- Adam Clarke
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
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. 8:726.
"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.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
waters of Shiloah . . . softly--Their source is on the southeast of Zion and east of Jerusalem. It means "sent," the water being sent through an aqueduct (Joh 9:7). Figurative for the mild, though now weak, sway of the house of David; in the highest sense Shiloah expresses the benignant sway of Jehovah in the theocracy, administered through David. Contrast to the violent Euphrates, "the river" that typifies Assyria (Isa 8:7; Rev 17:15). "This people" refers both to Israel, which preferred an alliance with Rezin of Syria to one with the kings of Judah, and to Judah, a party in which seems to have favored the pretentions of the son of Tabeal against David's line (Isa 7:6); also to Judah's desire to seek an Assyrian alliance is included in the censure (compare Isa 7:17). Isa 8:14 shows that both nations are meant; both alike rejected the divine Shiloah. Not "My people," as elsewhere, when God expresses favor, but "this people" (Isa 6:9).
John Gill Bible Commentary
Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah, that go softly,.... The same with Siloam, Joh 9:7 and so it is called in the Septuagint version here; and the word here used signifies "sent", as it is there interpreted. Jarchi says it is a fountain, whose name was Gihon and Shiloah; see Kg1 1:33 concerning which Jerom yet writes,
"Siloam is a fountain at the foot of Mount Sion, which does not send forth water continually, but on certain times and days; and comes through the hollow places of the earth, and caves of a hard rock, with a great noise; of which we especially cannot doubt, who dwell in this province.''
This was a small current of water, which moved softly and slowly, and not with a rapid motion, as some rivers do; to which the kingdom of the house of David is compared, because of its easy and gentle government; as the Targum, which paraphrases the words thus,
"because this people loathed the kingdom of the house of David which ruled them quietly, as the waters of Shiloah which flow softly;''
or because of the weakness of it in the days of Ahaz, it had not strength to oppose their enemies, as Kimchi suggests; now the ten tribes despised the house of David, and departed from it, and continued in their revolt, and had that government in contempt, as well as the religion of it. Jerusalem, the temple, and the worship of God in it, may be meant by the waters of Shiloah; it being usual to name places by the rivers that are near them.
And rejoice in Rezin, and in Remaliah's son: in Rezin king of Syria; and in Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel. Perhaps respect may be had to later times, to the times of the Messiah, when the Jews would despise his government, and reject him as King; though he is the Prince of peace, and his government the most quiet and peaceable one, and he the Shiloah, the sent of God, and declare they had no other king but Caesar.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
8:6 The gently flowing waters of Shiloah supplied Jerusalem with water. Here they represent God’s loving presence and provision (see Ps 46:4). • Ahaz rejected the sign and the promise of God’s protection. He was not a man of faith (Isa 7:9), and now the people were following in his footsteps by placing their hope in Assyria to save them from King Rezin and King Pekah (cp. 7:7-9, 16).
