Isaiah 10

Trouble is coming to those who make unfair laws and who write down rules that crush people.

1Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

NoteThe people addressed are Judah's own officials and judges, the men who draft legal rulings and write them down. The complaint is not about lawlessness but about law used as a weapon.

2They use those laws to keep the poor from getting a fair hearing and to take justice away from the needy among my people. Widows become their prey, and they steal from children who have no father.

2To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

NoteWidows and fatherless children had no man to earn for them or speak for them in court, and no share in inherited land. In Israel's law they are the standard pair for people with no legal protection, and courts are repeatedly commanded to take their side.

3What will you do on the day when God comes to settle accounts, when ruin arrives from far away? Who will you run to for help? Where will you leave your riches?

3And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

Note"Visitation" in 1611 English meant an official coming to inspect and pass sentence, not a friendly call. "Glory" here means wealth and standing, the property you would want to stash somewhere safe.

4Nothing will be left for you but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the dead. Even after all this, God's anger has not turned away. His hand is still raised to strike.

4Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Note"His hand is stretched out still" is a refrain that closes each section of a poem running back through chapter 9. A raised hand is the gesture of someone about to strike, so the line means the blow has not yet fallen for the last time.

5Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger! The club in their hand is my fury.

5O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

NoteAssyria was the dominant empire of the region in Isaiah's lifetime (roughly 740–700 BC), based in what is now northern Iraq, with Nineveh as its chief city. The "rod" and "staff" are a stick used for beating, the point is that Assyria is a tool held in someone else's hand.

6I send Assyria against a nation that has turned away from God. I give him orders against a people I am angry with, to take their goods, to carry off plunder, and to trample them like mud in the streets.

6I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Note"Hypocritical" here does not mean two-faced. The KJV uses it for a Hebrew word meaning godless or polluted, a nation that has broken faith, not one that pretends piety.

7But that is not what Assyria has in mind. That is not his plan. His plan is to destroy and wipe out many nations.

7Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

8For he says, "Are not all my commanders kings?"

8For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?

NoteAssyrian governors and generals ruled provinces that had once been independent kingdoms, and vassal kings marched in the Assyrian army. The boast is that his subordinates outrank other nations' rulers.

9"Did Calno not fall like Carchemish? Did Hamath not fall like Arpad? Did Samaria not fall like Damascus?"

9Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

NoteSix cities Assyria had already captured, listed roughly from the far north down toward Jerusalem: Carchemish and Calno in the north of Syria, Arpad and Hamath in Syria, Damascus (capital of Aram, fell in 732 BC), and Samaria (capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, fell in 722 BC). The unspoken next name on the list is Jerusalem.

10"My hand took hold of kingdoms full of idols, kingdoms whose carved images were better than the ones in Jerusalem and Samaria."

10As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

NoteThe boast counts gods by their statues: the kingdoms Assyria has already crushed had grander images than anything in Jerusalem or Samaria, so on his reckoning their gods should have been the stronger ones.

11"So will I not do to Jerusalem and her idols what I have done to Samaria and her idols?"

11Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

12So when the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, "I will punish the king of Assyria for what his proud heart has produced, and for the arrogant look in his eyes."

12Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

NoteMount Zion is the ridge on which Jerusalem's temple and royal palace stood; the name is regularly used for the city itself. Note the order: God finishes with Jerusalem first, and only then turns on the empire he used against it.

13For the king says, "I did this by the strength of my own hand and by my own wisdom, because I am clever. I erased the borders between nations, robbed their treasures, and like a strong man I brought down the people who sat on their thrones."

13For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:

NoteAssyria's standard imperial practice: annex a kingdom, redraw it as a province, and deport large parts of the population elsewhere, so that the old national boundaries simply ceased to exist. The last line can be read either as putting down the population or as bringing down those who sat on thrones.

14"My hand reached into the wealth of the nations as into a bird's nest. Like a person picking up eggs that were left alone, I gathered up the whole earth. Not one wing flapped, not one beak opened to chirp."

14And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

15Does an axe brag that it is greater than the man swinging it? Does a saw make itself out to be more than the one pushing it? That would be like a rod waving the man who lifts it, or a club lifting up a man, who is not a piece of wood.

15Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

16So the Lord, the LORD of Armies, will send a wasting sickness among Assyria's well-fed soldiers. Under all his splendor a fire will be lit, burning like a blaze.

16Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

Note"The LORD of hosts" means the LORD of armies, the title pictures God at the head of massed forces. Where the text prints LORD in capitals it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish tradition does not pronounce aloud. "Fat ones" means well-fed, thriving fighting men, not a comment on their shape.

17The Light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn up Assyria's thorns and briers.

17And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;

Note"The Holy One of Israel" is Isaiah's characteristic title for God, used about twenty-five times in this book and rarely elsewhere. "Holy" here carries the sense of set apart and wholly other, not simply morally good.

