Isaiah

CHAPTER 10

Perversion of Justice

who write oppressive decrees,^a

robbing my people’s poor of justice,

Making widows their plunder,

and orphans their prey!^b

when the storm comes from afar?

To whom will you flee for help?

Where will you leave your wealth,

or fall beneath the slain?

For all this, his wrath is not turned back,

his hand is still outstretched!^*

Judgment on Assyria

the staff I wield in anger.^c

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.

nor does he have this in mind;

Rather, it is in his heart to destroy,

to make an end of not a few nations.

Or Hamath like Arpad,

or Samaria like Damascus?

that had more images than Jerusalem and Samaria—

shall I not do to Jerusalem and her graven images?”

I will punish the utterance

of the king of Assyria’s proud heart,

and the boastfulness of his haughty eyes.

“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.

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!”

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!

will send leanness among his fat ones,^*

And under his glory there will be a kindling

like the kindling of fire.^d

the Holy One, a flame,

That burns and consumes its briers

and its thorns in a single day.^e

will be consumed, soul and body,

and it will be like a sick man who wastes away.

will be so few,

that any child can record them.

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.

to the mighty God.

were like the sand of the sea,^f

Only a remnant of them will return;

their destruction is decreed,

as overflowing justice demands.^g

His burden shall be taken from your shoulder,

and his yoke shattered from your neck.^k

The March of an Enemy Army^*

He has come up from Rimmon,

at Michmash he has stored his supplies.

at Geba he has camped for the night.

Ramah trembles,

Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Hearken, Laishah! Answer her, Anathoth!

the inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge.

he will shake his fist at the mount of daughter Zion,

the hill of Jerusalem!

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;

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 historical order 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] 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] Ex 14:16.

k. [10:27] Is 9:3.