Isaiah 10 · The Lantern

Woe to Tyrants

Ah, those who inscribe decrees of iniquity, and the writers who have written oppression,

to turn the poor aside from a case, and to rob the justice of the afflicted of my people; that widows may be their spoil, and the fatherless they may plunder!

And what will you do on the day of visitation, and at the devastation that comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your glory?

[Christ] said to Peter, the prince of the apostles, "Simon, [son] of John, do you love me more than these?" He answered, "Lord, you know I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He asked him a second time, "Simon [son] of John, do you love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." He said to him, "Feed my sheep." And he ordered him to feed his sheep a third time,…

"What will you do on the day of visitation and the calamity that comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory?" Those who are asked what they will do, when the day of either captivity or judgment comes, and the calamity from afar, which was foretold long before.

What will you do? Here he threatens punishment, and first, he takes away the remedy of escape. And this is threefold: confidence in their own power: what will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity which comes from afar, as to the fortifying of their enemies or as to the prediction of the prophets: what will you do in the solemn day, in the day of the feast of the…

Nothing but to crouch among the prisoners, and among the slain they will fall. For all this his anger has not turned back, and his hand is stretched out still.

Judgment on Assyria

Ah, Assyria, rod of my anger — and the staff in their hand is my indignation!

Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my fury I charge him, to spoil spoil and to plunder plunder, and to make them a trampling like the mud of the streets.

But he does not intend so, and his heart does not reckon so; for it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations, not a few.

For he says: “Are not my princes all of them kings?

Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

As my hand has reached the kingdoms of the idol, whose carved images were more than Jerusalem’s and Samaria’s —

shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and to her idols, so do to Jerusalem and to her images?”

And it will be, when the Lord finishes all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, that I will attend to the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and to the beauty of the loftiness of his eyes.

"But when the Lord has finished doing all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will bring judgment upon the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, and upon the loftiness of the glory of his eyes". We are taught what shall come to be for our enemy the devil, whom the prophecy has now called a certain "great mind".

"And it shall come to pass, when the Lord has completed all his works on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, that I will visit the fruit of the noble heart of the king of Assyria, and upon the glory of the height of his eyes." After the captivity of Samaria and the victory of the Assyrians, and the threat against Jerusalem, because they imitated the idols of Samaria, they should be pu…

And it shall come to pass. Here he denounces his pride. And first, his proud boasting is set out, second, the occasion of his boasting: for he has said (Isa 10:13); third, the rebuke of the boaster: shall the axe boast? (Isa 10:15).

For he has said: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding. And I removed the borders of peoples, and their stores I plundered, and like a bull I brought down those enthroned.

But let us also see how great his self-inflation is, that we may guard against it and not permit him to speak true things over us. What, then, does he say? "By my strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the borders of the nations". He reckons that by his own might he is able to accomplish in us whatever he wishes.

And by the prophet, "the enemy said, I will pursue and overtake," and again by another, "I will grasp the whole world in my hand as a nest, and take it up as eggs that have been left." Such, in a word, are their boasts and professions that they may deceive the godly. But not even then ought we, the faithful, to fear his appearance or give heed to his words.

For he has said. Here he sets out the occasion of his glory from the great things which he had done, and first, as to the condition of the doer; second, as to the greatness of the deed: and I have removed; third, as to the ease of doing: and my hand has found (Isa 10:14).

And my hand found, as a nest, the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. And there was none that fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped.”

"My hand has found the wealth of the peoples, as one gathers eggs that are abandoned. I have gathered the whole earth, and there was no one who moved a wing or opened his mouth to chirp." And according to the LXX, he was of such great power, that he completely destroyed cities of warlike men, and seized the entire world as if it were a nest, and he turned the abandoned eggs fro…

Behold, then, how the Maker of the universe has always shown a loving care for humanity, not merely for the race of the descendants of Abraham but for all the descendants of Adam; through one tribe he has led all tribes to a knowledge of himself. He used them for this purpose both when they were religious and when they were paying the penalty for their sins.

The ease of doing is determined as to three things: as to absolute subjection: and my hand has found the strength of the people as a nest, which is in the power of the finder, below: and it shall come to pass, that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest (Isa 16:2); as to easy destruction: and as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I gathered all…

Does the axe glorify itself over the one hewing with it? Does the saw make itself great over the one swinging it — as if a rod should swing the one lifting it, as if a staff should lift what is not wood?

