Isaiah 10:5–15

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