Isaiah 10:5–16

⁵Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger;

the staff in their hands is My wrath.

⁶I will send him against a godless nation;

I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage,

to take spoils and seize plunder,

and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

⁷But this is not his intention;

this is not his plan.

For it is in his heart to destroy

and cut off many nations.

⁸“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says.

⁹“Is not Calno like Carchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpad?

Is not Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms

whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

¹¹and as I have done to Samaria and its idols,

will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?”

¹²So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes. ¹³For he says:

‘By the strength of my hand I have done this,

and by my wisdom, for I am clever.

I have removed the boundaries of nations

and plundered their treasures;

like a mighty one I subdued their rulers.

¹⁴My hand reached as into a nest

to seize the wealth of the nations.

Like one gathering abandoned eggs,

I gathered all the earth.

No wing fluttered,

no beak opened or chirped.’”

¹⁵Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it?

Does a saw boast over him who saws with it?

It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it,

or a staff lifting him who is not wood!

¹⁶Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease

among Assyria’s stout warriors,

and under his pomp will be kindled

a fire like a burning flame.