Isaiah 10:5-6

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 

10:6 I sent him ³  against a godless ⁴  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ⁵ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ⁶  like dirt in the streets.

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? ⁷ 

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

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

Isaiah 37:26

37:26 ⁸ Certainly you must have heard! ⁹ 

Long ago I worked it out,

in ancient times I planned ¹⁰  it,

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 46:11

46:11 who summons an eagle ¹²  from the east,

from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.

Yes, I have decreed, ¹³ 

yes, I will bring it to pass;

I have formulated a plan,

yes, I will carry it out.

Exodus 9:16

9:16 But ¹⁴  for this purpose I have caused you to stand: ¹⁵  to show you ¹⁶  my strength, and so that my name may be declared ¹⁷  in all the earth.

Proverbs 16:4

16:4 The Lord works ¹⁸  everything for its own ends ¹⁹  –

even the wicked for the day of disaster. ²⁰ 

Daniel 4:34-35

4:34 But at the end of the appointed time ²¹  I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up ²²  toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me.

I extolled the Most High,

and I praised and glorified the one who lives forever.

For his authority is an everlasting authority,

and his kingdom extends from one generation to the next.

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ²³ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ²⁴  his hand

and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

John 19:11

19:11 Jesus replied, “You would have no authority ²⁵  over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you ²⁶  is guilty of greater sin.” ²⁷ 

[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.”

[10:6]  ³ sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

[10:6]  ⁴ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[10:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”

[37:26]  ⁸ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

[37:26]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).

[37:26]  ¹¹ 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.

[46:11]  ¹² tn Or, more generally, “a bird of prey” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV; see 18:6).

[46:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “spoken”; KJV “I have spoken it.”

[9:16]  ¹⁴ tn The first word is a very strong adversative, which, in general, can be translated “but, howbeit”; BDB 19 s.v. אוּלָם suggests for this passage “but in very deed.”

[9:16]  ¹⁵ tn The form הֶעֱמַדְתִּיךָ (he’emadtikha) is the Hiphil perfect of עָמַד (’amad). It would normally mean “I caused you to stand.” But that seems to have one or two different connotations. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 73) says that it means “maintain you alive.” The causative of this verb means “continue,” according to him. The LXX has the same basic sense – “you were preserved.” But Paul bypasses the Greek and writes “he raised you up” to show God’s absolute sovereignty over Pharaoh. Both renderings show God’s sovereign control over Pharaoh.

[9:16]  ¹⁶ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct הַרְאֹתְךָ (har’otÿkha) is the purpose of God’s making Pharaoh come to power in the first place. To make Pharaoh see is to cause him to understand, to experience God’s power.

[9:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in order to declare my name.” Since there is no expressed subject, this may be given a passive translation.

[16:4]  ¹⁸ sn The Hebrew verb translated “works” (פָּעַל, pa’al) means “to work out; to bring about; to accomplish.” It is used of God’s sovereign control of life (e.g., Num 23:23; Isa 26:12).

[16:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “for its answer.” The term לַמַּעֲנֵהוּ (lamma’anehu) has been taken to mean either “for his purpose” or “for its answer.” The Hebrew word is מַעֲנֶה (ma’aneh, “answer”) and not לְמַעַן (lÿma’an, “purpose”). So the suffix likely refers to “everything” (כֹּל, kol). God ensures that everyone’s actions and the consequences of those actions correspond – certainly the wicked for the day of calamity. In God’s order there is just retribution for every act.

[16:4]  ²⁰ sn This is an example of synthetic parallelism (“A, what’s more B”). The A-line affirms a truth, and the B-line expands on it with a specific application about the wicked – whatever disaster comes their way is an appropriate correspondent for their life.

[4:34]  ²¹ tn Aram “days.”

[4:34]  ²² tn Aram “lifted up my eyes.”

[4:35]  ²³ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

[4:35]  ²⁴ tn Aram “strikes against.”

[19:11]  ²⁵ tn Or “power.”

[19:11]  ²⁶ tn Or “who delivered me over to you.”

[19:11]  ²⁷ tn Grk “has the greater sin” (an idiom).