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God’s Plan for Assyria[a]

24     The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have resolved,
    so shall it be;
As I have planned,
    so shall it stand:
25 To break the Assyrian in my land
    and trample him on my mountains;
Then his yoke shall be removed from them,
    and his burden from their shoulder.(A)
26 This is the plan proposed for the whole earth,
    and this the hand outstretched over all the nations.[b]
27 The Lord of hosts has planned;
    who can thwart him?
His hand is stretched out;
    who can turn it back?(B)

Philistia.[c]

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Footnotes

  1. 14:24–27 The motif of God’s plan or work is a recurring thread running through Isaiah’s oracles. The plans of Judah’s enemies will not come to pass (7:5–7; 8:9–10; 10:7), but God’s plan for his work of disciplining his own people (5:12, 19; 28:21), and then for punishing the foreign agents God used to administer that discipline (10:12) will come to pass.
  2. 14:26 Hand outstretched over all the nations: as it was once outstretched over Israel (9:11, 16, 20; 5:25).
  3. 14:28–31 This oracle seems to reflect the political situation soon after the death of Ahaz in 715 B.C., when Ashdod and the other Philistine cities were trying to create a united front to rebel against Assyria. Ahaz had refused to join the rebels in 735 B.C. and remained loyal to Assyria during the rest of his reign, but the Philistines may have had higher hopes for his son Hezekiah. Judah, however, did not join in Ashdod’s disastrous revolt in 713–711 B.C. (cf. 20:1).