Isaiah 10 - Introduction

Isaiah 10:5-34

The Judgment of the World-Power. An Oracle against Assyria

This great prophecy is the clearest and probably the earliest exposition of that conception of the divine government of the world which was the guiding principle of the latest period of Isaiah's ministry. The leading idea of the passage is the contrast between the mission assigned to Assyria in the scheme of Jehovah's Providence, and the ambitious policy of universal dominion cherished by the rulers of that Empire. Assyria was the instrument chosen by Jehovah to manifest His sole deity by the extinction of all the nationalities that put their trust in false gods. But the great world-power, intoxicated by its success, and attributing this to its own wisdom and resource, recognises no difference between Jehovah and other gods, but confidently reckons on proving His impotence by the subjugation of His land and people. Hence it becomes necessary for Jehovah to vindicate His supreme Godhead by the destruction of the power which has thus impiously transgressed the limits of its providential commission. And this judgment will take place at the very moment when Assyria seeks to crown its career of conquest by an assault on Jehovah's sanctuary on Mount Zion, the earthly seat of His government. These are the ideas which lay at the root of Isaiah's heroic faith in the crisis of Sennacherib's invasion. He did not doubt that Judah's sins required an exemplary chastisement, or that that chastisement would come by means of the Assyrians, but he had the firmest conviction that Jehovah's purpose did not include the violation of His sanctuary, which would in that age have been equivalent to the extinction of the true religion.

When was this prophecy written? Certainly between the years 717 and 701. The superior limit is given by the list of captured cities in Isaiah 10:9. Carchemish, the latest conquest there mentioned, was incorporated in the Assyrian Empire (although, to be sure, it had been captured more than once previously) in 717, about five years after the fall of Samaria. The lower limit is of course the great invasion of 701. But whether the oracle was uttered near the beginning, middle, or end of that period is a question on which no agreement has yet been reached. (1) The opinion that the prophecy belongs to a time not long after the destruction of Samaria has much to recommend it. The overthrow of the greater portion of Jehovah's people must have excited the greatest consternation in Judah, and led to anxious questionings as to where this seemingly irresistible tide of invasion was to end. This would be a suitable occasion for the publication of a prophetic oracle on the true function of Assyria in Jehovah's counsel and the impassable limit to its power. It is also in favour of an early date that Isaiah 10:20 seems to contain a reflection on the fatal policy inaugurated by Ahaz of trusting to Assyria as the best security against national annihilation. The principal objection to this view arises from the impression, which is probably a just one, that the prophet regards the crisis, and consequently the defeat of Assyria, as imminent(see esp. Isaiah 10:28). (2) Assuming that an invasion of Judah was either actually carried out or at least seriously contemplated by Sargon about 711, several critics have brought this prophecy into connexion with that event. The same difficulty, however, meets us here in another form. The prophecy of chapter 20, which undoubtedly belongs to the time supposed, anticipates a still further extension of the Assyrian conquests to Egypt and Ethiopia. It seems incredible that when Isaiah had for three years sought to impress that fact on his countrymen, he should simultaneously announce the downfall of Assyria as an event just about to take place. (3) There remains the hypothesis that this oracle belongs generally to the same period as the group of discourses with which it has the closest affinities (chs. 28 32), and was uttered in view of Sennacherib's invasion in 701. Only, the imaginary description of the invader's route in Isaiah 10:28 forbids us to place it too near the actual attack. The Assyrians are there conceived as advancing from the north, which was the natural course for an Assyrian onslaught on Jerusalem to take. Sennacherib's expedition, however, came from the Philistine plain, and for some time previous to the event, it must have been evident that that was the direction from which danger was to be apprehended. Other objections to this date have little weight. It is true that none of the conquests enumerated in Isaiah 10:9 were effected by Sennacherib in person, but neither were they all effected by any one king, and if it is the king who speaks in Isaiah 10:9 he speaks not in his own name but as the representative of the might of Asshur. Nor is Isaiah 10:27 inconsistent with the fact that Hezekiah had renounced his allegiance to Assyria before the attack by Sennacherib. The mere withholding of tribute was by no means equivalent to emancipation from the Assyrian yoke, so long as Assyria was in a position to enforce submission by an exemplary chastisement.

These arguments are only valid on the assumption of the Isaianic authorship and substantial unity of the passage as a whole. The grounds on which this has been disputed by recent writers (see Cheyne, Introduction, pp. xlviii ff.) are not convincing, and cannot be adequately discussed here.

Following Ewald, we may divide the prophecy into three main sections:

2 Samuel 10:5; 2 Samuel 10:5. The plan of Jehovah and the plan of Asshur.

(1) The divine mission entrusted to Assyria is boldly contrasted with the barbarous lust of plunder and conquest, and the glorification of brute force which characterised the policy of that Empire (5 7).

(2) The latter thought is expanded in a speech put into the mouth of the Assyrian, in which he enumerates his past successes, and confidently anticipates an easy conquest of Jerusalem (8 11). The prophet's answer (12).

(3) A second speech of the Assyrian, full of the spirit of self-exaltation and savage delight in the exercise of irresistible power (13, 14); the section closing with a contemptuous reply on the part of the prophet, recalling the image of the opening verse (15).

ii. Isa 10:16-23. The overthrow of Assyria and its consequences for Judah.

(1) The destruction of Assyria is described under the two figures of a wasting disease and a consuming fire (16 19).

(2) The conversion of the Remnant of Israel will follow this decisive manifestation of Jehovah's sovereignty (20 23).

iii. Isa 10:24-34. The peroration, consisting of:

(1) A message of comfort to the harassed nation (24 27).

(2) An ideal description of the march of the Assyrian from the northern frontier to the walls of Jerusalem (28 32) and his sudden annihilation by the hand of Jehovah (33, 34).