1Woe to those who enact unjust laws and write unfair decrees.

2They deprive the needy of justice, rob the poor of my people of their rights,
plunder widows, and make the fatherless their prey!

3What will you do on judgment day when the destruction comes from far away?
To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?

4Nothing remains, and you crouch among the prisoners or fall among the killed.
In all these things, his anger does not subside; instead, his hand is still stretched out.

5Woe to the Assyrian, the club of my anger, the rod by whom I wield my fury!

6I send him against an arrogant nation and against the people who bear my overflowing wrath.
I order him to take the spoil, to take the prey, and to trample them like mud in the streets.

7But this is not what he intends, nor does he think this way.
It is in his heart to destroy and eliminate many nations.

8For he says, “Are not all my princes kings?

9Is not Kalno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

10As my hand has overcome idolatrous kingdoms, whose carved figures were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11just as I did to Samaria and her worthless idols,
will I not also do the same to Jerusalem and to her idols?”

12When the Lord has finished his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and his prideful looks.

13For he says, “By my strength and by my wisdom I acted. I have understanding,
and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples. I have stolen their treasures,
and like a bull I have brought down the inhabitants.

14My hand has seized, as from a nest, the wealth of nations,
and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth.
None fluttered their wings or opened their mouth or chirped.”

15Will the ax boast about itself against the one who wields it?
Will the saw praise itself more than the one who cuts with it?
It is as if a rod could lift up those who raise it, or as if a wooden club could lift up a person.

16Therefore the Lord Yahweh of hosts will send emaciation among his elite warriors;
and under his glory there will be kindled a burning like fire.

17The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame;
it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.

18Yahweh will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful land, both soul and body;
it will be like when a sick man's life wastes away.

19The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few, that a child could count them.

20On that day, the remnant of Israel, the family of Jacob that has escaped, will no longer rely on the one who defeated them, but will indeed depend on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

21A remnant of Jacob will return to the mighty God.

22For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the seashore, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, as overflowing righteousness demands.

23For the Lord Yahweh of hosts, is about to carry out the destruction determined throughout the land.

24Therefore the Lord Yahweh of hosts says, “My people who live in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian. He will strike you with the rod and raise his staff against you, as the Egyptians did.

25Do not fear him, for in a very short time my anger against you will end, and my anger will lead to his destruction.”

26Then Yahweh of hosts will wield a whip against them, as when he defeated Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise his rod over the sea and lift it up as he did in Egypt.

27On that day, his burden is lifted from your shoulder and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of fatness. ⁷

28The enemy has come to Aiath
and has passed through Migron; at Michmash he has stored his provisions.

29They have crossed over the pass and they lodge at Geba.
Ramah trembles and Gibeah of Saul has fled.

30Cry aloud, daughter of Gallim! Give attention, Laishah!
You poor Anathoth!

31Madmenah is fleeing,
and the inhabitants of Gebim run for safety.

32This very day he will halt
at Nob and shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33Behold, the Lord Yahweh of hosts will lop off the boughs with a terrifying crash;
the tallest trees will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.

34He will chop down the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon in his majesty will fall.