10:1 Woe to those who enact unjust laws, who draft oppressive legislation— 10:2 denying justice to the needy, depriving the poor of my people of their right, making plunder of widows, mere spoil of the fatherless! There you have what's one of the basic flaws of the society - the oppressive laws. The laws of the government had become corrupted, and there was nothing they could do about that. They were in a state of helplessness. Everybody had become corrupted because they tried to find ways around the corrupt laws, and so everybody's thinking became corrupt. What are the people doing now? Finding ways around, and devious ways of thinking, and everything. That's just not the Lord's way. Here he uses the word my people: denying justice to the needy, depriving the poor of my people of their right… In fact the needy here are paralleled here with the poor of my people. We've seen that already, haven't we? How he identified the poor and the needy as his people. He claims the poor and the needy as his people. …of their right, making plunder of widows, mere spoil of the fatherless! Now, in the Book of Isaiah it is the king of Assyria who does the plundering and the spoiling, right? We've seen that. So, who are these people becoming like when they do this? They become like him, right? This is one of the ways that Isaiah establishes the king of Assyria as a paradigm of wickedness. As the Lord, himself, is at the apex of Isaiah's spiritual ladder, then all levels below him emulate him. He is their exemplar. There are other saviors besides God himself. Why are they saviors? Because they do the kinds of things that God does. And so on the other end of the spectrum, there's the king of Assyria and he is the exemplar of wickedness; and the wicked people on the levels slightly above him, they do more or less what the king of Assyria does, depending on the degree of their wickedness. So he is their exemplar, and this is one way Isaiah establishes that idea of paradigms. In the latter days, or in the end time scenario, there is such injustice, and because the wicked are oppressing and the ones who are oppressed are robbed, they are exploited by the rich. So the one group becomes his enemies and the other becomes his people. That oppression has a cleansing effect upon his people so it's more like a circumstantial thing where they become more needy and more and more dependent upon the Lord, and that's all they have left is the Lord himself. That is one of the basic things, is the injustice of the society. Injustice and idolatry are the two great forms of wickedness that cause the fall of the Lord's people. There is nothing, I don't think, that the Lord hates more than injustice. 10:3 What will you do in the day of reckoning when the holocaust overtakes you from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? The wealth that you've gotten by robbing the poor, making plunder of them, spoiling them through legislation or through other means. The day of reckoning is the day of judgment, or the day of the Lord, in the Book of Isaiah. The holocaust is that horrendous destruction by fire and by the sword at the hands of the king of Assyria. From afar denotes the king of Assyria. That's a word link to Mesopotamia anciently, historically. Destruction comes from the north, from afar, from beyond the horizon in chapter 13. That ties it down, again, to the king of Assyria, or to the Assyrians who come from afar and invade the promised land. To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? As we see later on, there's no help for the wicked. Each one deviates his own way, in chapter 47. None is there to save them. 10:4 There shall nothing remain but to kneel among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this his anger is not abated; his hand is upraised still. Two options for the wicked. These were the wealthy. These were the elite people of the society. We saw in chapter 1 where the mighty shall be as refuse, and their works a spark… Those who had power to do something about it were the very ones who were most exploiting the society. Captivity and death are a covenant curses, of course. Yet for all this his anger is not abated; his hand is upraised still. This is the fourth time that is mentioned; implying, perhaps, four years. Basically there's two ways you can interpret Isaiah, and one is putting it safely back in history and say it all happened back then and we'll just leave it there, and it doesn't apply to us; but secondly we can show that Isaiah applies it to the latter days because of the two different types of structures that he uses: linear structures that tie it back in history and the end time structures that tie it to today. 