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From: Isaiah 10:5-7, 13b-16

Assyria condemned

[5] Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger,
the staff of my fury!
[6] Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
[7] But he does not so intend,
and his mind does not so think;
but it is in his mind to destroy,
and to cut off nations not a few;

[13b] “I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
and have plundered their treasures;
like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.
[14] My hand has found like a nest
the wealth of the peoples;
and as men gather eggs that have been forsaken
so I have gathered all the earth;
and there was none that moved a wing,
or opened the mouth, or chirped.”

[15] Shall the axe vaunt itself over him who hews with it,
or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,
or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
[16] Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts,
will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,
and under his glory a burning will be kindled,
like the burning of fire.

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Commentary:

10:5-19. The prophet sees the Assyrians’ doings as evidence of God’s control
over the fate of nations: Assyria is the rod that the Lord uses to punish his peo-
ple for their unfaithfulness (cf. vv. 5-6). The Catechism of the Catholic Church
uses this passage from Isaiah, and others from Holy Scripture, to point out that
“we see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of Sacred Scripture, often attributing
actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes. This is not a ‘primi-
tive mode of speech’, but a profound way of recalling God’s primacy and abso-
lute Lordship over history and the world (cf. Is 10:5-15; 45:5-7; Deut 32:39; Sir
11:14)” (no. 304). However, Assyria went beyond its brief, by treating Judah the
same way it did pagan nations: it did not realize that its strength was on loan
from God, and it took pride in its own might: v. 9 carries a list of important cities
captured by the Assyrians (vv. 7-I I). So, in due course, God will judge and hum-
ble their pride (vv. 12-18); Assyria will be reduced to a shadow of its former glory.

There is a call here to acknowledge that God is Lord of human affairs, and to be
docile to his purposes (cf. vv. 15-16). The sin of pride is denounced, for it involves
arrogating to oneself what belongs to God, and putting oneself in God’s place.
Therefore, reading the spiritual meaning of the passage, Origen notices that it
applies to every sinner: “Every evildoer makes an idol of what he desires, and
serves his sin; by melting down the work of a craftsman’s hands and sculpting
the idol in secret, he becomes subject to its curse. We make many idols in the
depths of our hearts when we sin” (Homiliae in Isaiam, 8, 1).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.