Isaiah 10-12

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

2to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.

3What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

4Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

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.

17And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

18The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man.

19The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them.

20On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

21A remnant will return —a remnant of Jacob— to the Mighty God.

22Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

23For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

24Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, who strikes you with a rod and lifts his staff against you as the Egyptians did.

25For in just a little while My fury against you will subside, and My anger will turn to their destruction.”

26And the LORD of Hosts will brandish a whip against them, as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise His staff over the sea, as He did in Egypt.

27On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders, and the yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.

28Assyria has entered Aiath and passed through Migron, storing their supplies at Michmash.

29They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.

30Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! O wretched Anathoth!

31Madmenah flees; the people of Gebim take refuge.

32Yet today they will halt at Nob, shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.

33Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts will lop off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be cut down, the lofty ones will be felled.

34He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

1Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.

2The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him— the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.

3And He will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what His eyes see, and He will not decide by what His ears hear,

4but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.

5Righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the sash around His waist.

6The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them.

7The cow will graze with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8The infant will play by the cobra’s den, and the toddler will reach into the viper’s nest.

9They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is full of water.

10On that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His place of rest will be glorious.

11On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

12He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

13Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and the adversaries of Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will no longer envy Judah, nor will Judah harass Ephraim.

14They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west; together they will plunder the sons of the east. They will lay their hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

15The LORD will devote to destruction the gulf of the Sea of Egypt; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates. He will split it into seven streams for men to cross with dry sandals.

16There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

1In that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me.

2Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”

3With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation,

4and on that day you will say: “Give praise to the LORD; proclaim His name! Make His works known among the peoples; declare that His name is exalted.

5Sing to the LORD, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known in all the earth.

6Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”