Isaiah 10:5-19

5Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, a cudgel with which I angrily punish.

6I sent him against a godless nation, I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, to take plunder and to carry away loot, to trample them down like dirt in the streets.

7But he does not agree with this, his mind does not reason this way, for his goal is to destroy, and to eliminate many nations.

8Indeed, he says: “Are not my officials all kings?

9Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Hamath like Arpad? Samaria like Damascus?

10I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s or Samaria’s.

11As I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.”

12But when the sovereign master finishes judging Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays.

13For he says: “By my strong hand I have accomplished this, by my strategy that I devised. I invaded the territory of nations, and looted their storehouses. Like a mighty conqueror, I brought down rulers.

14My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest, as one gathers up abandoned eggs, I gathered up the whole earth. There was no wing flapping, or open mouth chirping.”

15Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it, or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it, or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

16For this reason the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. His majestic glory will go up in smoke.

17The light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One will become a flame; it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s briers and his thorns in one day.

18The splendor of his forest and his orchard will be completely destroyed, as when a sick man’s life ebbs away.

19There will be so few trees left in his forest, a child will be able to count them.