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Judgment against Assyria

“What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger.
    I use it as a club to express my anger.
I am sending Assyria against a godless nation,
    against a people with whom I am angry.
Assyria will plunder them,
    trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.
But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool;
    his mind does not work that way.
His plan is simply to destroy,
    to cut down nation after nation.
He will say,
    ‘Each of my princes will soon be a king.
We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish.
    Hamath fell before us as Arpad did.
    And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus.
10 Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom
    whose gods were greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.
11 So we will defeat Jerusalem and her gods,
    just as we destroyed Samaria with hers.’”

12 After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant. 13 He boasts,

“By my own powerful arm I have done this.
    With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it.
I have broken down the defenses of nations
    and carried off their treasures.
    I have knocked down their kings like a bull.
14 I have robbed their nests of riches
    and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs.
No one can even flap a wing against me
    or utter a peep of protest.”

15 But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it?
    Is the saw greater than the person who saws?
Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it?
    Can a wooden cane walk by itself?
16 Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    will send a plague among Assyria’s proud troops,
    and a flaming fire will consume its glory.
17 The Lord, the Light of Israel, will be a fire;
    the Holy One will be a flame.
He will devour the thorns and briers with fire,
    burning up the enemy in a single night.
18 The Lord will consume Assyria’s glory
    like a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land;
    it will waste away like sick people in a plague.
19 Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive—
    so few that a child could count them!

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Yahweh’s Anger with Assyria’s Arrogance

Woe to (A)Assyria, the (B)rod of My anger
And the staff in whose hands is (C)My indignation,
I send it against a (D)godless nation
And command it against the (E)people of My fury
To capture spoil and (F)to seize plunder,
And to [a]trample them down like (G)mud in the streets.
But it (H)does not intend to act in this way,
And it does not think in its heart in this way,
Rather, what is in its heart is to destroy
And to cut off [b]many nations.
For it says, “Are not my princes [c]all kings?
Is not (I)Calno like (J)Carchemish,
Or (K)Hamath like Arpad,
Or (L)Samaria like (M)Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the (N)kingdoms of the idols,
Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 Shall I not [d]do to Jerusalem and her images
Just as I have done to Samaria and (O)her idols?”

12 So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His (P)work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will [e]punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and (Q)the pomp of his eyes which are raised high.” 13 For (R)he has said,

“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,
For I have understanding;
And I (S)removed the boundaries of the peoples
And plundered their treasures,
And like a mighty man I brought down [f]their inhabitants,
14 And my hand reached for the wealth of the peoples like a (T)nest,
And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;
And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”

15 Is the (U)axe to (V)boast itself over the one who chops with it?
Is the saw to magnify itself over the one who wields it?
That would be like (W)a rod wielding those who lift it,
Or like (X)a staff lifting him who is not wood.
16 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send a (Y)wasting disease among his (Z)stout warriors;
And under his (AA)glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.
17 And the (AB)light of Israel will become a fire and his (AC)Holy One a flame,
And it will (AD)burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.
18 And He will (AE)bring to an end the glory of his forest and of his fruitful orchard, both soul and body,
And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
19 And the (AF)rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number
That a child could write them down.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 10:6 Lit make them a trampled place
  2. Isaiah 10:7 Lit not a few
  3. Isaiah 10:8 Lit altogether
  4. Isaiah 10:11 Lit do thus
  5. Isaiah 10:12 Or visit
  6. Isaiah 10:13 Or those who sit on thrones