Isaiah 10:5

Literal Standard Version

"Woe [to] Asshur, a rod of My anger, || And My indignation [is] a staff in their hand.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger—the staff in their hands is my wrath.

Hebrew Names Version
Ho Ashshur, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!

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

English Standard Version
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!

New American Standard Bible
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation,

New Century Version
God says, "How terrible it will be for the king of Assyria. I use him like a rod to show my anger; in anger I use Assyria like a club.

Amplified Bible
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger [against Israel], The staff in whose hand is My indignation and fury [against Israel's disobedience]!

World English Bible
Ho Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!

Geneva Bible (1587)
O Asshur, the rodde of my wrath: and the staffe in their hands is mine indignation.

Legacy Standard Bible
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My angerAnd the staff in whose hands is My indignation,

Berean Standard Bible
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath.

Contemporary English Version
The Lord says: I am furious! And I will use the king of Assyria as a club

Complete Jewish Bible
"Oh Ashur, the rod expressing my anger! The club in their hands is my fury!

Darby Translation
Ah! the Assyrian! the rod of mine anger! and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

Easy-to-Read Version
The Lord says, "I will use Assyria like a stick. In my anger I will use Assyria to punish Israel.

George Lamsa Translation
Ho, Assyrian! the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation.

Good News Translation
The Lord said, "Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry.

Lexham English Bible
Ah! Assyria, the rod of my anger, and a staff is in their hand: my wrath!

Literal Translation
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger! And My fury is the staff in their hand.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Wo be also vnto Assur, which is a staff of my wrath, in whose honde is the rod of my punyshment.

American Standard Version
Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, the staff in whose hand is mine indignation!

Bible in Basic English
Ho! Assyrian, the rod of my wrath, the instrument of my punishment!

JPS Old Testament (1917)
O Asshur, the rod of Mine anger, in whose hand as a staff is Mine indignation!

King James Version (1611)
O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staffe in their hand is mine indignation.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
O Assur whiche art the staffe of my wrath, in whose hand is the rod of mine indignation.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Woe to the Assyrians; the rod of my wrath, and anger are in their hands.

English Revised Version
Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, the staff in whose hand is mine indignation!

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Wo to Assur, he is the yerde and staf of my strong veniaunce; myn indignacioun is in the hond of them.

Update Bible Version
Ho Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!

Webster's Bible Translation
O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation.

New English Translation
Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, a cudgel with which I angrily punish.

New King James Version
"Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hand is My indignation.

New Living Translation
"What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger. I use it as a club to express my anger.

New Life Bible
It is bad for Assyria. I use Assyria like a stick to punish Israel.

New Revised Standard
Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger— the club in their hands is my fury!

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Alas! for Assyria, the rod of mine anger, - Yea, the very staff in their hand, is, my displeasure:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.

Revised Standard Version
Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger, the staff of my fury!

Young's Literal Translation
Wo [to] Asshur, a rod of Mine anger, And a staff in their hand [is] Mine indignation.

THE MESSAGE
"Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger. My wrath is a cudgel in his hands! I send him against a godless nation, against the people I'm angry with. I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind, and then push their faces in the mud and leave them. But Assyria has another agenda; he has something else in mind. He's out to destroy utterly, to stamp out as many nations as he can. Assyria says, ‘Aren't my commanders all kings? Can't they do whatever they like? Didn't I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish? Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus? I've eliminated kingdoms full of gods far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria. So what's to keep me from destroying Jerusalem in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?'"

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation,

Contextual Overview

⁵"Woe [to] Asshur, a rod of My anger, || And My indignation [is] a staff in their hand.⁶I send him against a profane nation, || And concerning a people of My wrath || I charge him, || To spoil spoil, and to seize prey, || And to make it a treading-place as the clay of out places. ⁷And he does not think [it] so, || And his heart does not reckon [it] so, || For—to destroy [is] in his heart, || And to cut off nations—not a few. ⁸For he says, Are my princes not altogether kings? ⁹Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus? ¹⁰As my hand has gotten to the kingdoms of a worthless thing, and their carved images, || [Greater] than Jerusalem and than Samaria, ¹¹Do I not—as I have done to Samaria, || And to her worthless things, || So do to Jerusalem and to her grievous things?" ¹²And it has come to pass, || When the Lord fulfills all His work || In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, || I see concerning the fruit of the greatness || Of the heart of the king of Asshur, || And concerning the glory of the height of his eyes. ¹³For he has said, "I have worked by the power of my hand, || And by my wisdom, for I have been intelligent, || And I remove borders of the peoples, || And I have spoiled their chief ones, || And I put down the inhabitants as a mighty one, ¹⁴And my hand gets to the wealth of the peoples as to a nest, || And as a gathering of forsaken eggs || I have gathered all the earth, || And there has not been one moving wing, || Or opening mouth, or whispering."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

