He restored. — Rather, He it was who restored the border, i.e., he wrested out of the hands of the Syrians the territory they had taken from Israel.
From the entering of Hamath — i.e., from the point where the territory of Hamath began. This was the originally determined boundary of Israel on the north (comp. Numbers 13:21; Numbers 34:8; Joshua 13:5), and the prophet Ezekiel specifies it as the future limit (Ezekiel 47:16; Ezekiel 48:1). Israel’s territory first reached this limit under Solomon, who conquered a portion of the Hamathite domains (2 Chronicles 8:3-4).
The sea of the plain — i.e., the Dead Sea (Numbers 3:17; Numbers 4:49; Joshua 3:16). The whole length of the Dead Sea is included (comp. Amos 6:14, where virtually the same limits are specified), and the country beyond Jordan. (Comp. Note on 1 Chronicles 5:17.)
Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet. — Comp. Jonah 1:1. Ewald remarks that the activity of this prophet must have occupied a very large field, as tradition connects him with Nineveh. Hitzig and Knobel recognise the prophecy referred to here in Isaiah 15, 16. There is no difficulty in the supposition that Isaiah has “adopted and ratified the work of an earlier prophet,” as Jeremiah has so often done. (See Cheyne’s Isaiah, vol. i., p. 93.) But it is easier to prove that these Chapter s are not Isaiah’s, than that they belong to Jonah.
Gath-hepher. — Joshua 19:13. The present Meshed, Not far north of Nazareth.