10:1God will judge unjust judges and those who make unfair laws. Those who oppress others will be oppressed themselves. It is not enough to live in a land founded on justice; each individual must deal justly with the poor and the powerless. Don’t pass your responsibility off onto your nation or even your church. You are accountable to God for what you do for the poor.
Life Application Study BibleIsaiahChapter 10
Isaiah 10
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1107, 1108, 1109
10Isaiah 10
1and those who issue unfair laws.
2They deprive the poor of justiceand deny the rights of the needy among my people.They prey on widowsand take advantage of orphans.
3What will you do when I punish you,when I send disaster upon you from a distant land?To whom will you turn for help?Where will your treasures be safe?
4You will stumble along as prisonersor lie among the dead.But even then the LORD’s anger will not be satisfied.His fist is still poised to strike.Judgment against Assyria
5“What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger.I use it as a club to express my anger.
6Tam sending Assyria against a godless nation,against a people with whom I am angry.Assyria will plunder them,trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.
7But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool;his mind does not work that way.His plan is simply to destroy,to cut down nation after nation.
8He will say,‘Each of my princes will soon be a king.
9We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish.Hamath fell before us as Arpad did.And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus.
10Yes, we have finished off many a kingdomwhose gods were greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.
11So we will defeat Jerusalem and her gods,just as we destroyed Samaria with hers.m
12After the LORD has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant.
13He boasts,“By my own powerful arm I have done this.With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it.Ihave broken down the defenses of nationsand carried off their treasures.Ihave knocked down their kings like a bull.
14[have robbed their nests of richesand gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs.No one can even flap a wing against meor utter a peep of protest.”
15But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it?Is the saw greater than the person who saws?Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it?Can a wooden cane walk by itself?
16Therefore, the LORD, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies,will send a plague among Assyria’s proud troops,and a flaming fire will consume its glory.
17The LORD, the Light of Israel, will be a fire;the Holy One will be a flame.He will devour the thorns and briers with fire,burning up the enemy ina single night.
18The LORD will consume Assyria’s glorylike a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land;it will waste away like sick people in a plague.
19Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive—so few that a child could count them!
Hope for the LORD’s People
2020 In that day the remnant left in Israel,the survivors in the house of Jacob,will no longer depend on allieswho seek to destroy them.But they will faithfully trust the LORD,the Holy One of Israel.
21A remnant will return;*yes, the remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.
22But though the people of Israel are as numerousas the sand of the seashore,only a remnant of them will return.The Lor has rightly decided to destroy his people.
23Yes, the LORD, the LORD of Heaven's Armies,has already decided to destroy the entire land.*
24So this is what the LORD, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, says: “O my people in Zion, donot be afraid of the Assyrians when they oppress you with rod and club as the Egyptians did long ago. 25In a little while my anger against you will end, and then my anger will rise up to destroy them.” 26The LORD of Heaven's Armies will lash them with his whip, as he did when Gideon triumphed over the Midianites at the rock of Oreb, or when the LORD’s staff was raised to drown the Egyptian army in the sea.
27In that day the LORD will end the bondage of his people.He will break the yoke of slaveryand lift it from their shoulders.*
28Look, the Assyrians are now at Aiath.They are passing through Migronand are storing their equipment at Micmash.
29They are crossing the passand are camping at Geba.Fear strikes the town of Ramah.All the people of Gibeah, the hometown of Saul,are running for their lives.
30Scream in terror,you people of Gallim!Shout out a warning to Laishah.Oh, poor Anathoth!
31There go the people of Madmenah, ail fleeing.The citizens of Gebim are trying to hide.
32The enemy stops at Nob for the rest of that day.He shakes his fist at beautiful Mount Zion, the mountain of Jerusalem.
33But look! The LORD, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies,will chop down the mighty tree of Assyria with great power!He will cut down the proud.That lofty tree will be brought down.
34He will cut down the forest trees with an ax.Lebanon will fall to the Mighty One.*
A Branch from David's Line
11 1 Out of the stump of David's family* will grow a shoot—
Textual footnotes
- 10:21 Hebrew Shear-jashub; see 7:3; 8:18.
- 10:34 Or with an ax/as even the mighty trees of Lebanon fall.
Life Application Notes 12 notes
10:7Although Assyria did not know it was part of God’s plan, God used this nation to judge his people. God accomplishes his plans in history despite people or nations who reject him. He did not merely set the world in motion and let it go! Because our all-powerful, sovereign God is still in control today, we have security even in a rapidly changing world.
10:9Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, Arpad, Samaria, and Damascus were cities conquered by Assyria. Assured of great victories that would enlarge their empire, the king of Assyria gave an arrogant speech. Already Assyria had conquered several cities and thought Judah would be defeated along with the others. Little did he know that they were under the mightier hand of God.
10:10Samaria and Jerusalem were filled with idols that were powerless against the Assyrian military machine. Only the God of the universe could and would overthrow Assyria, but not untit he had used the Assyrians for his purposes.
10:12The predicted punishment of the Assyrians took place in 701 B.C., when 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were slain by the angel of the LORD (37:36, 37). Later, the Assyrian Empire fell to Babylon, never to rise again as a world power.
10:12The Assyrians were arrogant. Proud of the victories God permitted, they thought they had accomplished everything in their own power. Our perspective can also become distorted by pride in our accomplishments. Hf we do not acknowledge God to be in control of our lives, working out his purposes, we are bound to fail.
10:12,33,34and in 37:7. His death is also recorded in 2 Kings 19.
10:15No instrument or tool accomplishes its purposes without a greater power. The Assyrians were a tool in God’s hands, but they failed to recognize it. When a tool boasts of greater power than the one who uses it, it is in danger of being discarded. We are useful only to the extent that we allow God to use us. If God has given us resources and special talents, we must not regard them as our own creation or special privilege.
10:17Assyria’s downfall came in 612 B.C. when Nineveh, the capital city, was destroyed. Assyria had been God’s instrument of judgment against Israel, but it, too, would be judged for its wickedness. No one escapes God's judgment against sin, not even the most powerful of nations (Psalm 2).
10:20,21Once Assyria’s army was destroyed, a small group of Gad’s people would stop relying on Assyria and start trusting God. This remnant would be but a fraction of Israel’s former population: see Ezra 2:64, 65 for the small number who returned to Judah (see also 11:10-16).
10:20,21Those who remained faithful to God despite the horrors of the invasion are called the remnant. The key to being a part of the remnant was faith. Being a descendant of Abraham, living in the Promised Land, having trusted God at one time— none of these were good enough. Are you relying on your Christian heritage, your participation in church, or a past experience to qualify you for belonging to God’s family? The key to being a true Christian is faith in the mighty God.
10:28-34The way these cities are listed approximates the route the Assyrians would take in their invasion of Judah in 701 B.C. They would go from Aiath (probably Ai) at the northern border to Nob (anly two miles from Jerusalem).
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would be greater than the original tree and would bear much fruit. The Messiah is the fulfillment of God’s promise that a descendant of David would rule forever (2 Samuel 7:16).