Bible Strands
Isaiah 8:6
“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD delivers this declaration through the prophet Isaiah to the people of Judah, positioned between the announcement of divine speech in Isaiah 8:5 and the warning of invading Assyrian forces in Isaiah 8:7. This moment captures a direct prophetic rebuke issued as political alliances shift.
The words — The text records מָאַס (ma.'As) as "it has rejected" and הַ/שִּׁלֹ֔חַ (ha./shi.Lo.ach) as "Shiloah." These terms document the people's conscious abandonment of a local water source in favor of foreign powers.
The thread — The warning against unfaithful leadership echoes the conditional covenant language found in Judges 9:16, while the geographic reference to Shiloah is later identified in John 9:7 as the Pool of Siloam, meaning "Sent." Nehemiah 3:15 further locates this site within Jerusalem's restored boundaries.
Why it lands — The passage requires a reader to evaluate the object of their trust, contrasting reliance on human rulers like Rezin and the son of Remaliah with dependence on steady divine provision. It demands acknowledgment that abandoning reliable spiritual sustenance for political maneuvering yields destructive consequences.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;
Cross-references
- John 9:7 Then He told him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.
- Nehemiah 3:15 The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun son of Col-hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah. He rebuilt it, roofed it, and installed its doors, bolts, and bars. He also repaired the wall of the Pool of Shelah near the king’s garden, as far as the stairs that descend from the City of David.
- Judges 9:16 Now if you have acted faithfully and honestly in making Abimelech king, if you have done well by Jerubbaal and his family, and if you have done to him as he deserves—
- 1 Kings 7:16 He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars, each capital five cubits high.
- 2 Chronicles 13:8 And now you think you can resist the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the hands of David’s descendants. You are indeed a vast army, and you have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods.
- Isaiah 5:24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 7:1 Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city.
- Isaiah 7:6 ‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’
- Jeremiah 2:13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
- Jeremiah 2:18 Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?