Woe to those who decree decrees of iniquity,
To the busy writers who are busy writing trouble,

In order to turn the poor away from judgment,
And to tear justice away from the afflicted among my people;
That widows may be their spoil,
And they may plunder orphans.

And what will you do for the  ¹day of visitation,
And for the devastation that comes from afar?
To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your  ²glory,

Unless one crouches behind prisoners,
And they fall behind the slain?
By all this His anger is not turned;
His hand is still outstretched.

Woe to Assyria, the  ¹rod of My anger!
The staff which is in their hand is My indignation.

Against a profane nation I send them out,
And against the people of My overflowing wrath I command them,
To make spoil of the spoil and to make plunder of the plunder,
To make them a trampling ground, like street mire.

But they do not think so,
And their heart does not conceive it so;
For destroying is in their heart,
And the cutting down of no few nations.

For they say,
Are not my princes all kings?

Is not Calno like Carchemish,
Or Hamath like Arpad,
Or Samaria like Damascus?

Since my hand has reached
The kingdoms of the idols,
And their graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

Shall I not do, as I have done
To Samaria and its idols,
The same to Jerusalem and its images?

But when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He says, I will punish the fruit of the king of Assyria's haughtiness of heart and the glory of his haughty eyes.

For he has said,
By the strength of my own hand I have done it,
And by my own wisdom; for I have understanding.
And I have removed the boundaries of the peoples;
And their stored possessions I have plundered.
And like a bull, I brought down those who sit on thrones.

And my hand reached in, like in a nest,
For the wealth of the peoples;
And like one who gathers abandoned eggs,
I myself gathered in all the earth;
And none fluttered a wing,
Or opened a beak and chirped.

Should the ax glorify itself above him who chops with it?
Or should the saw magnify itself above him who wields it?
It would be like the rod wielding him who lifts it up,
Like the staff lifting up him who is not wood.

Therefore the Lord Jehovah of hosts will send
Leanness to his fat ones;
And under his glory He will kindle a kindling,
Like the kindling of fire.

And the Light of Israel will become a fire,
And His Holy One a flame;
And it will burn and devour his thorns
And his thistles in one day.

The glory of his forest and of his garden land
He will destroy, both soul and body;
And he will be like a sick man wasting away.

And what is left of the trees of his forest will be so few in number
That a young boy could record them.

Then in that day the remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob who have  ¹escaped will no longer rely upon him who strikes them, but they will rely upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

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

For though your people, O Israel, are like the  ¹sand of the sea, only a remnant among them will return. Annihilation is strictly decided, overflowing with righteousness.

For utter destruction and a strict decision is the Lord Jehovah of hosts performing in the midst of the whole land.

Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah of hosts, O my people dwelling in Zion, do not fear Assyria, who strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you the way Egypt did.

For in a very little while My indignation will be completed, and My anger will be turned toward their destruction.

And against them Jehovah of hosts will rouse up a whip like the stroke against Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the sea, and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt.

And in that day their burden will be removed from your shoulders, and their yoke from off your neck; and the yoke will be broken due to the fatness.

 ¹He comes against Aiath;
He passes through Migron;
At Michmash he deposits his gear.

They go through the pass, saying,
Geba will be our lodging overnight.
Ramah is quaking;
Gibeah of Saul flees away.

Scream with your voice, O daughter of Gallim!
Listen carefully, Laishah! O poor Anathoth!

Madmenah flees;
The inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge.

So it is this very day when he halts at Nob.
He swings his hand over the mountain of the  ¹daughter of Zion,
Over the hill of Jerusalem.

But now the Lord Jehovah of hosts
Is lopping off the boughs with an awful crash:
Those which are tall in height are hewn down,
And those which are lofty are laid low.

And He chops away the forest thickets with an iron ax;
And Lebanon falls at the hands of a majestic One.

Then a  ¹sprout will come forth from the stump of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

And the  ¹Spirit of Jehovah will rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah.

He will delight in the fear of Jehovah:
He will neither judge by what His eyes see,
Nor decide by what His ears hear.

But He will judge the poor in righteousness,
And decide with equity for the afflicted of the land.
And He will strike the land with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

Righteousness will be that which  ¹girds His loins,
And faithfulness will be that which girds His hips.

And the  ¹wolf will dwell with the lamb;
And the leopard will lie down with the kid,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a young boy will lead them about.

The cow and the bear will graze;
Their young will lie down together;
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child will play by the cobra's hole,
And upon the viper's den
The weaned child will stretch his hand.

They will not harm nor destroy
In all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah,
As water covers the sea.

And in that day the  ¹root of Jesse,
Who stands as a  ²banner to the peoples —
Him will the  ³nations seek,
And His resting place will be the  ⁴glory.

And in that day the Lord,
By His hand for the  ¹second time again,
Will  ²recover the remnant of His people
Who remain, from Assyria and from Egypt,
From Pathros, Cush, and Elam,
From Shinar, Hamath, and the islands of the sea.

He will lift up a  ¹standard to the nations,
And will gather the outcasts of Israel;
And the dispersed of Judah He will assemble
From the four corners of the earth.

And  ¹Ephraim's jealousy will depart,
And the adversaries in Judah will be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
Nor will Judah be hostile to Ephraim.

And they will fly down upon the shoulders of the Philistines on the west;
Together they will plunder the children of the east.
Edom and Moab will come into the grasp of their hand,
And the children of Ammon will submit to them.

And Jehovah will  ¹utterly destroy the  ²tongue of the sea of Egypt;
And will wave His hand over the  ²River with the scorching of His wind,
And He will strike it into seven streams,
And march men through it dryshod.

And there will be a highway from Assyria
For the remnant of His people which remain,
As there was for Israel
In the day that they came up from the land of Egypt.

And you will say in that day,
I will  ¹praise You, O Jehovah. You were angry with me,
But Your anger has turned and You have consoled me.

 ¹God is now my salvation;
I will trust and not dread;
For  ²Jah  ¹Jehovah is my  ³strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.

Therefore you will draw  ¹water with rejoicing
From the  ²springs of salvation,

And you will say in that day,
Give thanks to Jehovah;  ¹call upon His name!
 ²Make His deeds known among the peoples;
Remind them that His name is exalted.

Sing psalms to Jehovah, for He has done something majestic!
Let it be made known in all the earth!

Cry out and give a  ¹ringing shout, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.