5:6 I will make it a wasteland;
no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, 1
and thorns and briers will grow there.
I will order the clouds
not to drop any rain on it.
10:17 The light of Israel 2 will become a fire,
their Holy One 3 will become a flame;
it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s 4 briers
and his thorns in one day.
1 tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.
2 tn In this context the “Light of Israel” is a divine title (note the parallel title “his holy one”). The title points to God’s royal splendor, which overshadows and, when transformed into fire, destroys the “majestic glory” of the king of Assyria (v. 16b).
3 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
4 tn Heb “his.” In vv. 17-19 the Assyrian king and his empire is compared to a great forest and orchard that are destroyed by fire (symbolic of the Lord).