Isaiah 10:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 10:3
And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
day
לְי֣וֹםle.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
visitation
פְּקֻדָּ֔הpe.ku.Dah
H6486
visitation (in many senses · noun, common feminine singular absolute
desolation
וּלְשׁוֹאָ֖הu.le.sho.'Ah
H7722
a tempest · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
come
תָּב֑וֹאta.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
far
מִמֶּרְחָ֣קmi.mer.Chak
H4801
remoteness · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
flee
תָּנ֣וּסוּta.Nu.su
H5127
to flit · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
help
לְעֶזְרָ֔הle.'ez.Rah
H5833
aid · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
leave
תַעַזְב֖וּta.'az.Vu
H5800
to loosen · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
glory
כְּבוֹדְכֶֽםke.Vod.Khem
H3519
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hosea 9:7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for…
Luke 19:44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou…
Job 31:14 What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?
Proverbs 11:4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
Isaiah 5:26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with…
Isaiah 20:6 And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the ki…
Isaiah 26:21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her b…
Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 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 magistrates for mal-administration, which they could not legally be called to account for. To them he speaks woes before he speaks comfort to God's own people. Here is,
I. The indictment drawn up against these…
what will ye do--what way of escape will there be for you?
visitation--of God's wrath (Isa 26:14; Job 35:15; Hos 9:7).
from far--from Assyria.
leave . . . glory--rather, "deposit (for safekeeping) your wealth" [LOWTH]. So Psa 49:17.
John Gill on 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? from Assyria, which was distant from the land of Judea: the word (h) for "desolation" signifies a storm, tumult, noise, and confusion; referring to what would be made by the Assyrian army, when it came upon them:
to…
And what will you do? Here the Prophet severely threatens princes, who were careless and indolent amidst their distresses, as men intoxicated by prosperity are wont to despise haughtily every danger. He therefore warns them that, though God delay, still he has fixed a time for judgment, and already it is close at hand. In consequence of having vanquished the neighboring nations in war, and fortified themselves by an alliance with a very powerful nation, they had no longer any fear; and therefore he expressly declares that their calamity will come from afar
In the day of visitation. By visitation is here meant judgment, for God visits us in two ways, that is, in mercy and in judgment. In bot…
The Church Fathers
"What shall we do in the day of visitation?" One of the prophets terrifies me [with this question], whether that of the righteous sentence of God against us or that upon the mountains and hills, of which we have heard. Whatever and whenever it may be, he will reason with us and oppose us and set before us those bitter accusers, which are our sins, contrasting our wrongdoings with our benefits, striking thought with thought, scrutinizing action with action and calling us to account for the image that has been blurred and spoiled by wickedness. He will finally lead us away self-convicted and self-condemned, no longer able to say that we are being unjustly treated—a thought that is able even here sometimes to console in their condemnation those who are suffering.
[Christ] said to Peter, the prince of the apostles, "Simon, [son] of John, do you love me more than these?" He answered, "Lord, you know I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He asked him a second time, "Simon [son] of John, do you love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." He said to him, "Feed my sheep." And he ordered him to feed his sheep a third time, and in Peter he enjoined this office on all of us, diligently to feed the sheep of the Lord, that on the day of his visitation we may, for our toil and watchfulness, receive what he promised us in the gospel, saying, Father, I wish that where I am, there also shall be my minister. Let us look to the promises and rewards; then in an attitude of faith we will more easily stand all our pains, walking as the Lord himself walked, who is the one promising the rewards.
"What will you do on the day of visitation and the calamity that comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory?" Those who are asked what they will do, when the day of either captivity or judgment comes, and the calamity from afar, which was foretold long before. To whom, he says, will you flee for help, when you offend God, who is the true helper, and where will you leave your glory? For riches will not profit on the day of wrath, lest the Assyrian lead the bound into a hostile land, lest you fall in battle (Proverbs 11:4). So what will [heretics] do on the day of judgment, when they have deceived so many and the calamity from afar is coming? Just as it is said to the righteous man, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (Rom. X, 8); and in another place: "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke XVII, 2); so the calamity of the heretics will come from afar, prepared for them in due time. To whom will they flee, when they have a false god? To whom will they give their glory, when everything is feigned? And they will not be able to escape the bond by which they have bound many. Therefore, even in the vision of the valley of Zion, which has been deserted by the height of God and deceived by heretical humility, it is said of the false masters of the name of knowledge: All your leaders have fled, and those who have been captured are tightly bound (Isaiah 22:3).
Dictionary and topics
Escape · NONE, FROM THE — NONE, FROM THE
Fatherless · God will: Punish those who oppress — God will: Punish those who oppress
Poor, The · Punishment for: Acting unjustly towards — Punishment for: Acting unjustly towards
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Strophe 4. "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who prepare trouble to force away the needy from demanding justice, and to rob the suffering of my people of their rightful claims, that widows may become their prey, and they plunder orphans! And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the storm that cometh from afar? To whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye deposit your glory? There is nothing left but to bow down under prisoners, and they fall under the slain. With all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still." This last strophe is directed against the unjust authorities and judges. The woe pronounced upon them is,…
The implied answer to Isaiah’s rhetorical questions was that there would be no one to turn to when God punished Judah. • Disaster came first from the distant land of Assyria and later from Babylon.
Rashi on Isaiah 10:3
for the day of visitation when the Holy One, blessed be He, visits upon you your iniquities.
and for the destruction Heb. וּלְשׁוֹאָה, an expression of destruction.
To whom will you flee for aid The Holy One, blessed be He, will afford you no aid.
and where will you leave all the riches you are accumulating from robbery, when you go into exile?