Isaiah 10–11

10How terrible it will be for you

who make laws that aren’t fair!

How terrible for you

who write laws that make life hard for others!

²You take away the rights of poor people.

You hold back what is fair from my people who are suffering.

You take for yourselves what belongs to widows.

You rob children whose fathers have died.

³What will you do on the day when the Lord punishes you?

On that day trouble will come from far away.

Who will you run to for help?

Who will you trust your riches with?

⁴All you can do is bow down in fear among the prisoners.

All you can do is fall among those who have died in battle.

Even then, the Lord is still angry.

His hand is still raised against them.

The Lord Will Judge Assyria

⁵The Lord says, “How terrible it will be for the people of Assyria!

They are the war club that carries out my anger.

⁶I will send them against the ungodly nation of Judah.

I will order them to fight against my own people.

They make me angry.

I will order them to take their goods and carry them away.

I will order them to walk on my people

as if they were walking on mud.

⁷But that is not what the king of Assyria plans.

It is not what he has in mind.

His purpose is to destroy many nations.

His purpose is to put an end to them.

⁸‘Aren’t all of my commanders kings?’ he says.

⁹‘I took over Calno just as I took Carchemish.

I took over Hamath just as I did Arpad.

I took Samaria just as I did Damascus.

¹⁰My powerful hand grabbed hold of kingdoms

whose people worship statues of gods.

They had more gods than Jerusalem and Samaria did.

¹¹I took over Samaria and its statues of gods.

In the same way, I will take Jerusalem and its gods.’ ”

¹²The Lord will finish everything he has planned to do against Mount Zion and Jerusalem. Then he’ll say, “Now I will punish the king of Assyria. I will punish him because his heart and his eyes are so proud.

¹³“The king of Assyria says,

“ ‘I have used my powerful hand

to take over all of those nations.

I am very wise.

I have great understanding.

I have wiped out the borders between nations.

I’ve taken their treasures.

Like a great hero I’ve brought their kings under my control.

¹⁴I’ve taken the wealth of the nations.

It was as easy as reaching into a bird’s nest.

I’ve gathered the riches of all of those countries.

It was as easy as gathering eggs

that have been left in a nest.

Not a single baby bird flapped its wings.

Not one of them opened its mouth to chirp.’ ”

¹⁵Does an ax claim to be more important

than the one who swings it?

Does a saw brag that it is better

than the one who uses it?

That would be like a stick

swinging someone who picks it up!

It would be like a war club

waving the one who carries it!

¹⁶So the Lord who rules over all will send a sickness.

The Lord will send it on the king of Assyria’s strong fighting men.

It will make them weaker and weaker.

The army he was so proud of will be completely destroyed.

It will be as if it had been burned up in a fire.

¹⁷The Lord is the light of Israel.

He will become a fire.

Israel’s Holy One will become a flame.

In a single day he will burn up all of Assyria’s bushes.

He will destroy all of their thorns.

¹⁸He will completely destroy the beauty

of their forests and rich farm lands.

The Assyrian army will be like a sick man

who becomes weaker and weaker.

¹⁹It will be like the trees of their forests.

So few of them will be left standing

that even a child could count them.

Israel Will Return to the Lord

²⁰In days to come, some people will still be left alive in Israel.

They will be from Jacob’s family line.

But they won’t depend any longer on

the nation that struck them down.

Instead, they will truly depend on the Lord.

He is the Holy One of Israel.

²¹The people of Jacob who are still alive

will return to the Mighty God.

²²Israel, your people might be as many as the grains of sand by the sea.

But only a few of them will return.

The Lord has handed down a death sentence.

He will destroy his people.

What he does is right.

²³The Lord who rules over all will carry out his sentence.

The Lord will destroy the whole land.

²⁴The Lord rules over all. The Lord says,

“My people who live in Zion,

do not be afraid of the Assyrian army.

They beat you with rods.

They lift up war clubs against you,

just as the Egyptians did.

²⁵Very soon I will not be angry with you anymore.

