Isaiah 10:16-19

2). Assyria Will Be Punished Because of Its Arrogance (Isaiah 10:16).

The punishment that Yahweh will bring on Assyria is now described. Yahweh will personally act to humble him.

Analysis.

a Therefore will the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, send among his sturdy (fat) ones, leanness, and under his glory (his pomp) there will be kindled, a burning like the burning of fire (Isaiah 10:16).

b And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briars in one day (Isaiah 10:17).

b And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, He will consume, both life principle and body (Isaiah 10:18 a).

a And it will be as when a standardbearer faints (or ‘a sick man wastes away'), and the remnant of the trees of his forest will be few, that a child may write them (Isaiah 10:18).

In ‘a' Yahweh will send leanness to the strong and a burning fire, and in the parallel there will be fainting or wasting away, and the trees will become sparse. In ‘b' the Light of Israel will be like a burning torch rapidly devouring briars and thorns, and in the parallel He will consume all his glory throughout.

Isaiah 10:16

‘Therefore will the Lord, Yahweh of hosts,

Send among his sturdy (fat) ones, leanness,

And under his glory (his pomp) there will be kindled,

A burning like the burning of fire,

And the light of Israel will be for a fire,

And his Holy One for a flame,

And it will burn and devour

His thorns and briars in one day.

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

He will consume, both life principle and body.

And it will be as when a standardbearer faints (or ‘a sick man wastes away'),

And the remnant of the trees of his forest will be few,

That a child may write them.'

‘Therefore will the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.' There is deliberate emphasis on the great sovereign Lord, Yahweh of all the hosts of heaven and earth, in contrast with the crowing but soon to be humbled king of Assyria, who worshipped the hosts of heaven. ‘Yahweh of hosts' will now put him firmly in his place.

‘Send among his sturdy (fat) ones, leanness.' His mighty men will be turned into wimps, their health will go, they will waste away.

‘And under his glory (his pomp) there will be kindled, a burning like the burning of fire.' All his pomp and his glory will be figuratively ‘burned up' (it is ‘ like  the burning of'), that is it will disappear as though consumed. This picture of the burning of fire is a favourite theme in Isaiah, but here the fire is probably the fire of Yahweh's power and holiness which will render the glory of this upstart king anaemic as the next verse indicates.

Some however see the disease and fire as the inward and outward methods of destruction in the judgment of Assyria.

‘And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame.' The burning up will be done by the Lord Himself. He it is Who is the light (fire) of Israel, at a time when all lights were the product of fire. ‘Light' speaks of what God is and of His truth (Isaiah 2:5; Isaiah 5:20; Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 60:19; Psalms 27:1; Psalms 36:9; Psalms 43:3; Psalms 118:27; Psalms 119:30; Micah 7:8). And His holiness too is like a burning flame - compare the ‘burning ones' of Isaiah 6:2 and their words. So His glory and His truth and His holiness will ‘burn up' the ‘glory' of the king of Assyria.

‘And it will burn and devour His thorns and briars in one day. And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, He will consume, both life principle and body.' A very similar description was given of the fate of Israel (Isaiah 9:18) where first briars and thorns, and then forest and fruitful field, were consumed by fire. So the fate that Assyria inflicted on Israel would in the end be its own fate. ‘Forest and fruitful field' covers all its territory, natural and cultivated. ‘Life principle and body' reminds us that human beings were involved. ‘In one day' reminds us of that day when during the night the angel went out into the camp of the Assyrians and slew a multitude (Isaiah 37:36). That dealt with the briars and thorns. His glory and pomp was ‘consumed' later.

‘And it will be as when a standardbearer falls (‘faints'). And the remnant of the trees of his forest will be few, that a child may write them.' The word translated ‘standardbearer' (nases) is rare and may mean one who wastes away. When a standardbearer falls, morale is hit, and the tide of battle may change. It can mean disaster. The picture is vivid. But it should probably be translated ‘when the sick man wastes away', compare Isaiah 10:16 where sickness is followed by fire. Here we have the contrary order as so often in Isaiah. This ties in with the deterioration in the previous phrases. So the decline of Assyrian power is likened to the tragic fall of a standard bearer or to the slow demise of a sick man.

And when God has finished with Assyria their trees will be so few that a child can number them and write it down. The destroyers of the trees of others (Isaiah 37:24) will themselves suffer the same fate. Whether the ‘trees' represent people or real trees is open to interpretation, but the message is clear. The decimation of Assyria. For all their ‘trees' will be able to be counted and written down by a schoolboy on his scholastic tablet. We should remember in this regard that a nation's trees were indicators of its wealth.