Isaiah 10:5–15

The Emperor of Assyria as the Instrument of God

^5*The Lord said, “Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry. ^6*I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample on the people like dirt in the streets.”

^7*But the Assyrian emperor has his own violent plans in mind. He is determined to destroy many nations. ^8*He boasts, “Every one of my commanders is a king! ^9*I conquered the cities of Calno and Carchemish, the cities of Hamath and Arpad. I conquered Samaria and Damascus. ^10*I stretched out my hand to punish those kingdoms that worship idols, idols more numerous than those of Jerusalem and Samaria. ^11*I have destroyed Samaria and all its idols, and I will do the same to Jerusalem and the images that are worshipped there.”

^12*But the Lord says, “When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride.”

^13*The emperor of Assyria boasts, “I have done it all myself. I am strong and wise and clever. I wiped out the boundaries between nations and took the supplies they had stored. Like a bull I have trampled on the people who live there. ^14*The nations of the world were like a bird’s nest, and I gathered their wealth as easily as gathering eggs. Not a wing fluttered to scare me off; no beak opened to scream at me!”

^15*But the Lord says, “Can an axe claim to be greater than the man who uses it? Is a saw more important than the man who saws with it? A club doesn’t lift up a man; a man lifts up a club.”