1Woea to those enacting crooked statutes

and writing oppressive laws

2to keep the poor from getting a fair trial

and to deprive the needy among my people of justice,a

so that widows can be their spoil

and they can plunder the fatherless.b

3What will you do on the day of punishment

when devastation comes from far away?

Who will you run to for help?

Where will you leave your wealth?

4There will be nothing to do

except crouch among the prisoners

or fall among the slain.

In all this, his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is still raised to strike.a

Assyria, the Instrument of Wrath

5Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger —

the staff in their hands is my wrath.

6I will send him against a godless nation;

I will command him to go

against a people destined for my rage,

to take spoils, to plunder,a

and to trample them down like clayb in the streets.

7But this is not what he intends;

this is not what he plans.

It is his intent to destroy

and to cut off many nations.

8For he says,

“Aren’t all my commanders kings?

9Isn’t Calno like Carchemish?

Isn’t Hamath like Arpad?

Isn’t Samariaa like Damascus?A

10As my hand seized the kingdoms of worthless images,

kingdoms whose idols exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11and as I did to Samaria and its worthless images

will I not also do to Jerusalem and its idols? ”a

Judgment on Assyria

12But when the Lord finishes all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “IA will punish the king of Assyria for his arrogant acts and the proud look in his eyes.”a 13For he said:

I have done this by my own strength

and wisdom, for I am clever.

I abolished the borders of nations

and plundered their treasures;a

like a mighty warrior, I subjugated the inhabitants.a b

14My hand has reached out, as if into a nest,

to seize the wealth of the nations.

Like one gathering abandoned eggs,

I gathered the whole earth.

No wing fluttered;

no beak opened or chirped.

15Does an ax exalt itself

above the one who chops with it?

Does a saw magnify itself

above the one who saws with it?

It would be like a rod waving the ones who liftA it!

It would be like a staff lifting the one who isn’t wood!

16Therefore the Lord God of Armies

will inflict an emaciating disease

on the well-fed of Assyria,

and he will kindle a burning fire

under its glory.

17Israel’s Light will become a fire,

and its Holy One, a flame.a

In one day it will burn and consume Assyria’s thorns and thistles.b

18He will completely destroy

the glory of its forests and orchards

as a sickness consumes a person.

19The remaining trees of its forest

will be so few in number

that a child could count them.

The Remnant Will Return

20On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on the one who struck them, but they will faithfully depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.a

21The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob,

to the Mighty God.

22Israel, even if your people were as numerous

as the sand of the sea,

only a remnant of them will return.a

Destruction has been decreed;

justice overflows.

23For throughout the land

the Lord God of Armies

is carrying out a destruction that was decreed.

24Therefore, the Lord God of Armies says this: “My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, though they strike you with a rod and raise their staff over you as the Egyptians did. 25In just a little while my wrath will be spent and my anger will turn to their destruction.” 26And the Lord of Armies will brandish a whip against him as he did when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb;a and he will raise his staff over the sea as he did in Egypt.

God Will Judge Assyria

27On that day

his burden will fall from your shoulders,

and his yoke from your neck.

The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.a a

28Assyria has come to Aiath

and has gone through Migron,

storing their equipment at Michmash.

29They crossed over at the ford, saying,

“We will spend the night at Geba.”

The people of Ramah are trembling;

those at Gibeah of Saul have fled.

30Cry aloud, daughter of Gallim!

Listen, Laishah!

Anathoth is miserable.

31Madmenah has fled.

The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.

32Today the Assyrians will stand at Nob,

shaking their fists at the mountain of Daughter Zion,

the hill of Jerusalem.

33Look, the Lord God of Armies

will chop off the branches with terrifying power,

and the tall trees will be cut down,

the high trees felled.

34He is clearing the thickets of the forest with an ax,

and Lebanon with its majesty will fall.