16 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness. He proceeds with the former doctrine, declaring that the Lord will show to the Assyrian how undeservedly he exalts himself, and will throw down his arrogance, in which he foolishly takes delight. As he trusted in his wealth and his forces, Isaiah declares that the Lord will take them away; and he does so under the metaphor of fatness and leanness. By the word fatness he means both riches and warlike power, in which he placed too much confidence; as if he had said, "Everything fat and rich that he possesses, the Lord will make the whole of it lean." It is not uncommon to compare prosperity to fatness; for as horses which are too fat become refractory, so as to throw the rider or kick when any one comes near them, so among men abundance produces fierceness of disposition, which is subdued by leanness And under his glory he shall kindle a burning. There is great beauty in the comparison, that a fire will be laid under his glory; for it means, that the greater the splendor of his prosperity, so much the more abundant will be the fuel for the conflagration. Yet it likewise shows that he will be utterly reduced to nothing; as if one were to cut down a tree from the roots, or overturn a house from the foundation. If nothing more than the branches of a tree be cut down, it quickly sprouts again; or if the roof of a house be consumed by fire, the other parts of it remain uninjured. He therefore leaves him nothing, but asserts that he will be brought down by utter destruction. As the burning of a fire. [1] The particle as, which points out the comparison, does not mean that the language is metaphorical, but rather that the burning will be such as to consume utterly the glory of the Assyrian.
1 - Like the burning of a fire. -- Eng. Ver.
Therefore shall the Lord - Hebrew, אדון 'ādôn.
The Lord of hosts - In the present Hebrew text, the original word is also אדני 'ădonāy, but fifty-two manuscripts and six editions read Jehovah. On the meaning of the phrase, "the Lord of hosts," see the note at Isaiah 1:9. This verse contains a threatening of the punishment that would come upon the Assyrian for his insolence and pride, and the remainder of the chapter is mainly occupied with the details of that punishment. The punishment here threatened is, that while he appeared to be a victor, and was boasting of success and of his plunder, God would send leanness - as a body becomes wasted with disease.
His fat ones - That is, those who had fattened on the spoils of victory; his vigorous, prosperous, and flourishing army. The prophet here evidently intends to describe his numerous army glutted with the trophies of victor, and revelling on the spoils.
Leanness - They shall be emaciated and reduced; their vigor and strength shall be diminished. In Psalm 106:15, the word "leanness," רזון râzôn, is used to denote destruction, disease. In Micah 6:10, it denotes diminution, scantiness - 'the scant ephah.' Here it denotes, evidently, that the army which was so large and vigorous, should waste away as with a pestilential disease; compare Isaiah 10:19. The "fact" was, that of that vast host few escaped. The angel of the Lord killed 185,000 men in a single night; 2-Kings 18:35; see the notes at Isaiah. 38:36.
And under his glory - That is, beneath the boasted honor, might, and magnificence of the proud monarch.
He shall kindle - That is, God shall suddenly and entirely destroy his magnificence and pride, as when a fire is kindled beneath a magnificent temple. A similar passage occurs in Zac 12:6 :
In that day I shall make the governors of Judah
Like a hearth of fire among the wood,
And like a torch of fire in a sheaf;
And they shall devour all the people round about.
The Lord "Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, fifty-two MSS., eleven editions, and two of my own, ancient, read יהוה, Yehovah, as in other cases.
And under his glory - That is, all that he could boast of as great and strong in his army, (Sal. ben Melec in loc.), expressed afterwards, Isaiah 10:18, by the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field.
Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts,.... Because of the pride, and arrogance, and vain boasting of the Assyrian monarch, which was resented by the Lord, he is threatened with what follows; and in order to humble him, and to show that God is above him, these titles are used; "the Lord", the Lord of the whole earth, and the King of kings, and Lord of lords; "the Lord of hosts", of armies above and below, of more and greater armies than what the king of Assyria was lord of; and therefore he might be assured that what is hereafter threatened would be fulfilled, namely,
send among his fat ones leanness; the Targum is, among his princes, who abounded in riches and honour; or his army, and the chiefs in it, the mighty and strong; and by "leanness" is meant destruction and death, which came upon his army, and the great men of it, immediately from the hand of God; see Psalm 106:15 compared with Numbers 11:33,
and under his glory he shall kindle a burning, like the burning of a fire; that is, under his army, which was great and glorious, very numerous, and well accoutred with clothes and arms, and made a very splendid and glittering show, and of which the Assyrian monarch gloried; this army the Jews say was destroyed by fire, and that the bodies of the men were burnt, and their clothes untouched; but Jarchi interprets this glory of their garments, which give a man glory, and says these were burnt; the Targum calls them their vessels of glory; perhaps meaning their glittering arms, which were burnt along with them.
fat ones-- (Isaiah 5:17). The robust and choice soldiers of Assyria (Psalm 78:31, where "fattest" answers in the parallelism to "chosen," or "young men," Margin).
leanness--carrying out the image on "fat ones." Destruction (Psalm 106:15). Fulfilled (Isaiah 37:36).
his glory--Assyria's nobles. So in Isaiah 5:13, Margin; Isaiah 8:7.
kindle--a new image from fire consuming quickly dry materials (Zac 12:6).
There follows in the next v. the punishment provoked by such self-deification (cf., Habakkuk 1:11). "Therefore will the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send consumption against his fat men; and under Asshur's glory there burns a brand like a firebrand." Three epithets are here employed to designate God according to His unlimited, all-controlling omnipotence: viz., hâ'âdōn, which is always used by Isaiah in connection with judicial and penal manifestations of power; and adonâi zebâoth, a combination never met with again, similar to the one used in the Elohistic Psalm, Elohim zebaoth (compare, on the other hand, Isaiah 3:15; Isaiah 10:23-24). Even here a large number of codices and editions (Norzi's, for example) have the reading Jehovah Zebaoth, which is customary in other cases.
(Note: This passage is not included in the 134 vaddâ'ı̄n (i.e., "real") adonai, or passages in which adonai is written, and not merely to be read, that are enumerated by the Masora (see Br's Psalterium, p. 133).)
Râzōn (Isaiah 17:4) is one of the diseases mentioned in the catalogue of curses in Leviticus 26:16 and Deuteronomy 28:22. Galloping consumption comes like a destroying angel upon the great masses of flesh seen in the well-fed Assyrian magnates: mishmannim is used in a personal sense, as in Psalm 78:31. And under the glory of Asshur, i.e., its richly equipped army (câbōd as in Isaiah 8:7), He who makes His angels flames of fire places fire so as to cause it to pass away in flames. In accordance with Isaiah's masterly art of painting in tones, the whole passage is so expressed, that we can hear the crackling, and spluttering, and hissing of the fire, as it seizes upon everything within its reach. This fire, whatever it may be so far as its natural and phenomenal character is concerned, is in its true essence the wrath of Jehovah.
The Lord - The sovereign Lord of thine and all other armies, shall strip him and all his princes, of their wealth, and might, and glory; and destroy his numerous army, as the fire doth those combustible things which are cast into it.
*More commentary available at chapter level.