Verse 18
"For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devours the briers and the thorns; yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts is the land burnt up; and the people are as the fuel of fire: no man spareth his brother. And one shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: Ephraim, Manasseh, and Manasseh, Ephraim; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still."
The metaphor of a devastating forest fire is an appropriate one indeed to describe the holocaust that was awaiting God's rebellious people, as any dweller in western United States could testify.
The closing verses of this paragraph indicate the total breakdown of all law and order, as the Assyrians continue their attack. Civil strife and ruthless internal warfare shall hasten the min. They shall eat one another up!
Despite the primary thrust of these prophecies having been against the Northern Israel, it is quite evident that the kingdom of Judah itself was also involved, but not as extensively. Ephraim remained in the focus here because their punishment was to be complete, their ruin final, and their destruction as a nation total, whereas Judah, although destined to suffer destruction and deportation, would, after seventy years, return in the "small remnant" so often mentioned by Isaiah. This particular phase of the prophecy will be concluded in the first four verses of the next chapter.
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