O Assyrian: or, Woe to the Assyrian, Heb. O Asshur, Genesis 10:11

the rod: Isaiah 10:15, Isaiah 8:4, Isaiah 14:5, Isaiah 14:6, Psalms 17:14, Psalms 125:3, Jeremiah 51:20-24

and: or, though

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 16:11 - the Lord 1 Kings 11:14 - the Lord 2 Kings 5:1 - by him 2 Kings 13:3 - and he delivered 2 Kings 15:37 - to send 2 Kings 17:3 - king of Assyria 2 Kings 18:11 - the king 2 Kings 18:13 - come up 2 Kings 18:25 - Amos I now 2 Kings 19:25 - Hast thou not 2 Kings 24:3 - Surely 1 Chronicles 5:26 - stirred up 2 Chronicles 21:16 - the Lord 2 Chronicles 24:24 - So 2 Chronicles 28:9 - because the Lord God 2 Chronicles 32:1 - king of Assyria Nehemiah 9:32 - since the time Job 19:12 - His Psalms 17:13 - thy Psalms 94:10 - he correct Proverbs 22:8 - the rod of his anger shall fail Ecclesiastes 5:8 - matter Isaiah 7:17 - bring upon Isaiah 9:4 - the staff Isaiah 10:12 - when the Lord Isaiah 10:24 - smite thee Isaiah 13:4 - the Lord Isaiah 27:8 - his rough Isaiah 28:19 - the time Isaiah 29:2 - I will Isaiah 30:31 - which smote Isaiah 33:1 - thee that Isaiah 36:10 - General Isaiah 37:4 - for the Isaiah 37:26 - how I Isaiah 42:24 - General Isaiah 45:7 - I make Peace Isaiah 54:16 - I have Jeremiah 5:10 - ye up Jeremiah 25:9 - I Jeremiah 29:4 - whom Jeremiah 34:22 - I will command Jeremiah 47:6 - thou sword Jeremiah 48:17 - How Jeremiah 50:17 - first Ezekiel 7:10 - the rod Ezekiel 21:3 - will draw Ezekiel 23:22 - I will raise Ezekiel 30:24 - and put Amos 3:11 - General Amos 6:11 - the Lord Amos 6:14 - I will Micah 1:15 - will Micah 5:6 - the Assyrian Micah 6:9 - hear Nahum 2:2 - hath Habakkuk 1:12 - thou hast ordained Zephaniah 2:12 - my Zechariah 1:15 - and Matthew 22:7 - his Romans 9:17 - I raised Revelation 6:4 - and there Revelation 17:13 - shall

Cross-References

Genesis 10:1
And these [are] the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and sons are born to them after the flood.

Genesis 10:9
he has begun to be a hero in the land; he has been a hero in hunting before YHWH; therefore it is said, "As Nimrod the hero [in] hunting before YHWH."

Genesis 10:20
These [are] sons of Ham, by their families, by their tongues, in their lands, in their nations.

Genesis 10:25
And two sons have been born to Eber; the name of the first [is] Peleg (for in his days the earth has been divided), and his brother's name [is] Joktan.

Psalms 72:10
Kings of Tarshish and of the islands send back a present. Kings of Sheba and Seba bring a reward near.

Isaiah 24:15
Therefore honor YHWH in prosperity, || In islands of the sea, the Name of YHWH, God of Israel.

Isaiah 40:15
Behold, nations [are] as a drop from a bucket, || And have been reckoned as small dust of the balance, || Behold, He takes up islands as a small thing.

Isaiah 41:5
Islands have seen and fear, || The ends of the earth tremble, || They have drawn near, indeed, they come.

Isaiah 42:4
He does not become weak nor bruised, || Until He sets judgment in the earth, || And islands wait with hope for His law.

