A VERSE BY VERSE COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH CHAPTER 10.

1. ISAIAH 10 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1 Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
1.BARNES, “Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees - To those who frame
statutes that are oppressive and iniquitous. The prophet here refers, doubtless, to the rulers and
judges of the land of Judea. A similar description he had before given; Isa_1:10, Isa_1:23, ...
And that write ... - Hebrew, ‘And to the writers who write violence.’ The word translated
“grievousness,” ‫עמל‬ ‛amal, denotes properly “wearisome labor, trouble, oppression, injustice.”
Here, it evidently refers to the judges who declared oppressive and unjust sentences, and caused
them to be recorded. It does not refer to the mere scribes, or recorders of the judicial opinions,
but to the judges themselves, who pronounced the sentence, and caused it to be recorded. The
manner of making Eastern decrees differs from ours: they are first written, and then the
magistrate authenticates them, or annuls them. This, I remember, is the Arab manner,
according to D’Arvieux. When an Arab wanted a favor of the emir, the way was to apply to the
secretary, who drew up a decree according to the request of the party; if the emir granted the
favor, he printed his seal upon it; if not, he returned it torn to the petitioner. Sir John Chardin
confirms this account, and applies it, with great propriety, to the illustration of a passage which I
never thought of when I read over D’Arvieux. After citing Isa_10:1, ‘Wo unto them that decree
unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write grievousness,’ for so our translators have
rendered the latter part of the verse in the margin, much more agreeably than in the body of the
version, Sir John goes on, ‘The manner of making the royal acts and ordinances hath a relation
to this; they are always drawn up according to the request; the first minister, or he whose office
it is, writes on the side of it, “according to the king’s will,” and from thence it is sent to the
secretary of state, who draws up the order in form.’ - Harmer.
2. PULPIT, “The prophecy begun in Isa_9:8 terminates with this stanza, which contains a warning
against injustice and oppression, addressed to Israel and Judah equally, and accompanied by the threat
of a "day of desolation," when those who have refused to make God their Refuge will have no resource,
but to go into captivity with the "prisoners," or to perish with the "slain." A foreign conquest, accompanied
by slaughter, and the deportation of captives, is not obscurely intimated.
Isa_10:1

2. Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees (comp. Isa_1:17, Isa_1:20, Isa_1:26; Isa_5:23, etc.).
The perversion of judgment from the judgment-seat is the sin rebuked. It was certainly prevalent in Judah,
it may also have been practiced in Israel. And that write grievousness, etc. Translate, and unto the
writers that enregister oppression. The decrees of courts were, it is clear, carefully engrossed by the
officials, probably upon parchment, every outward formality being observed, while justice itself was set at
naught.
3. GILL, “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees,.... Or, "O ye that decree",
&c. ‫הוי‬ being a sign of the vocative case, and an interjection of calling, as Aben Ezra observes;
though the Targum and other versions understand it of a threatening denounced; and is to be
understood as lying against lawgivers and judges, political rulers and governors of the people,
that made unrighteous laws; laws which were not agreeable to the law of God, nor right reason;
and were injurious to the persons and properties of men; and which were calculated for the
oppression of good men, especially the poor, and for the protection of wicked men, who made no
conscience of spoiling them:
and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; laws grievous and intolerable
being made by them, they wrote them, or ordered them to be written, to be engrossed and
promulgated, published them, and obliged the people to be subject to them. This some
understand of the scribes of judges, who sat in court, and wrote out the decrees and sentences
made by them; but it rather intends the same persons as before; and not ecclesiastical but
political governors are meant, and such as lived before the Babylonish captivity; or otherwise the
whole is applicable to the Scribes and Pharisees, to the Misnic doctors, the authors of the oral
law, the fathers of tradition, whose decisions and decrees were unrighteous and injurious, and
contrary to the commands of God; heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and very oppressive
of the poor, the fatherless, and the widow; for which they are reproved by Christ, Mat_15:3
Jarchi says it is an Arabic (g) word, which signifies scribes.
(g) So and Scriba, Golius, col. 1999; so the word is used in the Chaldee and Syriac languages. See
Castel. col. 1828, 1829.
4. HENRY, “Whether they were the princes and judges of Israel of Judah, or both, that the
prophet denounced this woe against, is not certain: if those of Israel, these verses are to be
joined with the close of the foregoing chapter, which is probable enough, because the burden of
that prophecy (for all this his anger is not turned away) is repeated here (Isa_10:4); if those of
Judah, they then show what was the particular design with which God brought the Assyrian
army upon them - to punish their magistrates for mal-administration, which they could not
legally be called to account for. To them he speaks woes before he speaks comfort to God's own
people. Here is,
I. The indictment drawn up against these oppressors, Isa_10:1, Isa_10:2. They are charged, 1.
With making wicked laws and edicts: They decree unrighteous decrees, contrary to natural
equity and the law of God: and what mischief they prescribe those under them write it, enrol it,
and put it into the formality of a law. “Woe to the superior powers that devise and decree these
decrees! they are not too high to be under the divine check. And woe to the inferior officers that

3. draw them up, and enter them upon record - the writers that write the grievousness, they are
not too mean to be within the divine cognizance. Principal and accessaries shall fall under the
same woe.” Note, It is bad to do hurt, but it is worse to do it with design and deliberation, to do
wrong to many, and to involve many in the guilt of doing wrong. 2. With perverting justice in the
execution of the laws that were made. No people had statutes and judgments to righteous as
they had, and yet corrupt judges found ways to turn aside the needy from judgment, to hinder
them from coming at their right and recovering what was their due, because they were needy
and poor, and such as they could get nothing by nor expect any bribes from. 3. With enriching
themselves by oppressing those that lay at their mercy, whom they ought to have protected.
They make widows' houses and estates their prey, and they rob the fatherless of the little that is
left them, because they have no friend to appear for them. Not to relieve them if they had
wanted, not to right them if they were wronged, would have been crime enough in men that had
wealth and power; but to rob them because on the side of the oppressors there was power, and
the oppressed had no comforter (Ecc_4:1), was such apiece of barbarity as one would think none
could ever be guilty of that had either the nature of a man or the name of an Israelite.
5. JAMISON, “Isa_10:1-4. Fourth strophe.
them that decree — namely, unrighteous judges.
write grievousness, etc. — not the scribes, but the magistrates who caused unjust
decisions (literally, “injustice” or “grievousness”) to be recorded by them (Isa_65:6) [Maurer],
(Isa_1:10, Isa_1:23).
6. K&D, “Strophe 4. “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers
who prepare trouble to force away the needy from demanding justice, and to rob the suffering
of my people of their rightful claims, that widows may become their prey, and they plunder
orphans! And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the storm that cometh from afar?
To whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye deposit your glory? There is nothing left but
to bow down under prisoners, and they fall under the slain. With all this His anger is not
turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” This last strophe is directed against the unjust
authorities and judges. The woe pronounced upon them is, as we have already frequently seen,
Isaiah's Ceterum censeo. Chakak is their decisive decree (not, however, in a denominative sense,
but in the primary sense of hewing in, recording in official documents, Isa_30:8; Job_19:23);
and Citteb (piel only occurring here, and a perfect, according to Gesenius, §126, 3) their official
signing and writing. Their decrees are Chikeke 'aven (an open plural, as in Jdg_5:15, for Chukke,
after the analogy of ‫י‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ְ‫ל‬ֶ‫,ג‬ ‫י‬ ִ‫מ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ַ‫,ע‬ with an absolute Chakakim underlying it: Ewald, §186-7),
inasmuch as their contents were worthlessness, i.e., the direct opposite of morality; and what
they wrote out was ‛amal, trouble, i.e., an unjust oppression of the people (compare πόνος and πο
νηρός).

4. (Note: The current accentuation, ‫ומכתבים‬ mercha, ‫ל‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ‫ע‬ tiphchah, is wrong. The true
accentuation would be the former with tiphchah (and metheg), the latter with mercha; for ‛a
mal cittebu is an attributive (an elliptical relative) clause. According to its etymon, ‛amal
seems to stand by the side of µራλος, moles, molestus (see Pott in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, ix. 202);
but within the Semitic itself it stands by the side of ‫ל‬ ֵ‫מ‬ፎ, to fade, marcescere, which coincides
with the Sanscrit root mla and its cognates (see Leo Meyer, Vergleichende Grammatik, i.
353), so that ‛amal is, strictly speaking, to wear out or tire out (vulg. to worry).)
Poor persons who wanted to commence legal proceedings were not even allowed to do so, and
possessions to which widows and orphans had a well-founded claim were a welcome booty to
them (for the diversion into the finite verb, see Isa_5:24; Isa_8:11; Isa_49:5; Isa_58:5). For all
this they could not escape the judgment of God. This is announced to them in Isa_10:3, in the
form of three distinct questions (commencing with umah, quid igitur). The noun pekuddah in the
first question always signifies simply a visitation of punishment; sho'ah is a confused, dull,
desolate rumbling, hence confusion (turba), desolation: here it is described as “coming from
afar,” because a distant nation (Asshur) was the instrument of God's wrath. Second question:
“Upon whom will ye throw yourselves in your search for help then” (nus ‛al, a constr. praegnans,
only met with here)? Third question: “Where, i.e., in whose hand, will ye deposit your wealth in
money and possessions” (cabod, what is weighty in value and imposing in appearance); ‛azab
with b'yad (Gen_39:6), or with Lamed (Job_39:14), to leave anything with a person as property
in trust. No one would relieve them of their wealth, and hold it as a deposit; it was irrecoverably
lost. To this negative answer there is appended the following bilti, which, when used as a
preposition after a previous negation, signifies praeter; when used as a conjunction, nisi (bilti 'im,
Jdg_7:14); and where it governs the whole sentence, as in this case, nisi quod (cf., Num_11:6;
Dan_11:18). In the present instance, where the previous negation is to be supplied in thought, it
has the force of nil reliquum est nisi quod (there is nothing left but). The singular verb (cara‛) is
used contemptuously, embracing all the high persons as one condensed mass; and tachath does
not mean aeque ac or loco (like, or in the place of), as Ewald (§217, k) maintains, but is used in
the primary and local sense of infra (below). Some crouch down to find room at the feet of the
prisoners, who are crowded closely together in the prison; or if we suppose the prophet to have a
scene of transportation in his mind, they sink down under the feet of the other prisoners, in
their inability to bear such hardships, whilst the rest fall in war; and as the slaughter is of long
duration, not only become corpses themselves, but are covered with corpses of the slain (cf.,
Isa_14:19). And even with this the wrath of God is not satisfied. The prophet, however, does not
follow out the terrible gradation any further. Moreover, the captivity, to which this fourth
strophe points, actually formed the conclusion of a distinct period.
7. CALVIN, “1.Woe to them that decree. He now attacks the people more closely, as he did in the first
and second chapters, to make them feel that they are justly afflicted; for men never acknowledge that
they are justly punished till they have been manifestly convicted and constrained. Though they were