10:5 Hail the Assyrian, the rod of my anger! He is a staff—my wrath in their hand. Their hand and anger are linked to the last two lines in verse 4, and tying the anger and the hand down to the king of Assyria in verse 5. He's the rod that's also in verse 15: As though the rod wielded him who lifts it up! As though the staff held up the one who is not made of wood! referring to the king of Assyria as the subject of those verses. He is the rod that smites, and the staff that smites, and wields power over the wicked. He's a personification of God's anger and wrath; and he's the left hand of the Lord, that punishes the people. The terms rod, staff, and hand actually have counterparts in the Lord's servant. He's also a rod and staff, and he's also the Lord's hand, the hand of deliverance. The Lord's servant wields power over the king of Assyria. That's how the king of Assyria is put down. He's a world conqueror, conquers the entire world in the latter days as the Assyrians did anciently. They set a precedent for that. They were the first people to conquer the ancient world by military force, and because they set a precedent, they became a type of that. That's why they are mentioned by name, the king of Assyria, or the Assyrians. Whenever a name is mentioned, it goes back to a type, a precedent that somebody set that becomes a type. Egypt is mentioned in connection with bondage, the Egyptian bondage. That was the precedent for that, and forever after, even when the Assyrians put people into bondage like in 10:24. It says don't be afraid of the Assyrians, though they strike you with the rod or raise their staff over you, as did the Egyptians. The Assyrians put people into bondage, but the ones who set the precedent for that bondage are the Egyptians. The words rod and staff are also pseudonyms or metaphors describing the Lord's servant. And after the Assyrians conquer the world by military force, or after the latter day Assyrians do that as the ancient Assyrians did, then the Lord's servant is the one who overthrows the Assyrians. We'll see that later on in this chapter. So there are two rods and two staffs, two hands; however, the words anger and wrath personify only the king of Assyria. The Lord's servant is not angry or wrathful, the king of Assyria is. 10:6 I will commission him against a godless nation, appoint him over the people deserving of my vengeance, to pillage for plunder, to spoliate for spoil, to tread underfoot like mud in the streets. Him: that is the king of Assyria. …against a godless nation,... That is the Lord's own people, the ones who become wicked. …appoint him over the people deserving of my vengeance. Vengeance is another term that the king of Assyria personifies. He personifies anger, wrath, vengeance, indignation. …to pillage for plunder, to spoliate for spoil, to tread underfoot like mud in the streets. His job is to plunder the entire world, and we see that over and over, as just a little later in this chapter: I have ravaged their reserves…I have done away with the borders of nations…I have impounded the wealth of peoples like a nest… He boasts about his plunder. …to tread underfoot like mud in the streets. Mud is a chaos motif. That means he reduces the wicked to a state of chaos, or their elemental state, to nothing. They cease to be an entity. To be reduced to the elemental state means you cease to be an entity. If you are reduced to the dust are you still alive? No, you're dead. You revert to dust. The same with mud. He treads them underfoot like mud. However, all these things, like I said, that he does to others are eventually done to him. He's trodden underfoot himself, as we'll see later on. He's plundered and spoiled by the survivors, the righteous survivors, the remnant of the Lord's people that repents. 10:7 Nevertheless, it shall not seem so to him; this shall not be what he has in mind. His purpose shall be to annihilate and to exterminate nations not a few. So, even though the Lord uses him as his instrument of wrath and vengeance, of justice, he thinks he's fulfilling a different scenario, and he takes power to himself, actually, and he thinks he's doing this all on his own accord. And what is his purpose? …to annihilate and … exterminate nations… Why? Well, to make an end of them so he can more easily rule the world. We'll see all over Isaiah, chapter 37 for example, where the Assyrians are described as conquering all nations of the world. 10:8 He will say, Are not my commanders kings, one and all? Kind of like Hitler, who put his cronies in positions of power. 10:9 Has not Calno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad, Samaria no better than Damascus? 