Isaiah 10 · a question people ask
If the LORD sent the Assyrian, why does he punish him?
The chapter says both. The LORD calls him "the rod of my anger" (10:5) and says, "I will send him against a profane nation" (10:6). And the LORD says, "I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his arrogant looks" (10:12). The chapter gives its own reasons. The Assyrian was sent "to take the plunder and to take the prey" (10:6), but "he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations" (10:7). And he boasts that he did it himself: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom" (10:13). The chapter answers, "Should an ax brag against him who chops with it?" (10:15). It doesn't explain further how the LORD sends one whom he will punish, and these notes don't either. The chapter on 2 Kings 19 asks the same question of that chapter's words to the king of Assyria (2 Kings 19:25, 19:28), and answers it from those verses in the same way. These notes apply what the chapter says of Assyria and its king to no nation, empire or ruler today.
The verses
“Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. However, he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.”
“Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.”
“Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.’”