Isaiah 10:1-4·~1 min

Woe to Tyrants

Isaiah pronounces woe on those who write unjust decrees and produce oppressive rulings, using law itself to deny the poor justice and strip the vulnerable of what is theirs. Widows and orphans, who should have been protected, instead become prey inside a system built by the powerful for gain.

W¹oe to those who enact unjust statutes ²to deprive the poor of fair treatment

The prophet asks what these oppressors will do when judgment finally comes from far away, because they will have nowhere to run and no place to deposit their glory. In the end they will be reduced to crouching among captives and falling among the slain, and even then the refrain remains: the Lord's anger is not yet turned away.

³What will you do on the day of reckoning ⁴Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives

Section summaryThe chapter begins by denouncing those who codify injustice and use legal power to dispossess the weak, turning public authority into an engine of exploitation. Isaiah warns that when the day of visitation arrives, these same powerful people will find themselves without refuge, wealth, or dignity, because the systems they built to crush others cannot save them from God's reckoning.

Role in the chapterThis section frames the whole chapter by exposing injustice at home before turning to the empires outside Judah.