Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries... — The Hebrew tenses are in the past (has set up), but probably as representing the prophet’s visions of an accomplished future. The “adversaries” of the text can hardly be any other than the Assyrians; yet the context that follows clearly points to an attack on Ephraim in which the armies of Rezin were to be conspicuous. The natural explanation is that Syria, after the conquest by the Assyrian king (2 Kings 16:9), was compelled to take part in a campaign against Samaria. The reading of the text may be retained with this explanation, and the sentence paraphrased thus, “Jehovah will stir up the adversaries of Rezin (the Assyrians who have conquered Syria) against him (Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria), and shall join his enemies against him, and those enemies shall include the very nations on whose support he had counted, the Syrians and the Philistines” (Psalms 83:7-8). The latter people were, it is true, enemies to Judah (2 Chronicles 28:18), but their hostilities extended to the northern kingdom also.
Related Commentaries of Isaiah 9:11
Isaiah 9:11
11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and joinb his enemies together;