that the prophet added on his previous oracle to them, thus
diverting it from its original application. Others, such as
Stade and Wellhausen, regard the opening verses as embodying
a mere rhetorical figure. Jerusalem, they say, appeared to
the prophet as though changed into Samaria, and it is this
transformed city which he calls "the crown of pride of the
drunkards of Ephraim."

Samaria was doomed; this was the general belief, and men went about
repeating it after Isaiah, each in his own words; every one feared lest
the disaster should spread to Judah also, and that Jahveh, having once
determined to have done with the northern kingdom, would turn His wrath
against that of the south as well. Micah the Morashtite, a prophet
born among the ranks of the middle class, went up and down the land
proclaiming misery to be the common lot of the two sister nations sprung
from the loins of Jacob, as a punishment for their common errors and
weaknesses. "The Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come and
tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be
molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before
the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place. For the
transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of
Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and
what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?" The doom
pronounced against Samaria was already being carried out, and soon the
hapless city was to be no more than "an heap of the field, and as the
plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into
the valley," saith the Lord, "and I will discover the foundations
thereof. And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and
all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I lay
desolate; for of the hire of an harlot hath she gathered them, and into
the hire of an harlot shall they return." Yet, even while mourning over
Samaria, the prophet cannot refrain from thinking of his own people, for
the terrible blow which had fallen on Israel "is come even unto Judah;
it reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem." Doubtless
the Assyrian generals kept a watchful eye upon Ahaz during the whole
time of the siege, from 724 to 722, and when once the first heat of
enthusiasm had cooled, the presence of so formidable an army within
striking distance must have greatly help