> [[isaiah-09|← Previous]] | [[isaiah-00|TOC]] | [[isaiah-11|Next →]] --- # Isaiah, Chapter 10 ## Chapter 10 ### Perversion of Justice 1 Ah! Those who enact unjust statutes, ^isaiah-10-1 who write oppressive decrees, 2 Depriving the needy of judgment, ^isaiah-10-2 robbing my people’s poor of justice, Making widows their plunder, and orphans their prey! 3 What will you do on the day of punishment, ^isaiah-10-3 when the storm comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth, 4 Lest it sink beneath the captive ^isaiah-10-4 or fall beneath the slain? For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched! ### Judgment on Assyria 5 Ah! Assyria, the rod of my wrath, ^isaiah-10-5 the staff I wield in anger. 6 Against an impious nation I send him, ^isaiah-10-6 and against a people under my wrath I order him To seize plunder, carry off loot, and to trample them like the mud of the street. 7 But this is not what he intends, ^isaiah-10-7 nor does he have this in mind; Rather, it is in his heart to destroy, to make an end of not a few nations. 8 For he says, “Are not my commanders all kings?” ^isaiah-10-8 9 “Is not Calno like Carchemish, ^isaiah-10-9 Or Hamath like Arpad, or Samaria like Damascus? 10 Just as my hand reached out to idolatrous kingdoms ^isaiah-10-10 that had more images than Jerusalem and Samaria— 11 Just as I treated Samaria and her idols, ^isaiah-10-11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her graven images?” 12 But when the LORD has brought to an end all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, ^isaiah-10-12 I will punish the utterance of the king of Assyria’s proud heart, and the boastfulness of his haughty eyes. 13 For he says: ^isaiah-10-13 “By my own power I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd. I have moved the boundaries of peoples, their treasures I have pillaged, and, like a mighty one, I have brought down the enthroned. 14 My hand has seized, like a nest, ^isaiah-10-14 the wealth of nations. As one takes eggs left alone, so I took in all the earth; No one fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped!” 15 Will the ax boast against the one who hews with it? ^isaiah-10-15 Will the saw exalt itself above the one who wields it? As if a rod could sway the one who lifts it, or a staff could lift the one who is not wood! 16 Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, ^isaiah-10-16 will send leanness among his fat ones, And under his glory there will be a kindling like the kindling of fire. 17 The Light of Israel will become a fire, ^isaiah-10-17 the Holy One, a flame, That burns and consumes its briers and its thorns in a single day. 18 And the glory of its forests and orchards ^isaiah-10-18 will be consumed, soul and body, and it will be like a sick man who wastes away. 19 And the remnant of the trees in his forest ^isaiah-10-19 will be so few, that any child can record them. 20 On that day ^isaiah-10-20 The remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no more lean upon the one who struck them; But they will lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, ^isaiah-10-21 to the mighty God. 22 Though your people, O Israel, ^isaiah-10-22 were like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant of them will return; their destruction is decreed, as overflowing justice demands. 23 For the Lord, the G OD of hosts, is about to carry out the destruction decreed in the midst of the whole land. ^isaiah-10-23 24 Therefore thus says the Lord, the G OD of hosts: My people, who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian, though he strikes you with a rod, and raises his staff against you as did the Egyptians. ^isaiah-10-24 25 For just a brief moment more, and my wrath shall be over, and my anger shall be set for their destruction. ^isaiah-10-25 26 Then the LORD of hosts will raise against them a scourge such as struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the sea as he did in Egypt. ^isaiah-10-26 27 On that day, ^isaiah-10-27 His burden shall be taken from your shoulder, and his yoke shattered from your neck. ### The March of an Enemy Army He has come up from Rimmon, 28 he has reached Aiath, passed through Migron, ^isaiah-10-28 at Michmash he has stored his supplies. 