1. How horrible it will be for those who make unjust lawsand who make oppressive regulations.
2. They deprive the poor of justice.They take away the rights of the needy among my people.They prey on widows and rob orphans.
3. What will you do on the dayyou are called to account ⌊for these things⌋,when the disaster comes from far away?Where will you run for help?Where will you leave your wealth?
4. Nothing’s left but to crouch among prisonersand to fall with those who are killed.Even after all this, his anger will not disappear,and he is still ready to use his power.
5. “How horrible it will be for Assyria!It is the rod of my anger.My fury is the staff in the Assyrians’ hands.
6. I send them against a godless nation.In my fury I order them against the peopleto take their belongings, loot them,and trample on them like mud in the streets.
7. But that’s not what they intend to do.Their minds don’t work that way.Their purpose is to destroy and put an end to many nations.
8. They ask, ‘Aren’t all our commanders kings?
9. Isn’t Calno like Carchemish?Isn’t Hamath like Arpad?Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?’
10. My power has reached kingdoms which have idols.They had more carved statues than Jerusalem or Samaria.
11. I will do to Jerusalem and its idolswhat I’ve done to Samaria and its idols.”
12. When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the king of Assyria for all his boasting and all his arrogance.
13. The king will say,“I did this with my own two powerful hands.I did this with my wisdom, because I am so clever.I’ve eliminated the boundaries of nations.I’ve looted treasuries.I’ve brought down people like a mighty man.
14. I’ve found the riches of nations as one finds a nest.I’ve gathered the whole world as one gathers abandoned eggs.Not one of them flapped a wing, opened its mouth, or peeped.”