Isaiah, 10

1. Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees,

1. Woe to those who enact unjust decrees, who compose oppressive legislation

2. Depriving the needy of judgment and robbing my people's poor of their rights, Making widows their plunder, and orphans their prey!

2. to deny justice to the weak and to cheat the humblest of my people of fair judgement, to make widows their prey and to rob the orphan.

3. What will you do on the day of punishment, when ruin comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth,

3. What will you do on the day of punishment, when disaster comes from far away? To whom will you run for help and where will you leave your riches,

4. Lest it sink beneath the captive or fall beneath the slain? For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched!

4. to avoid squatting among the captives or falling among the slain? After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!

5. Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger, my staff in wrath.

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

6. Against an impious nation I send him, and against a people under my wrath I order him To seize plunder, carry off loot, and tread them down like the mud of the streets.

6. I was sending him against a godless nation, commissioning him against the people who enraged me, to pillage and plunder at will and trample on them like the mud in the streets.

7. But this is not what he intends, nor does he have this in mind; Rather, it is in his heart to destroy, to make an end of nations not a few.

7. But this was not his intention nor did his heart plan it so, for he dreamed of putting an end to them, of liquidating nations without number!

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

8. For he thought, 'Are not my officers all kings?

9. "Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, or Samaria like Damascus?

9. Is not Calno like Carchemish, Hamath like Arpad, Samaria like Damascus?

10. Just as my hand reached out to idolatrous kingdoms that had more images than Jerusalem and Samaria,

10. As my hand has found the kingdoms of the false gods, where there were more images than in Jerusalem and Samaria,

11. Just as I treated Samaria and her idols, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her graven images?"

11. as I have treated Samaria and her false gods shall I not treat Jerusalem and her statues too?'

12. (But when the LORD has brought to an end all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the utterance of the king of Assyria's proud heart,

12. When the Lord has completed all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the fruit of the king of Assyria's boastful heart and the insolence of his haughty looks.

13. and the boastfulness of his haughty eyes. For he says:) "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 giant, I have put down the enthroned.

13. For he thinks: 'By the strength of my own arm I have done this and by my own wisdom: how intelligent I have been! I have abolished the frontiers between peoples, I have plundered their treasures, like a hero, I have subjugated their inhabitants.

14. My hand has seized like a nest the riches 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!"

14. My hand has found, as though a bird's nest, the riches of the peoples. Like someone collecting deserted eggs, I have collected the whole world while no one has fluttered a wing or opened a beak to squawk.'

15. Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it? As if a rod could sway him who lifts it, or a staff him who is not wood!

15. Does the axe claim more credit than the man who wields it, or the saw more strength than the man who handles it? As though a staff controlled those who raise it, or the club could raise what is not made of wood!

16. Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send among his fat ones leanness, And instead of his glory there will be kindling like the kindling of fire.

16. That is why Yahweh Sabaoth is going to inflict leanness on his stout men, and beneath his glory kindle a fever burning like a fire.

17. The Light of Israel will become a fire, Israel's Holy One a flame, That burns and consumes his briers and his thorns in a single day.

17. The light of Israel will become a fire and its Holy One a flame burning and devouring his thorn-bushes and brambles in a day.

18. His splendid forests and orchards will be consumed, soul and body;

18. He will consume his luxuriant forest and productive ground, he will ravage body and soul: it will be like a consumptive wasting away;

19. And the remnant of the trees in his forest will be so few, Like poles set up for signals, that any boy can record them.

19. and what remain of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child could write their number.

20. On that day The remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no more lean upon him who struck them; But they lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

20. When that day comes, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the House of Jacob will stop relying on the man who strikes them and will truly rely on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

21. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

21. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

22. For though your people, O Israel, were like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant of them will return; their destruction is decreed as overwhelming justice demands.

22. Israel, though your people are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return: a destruction has been decreed which will make justice overflow,

23. Yes, the destruction he has decreed, the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will carry out within the whole land.

23. for, throughout the country, the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth will enforce the destruction now decreed.

24. Therefore thus says the Lord, the GOD of hosts: O my people, who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian, though he strikes you with a rod, and raises his staff against you.

24. That is why the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth says this: My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria! He may strike you with the rod, he may raise the club against you (on the way from Egypt),

25. For only a brief moment more, and my anger shall be over; but them I will destroy in wrath.

25. but in a very short time the retribution will come to an end, and my anger will destroy them.

26. Then the LORD of hosts will raise against them a scourge such as struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the sea as he did against Egypt.

26. Yahweh Sabaoth will brandish a whip at him as he struck Midian at Oreb's Rock, will brandish his rod at the Sea as he raised it on the way from Egypt.

27. On that day, His burden shall be taken from your shoulder, and his yoke shattered from your neck. He has come up from the direction of Rimmon,

27. When that day comes, his burden will fall from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed . . .

28. he has reached Aiath, passed through Migron, at Michmash his supplies are stored.

28. He has reached Aiath, he has moved on to Migron, he has left his baggage train at Michmash.

29. They cross the ravine: "We will spend the night at Geba." Ramah is in terror, Gibeah of Saul has fled.

29. They have passed through the defile, they have bivouacked at Geba. Ramah quaked, Gibeah of Saul has fled.

30. Cry and shriek, O daughter of Gallim! Hearken, Laishah! Answer her, Anathoth!

30. Cry your loudest, Bath-Gallim! Pay attention, Laish! Answer her, Anathoth!

31. Madmenah is in flight, the inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge.

31. Madmenah has run away, the inhabitants of Gebim have taken cover.

32. Even today he will halt at Nob, he will shake his fist at the mount of daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem!

32. This very day, as he halts at Nob, he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33. Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, lops off the boughs with terrible violence; The tall of stature are felled, and the lofty ones brought low;

33. See how the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth violently lops off the foliage! The ones standing highest are cut down, the proudest are laid low!

34. The forest thickets are felled with the axe, and Lebanon in its splendor falls.

34. The forest thickets fall beneath the axe, and the Lebanon falls to the blows of a Mighty One.