Isaiah 10:5–21

The Lord’s Message against Assyria

⁵“How horrible it will be for Assyria! 

It is the rod of my anger. 

My fury is the staff in the Assyrians’ hands. 

⁶I send them against a godless nation. 

In my fury I order them against the people 

to take their belongings, loot them, 

and trample on them like mud in the streets. 

⁷But that’s not what they intend to do. 

Their minds don’t work that way. 

Their purpose is to destroy and put an end to many nations. 

⁸They ask, ‘Aren’t all our commanders kings? 

⁹Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? 

Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? 

Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?’ 

¹⁰My power has reached kingdoms which have idols. 

They had more carved statues than Jerusalem or Samaria. 

¹¹I will do to Jerusalem and its idols 

what I’ve done to Samaria and its idols.” 

¹²When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the king of Assyria for all his boasting and all his arrogance. ¹³The king will say, 

“I did this with my own two powerful hands. 

I did this with my wisdom, because I am so clever. 

I’ve eliminated the boundaries of nations. 

I’ve looted treasuries. 

I’ve brought down people like a mighty man. 

¹⁴I’ve found the riches of nations as one finds a nest. 

I’ve gathered the whole world as one gathers abandoned eggs. 

Not one of them flapped a wing, opened its mouth, or peeped.” 

¹⁵Can an ax attack the person who cuts with it? 

Can a saw make itself greater than the person who saws with it? 

A rod cannot move the person who lifts it. 

A wooden stick cannot pick up a person. 

¹⁶That is why the Almighty Lord of Armies 

will send a degenerative disease against brave men. 

A flame will be turned into a raging fire under his power. 

¹⁷Israel’s light will become a flame. 

Its Holy One will become a fire. 

He will burn up and devour the weeds and thornbushes in one day. 

¹⁸The majestic forest and the orchard 

will destroy both body and soul. 

They will be like a sick person wasting away. 

¹⁹The trees that remain in the forest will be so few that 

a child could count them. 

²⁰At that time the remaining few Israelites, 

the survivors of Jacob’s descendants 

will no longer depend on the one who struck them. 

They will only depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. 

²¹A few, the remaining few of Jacob, will return to the mighty God.