Isaiah 10:33-34

The situation seems beyond human help. But often, that is when God acts to rescue his people (see Matthew 19:25-26).

woe ~ a very sad cry because there is much pain to come.
woe ~ a very sad cry because there is much pain to come.
rights ~ the rules that protect weaker people in a country with good government.
seize ~ to take a person’s possessions away from that person, either by law, or in a war. Or, to overcome a city or nation in order to rule it. Or, to take a person as a prisoner or a slave.
Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s names mean ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
Assyrian ~ a person from the country called Assyria; or anything that has a relationship with the country called Assyria.
Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah.
Messiah ~ Old Testament title for Christ.

Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible. It contains 39 books, all from the time before Jesus was born.
Egyptian ~ a person from the country called Egypt, or anything that has a relationship with the country called Egypt.
Midianite ~ a person from the country called Midian, or anything that had a relationship with the country called Midian.
Israelites ~ Jacob had 12 sons. In later centuries, their large families would grow into a nation, called the Israelites. For a long time, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. But God freed them by means of Moses. God gave them the country called Canaan. And there, long afterwards, the Israelites formed two nations, called Judah and Israel.
Canaan ~ original name of the country that God gave to his people.

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Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

King Ahaz

Isaiah Chapter s 7 to 12

Gordon Churchyard

The words in brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language.

Chapter 10

Verses 1-4 belong here at the end of chapter 9.

v1 These people will be very sad:

• [The people] who make rules that are not fair.

• [The people] who [make] laws that are cruel to [poor] people.

v2 [The people that will be very sad do these things:]

• They do not give what is fair to poor people.

• They take away the rights of people who need help.

• They steal from widows all that they (the widows) have.

• They take things from children whose parents are dead.

v3 You can do nothing on the day when punishment comes. [There is nowhere to go] when the storm comes from a distant place. There is nobody to whom you can go for help. There is no place where you can hide your wealth.

v4 There is only one thing that you can do [then]. You can only go to be with the people in prison. Or [maybe] you will die with those people that [the enemy] kills in a battle. But [the *LORD] is still angry and his hand is still ready [to hit them again].

Notes

Verse 1 Here these people will be sad because of the *LORD’s punishment in verses 3 and 4. These people are rulers. They have made cruel laws that cause great problems for other, weaker people. The rulers have chosen to do things that are neither fair nor right.

Verse 2 This means that the rulers get everything. The poor people get nothing.

Verse 3 The ‘day when punishment comes’ means this. It is when God will send Assyria’s army to destroy Israel. The ‘storm’ that ‘comes from a distant place’ means the army from Assyria. Assyria was 500 miles east from Israel. The *Hebrew text for this verse actually has questions, which are these: ‘What will you do on the day when punishment comes? Or [where will you go] when a storm comes from a distant place? To whom will you go for help? And where will you hide your wealth?’ And the answers to those questions are ‘nothing’, ‘nowhere’, ‘nobody’ and ‘no place’. So when God punishes people, nothing can help them. That is what it means.

Verse 4 Because nothing can help the people, these things will happen. They will be in prison in Assyria. Or they will die in a battle.

Something to do

1. Read about the army from Midian. The story about it is in Judges chapter 7.

2. Read Judges 21:25. That situation then was similar to what Isaiah describes here. People just did whatever they liked.

3. Learn to say Isaiah 9:6-7 by heart, that is, from your memory. Then you will not need to look at the words when you say these verses.

4. Write down the *inclusio in Isaiah 9:19-20. The section ‘Something to do’ after Isaiah chapter 1 explains *inclusios.

Chapter 10: God’s anger against Assyria’s people

Note

Verses 1-4 of chapter 10 follow Isaiah 9:8-21, because they belong there. Bible students divide Isaiah 10:5-34 into 7 groups of verses:

• verses 5-11 Assyria’s people become proud, but the *LORD has plans for them.

• verses 12-14 The *LORD will punish Assyria’s king.

