For the head of Aram is Damascus,
Aram and Ephraim are limited to their own heads, capitals, and short-lived rulers.
This verse reduces the enemy powers to their merely human scope.
1Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city. 2When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind. 3Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct that feeds the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field, 4and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood— over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted your ruin, saying: 6‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’ 7But this is what the Lord GOD says: 8For the head of Aram is Damascus, 9The head of Ephraim is Samaria,