Isaiah 30:30

30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious[a] voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones*.

Isaiah 30:30 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 30:30

And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard,
&c.] Or, "the glory of his voice" F14; his majestic voice, the voice of his word, as the Targum, giving orders for the destruction of the Assyrian army; this was heard by the angel who obeyed it: and such a voice will be heard, ordering the destruction of antichrist, and the antichristian powers, in the pouring out of the vials by the angels, fitly signified by the following emblems; see ( Revelation 16:1 ) ( 18:4-7 ) . This voice is commonly interpreted of thunder, which is the voice of the Lord, and a very majestic one, ( Psalms 29:3 Psalms 29:4 ) ( Job 37:4 ) ( 40:9 ) and the destruction of the Assyrian army might be by thunder and lightning, and hailstones, and attended with such a tempest as here described, though not mentioned in the history: and shall show the lighting down of his arm;
or the strength of the arm of his power, as the Targum; his mighty arm, and the descent of it; meaning what should descend from heaven at the time of this tempest, as thunderbolts, balls of fire, hailstones; and by all which may be meant the heavy judgments of God, which fell upon his enemies, and were intolerable unto them: the metaphor is taken from the motion of a man in smiting another, who lifts up his hand, when it falls with the greater might, and rests upon him: with the indignation of [his] anger;
as when a man strikes in great wrath and fury: the heaping up of words here, and as follows, shows the vehemence and excess of anger: and [with] the flame of a devouring fire;
or, "of a fire devouring"; the Assyrian army; which, the Jews say, burnt their souls, destroyed their lives, but not their bodies. The Targum is,

``with the flame of fire, which consumes the graven images.''
The destruction of mystical Babylon will be by fire, ( Revelation 18:8 Revelation 18:9 ) ( Revelation 19:3 ) : [with] scattering, and tempest, and hailstones;
with lightning, which rends things in pieces, and scatters them here and there, and with a violent storm of rain and hail; see ( Revelation 16:18-21 ) .
FOOTNOTES:

F14 (wlwq dwh) "gloriam vocis suae", V. L. Vatablus; "magnificam vocem suam", Piscator.

Isaiah 30:30 In-Context

28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. his glorious...: Heb. the glory of his voice
The King James Version is in the public domain.