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"Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib,
King of Assyria, came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them"
(Isa. 36: 1).
We also read that Rabshakeh, the Assyrian envoy, suggested that Hezekiah should
"make an agreement" with the king of Assyria (Isa. 36: 16). Now Isaiah's prophecy,
while it refers to the kingdom of Israel (Ephraim, Samaria, etc.) is specifically stated to
be "concerning Judah and Jerusalem" (Isa. 1: 1), and consequently it may very well be
that the flowery language of Isa. 28: may represent certain specific facts of history
expressed in prophetic form.
Ephraim (Isa. 28: 1) refers to the kingdom which had its seat in Samaria. In
II Kings 18: we read concerning Samaria:
"In the fourth year of King Hezekiah (i.e., ten years before the invasion of
Sennacherib, see above) . . . . . the king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged
it, and at the end of three years they took it" (II Kings 18: 9, 10).
This again is a plain fact of history, the only moral being the added statement of verse 12:
"Because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His
covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear
them nor do them."
This comment underlies the prophecy of Isa. 28::
"Yet they would not hear" (Isa. 28: 12).
"We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement"
(Isa. 28: 15).
Beneath the imagery of Isa. 28: 1-4 we find presented the physical glory of the
land of Samaria, the moral corruption of its people, and the advent of the king of Assyria.
"It would be difficult to find in all Palestine, a situation of equal strength, fertility and
beauty combined" (Dr. Robinson).
Twice the prophet refers to the "glorious beauty" and the "fat valley" of Ephraim, but
he also speaks of their crown of pride becoming a fading flower. Under the figure of the
hasty or early summer fruit, he represents the taking of Samaria by the hand of the
Assyrian (Isa. 28: 4). Drunkenness, wine, strong drink, bring their corresponding
dullness, pride, recklessness and judgment. The people are said to have been "swallowed
up of wine" (Isa. 28: 7), and in verse 4 we read that they shall be "swallowed up"
(Isa. 28: 4 margin) by the avenging Assyrian. The reader will doubtless remember
the gracious use of this strange figure in Isa. 25: 7, 8, where "the vail" and "death" are
swallowed up in victory.
The prophet uses the figure of a "crown" four times. Twice he speaks of the "crown
of pride" (Isa. 28: 1, 3) and twice of the "crown of glory" (Isa. 28: 5 and 62: 3).
Reference to a "crown of glory" in a setting of judgment is characteristic of Isaiah