Isaiah 10:5-15

5Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger [against Israel], The staff in whose hand is My indignation and fury [against Israel’s disobedience]!

6I send Assyria against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My wrath To take the spoil and to seize the plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets.

7Yet it is not Assyria’s intention [to do My will], Nor does it plan so in its heart, But instead it is its purpose to destroy And to cut off many nations.

8For Assyria says, “Are not my princes all kings?

9Is not Calno [conquered] like Carchemish [on the Euphrates]? Is not Hamath [subdued] like Arpad [her neighbor]? Is not Samaria [in Israel] like Damascus [in Aram]?

10As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, Whose carved images were greater and more feared than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?” [declares Assyria].

12So when the Lord has completed all His work [of judgment] on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit [the thoughts, the declarations, and the actions] of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the haughtiness of his pride.”

13For the Assyrian king has said, “I have done this by the power of my [own] hand and by my wisdom, For I have understanding and skill. I have removed the boundaries of the peoples And have plundered their treasures; Like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.

14My hand has found the wealth of the people like a nest, And as one gathers eggs that are abandoned, so I have gathered all the earth; And there was not one that flapped its wing, or that opened its beak and chirped.”

15Is the axe able to lift itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw able to magnify itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club moving those who lift it, Or like a staff raising him who is not [made of] wood [like itself]!