1. Woe unto those that establish unrighteous laws and that wilfully prescribe tyranny
2. to turn aside the poor from right judgment and to take away the right from the afflicted of my people that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless!
3. And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help and where will ye leave your glory?
4. They shall bow down among the prisoners, and they shall fall among the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5. O Assyrian, rod and staff of my anger, in thy hand have I placed my indignation.
6. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and upon the people of my wrath will I send him to take spoil and to take prey and to ready them that they might be tread down like the mire of the streets.
7. Howbeit he shall not think like this; not even in his heart shall he imagine this way of doing things, but his thought shall be to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
8. For he shall say, Are not my princes altogether kings?
9. Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10. As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
11. shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12. Therefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord has performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will come upon the fruit of the pride of the heart of the king of Assyria, and upon the glory of his high looks.
13. For he said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have been prudent: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and I have cast down as valiant ones those who were seated:
14. And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the peoples: and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have taken control over all the earth; and there was no one that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
15. Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews with it? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that moves it? as if the rod should rise up against those that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift itself up. Is it not wood?