Therefore shall the Lord, &c.— The punishment decreed for the Assyrian, and mentioned in the 12th verse, is here more fully set forth. This passage is easy to be understood, if the prophesy be compared with the completion: read only chap. Isaiah 37:36 and 2 Kings 19:35; Exodus 19:37 and you will find that our prophet sets before your eyes, in the most lively colours, rather a history, than a prediction of the event. The emphasis of this passage consists in the elegance of the metaphors. The first is taken from a leanness, or consumption, which destroys the fat, and utterly mars the beauty of the human form; and which well describes that terrible plague that destroyed the flower of the Assyrian host. The second is taken from a fire, devouring the army in a short time, as a burning fire reduces combustible matter to ashes. The glory of the Assyrian here means his army. See chap. Isaiah 8:7. This fire was to be kindled by the light of Israel, &c. Isaiah 10:17. The meaning whereof is, that God himself, by the ministry of his angels, would effect the destruction of the Assyrian army without any human aid. The prophet here evidently alludes to that light of Israel, which led them out of Egypt. See Exodus 13:21. The third metaphor is taken from thorns and briers; which also refers to the Assyrian army; and the metaphors continued in the subsequent verses seem to express farther the future destruction, not only of Nineveh, but of the then flourishing Assyrian empire. The words rendered both soul and body, are, without all doubt, proverbial, and imply the whole glory of the Assyrian empire. Vitringa would render the next clause, And they shall be as the dissolution of one running away; as much as to say, that the army of the Assyrians should faint and melt away, like the heart of a man flying from extreme danger. Schultens renders it, And he shall be as when flesh, roasting in the fire, melts away. The expression in the 19th verse in the original is elegant: The trees of his forest shall be a number; that is, a small remnant of inconsiderable people. So the Romans say, nos numerus sumus. See Vitringa.
Related Commentaries of Isaiah 10:16
Isaiah 10:16-19
16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth.
19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few,f that a child may write them.