The Egyptians Are Men, and Not God
1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh! 2 Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity. 3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together. 4 For Yahweh says to me, “As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for their noise, so Yahweh of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights. 5 As birds hovering, so Yahweh of Armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it.” 6 Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin which your own hands have made for you. 8 “The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor. 9 His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner,” says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
The argument against the Egyptian alliance reduced to one sentence about categories, and God pictured as a lion and then as a bird.
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh!
The policy again, and the chapter's complaint is not that the assessment of Egyptian strength was wrong. The chariots really were many and the horsemen really were strong. What is missing is a direction of gaze.
Yet he also is wise Isaiah 31:2.
A short, dry sentence. The Egyptian alliance was the clever option, argued for by intelligent men, and the verse concedes their cleverness while noting that somebody else is also capable of thinking.
Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.
The whole argument in one verse, and it is about categories rather than quantities. It does not say Egypt is weak; it says Egypt is human. Two pairs — men against God, flesh against spirit — and the point is that no amount of the first ever becomes the second.
When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.
The helper and the helped go down in the same sentence, which is the specific risk of an alliance.
For Yahweh says to me, “As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for their noise, so Yahweh of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.
The first image, and it is unsettling. God is the lion standing over the kill, unimpressed by the shouting of the men trying to drive him off. Whatever this promises about Jerusalem, it is not a comfortable picture — the city is what the lion is standing over.
As birds hovering, so Yahweh of Armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it.”
The second image, immediately after, and it is the opposite in every respect. A bird beating its wings over the nest, and four verbs of protection in one verse. The two pictures are left side by side without reconciliation, which is the book's habit whenever it is describing the same God doing two things at once.
And pass over is the Passover verb Exodus 12:13, used here of a city about to be spared while an army outside it is destroyed.
“The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor.
The promise stated twice in one verse, and its content is that no human army will get the credit. Judah's own forces are not mentioned in the chapter at all.
His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner,” says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
The hearth of chapter twenty-nine Isaiah 29:2, and the city that was going to be the altar is where the fire is kept.
settled What this mark means