Isaiah 10:25

For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) The indignation shall cease . . .—The “indignation” is the wrath of Jehovah poured out upon His people. That wrath is to cease, and His anger shall be for the destruction of their enemies.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 10:25-26. For yet a very little while, &c. — Here the prophet proceeds to assign the reasons why the Lord would not have his people to fear the Assyrians, because, in a short time, he would take vengeance upon them, and that in a very singular and extraordinary manner, as he did upon the Midianites and Egyptians: the consequence of which would be the removal of the yoke now imposed, or to be imposed upon them. The indignation — My displeasure at my people, which is the rod and staff in their hand, Isaiah 10:5; shall cease — And, when it ceaseth, they will be disarmed, and disabled from doing any farther mischief. And mine anger in their destruction — Hebrew, על תבליתם, upon, or, with their destruction, as Dr. Waterland properly renders the words, namely, the destruction of the Assyrians. The enemy that threatens and afflicts God’s people, shall himself be reckoned with and punished. The rod wherewith God corrected them shall not only be laid aside, but put into the fire, and it shall appear by its destruction that his anger is turned away from them. The reader will recollect that, upon the destruction of the Assyrian army, the calamities wherewith God had chastised his people in a great measure ceased, at least for a time. The Lord of hosts — Who is well able; shall stir up a scourge for him — He lifted up his staff against Zion; and God will now lift up a scourge for him: he was a terror to God’s people, and God will be a terror to him. The destroying angel shall be his scourge, which he can neither flee from nor contend with. According to the slaughter of Midian — Whom God slew suddenly and unexpectedly in the night. At the rock of Oreb — Upon which one of their chief princes was slain, and nigh unto which the Midianites were destroyed. And as his rod was upon the sea — To divide it, and make way for thy deliverance, and for the destruction of the Egyptians. So shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt — As he did in Egypt, to bring his plagues upon that land and people. Thus the prophet, for the encouragement of God’s people, quotes precedents, and puts them in mind of what God had done formerly against the enemies of his church, who were very strong and formidable, but were brought to ruin. Respecting the last clause of this verse, “I think,” says Bishop Lowth, “there is a designed ambiguity in these words. Sennacherib, soon after his return from his Egyptian expedition, which, I imagine, took him up three years, invested Jerusalem. He is represented by the prophet as lifting up his rod, in his march from Egypt, and threatening the people of God, as Pharaoh and the Egyptians had done, when they pursued them to the Red sea. But God, in his turn, will lift up his rod, as he did at that time over the sea, in the way, or, after the manner of Egypt: and as Sennacherib had imitated the Egyptians in his threats, and came full of rage against them from the same quarter; so God will act over again the same part that he had taken formerly in Egypt, and overthrow their enemies in as signal a manner.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:20-34 By our afflictions we may learn not to make creatures our confidence. Those only can with comfort stay upon God, who return to him in truth, not in pretence and profession only. God will justly bring this wasting away on a provoking people, but will graciously set bounds to it. It is against the mind and will of God, that his people, whatever happens, should give way to fear. God's anger against his people is but for a moment; and when that is turned from us, we need not fear the fury of man. The rod with which he corrected his people, shall not only be laid aside, but thrown into the fire. To encourage God's people, the prophet puts them in mind of what God had formerly done against the enemies of his church. God's people shall be delivered from the Assyrians. Some think it looks to the deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity; and further yet, to the redemption of believers from the tyranny of sin and Satan. And this, because of the anointing; for his people Israel's sake, the believers among them that had received the unction of Divine grace. And for the sake of the Messiah, the Anointed of God. Here is, ver. 28-34, a prophetical description of Sennacherib's march towards Jerusalem, when he threatened to destroy that city. Then the Lord, in whom Hezekiah trusted, cut down his army like the hewing of a forest. Let us apply what is here written, to like matters in other ages of the church of Christ. Because of the anointing of our great Redeemer, the yoke of every antichrist must be broken from off his church: and if our souls partake of the unction of the Holy Spirit, complete and eternal deliverances will be secured to us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For yet a very little while - This is designed to console them with the hope of deliverance. The threatened invasion was brief and was soon ended by the pestilence that swept off the greater part of the army of the Assyrian.

The indignation shall cease - The anger of God against his offending people shall come to an end; his purposes of chastisement shall be completed; and the land shall be delivered.

