Isaiah 31: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Isaiah warns Judah against going down to Egypt for military help, since Egypt's men and horses are only flesh and cannot stand when the LORD acts against both helper and helped. The LORD then says he will come down to fight on Mount Zion and will protect Jerusalem like birds circling over it. Isaiah calls Israel to turn back to the one they rebelled against, says they will throw away their silver and gold idols, and declares that Assyria will fall by a sword that is not a man's.

Claim by Claim

1. 31:1
   • Woe is pronounced on those who go down to Egypt for help.
   • They rely on horses.
   • They trust in chariots because the chariots are many.
   • They trust in horsemen because the horsemen are very strong.
   • They do not look to the Holy One of Israel.
   • They do not seek the LORD.
2. 31:2
   • He too is wise.
   • He brings disaster.
   • He does not take back his words.
   • He will rise up against the house of evildoers.
   • He will rise up against the help given by those who do iniquity.
3. 31:3
   • The Egyptians are men and not God.
   • Their horses are flesh and not spirit.
   • The LORD will stretch out his hand.
   • The one who helps will stumble.
   • The one who is helped will fall.
   • All of them will perish together.
4. 31:4
   • The LORD spoke this to me.
   • A lion or a young lion growls over its prey.
   • A full band of shepherds is called out against it.
   • The lion is not frightened by their shouting.
   • The lion does not cower at their noise.
   • In the same way the LORD of hosts will come down to wage war over Mount Zion and its hill.
   • It is not stated whether the LORD comes down to fight on behalf of Mount Zion or against it.
5. 31:5
   • Like birds hovering in flight, the LORD of hosts will shield Jerusalem.
   • He will shield it and rescue it.
   • He will pass over it and deliver it.
6. 31:6
   • The children of Israel are told to return to the one against whom they have deeply revolted.
7. 31:7
   • In that day every man will reject his idols of silver.
   • In that day every man will reject his idols of gold.
   • Their own hands made these idols for them.
   • Making the idols was a sin.
8. 31:8
   • Assyria will fall by a sword that is not a man's.
   • A sword that is not a human's will devour him.
   • He will flee from the sword.
   • His young men will be put to forced labor.
9. 31:9
   • His rock will pass away out of terror.
   • It is not stated whether the rock is a stronghold or a ruler.
   • His princes will be terrified at the battle standard.
   • This is the declaration of the LORD.
   • The LORD has a fire in Zion.
   • The LORD has a furnace in Jerusalem.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

31:1

"Go down to Egypt" means seeking a military alliance. In Isaiah's time the small kingdom of Judah was threatened by the Assyrian empire, and one faction at the royal court wanted to buy Egyptian protection; "down" is literal geography, since Egypt lies south of and lower than the Judean hills. Chariots and cavalry were the heavy weaponry of the age, and Egypt was the region's main supplier of both, Judah's own hill country bred very few horses. In the King James wording "stay on" means lean on or depend on, not remain. "The Holy One of Israel" is Isaiah's characteristic title for God, used more in this book than in all the rest of the Hebrew scriptures. Where the King James prints LORD in small capitals it stands for the personal name of God, which Jewish tradition does not pronounce aloud.

31:2

In 1611 English "evil" covered harm, calamity and disaster of any kind, not only moral wickedness; here it means the ruin God brings, not wrongdoing on his part. "Will not call back his words" means he does not withdraw or cancel what he has announced. "The help of them that work iniquity" means the allies or helpers of wrongdoers: that is, Egypt.

31:3

"Holpen" is the old past participle of help: helped. The contrast of "flesh" with "spirit" is not body versus soul; in Hebrew usage "flesh" marks what is mortal, physical and breakable, and "spirit" marks what is not, so the line says Egypt's cavalry is made of the same perishable stuff as anything else.

31:4

"The LORD of hosts" means the LORD of armies, a military title. The image is deliberately open: a lion standing over a kill that a band of shepherds cannot shout away is undeterrable, but the picture does not say whether the LORD comes down on Zion's side or against it, and Hebrew readers have taken it both ways. "Abase himself" means be cowed or made to back down. Mount Zion was the ridge in Jerusalem on which the city's fortress and temple stood, so "Zion" often stands for Jerusalem itself.

31:5

The picture is of birds hovering and beating their wings over a nest rather than birds in flight. "Passing over" translates a Hebrew verb used of what God did to the Israelite houses in Egypt at the first Passover: it means to skip over and spare rather than merely to travel past.

31:6

"Children of Israel" means the people of Israel as a nation, not children in the literal sense. The King James "deeply revolted" reflects a strong Hebrew idiom, roughly "you have gone deep in rebellion", rebellion carried far, not just committed once.

31:7

These were small figures either cast in precious metal or carved in wood and overlaid with silver or gold foil, kept in homes and shrines as well as temples. "Which your own hands have made unto you for a sin" is ambiguous in the Hebrew: it can mean the idols were made sinfully, or that the making of them was itself the offense.

31:8

"The Assyrian" means the king of Assyria and his army, the imperial power that overran the region in Isaiah's lifetime and besieged Jerusalem in 701 BC. In 1611 English "mean" meant lowly or common, a man of no rank, not cruel; so the two lines together say the sword that destroys Assyria belongs to no human being of any station. "Discomfited" translates a Hebrew word whose sense is disputed: it can mean pressed into forced labor, or melted away in panic.

31:9

"His strong hold" renders a Hebrew word that means a rock or crag and, by extension, a rock fortress; some read it as Assyria's stronghold, others as its king or its rock-like confidence. An "ensign" was the standard or banner raised on a pole for troops to rally to and to see from a distance, so panicking at the sight of one means breaking before the battle is joined. Fire kept burning in Zion suggests both the hearth fire on the temple altar and a furnace, a kiln or smelting forge, and the Hebrew leaves both pictures standing.