Isaiah 10:1-15

¹Woe to them that make wicked laws: and when they write, write injustice:

²To oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of the humble of my people: that widows might be their prey, and that they might rob the fatherless.

³What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity which cometh from afar? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

⁴That you be not bowed down under the bond, and fall with the slain? In all these things his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁵Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.

⁶I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will give him a charge against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

⁷But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not think so: but his heart shall be set to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.

⁸For he shall say:

⁹Are not my princes as so many kings? is not Calano as Charcamis: and Emath as Arphad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idol, so also their idols of Jerusalem, and of Samaria.

¹¹Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

¹²And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed all his works in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, I will visit the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.

¹³For he hath said: By the strength of my own hand I have done it, and by my own wisdom I have understood: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have taken the spoils of the princes, and as a mighty man hath pulled down them that sat on high.

¹⁴And my hand hath found the strength of the people as a nest; and as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise.

¹⁵Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood.