Isaiah 10:34

And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
down	וְנִקַּ֛ף ve.ni.Kaf	H5362	to strike with more or less violence (beat · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
thickets	סִֽבְכֵ֥י siv.Khei	H5442	a copse · noun, common masculine plural construct
forest	הַיַּ֖עַר hai.Ya.'ar	H3293	a copse of bushes · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
iron	בַּבַּרְזֶ֑ל ba.bar.Zel	H1270	iron (as cutting) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Lebanon	וְהַלְּבָנ֖וֹן ve.ha.le.va.Non	H3844	Lebanon · conjunction + definite article + proper noun, a place name
fall	יִפּֽוֹל yi.Pol	H5307	to fall · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
one	בְּאַדִּ֥יר be.'a.Dir	H117	wide or (generally) large · preposition + adjective, masculine singular absolute

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

Isaiah 37:24 By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, t…
Psalms 103:20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Isaiah 10:18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer faintet…
Isaiah 31:8 Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from…
Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose…
Jeremiah 22:7 And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fi…
Jeremiah 46:22-23 The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
Jeremiah 48:2 There shall be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also t…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 10:24–end

The prophet, in his preaching, distinguishes between the precious and the vile; for God in his providence, even in the same providence, does so. He speaks terror, in Sennacherib's invasion, to the hypocrites, who were the people of God's wrath, Isa 10:6. But here he speaks comfort to the sincere, who were the people of God's love. The judgment was sent for the sake of the former; the deliverance was wrought for the sake of the latter. Here we have, I. An exhortation to God's people not to be frightened at this threatening calamity, nor to be put into any confusion or consternation by it. Let the sinners in Zion be afraid (Isa 33:14): but O my people, that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of t…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 10:34

This verse and Isa 10:33 describe the sudden arrest and overthrow of Sennacherib in the height of his success; Isa 10:18-19; Eze 31:3, Eze 31:14, &c., contain the same image; "Lebanon" and its forest are the Assyrian army; the "iron" axe that fells the forest refers to the stroke which destroyed the one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians (Kg2 19:35). The "Mighty One" is Jehovah (Isa 10:21; Isa 9:6). From the local and temporary national deliverance the prophet passes by the law of suggestion in an easy transition to the end of all prophecy--the everlasting deliverance under Messiah's reign, not merely His first coming, but chiefly His second coming. The language and illustrations ar…

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John Gill on Isaiah 10:34

And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,.... The multitude of the common soldiers, the whole body of the army, by means of one of his angels, that excel in strength, for which he is compared to "iron"; and which is explained in the next clause: and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one; the Assyrian army is compared to the forest of Lebanon, for the multitude of trees in it, and the tallness of its cedars, it abounding not only with common soldiers, but with great men; so it is compared to a forest, and to Carmel, or a fruitful field, in Isaiah 10:18 and the Assyrian monarch is said to be a cedar in Lebanon, Ezekiel 31:3 which fell by the hands of one of the mighty angels, 2…

The Church Fathers

In this instance Lebanon means Jerusalem … which the Word warns will fall with all of the men of greatness and glory.
— Eusebius of Caesarea, PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 2:3

In this instance the birth of Christ from the seed of Jesse and David is joined with the destruction of Lebanon and the call of the Gentiles.
— Eusebius of Caesarea, PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 8:4

[God spoke] of the branches (thickets), not the root. When the measure of the people's sins was complete, John came and took up the roots of their trees. "For the ax is laid to the roots of the trees," [the roots] which Isaiah had left [untouched]. When will this be, if not at the rising forth of the true One, who was designated by the [image of] the staff and the shoot, and upon whom rests the Spirit, who is referred to as being sevenfold.
— Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON 3:15

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Assyria — The name derived from the city Asshur on the Tigris, the original capital of the country, was originally a colony from Babylonia, and was ruled by viceroys from that kingdom. It was a mountainous…
Axe — Used in the Authorized Version of Deut. 19:5; 20:19; 1 Kings 6:7, as the translation of a Hebrew word which means “chopping.” It was used for felling trees (Isa. 10:34) and hewing timber for…
Iron — Tubal-Cain is the first-mentioned worker in iron (Gen. 4:22). The Egyptians wrought it at Sinai before the Exodus. David prepared it in great abundance for the temple (1 Chr. 22:3: 29:7). The…
Assyria · Prophecies concerning — Prophecies concerning
Cedar, The · Illustrative of: Arrogant rulers — Illustrative of: Arrogant rulers
Iron · Ax — Ax
Lebanon · Illustrative: Of great and powerful monarchs — Illustrative: Of great and powerful monarchs
Trees · Often suffered from: Desolating armies — Often suffered from: Desolating armies

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).

Isaiah 10:34

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 10:24–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 10:34

John Gill on Isaiah 10:34

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Isaiah 10:34

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 10:24–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 10:34

John Gill on Isaiah 10:34

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Isaiah 10:34–end

Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 10:28–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Isaiah 10:28-34

Rashi on Isaiah 10:34