Rhyming Isaiah, Chapter 10
Ah, you who will, these unjust laws enact,
and who, oppressive legislation, craft.
To turn away the needy from their rights,
to justice, from the poorest, them, deprive,
to make the widows, plunder, orphans, prey,
what will you do on, punishment, the day
of, when disaster comes from far away?
To whom will you be running for your help,
and where will you deposit all your wealth,
so that, among the captives, you won’t dwell,
so that you won’t, among the slain, dead, fall?
For all this has his anger, not away,
turned, and his hand still threatens, is upraised.
“Ah, you, my anger’s rod, Assyria,
that’s in their hands, my fury is the club!
Against a godless nation I send him,
and ‘gainst the people of my wrath, command,
I, him, to, spoil, take, and to, plunder, seize,
to trample them like mud, mire in the streets.
But this is not what he himself intends
nor are these thoughts he has in his own mind,
but, to destroy, that’s what’s inside his heart,
to many nations, not a few, wipe out.
‘For are not all of my commanders kings?’
he says. ‘Is Carno not like Carchemish?
Is not, to Arpad, Hamath, likening?
Samaria, not like Damascus, is?
Before now, kingdoms, I have overcome,
more full of idols than Jerusalem,
more images than in Samaria.
Unto Jerusalem, shall I not do,
and to her idols, what I have done to
Samaria and all her graven images?’”
When all he means to do, he finishes,
the LORD, his work, against Jerusalem,
and too, Mount Zion, he will punish him,
his arrogance, the king, Assyrian,
for both his boasting and his haughty pride.
For he says: “By the strength of my hand, I
have done it, and, my wisdom, own, it’s by.
‘Tween people I removed their boundaries,
and I have plundered all their treasuries;
and hero-like, I’ve brought down the enthroned.
As though a bird’s nest, what my hand has found,
the people’s wealth. Just as eggs left alone,
one takes them, so I’ve gathered up the earth,
not one wing fluttered, beak agape, or chirp.”
Shall the ax, itself, o’er the one who wields
it, vaunt, or will the saw claim mastery,
the sawyer, o’er? As if a rod could sway
the one who lifts it up, or in that way,
a staff should, one who is not wood, up, raise!
Therefore, the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts,
amongst them, sends a sickness that will waste,
his warriors, stout, his glory at its base
is kindled like a fever’s burning rage.
The light of Is’rael will become a fire,
his Holy One, too, will become a flame;
how it will burn and also will devour
his thorns and briars in a single day.
His splendid forest and his fruitful land,
the LORD, both body, soul, he will destroy,
just as, will waste away, the invalid.
How many of the forest trees remain,
will be so few a child could, all, them name.
Of Is’rael’s remnant, when that day will come,
the house of Jacob, those surviving ones,
no more will lean ‘gainst him who had struck them,
but they, upon the LORD, alone, lean, will,
in truth, the Holy One of Israel.
Unto the mighty God, a remnant will
return, will Jacob’s remnant, Israel.
For numbered like the sand in seas that churn,
are Is’rael’s people, of this, they’re assured,
of them, a remnant only will return.
How their destruction’s instrument deployed
will overflow with justice. For the LORD,
the LORD of hosts will bring a final end,
he will, destruction, bring through all the land.
Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, thus, says:
“My people, Zion, there, your dwelling place,
of the Assyrian, don’t be afraid
though with a rod he strikes you, and uplifts
his staff ‘gainst you as the Egyptians did.
For in very short while, it relents,
my wrath, it’s over, anger, my, full spent,
all that, to his destruction, I’ll direct.”
The LORD of Hosts will wield a whip ‘gainst them
just as he did when he struck Midian
at Oreb’s Rock; and he’ll, his staff, o’er lift
the sea ‘gainst Egypt, just like what he did.
On that day, what they, on your shoulder, laid,
removed, will be, the burden, and their yoke,
from off your neck, the manner how it’s broke.
He’s come to Aiath, gone up from Rimmon,
as well the place he passed through was Migron,
his baggage trains, where he left at Michmash.
Through the defile, the place where they have passed,
at Geba, where it was they bivouacked.
Ramah is terrified, and it’s in flight,
is Gibeah of Saul. Bath-Gallim, cry
aloud! O Laishah, listen! And reply,
O Anathoth! Madmenah is in flight.
Of Gebin, all of its inhabitants
for safety, flee. He ceases his advance,
this very day, at Nob, he’ll shake his fist,
at daughter Zion’s mount, Jerusalem,
its hill. The LORD of hosts, him Sovereign,
look, he, the trees, with violence, will lop,
the tallest trees, the lofty will be brought
low. With an ax, the forest thickets, all,
the foliage have been hacked down as well,
and Lebanon’s majestic trees will fall.