Isaiah 10
New American Standard Bible
Assyria Is God’s Instrument
10 Woe to those who (A)enact unjust statutes
And to those who constantly record [a]harmful decisions,
2 So as (B)to [b]deprive the needy of justice
And rob the poor among My people of their rights,
So (C)that widows may be their spoil
And that they may plunder the [c]orphans.
3 Now (D)what will you do in the (E)day of punishment,
And in the devastation which will come (F)from afar?
(G)To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing remains but to crouch [d]among the (H)captives
Or fall [e]among those (I)killed.
(J)In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
5 Woe to (K)Assyria, the (L)rod of My anger
And the staff in whose hands is (M)My indignation,
6 I send it against a (N)godless nation
And commission it against the (O)people of My fury
To capture spoils and (P)to seize plunder,
And to [f]trample them down like (Q)mud in the streets.
7 Yet it (R)does not so intend,
Nor does [g]it plan so in its heart,
But rather it is [h]its purpose to destroy
And to eliminate [i]many nations.
8 For it says, “Are not my officers [j]all kings?
9 Is not (S)Calno like (T)Carchemish,
Or (U)Hamath like Arpad,
Or (V)Samaria like (W)Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the (X)kingdoms of the idols,
Whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 Shall I not do the same to Jerusalem and her images
Just as I have done to Samaria and (Y)her idols?”
12 So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His (Z)work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will [k]punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and (AA)the arrogant pride of his eyes.” 13 For (AB)he has said,
“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,
Because I have understanding;
And I (AC)removed the boundaries of the peoples
And plundered their treasures,
And like a powerful man I brought down [l]their inhabitants,
14 And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a (AD)nest,
And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;
And there was not one that flapped its wing, opened its beak, or chirped.”
15 Is the (AE)axe to (AF)boast itself over the one who chops with it?
Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?
That would be like (AG)a [m]club wielding those who lift it,
Or like (AH)a rod lifting the one who is not wood.
16 Therefore the Lord, the [n]God of armies, will send a (AI)wasting disease among his (AJ)stout warriors;
And under his (AK)glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.
17 And the (AL)Light of Israel will become a fire and [o]Israel’s (AM)Holy One a flame,
And it will (AN)burn and devour [p]his thorns and his briars in a single day.
18 And He will (AO)destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body,
And it will be as when a sick person wastes away.
19 And the (AP)rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number
That a child could write them down.
A Remnant Will Return
20 Now on that day the (AQ)remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob (AR)who have escaped, will no longer rely on the one who struck them, but will truly (AS)rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
21 A (AT)remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the (AU)mighty God.
22 For (AV)though your people, Israel, may be like the sand of the sea,
Only a remnant within them will return;
A (AW)destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
23 For a complete destruction, one that is determined, (AX)the Lord [q]God of armies will execute in the midst of the whole land.
24 Therefore this is what the Lord [r]God of armies says: “My people, you who dwell in (AY)Zion, (AZ)do not fear the Assyrian [s]who (BA)strikes you with the rod, and lifts up his staff against you the way Egypt did. 25 For in a very (BB)little while (BC)My indignation against you will be ended and My anger will be directed toward their destruction.” 26 The Lord of armies will (BD)wield a whip against him like the defeat of (BE)Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His (BF)staff will be over the sea, and He will lift it up (BG)the way He did in Egypt. 27 So it will be on that day, that [t]his (BH)burden will be removed from your shoulders, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because (BI)of fatness.
28 He has come against Aiath,
He has passed through (BJ)Migron;
At (BK)Michmash he deposited his (BL)baggage.
29 They have gone through (BM)the pass, saying,
“(BN)Geba will be our encampment for the night.”
(BO)Ramah is terrified, and (BP)Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of (BQ)Gallim!
Pay attention, Laishah and [u]wretched (BR)Anathoth!
31 Madmenah has fled.
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.
32 Yet today he will halt at (BS)Nob;
He (BT)shakes his fist at the mountain of the [v](BU)daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold, the Lord, the [w]God of armies, will lop off the branches with terrifying power;
Those also who are (BV)tall in stature will be cut down,
And those who are lofty will be brought low.
