Isaiah 10:5-19

New International Reader's Version

The Lord Will Judge Assyria

⁵The Lord says, “How terrible it will be for the people of Assyria!
    They are the war club that carries out my anger.
⁶I will send them against the ungodly nation of Judah.
    I will order them to fight against my own people.
    My people make me angry.
I will order Assyria to take their goods and carry them away.
    I will order Assyria to walk on my people
    as if they were walking on mud.
⁷But that is not what the king of Assyria plans.
    It is not what he has in mind.
His purpose is to destroy many nations.
    His purpose is to put an end to them.
⁸‘Aren’t all my commanders kings?’ he says.
⁹    ‘I took over Kalno just as I took Carchemish.
I took over Hamath just as I did Arpad.
    I took Samaria just as I did Damascus.
¹⁰My powerful hand grabbed hold of kingdoms
    whose people worship statues of gods.
    They had more gods than Jerusalem and Samaria did.
¹¹I took over Samaria and its statues of gods.
    In the same way, I will take Jerusalem and its gods.’ ”

¹²The Lord will finish everything he has planned to do against Mount Zion and Jerusalem. Then he’ll say, “Now I will punish the king of Assyria. I will punish him because his heart and his eyes are so proud. ¹³The king of Assyria says,

“ ‘By my power
    I have taken over all these nations.
I am very wise.
    I have great understanding.
I have wiped out the borders between nations.
    I’ve taken their treasures.
    Like a great hero I’ve brought their kings under my control.
¹⁴I’ve taken the wealth of the nations.
    It was as easy as reaching into a bird’s nest.
I’ve gathered the riches of all these countries.
    It was as easy as gathering eggs
    that have been left in a nest.
Not a single baby bird flapped its wings.
    Not one of them opened its mouth to chirp.’ ”

¹⁵Does an ax claim to be more important
    than the person who swings it?
Does a saw brag that it is better
    than the one who uses it?
That would be like a stick
    swinging the person who picks it up!
It would be like a war club
    waving the one who carries it!
¹⁶So the Lord who rules over all will send a sickness.
    The Lord will send it on the king of Assyria’s strong fighting men.
    It will make them weaker and weaker.
The army he was so proud of will be completely destroyed.
    It will be as if it had been burned up in a fire.
¹⁷The Lord is the Light of Israel.
    He will become a fire.
    Israel’s Holy One will become a flame.
In a single day he will burn up all Assyria’s bushes.
    He will destroy all their thorns.
¹⁸He will completely destroy the beauty
    of their forests and rich farm lands.
The Assyrian army will be like a sick person
    who becomes weaker and weaker.
¹⁹It will be like the trees of their forests.
    So few of them will be left standing
    that even a child could count them.