For you, Sennacherib, are the ax in the hands of him that cuts, and you are the saw in the hands of him that saws, and the rod in the hand of him that wields you for chastisement, and you are the staff for smiting.

(Verse 15.) Will the axe boast against the one who hews with it, or the saw exalt itself against the one who draws it? As if a rod should raise itself against the one who lifts it, or a staff should exalt itself, which is only wood.

Shall the axe boast itself? Here the rebuke of the boaster is set out, because he is like an instrument, which cannot work except by the movement of the craftsman: the axe, for killing the wicked; shall the saw, for separating the good from wicked, exalt itself; a rod, for correcting; a staff, for supporting those corrected: why doth your spirit swell against God, to utter such…

Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones, and beneath his glory a burning will burn like the burning of fire.

And the light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.

And Isaiah shows that the Holy Spirit is not only light but also fire, saying, "And the light of Israel shall be for a fire." So the prophets called him a burning fire, because in those three points we see more intensely the majesty of the Godhead; since to sanctify is of the Godhead, to illuminate is the property of fire and light, and the Godhead is customarily pointed out or…

Second, the one bringing the punishment, the Holy One of Israel, God, or the angel Michael, to whom that people was committed: behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me (Dan 10:13); as a fire, for he will punish them through fire: all the land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy destruction of all them that dwell in the…

And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, from soul to flesh, it will bring to an end; and it will be like a sick man wasting away.

And the rest of the trees of his forest will be a number a boy could write down.

A Remnant Shall Return

And it will be, in that day, that the remnant of Israel and the escaped of the house of Jacob will no longer lean upon the one who struck them, but will lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

A remnant will return — a remnant of Jacob — to the Mighty God.

This is therefore what the patriarch Isaac said: You will serve your brother. But when you have removed and freed yourself from his yoke on your neck, he is signifying two future peoples, one the son of a handmaid, the other of a free woman (for the letter is a servant, but grace is free), and that people who adheres to the letter will be a servant as long as they follow the in…

But yet grace from above sometimes looks upon these mighty men, and afflicts them by the very employments caused by their abundant goods, and intersperses with their prosperity, adverse, but profitable, tribulations: in order that, when sorrowful, they may turn to their heart, and learn how vainly they are engaged in perishable pursuits.

Second, as to their worship of idols, both as to manner, for in truth, the remnant, against what is said in 1 Kings 18:21: how long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him; and as to the converted, the remnant of Jacob, who were left by the Assyrians: save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel (Jer 31:7).

For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of it will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

The Jews who slew Him, and would not believe in Him, because it behoved Him to die and rise again, were yet more miserably wasted by the Romans, and utterly rooted out from their kingdom, where aliens had already ruled over them, and were dispersed through the lands (so that indeed there is no place where they are not), and are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us tha…

And he confirms the promise: for if your people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore (Gen 22:17).

For a full end, and one decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts is making in the midst of all the earth.

When God made statements such as "You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness," he was teaching me to refrain from doing to others what I would be unwilling to do to myself.

I find, indeed, that some eminent writers have published treatises on these matters piously and briefly written. Moreover, I know that the heretic Photinus has written on the same, with the object not of explaining the meaning of the text to his readers but of wresting things simply and truthfully said in support of his own dogma.

Second, he places the confirmation: for the Lord God of hosts shall make an end: with a flood that passes by, he will make an utter end of the place thereof (Nah 1:8); in the midst of all the land, that is, in Jerusalem, which is in the middle of the land: this is Jerusalem, I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the lands round about her (Ezek 5:5).

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: Do not fear, my people who dwell in Zion, because of Assyria, who strikes you with the rod and lifts his staff against you in the manner of Egypt.

For yet a very little while, and the indignation will be finished, and my anger will be at their destruction.

And the LORD of hosts will rouse a whip against him, as at the striking of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it in the manner of Egypt.

And it will be, in that day, that his burden will turn aside from upon your shoulder, and his yoke from upon your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.

He has come against Aiath, he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his gear.

They have crossed the pass — “Geba is a lodging for us.” Ramah trembles, Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Answer her, Anathoth!

Madmenah has fled; the inhabitants of Gebim have taken refuge.

Yet today he stands at Nob; he shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

See, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, is lopping off the crown with terrible force; and the tall of stature are cut down, and the lofty are brought low.

And he cuts the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon by a mighty one falls.

Isaiah10

Woe to Tyrants

Judgment on Assyria

A Remnant Shall Return