But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
But they know not the thoughts of the Lord. Their unsearchable wisdom and inexhaustible love, overruling seeming disaster to the final good of His people, is the very ground on which the restoration of Israel hereafter (of which the restoration from Babylon is a type) is based in Isaiah 55:8, (cf. with Micah 4:3; Micah 4:12-13, which prove that Israel-not merely the Christian Church-is the ultimate subject of the prophecy; also in Romans 11:33, where Paul had been speaking of the coming salvation of "all Israel," and adds that herein is exhibited God's unsearchable judgments - "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!") God's counsel is to discipline His people for a time with the foe as a scourge; and then to destroy the foe by the hands of His people.
For he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor - them who "gathered" themselves for Zion's destruction (Micah 4:11), the Lord "shall gather" for destruction by Zion (Micah 4:13, "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion"), like sheaves gathered to be threshed (cf. Isaiah 21:10, "O my threshing, and the grain of my floor;" Jeremiah 51:33). The Hebrew is singular, 'sheaf.' However great the numbers of the foe, they are all but as one sheaf ready to be threshed (Calvin). Threshing was done by treading with the feet: hence, the propriety of the image for treading underfoot and breaking asunder the foe.