Logos Bible Study

Isaiah 10:5–13

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The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead,8

a cudgel with which I angrily punish.9

10:6I sent him10 against a godless11 nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry,12

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down13 like dirt in the streets.

10:7But he does not agree with this,

his mind does not reason this way,14

for his goal is to destroy,

and to eliminate many nations.15

10:8Indeed,16 he says:

“Are not my officials all kings?

10:9Is not Calneh like Carchemish?

Hamath like Arpad?

Samaria like Damascus?17

10:10I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols,18

whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s19 or Samaria’s.

10:11As I have done to Samaria and its idols,

so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.”20

10:12But when21 the sovereign master22 finishes judging23 Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I24 will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays.2510:13For he says:

“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,

by my strategy that I devised.

I invaded the territory of nations,26

and looted their storehouses.

Like a mighty conqueror,27 I brought down rulers.28

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Footnotes

  1. 8 Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of .
  2. 9 Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (béyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
  3. 10 Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
  4. 11 Or “defiled”; cf. “profane”; “impious”; “separated from God.”
  5. 12 Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
  6. 13 Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
  7. 14 Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”
  8. 15 Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”
  9. 16 Or “For” (, , , ).
  10. 17 Calneh … Carchemish … Hamath … Arpad … Samaria … Damascus. The city states listed here were conquered by the Assyrians between 740–717 b.c. The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one can stand before Assyria’s might. On the geographical, rather than chronological arrangement of the cities, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (), 1:, n. 4.
  11. 18 Heb “Just as my hand found the kingdoms of the idol[s].” The comparison is expanded in v. 11a (note “as”) and completed in v. 11b (note “so”).
  12. 19 For the location of Jerusalem see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
  13. 20 The statement is constructed as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text: “Is it not [true that] just as I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols?” This statement indicates that the prophecy dates sometime between 722–701 b.c.
  14. 21 The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in .
  15. 22 The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
  16. 23 Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. , , “on”; “against.”
  17. 24 The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5–6a.
  18. 25 Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.
  19. 26 Heb “removed the borders of nations”; cf. , , “boundaries.”
  20. 27 The consonantal text (Kethib) has כְּאַבִּיר (ké’abir, “like a strong one”); the marginal reading (Qere) is כַּבִיר (kavir, “mighty one”).
  21. 28 Heb “and I brought down, like a strong one, ones sitting [or “living”].” The participle יוֹשְׁבִים (yoshévim, “ones sitting”) could refer to the inhabitants of the nations, but the translation assumes that it refers to those who sit on thrones, i.e., rulers. See 442 יָשַׁב and ישׁב.

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