Isaiah 28:2

In the next three vv. the hoi is expanded. "Behold, the Lord holds a strong and mighty thing like a hailstorm, a pestilent tempest; like a storm of mighty overflowing waters, He casts down to the earth with almighty hand. With feet they tread down the proud crown of the drunken of Ephraim. And it happens to the fading flower of its splendid ornament, which is upon the head of the luxuriant valley, as to an early fig before it is harvest, which whoever sees it looks at, and it is no sooner in his hand than he swallows it." "A strong and mighty thing:" ואמּי חזק we have rendered in the neuter (with the lxx and Targum) rather than in the masculine, as Luther does, although the strong and mighty thing which the Lord holds in readiness is no doubt the Assyrian. He is simply the medium of punishment in the hand of the Lord, which is called yâd absolutely, because it is absolute in power - as it were, the hand of all hands. This hand hurls Samaria to the ground (on the expression itself, compare Isa 25:12; Isa 26:5), so that they tread the proud crown to pieces with their feet (tērâmasnâh, the more pathetic plural form, instead of the singular tērâmēs; Ges. 47, Anm. 3, and Caspari on Oba 1:13). The noun sa‛ar, which is used elsewhere in the sense of shuddering, signifies here, like סערה, an awful tempest; and when connected with קטב, a tempest accompanied with a pestilential blast, spreading miasma. Such destructive power is held by the absolute hand. It is soon all over then with the splendid flower that has already begun to fade נבל ציצת, like הקּטן כּלי in Isa 22:24). It happens to it as to a bikkūrâh (according to the Masora, written with mappik here, as distinguished from Hos 9:10, equivalent to kebhikkūrâthâh; see Job 11:9, "like an early fig of this valley;"…

In this chapter, I. The Ephraimites are reproved and threatened for their pride and drunkenness, their security and sensuality (Isa 28:1-8). But, in the midst of this, here is a gracious promise of God's favour to the remnant of his people (Isa 28:5, Isa 28:6). II. They are likewise reproved and threatened for their dulness and stupidity, and unaptness to profit by the instructions which the prophets gave them in God's name (Isa 28:9-13). III. The rulers of Jerusalem are reproved and threatened for their insolent contempt of God's judgments, and setting them at defiance; and, after a gracious promise of Christ and his grace, they are made to know that the vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God with which they flattered themselves would certainly deceive them (Isa 28:14-22). IV. All this is confirmed by a comparison borrowed from the method which the husbandman takes with his ground and grain, according to which they must expect God would proceed with his people, whom he had lately called his threshing and the corn of his floor (Isa 21:10) (Isa 28:23-29). This is written for our admonition, and is profitable for reproof and warning to us.

28:2 the Lord will send: The covenant God will act against his own people, whose behavior had effectively disqualified them as God’s people (see Hos 1:9). • The mighty army is that of the Assyrians, who destroyed Samaria in 722 BC.