John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 7:17

"Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father`s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah-[even] the king of Assyria." — Isaiah 7:17 (ASV)

The Lord shall bring upon you. Here the Prophet, on the other hand, threatens the wicked hypocrite, who pretended that he was unwilling to tempt God, and yet called for those whom the Lord had forbidden him to call to his aid (Exodus 23:32). So that he might not indulge in undue exultation and insolence on account of the former promise, he likewise threatens his destruction. He declares that what he hopes will be his preservation—that is, the aid of the Assyrians—will be utterly destructive to him (2 Kings 16:7; 2 Chronicles 28:16).

It is as if he had said, “You promise yourself everything from the king of Assyria and think that he will be faithful to you, because you have entered into a league and covenant with him, which God had forbidden. But you will quickly understand what advantage it will be to you to have tempted God. You might have remained at home and at ease, and might have received the assistance of God; but you choose rather to call in the Assyrians. You will find them to be worse than your own enemies.”

This discourse, therefore, agrees with what precedes; for he presses more closely the treachery and ingratitude of the king, who had rejected both the word of God and the sign, and had made himself unworthy of every promise. And, as is customary with hypocrites—who, when they have escaped from any danger and fear, immediately return to their natural disposition—he affirms that nothing will protect the Jews from also being involved in just punishments. He expressly declares that the family of David, which might have claimed exemption on the ground of its peculiar privilege, will be exposed to the same kind of calamities; for God regulates his judgments in such a manner that while he spares his Church and provides for her permanent existence, he does not permit the wicked, who are mingled with the good, to escape unpunished.

From the day that Ephraim departed from Judah. Scripture speaks in this manner when it describes any serious calamity. For the Jews could not have received a severer chastisement than when, by the withdrawing of the ten tribes (1 Kings 12:16), not only was the kingdom wretchedly divided, but the body of the nation was rent and torn. The revolt of Ephraim from Judah was, therefore, an indication of the worst kind of calamity; for, with the resources of the kingdom of Judah being more seriously affected by that division than they could have been by any defeat from a foreign enemy, he says that since that time the Jews had not sustained a greater calamity.

Hence, as I have already said, we see how God, while he punishes hypocrites, at the same time remembers believers and opens the way for his mercy. We should observe this wonderful arrangement: that amidst the most dreadful deaths, the Church still remains safe. Who would ever have thought that Jerusalem would be delivered from the vast army of the two kings? Or that the kingdom of Syria, which was then in a flourishing condition, would quickly be overturned? Or that Samaria was not far from destruction? Or that in the meantime the Assyrians, on whom the Jews relied, would do them more injury than the Israelites and Syrians had ever done? All these things the Lord did for the sake of preserving his Church, but at the same time in such a manner that he also took vengeance on the wickedness of King Ahaz.