Isaiah 30:27-33 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

If this is the work of Isaiah, it describes the overthrow of Assyria. The description is very vigorous, and some feel that the loud colours are dashed on too violently to make Isaiah's authorship probable. And the zest with which the disaster is painted is thought to be unworthy of him. But these reasons are far from cogent. Yahweh comes like the dense thunder-cloud from the far horizon, from which the devastating lightning will leap, while torrential rain floods the land. The nations will be passed through the sieve till they are destroyed, and will be guided in the way of ruin. While the Assyrians are being overthrown the Jews are exultant, as when they sing their song by night at the Feast of Tabernacles (or perhaps Passover), or as when they go in procession to the Temple. For Yahweh's voice shall peal out in thunder, while the lightnings flash, the clouds burst, and the hail descends, and the Assyrian is seized with panic. A funeral pyre has been prepared for the hosts of the Assyrian dead, vast in extent, burning fiercely at the blast of Yahweh's breath.

Isaiah 30:27. the name: for primitive thought the name was an essential part of the personality (Genesis 32:27 *). The name of Yahweh in the OT usually means Yahweh in His self-revealing aspect; just as the name manifests the nature, so Yahweh's action discloses His character

Isaiah 30:32. Unintelligible (see CB 2).

Isaiah 30:33. Topheth: Jeremiah 7:31 *, and note on that passage in Cent.B. for the king: either the king of Assyria or Molech.

Related Commentaries of Isaiah 30:27

Isaiah 30:27-33

27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burdeng thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.

30 And the LORD shall cause his glorioush voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.

32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.

33 For Tophet is ordained of old;i yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.