God. Hence he has decreed something very strange, an extermination, something decided upon, from which he will not change. Isaiah was used as a prophet to tell about it, saying: “A mere remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. For although your people, O Israel, would prove to be like the grains of sand of the sea, a mere remnant among them will return. An extermination decided upon will be flooding through in righteousness, because an exterminating and a strict decision the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, will be executing in the midst of the whole land.”—Isa. 10:21-23.

 8. Upon whom first did that extermination come, but how does Paul locate a larger fulfillment of it in times future from his day?

⁸ Extermination came upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of Judah in the next century after Isaiah. However, the Christian apostle Paul locates a larger fulfillment of the extermination in times future from his own day by quoting from Isaiah and saying: “Moreover, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Although the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved. For Jehovah will make an accounting on the earth, consummating it and cutting it short.’ . . . at the present season also a remnant has turned up according to a choosing [by Jehovah God] due to [his] undeserved kindness.”—Rom. 9:27, 28; 11:5.

 9. When was there a second extermination, and now what will there be in our day?

⁹ That “accounting on the earth” was made by Jehovah on the land of Judah and Jerusalem and resulted in the extermination of the Jews that was executed by the Roman soldiers in the year 70 (A.D.). Now in our day there will be a final extermination.

Warnings of Jehovah’s Unusual Work

 1, 2. (a) How did Christendom and Judah and Jerusalem have warning examples of coming extermination? (b) How did Isaiah sound out the warning?

CHRISTENDOM today has a warning example of what is about to befall her in what befell Judah and Jerusalem. In turn, ancient Judah and Jerusalem had their warning example of the extermination that was coming upon them in the extermination that came upon the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, whose main tribe was Ephraim and whose capital city was Samaria. The name Ephraim was in fact used to designate the entire ten-tribe kingdom of Israel. The extermination upon Ephraim and its capital city Samaria occurred in the days of the prophet Isaiah, in 740 B.C. Before ever it came, Isaiah was used to sound out a warning, saying:

² “Woe to the eminent crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading blossom of its decoration of beauty that is upon the head of the fertile valley of those overpowered by wine! Look! Jehovah has someone strong and vigorous. Like a thunderous storm of hail, a decimating storm, like a thunderous storm of powerful, flooding waters, he will certainly do a casting down to the earth with force. With the feet the eminent crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled down. And the fading flower of its decoration of beauty that is upon the head of the fertile valley must become like the early fig before summer, that, when the seer sees it, while it