Isaiah 26:6

Isa 26:6 The foot shall tread it down, [even] the feet of the poor, [and] the steps of the needy.

Ver. 6. The foot shall tread it down.] He saith not the hand shall beat it down, but the foot shall spurn down this lofty city, even the feet of the poor and abject ones, as once Samson dealt by the Philistines, {Jdg 15:8} and as men use to spurn base and peasantly fellows that stand in their way. God can, and sometimes doth, to show his power and wisdom, make desolation itself to scale a fort. {Amo 5:10} Men thrust through, to rise up and set whole cities afire, {Jer 37:10} bring to pass mighty things by base and abject means.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26:6 Justice finally occurs when the needy walk all over the ruins of the city where the proud have perished.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

God will set the poor afflicted over the power of the wicked.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

poor-- (Isa 25:4), the once afflicted Jewish captives. "Foot shall tread," is figurative for exulting in the fall of God's enemies (Rev 18:20).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(6) Even the feet of the poor . . .—The downfall of the haughty city is emphasised by the fact that the instruments of its destruction are to be the very people it had oppressed. The “saints of God” are in this sense to judge the world.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. The poor and needy are the Jews, as in ch. Isa_25:4. The oppressed triumph over their oppressors. But that they are actually the instruments of Jehovah’s vengeance on the “lofty city” is not necessarily implied.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The foot shall tread it down,.... Trample upon it when brought down, laid low, and level with the ground, as mire is trodden in the streets, and straw for the dunghill; as grapes in the winepress, or grass by the feet of cattle: not the foot of a prince, as Aben Ezra observes, or of mighty men; but, as follows,

even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy; these are not the Israelites in a literal sense, as Kimchi explains it; but the spiritual Israel of God; the righteous, as the Targum paraphrases it; the saints of the most High, to whom the kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven will now be given, and who will be just come out of great tribulation; for the words suggest, that the people of God will be a poor and afflicted people, and very feeble, and sore distressed, a little before the destruction of antichrist; but as God has been always used to do his work by the poor and weak things of this world, by mean and feeble instruments, so he will now, and raise his poor and needy ones to a very high and exalted estate; all their enemies shall be subdued and crushed under their feet; see Mal 4:3 Jarchi interprets the feet of the poor of the feet of the King Messiah, according to Zac 9:9.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor - That is, evidently, those who had been despised by them, and who had been overcome and oppressed by them. The obvious reference here is to the Jews who had been captives there. The idea is not necessarily that the ‘poor’ referred to here I would be among the conquerors, but that when the Babylonians should be overcome, and their city destroyed, those who were then oppressed should be in circumstances of comparative prosperity. No doubt the Jews, who in subsequent times traveled to the site of Babylon for purposes of traffic, would trample indignantly on the remains of the city where their fathers were captives for seventy years, and would exult in the idea that their own once down-trodden city Jerusalem was in a condition of comparative prosperity. That there were many Jews in Babylon after that city began to decline from its haughtiness and grandeur, we learn expressly from both Philo and Josephus. Thus Philo (De Legatione ad Caium, p. 792) says, that ‘it is known that Babylon and many other satraps were possessed by the Jews, not only by rumour, but by experience.’ So Josephus (Ant. xv. 2.) says, that there were in the time of Hyrcanus many Jews at Babylon.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Needy. The Jews shall behold the ruin of the city by Cyrus, (Calmet) who was of a contemptible nation. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

God will bring it under the feet of his poor, and weak, and despised people.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The foot shall tread it down; rather, trode it down. The feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy; i.e. the feet of God"s people, the weak and afflicted of this world, trod down ultimately, or brought to destruction and ruin, the great world-power not so much that they were victorious in an actual physical contest, as that they, finally triumphed through God"s judgment on the world-power, which brought it to naught, and left it for his people to show their contempt by trampling upon the smoking ruins.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The needy - God will bring it under the feet of his poor, and weak, and despised people.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

“The foot shall trample on it, the feet of the afflicted, the steps of the weak.” The ruins of the fallen city shall be trodden underfoot, not only by its conquerors, but by those whom it oppressed. Steps is here a poetical equivalent to feet.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

the feet of a poor man The King Messiah, who is referred to as a poor man riding on a donkey (Zech. 9:9).

the soles of the impoverished Israel, who were heretofore impoverished.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

The foot shall tread it down, etc. He will bring it so low, that it will be trodden not by the foot of the noble but by that of the poor.

רגלי ═ פעמי feet. Comp. פעמים (Ex. 23:14) ═ רגלים (ibid. 17) times.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.