CHAPTER 10

(713 B.C.)

SINS OF LEADERS

¹Woe unto them who decree unrighteous decrees, and who write grievousness which they have prescribed;

²To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! (The Holy Spirit in these two Verses calls attention to the perversion of justice. The poor and the widows who were helpless were the classes who were the chief sufferers of this perversion of justice, and all caused by the declension of the spiritual leaders.

They were very careful to be legal in their doings, but the Lord truly saw their hearts and His answer was, Woe unto them!)

JUDGMENT ON SIN

³And what will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your glory? (The day of visitation referred to the coming Judgment. Then there will be no one to help; the Lord through the Prophet is speaking of these religious leaders.)

⁴Without Me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the dead. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His Hand is stretched out still. (The feebleness and misery of these unrighteous magistrates portrayed in Verses 1 and 2 are vividly pictured by viewing them as bowing down even to prisoners and falling before deadly, wounded men.

The Lord is saying that these crooks will have nowhere to flee, unless they shall crouch amid the captives who are being carried off or fall amid the slain.

The final phrase of this Fourth Verse is used several times by the Holy Spirit to denote the serious and severity of the situation.)

ASSYRIA, GODS ROD OF CHASTENING ON ISRAEL: ASSYRIAS JUDGMENT FORETOLD

⁵O Assyrian, the rod of My anger, and the staff in their hand is My indignation. (A new Prophecy begins with this Verse. Assyria, after being Gods instrument to punish Israel, shall herself be punished in turn.)

⁶I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of My wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. (The hypocritical nation mentioned here is Ephraim, sometimes referred to as Samaria, or Israel, which was the ten-Tribe Northern Kingdom.)

⁷Howbeit he means not so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. (The monuments record that the nations not a few that the Assyrian leader proposed to cut off were the Egyptians, the Libyans, and the Ethiopians. He believed himself to be a free agent, but it is shown here that he was but an instrument in the Hands of God. He exalted himself and meant to go beyond what God charged him to do; therefore, God destroyed him.)

⁸For he said, Are not my princes altogether kings? (One mark of the superiority of Assyria to other countries was to be seen in the fact that her king had not mere officers, but vassal kings, under him, hence, the title king of kings assumed by so many Assyrian Monarchs.)

⁹Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? (This Verse should read, Is not Calno as much mine as Carchemish?)

¹⁰As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria (it is quite in accordance with Syrian ideas that the conquered countries should be called kingdoms of the idols [literally, no gods]. The Assyrian Monarchs regarded their own gods alone as really deserving of the name. Consequently, they made war very much with the object of proving the superiority of their deities over those of their neighbors hence, their practice of carrying off the idols from the various cities which they conquered, or else of inscribing on them the praises of Asshur);

¹¹Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? (This Prophecy was probably uttered during the reign of Ahaz, when that wicked king and all Judah had turned to idols, which was about 30 years before the Assyrian invasion. This Prophecy attests the inspiration of the Bible. No political forecast, however clever, could predict with such minuteness the actions and words of a king these years beforehand.)

¹²Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord has performed His whole Work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. (The work assigned to Assyria by the Lord was the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and a share in the trial, punishment, and discipline of Judah. The last task seems to have been the humiliation of Manasseh, which brought about his Repentance [II Chron. 33:11-13].

However, the king of Assyria overstepped his bounds, and so the Lord promised to destroy him, which He ultimately did.)

¹³For he said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man (the vainglorious language of the Assyrian king corresponds with that found on the monuments; this is one of the numberless, undesigned testimonies to the antiquity and truthfulness of the Book of Isaiah):

¹⁴And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathers eggs that are left, have I gathered all the Earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped. (The Assyrians were fond of comparing their enemies to birds. The word peeped refers to the inhabitants of these particular nations who offered not so much as even a feeble resistance that a bird would make when its nest is robbed.)

¹⁵Shall the axe boast itself against him who hews therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him who shakes it? as if the rod should shake itself against them who lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. (For Assyria to assert herself as if she were independent of God is like a rod attempting to sway the hand that holds it.)

