Isaiah 10:34
in Isaiah 10He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
KJV
And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
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This verse in Isaiah 10
Commentary
14 notes on this verseBehold the Lord of hosts will break the jar in terror, and the lofty stature will be cut down, and the exalted will be brought low, and the dense forests will be destroyed by the sword, and Lebanon with its heights will fall. Some people think that this passage is still speaking of the Assyrians, and that when they are crushed, all the nations around them that were subject to their rule will be cut down and humbled, and the dense forests will be destroyed. They understand this metaphorically as referring to the people and rulers.
This site's exposition
Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts
on Isaiah 10:33-34
The forest imagery of verses 18 and 19 returns as the chapter's last word. Assyria, stopped at the gate it reached, falls as Lebanon falls before the Mighty One. The next chapter answers with a shoot from the stump of Jesse, growing where the axe has done its worst.
This site's exposition
Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One
Clarke, with Kimchi and Vitringa, read the Mighty One as the angel of the LORD who struck the Assyrians in 37:36. The thickets are the army of verses 18 and 19. The fallen forest sets up 11:1, a shoot from the stump of Jesse.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
[God spoke] of the branches (thickets), not the root. When the measure of the people's sins was complete, John came and took up the roots of their trees. "For the ax is laid to the roots of the trees," [the roots] which Isaiah had left …
In this instance Lebanon means Jerusalem … which the Word warns will fall with all of the men of greatness and glory.
In this instance the birth of Christ from the seed of Jesse and David is joined with the destruction of Lebanon and the call of the Gentiles.
The Medieval Church1 voice
The thickets of forest, as to the multitude of the people, that is, the shrubs which make a forest dense, and Libanus, Sennacherib himself, who was killed by his sons, below (ch. 27).
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Whether they were the princes and judges of Israel of Judah, or both, that the prophet denounced this woe against, is not certain: if those of Israel, these verses are to be joined with the close of the foregoing chapter, which is probable enough, because the burden of that prophecy ( for all this his anger is not turned away ) is repeated here (
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6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Iron - Or, as with iron, as the trees of the forest are cut down with instruments of iron. Lebanon - Or, his Lebanon, the Assyrian army, which being before compared to a forest, and being called his Carmel in the Hebrew text, ver. 18, may very fitly upon the same ground, be called his Lebanon here.
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And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,....
(1.) The pride of the enemy shall be humbled, the boughs that are lifted up on high shall be lopped off, the high and stately trees shall be hewn down; that is, the haughty shall be humbled.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one - באדיר beaddir, the angel of the Lord, who smote them, Kimchi. And so Vitringa understands it. Others translate, “The high cedars of Lebanon shall fall:” but the king of Assyria is the person who shall be overthrown.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Eze 31:3, 14, &c., contain the same image; "Lebanon" and its forest are the Assyrian army; the "iron" axe that fells the forest refers to the stroke which destroyed the one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians (2Ki 19:35). The "Mighty One" is Jehovah (Isa 10:21;
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A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest - The army of the Assyrians, described here as a thick, dense forest; compare Isa 10:18-19. With iron - As a forest is cut down with an axe, so the prophet uses this phrase here, to keep up and carry out the figure. The army was destroyed with the pestilence 2Ki 19:35; but it fell as certainly as a forest falls before the axe. And Lebanon - Lebanon is here evidently descriptive of the army of the Assyrian, retaining the idea of a beautiful and magnificent forest. Thus, in Eze 31:3, it is said, ‘the king of the Assyrians was a cedar of Lebanon with fair branches.’ Lebanon is usually applied to the Jews as descriptive of them (Jer 22:6, Jer 22:23; Zec 10:10; 11: l), but it is evidently applied here to the Assyrian army; and the sense is, that that army should be soon and certainly destroyed, and that, therefore, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had no cause of alarm; see the notes at Isa. 37.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְנִקַּ֛ף | venikaf | and he will cut down | H5362 → | 19 times |
| סִֽבְכֵ֥י | sivkhei | [the] thickets of | H5442 → | |
| הַיַּ֖עַר | haiyaar | the forest | H3293 → | 59 times |
| בַּבַּרְזֶ֑ל | babarzel | with <the> iron [axe] | H1270 → | 76 times |
| וְהַלְּבָנ֖וֹן | vehalevanon | and the Lebanon | H3844 → | 71 times |
| בְּאַדִּ֥יר | beadir | by a mighty [one] | H117 → | 27 times |
| יִפּֽוֹל׃ ס | yipol | it will fall | H5307 → | 435 times |
וְנִקַּ֛ףand he will cut down
venikafH5362 →19 times
סִֽבְכֵ֥י[the] thickets of
sivkheiH5442 →
הַיַּ֖עַרthe forest
haiyaarH3293 →59 times
בַּבַּרְזֶ֑לwith <the> iron [axe]
babarzelH1270 →76 times
וְהַלְּבָנ֖וֹןand the Lebanon
vehalevanonH3844 →71 times
בְּאַדִּ֥ירby a mighty [one]
beadirH117 →27 times
יִפּֽוֹל׃ סit will fall
yipolH5307 →435 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 103:20Bless the LORD, all His angels mighty in strength who carry out His word, who hearken to the voice of His command.
it leads to
- Hebrews 1:14
Are not the angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
- Psalms 148:2
Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.
- Luke 1:19
“I am Gabriel,” replied the angel. “I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.
- Matthew 26:53
Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
- Luke 2:13–14
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying:
- Hebrews 1:14
Through
2 Peter 2:11Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord.
it leads to
- Jude 1:9
But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
- Jude 1:9
Through
Isaiah 37:24Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut…
it leads to
- Isaiah 14:8
Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanon exult over you: “Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter comes against us.”
- Isaiah 10:18
The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man.
- Isaiah 14:8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON 3:15; Eusebius of Caesarea, PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 2:3; Eusebius of Caesarea, PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 8:4; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.