10:10–11 As I could do this to the pagan states, whose statues exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and its images even as I did to Samaria and its idols? What's all that about? Part of the nations of the world that he conquered are the ones that are named here, and yet he kind of is a little fearful of the nations of the Lord's people, thinking that somehow they may be stronger than the other idol nations. They are all pagan states, or idolatrous nations. In fact the idolatrous nations and the heathen nations have more idols in them, or religious idols, than the Lord's people do. So he thinks that the Lord's people will be easier to conquer than heathen nations. So he's kind of afraid of these gods of the nations. He doesn't know if he's going to get opposition from them or not. 10:12 But when my Lord has fully accomplished his work in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the king of Assyria for his notorious boasting and infamous conceit, That's a word that has many word links in Isaiah, the word work. The Lord's work is two fold. It is destruction of the wicked and deliverance of the righteous in that day of judgment. That's the Lord's work. It ties to the great and marvelous work that Isaiah talks about in chapter 29. It's his bizarre work of destruction in chapter 28. It's a word link. The work is on Mount Zion, in particular, and in Jerusalem. Why? Because the work of deliverance is there. That's where there's deliverance. Like Obadiah says, there will be saviors upon Mount Zion, and there will be deliverance upon Mount Zion. That's the case in Isaiah, chapter 37, there's deliverance in Zion and in Jerusalem for the Lord's righteous people. However, there's also destruction there because after the Assyrians have conquered the entire world, all the nations of the world, and destroyed the wicked of the Lord's people and those other nations, then they lay siege to Zion, thinking to deal the death blow to God's people, and then they, themselves, are destroyed at that time. So there's also destruction of the wicked there. First the wicked destroy the wicked, and then the wicked who survive the Assyrians are themselves destroyed. But when my Lord has fully accomplished his work in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,… That is, of deliverance and destruction. …he will punish the king of Assyria for his notorious boasting and infamous conceit… So he thinks he's done all of this world conquest and all of these exploits himself, by his own strength, because he's some kind of genius. 10:13 because he said, I have done it by my own ability and shrewdness, for I am ingenious. I have done away with the borders of nations, I have ravaged their reserves, I have vastly reduced the inhabitants. 10:14 I have impounded the wealth of peoples like a nest, and I have gathered up the whole world as one gathers abandoned eggs; not one flapped its wings, or opened its mouth to utter a peep. In other words, I have total power. The word I appears seven times there, showing that he's some kind of egotist, like no one else. Well, what this tells you is he's not just boasting in his own strength, but he is actually showing that he's conquered the world. He's done away with the borders of nations, he's made a one-world government. …I have ravaged their reserves… He's plundered the whole world. He's vastly reduced the inhabitants. He's committed genocide on a world wide scale. …not one flapped its wings, or opened its mouth to utter a peep. They were all in his power. This is the great day of his power. And everybody else more or less exploits others or tries to control others like he does. But nobody does it better, or rather worse, than he does. He is the ultimate exploiter, the ultimate controller, the ultimate egotist. Whatever attribute of evil there is, he's it; he exemplifies it to the umpteenth degree. 10:15 Shall an axe exalt itself above the one who hews with it, or a saw vaunt itself over him who handles it? As though the rod wielded him who lifts it up! As though the staff held up the one who is not made of wood! So, while he's boasting like that, that boasting in his own strength is really an insult to God, because God has empowered him to do this work of destruction. We see that, for example, in chapter 37 where it says, in verse 26, he's mocking and ridiculing there, and raising his eyes to high heaven, and he's talking about his world conquests and his exploits. And then it says, Have you not heard how I ordained this thing long ago, how in days of old I planned it? Now I have brought it to pass. This is the Lord speaking. You were destined… speaking to the king of Assyria …to demolish fortified cities, turning them into heaps of rubble… and it goes on and on. And that says how stirred up he is against the Lord and his people. And so it's very much like what's going on here. While he abrogates to himself all of this power, he is denying the power of God, and so he is exalting himself over God. And in the Book of Isaiah it is only the Lord who is exalted, chapter 2, and everything else is abased in that day, as he is going to be