Isaiah
Chapter 10
1 Trouble comes to those who make unfair laws and write rules that cause suffering.
2 To push away the needy from fair treatment, and to take the rights from the poor of my people, so that they can take advantage of widows and steal from children without parents!
3 What will you do when the time of punishment comes, and disaster arrives from far away? Who will you run to for help? Where will you leave your riches?
4 Without me, they will kneel before the captives, and they will fall among the dead. Despite this, God is still angry, and his hand is still reaching out.
5 O Assyrian, you are the stick I use in anger, and the club you hold is my fury.
6 I will send him against a nation of pretenders, and to the people I am angry with, I will order him to seize their goods, capture them, and crush them like dirt on the roads.
7 He does not intend this, nor does he think this; but he plans to destroy and wipe out many nations.
8 He says, “Aren’t all my leaders as powerful as kings?”
9 Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?
10 My hand has conquered idol nations, whose carved idols were superior to those of Jerusalem and Samaria.
11 Won’t I do to Jerusalem and its idols what I did to Samaria and its idols?
12 So, it will happen that when God has finished his work on Mount Zion and Jerusalem, I will punish the proud actions of the king of Assyria and his arrogant pride.
13 God says, “With my own power I did this, with my knowledge, because I am wise. I changed the borders of nations, took their treasures, and defeated the people as a brave warrior would.”
14 My hand found wealth as a nest, and as one picks up abandoned eggs, I collected everything on earth; nobody fluttered a wing or opened their mouth to chirp.
15 Can an axe brag to the person using it? Or can a saw act proud toward the one who moves it? It’s like a stick moving those who pick it up, or a wooden staff lifting itself as if it isn’t wood.
16 Therefore, God will make his rich people thin, and he will set a fire under his glory that burns like a fierce fire.
17 Israel’s light will be like a fire, and its Holy One like a flame; it will burn and consume its thorns and briers in one day.
18 God will destroy the beauty of his forest and his fertile land, both inside and out, and they will be like when a flag carrier grows weak.
19 The remaining trees of the forest will be so few that a child could count them.
20 On that day, the survivors of Israel and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no longer rely on the one who attacked them; instead, they will truly depend on God, the Holy One of Israel.
21 The remaining people will come back, Jacob’s survivors, to the powerful God.
22 Even though there are many people in Israel, like sand by the sea, only a few of them will come back; what is decided will happen and will be done right.
23 God will carry out a complete destruction, as planned, throughout the land.
24 So this is what God says: My people living in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian. He will hit you with a stick and raise his staff against you, just like it was done in Egypt.
25 In a short time, God’s anger will end, and my fury in their ruin will stop.
26 God will whip him like he did the Midianites at Oreb’s rock, and just as he lifted his staff over the sea, he will raise it as he did in Egypt.
27 On that day, the heavy load will be lifted from your shoulder, and the harness from your neck, and the harness will be broken because of the blessing.
28 He has come to Aiath, he has moved on to Migron; at Michmash he has stored his supplies.
29 They have crossed over the path; they are staying in Geba; Ramah is scared; Saul’s Gibeah has run away.
30 Raise your voice, daughter of Gallim; let it be heard all the way to Laish, you poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah has moved away; the people of Gebim are getting ready to run away.
32 He will stay at Nob for that day; he will threaten the mountain of Zion’s daughter, the hill of Jerusalem with his hand.
33 Look, God, the God of all, will cut off the branches with fear: the tall will be cut down, and the proud will be made low.
34 He will chop down the forest thickets with an iron tool, and Lebanon will fall to a powerful one.