Isaiah 10

Woes on the Wicked

10 Ah! Those who decree decrees of evil,
- and writers who have written harm,
2 to guide the needy away from legal claims,[fn]
- and to rob the justice from the poor of my people,
- to make widows their spoil;
and they plunder orphans.
3 And what will you do at the day of punishment,
- and at calamity? It comes from afar!
To whom will you flee for help,
- and where will you leave your wealth,
4 save that they bow down under the prisoners
- and fall under the slain ?[fn]
In all of this his anger has not turned away,
- and still his hand is stretched out.

Judgment on Assyria’s Arrogance

5 Ah! Assyria, the rod of my anger,
- and a staff is in their hand: my wrath!
6 I send him against a godless nation,
- and I command him against the people of my wrath,
to capture spoil
- and to carry off plunder,
and to make them[fn] a trampling place,
- like the clay of the streets.
7 But he does not think this,[fn]
- and his heart does not plan this.
For it is in his heart to destroy
- and to cut off not a few nations.
8 For he says, “ Are not my commanders altogether kings?
- 9 Is not Calno like Carchemish?
- Is not Hamath like Arpad?
- Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols[fn]
- —and their images were greater than those of[fn] Jerusalem and Samaria—
11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and its idols
- what I have done to Samaria and her idols?”

12 And this shall happen: when the Lord has finished all his work against ⌊Mount Zion⌋[fn] and Jerusalem, “I will punish the ⌊arrogance⌋[fn] of the king of Assyria and ⌊his haughtiness⌋.”[fn]

13 For he says,

“I have done it by the strength of my hand
- and by my wisdom, for I have understanding,
and I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
- and I have plundered their stores,
- and like a bull I have brought down the inhabitants .[fn]
14 And my hand has found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples,
- and like the gathering of forsaken eggs, I myself have gathered all the earth.
  - And there was no fluttering wing or open mouth or chirp.”
15 Does the ax boast against the one who cuts with it,
- or the saw magnify itself against the one who moves it to and fro?
As if a rod should move the one who lifts it ![fn]
- As if a staff should lift up that which is not wood ![fn]
16 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send leanness among his sturdy warriors,
- and a burning like the burning of fire will burn under his glory.
17 And the light of Israel will become like a fire,
- and his holy one like a flame,
and it will burn and devour his thorns[fn] and briers[fn] in one day.
18 And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard completely ,[fn]
- and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.
19 And the rest of the trees[fn] of his forest will be a small number,
- and a boy can write them down.

The Return of the Remnant

20 And this shall happen: on that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors[fn] of the house of Jacob will not continue to lean on the one who struck it
- but will lean on Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, in truth.
21 A remnant will return—
- the remnant of Jacob—to the mighty God.
22 For though your people Israel was like the sand of the sea,
- only a remnant of it will return.
Annihilation is determined,
- overflowing with righteousness.
23 For the Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to make a complete destruction
- and a determined end in the midst of all the earth.

24 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh of hosts:

“My people who live in Zion,
- you must not be afraid of Assyria.
It beats you with the rod,
- and it lifts up its staff against you as the Egyptians did .[fn]
25 My indignation will come to an end in just a very little while ,[fn]
- and my anger will be directed to their destruction.”
26 And Yahweh of hosts is going to swing a whip against him,
- as when Midian was defeated at the rock of Oreb;
and his staff will be over the sea,
- and he will lift him up as he did in Egypt .[fn]

27 And this shall happen: on that day,

he will remove his burden from your shoulder
- and his yoke from your neck,
- and a yoke will be destroyed because of fat .[fn]
28 He has come to Aiath,
- he has passed through Migron;
- at Micmash he deposited his baggage.
29 They crossed over the pass;
- Geba is a place of overnight lodging for us.
Ramah trembles;
- Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Daughter of Gallim, cry out with your voice;
- Laishah, listen!
- Anathoth is poor .[fn]
31 Madmenah flees!
- The inhabitants of Gebim bring themselves into safety!
32 This day[fn] taking a stand[fn] at Nob,
he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter[fn] of Zion,
- at the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Look! The Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to lop off the branches[fn] with great power,
- and the towering trees[fn] will be felled,
- and the tall trees[fn] will be brought low.
34 And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with the axe,
- and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one.

10:? Hebrew “claim”

10:? Literally “except he will bow down under a prisoner and under slain they will fall”; “under” could also mean “in the place of”

10:? Hebrew “him”

10:? Or “so”

10:? Hebrew “idol”

10:? Literally “from”

10:12 Literally “the mountain of Zion”

10:12 Literally “fruit of the greatness of the heart”

10:12 Literally “the pride of the height of his eyes”

10:13 Or, “those sitting,” that is, rulers sitting on thrones

10:13 Literally “As a rod waving even the one who lifts it up”

10:13 Literally “As a staff lifting up not wood”

10:13 Hebrew “thorn”

10:13 Hebrew “brier”

10:13 Literally “from soul and to body”

10:13 Hebrew “tree”

10:13 Hebrew “survivor”

10:24 Literally “in the way of Egypt”

10:24 Literally “for still a little a trifle”

10:24 Literally “in the way of Egypt”

10:27 The meaning of this phrase is uncertain, leading to the conjecture that it belongs with the next verse and by a different word division could mean “he has gone up from Jeshimon”; alternatively, “fat” could be a metaphor for prosperity

10:27 Or with different vocalization, “Answer her, Anathoth!” which fits the parallelism better

10:27 Literally “Yet today”

10:27 Literally “to stand”

10:27 Following the reading tradition (Qere); the consonantal text has “house”

10:27 Hebrew “branch”

10:27 Literally “the haughty of the height”

10:27 Literally “height”

LEB ISA Chapter 10