1. Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the scribes who write toil;
2. to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to steal the right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and they rob the orphans!
3. And what will you do in the day of judgment and in destruction, of ruin when it comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory?
4. Surely they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. In all this His hand is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.
5. Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger! And the staff in their hand is My fury.
6. I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My wrath. I will command him to take the plunder, and to strip off the spoil, and to trample them like the mud of the streets.
7. Yet he does not plan this, nor does his heart think so. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off not a few nations.
8. For he says, Are not my commanders all like kings?
9. Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10. As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, and their graven images more than Jerusalem's and Samaria's;
11. shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her idols?
12. And it will be, when the Lord has broken off all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks.
13. For he says, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am wise. And I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the people like a strong man.
14. And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people; and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth; and there was none who moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
15. Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it? Shall the saw magnify itself against him who moves it? As if the rod could wave those who lift itself up! As if a staff could raise what is not wood!
16. Therefore the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones; and under his glory He shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
17. And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and His Holy One as a flame; and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.
18. And it shall burn up the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a sick one faints.
19. And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a boy might write them.
20. And it shall be in that day, the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob, shall never again lean on him who struck them; but truly lean on Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel.
21. The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22. For though Your people Israel are like the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return; the full end which is decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
23. For the Lord Jehovah of Hosts shall make a full end, as ordained, in the midst of all the land.
24. Therefore so says the Lord Jehovah of Hosts, O my people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria. He shall strike you with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against you, in the way of Egypt.
25. But yet a little while, and the fury shall cease, and My anger shall be in their ruin.
26. And Jehovah of Hosts shall stir up a whip on him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and as His rod was on the sea, so shall He lift it up in the way of Egypt.
27. And it shall be, in that day his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
28. He has come to Aiath, he has passed to Migron; at Michmash he has stored his baggage;
29. they have gone over the passage; they have bedded down at Geba; Ramah is afraid, Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30. Lift up your voice, daughter of heaps; shriek with your voice; bow Laish, afflicted of Anathoth.
31. Madmenah wanders; the people of Gebim take refuge.
32. Yet he shall remain in Nob today; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33. Behold, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, shall lop the bough with terror; and the lofty ones shall be cut down, and the proud shall be humbled.
34. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.