Isaiah 10:5–21

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.