5. sufficiently convicted by former proofs, still he found it necessary to come to particulars, that by means of
them their hypocrisy might be exposed; for men are so brazen-faced as to think that any excuse shields
them, and openly to accuse God. When they had become so shameless, it was impossible for him to
rebuke them too sharply, or to carry his accusations beyond proper limits, so as to shut their mouths,
whether they would or not.
‫עמל‬ (gnamal) and ‫און‬ (aven) are often joined together in Scripture, as in Psa_7:14 ‫און‬
signifies vanity and iniquity, but the latter meaning agrees better with this passage. ‫,עמל‬ (gnamal,) on the
other hand, denotes vexation, and often the very cause of the vexation, that is, the oppression inflicted by
the stronger on the weaker, when they abuse their authority and power. Having formerly shown that the
wickedness originated from the governors themselves, (Isa_1:10,) he places them in the first rank, that
they may undergo the punishment of the crimes which they had occasioned. This ought to be carefully
observed, for they who are elevated to the highest rank imagine that they are exempted from the ordinary
lot of other men, and that they are not bound to give account to God; and therefore he threatens that they
will have this privilege, that they will be the first that are punished.
Some think that two classes are here described, and draw a distinction between ‫,חקקים‬ (chokekim,) those
who decree, and ‫,מכתבים‬ (mechattebim,) those who write (155) But I do not approve of this, for he attacks
generally, and without distinction, princes and magistrates, who oppressed the people by unjust and
tyrannical decrees, in such a manner that they approached to absolute robbery; and therefore he includes
every class of magistrates and governors.
(155) The prescribers. — Stock. “ the scribes, who write vexatious decrees, but the judges, who cause
them to be written.” — Rosenmuller.I, “
8. BI, “Crime under colour of law
The prophet has described the sins of Ephraim in a general manner; but on the mention of
Judah he proceeds to denounce what we know from the whole tenor of his discourses he felt to
be the worst form of the guilt of his own people, with a particularity which it is perhaps not
fanciful to attribute to his thoughts being now directed homewards.
The Ten Tribes were far more ferocious and anarchical than the men of Judah; there are more
indications in the latter of that national respect for law which so characterises the English, that
it has been observed (by Lord Campbell), that though history attributes to us our share in
national wickedness, our crimes have almost always been committed under colour of law, and
not by open violence,—as in the series of judicial murders in the reigns of Henry VIII, Charles II,
and James II. And thus Isaiah, recurring to Judah, denounces the utmost severity of God’s
wrath in the day in which He, the righteous Judge, shall come to visit “an hypocritical nation,”
whose nobles and magistrates decree, and execute, unrighteous decrees,—“to turn aside the
needy from judgment,” etc. (verse 2). They are satisfied, that they are safe in their heartless

6. selfishness, with peace at home and protection abroad restored by their statecraft and their
alliance with Assyria. But while they thus rejoice at home, “desolation cometh from afar.” To
whom will they fly for help when God has abandoned them? Under whose protection will they
leave their wealth, their dignities, their glory, which they have been heaping up for themselves?
Captivity or death are the only prospects before them. And yet, as though no judgments could
sufficiently condemn and punish their utter wickedness, me prophet repeats—“For all this His
anger is not turned away, but His hand stretched out still.” (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
God against all unrighteousness
The Lord’s voice is always for righteousness, What is it that is denounced? It the very thing that
is to be denounced evermore. There is nothing local or temporary in this cause of Divine offence.
The Lord is against all unrighteous decrees, unnatural alliances, and evil compacts. This is the
very glory of the majesty of omnipotence, that it is enlisted against even form of evil and wrong.
Then, “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they
have prescribed”—scribes or registrars who preserve all the forms of the court, and keep their
pens busy upon the court register, writing down every case, and appearing to do the business
correctly and thoughtfully; and yet, all the while, these very registrars were themselves plotting
“to take away the right from the poor, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the
fatherless.” The court of law was turned into a means of robbery, as it is in nearly every country
under the sun. The scribes who wrote down the law were men who secretly or overtly broke it;
the judge used his ermine as a cloak, that under its concealment he might thrust his hand
farther into the property of those who had no helper. “For all this His auger is not turned away.”
Blessed be His name! Oh, burn Thou against us all; mighty, awful, holy God, burn more and
more, until we learn by fire what we can never learn by pity. The Lord speaks evermore for the
poor, for the widow, for the fatherless, for the helpless. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Oppressors of the poor and needy
I. THE INDICTMENT drawn up against these oppressors (Isa_10:1-2). They are charged—
1. With making wicked laws and edicts. Woe to the superior powers that devise and decree
these decrees; they are not too high to be under the Divine check; and woe to the inferior
officers that draw them up, and enter them upon record, “the writers that write the
grievousness,” they are not too mean to be within the Divine cognisance. Principal and
accessories shall fall under the same woe.
2. With perverting justice in the execution of the laws that were made. No people had
statutes and judgments” so righteous as they had; and yet corrupt judges found ways to turn
aside the needy from judgment, to hinder them from coming at their right.
3. With enriching themselves by oppressing those that lay at their mercy, whom they ought
to have protected.
II. A CHALLENGE given them, with all their pride and power, to outface the judgments of God
(Isa_10:3). Will there not come a desolation upon those that have made others desolate?
Perhaps it may come from far, and therefore may he long in coming, but it will come at last.
Reprieves are not pardons.
1. There is a day of visitation coming, a day of inquiry and discovery, a searching day which
will bring to light, to a true light, every man and every man’s work.

7. 2. The day of visitation will be a day of desolation to all wicked people, when all their
comforts and hopes will be lost and gone.
3. Impenitent sinners will be utterly at a loss, and will not know what to do in the day of
visitation and desolation.
4. It concerns us all seriously to consider what we shall do in the day of visitation—in a day
of affliction, in the day of death and judgment, and to provide that we may do well.
III. SENTENCE PASSED UPON THEM, by which they are doomed, some to imprisonment and
captivity. (Matthew Henry.)
Legalised injustice
I. MAGISTRATES AND RULERS ARE ANSWERABLE TO GOD.
II. THEIR DECISIONS WILL BE REVISED.
III. THEIR DECISIONS WILL IN MANY INSTANCES BE REVERSED.
IV. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR INJUSTICE WILL RETURN BACK UPON
THEMSELVES. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Oppression resisted
(Taxation of Henry VIII):—In every county a tenth was demanded from the laity and a fourth
from the clergy by the royal commissioners. But the demand was met by a general resistance . . .
A revolt actually broke out among the weavers of Suffolk; the men of Cambridge banded for
resistance; the Norwich clothiers, though they yielded at first, soon threatened to rise. “Who is
your captain?” the Duke of Norfolk asked the crowd. “His name is Poverty,” was the answer, “for
he and his cousin Necessity have brought us to this doing.” There was, in fact, a general strike of
the employers. Cloth makers discharged their workers, farmers put away their servants. “They
say the king asketh so much that they be not able to do as they have done before this time.” Such
a peasant insurrection as was raging in Germany was only prevented by the unconditional
withdrawal of the royal demand. (J. R. Green’s English People.)
2
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my
people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.

8. 1.BARNES, “To turn aside - Their sentences have the effect, and are designed to have, to
pervert justice, and to oppress the poor, or to deprive them of their rights and just claims;
compare Isa_29:21; Pro_27:5.
The needy - daliym - ‫דלים‬ dalı ym. Those of humble rank and circumstances; who have no
powerful friends and defenders. “From judgment.” From obtaining justice.
And to take away - To take away by violence and oppression. The word ‫גזל‬ gazal, is
commonly applied to robbery, and to oppression; to the taking away of spoils in battle, etc.
That widows may be their prey - That they may rob widows, or obtain their property.
This crime has always been one particularly offensive in the sight of God; see the note at
Isa_1:23. The widow and the orphan are without protectors. Judges, by their office, are
particularly bound to preserve their rights; and it, therefore, evinces special iniquity when they
who should be their protectors become, in fact, their oppressors, and do injustice to them
without the possibility of redress. Yet this was the character of the Jewish judges; and for this
the vengeance of heaven was about to come upon the land.
2. CLARKE, “My people - Instead of ‫עמי‬ ammi, my people, many MSS., and one of my own,
ancient, read ‫עמו‬ ammo, his people. But this is manifestly a corruption.
3. GILL, “To turn aside the needy from judgment,.... Such laws being made as
discouraged them from any application for justice; and, when they did, were harassed with such
long, vexatious, and expensive suits, as obliged them to desist, and the cause being generally
given against them, and for the rich:
and to take away the right from the poor of my people; for not to do justice to the poor
is the same as to rob and plunder them, and take away by force what of right belongs to them;
wherefore it follows:
that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless; who have none
to protect and defend them, and whose protectors judges ought to be, in imitation of God, whom
civil magistrates represent, who is the Judge of the widows and the fatherless; and therefore this
is observed as an aggravation of their sin, which was very great indeed: it is very wicked in a
judge to pervert the judgment of the poor and needy, the widow and the fatherless, contrary to
laws that are made by God and men; but to make and prescribe wicked and unrighteous laws,
that wickedness may be framed, and mischief committed by a law, that the poor and the needy,
the widows and fatherless, may be injured under colour and pretence of law and justice, is the
height of injustice. See Psa_94:20.
4. PULPIT, “The poor the widow the fatherless. These were the classes who were the chief
sufferers by the perversion of justice (comp. Isa_1:17, Isa_1:23). They were exactly the classes for whom