18It will completely destroy the glory of his forests and his orchards, both soul and body, and they will be like a sick man wasting away.

18And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.

Note"Both soul and body" is an idiom for total destruction, inside and out, nothing left. The closing phrase is obscure in Hebrew: the KJV reads it as a standard-bearer (an army's flag carrier) collapsing, while others take the same consonants as a sick man wasting away. The two readings are both defensible and the rendering follows the second.

19So few trees will be left in his forest that a child could write down their number.

19And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

20On that day the survivors of Israel, those left from the family of Jacob, will no longer lean on the nation that struck them. Instead they will truly lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

20And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

NoteThe nation that struck them is Assyria, the same power Judah's kings, above all Ahaz, had paid to come and fight for them a generation earlier. "Lean on" is the language of resting your weight on a support, here of a small state relying on a great one.

21Those who are left will come back, the ones left of Jacob, to the Mighty God.

21The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

Note"A remnant shall return" (Hebrew *shear-jashub*) is the name Isaiah had given his own son, whom he took with him to confront King Ahaz in chapter 7. The phrase cuts both ways: some will come back, and only some.

22Israel, even if your people are as many as the grains of sand by the sea, only a few of them will come back. Destruction has been decided, and it will pour over the land, full of justice.

22For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

Note"As the sand of the sea" is a stock phrase for a number nobody could count, used of the descendants promised to Abraham. The contrast is between that uncountable multitude and the handful that survives.

23For the Lord, the LORD of Armies, will carry out the destruction he has decided on, throughout the whole land.

23For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.

24So this is what the Lord, the LORD of Armies, says: "My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, who beats you with a rod and raises his club against you the way Egypt once did."

24Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.

Note"After the manner of Egypt" recalls the beating Israel took as forced laborers in Egypt before the exodus, the reader is meant to remember both the oppression and how it ended.

25"In a very little while my fury against you will be over, and my anger will turn to their destruction."

25For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.

26The LORD of Armies will raise a whip against Assyria, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will lift his staff over the sea, as he did in Egypt.

26And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

NoteTwo rescues from Israel's past. Gideon's rout of Midian at the rock of Oreb, where a Midianite chief was killed and the place named after him (Judges 7), and Moses stretching out his staff over the sea so Israel crossed and Pharaoh's army did not (Exodus 14).

27On that day the load Assyria laid on you will be lifted off your shoulder, and his yoke will be taken off your neck. The yoke will be broken because of the anointing.

27And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

NoteA yoke is the wooden bar laid across the necks of a pair of oxen to harness them to a plow; it is the standard image for one nation's control over another. The final clause is one of the hardest in the book: the Hebrew reads roughly "the yoke is destroyed from before oil," which the KJV takes as anointing oil, while others read it as fat and understand a neck grown too thick for the yoke. The meaning is genuinely unresolved.

28The enemy has come to Aiath. He has marched through Migron. He stores his supplies at Michmash.

28He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages:

NoteVerses 28–32 trace an army's approach to Jerusalem from the north, naming villages a few miles apart in the order a marching column would reach them. Whether Isaiah is describing a real campaign or imagining one is disputed; the route is not the one Assyria actually took in 701 BC.

29They have crossed the mountain pass. They say, "We will spend the night at Geba." Ramah shakes with fear. Gibeah, the town of Saul, has run away.

29They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

Note"The passage" is the crossing at Michmash, a steep ravine that was a famous choke point on the northern road (see 1 Samuel 13–14). Gibeah is identified as "of Saul" because it was King Saul's home town.

30Cry out loud, town of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Poor Anathoth!

30Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.

Note"Daughter of Gallim" is a Hebrew way of personifying a town and its inhabitants as a woman; it does not mean one particular woman. Anathoth, a village of priests about three miles northeast of Jerusalem, was later Jeremiah's home town.

31Madmenah has fled. The people of Gebim are running for safety.

31Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.

32This very day the enemy will stop at Nob. He will shake his fist at the mountain of Daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

32As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

NoteNob was a settlement just north of Jerusalem, on the ridge from which the city first comes into view, the invader stops where he can see his target. Shaking the hand or fist at something is a gesture of threat.

33Look, the Lord, the LORD of Armies, will cut off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be chopped down, and the proud ones will be brought low.

33Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.

NoteThe imagery switches to forestry: the tall trees are the Assyrian army and its commanders, and lopping the boughs is what a woodsman does before felling.

34He will cut down the thick parts of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall before a mighty one.

34And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

NoteLebanon's cedar forests were the most famous timber in the region, prized for palaces and temples and a standing image for towering height. "A mighty one" is deliberately unspecific in the Hebrew and can be read as a majestic figure or as God himself.