Isaiah 10:1-15

¹Woe vnto them that decree wicked decrees, and write grieuous things,

²To keepe backe ye poore from iudgement, and to take away the iudgement of the poore of my people, that widowes may be their pray, and that they may spoyle the fatherlesse.

³What will ye doe nowe in the day of visitation, and of destruction, which shall come from farre? to whom will ye flee for helpe? and where will ye leaue your glorie?

⁴Without me euery one shall fall among them that are bound, and they shall fall downe among the slayne: yet for all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁵O Asshur, the rodde of my wrath: and the staffe in their hands is mine indignation.

⁶I will sende him to a dissembling nation, and I will giue him a charge against the people of my wrath to take the spoyle and to take the pray, and to treade them vnder feete like the mire in the streete.

⁷But he thinketh not so, neither doeth his heart esteeme it so: but he imagineth to destroy and to cut off not a fewe nations.

⁸For he sayeth, Are not my princes altogether Kings?

⁹Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰Like as mine hand hath founde the kingdomes of the idoles, seeing their idoles were aboue Ierusalem, and aboue Samaria:

¹¹Shall not I, as I haue done to Samaria, and to the idoles thereof, so doe to Ierusalem and to the idoles thereof?

¹²But when the Lord hath accomplished all his worke vpon mount Zion and Ierusalem, I will visite the fruite of the proude heart of the King of Asshur, and his glorious and proud lookes,

¹³Because he said, By ye power of mine owne hand haue I done it, and by my wisdome, because I am wise: therefore I haue remooued the borders of the people, and haue spoyled their treasures, and haue pulled downe the inhabitants like a valiant man.

¹⁴And mine hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathereth egges that are left, so haue I gathered all the earth: and there was none to mooue the wing or to open the mouth, or to whisper.

¹⁵Shall the axe boast it selfe against him that heweth therewith? or shall the sawe exalt it selfe against him that moueth it? as if the rod shoulde lift vp it selfe against him that taketh it vp, or the staffe should exalt it selfe, as it were no wood.