind from either of these, and think the prophecy wholly respects time to c…
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