Indeed, He will speak to this people with lips of a foreigner and with a tongue of a stranger, establishing that God's instruction, rejected when offered in familiar language through Israel's own prophets, will come through foreign conquerors and the humiliating experience of exile. The foreigners and strangers refer to Assyrians and other nations through whose conquest and domination Israel will be forced to learn obedience to God. The speaking through foreign lips and tongues emphasizes the shame of learning from those whom Israel considers enemies. Yet the irony is that God will effect instruction through these agents despite Israel's rejection of the prophetic word offered in its own language. This verse suggests that God's commitment to Israel's instruction is so profound that if the people will not learn from prophets, they will be taught by conquest and exile.

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