• verses 15-19 The *LORD says how he will punish Assyria’s king.

• verses 20-23 A *remnant from Israel’s people will return.

• verses 24-27 The *LORD will punish Assyria’s people in the end.

• verses 28-32 The *LORD describes Assyria’s army as it comes through Israel and Judah.

• verses 33-34 The chapter ends. God makes Judah’s people fewer, but he does not allow Assyria’s army to destroy Jerusalem.

‘LORD’ is a special name for God that his servants use. It refers to a *Hebrew word that may mean ‘always alive’. A ‘remnant’ is a small part that remains from something. Here it means a few people that remain from the nation called Israel.

v5 ‘There will be a sad [time] for [the people from] Assyria. [I will use them] as a stick because I am angry. They [will hit Israel] with a heavy stick, because of my very great anger.

v6 I will send [Assyria’s army] against [Israel, because the people in Israel] do not obey God. I will tell [Assyria’s army to attack Israel]. I am angry with the people [in Israel. The soldiers from Assyria] will take [those people’s] goods and [they (the soldiers) will] rob them of their things. Then they will walk all over them, as [if Israel’s people were] mud in the streets.

v7 But that is not what [Assyria’s king] intends. His plans are different. He wants to defeat very many countries and [he wants to] destroy [them].

v8 [The king of Assyria] proudly says, “All the leaders of my armies are kings!

v9 [The city called] Calno is like Carchemish [city]. Hamath [town] is like Arpad [town]. And Samaria [city] is like Damascus [city].

v10 My hand (my strong army) seized those places and [my hand seized] their *idols. They had more images than Jerusalem and Samaria [have].

v11 So, I will do [something] to Jerusalem and [I will do something to] its images. [It will be] what I did to Samaria and its *idols.” ’

Notes

Verse 5 This verse seems strange, until we read verses 12-19 and 24-27. God is angry with the people in Israel. He will use the army from Assyria like a stick that hits Israel’s people. But after that, God will be angry with Assyria’s king and army.

Verse 6 Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. ‘Do not obey God’ is one word in *Hebrew. The word means ‘without God’. Isaiah used that same word in Isaiah 9:17. People that are like that do not believe in God. Neither do they obey him. The word ‘against’ means that the army from Assyria will attack Israel. Assyria’s soldiers will ‘take those people’s goods and they (the soldiers) will rob them’. Soldiers do that when they destroy a country. They take for themselves anything that has value.

Verse 7 This verse means that the king of Assyria has his own plans. He does not realise that God is using Assyria’s army to punish Israel. Assyria’s king only wants to defeat all the countries that surround Assyria. His intention is to destroy those countries completely.

Verses 8-9 In these two verses the king of Assyria is very proud. This king is probably Sargon the Second (the second man called Sargon that became Assyria’s king). He says how great he is. He praises himself. The king says that the leaders of his army are as great as kings. He says that Hamath is like Arpad. Those are two towns in the country called Syria. Sargon defeated the people in those towns in 720 B.C. ‘B.C.’ means ‘years Before Christ came to the Earth’. The king of Assyria says that Samaria is like Damascus. Damascus city was the capital of Syria. In 732 B.C., Tiglathpileser the Third defeated its people. He was king of Assyria at that time. Samaria city was the capital of Israel. Sargon defeated its people in 721 B.C. And Sargon defeated Carchemish in 717 B.C. It was a city by the Euphrates river in north-west Syria. We do not know where Calno was. But if it was ‘like Carchemish’, then Sargon defeated it!