In their destruction - על־תבליתם ‛al-tabelı̂ytām from בלה bâlâh, to wear out; to consume; to be annihilated. It means here, that his anger would terminate in the entire annihilation of their power to injure them. Such was the complete overthrow of Sennacherib by the pestilence; 2 Kings 19:35. The word used here, occurs in this form in no other place in the Hebrew Bible, though the verb is used, and other forms of the noun. "The verb," Deuteronomy 7:4; Deuteronomy 29:5; Joshua 9:13; Nehemiah 9:21, ..."Nouns," Ezekiel 23:43; Isaiah 38:17; Jeremiah 38:11-12; Isaiah 17:14, et al.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. For—Be not afraid (Isa 10:24), for, &c.

indignation … cease—The punishments of God against Israel shall be consummated and ended (Isa 26:20; Da 11:36). "Till the indignation be accomplished," &c.

mine anger—shall turn to their (the Assyrians') destruction.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The indignation; mine anger, as it is explained in the next clause; either,

1. Towards my people; which shall weaken the Assyrian, whose great strength lay there; of which see above, Isaiah 10:5. Or,

2. Towards the Assyrian, with whom God was very angry, Isaiah 10:12, &c., yea, so angry, as not to be satisfied without their destruction, as it follows.

Shall cease; as anger commonly doth, when vengeance is fully executed.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For yet a very little while,.... Within a few days; for in a very short time after Sennacherib was come up against Jerusalem his army was destroyed by an angel:

and the indignation shall cease; the indignation of the Lord against his people Israel, shown by bringing the Assyrian monarch against them, of which he was the staff or instrument, Isaiah 10:5,

and mine anger in their destruction; not in the destruction of the Jews, but the Assyrians: the sense is, that the anger of God towards the people of the Jews for the present should be discontinued, when the Assyrian army was destroyed. The Targum is,

"for yet a very little while, and the curses shall cease from you of the house of Jacob; and mine anger shall be upon the people that work iniquity, to destroy them;''

that is, the Assyrians.

Geneva Study Bible

For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - The indignation shall cease; rather, there shall be an end of wrath; i.e. "my wrath against Israel shall come to an end" - Israel having been sufficiently punished. And mine auger in their destruction; rather, and my anger shall be to their destruction; i.e. to the destruction of the Assyrians (see the margin of the Revised Version). Isaiah 10:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A still further reason is given for the elevating words, with a resumption of the grounds of consolation upon which they were founded. "For yet a very little the indignation is past, and my wrath turns to destroy them: and Jehovah of hosts moves the whip over it, as He smote Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff stretches out over the sea, and He lifts it up in the manner of Egypt." The expression "a very little" (as in Isaiah 16:14; Isaiah 29:17) does not date from the actual present, when the Assyrian oppressions had not yet begun, but from the ideal present, when they were threatening Israel with destruction. The indignation of Jehovah would then suddenly come to an end (câlâh za‛am, borrowed in Daniel 11:36, and to be interpreted in accordance with Isaiah 26:20); and the wrath of Jehovah would be, or go, ‛al-tabilthâm. Luzzatto recommends the following emendation of the text, יתּם על־תּבל ואפּי, "and my wrath against the world will cease," tēbēl being used, as in Isaiah 14:17, with reference to the oikoumenon as enslaved by the imperial power. But the received text gives a better train of thought, if we connect it with Isaiah 10:26. We must not be led astray, however, by the preposition ‛al, and take the words as meaning, My wrath (burneth) over the destruction inflicted by Asshur upon the people of God, or the destruction endured by the latter. It is to the destruction of the Assyrians that the wrath of Jehovah is now directed; ‛al being used, as it frequently is, to indicate the object upon which the eye is fixed, or to which the intention points (Psalm 32:8; Psalm 18:42). With this explanation Isaiah 10:25 leads on to Isaiah 10:26. The destruction of Asshur is predicted there in two figures drawn from occurrences in the olden time. The almighty Judge would swing the whip over Asshur (‛orer, agitare, as in 2 Samuel 23:18), and smite it, as Midian was once smitten. The rock of Oreb is the place where the Ephraimites slew the Midianitish king 'Oreb (Judges 7:25). His staff would then be over the sea, i.e., would be stretched out, like the wonder-working staff of Moses, over the sea of affliction, into which the Assyrians had driven Israel (yâm, the sea, an emblem borrowed from the type; see Kohler on Zechariah 10:11, cf., Psalm 66:6); and He would lift it up, commanding the waves of the sea, so that they would swallow Asshur. "In the manner of Egypt:" b'derek Mitzraim (according to Luzzatto in both instances, "on the way to Egypt," which restricts the Assyrian bondage in a most unhistorical manner to the time of the Egyptian campaign) signifies in Isaiah 10:24, as the Egyptians lifted it up; but here, as it was lifted up above the Egyptians. The expression is intentionally conformed to that in Isaiah 10:24 : because Asshur had lifted up the rod over Israel in the Egyptian manner, Jehovah would lift it up over Asshur in the Egyptian manner also.