1. Ha! Those who write out evil writs And compose iniquitous documents,
2. To subvert the cause of the poor, To rob of their rights the needy of My people; That widows may be their spoil, And fatherless children their booty!
3. What will you do on the day of punishment, When the calamity comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help, And how will you save your carcasses
4. From collapsing under [fellow] prisoners, From falling beneath the slain? Yet His anger has not turned back, And his arm is outstretched still.
5. Ha! Assyria, rod of My anger, In whose hand, as a staff, is My fury!
6. I send him against an ungodly nation, I charge him against a people that provokes Me, To take its spoil and to seize its booty And to make it a thing trampled Like the mire of the streets.
7. But he has evil plans, His mind harbors evil designs; For he means to destroy, To wipe out nations, not a few.
8. For he thinks, "After all, I have kings as my captains!
9. Was Calno any different from Carchemish? Or Hamath from Arpad? Or Samaria from Damascus?
10. Since I was able to seize The insignificant kingdoms, Whose images exceeded Jersualem's and Samaria's,
11. Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images What I did to Samaria and her idols?"
12. But when my Lord has carried out all his purpose on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, He will punish the majestic pride and overbearing arrogance of the king of Assyria.
13. For he thought, "By the might of my hand have I wrought it, By my skill, for I am clever: I have erased the borders of peoples; I have plundered their treasures, And exiled their vast populations.
14. I was able to seize, like a nest, The wealth of peoples; As one gathers abandoned eggs, So I gathered all the earth: Nothing so much as flapped a wing Or opened a mouth to peep."
15. Does an ax boast over him who hews with it, Or a saw magnify itself above him who wields it? As though the rod raised him who lifts it, As though the staff lifted the man!
16. Assuredly, The Sovereign LORD of Hosts will send A wasting away in its fatness; And under its body shall burn A burning like that of fire, Destroying frame and flesh. It shall be like a sick man who pines away.
17. The Light of Israel will be fire And its Holy One flame. It will burn and consume its thorns And its thistles in a single day,
18. And the mass of its scrub and its farm land.
19. What trees remain of its scrub Shall be so few that a boy may record them.
20. And in that day, The remnant of Israel And the escaped of the House of Jacob Shall lean no more upon him that beats it, But shall lean sincerely On the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
21. Only a remnant shall return, Only a remnant of Jacob, To Mighty God.
22. Even if your people, O Israel, Should be as the sands of the sea, Only a remnant of it shall return. Destruction is decreed; Retribution comes like a flood!
23. For my Lord GOD of Hosts is carrying out A decree of destruction upon all the land.
24. Assuredly, thus said my Lord GOD of Hosts: "O My people that dwells in Zion, have no fear of Assyria, who beats you with a rod and wields his staff over you as did the Egyptians.
25. For very soon My wrath will have spent itself, and My anger that was bent on wasting them."
26. The LORD of Hosts will brandish a scourge over him as when He beat Midian at the Rock of Oreb, and will wield His staff as He did over the Egyptians by the sea.
27. And in that day, His burden shall drop from your back, And his yoke from your neck; The yoke shall be destroyed because of fatness.
28. He advanced upon Aiath, He proceeded to Migron, At Michmas he deposited his baggage.
29. They made the crossing; "Geba is to be our night quarters!" Ramah was alarmed; Gibeah of Saul took to flight.
30. "Give a shrill cry, O Bath-gallim! Hearken, Laishah! Take up the cry, Anathoth!"
31. Madmenah ran away; The dwellers of Gebim sought refuge.
32. This same day at Nob He shall stand and wave his hand. O mount of Fair Zion! O hill of Jerusalem!
33. Lo! The Sovereign LORD of Hosts Will hew off the tree-crowns with an ax: The tall ones shall be felled, The lofty ones cut down:
34. The thickets of the forest shall be hacked away with iron, And the Lebanon trees shall fall in their majesty.
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