Isaiah 10:17

And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; THE LIGHT OF ISRAEL ... SHALL BURN ... HIS THORNS - the Assyrian's wicked host; carrying out the image in the end of Isaiah 10:16 Yahweh, who is a light to Israel, shall be the "fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29) that shall ignite the thorns (the Assyrians, like dry fuel, already prey to flame, Nahum 1:10). Verse 18. AND SHALL CONSUME THE GLORY OF HIS FOREST. The common soldiers, the princes, officers, etc., all...

17._And the light of Israel shall be for a fire. _There is an elegant allusion to that burning by which he threatened that he would consume the Assyrians. In _fire _there are two things, light and heat. As the Lord consumes the enemies by his heat, so he enlightens the godly by his light. It is very customary that God is sometimes called _a devouring fire_, (Deuteronomy 4:24,) and sometimes, in a different point of view, he is called _light_, (Isaiah 60:20; Micah 7:8,) because his power produces contrary effects on the godly and the ungodly. When he shines on the godly, he imparts life and nourishment to them, but he consumes and destroys the ungodly. In a word, while he threatens destruction to the Assyrians, he likewise brings comfort to the godly;

5-19 See what a change sin made. The king of Assyria, in his pride, thought to act by his own will. The tyrants of the world are tools of Providence. God designs to correct his people for their hypocrisy, and bring them nearer to him; but is that Sennacherib's design? No; he designs to gratify his own covetousness and ambition. The Assyrian boasts what great things he has done to other nations, by his own policy and power. He knows not that it is God who makes him what he is, and puts the staff into his hand. He had done all this with ease; none moved the wing, or cried as birds do when their nests are rifled. Because he conquered Samaria, he thinks Jerusalem would fall of course. It was lamentable that Jerusalem should have set up graven images, and we cannot wonder that she was excelled in them by the heathen. But is it not equally foolish for Christians to emulate the people of the w...

Verse Isaiah 10:17. _AND IT SHALL BURN AND DEVOUR HIS THORNS_ - "And he shall burn and consume his thorn."] The briers and thorns are the common people; the glory of his forest are the nobles and those of highest rank and importance. Isaiah 9:17, and compare Ezekiel 20:47. The fire of God's wrath shall destroy them, both great and small; it shall consume them _from the soul to the flesh_; a proverbial expression; _soul and body_, as we say; it shall consume them entirely and altogether; and the few that escape shall be looked upon as having escaped from the most imminent danger; "as a firebrand plucked out of the fire," Amos 4:11...

AND THE LIGHT OF ISRAEL - That is, Yahweh. The word “light” here, אור _'ôr_, is used also to denote a “fire,” or that which causes light and heat; see Ezekiel 5:2; Isaiah 44:16; Isaiah 47:14. Here it is used in the same sense, denoting that Yahweh would be “the fire” אור _'ôr_ that would cause the “flame” (אשׁ _'êsh_) which would consume the Assyrian. Jehovah is often compared to a burning flame, or fire; Deuteronomy 4:24;...

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 10:1 The prophecy begun in Isaiah 9:8 terminates with this stanza, which contains a warning against injustice and oppression, addressed to Israel and Judah equally, and accompanied by the threat of a "day of desolation," when those who have refused to make God their Refuge will have no resource, but to go into captivity with the "prisoners," or to perish with the "slain." A foreign conquest, accompanied by slaughter, and the deportation of captives, is not obscurely intimated. ISAIAH 10:1 WOE UNTO THEM THAT DECREE UNRIGHTEOUS DECREES (comp. Isaiah 1:17

AND THE LIGHT OF ISRAEL SHALL BE FOR A FIRE,.... That is, the Lord, who is the light of his people; who enlightens them by his word and Spirit, and by his grace effectually calls them out of darkness into marvellous light, to the light of grace here, and to the light of glory hereafter; and who comforts and refreshes them with his gracious presence, and with the light of his countenance when in affliction and distress, which is sometimes signified by darkness; and the same Lord, who is as light to his people, and gives light and comfort to them, is as a consuming fire to others: AND HIS HOLY ONE FOR A FLAME; that is, the Holy One of Israel, the God of Israel, who is holy in himself, and the sanctifier of others; the Syriac version reads, "his Holy Ones": so Jarchi observes it as the sense of some, that the righteous of that generation are meant; the Targum is, "and there shall be the L...

CHAPTER 10 The Assyrian, His invasion of Immanuel's land, and His end 1. _The first four verses belong to the preceding chapter. A description of the Assyrian enemy (Isaiah 10:5)_ 2. _The overthrow of his army announced (Isaiah 10:12)_ 3. _The punishment (Isaiah 10:16)_ 4. _The return of the remnant (Isaiah 10:20)_ 5. _The faithful remnant comforted (Isaiah 10:24)_ 6. The Assyrians march against Jerusalem (Isaiah 10:28

ASSYRIA'S BOASTFULNESS AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This prophecy, so far as it is Isaiah's, must be later than the capture of Carchemish in 717 and before Sennacherib's invasion in 701. Narrower limits cannot be fixed. Non-Isaianic material appears to be present in it. ISAIAH 10:5. Assyria is Yahweh's rod to smite any nation that has aroused His anger, but, inspired by lust of blood, plans to exterminate many peoples, and boastfully thinks to destroy Jerusalem with her divine nonentities, less powerful than those of cities she has seized. So, when she has served His purpose, He will punish her boastfulness in ascribing her conquests to her own wisdom and might. She has abolished the boundaries of subject peoples, merging them in her empire; plundered their treasures and abased their rulers, robbing the nations as a man takes the eggs from a nest abandoned by the panic-stricken birds, n

IN ONE DAY. So it was (2 Kings 19:35),...