NOTES for Isa 8:1-22
The prophet and the prophetess come together, and their child becomes a living witness to the prophetic word. What is written on a scroll can be ignored if one wishes, but it is hard to resist a prophecy fixed in the name of a child living nearby.
As a rebuke to the people, the Lord set their disregard for the quiet waters of Siloam, the pool where washing was performed. Several centuries later, Jesus would send the man born blind whom He had healed to wash there. But people too often stop not only valuing but even noticing what is constantly near them. Old familiar truths begin to seem banal; people want something sharper. And so the inhabitants of the Promised Land were drawn to exotic carrion that looked fresh, to pagan ideas and morals. Very well, soon all the fruits of paganism, like the quail in the Sinai wilderness long before, together with the Assyrian hordes, will fall upon those who waited for them and called them down, and will force them to swallow more than they can bear.
But the prophet emphasizes that those who turn away from the Lord are turning away from the source of life. The words saying that one does not ask the dead about the living are severe, and they make us remember the words heard several centuries later: let the dead bury their dead. But precisely because the Lord offers life and intends to scatter the thickening darkness, He warns of the dangers of false roads, roads that seem attractive but lead to death.