10 Woe(A) to those enacting crooked statutes
and writing oppressive laws
to keep the poor from getting a fair trial
and to deprive the needy among my people of justice,(B)
so that widows can be their spoil
and they can plunder the fatherless.(C)
What will you do on the day of punishment
when devastation comes from far away?
Who will you run to for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
There will be nothing to do
except crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain.
In all this, his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is still raised to strike.(D)

Read full chapter

Judgment on Unjust Lawmakers

10 “How terrible it will be for the one[a] who enacts unjust decrees,
    for those who write oppressive laws
    that they have prescribed
to deprive the needy of justice
    and to rob the poor of my people of their rights,[b]
so that widows may become their spoil
    and so that they may plunder orphans![c]
What will you do on the day of Judgment,[d]
    in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you run for help,
    and where will you leave your wealth,
so you won’t have to crouch among those in chains[e]
    or fall among the slain?

“Yet[f] for all this, his anger has not turned away,
    and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike.”[g]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 10:1 So 1QIsaa; MT reads the ones
  2. Isaiah 10:2 Lit. right
  3. Isaiah 10:2 Or plunder the fatherless
  4. Isaiah 10:3 Lit. reckoning
  5. Isaiah 10:4 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read beneath prisoners
  6. Isaiah 10:4 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX lack Yet
  7. Isaiah 10:4 DSS MT lack ready to strike