9. God had most compassion, and whom he had commended in the Law to the tender care of his people
(see note on Isa_9:17).
5. JAMISON, “To turn aside, etc. — The effect of their conduct is to pervert the cause of
the needy [Horsley]. In English Version “from judgment” means “from obtaining justice.”
take away the right — “make plunder of the right” (rightful claim) [Horsley].
6. MEYER, “SOCIAL INJUSTICE CONDEMNED
Isa_9:18-21; Isa_10:1-4
The terrible indictment of the preceding paragraphs is continued here. Notice the awful
monotony of the refrain, Isa_9:12; Isa_9:17; Isa_9:21; Isa_10:4. Internal anarchy spread with
the rapidity of a prairie fire. Jealousy and distrust awoke murderous hatred. Even the ties of
brotherhood would not avail to arrest the knife of the assassin. In the horrors of starvation men
would consume their own flesh, Isa_9:20. Civil strife would exhaust the forces, which, combined
with God’s blessing, might have arrested the invader. The weak would become the spoil of the
strong; and there would be no appeal. What pathetic questions are suggested in Isa_10:3! What
will ye do? To whom will ye flee? See Heb_9:26-28. What hope is there for the soul that has
known and refused the offer of forgiveness in Jesus! Dear soul, make haste to the cleft of the
Rock!
7. CALVIN, “2.To keep back. (156) Others render it, to cause them to turn aside; but the true meaning
is, to keep back the poor from judgment, or make them lose their cause. This is the iniquity and
oppression which he had mentioned in the former verse, that the poor are deprived of their rights, and are
robbed for the sake of the rich, and go away mocked from the judgment-seat, while everything is laid
open to plunder. He chiefly mentions the poor, because for the most part they are destitute of help and
assistance. While magistrates and judges ought to have assisted them more than others, they allow
themselves greater liberty, and indulge more contemptuously in oppressing them. Those who have
wealth, or friends, or favor, are less liable to be oppressed; for they have arms in their hands to defend,
and even to revenge themselves. But the Lord says that he takes peculiar care of the poor, (Exo_22:23,)
though they are commonly despised; and that he takes such care of them that he does not allow
oppression inflicted on them to pass unpunished; for it is not without good ground that he calls himself the
protector and defender of such persons. (Psa_68:5.) From this consideration, therefore, the poor and
weak ought to derive consolation, and more calmly to endure distresses and afflictions, because they
learn that God takes care of them, and will not permit any injustice done to them to pass unpunished. The

10. powerful and wealthy are at the same time warned not to take it as an incentive to sin that they have not
been punished; for though no avenger be now seen, still the Lord will avenge, and will undertake the
cause of those whom they imagined to be destitute of all assistance.
(156) To turn aside. — Eng. Ver.
3
What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?
1.BARNES, “And what will ye do - The prophet here proceeds to denounce the judgment,
or punishment, that would follow the crimes specified in the previous verses. That punishment
was the invasion of the land by a foreign force. ‘What will ye do? To whom will you fly? What
refuge will them be?’ Implying that the calamity would be so great that there would be no refuge,
or escape.
In the day of visitation - The word “visitation” (‫פקדה‬ pe
quddah) is used here in the sense of
God’s coming to punish them for their sins; compare Job_31:14; Job_35:15; Isa_26:14; Eze_9:1.
The idea is probably derived from that of a master of a family who comes to take account, or to
investigate the conduct of his servants, and where the visitation, therefore, is one of reckoning
and justice. So the idea is applied to God as designing to visit the wicked; that is, to punish them
for their offences; compare Hos_9:7.
And in the desolation - The destruction, or overthrowing. The word used here - ‫שׁואה‬ sho'ah
- usually denotes a storm, a tempest Pro_1:27; and then sudden destruction, or calamity, that
sweeps along irresistibly like a tempest; Zep_1:15; Job_30:3, Job_30:14; Psa_35:8.
Which shall come from far - That is, from Assyria, Media, Babylonia. The sense is, ‘a
furious storm of war is about to rage. To what refuge can you then flee? or where can you then
find safety?’
Where will ye leave your glory - By the word “glory” here, some have understood the
prophet as referring to their aged men, their princes and nobles, and as asking where they would
find a safe place for them. But he probably means their “riches, wealth, magnificence.” Thus
Psa_49:17 :
For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away;
His glory shall not descebd after him.

11. See also Hos_9:2; Isa_66:12. The word “leave” here, is used in the sense “of deposit,” or
commit for safe keeping; compare Job_39:14. ‘In the time of the invasion that shall come up like
a tempest on the land, where will you deposit your property so that it shall be safe?’
2. PULPIT, “What will ye do in the day of visitation? "The day of visitation" is the day when God
reckons with his servants, and demands an account from each of the work done in his vineyard, being
prepared to recompense the good and punish the bad (comp. Hos_9:7). It is oftenest used in a bad sense
because, unhappily, so many more are found to deserve punishment than reward. The desolation which
shall come from far; rather, the crashing ruin (Cheyne). It is sudden, and complete destruction, rather
than mere desolateness, that is threatened. Previous prophecies, especially Isa_7:17-20, had informed
the Jews that it was to "come from far," "by them that were beyond the river." To whom will ye flee? The
prophet speaks in bitter irony. Is there any one to whom ye can flee? any one who can protect you from
the wrath of God? Ye well know there is no one. Where will ye leave your glory? With whom will ye
deposit your riches, your magnificence, your jewels, your grand apparel? You cannot save them. They
will all make to themselves wings, and "fly away like a bird" (Hos_9:11)
3. GILL, “And what will ye do in the day of visitation,.... Not in a way of grace and mercy,
but of wrath and anger, as the following clause explains it, when God should come and punish
them for their sins; and so the Targum,
"what will ye do in the day that your sins shall be visited upon you?''
it designs the Babylonish captivity, as the next words show; the same phrase is used of the
destruction of the Jews by the Romans, Luk_19:44,
and in the desolation which shall come from far? from Assyria, which was distant from
the land of Judea: the word (h) for "desolation" signifies a storm, tumult, noise, and confusion;
referring to what would be made by the Assyrian army, when it came upon them:
to whom will ye flee for help? Rezin king of Syria, their confederate, being destroyed; and
Syria, with whom they were in alliance, now become their enemy, see Isa_9:11,
and where will ye leave your glory? either their high titles, and ensigns of honour, as
princes, judges, and civil magistrates, which they should be stripped of; or rather their
mammon, as Aben Ezra interprets it, their unrighteous mammon, which they got by perverting
the judgment of the poor and needy, the widow and the fatherless, of which they gloried; and
which now would be taken away from them, when they should go into captivity.
4. SBC, “What the world’s glory consists of is readily apprehended. That a man be conspicuous
among and above his fellow-mortals;—be a more important object, as if a larger measure of
being, than a number of them estimated collectively;—be much observed, admired, even envied,

12. as being that which they cannot be;—be often in people’s thoughts and in their discourse. The
man of glory is to be such a one, that it shall seem as if it were chiefly on his account that many
other men and things exist.
I. "Where will ye leave your glory?" What! then, it is to be left, the object of all this ardour and
idolatry—all this anxiety and exertion—all this elation and pride,—is to be left. Men must leave
their glory. (1) Where will they leave it, that it can in any sense continue to be theirs? (2) Where
will they leave it, that it shall be anything to them? What becomes of it next? (3) Where will they
leave their glory, to be kept that they may obtain it again?
II. Apply these remarks to several of the kinds, the forms, of this world’s glory. (1) The material
splendour of life-; (2) riches; (3) elevated rank in society; (4) the possession of power; (5)
martial glory; (6) intellectual glory. "Where will ye leave your glory?" Contrast with all these
forms of folly the predominant aim of a Christian, which is "glory" still; but a glory which he will
not have to leave, a glory accumulated for him in the world to which he is going.
J. Foster, Lectures, 2nd series, p. 40.
References: Isa_10:5.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 209. Isa_10:20-23.—H. W.
Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 43. Isa_11:1-9.—Ibid., vol. xxiii., p. 281.
5. HENRY, “A challenge given them with all their pride and power to outface the judgments
of God (Isa_10:3): “What will you do? To whom will you flee? You can trample upon the
widows and fatherless; but what will you do when God riseth up?” Job_31:14. Great men, who
tyrannise over the poor, think they shall never be called to account for their tyranny, shall never
hear of it again, or fare the worse for it; but shall not God visit for these things? Jer_5:29. Will
there not come a desolation upon those that have made others desolate? Perhaps it may come
from far, and therefore may be long in coming; but it will come at last (reprieves are not
pardons), and coming from far, from a quarter whence it was least expected, it will be the
greater surprise and the more terrible. What will then become of these unrighteous judges? Now
they see their help in the gate (Job_31:21); but to whom will they then flee for help? Note, 1.
There is a day of visitation coming, a day of enquiry and discovery, a searching day, which will
bring to light, to a true light, every man, and every man's work. 2. The day of visitation will be a
day of desolation to all wicked people, when all their comforts and hopes will be lost and gone,
and buried in ruin, and themselves left desolate. 3. Impenitent sinners will be utterly at a loss,
and will no know what to do in the day of visitation and desolation. They cannot fly and hide
themselves, cannot fight it out and defend themselves; they have no refuge in which either to
shelter themselves from the present evil (to whom will you flee for help?) or to secure to
themselves better times hereafter: “Where will you leave your glory, to find it again when the
storm is over?” The wealth they had got was their glory, and they had no place of safety in which
to deposit that, but they should certainly see it flee away. If our souls be our glory, as they ought
to be, and we make them our chief care, we know where to leave them, and into whose hands to
commit them, even those of a faithful Creator. 4. It concerns us all seriously to consider what we
shall do in the day of visitation, in a day of affliction, in the day of death and judgment, and to
provide that we may do well.
6. JAMISON, “what will ye do — what way of escape will there be for you?
visitation — of God’s wrath (Isa_26:14; Job_35:15; Hos_9:7).
from far — from Assyria.

