Text -- Isaiah 10:1-12 (NET)

10:1 Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead, those who are always instituting unfair regulations, 10:2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment, and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice, so they can steal what widows own, and loot what belongs to orphans. 10:3 What will you do on judgment day, when destruction arrives from a distant place? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your wealth? 10:4 You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners, or to fall among those who have been killed. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again.

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 10:6 I sent him against a godless nation, I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, to take plunder and to carry away loot, to trample them down like dirt in the streets. 10:7 But he does not agree with this, his mind does not reason this way, for his goal is to destroy, and to eliminate many nations. 10:8 Indeed, he says: “Are not my officials all kings? 10:9 Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Hamath like Arpad? Samaria like Damascus? 10:10 I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s or Samaria’s. 10:11 As I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.” 10:12 But when the sovereign master finishes judging Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 10:1

¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who decree evil decrees.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

² tn Heb “[to] the writers who write out harm.” The participle and verb are in the Piel, suggesting repetitive action.

NET Notes: Isa 10:2

¹ tn Or “rob” (ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); KJV “take away the right from the poor.”

² tn Heb “so that widows are their plunder, and they can loot orphans.”

sn On the socio-economic background of vv. 1-2, see the note at 1:23.

NET Notes: Isa 10:3

¹ tn Heb “the day of visitation” (so KJV, ASV), that is, the day when God arrives to execute justice on the oppressors.

NET Notes: Isa 10:4

¹ tn Heb “except one kneels in the place of the prisoner, and in the place of the slain [who] fall.” On the force of בִּלְתִּי (bilti, “except”) and its logical connection to what precedes, see BDB 116 s.v. בֵלֶת. On the force of תַּחַת (takhat, “in the place of”) here, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:258, n. 6.

² tn Heb “in all this his anger was not turned, and still his hand was outstretched”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “his had is stretched out still.”

sn See the note at 9:12.

NET Notes: Isa 10:5

¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

² tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”

NET Notes: Isa 10:6

¹ sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

² tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

³ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

⁴ tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

NET Notes: Isa 10:7

¹ tn Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”

² tn Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”

NET Notes: Isa 10:8

¹ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

NET Notes: Isa 10:9

¹ sn Calneh … Carchemish … Hamath … Arpad … Samaria … Damascus. The city states listed here were conquered by the Assyrians between 740-717 b.c. The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one can stand before Assyria’s might. On the geographical, rather than chronological arrangement of the cities, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:264, n. 4.

NET Notes: Isa 10:10

¹ tn Heb “Just as my hand found the kingdoms of the idol[s].” The comparison is expanded in v. 11a (note “as”) and completed in v. 11b (note “so”).

² map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

NET Notes: Isa 10:11

¹ tn The statement is constructed as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text: “Is it not [true that] just as I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols?”

sn This statement indicates that the prophecy dates sometime between 722-701 b.c.

NET Notes: Isa 10:12

¹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

² tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

³ tn Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “on”; NIV “against.”

⁴ tn The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5-6a.

⁵ tn Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.