, and of the Philistines, according to ver. 18.

Ver. 1. "_And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham,
the son of Uzziah, that Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of
Remaliah, the king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem, to war against
it, and could not fight against it._"

In thus tracing back the pedigree of Ahaz to Uzziah, there is a
reference to chap. vi. 1: "In the year that King Uzziah [Pg 32] died,"
&c. These two chapters stand related to each other as prophecy and
fulfilment. It was in the year of Uzziah's death that the Prophet had
been seized with fearful forebodings; and by the divine word these
fearful forebodings had soon been raised into a clear knowledge of the
threatening judgments which were impending. Under Ahaz, the second
successor of Uzziah, this knowledge began to be realized, keeping pace
with the hardening which in Ahaz had become personified. He, the type
of the unbelieving Jewish people, did not hear and understand, did not
see and perceive; and the announcement of the Prophet served merely
to increase his hardening. Even as early as that, the germ of the
carrying away of the people, announced by the Prophet in chap. vi., was
formed.--The circumstance of the hostile kings being introduced as
_going up_ implies the spiritual elevation of Jerusalem; comp. remarks
on Ps. xlviii. 3; xlviii. 17. The city of God is unconquerable unless
her inhabitants and, above all, the anointed one of God, make, by their
unbelief, their glorious privilege of no avail. In the last words:
"_And could not fight against it_," (the singular [Hebrew: ikl] because
Rezin is the chief person, Rezin and Pekah being identical with Rezin
with Pekah, comp. Esth. iv. 16), the result of the siege is
anticipated; and this is easily accounted for by the consideration that
ver. 1 serves as an introduction to the whole account, stating, in
general terms, the circumstances which induced the Prophet to come
publicly forward. In the following verses, the share only is mentioned
which the Prophet took in the matter; and the account is closed after
he has discharged his commission. The apparent contradiction to 2 Kings
xvi. 5, according to which Jerusalem was really besieged,--a
contradiction which occurs also in that passage itself: "And they
besieged Ahaz, and could not fight"--is most simply reconciled by the
remark that a fruitless struggle can, as it were, not be called a
struggle, just as, _e. g._, in the Ol