And the sword shall abide on the cities,.... Or "shall fall" , and continue; meaning the sword of the Assyrians, whereby Ephraim should be brought into subjection to them, and the king of Assyria become king over them; his sword should be drawn, and rest upon them, not only on their chief city Samaria, besieged three years by him, but upon all their other cities, which would fall into his hands, with the inhabitants of them:and shall consume his branches, and devour [them]; that is, the towns and villages adjoining to the cities; which were to them as branches are to a tree, sprung from them, and were supported by them; and, being near them, prospered or suffered as they did: some render it, "his bars" , as the word is sometimes used, and interpret it of the great men and nobles of the land.
So the Targum,"and it shall slay his mighty men, and destroy his princes;''with which Jarchi agrees;because of their own counsels; which they took and pursued, contrary to the counsel of God, the revelation of his mind and will; particularly in setting up idolatrous worship, and continuing in it, notwithstanding all the admonitions, exhortations, counsels, and threatenings of God by his prophets; or else because of their counsels with the Egyptians, and their covenants with them, for help against the Assyrian, whose yoke they were for casting off, and refused to pay tribute to; which provoked him to draw his sword upon them, which made the havoc it did in their cities, and the inhabitants of them.
hlx "cedet", Calvin; "incidet", Schmidt; "irruet", Zanchius, Drusius, Liveleus. wydb "vectes ejus", Schmidt.