Yeshayah 30:31

31 For through the voice of Hashem shall the Assyrian be crushed, which struck with a shevet (rod).

Yeshayah 30:31 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 30:31

For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be
beaten down
As anything is by a storm of thunder, lightning, hail, and rain: or "fear", or be "affrighted", as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions render it; Sennacherib, the Assyrian monarch, and that part of his army which escaped, though not destroyed by it, were put into the utmost consternation: this shows that the prophecy in the context refers to the overthrow of the Assyrian army by the angel, when besieging Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time; though the Assyrian is sometimes used for any enemy of God's people at other times, particularly antichrist, and especially the eastern antichrist, the Turk:

[which] smote with a rod;
other nations, particularly the Jews, whom the Assyrian is expressly said to smite with a rod; and because he was an instrument in God's hand for the chastising of that people, he is called the rod of his anger, ( Isaiah 10:5 Isaiah 10:24 ) but now he that smote shall be smitten himself; him whom God used as a rod to correct others, he will smite with his rod, for his own correction: for this may be understood of God, and be rendered thus, "with a rod, he", that is, God, "shall smite" the Assyrian, as before; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi. The Targum interprets the "rod" of dominion.

Yeshayah 30:31 In-Context

29 Ye shall have the shir (song), as in the night when the chag is set apart as kodesh; and simchat levav, as when one goeth with a chalil (flute) to come to the Har Hashem, to the Tzur Yisroel.

30 And Hashem shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall cause the lowering of His zero’a to be seen, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring eish, with smashing, and tempest, and even barad (stones of hail, hailstones).

31 For through the voice of Hashem shall the Assyrian be crushed, which struck with a shevet (rod).

32 And in every place where the matteh (rod) of punishment shall pass, which Hashem shall lay upon him [Ashur], it shall be with tambourines and kinnorot; and in milchamot (battles) of brandishing will He fight against them.

33 For Tophet [i.e., the place where humans are sacrificed to Molech in Gey Hinnom] is ordained of old; indeed, for Melech [Molech] it is prepared. He hath made it deep and wide; the fire pit thereof is eish and much wood; the nishmat Hashem (breath of Hashem), like a stream of gofrit (brimstone, burning sulfur), doth kindle it [see Isa 66:24].