Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 10:17
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;
And the light of Israel – That is, Yahweh. The word light here, ‘or, is used also to denote a fire, or that which causes light and heat; see Eze 5:2; Isa 44:16; Isa 47:14. Here it is used in the same sense, denoting that Yahweh would be the fire ‘or that would cause the flame ( ‘esh) which would consume the Assyrian. Jehovah is often compared to a burning flame, or fire; Deu 4:24; Deu 9:3; Heb 12:29.
Shall be for a fire – By his power and his judgment he shall destroy them.
His Holy One – Israels Holy One; that is, Yahweh – often called in the Scriptures the Holy One of Israel.
And it shall burn – That is, the flame that Yahweh shall kindle, or his judgments that he shall send forth.
And devour his thorns and his briers – An expression denoting the utter impotency of all the mighty armies of the Assyrian to resist Yahweh. As dry thorns and briers cannot resist the action of heat, so certainly and speedily would the armies of Sennacherib be destroyed before Yahweh; compare the note at Isa 9:18. Lowth supposes, that by briers and thorns here, the common soldiers of the army are intended, and by the glory of his forest Isa 10:18, the princes, officers, and nobles. This is, doubtless, the correct interpretation; and the idea is, that all would be completely consumed and destroyed.
In one day – The army of Sennacherib was suddenly destroyed by the angel; see the notes at Isa 37:36.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 10:17
And the light of Israel shall be for a fire
The light of Israel
A name of Jehovah, who was represented by the Shekinah glory.
(B. Blake, B. D.)
The collapse of the Assyrian enterprise
Isaiahs genius supplies him with a splendid figure under which to depict the collapse of the Assyrian enterprise. The serried battalions of Assyria appear to his imagination as the trees of some huge forest, irresistible in their strength and countless in their number; but the Light of Israel kindles majestically into a flame; and at the end of a single day a child may count them. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. And it shall burn and devour his thorns – “And he shall burn and consume his thorn.”] The briers and thorns are the common people; the glory of his forest are the nobles and those of highest rank and importance. See Clarke on Isa 9:17, and compare Eze 20:47. The fire of God’s wrath shall destroy them, both great and small; it shall consume them from the soul to the flesh; a proverbial expression; soul and body, as we say; it shall consume them entirely and altogether; and the few that escape shall be looked upon as having escaped from the most imminent danger; “as a firebrand plucked out of the fire,” Am 4:11; , so as by fire, 1Co 3:15; as a man when a house is burning is forced to make his escape by running through the midst of the fire.
I follow here the reading of the Septuagint, kemash noses, , as he who flees from the burning flame. Symmachus also renders the latter word by , flying.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The light of Israel, that God who is and will be a comfortable light to his people,
shall be for a fire to the Assyrians who shall have heat without light, as it is in hell.
His thorns and briers; his vast army, which is no more able to resist God, than dry thorns and briers are to oppose the fire which is kindled among them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17, 18. light of Israelcarryingout the image in the end of Isa10:16. Jehovah, who is a light to Israel,shall be the “fire” (Deu 4:24;Heb 12:29) that shall ignite the”thorns,” (the Assyrians, like dry fuel, a ready prey toflame).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the light of Israel shall be for a fire,…. That is, the Lord, who is the light of his people; who enlightens them by his word and Spirit, and by his grace effectually calls them out of darkness into marvellous light, to the light of grace here, and to the light of glory hereafter; and who comforts and refreshes them with his gracious presence, and with the light of his countenance when in affliction and distress, which is sometimes signified by darkness; and the same Lord, who is as light to his people, and gives light and comfort to them, is as a consuming fire to others:
and his Holy One for a flame; that is, the Holy One of Israel, the God of Israel, who is holy in himself, and the sanctifier of others; the Syriac version reads, “his Holy Ones”: so Jarchi observes it as the sense of some, that the righteous of that generation are meant; the Targum is,
“and there shall be the Lord, the light of Israel, and his Holy One; and his word strong as fire, and his word as a flame;”
see Jer 23:29 so Jarchi interprets it of the law Hezekiah studied:
and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; the Targum interprets it, his rulers and governors; and so Jarchi, his princes and mighty men; the chief in the Assyrian army, called briers and thorns, because mischievous and hurtful, and caused grief; but rather the multitude of the common soldiers is designed, who were all destroyed in one night, 2Ki 19:35 by an angel; who, according to Aben Ezra, is the light and Holy One of Israel here spoken of.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“And the light of Israel becomes a fire, and His Holy One a flame; and it sets on fire and devours its thistles and thorns on one day.” God is fire (Deu 9:3), and light (1Jo 1:5); and in His own self-life the former is resolved into the latter. Kadosh (holy) is here parallel to ‘or (light); for the fact that God is holy, and the fact that He is pure light, are essentially one and the same thing, whether kadash meant originally to be pure or to be separate. The nature of all creatures, and of the whole cosmos, is a mixture of light and darkness. The nature of God alone is absolute light. But light is love. In this holy light of love He has given Himself up to Israel, and taken Israel to Himself. But He has also within Him a basis of fire, which sin excites against itself, and which was about to burst forth as a flaming fire of wrath against Asshur, on account of its sins against Him and His people. Before this fire of wrath, this destructive might of His penal righteousness, the splendid forces of Asshur were nothing but a mass of thistles and a bed of thorns (written here in the reverse order peculiar to Isaiah, shamr vashaith ), equally inflammable, and equally deserving to be burned. To all appearance, it was a forest and a park, but is was irrecoverably lost.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
17. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire. There is an elegant allusion to that burning by which he threatened that he would consume the Assyrians. In fire there are two things, light and heat. As the Lord consumes the enemies by his heat, so he enlightens the godly by his light. It is very customary that God is sometimes called a devouring fire, (Deu 4:24,) and sometimes, in a different point of view, he is called light, (Isa 60:20; Mic 7:8,) because his power produces contrary effects on the godly and the ungodly. When he shines on the godly, he imparts life and nourishment to them, but he consumes and destroys the ungodly. In a word, while he threatens destruction to the Assyrians, he likewise brings comfort to the godly; and he does so in two ways, first, because they will see that God revenges the injuries which they have received, and, secondly, that they will be cheered by his light, and will thus receive a new life.