34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe,
And (BW)Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 10:1 Lit harm
- Isaiah 10:2 Lit turn the needy aside from
- Isaiah 10:2 Or fatherless
- Isaiah 10:4 Lit under
- Isaiah 10:4 Lit under
- Isaiah 10:6 Lit make them a trampled place
- Isaiah 10:7 Lit its heart so plan
- Isaiah 10:7 Lit in its heart
- Isaiah 10:7 Lit not a few
- Isaiah 10:8 Lit altogether
- Isaiah 10:12 Lit visit
- Isaiah 10:13 Or those who sit on thrones
- Isaiah 10:15 Lit staff
- Isaiah 10:16 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
- Isaiah 10:17 Lit his
- Isaiah 10:17 I.e., the Assyrian king’s forces
- Isaiah 10:23 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
- Isaiah 10:24 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
- Isaiah 10:24 Lit he
- Isaiah 10:27 I.e., the Assyrian
- Isaiah 10:30 An ancient version reads Answer her, O Anathoth
- Isaiah 10:32 Another reading is house of
- Isaiah 10:33 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 10
The Message
You Who Legislate Evil
10 1-4 Doom to you who legislate evil,
who make laws that make victims—
Laws that make misery for the poor,
that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
taking advantage of homeless children.
What will you have to say on Judgment Day,
when Doomsday arrives out of the blue?
Who will you get to help you?
What good will your money do you?
A sorry sight you’ll be then, huddled with the prisoners,
or just some corpses stacked in the street.
Even after all this, God is still angry,
his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.
Doom to Assyria!
5-11 “Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger.
My wrath is a club in his hands!
I send him against a godless nation,
against the people I’m angry with.
I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind,
and then push their faces in the mud and leave them.
But Assyria has another agenda;
he has something else in mind.
He’s out to destroy utterly,
to stamp out as many nations as he can.
Assyria says, ‘Aren’t my commanders all kings?
Can’t they do whatever they like?
Didn’t I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish?
Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus?
I’ve eliminated kingdoms full of gods
far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria.
So what’s to keep me from destroying Jerusalem
in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?’”
12-13 When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he’ll say, “Now it’s Assyria’s turn. I’ll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing, the way he goes around saying,
13-14 “‘I’ve done all this by myself.
I know more than anyone.
I’ve wiped out the boundaries of whole countries.
I’ve walked in and taken anything I wanted.
I charged in like a bull
and toppled their kings from their thrones.
I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured
as easily as a boy taking a bird’s eggs from a nest.
Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse,
I gathered the world in my basket,
And no one so much as fluttered a wing
or squawked or even chirped.’”
15-19 Does an ax take over from the one who swings it?
Does a saw act more important than the sawyer?
As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger!
As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails!
Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters.
Under the canopy of God’s bright glory
a fierce fire will break out.
Israel’s Light will burst into a conflagration.
The Holy will explode into a firestorm,
And in one day burn to cinders
every last Assyrian thornbush.
God will destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens.
The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing
like a disease-ridden invalid.
A child could count what’s left of the trees
on the fingers of his two hands.
* * *
20-23 And on that Day also, what’s left of Israel, the straggling survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They’ll lean on God, The Holy—yes, truly. The ragtag remnant—what’s left of Jacob—will come back to the Strong God. Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness. For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe.
24-27 Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: “My dear, dear people who live in Zion, don’t be terrorized by the Assyrians when they beat you with clubs and threaten you with rods like the Egyptians once did. In just a short time my anger against you will be spent and I’ll turn my destroying anger on them. I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will go after them with a cat-o’-nine-tails and finish them off decisively—as Gideon downed Midian at the rock Oreb, as Moses turned the tables on Egypt. On that day, Assyria will be pulled off your back, and the yoke of slavery lifted from your neck.”
* * *
27-32 Assyria’s on the move: up from Rimmon,
on to Aiath,
through Migron,
with a bivouac at Micmash.
They’ve crossed the pass,
set camp at Geba for the night.
Ramah trembles with fright.
Gibeah of Saul has run off.
Cry for help, daughter of Gallim!
Listen to her, Laishah!
Do something, Anathoth!
Madmenah takes to the hills.
The people of Gebim flee in panic.
The enemy’s soon at Nob—nearly there!
In sight of the city he shakes his fist
At the mount of dear daughter Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.
33-34 But now watch this: The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
swings his ax and lops the branches,
Chops down the giant trees,
lays flat the towering forest-on-the-march.
His ax will make toothpicks of that forest,
that Lebanon-like army reduced to kindling.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson