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
Woes on the Wicked
1Ah! Those who decree decrees of evil,
and writers who have written harm,
2to guide the needy away from legal claims,#Hebrew “claim”
and to rob the justice from the poor of my people,
to make widows their spoil;
and they plunder orphans.
3And what will you do at the day of punishment,
and at calamity? It comes from afar!
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth,
4save that they bow down under the prisoners
and fall under the slain?#Literally “except he will bow down under a prisoner and under slain they will fall”; “under” could also mean “in the place of”
In all of this his anger has not turned away,
and still his hand is stretched out.
Judgment on Assyria’s Arrogance
5Ah! Assyria, the rod of my anger,
and a staff is in their hand: my wrath!
6I send him against a godless nation,
and I command him against the people of my wrath,
to capture spoil
and to carry off plunder,
and to make them#Hebrew “him” a trampling place,
like the clay of the streets.
7But he does not think this,#Or “so”
and his heart does not plan this.
For it is in his heart to destroy
and to cut off not a few nations.
8For he says, “Are not my commanders altogether kings?
9Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols#Hebrew “idol”
—and their images were greater than those of#Literally “from” Jerusalem and Samaria—
11shall I not do to Jerusalem and its idols
what I have done to Samaria and her idols?”
12And this shall happen: when the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion#Literally “the mountain of Zion” and Jerusalem, “I will punish the arrogance#Literally “fruit of the greatness of the heart” of the king of Assyria and his haughtiness.”#Literally “the pride of the height of his eyes”
13For he says,
“I have done it by the strength of my hand
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding,
and I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
and I have plundered their stores,
and like a bull I have brought down the inhabitants.#Or, “those sitting,” that is, rulers sitting on thrones
14And my hand has found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples,
and like the gathering of forsaken eggs, I myself have gathered all the earth.
And there was no fluttering wing or open mouth or chirp.”
15Does the ax boast against the one who cuts with it,
or the saw magnify itself against the one who moves it to and fro?
As if a rod should move the one who lifts it!#Literally “As a rod waving even the one who lifts it up”
As if a staff should lift up that which is not wood!#Literally “As a staff lifting up not wood”
16Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send leanness among his sturdy warriors,
and a burning like the burning of fire will burn under his glory.
17And the light of Israel will become like a fire,
and his holy one like a flame,
and it will burn and devour his thorns#Hebrew “thorn” and briers#Hebrew “brier” in one day.
18And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard completely,#Literally “from soul and to body”
and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.
19And the rest of the trees#Hebrew “tree” of his forest will be a small number,
and a boy can write them down.
The Return of the Remnant
20And this shall happen: on that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors#Hebrew “survivor” of the house of Jacob will not continue to lean on the one who struck it
but will lean on Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, in truth.
21A remnant will return—
the remnant of Jacob—to the mighty God.
22For though your people Israel was like the sand of the sea,
only a remnant of it will return.
Annihilation is determined,
overflowing with righteousness.
23For the Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to make a complete destruction
and a determined end in the midst of all the earth.
24Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh of hosts:
“My people who live in Zion,
you must not be afraid of Assyria.
It beats you with the rod,
and it lifts up its staff against you as the Egyptians did.#Literally “in the way of Egypt”
25My indignation will come to an end in just a very little while,#Literally “for still a little a trifle”
and my anger will be directed to their destruction.”
26And Yahweh of hosts is going to swing a whip against him,
as when Midian was defeated at the rock of Oreb;
and his staff will be over the sea,
and he will lift him up as he did in Egypt.#Literally “in the way of Egypt”
27And this shall happen: on that day,
he will remove his burden from your shoulder
and his yoke from your neck,
and a yoke will be destroyed because of fat.#The meaning of this phrase is uncertain, leading to the conjecture that it belongs with the next verse and by a different word division could mean “he has gone up from Jeshimon”; alternatively, “fat” could be a metaphor for prosperity
28He has come to Aiath,
he has passed through Migron;
at Micmash he deposited his baggage.
29They crossed over the pass;
Geba is a place of overnight lodging for us.
Ramah trembles;
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30Daughter of Gallim, cry out with your voice;
Laishah, listen!
Anathoth is poor.#Or with different vocalization, “Answer her, Anathoth!” which fits the parallelism better
31Madmenah flees!
The inhabitants of Gebim bring themselves into safety!
32This day#Literally “Yet today” taking a stand#Literally “to stand” at Nob,
he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter#Following the reading tradition (Qere); the consonantal text has “house” of Zion,
at the hill of Jerusalem.
33Look! The Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to lop off the branches#Hebrew “branch” with great power,
and the towering trees#Literally “the haughty of the height” will be felled,
and the tall trees#Literally “height” will be brought low.
34And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with the axe,
and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one.
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