Isaiah — Chapter 10

Woe to them that make wicked laws: and when they write, write injustice. Judah's unjust legislators and scribes under Achaz: they pervert justice for widows and orphans, making the law an instrument of oppression. Lapide applies this to corrupt prelates and princes who legislate against the poor.

What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity which cometh from afar? The 'day of visitation' = Sennacherib's invasion as God's chastisement. The corrupt judges will have no refuge, no glory to cling to — they will go into captivity or fall by the sword.

Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my indignation, and my fury is in their hands. God speaks: Sennacherib is His rod of punishment — a tool consciously used for chastisement of Judah but not aware that he serves God's design. Lapide's key principle: God uses evil instruments to punish other evils, without Himself being the author of the instrument's malice.

But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not think so: but his heart shall be to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few. Sennacherib exceeds his mandate: God sent him to chastise, but he intends extermination. This excess of cruelty will become the ground of his punishment. Lapide: all tyrants exceed the limits God assigns them; hence Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, and ultimately the devil himself will be judged for their excess.

And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed all his work in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, I will visit upon the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria. When God finishes using Sennacherib as His instrument (i.e., after the siege of Jerusalem), He will turn to punish Sennacherib's pride. Fulfilled when the Angel of the Lord struck 185,000 Assyrians in one night (4 Kgs.19:35).

Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? The key image of the chapter: Sennacherib is merely an axe or saw in God's hands; the instrument cannot glorify itself against the craftsman. All human power is instrumental and derivative. Lapide: the same applies to those who persist in attributing their successes to their own natural gifts.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean no more upon him that striketh them: but they shall lean upon the Lord. After Sennacherib's defeat, the remnant of Israel will trust in God rather than in Egypt or Assyria. This has a secondary fulfillment: the Apostolic remnant of believing Jews (Acts 1-5) who received Christ. Paul quotes v.22 in Rom.9:27: 'Though the number of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant shall be saved.'

Si fuerit populus tuus Israel quasi arena maris, reliquiae convertentur ex eo

Though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of it will return — the remnant theology that Paul (Rom 9:27-28) applies to the mystery of Jewish election and rejection. Of the millions of Jews, only a remnant believed in Christ; yet that remnant (Mary, the Apostles, the 3,000 of Pentecost, Paul himself) was the true Israel and the seed of the Church. Lapide reads this as both consolation and warning: God's election is not racial but spiritual; the unfaithful mass is as negligible as sand; the faithful few are the true 'Israel of God' (Gal 6:16).

Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: Be not afraid, my people who dwellest in Sion, of the Assyrian: he shall strike thee with his rod. God comforts Jerusalem: Sennacherib will strike but not conquer. The blow is medicinal, like the yoke of Egypt (v.24b), but only temporary; God's indignation will quickly pass.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall putrefy at the presence of the oil. The Assyrian yoke will rot from the anointing/oil — interpreted as (1) Hezekiah's anointing (kingship); (2) the anointing of Christ (chrism), who breaks every tyrannical yoke.

He is come to Aiath, he hath passed through Magron: at Machmas he hath given the order to his carriages. Vivid geographical and military description of Sennacherib's march through Benjaminite towns to Jerusalem, with the towns thrown into terror one by one. The march is stopped suddenly (vv.33-34) by God's felling of the mighty cedars — the Angel's sudden destruction of the Assyrian army.

Behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall break the earthen vessel with terror, and the tall of stature shall be cut down, and the haughty shall be humbled. The cedar-felling metaphor: Sennacherib's great army (=tall cedars of Lebanon) suddenly cut down by God. Fulfilled by the Angel's single-night destruction. Applied allegorically: all who boast in their stature, learning, and power will be humbled by God.

Et Libanus cum excelsis cadet

And Lebanon with its lofty ones shall fall — the great cedar-forest of Lebanon, symbol of worldly greatness, pride, and power (the Assyrian Empire with its mighty army). Christ, the 'shoot from the stump of Jesse' (ch.11:1), rises precisely as Lebanon falls: the kingdom of the world, proud and mighty, is felled, and from the humble stump of David's humbled house springs the Messianic King. Lapide connects this with the pattern of the Magnificat: 'he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly.'