Isaiah Chapter 10: Judgment & Return

In chapter 10, Isaiah discusses the judgment of the northern kingdom because of its continuing rebellion and reveals that God uses Assyria as the rod of His anger against Israel. God will later punish the king of Assyria for his arrogance and welcome a remnant of Jacob back into their land.

In the chapter’s opening verses, Isaiah continues to address the sins of Israel, which have brought God’s judgment on them and accusing the ruling class of devising a legal system that made “…unjust laws…” and “…oppressive decrees…”:

Vv. 1-4:

“¹ Woe to those who make unjust laws,

    to those who issue oppressive decrees,

² to deprive the poor of their rights

    and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,

making widows their prey

    and robbing the fatherless.

³ What will you do on the day of reckoning,

    when disaster comes from afar?

To whom will you run for help?

    Where will you leave your riches?

⁴ Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives

    or fall among the slain.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.”

Isaiah pronounces woe or calamity on the wealthy and influential people in Israel, who enacted laws that legitimized corruption and oppression of the poor. The original Hebrew text of v. 1 uses the phrase “…decrees of wickedness.” The wealthy used the laws to deprive the poor of their right to fair judgments in the courts and to take from widows and orphans what little that may have been left to them after the death of their husbands and fathers.

They showed no compassion for the poor and disadvantaged, and, therefore, as the question in v. 3 implies, they could not expect God to extend mercy to them in the “…day of reckoning…,” when He would judge them. Isaiah predicts they would have no way of escape and would “…cringe among the captives or fall among the slain” (v. 4).

The probable interpretation of the reference that they would “…cringe among the captives or fall among the slain…” is that they would be in a state of dejection and fear, with their heads lowered, although it is also possible Isaiah is thinking of the ones who would be led away and killed in captivity. The Targum of Isaiah describes the wealthy as “bound as prisoners,” removed from their land and cities, and “cast out as slain.”

Vv. 5-19:

“⁵ Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,

    in whose hand is the club of my wrath!

⁶ I send him against a godless nation,

    I dispatch him against a people who anger me,

to seize loot and snatch plunder,

    and to trample them down like mud in the streets.

⁷ But this is not what he intends,

    this is not what he has in mind;

his purpose is to destroy,

    to put an end to many nations.

⁸ ‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says.

⁹     ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpad,

    and Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰ As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols,

    kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—

¹¹ shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images

    as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’

¹² When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, ‘I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.’

¹³ For he says:

‘By the strength of my hand I have done this,

    and by my wisdom, because I have understanding.

I removed the boundaries of nations,

    I plundered their treasures;

    like a mighty one I subdued their kings.

¹⁴ As one reaches into a nest,

    so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations;

as people gather abandoned eggs,

    so I gathered all the countries;

not one flapped a wing,

    or opened its mouth to chirp.’

¹⁵ Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it,

    or the saw boast against the one who uses it?

As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up,

    or a club brandish the one who is not wood!

¹⁶ Therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,

    will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors;

under his pomp a fire will be kindled

    like a blazing flame.

¹⁷ The Light of Israel will become a fire,

    their Holy One a flame;

in a single day it will burn and consume

    his thorns and his briers.

¹⁸ The splendor of his forests and fertile fields

    it will completely destroy,

    as when a sick person wastes away.

¹⁹ And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few

    that a child could write them down.”

Isaiah makes an abrupt transition starting in v. 5, turning the focus of his prophecy from Israel to Assyria. There is a lot of historical context in the prophetic words found in this chapter.

Assyria, after having been “…the rod of my anger…” (v. 5), God’s instrument to punish Israel, will herself be punished. The Assyrians were arrogant because of their long record of battlefield victories, and in these verses God makes known through Isaiah that His intention is to deal with Assyria’s arrogance through a sudden and great act of destruction.

The Lord calls Israel “…a godless nation…” (v. 6), whose people pretended to love, fear, and serve the Lord outwardly, but were, in truth, “…ungodly and wicked…” (9:17), the reason the Lord sent the Assyrians to correct and chastise them. But the Assyrians had no allegiance to God, boasted that all their conquests came by their own might, and intended to conquer other nations and establish a universal kingdom (v. 7). The Assyrian monarch boasts in v. 8: “Are not my commanders all kings?” His point is the kings are still in place in the nations he has conquered. They are his subjects and are able at his command to send him warriors and money to conquer the nations of the earth.

Still speaking in v. 9, the Assyrian monarch boasts about cities that had fallen before his invading army: “Kalno” was a city in the land of Shinar, which was the ancient biblical name for lower Mesopotamia, where the city of Babylon was located. “Kalno” was built by Nimrod, is called “Calneh” in Genesis 10:10, and also is mentioned in Ezekiel 27:23. “Carchemish” was a town in northern Syria and is now the site of ancient ruins on the west bank of Euphrates River bordering Turkey and Syria.

Until it was conquered by Assyria in 738 B.C., “Hamath” was a city-state in a valley about 120 miles north of Damascus. The name “Hamath” means “fortress” or “citadel.” “Arpad” was a Syrian city near Hamath. After a three-year siege, that city fell to the Assyrians in 742 B.C. “Samaria” was the capital of Israel and “Damascus” was the capital of Syria.

The king of Assyria believed that because the gods of other nations were not able to save those enemies from Assyria’s power, the God of Judah would not be able to save Jerusalem (vv. 10-11). He attributed all his triumphs to his own power and wisdom or skill in directing the military action and regarded himself as having keen insight, enabling him to make effective plans for his campaigns of conquest. By taking over the lands of other peoples in warfare, he was able to remove their boundaries and plunder their riches. But God was not going to allow his arrogance to go unpunished (vv. 12-14).

