Isaiah 10

Woe to those who decree unjust decrees, to the scribes who write oppression, to turn the needy away from justice and rob the poor of my people of their rights, making widows their spoil and plundering the fatherless! What will you do on the day of punishment, when devastation comes from afar?
To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain.
For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out. “Woe to Assyria, rod of my anger!
The staff in their hands is my indignation. I send him against a godless nation;
I command him against the people of my wrath, to take spoil and seize plunder, to trample them like mud in the streets. But he does not intend this, nor does his heart think this way.
His heart is set on destroying and cutting off nations, not a few. For he says, ‘Are not all my commanders kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand reached the kingdoms of idols, whose carved images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images as I did to Samaria and her idols?’ When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boasting of his haughty eyes.” For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding.
I have removed the boundaries of peoples and plundered their treasures;
like a mighty man I have brought down the inhabitants. My hand found the wealth of the peoples like a nest;
as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth.
No one fluttered a wing or opened a mouth or chirped.” Does the ax boast over the one who chops with it, or the saw magnify itself over the one who wields it?
As though a rod could wield those who lift it, as though a staff could lift one who is not wood! Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send leanness among his stout ones;
under his glory a burning shall blaze like a burning fire. The Light of Israel shall become a fire, and his Holy One a flame.
It shall burn and consume his thorns and briers in one day. It shall consume the glory of his forest and fruitful field, soul and body;
it shall be as when a sick man wastes away. The remaining trees of his forest shall be so few that a child can write them down. In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on the one who struck them, but will truly lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them shall return.
Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. For the Lord GOD of hosts will carry out a decreed destruction in the midst of all the land. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, though he strikes you with a rod and lifts his staff against you as Egypt did. For in a very little while my indignation will end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.” The LORD of hosts will stir up a whip against him, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb;
his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. In that day his burden shall be removed from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck;
the yoke shall be broken because of fatness. He has come to Aiath;
he has passed through Migron.
At Michmash he deposits his equipment. They have crossed the pass: “Geba is our lodging for the night.”
Ramah trembles;
Gibeah of Saul has fled. Cry aloud, daughter Gallim!
Listen, Laishah!
Poor Anathoth! Madmenah has fled;
the inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge. This very day he will stand at Nob;
he will shake his hand at the mountain of daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, is lopping off the boughs with terrifying power.
The tall shall be cut down, and the lofty brought low. He will cut down the forest thickets with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

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