Isaiah 10:16-19

10:16 For this reason ¹  the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. ²  His majestic glory will go up in smoke. ³ 

10:17 The light of Israel ⁴  will become a fire,

their Holy One ⁵  will become a flame;

it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s ⁶  briers

and his thorns in one day.

10:18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard

will be completely destroyed, ⁷ 

as when a sick man’s life ebbs away. ⁸ 

10:19 There will be so few trees left in his forest,

a child will be able to count them. ⁹ 

Isaiah 10:33

10:33 Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies,

is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. ¹⁰ 

The tallest trees ¹¹  will be cut down,

the loftiest ones will be brought low.

Isaiah 30:30-33

30:30 The Lord will give a mighty shout ¹² 

and intervene in power, ¹³ 

with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, ¹⁴ 

with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.

30:31 Indeed, the Lord’s shout will shatter Assyria; ¹⁵ 

he will beat them with a club.

30:32 Every blow from his punishing cudgel, ¹⁶ 

with which the Lord will beat them, ¹⁷ 

will be accompanied by music from the ¹⁸  tambourine and harp,

and he will attack them with his weapons. ¹⁹ 

30:33 For ²⁰  the burial place is already prepared; ²¹ 

it has been made deep and wide for the king. ²² 

The firewood is piled high on it. ²³ 

The Lord’s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone,

will ignite it.

Isaiah 37:36

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ²⁴  went out and killed 185,000 troops ²⁵  in the Assyrian camp. When they ²⁶  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ²⁷ 

Hosea 1:7

1:7 But I will have pity on the nation ²⁸  of Judah. ²⁹  I will deliver them by the Lord their God; I will not deliver them by the warrior’s bow, by sword, by military victory, ³⁰  by chariot horses, or by chariots.” ³¹ 

[10:16]  ¹ sn The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.

[10:16]  ² tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”

[10:16]  ³ tc Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”

[10:17]  ⁴ tn In this context the “Light of Israel” is a divine title (note the parallel title “his holy one”). The title points to God’s royal splendor, which overshadows and, when transformed into fire, destroys the “majestic glory” of the king of Assyria (v. 16b).

[10:17]  ⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[10:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “his.” In vv. 17-19 the Assyrian king and his empire is compared to a great forest and orchard that are destroyed by fire (symbolic of the Lord).

[10:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “from breath to flesh it will destroy.” The expression “from breath to flesh” refers to the two basic components of a person, the immaterial (life’s breath) and the material (flesh). Here the phrase is used idiomatically to indicate totality.

[10:18]  ⁸ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. מָסַס (masas), which is used elsewhere of substances dissolving or melting, may here mean “waste away” or “despair.” נָסַס (nasas), which appears only here, may mean “be sick” or “stagger, despair.” See BDB 651 s.v. I נָסַס and HALOT 703 s.v. I נסס. One might translate the line literally, “like the wasting away of one who is sick” (cf. NRSV “as when an invalid wastes away”).

[10:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the rest of the trees of his forest will be counted, and a child will record them.”

[10:33]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads “with terrifying power,” or “with a crash.” מַעֲרָצָה (ma’aratsah, “terrifying power” or “crash”) occurs only here. Several have suggested an emendation to מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad, “ax”) parallel to “ax” in v. 34; see HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:448.

[10:33]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the exalted of the height.” This could refer to the highest branches (cf. TEV) or the tallest trees (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[30:30]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard.”

[30:30]  ¹³ tn Heb “and reveal the lowering of his arm.”

[30:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and a flame of consuming fire.”

[30:31]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Indeed by the voice of the Lord Assyria will be shattered.”

[30:32]  ¹⁶ tc The Hebrew text has “every blow from a founded [i.e., “appointed”?] cudgel.” The translation above, with support from a few medieval Hebrew mss, assumes an emendation of מוּסָדָה (musadah, “founded”) to מוּסָרֹה (musaroh, “his discipline”).

[30:32]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “which the Lord lays on him.”

[30:32]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “will be with” (KJV similar).

[30:32]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and with battles of brandishing [weapons?] he will fight against him.” Some prefer to emend וּבְמִלְחֲמוֹת (uvÿmilkhamot, “and with battles of”) to וּבִמְחֹלוֹת (uvimkholot, “and with dancing”). Note the immediately preceding references to musical instruments.

[30:33]  ²⁰ tn Or “indeed.”

[30:33]  ²¹ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for arranged from before [or “yesterday”] is [?].” The meaning of תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh), which occurs only here, is unknown. The translation above (as with most English versions) assumes an emendation to תֹּפֶת (tofet, “Topheth”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) and places the final hey (ה) on the beginning of the next word as an interrogative particle. Topheth was a place near Jerusalem used as a burial ground (see Jer 7:32; 19:11).

[30:33]  ²² tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Also it is made ready for the king, one makes it deep and wide.” If one takes the final hey (ה) on תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh) and prefixes it to גָּם (gam) as an interrogative particle (see the preceding note), one can translate, “Is it also made ready for the king?” In this case the question is rhetorical and expects an emphatic affirmative answer, “Of course it is!”

[30:33]  ²³ tn Heb “its pile of wood, fire and wood one makes abundant.”

[37:36]  ²⁴ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ²⁵ tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ²⁶ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ²⁷ tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”

[1:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “house”; cf. NCV, TEV, NLT “the people of Judah.”

[1:7]  ²⁹ tn The word order in this line is rhetorical, emphasizing the divine decision to withhold pity from Israel but to bestow it on Judah. The accusative direct object, which is introduced by a disjunctive vav (to denote contrast), appears before the verb: וְאֶת־בֵּית יְהוּדָה אֲרַחֵם (vé’et-bet yéhudah ’arakhem, “but upon the house of Judah I will show pity”).

[1:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “by war” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); KJV, NASB, NIV “battle.”

[1:7]  ³¹ sn These military weapons are examples of the metonymy of adjunct (the specific weapons named) for subject (warfare).