Samaria shall become desolate
With this verse the fourteenth chapter begins in the Hebrew copies, and in the Targum, and in many versions; but seems better to conclude the present chapter; since it is in close connection with ( Hosea 13:15 ) , and explains the figurative expressions there used. Samaria was the head of Ephraim, ( Isaiah 7:9 ) ; or the metropolis of the ten tribes of Israel; whose desolation is here prophesied of, and was accomplished by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, signified by the east wind; by whom it was not only besieged and taken, but very probably its houses were demolished, its walls broken down, and razed to the very foundation; see ( 2 Kings 17:5 2 Kings 17:6 ) ; and, as this was the head city, it may be put for all the rest, and even for the whole land, which was at the same time laid waste. The Targum is,
``Samaria shall be guilty;''that is, shall be found guilty of many sins; her transgression shall be revealed, as Jarchi, become manifest by the just punishment inflicted on her; for she hath rebelled against her God;