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.

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13 For he says:

“‘By the strength of my hand(A) I have done this,(B)
    and by my wisdom, because I have understanding.
I removed the boundaries of nations,
    I plundered their treasures;(C)
    like a mighty one I subdued[a] their kings.(D)
14 As one reaches into a nest,(E)
    so my hand reached for the wealth(F) of the nations;
as people gather abandoned eggs,
    so I gathered all the countries;(G)
not one flapped a wing,
    or opened its mouth to chirp.(H)’”

15 Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it,
    or the saw boast against the one who uses it?(I)
As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up,
    or a club(J) brandish the one who is not wood!

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 10:13 Or treasures; / I subdued the mighty,