Verses 10-11 ‘My hand’ means ‘the strength of my army’. The king is speaking as if he used his own hand to take things. But actually he used his strong army to do it on his behalf. An ‘idol’ is a picture of a false god. Or it is an image of a false god. Both Jerusalem (the capital of Judah) and Samaria (the capital of Israel) had *idols. Sargon defeated Samaria’s people in 721 *B.C. So Sargon proudly said that he would defeat Jerusalem’s people also! In the *Hebrew for verses 8-11, Sargon asks some questions. The answer to those questions is always ‘Yes!’ An example is, ‘Are not the leaders of all my armies kings?’ The answer that Sargon expects is ‘Yes!’ Then, ‘Is not Calno like Carchemish?’ and so on.

v12 The *Lord will finish all his work [that he is doing] against the hill called Zion. And [he will finish all his work that he is doing] against Jerusalem. Then [the *Lord will say], ‘I will punish the king of Assyria. He praises himself in his heart. And his eyes [show] that he is proud.

v13 Because [the king of Assyria] says this. “I have done this because I am so strong. Also, [I have done it because] I am so wise. [I am so wise] that I know [what to do]. I have removed the boundaries between countries. Also, I have taken their valuable things. Like a fierce animal, I have attacked their people.

v14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations. [I did that] like a person who discovers a [bird’s] nest. People take eggs [easily from a nest that the birds] have left empty. I have gathered all the Earth [as easily] as [that]. And nobody moved a wing. Nor [did anybody] open a mouth to chirp (make a short high sound like a bird).” ’

Notes

Verse 12 ‘Lord’ is a word that means ‘master’. Here it means God. ‘Zion’ was a hill in Jerusalem. On that hill, people built the temple (God’s house in Jerusalem). ‘His work’ means what Assyria’s king will do in Jerusalem. God will make him do it, therefore it is God’s work. ‘In his heart’ means ‘in his mind’. In his mind the king of Assyria praises himself! ‘His eyes [show] that he is proud.’ That means the look on his face. People can see that he is praising himself!

Verse 13 For ‘I am so strong’, the *Hebrew text has ‘the strength of my hand’. It means that the king of Assyria has a very strong army. Also, the king is so clever that he always knows what to do! That makes him very proud in a bad way. Bible students are not sure what ‘removed the boundaries’ means. Here are two possible ideas:

• People put stones to mark their boundaries. An enemy might move the stones. That meant that the enemy claimed the land.

• When Assyria defeated a country, they moved its people somewhere else.

The ‘valuable things’ may be supplies of food, or they may be silver and gold. In the *Hebrew Bible, the ‘fierce animal’ is actually a *bull, which is often very dangerous.

Verse 14 Here ‘my hand’ means ‘I’. The wealth is the valuable things in verse 13. It is as if the king used his hand to find a bird’s nest. When birds have gone from their nest, a person can easily take the eggs from it. There are no birds present to frighten the person away by means of their movements or their noise. The king took the valuable things as easily as people could take eggs from such a nest.

v15 [The *LORD says this]. ‘The axe is not more powerful than the person who uses it. A saw is not more important than the person who saws. [It is stupid] to think these things:

• A stick can shake the person that is using it!

• A thick stick can move a man!

v16 So the *Lord, the *LORD of Everything, will send a disease to [the king’s] fat soldiers. They will become thin! [The *LORD] will light a fire under their proud attitude. (In other words, he will destroy their proud attitude.) It will burn with bright flames.

v17 [The *LORD, who is] the Light of Israel, will become a fire. The *Holy [God of Israel] will become a flame. And it will burn [Assyria’s] *thorn bushes and *briers. It will destroy them in one day.

v18 [The *LORD] will destroy [Assyria’s] wonderful forests completely. And [he will destroy Assyria’s] good fields [completely]. [Its] spirit and body will become like nothing.

v19 Only a few trees in the forest will remain, so that even a child will be able to count them!

Notes

Verse 15 Here is the *LORD’s answer to what Assyria’s king thinks in verses 13-14. The ‘axe’, the ‘saw’ and the ‘stick’ are special descriptions. They mean the king himself. Those things are tools that someone else uses. The axe, saw and stick cannot use themselves! Similarly, the *LORD will use the king of Assyria. The king should not imagine that he has achieved success by his own power. He is a mere agent of the *LORD.

