Isaiah 5:25-30

The Last Stroke. It is generally agreed that this belongs to Isaiah 9:8 to Isaiah 10:4, each strophe of which closes with the same refrain as Isaiah 5:25. Unhappily, except for this closing verse, the strophe of which Isaiah 5:25 is the conclusion has been lost, unless indeed Isaiah 5:25, apart from the refrain, is an addition. There is no refrain at the end of Isaiah 5:26 ff., so this will form the close of the poem. After each stroke of Yahweh's wrath a fresh judgment has been announced; now the final stroke is predicted in a magnificent picture of the irresistible attack of a foe from the ends of the earth. Yahweh's last blow is struck, and His arm is no longer stretched out to smite. As in Amos the foe is not named, and thus the impression is heightened, but Assyria is intended. It is Ephraim's God who lifts the standard to summon the enemy and hisses (Isaiah 7:18) for them. They come unresting, unwearied, in perfect military array, the hoofs of the horses hard like flint, their chariots swift as the whirlwind. The foe utters, as he advances, a loud roar like that of the lioness or young lion as they seek their prey, then the low growl as he pounces on it and carries it away.

Isaiah 5:26. nations: read nation (LXX).

Isaiah 5:28. The ancients did not shoe their horses, so their hoofs needed to be hard as flint to go over the hilly and rocky country of Palestine.

Isaiah 5:30. The text is corrupt, the meaning uncertain, the probability that the verse is a late insertion considerable, the problem too complicated to be discussed.