prefect of the palace, declaimed against this advice, and the latter's
counsel prevailed with his master.**

* 2 Kings xx. 16-19.

** This follows from the terms in which the prophet compares
the two men (Isa. xxii. 15-25).

Hezekiah agreed to accept the sovereignty over Ekron which its
inhabitants offered to him, but a remnant of prudence kept him from
putting Padî to death, and he contented himself with casting him into
prison. Isaiah, though temporarily out of favour with the king, ceased
not to proclaim aloud in all quarters the will of the Almighty. "Woe to
the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not
of Me; and that cover with a covering (form alliances), but not of My
spirit, that they may add sin to sin: that walk to go down into Egypt,
and have not asked at My mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strength
of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the
strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt
your confusion. When your princes shall be at Tanis, and your messengers
shall come to Heracleopolis,* [Heb. Hanes.--Tr.] you shall all be
ashamed of a people that cannot profit you.... For Egypt helpeth in
vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rahab that sitteth
still."* He returned, unwearied and with varying imagery, to his theme,
contrasting the uncertainty and frailty of the expedients of worldly
wisdom urged by the military party, with the steadfast will of Jahveh
and the irresistible authority with which He invests His faithful
servants. "The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh,
and not spirit; and when the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both he
that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is holpen shall fall, and they