Isaiah 42:10
Sing a new song to YHWH, || His praise from the end of the earth, || You who are going down to the sea, and its fullness, || Islands, and their inhabitants.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger,..... Either as calling him to come against the land of Israel to spoil it, so Kimchi; or as grieving that he was obliged to make use of him in such a manner against his people; or as threatening him with ruin. So the Targum, Septuagint, and all the Oriental versions render it, "woe to the Assyrian"; wherefore this, and what follows, serve to comfort the people of God; that though they should be carried captive by the Assyrians, yet they should be utterly destroyed, and a remnant of the Jews should be saved. The Assyrian monarch is called the "rod of God's anger", because he was made use of by him as an instrument to chastise and correct Israel for their sins:

and the staff in their hand is mine indignation; that is, the staff which was in the hand of the king of Assyria, and his army, with which they smote the people of Israel, was no other than the wrath and indignation of God against that people, and the execution of it, which he committed to them as instruments. Kimchi interprets "their hand" of the land of Israel, into which this staff was sent, the Assyrian, to smite and chastise them. The Targum is,

"woe to the Assyrian, the government of my fury; and an angel sent from before me against them for a curse.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

O Assyrian - The word הוי hôy, is commonly used to denounce wrath, or to indicate approaching calamity; as an interjection of threatening; Isaiah 1:4. ‘Wo sinful nation;’ Isaiah 10:8, Isaiah 10:11, Isaiah 10:18, Isaiah 10:20-21; Jeremiah 48:1; Ezekiel 13:2. The Vulgate so understands it here: Vae Assur; and the Septuagint, Οὐαι Ἀσσυρίοις Ouai Assuriois - ‘Woe to the Assyrians.’ So the Chaldee and the Syriac. It is not then a simple address to the Assyrian; but a form denouncing wrath on the invader. Yet it was not so much designed to intimidate and appal the Assyrian himself as to comfort the Jews with the assurance that calamity should overtake him. The ‘Assyrian’ referred to here was the king of Assyria - Sennacherib, who was leading an army to invade the land of Judea.

The rod of mine anger - That is, the rod, or instrument, by which I will inflict punishment on a guilty nation. The Hebrew would bear the interpretation that the Assyrian was, an object against which God was angry; but the former is evidently the sense of the passage, as denoting that the Assyrian was the agent by which he would express his anger against a guilty people. Woe might be denounced against him for his wicked intention, at the same time that God might design to make use of his plans to punish the sins of his own people. The word “anger” here, refers to the indignation of God against the sins of the Jewish people.

And the staff - The word “staff” here, is synonymous with rod, as an instrument of chastisement or punishment; Isaiah 9:4; compare Isaiah 10:24; Nahum 1:13; Ezekiel 7:10.

In their hand - There has been considerable variety in the interpretation of this passage. Lowth and Noyes read it, ‘The staff in whose hand is the instrument of my indignation.’ This interpretation Lowth adopts, by omitting the word הוא hû' on the authority of the Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint, and five manuscripts, two of them ancient. Jerome reads it, ‘Wo to the Assyrian! He is the staff and the rod of my fury; in their hand is my indignation.’ So Forerius, Ludovicus, de Dieu, Cocceius, and others. Vitringa reads it, ‘And in the hands of those who are my rod is my indignation.’ Schmidius and Rosenmuller, ‘And the rod which is in their hands, is the rod of mine indignation.’ There is no necessity for any change in the text. The Hebrew, literally, is, ‘Wo to the Assyrian! Rod of my anger! And he is the staff. In their hands is my indignation.’ The sense is sufficiently clear, that the Assyrian was appointed to inflict punishmerit on a rebellious people, as the instrument of God. The Chaldee renders it, ‘Wo to the Assyrian! The dominion (power, ruler) of my fury, and the angel sent from my face, against them, for a malediction. Septuagint, ‘And wrath in their hands.’

In their hand - In the hand of the Assyrians, where the word ‘Assyrian’ is taken as referring to the king of Assyria, as the representative of the nation.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 10:5. O Assyrian - "Ho to the Assyrian"] Here begins a new and distinct prophecy, continued to the end of the twelfth chapter: and it appears from Isaiah 10:9-11 of this chapter, that this prophecy was delivered after the taking of Samaria by Shalmaneser; which was in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah: and as the former part of it foretells the invasion of Sennacherib, and the destruction of his army, which makes the whole subject of this chapter it must have been delivered before the fourteenth of the same reign.

The staff in their hand - "The staff in whose hand"] The word הוא hu, the staff itself, in this place seems to embarrass the sentence. I omit it on the authority of the Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint: nine MSS., (two ancient,) and one of my own, ancient, for ומטה הוא umatteh hu, read מטהו mattehu, his staff. Archbishop Secker was not satisfied with the present reading. He proposes another method of clearing up the sense, by reading ביום beyom, in the day, instead of בידם beyadam, in their hand: "And he is a staff in the day of mine indignation."