Isaiah 6:13

A tenth. Because certain details of the Hebrew of v. 13 are not altogether clear, its translation and interpretation are difficult. A literal translation would read: “And yet in her [that is, the land; see v. 12] shall be a tenth and she [the land, or the tenth] shall be again [or remain, or return], and she [the land, or the tenth] shall be for a burning down like a terebinth and like an oak, which in the felling a stump [is left] in her [the land, or the tenth; or “in them,” meaning the terebinth and the oak] and a holy seed in her stump.” The basic meaning of the verse is clear. Verses 11,12 have described the desolation of Judah at the time of the Babylonian captivity. Though the land would be left utterly desolate, this experience would not mean the end of Israel as a nation (see Jer. 4:27; 5:10, 18; 30:11; 46:28). She would rise again. The discouraging picture of a people persisting in their perversity, blind and deaf to the messages Isaiah was to bear to them until they should be swept away into captivity, here blends into one of assurance that the land will not remain wholly forsaken forever and that God’s purpose for her will eventually be accomplished (PK 309, 310). Compare the name of Isaiah’s first-born son, Shear-jashub, which means literally, “[a] remnant [shall] return.” The thought that a “remnant” would “return” recurs again and again throughout the book (chs. 4:2, 3; 10:21; etc.). No particular significance is to be attached to the fact that the remnant would be “a tenth” of the original. In the Bible, ten is a small, sometimes indefinite, number, and a tenth part would, accordingly, be a small number.

A teil tree. Probably the terebinth, a tree from which turpentine was secured. The tree might be stripped and nothing left of it save the stump. But from that stump a new tree would grow. The message therefore was one of encouragement and hope. Isaiah’s work was not to be entirely in vain; in the end a remnant would be saved.

The holy seed. In the “stump” there would remain life, and this would ultimately spring forth again and become a new tree. A tree is a common OT figure for God’s people (see Isa. 65:22; Jer. 17:8; cf. Dan. 4:14, 23). From this “holy seed” a new and glorious Israel would rise.

=== 23 Isaiah 07-09.txt ===