Isaiah 10:5–21

Footnotes

1. 8 Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of .
2. 9 Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (béyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
3. 10 Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
4. 11 Or “defiled”; cf. “profane”; “impious”; “separated from God.”
5. 12 Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
6. 13 Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
7. 14 Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”
8. 15 Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”
9. 16 Or “For” (, , , ).
10. 17 Calneh … Carchemish … Hamath … Arpad … Samaria … Damascus. The city states listed here were conquered by the Assyrians between 740–717 b.c. The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one can stand before Assyria’s might. On the geographical, rather than chronological arrangement of the cities, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (), 1:, n. 4.
11. 18 Heb “Just as my hand found the kingdoms of the idol[s].” The comparison is expanded in v. 11a (note “as”) and completed in v. 11b (note “so”).
12. 19 For the location of Jerusalem see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
13. 20 The statement is constructed as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text: “Is it not [true that] just as I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols?” This statement indicates that the prophecy dates sometime between 722–701 b.c.
14. 21 The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in .
15. 22 The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
16. 23 Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. , , “on”; “against.”
17. 24 The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5–6a.
18. 25 Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.
19. 26 Heb “removed the borders of nations”; cf. , , “boundaries.”
20. 27 The consonantal text (Kethib) has כְּאַבִּיר (ké’abir, “like a strong one”); the marginal reading (Qere) is כַּבִיר (kavir, “mighty one”).
21. 28 Heb “and I brought down, like a strong one, ones sitting [or “living”].” The participle יוֹשְׁבִים (yoshévim, “ones sitting”) could refer to the inhabitants of the nations, but the translation assumes that it refers to those who sit on thrones, i.e., rulers. See 442 יָשַׁב and ישׁב.
22. 29 The Assyrians’ conquests were relatively unopposed, like robbing a bird’s nest of its eggs when the mother bird is absent.
23. 30 Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; “him that shaketh it”; “him that wieldeth it.”
24. 31 The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.
25. 32 Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; , “will send a wasting disease.”
26. 33 Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”
27. 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).
28. 35 See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in .
29. 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).
30. 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.
31. 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”).
32. 39 Heb “and the rest of the trees of his forest will be counted, and a child will record them.”
33. 40 Or “in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in .
34. 41 Heb “house” (so , , , ).
35. 42 Heb “on one who strikes him down.” This individual is the king (“foreign leader”) of the oppressing nation (which specifies as “the Assyrians”).
36. 43 Or “sincerely”; , , , “in truth.”
37. 44 See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in .
38. 45 The referent of אֵל גִּבּוֹר (’el gibbor, “mighty God”) is uncertain. The title appears only here and in 9:6, where it is one of the royal titles of the coming ideal Davidic king. (Similar titles appear in Deut 10:17 and Neh 9:32 [“the great, mighty, and awesome God”] and in Jer 32:18 [“the great and mighty God”]. Both titles refer to God.) Though Hos 3:5 pictures Israel someday seeking “David their king,” and provides some support for a messianic interpretation of Isa 10:21, the Davidic king is not mentioned in the immediate context of Isa 10:21 (see Isa 11, however). The preceding verse mentions Israel relying on the Lord, so it is likely that the title refers to God here.