What is the context?
The warning continues the previous chapter’s concern: Judah looks to Egypt’s horses, chariots and horsemen while failing to seek the Lord. The contrast is between the human help they count and the God whose counsel they disregard. Egyptians are human and their horses are flesh; neither can overrule Him.
Two pictures then describe the Lord’s protection of Jerusalem. Like a lion holding its ground, He will not be frightened off by shouting. Like birds hovering overhead, He will shield and preserve the city. Strength and attentive care belong in the same promise.
The call is to return to the One they have rebelled against and reject their handmade silver and gold idols. Assyria will fall through an action that is not the sword of a human warrior. The Lord’s presence in Zion, pictured as fire and a furnace, becomes the answer to the threat.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry, Wesley and Gill read the chapter against the Assyrian danger to Jerusalem. They connect the sword that is not human with the destruction of the army by the Lord’s angel, later narrated in Isaiah 37.
Henry and Gill explain the lion as an image of power that cannot be intimidated, and the hovering birds as an image of tender protection. Gill also connects the promise of passing over Jerusalem with the Passover in Egypt.
The warning about Egypt is therefore joined to an invitation to return. The Lord does not simply expose an inadequate ally; He calls His people away from idols and toward the protection He has promised.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The passing-over language gives this promise a clear connection with the earlier rescue from Egypt. The Hebrew verb pasach, pronounced pah-SAKH, is used here and in Exodus 12:23–27; Brown–Driver–Briggs lists both uses under passing over and sparing. Isaiah speaks of preservation through God’s action, as the Passover account does.
The New Testament takes that rescue into the account of Christ: 1 Corinthians 5:6–8 identifies Christ as the Passover lamb who has been sacrificed. Paul then calls believers to leave malice and wickedness for sincerity and truth.
This is a supported connection through Passover, not a statement that Paul directly quotes Isaiah 31. Across the passages, rescue belongs with a changed allegiance: the people spared by God are called to leave behind what dishonors Him.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.