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to those who issue oppressive statutes,
2 to turn the needy aside from justice,
and to deprive the poor of My people of their rights,
so that widows can be their prey,
and they can plunder the fatherless.
3 What will you do in the day of reckoning,
when calamity comes from far away?
To whom with you flee for help?
Where will you leave your riches?
4 Nothing will remain except to cringe among the captives,
and to fall among the slain.”
Yet for all this, His anger is not turned away,
His hand is still stretched out to strike.
5 “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger,
the staff in their hands is My wrath.
6 I will send him against a godless nation,
against the people of My wrath I will dispatch him,
to take the spoils, to seize the plunder,
and to tread them down like the mud in the streets.
7 But this is not what he intends,
nor does he have this in mind;
his intentions are to destroy,
and cut off many nations.
8 For he says: ‘Are not my commanders altogether kings?
9Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has seized the idolatrous kingdoms,
whose carved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
as I have done to Samaria and her idols?’ ”
12 When the Lord has finished all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the arrogant pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.”
13 For he says:
“By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I am clever.
I have abolished the borders of the nations,
and plundered their treasures;
like a valiant warrior, I subdued their kings.
14 My hand has seized, as in a nest,
the wealth of the nations.
And as one gathers abandoned eggs,
so I have gathered all of the earth.
There was none that flapped a wing,
or opened its mouth to chirp.”
15 Does the ax exalt itself above him who swings it?
Or does the saw boast against him who saws with it?
As if a rod should raise up him who lifts it,
or as if a staff could lift the one who is not wood!
16 Therefore Lord God of Hosts,
will send wasting sickness against his stout warriors;
He will kindle a blazing fire
under its glory.
17 The light of Israel will become a fire,
and their Holy One a flame;
it will burn and devour the thorns and briers
of Assyria in a single day.
18 He will destroy the glory of his forests and his fruitful land,
as when sickness consumes a man.
19 Then the remnant of the trees of his forests will be so few in number,
a child could write them down.
20 On that day the remnant of Israel
and the survivors of the house of Jacob
will no longer depend on him
who struck them down;
but they will truly depend upon the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel.
21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob,
to the Mighty God.
22 Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea,
only a remnant will return.
Destruction has been decreed,
overflowing with righteousness.
23 For the Lord God of Hosts will carry out
the destruction decreed throughout the whole land.
24 Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Hosts says:
“O My people, who dwell in Zion,
do not be afraid of the Assyrians.
He will beat you with a rod
and lift up his staff against you, as the Egyptians did.
25 For in a little while My wrath will come to an end,
and My anger will be turned to their destruction.”
26 The Lord of Hosts will brandish a whip against them,
as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb;
and He will raise His staff over the sea,
as He did in Egypt.
27 On that day his burden will be lifted from your shoulder,
and his yoke from your neck.
The yoke will be broken
because of fatness.
28 Assyria has come to Aiath,
he has passed through Migron;
at Michmash he has laid up stores.
29 They have crossed over at the pass,
they have lodged for the night at Geba;
Ramah trembles,
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim!
Listen, O Laishah!
Answer her, O poor Anathoth!
31 Madmenah has fled,
the people of Gebim flee to safety.
32 This very day he will halt at Nob,
he will shake his fist
at the mount of the Daughter Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold, the Lord God of Hosts,
will lop off the boughs with terrifying power;
those of lofty stature will be hewn down,
and the tallest will be felled.
34 He will hack down the thickets of the forest with an axe;
Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.