10:1 Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead, ¹ 

those who are always instituting unfair regulations, ² 

10:2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,

and to deprive ³  the oppressed among my people of justice,

so they can steal what widows own,

and loot what belongs to orphans. ⁴ 

10:3 What will you do on judgment day, ⁵ 

when destruction arrives from a distant place?

To whom will you run for help?

Where will you leave your wealth?

10:4 You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners,

or to fall among those who have been killed. ⁶ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ⁷ 

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, ⁸ 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ⁹ 

10:6 I sent him ¹⁰  against a godless ¹¹  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ¹² 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ¹³  like dirt in the streets.

10:7 But he does not agree with this,

his mind does not reason this way, ¹⁴ 

for his goal is to destroy,

and to eliminate many nations. ¹⁵ 

10:8 Indeed, ¹⁶  he says:

“Are not my officials all kings?

10:9 Is not Calneh like Carchemish?

Hamath like Arpad?

Samaria like Damascus? ¹⁷ 

10:10 I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, ¹⁸ 

whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s ¹⁹  or Samaria’s.

10:11 As I have done to Samaria and its idols,

so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.” ²⁰ 

10:12 But when ²¹  the sovereign master ²²  finishes judging ²³  Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I ²⁴  will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. ²⁵  10:13 For he says:

“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,

by my strategy that I devised.

I invaded the territory of nations, ²⁶ 

and looted their storehouses.

Like a mighty conqueror, ²⁷  I brought down rulers. ²⁸ 

10:14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest,

as one gathers up abandoned eggs,

I gathered up the whole earth.

There was no wing flapping,

or open mouth chirping.” ²⁹ 

10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,

or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? ³⁰ 

As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,

or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

10:16 For this reason ³¹  the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. ³²  His majestic glory will go up in smoke. ³³ 

10:17 The light of Israel ³⁴  will become a fire,

their Holy One ³⁵  will become a flame;

it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s ³⁶  briers

and his thorns in one day.