Isaiah 10:5-19

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. 10:13 For he says:

“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,

by my strategy that I devised.

I invaded the territory of nations,

and looted their storehouses.

Like a mighty conqueror, I brought down rulers.

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.”

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?

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 the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. His majestic glory will go up in smoke.

10:17 The light of Israel will become a fire,

their Holy One will become a flame;

it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s briers

and his thorns in one day.

10:18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard

will be completely destroyed,

as when a sick man’s life ebbs away.

10:19 There will be so few trees left in his forest,

a child will be able to count them.