Isaiah 10:34 Ulasan

The prophet, in this chapter, is dealing, I. With the proud oppressors of his people at home, that abused their power, to pervert justice, whom he would reckon with for their tyranny (Isa 10:1-4). II. With a threatening invader of his people from abroad, Sennacherib king of Assyria, concerning whom observe, 1. The commission given him to invade Judah (Isa 10:5, Isa 10:6). 2. His pride and insolence in the execution of that commission (Isa 10:7-11, Isa 10:13, Isa 10:14). 3. A rebuke given to his haughtiness, and a threatening of his fall and ruin, when he had served the purposes for which God raised him up (Isa 10:12, Isa 10:15-19). 4. A promise of grace to the people of God, to enable them to bear up under the affliction, and to get good by it (Isa 10:20-23). 5. Great encouragement given to them not to fear this threatening storm, but to hope that, though for the present all the country was put into a great consternation by it, yet it would end well, in the destruction of this formidable enemy (Isa 10:24-34). And this is intended to quiet the minds of good people in reference to all the threatening efforts of the wrath of the church's enemies. If God be for us, who can be against us? None to do us any harm.

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 10 This chapter contains denunciations of punishment, first on the governors of the Jewish nation, and then upon the Assyrians; a woe is denounced on the makers and imposers of bad laws, whereby the poor and the needy, the widows and the fatherless, were deprived of their right, Isa 10:1 which woe or punishment is explained to be a desolation of their country by the Assyrians, that should come afar off, and which they could not escape; under whom they should bow and fall; and yet there should not be an end of their punishment, Isa 10:3 next follows a prophecy of the destruction of the Assyrians themselves, for the comfort of God's people; in which is observed, that the Assyrian monarch was an instrument in the hand of the Lord to chastise his people, and therefore is called the rod and staff of his wrath and indignation, Isa 10:5 the people are described against whom he was sent, and the end for which is mentioned, Isa 10:6 though this was not his intention, nor did he design to stop here, but to destroy and cut off many other nations, Isa 10:7 which he hoped to do from the magnificence of his princes, who were as kings, and from the conquests he had made of kingdoms, and their chief cities, Isa 10:8 wherefore, when the Lord had done what he designed to do by him among his people the Jews, he was determined to punish him, because of the pride of his heart, and the haughtiness of his looks, and his boasting of his strength and wisdom, and of his robberies and plunders, without opposition; which boasting was as foolish as if an axe, a saw, a rod, and a staff, should boast, magnify, move, and lift up themselves against the person that made use of them, Isa 10:12 which punishment is said to come from the Lord, and is expressed by leanness, and by a consuming and devouring fire; for which reason his army is compared to thorns and briers, to a forest, and a fruitful field, which should be destroyed at once; so that what of the trees remained should be so few as to be numbered by a child, Isa 10:16 and, for the further consolation of the people of God, it is observed, that in the times following the destruction of the Assyrian monarchy, a remnant of the people of Israel should be converted, and no more lean upon an arm of flesh, but upon the Lord Christ, the Holy One of Israel; even a remnant only; for though that people were very numerous, yet a remnant, according to the election of grace, should be saved, when it was the determinate counsel of God, and according to his righteous judgment, to destroy the far greater part of them, for their perverseness and obstinacy, Isa 10:20 wherefore the people of God are exhorted not to be afraid of the Assyrian, though chastised by him; since in a little time the anger of the Lord would cease in his destruction, which should be after the manner of the Egyptians at the Red sea, and as the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; whereby they would be free from his burden and yoke, because of the anointed King that should reign, or the King Messiah, Isa 10:24 and then follows a description of the expedition of the king of Assyria into Judea, by making mention of the several places through which he should pass with terror to the inhabitants, until he should come to Jerusalem, against which he should shake his hand, Isa 10:28 and then, under the similes of lopping a bough, and cutting down the thickets of a forest, and the trees of Lebanon, is predicted the destruction of his army and its generals by an angel, Isa 10:33.

In this instance Lebanon means Jerusalem … which the Word warns will fall with all of the men of greatness and glory.

In this instance the birth of Christ from the seed of Jesse and David is joined with the destruction of Lebanon and the call of the Gentiles.

[God spoke] of the branches (thickets), not the root. When the measure of the people’s sins was complete, John came and took up the roots of their trees. “For the ax is laid to the roots of the trees,” [the roots] which Isaiah had left [untouched]. When will this be, if not at the rising forth of the true One, who was designated by the [image of] the staff and the shoot, and upon whom rests the Spirit, who is referred to as being sevenfold.

