# Poems, Sacred and Moral/Ode from the Tenth Chapter of the Prophecy of Isaiah

ODE
FROM THE
TENTH CHAPTER
OF THE
PROPHECY OF ISAIAH.
From various passages in the Old Testament it appears to have been, on several occasions, the plan of Providence, under the Jewish Dispensation, to employ nations eminent for wickedness and tyranny as instruments for the merited chastisement of other nations, perhaps less guilty than the inflicters of their punishment. When the purpose was accomplished, the ministers of vengeance received in their turn the due reward of their crimes. A memorable proceeding of this nature is recorded in the Tenth Chapter of the Prophecy of Isaiah. They, who have contemplated with seriousness the course of the events which have taken place during the last few years in Europe, may see no improbability in the conclusion, that a similar plan in the Divine administration of the Universe is developing at present.
ODE
From the Tenth Chapter of the Prophecy of Isaiah, Verse 5-19.
* ↑ 1st Strophe—Isaiah, ch. x. ver. 5. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation! 6. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire in the streets.
* ↑ 1st Antistrophe, ver. 7.—Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so: but it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off nations not a few. 8. For he faith, "Are not my princes altogether Kings? 9. Is not Calno as Carchemish; is not Hamath as Arpad; is not Samaria as Damascus? 10. As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and Samaria; 11. shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?"
* ↑ 1st Epode, ver. 12. Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when he Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem; I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
* ↑ 2d Strophe, ver. 13. For he saith, "By the strength of my hand I have done it; and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures: and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. 14. And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped."
* ↑ 2d Antistrophe, ver. 15. Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lifted it up: or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. The concluding image of the Antistrophe is borrowed from Isaiah, chap. xxxvii. ver. 29, in which chapter the completion of the present prophecy is recorded. See Bishop Lowth's Notes on both chapters.
* ↑ 2d Epode, ver. 16. Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. 17. And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day: 18. and shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth. 19. And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
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