13. leave ... glory — rather, “deposit (for safekeeping) your wealth” [Lowth]. So Psa_49:17.
7. CALVIN, “3.And what will you do? Here the Prophet severely threatens princes, who were careless
and indolent amidst their distresses, as men intoxicated by prosperity are wont to despise haughtily every
danger. He therefore warns them that, though God delay, still he has fixed a time for judgment, and
already it is close at hand. In consequence of having vanquished the neighboring nations in war, and
fortified themselves by an alliance with a very powerful nation, they had no longer any fear; and therefore
he expressly declares that their calamity will come from afar
In the day of visitation. By visitation is here meant judgment, for God visits us in two ways, that is, in
mercy and in judgment. In both ways he reveals himself and his power to us, both when, in compassion
on us, he rescues us from dangers, and when he punishes those who are ungodly and who despise the
word. Both kinds of visitation have the same object in view, for we do not see the Lord but in his works;
and we think that he is absent unless he give us a token of his presence. This visitation, therefore, the
Scripture accommodates to our capacity; for when we are pressed down by afflictions, and when the
ungodly freely give themselves up to wickedness, we suppose that God is at a great distance, and takes
no interest in our affairs.
Accordingly, visitation must here be understood to mean the judgment by which God, in opposition to the
waywardness and insolence of the ungodly, will bring them back like deserters. But if the judgments of
God be so dreadful in this life, how dreadful will he be when he shall come at last to judge the world! All
the instances of punishment that now produce fear or terror, are nothing more than preparations for that
final vengeance with which he will thunder against the reprobate, and many things which he appears to
pass by, he purposely reserves and delays till that last day. And if the ungodly are not able to bear these
chastisements, how much less will they be capable of enduring his glorious and inconceivable majesty,
when he shall ascend that awful tribunal, before which the angels themselves tremble!
And when the desolation shall come from afar. When he says from afar, it is proper to observe that we
must not allow the prosperity which we now enjoy to bereave us of our senses; for they who carelessly
sleep amidst their vices, and by this wicked indifference call in question the power of God, will quickly feel
that in a moment, whenever he pleases, he can shake heaven and earth from east to west.
To whom will you flee? He declares that it is in vain for them to rely on their resources, for, in opposition
to the hand of God, they will be fruitless and of no avail whatever. At the same time he likewise shows
that this will be a most righteous reward; for when they are cruel towards others, they will justly be made

14. to feel that they have now no help either from God or from men.
They will have judgment without mercy who have showed no mercy. (Jas_2:13.)
This applies especially to the judges, who ought to have been a protection to the whole people; for they
have been appointed for the purpose of defending the poor and wretched. But if they shall neglect and
betray, and even plunder them, it is right that they should be made to feel, by their own destitute
condition, how greatly this cruelty offends God.
Where will you deposit your glory? This is understood by commentators to mean that they will be thrown
down from their high rank. They suppose it to be an ironical and contemptuous question put by the
Prophet, “ will become of that illustrious rank of which the nobles cruelly and foolishly vaunt, whenever
God spares them for a little?” But as this was a forced rendering, I rather think that Isaiah asks, “ will they
find a safe hiding-place in which they may deposit their glory ?” Thus I consider the meaning to be, to
leave, (157) for the sake of being preserved; and the two clauses correspond to each other, To whom will
you flee ? and, “ will you find a refuge for your glory in order to preserve it?” But perhaps a preference will
be given to a different view, which I have noted in the margin; (158) for the verb ‫עזב‬ (gnazab) signifies also
to strengthen. Again, if God thus devotes to destruction princes who are thrown down from an elevated
position, what will become of the lowest? No one, therefore, has any reason to flatter himself; for we shall
all be like stubble when the wrath of the Lord has been kindled against us. (Psa_83:13.)
(157) Where will ye leave your glory ? — Eng. Ver. And where will ye deposit your things of value ? —
Stock.
(158) This clause is rendered in Calvin’ version, Where will you deposit your glory ? and, in the
margin, Where will you secure your glory ? — Ed.
4
Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives
or fall among the slain.

15. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
God’s Judgment on Assyria
1.BARNES, “Without me - ‫בלתי‬ biltı y. There has been a great variety of interpretation
affixed to this expression. The sense in which our translators understood it was, evidently, that
they should be forsaken of God; and that, as the effect of this, they should bow down under the
condition of captives, or among the slain. The Vulgate and the Septuagint, however. and many
interpreters understand the word bore as a simple negative. ‘Where will you flee for refuge?
Where will you deposit your wealth so as not to bow down under a chain?’ Vulgate, Ne
incurvemini sub vinculo. Septuagint, Τοሞ µᆱ ᅚµπεσεሏν εᅶς ᅊπαγωνήν tou me empesein eis apagonen
- ‘Not to fall into captivity.’ The Hebrew will bear either mode of construction. Vitringa and
Lowth understand it as our translators have done, as meaning that God would forsake them, and
that without him, that is, deprived of his aid, they would be destroyed.
They shall bow down - They shall be subdued, as armies are that are taken captive.
Under the prisoners - That is, under the “condition” of prisoners; or as prisoner. Some
understand it to mean, that they should bear down “in the place of prisoners;” that is, in prison,
But it evidently means, simply, that they should be captives.
They shall fall under the slain - They shall be slain. Gesenius renders it, “‘Among the
prisoners, and “among” the slain.’” The Chaldee reads it, ‘You shall be east into chains out of
your own land, and beyond your own cities you shall be cast out slain.’ Vitringa supposes that
the prophet, in this verse, refers to the custom, among the ancients, of placing prisoners in war
under a yoke of wood to indicate their captivity. That such a custom obtained, there can be no
doubt; but it is not probable that Isaiah refers to it here. The simple idea is, that many of them
should be taken captive, and many of them slain. This prediction was fulfilled in the invasion of
Tiglath-pileser; 2 Kings 15; 16.
For all this - Notwithstanding these calamities. The cup of punishment is not filled by these,
but the divine judgment shall still be poured out further upon the nation. The anger of God shall
not be fully expressed by these minor inflictions of his wrath, but his hand shall continue to be
stretched out until the whole nation shall be overwhelmed and ruined; see the note at Isa_10:12.
2. CLARKE, “Without me - That is, without my aid: they shall be taken captive even by the
captives, and shall be subdued even by the vanquished. “The ‫י‬ yod in ‫בלתי‬ bilti is a pronoun, as
in Hos_13:4.” - Kimchi on the place. One MS. has ‫לבלתי‬ lebilti.
As the people had hitherto lived without God in worship and obedience; so they should now
be without his help, and should perish in their transgressions.

16. 3. GILL, “Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall
under the slain,.... That is, either, being forsaken by me, and destitute of my help, they shall
bow down; or, "because they are without me", are not my people, and do not hearken to me,
therefore they shall bow down, so David Kimchi; or, were it not for me, they would, as others; or
that they might not bow down and fall; and so the words may be connected with the preceding
verse Isa_10:3, others render the word, translated "without me, besides"; and the sense is either,
as Moses Kimchi, besides their bowing in their own land, when subdued by the Gentiles, a
greater affliction shall befall them, captivity; when they should be either carried captive or slain;
or besides him that shall bow down under the prisoners, they shall fall under the slain; besides
those that are taken, others shall be killed; or none shall escape, but, or "except", him that bows,
and hides himself under the prisoners, or in the place of the slain, that he might not be thought
to be alive: or the sense is, the desolation shall be so general, that none shall escape, either they
shall be taken prisoners, or they shall be slain; agreeably to which Noldius (i) renders the words,
"without me", everyone "shall bow down among the prisoners, or shall fall among the slain";
which gives the best sense of them; that, being left of God for their sins, they would either be
bound and carried captive, or else slain with the sword, and one or the other would be the lot of
everyone of them:
for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still; the final
and utter destruction of the nation of the Jews being then not yet come, when carried captive to
Babylon, there remained a greater calamity for them, to come by the hands of the Romans.
These first four verses Isa_10:1 seem more properly to belong to the preceding chapter Isa_9:1,
and this should begin with the next verse Isa_10:5.
4. HENRY, “Sentence passed upon them, by which they are doomed, some to imprisonment
and captivity (they shall bow down among the prisoners, or under them - those that were most
highly elevated in sin shall be most heavily loaded and most deeply sunk in trouble), others to
death: they shall fall first, and so shall fall under the rest of the slain. Those that had trampled
upon the widows and fatherless shall themselves be trodden down, Isa_10:4. “This it will come
to,” says God, “without me, that is, because you have deserted me and driven me away from
you.” Nothing but utter ruin can be expected by those that live without God in the world, that
cast him behind their back, and so cast themselves out of his protection.
And yet, for all this, his anger is not turned away, which intimates not only that God will
proceed in his controversy with them, but that they shall be in a continual dread of it; they shall,
to their unspeakable terror, see his hand still stretched out against them, and there shall remain
nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment.
5. JAMISON, “Without me — not having Me to “flee to” (Isa_10:3).
bow down — Bereft of strength they shall fall; or else, they shall lie down fettered.
under ... under — rather, “among” (literally, “in the place of”) [Horsley]. The “under” may
be, however, explained, “trodden under the (feet of the) prisoners going into captivity,” and
“overwhelmed under the heaps of slain on the battlefield” [Maurer].

17. 6. PULPIT, “Without me. That this is a possible rendering of the word used seems proved
by Hos_13:4. But here it scarcely suits the context. God does not speak directly, in the first person,
elsewhere in the entire prophecy (Isa 9:8-10:4), but is spoken of in the third person throughout, as even in
the present verse, where we have "his anger," "his hand." It is better, therefore, to give the word its
ordinary meaning—"unless," "except." Have they anywhere to flee to, unless they shall crouch amid the
captives that are being carried off, or fall amid the slain? In other words, there is no escape for them; they
must either submit to captivity or death. For all this, etc. Even when the two kingdoms were destroyed,
and the captivity of both was complete, God's wrath was not fully appeased, his anger was not wholly
turned away. Both peoples suffered grievous things in their captivity, as appears from the Book of Daniel
(Isa_3:1-26; Isa_6:1-13.) and other places. It took seventy years for God's anger to be appeased in the
case of Judah (2Ch_36:21), while in the case of Israel it was never appeased. Crushed beneath the iron
heel of their conquerors, Israel ceased to exist as
7. CALVIN, “4.If they shall not fall down. As the meaning of the particle ‫בלתי‬ (bilti) is ambiguous,
various interpretations of it have been given by commentators. Some take it in an exclusive sense, as in
many other passages of Scripture; as if he had said, Only he shall fall down among the bound and slain;
that is, because all will be condemned and given up either to captivity or to death. Others render
it, Without me they shall fall. If this rendering be preferred, the Prophet shows that the cause of their
destruction is, that they have revolted from God; and unquestionably the cause of all our distresses is, to
forsake the fountain of life and of salvation, and of all blessings. In this manner he sharply reproves the
madness of the ungodly, who vaunt of having been forsaken by God, as if nothing were more desirable or
pleasant than to withdraw to the greatest distance from him; and thus it will be an ironical reproof, that
their calamity will arise from no other source than from the absence of God, in whom, without any good
ground, they had rejoiced.
Others consider it to be an elliptical expression, that they will have no hiding-place but by throwing
themselves down under the captives and the slain. It might also be a form of an oath, If they shall
not; (159) and the meaning would be highly appropriate, that God swears in wrath that he will spare none
of them, but will abandon some to captivity, and will deliver up others to be put to death. In a word, this
declaration shows what are the consequences that await all those who, after having been warned by the
word of God, do not repent. From what immediately follows, we learn that a dreadful and alarming
destruction is threatened; for he repeats what he had already said frequently, that the wrath of the Lord is
not yet apparent, that he will find out more frightful punishments for avenging himself. This teaches us
that nothing is more truly desirable than to be moved by a sincere feeling of repentance, and to
acknowledge our fault, that we may obtain pardon from the Lord.

