to Hezekiah, is decidedly in opposition to the reference to
Hezekiah.

THE TWIG OF JESSE.
(Chap. xi., xii.)

These chapters constitute part of a larger whole which begins with
chap. x. 5. With regard to the time of the composition of this
discourse, it appears, from chap. x. 9-11, that Samaria was already
conquered. The prophecy, therefore, cannot be prior to the sixth year
of Hezekiah. On the other hand, the defeat of the Assyrian host, which,
under Sennacherib, invaded Judah, is announced as being still future.
The prophecy, accordingly, falls into the period between the 6th and
the 14th year of Hezekiah's reign. From the circumstance that in it [Pg
95] the king of Asshur is represented as being about to march against
Jerusalem, it is commonly inferred that it was uttered shortly before
the destruction of the Assyrian host, and hence, belongs to the
fourteenth year of Hezekiah. But this ground is not very safe. It would
certainly be overlooking the liveliness with which the prophets beheld
and represented future things as present; it would be confounding the
_ideal_ Present with the _actual_, if we were to infer from vers. 28-32
that the Assyrian army must already have reached the single stations
mentioned there. The utmost that we are entitled to infer from this
liveliness of description is, that the Assyrian army was already on its
march; but not even that can be inferred with certainty. In favour of
the immediate nearness of the danger, however, is the circumstance
that, in the prophecy, the threatening is kept so much in the
background; that, from the outset, it is comforting and encouraging,
and begins at once with the announcement of Asshur's destruction, and
Judah's deliverance. This seems to suggest that the place which,
everywhere else, is occupied by the threatening, was here taken by the
events themselves; so that of the two enemies of salvation, proud
security and despair, the latter only was here to be met. The prophecy
before us opens the whole series of the prophecies out of the 14th year
of Hezekiah, the most remarkable year of the Prophet's life, rich in
the revelations of divine glory, in which his prophecy flowed in full
streams, and spread on all sides.

The prophecy divides itself into two parts. The first, chap. x. 5-34,
contains the threatening against Asshur, who was just preparing to
inflict the deadly blow upon the people of Go