Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 31

Verses 1-9

“The Egyptians Are Men, and Not God” (31:1-9)

Chapter 31, like chapters 29 and 30, is composed of two sections which say opposite things. Here the first (vss. 1-3) is an ironic lament over the Judean government and its supporters, who are relying on the horses and chariots of Egypt and not upon God. Verse 3 so well expressed the problem that it has become one of the best-known verses in the Book of Isaiah.

The second section of the chapter (vss. 4-9) refers to the salvation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Assyrian army. Like 30:29-33 and 37:21-36, it probably derives from the very end of Isaiah’s life when, in a second campaign of Sennacherib, the Assyrian army met disaster (see Introduction).