Isaiah 10:4

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees, ²to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their spoil and plunder the fatherless. ³What 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? ⁴Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Without me: Leviticus 26:17, Leviticus 26:36, Leviticus 26:37, Deuteronomy 31:15-18, Deuteronomy 32:30, Jeremiah 37:10, Hosea 9:12

For all this: Isaiah 5:25, Isaiah 9:12, Isaiah 9:17, Isaiah 9:21

Reciprocal: Leviticus 26:16 - for your 1 Samuel 2:4 - stumbled Psalms 138:7 - thou shalt stretch Isaiah 12:1 - though Isaiah 13:7 - shall all Isaiah 17:4 - the glory Isaiah 65:12 - will I Jeremiah 2:37 - for the Lord Jeremiah 4:8 - the Jeremiah 6:12 - I will Jeremiah 6:15 - therefore Jeremiah 21:4 - Behold Jeremiah 21:5 - with an Jeremiah 46:12 - stumbled Ezekiel 6:14 - will I Ezekiel 14:9 - and I will Malachi 1:4 - They shall build Matthew 24:8 - General

Cross-References

Numbers 24:24
Ships will come from the coast of Kittim; they will subdue Asshur and Eber, but they too will perish forever."

Isaiah 23:1
This is an oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus.

Isaiah 23:12
He said, "You shall rejoice no more, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Get up and cross over to Cyprus-even there you will find no rest."

Ezekiel 27:12
Tarshish was your merchant because of your great wealth of goods; they exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for your wares.

Ezekiel 27:25
The ships of Tarshish carried your merchandise. And you were filled with heavy cargo in the heart of the sea.

Daniel 11:30
Ships of Kittim will come against him, and he will lose heart. Then he will turn back and rage against the holy covenant and do damage. So he will return and show favor to those who forsake the holy covenant.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain,.... That is, either, being forsaken by me, and destitute of my help, they shall bow down; or, "because they are without me", are not my people, and do not hearken to me, therefore they shall bow down, so David Kimchi; or, were it not for me, they would, as others; or that they might not bow down and fall; and so the words may be connected with the preceding verse

Isaiah 10:3: others render the word, translated "without me, besides"; and the sense is either, as Moses Kimchi, besides their bowing in their own land, when subdued by the Gentiles, a greater affliction shall befall them, captivity; when they should be either carried captive or slain; or besides him that shall bow down under the prisoners, they shall fall under the slain; besides those that are taken, others shall be killed; or none shall escape, but, or "except", him that bows, and hides himself under the prisoners, or in the place of the slain, that he might not be thought to be alive: or the sense is, the desolation shall be so general, that none shall escape, either they shall be taken prisoners, or they shall be slain; agreeably to which Noldius i renders the words, "without me", everyone "shall bow down among the prisoners, or shall fall among the slain"; which gives the best sense of them; that, being left of God for their sins, they would either be bound and carried captive, or else slain with the sword, and one or the other would be the lot of everyone of them:

for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still; the final and utter destruction of the nation of the Jews being then not yet come, when carried captive to Babylon, there remained a greater calamity for them, to come by the hands of the Romans. These first four verses Isaiah 10:1 seem more properly to belong to the preceding chapter Isaiah 9:1, and this should begin with the next verse Isaiah 10:5.

i Ebr. Concord. Part. p. 201, 771.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Without me - בלתי biltı̂y. There has been a great variety of interpretation affixed to this expression. The sense in which our translators understood it was, evidently, that they should be forsaken of God; and that, as the effect of this, they should bow down under the condition of captives, or among the slain. The Vulgate and the Septuagint, however. and many interpreters understand the word bore as a simple negative. ‘Where will you flee for refuge? Where will you deposit your wealth so as not to bow down under a chain?’ Vulgate, Ne incurvemini sub vinculo. Septuagint, Τοῦ μὴ ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς ἀπαγωνήν tou mē empesein eis apagōnēn - ‘Not to fall into captivity.’ The Hebrew will bear either mode of construction. Vitringa and Lowth understand it as our translators have done, as meaning that God would forsake them, and that without him, that is, deprived of his aid, they would be destroyed.

They shall bow down - They shall be subdued, as armies are that are taken captive.

Under the prisoners - That is, under the “condition” of prisoners; or as prisoner. Some understand it to mean, that they should bear down “in the place of prisoners;” that is, in prison, But it evidently means, simply, that they should be captives.

They shall fall under the slain - They shall be slain. Gesenius renders it, “‘Among the prisoners, and “among” the slain.’” The Chaldee reads it, ‘You shall be east into chains out of your own land, and beyond your own cities you shall be cast out slain.’ Vitringa supposes that the prophet, in this verse, refers to the custom, among the ancients, of placing prisoners in war under a yoke of wood to indicate their captivity. That such a custom obtained, there can be no doubt; but it is not probable that Isaiah refers to it here. The simple idea is, that many of them should be taken captive, and many of them slain. This prediction was fulfilled in the invasion of Tiglath-pileser; 2 Kings 15:0; 2 Kings 16:0.

For all this - Notwithstanding these calamities. The cup of punishment is not filled by these, but the divine judgment shall still be poured out further upon the nation. The anger of God shall not be fully expressed by these minor inflictions of his wrath, but his hand shall continue to be stretched out until the whole nation shall be overwhelmed and ruined; see the note at Isaiah 10:12.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 10:4. Without me — That is, without my aid: they shall be taken captive even by the captives, and shall be subdued even by the vanquished. "The י yod in בלתי bilti is a pronoun, as in Hosea 13:4." - Kimchi on the place. One MS. has לבלתי lebilti.

As the people had hitherto lived without God in worship and obedience; so they should now be without his help, and should perish in their transgressions.