Isaiah 10:22

22 For though your people Israel was like the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of it will return. Annihilation [is] determined, overflowing [with] righteousness.

Isaiah 10:22 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 10:22

For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea,
&c.] These words are spoken either by the Lord to the prophet, calling Israel his people; or by the prophet to Hezekiah, as Jarchi and Kimchi think; or they may be rendered thus, "for though thy people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea" ^F19; that is, innumerable, as was promised to Abraham, ( Genesis 22:17 ) ( Hosea 1:10 ) : [yet] a remnant of them shall return;
or "be converted in it" ^F20, to the Messiah; or "be saved", as the apostle interprets it, (See Gill on Romans 9:27); a remnant is a few, as Kimchi explains it, out of a great number: it signifies, that the majority of the Jewish nation should reject the Messiah, only a few of them should believe in him; and these should certainly believe in him, and be saved by him; and that for the following reason, because the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness;
that is, the precise and absolute decree, concerning the salvation of the remnant, God will cause to overflow, or abundantly execute, in a righteous manner, consistent with his divine perfections; and so it makes for the comfort of the remnant of the Lord's people, agreeably to the intent of the apostle's citation of it, (See Gill on Romans 9:28); though some understand it of God's punitive justice, in consuming and destroying the greater part of the Jewish people, the ungodly among them, and saving a remnant, which return and repent; and to this sense are the Targum, and the Jewish commentators.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 "Nam etsi fuerit populus tuus, O Israel, sicut arena maris", Piscator.
F20 (wb bwvy) "convertetur in eo", Montanus, Cocceius.

Isaiah 10:22 In-Context

20 And this shall happen: on that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will not continue to lean on [the] one who struck it but will lean on Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, in truth.

21 A remnant will return-- the remnant of Jacob--to [the] mighty God.

22 For though your people Israel was like the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of it will return. Annihilation [is] determined, overflowing [with] righteousness.

23 For the Lord Yahweh of hosts [is] about to make a complete destruction and a determined end in the midst of all the earth.

24 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh of hosts: "My people who live [in] Zion, you must not be afraid of Assyria. It beats you with the rod, and it lifts up its staff against you {as the Egyptians did}.