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 10:2

10:2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,

and to deprive ⁷  the oppressed among my people of justice,

so they can steal what widows own,

and loot what belongs to orphans. ⁸ 

Isaiah 17:6

17:6 There will be some left behind,

like when an olive tree is beaten –

two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top,

four or five on its fruitful branches,”

says the Lord God of Israel.

Isaiah 18:1

The Lord Will Judge a Distant Land in the South

18:1 The land of buzzing wings is as good as dead, ⁹ 

the one beyond the rivers of Cush,

Ezekiel 21:19-23

21:19 “You, son of man, mark out two routes for the king of Babylon’s sword to take; both of them will originate in a single land. Make a signpost and put it at the beginning of the road leading to the city. 21:20 Mark out the routes for the sword to take: “Rabbah of the Ammonites” and “Judah with Jerusalem in it.” ¹⁰  21:21 For the king of Babylon stands at the fork ¹¹  in the road at the head of the two routes. He looks for omens: ¹²  He shakes arrows, he consults idols, ¹³  he examines ¹⁴  animal livers. ¹⁵  21:22 Into his right hand ¹⁶  comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal ¹⁷  for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, ¹⁸  to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall. 21:23 But those in Jerusalem ¹⁹  will view it as a false omen. They have sworn solemn oaths, ²⁰  but the king of Babylon ²¹  will accuse them of violations ²²  in order to seize them. ²³ 

[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.”

[10:2]  ⁷ tn Or “rob” (ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); KJV “take away the right from the poor.”

[10:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “so that widows are their plunder, and they can loot orphans.”

[18:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “Woe [to] the land of buzzing wings.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

[21:20]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads “Judah in fortified Jerusalem,” a geographic impossibility. The translation follows the LXX, which assumes בְּתוֹכָהּ (bÿtokhah, “in it”) for בְּצוּרָה (bÿtsurah, “fortified”).

[21:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “mother.”

[21:21]  ¹² sn Mesopotamian kings believed that the gods revealed the future through omens. They employed various divination techniques, some of which are included in the list that follows. A particularly popular technique was the examination and interpretation of the livers of animals. See R. R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 90-110.

[21:21]  ¹³ tn This word refers to personal idols that were apparently used for divination purposes (Gen 31:19; 1 Sam 19:13, 16).

[21:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “sees.”

[21:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the liver.”

[21:22]  ¹⁶ tn Or “on the right side,” i.e., the omen mark on the right side of the liver.

[21:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to open the mouth” for slaughter.

[21:22]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to raise up a voice in a battle cry.”

[21:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people in Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:23]  ²⁰ sn When the people of Judah realized the Babylonians’ intentions, they would object on grounds that they had made a treaty with the Babylonian king (see 17:13).

[21:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:23]  ²² tn Or “iniquity.”

[21:23]  ²³ tn Heb “and he will remind of guilt for the purpose of being captured.” The king would counter their objections by pointing out that they had violated their treaty with him (see 17:18).