In v. 15, Isaiah pictures Assyria as an ax or a saw used by the forester for felling the trees. His meaning is the king of Assyria and his military forces served merely as instruments for God’s purpose, like the ax and the saw serve the forester, and so they had no basis for boasting. Without God’s permission, the king would not have attained his objectives. Only an ax can chop by itself or a saw can move back and forth without someone doing the pushing and pulling. By assuming an arrogant bearing and boasting, the king of Assyria glorified himself above God, the one for whom he merely functioned as an instrument.

Two new pictures come into view in vv. 16-19 that should convey the judgment of God on the pride of the Assyrians. The image of a sick person gradually wasting away under a consumptive disease and that of vegetation and forest trees destroyed by fire present two different aspects of the destruction of Assyria.

Isaiah characterizes the Assyrians as being weakened by “…a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors…,” and that “…a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame” (v. 16). He does not tell us simply that the Lord will light the fire of judgment, however. Instead, he says, “The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame…” (v.17). Isaiah is making a very broad, general observation here: the Lord is the Light of his people, and one day he will be the source of light for all the nations, but here that Holy Light is felt by an arrogant conqueror as a fire of judgment.

In about 701 B.C., Assyria attacked the fortified cities of Judah and besieged Jerusalem, but failed to capture it. During the siege of Jerusalem, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers perished in one night (2 Kings 19:35), the development that proved to be the fire that reduced the Assyrian threat to ashes. Many ongoing conflicts continued to weaken Assyria further until finally the Medes and the Babylonians destroyed Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. The prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh is the subject of the Old Testament book of Nahum.

A remnant of the people of Israel would repent and return to their land after experiencing God’s judgment, vv. 20-34:

“²⁰ In that day the remnant of Israel,

    the survivors of Jacob,

will no longer rely on him

    who struck them down

but will truly rely on the Lord,

    the Holy One of Israel.

²¹ A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob

    will return to the Mighty God.

²² Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel,

    only a remnant will return.

Destruction has been decreed,

    overwhelming and righteous.

²³ The Lord, the Lord Almighty, will carry out

    the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

²⁴ Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says:

‘My people who live in Zion,

    do not be afraid of the Assyrians,

who beat you with a rod

    and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did.

²⁵ Very soon my anger against you will end

    and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.’

²⁶ The Lord Almighty will lash them with a whip,

    as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb;

and he will raise his staff over the waters,

    as he did in Egypt.

²⁷ In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders,

    their yoke from your neck;

the yoke will be broken

    because you have grown so fat.

²⁸ They enter Aiath;

    they pass through Migron;

    they store supplies at Mikmash.

²⁹ They go over the pass, and say,

    ‘We will camp overnight at Geba.’

Ramah trembles;

    Gibeah of Saul flees.

³⁰ Cry out, Daughter Gallim!

    Listen, Laishah!

    Poor Anathoth!

³¹ Madmenah is in flight;

    the people of Gebim take cover.

³² This day they will halt at Nob;

    they will shake their fist

at the mount of Daughter Zion,

    at the hill of Jerusalem.

³³ See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,

    will lop off the boughs with great power.

The lofty trees will be felled,

    the tall ones will be brought low.

³⁴ He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax;

    Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.”

A remnant from among those of the descendants of Jacob who escaped with their lives during the time of judgment would “…truly rely…” (v. 20) on the Lord, trusting in his unfailing help and protection as the Holy One of Israel, relying on His absolute holiness and purity in all His actions and judgments. God will always preserve the remnant of faithful believers who trust in him.

In v. 21, the phrase “…A remnant will return…” is a clear allusion to the name of one of Isaiah’s sons, Shear-jashub (7:3), which means “…the remnant shall return…” Only a remnant of those surviving the judgment would repent and return, seeking God’s forgiveness, guidance, and aid. The qualifying term “…mighty…” in v. 21 suggests that the repentant remnant would rely on His might for protection and not the military might of other nations as had been the case in the past.

That the people of Israel will be numerous like the sand along the seashore is the hope Isaiah expresses in v. 22, reflecting God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:17 and repeated by Jacob in Genesis 32:12. But after the people of Israel were taken into exile by the Assyrians, only a remnant would return to the land and return to God in repentance.

But there is hope for all the people people falling under God’s judgment, including nations. The promise of hope is typical of Isaiah's prophecies. God planned a devastating judgment for Assyria, but not total obliteration. If Israel was to be left a remnant for the fulfillment of God's purposes for her, so too was Assyria. In this way we are prepared for the astounding revelation we will read about in Isaiah 19:23-25, when in the future the Assyrians will be part of a remarkable time of peace and spiritual revival in the middle east: “²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. ²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. ²⁵ The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.’”

Isaiah appeals to Judah once again not to fear Assyria nor to ask help from it, because Assyria will be defeated just as enemies in Israel’s history have been (vv. 24-27). That history illustrates that once again there would be divine deliverance from an oppressor. Isaiah describes the route the Assyrians would take in vv. 28-32 until they would be within sight of the hill of Jerusalem. Then the Lord would intervene and destroy the army as if He were cutting down a forest (vv. 33-34).

In chapter 10, Isaiah reveals for us the sovereign hand of God. In vv. 1-4, God laments the sins of the wealthy and powerful among His people and promises punishment. The Lord calls Assyria “…the rod of my anger…” in vv. 5-11 and then seeks to rebuke Assyria for its prideful acts of aggression beginning in v. 12. Starting in v. 20, He declares that a remnant will return to the Mighty God, and in vv. 27-34 He reassures His people that the yoke of Assyrian oppression will fall from Israel’s neck.