Isaiah 10:29

They have passed in haste, unimpeded by the resistance of those cities; Gaba is our lodging, the voice of the army which rested there; Rama was astonished, that is, it feared, because he was near; Gabaath of Saul, the royal city in the time of …

They are gone over the passage,.... Or "from the passage" (b); not of Jordan, as the Targum; but rather of Michmash, 1Sa 13:23 this to be understood of the king of Assyria with his army: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; or "Geba was their lodging"; that is, for a night only; not that they continued here for any time, as our version seems to suggest. This was a city in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 21:17 called Geba of Benjamin, 1Ki 15:

Whether they were the princes and judges of Israel of Judah, or both, that the prophet denounced this woe against, is not certain: if those of Israel, these verses are to be joined with the close of the foregoing chapter, which is probable enough, because the burden of that prophecy ( for all this his anger is not turned away ) is repeated here (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

They are gone over the passage - The word “passage” (מעברה ma‛ebı̂râh) may refer to any passage or ford of a stream, a shallow part of a river where crossing was practicable; or it may refer to any narrow pass, or place of passing in mountains. The Chaldee Paraphrase renders this, ‘They have passed the Jordan;’ but this cannot be the meaning, as all the transactions referred to here occurred in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and long after they had crossed the Jordan.

They are gone over the passage “They have passed the strait” - The strait here mentioned is that of Michmas, a very narrow passage between two sharp hills or rocks, (see 1Sa 14:4, 1Sa 14:5), where a great army might have been opposed with advantage by a very inferior force. The author of the Book of Judith might perhaps mean this pass, at least among others: “Charging them to keep the passages of the hill country, for by them there was an entrance into Judea; and it was easy to stop them that would come up, because the passage was strait for two men at the most,” Judith 4:7. The enemies having passed the strait without opposition, shows that all thoughts of making a stand in the open country were given up, and that their only resource was in the strength of the city. Their lodging - The sense seems necessarily to require that we read למו lamo, to them, instead of לנו lanu, to us. These two words are in other places mistaken one for the other. Thus Isa 44:7, for למו lamo, read לנו lanu, with the Chaldee; and in the same manner Psa 64:6, with the Syriac, and Psa 80:7, on the authority of the Septuagint and Syriac, besides the necessity of the sense.