Isaiah 10-11

Contemporary English Version

10 You people are in for trouble! You have made cruel and unfair laws ²that let you cheat the poor and needy and rob widows and orphans. ³But what will you do when you are fiercely attacked and punished by foreigners? Where will you run for help? Where will you hide your valuables? ⁴How will you escape being captured^[a] or killed? The Lord is still angry, and he isn't through with you yet!^[b]

The Lord's Purpose and the King of Assyria

⁵^(A) The Lord says:

I am furious! And I will use the king of Assyria^[c] as a club ⁶to beat down you godless people. I am angry with you, and I will send him to attack you. He will take what he wants and walk on you like mud in the streets. ⁷He has even bigger plans in mind, because he wants to destroy many nations.

⁸The king of Assyria says:

My army commanders are kings! ⁹They have already captured^[d] the cities of Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, Arpad, Samaria, and Damascus. ^10-11^(B) The gods of Jerusalem and Samaria are weaker than the gods of those powerful nations. And I will destroy Jerusalem, together with its gods and idols, just as I did Samaria.

¹²The Lord will do what he has planned against Jerusalem and Mount Zion. Then he will punish the proud and boastful king of Assyria, ¹³who says:

I did these things by my own power because I am smart and clever. I attacked kings like a wild bull, and I took the land and the treasures of their nations. ¹⁴I have conquered the whole world! And it was easier than taking eggs from an unguarded nest. No one even flapped a wing or made a peep.

¹⁵King of Assyria, can an ax or a saw overpower the one who uses it? Can a wooden pole lift whoever holds it? ¹⁶The mighty Lord All-Powerful will send a terrible disease to strike down your army, and you will burn with fever under your royal robes. ¹⁷The holy God, who is the light of Israel, will turn into a fire, and in one day you will go up in flames, just like a thornbush. ¹⁸The Lord will make your beautiful forests and fertile fields slowly rot. ¹⁹There will be so few trees that even a young child can count them.

Only a Few Will Come Back

²⁰A time is coming when the survivors from Israel and Judah will completely depend on the holy Lord of Israel, instead of the nation^[e] that defeated them. ^21-22^(C) There were as many people as there are grains of sand along the seashore, but only a few will survive to come back to Israel's mighty God. This is because he has threatened to destroy their nation, just as they deserve. ²³The Lord All-Powerful has promised that everyone on this earth^[f] will be punished.

²⁴Now the Lord God All-Powerful says to his people in Jerusalem:

The Assyrians will beat you with sticks and abuse you, just as the Egyptians did. But don't be afraid of them. ²⁵Soon I will stop being angry with you, and I will punish them for their crimes.^[g] ²⁶I will beat the Assyrians with a whip, as I did the people of Midian near the rock at Oreb. And I will show the same mighty power that I used when I made a path through the sea in Egypt. ²⁷Then they will no longer rule your nation. All will go well for you,^[h] and your burden will be lifted.

²⁸Enemy troops have reached the town of Aiath.^[i] They have gone through Migron, and they stored their supplies at Michmash, ²⁹before crossing the valley and spending the night at Geba.^[j] The people of Ramah are terrified; everyone in Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, has run away. ³⁰Loud crying can be heard in the towns of Gallim, Laishah, and sorrowful Anathoth. ³¹No one is left in Madmenah or Gebim. ³²Today the enemy will camp at Nob^[k] and shake a threatening fist at Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

³³But the Lord All-Powerful
    will use his fearsome might
to bring down the tallest trees
    and chop off every branch.
³⁴With an ax, the glorious Lord
will destroy every tree
    in the forests of Lebanon.^[l]

Peace at Last

11 ^(D) Like a branch that sprouts
    from a stump,
someone from David's family^[m]
    will someday be king.
²The Spirit of the Lord
    will be with him
to give him understanding,
    wisdom, and insight.
He will be powerful,
and he will know
    and honor the Lord.
³His greatest joy will be
    to obey the Lord.

This king won't judge
by appearances
    or listen to rumors.
⁴The poor and the needy
will be treated with fairness
    and with justice.
His word will be law
    everywhere in the land,
and criminals
    will be put to death.
⁵^(E) Honesty and fairness
    will be his royal robes.

⁶^(F) Leopards will lie down
    with young goats,
and wolves will rest
    with lambs.
Calves and lions
    will eat together
and be cared for
    by little children.
⁷Cows and bears will share
    the same pasture;
their young will rest
    side by side.
Lions and oxen
    will both eat straw.

⁸Little children will play
near snake holes.
They will stick their hands
into dens of poisonous snakes
and never be hurt.

⁹^(G) Nothing harmful will take place
    on the Lord's holy mountain.
Just as water fills the sea,
    the land will be filled
with people who know
    and honor the Lord.

God's People Will Come Back Home

¹⁰^(H) The time is coming when one of David's descendants^[n] will be the signal for the people of all nations to come together. They will follow his advice, and his own nation will become famous.

¹¹When that day comes, the Lord will again reach out his mighty arm and bring home his people who have survived in Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia,^[o] Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the land along the coast.^[p] ¹²He will give a signal to the nations, and he will bring together the refugees from Judah and Israel, who have been scattered all over the earth. ¹³Israel will stop being jealous of Judah, and Judah will no longer be the enemy of Israel. ¹⁴Instead, they will get together and attack the Philistines in the west. Then they will defeat the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites in the east. They will rule those people and take from them whatever they want.

¹⁵^(I) The Lord will dry up the arm of the Red Sea near Egypt,^[q] and he will send a scorching wind to divide the Euphrates River into seven streams that anyone can step across. ¹⁶Then for his people who survive, there will be a good road from Assyria, just as there was a good road for their ancestors when they left Egypt.

Footnotes

10.4 escape being captured: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
10.4 and he … yet: Or “but he hasn't given up on you yet!”
10.5 king of Assyria: Probably King Sennacherib who invaded Israel in 701 b.c.
10.9 already captured: Calno (in northern Syria), Carchemish (on the Euphrates River), Hamath (on the Orontes River), Arpad (near Aleppo in northern Syria), Samaria, and Damascus had already been captured by Assyrian kings (738–717 b.c.).
10.20 nation: That is, Assyria.
10.23 on this earth: Or “in this land.”
10.25 punish … crimes: Or “completely destroy them.”
10.27 All … you: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
10.28 Aiath: Probably Ai (Joshua 7.2).
10.29 Geba: Only nine kilometers from Jerusalem.
10.32 Nob: Perhaps within three kilometers of Jerusalem.
10.34 Lebanon: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 34.
11.1 David's family: Hebrew “Jesse's family.” Jesse was the father of King David.
11.10 David's descendants: Hebrew “Jesse's descendants” (see the note at 11.1).
11.11 Ethiopia: The Hebrew text has “Cush,” which was a region south of Egypt that included parts of the present countries of Ethiopia and Sudan.
11.11 land along the coast: Or “islands.”
11.15 arm of the Red Sea near Egypt: Gulf of Suez.