For now they shall say, we have no king
This they would say, either when they had one; but by their
conduct and behaviour said they had none; because they had no
regard unto him, no affection for him, and reverence of him; but
everyone did what was right in his own eyes: or during the
interregnum, between the murder of Pekah, which was in the
twentieth year of Jotham, and the settlement of Hoshea, which was
in the twelfth of Ahaz; see ( 2 Kings
15:30 ) ( 17:1 ) ; or
when the land of Israel was invaded, and their king was shut up
in prison, and Samaria besieged, so that it was as if they had no
king; they had none to protect and defend them, to sally out at
the head of them against the enemy, and fight their battles for
them; or rather when the city was taken, the altars broke down,
their images spoiled, and they and their king carried captive:
because we feared not the Lord:
did not serve and worship him, but idols; and this sin, casting
off the fear of the Lord, was the source and cause of all their
troubles and sorrows; of the invasion of their land; of the
besieging and taking their city, and having no king to rule over
them, and protect them: what then should a king do to
us?
if they had one, he could be of no service to them; for since
they had offended God, the King of kings, and made him their
enemy, what could an earthly king, a weak mortal man, do for
them, or against him? it was now all over with them, and they
could have no expectation of help and deliverance.