1Woe to those decreeing decrees of iniquity, and to the writers who write trouble,
2to turn aside from judgment (din) the weak, and to rob the judgment (mishpat) of the afflicted of my people, that widows may be their spoil, and the orphans they may plunder.
3And what will you do for the day of visitation, and for the ruin that comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your glory?
4Except they crouch under the prisoner, and under the slain they fall. In all this his anger has not turned, and still his hand is stretched out.
5Woe, Assyria, the rod of my anger; and a staff in their hand is my indignation.
6Against a profane nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him (tzivvah), to take spoil and to seize plunder, and to make them a trampling like the mire of the streets.
7But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; for in his heart is to destroy and to cut off nations, not a few.
8For he says: "Are not my princes together kings?
9Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idol, and their carved images more than those of Jerusalem and of Samaria,
11shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and to her idols, so do to Jerusalem and to her images?"
12And it shall come to pass, when my Lord (Adonai) finishes all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of the loftiness of his eyes.
13For he said: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am discerning; and I removed the borders of peoples, and their stored treasures I plundered, and I brought down, like a mighty one, the inhabitants.
14And my hand found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples; and like the gathering of forsaken eggs, all the earth I gathered; and there was none moving a wing, or opening a mouth, or chirping."
15Shall the axe boast itself over the one hewing with it? Shall the saw magnify itself over the one moving it? As if a rod should move those who lift it, as if a staff should lift up what is not wood.
16Therefore the Lord (ha-Adon), YHWH of hosts (tzevaot), shall send leanness among his fat ones; and under his glory a burning shall be kindled, like the burning of fire.
17And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.
18And the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, from soul (nephesh) even to flesh (basar), he shall consume; and it shall be as the wasting away of a sick one.
19And the remnant of the trees of his forest shall be a number, that a youth may write them.
20And it shall come to pass in that day, the remnant of Israel and the escaped of the house of Jacob shall no more again lean upon the one striking it, but shall lean upon YHWH, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21A remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God (El Gibbor).
22For though your people Israel be like the sand of the sea, a remnant shall return in it; an annihilation is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
23For a full end, and that decreed, my Lord (Adonai) YHWH of hosts (tzevaot) is making in the midst of all the earth.
24Therefore thus says my Lord (Adonai) YHWH of hosts (tzevaot): "Do not fear, O my people dwelling in Zion, of Assyria; with the rod he strikes you, and his staff he lifts against you, in the way of Egypt.
25For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall be finished, and my anger to their destruction.
26And YHWH of hosts (tzevaot) shall stir up against him a scourge, like the striking of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his staff shall be over the sea, and he shall lift it up in the way of Egypt.
27And it shall come to pass in that day, his burden shall depart from upon your shoulder, and his yoke from upon your neck; and the yoke shall be destroyed because of fatness.
28He has come against Aiath, he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage.
29They have crossed the pass; Geba is a lodging for us; Ramah trembles, Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Gallim! Hearken, O Laish! O poor Anathoth!
31Madmenah has fled; the inhabitants of Gebim have taken refuge.
32Yet today he shall halt at Nob; he shall shake his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33Behold, the Lord (ha-Adon), YHWH of hosts (tzevaot), is lopping the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature are cut down, and the lofty are brought low.
34And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon, by a mighty one, shall fall.