Isaiah 10 — Dead Sea Scrolls
34 verses • 14 variants • Columns IX–X of 1QIsaiah-a contain Isaiah chapter 10.
Scroll Overview
Summary
Isaiah 10 continues the judgment oracles against Israel and introduces the Assyria oracle — God's use of Assyria as his instrument of punishment, followed by Assyria's own judgment for overstepping its mandate. 1QIsaiah-a preserves this chapter well with mostly orthographic variants.
Notable Variants
No theologically significant variants. The Assyria oracle (vv. 5-19) reads very closely to the MT. The remnant promise (vv. 20-23) is textually stable. The march of the Assyrian army through Judean towns (vv. 28-32) shows minor orthographic differences in some place names.
Scroll Condition
Good condition. Fully legible throughout.
Woe to those who enact wicked statutes, who write oppression into law —
Masoretic (WLC)
הוֹי
Woe
Dead Sea Scroll
הוי
Woe
Identical consonantal text. The woe against unjust lawmakers opens identically.
1QIsaᵃ col. IX, line 16
to turn the poor aside from justice, to rob the afflicted of my people of their rights, so that widows become their plunder and orphans their prey.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. IX, line 17
What will you do on the day of reckoning, when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. IX, line 18
Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out.
Masoretic (WLC)
בְּכָל־זֹאת
for all this
Dead Sea Scroll
בכול זאת
for all this
Plene spelling of kol. The refrain 'his anger has not turned away' appears for the fourth and final time.
1QIsaᵃ col. IX, line 19
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger — the staff in their hand is my fury!
Masoretic (WLC)
הוֹי אַשּׁוּר
Woe to Assyria
Dead Sea Scroll
הוי אשור
Woe to Assyria
Identical reading. The dramatic apostrophe to Assyria — 'the rod of my anger' — opens identically.
1QIsaᵃ col. IX, line 20
Against a godless nation I send him; against the people of my wrath I command him — to seize plunder, to carry off spoil, to trample them like mud in the streets.
Masoretic (WLC)
מַטֵּה
staff
Dead Sea Scroll
מטה
staff
Identical consonantal text.
1QIsaᵃ col. IX, line 21
But this is not what he intends; this is not what his heart plans. Rather, it is in his heart to destroy, to cut off nations — not a few.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. IX, line 22
For he says: "Are not my commanders every one a king?"
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 1
"Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?"
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 2
"As my hand has reached the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria —"
Masoretic (WLC)
כַּלְנוֹ
Calno
Dead Sea Scroll
כלנו
Calno
Identical reading. The rhetorical questions comparing conquered cities read the same.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 3
"shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images as I have done to Samaria and her idols?"
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 4
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of Assyria's king and the glory of his haughty eyes.
Masoretic (WLC)
אֱלִילִים
idols
Dead Sea Scroll
אלילים
idols
Identical consonantal text. The Assyrian king's boast about conquering idol-cities is preserved.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 5
For he has said: "By the strength of my hand I have done this, by my wisdom — for I am shrewd. I have erased the borders of peoples, I have plundered their treasuries, and like a mighty bull I have brought down those enthroned."
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 6
"My hand has reached into the wealth of peoples as into a nest, and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I have gathered the whole earth. Not a wing fluttered, not a beak opened, not a chirp was heard."
Masoretic (WLC)
לְהַכְחִיד
to destroy
Dead Sea Scroll
להכחיד
to destroy
Identical consonantal text. The Assyrian king's heart intends to destroy — going beyond God's mandate.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 7
Does the axe boast over the one who chops with it? Does the saw exalt itself over the one who wields it? As if a rod could swing the one who lifts it! As if a staff could raise what is not wood!
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 8
Therefore the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, will send a wasting disease among Assyria's stout warriors, and under his glory a fire will be kindled, a blazing like the blazing of flame.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 9
The Light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame. It will burn and devour Assyria's thorns and briars in a single day.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 10
The glory of his forest and his garden land he will consume, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 11
The remaining trees of his forest will be so few that a child could count them.
Masoretic (WLC)
מַעֲשֵׂהוּ
his work
Dead Sea Scroll
מעשהו
his work
Identical reading. God will punish Assyria's arrogance after completing his work on Mount Zion.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 12
On that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 13
A remnant will return — a remnant of Jacob — to the Mighty God.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 14
For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
Masoretic (WLC)
הַגַּרְזֶן
the axe
Dead Sea Scroll
הגרזן
the axe
Identical consonantal text. The rhetorical question about the axe boasting over the one who wields it is preserved.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 15
For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, is bringing upon the whole land.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 16
Therefore, this is what the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, says: Do not fear, my people who dwell in Zion, when Assyria strikes you with the rod and lifts his staff against you as Egypt once did.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 17
For in just a little while, a very little while, fury will be spent, and my anger will turn to their destruction.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְהָיָה
and it will be
Dead Sea Scroll
והיה
and it will be
Identical consonantal text.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 18
The LORD of Hosts will raise a whip against him, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb, and will lift his staff over the sea as he did against Egypt.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 19
On that day, his burden will be removed from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.
Masoretic (WLC)
שְׁאָר יִשְׂרָאֵל
the remnant of Israel
Dead Sea Scroll
שאר ישראל
the remnant of Israel
Identical reading. The remnant theology — a core Isaianic concept — is textually stable.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 20
He has come to Aiath, he has passed through Migron, at Michmash he stores his equipment.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 21
They have crossed the pass; they lodge at Geba. Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 22
Shriek aloud, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Answer her, Anathoth!
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 23
Madmenah has fled; the people of Gebim scramble for cover.
Masoretic (WLC)
עַיָּת
Aiath
Dead Sea Scroll
עית
Aiath
Slightly different spelling of the place name. The march-route through Judean towns is preserved with minor orthographic variation in a few names.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 24
This very day he halts at Nob; he shakes his fist at the mountain of daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
Masoretic (WLC)
מַדְמֵנָה
Madmenah
Dead Sea Scroll
מדמנה
Madmenah
Identical consonantal text for this place name.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 25
Look — the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, is lopping the branches with terrifying force! The tallest are hewn down; the lofty are brought low.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 26
He will hack through the forest thickets with iron, and Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.
Masoretic (WLC)
הַלְּבָנוֹן
Lebanon
Dead Sea Scroll
הלבנון
Lebanon
Identical consonantal text. The closing image of God felling the forest thickets of Lebanon transitions to the messianic Branch of chapter 11.
1QIsaᵃ col. X, line 27