Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary
Isaiah 10 · World English Bible
1Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees
2to deprive the needy of justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
3What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
4They will only bow down under the prisoners, and will fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
6I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7However, he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
8For he says, “Aren’t all of my princes kings?
9Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?”
10As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria,
11shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12Therefore it will happen that when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his arrogant looks.
13For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding. I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers.
14My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, I have gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped.”
15Should an ax brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.
16Therefore the Lord, GOD of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.
17The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.
18He will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. It will be as when a standard bearer faints.
19The remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a child could write their number.
20It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21A remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
23For the Lord, GOD of Armies, will make a full end, and that determined, throughout all the earth.
24Therefore the Lord, GOD of Armies, says, “My people who dwell in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did.
25For yet a very little while, and the indignation against you will be accomplished, and my anger will be directed to his destruction.”
26The LORD of Armies will stir up a scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up like he did against Egypt.
27It will happen in that day that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil.
28He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage.
29They have gone over the pass. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth!
31Madmenah is a fugitive. The inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33Behold, the Lord, GOD of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.
34He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
World English Bible · World English Bible; source eBible.org.
Notes on Isaiah 10
1867 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 10, 11.
Editorial footnote · Exhortation to the Heathen, THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / EXHORTATION TO THE HEATHEN. / CHAPTER VIII. THE TRUE DOCTRINE IS TO BE SOUGHT IN THE PROPHETS., editorial note Footnote_83 · Original source
1867 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 14.
Editorial footnote · Exhortation to the Heathen, THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / EXHORTATION TO THE HEATHEN. / CHAPTER VIII. THE TRUE DOCTRINE IS TO BE SOUGHT IN THE PROPHETS., editorial note Footnote_84 · Original source
1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 17, καὶ φάγεται ὡσεὶ χόρτον τὴν ὕλην, Sept. The Vulgate follows the Masoretic text.
Editorial footnote · On First Principles, The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2 / ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. / BOOK IV. / FROM THE LATIN., editorial note f1064 · Original source
1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 17, cf. lxvi. 16.
Editorial footnote · On First Principles, The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2 / ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. / BOOK II. / CHAPTER X. ON THE RESURRECTION, AND THE JUDGMENT, THE FIRE OF HELL, AND PUNISHMENTS., editorial note f328 · Original source
1871 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 21.
Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK SEVENTEENTH. / ARGUMENT., editorial note Footnote_379_379 · Original source
1885 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 33.
Editorial footnote · The Five Books Against Marcion, Book 4, Chapter 15, editorial note cite_note-39 · Original source
1885 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 1, 2.
Editorial footnote · The Five Books Against Marcion, Book 4, Chapter 14, editorial note cite_note-17 · Original source
1886 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 23.
Editorial footnote · The Treatises of Cyprian, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Part 3, editorial note cite_note-3 · Original source
1886 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 22.
Editorial footnote · The Treatises of Cyprian, Chapter uncertain; original source section: On the Lord's Prayer, editorial note cite_note-75 · Original source
1888 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. x. 23; xxviii. 22.
Editorial footnote · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 17, editorial note cite_note-10 · Original source
1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isai. x. 14, cf. Ep Æg. 2.
Editorial footnote · Life of Antony, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 9, editorial note cite_note-21 · Original source
Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan
164. And Isaiah shows that the Holy Spirit is not only Light but also Fire, saying: “And the light of Israel shall be for a fire.” So the prophets called Him a burning Fire, because in those three points we see more intensely the majesty of the Godhead; since to sanctify is of the Godhead, to illuminate is the property of fire and light, and the Godhead is wont to be pointed out or seen in the appearance of fire: “For our God is a consuming Fire,” as Moses said.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter XIV., source paragraph 8 · Original source
Date uncertain | Clement of Alexandria
These are plainly derived from the following: “The Lord will save the inhabited cities, and grasp the whole land in His hand like a nest;” “It is the Lord that made the earth by His power,” as saith Jeremiah, “and set up the earth by His wisdom.” Further, in addition to these, Phocylides, who calls the angels demons, explains in the following words that some of them are good, and others bad (for we also have learned that some are apostate):
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK V. / CHAPTER XIV. GREEK PLAGIARISMS FROM THE HEBREWS., source paragraph 521 · Original source
Date uncertain | Origen
33. And, in the first place, it is to be noted that we have nowhere found in the canonical Scriptures, up to the present time, the word “matter” used for that substance which is said to underlie bodies. For in the expression of Isaiah, “And he shall devour ὕλη,” i.e. matter, “like hay,” when speaking of those who were appointed to undergo their punishments, the word “matter” was used instead of “sins.” And if this word “matter” should happen to occur in any other passage, it will never be found, in my opinion, to have the signification of which we are now in quest, unless perhaps in the book which is called the Wisdom of Solomon, a work which is certainly not esteemed authoritative by all. In that book, however, we find written as follows: “For Thy almighty hand, that made the world out of shapeless matter, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears and fierce lions.” Very many, indeed, are of opinion that the matter of which things are made is itself signified in the language used by Moses in the beginning of Genesis: “In the beginning God made heaven and earth; and the earth was invisible, and not arranged:” for by the words “invisible and not arranged” Moses would seem to mean nothing else than shapeless matter. But if this be truly matter, it is clear then that the original elements of bodies are not incapable of change. For those who posited “atoms”—either those particles which are incapable of subdivision, or those which are subdivided into equal parts—or any one element, as the principles of bodily things, could not posit the word “matter” in the proper sense of the term among the first principles of things. For if they will have it that matter underlies every body—a substance convertible or changeable, or divisible in all its parts—they will not, as is proper, assert that it exists without qualities. And with them we agree, for we altogether deny that matter ought to be spoken of as “unbegotten” or “uncreated,” agreeably to our former statements, when we pointed out that from water, and earth, and air or heat, different kinds of fruits were produced by different kinds of trees; or when we showed that fire, and air, and water, and earth were alternately converted into each other, and that one element was resolved into another by a kind of mutual consanguinity; and also when we proved that from the food either of men or animals the substance of the flesh was derived, or that the moisture of the natural seed was converted into solid flesh and bones;—all which go to prove that the substance of the body is changeable, and may pass from one quality into all others.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · On First Principles, The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2 / ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. / BOOK IV. / FROM THE LATIN., source paragraph 353 · Original source