1. Woe to those who decree unrighteous decreesand who write unjust judgments which they have prescribed
2. to turn aside the needy from justiceand to take away the right from the poor of My people,that widows may be their prey,and that they may rob the fatherless!
3. And what will you do in the day of punishmentand in the desolation which shall come from afar?To whom will you flee for help,and where will you leave your wealth?
4. Nothing remains but to bow down among the prisoners,and they shall fall among the slain. For all this His anger is not turned away,and His hand is stretched out still.
5. Woe to Assyria, the rod of My angerand the staff in whose hand is My indignation.
6. I will send him against an ungodly nation,and against the people of My wrath I will give him a command,to seize the plunder, to take the prey,and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7. However he does not so intend,nor does he plan so in his heart;but his purpose is to destroyand to cut off many nations.
8. For he says, “Are not my princes altogether kings?
9. Is not Kalno as Carchemish?Is not Hamath as Arpad?Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10. As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idolswhose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11. shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols,so do to Jerusalem and her idols?”
12. When the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks.”
13. For he says: “By the strength of my hand and by my wisdom,I have done it, for I am prudent;and I have removed the bounds of the people,and have robbed their treasures,and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.
14. And my hand has found as a nestthe riches of the people,and as one gathers eggs that are left,I have gathered all the earthand there was no one who moved the wingor opened the mouth or peeped.”
15. Shall the axe boast itself against him who hews with it?Or shall the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?That is as if the rod wields itself against those who lift it up,or as if the staff should lift itself up as if it were not wood.
16. Therefore the Lord, God of Hosts,shall send leanness among his stout ones,and under his glory he shall kindle a burninglike the burning of a fire.
17. The light of Israel shall be a fire,and his Holy One a flame,and it shall burn and devourhis thorns and his briers in one day,