God. Hence he has decreed something very strange, an extermination, something decided upon, from which he will not change. Isaiah was used as a prophet to tell about it, saying: “A mere remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. For although your people, O Israel, would prove to be like the grains of sand of the sea, a mere remnant among them will return. An extermination decided upon will be flooding through in righteousness, because an exterminating and a strict decision the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, will be executing in the midst of the whole land.”—Isa. 10:21-23.

8. Upon whom first did that extermination come, but how does Paul locate a larger fulfillment of it in times future from his day?

⁸ Extermination came upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of Judah in the next century after Isaiah. However, the Christian apostle Paul locates a larger fulfillment of the extermination in times future from his own day by quoting from Isaiah and saying: “Moreover, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Although the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved. For Jehovah will make an accounting on the earth, consummating it and cutting it short.’ . . . at the present season also a remnant has turned up according to a choosing [by Jehovah God] due to [his] undeserved kindness.”—Rom. 9:27, 28; 11:5.

9. When was there a second extermination, and now what will there be in our day?

⁹ That “accounting on the earth” was made by Jehovah on the land of Judah and Jerusalem and resulted in the extermination of the Jews that was executed by the Roman soldiers in the year 70 (A.D.). Now in our day there will be a final extermination.

Warnings of Jehovah’s Unusual Work

1, 2. (a) How did Christendom and Judah and Jerusalem have warning examples of coming extermination? (b) How did Isaiah sound out the warning?

CHRISTENDOM today has a warning example of what is about to befall her in what befell Judah and Jerusalem. In turn, ancient Judah and Jerusalem had their warning example of the extermination that was coming upon them in the extermination that came upon the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, whose main tribe was Ephraim and whose capital city was Samaria. The name Ephraim was in fact used to designate the entire ten-tribe kingdom of Israel. The extermination upon Ephraim and its capital city Samaria occurred in the days of the prophet Isaiah, in 740 B.C. Before ever it came, Isaiah was used to sound out a warning, saying:

² “Woe to the eminent crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading blossom of its decoration of beauty that is upon the head of the fertile valley of those overpowered by wine! Look! Jehovah has someone strong and vigorous. Like a thunderous storm of hail, a decimating storm, like a thunderous storm of powerful, flooding waters, he will certainly do a casting down to the earth with force. With the feet the eminent crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled down. And the fading flower of its decoration of beauty that is upon the head of the fertile valley must become like the early fig before summer, that, when the seer sees it, while it is yet in his palm, he swallows it down.”—Isa. 28:1-4.

3. (a) When Samaria was made the national capital, what was the religious condition of Israel? (b) On what were its drunkards drunk, and what kind of decoration did they wear?

³ Toward the western end of a fertile valley rises the 300-foot-high hill with steep sides called Samaria or “watch mountain.” The city of Samaria was built there. Its position was one of great beauty and charm, and, according to ancient methods of warfare, it was a strategic military stronghold that was able to be reduced only by being starved out. When the city of Samaria was made the capital of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, the nation had already fallen away from Jehovah and had become the enemy of Judah and Jerusalem. It even joined in an alliance with non-Jewish Syria against Jehovah’s kingdom in Judah. There were continual wars between Israel and Judah. The capital city Samaria, the seat of Baal worship, was full of drunkards, particularly political drunkards. They became drunk not merely on literal wine but also on political wine. This latter wine was the wine of political independence from Judah and also wine of political alliance with the Syrians and other enemies of Jehovah’s kingdom in Judah. At their wine bouts they crowned their heads gaily with a wreath or garland of flowers. It was a decoration of beauty; but it was made of blossoms that fade and die. It was a fading crown that was worn by those drunkards that were overpowered by wine. It was a fading crown that the entire capital city Samaria wore while it was drunk with the pleasures of independent political power, backed by political alliances.

4. How was there to be woe to the perishable crown of those drunkards, and what was the “strong and vigorous” one whom Jehovah used for executing divine wrath?

⁴ Woe to that perishable crown! declared Jehovah God through Isaiah, for it was to be trampled on the ground. The glory of being a kingdom was to be soiled. The drunken state of self-indulgence as a kingdom was to be abruptly interrupted. The sobering experience of being overturned and of being subjugated by a mighty world power was to bring Samaria and Ephraim to a sensing of the stern realities of the situation. This was to come as a shock upon Samaria’s drunkards, because their kingdom had rejected Jehovah and had turned to worshiping the golden calves and the false god Baal and had fought continually against Jehovah’s anointed king who sat on the “throne of Jehovah” on Mount Zion. In order to overthrow the apostate kingdom belonging to Samaria, Jehovah God had a “strong and vigorous” one for executing the divine wrath. Who was it? The world power of Assyria, whose capital city was Nineveh. Like the flooding Euphrates River, Assyria’s conquering armies would tramp through the land, ravaging it and destroying Samaria the capital. (Isa. 7:17-20; 8:7, 8) Quickly, as when an early summer fig is gobbled up as soon as it is spied, the beauty of the decorating crown of Samaria’s drunkards would be blighted.

5. What should the drunkards of Jerusalem and Judah have observed and done, and how, through them, did Jehovah give a warning to modern Christendom?

⁵ However, Judah and Jerusalem had their drunkards also. These should have observed what happened to God-forsaking, idolatrous, power-drunk sots of Ephraim and Samaria and should have taken the warning example to heart and should have sobered up. To alert Judah and Jerusalem to what was in store for them unless they came to their senses, Jehovah inspired Isaiah to point to what was due to befall the neighbor-kingdom of Ephraim and Samaria. At the same time, by doing this, Jehovah was giving a warning to modern-day Christendom of what is in store for her soon at Armageddon.

6. Whom does Isaiah then identify as drunkards of Judah and Jerusalem, and how have their tables become?

⁶ Referring now to the drunkards of Judah