Isaiah 10
10
You Who Legislate Evil
1-4Doom to you who legislate evil,
who make laws that make victims—
Laws that make misery for the poor,
that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
taking advantage of homeless children.
What will you have to say on Judgment Day,
when Doomsday arrives out of the blue?
Who will you get to help you?
What good will your money do you?
A sorry sight you’ll be then, huddled with the prisoners,
or just some corpses stacked in the street.
Even after all this, God is still angry,
his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.
Doom to Assyria!
5-11“Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger.
My wrath is a club in his hands!
I send him against a godless nation,
against the people I’m angry with.
I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind,
and then push their faces in the mud and leave them.
But Assyria has another agenda;
he has something else in mind.
He’s out to destroy utterly,
to stamp out as many nations as he can.
Assyria says, ‘Aren’t my commanders all kings?
Can’t they do whatever they like?
Didn’t I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish?
Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus?
I’ve eliminated kingdoms full of gods
far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria.
So what’s to keep me from destroying Jerusalem
in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?’”
12-13a When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he’ll say, “Now it’s Assyria’s turn. I’ll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing, the way he goes around saying,
13b-14 “‘I’ve done all this by myself.
I know more than anyone.
I’ve wiped out the boundaries of whole countries.
I’ve walked in and taken anything I wanted.
I charged in like a bull
and toppled their kings from their thrones.
I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured
as easily as a boy taking a bird’s eggs from a nest.
Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse,
I gathered the world in my basket,
And no one so much as fluttered a wing
or squawked or even chirped.’”
15-19Does an ax take over from the one who swings it?
Does a saw act more important than the sawyer?
As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger!
As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails!
Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters.
Under the canopy of God’s bright glory
a fierce fire will break out.
Israel’s Light will burst into a conflagration.
The Holy will explode into a firestorm,
And in one day burn to cinders
every last Assyrian thornbush.
God will destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens.
The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing
like a disease-ridden invalid.
A child could count what’s left of the trees
on the fingers of his two hands.
* * *
20-23And on that Day also, what’s left of Israel, the straggling survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They’ll lean on God, The Holy—yes, truly. The ragtag remnant—what’s left of Jacob—will come back to the Strong God. Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness. For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe.
24-27a Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: “My dear, dear people who live in Zion, don’t be terrorized by the Assyrians when they beat you with clubs and threaten you with rods like the Egyptians once did. In just a short time my anger against you will be spent and I’ll turn my destroying anger on them. I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will go after them with a cat-o’-nine-tails and finish them off decisively—as Gideon downed Midian at the rock Oreb, as Moses turned the tables on Egypt. On that day, Assyria will be pulled off your back, and the yoke of slavery lifted from your neck.”
* * *
27b-32 Assyria’s on the move: up from Rimmon,
on to Aiath,
through Migron,
with a bivouac at Micmash.
They’ve crossed the pass,
set camp at Geba for the night.
Ramah trembles with fright.
Gibeah of Saul has run off.
Cry for help, daughter of Gallim!
Listen to her, Laishah!
Do something, Anathoth!
Madmenah takes to the hills.
The people of Gebim flee in panic.
The enemy’s soon at Nob—nearly there!
In sight of the city he shakes his fist
At the mount of dear daughter Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.
33-34But now watch this: The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
swings his ax and lops the branches,
Chops down the giant trees,
lays flat the towering forest-on-the-march.
His ax will make toothpicks of that forest,
that Lebanon-like army reduced to kindling.
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Isaiah 10: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 10
10
X
1Wo unto them that decree iniquitous decrees,
And to the writers who write grievousness;
2To turn aside the needy from judgment,
And to rob of their right the poor of my people;
That widows may become their prey,
And that they may plunder the orphans.
3And what will ye do in the day of visitation,
And in the desolation which shall come from afar?
To whom will ye flee for help?
And where will ye leave your glory?
4Without me they shall bow down among prisoners,
Or among the slain they shall fall.
For all this his anger is not turned away;
But his hand is still stretched out.
5Wo unto the Assyrian, the rod of mine anger,
And the staff which is in their hand is mine indignation.
6Against an ungodly nation will I send him;
And against the people of my wrath will I commission him,
To gather spoil, and carry off prey;
And to trample them under foot like the mire of the streets.
7Howbeit he doth not so purpose,
Neither doth his heart so intend;
But to destroy is in his heart,
And to cut off nations not a few.
8For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?
9Is not Calno as Carchemish?
Is not Hamath as Arpad?
Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10As my hand hath seized the kingdoms of the idols,
Whose graven images did excel those of Jerusalem and Samaria;
11Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols,
So do to Jerusalem and her images?
12Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work,
Upon mount Zion, and upon Jerusalem:
I will punish the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria;
And the glory of his high looks.
13For he saith, By the strength of my hand have I done it, it?
And by my wisdom; for I am instructed in wisdom: Yea, I have removed the bounds of people,
And I have plundered their hoarded treasures;
And I have overthrown those sitting on thrones, like a valiant man.
14And my band hath found, as a nest, the riches of the nations:
And as one gathereth eggs that are left,
Have I gathered the whole earth;
And there was no one that moved the wing;
Or that opened the beak, or that chirped.
15Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?
Shall the saw magnify itself against him that moveth
As if the rod should wield them that lift it up;
As if die staff should lift up its master.
16Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send
Upon his fat ones leanness;
And under his glory shall he kindle a burning,
Like the burning of a fire.
17And the light of Israel shall become a fire,
And his Holy One a flame;
And he shall burn and consume his thorns
And his briers in one day.
18Even the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field,
From the soul even unto the flesh, shall he consume;
And it shall be as when a sick man fainteth.
19And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few,
So that a child may number them.
20And it shall come to pass in that day,
That the remnant of Israel,
And such as are escaped of the house of Jacob,
Shall no more again stay upon him that smote them;
But shall stay upon Jehovah,
The Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21Yet a remnant shall return, a remnant of Jacob,
Unto the mighty God.
22For though thy people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea,
A remnant of them only shall return.
Destruction hath been decreed,
Overflowing with justice.
23For a havock, even the judgment decreed,
Shall the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, make
In the midst of the whole land.
24But yet thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts:
Fear not, O my people that dwellest in Zion, because of the Assyrian:
With his rod he shall smite thee,
And his staff he shall lift up against thee, after the manner of Egypt
25For yet a very little while, and indignation shall cease;
And mine anger be turned towards their destruction.
26And Jehovah of hosts, shall stir up a scourge for him,
Like the smiting of Midian at the rock Oreb,
And like his rod over the sea,
When he lifted it up against the Egyptians.
27Then it shall come to pass, in that day,
That his burden shall be removed from off thy shoulder,
And his yoke from off thy neck:
And the yoke shall be destroyed because of fatness.
28He is come to Aiath; he hath passed through Migron;
At Michmas he hath laid up his baggage.
29They are gone over the passage; at Geba they have taken up their lodging:
Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul hath fled.
30Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim!
Listen in the direction of Laish, O afflicted Anathoth!
31Madmena is gone away; the inhabitants of Gebim have fled.
32He will, as yet, remain a day at Nob;
After that he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33Behold the Lord, Jehovah of hosts,
Shall lop the bough with a dreadful crash;
And the high of stature shall be cut down,
And the lofty shall be brought low.
34And he shall hew the thickets of the forest with iron,
And Lebanon shall fall by a mighty hand.
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.