“Therefore the Sovereign,
Yahweh of hosts,
Will send
A wasting sickness
Among his stout warriors.
Under his glory
A burning will be kindled,
Like the burning of a fire.
The light of Israel
Will become a fire.
His Holy One
Will be a flame.
It will burn his thorns.
It will devour his briers in one day.
Yahweh will destroy
The glory of his forest.
Yahweh will destroy
The glory of his fruitful land,
Both soul and body.
It will be as
When an invalid wastes away.
The remnant of the trees
Of his forest
Will be so few
That a child
Can write them down.”
Isaiah predicts the devastation of the army and land of the king of Assyria. Yahweh was going to send a wasting sickness among his warriors. This maybe an allusion to 2 Kings, chapter 19, when 185,000 Assyrian troops died. The light of Israel will become a raging flame starting a great fire that will destroy and devour the thorns and briers of Assyria itself. Yahweh will destroy the forests and the fruitful land with a wild fire, so that both their bodies and souls will be destroyed. There will be so few trees left, so that a mere child can count and write the number down.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 