Isaiah 10:5–15

Judgment against Assyria

⁵“What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger.

I use it as a club to express my anger.

⁶I am sending Assyria against a godless nation,

against a people with whom I am angry.

Assyria will plunder them,

trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.

⁷But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool;

his mind does not work that way.

His plan is simply to destroy,

to cut down nation after nation.

⁸He will say,

‘Each of my princes will soon be a king.

⁹We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish.

Hamath fell before us as Arpad did.

And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus.

¹⁰Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom

whose gods were greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.

¹¹So we will defeat Jerusalem and her gods,

just as we destroyed Samaria with hers.’ ”

¹²After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant. ¹³He boasts,

“By my own powerful arm I have done this.

With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it.

I have broken down the defenses of nations

and carried off their treasures.

I have knocked down their kings like a bull.

¹⁴I have robbed their nests of riches

and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs.

No one can even flap a wing against me

or utter a peep of protest.”

¹⁵But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it?

Is the saw greater than the person who saws?

Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it?

Can a wooden cane walk by itself?