BOOK 23 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Isaiah 10

Isaiah book home•Chapter 10 of 66•34 verses

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Isaiah 10 Overview

Isaiah condemns unjust lawmakers, names Assyria as the rod of God’s anger, then declares that the arrogant instrument itself will be judged; a remnant will return, and the mighty Assyrian advance will be cut down.

IsaiahBook

10Chapter

34Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Isaiah 10

Coming from

Light dawns in Galilee’s darkness as Isaiah announces a child whose royal names and endless Davidic government point to extraordinary rule; the chapter then returns to repeated judgments on proud, unrepentant Israel.

In this chapter

Leads into

From Jesse’s seemingly felled line comes a Spirit-endowed ruler who judges righteously, brings extraordinary peace, gathers the dispersed remnant, and makes the knowledge of the LORD fill the earth.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Assyria’s success could make it appear sovereign, but Isaiah insists it is an instrument in the LORD’s hand. The chapter holds divine sovereignty, Assyrian responsibility, Judah’s chastening, and remnant hope together.

The interpretive center of Isaiah 10 is the chapter’s own movement: god can use a wicked empire without approving its pride. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God can use a wicked empire without approving its pride

Assyria serves a disciplinary purpose while intending conquest for its own arrogant ends.

The instrument is not greater than the One who wields it

Assyria’s boasting is exposed as absurd before the LORD of hosts.

A remnant will return in genuine dependence

Judgment reduces false confidence but does not cancel God’s covenant purpose.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

2 Kings 18–19

Sennacherib’s invasion and dramatic defeat later illustrate the Assyrian arrogance and divine deliverance anticipated here.

Romans 9:27-28

Paul quotes Isaiah’s remnant language while discussing Israel.

Isaiah 11

The felling of the proud forest leads directly into the shoot from Jesse’s stump.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not make God morally identical with Assyria’s motives.

The text explicitly distinguishes God’s purpose from Assyria’s arrogant intent.

Do not treat remnant language as meaning every member of the nation is automatically secure.

Isaiah emphasizes a returning, dependent remnant within judged Israel.

Read Isaiah 10 watching for…

unjust decrees

Assyria as God’s rod

Assyria’s boastful self-understanding

the remnant returning to the mighty God

the final image of proud trees being cut down

Chapter outline4 sections

1-4Woe falls on unjust lawmakers who oppress the weak 5-19Assyria is the rod of God’s anger but will itself be judged for pride 20-23A remnant of Jacob will return to the mighty God 24-34Judah is told not to fear Assyria because the LORD will cut down the proud invader

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?

Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

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

Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:

And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;

And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth.

And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.

For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.

And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages:

They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.

Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.

As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.

And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

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Isaiah 10:1

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