abased now because he exalts himself. Shall an axe exalt itself above the one who hews with it… which is the Lord …or a saw vaunt itself over him who handles it? - which is the Lord, the Lord's handling it. Ax and saw are metaphors, again. He is the ax and he is the saw, but they are instruments of destruction. Whereas, say, the Lord's servant is an instrument of creation and deliverance, and things of a beneficial nature. As though the rod wielded him who lifts it up! The Lord lifting it up is also sustaining, the Lord sustains him so long as he needs him around. As though the staff held up the one who is not made of wood! The Lord identifies him with wood there. In comparison to God, he's just a piece of wood; he's wooden; his intelligence is wooden, or thick. 10:16 Therefore will the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, send a consumption into his fertile lands, and cause a fire to flare up like a burning hearth, to undermine his glory: He was the fire that destroyed the wicked, so we see that the Lord raises up another fire to destroy him. He destroyed the wicked by fire, he was the fire that destroyed them. Now he, himself, is going to be burned up by fire. 10:17 the Light of Israel will be the fire and their Holy One the flame, and it shall burn up and devour his briars and thorns in a single day. Single day, again, is the day of judgment. The same time that he's destroying the wicked, right after that, right on the heels of that, that same period of time of judgment, he, himself is going to be destroyed and burned up. His briars and thorns signifies his wicked, or his wicked alliance of nations, or his wicked people. The light of Israel is the Lord's servant. He's called a light later on in the Book of Isaiah, and he's going to be the fire or the one the Lord gives power over the king of Assyria, just as anciently David put down Goliath. It's a type. So a latter day David puts down this Assyrian Goliath. …and their Holy One the flame… We'll see again and again that the Lord and his servant work together in concert. What he does the Lord does, the Lord empowers him to do his will. 10:18 His choice forests and productive fields it will consume, both life and substance, turning them into a rotting morass. Were they literally forests or forests as cities as a metaphor? …it will consume, both life and substance,… That is the consumption, whatever that is. It's paralleled with fire. It destroys him and all his lands and all his peoples and his cities. …it will consume, both life and substance, turning them into a rotting morass. That, too, is a chaos motif. So they, themselves, are reduced to chaos, as they reduce others to chaos. Yet there are survivors. 10:19 And the trees left of his forest shall be so few, a child could record them. Now the word left is like the word remain. It always refers to a remnant that survives. So, he's going to have a remnant that survives, that is the king of Assyria, of his forest or his city. City, too, is a metaphor for people; so it's talking about people. The oaks of righteousness later on in the Book of Isaiah are people, are ones who survive into the millennium. And the trees left of his forest shall be so few, a child could record them. That talks about being recorded in the Book of Life. 4:3: Then shall they who are left in Zion and they who remain in Jerusalem be called holy—all who were inscribed to be among the living at Jerusalem. They are inscribed, or written, in a book. Who are they? Those left in Zion. In Zion is deliverance, so that's where the remnant survives. That's where they are left. That's a word link to this left…..the trees left of his forest shall be so few, a child could record them. They are righteous people it's talking about. Now, who, anciently, went captive into Assyria? The Ten Tribes. Who comes back out of Assyria? Who's left of Assyria? The Ten Tribes. The end of chapter 19 talks about three categories of people who survive into the millennium. One of them is Assyria, the work of my hands. But is it wicked Assyria, or is it the Ten Tribes coming out of Assyria, that Assyria are the Ten Tribes, or the survivors of Assyria? So in effect what we are saying is, what Isaiah is saying is, yes, there will be a remnant of Assyria that survives. Who are they? They are God's people of the Ten Tribes who survive. They are not the gentile Assyrians or the heathen Assyrians or the wicked Assyrians, and that he tells you again in the next verse, in the context, verse 20. 