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Isaiah 10 · a question people ask

What is "because of the anointing oil" (10:27)?

In the text

"It will happen in that day that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil" (10:27) (tap burden, oil). In Hebrew the WEB's the anointing oil is one word, shemen, the word for oil. The verse doesn't say whose oil it is or what it stands for, and the chapter doesn't come back to it; these notes don't go beyond the verse. What the verse does say is plain: the burden and the yoke are taken away. In Hebrew burden and yoke are the same two words in "For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian" (Isaiah 9:4), and in a verse that names the Assyrian, "Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders" (Isaiah 14:25).

The verses

“It will happen in that day that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil.”
Isaiah 10:27 · World English Bible
“For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.”
Isaiah 9:4 · World English Bible
“that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.”
Isaiah 14:25 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 10

Isaiah 10: The rod of my anger

The Assyrian lifts his staff against Zion "as Egypt did" (10:24), and two verses later a rod is lifted over the sea "like he did against Egypt" (10:26): in Hebrew the same words, turned. To the Assyrian's boast the chapter answers, "Should an ax brag against him who chops with it?" (10:15), and it says the remnant will "lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth" (10:20).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions