Isaiah 10:1-16

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 10:1-4

Whether they were the princes and judges of Israel of Judah, or both, that the prophet denounced this woe against, is not certain: if those of Israel, these verses are to be joined with the close of the foregoing chapter, which is probable enough, because the burden of that prophecy (for all this his anger is not turned away) is repeated here (Isa. 10:4); if those of Judah, they then show what was the particular design with which God brought the Assyrian army upon them?to punish their... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 10:5-19

The destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser king of Assyria was foretold in the foregoing chapter, and it had its accomplishment in the sixth year of Hezekiah, 2 Kgs. 18:10. It was total and final, head and tail were all cut off. Now the correction of the kingdom of Judah by Sennacherib king of Assyria is foretold in this chapter; and this prediction was fulfilled in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, when that potent prince, encouraged by the successes of his predecessor against the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 10:1

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees ,.... Or, "O ye that decree", &c.; הוי being a sign of the vocative case, and an interjection of calling, as Aben Ezra observes; though the Targum and other versions understand it of a threatening denounced; and is to be understood as lying against lawgivers and judges, political rulers and governors of the people, that made unrighteous laws; laws which were not agreeable to the law of God, nor right reason; and were injurious to the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 10:2

To turn aside the needy from judgment ,.... Such laws being made as discouraged them from any application for justice; and, when they did, were harassed with such long, vexatious, and expensive suits, as obliged them to desist, and the cause being generally given against them, and for the rich: and to take away the right from the poor of my people ; for not to do justice to the poor is the same as to rob and plunder them, and take away by force what of right belongs to them; wherefore it... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 10:3

And what will ye do in the day of visitation ,.... Not in a way of grace and mercy, but of wrath and anger, as the following clause explains it, when God should come and punish them for their sins; and so the Targum, "what will ye do in the day that your sins shall be visited upon you?' it designs the Babylonish captivity, as the next words show; the same phrase is used of the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, Luke 19:44 , and in the desolation which shall come from far ?... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 10:4

Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain ,.... That is, either, being forsaken by me, and destitute of my help, they shall bow down; or, "because they are without me", are not my people, and do not hearken to me, therefore they shall bow down, so David Kimchi; or, were it not for me, they would, as others; or that they might not bow down and fall; and so the words may be connected with the preceding verse Isaiah 10:3 , others render the word,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 10:5

O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger ,..... Either as calling him to come against the land of Israel to spoil it, so Kimchi; or as grieving that he was obliged to make use of him in such a manner against his people; or as threatening him with ruin. So the Targum, Septuagint, and all the Oriental versions render it, "woe to the Assyrian"; wherefore this, and what follows, serve to comfort the people of God; that though they should be carried captive by the Assyrians, yet they should be utterly... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 10:6

I will send him against a hypocritical nation ,.... The people of Israel, who might well be called so, since everyone of them was a hypocrite, Isaiah 9:17 pretending to love, fear, and serve the Lord, when it was only outwardly, and by profession, and not in deed, and in truth; their character contains the reason of the Lord's calling and sending the Assyrian to correct and chastise them: and against the people of my wrath : who provoked him to wrath, were deserving of it, and upon... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 10:7

Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so ,.... His purposes, intentions, and thoughts, were not as the Lord's; he did not imagine that he was only the rod of his anger, and the staff of his indignation, a minister of his wrath, and the executioner of his vengeance; he thought he was his own lord and master, and acted by his own power, and according to his own will, and was not under the direction and restraints of another; his intention was not to chastise and correct the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 10:8

For he saith, are not my princes altogether kings? Meaning either the kings which he had conquered, which were become his princes and subjects; or rather, such were the greatness and glory of his nobles, that they were equal in their riches and dominions to kings, and so were able to furnish him with men and money for such an expedition he had in his heart to undertake, even to conquer and subdue all the nations of the earth: and this he said either to his people, boasting of his grandeur;... read more

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