Their land also is full of silver and gold. — The long and prosperous reign of Uzziah, especially his trade with Ophir, had reproduced the wealth of the days of Solomon. Tribute came from the Arabians and Ammonites (2 Chronicles 26:8). The words point to an earlier date than that at which Ahaz was left” naked and distressed” (2 Chronicles 28:19). Even under Hezekiah, Sennacherib records in the inscription on the Taylor cylinder that the tribute paid by that king amounted to 30 talents of gold, and 800 talents of silver, besides wrought metal; and a like profusion of wealth, prior to Sennacherib’s invasion, is shown in the account of Hezekiah’s display of his treasures, in Isaiah 39:2 (Cheyne, in loc.; Records of the Past, i. 38).
Their land is also full of... chariots. — Here also the reign of Uzziah was like that of Solomon (1 Kings 10:26-28). Chariots were used probably both for state pageants (Song of Solomon 1:9; Song of Solomon 3:9-10) and as part of the matériel of war (2 Chronicles 1:14; 2 Chronicles 9:25). Isaiah here also agrees with Micah (Micah 1:13) in looking on this as “the beginning of sin” (see Deuteronomy 17:16; 1 Samuel 8:11). For him, as for Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9), the true King was to come, not with chariots and horses, but riding, as the judges of Israel had ridden (Judges 5:10; Judges 10:4; Judges 12:14), on “a colt, the foal of an ass.”