Yeshayah 31:8

8 Then shall the Assyrian fall by a cherev, not of an ish (man); and a cherev not adam (of mortals) shall devour him; so he shall flee from before the cherev, and his bochrim shall become forced laborers.

Yeshayah 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.

Yeshayah 31:8 In-Context

6 Shuvu (turn ye, return) unto Him from Whom the Bnei Yisroel have deeply revolted.

7 For in that day every ish shall cast away his elilim of kesef, and his elilim of zahav, which your own hands have made unto you as a chet.

8 Then shall the Assyrian fall by a cherev, not of an ish (man); and a cherev not adam (of mortals) shall devour him; so he shall flee from before the cherev, and his bochrim shall become forced laborers.

9 And his rock shall pass away in magor (terror), and his sarim shall desert the nes (battle flag) in panic, saith Hashem, Whose fire is in Tziyon, and His furnace in Yerushalayim.