24The LORD of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand, 25to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. 26“This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. 27“For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

      28In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:

Judgment on Philistia

29“Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you,
         Because the rod that struck you is broken;
         For from the serpent’s root a viper will come out,
         And its fruit will be a flying serpent.

30“Those who are most helpless will eat,
         And the needy will lie down in security;
         I will destroy your root with famine,
         And it will kill off your survivors.

31“Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
         Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;
         For smoke comes from the north,
         And there is no straggler in his ranks.

32“How then will one answer the messengers of the nation?
         That the LORD has founded Zion,
         And the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.”

NASB ©1995