Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 14:28

"In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden." — Isaiah 14:28 (ASV)

In the year that king Ahaz died – This is the caption or title to the following prophecy, which occupies the remainder of this chapter. This prophecy has no connection with the preceding and should have been separated from it in the division into chapters.

It relates solely to Philistia; and its design is to comfort the Jews with the assurance that they had nothing to fear from them. It is not to call the Philistines to lamentation and alarm, for there is no evidence that the prophecy was made known among them (Vitringa); rather, it is to assure the Jews that they would be in no danger from their invasion under the reign of Ahaz’s successor, and that God would more notably overthrow and subdue them than had been done in his time.

It is not improbable that at the death of Ahaz, and with the prospect of a change in the government on the accession of his successor, the Philistines, the natural enemies of Judah, had planned the invasion of the Jews. The Philistines had been subdued in the time of Azariah (2 Kings 15:1–7), or Uzziah, as he is called in 2 Chronicles 26:1, who was the son and successor of Amaziah.

He broke down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Gabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and effectually subdued and humbled them (2 Chronicles 26:6).

In the time of Ahaz, while he was engaged in his unhappy controversies with Syria and Ephraim, the Philistines took advantage of Judah’s weakened state, made successful war on it, and took several of its towns (2 Chronicles 28:18).

At Ahaz’s death, they hoped to be able to resist Judah, perhaps more so as they supposed that Hezekiah’s reign would be mild, peaceable, and unwarlike. Isaiah, in the prophecy before us, warns them not to entertain any such false expectations and assures them that Hezekiah’s reign would be quite as disastrous to them as the reigns of his predecessors had been.

Was this burden – See the note at (Isaiah 13:1).