Woe to Tyrants

1Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write perverseness:

2to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right of the poor of my people, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

3And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

4They shall only bow down under the prisoners, and shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Judgment on Assyria

5Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, the staff in whose hand is mine indignation!

6I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

7Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.

8For he saith, Are not my princes all of them kings?

9Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

10As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

11shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

12Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

13For he hath said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and I have brought down as a valiant man them that sit on thrones:

14and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the peoples; and as one gathereth eggs that are forsaken, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or that opened the mouth, or chirped.

15Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if a rod should shake them that lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up him that is not wood.

16Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory there shall be kindled a burning 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 he shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and it shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth.

19And the remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

A Remnant of Israel Shall Return

20And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

21A remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

22For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them shall return: a consumption is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

23For a consummation, and that determined, shall the Lord, the LORD of hosts, make in the midst of all the earth.

24Therefore thus saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: though he smite thee with the rod, and lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. 25For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall be accomplished, and mine anger, in their destruction. 26And the LORD of hosts shall stir up against him a scourge, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod shall be over the sea, and he shall lift it up after the manner of Egypt. 27And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall depart from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

28He is come to Aiath, he is passed through Migron; at Michmash he layeth up his baggage:

29they are gone over the pass; they have taken up their lodging at Geba: Ramah trembleth; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

30Cry aloud with thy voice, O daughter of Gallim! hearken, O Laishah! O thou poor Anathoth!

31Madmenah is a fugitive; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.

32This very day shall he halt at Nob: he shaketh his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the boughs with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the lofty shall be brought low.

34And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.