1 Wo to them that decree unrighteous decrees,
And who prescribing prescribe injustice:
2 To keep back the poor from judgment,
And to take away the right from the poor of my people, To defraud the widows,
And to plunder the orphans.
3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation?
And when the desolation shall come from afar,
To whom will ye flee for aid?
And where will ye deposit [364] your glory?
4 Unless [365] they shall stumble among the vanquished, And shall fall down among the slain.
For all this his anger shall not be turned away,
And his hand is stretched out still.
5 O Assyrian! the rod of mine anger!
And the very staff in their hand is my wrath.
6 Against a hypocritical nation will I send him,
And against the people of my indignation will I command him, To seize the prey,
To carry off the spoils,
And to tread him down as the mire of the streets.
7 Yet will he not so intend,
Nor will his heart think so;
For it will be in his heart to destroy,
And to cut off nations not a few.
8 For he saith, Are not my princes also kings?
9 Is not Calno as Carchemish?
Is not Hamath as Arpad?
Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, For their graven images excelled Jerusalem and Samaria.
11 As I have done to Samaria and her idols,
Shall I not do so to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 But it shall come to pass,
When the Lord shall have performed his whole work
In mount Zion and Jerusalem,
I will punish the fruit of the haughtiness of the heart of the king of Assyria,
And the glory of the loftiness of his eyes.
13 For he saith, By the strength of my hand have I done it; And by my wisdom; for I am sagacious;
And therefore have I removed the boundaries of the peoples, And have plundered their treasures,
And have brought down the inhabitants, like a mighty man.
14 And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the peoples; And as eggs which have been left are gathered,
So have also I gathered the whole earth;
And there was none that moved the wing,
Or opened the mouth, or chirped.
15 Shall the axe boast against him that heweth with it? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that moveth it? Like the rising up of a rod against him that raiseth it, Like the risings up of a staff, as if it were not wood.
16 Therefore will the Governor, Jehovah of hosts, send Against his fat ones leanness,
And under his glory will kindle
A burning, like the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall become a fire,
And his Holy One shall become a flame;
And it shall burn and devour
His briers and thorns in one day.
18 The glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, From the soul even to the flesh, will he consume;
And it shall be as the fainting of a standard-bearer.
19 And the remains of the wood of his forest
Shall become a number,
Such that a child may count them.
20 It shall be in that day,
The remnant of Israel,
And they that are left of the house of Jacob,
Shall not add to rely on him that smote them;
For they shall rely on Jehovah,
The Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob,
To the mighty God.
22 For if thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, A remnant of it shall return.
The consumption decreed overfloweth righteousness. [366]
23 For a consumption and consummation
Doth the Lord Jehovah of hosts make
In the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts:
O my people, the inhabitants of Zion,
Fear not the Assyrian.
He will smite thee with a rod,
And will lift up his staff against thee,
After the pattern of Egypt.
25 But yet a little while,
And my rage and indignation
Shall be discharged in their destruction.
26 And Jehovah of hosts will stir up a scourge against him, According to the slaughter of Midian on the rock Oreb; And his rod shall be on the sea,
And he will lift it up after the pattern of Egypt.
27 And it shall come to pass in that day,
That his burden shall be removed from thy shoulder, And his yoke from thy neck;
And the yoke shall be destroyed
From the face of the anointing.
28 He is come to Aiath; he hath passed to Migron;
At Michmash he will lay up thy baggage.
29 They have crossed the ford; they have lodged by night at Geba; Ramah is terrified; Gibeah of Saul hath fled.
30 Neigh with thy voice, O daughter of Gallim!
Cause it to be heard at Laish, O poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah is removed;
The inhabitants of Gebim have gathered themselves.
32 Yet a day, when he shall remain at Nob,
He will lift up his hand
Against the mount of the daughter of Zion,
The hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold! The Lord Jehovah of hosts
Will cut off the branch with terror; [367]
And the lofty of stature shall be cut down,
And the haughty shall be brought low.
34 And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, And Lebanon shall fall violently.
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