King James Version · Under Assyria
Isaiah 10
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Woe unto them that unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; To turn aside from , and to take away the right from of my people, that may be their prey, and that they may rob ! 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 ? Without me they shall under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. O , the of mine , and the in their hand is mine . I will send him against an nation, and against the people of my 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 think so; but it is in to destroy and nations not . For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Calno as ? is not as ? is not as ? As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven did excel them of and of ; Shall I not, as I have done unto and her idols, so do to and her idols? Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when hath performed his whole work upon mount and on , I will punish the fruit of the stout of the king of , and the of his high looks. For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my ; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their , 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 , or opened the , 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 should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. Therefore shall , of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a . And of Israel shall be for a , and his One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his and his in one day; And shall consume the of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both 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 of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of , shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon , the One of Israel, in truth. shall return, even of , unto the mighty . For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with . For of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land. Therefore thus saith of hosts, O my people that dwellest in , be not afraid of the : he shall smite thee with a , and shall lift up his against thee, after the manner of . For yet a very little while, and the shall cease, and mine in their . And of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of at of : and as his was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of . And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his from off thy neck, and the shall be destroyed because of the anointing. He is come to , he is passed to Migron; at he hath laid up his carriages: They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at ; is afraid; of Saul is fled. Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto , O . Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee. As yet shall he at that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of , the hill of . Behold, , 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 shall fall by a mighty one.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Assyria, 745 BC to 612 BC ›
Assyria at full stretch, deporting whole populations as policy. The northern kingdom is destroyed in 722 BC and Judah survives as a tribute-paying vassal.
- Assyria
- The first empire to run mass deportation as ordinary administration: move the leadership somewhere else, settle strangers in their place, and the province stops being a nation. It worked. Samaria fell in 722 BC and the northern tribes did not come back. Assyria also advertised its cruelty deliberately, carving flayings and impalements on palace walls where envoys would see them, because terror is cheaper than garrisons.
- Judah
- Survives by paying. Hezekiah rebels, Sennacherib takes forty-six Judean towns and besieges Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city holds. The Assyrian account boasts of shutting Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and pointedly does not claim to have taken the city, which is one of the more interesting silences in ancient records.
- Egypt
- The splintered reed of a staff that Assyria's field commander mocks Judah for leaning on. It promises help and cannot deliver, and Isaiah spends decades saying so. Assyria eventually invades and sacks Thebes.
- Further afield
- Greece is in its archaic period, founding colonies from Spain to the Black Sea. Rome is under kings. Assyria's own libraries are collecting the literature of Mesopotamia, which is how Gilgamesh survived to be read again in the nineteenth century.
All of Isaiah