Verse 19
19. It shall hail, coming down on the forest That is, the fierce storm shall overthrow it. Hail storms in Palestine are fearful agencies of destruction. Note the scenes under Joshua at Beth-horon, and at Megiddo under Barak. Joshua 10:11; Judges 5:20. And the city, etc. If this verse is in its right place, it is another case of a sudden mental association, in the mind of the prophet, with the destroying power, Assyria. Assyria is to destroy Judah as an event ordered to precede this beginning of spiritual renovation of redeemed Israel. “The forest,” then, denotes the degenerated children of Judah, and “the city,” is destroyed Jerusalem. In the same mental association, Assyria, as a destroying power, covers the seat of that power throughout the Euphrates valley; it ideally includes the same power transferred to Babylon. The verse would seem to be a parenthetic interruption to the course of thought in this place.
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