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

⁵ Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ⁶ I sent him against a godless nation, I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, to take plunder and to carry away loot, to trample them down like dirt in the streets. ⁷ But he does not agree with this, his mind does not reason this way, for his goal is to destroy, and to eliminate many nations. ⁸ Indeed, he says: "Are not my officials all kings? ⁹ Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Hamath like Arpad? Samaria like Damascus? ¹⁰ I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem's or Samaria's. ¹¹ As I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols."

¹² But when the sovereign master finishes judging Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. ¹³ For he says: "By my strong hand I have accomplished this, by my strategy that I devised. I invaded the territory of nations, and looted their storehouses. Like a mighty conqueror, I brought down rulers. ¹⁴ My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest, as one gathers up abandoned eggs, I gathered up the whole earth. There was no wing flapping, or open mouth chirping."

¹⁵ Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it, or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it, or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood! ¹⁶ For this reason the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. His majestic glory will go up in smoke. ¹⁷ The light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One will become a flame; it will burn and consume the Assyrian king's briers and his thorns in one day. ¹⁸ The splendor of his forest and his orchard will be completely destroyed, as when a sick man's life ebbs away. ¹⁹ There will be so few trees left in his forest, a child will be able to count them.