And the rest of the trees ... - Keeping up still the image of a large and once dense forest, to which he had likened the Assyrian army. ‘The rest’ here means that which shall be left after the threatened judgment shall come upon them.
That a child may write them - That a child shall be able to number them, or write their names; that is, they shall be very few. A child can number or count but few; yet the number of those who would be left, would be so very small that even a child could count them with ease. It is probable that a few of the army of Sennacherib escaped (see the note at Isaiah 37:37); and compared with the whole army, the remnant might bear a striking resemblance to the few decaying trees of a once magnificent forest of cedars.