Bible Strands
Isaiah 10:24
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, who strikes you with a rod and lifts his staff against you as the Egyptians did.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD of Hosts addresses His people dwelling in Zion during an active Assyrian campaign. The declaration interrupts a prior decree of land-wide destruction to deliver immediate reassurance.
The words — לָ/כֵ֗ן (la./Khen) translates literally as "therefore," tying the command directly to the preceding judgment. אַל־ תִּירָ֥א ('al- ti.Ra') means "may not you be afraid," functioning as a direct imperative against the threat of the Assyrian rod.
The thread — The prohibition against fear reappears in Isaiah 37:6, where it is directed at messengers facing the same Assyrian threat. The designation "Zion" surfaces in Hebrews 12:22 as the destination of the faithful, while Isaiah 61:3 links Zion to the administration of divine consolation.
Why it lands — The text commands a cessation of fear toward human instruments of discipline by grounding the directive in Yahweh’s sovereign speech. It requires the reader to accept that divine fury is limited and purposeful, not a permanent state of abandonment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 12:22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels
- Isaiah 37:6 who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
- Isaiah 61:3 to console the mourners in Zion—to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
- Exodus 1:10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”
- Exodus 5:14 Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”
- Exodus 14:9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi-hahiroth, opposite Baal-zephon.
- Exodus 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,
- Exodus 15:6 Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy.
- Psalms 87:5 And it will be said of Zion: “This one and that one were born in her, and the Most High Himself will establish her.”
- Isaiah 4:3 Whoever remains in Zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy—all in Jerusalem who are recorded among the living—