And his Holy One for a flame. What that light is he states plainly, and without a metaphor, when he adds, his Holy One, so that it is unnecessary to make a more lengthened exposition. The meaning is, that he determines to protect that people which he hath chosen, and which he hath separated from the rest of the nations to be a peculiar people to himself.
And it shall devour its thorns and briers in one day. He now shows that the favor of God, which shines in Israel, will be like a fire to consume enemies. In one day means, that he will burn them with a sudden and unexpected conflagration. It denotes an uncommon and dreadful burning, which usually overtakes the wicked suddenly, when they think that all is well with them, and that danger is at a great distance. He next shows that, whatever defences they may put forth, they will be like tow, which, as soon as it is set on fire, will instantly be consumed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(17) And the light of Israel shall be for a fire.The Divine glory, which is as a consuming fire (Isa. 27:4) to the enemies of Israel, is to Israel itself as the very light of life. The briars and thorns (we note the recurrence of the combination of Isa. 9:18) are the host of the Assyrian army (comp. 2Sa. 23:6; Eze. 2:6), as the glory of his forest in the next verse are the captains and princes. The emphatic in one day points to some great catastrophe, such as that which afterwards destroyed the army of Sennacherib.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. The light of Israel The word “light,” means light, whether literal or figurative. Here it is figurative, and applies to God as the enlightener of Israel by his word and Spirit, and as having possible allusion to the pillar that guided Israel through the desert.
Shall be for a fire While he is a “light” to Israel, he is a “fire” to Assyria.
His Holy One for a flame Israel’s “Holy One,” often called the Holy One of Israel.
Shall burn This fire and flame shall fall in consuming judgment upon his thorns and his briers. (The Assyrian’s army so denoted.)
In one day That is, very suddenly.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 10:17 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;
Ver. 17. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire. ] To Israel he shall be a comfortable light – to their enemies a consuming fire, as Exo 14:24 . Ecce idem iustis et fidelibus suavis, impiis autem gravis.
His thorns and his briers.
In one day,
a Assyrios, quibus ut sentibus vepribusque cohorrebat terra. – Jun.
Isaiah
LIGHT OR FIRE?
Isa 10:17 With grand poetry the prophet pictures the Assyrian power as a forest consumed like thistles and briers by the fire of God. The text suggests solemn truths about the divine Nature and its manifestations.
I. The Essential Character of God.
II. The Different Attitudes which Men assume to that Character.
God becomes ours, and we have an interest in that radiant Personality if we choose to claim it by faith, love, and obedience. We are free to accept God as ours or to reject Him.
III. The Opposite Aspects which that Character accordingly assumes.
To those who respond to God’s love it is-heaven. To those who are indifferent or alienated it may be pain, and will harm them if they see it and do not yield to it.
God’s holiness is not retributive justice but moral perfectness, which to a good man will be joy, and to a bad man, intolerable.
The light which is gladsome to a healthy eye is agony to a diseased one.
b All the manifestations and operations of that divine Character have a twofold aspect. Christ is either a stone of stumbling or a sure foundation. Men are either the better or the worse for Him. The Gospel is the savour of life unto life or of death unto death. The tremendous ‘either-or.’ The Cross rejected harms the moral nature, hardens conscience, deepens condemnation.
All divine operations are necessarily on the side of God’s lovers and against those who love Him not. They are contrary to Him, therefore He is so to them. ‘With the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward.’
The final Judgment will be either rapture or despair, like the coming of a bridegroom, or the fiery rain that burnt up Sodom.
The very dew of Heavenly Bliss would be corroding poison to a godless spirit.
in one day. So it was (2Ki 19:35),
the light: Isa 60:19, Psa 27:1, Psa 84:11, Rev 21:23, Rev 22:5
for a flame: Isa 30:27, Isa 30:28, Isa 33:14, Isa 64:1, Isa 64:2, Isa 66:15, Isa 66:16, Isa 66:24, Num 11:1-3, Num 16:35, Psa 18:8, Psa 21:9, Psa 50:3, Psa 83:14, Psa 83:15, Jer 4:4, Jer 7:20, Mal 4:1-3, Mat 3:12, 2Th 1:7-9, Heb 12:29
devour: Isa 27:4, Isa 37:36, Psa 97:3, Nah 1:5, Nah 1:6, Nah 1:10
Reciprocal: Isa 9:5 – burning Isa 9:14 – in one day Oba 1:18 – shall be Zec 12:6 – like an hearth Rev 8:7 – the third
10:17 And the light of Israel shall be for a {l} fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour {m} his thorns and his briers in one day;
(l) Meaning that God is a light to comfort his people and a fire to burn his enemies.
(m) That is, the Assyrians.
The Assyrians were jumping into a fire by invading Jerusalem. The fire would come from the light of Israel, namely: her holy God (cf. Isa 8:12-15). This fire would consume the small and the great in Assyria: from the lowly thorns, to the beautiful garden plants, to the mighty trees of the forest.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)