Isaiah 10:5

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, ¹ 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ² 

Isaiah 10:15

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? ³ 

As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,

or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

Isaiah 13:5

13:5 They come from a distant land,

from the horizon. ⁴ 

It is the Lord with his instruments of judgment, ⁵ 

coming to destroy the whole earth. ⁶ 

Isaiah 37:26

37:26 ⁷ Certainly you must have heard! ⁸ 

Long ago I worked it out,

in ancient times I planned ⁹  it,

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ¹⁰ 

Habakkuk 1:12

Habakkuk Voices Some Concerns

1:12 Lord, you have been active from ancient times; ¹¹ 

my sovereign God, ¹²  you are immortal. ¹³ 

Lord, you have made them ¹⁴  your instrument of judgment. ¹⁵ 

Protector, ¹⁶  you have appointed them as your instrument of punishment. ¹⁷ 

Acts 4:28

4:28 to do as much as your power ¹⁸  and your plan ¹⁹  had decided beforehand ²⁰  would happen.

[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.

[10:5]  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.”

[10:15]  ³ tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”

[13:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the end of the sky.”

[13:5]  ⁵ tn Or “anger”; cf. KJV, ASV “the weapons of his indignation.”

[13:5]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps, “land” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NLT). Even though the heading and subsequent context (see v. 17) indicate Babylon’s judgment is in view, the chapter has a cosmic flavor that suggests that the coming judgment is universal in scope. Perhaps Babylon’s downfall occurs in conjunction with a wider judgment, or the cosmic style is poetic hyperbole used to emphasize the magnitude and importance of the coming event.

[37:26]  ⁷ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

[37:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.

[37:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).

[37:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.

[1:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Are you not from antiquity, O Lord?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, of course.” The present translation reflects the force of the rhetorical question, rendering it as an affirmation. When used in a temporal sense the phrase מִקֶדֶם (miqedem) means “from antiquity, ancient times,” often referring to earlier periods in Israel’s history. See its use in Neh 12:46; Pss 74:12; 77:11; Isa 45:21; 46:10; Mic 5:2.

[1:12]  ¹² tn Heb “My God, my holy one.” God’s “holiness” in this context is his sovereign transcendence as the righteous judge of the world (see vv. 12b-13a), thus the translation “My sovereign God.”

[1:12]  ¹³ tc The MT reads, “we will not die,” but an ancient scribal tradition has “you [i.e., God] will not die.” This is preferred as a more difficult reading that can explain the rise of the other variant. Later scribes who copied the manuscripts did not want to associate the idea of death with God in any way, so they softened the statement to refer to humanity.

[1:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “him,” a collective singular referring to the Babylonians. The plural pronoun “them” has been used in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style.

[1:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for judgment.”

[1:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Rock” or “Cliff.” This divine epithet views God as a place where one can go to be safe from danger. The translation “Protector” conveys the force of the metaphor (cf. KJV, NEB “O mighty God”).

[1:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to correct, reprove.”

[4:28]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “hand,” here a metaphor for God’s strength or power or authority.

[4:28]  ¹⁹ tn Or “purpose,” “will.”

[4:28]  ²⁰ tn Or “had predestined.” Since the term “predestine” is something of a technical theological term, not in wide usage in contemporary English, the translation “decide beforehand” was used instead (see L&N 30.84). God’s direction remains as the major theme.