Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees ,
to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people , to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
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 ?
Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this , His anger is not turned away ; His hand is still upraised.
Woe to Assyria , the rod of My anger ; the staff ... in their hands is My wrath.
I will send him against a godless nation ; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage , to take spoils and seize plunder , and to trample them down ... like clay in the streets.
But this is not vvv his intention ; this is not his plan ... .... For (it is) in his heart to destroy and cut off many ... nations.
“ Are not all my commanders kings ? ” - he says.
“ Is not Calno ... like Carchemish ? Is not Hamath ... like Arpad ? Is not Samaria like Damascus ?
As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms whose images (surpassed) those of Jerusalem and Samaria ,
and as I have done to Samaria and its idols , will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols ? ”
- So when the Lord - has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem , He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria ... ... for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes.
For he says : ‘ By the strength of my hand I have done (this) , and (by my) wisdom , for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures ; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers.
My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs , I gathered all the earth. No ... wing fluttered , no beak opened or chirped. ’”
Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod - waving the one who lifts it , (or) a staff lifting him who is not wood !
Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among (Assyria’s) stout warriors , and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame.
And the Light of Israel will become a fire , and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles.
The splendor of its forests and orchards , both soul and body , it will completely destroy , ... as a sickness consumes a man ....
The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them.
- On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer ... depend on him who struck them , but they will truly rely on the LORD , the Holy One of Israel.
A remnant will return — a remnant of Jacob — to the Mighty God.
Though ... your people , O Israel , be like the sand of the sea , only a remnant will return Destruction has been decreed , overflowing with righteousness.
For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says : “ O My people who dwell in Zion , do not fear Assyria , who strikes you with a rod and lifts his staff against you as the Egyptians did.
For in just a little while ... My fury (against you) will subside , and My anger will turn to their destruction. ”
And the LORD of Hosts will brandish a whip against them , as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise ... His staff over the sea , as He did in Egypt.
- On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders , and the yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.
(Assyria) has entered ... Aiath and passed through Migron , storing their supplies at Michmash.
They have crossed at the ford : “ We will spend the night at Geba. ” Ramah trembles ; Gibeah of Saul flees.
Cry aloud ... , O Daughter of Gallim ! Listen , O Laishah ! O wretched Anathoth !
Madmenah flees ; the people of Gebim take refuge.
Yet today they will halt at Nob , shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion , at the hill of Jerusalem.
Behold , the Lord GOD of Hosts will lop off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be cut down , the lofty ones will be felled.
He will clear the forest thickets with an axe , and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.