The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame: The metaphor of fire in the previous verse is now explained. The light of Israel refers to God, as in Psa 27.1. The parallel expression his Holy One confirms this. The fire that will burn away the pride and glory of Assyria (verse 16) is none other than Yahweh himself. For the title Holy One, see the comments on 1.4. His Holy One (Revised English Bible “its Holy One”) may be rendered “the Holy One of Israel.”

Some English translations (New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) use capital letters in the phrases “Light of Israel” and “Holy One” to indicate that God is in view. Of course, the use of capital letters will not help those who only hear the text read. Nor will it assist in those languages with very different orthographies, such as Hindi and Chinese. Therefore it is acceptable in some contexts to make the phrases more explicit by adding “Yahweh” or “God.” Versions that do this here are Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.

And it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day. There are echoes of 9.18 in this clause with its mention of burning and devouring (eating) thorns and briers. But this verse is about the punishment of Assyria, so his thorns and briers are symbolic for this nation. The pronoun his here and in verses 18-19 refers to Assyria. Among the versions consulted, only Bible en français courant makes the name of Assyria explicit, however, and this is done in verse 19. For thorns and briers, see the comments on 5.6 and 7.23. This destruction will take place within a short space of time or all at once—in one day. The same expression was used in 9.14; see the comments there.

Translation examples for this verse are:

• [Yahweh] the Light of Israel will become a fire,
his/its Holy One [will become] a flame;
he/it will burn [and consume] Assyria’s thorns and briers in an instant.

• The Light of Israel will be a fire and his Holy One a flame burning and devouring the thorns and brambles of Assyria in a single day.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .