Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Egyptians Are Men, and Not God
Isaiah 31:1-9
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! · WEB
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 Isaiah 31:1.
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 Isaiah 31:3.
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.
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 Isaiah 31:4.
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 Isaiah 31:5.
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 Isaiah 31:8.
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.
Says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem Isaiah 31:9.
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.
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