Isaiah 10

1Woe to those who decree decrees of wickedness, and the writers who keep writing oppression,

2to turn aside the poor from justice, and to rob the afflicted of my people of their right, so that widows may become their spoil, and they may plunder the fatherless.

3What will you do on the day of punishment, and in the devastation that comes from far away? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?

4Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or to fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out.

5Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hand is my wrath.

6Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to seize spoil and to carry off plunder, and to make it a trampling place like the mud of the streets.

7But he does not think so, and his heart does not reckon so; for it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.

8For he says, “Are not my commanders all kings?”

9Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

10As my hand has reached the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols just as I did to Samaria and her idols?

12And it will happen that when the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and the splendor of his haughty eyes.

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 I plunder their treasures; like a mighty man I bring down those who sit enthroned.”

14My hand found the wealth of the peoples as one finds a nest; and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth, and there was none that fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped.

15Does the axe boast over the one who chops with it? Or does the saw magnify itself over the one who wields it? As if a rod were to wield the one who lifts it up, or as if a staff were to lift up one who is not wood!

16Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.

17And the light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame; it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers in a single day.

18And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful land he will consume, from soul to flesh, and it will be like the wasting away of a sick man.

19And the remaining trees of his forest will be few in number, and a boy can write them down.

20And in that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer continue to lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

21A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.

22For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

23For the Lord Yahweh of hosts is carrying out a complete destruction, one that has been decreed, in the midst of all the earth.

24Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: Do not fear, my people who dwell in Zion, because of Assyria. He will strike you with the rod, and he will lift up his staff against you in the manner of Egypt.

25For in just a very little while, indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be for their destruction.

26And Yahweh of hosts will stir up a whip against him, as at the striking down of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as in the way of Egypt.

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 fatness.

28He has come against Aiath; he has passed through Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage.

29They have crossed over the pass; Geba is our lodging place. Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

30Cry aloud, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! O poor Anathoth!

31Madmenah has fled; the inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.

32Still this very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, is lopping off the boughs with terrifying power; the tall in stature are cut down, and the lofty are brought low.

34And the thickets of the forest will be cut down with iron, and Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.