I will turn my anger against the Assyrians.

I will destroy them.”

²⁶The Lord who rules over all will beat them with a whip.

He will strike them down as he struck Midian down at the rock of Oreb.

And he will reach his wooden staff out over the waters.

That’s what he did in Egypt.

²⁷People of Zion, in days to come he will lift

the heavy load of the Assyrians from your shoulders.

He will remove their yokes from your necks.

They will be broken

because you have become so strong.

²⁸The Assyrian army has entered the town of Aiath.

They have passed through Migron.

They have stored up supplies at Micmash.

²⁹They have marched through the pass there. They said,

“Let’s camp for the night at Geba.”

The people of Ramah tremble with fear.

Those who live in Gibeah of Saul run away.

³⁰Town of Gallim, cry out!

Laishah, listen!

Poor Anathoth!

³¹The people of Madmenah are running away.

Those who live in Gebim are hiding.

³²Today the Assyrians have stopped at Nob.

They are shaking their fists

at Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem.

³³The Assyrian soldiers are like trees in a forest.

The Lord who rules over all

will chop them down.

The Lord will cut off their branches

with his great power.

He will chop the tall trees down.

He will cut down even the highest ones.

³⁴The Mighty One will chop down the forest with his ax.

He will cut down the cedar trees in Lebanon.

A Branch Will Come From Jesse’s Family Line

11Jesse’s family is like a tree that has been cut down.

A new little tree will grow from its stump.

From its roots a Branch will grow and produce fruit.

²The Spirit of the Lord will rest on that Branch.

He will help him to be wise and understanding.

He will help him make wise plans and carry them out.

He will help him know the Lord and have respect for him.

³The Branch will take delight

in respecting the Lord.

He will not judge things only by the way they look.

He won’t make decisions based simply on what people say.

⁴He will always do what is right

when he judges those who are in need.

He’ll be completely fair

when he makes decisions about poor people.

When he commands that people be punished,

it will happen.

When he orders that evil people be put to death,

it will take place.

⁵He will put godliness on as if it were his belt.

He’ll wear faithfulness around his waist.

⁶Wolves will live with lambs.

Leopards will lie down with goats.

Calves and lions will eat together.

And little children will lead them around.

⁷Cows will eat with bears.

Their little ones will lie down together.

And lions will eat straw like oxen.

⁸A baby will play near a hole where cobras live.

A young child will put his hand into a nest

where poisonous snakes live.

⁹None of those animals will harm or destroy anything or anyone

on my holy mountain of Zion.

The oceans are full of water.

In the same way, the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the Lord.

¹⁰At that time the man who is called the Root from Jesse’s family line will be like a banner that brings nations together. They will come to him. And the place where he rules will be glorious.

¹¹At that time the Lord will reach out his hand to gather his people a second time. He will bring back those who are left alive. He’ll bring them back from Assyria, Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt and Cush. He’ll bring them from Elam, Babylonia and Hamath. He will also bring them from the islands of the Mediterranean Sea.

¹²He will lift up a banner.

It will show the nations that he is gathering the people of Israel.

He’ll bring back those who had been taken away as prisoners.

He’ll gather together the scattered people of Judah.

He’ll bring them back from all four directions.

¹³Ephraim’s people won’t be jealous anymore.

Judah’s attackers will be cut off.

Ephraim won’t be jealous of Judah.

And Judah won’t attack Ephraim.

¹⁴Together they will rush down the slopes of Philistia to the west.

They’ll take what belongs to the people of the east.

They’ll take over Edom and Moab.

The people of Ammon will be under their control.

¹⁵The Lord will dry up

the Red Sea in Egypt.

With his powerful hand he’ll send a burning wind

to sweep over the Euphrates River.

He will break it up into many streams.

Then people will be able to go across it wearing sandals.

¹⁶There was a road the people of Israel used

when they came up from Egypt.

In the same way, there will be a wide road coming out of Assyria.

It will be used by the Lord’s people who are left alive there.