Isaiah 10:5-7

Context

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 him³ against a godless⁴ 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 down⁶ like dirt in the streets.

10:7 But he does not agree with this,

his mind does not reason this way,⁷

for his goal is to destroy,

and to eliminate many nations.⁸

Isaiah 10:12

Context

10:12 But when⁹ the sovereign master¹⁰ finishes judging¹¹ Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I¹² will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays.¹³

[10:5] ¹tn 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] ²tn 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] ³sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

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

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

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

[10:7] ⁷tn Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”

[10:7] ⁸tn Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”

[10:12] ⁹tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[10:12] ¹⁰tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[10:12] ¹¹tn Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “on”; NIV “against.”

[10:12] ¹²tn The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5-6a.

[10:12] ¹³tn Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.