Let us go up against Judah, hem it in, carry it by storm, and
set up the son of Tabeel as king: thus saith the Lord God, It shall not
stand, neither shall it come to pass." If, however, the course of the
divine justice was to be disturbed by the intervention of a purely human
agency, the city would doubtless be thereby saved, but the matter would
not be allowed to rest there, and the people would suffer even more
at the hands of their allies than they had formerly endured from their
enemies. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call
his name Immanuel--God with us.... For before the child shall know
to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings thou
abhorrest shall be forsaken," and yet "Jahveh shall bring upon thee, and
upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come,
from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah."* And then, employing one
of those daring apologues, common enough in his time, the prophet took
a large tablet and wrote upon it in large letters two symbolical
names--_Spoil-speedeth, Prey-hasteth_--and set it up in a prominent
place, and with the knowledge of credible witnesses went in unto the
prophetess his wife. When the child was born in due course, Jahveh bade
him call it _Spoil-speedeth, Prey-hasteth_, "for before he shall have
knowledge to cry, My father and, My mother, the riches of Damascus and
the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the King of Assyria."
But the Eternal added, "Forasmuch as this people hath refused the waters
of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;
now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the
river [the Euphrates], strong and many:* and he shall come up over all
his channels, and go over all his banks: and he shall sweep onward into
Judah; he shall overflow and pass through; he shall reach even to the
neck, and the stretching of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy
land, O Immanuel [God-with-us]!"*** Finding that Egypt was in favour
of his adversaries, Ahaz, in spite of the prophet's warnings, turned to
Assyria.****

* Isa. vii. 10-17.

** A marginal gloss has here been inserted in the text,
indicating that it was "the King of Assyria and all his
glory " that the prophet referred to

*** Isa. viii. 1-8.

**** The following portions of Isaiah are accepted as
belonging to the period of this Syrian war: in addition