Isaiah 10:6, commentary and pictures

God sends an invader against Israel and Jerusalem as a profane people under His wrath because they have broken His law, with charge to plunder them and trample them down like mire in the streets. The instrument so commissioned is Assyria, authorized to spoil and conquer a sinful nation under judgment. Assyria did not mean to serve Him but meant in its heart to destroy and cut off nations for its own ends, yet He uses even a heathen power as a rod in His hand to chastise His erring people and accomplish His purpose upon Mount Zion and Jerusalem. When He has performed His whole work upon Zion and Jerusalem He punishes the pride and arrogance of the Assyrian king, for the indignation is against His own people first and His anger against their oppressors follows when it ends. Those who held the rod of His anger to be Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, taught that his power came from God and that he acted as an instrument in God's hands and not by power of his own. The prediction was fulfilled when the Assyrian king took Samaria and carried Israel away from its land beginning in 723 B.C., beginning the long treading down of His professed people under Gentile dominion, an indignation of 2,520 years ending in 1798, after which the yoke is broken, the oppressor is punished, and the remnant is delivered and recovered.

Context and Meaning

Isaiah 10:6 stands in the first division of the book, chapters 1-39, which consists of separate single prophecies given on different occasions and afterward gathered into one collection. That division belongs to Isaiah's active work among the rulers and people as God's messenger to the nation, and is distinct from chapters 40-66, which belong to the prophet's later years apart from active work and deal wholly with the future. Within that first division the verse falls in the group of prophecies in chapters 2-12. That group is a prophecy against the Assyrian. Its strife and war and wickedness stands immediately before the rest and peace and righteousness of Christ's kingdom in Isaiah 11, where the Branch from the root of Jesse brings blessed results.

The prophecies were given during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, beginning around 760 B.C. It was a time of crisis in Judah. Isaiah worked then among the rulers and people as God's messenger. The passage describes an invasion of Judah whose historical setting and the identity of the Assyrian king are not made clear there. That lack led critics to call the invasion and its king ideal rather than historical.

The hypocritical nation is Israel and Jerusalem. It is described as profane and as the people of God's wrath. The word rendered hypocritical denotes in the Septuagint the lawless, irreverent, wicked, or those not keeping the law. The verse therefore describes a people who have broken God's law and face severe judgment. The verse commissions the invader against that nation under judgment to take the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread the people down like the mire of the streets.

God's Heathen Instrument

The one commissioned in the verse is Assyria, sent by God against a sinful, hypocritical nation under His wrath and charged to take the spoil and the prey, to plunder, conquer and tread it down like the mire of the streets. It is authorized to crush a people under divine indignation and to bring Jerusalem, described as a profane nation and the people of His wrath, into spoiling and oppression under Gentile dominion. God's overruling providence can in this way use powerful empires such as Assyria, Babylon and others to bear witness of Himself.

Assyria's success did not prove it was a model nation or a religious people, but that God used even a heathen nation as an instrument in His hand to accomplish His own purpose upon Mount Zion and Jerusalem, and the same divine use of heathen instruments explains Japan's success. Assyria did not mean to serve God but meant in its heart to destroy and cut off many nations, acting for its own ends while thinking it acted against God. Yet God can use an enemy as a rod to chastise His erring people and to accomplish His purpose.

When God has performed His whole work upon Zion and Jerusalem He punishes the pride and arrogance of the Assyrian king, who intended destruction for his own ends. The indignation is directed against God's professed people, who are given into Gentile rule to be trodden down and scattered, while His anger against their oppressors comes after that indignation ends, when the oppressor is punished and the remnant is delivered. Those who held the differing view taught that the appointed instrument charged to punish Jerusalem was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, serving as the rod of God's anger, showing that his power came from God and that he acted as an instrument in God's hands and not through power of his own.

Prophetic Period and Deliverance

The commission to spoil, prey upon, and trample like street mire was fulfilled when the Assyrian king captured Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria, removing Israel from its land. That removal, beginning in 723 B.C., marks the starting point for reckoning the appointed period of Israel's being trodden down. The treading down is the long period in which God's professed people are given over to be spoiled, crushed, scattered, and oppressed under Gentile dominion. In that reckoning Jerusalem represents the host, or people of God, trodden down until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. The indignation is directed against God's people, while anger against their oppressors comes after the indignation ends.

This indignation, the Lord's great curse upon rebellious Israel, lasted 2,520 years from that captivity and ended in 1798. Its close came with the close of the 1290 days, when Israel's hard bondage was broken and Jacob was redeemed and ransomed from the stronger oppressor. The indignation therefore has an appointed period, and when that oppression is completed the yoke is broken, the oppressor is punished, and the remnant is delivered and recovered from that dominion. That recovery belongs to the pattern of Israel's bondage and recovery, in which the remnant's recovery in the last days follows the manner of Israel's deliverance from Egypt. The chapter reproves the great sins of Isaiah's day, and those conditions serve as types of similar conditions in the last days before the great deliverance at Christ's coming.