Verse 16 ‘Lord’ is a *Hebrew word that means ‘master’. Here it is a name for God. It is not the same name as ‘*LORD’. The *Hebrew text has ‘his fat soldiers’. That means the army of Assyria’s king. The disease will make the strong soldiers weak. Another special description follows. The *LORD will burn away the proud attitude of Assyria’s soldiers. In other words, he will destroy it as a fire destroys things. The soldiers are proud in a wrong way. They think that they themselves are very good.

Verse 17 The two names ‘Light of Israel’ and ‘Holy [God of Israel]’ both mean the *LORD. Isaiah continues the special description of the fire from verse 16. The ‘Light’ normally shows Israel what to do. But now it will become a light that lights a fire. ‘Holy’ is a word that means ‘very, very good’. Only God is really holy. In the *Hebrew text, Isaiah calls God just ‘Holy’. God’s name is Holy! We have added the words ‘[God of Israel]’. ‘Thorn bushes’ and ‘briers’ are bushes with sharp points (called thorns) that grow out of their branches. Those bushes burn easily. Here is a new special description of Assyria. That country will burn as easily as those bushes burn.

Verse 18 Assyria’s forests and farms will disappear. The ‘spirit’ and ‘body’ mean everything that makes Assyria strong. It will be as if Assyria does not exist. The *Hebrew words for ‘become like nothing’ mean: ‘become like rubbish’. Nothing in Assyria will remain. The *Hebrew has ‘his’ forests and good fields. Also, it has ‘his’ spirit and body. ‘His’ here probably refers again to the king, who rules over all Assyria.

v20 When that happens, [this will happen to] Israel’s *remnant. [They are] the people from Jacob (Jacob’s family) that are still alive.

• They will not depend on [Assyria’s king], who defeated them.

• Instead, they will depend completely on the *LORD, the Holy [God] of Israel.

v21 A *remnant, a *remnant from Jacob (Jacob’s family), will return to depend on the Great God.

v22 Israel, only a *remnant [from you] will return. [That is so], although you are so many. There are [many] bits of sand on the sea shore. [And you are as many] as [that]. [The *LORD] has promised to destroy [the country,] and [his decision] is completely right.

v23 That will happen because the *Lord, the *LORD of Everything, will destroy the whole country. [He will destroy it] as he promised.’

Notes

Verse 20 Israel and Jacob are names for the northern country. They do not mean Judah in the south. ‘When that happens’ means what will happen in verses 15-19. The king of Assyria will not support the people that are still living in the northern country, Israel. But God will support those people. Israel’s ‘remnant’ is a small part that will remain from the nation called Israel. Probably, the remnant did not have false gods, although many people in Israel did have false gods.

Verse 21 In the *Hebrew text, there are words here from earlier Chapter s.

• ‘A *remnant will return’ is the name of one son of Isaiah. In *Hebrew it is ‘Shearjashub’, as in Isaiah 7:3.

• The ‘Great God’ is the name of God in Isaiah 9:6. In *Hebrew it is El Gibbor.

‘Will return’ may not mean ‘will come back from Assyria’. It means the people that are still alive in Israel. Those people will ‘return’ to God. That is, they will start to serve him again. They will trust him again and they will obey him again. Those are probably the poor people whom Assyria’s army did not take away. But some Bible students think that some people did return to Israel from Assyria. We are not sure.

Verse 22 Here is Shearjashub again. Shearjashub means ‘a *remnant will return’. Again, we are not sure which among these things it means:

• a few people in Israel will return to God. (That is, they will start to serve him again.)

• a few people will come back to Israel from Assyria.

• both those things!

