Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 10:19
And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
And the rest of the trees … – Keeping up still the image of a large and once dense forest, to which he had likened the Assyrian army. The rest here means that which shall be left after the threatened judgment shall come upon them.
That a child may write them – That a child shall be able to number them, or write their names; that is, they shall be very few. A child can number or count but few; yet the number of those who would be left, would be so very small that even a child could count them with ease. It is probable that a few of the army of Sennacherib escaped (see the note at Isa 37:37); and compared with the whole army, the remnant might bear a striking resemblance to the few decaying trees of a once magnificent forest of cedars.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The rest of the trees of his forest; the remainders of that mighty host.
That a child may write them; that they may be easily numbered by the meanest accountant. A child may be their muster-master.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. restthose who shallsurvive the destruction of the host.
his forestsame imageas in Isa 10:18, for the oncedense army.
child . . . writesofew that a child might count them.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few,…. Which were left unconsumed, that escaped this destruction, those of the Assyrian army that fled with Sennacherib their king; which, the Rabbins say r, were no more than ten, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; yea, some say there were but five left who escaped, and name them, Sennacherib and his two sons, Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan:
that a child may write them; count them, and take down their names; and it may be understood of a military muster, and the sense be, that the army should be reduced to so small a number by this stroke upon them, that there would be no need of an able muster master to take the account of them, a child would be equal to such a task. The Targum is,
“and the rest of his warriors shall fail, that the people shall be a small number, and shall be reckoned a weak kingdom.”
r T. Bab. ib. fol. 95. 2. Praefat. Echa Rabbati, fol. 41. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
19. And the remnant of the trees of his forest shall be a number. (167) When he adds that the remnant of them will be a number, he employs a Hebrew idiom to express that they will be few; and thus he only confirms the former statement, that the devastation produced, after the calamity which God will bring on the Assyrians, will be so great that there will be no difficulty in counting them.
That a child may number them. He goes so far as to say, that they will be so few that those who are left of them may be counted even by a child; for children have difficulty in counting as far as three or four. Accordingly, the kingdom of the Assyrians was formerly like some vast forest; but when the trees have been hewn and thrown down, those which are left are few, and scattered at great distances from each other.
(167) And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few. (Margin, Heb. number.) — Eng. Ver.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(19) And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few.To number the host of an army, to count killed and wounded after a battle, was commonly the work of the royal scribe, who appears so often as in that employment in Assyrian sculptures. Here the survivors (the remnant as before) were to be so few (literally, a number) that even the boy who could hardly count but on his fingers would be skilled enough to number them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. And the rest of the trees The few men that are left after the consumption of the army, the “forest” figure being still kept up.
That a child may write them Or, number them. That is, the “trees” are so few as scarcely to exceed the digits; in poetry not an extravagant expression.
Thus much concerning the divine judgments on Assyria in return for its selfish part in the punishments of Israel, but probably a prophetic description in the gross; that is, genuine account of all punishments that ever came on the great world-kingdom in the East. The picture is seen in spaces, with its nearer parts distinct, but its remoter, shaded, yet clear enough for a full and complete end, or limit, to be observed. Still other views of this picture are to be given, and many details presented.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 10:19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
Ver. 19. And the rest of the trees shall be few.] Heb., A number; methe mispar, a poor few, and inconsiderable company, that may soon be told.
That a child may write them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
child = lad.
write = reckon.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
few: Heb. number, Isa 37:36
Reciprocal: Psa 29:9 – discovereth Isa 21:17 – the mighty Jer 20:2 – the stocks Jer 21:14 – in the Jer 44:28 – a small Eze 12:16 – a few men
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The remaining trees (leaders) would be so few that a small child would be able to count them.
In 701 B.C. the Assyrians besieged Jerusalem and God slew 185,000 of them in one night (Isa 37:36-37). The Babylonians felled the Assyrian Empire in 609 B.C. One scholar believed that all of what Isaiah predicted in Isa 10:5-19 was fulfilled between the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C. and the battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C. [Note: Archer, p. 620.]