Psa 90:5, Isa 8:7-8, 28:18 | JFB | STEP | 5, 6. Life is like grass, which, though changing under the influence of the night's dew, and flourishing in the morning, is soon cut down and withereth ( ).

Psalms 90:5

5, 6. Life is like grass, which, though changing under the influence of the night's dew, and flourishing in the morning, is soon cut down and withereth (Ps 103:15; 1Pe 1:24).

Isaiah 8:7-8

7. therefore—for the reason given in Isa 8:6, the Assyrian flood, which is first to overflood Syria and Samaria, shall rise high enough to reach rebel Judah also (Isa 8:8).

the river—Euphrates swollen in spring by the melting of the snow of the Armenian mountains (compare Isa 8:6; Isa 7:20).

all his glory—Eastern kings travel with a gorgeous retinue.

channels—natural and artificial in the level region, Mesopotamia.

8. pass through—The flood shall not stop at Syria and Samaria, but shall penetrate into Judea.

the neck—When the waters reach to the neck, a man is near drowning; still the head is not said to be overflowed. Jerusalem, elevated on hills, is the head. The danger shall be so imminent as to reach near it at Sennacherib's invasion in Hezekiah's reign; but it shall be spared (Isa 30:28).

wings—the extreme bands of the Assyrian armies, fulfilled (Isa 36:1; 37:25).

thy land, O Immanuel—Though temporarily applied to Isaiah's son, in the full sense this is applicable only to Messiah, that Judea is His, was, and still is, a pledge that, however sorely overwhelmed, it shall be saved at last; the "head" is safe even now, waiting for the times of restoration (Ac 1:6); at the same time these words imply that, notwithstanding the temporary deliverance from Syria and Israel, implied in "Immanuel," the greatest calamities are to follow to Judah.

Isaiah 28:18

18. disannulled—obliterated, as letters traced on a waxen tablet are obliterated by passing the stylus over it.

trodden down—passing from the metaphor in "scourge" to the thing meant, the army which treads down its enemies.