1Woe to those who decree unjust decrees, and to the writers who write out oppression,
2to turn aside the poor from justice, and to rob the afflicted of my people of their right, so that widows become their spoil and they plunder the orphans.
3And what will you do on the day of reckoning, and in the devastation that comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your glory?
4There is nothing but to crouch among the captives, and among the slain they will fall. In all this his anger has not turned away, and still his hand is stretched out.
5Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my wrath!
6Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my fury I command him, to seize spoil and to plunder plunder, and to make them a trampling like the mire of the streets.
7But he does not intend it so, and his heart does not plan it so; for it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations, not a few.
8For he says, ‘Are not my commanders all of them kings?’
9‘Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?’
10As my hand has reached the kingdoms of the idol—whose carved images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria—
11shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?’
12And it will be, when the Lord finishes all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, that I will punish the fruit of the arrogance of the heart of the king of Assyria, and the pride of his haughty eyes.
13For he has said: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I removed the boundaries of peoples, and plundered their stores, and like a mighty one I brought down those enthroned.
14My hand found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples, and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; and there was none that fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped.’
15Does the axe boast over the one who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself over the one who wields it? As if a rod should brandish the one who lifts it, as if a staff should lift what is not wood!
16Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send leanness among his stout ones, and beneath his glory a burning will burn like the burning of fire.
17And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.
18And the glory of his forest and his fruitful field, from soul to flesh, he will consume; and it will be like a sick man wasting away.
19And the remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a boy could write them down.
20And it will be in that day that the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.
22For though your people Israel be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
23For the Lord Yahweh of hosts is carrying out a complete destruction, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.
24Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh of hosts: Do not fear the Assyrian, O my people who dwell in Zion, who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you in the manner of Egypt.
25For in a very little while the indignation will be spent, and my anger will be directed toward their destruction.
26And Yahweh of hosts will rouse a whip against him, as in the striking of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it up in the way of Egypt.
27And it will be in that day that his burden will be removed from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.
28He has come against Aiath, he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage.
29They have crossed the pass; Geba is their lodging place. Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Gallim! Give heed, Laishah! Answer her, O Anathoth!
31Madmenah flees; the inhabitants of Gebim take to flight.
32This very day he will halt at Nob; he shakes his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will lop off the boughs with terrifying force; the tall of stature will be hewn down, and the lofty ones will be brought low.
34And the thickets of the forest will be cut down with iron, and Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.
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