Isaiah 8:9
9 Associate [ra`a`] yourselves,
O ye people, [`am] and ye shall be broken in
pieces; [chathath] and give ear, ['azan] all [kol] ye of far [merchaq] countries: ['erets] gird ['azar] yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; [chathath] gird ['azar] yourselves,
and ye shall be broken in pieces. [chathath] KJV-Interlinear
9
"Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered; And give ear, all remote places
of the earth. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered; Gird yourselves, yet be
shattered. NASB
Associate, ‘ra a,’ means
to ally oneself, to connect with, to confederate with, to enter into an
alliance with.
Here the prophet is
speaking to the nations of Assyria, Syria, and Samaria, all of whom have aligned
themselves against Judah, and thus have aligned themselves against God.
And here is the challenge. Despite the magnitude of their military strength,
for gird yourself is repeated, emphasizing that all of Gods enemies have spent
their energy in building up their strength for this war.
But despite their
overwhelming resources and power, as opposed to Judah, they are never going to
be strong enough to defeat God.
The result of their
invasion will be their ultimate and utter defeat.
Broken into pieces or
shattered, means total destruction and annihilation and obliteration, such that
they will never rise again.
Now, remember that many
of these prophecies have their place in past history as examples of what is
going to occur in the future. The real
prophecy is set for the Tribulation, and more specifically at the end of the
Tribulation when Judah will be invaded from all sides, beginning from the
north.
But more than that, the
entire world will ally itself against Judah and God, and as a result, the
entire world will end up in a shambles at the Second Advent.
By comparison with Judah,
in that future date, the entire world will have more manpower, more firepower,
more resources than one can even begin to imagine. And poor little Judah, will be out-matched by
far.
Judah will be overrun, and
Judah will be hammered to near extinction, but in the end, it will be the world
that will lose completely.