18. (159) For this form of an oath, See page 173, n. 1.— Ed.
5
“Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,
in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
1.BARNES, “O Assyrian - The word ‫הוי‬ hoy, is commonly used to denounce wrath, or to
indicate approaching calamity; as an interjection of threatening; Isa_1:4. ‘Wo sinful nation;’
Isa_10:8, Isa_10:11, Isa_10:18, Isa_10:20-21; Jer_48:1; Eze_13:2. The Vulgate so understands
it here: Vae Assur; and the Septuagint, Οᆒαι ᅒσσυρίοις Ouai Assuriois - ‘Woe to the Assyrians.’
So the Chaldee and the Syriac. It is not then a simple address to the Assyrian; but a form
denouncing wrath on the invader. Yet it was not so much designed to intimidate and appal the
Assyrian himself as to comfort the Jews with the assurance that calamity should overtake him.
The ‘Assyrian’ referred to here was the king of Assyria - Sennacherib, who was leading an army
to invade the land of Judea.
The rod of mine anger - That is, the rod, or instrument, by which I will inflict punishment
on a guilty nation. The Hebrew would bear the interpretation that the Assyrian was, an object
against which God was angry; but the former is evidently the sense of the passage, as denoting
that the Assyrian was the agent by which he would express his anger against a guilty people.
Woe might be denounced against him for his wicked intention, at the same time that God might
design to make use of his plans to punish the sins of his own people. The word “anger” here,
refers to the indignation of God against the sins of the Jewish people.
And the staff - The word “staff” here, is synonymous with rod, as an instrument of
chastisement or punishment; Isa_9:4; compare Isa_10:24; Nah_1:13; Eze_7:10.
In their hand - There has been considerable variety in the interpretation of this passage.
Lowth and Noyes read it, ‘The staff in whose hand is the instrument of my indignation.’ This
interpretation Lowth adopts, by omitting the word ‫הוא‬ hu' on the authority of the Alexandrine
copy of the Septuagint, and five manuscripts, two of them ancient. Jerome reads it, ‘Wo to the
Assyrian! He is the staff and the rod of my fury; in their hand is my indignation.’ So Forerius,
Ludovicus, de Dieu, Cocceius, and others. Vitringa reads it, ‘And in the hands of those who are
my rod is my indignation.’ Schmidius and Rosenmuller, ‘And the rod which is in their hands, is
the rod of mine indignation.’ There is no necessity for any change in the text. The Hebrew,
literally, is, ‘Wo to the Assyrian! Rod of my anger! And he is the staff. In their hands is my
indignation.’ The sense is sufficiently clear, that the Assyrian was appointed to inflict
punishmerit on a rebellious people, as the instrument of God. The Chaldee renders it, ‘Wo to the

19. Assyrian! The dominion (power, ruler) of my fury, and the angel sent from my face, against
them, for a malediction. Septuagint, ‘And wrath in their hands.’
In their hand - In the hand of the Assyrians, where the word ‘Assyrian’ is taken as referring
to the king of Assyria, as the representative of the nation.
2. CLARKE, “O Assyrian “Ho to the Assyrian” - Here begins a new and distinct
prophecy, continued to the end of the twelfth chapter: and it appears from Isa_10:9-11 of this
chapter, that this prophecy was delivered after the taking of Samaria by Shalmaneser; which was
in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah: and as the former part of it foretells the invasion of
Sennacherib, and the destruction of his army, which makes the whole subject of this chapter it
must have been delivered before the fourteenth of the same reign.
The staff in their hand “The staff in whose hand” - The word ‫הוא‬ hu, the staff itself, in
this place seems to embarrass the sentence. I omit it on the authority of the Alexandrine copy of
the Septuagint: nine MSS., (two ancient), and one of my own, ancient, for ‫ומטה‬‫הוא‬ umatter hu,
read ‫מטהו‬ mattehu, his staff. Archbishop Secker was not satisfied with the present reading. He
proposes another method of clearing up the sense, by reading ‫ביום‬ beyom, in the day, instead of
‫בידם‬ beyadam, in their hand: “And he is a staff in the day of mine indignation.”
3. GILL, “O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger,..... Either as calling him to come against the
land of Israel to spoil it, so Kimchi; or as grieving that he was obliged to make use of him in such
a manner against his people; or as threatening him with ruin. So the Targum, Septuagint, and all
the Oriental versions render it, "woe to the Assyrian"; wherefore this, and what follows, serve to
comfort the people of God; that though they should be carried captive by the Assyrians, yet they
should be utterly destroyed, and a remnant of the Jews should be saved. The Assyrian monarch
is called the "rod of God's anger", because he was made use of by him as an instrument to
chastise and correct Israel for their sins:
and the staff in their hand is mine indignation; that is, the staff which was in the hand of
the king of Assyria, and his army, with which they smote the people of Israel, was no other than
the wrath and indignation of God against that people, and the execution of it, which he
committed to them as instruments. Kimchi interprets "their hand" of the land of Israel, into
which this staff was sent, the Assyrian, to smite and chastise them. The Targum is,
"woe to the Assyrian, the government of my fury; and an angel sent from before me against them
for a curse.''
4. HENRY, “The destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser king of Assyria was
foretold in the foregoing chapter, and it had its accomplishment in the sixth year of Hezekiah,
2Ki_18:10. It was total and final, head and tail were all cut off. Now the correction of the
kingdom of Judah by Sennacherib king of Assyria is foretold in this chapter; and this prediction
was fulfilled in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, when that potent prince, encouraged by the
successes of his predecessor against the ten tribes, came up against all the fenced cities of

20. Judah and took them, and laid siege to Jerusalem (2Ki_18:13, 2Ki_18:17), in consequence of
which we may well suppose Hezekiah and his kingdom were greatly alarmed, though there was a
good work of reformation lately begun among them: but it ended well, in the confusion of the
Assyrians and the great encouragement of Hezekiah and his people in their return to God. Now
let us see here,
I. How God, in his sovereignty, deputed the king of Assyria to be his servant, and made use of
him as a mere tool to serve his own purposes with (Isa_10:5, Isa_10:6): “O Assyrian! know this,
that thou art the rod of my anger; and I will send thee to be a scourge to the people of my
wrath.” Observe here, 1. How bad the character of the Jews was, though they appeared very
good. They were a hypocritical nation, that made a profession of religion, and at this time
particularly of reformation, but were not truly religious, not truly reformed, not so good as they
pretended to be now that Hezekiah had brought goodness into fashion. When rulers are pious,
and so religion is in reputation, it is common for nations to be hypocritical. They are a profane
nation; so some read it. Hezekiah had in a great measure cured them of their idolatry, and now
they ran into profaneness; nay, hypocrisy is profaneness: none profane the name of God so
much as those who are called by that name and call upon it, and yet live in sin. Being a profane
hypocritical nation, they are the people of God's wrath; they lie under his wrath, and are likely to
be consumed by it. Note, Hypocritical nations are the people of God's wrath: nothing is more
offensive to God than dissimulation in religion. See what a change sin made: those that had been
God's chosen and hallowed people, above all people, had now become the people of his wrath.
See Amo_3:2. 2. How mean the character of the Assyrian was, though he appeared very great.
He was but the rod of God's anger, an instrument God was pleased to make use of for the
chastening of his people, that, being thus chastened of the Lord, they might not be condemned
with the world. Note, The tyrants of the world are but the tools of Providence. Men are God's
hand, his sword sometimes, to kill and slay (Psa_17:13, Psa_17:14), at other times his rod to
correct. The staff in their hand, wherewith they smite his people, is his indignation; it is his
wrath that puts the staff into their hand and enables them to deal blows at pleasure among such
as thought themselves a match for them. Sometimes God makes an idolatrous nation, that
serves him not at all, a scourge to a hypocritical nation, that serves him not in sincerity and
truth. The Assyrian is called the rod of God's anger because he is employed by him. (1.) From
him his power is derived: I will send him; I will give him a charge. Note, All the power that
wicked men have, though they often use it against God, they always receive from him. Pilate
could have no power against Christ unless it were given him from above, Joh_19:11. (2.) By him
the exercise of that power is directed. The Assyrian is to take the spoil and to take the prey, not
to shed any blood. We read not of any slain, but he is to plunder the country, rifle the houses,
drive away the cattle, strip the people of all their wealth and ornaments, and tread them down
like the mire of the streets. When God's professing people wallow in the mire of sin it is just with

21. God to suffer their enemies to tread upon them like mire. But why must the Assyrian prevail
thus against them? Not that they might be ruined, but that they might be thoroughly reformed.
5. JAMISON, “Isa_10:5-32; Isa_11:12. Destruction of the Assyrians; Coming Messiah; Hymn
of praise.
Isa_10:9, Isa_10:11 show that Samaria was destroyed before this prophecy. It was written
when Assyria proposed (a design which it soon after tried to carry out under Sennacherib) to
destroy Judah and Jerusalem, as it had destroyed Samaria. This is the first part of Isaiah’s
prophecies under Hezekiah. Probably between 722 and 715 b.c. (see Isa_10:27).
O Assyrian, etc. — rather, “What, ho (but Maurer, Woe to the) Assyrian! He is the rod and
staff of Mine anger (My instrument in punishing, Jer_51:20; Psa_17:13). In their hands is Mine
indignation” [Horsley, after Jerome]. I have put into the Assyrians’ hands the execution of Mine
indignation against My people.
6. K&D, “The law of contrast prevails in prophecy, as it does also in the history of salvation.
When distress is at its height, it is suddenly brought to an end, and changed into relief; and
when prophecy has become as black with darkness as in the previous section, it suddenly
becomes as bright and cloudless as in that which is opening now. The hoi (woe) pronounced
upon Israel becomes a hoi upon Asshur. Proud Asshur, with its confidence in its own strength,
after having served for a time as the goad of Jehovah's wrath, now falls a victim to that wrath
itself. Its attack upon Jerusalem leads to its own overthrow; and on the ruins of the kingdom of
the world there rises up the kingdom of the great and righteous Son of David, who rules in peace
over His redeemed people, and the nations that rejoice in Him: - the counterpart of the
redemption from Egypt, and one as rich in materials for songs of praise as the passage through
the Red Sea. The Messianic prophecy, which turns its darker side towards unbelief in chapter 7,
and whose promising aspect burst like a great light through the darkness in Isaiah 8:5-9:6, is
standing now upon its third and highest stage. In chapter 7 it is like a star in the night; in Isaiah
8:5-9:6, like the morning dawn; and now the sky is perfectly cloudless, and it appears like the
noonday sun. The prophet has now penetrated to the light fringe of Isa_6:1-13. The name Shear-
yashub, having emptied itself of all the curse that it contained, is now transformed into a pure
promise. And it becomes perfectly clear what the name Immanuel and the name given to
Immanuel, El gibbor (mighty God), declared. The remnant of Israel turns to God the mighty
One; and God the mighty is henceforth with His people in the Sprout of Jesse, who has the seven
Spirits of God dwelling within Himself. So far as the date of composition is concerned, the
majority of the more recent commentators agree in assigning it to the time of Hezekiah, because
Isa_10:9-11 presupposes the destruction of Samaria by Shalmanassar, which took place in the
sixth year of Hezekiah. But it was only from the prophet's point of view that this event was
already past; it had not actually taken place. The prophet had already predicted that Samaria,
and with Samaria the kingdom of Israel, would succumb to the Assyrians, and had even fixed
the years (Isa_7:8 and Isa_8:4, Isa_8:7). Why, then, should he not be able to presuppose it here
as an event already past? The stamp on this section does not tally at all with that of Isaiah's
prophecy in the times of Hezekiah; whereas, on the other hand, it forms so integral a link in the
prophetic cycle in chapters 7-12, and is interwoven in so many ways with that which precedes,
and of which it forms both the continuation and crown, that we have no hesitation in assigning
it, with Vitringa, Caspari, and Drechsler, to the first three years of the reign of Ahaz, though

