Verse 12
12. Woe The word is more properly, Ho, or Ha; a word of surprise; something suddenly turning up to the attention, and wholly absorbing it. The scene is now changed, as in Isaiah 8:5-10, to the fate of the destroying world-power. Assyria itself is broken.
Multitude of many people Ho! The uproar of many nations yonder! Avengers they are of backslidden Israel, coming to execute judgment on peoples this way; but destruction, also, is ultimately destined upon them.
These last verses are seemingly separated from the preceding; the leap of thought here is considerable; but, as heretofore noticed of Isaiah, such abruptness is not unusual. In this case, the scene is as if, on a pause at the conclusion at the eleventh verse, the prophet’s thought respecting the instrument to crush Damascus and Israel had darted like lightning through Assyria in all the extent of her provinces, over her territories, and through all destinies attending these, and was arrested, as in vision they were seen generally mustering for a final judgment and overthrow, with the words following:
“Hark! The noise of many nations! Like the noise of the sea, they make a noise! And the rush of peoples! Like the rush of mighty waters they are rushing! Nations, like the rush of many waters, rush; and he (God) rebukes it, and it flees from afar, and is chased like the chaff (or thistle-down) of hills before the wind, and like a rolling thing (probably rolling dust) before a whirlwind.”
The translation is Alexander’s. Delitzsch says, “The many surging nations (or sub-kingdoms of Assyria) are kneaded together, as it were, into one mass. It costs God simply a threatening word, and this mass flies all apart, and falls into dust, and whirls about in all directions, like the chaff of threshingfloors in high places, or like dust whirled up by the storm.” All literature may be challenged to show a passage of greater power.
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