Matthew Henry on Isaiah 30:27–end
This terrible prediction of the ruin of the Assyrian army, though it is a threatening to them, is part of the promise to the Israel of God, that God would not only punish the Assyrians for the mischief they had done to the Israel of God, but would disable and deter them from doing the like again; and this prediction, which would now shortly be accomplished, would ratify and confirm the foregoing promises, which should be accomplished in the latter days. Here is,
I. God Almighty angry, and coming forth in anger against the Assyrians. He is here introduced in all the power and all the terror of his wrath, Isa 30:27. The name of Jehovah, which the Assyrians disdain and set at a distance from th…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 30:28
(Isa 11:4; Th2 2:8).
reach . . . neck--the most extreme danger; yet as the head, or capital of Judah, was to be spared (Isa 8:8), so the head, or sovereign of Assyria, Sennacherib, should escape.
sieve of vanity--Rather, "the winnowing fan of destruction" [LOWTH] (Isa 41:16).
bridle in . . . jaws--as prisoners are represented in the Assyrian inscriptions (Isa 37:29).
causing . . . to err-- (Isa 63:17). "People," Hebrew, "peoples," namely, the various races composing the Assyrian armies (Isa 5:26).
John Gill on Isaiah 30:28
And his breath as an overflowing stream,.... Which comes with great swiftness and force, bearing all before it, breathing out nothing but the fire of divine wrath, before which there is no standing; nor could the Assyrian army stand before it, but suddenly, in a moment, was carried away with the force of it: thus our Lord will consume the man of sin with the spirit or breath of his mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of his coming, 2 Thessalonians 2:8, and this stream
shall reach to the midst of the neck; which shows the extreme danger the army would be in, as a man that is up to the neck in water, and can find no way of escaping; and very aptly represents their state and condition,…
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