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¹ Now gash yourself, O daughter of troops: he has laid siege against us; they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.² But you, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which are little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of you shall one come forth to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.³ Therefore he will give them up, until the time that she who travails has brought forth: then the residue of his brothers shall return to the sons of Israel.⁴ And he shall stand, and shall feed [his flock] in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God: and they shall abide; for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.⁵ And this [man] shall be [our] peace. When the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then we shall raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principals of man.⁶ And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the dagger: and he shall deliver from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land, and when he treads inside our border.

⁷ And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from Yahweh, as showers on the grass, that do not tarry for man, nor wait for the sons of men.⁸ And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.⁹ Let your hand be lifted up above your adversaries, and let all your enemies be cut off.¹⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, says Yahweh, that I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, and will destroy your chariots:¹¹ and I will cut off the cities of your land, and will throw down all your strongholds.¹² And I will cut off sorcerers out of your hand; and you shall have no psychics:¹³ and I will cut off your graven images and your pillars out of the midst of you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands;¹⁴ and I will pluck up your Asherim out of the midst of you; and I will destroy your cities.¹⁵ And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations which did not listen.