22. without deciding whether it preceded or followed the destruction of the two allies by Tiglath-
pileser. It is by no means impossible that it may have preceded it.
The prophet commences with hoi (woe!), which is always used as an expression of wrathful
indignation to introduce the proclamation of judgment upon the person named; although, as in
the present instance, this may not always follow immediately (cf., Isa_1:4, Isa_1:5-9), but may
be preceded by the announcement of the sin by which the judgment had been provoked. In the
first place, Asshur is more particularly indicated as the chosen instrument of divine judgment
upon all Israel. “Woe to Asshur, the rod of mine anger, and it is a staff in their hand, mine
indignation. Against a wicked nation will I send them, and against the people of my wrath
give them a charge, to spoil spoil, and to prey prey, to make it trodden down like street-mire.”
“Mine indignation:” za‛mi is either a permutation of the predicative ‫ה‬‫וּא‬ , which is placed
emphatically in the foreground (compare the ֵ‫וּא‬ ‫ה־‬ ָ ፍ in Jer_14:22, which is also written with
makkeph), as we have translated it, though without taking ‫הוּא‬ as a copula (= est), as Ewald does;
or else ‫ם‬ ָ‫ד‬ָ‫י‬ ְ‫ב‬ ‫הוּא‬ is written elliptically for ‫ם‬ ָ‫ד‬ָ‫י‬ ְ‫ב‬ ‫הוּא‬ ‫ר‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫,א‬ “the staff which they hold is mine
indignation” (Ges., Rosenmüller, and others), in which case, however, we should rather expect
‫הוא‬ ‫זעמי‬ ‫בידם‬ ‫.ומטה‬ It is quite inadmissible, however, to take za‛mi as a separate genitive to matteh,
and to point the latter with zere, as Knobel has done; a thing altogether unparalleled in the
Hebrew language.
(Note: In the Arabic, such a separation does occur as a poetical licence (see De Sacy,
Gramm. t. ii. §270).)
The futures in Isa_10:6 are to be taken literally; for what Asshur did to Israel in the sixty year of
Hezekiah's reign, and to Judah in his fourteenth year, was still in the future at the time when
Isaiah prophesied. Instead of ‫ימוֹ‬ ִ‫שׂ‬ ְ‫וּל‬ the keri has ‫ּוֹ‬‫מ‬‫שׂוּ‬ ְ‫,וּל‬ the form in which the infinitive is written
in other passages when connected with suffixes (see, on the other hand, 2Sa_14:7). “Trodden
down:” mirmas with short a is the older form, which was retained along with the other form with
the a lengthened by the tone (Ewald §160, c).
7. BI, ““O Assyrian”
“Ho Asshur,” the name both of the people and its national god.
(Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The judgment of the world power
The leading idea of the passage is the contrast between the mission assigned to Assyria in the
scheme of Jehovah’s providence, and the ambitious policy of universal dominion cherished by
the rulers of that empire, Assyria was the instrument chosen by Jehovah to manifest His sole
Deity by the extinction of all the nationalities that put their trust in false gods. But the great
world power, intoxicated by its success, and attributing this to its own wisdom and resource,
recognises no difference between Jehovah and other gods, but confidently reckons on proving
His impotence by the subjugation of His land and people. Hence, it becomes necessary for
Jehovah to vindicate His supreme Godhead by the destruction of the power which has thus
impiously transgressed the limits of His providential commission. And this judgment will take
plebe at the very moment when Assyria seeks to crown its career of conquest by an assault on

23. Jehovah’s sanctuary on Mount Zion, the earthly seat of His government. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Assyria an instrument of vengeance
We must not omit the reflection that this was a terrible thing for Assyria. What man likes to be
an instrument through which righteousness will punish some other man! Who would willingly
accept a calling and election so severe? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Nations instruments in the hands of God
What are the nations but instruments in the hands of Him who made them? So we are puzzled
and perplexed by many an imperial policy; we do not like it, and yet still it proceeds to work out
all its mysterious issues—now severe, now beneficent. We are in tumult and darkness and
perplexity, thick and that cannot be disentangled; and how seldom we realise the fact that all
this may be a Divine movement, clouding of the Divine presence, and an outworking of Divine
and eternal purposes. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Our Assyria may be the world
Our Assyria may be the world in Christ’s sense, that flood of successful, heartless, unscrupulous,
scornful forces which burst on our innocence, with their challenge to make terms and pay
tribute, or go down straightway in the struggle for existence . . . It is useless to think that we
common men cannot possibly sin after the grand manner of this imperial monster. In our
measure we fatally can. In this commercial age private persons very easily rise to a position of
influence which gives almost as vast a stage for egotism to display itself as the Assyrian boasted.
But after all the human Ego needs very little room to develop the possibilities of atheism that are
in it. An idol is an idol, whether you put it on a small or a large pedestal. A little man with a little
work may as easily stand between himself and God as an emperor with the world at his feet.
Forgetfulness that he is a servant, a trader on graciously intrusted capital—and then at the best
an unprofitable one—is not less sinful in a small egoist than in a great one; it is only very much
more ridiculous than Isaiah, with his scorn, has made it to appear in the Assyrian. (Prof. G. A.
Smith, D. D.)
Our Assyria may be the forces of nature
Our Assyria may be the forces of nature, which have swept upon the knowledge of this
generation with the novelty and impetus with which the northern hosts burst across the horizon
of Israel. Men today, in the course of their education, become acquainted with laws and forces
which dwarf the simpler theologies of their boyhood, pretty much as the primitive beliefs of
Israel dwindled before the arrogant face of Assyria. The alternative confronts them either to
retain, with a narrowed and fearful heart, their old conceptions of God, or to find their
enthusiasm in studying, and their duty in relating themselves to, the forces of nature alone. If
this be the only alternative, there can be no doubt but that most men will take the latter course.
We ought as little to wonder at men of today abandoning certain theologies and forms of religion
for a downright naturalism—for the study of powers that appeal so much to the curiosity and
reverence of man—as we wonder at the poor Jews of the eighth century before Christ forsaking
their provincial conceptions of God as a tribal Deity for homage to this great Assyrian who
handled the nations and their gods as his playthings. But is such the only alternative? Is there no

24. higher and sovereign conception of God, in which even these natural forces may find their
explanation and term? Isaiah found such a conception for his problem, and his problem was
very similar to ours. Beneath his idea of God, exalted and spiritual, even the imperial Assyrian,
in all his arrogance, fell subordinate and serviceable. The prophet’s faith never wavered, and in
the end was vindicated by history. Shall we not at least attempt his method of solution? We
could not do better than by taking his factors. Isaiah got a God more powerful than Assyria, by
simply exalting the old God of his nation in righteousness. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
8. CALVIN, “5.O Assyrian. What now follows relates to the threatening of punishment, but at the same
time mingles some consolation for alleviating the distresses of the godly. Indeed, the greater part of the
discourse is occupied with this doctrine, that all the afflictions which shall be brought upon them by
the Assyrians are a temporary scourge inflicted by God, but that unbelievers, after having too freely
indulged themselves, will at length be brought to submission. ‫הוי‬ (hoi) is sometimes an interjection
expressive of lamentation, Ah! Sometimes it denotes addressing, O! Sometimes it means, as the old
translator rendered it, Wo to. But here it cannot be explained in any other way than that God calls
the Assyrians, or assumes the character of one who sighs, because he is compelled to inflict punishment
on his people by means of the Assyrians
But when I more closely examine the whole matter, I rather come to this opinion, that here the Lord calls
on the Assyrians, as if he armed them by his authority to carry on war. He had formerly said that they
would come; but hypocrites are so careless that they are never moved by the fear of God, till his scourges
are not only seen but felt. This is the reason why he now addresses them, Come; as if a judge called an
officer and ordered him to put a malefactor in chains, or delivered him to the hangman to inflict capital
punishment upon him. Thus the Lord calls the Assyrians to execute his vengeance by their hands.
And the staff in their hand is mine indignation. This may be viewed as referring to the Assyrian, and may
be explained so as to be a repetition of the same statement, with a slight change of the words. But I
distinguish between them in this manner, that the Assyrians are called the rod of God’ indignation; and
next, that the swords and weapons with which they are furnished are nothing else than God’ anger; as if
the Prophet had said, that God, according to his pleasure, made use of the Assyrians in the same manner
as swords for the execution of his anger; and further, that although they bear swords, still there will be no
reason to be afraid of them, except so far as the wrath of God shall be displayed against the Jews.
The general meaning is, “ the strength which the enemy shall possess proceeds from the wrath of God,
and they are moved by his secret impulse to destroy the people, for otherwise he would not move a
finger.” God declares that the staff which is carried in their hand is his anger, in order to inform the Jews
that the blind attacks of the enemies are regulated by a heavenly providence. The phrase ‫בידם‬

