Isaiah 30:31

31 For ADONAI's voice will terrify Ashur, as with his scepter he strikes them down.

Isaiah 30:31 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 30:31

For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be
beaten down
As anything is by a storm of thunder, lightning, hail, and rain: or "fear", or be "affrighted", as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions render it; Sennacherib, the Assyrian monarch, and that part of his army which escaped, though not destroyed by it, were put into the utmost consternation: this shows that the prophecy in the context refers to the overthrow of the Assyrian army by the angel, when besieging Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time; though the Assyrian is sometimes used for any enemy of God's people at other times, particularly antichrist, and especially the eastern antichrist, the Turk:

[which] smote with a rod;
other nations, particularly the Jews, whom the Assyrian is expressly said to smite with a rod; and because he was an instrument in God's hand for the chastising of that people, he is called the rod of his anger, ( Isaiah 10:5 Isaiah 10:24 ) but now he that smote shall be smitten himself; him whom God used as a rod to correct others, he will smite with his rod, for his own correction: for this may be understood of God, and be rendered thus, "with a rod, he", that is, God, "shall smite" the Assyrian, as before; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi. The Targum interprets the "rod" of dominion.

Isaiah 30:31 In-Context

29 Your song will be like one that is sung on a night when a holy feast is kept, and your hearts will be happy, as if walking to the sound of the flute, to the mountain of ADONAI, to the Rock of Isra'el.

30 ADONAI will make his glorious voice heard, and he will reveal his arm descending with furious anger in a flaming firestorm, with cloudbursts, tempests and hailstones.

31 For ADONAI's voice will terrify Ashur, as with his scepter he strikes them down.

32 Every sweep of the punishing rod that ADONAI imposes on him will be to tambourines and lyres, as he brandishes his arm against them in battle.

33 For the Tofet fire pit has long been ready, prepared for the king, made large and deep, with plenty of wood and blazing with fire; like a stream of sulfur, ADONAI's breath sets it aflame.