Isaiah 10

Woes on the Wicked

¹Ah! Those who decree decrees of evil,

²to guide the needy away from legal claims,[#Hebrew “claim”]

and they plunder orphans.

³And what will you do at the day of punishment,

To whom will you flee for help,

⁴save that they bow down under the prisoners

In all of this his anger has not turned away,

Judgment on Assyria’s Arrogance

⁵Ah! Assyria, the rod of my anger,

⁶I send him against a godless nation,

to capture spoil

and to make them a trampling place,

⁷But he does not think this,[#Or “so”]

For it is in his heart to destroy

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

¹⁰As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols[#Hebrew “idol”]

¹¹shall I not do to Jerusalem and its idols

¹²And this shall happen: when the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, “I will punish the arrogance of the king of Assyria and his haughtiness.”[#Literally “the mountain of Zion”; #Literally “fruit of the greatness of the heart”; #Literally “the pride of the height of his eyes”]

¹³For he says,

“I have done it by the strength of my hand

and I have removed the boundaries of peoples,

¹⁴And my hand has found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples,

¹⁵Does the ax boast against the one who cuts with it,

As if a rod should move the one who lifts it!

¹⁶Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send leanness among his sturdy warriors,

¹⁷And the light of Israel will become like a fire,

and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.

¹⁸And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard completely,[#Literally “from soul and to body”]

¹⁹And the rest of the trees of his forest will be a small number,[#Hebrew “tree”]

The Return of the Remnant

²⁰And this shall happen: on that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will not continue to lean on the one who struck it[#Hebrew “survivor”]

²¹A remnant will return—

²²For though your people Israel was like the sand of the sea,

Annihilation is determined,

²³For the Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to make a complete destruction

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh of hosts:

“My people who live in Zion,

It beats you with the rod,

²⁵My indignation will come to an end in just a very little while,[#Literally “for still a little a trifle”]

²⁶And Yahweh of hosts is going to swing a whip against him,

and his staff will be over the sea,

²⁷And this shall happen: on that day,

he will remove his burden from your shoulder

²⁸He has come to Aiath,

²⁹They crossed over the pass;

Ramah trembles;

³⁰Daughter of Gallim, cry out with your voice;

³¹Madmenah flees!

³²This day taking a stand at Nob,[#Literally “Yet today”; #Literally “to stand”]

he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion,

³³Look! The Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to lop off the branches with great power,[#Hebrew “branch”]

³⁴And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with the axe,