Chapter Isaiah 10:1-4 The Fourth Chastisement. Bad Leadership, Rank Injustice, and Captivity (Isaiah 10:1-4).
Analysis.
· Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write trouble (Isaiah 10:1).
· To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right of the poor of my people (Isaiah 10:2 a).
· That widows may be their spoil, and that they might make the fatherless their prey (Isaiah 10:2 b).
· ‘And what will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from far? (Isaiah 10:3 a).
· To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory? (Isaiah 10:3 b).
· ‘Nothing remains but that each has bowed down (cringed) under the prisoners, and they will fall under the slain. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still (Isaiah 10:4).
In ‘a' the leaders make unrighteous decrees and their underlings write them in such a way as to cause trouble, and in the parallel they are humbled even below the prisoners, and fall as the slain. In ‘b' they had betrayed the needy, but in the parallel they themselves will become needy with none to help. In ‘c' they spoiled the widows and preyed on the fatherless, and in the parallel they themselves will become a prey and be spoiled'
Note that Isaiah 10:1-4 continues the theme of Isaiah 9:8-21, and of chapter 5.
‘Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees,
And to the writers who write trouble.
To turn aside the needy from judgment,
And to take away the right of the poor of my people,
That widows may be their spoil,
and that they might make the fatherless their prey.'
God's woe is now threatened against the new leadership that has taken over and are worse than the old. They have no regard for justice or for the weak. They issue unfair decrees, and their administrators write them down in terms that will only cause trouble. And the purpose is so as to prevent the needy from obtaining justice, and to take away people's rights, especially those of the defenceless. Thus the widows and fatherless, those with no strong arm to defend them, will be despoiled and become victims. Having been given power these leaders are determined to use it to wring as much out of people as possible, especially out of those who cannot defend themselves. The needy are here in deliberate contrast with those who make decrees, and the poor in deliberate contrast with those who articulate the decrees. It is a clear case of ‘us' and ‘them'.
‘And what will you do in the day of visitation,
And in the desolation which will come from far?
To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your glory?'
But these very leaders need to consider the fact that God sees what they do and will pay them a visit. He will exact the justice that they have failed to deliver. And He will do it by bringing from afar one who will wreak desolation among them. This is clearly a reference to the king of Assyria and his forces.
‘Where then will you flee for help?' They have made it impossible for the poor to find help, but now it will turn on their own heads. They too will find themselves with no one to go to, nowhere to go for help. They will be left to face their troubles alone.
‘Where will you leave your glory?' Their ‘glory' is what they have built up for themselves including wealth and status. All that they have will be lost, position, prestige, wealth, all their glory will be lost, they will have nowhere for it to be preserved and kept safely.
‘Nothing remains but that each has bowed down (cringed) under the prisoners,
And they will fall under the slain.'
The end result is that they, who fleeced others and paraded themselves over them, will be left with nowhere to go. They who paraded themselves will each bow down and cringe as the least of the prisoners, and many of them will fall among the slain. ‘Under' seems to indicate humiliation and loss of status. There will be prisoners and there will be slain, and they will be the least among them.
Note the use of the two tenses. Each speaks of the future, but the perfect specifies the certainty and completeness of the humiliation of each one in the future, while the imperfect expresses the normal more general indefiniteness of what will happen and when. Not all will be slain.
‘For all this his anger is not turned away,
But his hand is stretched out still.'
Even yet God's anger is still not assuaged. There remains the final judgment, the total cessation of Israel as a nation.
(Note. It is of interest that the ‘Woe' here would fit with the ‘woes' of chapter 5 to make a seventh woe, and that part of chapter 5 fits into the pattern here, with the repetition, ‘For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.' If the transpositions did take place, and it is by no means certain, we have no reason to doubt that they were deliberate, and therefore the final message of the book is as we find it here. The Davidic promises have been set as a gleam of light within the woes. End of note).