¹Woe to those who decree decrees of iniquity, and to the writers who write out trouble,

²to turn aside the poor from their case, and to tear away the justice of the afflicted of my people, so that widows become their plunder, and they plunder the fatherless.

³And what will you do on the day of punishment, and for the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your weightiness?

⁴Except to crouch under a prisoner, and under the slain they will fall. For all this his anger has not turned back, and still his hand is stretched out.

⁵Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger! The staff in their hand, it is my indignation.

⁶I send him against a godless nation, and against the people of my wrath I charge him, to plunder spoil and to seize booty, and to make him a trampling place like the clay of the streets.

⁷But he does not intend so, and his heart does not reckon so; for it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations, not a few.

⁸For he says, “Are not my officials kings together?”

⁹Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Or is not Hamath like Arpad? Or is not Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand has found the kingdoms of the worthless gods, and their images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria,

¹¹Shall I not, as I did to Samaria and to her worthless gods, so do to Jerusalem and to her idols?

¹²And it will be, when the Lord has finished all his work on the mountain of Zion and in Jerusalem, I will visit judgment upon the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and upon the splendor of the haughtiness of his eyes.

¹³For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have acted, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding; and I removed the boundaries of peoples, and I have plundered their prepared stores, and I brought down like a mighty one those who dwell.”

¹⁴And my hand found the wealth of the peoples like a nest; and as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered the whole land; and there was no one who fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped.

¹⁵Does the axe boast over the one who hews with it? Or does the saw become great over the one who wields it? As if a rod could wave those who lift it, as if a staff could lift high one who is not wood!

¹⁶Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts will send leanness among his fat ones, and under his weightiness a blaze will be kindled, like the blaze of fire.

¹⁷And the light of Israel will become a fire, and his holy one a flame; and it will burn and eat up his brier and his thorn in one day.

¹⁸He will bring to an end the weightiness of his forest and his garden-land, from being to flesh; and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.

¹⁹And the remnant of the trees of his forest will be a number, and a boy can write them down.

²⁰And it will happen in that day that the remnant of Israel and the escaped remnant of the house of Jacob will not again lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on Yahweh, the holy one of Israel in truth.

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

²²For though your people Israel be like the sand of the sea, a remnant in it will return; destruction is decided, overflowing with righteousness.

²³For the Lord, Yahweh of hosts is making a complete destruction, and what is decided, in the midst of all the land.

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts: “Do not be afraid, my people who dwell in Zion, of Assyria, who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you in the manner of Egypt.”

²⁵For yet a little, a very little, and the indignation will be finished, and my anger will be on their destruction.

²⁶And Yahweh of hosts will rouse a whip over him, like the blow of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his staff is over the sea, and he will lift it up in the manner of Egypt.

²⁷And it will happen in that day: his burden will turn away off your shoulder, and his yoke off your neck; and the yoke will be destroyed before the oil.

²⁸He has come against Aiath, he has passed through Migron; at Micmash he deposits his equipment.

²⁹They have crossed the ford; Geba is our lodging place; Ramah has trembled; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

³⁰Cry shrilly with your voice, daughter of Gallim; pay attention, Laishah; poor Anathoth.

³¹Madmenah has fled; those who dwell in Gebim have brought themselves to safety.

³²Still today he will stand at Nob; he will wave his hand toward the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Behold, the Adonai Yahweh of hosts is lopping off the boughs with a crash; and the exalted ones of the height are cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.

³⁴And he will fell the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.