¹⁶Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. (In this Passage, the Lord says that the glory and pride of the king of Assyria shall be destroyed like a great fire consuming the fuel.)

¹⁷And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day (the Light of Israel is a Messianic title. The phrase, In one day, refers to the destroying by an Angel of the Lord of 185,000 of Assyrias best soldiers, and all in one day. Therefore, it came to pass exactly as prophesied [II Ki. 19:35]. Israels [Judahs] Light was not an idol made of stone or wood, but instead was Jehovah);

¹⁸And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer faints. (Here it is predicted about 30 years beforehand the manner of the death which struck the Assyrian host at Lachish.)

¹⁹And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them. (Both Verses 18 and 19 refer to the Angel of the Lord smiting the 185,000 of the Assyrian army in one night and of few being left. Actually, the Prophecy says, and it was carried out, that so few survived that a lad could count them.)

²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him who smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in Truth. (All of these Passages, beginning with Verse 5, have reference to the Assyrian Monarch, Sennacherib. They will as well have reference to the coming Antichrist.

The pronoun him refers to the Assyrian king. Judah leaned upon him [Sennacherib] in the past, and will lean upon him [Antichrist] in the future, but never again, for she will lean upon the Messiah in Truth, i.e., sincerely. He Alone is Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel.)

²¹The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the Mighty God. (The Messiah is entitled here The Mighty God, because He is The Mighty God.

The remnant refers to the Jews who will be left after the Battle of Armageddon. They will come to the Lord.)

²²For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. (Verses 22 and 23 are exegetical of the term remnant and bring out its full force. The Promise had been made to Abraham that his seed should be like the sand of the sea for multitude [Gen. 22:17]. This Promise had been fulfilled [I Ki. 4:20], but now the sins of the people would produce a reversal of it. It would be a remnant, and only a remnant, of the nation who would escape. Judah, in the time of Hezekiah and in the time of the Coming of the Lord, would have to make a fresh start, as from a new beginning [Ezra 2:64].)

²³For the Lord GOD of Hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land. (This will take place at the Second Coming.)

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of Hosts, O My people who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite you with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt. (This Passage speaks of the invasion of Sennacherib and also of the future invasion of the Antichrist.)

²⁵For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and My anger in their destruction. (This refers to the coming Great Tribulation, and that it will be only for a very short time in duration.

The anger and destruction spoken of here refer to Gods anger against the Antichrist and Gods destruction of this evil one.)

²⁶And the LORD of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. (The word Scourge should be printed with a capital S, for it is here a Messianic title. Christ will be a Scourge against the Antichrist [II Thess. 2:8].)

²⁷And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. (The words, because of the anointing, should have been translated by reason of the appearing of the Anointed One, Christ.)

²⁸He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he has laid up his carriages (in a Passage of magnificent poetic Prophesy in Verses 28 through 32, Isaiah, in a vision, describes the approach of the Antichrist and his hosts against Jerusalem. The march of Sennacherib and his army in the days of Hezekiah was a foreshadowing of this greater future danger):

²⁹They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

³⁰Lift up your voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth. (Anathoth was Jeremiahs birthplace. These too were near Jerusalem, which no doubt the Antichrist will occupy upon his invasion of Jerusalem [Ezek., Chpts. 38-39].)

³¹Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee. (These villages were near Jerusalem toward the north. Their inhabitants flee as the Assyrian [Antichrist] approaches.)

³²As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. (It is believed that Nob, which was a city of Priests, and only a few miles from Jerusalem, will be the headquarters of the Antichrist while he is seeking to take Jerusalem [Zech. 14:1-5; Lk. 21:20-24; Rev. 11:1-2]. This is where he will shake his fist at Mount Zion.)

³³Behold, the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. (The haughty speaks of the Antichrist and how he will be humbled by the Lord Jesus Christ.)

³⁴And He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a Mighty One. (He refers to Jehovah. A Mighty One refers to the the Anointed One.

The word Lebanon refers to its great cedar trees, which the Antichrist envisions himself like; however, he will fall.)