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;
11. Shall I not, as I have done unto Shomron and her elilim, so do to Yerushalayim and her atzabim (images)?
12. Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when Adonoi hath performed His whole work upon Mt Tziyon and on Yerushalayim, I will punish the fruit of the proud lev of Melech Ashur, and the tiferet of his haughty eyes.
13. For he saith, By the ko'ach of my yad I have done it, and by my chochmah; for I have binah; and I have removed the boundaries of the nations, and have plundered their treasures, and like the mighty I have subdued those on thrones;
14. And my yad hath found like a ken (nest) the riches of the nations; and like one gathereth beitzim (eggs) that are left, have I gathered kol ha'aretz; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the beak, or peeped.
15. Shall the garzen (axe) boast itself against Him that cuts therewith? Or shall the masor (saw) magnify itself against Him that useth it? As if the shevet (rod) should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the matteh (staff) should lift up itself, as if it were not etz.
16. Therefore shall HaAdon Hashem Tzva'os send among his fat ones leanness; and instead of his kavod there will be kindled a burning like the blazing of eish.
17. And the Ohr Yisroel shall become an eish, and His Kadosh a flame; and shall burn and consume its thistles and its thorns in Yom Echad;