Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2

ut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by the mighty one," chap. x. 34. "Asshur shall be broken in the land of the Lord, and upon His mountains be trodden under foot; and his yoke shall depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders," chap. xiv. 25. "And Asshur shall fall with the sword not of a man," chap. xxxi. 8. These prophecies found their fulfilment in the destruction of Sennacherib's host before Jerusalem,--an event which no human ingenuity could have known even a day beforehand. But Isaiah does not content himself with promising to trembling Zion the help of God against Asshur in that momentary calamity. In harmony with Hosea and Micah, he promises to Judah, in general, security from Asshur. He says to Hezekiah, after that danger was over, in chap. xxxviii. 6: "And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria, and I will defend this city."

Behind the Assyrian kingdom, the Prophet beholds a new power germinating, viz