Isaiah 30 Footnotes

30:26 If the sun were, literally, to burn seven times brighter than at present, everything on earth would be burned up. The prophet was using a poetic image to affirm that instead of darkness, destruction, and lack of fertility, there would be abundant water (v. 25) and light for the healing of the land (see note on Mal 4:2).

30:28 How is it just for God to deceive people? The Assyrians were brought by God to carry out his judgment against Judah (10:5); they were likened to a destructive torrent of roaring flooding water from God’s mouth (Assyria was pictured as a mass of water, see 8:8; 28:2,15,17). But the Assyrians did not follow God’s plan; instead, they acted in pride (36:4-20; 37:21-29). In a picturesque image, Isaiah compared the results of God’s action against the people of Assyria to putting a bridle in the mouth of a horse to lead it astray. This implied that God was leading Assyria on a path that would result in its own destruction because of its sins (1Kg 22:22-24).