“Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”
6. Let us go up. That is, Let us make an invasion נקיצנה (nekitzennah) is rendered by some, Let us distress or afflict; which is also expressed by the derivation of the word. But in this conjugation it rather signifies “to stir up and arouse.” Though I do not reject the former interpretation, yet I prefer the latter, because it agrees better with the scope of the passage.
The prophet Isaiah had his commission renewed in the year that king Uzziah died, Isa 6:1. Jotham his son reigned, and reigned well, sixteen years. All that time, no doubt, Isaiah prophesied as he was commanded, and yet we have not in this book any of his prophecies dated in the reign of Jotham; but this, which is put first, was in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham.
Commenting on Isaiah 7:1-9
Let us go up against Judah, and vex it,.... By besieging or distressing it; or "stir it up" to war, as Jarchi interprets it: and let us make a breach therein for us; in the walls of the city of Jerusalem, and enter in at it; the Targum is, "let us join, and put it to us;'' and so Jarchi, let us level it with...