Isaiah 9:8–10:4

Yahweh’s Anger against Arrogance

⁸The Lord has sent out a word against Jacob,

and it fell on Israel.

⁹And all of the people knew it,

Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria

in pride and arrogance of heart, saying,

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stone.

The sycamore-fig trees were felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹So Yahweh strengthened the adversaries of Rezin^l against him,

and he provoked his enemies—

¹²Aram from the east

and Philistines^m from the west—

and they devoured Israel with the whole mouth.

He has not turned away his anger in all of this,

and his hand is still stretched out.

¹³And the people did not turn to the one who struck it,ⁿ

and they did not seek Yahweh of hosts.

¹⁴So Yahweh cut off head and tail from Israel,

palm branch and reed in one day.

¹⁵Elders^o and the respectable^p are the head,

and prophets^q who teach lies^r are the tail.

¹⁶And the leaders of this people were misleading them,

and those who were led were confused.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord did not rejoice over its young men,

and he did not have compassion on its orphans and widows,

for everyone was godless and an evildoer,

and every mouth was speaking folly.

In all of this his anger did not turn away,

and still his hand is stretched out.

¹⁸For wickedness burned like fire;

it consumed brier and thorn.

And it kindled the thickets of the forest,

and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.

¹⁹The land was burned through the wrath of Yahweh of hosts,

and the people became like fire fuel.

People had no compassion toward each other.^s

²⁰They devoured on the right but still were hungry

and devoured on the left but they were not satisfied.

Each one devoured the flesh of his arm,

²¹Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh;

together they were against Judah.

In all of this his anger has not turned away,

and still his hand is stretched out.

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.