Isaiah 10
10
1Just look at those lawmakers who write evil laws and make life hard for the people. 2They are not fair to the poor. They take away the rights of the poor and allow people to steal from widows and orphans.
3Lawmakers, you will have to explain what you have done. What will you do then? Your destruction is coming from a faraway country. Where will you run for help? Your money and your riches will not help you. 4You will have to bow down like a prisoner. You will fall down like a dead man, but that will not help you. God will still be angry and ready to punish you.
God Will Punish Assyria’s Pride
5The Lord says, “I will use Assyria like a stick. In my anger I will use Assyria to punish Israel. 6I will send Assyria to fight against the people who do evil. I am angry with them, and I will command Assyria to fight against them. Assyria will defeat them and take their wealth. Israel will be like dirt for Assyria to walk on in the streets.
7“But Assyria does not understand that I will use him. He does not think of himself as my tool. He only wants to destroy other people. He only plans to destroy many nations. 8Assyria says to himself, ‘All of my officers are like kings! 9The city of Calno is no better than the city of Carchemish. Arpad is like Hamath, and Samaria is like Damascus. 10I defeated those evil kingdoms and now I control them. The idols those people worship are better than the idols of Jerusalem and Samaria. 11I defeated Samaria and her gods. I will also defeat Jerusalem and the idols her people have made.’”
12When the Lord finishes doing what he planned to Jerusalem and Mount Zion, he will punish Assyria. The king of Assyria is very proud. His pride made him do many bad things, so God will punish him.
13The king of Assyria said, “I am very wise. By my own wisdom and power I have done many great things. I have defeated many nations. I have taken their wealth and their people as slaves. I am a very powerful man. 14With my own hands I have taken the riches of all these people—like someone taking eggs from a bird’s nest. A bird often leaves its nest and eggs, and there is nothing to protect the nest. There is no bird to chirp and fight with its wings and beak, so anyone can come take the eggs. And there is no one to stop me from taking all the people on earth.”
15An ax is not better than the one who cuts with it. A saw is not better than the one who uses it. Is a stick stronger than the one who picks it up? It can’t do anything to the person who is using it to punish someone! 16But Assyria doesn’t understand this. So the Lord GOD All-Powerful will send a terrible disease against him. He will lose his wealth and power like a sick man losing weight. Then Assyria’s glory will be destroyed. It will be like a fire burning until everything is gone. 17The Light of Israel#10:17 The Light of Israel This is a name for God, like “The Holy One” in the next sentence. See “Israel” in the Word List. will be like a fire. The Holy One will be like a flame. He will be like a fire that first begins to burn the weeds and thorns 18and then spreads to burn up the tall trees and vineyards. Finally, everything will be destroyed—even the people. Assyria will be like a rotting log. 19There will be a few trees left standing in the forest—so few that even a child could count them.
20Then the people from Jacob’s family who are left living in Israel will stop depending on the one who beat them. They will learn to depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. 21Those who are left in Jacob’s family will again follow the Powerful God.#10:21 Powerful God See Isa. 9:6.
22Israel, your people are as many as the sands of the sea, but only a few of them will be left to come back to God. But before that happens, your country will be destroyed. God has announced that he will destroy the land. And then justice will come into the land like a river flowing full. 23The Lord GOD All-Powerful really will destroy this land.
24The Lord GOD All-Powerful says, “My people living in Zion, don’t be afraid of Assyria! Yes, he will beat you, and it will be just as the time when Egypt beat you with a stick. 25But after a short time my anger will stop. I will be satisfied that Assyria has punished you enough.”
26Then the Lord All-Powerful will beat Assyria with a whip, just as he defeated Midian at Raven Rock.#10:26 Midian at Raven Rock Or “Midian at the Rock of Oreb.” See Judges 7:25. He will punish his enemies, as he did when he raised his stick over the sea#10:26 he raised … sea See Ex. 14:1-15:21. and led his people from Egypt.
27He will take away the troubles Assyria brought you—troubles that are like heavy weights carried with a yoke on your neck. But that yoke will be taken off your neck. The burden will be lifted from your shoulders.
The Army of Assyria Invades Israel
28 # 10:28-32 Isaiah uses names with double meanings to describe the different ways the Assyrian army would fight against Judah. The army of Assyria will enter near the “Ruins” (Aiath). The army will walk on the “Threshing Floor” (Migron). It will keep its food in the “Storehouse” (Micmash). 29The army will cross the river at the “Crossing” (Maabarah) and sleep at Geba. Ramah will be afraid. The people at Gibeah of Saul#10:29 Geba, Ramah, Gibeah of Saul Towns north of Jerusalem. will run away.
