10:14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest,
as one gathers up abandoned eggs,
I gathered up the whole earth.
There was no wing flapping,
or open mouth chirping.” 1
10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,
or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? 2
As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,
or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!
10:16 For this reason 3 the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. 4 His majestic glory will go up in smoke. 5
1 sn The Assyrians’ conquests were relatively unopposed, like robbing a bird’s nest of its eggs when the mother bird is absent.
2 tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”
3 sn The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.
4 tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”
5 tc Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”