Isaiah 10

1Woe to those who enact unjust laws, and to those who keep writing oppressive decrees,

2to deprive the poor of justice and rob the afflicted of my people of their rights, so that widows become their spoil and they plunder the orphans!

3What will you do on the day of punishment, when devastation comes from far away? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?

4Nothing will remain but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is still stretched out.

5Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hand is my fury!

6I send him against a godless nation; I command him against the people who provoke my wrath, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.

7But this is not what he intends; this is not what he has in mind. His heart is set on destroying, on cutting off nations, not a few.

8For he says, “Are not my commanders all kings?

9Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

10As my hand has reached the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images outnumbered those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11will I not do to Jerusalem and her images as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”

12When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pride of his haughty eyes.

13For he says, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding. I have removed the boundaries of peoples and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I have brought down those who sit enthroned.

14My hand found the wealth of the peoples like a nest, and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; there was no one who flapped a wing or opened a mouth or chirped.”

15Does the ax exalt itself over the one who chops with it? Does the saw make itself greater than the one who wields it? As if a rod should wield the one who lifts it, or a staff should lift the one who is not wood!

16Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors, and under his glory a fire will be kindled, burning like a blazing fire.

17The Light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame; it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in a single day.

18The glory of his forest and his fruitful land it will destroy, both soul and body; it will be as when a sick person wastes away.

19The trees left in his forest will be so few that a child could write them down.

20On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

21A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.

22For though your people Israel are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

23For the Lord Yahweh of Armies will carry out the destruction that has been decreed in the midst of the whole land.

24Therefore this is what the Lord Yahweh of Armies says: My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, though he strikes you with a rod and lifts up his staff against you as Egypt did.

25For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will turn to their destruction.

26Yahweh of Armies will lash him with a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.

27On that day his burden will be lifted from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because of fatness.

28He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage.

29They have gone through the pass: “At Geba we will spend the night.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

30Cry out loud, Daughter Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Poor Anathoth!

31Madmenah is in flight; the people of Gebim seek refuge.

32This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33Look, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will lop off the branches with terrifying power; the tall trees will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.

34He will cut down the forest thickets with an iron ax, and Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.