3. What will you do on the day of punishmentwhen disaster comes from far away?To whom will you flee for help;where will you stash your wealth?
4. How will you avoid crouching among the prisonersand falling among the slain?Even so, God’s anger hasn’t turned away;God’s hand is still extended.
5. Doom to Assyria, rod of my anger,in whose hand is the staff of my fury!
6. Against a godless nation I send him;against an infuriating peopleI direct him to seize spoil, to steal plunder,and to trample them like mud in the streets.
7. But he has other plans;he schemes in secret;destruction is on his mind,extermination of nation after nation.
8. He says: Aren’t my commanders all kings?
9. Isn’t Calno like Carchemish?Isn’t Hamath like Arpad?Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?
10. Just as I took control of idolatrous kingdomswith more images than Jerusalem and Samaria,