(7) In that day every man shall cast away . . .--The act is the same as that of Isaiah 2:20, but with a marked difference of motive: there it springs from the terror of despair, here from the repentance which is the ground of hope.

Verse 7. - For in that day every man shall cast away his idols. "In that day" - the day of Assyria's discomfiture - shall the vanity of idols be seen and recognized. They have not helped Assyria. How should they help Judah (comp. Isaiah 30:22)?

31:6-9 They have been backsliding children, yet children; let them return, and their backslidings shall be healed, though they have sunk deep into misery, and cannot easily recover. Many make an idol of their silver and gold, and by the love of that are drawn from God; but those who turn to God, will be ready to part with it. Then, when they have cast away their idols, shall the Assyrian fall by the sword of an angel, who strikes more strongly than a mighty man, yet more secretly than a mean man. God can make the stoutest heart to tremble. But if we keep up the fire of holy love and devotion in our hearts and houses, we may depend upon God to protect us and them.For in that day,.... When deliverance shall be wrought; when men shall be convinced of the vanity and insufficiency of their idols to help them, and of their sin in worshipping them; when they shall be brought to repentance for it, and turn to the Lord as an evidence of it:

every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold; with contempt and abhorrence of them, as the word (w) signifies; every man "his" own idol, and even those that were of the greatest value, which were made of gold and silver:

which your own hands have made unto you for a sin; their idols were the work of their own hands, and were made by them in order to commit sin with, the sin of idolatry; or sin may be put for the punishment of sin, which is the issue and consequence of such practices: or it may be rendered, "which your hands of sin", or "sinful hands, have made" (x); it was a sin to make such idols, especially with a view to worship them; it was a sin to worship them; and the fruit of it was deserved punishment.

(w) a "spernere, reprobare." (x) "manus vestrae flagitiosae", Bootius Animadv. Sacr. l. 4. c. 2. sect. 12.