Isaiah 9:8–10:4

Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression

⁸The Lord sent a word against Jacob,

and it fell on Israel,

⁹and all the people knew it—

Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—

but in pride and arrogance of heart they said:^*

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen,

but we will build with dressed stones;

the sycamores have been cut down,

but we will put cedars in their place.”

¹¹So the Lord raised adversaries^g against them

and stirred up their enemies,^*

¹²the Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west,

and they devoured Israel with open mouth.

For all this his anger has not turned away;

his hand is stretched out still.^*

¹³The people did not turn to him who struck them

or seek the Lord of hosts.^*

¹⁴So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail,

palm branch and reed in one day—^*

¹⁵elders and dignitaries are the head,

and prophets who teach lies are the tail,^*

¹⁶for those who led this people led them astray,

and those who were led by them were left in confusion.^*

¹⁷That is why the Lord did not have pity on^h their young people

or compassion on their orphans and widows,

for everyone was godless and an evildoer,

and every mouth spoke folly.

For all this his anger has not turned away;

his hand is stretched out still.^*

¹⁸For wickedness burned like a fire,

consuming briers and thorns;

it kindled the thickets of the forest,

and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.^*

¹⁹Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts

the land was burned,

and the people became like fuel for the fire;

no one spared another.^*

²⁰They gorged on the right but still were hungry,

and they devoured on the left but were not satisfied;

they devoured the flesh of their own kindred;^i*

²¹Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,

and together they were against Judah.

For all this his anger has not turned away;

his hand is stretched out still.^*

¹⁰Woe to those who make iniquitous decrees,

who write oppressive statutes,^*

²to turn aside the needy from justice

and to rob the poor of my people of their right,

to make widows their spoil

and to plunder orphans!^*

³What will you do on the day of punishment,

in the calamity that will come from far away?

To whom will you flee for help,

and where will you leave your wealth,^*

⁴so as not to crouch among the prisoners

or fall among the slain?

For all this his anger has not turned away;

his hand is stretched out still.^*