10:20 In that day those who survive of Israel and who escape of the house of Jacob will no longer rely on him who struck them but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: It's talking about survivors of the Lord's people, not survivors of literal Assyrians. …will no longer rely on him who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: 10:21 of Jacob a remnant will return to the one Mighty in Valor. Remember the remnant who will return? This is it, Shear-Jashub. It says it right there, Shear-Jashub, a remnant will return, a remnant will repent. Those who repent, who rely on the Lord, who were subject to the power of the Assyrians and relied upon them at some point, who were struck by them, who were oppressed by them, who were in a situation of bondage to the Assyrians, will now return. They will be the survivors. They will come in an exodus, in fact. In chapter 12 we'll see how they will come in an exodus out of Assyria, and out of other countries, wherever they have been scattered, but out of Assyria in particular in this context. So we're talking about being left, surviving, escaping, in the context of repenting and returning, of a remnant to the one mighty in valor. Mighty in Valor was one of the titles given to the Lord's servant in 9:6, he was called one Mighty in Valor. So they return to him. In fact in chapter 11 he's the one who calls them from exile to Zion in an exodus, to return in an exodus. He's the one that does that all the way through the Book of Isaiah, chapters 42 and 49, like I said. His job is to release the captives, to bring them in an exodus back to Zion. And he exemplifies valor, the Lord's servant does. On the other hand the Lord, himself, exemplifies valor. He's called the Valiant One of Israel, the Holy One of Israel in the Book of Isaiah. He exemplifies those attributes above all. It also shows that the Lord's servant emulates the Lord, himself. See, in chapter 13, all who survive that day exemplify holiness and valor in some way. It says in chapter 13 my anger - that is the king of Assyria - is not upon those who take pride in me…I have charged my holy ones, called out my valiant ones… Those who are holy and valiant come out from destruction in the exodus. Did you see the link between 19 and 20? That's an important link. It's not unique here, we will see it again, how in the end time scenario the people of the world become identified with Israel. The Lord's people become a universal entity. It seems like wherever the people of the Lord scatter, that becomes their land of inheritance, too. 10:22 For though your people, O Israel, be as the sands of the sea, only a remnant will return; although annihilation is decreed, it shall overflow with righteousness. The annihilation, of course, is done by the king of Assyria, and the Lord decreed it. Why? To make an end of all wicked people from the earth, like he did at the flood. This time it's a flood of fire, the flood of the king of Assyria, and he personifies the fire; so that a newer, higher civilization, the millennium, might result, might come out of that chaos, a new creation. …though your people, O Israel, be as the sands of the sea only a remnant will return… A small percentage, actually. It's called a tithe of the Lord; 6:13: a tithing of the people. …although annihilation is decreed - which is justice - it shall overflow with righteousness - which implies mercy. It has a two-fold aspect: justice and mercy. The destruction of the wicked, those who don't repent, so it's a consequence of their own hardness and deliverance for the righteous, meaning mercy for those who repent. All they have to do is repent of their sins, and Isaiah has shown us how to repent of our sins, by becoming clean and doing all those things, taking care of the needy, and so on. Righteousness is also a metaphor of the Lord's servant. In 41: 2 he's called righteousness because he personifies righteousness, or keeping the law of the covenant. Keeping the law of the covenant is the definition of righteousness, and he is an exemplar of righteousness in that sense; and the annihilation that's decreed overflowing with righteousness implies that through the agency of the Lord's servant there will be a remnant delivered out of it. Chapter 11 talks about the servant gathering the elect out. 10:23 For my Lord, the Lord of Hosts, will carry out the utter destruction decreed upon the whole earth. Utter destruction is a complete destruction of all the wicked, not of the righteous. These movies you see like Apocalypse, or other movies – what's the latest one out on that theme? It can be very gloomy, and that's how it will be, in fact, for the wicked. For the elect it will be a totally different scenario. We have talked about them coming like in a pilgrimage to Zion when they return. It's a joyous, happy time. They will be under the Lord's protection and under His light, the cloudy pillar. …decreed upon the whole earth. We'll see that has all kinds of word links, like in the cross reference there of 28:22: …I have heard utter destruction decreed by my Lord, the Lord of Hosts, upon the whole earth. Those are word links, linking different parts of Isaiah. 