1How terrible it will be for you who make laws that aren’t fair! How terrible for you who write laws that make life hard for others!2You take away the rights of poor people. You hold back what is fair from my people who are suffering. You take for yourselves what belongs to widows. You rob children whose fathers have died.3What will you do on the day when the LORD punishes you? On that day trouble will come from far away. Who will you run to for help? Who will you trust your riches with?4All you can do is bow down in fear among the prisoners. All you can do is fall among those who have died in battle. Even then, the LORD is still angry. His hand is still raised against them.
The Lord will judge Assyria
5The LORD says, ‘How terrible it will be for the people of Assyria! They are the war club that carries out my anger.6I will send them against the ungodly nation of Judah. I will order them to fight against my own people. My people make me angry. I will order Assyria to take their goods and carry them away. I will order Assyria to walk on my people as if they were walking on mud.7But that is not what the king of Assyria plans. It is not what he has in mind. His purpose is to destroy many nations. His purpose is to put an end to them.8“Aren’t all my commanders kings?” he says.9“I took over Kalno just as I took Carchemish. I took over Hamath just as I did Arpad. I took Samaria just as I did Damascus.10My powerful hand grabbed hold of kingdoms whose people worship statues of gods. They had more gods than Jerusalem and Samaria did.11I took over Samaria and its statues of gods. In the same way, I will take Jerusalem and its gods.” ’12The Lord will finish everything he has planned to do against Mount Zion and Jerusalem. Then he’ll say, ‘Now I will punish the king of Assyria. I will punish him because his heart and his eyes are so proud.13The king of Assyria says, ‘ “By my power I have taken over all these nations. I am very wise. I have great understanding. I have wiped out the borders between nations. I’ve taken their treasures. Like a great hero I’ve brought their kings under my control.14I’ve taken the wealth of the nations. It was as easy as reaching into a bird’s nest. I’ve gathered the riches of all these countries. It was as easy as gathering eggs that have been left in a nest. Not a single baby bird flapped its wings. Not one of them opened its mouth to chirp.” ’15Does an axe claim to be more important than the person who swings it? Does a saw boast that it is better than the one who uses it? That would be like a stick swinging the person who picks it up! It would be like a war club waving the one who carries it!16So the LORD who rules over all will send a disease. The Lord will send it on the king of Assyria’s strong fighting men. It will make them weaker and weaker. The army he was so proud of will be completely destroyed. It will be as if it had been burned up in a fire.17The LORD is the Light of Israel. He will become a fire. Israel’s Holy One will become a flame. In a single day he will burn up all Assyria’s bushes. He will destroy all their thorns.18He will completely destroy the beauty of their forests and rich farm lands. The Assyrian army will be like an ill person who becomes weaker and weaker.19It will be like the trees of their forests. So few of them will be left standing that even a child could count them.
The Israelites who are left alive
20In days to come, some people will still be left alive in Israel. They will be from Jacob’s family line. But they won’t depend any longer on the nation that struck them down. Instead, they will truly depend on the LORD. He is the Holy One of Israel.21The people of Jacob who are still alive will return to the Mighty God.22Israel, your people might be as many as the grains of sand by the sea. But only a few of them will return. The LORD has handed down a death sentence. He will destroy his people. What he does is right.23The LORD who rules over all will carry out his sentence. The Lord will destroy the whole land.24The LORD rules over all. The Lord says, ‘My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian army. They beat you with rods. They lift up war clubs against you, just as the Egyptians did.25Very soon I will not be angry with you anymore. I will turn my anger against the Assyrians. I will destroy them.’26The LORD who rules over all will beat them with a whip. He will strike them down as he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb. And he will stretch out his walking stick over the waters. That’s what he did in Egypt.27People of Zion, in days to come he will help you. He will lift the heavy load of the Assyrians from your shoulders. He will remove their yokes from your necks. Their yokes will be broken because you have become so strong.28The Assyrian army has entered the town of Aiath. They have passed through Migron. They have stored up supplies at Mikmash.29They have marched through the pass there. They said, ‘Let’s camp for the night at Geba.’ The people of Ramah tremble with fear. Those who live in Gibeah of Saul run away.30Town of Gallim, cry out! Laishah, listen! Poor Anathoth!31The people of Madmenah are running away. Those who live in Gebim are hiding.32Today the Assyrians have stopped at Nob. They are shaking their fists at Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem.33The Assyrian soldiers are like trees in a forest. The LORD who rules over all will chop them down. The Lord will cut off their branches with his great power. He will chop the tall trees down. He will cut down even the highest ones.34The Mighty One will chop down the forest with his axe. He will cut down the cedar trees in Lebanon.
Isaiah 10
English Standard Version
1Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, (Ps 94:20; Jer 8:8)2to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! (Isa 5:23)3What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? (Isa 5:26; Jer 5:29; Ho 9:7; Lu 19:44)4Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. (Isa 9:12)
Judgment on Arrogant Assyria
5Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! (Isa 9:4; Isa 10:24; Mic 5:1; Mic 6:9)6Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. (2Ki 18:14; Isa 5:5; Isa 9:17)7But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few; (Mic 4:12)8for he says: “Are not my commanders all kings? (2Ki 18:24)9Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? (Ge 10:10; 2Ki 16:9; 2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:34; 2Ki 19:12; 2Ch 35:20; Isa 7:9; Isa 11:11; Jer 46:2; Am 6:2; Zec 9:2)10As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, (2Ki 19:17)11shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?” (2Ki 18:34; Isa 2:8)12When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he[1] will punish the speech[2] of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. (2Ki 19:31; 2Ki 19:35; Isa 29:4; Isa 30:18)13For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones. (2Ki 19:22; Isa 37:23)14My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped.”15Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! (Isa 10:5; Isa 29:16; Isa 45:9; Ro 9:17)16Therefore the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire. (Ps 78:31; Isa 30:33)17The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day. (2Ki 19:35; Isa 9:14; Isa 9:18; Isa 27:4; Isa 37:23; Ob 1:18; Na 1:10)18The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the Lord will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away. (Ps 107:33; Isa 2:13; Isa 10:33)19The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.
The Remnant of Israel Will Return
20In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. (2Ki 16:7; 2Ki 19:14; 2Ch 28:20; Isa 2:11; Isa 4:2; Isa 10:27)21A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. (Isa 9:6)22For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. (Isa 6:13; Isa 28:22; Ro 9:27)23For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.24Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. (Ex 2:23; 2Ki 19:6; Isa 31:5)25For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. (Isa 17:14)26And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. (Ex 14:30; Jud 7:25; 2Ki 19:35; Isa 9:4)27And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”[3] (2Ki 18:14; Isa 9:4; Na 1:13)28He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage; (Jud 18:21; 1Sa 14:2; 1Sa 17:22; Isa 46:1; Ac 21:15)29they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled. (1Sa 7:17; 1Sa 11:4; 1Sa 13:16; 1Sa 13:23)30Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O poor Anathoth! (1Sa 25:44; Jer 1:1)31Madmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.32This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. (1Sa 21:1; 1Sa 22:19; Isa 1:8; Isa 37:22)33Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. (Isa 10:18; Na 1:12)34He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One. (Isa 10:33; Eze 31:3; Am 2:9)