Text -- Isaiah 31:6-9 (NET)

31:6 You Israelites! Return to the one against whom you have so blatantly rebelled! 31:7 For at that time everyone will get rid of the silver and gold idols your hands sinfully made. 31:8 Assyria will fall by a sword, but not one human-made; a sword not made by humankind will destroy them. They will run away from this sword and their young men will be forced to do hard labor. 31:9 They will surrender their stronghold because of fear; their officers will be afraid of the Lord’s battle flag.” This is what the Lord says– the one whose fire is in Zion, whose firepot is in Jerusalem.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 31:6

¹ tn Heb “Return to the one [against] whom the sons of Israel made deep rebellion.” The syntax is awkward here. A preposition is omitted by ellipsis after the verb (see GKC 446 §138.f, n. 2), and there is a shift from direct address (note the second plural imperative “return”) to the third person (note “they made deep”). For other examples of abrupt shifts in person in poetic style, see GKC 462 §144.p.

NET Notes: Isa 31:7

¹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

² tn Heb “reject” (so NIV); NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT “throw away.”

³ tn Heb “the idols of their idols of silver and their idols of gold which your hands made for yourselves [in] sin.” חָטָא (khata’, “sin”) is understood as an adverbial accusative of manner. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:573, n. 4.

NET Notes: Isa 31:8

¹ tn Heb “Assyria will fall by a sword, not of a man.”

² tn Heb “and a sword not of humankind will devour him.”

³ tn Heb “he will flee for himself from before a sword.”

NET Notes: Isa 31:9

¹ tn Heb “rocky cliff” (cf. ASV, NASB “rock”), viewed metaphorically as a place of defense and security.

² tn Heb “His rocky cliff, because of fear, will pass away [i.e., “perish”].”

³ tn Heb “and they will be afraid of the flag, his officers.”

⁴ sn The “fire” and “firepot” here symbolize divine judgment, which is heating up like a fire in Jerusalem, waiting to be used against the Assyrians when they attack the city.