And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”
Most of Isaiah 10 describes Assyria as the tool God picked up to strike His own people. This verse is the moment He puts the tool down for good. Two questions press: when does "that day" arrive, and what breaks the yoke?
The rod God Himself raised
The burden did not arrive by accident. Isaiah explains why God let this nation loose on His own people.
An Outline of Sound WordsVerse 5 of this chapter tells us why God allowed this powerful, destroying nation to attack His people. They were proud of their great victories. Yet they were only the rod of God's anger. The power they used was only the instrument to show God's indignation. God sent the Assyrian to chasten His people because of their sins, but the Assyrian had no idea what God was doing.
One prophecy, two fulfilments
The Assyrian who marched in Isaiah's day is not the whole story.
F. B. HoleAs so often in Old Testament prophecy, there is a final fulfilment as well as a nearer one, and that is the case here… In the same way, "the Assyrian" we are now to consider has a double application. He is the great power of that time, centred in the city of Nineveh. He is also that "king of the North," which was Assyria, whom we read of in the last days.
History already supplied one round of this rescue.
An Outline of Sound WordsA remnant of Israel would escape the judgment and return to God (verses 20-22). To them God says, "Be not afraid of the Assyrians… For in a very little while my fury will come to an end" (verses 24-25). This happened in the days of Hezekiah. Yet it was only the foreshadowing of what will take place at the time of the end.
When God's anger ends
The burden lifts as part of something bigger than Israel's comfort. It marks the end of God's long anger, an anger the earlier chapters kept calling "not turned away."
J. N. DarbyWhen God has finished all He had determined concerning Zion, He will break the rod He has used. Then the remnant will seek Jehovah and will "lean upon" Him… But when at last the Assyrian lifts up his hand, Jehovah steps in and strikes him. Until now, the indignation of Jehovah and His anger against Israel had never been turned away. Both will come to an end in the destruction of this rod that magnified itself against the Lord who used it.
The neck freed, and the heart changed
The same day that lifts the weight off Israel's shoulder also changes where Israel puts its trust.
William KellyThen Israel's unbelief will pass away for ever. Israel will trust no more in human strength, whether Egyptian, Assyrian, or anything else.
Why the yoke breaks
The last clause tells us why the yoke breaks, and it is the hardest part of the verse. The ESV ends it "because of the fat," while older translations read "because of the anointing." Commentators do not settle the question. One reference work marks the wording itself as unclear:
Morrish Bible DictionaryIsaiah 10:27, "the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing" (text obscure).
The chapter's own answer to the rod is clearer. Against Assyria's fall Isaiah sets an Anointed One — that is what "Messiah" means — who takes the place the rod once held.
William KellyThe high and haughty Assyrian falls under Jehovah's stroke. In contrast, we have here a remarkable and full description of the Messiah: first from a moral point of view, and then in His kingdom, its character and all that comes with it. The one in view is no longer "the rod of His anger," the staff that carried God's fury. He is a Branch from Jesse's roots, and also the Root of Jesse.
The first oppressor, judged last
This rescue comes last, at the close of God's discipline of His people. One writer ties it to a matching promise in Isaiah 14.
W. T. P. WolstonWith the fall of the Assyrian… the Lord's chastening of His people will cease. The last foe God judges is the one who attacked them first — the Assyrian. Isaiah 14 predicts this in full: "I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder" (verse 25).
Summary
- Rod raised — Assyria's power over Israel was on loan. God raised the rod against His people's sins, and the oppressor never grasped whose hand held him.
- Rod broken — the burden lifts only when God breaks the instrument He used. That same stroke ends an anger that had never yet turned away.
- Rod twice — Hezekiah saw this rescue in his own day. Writers read it as a small sample of a larger rescue from the "king of the North" at the end.
- Rod's riddle — the ESV ends the verse "because of the fat," older versions "because of the anointing." Commentators call the wording unclear.
- Rod replaced — God judges the first oppressor last, and the chapter answers the rod with a Branch from Jesse's roots. When the yoke goes, Israel's trust in human strength goes with it.