Isaiah 8:5-6 Again the LORD spoke to me further, saying, “Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah”;
Shialoah is synonymous with the pool of Siloam as noted in the New Testament. In Isaiah’s day, Shialoah was known as a healing spring in Jerusalem (Ryrie Study notes). This is likely the same place where Jesus told the blind man to go wash his eyes. John 9:6-7 When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.
Rezin is the king of Aram. The head of Aram is Damascus. The son of Remaliah is Pekah. He is the king of Israel or the northern kingdom (Isaiah 7:1, 8).
The people of Judah, the southern kingdom, rejected the healing waters of God and chose the turbulent, flooding waters of the Israel and its treaty with Assyria.
Isaiah 8:7-8 “Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, even the king of Assyria and all his glory; and it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks. Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, it will reach even to the neck; and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel”.
The raging waters of the Euphrates are used in idiomatic language. These verses were fulfilled historically in 732 BC when Tiglath-Pileser III tore through Damascus and Samaria. In 701 BC, Sennacherib invaded Judah. Jerusalem escaped the 701 BC invasion. The area from north to south was pummeled in a 30-35 year period (Ryrie Study Notes).
Isaiah 8:9-10 “Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered; and give ear, all remote places of the earth. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered; gird yourselves, yet be shattered. Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not stand, for God is with us.”
God gives a shout out to the nations of the world. Suck it up and bring it! Give me your best shot! It is not going to matter. Ultimately, Jesus is coming and He will be in charge.
