Isaiah 10:17

17 Israel's Light will burst into a conflagration. The Holy will explode into a firestorm, And in one day burn to cinders every last Assyrian thornbush.

Isaiah 10:17 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 10:17

And the light of Israel shall be for a fire
That is, the Lord, who is the light of his people; who enlightens them by his word and Spirit, and by his grace effectually calls them out of darkness into marvellous light, to the light of grace here, and to the light of glory hereafter; and who comforts and refreshes them with his gracious presence, and with the light of his countenance when in affliction and distress, which is sometimes signified by darkness; and the same Lord, who is as light to his people, and gives light and comfort to them, is as a consuming fire to others: and his Holy One for a flame;
that is, the Holy One of Israel, the God of Israel, who is holy in himself, and the sanctifier of others; the Syriac version reads, "his Holy Ones": so Jarchi observes it as the sense of some, that the righteous of that generation are meant; the Targum is,

``and there shall be the Lord, the light of Israel, and his Holy One; and his word strong as fire, and his word as a flame;''

see ( Jeremiah 23:29 ) so Jarchi interprets it of the law Hezekiah studied: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
the Targum interprets it, his rulers and governors; and so Jarchi, his princes and mighty men; the chief in the Assyrian army, called briers and thorns, because mischievous and hurtful, and caused grief; but rather the multitude of the common soldiers is designed, who were all destroyed in one night, ( 2 Kings 19:35 ) by an angel; who, according to Aben Ezra, is the light and Holy One of Israel here spoken of.

Isaiah 10:17 In-Context

15 Does an ax take over from the one who swings it? Does a saw act more important than the sawyer? As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger! As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails!

16 Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters. Under the canopy of God's bright glory a fierce fire will break out.

17 Israel's Light will burst into a conflagration. The Holy will explode into a firestorm, And in one day burn to cinders every last Assyrian thornbush.

18 God will destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens. The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing like a disease-ridden invalid.

19 A child could count what's left of the trees on the fingers of his two hands.