Isaiah 10:24

Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts,.... Since there is such a decree, and this will certainly be executed: O my people, that dwellest in Zion; the inhabitants of Jerusalem; such of them

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.

Therefore: this is an inference, not from the words immediately foregoing, but from the whole prophecy. Seeing the Assyrian shall be destroyed, and a remnant of my people preserved and restored. In Zion; in Jerusalem, which is frequently called Zion, as 87:2 ,27 33:20, &c.; which he mentions, because this was the principal object of the Assyrians’ design and rage, and there were the temple, and thrones of justice, and the king and his princes, and multitudes had fled thither from the Assyrian. He shall smite thee with a rod; he shall afflict thee, but not destroy thee. Compare . After the manner of Egypt; as the Egyptians formerly did, and with the same ill success to themselves, and comfortable issue to you.

Isaiah 10:24 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.Ver. 24. O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid.] Quam paterne omnia. As a father bespeaketh his little son passing with him through a dark entry, &c. He shall smite thee with a rod.] Chasten thee, but not slay thee. Sinite virgam corripientem, ne sentiatis malleum conterentem. And shall lift up his staff against thee.] Or, But he shall lift up his staff for thee, so some render it - i.e., God shall, and that "after the manner of Egypt," as of old he did for the fathers against Pharaoh. Non occidet te, quamvis vapulet. - Oecolamp.

(24) O my people . . . be not afraid of the Assyrian.—The practical conclusion of all that has been said is, that the people should not give way to panic as they had done in the days of Ahaz (Isaiah 7:2), but should abide the march of Sargon, or his successor, with the tranquillity of faith. They were not to faint beneath the blows of the “rod” and “staff,” even though it were to reproduce the tyranny of Egypt. In that very phrase, “after the manner of Egypt,” there was a ground of hope, for the cruelty of Pharaoh was followed by the Exodus. As the later Jewish proverb had it, “When the tale of bricks is doubled, then Moses is born.”

Verse 24. After the manner of Egypt - "In the way of Egypt."] I think there is a designed ambiguity in these words. Sennacherib, soon after his return from his Egyptian expedition, which, I imagine, took him up three years, invested Jerusalem. He is represented by the prophet as lifting up his rod in his march from Egypt, and threatening the people of God, as Pharaoh and the Egyptians had done when they pursued them to the Red Sea. But God in his turn will lift up his rod over the sea, as he did at that time, in the way, or after the manner, of Egypt; and as Sennacherib has imitated the Egyptians in his threats, and came full of rage against them from the same quarter; so God will act over again the same part that he had taken formerly in Egypt, and overthrow their enemies in as signal a manner. It was all to be, both the attack and the deliverance, בדרך bederech, or כדרך kederech, as a MS. has it in each place, in the way, or after the manner, of Egypt.

24. O my people that dwellest in Zion] Cf. ch. Isaiah 14:32, Isaiah 30:19. Dwelling in Zion is the emblem of security, since it is there that Jehovah will beat back and destroy the Assyrian (Isaiah 10:32-34). he shall smite thee … and shall lift up …] These are relative clauses attached to “the Assyrian.” Render: who smites thee … and lifts up his staff, &c. (cf. Isaiah 9:4). after the manner of Egypt] As the Egyptians did in the time of the Oppression, Exodus 5 (cf. for the expressions Amos 4:10). Isaiah 10:25. For yet a very little while] Cf. ch. Isaiah 29:17, (Isaiah 16:14). and mine anger in their destruction] A more grammatical rendering would be: and mine anger (is directed) to their (the Assyrians’) annihilation. The two clauses of the verse appear to be antithetical; indignation (against Israel) comes to an end, wrath (against Assyria) culminates in its utter destruction. Isaiah 10:26. For stir up for him render brandish over him, a sense authenticated by 2 Samuel 23:18. according to the slaughter … Oreb] Transl. like the smiting of Midian at the rock Oreb. For the incident referred to, see Judges 7:25 (cf. Psalms 83:9; Psalms 83:11; Isaiah 9:4). and as his rod … Egypt] To be paraphrased thus: “and his rod (which was stretched out) over the (Red) Sea (at the Exodus from Egypt), he shall lift up as it was lifted up to destroy the Egyptians.” The last phrase is used in effective antithesis to the use in Isaiah 10:24. Isaiah 10:27. The figures of the burden and the yoke are combined exactly as in ch. Isaiah 14:25. and the yoke … anointing] A very difficult sentence. The closest rendering is that of the margin of R.V.: and the yoke shall be destroyed by reason of fatness. This has usually been interpreted to mean that the animal (Judah) will “wax fat and kick” (Deuteronomy 32:15) and break its yoke; or that its increasing fatness will burst the yoke on its neck (a very odd comparison!). Neither of these senses is at all tolerable; according to Isaiah’s teaching the prosperity of the nation only commences after Jehovah has destroyed the Assyrian yoke. Dillmann’s interpretation—Judah will become so vigorous after its emancipation that no one will ever think of putting it under the yoke again—is equally unsatisfying. The text is almost certainly corrupt, and of the various emendations that have been proposed the most plausible are those which find in the clause a mutilated introduction to Isaiah 10:28-32. Prof. Robertson Smith has suggested instead of the last four words: ιηψμΣςμδξφτεοωψγ. The twenty-seventh verse would end with the first word (“the yoke shall cease from off thy neck”), and the next would begin thus: “A destroyer comes up from the north; he comes to Aiath, &c.” The alterations are considerable, but undoubtedly we thus obtain a suitable commencement to the sketch of the Assyrian advance. Duhm follows on the same lines, but reads, “he comes up from Pene-Rimmon” (i.e.

Therefore ... - In this verse the prophet returns to the main subject of this prophecy, which is to comfort the people of Jerusalem with the assurance that the army of the Assyrian would be destroyed.

24. More public, probably, was the following encouragement. O my people… Zion — The inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.