Isaiah 30:28

28 His ¹breath is like an overflowing torrent, Which ²reaches to the neck, To ³shake the nations back and forth in a sieve, And to put in the jaws of the peoples ⁴the bridle which leads to ruin.

Isaiah 30:28 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 30:28

And his breath as an overflowing stream
Which comes with great swiftness and force, bearing all before it, breathing out nothing but the fire of divine wrath, before which there is no standing; nor could the Assyrian army stand before it, but suddenly, in a moment, was carried away with the force of it: thus our Lord will consume the man of sin with the spirit or breath of his mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of his coming, ( 2 Thessalonians 2:8 ) : and this stream

shall reach to the midst of the neck;
which shows the extreme danger the army would be in, as a man that is up to the neck in water, and can find no way of escaping; and very aptly represents their state and condition, the whole body of the army being encompassed and destroyed by this overflowing stream of divine wrath, only their head, their king Sennacherib was saved; and he in a little time was cut off, when he had got into his country; as the Assyrian army served the Jews, they are served themselves; see ( Isaiah 8:7 Isaiah 8:8 ) :

to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity;
that is, the breath, wind, or Spirit of the Lord, compared to an overflowing stream, should be of this use, and have this effect, to sift the people of several nations, of which the Assyrian army consisted, so as to dash them one against another, and utterly destroy them; for they were to be sifted, not with a good and profitable sieve, which retains the corn, and shakes out the chaff, or so as to have some taken out and spared; but with a sieve that lets all through, and so be brought to nothing, as the Vulgate Latin version; and thus will all the antichristian nations be agitated, and shaken, and destroyed, ere long:

and [there shall be] a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing
[them] to err;
from the way they intended to go, namely, up to Jerusalem, and take and sack it, and obliging them to betake themselves another way for their retreat and safety; see ( Isaiah 37:29 ) .

Isaiah 30:28 In-Context

26 The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted.

27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a remote place; Burning is His anger and dense is His smoke; His lips are filled with indignation And His tongue is like a consuming fire;

28 His breath is like an overflowing torrent, Which reaches to the neck, To shake the nations back and forth in a sieve, And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin.

29 You will have songs as in the night when you keep the festival, And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute, To go to the mountain of the LORD , to the Rock of Israel.

30 And the LORD will cause His voice of authority to be heard, And the descending of His arm to be seen in fierce anger, And in the flame of a consuming fire In cloudburst, downpour and hailstones.

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 11:4; Isaiah 30:33; 2 Thessalonians 2:8
• 2. Isaiah 8:8
• 3. Amos 9:9
• 4. 2 Kings 19:28; Isaiah 37:29

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "sifting of the worthless"
• [b]. Lit "misleads"