Isaiah 10:19

And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them. THE REST - those who shall survive the destruction of the host. OF THE TREES OF HIS FOREST - same image as in , for the once dense army. SHALL BE FEW, THAT A CHILD MAY WRITE THEM - so few that a child might count them....

19._And the remnant of the trees of his forest shall be a number. _(167) When he adds that _the remnant of them will be a number_, he employs a Hebrew idiom to express that _they will be few_; and thus he only confirms the former statement, that the devastation produced, after the calamity which God will bring on the Assyrians, will be so great that there will be no difficulty in counting them. _That a child may number them. _He goes so far as to say, that they will be so few that those who are left of them may be counted even by _a child_; for _children _have difficulty in counting as far as three or four. Accordingly, the kingdom of the Assyrians was formerly like some vast _forest_; but when _the trees _have been hewn and thrown down, those which are left are few, and scattered at great distances from each other....

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...

AND THE REST OF THE TREES ... - Keeping up still the image of a large and once dense forest, to which he had likened the Assyrian army. ‘The rest’ here means that which shall be left after the threatened judgment shall come upon them. THAT A CHILD MAY WRITE THEM - That a child shall be able to number them, or write their names; that is, they shall be very few. A child can number or count but few; yet the number of those who would be left, would be so very small that even a child could count them with ease. It is probable that a few of the army of Sennacherib escaped (see the note at Isaiah 37:37); and compared with the whole army, the remnant might bear a striking resemblance to the few decaying trees of a once magnificent forest of cedars....

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 REST OF THE TREES OF HIS FOREST SHALL BE FEW,.... Which were left unconsumed, that escaped this destruction, those of the Assyrian army that fled with Sennacherib their king; which, the Rabbins say r, were no more than ten, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; yea, some say there were but five left who escaped, and name them, Sennacherib and his two sons, Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan: THAT A CHILD MAY WRITE THEM; count them, and take down their names; and it may be understood of a military muster, and the sense be, that the army should be reduced to so small a number by this stroke upon them, that there would be no need of an able muster master to take the account of them, a child would be equal to such a task. The Targum is, "and the rest of his warriors shall fail, that the people shall be a small number, and shall be reckoned a weak kingdom.'' r T. Bab. ib. fol. 95. 2. Praefat....

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

CHILD. lad. WRITE. reckon....

The destruction of the Assyrian army is described under the two figures of sickness and a conflagration. There is a certain amount of confusion in the metaphors, and undoubtedly the style deteriorates at this point....