Isaiah 31:8

8 “Then Assyria will fall, but not by the sword of man; a sword will devour them, but not one made by mortals. They will flee before the sword, and their young men will be put to forced labor.

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 Return to the One against whom you have so blatantly rebelled, O children of Israel.

7 For on that day, every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made.

8 “Then Assyria will fall, but not by the sword of man; a sword will devour them, but not one made by mortals. They will flee before the sword, and their young men will be put to forced labor.

9 Their rock will pass away for fear, and their princes will panic at the sight of the battle standard,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.