Critical Remarks on an Alleged Interpolation in Isaiah 7: 8 [pp. 558-575]

Isaiah 7: 8.
Isaiah 7: 8. FOR THE HEAD OF SYRIA is DAMASCUS, AND
THE HEAD OF DAMASCUS iS REZIN; AND WITHIN THREESCORE
AND FIVE YEARS SHALL EPHRAIM BE BROKEN, THAT IT BE
NOT A PEOPLE. 9. AND THE HEAD OF EPHRAIM is SAMARIA,
AND THE READ OF SAMARIA is REMALIAH'S SON. IF YE
WILL NOT BELIEVE, SURELY YE SHALL NOT BE ESTABLISHED.
These verses comprise three distinct parts, each of which,
and especially the second, has been a subject of dispute and
doubt. These three parts are the following:
(1.) "For the head of Syria [is] Damascus, and the head
of Damascus [is] Rezin"-together with the corresponding
clause of v. 9 —" And the head of Ephraim [is] Samaria, and
the head of Samaria [is] Remaliah's son."
(2.) The sentence interposed between these corresponding
clauses —" and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim
be broken, that it be not a people."
(3.) The last clause of v. 9 —" if ye will not believe, surely
ye shall not be established." The last of these divisions we
shall only have occasion to refer to; the first and second must
be separately considered.
Some of the Jewish writers make the first clause of v. 8
the apodosis of the sentence begun in v. 7-" it shall not happen nor come to pass [with respect to you] but [with respect
to] the head of Syria [which is] Damascus, and the head of
Damascus [which is] Rezin, and the head of Ephraim [which
is] Samaria, and the head of Samaria [which is] Remaliah's
son"-the last clause of v. 8 being read as a parenthesis. If
this were the sense intended by the prophet, "with respect
to you" would be an emphatic and essential part of the sentence; yet those very words are supplied by the hypothesis,
which shows that the interpretation rests on a gratuitous assumption-not to mention the unnatural and forced construction which it renders necessary.
A new interpretation has been recently proposed by Hitzig,
who connects v. 8, in sense, very intimately with v. 4, where
Rezin and Pekah are described as "smoking tails of firebrands." According to his theory, the text may thus be
paraphrased-' You have nothing to fear from Syria and
Ephraim; for what is Syria? The head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin, a mere smoking firebrand! And what is Ephraim? The head of Ephraim is
Samaria, and the head of Samaria Remaliah's son, another
smoking fire-brand!' The description will then be merely
contemptuous. It cannot be denied that this interpretation is
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