A Remnant Will Return
20 It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 22 For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. 23 For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will make a full end, and that determined, throughout all the earth. 24 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, says, “My people who dwell in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did. 25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation against you will be accomplished, and my anger will be directed to his destruction.” 26 Yahweh of Armies will stir up a scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up like he did against Egypt. 27 It will happen in that day that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil. 28 He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage. 29 They have gone over the pass. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled. 30 Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth! 31 Madmenah is a fugitive. The inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety. 32 This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 33 Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low. 34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
The prophet's son's name becomes a doctrine, and an army is tracked village by village to within sight of the city.
It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
The lesson of the whole Assyrian episode in one sentence. Judah's policy had been to lean on the power that was hitting it, which is what buying protection from Assyria amounted to.
A remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
The two words are the name of the son who walked beside his father to meet Ahaz at the conduit Isaiah 7:3, and the child's name has now become the doctrine. And the title he returns to is the one given to the child in chapter nine: the mighty God Isaiah 9:6.
For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
The promise cuts both ways and the book never lets it cut only one. The sand of the sea was the promise to Abraham Genesis 22:17; only a remnant is what is left of it. Paul quotes both verses when arguing that not all Israel is Israel Romans 9:27–28.
Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, says, “My people who dwell in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did.
The comparison is chosen for the precedent it carries. Egypt also once had a staff over Israel, and the next verse names two deliverances: Midian at the rock of Oreb, and the sea Isaiah 10:26.
It will happen in that day that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil.
The yoke of chapter nine, removed again.
28 He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage. 29 They have gone over the pass. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled.
The finest piece of reporting in the book. The advance is tracked town by town down the northern approach to the capital, and the effect is of dispatches arriving faster than they can be read. The detail that he leaves his baggage at Michmash is a soldier's observation: the army is stripping for the last march.
The villages named are small and mostly unimportant, and each gets one clause. Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth! Isaiah 10:30 — the panic runs ahead of the column.
This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
Nob is close enough to see the city from. The gesture is a fist raised at a hill, and it is the last thing the Assyrian does in this chapter.
33 Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low. 34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
The advance stops mid-sentence and the metaphor changes to forestry. The army that came to cut down a country is timber, and what it leaves behind is a stump — which is where the next chapter begins.
settled What this mark means