29 He has crossed the ravine, ^isaiah-10-29 at Geba he has camped for the night. Ramah trembles, Gibeah of Saul has fled. 30 Cry and shriek, Bath-Gallim! ^isaiah-10-30 Hearken, Laishah! Answer her, Anathoth! 31 Madmenah is in flight, ^isaiah-10-31 the inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge. 32 Even today he will halt at Nob, ^isaiah-10-32 he will shake his fist at the mount of daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem! 33 Now the Lord, the LORD of hosts, ^isaiah-10-33 is about to lop off the boughs with terrible violence; The tall of stature shall be felled, and the lofty ones shall be brought low; 34 He shall hack down the forest thickets with an ax, ^isaiah-10-34 and Lebanon in its splendor shall fall. \* (10:1] – [4) This is another *hoy* -oracle; cf. note on [5:8] – [24]. It may originally have been part of the collection at [5:8] – [24]. \* (10:4) For all this…outstretched!: this refrain appears to be out of place here; cf. [9:11], [16], [20]. \* (10:5] – [34) These verses contain a series of oracles directed against Assyria. Verses [5] – [15] portray Assyria as simply the rod God uses to punish Israel, though Assyria does not realize this. The original conclusion to this unit may be the judgment found in vv. [24] – [27a], which continues the imagery and motifs found in vv. [5] – [15]. Verses [16] – [23], because of the quite different imagery and motifs, may originally have been an insertion directed against Aram and Israel at the time of the Syro-Ephraimite War. \* (10:6) Impious nation: Judah. It was God’s intention to use Assyria merely to punish, not to destroy, the nation. \* (10:9] – [10) The cities mentioned were all cities captured, some more than once, by the Assyrians in the eighth century B.C. Verse [9] suggests a certain historicaLORDer in the fall of these cities, and v. [10] suggests that all of them had fallen before Samaria (cf. [Am 6:2]). That implies that one should think primarily of events during the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (745–727). \* (10:16) His fat ones: the strong men of the enemy army. \* (10:21) A remnant will return: in Hebrew, *shear-jashub*, an allusion to the name of Isaiah’s son, Shear-jashub; cf. [7:3]. \* (10:24) This verse with its reference to Assyria’s rod may introduce the original conclusion to vv. [5] – [15]. \* (10:27b] – [32) A poetic description of the march of an enemy army from the north, advancing south to the very gates of Jerusalem, where the enemy waves his hand in a gesture of derision against the city. Though Sennacherib’s troops took a different route, advancing down the coast and then approaching Jerusalem from the southeast, the arrogant attitude toward God’s chosen city was the same. Aiath: the Ai of [Jos 7:22] – [8:29]. Migron: modern Makrun north of Michmash. The ravine: the deep valley between Michmash and Geba (cf. [1 Sm 14:1] – [5]). Ramah…Gibeah…Bath-Gallim…Laishah…Anathoth…Madmenah…Gebim: cities north of Jerusalem threatened by the sudden appearance of this enemy army. Nob: probably to be identified with the present Mount Scopus from where one has a clear view of Jerusalem. \* (10:33] – [34) Just when the enemy is about to capture Jerusalem, God intervenes and destroys the hostile army. Cf. [29:1] – [8]; [31:4] – [9]. a. (10:1) [Jer 8:8]. b. (10:2) [Is 1:23]; [3:14] – [15]. c. (10:5) [Jer 51:20] – [23]. d. (10:16) [[isaiah-17|Is 17]]:4. e. (10:17) [Is 9:17] – [18]; [30:27] – [33]; [31:9]; [33:14]. f. (10:22) [Hos 2:1]; [Rom 9:27] – [28]. g. (10:22) [Is 28:16] – [18]. h. (10:23) [Is 28:22]. i. (10:26) [Is 9:3]; [Jgs 7:25]. j. (10:26) ([[exodus-14|Ex 14]]:16]. k. (10:27) [Is 9:3]. --- _New American Bible, revised edition_ (2010, 1991, 1986, 1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. > [[isaiah-09|← Previous]] | [[isaiah-00|TOC]] | [[isaiah-11|Next →]]