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Isaiah 10 :: New International Version (NIV)

Isa 10:1Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,
Isa 10:2to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.
Isa 10:3What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?
Isa 10:4Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

God’s Judgment on Assyria

Isa 10:5“Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
Isa 10:6I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
Isa 10:7But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations.
Isa 10:8‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says.
Isa 10:9‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus?
Isa 10:10As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—
Isa 10:11shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’ ”
Isa 10:12When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.
Isa 10:13For he says: “ ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued[fn] their kings.
Isa 10:14As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as people gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.’ ”
Isa 10:15Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it? As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up, or a club brandish the one who is not wood!
Isa 10:16Therefore, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame.
Isa 10:17The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.
Isa 10:18The splendor of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy, as when a sick person wastes away.
Isa 10:19And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.

The Remnant of Israel

Isa 10:20In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 10:21A remnant will return,[fn] a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.
Isa 10:22Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous.
Isa 10:23The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
Isa 10:24Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians, who beat you with a rod and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did.
Isa 10:25Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.”
Isa 10:26The LORD Almighty will lash them with a whip, as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the waters, as he did in Egypt.
Isa 10:27In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.[fn]
Isa 10:28They enter Aiath; they pass through Migron; they store supplies at Mikmash.
Isa 10:29They go over the pass, and say, “We will camp overnight at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.
Isa 10:30Cry out, Daughter Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Poor Anathoth!
Isa 10:31Madmenah is in flight; the people of Gebim take cover.
Isa 10:32This day they will halt at Nob; they will shake their fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.
Isa 10:33See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low.
Isa 10:34He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
NIV Footnotes
Or treasures; / I subdued the mighty,
Hebrew shear-jashub (see 7:3 and note); also in verse 22
Hebrew; Septuagint broken / from your shoulders
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