Isaias x.
Notes & Commentary:
Ver. 1. Injustice. These great ones excite God’s indignation. (Calmet) — Jeroboam forbidding any to go to Jerusalem; and the Pharisees establishing their wicked traditions, ruined all. (Worthington)
Ver. 3. Afar. When Salmanasar shall come from Ninive to destroy Samaria, to punish the people for their idolatry (Calmet) and oppressions. (Haydock) — Glory. Golden calves, (Osee viii. 5., and x. 5.) or possessions, chap. ix. 8.
Ver. 5. Woe. Or come on, Heus, though (Calmet) ho is ordinarily rendered, alas! It here indicates that God makes use of this scourge with regret, and will afterwards consign it to the flames. (Haydock) — The prophet speaks of Salmanasar, or of Sennacherib. (St. Cyprian; St. Jerome)
Ver. 6. Deceitful. Hebrew, “hypocritical,” joining my worship with that of idols. (Calmet) — They had solemnly promised to serve the Lord, Exodus xix. 8. (Worthington)
Ver. 7. So. He will not think that he is executing my vengeance, supposing that he conquers by his own power.
Ver. 9. As. Literally, “altogether kings.” (Haydock) — Thus Nabuchodonosor kept the conquered princes for derision, Habacuc i. 10., and Judges i. 7. — Arphad, Arad, or rather Raphanĉ, Jeremias xlix. 23. — Damascus. These two cities were not yet subdued.
Ver. 10. Idols. He looks upon the true God as no better than any idols, (4 Kings xviii. 32.) and falsely supposes that the latter were adored in Jerusalem. (Calmet)
Ver. 12. Works. Humbling and terrifying Ezechias and his subjects, who were reduced to great distress, in order to avert the impending war. (Haydock) — Eyes. The Assyrians were punished in their turn.
Ver. 14. Nest. Some put these words in the mouth of God. (Tertullian) (Abdias 4.) — But they shew the insolence of Sennacherib.
Ver. 15. Axe. The Assyrian has no right to boast. What can man do without God’s assistance? (Calmet) — Gratiĉ tuĉ deputo et quĉcumque non feci mala. (St. Augustine, Confessions ii. 7.) — Sennacherib persecuted the Jews of his own free will, though he was God’s instrument. (Worthington)
Ver. 16. Fire. The Jews assert, that 185,000 perished by an inward burning, so that only ten men were left, ver. 19. (St. Jerome)
Ver. 17. Light. God. (Haydock) — Thorns. Private soldiers. (Calmet)
Ver. 18. Glory. Officers. — Flesh. Or body. All shall perish. (Haydock) — Fear. Sennacherib escaped alone, and fell by the sword of his own sons.
Ver. 20. Israel now submitted to Ezechias, as their kingdom was overturned in the sixth year of his reign, eight years before Sennacherib’s arrival. Isaias speaks of this time, and therefore makes no distinction of the kingdoms. Striketh the Assyrian.
Ver. 22. Converted. This was partly verified in the children of Israel who remained after the devastations of the Assyrians, in the time of king Ezechias: and partly in the conversion of a remnant of the Jews to the faith of Christ. (Challoner) — 4 Kings xviii. 3., and Romans ix. 27. The apostle follows the Septuagint, (Calmet) “and if the people of Israel be.” — Converted. Septuagint, “saved, for perfecting the word and abridging in justice. Because God, the Lord of hosts, will make an abridged word in the universe.” (Haydock) — As the apostle has explained this passage, “every other interpretation must cease.” (St. Jerome) — The few who were converted under Ezechias were a figure of those who should embrace the faith of Christ. (Calmet) — Consumption. That is, the number of them cut short, and reduced to few, shall flourish in the abundance of justice. (Challoner) — Hebrew, “the desolation is decreed, justice shall overflow.” God will treat all with rigour, Nahum i. 8. The incredulous Jews shall be rejected, ver. 23., and Romans ix.
Ver. 24. Egypt. He sent Rabsaces from Lachis, when he set out to meet Tharaca, 4 Kings xix.
