Isaiah 10:5-16

Good News Translation

The Emperor of Assyria as the Instrument of God

^5 (A)The Lord said, “Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry. ⁶ I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample the people like dirt in the streets.”

⁷ But the Assyrian emperor has his own violent plans in mind. He is determined to destroy many nations. ⁸ He boasts, “Every one of my commanders is a king! ⁹ I conquered the cities of Calno and Carchemish, the cities of Hamath and Arpad. I conquered Samaria and Damascus. ¹⁰ I reached out to punish those kingdoms that worship idols, idols more numerous than those of Jerusalem and Samaria. ¹¹ I have destroyed Samaria and all its idols, and I will do the same to Jerusalem and the images that are worshiped there.”

¹² But the Lord says, “When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride.”

¹³ The emperor of Assyria boasts, “I have done it all myself. I am strong and wise and clever. I wiped out the boundaries between nations and took the supplies they had stored. Like a bull I have trampled the people who live there. ¹⁴ The nations of the world were like a bird's nest, and I gathered their wealth as easily as gathering eggs. Not a wing fluttered to scare me off; no beak opened to scream at me!”

¹⁵ But the Lord says, “Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn't lift up a person; a person lifts up a club.”

¹⁶ The Lord Almighty is going to send disease to punish those who are now well-fed. In their bodies there will be a fire that burns and burns.