John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 10:4

"They shall only bow down under the prisoners, and shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." — Isaiah 10:4 (ASV)

If they shall not fall down. As the meaning of the particle בלתי (bilti) is ambiguous, commentators have given various interpretations of it. Some take it in an exclusive sense, as in many other passages of Scripture; as if he had said, Only he shall fall down among the bound and slain; that is, because all will be condemned and given up either to captivity or to death.

Others render it, Without me they shall fall. If this rendering is preferred, the Prophet shows that the cause of their destruction is that they have revolted from God; and unquestionably, the cause of all our distresses is to forsake the fountain of life and of salvation, and of all blessings.

In this manner, he sharply reproves the madness of the ungodly, who boast of having been forsaken by God, as if nothing were more desirable or pleasant than to withdraw to the greatest distance from Him. Thus it will be an ironical reproof: their calamity will arise from no other source than from the absence of God, in whom, without any good reason, they had rejoiced.

Others consider it to be an elliptical expression, meaning that they will have no hiding-place except by throwing themselves down under the captives and the slain.

It might also be a form of an oath, If they shall not. In that case, the meaning would be highly appropriate: that God swears in wrath that He will spare none of them, but will abandon some to captivity and deliver up others to be put to death.

In a word, this declaration shows what consequences await all those who, after being warned by the word of God, do not repent.

From what immediately follows, we learn that a dreadful and alarming destruction is threatened. For the Prophet repeats what he has already said frequently: that the wrath of the Lord is not yet apparent, and that God will find more frightful punishments to avenge Himself.

This teaches us that nothing is more truly desirable than to be moved by sincere repentance and to acknowledge our fault, so that we may obtain pardon from the Lord.