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¹ Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead,
those who are always instituting unfair regulations,
² to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,
and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice,
so they can steal what widows own,
and loot what belongs to orphans.
³ What will you do on judgment day,
when destruction arrives from a distant place?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
⁴ You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners,
or to fall among those who have been killed.
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again.

⁵ Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead,
a cudgel with which I angrily punish.
⁶ I sent him against a godless nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry,
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down like dirt in the streets.
⁷ But he does not agree with this,
his mind does not reason this way,
for his goal is to destroy,
and to eliminate many nations.
⁸ Indeed, he says:
"Are not my officials all kings?
⁹ Is not Calneh like Carchemish?
Hamath like Arpad?
Samaria like Damascus?
¹⁰ I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols,
whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem's or Samaria's.
¹¹ As I have done to Samaria and its idols,
so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols."

"By my strong hand I have accomplished this,
by my strategy that I devised.
I invaded the territory of nations,
and looted their storehouses.
Like a mighty conqueror, I brought down rulers.
¹⁴ My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest,
as one gathers up abandoned eggs,
I gathered up the whole earth.
There was no wing flapping,
or open mouth chirping."
¹⁵ Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,
or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it?
As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,
or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!
¹⁶ For this reason the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. His majestic glory will go up in smoke.
¹⁷ The Light of Israel will become a fire,
their Holy One will become a flame;
it will burn and consume the Assyrian king's briers
and his thorns in one day.
¹⁸ The splendor of his forest and his orchard
will be completely destroyed,
as when a sick man's life ebbs away.
¹⁹ There will be so few trees left in his forest,
a child will be able to count them.

²⁷ At that time
the Lord will remove their burden from your shoulders,
and their yoke from your neck;
the yoke will be taken off because your neck will be too large.
²⁸ They attacked Aiath,
moved through Migron,
depositing their supplies at Micmash.
²⁹ They went through the pass,
spent the night at Geba.
Ramah trembled,
Gibeah of Saul ran away.
³⁰ Shout out, daughter of Gallim!
Pay attention, Laishah!
Answer her, Anathoth!
³¹ Madmenah flees,
the residents of Gebim have hidden.
³² This very day, standing in Nob,
they shake their fist at Daughter Zion's mountain—
at the hill of Jerusalem.
³³ Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies,
is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power.
The tallest trees will be cut down,
the loftiest ones will be brought low.
³⁴ The thickets of the forest will be chopped down with an ax,
and mighty Lebanon will fall.