A high Lebanon slope in cold morning mist: an old forest of great cedars standing tall and silent, late snow on the far ridge.

Immanuel

Isaiah 10

Assyria is taking city after city. What if the power you fear is only a tool in God’s hand?

34 verses≈ 6 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of JesseChapter 10
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

Woe to Tyrants

God

Woe to those who enact unjust statutes

and issue oppressive decrees,

to deprive the poor of fair treatment

and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people,

to make widows their prey

and orphans their plunder.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

Lamplight in the corner of a rich house: a hole dug in the earth floor, a clay jar of silver lumps and rings half buried, a trowel and a clay oil lamp beside it, no one there.

What 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?

Nothing 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.

Despite all this

Whiteboard

Four stanzas, one refrain. The people did not return to Him who struck them (9:13), so His hand stayed raised.

Judgment on Assyria

God

Dawn over an Assyrian army camp in the hill country: soldiers in pointed bronze helmets resting by tall wicker shields, spears stacked, the king’s tent far back, hills beyond.

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger;

the staff in their hands is My wrath.

I 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.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

The king’s boast

City after city fell to Assyria, each one nearer to Judah. The king asks: why not Jerusalem?

God

But this is not his intention;

this is not his plan.

For it is in his heart to destroy

and cut off many nations.

The king of Assyria

“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says.

“Is not Calno like Carchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpad?

Is not Samaria like Damascus?

The king of Assyria

As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms

whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

and as I have done to Samaria and its idols,

will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?”

God

So 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.

The king of Assyria

Close on a ground nest of speckled eggs among stones and dry grass, no bird anywhere, a large human shadow falling across it.

For 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.

My 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.’”

Isaiah

Isaiah

Does 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!

Isaiah

A burned-over forest on a mountainside at gray morning, the ground black with ash, and only five charred trees left standing in a row.

Therefore 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.

And 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.

The splendor of its forests and orchards,

both soul and body,

it will completely destroy,

as a sickness consumes a man.

The remaining trees of its forests will be so few

that a child could count them.

0:32

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Question

Quick question

Read 10:13–15 again before you answer.

What does the king of Assyria boast in 10:13?

A Remnant Shall Return

Isaiah

On 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.

Isaiah

A remnant will return—a remnant of Jacob—

to the Mighty God.

Isaiah 10:21

Isaiah

Isaiah

Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea,

only a remnant will return.

Destruction has been decreed,

overflowing with righteousness.

For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out

the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

God

Therefore 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.

For in just a little while

My fury against you will subside,

and My anger will turn to their destruction.”

Isaiah

A broken wooden ox yoke with its bars snapped lies in the dust of a field road at morning; beyond it an ox walks free, head up.

And 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.

On 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.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

The march on Jerusalem

Town by town from the north, each a short march nearer; from Nob they can see the temple. Migron, Gallim, Laishah, Madmenah and Gebim are lost sites.

Isaiah

Dusk at the deep rocky gorge between Michmash and Geba: an Assyrian column crossing at the ford, baggage carts and pack donkeys left at a village behind, small hill towns on the ridges ahead.

Assyria has entered Aiath

and passed through Migron,

storing their supplies at Michmash.

They have crossed at the ford:

“We will spend the night at Geba.”

Ramah trembles;

Gibeah of Saul flees.

Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim!

Listen, O Laishah!

O wretched Anathoth!

Isaiah

Isaiah

Madmenah flees;

the people of Gebim take refuge.

Yet today they will halt at Nob,

shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion,

at the hill of Jerusalem.

Isaiah

Cold clear morning high on a Lebanon slope, late snow on the ridges: a hillside of pale fresh cedar stumps where a forest stood, a few felled trunks left lying.

Behold, 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.

He will clear the forest thickets with an axe,

and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

Pray

Lord GOD of Hosts, the powers I fear are tools in Your hand. Keep me from boasting in my own strength. Make me lean on You alone, the Holy One of Israel.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 10

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A verse to carry with you

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

Isaiah 10:21

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