10:24 Therefore, thus says my Lord, the Lord of Hosts: O my people who inhabit Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians, though they strike you with the rod or raise their staff over you, as did the Egyptians. 10:25 For my anger will very soon come to an end; my wrath will become their undoing. Remember earlier he said his anger is not abated, right? His hand is upraised still. And yet after a few years, three or four years, the anger will come to an end. The Lord's anger will be extinguished. And my wrath will become their undoing. What does he mean by that? Well, first of all when the wicked are destroyed from the earth and only the righteous remain, there's no more need for the wrath of God. And secondly the king of Assyria personifies these attributes. He's the anger and the wrath, and he will very soon come to an end. He will become his own undoing because he goes too far, he tries to destroy the Lord's people totally, even the righteous, or the elect. The people who inhabit Zion - or are struck with the rod or subjected like the Egyptians subjected the Israelites anciently, put them into bondage, in other words; yoked them with the yoke of bondage. The rod and the staff, of course, are metaphors, and the yoke, describing the king of Assyria. So, it implies him personally subjecting the people of God, but also the idea of bondage in general. Now what kind of people do you suppose would come into bondage, which is a covenant curse, under the subjection of the king of Assyria? It's possible that those who were of his own land, of the Ten Tribes, will come under his subjection because they are the ones the servant releases out of the power of the Assyrians. On the other hand if we are talking about a promised land, those who are in the promised land who inhabit Zion, what kind of people would come under bondage if it's a covenant curse and if the elect go in the exodus? If the righteous people go on an exodus out of the destruction, before the destruction comes, then they would not be subject to the Assyrians like this. And yet, these are not a category that's eliminated either. They are not annihilated or destroyed, so which category would that refer to? This would refer to a category of people that's not the elect, not totally wicked or eliminated either. A category in between, which Isaiah would categorize as Shear-Jashub category, the remnant that repents, that has need to repent, who will eventually come out from under the Assyrian subjection. This would be the semi-precious category in the imagery of metals and stones. So they will be subjected for a time, they have to wade through the time. They are the ones in outer darkness, in fact. 10:26 The Lord of Hosts will raise the whip against them, as when he struck the Midianites at the Rock of Oreb. His staff is over the Sea, and he will lift it over them as he did to the Egyptians. the rock of Oreb - when the Midianites were destroyed they were destroyed by Gideon, as we have mentioned. In the Book of Judges where that account is related, Gideon is likened to a whip or a flagellum of briars and thorns that whips his enemies. And so the whip, here, introduces the idea of the Assyrians being destroyed like the Midianites, which we already saw earlier in 9:4: …thou hast smashed the yoke that burdened them, the staff of submission, the rod of those who subjected them, as in the day of Midian's defeat. That's the context in which the child is born and the son appointed. And so those are word links to this passage. Here we see that the whip, then, alludes to Gideon. So we have one like Gideon who will have something to do with the Assyrians being broken or their power, being broken through the agency of someone like Gideon and his soldiers; and that's the Lord's servant in the Book of Isaiah. There are many heroes of Israel like that. Gideon, and in the same verse you'll see Moses, and Abraham, and others who are types of the Lord's servant; the Lord's servant doing the kinds of things in the end time scenario that these ancient heroes of Israel did in their day. His staff is over the Sea… The Sea is the king of Assyria who is the power of chaos. It says Moses lifted his staff over the sea and the waters divided and the Israelites came out of Egypt on dry land into the Promised Land. So the Lord's servant, the Lord's staff, the other staff, the Lord's servant is given power over the king of Assyria, just as Moses had power over the Red Sea. The king of Assyria is a power of chaos, as in Canaanite mythology, and the Lord's servant's job is to put down the Assyrians as Gideon put down the Midianites, as Moses had power over the Egyptians, and so forth. His staff is over the sea and he will lift it over them... He will sustain the servant, lifting him up or sustaining him, or empowering him over the Assyrians. It says David had power over Goliath. He will lift him over them as he did to the Egyptians, so it will be a deliverance of the kind of Moses releasing the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. This time the bondage is the Assyrian bondage; Egypt established the type for such a thing. 