And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
More detailed description of the despair which they shall fall into who sought necromancy instead of God. Isaiah 8:20 (taking Maurer's translation) implies that too late they shall see how much better it would have been for them to have sought "to the law," etc. (Deuteronomy 32:31). Now they are given over to despair. Therefore, while seeing the truth of God, they only "curse their King and ... God;" foreshadowing the future like conduct of those belonging to the "kingdom of the beast," when they shall be visited with divide plagues (Revelation 16:11, "They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains ... and repented not:" cf. Jeremiah 18:12).
They shall pass through it - namely, the land.
Hardly bestead - oppressed with anxiety.
Hungry - a more grievous famine than the temporary one in Ahaz' time, owing to Assyria; then there was some food, but none now (Isaiah 7:15; Isaiah 7:22; Leviticus 26:3-5; Leviticus 26:14-16; Leviticus 26:20).
When they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God - Yahweh, King of the Jews (Psalms 5:2; Psalms 68:24). But see closing note.
And look upward. And they shall look unto the earth. Whether they look up to heaven, or down toward the land of Judea, nothing but despair shall present itself.
Behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish - darkness of distress (Proverbs 1:27).
And they shall be driven to darkness - Hebrew, apheelah; to thick darkness (Jeremiah 23:12) Driven onward, as by a sweeping storm. The Jewish rejection of 'their King and God,' Messiah, was followed by all thee awful calamities. In the ulterior reference to the last Antichrist, "their King and their God," probably means the false messiah king whom, when 'coming in his own name,' they will 'receive,' and take as their own, though the true King Messiah, when He came 'in His Father's name, they would not receive' (John 5:43). They shall, too late, curse Antichrist, 'the idol-shepherd' to whom they gave themselves up, and who shall "tear" them (Zechariah 11:16-17). The Assyrian king to whom Ahaz and the Jews were giving theselves as an ally, and who would afterward be their scourge, is the type of Antichrist.
Remarks:
(1) They who try to make a spoil of the Lord's people shall be themselves spoiled. But the Lord's professing people must beware of forfeiting the Lord's continued protection by having recourse to worldly stays, as Judah sought the help of Assyria, the pagan world-power, instead of relying on Yahweh alone. Such carnal policy is sure to bring with it its own punishment. The world shall be employed by God to scourge His people who lean upon it; just as the Assyrian, like an overflowing river, after having flooded Syria and Northern Israel, proceeded onward into Judah.
(2) But the people of God have in the name "Immanuel" the pledge of their ultimate safety, however they may be chastised for a time. So in the last days, when the anti-Christian foe, with "the stretching out of his wings," shall 'come in like a flood' upon Christendom, and 'shall fill breadth of Immanuel's land,' "the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." However the kings of the earth 'associate themselves,' and "the rulers take counsel together," "against the Lord, and against His Anointed," their counsel "shall come to nought."
(3) The danger to God's people in such a crisis is lest, like Ahaz and his people, they should be betrayed into unbelieving panic, which would tempt them to conciliate the world-power by compromise. When the "confederacy" of the enemies is the word oftenest in the mouth of the fearful, then Immanuel, 'God with us' (Isaiah 8:10), "the Lord of hosts himself," the only true object of fear, must be the watchword of His believing people.