Say ye not, A {n} confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye {o} their fear, nor be afraid.

(n) Consent not you who are godly to the league and friendship that this people seek with strangers and idolaters.

(o) Meaning, that they should not fear the thing that they who have no hope in God feared.

Wesley's Notes

8:12 Say not - Thou Isaiah, and my children, do not consent to this confederacy with the king of Assyria. Their fear - That thing which they fear, that, if they do not call in the Assyrian succours, they shall be destroyed by those two potent kings.

Scofield Reference Notes

[1] confederacy

The reference is to the attempt to terrify Judah by the confederacy between Syria and Samaria.

Isa 7:1,2.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12-16. The words of Jehovah.

confederacy-rather, a conspiracy; an appropriate term for the unnatural combination of Israel with Syrian foreigners against Judea and the theocracy, to which the former was bound by ties of blood and hereditary religion [Maurer].

to all . say-rather, of all which this people calleth a conspiracy [G. V. Smith].

their fear-namely, object of fear: the hostile conspiracy.

be afraid-rather [Maurer], "nor make others to be afraid."

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:9-16 The prophet challenges the enemies of the Jews. Their efforts would be vain, and themselves broken to pieces. It concerns us, in time of trouble, to watch against all such fears as put us upon crooked courses for our own security. The believing fear of God preserves against the disquieting fear of man. If we thought rightly of the greatness and glory of God, we should see all the power of our enemies restrained. The Lord, who will be a Sanctuary to those who trust in him, will be a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offence, to those who make the creature their fear and their hope. If the things of God be an offence to us, they will undo us. The apostle quotes this as to all who persisted in unbelief of the gospel of Christ, 1Pe 2:8. The crucified Emmanuel, who was and is a Stumbling-stone and Rock of offence to unbelieving Jews, is no less so to thousands who are called Christians. The preaching of the cross is foolishness in their esteem; his doctrines and precepts offend them.