Isaiah 10:3
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What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The prophet, in this chapter, is dealing, I. With the proud oppressors of his people at home, that abused their power, to pervert justice, whom he would reckon with for their tyranny (Isa 10:1-4). II. With a threatening invader of his people from abroad, Sennacherib king of Assyria, concerning whom observe, 1. The commission given him to invade Judah (Isa 10:5, Isa 10:6). 2. His pride and insolence in the execution of that commission (Isa 10:7-11, Isa 10:13, Isa 10:14). 3. A rebuke given to his haughtiness, and a threatening of his fall and ruin, when he had served the purposes for which God raised him up (Isa 10:12, Isa 10:15-19). 4. A promise of grace to the people of God, to enable them to bear up under the affliction, and to get good by it (Isa 10:20-23). 5. Great encouragement given to them not to fear this threatening storm, but to hope that, though for the present all the country was put into a great consternation by it, yet it would end well, in the destruction of this formidable enemy (Isa 10:24-34). And this is intended to quiet the minds of good people in reference to all the threatening efforts of the wrath of the church's enemies. If God be for us, who can be against us? None to do us any harm.
Open source ↗10:3 The implied answer to Isaiah’s rhetorical questions was that there would be no one to turn to when God punished Judah. • Disaster came first from the distant land of Assyria and later from Babylon.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived— let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.
They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”
what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?
Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.
Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.
And on that day the dwellers of this coastland will say, ‘See what has happened to our source of hope, those to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”
Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
He lifts a banner for the distant nations and whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!
For behold, the LORD is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.
The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,