Isaiah 10:19

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁵Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath. ⁶I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets. ⁷But this is not what he intends; this is not what he plans. His purpose is to destroy and cut off many nations. ⁸"Are not all my commanders kings?" he says. ⁹"Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? ¹⁰As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms, whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria, ¹¹and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?" ¹²So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, "I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes." ¹³For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers. ¹⁴My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

few: Heb. number, Isaiah 37:36

Reciprocal: Psalms 29:9 - discovereth Isaiah 21:17 - the mighty Jeremiah 20:2 - the stocks Jeremiah 21:14 - in the Jeremiah 44:28 - a small Ezekiel 12:16 - a few men

Cross-References

Genesis 10:1
This is the account of Noah's sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who also had sons after the flood.

Genesis 10:2
The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

Genesis 10:7
The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

Genesis 10:8
And Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth.

Genesis 10:10
His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

Genesis 10:15
Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites,

Genesis 10:17
the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites,

Genesis 10:18
the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans were scattered

Genesis 10:21
And sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth; Shem was the forefather of all the sons of Eber.

Genesis 10:24
And Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few,.... Which were left unconsumed, that escaped this destruction, those of the Assyrian army that fled with Sennacherib their king; which, the Rabbins say r, were no more than ten, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; yea, some say there were but five left who escaped, and name them, Sennacherib and his two sons, Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan:

that a child may write them; count them, and take down their names; and it may be understood of a military muster, and the sense be, that the army should be reduced to so small a number by this stroke upon them, that there would be no need of an able muster master to take the account of them, a child would be equal to such a task. The Targum is,

"and the rest of his warriors shall fail, that the people shall be a small number, and shall be reckoned a weak kingdom.''

r T. Bab. ib. fol. 95. 2. Praefat. Echa Rabbati, fol. 41. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the rest of the trees ... - Keeping up still the image of a large and once dense forest, to which he had likened the Assyrian army. ‘The rest’ here means that which shall be left after the threatened judgment shall come upon them.

That a child may write them - That a child shall be able to number them, or write their names; that is, they shall be very few. A child can number or count but few; yet the number of those who would be left, would be so very small that even a child could count them with ease. It is probable that a few of the army of Sennacherib escaped (see the note at Isaiah 37:37); and compared with the whole army, the remnant might bear a striking resemblance to the few decaying trees of a once magnificent forest of cedars.