"He is come to Aiath! He is passed through Migron! At Michmash he layeth up his baggage: They are gone over the pass: 'Geba,' they cry, 'is our lodging.' Ramah trembleth: Gibeah of Saul is fled! Raise thy shrill cries, O daughter of Gallim! Hearken, O Laishah! Answer her, O Anathoth! Madmenah is in wild flight (?). The inhabitants of Gebim gather their stuff to flee. This very day shall he halt at Nob. He shaketh his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion, The hill of Jerusalem." Yet Isaiah, and the little band of prophets, in spite of their perils, did _not_ share the views of the Assyrian party or counsel submission. On the contrary, even as they contemplate in imagination this terrific march of Sargon, they threaten Assyria. The Assyrian might smite Judah, but God should smite the Assyrians. He boasts that he will rifle the riches of the people as one robs the eggs of a trembling bird, which does not dare to cheep or move the wing.[505] But Isaiah tells him that he is but the axe boasting against the hewer, and the wooden staff lifting itself up against its wielder. Burning should be scattered over his glory. The Lord of hosts should lop his boughs with terror, and a mighty one should hew down the crashing forest of his haughty Lebanon. ii. Still more indignant were the true prophets against those who trusted in an alliance with Egypt. From first to last Isaiah warned Ahaz, and warned Hezekiah, that no reliance was to be placed on Egyptian promises--that Egypt was but like the reed of his own Nile. He mocked the hopes placed on Egyptian intervention as being no less sure of disannulment than a covenant with death and an agreement with Sheol. This rebellious reliance on the shadow of Egypt was but the weaving of an unrighteous web, and the adding of sin to sin. It should lead to nothing but shame and confusion, and the Jewish ambassadors to Zoan and Egypt should only have to blush for a people that could neither help nor profit. And then branding Egypt with the old insulting name of Rahab, or "Blusterer," he says,-- "Egypt helpeth in vain, and to no purpose. Therefore have I called her 'Rahab, that sitteth still.'" Indolent braggart--that was the only designation which she deserved! Intrigue and braggadocio--smoke and lukewarm water,--this was all which could be expected from _her_![506]