Yesaya 10:5-7

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, ¹ 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ² 

10:6 I sent him ³  against a godless ⁴  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ⁵ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ⁶  like dirt in the streets.

10:7 But he does not agree with this,

his mind does not reason this way, ⁷ 

for his goal is to destroy,

and to eliminate many nations. ⁸ 

Yesaya 10:12

10:12 But when ⁹  the sovereign master ¹⁰  finishes judging ¹¹  Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I ¹²  will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. ¹³ 

Yesaya 46:10-11

46:10 who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand ¹⁴  what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’

46:11 who summons an eagle ¹⁵  from the east,

from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.

Yes, I have decreed, ¹⁶ 

yes, I will bring it to pass;

I have formulated a plan,

yes, I will carry it out.

[10:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

[10:5]  ² tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”

[10:6]  ³ sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

[10:6]  ⁴ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[10:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”

[10:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”

[10:12]  ⁹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[10:12]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[10:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “on”; NIV “against.”

[10:12]  ¹² tn The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5-6a.

[10:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.

[46:10]  ¹⁴ tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”

[46:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or, more generally, “a bird of prey” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV; see 18:6).

[46:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “spoken”; KJV “I have spoken it.”