Isaiah 31 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Isaiah 31

Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt

31:1   Woe¹ to those who go down to Egypt for help
    and rely on horses,
  who trust in chariots because they are many
    and in horsemen because they are very strong,
  but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
    or consult the LORD!
2   And yet he is wise and brings disaster;
    he does not call back his words,
  but will arise against the house of the evildoers
    and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
3   The Egyptians are man, and not God,
    and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
  When the LORD stretches out his hand,
    the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
    and they will all perish together.
4   For thus the LORD said to me,
  “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,
    and when a band of shepherds is called out against him
  he is not terrified by their shouting
    or daunted at their noise,
  so the LORD of hosts will come down
    to fight² on Mount Zion and on its hill.
5   Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts
    will protect Jerusalem;
  he will protect and deliver it;
    he will spare and rescue it.”

6 Turn to him from whom people³ have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

8   “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;
    and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;
  and he shall flee from the sword,
    and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
9   His rock shall pass away in terror,
    and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
  declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion,
    and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Footnotes

[1] 31:1 Or Ah,
[2] 31:4 The Hebrew words for hosts and to fight sound alike
[3] 31:6 Hebrew they

Commentary

v1: Vain is the help of man! Israel and probably Judah also had sought Egypt’s help (30.1-5; 36.6). They looked to the multitudes and the strength of chariots and horsemen, but failed to look to the Lord God, whose strength far exceeds. Egypt’s own horses and chariots were destroyed in the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 14-15).

v2: The Lord is wise, seeing our folly. His wisdom is consistent with His faithfulness to His own,, and with His holiness, for He will punish the evildoers.

v3: The Egyptians, needless to say, are not God; they are flesh not spirit. The helper and the helped fall together; the blind leading the blind, and both falling into the ditch.

v4-5: The Lord is the lion, unmoved by the multitude of shepherds arrayed against Him. He fights for His people, and for Zion, His city. The Lord is also the bird, flying over those He loves. The Lord’s jealousy; we can have total confidence in Him; He will shield, deliver, 'pass over,' and rescue. The verses bring together striking paradoxical characteristics of God – lion and bird; shield and deliver; pass over and rescue; some see this as bringing together typically make and female characteristics.

v6: Recognise past rebellion, and repent of it. We can turn back to Him, for He is faithful and true.

v7: See 30.22; the people put away their idolatry. This is important; the Lord stayed loyal to His people, although they were disloyal to Him.

v8-9: Defeat for Assyria, 30.31-32; their defeat was ordained by the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel. At the time of Isaiah’s writing, Assyria was the dominant power in the Middle East; their fall was hard to imagine. In the longer term, Assyria was representative of the Gentile nations who attack and oppress Israel. See 37.36-38, where this specific prophecy is fulfilled.

Assyria found God’s furnace in Jerusalem; the place of judgment. But God’s people already knew this; at the centre of His people there was judgment for sins, and the demonstration of divine justice. See 1 Pet 4.17. God has indeed chosen His people for His glory – is it any surprise that He works to purge us?