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10. Lord's Anger Against Israel

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.

God’s Judgment on Assyria

    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 Or treasures; / I subdued the mighty, 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.

The Remnant of Israel

    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, Hebrew shear-jashub (see 7:3 and note); also in verse 22 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. Hebrew; Septuagint broken / from your shoulders

    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.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

18. And shall consume the glory of his forest. He goes on with the same comparison of a burning, and declares that the fire will consume both the highest and the lowest, and will leave nothing uninjured. It is possible that a fire might destroy the higher parts of a building, and might leave the lower parts unaffected.

And of his fruitful field. I do not think that כרמל (Carmel) is here a proper name, but rather an appellative, denoting a rich and fertile soil; for to say that Carmel was held as belonging to the dominion of the king of Assyria, would have been inadmissible. The meaning therefore is, that not only will destruction overtake his forests, but the corn will be consumed by the same fire; for it will not only range over the heights, but will penetrate into the lowest places.

From the soul even to the flesh. This comparison is taken from man. As man consists of a body and a soul, so each part of him is liable to separate diseases. It frequently happens that, when the soul is healthy, the body is diseased; and often the reverse takes place; but when both are unhealthy at the same time, the case is most dangerous. By this comparison, therefore, he threatens that the Assyrians will have nothing safe or sound, but that they will be devoted to utter destruction, because they will perish from the flesh even to the soul; not that souls are mortal, but because the vengeance of God will fall upon them also. This is truly dreadful; for the design of chastisements is,

that the spirit may be saved, though the flesh be destroyed,
(1 Corinthians 5:5;)

but when the spirit also is involved in the destruction, what can be said or imagined that is more miserable? The flame only scorches the godly, but does not consume them as it consumes the ungodly, in whom it finds nothing but fuel fit for burning.

And it shall be as the fainting of a standard-bearer. There is an allusion in the words of the Prophet, which cannot be conveyed in another language. The meaning is the same as in the other comparisons, that there will be utter destruction, like the complete rout of an army when the standard has been taken. When the ensigns have been taken, it is commonly followed by a great slaughter; and when historians describe a fearful carnage, they tell us that the ensigns were taken. He does not threaten these things against the Assyrians on their own account, that they may receive advantage from the warning or may be led to repentance, but to yield consolation to the godly, that they may not think that the Assyrians will pass unpunished when they raged so fiercely against the people of God, or entertain fears either that the Lord has forgotten his promise, or that he cannot frustrate their designs. If the Prophet had not put them on their guard, many scruples of this kind might have arisen in their minds.
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