◄ Isaiah 10:15 ►
Verse  (Click for Chapter)
Good News Translation
But the LORD says, "Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn't lift up a person; a person lifts up a club."

New Revised Standard Version
Shall the ax vaunt itself over the one who wields it, or the saw magnify itself against the one who handles it? As if a rod should raise the one who lifts it up, or as if a staff should lift the one who is not wood!

Contemporary English Version
King of Assyria, can an ax or a saw overpower the one who uses it? Can a wooden pole lift whoever holds it?

New American Bible
Will the ax boast against the one who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above the one who wields it? As if a rod could sway the one who lifts it, or a staff could lift the one who is not wood!

Douay-Rheims Bible
Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood.

the axe

Isaiah 10:5 Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.

Psalm 17:13,14 Arise, O Lord, disappoint him and supplant him; deliver my soul from the wicked one; thy sword . . .

Jeremiah 51:20-23 Thou dashest together for me the weapons of war, and with thee I will dash nations together, and with thee I will destroy kingdoms: . . .

Ezekiel 28:9 Wilt thou yet say before them that slay thee: I am God; whereas thou art a man, and not God, in the hand of them that slay thee?

Romans 9:20,21 O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it: Why hast thou made me thus? . . .

itself, as if it were no wood.

Context
Judgment on Assyria
…14And my hand hath found the strength of the people as a nest; and as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise. 15Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood.16Therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory shall be kindled a burning, as it were the burning of a fire.…
Cross References
Romans 9:20
O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it: Why hast thou made me thus?

Romans 9:21
Or hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?

Isaiah 7:20
In that day the Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired by them that are beyond the river, by the king of the Assyrians, the head and the hairs of the feet, and the whole beard.

Isaiah 10:5
Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.

Isaiah 29:16
This thought of yours is perverse: as if the clay should think against the potter, and the work should say to the maker thereof: Thou madest me not: or the thing framed should say to him that fashioned it: Thou understandest not.

Isaiah 45:9
Woe to him that gainsayeth his maker, a sherd of the earthen pots: shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it: What art thou making, and thy work is without hands?

Jeremiah 51:20
Thou dashest together for me the weapons of war, and with thee I will dash nations together, and with thee I will destroy kingdoms:

Isaiah 10:14
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