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Lest it sink beneath the captive
    or fall beneath the slain?
For all this, his wrath is not turned back,
    his hand is still outstretched![a]

Judgment on Assyria

[b]Ah! Assyria, the rod of my wrath,
    the staff I wield in anger.(A)
Against an impious nation[c] I send him,
    and against a people under my wrath I order him
To seize plunder, carry off loot,
    and to trample them like the mud of the street.

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Footnotes

  1. 10:4 For all this…outstretched!: this refrain appears to be out of place here; cf. 9:11, 16, 20.
  2. 10:5–34 These verses contain a series of oracles directed against Assyria. Verses 5–15 portray Assyria as simply the rod God uses to punish Israel, though Assyria does not realize this. The original conclusion to this unit may be the judgment found in vv. 24–27a, which continues the imagery and motifs found in vv. 5–15. Verses 16–23, because of the quite different imagery and motifs, may originally have been an insertion directed against Aram and Israel at the time of the Syro-Ephraimite War.
  3. 10:6 Impious nation: Judah. It was God’s intention to use Assyria merely to punish, not to destroy, the nation.