Isaiah 10:5-19 - Judgment On Assyria's Arrogance

⁵ Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger—
the staff in their hands is My wrath.
⁶ I will send him against a godless nation;
I will command him to go
against a people destined for My rage,
to take spoils, to plunder,
and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
⁷ But this is not what he intends;
this is not what he plans.
It is his intent to destroy
and to cut off many nations.
⁸ For he says,
“Aren’t all my commanders kings?
⁹ Isn’t Calno like Carchemish?
Isn’t Hamath like Arpad?
Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?
¹⁰ As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms,
whose idols exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
¹¹ and as I did to Samaria and its idols
will I not also do to Jerusalem and its idols?”

¹² But when the Lord finishes all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for his arrogant acts and the proud look in his eyes.” ¹³ For he said:

I have done this by my own strength
and wisdom, for I am clever.
I abolished the borders of nations
and plundered their treasures;
like a mighty warrior, I subjugated the inhabitants.
¹⁴ My hand has reached out, as if into a nest,
to seize the wealth of the nations.
Like one gathering abandoned eggs,
I gathered the whole earth.
No wing fluttered;
no beak opened or chirped.

¹⁵ Does an ax exalt itself
above the one who chops with it?
Does a saw magnify itself
above the one who saws with it?
It would be like a staff waving the one who lifts it!
It would be like a rod lifting a man who isn’t wood!
¹⁶ Therefore the Lord God of Hosts
will inflict an emaciating disease
on the well-fed of Assyria,
and He will kindle a burning fire
under its glory.
¹⁷ Israel’s Light will become a fire,
and its Holy One, a flame.
In one day it will burn up Assyria’s thorns and thistles.
¹⁸ He will completely destroy
the glory of its forests and orchards
as a sickness consumes a person.
¹⁹ The remaining trees of its forest
will be so few in number
that a child could count them.