Isaías 10

Isaías 10

Barnes comments that... The widow and the orphan are without protectors. Judges, by their office, are particularly bound to preserve their rights; and it, therefore, evinces peculiar iniquity when they who should be their protectors become, in fact, their oppressors, and do injustice to them without the possibility of redress. Yet this was the character of the Jewish judges; and for this the vengeance of Heaven was about to come upon the land. (Isaiah 10 Commentary) Isaiah 10:3 Now what will you do in the day of punishment, and in the devastation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your wealth?: what: Isa 20:6 33:14 Job 31:14 Jer 5:31 Eze 24:13,14 Rev 6:15,16 day: Isa 26:21 Ho 9:7 Lk 19:44 1Pe 2:12 devastation: Isa 5:26 30:27,28 39:3,6,7 Dt 28:49 to whom: Isa 30:1-3,16 31:1-3 Ho 5:13 where: Isa 2:20,21 5:14 Ge 31:1 2Ki 7:6-8,15 Ps 49:16,17 Pr 11:4 Zep 1:18 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Now what will you do in the day of punishment - The first of a series of rhetorical questions each calling for a negative reply. Isaiah addressing the wicked leaders directly warns them that the day of reckoning ("judgment day") cannot be averted or avoided. This series of questions clearly imply that the calamity would be so great that there would be no refuge, or escape. The day of punishment is translated by some versions as “the day of visitation” (KJV) which is the day when God arrives to execute justice (cp Job 31:14; 35:15) in the form of Assyrian oppression for the oppressors of the poor and needy. The Pulpit Commentary notes that... The day of visitation is the day when God reckons with his servants, and demands an account from each of the work done in his vineyard, being prepared to recompense the good and punish the bad (comp. Hos. 9:7). It is oftenest used in a bad sense because, unhappily, so many more are found to deserve punishment than reward. The devastation which will come from afar - The punishment threatened is desolation by a foreign foe. Things might seem to be just fine in the land of Ephraim, but that belied the truth that an outside foe would soon wreak havoc. God is not mocked and what Israel had sown was soon to be reaped (Gal 6:7-note, Gal 6:8-note). Devastation (07722) (so'ah - feminine form) means ruin, desolation or devastation, which can be sudden or unexpected (as something crashing - Cheyne calls it "the crashing ruin") such as the arrival of a disastrous storm (so'ah = "storm" in Ezek 38:9). It describes that which is laid waste by plundering or destroying and implies a complete ruin of the affected area. In Zeph 1:15, this word describes the dreadful Day of the Lord. The storms of war were stirring and would soon sweep over the Northern Kingdom (722BC). This prediction is not just desolation but describes sudden, and complete destruction. So'ah - 12v in the KJV = desolation 5, destruction 3, desolate 2, destroy 1, storm 1, wasteness 1 Job 30:3, 14; 38:27; Ps 35:8, 17; 63:9; Pr 1:27; 3:25; Isa 10:3; 47:11; Ezek 38:9; Zeph 1:15. From afar - Refers to the Assyrian Empire which were well known in the ancient world as some of most violent and savage forces that had ever been know. For example in Wikipedia we read that some of their acts of brutality included... rape, mutilating men until death, placing heads, arms, hands and even lower lips on the conquered city's walls, skulls and noses atop stakes. Alternatively these could also be piled up or even their corpses cut up and fed to the dogs. On some occasions, people were blinded so that as they wandered throughout the land they would speak of Assyrian terrors and demoralize the local population. (Military history of the Assyrian Empire) Boyd describes the brutality of the Assyrians... The Assyrian Kingdom became one of Israel’ s mightiest, most brutal foes. It was a nation with the highest culture, a highly formal religion, and skilled in the crafts and arts of mankind, but was unmercifully cruel in its punishment of its enemies. Their acts were atrocious. King Ashurnasirpal (883–859 BC) was its great leader of expansion. His armies of bowmen, spearmen, slingers, cavalry and charioteers made up one of the most feared and dreaded units of military might of that day. Such was what the prophet Nahum had in mind (Nah 2:3, 4; 3:2, 3). Ashurnasirpal described his dealings with a certain city he had conquered as follows: “Six hundred of their warriors I put to the sword; 3000 captives I burned with fire; I left not a single one among them alive to serve as a hostage. Kholai, their governor, I captured alive. Their corpses I piled into heaps; their men and maidens I burned in the fire; Khulai, their governor, I flayed and his skin I spread upon the wall of the city of Damdamusa; the city I destroyed, I ravaged, I burned with fire.” (Assyrian Brutality -- By Bob Boyd) To whom will you flee for help? - Another rhetorical question calling for a negative reply. There will be no one to rescue or defend from the foreign foe. They had sown the rotten seeds of failing to help the helpless and would reap their bitter harvest of helplessness in the face of the onslaught of the notoriously brutal Assyrian forces. The ESV Study Bible has an interesting note that "Corrupt wealth buys helplessness." There is a tragic irony for the only Refuge is the very One Who brought the devastation through His instrument Assyria.