And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

ISAIAH 10:34KJV
Know the Bible

Isaiah 10:34 (KJV)

What does Isaiah 10:34 mean?

Isaiah 10:34 pictures God bringing down a power that seemed strong and secure. The forest stands for that power, and the cutting of its dense growth shows how completely its strength will be brought low. In the passage, the image points especially to Assyria and its proud ruler.

After the tall trees are brought low in verse 33, Isaiah describes the forest itself being cut down with iron. “Lebanon” calls to mind a region famous for its great cedar trees. The KJV’s “mighty one” presents the one who brings Lebanon down as greater than the towering forest.

The Hebrew behind Isaiah 10:34

  • “thickets” — סִבְכֵי (sivkhei): The word refers to tangled or dense growth. It gives the forest a close-packed appearance, adding to the picture of something hard to penetrate being cut down.
  • “one” — אַדִּיר (addīr): The word carries the sense of someone mighty or majestic. In the KJV phrase “a mighty one,” it stresses the power of the one who causes Lebanon to fall.

Why Isaiah 10:34 matters

  • The forest image gives a human conflict a vivid shape. Earlier in the passage, Assyria’s king boasts about what he has accomplished (Isaiah 10:13); the falling forest answers that pride with a picture of defeat.
  • The end of the forest is not the end of Isaiah’s picture of trees. The next verse speaks of a shoot coming from Jesse’s stump (Isaiah 11:1), setting new growth beside the scene of cutting and falling.

Where else these words appear

“thickets” Hebrew H5442 · used in 4 verses

  • Genesis 22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
  • Psalms 74:5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
  • Isaiah 9:18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

“down” Hebrew H5362 · used in 19 verses

  • Leviticus 19:27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
  • 2 Chronicles 4:3 And under it was the similitude of oxen, which did compass it round about: ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about. Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast.
  • Psalms 22:16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

“one” Hebrew H117 · used in 25 verses

  • Exodus 15:10 Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
  • Psalms 8:9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
  • Jeremiah 25:35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.

“forest” Hebrew H3293 · used in 58 verses

  • Deuteronomy 19:5 As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
  • Psalms 83:14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
  • Isaiah 56:9 All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.