Isaiah 9:12

The Syrians. At this time Syria was allied with Ephraim against Judah (ch. 7:1, 2), but the Lord promised to turn the Syrians against Israel, their traditional enemy. Alliances between nations in the Orient were ephemeral, and an ally of one day might become a bitter enemy the next. The Syrians would attack Israel from the north and east, and the Philistines would come against them from the south and west. The Hebrews gave directions from the viewpoint of a man facing the east (see on Gen. 29:1; Ex. 3:1; Num. 3:23). Thus the Syrians were “before” and the Philistines were “behind.”

Stretched out still. Compare Ex. 7:19; 8:5; etc.; Isa. 5:25, where the same expression is used in connection with other judgments. The Lord had smitten Israel with judgments, but His hand was stretched out as if in the act of bringing further judgments upon the nation. Tiglath-pileser El took large sections of Israel, but did not destroy it; the siege of Shalmaneser V, still future, was to bring the nation to its final end.