Verse 23 ‘As he promised’ refers back to verse 18. In that verse, the *LORD promised to destroy Assyria. Our translation has ‘*LORD of Everything’. Some people’s translations have ‘*LORD of Armies of Angels’. An ‘angel’ is a servant of God in heaven. ‘Heaven’ is the home of God.

v24 Therefore, this is what the *Lord, the *LORD of Everything, says. ‘My people that live in Zion (Jerusalem), do not be afraid of Assyria’s [soldiers]. They will hit you with a stick. They will lift up a big stick against you, as the [soldiers] from Egypt did.

v25 But soon my anger against you will end. Instead, I will be angry [with Assyria’s soldiers] and I will destroy (punish) them.

v26 And the *LORD of Everything will use a whip against them. He will do it as when he destroyed (punished) Midian’s [leader] at the Oreb rock. [The *LORD’s] stick will be over the sea. He will lift up [his stick] as he did in Egypt.

v27 In those days, the load will come off your shoulder. [The *LORD] will destroy the *yoke that is on your neck.’

Notes

Verse 24 In verses 20-23 Isaiah spoke to the northern country, Israel. Now he speaks to the southern country, Judah. ‘My people that live in Zion’ means two things:

• the people that love God and they serve him. They call him ‘*LORD’.

• the people that live in all Judah. It means the people in that whole country whose capital is Zion (Jerusalem). It does not just mean the people in Jerusalem city, although Zion is a name for Jerusalem.

In the next verse, God tells the people why they must not be afraid of Assyria’s army. It is because finally God will destroy that army. Similarly, when God’s people lived in Egypt, the people there ‘lifted up a big stick’ to hurt them. But then God rescued his people. The story about that is in the Book of Exodus.

Verse 26 ‘Use a whip’ means that God will punish Assyria’s army. Then Isaiah gives two similar examples, when God punished other armies.

• Oreb was a leader of an army that came from Midian to attack God’s people. God’s people killed Oreb at a place where there was a rock. So it was called ‘the Oreb rock’. The story about that is in Judges 7:24-25.

• When God’s people were escaping from Egypt, Moses lifted up his stick over the Red Sea. Here Isaiah says that it was really God’s stick. The story about that is in Exodus 14:15-22.

Verse 27 A ‘yoke’ is a piece of wood. It goes across people’s shoulders. Someone puts a load on each end. Here the ‘load’ means the trouble that Judah had. The trouble was the hard things that the people in Judah had to do.

The *Hebrew Bible has one more sentence at the end of this verse. Bible students do not know what that sentence means. This translation puts it at the start of verse 28 instead. The *Hebrew words seem to mean ‘because it is so fat’. Here are two ideas that Bible students suggest about that sentence:

• Perhaps it means ‘the soldiers from Assyria are so fat’. That links with verse 16. When the soldiers from Assyria are dead, God’s people will be free.

• Perhaps the *Hebrew words actually mean ‘he will start from Rimmon’. Some English translations, like the ones called the Revised Standard Version and the Revised English Bible, have that. It links the words with verse 28. They describe the journey of Assyria’s army to Israel.

Whichever is right, both ideas are about Assyria’s army. This translation uses the second idea. Therefore it leaves out the words ‘because it is so fat’ from verse 27. ‘He (Assyria’s king) will start from Rimmon’ is in verse 28.

v28 He (Assyria’s king) will start from Rimmon. And he will go to Aiath. He will pass through Migron. He will store his things at Michmash.

v29 They (Assyria’s king and army) will pass [through the hills]. Then they will stay for the night at Geba. [The people in] Ramah will be afraid. And [the people in] Gibeah of Saul will run away.

v30 People in Gallim, shout [for help]! Listen, [people in] Laishah. Answer them, [people in] Anathoth.

v31 [The people in] Madmenah will run away. And the people who live in Gebim will hurry to safety.

v32 He (Assyria’s king) [will arrive] at Nob. On the day [when he arrives, he] will remain [there]. He will shake his fist at the people who live in Zion (Jerusalem). And [he will shake his fist at the people who live] on Jerusalem’s hill.