30Cry out, Bath Gallim#10:30 Bath Gallim Gallim, a city south of Jerusalem. This name means “daughter of the waves,” and might refer to birds that make loud noises by the shore.! Laishah, listen! Anathoth, answer me! 31The people of Madmenah are running away. The people of Gebim#10:31 Gebim An unknown city. This name is like the Hebrew word for “pit” or “cistern,” a hole in the ground for storing water. are hiding. 32This day the army will stop at Nob and prepare to fight against Mount Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33Look, the Lord GOD All-Powerful will use his great power and chop down that great tree. Their highest officials will be brought down. Their most important leaders will be humbled. 34God will cut down his enemies. Like the tall trees of Lebanon he will cut them down with an ax.
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Isaiah 10
10
Woe to Tyrants
1Woe to those who enact unjust statutes
and issue oppressive decrees,
2to deprive the poor of fair treatment
and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people,
to make widows their prey
and orphans their plunder.
3What will you do on the day of reckoning
when devastation comes from afar?
To whom will you flee for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
4Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives
or fall among the slain.
Despite all this, His anger is not turned away;
His hand is still upraised.
Judgment on Assyria
5Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger;
the staff in their hands is My wrath.
6I will send him against a godless nation;
I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage,
to take spoils and seize plunder,
and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
7But this is not his intention;
this is not his plan.
For it is in his heart to destroy
and cut off many nations.
8“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says.
9“Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms
whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11and as I have done to Samaria and its idols,
will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?”
12So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes. 13For he says:
‘By the strength of my hand I have done this,
and by my wisdom, for I am clever.
I have removed the boundaries of nations
and plundered their treasures;
like a mighty one I subdued their rulers.
14My hand reached as into a nest
to seize the wealth of the nations.
Like one gathering abandoned eggs,
I gathered all the earth.
No wing fluttered,
no beak opened or chirped.’”
15Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it?
Does a saw boast over him who saws with it?
It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it,
or a staff lifting him who is not wood!
16Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease
among Assyria’s stout warriors,
and under his pomp will be kindled
a fire like a burning flame.
17And the Light of Israel will become a fire,
and its Holy One a flame.
In a single day it will burn and devour
Assyria’s thorns and thistles.
18The splendor of its forests and orchards,
both soul and body,
it will completely destroy,
as a sickness consumes a man.
19The remaining trees of its forests will be so few
that a child could count them.
A Remnant Shall Return
20On that day the remnant of Israel
and the survivors of the house of Jacob
will no longer depend
on him who struck them,
but they will truly rely on the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel.
21A remnant will return #10:21 Hebrew Shear-jashub; also in verse 22; see Isaiah 7:3.—a remnant of Jacob—
to the Mighty God.
22Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea,
only a remnant will return.#10:22 LXX Though the people of Israel be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved. Cited in Romans 9:27
Destruction has been decreed,
overflowing with righteousness.
23For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out
the destruction decreed upon the whole land.#10:23 LXX He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work in all the world. Cited in Romans 9:28
24Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says:
“O My people who dwell in Zion,
do not fear Assyria,
who strikes you with a rod
and lifts his staff against you
as the Egyptians did.
25For in just a little while
My fury against you will subside,
and My anger will turn to their destruction.”
26And the Lord of Hosts will brandish a whip against them,
as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb.
He will raise His staff over the sea,
as He did in Egypt.
27On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders,
and the yoke from your neck.
The yoke will be broken
because your neck will be too large.#10:27 Literally broken because of fatness; LXX broken from your shoulders
28Assyria has entered Aiath
and passed through Migron,
storing their supplies at Michmash.
29They have crossed at the ford:
“We will spend the night at Geba.”
Ramah trembles;
Gibeah of Saul flees.
30Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim!
Listen, O Laishah!
O wretched Anathoth!
31Madmenah flees;
the people of Gebim take refuge.
32Yet today they will halt at Nob,
shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion,
at the hill of Jerusalem.
33Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts
will lop off the branches with terrifying power.
The tall trees will be cut down,
the lofty ones will be felled.
34He will clear the forest thickets with an axe,
and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
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The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. This text of God's Word has been dedicated to the public domain.