Isaiah 10:24-27

Therefore thus saith the Lord— We have here the fourth part of the enarration, in which the above prophecy is applied to the consolation of the people of God, and wherein is first the proposition, Isaiah 10:24 and, secondly, the reason of the proposition: Isaiah 10:25. Having digressed a little, the prophet returns to the true and proper scope of his discourse; which is, to comfort the pious with respect to the evils that threatened their nation: wherefore, having clearly predicted the fall of the Assyrian, as a faithful teacher he applies this prophecy to the consolation and confirmation of the truly pious. The discourse of the prophet in the name of Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, the God superior to all human power, is turned to the people of God inhabiting mount Zion; that is, the true Israelites, the sincere observers of that holy religion which was celebrated at Jerusalem and Sion, and who were not only attached to this place in body, but in soul and spirit. See chap. Isaiah 12:6. He dissuades these his people from anxious fear; Be not afraid of the Assyrian, when he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lay his yoke upon thee, after the manner, or, in the way of Egypt, that is, "when the Assyrian shall treat, or purpose to treat thee as a slave, and shall vex thee by his edicts, or the imperious execution of those edicts, as heretofore the Egyptians have treated you, laying heavy burdens upon you, and exacting severe tributes from you." See Exodus 1:14; Exodus 20:2; Exodus 20:26. In the next verses the reasons are given why the Lord would not have his people fear the Assyrians, because in a short time he would take vengeance upon them, Isaiah 10:25 and that in a singular and extraordinary manner, as he did upon the Midianites and Egyptians, Isaiah 10:26. The consequence of which should be, the removal of the yoke now imposed or to be imposed upon them. Instead of, in their destruction, Isaiah 10:25 we may read, with their destruction. The latter part of the 26th verse describes the manner of that judgment wherewith God would destroy the Assyrian without any human aid; and therefore the slaughter to be brought upon him is here compared as well to that singular and extraordinary one wherewith the Midianites were smitten, as to that tremendous judgment of God upon the Egyptians, who, upon the lifting up of the rod of Moses, were overwhelmed in the Red Sea. Each of these comparisons is elegant and expressive. Vitringa reads,—a scourge for him, such as the blow upon Midian at the rock Oreb, and that of his rod upon the sea; and he shall lift, &c. and the latter clause of Isaiah 10:27 he reads,—and the yoke shall be dissolved by means of the oil. According to the common interpretation, it is supposed that the meaning is, "For the sake of God's believing people, called by the Psalmist his anointed; and also for the preservation of the kingdom and priesthood, both which offices were conferred by the ceremony of anointing." But Vitringa is of opinion, that the prophet in this last passage rises in his ideas, and, having expressed the temporal deliverance of the church in the preceding clauses, here seals up the period with a consolatory clause, admonishing the pious of their deliverance from a spiritual yoke, that is to say, from all the power of sin and Satan, and of their entrance into the full and perfect liberty of the sons of God, through Jesus Christ, the king of his church; who, for this purpose, would communicate an abundance of the anointing spirit of wisdom, knowledge, prayer, liberty, and adoption. See Zechariah 4:6. We refer the reader to Vitringa for an explication and defence of this interpretation.