15. Does an ax claim to be more important than the one who swings it? Does a saw brag that it is better than the one who uses it? That would be like a stick swinging someone who picks it up! It would be like a war club waving the one who carries it!
16. So the Lord who rules over all will send a sickness. The Lord will send it on the king of Assyria's strong fighting men. It will make them weaker and weaker. The army he was so proud of will be completely destroyed. It will be as if it had been burned up in a fire.
17. The Lord is the light of Israel. He will become a fire. Israel 's Holy One will become a flame. In a single day he will burn up all of Assyria's bushes. He will destroy all of their thorns.
18. He will completely destroy the beauty of their forests and rich farm lands. The Assyrian army will be like a sick man who becomes weaker and weaker.
19. It will be like the trees of their forests. So few of them will be left standing that even a child could count them.
20. In days to come, some people will still be left alive in Israel. They will be from Jacob's family line. But they won't depend any longer on the nation that struck them down. Instead, they will truly depend on the Lord. He is the Holy One of Israel.
21. The people of Jacob who are still alive will return to the Mighty God.
22. Israel , your people might be as many as the grains of sand by the sea. But only a few of them will return. The Lord has handed down a death sentence. He will destroy his people. What he does is right.
23. The Lord who rules over all will carry out his sentence. The Lord will destroy the whole land.
24. The Lord rules over all. The Lord says, "My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian army. They beat you with rods. They lift up war clubs against you, just as the Egyptians did.
25. Very soon I will not be angry with you anymore. I will turn my anger against the Assyrians. I will destroy them."
26. The Lord who rules over all will beat them with a whip. He will strike them down as he struck Midian down at the rock of Oreb. And he will reach his wooden staff out over the waters. That's what he did in Egypt.
27. People of Zion, in days to come he will lift the heavy load of the Assyrians from your shoulders. He will remove their yokes from your necks. They will be broken because you have become so strong.
28. The Assyrian army has entered the town of Aiath. They have passed through Migron. They have stored up supplies at Micmash.