10:27 In that day their burdens shall be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke removed from your neck: the yoke that wore away your fatness shall by fatness wear away. So, while you are subjected, you grew thin or you were impoverished and that yoke will be lifted at some point. The Lord always brings his righteous people out of bondage. You see that in other places in the scripture. When they repent sufficiently, it's his job, it's his duty, to release them. Verses 28 through 34 document the rapid invasion of the Assyrians through the various countries of the world into the promised land. 10:28–29 He advances on Aiath, passes through Migron; at Micmash he marshals his weaponry. They cross over the pass, stopping overnight at Geba. Ramah is in a state of alarm, Gibeah of Saul is fleeing. It's like a massive invasion, very rapid, like Hitler invading Europe at the beginning of World War II. 10:30–31 Cry out, O Daughter of Gallim! Hear her, Laishah; answer her, Anathoth! Madmenah has moved out of the way, the inhabitants of Gebim are in full flight. There are a few little plays on words here Isaiah's putting in. 10:32 This same day he will but pause at Nob and signal the advance against the mountain of the Daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. So his ultimate goal is the people of God, to destroy them, the same as Hitler. One time I saw a movie of him, ranting and raving to a huge audience of men who were all gesticulating, and he was outlining all the countries the people of the world thought that he was going to invade now that he invaded some countries already. And the last country that he mentioned, after mentioning virtually all the countries in Europe, was Palestine. That was the ultimate goal. That's the goal of any anti-Christ is to conquer the people of God, and so it is here. He goes through all these places. …the mountain of the Daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem is his ultimate goal. Of course, that's when he comes to grief, too, when he tries to destroy the righteous people of God. 10:33 Then will the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, shatter the towering trees with terrifying power; the high in stature shall be hewn down, the lofty ones leveled. In chapter 2, that which is in high stature, the trees, the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan were all hewn down, or they would be hewn down in the day of the Lord, the day of judgment. Those are word links to this chapter, to these verses, and there it talks about all of those who are lifted up in pride being destroyed in that manner. Here the king of Assyria is doing that destruction. Trees are people, the forests are cities. 10:34 The dense forests shall be battered down with the force of iron, and Lebanon fall spectacularly. He batters them all down with terrifying power. Lebanon throughout the Old Testament is a figure for Israel, so it's talking not just literally of Lebanon. Like Lebanon today would have little relevance to what this is talking about. Lebanon was a place famous for cedars, and every conqueror of the Palestine area the macho thing to do was to hew down the cedars of Lebanon. That's in the Mesopotamia and ? . Every hero and conqueror that goes down there, that's what he does. He can boast that he's cut down the cedars of Lebanon. Isaiah uses that mythology, or that imagery from mythology here, to characterize the king of Assyria. In chapter 37:24, he says, I have conquered the highest mountains, the farthest reaches of Lebanon. I have felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses. I have reached its loftiest summit, its finest forest. Then he goes on to say, I have dug wells and drunk of foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all Egypt's rivers! It's expressing his conquests of the world, with the promised land of the Lord's people as his ultimate goal. So what falls here is the Lord's promised land, the promised land of the Lord's people. Why? Because of its wicked inhabitants. They have made themselves God's enemies so he sends their enemies against them. So, these are the elite peoples of the world that are destroyed, the Lord's people, because they have degenerated into a state of wickedness. Does everybody fall? No, not the elect, not the righteous ones. They are delivered out of the destruction. In the context of the trees being hewn down at the end of chapter 10 we have an allegory of a tree, or perhaps an olive tree, at the beginning of 11:1.