25. (beyadam) (160) is rendered by some, in place of them, or, into their country; but I do not approve of this,
and it is too far-fetched. In a word, the Lord calls the Assyrians, as the ministers of his wrath, to punish
the sins of his people by their hand, and declares that everything that is in their hand is his wrath
This doctrine has two objects in view; first, to terrify the ungodly, and to inform them that not in vain does
the Lord threaten their destruction; next, he points out the reason why he punishes them. This was of the
greatest importance for shaking off the sluggishness of the ungodly, who laughed to scorn all the
discourses and threatenings of the Prophet. Secondly, this doctrine was of great importance when the
people themselves began to be afflicted by the Assyrians; for then they actually saw that what the
Prophets had foretold was not without foundation, and that these things did not happen by chance.
It will be objected, Why does he afterwards call the staff his anger, since he formerly said that the
Assyrian is the rod of his indignation; for he ought rather to have spoken thus: “ Assyrian is my wrath, and
the staff which he carries is the staff of my indignation.” But we need not solicitously detain ourselves with
the words, when we understand the Prophet’ meaning. He calls men the staff of his anger, because he
uses them like a staff. He calls men’ weapons the wrath of God, because they are not regulated by their
own choice, but are proofs of the wrath of God. The Prophet therefore spoke appropriately, that we might
not think that the wicked rush forward, without control, wherever their lawless passions lead them; but, on
the contrary, that a bridle restrains and keeps them back from doing anything without the will of God.
Hence we ought to learn that the Lord acts even by the hand of the wicked. But here we must think and
speak soberly; for it is proper to make a wise and judicious distinction between the work of God and the
work of men. There are three ways in which God acts by men. First, all of us move and exist by him.
(Act_17:28.) Hence it follows that all actions proceed from his power. Secondly, in a peculiar manner he
impells and directs the wicked according as he thinks fit; and although nothing is farther from their
thoughts, still he makes use of their agency that they may kill and destroy one another, or that by their
hand he may chastise his people. Of this method the Prophet speaks in this passage. Thirdly, when he
guides by his Spirit of sanctification, which is peculiar to the elect. Whether, therefore, we are attacked by
tyrants or robbers, or any other person, or foreign nations rise up against us, let us always plainly see the
hand of God amidst the greatest agitation and confusion, and let us not suppose that anything happens
by chance.
(160) In their hand. — Eng. Ver.

26. 9. PULPIT,
“ASSYRIA, AFTER BEING GOD'S INSTRUMENT TO PUNISH ISRAEL, SHALL HERSELF BE PUNISH
ED IN HER TURN. The wicked are a sword in the hand of God (Psa_17:13), wherewith he executes his
judgments; but this fact is hid from them, and they imagine that they are successful through their own
strength and might. So it was with Assyria (Isa_10:5-14), which its long career of victory had made proud
and arrogant above measure. God now, by the mouth of Isaiah, makes known his intention of bringing
down the pride of Assyria, and laying her glory in the dust, by a sudden and great destruction (verses
15:19), after she has served his purposes.
Isa_10:5
O Assyrian; literally, Ho! Asshur. "Asshur" is the nation personified, and is here addressed as an
individual. The transition from Isa_10:1-4 is abrupt, and may be taken to indicate an accidental
juxtaposition of two entirely distinct prophecies. Or Assyria may be supposed to have been in the
prophet's thought, though not in his words, when he spoke of "prisoners" and "slain" in the first clause
of Isa_10:4. The rod of mine anger (comp. Jer_51:20, where it is said of Babylon, "Thou art my battle-
axe and weapons of war; for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy the
kingdoms"). So Assyria was now the "rod" wherewith God chastised his enemies. The true "staff" in the
hand of Assyria, wherewith she smote the peoples, was "God's indignation."
6
I send him against a godless nation,
I dispatch him against a people who anger me,
to seize loot and snatch plunder,
and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
1.BARNES, “I will send him - Implying that he was entirely in the hand of God, and
subject to his direction; and showing that God has control over kings and conqueror’s; Pro_21:1.
Against an hypocritical nation - Whether the prophet here refers to Ephraim, or to
Judah, or to the Jewish people in general, has been an object of inquiry among interpreters. As
the designs of Sennacherib were mainly against Judah. it is probable that that part of the nation
was intended. This is evidently the case, if, as has been supposed, the prophecy was uttered after
the captivity of the ten tribes; see Isa_10:20. It need scarcely be remarked, that it was eminently

27. the characteristic of the nation that they were hypocritical; compare Isa_9:17; Mat_15:17;
Mar_7:6.
And against the people of my wrath - That is, those who were the objects of my wrath; or
the people on whom I am about to pour out my indignation.
To take the spoil - To plunder them.
And to tread them down - Hebrew, ‘And to make them a treading down.’ The expression is
drawn from war, where the vanquished and the slain are trodden down by the horses of the
conquering army. It means here, that the Assyrian would humble and subdue the people; that he
would trample indignantly on the nation, regarding them with contempt, and no more to be
esteemed than the mire of the streets. A similar figure occurs in Zec_10:5 : ‘And they shall be as
mighty men which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in battle.’
2. EBC, “Isaiah 10:5-34
PROPHECIES FROM THE ACCESSION OF HEZEKIAH TO THE DEATH OF
SARGON
727-705 B.C.
THE prophecies with which we have been engaged (chapters 2-10:4) fall either before or during
the great Assyrian invasion of Syria, undertaken in 734-732 by Tiglath-pileser II, at the
invitation of King Ahaz. Nobody has any doubt about that. But when we ask what prophecies of
Isaiah come next in chronological order, we raise a storm of answers. We are no longer on the
sure ground we have been enjoying.
Under the canonical arrangement the next prophecy is "The Woe upon the Assyrian". (Isa_10:5-
34) In the course of this the Assyrian is made to boast of having overthrown "Samaria"
(Isa_10:9-11) "Is not Samaria as Damascus? Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her
idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?" If "Samaria" mean the capital city of Northern Israel-
and the name is never used in these parts of Scripture for anything else-and if the prophet be
quoting a boast which the Assyrian was actually in a position to make, and not merely imagining
a boast, which he would be likely to make some years afterwards (an entirely improbable view,
though held by one great scholar), then an event is here described as past and over which did
not happen during Tiglath-pileser’s campaign, nor indeed till twelve years after it. Tiglath-
pileser did not require to besiege Samaria in the campaign of 734-32. The king, Pekah, was slain
by a conspiracy of his own subjects; and Hoshea, the ringleader, who succeeded, willingly
purchased the stability of a usurped throne by homage and tribute to the king of kings. So
Tiglath-pileser went home again, satisfied to have punished Israel by carrying away with him the
population of Galilee. During his reign there was no further appearance of the Assyrians in
Palestine, but at his death in 727 Hoshea, after the fashion of Assyrian vassals when the throne
of Nineveh changed occupants, attempted to throw off the yoke of the new king, Salmanassar IV
Along with the Phoenician and Philistine cities, Hoshea negotiated an alliance with So, or Seve,
the Ethiopian, a usurper who had just succeeded in establishing his supremacy over the land of
the Pharaohs. In a year Salmanassar marched south upon the rebels. He took Hoshea prisoner
on the borders of his territory (725), but, not content, as his predecessor had been, with the
submission of the king, "he came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and
besieged it three years." (2Ki_17:5) He did not live to see the end of the siege, and Samaria was
taken in 722 by Sargon, his successor. Sargon overthrew the kingdom and uprooted the people.
The northern tribes were carried away into a captivity, from which as tribes they never returned.

28. It was evidently this complete overthrow of Samaria by Sargon in 722-721, which Isaiah had
behind him when he wrote Isa_10:9-11. We must, therefore, date the prophecy after 721, when
nothing was left as a bulwark between Judah and the Assyrian. We do so with reluctance. There
is much Isa_10:5-34 which suits the circumstances of Tiglath-pileser’s invasion. There are
phrases and catch-words coinciding with those in chapter 7-9:7; and the whole oration is simply
a more elaborate expression of that defiance of Assyria, which inspires such of the previous
prophecies as Isa_8:9-10. Besides, with the exception of Samaria, all the names in the Assyrian’s
boastful catalogue-Carchemish, Calno, Arpad, Hamath, and Damascus-might as justly have been
vaunted by the lips of Tiglath-pileser as by those of Sargon. But in spite of these things, which
seem to vindicate the close relation of Isa_10:5-34 to the prophecies which precede it in the
canon, the mention of Samaria as being already destroyed justifies us in divorcing it from them.
While they remain dated from before 732, we place it subsequent to 722.
Was Isaiah, then, silent these ten years? Is there no prophecy lying farther on in his book that
treats of Samaria as still standing? Besides an address to the fallen Damascus in Isa_17:1-11,
which we shall take later with the rest of Isaiah’s oracles on foreign states, there is one large
prophecy, chapter 28, which opens with a description of the magnates of Samaria lolling in
drunken security on their vine-crowned hill, but God’s storms are ready to break. Samaria has
not yet fallen, but is threatened and shall fall soon. The first part of chapter 28, can only refer to
the year in which Salmanassar advanced upon Samaria-726 or 725. There is nothing in the rest
of it to corroborate this date; but the fact, that there are several turns of thought and speech very
similar to turns of thought and speech in Isa_10:5-34, makes us the bolder to take away chapter
28 from its present connection with 29-32, and place it just before Isa_10:5-34.
Here then is our next group of prophecies, all dating from the first seven years of the reign of
Hezekiah: 28, a warning addressed to the politicians of Jerusalem from the impending fate of
those of Samaria (date 725); Isa_10:5-34, a woe upon the Assyrian (date about 720), describing
his boasts and his progress in conquest till his sudden crash by the walls of Jerusalem; 11, of
date uncertain, for it reflects no historical circumstance, but standing in such artistic contrast to
10 that the two must be treated together; and 12, a hymn of salvation, which forms a fitting
conclusion to 11. With these we shall take the few fragments of the book of Isaiah which belong
to the fifteen years 720-705, and are as straws to show how Judah all that time was drifting
down to alliance with Egypt-20, Isa_21:1-10; Isa_38:1-22; Isa_39:1-8. This will bring us to 705,
and the beginning of a new series of prophecies, the richest of Isaiah’s life, and the subject of our
third book.
Isaiah 10:5-34
ATHEISM OF FORCE AND ATHEISM OF FEAR
ABOUT 721 B.C.
IN chapter 28 Isaiah, speaking in the year 725 when Salmanassar IV was marching on Samaria,
had explained to the politicians of Jerusalem how entirely the Assyrian host was in the hand of
Jehovah for the punishment of Samaria and the punishment and purification of Judah. The
invasion which in that year loomed so awful was not unbridled force of destruction, implying the
utter annihilation of God’s people, as Damascus, Arpad, and Hamath had been annihilated. It
was Jehovah’s instrument for purifying His people, with its appointed term and its glorious
intentions of fruitfulness and peace.
In the tenth chapter Isaiah turns with this truth to defy the Assyrian himself. It is four years
later. Samaria has fallen. The judgment which the prophet spoke upon the luxurious capital has

