Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 28

Woe to the crown of pride ... —Better, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim. The chapter is remarkable, as showing that the prophet’s work was not limited to Judah and Jerusalem, but extended to the northern kingdom. The warning was clearly uttered before the capture of Samaria by Salmaneser, or, more probably, by Sargon, and paints in vivid colours—reminding us in part of Amos 6:4-6, not without a side glance at the like vices in Jerusalem (Isaiah 22:13)—the license into which the capital of the northern kingdom had fallen.

With a bold personification, the words paint the following:

1. The banquet with its revellers, crowned, as in the later days of Rome, with wreaths of flowers.
2. Samaria itself as such a wreath, once beautiful, now fading, crowning the “head” of the “fat,” or luxuriant, valley (literally, valley of oils, or, fat things) in which the revellers held their feasts.

Cheyne notes that the inscription of Salmaneser records that the tribute of Jehu consisted of bowls, cups, and goblets of gold, as illustrating the luxury of the palace of Samaria (Records of the Past, v. 41). The Septuagint strangely renders the last clause, drunk without wine, as if from a reminiscence of Isaiah 29:9, and gives the hirelings of Ephraim instead of “drunkards.”

The Lord has a mighty and strong one ... —The Hebrew may be either neuter, as in the Septuagint and Targum, or masculine, as in the Authorised Version. In either case it refers to the King of Assyria as the instrument of Jehovah’s vengeance, the comparisons employed to describe his action reproducing those of Isaiah 8:7-8; Isaiah 25:4. Here the picture is that of the “destroying storm,” the pestilent or blasting tempest withering, and the flood sweeping away, the beautiful “garland” of Samaria.

And the glorious beauty ... —Better, And the fading flower of his glorious beauty ... shall be as the early fig before the fruit-gathering. The “early fig,” as a special delicacy (Hosea 9:10; Micah 7:1), becomes a type of the beauty and pride of Samaria, doomed to inevitable destruction. (Compare to Nahum 3:12.) Such a fig the passer-by seizes, and eagerly devours. So, the prophet says, with a Dante-like simplicity of comparison, the Assyrian king would treat Samaria.

In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory. —The words are obviously used in direct contrast with the crown of pride in Isaiah 28:1-3. The true glory of the people for the remnant that should be left of Israel, as well as Judah, should be found in the presence of Jehovah, whom they would then acknowledge. In the gathering of some of the Ten Tribes at Hezekiah's passover (2 Chronicles 30:11) there had already been an earnest of such a restored union.

And for a spirit of judgment ... —The words remind us of the list of spiritual gifts in Isaiah 11:2. The injustice of corrupt judges was the crying evil of both Samaria and Jerusalem, and their place was to be taken by those who should be just and faithful. And brave warriors, able to drive back the enemy to the gate of the city from where they had emerged (2 Samuel 11:23)—or, perhaps, to defeat them at the gate of the city they attacked—should be the companions of the upright judges.