Isa 10:5-6 | NETfull | STEP | Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, a cudgel with which I angrily punish.

Isaiah 10:5-6

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, ^{▼▼ Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.}
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ^{▼▼ Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (b^eyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”}
6 I sent him ^{▼▼ Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).} against a godless ^{▼▼ Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”} nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ^{▼▼ Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”}
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down ^{▼▼ Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”} like dirt in the streets.