Isaiah 10–11

10How terrible it will be for those who make unfair laws,

and those who write laws that make life hard for people.

²They are not fair to the poor,

and they rob my people of their rights.

They allow people to steal from widows

and to take from orphans what really belongs to them.

³How will you explain the things you have done?

What will you do when your destruction comes from far away?

Where will you run for help?

Where will you hide your riches then?

⁴You will have to bow down among the captives

or fall down among the dead bodies.

But the Lord is still angry;

his hand is still raised to strike down the people.

God Will Punish Assyria

⁵God says, “How terrible it will be for the king of Assyria.

I use him like a rod to show my anger;

in anger I use Assyria like a club.

⁶I send it to fight against a nation that is separated from God.

I am angry with those people,

so I command Assyria to fight against them,

to take their wealth from them,

to trample them down like dirt in the streets.

⁷But Assyria’s king doesn’t understand that I am using him;

he doesn’t know he is a tool for me.

He only wants to destroy other people

and to defeat many nations.

⁸The king of Assyria says to himself,

‘All of my commanders are like kings.

⁹The city Calno is like the city Carchemish.

The city Hamath is like the city Arpad.

The city Samaria is like the city Damascus.

¹⁰I defeated those kingdoms that worship idols,

and those idols were more than the idols of Jerusalem and Samaria.

¹¹As I defeated Samaria and her idols,

I will also defeat Jerusalem and her idols.’ ”

¹²When the Lord finishes doing what he planned to Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will punish Assyria. The king of Assyria is very proud, and his pride has made him do these evil things, so God will punish him. ¹³The king of Assyria says this:

“By my own power I have done these things;

by my wisdom I have defeated many nations.

I have taken their wealth,

and, like a mighty one, I have taken their people.

¹⁴I have taken the riches of all these people,

like a person reaching into a bird’s nest.

I have taken these nations,

like a person taking eggs.

Not one raised a hand

or opened its mouth to stop me.”

¹⁵An ax is not better than the person who swings it.

A saw is not better than the one who uses it.

A stick cannot control the person who picks it up.

A club cannot pick up the person!

¹⁶So the Lord God All-Powerful

will send a terrible disease upon Assyria’s soldiers.

The strength of Assyria will be burned up

like a fire burning until everything is gone.

¹⁷God, the Light of Israel, will be like a fire;

the Holy One will be like a flame.

He will be like a fire

that suddenly burns the weeds and thorns.

¹⁸The fire burns away the great trees and rich farmlands,

destroying everything.

It will be like a sick person who wastes away.

¹⁹The trees left standing will be so few

that even a child could count them.

²⁰At that time some people will be left alive in Israel

from the family of Jacob.

They will not continue to depend

on the person who defeated them.

They will learn truly to depend on the Lord,

the Holy One of Israel.

²¹Those who are left alive in Jacob’s family

will again follow the powerful God.

²²Israel, your people are many,

like the grains of sand by the sea.

But only a few of them will be left alive to return to the Lord.

God has announced that he will destroy the land

completely and fairly.

²³The Lord God All-Powerful will certainly destroy this land,

as he has announced.

²⁴This is what the Lord God All-Powerful says:

“My people living in Jerusalem,

don’t be afraid of the Assyrians,

who beat you with a rod

and raise a stick against you, as Egypt did.

²⁵After a short time my anger against you will stop,

and then I will turn my anger to destroying them.”

²⁶Then the Lord All-Powerful will beat the Assyrians with a whip

as he defeated Midian at the rock of Oreb.

He will raise his stick over the waters

as he did in Egypt.

²⁷Then the troubles that Assyria puts on you

will be removed,

and the load they make you carry

will be taken away.

Assyria Invades Israel

²⁸The army of Assyria will enter near Aiath.

Its soldiers will walk through Migron.

They will store their food in Micmash.

²⁹The army will go over the pass.

The soldiers will sleep at Geba.

The people of Ramah will be afraid,

and the people at Gibeah of Saul will run away.

³⁰Cry out, Bath Gallim!

Laishah, listen!

Poor Anathoth!

³¹The people of Madmenah are running away;

the people of Gebim are hiding.

³²This day the army will stop at Nob.

They will shake their fist at Mount Zion,

at the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Watch! The Lord God All-Powerful

with his great power will chop them down like a great tree.

Those who are great will be cut down;

those who are important will fall to the ground.

³⁴He will cut them down

as a forest is cut down with an ax.

And the great trees of Lebanon

will fall by the power of the Mighty One.

The King of Peace Is Coming

11A new branch will grow

from a stump of a tree;

so a new king will come

from the family of Jesse. ⁿ

²The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon that king.

The Spirit will give him wisdom and understanding, guidance and power.

The Spirit will teach him to know and respect the Lord.

³This king will be glad to obey the Lord.

He will not judge by the way things look

or decide by what he hears.

⁴But he will judge the poor honestly;

he will be fair in his decisions for the poor people of the land.

At his command evil people will be punished,

and by his words the wicked will be put to death.

⁵Goodness and fairness will give him strength,

like a belt around his waist.

⁶Then wolves will live in peace with lambs,

and leopards will lie down to rest with goats.

Calves, lions, and young bulls will eat together,

and a little child will lead them.

⁷Cows and bears will eat together in peace.

Their young will lie down to rest together.

Lions will eat hay as oxen do.

⁸A baby will be able to play near a cobra’s hole,

and a child will be able to put his hand into the nest of a poisonous snake.

⁹They will not hurt or destroy each other

on all my holy mountain,

because the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord,

as the sea is full of water.

¹⁰At that time the new king from the family of Jesse will stand as a banner for all peoples. The nations will come together around him, and the place where he lives will be filled with glory. ¹¹At that time the Lord will again reach out and take his people who are left alive in Assyria, North Egypt, South Egypt, Cush, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath, and all the islands of the sea.

¹²God will raise a banner as a sign for all nations,

and he will gather the people of Israel who were forced from their country.

He will gather the scattered people of Judah

from all parts of the earth.

¹³At that time Israel will not be jealous anymore,

and Judah will have no more enemies.

Israel will not be jealous of Judah,

and Judah will not hate Israel.

¹⁴But Israel and Judah will attack the Philistines on the west.

Together they will take the riches from the people of the east.

They will conquer Edom and Moab,

and the people of Ammon will be under their control.

¹⁵The Lord will dry up

the Red Sea of Egypt.

He will wave his arm over the Euphrates River

and dry it up with a scorching wind.

He will divide it into seven small rivers

so that people can walk across them with their sandals on.

¹⁶So God’s people who are left alive

will have a way to leave Assyria,

just like the time the Israelites

came out of Egypt.