34 In this context the “Light of Israel” is a divine title (note the parallel title “his holy one”). The title points to God’s royal splendor, which overshadows and, when transformed into fire, destroys the “majestic glory” of the king of Assyria (v. 16b).
35 See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in .
36 Heb “his.” In vv. 17–19 the Assyrian king and his empire is compared to a great forest and orchard that are destroyed by fire (symbolic of the Lord).
37 Heb “from breath to flesh it will destroy.” The expression “from breath to flesh” refers to the two basic components of a person, the immaterial (life’s breath) and the material (flesh). Here the phrase is used idiomatically to indicate totality.
38 The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. מָסַס (masas), which is used elsewhere of substances dissolving or melting, may here mean “waste away” or “despair.” נָסַס (nasas), which appears only here, may mean “be sick” or “stagger, despair.” See 651 I נָסַס and I נסס I נסס. One might translate the line literally, “like the wasting away of one who is sick” (cf. “as when an invalid wastes away”).

In other versions

The light of Israel will become a fire,

and his Holy One a flame,

and it will burn and devour

his thorns and briers in one day.

The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land

the Lord will destroy, both soul and body,

and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

The Light of Israel will become a fire,

their Holy One a flame;

in a single day it will burn and consume

his thorns and his briers.

The splendor of his forests and fertile fields

it will completely destroy,

as when a sick person wastes away.

Israel’s Light will become a fire,

and its Holy One, a flame.

In one day it will burn and consume Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

He will completely destroy

the glory of its forests and orchards

as a sickness consumes a person.

The Lord, the Light of Israel, will be a fire;

the Holy One will be a flame.

He will devour the thorns and briers with fire,

burning up the enemy in a single night.

The Lord will consume Assyria’s glory

like a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land;

it will waste away like sick people in a plague.

And the light of Israel will become like a fire,

and his holy one like a flame,

and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.

And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard completely,

and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.

And 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;

And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field,

Both soul and body:

And they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth.

Public Domain