Behold the Lord of hosts will break the jar in terror, and the lofty stature will be cut down, and the exalted will be brought low, and the dense forests will be destroyed by the sword, and Lebanon with its heights will fall. Some people think that this passage is still speaking of the Assyrians, and that when they are crushed, all the nations around them that were subject to their rule will be cut down and humbled, and the dense forests will be destroyed. They understand this metaphorically as referring to the people and rulers. Moreover, even Lebanon with its lofty cedars can fall, so that no power of Assyria remains at all. But others want this place to be about Christ, especially since what follows, and we ourselves, and the Circumcision Scriptures, testify about him. Above, it was mentioned that the name of the child to be born of a Virgin would be called Emmanuel; and later the prophetess in her conception in the womb would proclaim, 'Hurry, plunder, hasten to prey' (Isa. 8:3), and he himself would be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to the two houses of Israel; his dominion would be on his shoulder, and he would be called by six names: Wonderful, Counselor, God, Strong, Father of the future age, and Prince of peace; and his empire would multiply, and there would be no end to peace. Now in the prologue of his coming, before it is said that he will be born of the descendants of Jesse and David, the passion of him is demonstrated through the symbol of the broken vessel: that, by the will of God, his flesh was handed over to death so that the pride of the Jews may be destroyed and those who were once lofty may fall to the ground; and Lebanon with its cedars may be cut down, of which we read in Zachariah: Open your gates, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars; wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, because the noble have been devastated (Zach. XI, 1, 2). But that he is said to be contrite and struck by the Father, and that is indicated by this: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered (Zech. XIII, 7). And another testimony: For they have persecuted him whom you have struck (Ps. LXVIII, 2). The Hebrew word פורע (Phura), which Aquila has interpreted as κεραμεῖον, and Theodotion and Symmachus translated as ληνὸν, that is, winepress, which also signifies the Lord's Passion according to the inscription of three psalms, with the Lord himself saying in Isaiah: I have trodden the winepress alone, and no man of the nations was with me (Isa. LXIII, 3). However, they interpreted LXX as meaning 'for the wine press,' introducing a new sense.

What Scripture once said cryptically, however, it now expresses more clearly: “for the glorious trees are ruined.” I want to know what is meant by the cedars of Lebanon that burned, the firs that wailed and the pines that fell. “The glorious trees,” it says, “are ruined.” “Wail, oaks of Bashan,” that is, of confusion and shame, for the thickest forest, which in Hebrew is called besor and is translated by the Septuagint as “densely wooded” [nemorosus], has been felled. In other words, wail because the temple, which had grown to unassailable strength, having been constructed by many different kings and rulers and later by Herod, was demolished by the invading Romans.Certain persons not familiar with this locale believe that Lebanon and the firs, pines and oaks, as well as Bashan and the dense or fortified forests, signify the competing powers of which Ezekiel had spoken under the names of Assyria and Pharaoh. “Behold, Assyria is a cedar in Lebanon, with strong branches and dense foliage, of great height, with its top reaching to the clouds; the waters nourished it and the abyss exalted it,” etc. They think that Assyria and the Pharaoh represent either competing powers or the proud or rulers, about which we read also in the psalms. “The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon,” and in another place, “For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high,” and shortly further “against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up.” They claim that it was to this, the nation of Lebanon, that it was prophesied: “Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.” We, however, hold to the first interpretation, primarily because it corresponds with what follows: “The voice of the shepherds wails because their glory is ruined; the voice of the lions roars because the pride of Jordan is ruined.” According to the Septuagint’s translation, “The voice of the shepherds mourns because their glory has been made wretched; the voice of the lions roars because Jordan’s groaning is despondent.” The whole of the chapter is contained in these short verses. What the text once called cedars, firs, pines and the oaks of Bashan, what it called trees, as in “for the glorious trees are ruined,” it now, through the use of another metaphor, calls shepherds, that is, rulers and teachers. These, the leaders of the people, ought to weep and grieve because their glory and majesty and beauty are ruined and destroyed, clearly referring to the temple in which they gloried.

The thickets of forest, as to the multitude of the people, that is, the shrubs which make a forest dense, and Libanus, Sennacherib himself, who was killed by his sons, below (ch. 27).

The Jews, about to be carried into captivity, are here warned against the superstition and idolatry of that country to which they were going. Chaldea was greatly addicted to astrology, and therefore the prophet begins with warning them against it, Jer 10:1, Jer 10:2. He then exposes the absurdity of idolatry in short but elegant satire; in the midst of which he turns, in a beautiful apostrophe, to the one true God, whose adorable attributes repeatedly strike in view, as he goes along, and lead him to contrast his infinite perfections with those despicable inanities which the blinded nations fear, Jer 10:3-16. The prophet again denounces the Divine judgments, Jer 10:17, Jer 10:18; upon which Jerusalem laments her fate, and supplicates the Divine compassion in her favor, Jer 10:19-25.

Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one - באדיר beaddir, the angel of the Lord, who smote them, Kimchi. And so Vitringa understands it. Others translate, "The high cedars of Lebanon shall fall:" but the king of Assyria is the person who shall be overthrown.

Fourth strophe. (Isa 10:1-4) them that decree--namely, unrighteous judges. write grievousness, &c.--not the scribes, but the magistrates who caused unjust decisions (literally, "injustice" or "grievousness") to be recorded by them (Isa 65:6) [MAURER], (Isa 1:10, Isa 1:23).

This verse and Isa 10:33 describe the sudden arrest and overthrow of Sennacherib in the height of his success; Isa 10:18-19; Eze 31:3, Eze 31:14, &c., contain the same image; "Lebanon" and its forest are the Assyrian army; the "iron" axe that fells the forest refers to the stroke which destroyed the one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians (Kg2 19:35). The "Mighty One" is Jehovah (Isa 10:21; Isa 9:6). From the local and temporary national deliverance the prophet passes by the law of suggestion in an easy transition to the end of all prophecy--the everlasting deliverance under Messiah's reign, not merely His first coming, but chiefly His second coming. The language and illustrations are still drawn from the temporary national subject, with which he began, but the glories described pertain to Messiah's reign. Hezekiah cannot, as some think, be the subject; for he was already come, whereas the "stem of Jesse" was yet future ("shall come") (compare Mic 4:11, &c.; Mic 5:1-2; Jer 23:5-6; Jer 33:15-16; Rom 15:12). Next: Isaiah Chapter 11