Isaiah 8 Footnotes

8:6 Why would the people of Judah have “rejoiced with Rezin,” the Syrian king who was attacking Jerusalem and whom God had promised to destroy (v. 4)? Some hypothesize that this referred to a group who wanted to join Rezin’s revolt against Assyria, and were therefore happy to see the invader’s military progress. Other translations emend the text to read “melt in fear” (RSV), picturing the fearful people of Judah terrorized before the Syrian onslaught. The best option is to interpret the people rejoicing over the announcement in v. 4 that the “wealth of Damascus . . . will be carried off,” implying Rezin’s defeat.

8:14 Paul (Rm 9:32-33) and Peter (1Pt 2:6-8) applied this verse, together with Is 28:16, to Jesus Christ, who was rejected as Messiah by many of those to whom he came. Some interpreters object that their use of these passages is not consistent with what Isaiah meant when he spoke to his Jerusalem audience. Isaiah was speaking about Israel’s attitude toward the Lord. If, in the NT perspective, Jesus is the revelation of the Father and his activity (e.g., Jn 1:1; 14:9; 2Co 5:19; Php 2:6), then what Isaiah said about God could also be taken in a messianic sense, as applicable to Jesus.