The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,
The Lord spake also unto me ... Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly.
Their source is on the southeast of Zion and east of Jerusalem. It means sent, the water being sent through an aqueduct (John 9:7). Figurative for the mild, though now weak, sway of the house of David; in the highest sense Shiloah expresses the benignant sway of Yahweh in the theocracy, administered through David. Contrast to the violent Euphrates, "the river" that typifies Assyria (Isaiah 8:7). Waters symbolize the peoples of the world-power (Revelation 17:15). "This people" refers both to Israel, which originally under Jeroboam separated from. the crown of David, and now preferred an alliance with Rezin of Syria to one with the kings of Judah, and to Judah, a party in which seems to have favoured the pretensions of the son of Tabeal against David's line (Isaiah 7:6). Also Judah's desire to seek an Assyrian alliance is included in the censure (cf. Isaiah 7:17). Isaiah 8:14 shows that both nations are meant-both alike rejected the Divine Shiloah. Not 'my people,' as elsewhere, when God expresses favour, but "this people" (Isaiah 6:9).