The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim
The ten tribes, now in confederacy with the Syrians, whose
metropolis or fortress was Samaria, which seems to be intended
here; and should be destroyed, at least taken out of the hands of
the Israelites, and they be carried captive by Shalmaneser king
of Assyria, ( 2 Kings 17:6
) and this may be understood, not of that particular city and
fortress only, but of all their strongholds, the singular being,
put for the plural. The Targum is, "the government shall cease
from Ephraim"; they shall have no more a king over them, nor have
they to this day: and the kingdom from Damascus, and the
remnant of Syria;
Damascus was the head city of Syria, where the kings of Syria had
their palace; but now that and the rest of Syria should no more
be a kingdom of itself, but should be subject unto others, as it
has been ever since: they shall be as the glory of the
children of Israel, saith the
Lord of hosts;
that is, the Syrians, who were in alliance with Israel, should
share the same fate; should be carried captive as they were;
should have their metropolis and other cities, and their whole
kingdom, taken from them, and be stripped of their grandeur and
wealth, and have no more glory than they had; which was none at
all; or at least very small, as the next verse shows ( Isaiah 17:4 ) .
Isaiah 17:3
