Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Rod of My Anger
Isaiah 10:1-19
1 Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees · WEB
The empire God is using as a tool is judged for thinking it is the workman.
Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees Isaiah 10:1.
The last woe of the series, and it falls on legislation. Not on men breaking the law but on men making it — and on the clerks who wrote it out, which is an unusually specific target.
To deprive the needy of justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder Isaiah 10:2.
Everything described here is legal. The widow is not robbed in the street; she is plundered by statute, and the paperwork is in order.
What will you do in the day of visitation... To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? Isaiah 10:3.
Three questions, and the last is the sharpest: the wealth cannot be taken and cannot be left, which is the difficulty with wealth generally.
Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! Isaiah 10:5.
The most theologically demanding passage in the first half of the book. The empire is described as an instrument in God's hand, sent deliberately — I will send him against a profane nation Isaiah 10:6.
However, he doesn't mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy Isaiah 10:7.
And immediately the distinction that keeps the passage from collapsing into fatalism. Assyria is doing what God intends and intending something else entirely. The empire is not obeying; it is being used, and its own purpose is what it will be judged for.
"Isn't Calno like Carchemish? Isn't Hamath like Arpad? Isn't Samaria like Damascus?" Isaiah 10:9.
The Assyrian's speech is quoted at length, and it is a list of captured cities offered as an argument. Every one fell; each is compared to the last; the conclusion is that Jerusalem is simply the next item, and by any military reckoning he is right.
Therefore... I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria Isaiah 10:12.
The timing is stated precisely: when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion. The instrument is dealt with after the job is finished, not before.
"By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding" Isaiah 10:13.
"My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, I have gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped" Isaiah 10:14.
The empire describes conquest as robbing an unguarded nest, and the detail it is proudest of is the silence. Nothing resisted, nothing even complained.
Should an ax brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? Isaiah 10:15.
The answer, and it is a question about tools. An ax that credits itself with the woodpile has misunderstood the arrangement — and the last clause makes the absurdity complete: as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.
The passage is the book's account of how God uses what he has not authorized, and it refuses both easy readings. The empire is genuinely sent, and it is genuinely guilty.
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