Isaiah 10:14
And my hand hath 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. And my hand hath 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.
Isaiah, a prophet of Judah, wrote between 760 and 700 B.C. during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, in a book filled full of gospel truth. The verse belongs to Isaiah's prophecy against Assyria concerning a historical invasion of Judah. The identity of the king behind that invasion account was disputed, with the campaign attributed to Sargon.
Chapters 10 to 12 stand as a reproof of the great sins of Isaiah's day, looking forward to similar conditions in the last days and to the great deliverance at the coming of Christ. Chapter 10 is characterized by strife, war, and wickedness, in contrast with chapter 11's picture of Christ's kingdom as rest, peace, and righteousness. The verse portrays the conqueror boasting that he has taken the wealth and lands of peoples as easily as gathering eggs left in an unguarded nest, with none able or daring to resist, showing the arrogance and ease of Assyria's conquests and its claim that its own strength and wisdom achieved it.
That great dominion actually came from God, and the conqueror was only an instrument in God's hands with no power of his own, as shown by Nebuchadnezzar in Isaiah 10:5-18. The image of none moving the wing or opening the mouth or peeping describes the terror-stricken submission that Sennacherib could impose on the nations, which Babylon later made complete and lasting. The verse falls within a prophecy of consuming judgment connected with the consuming process in Isaiah 14, fulfilled in the downfall of the papal power in 1798 and the end of the period of treading down God's people. Applied to Israel's conquest of Canaan, the words show what Israel might have said if it had driven out the inhabitants by its own sword; God gave Israel no share in the conquest so the people could not claim the victory as their own.