29. been fulfilled. All Ephraim is an Assyrian province. Judah stands for the first time face to face
with Assyria. From Samaria to the borders of Judah is not quite two days’ march, to the walls of
Jerusalem a little over two. Now shall the Jews be able to put to the test their prophet’s promise!
What can possibly prevent Sargon from making Zion as Samaria, and carrying her people away
in the track of the northern tribes to captivity?
There was a very fallacious human reason, and there was a very sound Divine one.
The fallacious human reason was the alliance which Ahaz had made with Assyria. In what state
that alliance now was does not clearly appear, but the most optimist of the Assyrian party at
Jerusalem could not, after all that had happened, be feeling quite comfortable about it. The
Assyrian was as unscrupulous as themselves. There was too much impetus in the rush of his
northern floods to respect a tiny province like Judah, treaty or no treaty. Besides, Sargon had as
good reason to suspect Jerusalem of intriguing with Egypt, as he had against Samaria or the
Philistine cities; and the Assyrian kings had already shown their meaning of the covenant with
Ahaz by stripping Judah of enormous tribute.
So Isaiah discounts in this prophecy Judah’s treaty with Assyria. He speaks as if nothing was
likely to prevent the Assyrian’s immediate march upon Jerusalem. He puts into Sargon’s mouth
the intention of this, and makes him boast of the ease with which it can be accomplished
(Isa_10:7-11). In the end of the prophecy he even describes the probable itinerary of the invader
from the borders of Judah to his arrival on the heights, over against the Holy City (Isa_10:27-
32),
"Cometh up from the North the Destroyer.
He is come upon Ai; marcheth through Migron; at Michmash musters his baggage.
They have passed through the Pass; ‘Let Geba be our bivouac.’
Terror-struck is Ramah; Gibeah of Saul hath fled.
Make shrill thy voice, O daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Answer her Anathoth!
In mad flight is Madmenah; the dwellers in Gebim gather their stuff to flee.
This very day he halteth at Nob; he waveth his hand at the Mount of the Daughter of Zion,
the Hill of Jerusalem!"
This is not actual fact; but it is vision of what may take place today or tomorrow. For there is
nothing-not even that miserable treaty-to prevent such a violation of Jewish territory, within
which, it ought to be kept in mind, lie all the places named by the prophet.
But the invasion of Judah and the arrival of the Assyrian on the heights over against Jerusalem
does not mean that the Holy City and the shrine of Jehovah of hosts are to be destroyed; does
not mean that all the prophecies of Isaiah about the security of this rallying-place for the
remnant of God’s people are to be annulled, and Israel annihilated. For just at the moment of
the Assyrian’s triumph, when he brandishes his hand over Jerusalem, as if he would harry it like
a bird’s nest, Isaiah beholds him struck down, and crash like the fall of a whole Lebanon of
cedars (Isa_10:33-34).
Behold the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, lopping the topmost boughs with a sudden crash,
And the high ones of stature hewn down, and the lofty are brought low!
"Yea, He moweth down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon by a Mighty One
falleth."
All this is poetry. We are not to suppose that the prophet actually expected the Assyrian to take
the route, which he has laid down for him with so much detail. As a matter of fact, Sargon did

30. not advance across the Jewish frontier, but turned away by the coast-land of Philistia to meet his
enemy of Egypt, whom he defeated at Rafia, and then went home to Nineveh, leaving Judah
alone. And, although some twenty years later the Assyrian did appear before Jerusalem, as
threatening as Isaiah describes, and was cut down in as sudden and miraculous a manner, yet it
was not by the itinerary Isaiah here marked for him that he came, but in quite another direction:
from the southwest. What Isaiah merely insists upon is that there is nothing in that wretched
treaty of Ahaz-that fallacious human reason-to keep Sargon from overrunning Judah to the very
walls of Jerusalem, but that, even though he does so, there is a most sure Divine reason for the
Holy City remaining inviolate.
The Assyrian expected to take Jerusalem. But he is not his own master. Though he knows it not,
and his only instinct is that of destruction (Isa_10:7), be is the rod in God’s hand. And when God
shall have used him for the needed punishment of Judah, then will God visit upon him his
arrogance and brutality. This man, who says he will exploit the whole earth as he harries a bird’s
nest (Isa_10:14), who believes in nothing but himself, saying, "By the strength of my hand I have
done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent." is but the instrument of God. and all his boasting
is that of "the axe against him that heweth therewith and of the saw against him that wieldeth
it." "As if," says the prophet, with a scorn still fresh for those who make material force the
ultimate power in the universe-"As if a rod should shake them that lift it up, or as if a staff
should lift up him that is not wood." By the way, Isaiah has a word for his countrymen. What
folly is theirs, who now put all their trust in this world-force, and at another time cower in abject
fear before it! Must he again bid them look higher, and see that Assyria is only the agent in God’s
work of first punishing the whole land, but afterwards redeeming His people! In the midst of
denunciation the prophet’s stern voice breaks into the promise of this later hope (Isa_10:24-27);
and at last the crash of the fallen Assyrian is scarcely still, before Isaiah has begun to declare a
most glorious future of grace for Israel. But this carries us over into the eleventh chapter, and we
had better first of all gather up the lessons of the tenth.
This prophecy of Isaiah contains a great Gospel and two great Protests, which the prophet was
enabled to make in the strength of it: one against the Atheism of Force, and one against the
Atheism of Fear.
The Gospel of the chapter is just that which we have already emphasised as the gospel par
excellence of Isaiah: the Lord exalted in righteousness. God supreme over the supremest men
and forces of the world. But we now see it carried to a height of daring not reached before. This
was the first time that any man faced the sovereign force of the world in the full sweep of victory,
and told himself and his fellow-men: "This is not travelling in the greatness of its own strength,
but is simply a dead, unconscious instrument in the hand of God." Let us, at the cost of a little
repetition, get at the heart of this. We shall find it wonderfully modern.
Belief in God had hitherto been local and circumscribed. Each nation, as Isaiah tells us, had
walked in the name of its god, and limited his power and prevision to its own life and territory.
We do not blame the peoples for this. Their conception of God was narrow, because their life
was narrow, and they confined the power of their deity to their own borders because, in fact,
their thoughts seldom strayed beyond. But now the barriers, that had so long enclosed mankind
in narrow circles, were being broken down. Men’s thoughts travelled through the breaches, and
learned that outside their fatherland there lay the world. Their lives thereupon widened
immensely, but their theologies stood still. They felt the great forces which shook the world, but
their gods remained the same petty, provincial deities. Then came this great Assyrian power,
hurtling through the nations, laughing at their gods as idols, boasting that it was by his own
strength he overcame them, and to simple eyes making good his boast as he harried the whole
earth like a bird’s nest. No wonder that men’s hearts were drawn from the unseen spiritualities
to this very visible brutality! No wonder all real faith in the gods seemed to be dying out, and

31. that men made it the business of their lives to seek peace with this world-force, that was carrying
everything, including the gods themselves, before it! Mankind was in danger of practical
atheism: of placing, as Isaiah tells us, the ultimate faith which belongs to a righteous God in this
brute force: of substituting embassies for prayers, tribute for sacrifice, and the tricks and
compromises of diplomacy for the endeavour to live a holy and righteous life. Behold, what
questions were at issue: questions that have come up again and again in the history of human
thought, and that are tugging at us today harder than ever!-whether the visible, sensible forces
of the universe, that break so rudely in upon our primitive theologies, are what we men have to
make our peace with, or whether there is behind them a Being, who wields them for purposes,
far transcending them, of justice and of love; whether, in short, we are to be materialists or
believers in God. It is the same old, ever-new debate. The factors of it have only changed a little
as we have become more learned. Where Isaiah felt the Assyrians, we are confronted by the
evolution of nature and history, and the material forces into which it sometimes looks ominously
like as if these could be analysed. Everything that has come forcibly and gloriously to the front of
things, every drift that appears to dominate history, all that asserts its claim on our wonder, and
offers its own simple and strong solution of our life-is our Assyria. It is precisely now, as then. a
rush of new powers across the horizon of our knowledge, which makes the God, who was
sufficient for the narrower knowledge of yesterday, seem petty and old-fashioned today. This
problem no generation can escape, whose vision of the world has become wider than that of its
predecessors. But Isaiah’s greatness lay in this: that it was given to him to attack the problem
the first time it presented itself to humanity with any serious force, and that he applied to it the
only sure solution-a more lofty and spiritual view of God than the one which it had found
wanting. We may thus paraphrase his argument: "Give me a God who is more than a national
patron, give me a God who cares only for righteousness, and I say that every material force the
world exhibits is nothing but subordinate to Him. Brute force cannot be anything but an
instrument, "an axe," "a saw," something essentially mechanical and in need of an arm to lift it.
Postulate a supreme and righteous Ruler of the world, and you not only have all its movements
explained, but may rest assured that it shall only be permitted to execute justice and purify men.
The world cannot prevent their salvation, if God have willed this."
Isaiah’s problem was thus the fundamental one between faith and atheism; but we must notice
that it did not arise theoretically, nor did he meet it by an abstract proposition. This
fundamental religious question-whether men are to trust in the visible forces of the world or in
the invisible God-came up as a bit of practical politics. It was not to Isaiah a philosophical or
theological. question. It was an affair in the foreign policy of Judah.
Except to a few thinkers, the question between materialism and faith never does present itself as
one of abstract argument. To the mass of men it is always a question of practical life. Statesmen
meet it in their policies, private persons in the conduct of their fortunes. Few of us trouble our
heads about an intellectual atheism, but the temptations to practical atheism abound unto us all
day by day. Materialism never presents itself as a mere ism; it always takes some concrete form.
Our Assyria may be the world in Christ’s sense, that flood of successful, heartless, unscrupulous,
scornful forces which burst on our innocence, with their challenge to make terms and pay
tribute, or go down straightway in the struggle for existence.
Beside their frank and forceful demands, how commonplace and irrelevant do the simple
precepts of religion often seem; and how the great brazen laugh of the world seems to bleach the
beauty out of purity and honour! According to our temper, we either cower before its insolence,
whining that character and energy of struggle and religious peace are impossible against it; and
that is the Atheism of Fear, with which Isaiah charged the men of Jerusalem, when they were
paralysed before Assyria. Or we seek to ensure ourselves against disaster by alliance with the
world. We make ourselves one with it, its subjects and imitators. We absorb the world’s temper,
get to believe in nothing but success, regard men only as they can be useful to us, and think so