Notes

Different Bible translations use different tenses in verses 28-32. Some translations put it all in the past, like this. ‘He went to Aiath. He passed through Migron. He stored his things at Michmash’, and so on. Other translations describe it in the present tense, like this. ‘He goes to Aiath. He is passing through Migron. He stores his things at Michmash’, and so on. In our translation, we put it in the future. The tense does not matter, because 2700 years ago it did happen.

Verse 28 This verse describes how Assyria’s army advanced from Assyria towards Jerusalem. Rimmon, Aiath (also called Ai) and Migron were towns in the north of Israel. Michmash was about 11 kilometres north from Jerusalem. It was in the area called Benjamin, near to Judah.

Verse 29 Geba, Ramah and Gibeah of Saul were all towns near to Jerusalem. So the soldiers from Assyria were coming nearer to Jerusalem. Gibeah of Saul was where King Saul had lived.

Verse 30 Gallim, Laishah and Anathoth were also towns near Jerusalem. Bible students are not sure what the people in Laishah must listen to. It may be the shouts for help from Gallim. Or it may be the sound that the army from Assyria makes. But the people in Anathoth must answer the shouts from Gallim. And they must send help.

Verses 31-32 Madmenah and Gebim were two more towns near to Jerusalem. Nob was near Jerusalem. You could see Jerusalem from Nob. The enemy would stop there and he would shake his fist at Jerusalem. In that way, he would tell Jerusalem’s people that he would attack their city!

v33 But look! The *Lord, the *LORD of Everything, will cut off the branches. [He will do it] with [his] strength, the strength that makes people afraid. He will cut down the tallest trees. [The *LORD will] make the trees that are very high lie low.

v34 He will chop down the trees in the forest with an axe. Also, [the great trees from] Lebanon will fall down.

Notes

Verse 33 The *LORD is very strong. He will cut off the branches from Assyria. He will cut down even the tallest trees. It means that God will not allow Assyria to destroy Jerusalem. This verse links with verses 18-19. Those verses contain a special description of Assyria as a forest. However, Isaiah is not talking only about Assyria. The *LORD will also cut branches off Judah. Only a part of Judah’s people will remain. But from that part, new branches will grow (Isaiah 11:1).

Verse 34 As verse 33 links back to verse 18, this verse links ahead to Isaiah 11:1. King Solomon used the great trees from Lebanon to build his *temple. The story about that is in 1 Kings chapter 6.

Something to do

1. Read about what happened at the Oreb rock (Judges 7:24-25). Read also about the stick that Moses lifted over the sea (Exodus 14:15-22).

2. Read about how the *LORD cuts off branches. He does it so that more fruit grows (John 15:1-8).

3. Make a list of children’s names that mean something in the Bible. Look in Isaiah 7:3; Isaiah 7:14 and Isaiah 8:3. Look also in Hosea 1:6 and Hosea 1:9.

4. If you can, find a map of Israel. Look there for the towns in Isaiah 10:28-32.

heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.'Lord/lord ~ lord means master; Lord is a name for God. It is not the same as LORD.

Lord/lord ~ lord means master; Lord is a name for God. It is not the same as LORD.
LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
inclusio ~ ‘something to do’ after Isaiah chapter 1 explains this word.
remnant ~ a small part of something that is larger. In Isaiah, it often means the few people that still obeyed God.
idols ~ pictures or images of false gods.'Lord/lord ~ lord means master; Lord is a name for God. It is not the same as LORD.

Lord/lord ~ lord means master; Lord is a name for God. It is not the same as LORD.
LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
bull ~ the male animal that mates with a cow.
holy ~ very, very good. Only God is really holy.
thorn ~ a bush with sharp points on its branches. The sharp points are also called thorns.
briers ~ bushes that have sharp thorns on their branches.
thorn ~ a bush with sharp points on its branches. The sharp points are also called thorns.
yoke ~ this went across the shoulders, with loads which hung on each end.
temple ~ the house of God in Jerusalem. False gods also had temples.