Isaiah 31:8

8 And Assur shall fall by sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee, not from the face of sword, and his young men shall be tributaries; (And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, but not by the sword of a man; yea, a sword, but not a man's sword, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the face of the sword, and his young men shall be slaves, or shall be put to forced labour;)

Isaiah 31:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 31:8

Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a
mighty man
That is, the Assyrian army under Sennacherib their king, which besieged Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time; which, as soon as the people were brought to a sense of their sin, and repentance for it, and cast away their idols as a proof of it, were utterly destroyed; but not in battle, not by the sword of Hezekiah, or any of his valiant generals:

and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him;
neither the sword of a general, nor of a private soldier, nor indeed of any man, but of an angel; see ( 2 Kings 19:35 ) :

but he shall flee from the sword;
from the drawn sword of the angel, who very probably appeared in such a form as in ( 1 Chronicles 21:16 ) which Sennacherib king of Assyria seeing, as well as the slaughter made in his army by him, fled from it; in the Hebrew text it is added, "for himself" ^F25; he fled for his life, for his own personal security; see ( 2 Kings 19:36 ) :

and his young men shall be discomfited;
his choice ones, the flower of his army: or "melt away" ^F26, through fear; or die by the stroke of the angel upon them: the sense of becoming "tributary" seems to have no foundation.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 (wl) "fugiet sibi", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius; "fuga consulet sibi", Junius & Tremellius.
F26 (wyhy oml) "in liquefactionem, erunt", Vatablus; "colliquescent", Piscator.

Isaiah 31:8 In-Context

6 Ye sons of Israel, be converted, as ye had gone away into depth. (Ye Israelites, turn back to me, ye who have gone so far away from me.)

7 Forsooth in that day a man shall cast away the idols of his silver, and the idols of his gold, which your hands made to you into sin. (For on that day everyone shall throw away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which your hands made for you to sin with.)

8 And Assur shall fall by sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee, not from the face of sword, and his young men shall be tributaries; (And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, but not by the sword of a man; yea, a sword, but not a man's sword, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the face of the sword, and his young men shall be slaves, or shall be put to forced labour;)

9 and the strength of him shall pass from fearedfulness, and his princes fleeing shall dread. The Lord said, whose fire is in Zion, and his chimney is in Jerusalem. (and his strength shall pass away because of fearfulness, and his fleeing leaders shall have great fear. Thus saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace is in Jerusalem.)