He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
Parallel translations
- WEB He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
- KJV And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
- NKJV He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
- NASB He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
- NLT He will cut down the forest trees with an ax. Lebanon will fall to the Mighty One.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will hew down Assyria's forest like Lebanon felled by the Mighty One. The greatest worldly power topples before God.
Overview
The dense 'thickets of the forest' and proud 'Lebanon' — symbols of Assyria's grandeur — fall by the Lord's iron. The chapter that opened with a boasting ax ends with God himself swinging the axe of judgment. This sets up the bright contrast of chapter 11, where a humble 'shoot' from Jesse rises where the mighty forest fell.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Isa 37:24Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest heights, the densest of its forests.
- Jer 46:22–23Egypt will hiss like a fleeing serpent, for the enemy will advance in force; with axes they will come against her like woodsmen cutting down trees.
- Zech 11:1–2Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may consume your cedars!
- Ps 103:20Bless the LORD, all His angels mighty in strength who carry out His word, who hearken to the voice of His command.
- Nah 1:12This is what the LORD says: “Though they are allied and numerous, yet they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, O Judah, I will afflict you no longer.
- 2 Pet 2:11Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord.
- Rev 10:1Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs were like pillars of fire.
- Jer 48:2There is no longer praise for Moab; in Heshbon they devise evil against her: ‘Come, let us cut her off from nationhood.’ You too, O people of Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you.
- Dan 4:13–14As I lay on my bed, I also saw in the visions of my mind a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven.
- Jer 22:7I will appoint destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut down the choicest of your cedars and throw them into the fire.
- Dan 4:23And you, O king, saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying: ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump with its roots in the ground, and a band of iron and bronze around it, in the tender grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and graze with the beasts of the field till seven times pass him by.’
- Isa 10:18The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man.
- 2 Th 1:7and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels
- Isa 37:36Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Isa 31:8“Then Assyria will fall, but not by the sword of man; a sword will devour them, but not one made by mortals. They will flee before the sword, and their young men will be put to forced labor.
- Rev 18:21Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be cast down, never to be seen again.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 10:34 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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