1. Woe unto them that decree unrighteous chukim, and that write decrees of oppression;
2. To turn aside the needy from their rights, and to withhold mishpat from the aniyyei Ami, that almanot may be their prey, and that they may rob the yetomim!
3. And what will ye do in the Yom Pekuddah (Day Of Visitation, Reckoning) and in the desolation which shall come from afar? To whom will ye flee for ezrah (help)? And where will ye leave your kavod (glory, riches)?
4. Without Me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His yad is upraised still.
5. O Ashur, the rod of Mine anger, in whose yad is the mateh of My wrath.
6. I will send him against a Goy Chanef, and against the people of My wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the plunder, and to tread them down like the chomer chutzot (mire of the streets).
7. But he intendeth not so, neither doth his mind so consider; but it is in his lev to make an end of Goyim not a few.
8. For he saith, Are not my sarim altogether melachim?
9. Is not Calno like Carkemish? Is not Chamat like Arpad? Is not Shomron like Damascus?
10. Just as my yad hath found the mamlechot haelil, whose pesilim (molten images) did excel them of Yerushalayim and of Shomron;