A reading from
the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 10:5-7, 13b-16
Thus says the Lord:/ Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger,/ my staff in wrath./ Against an impious nation I send him,/ and against a people under my wrath I order him/ To seize plunder, carry off loot,/ and tread them down like the mud of the streets./ But this is not what he intends,/ nor does he have this in mind;/ Rather, it is in his heart to destroy,/ to make an end of nations not a few.
For he says:/ “By my own power I have done it,/ and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd./ I have moved the boundaries of peoples,/ their treasures I have pillaged,/ and, like a giant, I have put down the enthroned./ My hand has seized like a nest/ the riches of nations;/ As one takes eggs left alone,/ so I took in all the earth;/ No one fluttered a wing,/ or opened a mouth, or chirped!”
Will the axe boast against him who hews with it?/ Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it?/ As if a rod could sway him who lifts it,/ or a staff him who is not wood!/ Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts,/ will send among his fat ones leanness,/ And instead of his glory there will be kindling/ like the kindling of fire.
The word of the Lord.
