Isaiah 10–11

Woes on the Wicked

10Ah! Those who decree decrees of evil,

and writers who have written harm,

²to guide the needy away from legal claims,^a

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?^b

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^c a trampling place,

like the clay of the streets.

⁷But he does not think this,^d

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^e

—and their images were greater than those of^f 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^g and Jerusalem, “I will punish the arrogance^h of the king of Assyria and his haughtiness.”ⁱ

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.^j

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!^k

As if a staff should lift up that which is not wood!^l

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^m and briersⁿ in one day.

¹⁸And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard completely,^o

and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.

¹⁹And the rest of the trees^p 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^q 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.^r

²⁵My indignation will come to an end in just a very little while,^s

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.^t

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.^u

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.^v

³¹Madmenah flees!

The inhabitants of Gebim bring themselves into safety!

³²This day^w taking a stand^x at Nob,

he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter^y of Zion,

at the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Look! The Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to lop off the branches^z with great power,

and the towering trees^a will be felled,

and the tall trees^b 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.

The Branch’s Righteous Reign

11And a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse,

and a branch from its roots will bear fruit.

²And the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him—

a spirit of wisdom and understanding,

a spirit of counsel and might,

a spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.

³And his breath^a is in the fear of Yahweh.

And he shall judge not by his eyesight,

and he shall rebuke not by what he hears with^b his ears.

⁴But he shall judge the poor with righteousness,

and he shall decide for the needy of the earth with rectitude.

And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and he shall kill the wicked person with the breath of his lips.

⁵And righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,

and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

⁶And a wolf shall stay^c with a lamb,

and a leopard shall lie down with a kid,

and a calf and a lion and a fatling together

as a small boy leads^d them.

⁷And a cow and a bear shall graze;

their young shall lie down together.

And a lion shall eat straw like the cattle.

⁸And an infant^e shall play over a serpent’s hole,

and a toddler^f shall put his hand on a viper’s hole.

⁹They will not injure and they will not destroy on all of my holy mountain,^g

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh,

as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰And this shall happen on that day:

the nations shall inquire of the root of Jesse,

which shall be standing as a signal to the peoples,

and his resting place shall be glorious.

The Regathered Remnant

¹¹And this shall happen on that day:

The Lord will again extend his hand a second time

to acquire the remnant of his people that is left,

from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea,

¹²and he will raise a signal for the nations.

And he will gather the outcasts of Israel,

and he will gather the scattered ones of Judah together from the four corners^h of the earth.

¹³And the jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,

and the enemies of Judah shall be cut off.

Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,

and Judah shall not be an enemy of Ephraim.

¹⁴But they shall swoopⁱ upon the Philistine shoulder,^j westward.^k

Together they shall plunder the sons of the east.

Edom and Moab will be under their command,^l

and the sons of Ammon will be their subjugated people.

¹⁵And Yahweh will divide^m the tongueⁿ of the sea of Egypt,^o

and he will wave his hand over the river^p with his scorching wind;

and he will strike it into seven streams,

and he will make it passable by foot.^q

¹⁶So there shall be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people that remains,

as there was for Israel when^r it went up from the land of Egypt.