What said these men? — “Isaiah, with that fearless assumption of a superior position which we have noticed in Isaiah 7, at once challenges the king to explain his conduct. Jehovah’s will is opposed to all coquetting with foreign powers. (Comp. Isaiah 30:1.)” [Cheyne.]
From a far country. — So the Assyrian kings describe Palestine as “a far off land,” using the same adjective (rûqu).