People of wrath

In Isaiah 10:6, Yahweh describes Israel as a “people of wrath” ( ‘am ‘avrati ). Like other phrases that Isaiah uses to describe godless Israel, this one is a pun. ‘avarah puns first with ‘ever , or Eber, the ancestor of the Jews and the source of the name “Hebrews.” Eberites had become Wrathites.

The word also puns, more directly, on the verb ‘avar , “pass over” or “pass through,” a word used both for the Lord “passing through” Egypt at Passover (Exodus 12:12) and for Israel’s passage through the sea (Exodus 15:16). The people of Passover and Exodus have become people of Wrath. Once Yahweh passed by the houses of Israel, but now the Angel will carry out His wrath against Israel; once Israel passed through the sea, but the Lord is bringing an Assyrian flood that will drown them.