Ver. 25. Little. Twenty-eight years, (Psalm lxxxix. 4.) or he alludes to the destruction which took place in a single night, (Calmet) or in a moment, ver. 16. (Haydock)
Ver. 26. Oreb. Judges vii. 25. — And his. Moses thus let loose the waters of the Red Sea on the Egyptians, by stretching forth his rod. (Calmet)
Ver. 27. Oil. That is, by the sweet unction of divine mercy. (Challoner) — Chaldean, “before the anointed,” in consideration of Ezechias and Isaias. In the higher sense, it denotes the victory of Christ over the devil. (Calmet)
Ver. 28. Into Aiath, &c. Here the prophet describes the march of the Assyrians under Sennacherib; and the terror they should carry with them; and how they should suddenly be destroyed. (Challoner)
Ver. 29. Lodging. Here, say the Assyrians, we will encamp.
Ver. 31. Take. Protestants, “gather themselves to flee.” (Haydock)
Ver. 32. Nobe. He may arrive thither shortly, in the environs of Jerusalem. (Calmet) — Septuagint, “exhort to-day, that they may continue on the road. Comfort with the hand the daughter of Sion, thou rock and hills within Jerusalem.” (Haydock) — Hand. As Nicanor did against the temple, 2 Machabees xv. 32. (Calmet)
Ver. 33. Vessel. Like Gideon, when he attacked Madian, ver. 26., and Judges vii. 19. Septuagint, “the nobles.” (Haydock) — Hebrew, “their beauty.” The empire of Assyria shall presently fall. (Calmet)
Bible Text & Cross-references:Woe to the makers of wicked laws. The Assyrians shall be a rod for punishing Israel: but for their pride they shall be destroyed: and a remnant of Israel saved.
1 Woe to them that make wicked laws: and when they write, write injustice:
2 To oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of the humble of my people: that widows might be their prey, and that they might rob the fatherless.
3 What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity which cometh from afar? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
4 That you be not bowed down under the bond, and fall with the slain? In all these things his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5 Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.
6 I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will give him a charge against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not think so: but his heart shall be set to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.
8 For he shall say:
9 Are not my princes as so many kings? is not Calano as Charcamis: and Emath as Arphad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idol, so also their idols of Jerusalem, and of Samaria.
11 Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed all his works in Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, I will visit the fruit of the proud heart of the king of *Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.
13 For he hath said: By the strength of my own hand I have done it, and by my own wisdom I have understood: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have taken the spoils of their princes, and as a mighty man have pulled down them that sat on high.
14 And my hand hath found the strength of the people as a nest; and as eggs are gathered that are left, so have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise.
15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood.
16 Therefore, the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory shall be kindled a burning, as it were the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the holy One thereof as a flame: and his thorns and his briers shall be set on fire, and shall be devoured in one day.
18 And the glory of his forest, and of his beautiful hill, shall be consumed from the soul even to the flesh, and he shall run away through fear.
19 And they that remain of the trees of his forest shall be so few, that they shall easily be numbered, and a child shall write them down.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean no more upon him that striketh them: but they shall lean upon the Lord, the holy One of Israel in truth.
21 The remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say, of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22 *For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted, the consumption abridged shall overflow with justice.
23 For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, and an abridgment in the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore, thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts: O my people, that dwellest in Sion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall strike thee with his rod, and he shall lift up his staff over thee in the way of Egypt.
25 For yet a little, and a very little while, and my indignation shall cease, and my wrath shall be upon their wickedness.
26 *And the Lord of hosts shall raise up a scourge against him, **according to the slaughter of Madian in the rock of Oreb, and his rod over the sea, and he shall lift it up in the way of Egypt.
27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall putrefy at the presence of the oil.
28 He shall come into Aiath, he shall pass into Magron: at Machmas he shall lay up his carriages.
29 They have passed in haste, Gaba is our lodging: Rama was astonished, Gabaath of Saul fled away.
30 Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim; attend, O Laisa, poor Anathoth.
31 Medemena is removed: ye inhabitants of Gabim, take courage.
32 It is yet day enough, to remain in Nobe: he shall shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Sion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall break the earthen vessel with terror, and the tall of stature shall be cut down, and the lofty shall be humbled.
34 And the thickets of the forest shall be cut down with iron, and Libanus, with its high ones, shall fall.
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*
12: 4 Kings xix. 35.; Isaias xxxvii. 36.
22: Isaias xi. 11.; Romans ix. 27.
26: Isaias xxxvii. 36. — ** Judges vii. 25.