In thus tracing back the pedigree of Ahaz to Uzziah, there is a reference to chap. vi. 1: "In the year that King Uzziah [Pg 32] died," &c. These two chapters stand related to each other as prophecy and fulfilment. It was in the year of Uzziah's death that the Prophet had been seized with fearful forebodings; and by the divine word these fearful forebodings had soon been raised into a clear knowledge of the threatening judgments which were impending. Under Ahaz, the second successor of Uzziah, this knowledge began to be realized, keeping pace with the hardening which in Ahaz had become personified. He, the type of the unbelieving Jewish people, did not hear and understand, did not see and perceive; and the announcement of the Prophet served merely to increase his hardening. Even as early as that, the germ of the carrying away of the people, announced by the Prophet in chap. vi., was formed.--The circumstance of the hostile kings being introduced as _going up_ implies the spiritual elevation of Jerusalem; comp. remarks on Ps. xlviii. 3; xlviii. 17. The city of God is unconquerable unless her inhabitants and, above all, the anointed one of God, make, by their unbelief, their glorious privilege of no avail. In the last words: "_And could not fight against it_," (the singular יכל because Rezin is the chief person, Rezin and Pekah being identical with Rezin with Pekah, comp. Esth. iv. 16), the result of the siege is anticipated; and this is easily accounted for by the consideration that ver. 1 serves as an introduction to the whole account, stating, in general terms, the circumstances which induced the Prophet to come publicly forward. In the following verses, the share only is mentioned which the Prophet took in the matter; and the account is closed after he has discharged his commission. The apparent contradiction to 2 Kings xvi. 5, according to which Jerusalem was really besieged,--a contradiction which occurs also in that passage itself: "And they besieged Ahaz, and could not fight"--is most simply reconciled by the remark that a fruitless struggle can, as it were, not be called a struggle, just as, _e. g._, in the Old Testament, such as have a name little known are spoken of as being without a name. Ver. 2, "_And it was told to the house of David, saying: Aram rests upon Ephraim. Then his heart trembled, and the heart of his people, like as the trembling of the trees of the wood before the wind._"